| abstract
| - That Zulenna will eventually return in some form is left in little doubt by the Baron's discussing it with the Lackya. While Zulenna has a damaged body (which is, as far as we know, still in the cold room in Klaus' medical lab), the Baron has prepared a fresh female body with no brain, namely that of Olga (whose charred remains were made up to appear to be Agatha's). That Olga's body will be made use of is also not only evident from its very existence, but also foreshadowed by Countess Marie's report that Olga frequently acted the part. While one would think that, in preparation for revivification, the single stab wound inflicted by Bangladesh DuPree on Zulenna's body would be easier to repair than a brain transplant is to perform, it is also fairly clear that (by definition of the genre to which the story belongs) that inversion of our intuition is the norm. We should not be surprised, therefore, if Zulenna reappears in Olga's body... or, more-or-less equivalently, Olga reappears with Zulenna's brain. In the Heinlein novel I Will Fear No Evil, an old man's brain is transplanted into his (young and attractive, of course) female secretary's body (subsequent to respective injuries sustained). Thenceforth, he experiences the presence of the woman guiding him in the use of her body, which retains some of her abilities. Incidentally, the secretary, like Olga, was raven-haired. There are probably other correlations, but what is most memorable about the novel is that it is probably better unremembered. While most readers (whose view the main article reflects) consider Zulenna's priggishness to define her, and would expect a revived Zulenna to continue to behave in this manner, there are other possibilities. While a full exploration of Foglio-esque possibilities is, given that it would be entirely speculative at this point, probably better left untaken, it may be sufficient to suggest that the reader, as a philological exercise, consider proper terms for "Borzoi female", then the metaphorical uses for such terms, and then eliminate the senses which Zulenna has already demonstrated in her "first life". The elimination of these senses corresponding to her former fastidiousness and condescension could be justified by the assumption (for which there is some evidence) that they existed specifically to defend her own actual honor. Thence, having paid to an ultimate degree any debt of honor to the house of Heterodyne she may have owed, forfeited any right to rule she may have had, and even, if she returns in Olga's body, lost the skin and bone whose inherent honor patriarchal societies the world over would expect her to defend to at least a token degree, she may well recognize that she has no remaining honor whatsoever to defend. This being the case, her natural joie de vivre, which, perhaps, enables and sustains monarchs in the first place, could be exposed to have a form consistent with our post-Christian expectations. However, one channel that might exist would be a recognition on her part that Klaus' revivification of her (though he would not see it this way) endows him with arbitrary rights to her person, which returns us to the above philological exercise; an opposite view is also possible, especially if one wants to balance it against some of the previously eliminated metaphorical senses; but the overriding thrust of this argument is that Zulenna's post-resurrection behavior is wide open. Again, a full exploration of the possibilities, in this forum, is to be deferred. (Fan fiction is a different matter. Those who would persue these ideas but find themselves lacking the imagination or other resources at hand to do so may be referred back to the above-mentioned novel.) Nevertheless, assumptions that any future participation of Zulenna in the main narrative will feature a personality functionally the same as that to which we were originally introduced are completely unwarranted. It is a "fact" that Olga is remembered as an actress who played the part of a construct, or no doubt simply as a construct, on the part of certain individuals. Someone who remembers this, and her association with Master Payne's Circus, would presumably help, or at least fail to hinder, efforts by an actual construct based on Olga's body to reunite with the Circus. There is little doubt the Circus has (or will have soon) escaped Pax Transylvania; very possibly they will reach a Britannic destination. A construct with Olga's body, but Zulenna's education, her knowledge of politics, and her other mental attributes, and generally amoral but enthralled by Klaus would thus make for him an excellent spy against whomever thought the Circus harmless, her associated with it, and her on the way to join it. In particular, she could be sent against Her Undying Majesty. The features of the story that make it seem unlikely that Klaus would obtain any real intelligence from this instance of "the right monster for the job" do not in any way preclude him from attempting it.
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