Dragaera

Vlad and the Orb

Fri Aug 20 15:38:32 PDT 2004

> I am AFB right now, but I thought that he talked a little about
> this in _Phoenix_, and it was more like he was truthful, but
> skillfully evasive by interpretting and responding to each
> question in a way that would be evaluted superficially as true,
> but deeply as evasive. The problem really is that the Orb seems
> to only do the superficial analysis, as it doesn't have all the
> requisite context to do the deeper analysis that would show that
> the answer was evasive.
>
> In fact, I strongly remember that Zerika and Vlad talk about how
> he first met her when he had to testify under the orb. Can anyone
> look up the relevant text and confirm whether I'm right?
>
> Matthew Klahn

Book of Taltos

pg 306 -
	I was ordered to testify "Under the Orb," with the Empress there to
observe, and all these peers of House Jhereg who had no power at all in the
running of the Organization.  I was asked things like, "When did you last
see him alive?" and I'd say, "Oh, I don't know; he was always pretty dead,"
and they'd rebuke me sternly.  They asked my opinion as to who killed him
and I said that I believed he had killed himself.  The Orb showed that I was
telling the truth, and I was; messing with me the way he'd been doing was
like asking to die.  The only time the Orb caught me lying was when I made
some remark about how overwhelmed I was to be speaking before such an august
assembly.

pg 307 -
	"Thank you, Your Majesty.  I ask only to serve you."
	"Indeed, Baronet?"  She seemed amused.  "I suspect the Orb would detect a
falsehood there.  You are usually more careful in your evasions."
	She remembered.
	"It is a pleasure not to have to dissemble before Your Majesty," I said.
"I prefer to lie directly."

pg 311 -
	"I [Zerika] remembered you [Vlad] faintly, from your skillful dancing
around the truth during a certain murder inquiry."

Bryan