Palamedes Sextus

Palamedes Sextus
Palamedes Sextus illustrated by ancientannoyance
Alias	Pal Warden Heir to the House of the Sixth Master Warden of the Library Sex Pal By Ianthe: Little snackette Duck
Biography
Age	20
Place of Birth	The Library
House	Sixth House
Title	Master Warden Sextus
Necromancy
Cavalier	Camilla Hect
Speciality	Psychometry
Affiliation
Allegiance	Sixth House Seventh House
Family	Camilla Hect (second cousin) Juno Zeta (mother)
Partners	Dulcinea Septimus (It's Complicated)
Status
Status	Lyctor (as Paul)
Cause of Body Death	Attempted murder-suicide of Cytherea the First
Place of Body Death	Canaan House, First House
Physical Description
Gender	Male
Eye Color	Light grey (Original) Dark grey/brown (Soul Manipulation)
Race	Mixed
General Build	Short, brown hair, with a tall and skinny build.

"The Sixth House, Griddle! Do you know how difficult it is to stay ahead of Palamedes Sextus?"

Palamedes Sextus (Pal-AM-a-dees SEX-tus) is the Heir to the Sixth House and Master Warden of the Library. His name contains references to the Greek Palamedes, who appears in post-Homeric Greek legends about the siege of Troy, the saracen knight of the round table Sir Palamedes, and the Roman arithronym for the sixth son of a family, Sextus.

Biography

Early Life

According to the Cohort Intelligence Files of Judith Deuteros, Palamedes is the youngest to achieve the title of Master Warden at thirteen years old, beating out at least fifteen other candidates. He is regarded as a genius by his peers, including Harrowhark. In tradition with his house, much of his work has been kept in secrecy. Palamedes has never sought a Cohort Placement.

When both were thirteen, Palamedes with his cavalier Camilla Hect attended Archivist Zeta in the opening of the Study of Doctor Sex (as chronicled in The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex). Regarded by Palamedes as "the first time we surprised them [Sixth House]," the pair investigated the strange scene in tandem and created a reasonable and verifiable explanation of the bizarrely dated skeleton pieces found within.

Both Palamedes and Camilla maintained a close correspondence with Dulcinea Septimus, Heir to the House of the Seventh throughout their youth.

The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex

Palamedes and Camilla, age 13, sit in Camilla's dorm bed reading a letter from their mutual friend Dulcinea and attempting to organize Palamedes school requirements when Archivist Zeta intrudes to invite them to the unsealing of an old room in The Library: The Study of renowned researcher Doctor Donald Sex. As they make their way to the study, Zeta explains the chain of deaths, sabbaticals, and bureaucratic red tape that has allowed her to claim this room. Down in the bowels of the basement, Zeta's four-scholar team awaits them, ready to work. She cuts down the "Achaeology Department" tape, and proceeds to organizing her crew.

The crew barely has a chance to begin a cursory documentation of the state of the room, when Palamedes spots a pair of skeletal hands sitting on the desk of Doctor Sex. Zeta directs her team to make note of the remains and search the room for anything more. Finding nothing, she instructs Julia to use psychometry on the hands to date them. Perplexingly, the result is over 200 years after the study was sealed. A flurry of debates over the proper forms and procedures ensues, and most of the team leaves to track down the signatures required to proceed with the investigation.

After a bit of solo investigation around the room, Palamedes and Camilla call Zeta over to show her a service tunnel above the desk. Explaining that he believes the rest of the skeleton will be inside, Zeta allows Palamedes to follow his hypothesis (putting both of their reputations at stake). They send Camilla through the tunnel and she reports back that the rest of a maintenance servitor is hunched over the grate-- in a position that would make it possible to lever off his hands. Palamedes and Camilla continue to poke around the study while the wait for the Collections team to return.

With everyone back, Zeta explains theirs findings and more forms and documentation is pulled out. At a snarky comment from an Archaeologist, Palamedes claims to know what has happened, and outlines his theory to the group. He theorizes that Doctor Sex, made a revenant by an incomplete summoning, possessed a servitor skeleton in order to finish his last research project-- a small wooden puzzle containing an ancient note. As he makes his case, Zeta probes him with questions and clarifications, all of which he answers aptly. He ends his presentation with unlocking the puzzle, revealing the note.

Zeta and her team pursue the leads offered by Palamedes, confirming the servitor skeletons AWOL date and location, as well as exhuming the body of Doctor Sex and seeing signs of his becoming a revenant. Later, Zeta finds Palamedes and Camilla in the dining hall to convey this information.

Gideon the Ninth

Act I

Sixth House arrives with the others to Canaan House, and disembarks without issue. Camilla receives the iron key ring for their House. Palamedes listens to Teacher explain the task, but does not participate in the conversation.

Act II

Palamedes and Camilla begin to puzzle out the challenge of Canaan House just two hours after Harrow. Receiving the key to the Facility from Teacher, they begin solving the laboratory rooms. Though they will eventually complete each room (with the exception of the Avulsion Room), they only earn three keys-- the rest having been claimed by another team. They identify Harrowhark and Third House as their primary competitors.

