“Madness,” repeats Crozier. “I mean the kind that causes men to beg for death. The sort of madness that drives a man to set himself and a tent of people alight in the name of mercy. Madness leads to splintering and acting on desperation.”

Another piece of the story out in the open, another misfortune to fit into the sequence of events. He’d been certain of their doom at that point, but as a man reborn he’d become the quietly resolute captain they’d needed. It was never realistic though, his optimism and hope. It was just what was needed at the time.

“Our ships were trapped in a frozen sea, our stores were poisoned, and we were being hunted by a creature I still don’t completely understand. We were worse off than this, but it doesn’t take much before the mind goes.”

He glances up into Raju’s face, meeting intense eyes with soft, blue ones that seem tired from the inside-out.