Author: Niall Teasdale
Date: 2022-06-25 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction; Lgbt; Fantasy
Description: Nava Greyling has only ever wanted a normal life in a normal school. Well, relatively normal. Normal schoolgirls don’t have to worry about terrorist organizations (old and new) and the threat of impending interstellar war. When magic, bullets, and missiles start flying, where does Nava’s loyalty lie?

Loyalty

A Death’s Handmaiden Novel

By Niall Teasdale

Copyright 2022 Niall Teasdale

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Contents

Part One: Black Sheep

Part Two: Boot Camp

Part Three: Jenna

Part Four: Redwing

Part Five: The Voice of Magic

Part Six: Broken People

Part Seven: A War Someone Wants

Epilogue

About the Author

Part One: Black Sheep

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 237/9/19.

Saturday night was the one night of the week when people at the Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery tended to let loose a bit. There were lessons on Saturday morning, so Friday night was more restrained. That left Saturday night for dancing, chatting up members of the preferred orientation, and drinking where old enough. The students and staff of SAS^2 tended to be intelligent, and it was therefore assumed that they would drink intelligently. Well, some people assumed that, but not the members of the School Security Force, and certainly not the SSF’s current captain, Nava Greyling.

Having ditched her responsibilities at the school during the summer holiday to deal with her responsibilities to the Alliance Security Force, now that she was back at school, Nava had decided that she would run some Saturday night patrols. There was the guilt, but she also felt that her worries over other students trying to test her were likely to be just worries at this point in the year. When the new first years arrived in January, things might need re-evaluating, but for now it was unlikely that anyone thought messing with Nava to be a good idea.

Messing with other students, however, was an entirely different matter, and Nava was currently engaged in observing a brawl taking place near one of the on-site clubs. ‘I’d definitely say alcohol was involved,’ she observed out loud.

Beside her, Sixte nodded. ‘Are you basing that on the way hardly anyone is actually hitting anything?’ He gazed in something near to awe as a large young man, probably a sixth year, pulled back his fist, swung it forward in a punch so telegraphed it was difficult to believe, and missed his target’s entire body by more than twenty centimetres. Physics being what it was, and the man’s balance being not what it should be, the combatant spun in a complete circle before falling flat on his face. Sixte really had to try hard not to laugh. He hoped that Nava was having difficulty too, but he had a feeling that Nava never had any difficulty hiding her emotions.

‘The general lack of coordination is indicative. I suppose we’d better put a stop to this before someone gets hurt.’ Pause. ‘More hurt.’ There were ten or twelve people in the fight. It was difficult to be absolutely sure of the numbers because the middle portion of the combat area was now a dogpile of combatants.

‘Okay, what’s the plan, Captain?’

Nava shrugged. ‘Leave it to me.’ She raised her right hand toward the scrap and, quite suddenly, the fight stopped. Everyone involved in the fight stopped moving. The ones still standing collapsed to the ground, unmoving. The pile stilled. ‘Put a call through to get some help and a paramedic, then help me pull this pile apart before someone suffocates.’

‘Sky and Mori are on their way,’ Sixte told her a minute later when he joined her in picking the pile of bodies apart. ‘Miss Tanzi Royce is coming over from the infirmary.’

‘Right.’ Nava yanked someone upright, her hands under his armpits. He was both bigger and taller than she was; his legs hung limply as she pulled him back out of immediate danger of crushing someone to death.

‘Uh, he looks kind of green, Captain. I think he might–’

Nava stared into the handsome face before her, her eyes meeting his. ‘He is not,’ she said. ‘If he were to throw up on me, I would remove all of his internal organs, line them up in front of him, and set fire to each one in turn while he watched. And then I would repair all the damage and do it again.’

The young man targeted for this outlandish punishment looked as though he was very worried that Nava might do it. He possibly looked more worried that he still might toss his cookies. His eyes widened. His lips tightened. His eyes widened further as his body refused to obey him and his cheeks bulged grossly.

‘Oh… That’s nasty,’ Sixte said.

Then Nava’s victim swallowed. His eyes began to water.

‘I think I might throw up,’ Sixte said, turning away.

Nava nodded and set her victim down in a recovery position. ‘Just so long as you don’t do it on me, I’ll allow it.’

237/9/20.

‘It all turned out to have started when someone dissed someone else’s boyfriend,’ Nava said. ‘Said he was a slut, apparently, plus other choice terms which resulted in punches being thrown.’

‘That sounds depressingly typical,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I assume there was alcohol involved?’

‘They were drunk, certainly. We’ll be hauling all of them up in front of the disciplinary court, and the decision will be placed on their permanent records.’

‘It’s sad, really,’ Melissa commented. ‘Students here should be smart enough to avoid drinking to excess.’

‘Intelligence and common sense have low correspondence.’

‘I suppose… What do you think the ASF wants with us?’

The trio were on their way to a meeting with an as-yet-unknown ASF officer who had requested a meeting. That it was them being requested suggested that it was something to do with what had happened over the summer holiday, but they had assumed that their involvement with that was done and dusted. Then the request had come through the school’s administration.

‘It was a request,’ Mitsuko said, ‘not a demand. They’ve even laid on lunch. I’m not sure whether that makes it less perplexing or more. What could they want?’

They were approaching the meeting room in the administration building which had been prepared for them as Nava said, ‘Speculation is a waste of time when we’ll find out in another few seconds.’

The confusion was at least partially resolved for Melissa when she saw one of the two occupants of the room. ‘Colonel Myron Seward Voll? I’m remembering right, aren’t I?’

The man in the ASF uniform smiled. ‘You are correct, Miss Melissa Connelly.’ He was not massively memorable; he followed the usual mode of attractive features, slightly tanned skin, dark hair cut short, and brown eyes. Melissa had sat next to him at Naomi’s graduation dinner, however, and remembered him quite well. ‘This is my assistant, First Lieutenant Emilia Lambert Garnet.’

Beside Myron stood a woman in her mid-twenties compared to his late thirties. She was something of a stunner with long, straight, black hair, delicate, finely carved features, pale skin, and near-black eyes. She actually looked a little like Mitsuko, if Mitsuko had been born to purely Caucasian parents. And also if her bust had not stopped growing; Emilia’s breasts appeared to be trying their best to force their way out of her uniform dress. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you all,’ the lieutenant said. ‘Colonel Myron Seward spoke extensively of his chat with you last year, Miss Melissa Connelly, and the entire ATC has been talking about the after-action reports concerning your activities over the summer.’

‘O-oh,’ Melissa said. She rallied quickly before her embarrassment could hit too hard. ‘Let me introduce Mitsuko Trenton Sonkei and Nava Greyling Sonkei. Colonel Seward Voll is a strategy instructor at the Admiral Aurora Trenton Advanced Training Centre. We sat next to each other at Naomi’s graduation ball.’

‘And we discussed the use of Force Wall in tactical situations,’ the colonel said, ‘which I believe you have perfected since.’

‘P-perfected? I w-wouldn’t actually say I’d–’

‘Melissa is the queen of offensive Force Wall,’ Mitsuko said, ‘though she claims she gets lucky a lot.’

‘I do!’

‘We would like to hear more details,’ Myron said.

‘And more about the other support spells you three employed in Avorna,’ Emilia said.

‘Emilia is a sorceress. She’s my main source of information on the subject of magic.’

‘I suppose, but I’m not that good. My capacity is only one-eighty. I wasn’t good enough to attend SAS-squared.’

‘One hundred and eighty is respectable for an SAS-squared graduate, First Lieutenant Emilia Lambert,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Nava will graduate with a somewhat higher score, but we can’t all be prodigies. I’m not sure what I can add to this conversation, if I’m honest. I’m a combat student.’

‘You were there and a part of the operations,’ Myron said. ‘A combat student’s perspective will also be useful given that both Miss Melissa Connelly and First Lieutenant Nava Greyling are support. Now, let’s sit down, talk, and eat. And perhaps we could drop all the formality. I’ll be Myron, or we’ll be here until next year.’

Nava headed for a chair. ‘That suits me fine, Myron. Clan Worlds people have too many names.’

‘It wouldn’t matter if we didn’t insist on using them all the time,’ Mitsuko replied.

‘Agreed. But you do…’

~~~

‘That seemed productive,’ Nava said as they walked back to the house. ‘It’s nice to know that some members of the ASF marines wish to further the use of sorcery within the organisation.’

‘It made me think that no one in the ASF ever speaks to the instructors here,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Most of the spells we discussed are at least mentioned in support-stream classes, so why don’t the military already use them?’

‘A lot of support students go into other lines of work,’ Melissa said.

‘And those who do join the ASF have likely forgotten many of these spells by the time they do,’ Nava added. ‘Add on the fact that a lot of marines don’t really trust magic, and you have a recipe for lack of innovation. Why would anyone put forward ideas for unconventional uses of magic when they know those ideas will be met with derision?’

‘But the marines we worked with on Avorna three liked what Mel did,’ Mitsuko pointed out.

‘They got no choice about accepting it. Mel was there and she cast her spells. They got to see them working before they got the chance to decide such tactics would never work.’

‘Well, maybe things will change now,’ Melissa said. ‘Colonel Myron is going to go back and try to change things, right?’

‘Yes,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Unfortunately, “try” is an important word in that sentence.’ She sighed. ‘I still think I was a fifth wheel in that discussion. I spoke, certainly, but I don’t think I had much to add.’

‘Of course you did,’ Melissa replied.

Nava, however, was silent. Mitsuko took that to mean she had not, in fact, been of much use and Nava was saying nothing to avoid hurt feelings. Sometimes, the fact that Nava preferred not to lie could be a real pain.

237/9/21.

‘Four-fifty, it’s confirmed.’ Hoshi was looking at the display on a capacity-measurement machine which Nava had just hit with a four-hundred-and-fifty-Tammy version of the standard test spell. Nava was not looking like her head was hurting, which was a definite plus.

‘You are, as always, amazing, Champion of Light,’ Carina said. She had come along to discover Nava’s capacity because of course she wanted to know.

‘That’s about what I expected,’ Nava said. ‘That means I could cast rank five Active Recovery.’

‘There’s a rank five?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘There is. It is exceptionally powerful.’

‘Oh.’

‘Now you just have to decide what capacity you’ll fake at the end of the year,’ Melissa said, grinning.

‘Indeed,’ Nava agreed. ‘Something in the three hundreds. No one will believe anything less.’

‘That might be a little harder than you expect,’ Hoshi said.

Rochester nodded. He was practically living with Hoshi now, so of course he had come out before breakfast to find out Nava’s new capacity. ‘Arden Archer’s new capacity machine.’

Nava looked at him. ‘This is the first I’ve heard of this.’

‘I suppose you could say it’s the first practical product of his discussions with Trudy,’ Hoshi said. ‘You know she can objectively measure capacity. The problem is that she has no way of converting her measurement into Tammys. Arden came up with an idea about how to measure capacity based on your maximum cantrip complexity and the school has put some resources into building it. They’re hoping to run a sort of open beta at the end of the year, testing the new machine against the traditional test.’

‘Oh,’ Nava said. ‘So, a large disparity between the two results might raise questions.’

‘Uh-huh. I’m more interested in the fact that Arden and Trudy seem to have created a device which detects Q-field perturbations with far greater accuracy than anything else we have. So is the rest of the department. If this works, we’ll have useful magic sensors available in the near future.’

‘Arden Archer did say that he would like some help with calibrating the first prototype,’ Rochester added. ‘It would be useful if you would agree to try it out, Nava. Privately, of course.’

‘He wants to ruin my life and expects me to help him?’ Nava asked.

‘Well, yes. You have met the man, haven’t you?’

237/9/27.

It was the following Sunday, and everyone, including Arden Archer, was in the house. They were not testing any kind of capacity machine, however. Instead…

‘I requested this meeting of the “we know Trudy exists” club,’ Arden said, ‘because we’ve come to something of an impasse over units, and we thought some fresh minds might help.’

‘I don’t get it,’ Melissa said. ‘What’s the problem with units? What units?’

‘All of them. Time. We don’t have a way to accurately convert between seconds and the equivalent Harbinger unit.’

‘The problem,’ Trudy said, ‘is that both our species created units of measurements based upon our environment.’ Trudy was physically in the room, which would have sent most citizens of the Clan Worlds into a fit of one form or another if they walked in. A giant blue alien was sitting on one of the sofas in the lounge, looking like she belonged in a horror vid. ‘Humans defined a second based on subdivisions of your solar day.’

‘Which was eventually redefined using the radiation from a specific atom,’ Arden said.

‘But importantly, and for clear practical reasons, the duration of a second remained the same. All that changed was how that duration was defined. Likewise, we Harbingers have a comparable unit based on a subdivision of our solar day. Though we used subdivisions of sixty-four rather than sixty. Where did you get base sixty from?’

‘Blame the Babylonians,’ Melissa said. ‘So, you’re saying that all our units are arbitrary, so it’s difficult to convert one to the other.’

‘Technically not,’ Arden said. ‘The Harbingers obviously redefined their second using fixed physical constants, but Trudy is a biologist, not a physicist.’

‘I just don’t remember the definitions that well,’ Trudy said. She never really exhibited emotions the way humans did, but she looked embarrassed.

‘I’d have to look them up,’ Carina said. ‘Oh, a metre is the distance light travels in a vacuum in– Actually, no, because I don’t remember the exact definition of the speed of light. It’s about three hundred million metres per second. Two, nine, nine, seven… No, I’d have to look it up.’

‘Isn’t that definition circular anyway?’ Mitsuko asked. ‘A metre is defined in terms of the speed of light. The speed of light is in metres per second.’

‘And the speed of light is a defined constant under the SI system,’ Rochester said, ‘not a directly measured value. That works perfectly for the purposes of defining the metre and the speed of light, but it does nothing to help convert SI units to Harbinger units.’

‘I’m getting a headache,’ Mitsuko said.

‘If we could manage to convert just a few basic units,’ Hoshi said, ‘we could probably do them all. It’s not that hard from that point of view. It’s just getting over that first hurdle that’s hard.’

‘It would appear,’ Nava said, ‘that you need to speak to a Harbinger physicist.’

‘We don’t have one,’ Arden said.

‘We don’t have one here. I know there’s an engineer on Avorna. He might be sufficient, but there may also be other science specialists there. The problem would be persuading them to help. They only spoke to me because they thought I might be a threat.’

Everyone looked at Trudy. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘in the worst case, I suppose I could go to Avorna. Perhaps we could change this session to a discussion of other ways we could persuade them.’

‘You could make a sign,’ Melissa suggested.

‘A sign?’

‘Yes. Write a sign in Harbinger saying something like, “I need to talk to a physicist. Trudy sent me. Please help.” And then Arden could stand in the museum holding that until one of them makes contact.’

There was silence for a moment. ‘Let’s put that on the backburner for now and consider some other options.’

~~~

‘I understand you have a new capacity-testing machine in the works,’ Nava said.

Arden gave a small grimace. ‘I understand I’m making life difficult for you again. Though, to be fair, it’s not just me this time.’

The discussion of units had stalled with two principal options becoming the main means of contacting the Harbingers on Avorna. No one had had any other really good ideas, so they were left with Trudy going there, or Arden standing somewhere they knew the Harbingers frequented with a sign. The exact wording of the message was still up for debate. Now Nava had decided to change the subject.

‘It was inevitable that my true capacity would become public knowledge.’ Nava gave a shrug. ‘I suppose the end of this year will be as good a time as any.’

‘It’s Taryn I feel sorry for,’ Mitsuko said. ‘She’s going to be terribly disappointed when she finds out what you can really do.’

‘Hm.’

‘How did you come up with a better sensor system anyway?’ Melissa asked. ‘That seems to be the key advance in technology. Somehow, you’ve managed to get a machine to really detect quintessence fluctuations.’

‘Biomimicry,’ Arden replied. That got a lot of blank looks, so he continued. ‘It’s down to Trudy, obviously, but she told us how humans, and other organic entities, detect the Q-field. There are quantum nanostructures in our nerves. That’s how magicians are able to influence the Q-field as well, but for now we’re sticking to mimicking those structures in electronic form to sense quintessential perturbations with greater accuracy.’

‘This is the first I’ve heard of this,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Because we’re still working out how to publish the information without giving away how we discovered it. The sensor is being attributed to a collaboration between myself and Hoshi. Once we knew what we were looking at, some aspects of Harbinger artefacts were obviously their version of the same technology, so we “discovered” a means of creating artificial Q-sensitive nerves.’

‘The discovery of the structures in your nerves has already been made,’ Trudy said. ‘The problem there is that they were identified over four hundred years ago on Earth. At the time, they were documented as a scientific curiosity with no known function. I only found the paper because I specifically went looking for it to see whether the human mechanism for Q-field manipulation was the same as ours.’

‘I remember that,’ Carina said. ‘I remember you asking me to search for it. You never did explain what it was about.’

‘Now you know. We could possibly push a biologist to rediscover it.’

‘Except we don’t have a biologist in the faculty,’ Hoshi said.

Melissa grinned. ‘Maybe we could make a sign…’

237/10/6.

‘That seems serious,’ Mitsuko said. She was reading on her ketcom at breakfast, so presumably it was something in the news.

‘More detail would be required before I could comment,’ Nava said.

‘Obviously. There was an explosion in a communications centre early this morning. A big explosion. There were several deaths.’

‘In a communications centre?’

‘Yes. Not the sort of place you would expect to contain anything volatile.’

‘That’s the second time it’s happened,’ Carina said. ‘You were on Aquaria or Avorna when the last one happened. There were deaths last time too.’

Mitsuko nodded. ‘Twelve dead in the first event, fourteen this time. A lot of them were magicians on the night shift. There’s speculation that this could be some form of anti-magic terrorism.’

‘That’s new. The news channels said it was an accident last time.’

‘Apparently that was re-evaluated later since they couldn’t find any evidence of anything which could have exploded.’

‘Except that that would include explosives,’ Nava said. ‘If they can’t find evidence of a bomb, that would suggest magic. Why would a magician be involved in anti-magic terrorism?’

‘Fawn might know more,’ Melissa suggested.

‘Mm. Perhaps I’ll call her. That being said, it’s none of our business unless someone wants to make it so. Perhaps I’ll let sleeping dogs lie. Until they wake up and bite me, anyway.’

237/10/27.

‘You’re not here to talk about explosions in communications companies, are you?’ Melissa asked.

Fawn looked at her for a second. ‘No. Oh, that. No, this is nothing to do with that. IRD is involved in the investigation, but it’s nothing to do with me. Or Nava.’

‘I thought Nava was the ASF’s answer to everything now,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Well, not everything…’

Fawn had turned up for lunch on a Sunday, saying she had something to discuss with Nava and that it was not confidential. Hence, lunch was being had around the lounge table. Lunch was sandwich-based, though Mitsuko had also made some miso soup to add something hot. It was getting late in the year and the temperature outside was sliding toward winter. Carina, in particular, was noticing the decline.

‘If I may ask then, Lieutenant,’ Nava said, ‘what did you wish to discuss?’

Fawn frowned. ‘You said that if I turned up on a Sunday and didn’t make this official, you’d call me Fawn.’

‘I lied.’

‘Hm. Well. The ASF has decided what it wants to do about that whole informal promotion thing, so I came to tell you what they decided.’

‘I sit here on tenterhooks.’

Melissa and Carina giggled. Mitsuko tried her best not to smirk too hard.

‘You’re mean,’ Fawn said. ‘They decided to make it official. You get an immediate, full commission in the ASF, which is immediately converted into a reserve assignment. You’d be “on secondment” to SAS-squared, in effect, until you graduate.’

‘That sounds excessively complicated,’ Nava said.

‘Probably. But it gets more complicated.’

‘I’m not going to like this, am I?’

‘Well…’ Fawn’s face twisted into something of a grimace. ‘No. No, you’re not. The IRD is all on-board with this. Major Deveraux Wescott put the idea forward. Admiral Youta Ishida wants to go ahead with it.’ The major was the head of the IRD and also Sixte’s uncle. There was only one full admiral in the ASF, so the top man in the military wanted to go ahead with this.

‘But?’

‘But some of the generals have raised objections.’ Beneath Admiral Youta Ishida, there were a number of vice admirals and generals. The vice admirals were on the naval side of the organisation while the generals were at the top of the marines. Given that the marines generally had a worse view of magic than the navy, it was logical that generals would object. ‘You would be bypassing a lot of training and testing, so it’s not entirely without justification.’

‘You protest too much, Lieutenant. They’re objecting because they don’t like magicians.’

‘They want you to go through an evaluation process before they’ll accept the arrangement. Three days of trials, starting on the second of next month. It’s, uh, during your autumn break.’

‘I’m aware. If I fail this evaluation, what happens?’

‘Well, nothing. Things stay as they are.’

‘Then can I just not do it and say I failed?’

‘Not really.’

Nava was silent for several seconds. ‘Can you stay a little after lunch?’ That seemed to be all the acknowledgement Fawn was getting.

‘It’s Sunday. I can stay all day. Why?’

‘After lunch, we’re going to do some testing on something you may find interesting.’

Fawn gave a shrug. ‘In that case, I can’t wait.’

~~~

The machine looked like a conventional capacity-testing machine. It was about the size of a household refrigerator with a display set above an opening. The person being tested fired a special spell into the opening, just as with the normal machines. However, the only thing that did in the normal devices was confirm that the spell had been cast. Here there was actual measurement going on somehow.

‘What’s your current cantrip limit?’ Hoshi asked.

‘Forty-four,’ Nava replied.

Hoshi’s shoulders sagged. ‘I’m still on twelve.’

‘Forty-four is high, isn’t it?’ Arden asked.

‘It’s not record breaking or anything, but for a student it’s more or less unheard of.’ She finished tapping at the display. ‘Well, that’s the spell, if you want to see the schema. Just cast it when you’re ready.’

‘And this thing will then extrapolate her capacity based on that?’ Fawn asked. There was quite an audience, as no one was surprised to discover. Trudy was even watching, even if she was staying invisible.

‘It’s worked on everyone we’ve tried it on so far,’ Arden said. ‘The results have matched the figures gained through the old test. That won’t be the case here, because Nava fakes her scores.’

‘Her public scores,’ Mitsuko said. ‘We know what it should say.’

Nava raised her hand and pointed it at the opening in the machine. ‘Well, let’s see what it says.’ There was no visible result aside from the display changing, but the display had changed, so the machine had detected a spell.

Both Hoshi and Arden peered at the results. ‘Four hundred and forty-seven with error limits of plus four and minus three,’ Hoshi said. ‘That’s a bigger range than we’ve seen with everyone else.’

Arden nodded. ‘It’s the magnitude of the effect.’ He peered at Nava. ‘You’re swamping the sensors.’

‘Are we saying Nava is overpowered?’ Melissa asked.

Rochester replied. ‘Was there ever any doubt?’

237/10/31.

‘Champion of Light?’

Nava was almost used to being addressed as such and did not bat an eyelid when Carina spoke. Then again, Nava rarely seemed bothered by anything. ‘Yes, Cari?’

‘You were involved in that piracy thing in Avorna, right?’

‘We all were.’

‘So, do you think it was the Consortium?’

In the midst of assembling a forkful of pasta, Melissa paused. ‘You’ve seen the stories on the news channels then, Cari?’

‘Irresponsible rumourmongering,’ Mitsuko said. Dinner was being had in the house, but impending war was hardly the worst thing they had ever discussed over a meal.

‘You think?’ Nava asked.

There was a brief pause. ‘Well, no, I think someone’s trying to push opinion in favour of a military campaign against the Consortium.’

‘And the Sino-Soviet Republic,’ Carina said. ‘The reports I’ve seen suggest that it’s pretty clear they were behind similar piracy in Mandalore.’

‘Which is one of the main indicators that it’s untrue,’ Nava said.

Carina frowned and then her eyes widened. ‘Oh! Because it’s ridiculous that two of our neighbours would decide to pull the same covert scheme at basically the same time. So, you don’t think it’s down to either of them?’

Nava was silent for a second. ‘This is all confidential.’

‘Of course, Champion of Light. I will take your words to the grave, despite the oncoming Darkness.’

‘Mm. All the evidence we gathered in Avorna suggests that the Consortium were behind the attacks.’

‘Oh.’

‘However, there were things about that evidence suggesting that it was either fabricated or carefully arranged. There were things missing which should have been there. Several people escaped the pirate base before we assaulted it and, while there is plenty of evidence concerning the origins of most of the pirates, there is nothing about those commanders. The information available draws a broad picture of a Consortium operation, but the details suggest something else.’

‘And there’s basically only very circumstantial evidence of Republican involvement in Mandalore,’ Mitsuko added. ‘No matter what’s inferred in those reports, the proof is not there.’

‘Someone wants a war,’ Melissa said.

‘Well, that’s not good,’ Carina replied.

‘That’s new,’ Nava said. ‘I was unaware that massive understatement was one of your skills, Cari.’

‘True,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I’d expect a statement like that from you, Nava. But with added sarcasm.’

‘You can never tell when I’m being sarcastic.’

Mitsuko shrugged. ‘If it’s something like this, I just assume you are. It’s easier that way.’

Trenton Mansion, 237/10/33.

Autumn break had started, and Nava would be heading off for her assessment in a couple of days, but first she was staying at the Trenton Mansion for a couple of nights. There was, of course, a party. Nava was not sure if it was celebrating anything, but it was a clan thing and pretty lively. There was, in fact, only one major problem with it.

‘We need to be watchful,’ Mitsuko said as they walked from the family part of the house into the more public area where the party was happening. ‘Uncle Spencer will be here.’

‘Now I just want to turn around and go to bed,’ Nava replied.

‘Well, I’d obviously prefer to just take you to bed, but we have obligations.’

‘Mm. Really, Spencer shouldn’t be a problem. I’d prefer not to meet him again, but he’s meaningless.’

‘No, he’s an irritant I don’t need when I’m trying to enjoy myself. And, since he’s here, Glory won’t be.’

‘You make valid points. I’ll upgrade him from meaningless to trivial.’

‘I really wish I could have your attitude to annoyances.’

‘I recommend being systematically tortured for years. It gives you a whole new perspective.’

‘I think I’ll pass.’

‘Good answer.’

~~~

‘So far,’ Zackery said, ‘Amédée is doing fairly well on Aquaria. All the reports are… Well, things are progressing. No one’s tried to kill her since she got there.’

‘It’s always a good day when no one tries to kill you,’ Nava opined.

‘There speaks a voice of experience. Though I’m not sure it’s an experience I’d want.’

‘I am quite sure I do not,’ Yuzuki said. The living porcelain doll that was Mitsuko’s mother was just as beautiful and generally perfect as ever. Tonight, she was dressed in a white gown rather than one of her kimonos, showing off more leg than usual. Even with more skin on display, she still looked like she belonged on a throne. By comparison, Zackery in his tailored suit looked quite ordinary. ‘Ruben and the Pride of Shinden are back in Mandalore.’

‘More piracy?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘There have been reports of ships going missing. Piracy is suspected. However, it may not be related to the previous activity.’

Zackery nodded. ‘It may not, but there are people on the Clan Council determined to uncover evidence that the Sino-Soviet Republic is involved. We’re trying to counter it, but there’s only so much we can do.’ His expression shifted toward a grin. ‘You really took an entire squad of marines across a total hellscape to invade a pirate base?’

‘Magic,’ Nava said, ‘can do a lot of things people simply don’t realise it can do.’

‘Such as resisting temperatures which could boil lead, massive pressures…’

‘Such as those. We did need to use military screens as windbreaks. It wasn’t all down to me knowing utility spells.’

‘And I heard about that trick Melissa pulled. The one where she diverted grenades back at the pirates.’

‘Mel’s the queen of offensive Force Wall use,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Or that’s what Suki is trying to push as a nickname. It does turn Mel scarlet every time she hears it, so I’m backing its use.’

‘Where is Melissa?’ Yuzuki asked. ‘We would have been happy to have her here tonight.’

‘By now,’ Mitsuko replied, ‘I hope she’s in bed with Naomi. She didn’t get any time with him over summer, so they’ve been making up time as much as possible.’

‘I see. Of course. Next time, I will be sure to invite both of them.’

~~~

‘Are you both recovered from your summer “holiday?”’ Rhianna asked. The dark-skinned beauty was wearing quite a staid outfit tonight: a glossy black minidress which covered everything up, aside from her shoulders. There was a harness-like affair – a collar with straps leading down from her throat and looping around her back – which added a bit of a dominatrix look to the dress. That suited the spy rather well.

‘As your tone suggests,’ Nava replied, ‘it was not much of a holiday.’

‘But we’re over it, I think,’ Mitsuko added. ‘Back in the swing of being schoolgirls.’

‘Glad to hear it,’ Rhianna said. ‘I heard the ASF is trying to cement their ties to you, Nava?’

‘The evaluation starts on Wednesday. I’m not looking forward to it, but they refuse to let me just decline. Whatever they say, I’ll be available to the Greylings as much as they wish over the winter break. The ASF have monopolised my time enough.’

‘Well, we weren’t going to complain about this summer. You gained valuable field experience.’

‘I suppose that’s true.’

‘I know I did,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Working with real soldiers is different from working with other students. Or Nobuyuki. He’s not here tonight?’

Rhianna shook her head. ‘He’s on Aquaria, keeping an eye on your sister.’

‘Have you seen any indications that he’s needed? Father said no–’

‘If anything’s come up so far, no one’s told me. On the other hand, we don’t think the remnants of the Beyer family are going to go down without any sort of fight. Currently, we think they’re regrouping and trying to work out what they can do to get their revenge. I’m afraid Amédée Trenton is an obvious target for that.’

Mitsuko nodded. ‘Of course. I have no training in intelligence analysis, but even I can see that my sister has a target on her back.’

‘Yes. So do you.’

‘Me?’

‘You, Nava, and Melissa. The three of you were integral to the fall of the Beyers and the clan as a whole. They’ll have trouble getting to you, sure, but you should all keep an eye on your backs.’

‘Oh. Well, that’s good news to hear at a party. And, of course, Nava doesn’t look even the least bit surprised.’

‘Yes, but she always looks like that.’

‘True… Let’s hope there’s no more bad news tonight.’

~~~

That was, of course, asking for trouble. Trouble came in the form of a voice, slurred from excess alcohol. Both Nava and Mitsuko recognised it without seeing its owner.

‘It’s little Mitsuko! Haven’t seen you in ages. Are you avoiding me?’

Suppressing the urge to say yes, Mitsuko turned to face the oncoming blimp that was Spencer Trenton. ‘Uncle Spencer. Of course not. We just haven’t been to the same parties.’ That was largely because Spencer was, increasingly, not invited to clan parties when an excuse could be found to do so.

His forward movement came to an end in a wobble. Short and fat, Spencer was looking older than he had the last time Nava had seen him. His hairline had receded further; he was tending to bald. His nose was broadening and reddening at the tip. His brown eyes were fading toward a dirty hazel. His belly might not have grown, but it seemed to have slumped. He stank of alcohol; that he was carrying a healthy measure of some brownish spirit in a glass was unsurprising. ‘Damn shame,’ he said. Then his eyes narrowed as Nava turned and looked at him. Possibly he was trying to persuade them to focus so he could get a good look at her. Possibly not. ‘Are you still with this clanless whore? There’s no excuse for it! You should–’

‘Spencer Trenton,’ Mitsuko said, her voice instantly hardening, ‘you’ll mind your manners around my partner. Besides, Nava is a Greyling now. She’s no longer clanless.’

‘A Greyling! What difference does that make? Every last one of them are clanless bastards and whores! Not one of them was born a Sonkei. We should get rid of–’

Mitsuko opened her mouth to protest, but Nava held up a hand to stop her. ‘Spencer Trenton Sonkei,’ Nava said, ‘I can ignore you insulting me because, quite frankly, you are a worthless, honourless, drunken fool, utterly beneath my contempt.’

‘Why you–’

‘But you have insulted my family. I cannot ignore that. Apologise.’

‘I will do no such thing! I would never bow my head to a–’

‘Then I’ll expect to see you in an arena at your earliest convenience. Assuming you can sober up enough to find one.’

237/10/34.

‘This is my fault for wondering whether anything else could happen, isn’t it?’ Mitsuko asked. She was peeling herself out of her minidress, which Nava was appreciating.

‘Yes, but I won’t hold it against you.’

‘But I want you to hold it against me.’

‘I don’t think you’re talking about the duel there.’

‘Well, no. You know you’ll have to duel Spencer with guns? He has absolutely no magical talent.’

Nava nodded. ‘I suspected as much. I’m proficient with a pistol.’

‘Not expert? Given your training…’

‘It was never envisioned that I would need to use firearms. I was trained in basic pistol marksmanship, just in case, but it was assumed I would always use spells in combat.’ Nava gave a shrug. ‘Duelling isn’t real combat, so the supposition still stands.’

‘So, winning this one isn’t a foregone conclusion?’

‘No. If Spencer Trenton is fast and accurate, or very lucky, he could wound me before I hit him.’ Nava frowned. ‘I’m going to need to get a pistol from somewhere.’

‘Rhianna can probably help.’

‘I suppose she probably can.’

~~~

Michiko was growing up. She was also getting more adept with her magic. With some concentration, she could now lift most people with her Telekinesis, and she was demonstrating that by floating Nava in the air over the bath.

‘I really want to learn some other utility spells,’ Michiko said, ‘but I really like Telekinesis. I may grow out of it eventually.’

‘Possibly,’ Nava said. She was appreciating the fact that Mitsuko was appreciating having a floating, wet girlfriend to look at. Being appreciated was nice, even if it was for her looks. ‘Telekinesis is a useful spell. Versatile.’

‘I’m on rank ten. What can you use, Nava?’

‘I’d have to improvise it.’

‘Yes, but–’

‘The maximum rank I could improvise would be one hundred and five, but you are not to compare your capacity to mine.’

‘I know,’ Michiko said with a smile. ‘You’re special, and I’m still a child, even if I’m thirteen now.’

‘At the rate she’s growing,’ Mitsuko said, ‘I think she’ll outstrip me before she enters SAS-squared.’

‘That’s not impossible,’ Nava said. She began to drop smoothly toward the water as Michiko decided she had demonstrated enough.

‘Did you really challenge Uncle Spencer to a duel?’ the newly minted teenager asked.

‘I did. He insulted my family. I’m surprised you’ve heard about it.’

‘I heard people talking. I’ve never met Uncle Spencer, but from what people try to stop me hearing, I’m not surprised you have to duel him. You will win, won’t you, Nava?’

‘I’ll do my best, Michiko. I’m not expert with a pistol.’

The girl gave a shrug. ‘But you’re still Nava. There’s no way you could lose.’

~~~

When Zackery asked Nava if she had a few moments after lunch, she was a little concerned over what he wanted. The fact that he took her to his office added to her concern. He had gone to see Spencer in the morning, attempting to get the man to apologise rather than go through with the duel. He had not been looking especially happy all through lunch.

His office was rather more modern than Nava would have expected. It was in the mansion and so had something of an Eastern feel to it; the walls at least appeared to be screens, though this was decorative rather than functional. There were solid walls behind most of the screens, but the screens themselves were made of textured plastic rather than paper, and were quite soundproof. The furniture consisted largely of a single desk with built-in computing facilities. Zackery plugged his ketcom in on arrival, though it looked like that was an automatic action rather than something deliberate. He did not sit down but walked over to the broad window which took up one of the walls, looking out toward a forest over green fields.

‘I spoke to Spencer this morning,’ he said. ‘He refuses to apologise. Frankly, I don’t believe he was entirely sober even after a night’s sleep, but the probability that he’ll relent is low even if we could keep a drink out of his hand for long enough.’

‘I see,’ Nava replied. She was a little worried that Zackery was about to ask her to drop the matter. She thought she knew the leader of the Sonkei clan well enough to know that he would not do that. On the other hand, she did not know everything about him…

‘He’s no sorcerer. You’ll need to duel him with pistols.’

‘Yes, sir. I’m aware.’

Turning from the window, Zackery walked over to his desk and unlocked a drawer with a thumbprint. ‘I’m assuming that you don’t have a duelling pistol. Please borrow mine.’ A dark-wood case was produced from the drawer and passed across the desk to Nava. ‘It’s a Sauter P-ninety-three. It’s accurate and designed for duelling. It gets very little use, but I do take it out and check everything is working about once a month.’

Nava hesitated. ‘Are you sure you want to lend me a weapon to fight a duel with a member of your family?’

‘Absolutely certain.’

Nava took the box. ‘Then I will accept. I will pay for any rounds I use and return it to you when the duel is over.’

He smiled. ‘You can forget about replacing the ammo. You told me that you could use a pistol, but how good a shot are you? Are you going to win this?’

‘Something might go wrong, but I’m confident that I can hit a human target at twenty metres with an aimed shot. If Spencer Trenton gets lucky, I might lose. I’m assuming he is not an exceptional marksman. I checked his duelling record. He doesn’t have one, which surprised me.’

‘He usually has more sense. I think it was mentioned that he’s been getting worse. That was the first time you met him. He has not turned his act around since then.’

‘So, it was just a matter of time.’

‘Yes. Unfortunately, yes. I know you have that evaluation coming up on Wednesday, so I’ve made arrangements at an arena in Alliance City on Tuesday at eleven a.m.’

‘Thank you. That will work just fine.’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 237/10/35.

There was not much call for testing a student’s accuracy with firearms at SAS^2, but the firing ranges could accommodate it when needed. She set up a target at twenty metres, loaded the weapon Zackery had supplied with a practice magazine, and set about seeing if she remembered how to use a handgun on the morning before her duel.

‘So, this magazine has nine rounds in it?’ Melissa asked. She had come out to watch, just as Mitsuko had.

‘Yes,’ Nava said. ‘Duelling magazines are limited to six rounds, but the P-ninety-three will accept nine-round mags for practice and target shooting. Put your ear plugs in, please.’ Nava was already wearing electronic plugs which would reduce the sound of the shots.

‘Not that duelling rounds make that much noise,’ Mitsuko said.

‘No, but it’s still best to be safe.’ Nava turned to her firing position, slotted the magazine, and racked a round into the chamber. ‘Using five-point-six-by-fifteen-millimetre rounds is quite old-school. They used to be called twenty-two Long Rifle. I assume the intention is to reduce the chance of a lethal wound.’

Mitsuko nodded. ‘Yes. Death duels with pistols use larger rounds. Usually.’

‘Mm.’ Raising her pistol, Nava began squeezing off rounds at her target. Her third shot missed. ‘Huh.’ She kept firing, and the ninth shot also missed. There were seven rounds on target, all of them sufficient to win a blood duel, but not the consistently perfect shots she got using spells. ‘Clear.’ She popped her magazine out and began loading new rounds into it.

‘Seven out of nine isn’t too bad,’ Melissa said.

‘What if you don’t aim?’ Mitsuko asked.

Nava glanced at her, but she slotted the partially loaded magazine back in place, racked a round, and then fired off three snapshots. One new hole appeared in the target. ‘I’m a little surprised I hit once,’ she said. ‘If I want to reliably hit him like that, I’d need to reduce the range considerably, so I may as well take a second to aim.’

‘True, I suppose. Unless he gets lucky, I doubt Spencer is going to hit you at that distance either.’

‘Unless he gets lucky.’ Nava raised her pistol to the firing position again. ‘I’ll put in a few more rounds today, just to get my hand in.’

Alliance City, 237/11/1.

For someone who found duelling distasteful at best, Nava seemed to be doing a lot of it. When she had become a Greyling, she had assumed that the acceptance of clan and family honour that entailed might result in more duels. In reality, this was the first time she had actually been called upon to defend her family’s honour. Her previous two duels had been more personal in nature. Given that the average number of duels a Clan Worlds citizen fought in their lifetime was, approximately, zero, Nava was well ahead of the curve. Every citizen told themselves they were prepared to fight for their honour, but most of them never had to find out whether they were.

As Nava waited for Spencer to arrive within the arena’s duelling area, she contemplated the repercussions of the fact that this was his first duel. The man was a drunken loudmouth. He would attempt to bed just about anyone he found attractive. How he had managed to avoid insulting anyone to the point where he was challenged before now was something of a mystery. Unless the Trenton name carried sufficient weight that others had let his transgressions slide, which was not impossible. The idea that he apologised a lot – and that anyone believed him when he did – seemed unlikely. Whatever, he was going to face his first challenge today. If he ever turned up.

Nava looked up at the spectators gathered to watch the event. It was quite an audience. Sitting beside the adjudicator was Rhianna, acting as Nava’s second. Rhianna had, in fact, offered her services as second at the party as soon as she had heard about the incident with Spencer. She had seemed just a little too happy to do so. Beside Rhianna was Zackery, then Mitsuko and Melissa. On the other side of the adjudicator was an empty seat: Spencer’s second was also a no-show at this point. Much of the remaining seating was occupied by members of the clan, supposedly there to see that the demands of honour were met, and members of the media, there because just about anything Spencer did might be fodder for the scandal channels. Nava was not exactly happy to have such a large audience.

Anyway, how late was Spencer allowed to be before he lost by default?

Whatever the answer to that question, it was less time than it took for him to waddle in and start toward his mark. His second was making his way to his seat a few seconds after Spencer entered. The poor man was some unfortunate Trenton who had drawn the short straw; no one wanted to be second for Spencer, but the family had decided that someone had to do it. Red in the face, the second took his seat, and Spencer, carrying a pistol and dressed in a suit, arrived at his mark.

‘That’s what you’re wearing?’ Spencer asked. There was sufficient slur in his voice to suggest that he was late because his second had been required to pry a bottle out of his hands.

Nava looked down at her outfit. It was largely black. Black T-shirt, black leather jacket, black skirt which was a little on the short side, and black knee-high boots with a low heel and some gold trim. ‘I didn’t want you ruining anything expensive.’

Whatever response her opponent might have given, it was cut off by the adjudicator. ‘Now that both participants are finally here’ – such a vicious reprimand had never been spoken in so calm a voice – ‘do both parties attest that a duel is the only way in which the honour of the aggrieved party can be upheld?’

‘It is,’ Nava said.

‘Of course it is,’ Spencer said.

‘Very well. You are here to settle a manner of honour through a duel to first blood. Fight honourably. Raise the barrier.’ Around the fighting area, a barrier of magical energy shimmered into existence, preventing stray bullets from harming the spectators. ‘Duellists, indicate that you are ready to begin.’

‘Ready,’ Spencer said.

Nava slipped her duelling magazine out of the waistband of her skirt, slotted it, racked a round, and checked the safety was off. Apparently, Spencer had walked into the arena with a live pistol. He was using a Waltzer PW54 at that; it took a ten-millimetre round, which was allowed under the rules, but considered impolite at best in a blood duel. Whatever. ‘I am ready,’ Nava said.

‘On my word,’ the adjudicator said, ‘begin.’

‘Ha!’ Spencer raised his pistol and began pulling the trigger as fast as he could. Six bullets flew in Nava’s general direction, none of them coming particularly close. The slide locked as the last casing flew out through the ejection port, but he kept pulling on the trigger for another second or two before realising his weapon was empty. A somewhat panicked expression began to form on his face, and he popped the magazine free, fumbling it.

Nava stood looking at him as he scrabbled on the ground to pick up the mag and check its contents. She was not often surprised. She did not show any consternation on her face. She, and apparently everyone else, was surprised at the outcome of the duel, however. The arena was totally silent for maybe six seconds before the adjudicator pulled himself together.

‘Spencer Trenton Sonkei, you did not wait for me to say go. You… This duel is decided in favour of Nava Greyling Sonkei.’

‘No!’ Spencer shrieked. ‘She cheated! She–’

‘Spencer Trenton Sonkei.’ The voice was Zackery’s. His words held the new record for most vicious reprimand delivered in the calmest voice and fewest words. Nava looked up at him and, while he appeared to be calm and quite restrained, she could tell that Zackery Trenton was sitting right on the edge of going nuclear. ‘Not only have you failed to acquit yourself in a duel of honour, you cheated in a miserable attempt to win. Your actions bring dishonour to yourself and our family. Our clan is only saved from disgrace because your opponent, who you claim to be honourless, has shown herself to be both honourable and merciful by not shooting you in the head as would be her right. There is only one recourse I have as leader of the family. The paperwork to have you removed from the clan rolls will be put through this afternoon. This is the last time I will ever address you by the Trenton name.’

~~~

‘This is a nice place,’ Rhianna commented as she walked into the lounge of the Trentons’ city apartment.

‘You’ve never been here?’ Nava asked.

‘Never had a need to. I have an apartment in the city myself and I’m not a Trenton.’

‘If you think the lounge is nice,’ Melissa said, ‘you should see the sauna.’

‘A sauna? Nice.’

Zackery was on his way to the code-locked drinks cabinet. ‘Everyone here is old enough to drink now, I think. I know I could use one.’ He tapped a six-digit code into the pad. ‘Hm. We can probably do away with this lock now. It was mainly to keep Spencer out.’

‘I’ll take a glass of something,’ Melissa said. ‘I was nervous. And then it all turned into a bit of an anti-climax.’

‘That’s a mild understatement,’ Mitsuko said.

‘It couldn’t have worked out better,’ Rhianna said. ‘Nava didn’t even have to lift a finger. If she gets any media coverage, it’ll likely be that she showed restraint in not shooting the idiot after he emptied his pistol. Was anyone else amazed that he actually only had six rounds in his pistol? I didn’t even know you could get duelling mags for a PW-fifty-four.’

‘Isn’t that a Consortium-made gun?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘It is. Not especially expensive.’

‘Oh, I see.’

‘What happens to him now?’ Nava asked. She accepted a tumbler of whiskey from Zackery without comment and took a sip. ‘I have no idea what the process is for being thrown out of a clan.’

‘If he’s beyond lucky,’ Rhianna said, ‘he’ll find another clan willing to take him.’

‘Unlikely,’ Zackery said. ‘We will be required to take care of him for three months, but he’ll be Spencer Ward as of tonight. He can attempt to have the decision revoked, but no one ever does, and no one who has has ever succeeded. There’s generally a very good reason for casting someone out of a clan. His access to clan property and finances has already been revoked, except for his apartment.’

‘The Trentons own his apartment?’ Nava asked.

‘A perk of his job. Property in Alliance City is expensive. Anyway, he’ll be allowed to stay where he is until the care period is over. Don’t feel sorry for him. He’s wealthy enough in his own right to find somewhere else.’

‘I was not planning to.’

‘Ah, no. Perhaps not. Obviously, he’s out of work, but he is good with finances. Someone else may be willing to employ him, even if they won’t adopt him. If he cut down on his drinking and other activities, he could probably retire without difficulty.’

‘You’re forgetting his… obligations,’ Rhianna said.

‘Ah, alimony and child support. Yes, there is that.’ Zackery considered for a second. ‘I’ll make arrangements to put his dependents on a stipend. I can’t see him finding another job. It’s better that we just own the problem now and take care of them all.’

‘You should probably organise an audit of his finances too.’

Zackery sighed. ‘True. Maybe I’ll have another drink.’

‘And now all that’s left this week is for Nava to be evaluated by the ASF.’

Nava gave Rhianna a look. ‘I believe I may have a second glass too.’

‘I don’t know what you’re worried about,’ Melissa said. ‘You’ll ace it, and you know it.’

‘I do not,’ Nava replied. ‘Besides, what if I don’t want to?’

Part Two: Boot Camp

Tanzawa Forest Training Grounds, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 237/11/2.

Like so many of the features on Shinden, Tanzawa Forest was named for a place in Japan back on Earth. Like so many forests on Shinden, Tanzawa Forest looked as though someone had built it out of a ‘Build Your Own Forest’ kit. It looked planned, managed. The undergrowth here was a little thicker than the other plantations Nava had seen, but it all had a homogeneity which made it look unnatural to her eyes.

The trees were conifers of some sort, tall, straight, and quite densely packed. They filled an area which was, more or less, a circle eighty kilometres in diameter, surrounded by a fence to keep the general public out. This was because the ASF had a facility in the middle of the forest, and there were often marines undergoing some form of training marching through the woods. Nava had just spent forty minutes being driven around from the airfield on the eastern side of the forest to the southern edge of the forest in an unarmoured ground vehicle. Here she would begin her evaluation according to the man in charge of her evaluation, Captain Nolan Kinsley Bishop.

‘Your evaluation starts now,’ he said from the back seat of the SUV. ‘It’s forty klicks to the base. You have until dawn tomorrow to get there. The marines currently training in the forest have orders to detain you for one hour when they catch you, so don’t let them catch you.’

Nolan was a fairly typical example of a marine officer. He was tall and well built with short brown hair and mid-brown eyes. He was, of course, fairly good-looking because most Clan Worlds citizens were. Being a Bishop, Nava had had low expectations regarding his attitude. He had not disappointed; he viewed magicians in a negative light, and Nava had wondered what idiot assigned him to evaluate a sorceress for officer rank in the ASF. He actually looked like the type to view magicians as inhuman, but looks could deceive… He had looked rather annoyed that Nava had her own suit of body armour. Had he expected her to perform the evaluation in a dress?

‘To clarify,’ Nava said, ‘I’m expected to get to the facility in the middle of this forest without being caught on the way.’

‘By dawn. You have roughly nineteen hours.’

‘Understood.’ Turning, Nava put on her helmet and then headed for the trees at a brisk pace.

Nolan shook his head. ‘She’ll never keep that up. She’ll be captured in the first ten minutes anyway.’

The driver of the car looked back at his boss. ‘Don’t you think arranging for a special ops team to be training on this edge of the forest was a bit much, sir.’

‘No, Mitchell, I don’t. Drive. If you make good time, we’ll be able to have a nice, relaxed lunch.’ He shook his head again. ‘She didn’t even have supplies with her.’

‘You didn’t tell her she would be doing something like this until we got here, Captain.’

‘A marine is always prepared. Get moving.’

~~~

It took a little over an hour to get from the spot Nolan had dropped Nava off, around the perimeter of the forest to the base’s access road, and then in to the gates. There was another chain-link fence surrounding the facility, with a double gate which could be closed, but never was. There was a barrier bar as well as the gate, and that was kept down to bring vehicles to a stop so that the occupants could be checked. Mitchell pulled the SUV up at the bar, but the marine on guard at the gate moved to the rear window to talk to Nolan rather than the driver.

‘Could I see your identification, Captain?’

Nolan held up his ketcom with the appropriate ID data displayed on it. ‘Captain Nolan Kinsley Bishop. My driver is Second Lieutenant Mitchell Parkinson Morgan. We’re here to perform an evaluation exercise on a sorceress.’

The guard nodded. ‘Yes, sir. We’ve been expecting you. Your sorceress–’

‘She should be turning up sometime tomorrow. She’s supposed to be here by dawn, but I don’t suppose she’ll make it before midday. Just make sure whoever’s on guard knows she’s coming.’

‘Uh, she arrived about an hour ago, Captain. We sent her to the mess for lunch. She said she’d wait for you there.’

‘She’s here already?!’

‘Yes, sir, Captain. Gave me quite a shock just appearing out of nowhere like that.’

Nolan’s teeth ground. ‘Raise the barrier.’

~~~

Nava spotted Nolan and Mitchell entering the cafeteria, but she did not get to her feet to salute until they spotted her and had walked over to where she was sitting with a mediocre mug of coffee in one of the corners of the room.

‘First Lieutenant Nava Greyling Sonkei reporting as ordered, Captain.’

‘How did you get here before me?’ Nolan looked annoyed. Nava was not unhappy about that.

‘I’m a sorceress. I flew. My top speed is over seven hundred kilometres per hour, so forty kilometres is nothing.’

Nolan’s eyes narrowed. ‘Flying in a tactical situation is dangerous. You could be spotted by–’

‘Invisibility.’

‘That might take care of visible detection, but something like an anti-missile battery could–’

‘Evade Sensors.’

Nolan stared at her for several seconds. Nava looked back, just as cool and calm as ever. She had been stared at by men much more intimidating than Nolan. ‘We’ll bring the tactics test forward to this afternoon. You can do that while we have lunch.’

‘As you wish, Captain,’ Nava replied.

