#nona could be the fool

[ahickeyfromtheuniverse]

All I want for Christmas is for someone to design a locked tomb tarot deck

[sarah-ankh]

Reading Nona the Ninth.

I've just gotten to the bit where they meet Gideon, and 1) it's so fucking amazing to have her back! 2) she's being a bit mean to poor Nona.

Wanted Nona to answer back with "that's no way to talk to me, you're my mum!"

Because that would royally screw with Gideon, and throwing that kind of sass back at her would make them instantly friends I think. As well as proving the statement lol

G: "no baby cakes, I didn't fool you. Who is this goddamn infant and someone give her a rusk or something to shut her up?"

N: "that's no way to talk to Me! you're supposed to be my mum!"

G: *wtf?*

N: "We've spent the last 6 months trying to work out who I am. I could be Harrow, or Gideon, or I could be a gestalt of the two."

G: "well I can fucking tell you, you're not harrow."

SexPal: "look at her eyes though."

N: "I know! Because I'm dying, this is Harrow's body and it's rejecting me. So we came all the way here to get me back into your body."

G: "I don't know if you've noticed, kid. But I'm still using it."

SexPal: "which means shes something else, a gestalt."

G: "which is what? And how the fuck does that make me her mum?"

N: "I'm made up of all the knitted up little bits of yourselves you and harrow left behind in this body when you both decided to abandon me."

G: ".... You're telling me Harrow and I made a kid?"

[lemon-natalia]

Nona the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 22

oh no something about Nona’s braids being cut off makes me incredibly sad

also them teaching Nona how to be Harrow basically amounting to ‘wearing black and being rude’ is comedic gold

awwww Palamedes misses Harrow :( me too buddy she has been remarkably absent from this book

ngl there’s absolutely no way that Ianthe is buying this. i feel like they could maybe fool someone else but Harrow and Ianthe spent an awful lot of time together on the Mithraeum 

hmmm as always the conversations between We Suffer and Pash are quite obtuse but it sounds to me like they’re planning to kill Ianthe. i’m not convinced its going to go the way they hope if that is the case, Ianthe has been remarkably persistent

of course they have to bring Noodle along to the high stakes espionage mission

there’s an interesting dynamic between Pash and Camilla here. there’s clearly not any trust between them, and a lot of tension, but also just a little bit of mutual respect 

and they’re heading into the barracks, which have been repeatedly mentioned as being the centre of House-BoE conflict. i foresee absolutely no way this could go wrong at all 💀

oh jesus Ianthe’s gone all out on the ‘throngs of dead soldiers’ thing. yikes, i’d nearly forgotten how disturbing her specific brand of fucked up necromancy could be 

given Pyrrha knows Nona can read body language i wonder if she deliberately broke her act by crossing her arms to make sure Nona knew it was her. if so thats very sweet

and they couldn’t prep Nona for being called Harry, which isn’t great. hopefully that doesn’t throw her off too much

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

A day late & a dollar short but here’s my book list from this year! Lots of good ones. Plenty of bad ones. I have Strong Opinions on almost everything! So send me an ask about your most loved or loathed & it’ll give me something to look forward to for after work!

(The 5 or so books started but not finished before yesterday were not included, nor were single issue comics of which there were many or audio dramas.)

Books Read 2024

Audio:

Gideon the Ninth - the locked tomb

A court of frost & starlight

A court of silver flames

All systems Red - Murderbot diaries

Artificial condition - murderbot diaries

The lost apothecary

Rogue protocol - murderbot diaries

Exit strategy - murderbot diaries

Network effect - murderbot diaries

Harrow the Ninth - the locked tomb

Nona the ninth - the locked tomb

Fugitive telemetry - murderbot diaries

Ninth house - Alex stern

Hell Bent - Alex stern

Out of character

We could be so good

Practical Magic

Such sharp teeth

System collapse - murderbot diaries

Lord of shadows - the dark artifices

Queen of air and darkness - the dark artifices

Neverwhere (and how the marquis de carabas got his coat back)

If we were villains

The song of Achilles

Chain of gold (and fairytale of London) - the last hours

Storm front - the Dresden files

Chain of iron (and one must always be careful of books) - the last hours

Chain of thorns (and ought but death) - the last hours

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Fool moon - the Dresden files

Grave peril - the Dresden files

Summer knight - the Dresden files

Midnight in the garden of good and evil

Circe

Last call at the local

The ladies of grace adieu & other stories

Factory girls

Flyaway

Death Masks - the Dresden files

Blood rites - the Dresden files

Dead beat - the Dresden files

The end of the world is a cul de sac

The southern book club’s guide to slaying vampires

Proven guilty - the Dresden files

Murder on the orient express

Children of blood and bone

Atalanta

The final girl support group

The cemetery of untold stories

White night - the Dresden files

The atlas six

The atlas paradox (& sacred hospitality short story)

The magician’s nephew - narnia

The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe - narnia

The horse and his boy - narnia

Prince caspian - narnia

The last boyfriends rules for revenge

The voyage of the Dawn treader - narnia

The silver chair - narnia

The last battle - Narnia

You should be so lucky

The atlas complex

Interview with the vampire - vampire chronicles

White cat - curse workers

Red glove - curse workers

Black heart - curse workers

The queer principles of kit Webb

The lost sisters

The perfect crimes of Marian Hayes

Small favor - Dresden files

Turn coat - Dresden files

So this is ever after

The Vampire Lestat - vampire chronicles

Working for Bigfoot - Dresden files

Changes - Dresden files

The Queen of the damned - vampire chronicles

Lyra’s oxford

The tale of the body thief - vampire chronicles

Side jobs - Dresden files

Ghost story - Dresden files

Memnoch the Devil - vampire chronicles

Cold days - Dresden files

The pairing

Shadowed souls - Dresden files

Skin game - Dresden files

Renegades - renegades trilogy

Archenemies - renegades trilogy

Supernova - renegades trilogy

Masters of death

The nightmare before kissmas

Brief cases - Dresden files

The familiar

Physical:

Young Avengers - gillen & mckelvie run

Men at arms

Ghosts of the shadow market

The red scrolls of magic

The lost book of the white

Soul music

Free country a tale of the children’s crusade

Romancing the beat

Mighty nein origins: Beauregard lionett

Mighty nein origins: caduceus clay

The prisoner’s throne

Sex criminals vol 1

Sex criminals vol 2

Sex criminals vol 3

The pairing

Sex criminals vol 4

American vampire vol 1

American vampire vol 2

American vampire vol 3

Sex criminals vol 5

Sex criminals vol 6

American vampire vol 4

American vampire vol 5

Young Avengers - original run

The Saturday night ghost club

Batgirl: Stephanie Brown vol 1

Batgirl: Stephanie Brown vol 2

[jbm04]

Ain't it something that, if Crown was just Coronabeth's "act" the whole time, she managed to fool Nona? Nona who can see clear as day when people are lying? Then the closer Ianthe got, the more Nona could see through that facade.

[iridescentoracle]

bad wizards and shimmering rainbow-white robes

Someone else has probably already made this point—I'm late to the Locked Tomb party, I know—but I've been reading a whole lot of Locked Tomb posts (in between re-reading bits of the Locked Tomb books and thinking about The Lord of the Rings) recently, and if anyone else has made this point I haven't seen it yet, so, spoilers through Nona the Ninth:

Your gazes met. The other nascent Lyctor—the Third House saint, the Emperor’s bones and the Emperor’s joints, the Emperor’s fists and gestures—was clothed in a beautiful nacreous robe that glimmered all the colours of the rainbow: gauzy, iridescent white stuff that changed violently in the light.

