Speaking of people in your head vs. people in play...
"...particularly since Perdyx was probably leary of being turned into 'That Gaetani we pump for cultural information,' given how much effort he was putting into become 'That urban sophisticate who drops classical references with the same ease and grace he scores Quintillican hashish.'"

May I just say how much I love this? "That guy who drops classical references with the same ease and grace with which he scores Quintillican hashish" is pretty much exactly the extent of what I "knew" about Perdyx back when he was still just "M124." Learning that he was once this little Gaetani freak, and that he worked really hard to maintain that image is simply...oh, just perfectly delicious, is all. As is him becoming a real person. As, for that matter, is the fact that even though I really had nothing to do with him becoming a real character, he's still perfectly recognizable as that guy ("M124? Which one is that again? Oh, right, the urban sophisticate all the cute little New Cosmopolitan kids look up to...")

I dunno. It's just cool, that's all.

Why they were an omen of love and reason
Oh, hey, Kip, just thought I'd mention that I came up with a possible reason (that I think is kinda cool) that they were such a big deal omen.

What if the spoke High Ventrian from early childhood? It would totally make them the harbingers of love and reason, and it would explain why he was grabbed from such a huge distance to be made an apprentice (although the order does seem to do that to absolutely everyone's grand omens and prophesied redeemer figures), and it also solves the chronology problem we were having with how they were able to be grabbed just before 398 and still enter as students that year (since otherwise they would probably have needed a couple of years to get good enough with Choleic to start as students).

What do you think?

Oh ho!
Twin-language is something I'd been thinking of as one of their harbingers: from a very early age, they spoke a language with each other that no one else could understand. High Ventrian works for me, and it helps explain why they were both so attuned to northern culture over their own Gætani culture from a very early age. —Before the Incident, they were magically complementary: Shotik (brother) had the blatant Gift, while Abakoshi (sister) had the subtle Gift. Pastor could only make it out of Gætan with one, and so he took the one who obviously was suited for Cholæic magic. Shotik said, rather plaintively, that Pastor really ought to take Abakoshi, since she was much more powerful; that anecdote became rather infamous, which is why Inclinata gave him the name Perdix Carbonis: the coal that squeaks and squawks when burned, after the story of the parrot who offered up the peacock when caught in the hunter's nets. (The hunter laughed and took both.)

As far as the Manu Tenereans dropping by—
I think Perdix' Incident might have something to do with their absence. They initially fled Evasendia for Manu Tenere (once they had recovered) and spent six months to a year there; anyone at Manu Tenere who'd known Perdix (Shotik) as the "urban sophisticate who dropped classical references with the same ease and grace he scored Quintillican hashish" would have been mightily put off by the transformation. Wouldn't surprise me if the whispers of "Abominandi" start with the Manu Tenereans, in fact. The best way to deflect suspicion is to accuse someone else, after all...

I think you're right about Manu Tenere
I actually don't think they like any of the Nimus Animae mages very much at the moment. Also, I think they may have decided they don't trust their Christopherian spy (although they totally trusted their last Christopherian spy, even though he was much more obvious as a Christopherian spy), so they are probably trying to be sneaky about a lot of their weirder stuff.