Somehow in all these decades, I'd never stopped to really think about what Hardin must have thought would happen in Lea Monde and once I had the idea I was charmed.
R&G seem to think Hardin expects to be Sydney's successor, but the more I looked at it, the more it looked like Hardin thought Sydney would be the Duke's successor. (And yes, noticing that Guildenstern is very clear he needs Samantha's soul *and* that he loves her, at that point you mentioned... it doesn't make sense that Merlose would know about the Phantom Soul needing to be 'true and fast' when she apparently knows little else about the ritual, but we know she can see John's heart and... yeah, it's not hard to imagine what Hardin might have thought his role would be, is it?)
I love a Sydney who is both fiercely pleased by Hardin's devotion and a little guilty about it at the same time. Not guilty enough to take advantage of it, though, clearly.
The sequel/continuation is: well, Sydney may believe that they won't survive long enough for Hardin to find out and call him on lying about this but... what if they did? (Sequel will have more kissing, less canonical character death, but also more kink that will require #consentissues as a tag, so I'll probably link here and post on AO3.)
Re: Sydney/Hardin, An Offering of Souls, PG (canon typical tragedy/anticipated character death)
Somehow in all these decades, I'd never stopped to really think about what Hardin must have thought would happen in Lea Monde and once I had the idea I was charmed.
R&G seem to think Hardin expects to be Sydney's successor, but the more I looked at it, the more it looked like Hardin thought Sydney would be the Duke's successor. (And yes, noticing that Guildenstern is very clear he needs Samantha's soul *and* that he loves her, at that point you mentioned... it doesn't make sense that Merlose would know about the Phantom Soul needing to be 'true and fast' when she apparently knows little else about the ritual, but we know she can see John's heart and... yeah, it's not hard to imagine what Hardin might have thought his role would be, is it?)
I love a Sydney who is both fiercely pleased by Hardin's devotion and a little guilty about it at the same time. Not guilty enough to take advantage of it, though, clearly.
The sequel/continuation is: well, Sydney may believe that they won't survive long enough for Hardin to find out and call him on lying about this but... what if they did? (Sequel will have more kissing, less canonical character death, but also more kink that will require #consentissues as a tag, so I'll probably link here and post on AO3.)