[ What happened to Vincent wasn't at all the same as Flint's Altus. He was no radical; the men he tried to save from going to war were handpicked friends, artists with promise, specific talents he thought it would be a shame to lose when any old miner or farmer could be lost in their place. He was happy to let the war and the world go on as they would.
But what happened to Bastien—having the unstoppable hand of an Empire crush the life out of someone he cared about, like a child killing an ant—is enough to push him past his typical pangs of sympathy and into shaper, heavier empathy.
The sudden restless urge to move is channeled into picking up By's set-aside document, curious to see what didn't pass muster. While he reads, he says, ]
That's a dangerous thing for a man to be, when he has dreams that big.
no subject
But what happened to Bastien—having the unstoppable hand of an Empire crush the life out of someone he cared about, like a child killing an ant—is enough to push him past his typical pangs of sympathy and into shaper, heavier empathy.
The sudden restless urge to move is channeled into picking up By's set-aside document, curious to see what didn't pass muster. While he reads, he says, ]
That's a dangerous thing for a man to be, when he has dreams that big.