(urth) The Maids of Contessa Carina

[Dave Tallman]

b sharp wrote:
> Assuming there are kaibit maids involved here, who is the original cell donor? Is she an exultant
> in the House Absolute or elsewhere or an armigette living in the Citadel? Is the original ever 
> seen or mentioned?  Was Severian the son of the original or a kaibit? 
>
>   
I take the original cell donor to be an exultant from the House 
Absolute. From the play: "The Contessa waits outside, and as she is of 
exalted blood, and a favorite of our sovereign's, I beg you see her 
first," and "Eight years since my girlhood have I abode in this House 
Absolute." I believe she escaped to the past to become Catherine, the 
mother of Severian.  I also believe that the maid khabits were made for 
her after her imprisonment, since she was alone when she met Ouen.

In another post I mentioned the lines about the Contessa prolonging her 
life by bearing a child. She escaped the flood by going to the past. 
This is a time-loop paradox for the first Severian, if he caused the 
situation leading to his own conception. I'll assume the first Catherine 
escaped to the past for some other reason, such as an Ascian invasion. 
Once a Sev with a good chance to bring the New Sun was conceived and 
attracted the interest of the Heirogrammates, the loop could be 
maintained by coercion if necessary, hence the guards Sev saw with the 
woman.

> Dave you seem to be mushing all these characters together as Catherine/Carina. Are you 
> thinking that there is or isn't a real Carina? And I think you are suggesting that Severian's 
> mother was in the loggia and in the coffin, while her kaibit(s) served as St. Katharine?
>
>   
The name "Carina" was probably fictional, invented by Dr. Talos. Sev 
must have brought information about that final day of the Commonwealth 
back to the past so that it could be added to Canog's book, but he 
didn't know the woman's real name. The name Catherine is the one she 
gave Ouen; it may not be genuine. The name sounded old-fashioned to 
Ouen, which is a mistake a time-traveler to the past might make.

You are correct; I am suggesting that Sev's mother was in the loggia and 
the coffin, while her khabit or khabits served as St. Katherine. At 
Sev's elevation, someone seems to have arranged a test of his powers. 
They substituted a heavy real sword for the fake one, and hypnotized Sev 
into striking for real. If he had no powers of healing, all it would 
cost is the life of the khabit, who was no longer needed since Catherine 
had died the previous year. Sev passed with flying colors, healing "St. 
Katharine" in a spectacular fashion that conformed to his expectations 
of how the scene would play out.

Catherine herself was kept alive for many years, possibly in the third 
level of the oubilette. This is just a guess, but her execution might 
have been ordered so that Vodalus would come to the graveyard to change 
Sev's life. Vodalus could be told "A woman just died who is supposed to 
have come from the future. It might be interesting to eat her brain and 
learn what she knows."