>Once can mean 'only one time', but can also mean some (unspecified) time in >the past. Which is to say the statements "I was killed once." and "I was >killed more than once." are not mutually exclusive. > >http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=once Even more to the point, on re-reading the segment in questions, Vlad is actually describing a very specific circumstance in relation to the three major types of assassinations, so while he may have only been killed in the "first, cheapest, least permanent" manner only "once", he may well have been killed in one of the other manners as well, also. (Of course, this begs the question of how he survived these more permanent forms of death--but luckily, we, in fact, have the answers to that very question in /Yendi/.) So it would appear I have nearly resolved the apparent conflict myself. Just shows what you can do if you read carefully enough, I suppose. Majikjon