This answers a few questions John had been circling, and raises a new one he hadn't thought to ask. Tomb cult. Okay. So maybe Annabel isn't heading the other side: maybe she's its martyr.

That's actually worse.

"Skull paint is a cool touch," John admits. "Not quite my style. Look, sorry, I know I should be able to place this, but: where does that put you?"

Is the Ninth, what, a house of defectors? It never came up once in Marriage Season, which was maddeningly vague about who was actually on the other side of those tragic front lines.