Welcome to Act Three of Gideon the Ninth. What a week! Let’s get into it (sorry — the random cultural references are rubbing off on me).
Chapter 17
CSI Canaan House: One by one, the surviving necromancers try to call back the ghosts of the messily expired Abigail Pent and Magnus Quinn of the Fifth House. We see differences in the ways that the Houses practice their magic. First they spill blood to tempt them back. Palamedes Sextus (Sixth House) proceeds methodically to establish and document the crime scene. Isaac and Jeannemary (Fourth House) fall apart (and now we realize that Magnus and Abigail were not just mentors, but parental figures). Ianthe of the Third House sweats blood and at one point bites their cavalier Naberius. Dulcinea attempts to join in but Protesilaus restrains her (Second House) and, just as Palamedes gives up, the Eighth House shows. Silas siphons Colum’s soul to power his necromancy, draining first Colum and then beginning to draw on everyone else. Abigail’s corpse shudders, Dulcinea screams, and Protesilaus punches Silas in the face. Teacher calls down from the top of the ladder and tells them they’re all in terrible danger and they need to bring the bodies up right now.
- Coronabeth (Third) doesn’t even break a sweat — that’s how awesome a necromancer she is. Gideon notices that she and Ianthe are wearing “astonishingly flimsy nightgowns, the only solace of the night” (p. 187).
- Palamedes works primarily with Camilla and Harrow. Is he a take on Sherlock Holmes?
- As Colum fades, Silas grows incandescent. It’s Harrow who recognizes that he’s a soul siphoner. This is a surprise to some, a suspicion confirmed to others. Therefore, spirit magic is big in the Eighth House.
- I repeat, Ianthe consumes parts of her cavalier — hair, nails, and skin. “Gideon had to stare pretty hard at skimpy nighties to get over that one” (p. 189).
- At this point, it’s obvious that the different houses practice wildly different forms of magic. They’re all called necromancers because they use thanergy (death energy) to power their spells.
- Any of these talented necromancers should be able to call back Abigail and Magnus’ ghosts. So why can’t they? Does it have something to do with the manner of their deaths, or is the trouble with the facility, which according to Teacher is mega-haunted?
- Teacher about Silas: “He cannot empty anybody here, lest they become a nest for something else!” (p. 191) Stick a pin in this.
Chapter 18
With everyone finally out of the facility, Teacher is most concerned about Colum, who is still Elsewhere. The Second House (the Cohort) wants to call for help. Teacher refuses. It’s revealed that there is a finite number of keys, which starts certain parties thinking and suspecting. Palamedes wants to examine the bodies. Colum returns. Harrow wants to go back to work.
- The Second tries to pull rank. Their power move doesn’t work. Teacher answers only to the Emperor, and he’s already got his orders. He is strangely unaffected by the two deaths — did anyone else ``get that impression?
- We learn that some of the other House heirs attend each other’s birthday parties. These are people who have histories with each other that long predate Canaan House.
- The group has to decide between one of their number being a murderer or there’s a monster on the loose. The Fourth House is all for monster-hunting. Palamedes (Sixth) decides to proceed scientifically. The Third falls to bickering. The Fourth grieves.
- After Colum’s soul finally returns to his body, Silas says only, “Fifteen minutes. You’re getting tardy” (p. 200). What a [insert impolite words here]!
- Jeannemary reminds us that Abigail was a spirit magician, so she should have been able to talk to any ghost that wished her harm. Her words go unheeded.
- Harrow is all about the competition. She’s much less emotionally engaged than Gideon is.
- If you’re beginning to get echoes of low-budget slasher films where the audience just wants to scream, “Get out while you can!” even as our doomed protagonists/cannon fodder decide it’s smart to divide up and search the haunted house….you’re not alone.
Chapter 19
Gideon and Harrow examine the room behind the tapestried door and find the theorem for the bone construct explicated. They also find living and training quarters for a long-gone necromancer and cavalier, and Gideon finds an unsettling note.
- “The First House was no longer a beautiful and empty shell, buffeted by the erosion of time. Now it seemed more like the blocked-up labyrinths beneath the Ninth House, kept sealed in case something became restless. When she was young she used to have nightmares about being on the wrong side of the door of the Locked Tomb. Especially after what Harrow had done” (p. 202). Labyrinths beneath the Ninth House? What does it mean to be on the wrong side of the Locked Tomb door? And it was worse after something Harrow did. Finally, now Gideon feels the same about Canaan House. Muir knits backstory to current narrative and foreshadows the future, maybe?
