On Fri, 5 Sep 2003 Gaertk at aol.com wrote: >Philip Hart <philiph at SLAC.Stanford.EDU> writes: > > >Quick poll: Is spoiler space still needed? > > > > > > > >[Talking about POTD, chapter 18, first page] > >> Allowing myself to speculate about another's speculation, >> there's a list of admirable people which consists of Sethra >> and Aerich. No Khaavren, no Pel, no Piro. > >It was Khaavren that really caught my attention, and then >Piro. After all, the Paarfi books are (collectively) named >after those two. Bah. I think you're reading too much into it. A far more likely interpretation is that Sethra Lavode & Aerich are the most admirable because they have the fewest personal weaknesses (Khaavren is despairing, Tazendra is reckless, Pel is prideful and ambitious to the point of dangerous arrogance, Piro is self-absorbed and by Dragaeran standards, perverse), and when he says "and, we hope, many others", he may well be referring to those persons who will in fact overcome their weaknesses, which we have seen Khaavren & Pel & Tazendra, to some extent, already do. > >> Hmm, no Zerika. Perhaps when the gossip breaks she'll have >> Pel starred without a chance to orb-testify. > >I don't think the Bad Guys (or should I say Bad Gals?) >actually intend to spread that gossip. After all, they >believe it will harm Pel, not Zerika. I suspect they'll >apporach Zerika somehow and tell her that Pel has been, >well, indiscreet. > Well, that won't work, if the Orb can verify truth. Unless... (sudden thought) what they are in fact planning is to release the gossip at the same time that they strike at Pel physically, and make it look like he either turned traitor or simply buggered off. Unable to defend his integrity, he will not be avenged/searched for. Or something similar, since that will neatly allow them their revenge doubled (Pel will be captured/dead, and those who trusted him will think him a traitor). Which, if it does in fact occur, will make me think that there's another Yendi in there plotting this thing... My other thought was to what the cabal of Dragon, Phoenix & bastard Dzur-Tsalmoth are up to is that they are attempting at the end of LoCB is to either turn a god into a demon, or, at best, *bribe* a god somehow to get the Orb from Zerika to Illista. Note that Lady Teldra may have given us the hint as to how well that works out.