"To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's."
***
Lucius had darker threads. Lots of them. Thin little connections snaking out toward various noble families, each one a political favor owed or a secret traded. They weren't as sturdy as Leo's golden cords, but there were dozens of the damn things. A spider's web instead of chains.
Smart, actually. Harder to cut down a network than a single rope. If one connection snapped, he had fifty others ready to pick up the slack. That was the strategy of someone who'd spent his whole life compensating for the stain of common blood on his mother's side.
Not bad, big brother. Not bad at all.
But the really interesting thread was the one connecting Leo to me.
In the original story, it should have been simple. Hero to disposable villain. A clean antagonistic link that existed only to be dramatically severed at the narrative's convenience, probably in front of a cheering crowd for maximum humiliation value.
