Chapter Text
Gideon smiled to herself as she leaned back in her desk chair, rereading her latest letter from Harrow, which arrived just that morning with the weekly shuttle.
‘Griddle,
No, I will not send you any of my underthings!’
Gideon snorted. She hadn’t been serious, but she wouldn’t have objected either. She hadn’t seen her little Lugubrious Lady in three months, a beggar couldn’t be a chooser.
‘I often wonder how I wound up entangled romantically with a lech like you… Luckily for you, I am reminded shortly after of your finer qualities and decide they vastly outweigh the less desirable ones.’
Gideon rolled her eyes at that. For Harrow, that was nearly tantamount to a declaration of love. She certainly hadn't heard any complaints the last time she was 'being a lech' and Harrow was hanging on the posts of her bed in the Ninth for dear life and muttering Gideon's name like she was possessed by a revenant. Something she was very much going to remind her of when she wrote her reply.
‘ And before you attempt it, I do not want any of yours either!’
“Spoilsport,” Gideon huffed and read through the rest of the three-page letter detailing how things on the Ninth had been fairing with the tentative new programs she and Pal had been putting in place, such as allowing some of the more senior archivists and scholars to visit the Ninth in return for certain kinds of supplies, which had allowed them to do some tentative trading with the Fifth and Fourth.
‘There has been an amount of relief lately as the programs Sextus and I have been working on finally are coming to fruition. It is still by no means enough to truly aid me in my goal for my House, but the limits on food have been raised and the support systems overhauled to great reception….’
Gideon flipped over to another page, reading through it before getting to her favorite part near the letter’s end.
'I’m pleased to hear your dueling tournament on the Second went well. Sextus expressed his own pride in your victory. I’m also glad to know you managed to remain uninjured this time.
I hope you’ll continue to take care of yourself and keep all your blood in your body where it belongs till I can see you again, beloved.
~ Yours, Harrowhark.’
Emperor Undying, Gideon missed that little witch and wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around her and bury her face in thick black hair that smelled of old parchment and bone dust with a hint of dried blood. A wild concept to most people and she could imagine the look that Cam would give her but that was love for you. It made no fucking sense at all.
She was just about to flip the pages back over and read it again when her door suddenly flew open and she jumped, the pages of flimsy shot into the air and fluttered to the ground around her and she spun around to look at Cam, standing there in the open doorway.
“What the fuc-” she stopped upon seeing the look on Cam’s face. “What is it?” she jumped up, Harrow’s letter left lying on the floor.
“We’re summoned to the Warden’s room,” she said and Gideon hurried after her. They didn’t bother to knock but Pal seemed to be expecting them as he stood in the middle of his room, paper in hand.
“Ah, good, you’re both here,” he said looking up from whatever he had. “We’ve received a summons…,” he said gravely and Gideon blinked.
“A summons? From who?” Cam frowned at her necromancer’s serious face.
“The Emperor,” he said and Gideon nearly choked on her own spit.
“What?!”
He held the paper - real paper! - out to Gideon, who looked at the official summons bearing the Imperial seal. Cam leaned over her shoulder to read it as well.
“ADDRESSING THE HOUSE OF THE SIXTH, AND IT’S LADY JUNO ZETA: “Salutations to the House of the Sixth, and blessings upon it's many tomes, its scholars, and its manifold collections of knowledge. “His Celestial Kindliness, the First Reborn, begs this house to honor its love for the Creator, as set in the contract of tenderness made on the day of the Resurrection, and humbly asks for the first fruits of your household, Master Warden Palamedes Sextus and Cavalier Primary Camilla Hect. For in need now are the Emperor’s Hands, the most blessed and beloved of the King Undying, the faithful, and the everlasting! The Emperor calls now for postulants to the position of Lyctor, heirs to the eight stalwarts who have served these ten thousand years: as many of them now lie waiting for the rivers to rise on the day they wake to their King, those lonely Guard remaining petition for their numbers to be renewed and their Lord above Lords to find eight new liegemen. “To this end, we beg the first of your House and their cavalier to kneel in glory and attend the finest study, that of being the Emperor’s bones and joints, his fists and gestures … “Eight we hope will meditate and ascend to the Emperor in glory in the temple of the First House, eight new Lyctors joined with their cavaliers; and if the Necrolord Highest blesses but does not take, they shall return home in full honor, with trump and timbrel. “There is no dutiful gift so perfect, nor so lovely in his eyes.”
