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mayasaura · 3 years

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Alecto, The River, and Colum Asht

I’ve been working on a few different Harrow the Ninth meta theories, and I noticed some threads that seemed to pull them together. Maybe you could call this another megatheorum, but I’m not sure it’s comprehensive enough for that.

I think whatever kind of monster Alecto is, the clues we need to guess are in salt water and the death of Colum Asht.

Salt water leads us to the River. @ovrgrwn @sauntering-vaguely-downwards and I were talking about the symbolism of salt water in the series, and Ovrgrwn mentioned both that Alecto is a “saltwater creature” and that the River isn’t salt water. The thing is, I realised later that the River is salt water.

One of the biggest puzzles we were left with pieces of in Harrow the Ninth was "What is Alecto?". She's been called a lot of things, but we know very little abit definitively. There’s a theory that I was discussing with @thunderon and @asimovsideburns that Alecto is something like a Resurrection Beast, in that she and Harrow are both communal souls forged through human sacrifice. There’s a theory that maybe she was someone else before the Resurrection and in trying to pull her soul back John accidentally got a whole bunch of souls instead. Or she could literally be Alecto the First the way Harrow is an entire generation of the Ninth, with every soul that used to inhabit the world of the First packed into her body. I like all these theories—it feels like we’re on the right track, but also like we’re missing something. This by itself doesn’t seem like it would be so viscerally terrifying to Augustine and Mercy, who were present for the creation of Teacher and the revenant constructs in Caanan House. If she’s an overstuffed suitcase of ten billion souls, why is she a saltwater creature? Why does Teacher call her tomb a zoo, and why are her eyes Like That?

[Image: It came down around her in shreds, as light and insubstantial as drifts of spiderweb. The water sprayed through white holes, rushing in with a pounding roar: that brackish, bloodied water that only existed within the River. She was bouyed up by a spray of ice water and filth - but she wasn’t; she seemed to be walking down her long black corridor again-]

In chapter 53 when Harrow tears her way out of the bubble of the false Canaan House, the River is described as “brackish, bloodied water”. Brackish water is the water that’s found at the place where a river meets a sea; too salty to drink, but not as salty as sea water. The River is brackish salt water, and Alecto is a saltwater creature.

Brackish water is mentioned only one other time in either book.

[Image: She appeared behind the grey-thing-that-had-been-Colum. She took its twisted neck in her hands as calmly and easily as though it were an animal, and she tilted it. The neck snapped. Her fingertips dipped inside the skin; the eye-mouths shrilled, and the tongue around Gideon’s neck flopped away, and both those mouths dissolved into brackish fluid. The body dropped to the floor—]

When Colum Asht dies in chapter 34 of Gideon the Ninth, a brackish fluid runs out of his eye sockets. Whatever creature was inside Colum, it came from the River. And then there’s the description - it’s too long and spread out to quote in full here, but the details are that his eyes went liquid black, and he moved “like there were six people inside him, and none of those six people had ever been inside a human being before”. There are lights under Colum’s skin and things pushing and slithering along his muscles as he walks. When he opens his eyes again, they’re toothed mouths with tongues, and Colum’s tongue has become long and prehensile and it wraps around Gideon’s neck like a tentacle.

The stoma at the bottom of the the River, the mouths to Hell that only open for Resurrection Beasts and the Emperor, are described like this:

[Image: It was a huge, hideous, dark expanse, and it had seething, weird edges; it took the lights pattering over them for me to see that the edges of the hole were enormous human teeth. Each one must’ve been six bodies high and two bodies wide, with the dainty scalloped edges of incisors. The teeth shivered and trembled, like the hole was slavering. And that hole had nothing in it; that hole was blacker than space, that hole was an eaten-away tunnel of reality.]

[Image: Streamerlike lingual tentacles emerged—the unassuming pink you got on normal, non-Hell-bound tongues—easily a thousand of them, jostling, questing, blindly thrusting up out of that mouth. Pyrrha flinched.]

Colum’s eyes have become miniature stoma. It’s interesting that while the thing possessing Colum advances on and kills Silas first, the stoma don’t open until Gideon attacks it. It uses Colum’s sword to kill Silas, but draws Gideon in with its tongue, like the tongues from the stoma at the bottom of the River draw her father the Emperor and Augustine in. But that’s another meta post.

Perhaps the stoma are creatures, sentient hellmouths lurking at the bottom of the River, and it’s stoma that are possessing Colum the Eighth. Maybe it’s the river itself possessing Colum, and the lights under his skin are souls. Maybe it’s something from beyond the stoma, something that came out of Hell. It’s an important question, but not one I have an answer to right now. I am confident in the connection between the stoma and the Eighth House. In chapter 36 of HtN Augustine accuses Mercy of not taking the stoma seriously “which is why your whole damned House sucks at it like a grotesque teat-”. Mercy’s House is the Eighth House, so whatever the metaphysical effect of siphoning is, it presumably involves the stoma. What interests me most about Colum’s transformation for now is that his eyes went full liquid black, and that he was possessed by a creature that left salt water behind it.

