Oh my. Oh myyyyyyyyyyy ... I definitely needed a box of tissues handy. Such a splendid visual canvas you've colored so vividly here - with splashing waves and green around the gills sailors, blue sky and revealing sun -- a feast for my inner eye, but also a banquet of emotions for the heart.

Halbarad's joyful memories untainted by any self-sacrificial mourning are so exquisitely and delicately created here, as if the words are ethereal brushstrokes moving him closer and closer to a fate he has embraced with no remorse. That - for me - is a real man. He has given all he can to this cause and will not shrink from the last hours even knowing what it t to come.

The last moments of a life well-lived beautifully, beautifully rendered in each beat of the story.