>I seem to recall that a physical description is given in Five Hundred >Years after, which puts him as a fairly nondescript jhereg and not an >obvious Dragonlord. Whether this is because he actually looks >nondescript or because Paarfi has no description is an open question. It seems like a moot point. We're talking about Adron's daughter. She'd no more have a child with a Jhereg than with an Easterner, no matter that he might be a Dragon genetically. In any case, Steve has explained Devera's time and space skipping ability by claiming that she was conceived in the Paths and born in Verra's Halls which pretty much rules out Mario as a father (presuming that he's still living at the time). Being essentially a demi-god, Aliera COULD visit the Paths herself to meet Kieron there and have a hope of leaving. Such a visit would still be frought with peril since the Gods would likely try to prevent her from leaving again, blood or no. Whatever brings Aliera and Kieron back together again must be something of great moment in order for her to take the risk. I'd imagine the Gods must be getting a bit tired of living people coming and going from the Paths of the Dead. Of course, we don't know what Morollan and Aliera were doing while Vlad was creating and performing his summoning spell. I suppose that Aliera could have excused herself and run off for a quickie. Keep in mind, though, that in Yendi Vlad mentions that he's known Morollan for four years, which is roughly the same time he's known Aliera. The later stories add a couple of more years to that. Given their lifespan, it's possible that Dragaerans have a gestation period of decades rather than months, but we don't have any information at the moment that would lead us to believe that. (Granted that we don't have any information at all about Dragaeran gestation, AFAIK, other than the fact that many of them have problems conceiving at all.) Still, you'd think with Aliera being an accomplished sorceror she would have some way of knowing she was pregnant and she wouldn't take some of the risks that we've seen her take. It just doesn't seem likely that she was impregnated during or before the events of Taltos, and we have yet to hear of any opportunities that have occurred since then.