Mucor and devils

First, a very happy feast of St Catherine to you all! OK, here are the first of the puzzles I have come up with in my reading of Long Sun. First, what exactly are Mucor's powers? She says she can 'send forth her spirit', which makes it sound as if her body stays put while her spirit goes around possessing people (or, on a couple of occasions, just appearing). But when Silk enters her room, he cannot find her, until she materialises later, which suggests her body travels as well. Next, what are devils? The 'devils' about which Pike warned Silk are clearly inhumi. But as I understand it, inhumi were not present on the Whorl from the start, so what are the devils mentioned in the Chrasmologic writings? Of course, they may not really be anything - just figures of myth which the compilers of the Writings thought it would be nice to include. (Does anyone know if the passage Silk reads during the exorcism has a definite source?) On the other hand, there's a reference at one point to devils getting into Mainframe, which suggests something more specific.

And to you too!

Good question... her powers do not appear to be completely consistent. At other times she definitely left her body behind when possessing people, e.g. getting information about the Fliers. Her apparent invisibility in her room seems anomalous. When she sends out her spirit, she seems to be either flying around freely, or possessing people or animals, or occasionally popping up inside a mirror - it is hard to see what she would do with a body on such occasions.

I interpret them as fallen spirits of some sort. I don't think they necessarily refer to any specific kind of being. - Gerry Quinn

Monkeying with the message header for the customary gmail related reason, sorry about that.

And to all listers everywhere on the feast of our Patroness. :)

(snippage)

I note that on their first acquaintance Mucor convinces Pr. Silk that her window (ie. physical window to her room) has to be open in order for her to send forth her 'spirit'. Silk is convinced of this at the time. The parallel between Mucor's physically open window and the 'gods' ' Sacred Windows only becomes apparent some time later.

Not clear to me. We do not get any details about the exposure of Pr. Quetzal as an inhumu until some time within BOTSS when Silk/Horn gets to remember details of the combat under Viron. We learn relatively early in BOTLS that there is definitely something ... odd shall we say ... about Quetzal, but it's not spelled out for a good long while. And I don't recall any specific information regarding when Quetzal (and any others of his kind) may have infiltrated the Whorl. When BOTLS begins, Quetzal has been the man in charge for quite a few years.