History Literature / GideonTheNinth

*** In the final battle, [[spoiler:Cytherea]] has literally pinned down [[spoiler:Camilla]] and is about to run her through with her rapier while Gideon is injured and too far away to help, and Harrow is unconscious. [[spoiler:Cytherea is then ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice InTheBack JustInTime by Ianthe; of course, this isn't enough to kill her, but it does give Gideon, Harrow, and Camilla a chance to get farther away and regroup while the two Lyctors battle it out.]]

* DesignatedGirlFight: Soundly averted; the most serious duels and fights between fellow humans are all between women. Even the lightest one, a quick skirmish between Camilla and Gideon before Palamedes breaks it up, leaves them with a [[WorthyOpponent healthy respect]] for each other.

** Of the eight cavaliers in attendance, four are women (Gideon the Ninth, Camilla the Sixth, Jeannemary the Fourth, and Marta the Second), and four are men (Naberius the Third, Magnus the Fifth, Protesilaus the Seventh, and Colum the Eighth)

** [[spoiler:Ianthe]], of all people, pulls this off twice:
*** Silas siphons Colum in an attempt to fight her, but this causes [[spoiler:Colum's body to [[DemonicPossession become possessed by angry ghosts]]]]. Gideon attempts to fight off [[spoiler:Colum's ghost-possessed body]], but just as they get the better of her, [[spoiler:Ianthe]] intervenes and [[spoiler:forces the ghosts out of Colum, which leaves behind a lifeless corpse]].

* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler:Gideon's HeroicSuicide leaves her corpse resting in the open, but her body was never located when the Emperor's forces when search Canaan House.]]
* NeverOneMurder: [[spoiler:Abigail and Magnus are found dead at the end of Act Two, but they're far from the last to die. Protesilaus goes missing not long after, and it all escalates from there.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Ianthe Tridentarius is one of the least likable members of the cast at Canaan House, being a SmugSnake who forbids Naberius from intervening at Corona's behest in Judith's challenge to the Sixth largely [[ItAmusedMe for her own amusement]], and then shows her true colors when she [[spoiler:murders Naberius with no remorse to become a Lyctor, all while condescendingly bragging to the others that she figured out the secrets of Lyctorhood before they did]]. However, she's notably willing to side with the protagonists against greater, [[MoreEvilThanThou far more evil]] threats:

* MuggingTheMonster: When the Second makes a push to confiscate everyone's keys as a self-righteous attempt to "protect" them and stop any more lives from being lost, Judith issues the challenge to the Sixth--a House known for being {{Non-Action Guy}}s--because she thinks it'll be an easy win for her cavalier and hopes to use the victory to persuade the other Houses to fall in line. Instead, Camilla the Sixth [[CurbStompCushion solidly]] defeats Marta the Second, and Palamedes directly calls Judith out on being a bully when he takes her key from her.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Gideon and Harrow have hated each other for their entire lives, so being forced to work together starts out as this, with Gideon only coming with Harrow to Canaan House for a chance to leave the Ninth and never see her again. This changes after [[spoiler:the deaths of the Fifth]], though it takes some time for them to fully set aside the animosity between them.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Though maybe not ''evil'', Ianthe Tridentarius is one of the least likable members of the cast at Canaan House, being a SmugSnake who forbids Naberius from intervening at Corona's behest in Judith's challenge to the Sixth largely [[ItAmusedMe for her own amusement]], and then shows her true colors when she [[spoiler:murders Naberius with no remorse to become a Lyctor, all while condescendingly bragging to the others that she figured out the secrets of Lyctorhood before they did]]. However, notably, she doesn't directly oppose the other Houses, either:

* EveryoneHasStandards: Though Colum the Eighth despises the man that his much younger uncle Silas has become, he nonetheless [[MyMasterRightOrWrong loyally follows his orders]] most of the time. However, Silas later invites Gideon to visit him for information (which he does give her) with the intention of challenging her for her keys afterwards--knowing that she won't be able to fight back against Colum because she was forced to hand over her weapons at the door--while completely unabashed, with his reasoning pretty much being "[[FantasticRacism The Ninth are all evil liars anyway]], so there's no reason to feel bad at all about double-crossing them." Colum, who didn't know what Silas was planning and earlier promised Gideon when confiscating her weapons that she would be safe there, is utterly horrified and disgusted that he would pull such a dirty trick and ask him to compromise his honor like this; he finally tells his uncle off, refuses to comply with the challenge, and returns Gideon's possessions and lets her leave unharmed.

