Davdi Silverrock wrote: >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? > > > Well, there's also the healing that she was going to perform on Vlad's arm in Issola. Really, I think my primary objection to this line of thinking is that it says that Sethra is confounded simply by her life state--which is, to her, almost as much a "matter of engineering" as it is to the Necromancer. I find that possibility much more improbable than the alternative. >Bah. It's not like she was trying to move a sofa or something. > > > Well, considering Sethra's sofas are madeof solid stone, even *that* task isn't as easy as it might seem. ;-) >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? > > Interesting notion, although Sethra herself seems to imply that it was more the impending explosion of amorphia that put her off saving Aliera than anything else. Also, remember those countless teleports she did bewteen Dzur Mountain and Castle Black right after the ninth (or Tenth) Seige of Dzur Mountain... With no untoward after effects. >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. > > Well, it seems likely that the Sorceress in Green knows Sethra better than anyone else alive at the time the conspriacy was formed (or at least has known her for longer than anyone else). It was likely a calculated gamble as to how Sethra would react given the circumstances. And I wouldn't put it past the Sorceress in Green to be able to *invent* something that would distract Sethra at the critical moment, either. (Faking an attack from the Jenoine? Or even inviting a *real* attack, perhaps?) Majkjon