(Chapter 4, Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir)

A mass of fabric whispered past you—you could not feel it on your body, but you felt the air upon your cheek—and then a person knelt in front of your chair. A shining, shimmering billow of pale fabric came into your field of vision, a rainbow-hued whiteness that ran through shades beneath the hot tungsten light, like the reflection of coloured glass on ice, the same stuff that now was draped around you. Then, awfully, your vision was lifted. Someone had pressed a finger lightly beneath your chin, and they were tilting it up so that you could see their face. You looked at the Lyctor. The Lyctor looked at you.

(Chapter 6, Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir)

‘“Radagast the Brown!” laughed Saruman, and he no longer concealed his scorn. “Radagast the Bird-tamer! Radagast the Simple! Radagast the Fool! Yet he had just the wit to play the part that I set him. For you have come, and that was all the purpose of my message. And here you will stay, Gandalf the Grey, and rest from journeys. For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!” ‘I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.

(“The Council of Elrond,” The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien)

I told them, This is it. We were put here to save the planet. We’re going to save the planet. We’re not going to let them run away. We’re going to fix this. And they were all, Yeah, John, because they were my friends and they loved me. But because they were also dicks and most of them had multiple tertiary degrees, they were also like, How though. We know you can do X and Y and Z. That’s still not A or B or C. We love the bone magic, but how are you going to pull this off? And it was P— of all people who said, First things first. If they’re going to let us fix the world, you’ve got to make them take us seriously. Get some leverage. If they want to make you into a bad wizard, be a bad wizard. We can write the history books to say you were a good wizard. Or at least an okay wizard. They’re not going to listen because we talk nicely, they’re going to listen because we scare the shit out of them.

(“John 5:1,” Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir)

Ironically, of course, John himself doesn’t wear the shimmering rainbow-hued robes of the Lyctors—but his crown of infant fingerbones is first described as “a wreath of ribbon and pearlescent leaves in his dark hair, rustling prismatically in the windless docking bay" (Chapter 6, Harrow the Ninth), and frankly I think rainbow pearlescent leaves each “intertwined with a match-sized infant fingerbone” sounds significantly more evil than Saruman bothered looking, so eat your heart out Curunír I guess.

Of course, there's lots of irony about John adopting the trappings of that particular evil wizard, but I think the most ironic part might be the extent to which he really should've taken notes on the rest of the passage in question:

‘“I liked white better,” I said. ‘“White!” he sneered. “It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken.” ‘“In which case it is no longer white,” said I. “And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”

[dragonologist-writings]

Title: Crown of Fire Fandom: Pillars of Eternity Rating: G Status: One-Shot Characters: Original Character (Nona) Additional Notes: Backstory for TTRPG Character, Family Drama & Betrayal, Leaden Key Recruitment Word Count: 1200 Summary: “You have been praying for justice, haven’t you? We are the true followers of Woedica. Justice is what we deliver.”

read below or here on AO3

State your name and purpose.

My name belongs to the gods and my hand to their service.

Even as a child, Nona spends many of her days in the temple. At first she is taken there by her mother, along with her baby sister Decima, as they go to visit her father while he works. But even as time passes, after her mother stops taking her (after Mother is gone), Nona still finds herself returning of her own accord.

It's a wondrous place, with grandiose architecture, chants that feel like magic, books and words and history memorialized in long rows of heavy tomes. More than that, the place carries a sense of belonging, of certainty, of rightness, and though at her young age she doesn’t quite yet have the words to express it, Nona feels it all the same.

Her father encourages her interest, of course.

“Would you like to become a priestess one day, Nona?” he asks with a smile. “You could lead the temple and help the erl in court, like I do. It’s a lot of work, of course, and you’ll have to study hard. But the priesthood runs in our family. It could be your calling just as it was mine.”

And Nona looks up with wide eyes at the crowned statue of Woedica, so resplendent and wise. Once again she feels that belonging, that certainty, that rightness, and she eagerly nods in assent.

What company do you seek?

I seek the company of shadows, that our labors may remain secret.

Nona knows what the papers say. She knows what they mean. But still she checks her work, over and over again, until she can no longer deny the truth.

Her father doesn’t believe her at first. “The erl would not be involved in such things,” he insists, but Nona shows him her research, all carefully documented and organized. It’s all there, undeniable proof of her suspicions and accusations.

Corruption. Deception. Even animancy experiments, the kind that have been outlawed in Aedyr for decades. Nona doesn’t know exactly how long it’s been going on, but it’s clear that the erl is using any means he has to collect a very forbidden type of power. More than that, it’s clear he has no intention of stopping, no matter how many of the gods' laws he breaks along the way.

It is the type thing the Church of Woedica simply cannot stand.

“Let me take care of this,” her father says. When Nona tries to protest, he stands firm. “You do not have the authority to convince the court of such things. I do. My voice will not be ignored. I will see that the right thing is done.”

And Nona, fool that she is, believes him.

Tell me of your labors.

To see that the craft of kith and wilder does not disturb what bones the gods have buried.

Nona knows everything has gone wrong when the guards come for her.

She does her best to keep calm, even as she hears the temple-goers whisper loudly, even as she sees Decima’s terrified face in the crowd. She tells herself that this is a simple mistake, and that her father will ensure everything is sorted out.

But her father only watches, stone-faced, as the erl reads out the charges of treason. And when the charges have been read, it is her father who declares her guilty.

“He is protecting you,” Decima tells her later, in the short time they have together before Nona must leave the city for good. “Had he done nothing, you would be facing execution rather than exile.”

She says this as if it is a good thing, and Nona has never felt such anger in all her life.

How do we know your purpose?

You shall know it by the confession of my tongue, the deeds of my hand, and the oath on my soul.

When the cloaked figures appear, Nona wonders for a moment if someone has finally been sent to kill her.

But the leader of the group, a woman with a stoic voice and sharp eyes, only smiles at her. “We’ve heard tale of a city,” she explains, “where a man rules through corruption and taints the land with animancy. We have heard of a Woedican priest who ignores his duties to The Queen That Was. And we have heard of you.”

Nona can only stare, speechless, and the woman’s smile widens. “You have been praying for justice, haven’t you? We are the true followers of Woedica. Justice is what we deliver.”

And how is your oath guarded?

“What are you going to do now?”

Nona is startled by the question, and by the reappearance of the hooded woman that she’d assumed would be gone by now. Perhaps she shouldn’t be surprised- they are standing in Woedica’s temple, after all. Where else would Her servants be?

“I don’t know,” Nona answers honestly, and tries not to show just how much that answer scares her.

“Are you not planning on returning to your place here?”

“Here?” Nona laughs, but there is no humor in her tone. “There’s nothing for me here. Everybody in this city either still believes the lies or hates me for revealing the truth.”

The words leave a bitter taste in Nona’s mouth, but they cannot be denied. Nobody wants her here. Even her sister- (and she thought Des, of all people, would understand, would always be on her side)- even her sister is furious at her for destroying the façade of respectability her father had built.

But Nona destroyed it anyway. At the very least, she helped. And now, because of her and these strange agents, the erl is dead and his followers have fallen with him. Some had attempted a surrender, had begged for mercy, but there is little mercy to be found in The  Burned Queen's justice. Nona does not claim happiness at this, but there is a catharsis in knowing that the scales have finally been evened.

