Gideon shows up very quickly thereafter - Ellyn hasn't seen her yet today, which isn't unusual. Ellyn didn't hear her entering the archives, which also isn't unusual, nor did she hear Gideon's approach.

In fact, the first sign that Gideon hasn't somehow left the planet today is when age jumps down from wherever she'd been lurking to land quietly next to Ellyn. 

She promptly starts looking at the book spines. "What's the study plan for today?" she asks, teasingly. There's a few books (ones she's probably not supposed to have) peeking out of her small backpack.

"Bones, Gideon. Same as yesterday." Judging from the stack, specifically she's starting to shade from construct programming to wards, with a collection of the letters of Mathias Nonius and some of his contemporaries to break things up.

"Well, luckily I found just the books for that..." Being unable to perform necromancy hasn't stopped Gideon from studying it (nor from trying, repeatedly and sometimes messily), and she plops next to Ellyn and pulls out one of the tomes in her bag - 

- One she is absolutely definitely not supposed to have. Apparently she's figured out some method or another of breaking into the locked parts of the library; appropriately, she's holding (carefully, with gloves on) a very, very old book, a work journal penned by one of the Ninth's early necromancers and ward specialists.

"Is that- paper?"

"Make sure you wear your gloves."

"You really shouldn't have this."

Not that that stops her from putting her gloves on and taking the book.

"What the nuns don't know, won't hurt me." She settles down with her own thoroughly illicit reading material. 

There's lots of things the nuns don't know that could hurt them. But at least for tonight, Ellyn can put that aside.

Heavy thoughts aren't good for reading, after all, and these books deserve their full attention. 

Ellyn scratches notes on her pad of flimsy as she goes, occasionally muttering to herself under her breath about some technical point or other.

Gideon takes fewer notes overall, doesn't mutter - but she's pretty clearly absorbed.

Well yeah. Not like she can use any of these theorems. Still, Ellyn much prefers these moods over when Gideon wants to run around and hit things.

After a while of this, she pulls out one of the knucklebones she carries and frowns at it, causing it to dissolve into fine white powder. This she begins carefully sprinkling out, in one of the patterns the journal referenced. Theory is all well and good, but perfection takes practice. (A small drop of blood leaks out of her nose as she works.)

Gideon pauses and raises her head to observe this, brow furrowed in concentration - 

Then she flips a chunk of pages back in her book, scrawls something out on flimsy, and passes it to Ellyn once she seems at a stopping point - a comment on technique, and reference notes for other versions of that pattern, later developments on it. 

"...Thanks."

"No problem."

"You've been through these already?"

"I got in last night."

"Nothing better to do, huh?"

"Aiglamene put a fancy new lock on the weapons room. Figured if I was gonna spend an hour on wards and locks and all I'd spend it over here instead."

"Of course that's your motivation."

"I would've gotten in sooner or later anyways. It's important to switch back and forth and all." She says this with all the lofty wisdom a ten year old can muster, which is certainly far more than a nine year old's (in her not particularly humble opinion).

Ellyn huffs. "Only because you don't care about anything."

She frowns a little bit. "I do too!" 

"Then why don't you concentrate?"

"Switching back and forth's how I concentrate! And it's unhealthy to do all one thing. Aiglamene says the brain works better if the body's in good order, and vice versa. And I checked 'cause that sounded like an excuse but the medical book said so too! And it's been working. I do half day with Aiglamene and half day in the library and I've been reading faster and thinking faster and getting strong faster. And I switch among a bunch of stuff so I'm not just getting one muscle really really really bulked up, I'm getting all of them, which is what you need to win. And this way I don't need any total do nothing rest 'cause my brain rests when my body's working, and my body rests when my brain's working, and my arms rest when my legs are working and my memorizing rests when my synthesizing is working. I need way less sleep now too." She has her arms crossed, defensively, and she's speaking quickly enough that Ellyn would have to shout over her to get a word in edgewise.

Ellyn narrows her eyes. "So you're just mad you can't actually do necromancy," she summarizes, maturely.

(Necromancy is the one thing Ellynhark can do that Gideon can't, which makes it the only thing she can reliably do better at than Gideon. This tends to cause friction, in both directions.)

She kicks Ellyn's hip, maturely.

She carefully and calmly closes the journal and sets it safely to the side before flicking a knucklebone that grows into a clawed hand mideair at Gideon's face.

Gideon is familiar with this routine, and had already set aside her book and is now trying to duck the clawed hand while lunging for Ellyn.

Studying's over, now it's time to fight. Theory is all well and good, but perfection takes practice.

Gideon has been practicing a lot. 

