[Dragaera] alternative solutions to Jhereg?

[Jon Lincicum]

> Anyway, I wanted to mention two possible alternative solutions to
> _Jhereg_, without, admittedly, having searched the Text for counters.
> First, boringly, the Jhereg treasury is 9M gold; they don't use 10% of
> that on a regular basis, surely, and I have to think the Dragon
> treasury,
> or Sethra's sub-basement if you think Aliera wouldn't loan a copper to
> the council to save dozens of lives, could cover the deficit for 17
> days. Then it's just a question of squelching any remaining leaks or
> speculations.
I think a big point missing from the discussion thus far is one of perception, and the Demon's motives for hiring Vlad in the first place. The point isn't that Mellar becomes dead, or that the money be replaced. The point is that it needs to be known in Dragaeran society that anyone who steals from the Jhereg is killed quickly, and permanently, /by a Jhereg/, in retribution. Replacing the money that was stolen with other funds, or even recovering the same money that was stolen is not sufficient. The security of The Organization has been put into question. It cannot stand. Else, The Organization itself is finished. Having a Dzur Hero kill Mellar while at Castle Black is insufficient. While that would avoid the Dragon-Jhereg War that Mellar wanted to see, it does still leave Mellar escaping the justice of The Organization. (And is the very reason Mellar hired bodyguards to protect him from any non-Jhereg assassins while at Castle Black--something Vlad exploits later. No. A Jhereg must kill Mellar. And the money is largely irrelevant. While replacing the money for long enough to hide the theft of the original funds buys you time, it's clear that The Demon did not believe this was a viable solution for very long. Even if you had the full 9 Million restored, rumors would begin to swirl about the circumstances that had already occurred. (In fact, the Demon mentions at one point that some people have already had to be killed in order to keep the secret, iirc). > Incidentally, http://dragaera.wikia.com/wiki/Lord_Onarr says various
> things about Onarr that I don't recall from the Texts.
I have reviewed the article in question, but don't have a copy of the test handy. It appears likely that whoever wrote the article (quite possibly yours truly) has confused details of Onarr's life with details of Mellar's life. I will check this when I get a chance to review the text. Majikjon