and left no trace when it had.

"You sound bitter, Bernibus."

"My feelings betray me, yet I am not bitter, only disillusioned."

"You sympathize with the Zards, then?"

"Not at all, I do sympathize, however, with peaceful solutions," he
said.

"Which is why Wagner disapproves of you, no doubt."

"Yes, mainly, but don't misunderstand me. I am not a closet Futurist,
nor am I a strict pacifist, I just can't help feeling that there is
another way. But I understand the selection of ideologies, how the
stronger breaks the weaker to submission, and while one flourishes, the
other diminishes, and I understand focus points, but I cannot justify
their marriage."

"What you mean by focus points?" I asked.

"They are the culmination of conflict, where two sides meet and the
battle takes place, not meaning necessarily an important or strategic
military, civil, or commercial place, but one on which the fighting
occurs, the result ending in the defeat or victory of the whole
campaign. The focus point of the Zards and the Canitaurs exists both on
the philosophical and martial levels. On the philosophical level, it is
the question as to what is the proper solution for remedying our current
catastrophic situation. On one side the Pastites wish to correct the