ok but the entire prologue of Harrow the Ninth and throughout the book, Ianthe telling Harrow that she’ll help “if only you’d ask” and of course Harrow doesn’t ask for help because that’s not what she does. And the prologue fits into the rest of the chapters right before Gideon wakes up in Harrow’s body (possibly the break in the prologue before “Hell spat you back out” fits in just as she’s seizing on the bed in the river bubble, about to remember Gideon? something like that). And that prologue ends with Harrow saying “three syllables she did not even understand” which, obviously in my opinion, is Gideon’s name.

Gideon comes because she asks! She comes because she asks her to! The whole time, everyone is all “I’ll help you if you ask for help” and the only person she ever asks for help, through the fucking murk of her own slipshod lobotomy, is Gideon. And when she does, of course Gideon answers