(urth) Mucor and Oreb in the manse

[Gerry Quinn]

From: Roy C. Lackey 

> Before I get to the scene in question, I must first go forward in the story
> to a later scene, then back to another incident before the scene in
> question.

> Silk had just returned from the lake, on the day of Rose's funeral. He went
> into his manse bedroom to clean up and change clothes. Mucor appeared in his
> shaving mirror. The first thing she said was, "This isn't the first time
> I've seen you with no clothes on." (CALDE, ch. 2, 71) That got me wondering
> when she might have ever seen him naked, so I started backtracking. The next
> time Silk saw her after Blood's villa was briefly in the face of Teasel's
> dad. From there he went straight home and took a bath and went to bed naked.

> He had some weird dreams, then what seems to be a dream within a dream that
> incorporated real-world, real-time elements, such as hard dry rain coming in
> the window that was actually gravel tossed by Crane. Just before the "dry
> rain" it was: "A black-clad imp with a blood-red sword stood upon his chest
> to study him, its head cocked to one side. He stirred and it fled,
> fluttering like a little flag." (NIGHTSIDE, ch. 9, 220) That black-clad imp
> suggests Oreb with his red beak. Marble calling Silk's name finally woke
> him.

> Silk didn't know he had injured the bird's wing with the walking stick
> before he went to see Teasel. While Marble was watching Crane treat Silk's
> injuries, she saw Oreb hopping in what Silk specified was the stairwell
> (223). The bird made its way from the stairwell into the kitchen (229), then
> managed to fly back up to the top of the larder (230), dislocated wing and
> all, and had to be coaxed down so Crane could treat his wing.

> My thinking is that Mucor possessed Oreb, got him to hop up the stairs and
> onto Silk's chest while he slept, and that is when she saw him naked. This
> blend of dream and reality also prefigures the later scene in the manse with
> Oreb, Mucor and Pike. I suggest that Mucor might have possessed Oreb that
> night at the manse, damaged wing and all, and that Oreb did not remember the
> possession, just as Remora didn't remember when Mucor possessed him. That
> Oreb could fly to the top of the larder with a dislocated wing proves that
> he could fly well enough to get up the stairs with a splinted wing, even if
> only by hopping up them.

> Either way, Mucor had seen him without his clothes on in the few days
> between Silk's first sight of her at Blood's villa and her appearance in his
> shaving mirror. She had been keeping tabs on Silk the whole time, at
> Teasel's home, in the tunnels, at Orchid's and at the manse.
That makes a lot of sense.  Silk’s rationalisation of Oreb’s actions is correct, then, but Oreb either forgot or didn’t accept that his actions while possessed were things he did, so he did not admit to them.  The imp is certainly Oreb, and Wolfe makes much of Silk’s nudity in the scene.
I’m inclined to believe it.  And that means we can connect all three visitors that night – a possessed Oreb, fleeing after being abandoned by Mucor in favour of a ghostly appearance.  And Pike’s ghost appears because he is Mucor’s grandfather.
- Gerry Quinn
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