to Ellyn's forehead.

"Tamerlane..."

The Body

smiles

at Ellyn, and at Gideon.

And then it's gone.

She smiles back - and at Ellyn, and gives her girlfriend a sideways hug. "She knows, too, how great you are."

"Yeah," Ellyn says. "I guess so."

Quick cheek kiss. 

Then: actually breakfast for real this time? 

Assuming nothing else jumps out of the walls at them.

She'll be on guard for that. 

That's her cavalier.

As it happens, they do make it to the dining hall without further interruption.

Then: food time! And planning their day - Gideon wants to head back down to the labs.

Yeah, sounds reasonable. They can take a shot at one of the others, since the transference theorem is going well.

Move up in numerical order, or jump around? (If the correspondence between Lab Two and a Lyctor from the Second House holds, they might have an advantage with whatever lies in Lab Nine...)

Ellyn has a slight preference for going in order, but they might not be the only ones down there today.

...Might also be good to do a survey of all the rooms, and initial poking at what challenges they might hold, especially now that others definitely know about the facility - there's a risk someone else might mess with things, or try to monopolize a lab. The better an idea they have of what's where, the better they'll be able to spot changes - and it'll give them some initial information for bargaining with the other Houses. 

True. They did glance at everything, but they can do that again in a little more detail.

So survey first (especially if they beat everyone else down there), then do Lab Three?

It's plan-shaped; let's do it.

She finishes breakfast quickly. 

Then down to the labs.

Most of them, it is... not exactly immediately obvious what the task is. One is a sloping corridor down to some kind of fenced-off area. Another is a single, lone tooth on a work table. Another has three careful piles of bone dust. Yet another is two chalices at opposite ends of a long room, one full of fire. And so on.

Well, Lab Three is... Maybe at least the mechanics can be figured out? Given there's two chalices, one with something and one without - the goal might be switching which has which state, or lighting both, or extinguishing both. Either some kind of puzzle, or a particular necromantic trick - if the labs are meant to be done in order, it might also be further developing on Transference/ Winnowing? A more advanced technique in the same category.

Ellyn would not be opposed to stopping and poking some more.

Yeah, that's her thought. So: investigate the chalices first?

Mhm.

They are ornately jeweled, one in rubies, the other in sapphires, and both welded quite firmly to the floor. Both are filled with a white fluid that appears to be human lymph. The one on fire is burning the lymph without consuming it. After some squinting, Ellyn pronounces this to be somehow a thalergetic reaction.