[Dragaera] Kragar - SPOILERS

[J C]

Okay, so I was waiting to post this until after my wife read _Dzur_ and I could talk with her about it without spoiling the book.
 
This should be fair warning---Thar be spoilers here!
 
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Spoilers off the port bow!
 
Chrome Rims, too, Cap'n!
 
D'ye see any Blue LED lights, me bucko?
 
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So, now that that's out of the way, I'd like to continue with the main thrust of my post.  Kragar, and his rather peculiar relationships.
 
Kragar is an interesting person in his own right, with abilities that go far beyond the astonishing to the truly undetectable.  But it is his relationships that are the point of interest, particularly his relationship with Vlad, Aliera, and Mario, and how he seems to be the in the middle of some very unlikely people:
 
Let's just break it down a little further:  On the one hand, he is employed by two different people that we know of:  Vlad, for whom Kragar is a lieutenant, and probably a VERY significant portion of Vlad's spy network, though we have proof that he's not all of it in the character of Aibynn :)
Secondly, Kragar works for Mario as a kind of go-between--should you wish to get into contact with Mario, you just let it be known on the streets, and sometime shortly thereafter, if your need arouses Mario's interest, a person you will never be able to identify, and probably won't even see, will contact you to arrange a means of correspondence.  However, we now know that this individual would be Kragar.
 
However, that brings us to Aliera e'Kieron, with whom both Mario and Vlad share a rather close relationship---Mario, as a lover, and Vlad as a brother.  One must question Aliera's motives in becoming involved with Mario, but any answers one obtains would be almost purely speculative, based in educated guesses at best.  But what about Kragar's relationship with Kiera?  Kiera loathes Kragar.  But, given their mutual friends, why does she loathe him?   So far my feeling has been that she hated him in a way that we tend to hate criminals--we can't stand to acknowledge that this person who has done such things can be human, and thus, that it is possible that we could become a criminal, too, if our circumstances were different.
 
But it struck me that Dragons, while not Yendi, are not uninitiated into the art of intrigue and politics.  Like Issola who insult gods--where appropriate, Dragons will engage in courtly back-stabbing and scheming--apparently, where appropriate.  It strikes me that Aliera's hatred for Kragar is a big ? mark--without more information, we cannot draw any solid conclusions, but I would say that there is enough evidence present to at least allow for the possibility that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to Kragar's history in the house of the Dragon.
 
The fact that Aliera at one point mentions something along the lines of, "you know what he did/what happened" to Morrolan does not say as much as we might believe---anything "more than meets the eye" about his expulsion may have been the subject of secret-sharing on Aliera's part  with Morrolan, based on their own relationship, and his prominence in the Government.  You can't sell me on the idea that Morrolan, being Court Wizard, is completely uninvolved in political intrigue, and illicit love affairs like Aliera's are worth their weight in gold, so to speak, on the scales of Scandal.  His proximity to Aliera would put him in a place where it might be conceivable that he was pressured, one way or another, into finding out the details of Aliera's involvement with Mario, and possibly learning about Kragar at that point, regardless of what he then chose to do with that information.  That same proximity makes it just as possible that Aliera might actually tell him, if she got over the offense of being interrogated in such a way :P
 
Could it be that, similar to the Sorceress in Green's and Sethra the Younger's "falling out", Kragar and Aliera "hate" each other as a means of covering up the fact that Kragar probably serves as a go-between for the two of them, as well?  I mean, say you're an assassin of legendary resourcefulness who happens to kill an Emperor.  Once that Empire comes out of the resulting Interregnum, how much of its Iorich wing would be interested/committed to finding and apprehending said assasin?  I would say that Mario has THE best protection that money and connection can buy--and I wouldn't be surprised if he managed to pick up some Black or Gold Phoenix stone or some such device that blocks psionic/sorcerous contact, especially triangulation.
 
Next is Kragar's relationship with Mario himself.  Just what is the nature of their relationship?  What does each individual get out of that relationship?  Well, Mario receives the benefit of being able to maintain contact with the modern world without maintaining contact with the modern world--as is evidences by his "archaic" mode of speech.  But surely there's more.  We just don't realy know all that much about it.  
 
But what does Kragar get?  The fame/prestige of being associated with people who matter?  In short, some sort of reflected recognition?  Mario, after all, would only choose the best for his contact in the Jhereg.  And this is particularly enticing to Kragar, who as a Dragon yearns for recognition, but can never get it, due to his inability to be seen.  But what Dragon would consider what the Jhereg consider the "best" to be anything but an insult?  How much does Kragar's Dragon genes influence his psychology?  One can only assume "a lot".  Maybe there's something else entirely that Kragar gets out of the situation.
 
Maybe the story is a load of bullcrap to begin with.  Maybe Kragar decided for whatever reason, to throw his lot in with the Jhereg instead of the Dragon, (which reason would be damn near worth its own book, in my opinion) and choosing the Jhereg, became shunned by the Dragon.  Perhaps Kragar received training from the world's foremost assassin.  Training on how to, say, become invisible without seemingly trying at all.  Of course Kragar doesn't want to start giving commands like he says in Taltos.  It's impossible to remain hidden when you're giving the orders.  His later assumption of control of Vlad's interests may be able to be attributed to the change of circumstances in Vlad's life, and/or Mario's or Aliera's, or hell, even his own.  Maybe going incognito, while still useful, isn't the be-all and end-all of his work in the Jhereg anymore. 
 
But whatever the truth behind Kragar, we know for certain one thing:  He's probably sitting beside us chuckling at our clumsy guesses :P
 
What do you guys think about Kragar?
 
 
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