Lexicon Urthis suggests that Severian spent a year among the Ascians. Does anyone know when this is thought to have occurred? --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 081210-0, 12/10/2008 Tested on: 12/11/2008 2:17:43 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2008 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com