* HeroKiller: Invoked by [[spoiler:Cytherea]], who plans to take revenge [[spoiler:on the Emperor by killing ''all'' the heirs and cavaliers at Canaan House to deprive him of new potential Lyctors for his army. And while she doesn't succeed in this entirely, she does manage to directly kill ''six'' of the heroes--Protesilaus and Dulcinea the Seventh, Magnus and Abigail the Fifth, and Isaac and Jeannemary the Fourth--and causes the deaths of two more, Palamedes and [[TheHeroDies Gideon]], who commit {{Heroic Suicide}}s trying to stop her.]]

* ManySpiritsInsideOfOne: [[spoiler:It's revealed that Teacher is in fact a thousand souls stuffed into one corpse, the result of some horrific Canaan House experiment. This also happens briefly to Colum, as a number of malignant forces possess his unoccupied body while Silas was siphoning from him, leading to some very disturbing BodyHorror and both Silas and Colum's deaths.]]

* MuggingTheMonster: When the Second makes a push to confiscate everyone's keys as a self-righteous attempt to "protect" them and stop any more lives from being lost, Judith issues to the challenge to the Sixth--a house known for being {{Non Action Guy}}s--because she thinks it'll be an easy win for her cavalier and hopes to use the victory to persuade the other Houses to fall in line. Instead, Camilla the Sixth [[CurbStompCushion solidly]] defeats Marta the Second, and Palamedes directly calls Judith out on being a bully when he takes her key from her.
* MusclesAreMeaningful: Cavaliers are all very fit and muscular--Jeannemary is jealous of Gideon's biceps. In fact, it turns out that the tradition of cavaliers using rapiers is because [[spoiler:they need to use a blade that the generally [[SquishyWizard less-fit necros]] can handle. When Ianthe absorbs Naberius, despite getting his fighting skill, she quickly has to switch back to necromancy while fighting Colum, who's twice her size (though Naberius actively struggling against her certainly isn't helping). It even extends to Lyctors, as despite a myriad of experience, Cytherea too has to rely on necromancy to avoid being physically overpowered by Camilla and Gideon. And although Gideon is able to help Harrow use her two-hander immediately after they merge, she says that Harrow's going to need to do a lot of push-ups.]]

* MysteriousNote: The Lyctoral labs are full of them, largely untidied scraps from the original Lyctors and their cavaliers. Most are mundane, but Gideon finds a partial scrap of a note in the Second's Lyctoral study in which her name is mentioned, a fact which alarms her greatly but that she doesn't find time to address. [[spoiler:It's not explained until the next book in the series.]]

* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:All but one of the Ninth House's children died when Gideon was an infant. It was blamed on a flu in the monastery's ventilation system, but it was actually nerve gas deliberately deployed by Harrow's parents as part of a ritual to ensure they would conceive a powerful necromancer]].

* RewatchBonus: Because there are a lot of revelations at the end of Act 4 that are well foreshadowed in advance, there are a lot of details that fit better into the story once all the mysteries are revealed, particular with regards to [[spoiler:Cytherea's DoubleMeaning laden conversations throughout the book, almost all of which are cast in a very different light knowing that she is a Lyctor impersonating Dulcinea]].

* SelfMadeOrphan: Gideon tells us early on that [[spoiler:Harrow killed her own parents]], but we find out later on that it was more complicated than that.

* SpottingTheThread: A rare subversion. [[spoiler:Cytherea makes several slip ups in her DeadPersonImpersonation of Dulcinea, including knowing how Gideon fights (which "Dulcinea" had never seen) and calling Protesilaus's death an accident, when Harrow knows he was stabbed through the heart.]] However, these moments go unremarked on by the protagonists, [[spoiler:and Cytherea is not revealed until the final chapters, after her plan has largely succeeded]].
** Dulcinea guesses that Gideon isn't really a cavalier by deducing that she's used to a heavier sword than a rapier. It goes from a guess to a full on deduction when Gideon doesn't recognise the phrase 'One flesh, one end', which a cavalier and their necromancer would say to each other when the cavalier officially accepts the role.

