RttW ending: when and who:Whorl

Adam-the-Greek conjecturing: <(Or are there six passengers? Babbie is present at the meeting with Daisy, and if my theory is correct the writer of the last paragraph could have simply overlooked him when listing the passengers.)> Can't say I find this notion appealing because the omission really adds nothing to the narrative as Wolfe has framed it--at least if your theory is correct (as opposed to GW himself deliberately muddying up the mix, so we'd all wonder). Consider, however, the following: 1) When Horn abandons Babbie near Pajarocu, Babbie returns to Mucor. 2) When HornSilk returns to New Viron, Babbie swims out to visit Mucor on her rock. 3) Surely, after over twenty years of taking care of each other, a bond has developed between Maytara Marble and Mucor. Even as overjoyed as she is at the prospect of being reunited with Olivine and Hammerstone, it seems likely that the chem sibyl would not simply abandon Mucor to her desolate little island without making sure there was someone to take care of her. Ditto for the compassionate Silk, as well as Horn, who so wishes he had a daughter he adopts the treacherous Jahlee. Therefore: even if you do think that Babbie is nothing but a simple, ordinary hus (which, of course, I don't), isn't it much more likely to believe that the hus has returned to Mucor? (Yet another Homeric homecoming considering the Circean angle, eh?) Robert Borski *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.