On Tue, 13 Jun 2006, Maximilian Wilson wrote: > [...] why not have Kiera steal the staff from Loraan instead? She'd be > at least as good at it as Sethra would, and presumably better than > either Morrolan or Vlad. (Vlad's an assassin, not a thief; truth be told > he's kind of a weird pick for the job, unless Sethra was just prepping > him to accompany Morrolan to the Paths.) IIRC, the keep's defenses are keyed to Dragaeran DNA. Vlad has of course been trained to some extent by Kiera in techniques common to thieves and assassins. And I certainly have always thought your "prepping" point was involved. Somewhat more speculatively, Kiera may have certain traits which would make her more noticeable to a highly-skilled Athyra than a run-of-the-mill extraordinary thief.