spoilers are here I don't remember what made me come to this conclusion, but I had also decided it was a pretty good likelihood that Sethra was grooming Vlad to become a Lavode.We do know that she explictly referred to the Lavode-in-training as "he", which eliminates Tanzendra (unless the Dragaeran to English translation is being deceptive, but I don't think Brust would really do that to us quite like that). Vlad may be a short-lived Easterner, but he's also Kieron and Aliera's brother, an old soul from the founding of the Empire. Sethra's known him for a long, long time. Plus, a great weapon could potentially extend his life span. Heck, maybe Sethra even had a hand in seeing that this particular soul ended up in this particular body, because being a Easterner/Jhereg/Assassin/outcast/great-weapon-wielder/etc/etc/etc was what was needed to forge the soul into what she/the empire needs. She was, after all, once offered godhood. > Timothy Scott wrote: > > > 1) I got the impression that, if she hadn't died, Teldra might have > > begun an affair with Vlad. > > > I got the impression Vlad might have liked to begin an affair with > Teldra, actually (-; > > > 2) I think that Sethra has been training Vlad to become a Lavode. > > She mentioned in the story that she and the empress both believe that > > disbanding that order was a mistake. > > > I can't see that, myself. Vlad's an ephemeral, comparatively; wouldn't > seem to be worth her time to train him for that career. Also, the > Lavodes seem heavily into sorcery, and there's no evidence Sethra has > given Vlad any sorcerous training. > > It's not out of the question that Sethra--or others--have been training > Vlad for some other sort of career, though. And Sethra doesn't hesitate > to call on Vlad for pretty important jobs as it is, but that seems to be > mostly that she thinks he can do them, and the list of people she knows > who can seems to be fairly short. > > Snarkhunter >