- “That’s what she said” (p. 203). If you didn’t recognize this one immediately, collect your “Officially Old” ID card at the front desk.
- So much about what’s behind the locked door to unpack. First, the room may be 10,000 years old, but it’s perfectly preserved, down to the ashtray, even though the rest of Canaan House is falling apart. Why?
- Gideon finds “something goddamn ancient: it was a blowback carbine gun” (p. 205). Guns are not unknown in this world; they’re just antiques. A blowback carbine is one in which the recoil of one shot loads the next cartridge in the chamber; a semi-auto (don’t “not all semi-auto’s” at me, gun experts. It’s enough of an explanation to suffice). Clearly, firearms were known in this world, but abandoned in favor of swords. Hmm.
- Nothing creepy about a group photo where all the faces have been scribbled out. Nope, nothing ominous at all.
- Gideon also finds the emblem of the Second House. Presumably these were the quarters of the necro/cav pair who founded the Second.
- We see our first “ONE FLESH, ONE END,” signed G&P. Who are G & P? (Remember always — nothing is random or decorative.)
- Gideon copes with cruelty by cracking jokes in its face and masking her pain. Here, Harrow cracks a joke about Magnus’ death and asks Gideon why she’s upset, and she responds without either jokes or masks: “He was nice to me….Because he was a stranger, I think . . . He didn’t have to bother with me, to make time for me or remember my name, but he did. Hell, you treat me more like a stranger than Magnus Quinn did and I’ve known you all my life” (p. 208). For the first time, Gideon is vulnerable in front of Harrow.
- What follows is a fascinating exercise in power dynamics and intimacy. Harrow tells Gideon “I must no longer accept being a stranger to you,” at which Gideon semi-panics. A reversion to their old dynamic may be more comfortable than risking more hurt by inviting intimacy. Harrow reminds her they are the last hope of the Ninth, and Gideon answers that she has no home or family. When Harrow says, “I need you to trust me,” Gideon answers, “I need you to be trustworthy.” That’s the second half of the axiom, the part that everyone seems to forget when they’re asking for trust: that it’s a thing to be earned. Instead of recoiling, Harrow asks, “In what way can I earn your trust?” And that’s the whole of any relationship in a nutshell — shared vulnerability. At that moment (and this is important) Gideon remembers Harrow metaphorically unmasked at age 9 — which is when her parents died. It’s a pivotal moment.
- Lest anyone think that Tamsyn Muir can’t write, or that these books are all clever snark and odd references, read this aloud: “In the thick dimness of the room she watched the black-garbed girl in front of her struggle around a thing that had settled over them like a net; a thing that had fused between them like a badly broken limb, shattered numerous times, healing gnarled and awful. Gideon recognised these strictures all of a sudden: the rope tying her to Harrow and back to the bars of the House of the Ninth. They stared at each other with shared panic” (p. 209). History, cycles of abuse, retaliation, and all the traps of shared trauma, wrapped up in lovely prose.
- Gideon finally reads the note she stuck in her pocket, and finds her own name in a 10,000 year old partially-torn letter.
Chapter 20
After a slightly-shortened sleep, Harrow and Gideon are back in the facility, where Dulcinea Septimus approaches them with an offer to share resources on a challenge that Dulcinea isn’t strong enough to complete on her own. If Harrow and Gideon are successful, they get the first turn with the key, and then they agree to give it to Dulcinea. The challenge combines avulsion (in the form of a constant dissolution of matter [as in, the physical body]) with an entropy field which drains the necromancer’s magic.
- Harrow explains explicitly what she learned in the last challenge: how to ride another living soul, and how to make regenerating bone. “The outcome literally nobody wanted,” according to Gideon (p. 212).
- Dulcinea greets Harrow and Gideon with an enthusiastic soliloquy about ghosts: “The idea that someone is still here and furious . . . or that something has been lurking here forever. Maybe it’s that I find the idea comforting . . . that thousands of years after you’re gone . . . is when you really live. That your echo is louder than your voice” (p. 213).
