>But why would Vlad's coworkers think he's "going native"? And what >does Kiera's reputation have to do with it? Kiera is a kleptomaniac. She's an equal opportunity thief who has no qualms about stealing from her friends. In _Jhereg_, it's established that Kiera and Aliera are acquainted and maybe even friendly. In _Orca_, Keira makes use of a magical bauble that she pick-pocketed from Aliera. The double implication is that she IS friendly with Aliera on the one hand and that the friendship didn't prevent her from casually helping herself to the contents of Aliera's pockets on the other. Stony's henchmen in _Orca_ react in much the same way that Vlad's henchmen do. "You're going to let her come in to your inner sanctum? You sure about this boss?" (paraphrased) Like Vlad, Stony appreciates her friendship more than he fears her reputation and figures that if Kiera wanted to steal from him there's not much he could do about it anyway. Basically, publically associating with Kiera is something of a scandal (which is saying something in Jhereg society) and suggests that either you're foolish or you're not to be trusted either. I shouldn't be surprised if Kiera uses that rep as a kind of filter to determine who is actually worthy of her friendship.