(urth) Mystery of Agia

[António Pedro Marques]

Jeff Wilson wrote (20-01-2011 04:57):
> On 1/19/2011 3:21 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>> What is that B.S.? At the least it is a gun on the wall in Act 1 which
>> is never fired. (actually I think Severian encounters both Agia and the
>> Green Man in different guises in UotNS but that's another story). Why
>> does she let Severian go, never to find him again?
>
> Agia is impulsive but not stupid; she knows exactly where to find him,
> but the odds of an enjoyable revenge against the Autarch are slim.

I'm not sure, but it seems to me that part of her impulsiveness is staged.

>> Why not tie him up and drag him off for his weeks of torture, or
>> whatever. She is afraid of the green man???
>
> She doesn't have a way to facilitate such a fate for him while the
> Vodalarii are on the move, and no means to strike out on her own in the
> contested territory.
>
>> Why was she trying for months to kill him in ways that wouldn't work
>> if she (supposedly) had a foolproof way (the worms)?
>
> Not knowing any more than we do about how specula work, we can't presume
> all the monsters were available at all times. We have the old Autarch's
> word that the longer the specula are left closed, the more powerful their
> summoning ability becomes, so Hethor may need to take longer times
> between to get larger monsters or ones from farther away in space and
> time.
>
>> Neither the arrows nor the notule, nor the slug nor the salamander
>> would have provided the "weeks of agony" she demanded. So why use all
>> those methods?
>
> The weeks of torture idea was probably planted by Vodalus to manipulate
> her into serving him longer.
>
>> Why is she relentless in following Severian but not killing him?
>
> It took her a while to sort out her true feelings. She's a pretty
> mercurial person, and she may have found ruling over Hethor and later
> over the Vodalarii to be more to her immediate satisfaction than
> continuing to prepare a place to keep Sev racked up for weeks.

All are reasonable points, but none answers why Agia even appears in the
story in the first place, or isn't simply killed off early.