Protesilaus Ebdoma

Knight of Rhodes

> *"Don't worry about Protesilaus. He can't help being so fantastically, dorkily noble."*
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**Protesilaus Ebdoma** *(Prot-eh-sil-OW-us EBB-do-mah)* is the cavalier primary to the Heir to the House of the Seventh, Dulcinea Septimus. He originally served as cavalier secondary to the Duchess's Father, before being given to Dulcinea. Despite his reputation as a powerful fighter, he is a kind and sensitive man with a passion for poetry and flowers.

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

Protesilaus Ebdoma is an enormously talented swordsman and fighter. Having completed three Cohort tours, Protesilaus became the cavalier secondary to the Seventh House. Upon Dulcinea's birth and the discovery of the severity of her illness, he was given to her to serve as her cavalier primary. Though it has been years since he participated in any dueling competitions, he retains a reputation of being enormously skilled.

In his personal life, Protesilaus has a wife, Mia, and several children. They settled in a remote and beautiful mountain home outside of Cypris where Mia works on tapestries and Protesilaus breeds flowers. When she was particularly ill, Dulcinea would come to stay with Protesilaus and his family, and his children would dote on her.

### **The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex**

After having a setback in her health, Dulcinea Septimus comes to Protesilaus's home to convalesce. Despite his best efforts to keep them quiet and away from the Duchess, Protesilaus's children entertain her with their childish whimsy.

### **Gideon the Ninth**

#### Act I

Protesilaus Ebdoma and Dulcinea Septimus are aboard their shuttle en route to First House to answer the Emperor's summons when Cytherea the First ambushes them. Moving to defend his necromancer, Protesilaus is immediately slain by the much more powerful Lyctor.

Following a conversation with—and the murder of—Dulcinea, Cytherea re-animates Protesilaus's body using the theorem known as the beguiling corpse, a Seventh House specialty. The necromancy is shoddily done—Protesilaus is a lumbering, barely life-like copy of the original and has no attached revenant soul. His only purpose is to be a puppet to help support Cytherea in her assumption of Dulcinea's identity.

Cytherea puppets him as a protective and powerful cavalier. When she faints (feigned or real) upon exiting the shuttle, she has "Protesilaus" put his sword to Gideon Nav's neck simply for attempting to help. Cytherea plays the charming, clumsy necromancer and tells him to stand down—which he does. When the matter is settled, she is tended to by The Second Priest.

Protesilaus helps her inside to recover. Inside, he is offered tea, which he does not drink. Cytherea chokes on her tea, and Protesilaus sees that she recovers. Teacher gives him an iron key ring as part of their introduction. Following his explanations, they are led to the rooms provided for them by skeleton constructs.

#### Act II

As Cytherea remains visibly ill and weakened, lounging on the terraces and flirting with Gideon, she pilots "Protesilaus" throughout Canaan House on a number of missions to destroy evidence of her true Lyctoral identity and block up the necessary rooms to prevent a new generation from discovering the secrets of Lyctorhood. His return interrupts a conversation with Gideon and she flees back to her rooms.

In the following days, Protesilaus is very seldom seen and never with Coronabeth's cavalier dueling club. Before Abigail Pent and Magnus Quinn's anniversary dinner party, Cytherea—by way of Protesilaus—has gathered a hatch key and one laboratory key.

At the anniversary dinner party, Protesilaus is seated near Harrowhark Nonagesimus and noticeably struggles to make any meaningful contributions to the conversation.

#### Act III

Cytherea uses Protesilaus to allow her to supervise the investigation of the murder of Abigail Pent and Magnus Quinn (which she committed), without arousing any suspicion for not participating. Protesilaus holds her back when she goes to join the necromancers as if protecting her fragile health from her noble heart. She also uses his "protective nature" in knocking out Silas Octakiserson when his necromancy begins to prove effective in raising the Fifth House. Protesilaus holds Cytherea in his arms throughout the following meeting back upstairs, and the two of them continue to the freezer to accompany Palamedes Sextus in his investigation of the bodies.

