>Well, one cannot hamstring a yendi (the animal), in a literal sense, as >they have no legs. The sentence can be taken different ways, but I >always thought it was a slight against whomever she was talking about. >Like calling a Dragon a teckla. Ah, right. I'd sort of ignored the fact that a Yendi is a kind of a serpent because it makes the mystery even murkier. If Sethra refrained from disabling Dolivar then she was presumably helping him in some fashion. (Dolivar's "expulsion" may have been more along the lines of an escape and Sethra and "Alieron" allowed it to happen.) Feeling "guilty towards Vlad" makes even less sense in this context than it already did. If the yendi Aliera refers to is a figurative snake in the grass, then I'd have to wonder if it in fact refers to some event that caused Dolivar to be wrongfully accused and expelled for the actions of someone else. Sethra aided that someone else, "Alieron" abetted her, and events were set in motion that led to the Empire as we know it. The problem here is attempting to explain why "Alieron" would allow his brother to be framed, tortured, and expelled. There's too little information to definitively explain any of this, but that's what's bothering me about it. Vlad apparently thinks that everything is crystal clear. Does he have information that we don't or does Steve think that the Vlad = Dolivar equation makes things crystal clear to his readers? How about a quick poll: Do you feel that you understand why Kiera watches over Vlad?