“We are being summoned to the First House, to study the trials to attain Lyctorhood and serve the King undying as his new Saints,” Pal said to both his Cavalier’s “The enormity of this!” Pal said, throwing up his hands before he began to pace around the room, muttering to himself at a fast rate. Beside her, Cam hummed, still studying the paper and she got the feeling that Gideon had noticed the same thing she herself had found in the words, glaring at her.
She looked up and caught Cam’s eyes and knew she had.
“It’s just you and Cam,” she said and Pal stopped his pacing to look at her. “It’s only asking for the heir and the Primary, that’s you and Cam,” she said and at least Pal didn’t add salt to the wound by insisting that she and Cam were his co Primary’s. She was and she knew it and maybe they could force other houses to accept that but Pal sure as hell couldn’t say that to the Emperor.
“Yes,” he said with a heavy sigh. Gideon pressed her lips together. “They are calling only for the heirs and Cavalier Primary’s. Two representatives from every house and two alone,” he said. Gideon's jaw worked soundlessly. She already knew that even if it hadn’t been Cam’s name on the paper, she was not going to let Pal go off world without her. They could fight about that till Dominicus went supernova and incinerated the library in a blast of scorching hot plasma that left only space dust behind.
She handed the paper back to Pal.
“I still need to send back my reply. I was considering adding a letter that addressed my need to bring you as well,” he said and Gideon shook her head.
“There's no way. This came straight from the big boy up top. Do we really think he’s going to bend for us?” she asked, looking between Cam and Pal. They shared a look and Gideon knew they agreed with her.
Pal sighed and stroked his beard, staring down at the letter before looking back up at Gideon.
“I hate to leave you here when I need you as much as Cam,” he said and Gideon waved a hand.
“No, you don’t. Cam can do anything I can,” she said and Pal and Cam both frowned at her.
‘Yes, I do,” he insisted, glaring heatedly at her for a moment before sighing. “But you are right about one thing. I can not entreat the Emperor about this. The King Undying’s declaration was clear.”
Cam crossed her arms, not looking any happier then Pal. She could do anything Gideon could, but they had spent years learning how to complement and work together as Pal’s dual hands.
“I will think of a suitable position for you to occupy while we’re away, Gideon,” The Master Warden promised and Gideon nodded, eyes turned downward. Then a hand laid itself on her shoulder, making her look up into Pal’s limpid gray eyes, shining behind his glasses.
“I would take you with us if I could. You are a Cavalier Primary,” he said, as though willing her to believe it. Her eyes flickered to Cam, who gave a resolute tip of her chin and she sighed.
“Yeah… I know,” she said and Pal nodded, giving her shoulder another pat before turning to Cam. “Well, we’re going to have to address the whole of the Sixth for this,” he said and she nodded. “Best go and round up my mother for that.”
The next few hours were a rush of gathering the Sixth and reading the summons from the Emperor. The whole house broke out into not-so-hushed whispers and debate about it. Gideon remained quiet, letting it all pass by.
She felt useless. Worse than useless. What was a cavalier without a necromancer? Sure, she was still Pal’s Cav… but here he and Cam were going off to do what would probably be the most important thing they ever did for the Sixth and Gideon was being left behind.
It wasn’t until later, when she returned to her room to find Harrow’s letter still lying on the floor in her rush that another thought struck her.
If all the House heirs and their Cavaliers were being summoned to the First House, Harrow would certainly be among them. She would be there, with Cam and Pal…
Hell, with Jeannemary and Issac, Abigail and Magnus. Even the stuffed shirts of the Second House!
