On Mon, 2002-12-09 at 16:55, Greg Rapawy wrote: > --- Mark A Mandel <mam at theworld.com> wrote: > > On Mon, 9 Dec 2002, Greg Rapawy wrote: > [...] > >> When Pel does something in Chapter 2 that bears > >> fruit in chapter 16, that's impressive, because > >> Pel was thinking ten moves ahead. When Verra > >> does it, that's not impressive -- she's just > >> traveling in time. > > Can she? AFAIK the only person we've seen who can do > > that is Devera. Now, it wouldn't be surprising if > > Granny could too, but is there any evidence? > > Hmm. From memory, there is a reference in _Five > Hundred Years After_ to Aliera's prolonged (even for a > Dragaeran) youthful appearance. Paarfi repeats > someone's explanation that Aliera has been held (my > paraphrase) "loosely in space, but tightly in time" by > a benevolent goddess, "naming a goddess not known for > her benevolence." > > I don't know if that implies actual time travel, > though. I had assumed that Devera's own ability to > move around was conveyed by Verra, and that it wasn't > purely genetic since Aliera herself doesn't seem to do > it. (And we know Devera's father is not himself > divine.) Could be a recessive trait, I suppose -- > though you still need another source of the genes if > that were true. In Taltos when Morrolan asks for Aliera's life be restored for her, he actually asks that she be allowed to resume her life where it ended. In other words, the body she left the Paths with isn't a day older than the body she had during Adron's Disaster. Jag