(urth) Urth Digest, Vol 43, Issue 2

[Dan]

At 09:00 PM 3/10/2008, you wrote:

>Some questions, which I think answer each other.
>Apologies if this has been discussed before, but I don't
>remember it.
>
>Who killed Valentin?
>
>The obvious suspect is Lesage, who seems to be the only
>person who really hated him.
>
>But how did Lesage know where to find him?  And, in a
>related vein, what did Ignacio do to win Lesage's trust?
>
>If the answers are what I think they are, this is really chilling.
>
>Peter

The buccaneers were laughing at Chris when he asked if they'd seen 
Valentin, because Lesage had recently offered them a reward for Valentin 
and they thought that was why Chris was looking for him too. It's clear 
Lesage found him first.

Lesage seemed to have the uncanny knack of being able to be in the right 
place at the right time, show up when it was profitable and be delayed when 
things went awry. In fact, the characters even discussed this at one point 
and were at a loss to figure it out. In a story where time travel is 
possible, this rises above the point of coincidence and is evidence that 
someone has pre-knowledge of events. Chris seems very wary of Lesage but 
says little about him, almost as if he doesn't have to or doesn't want to. 
I believe that Lesage was the visitor at the beginning, for whom Chris 
wrote the book. Chris was very paranoid about not messing with the timeline 
as Ignacio and realized that for things to turn out right for him, Lesage 
would have to go back as well. With Chris' manuscript, he would know what 
to do and where and when to show up or stay away.

Perhaps Lesage is Chris' son, doing the time travel thing to make sure 
things turn out the same to make sure he'll be born! That includes killing 
Valentin and betraying everyone at the end.


>Good questions; I'd love to hear your answers.
>
>Re: Ignacio and Lesage: What evidence is there to suggest that Lesage ever
>met "Ignacio?"

I don't believe there is any, other than what I speculated on above.


>As for Valentin - I don't know - I wonder if he killed himself? Chris
>suggests that possibility... Or perhaps Lesage revealed himself to Valentin
>as Chris and Valentin, seeing the truth, tried to kill his old tormentor?
>And then Chris kills Valentin in self-defense?

I don't think there was a large seperation in age between Chris and Lesage 
not to see a resemblence.

>Also - do we have any more thoughts on what caused Chris to go back in time
>in the first place?

At the point when the students become novices, they begin to travel back in 
time. I think this was a property of the Monastery. If you recall, other 
people also left abruptly, so they may have been doing the same thing.


>And what about that "Angel of Death" that Chr says he sees above one of
>the boats?
>-Matt

I believe that was after his second raping when he suffered severe head 
trauma and was wishing death on his tormentors. An homage to Latro, maybe?

Dan