On Sat, 30 Aug 2003, Heather Fleming wrote: > >>Now, on to your question, which is an answer much shorter than >>the above. In fact, it is so short that a single word will >>suffice to bring forth in your mind all of the associations >>within the text of the work known to us as _Lord of Castle Black_ >>and cause you to instantly comprehend the full glory thereof. >>What is this word, you say? What? You claim you have been >>asking for nothing else for an hour? Very well then. The word >>is "Levitation". > >However, as to this statement, I wonder. Yes, I do wonder, and I >shall tell you why I wonder presently. My mind, and therefore my >memory, can only recall references being made to levitation, with the >exception of the afore mentioned castles that are the very subject of >this discourse in which we are presently involved, after the return >of the orb, specifically in reference to the levitation of and >transportation of bodies. For example, Aliera levitates and thus >transports herself by levitation in order to make her stature seem >more vertically imposing, yet mention of it only seems to occur after >the return of the orb. Similarly, a certain Hawklord named Daymar >transports himself in this manner as well, however this is also only >referred to after the end of the Interregnum. I can recall no >mention of transportation by levitation before the Interregnum. So I >do beseech you to show me where my logic has failed as I will simply >be unable to rest until my mind and this problem are thoroughly >reconciled. And yet I believe it is the castles themselves to which you have the honor to refer that provide the answer, or so I shall endeavor to demonstrate, if you would do me the kindness of continuing to read while I write two words. Consider, if you will, a feather: It it not easy to lift? Now consider a pound of feathers, that is to say, many many feathers collected together in a large sack. Is it also not easy to lift? Yet if you can lift the pound of feathers easily, is it not far easier to lift a single feather of them? Now let us consider a castle. What, indeed, is a castle? For the sake of my argument, let us call it a huge mass of stones, arranged in a particular structure. Yet if it is possible to lift that enormous mass of stones into the air, is it not far easier to raise up a far smaller mass into the air? Now, let us consider that castle, not simply as a huge mass of stones, but rather as a living place. It is, in that sense, a large domicile that serves to shelter many tens or hundreds of persons - the owners of the castle, their servants and their guards, as well as any possible visitors, guests and, quite importantly for the sake of my argument, as you will soon see, sundry tradespersons who come to deliver or take away various goods and substances to and from the castle. Obivously, if the castle is to be floating in the air in a manner similar to a large cloud, that flow of persons and material cannot be allowed to halt. Otherwise, the floating castle, while quite possible as a sorcerous feat, would be utterly impossible as a practical structure. However, since we have observed that is far easier to levitate lesser quantities than it is to levitate greater ones, we can combine that observation with our current one, and deduce that not only was it possible to levitate tradesmen and peasants - and even their wagons of goods - fairly easily to and from the castle, but that this was in fact done on a fairly common basis, no doubt weekly if not in fact daily. There. Does that satisfy your curiosity?