I rather like that. The derring-do feels like it strayed in from a rather different story, but the failed revolutionary and the spare heir finding common ground, that I like.

Mentioning B5 in conjunction with a young emperor had me initially picturing him as Vir, but he's ultimately much more Cartagia, while it's Cailo who sounds and acts like Vir.

It's probably just as well I didn't have access to a word processor as a teen, but I did find some of my early writing a couple of years ago and I was surprised to see themes I though I'd come to much later.