I haven't seen much activity on this list in the recent weeks since I joined, and in reading the archives it seems that everyone should be just finishing /The Phoenix Guards/, so I hope I'm not too far behind to share my comments on it. Obviously, I got started late, but I have been trying to catch up, and I thought I would share the things that occurred to me as I read. Firstly, after I noticed the reference to Daridd of Diar-by-the-Bennaat (apparently considered one of the classics by G'aereth!), I began to reflect and, of course, to wonder about other names referenced throughout the text. Are there other nods to people whose names we might recognize peppered through the story? I specifically remember one reference to somebody that was the author of a "well-known epic," which sets off little warning bells in my head, but I couldn't find the passage going back. Secondly, I noted with amusement the mention of the Imperial Records Service (the I.R.S.) who apparently provided the documents concerning taxation during the scene with Khaavren and the Easterner librarian Ricardo. There has been a lot of speculation on the lists recently of whether one character is secretly another character, a question that I thought settled by skzb -- after the Greater Revelation of /Orca/ (as I have seen it charmingly called), I thought I read that he said there were no other characters in his books who are other characters in disguise. However, in considering the painting by Kathana e'Marish'Chala, I considered the fact that while it was intended to hang in the Dragon Wing of the Imperial Palace, it was commissioned by Lord Rollondar e'Drien (is that Morrolan's father?). She presented it to Lord e'Drien in the palace, but perhaps he retained ownership of it in the years that followed, and even removed it from the palace after a time to hang in his own castle? You see, I also remember a reference to a painting of a wounded dragon in Castle Black (I believe it is from the first few chapters of /Yendi/), and the comment from Vlad that (from memory) "it was painted by the Necromancer (you didn't know she was an artist, did you?)". I have read other speculations on Kathana possibly being the Necromancer for this reason, but they were refuted with the argument that it surely could not be the same painting, since Kathana's was probably destroyed in Adron's Disaster. Yet here we see that the painting could have survived. Is this the same painting Vlad says was painted by the Necromancer, and wouldn't that suggest that Kathana and the Necromancer are the same person, assuming Vlad is correct? I also wonder if the Dragon that Kathana has later married in /Five Hundred Years After/ (and whose name Khaavren cannot remember) is, in fact, Lord Rollondar, her patron? That might also help to explain why the painting would have been moved to Castle Black -- if indeed it was -- and, assuming that Kathana is the Necromancer, why she has such strong ties to Morrolan. Perhaps she is his mother? Of course, based on her character as described by Vlad and Paarfi, I'm not entirely convinced that the Necromancer is Kathana. Kathana seems to have little interest or skill in sorcery. The Necromancer has, well, other attributes that it seems unlikely Kathana would have acquired. And yet, it is an interesting correlation. Finally, I have to say that I particularly like the titles of the different chapters, and especially the shortened versions that appear on the headers of each page. Very clever. Paarfi is such a joy to read. I'll post more questions and observations as I think of them, of course.