(Father had fallen to his knees, had been one of the men to beg, and that was when Nona knew he had never been worth of a place here.)

Lost in thought, Nona nearly forgets the other woman’s presence until, after a long moment, she says, “Come with us.”

Nona looks at her, surprised and slightly alarmed. “With you? Where?”

“Wherever we are needed,” the woman answers simply. Her eyes continue to study Nona as she speaks, although she never loses her steady tone. “The Queen always has a place for those who serve her well, and you have proven your faith.”

Nona opens her mouth to answer, but before she can speak the woman holds up a hand in warning. “Be aware- this is not a responsibility to take lightly. This life is difficult, and dangerous. There are many places that do not accept the worship of our Queen, let alone our work for her. If you are to do this, you must be certain.”

Nona takes a moment, and thinks about what she will be leaving behind, and what has already been lost, and whether it will be worth it to keep walking down this path. She does not need long to find the answer. “I am certain.”

It is sealed by the Leaden Key.

[tinyinvadr]

New chapter!!!

Psychoborrower 2

Chapter 15

The Astralathe sprang to life as Raz turned the dial. This horrible machine that caused so much pain, I couldn’t help but resent it. Still, it was our only hope of restoring the minds that Ford altered.

Just in time, Ford arrived at the Heptadome.

“Ha! Still runs just as well as it did 20 years ago! Leave it to Otto to over-engineer his machines to stand the test of time.”

“That’s… the nicest thing you’ve ever said about me, Cruller.”

Otto had rushed over to the Heptadome when he sensed someone turning on the Astralathe. Ford met him in the doorway, playfully punching him in the arm.

“Otto! Good to see ya!”

“You sound just like your old self again! But… how?”

Ford walked with him into the Heptadome and gestured to us.

“I just needed help sorting some things out. But we’re not done yet. Are you in?”

Otto nodded, and not a moment too soon, Cassie, Compton, Bob, and Helmut returned.

Bob initially struggled to address his old friends, but Helmut took his hand, giving him a reassuring smile.

“I’m… happy to see all of you again.”

This sentiment was shared by everyone, though they were confused to see him with “Nick”. Raz explained that we recovered Helmut’s brain and put it in Nick’s body, though he left out the part where we found it in Otto’s lab. That was a conversation for another time.

Otto didn’t question it, though. Once he confirmed that it really was Helmut with a quick brain scan, everyone welcomed him back with open arms. It didn’t matter to them how he came back, just that they had him back at all.

Ford was ecstatic to see them all. While we were piecing his mind back together, he had no idea that we were also helping his old friends. Compton, Helmut, Cassie, Bob, they were all back because of us.

“I can’t believe it! Everybody’s back together again!”

Bob looked wistfully out the door, frowning.

“Well… almost everyone.”

At that moment, Lucrecia arrived, looking around with a smile as her memories started to come back.

“I remember this place… Me and my Crully would come here to fool around on the beanbags!”

…I did not need to know that.

Bob was the first to embrace her, and everyone followed after him, surrounding their long-lost friend in a big group hug.

Seeing this brought up some complicated emotions. I was still angry about what Ford did, but seeing how happy everyone was to see her again, I could understand why he resorted to such drastic measures to keep her safe. She wasn’t an evil person at her core. Ford only wanted to help her get better. He handled it poorly, but I could understand why he didn’t want to turn her over to the authorities and let her be executed.

I could tell that they all wanted to simply enjoy their time together again, but there was work to be done. With Lucrecia’s memories returning, it was only a matter of time before Maligula resurfaced. We needed to seal her away for good.

Ford walked her over to the Astralathe, and we all sat in a circle around it. I would be joining Ford and Raz in her mind, while the others focused their energy to power the machine.

We projected into a dark void, and in the center was a tiny circus, the performers beings fleas that each wore a mask that looked like a member of the Aquato family. In the center of it all stood Lucrecia, or as they all called her, Nona.

“I made this mental construct to convince her that she’s your grandmother, Razputin. We need to get her out of there. Flint, you go first since you don’t need to shift.”

Ah yes, tiny mental worlds. My time to shine!

I hopped into the circus, levitating down. Ford followed after, shrinking down to scale with ease.

Raz… he still needs to work on it.

I mean, it’s not the sizeshifting that’s the problem, but he’s gotta work on his timing. He waited too long to shrink before jumping in, and he ended up crushing Flea Raz into a gooey puddle.

“Ew! What is this?”

I picked up the Raz mask out of the puddle, nearly vomiting as the green bug goop dripped off of it.

“It’s you. Or… what’s left of you.”

Raz looked reasonably horrified, backing out of the puddle.

“Hey, has anyone seen Raz?”

Flea Frazie walked over, and Ford nudged Raz towards her.

“He’s right here!”

“Huh?”

“Just play along.”

She escorted him away to perform in a series of acts, while Ford sat down in the audience with Lucrecia. Unsure what to do, I joined them over on the bleachers.

“Hello. You must be little Pootie’s friend. I don’t think I’ve had the chance to talk to you yet.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m Flint. Raz and I met at camp.”

“Yes, Gus told me all about you. Thank you for helping them both. They seem so much happier now.”

They were happy. Only because they didn’t know the truth.

We watched as Raz balanced on a tennis ball, saved his younger siblings from an out of control merry-go-round, and helped Frazie throw darts at a wheel their father was strapped to.

“He’s grown up so much. Learned so many new tricks. I’m very proud of him.”

At that, she stood up and started walking towards the tall diving board.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“Go get Pootie. I want to show him a secret.”

Raz noticed her climbing the ladder and rushed over to follow her, and I joined him. It was a long and winding climb to the top, and when we made it up there, we found Lucrecia standing near the edge of the diving board.

“Nona! What are you doing?! The curse!”

She chuckled. “Silly Pootie! There is no curse! Now, follow me.”

Before we could question her, she jumped off the board, landing in a teacup on the ground, far, far below us. Raz cautiously approached the edge, only to quickly back up.

“Flint, I don’t know if I can do this.”

I looked down at the teacup, making a mental note of the distance. His fear of water aside, this drop was intimidating, even for someone who’s been performing acrobatic feats since the moment he could walk. It certainly wasn’t helping his case.

“I’ve got an idea.”

I jumped off the board and shifted to human size, the flea performers running and cowering in the corner.

“I’m gonna lower you in. That way, if anything happens, I can pull you right back out.”

I held my hand out for him, though he was hesitant to let me pick him up this time since he knew I was gonna be sticking him in water.

“It’ll be okay, Raz. I’ve got you.”

He took a deep breath and stepped onto my hand, and I slowly lowered him into the teacup. He seemed to be doing okay when I was still holding onto him, but the moment I let go, he slipped down and disappeared just like Lucrecia did. I figured that was what was supposed to happen, but it was still scary to watch.

The only thing left to do was to follow him.

I switched back to borrower form and leapt into the cup, making a splash as I sank into it. After a second, I landed on a plush surface. Jumping into the teacup led us into a peaceful forest made entirely of quilts.

Ford caught up with us, looking around in confusion.

“I didn’t make this place… This must be Lucy’s real mental world. The one that I locked away.”

We found Lucrecia on the path up ahead, and she smiled when she saw Ford.

“Ah, there you are! This way, Crully.”

She took his hand and leaped into the air, almost flying. Looked like Hydrokinesis wasn’t the only PSI power she had mastered. Her Levitation was incredibly strong.