So has Ellynhark, of course. She's up to eight full-size constructs at once now, when they tumble out of the confines of the stacks.

" - Hey! Watch the books!" she grunts out, in between trying to bite Ellyn.

"You watch the books," she snarls back, shaking her head to try to fling the blood sweat into Gideon's face.

"I got them for you, you stupid-head!"

She freezes for an instant-

-then a blooming bone fence obscures Gideon's vision of her and she scrambles away and out of sight.

- !

Gideon stomps her feet, does not rub at her eyes, and then starts gathering together books. 

Ellyn is absolutely avoiding Gideon over the next few days.

She still finds the paper book she'd been reading - plus Gideon's, and another on wards, with Gideon's notes on them, in her cell one day after prayers. On top of the stack is another small piece of flimsy with "Stop sulking, stupid-head."

MmmmmrrrrRRRRRR. Why this.

Ellyn spends the rest of her day locked in, reading. She hides the note beneath her mattress and resolves to not think about it.

She stops actively hiding from Gideon the next day.

Gideon quietly shows up next to her the next time she's in the library. She doesn't immediately offer to show Ellyn the books she's holding. 

Ellyn doesn't immediately attack her with skeletons, so fair's fair.

She settles down next to Ellyn to read in a sullen silence. 

Yeah.

More than she deserves, really.

After a bit, Gideon nudges a small book over to Ellyn. "You're still on wards, right?"

"Mm."

She takes the book, carefully not touching Gideon.

"...Think it's an experiment record. All the numbers are making my head hurt. You're better at the actual math, so. Maybe you can get something out of it?"

"Of course I can," she huffs. "There's no way whoever wrote this was smarter than me."

She hides a tiny smile in her book. "They're nowhere close."

Hmpf. Then they can read together for a while.

At least until one of the nuns come calling for Ellynhark to attend her parents.

"...See you later." She tries not to make it sound like a question. 

"Maybe." Ellyn does the same.

Things are relatively cordial between the girls for the next few months, at least. Which is to say, no one picks a fight on purpose or intentionally draws blood. There are brief spats and small scuffles, but nothing that outlasts the day.

Some time after Ellyn's tenth birthday (marked chiefly by a longer prayer service than usual), Gideon will notice that it's getting harder to find Ellyn, that she disappears for long stretches and seems more tired than usual during the days.

She tries to follow Ellyn of course - as sneakily as possible. 

She doesn't make it easy- But ultimately Gideon has had a lot more practice. She manages to track her down to the bottommost pit of Drearburh, where the locked tomb all their prayers are addressed to resides. And not even to the outer alcoves, where the most fervent of the penitents will kneel to beg forgiveness, but to the shaft itself, with the stone that must not be rolled away and all the many many traps and wards preceding it.

...This seems like trouble. Like, real trouble. The kind of trouble that could get Ellyn hurt if she isn't careful. 

Gideon trails her for a few days, makes sure no one else sees where Ellyn's going - makes sure Ellyn's doing what Gideon thinks she's doing. 

And then, while Ellyn isn't actively occupied with anything - shortly after she's arrived - Gideon steps out behind her and says - simply, lightly, for all that she's been wracking her brain for the best things to say, instead of just shooting off like Aiglamene is always telling her - "Ellyn."

She whirls around-

-"You shouldn't be here!"

"You're here, so."

"This isn't a joke, Griddle!"

"I'm not joking!" Her faint smile drops into a scowl. "I mean it. I followed you here 'cause you've been acting weird." She barely resists the urge to bite Ellyn over that stupid nickname - she absolutely would've, if she wasn't already concerned.

"Just let me be weird on my own, then."

"I want to help you, stupid-head! Whatever's going on, whatever you're doing."

"You- but-"

"Why."

She hadn't prepared an answer to that one. But... There's something Aiglamene keeps telling her to just say. 

"'Cause you're my friend - even when you're being stupid."

Ellyn visibly has no idea what to do with that.

"And the thing you do with friends is let them help you." At least in her comics, it is. 

"You don't- You shouldn't want to help me. With this."

"Don't care."

"...I care about you. Everything else can rot."

What is she even supposed to say to that. What is she even supposed to do with that.

"Fine," she says, abruptly turning back around. "Stop standing there and follow me, or you'll get caught."

"I wasn't the one who got followed. No one else has noticed, though." Still, she falls in with Ellyn.

It turns out she's been slowly making her way down the corridor, identifying and disarming traps as she goes.

She's pretty solid at that! Especially the 'identifying' part - makes progress a little faster, at least. 

Maybe that'll turn this into a multi-week endeavor instead of a multi-month one.

Very few things can stand up against them both. 

Hm. So it seems.