~~~

‘She cheated,’ Nolan said. Nava was in a room in the teaching centre with a console and the hardest tactics test Nolan had been able to find. Nolan and Mitchell were taking lunch. By the time they had got back to the mess, the selection had been less than appealing, but they were eating.

‘With respect, sir,’ Mitchell replied, ‘you didn’t specify that she had to stay on the ground, just that she had to get here. She used her own skill to get here. She didn’t cheat.’

‘She used magic. That’s cheating.’

‘Sir, she’s being evaluated for this position because she’s a powerful sorceress.’ Mitchell had wondered a couple of times after hearing about this assignment why Nolan had been selected to do the evaluation. If he were honest, Mitchell would have been forced to admit that he did not trust magicians and thought magic was basically something the navy needed, not the marines. He considered Nolan’s view of magic to be a little extreme, however. ‘If she’s not allowed to use magic, there’s not much point in her being here.’

There was not much Nolan could say to that, especially since his orders were to evaluate her as a sorceress. He would be unable to deny her the use of magic, if she thought of using it for the tests he had planned. He would have to think of wording which would reduce the chances of her thinking that way, though he was not really sure he could do that for most of the tests. Still…

‘She can’t use magic for the tactics test. She’s a schoolgirl. What does she know about tactics?’

‘They teach small-unit tactics at SAS-squared, sir. And it says in her files that she had tactics training before going there.’

‘Hm.’

~~~

The problems in the test were not simple ones. Nava had three hours to work through them, however, so she took her time, reading through each question twice and then double-checking her answer before moving on.

Nolan was a problem. The general attitude of marines to magic was not very positive. There were exceptions like Colonel Myron Seward, and the marines she had worked with in Avorna and Aquaria had developed a new outlook on magic. Generally, marines viewed magic as superfluous to their needs. Nolan was a Bishop, which made his attitude to magic religious and illogical. To him, magic was not simply unneeded, it was virtually anathema. The work of the Devil, or something. Nolan was going to try to trip her up every chance he got. Like placing that special forces unit in the forest right where he dropped her off, just as an example.

She was working through her final question when she realised that Nolan was not, after all, going to be a problem. She did not really want to pass this stupid evaluation. She was not going to fail on purpose, but if the man responsible for evaluating her was going to fuck her over at every opportunity, she was not going to worry too much about it.

~~~

‘Well that’s not good,’ Mitsuko said from Nava’s ketcom.

‘It is what it is,’ Nava replied.

‘Someone screwed up assigning a Bishop to do this.’

‘Or they did it on purpose. Remember, I’m having to do this because some general didn’t like the idea of just granting me rank in the ASF.’

‘You don’t sound particularly unhappy about it.’

‘I sound exactly as I always do. But you’re right, I don’t care.’

Mitsuko’s image on the screen looked annoyed for them both. ‘What happens tomorrow?’

‘First thing is unarmed combat. Then we’re doing armed exercises. After that… I don’t know. I can’t think of anything else he’d want to evaluate, but he may make some things up. Or I could be out of here a day early.’

‘I’m not going to complain about that. I miss you.’

‘Suki, we haven’t even spent a single night apart yet.’

‘I know. Are you saying you don’t miss me?’

‘I do, I just think we ought to be able to manage a night without saying we miss each other.’

‘Tough luck, I can’t.’

237/11/3.

Dressed in leggings and a T-shirt, Nava faced off against a man several centimetres taller than she was and several kilos heavier. Corentin Evered Garavain was one of the best unarmed combat instructors at the facility, a master sergeant known for being strict with his students. Unfortunately for Nolan, he was also fair, and he was the one doing the evaluation on Nava’s martial arts capabilities.

He was, by Nava’s estimation, about as good as Nobuyuki Greyling, but without the magic. As was the case with Nobuyuki, Nava was landing about one punch in four. She could dodge or parry around sixty percent of his attacks. Since they were sparring, the only spell she had decided to cast was Active Recovery; Corentin was landing blows, but even if they were strong enough to leave a bruise, Nava was at full strength a second later.

Corentin held his hands up. ‘That’s enough.’ Nava stepped back and bowed to him. Corentin looked around at Nolan and Mitchell. ‘She’s good. Not excellent, but she’s good enough to be a marine.’

‘We’ll see,’ Nolan said.

The instructor frowned. ‘I thought I was doing this–’

‘I’m adding an additional test. Gentlemen.’

Five strapping marines in karate outfits stepped forward. Nolan had vanished for a few minutes while Corentin had been busy with Nava. This was presumably what he had been arranging. All of them were big, muscled, and had hair buzzed to almost nothing. Walking stereotypes of testosterone overdose, it was difficult to believe that Nolan could have found five men more obviously selected to be overkill against one girl.

‘You’ll fight these men,’ Nolan continued.

‘Five against one?’ Nava asked.

‘Precisely. And you can obviously take a punch, so there should be no need for anyone to hold back. A marine should be able to handle that kind of situation.’

‘Could you, sir?’ Corentin asked.

Nolan ignored him. ‘Let’s get this started.’

‘Of course, Captain,’ Nava said. She moved out onto the mat they were using and waited while she was surrounded. ‘I’m ready when they are.’

‘Do it,’ Nolan ordered.

Five men moved in, three of them from behind or from Nava’s flanks. She ignored all but one of them coming from the front, waiting for him to get within range before delivering a forward punch to his chest. In turn, he decided to ignore her attack because there was no way she was going to be able to do much damage. This was a mistake. First of all, she was stronger than she looked; the blow hurt at least a little. Second, she had cast her usual Push spell while waiting for them to get started; he was tossed four metres through the air, past the edge of the mat where he fell, tumbled, and remained unmoving due to the other spell she had cast while waiting.

Four fists drove into her from various angles. Light flared briefly at the impact points on Nava’s Armour spell. The men might as well have been punching plate metal. Nava shifted her aim to strike her next victim before any of them could really figure out what was going on. He tried to dodge, but no luck, and then he was flying backward.

‘Stop!’ Corentin yelled. There was another flare of light from Nava’s Armour as one of the remaining three failed to stop in time. Since she did not even feel the blow, Nava ignored it and stepped away from her remaining opponents. ‘Stop before we have five injured men.’

‘What was that?!’ Nolan demanded.

‘You said not to hold back,’ Nava replied. ‘Actually, I did.’ She indicated the two men who were still unmoving on the floor. ‘If this had been real combat, they’d be dead. As it is, they’re just paralysed.’

‘You buffed your strength?’ Corentin asked.

‘No, that might have injured them more. Besides, you can’t toss people about like that with ordinary punches. Rank two Push combined with rank ten Paralysing Blow. And I have rank fifteen Armour on me, which is quite capable of stopping a bullet. As for them, I’ll negate the paralysis and cast Active Recovery on them. They’ll be good to go in a second or so.’

‘So, you were going easy on me?’

‘You were evaluating my skill in unarmed combat, Master Sergeant. The only thing I used was Active Recovery to take care of any bruises you left. Captain Nolan Kinsley was evaluating my ability to survive a fight, so I pulled out a few stops.’

Corentin nodded. ‘As I said, you pass.’

If you listened carefully, you could hear Nolan’s teeth grinding. ‘We’ll see how you are with firearms.’

‘I’ll go change,’ Nava said.

‘You don’t need–’

‘It’s winter on Shinden. If you really want to test my ability to survive cold temperatures wearing exercise gear, then I’ll happily show you I can, but I think it would be better if I changed into more appropriate clothing.’

‘You have ten minutes.’

‘As you wish, Captain,’ Nava said, and then she vanished.

~~~

The course was surprisingly conventional. Fake building frontages made by nailing plywood over wooden batons provided the setting. Windowless and doorless frames provided locations where paper targets could pop up at random. Each target had a figure on it, some to be shot, others to be left alone. According to Nolan, there would be twenty-five targets to be killed and a random selection of no-shoots which cost five points if they were hit. Nava walked calmly through the range with her SAH-301s in her hands, watching for valid targets.

Nolan had offered her an ASFH-4 to use for the test. She had declined. The ASFH-4 was the standard-issue handgun for the ASF, a ten-millimetre, select-fire pistol with a thirteen-round magazine which it could more or less empty in a second. There was probably a reason for having that option, but Nava could not think what it was. Nava did not really need her SAH-301s under the circumstances, but she was using them because why not?

Exercises like this were trivial for Nava. Her brain was used to processing up to four spell schemas at once, which required it to handle a lot of data very quickly. Her neurons fired far faster than those of a typical human. She could process and analyse sensory information faster than anyone she knew aside from one of her sisters, Jenna. Jenna was dead, probably, so that left Nava as the fastest brain in the galaxy.

As far as this kind of exercise was concerned, everything might as well have been happening in slow motion. A target popped out from the side of an open doorframe. Nava had taken in the image on it, decided it was a non-combatant, and rejected it as a target before it had fully deployed. A second paper shape flipped up in a window above it. This one looked like a man in a beanie holding a sniper rifle, so she raised her right hand and fired off a Magic Bullet, punching a hole in the beanie. There had been six valid targets so far; Nava had ‘killed’ all of them with headshots. Obviously, she had not hit any no-shoots. She had not even raised a weapon toward one.

Nava carried on walking at a steady pace, taking shots as required without breaking stride. She could almost hear Nolan’s teeth grinding from thirty metres away. He was, apparently, also grumpy because her score on the tactics test had come through. It had been marked by computer, and she had managed fifteen percent over a passing grade. He had claimed he would not have marked her solutions so highly, though he had made no attempt to justify his claim when asked.

The final target was a trick one. An image of a woman holding a baby slid out into a doorway, and Nava rejected it as a target immediately. An instant later, a second image flipped out from the other side: a man holding a knife. The valid target was partially obscured by the no-shoot, which made absolutely no difference to Nava who had shot a man in the eye while he was hiding behind a living woman. She did the same now, punching a hole through the paper eye of the paper thug without coming close to the paper victim.

A horn sounded. Nava holstered her pistols and turned to walk back through the range to where Nolan and Mitchell would be waiting. Mitchell was standing there with his ketcom, the screen rolled out. He looked vaguely embarrassed. Nolan was grinding his teeth.

‘A perfect score,’ Mitchell said. ‘You completed the course in one minute and seven seconds. That’s in the top five of all time for this course. Congratulations.’

‘Okay,’ Nava said. She had to be slipping if she had only made the top five. Neither Nolan nor Mitchell needed to know that. She would talk to Rhianna about running more of this kind of exercise at Castle Grey.

‘We’ll run an indoor trial next,’ Nolan said. ‘We’ll see how you do in close confines.’

‘As you wish, Captain,’ Nava replied.

~~~

Lunch was a bowl of hearty soup and a mug of the base’s coffee-like liquid. How could they make soup that good and coffee that bad? Presumably the cooks did not make the coffee. Probably some machine made the coffee, probably out of a brown liquid concentrate which had only a passing relationship with coffee beans. Oh well.

Nava was not eating with Nolan. She had run the indoor course in under a minute and set a record for the base. Nolan had gone off to sulk. Well, he had said he had some paperwork to take care of, but Nava had got the distinct impression that he was sulking.

Mitchell was another matter. ‘He’s not as bad as he seems, you know?’ On the other hand, he seemed compelled to defend his superior for some reason.

‘In what way?’ Nava asked.

‘He’s a good officer and instructor.’

‘If his students don’t include magicians.’

‘Uh, well…’

Nava sent the conversation off on a tangent. ‘Do you know why he was selected to perform this evaluation?’

‘Not really. The order came down from above. I haven’t seen anything to indicate who originated it or why.’

‘But the selection was made at a higher level than this base’s command?’

‘Well, it would’ve been someone in the ATC. That’s–’

‘I’ve been to the Admiral Aurora Trenton Advanced Training Facility.’

Mitchell grinned. ‘Right. That’s where we normally work. But the order came from above there.’

‘I see. What does Captain Nolan Kinsley teach?’

‘Small-scale strategy and small-unit tactics.’

‘I assume that means you know Colonel Myron Seward Voll?’

Mitchell grimaced. ‘Uh, yeah, but don’t mention that name around the captain. The colonel wants to make greater and more effective use of magic in our tactics, particularly at the unit level. The captain, well, doesn’t.’

‘Colour me shocked.’

‘You know, it’s really difficult to tell when you’re being sarcastic.’

‘I’m aware.’

‘Uh, yeah. Anyway, apparently Colonel Myron Seward was out at SAS-squared recently interviewing some students about some tactics they’d come up with. The captain thinks that’s ridiculous. “What would schoolchildren know about battle tactics?”’ Mitchell had come up with a passable imitation of Nolan’s slightly rough voice over his time of service, it seemed. ‘“There’s no place for the Devil’s workings in combat anyway.”’ Mitchell’s eyes widened, but not for the reason Nava first thought of: that he should not have been talking like this in front of her. ‘Uh, it wasn’t you Colonel Myron Seward went to see, was it?’

‘Not specifically. Two friends of mine were also involved in the discussion. Colonel Myron Seward wished to discuss the tactics we employed in the recent actions in the Aquaria and Avorna systems.’

‘Wait, you were involved in those?’

‘You didn’t know? Why do you think the ASF wants to formalise my rank?’

‘Well, no one really told me.’ Mitchell’s cheeks coloured. ‘The captain said that the push for it came from the Intelligence Response Directorate, but they aren’t really marines. That unit’s full of spooks and more magicians than any other unit is comfortable with. A-and Admiral Youta Ishida is supposed to be enthusiastic about it, but he’s navy.’

‘I see. So, all the people trying to get this pushed through can be dismissed because they aren’t really marines?’

Mitchell’s blush deepened. ‘N-none of them really know much about what’s needed for effective ground combat.’

Nava was silent for a second. From her experience, marines had no idea how magic could help them in combat situations until someone showed them in combat. ‘Do you know Aston Parkinson, Lieutenant? He’s a member of the School Security Force at SAS-squared.’

‘He’s one of my cousins. Uh, are you changing the subject?’

‘Yes, I am.’

‘Fine by me.’

~~~

‘There’s a rifle there,’ Nolan said, ‘let’s see you put three rounds on target at a hundred, five hundred, and a thousand metres.’

Nava looked at the ASFR-3 lying beside the firing position on the target range. Behind her, other soldiers were firing off bullets at targets. You could hear the ping of hit indicators at regular intervals. They were using ASFR-3s because that was the standard-issue combat rifle in the ASF. This was not even the ASFR-3p sniper variant, which was identical except that you could not fold the stock and it had a better scope.

‘You want me to hit a human-sized target at a kilometre with a rifle designed to be effective at eight hundred metres?’

‘You can’t do it?’ Nolan was smirking. He was not even hiding it.

‘Can you find me anyone else on this base who can?’

‘They aren’t being evaluated.’

‘Right.’ Nava pulled her left-hand SAH-301 and stepped up to the firing line. ‘Give me thirty seconds.’ She raised her weapon. Even with the image enhancement on the spell pistol, spotting the target at a thousand metres was not that easy.

‘You refuse a rifle and use a pistol?’ Nolan asked. Well, he scoffed really.

Nava squeezed the trigger and, for ten seconds, part of her awareness went barrelling out over the range toward the target. Now the range was irrelevant; Magic Bullet cast through her SAH-301 could hit just about anything at up to two kilometres, the ‘bullet’ guided every step of the way by the mind of the caster. She had a brief glimpse of the target silhouette’s head as her bullet hit its mark. Her senses snapped fully back to her body, and she looked up to see the tracking display show a ten-point hit.

‘What?’ Nolan said.

‘It’s a spell developed for sniping,’ Nava said, ‘though it’s the same one I used through the tactical trials. At range there are some downsides. For example, it’s effectively like launching a wire-guided missile at your target. You have to control it all the way, so in a realistic situation, you’d want an assistant watching your back while you sniped. It also mimics a hollow-point round, which means it has low armour penetration. I usually aim for the eyes.’

Nolan’s jaw tightened. ‘Finish the exercise.’

Nava looked back down the range. ‘Of course, Captain.’

~~~

‘I’m sorry, Captain Nolan Kinsley, could you come up with an alternate leadership exercise?’

Nolan had just finished explaining the last test he had planned, which was supposedly designed to test Nava’s leadership skills. There was a bunker which had to be defended for sixty minutes from four teams of marines. She had a squad of five marines to assist her. Their weapons fired paint bullets; if you were hit, you were out of the game. The bunker, however, consisted of a concrete table-shaped structure four metres square atop a small mound. There was essentially no cover, making the defence, as outlined, almost impossible.

‘You’re not willing to even try?’ Nolan asked.

‘I’ll try if you want, but this is not a leadership test. It won’t give you what you want for the evaluation.’

‘And why is that?’

‘Because, under these conditions, I don’t need five men to hold that position for an hour.’

Nolan stared at her for a second. ‘Do it,’ he said.

‘As you wish, Captain.’

~~~

‘She, uh, did tell you, Captain,’ Mitchell said.

Nolan did not reply. He was grinding his teeth again. He was also watching as twenty marines assaulted a practically unsurpassable barrier, the Force Wall Nava had erected around the bunker. It was semi-transparent, so you could make out the shapes of six people playing cards inside of it. Of course, maintaining morale in a siege situation was important, but Nolan had the strong feeling that she was doing this just to rub his nose in it.

‘There’s no way they’re going to get through that in the time available,’ Mitchell added.

‘She might make a mistake.’

‘Okay, sir.’ Mitchell could not really think what mistake Nava was going to make that would change anything, but if the captain wanted to wait…

~~~

‘You know, this is supposed to be impossible,’ one of Nava’s troops said. Her name was Cara Ewart Orlando; she was a private doing basic training and also a distant relative of the principal of SAS^2.

‘How so?’ Nava asked.

‘Well, without cover, about all you can do is lie prone and use the elevation to hit incoming troops before they hit you. It’s next to impossible to win this if you’re defending.’

‘Oh, that. Yes, I’d figured Captain Nolan Kinsley selected this as a test because we would suffer a humiliating defeat.’

‘Guy’s never heard of Force Wall? I’m not even a magician and I know about this.’

‘The Orlando clan has some very good magicians in it. Principal Auberon Ewart is an exceptional illusionist.’

‘Oh, yeah, he is. Uncle Auberon is, um, a bit eccentric, but there’s no doubting he’s a strong sorcerer.’

‘Interesting. When I first met him, I believe I described him as eccentric too.’

‘And you’re seeing him on his best behaviour. The stories I’ve heard about what he gets up to at parties…’

Nava considered for a second. ‘No, I don’t think I want to know. I do have to work with him.’

‘Probably a good plan.’

~~~

‘I would be perfectly happy to take part in another exercise,’ Nava said. ‘Something which tested my leadership capabilities. A patrol exercise in the forest, perhaps?’ She was lying. She had no desire at all to do any such thing, but she felt she should show some enthusiasm. ‘Leadership is possibly my weakest skill. I was trained on the assumption that I would be operating solo. I have improved quite a lot recently thanks to running the SSF, however.’

‘There’s no point,’ Nolan said. ‘You’d just come up with a way of cheating at that too. This evaluation is over. I know all I need to know.’ He had, of course, been displeased with the test he had just given Nava. He was displeased with just about everything, and he was stupid enough to display his displeasure in the open, in front of Nava’s team and several of the others involved in the exercise. Several of the people on the attacking teams looked like they agreed with him.

‘If the captain would favour me with his reasoning, how is using the skills and abilities the ASF wants me for cheating?’

Nolan favoured her with a stare which had absolutely no effect. ‘Let me be quite clear, Nava Greyling, you are an abomination before God. There is no place for you or anyone like you in the ASF or our society as a whole.’

‘Sir,’ Mitchell began, his face paling.

‘If I had my way, every one of you would be thrown out of the service.’

‘I see,’ Nava said. ‘If the captain has finished his evaluation, I assume he’ll have no objection to me leaving?’

‘The sooner you’re out of my sight the better. Mitchell, call for a car to–’

Nava lifted into the air. ‘No need. I’ll collect my things and make my own way home.’ Then she was sailing off toward the barracks building.

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery.

‘You’re back early,’ Carina observed as Nava walked into the lounge. ‘Suki will be pleased. She’s been kind of mopey all day.’

‘The evaluation was over with faster than expected since the examiner was an idiot.’

‘Suki did say they’d assigned a Bishop to do it. It sounds like someone doesn’t want you to get your promotion. They don’t want you to get your promotion.’

Nava nodded, heading for her room to dump her things and get changed. ‘Well, neither do I, but I don’t think I can quite let this lie.’

‘What can you do? It’s the ASF we’re talking about.’

‘I’ll do what you’re supposed to do when faced with workplace harassment. I’m going to complain to human resources.’

‘And they’re going to believe you? I mean, they should, because you’re the Champion of Light and everything, but…’

‘They’ll believe me. They won’t have any choice. What they’ll do about it is another matter.’

~~~

‘It was bad then?’ Mitsuko asked. She was lying in bed with Nava’s head on her shoulder. The sex prior to this had been fairly wild, a sure sign that Nava was working off some stress.

‘Irritating, and further proof that about half of the ASF doesn’t want anything to do with magicians.’

‘Courtney says they aren’t making nearly as much use of her capabilities as she expected.’

‘Colour me unsurprised. It’s frustrating. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was hoping for better. I suppose that suggests that having hopes is never a good thing.’

‘I hope you’re still frustrated enough that round two will be as good as round one.’

‘That is probably a hope you can bet on.’

Which was not actually good, but Mitsuko was willing to take it as a win. ‘Your birthday is coming up soon.’

‘Three weeks. We’ll go out for a meal, and you can perform unspeakable acts upon my body when we get back.’

‘Any idea what you’d like as a present.’

‘Unspeakable acts.’

‘I thought I was the sex-crazed one in this relationship.’

‘I may be more frustrated than I thought.’

237/11/6.

It was Sunday afternoon when Fawn called to let Nava know the results of the evaluation. The lieutenant did not sound very pleased, so Nava figured it out before hearing what Nolan had actually said.

‘He failed you,’ Fawn said. ‘According to him, your attitude is unsuitable, bordering on insubordinate. He couldn’t fail you on any of the actual tests, so he made something up.’

‘Mm. I assume there are no actual examples of my borderline insubordination?’

‘Not a thing. And it seems like the command chain is accepting that. Major Deveraux Wescott is fuming. I think he’s going to try to press for a re-evaluation.’

‘Please tell him not to. Frankly, I’d refuse. I’m not wasting any more of my time trying to get something I don’t want to happen.’

‘I didn’t think you sounded particularly unhappy. Uh, not that you sound any different from normal, but… I’d have thought you’d be more annoyed about that idiot than you seem to be.’

‘I probably am. However, I just sent a report on his behaviour to ASF Personnel. You should have a copy. I don’t think I’m really expecting good results from it, but it’s possible that I’ll get my revenge in the most diabolical way possible.’

‘Hang on…’ There was a pause, presumably while Fawn checked her mail. ‘You got recordings of him?’

‘I thought they might be useful as soon as I found out he was a Bishop. The last one is particularly damning.’

‘Damn, Nava, they might send him for sensitivity training.’

‘Like I said, diabolical revenge.’

Part Three: Jenna

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 237/11/28.

‘Happy birthday, Nava!’ It was a chorus. A table big enough for six had been booked at Le Jardin Magique, though there were sort of seven around it: Trudy was hanging around observing and occasionally making her presence known. Hoshi and Rochester were there as well as the four members of the household. To Nava, it felt better to have as many of her friends as possible celebrating with her on her eighteenth birthday, a state of affairs she never would have thought possible a few years earlier.

‘Thank you,’ Nava said in reply. ‘It barely seems more than a couple of weeks since we were last here.’

‘Well, it was,’ Rochester said. ‘Hoshi turned twenty-four two weeks ago.’

‘Please don’t remind me,’ Hoshi said. ‘I feel like a cradle robber.’

‘Next year,’ Melissa said, ‘you’ll be twenty-five, and Chess will only be nineteen.’ Hoshi let out a whimper.

‘In Earth years,’ Nava said, ‘nineteen is over twenty. Eighteen is almost twenty. It sounds better on the old calendar, though it also means we’d all be older. Chronologically, if not physically.’

‘Does eighteen feel any different from seventeen?’ Carina asked.

Nava considered her answer for a second. ‘Well, after that evaluation exercise I did three weeks ago, I certainly feel older.’ She raised her wine glass. ‘Here’s to feeling younger from now going forward.’

~~~

‘Well, I am younger than you,’ Mitsuko said as Nava’s hands slid over her hips. They were in the shower attached to their bedroom. Nava had stepped in behind Mitsuko and reached for her girlfriend without pause.

‘I’m not sure that feeling someone younger counts, but I am willing to entertain the idea until after your third orgasm.’

‘Only three?’

‘We have classes tomorrow.’

‘Spoilsport.’ Mitsuko started to turn so that she could engage in some feeling of her own. ‘It’s your birthday, you should be the one coming.’ Nava’s hands tightened, stopping the turn. ‘Nava?’

‘It’s my birthday, so I get to do what I want.’

‘Yes, but–’

‘And what I want is to take an hour or so getting to your first orgasm, and we’ll see where we go from there.’

‘An hour?’

‘At least.’

‘So much for lessons in the morning.’

Alliance City, 237/11/29.

The front door of a large townhouse on the outskirts of Alliance City opened, and General Maynard Evered Garavain stepped through it. He paused, turned, and kissed his wife who always got up to see him off, despite the early hour he left. They had been married for twenty-three years. One might have expected the love to wane a little in that time, but it was still there.

He headed for the contragrav vehicle waiting on the street, taking two steps toward it before his head more or less exploded. His wife stood there, entirely unsure of what was happening or what she was seeing, for two full seconds before a sound like the cracking of a whip broke her out of her stupor.

Then the screaming started.

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 237/11/30.

Nava was not happy. It had occurred to her that many schoolgirls would have been pleased to be pulled out of lessons on a Wednesday afternoon, but she was not inclined that way. It was annoying. It was not even on SSF business.

The two people waiting for her in one of the visitor meeting rooms in the administration building were both in ASF uniform. There was a tall, handsome man with brown hair and eyes, and a tall, attractive woman with auburn hair and green eyes. They both looked serious, the man a little more so than the woman. Or maybe she just had a slightly eager expression mixed in with the cool stare she gave Nava. It gave the impression of a cat enthusiastically looking at a tin of tuna and trying to appear cool and uninterested.

‘Good afternoon,’ Nava said as the door shut behind her. ‘I am Nava Greyling Sonkei. You asked to see me?’

The woman spoke first. ‘First Lieutenant, Specialist, Nava Greyling, I am First Lieutenant, Investigator, Sophie Perry Fosse. This is my partner and superior, Captain, Investigator, Haydn Lamar Corley.’ At least she had not saluted.

Nava bowed her head slightly, remaining silent. So, they were ASF cops. Since the lieutenant seemed to be keen on making sure their ranks were known, Nava could also assume that neither of them was a magician. They would have been ‘Investigator Specialist’ if that were the case. The qualifier was normally assigned to forensics specialists, though Courtney was now a second lieutenant, investigator specialist, and she was more detective than analyst.

‘Please take a seat,’ Sophie said, so Nava walked around to take the sofa opposite the two detectives.

When Nava said nothing further after a few seconds of the two cops staring at her, the man spoke. ‘Please tell us where you were between seven and seven fifteen yesterday morning, First Lieutenant.’

‘In bed. Asleep.’

‘Can anyone corroborate that?’

‘I was in bed with my girlfriend. Whether she could say with certainty that I was there is unsure since I would imagine that she was also asleep.’

‘You would imagine?’

Nava stared at Haydn for a second. ‘Since I was asleep, I can’t be sure that she was.’

‘I see. Do you know General Maynard Evered Garavain?’

‘I know the name. Anyone who pays any attention to the news channels has heard of him. He was killed yesterday. No details were released, but the media is suggesting that he was assassinated.’

‘And that was the first time you had ever heard his name?’

‘To my knowledge. My memory is not perfect. He was a general, so he was somewhere in the chain of command, but I’m not an official member of the ASF and I haven’t memorised the command structure.’

‘General Maynard Evered was killed by a hypervelocity projectile outside his house in Alliance City from a distance of around eight hundred metres.’ Haydn got no reply, so he went on. ‘He was shot in the head in front of his wife, who is now in hospital undergoing treatment for psychological trauma.’ Still no answer. ‘You don’t seem concerned about that.’

‘I’m waiting for you to tell me why it’s relevant to me,’ Nava replied.

‘You’re a trained assassin,’ Sophie said.

‘And you want my opinion on the killer’s technique?’ Nava continued before anyone could reply. ‘Given that assertion, you’ve been allowed access to my confidential ASF records. If you’ve read those records, you’ll know that I have minimal training with projectile weapons. An eight-hundred-metre headshot, even using a railgun, is beyond my capabilities. If I wanted him dead, you would either be looking for a missing person, or his autopsy would have indicated natural causes. You would not be here asking questions. Why would I have wanted him dead anyway?’

‘He objected to formalising your rank,’ Haydn said.

‘I never wanted the ASF to formalise my rank. If I had been told which general had objected, I might have sought him out to thank him, but not to execute him.’

‘You expect us to believe you have no desire for advancement in the service?’ Sophie asked.

‘I don’t really care what you believe, Lieutenant. You can ask First Lieutenant Fawn Tyrell Hamilton about my reaction to the ASF’s plans to formalise my rank. When I eventually join the ASF full-time, I will concern myself with rank and advancement. Now, at this time in my life, I wish to be a student at SAS-squared, bettering my understanding of magic, not a soldier on secondment. Whether General Maynard Evered knew it or not, he was doing me a favour by objecting to the proposed solution to a problem which the ASF created for itself and could easily ignore.’

There was silence for a couple of seconds, then Haydn got to his feet. ‘Thank you for answering our questions, First Lieutenant. That will be all for now.’

Nava got to her feet. ‘As I said, I am not an official member of the ASF. If you wish to use any title here, the appropriate one is captain since I’m the head of the School Security Force. Please contact me if you have further useful questions.’

‘We will, I assure you.’

Nava nodded and started for the door. ‘If you could make it at lunchtime or after lessons next time, I would appreciate it. I hate missing classes.’

‘We can’t promise that.’

‘No, I don’t suppose you can.’

~~~

‘And they think you did it?’ Mitsuko asked. It was dinner time and Nava was explaining why she had been pulled out of lessons that afternoon. Dinner was being had in one of the refectories, so Hoshi and Rochester were there too.

‘No,’ Nava replied.

‘Then why–’

‘It’s routine to question anyone with a motive.’

‘You don’t have a motive.’

‘One could argue I do, or that they did not know I did not until they talked to me. However, I contacted First Lieutenant Fawn Tyrell this afternoon to discover that she had already told them that I had no reason to want the general dead. One could argue that they needed to ask me themselves.’

‘It does sound sort of routine,’ Hoshi said.

‘Yes. I did not get the impression that it was, but it does seem that way. The first lieutenant did say that they currently have no other suspects. In a case like this, they are unlikely to find the killer, so they were probably hoping I was responsible.’

‘It’s stupid,’ Melissa said.

‘Agreed. The Champion of Light only kills when necessity calls for it,’ Carina said.

‘Hm. Do you mind if I don’t give your name as a character witness, Cari?’ Nava asked.

‘Well, no, but why?’

‘Oh, no reason.’

~~~

SSF HQ was a good place for doing homework. Obviously, it was also good for handling SSF paperwork, but the same conditions applied for concentrating on your work in both cases. She got more interruptions here, because she had her staff walking in to give reports every so often, but it was generally quiet with few distractions.

‘Nothing of import to report, Captain,’ Aston Parkinson said. One distraction had just walked in the door.

‘Things are quiet,’ Theodore Garver agreed.

‘Good to know,’ Nava replied. ‘It’s early, and it’s Friday. We’ll get the usual stuff later and tomorrow, I’ve no doubt.’

‘Goes without saying,’ Theodore said. ‘If we didn’t, there’d be no point in the SSF.’

‘True. Okay, you two are off for the night now. Have a good evening.’

‘Oh yeah,’ Aston said. ‘A good evening cranking out the homework I have to hand in tomorrow.’

The two men vacated the room, chatting as they went, and Nava went back to her own homework. It was a tactical exercise Sienna Acker had handed out which Nava could have done in her sleep. After about two minutes, however, she stopped again. ‘Whoever you are, if you make me use See Invisible, I will wind out your entrails, roast them over slow coals, and feed them to your family.’

There was a very slight pause and then a girl appeared on the other side of Nava’s desk. She was a little taller than Nava, blonde verging on silver, and blue-eyed. Her nose was on the small side and perky; her lips had a pronounced bow with something of a pout about them. Overall, she was cute, but she looked like she had been through a war. Her face and hands were dirty, her hair untidy, and her clothes torn in places. Nava knew exactly who she was and, briefly, she had no idea how to respond to her appearance.

‘You’re really the only family I have,’ Jenna said, ‘so you may want to rethink that threat.’

‘You’re supposed to be dead. Again.’

‘I wasn’t on any of the transports you took out. Look, I need your help.’

Nava stared at her sister for a second or two, but Jenna just looked back with an earnest, pleading expression on her face. ‘You want me to help you? The last time you were here, you tried to nuke the school.’

‘Not me, the Redwings did that.’

‘You are a Redwing, Jenna.’

‘Not anymore. I was never one of their fanatics. When you totally fucked up the operation here last year, I ran the figures and concluded they were going to blame me one way or another, so I didn’t get on the transports out of here, and I’ve been hiding ever since.’

‘Okay… Why are you here, asking for my help, now?’

Jenna gave a scowl. ‘It’s impossible to live in the Clan Worlds without proper ID. You can’t even buy fast food. So, I appropriated one of the identities the Redwings set up and kept it handy in case I needed to bail. That worked fine until they noticed it was being used.’

‘And you didn’t predict when that would happen?’

‘Well, I did, but the margin of error wasn’t great, and they figured it out sooner than I bargained for. I don’t have the information sources I had when I was working for them. My predictions are getting a bit error prone. How did you figure out about the bomb? My simulation gave a ninety-six percent chance of the nuke going off.’

‘I had access to an information source you could not possibly have calculated for.’ Nava lifted a hand and began ticking off points on her fingers. ‘One, I don’t particularly want to help you. I’d rather blow your brains out. Two, I have no way of confirming that the Redwings are after you. Three, as soon as the ASF learn you’re not dead, they will be after you and, if they catch you, they will execute you. Four, the ASF is already looking at me concerning the murder of a general, so getting involved with you would be a really bad idea right now.’

‘The ASF didn’t execute you.’

‘I was never involved in any Redwing operations. I introduced myself by killing the entire Death’s Handmaiden project team and everyone in the base on Earth. You, however, first came to notice when, and I cannot emphasise this too much, you were involved in a plot to nuke this school and the Secretary General of the Clan Council. As a known Redwing Faction member and terrorist, they have no choice but to shoot you in the head as soon as they see you. For old times’ sake, and because I do actually believe the Redwings are hunting you, I’m going to let you walk out of here. If I see you again, as captain of the SSF, I’m going to execute you myself.’

‘Damn it, Nava! They’re going to kill me for real this time!’

‘That is not my problem. Leave, Jenna, before I change my mind.’

Jenna did not look happy, but she turned toward the door.

‘Jenna? I’ll give you some extra time to get away. Please use one of the bathhouses before you leave the school. You stink.’

Hope had flared within Jenna when Nava called her name, and then it had been dashed on the rocks of personal insult. Her shoulders sagged. ‘Right. Thanks. I love you too, Nava.’ And then she vanished.

~~~

‘What’s up?’ Mitsuko asked. She was brushing her hair before bed, a process which took far too long. On the other hand, when she did it naked and in front of Nava, it seemed to take on an erotic quality which Nava had discovered provoked considerable frustration.

‘Nothing that I’m aware of,’ Nava replied.

‘You’re worried about something, Nava. You’ve been a little off all evening.’

‘Hm.’

‘You don’t have to talk to me about it, but–’

‘Jenna is alive.’

Mitsuko’s brush paused in its work for an instant, then it resumed as though nothing had happened. ‘That would be your precognitive sister who tried to atomise the school last year.’

‘She claims that it was the Redwings who did that, and that she is now being hunted by them. She asked for my help to escape them. Given that the ASF seems to feel I’m possibly an assassin at the moment, I told her I couldn’t help her. I sent her away.’

‘And you’re feeling guilty for that?’

‘No.’

‘You didn’t capture her and hand her over to the ASF. I’m quite sure you could have.’

‘Maybe I feel a little guilty. It’s complicated. I didn’t want to simply hand her over to her executioners. If I was going to do that, I’d have killed her myself.’

‘But you feel a little guilty for not reporting you’ve seen her too, right?’

‘I did say it was complicated. Have you ever bothered to calculate how much of your life you’ve spent brushing your hair?’

Mitsuko smiled and accepted the change of subject. ‘No. And I don’t want to know. If I had hair that never tangled, like you, I wouldn’t have to, but we can’t all be blessed with perfect hair.’

‘Being made the way I am is not a blessing.’ Pause. ‘Well, maybe there are some aspects I won’t complain about, like tangle-free hair. They did get that bit of my genome right.’

‘I think you do them a disservice. They got an awful lot of your genome just about perfect.’

‘I don’t think they can be given all the credit for the way I look. Your parents just had sex and look at how you came out.’

Mitsuko ignored the part about her parents having sex; there had been none of that as far as she was concerned. ‘Perhaps, but I still have to brush my hair.’

237/11/34.

Sunday morning was always a late start. Perhaps breakfast at nine thirty would not be considered late by many, but it was significantly later than a normal day of the week. Carina had been up for a little while by the time they all ate around the counter in the kitchen, and so she had had time to check the news feeds.

‘There was another explosion last night.’

‘Explosion?’ Melissa asked.

‘Someone blew up a communications company’s operations centre. Possibly terrorist related.’

‘These are all commercial organisations, aren’t they?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘Yes. So far anyway. There were twenty-four deaths this time, most of them magicians on the night shift. Still no sign of anyone claiming the attacks. There’s speculation that it’s a Redwing Faction plot.’

‘It isn’t,’ Nava replied. ‘Or it’s highly unlikely. These explosions serve no purpose likely to get the Redwings what they want. And they aren’t crowing about it.’

‘It’s the size of the explosions that seems to be the major real concern,’ Mitsuko said. ‘There’s an alarmingly large explosive force being set off somewhere it shouldn’t be possible to smuggle that much explosives into. I’d say it was magic, but I’ve never heard of a spell which can generate that kind of power.’

‘Neither have I,’ Nava said. ‘However, with the ASF questioning me about assassinations, I’m even less inclined to poke my nose into a situation involving terrorism.’

‘Do you think the shooting of the general and these explosions are related?’ Melissa asked.

‘No. I think it’s coincidence that these things are happening at the same time, but I wouldn’t put it past someone to link the two and then try to blame me for both. If any information comes my way regarding either event, I’ll contact First Lieutenant Fawn Tyrell about it. Otherwise, it’s Sunday, and I intend to relax as much as the SSF will allow.’

237/11/35.

A lot of the people who did what could be described as the menial work of keeping SAS^2 running were Sonkeis. A school was not just teachers, students, and researchers; supporting them were janitors, secretarial staff, technicians, and many others. When your school was essentially a town in its own right, the support roles included things like ‘manager of the local grocery store.’

Nickolas Ono Sonkei was that manager. The Ono were a small family within the clan, originally very Japanese. Over the years, other ethnicities had married into the family, and, at this point, it was usually difficult to tell that an Ono had any Japanese ancestry, assuming they did have. Nickolas was a prime example given his dark-brown skin and eyes. Nava had talked to him a number of times, but only once before in her capacity as captain of the SSF. Usually, she had been buying vegetables from him.

‘I’m sorry to bring this to you,’ Nickolas said. The Ono family was not large or powerful, and Nickolas always acted just a little like he was in awe when faced with Nava, or Mitsuko for that matter. ‘I’d have just put it into the usual shoplifting statistics, but this was a bit weird.’

They were standing in the stockroom of the store, looking at a spot just inside the door which was empty. That was really not going to tell Nava much, but she was at the scene of the crime, she guessed… ‘To be clear then, there was a carton of thirty-two bottles of water here. You placed it there prior to taking it out to the shelves. When you returned to collect it, it was gone. No one saw anyone taking it. Your security equipment shows no one out of the ordinary in this area.’

‘That’s right. Bottles vanishing off shelves is something we get. Shrinkage is an issue in any retail environment. Sure, everything is RFID tagged, but there are ways to get around that even without magic to make it easy. This was someone sneaking right into the stockroom and walking out with an entire carton. It’s not the kind of minor theft we see around here.’

‘No.’ Nava looked around the room slowly. It was the kind of place you would expect at the back of a grocery store in a city suburb, which the Estate basically was. A lot of the supplies for the shop came in on a just-in-time basis via the rail system, but you had to hold a buffer stock on-site in case of issues and to make the process even vaguely efficient. There were cartons of various non-perishables everywhere. ‘Is there any chance you could check your other stock? I’d like to know if anything else is missing.’

‘Actually, I started an automated tally before you arrived. It’s not quite done yet.’

‘Send me the results, if you would, Nickolas Ono. I admit that the chances of us catching the thief are low, but the SSF will do the best it can.’ She had a theory over who the thief was, even if the evidence was very circumstantial. What she did with that theory was something she had not decided yet.

~~~

Later that night, Nava got enough evidence to make her theory appear to sit on more solid ground. The stock check had revealed a number of missing items, primarily foods which could be kept for a long time and did not require much preparation, if any. It was the kind of thing one might expect someone to take if they were hiding out somewhere and did not have money to buy things.

Since it might not be Jenna, Nava put out an advisory to her people. They were to be on the lookout for anyone out of the ordinary on campus. Those able to utilise See Invisible were to use it. She also set up a routine on the surveillance system to highlight anyone without a school ID, though she was fairly sure that would be useless.

When it came down to it, however, Nava was fairly certain that the culprit in the supplies theft was Jenna. Jenna was still on campus, hiding out somewhere. Her Redwing identity was useless to her now, so she was scavenging. Nava did not know where she was hiding, was not sure why she was sticking around, and had not decided what she should do about it all.

No… On the last point, for now, she would do nothing. She would sit on the knowledge that Jenna was still out there somewhere and wait for the situation to become clearer. She owed Jenna nothing, when it came down to it. But maybe she felt that she should owe her sister that much.

Admiral Aurora Trenton Advanced Training Centre, 237/12/1.

Atop one of the classroom buildings in the ATC, a woman in a combat uniform of sorts stood watching the camp’s main gate. She was short and rather flat-chested for Clan World aesthetics, but she was attractive in a gaunt, hardened manner. Her dark-brown hair was cropped short, and her eyes were brown and cold. She held a pair of electronic binoculars to her eyes with her left hand, while her right hand was occupied with twirling something which looked like a steel dart between her fingers.

As a car stopped at the gate, she spoke. ‘Target sighted.’

‘Cool,’ said her companion. The two could not have looked more different. Well, this one did not have much of a chest either, but there the similarities stopped. There was a good eighteen centimetres height difference between the two, accentuated by the girl’s knee-high boots which were black and pink vinyl with thick platforms and high heels. Lace-topped latex stockings rose from the boot tops, ending at mid-thigh. Her dress had a dark Gothic Lolita vibe to it and was also in black with pink trim. A pink ribbon was tied around her throat in a bow. She looked more Asian than Caucasian. Her eyes were a bright blue-green and quite large, her nose was pert, and her lips were strongly bowed, pouting, and painted red. She wore an asymmetric bob, longer at the front than the back, and dyed it bright pink.

‘Could you take this more seriously?’

‘You take it seriously enough for both of us. Finish this so we can head back.’

The shorter woman did not nod, because her eyes were fixed on the car at the gate, but she raised her right hand, the dart now held point first toward her target.

~~~

Captain Nolan Kinsley did not like contragravity. Contragravity was far too close to magic for him to be comfortable with it. He had to travel in contragrav vehicles from time to time, because he was a soldier and such vehicles were in common use in the ASF, but he preferred ground vehicles or, if he had to fly, conventional aircraft. This was why he drove a standard sedan from his house to the base every morning. He also distrusted artificial intelligence, so he actually drove, hand on the wheel, from start to finish. AI was men trying to assume the power of God in creating life; nothing good could come of it. Why the man had ever joined the ASF was a question his superiors had asked in a number of personnel progression reports.

The truth was that Nolan was a patriot. He self-identified as such. He had been drawn to the ASF in order to ‘protect the future of the Alliance.’ Like many such people, he thought he knew what was best for the Clan Worlds, even if that opinion did not align with the opinions of his commanding officers, the administration, or the populace at large. Actually, his views were a little extreme, but they were not especially misaligned with his commanders or the people of the Clan Worlds; while heavily reliant on magic, they did not trust it or the people who wielded it.

That was why he had been selected to put the Greyling girl in her place. She had filed a report with HR stating that he was prejudiced against magicians and not suitable for evaluating them or instructing anyone in the ASF. She had proof in the form of recordings. He had heard the day before that her protest was being quietly buried. That was as it should be; it was not for demons to interfere with the work of God’s warriors. Nolan would never have even considered the notion that he was a bigot.

As he put his foot down to accelerate away from the gate, he was contemplating another productive afternoon at the ATC, but his thoughts never got the chance to materialise into action. A metal dart, ten millimetres by thirty, pointed at the front and finned at the back, punched through his windscreen and impacted his forehead. The windscreen was not armoured and posed little impediment to the movement of the dart, but it did cause a slight deflection which meant the projectile hit right in the middle of his forehead rather than punching through the bridge of his nose. The enormous kinetic energy of the dart turned his brains into soup and then blasted out through the back of his skull, spraying bone and grey matter over the headrest of the driving seat. The dart would later be found embedded in the rear seat of the sedan.

Captain Nolan Kinsley was dead before his car slewed off the road and hit a wall. By the time that happened, the rooftop which had been occupied by the sniper and her companion was empty. Of the assassins, there was no sign.

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery.

Captain Haydn Lamar and First Lieutenant Sophie Perry were back. They were in the same room as before. If anything, they looked more serious. Sophie was trying to look more intimidating, but Nava was intimidated by little, and Sophie was not an especially intimidating person.

‘I assume someone else is dead,’ Nava said as she sat down.

‘Where were you between twelve thirty and twelve forty this afternoon?’ Haydn asked, not answering the question.

‘That’s lunchtime. I believe by twelve thirty I was walking to SSF HQ to check on things there. I would have logged into my desk by twelve forty. Several SSF members can vouch for my whereabouts then.’

‘But not where you were before then?’

‘The student council president and secretary can account for my time prior to leaving the refectory. I could get you security video of my walk from one building to the other. Who died?’

‘Captain Nolan Kinsley Bishop,’ Sophie said. ‘He was shot with a hypervelocity round as he entered the ATC.’

‘Again, guns aren’t my style. Beyond that, how do you think I could get from here to the ATC, shoot him, and get back without my absence being noticed?’

‘Teleportation!’

‘Hm. Well, that’s theoretically possible, I suppose. If I knew exactly when he was entering the base beforehand, had a railgun, knew how to use a railgun effectively, and had a motive for killing the man.’

‘He rejected–’

‘As previously stated, I didn’t want the increase in rank. I lodged a complaint about his attitude during the evaluation. He is, or was, a problem for human resources.’ There was silence for a second. Neither Haydn nor Sophie seemed to have anything additional to say. Nava began to rise from her seat.

‘What do you know about the recent explosions in communications companies?’ Haydn asked.

The question made Nava sit down again, even if it was pointless. ‘About as much as the average person. What I’ve seen on the news channels. If you’re trying to pin those on me, I was in a different system when the first of them happened. I’m not sure of the timing, but I spent a lot of the time there aboard the Pride of Shinden. In case you’re wondering, I’m unaware of anyone who can teleport across interstellar distances without a transdrive. I certainly can’t. Was there anything else?’

‘Send us the video and ketcom registration details for today,’ Haydn said.

‘Of course.’ Nava got to her feet. ‘Am I really the only suspect you have?’

‘The case is ongoing.’

‘I see. Please find someone else to blame.’ Turning, Nava headed for the door.

~~~

‘Apparently,’ Mitsuko said, ‘Uncle Spencer was skimming the accounts he managed.’

Nava briefly paused in her eating. ‘Why am I not particularly surprised?’

‘Hm. Father is deciding whether to have him charged with embezzlement. Spencer is going to be penniless by the time he’s kicked out, even if he doesn’t end up in prison.’

‘It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.’

‘He was that bad?’ Melissa asked.

‘You never actually had to meet him. Yes, he was that bad. Given your figure, he would have been trying to get into your panties before you realised he was there.’

‘R-really?’

‘Well you did meet his first wife,’ Mitsuko pointed out. ‘Consider the similarities.’

‘I’m guessing this is a breast thing,’ Carina said.

‘I do not have Glory’s figure,’ Melissa said. ‘She’s practically a goddess.’

‘I think,’ Nava said, ‘we should ask Naomi his opinion of your figure. I believe the term “goddess” might be invoked.’

‘Well, perhaps. But I bewitched Naomi with my goddess-like figure, so he doesn’t count.’

~~~

Tuesday night was not a busy time for the SSF. They still had to patrol. Nava still had to do paperwork. Generally, things did not get difficult during this part of the week since most people had the sense not to get rip-roaring drunk when they had to work in the morning.

So, Nava got to sit in her office and work on work. It was almost the end of term, the end of the year. Progression tests and final exams were starting on the coming Monday. She had security plans for the winter ball to write. In a couple of weeks, she would be on holiday and probably annoyed that the entire world knew how powerful she really was. And Mitsuko had said she would take care of gowns for the winter ball, for herself, Nava, and Melissa. That was not worrying at all.

And one other thing… ‘For the sake of my sanity, Jenna, stop prevaricating and talk to me.’

Jenna looked even rougher than she had the last time. Maybe a little cleaner; she had obviously been using the bathhouses around campus from time to time. Still, she looked like someone who had been sleeping rough. It was actually snowing a little at times currently, so if she was hiding out on the grounds somewhere, things could not have been easy. ‘I wasn’t sure you’d see me. A-and it’s warm in here.’ Yeah, she was sleeping outside somewhere.

‘What do you want?’

‘Help. I want help. I have information I can exchange for it too.’

Nava stared at her for several seconds until she looked away. ‘What kind of information are we talking about? Some of your predictions?’

‘Yes, and also some other stuff because my models don’t have enough data to make really accurate predictions. There’s stuff I know. I’ve seen some of the reports about those assassinations. I think I know who’s behind them and why. A-and I think I might have something about those explosions too.’

‘My conclusion was that they’re unrelated to the assassinations.’

‘And I’m pretty sure you’re right. But I still think I’ve spotted a pattern, and I still think the simulations suggest some specific things about whoever’s behind them.’

Nava did not narrow her eyes. Nava did not do narrowed eyes. From the way Jenna was reacting, Nava had narrowed her eyes, demonstrating a considerable degree of suspicion. ‘You’ll need to have some really good intel if you expect to get out of this with your life.’

‘W-well… The sniper doing the killing is probably Laura, and if Laura’s active now, that means Karen is too. Probably.’

‘Laura and Karen? That would be DH-twelve and eleven respectively?’

Jenna nodded. ‘They weren’t terminated, obviously. Like me, they were repurposed. Except they were a bit more, um, specific about it. Karen and Laura are one-trick ponies. Karen’s a teleporter. Get this, she can teleport, unaided, across interstellar distances!’

‘Thus making me a liar. I told a detective today that no one could. What about Laura?’

‘Her magic is called Railgun. It’s basically what it says on the label. She can fire metal projectiles at about five times the speed of sound using electromagnetic fields. She’s a walking sniper rifle.’

‘She would certainly explain the two recent deaths. Why haven’t the Redwings claimed responsibility? I didn’t think they were involved with this because it’s too small.’

‘My models suggest they’ve just started. But the first part of the plan will involve removing the main obstacle they see in the way of the bigger plan.’

