This passage from _Five Hundred Years After_, pg 406 might be useful in speculating just what Vlad's latest story will be about: ----- "Of course," said Sethra. "You are a Dzurlord, as was he. To the Dzur, there is a ritual to the sharpening of the sword - so warlike and yet so soothing; a preparation for the future, a defiance, a threat, and, at the same time, it is rhythmical, and, while so engaged, one is given to dream, and to think about the blade, it's history and destiny; and to contemplate and wonder, above all, for what one strives - and always one finds answers to this question, for finding answers is what it means to be Dzur." "Sometimes... those of other Houses laugh and call the Dzur foolish, or stupid, or blind, and there is no good answer to those charges, for to kill for such an insult is often beneath the Dzurlord; yet there is always the sword, whose sharpening breathes of the future, and the glory which is not only in being remembered, but in knowing one has defied the entire world, and pitted ones self against the impossible, and proven, to all who are not Dzur, that there is value and glory in the battle, regardless of the outcome. All of these thoughts come to mind when the Dzurlord sharpens his sword, and looks upon some token of the past until he feels the wind that blows to the future." -----