On the day that Harrow goes missing, they are having an argument of the illogical psychometric timestamps of Canaan House when Palamedes spots Gideon on the stairs behind them. Camilla immediately attacks, proving herself a formidable and agile opponent. Palamedes ends to the fight, separating the cavaliers with a necromantic shield, inferring that Gideon is looking for Harrow. He informs her that he last saw Harrow here, at The Facility and doesn't believe her to have left. Panicking, Gideon tries to get through the locked hatch door and breaks her vow of silence to demand that Palamedes help her. When Palamedes decides to help, Camilla tosses him the keys and follows them into the Facility. He leads her to a room called the sanitiser, where Harrow has created a restorative bone cocoon. Palamedes and Camilla do a brief medical assessment and diagnose Harrow with dehydration and exhaustion before releasing her into Gideon. As they are leaving, Palamedes warns Gideon and Harrow it is too dangerous to continue splitting their forces.

At the anniversary dinner party for Magnus Quinn and Abigail Pent, Palamedes is overheard having a discussion about the specifics of his title "Warden," and chimes in on Abigail's conversations about research in the Sixth House libraries. This conversation puts him in close proximity with Cytherea, who is posing as Dulcinea Septimus. Given that Palamedes has exchanging correspondence with (and been sweet on) Dulcinea since he was eight, he brings her tea and attempts to make conversation. She accepts the tea, but is distracted by her conversation with Gideon.

Act III

Palamedes, along with the other necromancers, attempt to raise Abigail and Magnus in order to learn the manner of their deaths. His is the most methodical and longest attempt at raising the dead, however despite hours of working (often in concert with Harrowhark) and dozens of diagrams, he is forced to admit defeat. When Teacher arrives, he argues that best practice would be to leave the bodies in place, but Teacher insists they be moved upstairs. Palamedes reluctantly allows the bodies to be stored in the freezer as a temporary mortuary and all fourteen remaining postulants gather around for a conference with Teacher.

Palamedes sips his tea while Second House, Coronabeth, and Teacher argue about involving the Cohort. When asked who has a key to the Facility, he and Camilla instantly respond in the affirmative, but do not interfere with the following argument between Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth. It is only when Isaac Tettares suggests hunting the supposed monster, that Palamedes steps in. He, with the support of Camilla and Corona, announces that they will proceed scientifically and cooperate enough to warn each other if they notice anything unusual in the Facility. After the meeting, Palamedes meets briefly with Harrowhark, before conducting and investigation of the bodies (accompanied by Second and Seventh House).

At some point after the conference, Dulcinea approaches Sixth House about completing the avulsion chamber and they decline on account of the high likelihood of Camilla sustaining permanent brain damage.

After their turn with the avulsion laboratory, Harrow requests that Sixth check up on Gideon and Palamedes sends Camilla to their rooms. Gideon and Camilla meet up with him in the Dining Hall, where Coronabeth is attempting to convince Teacher to give her a Facility hatch key. Palamedes offers to escort Coronabeth to the Facility himself, and Coronabeth blatantly bribes to help her win the same keys as her sister. Palamedes reveals that there is only one key per laboratory chamber, causing panic among Gideon and those necromancers who had not yet realized keys were a limited resource. Coronabeth insists that this means the teams are destined to work together. However, Teacher re-iterates his sermon from the first night in Canaan House-- "What I mean is, there is no law. [...] I have given you your rule, and there are no others. Some things may take you swiftly down the road to Lyctorhood. Some things may make the row harder to plough."  The necromancers scatter, Coronabeth to find her sister, Judith to inspect the bodies of Magnus and Abigail for keys, and Palamedes to his dinner.

When they finish eating, Palamedes leads the cavaliers to the freezer where the body of Magnus and Abigail are being stored. Second House is just leaving, angry, because they have not found anything. Judith asks Palamedes to join her and help put an end to the competition. He rejects her outright. She asks how many keys he has, and the only answer he will give is "fewer than you think." The conversation nearly ends in a duel, but Judith calls off Marta and allows them to pass.

"My conscience doesn't permit me to help anyone do what we have all embarked upon. [...] Captain, God help you when you understand. My only consolation is that you won't be able to put any responsibility on my head."

Inside the makeshift mortuary, Palamedes takes Magnus' ring and a section of his pocket in order to locate his key ring through psychometry. At Gideon's questioning, he explains that he had been under the assumption the postulants knew about the limited keys and were choosing to be civil, and now he fears that things in Canaan House are going to quickly get ugly. He is partway through an explanation of the Fifth's mortal injuries when they are interrupted by a noise behind them, and the sound of Fourth House running away.

The next day, Palamedes joins the other necromancers in attempting to learn all they can from the remains found in the incinerator. He is perplexed by the dating of the ashes--placing them weeks before anyone arrived at Canaan House. Ianthe points out that the remains have two separate signatures, two separate people, despite Palamedes's read of the time of death being consistent across the remains. When Silas returns with Dulcinea's keys, Palamedes is horrified. Judith attempts to take control of the situation, but when Silas refuses to hand over Dulcinea's keys; she decides to rule by force and demand that Palamedes hand over his own keys. He refuses, and Marta throws down a glove in official challenge. Chaos breaks out and Coronabeth attempts to end the duel, but is stopped by her sister. Palamedes, tired of Judith's stupidity and posturing, snaps and accepts the challenge for Camilla.

Camilla readies herself and steps onto the table to fight. Judith sets the rules as "hyoid down," an unsportsman-like ruling that allows Marta to "do more of less anything to my cavalier [Camilla], all in the name of making me [Palamedes] cry uncle." Camilla asks how he wants her to play it, and he instructs her to "go loud," showcasing the full force of her power and skill. She beats her quickly, dislocating Marta's arm and kicking her feet out from under her, but is stabbed in the forearm in the struggle. Judith calls mercy, and Palamedes immediately re-locates Marta's arm. Furious, he demands Judith's keys in return. With no laboratory keys, he takes her facility key and lectures her harshly on how stupid and careless her actions are, how she's unnecessarily hurt two cavaliers, and how it is now her fault that the competition has descended to dirty tricks.

