Note: A quote from /Sethra Lavode/ lurks below. It's not much of a spoiler, but it is a spoiler nonetheless, so this is the requisite warning. I was recently perusing some of the highlights of the life of Ben Siegel, as his life tied into that of the Syndicate operations of that era, at this site (which I highly recommend to anyone who has a romanticised view of organized crime; these were and are unpleasant fellows) http://www.crimelibrary.com/ And one of the things that struck me was that while subordinates quite often whacked their superiors, it was never done personally. Oh, the guy who benefits might well *set up* the boss (at a restaurant, one notes), but he doesn't perform the deed. More often, the guy who wants it done makes sure to have an alibi for the time the murder is committed. I'm guessing that this was out of pragmatism more than any sort of code: Doing the deed that you directly benefit from is something that the police can easily grab you up on - and allies of the boss can whack you for in turn (which did happen anyway, but my point is that direct responsibility makes it more likely that they'll come directly for the guy responsible for the action). Anyway, this in turn got me thinking about Vlad and his former boss Tagitchan (or whatever his name was). Vlad admits that he killed T_____ directly and then took over his operation. So... Why did he do something so stupidly reckless instead of hiring someone he trusted to do the thing? And how did he get away with it, even testifying under the Orb, of all things? Well, I had this little exchange in mind: /Sethra Lavode/, Chapter 83, pg 166: Pel: "Your Majesty is invited to put me under the Orb." Zerika: "I know something of the discipline you have studied, Duke. I am prepared to believe you can fool the Orb as easily as you fooled me." As we see, there's the strong suggestion that the Orb is not, and never was, infallible at lie detection. Perhaps Vlad heard how it could be beaten, and took steps to do so. Something that occurs to me is that it is interesting that Vlad cannot quite recall his boss-victim's name. It might just be a conincidence of T_____ having a hard-to-pronounce name, but another possibility is that Vlad used some method -- almost certainly witchcraft, since his sorcery isn't that strong, and he didn't know Daymar at the time, although he might have administered some self-inflicted head trauma -- to mildly scramble or wipe out parts of his own memory after committing the murder, perhaps only on a temporary basis. So when he's arrested and interrogated for the crime under the Orb, he can answer questions like "Did you kill T_____?" with "I don't know what you're talking about", and have it be true. Embroidering on this idea a bit, perhaps the memory-witchcraft was to transfer some of his memories to Loiosh, or to use Loiosh to suppress those memories. Other than the trouble with the name, he seems to have no problems remembering the deed itself now - or does he? Perhaps it *was* erased permanently, and he only remembers what Loiosh told him about it. Anyway, that's my pararectal ideation of the day.