{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1705",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1705,
    "subject": "Hethor's mirrors: further reflection",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1999-07-06T08:01:30+00:00",
    "last": "1999-07-10T22:41:37+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0027-0126@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Tony Ellis",
        "address": "tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "1999-07-06T08:01:30+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Hethor's mirrors: further reflection",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Mitchell A. Bailey wrote:\nIt seems nearly obvious that Hethor's \"mirror\" is specula-sailcloth\nstolen from the Ship."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "And mantis:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "As for a bit of sailcloth, hmm.  That's interesting!  I was just thinking\nthat maybe it was the pocketbook edition of THE BOOK OF MIRRORS . . ."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I like both these ideas, but the trouble is Father Inire says in his\nletter that Agia remains a plausible commander \"as long as the mirrors\nof the caller Hethor remain unbroken\" (Citadel, XXXV). \"Unbroken\" does\nrather suggest that these are the old-fashioned, rigid,\nseven-years-bad-luck mirrors that we know today rather than fabric.\nInire -could- have meant \"unbroken\" in the sense of \"still working\", but\nit seems unlikely.\n\nSince apports appear out of the space -between- mirrors, rather than out\nof the mirrors themselves, I suppose they don't actually have to be that\nlarge."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0027-0133@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Mitchell A. Bailey",
        "address": "mab at lindau.net"
      },
      "date": "1999-07-10T22:41:37+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Hethor's mirrors: further reflection",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0027-0126@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Tony Ellis wrote:\n\nMitchell A. Bailey wrote:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "It seems nearly obvious that Hethor's \"mirror\" is specula-sailcloth\nstolen from the Ship."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "..."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "...the trouble is Father Inire says ...that Agia remains a plausible commander \"as \nlong as the mirrors of the caller Hethor remain unbroken\" (Citadel, XXXV). \"Unbroken\" > does rather suggest that these are the old-fashioned, rigid,\nseven-years-bad-luck mirrors that we know today rather than fabric."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I have to agree with that; rigid breakable glasslike mirrors do seem to\nbe implied..."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Inire -could- have meant \"unbroken\" in the sense of \"still working\", but\nit seems unlikely."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "...and knowing Inire, I don't think I can even argue convincingly that\nhe simply made an assumption in ignorance; Inire probably not only knew\nexactly of what type and size Hether's mirrors were and how he\ntransported them, Inire probably observed him doing so first-hand. I\nsuppose you could speculate Inire wanted to plant a red herring against\nespionage in his correspondence, but that hypothesis is admittedly\nrather weak..."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Since apports appear out of the space -between- mirrors, rather than out\nof the mirrors themselves, I suppose they don't actually have to be that\nlarge."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I got the impression that the kind of teleportation or apporting done by\nInire's booth did involve mirrors which were at least as large as the\ndimensions of the subject parallel to the plane of the mirror, and of\ncourse the Ship's sails are vast as continents, but I seem to have\nmisplaced my Specula Technical Applications Manual and can't confirm\nthat...\n\nA thought did occur to me, though. Remember that Hethor was caught on\nthe House Absolute grounds and thrown into the Antechamber. Clearly he\nhad his specula because he managed to summon his corrosive slug while\nincarcerated. You might argue that the slug was already present and\nmerely followed Hethor in, but I doubt that would have been unnoticed by\nthe guards and servants. Odilo for one would have been positively\napoplectic over the slime on the carpets.\n\nNow, Sev and Jonas upon their arrest had been searched and relieved of\npossible weapons and valuables, but not too meticulously (or the Claw\nwould have been found, too). Rigid mirrors, even hand mirrors, would\nhave been rather hard to conceal well unless they were smaller than\ncoins. A flexible mirror which could be folded or wadded into a very\ntight little ball could have been secreted into a fold of clothing, a\nshoe,  or -ahem- other concealing places which the Praetorians would not\nhave bothered to search."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}