* TreasureChestCavity: How do you hide something from [[{{Psychometry}} post-cognitives]], {{necromancer}}s and [[ISeeDeadPeople mediums]]? [[spoiler:You hide it inside the body of a murder victim, after she's been examined. Cytherea hid one of the challenge keys needed to unlock a door within Abigail's torso, waiting until after everyone had examined her to actually hide it. It was ''almost'' a foolproof strategy, but Ianthe, who had been keeping track of the number of keys in secret, deduced it must have been hidden there. That hiding it inside of Abigail also erased the psychometric finger print that would have pinned her as the killer was a bonus.]]

* UnderestimatingBadassery: The three Houses expected to bring the worst cavaliers to Canaan House based on the reputation alone are the librarian Sixth, the siphoning Eighth, and the decrepit Ninth. Guess who three of the best cavaliers at Canaan House are? Gideon quickly demonstrates early on that she is an exceptional cavalier, and the rest of the Houses remain too intimidated to duel the Ninth for the remainder of the book. Judith Deuteros instead challenges the [[TheSmartGuy Sixth House]] to a duel to make an example of them, and ''everyone'' thinks they're about to see a soldier beat up a librarian. Everyone except Gideon, who's fought Camilla, and who [[SlasherSmile can barely supress her grin]]. Camilla the Sixth swiftly proves her House is not to be underestimated.

* AssholeVictim: Naberius Tern, the SmugSnake cavalier of the Third House who acts condescending towards all the other houses, [[spoiler:is betrayed and killed by his necromancer, Ianthe, late in the book so she can become a Lyctor. While the other surviving houses are disgusted by her complete lack of remorse and the ease with which she was willing to kill him, none of them mourn his loss on a personal level, and the reader is unlikely to, either.]]

* DramaticIrony: In the bonus materials included at the end of the paperback version, Judith's Cohort intelligence files, which were created before everyone arrived at Canaan House, speculate that [[spoiler:Princess Ianthe the Third isn't actually a necromancer (or is at least a very poor one) and is using her older twin sister, Crown Princess Coronabeth as a cover, especially since Judith observes that Ianthe only seems to perform necromancy when Corona is present.]] As it turns out, the exact ''opposite'' turns out to be the truth: [[spoiler:Ianthe is, in fact, a very capable necromancer, and ''Corona'' is the one who was born without necromantic powers and hides behind her sister's skills]].

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler:Magnus and Abigail are the kindest and most mature adults of the entire group, serving as the TeamMom and TeamDad. Magnus is also the first person to befriend a deeply lonely Gideon. So of course, they're the first to die.]]

* BearHug: [[spoiler:Gideon gives Harrow one that lifts her off the ground. This surprises and flusters them both.]]

* DeadPersonImpersonation: [[spoiler:Neither the characters nor the reader ever gets to meet the real Dulcinea Septimus; the "Dulcinea" who appears in the book is actually Cytherea the First, who pulled a KillAndReplace on her before her first appearance in the book. It helps that, thanks to Cytherea being a former Seventh House member herself, she strongly resembles Dulcinea, and since no one at Canaan House has ever met the latter in person, she's able to pass herself off as her.]]

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: With a twist. As more and more of the heirs and cavaliers at Canaan House turn up dead, the surviving cast attempts to find and stop the killer. Said murderer seemingly turns out to be [[spoiler:Dulcinea Septimus, considered probably the least likely suspect because she's such an IllGirl that she spends most of the book unable to move around on her own. But then it's revealed that the woman they all knew as "Dulcinea the Seventh" has actually been an imposter the whole time, Cytherea the First, a Lyctor [[KillAndReplace Killed and Replaced]] Dulcinea and used her necromancy to commit the murders (or at least some of them) remotely while remaining bedridden.]]
* DownerEnding: ''Gideon the Ninth'' ends in a very sad place as a set up for the next book: [[spoiler:Gideon, Palamedes, and all of the supporting characters are dead or missing, with only [[TheSociopath Ianthe]] and Harrow found alive by the First. Harrow is utterly devastated by Gideon's death and near suicidal, which prompts the drastic decision she makes in ''Harrow the Ninth'' that shapes the entire book.]]

