Power used against a man like that becomes his alibi.

It hands him the martyrdom he craves.

No — the only thing that would ever actually reach Rowan was to let his own choices arrive at their own destinations, on their own schedule, with his name and his signature on every one of them, so that when the wreckage came there would be no villain in it but himself.

My father could have destroyed him in an afternoon.

I wanted something slower and far more permanent.