(urth) Torturers?

[Jeff Wilson]

> It is specifically stated that torture in the Commonwealth is a
> punishment, not a means of obtaining truth. The Guild performs exactly
> the tortures ordered, and the torturers are taught to completely ignore
> anything their victims say. Severian is chided for listening to a victim
> at one point during his apprenticeship.
>
> Torturers in our time may ostensibly be in search of truth, but the
> Guild is inflicting judicial punishment.


I don't believe that this is the whole story. They are still the Seekers
of Truth as well as Penitence, and some interrogation takes place, if I
remember correctly, including the occasion of the maid being given the
full boot. Perhaps the queries of the interrogating authority are also
disregard and thus not recorded.