"What can you do?" he asks. "No one is coming to Gusu with me. The Jin will not change their course anymore than the Yiling Laozu will. We are headed--"

Headed to another war, he thinks. Headed toward pain and suffering and loss, blood and tears. The icy ball of hopelessness in his belly is heavy, dragging him down and numbing him to faith in a better tomorrow.

"--I do not know where we are headed, Lan-xiongzhang, but it is not a place where one finds peace."