Agia's Weapons

Lee Berman · 21 Dec 2011, 14:01 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:01:15 -0500
Subject: (urth) Agia's Weapons
Message-ID: <SNT123-W14C4436C68CF321F9B65BECFA50 at phx.gbl>

>David Stockhoff: Thus echoing Catherine, which is a plus.

Yes, I don't know if Cyriaca is meant to be sister or clone to Catherine but
I think there is a definite connection (as does Andre-Driussi) from the physical
resemblance to the Pelerine connection to the strangulation death.  There is even
a fresco in the catacombs of San Lorenzo associating both Ste. Katherine and Ste.
Cyrica with the Virgin Mary.

>(Inire) create(s) two armies and pit them against each other and control everyone 
>in the resulting mayhem.

>But then he'd not want Agia to succeed, right? And her being dead in the 
>secret corridor complicates this further.

I'm not so sure. Inire has Vodalus killed when he messes up, and replaces him with Agia.
Perhaps the same thing happened to Agia when she overstepped her mandate. Inire has no
problem replacing both his Autarch and his "Vodalus" when it is time to do so.

I say Vodalus "messed up" by his decision to deliver his prisoner Severian to the Ascians. 
It is clear that Inire (jungle shaman?) and Agia and Hethor (Inire?) and the Green Man (Inire?) 
all wanted Severian to escape and become the Autarch. Vodalus had to go. The "mercy" of Agia?
What sort of bunk is that? She spent 3 books trying to kill him and now she is willing to
let him go sit on a throne in a highly protected palace?  Back to the question of who is 
really in control, Agia or Inire. And with three possible Inire versions all at the site of 
Severian's escape from the Ascians...Agia didn't stand a chance of imposing her own will.

>Inire seems to be the parasite in the nest, then. But why would he want Valeria dead at all?

I don't think he did (or as you said previously, she would be dead). We don't know how long ago 
it was when the assassin (Agia?) pursued the royal murder. Perhaps Agia got tired of waiting for
Severian to return from the stars and decided taking out Valeria would be sufficient revenge for
Agilus. We are told various Autarchial mistresses winnowed the secret words to the Secret House.
Perhaps only Inire had the secret words for the Throne Room, but who was Inire's mistress?
Severian thinks the masterful assassin accidentally pricked himself with the poisoned blade? That
doesn't sound quite right. Perhaps a certain manipulator put a stop to the assassination attempt
using one of his tricks to force that accidental pricking. Agia was getting old anyway.

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