"I'll have to expand my genres from questionable spy thrillers to schoolteacher romances."

"Always improving."

"But does that really count as an improvement..."

"I think it does."

"So noted."

"Might be a while before you can get ahold of those works, though..."

"Eh, might be best to get some actual teaching done before it inevitably dissolves into sexy roleplay."

"Fair enough."

"I may also try my hand at fiction writing, to make up for any deficits in the material available."

Interested noise! 

"No promises about initial quality, of course."

"I don't mind being your editor as well as your first fan."

"Just like in thesis year."

"The experience there should help here."

"Fewer midnight deadlines, hopefully."

"We can set our own schedule."

"Work around our other activities."

"We'll have a whole myriad."

"That's the idea."

Fond kiss.

Kiss!

Though they should probably pretend to finish searching, at least.

They can make a perfunctory effort. 

Less perfunctory are the efforts in the days and weeks following to finish the perfected Lyctorhood. It is perhaps disappointing that the others didn't find any real clues hidden by their own antecedents, but Ellyn would not say she is surprised. The Ninth is exceptional in this, as in many other regards.

Which is not to say, of course, that the others are of no help. Their outsider thoughts are valuable as they pour through the notes left by Anastasia, and saves her from getting locked in a loop with Gideon like they're stuck back in Drearburh. She thinks perhaps that part of the problem with the original Lyctors is that they didn't have enough different perspectives, enough ways to jump tracks before getting caught in a rut.

(Tamerlane often drops in on their sessions, tilting her head at the piles of notes building up around them like snow. She doesn't contribute, but even if it's only in her imagination, Ellyn feels inspiration after she vanishes again.)

There might not be one path to perfection. Maybe that's what went wrong, with this Eightfold Word they've been presented with. Maybe it has to be different, each pair meeting their other half where they are, finding where their souls touch already instead of forcing it. Or at least, that's how Ellyn feels.

It's good to forge their own way, anyways - what she and Ellyn have is special enough to warrant it. 

In that they are certainly agreed.

So, how best to honor that?