We caught up to them at the end of the path, where we found a quilt displaying a young Lucrecia and Augustus, holding hands.

“This is her first real memory after I used the Astralathe. I took her to the orphanage so she could pick up Augustus, and care for him like his own mother once did.”

I couldn’t bring myself to look at Ford. Even if it wasn’t intentional, he still hurt Mom.

“Why didn’t you just leave his memories alone?”

“I couldn’t leave him in the orphanage, Flint. And I knew that after I shattered my own mind, Lucy would be alone. As far as I knew, they were all the other had left. But his memories aren’t gone. They’re just buried deep within his psyche. Once we’re finished here, they should resurface.”

Lucrecia and Ford flew on ahead, and we met up again at another quilt. This one was an image of the Aquato family, Lucy included. Raz frowned.

“It’s all a lie…”

“Not all of it. I only altered her and your father. By the time you and your siblings came around, I had already shattered my own mind and forgotten about Lucy a long time ago. The relationship she built with your family was all her own doing.”

Lucrecia took Ford’s hand again.

“My Gussy has such nice children. And very flexible!”

She took off with him again, and we met them at yet another quilt. On this one, we saw Lucrecia in disguise, handing Raz a brochure for Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp.

“Wait, Nona, that was you? But… why?”

“Well… I get confused sometimes. I see things in the water, or remember things that don’t make sense. It makes me sad, and I don’t know why. When I learned you were psychic, I thought maybe you could help me figure it out.”

Ford looked just as surprised by this revelation as Raz did. He hadn’t considered the possibility that her memories could have started to return without him around.

“You’ve known something was wrong for a long time, haven’t you?”

“Eh, not that long. It was only recently that I realized falling into a lake isn’t going to kill me.”

Ford let out a nervous chuckle. “I made up that whole curse thing to prevent you from rediscovering your Hydrokinesis. Guess that didn’t work.”

Finally, the water curse made sense. I couldn’t wrap my head around how it worked, or how it happened in the first place. There was no curse, and every instance of water threatening Raz was a hydrokinetic manifestation of his fear that he unknowingly conjured.

Maybe Frazie could help him control it. She was already miles ahead of the rest of the family in the Hydrokinesis department.

Behind that last quilt was a dam made up of Lucrecia’s Emotional Baggage. Ford explained that he trapped Maligula behind the dam, and in order to prevent her from returning, we would first have to release her, then blast her into a pit somewhere in the darkest depths of Lucrecia’s mind.

Being near the dam caused her intense emotional distress, and at that moment, Raz and I were truly put to the test. Nearly every type of mental threat we’d ever had to face began to appear. Doubts, Panic Attacks, Bad Moods, all with the goal of stopping us from breaking the dam. But we were ready for all of them.

Once the coast was clear, we climbed up to the front of the dam. It was all being held together by a giant locket. When we opened it, there were two photographs inside. One of Lucrecia, the other of Marona.

“That’s… That’s my sister. But…”

“Now’s our chance! Help me focus the Astralathe!”

Raz and I joined Ford, commanding the Astralathe to blast the locket apart, breaking the dam open. Water began to pour through, and soon, we were faced with a pair of huge, ruthless eyes. Much like when we saw her in Loboto’s mind, she was enormous.

“It’s okay, boys. Just stay focused.”

I took a defensive stance, fully ready for the fight I was about to face. This was it. After this, everything would be alright again.

Or so I thought.

Raz and I were forcibly ejected from Lucrecia’s mind, and when we returned to the physical world, we saw it was Truman that pulled us out.

“Grand Head Zanotto?”

He pushed Raz aside as he stared in awe at Lucrecia.

“She’s here…”

A familiar, aggravating voice chimed in from behind us.

“See? I told you he was working with Maligula. That creep and his little friend are gonna get us all killed.”

Norma’s smug, self-satisfied grin pissed me off to no end. Even if we were the bad guys, this was not the time to gloat.

Not a moment too soon, Lili arrived on the scene to shut her down.

“Don’t talk about my boyfriend like that, you snitch!”

I had to hold onto Raz’s shirt collar tight as he got weak in the knees. God, he’s a mess.

Lili stood beside us, staring her father down suspiciously as he approached Lucrecia, as if entranced by the sight of her.

“Finally…”

I didn’t know Truman on a personal level, but I’d seen him many times in the past when he visited Lili at camp. Even with what little knowledge I had of him, I could tell something was very off about the way he was acting. And Lili, being his daughter, was well aware of this.

“Ever since my Dad woke up, he’s been acting weird. Something’s wrong with his brain. I don’t know if it’s the Psilirium poisoning, or if something else happened to him, but we need to help him!”

Raz gave her a reassuring smile. “We will. Flint and I have got this.”

She rolled her eyes as she pulled out her psycho-portal. “Yeah, yeah, you two LOVE to do everything yourselves, I know. But this is my Dad we’re talking about! I’m going with you!”

Raz let out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head.

“Well, you’re always welcome to come with us. You’re great.”

The two of them stared at each other for a minute in awkward silence. They were lucky to have me as a third wheel, otherwise they’d never get anything done.

“Hey, lovebirds! We doing this or not?”

Lili nodded with approval, sticking the portal on the back of Truman’s head. I had no idea what we were in for, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were about to uncover something major. With everything we learned about the Psychic Six and Maligula, it still felt like we were missing a piece of the puzzle. And solving the mystery behind Truman’s strange behavior was the key to finding it.

[tomomiisasleep]

oh god.

wait if Nona's a fused soul she doesn't have infinite thanergy anymore

of whites so white they looked yellow except where they were splotched with reds so red they looked orange, a multihued melange of faces and walls

this can't be Gideon right

Prince Ianthe Naberius the First, the Lyctor Prince, the Saint of Awe

what the hell

oh my god Gideon is also there

Her Most Serene Highness, Crown Prince Kiriona Gaia, heir to the First House, the Emperor’s only daughter

uhh???

ummmmmm??????

“Cam, have you thought about what it means if Nona’s actually—a completed merger? One we will never actually be able to unpick, a successful soul gestalt?”

so??

Camilla did something a little strange then: she tripped. She pitched forward on a raised bit of the carpet and stumbled into the Angel, tried to right herself with her hands on the Angel’s hips and front, and stumbled upward, saying “Sorry—sorry,” glancing out the window like she was embarrassed. Then she turned her head back and looked more normally Camilla, standing as gracefully as though she could never even think about tripping.

this is like the oldest "bug somebody" trick in the books

“Bloody dog. Let me put him in the kitchen with a toy,”

she, or they're gonna get a knife

“Yes, you made it up.”

oh well another kid goes crazy wondering if she's crazy

oh my god that third tantrum scene I'm getting physically ill reading it and Idon't think I've ever been so disturbed reading anything

This second arm had come off longer, and she gripped that one firmly, one hand at the bottom and the other hand atop that one. Even with everything so soggy and slippery, that felt safe.

ok

unless it didn’t recognise it. Unless your soul was a stranger’s … or a melange. Is that the gestalt theory busted—or confirmed? Is that how we explain the rapid healing?”

ok

I can't believe we only get to listen to twins reunion scene. come on! and she's puppeting...that's why she could be there, but where is the planet actually?