Palamedes turns to care for Camilla's wound, when Naberius Tern issues her another challenge. Camilla readies herself, but Ninth House steps in to represent her in the duel. Jeannemary quickly follows, issuing another challenge to Naberius.

The challenges are withdrawn and the conference collapses, Second, Third, and Eighth house leaving in disgust. When they've gone, Palamedes remarks that there is only one key left unaccounted for. He has completed all the challenges (save the Avulsion Room) and tracked each key to its respective owner, and only one key still eludes him. They discuss how the challenges seem to be informative and hypothesize that they combine into one "megatheorem." Palamedes organizes the remaining postulants into teams, and sends Gideon, Jeannemary, and Isaac into the Facility to look for Protesilaus, and takes Harrow and Camilla with him to watch to Dulcinea.

Act IV

Palamedes assists in removing the bodies of Jeannemary Chatur and Isaac Tettares and bringing them to the morgue. He takes out the pieces of the bones that impaled them, and tends to Gideon's wounds. Later, he returns to extract more bone shards from Gideon, who storms out. Gideon and Harrowhark continue to team up with Sixth House, meeting in Palamedes and Camilla's rooms to negotiate a trade of information: Harrow will give Palamedes her map of Canaan House and helps him pick a lock, and he will give her all his notes from the Lyctoral studies. The lock is jammed with regenerating ash, and Harrow must siphon Gideon to undo it. Palamedes chastises her for using Gideon, but agrees to answer one question as reward for removing the block. She asks what keys are in play and he gives her the run down. As they leave, Palamedes asks Gideon to keep an eye on Dulcinea.

Gideon turns up at Sixth's room with Protesilaus' head, that she found in Harrow's closet. Palamedes brings her tea and talks her through her crisis of faith, and she explains to him the story of Harrow in the Locked Tomb. Despite the grisly story, Palamedes attempts to convince Gideon that it is not her fault. She gives the scrap of a note she found in room X-203, and they are interrupted by a knock at the door. She returns, handcuffed to Harrow, and the necromancers decide to gather everyone in Dulcinea's room. Palamedes proposes that Protesilaus has been dead the whole time and has been reanimated by flesh magic called the beguiling corpse-- which Dulcinea confirms easily. She claims her house intended to send her with a living Protesilaus, but that he had had an accident and died. Colum interrupts to ask about the bodies in the incinerator. Dulcinea's illness flares, and Palamedes and Camilla help tend to her and get her comfortable again.

The next day, the group goes to a Lyctor study that neither of them have the key for, and Harrow uses Palamedes psychometric perception of the key to build a copy out of bone. Inside, Harrow goes for the theorem notes, but Palamedes and Camilla take their time examining the other objects in the study. Camilla discovers a binder full of photos, including one of Teacher. Their investigation is cut short by the fire alarm. All leave immediately, finding broken skeleton servants slumped in the hall. They check on Dulcinea and find one of the priests who were serving her broken as well. She tells them Teacher went to close a door and hasn't yet returned. They find a pile-up of bones leading into a room that contains Judith Deuteros and the bodies of Teacher and Marta Dyas. She describes a fight with Teacher over access to the communication devices gone wrong, but confirms that she got off an SOS. Palamedes informs her that he cannot save her, and she asks to be left where she is with a sword.

The group returns to find Eighth House waiting outside Dulcinea's rooms. He reports that Third House has defiled the corpse of Abigail. They investigate the body and Palamedes discovers that a key was hidden inside of Abigail, which Third House now has in their possession. Together, Ninth, Sixth, and Eighth House set out to the room that would now be open. They reach the Lyctor study to discover Coronabeth sobbing, Naberius dead, and Ianthe a newly-born Lyctor. She does not deny her actions and triumphantly explains that she has reverse engineered the entire Lyctoral process from the tests in the Facility. Harrow is horrified to realize that Palamedes theory of a megatheorem is true. Silas takes great moral offense to her actions and sentences Ianthe to death.Sometime during the ensuing fight, Palamedes leaves without being seen.

He makes it all the way to the door of Dulcinea's room before Gideon catches up with him. Before she can say anything, he pins her in place with his necromancy-- holding her whole body still and locking her mouth closed. Inside, he confronts "Dulcinea" wanting the answers to two questions: "Why the Fifth?", and "Where is she?" He discusses the answers with her calmly, biding his time so that he can uncover every failing part of her body. Finally, when it is revealed that Dulcinea is weeks dead and burned in the incinerator, he releases his entire reserve of energy. He kills himself in a brilliant necromantic explosion to push Cytherea's illness past the point of equilibrium.

Harrow the Ninth

Ten Months Before the Emperor's Murder

As he dies, and in accordance with his plan with cavalier Camilla Hect, Palamedes Sextus crafts a single theorem tying his soul to his body on a cellular level. He constructs a small bubble of space "on the bank" of the River that allows him to retain his sense of self as a revenant. Trapped within the confines of what he could see as he died and without the use of his necromancy, Palamedes has only a copy of "The Necromancer's Marriage Season" to keep him company. The pieces of his body are split between Camilla, who manually assembles a small portion of his skull, and the Cohort, that disappears with the majority of his bones.

