a quick guide to keys in gideon the ninth!
spoiler warnings for gtn and even htn a little bit! the numbers correspond to each house the key is connected to, followed by the color of the key, the trial if known, and any other details like who got it and what happened in the trials or studies.
iridescent or clear*—maybe doesn’t exist? the mega-theorem is called the 8-fold-word due to the 8 trials/corresponding theorems behind lyctorhood, 1 for each of the houses after the first. however, jod could still have some place to call his own on canaan house. abigail mentions a secret entrance to the emperor’s lost chambers which she believes run sidelong to the facility in htn. this also implies canaan house predates the time when he had to stay off planet/out of the system, or at least parts of it do as pal said (pre-resurrection era). alternatively, we can consider the plain facility key that provides access through the hatch to the labs as the first. 8 of these exist, 1 for each cav.
red—transference/winnowing trial—fight the creepy bone construct by piloting your cav. harrow & gideon complete trial, leads to g1deon & pyrrha’s study. gideon finds crumpled note.
gold—unknown trial—completed by pal & cam.
blue*—unknown trial—presumed won by pal & cam.
brown*—unknown trial—presumed won by pal & cam.
gray—psychometry trial—figure out a tooth, soul melange business. dulcinea completes trial, key is memorized by pal, stolen by silas, then replicated by harrow to break into the lab. leads to cass & nigella study (presumed??), harrow finds “500 into 50! it is finished!” note inside tooth. also found is a note from anastasia.
green*—unknown trial—completed by magnus & abigail, hidden in abigail’s body by cytherea after murder. lock to study had been jammed with regenerating bone, removed by harrow. key was retrieved by third house. study inside (presumed cytherea and loveday) had writing on wall “YOU LIED TO US,” and is where ianthe murders babs, completes lyctorhood, and fights silas. honestly, i don’t remember this being confirmed as 7th house, but it makes the most sense.
white—diversion/avulsion trial—harrow completes by sapping gideon near death with agreement to share key with dulcinea. harrow immediately visits study (presumed mercymorn and cristabel’s?) and gives key to dulcinea while gideon recovers. key is taken by silas. pal had refused to do this trial.
black—unknown trial—silas retrieved key, presumably did not use it to access study.
*= we don’t actually see the key or at least not told the color. these colors are just based on house colors.
i’m currently making my way through my first complete htn reread which i know mentions some labs at some point, so i might come add more info as i find it! i feel like we’re likely going to be returning to canaan house in atn and suddenly some of this might become relevant again! alternately, i find it helpful when thinking through order of events in gtn as a reference guide.
also, i’m working through a similar list of resurrection beasts, but i’ll have to wait til i finish my htn reread (and maybe ntn reread too depending on how much i remember). let me know if you find any inconsistencies here or if this is helpful or even if there are other fun things you’d like to see organized from these books!
