Katabasis

Gertrude leads Alice to the Rebel Citadel. The buildings are whole, and the air is fresh. Gertrude says that every object finds its way to Dis eventually, and they are gradually building a great city where select Shades can enjoy peace. She urges Alice to explore.

Alice wanders, finding the splendor lifeless up close. She comes upon a withered tree that shrinks away and whispers when she touches it. She enters a garden of many thorny, knobby trees and realizes they are all Shades. One tree-Shade, “the knob,” urges her to rest until she takes root. Faced with no threat except silence, Alice relives Grimes’s death. She thinks again about the gap left in the pentagram that killed him: Peter swears it was in his proofs and Alice just copied it, but Alice wonders if she ignored it. The tree-Shades whisper for her to calm her mind, but she starts thinking about how hard that task is.

When she almost gives up, the knob gestures to rows and rows of groves: Shades who arrived tormented and are now rooted. Those who can’t root pray all day in a nearby abbey. Alice is distraught that they are all content with waiting until the apocalypse. She realizes their endless waiting without growth is the worst punishment in Hell.

She asks why they don’t choose to die, rather than waiting for the end. A Shade wakes up from its stump, runs into the Lethe, and destroys itself. Part of Alice is jealous, while another part finally realizes she doesn’t want to die. She runs out of the Rebel Citadel, through the bazaar, and away from the city and the Lethe.

Alice runs until she loses track of the Lethe, which startles her. The Lethe was “the only limit on infinity” (450) in Hell, meaning she might be lost in infinity. All she knows how to do is walk as time slips by. She begins to pass relics of civilizations she doesn’t recognize. She repeatedly reminds herself of who she is, and her memories begin to bother her less.

An emaciated leopard that has wandered in from aboveground begins to stalk Alice until they both become stuck in two of the Kripkes’ traps. Hanging knives above them kill the leopard, and Alice thinks of Peter. She spots the pentagram used to make the trap and is able to use the leopard’s blood to write a counterspell, narrowly escaping the knives.

She builds a fire and uses the knives to harvest the leopard’s meat and organs. She cooks and eats them, feeling her body’s material wants and strength for the first time in a long time.

Gradus finds her. She apologizes for following Gertrude. He says he helped build the Rebel Citadel, but he spent too much time debating whether to jump into the Lethe, so he left. He philosophizes about why people don’t choose to die when it seems like the most logical choice. He is searching for that answer. He asks every sojourner he finds.

He asks her what she’s going to do, and she says she’s going to kill the Kripkes. He points her to the river but tells her she’ll need protection. She makes weapons and armor from the leopard’s bones. She’s decided she has to fight for life, and if she dies along the way, that’s okay.

Gradus tells Alice to snort the chalk. When she does, she’s flooded with memories that aren’t hers, from the ancient sea creatures who make up the chalk. She feels capable of “devouring the universe” (469)

Alice finds high ground near the river and draws many pentagrams and paradoxes. Gradus leaves. A horde of bone-things advances. Most are taken out by her pentagrams, and she gleefully destroys the ones that aren’t. Nick, Magnolia, and Theophrastus Kripke arrive and destroy her spells.

Theophrastus charges her; Alice grabs him easily, but Magnolia attacks, and she drops him. She fights Magnolia until they’re positioned over a Zeno’s trap she made. She punctures Magnolia’s bags of blood so she and Theophrastus can’t escape. Alice moves to her more complex work as Nick follows her. His magician’s curiosity makes him pause to read her work. She tries to cast the spell inspired by Erichtho, substituting Grimes’s name for Nick’s, but Nick strangles her. 

Archimedes arrives, giving her enough time to finish her recitation and close the pentagram circle. Alice had dug up Grimes’s body, intending to fasten his soul to it. Now, she brings Nick to a place between Cambridge and Hell, binding his soul to Grimes’s remains above. In the Hell layer of the room, she drags him toward the Lethe. They both tip into the river.

They land painfully in shallow water. Alice cannot move. Nick runs to shore, but his memories are erased until he dissolves. Magnolia picks Theophrastus up and walks toward the water. As their memories peel away, Alice thinks about how much she admired the Kripkes. She snuck into one of Magnolia’s talks once and was amazed by how adoringly Nick watched her and how powerful Magnolia was.