At least until they get all the way up to the stone blocking the entrance to the actual tomb, which is covered in an immensely complicated blood ward that is apparently completely impenetrable.

Well, she's got flimsy and pencil, and plenty of time - she can at least spend time while Ellyn's expected in prayers examining it, picking apart the symbols and math. 

It seems to be encrypted somehow, or just entirely unrelated to any theory they've seen before. Ellyn gets fed up after a while, and starts throwing her own blood over it, trying to break it by force.

"Try my blood," she suggests, when this inevitably leads to Ellyn getting a little anemic. She's been taking notes for Ellyn on what attempts have what results. (There's not much.) "Using a non-necromancer's blood might at least ellicit a different response..." She has so many books that she's just kinda permanently moved down here; she's got a couple of them on troubleshooting and reverse engineering unknown wards open. (There's some A/B tests with different kinds of blood, which are generally considered basic with both poor specificity and poor sensitivity, also a lot of variation by practitioner, and only identifying stupidly broad categories, but they've got nothing else at this point.)

(She's also got every single book on encryption she could find, especially the older paper books, and has started dodging Aiglamene, doing all her exercises down here when she needs a break, even sleeping with her head pillowed on a - usually open - book. If she has to figure out this theory from the ground up, she will, no matter how bad of a headache it gives her - out of pride or spite as much as anything else at this point. (Her notes contain a lot of potentially novel theories by now, ones that failed initial tests for this fucking ward but might pan out later. She is dreaming about wards, only sometimes helpfully.))

"I seriously doubt that will do anything."

"Whether or not it does will give us information, though." She scowls down at her notes. "Brute forcing it isn't working. But..." Squint. "If it's keyed - that's the big thing A/B testing with different blood kinda works on according to this," she nudges the book on high security encrypted wards (which is itself encrypted, because the author thought he was funny; breaking that code took her a fucking week). "If it's at all different that raises the chance it's keyed, and you can sometimes at least narrow down the shape of the key... Like picking a lock." Gideon has pretty extensive experience with getting through locks despite lacking a key. "Or like brute force breaking encryption - and it's shown no sign of adaptive defenses yet, so might as well do this the incredibly boring way." 

Siiiiiiigggggghhhhh. It's the best idea they've had in a while, much as Ellynhark's frustration wants her to deny it. She's not getting anywhere with her current approaches and she is... trying... to take Gideon at face value. So.

"Fine," she says, grabbing the lancet. "Give me your arm."

Arm: is proferred.

Ellyn slices it expertly, collecting the blood in a plex container.

She doesn't react, other than smiling fondly. (Something about this is... Nice.)

She does keep her tools sharp, so it wouldn't have hurt much. But blood is best fresh from the vein, so Ellyn turns quickly to the stone and dips a finger to begin painting.

...But as soon as she touches the ward, it begins unraveling and the stone shifts with a creak. "What the fuck?"

" - ?!?!"

"Why the fuck did that work?!" She throws her pencil at her pad of flimsy in professionally offended frustration. 

"I don't know! It shouldn't have!" And then Ellyn has to back up hurriedly as the door begins to swing open.

She's outside of probable blast radius so doesn't need to scramble back, though she does get up and collect her most essential notes and blank flimsy and her cast aside pencil in case they need to dart through. She also continues complaining. 

"That's total fucking bullshit - unless it is keyed and I matched it somehow - using someone else's blood, using a non-necromancer's blood - some other trait like blood type - " She scribbles that thought down. "But fucking why?! That isn't secure!" She grabs the encrypted wards book and glares at it. "It reacted immediately so it didn't just give out, but usually you'd also need an action, so somebody can't just steal your blood - wait when did that become best practice - " Angry scribble. 

Ellyn is ignoring her in favor of looking at what the open door reveals: a faint salty tang to the air, a deep and wide pool of water, an island in the center of the pool, a stone altar on the island, a coffin-shaped block of ice on the altar, a burry figure in the ice, chains running from the figures limbs through the ice off the island down into the water.

She'll stop complaining in favor of looking for more traps. (This is the Ninth House. There's always more traps.)

There don't seem to be.

Ellyn is altogether more interested in getting across the pool to the island. No path, so it looks she'll have to swim for it.

This is So Suspicious. 

She'll set aside her book and notes with her robes. (No sense getting them wet, or having them weigh her down.) "Let me go ahead, in case something tries to eat us?" she tries to suggest as she's putting things aside, though it comes out as a bit of a dubious question.  

"There won't be anything else in here," she says, dismissively, not waiting.

She rushes to catch up. 

