e (yougto)’s Reviews > Ninth House > Status Update
e (yougto)
is 14% done
Good. Better. Best. That was the trajectory that got you to this place. What Darlington and probably all the rest of these eager, effortful children couldn’t understand was that Alex would have happily settled for less than Yale. Darlington was all about the pursuit of perfection, something spectacular. He didn’t know how precious a normal life could be, how easy it was to drift away from average.
— Oct 05, 2025 08:18PM
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e (yougto)
is 17% done
Alex smiled then, a small thing, a glimpse of the girl lurking inside her, a happy, less haunted girl.
That was what magic did. It revealed the heart of who you’d been before life took away your belief in the possible. It gave back the world all lonely children longed for.
That was what Lethe had done for him.
Maybe it could do that for Alex as well.
— Oct 05, 2025 10:16PM
That was what magic did. It revealed the heart of who you’d been before life took away your belief in the possible. It gave back the world all lonely children longed for.
That was what Lethe had done for him.
Maybe it could do that for Alex as well.
e (yougto)
is 17% done
Then she turned her gaze on him. In the shadows of the room, her eyes looked black, wild.
“Is there more?”
He didn’t have to ask what she meant. Would the world keep unraveling? Keep spilling its secrets?
“Yes. There’s plenty more.”
She hesitated.
“Will you show me?”
“If you let me.”
— Oct 05, 2025 10:15PM
“Is there more?”
He didn’t have to ask what she meant. Would the world keep unraveling? Keep spilling its secrets?
“Yes. There’s plenty more.”
She hesitated.
“Will you show me?”
“If you let me.”
e (yougto)
is 17% done
Darlington wasn’t sure what he’d expected. A dead highwayman lurking romantically at the window? A banshee roaming the banks of the Los Angeles River like La Llorona?
There was something so ordinary and awful about her story. About her.
— Oct 05, 2025 10:12PM
There was something so ordinary and awful about her story. About her.
e (yougto)
is 17% done
“The Golden Trial. Hiram’s Bullet. Every time a member of Lethe drinks it, every time the crucible is used, he takes his life in his hands. The mixture is toxic and the process incredibly painful. But we do it. Again and again. For a glimpse behind the Veil.”
“I get it,” said Alex. “I’ve met users before.”
It isn’t like that, he wanted to protest.
But maybe it was.
— Oct 05, 2025 10:11PM
“I get it,” said Alex. “I’ve met users before.”
It isn’t like that, he wanted to protest.
But maybe it was.
e (yougto)
is 17% done
She’s seen the dead, he thought. She’s witnessed horrors.
But she’s never seen magic.
— Oct 05, 2025 10:07PM
But she’s never seen magic.
e (yougto)
is 14% done
———
Lethe was Alex’s way back to normal. She didn’t need to be exceptional. She didn’t even need to be good, just good enough.
———
She’s town.
Except the societies liked to shop town girls and boys for their experiments. It was the whole reason Lethe existed. Or a big part of it. And Alex had spent most of her life as town.
— Oct 05, 2025 08:22PM
Lethe was Alex’s way back to normal. She didn’t need to be exceptional. She didn’t even need to be good, just good enough.
———
She’s town.
Except the societies liked to shop town girls and boys for their experiments. It was the whole reason Lethe existed. Or a big part of it. And Alex had spent most of her life as town.
