My replacement copy of Orca arrived yesterday so I've been reading through it in small snatches. One of the passages that leapt out at me is one in which Kiera, as narrator, is talking about breaking into Fyres' home office. Just to be safe, she says, she checks for Elder Sorcery using a blue gem that she "picked from the pocket of Vlad's friend Aliera". This would tell me that Aliera probably does NOT know Kiera's secret. If Aliera knew it, I can't imagine that Kiera would casually steal from her. For me, this is reinforced by the narration of the story. Kiera is, in fact, not an alternate persona. Kiera, it seems to me, is a veneer. If S----- wouldn't do something then Kiera wouldn't do it either, at least in cases of personal loyalty. Granted,that there's nothing in the books that supports that explicitly. Indeed, given that nobody except Vlad and maybe Stony seem to be comfortable with being in the same room as Kiera, it's possible her rep comes from the fact that she's a bit of a klepto who will take anything catching her fancy just because she can. Given that Vlad appears to one of her closest friends (if not the closest) and that he has no fear of her (though he might well shrug and say "Why be afraid of something you couldn't prevent anyway?") I think it's provisionally safe to claim that Kiera doesn't casually steal from her friends. Since she HAS stolen from Aliera, I'd conclude that however Aliera and Kiera became acquainted they are not actual friends and that Aliera doesn't know the secret. I know that was a burning issue in everyone's minds so I figured I'd let you know. ;-P Scott Schultz scott at cjhunter.com P.S. Of course, it's also possible that Kiera was lying about the blue gem for Cawti's benefit so that she wouldn't have to make any embrassing explanations about it. However, you'd assume that she simply wouldn't mention it at all in that case.