The saltwater is cold, but there are no lurking monsters or hidden currents to drag the girls down into the depths. They're able to make it safely to the island, and there on the altar lies

the body of a woman, cold and still as death in her prison of ice and her chains,

which they can now see fasten to cuffs at her ankles and her wrists. Her arms are folded in an X over her chest

keeping safe below them a great two-handed sword, nigh as long

as her own body.

"She - "

She's beautiful. 

" - She has my hair - "

Gideon has never seen anyone else with red hair - not in the Ninth House, not in the visiting penitents, not in her comics, not in the Cohort propaganda, not in the pilots who bring them supplies - 

She tries to touch the face, heedless of the ice. 

Her fingers skate across the surface, unable to gain purchase even for an instant.

"Don't touch it!" Ellyn hisses, hand raised like she was about to do the exact same thing.

She lets her hand fall, dejected, to her side. "Shouldn't she - she should wake up." 

"God dies if she wakes up, Gideon, don't you ever pay attention?" That wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, though. Worth it, maybe.

"Not to that stuff," she mumbles, though she's also thinking that between an absent God, and a beautiful doom in front of her - 

Well, she wouldn't try to close the door again, if the Body started to wake up, she doesn't think. (Not unless she was threatening Ellyn, some quiet part of her whispers.)

"We should go," she says, making no move to leave.

" - We've already spent hours down here. We can linger a bit longer."

"...We can come back, too." She continues staring, fixed, at the Body. 

"Yeah. I guess."

Her thoughts calm, then slowly unspool, then her old restlessness is the only thing that finally breaks her even the slightest bit from staring - 

"I want another look at the ward. I want to know why."

Her eyes finally turn from that beautiful face, to that perfect red hair. 

"See if we can put it back, maybe."

" - Would it still open for my blood?" If they can recreate it exactly - if it's reset - perhaps she can run tests. Steal some of Aiglamene's blood, try one of Ellyn's parents' - see if a necromancer is even needed, if Gideon's blood alone, applied by her hand, would work. 

She could figure out why.

"Dunno. Probably."

She tries to look at Ellyn, away from the Body. "I want to test it more. But..." Her gaze is drawn inexorably back. 

"Yeah."

"...Someone will notice if we both stay gone."

"...No one but Aiglamene ever sees me anymore, not in years, and I think she gave up trying to catch me skipping training over a month ago," Gideon says. "Maybe she thinks I'm dead, I dunno. You're the only person I've talked to or let see me since - " She raises her hand in a weak gesture at their surroundings.

"...So no one's gonna notice it's both of us gone." Very quietly, staring at the Body without truly seeing her: "No one'd notice if it was just me for the rest of forever."

"I would."

She actually properly looks up at that, and smiles like Ellyn rarely sees. "I'd notice you were gone, too. I noticed you were going."

Huff.

"Then don't stay here."

"Not if you don't want me to," she promises. Then: "C'mon, let's go look at that ward again. I wanna tell it that it's stupid that it reacted to my blood but not yours."

Off. For real this time, after only one more false start.

Once they're across the pool again and back on the outside of the door, the first step will be to put the rock back where it was. ...Gideon will have to do that bit, as it's too heavy for Ellyn to shift.

That's what she's here for. 

Once the rock thunks back into place, the original blood ward spiderwebs back into its original configuration.

" - Hand me the lancet?"

She passes it over.

"...Test one," she says, with an air of solemnity she doesn't quite feel. This should be - formal, though. Special. "My blood, applied by me, with no conscious manipulation of thalergy nor thanergy."

She cuts her thumb, and she presses the still-wet blood to the center of the ward.

The ward starts peeling apart again.

She pushes the rock closed again, then grabs for her notes. "It's my blood - it doesn't even need necromancy, just the blood - but fucking why, that's ridiculous - "

She looks at the ideas she's scrawled so far. None of them sound sane from a security standpoint, though she can test them with stolen blood at least. But, almost helplessly, she looks at Ellyn.

"I don't know."

"She had my hair."

"...Maybe it's just a coincidence."

"...Maybe."

"...We should test other people's blood, too. I can try to get some of Aiglamene's in training? And - we could see if my blood does other stuff. Like, if you can use it to break random wards, that's different from if it only unlocks this one." She is going to reverse engineer this fucker if it's the last thing she does. 

"Mm. Good idea."

"See if old blood works, too, like does it need both my thalergy and thanergy - does it have to be blood, does any living dying cell of mine work, could you directly pull my thalergy and-or thanergy and push it into the ward - "

In a sudden, almost dizzying rush, she wants Ellyn to try those - to pull her apart enough to get at a representative sample of tissues - she knows they need to get back before anyone misses Ellyn, though, they were already down here for way too long this time -

"Gideon. Stop. I'm not doing any of that today."