- Gideon gets a peek down Dulcinea’s collar and realizes she has a hatch key and one other, which means that she’s finished at least one trial.
- Dulcinea offered the partnership first to Palamedes Sextus, who refused it because “he won’t siphon” (p. 221). Not soul siphoning, but using someone else’s thalergy (life force) to power one’s magic. Harrow doesn’t want to do it using Gideon, but Gideon consents.
- Harrow: “I have never done this before. The process will be imperfect. You will be in . . . pain.”
- “How do you know?”
- Harrowhark said, “The Second House is famed for something similar, in reverse. The Second necromancer’s gift is to drain her dying foes to strengthen and augment her cavalier —“
- “Rad —“
- “It’s said they all die screaming,” said Harrow.
- “Nice to know that the other Houses are also creeps,” said Gideon. (p. 223)
- Harrow still doesn’t want to do it and asks why Gideon is willing. “Probably because you asked.” This is an interesting passage, because Gideon gives Harrow an emotionally honest answer, and it’s something Harrow isn’t ready to hear. She retreats to sarcasm: “That’s all it takes, Griddle? That’s all you demand? This is the complex mystery that lies in the pit of your psyche?” I want to think it’s because Harrow is only now beginning to really understand just how much damage her coldness and cruelty have done to Gideon, and despite it all, Gideon is still gallant and honest. We’ve seen before how Harrow reacts when she feels upended or vulnerable — back to her default setting.
- Despite Harrow’s reversion to cruelty, Gideon doesn’t follow suit. “That’s all I ever demanded,” and to maintain face suffixed it with, “you asswipe” (pp. 223-224). The path to intimacy is indeed fraught and twisty.
- “You’re all right. Gideon, Gideon . . .you’re so young. Don’t give yourself away. Do you know it’s not worth it . . . none of this is worth it, at all. It’s cruel. It’s so cruel. You are so young — and vital — and alive. Gideon, you’re all right . . . remember this, and don’t let anyone do it to you ever again. I’m sorry. We take so much. I’m so sorry” (p. 226). Bookmark this passage. And we should probably talk about it in comments later. Dulcinea is on to something.
- Harrow carries Gideon back to their quarters without using skeletons or magic. Cute.
- Meme alert: “Harrow, you can’t just ask someone why they want to be a Lyctor” (p. 230).
- Not even Harrow understands what was the point of the trial. So what was it? Will we ever find out? Also, note that Harrow is genuinely frightened that Gideon almost died and, if she had, it would have been at Harrow’s request. Pin that. And notice how Harrow reacts to trauma by withdrawing or projecting.
Chapter 21
At Harrow’s request, Camilla of the Sixth checks on Gideon, which makes Gideon realize that Harrow must have been really frightened. They go to the cafeteria, where Coronabeth wants an access key. Teacher refuses — one key per House. Corona tries to seduce Palamedes into getting her the same keys as Ianthe has, infuriating the Second House, but Palamedes refuses, and tells her that each key is unique; except for one or two, they’ve all been claimed, which surprises Gideon and the others. Corona concludes that the challenges have to be solved communally, but Teacher repeats that there are no rules. Marta asks what would keep them from taking keys from each other by force, and Teacher responds, “Nothing.” Palamedes, Camilla, and Gideon go to the morgue and find Marta and Judith leaving after having searched the bodies of Abigail and Magnus for their keys and not finding any. Judith asks for Palamedes’ support in gathering up the keys and taking charge; Palamedes refuses, and says he won’t help anyone in the process. Palamedes examines Magnus’ body and takes evidence, looking for traces of the key. He asks Gideon to look after Dulcinea, since Silas has made her a target. And he confirms that Abigail and Magnus were murdered, and their wounds contained a host of bone fragments from different “osseous sources.” The teens of the Fourth House, eavesdropping, run away.
- “’The Eighth doesn’t train cavaliers,’ said Camilla, even more shortly than before. ‘The Eighth breeds batteries. Genetic match for the necromancer. He’s been accessing his cavalier since he was a child. The Eighth probably does have brain damage. It’s not his brain they need. And Lady Septimus . . . is too willing to believe in fairy stories. Same as always’” (p. 235). Lots of interesting information packed in here, between the Eighth House, the paragon of orthodoxy, using cavaliers not for their swords but for their life energies, and the Seventh House embracing beautiful fantasy.
