> With Kiera, I think we're reading an unexpurgated version of > the events > in question. Whether she's telling her story to a little metal box or > just writing it down in her diary, we can't really tell. > Nevertheless, > the story she tells Cawti can't be the same story we read, because we > get Vlad's account in the first person (and I doubt Kiera > tells it like > that to Cawti), and we also get the unexpurgated version. > That's true. Kiera as narrator is speaking to the reader (or Brust the interviewer if you like). Looking at the interludes where Kiera is talking directly to Cawti, it's clear that she's not telling Cawti exactly the same things that she's narrating. All that this means for purposes of determining the relationship between Aliera and Kiera is that we can take Kiera's words at face value. In other words, it's wrong to try to interpret them as some sort of cover-up because they aren't intended for anyone who would need to have the truth hidden from them. Given that, it seems we can accept Kiera's word that she stole the blue gem >from Aliera. Your average person (though we could go back to the klepto theory) wouldn't casually steal from a friend. Ergo, the conclusion that Kiera and Aliera are no more than casual acquaintances. If I was going to make a guess at it, I'd guess that Kiera probably took it on herself to bring Aliera and Mario back together after Aliera returned to the land of the living. Hence, the smile exchanged between them when Vlad introduces them.