MAJOR spoilers for Nona the Ninth. It’s been 24 hours since I finished Nona, and I’m finally have coherent thoughts. 

We know Nona’s personality resembled other people, but there’s quite a few references to her brain specifically. 

I’m gonna add a lot of images but tl;dr there’s three souls inside Nona and evidence that Gideon’s soul is incomplete/fractured

Page 56 The references begin off handed and dismissible, but it still sounds like Gideon (doodling) and Harrow (asking questions)

Page 252 and Page 381 Later on, the references start to become more absurd (brains plural, entire brain in her forehead). In the first quote, it’s like knowledge is being pulled from multiple sources. 

Now in the second quote, we have to remember Harrow’s lobotomy and how she messed with her prefrontal cortex (the part closest to the forehead) because that’s where Gideon was. So when Nona is in need of endurance and agility (cavalier stuff), she’s unconsciously calling on Gideon.

Page 413 I included this whole section because it’s important for context. This happens after Nona was on top of the truck and Pyrrha tried calling her Alecto.

The whole book, by way of Alecto’s memories, John is telling Harrow how he ended the world. So it would make sense that Harrow might be far from the foreground (Nona’s cupboard behind a fake plank of wood). GtN and HtN are evidence of Harrow being touch averse, hence “Don’t touch me.” The part I still haven’t worked out yet is what she says after. 

Page 439-440 At this moment in the River, they are looking at the early stages of Canaan House. The above, middle, and below of Nona’s brain recognizes what it is because John showed it to Alecto at the end of the world, and then the Lyctorhood Trials with Gideon and Harrow. 

Page 470 This is the final and most crucial evidence. Earlier, when Pyrrha was going to call Nona Alecto, Nona said “Don’t call me that or anything like that … don’t make me remember. […] You won’t like it.” Then in this scene, once she hears the name, the middle brain disappears, suggesting that the above and below brains are Gideon and Harrow. 

It seems that there’s multiple souls inside Harrow’s Body, but they didn’t meld together. Harrow is in there because she comes back after physically touching the Corpse, Gideon is in there because of Kiriona Gaia’s behavior (she wasn’t mindful of Cam’s injuries and is bffs with Ianthe) (not to mention Nona knew how to wield a two-hander without instruction), and there’s Alecto because soul swap in the epilogue. 

Nona the Ninth, Epilogue

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one!)

(First House icon) In which some things never change.

(Before I continue, go back to the Guest List, the poem that follows it. "You held aloft the sword. / I still love y")

When the rock that had been made meat awoke in a body, it cried aloud, saying—You.

It breaks the chains on its wrists and ankles, the wrists and ankles breaking with the chains. The chains around its neck collapse when it lifts its head and cries, so reminiscent of our dear and only just departed, "Ah, ah, ah."(1)

One of the children(2) seems to offer violence, raising her weapon, but "the black-eyed infant"(3) chides her, and they banter.(4) Alecto rises from the altar, and hits Ianthe with her empty broken hand, forgetting the sword in the other. Ianthe isn't dead, but thrown into the water "like a detestable thing."(5)

And many skeletons emerged from the bones of the bier, and from the walls of the tomb, but when the sword was raised, they fled. When the broken feet touched the stone around the tomb, they were mended, and when the broken hands raised the sword they were mended also, but the body itself was not fully awake, and stumbled on the steps at the bier, crying, John, John; but did not fall.

Some dead children on the shore are "striving loudly" with the living children, and Alecto doesn't know what happened when she hears a voice call her name, and she remembers, and wakes fully.

And Alecto said, Pyrrha, he laid me down as an appeasement to them; he fed you to them as an appeasement to them; but he has never appeased me, and now all he has done was teach me how to die.(6) But Pyrrha did not hear above the noise.

Alecto remembers a vow, and turns back to the other child next to her, raising her sword… but her black eyes awaken another memory, one she had once dreamed, and she stays her sword.

Harrow says she's loved Alecto her whole life, with her whole soul and her whole strength, and she is ready to be destroyed, for she loves still.(7)

Alecto was angry, and raised her up, and kissed her. The child did not cry out, though blood fell from her lips and tongue, and she was wounded sore. For Alecto knew not how to kiss, except such as it involved the mouth and teeth. And Alecto said to her, Why are you not appeased? That is how meat loves meat.(8)

But the blood makes Alecto understand, and she confirms with Harrow that she is the tomb-keeper's line, unbroken. Alecto says she's "very sorry about Samael"(9) and when Harrow doesn't answer, Alecto continues that she swore a vow of service to Anastasia, a favour,(10) which now passes to Harrow as her heir. Harrow protests that she is tainted and lowly, but Alecto kneels and offers her sword, placing Harrow's hand on the blade to seal the vow again in blood, which makes Harrow weak but she doesn't swoon.

