On Tue, 25 Feb 2003, Matthew Hunter wrote: > On Tue, Feb 25, 2003 at 01:05:26PM -0800, Philip Hart <philiph at SLAC.Stanford.EDU> wrote: > > On Tue, 25 Feb 2003, Alexx S Kay wrote: > > > Option B is the case. Sethra was still alive during the Fourteenth > > > Cycle, but by the time of the Lavode Scandal had been dead for "hundreds > > > of years", so that brackets the possible time of her death. (Both of > > > these data points come from Paarfi, page 98 of FHYA.) > > I can't prove it but I'd call these, not "data" points, but "wild > > speculation on the part of Paarfi" points. In particular, whatever test > > that Paarfi is relying on to indicate Sethra being alive during the 14th > > C. seems likely to something she could have circumvented. Though I assume > > she's susceptible to Dark Water - maybe that's how the Lavode Scandal > > arose. Maybe some emperor got worried about vampires and started wearing > > a vial of the stuff. > > Your logic doesn't work. Either she can circumvent just about > any test that can be applied, including Dark Water, or we can't > assume that Paarfi is wrong about this. We don't have any > evidence to indicate what test was performed that Paarfi relies > upon, and thus no way to evaluate whether it was a reliable test. I said "maybe A but maybe B", not aspiring to logic. I guessed the holy water test is solid because Loraan, a fair scarred hand with the magic, was stymied by it. But sorcerous tests seem susceptible to sorcerous tampering. Though note that Sethra says masking her undeadness is hard (end of _Orca_). Anyway, my point was that I'd maybe believe Paarfi on palace intrigue but not on stuff Sethra wants to be sneaky about, given that she 'redefines the possible daily'.