On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, David Silberstein wrote: > On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Philip Hart wrote: > >Or does the Orb have plain old Total-Information-Awareness powers? > I got the impression from /Orca/ that there are things that the > Empress can do with the Orb which she is constrained from doing > for political reasons (i.e., doing so will piss off the Hous(es) > involved (which will cause stress and turmoil, and interfere with > trade)). I missed this in _Orca_ - any idea where? > >Could the Jhereg have asked Zerika where Mellar was? > She might have been able to find Mellar in theory, but consider: > House Jhereg would have had to ask. Remember that the whole point was > to keep the matter hush-hush. And if they *did* ask, she might have > said no (because she doesn't particularly want to favor House Jhereg), > and if she'd said yes, then House Jhereg might find themselves in debt > to the Empress - which might be a greater problem to them than the > loss of funds & the loss of face. > > Easier for House Jhereg to handle things their own way. Or at least, > perhaps that's how it seemed to them, even assuming the Imperial > Tracking System exists. I believe they could have told Z they would go to the mat over this - and I think she would understand their need to. And if she gave them too much trouble about the debt, there's still Mario (unless you like the Sethra/Aliera-killed-Tortaalik theory).