> It would be > entirely in character for Kiera to lie about how she > acquired something in order to protect a > resource/friend. While that's probably true, it still leaves the question of "why even mention it?" if it's something incriminating enough to require a lie as a cover-up? Cawti isn't a thief, at least professionally. It's not like she would have stopped Kiera and said "Hey, didn't you check for Elder Sorcery before going in?" Vlad has broken into many places he shouldn't have been and he's never felt the need to make sure that there were no Elder Sorcerous alarms installed. Despite the fact that Vlad seems to be surrounded by Elder Sorcerors these days, we've been told the Elder Sorcery is dangerous, difficult, illegal, and has few pracitioners because of all of the above, because there aren't any teachers around and because there are few who have the natural mystical/genetic potential for it. The unusual thing is not that Kiera stole a doo-hickey from Aliera to check for it. The unusual thing is that Kiera even feels a need to check for it. That, of course, is one of the giveaways that tips Vlad off about the Secret later on. From a meta-story standpoint, that's all that one line is really about. It's likely that Steven didn't give a whole lot of thought as to the consequences of a few readers trying to interpret a single sentence as evidence to determine whether Aliera and Kiera are friends, but here we are anyway. *heh* In any case, I'm willing to take Kiera at her word. Kiera knows of Cawti's and Vlad's friendship with Aliera. Likewise, Vlad knows that Aliera and Kiera are acquainted, making it reasonable to assume that Cawti has heard of this also. In that case, why use the phrase "Vlad's friend Aliera"? In other words, why lie and make the relationship seem distant? The only good reason would seem to be to protect Aliera from scandal. In that case, though, we're once again presented with the fact that the easiest way to avoid it is to just not mention Elder Sorcery at all. Kiera's story is no less informative for the omission and telling Cawti "Yeah, I'm friends with Aliera" isn't something that's going to put Aliera's rep into any kind of imminent danger in any case. The theoretical deception is unneccesary. That indicates to me that Kiera is NOT Aliera's personal friend and so does not know the Secret. The incident in Jhereg where they acknowledge knowing one another must just indicate what it appears to - that they are acquainted in some fashion that we're yet unaware of. This goes against my own theory that the scene in Jhereg indicated Aliera's knowledge of the Secret, but I think the evidence in Orca is stronger. In any case, it's interesting how you can build a "case" out of two lines of two unrelated stories. ;-)