“Why are we here, in this alien land, so far from our homes and our wives, fighting against these heathen men in a crusade?” The Captain asked staring into the small hissing fire before him that lie burning in the dusty earth. The darkness hung around the fire heavily. Outside the firelight there was nothing. Only the Captain and the Man were awake, sitting around the fire, watching it. The rest of the group was asleep on the ground, swords clutched in their hands, presses against their chests. They lay in their armor, the metal clinking, snoring and moaning into the darkness. The man shifted on the hard, uneven ground and answered. “We are here to free the Lord’s city from the heathens. The heathens stand against the Lord’s will and we are here to punish them. We are doing the Lord’s will.” The Captain laughed softly, prodding the fire with a burnt and shriveled stick, sending sparks swirling lazily into the darkness. The flames rose for a moment, before falling back into the embers. “If the Lord wanted to free Jerusalem, He would send his heavenly armies down into the city to kill the heathen’s that held it. If the Lord wanted the heathens to pay for their blasphemies and sins, He would send fire raining from the skies into their lands, burning man, livestock, and earth.” The Captain looked up from the fire to the Man, the heat shimmering in the air between them. “The Lord wants men to have freewill, for men to make their own choices. He does not send his angles to earth because He wants men to do these things in his name. He wants us to wipe away the sin of our fellow, to glorify him.” the Man replied. “No, we are here because men love war more than God or his fellow man. God is only an excuse for man to shed the blood of his fellow” The Captain gestured into the darkness around him. “We are here because man’s true God is War.”