She stops, closes her mouth, then with a grumble just resolves to scribble her ideas down in her notebook for later. 

"...Whenever you want to, though. To test it more."

"Mm. Later."

"...I'll wait for you to do the other tests, too."

She nods. But she's kind of out of energy for talking. Or doing things. So she's just going to. Go.

She cleans up everything. Hides the signs of their presence. 

And then, since her brain is jittering and crashing and she's been doing way too much thinking, she shows up to the usually scheduled late evening training time with Aiglamene.

The old soldier doesn't say anything, just narrows her eyes and gestures for Gideon to start warming up.

She's only a little out of shape - she could stretch and do squats and pushups while reading, and she could jump and do situps and lunges and even run a bit while thinking, and in a way she's been so much more intensely driving herself than ever before. 

She's also exhausted and distracted, though. Her body's wound tight, and stretching is both more painful and takes longer than normal. 

Aiglamene is entirely pitiless as she runs Gideon through her forms and drills.

"You've a lot to catch up on, girl."

"I'll do the work." She's pitiless with herself, too.

Aiglamene grunts. "We'll see."

She does today's work, at least, pushing her body until it's even more exhausted than her mind. 

"I expect you back tomorrow," Aiglamene says at the end.

...She needs to wait for Ellyn anyways. If she goes down by herself... 

She might open the Tomb, now that she knows she can. And she said she'd wait. 

"Sure," she says, after an unusually long pause. 

"Unless there's something more important you have to do...?" she says leadinginly.

...She tells Aiglamene a lot, but... Ellyn won't like it if Gideon tattles.

So, she just shakes her head. 

"On your own head be it then, girl. I've little patience to train someone who won't commit."

Why does everyone think she has to be either a dumb brute or a weak intellectual - ?

"I'm committed," she grouches, "But that doesn't mean I can't do other stuff too." She wants to tell Aiglamene - wants to brag about all the progress she's making - wants to show her how hard Gideon's worked, how she's kept up with Ellyn even when that means running and reading at the same time or not sleeping - how stupid the current cavalier primary is, how she's better than Ortus even though he's his father's heir because she's both smarter and stronger than him - 

- She doesn't say any of that. Aiglamene probably wouldn't like hearing it, even if she's told Gideon to train her mind some too. Ellyn definitely doesn't like hearing it. 

"Then show up for your sessions," Aiglamene responds. "There's a reason we have a schedule."

Uggghhhhhh.

"I will."

They'll see, won't they. That's all for today.

She heads to her favorite hiding place in the library, falling asleep curled up in a dark nook. (It's too easy for people to find her in her cell - the room is too big for her to really relax and sleep properly.)

She studies and trains hard, haunting the library when she isn't with Aiglamene, waiting for Ellyn.

It's two days before Ellynhark seeks her out again.

"Let's go."

She perks up. "Lead the way." 

(She's pretty sure they have enough time before her next scheduled training with Aiglamene - and they can hear the bells even down at the Tomb anyways.)

Back to the Tomb. Unpicking all the wards is much faster for having done it before.

What does Ellyn want to test first with the main ward? 

She has a list...

Gideon's ready. 

Then they'll start.

(Ellyn doesn't have the same kind of obligations Gideon does, so she'll likely have to keep track of time on her own.)

(It's hard to keep track, and she knows she should, but...)

Perhaps a brief scuff on bone on stone from the far end of the tunnel will remind her?

Oh fuck fuck fuck make sure the Tomb's closed - "Hide," she hisses at Ellyn, glancing frantically down the tunnel. 

She flattens herself up against the wall.

The light of a handlamp shines down the tunnel.

That's not properly hidden - they're in so much trouble - 

(But Ellyn has a lot more to lose.)

"Stay hidden," she hisses, heading down the tunnel towards the light - she has her dagger but using it is probably a very bad idea - but she can at least intercept -

The light jerks and turns around just before she reaches its edge.

She freezes - she's out of sight of Ellyn - she presses herself against the wall, and she hides very badly. (She'll get caught first, if either is caught, and it won't be suspicious - or she'll be able to ambush whoever is coming - but if they're leaving she needs to follow, make sure they don't tattle, but Ellyn could take the chance to run - )

A pause, and then the sound of steps retreating. (The tap-click-tap-click cadence characteristic of Aiglamene and her bone prosthetic leg.)

Aiglamene doesn't tattle, but -

She slips back quickly to hiss at Ellyn, "Run, get an allibi - " all the notes have been Gideon lately, it's all her handwriting, and that'll help - 

Then she turns to follow Aiglamene.

