(urth) "Myfather's mountedguard"‏

[b sharp]

"I played again with pebbles in the court-yard beside the fallen curtain wall, as Thecla dodged the hooves of my father's mounted guard."

I think everyone is being rather cavalier with this passage by contorting it into making sense; to jibe with what we feel we know. I prefer to read the passage literally and let it serve as a hint for what we don't know. Wolfe separates Severian's and Thecla's memories in the full version of this passage with the word, "again". This sentence is not separated, thus I take it  as a memory of Severian's, remembering playing together with Thecla when they were children.

Roy takes pains to note that Severian's father is Ouen, but this is merely a biological relationship, unknown and unimportant to either of them until the end of CotA. As a very young child, perhaps Severian can dredge up a memory from before he was given over to the torturers. If Catherine was married to (and had run away from) a guy who commanded a mounted guard, voila. Yes, she told Ouen she ran from an order of monials but that sounds better to tell her boyfriend than that she is running away from a husband. And it seems more likely that a commander would send the authorities to find and collect a runaway wife and send her to torturers (Severian says as much in a conversation with Cyriaca). Why would an order of monials do all  that?

Roy also discusses Thecla's formative years growing up at the villa in the north. Not sure if he remembers my annoying dictionary post from a couple years ago:

villa- 1: a country estate
        2: the rural or suburban residence of a wealthy person

Why would Wolfe make such a strong point that it is a "villa" which is mainly defined as a secondary residence for the wealthy. What is the family's primary residence? I propose it could be the Citadel itself. Catherine seems to have been in residence there in one way or another and this could make Severian's non-biological, cuckolded father the Castellan and perhaps hints that Thecla is his sister. Using Borski's ideas, he did have sex with Thecla and the Castellan is lame, marking them as family members.

In my current frame of mind I don't really think Thecla is Severian's sister.  But perhaps this was meant as a not-quite-red but pink herring by Wolfe. There is evidence Merryn is Severian's sister. There is evidence Jolenta is his sister. There is evidence Pia is his sister, etc. Perhaps Wolfe's intention was to pepper the story with half-clues about Severian's family to obtain a Proustian sense of ambiguous identity for the poor guy. I dunno. But I think there is more to this passage than just jumbled memories.
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