eli

Calli: that's why, on the first day, you have to beat up the biggest one in the yard!

Kiara: Calli, that's prison.

「Takamori」 by bluefield | Twitter

Look at this, here:

Harrow calls bullshit on Dulcinea having turned Pro into a Beguiling Corpse because it should not be possible for a single necromancer to do it. Not even a necromancer in the prime of their power. And Cytherea considers this a fair hole in her story, and amends it to say that it wasn't her, it was all the heads of the Seventh House working together.

This is something that tripped me up the first time, because Gideon gets such wildly different reactions from the people around her! Aiglamene knows her better than anyone and is a good judge of ability (though she seems like the kind of old person who's never fully satisfied with anything), and she's highly critical—then again, she's highly critical of Gideon as a cavalier, not a fighter. The problem with Gideon is that she very clearly hasn't been trained to be a cavalier or to fight in the customary mode, with the right weapons. But the fact that she can be a match for Naberius and hold up decently enough against Camilla that her face betrays a bit of surprise? (And therefore she would have stood a decent chance against Marta?)

Back on Harrow, I disagree that she's "vastly better at necromancy" than the other Lyctors only because that's too broad. I don't think Harrow could have atomized John or plunged the full Mithraem to the bottom of the River, and we actively see her go to Mercy for help figuring out how to stimulate her cortisol, etc. It's said several times her flesh and spirit studies are lacking. But I'd agree that she has higher potential and is a more intuitive and faster learner than any of them for sure. They're all very highly specialized, and she's already working on broadening her scope a lot more.

And regarding the Beguiling Corpses, in fairness, Pro looks much more convincing than Harrow's parents. Gideon mentions how they look fine from the neck up, but from they neck down they are bad. So that could account for at least some of the discrepancy, Harrow knowing what a badass she is but even she hadn't been able to keep them so full body preserved or direct them to speak.

My favorite thing rn is that at the very end of the book, Gideon Nav; the Ninth's Cavalier, fell over and... learned how to fence.

Please let this year finally be the year Tor puts us out of our misery. These TBA books could be absolutely anything, but they're the only unannounced titles on Tor's site right now. If the 10/20/26 release is Alecto the Ninth, I may perish.