Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info 01/10/06 09:19 AM To SKZB List <dragaera at dragaera.info> cc Subject Re: the honing of Vlad >Note that it seems likely to me that any amorphia generation by an >Easterner would likely result in a trip by any witness to an oubliette >at best. That Vlad wasn't disappeared now strikes me as surprising - >perhaps Aliera was able to argue that his soul is a sufficient excuse >for the event and either the truth (doubtful) or some reasonable lie >(also doubtful) was told to the Left Hand witnesses, probably along with >a threat should anyone gossip. This assumes quite a few things... #1) That anyone in that room (other than Vlad and Aliera) had a clear idea of what was happening at all. (How many normal citizens think about amorphia as a part of their daily lives? How many would have seen such things before? How many are educated in the mechanics of how such things work?) #2) That any of the witnesses were able to identify Vlad later (The only one who might have been aware of who he was--before things got crazy--was the one sorceress they were after, and Morrolan takes care of her shortly afterwards). #3) That the higher-ups in the Jhereg knew what amorphia was, how incredibly dangerous it is to play around with, and somehow saw it as their responsibility to take care of the potential danger. Now, these were Left-Hand sorceresses, so they've had some training in magic, and it's not impossible that one or more of them *might* have been able to identify what was going on. I would say that if there were such, they would be the ones most likely to go into total shock when they saw the amorphia form, and be the least reliable as witnesses after the fact. Really, it's the last point that convinces me, personally. Why should the Jhereg stick their neck out to remove a dangerous Elder Sorcerer? Isn't the Empire supposed to enforce the laws concerning Elder Sorcery? So maybe they report it to the Phoenix Guard, who, after talking to their boss (Khaavren--who has likely already talked to Sethra about the situation) decides to leave well enough alone. Majikjon