Look at you … more beautiful than ever, even with crappy jewellery and a million split ends. Studs, darling? Earrings on a diet?”

just got second-hand judged by Ianthe eight times for every stud I wear daily..

also a weird thing about Corona is, she frickin hates being criticized but loves Ianthe, but Ianthe puts her down all the time. was she being gaslighted from as soon as she could understand words???? judging from how Ianthe almost made Harrow genuinely love her(but she choose not to? not sure) I won't put it past Ianthe to do that, cuz if there was a control dynamic in their relationship Ianthe would be the one in control. Corona wanted to be eaten by her.

The voice cooled and hardened like an ice cube.

“Didn’t Harrow—what? When did you talk to Harrow?”

haha I remember Muir saying on her blog that book 3 is girls being annoyed that it is legal for exes to talk to eachother

“I was on a shuttle with her body for months and months. I want to know what’s going on.”

oh. yeah I figured she's being puppetted too, but like. how? who? why?

I'm 95% percent sure Nona is merged, but Harrow and Gideon seem to live inside her at the same time??? what

The other one, Crown’s boyfriend I think

hahahaha "sister"was said many times, buf Nona still think it's boyfriend. that settles it

If we can get the body of Gideon Nav—the key to the Locked Tomb—out of that barracks, will you give us the Sixth House?”

bruh everyone thinks the tomb is still locked, but I really really believe that Harrow opened it already.

“A pair of scissors,” said Camilla. “Iris dye.” She looked at Nona’s button-up shirt, which was unbuttoned to show the T-shirt underneath. “And the blackest clothes you can find.”

like where this is going.

Which reminds me, how could Gideon see Cytherea's thanergy signals when Harrow overrided her? no Lyctor masking? or did she turn it off? how did she fool everyone for so long?

He was all, Matter doesn’t play by these rules! You’re doing bone parthenogenesis! I told him his mum did bone parthenogenesis. A— told me he’d kill me one day.

*laughing*

wait I just realized

he did try to kill him later

[treeofnonsense]

🖤 tridentarii

💜 kasjory

Other half of your ask! Tridentarii 🖤 (I wrote this in the student union with no shame):

“Sister dearest, won’t you kiss me?” Prince Ianthe Naberius, the Saint of Awe, ran her hand through Coronabeth’s hair. She’d had it combed and perfumed and properly moisturized just hours ago, and now it lay in rippling waves over Corona’s back like it was supposed to as she knelt beside Ianthe’s throne. Still a few tangles and split ends to be worked out, but it was quite good work from a team of skeleton servants, and, really you can’t expect much more from me can you, when you’ve been living in this horrible place for years – I mean honestly, with this humidity it’s a miracle you look this good. Between the hair, Ianthe’s nagging, and the new shimmering dress sourced from the palace of necromantic corridors, it almost felt like home back on the Third again. Corona would have sunk into the familiarity like a warm bath, except…

…except it wasn’t her leg she was leaning against, it was his. Far too thick and meaty for her waifish sister, smelling like starched fabric and tomb air instead of whatever horrible perfume Ianthe had been trying lately. When she looked up she saw a skeletal version of Naberius instead of a skeletal version of herself – and it wasn’t even a good copy! His hair was all wrong, he had bags under his eyes, and the suit was way too garish for him; the real Naberius would have pitched a fit if he saw this in the mirror. Nobody cares about Babs… but she’d never expected to look him in the eye again.

“I won’t while you’re wearing his face. It’s obscene.”

Ianthe scoffed, and all the skeletons around them twitched their heads a little. All that Lyctor power, spilling out even over lightyears; she’d always had too much, enough for two necromancers. “I come back to this miserable little planet for you, and this is the thanks I get? A fight and a stillborn revolution? What else would you have me do, you fool, come down here myself and go regally loopy?” She laughed, but Naberius’s fingernails dug into Corona’s scalp. “Maybe you would, joining your little revolution. What are they calling you now, Crown? You don’t know what a real crown looks like, not until you’ve seen the halo of a dying planet. I could give you that, Corona, if you’d just listen to me, if you’d let me stand in front for once in your life…”

At that the old habits took over, and Corona said something reassuring and saw from the tilt of Ianthe’s head that she didn’t believe a word of it. Her words never changed anything, but they’d both performed this dance so many times that the steps were trodden into their souls. And why, why? – because back on the Third it gave Corona power, because whatever Ianthe’s whining she would still keep up the act, still polish Corona’s image to a mirror shine. Because she needed Ianthe like she needed air. But this wasn’t the Third, and she knelt at her sister’s throne, and Naberius’s face made it crystal clear that Ianthe didn’t need Corona at all.

And they were waiting for Camilla, whose only crime was loyalty, and for Nona, who had once been Harrowhark, or maybe Gideon, and now was clearly something entirely her own. Because no one else had ever done what Nona had – looked straight into Corona’s halo and seen the center even through all the glare. Corona thought she loved their two incumbent visitors, in her own broken way… they certainly deserved better than this. Why couldn’t she have them and her sister? Couldn’t Ianthe play nice, just for one day?

Not on her own. She needed Corona for this, even if she didn’t know it. Corona tilted her face up and put on her best Crown Princess pout – tears were already filling her vision, so it wasn’t hard. Ianthe recognized the submission, the old pattern, and made Naberius smile. “See now, not so hard.”

“I hate this. I hate him.”

“We’ll be together soon enough.” Ianthe kissed her, and even lightyears away, in a different body, it was the same kiss as a thousand times before. Only the tears were Corona’s silent rebellion.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

[aquato-family-circus]

I mean was supposedly fooled by his grandma in a fake moustache, so i'm sure him disusing himself to not trigger any of lucy's memory is possible.

on a side note i wonder if Raz not recognizing that it was his Nona could be evidence of the Psi Illusion stuff we talked about a while back

Lucy being able to pull off that silly disguise is probably more a loose way for the team to finally give a payoff for the mysterious stranger than anything regarding her ability to make an illusion, esp bc her psychic powers seem to be totally blocked off from her. It could be a subconcious thing maybe! But I find it funnier to imagine Raz was just fooled bc he's 10 and Grandmas Not That Tall.

[empty-pizza]

thoughts on nona the ninth chapter twenty-one

okay i'm at the part of the chapter where nona said "pyrrha just told us everything's fine" and hang on

see, if i was actually as clever as i think i am, i'd have noticed it at the end of the last chapter, but i've still got it now — fishhook was one of the code words, wasn't it? i forget what exactly it meant, and i'm not about to pore through the book to check, but i know it was in there. we ballin.

ooh. she attacked the guards (with a chair) with a two-handed grip.

coronabeth left a bug on judith! of course. i knew she had it in her. her reaction to reuniting was probably completely genuine — and that's why she knew she could fool ianthe. because she really did feel that way. but i didn't see coronabeth go through everything she did in As Yet Unsent to not become a proper BoE rebel. she's a diehard. her sister's a tryhard.

you know, it's pretty crazy how Palamedes died, and then i was like "damn, he was my favorite character" but somehow it's two books later and he's still great and still my favorite character. nona's a close second though.

this series is so cagey about information that i just read palamedes saying gideon's body is the key to the locked tomb and i was like HOLY SHIT and then i was like wait i literally already knew that

so we're gonna try to attack the barracks. there's plenty of book left. i think things are gonna get crazy.

hearing more from the bug. convo between coronabeth and pyrrha is curious. not sure how the sides play out. and i think they'd both know they're being listened in on?

