Palaemon

The Terminus Est discussion raises a tangential issue which has bothered me: how does Palaemon come to have such a valuable antique in his personal possession? Not by inheritance, of course. Did he save up his torturer salary and buy it? Unlikely? I think probably somebody gave it to him, as he gave it to Sev. If in return for a service, I imagine it must have been a very valuable service. And he must like Sev a lot, to give it to him. Anyway, I think Palaemon deserves more story-making-up than he's been given. Where did he get his sword? Where did he get his eyes? Why was he temporarily exiled? Can we connect him to Sev, family- wise? Was he the silent traveller who spent an evening with the old woman and her son in the Stone Town, sleeping beside his staff? (Recalling that Sev believes many must have mistaken Terminus Est for a staff during his travels.) There aren't many other candidates, if the traveller is somebody we know from elsewhere in the story. And if he was the traveller, does he have anything to do with the Pelerine garment Sev finds himself lying upon after his encounter with Apu Paunchu? It would be nice if the garment were related to Catherine, somehow. Did he also encounter Apu Paunchu? Palaemon was in exile about 30 years (maybe a little less) before Sev meets Winnoc in the Pelerine's lazarette. About 10 years before Sev's birth, by Sev's reckoning. IIRC, Winnoc gives the impression that Palaemon's exile was for a fixed, not very lengthy term. Casdoe's father reminds Sev of Palaemon (except for the eyes). Ummmm ... dunno. Anybody care to make up a story from all this?

Trying to make up a Palaemon story is like squeezing blood from a stone, but I guess there's a couple more pieces of data which might be relevant. We can infer that he was in the same general neighborhood as the Pelerines at the time he punished Winnoc, around ten years before Sev's birth. After the punishment, Winnoc searches for a group to belong to, and soon ends up with the Pelerines. At that time, it's plausible that Catherine would have been a Pelerine postulant. Eg: If my Catherine = Ouen's sister story is right, she would have been around 13 years old then (born ~41 years before Sev meets old boatman, when Sev is ~18). If I'm wrong, a ~13 year old Catherine is still plausible. We know from Cyriaca that Pelerine postulants could be about this age. I think it's a fair guess that the place was Liti, down south along the river. Eata's story in UOTNS tells us that foreign-sailing caravels departed from there; Winnoc was thinking of signing on a ship like that; Palaemon little glitch about Sev's destination, thinking for a moment that it was to the south. Liti of course was Burgundofora's destination with her captain lover, after betraying Sev. Dunno what, if anything, all this means ...

Another detail you can work with is that Palaemon trained Master Gurloes. The dates and ages seem to imply that Palaemon was a master of apprentices, then a journeyman exile (demoted from a Master?), then back to a Master and teacher again in Sev's time. The old autarch says that he has an agent in the guild (in Citadel), who could well be Palaemon. Perhaps Paleamon's restoration to favor and his valuable sword are both a result of his autarch connection. Could the reason for this be Sev's training itself? Possibly, since we don't know for sure who trained Sev1.