‘Me. They’re targeting people they think will suggest that I’m the killer.’

Jenna grinned. ‘You always were smart.’

‘Flattery will get you nowhere. I’ll make a call. I might be able to get you out of this, but I’m not sure you’ll like what happens after.’

Jenna’s face straightened. ‘The ASF will–’

‘I’m not going to call the ASF.’

237/12/2.

‘Are you sure you should do this alone?’ Mitsuko asked. It was five fifteen in the morning and Nava was dressed in her combat gear, ready to leave the house.

‘You needn’t be involved in this. If I didn’t sleep with you, you wouldn’t even know I was going.’

‘But–’

‘If the ASF find out about this, things will go badly. I don’t want you connected to it.’

Mitsuko frowned. ‘You don’t think they’ll think I am anyway?’

‘Thinking you are and proving it are two different things. I’ll be back before breakfast.’

Leaving the house, Nava turned herself invisible, added sensor evasion magic, and took to the air. She was headed for one of the wooded training areas in the southern arc of the campus. Jenna had apparently been living there since before she had first contacted Nava. No one had spotted her yet, but then it seemed that most of Jenna’s memorised spells involved concealment.

She landed at the edge of the trees and started in, casting Sense Environment as she went since it was pitch black. She had a rough idea where Jenna was, so it was just a matter of finding her. Then she would escort her sister out to the boundary fence, and after that Jenna would be someone else’s problem. Well, not totally, but at least for a while.

There was a small clearing sixty metres in. Nava oriented herself and set off down one of the paths leading out of it. She stopped again after twenty metres and turned toward the south, looking carefully at the area around her. Everything looked natural, or as natural as it got on Shinden. There was basically nothing natural about the planet, but what she was seeing was just the usual undergrowth of one of the less-used woods on campus.

‘Jenna?’ She spoke softly. If she had this right, she did not need to speak loudly.

In front of her, part of the forest vanished. In the place of a tree and a couple of bushes, there was Jenna huddled inside a sleeping bag. Around her were cartons of bottled water and pre-packaged food, and a small case which seemed to be the entirety of her worldly belongings.

‘You’re here,’ Jenna said. She cast Light and Nava was able to see her camp in true colours instead of as a radar map.

‘I said I would be. Nice illusion. The Camouflage spell?’

‘Yeah. Only problem is that I have to be awake to use it. Nights have been… tense.’

‘Mm.’ Camouflage was designed to camouflage its user behind an illusion. It was legal in MagiTag Fox and Hounds games, but Nava had never bothered to learn it properly. It had a component which obscured it from Detect Magic spells, making it really difficult to counteract, though there were ways. ‘Get yourself together. We have time, but I’d rather be there ahead of time than late.’

Jenna began to squirm her way out of her sleeping bag. ‘And you’re sure this contact of yours will be able to keep me safe?’

‘You’ll be safe. You probably won’t have much freedom, but you will be safe.’

‘Freedom is overrated. From my current point of view anyway. I wasn’t exactly free when I was working for the Redwings.’

Nava considered that statement briefly. ‘You don’t seem as fanatical as Maya was.’

‘Huh, no. Basically, TMI.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Too much information. In order for me to do my job, they had to give me access to a lot of accurate information. I guess I was as sold on the Redwings’ story as Maya until they let me see the real data. Then I began to realise that they really were as guilty as the clans claimed, and that the clans weren’t the ogres they were made out to be.’

‘So, why stick with them? Why not escape? With your ability, you could have executed a perfect escape plan.’

Jenna hefted her pack. It was not much, but it was all she had. The food and water remained where it was. ‘And go where? I’d been identified as a Redwing operative by that point. If the ASF caught me, I’d be executed. So long as I was useful to them, the Redwings kept me safe.’

‘It’s a valid point. Let’s get going.’

They walked further into the woods, almost to the centre, before turning south. They had been walking for around five minutes when Nava put out a hand, barring Jenna’s way. Jenna said nothing, but she gave Nava a quizzical look.

‘Movement,’ Nava said softly. ‘A hundred metres ahead of us. There shouldn’t be anyone else here.’

‘I’ll look,’ Jenna replied, dropping into a crouch. Nava slipped one of her SAH-301s out of its holster and dropped down beside her sister. ‘Don’t see anything yet… Wait, got it. Man in combat gear. And another… Light armour. Rifle with underbarrel spell enhancer. They’re Redwings, I’m sure of it. They’ll all be magicians.’ Jenna’s senses returned to her body, and she looked around at Nava. ‘They know I use Invisibility and they may be expecting you since we’re here. Chances are they’re one of the Redwing hit squads. All magicians and fairly good ones.’

‘Mm. Hide. I’ll deal with them.’

‘Okay. There are probably ten of them.’

‘It doesn’t matter how many there are. They’re dead.’ Nava cast Armour and Active Recovery on herself, and then she activated the active camouflage system on her armour. The latter was nothing magical, but it did give her military-grade concealment which, under the circumstances, was probably of more use than Invisibility. This was kind of like a lethal version of Fox and Hounds. The stakes were higher, but Nava was very good at Fox and Hounds.

The first two died silently. One was ambushed as he walked past a tree trunk. Nava reached out and caught his shoulder, his heart failed in that instant, and she caught him before he could make too much noise falling over. The next went down in much the same way, but she reached out of a bush to kill him. The Redwings had formed a line and were sweeping the woods which, under the circumstances, was probably their best option. They were getting closer and closer to Jenna too. That might not be a problem, but Nava decided that she preferred not to find out.

Continuing to move west along their search line, she located the next soldier in the line and fired Magic Bullet at his left leg. It was a solid hit, but Magic Bullet mimicked the terminal characteristics of a hollow-point bullet; impeded by the man’s reflexive body armour, the spell spent its entire force against the hardened fabric, passing nothing through to the flesh beneath. It did result in the sensation of an impact, however, and the man turned, sweeping his rifle around to locate the source of the attack. More importantly, the man beyond Nava’s target, visible on her ‘radar’ display, also turned and started toward his compatriot, and the man behind Nava, barely visible through the trees, did likewise. Perfect. Her next spell was Magic Charge, targeted on the heart of the man she had hit with Magic Bullet. And that left seven, all of them converging on her position.

Turning, Nava dropped the man behind her before he could close the distance. She was unsure at this point how many were ahead of her and how many were behind, but she was guessing there were more at her back, and she acted accordingly. Heading east toward where she thought the numbers were lower, she wasted no time in dropping another of the men. Five left.

Something impacted her back, probably a Magic Bullet since it failed to penetrate her Armour. She had used the spell matrix from her suit to cast Armour, and that was rank twenty instead of her own rank fifteen. Magic Bullet was not getting through that unless it was cast at a ridiculous rank. She turned to locate the man who had fired. He already had her location, but he was switching spells, something Nava had no need of. He was dead before he could try something else.

Number seven went down before he spotted Nava. She was not so lucky with number eight, and it seemed that number six had got a warning that Magic Bullet was useless. A high-rank Slice spell came out of the darkness to hit her in the side. She got lucky; the spell was beyond effective range and, while it penetrated her magical armour, the armoured suit beneath was just about enough to stop what got through. Nava’s aim shifted to the source of the Slice spell, and number eight died in an instant of burning pain.

Two left, assuming that Jenna’s assessment of the situation was correct. Were they in front or behind? Or both? She turned, scanning her Sense Environment field over the area. Once, twice, and then she spotted number nine just as he fired. An orange bolt flew out to hit Nava in the chest where it exploded into a ball of flame. Pain lanced through her chest as the undergrowth around her began to burn. That was the last thing she wanted. The pain, obviously, but the burning as well. By preference, she wanted nothing left behind to show that there had been a fight here. Gritting her teeth, she lifted her weapon and fired. The ninth soldier died before he could throw anything else at her.

The pain from Nava’s burns diminished as Active Recovery did its thing. It was not gone, but it was going. She determined not to mention the wound to Mitsuko, who would worry about it a lot. Focusing her will, she pushed her mind into the right shape to cast a utility spell, Extinguish Fire. It was not going to get rid of the burned foliage around her, but it was going to stop more damage. She cast the spell, the fire died in an instant, plunging the woods back into darkness, and number ten entered her sensory field.

Nava raised her weapon.

~~~

About five hundred metres outside the school’s perimeter fence, a military tiltrotor was settled in an area of grassland screened from the school by a couple of low hills. Several figures could be seen moving around the aircraft, even in the gloom of the early morning. Sunrise was approaching, if slowly, and Nava needed to be back inside the fence soon. Jenna, however, was not happy.

‘I thought you said I wasn’t going to the ASF?’ Jenna said, though she also did not stop walking.

‘That doesn’t belong to the ASF,’ Nava replied. ‘They aren’t the only ones on this world with military equipment.’

‘Then…’

Nava did not immediately answer, but Jenna got her reply, in a way, a second or two later when Nava called out to one of the people near the aircraft. ‘Rhianna. Here she is, and she’s the Greylings’ problem now.’

The beautiful spy turned and flashed a smile at the two women approaching her. ‘Any trouble getting out?’

‘The Redwings located her. I had to dispose of a ten-man hit squad.’

Rhianna’s smile vanished. ‘Do I need to arrange for clean-up?’

Nava shook her head. ‘I took care of it. There’s some burn damage in the woods, but that area isn’t used a lot. If anyone notices, the SSF will launch an investigation to find out what idiots lit a fire in the woods and let it get out of control. Anyway, Rhianna Greyling Sonkei, this is one of my sisters, Jenna or DH-ten.’

‘Pleasure to meet you, Jenna.’

‘Uh, same here.’

Rhianna shook her head. ‘This isn’t going to be a pleasure for you. It might be better than the way you’ve been living recently, and you’ll be safe. I doubt you’ll think it’s pleasurable, however.’

Jenna gave a slight shrug. Internally, she was beginning to calculate her chances based on the new information of who was taking control of her. What she said was, ‘Anything’s better than dead. Take me away, Rhianna Greyling.’

Castle Grey.

‘Feeling better?’ Rhianna asked as she walked into a meeting room in Castle Grey, the fortified compound which was the home and ‘secret’ base of the Greyling family.

Jenna looked around from her seat at the small conference table. ‘I’m not exactly up to full strength, but I feel human again. It’s amazing what a bath, some rest, and a decent meal will do.’

Rhianna smiled. ‘I’m glad to hear it.’ She took a seat opposite Jenna, settling back in a relaxed pose. ‘Obviously, we want you rested before we grill you like a piece of premium tuna.’

‘Obviously. In return for my safety and, hopefully, a life I won’t find entirely untenable, I’m willing to give you everything I know about the Redwings and provide whatever predictions I can make with the information I have.’

‘You’ve no loyalty to the Redwing Faction at all, have you?’

‘I have no loyalty to you either. Or Nava.’ Jenna frowned a little. ‘Not really. I mean, we grew up together, but… Whatever. I’m in this for myself. I don’t want to die.’

Rhianna nodded. ‘While obviously not exactly ideal, if you recognise we represent one of your very few chances of achieving that goal, we can work from there. First question then. Where is the Redwings’ main base?’

Jenna gave a small grimace. ‘And I kind of fail at the first hurdle. I was operating out of a facility on Scarlet.’

‘Seriously?’

‘Well, why not? That was the home of the Redwing clan. It’s been abandoned except for a few holdouts since the clan was forcibly disbanded. It’s not like the ASF monitors the place worth a damn. I used to run predictions on the positions of the interdiction satellites and the best target coordinates to jump in and out of the system avoiding them, but they didn’t really need me to do it.’ Jenna flashed a grin. ‘And those satellites were positioned on the assumption that someone jumping in would stick to the legal limits for jumps. What idiot assumes criminals stick to the law?’

‘No comment. I assume from what you’re saying that you expect them to have abandoned that base now?’

‘My projections suggest there’s less than a five percent chance of you finding anyone there by this point. I’ll give you the location. You can send people there and see what you can find, but they’ll be gone. Ten percent chance they vacated as soon as they realised I wasn’t dead, but they probably waited until that raid at the school failed. Seventy-three percent. By now, they should have moved HQ operations to their fallback base and destroyed anything they couldn’t take with them.’

‘And you don’t know where that is, I assume?’

‘I was told they had backup plans. They made a point of never letting those plans be known. I mean, it wasn’t just me they didn’t tell. The only people who knew what would happen if Scarlet was compromised were the people who had to know. I mean, I think you should go look because I never knew what they planned to do. I wasn’t consulted, so maybe their plan sucks and they’re still there trying to get out. I just wouldn’t count on it.’

‘We’ll send a team immediately. Nava said you knew something about the assassinations and the recent explosions. They’re both Redwing operations?’

Jenna shook her head. ‘Those explosions aren’t anything to do with the Redwings. Or, if they are, it’s something they’ve cooked up recently without any indications coming up before I quit. I don’t know who’s behind it, but I have some predictions about where they’ll strike next. Uh, timescales are a problem. I can’t see a pattern to when they’re setting these bombs off, but I’ve got five probable targets for the next one.’

‘Hm… With what we’ve been able to determine, that might be enough. Maybe. What about the assassinations?’

‘That’s Laura with Karen providing the transport. The objective is to eliminate important members of the Sonkei clan, but they’ve taken the opportunity to take Nava out of the picture at the same time. It’s actually combining two operations into one. Again, I’m weak on timescales, and the addition of extra targets designed to incriminate Nava has thrown off some of my predictions about who they’ll hit, but I’ll tell you all about what they have planned. Nava needs to know about some of it. She’s going to be one of their main targets.’

Rhianna nodded. ‘Tell me everything, we’ll work from there.’

237/12/5.

‘We missed them by a couple of days,’ Rhianna said. ‘Maybe less.’

Jenna stayed where she was, sitting on her bed. She did tap at the remote for her entertainment system and cut off the sound of a sitcom she had been largely ignoring. ‘Well, I did say–’

‘Less than five percent. Yes. The point, however, is that we just missed them.’

‘Okay. I did say that was the most probable–’

‘It means you weren’t lying about the location and our assessment of the situation leads us to believe that you can be trusted. To some extent.’

Jenna grinned. ‘Does that mean I can leave this room sometimes?’

‘Actually, yes.’ It was clear that Rhianna’s response came as something of a surprise. ‘You’ll be restricted in where you can go. Internal surveillance here is sufficient to keep you out of trouble. More importantly, it’s been decided that we’re going to give you access to information which can help you increase the accuracy of your models.’

‘Okay…’ Jenna was silent for a second or two. It was long enough for her to think, but not to run any predictions. ‘That’s a bit of a double-edged sword, right? You’re trusting me, but it means I’m going to know things you can’t let me tell anyone else. I doubt you trust me that much.’

‘You won’t be seeing anything we consider extremely sensitive, but you’re not far off the mark. We’ll be keeping you on a short leash once this starts.’

Jenna shrugged. ‘Where am I going to go? Just about anywhere outside this compound is unsafe. Right now, you’re the only people I know who don’t want me dead.’

‘Then we’ll get started in the morning.’

‘Right. Uh, you do know that they’re probably moving on to the next stage already, right? I’m not going to come up with new predictions before they make their next move. And I may not be able to give you much more than I have anyway, based on the information you have.’

‘We know. We’re playing catchup here. When you’re on the side of the angels, that’s pretty much the norm.’

Jenna flashed a scowl. ‘Wow, it kind of sucks being a good guy.’

‘Tell me about it.’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery.

‘This is all confidential,’ Nava said. ‘No one outside this house gets to hear it from any of us. Those who do need to know will be told by someone from the Greylings as required.’ She looked around at her housemates. She had called a house meeting after being briefed by Rhianna, and she was handling her SSF duties via remote.

‘I’ll take your secrets to the grave and beyond, Champion of the Light,’ Carina said, ‘but do I need to hear them?’

‘It was left to my discretion, and I figure it’s better if you know.’

‘I am honoured by your trust.’

‘A little overdramatic, but okay. Basically, the recent assassinations have been part of a Redwing operation. The primary targets are important members of the Sonkei clan.’

‘But none of the victims have been Sonkeis,’ Mitsuko pointed out.

‘Because they want me out of the way before they start into the main plan. They got lucky with the timing of that evaluation. It gave them some obvious targets which the ASF might think I’d want dead.’

‘Yes, but so far that hasn’t resulted in you being taken out of the picture.’

‘No, so they’ll be moving things up.’ Nava paused. ‘I won’t lie, the next few weeks are going to be tough.’

Melissa grinned. ‘We’ve been through tough times before. With you around, we’d have to be facing an indestructible enemy or something for it to be a real problem.’

‘About that…’

Part Four: Redwing

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 237/12/6.

SSF HQ was quiet. It was Sunday and fairly early, so that was not unexpected. Nava was reviewing staffing. It seemed to be a constant thing, though it really only happened about twice a year. She had lost a couple of people over summer as they transitioned into focusing on their finals. They had both moved onto the reserve list, however, so it was not a total loss. More importantly, Vance Shepherd Fosse was going to be a sixth year after the winter holiday, and he had announced that he would be standing down then. Vance was one of Nava’s go-to people for replacing her when she had to be elsewhere. He was, in fact, the only one she really trusted as her second, so she was reviewing her notes on everyone else to see who could take his place.

Something moved in the corner of her eye, on her right where no one should have been, and there was no door to get into the room by. She turned her head. Due to the increased processing speed of her Harbinger-enhanced brain, she managed to take in what she was seeing before the next thing happened. She saw a woman, fairly tall, decked out in some sort of Gothic maid outfit in black and pink. The strangely outfitted woman was holding a carbine-style weapon, but not a firearm. This was something else. Nava was just coming to the conclusion that she had seen one before and was not going to like being shot by it when something hit her.

The rifle did not fire a beam or a projectile. There was no visible effect at all, in fact, but there was a whine, high-pitched and verging on the ultrasonic. Most of the output of the weapon was ultrasonic, with a frequency and intensity designed to disrupt the human nervous system. Nava’s nervous system was not entirely human, but it was human enough for practical purposes under the circumstances. She had just enough time to recall that she hated sonic stunners before she blacked out.

~~~

It took about an hour for it to be recognised that Nava was missing. She was not in HQ when Skylar Keyes and Aston Parkinson returned from patrol. When they tried to contact her via ketcom, the system told them that she was unavailable. Later, when Lydia Bonfils ran a trace, her ketcom was not registered anywhere in the school or beyond.

Aston contacted Mitsuko more or less as soon as it was realised that Nava had not gone out for a drink or to deal with a problem on campus. Mitsuko had requested a thorough search of the school for her missing girlfriend, though she had not phrased it that way; the captain of the SSF was missing and needed to be found. Melissa and Carina joined the search. After another few minutes, Rochester and Hoshi were involved.

Mitsuko, at home and ready to set out on her own search, was about to make a call when a teenage girl in a rainbow-coloured outfit appeared in front of her. ‘Trudy. You’ve heard?’

‘Yes. I don’t know what I can do that all the others searching cannot, but I’ll start looking too.’

‘Thank you. In all honesty, I don’t expect to find her, but we should check as much as we can.’

Trudy – or the human image Trudy preferred to use when interacting with humans – nodded. ‘Carina explained. There might be a way I can check… I’ll get back to you if I find anything.’

‘Thanks.’ Trudy vanished, and Mitsuko returned her attention to her ketcom. Opening the call app, she located a contact and initiated a connection. It was answered almost immediately. ‘Rhianna, we think it’s started.’

Redwing Faction HQ, Independence.

Nava opened her eyes a crack before she could think not to. She felt groggy and not particularly comfortable. Feeling groggy was not a symptom of a sonic stunner hit, so someone had probably drugged her. The discomfort was likely because she was sitting with her arms over her head, and possibly had been for a while. She looked up to confirm that her wrists were in electronic cuffs, and those cuffs were attached to a bracket on the wall her back was against. Not good.

She was in a cell. There was no better word for it, so that was the one she selected. It was a rectangular, largely featureless room with a heavy door, no windows, and a pair of security cameras on the ceiling. The colour scheme was institutional grey. There was a shiny metal toilet on one wall, though how she was supposed to use it when manacled to a wall was an open question. She was sitting on a narrow, metal-framed bed which was also not especially useful in her current circumstances.

Presumably, someone was watching the camera feeds for her to regain consciousness, so she decided to wait. Not that she had that much choice. She closed her eyes again, wrapped her fingers around the bracket to take some weight off her wrists, and let her captors come to her.

It only took a few minutes. Maybe five. The door opened outward and a man carrying a rifle entered. This was a normal rifle; it fired bullets meant to kill. The man was dressed in fatigues and looked like a generic soldier, complete with buzzed hair of indeterminate colour. He was followed by another man, older and more distinguished. There was grey in his short brown hair. His face showed a few wrinkles. He had thin lips which formed a rather harsh line as he regarded Nava. His nose was particularly distinguished; it was possible he had stolen it from an eagle or a Roman senator. Nava had the feeling she should know who he was, but no name was surfacing. He came to a stop about a metre from her and glared at her.

‘My name,’ he said, ‘is Gregory Shearer Redwing. Welcome home, DH-fourteen.’

That was why she knew him. She had never met the man, but she had seen his image a couple of times. This was the exalted elder of the Redwing Faction. Elder was actually a title given to the current leader and had little to do with age. Given that Nava was meeting him, it followed that she had been kidnapped by the Redwings. Which was more or less expected, but to where?

‘I go by Nava Greyling Sonkei now,’ Nava said. ‘Where am I?’

‘Without wishing to sound clichéd, we will be asking the questions. You are no longer on Shinden. Your friends will be unable to find you. You will tell us everything you know about the ASF and the Greyling family. Then–’

‘I won’t. You were the ones who taught me to resist interrogation. You did a very good job of it.’

Gregory smiled. ‘We have ways. Don’t bother trying to work magic. This room is covered by a suppression field.’

‘I can tell. Once you’ve finished failing to interrogate me, what will you do with me?’

‘I haven’t decided yet. You’re a traitor who should be executed. On the other hand, you’re a valuable asset it would be a shame to lose again. My advisors are currently researching ways to make you… sympathetic to our cause once more.’

Nava shook her head. ‘I was never sympathetic. At one point I knew no better, but even then I had no sympathy for my torturers. The only way you’ll get me on your side is magic. The Recondition spell. You’d need to be quite careful with it, however, or it will compromise my effectiveness.’

‘Hm. Someone will be in shortly to begin your interrogation. Try to get comfortable.’

‘I’d laugh, but you’re about as funny as a bullet in the head. There’s one thing I’d like you to know before you leave.’

Gregory looked at her, amusement etched into his features. ‘And what is that?’

‘I am going to kill you and every other Redwing here.’

‘Of course you are. Ha! I didn’t realise they made you that overconfident. You’re trapped in a cell inside a magic-suppression field. You’ll give us what we want and then…’ Gregory trailed off in the face of Nava’s stare. She just sat there and stared into his brown eyes with her cold grey ones. ‘You’re done for.’

‘If it helps you sleep at night.’

Alliance City, Shinden, 237/12/7.

Simon Tremble Garavain stepped out of his home in Alliance City, as he did more or less every Monday morning, with the general feeling that today would not be an especially good day. He disliked Mondays. Mondays always felt like they wanted to mug you for drug money.

On this particular Monday, Simon was troubled by the case he would be trying later in the day because it involved a sorcerer. Simon disliked sorcerers. Also sorceresses: he was prejudiced against magicians but not at all biased by gender. Some people considered him too hard-line when it came to the use of magic in crimes. There had been complaints. None of them had stuck, partially because Simon gave the strong impression of not enjoying handing down the toughest penalties he could to magicians. It was true, he did not enjoy it; being prejudiced against magicians was, in Simon’s opinion, a duty.

It was not a duty he was going to have to suffer through for much longer, however. At 7:04 a.m., a projectile hit Judge Simon Tremble in the left temple, punched through his skull and brain, and continued on to eventually embed itself in the wall of his neighbour’s house. He was dead before his body hit the sidewalk.

~~~

‘Looks like this is the spot,’ Sophie Perry said. She was looking at her ketcom. The rooftop she was standing on, situated atop a high-rise some eight hundred metres from Simon Tremble’s house, was the only location her ballistic-analysis software could find where the bullet could have come from.

Haydn Lamar looked around the area, being careful not to go too near the edge. It was not so much that he was afraid of heights than that he had a healthy respect for them. ‘No casings. No real sign that anyone’s been here.’

‘No, but this is about the only place the sniper could have fired from.’ Sophie turned on the spot. She was far less worried about the edge. There was a rail, wasn’t there? What was the problem? ‘What’s that?’

Luckily for Haydn, the that in question was behind him, further from the edge. He turned, following Sophie’s finger. ‘That looks like…’ He walked over to a spot beside an air-conditioning duct and crouched down. ‘It’s a ketcom. Inactive.’ Reaching into his jacket, he produced a thin glove and pulled it on. Then he pressed the button on the side of the ketcom portable unit which would turn it on. His own ketcom was produced and he tapped at the screen a couple of times and waited. And then he turned to grin at Sophie. ‘It belongs to Nava Greyling Sonkei.’

Redwing Faction HQ, Independence.

If asked, Nava would have put her missing ketcom low on her list of priorities at the moment. She was really not sure of the time, but she had spent several hours being interrogated prior to being left alone for several hours, so she thought it was morning. Surprisingly, the Redwings had tried basic psychological techniques the day before. Old-fashioned interrogation, right out of the textbooks. It had got them absolutely nowhere, of course, but they had tried it.

Apparently, they planned to try something different today – assuming it was another day – because there were three people instead of two, and one of them was carrying a pressure syringe. She did not know what was in the syringe, but she had a bad feeling which was confirmed a moment later.

‘Since you won’t be nice,’ one of the men said, ‘we brought along a sorceress who can drag the information we want out of you.’

The newest addition was, indeed, a woman, but the suppression field was still operating, so it was unlikely she could do much. Unless…

‘We’re going to need to take the field offline for her to work, of course,’ said the other man. He was the more sadistic of the two. His colleague had been keeping him in check all day yesterday. Right now, he was smirking. Not a good sign. ‘So, we’ll be injecting you with Down to keep you compliant.’

‘That’s a bad idea,’ Nava said.

‘I hear it’s a really shitty thing to experience.’

‘I wouldn’t know. You people really didn’t ever get any of the research notes from the Death’s Handmaiden group, did you? They pumped me full of that stuff during interrogation training. I have a bad reaction to it. Your sorceress is going to get nothing.’

‘Yeah, sure.’ He leaned forward.

There was really nothing much Nava could do to stop him injecting the drug into her arm. Nothing happened immediately because all drugs take some time to take effect. Nava waited, knowing what was coming. The guy was right, it was not going to be pleasant, but the feeling would be fleeting…

‘Uh, her nose is bleeding,’ the sorceress said. ‘That’s not supposed to happen.’

‘What? She–’

‘T-told you,’ Nava managed to get out. This one really had been a bad one. ‘The next… next thing is…’ Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her head rolled forward on her neck.

‘Shit! Get a medic in here!’

People began to run around like headless chickens, but Nava was entirely unaware. The reason she did not know what being on Down was like was that it caused internal damage and unconsciousness. It had been decided by the scientists on the project that this was a feature rather than a bug. After all, even a magician could not extract information from an unconscious mind.

Alliance City, Shinden.

A chime announced the appearance of a message window on Fawn’s terminal. She glanced at it, then selected it to expand out for more detail. She frowned. ‘What the hell do they think they’re doing?’

She pulled up another window and placed a video call. It was answered after a second. A man’s face appeared, handsome, rugged even, with deeply blue eyes and very dark hair cut in military style. ‘First Lieutenant?’

‘Major Deveraux Wescott, sir. I’ve just had notification through that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of Nava Greyling.’

The major frowned. ‘Get more details, Fawn. There was no real evidence of her involvement in the shootings, so why have they issued a warrant now?’

‘I’ll look into it, sir. But, sir, the warrant is flagged “considered extremely dangerous.”’

‘I see. Well, you have to admit that she is, Fawn.’

‘I’m not arguing, sir, but anyone going after her and seeing that is going to shoot first and make the arrest if the suspect survives. I’m quite sure Nava can walk away from most situations the ASF can throw her way, but faced with an unprovoked attack–’

‘She’ll fight back. Put a rush on that investigation.’

‘I’ll get right on it, Major.’

~~~

Second Lieutenant, Investigator Specialist, Courtney Maynard House – originally Courtney Martell Garavain and not at all sorry to have changed her name – knocked on the door of her commander’s office and waited. It was not a long wait. Called in, she opened the door and stepped through to find Captain Takeshi Shibuya Sonkei sitting behind his desk with two other ASF officers on the other side of it. Courtney had been part of Takeshi’s squad for long enough to recognise her boss’s resting-irritated face. This did not look like it was going to be fun.

‘You asked for me, sir?’ Courtney asked as an opening.

‘Second Lieutenant Courtney Maynard,’ Takeshi said, ‘these investigators wish to speak to you concerning the recent series of assassinations they are investigating.’

Courtney suppressed the urge to ask ‘To me?’ because if there was one thing Takeshi hated, it was people who asked questions they had just had answers to. She closed the door behind her and stepped into the room, assuming an at-rest posture. ‘Of course, sir. I don’t know how I can be of help, but I’ll assist in any way I can.’

There was a man and a woman. The man got to his feet because his chair was facing the desk and Courtney was now behind him. This seemed to irritate him. ‘I am Captain, Investigator, Haydn Lamar Corley. My assistant is First Lieutenant, Investigator, Sophie Perry Fosse. You are clearly aware of the recent deaths. Did you know about the one this morning?’

‘I had not heard about that one, sir,’ Courtney replied.

‘Judge Simon Tremble Garavain was murdered outside his home at around seven a.m.’

‘That would make three then, sir. All killed using something like a railgun, from what I understand.’

‘Correct. This morning, when we tracked the bullet’s trajectory, we located the sniper’s nest and found a ketcom there. That ketcom belongs to one Nava Greyling Sonkei who was reported missing from Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery last night.’

They suspected Nava? Why would she kill a judge? Why would she have killed a couple of soldiers, for that matter? ‘I see,’ was all she said.

‘Do you know the whereabouts of Nava Greyling Sonkei, Second Lieutenant?’

‘I don’t, sir. I haven’t seen Nava since my wedding. I see our mutual friend Melissa Connelly Avorn more often since she’s dating one of my housemates. Melissa hasn’t mentioned anything suggesting problems around Nava, but I find it difficult to believe she would start assassinating public officials suddenly.’

‘We don’t need your opinion on her,’ Sophie said. ‘We have evidence that she’s involved, and motive. A warrant has been issued for her arrest, so if you did know where she was and were concealing that information out of some sense of loyalty, you–’

‘Am I right in thinking,’ Takeshi said, ‘that you are threatening my subordinate right in front of me, First Lieutenant?’

‘I’m simply reminding her–’

‘My officers don’t need reminding of the law.’

There was a brief silence. ‘If she contacts you in any manner,’ Haydn said, ‘I’ll expect to hear from you, Second Lieutenant.’

‘Of course, sir,’ Courtney replied, ‘but she won’t. If she was going to contact anyone in the ASF, I’d expect her to reach out to First Lieutenant Fawn Tyrell Hamilton in IRD.’

‘Hm.’ Haydn turned. ‘Thank you for your assistance, Captain.’

Takeshi bowed his head, and Haydn and Sophie exited the room looking less than happy. ‘If you do know where she is,’ Takeshi said, ‘and you didn’t say, I’ll skin you alive myself.’

‘Understood, Captain. Thank you for standing up for me.’

‘Part of the job. You ran the SSF for years, you know what my job entails. You don’t think Nava Greyling is the assassin, I take it? That’s not just friendship speaking?’

‘No, sir. Nava was trained as an assassin, but she rejected that life. With, um, extreme prejudice. I don’t think anything could make her go back. I’ll say one thing: they aren’t going to find her.’

‘Oh?’

‘They said she was missing. Either she was taken, or she went of her own volition. If it’s the latter, she doesn’t want to be found, so she won’t be.’

‘And if she was kidnapped?’

‘Then I really wouldn’t want to be her kidnappers.’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery.

Mitsuko and Melissa had both been called to the admin building, but when they got there, they were being interviewed separately, and Mitsuko was first. She walked into the meeting room to be faced by people she recognised only because Nava had given a brief description of them along with her impressions of their personalities. Mitsuko was not expecting this to be a pleasant experience, which was why her ketcom was hooked to her bodice and recording.

There were introductions anyway. Mitsuko was asked to sit. She did so, arranging her skirt over crossed legs and resting her wrists on her knee before looking up at Haydn with a smile. ‘How can I be of assistance, Captain?’

‘A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Nava Greyling Sonkei,’ Haydn said without preamble. ‘The charges are three counts of murder. Further charges may follow, if we determine that she is working under the direction of the terrorists known as the Redwing Faction.’

Mitsuko stared at the man for a second. ‘I understood that your theory was that Nava was killing people in revenge for stopping her from getting a position in the ASF which she did not want. The news reports this morning indicate that a judge was killed. I don’t see the connection.’

‘Judge Simon Tremble Garavain held views which matched those of General Maynard Evered Garavain and Captain Nolan Kinsley Bishop. He was noted for handing down the maximum sentence for any case involving magic. We believe she has broadened her targets to those she believes to be prejudiced against magicians.’

Which was not a totally unrealistic scenario. Nava was a strong advocate for magicians’ rights. She had killed to prevent technology from surfacing which might have been used in a nefarious manner, employing magicians as mere components in a machine. But Nava did not do revenge. If Nava killed someone, it was because she had been told to do so, or they were an immediate threat. ‘It’s an interesting conjecture, but I think you’d need more evidence before issuing an arrest warrant.’

‘We found her ketcom this morning, dropped at the location she fired from to kill the judge,’ Sophie said.

‘She’s missing. We’ve been looking for her ketcom because of that. If it were somewhere–’

‘It was turned off when we found it.’

Mitsuko looked at the woman for a second, considering. ‘So, you found her ketcom, deactivated, on a rooftop somewhere, in the location you believe to be where Judge Maynard Evered was shot from.’

‘Correct.’

‘From this, you conclude that Nava is the assassin, rather than that someone is framing her for the murders.’

‘There is no evidence that she’s being framed,’ Haydn replied.

‘You appear to have seen Nava’s records. You know that she was trained as an assassin.’

‘Yes, that’s–’

‘And then trained by both the ASF and the Greylings. You expect me to believe that, having gone rogue and turned off her ketcom, an act which requires specific actions making it impossible to have happened accidentally, she then took it with her on a mission and dropped it? That’s the scenario you’ve come up with, and you don’t think this was planted?’

‘Anyone can make a mistake,’ Haydn said.

‘They certainly can. However, considering that the murders don’t match Nava’s normal method of operation, the timing of the deaths suggests that she cannot have been there for at least one of them, and your assumed motive is flimsy at best, I don’t see how you managed to get an arrest warrant.’

Sophie’s jaw clenched. Haydn spoke. ‘What we want from you is any information you have on Nava Greyling’s location.’

‘If I knew where she was, Captain, I would be there, not here.’

‘You do understand that aiding a suspected terrorist and fugitive from– What are you doing?’

Mitsuko looked at her ketcom, which was now in her hand, and then at Haydn. ‘Why, I’m calling my father, Captain Haydn Lamar. He will contact the family lawyer. I won’t be speaking to you again concerning this matter without a lawyer present. Since Melissa Connelly’s family will be unable to provide a lawyer for her, the Trenton family will provide that service. I will be advising Melissa not to speak to you at this time.’

‘That won’t be necessary,’ Haydn said, his voice more like a growl. ‘If Nava Greyling contacts you or Melissa Connelly, I expect you to contact me immediately.’

Mitsuko smiled. ‘Of course, Captain. I’ll be happy to do so. If my lawyer advises that I should, obviously.’

Redwing Faction HQ, Independence.

Nava woke up feeling groggy again. This time, she woke up slowly enough to control her reaction. She neither stirred nor opened her eyes. She hated Down for a number of reasons, but she had to admit that one of them was the effect it had on her body. She felt like she had been hit repeatedly, possibly with a hammer. She could feel dried blood on her upper lip; no one had bothered to wipe it off.

Oh well, she had other things to do, which was why she was doing her best to keep them thinking she was still unconscious. They had no way of knowing how long she would be out. Truthfully, she had no idea how long she had been unconscious, but she suspected that it was not long enough for them to give up interrogating her for the day if they discovered she was awake. Now, she figured, was a perfect time for her to do a little scouting.

She could ‘hear’ the suppression field covering her cell. It was not actually a sound, but she perceived it as such: white noise hissing constantly in her ears. Suppression field generators produced ‘quantum noise.’ They effectively made it harder to work magic because they made the local Q-field noisy and hard to work through. It was like trying to catch the attention of a waiter in a noisy restaurant. The only way it would work was if you could shout louder than anyone else. For most magicians, there was little or no chance that they could work magic within a suppression field. The marketing for the generators tended to suggest that it was impossible to work magic within a suppression field. However, if you were talented enough and determined enough, it could be done. Nava had quite a loud quintessential shout. It did not make it easy, but she cast Sorcerer’s Eye and sent her senses out to see what could be seen.

Trenton Mansion, Shinden.

Mitsuko and Melissa arrived at the mansion aboard one of the Greylings’ armed tiltrotors. It did not look like it was basically a gunship; that was the point in using it. It was extremely unlikely that anyone planned to kill either of them at this point, but they were not supposed to know that it was a possibility. Hence the camouflaged gunship.

For similar reasons, no one was waiting at the helipad, but there was a welcoming committee waiting in the corridor as soon as they entered the house. Zackery, Yuzuki, and Rhianna were there. ‘Welcome,’ Zackery said. ‘I would have preferred different circumstances, but it’s nice to have you both here. Were there any problems with the school?’

‘None,’ Mitsuko replied. ‘We told them that recent events and pressure from the ASF had got the better of us.’ She paused. ‘I won’t say that’s entirely untrue.’ Her gaze shifted to Rhianna. ‘I’m worried. I know things are going about–’

‘I understand you’re worried,’ Rhianna said, ‘but you’re worried about Nava. That should reduce your worry to some extent at least.’

‘She’s not indestructible. There’s so much that could go wrong. Jenna’s predictions on this are so vague…’

‘Nava is an extremely adaptable girl, Suki,’ Yuzuki said. ‘I have every confidence in her ability to make her part in this come out exactly as we would wish. So much so, in fact, that I wish she were here.’ The tiny woman looked up at her tall husband. ‘Then I could forget my own worries.’

Rhianna nodded. ‘We still haven’t worked out a way to deal with things here. We need a plan.’

‘Um,’ Melissa said.

Mitsuko rallied herself, straightening her shoulders and forcing a smile. ‘That means that Mel has thought of something extremely clever which will solve all our problems in an instant.’

‘I’m not sure about that…’ Melissa replied, blushing.

‘But you’ve at least thought of something which might work?’ Rhianna asked.

‘Well,’ Melissa said, still blushing, ‘we did this lesson a couple of weeks back on the control of fundamental forces and energies…’

~~~

Nobuyuki was not a tall man. Compared to Zackery, he was quite short, but that applied to most people. He had muscles to spare, however, and Melissa was rather enjoying watching him shift furniture in Zackery’s office. She had seen him dressed rather like a traditional ninja, but this afternoon he was in a T-shirt and jeans, both of which appeared to have been sprayed on.

Zackery was actually similarly dressed, though his shirt was white instead of black. Melissa was trying not to think of Mitsuko’s father in the same way she was thinking about Nobuyuki, but it was not as easy as she had thought. He was an ex-naval officer, and Melissa had seen that he kept up his exercise and hand-to-hand training, so it should not have been surprising that he was pretty buff, and yet… It was also kind of impressive that he was here, in his office, performing manual labour with Nobuyuki. Melissa had a feeling that there were plenty of clan leaders who would have delegated the task to a servant, but not Zackery.

‘Does that look right?’ Zackery asked.

Melissa looked at the new arrangement of furniture and then at her ketcom which was displaying an image of the old arrangement. ‘It looks good to me. I really hope this works.’

‘Given the circumstances,’ Nobuyuki said, ‘I think this will do the job well.’ He looked across at her, dark eyes serious. ‘Frankly, after this and the reports we’ve had of your other activities recently, I’ve considered recommending you for adoption.’

‘Ad-d-d–’

‘Stop scaring the poor girl, Nobo,’ Rhianna said. ‘Of course, it’s not a terrible idea…’

‘I thought you only adopted orphans from outside the clan,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Not exclusively, though that’s the usual case. Marriage is occasionally used to induct useful people, but that’s out in this case.’

‘You’ll just have to make do with her becoming a Himura,’ Zackery said. ‘We can’t have you monopolising every interesting magician in the clan.’

‘Hm. I don’t think we were limiting ourselves to the Sonkeis.’

‘Definitely not just the Sonkeis,’ Nobuyuki agreed.

‘Mel, we must sit down and chat sometime.’

Melissa looked at Rhianna rather as one might expect a mouse to look at a cat. ‘Chat?’

‘Yes. I would love to hear the full story on how you seduced Naomi Himura. I honestly don’t think I could’ve done it. I want to know your secret.’

‘W-w-well–’

‘Stop scaring the poor girl, Rhianna,’ Nobuyuki said.

‘Well, I’ll try. Oh, we did another pass at trying to locate Nava.’

‘I’m assuming that you didn’t find her,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I think you’d have spoken up earlier.’

‘I would. Loudly. They’ve got her behind something which blocks scrying and magical communication.’

‘Like the terrorists did on Beherbergen with Kyle,’ Melissa said.

‘It’s to be expected,’ Rhianna said. ‘If they hadn’t, I’d have started to wonder whether they were setting a trap. Nava’s on her own for now.’

‘She is,’ Melissa said. She turned her gaze upon Mitsuko. ‘But, if you think about it, that’s how Nava likes it. The only person she has to worry about is herself. She can let loose without regard for the consequences.’

Mitsuko mustered a smile. ‘You’re right. I wish I was there to help her, but you’re right. She’s Death’s Handmaiden, isn’t she. Unrestrained, she’s possibly the most dangerous woman in the galaxy.’

Redwing Faction HQ, Independence, 237/12/8.

Of course, Nava was currently restrained. She watched Gregory Shearer walk into her cell from her position on the bed with her hands locked over her head. He was followed by two others, one considerably bigger than the other. Things were about to get uncomfortable.

‘We have other ways of extracting the information we want,’ Gregory said without preamble.

‘No,’ Nava said, ‘you don’t. You can’t use magic to interrogate an unconscious mind. You can’t use Down on me, because it puts me out every time. Believe me, I know. If you turn off the suppression field to let someone work on my conscious mind, I’ll turn them into a corpse and then start on the rest of you. And, just in case you’re thinking of trying the obvious, torture is an extremely unreliable method of extracting information.’

‘You don’t seem to care about yourself, but there are people you do care about. We’ll start, I think, with causing pain to your loved ones. Zackery Trenton’s death will cause considerable pain to–’

‘You’re going to kill him anyway. Or try to. Do you really think it’ll be that easy?’

The Redwing leader smirked. ‘It will be that easy.’

‘I’d have expected less self-delusion in someone your age. I will not talk because you threaten Zackery. I have faith in his ability to survive. Beyond that, I think whoever you send to kill him is going to regret taking the assignment. And I’ll laugh when they don’t come back.’

Gregory’s jaw tightened. ‘Then I think we’ll combine a couple of methods of persuasion. I’ll be back when I have proof of Zackery Trenton’s death, but in the meantime, I’ll let these gentlemen ask you some questions. She’s all yours.’ Turning, he walked out of the room.

Nava looked at her interrogators. The smaller man had a look of intelligence about him. Brown eyes, brown hair, and a narrow face. His companion was taller and a lot more muscled. He had no visible hair. His eyes were also brown, but they lacked the spark of intelligence the smaller man exhibited. He was wearing gloves. ‘So, I’m going to assume the big guy will be hitting me,’ Nava said.

The big guy grinned, drew back his fist, and punched Nava in the stomach.

Trenton Mansion, Shinden.

In Mitsuko’s room, two young women were taking their mind off things by doing some remote learning. It was theoretically possible to undertake the entire non-practical course at SAS^2 by remote access, but since the practical was another matter, no one really did it. It was considered an option if you were too ill to attend class but still capable of doing the work somehow. It was working to reduce their stress levels. Mostly.

‘I wonder what Nava’s doing right now,’ Mitsuko said. She was looking at her ketcom display, but she was not really taking anything in.

‘I have no idea,’ Melissa replied. Actually, she had a fairly good idea what was probably happening, but she was not going to mention it to Mitsuko.

‘No, well, I suppose not. Do you think the sniper’s here yet?’

‘Possibly. We’re doing it this afternoon. She’s almost sure to be here by then.’

‘Yes, I know that. I just wish this was over.’

Melissa smiled. It took effort, but she managed it. ‘That goes for all of us, Suki. Nava will be back before you know it.’

Looking up, Mitsuko flashed a grin. ‘Well, that’s not possible, even for her. She can’t make time flow backward.’ Melissa returned the grin with the addition of a raised eyebrow. ‘There’s no way she can do that.’ Pause. ‘She can’t, can she?’

~~~

The mansion was surrounded by a lot of grassland. Close to the buildings, this was largely manicured lawn. It became more like pastureland further out and then, about a kilometre from the house, there was the forest. This was a plantation, like all the other wooded areas on Shinden, but it was a nice place to walk in summer; the undergrowth was not too bad, but in combination with the trees it produced a cool, green landscape for relaxed exercise in the shade.

And, of course, it was probably the best place on the estate for providing cover for a sniper. Two figures appeared out of nowhere around five hundred metres in among the trees, aiming to take advantage of that cover. One was tall and dressed like a Gothic maid, the other was in drab fatigues with ammo pouches over her stomach and a machine pistol fixed on her right side.

‘That outfit is not suitable for this operation,’ Laura said.

‘I won’t be exposing myself,’ Karen replied. ‘You’re the one who has to crawl out to the edge and shoot the man.’

‘You’re still going to be keeping watch. You might be seen.’

Karen sighed. ‘No one will see me. Get moving. This place is not exactly warm.’

‘It could take several hours. We don’t know when I’ll get an opportunity to shoot.’

‘You could be missing one right now while you’re complaining about my clothes. Go!’

Looking sullen, Laura set off toward the treeline closest to the mansion.

Redwing Faction HQ, Independence.

‘Progress report,’ Gregory demanded as he stepped into Nava’s cell. There was a pause before he got a reply. That was, in his opinion, a bad sign.

‘This is a process, Elder Gregory,’ the smaller interrogator replied.

‘You’ve got nothing then.’

‘Of course… he’s got nothing.’ Nava’s voice was weak. She sounded like she was exhausted and in pain, which was probably unsurprising given the state of her. You could not see the bruising over her stomach, but purple was starting to show in the cleavage window of her uniform dress. Her face was a total mess; dark bruises took up most of the available space, her right eye was swollen almost closed, and her lips were swollen and bleeding. She had passed out twice after a good, solid hit to the face, but she was conscious now, and she had told them precisely nothing. ‘Torture is… an ineffective…’

‘Shut up,’ Gregory snapped.

‘Why?’

Gregory popped the retainer on his holster open. ‘Shut up, or we’ll cut this interview short.’

‘Figured out this is a waste of time?’

‘Close your–’

‘Laura hasn’t reported back yet? Probably dead.’

Gregory pulled his pistol free of its holster. ‘I said–’

‘You’ll get nothing from me. You can’t brainwash me for the same reason you can’t read my mind.’

The pistol rose, aiming at Nava’s chest.

‘Elder?’ the lead interrogator said.

Nava’s eyes rose to meet Gregory’s, as best she could manage anyway. ‘That’s the trouble with the Redwings, they’re a complete waste of time and space, and they always have been. All you are, Gregory Shearer Redwing, is a delusional criminal with megalomania. You should find a hole to crawl into and die before I–’

Two shots rang out in quick succession. Two holes appeared in Nava’s chest, clearly visible in the cleavage window she considered so stupid. There was not much blood, at least for now. Her head jerked back, hitting the wall, and then rolled forward again. She was still alive, and she fixed her eyes on Gregory’s again. ‘Not g-good enough.’

He lifted his aim and fired, punching a hole in her forehead. Her head hit the wall again leaving a messy blood stain where it hit, but this time it rebounded to hang limply over her chest. Her hair swept forward to cover her face and chest, concealing most of the evidence of her death.

‘She’s not worth it,’ Gregory snapped. Then he turned on his heel and marched out.

Trenton Mansion, Shinden.

Karen was bored out of her mind. She was currently sitting on the ground under a camouflage sheet which Laura had prepared, watching the forest for any signs of trouble. Trouble was defined as someone walking through the forest. Shinden had absolutely no dangerous indigenous life forms, aside from humans.

They had been at this for hours with not even a sighting of their target. Shinden was in winter at the moment, so it was cold. Weird damn planet. Proper worlds had seasons which reversed between the north and south hemispheres. Shinden was basically baking or freezing across its entire surface because it had next to no axial tilt combined with an eccentric orbit. Who picked a world like that to live on?

Laura was no kind of companion for operations like this. Their handlers said she was a professional. What they meant was that every bit of personality she had ever had had been eradicated one way or another, leaving someone who was a living spell, a living railgun, and more or less nothing else. At times like this, Karen wondered whether that would have been better than what she had become. At least she would not have been bored.

‘Target sighted,’ Laura said. Karen heard it over her earpiece since Laura was twenty metres away and speaking quietly.

‘The office?’ Karen asked.

‘The shades just opened. He’s behind his desk. I’m going to take the shot.’

‘Don’t let me stop you.’

Laura had no plans to. Through her multi-spectrum, telescopic headset, she could see Zackery Trenton sitting at his desk in his office. Her rangefinder was giving her the distance to the office window, but that would be good enough. The range was one thousand and seventy-three metres. The inbuilt ballistic computer was providing her with aim adjustments for that range at the current temperature and atmospheric pressure and was even accounting for the planet’s rotation at this latitude. Still, she took her time about aiming, her projectile held lightly in her fingers as she worked.

When she was absolutely sure that she was ready, she pushed quintessence into her spell, the only spell she could cast. A powerful magnetic field formed in her hand, behind the dart, driven by a current through the metal projectile which flowed along ‘wires’ made purely of magic. The dart left her fingers, accelerating to over fifteen hundred metres per second in a fraction of a second, breaking the sound barrier with a sharp crack.

It took less than a second to cross the distance to the mansion. The glass of the office window did very little to stop it on its way to Zackery’s head.

~~~

Standing at the north-eastern corner of the mansion, Mitsuko jumped at the sound of the gunshot. She jumped, sure, but she also acted. Raising her ketcom, she pointed it in the direction that a spell called Shot Caller told her the crack had come from. She typed the range the spell had given into her screen. She hit a button to send that information over a peer-to-peer link to another ketcom. She waited for five seconds to be sure the data had been sent.

Only then, with her heart hammering in her chest, did she place a call to Melissa.

~~~

Some seven hundred metres away to the south-west, Rhianna was aiming her ketcom toward the sound she had heard. The little application her ketcom was running was something a civilian had created as a means of cutting down gun crime in their hometown. A friend of his had created the schema for the Shot Caller spell to complement it and make it more accurate, but you could technically use the app without. Spread a few people around an area to listen for gunshots, each sending the data to a master app which triangulated the shooter’s location, and you could track down inappropriate gun use with reasonable ease. The Greylings were hardly the only group to take to the security tool with gusto.

Rhianna could not even see the trees Laura had fired from, but that did not matter. ‘It’s all down to you now, Nobo,’ she said, knowing that her partner would already be on the move.

~~~

In Zackery’s office, Melissa answered the call she had been expecting for the last few seconds. ‘He’s fine, Suki. It worked.’

‘Thank every god in the universe,’ Mitsuko replied. ‘I’ll thank you when I get there.’

‘No need.’ Melissa said it, even though she knew she was going to get it, and more thanks from Zackery, and Yuzuki, and probably the two Greylings. ‘Have to admit, it scared the crap out of me when the bullet came through the window. Your father has to be made of cast iron. He’s standing there acting like he’s some kind of idiot who doesn’t understand what just happened.’

‘Well, tell him to duck! She might get another shot off!’

‘Do you really think Nobuyuki is going to let that happen?’

‘Well…’

~~~

Laura stared at the image she was seeing through her headset, unsure of what she was seeing. She had… missed? There was no way she had missed, but she was watching Zackery Trenton bolting to his feet, a look of shock on his face. His head was entirely undamaged. She had missed. Somehow, she had missed, and she was punished when she missed. She reached for one of the pouches arrayed across her stomach and produced another dart. Zackery was still standing there like an idiot; she could still complete the mission and she could just not mention that she had missed.

A squawk of noise in her earpiece made her turn her head to look back toward Karen. What was the stupid girl doing? She looked like she was dancing, her camo discarded. No, not dancing, struggling. She was struggling in the grip of someone Laura could not see, someone who had Karen in a sleeper hold and was choking the life out of her.

Karen went limp. Laura had only a general idea of where the attacker was, but this was her only chance at fighting back. Attack or surrender, her only options. She went for the pistol on her right side as Karen fell to the forest floor. It was the last mistake Laura ever made.

Redwing Faction HQ, Independence.

‘I can’t believe he’s making us get rid of the body,’ the smaller interrogator said as he walked back into the cell. Nava’s body was right where they had left it, sitting on the bed with blood-soaked white hair obscuring the face and chest.

‘Makes no difference to me,’ the bigger one said. ‘Did they turn off that field thing?’

Turning, the smaller one walked back outside and crouched down beside a device about the size of a briefcase set against the wall of the cell. ‘Of course not. Get her cuffs. Hey, you can carry her on your own, right?’

‘Sure. You can get the doors. She’s going in the freezer, right?’

‘Gregory wants her genome analysed.’

Inside the cell, the big man with the big fists took a remote from his pocket, aimed at Nava, and pressed a button. The cuffs holding her wrists released and her arms dropped to her sides. He leaned forward to pick her up.

‘About damn time,’ Nava said. Her right hand came up and forward to land flat on her interrogator’s chest. ‘It was going to take an annoying amount of time to get those open myself.’ She pushed, mostly because she did not want the man landing on her. He was dead before she finished speaking, and now he fell, off to her left, with a fairly loud thump.

The other one appeared in the doorway like an idiot instead of running for his life. He would not have got far, but he might have made it to the end of the corridor. Nava pointed a finger his way, casting Magic Charge as she did so. She got to her feet and started for the door. By the time she was there, all she had to do was step over the bundle of clothes which was all that remained of the man who had asked her questions for hours earlier that morning.

‘Now,’ she said to no one, ‘it’s my turn to cause some pain.’

Trenton Mansion, Shinden.

‘That,’ Rhianna said, ‘was masterful. Light control. I’m supposed to be the sneaky one here, and I don’t think I’d have thought of that.’

Melissa was expecting this. Forewarned, she felt she should have been able to accept the praise without blushing, but blushing she was. ‘We learned about the spell in class not that long ago, so it was fairly fresh in my mind.’

‘Well,’ Zackery said, ‘I owe you my life, Mel. Not you alone, perhaps, but we couldn’t have done this without your idea.’ He shook his head. ‘Creating a magical mirror to make the sniper think I was elsewhere in the room. It’s so simple and yet so effective.’

‘At this range, sir. She was far enough away that the details weren’t obvious. Closer up, she might have realised that some things she was seeing were reversed.’ The spell Melissa had used was called Control Light and she could manage to improvise it at a high enough rank that it allowed her to affect the entire room without too much stress. It did what it said on the label, within reason. In this case, it had allowed her to create an invisible mirror surface diagonally across the room such that, from the outside, what was actually on the left side appeared to be at the back. Laura’s bullet was stuck in the back wall, ninety degrees off target from where Zackery had actually been sitting, obscured by the window shades they had left partially closed.

‘You have our thanks, Mel,’ Yuzuki said. She had come in once the coast was clear. ‘If you are ever in need, do not hesitate to contact us.’

Melissa had no idea what to say to that, so she just smiled and went redder.

‘Nobo has the teleporter,’ Rhianna said. ‘He’s bringing her back here, but we’ll ship her out to Castle Grey as soon as the transport gets here. The sniper is dead.’ She gave a small shrug. ‘Jenna did say that one was as fanatical as they get.’

‘And the teleporter isn’t?’ Zackery asked.

‘Apparently not. We’ll find out.’

‘And now all we have to do is wait for Nava to get in touch,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Yes.’ Rhianna checked the time on her ketcom, though it was likely only a gesture. ‘I doubt it’s going to be too much longer.’

Redwing Faction HQ, Independence.

The building the Redwings were using as their base was in the middle of nowhere. It was basically H-shaped; the north and south sides were not open, but they had a wall with a gate in them instead of an actual building. Within the arms of the H were two courtyards currently almost filled with portable housing; the evacuation of Scarlet had resulted in the need for a lot of extra space here. The four side wings were narrower than the central bar of the H, housing dormitories and rooms for the personnel who normally lived there. The central bar section had offices, an operations room, the kitchen, the cells… That was the main functional section. The facility was two storeys of semi-industrial structure, now holding what had to be the vast majority of the Redwing Faction, and all of their upper ranks.

Nava had had time to do enough scouting that she knew where the fire doors were. She had spent her first few minutes of freedom using Magelock to secure them. Now she was standing outside the compound, ready to begin. No one had discovered that she was out, so far as she could tell. She was expecting alarms when they did, and there had been none of that yet. She raised her arm, aiming it at a spot above the buildings. They were going to realise something had gone wrong pretty soon now, but whether they would figure it out fast enough to do anything about it was another matter.

The spell she was casting was Armageddon. A ball of light was now spreading out into a disc above the base. Soon it would begin raining death beams down upon anyone stupid enough to stand under it. She was aiming to cover the entire facility, so even if someone did manage to get out through a fire door, they would likely be dead before taking more than a step outside. The main purpose of the spell was, however, to kill anyone in the courtyards. Those inside the building, under cover, were hers to take out, but anyone in the open, and possibly those in the cabins, was about to have a very bad day.

‘Eat this,’ Nava muttered, bringing her hand down. Powerful laser beams began to lance down from the overhead disc. Nava did not wait to hear the screams; she was busy teleporting into the nearest wing of the building. She now had rank three Teleport memorised; it had taken a while, but Maya’s lesson on its utility had finally sunk in. She was using the spell so much now that not fixing it in her memory had seemed stupid.

She had Magic Burst memorised at rank five, but she stood in the corridor on the ground floor of the east wing and improvised rank thirteen before firing it up through the ceiling and into the dormitories above. It was time to begin the slaughter. There would be no survivors. Today, Nava was going to end the Redwing Faction for good.

~~~

Gregory Shearer started when the first alarm sounded. It took him a second to recognise the coded sequence of tones being played over every speaker in the facility. He had never heard that sequence live since it was the ‘under major attack’ alert which they had never even practised dealing with.

In theory, no one knew that the Redwing Faction had its primary command centre on Independence, outside the Clan Worlds Alliance. Independence was not aligned with any alliance of worlds; in fact, that was why it had been christened Independence. It was not, as some thought, a haven for criminals and dissidents, but it was a good place to go if you wanted to avoid scrutiny from the Clan Worlds or the Consortium or the Sino-Soviet Republic or the New States Federation, all of which were its neighbours. It was just over sixty light years from Earth, but it had not been colonised until just before the foundation of the Clan Worlds, partially as a reaction to the growth of large political groupings among the colonies. Theoretically, no one knew the Redwings’ base was here, so there was no reason for anyone to attack them here.

‘Report,’ Gregory barked. He was standing in the middle of the operations room, the place where all their activities were planned out, and now the place they were coordinated from. The latter had been handled on Scarlet until recently. If there was someone attacking the base, this was the one place where information on that ought to be readily available. You would think.

‘We’re trying to find out, Elder,’ someone said.

‘There’s something happening outside,’ said someone else. ‘An air strike? It’s raining laser beams out there.’

Gregory frowned. ‘Raining laser– That’s Armageddon! Someone check on DH-fourteen.’

‘Sir? Isn’t she–’

‘Dead? Yes, she’s dead. She’s also Death’s fucking Handmaiden! I want everyone armed and I want someone checking her cell. Now!’

~~~

There was no resistance initially. Nava walked through the corridors of the building launching various ranks of Magic Burst ahead of and above her. It drove the survivors ahead of her, the shock of such massive destruction appearing right in their midst doing almost as much work as the annihilating energy Nava was throwing about.

After about five minutes she paused to recast Armageddon, which took several seconds to build and activate. It gave the Redwings time to do something other than running away, and maybe Gregory had managed to get some of his people organised. As she once again sent a storm of laser fire down onto the compound, grenades bounced down the corridor behind her. She glanced at the closest one, a couple of metres away, and decided that it was probably fired from an underbarrel launcher. It was around forty millimetres in diameter, not especially large or powerful. The shockwave hit her Armour along with a few fragments from the casing. The thing about grenades like that was that, away from the point of detonation, the primary mode of damage was the cloud of fragments, and those were not getting through Nava’s Armour spell either.

She turned her head to look down the corridor at the six men with rifles. Three of them were reloading their grenade launchers. The other three were covering the corridor with their rifles. None of them seemed to be sorcerers because none of them, it appeared, could see Nava through her Invisibility. She raised her hand and cast Magic Burst.

~~~

‘Everyone in the cell block is dead.’ The speaker was Charissa Brigham Redwing, a tall, attractive woman with flaming red hair who happened to be the most powerful magician the faction had and so happened to be the person best suited to scouting the cell block. She would also have been the person interrogating Nava if Down had worked, and the one using Recondition on her had it come to that. She was not an especially moral individual, but she did have one characteristic uncommon in Redwings: Charissa was not pathologically overconfident. ‘That does not include DH-fourteen, who was not there. She’s currently ploughing through our people like the Grim Reaper on steroids. We can’t get out of here without running the gauntlet of a spell designed to murder armies. She’s coming this way. We’re fucked.’

Gregory was unimpressed. Then again, Charissa’s attitude was one of the reasons she had never been promoted above commander. ‘I shot her in the head. How is she walking around?’

‘Not sure. If I had to guess, she cast rank five Active Recovery on herself before you shot her.’

‘She was in a suppression field. She–’

‘I have told you over and over again that you can’t trust those things. Especially the portable ones. I can work through the portable ones without too much difficulty. She’s probably more talented than I am. You left her alone in that cell for hours. She probably had the entire facility scouted out before you shot her.’

‘I say again, I shot her in the head!’

‘And I say again, she can probably cast rank five Active Recovery. As long as the spell is active, you can kill someone as much as you like, they’ll still heal back from it. In seconds. I’ve never seen it used. I’ve never even met someone who could cast it. She’s not supposed to be able to. Our intel on her capacity is really wrong. Winter Glass Firmin could have cast it, I think.’

‘She’s dead.’

‘Yeah, and who killed her?’

Gregory glowered at his subordinate. ‘How are you going to kill DH-fourteen?’

‘Didn’t I just explain? She can’t– Maybe if I can catch her by surprise. Dispel Magic might take out her defences. We assume it hasn’t and hit her with something massive. Active Recovery won’t bring her back if she’s nothing but ashes. We’ll have to find her first. Maybe I can get behind her. Teleport…’

Something exploded somewhere far too close to the operations room. ‘Do something,’ Gregory said.

‘I’m going to need five or six men with rifles.’

‘Get on with it.’ Gregory looked around. ‘And someone get Ramsey Brigham in here.’

‘What on Earth do you want my brother for?’ Charissa asked.

‘In case you fail.’

~~~

Reaching the point where the corridor branched toward the operations area, Nava stepped out into the junction and into a hail of bullets. There were five men, two of them kneeling in front of a row of three standing, and all of them were firing Waltzer PW47s on full-auto. The PW47 could manage six hundred rounds per minute, but the men had snap-fired their weapons as soon as they spotted Nava and only one bullet actually hit home. It flattened against her Armour.

But they had seen her. They were using See Invisible. However, none of them had spell-enhancing rifles; the PW47 was a cheap combat rifle manufactured in the Consortium and did not even come with the option of a spell enhancer. They were almost certainly not sorcerers, but someone was. That someone was not with them, so…

Nava turned in time to see the someone, a woman with red hair, casting a spell from about ten metres back down the corridor. This one could, probably, teleport, which was how she had got behind Nava. She could also use Invisibility, because Nava could tell that her own use of See Invisible had been useful after all. She was only keeping the spell up as a ‘just in case’ measure. There was no time to counter the spell the sorceress was casting, but Nava did not think it was an attack spell. Nava would be using an attack spell.

The red-headed sorceress cast her magic… And Nava was not entirely sure what she had cast. So far as Nava could tell, nothing had happened, but the sorceress immediately started into a second casting. Nava was not going to give her a chance to finish. Nava cast Magic Charge, which bypassed any physical or magical armour the woman was wearing and created an immaterial magical aggregator in her chest. Raw quintessence began to flood out of the magical machine, tearing apart matter at the subatomic level. Pain showed briefly on her face before she collapsed onto the industrial carpet covering the corridor’s floor.

Six bullets hit Nava as the riflemen focused their aim. They had about as much general effect as the first hit, but it was annoying, and she turned her attention to them. She raised a hand and launched a magical projectile at one of them in the front row. He was wearing basic combat gear, but that meant basically nothing to Magic Burst’s penetrator. A sphere of white light exploded out from his chest, and he died instantly. His compatriots remained alive, but they never got the chance to fire again; all of them fell to the ground, writhing in agony from the burn-like wounds which now covered much of their bodies.

Nava was merciful; she followed through with Magic Charge to stop their suffering.

~~~

‘Where is she?’ Gregory asked. He sounded urgent, but not panicked. Behind the façade of calm he was trying to project, panic was very much an option, but he was staving it off for now. Showing how nervous he was was out of the question.

‘We don’t know,’ one of his subordinates replied. ‘Even if she wasn’t invisible, that spell of hers keeps taking out the sensors. We lost the security room five minutes ago. She can’t be–’

‘What happened to my sister?’ Ramsey Brigham asked. He had just arrived in the ops room, apparently having taken his time to decide he could do so without dying. Ramsey was not his sister. He was not as powerful or talented, nor as attractive. He shared her red hair, though his was a little more coppery. They both had green eyes, but hers were more vibrant. Charissa was not as confident as your typical Redwing. Her brother was a bit of a coward; Gregory figured the only thing which had persuaded Ramsey to come at all was his affection for his sister.

‘We don’t know,’ Gregory told him. ‘All the cameras are out along that corridor.’

‘She went to face that monster? And she hasn’t come back? How long ago?’

‘Ten, maybe fifteen minutes. We need to focus on ourselves now, Lieutenant. That monster, as you put it, is coming here. You can get your revenge right now. Call it.’

‘It?’ The voice came from near the door. It was female, and only Gregory recognised it. As everyone turned to look, Nava appeared out of nowhere. ‘What’s “it?” I’m interested. What do you have that gives you a hint of hope that you’re going to survive this?’

‘Oh my God!’ Ramsey exclaimed, his eyes widening. Nava could not really blame him. She had caught sight of herself reflected in a window at some point. She looked like something out of a slasher flick: one of those ones where the victim rises from near death, insane and ready to take on the villain. Her dress and a lot of her face were covered in blood. Her hair was stained red in places and stuck together in mats. She probably did look like a monster.

‘Call it!’ Gregory yelled, and Ramsey reacted, raising his hands in a somewhat overdramatic spellcasting gesture.

The result was kind of impressive. In front of Ramsey, a figure appeared. It was human-sized and generally humanoid in shape, but it had the physique of a steroid abuser, clawed hands, and bat-like wings sprouting from its shoulder blades. Its eyes glowed red as they regarded Nava, and a mouth full of sharp, pointed teeth shifted into a malicious grin.

‘A summoner?’ Nava said. ‘Wow. You just don’t see summoners much. SAS-squared barely covers the subject. I think there’s an elective available in the sixth year. No one ever takes it.’

‘Kill her!’ Ramsey shrieked. The demon stepped forward, looking rather pleased with his orders.

‘Ha!’ Gregory barked. ‘Now you’re going to–’

‘In fact,’ Nava went on, ‘the only thing I know about summoning is that if you want to get rid of a summoned minion, you need to target the sorcerer.’

The demon vanished. One instant it was there, the next it was gone, much as it had appeared. The term ‘summoning’ was something of a misnomer. The things summoners summoned were not ‘called,’ as Gregory thought of it, but created. They were thoughtforms given physical form to do the magician’s bidding. While most summoners called upon archetypal concepts to shape their summonings, it was possible for them to take any shape one wished. Demons and hordes of rats were, however, popular.

And the big secret about summoning which Luca Newton had imparted upon her students one afternoon that summer was that the spell worked upon the summoner. If you knew that, it became obvious that casting Dispel Magic on the summoned thing was pointless; if you wanted to get rid of something a summoner had made, you cast your spell on the summoner.

‘Sorry.’ Nava did not look sorry; as usual, Nava did not look as though she cared at all, though now she did it with more blood. ‘You were probably expecting a climactic fight between me and a demon. Frankly, it would have been just as short.’

Gregory pulled his pistol and started firing. This time, his bullets had no effect. Nava ignored him and raised a hand toward Ramsey. He lurched backward, away from her, but it made no difference. He screamed as Magic Charge took root in his chest. Gregory’s shooting took on a more frantic edge and none of his shots actually hit home.

‘I told you,’ Nava said, ‘that I was going to kill you.’

‘You monster!’ Gregory roared.

‘I’m what the Redwing Faction made me. Death’s Handmaiden. You reap what you sow.’

Gregory froze, and a wave of incandescence swept over him from his head down to his feet. When it passed, the leader of the Redwings was gone, leaving only his fatigues and pistol to fall to the floor.

Alliance City, Shinden.

Fawn was not expecting to feel a Telepathy spell attempting to make contact, but there was only one person she knew who called her that way, so she let it through without resistance. ‘Nava?’

‘Good… whatever time of day it is, First Lieutenant.’ Nava’s voice sounded in her head, just as confident as usual.

‘Where are you? Damn it! What’s going on? The ASF issued a warrant for your arrest. We tried to block it, but–’

‘I see. In that case, I should avoid putting you in a compromising position.’

Fawn felt the spell disconnecting, but she still tried. ‘Nava?’ There was no answer, of course. Nava was gone.

Where had she called from? And why now? Fawn shook her head and continued prepping her stuff to go home from her office. Nava had not called. Fawn knew nothing about where she was. She did not know who Nava would call next, even if that was obvious. No one was going to ask, but if they had, Fawn would have said she had not heard from Nava since she went missing.

Castle Grey.

Actually, Fawn was wrong about the person Nava called next, though her guess was not far off, and that person was going to get a call right after Rhianna.

‘I’m on Independence,’ Nava said once the immediate questions were over with.

‘Independence? Seriously? I suppose it’s as good a place as any to put a terrorist facility.’

‘Yes. It took me a little time to find out the planet’s name, but I also have coordinates. Luckily, the field they had set up to block Telepathy went down with the sorcerer who activated it, so I did not have to find that device. I did find a lot of other interesting information in their computer systems while I was looking.’

‘We’ve got someone on Independence. I’ll get them to fly over to you and they can start hunting through the computers. Uh, how many Redwings do you think there are left?’

‘It’s a very rough estimate, but fifteen to eighteen hundred spread across various locations in the Clan Worlds. There were around five thousand here. They’re all dead. There’s a database here with all their agents’ identities, locations, and mission profiles in it. The ASF should be able to wipe them out for good this time.’

‘I think that’s asking too much of them, but you’re theoretically right. You know there’s an arrest warrant out for you?’

‘Fawn Tyrell mentioned it,’ Nava replied, ‘which is why she doesn’t know where I am, and why I’m asking the Greylings to provide a lift back to Shinden.’

‘I am typing a message to Master Kaede right now. We’ll have the Yosozume out to pick you up just as soon as her engines can get her there. I’ll get our operative out to you post haste. Maybe an hour, depending on where you are relative to them.’

‘There’s no hurry. Now that I’ve made contact, I’m going to see if I can find a working shower and steal some clothes which fit.’

‘Right.’ Rhianna considered the ‘working shower’ part and wondered how much damage Nava had done to the Redwings’ facility. A lot. She had probably done a lot of damage. ‘You will call Suki after this, right? She’s worried about you. She isn’t showing it much, but she’s worried about you.’

‘I’ll call her next. Ah! Gregory Shearer’s apartment has a really big bath in it. I think it has water jets. I’ll call her from the bath.’

‘Good. You can transmit sensory data over this spell, can’t you?’

‘Yes, Rhianna, you most certainly can.’

Trenton Mansion.

It was dinner time at the Trenton Mansion and Mitsuko was looking happier than she had for several days. Actually, she looked a little flushed as she sat down at the table, which was odd, but no one was saying anything.

‘Nava is safe,’ Mitsuko said to those assembled. ‘She’s on Independence, would you believe, so it will take a few days for her to get back here. However, she’s safe.’

‘Of course she is,’ Michiko said. ‘She’s Nava. Of course she’s safe.’ Michiko had been worried. Like her older sister, she had been trying not to show it, but she was not quite as mature as Mitsuko, so she had been hiding in her room a lot over the past day or so. Now that both her father and Nava were safe, she was also looking a lot happier than she had been.

‘Yes, Michiko, that’s true. The Greylings have sent their courier vessel to collect her and, apparently, enough data to sink the Redwing Faction forever. What’s left of it. She didn’t say what happened there, but I suspect she’s the only survivor.’

Michiko was now thirteen; she was a little more mature than most girls her age, and it had been decided that shielding her from some truths was pointless. She was not yet a young adult, but she could handle the world as it was. ‘Nava doesn’t like the Redwing Faction. I don’t think she would leave any of them to do any more bad things.’

‘Yes,’ Melissa said. ‘She has good reason to hate them. You could probably say that finishing them is one of her life goals.’

‘Something to tick off her bucket list, I’m sure,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Um, I’ve been thinking about a few things since we caught those two assassins. I’d like to announce a change to my life goals. Sort of.’

Zackery and Yuzuki glanced at each other. It was Yuzuki who spoke. ‘Please, daughter, explain.’

‘I’m going to change my course to the support stream as of next year.’ The words came out in a bit of a rush. ‘I was kind of useless here, doing this. I felt more or less the same on the operation we did in Avorna. It’s a bit like Nava says, anyone can kill people, but keeping them alive is another matter. And Mel… Mel knew the kind of magic we needed to keep Father alive. That’s the magic I want to learn.’

‘You know that’s likely to make your next presidential election more interesting?’ Zackery asked.

‘Possibly. I welcome the challenge.’

‘Well, neither of us pushed you into the combat stream. I think you know enough about tactics to keep yourself alive anyway. If you want to switch, that’s your decision to make.’

‘I think you’ve always been more inclined to a broader view of sorcery,’ Yuzuki added.

‘I wonder if we can get you into our class?’ Melissa mused. ‘There’s a space, I think.’

Mitsuko smiled. ‘That would be a little too convenient, I think. We’ll see what the administration says when I contact them.’

‘Mm. We’ve got progression tests coming up next week. I hope Nava gets back in time for them.’

‘She probably won’t want to. If she can skip them this year with a good reason, she can probably keep her real capacity hidden for another year.’

‘True. But that would probably be too convenient too.’

Redwing Faction HQ, Independence.

A ground vehicle pulled up outside the Redwings’ compound and a single male occupant got out of it. He used Flight to glide up to the top of the wall on that side, but as he overtopped the wall, he paused to hover there for several seconds.

Possibly it was the sight of the bodies lying between the various temporary housing structures. There were plenty of them, all showing signs of having been struck down by something which left deep burn scars. The courtyard looked like a massacre had happened in it, which was more or less exactly what had happened.

The man continued on, flying over the carnage toward one of the doors in the main building rather than walking through the bodies. He was a typically handsome man for the Clan Worlds with tanned skin, shoulder-length black hair, and eyes on the greener end of blue. He looked fit, built for hand-to-hand combat. Most importantly, as he approached the door, Nava recognised him from the image Rhianna had sent her.

‘Orson Greyling,’ Nava said as he stepped through the door, ‘welcome to what used to be the Redwing Faction’s headquarters on Independence.’

‘Used to be,’ Orson said. ‘Yeah. You did all this?’

‘I did.’

‘Alone?’

‘Correct.’

‘Okay.’ He shook his head. He was likely trying to reconcile the destruction of several thousand men and women with the girl standing in front of him in a T-shirt and shorts, neither of which fitted well. ‘Well, I’ll document everything. We want to present the ASF evidence of what’s happened. Uh, it’s fine calling me Orson for now, but I have an alias here. If we have to go anywhere there are other people, I’m Sebastian Rake.’

‘Understood. I made a start at examining their servers, but I assume you’ll want to go through them yourself.’

Orson patted the bag he had slung over one shoulder. ‘I’ll crack my way in and then dump everything onto this storage unit. It’ll go back to Shinden with you. It’s going to be something like thirty hours before the Yosozume gets here to pick you up, though, so we may as well take a look at what we’ve got while the data is copying.’

Nava nodded. ‘Let’s get things started then. The data centre is this way.’ She set off down the corridor to her left.

‘Uh, what happened to the Redwings’ leader?’

‘I killed him.’

‘Oh. I bet the ASF would have liked to have him alive to put on trial.’

‘Perhaps. They don’t get the option, however. I executed him for them. I was, after all, just returning the favour.’

‘Huh?’

‘He executed me,’ Nava said, ‘so I disintegrated him in the ops room.’ She waved at one of the doors they were passing.

Orson was silent for a second or so. ‘He, uh, executed you?’

‘Well, yes, but I got better.’

Portdown, Independence, 237/12/9.

Independence was a fairly crowded planet if you looked at the bare statistics. It had a population of five billion, which was a billion over its theoretical carrying capacity, but that belied a fact which was common to many human worlds: most people lived in the cities, so there was a fair amount of empty space.

Portdown was ninety kilometres from the Redwing base and was Independence’s most prominent commercial hub. The planetside spaceport facilities used by ninety percent of traffic on and off world were there. There was a business district packed with high-rise buildings housing the offices of numerous companies. The rest of the city was housing for the workers who kept those businesses and the spaceport working.

Nava watched the city pass by from the passenger seat of Orson’s SUV. They were heading for his home to wait out the remainder of the time before the Yosozume arrived to take Nava away. Currently, she was unsure how they were going to get around the fact that she was not officially on the planet, so the authorities might be troublesome when it came time to leave. Orson did not seem concerned, however, so she was trying not to dwell on it. Trust the family. The Greylings had shown no signs of betraying Nava’s trust so far, unlike the ASF.

Her general impression of the city was grey. Everything was grey concrete and tinted glass. Independence had a year-round tropical climate – which was one of the reasons she had selected her replacement clothes – and the buildings had been designed to alleviate the heat. Unlike Aquaria, the planet tended to sultry, overcast skies and high humidity. It had significantly more landmass than Aquaria, and sufficient diversity in the planets and animals Nava had seen to suggest that it had once been a Harbinger colony.

‘Liberty City looks better,’ Orson said, apparently reading Nava’s mind on the subject of the view. ‘More parks and such. It was also designed to look like a capital city. This place… Well, design had little to do with it after they completed the first stage of the spaceport.’

‘What do you do here?’ Nava asked.

‘Keep an eye on things. For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be kicking myself over not knowing the Redwings were here in such large numbers, but mostly I watch the bureaucrats and diplomats in case someone might pose a threat to the clan.’

‘Bureaucrats? I thought Independence was famously a democracy. That sounds like their administration holds the power.’

‘Theoretically, decisions here are made using a planetwide, one citizen, one vote system. Practically, all the power resides in the bureaucracy which enacts the “wishes of the people.” It’s pretty unlikely that they’ll ever decide to push any form of aggressive agenda which could affect the Clan Worlds, but we like to keep an eye on them.’

‘Is it just me or does this place seem a little backward? In terms of technology, I mean.’

‘Another aspect of bureaucratic control. Innovation isn’t discouraged, but it’s not encouraged either. They strictly limit imports from the Clan Worlds and the Consortium. Magicians are under fairly strict control here.’

‘Hm. I can’t wait to leave.’

‘It’s not so bad when you get used to it.’

Nava was silent for a second or two. ‘Are you trying to convince me or yourself?’

~~~

Orson’s apartment was fairly nice. It was near the top of a building which ran to seventy-six floors, but there was not much of a view from the lounge window because it was surrounded by other tall buildings. Between the tint on the windows, the concrete construction, and the overcast sky, it would likely have been a fairly mediocre view anyway.

‘There’s a guest room, if you want to sleep,’ Orson said. ‘I’ll have a change of clothes ready for you in a couple of hours. I’ve had word from the Yosozume. They’re in the system, arriving in orbit in about seven hours.’

‘Okay.’ Not having a ketcom was starting to annoy Nava. ‘How are you getting me out anyway? I can’t imagine spaceport security is going to like me having no arrival records.’

‘No, they wouldn’t. We could do it all covert and ship you out on a dropship from outside the city, but if we’re spotted, it’ll turn into a whole big thing.’

‘I should imagine.’

‘So, we’ll just bribe the right people. Since the populace basically knows that the bureaucrats have all the power, and the money to be honest, they’re generally pretty willing to break the rules so long as they get paid and aren’t likely to get caught. On Independence, it’s usually easier to throw money at a problem rather than being really sneaky.’

‘Huh. Fair enough. I’ll sleep for a couple of hours. What kind of clothes are you planning to put me in?’

‘Oh, something that’ll look right on Independence. Guest room’s through that door.’

Nava started for the indicated doorway. ‘Your lack of description does not fill me with confidence.’

‘It’ll be fine…’

~~~

‘And this is what the fashionable young women of Portdown are wearing currently?’ Nava asked.

‘It was fashionable in Liberty City a couple of months ago,’ Orson said. ‘Takes a little while to spread, so the really hot months have passed since. I think it’s still a popular look there, though, and it’s hitting its peak here now that the knockoffs have started coming out rather than the expensive designer versions.’

‘Huh.’ Nava could not imagine how what she was wearing could be expensive, no matter who had designed it. She was in high-heeled platform pumps made entirely out of transparent plastic, and they looked to be the most expensive part of her ensemble. Her skirt was about as short as a skirt could be and still be called a skirt. It had layers of frills and was made out of some sort of sparkly satin-like fabric in dark grey. Her top was a short tank with a very loose neckline resulting, more often than not, in one shoulder sliding down her arm. It was further shortened by being knotted under her right arm. It was the same sort of fabric as her skirt, but in a pale-silver colour. ‘I generally wear darker colours, but I suppose I’m trying to fit in.’

‘That’s pretty subdued. A lot of these outfits come in, um, let’s call them “primary colours.”’

‘Primary?’

‘They make your eyes bleed.’

‘Thank you for avoiding those then.’

Orson shrugged. ‘I’m the one who’d be looking at you. You should go for a lot of makeup too. I got you a selection.’

Nava nodded. ‘Very well. You said we were past the hottest months? It’s cooler now?’

That Independence tended to the warm was clear from Orson’s own wardrobe. There was a lot of mesh tops involved. Not necessarily transparent but designed to let air flow against the skin. It was not just the women who wore relatively brief outfits, though Nava felt this particular fashion trend was taking it a little too far. The idea that it got hotter was… uncomfortable.

‘We’ve got a thirty-five-degree axial tilt here,’ Orson said. ‘We get seasons. Of course, it never gets really cold, but it varies. Late summer is hot.’

‘At least I was kidnapped in a more temperate season. I think my girlfriend would like this. Maybe I should go shopping before I leave.’

‘You know you don’t have any money, right?’

‘I’ll put it on expenses. She’s a Trenton. I think she can afford to reimburse our family for some scraps of fabric.’ Turning, Nava looked out through the lounge window. ‘On second thoughts, I’ve changed my mind. Does it always rain this hard here?’

‘Oh, no. The rainy season isn’t ’til next month.’

237/12/10.

It was still raining with significant force when Orson drove Nava to the spaceport. It was early in the morning, still dark, but there were plenty of people around the terminal building where, Orson said, a shuttle would be waiting to take her up to the Yosozume.

A somewhat nervous-looking security official met them in one of the passenger lounges. She was a small woman in a puce uniform which did absolutely nothing for her. It would not have done anything for any human. Maybe it would have looked good on a Harbinger, but Nava doubted it. Maybe all the good colours had been taken by the time they designed the spaceport security uniforms.

‘The shuttle landed ten minutes ago,’ she said. ‘I can get you through the service areas to their pad.’

Orson nodded and took out his ketcom. ‘Half now, half when I’m back safely outside.’

‘Yeah, I know. Like usual. You could learn to trust more, Sebastian.’

‘Do you trust me that much?’

There was some grumbling. The officer led the way to a security door, opened it with a key card, and they set off toward the pad where the shuttle was waiting through corridors the public were never meant to lay eyes upon. The corridors started out bare and utilitarian, but as they got closer to the landing pads, they became more industrial with bundles of cables running along the ceiling.

Nava was not sure whether Orson really distrusted their guide. It seemed more like this was how things were done, including the woman suggesting that Orson should trust her more and him denying her. How long had Orson been stationed on Independence? He seemed to know the place well. He had contacts. Some of those contacts appeared to be more like friends than business associates, like this one. Friends you did not quite trust, perhaps, but friends.

They came out of a doorway at the side of one of the landing pads and Nava immediately recognised one of the shuttles the Yosozume carried. She did not recognise the man standing at the foot of the stairs to its hatch, but she had not memorised the entire family.

Orson seemed to know him. ‘Patrice. As requested, one missing person returned undamaged.’

Patrice grinned. He looked the kind of man to have a ready grin. He had copper hair, bright green eyes, and light freckles across his cheeks and nose. ‘And the data?’

Nava lifted the briefcase she was carrying. ‘All here.’

‘Then let’s get off this sweaty mudball.’

Nava turned to Orson. ‘Thank you for your assistance, Sebastian.’ She gave a nod to their guide too. ‘I won’t say it was a pleasure being here.’

‘Well, no,’ Orson replied. ‘Under the circumstances, you’d be crazy to say it was.’

Nava gave a slight shrug. ‘No one’s ever accused me of being particularly sane…’

Trenton Mansion, Shinden, 237/12/11.

Patrice turned out to be the senior shuttle pilot aboard the Yosozume. He was the one who flew Nava to the mansion, setting the hundred-ton vessel down on the pad as gently as a feather.

Mitsuko, Melissa, and Rhianna were there to meet her and take her inside. Mitsuko was, unsurprisingly, rather pleased to have her back on Shinden and safe. Melissa was less demonstrative about it, but also pleased to see Nava safe and sound. Rhianna was pleased, and also not entirely happy. The latter was not because Nava was safe.

‘We got the preliminary report from Orson,’ Rhianna said as they walked inside. ‘The Yosozume sent us the video Orson took of the Redwings’ base. We’re sending that and the initial report to the ASF, but they haven’t rescinded the arrest warrant yet. We’ve had to inform them that you’re back on Shinden.’

‘Of course,’ Nava replied.

‘How many of them do you think you took out?’

‘Honestly, I have no idea. Several thousand. I used Magic Burst and Armageddon a lot. I made something of a mess but counting them was not on my priority list.’

‘I’d imagine not. Anyway, it was a mess, sure, but it was a good mess. You made a good start. We’ll get the rest of the data to the ASF, and it’ll be up to them to finish what you started.’

‘Hopefully,’ Mitsuko said, ‘they’ll also realise what you’ve done for them and drop this stupid warrant.’

‘Somehow,’ Nava said, ‘I don’t expect that to happen. Of course, we can live in hope at least until they turn up to arrest me.’

~~~

It did not take long for a team from the ASF to turn up at the mansion. Actually, there were two teams: Fawn arrived in a contragrav about ten minutes before Haydn Lamar and Sophie Perry arrived in a tiltrotor accompanied by a squad of armed law-enforcement officers. For the past fifteen minutes, Fawn, Rhianna, and Zackery had been arguing with Haydn and Sophie over whether it was necessary to arrest Nava.

‘What are the chances of you staying out of a cell?’ Mitsuko asked quietly. She was watching too.

‘Between seventeen and twenty-five percent,’ Nava replied. ‘She’s a little hamstrung by available data at the moment. Her predictions aren’t very accurate.’ She was referring to Jenna, of course, but using that name where an ASF officer might hear it was forbidden at the moment.

‘Accurate enough that we got through the last few days pretty much exactly as we wanted.’

‘Agreed, but there was a lot of room for failure. If Mel hadn’t come up with that idea to trick Laura, for example, the chances of your father surviving were more or less fifty-fifty. And Misaki had a forty percent chance of being targeted and killed instead.’

‘Oh.’

‘You have video evidence that Nava Greyling is not a Redwing agent,’ Rhianna was saying. ‘Do you think she would have eliminated seventy-five percent of their number, including the vast majority of their leaders, and including Gregory Shearer Redwing, if she was one of them?’ Rhianna’s heart was not entirely in this; she knew the probabilities as predicted by Jenna as well as the Greyling profiles on Haydn and Sophie, and she knew she was probably preaching to an audience of atheists. Rhianna was working on damage control rather than stopping the almost inevitable.

Fawn had seen none of those reports. ‘The IRD did a thorough psychological profile of Nava when she was brought to Shinden. We established that she opposes the Redwing Faction more vehemently than we–’

‘The IRD wanted a powerful asset,’ Sophie stated flatly. She was implying that the IRD had flubbed the analysis on purpose. Fawn bristled.

‘As for this evidence,’ Haydn said, ‘we are currently analysing the video you provided.’ Which meant they thought it was fake. ‘If genuine’ – and that was saying it was fake – ‘it does not prove that Nava Greyling killed those people, or that the bodies belong to Redwings. We have a warrant for Nava Greyling’s arrest. We intend to serve that warrant such that Nava Greyling can be questioned. If we are satisfied that she is innocent, there’s nothing to worry about.’

‘Is there nothing to worry about?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘If they take me in,’ Nava replied, ‘there’s a ninety percent chance of this ending badly.’

‘Oh.’

‘For the ASF.’

‘Huh?’

‘Nava could be placed under house arrest,’ Zackery said. ‘Here or at Castle Grey, she will be available for questioning as required without the appearance of the ASF hounding a decorated schoolgirl.’

‘Your father is about as angry as I’ve ever seen him,’ Nava said.

‘Frankly, Zackery Trenton,’ Haydn said, ‘the ASF considers her a flight risk and her involvement with your daughter makes this an unsuitable location for her to be held.’

Mitsuko winced. ‘Yes, he’s angry, and that detective’s career just ended.’

‘I see,’ Zackery said. Zackery was basically a politician, the leader of one of the most prominent clans in the Alliance, but he had been a commander in the ASF, and courtesy dictated that his title still be used, especially when he was being addressed by an ASF officer of lower rank. Zackery turned and looked back at Nava. Nava gave him a nod. ‘It seems that we can’t persuade you to be reasonable.’

‘We are being reasonable,’ Sophie said. ‘We’re doing our job.’

‘If you’re questioning her,’ Fawn said, giving up on trying to stop them since Zackery was capitulating, ‘you can’t use Down on her. It’s in her medical records.’

‘We’ll take that under advisement,’ Haydn said. ‘Nava Greyling Sonkei, you are under arrest for–’

Nava started toward him, speaking as she went. ‘Please don’t bother listing the things I didn’t do, Captain Haydn Lamar. We both know, I hope, that you don’t have long to question me before you have to let me go. Let’s get this over with so that we can get the ASF focused on what it should be doing right now.’

‘Major Deveraux Wescott is on that, Nava,’ Fawn said. ‘I’ve been assigned the task of making sure these idiots don’t screw everything up while we work.’

Nava watched Haydn and Sophie bristle at that phrasing. It was amusing, but Nava remained as stoic as ever as she responded. ‘I’m afraid, Fawn, that it’s a little too late for that.’

Fawn’s eyes widened. ‘You called me Fawn. You never…’ She turned a look of something like pure hatred upon Haydn. He actually took a half step back. ‘This is not how I wanted you to start using my name, Nava.’

‘But at least I’m using it…’

Alliance City, 237/12/12.

The cell Nava spent the night in was, as cells went, quite comfortable. It was a single room with a reasonably comfortable bunk bed and an attached cubicle with a toilet and sink rather than those being in the same room. There was a camera in the cubicle, but it was better than the main room which had a massive window in it; it had been decided that magicians under custody should be interacted with as little as possible, so they were normally spoken to through the window.

Since this was a cell designed for holding magicians, it was also fitted with a suppression field, of course. Unlike Nava’s cell in the Redwing compound, this was a permanently fitted suppression system with more power than the portable unit the Redwings used. Still, a little testing suggested that Nava could successfully cast a spell a little less than half the time. Luckily, she was not expecting to have to break out of this prison.

At eight in the morning, Haydn and Sophie entered the cell with another ASF officer behind them. Nava knew what was coming and suspected that this woman was a medical technician. A medical technician who was probably about to have a bad morning.

‘We’re ready to start your interrogation now,’ Haydn said.

‘I suppose it was getting quite late when you got me here last night,’ Nava said. ‘I did say you should start early. Now you only have a few minutes.’

Sophie smirked. ‘Your friends the Trentons aren’t going to get you out of here in the next few minutes, girl.’

‘That wasn’t what I meant.’

The smirk turned into a slight frown. ‘Standard procedure for interrogating magicians is to inject them with a drug named Down which–’

‘I know what Down is. First Lieutenant Fawn Tyrell warned you not to use it on me. She stated that the reason was documented in my medical records. I will state that reason here, again, since I’m sure this conversation is being recorded. I suffer a severe adverse reaction to Down. It’s toxic to me. It results in almost immediate unconsciousness. That is why you only have a few minutes here, First Lieutenant Sophie Perry, because you will have an order to release me before I wake up.’

Haydn, his eyes fixed on Nava, waved the technician forward. ‘Give her the injection.’

‘Sir, if she really does have–’

‘Do it.’

As the tech pressed her syringe to Nava’s shoulder, Nava said, ‘Now that you’ve ordered this poor woman to give me the drug, and after I warned you what would happen, you realise what’s going to happen after this, don’t you?’

‘You’re going to tell us what really happened on Independence,’ Haydn replied. ‘Assuming you were really there.’

Nava did not answer. Her head was starting to throb. ‘Her nose is bleeding,’ the meditech said. ‘Shit! Did any of you bother looking at her records? She–’ Whatever else she said, Nava did not hear it.

~~~

Nava woke up with a headache. She was horizontal this time rather than cuffed to a wall. She was also in a comfortable bed with some sort of light cover over her body and the sensation that sensors were stuck to her skin in various places. There was the sound of medical monitors from nearby. She was in some form of hospital. She opened her eyes.

‘Welcome back,’ Fawn said. The lieutenant was smiling, but it was the kind of smile you put on when you were trying to make the best of a bad situation. Fawn was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

‘How long was I out?’

‘Twelve or thirteen hours. I should get your doctor in here.’

‘Don’t bother. I’m casting Active Recovery right now. I’ll be back to full health in a couple of seconds. This is an ASF infirmary?’

‘Uh, yes. How did you–’

‘Suki isn’t here. Assuming she knows what happened.’

‘I called to say you were being transferred to this place. And that you’d be free once you got out of here. They, uh, refused to allow her to visit. They were just being petty at that point, but this is supposed to be a secure facility.’

‘As I assumed.’

‘We’ve sent local ASF teams in to capture as many of the Redwings as we could. There are task forces assigned to go bring in the rest. They’ll be leaving, uh, actually they’ll be leaving about now. We’re expecting the Redwing Faction to be almost entirely dead or in custody within the next few days.’

‘That’s good.’

Fawn suppressed a wince. ‘What are you going to do now?’

‘Leave here as soon as I have clothes to wear. I’ll finish up the report I was writing for the IRD regarding the Redwings on Independence tonight. You’ll have it by morning along with my letter of resignation. I owed the ASF for finding me and bringing me to Shinden. I considered service in the ASF to be a reasonable payment. Now that I have essentially destroyed the Redwing Faction, and the ASF has demonstrated a total lack of loyalty to me for my actions on its behalf, I believe I have repaid that debt in full.’

Now Fawn did wince. ‘I’m not going to argue. Someone will. Uh, an investigation into your treatment here is starting tomorrow. Zackery Trenton and Misaki Himura got involved after they found out what happened.’

‘I’ve told you before that I consider the use of Down by the ASF unethical. If this results in that practice being suspended or stopped, I’ll consider the headache worth it.’

‘There’s no way we can persuade you to stick with the IRD?’

‘No. I should point out that the IRD and the Greylings work together on a fairly frequent basis. I think it likely that we will be working together in the future. I simply no longer trust the ASF enough to allow myself to be in a position where I must follow their orders.’

‘I’m going to miss being your liaison officer. I’ll even miss you calling me “First Lieutenant.”’

Nava sat up in bed and began to yank sensor leads off her skin. ‘But, First Lieutenant, if we are no longer part of the same command structure, you can become something I’d much prefer.’

‘And what’s that?’

‘My friend Fawn.’

Part Five: The Voice of Magic

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 237/12/15.

Unfortunately, Nava was back in school in plenty of time to undergo the capacity test mandated for all third years. Really, the damn Redwings could not get a single thing right; if they had just waited a few days to kidnap her, Nava would have been able to skip this whole thing. Oh well, everyone had to find out what she could do eventually, and too many were starting to figure it out anyway.

This year, as had been suggested, there were two capacity-testing machines to work with. The old and the new stood side-by-side, and you used the new one first because it required only a cantrip-level spell which was no effort for anyone. Nava stepped up to it, ready for her true capacity to be revealed to the world.

‘Do you need the schema for this?’ the tester asked.

‘No.’ Nava raised her hand and fired off a forty-four-Tammy test spell without a second’s thought. She looked up at the screen.

‘Damn thing’s not working,’ the tester said, frowning. The display gave her a capacity of four hundred and forty-seven to four hundred and fifty-one. They had made the readout more readable to the typical user at least. ‘That can’t be right.’

Around the room, Nava’s fellow students were sounding restive. Those close enough to see the display were passing the figures on, and everyone could hear what was being said. Had Nava broken the machine? Was she really capable of that kind of magic?

Nava took a step sideways and, without waiting for the tester, tapped in a figure. She ignored the displayed schema, hit the start button, raised her arm, and released the spell.

There were gasps. The only people there who were not surprised were Rochester and Melissa. Everyone else, students and faculty alike, were having some trouble believing what they were seeing.

Luca Newton was there to see the results her class members were getting, and she stepped closer and examined the display. ‘Have you been faking your test scores for the past two years, Nava Greyling?’

‘I had my reasons, Miss Luca Newton,’ Nava replied. ‘That machine’ – she indicated the new device – ‘is not going to let me continue to do that. I think those paying attention will have already figured it out, however. My using Armageddon last winter was something of a giveaway.’

‘Hm. You may have a point. There have been some comments…’ The teacher gave a shrug. ‘Well, you passed.’

‘Yes. I wonder who won the sweepstake this year?’

‘Not that I know what you’re talking about, but if anyone were to ask me, I would suggest that it was declared void due to exceptional circumstances.’

‘You may have a point.’

~~~

‘One hundred and thirty,’ Mitsuko said with some pride. ‘I’m quite pleased with that.’

It was lunchtime and, by this point, all the usual lunch gang had been through the capacity tests. It was, perhaps, inevitable that scores were being compared.

‘I’m still on one ten,’ Melissa said, ‘but I found it a lot easier to do the improvisation this year, so I think I’ve improved in other ways. And I have rank five Flight memorised now. And my flight control has improved. I think I may be manipulating quintessence more effectively.’

‘My capacity has broken one hundred,’ Rochester said. ‘I am quite happy with that. I should attain a passing score by the time I graduate at this rate.’

‘And the new machine is working,’ Hoshi said. ‘There was something of a scare when Nava took her test, but that was resolved when she demonstrated the predicted capacity on the old machine. Rumour has it that Joslyn Harris wasn’t best pleased when she found out you’d been faking your scores, Nava.’

‘She is a bit of a stickler for the rules,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Yes, but it turns out there isn’t a rule saying you have to give accurate capacity test scores, so she’s had to let it slide. Especially since Auberon Ewart doesn’t care, or so I’ve heard.’

‘I’ve heard nothing from any of the faculty,’ Nava said.

‘We’ve also not heard anything from Cari,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Your test was yesterday, wasn’t it? How did you do.’

Carina looked up from her food. ‘I got a hunumble,’ she said, very much mumbling the last word.

‘Pardon?’

‘A hundred.’ It was quiet this time, but it was decipherable.

Mitsuko’s eyes widened. ‘That’s…’

‘Thirty points up on last year,’ Nava said. ‘That’s quite a rise.’

Carina affected a worried sort of scowl. ‘This time I know my seal is slipping. Trudy says my overall power level hasn’t gone up by that much. When I broke my seals that time, when they went back, they weren’t covering everything they used to.’

‘Interesting.’

‘Disastrous! What if–’

‘If the Key to Darkness turn up to claim you,’ Melissa said, ‘they’ll have to get through Nava, who now officially has a capacity of four hundred and fifty.’

‘Well, that is a point…’

‘Actually, Nava, you’re still using rank five Flight, yes? What could you do if you improvised it?’

‘Twenty-four,’ Rochester replied before Nava could do the calculation.

‘Technically true,’ Nava said, ‘but that would make my top speed around thirty-five percent of the speed of light, which is entirely impractical. Has anyone heard what score Taryn Borchardt got?’

‘She’s the second in the year,’ Hoshi said. ‘Two hundred and forty, if I’m remembering right. She’s actually second in the school, even including the graduating sixth years. Any other year, she would be attracting a lot of attention, but…’

‘Oh,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Somehow I don’t think she’s going to take that well.’

‘No,’ Nava agreed. ‘I don’t suppose she will.’

237/12/16.

‘Here she comes,’ Mitsuko said.

‘That took longer than I thought,’ Melissa said.

Nava said nothing; she had spotted Taryn entering the refectory a few seconds earlier and knew the woman was coming to see her, largely due to the annoyed expression on the redhead’s face.

‘Why?’ Taryn said as soon as she was close enough.

‘You’ll have to give me a little more than that. I–’

‘You know very well what I mean. Why have you been saying you have a lower capacity than you really have? For years! Why?’

‘I didn’t want the attention.’ That was certainly one reason Nava had for not giving her real capacity.

‘What?’ The look of perplexity – mixed with annoyance – seemed to be entirely genuine. ‘What’s the point of having that kind of power if no one knows about it? They gave you a damn medal. Isn’t that attention?’

‘I didn’t want the medal either, Taryn Borchardt. I accepted it because I was one of many. My intention in coming to SAS-squared was to have a relatively normal life, in a relatively normal school, doing what a normal schoolgirl does. I am not you. I don’t need everyone to know I’m the best. I do not look at the capacity tests as a competition.’

Perplexity turned to frustration. ‘I am me. How am I supposed to catch up to you? How am I supposed to beat four hundred and fifty? That’s the kind of power Winter Glass had.’

‘Winter Glass Firmin had a capacity of four hundred and seventy.’

‘First, twenty points is nothing. Second, how do you know that?’

‘We looked up the most powerful weather controller in the Clan Worlds when that lunatic was threatening Alliance City with a hurricane,’ Melissa supplied. ‘A-and then Winter Glass turned out to be working with the lunatic.’

‘The point,’ Nava said, ‘is that I have a high capacity, but not an unheard of one. If you work diligently, you could achieve the same level. As for why I have it now, that information is classified. By the ASF. I’m not making this up. I can tell you that you do not want to go through the same experience I did to match me.’

‘With great power,’ Melissa said, ‘comes a mangled childhood. And possibly a dead uncle.’

