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Auri Is Centuries Old, Lost in Time at the Old University

fringe timeline · popularity 77 · 1 source thread

Auri's room in Boundary once belonged to her long ago, suggesting she is centuries old and predates the modern University.

About: Auri

Also involves: The Slow Regard of Silent Things, The University, The Fae, Master Mandrag, The Underthing

The theory§

This theory holds that Auri is centuries old, a survivor of an age when the Underthing was the living University rather than its buried ruin. Its keystone is a passage in The Slow Regard of Silent Things: as Auri enters the room called Boundary, she reflects that the room 'belonged to someone once' but no longer belongs and is now 'a none place' fit for no one. Where a plain reading takes this as a former dwelling she outgrew, the theory reads it as her own room from a vanished era, an alchemist's private lab from when this place was whole. A further plank is Auri's own recollection that she learned the heart of alchemy 'long ago,' before she understood the true shape of the world, implying mastery that predates her tutelage under Master Mandrag. The how is left open: she may have wandered into the Fae and returned to find hundreds of years had passed, the dislocation being what broke her mind. The chief objection is that Auri speaks flawless modern Aturan, which a person born centuries past should not.

Evidence§

  • when Auri goes into Boundary, it says, "This room used to belong to her. But no. This room belonged to someone once. Now it didn't. It wasn't. It was a none place. It was an empty sheet of nothing that could not belong. It was not for her."
    The keystone passage: a room that once belonged to Auri but no longer does. — u/channing2nd
  • Originally, i just thought it meant she used to live here, but then moved to her current room. But now I'm thinking this was her room from years and years in the past when it was THE university.
    OP's core reading: Boundary was her room from when the place was the living University. — u/channing2nd
  • Maybe she got lost in the Fae and, when she returned, hundreds of years had gone by, and that's also what cracked her.
    OP's proposed mechanism for how centuries passed and her mind broke. — u/channing2nd
  • There are a couple of implications that Auri is older than she looks, maybe the most direct is that she refers to learning "magic" \*long\* before Mandrag taught her Alchemy: \> The other piece? That slender tenth part of a tenth? The heart of alchemy was something Auri had learned \*\*long ago.\*\* She’d studied it before she came to understand the true shape of the world.
    Adds textual evidence: Auri mastered alchemy long before Mandrag, implying older training. — u/TheLastSock
  • It was her lab, she is/was an alchemist before she cracked. She did Alchemy in a private lab/room. It was connected to the underthing, so she went to/ ended up in a secret hidden place whenever, and whatever cracked her is unknown.
    Refines the room as Auri's own former alchemy lab connected to the Underthing. — u/Ducea_
  • If she is referring to the older University, it must have also had an alchemy professor named Mandrag. (I regard that as unlikely, but on the periphery of misdirections PR might pull.) Off hand, I can't think of anything else directly tying her to the new university.
    CounterCounter: the older-University reading conflicts with her known study under Mandrag. — u/aerojockey
  • She can speak Modern Aturan (English) perfectly, whereas if she was a person born in the distant past, she wouldn’t be able to.
    CounterChief objection: flawless modern Aturan is implausible for someone born centuries ago. — u/kajonn

Book refs: SRoST

Tier reasoning§

fringe confirmed: inferential reading of an ambiguous passage

Contributors§

Source threads§