The Empress's plan in reaction was to replace the current Warlord Aliera e'Kieron, arresting her for Elder Sorcery and replacing her with Dragon Heir Norathar e'Lanya. Since Aliera was friends with both of them, they planned to divert outrage at the Massacre onto Aliera until it died down, then allow her to escape. Vlad Taltos heard of Aliera's arrest and came to try to help, and immediately spotted the flaw in the Empress' plan: Aliera would never be persuaded to escape, since it implied guilt on her part. This left the Empress in the awkward position of being forced to execute her friend Aliera, or to properly investigate the massacre, which would draw the ire of the conspirators, and likely lead to massive loss of life in the rioting that would inevitably erupt in the aftermath of such