harrow the ninth is really like. what if orpheus didn’t turn around. what if he wasn’t going to turn around. what if he kept his face pointed resolutely ahead and trusted that she was there even not knowing what he was hoping for. what if orpheus had to be cajoled and threatened and eventually forced to turn around. what if eurydice hadn’t been told the rules and also had a crippling fear of abandonment and spent the whole time pleading with him to look at her. what if orpheus trusted that she would follow him but eurydice couldn’t trust that he would care. what if orpheus was told point-blank that eurydice was almost certainly not actually behind him and he chose to keep walking anyway. what if eurydice touched sunlight again and orpheus wasn’t there. what then.
Sir Gideon Nav is the youngest knight in the Ninth Kingdom of the Empire. Princess Harrowhark is the heir to the throne, and a talented mage. Childhood friends turned rivals and enemies, they’ve both left scars on each other.
When Lady Dulcinea of the Seventh shows up at their gates with plague symptoms, Gideon is immediately smitten. Over Harrow’s protests, Gideon volunteers to care for her. But Dulcinea is not what she seems, and everything goes horribly wrong.
Now Gideon and Harrow are on the run, in disguise as a married peasant couple, trying to get to Harrow’s allies in the Sixth Kingdom—with magic and monsters in hot pursuit.
Nova & Co Private Investigations is the best damn detective agency in all of New Canaan—and strictly a one-woman operation. No one can match Harrowhark’s sleuthing instincts, commitment to uncovering the truth, gritty aesthetic, or willingness to sleep in the office every night. But when Harrow gets shot (again) while working to expose corruption at City Hall, her friend Palamedes goes behind her back to hire her some muscle.
The person who shows up on her doorstep is mouthy, annoying as hell, and distractingly attractive: exactly the opposite of what Harrow needs. But when an heiress with a mysterious corpse and a hefty purse takes a liking to her new bodyguard, Harrow is forced to keep Gideon Nav around.
The good news: Harrow only has to work with Gideon until she’s cracked the case. Once she’s busted this thing wide open, they never have to see each other again….right?
This is my submission for The Locked Tomb Big Resurrection Event.
@ambiguouswren Created art and cosplay for it, and held my sanity together towards the end. @nakji also created art, and provided awesome medical guidance. @PrioritiesSorted did a great job betaing, and getting me over the finish lines.
It’s been a privilege to have consulted on (and done a bit of doodling) for this fic!! They’ve done a damn bang-up job on this behemoth of a work, and it’s been awesome seeing it grow. No more words, read this.
Harrow being absolutely outraged is one of my favourite moods. She’s angry, terribly frustrated, not able to be herself even in death. But her resentment makes her dangerous and decided, and she’s not going to stop until she gets back her cavalier.
I’ve had this drawing almost finished for a good while, and yesterday I finally got to put the final touches! ✨🖤💀
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