It is. Gideon loves that predictable frown, the furrow creasing Harrow's paint that says I will show them all. "Then I guess you better finish writing it," she says. "It sounds pretty important."

How many cavs and necros had to keep their love a secret or be metaphorically hanged for it? How many have never thought it could be an option? For every pair like Camilla and Palamedes, how many are like Gideon and Harrow?

Except that's not possible: no one could be like them, not without everything that forged them on the Ninth. "No bolts of lightning have struck us down yet, so I guess it's probably cool with God."