Two Months Before the Emperor's Murder

Eight months after his death, Harrowhark Nonagesimus appears in Palamedes's River "bubble." Seeing her looking at his only novel, he briefly explains the plot of the novel before greeting her with a hug. Uncomfortable, she extricates herself and begins questioning him on exactly what he has done and how he has done it to be present in the River. They argue over the theory until Palamedes interrupts to ask after Camilla and how long he's been dead. He's surprised learn it's been so long and confused to learn that Camilla and Harrow have been separated. Harrow asks him why he is "acting as though [she] should know him" and introduces herself as a Lyctor. Palamedes is briefly hopeful that Harrow has found a way to become a Lyctor without killing her cavalier, but she quickly corrects him.

They are interrupted by a lightning strike and the appearance of the Sleeper. Palamedes quickly deduces that Harrow has unintentionally brought something malicious into the "bubble" with her, and tells her she must leave. Before she goes, Palamedes clarifies which bones of his Camilla has and asks Harrow to turn them into "something more useful" which he claims is "anything that articulates." As the Sleeper attempts to break into the room, Palamedes and Harrow bump heads, and Palamedes becomes aware of the existence of Gideon Nav, compartmentalized within Harrow. He smiles and kisses her forehead, then sends Harrow, and the Sleeper, back into the River. Back in the conscious world, Harrow follows through with her promise and transforms the piece of Palamedes's skull into a hand.

Six Months After The Emperor's Murder

The Epilogue of Harrow the Ninth centers an unnamed character who lives with three other people: the person who goes to work for her, the person who teaches her, and the person who looks after her. In Nona the Ninth, these characters are revealed to be, respectively, Nona, Pyrrha Dve, Palamedes, and Camilla. In secret, Palamedes encourages Nona to handle bones in a way that feels natural to her.

Nona the Ninth

Before Day One

After Harrowhark transforms Palamedes’ skull into hand bones, his revenant soul can move the bones, but he is still trapped in a body that can’t talk. He and Camilla attempt to communicate with limited success. Together, they search for Harrowhark, who’d disappeared from the Mithraeum. They find Pyrrha Dve with Harrow’s damaged body. Through the hand bones, Palamedes uses necromancy to save Harrow’s body. With Pyrrha’s help, Camilla and Palamedes protect her from a House attack on Blood of Eden. The Edenites consider Pyrrha and Harrow’s lyctoral bodies to be too dangerous, but Camilla—who’d joined Blood of Eden after being their prisoner—and Pyrrha convince BOE Commander We Suffer to vouch for them. Reluctantly, BOE allows them all to live, and Palamedes and Camilla continue to care for Harrow’s unconscious body.

After meeting Pyrrha (housed in the body of her former necromancer), Palamedes learns how to use soul manipulation to inhabit Camilla’s body for brief stretches of time. Despite Pyrrha deeming this a “thalergetic fuckfest” and a risk to Camilla’s bodily health, Palamedes continues to transfer his soul into Camilla’s body regularly. He claims that the power draws from his soul, not Cam’s, so long as he limits the consecutive time he spends in her body. He insists that he would never do it if it hurt Camilla. Regardless, he necromantically scans Camilla’s body thoroughly each time, to minimize the risk. Since the only physical difference between the manifestation of the two souls is their eyes (Palamedes appears with Camilla’s dark eyes and Camilla appears with Palamedes’ light grey eyes), they manage to keep their soul manipulation secret from all other members of Blood of Eden, including Coronabeth Tridentarius.

Allegedly following instructions left by Cassiopeia the First, one of the long-dead founders of the Sixth House, Palamedes evokes the break clause to convince the Sixth House to leave the Nine Houses. After revealing that the Sixth House installation is portable and capable of propelling itself, Palamedes helps the Oversight Body locate a stele large enough to transport the whole House. Once they leave the Dominican System, Palamedes selects sixteen people (including his mother, Juno Zeta) to negotiate with Blood of Eden on the planet New Rho. The appearance of the Seventh Resurrection Beast in the sky above New Rho shifts the balance of power in Blood of Eden, and the hostile Merv Wing takes custody of the Sixth House Oversight Body. Palamedes and Camilla begin a fruitless search across the city for their missing House members.

On New Rho, the amnesiac soul in Harrow’s body begins to wake up. Since she can’t remember who she is, they rename her Nona. Hoping for a Lyctor to use against the Emperor, We Suffer assigns Camilla and Pyrrha (and by extension, Palamedes) the task of determining Nona’s identity within a year or less. We Suffer stashes them in the Building (an Edenite safe house) and while Pyrrha works to provide for the household, Palamedes and Camilla begin a methodical process of recording everything Nona does to compare it to Gideon and Harrow. Initially, they suspect that Nona is suffering the blue madness that incapacitates necromancers near a Resurrection Beast. Her behavior is erratic and violent at times, and they have to teach her basic concepts like language, object permanence, and fine motor skills. But as Nona continues to develop, Palamedes privately theorizes that she might be a “completed merger” of Gideon and Harrow’s souls.

