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It was unsettling, to be sure. But also, admittedly, exciting. A mixture of hope and dread. Like he was watching history take shape before his very eyes, every single day.

And increasingly, he questioned his role in things here. A year ago, he and Voreese had been laying their long-visioned plans for building up a new faction of their own. Something that, according to her, would take a century or more before it began to bear any real fruit.

But now, it seemed as though they had been sucked into something entirely different. Voreese, for her part, seemed to have all but forgotten about her previous plan--not that there was any sense of urgency with it, of course. They could always circle back around to it later, Roman supposed.

Assuming they lived that long, of course. Which was kind of the sticking point here.

Their plan, more or less, had been to lay relatively low and accumulate strength, resources, and powerful allies over time. Now, whatever this current plan was--if it could even be called a plan--it seemed to have thrown that first part out the window.

Laying low? Who cared about that?

Sure, Hector and Garovel both came across reasonable enough when they spoke about plans and how to handle whatever the emergent situation at the time was.

But their actions... those told a somewhat different story, Roman felt.

They were just going to keep throwing themselves right into the thick of things, weren’t they? He thought maybe that wouldn’t be the case when they decided to stay here at Warrenhold and not venture off to Vantalay, especially since they’d had multiple motivating opportunities to, but this latest business with Banda Toro had now convinced Roman that Hector was indeed the maniac that he’d been fearing he was.

Damn it all. Roman felt like a dumbass. Why’d he have to go and become friends with a guy like that, huh? Especially right before a gigantic war broke out? Talk about bad timing.

The worst part, though, was that not many other people around Hector seemed to be seeing things the way Roman did. All these reapers and Rainlords. They were ready to do whatever Hector told them. As if he’d been their lord for years, already.

Which meant that, as his friend, Roman had a greater responsibility to not become a yes-man.

To keep his friend balanced.

Where the future of this country was concerned, Roman wasn’t sure there was any more important task than that.