On 12/4/05, Maximilian Wilson <wilson.max at gmail.com> wrote: > On 12/4/05, Jon Lincicum <lincicum at comcast.net> wrote: > > > > Of course, since she is so preoccupued with the task of defending > > against the Jenoine, it may be that she's just so used to delegating any > > tasks that she doesn't absolutely have to do herself that she just had > > StY do it without thinking about it too much. I don't buy it. She is able to lead an army, with all of the attention that that requires, and can't be bothered to take the two seconds to peform a single spell? > > Good point. That's what apprentices are for, right? Tedious grunt-work. Bah. It's not like she was trying to move a sofa or something. > Although there's no particular reason she *couldn't* have done the gene-scan > herself, if she'd wanted to... Well, I have suggested two reasons. A third that occurred to me might be that she has a philosophical objection to the whole idea of "genetic purity", and thus does whatever she can to disinvolve herself from directly trying to test for such a thing. But that feels weak; I still like my "undead have to be careful about spells involving other people's bodies, or else". Incidentally, I thought of another point: When Sethra teleports Aliera, note that there is indeed a rather unfortunate side-effect to Aliera's soul. Perhaps, maybe, because of Sethra's undead state? > maybe the Yendi Conspiracy was just gambling > that she wouldn't. If she had, it wouldn't have exposed them to any threat > at that point, since StY hadn't yet faked a gene-scan. Huh. I'd misremembered that that was the first gene-scan, not the last. In my defense, the sequence of events is laid out in a confusing manner in the text. After a quick re-read: 1) Sethra Junior tells Sethra Lavode that Baritt talked to Miera (Norathar's mom), and that Miera told Baritt that Norathar was not K'laiyer's child, and that her father wasn't even a Dragon. (that's suspicious right there. Why would a Dragon voluntarily confess to cross-House infidelity, to another Dragon (rather, than, say, a Discreet)?) 2) Sethra Lavode brings this information to the Dragon Council. 3) K'laiyer e'Lanya, feeling insulted, brings an army against Sethra Lavode. (and why against Sethra Lavode rather than Junior? Or Baritt, for that matter?) (well, perhaps they were "Yendied" into thinking that Sethra L was the sole guilty one) 4) K'laiyer & Miera lose, and are killed. 5) Sethra Lavode takes over their lands. 6) They find 4-year old Norathar. Sethra Junior does the first scan and says "Bastard!" 7) Sethra Lavode turns K'laiyer's lands over to House Dragon and washes her hands of the whole business. 8) Before the entire Dragon Council, Baritt and an "Athyra" "Baroness Tierella" (secretly the SiG) do another gene-scan, and say "Bastard!" (witnessed by the Lyorn Countess Neorenti) 9) We don't know what happens to K'laiyer's possessions, or who raises Norathar, but she's not considered a Dragon anymore. > Maybe they would have fallen back to plan B, "kill the baby." Uh, no. If Sethra Lavode performs her own scan (it's even worse if it conflicts with Sethra the Younger's scan) and thus puts the lie to Sethra the Younger's & Baritt's accusation, their entire scheme is ruined, because Sethra Lavode is not going to be pleased with having been made a tool. Killing the baby makes it worse, not better. Plan B would have had to have been "Kill Sethra Lavode", and they would have had to have been pretty dumb to have *that* as a fallback plan. So it seems to me that they were pretty sure that under no circumstances would Sethra Lavode *ever* perform the gene-scan herself, despite being intimately involved in the whole mess. Which to me implies that there is *something* that would prevent her (or very strongly discourage her) from doing so. Unless, even more paranoid, Sethra Lavode *was* involved in the original plan. Hm. Well. And in addition to having Sethra Junior do her lines, tells her "If you try to put this crap on me, I will *end* you". But that seems unlikely to me.