Craig Christensen,
Re: little banished Tzadiel at Brookside the Madregot. Why was she banished? For being naughty, somehow. It seems that after she has proven herself reformed she might be invited back in.
Re: early history of the Claw. It was carried by the soldiers for a time and then it came into the possession of the field nurses--the easy answer here is that the soldiers were wiped out. The field nurses (Red Cross girls) then evolved into the Pelerines. The relic was eventually encased, we don't know when, probably in the first few centuries.
Re: the mysterious woman Severian sees. We do not know her name in reality, but in the play "Eschatology and Genesis" she is the Contessa and she describes (in the play) how she saw a strange man. Compare the sections.
=mantis=