> I don't see Aerich dying off--I am in the process of reading _Teckla_ and > Paresh, a Teckla, is recounting his history to Vlad--he mentions Aerich, or > at least, the Duke of Arylle, coming to the door and asking for his Master, > presumably about why he wasn't receiving his tribute/tithe whatever. (Cause > of a massive fire that killed everyone but Paresh). It was interesting to > see how the character changes when it's not Paarfi recounting the history. > But then, Paresh is Dragaeran, and so the story he tells might well have > been before the Duke of Arylle is presumably killed in _Sethra_. Paresh's story doesn't actually bode well for our Aerich. Quoting my timeline again: ??? PI [Miscellaneous events that aren't exactly dated, but are Post-Interregnum and Pre-Vlad.] Paresh grows up in a Dzurlord's home (Tk 27). At 60, Paresh gets land (Tk 28). At 80, Paresh's loans are paid off (Tk 28). At 81, Paresh's home burns down (Tk 28-29). [This implies subtly that his master is Tazendra, who has some history of exploding experiments (FH 52, 434-435). Her literary model, Porthos, was also noted for his extensive (if largely unread) library.] Paresh spends "most of a year" learning sorcery (Tk 30). Paresh fights Aerich's son(?) (Tk 31-32). [Paresh was almost certainly born after the Interregnum, since sorcery figures highly in his biography, and he makes no mention of any interruption of it. He battles "The Duke of Arylle", who is "about my age" (in Dragaaeran terms, quite a young man). We can infer that Aerich has either died or retired. His literary model, Athos, died and left his estate to an adopted son in _The Man in the Iron Mask_. The Duke refers to Paresh's master as "him", but this is probably a mistranslation of the genderless Dragaeran pronoun on Brust's part (it being unlikely that Aerich's heir would be either misinformed or rude).] Alexx Alexx Kay Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my employers alexx at world.std.com http://world.std.com/~alexx My commitment is to truth, not consistency. [Seen on a Nancy Button, http://www.nancybuttons.com/]