This is an interesting question. I don't really like the martyr theory. They could just vanish her, or interfere with her mind so that she publicly attacks Kelly or commits suicide or whatever. Also note that she can defend herself - it's more economical to blow up a tower than to hire an elite assassin or two. And doing so would provoke Vlad into unconsidered action against them, and presumably Morrolan&Cie plus the heir apparent wouldn't be pleased. Finally, Cawti probably has Verra and more importantly the Cycle watching over her. On the subject of the Cycle, everybody in the world except for Kelly knows that there can not be a successful Teckla revolt in anyone's lifetime (ok, excluding Sethra [if she has a lifetime] and the SiG). It's a bit puzzling to me that the Jhereg don't just wait a few years for Kelly's group to die off (impressing future generations with the futility of the struggle), perhaps helping them along in subtle ways that don't announce Jheregs-were-here. They should be able to weather a temporary downtown given that the Dragaeran economy must be booming due to increases in productivity related to advances in sorcery (free energy, free bulk transportation, free telecom, near-perfect medical tech, ...) Ok, the plot of _Orca_ does contradict this assertion, but it shouldn't. - Philip On Fri, 25 Apr 2003, Paul Hancock wrote: > > other Jhereg might. Although I wonder... in Phoenix, why don't the > > Jhereg just take her out, rather than the big elaborate frame-up? I > > suppose that a hitman code proscribing against killing women would > make > > it so that they don't go after her directly. I think the fact that > she's > > an Easterner as well as a Jhereg complicates things in terms of the > > hitman code... > > Killing her would have made her a martyr for Kelly's cause. Alive and > imprisoned, she's an object lesson for the masses not to fight the order > of things. I doubt they avoided killing her out of concern of violating > some sort of code. > > > > >