Still with me? Now we tie it all together with Alecto’s eyes, the eyes currently in the face of God, the Emperor of the Nine Houses. Like the possessed Colum, their sclera are black. Unlike Colum, their eyes have irises and pupils. The irises are “dark and leadenly iridescent - a deep rainbow oil slick, ringed with white.” Even before I had any idea about Alecto, I wondered what sort of soul the God who was once a man had consumed to have eyes like that. The way Ianthe’s eye colors swirled and merged when Naberius was fighting her, I wondered if his dark iridescent irises were the colors of ten billion souls swirling together, but that wouldn’t explain the black sclera. Now I think the Resurrection Beasts, the stoma, and these theories about Alecto are offering an explanation.

Perhaps Alecto is an enormous collection of human souls, like in our theories, but she is not only human souls. Whatever was possessing Colum Asht is also a part of Alecto. The black sclera she gets from the River, and the iridescent irises she gets from thousands or millions or billions of human souls. Depending on how you interpret what possessed Colum, that could mean a few different things. Maybe she's a human stoma, a human soul merged with the mouth of hell. Maybe she's a tributary or avatar of the River, and the power of all of history's death runs through her. Maybe she's partially comprised of a creature from the incomprehensible chaos of Hell.

The stoma option seems like the most likely to me, to explain the fear and disgust that Mercy and Augustine feel toward Alecto. An avatar of the River is terrifying, but also awesome. That's not the right vibe for 'put that thing down before it hurts one of us'. It was implied in the conversation about Hell and the stoma at the end of chapter 36 that nothing had ever been observed coming through the other way, and it's plainly stated by the Emperor that nothing which goes in has ever come back. If Mercy and Augustine were aware that part of Alecto was from Hell, I would expect it to be hinted at in that scene, and it wasn't really. I did notice that Augustine is more scared of Alecto than Mercy. When Mercy thought Alecto had come to kill her, she spoke to her. When Augustine thought he had seen Alecto, he turned and ran. Maybe Mercy is just braver in general, but Mercy is also less afraid of the stoma than Augustine.

As a closing note, evoking the stoma or what might lie beyond it would explain the only line in Annabel Lee as a metaphor for Alecto that puzzles me.

And neither the angels in heaven above,

Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee

#the locked tomb #tlt meta #alecto the first #alecto the ninth #harrow the ninth #htn spoilers #tlt spoilers

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depressed-sock · 5 years

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Reveal AU Part 11

A Fallen Hero Fanfic

This series will have spoilers! And Kiyo has the !!!suicidal scar!!!!

Tw: mentions of self-harm, self-destruction, and these next chapters are going heavily into Kiyo’s depression and suicidal tendencies!!! Kiyo also going to go into panic attacks

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Kiyo: It feels like hours before you feel like you can breathe again. Blinking hard to erase the tears that still wish to flow. His arms still wrapped around you, still talking, still telling you things you're too afraid to really hear. You push back, away from him but not out of his arms; one challenge down and more to come. "Ummm, I.." your voice catches, brain failing to pick up where it needs to continue. He knows the truth and you're still so terrified of telling him more. "There are other things you should know…" "Take your time," whispered encouragement as he brings a hand to your face to gently cup it. You lean into it reluctantly seeking what little comfort you can find, fear still overwhelming every nerve even though the worst of it feels over. "I..um wasn't… uhhh fuck," why does this feel so much harder to admit? If he had reacted badly to you being a Regen than this would be over, you wouldn't have to keep telling him truths. When would he say enough is enough and fully reject you? What truth is the one that will break everything? You can feel the panic creeping back, the need to run competing with the need for him to finally know. Give you an excuse to live, give you an excuse to die. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," His thumb rubs softly against your cheek, but he wants to know. You can see it in his face as he waits… quietly. You almost wish he'd go back to talking about nonsense. "I'm… I'm... I guess you could say I'm transgender," you bite it out and you ready yourself to recoil away from him, just in case. But no biting remarks, no hint of danger in any way. "Alright," almost calm acceptance if it hadn't been for the way he looks like gears are churning in his head. "So you're…" "A guy," you swallow the lump in your throat, "I was.. umm.. this is.. I'm definitely not what they intended to create," you almost feel like laughing but it catches in your throat. You are definitely not something they had expected, in more ways than one. "I'd say that makes you more human," he smirks but you frown at him. "Stop it," you pull away from his hands backing up a space, "I'm not human... or at least not identifiable as one yet. That's the whole fucking point of all this." You look down not meeting his eyes, "I'm Heartbreak because I'm trying to get rid of the thing that clearly mark's me as other." Your hand reaching up, tracing the scars on your other arm, carefully avoiding the orange that mars your skin, "There's no way to get rid of them without leaving more scars…" You can feel your mind asking why you even care, you've already done plenty of damage to yourself. Punishment? Probably not as much as they would want it to be, it's more a way to remind yourself that you can still feel, that no matter what they did to you, you still bleed red. "Kiyo, what exactly was your plan?" He says it like you're going to give up said plan and find a better one. Chen thinks that too but you honestly don’t see any other options and you're so close to being done. A few more parts, maybe even a few more weeks and you can finally have a freedom you’ve never had before. So you tell him everything he wants to hear. …..