Taryn looked at her. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ She turned back to Nava. ‘Some sort of advanced training when you were a child?’

‘I’m not sure I’d use the word advanced. Torturous. I might use the word torturous.’ Of course, Nava was not really telling the truth. About her capacity anyway; she certainly had been through torturous training from a very young age.

‘Okay… I guess if it’s training, then maybe I could catch up.’

Nava marvelled at Taryn’s ability to take just about anything as a challenge. ‘Another reason I preferred to keep my capacity secret was that I was worried I would discourage others from trying in the face of a target they might feel they could never reach. If you instead take this as encouragement to try even harder, then perhaps I was not entirely right. Just don’t overdo it.’

Taryn appeared to consider that for a second. ‘I don’t think you should take me as a general case. I’m very competitive.’ She turned, starting away. Then she paused and looked back. ‘And I will overdo it. I have to be me.’

‘I see.’ Nava gave a shrug. ‘If more people stuck to being themselves, the world would be a better place. But if you’re going to collapse from exhaustion, try to do it near the infirmary. I don’t need the extra paperwork.’

Taryn walked away from the table. She had arrived angry. She was laughing fit to burst as she left.

237/12/18.

The theme of the winter ball this year was ‘A Victorian Christmas.’ Pretty much everyone involved outside of the Art Club had no idea what that was. They had heard of Christmas. They had heard of Victorians – some of them anyway. What made a Victorian Christmas special was known only to the new Art Club director, who happened to be a Bishop. There had been scrutiny of the concept artwork by the student council to see whether this was a sneaky way of getting religious imagery into the ball, but this particular Bishop seemed to be more about the art concept than the Christianity.

So, Nava, Mitsuko, and Melissa stood surrounded by dark-wood panelling in what looked much like a ballroom you might find in numerous times and places on old Earth. There were a lot of candles in silver candelabras. Greenery was draped around the walls, and Nava had been told that they were mistletoe and holly. There was, apparently, a tradition regarding mistletoe and kissing, but no one was entirely sure how it worked. A massive, illusory conifer was taking up illusory space behind the fire, along with a huge fireplace which, for some reason, had socks nailed to it. The tree was emblazoned with coloured baubles and tiny glowing lights.

The one thing wrong with the scene was the people. They were dressed for a ball, but Nava very much doubted that the Victorians had dressed like this. Well, maybe they had dressed like Carina who was wearing the same pseudo-military Gothic outfit as last year. Mitsuko had offered to buy her a gown, but Carina had seen what Mitsuko had bought for herself, Nava, and Melissa, and she had given a flat refusal. Even Mitsuko had agreed that Carina’s outfit suited her better anyway.

The gown Carina had refused… Mitsuko had arranged for three matching gowns for the trio. They were the same design, but different colours, though in Nava’s opinion, only Melissa’s had a real colour. The design was a low-cut, halter-necked, floor-length gown, split to the hip on the right side. There was, essentially, no back, just a strip which connected the neck to the bottom waistline, except the ‘waist’ line was down at the hips; the back barely covered their behinds. Or Melissa’s behind; her gown was red and a bit more opaque thanks both to the colour and the pattern woven into the thin fabric. You could still see definite signs of nipple through it, and she was wearing stick-on panties so as not to reveal more. Nava’s gown was black with a swirling pattern in the fabric, and it did little to conceal what was beneath. Mitsuko… Mitsuko’s gown was made from gold fishnet; it basically hid nothing. Nava had made some comments, but she had not actually stopped her girlfriend from wearing the dress. Standing near the food counters, watching for problems, the trio were getting a lot of attention. Surprisingly, Melissa did not seem to be too worried about that.

‘Naomi is going to fall over his tongue when he sees me in this,’ Melissa said, grinning.

‘I’d suggest having a mop and bucket handy,’ Nava said. ‘The drool may be an issue. You’re going to join him in Alliance City tomorrow?’

‘First thing. Two weeks of seeing if we can really spend extended time together without killing each other.’

‘Try to get some sleep,’ Mitsuko said, ‘or you really will kill each other. We’ll expect you at the mansion for the Alliance Day party.’

‘Naomi’s already got those two days off. We’ll be there.’

‘And I get a week in Castle Grey the week after next,’ Nava said. ‘I will also be at the mansion in time for the party.’

‘More spy training?’ Melissa asked.

‘I have no idea. Nobuyuki will probably beat me up several times. Beyond that, I’m unsure of what they have planned.’

‘Try to return unbruised,’ Mitsuko said.

‘You know full well that there won’t be a mark on me. I use rank five Active Recovery now. I can literally come back from the dead. Barring disintegration anyway.’

‘Don’t get disintegrated then.’

‘Well, obviously, I’ll do my best to avoid that…’

~~~

‘Is Taryn avoiding you?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘It appears that way,’ Nava replied. They were out on the dance floor, waltzing. Nava was feeling less awkward about the experience than the previous year, though no one other than her friends would have been able to spot the difference. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘She’s at the food counters now. It could be a coincidence that she waited for us to vacate the area, but…’

‘If I had to guess, she’s trying to process being so far behind me regarding her capacity.’

‘Not that you think there’s anything to process.’

‘Objectively, no, but this is Taryn we’re talking about. Her core personality attribute is competition. She has to come to terms with the possibility of being unable to win at something. I have confidence that she can manage it.’

‘Really?’

‘She has insecurities that she’s come to terms with. She’s not that confident about her looks.’

Mitsuko grinned. ‘That’s hard to believe considering that gown she’s barely dressed in.’

‘I believe something about the pot and the kettle is appropriate here. However, she over-compensates for her perceived faults by emphasising the physical aspects she believes she does well in. Hence the barely restrained breasts and highly visible legs. She was quite open about it last year. The point is that she can handle being unable to compete when she has to.’

‘And you think she’ll come to terms with being unable to match your capacity?’

‘Ah well, that remains to be seen.’

~~~

‘Isn’t that the same outfit as you wore last year?’ Dove asked. She was talking at Carina, of course.

‘In these times of turmoil and twilight,’ Carina replied and Dove’s face hardened, ‘with the ancient darkness beating upon the walls of reality… I find myself on a fixed budget, so buying a new outfit seemed like an unnecessary expense.’

Dove’s expression of disapproval faltered a little. ‘Uh, that’s kind of practical, I guess. I, uh, spent a little more on this gown than I planned for.’

‘And I said I would help out if you needed it, Dove,’ Yaeko said. Yaeko’s posse had turned up to talk to Carina, and she was not sure what she had done in her past life to deserve that, so it had to be the work of the dark gods. Yaeko turned a concerned expression on Carina, which even looked genuine. ‘I’m a little surprised your housemates didn’t gift you a new gown, Carina.’

‘Oh, well, uh, Suki did offer to buy me a gown…’

‘You’re expected to accept that kind of gift, you know,’ Dove said. ‘When our betters show appreciation in the form of gifts, we–’

‘And you’re not going to try to avoid getting help from Yaeko?’ Carina broke in. Dove blushed and looked away. Yaeko pretended not to see. ‘Anyway,’ Carina went on, ‘it was going to be like the gowns Suki, Nava, and Mel are in. Have you seen what they’re wearing? I may know nothing about fashion at all, but could you see me in one of those gowns?’

She was rewarded by three abashed faces; the trio of social bullies could not think of a way of putting it politely, but no, none of them could imagine Carina dressed like that. Even if she was effectively inviting them to pass a negative opinion – or maybe because she was – they were not going to say it.

‘I would not say you know nothing about fashion,’ Yaeko said after a couple of seconds. ‘I actually think that outfit suits you quite well. It may not be entirely suitable for a formal dance… Perhaps you could find some suitably thematic heeled boots for next year. Just a slight change could make all the difference. If I see something, I’ll let you know.’

‘Thank you.’ Talking to Yaeko was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for Carina. Ever since becoming the student vice president, Yaeko had been nicer. Or maybe it had been a slower process going back further; Yaeko had discovered that at least some of Carina’s ‘fantasies’ were not as fantastic as everyone assumed, like the seals on her power which had turned out to be real, and Yaeko had come to think of Carina as less of an embarrassment. The capacity tests this year had been particularly telling: both Carina and Yaeko had come out at one hundred.

Apparently, something about the tests was still bothering Sommer. And right at that moment too. ‘I still don’t understand why that new capacity machine gave you such a big range for your capacity, Carina. It’s been bugging me since they tested you.’

‘Miss Hoshi Horne, who helped develop it, said that the result is based on a statistical analysis of the magnitude, frequency, and phase characteristics of the quintessence pulse you send through the machine. It takes the pulse you can send using a cantrip and extrapolates.’

‘Yeah, I got that.’

For Carina at least, it was always a surprise to discover that Sommer actually paid attention in class. She was actually more talented at sorcery than Yaeko was, though her capacity had come out as ninety this year. ‘So, I can only do nine-Tammy cantrips, which throws it off. My true capacity is much higher than what I can actually do with my seals in place.’

‘You confused the machine.’

‘The algorithm wasn’t designed for this sort of circumstance. Miss Hoshi Horne said they were going to consider means of dealing with the problem, but it wasn’t a priority because no one else is fated to be the pawn of ancient gods in their fight to bring darkness to the universe.’

Yaeko actually grinned. She grinned! ‘You just can’t help slipping back into your little delusion, can you?’

Carina frowned at her. ‘Well, setting aside that the Key to Darkness is real, isn’t that what delusional people do?’

Sommer gave a slight shrug. ‘You know, Yaeko, she does have a point…’

~~~

‘I’ve been hearing some rumours,’ Mitsuko said. She was back near the food with Nava and Melissa, though there was not much food left to watch.

‘Oh?’ Nava asked. ‘Rumours are not generally a good thing.’

‘These might be, depending on your outlook. The administration may be considering changing the uniform. There may be a consultation process next year with the change happening the year after, if it happens.’

‘I would be happy with something that showed less skin,’ Melissa said. ‘Carina would be happy if she could be more covered up in winter.’

‘The heels have to be optional,’ Nava added. ‘I can’t see them being able to make it worse. Are they trying to distance the school from the ASF?’

‘Something like that,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Less distance, more differentiate. While the majority of combat students move on to the ASF, the majority of support students do not. The combat uniform would stay the same, and that’s to help familiarise students with the ASF’s combat gear. Perhaps Auberon thinks we’re becoming too focused on the ASF.’

‘Well, I may be biased at the moment, but I don’t think he’s wrong.’

‘I’m having second thoughts about going into diplomatic protection,’ Melissa said.

‘Don’t let my experience influence your decisions, Mel,’ Nava said. ‘I still think you’re a good fit for that role. Of course, if you want to go another way, that’s also fine. It’s your choice.’

‘I know. It’s three years away anyway.’ She giggled. ‘In that time, Naomi might have quit to take a more extensive role in the Sonkei clan. I might end up being a party hostess full-time.’

‘Now that,’ Nava said, ‘would be a waste.’

Castle Grey, 237/12/28.

‘How are you two doing?’ Nava asked. Visiting Jenna and Karen had not been an absolute given while she was training at Castle Grey. Nava had been a little ambivalent about doing so in fact.

‘Great!’ Karen replied immediately. Then she backtracked. ‘Maybe not great. On the very, very, very big plus side, they took the bomb out of my head. Any surviving Redwings can’t send a signal to turn my brains to soup. And they didn’t put in some other control to replace it. On the other hand, neither of us is allowed to leave the compound. That’s not the best.’

‘They trust you more than me,’ Jenna said. ‘The Redwings did you a favour installing that bomb. It made it clear you were working for them under duress.’

‘I could live without that kind of favour.’ Karen frowned at Nava. ‘Look, um, I should apologise for stunning you, drugging you, and teleporting you into their hands, but if I hadn’t–’

‘I understand,’ Nava said. ‘Besides, you do realise that I let you take me, don’t you?’ This was actually the first time Nava had really met Karen. Really, it was the first time Karen had met Nava, while Nava was conscious anyway.

‘Jenna said she’d predicted more or less their whole plot. I guess you might have dodged me. I can’t believe you let me grab you just so you could get to the Redwing leaders. That could have gone really wrong.’

‘It was a risk I considered worthwhile to end the Redwing Faction. And it will. The ASF are moving on the remaining members now. A few may escape, but the Redwings are a spent force. And there are still three of us left. Considering how the Death’s Handmaiden project ended, I’m happy that three of us survived it.’

‘But you still don’t trust me, right?’ Jenna asked. She was trying for a guilt trip, maybe aiming to get Nava’s support as a fellow survivor.

It was not working. ‘No. With your abilities, you could have escaped if you wanted to. You knew what the Redwings were, unlike Maya and Lauren, but you stuck with them until it became clear that was no longer viable. I understand your reasons, but you could have escaped into the Consortium or another region of space. You, Jenna, are here because it’s expedient, just as it was in the Redwing Faction. That does not inspire trust.’

‘Huh. Well. Yeah, I guess.’

‘Work on it. Prove yourself useful and you could end up in the Greylings properly. Both of you. I wouldn’t hate that.’

‘Such a ringing endorsement.’

‘Have you met me?’

Trenton Mansion, 237/12/35.

‘Do I look pretty, Onee-chan?’

It was the last day of the year. It had been decided that she was now old enough to stay up for the turn of the new year for the first time, though she would be supervised throughout. Thus was Michiko wearing a party dress. Pretty did not cut it.

‘Yes,’ Mitsuko said. ‘You look very pretty, Michiko.’

‘Adorable,’ Melissa agreed.

Michiko pouted a little. ‘I was hoping for sexy.’

‘You can wait to be sexy,’ Nava said. ‘I have no doubt that you will be just as sexy as your sister in a few years. For now, you should be happy with adorable and pretty, in my opinion.’

The pout vanished. ‘Because I don’t want to grow up too soon.’

‘Precisely. Though I think you are allowed to be more grown up now than when we first met. Your dress looks quite grown up.’ The dress in question was pretty staid compared to the outfits Nava, Mitsuko, and Melissa were wearing. Giving the lowest bar possible, it was fully opaque, but it was also almost knee length, and it had a bib front which covered Michiko’s chest quite thoroughly. Michiko now had something of a chest to hide. It was getting hard to think of the girl as a child; back on Earth, she would have been fourteen and progressing steadily into her teens.

‘You really think I’ll be pretty when I grow up, Nava?’

‘At this stage, I think there is little doubt that you’ll be as beautiful as your sister and mother, yes. Don’t let that go to your head, however.’

Michiko covered her mouth as she giggled. ‘I’ll try not to.’

‘Just so long as you don’t try to steal Nava away from me,’ Mitsuko said, ‘you can be even more pretty than I am.’

‘I would never do that, Onee-chan,’ Michiko said, giving her sister a very serious look.

‘I would hope not.’

‘No. There are battles that one cannot win, and it is best to avoid them when one can.’

Nava nodded. ‘True.’ She looked around at Mitsuko. ‘Your sister is smarter than Taryn.’

‘Was there any doubt?’

~~~

‘You’re still together, so I take it your time alone with Mel went well?’

Naomi had the two days of the Alliance Day celebration off work and had elected to join Melissa at the Trentons’ party rather than attending the one his parents were hosting. That had to be a good sign, right? The couple were actually standing right beside each other, Melissa holding Naomi’s arm. No problems there. Mitsuko’s question was primarily for form’s sake; she had already established from Melissa that nothing terrible had happened. But it would be interesting to get Naomi’s take.

Naomi was, as ever, taciturn but not quite as taciturn as Nava. ‘We spent a pleasant two weeks together without encountering any issues which might prove fatal to our relationship.’

‘Naomi…’ Mitsuko shook her head. ‘I realise that this may seem strange coming from me, whose girlfriend has been compared to a robot, but you could show more enthusiasm.’

‘I didn’t expect to encounter any issues, Suki. We are still very much in the honeymoon phase of our dating. It’s normal, I believe, to overlook little idiosyncrasies which will later become annoyances.’ His cheeks coloured. ‘We spent a considerable amount of time doing things which it would be very difficult to complain about anyway. Emotionally, I don’t believe I would ever find anything about Mel annoying.’

Nava, who was standing nearby and ignoring the ‘compared to a robot’ comment, spoke up. ‘Have you seen her collection of sleep shirts?’

Naomi raised an eyebrow. Melissa blushed. ‘I have not had the opportunity to see her wearing anything to bed.’

‘I don’t think they’re actually annoying,’ Nava said, ‘but they may come as a surprise. You should definitely have her model them for you.’

‘That sounds like a great way for her to end up wearing nothing in bed,’ Mitsuko said.

‘They’re educational. I never knew what cows sounded like until I saw Mel in a sleep shirt. And I learned a new Japanese word.’

‘That shirt was a present!’ Melissa yelped.

‘Interesting,’ Naomi said. ‘I’m looking forward to it.’

‘Did I hurt you in a past life, Nava?’ Melissa asked.

‘You know you’re going to get laid after the show,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Big time. You should be thanking Nava.’

Nava waved the comment away. ‘I’m evil. I thought everyone knew that by now.’

‘I’m fairly sure Michiko thinks you’re an angel.’

‘Everyone except Michiko. Michiko can remain innocent of my true nature for a little while longer.’

~~~

Another Himura was skipping her own party to attend the one at the Trenton Mansion; Misaki was wearing a gown with a very low decolletage which was clearly meant to make her look like she was not the Secretary General. Her hair was down, indicating her desire to party. She was not, however, entirely free of work.

‘This is a waste of my time,’ she said once pleasantries had been exchanged, ‘but I should ask if there’s no way you can be persuaded to stay with the ASF.’

‘Consider the question asked, Madam Secretary,’ Nava replied. ‘Now you may concentrate on enjoying yourself, Misaki.’

‘My thanks for differentiating myself from my job. Not everyone can. However, I have another few things to say before I return to being Misaki.’

‘Oh?’

‘Well… In truth, some of this is very much Misaki speaking, but also the Secretary General at the same time. Sometimes, I don’t need to be schizophrenic. I’ve initiated an inquiry into your treatment by the ASF. Not an inconsiderable part of that will be a thorough investigation into the use of Down for the interrogation of magicians in general. My intention is to have that use banned.’

‘That’ll see some opposition,’ Mitsuko commented.

‘Indeed, Aunt Misaki,’ Naomi said. ‘I commend your courage in taking that stance.’

Misaki grimaced. ‘That’s a polite way of calling me stupid, young man.’

‘I don’t think Naomi means it that way, Misaki,’ Melissa said. ‘I think I know both of you well enough to say that he’d tell you you were being stupid if he thought you were.’

‘You may have a point.’

‘I admit that my statement could be taken that way,’ Naomi said, ‘but without a non-magician to champion that cause, we will never see an end to Down’s use in interrogations. Calling it a safety measure is, at best, an obfuscation of the truth.’

‘It’s a lie,’ Nava said. ‘The Redwings used Down on me. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but they had a more valid justification. They intended to use magic to read my mind, so conducting the interrogation in a suppression field would have been impossible. The ASF is not allowed to use mental intrusion as an interrogation technique, so they could conduct interviews in suppression cells without issue. In this circumstance, the ASF’s morals are effectively worse than the Redwing Faction’s.’

‘Can I quote you on that?’ Misaki asked.

‘I’d imagine you’ll ask to depose me at some point. I’ll say the same when you do.’

‘Okay. Uh, if the Redwings gave you Down, I assume they got information– And I’m sensing that they didn’t.’

‘You can’t read an unconscious mind,’ Melissa said. ‘There are things you can do with a sleeping mind, when it’s dreaming. Even then it’s a more complicated process than just riffling through a conscious mind.’

‘Every time I come to these parties, I learn something new. Anyway, Nava, we will be pushing for a resolution to this problem. I will be pushing for a resolution, and I intend to see the people responsible for your treatment punished. I’m told that the prima facie evidence suggests that criminal charges are appropriate, but we’ll have to see how things work out.’

Nava nodded. ‘And now you can get on with enjoying the party.’

‘And now I can get on with just enjoying the party. Thank the stars for that. Where’s my drink?’

~~~

Gloriana Trenton was her usual beautiful self, dressed in a corseted gown which pressed her already bountiful bust into epic proportions. Ordinarily, she would not have been at the mansion for this party and, once the basic pleasantries were done with, she spoke of the reason.

‘I can’t say I was happy to see Spencer’s eventual downfall. There was still a little affection there, when I think about it. Of course, that tended to vanish when I was in the same room with him. And I was hardly surprised to hear what happened. I am sorry you had to be the one to suffer through his final moments, Nava.’

Nava shrugged. ‘If he had not insulted the Greylings, I would have ignored him. And then I didn’t even have to lift my pistol in the end. He defeated himself.’

‘Hopefully,’ Mitsuko said, ‘this means we’ll see you at more parties now.’

‘Well, not too many more. I’m relying purely on the support of the family now. Spencer won’t be paying my bills. I have my investments and such, so I think I’ll be fine, but I won’t be able to buy too many gowns to wear to parties.’ Glory flashed a grin. She was popular among the Trentons and would not be hurting for money even though Spencer was no longer a source of funds. ‘I was sorry to hear that you’ve had trouble with the ASF, Nava. Misaki was resigned about it earlier. Resigned and a little angry.’

‘We parted ways in a less than amicable manner. I am still on good terms with individuals within the ASF.’ She nodded to Melissa. ‘Should Mel want to continue toward the Diplomatic Protection Unit, as I’ve suggested, I would not discourage her. I believe my time is better served concentrating on activities for the Greylings.’

‘Hm, well, the way Misaki was talking, someone is going to get it in the neck for chasing you out.’

‘If two of them happen to be Haydn Lamar Corley and Sophie Perry Fosse,’ Mitsuko said, ‘it couldn’t happen to nicer people.’

‘They are likely to suffer,’ Nava said. ‘They are the obvious targets. The real test will be whether anyone further up the ladder is called to task.’ She shrugged. ‘I won’t get my hopes up.’

~~~

‘Hello, everyone.’ Michiko did not look nervous. She was nervous. She had come up with a list of things which could possibly go wrong and was trying to avoid them, even if doing so probably made them more likely. Right now, biting her tongue was one of her main concerns.

The room fell silent at her words, which was a bit of an ego boost. ‘Hello, everyone. My name is Michiko. I am the youngest daughter of Zackery and Yuzuki Trenton, and this is the first time I’ve been allowed to stay up for Alliance Day.’ That got her a smattering of applause. She turned her head to look at her beloved Onee-chan, standing just on her left. Mitsuko gave her a smile and a nod. Michiko turned back to the microphone. ‘My father has asked that I lead the toast for the new year, though he won’t let me actually drink alcohol, which isn’t fair if you think about it. If you can drink alcohol, it is ten minutes to midnight, so please get ready.’

As the noise level rose again and some of the guests hurried off to find a drink, Michiko turned to Mitsuko. ‘Did I do that okay, Onee-chan?’

‘You were perfect,’ Mitsuko replied. ‘Father is the colour of a beetroot. Aunt Misaki is teasing him terribly. It’s all good.’

‘Okay. What’s a beetroot?’

‘Honestly, Michiko, I have no idea, but they are apparently red.’

‘I’ll look it up in the morning. If I remember.’ Michiko looked at her ketcom screen which was showing a countdown. ‘Now I just have to get it right again after midnight.’

‘You’ll do fine. You should get something to drink too.’

Michiko pouted. ‘There doesn’t seem much point if–’

‘Alcohol,’ Nava said, stepping up with a glass of juice for Michiko, ‘is overrated.’

‘Then why do adults like it so much?’

‘Because a lot of adults find it impossible to have fun unless their intellect has been subdued in some manner. So, they put up with the sore head they get in the morning and the worry that they might have done something really bad the night before. Never make the mistake of assuming that adults are always right. Many of them have no common sense at all.’

‘Like Uncle Spencer?’

‘That,’ Nava said, ‘is a rather extreme example, but he should serve as a good example that alcohol should be drunk in moderation.’

Michiko nodded solemnly. ‘When, finally, possibly after I leave SAS-squared, I am allowed to drink, I shall remember that.’

Mitsuko grinned. ‘It’s not like she’s bitter or anything.’

‘Clearly not,’ Nava agreed.

And then came the part where Michiko counted down to the end of the year. There was little ceremony in the Clan Worlds regarding Alliance Day. For a culture with a lot of weight given to tradition, the celebration of the start of the Alliance came down, here and now, to a thirteen-year-old girl calling out ‘Happy New Year!’ and the raising of glasses.

‘And now you get another thirty minutes,’ Mitsuko said to her sister.

‘I know,’ Michiko said. ‘I am getting a little tired. You promised to put me to bed, Onee-chan.’

‘I did and I will.’

Then Michiko turned to Nava. ‘Will you come too, Nava-oneesan?’

Nava regarded the girl for a second. ‘I don’t know precisely what I’d have been doing otherwise. I would be happy to accompany you, Michiko. What has you so surprised, Suki?’

‘Nava-oneesan?’

‘Hm. That was something of a surprise. I suppose I am your “special friend,” and I’ve been visiting for several–’

‘That’s not it. How come you get san and I get chan?’ It was true that chan was familiar and san was more respectful.

‘Well,’ Michiko said, ‘Nava just seems more like a san person.’

‘I think I may pout.’

‘Don’t,’ Nava suggested, ‘you’ll never be as good at it as Michiko.’

Mitsuko gave it her best shot anyway.

238/1/1.

‘Ahem.’

Nava looked down the lunch table at Zackery. ‘Déjà vu.’ It was not simply that it was lunchtime and Zackery had given a fake cough. Michiko had excused herself a moment ago and left the room in something of a hurry. Nava could think of nothing she had done recently which warranted a reward from the Trentons, but this felt a lot like the time they had given her her SAH-301s.

‘Melissa,’ Zackery said as his youngest daughter returned with a mahogany box, and Yuzuki assumed a position at her husband’s shoulder. Nava relaxed mentally; it was not her turn to be a little embarrassed.

Melissa got to her feet, wide-eyed. ‘Uh, yes, sir?’

‘Relax, young lady. When Nava so capably kept Mitsuko from harm on a number of occasions, we felt the need to reward her. Recently, you played a key part in saving my life, so we feel the need to provide some reward for you.’

‘That’s really not necessary, b-but if that box is what I think it is, I’m not going to argue.’

Zackery smiled. Yuzuki smiled. Michiko smiled and stepped forward. There was a lot less strain on her arms this time than when she had held the same sort of box out to Nava. ‘Thank you for saving my Otosan, Mel. Please accept this gift and make good use of it.’

Melissa took the case – which bore a small brass plaque with her name on it – and placed it on the table to open. ‘Thank you, Michiko. And thank you, Zackery and Yuzuki.’ She opened the case to reveal a pair of SAH-301s, as expected. ‘I got to use Nava’s recently. I must admit it was really nice not having to worry so much about how much power I was using. I kind of wished I had one of my own.’

‘That just leaves me without,’ Mitsuko said on a sigh.

‘You can save up,’ Zackery said.

‘Well, true…’

‘We were a little conflicted,’ Yuzuki said. ‘When it was Nava, getting her those pistols seemed like an obvious choice. It was less clear when we were considering something for you, Melissa. I still think we could have thought of something better, but since you appear to like them, we can consider our choice a suitable one.’

‘Well,’ Melissa said, ‘if I’m honest, I’d prefer that they never get used aside from target practice at school. But I’m not deluded enough to think they won’t end up being used in anger sooner or later.’

‘Unless you’d like to stop being my friend,’ Nava suggested. ‘That might work.’

‘I’m being rewarded for something I did when you weren’t even on the same planet.’

‘Ah, you make a valid point. In that case, I believe this is all your fault for being competent.’

Melissa gave a small grimace. ‘I have no answer for that.’

‘Just keep on being competent, Mel,’ Zackery said. ‘It’s a curse, but some of us have to bear it so that everyone else can carry on without.’

‘That’s terribly cynical, dear,’ Yuzuki said.

‘True, but–’

‘I am not saying you are wrong…’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 238/1/5.

A vague feeling of unease during breakfast caused Nava to look up. Carina was walking into the kitchen to discover that Mitsuko had cooked a serious breakfast this morning: steamed rice, grilled fake-salmon steaks, miso soup, and side dishes of nori and pickled vegetables of various sorts. Nava, Mitsuko, and Melissa were already consuming the meal.

‘Trudy,’ Nava said in Carina’s general direction, ‘I need to talk to you about some new spells I’d like to try.’

The tall blue creature out of nightmares appeared in the doorway behind Carina. ‘If this is going to take a while, I’ll project to you,’ she said. ‘Is there some occasion for such an extravagant morning meal?’

‘Because I felt like it,’ Mitsuko said. ‘It takes a bit of work to make it all, so it’s not an everyday thing. Once in a while, however, a fairly traditional Japanese breakfast is a good way to start the day.’

‘We’re all planning to spend the day on school business,’ Nava added, ‘so a hearty breakfast is likely to be useful.’

‘Sometimes I regret not needing to eat,’ Trudy said. ‘What did you want to discuss?’

‘I’ve spent quite some time in magic-suppression fields recently. I was wondering whether it was possible to generate one myself. I thought it would be a useful policing tool, but I’ve never heard of magic to do it.’

‘Because it’s not possible.’

‘Ah.’

‘Brains are not designed to produce noise like that.’

‘I think most people’s brains are exceptionally good at making noise,’ Mitsuko said.

‘So young and yet so cynical,’ Nava said. ‘I don’t think that’s the right kind of noise. Shame. I think it would be–’

‘You can’t produce a field like that,’ Trudy said, ‘but you can force control over an area around you in such a way that the effect is more or less the same. It has the added advantage of not interfering with your own use of magic.’

‘That sounds perfect. We’ll go into more detail later. The other thing I wanted to try was summoning.’

Melissa’s eyes widened. ‘Summoning? Really? Did you meet a summoner?’

‘In the Redwing base. He summoned a demon.’

‘Seriously?! Wow.’

‘What,’ Trudy said, ‘is a summoner? Or summoning? I’m not familiar with the term. Or I am, but it doesn’t make sense.’

‘Because summoners don’t summon things,’ Carina said. ‘Summoning is the manifestation of thought constructs. Summoners often “summon” things out of folklore and myth, like demons, because it’s easier to construct the thoughtforms if everyone has the same image of what, say, a demon should look like.’

‘Ah, I see. We would call that… Actually, “manifestation” is probably the right translation.’

‘It’s more accurate, but summoning is what we have.’

Trudy nodded and turned back to Nava. ‘You met one of these summoners and thought that demon summoning might be useful?’

‘Not demons. If I remember right, you can manifest multiple things with one spell, so long as they are basically all copies of the same thoughtform.’

‘I’ve never tried manifestation, but that’s my understanding too.’

‘I was thinking of trying to create Armageddon for close-quarters actions. I could have emptied that base recently a lot more quickly and easily if I could have deployed a few thousand, um, magical drones to sweep the place.’

‘That sounds absolutely horrible,’ Melissa said. Then she spooned a huge mouthful of beautifully cooked fake salmon into her mouth and began chewing happily.

‘It doesn’t seem to be putting you off your food.’ Nava got a shrug in reply: Melissa’s mouth was full. ‘What do you think?’ Nava asked their resident Harbinger.

‘I think that defining the thoughtform will be the hard part.’

‘I thought so too.’

Trudy nodded. ‘We can work on it, if you wish. Um, could I possibly try some of that fish?’

‘But you don’t eat,’ Mitsuko said.

‘I don’t, but I can… I’d just like to try some.’

‘In that case, no, you can’t.’

‘But–’

‘Salmon isn’t the tastiest of fish. If you’re going to try it, you have to have miso with it. Trust the cook.’

‘Oh. Well then. I don’t mind if I do.’

238/1/7.

‘If they’re going to revise the uniform,’ Nava said as she walked into the lounge, ‘sleeves would–’ She stopped as the scene on the entertainment screen impinged upon her senses.

‘… have data proving that long-term use of spell matrices–’

Mitsuko reached out and tapped her ketcom. ‘You haven’t seen this? I’ll start it from the beginning again.’

‘Someone’s claimed responsibility for those office bombings,’ Carina said.

‘Terrorists,’ Melissa added. ‘Well, I don’t suppose they think of themselves as terrorists. Advocates, maybe.’

‘They’re terrorists,’ Mitsuko said. ‘See for yourself.’

On screen, a figure appeared. The lighting put whoever it was in shadow, but there was the suggestion of a female form, and the voice was female. Of course, it could all have been manufactured. ‘This is the Voice of Magic,’ the figure said.

‘Not pretentious at all,’ Nava commented.

‘We speak for the oppressed. We speak for those hurt by society’s disregard for the rights of magicians across every world in the Alliance. The Clan Worlds only exists because of its magicians, but those magicians are treated as slaves.’

‘A little extreme, perhaps,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Until the communications companies acknowledge the harm their practices cause to their employees, we will continue to destroy their facilities. They have data proving that long-term use of spell matrices causes neurodegenerative conditions. They refuse to release that information to the public because it would affect their profit margins. The Voice of Magic has spoken. We will take away their profits entirely until they admit the truth.’ The image froze and then cut to black.

Mitsuko stopped the playback. ‘So, there you have it. Now we know who’s behind the bombings.’

‘And why,’ Nava said. ‘Have any of you heard anything about spell matrices causing neural problems?’

There were shaken heads. Except… ‘No,’ Melissa said, ‘but there was the capacitator.’

‘That wasn’t a spell matrix,’ Mitsuko said.

‘No, but spell matrices can be used to increase the effective capacity of a magician. For a specific spell, and only for some types of spells. Maybe they cause long-term problems the way the capacitator produced them in the short term.’

‘I suppose it’s possible…’

‘Hopefully,’ Nava said, ‘someone is looking into it, but this is likely to make doing anything about it harder.’

‘The administration will be concerned about seeming to bow to pressure from a terrorist group. If not the administration, then the clan representatives will be thinking that way.’

Nava nodded. ‘Hopefully something will happen anyway. And, even more hopefully, the bombings will be ending soon.’

‘Oh?’ Carina asked. ‘You know something about them, Champion of Light?’

‘Personally, no. But I know someone who does. It may be that the ASF starts detecting the bombs before they go off in the near future.’ Nava looked at the now-blank screen. ‘That vid might possibly have made things easier to predict too.’

Alliance City, 238/1/8.

Herbert Janvier Sonkei entered the lobby of the building which was home to his employer, Headwind Communications, with his usual feeling of dread settling in firmly in his chest. He had been with Headwind for six years. He was not sure how much longer he was going to survive if he kept working for them, but Herbert was not the most talented of magicians, so finding other work would probably involve manual labour. Yes, Herbert was not that talented at magic, but he was less talented when it came to anything else.

Adding to the stress of a night-shift job which left him more or less dead of exhaustion every morning, there were cops in the lobby. There had been rumours flying about that this was because of the recent bombings and the video the Voice of Magic had posted all over the info-net, but that did not fly. The cops had been hanging around for over a week now, since before the vid. They did nothing, so far as Herbert could tell. Well, they watched everyone walking into the building, making you feel like you had done something wrong, even when you were too tired to do anything outside of work aside from sleeping. Herbert did his absolute best to ignore them as he headed for the elevators.

They, however, were not going to ignore him. A very attractive young woman in an ASF uniform stepped in front of him before he had made it halfway across the lobby. ‘Excuse me,’ she said, ‘could I ask your name?’

Herbert stopped and looked at her. He did not get out much and the cleavage window was affecting him rather more than he cared to admit. ‘H-Herbert Janvier Sonkei,’ he said, kicking himself for the stammer.

She smiled. ‘No need to be nervous, Herbert Janvier. I am Second Lieutenant, Specialist, Hikaru Sasaki Sonkei. As I said, there’s nothing to be nervous about. You’ve done nothing wrong. I do need you to come with me, however.’

‘I c-can’t be late for my shift.’

‘At Headwind Communications? Don’t worry, we’ll contact them immediately and make sure they understand the problem.’

Herbert stared at Hikaru for a second. ‘Just what kind of p-problem is this?’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 238/1/9.

‘The news channels are full of speculation and not a lot of facts,’ Melissa said.

‘Isn’t that normal for the news channels?’ Nava asked.

‘So young and yet so cynical,’ Mitsuko said.

‘I don’t believe it’s cynical if it’s true. Rhianna’s message contains rather more information and no speculation.’

‘Well, tell us,’ Melissa said.

‘Hm. I probably shouldn’t, but I don’t suppose Rhianna expected me to keep it secret from you. This is confidential.’

‘Your secrets are my secrets, Champion of the Light,’ Carina said. ‘I shall take them to the grave and beyond.’

‘And we won’t blab,’ Melissa added, indicating herself and Mitsuko.

‘I see no point,’ Mitsuko said. ‘The only people I’d tell are my parents, and I’m sure they were informed too.’

‘They’re on the copy list,’ Nava agreed. ‘Basically, the prediction worked and one of the human bombs was detected and, well, defused last night.’

‘Which is what the news channels are saying,’ Melissa said, ‘except they don’t know about the prediction your sister made.’

‘Correct. A specialist detected magic on someone entering Headwind Communications’ building. Further analysis showed that it was an unknown spell. The person, a Janvier Sonkei, was taken to ASF HQ and Dispel Magic was used successfully. They took a little time to see what they could determine about the spell, but they weren’t sure when it was set to trigger, so they could not afford to sit on it for long. It remains an unknown spell, but definitely a conditional trigger and of high complexity. Very high. The estimate is fifteen hundred to two thousand Tammys.’

‘That’s huge!’ Melissa exclaimed. ‘How could anyone cast something that complex?’

‘A spell matrix? I’m not sure. What we’ve covered of spell matrices is mostly functional. I’m not entirely clear on what they’re capable of. Anyway, it’s not our problem. Rhianna was only letting me know because she knew I’d be interested.’

‘Obviously you would be.’

‘And she also put in a note that the administration has initiated an investigation into the claims the Voice of Magic made. Misaki started it personally. They’re keeping it quiet currently, but they’re looking into these statistics the communications companies are supposed to be hiding.’

‘That’s encouraging, I suppose.’

Nava nodded. ‘It’s all encouraging. I wonder how this Voice of Magic will react to having their bomb intercepted?’

‘Good question. Hopefully, Jenna will be able to figure that out.’

‘Mm. Hopefully.’

238/1/11.

‘So, you’re planning to stay in Alliance City overnight and we’ll have Suki’s birthday meal tomorrow?’ Melissa asked. Breakfast was about done with. Nava and Mitsuko were preparing for an overnight stay in the big city. It was Mitsuko’s birthday today, but for some reason…

‘Zackery said we would be better off staying overnight,’ Nava said. ‘He would not give even a hint as to why. I presume this has something to do with Suki’s birthday.’

‘We’re meeting him at some address I’ve never heard of,’ Suki said. ‘What that has to do with my birthday, I have no idea.’

‘Neither do–’ Everyone’s ketcom chimed at the same time. ‘Either the world is ending, or there’s someone at the door. I’ll go.’ Getting to her feet, Nava went through the mudroom, through the corridor which connected that to the front of the house, and there she opened the door to find a man in some sort of uniform. ‘Hello.’

‘Delivery for, uh, Mitsuko Trenton Sonkei. Oh, wow, a Trenton Sonkei.’

‘I’m only a Greyling Sonkei, but I’ll take it for her.’

‘A-and a Greyling… That’s fine. Just send your identification and it’s all yours.’

It was a plastic box of a size which suggested strongly what was within it. To Nava anyway. Whether Mitsuko would guess was going to be interesting. So, Nava trooped back through the house to the kitchen to hand over the package. ‘It’s for you. From your parents and Michiko, apparently.’

‘Really? We’ll be seeing my father in an hour and a half. Oh well.’ Mitsuko set to the task of opening the box. She was not subtle. Within fifteen seconds, they were all looking at another box, this one made of a wood like walnut and with a brass plate set into the top which bore Mitsuko’s name. Nava was nodding; she had been right about the contents.

‘So, they did decide to get you a pair,’ Melissa said. She was grinning.

‘Pair of what?’ Carina asked.

Mitsuko opened the case. ‘A pair of SAH-three-oh-ones of my very own.’ She was smiling. There was even a tear in the corner of one eye. ‘My parents are evil, of course. They could have said they were getting these for me, but no.’

‘I think you should have guessed,’ Nava said. ‘Your birthday would seem an opportune time to give you these. The question I have is why Zackery did not wait to present them to you in Alliance City?’

‘Good question. I suppose we’ll have to ask him when we see him.’

Alliance City.

The building Nava and Mitsuko found themselves standing outside was a six-storey apartment block in one of the better parts of Alliance City. It was not in the centre of the city, but it was close enough to be in the city rather than the suburbs. It was about two hundred metres from the nearest station, and the underground network could get you just about anywhere within minutes from there.

The building itself was attractive in an understated way. It was a concrete construction, but some effort had been put into making it a little different. Mouldings gave the impression of something akin to Art Deco in the design of the support columns and window frames. The concrete had been dyed to give tile-like patterns of blue, black, and white in the detailing. It was a nice place, for a relatively generic apartment block set among many others which were not dissimilar in that area of the city. What the two women did not know was why they were there looking at it.

Mitsuko’s ketcom chimed and she looked at it. ‘It’s from Father. “Penthouse suite.” That’s all it says.’

‘Then I suppose we go to the penthouse suite,’ Nava replied, starting for the lobby doors. These were of the sliding glass variety, but she noted as she approached that there were riot shutters fitted to secure them. It looked like all the ground-floor windows were fitted with shutters in fact.

The lobby was not huge. It followed the Art Deco theme as well as the blue-black-white colour scheme. It held a small counter at the back and various sofas where people could wait. Behind the counter was a personable young man in a suit who, upon hearing who they were, directed them to the elevators at the back of the lobby without comment. Obviously, they were expected.

Up at the top, the elevator doors opened to reveal a reception room smaller than the one at the Trentons’ townhouse, but as with that place, this room had Zackery Trenton in it the first time Nava entered. The decoration here was rather generic and not what Nava was expecting. It was as though someone had gone over the place and removed its personality. A hint of solvent in the air suggested that the redecoration had been recent.

‘Welcome,’ Zackery said, smiling broadly. ‘Happy birthday, Suki.’

‘Thank you, Father,’ Mitsuko replied.

‘I’d imagine that you are both wondering why I dragged you here. It was obviously not just to say happy birthday to my daughter.’

‘I would imagine Mother and Michiko would be here if that were the case. What is this place?’

‘Come inside,’ Zackery said. Turning, he set off through a door and into a lounge with a couple of sofas, a dining area, a stupidly large entertainment screen, and the same generic decoration as the reception room. ‘This building is owned by the Trentons. The larger Trenton family, if you will. The staff are all Trentons. Several of the occupants are in the family.’

‘How much of Alliance City do the Trentons own?’ Nava asked.

‘I’d have to look up the exact figure. Around twenty percent of the residential property, plus some commercial buildings. The Himuras own more. Something like fifty percent of the residences and more commercial property.’

‘So, some of the recent bombings…’

‘None at our sites, but two were Himura properties. Misaki is spitting mad about it. It’s not so much that buildings they own have been damaged, but that it might be the result of bad practices by some of their tenants has her fuming.’

‘That does sound like Aunt Misaki,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Very much like her, yes. This specific apartment has recently lost its occupant.’

‘Oh?’

‘He had to move. To a one-room apartment with doors which lock only from the outside.’

‘This was Spencer Trenton’s apartment,’ Nava stated as though it were a verified fact.

‘It was. We’ve had it cleaned to the point that you could probably perform surgery in the main bathroom. All the furniture has been replaced. He was not a sento kind of man, but he did have a whirlpool bath and a sauna.’

‘That doesn’t surprise me,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Probably not. We left those in, but they have been cleaned and serviced. The environment system has been entirely replaced. It needed doing soon anyway. The entire building needs a little refurbishment in that respect. We redecorated to tidy the place up, but there is a budget for the next occupant to pick a style. The company says they can have everything updated within a week.’

‘That’s very nice, Father, but why are you telling–’

‘Are you giving it to me or Suki?’ Nava asked. ‘I would hope the latter since giving me such a gift would seem excessively extravagant.’

Zackery’s smile broadened. ‘Always perceptive. It may seem excessive, but it’s something like an apology from the family to a clan member one of our own gave grave insult to. Obviously, since you are with Suki, we hope you’ll share, thus giving her a place to stay in the city if she needs one. However, we are giving this apartment to you, Nava.’

‘Would it not be better to give it to Glory?’

Zackery waved the suggestion away. ‘Glory took their house in the divorce settlement. That’s one of the reasons he hated her so much. She loves the place and wouldn’t want this apartment.’

‘I’m not entirely sure I do.’

‘Then sell it and buy somewhere else. We would buy it back at a favourable price. But we have obliterated every trace of Spencer. They practically shaved the top few molecules off every surface to be sure. I can assure you that everyone else in the building, staff and residents, will welcome you with open arms. Spencer was not a popular neighbour. Please accept this, Nava.’

‘I cannot deny the utility of having my own place in Alliance City. I still think this is an excessive gift, though the Trentons are rich and can afford it. I would be stupid to put up too much of a fight.’

‘Good. I’ll have the deed transferred immediately. I’ll have your ketcom authorised to access the elevator on my way out. A team from the Greylings will be here tomorrow to add additional security and configure the IT.’

‘Which is why you suggested we stay overnight,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Nava should be here to let them in.’

Zackery nodded and followed it with a small shrug. ‘Yes, but I assumed you would want to stay the night anyway. I remember when Yuzuki and I got our first apartment. And I am going to say nothing more about that, but your mother reminded me and said you would probably want to stay over. The kitchen is stocked.’

‘Since you have gone to all this trouble to make a stay possible, it would seem rude not to do so. Thank you, Zackery, and the rest of your family, for this gift. I promise to make the best use of it I can.’

~~~

Which, obviously, meant that later that evening after a simple but pleasant meal, Nava was eating dessert in the hot tub. Dessert was, also obviously, Mitsuko. There was a lot of splashing. Confident in the apartment’s soundproofing, Mitsuko was also giving full vent to her feelings on what was happening to her.

‘W-we’re going to have to wait to d-do the terrace,’ Mitsuko said once she had stopped singing. ‘Winter is not the time for alfresco sex.’

‘I’m glad your common sense is kicking in. I’m also glad that this room is essentially waterproof.’

Mitsuko looked over the edge of the tub at the puddles her splashing had created. ‘Wet rooms are useful. I want to do it in the sauna tonight at the very least.’

Nava gave a shrug. ‘We’re on holiday. We can do more or less as we wish. The team is arriving fairly early, however, so we should try not to be too late going to bed. And before you say it, I mean in order to sleep.’

Mitsuko closed her mouth, pouted a little, and then started again. ‘I’m sure you can tire me out quickly enough if you try.’

Nava slid through the water, closing the distance between them once again. Her breasts brushed over Mitsuko’s. ‘I’m sure I can. I certainly intend to try.’

Mitsuko looked into her lover’s eyes and whimpered softly.

238/1/12.

‘We may have to replace the bed,’ Nava said.

‘I know we got a bit wild,’ Mitsuko replied, ‘but I don’t think we’ve broken it. Yet.’

‘While that may be true, currently, that bed is huge. I wondered briefly before falling asleep whether I should be afraid of getting lost in it and only discovering the edge after an adventure involving multiple dimensions.’

Mitsuko giggled. ‘It’s not that– Well, it’s not quite that big. Leave it for now. You may get used to it, and if you don’t, it can be replaced once you start using this place as a permanent residence. We could always use the guest room bed for sleeping. That’s smaller.’

‘A valid point.’

The apartment had two bedrooms, both with attached bathrooms. Those bathrooms were in addition to the hot tub room, which had a shower in it, and the sauna. The kitchen was moderately large. Evidence suggested that it had been gutted and entirely refitted, possibly because Spencer did not seem like the kind of person to use a kitchen much. There was also an office, not large but sufficient for most clerical-type work, and a utilities room which held a substantial amount of computer equipment with space for more in the racks. Outside was a terrace or sun terrace with table, chairs, and a couple of loungers, along with various planters and an open-air shower for some reason. The planters were currently empty; Nava planned to do something about that before spring.

‘When are the Greylings getting here?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘One is already here, but I’d expect they–’ Nava’s ketcom chimed at her and she picked it up. ‘They’re here.’ She tapped the screen and an image of a young woman in a suit appeared. A different doorperson than the previous morning, but just as presentable and efficient.

‘Good morning, Miss Nava Greyling. Miss Rhianna Greyling and a team of workmen are here to see you.’

‘I’m expecting them. Please send them up.’

‘Of course.’

‘Rhianna’s here?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘Apparently. Maybe she just wants to see the place. She’s a spy. Nosy is more or less her job description.’

‘I’m not just being nosy!’ Rhianna countered when she had made it up to the penthouse.

‘I notice that you aren’t denying that part of it is curiosity,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Well, no… However, since I know Nava, I was tasked with liaising between her and the work crew. It’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.’

‘Very well,’ Nava said. ‘What are they going to be doing?’

‘All the windows are getting shutters. When you leave, you’ll be able to lock this place down as tight as a drum. All with central control. We’re also replacing some of your network gear. We’ll be installing a VPN router which will let you access a bit more of the data back at Castle Grey and generally secure your internal network better. Someone’s going to go over the terminal in the office too. Make sure everything’s good there before you use it for anything important. They’ll have it all done by mid-afternoon.’

‘Very efficient. Would you like the tour now?’

Rhianna grinned. ‘I would. Ending with the sauna.’

‘This is an excuse to get out of work for a few hours, isn’t it?’ Mitsuko suggested.

‘Well, it’s not just that…’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 238/1/14.

‘Mitsuko Trenton, would you please explain what a spell matrix is.’ There was a new student in Nava’s class – which was now class 42C – and Luca Newton was addressing her. Putting the student president in the same class as the captain of the SSF and the council secretary had been argued about, but the class had lost two people over the course of the year for various reasons, so there was space to add Mitsuko, and it had been felt that having friends in class to help her adjust to the new stream might be a good idea.

Mitsuko got to her feet. ‘A spell matrix is a device which, at its most basic level, contains a schema for a spell. A magician can interact with that device such that they can utilise quite complex schemas as though they were a cantrip. The disadvantage being that each matrix can only provide one spell, so to use a lot of spells so easily would require carrying multiple devices.’

‘Very good. And on a less basic level?’

‘Depending upon the spell, a matrix can provide support which lowers the effective complexity. This allows a magician to cast a spell they would normally find impossible. However, the larger the disparity between the spell in the matrix and the magician’s capacity, the harder it is to access the spell.’

‘Do you know what kind of spells are amenable to this assistance?’

Mitsuko frowned. ‘Uh, no, I’m sorry, Miss Luca Newton, I don’t.’

‘To be expected. We haven’t covered that in this stream either. We will, in fact, be going into that aspect of spell matrices over the next few lessons, along with other theory and practice regarding these devices. However, I suspect Rochester Hunt knows the answer to that question already.’

Taking the hint, Rochester stood up. Mitsuko took her seat. ‘Two kinds of spells can be used in an over-capacity mode through spell matrices, Miss Luca Newton. As Mitsuko Trenton said, it’s very circumstantial. If the magician can use some spell at its lowest complexity and that spell has a complexity component which allows its utility to be increased in a relatively linear fashion, a matrix can be constructed which, um, amplifies the caster’s native capacity. The Armour matrices in our combat suits are a good example. Most of us can cast rank one Armour. It’s only twenty-two Tammys. The matrix in our suits allows us to cast rank ten, which is one hundred and twenty-two Tammys and certainly beyond my capacity.’

Luca nodded and Rochester continued. ‘The other kind of spell that can be enhanced in this way is the type of spell which requires complex mathematical manipulation in its processing. By providing parameters to the matrix, the magician can be relieved of the need to do that processing. The matrix presents a simplified schema to the magician, allowing a high-complexity spell to be performed by someone with less capability. In both cases, however, the highest multiplier anyone has been able to get out of a spell matrix is five. A well-designed matrix can allow someone to cast a spell with five times the complexity they normally can, but it depends a lot on the spell.’

