"For a moment! And then she dropped the book and uh she could kinda tell that I'd seen the same thing she saw because of how I was following her gaze I guess and also I did not think to act surprised enough. About that."

"I told Palamedes that she haunts me sometimes and she's harmless and Palamedes dropped it but uh. Yeah. Oops."

"Nngh."

"Too much to hope that you fucked them so well they'll forget about it?"

"I fucked them really well," she says with a smirk, "But - I don't think they're gonna totally drop it."

"Yeah." Pet pet. "We'll... figure something out. Maybe it's even a good thing, if we can introduce her to more people. I've been thinking about what the Fifth said, about blasphemy. If the original Lyctors had to sacrifice their cavs, and the Emperor condoned it... We might have to wake Tamerlane up."

"...I think the poetry book was the Emperor's. I think She called Tamerlane Annabel Lee - I think She hurt someone She should've loved."

"The motto of the Sixth is 'Truth Over Solace in Lies.' If we're going to work with them for a myriad... We're going to need to know if they mean that."

"Agreed. Make sure I'm there, next time you show them the book."

"When do you want that to be?"

"After the next study session, I think."

Serious nod.

Well, in the meantime... Gideon can tell Ellyn all about the (very awesome) sex - plus the offer for another time, and the Sixth's interest in watching Ellyn with Gideon...

Look at Gideon, fostering good inter-House relations. What a little diplomat.

One of the many things she's good at. 

Ellyn is lucky to have her.

Kiss!!! 

Gideon's lucky to have Ellyn.

The two luckiest girls in the universe.

Mmhmm.

Meanwhile, once they've recovered a bit:

"What did you get?" she asks Palamedes.

"Not a necromancer. Definitively. Eighteen years old, sexually active with only one other person, presumed the Reverend Daughter. Almost excessively healthy; rather fewer signs of traumatic injury that I'd expect from being routinely trained to the floor, no scars, bone breaks, or torn ligaments."

"Also a superlative lay, but I gather you noticed that yourself."

"Noticed the 'strong and vigorous' part, too, and the lack of scars."

Then, more seriously: "Could you get anything off the book in relation to her? Like what her relationship to... Whatever you saw was."

She shakes her head. "It was too brief and too- loud, I guess. Like static on a dead frequency."

"The thing you saw - what was it?"

"It looked like a woman. Red hair, not quite Gideon's shade. She was... almost sad."

"A ghost of some kind?"

"That's the interpretation Gideon grabbed for," she says. "I don't have another hypothesis yet."

"...Do you think it was grabbed for, or more claimed? She doesn't strike me as incurious."