He looked to Verdant, as if asking for assistance, but Verdant did not budge.
"You do not fight the way Fitzer described you," Blackthorn said, towering over Oliver. "Where is it? Where is that which made him speak as it did? Are you hiding it from me, boy? Do you think yourself to be cunning?"
"Do you think I would?" Oliver said. "Or are you as foolish as the others seem to think you are? What, do you expect a maid to clean up that mess that you've made? You've put a dent in the table, and you've been here thirty seconds. Is this the sort of General that I'm meant to listen to, and respect. And still you'd call me for insubordinance? Insubordinance to what, and to who? To a man that can't control himself?"
"What did you say?" General Blackthorn said. "A man that can't control himself, is it?" He drew his hand back to punch, and pounded the air just to the right of Oliver's head, making a show of missing on purpose. "Would a lack of control spare you?"
