: BTW, the real problem I have with your theory is it lacks
: a motive for Ravanna. Why would she want to
: pretend to be Shiver? Why wouldn't Soulblighter be
: able to capture the real Shiver's spirit?
Oh, I have plenty of motives. Maybe Soulblighter never liked Ravanna and if she wants to rise to a position of power in the current Dark hierarchy, she has to pretend to be someone else; maybe a weakness of Ravanna is known to the Light, which forced her to go into hiding in the first place, and she hopes that if she pretends to be Shiver they'll focus on attacking her vanity instead; maybe she's had the hugest crush on...sigh...hunky Damas for oh so long and she'll do anything to get near him. The problem is finding a particularly *plausible* motive. :)
And I doubt that Tramist's mirror works like a microwave, where it beeps and says "you have successfully reanimated the target spirit" when you finish. (Wait--my microwave never says that. Never mind.) I don't know exactly how it *does* work, but I figure if you turn it on or energize it or whatever, and say, "Bring me Shiver," and then someone appears and says, "Hi, I'm Shiver," you're going to believe them and turn the mirror off, perhaps before it can retrieve the real Culwyeh.
I just think we should have a theory for all contingencies. If The Deceiver really did survive the battle with Shiver (and even I was arguing for his survival mainly out of loyalty), then anything's possible. Soulblighter and Rurik are the same person!
--SiliconDream
