Spoiler space 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 >Sethra is noted by Vlad to be "Tall for a Dragaeran", and Kiera is noted >to be "small Dragaeran female form" (/Jhereg/, ch 4.) So there is >apparently some significant difference in their heights. Ha! So there WAS a reason why I imagined Kiera to be short (relatively speaking). >Since reading /Orca/ I've been very curious how Sethra was apparently able >to leave Dzur Mountain as Kiera during the events of /Taltos/ while Sethra >herself was "unable to leave Dzur Mountain at this time" (where it is >implied she's about to do battle with a Jenoine). Is this perhaps a crack? >Or possible due to the way in which Kiera manifests? Kiera's entire purpose at this point in the story is to relieve Vlad of his misgivings and convince him to agree to meet Morollan. At that point, however grave the threat, the Jenoine attack hadn't yet happened. (Judging by subsequent text, it took place while Vlad and Morollan were involved in fighting Loraan or thereabouts.) Sethra could quite literally have just stepped out for ten minutes for the sole purpose of allaying Vlad's fears. This is Kiera's last (only?) appearance in the "present day". She appears several more times but always in the past, when Vlad is describing his entrance into and subsequent rise through ranks of the Organization. Of course, Sethra's excuse of not knocking on Vlad's door is that she couldn't leave Dzur Mountain just then. Either she felt it would take too long to do that and the subsequent negotiating or she had her own reasons for pretending that she couldn't leave. It might well be that knowing him as well as she did in the guise of Kiera, that the whole rigamarole with Quion was designed to impress him with how much they desired him, personally. If she just knocked on his door with a business proposition, the relationship would be purely a business deal with an unusual customer. In a weird way, the whole plot to lure Vlad to Castle Black and on to Dzur Mountain is an exercise in laying the foundation for a personal relationship between Vlad, Sethra, and Morollan; one where Sethra is the instigator and has the commanding hand rather than being a customer looking for a service provider. >Aliera may just be >keeping her mouth shut, but it always seemed to me that Sethra and Aliera >were never as close as Sethra and Vlad or Sethra and Morrolan. It's true that Aliera treats Sethra as a compatriot, where she seems to greet Kiera as a fast friend, if you see the difference. I have a theory (completely unsupported by any evidence) that Kiera was responsible for bringing Aliera and Mario back together. >SKZB was dangling the >secret in front of our faces at every opportunity from the very beginning. >Ah, hindsight. Yeah, it's amusing how many "Ah ha!" moments you get when you go back and read the series from the beginning once you know the secret.