(urth) Abaia and the Claw

[thalassocrat at nym.hush.com]

On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 20:22:41 -0700 Jeffrey Lefstin 
<jeff.lefstin at stanfordalumni.org> wrote:
>The recent discussion of what role Abaia plays in the new Urth 
>prompts 
>me to note the interest Abaia seems to show in the Claw.
> ...In UotNS, the power of the Claw is shown to come from Sev 
himself. 
> But 
>Abaia's interest in the Claw remains.  Idas, Abaia's minion, 
>ransacks 
>Severian's cabin looking for "something so small it might have 
>been 
>concealed in the collar of a shirt."  While Severian is ready to 
>torture Idas in order to get Idas to tell him what it was, I think 


>it's 
>a no-brainer for us that Idas was trying to find the thorn that 
>will 
>become the Claw - what else is there?
>Maybe then Idas is trying to prevent the Claw from coming into 
>existence;  though the thorn got a drop of Severian's blood when 
>he 
>first found it, I read Apheta's explanation ("It was saturated 
>with 
>your blood") to mean that the thorn did not become the Claw until 
>Severian jammed it good into his finger.
>That takes place, of course, when Severian tries to use it to 
>revive 
>the steward.  Whom Idas has killed trying to find the thorn.  So 
>Idas, 
>in trying to prevent the Claw from coming into existence, is 
>actually 
>the reason it comes to be....

That's interesting, but didn't Idas say she was actually searching 
for Inire's letter endorsing Sev as Autarch to the Hierogrammates? 
I don't recall the exact details. Somehow I got the impression that 

the plan might have been to substitute somebody else for Sev at the 

trial - which is kind of what happened in the end.