[Dragaera] Orca Reconsideration 2

[Sean Whalen]

  In _Orca_ the old woman knows much of what Vlad is doing because 
he told her and she was present for some of the conversations between 
him and Kiera.  However, she doesn't hear everything because Vlad tells 
her to go away so she doesn't hear anything more dangerous, and occasionally 
she says she doesn't want to know and leaves the area.  One time Vlad is 
talking to Savn, at the old woman's request, and when he leaves the house 
he sees her sitting where she might be able to listen in (p194).  He thinks 
she might have arranged the talk to listen in, then dismisses it as he thinks 
she isn't so devious and the situation is making him paranoid.  However, 
_Orca_ is about secrets, disguises, misdirection, plotting, etc.

  There is a way the old woman could
 be devious and listening
 in on all 
the important conversations, even the ones she's not present for.  Her 
dog Buddy is present for almost all of them, and later in the books it's 
always mentioned when Buddy arrives when they are talking (not just in 
the house; he follows Kiera outside when she's talking to Savn and when 
she's talking to Vlad about knowing she's Sethra).  I think Buddy is the 
old woman's familiar, and was used to listen in on the conversations 
while she was out of the area.


1.  Kiera says Buddy is an old dog but energetic.  What are the chances 
that an old Dragaeran would have an old dog at any particular point?  
Their lifespans are so different that a Dragaeran with a dog would feel 
they died of old age all the time (and they would sometimes die of accident 
earlier) much more than their attitude towards Easterners.  A familiar 
probably shares the lifespan of its master, so they are at the same 
stage (old, not infirm).

2.  Kiera says Buddy should be "a good companion for a woman like H[], 
just as Loiosh was a good companion for an assassin" (p247).  She 
probably didn't know he was a familiar, but the parallelism was intended 
by the author to let anyone suspicious know his suspicions are accurate.  
It also would be odd for a woman with no companions after the death of 
her husband to chose an animal that would soon die or to continue getting 
new dogs after they kept dying of old age in (to her) a very short time.


3.  Kiera notices Savn's closeness with Rocza and thinks (maybe just 
jokingly) he might have
a future as a witch (that is, Rocza acts much as 
a familiar would
towards Savn).  He has a similar relation with Buddy.


4.  The old woman is not a trained sorcerer, works alone, and
specializes 
in the mind and connecting with other people's minds to
discover their 
problems and heal them.  This makes it possible she
could develop spells 
never discovered before involving the mind and
connecting them, similar 
to the familiar-connection of witchcraft. 
Unusual spells from those working 
away from normal sorcerous
institutions are known (the Left Hand's abilities 
in _Dzur_).


5.  Vlad has said that when his grandfather practiced witchcraft Ambrus

would sit and watch, purring to let him know all was fine with the
spell.  
When the old woman is (perhaps sorcerously) examining Savn
(p23), 
Buddy is lying down, watching, and thumping his tail "whenever
the old 
woman moves", according to Vlad.  He might be performing a
similar 
service which Vlad doesn't know about. 
When the old woman is DEFINITELY
sorcerously examining Savn (p43),
Buddy is watching and gives his tail 
"a half-wag", and puts his head
between his paws (things aren't going 
perfectly, but nothing dangerous
happens to the old woman, as she said 
was possible).


6.  Buddy shows unusual sensitivity about certain situations.  He's described 
as unusually intelligent.  He seems to like everyone, but whenever Kiera 
arrives he's suspicious (supposedly, according to Kiera, because he senses
 
she's undead).  The old woman says she's encountered the undead before.  
If Buddy's sensitivity to the undead is the result of previous encounters, what 
are the chances they took place in the last ten years or so (she's been living 
in the same place for many years, doesn't seem likely to travel, would have 
problems fighting the undead when old, etc.)?

7.  Buddy follows
Kiera and Vlad outside (yet again) when they're preparing 
to fight whoever used a location spell to find Vlad.  He sniffs them, sits down, 
then when Timmer appears he stands up, growls, and bares his teeth.  Kiera 
thinks, "Well, well."  Apparently she is  surprised that he's intelligent or sensitive 
enough to see Timmer as an enemy; but we soon learn she didn't come to fight, 
so he didn't react in that way from sensing any hostility from her.  I think the old 
woman sent him out to help them when she saw them arming themselves to fight 
(and, as a familiar, he might have more abilities in a fight than a normal dog).

8.  The narration in the book always makes a point of where Buddy is when
conversations are occurring, and he is present whenever possible.  There's 
no reason for him to be present for many of them (that is, one might expect 
him to stay close to the old woman (his owner) or Savn (who seems to develop 
a closeness with him), when he is in fact near to where Vlad and Kiera are 
discussing secrets).  Reread the book with the above possibilities in mind, 
and my conclusions might appear clearer.