Philip Hart wrote: >On Thu, 2 Feb 2006, Joy Jennifer Nicholson wrote: > > > >>Why wouldn't Aliera's [blood] do? or Vlad's, for that matter? >> >> > >Re the former, handwave. Re the latter, Vlad's not a god or >descended from one, as far as we know. > Not a handwave. In theory, Aliera's blood *might* do, but only three people during the final conversation with Verra know about Aliera's parentage: Aliera, Verra and (presumably) Morrolan. None of these are going to explain Aliera's parentage to Vlad; it's just none of his business (he only finds out much later, and he's actually friends with Aliera at that point). The only people who know that Vlad is planning to teleport the blood of the goddess and infuse Morrolan's with it are Loiosh and Vlad. There's dramatic irony here, since if Aliera was familiar with witchcraft, she might suggest using her own blood, assuming she was thinking clearly enough to think of that in the first place. But she's tired (and not a witch), Morrolan's tired (and determined to die for his cousin), and Vlad only remembers the blood of a goddess, despite being tired, because the smell of the ocean reminds him of the drink he has with Kiera when she gives him the vial of blood. Morrolan might also think of the blood transfusion, but he'd probably rather die than further weaken his cousin by taking her blood just for him to live, an uncertain proposition. Morrolan is dumb like that. Uh, I mean, honorable. Since per Orca, even Verra doesn't know what the blood is to be used for, she can't make any suggestions. Perhaps the politics of the Halls make it difficult for her to interfere more than she already has (i.e., allowing a second live Dragaeran to leave the Halls (Aliera) is bad enough; interfering to allow a third who isn't an heir to a throne might cause some divine censure she wouldn't want to deal with). But that's just speculation; what we know is that Vlad & co. are told that they are on their own, and only Vlad, Loiosh and Aliera may leave alive. Once they're kicked out of the Divine Throneroom, or whatever, the only options for bringing out Morrolan alive are Aliera's blood and a vial Vlad has in a trunk somewhere. They don't discuss these options because Morrolan and Aliera have already decided that Morrolan is doomed, and Aliera won't let someone die for her to live, so she's doomed too. Those two are the only ones that could tell Vlad, "hey, we've got all the blood you need right here" *pointing at Aliera* Since he doesn't know this, his options are reduced to the vial. I suppose you can argue that the handwave is Vlad being unwilling to tell Morrolan what he's about to attempt, which could possibly solve everything by their realizing that Aliera has the blood they need (assuming Morrolan would let it happen). But really, Vlad doesn't know Morrolan that well and he likes to keep things to himself and Loiosh, possibly to make himself look impressive (he keeps going out of his way to look good when Dragons are around). Jose -- Jose Marquez | There are 10 types of people in jhereg69 at earthlink.net | the world: those who understand http://www.hackwater.com | binary, and those who don't.