(urth) Abaia and the undines

[Dave Tallman]

David Stockhoff wrote:
> Problems: ---He can't yet know 
> that HD/AP is himself in his own future, as well as an aquastor who 
> presumably is immortal. Later he is stunned when he finds out. So he 
> must be another Severian---Sev 1 out of 2, or else a corpse the single 
> Severian left behind. ---If the man in the tomb is Severian 1, who put 
> him in it? You can build your own tomb but you can't put yourself in it. 
> Also, you wouldn't build your own tomb unless you expected to die, and 
> any Severian who is mature and alive before Severian himself is born 
> knows he won't ever die, because otherwise, what would he be doing 
> there?
I believe these assumptions about immortality of aquastors, and even 
Severian himself, to be unwarranted. Aquastors can age, be injured, or 
die. One of the B,F and O trio even say that all of us can be regarded 
as aquastors of the Increate.

Severian knows that he himself will eventually die -- he doesn't have to 
keep resurrecting if there is no reason for it, after all. Neither does 
once being connected to the White Fountain make him immortal, since that 
connection ceases after it has served its purpose.

I see no reason why he cannot plan his own tomb and eventually be buried 
there.