"What did Harrowhark used to always call you? Tortoise? Blorgus?" Pyrrha's voice was cool. "You cut slits in her brain."

lmao

ah i got what camilla is thinking

"None can get at that corpse" very clever

this is the kind of intelligence i like to see out of immortal beings

ooh they're gonna make Nona pretend to be Harrow

[bad-ads]

my locked tomb playlist:

1. Mezzanine by Lady Lamb

its literally written by harrow abt alecto

“There's a ghost, a ghost in the mezzanine

And she's soaked, soaked in a glimmering

Sort of bone, her bones, and I'm blathering”

“How I ache, I ache in the pit of me

I awake, awake with this fear in me

How it makes, makes a fool out of me

With its knife how it carves the seeds out of my heart

For to plant in the soil for to feast”

2. Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler (i also really like the Angie McMahon cover)

its abt gideon and harrow sorry

“Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (All of the time)

I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark

We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks

I really need you tonight

Forever's gonna start tonight”

3. Murder in the Dark by Gia Ford

also gideon and harrow

“Murder in the dark keeps running in my head

And I'm never getting bored, baby girl

Never wanna be standing still

All the love we bled all lit up in red”

“Ready to implode next to you (Do-do, da-da)

No one can do it in the way that we do

I wonder how I'd ever live without knowing (Do-do, da-da)

No one could make me feel the way that you do”

4. Organ Donor by Jeremy Messersmith

just the whole series tbh

“I was born in a mortuary

Full of worry

Ice water in my veins”

“Swing low

Grey bones

I don't know

If I'll ever be whole again”

5. Abbey by Mitski

nona wrote it

“I am hungry

I have been hungry

I was born hungry

What do I need?

I am something

I have been something

I was born something

What could I be?”

“There is a light, I feel it in me

But only, it seems, when the dark surrounds me

There is a dream and it sleeps in me

To awake in the night, crying "Set me free"

And I awake every night, crying "Set me free"

6. NFWMB by Hozier

harrow and alecto

“Ain't it a gentle sound, the rollin' in the graves?

Ain't it like thunder under earth, the sound it makes?

Ain't it exciting you, the rumble where you lay?

Ain't you my baby? ain't you my baby?”

7. Sinnerman by Nina Simone

John Gaius and the RBs, and especially now that Alecto is free

“Oh, sinnerman, where you gonna run to?

Sinnerman where you gonna run to?

Where you gonna run to?

All on that day”

“So I run to the river

It was boilin', I run to the sea

It was boilin', I run to the sea

It was boilin', all on that day

So I run to the Lord

Please hide me, Lord

Don't you see me prayin'?

Don't you see me down here prayin'?

But the Lord said

Go to the Devil”

[daisychainsandbowties]

what are your favorite pieces of sci fi and/or fantasy media? (can be either books/comics/movies)

i didn’t read many comics because i lived in a rlly small rural town & comic books were too expensive with my reading speed. i had to pick the biggest books i could to make them last or i’d end up reading the cook books again by the end of the month. also i added video games bc that’s where a lot of my fav universes are. 

books: (i could go on for 20 years but i’ll stick to a few)

wheel of time -

i got the first book i think when i was 8/9. it took me a week to get past the prologue bc i did not appreciate feeling confused but once i got to Rand & the road and the figure in the cloak i was HOOKED. i brought it to school that week & a sub teacher (legend, in hindsight) came up & was like ‘oh! that’s a great book’ and i mostly glared distrustfully at her bc teachers liked to take books off me or (hate hate) take me aside when the rest of the class were doing sums or whatever and make me read a passage to them, then drill me about the meaning of different words. i get they were trying to see if i actually had that reading level or whatever but it was mortifying. so yeah, glared at her, so sorry bc she was right. it took me years to acquire and read all of the books but been so so normal about them ever since. my favs are probably moiraine (shocker), lan, elayne (actually love her so much an unreasonable amount), mat (gender reasons) and siuan (obviously). 

the book of the ancestor -

THESE BOOKS. there are nuns in this too. they are badass ninja magic nuns and a lot of them are so so gay. it’s about the found family and a little girl called Nona who probably would bite you but she’s actually the kindest softest best person in the world. her friends are all kind of gay for her; she’s kind of gay for all her friends. there are two older nuns called Apple & Kettle who are just flagrantly massive lesbians and it’s so so funny. Apple is a poisoner & Kettle is a spy and they have just such a THING going on i adore them. this trilogy is wonderful & the magic is so cool & the character dynamics are !!!!! feral there’s a Judas character there’s rivals-to-lover/ friends-to-lover. it’s a meditation on where we find meaning and in whom and what we fight for. has everything i love love love. also like… can think of two men off the top of my head in a cast of like 40 deranged women. amazing. 

the fitz & the fool books -

got this on family holiday to Rome when i was 10. ignored rome in favour of reading this day and night. i read it three times in one week. barely stepped foot in the pool. it’s a gorgeous character-driven story. fitzchivalry farseer is ultimate himbo rep. also magical bonding with a wolf will get me every time. there are like two trilogies now. they r so good. 

the murderbot diaries -

ghdklskdsl killer robot gains sentience. just wants to watch their TV shows & be left alone. sadly, stupid humans get in stupid situation & secunit has to endure the mortifying ordeal of being known. SECUNIT i’d die for u. the novels are pretty short but there are quite a few now & each one has a new and awesome take on artificial intelligence and self-advocacy and found family and what it means to be alive. 

the broken earth trilogy -

these books ripped my heart out of my chest and i said thank you. gorgeously written. deals with rlly rlly interesting & important themes. the main character is just so cool, she’s also, like, an older woman with kids but she’s the hero and the main character and i think that’s kind of awesome. the magic SLAPS. it’s plate tectonics babey. 

the black magician trilogy -

these & wot were my gateway to the fantasy genre fr fr. my friend’s mom bought her the first one and she fobbed it off on me (we were 9. she was only interested in this webside called Howrse where you pretended to own horses??) i got locked outside my house after walking home from hers and spent two hours tucked into a narrow nook outside the back door while it bucketed rain down around me. best two hours of my life. first canon queer rep i ever read. there r a bunch of trilogies now. great stuff on healing magic & sonea is so stubborn i love that for her. don’t let anyone reason with you darling. 

movies:

star wars: yes yes yes we know that casper likes star wars. but casper LOVES star wars. obi-wan is my favourite character in the prequels. in the og trilogy probably han solo (i am not immune to THAT), but also as i got older Luke Skywalker too. c3po for that bitch boy energy. i owe him a lot. there is only one movie in the third trilogy & i love Finn. shame they never made the last two movies. 

pirates of the caribbean: ELIZABETH SWAN. we can all blame her for my lesbian behaviour. we can all blame will turner for my gender. 

the alien movies: 1 & 2 mostly, but i will watch the others with my eyes. i can’t help myself. lots of blood & gore = casper happy. blood + actual good storytelling is like porn with plot to me but i will take porn without plot. i am a simple creature. i loved NEWT because talking can be evil sometimes and also living for weeks in a deserted compound with a killer robot - what?? like it’s hard?? obvs Ripley is a legend. bush representation. 

lotr: i love the books too but i grew up on the movies & my uncle only loaned me his 3-in-1 version when i was 10. i don’t know what to say don’t ever talk to me about boromir don’t ever talk to me about gimli and legolas don’t EVER talk to me about sam or frodo. unless you are prepared for a sleeping-beauty type situation where you blink and your kingdom has fallen into darkness bc i’ve been talking for 35 years. 

