Divine Silk and Pas (spoilers)
The Whorl list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 08 Feb 2001
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1111

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Spectacled Bear — 08 Feb 2001, 12:51

> At 16:01 2001-02-07 -0800, Jonathan Dale wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Having just finished RTTW and being new to this list, the following
> questions may already have been answered in the current yet-to-be-published
> digest! Apologies, if so.
> 
> I was quite astounded by the end of RTTW; not so much the question of
> identity regarding Horn and Silk, but more the chronology of what happens
> when; Wolfe manages to masterfully obscure the precise ordering of events
> until the very end (I managed to get hints by seeing when Horn/Silk
> possessed the azoth).

...

> 4. Is the nature of the azoth revealed anywhere but when Horn/Silk cuts the
> boat in two in RTTW? What is the speculation on this - that it is some kind
> of shaped antimatter beam? Also, what's the relationship to the black blade
> that the Neighbour chooses for Horn when he has to clear the sewer - is it
> some strange precursor to the fact that he will one day get the azoth?

A literary echo, I think. The only hint as to how the azoth works
is given when we first see it in _Nightside_, which talks about
reality splitting in two. The fuligin cloaks of the torturers are
compared to the colour of the blade in RttW, which does make it
sound more like a space-time phenomenon than a material thing.
It can be deflected a little by good steel, though, and it doesn't
reach indefinitely. Azoths wouldn't have been allowed on the Whorl
if they were likely to puncture it!

> 5. Given the nature of the inhumi/human symbiosis secret, I was unclear on
> the exact specifics of how children were created; in one part of RTTW, the
> process of inhumi mating is clearly explained and somewhere in IGJ Fava
> explains about breaking out of the egg, etc., but I was unclear from where
> the mind was drawn. Is it that a primal inhumi takes on the mind from the
> first victim (which would explain Krait and Sinew) or is it more related to
> who the parents were?

The inhuma drinks blood, develops an egg with a supply enclosed,
and lays it in the water. The mind comes from the blood by the
chemical transfer of memories, as in the Book of the New Sun.

Spectacled Bear.

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