ultan.net: アギアはセヴェリアンのいとこだった？

以下は Robert Borski 氏の1998/10/8付投稿に基づいています。

Robert Borski 氏は、セヴェリアンの父のオウエンについて次のように述べています。

Later, in CITADEL, when Severian recontacts Ouen, he asks of him, "Your father was a shopkeeper. What of your mother?" To which Ouen replies: "I never knew her, sieur. Cas they called her, but she died when I was young. In childbirth, my father said."

To me this implies Ouen was the first-born child and Dorcas survives his delivery, since she remembers taking care of him. When Dorcas becomes pregnant a second time, however, she dies; Ouen not remembering her means he was probably still a toddler--certainly no older than three. But did this second issue survive--which would mean Severian had a paternal aunt or uncle? For all Ouen's father, the old boatman, tells us--i.e., he ran a shop that sold cloisonne and garments; he and Cas were together for four years, less a month and a week--he never mentions having *any* offspring, so it's certainly possible the second child (the existence of which Ouen would be too young to remember) survived. Dorcas' husband being unable to nurse the child, or perhaps grief-stricken because of his wife's death, either rejects or abandons his second-born, and so it is raised by others.

Is there anyone in New Sun who might correspond to this lost aunt or uncle of Severian's? I'm not sure, but the tendency to produce twins is genetic, and so if this person later married and reproduced it's not unreasonable to assume twins might be born, just as Severian and Severa are to Catherine and Ouen. And if these twins were later to enter the same trade as their grandfather, or more sinisterly know of each other carnally in the same fashion as Dorcas and Severian--well, you can probably guess where I'm going.

So I ask you? Is it possible--and please note, this is speculation only--that Agia and Agilus are also the grandchildren of Dorcas and that Severian is their first cousin? Could it be the Claw is summoning Agia as well as Severian to the cathedral tent of the Pelerines?-- Thu, 8 Oct 1998 15:38:46 by Robert Borski

「独裁者の城塞」でセヴェリアンに母親のことを尋ねられたオウエンはこう語ります。

「母のことはまったく知らないのです。キャスと呼ばれていました。でも、私が幼いころに死んだのです。お産で死んだと、父がいいました。」--「独裁者の城塞」第37章

ということは、ドルカスにはオウエン以外にも子供を身篭ったわけです。もっとも赤子が無事に生まれたかどうかは定かではありませんが。Robert Borski 氏は生まれた、と仮定します。オウエンが知らない以上、赤子は誰かに里子に出されたのでしょう。この赤子、つまりセヴェリアンの叔父もしくは叔母が誰なのかはわかりませんが、セヴェリアンとその双子の姉妹（おそらくはメルリン）の関係に呼応する双子が二組あります。一組はセヴェリアン少年とセヴェラであるですが、Robert Borski 氏はもう一組の双子――アギアとアギルス――に注目します。

アギアと アギルスはネッソスに住んでいます。年恰好もセヴェリアンと似通っています。もしもセヴェリアンが彼らのいとこであるなら、アギアに対して感じた強い情動も説明できるかもしれません（ドルカスの例にもあるように、セヴェリアンは近親者に惹かれる傾向があります）。またセヴェリアンをアギアとアギルスの店に導いたのも、＜鉤爪＞もしくはセヴェリアン自身の特殊な能力によるものなのかもしれません。