On Sat, 6 Dec 2003, Mark A Mandel wrote: [Tiassa == oracle?] > >Well, yes. But the ability fits with incidents we have seen with >other Tiassa. IIRC, Daro came to Khaavren's side because she had a >strong sense that he needed her and a sense of where she was. >Khaavren evades the assassin's strike from behind even though the >assassin is perfectly and completely silent. Tiassa ARE more likely >than members of other houses to have inexplicable insights. > Hmm. I believe you have convinced me. I now recall Daro's statement "Well, what of that? I am a Tiassa.", when Khaavren expresses surprise at her ability to have bested several of Lord Adron's soldiers. I thought, at first, that the implication was that while Dragons were fierce, Tiassa had faster reflexes or somesuch. But perhaps we are meant to understand that Tiassa are luckier; that, combined with desperation and skill, she had hunches of how best to defeat the soldiers' attacks. I am also reminded of another matter. On re-reading the beginning of FHYA, I was struck by the fact that all of the other assassinations that took place were effective, competent and deadly. Khaavren alone was attacked by someone who, from the depiction, was incompetent, in that he chose to make his attack when his victim was awake and alert. All of the others were taken completely by stealth. I wondered if perhaps an insinuation was being made that Khaavren might even have been involved in the murders, or that his assassin had been told to stage it in such a way as to be most likely to fail (much as appeared to be the case in /Yendi/, when Vlad was attacked *outside* the restaurant). Yet Khaavren taking his sword with him to answer a clap at the door was a rather odd thing to do; perhaps the result of a Tiassa hunch or prognostication. I am not certain that that clears up the matter of the assassinations; it makes the assassin seem even *more* incompetent or staged for not anticipating Tiassa hunches, but it does add an additional dimension to the matter.