From: "Robert Borski" <rborski@coredcs.com>
Subject: (urth) Re: Meeting Father Inire
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 02:36:55 

<So, Robert is wrong: we *do* actually meet Father Inire in the main
narrative, and Robert is right, masks have to do with the matter.>

Congratulations, Dan! You're absolutely right, of course--the shaman is
Father Inire, although, as I very clearly state, he's not in his Inire
guise--so we don't really meet him as Inire, but as Inire masked. It's also
the uturuncu/Inire that provides Appian (who's already been searched) with
the cutting instrument Sev later uses to access his predecessor's
skull-encased brain. Also, I believe that somewhere--can't find the
reference--Father Inire's apemen, the guardians of Saltus, are described as
*tiger* firefly men. Still and all, it's nice to know at least one other
person shares my opinion.

My challenge to you, however: can you find at least one more instance where
Inire is met in disguise? (There are actually several.) I'll even advance
you one, and then leave a clue or two. In Chapter XXI of CLAW
("Hydromancy"), after being shown the Book of Mirrors by Appian, Sev asks
for directions to the Green Room, so he can rendezvous with Dorcas, Dr.
Talos, et al. He's told by Appian (who doesn't realize Sev is on to his
real identity) he must take the autarch's life if the autarch ever comes
near Thrax. Writes Sev: "His tone betrayed him as much as Thecla's
thoughts. I wanted to kneel, but he clapped his hands, and a bent little
man slipped silently into the room. He wore a cowled habit like a
cenobite's. The Autarch spoke to him, something I was too distracted to
understand." The cowled figure--who I submit is Father Inire, and may be
even addressed as such by Appian--then shows Sev to the Vatic Fountain. 

Now for the clues I mentioned. Notice that the uturuncu carries "a staff
crooked as himself, topped with the dried head of a monkey." Who else
carries a similar staff? Moreover, this staff-carrier has a mythic
name--which makes him an alien. I also mentioned him in a post not that
very long ago. (Think younger, earlier--a herald.)

((All answers to the above and more will be covered in the longest essay of
UNDINES, "Masks."))

Robert Borski

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