FB: “…Wait, ‘peace-making?’ Why would I call it that, it’s pretty obvi that the only way I’m ‘makin’ peace’ is the way I’m ‘hammerin’ people and objects down ’til they stop movin’… Ohhh, you wanted us to be PEACEMAKERS! I thought you were askin’ for a lot of PACEMAKERS, because you’re gettin’ old and have a high-stress job. Yeahno, maybe you shoulda hired some monks or somethin’.”

I started to say that Ardaic’s side of the debate feels a little flat, like we’re not really trying as hard as we can to make the verbal fight as well-matched as the physical one. But that’s probably the point: Ardaic falling back on empty platitudes and ideas of “loyalty” because he sure can’t fall back on the greatness of a civilization that serves Taro. “It is for the people that I fight” is getting him through the worst of his doubts for now, but that last crutch is about to be kicked out from under him.