Inire and House Absolute

Roy C. Lackey · 09 Jul 2008, 04:09 · from 2008-July.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 23:09:23 -0500
Subject: (urth) Inire and House Absolute
Message-ID: <002d01c8e179$94bbfee0$0ad14a0c at rclackey.stic.net>

Back to my topic:
>I know of nothing in the Urth Cycle to suggest that Inire was involved with
>Typhon, and the above quote suggests that Inire was summoned to Urth. How
>was Inire "called by" Ymar? Called from where? How would Ymar even know of
>him?

The memories that Sev inherited of Ymar were too remote to provide
information, but those of the Old Autarch were fresh. Though in URTH Sev
makes occasional references to his predecessor's experiences in Yesod, I
recall no references to that autarch ever being on the Ship. Oversight or
significant? However it came about, we know that Ymar and the Old Autarch
went to Yesod and failed.

Sev's second encounter with the Old Autarch was in that funny room in the
House Absolute. Seeing Sev dressed as he was and with his sword, the autarch
jumped to the conclusion that Sev was there to kill him and take his place
as autarch, as he had been foretold by Paeon on the night of their first
meeting at the House Azure. When Sev said, "Then you can show me the way to
the garden.", the Old Autarch interpreted it as "the Garden". Whatever he
may have intended by the capitalization, he showed Sev the big, old book and
dared him to go.

In the book's mirrored pages Sev saw Tzadkiel in the void of space -- and
Tzadkiel saw him. It was a "live" picture, so to speak. I'm suggesting that
both Ymar and the Old Autarch went to Yesod by way of mirrors, possibly the
mirrors in that book. They were never on the Ship, and every indication is
that they were returned from Yesod to their own respective eras shortly
after failing their examinations, unlike Sev. The Hierogrammates wanted Sev
to go on the Ship, so that they could use it to take Sev back in time to
Typhon's era for the purpose of establishing the Conciliator religion.

The old book had an obvious connection to Tzadkiel, therefore to Yesod, and
it was in the autarch's possession. This may be the means Ymar used to call
Inire to his service. I'll leave it to the reader's imagination to speculate
on what this suggestion says about Inire, and where his loyalties lie.

-Roy

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