She...

They'll know someone got through. She needs to catch up, once Ellyn's gotten a chance to flee. She needs to make sure Ellyn doesn't get caught. 

Tricky, considering there's really only one path up and out from this far down. But she can maybe push Aiglamene past the first branch point or something.

She'll try to avoid catching up until then - maybe just then, make it look like she was running, then lead Aiglamene away a bit, just enough Ellyn can slip out -

An ambitious plan. Aiglamene is not less skilled as a fighter just because they're not in the practice arena. Gideon does not get perhaps so far as she might like before Aiglamene trips her up.

"Is this what you have been doing?" she snaps.

She tries squeezing past, at least getting Aiglamene facing away - 

"It's none of your business!" she tries. 

"Don't be foolish, girl! You could threaten the very existence of this House, do you understand that?"

"I was just looking - the ward's like nothing in the books - it's not even like I could do anything to it!" She tries backing up the corridor. 

Aiglamene matches her steps. "You're god-damned lucky you didn't get yourself killed."

(Tiny patter of feet moving past behind her that Aiglamene doesn't seem to hear.)

Ellyn's safe - for now - Gideon needs to keep stalling, needs to make sure any heat falls on her - 

She scrunches up her face, like she's about to cry. "So? No one would even miss me!"

(Ellyn would. She holds on to that thought.)

"If that's what you think, you've learned even less than I thought."

"You didn't come looking for me for a whole month! No one did!"

"I'm your trainer, girl, not your jailkeeper. If you wished to give up your training, so be it, but you claimed that was not the case."

"I just - " her throat closes up - Ellyn wanted her - 

" - I just lost track of time."

"I'm sure." Sigh. "Come now. Back up to your room while I sort this out."

" - Don't tell anyone!"

She kind of knows it's pointless - but it's what she would say, if she wasn't lying. (And it'd be so much easier to protect Ellyn, if only Aiglamene knows.)

"You've made your move, now you must weather the counter. Up you get."

She makes a very unhappy face - but up she gets. 

(She has a really, really bad feeling - she realizes she doesn't actually know the punishment for breaking into the Tomb. It's probably not just a whipping. (So it's extra important Ellyn doesn't get into trouble.))

Aiglmene escorts her to her cell and shuts her in, with firm instructions to stay put until someone comes to get her. Gideon can hear her stumping off down the corridor, muttering under her breath.

She stays put. 

She tries to not think about (to make peace with) what she's doing for Ellyn.

"Way better fucking cav than that idiot Ortus," she mutters into her knees, after a stretch of not thinking.

...But no one comes to get her, not for forever and ever, and it's hardly like Gideon can get in more trouble anyways. 

She gets up, opens her cell - doesn't really matter if it's locked or not, it's increasingly impossible to trap her anywhere - hesitates -

She walks to Ellyn's parents' study with her back straight and her chin held high. 

The door is locked, and if she knocks, there's no response.

Yeah, a locked door isn't stopping her for long. She doesn't even bother knocking - what are they gonna do, execute her twice? 

Likely not, because when she opens the door, she sees Priamhark, Pelleamena, and Ortus's father, their cavalier primary, dangling from nooses, kicked out chairs lying below them. Their eyes seem

almost accusing in death, absurd as that is. They're hardly even looking in the direction of the door.

Ellynhark's eyes, on the other hand, are wide and terrified and very clearly looking at

Gideon. Her hands are clutching her own noose in front of her, white-knuckled, refusing to fit it over her head as she stands on top of a chair of her own. She gives a full-body shiver

and her mouth works soundlessly at Gideon's entrance.

"Ellyn!!!"

She is getting that noose the FUCK away from her necromancer. Nothing - nobody - else in the room matters, living or dead. 

"G-Gideon," she sobs.

She hugs her necromancer, tightly. "Ellyn - how - why - "

"I- I- I d- I can't-"

She's getting her necromancer out of this room. 

She can kinda guess what Ellyn's trying to say, though. It's what Gideon would be saying. What she kinda wants to say right now. 

Instead, she grumbles under her breath: "I had it handled, stupid-head," without any real heat, or even a conscious intention to say something. 

"Wasn't- Not you, Gideon."

"I'm gonna be your cavalier primary. So you gotta let me protect you, next time."

She shakes her head, wordless.

Well. 

Now's for hugging. (She'll save the who protects whom fight for later.)

(...At least Ellyn's parents obviously killed themselves, so Gideon doesn't have to worry about letting go of her necromancer to go stage the bodies or anything. Outright murder would've been kinda inconvenient.)

Yeah she's just gonna have a breakdown for a while.

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.

"I-" Nope, not getting

into that. "-just do."