* IllGirl: Dulcinea Septimus, who has leukemia or some other form of blood cancer. [[spoiler:This applies to both the [[DeadAllAlong real Dulcinea]] and [[KillAndReplace her imposter]] (Cytherea, who is also originally of the Seventh and has the same disease).]]

* AcademyOfAdventure: Briefly discussed and parodied by Gideon. The heirs were expecting Canaan House to be this, and are disappointed to find it is very decidedly not a school of any kind.
** [[spoiler:Eventually subverted as Canaan House was meant to teach the heirs various advanced necromantic techniques with the ultimate goal of teaching the method to achieve Lycthorhood.]]

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Gideon has been trained by Aiglamene since she was a young child to fight with a two-handed longsword, and she excels at it. But when she's recruited to be Harrow's cavalier, she has to retrain to use a one-handed rapier, as is the custom for cavaliers, and uses iron knuckles on her off hand. She frequently has to fight her well-honed instincts for how she would react while using her longsword to hold, parry with, and dodge with the rapier, to her frequent frustration.

* ArcWords: ''Gideon the Ninth'' as the introduction to the series frequently references a phrase to describe the bond between necromancers and cavaliers: "One flesh, one end." It's both a ritual phrase that is invoked in ceremonies binding a cavalier to a necromancer, and shorthand to describe their shared actions and fates. [[spoiler:Having been created by the First cavaliers, it also has a much more literal meaning, given the [[MergerOfSouls process by which Lyctorhood is achieved]].]] [[spoiler:Gideon]] rephrases it another way [[spoiler:before she pulls her HeroicSacrifice]] as meaning "There is no me without you."

** Likewise, Silas is an even bigger jerk than Harrow, and treats Colum like a servant despite him being at least a decade older, but when Colum is in real trouble he genuinely loses his shit over it (especially because [[spoiler:it's at least half his fault]]).

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: [[spoiler:Camilla Hect is implied to be in love with her necromancer Palamedes Sextus, who only has eyes for Dulcinea Septimus, who is fixated on Gideon. When Gideon realizes this, she lays face down on the floor and sobs at the messiness of it all.]]

* BloodFromEveryOrifice: A common side effect of necromantic exertion is sweating blood from the pores; more powerful displays of necromancy cause even more bleeding and burst capillaries, escalating to this trope. Harrow, being both powerful and prone to overexerting herself, ends up covered in her own blood at several points as a result of pushing herself too hard. [[spoiler:Siphoning can also cause this, as Gideon discovers, when Harrow is [[LivingBattery draining her]] in the Avulsion trial]].
* BodyguardCrush: Cavs and their necros share a very intimate and close relationship. For those to whom it's not a [[LikeBrotherAndSister familial relationship]], there's often some romantic tones to the bond, which is lifelong and not dissimilar to a marriage; in the case of the Fifth, they're literally married. [[spoiler:Especially implied to be the case for Camilla's feelings toward Palamedes, whom she's sworn to protect and look after. It's also teased a lot between Gideon and Harrow; Gideon's feelings for Harrow grow in tandem with her commitment to her duty as cavalier, and as they grow closer Gideon's narration is shocked to find anything attractive about her lifelong tormentor, but she starts to find things regardless.]]

* ChekhovsGun: When recounting her backstory, Gideon's narration briefly mentions a catastrophe that killed most of the children of the Ninth, but doesn't go into any detail. The true details of this event are discussed much much later, [[spoiler:the darkest secret of the Ninth that explains Gideon's upbringing and the twisted relationship between her and Harrow]].
* ChekhovsSkill: Psychometry, the Sixth House's knack for reading and tracing the echoes of life that death leaves on objects. [[spoiler:It's how Palamedes realizes Dulcinea is behind the murders, when his hand brushes against the message on the wall she left in the last locked Lyctor room.]]

* ClosedCircle: Caanan House was deliberately cut off from the rest of the universe so that the necromancers can focus on achieving Lyctorhood. [[spoiler:This becomes a problem when people start dying, as no one can escape or call for help.]]

** [[spoiler:Palamedes fell in love with Dulcinea when he became her pen pal at ''eight years old'' (while she was 15) and even began learning medical necromancy solely for the purpose of being able to take care of her and help cure her disease. This went on for 12 years, despite him never even meeting her in person until the events of this book.]]

