"...Yeah."

"The Ninth's been my - been our - whole life."

"I know."

"It's hard to remember there's a whole world outside it."

"...Even with the comics - I don't know what it'll be like."

"Me neither. But I know I'll be with you."

"We'll remind each other how to feel like real people." Light kiss. 

"Always do."

The trip only lasts about an hour, long enough for Ellynhark to feel the thanergy void of space creeping in around her but not long enough for the ill effects to become too pronounced. The shutters on the window open when they've entered orbit around the First House, revealing it to be a great expanse of blue and milky white, lit to blinding perfection by the torrent of Dominicus's light. Spread out beside them are the seven other shuttles bearing the other houses, all paused before descent.

Oh fuck that's bright. 

Gideon reflexively throws her hands up in front of her eyes.

"That's why we brought the veils," Ellyn reminds her as she fiddles with her own.

"Or..." She digs blindly in her pocket for her very cool mirrored sunglasses. She flips them open with one hand and slides them onto her face before opening her eyes and giving Ellyn a little wink. 

Sigh. "You are insufferable," she says, but there's a trace of fondness in her tone.

"You know you love it."

"It is my curse to bear, I'm afraid."

"Everyone else will be jealous of even your curses."

"What a shame for them."

Kiss?

Just a quick one. The shuttle is starting its descent.

She can be very efficient. 

The view out the windows grows briefly even brighter with reentry, and then the blaze cools to reveal their destination. It is sickly green and grey, a jungle overgrown into an opulent city, tangling around its neck as they both choked and died. They land in a once-grand docking bay set over a cliff by a shining blue ocean, all but eight bays left to wrack and ruin. Five other shuttles can be seen already landed before the Ninth's sets down with a clunk of engaging clamps.

Ellyn sets herself and faces the ramp, which begins to open.

Gideon's never seen so much water. 

Still, she falls into place a step behind Ellyn, back straight and expression serious in a way she rarely bothers with on the Ninth. 

There is a row of skeleton constructs waiting outside as an honor guard, the first holding a banner with the emblem of the Ninth. A bald priest with a neat white beard and white robes cinched shut by a golden belt embroidered with a rainbow of color scurries over to greet them. “Hail to the Lady of the Ninth House,” he warbles delightedly. “Hail to her cavalier. Oh, hail, hail! Hail to the child of the far-off and shadowed jewel of our Empire! What a very... happy... day.”

"Hail to the House of the First," responds Ellynhark. "And its master and servants."

"Hail to the Lord Over The River! And welcome to her House. Welcome to the Lady Nonagesimus and Gideon the Ninth. I am a keeper of the First House and a servant to the Necrolord Highest, and you must call me Teacher; not due to my own merits of learning, but because I stand in the stead of the merciful God Above Death, and I live in hope that one day you will call her Teacher. And may you call her Master, too, and may I call you then Ellynhark the First! Be at rest, Lady Nonagesimus; be at rest, Gideon the Ninth. Presently all will gather in the sanctum.”