"They tried to make you - hurt - yourself, didn't they?"

"They thought it was all they had left."

"That doesn't mean they can hurt you! Their lives are their problem, whatever, but you've got other stuff - you've got me."

"I know."

She squeezes her eyes a bit and tries not to cry. She needs to be strong for Ellyn...

"You're not allowed to die. Not ever," she forces out, only mostly evenly. 

"...I won't."

"Good." She's not entirely convinced that Ellyn believes her. Ellyn does not seem entirely convinced, actually, of her own importance. 

"...If you die, I will kill God. So even if you think the Tomb is important, or if you ever think anything in the universe is more important than you - it is not as important as you. The Tomb isn't as important as you. The Ninth House isn't as important as you - the entire Nine Houses aren't as important as you. And - this is critical - you have to let me protect you."

"I get it, Gideon," she snaps back.

Grumpily: "Fine."

She goes to cut down Mortus, now that she's done yelling at Ellyn for making her worry. 

She's having a bit of trouble seeing what she's doing, though, what with all the tears, and it's hard to hold the knife steady with how much she's shaking - how much her chest hurts for no good reason -

(She doesn't cry. She can't cry. So she just needs to blink until her vision clears and make her muscles work like she tells them to.)

"Gideon-"

"Put the knife down." Pause. "Please."

She drops it.

Then she just... Stands there, shaking quietly.

Ellyn reaches out a hesitant hand for her shoulder.

She looks at Ellyn, still trying to blink back her tears. 

"I don't want you to die either."

Slow nod.

"I - I - I don't want - I don't want to die, but - but you - "

Oh no.

She's crying. 

What... is she supposed to do now? Gideon picked her up but she can't pick up Gideon. Maybe she can just. Kind of hold on to her?

Might be the right move, going by how Gideon steps close and holds on to her back. 

That's... good?

She's still being pretty quiet as she cries, but... It's maybe helping. 

She forces herself to calm down as fast as possible, though, even if it's really hard. 

"...Sorry," she croaks out, after only maybe about fifteen minutes of shaking, which wasn't enough but also was way too long. 

"I don't think you need to apologize."

She shakes her head. "We've got stuff to do, and - and - "

" - And cavaliers aren't supposed to be scared." She might hit herself for being stupid, if she was alone and not being held by Ellyn.

"You can... work on that."

"I should be good enough now," she whines. "I have to be." 

"You are, though."

"But..."

"I was still scared."

"Did that stop you?"

She shakes her head. "It was for you," she whispers. 

"And you'll keep doing things for me."

"Always."

"So that's fine, then."

She considers that, then takes a deep breath and nods. "Anything you need - I'll do it, even if I'm scared," she swears.

"You'll be my cavalier."

"One flesh, one end."

Gideon is hers. "One flesh. One end."

Squeeze. (She knows.)

"C'mon, we've got work to do," she says after a few long and cozy moments.

Yeah. They do. Once the bodies are down, Ellyn will do what she can to stabilize them. Then (while she recovers from that effort), Gideon can get some reference books from the archives. And Crux and Aiglamene. The captain first, she thinks. Then even if the marshal wants to be a bastard, he'll be outnumbered three to one.

She grabs the references first - that's probably fastest, she has the catalog mostly memorized anyways and she's been memorizing anatomy since she doesn't have a necromancer's senses so she also has a bunch of notes to share, and this way Ellyn can read while Gideon gets yelled at - 

Then, almost sheepishly, she goes to find Aiglamene. 

Aiglamene looks a little surprised to see her. "I thought I told you to wait."

" - Stuff's different. Ellyn talked to her parents." Is anyone else in even vaguely plausible earshot?

They're alone in Aiglamene's cramped little office.

"......So I was kinda lying. To cover for Ellyn. And she decided she didn't want me to get in trouble for her even though that's my job," grumpy face, "And she got in trouble so I'm really glad I didn't listen about staying put 'cause I was able to rescue her, and her parents and Mortus killed themselves and tried to make her kill herself too but she's fine 'cause I got to her, and anyways we think it'd be bad if other people know her parents are dead so she's gonna puppet them but we kinda need help covering that up?"

Blink blink. "The Reverend Mother and Father- Oh hell. Take me to her, girl."

She does so!

Aiglamene and Ellynhark have a conversation wherein Ellyn explains briefly what she plans to do, Aiglamene queries the necessity, and Ellyn confirms that the Ninth

must continue. Aiglamene gives in, and confirms that she will help to handle Crux and Mortus's wife.

Gideon keeps sneaking glances at the Body, since this conversation is going pretty well over her head. 

