(urth) Sev's silence about Catherine‏

[Dave Tallman]

b sharp wrote:
> But we have the corpse with dark hair, livid face and a pale gown, perhaps choked to death as
> Severian thinks his mother might have been (side note, Severian sees the corpse's face
> reflected in the face of Ultan- what can THAT mean?). <snip>
That's an interesting reference -- until you pointed that out I regarded 
the grave-robbery corpse as a red herring. There's no reason for that 
body to be any relation to Sev. If it's a coincidence it's too much, 
especially since time-travel would seem to be involved. It could be 
intentional on the part of those manipulating Sev's life (the Autarch 
has an agent in the torturer's guild, and has contact with Vodalus), but 
what would be the point?

But if Ultan's face in dim light strongly reminds Sev of that graveyard 
scene, it has to be considered. Ultan could possibly be Sev's 
grandfather on his mother's side. He is a tall, "a true exultant" 
(Shadow VI). Sev could have inherited his photographic memory.

With a little work, we can cut the coincidence down to size. Time-travel 
is not strictly necessary, since there were long-term prisoners on the 
third level of the oubliette. The death of a prisoner with interesting 
court connections could be used to attract Vodalus to the graveyard that 
night, and the early meeting of Sev with Vodalus was a critical turning 
point in his life. The Katharine of the elevation ceremony could be 
unrelated, or she be a khabit of the dead woman.