[Dragaera] Ten New Questions after Dzur. [Dzur Spoilers]

[Michael Wojcik]

Scott Schultz wrote:
> ****** If you didn't already see it in the subject, thar be spoilers here 
> *******

(And for _Issola_ as well, though I don't imagine there are many here 
who have read _Dzur_ but not _Issola_. And some for the rest of the 
series.)

>> 7. Will Morrolan ever talk to Vlad again?
> 
> I'm frankly puzzled by the reactions of Aliera and Morrolan regarding the 
> death of Teldra. Vlad was not responsible for her death, and Morollan, at 
> least, ought to be conversant with the theories behind the birth of Great 
> Weapons. It seems that they really did consider Teldra a friend rather than 
> just a trusted servant. In any case, her death was her own doing. Given that 
> it was a Morganti death, why would they be upset that Vlad managed to 
> preserve some part of her nature instead of letting her be destroyed 
> utterly?

Agreed, with the caveat that, based on TVoA, I think it's safe to say 
that Teldra was more than "just a trusted servant" to Morrolan.

As far as I can see, Vlad's only contribution to her death was 
carrying that Morganti knife into the battle with the Jenoine. And a 
good thing too, since it let him assist Adron in saving the day.

> Once Morollan gets over his grief, he'll probably be very curious about 
> Godslayer. Perhaps he and "Lady Teldra" will have something to say to each 
> other. If Teldra acted as his High Priestess, then they may have been lovers 
> of one sort or another, even if Vlad never stopped to consider that such a 
> thing was within the realm of possibility.

I'd be surprised if they'd had a sexual relationship, but only because 
I don't feel either of them would have looked to the other for that. 
Certainly they shared other intimacies, in their long history together.

>> 8. Does Sethra have plans for Vlad? And, if so, might these conflict with 
>> the plans laid by Verra?
> 
> So far, Sethra has never "used" Vlad.

That's debatable, I think. She's intervened many times in his life, in 
one guise or another. She manipulated him into his first visit to Dzur 
Mountain and his first meeting with Morrolan. She feeds him bits and 
pieces of information as it suits her.

And it does, indeed, seem to suit her. Vlad has saved Morrolan a 
couple of times, and he's one of Sethra's pet projects. Vlad's 
restored the Dragon heir to the throne twice (Aliera and Norathar), 
which concerns Sethra because the Cycle is important (somehow) in 
keeping the Jenoine out. Vlad's killed a Jenoine, for that matter. And 
in restoring Aliera to life, Vlad not only cleaned up a mess of 
Sethra's making (not that she had much choice) but resolved what could 
have been an embarrassing problem with causality, because, hey, that 
Devera has to be born eventually.

 > She's asked him for assistance and
> sought his advice and given aid whenever he's requested it. However 
> complicated the reasons, Sethra, IMO, considers Vlad a friend, first and 
> foremost.

I think Sethra has some affection for Vlad, but a "friend" for her has 
to be a rather different sort of relationship than the one Vlad has 
for his friends. She's unimaginably old - older than the empire - and 
so has seen thousands of even normal Dragaeran lives go by. Her 
friends (aside from Tukko and the Necromancer and a few others) aren't 
sticking around. It's true that Vlad is in a sense an old friend from 
the empire-founding days, but that only goes so far.

Dragaerans, even Sethra, are largely human. I imagine that to stay 
sane Sethra has to keep herself pretty emotionally removed from the 
people around her. And that's the sense I get from the books: she's 
friendly, considerate, even genuinely concerned, but never close.

As Kiera she's closer to Vlad, but my sense is that she keeps the 
Sethra and Kiera personae fairly rigorously separate. That's probably 
partly because she wants to play by her own rules, and partly to avoid 
giving things away (though she slips up with Vlad), but I might 
speculate that it's also partly because she can let Kiera "live" a 
normal Dragaeran life (and "die" at a normal Dragaeran age), and so 
through Kiera pretend to be a normal Dragaeran and relieve some of the 
psychological pressure of her unique status as Sethra.

In other words, Kiera is Vlad's friend, but Kiera isn't Sethra, and 
they could have different intentions toward him; and Sethra might be 
Vlad's friend, but that means something rather different in her case.

I wouldn't be surprised if Sethra has some private plans for Vlad. For 
her, that might be a mark of affection.

-- 
Michael Wojcik