Gideon the Ninth

All the remaining Houses meet in the facility and use their necromancy and expertise to discover what happened to Abigail and Magnus. The Eighth shows off its expertise, which is the magic of soul siphoning. Colum acts as a living battery for Silas, which causes strange things to happen in the facility. Lights flicker and break, Gideon gets a migraine, and Dulcinea faints. Dulcinea’s cavalier, Protesilaus, punches Silas to stop him, but Colum is already unconscious from being siphoned. The spirits of Abigail and Magnus cannot be called back, and there is no evidence of what happened to the two.

Teacher appears above and refuses to come down: He is deathly afraid of the facility. He urges them to bring the bodies up “lest they become a nest for something else” (181).

Abigail and Magnus’s bodies are placed in the freezer room attached to the kitchen. Then, the Houses gather in the dining room. The Second House necromancer, Judith Deuteros, insists on calling in the military and suspects murder. Teacher reminds them of the “sacred rule” of the First House: Nobody can visit Canaan House if the Emperor did not invite them (184). Tension builds as Houses argue over contacting the military.