- Judith to Palamedes: “The community needs this over and done with….It needs someone who can take command, end this, and send everyone back in one piece. Will you consider working with me?” Palamedes: “My conscience doesn’t permit me to help anyone do what we have all embarked upon.” Judith: “You don’t understand —“ Palamedes: “Captain, God help you when you understand. My only consolation is that you won’t be able to put any responsibility on my head” (p. 241). So: between this episode and the refusal to do the siphoning challenge, it’s apparent that Palamedes has figured out something and wants no part of it.
- Teacher: “Oh, Emperor of the Nine Houses, Necrolord Prime, God who became man and man who became God — we have loved you these long days. The sixteen gave themselves freely to you. Lord, let nothing happen that you did not anticipate” (p. 239). Stick a pin in this.
Chapter 22
The next morning, a terrible-looking Isaac Tettares meets Gideon and asks her to come with him — Jeannemary, his cavalier, wants her because someone’s dead. He also collects Coronabeth from the swimming pool. Naberius, plus the cavaliers of the Second and Eighth Houses, follow along to the incinerator, where Jeannemary guards the cremated remains of someone. No one is inclined to believe her. Naberius is dismissive, Colum uninterested. Coronabeth confesses to Gideon that she thinks they’re all in trouble. A storm breaks, and in the cafeteria Camilla tells Gideon that both necromancer and cavalier of the Seventh House are missing. The two go to the conservatory where Dulcinea often resides. There they find her collapsed on the floor in the rain. She says, “He never came back,” and faints.
- Gideon gets a little private time with her two-hander, after which she takes a bath, “the strangest thing she’d ever felt in her life, like being buoyed on a warm current, like being slowly boiled” (p. 246).
- “Naberius had finished his length of the pool, too, and had struck through the water co come and see them. His swimming shirt was a lot tighter than Coronabeth’s and his fifty-seven abdominal muscles rippled under it importantly. He gave a long and rather obvious stretch, but stopped when he realised nobody was looking” (p. 249). No real point here, except it’s just so Naberius.
- “Careless of her bare feet and her sodden clothes, Corona marched over to the first maladjusted teen. ‘Sword at ease, Sir Chatur,’ she said kindly. ‘You’re fine’” (p. 250). Even though Ianthe treats Coronabeth like a bimbo, she has real interpersonal skills (rare for this crowd) and leadership ability.
- Meme alert: Naberius: “No need for all this Fourth House sound and fury” (p. 252) MacBeth, Act V, scene 5, the “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy.
- I want to note that Isaac and Jeannemary carry their grief physically: “They looked worn down to stubs, like ground-down teeth, greyed out of their obnoxious vitality and youth” (p. 253). Isaac says the he sees things from the corners of his eyes, and keeps hearing things.
Chapter 23
Protesilaus is missing. Dulcinea, now seriously ill and in Teacher’s care, reports that she sent him into the facility and hasn’t seen him since. The ashes from the incinerator are confirmed to be human, but they’re from two people, and both died some time ago — Ianthe thinks three months, but Palamedes says she’s out by eight weeks; therefore, they died about a month ago. We don’t know exactly how long the group has been at Canaan House, but Palamedes says the deaths predate their stay. Silas Octakiseron reveals that Dulcinea gave him her keys. The Third and Fourth argue over how they should proceed; Judith Deuteros of the Second again wants to call for help. She declares military authority and will take responsibility for what happens. She turns to Palamedes to demand the Sixth hand over its keys. When he refuses, she challenges him. Coronabeth tries to intervene to stop the Second. Ianthe won’t let Naberius step in to represent, saying she wants the situation to play out. Judith tells Palamedes to default: “You are a good man. Don’t put your cavalier through this. . . Give her some dignity.” “Oh I am,” he answers. Camilla reveals herself to be as great a fighter as Gideon thinks she is but, in the duel, both cavaliers are wounded. Camilla wins. Palamedes takes the Second’s facility key. Immediately, Naberius challenges the Sixth for their keys.
