1. When Vlad is arranging the trade between Aliera and Sethra the Younger in /Dragon/, he reaches out for psychic contact with Aliera. Interlude: Counterattack: "I reached Alirea more quickly than I'd have expected to. I guess I was getting to know her. I had mixed feelings about this." Does this strike anyone but me as being weird? He's known her for three years at this point, which is probably at least halfway into the friendship if you don't count Vlad's wandering years. Is Vlad just being ironic, or is this a slip on Mr. Brust's part, since the bulk of the book takes place at the time when Vlad is just getting acquainted with them? 2. When Vlad is nerving himself up to go take on the presumed Jenoine, he comments that a small part of him was "pleased that someone had shown them they weren't as ultimately tough as they acted," although in the end, "however irritating I might find them," he's not pleased that anything really bad might happen to them. Considering some comments Mr. Brust made about the reason he wrote Jhereg in the first place (feeling liked but not always respected, whereas Vlad is respected but not always liked) it occurred to me that a large part of what Vlad finds so irritating about Aliera and Morrolan is precisely the tough act, which is exactly the same as Vlad's. So you have three people, each of whom really wants to be seen as the toughest person in the room, in the same room with two other very tough people who are trying for the same effect. No wonder they're always getting on each other's nerves. Max Wilson -- Be pretty if you are, Be witty if you can, But be cheerful if it kills you.