She's here, for as long as Ellyn needs. 

It takes an hour or two.

"...We need to go get things under control."

" - Where's Aiglamene?"

"Dunno. Haven't seen her."

"We'll need to find her. And we'll need to tell people your parents killed themselves - we should get the other important people lined up behind us first, so you aren't questioned too much - I can take anyone who isn't Aiglamene, though, if they're trying to get in your way - "

"-No, we can't let anyone know. If the other Houses find out, that my parents are dead and it's just- you and me, they'll... It'll be the end of the Ninth."

She thinks. 

" - Can you puppet them? There's theorems - stave off decay, advanced construct programming, especially if you're keeping line of sight - the voice will be harder, but we could also keep them out of sight most of the time - could say they took some vows and now no one can see them but that might be hard to keep up for very long - "

"I- yes. I can do that. We can say they're in seclusion. Until I get it working. And then a vow of silence after. We'll need Aiglamene. And... Crux."

Ugh. She doesn't like him, but...

"Sure."

"...Aiglamene's mad at me. I can - clean up, if you can find them? - And are we saying, uh, the cavalier dude whose name I forgot - anyways, puppeting him would be harder to get away with."

"Mortus. Yeah. We'll have to- deal with his wife and Ortus."

"...Deal with like make up a story, or handle them being upset over Mortus killing himself, or deal with like convenient accident kinda deal with - "

"Second. Maybe third if that doesn't work."

Nod. "...I'm no good at talking. But - just tell me what to do."

"We need to get the bodies. Then Aiglamene and Crux. Then the rest."

She nods, then slowly lets go of Ellyn.

She slumps just a little bit, but stands anyway. There's too much to do for that.

Gideon will handle as much as she can.

Back to the study and

cut the ropes, first thing. She'll see what she can do for preservation.

Gideon has her knife, and she's strong enough to lower them down. She gets Ellyn's mother first - then, quietly, as she's cutting down Ellyn's father - as she's sending furtive glances at the Body, and she doesn't know if she's insane or not because Ellyn isn't reacting to it - and as this puts the noose that Ellyn had been holding in her line of sight - 

Quietly, she asks, "What happened?"

Oh, she was afraid of this question.

"The Tomb... My family are the keepers. You being there- It didn't matter. It's our responsibility. Our penitence to do."

"Well, my responsibility is keeping you safe!" She gets Ellyn's father down, then starts working on the rope itself, so they'll be able to hide those too. "You're important. You need to be here and not in trouble and most importantly alive." Angry yank on the stupid knot, before she takes a deep breath and starts trying to just cut through the whole thing. Under her breath: "It's not like the sun went out or anything," she grumbles. Even more under her breath: "We're so far out that you'd probably be fine anyways, so who really cares?"

"I have to care," she says quietly.

"...Why, though?" None of them deserve Ellyn.