Relative vs. Absolute time, cont'd

ANYWAY, I came to that conclusion about the Tzadkiel being the most likely candidate for the eclipse while mapping out this whole relative vs. absolute time mess. I've come up with some very interesting little "maps," though! Severian did tell all to OB&F in the House of Day, so of course they knew they must do something to create such an eclipse in their future. I'll tell you, though, their TWO "first" meetings on the Tzadkiel have been bugging me all day! Both meetings are treated as first meetings; the one in Severian's stateroom at the beginning of the book, and the one when the Tzadkiel has returned close to Typhon-era Urth. At the later meeting, Famulimus says to Severian, "tell me we'll meet again," or something to that effect, to which Severian replies "many times." Now, in terms of relative time, this would seem to be their first meeting (for OB&F), the Apu-Punchau sequence excluded. But in terms of absolute time, they would have met before since the time is far before Severian's birth. So that's eliminated and we're left with relative time... Which immediately leads us to the problem of the meeting in the stateroom, which then would not have been OB&F's first encounter with Severian, as they indeed indicate it is. What are your thoughts?

I don't have the books in front of me, but wasn't Tzadkiel's ship unable to come inside the planetary orbits (i.e., close to the Sun?) Or was that just "under ordinary circumstances?" (I thought that was why Severian and Burgundofara had to use the tender to come to Urth, in addition to Tzad's ship obviously being unable to land). John

It didn't normally come inside planetary orbits precisely because it might block someone's light, i.e. cause an eclipse. Peter.