The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex is a short story set in the Locked Tomb Universe written by Tamsyn Muir. Centered around Sixth House characters Palamedes Sextus and Camilla Hect, TMSoDS takes place before the events of Gideon the Ninth. The illustration was done by Gregory Manchess, and it was edited by Carl Engle-Laird. It can be found on reactormag.com.
Synopsis[]
Each of the Empire’s houses keeps secrets, even from themselves. For the bookish academics of the Sixth, every secret is a mystery, and every mystery is a puzzle to be solved or a paper to be published. Deep in the bowels of their house, one such secret is about to reveal itself. The study of the famed academic Donald Sex, sealed since the moment of his death, is about to open, and archivists are ready to dissect what he left behind. They are not ready for the macabre surprise that awaits them.
Enter Palamedes Sextus and Camilla Hect, age thirteen.
Plot[]
Thirteen-year-old Scholar Sextus and thirteen-year-old Aspirant Hect find themselves on the exciting experience of opening a sealed room with Archivist Zeta: the study of Doctor Donald Sex. Within the room, and behind a maze of Sixth House red tape, their team finds a room untouched for hundreds of years, except for one pair of severed skeleton hands.
As the majority of the team leaves to fetch the required paperwork necessary to use necromancy in the room, Palamedes and Camilla investigate the study and determine that there must be a skeleton in the maintenance vent. With permission, Camilla makes her way through the vent until she discovers the rest of the service skeleton crouched in the ceiling above the desk of Doctor Sex.
Determined to prove himself, Palamedes thinks through the bizarre scene without the aid of his psychometric necromancy and determines that the late Donald Sex has been transfigured into a revenant and had been controlling a rogue service skeleton in attempts to complete his last project. Though the professionals question each step of his logic, Palamedes is decisive, thorough, and proved correct on all accounts. His work earns him an extra grade point, and his eidetic memory earns him the contents of the concealed scrap of paper the skeleton has nearly freed from its puzzle lock: a partial note to a future Lyctor.