The Unwanted Guest

The Locked Tomb #3.5

by Tamsyn Muir

Palamedes Sextus and Ianthe Tridentarius match wits on a dreamlike battlefield.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Queer, Horror, Fiction, LGBT

32 pages, ebook

First published September 12, 2023

About the author

TAMSYN MUIR is the bestselling author of the Locked Tomb Trilogy, which begins with Gideon the Ninth, continues with Harrow the Ninth, and concludes with Alecto the Ninth. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the World Fantasy Award and the Eugie Foster Memorial Award. A Kiwi, she has spent most of her life in Howick, New Zealand, with time living in Waiuku and central Wellington. She currently lives and works in Oxford, in the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Amy Imogene Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tamsyn please stop running circles around me and reminding me that I’m just barely keeping up with you. I love it but it hurts.

Like all Muir masterpieces, this was madness and theatrical and I loved it. (Please write us a play someday, I’d travel to New Zealand to see it.)

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally no one is doing it like the Sixth House; Palamedes is the character of all time!!

[Mallory Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

You died…again?
Truly, wonderful news for my haters.

Tamsyn loves to confuse the fuck out of you but man, it is so gratifying when you catch on to what’s going on. I need Alecto asap because I need to consume more words by her.

[Marta (bookishly.awkward) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanna know where Tamsyn got her brain so I can get one for myself too.

[nikki | ཐི༏ཋྀ​​݁ ₊ ݁ . · Rating 5 out of 5]

Palamedes: It might interest you to know that on the Sixth, pillow talk is a science.
Ianthe: It did not interest me.

delightful quips aside, this just took me for a little headspin on more theories about lyctorhood

this is the kind of extra content i live for

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

mild spoilers:

it feels presumptious to say but this is genuinely one of the best, most effective and engaging tie-in stories that i've consumed in any media. every single choice, word, and action is so deliberate and everything including and especially the structure of the short story adds to Palamedes and Ianthe's characters, beliefs and dynamic in a way that's so interesting. the format of the story being a play script is genius and allows for dramatics that complement their conflicting dispositions. Ianthe at first controlling the entirety of the stage and the script. How her taking on different roles at the same time whilst Palamedes only plays the role given to him reflects their characters. How it highlights the power disparity. How Palamedes can recognise this. How he begins to take control of the stage and script more and more as time goes on, mirroring his tendencies to do the Secret Third thing whilst Ianthe is constrained by rules and manipulation, even as she exercises power and claims to be the one with power. How ultimately, this is why he and Cam become Paul and how Ianthe realises that she could have had something else with Coronabeth.

there's this tumblr post that states that Tamsyn Muir's magic system is based off the fact that our souls are meshed together because we are apart of each others lives. That love and grief are entangled and inseparable and so are we. the contrast of Palamedes getting this, us knowing so and seeing so with how he talks to cam in nona the ninth, and Ianthe (who's obviously hyperindependent and absolutely needs no one pshhhhhh) simply does not, is so beautifully tragic and fitting for both of them.

palamedes sextus I love you and will miss you forever. he is second only to cam (camilla hect owns my whole heart, she's batshit crazy)

[sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

crumpling to the ground in a heap of dirty stage costumes, hair gel, and lyctoral sorrow

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am but a lowly non binary construct, asking Palamedes Sextus for his hand in marriage.

[grok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Problematic fave Ianthe never fails to entertain me

[bri]

OBSESSED. the format, the drama, the Character of it all. I might have to find a way to bind a copy of this just to annotate. SO glad this was the short story written for Nona, even if it doesn’t give us a hint as to what’s to come.

[Linh · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new sexual orientation is now Palamedesexual ✨

[Ruxandra Grrr · Rating 5 out of 5]

P e r f e c t i o n.

And just what I needed, some bit of The Locked Tomb I haven't experienced yet. I paused Nona to read this um, when it happens. And so. many. layers to it. I need Alecto pronto, please.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This ruined my life.

I read this again because I thought about it everyday for 4 months and it ruined my life again.

[twentyventi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, gimme all the Sex Pal.

[urwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

*points* This idiot doesn't even believe in the permeability of the soul.

Something something what Camilla said about how love and freedom can't coexist. Something something the very act of knowing and loving a person changes you. Something about how the entire process of Lyctorhood is so deeply tied into love and grief and how you can't have the one without the others. What does this mean for Paul and John and Alecto and Griddlehark oh GOD...
I will read anything and everything about the Sixth House and Palamedes Sextus.

Hell Will Break Lose in Alecto the Ninth.

Short story released in the paperback edition of Nona the Ninth, best read after Nona the Ninth purely for spoilery reasons. Read it now and weep.

(Review transferred here, since the original Goodreads entry for this no longer works anymore or smth)

[elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changed my whole life.

[Alex Tarralle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was written for me specifically actually

[Kalkwiese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Das Duell, das in Nona The Ninth ausgeklammert wurde. Geschrieben ist es wie ein Szenenspiel, was in dem Wissen, dass es zwischen zwei Seelen innerhalb eines Körpers passiert, erstaunlich schlüssig funktioniert. Muir spielt mit der Form, wie ich es in der Fantasy noch nie gesehen habe. Und es gelingt.
Oh Dulcinea!

[kennedy ; cy · Rating 5 out of 5]

tamsyn why

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5

Palamedes and Ianthe are a couple I love to see arguing, they are the most opposite characters you can find, and the narration as if you were in the theatre watching actors perform was *chef kiss*

[Daniel Dolan-Derks · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way I went absolutely feral and lunged at my computer to read this was very telling. I already was losing my mind to get another piece of this insane world that's been created and then to find that it was a fully written One-Act play?? You know I devoured that like there was no tomorrow.

Getting to spend more time with Palamedes is always a welcome treat and then to have the story be a battle of wills (and the mind) with Ianthe? An absolute chef's kiss right there.

[X · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know, this was pretty good! I respect how this and the last of these short story interstitials are about characters where at the beginning I’m like “do I really want to read a whole short story just about them tho” and by the end I’m bought in. A fun little spotlight that’s not too long.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The cavalier's job is to die for the necromancer, after all. In Hect's case there's an element of horse/stable door confusion going on, but her principles are sound" SCREAMING. screaming and crying. Oh my rancid dramatic poetry heart

[Caroline Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

October ‘25: @tamsyn muir i love whatever is wrong with you

September ‘24: Can’t wait to eventually figure out what half of this means after Alecto drops in 3-5 business years. Palamades Sextus, the man that you are.

[Nott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before. I wish someone would stage this play so I could watch it.

[Ben Donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and interesting! We’ve finished all the published locked tomb content, so to Reddit we go

[Ailén · Rating 5 out of 5]

El amor siempre vence al odio, sos re tarada Ianthe

[Bea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this "duel" so much more than I should have.

[Julia Santamaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

la mente de Tamsyn Muir es increíble y brillante

[gi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars to tamsyn muir and 1000000000 stars to palamedes sextus