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| - File:38dummycarts1.jpg Click click click Grey Wolf waited above the south gate for it to grow dark, listening for the other Solars in the distance. His Immaculate teachers had gone to great lengths to discipline out of him his habit of fidgeting whenever he was thinking, and for the most part they had been successful, but now and then he found it helped to do something with his fingers when he needed to focus. and so he stood there, hands folded in front of them, one on the chamber of his revolver, clicking it back and forth. With a steady sound, the same three shells moved past the barrel and then back, the spinner gently rolling back and forth. Click click click Firebrand was the biggest problem by far. The others had their issues -- sins and vices Grey Wolf had glimpsed or yet to dis
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| abstract
| - File:38dummycarts1.jpg Click click click Grey Wolf waited above the south gate for it to grow dark, listening for the other Solars in the distance. His Immaculate teachers had gone to great lengths to discipline out of him his habit of fidgeting whenever he was thinking, and for the most part they had been successful, but now and then he found it helped to do something with his fingers when he needed to focus. and so he stood there, hands folded in front of them, one on the chamber of his revolver, clicking it back and forth. With a steady sound, the same three shells moved past the barrel and then back, the spinner gently rolling back and forth. Click click click Firebrand was the biggest problem by far. The others had their issues -- sins and vices Grey Wolf had glimpsed or yet to discover -- but Firebrand was the most dangerous. Not because of what he had, but because of what he lacked: Fear. He wasn't afraid of himself, or what he might one day do, and that made him even more likely to slide into madness than one with genuinely bad intentions. A teenager -- a child really -- with the power of a god, and worse, a child who knows he has this power, and believes its his divine inheritance. With power that brings him beyond discipline, he was the danger in every entitled dynast child combined -- a problem that Grey Wolf had just found dropped in his lap. He didn't have the power to force discipline on the Solar, and even if he did, such controls would only provoke further acting out. Firebrand would require a delicate touch -- he must come to see the maturity and self control of the Philosophy to be a desirable thing, and only then could he be taught. A subtle, cajoling approach -- directing him forwards without pushing or leading him. The sort of manipulation the Eclipse caste was so good at it. In theory. Click click click Sparkling Diamond Rose was another kind of problem altogether. It would end in violence with her. Not for a long time -- possibly not for years, but in the end, one of them would be die at the others hand, he was sure of it. She wasn't misguided, or weak, she knew exactly what she wanted and how to achieve it. And what she wanted was something Grey Wolf could never allow to pass. Neither would bend their goals for the other, and so, the ending was already written. She was a worthy opponent, and one he would have to handle with only the utmost caution. But worse, she was an Eclipse. An Eclipse who Grey Wolf couldn't despise. For the good of Creation, she would have to be stopped, but...she wasn't evil. She wasn't unpleasant or even anymore dishonorable than him. Disgusting as the ideas was, he could see how he could grow to respect her. Or could have ended up just like her, if his life had gone just a little bit differently. She appealed to something inside him -- something he hated, and it was for that that he tended to stare at her, rather than the beauty that drew others gaze. Click click click Nightstar was an unknown. Maybe benign, maybe dangerous. But of all of them, she was the one he did not understand. But that also made her the only one so far who was not inherently opposed to his point of view. Depending on what drove her, in time, she could be a powerful ally. She would need to be watched carefully -- and approached in time, with more finesse than Grey Wolf had used approaching Firebrand. It would depend not only on her, but on the others -- how they developed. If they were heroic enough he should seek only to understand her, or if they sank into solar villainy and he would need her help to stop them. Seeing how she dealt with the fae problem had helped -- and what he saw looked good, but Grey Wolf would need to know more before he could really judge her. Click click click The fae. The fae would be key too it all. The temptation for Grey Wolf to leap into the fray himself -- to destroy the monster his order had created -- was strong, but he knew he would have to suppress it for now. The other Solars had the power to resolve the situation without him, he would take drastic steps if and only if the townspeople's lives were threatened. Until then, it was better to watch them, to see how they used that power, and to try and gently guide. If the proved themselves great heroes under stress, his job might be easier then he ever hoped. If they proved heroes of their time -- noble but ultimately flawed, it would let him see those flaws more clearly so as to better guide their development down the enlightened path. And if they proved villains in the town's defense, interested only in their own glory rather than protecting those in danger? Well, then Grey Wolf had other options. The tumbler went Click click click one last time, and then fell silent.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)