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d'Chilian, Vio:

A Cetagandan haut-lady and General Chilian's wife, she has rich, dark chocolate hair, light cinnamon eyes, and vanilla-white skin. Miles and Ivan are invited to an exclusive haut garden party, where Vio is the first haut-lady Ivan sees. She is Ilsum Kety's lover, and is involved in the conspiracy to take the throne. She kills the Ba Lura to move the plan forward. When haut-consort Nadina goes to Kety's ship to order the gene-bank copy returned to the planet, she is captured, and Vio is sent down in her float-chair to impersonate her and capture Ivan. After the plan is foiled, her punishment is to either become a ba servant, which would allow her to live inside the Celestial Garden, as she had desperately wished—although not in the manner she had expected—or commit suicide. (C)

Dea:

No first name given. A lieutenant in the Barrayaran military, he is a surgeon, and the assistant to Prime Minister Aral Vorkosigan's personal doctor. He is frustrated because his superior won't let Dea touch their patient. Competent, if not overly imaginative, he performs the autopsy on Raina Csurik, declaring that she was killed by having her neck broken. He saves Fat Ninny by sewing up his neck wound, and also administers fast-penta to Lem Csurik and Mara Mattulich for their interrogations. (MM)

Deal:

The proper word for a standard business arrangement between two parties on Jackson's Whole. Of near-sacrosanct importance, it is the only thing that the barons hold mostly inviolate. (L, MD)

Death-offering:

A Barrayaran custom to burn an offering for the souls of the deceased; usually friends or relatives, sometimes for enemies so that they do not come back to haunt the offerer. Cordelia burns a lock of her hair at Princess Kareen's funeral. Miles burns a lock of his hair, a lock of Elena Visconti's hair, and a lock of Cordelia's hair for Bothari's death-offering. When Elena brings Mark to Barrayar, she burns a death-offering for her father as well. Miles also burns a death-offering for Piotr consisting of juniper bark, a copy of his officer's commission, and a copy of his three-year Imperial Academy transcripts. Harra Csurik burns one for her daughter as well. (BI, MM, SH, WA)

Deem:

A manager in the Sales and Demonstrations department of House Ryoval, he is a very beautiful, young, albino man with blue eyes. He notifies Baron Ryoval of a mauling accident involving Taura, and later speaks with Miles about selling her before the baron interrupts the call. (L)

Deeva Tau love cults, variant practices of:

A method of lovemaking Miles invents, albeit in name only, to daunt Mark from trying to sleep with Elli Quinn while he's impersonating Miles. (BA)

Degtiar, Lisbet:

The late Cetagandan dowager empress, she was a haut-lady, and the mother of Emperor Fletchir Giaja, Also referred to as the Celestial Lady, she controlled the Star Crèche, and with it the genetic heritage and future of the Empire. Her death brings Miles and Ivan to Cetaganda to pay their respects on behalf of Barrayar. Fearing the stagnation of the Empire, her plan to distribute the haut gene bank to the eight haut-governors on the satrapy planets backfires into a conspiracy to overthrow the sitting Emperor. (C)

Degtiar, Rian:

A haut-lady, she is the Servant of the Celestial Lady, and Handmaiden of the Star Crèche. Essentially a lady-in-waiting who is related to the late Empress, three generations removed. She is exceedingly beautiful, with ebony hair, ice blue eyes, and ivory skin. She contacts Miles to get the Great Key back, then works with him to recover the real key and discover which haut governor is behind the plot to take the throne. During the period of mourning for the deceased Empress, Rian acts with the Imperial authority of the Empress, as when she overrides Vio's force screen, something only the Empress could do. She gives Miles a braided lock of her hair to remember her by. During the Dowager Empress's cremation, she is named the next Empress of Cetaganda. (C)

Deleara:

An area on Athos that has a junior, unnamed