The Piteous Gate

Roy C. Lackey · 25 Feb 2006, 07:19 · from 2006-February.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 01:19:20 -0600
Subject: (urth) The Piteous Gate
Message-ID: <000a01c639db$ced31980$143ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

Chris wrote:
>To me this seems like a dead-end question, there are too many possibilities
>with not enough evidence to make any one of them more plausible than the
>others. I guess the only vague clue I can come up with is that if I
remember
>correctly the tone of the conversation, when the groups reunite, implies
>that one of the parties might not have tried as hard as they could have to
>reunite with the other one.

You must be referring to the brief exchange Sev had with Baldanders after
escaping from the antechamber. It was only then that we learned that
Baldanders had been with Sev "in the forest beyond the Piteous Gate."
Baldanders left him there, presumably to search -- successfully -- for
Talos, Jolenta and Dorcas. And Baldanders was burdened with all the troupe's
theatrical properties. It makes you wonder how hard Sev really tried to find
Dorcas. If slow, dim Baldanders could do it, why not he?

If Jonas was with Sev and Baldanders at that point, he fails to mention it.
But he does at one point mention that he and Jonas were together at some
point on the same path to Saltus. Hethor isn't mentioned either, but the
fact that he showed up in the crowd at Morweena's execution indicates that
he didn't have any trouble keeping track of Sev after the fracas at the
gate.

>Attempts to analyze the incident further also run into the possibility that
>Severian may be deliberately hiding something.

*Why* did he set his sights on Saltus?

-Roy

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