Flanders]
And if people can guess their existence prior to being able to detect them? Or if some noble in Chisholm asks during their trial how the crown obtained evidence they couldn't of had save from the seijin network? Some of the legal authorities turn a blind eye or look the other way, but it wouldn't be described as them doing so if they didn't recognize there was some level of privacy that was being transgressed.
Merlin doesn't like to lie to people. I would imagine he doesn't like others to lie in his place either. So if questions are raised about the "how" at some point, then either the truth is told or an equivalent of pleading the fifth would be. Unless there are changes to Merlin's inherent character.[/quote]
[quote="Isilith wrote:Have you not noticed how the people of Safehold BELIEVE in Seijins? Note how characters that are very intelligent, and well educated, have automatically believed in the Seijin's reports.
Also, how in heck do you think a people with this level of technology would even begin to theorize the existence of something like a SNARC? To them, Seijins are the "logical" answer. And everyone knows Seijins are mysterious, secretive, and can do things no human could do. All of which "explains" how they were found out.
Now, to add to that, the "Seijin" network has never given evidence that wouldn't be corroborated by physical evidence, or the authorities sent to where physical evidence would be found.
As to your "Merlin's character, and doesn't lie" point... that is true, but only to a point. If you remember, the note from Zebediah instructing his agent to give rifles to the conspirators in Corisande. Merlin was fulling willing to produce a perfect copy of that letter, forged by OWL, if made necessary by the earl destroying it.
Regarding the not lying and the forgery bit ... the modern analogy would be somebody having scanned documents before they were destroyed to hide evidence, and then reprinting the documents.
It's not that Merlin would have outright lied, he'd've lied by omission, saying something like "this letter was sent by Zebediah to his Corisandian co-conspirators", omitting the fact that this particular sheet of paper is a perfect copy. Merlin would have said "the Earl thought he kept the letter securely in his safe", leaving the impression that the seijin network of spies had stolen the original.
He'd've let it be assumed that it was the original, rather than a copy, perhaps going so far as to deliberately leave the impression that it was the original, but not actually saying that it was.
After all, nobody is going to challenge its authenticity - as far as anybody can tell and knows it is the original (with the exception of the guy who burned it, and he's hardly going to say "that can't be the original because I burned it"), and if someone asks Merlin point blank about how he got it, all Merlin needs to do is make sure keep his statements and phrasing sufficiently oblique to deceive without lying.
