(urth) Eyes of Thecla

[Jeff Wilson]

b sharp wrote:

> In Sword, in a mushroom induced dream, it is implied that Thecla's (and 
> other exultant women's)eyes have been made to grow bigger by "the 
> application of minute amounts of certain poisons in childhood".  Now there 
> is another quasi-character who is described as having eyes with great pupils 
> as dark as wells, irises purple as summer flowers.  It is Hethor's 
> paracoita.
> 
> I don't know of any other characters who are described as having very large 
> violet or purple eyes, so it is difficult to call the similarity a 
> coincidence, especially since both descriptions first appear in Shadow. But 
> what connection can there be between these two?  I have some vague thoughts 
> involving the kaibit process but I'm interested in any ideas others might 
> have.

As Mantiss has it, each exultant child has a clone (the khaibit, 
egpytian word for shadow) from which certain items are harvested, 
notably growth factors. Given the Exultants' natural height, this 
results in a towering Exultant and a Khaibit of roughly normal height. 
Givne this precedent, doubltess any number of other cosmetic adjustments 
could be made to the Exultants, and the khaibits possibly serve as 
sources of spare vital organs as well.


-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >