"We can't save them all, Noah," Claude said, sighing as he leaned back up, clapping his glass down on the table and filling it far more full than he had been doing so far. "If there's one thing that I learned in all of those years, it was that. You can't save them all no matter how much you might want to, no matter how much it kills you to lose each and every one of them."
Claude has lost more than his share of trainees in his day. God, since he had been one of the Company's most active trainers, he'd probably lost more than two or three people's shares. It had killed him more and more each day, sending those kids out into danger that they weren't ready for until he'd got to the point that he was going to make sure that they were. No pulled punches. No patience. He was going to half kill them in training to make sure nothing would kill them outside of it.
He'd lost fewer after that. But it still hurt just as much when he did.