** The first step in achieving Lyctorhood is to understand precisely what Teacher means by "You must never enter a locked room without permission." [[spoiler:He is in fact ''encouraging'' them to ask his permission, in which case he'll hand you the key.]]

* FurnaceBodyDisposal: Soon after two participants in the Lyctor trials [[DwindlingParty are murdered]], the survivors find more human cremains in an incinerator. Being {{Necromancer}}s, they can easily tell that the ashes are of two people who died before the trials began--apparently impossibly, since the participants are [[ClosedCircle completely isolated]]. [[spoiler:They're eventually revealed to have been the corpses of Protesilaus and the real Dulcinea, who were DeadAllAlong, as their killer, Cytherea (the fake Dulcinea), needed to dispose of the bodies.

* IllGirl: Dulcinea Septimus, who has leukemia or some other form of blood cancer. [[spoiler:This applies to both the [[DeadAllAlong real Dulcinea]] and [[DeadPersonImpersonation her imposter]] (Cytherea, who is also originally of the Seventh and has the same disease).]]

* MindMeld: [[spoiler:The first Lyctor challenge Harrow and Gideon undertake involves this. Harrow also uses this ability to access Palamedes's photographic memory of a key he wants Harrow to recreate.]]

* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: Just as Gideon and Harrow seem to have reached a more comfortable place in their relationship, they have an explosive falling-out after [[spoiler:the deaths of the Fourth]]. They reconcile for good shortly before the climactic confrontation of the book.

** Then come Acts 4 and 5 and the body count skyrockets, starting with the reveal that [[spoiler:Protesilaus was DeadAllAlong, and now his corpse has been destroyed]] and continuing with, in fairly rapid succession, the confirmed deaths of [[spoiler:Marta the Second, Teacher and the other priests, Naberius the Third, Silas and Colum the Eighth, Dulcinea the Seventh (or more accurately, the reveal that she was ''also'' DeadAllAlong), Palamedes the Sixth, [[TheHeroDies Gideon the Ninth herself]], and [[BigBad Cytherea the First]]]].

* CoversAlwaysLie: Reviews and blurbs about the book always bring up Gideon's dirty magazines. They're mentioned twice, never shown, and aren't remotely plot relevant.

* FantasticRacism: The Eighth ''really'' hate the Ninth, to the point that Silas won't even tolerate eating breakfast in the same room as Gideon.

* KilledOffscreen: Many of the dead are found just after they've been killed. [[spoiler:Starting with the Fifth, and extending to Marta and Naberius, but the most dramatic being Jeannemary, who is killed while Gideon is in the same room as her while they're both sleeping.]]

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Several of the House necromancer and cavalier pairs have this dynamic, most especially the Third, Fourth, and Sixth, [[spoiler:though Camilla is heavily implied to have a [[AllLoveIsUnrequited crush]] on Palamedes]].

* OfCorpseHesAlive: Hilariously, Harrow has gotten away with doing this with her dead parents for ''seven years'', telling people her parents have taken vows of silence and fasting, among other things. A more serious version occurs with [[spoiler:Protesilaus, the very boring Seventh cav who turns out to be a corpse perfectly preserved and puppeted by necromantic forces. Harrow is one of the only people to pick up on it right away, having had experience with her parents]].

* PenPals: [[spoiler:Palamedes Sextus and Dulcinea Septimus]], for twelve years before the events of the book. They never met in person, but he even proposed marriage to her at one point.

** [[spoiler:Teacher and the other two priests

* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:Teacher warns something like this is bound to happen if you leave a soulless body in an insanely HauntedCastle for any amount of time. Silas does not listen, and both he and Colum pay for it.]]

* IllGirl: Dulcinea Septimus, who has leukemia or some other form of blood cancer. [[spoiler:This applies to both the [[DeadAllAlong real Dulcinea]] and [[DeadPersonImpersonation her imposter (Cytherea, who is also originally of the Seventh and has the same disease.]]

* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: [[spoiler:Just as Gideon and Harrow seem to have reached a more comfortable place in their relationship, they have an explosive falling-out after the deaths of the Fourth. They reconcile for good shortly before the climactic confrontation of the book.]]

* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Protesilaus. And Teacher and the other two priests. And the real Dulcinea Septimus.]]

