The Fool (spoilers for all RotE books, including LST)

[o0Ampy0o]

By the time this event happened in Fool's Fate (Fitz being caught between the Skill-pillars), Tintaglia and Icefyre had already met and mated and Tintaglia had managed to force Icefyre to place his head on the hearthstone of the Mothershouse. The dragons in the Rain Wilds had also long ago emerged (Fool spoke of them to Fitz right at the beginning of TM while both were reunited at the hut). So. By the time Fitz came into contact with this presence, Tintaglia was in company with other dragons.

Still, I agree that it was not Tintaglia here. Fitz had far different experiences with Tintaglia whenever he had come into contact with her previously, with or without Nettle, during Skill-dreams, or otherwise. This was something else altogether...

...or so I suspect because, no matter how may times I've read these darned books, nothing is ever absolute when we have her Hobbness doing the writing and Fitz doing the narrating, and me doing my own interpreting (which is why I need all of you to reel me in!)! By the time the tale is all told, we'll be looking backing through these old posts thinking, "How clueless were we?"

Hobb was finished with this story and put to paper everything she had to say, according to an article I read that quoted her. Looking at this one way the series arc landed on the ground of finality. Anything left out was intentionally left on the drawing board and not necessary or important enough to include in her view.

Yet she is the architect and understands how everything is linked. If she continues with any of these characters in future books she will be working with that genome. The more story she gives us the greater potential there is for us to understand the schematics of currently known elements within this fantasy world.