#ezar

On this remarkable occasion, as you celebrate your 22nd birthday, I want to express my heartfelt wishes for you, my dear boyfriend. May this year be a chapter filled with boundless possibilities and exciting opportunities. As you embark on this new journey, may you embrace the wisdom of your past experiences and look forward to the adventures that lie ahead. Your resilience and determination have always inspired me, and I'm eager to witness the remarkable achievements you'll undoubtedly unlock in the days to come. Happy Birthday, my love!

At the end of Shards of Honor, the dying Ezar neutralizes Aral as a political actor very effectively by making him honor-bound to protect Gregor (and thus, the imperial setup as handed down, however much he makes necessary reforms). And also honor-bound to protect Gregor's literal life, which is all that's standing at the time, imo, between Barrayar and a republic--or various brutal usurpations or dictators. But for sure all that's standing between Barrayar and revolution declaimed in iambic pentameter.

Ezar is a usurper himself against Mad Yuri, and knows how these things work. Gregor's death is what it would take to make Barrayar a republic, and both Ezar and Aral know it.

And Ezar's tactic works so well because it's an appeal to Aral's honor that lies in, well, shards, after Escobar. He made clear to Ezar that neither the worst threats nor the most tempting bribes would make him do it, and with cold hard logic, Ezar made him agree to invade Escobar to kill Serg anyway.

Ezar correctly judges that Aral is enough of a patriot to kill Serg but too personally honorable to kill Gregor, and he uses that to buy Barrayar a generation of mostly bloodless stability. And the survival of the Vor as an order, which would have been in doubt under many possible scenarios.

And Aral is too busy being Prime Minister and regent and solving all the problems faced in those roles to stop and get completely drunk and/or think it all through, but I really wonder what he thinks of Ezar in private, and what he would think of him if he weren't so busy.

Pequeño escrito traducido de la autora Val-Creative de Fanfiction.net.

No hay gloria sin sacrificio. Ni belleza sin derramamiento de sangre. Acxa mantiene esas creencias, incluso cuando el príncipe Lotor insiste en que no habrá muerte.

"Mataría por ti", Ezor murmura con suavidad, inclinando la barbilla sobre el ancho hombro de Acxa. Ella presiona su forma esbelta contra ella, tarareando.

"Harás lo que nuestro príncipe ordene y nada más", dice Acxa. "¿Entendido?"

Ezor se ríe. "No por él, por ti ... Lo haría por ti, tonta", ella insiste una vez más, moviendo sus largas pestañas azuladas y sonriendo tontamente cuando Acxa le da bruscamente un codazo alejándola, su piel grisácea tornándose caliente.

Ella no se sonroja. Eso es absurdo.