About five months into their stay on New Rho, Palamedes is attempting to coax Nona into eating, an activity which she despises. Exasperated, Palamedes bribes her with swimming at the beach. After Nona relays Palamedes’ promise of swimming, Cam calls him an enabler, but agrees to take Nona. While Nona is swimming, Cam is accosted by six Merv Wing Edenites. They shoot Nona when she warns Cam from the water, but by the time Nona—healed by her lyctoral regeneration—makes it back to the beach, Camilla is the only one still standing. Each of her eyes is a different color, one light grey and the other dark, and Nona recognizes this new person as a synthesis of Camilla and Palamedes. Their hands and the Edenite bodies are steaming as a result of necromancy. They comfort Nona, but the timer beeps urgently and Palamedes vacates Cam’s body. Despite the experience of being joined with Palamedes taking a toll on Cam’s body, she explains “It was good. We were happy.”

Day One

After Cam records Nona’s dreams, she and Palamedes stay in the bedroom and use a recorder to communicate with each other. Palamedes eventually joins Pyrrha and Nona in the kitchen, complains about the low-quality food, then asks Pyrrha for a word. Behind the closed bedroom door, they argue about their frustrating lack of progress in their search for the missing Sixth House. Palamedes demands Pyrrha’s intimate insight into Blood of Eden, which she refuses to offer, fearing they might undergo BOE interrogation. They bicker about their next move: Palamedes optimistically hopes for a solution to preserve all human life, BOE and House alike, while Pyrrha more realistically wants to escape off-planet with just Nona and Camilla/Palamedes. The argument isn’t resolved by the time the timer goes off and Palamedes has to exit Camilla’s body.  

After picking Nona up from school after lunch, Camilla gives Nona bones to practice with, then transitions into Palamedes. While Palamedes records how Nona arranges the bones, he gently interrogates her about her feelings about various people (Crown, the Captain, and We Suffer). Nona cuts her finger on one of the bones and Palamedes uses necromancy to heal it. He probes Nona’s feelings about necromancy, but is interrupted by his timer. Before leaving, he kisses Nona’s hand and asks her to replicate it for Cam.

Day Two

Palamedes eats breakfast with them again, bickering with Pyrrha about groceries and money. They discuss their joint search for the Sixth House, and Pyrrha lectures him about the risk of using necromancy in Cam’s body.

In the evening, Pyrrha arrives home late from work and covered in blood from a riot that broke out in the city. Palamedes hurriedly checks her over, though he explains that he wouldn’t want to repeat the experience of working on a lyctoral body unless it was absolutely necessary. While Nona goes into the other room to start the bath, Pyrrha quietly tells Palamedes that during the chaos the crowd found three alleged necromancers that they intended to take to the burn cages in the park. Palamedes is understandably upset, but Pyrrha urges him not to try any heroics and reminds him that the necromancers are probably not from the Sixth House. Palamedes argues, explaining “This isn’t about House loyalty. It’s about three people being burnt to death.” Pyrrha is adamant though, and Palamedes disappears into the bedroom to talk to Camilla.

Day Three

The next morning, Palamedes interrupts Pyrrha and Nona eating breakfast and discussing what they think is sexy. Palamedes takes interest in Nona’s proclamation that redheads aren’t sexy, then admits that he finds nurse uniforms sexy (contrary to Camilla’s claim that Palamedes is into strong work ethic and high test scores). He eats breakfast quickly—Cam didn’t want to eat—then parts with a heartening “Take care of everyone for me, Nona.”

Blood of Eden comes to collect the members of their household for an impromptu meeting with Commander We Suffer, Pash, and Crown. Camilla wears sunglasses (formerly Gideon’s) into the meeting, obscuring her eye colour and limiting Nona’s knowledge of who is in control of Camilla’s body. We Suffer shows them an image of a House spacecraft that entered orbit earlier that day. While the others establish that the ship is too small to be reinforcements, Nona notices Camilla idly doodling on a paper in front of her, and suspects that it’s actually Palamedes. Based on the size and fuel consumption of the shuttle, Palamedes posits that it dropped through the River, meaning there is likely a Lyctor on board.

At this dire realization, the conversation turns to Nona. Merv Wing is pushing for a progress report, and the arrival of a Lyctor pushes up the timeline. Attempting to direct the conversation away from Nona’s lack of lyctoral ability, Palamedes suggests that having a Lyctor on their side may not be beneficial. We Suffer muses on her past dealings with Lyctors and deems Cytherea’s actions at Canaan House a success for Blood of Eden. Palamedes pushes back, arguing against the unnecessary loss of life, but the conversation quickly devolves into another argument between Pash and Crown.

At We Suffer’s reminder that she must meet with Merv Wing to discuss the House shuttle, Palamedes demands proof of life from the Sixth House Oversight body. We Suffer obliges and plays a recording of Juno Zeta providing the date, a headcount, and the answer to the proof of life question. At this, Palamedes relaxes minutely, then promises We Suffer an eventual Lyctor, or the equivalent.

After the meeting ends, Crown takes Camilla and Nona to visit the Captain (Judith Deuteros) who is bedridden, afflicted by the blue madness. Camilla, still wearing sunglasses, inquires about the Captain’s health and treatment, and at some point transitions into Palamedes. When Judith’s monitors indicate some kind of medical emergency, Palamedes uses necromancy to stave it off. This exposes his existence to Crown, who claims that she had suspected as much. While Palamedes finishes his necromantic clean of the Captain’s kidneys, Nona silently reminds him about his timer. He grimaces, then helps Crown hold the Captain down as she flies into a hysterical fit. As a parting gesture, Palamedes puts Judith to sleep.

