Of course, in talking about perceptions of the Claw's mutability, I was talking about my perceptions as I read it. It has nothing to do with textual rightness or wrongness; you can't argue with someone's progression of ideas. It's impossible. Those were simply the thoughts I remember having the first time I read the New Sun. (Remember, too, that I was in the 5th grade or so) Of course there are other powers besides temporal powers - powers to alter and transmute at the cellular level, like the deformed hand in UotNS and the water to wine in CotC. As far as Sev's DNA on the claw, I thought there was a scene in Urth of the New Sun where he bleeds on the claw from his forehead. (Trying to use it on himself?) That would have been the claw that becomes the claw of the conciliator; I could be mistaken; it might be later (or earlier) in the time stream in Citadel, in which case I would be wrong. Just perceptions. That's all. My point was that simple mysteries have multiple interpretive possibilities that change over time, especially in Wolfe. Marc Aramini