the trick is to keep breathing

...That sounds VERY intriguing. :D And, uh, markedly different from my own "less canonical death" AU, aside from... they're going to have to address that. (And note, that is one of two times I can think of where a character I was writing made me tear up. Both times, Sydney. :P) Sounds like a much messier take, and hardly comes as a surprise I like things messed up. :D

And yeah, agreeing on your plot points here. Hardin clearly was thinking they were trying to wrest control of the city from the Duke, and then Callo asks what Sydney will do with that power and his soul has no answer to give. Oof. Meanwhile Rosencrantz can't imagine why a man would be loyal to anyone unless he was going to get something out of it, and Guildenstern might be able to wrap his head around it if it ever occurred to him that Sydney's "flock" is just as loyal to Sydney as Guildenstern's men are to him and the cardinal. Or, you know, not unlike Samantha. So of course they'd assume Hardin is the obvious choice. (Heck, in one of my fics the entire rest of the sect thinks Hardin's going to be his successor, and when it comes up Hardin's like "wtf NO.")

This got me thinking a lot about what Sydney might have told Hardin immediately before canon about what exactly he claimed the plot was. Because mostly when I have tried to get anything out of Hardin about that siege, what he gives me is "You want me to kidnap a little boy? I mean, yes, I would protect him with my life and it's likely better than what will happen to the rest of his household, but I am to kidnap a child and take him into Leá Monde?!" No idea if anything will come of it other than scene fragments I may or may not work into something though. =)