The debate between Alessan and Erlein is intended as a real one, not a plot device. The assertion made by the bound wizard that the roads of the eastern Palm are safer under Alberico than they were under Sandre d’Astibar is meant to raise a question about the legitimacy of pursuing one’s quarrels—even one’s quest for a people’s obliterated identity and past—by using others as unwilling instruments. This is also true of the rage Alessan’s mother feels, seeing her son coolly attempting to shape a subtle, balanced political resolution for the entire peninsula, where she sees only a matter of
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