See, I had this beuatiful line of reasoning about the Macbeth absence thing but when i reviewed ?'s intro flavor it wasn't there and I chalked it up to mis-remembering. The original reads:

"Good evening my loyal, and not so loyal subjects! It has come to my attention that there are men within my exclusive ring of nobles plotting to kill me. Unfortunately, my three informants vanished mysteriously into the air before telling me who these traitors are. Therefore I have called this meeting to find them out and kill them before they kill your noble king. Unfortunately, we are not all here yet, noble Macbeth and his companion Banquo are missing, for example, but I think it is high time we start."

but what's up there currently doesn't have the last bit, screwed me up there.



Well ditto, and chalk a bit of personal smugness up for me, I thought your wording had a vague whiff of 'carefully phrased so as not to actually be untrue' Aes Sedai to it.



I think I can make a decent guess, especially with that remark, though I can see the same reasoning applying to other characters.



Agreed.