Post-Halloween

[we_bring_hell]

Harrow is working. Very seriously. She is not mooning over her new relationship with Gideon even a little bit; she has too much work to do.

She is, however, wearing a skull with accents of deep, almost black purple, with a starburst or floral pattern just below her temple, that she has never been seen to wear before.

Other than that sentimental embellishment, however, she is entirely focused on Obaeg's Toward a Common Haemographology. She is making copious notes in the margins--courting future simian fury--and thinking that she should have found this for Moiraine before they started working on her weave notation.

Comments

[riddleofthebelow]

"One can use the Dark Arts to kill," he says, and, then, after a pause, he adds, "I have used the Dark Arts to kill."

[we_bring_hell]

"I have not killed," she says, almost apologetically. "The Ninth is rather quiet, for the most part."

All the murders happened before she was born.

[riddleofthebelow]

"It's nothing to aspire to, I promise you. It's not something I will hide, but I'm not proud of being a murderer, either. I do wonder though how energy used to power the Killing Curse would compare and contrast with your thanargy."

Not that there would be a way to test it, of course. But he does wonder.

[we_bring_hell]

"I'm not sure," she says. "Wei Wuxian and I have discussed the possibility of resentful energy being an emotional energy used to jacket and control thanergy, to allow spirits to wield it and to move it around. It seems possible that there are commonalities with other forms of magic as well."

"Then again, a sword can certainly kill without using thanergy."

[riddleofthebelow]

"Yes, but in such a... graceless, physical way. Magic is much more elegant."

He realizes this would sound horrifying to most people. Harrow isn't most people, but he still waits to gauge her reaction.

[we_bring_hell]

"I would agree," she says thoughtfully. "But there is a sermon on Necromancers and Cavaliers that has some interesting philosophical arguments about blade and magic balancing one another spiritually and practically."

[riddleofthebelow]

"I can certainly understand that, especially in a world in which the dyad of sword and sorcerer is a cultural norm."

[we_bring_hell]

"It also repudiates the possibility of a romantic tie between cavalier and adept, which I of course do not agree with," she says with a shrug. "But nevertheless I found some insights in it."

[riddleofthebelow]

"Well, that's a sermon for you," says Tom, who hasn't sat through one since he ditched Muggle London for Hogwarts or minions' estates as a teen.

"One or two insights amongst the judgmental dreck."

[we_bring_hell]

The Reverend Daughter of Drearburh smiles oddly.

"I tried to average at least four."

[riddleofthebelow]

"No offense meant, Harrow," Tom says, frowning slightly. "I have strong feelings towards the hypocritical religion forced upon me as a child."

[we_bring_hell]

"None taken," she says. "The priests of the Eighth House are vile like that."

[riddleofthebelow]

"The Eighth House drains their cavaliers like batteries and yet preach their righteous ways? Sounds about right."

[we_bring_hell]

"Precisely. They are the Keepers of the Tome, and entitled to mete out Church justice. I do not deny that perhaps someone should play that role, but in practice, it seems that nothing is illegal if the Eighth House decides it should be done."

[riddleofthebelow]

"Sounds ghastly. When I have time to work more on your puzzle, I'll keep that in mind."

The Eighth House has risen in suspicion in his mind.

[we_bring_hell]

"I do not say their faith is false, mind, or that they are all hypocrites," she says. "Indeed, if our friend Lan Wangji reminds me of any House, it is certainly the Eighth."

"If all of the Eighth House had his propriety and attitude towards doing right, we would be better neighbors."

[riddleofthebelow]

"That's the thing, though, isn't it? Individuals like him are far and few in between."

[we_bring_hell]

"Indeed. I believe the Eighth has many more Silas Octakiserons than Lan Wangjis."

"Perhaps it is a bad habit to try and connect everyone I meet to our Houses," she admits. "But it is a lens I have relied on all my life."

[riddleofthebelow]

"Oh, I know how that goes," he says, his lips twitching into something of a smile. "The Wizarding world tends to be divided by school houses, and that follows you through your life. Whether you like it or not."

[we_bring_hell]

"Interesting," she says. "I admit I am something of a Ninth House stereotype. Did you find the associations people had with you limiting?"

[riddleofthebelow]

"Oh, yes. Very much so." He huffs a wry laugh. "At my school, there were four Houses. One was Ravenclaw, where the brightest children were sorted. One was Gryffindor where the bold and brave went."

He says bold and brave like they are not the finest superlatives.

"Hufflepuff House was made up of the loyal and hard-working, and Slytherin, the cunning and ambitious. Guess which House claimed me?"

[we_bring_hell]

"This feels almost like a trap," she muses.

[riddleofthebelow]

"That's a good description for it, yes. Mind you, you're sorted into these houses at the age of eleven, when, of course, you're a fully formed person whose future should be clearly laid out."

[we_bring_hell]

"In fairness," she says, "I was cunning and ambitious at eleven, and have only grown moreso with time."

[riddleofthebelow]

"I didn't say the Sorting Hat made mistakes. I'm saying that once one is in their house, there is no escape, no matter if you change. You and I would have shared the same house, by the way."