- An observation: Muir writes terrific fight scenes. She worked with Lissa Harris, an expert in swordplay, to craft the fight scenes. Harris wrote about her experiences in an article for Tor.com. Muir has credited the brisk clarity of the fight sequences to Harris. This one is particularly brutal.
- We’ve seen tension building in the Third House. Battle lines are now drawn, and Coronabeth is on the losing side. Also, Ianthe: “Alas. I have a bad personality and a stupefying deficit of attention” (p. 260). Half this statement is true.
- When Judith makes a bid, she doesn’t take half-measures. The terms she sets for the duel are extreme and cruel. Too bad she misjudged the Sixth.
- On that subject, Palamedes is absolutely furious, in part because Cam’s been wounded, in part because the Second has been stupid. “Two good cavs hurt, yours and mine, all because the Second tried to beat up the weak kid first…. You fought Camilla because you wanted a quick win, and you didn’t even watch her first, you just assumed you could take her. And I can’t stand people who assume….Isn’t it funny how it took the Second, of all houses, to blow this whole thing open? You’ve stuck a target on the back of everyone toting a key. It’s a free-for-all now, and it’s your fault, and you’ll pay for it” (p. 265).
Chapter 24
At Ianthe’s instigation, Naberius has challenged the Sixth. Coronabeth protests, but Ianthe overpowers her opposition “and Gideon realised they’d just lost her, somehow” (p. 268). Camilla is willing to fight again despite being wounded, but Gideon takes her place, and Jeannemary backs her up. Naberius folds. Everyone leaves in a snit, except for the Fourth, Sixth, and Ninth. Isaac and Jeannemary ask about the challenges, and Palamedes explains that he’s been through all of them except for the one he wouldn’t do (the thalergy siphoning challenge of Chapter 20) and, although the tests are instructive, you need the written theorems behind the locked doors to really understand them. There are eight tests, one developed by each house, presumably. Palamedes thinks that, taken together, they add up to a “megatheorem, “the key to the secrets of Lyctorhood” (p. 271). All the door keys are accounted for except one. Our Scoobies have to figure out 1) who killed Abigail and Magnus, 2) where Protesilaus is, and 3) who was burned in the incinerator (there was more than one body). The Fourth kids confirm that they saw Protesilaus go into the facility and not come out. The group decides to split up: Gideon, Isaac and Jeannemary will search the facility, while Harrow, Palamedes, and Camilla will guard Dulcinea, who is still in danger.
- “Gideon silently willed her necromancer to put her knucklebones where her mouth was and, for the first time in her life — for the first real time — do what Gideon needed her to do.
- “And Harrowhark rose to the occasion like an evening star” (p. 268). This is not the same relationship we had at the start.
- Gideon pays her back with a hug: “Harrow had not struggled, but gone limp, like a prey animal feigning death” (p. 275).
- No one likes Naberius or Silas.
- Isaac and Jeannemary report that Ianthe is stalking everyone .
- Harrow tells Palamedes that, with Camilla wounded, she could just attack them and take their keys when they’re alone, and asks why he would risk that. Palamedes answers that he doesn’t trust Silas or Ianthe, but he does trust her. “Beneath the paint, Gideon could see that Harrow had changed colours a number of times through this little speech. She went from being a rather ashen skeleton to a skeleton who was improbably green around the gills. To an outsider, it would have just been a blank Ninth House mask tinging from darque mystery to cryptique mystery, giving nothing away, but to Gideon it was like watching fireworks go off” (pp. 273-274). Palamedes’ trust has affected Harrow, yes, but this is also a testament to Gideon’s powers of observation, especially her observation of Harrow.
- As the group divides forces, Gideon watches Isaac tending to Jeannemary and Palamedes tending to Camilla, while Harrow is pointedly not looking at her. “She still didn’t understand what she was meant to do or think or say: what duty really meant, between a cavalier and a necromancer, between a necromancer and a cavalier” (p. 276). This means that, although as a team they’re working better together, something is still missing.
- At this point, I think we can say that Palamedes and Camilla are good people. Palamedes has worked out all the tests, so it’s probable that he’s figured out the secret to lyctorhood, and won’t help anyone else. Is this because he wants the prize for himself? Is it because he wants no one to succeed?
- It’s also appropriate at this point to remember the “Appearance vs Reality” theme as it applies to the Third House.
