I am rereading TBotNS and I have come across a passage that I think makes a good epigraph for this discussion group. It is in Vol. 1, Ch. 20, (p. 125 of the Orb edition Shadow & Claw at the top of the page). Agia is replying to Serverian's questions about the Botanic Gardens and says:
"I don't know. Do you think there are answers to everything here? Is that true in the place you come from?"
Agia has always struck me as being rather too well educated to be from the stratum of society Severian finds her in when he meets her. She seems to know quite a bit about the Conciliator and the Botanic Gardens. Her little speach about the Conciliator at the beginning of V. 1, Ch. 19 (p. 118, Orb ed.) has always seemed a bit odd to me, coming from her. But, then again, I don't believe we ever find out much about her past.
William Ansley