Chapter Text
Harrowhark Nonagesimus strode into Laboratory Three to find it already occupied. She saw the grey cloak of the Sixth House, and experienced a brief moment of concern before registering the figure's height. Tall, but not that tall. Not Sextus. The cavalier. She relaxed again.
"Hect. Where's your necromancer?"
Camilla Hect turned her head briefly, took one look at Harrow, and responded, "Reverend Daughter. Where's your cavalier?" Then she turned back to inspecting the contents of the room.
The test (Harrow had already concluded that's what it was) consisted of a single panel of clear plexiglass bisecting the far side of the room in two perpendicular to the far wall. At the far end of each side was a dais with what appeared to be a large basin. The floor of the divided area was covered in a grating. Other than these details, both sides were empty. As presented it was too simple. There had to be more to it. Harrow took out a single bone chip and threw it, forming a skeleton where it landed. She moved the construct towards the left side of the divisor. At the point where it would cross onto the grating it instead hit an invisible wall and fell apart. It was as though it had hit one of her bone wards, but she couldn't see any bone that would have been focusing it.
"It's a blood ward," said Camilla, without looking up.
"It isn't a blood ward. As evidenced by the lack of the key component of a blood ward. That being, as the name would suggest: blood."
"The blood's faded. But there are minute traces remaining."
"A blood ward relies on the thalergy present in the blood, Hect. It cannot outlast the blood itself. Traces would be insufficient. If there is no blood, then there is no blood ward."
"Then I encourage you to tell the blood ward that, Reverend Daughter. Perhaps if you object loudly enough it will go away."
Harrow glared at her, then raised another skeleton and sent it at the barrier. This time she expected the impact and was able to follow what happened better. She frowned.
"You're certain there are blood traces?"
"Yes." The woman pulled out a blacklight and shone it on the beginning of the grating on her side. A line of bright blue appeared along the edge of the grating.
"Then it's a blood ward I've never seen before. It's harnessing thanergy, not thalergy, and that shouldn't be possible." She turned to the cavalier, suddenly suspicious. "Why are you sharing this information with me, Hect?"
"In the hopes of you confirming my hypothesis. I thank you for doing so. I couldn't have detected the thanergy myself."
Harrow glared at her. "Then I think I will leave the rest of this puzzle to you, rather than continuing to do Sextus' work for him." And she turned and departed, making a mental note that, even separate from her necromancer, Camilla Hect was a threat in her own right.