After the discussion about why didn't Blackwand kill Loraan? I happened to be reading Taltos and noticed that Vlad did not actually see Morollan kill Loraan with Blackwand. Vlad is knocked over, and when he gets back up, he sees Loraan lying on the floor with a wound, and Morollan standing over him with bloody Blackwand. Here are 3 of the many possibilities: 1) Morollan killed Loraan with Blackwand but as discussed previously this didn't eat his soul for whatever reason. 2) Morollan stabbed Loraan with Blackwand right after he already died (either by Morollan's non-Blackwand carrying hand or by someone else's hand). Morganti & Great Weapons only take the soul of a living person. 3) Someone else killed Loraan and Morollan's sword was bloody from all those other Athyra he just killed. I suspect that for whatever reason, SKZB wrote that scene that way, and then chuckled evilly to himself as he thought of ways he could use that, and poof we have the plot for Athyra. On another issue, as I was reading Athyra, I was troubled that Savn thought Vlad looked old, even though he knew Vlad was probably chronologically younger than himself. According to all the timelines, Vlad should be about 24 in Athyra, unless I'm missing something. Any thoughts on that? Even if Dragaerans tend to look young most of their lives, surely they don't look younger than a 24 year old human? Actually the whole issue of how Dragaerans look at various ages puzzles me, because Vlad talks about being beaten up the first time by Orca kids his size, which meant they were in their early teens, when he was 4 or 5, but Morollan growing up in the East is considered a tall human for his age. A kid who is 15 years old but the size of a 5 year old would be thought of as a short human. Maybe adult Dragaerans all are tall (compared to humans. With the exception of Aliera.) but their growth rates differ depending on their house? Rachel