Urth Net
Catherine the thief, adrift in time
raster does not like the Corridors/Atrium of Time escape clause, but I'm sticking with it. Or to quote the LEXICON URTHUS entry for A of T: "A time traveling structure, like the Last House, located in the heart of the Citadel. Inhabited by at least Valeria and her old servant, it may also house Catherine." Like mother, like daughter, eh mantis (whose second larva has recently emerged: Congrats!)? Of course we could both be wrong.
raster also brings up the-claw-has-never-vanished argument. To my mind, if someone steals my wife's wedding ring and I knew who it is, the ring has not vanished. It's been stolen by a definite individual (as opposed to it simply dematerializing, or burning, since diamonds, the hardest substance known to man, are flammable). I also think the answer to the Hierodule's twice asked question (it's even repeated once in italics)--"Where did you get it?" (I.e., the Claw)--and which is later revealed to be a test that Severian has failed--is: "I didn't get the Claw, it got me." It gets Catherine in the same way, I'd argue.
Also in regards to Caesidius resembling Severian (as Eata notes), this is because he is Severian's maternal grandfather. And Catherine, his daughter, is easily adult-age when the deluge strikes. Severian's been gone several decades, after all.
Question for raster, then (or Kieran M or anyone else.): who's the woman arrested by the Praetorians in the loggia when Severian returns to the House Absolute (Urth, Ch. 41) since you seem to think my theory's full of balloon juice? I still say it's the original Katharine, she of canonical fame to the Torturer's guild. Who do you?
Also, I'd be very happy to entertain anyone's elses notions of who Sev's maternal grandparents might be. Of course, that would require original thinking, and since it's much easier and cheaper to shoot at other people's clay pigeons...
Robert Borski