The Sentinels And if the house just keeps on winning

That was a pretty statement.  Maia thought about it for a second, wondering if it meant quite the same thing.  A normal wolf might just let it go, but for Maia, words were a trade.  It was similar, but for her, it aligned the two a lot closer than she usually viewed them.  She had always viewed tradgedy as the absence of hope entirely, but now that she thought about it, without hope initially a tradgedy didn't hit near as hard.  Are you sure you aren't a storyteller?  That's good stuff.  Maia said, clearly impressed (and more than a little thoughtful).

She liked the pattern this led to.  So the mentor turns the father and the son against one another.  They fight, and no matter which wins, he can pin the blame and show they took their paranoia too far.  By that time, even if they sorted out they'd been tricked, it would be too late!  There were other options too, but with three characters, the frame-up was the easiest way to resolve!  Plus then you could have a tradgedy alongside a triumph!  The son might regret what he did to his father (or vice versa), yet still win out and learn from it.  Who would you choose to be the victor?  Father or son?  Son would make sense, but father would defy expectations.  Bit of a twist to have the 'senile' old king turn out to be the hero in the end.

WC: 243