i LOVE the movie Arrival: linguistics & aliens, non-linearity of the narrative. CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP. it’s the good tasty stuff. also mood when she arrives to teach & there are like 4 people and she’s like ‘hmm. okay.’ that’s every day of my life teaching obscure bs. i also kind of want her house. badly. and LISTEN the short story is also good but i rlly like the weird feral energy she had going on in the movie. sign me up so fast for a deranged woman in stem. (she’s in linguistics but let me have my joke. it’s basically math)

video games

mass effect: if you were here with me on tumblr in 2014 1. i’m sorry and 2. you know that liara t’soni is my wife and i’d die for her. these games gave me the most severe brainrot. no i cannot ever be mean to anyone ever but i do push that guy off the Dantius tower in ME2 because it’s funny. Aria t’Loak can [redacted] me if she wants. but yeaaaah. these games are amazing and i still genuinely burst into tears every time Leaving Earth comes on my playlist. there’s just something abt it. played the game on rec of my hot physics teacher. to nobody’s surprise. my favs are Liara (going to tell you humiliating anecdote now. one time i was talking loudly to my friend in my room while playing ME and i said ‘hey, that’s my girlfriend’ loudly and my mom burst in like !!!! YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND I WANT TO MEET HER. imagine her disappointment when it was a collection of pixels on my tv. she was like ‘…. cas. go outside.’) i also like Jack, Miranda (love a woman who is mean to me), WREX BOI, tali bc i want to smooch her helmet and because of that time she gets drunk it’s so funny. i like garrus too okay but my friend never shut up about him so i was sick of him in the same way she was sick of Brynjolf after the 500th time i said he could [redacted]. 

jak and daxter: aaaaahhh. the mild child neglect game. basically my mum got this when i was a toddler & one time got so engrossed trying to cross Fire Canyon she let me fall asleep in my walker. i was fine but my dad never let her or me or anyone forget about it. it’s his measure for how good things are. ‘oh, is it fall asleep in your walker good?’ i think i learned my motor skills playing this game. my hands were sucky clumsy bastards so actually it helped. i was bad at it for so long but now i can 100% the game without dying once in about 3 hours. not speedrun territory but still. it’s just!!! visually incredible. the story is so funny. whatever gender Jak has i want. Daxter was my comedic role-model so you can see how that turned out for me. it’s totally worth watching Jak & Daxter (the whole trilogy) on YT or playing it. the games of all time to me. the kind of fantasy worlds i create are still massively influenced by this. also Jak didn’t speak for the first game so he was autism rep to me as a kid even tho i had only bouts of being non-verbal & other times never shutting tf up. 

ratchet & clank: same vein as jak & daxter. made by naughty dog who yes also made TLOU. so funny, so visually stunning. A Crack in Time is the best game come and fight me. but also LOVED Rift Apart bc one character had a prosthetic limb & she was rlly rlly cool. idk the sci-fi world in Ratchet and Clank is basically a shitpost but it’s also so gorgeous and so fun and makes no sense but (Daniel Craig voice) compels me though. i love the second and third games also and ALSO tools of destruction. HAS AMAZING MUSIC. such bopping. best track is probably novalis imo. 

horion zero dawn: this is more recent. drives me insane. there are kind of mechanical dinosaurs and you have a bow and arrow and you fight them and Aloy is so sarcastic and so clever and so (looks into the camera like she’s on the office) about everything. it’s an amazing world & i love her little found family and the BIG ‘go the fuck to sleep’ energy she has. so stubborn love that for her. 

pokemon: like i said. neighbour wanted to play GTA on PS2 without traumatising me so gave me his red gameboy and pokemon gold. then i learned to read. got sapphire for my 7th christmas + the GameBoy Advanced SP. got every game since then & I JUST LOVE POKEMON. it’s THE autism game (sorry stardew. sucks to suck) you collect little guys and you battle and you walk around and you shiny hunt and there are like 900 different pokemon now. i mean we all know pokemon anyway but yeah i was obsessed my whole life. wanted to be ash ketchum i love his attitude imo he’s a very ava silva character and i like how he says “i like carrots and peppers and bugs” he’s so valid for that.

skyrim: hehehehe. 2011. got this for christmas based on the cinematic trailer (god’s strongest soldier i am not) and was so scared of the draugr i emerged out of my room at 3am on st-stephen’s day in a pose like i was holding a greatsword WIHOUT REALISING i was doing it. i git good at the game tho & learned to mod. aaaaahhhh it’s one of my fav worlds to get lost in. my mum sent me this text when i texted her a pic of the official skyrim guidebook

[iviarellereads]

Nona the Ninth, Chapter 25

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Slashed Gideon Nav icon)(1) In which we get to know someone familiar, again, but from the outside.

Pyrrha's gun goes ker-klunk again, and Kiriona turns to see her and greets her with "Long time no drown."

“Ninth?” said Crown, sounding almost nervous. Pyrrha ignored her, and said: “He brought you back. He’s made a revenant out of you.” “Yope,” said the corpse prince.(2)

Pyrrha is disbelieving. There shouldn't have been enough left, even for John, and then he only brings her back… like this? As a corpse?(3)

Kiriona interrupts to tell Pal to put away the syringe, before she breaks Babs's arm, but he says she's still holding him in place. She asks if he's going to stick her with it and run, but he asks if she knows how syringes work.

Crown comes back to interrupt again with her minor existential crisis about "the Ninth" being alive-ish. The corpse lets go of Pal, then sits up, and gets herself standing with surprising ease.

What shocked Nona was not that the corpse moved. It was the way in which she moved. Nona was so distracted that she couldn’t stop watching. She had never seen anyone move like that before.(4) “Nope, and nope,” she said. “I’m Prince Kiriona Gaia(5) the First, Her Divine Highness, First Lieutenant of the Cohort, Emperor’s Life Guards, non-auxiliary—honorary title but who cares—heir to the Emperor Divine, first of the Tower Princes. And I’m mega dead.” “John, you mad bastard,” said Pyrrha softly. She hadn’t taken either hand off her gun.

Kiriona runs through the list of those present with snarky comments like "Mumfucker Prime". Pal asks how long she's been awake, and Kiriona says, the whole time.(6) She's been playing possum,(7) very cleverly.

Nona was indignant enough at Prince Kiriona Gaia’s whole demeanour, but this last piece of self-congratulation was too much to bear. “I knew it!” she burst out. “You didn’t fool me—I saw you looking at me, back in the other room! You know, when I—” “Yes, congratulations,” said the Prince sarcastically. “No, babycakes, I didn’t fool you. Who is this literal goddamn infant? Can someone give her like a rusk(8) or something and shut her up?”

Nona opens her mouth to say "the worst thing she had ever said", but Pal gives her a pleading look, and says this isn't making sense. He asks Kiriona why Ianthe hid her away. Kiriona says Ianthe shut her off so she wouldn't screw up the Sixth House retrieval mission, and was very angry Kiriona stowed away on the mission at all.

Kiriona blows a raspberry, presumably at the thought of Ianthe, but Pal takes from her explanation that she rode through the River. Pyrrha says that's not possible, not with a soul attached to her.

The corpse prince tilted her head to one side, like a curious bird. “You haven’t been in the River lately, have you?” she said. “What’s that meant to mean?” “Guess you’ll find out at some point,” said the Prince. “Anyway. You’re going to the Ninth House, right? I want in.”