Protesilaus accompanies Cytherea to the avulsion laboratory but does not contribute much of anything. She later sends him back down to the Facility, where he runs into Harrow. Having always been suspicious of him, Harrow gently pushes at the necromantic theorems animating him and Protesilaus falls apart. She takes his head back to her rooms with her, and Cytherea disposes of his body (along with the body of the real Dulcinea Septimus) in the incinerator. What remains of Protesilaus is eventually moved to the morgue, where it is later collected by God.

### **Harrow the Ninth**

#### Nine Months Before the Emperor's Murder

Protesilaus stands with the other postulants to Canaan House as Teacher hands out one key attached to a key ring to each cavalier, and receives his key for Seventh House.

#### Six Months Before the Emperor's Murder

As part of the autopsy and preparation of Palamedes Sextus and Camilla Hect's bodies, Dulcinea is called upon as the flesh adept in residence to identify their bodies. Stopping first at their rooms to gather a sample of their bacterial thalergy, she joins Fifth and Ninth in the mortuary. Where she goes, Protesilaus follows, often helping her push her wheelchair. She identifies with bodies with bacterial necromancy and Magnus Quinn and Harrow posit that the killer was again the Sleeper. Ortus Nigenad questions what can be done about it and in response Protesilaus offers a number of stanzas of poetry. Dulcinea is the first to suggest fighting and Protesilaus agrees.

Magnus suggests that they gather as many of the remaining postulants to their side as possible and make a stand. Dulcinea warns that she is rather frail, but that has been looking for the opportunity to prove herself. Harrow discounts her abilities, but Dulcinea insists. Abigail Pent takes control of the planning, asking that Dulcinea attempt to win over Silas Octakiseron, Magnus to get Marta Dyas, and Harrowhark to bring the Third House to their side. Protesilaus assists Magnus in returning the bodies to their proper places.

#### The Night Before the Emperor's Murder

Harrow's murder on Mithraeum breaks apart her River "bubble." Protesilaus and the other revenants are pulled through different scenarios—Castle Drearburh, a formal event ballroom, and the Cohort cafeteria—before Abigail pulls her back to Canaan House and she stabilizes. When she wakes, Harrow remembers Gideon Nav and begins to cry. Abigail sends everyone from the room, and Protesilaus and the rest return to X-203, the Lyctor lab of Gideon and Pyrrha Dve. They work on their plan for fighting until writhing organic tentacles begin breaching the walls of Canaan House, and Magnus leaves to fetch Abigail and Harrow.

#### An Amount of Time Before the Emperor's Murder

Magnus, Abigail, and Harrow return as Marta cleans and gathers the guns she has collected. Abigail explains her theories on the River, the River beyond, and the potential that something has gone wrong with the River, but it has little to do with the current plan. Harrow goes up to talk with Ortus, and Marta, Abigail, Magnus, Dulcinea, and Protesilaus make their final assessments. Judging them ready to begin, Abigail gathers everyone to go enact their plan—the exorcism of the Sleeper.

Harrow, Ortus, Abigail, Magnus, Dulcinea, Protesilaus, and Marta all return to the Facility and the coffin of the Sleeper. Abigail draws a chalk diagram while the rest place candles warded by Harrow. After, Abigail puts counter-wards on the dead—everyone but Harrow. She asks Harrow if she can pinpoint what the thanergetic link is, and Harrow realizes it is Gideon's sword. They finish the preparations and Abigail pairs them and places them around the candle circle. Abigail pours a libation over the foot of the coffin and begins the summoning. Abigail notes that spirit is tied to two places and that its banishing in the River will not necessarily banish it on the Mithraeum. A panel of the coffin shatters and they see it is empty. The Sleeper emerges from the corridor.

