Path of Air

Lee Berman · 18 Aug 2010, 11:58 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:58:43 -0400
Subject: (urth) Path of Air
Message-ID: <SNT123-W389CFBE3DA9A541A8D5A2CF9D0 at phx.gbl>

>Jeff Wilson- Light and gravity are common and cheaper than dirt on Urth, while time 
>travel requires a huge undertaking.

Ah, now I understand your reluctance to invoke time travel. That kind is a huge undertaking.
But how much effort did Severian spend to travel to the future to see Ragnarok? A flight or two 
of stairs.  He actually WAS in the future, not just observing it, since the upper levels of the 
Last House, are in the future, making them invisible from the present.

Valeria's tower, off the Atrium of Time,  is also invisible from the present, suggesting its upper
levels exist in the future. About 60 years in Severian's future, if I am correct. Valeria lives in 
the lower levels of her tower, thus in the past, hence her antique appearance.

To understand the Path of Air I think we not only have to connect it to the Last House but to other
Commonwealth structures, specifically Ultan's library and Rudesind's art gallery. Both are said to 
extend from the Citadel all the way to House Absolute. A while back someone suggested that these 
structures truly physically extend for 100 miles or whatever in underground tunnels. I find it more
plausible that Father Inire-built portals are involved.

I think bogus suppositions of sleigh rides, etc. are meant to lead us to wonder how khaibits are able
to travel back and forth between House Absolute and House Azure in Nessus. Inire-portals would fit the
bill nicely and it makes sense that the Autarch would have access to them.

I am suggesting that there is a similar portal which connects House Absolute to the top of Valeria's 
tower.  It is called the Path of Air because one end is underground but the other is, well, in the air
providing a breeze. Hence it is a loggia or breezeway as Jeff has suggested. (a loggia is provided breeze
from the side rather than its terminus but, hey, no theory is perfect).

I find this the best explanation for why Severian sees an unchanged face from his youth appear 60 years
in the future. It allows for a reason for why she seems to be under arrest and being taken back to the past.
Whatever crime Catherine committed it was surely in the past from the Path of Air scene.

Since the woman on the Path of Air has dark hair and a pale gown I connect her to the woman in the grave at 
the beginning of the story. If that is right and Dave Tallman is right she was brought back in time to give 
birth to Severian and then died 20 years later.

I'm not sure. Nor am I sure which of these various dark haired women is the orginal (Contessa?) Catherine and
which is a khaibit. I tend to think the woman on the Path of Air was not pregnant with Severian (and Severa)
but had already given birth and was trying to escape her deferred execution by escaping to the future.

I'm not sure how the monials fit in, but if her manner of execution was Allowin's necklace I must guess her
crime was infidelity, mirroring the strangulation sentence for that other dark haired, oval faced, failed 
Pelerine, Cyriaca.

The connection of this Catherine personage to Valeria's time travelling tower might be Valeria herself. I think
Valeria remains a possible candidate as Severian's missing twin sister. The wife of Roman emperor valentinianus 
was named Valeria Severa.

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