House Minerva
The best-ordered rival House, its owl fortress shattered in minutes when Darrow's soldiers burst from the bellies of dead horses.
Story so far
House Minerva is the best-run of the Institute Houses — ordered, strategic, olive-groved, named for Athena's owl — and long a stalemate against Mars behind its thirty-meter walls and its killing field of mud. Its wary field commander Mustang guards against every ambush she can imagine when she agrees to a champion's duel between her titan Pax and the Reaper, even burning the grass and counting Mars's every soldier. But she cannot imagine Sevro's Howlers and Diana's hunters sewn inside the bellies of the dead horses on the field.
When Pax falls, the hidden soldiers slither out and rush the slow-closing gate while Diana scales the far walls, and Minerva — its whole garrison watching the duel from the ramparts — falls in minutes. Its owl standard and its people become Mars's, and Mustang flees alone across the mud.
Appearance
An owl-emblemed House holding a clean sandstone fortress of columns, gardens, and olive trees behind thirty-meter walls and a muddy killing field.
Role
A disciplined rival House, conquered by Darrow's horse-belly ambush.
Relationships
Sources — 2 recorded facts, by chapter
- The best-ordered rival House, named for Athena the owl, with horses, stunpikes, strategy — and a sandstone fortress Darrow raids.
- The best-ordered rival House, its owl fortress shattered in minutes when Darrow's soldiers burst from the bellies of dead horses.