* DownerEnding: ''Gideon the Ninth'' ends in a very sad place as a set up for the next book: [[spoiler:Gideon, Palamedes, and all of the supporting characters are dead or missing, with only [[TheSociopath Ianthe]] and Harrow found alive by the First. Harrow is utterly devastated by Gideon's death and near suicidal, which prompts the drastic decision she makes in ''Harrow the NInth'' that shapes the entire book.]]

* FurnaceBodyDisposal: Soon after two participants in the Lyctor trials [[DwindlingParty are murdered]], the survivors find more human cremains in an incinerator. Being {{Necromancer}}s, they can easily tell that the ashes are of two people who died before the trials began -- apparently impossibly, since the participants are [[ClosedCircle completely isolated]].

* InSeriesNickname: Harrow calls Gideon "Griddle," to the point that Gideon is surprised and delighted on the very rare occasions she uses her proper first name. Coronabeth and Ianthe use the nickname "Babs" for their cav Naberius.

* KilledOffScreen: Many of the dead are found just after they've been killed. [[spoiler:Starting with the Fifth, and extending to Marta and Naberius, but the most dramatic being Jeannemary, who is killed while Gideon is in the same room as her while they're both sleeping.]]

* ParentalSubstitute: The Fifth House pair Abigail and Magnus seem to be this for the Fourth House kids Isaac and Jeannemary. Gideon's tough old mentor Aiglamene, who taught her swordplay, is also the closest thing Gideon has ever had to a parental figure.

* MysteriousNote: The Lyctoral labs are full of them, largely untidied scraps from the original Lyctors and their cavaliers. Most are mundane, but Gideon finds a partial scrap of a note in the Second's Lyctoral study in which her name is mentioned, a fact which alarms her greatly but that she doesn't find time to address. [[spoiler:It's not explained later within the book]].

* MysteriousNote: The Lyctoral labs are full of them, largely untidied scraps from the original Lyctors and their cavaliers. Most are mundane, but Gideon finds a partial scrap of a note in the Second's Lyctoral study in which her name is mentioned, a fact which alarms her greatly but that she doesn't find time to address. It's not until the next book that the note is explained: [[spoiler:Gideon is the name of the Lyctor who used that study.]]

* FantasyGunControl: Aside for an unclear reference by Aiglamene about using "powder" as an offhand weapon, there is exactly one gun in this book, a 10,000-year-old but perfectly preserved carbine rifle, Gideon’s amazed reaction to which implies that the Empire hasn’t fielded firearms in a very, very long time. Interestingly, this trope is rather aggressively averted in the sequel.

* ExactWords: The first step in achieving Lyctorhood is to understand precisely what Teacher means by "You must never enter a locked room without permission." [[spoiler:He is in fact ''encouraging'' them to ask his permission, in which case he'll hand you the key.]]

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:By the end of the first book, only Harrow and Ianthe are found alive, out of the characters at Canaan House, although Camilla, Judith, and Coronabeth are never shown dead, and Gideon's corpse was the only one missing.]]

* ArcWords: The first book has one for the bond between necromancers and cavaliers: "One flesh, one end." It's both a ritual phrase used to ceremonially bind a cavalier to a necromancer, and also used as shorthand to explain why pairs act together. [[spoiler:It also has a more literal meaning, given the [[MergerOfSouls process by which Lyctorhood is achieved]].]] [[spoiler:Gideon]] rephrases it another way [[spoiler:before she pulls her HeroicSacrifice]] as meaning "There is no me without you."

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Inexplicably, [[spoiler:Gideon of all people]] quotes Ruth 1:17 to Harrow in the penultimate chapter of ''Gideon the Ninth''. At the very least, it implies the Bible exists in-universe and this galaxy is not so far removed from our own after all.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Almost all necro and cav relationships have a healthy degree of playful banter and fighting, except for the Eighth and Ninth, but even they end up showing that they care about each other.

* BloodFromEveryOrifice: Part of the territory of doing powerful necromancer is blood sweat, and more powerful ones have a tendency to make it this trope. [[spoiler:Also Gideon, when Harrow is [[LivingBattery draining her]] in the avulsion room. Harrow herself ends up this way a lot as a more extreme version of a PsychicNosebleed when she's straining her magic]].
* BodyguardCrush: Cavs and their necros often share a very intimate and close relationship, and for those for whom it's not a [[LikeBrotherAndSister familial relationship]], there's often some romantic tones to it; in the case of the Fifth, they're literally married. [[spoiler:Especially implied to be the case for Camilla's feelings toward Palamedes, whom she's sworn to protect and look after. It's also teased a lot between Gideon and Harrow; Gideon's feelings for Harrow grow in tandem with her commitment to her duty as cavalier, and as they grow closer Gideon's narration is shocked to find anything attractive about her lifelong tormentor, but she starts to find things regardless.]]

