#she was apparently torn to shreds by ghosts in the River while drawing a resurrection beast into it

[hedge-rambles]

Ianthe's fight with Silas

Ok so I was rereading this post from @thewinterstale because it's very good and I was reminded of something that's always bothered me about the fight scene between Ianthe and Silas in GtN: How on earth does Ianthe just whip out teleportation?

This is never explained nor even referenced again and it doesn't appear to be like...a thing necromancers can do.

Except, it is, and the method actually fits quite neatly with the one way we know it's done. Lyctors can move from point A to point C without going through point B, because they can travel via the River. It's a whole thing to do, with wards to keep away the ghosts (ravenous lava fish etc.) but it is a thing none the less.

The River is described as an oily, disgusting, bloody soup, not too dissimilar to the "rain" that comes with Ianthe and Silas falling out of the ceiling. Staying in it any length of time is extremely dangerous, but how dangerous would it be to travel a couple of metres? We never see it done by other lyctors but presumably because it's a lot more effort than just walking across a room, but this was not exactly a normal situation.

Did Ianthe, self professed limnal magician, manage that feat in her fight by detouring via the river? Was she even aware of what she did? And was that what caused Colum to go full possessed? I just reread the fight scene and Colum does totally grey and still as Silas siphons him, as normal, until Silas sticks his hands into Ianthe's horrible fat puddle.

Silas knelt by the puddle, and - silver chain starting to warp and buckle on his perfect white tunic - thrust his hand into it. Colum made a noise as though he had been punched in the gut.

It's only after she pulls Silas through the wherever that Colum starts moving again, while still being heavily siphoned, which...y'know we never saw that afore actually? And it's extremely shortly after that that he becomes obviously possessed. What happens when you open a door to the River, in a place as metaphysically shaky as Canaan House, in the presence of a person being siphoned, Eighth style, and pull their necromancer through the limnal spaces? I wonder...