The Sleeper fires on Harrowhark, who blocks with a bone shield and is dragged to safety by Ortus. Protesilaus engages the Sleeper and knocks her gun out of her hand. Before he can disengage his chain, she handsprings past him and shoots him in the back. She fires twice more, and Protesilaus is still. The Sleeper demands that Harrow turn herself over and begins counting down from ten. Dulcinea breaks cover and the Sleeper easily shoots her in the leg. Magnus makes his move, grabbing the Sleeper and holding her in place. Marta picks up her gun and shoots her three times, but she does not bleed. Marta comes at her with a knife, and the Sleeper kicks out dragging all three of them down. There is a quick dirty fight that ends with Magnus shot and Marta disarmed with a gun in her face.

Protesilaus rears up, having learned that his will not to die again can influence the River world, grabs the Sleeper and wraps the chain around her neck. The Sleeper causes two more guns to appear, shoots Protesilaus again and knocks out Marta. Harrow tosses bone at the Sleeper, but she shoots it out of the air and causes it to go inert. Harrow asks what the Sleeper wants, and she replies that she wants Harrow's death so she can take her body. As the Sleeper reaches one, Ortus begins to recite poetry. Abigail's protests, but he continues and she has no choice but to follow his lead. The Sleeper pushes her way through Harrow's shields, crumbling them to dust, and shoots Ortus. Harrow pushes the Sleeper back with a wall of bone and sends skeleton constructs after her which are also dissolved. Harrow takes over for Ortus, finishing the lines as Abigail works. The Sleeper reaches Harrow and fires a shot into her head, but Matthias Nonias solidifies between them.

As Nonias fights the Sleeper, the postulants begin to regroup. Abigail makes her way to Magnus and helps him stand, and all the pairs watch in awe of the fight. Harrow and Dulcinea make moves to bring their necromancy into play, but Ortus, noticing that the constraints of his poem have begun to influence the world, stops them. As the battle picks up speed, Nonias drops his rapier, but manages to catch the Sleepers arm, disarm her, and drive her back into the wall. Protesilaus tosses Nonias his rapier, and he plunges it into the Sleeper's chest.

As they group, Ortus is in awe of Abigail Pent and her abilities. Magnus jokingly scolds Ortus for flirting with his wife, horrifying Ortus. Abigail cannot figure out she was able to summon him purely through Ortus's art, but Nonias accepts it and claims the victory is then owed to Ortus. Harrow tells Nonias she has to other enemies here, and Abigail confirms the invasive soul is gone. As she speaks, the "bubble" begins to rumble, falling apart as the scenario has concluded and in response to whatever is happening above. Matthias Nonias shares his desire to go help the Lyctors battle the Resurrection Beast. Protesilaus, Ortus, and Marta decide to join him, despite protests from Harrow and Abigail. Harrow release Matthias, and Abigail sends the four of them to aid Gideon the First.

## **Appearance and Personality**

Gideon first describes Protesilaus as thus:

> *"The man who'd put the sword to her neck was uncomfortably buff. He had upsetting biceps. He didn't look healthy; he looked like a collection of lemons in a sack. He was a dour, bulky person whose skin had something of the girl's strange, translucent tinge. He was waxen looking in the sunlight, probably with sweat, and he wore the girl half-draped over his shoulder as though she were a baby or a rug."*
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In Harrow the Ninth, he is described as:

> *"...bronzed and vigorous, an enormous, musclebound man in green, with a seafoam colored kilt and tooled leathers."*
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While his beguiling corpse is silent and dull, the true Protesilaus Ebdoma is a gentle, good-natured family man. He clearly cares deeply about his necromancer and protects her as if she was one of his own children. He is partial to poetry and breeding flowers. Despite this sweet spirit, he perfectly capable of using his immense size and strength to go after anyone who threatens those under his protection.

## **Possessions**

* **Cavalier's Rapier:** Protesilaus's rapier is a big, swept-hilt rapier.
* **Chain:** Protesilaus's off-hand, is a length of etched chain.

## **Trivia**

* Protesilaus is named for the first hero to die in Troy.

## **References**

1. ↑  tazmuir, Tumblr.com.
2. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth, Act V, Ch. 47
3. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Cohort Intelligence Files
4. ↑ "The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex"
5. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 7
6. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act II, Ch. 21
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 7
8. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," A Little Explanation of Naming Systems