* DeadPersonConversation: The penultimate chapter before the Epilogue [[spoiler:has Gideon comforting, guiding, and teasing Harrow after the former's HeroicSuicide before she fades away completely.]]

* DownerEnding: ''Gideon the Ninth'' ends in a very sad place as a set up for the next book: [[spoiler:Gideon, Palamedes, and all of the supporting characters are dead or missing, with only [[TheSociopath Ianthe]] and Harrow found alive by the First, and Harrow is utterly devastated by Gideon's death and near suicidal]].

* FantasyGunControl: Aside for an unclear reference by Aiglamene about using "powder" as an offhand weapon, there is exactly one gun in this book, a 10,000-year-old but perfectly preserved carbine rifle, Gideon’s amazed reaction to which implies that the empire hasn’t fielded firearms in a very, very long time. Interestingly, this trope is rather aggressively averted in the sequel.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There are 18 named characters at Canaan House (a cavalier and necromancer from houses 2-9 (except the third house which has two necromancers), and Teacher), where the bulk of the novel takes place. Plus references to others like the original Lyctors and the residents of the Ninth. Everyone but Gideon and Harrowhark are introduced all at once, and just to make things harder everyone has multiple names and titles which are used interchangeably. The Cavaliers are referred as their name or their House's number (which is also used to refer to the pair of necromancer and cavalier), while Necromancers are called their first or last name, or a third title in some cases (like Harrow being the Reverend Daughter, or Palamedes the Warden). Plus, a few characters use nicknames for one another, just to make it even harder.

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:By the end of the first book, only Harrow and Ianthe are found alive, out of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters at Canaan House, although Camilla, Judith, and Coronabeth are never shown dead, and Gideon's corpse was the only one missing.]]

Gideon Nav is a foundling who was taken in by the ancient House of the Ninth, last of the Emperor's great Houses, on the day she was born. She and Harrowhark, the heir of the house, are the only children left on a planet full of animated skeletons and dying cultists. Gideon has been trying to escape for nineteen-odd years, despite Harrow blocking her at every turn.

After her last failure, a new opportunity arises. Harrow has been invited to the First House to attempt to become a Lyctor, an immortal saint of the Emperor. Tradition and propriety require her to have a personal cavalier, a sword-fighter sworn to her service. Unfortunately, there are no actual good candidates left in the House of the Locked Tomb, so Harrow forces Gideon to take the job instead.

The First House, however, isn't quite what either of them expected. Instead of being given instructions in the most ancient secrets of necromancy, the heirs of the Houses are set loose on a haunted tower, given no guidance or assistance. They are to somehow discover the secrets of Lyctorhood by searching through ten-thousand year old experiments. Harrow abandons Gideon immediately, leaving Gideon to wander around aimlessly, listening in on the other heirs of the Houses, from worlds populated by more than senior citizens and bone constructs. She spends most of her time bored out of her skull.

[This description was copied in violation of our {{Administrivia/Plagiarism}} policy. Please replace it with original writing.]

* AbandonedLaboratory: The locked lower levels of Canaan House contain a series of creepy, abandoned labs with the remnants of necromantic experiments. They're also supposed to be haunted and, as Gideon paraphrases, "chocka with ghosts."

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a [[IndenturedServitude life of servitude]] and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and [[{{Necromancer}} bone witch extraordinaire]], has been summoned into action. [[{{God}} The Emperor]] has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.

* SpottingTheThread: A rare subversion. [[spoiler:Cytherea makes several slip ups in her DeadPersonImpersonation of Dulcinea, including knowing how Gideon fights (which "Dulcinea" had never seen) and calling Protesilaus's death an accident, when Harrow knows he was stabbed through the heart.]] However, these moments go unremarked on by the protagonists, [[spoiler:and Cytherea is not revealed until the final chapters, after her plan has largely succeeded]].