On Thu, 17 Oct 2002, Wes wrote: #I just read A Dream Of Passion and noted that there were some serious #discrepancies between that story and Issola. And even more perplexing #questions that I thought that maybe others had speculated upon. 0. There sure are. I believe the listmind's opinion is that ADOP can't be made to fit with _Issola_ and maybe some stuff before that, and is best considered a dream, just as the title says. (Steve left himself an out so he wouldn't be bound by this in developing the continuity -- that's my guess.) That makes most of your questions moot. #1. How did Vlad have Spellbreaker again? He even referred to it as # >the gold chain I had misnamed Spellbreaker See 0. #2. Kragar's dead?!? Did the mysterious woman in white kill him? Vlad says: # >she'd killed two people I knew Two guards, yes? Kragar's apparently dead before this. #3. Who was the second person she killed? See 2. #4. Who is she? Some goddess; see 9. #5. I thought Dragons and Dzur didn't mix...how did she love Morrolan? #(mind you Dzur was the only house that Vlad could recognize about her) So he thought. See 4. #6. How did she know about the window? and how could she know that if #Morrolan doesn't even know about her? See 4. #7. How is godslayer separate from spellbreaker again? spellbreaker #became godslayer in Issola...and Vlad had called it "Lady Teldra" See 0. #8. Why is Vlad afraid of godslayer? that contradicts the pride he had #at the end of Issola. See 0. #9. Vlad refers to the woman as a god...which one? Nobody we know, as far as I know. There are lots of them. #10. Why was Vlad so upset over killing the woman? She wanted his help. She was gorgeous. She offered him a huge bribe. She knew that if he didn't take the job, he would kill her, and she'd given him the means. It was a dream of passion. Does that help? -- Mark A. Mandel http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/ a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website