Your feet pound against the roof, breath catching in your throat as you run to escape them. To escape him. There’s no armor to save you, to protect you from the fear that rushes through your veins. He knows, he knows and he hates you for the truth. You can feel pain running down your arm, the cut across your forehead bleeding into your eye.

The Rangers are an overwhelming force when you have nothing to protect yourself, no way to find purchase in their minds. You got lucky with Herald knocking him unconscious with a lucky hit but it wasn’t enough. It’ll never be enough. You stand at the edge, looking down, footsteps behind you. You take the only choice you have.

You fall

A nightmare come true as the wind rushes past you, nothing left to catch you. You hear Ortega’s screams at some point but you can’t bring yourself to care. It’s finally over. No more fighting with yourself, just a wave of peace in knowing that this time it was high enough. That even if you can still breathe around the blood and shattered body that no one can save you now. No one can ever hurt you more than you’ve hurt yourself. No more fear, everything had to come to an end and at least you got to chose this time.

You close your eyes waiting for the impact, the memory of pain. But when you hit the ground you’re jarred back to reality. Blankets spill around you and your eyes refocus on your surroundings. A dream… just a dream. You can’t help the sob that makes its way out, head hitting the cold wooden floor. There was no hate, there was no attack. Everything is okay.

It doesn’t feel like it though; he knows everything… almost everything. He knows you’re a regen, he knows you’re transgender... but you may have neglected a few other details. You didn’t tell him what they did to you after they got you back, his entire presence had already wreaked of guilt. You don’t think you could handle him being guilty for something neither of you could have prevented. You sigh when you hear a knock against the door, pushing off the floor to stand unsteadily next to the bed.

“Kiyo?” Ortega’s muffled voice comes through the door and you wipe a hand down your face, trying to rid yourself of the remaining nightmare. Everything feels like it’s too much, already a low buzz in your head, with every sound and touch sticking to your skin like a gritty film you can’t get rid of.

“I’m fine,” you say loud enough for him to hear and look around before grabbing a nearby jacket, it slides against your skin causing an invisible pain, too much, but you’d rather suffer it than have to show your tattoos again. You stumble a bit over the blankets but quickly find your balance as you open the door to find Ortega, a smile on his lips but concern in his eyes. It’s been day’s but he’s still afraid to leave your side… they both are. You glare at him and Chen who stands nearby arms crossed as he leans back against the hallway wall. “You guys realize you don’t have to keep constantly checking on me, right?”

“Sure,” Ortega shrugs, a smirk making its way onto his face.

“Seriously, you were the one in the hospital-”

“And you didn’t have to have emergency surgery?” Chen comments, eyes narrowing on you. You glare back, you can’t exactly argue against it. Honestly, your mind has been so numb you’ve barely registered the pain in your stomach. It’s healing faster than expected but still has a ways to go before you can easily just jump out the window and run far away from these two idiots. They made the unanimous decision amongst themselves that you should stay here until you're better, both physically and mentally. Jokes on them, mentally you’re at the best state you can hope to achieve right now.

“No, I had a planned surgery,” you roll your eyes and push forward past Ortega. Focus back on the present, “I’ve got somewhere to be today.” And nothing is going to stop you from being there, you had this planned for far too long and since the world hasn’t shattered around you, you may as well stick to your plans. You’ll need to stop by your apartment and grab a few things; hopefully being in your home will help everything feel less noisy and let you restabilize yourself.

You can feel their frowns as they watch your back and follow after you, Ortega being the first to voice his thoughts, “You shouldn’t-”

“Ortega you can’t keep me here forever,” you sigh and turning around to face him. “I do have a life that doesn’t revolve around being Heartbreak.” Chen snorts in disbelief and you lean around Ortega to glare at him, only to be met with a soft look in his eyes. “Cheater,” you try to glare harder but all it does is bring a small smile to his face. You turn with a huff, leaning down to grab your shoes, slipping them on easily.

“I was trying to say you shouldn’t go alone,” Ortega sighs, concern finally making its way fully to his face.

“I’ll be fine… Besides I think you and Chen should talk alone,” you say it casually fighting the smile that’s threatening to break across your face. They both look at you confused until Chen realizes exactly what you're getting at.

“Kiyo,” he warns but you’ve been stuck with answering their questions for almost three days and it’s definitely someone else's turn. Ortega looks back at him confused, missing the grin that spreads across your face as you look Chen in the eyes.

“Chen’s had a crush on you for years and he still does,” you turn booking it out of the door, barely hearing Ortega’s exclamation of absolute confusion. You had wanted to have been around for this conversation but you need them preoccupied so you could go out alone. And knowing Ortega, he was bound to make that entire conversation as dramatic as possible. You can't help the laugh that escapes as you rush down the stairs.

#fallen hero rebirth #Ricardo Ortega #Kiyo Basri #Wei Chen #spoilers fallen hero #my writing

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