*Non-spoiler warning* Upon successive re-rereadings of the mailing list and Mr. Brust's Vladology, I came to realize that: -Mario is Piro, -Cawti is Kragar, -The Demon is the dark side of Zerika instantiated through the power of the orb and transported back in time by Devera. -Vlad is Bink. It will be revealed that a phoenix flew overhead when Vlad's son was born, thus making him the one true human/phoenix hybrid, and bearing the soul of Zerika's lover will spawn a new population of Phoenix human/Dragaeran hybrids. Mario/Piro will slay the god of opposites, granting him the power to return the dead to life. And he will go back in time, stabbing the corpses of long-dead phoenixes, Thus restoring the phoenix line. Cawti/Kragar, using her/his powers of sneakiness, will slip away, escaping the notice of the universe, and travel to Earth, 2004. She'll witness the GOP in action, realize that things could be a lot worse, and return home a loyal subject of the empire. Vlad kills the Evil Magician Trent and every lunar cycle his wife rejoins the Teckla rebellion.