On Fri, Dec 06, 2002 at 05:05:05PM -0600, "Ruhlen, Rachel Louise (UMC-Student)" <RuhlenR at missouri.edu> wrote: > > *spoilers to follow* > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > 4. I think it would be almost impossible to not have more involvement > with Zerika > > as well, which I still only somewhat feel as I know, good, > > gimmie more. > > Yeah, I get the feeling that Zerica is one of those admire-from-afar > types whom we will never be permitted to know very well. I wondered how > she had all these powers, coming out of the Paths of the Dead with the > Orb, that she was able to speak to Sethra and look in on Piro & team. It > didn't seem like psionic contact, because she seemed to actually see > them, and Sethra seemed to see her. At least, that was my impression. If > that's a side effect of being the Empress with a New Orb (not new > really, but better than before), it certainly wasn't apparent to Vlad. I think that's the "Direct contact with the Empress" feature that Vlad alludes to -- the one where any citizen can request it, but gets their head detonated if it wasn't justified. We've never seen it from the Empress's viewpoint before. Or, it could just be psionic contact, which we ALSO haven't seen from a non-vlad viewpoint before IIRC. Vlad may oververbalize what is really a kind of low-grade full-sensory mind meld. > I loved getting a new Khaavren romance. I have to admit I like Paarfi's > writing better than Brust's! :P If you're comparing it to the Vlad books, I think the proper comparison would be to "Vlad's transcribed narrative". -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Politics: http://www.triggerfinger.org/index.jsp