Gradus arrives. A ship pulls near, and he walks across the Lethe onto it. She asks him who he was, and he says “no one.” She watches him drink from a bowl offered by a figure in white, until he becomes a new type of spirit. The wake of the boat as it leaves pushes Alice further onto shore.

Her pentagram scar sizzles away. She is initially thrilled, but then panicked that she might forget Peter. She feels more of her memories begin to pull away, until she is dragged away from the river by Elspeth and Archimedes.

Alice wakes up on Elspeth’s boat. Elspeth asks her why the Lethe didn’t affect her, then asks if Grimes made her scar. She asks if Alice still has memories, and Alice realizes she has the same presences and gaps in her mind that everyone does now.

Elspeth makes dinner and apologizes for leaving Alice and Peter alone. She had been baffled as to why they wanted to bring back Grimes after all he did to them. Alice apologizes for betraying her. Elspeth tells her that they weren’t special for being the object of Grimes’s abuse, and Grimes’s name starts to lose meaning to Alice. Elspeth asks where Peter is, and Alice begins to cry. She tells Elspeth the story. Elspeth isn’t surprised, as she could tell they loved one another.

When Alice wakes the next day, Elspeth admits she found a Dialetheia before meeting Alice and Peter. She tells Alice the best use for it is to take it to Lord Yama in exchange for a boon. She gives it to Alice. Elspeth says she’s tired of searching and wants to cross over the river the right way.

They sail out into the Lethe, farther than Elspeth has ever gone before. The force of the Lethe pulls them inward until they hit an island. Alice gives Elspeth a kiss before leaving. Alice asks her to come with her, but Elspeth knows it isn’t her time. She leaves with Archimedes.

Alice follows a chain of linked souls to Lord Yama’s throne. He takes the shape of Yanluo Wang and speaks to her in Chinese. Alice offers the Dialetheia to trade and explains that Elspeth gave it to her. Lord Yama is glad Elspeth is now traversing the courts to cross over. 

When Alice tells Lord Yama that she initially came to Hell to find Grimes, he makes Grimes appear. Grimes immediately begins arguing with and mocking Lord Yama, who reminds him that he is there only at Alice’s mercy. Grimes said he had been haunting Alice, leaving breadcrumbs for her to follow him to Hell. Grimes wants to stay and use the Dialetheia to do anything.

Alice no longer has the same goals as Grimes: She wants to go home. She asks if he cares that Peter is dead, and Grimes says his death opened new possibilities. Alice realizes Grimes is just a regular, cruel man. She explains how she would have used Erichtho’s theory to revive him. He says it wouldn’t have worked, and Alice explains it already did, on Nick Kripke. Grimes begins to get scared.

Lord Yama nods his assent, and Alice begins to draw Peter’s organic exchange spell around Grimes. Grimes tries to leave, but Lord Yama holds him inside. Alice finishes the pentagram, and a wind whips until it tears his essence apart. Peter walks through a door that appears where Grimes vanished.

Alice and Peter rush into each other’s arms. Peter confirms that he died. Alice feels more joy than she ever has before. She apologizes to Peter, and he apologizes to her. She asks Lord Yama to exchange the Dialetheia for a journey to the surface and their full lifespans back.

Yama says that magicians believe they have tricked the universe with their magic, but it’s just the deities humoring them for amusement. Alice asks if they’ve amused Lord Yama, and he says yes. He agrees to return half of the years they gave up. They all agree to the exchange.

A staircase appears before Alice and Peter. Lord Yama tells them to ascend. They ascend high enough to see all the Courts, and Alice reflects on her experiences as she takes a last look. Alice knows that the academy no longer matters because she and Peter have a future with each other, filled with potential.

They reach a door framed with butterflies. Alice gives a last thanks to Elspeth. They climb through into the courtyard in Magdalene College. Alice is newly appreciative of all the material things in the world. She doesn’t know why she deserves life, but she knows not to question it. Together, they climb through into the courtyard.