Cam asks why, and Kiriona says, why not? Nostalgia, maybe. Pal says if she's been awake the whole time, she knows what they're doing, and why isn't she trying to stop them, for the Emperor? Kiriona smiles, hungrily, and not nicely. She asks if Pal wants to fight her. Pal says no and stops Cam from advancing to do just that. He says he considers her a friend, which makes Nona angry that someone as good as Pal could be friends with someone as bad as Kiriona.(9) Pal asks what Kiriona wants out of this.

Kiriona considers the question, then says she doesn't care or want much of anything anymore, she just wants to be where things are happening.

“She’s lying,” said Nona instantly. With all the white noise coming from the corpse prince, she couldn’t tell exactly where the lie was, but it was buried deep around her smile.

Kiriona tells Nona to shut her stolen mouth, Cam tells Kiriona to watch it, and Nona's heart flutters at Cam's defence of her. Pal asks again, and Kiriona says what does it matter, she just wants to go back. Nona can't detect a lie in this, so shrugs at the others. Crown says they'll need her for their work anyway.

At this, Kiriona invites them to all come at her, and try to draw blood. She even offers her arm, when Cam twitches with eagerness to do just that. Cam steps forward deliberately and presses the syringe to Kiriona's skin, where the needle snaps in half. Cam stumbles, Kiriona reaches to steady her, then realizes what she's doing and shoves Cam away, to land in Pal's arms.

The Prince stared at them. Her eyes weren’t like Nona’s at all now: they were hard and dead and bright, like something that had been dug up. “My father has made my body’s bones denser than titanium plex,” said the Crown Prince coldly. “My father has made my skin turn away bullets. I am the perfect sword hand and the final expression of the art of the Nine Houses. Don’t you get it? I am the Emperor’s construct.” Pyrrha said— “Shame he didn’t get some spackle for your extra holes, right?” “Those are my speed holes. They help me go fast,”(10) said Kiriona quickly.

Cam asks what would have happened if she'd gotten the sample. Kiriona says her blood burns to ash instantly outside her body, unless it's sustained with thalergy. Pal gives her an odd look, and she says she knows, like, five necromancy facts now.

This comment makes Pal look like he's been slapped, but he shakes it off and says the BOE would cuff Kiriona "in about sixteen different places" if they knew she was up and abouts, and asks how she feels about that.

Kiriona turned her body to look at them. Nona couldn’t quite believe that they couldn’t all see it; but they weren’t watching, goggle-eyed, they hadn’t even seemed to notice. It was in Kiriona’s every movement—the bright, swift flexions of her arms, and the way she swung her legs, big and brash, and the weirdly easy, light grace with which she moved her dead body. Nona had never seen anyone so sad in her whole short life. It made her nearly afraid to die.(11) “Nobody locks me up anywhere,” said Kiriona.

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(1) Gideon, or Kiriona if you prefer, isn't quite herself anymore. And, this book in particular makes me feel real weird about what to call characters. Since she calls herself Kiriona Gaia here, until or unless she does otherwise, I'm going to stick with that in the notes, the same way I've been referring to Crown instead of Corona mostly, but leave Gideon Nav in the tags for consistency. I'm still of two minds on how to refer to the Lyctors and their cavs, given we can guess John changed their names for his own… convenience? amusement? But either way, Kiriona asks for her friends to use a name, even if she says it's okay if they still call her the other one, and I'm gonna respect her choice here where it makes sense to. (2) I read this as an affirmative (he brought her back) and a negative (that she's a revenant). It's entirely likely I'm incorrect, though. (3) This also contributes to my theory about Kiriona's displacement, from the previous chapter. I don't think John had anything to do with bringing her back, except on the genetic inheritance level. Even if she says something here that contradicts it, who's to say she's not either telling what she was told, or protecting him… or herself. (And, he may not have done the deed, but he would absolutely gladly take credit for it if the details are muddy in her memory.) (4) Move like what, exactly, Nona? What does her body language tell you? (I need to know!) (5) Kiriona is how the Maori language would interpret "Gideon" with the vowels and consonants native to it. (Think along the lines of that Hawaiian Christmas song, Mele Kalikimaka. Similar origin, as both Pacific Islands, but a different evolution since they split.) Also, side note, remember in GtN when Gideon said "I fealt the Emperor with every bone in my body." The SCREAM I let out on my first read when I hit this part. Also, Gaia, the feminine form of John's Gaius, even though that name was adopted later in his life, in his reign. (6) The whole time she's been on this planet… or the whole time she was gone? (7) Play possum - pretend to be asleep, unconscious, or dead when threatened. (8) A rusk is a small twice-baked piece of bread or cake, used in some places as a teether for babies. (9) Why does Nona think Kiriona is bad? Is it the lying? The anger, maybe. Put yourself in Kiriona's shoes, though: you've been stuck in a gilded cage, finally manage to sneak out on a nice dangerous mission to get the blood flowing in your actual corpse body again, you play dead for days out of boredom, and then THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE walks in your bedroom door and kisses you… then reveals she's an infant soul in your love's body and has no idea how much it meant to you or why. Anyone would be angry! (10) Twofold reference. Number one, The Simpsons 6x15, with regard to bulletholes in a car. It's maybe not exactly a meme because trying to search for it without knowing the specific reference to add keywords is a pain in the absolute ass, but it IS a reference. Second, in GtN, "They would have given her an interesting array of new airholes for speed." The setup and the callback. Bonus: I highlight a lot of quotes in my ebooks, and this one got not just a highlight, but a comment: oh fuck off lmao (11) Kiriona is the saddest girl Nona's ever seen... why would that make Nona afraid to die?

[nekyn-alb]

Alright, Nona the Ninth Review, Spoilers Abound.

Like every reasonable person, I read the first handful of chapters and immediately adored Nona to the full extent of my heart. By the end, I would have committed much less reasonable crimes for her and the family. An excellent version of the clueless puppy-eyed but still intelligent character, which neatly balanced out powers that could otherwise be quite story-breaking. Everyone's a constant liar in these books, after all.

The story felt a lot more like an exploration of lives than a typical drive from point A to Z. I had a rough expectation of where it would head towards the end, but everything inbetween? A splendid chaos. I'm not sure how much of it was truly needed for other things to happen. Some of the kids felt underdeveloped and unimportant (BitM, Ruby, Kevin) and I would have liked a more in-the-picture conflict between the cells.

The main plot came through in such a serpentined way that I have a hard time pinning an emotion to it. I loved almost every segment individually, yet it doesn't feel as cohesively woven as Gideon and Harrow.

Kiri was strange. There will inevitably be shenanigans at play, because these people can't just not stop lying, they also can't stop messing with their far too fragile psyches. Pyrrha, Cam and Pal though? Love them for fucking up that much.

The story of John was a pleasant descent into madness with a really neat writing structure, he said. I am not 100% certain where/when the dialogue about the world's history took place, I assume I could chalk that up to the river's odd nature. I like me a self-aggrandizing fool of a god, so these sections fulfilled my desires wonderfully.

Losing some of these characters truly clobbered my heart with a wrench in all the right ways. I cherish all the folks who'll be in Alecto, but it will be hard to live up to the joy and sadness I felt here.

However, I am welcoming the next change of pace and setting, which I expect to be entirely unanticipatable once again.

Verdict for the series so far: Harrow the Ninth might have my favorite story, Gideon the Ninth my favorite setting, and Nona the Ninth my favorite hard-to-categorize-but-still-wonderful-exploration-of-the-larger-world-and-political-commentary.