‘Very good. We will be going into what makes a spell suitable for enhancement and why there is that limit. If you want to know how to build a matrix to do all that, you’ll need to take the elective next year, but you’ll learn all you need to know about the capabilities and usage of spell matrices in the next week or two. Lydia Bonfils?’

‘What about the thing that Voice of Magic said about the long-term use of matrices, Miss Luca Newton? Something about neurological damage?’

‘To my knowledge, there is no evidence suggesting that such a problem exists. That does not mean that the assertions of that individual are unfounded, but it would not be the first time someone has expounded foolish claims regarding health effects based on no evidence at all. Even if true, it is probably safe to say that use of matrices here at SAS-squared is safe enough. You will not be using any of them over a long period.’

Lydia nodded. ‘Thank you, Miss Luca Newton.’

As their teacher began to actually lecture them, Nava paid attention with half her mind while the other half thought briefly about the investigation Misaki Himura had started. How dangerous were spell matrices? What kind of problem had been covered up? Only time would tell.

238/1/18.

‘It seems… somewhat inflammatory,’ Mitsuko said. She was looking at her ketcom which was showing a report on a statement released by the Clan Council that morning.

‘I’m glad it’s not just me that thought so,’ Nava said.

‘Well, it comes down to “the Voice of Magic tried to blow up ASF HQ, we stopped them, they’re finished.”’

‘Let’s not forget,’ Melissa said, ‘that it basically calls them cowards.’

‘And designates them officially as terrorists,’ Hoshi added.

‘It comes over as much as a challenge as anything else,’ Mitsuko said. ‘It’s almost asking them to prove the Council wrong.’

‘Which is not what will happen,’ Nava said. ‘We can be fairly certain of that. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone has enough solid information about the Voice of Magic to conclude what their next move will be. We have reached the limits of our predictive capabilities regarding them.’ Neither Hoshi nor Rochester knew about Jenna, so mentioning her name was out, but everyone else knew what Nava meant.

‘Not even the Greylings?’ Hoshi asked, grinning. It was a weak sort of grin, an attempt to make light of an unpleasant situation being discussed over lunch in the refectory.

‘I think they only pretend to be omniscient,’ Rochester said.

‘That’s disappointing.’

‘If we already knew everything,’ Nava countered, ‘we would never have the fun of finding anything out.’

‘True.’ Hoshi nodded. ‘That’s true, but wouldn’t it be kind of useful just at the moment?’

‘I won’t deny that a little more knowledge would be a nice thing. That, however, is the ASF’s problem, and I am no longer with the ASF.’

‘And you don’t regret that at all just now?’

‘No, Hoshi. I do not regret my decision at all.’

238/1/19.

Sixte Wescott was not his usual bright and cheerful self. He had been that way for over a week now and Nava, as his commanding officer in the SSF, felt it was time to find out what the problem was. She had a hypothesis. Calling it a theory would have been going too far, but she suspected she knew what was wrong. Even so, she did not know what his thoughts on the matter were. Hence, Nava had decided to take a patrol with him after lunch on a Saturday.

He was quiet. He was talking to her but seemed to be keeping it to the minimum necessary. She was only going to let that stand for a few minutes, however.

‘So,’ Nava said, ten minutes in, ‘what is up with Six?’

‘What? Nothing’s up with, um, uh…’

‘Clearly, something is. My hypothesis is that you are finding my resignation from the ASF difficult to deal with in some manner.’ She had told the entire SSF at the start of term. There was no point in hiding it. She had not gone into any details, however, simply saying that events had conspired to make her future employment by them impossible. ‘If it’s that, I’d like to discuss it. If not, feel free to tell me to mind my own business, but I am available for consultation.’

There was a second or two of silence. ‘It’s that,’ Sixte admitted. ‘I asked Uncle Deveraux about it. He wouldn’t say anything, really, but I got the feeling he was really angry about it. No, he was really angry about it. I wasn’t sure who he was angry at.’

‘I would hope it was not me. If my impressions are correct, he is not. I am not angry with the IRD or any of its people.’ Nava paused. ‘Actually, I’m not angry with the ASF. Disappointed would be a better term. Perhaps a little conflicted. My understanding is that the IRD did its best to help, and if the IRD was the whole of the ASF, I would probably still be with them. As it is, I decided to concentrate my allegiance with the Greylings. One benefit of that is that my family works quite closely with the IRD, so I will still be able to lend support to people like your uncle and First Lieutenant Fawn Tyrell.’

‘Okay.’ Now it was Sixte’s turn to take a second. He took several. ‘I have no idea what really caused you to resign, and I don’t need to know. Whoever decided to push you into it has to be a total idiot.’

‘Well, obviously, I’m not going to argue…’

238/1/20.

Melissa opened the front door of the house to discover a young man in SAS^2 uniform standing there with a smile on his face and stars dancing around him. There were literally stars floating around him in a nimbus. Bright, golden, four-pointed stars.

‘Good afternoon,’ he said. ‘My name is Raphael Becker Malkin. I believe that a member of my clan lives here, so I came to say hello.’

Raphael, it turned out, was a first year in the support stream. He had something of a speciality in illusions, and it had been decided that an education at SAS^2 might broaden his skills in that field. Malkins did not generally attend school off their home planet of Grimalkin; Raphael and Carina were two of the very few exceptions. He was a personable young adult, if you could ignore the special effects. Blonde and blue-eyed, he was as attractive as any member of a modern clan. He was not especially fit, but his body at least suggested regular exercise. He certainly practised his illusion art as often as possible; everything he said and did was in some way punctuated or emphasised by the illusion he constantly generated around his body.

Right now, the stars had changed to falling snowflakes. ‘This planet is so cold,’ he said. ‘I’m having to use Resist Cold all the time.’

‘The summers are better,’ Carina said. ‘Still on the cool side, but it does get a lot warmer.’

‘The summers are hot,’ Melissa said. ‘At least, I think so. A-and having been to Aquaria, I now know what hot really feels like.’

‘Aquaria has about the same average temperature as Grimalkin. The thing about Shinden is that it varies a lot more.’ Carina seemed a bit edgy for some reason. She had not known that her clanmate was attending the school until he turned up at the door. That might have been the problem.

Snow shifted back to stars. ‘I can manage, of course. Malkins are adaptable thanks to our extensive knowledge of sorcery. Even though my speciality is illusion’ – rainbows began to twine through the space between the stars – ‘I have extensive knowledge of all sorts of spells.’

‘Carina has a large repertoire,’ Mitsuko said. ‘We’ve come to expect Malkins to be well-versed in a number of types of magic. If illusion is your thing, you should consider joining the Art Club. They’ll be recruiting at the Extracurricular Activities Fair in a couple of weeks, but you could speak to them before then.’

‘I’ll look into that if I have time. Are you in any clubs, Carina Schwartz?’

‘No,’ Carina replied flatly. ‘No one would want someone with my dark fate anyway.’

‘Ah, yes. I hope that I can count on your support adjusting to SAS-squared.’

‘Mm.’

‘And, obviously, if you need any help, I would be happy to provide it.’

‘Thank you.’

About ten minutes later, when Raphael had been shown to the door and all the sparkles had gone with him, Melissa said, ‘Well, that just happened.’

‘It did,’ Mitsuko agreed.

‘Are all Malkins just plain weird?’

‘He’s a Becker,’ Carina said. ‘They are all like that, though Raphael seems to have taken it to extremes. They start using illusions as special effects like that more or less as soon as they can learn Visual Illusion. We actually got off easy. They often use sound effects along with the visual ones.’

‘You didn’t seem to like him,’ Melissa said.

‘I don’t trust him. There’s no way they’d send someone like him here without an ulterior motive. He’s probably supposed to be a new way for them to watch me without breaking the agreement they have with Nava.’

‘It is interesting that he came when Nava is out at the SSF,’ Mitsuko mused. ‘Still, if he’s a student here, we must treat him as we would any other student. Obviously, that includes censure if he does something stupid. Don’t worry about it.’

‘I’m not. Not really. It’s annoying, but I’m used to being constantly watched, so it’s not a big deal. So long as he doesn’t want to be friends, we should get along fine.’

‘But we’ll mention him to Nava anyway,’ Melissa said.

‘We certainly will,’ Mitsuko added. ‘I’m not sure whether the captain of the SSF should know, or the Champion of the Light, but one of them probably wants to keep an eye on Raphael Becker.’

Alliance City, 238/1/27.

Normally, Nava would have conducted this operation alone, invisible, and utilising Teleport a lot, but tonight she was working with Rhianna and had the support of the Greyling family, so that was not necessary.

Rhianna walked into the offices of Peerless Interstellar, a communications company, with the confident stride of someone who belonged exactly where she was, and the expression of someone who did not want to be there. Like Nava, she was wearing a jumpsuit bearing the logo of a small company specialising in environmental controls. Hers was unzipped sufficiently that her expansive cleavage was obvious. Nava was wearing a tank top under hers. Nava also had her hair half hidden under a baseball cap and recoloured a vibrant shade of pink. She was not exactly unrecognisable, but it was likely that the key features of any description of her would be wrong. The male security guard looked like he would only be able to give a description of Rhianna’s chest anyway.

‘Whitman Environmentals,’ Rhianna said, flashing an ID on her ketcom. ‘We got a call that the air conditioning in the main server room is, and I quote, “making a weird sound.” Why that means they have to drag us out here at this time on a Saturday night, I have no idea, but here we are.’

‘No one informed me that you’d be…’ the guard began, and then he shook his head. ‘Why would they bother telling security. You’ll need to sign in. Do you need someone to escort you to the utilities room? If you do, I don’t have anyone to do it.’

‘I’ve been here before.’ Rhianna flashed the man a grin. ‘Guess we’re not the only ones short on staff.’

‘The world over. How long are you going to be?’

Rhianna gave a shrug. ‘Ten minutes. Six hours. Until we get in there and find out what’s going on, we won’t know.’

‘Right. I’ll clear you for two hours. You’ll need to check in here again if you need longer.’

‘Fine. I’m still hoping for ten minutes.’

‘You just jinxed it, boss,’ Nava said.

Rhianna winced. ‘She’s probably right…’

~~~

The server room was massive, which was the main reason they were both in it. There was a lot of work to do. Rhianna would be handling things in a conventional manner while Nava used the computer intrusion spell she had used on Aquaria.

‘We know what we’re looking for,’ Rhianna said, settling down at a console. ‘Let’s get done as fast as possible.’

‘On it,’ Nava said. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

What they were looking for was documentary evidence that Peerless Interstellar knew about some statistics which had already been confirmed by the team investigating the Voice of Magic’s claims. It was suspected that Peerless were not the only company aware of the situation, but they had been deemed the most likely to give up their secrets easily. Peerless was not exactly the most efficient company. They had a record of several data leaks, and it was unlikely they had done as much work on their computer security as their PR department claimed.

Misaki Himura herself had requested that the Greylings go after the data. She had briefed Rhianna and Nava in a video conference on Thursday night. ‘The evidence is not currently strong enough to be sure,’ she had said, ‘but there is a higher incidence of certain neurological conditions among communications workers than we see in the broader population. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are the obvious examples, but there is a particular condition known as Regressive Capacity Disorder which only affects magicians and is more common among magicians involved in communications work.’

‘Something is causing damage to their brains,’ Nava had said. ‘Perhaps that something is extended use of the spell matrix used in interstellar communications.’

‘Further analysis is being done, but it seems that companies which routinely employ stronger magicians, the premier service providers if you will, don’t show this effect. It’s primarily a problem with the more basic companies who employ low-capacity magicians.’

‘And they know about this?’ Rhianna had asked.

‘They say not. They say there’s no problem, in fact. Or some of them do. They have research to suggest that their older employees have no health problems one doesn’t see in the general populace.’

‘Which suggests that they’ve done research.’

‘And I want you to find it.’

Now all they had to do was locate a file somewhere in a massive computer network before anyone noticed they were not, in fact, fixing the environmental control system. No pressure.

~~~

‘Found it,’ Rhianna said. ‘Can’t get it out, but I found out where it is.’

Nava opened her eyes and looked around at her colleague. ‘Where?’

‘They have it locked away in an encrypted file server. EDS-thirteen.’

‘I’ve seen that one…’ Turning, Nava started down the row of servers.

‘I could get to it eventually, but I’d need to grant myself some seriously high-level corporate access. It’d take hours.’

Stopping at one of the servers, Nava nodded. ‘I think I can get to it faster. You have the file name?’

‘It’s a long string of gibberish. I’ll send it to your ketcom.’

‘I’ll suck it off and store it. You can crack the encryption later, right?’

‘Not a problem.’

‘Then I’ll get started.’

Rhianna nodded. ‘Just in time, too. We’d have to go ask for an extension in another ten minutes.’

Nava did not answer. She was concentrating on streaming a file full of random characters onto her ketcom.

~~~

‘Loose nut on one of the ducts,’ Rhianna said as she signed them out at the security desk. ‘Easy fix. Two hours to find the damn thing, but we fixed it in seconds.’

‘Always the way,’ the security guard said. ‘Okay. You’re done, so…’

‘Right. We’ll head out.’

‘Yeah. Uh, hey, you wouldn’t want to grab a drink sometime, maybe?’

Rhianna did not even pause to consider. ‘Send me your contact details. I’ll get in touch when I get a break.’

‘Poor guy,’ Nava said as they left the building.

‘How so?’

‘Well, if he ever actually hears from Ruth Ilbert Morgan, it’ll be a miracle.’

‘Yeah, she doesn’t exist.’ They were, of course, using fake IDs. ‘Think of it this way, he’ll go to bed in the morning with the warm feeling that he might be about to get laid sometime in the near future.’

‘Rhianna, letting someone think they might get their paws on you and then denying them is practically cruel and unusual punishment.’

Rhianna grinned. ‘Yeah, I know.’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 238/1/30.

‘As usual, this isn’t exactly a great topic to eat to,’ Nava said. They were eating the evening meal in the house. Everyone there knew what she had been up to in the early hours of Sunday morning, so she could tell them what information the decrypted data had contained.

‘It’s not actually some horrific form of murder,’ Melissa said. ‘We’ve had worse.’

‘True. As far as it goes anyway. There’s definitely grounds for negligent homicide or something similar.’

‘The communications companies definitely knew about the danger of matrix use then?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘The initial report was sent to at least seven companies. They paid to bury it. The analysis is more detailed, and the companies then paid for a study which tracked some of their workers over about a decade. They’ve known there was a problem for maybe fifteen years. The evidence is sufficient that “circumstantial” doesn’t cover it.’

‘So, does that mean spell matrices should be made illegal?’ Melissa asked.

‘That would be almost impossible. The technology behind matrices is what makes transdrives possible and banning them would make FTL communications something only magicians could use to contact people. Besides, it’s not that using a matrix is dangerous, it’s that using one to work magic you can’t otherwise do for extended periods is bad. Here, bad is defined as “causes slow erosion of neural tissues resulting, eventually, in progressive brain disorders and, in the worst cases, death.”’

‘So, the communications industry is likely to be the worst affected,’ Mitsuko said. ‘There could be issues with long-haul spaceflight since an engineer has to keep the subluminal engines running for hours at a time.’

‘And there may be other usage cases which apply, but yes. Communications is particularly bad due to the working conditions and their use of low-capacity magicians. There is a clear correlation between capacity and risk. The more you rely on the matrix to be able to cast a spell, the more chance there is that you’ll end up with a problem. Unfortunately, the cheaper communications companies tend to employ weaker magicians because they can pay less, and then they keep them working longer shifts which makes it worse. Their business model is based around straining their workers’ brains as much as possible.’

‘And they knew they were doing it,’ Carina said.

‘Yes. Rhianna said that Misaki Himura is furious. I’m not sure how the data we found is going to be used. It was an illegal search after all. Somehow, Misaki is going to use it, and someone is going to get it in the neck.’

238/1/34.

The student council was changing. It was the usual slow change that happened to every council as its members had to back down due to other commitments rather than sudden change due to some scandal or other. Sara Janvier Sonkei now sat in the EAC chairman’s seat having replaced Francis Goretti Orlando the previous summer. Junpei Maki Sonkei had replaced Marie Royce Sonkei as treasurer more recently and was still getting into the role. They had got lucky with her; Mitsuko’s mother had suggested her. It was sort of nepotism since Yuzuki had been a Maki until marriage, but Junpei’s family ran a chain of pharmacies, and she had inherited a merchant’s sense of money. So far, she was working out fine.

This year, however, everyone was wondering whether there would be a more fundamental shift in the council’s makeup. The presidential race was about to begin and…

‘This year, things should be more interesting,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I was a little surprised you didn’t put your hat into the ring, Yaeko.’

Yaeko Himura shook her head. She was the vice president and had run against Mitsuko the year before. This year, she had not registered as a candidate. ‘There would be no point. Most of the new candidates are in the combat stream. If I stood, I would have even less of a differential from you than last time. You’re likely to pick up more votes from the support stream, and I have nothing which could attract combat students away from you. There is no point in fighting a battle you can’t win.’

‘There can be,’ Nava said. ‘It is possible that fighting a losing battle may make strategic sense. This is not one of those situations. Well done for realising that.’

‘I think that might be patronising,’ Yaeko said, frowning at Nava, ‘but I don’t think you meant it that way.’

Nava gave a slight shrug. ‘I am always amazed when humans display common sense. It is a refreshing change.’

‘I’m just glad you have never decided to run for office. Debates against you would be terrifying.’

‘I see you’re starting to understand Nava,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Anyway, we have eight candidates excluding me. Mostly from the combat stream, as Yaeko said.’

‘Does anyone know who Raphael Becker Malkin is?’ Sara asked. ‘I mean, a Malkin. I didn’t know we had another Malkin in school.’ She paused. ‘Of course, I wouldn’t know about the other one if she hadn’t blown up half the courtyard outside the senior refectory.’

‘That was a terrible way of describing it, Sara. Nava did far more damage.’

‘Well, yeah. Armageddon. Figuratively and literally. Still, uh, Carina Schwartz, right? She was throwing around some pretty massive explosions.’

‘When she wants to,’ Nava said, ‘Cari can be something of a badass. I don’t think I’ve met Raphael Becker.’

‘You’d know if you had,’ Melissa said. ‘He’s… sparkly.’

‘Cari says that the Beckers are all the same,’ Mitsuko supplied. ‘They use illusions all the time to surround themselves with special effects. Raphael seems to have taken it to extremes.’

‘I’ve seen him then,’ Nava said. ‘In the refectory and a few other places. I assumed he was in the Drama Club.’

‘You are never going to forgive them for that play, are you?’

‘Certainly.’

Mitsuko’s eyes narrowed. ‘When?’

‘I have to die sometime.’

238/2/4.

The answer to how Misaki was going to handle the spell matrix problem had become apparent the day before. Nava had actually known what was coming before it happened because the Greylings were involved, and Rhianna had sent Nava a message explaining the plan. Misaki had sounded out a few people regarding the matter, determined that the clans would likely side with the communications companies, at least in the short term, and had requested that the Greylings leak the reports.

Even if the general populace did not really like magicians that much, a scandal involving big companies deliberately ignoring health risks in order to maximise profits was the kind of thing the masses loved. The news cycle in the evening had been dominated by pundits blowing the threat out of all proportion. There had also been a not inconsiderable contingent intent on either minimising the impact or suggesting that it was worth it to maintain society as it was. The few voices saying it was what magicians deserved for whatever reason were limited to fringe channels.

The school had, of course, freaked out. The administration was fielding calls from students and parents. Were matrices safe? Should I take my beloved child out of school? What is SAS^2 going to do about this? Somewhat to be expected, the students were handling it better than their parents, but there was still an undercurrent of anxiety there. So…

‘While there is still work to be done analysing the data leaked to media channels,’ Luca Newton said, ‘we can draw a couple of conclusions relatively quickly. The school wishes to make those conclusions clear, and that will hopefully reassure you all regarding the use of spell matrices.’

She paused, looking around at her homeroom class. She had known most of them for three years now. Most of them were level-headed. Some of them, and she was thinking about Nava, took that to extremes. ‘The risk factors for this problem are capacity, specifically low capacity, and duration of use. Those affected have been using a spell matrix at the extreme limit of their capabilities for extended periods and over the course of many years. While you may all feel that you could have greater capacity, except Nava, you are all relatively powerful magicians and your brains would not be stressed by most matrix uses. Nava?’

Nava got to her feet. ‘Thank you, Miss Luca Newton. First, I obviously feel that I could have a higher capacity. There are people in the Clan Worlds more powerful than I am.’ She went on before anyone could say they did not believe her. ‘Second, the main usage case highlighted in the reports we have, I assume, all read by now is communications workers. Rank three Telepathy, which is the spell employed in interstellar communication, is one hundred and five Tammys. We covered this last year in this class. Almost everyone here could cast it without a matrix. Even using a matrix would put no stress on your brain, though having to sit there for eight hours being used as a magical antenna might cause you to shut down from boredom. The problem is that many communications companies employ the lowest-capacity magicians they can find, because it’s cheaper to do so, and those people are affected.’

Mitsuko got up too. ‘Length of use is a factor too. None of you are subjected to extended periods of matrix use. You have not been using matrices for very long. None of you are in danger from this issue. You may have relatives or friends who are, but you are all going to be fine. The student council will be available to field questions. Just don’t ask Nava too many because she’s going to be stressed enough with the fair starting today. She is a far more immediate threat to your health than spell matrices are.’

‘I have no idea how my reputation has got this bad,’ Nava said. ‘Under the circumstances, I’m happy to be misunderstood.’

~~~

‘Hey, boss?’

‘Yes, Moritz?’ Nava was taking a turn around the EA fair in her capacity as captain of the SSF with Moritz Evered, one of her staff and an ex-classmate of Mitsuko’s. Moritz was a pretty good SSF officer. Not entirely the brightest Nava had and perennially stuck in the role of wingman to his more attractive friends, but a good officer when it came down to it.

‘You know about this spell matrix stuff, right?’

‘We cover them in far greater detail on the support stream, yes.’

‘And, um, you don’t think there’s any danger in our using them?’

‘In the way we use them, unless you had some sort of underlying neurological condition which would likely cause you problems anyway, no, there’s no danger. We don’t use them often enough or for long enough.’

‘Right.’

Nava waited. Moritz had a point of some sort. He was unsure about it and worried bringing it up would be a horrible embarrassment, but he was worried. He was a macho sort of man, so admitting that he was worried was extra hard for him, but he would come out with it eventually. That was how he was.

‘What about MagiTag? That uses a spell matrix in the pistols, right? And we use MagiTag pistols a lot in tactics classes.’

That was all it was? ‘The risk is only there if you’re using a matrix to cast a spell beyond your normal capacity.’

‘Okay…’

‘Do you happen to know the complexity of the MagiTag pulse spell, Moritz?’

‘Uh, no.’

‘It’s one Tammy.’

‘Uh, oh. So, um, there’s no danger in using MagiTag pistols?’

‘None at all, Moritz. No one actually able to use a MagiTag pistol really needs a MagiTag pistol to fire off the pulse. The matrix just means you don’t have to go around remembering the schema. And the pistol itself is set up to stop working once you’re out of the game. It’s about as difficult to cast as an Umbrella cantrip.’

‘I’ll, uh, let the guys know.’

‘Hm, maybe Suki should have stayed in the combat stream just to stop you all worrying over stuff you would know if you were support stream.’

‘Our class average went down too. I mean, Taryn kind of makes up the gap a bit, but the scores at the end of this year aren’t going to be as good as last year.’

‘Hm.’ Nava paused, considering. ‘If you don’t mind me asking, did you vote for Suki last year, and will you do so again this year?’

‘Yes,’ Moritz replied without hesitation. ‘To both. I can’t say the same for everyone in the class. I mean, I work with you, so I know support students aren’t soft. Some people see it differently.’

Nava nodded. ‘I’m aware. I’m sure she would thank you for your continued support.’

‘Huh. That’s a no-brainer. Anyone who thinks she’s changed just because she switched streams is an idiot.’

‘Hm.’ The problem was that there were a lot of stupid, highly intelligent people at SAS^2.

238/2/5.

The Professional Society of Sorcery stand was doing a lot more business this year than last. There was not exactly a crowd of students there, but there was a steady stream of people talking to the people on the stand. The PSS was an organisation devoted to the rights of magicians. They tended to promote professional standards among magicians too, but they had been formed primarily to advocate for the rights of communications workers. Given recent events, Nava figured the rise in interest in an organisation like the PSS was to be expected, even if most students would have walked right past the stand most years.

Possibly, they had foreseen the need to handle more visitors because there were more people on the stand this year. The young man Nava had spoken to two years before was not there this time; maybe he had graduated to less public-facing work or given up trying to pick up students. Three people seemed to be handling the majority of the students coming to the stand while another two provided backup, sometimes processing membership applications. Presumably, they had attracted a few new members in the years before, otherwise they would have given up coming to the fair, but Nava suspected there were more this year.

And she was not entirely happy with the way one of the women on the stand was attracting some of those members. And it seemed that the woman in question noticed Nava listening in since she spoke up as soon as she was free. ‘Are you interested in the work of the Professional Society of Sorcery, young lady?’

Nava let a brief pause go by before responding. ‘The need for an organisation to advocate for the rights of magicians has been obvious to me for some time.’

The woman smiled. She was attractive, which went without saying; ugly was hard to find in the Clan Worlds and you would not have put an ugly person on a stand to attract other citizens. Her hair was a reddish shade of brown, worn in a neat bob. Her eyes were hazel, but there was a reddish tint to them that made them interesting, and there was a distinct hint of intelligence behind them. She was a little shorter than Nava, slim of build, and giving off more of an academic vibe than a sporty one. Nava estimated that she spent a lot of time behind a desk. ‘You know something about the magical industries?’

‘I know that you’re overstating the risks of spell matrix use. Particularly in the case of students in this school, but more generally, I believe.’

The smile vanished. ‘Spell matrices represent a significant risk to all magicians and it’s clear from what’s been reported recently that the communications industry has been covering up their knowledge of that fact.’

‘I won’t argue about the cover-up. However, anyone graduating from SAS-squared has a capacity of at least one hundred and ten Tammys. They can all use rank three Telepathy without the need for a matrix. If the communications industry were to only use SAS-squared graduates, they would not have a problem. That they have customarily employed magicians with lower capacity, are aware that there is a problem due to that, and have decided to remain silent, is reprehensible and likely criminal, but scaring the pupils of this school over something which will never apply to them in order to attract members to your organisation is not much better.’

‘Those who graduate. Not everyone who comes here graduates.’

‘Ninety-eight percent of those who meet the entrance requirements for capacity also meet the graduation requirements. The overall failure rate is higher since there are other requirements for graduation, but very few of the students here will be in any danger should they decide to go into the communications industry. It is unlikely that anyone who might be in danger would end up working in a company where they would have an issue since they could still find work elsewhere without difficulty. And who in their right mind would work in communications if they could avoid it?’

The last comment was meant to defuse the situation, and it seemed that the woman was willing to accept that. She was very invested in her cause, but she was also intelligent. Fighting like this was not going to help attract more customers. ‘That’s very true. Everyone should be aware of the dangers, however.’

Nava let that slide. ‘Being informed is always a good thing.’

‘I am Perle Tailler Sonkei. It’s a pleasure to meet someone so informed.’

‘Nava Greyling.’ The Tailler family were not large; Nava was unaware of ever having met one before. Still, Perle was a clanswoman.

‘Oh! You’re… You’ll probably never have to worry about using a spell matrix.’ Perle was, apparently, aware of Nava. ‘Four-fifty, wasn’t it? You have to be among the most powerful in the clan.’

‘There are others with similar capacity and more experience.’

‘Not many.’

Nava shrugged, conceding the point. ‘That does not make me any less interested in the rights of other magicians, so long as the risks of our profession are not exaggerated for political effect.’

‘The Clan Council and the administration have done nothing about this problem.’

‘And the Voice of Magic has made it harder for them to act as they should. No one wants to be seen as backing down in the face of terrorism. Clan Worlds culture makes it harder. The clans are proud, their people are warriors. They act because that is their will to do so, not because someone else forces them into it. This leak of information will push the clans into acting, but they will push back, delaying until they can sell any legal changes as their own actions rather than something the Voice of Magic has forced upon them.’

Perle’s jaw tightened, but she recovered quickly enough. ‘No one would know about any of this without the Voice of Magic.’

‘Probably true, but they should have found a better way to tell the public about the issue.’

‘Perhaps. I don’t suppose I can persuade you to become a member of the PSS?’

‘I’m afraid that my other obligations would make membership difficult.’ Frankly, Nava was fairly sure that being a Greyling meant following a set of professional standards the PSS would not have agreed with. ‘You’ll have to be satisfied with knowing that, while I may not be a member, I do hold the rights and needs of magicians highly, and that I will work toward improving our working conditions wherever I can.’

‘Well, knowing that someone like you thinks that way is encouraging. I suppose I’ll have to be satisfied with that.’

238/2/6.

In the courtyard outside the senior refectory, Raphael Becker was demonstrating that he could manage a public speech. He was still using way too much in the way of visual effects as he stood up on a temporary stage, addressing the gathered crowd who had just come out of lunch, but that did not entirely detract from what he was saying.

At the back of the crowd, Mitsuko stood with Nava, Melissa, and Carina, listening to the only other support student running in the election. She was kind of impressed. ‘It’s not like he’s saying much of substance, but he’s good at saying it. He might actually have a chance.’

‘Sorcery is the core of SAS-squared,’ Raphael was saying currently. ‘As president, I will refocus the school’s efforts toward ensuring that this school is not only considered the premier sorcery school in the Clan Worlds, but that it meets those perceptions.’

‘That’s a unique take,’ Mitsuko commented.

‘It implies that the school is not the best in this part of space,’ Nava said. ‘Statistically, it is.’

‘He’s a Malkin,’ Carina said. ‘Even if he knows the statistics, he thinks we could be doing better.’

This was more or less the climax of the speech; Raphael was wrapping up and his array of illusions were building to a crescendo. ‘A vote for me is a vote for excellence. A vote for me, Raphael Becker Malkin, will see SAS-squared climb to new heights!’ Fireworks exploded around him, backed by a huge, high-definition SAS^2 logo. Honestly, Nava found herself thinking that he could have done better after seeing some of the work the Art Club had produced for the play she was in.

The effect on the crowd was, however, quite dramatic. Cheers exploded from the audience, starting at the front and sweeping back toward the rear. Oddly, the cheering seemed to get a lot more sporadic the further you were from the stage. Twenty metres from where Raphael was waving to his audience, practically no one was cheering, but Mitsuko was frowning. She was frowning in a pleasantly surprised way.

‘I didn’t think he was that good,’ she said. ‘Perhaps he’ll be a better opponent than I thought.’

‘There are a lot of combat students looking impressed up at the front,’ Melissa said. ‘I didn’t think another support student would get their attention.’

‘That’s what the Beckers are like,’ Carina said. ‘They’ve always been more impressive than you’d think. I mean, some of them can actually use that special effect spell properly. Raphael’s not that good at it.’

‘I find myself wanting to spy on him if he ever confesses his love to someone,’ Melissa said, grinning. ‘Can you imagine what the effects would be like?’

‘I’m trying not to,’ Nava said. ‘Raphael Becker certainly deserves further attention.’

Melissa cringed. ‘Why do I suddenly feel sorry for him?’

‘I have no idea what you mean…’

~~~

Nava glanced at her ketcom and frowned. A call was coming through, but there was no caller ID, and that was not supposed to be possible under normal circumstances. Government agencies could do it, but even Fawn let Nava see her ID when calling. She was alone in SSF HQ, so she tapped the screen to accept, and a window appeared on her console, echoing the display on the ketcom’s tiny screen in more detail.

Not that there was much detail to see. The image showed a shadowy figure which might have been female, backlit to the point where nothing could really be seen at all. The voice, when it came, was disguised, but it might have been female under all the distortion.

‘Nava Greyling, this is the Voice of Magic.’

Nava looked at the screen, not responding. The Voice knew who she was, and they had made the call. There seemed little point in responding, so Nava waited for her mysterious caller to get to the point.

‘You don’t seem surprised that I’ve called you. That’s–’

‘If you knew me, you would know that I never seem surprised about anything. I am naturally curious about your reason for contacting me. Perhaps you could explain before I end the call.’ If anyone else had been in HQ with her, Nava would have had them trace the call. It seemed likely, given the blocked ID, that such an exercise would prove fruitless, but she would have done it. As it was, all she could really do was learn as much as possible.

‘The magical community needs your help, Nava Greyling. We don’t know how they are doing it, but the ASF has come up with some way of predicting where we are about to conduct a protest operation.’

Nava knew. The Greylings were passing on Jenna’s predictions as ‘information received.’ Jenna’s models had only been eighty percent sure of the attack on ASF HQ, but it had been a good prediction and there had been no further attempts since then, as predicted. The ASF were not asking, but they assumed the Greylings had some sort of source within the Voice of Magic. ‘And how am I supposed to help you?’

‘We have a means of making our weapon harder to counter, but it requires someone with a high capacity to implement. Someone like you. If you help us, we can continue punishing immoral companies and bring greater attention to our cause.’

‘You expect me to help you kill more magicians who you yourself consider to be victims?’

‘The sacrifice of a few to improve the lives of many more is–’

‘The kind of thing terrorist leaders often say while standing at the back and sacrificing nothing themselves. You should have taken the information you had to the administration.’

‘Like they would’ve listened.’ There was a bitter edge to the voice now. ‘All they’ve done since we made our first announcement is to hunt us down.’

‘That is incorrect. Unfortunately, your actions have made it very difficult to openly move on the evidence the administration has amassed. Politically, you’ve crippled any attempt to bring real justice to the companies involved and to enact laws preventing further harm to magicians.’

‘I should have known someone working in security for a national institution wouldn’t help. You’ve vested interests to protect. You’re a traitor to–’

‘I don’t like that word. I will not assist in your campaign for retribution because it is counterproductive. No, not retribution. Revenge. You want revenge for something which happened to you. The loss of a family member perhaps. You are wrong about the administration. Had you brought this to their attention, they would have acted. You have hampered their response upon discovering the problem. You are part of the problem, and I will only assist those who are part of the solution. Goodbye.’

Nava cut the connection before the Voice could reply. She paused for a second or so, considering. Then she placed a call to Rhianna.

238/2/9.

This time, Raphael was speaking in one of the lecture theatres. He was doing well in the polls, and this was his attempt to consolidate that advantage. Mitsuko was watching because she liked to keep up with her opponents. Nava was there for the same sort of reason, but she was also handling security. She had Moritz down nearer the stage too; security during the elections had got a lot tighter after the Redwings had tried to interfere.

Raphael’s illusions were better today. What he was saying was not too different from his first rally. ‘What we need is an attitude which improves standards at SAS-squared. Both among the students and the faculty. As president, I intend to press for those higher standards. Graduates of this school will be the most skilled magicians in the Alliance!’

It was all going down pretty well. Which was perplexing Mitsuko a little. ‘Did he just suggest raising the graduation standards?’

‘It could certainly be taken that way,’ Nava replied. She was watching Moritz. Moritz appeared to be eating Raphael’s speech up like the best candy he had ever tasted.

When Raphael finished to a standing ovation – which did not quite make it to the back of the theatre – Nava went down to talk to her subordinate, Mitsuko beside her. ‘Any problems, Moritz?’

‘None at all, boss.’ Moritz’s cheeks coloured a little. ‘I, uh, must admit to being a bit distracted though.’

‘You were that entranced by his speech?’

‘It was amazing!’

‘In what way?’

‘Sorry?’

‘What, in particular, did you find so interesting about his speech? Which of his policies spoke to your soul, Moritz?’

‘Uh… Well, the whole excellence in magic thing was great. We should all strive to be good, right? I mean, you don’t need to, but everyone else has to work hard to become the best they can be.’

‘You do realise that he appears to be suggesting that the graduation standards should be raised?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘He did? Well, that seems like a good thing.’ Pause. ‘Doesn’t it?’

‘Speaking as someone who doesn’t have to work to achieve them,’ Nava said, ‘I cannot find fault. You’re the one who’ll have to pull all-nighters to improve your grades.’

Moritz turned a rather un-Moritz shade of white. ‘Well, when you put it like that…’

238/2/10.

‘Raphael Becker is in the upper percentile range for first-year capacity,’ Nava said. ‘Stronger than average, but not exceptional. He scored ninety in the capacity test for entry. Melissa, who does not consider herself a strong magician, scored eighty, as did Chess.’

‘I don’t know how you remember things like that,’ Melissa said, ‘but you’re right, I scored eighty back then.’

‘I got ninety,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I was under the impression that Malkins were stronger than average.’

‘We are,’ Carina replied. ‘On average. My dark doom has forced me to lock away my power, but before then I was a lot stronger than Raphael is now. I was way above average, of course, due to–’

‘Your dark doom?’ Melissa suggested.

‘I’m glad you recognise it. Raphael was probably allowed to come here because he’s not that good. Like I was allowed to come because my clan cannot see beyond the veil drawn over my power.’

‘She’s on form today. So, Raphael isn’t that great a sorcerer. Why call for higher standards when he might not meet them?’

‘Because he thinks he’s that great. To most Malkins, our clan is the best there is at magic. No question, we’re just that good. It’s not surprising he thinks magic should be the highest priority there is, because magic is the solution to just about every problem, but he’s assessing the standards here based on the idea that we, the Malkin clan, have higher standards which we always meet.’

‘It’s unlikely that the principal would agree to a raising of standards anyway,’ Mitsuko said. ‘They review the results every year to ensure that the school does meet the requirements of clan society. Deciding to raise them for no good reason would serve no useful purpose.’

‘Agreed,’ Nava said, ‘unless Raphael were able to influence the administration in some manner, he could talk all he wanted without getting what he says he wants.’

‘Influence?’ Mitsuko, of course, picked up on why Nava had been looking into Raphael as soon as Nava gave her the clue.

‘I looked over video of Raphael’s two rallies. There is a quite clear degradation in his appeal visible in the audience as they get further from him. My hypothesis is that the more detail you can see in his illusions, the more you are influenced by them.’

‘You think they’re more than just illusions?’ Melissa asked.

‘I suspect a visual mind control component. Moritz, who was closer to the stage at the last meeting, was convinced that the sun shone out from Raphael’s behind, but he was unable to really say what about the speech made him so enthusiastic. This is a disguised spell designed to make those seeing Raphael more inclined to like him. I don’t think he uses it all the time, but I am willing to bet that he is using it a lot more during this campaign period.’

‘You would need positive proof to accuse him of using something like that,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Mental influence magic is heavily controlled. Even Mental Illusion requires a licence.’

‘Which he does not have. He has permits for Complex Illusion, Dispel Magic, and Slice. Yes, I’m aware that I’d need solid proof to arrest him. I don’t need solid proof to test my hypothesis at his next rally. How are the polls looking currently?’

‘Aside from the aberration which is Raphael Becker, it doesn’t appear that my opponents can differentiate themselves enough to consolidate the vote against me. Don’t change the subject. What are you going to do?’

‘Try out a new spell. If it works, the results should be interesting.’

238/2/12.

On a Saturday afternoon, Nava was standing in a lecture theatre near the stage, waiting for Raphael Becker to arrive. He was cutting it close, but that meshed with his overconfident personality.

Lifting her ketcom, she checked over the spell schema she had devised with Trudy. This was the result of her idea about suppression fields and the chat she had had with the alien about them. She called it Dominate Area. She had also decided that she was terrible at coming up with names and should talk to someone else about them. What Dominate Area did was–

Surrounded by sparkling stars which appeared over his head and floated toward the ground at his feet trailing more sparkles, Raphael entered the room. He looked confident. He was smiling. Around him, people began to smile as he did. Nava felt no compunction to do so, but she probably would not have smiled anyway. Instead, she focused on setting her mind to processing the Dominate Area spell.

Reaching the podium, Raphael waved at his audience and opened his mouth.

Nava’s spell rolled out to cover the stage and part of the audience, and Raphael’s illusion vanished in a flicker of sparkling light.

‘Wel–’ Raphael started, coming to a stop instantly as he realised his magic was not working. In all probability, he tried to cast the spell again since there was a pause of two or three seconds before he continued. ‘Welcome, everyone. Please be seated. I want to talk about magic and its place at our school.’

Oddly, his audience had stopped smiling. They were not looking unhappy, but something was different, and they were not sure what it was. Nava thought she had a pretty good idea what it was, and she was wondering whether Raphael would say anything when his speech was over.

~~~

‘What’s going on, Captain Nava Greyling?’ Raphael asked. He had taken Nava aside after basically bombing with his audience. Maybe the reaction had not been that bad, but he had got barely a smattering of applause at the end. It was far from the reaction to his first two speeches.

‘What in particular do you mean, Raphael Becker?’ Nava asked.

‘It seemed as though something was suppressing magic in the theatre. I was unable to create any of my usual illusions.’

‘Oh, that. There have been some rumours that some of the candidates have been using magic to influence the election. I will be deploying a spell to negate magic use in all future meetings such as this one. To prevent whoever might be using banned magic from doing so. I’m quite sure your spells are just illusions, but I can’t make exceptions. My apologies.’

‘I… I see. Rumours, you say?’

‘Rumours which reached the ears of the vice principal. Joslyn Harris is a stickler for the rules. When she heard that mental influence magic might be being employed, she was quite concerned. Since I was recently able to develop this spell, this seemed like a perfect time to try it out, and to set the VP’s mind at ease. She did, however, say that she would see to it that anyone found to be using banned sorcery would be punished in the worst way the school has available. She indicated that I could involve the ASF, and Joslyn Harris prefers to avoid involving them whenever possible. I would not want to be caught using that kind of magic at the moment.’

‘And you’ll be using this new spell at every event going forward?’

‘All of them. It’s an unpleasant but necessary precaution.’

‘I see. Thank you for your diligence.’

‘No need to thank me, Raphael Becker. I am simply doing my duty as captain of the SSF. Nothing more and nothing less.’

~~~

‘Joslyn didn’t ask you to do this, did she?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘She doesn’t know a thing about it,’ Nava replied. ‘On the other hand, if someone were caught cheating like that, you know she would bring the roof down on them.’

‘True.’

‘The thing I don’t understand,’ Carina said, ‘is how the rest of the clan hasn’t figured out what the Beckers are doing. I can’t believe Raphael is the only one using whatever this spell is. It has to be why the whole family uses too many effects all the time. So, why hasn’t anyone noticed that it’s affecting their minds?’

‘First, I think there’s a component which confuses spell analysis. You can detect his magic, but if you try to do a more thorough analysis, you fail. Second, I think most of them only use the special version of the spell when they need to influence someone. Most of the time they, and also Raphael probably, are just using Complex Illusion. Raphael has given the game away here by using their secret spell too much and inappropriately. I suspect, given that the effect seems to be weak over distance, that it was designed to be used to influence small groups.’

‘So, it’s like Circle of Dark Flame. The Malkins think it’s great, but it’s not really as good as we think it is.’

‘Perhaps. Or it’s not as good as Raphael thinks it is.’

‘It was working,’ Mitsuko pointed out. ‘His poll numbers are still strong, though we haven’t had the results for today yet.’

‘And won’t it be interesting to see what we have in the morning?’

Mitsuko’s lips quirked. ‘Yes. Yes, I think it will.’

238/2/13.

Another night at SSF HQ, another anonymous call. Nava looked at her screen for a couple of seconds before deciding to answer. As soon as the shadowed image appeared, she spoke. ‘This is the last time I will accept a call from you. I see no point in us speaking. I will not change my mind. Goodbye.’

She was reaching for the button to disconnect when the Voice replied. ‘I think you’ll want to hear this. It’s a matter of school security.’

Nava stared at the screen. ‘Go on.’

‘I’ve set up five of your students as martyrs for the cause. You will do as I say, and then I’ll tell you who they are. You have six hours before the first of them detonates.’

‘I see. Where should I meet you?’

‘I’ll send you the coordinates. There’s a square near the assembly building which–’

‘Unacceptable. There is far too much danger of us being seen together in such a public place. There is a stop on the main line between SAS-squared and Alliance City. The name is Snowvale, a residential area with few inhabitants. At this time on a Sunday, there will be few people about. We can meet unobserved.’

‘If I have to travel there, it’ll cut into the time you have to complete your mission.’

‘Perhaps you are unaware of my capabilities,’ Nava replied. ‘I am quite confident that I can have this situation resolved in far less than six hours.’

‘I’ll accommodate you that much then. It’s you who’ll lose out if you fail. I’ll see you at Snowvale station.’

‘I’ll be waiting.’

Snowvale.

A figure stepped off the train at Snowvale station and looked around. Nava was waiting at one end of the platform and, as soon as she was sure she had been seen, she moved out of sight into a service area which was supposed to be for employees only. It was a boxy, bare-concrete room with shelves full of cleaning products and a couple of charging stations for service robots. The robots were in their stations, unmoving and unresponsive. Nava walked to the back wall of the room and turned to wait.

A few seconds later, the woman stepped in through the door. She was dressed in dark jeans and a hoodie. Her face was in shadow which had been magically deepened to keep her features vague to the point that anyone looking at her would never have been able to describe her. In the diffuse, low-intensity light of the storeroom, she was effectively invisible. There was a satchel slung over her shoulder. When she spoke, it was clear that another spell had been used to disguise her voice. ‘This station has extensive surveillance. Are you sure this was a good place to meet?’

‘I’ve deployed a military countersurveillance spell to cover this area. I assume you’re using Evade Detection to avoid being seen by cameras.’

There was a shift in the shadows which suggested a smile. Perhaps a smirk. ‘Obviously. My ticket suggests I’m travelling to New Paris. Where’s your ketcom? I don’t want you recording–’

‘It’s in my desk at SSF HQ. There will be no record of this meeting. What is it that you wish me to do?’

The Voice unslung her satchel and opened it, taking out a device about the size and shape of a large flashlight. ‘You’ll use this. Your target is Senior Representative Andre Wortham Corley. He’s a strong advocate for communications companies. The Corley clan owns a number of them. You’ll time the spell to go off when he reaches the assembly building tomorrow morning. Around ten thirty.’

‘And with the ASF covering the assembly, how likely do you think it is that your spell will get the chance to detonate?’

‘It’s far harder to dispel than the first version. It will take them time to find someone to remove the curse. That is time they will not have.’

Nava nodded. ‘Not the way I would have done it, but it’s your plan. Indulge me further, if you would. Just what is it that this spell does? How are you achieving such large explosions?’

‘Mass conversion. I call it Sacrifice of Matter. To be specific, it converts some seven hundred and eight billion carbon atoms directly into energy producing a detonation equivalent to about a hundred kilograms of TNT.’

‘You cracked mass conversion magic?’ If Mitsuko or Melissa, or even Fawn, had been in the room, they would probably have been backing away from Nava at this point. The Voice was not used to dealing with her.

‘Yes. You don’t believe me?’

‘It makes sense of the characteristics of the explosions. To be clear, you cracked mass conversion, a problem which has been the subject of research by numerous academic magicians for over a century, the solution to which could be used to provide almost unlimited energy if it were used in the right way, and the way you have decided to use it is to make innocent people explode.’

If there had been a smirk on the Voice’s face, it was gone. ‘Andre Wortham is not innocent.’

‘And the communications workers you used as tools in the other bombings?’

There was a pause; the Voice was controlling herself. ‘You’ll use this on Andre Wortham, or your fellow students will become–’

‘No,’ Nava said flatly. She did not move, even to raise a hand, but suddenly the figure in the hoodie let out a scream of pain and collapsed to the floor. ‘If I rendered you unconscious,’ Nava went on, ‘I would be unable to read your mind to discover who you booby-trapped. I would never normally use a spell like Agony on anyone. It’s not my inclination to do so, and my training emphasised quick kills. You have made it necessary, however.’

The only answer she got was more screaming as the Voice writhed on the floor, folding herself into a foetal position one moment, and then bending her back the other way the next as every nerve in her body sent pain indicators to her brain. Her hoodie was quickly displaced from her head and her face became visible.

‘Perle Tailler,’ Nava said. ‘I am both surprised and aware that I should have been expecting this. You went to the EA fair in the hopes of meeting me. Now, let’s see what I can drag out of your mind.’

At the surface level, the only thing Perle was thinking about, if you could call it thinking, was pain. Her thoughts were not coherent. If Nava had not been used to pain, she might have been overwhelmed by what the Agony spell was doing to her victim. She pushed that aside and began digging deeper, searching through Perle’s memories for the identities of the students she had cursed. It took only a couple of seconds to find them. There were three, not five. The idea, Nava assumed, was that if she had gone looking for the victims, she would have been ‘unable to find’ two of the five and thus been forced to agree to Perle’s demands. Nava had never planned to do that. Perle’s choice of victim was interesting and inadvisable, but Nava would get to that later.

She hunted for information on the Voice of Magic. Was it just Perle, or were there others? Nava wanted names and an organisational structure if the latter was true. It was, but Nava was going to be disappointed. The Voice of Magic was less of an organisation than it was a loose affiliation of likeminded people. They had made connections on the info-net in chat rooms concerned with magicians’ rights, and their interactions now were all virtual. No one used real identities. The title of Voice of Magic was given to one of them who had a plan to make society sit up and listen; Perle just so happened to be the first of them to put such a plan into action.

‘I am not going to get anything useful from you, am I?’ Nava asked of the whimpering, writhing body at her feet. She cancelled the Agony spell.

Breathing hard, her face drenched in sweat, Perle rolled onto her back and glared up at Nava. The glare was somewhat weakened by the memory of pain still clinging to her mind. ‘Bitch.’

‘I have been called far worse. You made two mistakes and I would like to explain them to you so that you understand what is about to happen. I have collected sufficient evidence to “defuse” your human bombs and be sure of what I should do next.’

‘You’re going to arrest me. I’ll probably be executed after a show trial. None of that evidence you got is admissible in a real courtroom.’

‘And you would deserve whatever you got. Your first mistake was in assuming that my ethics would not allow me to cast Agony on you and riffle through your mind to uncover your victims. If I intended to arrest you as a member of the ASF, that might have been the case. I resigned from the ASF at the end of last year, however, and I have no intention of arresting you.’

Perle’s eyes widened. ‘Then–’

‘Your second mistake was in selecting Melissa Connelly as one of your targets. I assume the other two were randomly selected, but you must have known that Melissa is my friend. That choice was inadvisable. That choice made this a personal threat to me and my friends. I have only one response to people who attack me or my friends.’ Nava raised her hand.

‘You can’t!’

‘Why? To you, the ends justify the means. Why should I be different?’

‘You… You’re some sort of hero!’

‘Oh, Perle Tailler, I am no kind of hero.’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 238/2/15.

‘It looks like that Voice of Magic thing is done with,’ Carina said. She was looking at her ketcom while she munched on toast.

‘Oh?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘The ASF raided some apartment in Alliance City last night. Somehow, they identified the person behind it all and– Oh, wait, this Perle Tailler Sonkei hasn’t been captured. They’re still looking for her. Which makes the statement from the Clan Council that the Voice of Magic has been effectively destroyed a bit premature, right?’

‘Very,’ Nava said. She had told her friends nothing about what had happened on Sunday night. She had quietly used Dispel Magic on Melissa and the other two victims to rid them of Perle’s magic, and she had said nothing. She had reported to Rhianna, which had resulted in the anonymous tip to the ASF and the resulting raid. Rhianna had been a little disappointed in Nava’s choice of action, but there had been no censure from the family; they understood her motivations and, at least at some level, agreed with them.

Melissa had been tapping at her ketcom since Carina mentioned a name. ‘I thought I knew that name. She was on the PSS stand at the fair.’

‘She was?’ Mitsuko asked. ‘I hope that isn’t indicative of some militant faction within the PSS.’

‘I doubt it,’ Nava said, ‘but it’s likely to cause problems for them. This whole thing could push discussion of the rights of magicians in either direction. I honestly don’t know whether this will be good for us or bad.’

‘Misaki, Haruka, and Tomoko Himura, and my parents, are moving to have a law passed on Shinden to control the use of spell matrices. Restricting the continuous time they’re used and mandating rest periods. That kind of thing. From what Father said, getting anything passed across the Alliance is going to be difficult.’

‘I… I’m going to explain all this to my father,’ Melissa said. ‘He’s not a bigwig or anything, but maybe he can talk to some people. Maybe we could get a similar law passed on Avorna.’

‘I can’t actually speak for my father, but I think he’d agree to field questions, maybe even provide a draft legal structure your father could present to his superiors. And it would look like he had backing from the Sonkei clan.’

‘That might help. I’ll let him know.’

‘There’s not much point in me trying to get something like that done,’ Carina said. ‘My clan wouldn’t listen to anything I told them. And they probably wouldn’t think it applied to them anyway.’

‘We’re not asking you to, Cari,’ Mitsuko said. ‘We all do what we can to make the world a better place. Your job is to save us from the coming darkness. We can only take on lesser roles.’

‘I thought that was Nava’s job,’ Melissa said.

‘A valid point, but I am going to change the subject before Nava decides not to sleep with me for a week.’

‘I’d come up with a far better punishment than that,’ Nava said almost under her breath.

‘In the meantime, we only have to worry about what this Perle Tailler might be up to while she hides from the ASF.’

‘My assessment is that we don’t have to worry about that. I don’t agree with the council that the Voice of Magic is a spent force, but I don’t think Perle Tailler is a useful member of it anymore.’

‘That’s kind of positive for you, Nava,’ Melissa said, grinning.

Nava gave a shrug. ‘It’s not. She had a known method of operation which was fairly well understood and not that difficult to counter. If there are other members to the Voice of Magic, and they decide to act, we’re going to have no idea what they can do until they do it.’

Melissa flashed a scowl. ‘Couldn’t you just be positive for one morning?’

‘Well, no, not really.’

238/2/16.

Raphael looked rather downcast as he walked out into the lecture theatre to give his next speech. Nava could not really blame him. The polls were painting a picture of steady decline for Raphael Becker. If you took away his special effects and whatever mind-affecting magic was hidden in them, the only thing he had to differentiate him from Mitsuko was his stance on standards. If you dissected the figures from before Nava had cut him off and asked around a little, you could tell that people who had actually listened to what he was pushing were not entirely happy about it. Now that there was no magical influence making his speeches seem better than they were, everyone was realising that Raphael wanted to make their lives harder.

He did still have supporters. There were people in the front rows of the theatre who looked pretty enthusiastic about him. The idea of raising standards was probably popular among some members of the student body. Unfortunately, those were the elitist types. Nava might have expected Taryn to be among them. Not that Taryn was exactly an elitist, but her competitive streak might have pushed her toward Raphael’s camp. Taryn was not in the theatre, however, and Taryn had not decided to stand against Mitsuko this year, which was interesting.

Raphael got to the podium and lifted his head to smile at the audience. Really, without his special effects, he kind of looked like a puppy deprived of its favourite bone.

‘Welcome all,’ he said. ‘I’d like to talk to you about magic.’

