the veil

The face-covering worn by members of the Union of the Hideously and Improbably Deformed (see U.H.I.D.): the fellowship's recruiting circular urges "Come don the veil of the type and token. Come learn to love what’s hidden inside" (p. 190). Joelle van Dyne wears hers everywhere — held "secure against her face with a finger on her chin" on the T (p. 221), where she gets "asked about the deal with the veil with a lack of delicacy she rather prefers" (p. 222) — and removes it only in private (p. 236). Whether her veil hides disfigurement or "transhuman beauty" (p. 290; see the Actaeon Complex) is one of the novel's deliberately unresolved questions.