[Dragaera] [Dzur spoiler] Possible crack in the orb & Aliera's personality

[Jose Marquez]

Maximilian Wilson wrote:
> On 8/11/06, Jose Marquez <jhereg69 at earthlink.net> wrote:
>   
>> Philip Hart wrote:
>>     
>>> On Thu, 10 Aug 2006, Maximilian Wilson wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>>         
>
>   
>> Wild speculation: What if Sethra knows about Kragar as a Dragon, and
>> after he is expelled and joins the Jhereg (I imagine that sort of thing
>> doesn't happen all the time, so it might have some particular resonance
>> for her), she keeps tabs on him through her Jhereg sources? Sethra also
>> knows Mario, and probably knows about Mario and Aliera, and she might
>> just mention to Kiera that Mario could use a contact like Kragar. Kiera
>> passes this on to Mario, who checks Kragar out.
>>     
>
> I like this line of thought, especially because IIRC it was Kiera who
> set Vlad up with Nielar (and thus with Kragar) in the first place.
> Problem: Kragar doesn't know anything about in Sethra in /Taltos/
> except for her reputation as a vampire. What if the mutual friend is
> Kiera?
>   
That might work. I suspect that Kiera and Sethra have a way of 
communicating (how else could Kiera know that stealing a large gem from 
Dzur Mountain was not only safe, but encouraged), so I could see Sethra 
letting Kiera know about a new player in town, former Dragon, has a gift 
for not being seen (so could possibly set up as competition?). I can't 
remember if Kiera has ever claimed to not know how to contact Mario. If 
she hasn't, then maybe she knows how and can remove Kragar as 
competition by setting him up as a contact for Mario.

Note: Kragar could be lying about the 90 years thing. He's told obvious 
lies to Vlad before, and Vlad, while knowing he's being lied to, doesn't 
call him on it out of courtesy/loyalty. Or, as others have suggested, 
he's letting Vlad believe whatever Vlad wants to believe.
>> I'm always happy to generalize from one example. Particularly for a
>> Dragaeran; it seems Mario moves as fast as Vlad.
>>     
>
> To be fair, Ishtvan works equally fast, as do the Sword and the Dagger
> of the Jhereg, and Melestav, and pretty much every other assassin
> we've seen in the books. Vlad is unusual in the frequency with which
> he accepts contracts, but not the speed with which he carries them
> out. For a Dragaeran, "working" a couple of times in a decade is
> enough to get a reputation, while Vlad's done sixty-odd hits in
> between five and ten years.
>   
True; Ishtvan claims he got lucky, to which Vlad responds with something 
like "You *make* that kind of luck" and expresses a desire to make him a 
permanent addition to his staff. I think. But I seem to recall Vlad 
being impressed at the speed that Ishtvan accomplished the 
assassination, which suggests to me that even the fastest assassination 
takes a few days, if only to double-check information gathered before 
striking. Vlad *has* done lots of hits, but he tends to take his time, 
and suggests this is standard assassin procedure; only amateurs or 
button men who don't know better would try to move quickly and risk 
alerting their target, so the implication is that assassins move very 
slowly indeed.

In any case, having temporarily stolen back my copy of Dzur, I note that 
Vlad gives Kragar the name of the sorceress Vlad wants dead, he walks 
around a bit, ends up at a shrine, visits Verra for 20 minutes, goes 
home, waits 3 minutes, and goes back to walk around while waiting for 
Mario to shine the sorceress. He expects a minimum of days. Possibly 
weeks. Eventually, he goes to bed. He is awoken that night by Mario to 
tell him that it is done. Untraceable and professional. Except it is 
traceable; the Phoenix Guards will say Mario did it, and be entirely 
correct this instance. But anyway. Mario figures out where the sorceress 
normally teleports (if she habitually teleported to the same space) in a 
few hours and she's dead before morning. Seems fast to me. In any case, 
*I'm* impressed, and I can see why Vlad is impressed.

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.