On Wed, 5 May 2004, Jerry Friedman wrote: > > --- Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net> wrote: > Philip Hart: > > I wrote: > > I would like to once again assert that Morrolan's taking Blackwand into > > the Paths, when he fully expects to be staying, is an annoying flaw in > > _Taltos_, which if anyone can explain away I'd be grateful. > > > > SKZB replied: > > Just an oversight on my part. I completely forgot that, when going into > > great danger, someone who owns a powerful artifact that might save his > > life will naturally leave this artifact behind. What was I thinking? > > > > For more, see > > http://dragaera.info/mailinglists/archive.cgi/1/9794 > > > > After a bit of arguing with myself, I concluded, > > "I'm still somewhat skeptical." > > End of Philip Hart Hey, I may be abrasive, but not that abrasive. > > Since it has been Written, we need to live with that. Steven has the > > ability to resolve that if he wants to. Maybe he did not have the > > ability > > to will his sword to someone before going to the Paths. Maybe Sethra > > thought he would need it (some prophesy that didn't come to fruition > > yet). > > Maybe BlackWand didn't let itself be forgotten. > ... > > And maybe Morrolan thought Blackwand would be necessary to complete > his mission no matter what happened after that, and would give him > a marginally better chance of getting out, and would be useful if > he had to stay. My reading of _Taltos_ leads me to believe M didn't expect to make it. That the mission called for diplomacy more than deathdealing - and as it happened, BW played no part. But perhaps M had fulfilled his fated role already; and the gods could have found someone else to give BW to (StY? Aliera?) and some way of getting it to Sethra. At the end of the day, M+BW straight up for Aliera+Kieron's sword seems like a bad deal, and I don't see why Sethra agreed to it, despite her friendship with Aliera (or perhaps even in view of it) - unless she had some inside info she didn't share with Vlad. But I don't see how any insider plan could depend on V being able to pull off a teleport by witchcraft. Well, except for prescience, in which case one wonders how the insiders could ever lose.