Slade House

Norah Grayer narrates this chapter. She possesses the body of a man named Bombadil and learns from one of her Blackwatermen operatives that her next guest is due to arrive at Slade Alley. To prepare herself for the guest’s arrival, Norah listens to the soundtrack of The Truman Show and reminisces about seeing the film with Jonah. She considers the possibility of taking a vacation with Jonah to Côte d’Azur after they complete this operandi.

Norah’s guest is a Black Canadian woman named Dr. Iris Marinus-Fenby. Marinus, as she calls herself, is studying abduction psychoses and has taken an interest in Fred Pink’s writings about the Grayer twins, which she obtained in 2008. Masquerading as Bombadil, Norah offers to provide information that would validate Fred Pink’s claims about Slade House. 

Once they make contact, Norah invites Marinus to proceed into the alley to examine the orison. Norah claims that she has visited the orison multiple times, signaling that it is safe for Marinus to enter. Marinus indulges Norah’s direction.

Marinus previously visited Slade Alley to look for the iron door but came in a year when it was inaccessible. Norah explains how the orison exists as a bubble in reality, and Marinus can open the aperture by visualizing its keyhole mechanism being unlocked. Norah validates her explanation by claiming to have visited another orison in New Mexico, where she took a leaf from a ginkgo tree as a souvenir. She describes herself as an “astronaut,” a person who seeks out orisons around the world and examines them to bring awareness to their existence.

Before passing through the aperture, Norah telepathically informs Jonah that she and Marinus are about to enter. Jonah is cynical and resentful after the outcome of their last feeding cycle, having been trapped in his birth-body because of Sal’s intervention. Norah urges him to project the Slade House garden at once. Jonah obeys, and the resulting conundrum of Slade House’s impossible dimensions impresses Marinus. 

Marinus suddenly worries about all the patients she had diagnosed with mental illness, realizing that they were telling the truth about the experiences they had in the orisons they visited. Norah reassures her that very few of her patients were likely to have visited real orisons. She also tries to convince Marinus that Slade House is safe and was abandoned by the Grayer twins, in order to beckon her deeper into the orison.

Marinus observes that the flowers have been rendered in monochrome, and Norah knows that this is because Sal’s intervention critically degraded their operandi. She tells Marinus about all the orisons she’s previously visited and their respective abilities to distort time. She shows Marinus some strawberries, which are secretly banjax. Marinus declines to eat them, citing the trope of cursed food from fairy tales and myths. 

As they continue to examine the orison, Norah tries to identify what is bothering her about Jonah’s orison. Jonah tells Norah to get inside the house because he can no longer maintain the illusion. She tries to lure Marinus indoors by convincing her that Fred Pink may still be alive and trapped inside Slade House. Marinus observes that the edges of the orison are beginning to fade, and they can no longer exit the way they came in. Norah explains it away as fog and assures Marinus that she has nothing to be concerned about.

Norah gets Marinus inside the house just before the orison collapses. Marinus is perceptive to the noises around them, which Norah once again attempts to explain away. Jonah tells Norah to get Marinus to the lacuna immediately because the operandi can no longer sustain itself. Norah orders Jonah to act as Fred Pink and draw them upstairs. He calls for help, bringing Marinus up the steps. Marinus suddenly stops, unsure if she is climbing the correct staircase. Jonah calls out again to allay her concerns. Marinus enters the lacuna, and Norah follows suit, abandoning Bombadil’s body just as the orison collapses.

Marinus is placed in a suborison designed to resemble a private hospital room. Jonah and Norah disguise themselves as doctors and speak while Marinus is still unconscious. They plan to make her take the banjax as a medicinal tablet. Jonah concedes that all of Norah’s past warnings were correct; she was right to suggest that they strengthen their methods and find something more to do with their abilities. Norah is pleased to hear this and assures Jonah that they will visit someone named Enomoto Sensei in Japan after they have finished consuming Marinus’s spirit, in order to learn how to improve the operandi.

Jonah awakens Marinus and convinces her that she experienced a road accident. The twins conduct an initial test to examine Marinus for any signs of trauma. Marinus remembers arriving in Slade House with Bombadil. The twins serve Marinus the tablet, but she refuses, indicating that she knows who her doctors really are. She criticizes them for failing to update their methods, suggesting that they could’ve administered banjax through IV drip since they were already trying to convince her that she was a patient. 

Jonah tells Norah to kill Marinus at once, but Norah is afraid that the lacuna will collapse if they fail to extract Marinus’s soul. Marinus chimes in, indicating that she can also hear the twins’ telepathic conversations. She criticizes various elements of their suborison, mocking them for making such a poor imitation of a credible hospital room. Marinus also signals her awareness that Norah has been gathering reconnaissance on her for some time. 

It becomes clear to the twins that Marinus has honed her psychic abilities to match their own. She reveals that she knows about the twins because she recovered Freya’s digital recorder, which contains her interview with Jonah. The recorder fell out of Slade House after Freya’s death, preserved from destruction, like Rita Bishop’s hairpin, because it is made of inorganic matter. 

Norah guesses that Marinus belongs to Horology, a faction that opposes the Shaded Way in the Atemporal War. Marinus confirms this by revealing that the Horologists also used Freya’s recording to hunt down their former teacher, the Sayyid, in the Atlas Mountains. This upsets Jonah, who tries to launch a psychic fire blast at Marinus. Marinus parries the blast, destroying Jonah instantly. 

The operandi falls apart, leaving Marinus and Norah in the attic of Slade House. Now that the lacuna is collapsing, the attic experiences the effects of time and entropy. Norah maintains her calm, believing that she still has a chance to survive Marinus. Marinus asks Norah why she didn’t join her psychic efforts to Jonah’s. Norah brushes Jonah off as the more impulsive twin and points out that she needed to withhold an attack to maintain the lacuna. 

Marinus asks Norah to open the aperture for her to escape. Norah refuses, so Marinus retrieves a smartphone from her pocket. She reveals that she hid explosives near the aperture so that she could blast her way out. She triggers the explosives, but they do not open an exit. 

Marinus and Norah debate over their respective relationships to immortality. As a Horologist, Marinus is constantly reborn into new bodies. Norah resents her for treating immortality as something exclusive and inaccessible. Marinus criticizes Norah for murdering to become immortal, calling her own immortality a “sentence.” She stresses that the Horologists’ mission is to honor the sanctity of other people’s lives. This gives them purpose, whereas Atemporals like the Grayer twins simply live to feed. Marinus criticizes Norah for dulling her conscience in the process. 

Norah’s body begins aging at a rapid rate. Marinus reveals that the explosives accelerated the process of entropy, allowing more time to come into the lacuna. As Norah dies, Marinus picks up the candlestick and uses it to shatter the mirror and escape the attic. Norah’s soul leaves her body, causing her to wonder why she didn’t get more out of life. Before her soul travels into the Dusk, Norah resists, drawing on her anger against Marinus for killing Jonah. Her soul seeks a place to settle and lands upon a pregnant woman. She occupies the mind of the woman’s fetus, whom she calls an “astronaut.” She resolves to one day take revenge against Marinus.