Late that night, after Nona returns home alone from her secret outing to the broadcast aired by Ianthe—who was the person arrived on the mysterious House shuttle—Palamedes and Camilla furiously write back and forth to consult each other about Pyrrha’s sudden disappearance. Nona is prepared to confess her excursion, but Palamedes is too preoccupied to probe her guilty conscience. Instead, he has Nona suck on ice cubes until she falls asleep, then he (or Camilla) puts her to bed.

Day Four

Camilla takes Nona to school in the morning. Because it’s only supposed to be a pit stop before they go looking for Pyrrha—and because Palamedes wanted to thank Nona’s teacher, the Angel, for driving her home—Camilla hangs around the entrance as Nona reunites with her friends.

As the Angel gathers the few students present into the classroom, Camilla takes a seat in the back, her eyes covered by sunglasses. Her body becomes so still that Nona immediately suspects that Palamedes has taken over. In response to the children’s questions about necromancers, the Angel tells the story of her home planet, Lemuria, being thanergetically converted and rendered uninhabitable. Palamedes asks some probing questions, then recuses himself to secretly compose a note to Cam. The power in the school shuts off, and the Angel announces that it marks the end of school for the foreseeable future. Camilla/Palamedes remains in the corner writing while the Angel and Nona accompany the students downstairs to say their goodbyes.

When they arrive back upstairs, Palamedes, who has been tidying the room, trips into the Angel, grabbing her waist to steady himself. The Angel brushes it off, then asks Nona about something she had drawn in class. The drawing depicts what the Angel calls a cradle creature and clearly scares her, though neither Palamedes nor Nona knows what it is. Abandoning pretense, Palamedes removes the sunglasses and directly asks the Angel if she has ever had any kind of necromantic surgery. This terrifies the Angel, who seems to realize that Palamedes is a necromancer, though she rallies admirably after taking a moment to shut her whining dog, Noodle, in the kitchen. As the Angel begins opening the blackout curtains to let light into the room, she attempts to send Nona away, who refuses. Palamedes asks again about the Angel’s necromantic implant. The Angel parries with questions about how Palamedes is unaffected by the blue madness caused by the Resurrection Beast, then accuses Palamedes of being a Lyctor. Palamedes denies this and reiterates that he doesn’t intend to hurt the Angel. At that point, Hot Sauce—who’d been turning off the generator—enters the room, the Angel flinches, then Nona and Palamedes are both shot through the open window. Playing dead, Palamedes uses necromancy to remove the bullets from Cam’s chest and heal her wounds, then leaves her in that state.

Nona, gifted with accelerated lyctoral regeneration, takes some time to recover from her gunshot wound to the head. She comes to, somewhat surprised to find the BOE soldier Pash acting as the Angel’s bodyguard. Pash and Cam ruthlessly take out the Merv Wing squad intent on fulfilling the liquidation order that the Angel had called on Palamedes before she knew who he was. In the aftermath, Hot Sauce realizes that Nona is a zombie and shoots her in the head. While the group (sans Hot Sauce) is en route to a Blood of Eden facility, Nona’s regeneration works too fast and the bullet gets stuck in her brain. Upon arriving, Palamedes necromantically remove the bullet, a feat most of Ctesiphon Wing witnesses. Angry and scared at these abilities, BOE shackles Palamedes and locks Nona up. Nona, furious to find herself restrained, promptly throws her third ever tantrum and gruesomely fights her way out of captivity. By the time she is subdued, she’s done a lot of damage to her body, and she passes out.

Day Five

When Nona wakes, Palamedes is there, holding out a wastebasket for her to vomit into. He gently explains what happened, then asks Nona about the broadcast. She admits to recognizing Gideon Nav’s unmoving body in the broadcast as the girl from her dreams. When Palamedes admonishes her for not telling him or Cam, Nona rushes to confess her other secret: she’s dying. Troubled, Palamedes conducts a necromantic examination of Nona’s body and concludes that her soul is attempting to leave her body. Throwing caution to the wind, Palamedes confesses his theory. Nona might be Gideon Nav, in which case they need to return her to her body, but Palamedes has long harbored the idea that Nona is an approximation of true Lyctorhood and is a gestalt creation of both Harrowhark and Gideon. This explanation is interrupted by a knock on the door. Palamedes quickly tells Nona that he intends on saving her, then releases control of Camilla’s body.

Under We Suffer’s orders, Crown goes to barracks with an ailing Judith Deuteros in tow to meet her sister, Ianthe, who's currently inhabiting the corpse of Naberius Tern in order to avoid the negative affects that the Resurrection Beast has on necromancers. Over the audio device Crown is wearing, Pyrrha’s voice can be heard. Though she’s pretending to be her late necromancer, Gideon the First, she manages to use codewords to communicate with Troia Cell through the radio. After the audio cuts out, Palamedes reemerges and introduces himself to We Suffer, despite her disbelief. Brushing this off, Palamedes negotiates with We Suffer: he offers to get her the key to the Locked Tomb in exchange for the Sixth House Oversight Body. Quickly, before his time runs out, Palamedes helps We Suffer plan a mission for Camilla and Nona to extract the body of Gideon Nav from the barracks without spooking Ianthe. Palamedes spends the next several hours writing back and forth with Cam to strategize and helping Nona assume her disguise for the mission: Harrowhark Nonagesimus. He briefly schools Nona on Harrow’s murderous facial expressions, then fondly says that he “[misses] Harrow terribly.”

