On 21 Feb 2003 at 16:32, Steve Simmons wrote > I see what you're driving at, but must respectfully disagree. We > *know* that Sethra/Kiera is specificly training Vlad for some > yet-to-be-revealed role. In the process, she took a motherless > Easterner with ownership of an ongoing business and turned him into a > thief, a thug, and a cold-blooded multiple murderer. Granted Vlad > didn't love the resturaunt business, but there are other alternatives > to it than the one she pushed Vlad into. How was Vlad pushed? It's been awhile since I read it, but hadn't Vlad started down the assassin path by beating up Orca even before his father died (and left him the restaurant)? And, while Kiera may have given him a reference for a job as a "button man", he didn't know that until later. Unless Sethra/Kiera manipulated events to threaten the egg that held Loiosh, which caused Vlad to sell the restaurant and thereby become unemployed, and so be willing to take a job with the Jhereg...I think I need a Yendi to help me straighten that last sentence out... M Michele Riccio mr1 at rcosta.com