>If he's not paid it's not work, is it? More like a hobby or an art or a >way of life. Hmm, there's such a thing as "volunteer work" I suppose... *heh* Well, ignoring discussions about how literal the euphemism "work" should be taken, the important thing about "now Vlad" is that he's undergone an important thematic change. Originally, he was basically a thug for hire. A smart, attractive, intelligent and dashing thug for hire but still a thug for hire. Morally speaking he was an evil person no matter how much we, the readers, might actually like his personality and adventures. Vlad the Thug found himself broken and re-forged on the anvil of Tekla. The following years have tempered him and hammered out most of the moral flaws in his character. Sure, he's still capable of doing "work" when it suits him, but now he does it in the name of a cause. He's become Vlad the Rogue, joining the ranks of Robin Hood, Captain Scarlett, The Grey Mouser, Kiera the Thief and other lovable scoundrels who live in the grey areas of morality but who we cheer for anyway because they follow their own sort of honorable code. Even when doing entirely selfish things, they do them primarily to people who deserve to have selfish immoral things done to them. As if that weren't enough to set him on the path of legend, he's even acquired a legendary blade of his own that punctuates his dual nature as the immoral murderer, harbinger of death, who is simultaneously the protector of all of those ordinary people who don't even know that they need protecting. It will be interesting to see what happens when Cawti and Noish-pa finally meet Reforged Vlad.