“At some point, it’s inevitable,” Octavian replied calmly. “If nothing else, I will be obliged to make personal contact with the Legions in Calderon—and hope to the great furies whoever is in charge over there has had sense enough to listen to my uncle.”

Fidelias grunted. “But... that isn’t what you think will happen.”

Octavian grimaced, and said, “Someone has to command the men, regardless of what happens to me. We have to take down the vord Queen—and her cadre of captured or treacherous Citizens. I will, by necessity, be in the center of that conflict. And... the odds seem to be long against me.”

Fidelias debated on how to respond to the moment of vulnerability the Princeps was showing. He finally just began chuckling.

Octavian frowned at him and lifted an imperious eyebrow.

“Long odds,” he said. “Bloody crows, sir. Long odds. That’s bloody funny.”

“I don’t see what’s so amusing about it.”

“Naturally, you don’t,” Fidelias said, still chuckling. “The furyless boy from the country who stopped an invasion.”

“I didn’t really stop it,” Tavi said. “Doroga stopped it. I just...”

“Completely demolished an operation backed by the most dangerous High Lord and Lady in the Realm,” Fidelias said. “I was there. Remember?” The last words were not bereft of irony.

Octavian gave a small inclination of his head in acknowledgment of the touch.

“The boy who personally saved the First Lord’s life in his second term at the Academy. Who took command of a Legion and fought the Canim to a standoff—and who then stole Varg from the most tightly guarded prison of the Realm and brokered the first truce in history with the Canim to get them out of the Realm. The young upstart Princeps who pitted himself against a continent full of vord and hostile Canim and won.”

“I got my people and Varg’s out alive,” Octavian corrected sharply. “I haven’t won anything. Not yet.”

Fidelias grunted. “Sir... honestly. Suppose you defeat the vord here. Suppose you unite our people again, take Alera back. Will that be a victory?”

Octavian raked his fingers through his hair. “Of course not. It’ll be a good start. But there will be severe repercussions for the balance of power in our society that must be addressed. The Canim will, probably, be settling here, and we’ll have to reach some kind of mutual understanding with them, and the Free Alerans are never going to back the same set of laws that allowed them to be enslaved. Not to mention the fact that—”

Fidelias cleared his throat gently. “Young man, I submit to you that your standards of victory are... set rather high. If you continue that way, no matter what you do, it will never be enough.”