i am your sworn sword

here’s a quick drawing I made yesterday to kick off the week 🫡 anyways htn really endeared me to Ortus, I wanted to do a short comic of the whole scene but my wrist and neck said no.

NO WE DON'T KNOW FOR SURE WHO SAYS THIS LINE!!

The book describes it as being said "so savagely that it sounded like a new voice altogether," with no further elaboration.

Aiglamene and Kiriona are talking over one another at this point in the conversation. Crux's response isn't very helpful because he could plausibly be talking to either of them. He never liked Gideon or Aiglamene, and he certainly believed he knew better than either of them what was best for the Ninth and best for Harrow.

Kiriona was my first assumption, too. Assuming this line comes from her, it shows some considerable evolution in her understanding of the relationship between the Ninth and Harrow, which she had always envied Harrow as a child. It's also tiny bit hypocritical. A sharp condemnation not just of the culture and people that failed Harrow so badly, but possibly also of herself and her way of thinking in Harrow the Ninth, lining up just like all the rest of them to shove her death down Harrow's throat as an offering.

The audiobook gives the line to Aiglamene. I had to think about it, but I like this interpretation as well. Giving the line to Aiglamene makes it a brief outburst from a woman who once believed the Ninth had a future worth waiting for, finally allowing herself to be angry that all they were waiting for was to die. That one way or another, all the Ninth knew how to give its children was death. I think she's due a moment of savagery on seeing the corpse of the child she thought she'd helped escape that cycle competing for the right to die again. She thought she'd gotten her out.

It drives me a little crazy, because both versions are good. Both versions are plausible. But they aren't entirely interchangeable in their implications, and there's no way to tell for sure which version is true.

Harrow is the broke homeschooled kid from an isolationist cult that was let out on mission and/or bargained her way into attending a university so she could bring knowledge and funding back to the community. All her clothes are second-, third- or fourth-hand and have been patched and mended to hell and back and are not visually distinctive enough to identifiably belong to any subculture. The only exception to this lack of visual distinctiveness are her Church Robes, which are Church Robes. The only new clothing she owns is, like, underwear, maybe.

She is covered from neck to wrist and ankle because if anyone saw she had a human body under there she would gouge their eyes out. Most of her clothes are home-dyed black because she did it in the bathtub, and they must be black to show she is in permanent mourning. Also because then it's less likely people will notice she wears the same shirt and skirt for three days straight.

She does still have piercings (she is the only one on the Ninth mentioned to have piercings, I do not believe those are sacramental and are fully a Harrow Thing) because she can argue it's holy mortification of the flesh. Otherwise, thinking about what she is wearing is a distraction from more important things, which are a) being Righteous and b) proving she is the smartest person in the room.

You may know that 'Alecto' (Αληκτώ) as a name translates to Ceasless, as in 'merciless' or 'implacatable', etc etc. Coming from the mythological Fury. A-lecto. Un-ending.

And 'pause' (παύση) is a word. A greek word in origin.

Therefore, Αληκτόπαυση (Alectopause) is a perfectly understandable to any fluent speaker word, that means "Unending-Pause". Have a fun one with it

still reeling from that, she stumbles into the Third and -- BAM! -- bears witness to a cavalier discovering that his 'necromancer' has betrayed his trust behind his back--

retreats back to the Ninth's rooms where -- KABLAM! -- she finds proof that her own necromancer has, you guessed it, betrayed her trust on multiple levels--

and then runs to the Sixth...

...who trust each other more than anything.

Happy to FINALLY share that The Locked Tomb cover artist Tommy Arnold will be doing an AMA on r/theninthhouse tomorrow. This has been in the works for months. Come with your questions (not just about Alecto please!) for Tommy, and maybe celebrate some other special news he's been hinting at for days too...

Nona's birthday 🐩🐕🐕‍🦺

Commission for @bensavagae

Tommy Arnold, artist for the book covers, just posted this on Instagram: