in the beta timeline, he married Ilaria, thus preventing the birth of Pope Gregory, then went on Crusade, probably to suffer the same fate;
in the restored original timeline, he dies fighting Everard when the latter, as an angel, tries to persuade him to renounce marriage and to go immediately on the Crusade.
Thus:
Ilaria is free to marry the man who will be the father of Gregory;
the Patrol gets what it wants;
even Lorenzo gets a better deal, a quick death instead of fever, vomiting and diarrhea and with Wanda reporting that he died defending her against bandits.
I had scarcely noticed on previous readings that Lorenzo, although he winds up being killed, gets a better death in the restored timeline than he got in the original. The Patrol has done something even for him, perhaps their most deadly adversary.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree, the partly accidental death of Lorenzo de Conti at Manse Everard's hands was better than dying miserably of illness. I would only add that both Manse and Wanda LIKED Lorenzo and tried to find means of removing him as a causal nexus without killing him. The elaborate charade of Manse pretending to be an angel was part of an effort to save his life.
Sean