(urth) some mysterious stuff in Long Sun

[Andrew Mason]

Marc Aramini wrote:

> Here's one that blows my mind:  HYRAX is in bold in the glossary for Exodus, not the god, who is in small print, but someone described as "The dead man in the doorway."  Why is he in bold?  ECHIDNA is, Scylla is not, Hierax is not, TARTAROS is.  Otherwise only major characters with a lot of screen time are.

Yes, that really puzzled me as well - I was going to bring it up at
some point. Mint contemplates Hyrax''s body and reflects first on his
name (a name often given to boys whose mothers had died in childbirth)
and then on his age (which is close to her own - if her life had gone
differently they might have got married, and she might have borne him
a child, 'her own child') None of this seems enough to make him major.

'Her own child' may suggest, as a couple of other things do, that she
has borne a child who is not her own, and may link up with - though it
hardly answers - another of your questions, why the gods are
interested in Auk.

> Was Titi the dead "woman" in the tunnel in, I believe, Lake?

I don't think so. Isn't she the woman who sells images of Sphinx in
the market, and can disguise herself as a man? You may think two
cross-dressing spies is too much, and argue it's a clever double bluff
- but it might just be a common technique.