Chapter 25
Down in the facility, Isaac is twitchy and paranoid as they search. He wards all the doorways they pass, to warn them if anything sneaks up. Despite the wards, they come on a message written in blood: DEATH TO THE FOURTH HOUSE. The lights flick off, Isaac panics and runs — straight into an enormous skeletal monster. He tries to fight it but is speared through in at least fifty places. Gideon grabs Jeannemary and runs. Once out of the facility she debates taking Jeannemary straight to Dulcinea’s room but worries about running into Naberius or Colum, so she takes her to the room behind the tapestried door, where she tells Jeannemary they’re safe, but she absolutely doesn’t feel safe. Jeannemary cries herself into unconsciousness, Gideon closes her eyes for a few minutes, and wakes to find Jeannemary murdered, pinned through with bone spears, and a message in her blood that says, SWEET DREAMS.
This chapter is heavy on suspense and violence, and really should be read slowly and deliciously. In the midst of the atmospherics and action, we learn some important information, so here are some things I want to point out:
- Isaac thinks the skeleton servitors are unnatural and capable of listening in on conversations.
- The Fourth House primarily fights in the Cohort: “The Fourth isn’t cannon fodder. If we’re first on the ground we need to stay alive” (p. 279).
- Isaac knows before either Gideon or Jeannemary that they’re not alone; he senses movement, but it doesn’t trip the wards and it’s not from the other houses.
- About the facility itself, Isaac says, “Bodies were brought into here — a long time ago. A lot of bone matter. The First feels like a graveyard all over, but this is worse” (p. 280).
- The intimacy between Jeannemary and Isaac makes Gideon uncomfortable: “Sweat was openly dripping down the sides of Isaac’s temples now. His cavalier threw her arm over his shoulder, and he buried his hot wet face in her shoulder. Gideon again found this difficult to look at” (p. 280). Is this normal necro/cav behavior? Is it that, seeing what the relationship is supposed to be, Gideon realizes what she doesn’t have with Harrow?
- Isaac does an unbelievably brave thing in fighting the bone construct, and has some success, right up until the moment he doesn’t.
- “You need spares when you’re in the Fourth House” (p. 286). That’s because they all die in the war. (We haven’t heard much about the war, but the war is the reason the Emperor needs more lyctors.
- The “sweet dreams” message is obviously meant for Gideon.
Closing Thoughts
Now that the Roller Coaster of Tragedy and Suspense is picking up speed, the last third of the book is a wild ride. This is a good time to revisit a few points.
Two themes: 1) Jane Austen’s Enemies to Besties: are we on track? and 2) Appearance vs Reality: all the seeds are there for some rapid reevaluation on the part of the reader. In other words, we see Gideon and Harrow punk the other houses with their goth black-nun gig, but it’ll be a shock to see the other ways in which Tamsyn Muir has punked us as readers, playing on our assumptions about people.
How quickly mutual trust falls apart under pressure! Remember, with the exception of the Ninth, all the house heirs have known each other, or at least known about each other. (By the way, if you don’t have access to the “Cohort Intelligence Files” written by Judith Deuteros before leaving for Canaan House, and found in the Kindle edition, let me know. Parts of it are hilarious in retrospect, and it all follows the Appearance vs. Reality theme.
Finally, now that we’ve seen Gideon and Harrow in action for a while, we can make some assumptions about them. One of Muir’s techniques throughout these novels is to run the point-of-view through the character who knows the least in the situation; this demands of readers additional attention, care, and subtlety. At this point, despite that we’re seeing through Gideon’s eyes and perception and history, we should be able to see Harrow more sympathetically than before. She’s not just Gideon’s nemesis; she’s the leader of a house on the edge of extinction, responsible for the death of 10,000 years of history, not to mention all the (ancient) house members who are depending on her — in short, she’s willing to sacrifice herself to save the Ninth, and doing anything less is failure.
We also know that Gideon, despite her lack of education and interest in things necromantic, is observant, compassionate, brave, and kind. Despite her athleticism, she’s not a dumb jock, but is curious and discerning. Despite never having been loved, she’s proving to be good at friendship, and is a decent judge of character.
Below the fold I’ve started a listing of House characteristics, and all the things we can deduce about each. I’ll update it as we go through the series. It’s for your reference.
On to comments!
