From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: (urth) The Claw
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 00:47:20 -0600

Marc Aramini wrote:
>>Perhaps the power of the claw - which is really the negation of time -
indicates where the vanished people have gone - someWHEN else.<<

A quibble about the Claw: it has been suggested often before that the Claw
(or Sev) worked by reaching back in time to a point before whatever malady
it was being used to remedy had come about. Restoring Dorcas to life by
returning her body to a time when she was still alive; healing Declan's
swollen abdomen by returning his body to a time before he had appendicitis.
But this doesn't work for Herena. She had "a withered arm no larger than an
infant's". In other words, it was a birth defect. There had never been a
time when her arm had been well and whole.

It also didn't work for Jonas. Sev couldn't even restore him to the
condition he had been in before he got zapped, much less reach back in time
to restore him to the way he was before his ship crashed. Didn't work for
Jolenta, either, though Sev had known her both before she was bitten and
before she was Jolenta.

-Roy


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