Which strength pleased Alecto, who said: Notwithstanding, I offer you my service. To which a voice on the opposite side of the shore was raised, exceeding wroth, and Alecto heard it shout in a very great shout: Get in line, thou big slut.(11) * * * Afterward Alecto went down to the ship(12) and stood before John, purposing to travel through the River, and was grieved to find it yet dead.(13) John was asleep, and not in his garments, unshaved and still drunken. The child who accepted the blade and thereupon fainted with hunger and thirst was thrown over one of Alecto’s arms,(14) a deep sleep like death upon her, and in Alecto’s other hand was the iron sword. And so Alecto took that iron sword, and with one hand pierced John’s chest with it, even to the heart. At which John awakened and said, Annabel, good morning.(15)

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(1) It has been brought to my attention that this, coming from Alecto (and previously from Nona, but this is the first time it becomes truly referential) could very well be part of the bridge from Barbie Girl, by Aqua, the so-controversial song. "Come on barbie, let's go party" "Ah-ah-ah-yeah." (2) For they are all children, all her children in a way, but none can hold an inch's length of life to her. (3) Harrow, awake and returned. (4) I'm not just pasting all of this as direct quotes, but referenced memes I see: two-halves dead is hard to source but it feels familiar and not just from my prior read of this book; "then perish" is a classic ye olde Tumblr meme. (5) I love to see Ianthe succeed but I also love to see her treated this way? I just love to see her. I love all the messy women Muir included in her story. So much. (6) The resonance with Nona and the way her last week was spent learning to die. I just. (7) I find this absolutely fascinating as the fulcrum of the scene. John's love is possessive, dominant, commanding, and Alecto grows more and more angry with him and his way. Harrow's love is open, an offering of everything she has and is, and Alecto stays her blade. There's a thesis in here, once AtN is released, I just know it. (8) This book is so quotable, I swear. (9) Here come the theories about Samael being one of Anastasia's children. We now have confirmation that Harrow is of her genetic line, so, the baby room from two chapters ago, that Pyrrha painted mint green. But, some people out there have assembled very compelling evidence that Samael may also have been Anastasia's child, hence the sorrowful apology… and possibly the vow of service. (10) And so we come to how Alecto the First becomes… Alecto the Ninth, coming hopefully in 2024. (11) Kiriona-Gideon, never ever change. <3<3 (12) Down to what ship? How did she travel? (13) The River is DEAD? How and why and what--- THE RIVER IS DEAD?! Long live the Tower, it seems. (14) So Alecto brought Harrow along just to… hang out in her spare arm. Right. Sure. (15) And that beginning poem again. Only, did he really send Kiriona to wake her? ALECTO THE NINTH WHEN?!

But really. That's all.

Hell Will Break Loose In ALECTO THE NINTH

I keep going back to a comment Abigail made in chapter 10 of HtN, where she asks Harrow why her "spirit energy is so diverse" and says she "counted up one hundred and fifty signatures contributing to" Harrow. At that point in the series, it seems to point to Harrow being the 200 dead children of the Ninth House, but Abigail also asks* if it's "an ancestral tradition of the Locked Tomb," which implies it could also be because Harrow is the Reverend Daughter, aka the true heir to the Tomb — and, after NtN, aka a direct descendant of Anastasia.

I'm not really sure what to conclude from this exchange, or which option is it. If it's the former, the numbers don't match up. Why are there only 150 instead of 200? Did some souls not imprint on the modified ovum? Has something happened to those "stamps," as Abigail called them, in the meantime? If so, what?

If it's the latter, then what does it mean for Harrow as the Reverend Daughter and heir to the Tomb? Is Anastasia and/or her descendants attached to Harrow somehow? Is that part of why the Tombkeeper line must remain unbroken? I'm not sure the numbers work there, either — surely there have been more than 150 Tombkeepers in the last ±9800 years since Alecto was entombed.

I have no conclusion to this post. Just wondering.

* I believe that Abigail used the "is this a tradition of the Tombkeeper line" comment as a segue to talk to Harrow about her unusual spirit signature instead of her legitimately believing that's actually the truth; it's a purely rhetorical question. But this is the Locked Tomb and Tazmuir is a crafty writer, so I wonder if, perhaps, Harrow being 200 dead kids is, at that moment, a red herring.

NONA SPOILERS

One thing I don’t understand after reading Nona- so, Anastasia was put in the tomb to guard it, “roll the rock back if it was ever opened”, and yet Alecto pledged herself to Anastasia..like…why? If Anastasia was there to make sure Alecto stayed imprisoned? I assume Alecto felt she owed a debt or something to Anastasia? Was it just that Anastasia was also trapped there until she died and so they were like “well might as well be friends”? Like a big enough debt that Alecto then made the same pledge to Harrow. Also I read all that as saying Harrow was Anastasia’s blood descendant (the line remains unbroken” but like when did Anastasia have time to be having babies while on the ninth? So confused.