On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 Jon_Lincicum at stream.com wrote: > >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. You're a professional sorcerer. When you were (your teacher was) young, a guy nearly blew up the world using ES, but fortunately the worst result beyond the immediate massive loss of life was an invasion by Es and plagues and internecine warfare. One day after work an E walks into your bar with one of the top five most famous people in the world at his side. He's got a mini-vulture on his shoulder. There's a melee, he points at one of your colleagues, a friend of yours zaps him but somehow he partly deflects the spell then blasts her with ES. The room starts to dissolve and you split, hide your tracks, and dine out on the story for a week. Later the pointed colleague turns up dead. In the meantime a bunch of people you talked to start getting antsy about an E wielding ES. They wonder: should we start a pogrom just in case? The Athyra begin work on a genetic spell that will kill all Es within a given radius, just in case. Then either a) a lot of people disappear b) you get a visit from the Empire explaining why E is an exception and inviting you to never mention it again or a). > #2) That any of the witnesses were able to identify Vlad later. Doesn't matter that it's Vlad - see above. Plus, see above - who could fail to identify him? > #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. This seems 2/3 impossibly wrong and 3/3 irrelevant. Note also that in all likelihood the incident left noticeable traces in the ether and in the matter of the bar. Imagine Suzy Easterner wakes up one morning, turns a garbage heap into chaos, and splits. I would expect this would have incredible political and social repercussions. Ok, there's a good reason why Suzy has the power to destroy the world, so no reason to fear that Cindy or Sally or Sondra E. has that power, but someone will have to broadcast that reason and make everyone believe it, even the ones who think her soul ancestor Captain Shazam is a legend.