(urth) Grand Unified Theory

[Roy C. Lackey]

Dave Tallman wrote:
>2) Dream spirits don't eat, and derive no nourishment from eating. I
think we see Hyacinth eat, though I would have to dig up the
reference.<

Yes, she eats, as I pointed out when I was shooting down the
Hy-is-a-male-chem theory. It was *because* she was so hungry that Auk went
to the market at the beginning of chapter 3 of EXODUS.

"I got a mort back in the Orilla I'm supposed to take care of. She's hungry,
and she's not used to it like me. So if you want to put oranges and maybe a
couple potatoes in that sack, I'll thank you for 'em and take 'em to her."
(61)
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"I don't know what you want, but I know what I want. I want to leave this
stuff with the dell inside. She's hungry, and some cullys in the market gave
me this for her. If you want to see me, you've done it. If you want to hear
me, you've done that, too. If it's something else, let me give her these and
we'll talk about it." (61-62)
--------

>From behind Hammerstone, Hyacinth inquired urgently, "Is there food in
those? I want it." (62)
---------

The soldier emerged into the street, evoking another awed silence. Revealed,
Hyacinth chewed and gulped, wiping her hands on her soiled gown. "That was a
nectarine, I think, and I think I swallowed the pit. I can't remember
spitting it out. Maybe I chewed it up. Thelx, was it good!" (63)

> I'm not sure about the argument from silence for the lack of relatives
> for Hyacinth. She was probably estranged from them all, so they
> wouldn't be invited to her wedding. If some of them tried to reconnect
> and were rebuffed that might not be important enough to include in the
> story.

No one was invited to the wedding. It was done on the spur of the moment.
Not long after the wedding, Silk and Hy were taken prisoner and put aboard
the airship. When they got back to Viron, there was a shooting war going on
and the book ends. We learn very little of what happened between Silk and Hy
in SS, during their twenty years together. How she got along with her family
wasn't important enough to mention.

But I am rather curious how Hy's estranged husband, that dandy captain,
Serval, fits into this Fava business.

-Roy