First House
House of the Emperor, his servants, and his Lyctors. Lyctors: immortal. Potential is unclear.
Seat: Canaan House, where they can’t return. The reason is a unclear.
Skull: no adornment.
Planet: a water planet close enough to Dominicus that it doesn’t freeze. Come on, we all know what it is.
Second House
Colors: white and scarlet, martial. Home of the Cohort, God’s armies.
Characteristics: discipline
Necro: Judith Deuteros, age 22, (Judith beheaded Holofernes), cavalier: Marta Dyas, age 27, (Marta=martial).
Specialty: Spirit magic, use of thanergy in battle. They siphon their enemies to strengthen their cavaliers.
Skull: A Spartan-style helmet
Planet:
Third House
Colors: Violet?
Characteristics: wealth and flash
Necro: Ianthe and Coronabeth Tridentarius, princesses of Ida, both age 21, cavalier: Naberius Tern, age 23, Resurrection-pure line.
Specialty: Spirit magic, “animaphilia” — lover of the soul
Skull: Jewels in the eyeholes.
Planet:
Fourth House
Colors: Blue
Characteristics: courage
Necro: Isaac Tettares, Baron of Tisis, age 13, (Biblical Isaac foreshadows Christ’s sacrifice), Resurrection-pure line; cavalier: Jeannemary Chateur, knight of Tisis, age 14 (ref to Jeanne d’Arc), Resurrection-pure line. Tisis: refers to either tuberculosis (unlikely), a type of moth (also unlikely), or ref to a character in Brent Weeks’ Lightbringer series (more likely).
Specialty: Spirit magic? It’s unclear, but Abigail Pent was training Isaac, so it’s logical.
Skull: Wears a laurel wreath
The Fourth supplies soldiers and necromancers to the Cohort. The Fourth has large families, since so many die in battle.
Planet:
Fifth House
Colors: nothing formal, but sensible brown works.
Characteristics: Intelligence. Temporal power.
Necro: Abigail Pent, age 37, Koniortos Court cavalier: Magnus Quinn, age 38. Husband and wife.
Specialty: Sprit magic, speaking to the dead. Abigail is a famed historian.
Skull: Wears a decorated headband.
Planet:
Sixth House
Colors: gray
Characteristics: scholarship, rare book librarian and conservatorship skills, medical expertise
Necro: Palamedes Sextus, master warden, age 20, (Palamedes: genius Greek soldier in the Trojan War), cavalier: Camilla Hect, age 20. Second cousins
Specialty: Flesh magic, emphasis on science and magic.
Skull: Clutches a skull in its teeth.
Planet:
Seventh House
Colors: seafoam green
Characteristics: love of beauty, especially the fleeting type. Fans of the beautiful death and heirs with hereditary cancer.
Necro: Dulcinea Septimus, duchess of Rhodes, age 27 (Don Quixote’s nonexistent beloved); cavalier: Protesilaus Ebdoma, military veteran and famed fighter, age 39 (Protesilaus: the first Greek to die in the Trojan war). Rhodes: island in the Aegean, site of the Colossus, visited by both Herod the Great and the Apostle Paul.
Specialty: flesh magic, with emphasis on the “beguiling corpse.”
Skull: A rose in one eyehole.
Planet:
Eighth House
Colors: White
Characteristics: orthodox purity, dogmatism, “White Templars,” the “Forgiving House”
Necro: Silas Octakiseron, age 16; cavalier: Colum Asht, age 32, 34, or 37. (Colum: dove, a sacrificial animal)
Specialty: spirit magic, focus on soul siphoning.
Skull: Blindfolded, denoting blind loyalty.
Planet:
Ninth House
Colors: black
Characteristics: devotion to the Locked Tomb.
Necro: Harrowhark Nonagesimus, age 17 (the Harrowing of Hell — Jesus’ liberation of souls during the three days he descended into hell, and hark! a doleful sound); cavalier: Gideon Nav, age 19 (Gideon: an Israelite prophet, military triumph of a small force over a larger one).
Specialty: bone magic.
Skull: lacking a mandible.
Planet: a cold rock distant from Dominicus.
Previous installments
Gideon the Ninth, Act 2
Gideon the Ninth, Act 1
Introduction to The Locked Tomb
READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE
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