"Uh...I don't actually have any idea what Monsters are, or if they're even really, like, one kind of thing. I wouldn't call Crack-in-the-Wall, my friend's Monster, 'necromantic' exactly, though."

The Outfit tugs at Mo's arm, and she plays along, bowing a bit as the Outfit's hat doffs itself before finding its place on Mo's head again.

"The Outfit doesn't really strike me as undead either."

"...I also wouldn't characterize your outfit as undead, but I suppose I'd have to ask my necromancer. I need to go find the Ninth, will you come with me? Fair warning—if you decide to follow me around you'll antagonize the Second, but then again if you're not from a Cohort planet they'll already be antagonized."

Mo resigns to the fact that, apparently, fighting is probably going to happen eventually here. She can feel the Outfit's excitement through its jacket, like goose-bumps but on her clothing. "Sure, I guess, though it'll be awkward if the lady I just met is this 'Ninth'."

Mo will drop back down to her feet and walk like a normal person as she follows Camilla.

Camilla will start walking back in the direction Mo was coming from

"Dressed in all black, face painted like a skull, carries a sword?"

Mo sighs. "Yup."

"Yeah. If it makes you feel any better, they've been some of the more helpful contestants."

"Uh..." Mo is really not sure how to parse that. "That's good to know? I think I'm missing more than just a bit of context, though."

"I guess there's no harm in telling you things everyone else here knows. The people here are eight necromancers from the eight Houses, and their cavaliers, plus a bonus necromancer from the Third House, because they are twins and figured that meant they could bend the rules. We've been invited here to try to learn the secrets of Lyctorhood, except when we got here it became clear it was less 'learn' and more 'independent study of the place the last set of Lyctors ascended'—and then the murders started. Two of the contestants—the Fifth—are dead, two more—the Seventh—are missing, and an as of yet unknown dead body was found.

"I'm Camilla. Cavalier of the Sixth."

Mo sighs again. "It really is just like Crack to drop me into a mess like this. Where did it even find this place..." she mutters under her breath, before asking, "Sorry if this a dumb question, but what's a Lyctor? And I guess I should also ask what the actual deal is with your necromancy. I'm aware of the general idea but not the specifics."

"The Lyctors were the eight original necromancers who serve the Emperor. They're immortal, and much more powerful than a normal necro, but can be killed at great effort, and we're down to four. So they decided to send for candidates from the eight Houses to bolster their numbers.

"I'm not a necromancer and they can go into much more detail, but the basic summary is that they can perceive and manipulate thanergy, death energy, and thalergy, life energy. The energy can be used to animate bone, move flesh, speak to the dead, create wards and sensors that are sensitive to certain individuals, heal injuries, cure disease, manipulate embryos—is this too basic? I don't know what they teach on the Cohort planets, I know they don't throw any native necromancers."

Mo nods along. "I don't really think I need to know the high-level stuff, there's just a lot of things that people could decide to call 'necromancy'. The gist of thanergy and thalergy makes sense, though. It sounds pretty useful, though. I can see why necromancers are so important. What's the deal with being a cavalier, then? Is it just sort of a bodyguard thing or do you have your own magic?"

"One, necromancers are physically weaker than normal humans, so having a bodyguard is important, and two, necromancers can get a lot of power out of a single death, so in large scale combat we're flint and steel to a flame. And the role is traditional, it's much more prestigious—and permanent—than a generic aide plus bodyguard."

Mo grimaces, just briefly, before schooling her expression. "Fair enough. Sounds like kind of a rough deal to me but maybe I'm underestimating the prestige." Valuable to know that necromancers tend to be the more vulnerable sort, though.

"So, what can you—"

Camilla stops when they enter the atrium with Gideon.

"Duel's off. Seventh never turned up, and they're not in their quarters. I also don't know anything about our bonus person. Let's move."

Gideon nods, stands, and turns down one of the other hallways, walking quickly, but not running. The floor is wet from the rain.

"Come on, let's follow her.

"So, what can you and your outfit do?"

"Fly, and move quickly in general, mostly." Mo levitates briefly again for the sake of demonstration. "Plus it's pretty durable, and protects me from most kinds of damage." She puffs her chest a little in a show of confidence in the face of (possibly) real danger.

"And this is common where you're from?"

Camilla is trying not to show disbelief on her face or in her voice, but she's slipping a little. This is almost certainly not necromancy, but if there was something besides necromancy that could do this she would know, because Palamedes would have researched it: therefore, this is either an unknown power or a secret one.

"I don't think so? I only know of, like, a dozen other kids with Monsters, maybe another half-dozen Freaks, and as far as I'm aware that's everybody in the city. I know the east and west coasts both have their own groups, we had a Freak from the east coast come in town one time who was trying to make a name for himself by picking on us. I can only assume other countries have some too." Mo considers it seriously for a moment. "If I had to guess, there might be, like, a few hundred Monsters and Freaks all told, maybe a thousand, for the whole Earth?"

The Outfit jostles on her shoulders, distinctly pulling her around a bit, which seems to remind her of something.

"Oh yeah. Monsters and Freaks aren't really, like, common knowledge, either. Monsters all have ways of hiding from normal people, when they aren't already pretty innocuous like the Outfit is, and Freaks get black-bagged if they're not careful about what powers they show so they're all real careful about keeping it low-key. So I guess it's possible there's more than I know about and they're just better at hiding than I and my friends back home are at finding them."

"The bad news is that appearing here rules out 'low key'. The good news is that there are fewer than nineteen people on this planet and I don't imagine they'll black bag you. The other bad news is that whoever is killing people might try and kill you."

Camilla looks like she might want to say something else but that's when Gideon leads them out into a conservatory, made nearly opaque by heavy rain, the inside fogged up and the outside covered in sheets of water. A few broken glass panels let rain in.

On the wet flagstones, a sickly thin woman with veins showing through her pale white skin lies facedown, a pair of crutches scattered next to her.

"Yeah, I think I've pretty thoroughly blown my cover. Hopefully it's not a big--"

Mo's words are cut as she grimaces at the scene. She isn't entirely unfamiliar with death, but with everyone keeping things secret back home, its rare for there to be...evidence, like this. It's surprisingly uncomfortable.

She wonders if she could fly away from here, but at the same time knows that the Outfit couldn't countenance that.

"So, is this whole murder mystery deal part of the, uh, 'contest', or someone trying to stop it?" Mo asks as much to distract herself from the body as out of any real curiosity.

Camilla will quickly kneel next to the body and turn her over. Her skin is blue and her body is slack.

And then she’ll cough up a truly alarming amount of blood and shakily breathe in a few times. She looks around, lingering on Mo for just a moment, and settles on Gideon.

"He never came back."

And then she faints.