Parson likes to live far too dangerously trying to show off with his "Oh nothing much .... pause ... 50 siege units destroyed" bit. If Wanda hadn't made the ultimate sacrifice, he might not have made it through the whole thing. Now he's probably got enough credibility to be safe, but if he challenges Stanley too much, I don't know that Stanley has the self-control to keep from punishing his super warlord.

I am stuck wondering just how this will all play out down the line. Will Parson keep "following orders" and helping Stanley or betray him? Will Wanda and or Jillian wind up having to take down Parson as part of a new side's creation? I don't really care about the strategy or war, except for the cute or sad fight scenes, but the soap opera of potential intrigue has me very hooked.

It's almost "better" getting one or two pages a week, because we get to speculate and suffer waiting for revelation. (Very D/s, really, with the extended teases, which is part of what makes that so enjoyable... but that veers outside of this forum's topic dramatically! ) If we were reading this in book form for the first time, there wouldn't be nearly as much to talk about, because we could just turn the page. Though popular fiction doesn't ever seem to lack from fan speculation...

Thus endeth my unfocused ramblings!