Alright Monarch you ******* nerd, you want a quote? You'll get one.
Kantor crouched at the woman's side and removed his helmet.
Cortez tried to read his face, but it betrayed no emotion.
'Jilenne,' said the Chapter Master. 'Can you hear me?'
The woman's eyes were closed, but her lips parted. Weakly, quietly, she said, 'They were so heavy. So heavy…'
Kantor nodded. 'Yes,' he said, 'but you did well to bring them this far.'
Reaching out, he lifted the two smallest children away from her and gestured to the older children to take them. They did so, and Kantor turned back to the woman.
The Emperor's mercy, thought Cortez. You should not have to do this, Pedro. It is my fault. It is my soul that should bear the stain.
Before he could communicate this, Kantor spoke.
'It is time,' he said, and he reached down to the woman with his gauntleted hands. 'Time that someone carried you now.'
As Cortez watched, the Chapter Master lifted the woman and stood to his full height, cradling her exhausted form in his arms. She looked so small and fragile against his sculpted ceramite chest, little more than a rag-doll.
Then the Chapter Master turned to Cortez and said over the link, 'Once we are among the trees, they will have a better chance. They are charges of the Chapter now, and we cannot abandon them'