"A very dark time." His eyes returned to the crowd, to families and content shoppers going about their daily lives. At home such scenes brought him no comfort, only frustration that they were wasting their lives on trivialities when they ought to fight for a higher cause.

"It is... nice to see a society which seems to have no need to pick up arms," he said, though he didn't bother to hide how dubious he felt about it, "and where the failure to do so might not be a failure to do what needs to be done."