Colin Khatri

**Colin Khatri** is a student of Yale University and a member of Scroll & Key. Colin is also one of two assistants to Professor Marguerite Belbalm and on the lacrosse team. A known prodigy of Chemistry and as a Locksmith, Colin would partner with Tara Hutchins to solve the problem of Scroll and Key's waning magic.

## Biography

### Induction into Scroll and Key

Colin Khatri is a student at Yale University and is employed as Professor Marguerite Belbam's assistant. Colin was considered the best and brightest, as he was doing graduate chemistry work in his undergraduate years. According to Darlington, Colin was planning to attend Stanford in the next year.

Perhaps because of his perceived achievement, Colin was tapped to join Scroll & Key at the start of his senior year. Colin and other Locksmiths would set out to solve the problem of Scroll and Key's waning portal magics. The portal magic as conducted by Scroll and Key is speculated by Lethe scholars to be so disruptive that it has been eroding the power nexus their tomb is built on.

### Working with Tara Hutchins

Colin knew Blake Keely from playing on Yale's lacrosse team. Likely recognizing that Keely was using Merity, Colin gets Keely to introduces the him to his suppliers: Tara Hutchins and Lance Gressang. Colin gets Tara to make psilocybin by growing mushrooms in the greenhouse—creating a drug that could facilitate the opening of portals. Because the mushrooms need to be purified, Colin gifts Tara a small golden crucible. Tara found success where Colin couldn't, distilling the mushrooms and creating working portal tabs. However, the portal tabs still depended on the use of a nexus.

Colin was reluctant to tell Tara and Lance what he wanted the tabs for, and because she knew something bigger was at play, Tara threatened to stop growing for him. Despite his knowledge of chemistry and experience in the Locksmith's magic, Colin was unable to recreate Tara's portal tabs. So he eventually caved and revealed the society's secrets to Tara and Lance. He and other Locksmiths frequently brought Lance and Tara to their tomb, and bolstered by Tara's portal tabs, were able to successfully portal throughout the world.

Colin met Alex Stern in the fall quarter, as he was an assistant to Professor Belbalm, who was head of Johnathan Edward College. At the first Scroll and Key ritual, Colin greeted Alex excitedly. Scroll and Key would purposeful fail their attempt at a portal to Budapest, Hungary.

### Alex's Investigation

On the night of Tara's murder, Colin had skipped the Scroll and Key ritual scheduled on Thursday to attend and cater Belbalm's salon. According to Belbalm's other assistant Isabel Andrews, Colin bitched the entire night at how crowded it was. She told Alex how the pair had to stay until 2 am. The next morning, he was working the desk in front of Belbalm's office and cheerfully greeted and attended to Belbalm and Alex. The week after, Colin would greet Alex at Belbalm's next salon, instructing her to help set up the platters of hors d’oeuvres. Belbalm would invite Colin out of the kitchen to do a reading, much to his excitement.

At some point, Tara mentioned Colin to Tripp Helmuth in passing, which informed Alex Stern's and Abel Turner's investigation into the societies. Even with his actions discovered, Colin and Scroll and Key would remain unpunished under Dean Elliot Sandow's charge.

## Personal Attributes

### Physical Description

Noted as the "very peppy, very pretty" by Alex.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 *Ninth House* Chapter 21 (Winter)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *Ninth House* Chapter 24 (Winter)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Ninth House* Chapter 5 (Winter)
4. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 23 (Winter)
5. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 30 (Early Spring)
6. ↑ While Sandow mentions that he'll strip Manuscript of their tomb under the pretense of punishing them, he makes no mention of punishing Scroll and Key.