Once Aiglamene steps out - "So... Am I the only one seeing the Body staring at us?"

"...You can see her too?"

"Yes. Just - as of today."

"She showed up when- before you did."

"...She didn't follow me, when I left. But... I think she's following you." This is Highly Suspicious Behavior. Unauthorized persons should not follow Ellyn around. That is Gideon's job. 

"Oh. Okay."

She glares over at the Body. "Leave Ellyn alone."

She crosses her arms. "I'm her cavalier. So either go away, get her permission, or fight me."

The Body makes

no response to the threat.

She's really tempted to try to stab the Body. 

"I'm the one whose blood worked and who looks like you anyways," she grumbles well under her breath, a little bit hurt on top of her protectiveness about Ellyn. She tries to poke it in the chest. (With her finger, not her knife. Yet.) "You should listen to me."

Poke what? There's nothing there.

Rude. (She privately resolves to visit the Tomb on her own later and scold the Body directly in person.)

Gideon stops poking the Body with a grumble, which may or may not include the titles of a few books on exorcism she wants to double check.

"I don't think you should try to exorcise it, Gideon."

"...It shouldn't bother you."

"It doesn't. Not really."

She's still going to scold it. It should be following her. But she just nods, for now, and says, "If you say so..." a bit dubiously. 

"Come on. There's work to do."

"Sure, sure." She'll get to work. 

It takes a little time and a lot blood sweat from Ellyn, but they do manage to get things working. Crux is swayed by the honor of the Ninth, and Glaurica, Mortus's wife, by the threat of a sewn tongue. (Ortus seems, if anything, relieved by his father's death. And the obvious fact of Ellynhark's acceptance of Gideon as her cavalier primary.)

Ellyn leads the daily services, and within a month, has the bodies of her parents sitting in attendance in one of the pews, released from their isolation but maintaining their vows of silence. The aging penitents of the Ninth House do not question. The Reverend Father and Mother always kept their distance from their people. Coordination with the orbital prison has always happened by letter, so it is easy to take over that correspondence, as well as the threadbare trade with other Houses through the biannual shuttle. They are still not accepting new pilgrims.

Maybe they should - at least some, a few at a time, especially anyone not old and dusty... They need to rebuild the House, don't they? 

Not yet. Not until Ellyn's old enough not to have to use Priamhark and Pellaemena.

...Because outsiders might suspect? 

Yeah.

Slow nod. 

"We'll stay ready, then. Keep enough of what we've got running." She shifts awkwardly. "And, y'know, if you want me to like. Y'know, make little Ninths," incredibly awkward shift, "Dunno I'd like that, but." Is she blushing? "Anything you need."

UuuuuummmmmMMMMMMMMM. "...Maybe... later...?"

"Definitely not now."

"Right. Not now."

"And by the time you're old enough to let everyone know who's really in charge, we'll be extra awesome." Pause. "You should really learn to fight, y'know. At least with your body, or even a dagger."

She makes a face. "That's what bones are for."

"Someone might surprise you. Get you away from all your bones." That someone will absolutely be Gideon, if Ellyn doesn't agree to the obvious wisdom of training. 

"I always have bones."

Hum. "Not unless you're pulling out your own. And, y'know, the entire reason they send Cohort ahead for new planets is to make necromancy work. Someone could kidnap you and take you to one of those planets."

"Sounds like you didn't do your job then."

"...I might fail, yeah. I'd die first, if that would stop it, but I'm not God, and I'm pretty sure even God can die."

"I want you to have a chance even then. Part of succeeding is preparing. And I'll only have really failed you if you can't get yourself out even after everything possible goes wrong."

Well. If she puts it like that.

"I'll... try."

"And it'll be fun! The only person I ever get to really physically fight is Aiglamene. And I bet it'll make your constructs better at combat if you develop those physical instincts yourself - you'll have a more instinctive sense of the movements, for one - and there's really no substitute for muscle memory for figuring out what your opponent is doing - we can fight with you using necromancy after martial arts training, see if it helps - " 

Excited, nerdy bounce. 

Mrr. This is going to suck.

She won't know until she tries! 

She can make a reasonable estimate based on prior experiences.

Gideon will try to make it more fun for her, then. 

Suspicious.

Trust her.

Okay, but that's more suspicious. She does get how that's more suspicious, right?

Seems she's caught in a bind, here. 

One entirely of her own making. Ellyn, for her part, would be more than happy to consign the entire matter to the dustbin of memory.

She's still gonna insist on at least some martial arts work and exercise, in amidst more normal fights. 

Ugh. Whatever.

The normal fights might be more Ellyn's idea of a good time - beating up Gideon with skeletons and all that.