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Thornden studied Léof carefully for several seconds. He heard what Léof said, but he also felt he knew more of what lay at the heart of Léof's frustration and anger. To address the words alone would do little good, but if he could speak directly to what was at the core, then perhaps something would be accomplished.
“Léof,” Thornden said quietly. He looked down at his boots a moment, considering his words carefully. What he was about to say was something his father had told him years ago, but he had never had to repeat it to anyone. He wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but he gave it his best attempt. “A man is not what other men think of him, but what he does and how he thinks and speaks. He may let other men’s opinion of him have an affect on how he acts, but it is not the other’s opinion that really makes him who he is.
“How you respond to the men is what will define you. They may act as though they were better than we who have been here before, but are they? If any one of us answers to their words or actions, whatever they may be, as though we believed we are less than they, then we become so. But if we do not respond – if we stay steady, knowing exactly who we are and what we’re here for – then we cannot be less than them.”
He paused, giving his words time to sink in, before he finished. “If you truly think you ought to be treated like a man, then act the way you think a man should act. Perhaps you are angry at them because you are not yet certain of your manhood yourself.”
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