Mine Shaft Entrance

Spectacled Bear, That's funny, I thought Severian was afraid he would brain himself in his passage through the tunnel from the dripping mouth entrance to that point where it audibly opens up into a chamber. Yet you tell me a tower can walk through it--amazing! Just goes to show how wrong you can be. =mantis=

Not through that bit! You said: Such a tower from the roots of the continent, how interesting! Perhaps it can go gaseous to get out quickly through such tiny passageways. Or maybe the mine links up with a vast open pit with a long spiral ramp that the tripod can stump up to the surface. Or maybe it walks through an essentially hollow Urth and finds the Tower Access To Surface Tube nearest to the battle front and appears j ust in time. - and I hadn't realized you meant the actual surface entrance when you were talking about tiny passageways. I thought you meant the deep tunnels (roots of the continent etc). I hadn't thought of the tower coming out of the mine, you see; it clearly couldn't, not the way Severian came in, nor would it need to. This is Father Inire's machine, not one of the Ascians' that fights in the battle, and it lives in the mine. SBear.