Reflections At Night

Question And Answer, CHAPTER X.

On Troas at night, the explorers hear:

"...the wind talking in the trees." (p. 79)

As we know, the wind often seems to comment on the action but what is it saying this time?

The environment is visibly not that of Earth and Lorenzen reflects:

"A long way home, a long way for the soul of Miguel Fernandez to wander before it found the green dales of earth." (ibid.)

The Long Way Home is title of an sf novel by Poul Anderson. The Green Hills Of Earth is the title of an sf collection by Robert Heinlein. I doubt that anyone believes that Fernandez's soul will literally travel across space but this is indeed a poignant way to say that he has died a long way from home.

"(What have we ever given each other, of kindness and help and love, in all the long nights of man? What can we ever give each other?)" (p. 80)

Maybe we have given more than Lorenzen seems to think and can give still more? We note "the long nights" as a significant phrase in Anderson's works.