Gideon ‘s fists clenched, feeling her mood turn sour the more she thought about it. None so much though as her mind turned back to Harrow. How long would they be there? Were they ever even coming back? Cam and Pal probably would… but Harrow…
Gideon's jaw clenched. Harrow, who wanted so desperately to do right by her House and make right the enormous life cost her parents had forced upon her shoulders before her birth, she wouldn't. She would crack the code of lyctorhood. Between her and Palamedes, they would do it and Harrow would throw herself at the Emperor's feet and beg for him to restore the Ninth to its former glory.
Not that Gideon could blame her. She knew very well how the knowledge of Harrow's conception pained her. Haunted her.
No. It would hurt, she could admit to herself that it would break her heart for Harrow to never return to the Ninth, much less the Sixth. But she would understand the reasons and would never begrudge it. She knew she would never truly understand how her girlfriend felt about it all.
She'd still miss her like all hell though. She doubted there was anyone else in the Empire, maybe the whole galaxy like Harrowhark Nonagesimus.
With that depressing thought, she kneeled down I started picking up the scattered pieces of flimsy, flipping them into the right order and carefully storing them back in the envelope they had come out of before laying it carefully upon the tall stack sitting in its rightful place of honor at the top corner of her desk.
Some nights when she couldn't sleep, she would get out of bed, sit at her desk, and read through old letters. Letting Harrow's dry humor and scathing tongue lull her back into exhaustion.
Tonight, she left them where they were and kicked off her boots before sprawling back onto her bed, arms thrown out, and sighed. Then, another thought came to her and she frowned, glaring at nothing.
"I can't fucking believe that Ortus is going to the First as a Cavalier Primary and I'm going to be here babysitting the books!" She growled, slapping a hand against the bed in frustration.
~ ~
She continued to sulk for the better part of two weeks. She trained with Cam, she ate and she attended to her duties but it all felt rather hollow knowing that in just under three months, Cam and Pal would be on the First with the Scion and Cavalier Primary's of the other Eight houses.
Cam and Pal tried to cheer her up in their own ways and Gideon would admit to loving Scholar Hexa's presentation on the death of stars she'd been dragged to by Pal. She found all that shit fascinating to be honest. Had always been a bit of a side project besides her scholarly study of the muscles of the body.
She and Cam had even done some hardcore training, and at the moment, when her adrenaline was pumping through her veins, she forgot all about why she was a little depressed.
It always came back to her after the high wore off.
She also hadn't responded to Harrow's last letter.
Every time she sat down at her desk to try she just thought about how it might be the last letter they ever shared because really, how often would Harrow find the time to write after she became a hallowed saint of the King Undying? How much leisure time did one really have as a fist and gesture of his Celestial Kindliness?
Probably not much.
The same piece of flimsy had been sitting on her desk the entire two weeks with. 'My dear Twilight Princess -' and that was it written at the top.
Hell, even if she found the gumption to write it, would Harrow even write back? Surely she and Ortus must be too busy preparing for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to even think about Gideon or the mail.
That thought, more than any other really killed her desire to sit down and write a letter, no matter how much she wanted to, wanted to go down to the landing dock in a few days and have a fresh new letter with her lover's name penned in blood across the front like the little bone witch she was.
It wasn't going to happen though, and she knew it.
It didn't.
No, instead, three days later, when the shuttle arrived with its normal packages and parcels for the Sixth House residents, no new letter awaited Gideon Sise as she stood there, ready to receive any mail for Palamedes.
Instead, the shuttle doors opened and the normal shuttle pilot went scrambling out of the shuttle doors with his sack of letters.
"Hey, where the hell are you going?!" She turned and called after him.
"I believe he was eager to be away from me," a familiar voice said and Gideon whipped around, eyes wide and mouth ajar as the Reverend Daughter of the Ninth stepped out of the shuttle's cargo bay and into the Library's bright lights.