~~~

‘It wasn’t a terrible speech,’ Nava said. ‘He kind of avoided mentioning the whole thing about raising standards, but he said some stuff about his passion for sorcery which very nearly moved me.’

‘I find that a little difficult to believe,’ Mitsuko said.

‘I may have been a little sarcastic there. If you had given the same sort of speech, that might have made me a little emotional.’

‘Would we notice?’ Melissa asked. They were all heading for the student council room for a meeting after collecting Nava from Raphael’s meeting.

‘Probably not.’

238/2/17.

‘And he dropped out this morning,’ Mitsuko said. This afternoon, they were on their way home. No one had scheduled a speech for Nava to attend and there was no council meeting to go to. Nava had plans to relax for ten minutes before she had to worry about homework and SSF business. Mitsuko would be worrying over homework and polling statistics.

‘He being Raphael Becker?’ Nava asked.

‘Mm. His poll numbers have continued dropping. He doesn’t have a differentiating factor sufficient to make him attractive to his fellow support students when they can re-elect me.’

‘His poll numbers fell off a cliff,’ Melissa said. ‘More worryingly, the polling suggests that there’s more consolidation among the combat students. They’re shifting toward one candidate. It’s not totally clear, but you may have a fight on your hands, Suki.’

‘I’d noticed. I’d rather that than no opposition.’

‘I’ve never quite understood why you want to make your life harder.’

‘Obviously because I’m a masochist.’

‘She is,’ Nava said. ‘Luckily, the uniform covers most of the marks.’

Melissa’s cheeks coloured, but what she said was, ‘Oh? Tell me more.’

‘Don’t you dare!’ Mitsuko squeaked.

‘My lips are sealed,’ Nava said.

Melissa gave her best pout. ‘Meany.’

238/2/26.

With lunch over and done with, Taryn had exactly one thing on her mind: MagiTag. If she were honest, the only thing keeping her going was that if she stopped, she would have nothing to do after lunch on a Saturday. Nava was not attending club meetings at the moment; she was busy with the SSF for one thing, and she tended to only turn up in the late spring when she waltzed in to teach the teams for the summer war games that they were not as good as they thought they were. From Taryn’s point of view, her main rival was not there to spice things up, which made the club meetings far less enjoyable.

Today, apparently, Taryn was going to be late because she could not figure out a way of ducking the News Club reporter’s microphone when she spotted it coming her way without making herself look like a coward. What was the guy’s name again?

‘Taryn Borchardt,’ he said, stuffing the microphone squarely in her face while his cameraman aimed a camera at her. ‘I’m Harlan Royce Sonkei, politics reporter for the News Club.’

Oh yeah, that was it. ‘Yes, and?’

‘You’re well known in the school as one of our strongest students and one of the few willing to stand against President Mitsuko Trenton in recent years. Everyone has been wondering, given that the president elected to switch to the support stream this year, why you decided not to stand against her.’

‘Everyone has, huh?’ Taryn enjoyed watching the man squirm a little. He was not quite as confident as he seemed at first glance, but he had been willing to ambush her here and she had to give him props for that. ‘I think anyone with a brain in their head wouldn’t be surprised at all. Nothing’s changed. Mitsuko Trenton is the same woman she was last year and the year before that. She’s the same woman she was when they elected her the first time, and anyone who thinks her changing stream in any way suggests weakness is a fool. Hell, she had to know that there would be combat students crawling out from under their rocks to challenge her after she made this decision. She had to know some of the idiots around here would think less of her for switching to support. Did that stop her? No. She did it anyway. That’s the kind of courage we need in a leader. So, aside from knowing I’d lose again if I took her on, I didn’t stand this year because I admire her guts. Anyone who doesn’t recognise that kind of courage doesn’t know what courage is. That good enough as an explanation, Harlan Royce?’

‘Thank you, Taryn Borchardt. I think we can all appreciate your stance on this.’ Harlan lowered his microphone and signalled to the cameraman. ‘Thanks, Taryn Borchardt. That was great.’

‘You mean I poked an anthill with a big stick, and you’ll get good viewer figures streaming it?’

‘Well, you’re not wrong…’

~~~

‘What was she thinking?’ Mitsuko asked. She was watching the video of Taryn’s interview.

Nava was more interested in eating, but she paused to reply. ‘She was thinking, “This idiot is going to make me late for MagiTag.” After that, she may have been thinking that she could get a good duel out of this, but I doubt she considered that possibility, to be honest.’

‘She’s actually right, of course,’ Rochester said. It was Saturday evening, so there was a big meet up of the entire gang at one of the refectories. Even Trudy was hanging about somewhere. ‘The people standing against you are being foolish. Not that I’d say this aloud, but they’re being rather cowardly.’

‘You just said it aloud,’ Hoshi pointed out.

Rochester ignored the obvious truth and went on. ‘They wouldn’t take Suki on when she was a combat student. Now that she’s not, they think they’ll get an easy win.’

‘He’s not actually wrong,’ Nava said. ‘If one of them has the nerve to go up against Taryn, however, that would prove they weren’t entirely cowardly. Of course, it would prove they were an idiot, so it’s kind of swings and roundabouts.’

238/2/28.

Nava had had to officiate at very few duels since taking over as captain of the SSF. She had been called upon to adjudicate a few requests for duels early on, and she had taken that very seriously. What that had meant was that the challenged person had complained about a frivolous duel, i.e., a bullying attempt. Nava had investigated the case over the course of several days. Then the school had suspended the bully for a couple of days after Nava delivered her verdict. It was not that other captains had not investigated claims of frivolous duelling before Nava, it was more the way Nava dragged the process out as long as possible before being extremely sarcastic at her victim. Bullies were not big on being humiliated, and Nava gave them ample grounds to challenge her to a duel while exposing their misdeeds. However, none of them had the guts to issue the challenge. Even the first years knew that you did not go into a duelling arena with Nava if you wanted to keep your pride.

So, Nava had had to deal with two or three duels which had been clear-cut cases of someone disrespecting someone else. Oh, and one rather romantic duel involving someone seducing someone else’s little sister. Well, it had been romantic until Nava had noticed the way the brother looked at his little sister…

Nava had considered investigating the duel she was about to start, but there had been no complaint and, as Nava had expected, Taryn was perfectly happy to defend her position. Nava had, in fact, seen video of Jonas Sieger Voll confronting Taryn over the interview. Taryn had doubled down and given more or less the same cowardice angle as the one Rochester had expounded. There was no getting around it, this was a legitimate duel. And Jonas was an idiot.

Better get this started. ‘Magicians,’ Nava said, ‘you are here to settle a matter of honour through a duel to first blood. Fight honourably.’ Nava did not know Jonas that well; she had learned more about him in the last month than she had at any time previously. Still, she suspected he would fight an honourable duel. Taryn was too competitive to cheat in something like this. ‘Raise the barrier.’ She waited for the force screen to stabilise and then continued. ‘Duellists, indicate that you are ready.’

Jonas was a moderately typical third-year combat student. Short brown hair and hazel eyes did nothing to differentiate him from the rest of the student body. He was a little bigger than most with obvious signs of muscle development showing in the way his uniform stretched around his chest, arms, and thighs. His family was a powerful one within the Voll clan, but Jonas was not exactly a prominent member of it; the election had been his big chance to make his mark. ‘I, Jonas Sieger Voll, am ready to prove my honour.’ Well, he sounded confident.

‘I, Taryn Borchardt Firmin, am ready,’ Taryn responded. Taryn sounded confident to the point of disinterest, but she also looked confident. Taryn looked relaxed, even happy. There was a slight smile hanging around her lips rather than the tight, grim line Jonas’s mouth was displaying. Then again, both Nava and Taryn knew how the next few seconds were going to play out.

‘On my word, begin,’ Nava said. She paused for a brief second to be sure no one here was going to make the same mistake Spencer had, but these people knew the rules. ‘Go!’

Taryn barely seemed to move. She did raise a hand, but to most watching, it seemed a rather languid action and there was a slash appearing in Jonas’s left bicep before it was even complete. Blood arced through the air and, instead of casting his own Slice spell, Jonas grabbed at his arm, pain on his face.

‘The winner is Taryn Borchardt Firmin,’ Nava said. ‘Lower the barrier.’

And then, as everyone watched, Taryn walked the twenty metres to where her opponent was standing and placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘No hard feelings, okay?’ she said, and then she cast a spell. Nava was pretty sure what that spell was even before Jonas began to visibly relax as his wound healed.

‘Uh, no,’ Jonas said. ‘No, uh, hard feelings. Thanks for the heal.’

‘No problem. I’m not paying to fix your uniform though.’

Nava floated to the ground beside them having used Flight to move from the judge’s position onto the arena floor. ‘I believe the school handles that. Perhaps the only advantage of the female uniform. No sleeves to repair after a blood duel. Well fought, both of you. I trust this will end your quarrel?’

Taryn waved the question away and then paused to look at her arm. ‘You know, you’re right. If he had hit me, I wouldn’t have needed to fix my dress. Don’t suppose you’ve ever been worried over that either, Nava.’

‘Not once. Apparently, the school is considering changing the uniform. Perhaps the new one will have sleeves.’

‘Oh.’ Taryn paused to consider that, and then she shrugged. ‘Well, if they got rid of that stupid hole over the chest, I can’t say I’d be unhappy.’

‘But we all would be,’ Jonas said, even if he was a little sheepish about saying it.

‘Until they put a cleavage window in the men’s uniform,’ Nava said, ‘you don’t get a say.’

‘Well, I suppose that’s fair…’

238/2/32.

And that had marked the end of the effective opposition to Mitsuko’s re-election. The duel had been a lunchtime affair on a Monday, Jonas had dropped out that afternoon, and his main competitor on the combat stream had followed suit on Tuesday morning. Another had gone on Thursday, yesterday, after dropping behind in the polls, but she had just been seeing what the others seemed unable to accept: there was no way any of the remaining three were going to win. The votes they could garner were too evenly split between them, and none of them seemed willing to back down to let one of them win.

Nava was not one for public speeches, but she felt a few words were required since it was her job to read the results and there were some interesting statistics to comment on. So, Nava walked up to the podium in the theatre, checked the mic, and began. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, and students’ – rumble of laughter, some of it surprised because Nava had made a joke – ‘we are here to reveal the inevitable result of the student presidential election of two thirty-eight. I’d like to make a comment before I give the results, however. President Mitsuko Trenton was happy to see so many candidates this year. She will be happier still to learn that this year’s turnout was among the highest in years, exceeding ninety-nine percent. Those of you who decided not to vote this year… Well, if this election failed to interest you, you probably aren’t here to hear me suggest you take more of an interest. All it took was an almost unprecedented change from the combat stream to support, and a duel involving one of the most competent fighters in the school. Whoever said politics was boring?’

More laughter. Nava was delivering all this in her usual flat tones. Maybe her audience had got the hang of her over the years. ‘Without further delay, the results. Clarisse Tremble Garavain, one thousand one hundred and seventy-four votes. Giordano Leavitt Orlando, nine hundred and seventy-eight votes. Mitsuko Trenton Sonkei, five thousand…’

The last part of Mitsuko’s tally vanished into the roar from the crowd. It did not matter what the figure was for the last person on the ballot; Mitsuko had won, and by far from a small majority. Even if the others had managed to consolidate their votes for one candidate, Mitsuko would be continuing as president. As far as Nava was concerned, it had been inevitable, but it was nice to have her opinion validated by the rest of the student body.

Trenton Mansion, 238/3/2.

‘I think I’ll have to resign to get out of the position now,’ Mitsuko said.

‘If I have to do paperwork,’ Nava replied, ‘I think it’s only fair that you do.’

‘Well, when do you plan to resign?’

‘When I’ve found someone suitable to be my replacement.’

‘What?! Now I’m never going to get to resign.’

Melissa giggled. ‘They’ll eventually kick you out of the school. And Michiko will be joining in your sixth year, and we all know she’ll be taking the presidency from you when that happens.’

‘Only if Onee-san wants to step down,’ Michiko responded. This was all being discussed around a groaning table in the mansion. For some reason, Yuzuki had decided that a feast should be prepared for her daughter’s re-election. Most of the food fell into traditional Japanese categories, and there was a lot of it. Also, everyone was sitting on the floor. At least there were cushions.

‘I won’t have much choice that year, Michiko,’ Mitsuko replied. ‘Perhaps I should drop out next year to give Yaeko a chance.’

‘With your support, she could probably take it,’ Nava said. ‘I think I could work with her, so I’ll accept the transition.’

Yuzuki and Zackery were looking on with obvious amusement. ‘You are beloved of your electorate, daughter,’ Yuzuki said. ‘You should be proud.’

‘Well, I am…’

‘Maybe, when you leave school,’ Zackery said, ‘you could take over my job. I’m sure you’d be better at it than I am.’

‘Father, you know I love you dearly.’

‘Thank you, Suki.’

‘So, why is it you clearly want me to hurt you?’

Zackery shrugged. ‘Anyone who becomes a clan leader has a masochistic streak.’

238/3/3.

‘Take it slowly,’ Nava said. ‘Get used to it before you start trying anything acrobatic.’

‘Of course, Nava-oneesan,’ Michiko replied. Then she rose gently into the air like someone balancing on a tightrope. It took her a second to figure it out, but she stabilised fairly quickly and rose higher to join her sister and Melissa in the air. ‘You should come up too, Nava-oneesan.’

Nava gave a nod and activated her own Flight spell. Michiko was also using a spell Nava had cast, so they had thirty minutes to flit around the air above the mansion before they had to concern themselves with the teenager falling. Mitsuko had cast her own spell, even if she had had to improvise it. On the other hand, she had finally learned Gather Quintessence at rank one, so she would be able to keep flying as long as she liked.

‘It’s just going to be me that needs to come down too quickly,’ Melissa said. ‘I can’t run Gather Quintessence at the same time as Flight.’

‘Just this once,’ Nava said as she slid smoothly upward, ‘I’ll provide in-air refuelling.’

‘I think I like this,’ Michiko said. She was drifting gently from side to side, getting used to moving in the air. ‘I think I’d like to learn this properly.’

‘You should be able to improvise rank two now,’ Melissa said. ‘It would be good practice, so long as you’re careful.’

Michiko wrinkled her nose. ‘I’m not that good at improvising big spells.’

‘Then you should take every chance to try to,’ Nava said. ‘This morning, however, is not for practice or teaching or learning. This is for fun. Let’s have some fun.’

‘I know you’re not really like this, Nava-oneesan, but it surprises me to hear you say something should be done just for fun.’

‘Nava is a fun person, Michiko,’ Mitsuko said. ‘She takes her fun very seriously.’

‘I think that statement is contradictory,’ Melissa said, ‘but I find myself unable to argue with it.’

‘Just for that,’ Nava said, ‘I’m going to make you demonstrate that coordinated corkscrew trick you hate so much for Michiko.’

‘I knew I shouldn’t have said anything…’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 238/3/16.

Taryn Borchardt Firmin did not get nightmares. She was quite sure she had not had one for at least a decade. Maybe when she was a child she had woken up to some half-remembered horror her mind had dreamed up while she slept, but not since. If she did have nightmares, she never remembered them.

When she found herself awake at three fifteen in the morning, her immediate thought was that she had heard something. Maybe there was someone in the room with her. ‘Lights,’ she said, and her bedroom filled with light from the overhead panels. She cast See Invisible, just to be absolutely sure, but there was nothing to see. There had been something. Somewhere in the back of her mind was a weird sense of unease and there was sweat drying on her face and chest. ‘Weird,’ she said to her empty room. ‘I don’t get nightmares.’

Climbing out of bed, she headed for the bathroom to wash the sweat off her body before she went back to sleep. In doing so, she passed someone who was in the room with her. See Invisible could not detect her, however, since Trudy was not technically in the same dimension as Taryn. The Harbinger watched the human walk past and, despite the fact that Harbinger features did not express emotions the way humans did, Trudy looked concerned.

~~~

Nava opened her eyes and looked up into the total darkness of her bedroom. Something had woken her. Something had impinged upon her sleeping mind and driven her to wake up. Beside her, Mitsuko mumbled something and shifted in her sleep. Nava had not moved, so she guessed that whatever it was had given Mitsuko a nudge, but not quite a big enough one to wake her.

It had been a pulse of some kind. A pulse of quintessential energy. It had felt like something Nava ought to recognise, though she was sure she had never felt it before. Probably because she had been the one causing it. She came to a conclusion but decided that further investigation could wait. Somewhere on campus, someone had just gone through a threshold shift. She had exactly one idea about how to find out who it had been, but it was not an urgent matter.

Nava closed her eyes. In the morning, she would talk to Trudy.

~~~

Trudy was not around in the morning, nor was she there at lunchtime or at the evening meal. Carina had no idea where her alien companion had got to, and it was not really as though discovering the identity of the mysterious beneficiary of the threshold shift was an urgent matter.

Nava was alone in SSF HQ when Trudy’s illusory, human form appeared on the other side of her desk. The teenager in the rainbow outfit looked concerned, which immediately put Nava on her guard. ‘Someone went through a threshold shift last night,’ Trudy said without preamble.

‘I know. I felt it. I was hoping to ask you about it, but you’ve been missing all day.’

‘I’ve been thinking. About whether to tell you about it.’

‘And you’ve decided you should?’

Trudy nodded. ‘Her name is Taryn Borchardt Firmin.’

‘Huh. Well, it would be her.’

‘I suppose you do know her. I haven’t been paying any attention to her. She doesn’t really interact with Cari. I don’t know what her manipulation threshold was, so I can’t say how much she went up, but I’m estimating she’s around three hundred and twenty Tammys now. Maybe a little higher. The conversion factor I worked out is a little inexact.’

‘She won’t be happy, when she figures it out. She’s still lower than me. Trudy, I don’t think that needed much thought, and you look more concerned than you should be if all that’s happened is that you’ve finally seen your first human go through a threshold shift. Something else is worrying you.’

‘Yes, well… I was interested, so I looked. I still haven’t seen my first human threshold shift.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘I looked at Taryn Borchardt’s genetics, like I did with yours. The additions aren’t as extensive as yours, but the ones she has are the same as some of yours. She has Harbinger genes in her genome.’

Nava was silent. She had always assumed that her alien genes had been something the Redwing Faction, specifically the Death’s Handmaiden scientists, had engineered or found. But if Taryn had some of them… ‘If Taryn has the same genes, that means the Redwings may not have been the originators of mine. Taryn is older than I am, but not that much older.’

‘Whoever did the genetic work on her must have been working on you around the same time,’ Trudy agreed.

‘Possibly someone not directly related to Death’s Handmaiden. Someone outside of the project. If nothing else, this suggests that the Redwings had external backing.’

‘With access to Harbinger genetic material,’ Trudy said, ‘which should be totally impossible.’

Nava nodded. ‘That does seem to need looking into. But it also means that it’s not over. I thought I’d rid myself of the Redwing Faction, and I have, I think, but there was someone else behind them.’ She paused, considering. ‘I’m going to have to tell them.’

‘Who? And what?’

‘I’m going to have to tell everyone I’m part Harbinger. And I’m going to have to tell them that there’s someone worse than the Redwings hiding out there.’

Part Six: Broken People

Castle Grey, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 238/3/21.

The occupants of the meeting room in Castle Grey looked variously nervous. Nava had requested that a number of people attend for ‘a discussion of various matters pertaining to herself and a potential danger to the Clan Worlds Alliance.’ She was a little surprised that everyone she had asked had agreed, and on relatively short notice, to take part in a meeting on a Sunday morning. Attending they were, however, and some appeared to be happier about things than others.

The school contingent all looked at least moderately nervous. Mitsuko appeared relatively at ease, but she was hiding a lot of worry about what Nava was going to say about Nava. Melissa had that worry too, but she was more outwardly anxious about a lot of the other attendees and the location. Castle Grey was supposed to be this super-secret facility which only the Greylings were allowed entry to, and here she was, a no one from Avorna, sitting in a secure conference room in that place. Carina had been surprised that she was included. She was not that worried about being in Castle Grey, but she was nervous around all the important people she was now surrounded by.

Zackery and Yuzuki both seemed quite comfortable, but there was a little stress showing over what Nava was going to say. They had been to Castle Grey before. Despite what everyone was told, outsiders did visit, especially high-ranking ones. Carina and Melissa did not know that they were exceptional, however, given that visitors were almost never from outside the Sonkei clan. Mitsuko’s parents were also a little concerned about what Michiko might be getting up to at home; their youngest daughter had been denied when she had asked to come to the meeting too.

Nobuyuki and Rhianna were, of course, on home ground. No worries there. However, they were in a meeting with Master Kaede and two of the other most important Sonkeis in the clan, and the subject matter was currently unknown to them. If Nava was not exaggerating, she had something to tell them which might be quite worrying in and of itself.

Master Kaede, the leader of the Greylings, did not look worried about anything. He sat at one end of the large black conference table with a confident smile just touching his lips. Weirdly, if you were not concentrating or actually looking at him, you started to forget he was even there. Master Kaede might have been worried about what Nava was going to say, but he did not show it. Master Kaede was not nervous, but he was a cause of nervousness in others.

Nava was a bag of nerves. She had gone over her speech in her head a number of times, and she was moderately sure that none of the disaster scenarios she had come up with were at all likely, but she had still come up with them and could not ignore them entirely. Still, she had called this meeting, and she was the one who had to stand up and speak.

She stood up and looked down the table at her family’s head. ‘Master Kaede, with your permission?’

Kaede bowed his head. ‘Please, Nava, let us proceed.’

‘Thank you.’ Nava paused, scanning the faces at the table. ‘Everyone here already knows that I have non-human genes in my cells. There are a couple of others around who know, but you are the important ones at the moment. Yes, Carina, you count as important because you live in the same house as me. There’s another reason we’ll get to. Actually… Let’s get to that now. Everyone here also knows about Trudy. Trudy, show yourself.’

The final attendee at the meeting did not look nervous exactly, but the tall blue alien who appeared beside Nava gave off the distinct impression of being a little anxious as to the reactions she was going to get. She was there in her true form, translated out of the Q-field by magic. Technically, someone could have done her some damage, even if that seemed unlikely.

‘Bloody hell!’ Zackery exclaimed. That was about the most extreme reaction. His wife, as was her nature, did little more than widen her eyes.

Both Nobuyuki and Rhianna tensed and then relaxed. Obviously, the schoolgirls in the room were used to Trudy appearing in all her glory, so they did not really react.

‘Sugoi,’ Master Kaede said, almost too quietly to hear. Nava’s Japanese was, through long if inconsistent study, now sufficient that she recognised the exclamation for what it was: amazing! Or maybe even awesome!

‘Trudy is here because she is the only other person who knows what I’m about to tell you,’ Nava explained. ‘She told me some of this and I asked her to keep quiet about it. She will be explaining some of the details. Also, I thought you should all meet her, even if she doesn’t think that’s necessary.’

‘I, um, don’t,’ Trudy agreed.

‘But you still came.’

‘And walked in here without any of us knowing,’ Nobuyuki said.

‘I knew she was here. However, the point is well made. Harbingers are very difficult to keep secrets from if they want to find out about them.’

‘Most of us don’t care,’ Trudy said. ‘I don’t care what goes on here. Unless it has interesting sociological aspects. I’d be fascinated by that, but you can all keep your secrets.’

‘I trust Trudy,’ Nava said. ‘She has never given me pause to consider her dangerous in any way. She has also saved my life, along with the entire school, on at least one occasion. Other Harbingers may not be so amicable, but the other one I’ve actually spoken to was only interested in watching humans and what they did, not in interfering.’

‘The only one you’ve spoken to and allowed to remain alive,’ Rhianna said.

Nava gave a shrug. ‘I did not really have a conversation with the serial killer. I don’t think he counts. Now, Trudy is a biologist, hence her interest in humans. She has magic for assisting in her research in a number of ways. One of those is a spell to analyse the genetic sequence of a subject, which Trudy used on me, so Trudy knows that I have alien genetics too. The difference is that Trudy recognised those three extra chromosomes where no one else has been able to identify them.’

Nava’s pause was to gather herself to actually say what she needed to say, but she was not alone in the room. Carina was not particularly smarter than anyone else in the room, but she was the most open to the weird and impossible. Plus, she had absolutely no filters when it came to expressing weird things she thought were awesome. ‘They’re Harbinger genes? You really are part Harbinger, Champion of the Light?!’

‘That’s not possible,’ Melissa said.

‘It is possible,’ Trudy said, ‘because they are there. It should not be possible. There has not been a living, organic member of my species to get that material from for tens of thousands of years. Somehow, someone found some Harbinger genes and used them to augment Nava’s genome. I can even provide a small degree of proof. The additional chromosomes use different base pairs from the ones in human DNA. A xenobiologist might have readily identified them as common to species found on old Harbinger colonies, but I doubt a xenobiologist has ever seen them.’

‘I’ve known since my first threshold shift,’ Nava said. ‘I was not sure how to deal with it myself, so I asked Trudy to keep quiet about it. The truth did not seem to change much anyway.’

‘Something changed,’ Mitsuko said. ‘You learned something which made you change your mind about that.’

Nava nodded. ‘Someone else at school had a threshold shift recently. It woke me up, so I noticed it. Trudy is almost more interested in things like that than I am, so she actually figured out who it was, and she scanned their genes out of interest.’

‘Who?’

‘Taryn Borchardt Firmin. And she has two of my three additional chromosomes.’

The room fell into silence. Everyone was considering the implications of Nava’s statement. It was Zackery, the statesman of the group, who decided to sum everything up. ‘To be clear, you have genetic material somehow taken from a long-dead species of aliens in your body. That should be impossible, but the implication is that someone obtained that material and used it as part of the Death’s Handmaiden project. Someone also seems to have used it to augment a Firmin who should have no connection to the Redwing Faction or the Death’s Handmaiden project.’

‘Correct,’ Nava replied.

‘Which suggests two things. One is that there may be a living Harbinger somewhere.’

‘That’s technically possible,’ Trudy said. ‘Magic could have been used to extend their life almost indefinitely, and we were a long-lived species to begin with. I… can’t believe it, but it’s not totally impossible.’

Zackery nodded. ‘The second thing is more worrying. Someone was behind the Redwings. The appearance of the technology behind Nava’s genes suggests that that someone might be the Firmin clan, or a part of that clan.’

‘It could be someone separate from both the Firmins and the Redwings,’ Rhianna countered. ‘I’m not saying it is, but it could be.’

‘We need to keep an open mind.’ Zackery looked at Nava. ‘This is what you meant about a threat to the Alliance?’

‘Yes. Even if the Firmins are effectively being used and are not the users, someone was backing the Redwings with advanced technology and, perhaps, other things.’

‘Their sources of income were never entirely resolved,’ Rhianna said.

‘Those backers are still out there. I doubt they will sink quietly into oblivion just because the Redwings are gone.’

‘Resource will be allocated into uncovering them,’ Kaede said. ‘I believe putting some resource into uncovering the source of Nava’s strange genes may prove a fruitful exercise. I will issue some directions this afternoon. Might I ask that you assist with this, Miss Trudy?’

‘Uh, I can be available to provide what information I can,’ Trudy said. ‘Nava is a friend and I’m obviously rather interested in where her genes came from.’

Kaede bowed his head. ‘I thank you.’

‘Well, that’s what I wanted to tell you,’ Nava said, ‘and that’s also about the best response I could get. Oh, I’m distributing a spell schema to those who can work magic. It’s something Trudy helped me design. I call it Dominate Area, but if anyone else can come up with a better name, let me know. I’ve tested it. It works for me. I’d like to know whether it’s effective when other people use it, so the more people who can try it the better. Ultimately, I’d like to give it to the school to be taught to the students. I don’t see this as a Greyling secret.’

‘What’s it do?’ Rhianna asked.

‘It dominates an area,’ Trudy said. ‘Isn’t that obvious?’

‘Essentially,’ Nava said, ‘it creates a field around you which lets your magic and only your magic work. Like a suppression field, it can be broken through by someone with talent and the will to use it. It might make an interesting alternative to first-blow duels, but it’s certainly an interesting defensive spell.’

‘It’s definitely more pacifist than the other thing you asked about.’

‘Other thing?’ Rhianna asked. ‘Another new spell?’

‘I don’t quite have that one properly worked out yet,’ Nava said. ‘When I do, I’ll let you know. That one we should probably keep to the family. Well, family and friends. It’s a summoning spell. Melissa and Carina are fascinated.’

Melissa, of course, blushed. ‘I like ancient magics. Summoning isn’t really ancient magic, but it has that ancient feel about it.’

‘Our current estimate puts it outside your capacity, even at rank one. Not too far outside, but still… Sorry.’

Melissa gave a shrug. ‘That just means I need to get on with expanding my capacity. And learning to cast two spells at once. I have to catch up with Suki after all.’

‘And that means I have to keep going to keep ahead of you,’ Mitsuko said. ‘It’s not like I can be inspired by Nava. She’s so far ahead it’s not funny. We can inspire each other to new heights and together gaze upon the goddess atop the mountain.’ They both turned their eyes upon Nava.

‘You’re a goddess now, Nava,’ Rhianna said, grinning.

Nava shrugged. ‘Well, I’m not going to deny it or anything…’

Alliance City, 238/3/27.

The party had been Mitsuko’s idea. A new apartment needed a housewarming party, she had said. She had done most of the work, so Nava had not complained too much. In fact, Melissa had helped too because, as she said, she was going to have to do things much bigger after she married Naomi, so all that Nava had been required to do was send out invitations. Not everyone had been able to come, which was both a plus and a minus; Nava was comfortable in large get-togethers now, but smaller was better, in her opinion.

‘Your friend is not here,’ Yuzuki said. She was there, but Zackery was not, staying behind to keep Michiko company since he had seen the apartment and his wife had not. ‘Carina?’

‘Cari is not really a party girl, in any sense of the term,’ Nava replied. ‘She was invited, and I put up a small fight to get her to come, but I was not going to make a big thing of it.’

‘Her first ploy,’ Mitsuko said, ‘was to say she had nothing to wear.’

‘I offered to gift her something suitable. She said she had seen the kind of thing we wear to parties, so no. I said it was me buying it, not Suki.’

‘To which I said, “Hey! I’m not that bad.”’

‘At which point we both looked at Suki until she shrank into a singularity, but Cari was still less than pleased at the thought. She asked if I could really see her at some party with a lot of important people. I said yes, but if she really preferred not to come, I would not argue further.’

‘I see,’ Yuzuki said. ‘Did you invite Misaki?’

‘Yes, but she has some function to attend tonight. She made it quite clear that she would have preferred to come here.’

‘Her protection detail might have other thoughts,’ Mitsuko added.

‘Possibly. Glory will be here a little later. I was not sure she would come, given that this apartment once belonged to Spencer, but she said she would be happy to. Personally, I’m a little surprised that Zackery allowed you out of the house in that dress.’

Yuzuki glanced down. She was wearing a white dress somewhat based upon a cheongsam, though it had significantly less cloth than most such designs. It was a white copy of a black dress Nava had worn to a party at the Himura mansion. Yuzuki had liked it and Nava had sent the details. Yuzuki had her hair down tonight, and she looked utterly stunning in the revealing white gown. Yuzuki looked stunning in just about anything, to be realistic, but tonight there was an added element of sexiness which was more subliminal at other times.

‘I promised to fly back to the mansion tonight,’ Yuzuki said. ‘If I had not done so, he indicated that he would lock me in the bedroom or allow me to leave only if I wore a chastity belt. I think he was serious. Suki, dear, that is not a natural colour for a human being.’

Nava ignored Mitsuko’s current state of embarrassment. ‘It seems that you got away without such a device, but are you wearing anything but the dress?’

Mitsuko made a few sounds somewhere between sputtering and choking.

‘Of course,’ Yuzuki said. ‘You did send information on those alternatives as well as the dress details.’ In a rather un-Yuzuki move, she leaned forward and lowered her voice in a conspiratorial manner. ‘I do intend to remove them on the flight home. Zackery will… appreciate it.’

‘I’m sure he will.’ Pause. ‘You’re just saying that because it’s getting a huge rise out of Suki, aren’t you?’

‘Well, that is not the only reason…’

~~~

There was a sizeable ASF contingent at the party, though it was impossible to tell unless you knew who they were. No one was in uniform, though Nava only really noticed when it came to Fawn. ‘I must have seen you out of uniform at some point, Fawn, but my image of you includes a black dress with a pointless cleavage window.’

‘I still have plenty of cleavage on display,’ Fawn countered. ‘What’s making me feel strange is you calling me Fawn.’

‘You have been asking me to do that since I first came to Shinden.’

‘Yes, and now you are, it feels weird. I’ll get used to it.’

‘I should hope so. It is your name. Is IRD coping without me?’

Fawn gave a shrug. ‘We coped before. We haven’t come across a task you would be better suited for than our other resources yet. We will, and then we’ll make do. Or we’ll ask the Greylings if we can borrow you.’

‘Well, Rhianna is around here somewhere. Make sure to cement relations with her.’

‘Not a problem. Though cementing relations with Rhianna can get rather intense.’

‘Oh?’

‘I’m saying nothing more. Nobuyuki isn’t here, is he?’

‘Busy with something ninjaesque, I’m told.’

‘Yeah, so I’ll keep my cementing light.’

‘Now I’m intrigued.’

‘I refuse to say anything further on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.’

‘Very intrigued.’

~~~

‘So, yeah, I spend most of my time investigating crimes involving magic,’ Courtney said. ‘That’s what my unit does. One of three on the planet specialising in that.’

‘It sounds like a perfect fit for you,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Agreed,’ Fawn agreed, and then she spoiled it. ‘I’m amazed the ASF got you into a position like that on the first try.’

‘Yeah,’ Courtney said. ‘After working in ASF policing for a while, I was kind of surprised that I ended up where I did.’

‘No comment, Nava?’ Fawn asked.

‘I was remaining tactfully silent. Are you enjoying the work, Courtney?’

‘Huh. “Enjoying” is probably not the right word. You don’t enjoy working on cases like the ones we get handed. I mean, basic robbery and the like can be handled by anyone, even if a magician is involved. We get the difficult cases, and the cases other units don’t want to handle. I’m currently looking for a rapist, for example.’

‘That still sounds like a case anyone could handle.’

‘Not when we think he’s using Recondition on his victims.’

‘Ah.’

‘I can’t go into a lot of detail, but the case has been reported in the media. He’s kidnapped and basically enslaved six women so far. Keeps them for a few days and then dumps them somewhere to be found. We can remove the conditioning, but…’

‘And the victims haven’t been any help in identifying the man?’ Mitsuko asked. ‘Once their conditioning has been removed–’

‘He uses Disguise or something. We haven’t had the same description from any of them. And he’s using Scryguard and Escape Detection, so forensic magic is next to useless. He knows what he’s doing. And I think we’ll have to get lucky to catch him.’

‘Or he will do something foolish,’ Nava said. ‘Doing your old job for a while has taught me one thing: solving non-trivial crimes is frequently down to the criminal making mistakes.’

‘Well, you’re not wrong.’

~~~

‘The primary skill in the Diplomatic Protection Unit is being able to remain alert while bored out of your mind,’ Kyle said.

‘That sounds like fun,’ Melissa said.

‘You are aware of this,’ Naomi said. ‘Do I ever tell you interesting stories about my time protecting VIPs?’

‘Well, that could have been because you were being discreet.’

The big man shook his head. ‘It’s because nothing interesting ever happens.’

‘Of course,’ Kyle countered, ‘when it does, everyone knows about it. Interesting things involving DPU are all over the news media. The big detail at the moment is protecting Amédée Trenton on Aquaria.’

‘Is she having problems?’ Melissa asked. She had heard nothing from Mitsuko suggesting that her sister was seeing credible threats, but maybe they would not have told Amédée’s family everything.

‘Not that I’ve heard. She’s had a few threats, but nothing serious. However, that’s the detail with the highest stress levels currently.’

‘It’s the unspoken threats which concern them,’ Naomi said. ‘There are Beyers still out there who likely hold a grudge. Nothing has been heard from any of them, but it’s expected that they will retaliate if they can.’ He looked at his comparatively tiny girlfriend and frowned. ‘They may decide to retaliate against you.’

Melissa gave a shrug. ‘We know. Don’t think we’re complacent about it. It’s cost me a couple of sleepless nights. But… Well, I live with Nava and Suki. And even Carina can serve out massive destruction when she’s motivated enough. I have Force Wall and rank five Flight. Nava has said in not very subtle terms that I should run for it if I have to, but she hands out rank five Active Recovery in an emergency now, so it would have to be a pretty dire situation for me to run.’

‘I was not even aware that there was a rank four Active Recovery,’ Naomi said.

‘Uh-huh, you were combat stream.’ Melissa flashed a grin to show that she was teasing. Half-teasing. ‘Rank four adds stamina maintenance, so you can basically run or fight forever without tiring. Rank five is the stuff legends are made of. If I had rank five cast on me, you could shoot me in the head with a sniper rifle and I’d be on my feet in a few seconds. You have to atomise someone to kill them with rank five.’

‘That really exists?’ Kyle asked. ‘I thought that was a myth. What’s its complexity?’

‘It’s real. Nava wouldn’t be here without it. Um, the complexity was… four forty? A bit less. Four hundred and thirty-eight Tammys, I think.’

‘Right. That’s a bit out of my range.’

‘It’s a bit out of just about everyone’s range.’

‘Except Nava.’

‘Yes, well…’ Melissa gave a shrug. ‘Well, she’s Nava.’

~~~

Gloriana Trenton looked, as usual, like someone’s idea of a goddess of beauty made flesh and poured into a dress which showed off her luscious figure beautifully. Watching her kiss Yuzuki on the cheek in greeting was a slightly surreal experience: two beings not meant for this world were greeting each other like long-lost friends, even if it was not that long since they had seen each other.

Nava, as the hostess, at least in theory, got the cheek-kissing treatment next. ‘You’ve had this place redecorated,’ Glory said once that was done with.

‘I didn’t think you had ever been here,’ Nava said.

‘I haven’t, but this is not Spencer’s style. Just for a start, there are no paintings of naked or half-dressed women visible at all.’

‘We kept those to the bedroom.’

In fact, there were no such images anywhere in the apartment, though Nava was not entirely averse to something tasteful, possibly involving a reclining Mitsuko, now she thought about it. Nava had little to no idea about interior décor, so she had left the design to her girlfriend. Mitsuko had given instructions to the decorators which allowed them to use their expertise constrained by some basic preferences. It had resulted in a fairly simple decoration scheme, keeping the building’s Art Deco theme going in the main rooms and aiming for something more personal and intimate in the bedrooms. The primary colour was blue. Mitsuko’s theory was that they would personalise the place further with accessories, so maybe that painting of Mitsuko might show up at some point.

‘A wise move.’

‘We decided that all trace of the former occupant should be removed before we handed the property over,’ Yuzuki said. ‘I believe that industrial solvents were involved.’

‘Another wise move. I assume the bath had to be stripped down and most of the parts replaced. A whirlpool bath, I’m sure.’

‘If I knew no better,’ Nava said, ‘I would think you had a very jaundiced opinion of your ex-husband.’

Glory affected a look of total innocence. ‘I can’t imagine what gave you that idea, Nava.’

‘Mm. It must be my imagination.’

238/3/28.

Sometime around two in the morning, after a pleasant evening spent chatting and drinking and all the other stuff you did at a party attended by friends, Nava found herself sitting naked in the sauna. This, she thought, was not something you generally did at a party with friends, but then it had been a bit like this during the week they had spent planning for the conference in her first year at the school. Naomi had replaced Rochester, but everyone else was there. It was almost nostalgic.

‘I admit,’ Naomi said, ‘to not knowing where to look.’

‘It’s difficult,’ Kyle agreed. ‘It’s kind of like falling into a clichéd male fantasy and not being sure what you’re supposed to do after.’

‘Rochester Hunt actually survived something like this?’

‘He kept his eyes closed a lot,’ Melissa said.

‘That… seems such a waste.’

‘It was that,’ Nava said, ‘or the stammering, fainting, and bleeding profusely from the nose.’

‘I thought he managed remarkably well,’ Mitsuko said.

‘I am not disagreeing.’

‘Until I suggested an orgy.’

‘That did throw him for something of a loop.’

‘It did me too,’ Melissa said. ‘Actually, it was a foursome. We thought four people wasn’t enough for an orgy.’

‘Right, yes,’ Mitsuko said. ‘And I said Courtney and Kyle were coming.’ Courtney made a slightly strangled noise. Kyle looked horribly conflicted. ‘Of course, Nava pointed out that that would’ve been illegal at the time. Age restrictions.’

‘I did,’ Nava said. Around the room, only two people figured out what was coming next before it was said; Mitsuko and Melissa had come to recognise Nava’s mischievous tone. ‘Of course, that does not apply now.’

‘Vetoed,’ Melissa said. ‘Naomi and Kyle would never survive keeping the four of us entertained.’

‘Death by exhaustion is a possibility,’ Mitsuko agreed.

‘Such a shame,’ Nava said.

Kyle rallied. ‘W-what about Active Recovery? Mel said it could keep you going for hours.’

‘Technically workable, but it would require me to pause every three minutes to recast it.’

‘Oh well, that’s that idea shot down.’

‘I’ll work out a schema for something less demanding. For next time.’

‘That… sounds like a great idea.’

‘You don’t really think that,’ Courtney said, ‘and you know she’s joking.’

‘Probably. Maybe. To be honest, all the blood has left my brain and I’m not thinking straight.’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 238/4/1.

The school had been a little stricter regarding unexplained absences in recent years. It was relatively unlikely that another transdimensional serial killer would turn up on campus, but that case had highlighted that the existing system had shortcomings, so Courtney had consulted on a new system – and privately bitched that it was long past time for it. Now students got until ten a.m. to call in sick, and that call was monitored for indications that the student might be under duress. Anything aberrant was immediately flagged to the SSF. Thus far, the only result of the new system had been the transfer of five students to the infirmary due to being sicker than they thought they were.

In the case of Tabitha Paris Sonkei, there had been no call, so no one had made an assessment of her current state. Upon receiving the notification that she had not called in, however, Nava had done some checking and determined that a physical check on Tabitha was required. It was Monday morning. Tabitha’s account had not been debited for food through the whole of Sunday. There was no indication that she had left the campus. Her ketcom was not responding and seemed to be turned off. It all added up to the possibility that Tabitha was in trouble, and the best Nava could hope for at this point was that she was still dealing with a really bad hangover from a Saturday night binge there was also no evidence for.

‘No response from inside,’ Nava said as she pressed the door button a second time. Tabitha lived in one of the mid-range apartments on campus, so Nava was indoors, in a bland corridor, with Skylar Keyes – who she had also dragged out of class to assist – and Tanzi Royce, one of the school’s medics. ‘I am using my authority to gain entry.’

‘That sounds really official, boss,’ Skylar said. She was grinning. It was a nervous grin. This was the first time Skylar had attended a missing-student intervention. She knew there was the possibility that they were about to find a body.

‘Because we are on official business, Sky, and because I like to sound official on recordings.’ Nava waved her ketcom over the lock and the door slid open. ‘Wait here for a second.’ Stepping through into the apartment, she scanned quickly over the lounge, following her gaze with her ketcom’s camera. No indications of violence, and no sign of Tabitha. ‘Okay, let’s check the bedroom.’

There was no one in the bathroom either. ‘Looks like I’m not needed here,’ Tanzi said. ‘In my professional opinion, you have a missing person, not a medical case.’

‘Yes,’ Nava replied. ‘Thank you for your assistance, Tanzi.’ Tanzi refused to be addressed more formally by a member of her own clan who was, at least in the eyes of the general populace, her social superior. Nava accepted it because the alternative took more time.

‘No problem. When you find her, I’ll be available again.’

‘Thank you for your vote of confidence.’ Nava picked up a motorised toothbrush from the shelf over the sink and concentrated. Then she said, ‘No, well, it wouldn’t be that easy, would it?’

‘Locate not finding her?’ Skylar asked.

‘Someone’s using Scryguard to block it. This just officially became a criminal investigation until we find out that Tabitha is the one doing the blocking.’

238/4/3.

‘Is there any news about Tabitha?’ Mitsuko asked as the housemates sat down to a meal of either thin stew or thick meaty soup, depending on how you wanted to look at it. Carina made the stuff and, despite it sounding dubious when described, it was actually not a bad meal. Especially with fresh bread, which they had.

‘She’s still missing,’ Nava replied. ‘The ASF are watching for her and have been unable to find any evidence that she has left the planet. Locate continues to give us nothing.’

‘Someone must be using a fairly powerful Scryguard spell,’ Melissa said.

‘Definitely better than the generally employed one. At this point, all we can hope for is that she turns up–’ Nava stopped as her ketcom chirped. She checked it. ‘Which she has not. It’s from Rhianna. Apparently, the ASF has managed to capture a pirate ship in Mandalore.’

‘So, they’ve identified it?’ Mitsuko asked.

Nava nodded. ‘A Republican Akula-class frigate.’

Carina gave a grimace. ‘If it’s a Sino-Soviet Republic ship, that’s bad news, right?’

‘Bad, but not as bad as it could be. The Consortium vessels captured in Avorna were current designs which the Consortium says are never sold to outside organisations. The Akula-class is, according to Rhianna, an obsolete design, and several of them were sold as piracy-prevention vessels to Independence and the Union of Humanity.’

‘Not clear then. It might be them. It could be someone else who bought the old ships.’

‘Precisely. And the ASF is apparently concerned about the current optics. They are keeping quiet about this capture pending further investigation. So, no one here says anything to the media, okay?’

‘Uh, Champion of the Light, when would the media come talking to me about pirate ships in Mandalore?’

Nava regarded Carina for a second. ‘Well, you never can tell when your dark fate might test you.’

‘Oh. Oh! I hadn’t thought of that!’ Pause. ‘Are you teasing me?’

Nava held up a hand, index finger and thumb held about a centimetre apart. ‘Maybe a little, but if anyone in this world is a pawn of dark gods intending to bring darkness down upon the world, it’s the news media. Stay watchful.’

238/4/4.

Sixte considered himself lucky to have a window seat in homeroom. Well, it was lucky except for the times he caught himself staring out at the courtyard, bored by whatever lesson was happening. In this case, there was no lesson, but he was still bored; not much was happening in homeroom.

His boredom turned out, on this day, to be a good thing. At first he thought he was watching someone arriving late to classes when he spotted a young woman walking across the courtyard. Then he noticed that she appeared to be limping. Then he noticed the particular nature of the limp and concluded that this might be something else. Generally, no matter how late you were, you did not forget to put one of your shoes on. He got to his feet.

‘Sixte Wescott,’ the teacher said, ‘is there a problem?’

‘I have to go, Mister Kosuke Maki. Urgent SSF business. I think I just found a missing student.’

The staff had, of course, all been notified that Tabitha Paris was missing. Kosuke Maki did not waste a second. ‘Go! I’ll contact your captain for you.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ Sixte said, and he said it at a run.

~~~

‘I had to sedate her to get her here,’ Sixte said. ‘All she kept saying was that she had to get to class. “He” had told her to go to class, so she had to get there. I used Sleep on her.’

‘You did the right thing, Sixte Wescott,’ Mercia Reynell said. ‘My initial analysis suggests that she has had her personality overwritten with magic. She probably would not have turned violent if you had stopped her any other way, but it’s not impossible.’

Nava nodded. ‘As usual, Six, you’ve made me proud to be your captain. Now we have to discover where she’s been for the past few days.’

Mercia gave a slight grimace. ‘I can’t answer the where, but I can answer the why. There are clear signs of sexual assault. We’ll need to be careful when we remove her conditioning.’

Nava appeared to pause in consideration for a second, even though she was sure that Mercia knew it was for show; Sixte had not figured it out yet. ‘You are suggesting that she was kidnapped, mentally altered with magic, and raped?’

‘Further testing should be performed to be sure, but yes.’

‘I see. This is going to make things more complicated. There’s an existing ASF case with that MO. Luckily, Courtney Maynard is handling it on their side, so I think Joslyn Harris will be forgiving. Have you determined the magic used? Recondition–’

‘Recondition is a possibility, but it could be something custom, or Alter Mind.’

‘Alter Mind?’ Sixte asked. ‘I’ve never heard of that.’

‘It’s the professional version of Recondition,’ Mercia replied. ‘The legitimate version, if you like. Recondition is illegal throughout the Clan Worlds because it can quickly and easily rewrite someone’s psyche. You can even use it on a sleeping or unconscious subject. The thing is that what Recondition does is sometimes useful in the treatment of mental conditions, so Alter Mind was created. It requires a conscious subject and physical contact. Theoretically, the subject must be willing, but the reality is that you simply have to stop them resisting being touched. Alter Mind also has the “advantage” that, if you’re willing to spend an hour performing the changes, you can cast it at only thirty-three Tammys.’ She gave a shrug. ‘It can be useful for curing people of psychological addictions. It’s a quick-fix solution, and quick fixes are rarely real fixes when it comes to the mind.’

