Sethra Lavode Spoiler Space (which is to say, for nearly every book out there): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Okay, there. Sethra Lavode can: Eat food. Breathe (still necessary for talking out loud). Walk, etc. Not saying she -has- to, but she -can-. She's vampiric undead; she says so. So. While we know that she DOES have cold hands, Sethra-as-Kiera does not have a sub-normal body temperature; we know, however, that she takes a great amount of care in keeping Kiera as separate and individual as she can. I believe that among these individual aspects is the necessary altering of Kiera's -apparent- body temperature. Whether this is a matter of blood-flow control (cold feet/hands in us Easterners are the result of a lack of full blood flow) or a matter of a spell -- something I doubt, since it'd show up like a spotlight on an individual we know isn't one to make a show of herself -- it is clearly something that Sethra -does- do. Sethra, as herself, has no need of such rigid self-control; she is Sethra, and the Empire simply has to accept her as she is. Can she shapechange? Possibly; probably, even. I think that, in the centuries she's used Kiera, she's become skilled enough in more ordinary vehicles of disguise (posture, mannerisms, and grooming) so that those very few who have the chance to see both (regal, powerful, undead Dzur) Sethra and (warm, friendly, thieving Jhereg) Kiera simply have a problem thinking of one as being the other -- even potentially. Consider that Vlad is, possibly, one of the five most familiar with Kiera the Thief; sure, others (like Stony) have good, long working relationships with her, but Vlad was in many ways her protege'; she taught him a -lot-. How to move through crowds, how to palm stuff, a lot of the small tricks of the thief's trade. He's known her for something like 20 years, which for an Easterner is very, very long. While he's known Sethra Lavode somewhat less -- for about four years at the time of Jhereg (IIRC), which by the time of Orca is six to seven -- he has still had regular social interaction with her, from the permanent party at Castle Black to more in-depth interactions, planning sessions and the like. Of the others who have known Sethra, the only one I can think of who might (apparently) have the chance to connect her with Kiera the thief is, interestingly enough, Aliera. In Jhereg, Vlad expresses trepidation at seeing the two of them meet, then is surprised when they turn out already to be friends. This may indicate that Aliera, at least, has already put it together -- but it may not. After all, Aliera would never actively take part in such an in-depth chicanery as the events of Orca, and thus never really have -reason- to catch Kiera out on stuff that only Sethra would know -- like Vlad did. Sethra also admits to Vlad that nobody's really gotten to work with her as closely as he has, so ... I guess they all need to work on their disguises, eh? However, for the purposes of Kiera, it's pretty clear that Sethra already knows a hell of a lot more than anybody else. S. Thomas Crain Author-in-Training __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com