Palamedes and Camilla’s plan works: Ianthe believes Nona is Harrow and allows them into the barracks. Camilla challenges Ianthe to a duel. During the duel, she manages to—at the cost of being stabbed— touch the bare skin of the corpse Ianthe is puppeting, which allows Palamedes to necromantically engage Ianthe in a mental duel for control of Naberius’s body. Palamedes later says that he “fought Ianthe Tridentarius within an inch of [their] lives…for a long, long time,” though Crown confirms that the duel only took four or five seconds in reality. Upon gaining control of Naberius’s body, Palamedes rushes to pull the rapier out of Camilla’s midsection. He reunites with his beloved cavalier by clasping hands with her and touching their foreheads together.

Though his necromancy is severely limited in this body, he manages to locate Gideon’s body and sends Pyrrha and Nona to collect it. After sending Crown to retrieve Judith, Palamedes sets about bandaging Cam’s abdominal wound. That done, he tries to soothe Judith’s distress, with little success. When Nona and Pyrrha return with Gideon’s body, Palamedes is surprised that Nona had no reaction to the corpse and theorizes that the body might be a copy. He necromantically examines the body and wards it against Ianthe transferring into it, but when he attempts to draw blood from the corpse, she moves suddenly to stop him and begins speaking.

Gideon confirms that she had only been playing dead: the Emperor brought her back as a revenant and renamed her Kiriona. Because of the Emperor’s necromancy, Kiriona is essentially indestructible and impossible to draw a blood sample from. She claims to want to go to the Ninth House with the group, despite their murderous intentions for the Emperor. Confused at her behavior, Palamedes pushes for more answers, but Kiriona’s brash attitude and feigned nonchalance obscure her intentions.

Outside the barracks, the group reconvenes with Commander We Suffer, who is displeased about Palamedes’s new body and insists on separating Nona from Kiriona, who is playing dead once again. After insisting on pain medication for Cam, Palamedes agrees to ride in a truck with Nona and the others while Camilla rides with Kiriona. Having fulfilled his side of the bargain by retrieving the key to the Locked Tomb, Palamedes quickly inquires about the location of the Oversight Body. We Suffer reveals that Merv Wing had locked them inside big trucks and spent the last several months driving them around the underground tunnels of the city. We Suffer can only guess at the location of the caravan, but Nona recognizes it as what she and her school friends call The Convoy and manages to get its recent location from her friend, Honesty.

As We Suffer mobilizes Ctesiphon troops to rescue the Sixth, sounds of conflict rise outside the truck. Pyrrha tugs open the canvas on the back of the truck and reveals the night sky, where Varun the Resurrection Beast has retracted and begun sending Heralds down to attack the planet. Suddenly, Nona stands up and roughly grabs Crown’s rapier. Palamedes tries to reason with her, but Nona doesn’t appear to listen, instead climbing out the window. Judith (possessed by Varun) follows her to the roof of the truck, where Nona convinces Varun to cease the attack. With this cessation, Ctesiphon Wing is able to retreat to the tunnels, where they rescue the Sixth House from Merv Wing and commandeer one of their megatrucks.

Reunited with their House, Camilla and Palamedes help direct Blood of Eden to unload the members of the Oversight Body, most of whom are very weak and blind as a result of their efforts to stave off the blue madness. Though the situation is dire—they’re trapped in the tunnels, Ianthe is still viciously fighting for control, and Nona is so ill that she can no longer walk—Palamedes is brimming with “cheerful anticipation.” Master Archivist Juno Zeta delivers the calculations that he requested and he takes the opportunity to announce that he plans to get to the Ninth House through the River. Pyrrha immediately deduces that Palamedes intends to ascend to Lyctorhood. While Juno Zeta and We Suffer go to retrieve Cam’s sister, Kiana, Pyrrha begs Palamedes and Camilla to reconsider. Palamedes grasps Pyrrha’s wrist and tells her: “Whatever you think we’re doing, we’re not.”

As the other spectators arrive, Palamedes and Camilla sit cross-legged on the road, facing each other. Looking only at his cavalier, Palamedes says “Tell me no, and we’ll go on as we have been…and we’ll go on unafraid…but say yes, and we will make this end, and this beginning, together.” Camilla agrees, and Palamedes feeds her a greyish white powdery substance (presumably bone matter from his skull) and Camilla's own blood from her finger. They put their heads on each other’s shoulders and wait. Without warning, Camilla bursts into flames. The person who emerges from the flames in Camilla’s body is neither Camilla nor Palamedes, but a new Lyctor, named Paul. Though Paul has all their memories, Camilla and Palamedes are gone.

The Unwanted Guest

This short story takes place during Palamedes and Ianthe’s necromantic duel for control of the body of Naberius Tern. The two necromancers are presented as actors on a stage at the front of an auditorium.

Palamedes tries to look normal in a long line of mourners at a Third House funeral. When he reaches the foremost of the seven coffins, Ianthe Tridentarius rises from it and grabs his arm. The scene resets.

Palamedes appears once again, disheveled and bloodstained. Apparently bored of Palamedes’s unsuccessful attempts, Ianthe proposes a game. The game will consist of Palamedes asking five questions to attempt to discover which of the seven coffins contains the body of Naberius Tern. After negotiating the rules, Palamedes asks if Ianthe will play fair. She counts that as his first question, and the curtain falls. A faceless Voice from the audience encourages him to approach the game psychologically rather than logically.

Palamedes asks if Ianthe believes that souls are permeable. Ianthe complains about his choice of question, then answers that she does not. In an attempt to destabilize her, Palamedes draws her into a lengthy academic argument in which he posits that a soul can decay over time. Ianthe rejects his argument, mocks him for lackluster evidence, and orders the stage to be cleared. The Voice warns Palamedes that he’s underestimating Ianthe, and she’s more interested in his didactic questions than she’s letting on. He accepts the Voice’s advice to approach the game in the way that Ianthe would, instead of his own instincts.

