Aquastor

AQUASTOR.—A being created by the power of the imagination

There is another being, created by the imagination entirely, and called Aquastor. The specific imagination required for this creative act is evolved by a concentration of thought upon the A'kasa, which is an Eastern term signifying living primordial substance.

Little will here be said concerning Paracelsus' notions on Magic. We have scant inclination to elucidate his aniadum and aquastor, or explain his evestrum and erodinium.

“[…]We are aquastors, beings created and sustained by the power of the imagination and the concentration of thought.”

Hearing it, it seemed to me for a moment that it was my own cry, that something I had held deep inside me since that still-dark morning when I had walked the beach with the aquastor Master Malrubius and watched the aquastor Triskele dissolve in shimmering dust had freed itself and separated itself from me, and that it was below, howling in the faint lost light.

The etheric aura can be visualized for practical purposes to extend the same distance from our bodies that we can measure by extending both arms. It can be developed by using the invoked light of the First Iliaster to create protective aquastors. These protective aquastors eventually render the auro impenetrable to all but the most potent invasive forces and energies. This is done in the First Empowerment after Initiation in the Temple of the Holy Grail.

Aquastors must therefore be true to their mnemonic blueprints, the same way our eyes must remain blue if genetically coded so. Thus Severian’s dog Triskele still has three legs (and will always have three, as long as Severian lines and the machine sustains his beloved pet’s quiddity), while Master Malrubius will never be anything but old, stern and wise. All this, of course, we learn rather late in Citadel, despite the fact that aquastors of Malrubius and Triskele have been appearing to Severian ever since Shadow. But are they the only aquastors to appear in the original quarter? Surely, it would not be above Gene Wolfe to sneak a few non-obvious, machine-fleshed eidola into the narrative. So let us investigate several potential cases and see if we can roust an aquastor or two.

The Urthman sailors in the audience draw their knives at this news. They attack and kill the Hierarch Venant, identified as Tzadkiel’s son. Again the aquastors (based upon people from Severian’s past) fight against the sailors. Gunnie helps Saverian (atonement for her betrayal of the Conciliator [ch. 34]) and the sailors are defeated. The aquastors dissolve (21).