Le Esprit de Escalier

Shortly after Severian joins Odilo, Pega, and Thais on their makeshift raft, Odilo begins an anecdote about how his father once encountered Severian in the secret passageways of the House Absolute. Severian, dressed in the fulignin of a carnifex, is thought by Odilo père to be on his way to a masque, "of which there are several in one part or another of the House Absolute on any given night. Yet," as Odilo fils continues to explain, his father "knew none was to take place in our Hypogeum Apotropaic, neither Father Inire nor the then Autarchy having much fondness for those diversions." Notice now both Severian's and Thais's reaction: "I smiled, recalling the House Azure. The dark woman shot me a significant glance and ostentatiously covered her lips with her hand." Severian thinks Thais wants him to cut Odilo's anecdote short here, but I believe she's attempting to enjoin his silence, fearing he's recognized her. Thus the significance glance. There are also clues in the House Azure and Hypogeum Apotropaic references--these being the two places Severian and Thais have encountered each other previously. The second of these takes place in CLAW. Severian, having escaped from the antechamber where he and Jonas have been imprisoned, is now looking for Terminus Est. "I ascended some distance, reconnoitered the corridor there until I was certain I was still lower than the antechamber, then began to climb again when I saw a young woman hurrying down the stair toward me. "Our eyes met. "In that moment, I felt sure, she was as conscious as I that we had exchanged glances thus before. In memory I heard her say again, "My dearest sister," in that cooing voice, and the heartshaped face sprung into place. It was not Thea, the consort of Vodalus, but the woman who looked like her (and no doubt borrowed her name) whom I had passed on the stair in the House Azure--she descending and I climbing, just as we were now." Thea/Thais and Severian each continue on their respective ways. But then who is the very next person Severian encounters? Odilo père--who will then pass on the anecdote of their meeting to Odilo fils, who will then tell the story to Severian on the raft fifty years hence. (Obviously, all the stairs in the House Absolute are designed by M. C. Escher.) As for the first encounter in the House Azure, once again Severian is ascending a stairs, this time with his inamorata-of-choice, who asks: "'Aren't you coming?' She had already reached the top of the stair, nearly out of sight. Someone spoke to her, calling her 'my dearest sister,' and when I had gone up a few steps more I saw it was a woman very like the one who had been with Vodalus, she of the heart-shaped face and the black hood. This woman paid no heed to me, and as soon as I gave her room to do so hurried down the stairs." Thus Thais/Thea appears at the very least to be a khaibit--perhaps assigned to a Mata Hari role. She is, after all, encountered in the Hypogeum Apotropaic, which belongs to Father Inire, and who better to function as putative spymaster? And is it khaibit technomagic that accounts for how Thea/Thais is able to preserve her youth (there being at least fifty years between encounters 2 and 3) or has Father Inire simply taught her how to access the Corridors of Time? Both seem possible, but I like another theory better still. Given how Thais is "tall, dark and hollow-cheeked" like Severian himself, and recalling that witch-prostitute connection, as well as the Cumaean's words about how "there are those who ride the night air who sometimes choose to borrow a human seeming," then factor in the twice-echoed "My dearest sister"--well, is it possible that Thais is Merryn? (Not that there may not be still another relative of Severian's aboard the raft, but I'll save my Pega-Pelagia-Agia speculations for elsewhen.) Robert Borski -- http://www.urth.net/ To unsubscribe: send "unsubscribe" to