When the curtain rises, the coffins have been rearranged. When Palamedes asks Ianthe if she regrets the murder of Naberius Tern, constructs rearrange the coffins again. Palamedes surprises himself by slamming his hands onto a coffin and demanding an answer. Ianthe insists that the goal is worth the cost. Palamedes is distracted as he returns to the Voice and mindlessly lights a cigarette. The Voice is surprised that Palamedes is smoking, something he’s never done before.

Returning to Ianthe and her continually shifting coffins, Palamedes asks about her opinion on Gideon Nav. He implies the question is a throwaway and that he doesn’t need the extra question, which Ianthe gleefully labels “trash talk.” Ianthe complains that Gideon didn’t act like a normal Ninth House cav and accuses her of swinging her rapier like a racquet. Ianthe eyes Palamedes suspiciously when he declares this answer to be tremendously helpful, but he has already turned back to the Voice, who is revealed to be Dulcinea. He apologizes for not avenging her and confesses his love for her. Dulcinea labels her friendship with Camilla and Palamedes a “gracelessly, uncompleted thing.” Palamedes promises to find her on the shore of the River. At his request, Dulcinea shows herself to him for the first time ever, and he calls her perfect.

As his final question Palamedes asks if Ianthe would’ve ever used her sister as a cavalier instead of Naberius. Ianthe says she wouldn’t, even when Palamedes presses her with various hypotheticals. Palamedes asks Ianthe if she knows where Naberius’s body is. When she doesn’t answer, Palamedes posits that when souls change one another when they come in contact, citing his sudden and inexplicable knowledge of how to smoke a cigarette and Ianthe’s vitriolic description of Gideon’s swordplay, despite having never seen her fight at Canaan House. Palamedes and Ianthe begin opening the coffins to find them empty. Confident in his belief that Naberius no longer exists as an entity separate from Ianthe, Palamedes leaves her alone with the last unopened coffin.

Appearance and Personality

Gideon first describes Palamedes thus:

"Crouching in front of the hatch was a rangy, underfed young man: he was wrapped in a grey cloak and the light glinted on the spectacles slipping down his nose."

Palamedes is an exceedingly intelligent and ambitious man with a good sense of humor and a soft spot for romance. Growing up in the fiercely academic and competitive Sixth House has sharpened his mind and necromantic skills, but his relationship with Dulcinea Septimus has given him a stubborn refusal to accept the limits of his power. He genuinely enjoys the thrill of an impossible challenge, and he takes pleasure in being the first and the best to solve a mystery. He is a kind person and team player, but his youth and competitive edge mean that that is not always apparent to those around him.

Relationships

Dulcinea Septimus

Palamedes's crush since childhood. Her illness inspired him to enter the medical field.

Camilla Hect

"I wouldn't have left you alone for twenty-seven hours."
"Of course not. I'd be dead."

Palamedes relationship with Camilla takes "one flesh, one end" to heart-- he regards her as a part of himself. They move and act as one, rarely needing stopping to speak full sentences to each other. He trusts her judgement without question or explanation, and regards her eyewitness accounts and gathered data as absolute fact. She is a sounding board, a protector, a co-conspirator, and his closest friend.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus

Palamedes and Harrowhark have an academic and necromantic rivalry well beyond the capabilities anyone else at Canaan House, save perhaps Ianthe. The competitive nature of those at Canaan House, as well as Harrow's many secrets, encourage an atmosphere of suspicion that often borders on genuine dislike.

"He said coolly: 'Because I'm the greatest necromancer of my generation.'
The unconscious figure sacked across Gideon's shoulder muttered, 'Like hell you are.'
'Thought that would wake her up.'"

Without any one particular impetus, this relationship softens overtime to something representing a school-yard rivalry or necromantic pissing contest. The fragile trust created by dire circumstances and forced teamwork turns their threats into teasing, and when they are reunited in Harrow the Ninth, Palamedes is nearly fond (if somewhat exasperated).  

Gideon Nav

"If I wanted to talk to Nonagesimus, I'd talk to Nonagesimus," he said "or I'd talk to a brick wall, because honestly, your necromancer is a walking Ninth House cliche. You're at least only half as bad."

Palamedes relationship with Gideon undoubtedly begins due to her proximity to both Dulcinea Septimus and Harrowhark, as well as her genuine inclination to trust other people. She is worth keeping an eye on, and the more he watches her, the more he finds her trustworthy.

Trivia

• At one point, Palamedes was called Diomedes, "Athena's favourite goodboy in the Iliad."
• Palamedes Sextus is as intelligent as the homeric Palamedes, who is credited with the invention of the alphabet, numbers, weights and measures, coinage, board games, and the practice of eating at regular intervals.
• In a tumblr post, Tamsyn Muir describes Palamedes and Camilla as 'being [of] Middle Eastern extraction' matching the arthurian Palamedes's arabic background.
• Palamedes and Dulcinea's names both have courtly roots: Palamedes's unrequited love for Iseult features in courtly Arthurian legend, whetheras Dulcinea is named for the persona and delusions assigned to the prostitute Aldonza in Don Quixote, a parody of courtly Arthurian poetry. Muir describes her as "a case of a woman you want to exist, but who really doesn't."