NickelobLight Wrote:Still unclear on a couple of points.
Sorry for being so long-winded. I'm here at my job working a double shift and it's after midnight. Just trying to stay awake...
No need to apologize. My answer wasn't exactly short. Since I'm up with insomnia I thought I'd answer. Oh, and there's no such thing as nit-picky when it comes to stuff we're passionate about. There are much worse things to obsess over than FPW's Jack-continuity.
More Spoilers for the whole series...[spoiler]
You have it essentially right at the end of your spoiler section. The confusion seems to be arising regarding who the "us" is in the quote from Harbingers.
If I remember the quote right (I only own Conspiracies and the short stories, so it isn't laziness that has me working from memory) the "one of us" Davis was referring to as being the Heir was one of the Yeniceri, after the Twins died, not one of the Twins, before they died.
When the Twins were alive, there was no Heir, at least not one spoken of in any of the books. Glaeken was the un-Chosen (ex-chosen?) and the Twins were "Chosen" and they were going to kick R's butt and that was all there was to it. That's why the Oculi didn't know that the Twins were Heir...no-one was looking for The Heir because the Chosen (Twins) were standing right in front of them. I guess, with the Twins around, Glaeken
could have been The Heir to the Twins, but I've never heard FPW refer to him that way in any story.
In any event, oops, the Twins die. Glaeken becomes re-chosen. Now an Heir is needed. From that point on, all the Oculi and Yeniceri are now (that the Twins are dead) waiting for one of the Yeniceri or Oculi to be "marked" by the Otherness and then that person would become The Heir to Glaeken.
[head starting to hurt...gets asprin]
This has to be the sequence...if one of the Yenicari had already been marked when the Twins died, they would have immediately become the Heir and their friendly neighborhood Oculi would have instantly known...and I imagine that a secret of that magnitude would be hard to keep quiet inside the Yeniceri's network...since spreading the knowledge would have given them the hope/direction/leadership that (Davis?) says the Yeniceri lacked since the death of the Twins.
Another hint that Glaeken is the new Chosen is that he starts hanging around outside Jack's apartment (in
Bloodlines)...I bet he's pissed at Jack for dragging him back into the whole mess, particularly if Mrs. Glaeken met an untimely death (no branches on a spear). Since his magic sword is gone, I bet Glaeken's eyes have turned black now too, just like the Twins...allowing him to "see" where Jack lived.[/spoiler]
Having said all that, now I have to go down to my local library tomorrow and re-read that section of Harbingers where Davis says "one of us..." just to refresh my memory. Hopefully I don't find out that everything I just typed is backwards.
Personally, I'm ok with the shadowy unknown past of the Twins...especially since I can fill it in with all the urban legends of "The Men In Black". I liken it to Glaeken...we're never given any background on his origins (even in Demonsong) and aren't told why he held himself apart from the Yanceri for so many centuries prior to
The Keep. There are just some things that FPW never meant for us to know...YET!
Hope this helps keeps you awake on your double. And here I thought you'd sleep better knowing the answer. Heh.
-Wapitikev