<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18928">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Maybe Vodalus never met his agent at
all.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>In fact, given that he never got suspicious even
after dining on Thea, who must also have known the Autarch, I think this is the
only real possibility.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>- Gerry Quinn</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>From:</B> <A title=thalassocrat08@gmail.com
href="mailto:thalassocrat08@gmail.com">Mr Thalassocrat</A> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Recent posts about what Sev might or should have discovered about his
mother/sister/himself at the end of BOTNS remind me of something which has
bugged me for a long time: How come Vodalus didn't know that his agent was
actually the old Autarch? </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Thecla-in-Sev recognises the old Autarch; his profile is on the coinage;
clearly his appearance isn't some kind of big secret. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But Vodalus doesn't make the conenction. How likely is that? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I lean towards thinking this is just a narrative glitch, because I can't
think up a text-based explanation for it. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Yes, it's easy enough to think up stories along the lines of Vodalus
never having been at court, never meeting with old-Autarch-as-agent in the
presence of anybody who has, not drawing the connection from the coinage - and
so on. But this seems very thin to me - does
anybody have anything better?</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>