‘Is there a way we can determine which of the two spells was used?’ Nava asked.

‘None that I know of. Aside from the need for a restrained victim you can touch, Alter Mind rank five can do anything Recondition can do, just as quickly. If your rapist is using Scryguard to cover his tracks, which I assume he is, there’s no realistic way to tell the difference.’

‘Okay. It may not make much difference anyway. I’ll call the administration and then Courtney. She may want to talk to Tabitha.’

‘Yes, I would imagine so. I’ll make arrangements.’

~~~

‘Well,’ Courtney said, ‘I got a description and it’s about as useful as the others.’

She had arrived soon after lunch and Nava had spent most of the afternoon out of lessons, handling the situation. Much to her credit, Courtney had not marched in and taken over the case, but then Nava had not expected her to. Courtney was even being a little more forthcoming regarding the other victims than Nava suspected her boss wanted her to be. They were now at the house, prepping a meal. Courtney was staying over until morning, mostly because she might as well do so.

‘He was blonde,’ Nava said. ‘Blue eyes. Tall and fit. Tanned skin. Tabitha Paris is in a state of shock.’

‘Something of an understatement.’

‘True, but it will do. As such, she is not an especially reliable witness, even regarding those facts we think are down to illusion. Mercia Reynell is working with her in an attempt to get more details, but the prospects are not good.’

‘Is there anything the council can do for Tabitha?’ Melissa asked.

‘Practically, no. When Mercia Reynell is satisfied that Tabitha Paris is fit to travel, it’s likely that she’ll be sent home for further treatment. She may end up having to retake the year, or she may drop out entirely.’

‘This guy is not subtle about what he does to his victims,’ Courtney said. ‘None of them have come out of it well. The fact that the magic makes them feel kind of like they did whatever he wanted of their own free will doesn’t help. He seems to have been particularly sadistic with Tabitha Paris, however.’

‘Which leads to a possible conclusion,’ Nava said.

‘That he’s an ex-student? Yeah. Yeah, that is a possibility. Someone with a grudge against the school… His other victims have been apparently random, but they’ve all been in Alliance City.’

‘Tabitha Paris was definitely taken from the school. That would appear to be a break in pattern.’

‘So, maybe he broke pattern because he’s finally decided to scratch some itch from his school days.’

‘Does that help?’ Mitsuko asked. ‘There are a lot of ex-students from SAS-squared.’

‘It might. It might narrow the suspects a little.’

‘You mean it might give us a list of suspects, even if it’s a long one. Currently, I’ve got no one who qualifies. Sure, there have been interviews, but none that have given me anyone I’d call a suspect.’

‘If anyone can find one,’ Carina said, ‘it’s the Champion of Light.’

Despite the rather serious topic, Courtney managed a grin. ‘You’re still on that then?’

‘Well, yes. It’s the truth.’

‘Are you really telling us that you don’t believe Nava is the Champion of Light, Courtney?’ Melissa asked.

‘Oh. Well. When you put it like that…’

~~~

‘This is nice,’ Courtney said a little later as they sat around the lounge with some drinks. ‘Nostalgic, I guess. I miss SAS-squared. Simpler times, you know?’

‘Simpler?’ Nava asked. ‘Really?’

‘Yeah, because–’

‘How many extradimensional alien serial killers have you had to deal with since you left school?’

‘Well, that was really a bit of a one-off.’

‘Mad scientists threatening Alliance City with a hurricane?’ Melissa asked.

‘Wasn’t really my problem.’

‘A sudden need to fly halfway across the Alliance to rescue your boyfriend from terrorists?’ Mitsuko asked.

Courtney frowned. ‘Now you mention it, life has been easier since I left school.’

‘People tend to view the past through rose-tinted glasses,’ Nava said.

‘You don’t,’ Melissa said.

‘What makes you say that, Mel?’

‘Well, you always say your life before you came to Shinden was horrific.’

‘That is true, but what makes you think I’m not viewing it as better than it was?’

‘Um… Because you’d probably be dead if it had been.’

‘That is not an invalid assertion. I’ll give you that one.’

238/4/5.

Unfortunately, potential suspects were not in short supply. Sexual assault was not a major problem in the Clan Worlds, or at the school, but it was not a non-problem either, and Nava had no idea how far she needed to go back in the SSF’s records to find the man she was looking for.

The concept of mutual consent was drummed into Clan Worlds citizens at a young age, both through explicit education and more subtle psychological induction. Nava had never undergone that process, so she was not sure how effective it really was, but the figures suggested that it worked in the majority of cases. On the other hand, anyone expecting perfection from any society was delusional. Some of the fundamentals of this culture made things more difficult than they might have been.

Mistakes happened. People made mistakes in personal situations which could result in charges being made. Legally, it was generally fairly cut and dried – explicit permission must be given – but the reality was usually more complex. The education system could fail to catch people who needed more education, the ones who might not take no for an answer and the ones who considered themselves above such things. The latter group were a little more common in clan society, the problem being traceable back to that warrior ethic. And that same ethic was responsible for the biggest problem the Clan Worlds had when it came to prosecuting sexual assault: duelling.

Even with modern forensics – physical, magical, and psychological – a case often came down to one person’s word against another. When that situation arose, there was a clear way of settling things which was also the worst possible way of settling things. Duelling just made matters worse. Nava spent an evening becoming thoroughly disheartened by report after report of someone being forced to apologise for suggesting that they had been assaulted. The alternative would have been fighting a duel, losing it, and being viewed as a liar anyway. Nava’s view of duelling was not exactly stellar, but this just made it look that much worse.

What it came down to was that there were not a small number of instances of sexual assault allegations in the SSF’s database. Maybe twenty percent went to trial. When that happened, it was generally a successful prosecution, and the school did not look favourably on those convicted of such crimes. Nava was less interested in those cases than in the ones which had never made it to an SSF tribunal. Nava was looking for people who had tried their luck and got away with it, and for people who had taken electives in the fifth and sixth year based around mind-manipulation magic, but she did not neglect those who had been convicted; you never knew when your assumptions were going to trip you up, so she tried to have as few as possible. As it turned out, she need not have bothered.

238/4/6.

‘Ichiro Ishida Sonkei,’ Courtney said from Nava’s ketcom. ‘He was interviewed after the first case, but only because he was in the same club she was kidnapped from. It was someone else’s case back then, so I haven’t talked to him personally. There’s nothing indicating anything suspicious about him, however.’

‘He was accused of sexual assault while here. During his fifth year which was in two hundred and nineteen. It came down to her word against his and she backed down in the face of a challenge. That being said, he was apparently sorry about what happened.’ Nava glanced at the case file on her terminal in SSF HQ. ‘Actually, the report suggests he may have fought the accusation, but he seemed terrified of not being believed. The school’s psychologist decided not to recommend retraining.’

There was silence for a few seconds. Nava had nothing further to say. Courtney was thinking. Nava was, by now, quite used to humans taking more time than she thought was necessary to consider the available facts.

‘Say he was scared into behaving.’ Courtney finally said. ‘He behaves himself through the rest of his time in school. He graduates–’

‘He failed to graduate. His sixth-year capacity test came out at ninety. His general scores were sufficient, but SAS-squared won’t pass someone without a one-hundred-Tammy final capacity test.’

‘That I know. Hold on.’ There was another pause while Courtney checked the data she had. ‘Okay, got it. He scraped his way onto a course in psychology after leaving SAS-squared and graduated from that after three years. It was enough to get him a licence for Alter Mind use with patients. He gets that and starts practising, and his scare in school keeps him honest for a while.’

‘But then he gets an urge to try something new? There is usually a triggering event in such cases, Courtney.’

‘Yeah… Ah, he got married two years after the psychology course. His wife divorced him, citing “irreconcilable differences” four months before the first kidnapping.’

‘Irreconcilable differences is a little vague.’

‘It was uncontested, so there’s no detail on what she meant. Still, it may be that losing his wife was the trigger.’

‘Circumstantial. At best.’

Courtney nodded. ‘I can dig deeper. We only have him at one location. He hasn’t shown up again. If only we knew when he would strike again, I could arrange surveillance. Right now, there’s not enough pattern to predict when he’ll try it again. All I have is that he’s generally letting less time pass between crimes.’

‘How much data can you give me on the case?’

Courtney’s eyes narrowed. ‘You have a way of predicting his next crime?’

‘Maybe. The more data I have, the better the chance of an accurate prediction.’

‘Why does that remind me of something? Never mind. I’ll run it past my boss and see what we can send you. Since one of the victims is from the school, and we’re cooperating, I don’t see a problem.’

Nava gave a nod. ‘I’ll await your boss’s verdict. Perhaps we should continue with the rest of my list, just in case Ichiro Ishida is not our man.’

‘Yeah. We should. But my instincts are saying he is.’

238/4/8.

‘So, I figured I’d join you for lunch and find out what your take on this is,’ Hoshi said. ‘It sounds bad. I mean, the Sino-Soviet Republic caught red-handed doing piracy within the Alliance. That can’t be good, right?’

‘If it’s true,’ Mitsuko said, ‘it would be very bad.’

Hoshi frowned. ‘You four don’t look particularly surprised about this. Well, Nava never looks surprised, and Carina is her usual disinterested, but…’

‘They already knew,’ Rochester said. ‘The reports I saw said the ship was captured at some point on the third. Five days is long enough for someone to have told Nava.’

‘No comment,’ Nava said. ‘I believe the media’s reaction to the news suggests a reason why the ASF might have concealed the capture for as long as they have. Indeed, I might suggest that someone leaked the information because the ASF were reluctant to make the information public.’

‘Okay,’ Hoshi said. ‘So, you’re saying that it’s not real?’

‘An obsolete Republican vessel was captured while attempting piracy. Was it being operated by a crew from the Republic? One sponsored by the Republic? I have seen no evidence to suggest correct answers to those questions, but the media seems determined to suggest that it’s all clear-cut.’

‘Surely state-sponsored piracy is the simplest solution,’ Rochester said.

‘It’s not as simple as you’d think, Chess,’ Melissa replied. ‘In Avorna, it seemed like someone was making things look like the Consortium were doing the same sort of thing. Someone spent a lot of time and resources on making it look that way.’

‘But why? The end result of this could be war. Who benefits from a war between us and the Republic or the Consortium?’

‘And that, Chess,’ Mitsuko said, ‘is the big question. If we knew the answer to that, things would probably be a lot simpler.’

‘No,’ Nava said, ‘they wouldn’t.’

Mitsuko sagged a little. ‘I knew you were going to say that. Couldn’t they be a little simpler?’

‘No.’

‘I knew you were going to say that too.’

238/4/9.

‘Okay, well, I have something for you, but I want to set expectations up front.’

Nava had made the telepathic connection since Jenna’s general sorcery was not especially good. She would, in fact, never have been able to graduate from SAS^2, but her ability to make modelled predictions was another matter. That was why Nava had contacted her. ‘I understand that this is not an easy prediction to make,’ Nava said. She was walking over to SSF HQ as she spoke to her sister having given Jenna two full days to do what she could.

‘And they’ve got me working pretty hard on this piracy thing. That’s worse. I have very little data to work with on that one and they still want me to make predictions.’

‘I understand the difficulty, Jenna. What do you have?’

‘What I have is an eighty-five percent match attempting to model the last two cases based on the previous ones. Based on that model, I have an eighty-five percent chance that my prediction for his next attempt is correct, and that prediction is spread over three weekends. Uh, the chance of him changing to weekdays is minimal. Four point eight percent.’

‘Okay. Which three weekends?’

‘I’m giving you Fridays. He’s ninety-seven percent likely to take them on the Friday or Saturday night.’

‘Are you delaying giving me the dates in the hope that I won’t blame you if you’re wrong? I won’t blame you anyway. I realise this is a tough ask. However, if this works, we take a rapist off the streets.’

There was a slight pause. ‘Okay. The nineteenth, the twenty-sixth, or the thirty-third. They aren’t balanced. It’s a fifty percent chance of it being the nineteenth, thirty-seven percent for the twenty-sixth, and–’

‘I can do basic math. I’ll pass this on to Courtney Maynard and see whether she can arrange a stakeout.’

‘Okay. Uh, you’re not telling her about me, are you?’

‘Obviously not. You are an experimental divination spell. Though, were she to think about what I asked for for a while, she might come to the conclusion that I had access to you in some way. She was briefed on you during that time you tried to blow us all up with a nuclear bomb.’

A sense of mental cringe came over the connection. ‘Are you ever going to stop reminding me about that?’

‘Well, yes.’

‘You are?’

‘Of course. I have to die at some point.’

238/4/13

‘The Republic’s ambassador is denying everything, of course,’ Hoshi said. ‘He issued a statement saying that the current attitude of the Clan Assembly and Council is “counterproductive.”’

‘Which he would,’ Mitsuko said, ‘whether the Republic is behind this or not.’

‘Counterproductive is an interesting word to use,’ Melissa commented. ‘I’m not sure why, but it seems interesting.’

‘It’s probably diplomatic for something,’ Rochester said. ‘I can’t help agreeing with that assessment, however. I can’t see what getting hot under the collar does for us, and the assembly seems to be hot enough to melt lead.’

‘That would be why the council decided to call in the ambassador,’ Mitsuko said. ‘They have to be at least seen to be doing something.’

‘You haven’t heard anything more detailed?’ Hoshi asked. ‘Or maybe I mean more accurate.’

Mitsuko shook her head. ‘My father probably knows the precise details, but he either can’t tell me, or they weren’t worth sharing.’

‘I think the latter,’ Nava said. ‘No one has told me anything about it either, and my family would be less concerned about security.’ She had not been told of any predictions Jenna had made either, which suggested that the situation was difficult to model.

‘If the Greylings don’t know much,’ Melissa said, ‘there’s not much to know.’

‘I’m getting rather anxious over this, I must admit,’ Hoshi said.

Mitsuko shrugged. ‘If it’s any consolation, you’re not the only one.’

238/4/17.

There was more to be anxious about.

‘The media are going a little insane over this one,’ Melissa said. ‘I’m sure the Republic sends spy ships into our area of space all the time.’

‘While I have no specific data on the matter, I would imagine they do,’ Nava replied.

‘And I’m sure we do the same,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Agreed. The interesting thing is that someone learned about this sighting in Mandalore and leaked it to the media. With the current tensions, the probability of this being treated as an act of war, or something similar, was high.’

‘And the assembly will react. There will be more questions and more calls for action. And my stomach will be getting increasingly unsettled.’

‘I don’t see why,’ Carina said. ‘You have the Champion of the Light watching over you.’

‘I appreciate your show of confidence, Cari,’ Nava said, ‘but I’m not entirely sure how much difference I can make in an all-out war.’

‘I don’t think we expect–’ Mitsuko began.

‘Though there is that thing.’

‘What thing?’

‘The summoning spell I was working on. It might make a bit of a difference, and I have a prototype working… I’ll talk to Rhianna and Nobuyuki about it.’

‘Nava, I don’t want you in the middle of a war.’

Nava shrugged. ‘Yes, but we don’t always get what we want, Suki.’

Alliance City, 238/4/19.

‘Thanks again for doing this, love,’ Courtney said.

‘What is a husband in the ASF for if not to provide assistance during a stakeout when his wife’s boss is being an asshole?’ Kyle was grinning, but it was not far from the truth.

Courtney’s boss had been unwilling to provide more resource on what was basically a hunch, at least as far as Courtney could explain it to him. She had no idea where Nava’s prediction had come from. Well, she had a sort of idea, but she was ignoring thinking about it, because the person who might have provided the prediction was dead. If she was not dead, the ASF wanted her dead. Best not to think about it. Yup.

So, Courtney was sitting in a contragrav near an apartment, watching for signs that Ichiro Ishida was not the upstanding citizen he was supposed to be, and Kyle was there to watch and provide company. It was not too bad. They had coffee and snacks. Spending a night in each other’s company was not an onerous duty.

‘Just remember the spell when you take over,’ Courtney said.

‘I remember the spell. That’s Nava rubbing off on us, isn’t it?’

‘This is different from See Invisible.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘This sees through illusions.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Kyle’s face straightened. ‘We’re going to be lucky to spot him, aren’t we?’

‘Yeah… So, we’ll just damn well have to be lucky. If it is him, he’s not getting another one.’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 238/4/20.

‘Either we missed him, or he didn’t go out last night,’ Courtney said from Nava’s ketcom.

‘This was the most likely weekend,’ Nava replied, ‘but it was not a certainty.’

‘I know. We’re going to bed. We’ll be back on watch tonight.’

‘Try to get some sleep,’ Mitsuko called out from across the kitchen counter. ‘I know what newlyweds can be like.’

‘We’re not that newlywed anymore.’ Pause. ‘Though spending a night in a car with him is making me think– Never mind! I’ll talk to you later.’ The connection broke.

‘Do you think she will catch him this time?’ Melissa asked.

‘The chances are not especially good,’ Nava replied. ‘If he is the rapist. If Jenna’s model is valid. If they can spot him leaving his apartment despite his attempts at concealment. There are many ifs. However, both Courtney and Kyle are quite experienced at this kind of work after their time in the SSF. I have hope that they will succeed.’

‘That’s relatively positive for you.’

‘It was?’ Nava gave Melissa one of her patented looks. ‘How negative do I normally sound?’

‘Well… Oh! Look at the time. If we don’t leave, we’ll be late for class.’

‘Hm.’ Nava waited until Melissa was on her feet and heading for the door of the kitchen. ‘Your punishment will be swift and terrible.’

In something of a surprise, even to Nava, Melissa’s response was, ‘Chance would be a fine thing.’ That got her all the way to the front door because Nava could not come up with a reply which did not make it worse.

Alliance City.

‘And here we are again.’

Courtney glanced at Kyle and smiled. ‘Yeah. Thanks again for doing this. It’s not your job to–’

‘If you wake me up tomorrow afternoon like you did today, I’ll consider myself recompensed fully.’

Blushing despite herself, Courtney nodded. ‘Consider it a date.’

‘Of course, Mister Ichiro Ishida may have different ideas.’

‘Screw that! If we catch him, I’ll have reason to celebrate. He can stew in a cell until I’m done with you.’

‘Oh? How long will he be waiting?’

‘Not sure. Could be days.’

‘And suddenly I’m even more motivated to nail the bastard.’

~~~

They did not have to wait long. At seven fifty in the evening, a man walked out of the apartment building and Courtney perked up immediately. It was not that she recognised him but that she could not immediately make out what she was looking at. She lifted binoculars to her eyes and the image clarified somewhat. She was seeing two men, two faces. One was Ichiro Ishida, a black-haired man with dark eyes and a slim physique, and the other was someone else, blonde, blue-eyed, and muscled. The spell she was using did not eliminate the illusion, but it let you see through it to what was really there.

‘Got him,’ she said.

Kyle turned his attention toward the apartment building’s main door. ‘The blonde?’

‘Yeah. Where’s he going? Damn, looks like he’s walking.’

‘So, we leave the car here and follow on foot. You can summon it from your ketcom if needed, right?’

‘Right.’ Courtney reached for the door handle. ‘Let’s get moving.’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery.

To some extent, Nava was expecting the call from Courtney which came through at around eight thirty. Reaching out, she tapped the accept button and spoke immediately. ‘Courtney. I assume he’s coming here?’

‘You assume correctly. Well, he’s on a train heading toward SAS-squared. I don’t know for sure that he’s getting off there yet.’

‘He will be. You have a description?’

‘Blonde and blue-eyed. He’ll be arriving at around nine. We don’t get much traffic at that time on a Saturday, so he should be fairly obvious.’

‘I’ll wait for him.’

‘We’re about five minutes behind him. He was pretty sneaky about stepping onto the train at the last minute.’

‘Which means he’s worried about being followed. That could cause problems.’

‘Maybe. But you’re a trained assassin.’

‘I’m sure you want this one alive.’

‘Obviously. Well, not really but it would be better if he was alive when I take him in. I just meant–’

‘I know. He’ll never know I’m there.’

~~~

When Ichiro Ishida got off the conveyor car at the school’s station, he was a tall, slim man with dark-brown hair and black eyes, and he was wearing an SAS^2 uniform. He was also invisible to the security cameras which covered the campus, and the ketcom he was carrying said he was Merritt Colby Kinnari. Merritt Colby was not registered as a student at the school, but Ichiro was fairly sure no one would be checking that in the time he was here. After he left, Merritt Colby would cease to exist.

He made his way through the campus, heading for the senior students’ club. He walked with a confident stride because that was one of the keys to fitting in, and also because he was confident. He took every precaution on his outings, but when it came down to it, no one knew he was responsible for the recent attacks, and he was sure that no one at the school would be watching for him now. He had heard some things about the current captain of the SSF which had given him a little pause, but she had been no obstacle the last time he came here. She was not going to stop his fun this time either.

The music was loud as he walked around the dance floor. Magic dulled it to something bearable near the bar where he bought a drink and nursed it while watching the women passing nearby. He was watching for one. He was not sure who she was, what she looked like, or anything else about her, but there was one woman who would stand out to him. He told himself that it was an instinct; he knew the ones who could be broken when he saw them, and that was who he selected. In reality, he picked his victims at random, and that was one of the reasons he had never been caught.

He selected a rather petite redhead and observed her for fifteen minutes to be sure that she was alone. He worked out her drinking preferences. He waited for her to head toward the bar and beat her to it, ordering two glasses of white wine while she waited right beside him. It was important for his strategy that she wait. With drinks in hand, he poured the contents of a small glass vial he was palming into one of them and turned around.

‘Well, damn,’ he said. ‘She sent me for drinks and bailed.’

The redhead gave him a commiserating grimace. ‘That sucks.’ He could not be sure of her preferences in men, but he had selected a disguise which fitted nicely with the general aesthetics of Clan Worlds society, so there was a good chance she would be at least somewhat attracted. He noticed her pupils dilating, which was a good sign.

‘You wouldn’t like a white wine, would you?’

‘Uh, well, that was what I was going to order…’

He held out the drugged glass. ‘On the house. No strings attached either. Shame to let it go to waste.’

She hesitated for about a second before reaching out toward her doom.

And that was when a hand in a blue latex glove appeared out of nowhere and took the glass carefully by the stem. ‘Thank you. That’s just the drugged cocktail I was looking for,’ Nava said. The redhead let out a shriek of surprise. Nava ignored her. ‘Ichiro Ishida Sonkei, you are under arrest. Please resist. I have a strong desire to punch you in the face.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Ichiro said. ‘I’m not–’

Nava waved a negligent hand and his disguise spell vanished in a flicker of dismantled magic. The redhead let out a louder shriek. ‘Illusions don’t affect fingerprints, so this glass is going to be the thing that sinks you right now, but I expect that Second Lieutenant, Specialist, Courtney Maynard is going to find lots more incriminating evidence when she looks at you closely.’

‘I certainly will,’ Courtney said as she closed in on Ichiro from behind, Kyle at her shoulder. Ichiro spun on the spot to see the two of them, both in uniform. ‘As Captain Nava Greyling said, Ichiro Ishida, you are under arrest. If you resist, I won’t punch you in the face, but I will get my husband to do it. He’s bigger than I am.’

‘Always happy to help,’ Kyle said, ‘but I think it’d be meaner to let Nava do it.’ He took the handcuffs Courtney was holding out and smiled at Ichiro. ‘If you’d turn around, sir. It makes it easier to snap these on.’

‘What is going on?!’ the redhead yelled, apparently having reached the point where she could manage more than a shriek.

‘You just escaped a fate worse than death,’ Nava said. ‘Don’t take drinks from strangers.’

‘Good advice even when you aren’t dealing with a rapist,’ Kyle said.

The redhead fainted.

238/4/22.

For once, they were not discussing murder over dinner. It was rape, but dinner was already over. Courtney knew the schedule at the house from living there and had called when she was fairly sure they would not be eating.

‘You seriously do not want to know what we found in his “playroom,”’ she said from Nava’s ketcom, ‘but it’s going to put him away until the stars burn out.’

‘I read your reports on the previous victims,’ Nava replied. ‘I can therefore imagine the kinds of things he had available for his “play.” Thankfully, my training made me sufficiently numb to such things that I doubt I’ll have trouble sleeping.’

‘Lucky you.’

‘I think I’ll have trouble sleeping,’ Melissa said, ‘and I don’t have any of the details.’

‘Huh. That might be worse,’ Courtney said. ‘Anyway, he recorded all his sessions. I am not looking forward to watching the vids, but they should be enough to connect him to all the victims. The glass Nava grabbed has his fingerprints on it and there was a flunitrazepam derivative in the wine. We’ve got him. We get to give the victims some justice.’

‘The ASF at its best,’ Mitsuko said. ‘That’s nice to see.’

‘And now,’ Nava said, ‘all we need to worry about is an impending war with the Sino-Soviet Republic.’

‘Way to bring the room down, Nava,’ Courtney said. ‘We’re police and diplomatic protection, so we don’t do wars. You’re all still schoolgirls. None of us should be involved in a war, even if one breaks out.’

Nava gave a shrug. ‘Whatever helps you sleep at night.’

Part Seven: A War Someone Wants

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 238/4/23.

‘… stated that evidence regarding the meetings cannot be revealed to the public, but that it would be presented to the Clan Council and ASF senior officers.’ The sound came from Carina’s ketcom; no one had much desire to watch the report, but Carina wanted their opinions on it. ‘There have been objections raised recently regarding the improbability of the Sino-Soviet Republic and the Consortium both engaging in covert piracy at the same time. This announcement in the assembly indicates that the coincidence was no coincidence at all, but–’

Carina cut off the vid. ‘A conspiracy?’ Carina was, obviously enough, quite into conspiracies.

‘I would certainly agree that there appears to be a conspiracy,’ Nava said, which surprised everyone. ‘I doubt it is between the Republic and the Consortium. My briefings indicate that they hate each other far more than either of them dislikes the Alliance. Trade between them is more or less non-existent. They do not exchange ambassadors. Further, if the Greylings have any knowledge of secret meetings like the ones that representative claims to have knowledge of, no one has told me.’

‘You’re saying this is a set-up?’

‘I think someone heard those objections the reporter mentioned and decided to provide an explanation.’

‘And that was probably a mistake,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Over-complicating a lie is never the best course of action.’ She smiled. ‘It’s one reason we don’t utterly reject your story, Cari. Your fantasies are so convoluted, you would have to be a fool to invent them.’

‘Uh, thanks. I think. Who could possibly want a war between the clans and the Republic? And the Consortium too?’

‘The dark gods?’

‘I suspect someone a little more mundane,’ Nava said. ‘Unfortunately, neither I nor anyone I know of has anyone specific to suspect.’

Melissa giggled. ‘Specific to suspect, huh? Very poetic.’

‘I have the heart of a poet.’

‘She does,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I keep telling her to throw it out, but she claims it’s a precious memento.’ Pause. ‘Well I thought it was funny.’

238/4/26.

It was Friday night. Initial reports from the field suggested that everyone was partying harder than usual. Generally, excessive drinking was kept to Saturday night when everyone had Sunday to recover from a hangover, but they were starting early this week. When Nava received an encrypted message from Castle Grey, she began to suspect that the general concern over the current situation was correct. Then again, she had been concerned for a while.

The Clan Worlds based their naval forces around the five Pride-class battleships the ASF operated. For the Republic, the equivalent units were based around Xue Chow-class dreadnaughts. There were only three of them, so there were actually other units based around smaller ships, but the big, impressive, powerful strike forces were the dreadnaught units. Xue Chow-class ships were three times the size of Pride-class ships and built for two primary roles: planetary protection and planetary bombardment. The Republic normally kept one dreadnaught near Alliance space, but they had just finished deploying a second to the same location. Loudly. They clearly wanted the Alliance to know that they were ready to deal with whatever was thrown at them. Or maybe that they were ready to hit Alliance worlds, should open war break out.

The two strike groups were now stationed at a system known as Dalniaia Granitsa. The system had no really habitable planets in it; the Republic had taken it purely to mark its Alliance-facing border. The only people there were members of the People’s Security Army, which was mostly a navy. Republican doctrine called for war to be carried out with overwhelming force, risking the lives of as few of their citizens as possible. That was the reason for the dreadnaughts. When the Republic attacked a planet, it sent in a dreadnaught battlegroup, blasted the planet with whatever weapons were needed to reduce resistance to nothing, and only then did they send in an occupying ground force, if they even bothered. In the early years of the Republic, when some colonies in that area of space had resisted induction, it was not unheard of for a world to be glassed, hit with nukes until there was nothing left, and then left as a warning to others.

The closest Alliance system to Dalniaia Granitsa was Mandalore at seventy-five light years. Comparatively, Shinden was a long way behind the ‘front lines’ at one hundred and eighty-seven light years. Mandalore was the obvious first target of any war between the Alliance and the Republic, but that entirely neglected the fact that there were no lines in a space war.

Things were escalating. The deployment of the second dreadnaught to Dalniaia Granitsa was likely a response to increased diplomatic tensions between the two governments. The Republic’s ambassador had been fielding a lot of questions recently and was, according to the media, angrily denying all the accusations coming his way.

Considerations of going out to add an extra set of eyes to the patrols around school were rejected. Instead, Nava opened up one of the internal documentation folders and began to review the school’s evacuation plans.

238/4/28.

There was a definite atmosphere of worry hanging over the entire school. The black cloud was metaphorical since Sunday had dawned bright and fresh with clear, blue skies. Nava, Melissa, and Mitsuko were all planning to go out flying in the afternoon, but that was at least partially to get away from the ground and the depressed students.

Lunch was being conducted in the house. Mitsuko had done most of the cooking, but Hoshi had brought a couple of Shinden dishes over since she was there with Rochester. Normally, they would have been at one of the refectories, but the refectories were not that nice to be around currently. Despite there being lessons tomorrow, Nava was expecting more traffic than usual in the club on the Estate tonight. The other clubs were closed.

‘Just to get this out of the way,’ Hoshi said as they sat down to eat, ‘it’s pretty clear that we’re going to end up fighting the Republic now, right?’

‘Ninety percent,’ Nava replied. That was Jenna’s current prediction, rounded to the nearest whole number.

‘Oh.’

‘There has been no resolution on a diplomatic level,’ Mitsuko said. ‘If anything, the assembly has become more belligerent, and the reports concerning the Republic’s ambassador suggest that he’s “being unreasonable.”’

‘I think I’d be unreasonable under the circumstances,’ Melissa said.

‘You wouldn’t, Mel, but he may have a perfect right to be.’

‘Moving that dreadnaught onto the border was a bit inflammatory,’ Rochester said. ‘It suggested that whatever the truth about the piracy, they don’t want to back down.’

‘Agreed,’ Nava said. ‘They’re acting almost like they’re from the Clan Worlds.’

‘Oh, um, well, yes. I suppose not backing down in the face of aggression is a clan thing.’

‘And someone is using that to get a war started between the Alliance and the Republic. Let’s eat. And not talk about dreadnaughts.’

‘Especially that last part,’ Melissa said.

‘Actually, I meant both evenly. I’m hungry.’

‘Oh. Well, yes, so am I.’

238/4/29.

Nava rather enjoyed Monday morning lessons currently. Luca Newton was covering various utility magics again, and those often turned out to have uses people did not immediately think of on first learning what they did. Sometimes it was not what they currently did, but how the theory behind them could be adapted to other uses. Whatever, these were interesting lessons, and Nava enjoyed them without appearing to at all.

A message came through from Castle Grey at a little after eleven a.m., and Nava’s enjoyment level dropped as soon as she opened it. The Republic maintained a ‘listening post’ on the outer edge of the Mandalore system which the Alliance was not supposed to know about. It was designed to intercept whatever communications it could – which was not much since most of the useful stuff was sent via magic – and watched for ships entering or leaving the system.

Or it had. The ASF had hit it with a task force a few hours earlier. It was no longer there. This was an obvious act of war on the Alliance’s part, but the Greylings had determined that the reason for this attack was to ensure that the next part of the operation was not spotted before it became quite obvious what was happening. The ASF were about to dispatch an attack force to Dalniaia Granitsa consisting of two defence strike groups and one assault strike group. Defence strike group was something of a misleading term; while they could be used in the defence of a system, they were optimised for anti-shipping operations. If you had to destroy a lot of enemy vessels, you used a defence strike group, and then you deployed an assault strike group to take a planet. The Alliance was planning to eliminate the base on Dalniaia Granitsa and, with it, two out of three of the Republic’s largest warships.

‘Is there a problem, Captain Nava Greyling?’ Luca Newton asked. Nava was allowed to read messages in class because the SSF’s captain sometimes had to. Luca was concerned because Nava seemed to be spending more time on this one than usual.

Nava closed the message window. ‘There is, Miss Luca Newton, but it is nothing which I am able to respond to at this time. I don’t think I missed anything you said. Please continue.’

Luca nodded. Another thing she knew was that Nava seemed to be uniquely able to divide her attention between multiple things. ‘Very well. Another thing you may find useful when preparing food are spells designed to improve the flavour. If you can remember this for long enough to use it in action, you’ll have entire platoons thinking you’re some sort of god.’

Okay, so this was not likely to be that useful in Nava’s future endeavours, but it was fun. And she had tasted standard battle rations…

238/4/31.

Carina frowned at her ketcom. ‘Where’s my message?’

‘You are not a member of the student council,’ Mitsuko said, ‘and so are not required to deal with the situation.’ It was breakfast time on a Wednesday, and Nava, Mitsuko, and Melissa had all received messages from Joslyn Harris telling them that they would be needed for meetings first thing. Luca Newton had already been informed that they would not be in class.

‘I have no idea what you’re complaining about,’ Melissa said. ‘You like lessons. Being taken out of lessons is generally not what you want.’

‘We’ve got tactics first thing,’ Carina replied. ‘I could stand to lose a morning.’

‘I’d suggest learning what you can, while you can,’ Nava said. ‘The Republic will not let this stand. I suspect there will be further disruption to lessons, and it’s almost late spring break anyway.’

Carina nodded and waved her ketcom. ‘Well, if even half of what they’re reporting is true, there’s no way the Republic is going to let it go, no. “Humiliating defeat” sounds about right, even if the Clan Council is trying to spin this as a police action so there’s no “defeat” involved.’

Nava nodded in turn. ‘The report I was sent suggests that the Republic’s forces were routed. One of their dreadnaughts was destroyed, the other damaged. The Republic’s base in the Dalniaia Granitsa has been effectively eliminated with minimal losses.’

‘Minimal?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘The Pride of Shinden escaped largely unscathed. Your brother is safe. Captain Flavien Paris and Rear Admiral Viktoria Engel are also safe. Viktoria Engel was in overall command of the operation. A combination of her exceptional skill and the rather staid performance of the Republic’s commanding officers was largely responsible for the victory. The ASF were severely out-gunned, something like a four-to-one ratio, and they still inflicted a total defeat.’

‘I assume you know what they did after that victory?’

‘The clans are spinning the operation as one designed to eliminate the Republic’s ability to conduct covert piracy in Clan Worlds systems. A policing action. The ASF forces withdrew to Mandalore since there was no intention to hold territory nominally inside Republic space.’

‘And do you have any idea what the Republic is going to do?’ Melissa asked.

‘I’m waiting on projections.’

‘But it’s not going to be nothing, right?’ Carina asked. ‘They’ll retaliate.’

‘It’s possible that the loss of one capital ship and the requirement to repair a second will deter them,’ Nava replied. ‘But I doubt it.’

~~~

The projections Nava was waiting for came through as she was walking with Mitsuko, Melissa, and Yaeko to the administration building for a meeting with the principal. She looked it over but remained silent until she was in the principal’s office with a cup of coffee and the principal and vice principal listening.

‘The Greylings are currently projecting that there is a ninety percent probability of retaliation within the next forty-eight hours,’ she announced to the group. ‘I would suggest that we consider any plans we make in that light.’

‘That seems like a given,’ Joslyn Harris said. ‘Not wishing to denigrate your family’s predictive capabilities, but that seems obvious. What we need to know is where they will attack.’

‘Mandalore, five percent. Shinden, ninety percent. The rest is spread among a few other systems at no higher than two percent.’

‘We were told that Mandalore is the most likely target. The Republic has been after that system’s resources almost since its inception.’ To Nava, Joslyn did not seem entirely convinced.

‘I’ve been told that that assumption is why the group which attacked Dalniaia Granitsa has retreated to Mandalore. However, this is not a territorial dispute. The Republic has been given a bloody nose. Its pride has been dented. Any reprisal will take the form of something designed to humiliate the Alliance. The Clan Council is also operating on the misapprehension that destroying a military facility necessitates some similar response. They don’t believe the Republic would attack Shinden, which is a purely civilian system.’

‘But it’s not,’ Yaeko said. ‘The headquarters of the ASF is on Shinden.’

‘I did say it was a misapprehension.’ Nava paused briefly. ‘As someone originally from outside the Clan Worlds, I’d have to say that this is at least partially because the pride of the clans’ leadership won’t allow them to think Shinden could be a target. No one would dare.’

‘I certainly won’t disagree with that assessment,’ Auberon Ewart said. ‘We should proceed as though SAS-squared itself will be considered a primary target. Unfortunately, that doesn’t give us much time to do anything if a Republican fleet appears around the planet.’

‘The initial phase of any operation will be the elimination of resisting ground forces. Our estimate is that you should have one or two hours to evacuate the school. Possibly longer, but assuming so might cost lives.’

‘If we prepare beforehand,’ Joslyn said, ‘we can have the students off-site in under an hour. The staff may take a little longer.’

‘The student council will begin reminding everyone of the evacuation plans immediately,’ Mitsuko said.

‘We don’t need a panic.’

‘I have confidence in our students’ ability to keep level heads. If they know that there are plans in place, and that we have considered those plans and found them suitable, they will stay calm and do as they’re told.’ Mitsuko flashed Joslyn a grin. ‘It’s the faculty I worry about.’

‘Hm. That is probably an accurate assessment.’

~~~

By lunchtime, everyone knew that the school was preparing to evacuate everyone, what the plans were, where they would be going, and the reason for doing all this in the first place. It was, in fact, a member of the faculty who looked the most panicked when the usual group met in the refectory, but then, he was not a member of the usual group. Arden Archer was there because he was worried.

‘Somehow,’ he said, ‘I thought the school would erect a barrier of some sort rather than running away. Is there anywhere safe if they start dropping nuclear weapons on us?’ Arden was a physicist with no magical talent at all, which was why he did not always understand what sorcery was capable of. Like many non-magical citizens, he thought magic could work miracles one minute and underestimated what it could do the next.

Rochester liked to point out when he was being foolish. ‘A class five Force Dome large enough to cover the entire school would be three thousand six hundred and twenty-five Tammys. Even using a spell matrix, no one alive could cast that spell.’

‘And if they did,’ Nava said, ‘it would do absolutely nothing to stop a nuke. Military screens on warships, which are significantly stronger than anything we can produce through personal magic, won’t stand up to even a twenty-five-kiloton fusion weapon, which is the smallest warhead we can expect to be delivered here in the event of an attack.’

‘Oh,’ Arden said. ‘You know, what we need is a method of stopping nuclear weapons from going off. Um, something that affects the weak interaction could, maybe, prevent a nuke from detonating.’

Rochester’s ears perked up. ‘Interesting. If we could–’

‘Unfortunately,’ Nava said, ‘such magic is unavailable currently, and I don’t expect it to be ready within the next day or two. Hence the need for evacuation.’

‘Which wouldn’t be needed if the ASF hadn’t left the planet more or less defenceless,’ Hoshi said.

‘It might be less urgent, but assuming that every missile could be stopped is foolish.’

‘Well… I suppose.’

‘The real problem is Alliance City,’ Mitsuko said. ‘From what Nava’s told us about Republican military doctrine, it’s likely that the city will be bombarded with a lot of nuclear weapons. They don’t feel the need to occupy existing cities, and they wouldn’t be coming to claim territory anyway. They’ll be here to eliminate the command structure of the Alliance. If they want territory, they can do that after.’

Nava nodded. ‘That’s our assessment. That’s the view of the ASF’s command too, actually.’

‘Then why are they betting on Mandalore being the target?’ Hoshi asked.

‘Orders from above. The assembly and council don’t agree with the admirals, and the military does as it’s told. Trudy must be finding this foolishness very interesting.’

‘She would be,’ Carina replied, ‘if it wasn’t really depressing. Really, I mean, at this rate, the Key to Darkness won’t need to win because we’ll have blown ourselves up.’

‘At least we won’t be eaten by dark gods,’ Melissa replied.

‘Mel,’ Mitsuko said, shaking her head, ‘not even you are that optimistic.’

~~~

‘Everyone, settle down,’ Nava said. She did not say it particularly loudly, but it had the desired effect; SSF HQ fell into silence. ‘Okay, we’re a bit crowded, but I need to brief you all on what’s coming. Pay attention and take notes if you need to. I am not doing this twice.’

It was a bit crowded. Nava had called in the entire SSF, including all the reserves, and Mitsuko and Yaeko were there for reasons Nava planned to make clear. The room was not designed to hold that many people comfortably, and Nava was standing on her desk so that everyone could see her.

‘As you all know, the Alliance attacked a Republican military base yesterday. Despite the advocates of that operation calling it a police action, the Republic undoubtedly views it as an act of war because it was. They will retaliate. The public are being told that Mandalore is the most likely target for that reprisal, but my family’s predictions suggest it will be Shinden.’

There were various rumblings from around the room. It was difficult to tell what the overall sentiment was, but Nava got the impression that most of her team agreed with the Greylings.

‘Whatever the case,’ Nava went on, ‘we need to be ready to evacuate the school in the event of an attack, no matter what your view is on how likely such an attack may be. If you haven’t already read, memorised, and thoroughly internalised the school’s evacuation plan, do so. That’s everyone, not just the regular patrol staff. Everyone is going to be called on to help if we have to do this.’ Pause. ‘Well, almost everyone. Before going over the plans in some detail, I will explain why we have the student president and vice president here. The one person here who will not be helping the evacuation effort is me.’

There was another pause while her team rumbled about that turn of events. Nava waited a couple of seconds before deciding further speculative muttering would do little good. ‘If a Republican force arrives in this system, the Greylings have a plan to render the evacuation unnecessary. I am part of that, so I will be heading off-campus as soon as I’m told we have a problem. Unfortunately, as with any plan, we won’t know whether it has succeeded until we action it, so we will still be evacuating the school. President Mitsuko Trenton and Vice President Yaeko Himura will be coordinating the efforts between the staff and students. I want all of you to take your orders from them. I will signal to everyone that we need to begin evacuating, and then pass you over to be the student council’s arms and legs. Is that understood? Are there any questions?’

Skylar Keyes put her hand up – and given how tall she was, that was easy enough to spot. ‘What kind of plan do you have for taking on a battle group, probably including a dreadnaught?’

‘Sorry, Sky, but I can’t say. Family secret. You know what the Greylings are like about secrets. They would take away my right to wear black if I said anything.’

‘Which would leave her with nothing to wear but the school’s uniform,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Don’t make her tell you.’

‘I wear colours,’ Nava said. If you knew her very well, it sounded a little defensive.

‘Yes. But wandering around campus in your underwear is generally not acceptable.’

Trenton Mansion.

Zackery was feeling a little frustrated. He was not as frustrated as Misaki currently was – as best he could determine from her calls anyway – but the situation was frustrating. He had presented the Greylings’ predictions, which were obviously Jenna’s predictions, to the Clan Council alongside Misaki. They had ignored the information. Mandalore was going to be the target of any reprisal and that was that.

Further, a lot of people on the assembly seemed convinced that there would be no reprisal anyway. The Alliance had acted to counter piracy, which was a legitimate use of force the Republic could not object to. The ASF had thoroughly trounced the Republic’s forces and the Republic would thus be reluctant to escalate the conflict. Far too many of the clan representatives who had voted for the attack in closed session were busily trying to rationalise why they had taken that decision. Most of them actually believed that they had not just declared war on the Sino-Soviet Republic.

Generally, the fact that the Sonkei clan had no representation on the council or the assembly was not an issue. There were other ways to exert power, and the clan was very good at doing so. Right now, however, the other clans were stuffing their fingers in their ears and chanting ‘I can’t hear you!’ It was frustrating.

A call coming through on his ketcom diverted Zackery’s attention from the estate’s own evacuation plans. He frowned. The caller ID was Elouan Leroux Firmin, who was the current clan representative for the Firmins. Why would he be calling? Only one way to find out.

‘Representative Elouan Leroux, to what do I owe the honour?’

Elouan was a handsome young man, blonde-haired, green-eyed, and with a strong nose and jawline. If you met him in person, he had quite a strong physique too. His smile had a lot of white teeth in it. ‘Zackery Trenton, good afternoon. I’m not actually calling as the clan rep. Not really. As you may be aware, I voted against the recent, um, excursion into Republic space. We, the Firmin clan, are concerned about the repercussions of an ill-advised intervention.’

‘I was aware, yes. Unfortunately, the operation went ahead and all we can do is deal with the aftermath.’

‘Yes. Indeed. That’s why I’m calling. Shinden is largely defenceless at the moment and I think we both know that this planet is a tempting target for retaliation.’

‘I’m also aware of that.’

‘The Firmin clan has a number of very competent mercenary groups capable of providing defence to the system. For a price, of course. They wouldn’t be doing this purely for altruism. We’re not the clan we once were.’

Zackery nodded. ‘And you suggest that the Sonkei clan employ them?’

‘Exactly. It’s a win-win. We get the money, obviously, and you get the–’

‘It’s not necessary, Representative.’

Elouan’s smile vanished. ‘I’m sorry?’

‘The Sonkei clan is quite capable of defending Shinden, if we are required to.’

‘But you don’t even have a system security force. You’re reliant on the ASF to provide–’

‘You’re right, we don’t have a traditional security force, but we have the means to defend ourselves. We would rather not use it, but we will if we have to. I’m afraid that I can’t go into more detail. Thank you for your offer, Representative, but we won’t be requiring your clan’s services at the moment.’

Elouan’s smile returned, if a little more forced than before. ‘Well, the offer stands if you change your mind. Good luck, Zackery Trenton.’

‘The same to you, Representative Elouan Leroux. Alliance City is likely to be a prime target.’

Elouan signed off without replying, leaving Zackery to consider the exchange. After a little thought, he placed a call to Castle Grey. It might be nothing but a transparent attempt to make money from the war, but it was all data to be added to the collection the Greylings were putting together.

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 238/4/32.

Nava’s ketcom ringing at three fifteen in the morning was unlikely to be good. Nava’s eyes snapped open, and she was reaching for the offending device before Mitsuko was fully awake.

‘Rhianna, I assume this is not good news?’

‘The ASF are reporting that a strike group including the Xue Chow has left Svetlaya Gavan. The destination is currently unknown. The ASF are readying their forces in Mandalore.’ Rhianna sounded about as serious as she ever did.

‘And Jenna?’

‘Jenna predicts their arrival in the Shinden system between seventeen- and nineteen-hundred today. Master Kaede is calling everyone in to get ready. We’re going with your plan, in case there was any suggestion we might not. We’re sending a ship to pick–’

‘Don’t bother. I can be there faster if I fly myself.’

‘Okay. We’ll see you soon.’

Nava put her ketcom down and swung her legs out of bed. ‘I–’

‘That was Rhianna?’ Mitsuko asked. ‘It’s started?’

‘There’s a report of a dreadnaught strike group leaving one of their systems. We’re expecting it here after five this afternoon.’

‘And the ASF thinks it’s going to Mandalore.’

‘Well, they’re reacting as if it was. Anyway, I’m needed at Castle Grey. I suggest starting to get everyone out of here once breakfast is over. There should be plenty of time.’

‘Mm. More camping.’ The plan was to ship everyone out into forests around the area, away from the obvious target that was the campus. ‘Should be fun.’

‘I somehow doubt it.’ Nava paused in front of the wardrobe and looked back. ‘I’ll be able to do my job more effectively if I’m not worried about coming back to find a nuclear crater where you used to be.’

Mitsuko smiled, somewhat bleakly. ‘I know. Just make sure you come back to find me.’

Nava shrugged. ‘Have you met me?’

‘Yes. You assume you’re invulnerable until someone hurts you. Don’t take risks.’

‘I’m going to have to take some risks, Suki. This whole thing is risky. Even evacuating out of the school, you are taking risks.’

‘You know what I mean. Don’t take unnecessary risks.’

‘Now that I can promise.’ Of course, all the risks were necessary… Nava suspected that Mitsuko already knew that, but they could pretend.

Armed Courier Yosozume, Shinden System.

The Xue Chow was not the prettiest of vessels. Even magnified on a screen by the Yosozume’s passive sensor array, it was a hulking brute of a ship, eight hundred metres in length, vaguely cylindrical, and dotted with weapons turrets. The two major ones were up front, each packing an X-ray laser weapon rated at one terajoule. Those could make a really big mess of anything they were directed against, but the real threat were the open missile tubes. Two of the tubes were bigger than the other twelve, but all of them were quite capable of delivering ten-megaton nukes which would really ruin your day.

There were also ten General-class missile cruisers and ten Delphine-class frigates appearing in open space some two thousand kilometres from Shinden. The frigates were basically point-defence platforms; they had no real offensive armament and were there purely to keep missiles away from the larger craft. The cruisers packed fifteen missile tubes each, not big enough to carry the ten-megaton warheads the Xue Chow could throw around, but quite big enough to make a real mess. Once all that armament was in orbit, it was only going to be a matter of time before Shinden was a scorched wasteland.

Facing that overwhelming force were twelve Barracuda-class ASF frigates. There were forces on the ground, and they could be expected to take out at least some of the incoming missiles when it came to it, but the situation was not looking good.

‘We should start as soon as possible,’ Nava said. Concentrating, she sent a telepathic message to Mitsuko. There was time for that. Nava was assuming that the evacuation had been carried out as planned. The message was insurance. ‘Karen, are you ready?’

Floating a little way away from Nava, near the sensor operator’s console, Karen frowned at the sensor display. ‘Yeah. I have the coordinates. This isn’t going to be easy, you know. It’s one thing hitting a planet in another system. Hitting a moving spaceship at ten thousand klicks isn’t going to be fun.’ She was out of sorts. Nava had insisted that her sister wear body armour. The Redwings had let her wear whatever she wanted, even if Laura had complained about not taking operations seriously. Here she was, free of her terrorist creators, and her own sister had forced her to wear a PDS-101 combat suit. Worse, Nava had played the ‘I just got my sister back and I don’t want to lose her now’ card and it had worked!

‘I’m aware. You can do it, however. I have complete confidence in you.’

Karen let out a little whimper of annoyance. ‘I am going to stop falling for that at some point.’

‘They’re launching missiles,’ Rhianna said from her position beside the captain’s chair.

‘Then we’d better do this,’ Karen replied. She jammed her helmet on and data began to appear in front of her eyes. ‘Ready when you are, Nava.’

Pride of Shinden, Mandalore System.

Ruben blinked a couple of times when a message from his sister appeared in his head. He was really not used to this telepathy thing, especially when Mitsuko was in an entirely different system from him. There was that, and there was what the message said.

‘Captain,’ Ruben said, turning his seat to face the central chair where Captain Flavien Paris was sitting.

‘Strategy Officer?’

‘I just received a message from my sister, Mitsuko Trenton. She says that the Xue Chow and ten missile cruisers have arrived in the Shinden system. They’re only two thousand klicks from Shinden itself.’

Flavien’s jaw tightened. ‘Damn it.’ He tapped a button on one of his screens and waited barely a second. ‘The Republicans are at Shinden, Rear Admiral.’

On the screen, Rear Admiral Viktoria Engel looked briefly surprised, but not for the reason one might expect. ‘Of course they are, but how do we know?’

‘Mitsuko Trenton sent a message to Ruben. Your orders, Rear Admiral?’

‘We can assume that the intelligence is accurate if it’s Mitsuko Trenton. She’s likely giving us information from the Greylings via Nava Greyling. I’m ordering our group to Shinden, Captain. Make ready.’

‘Of course.’ Pause. ‘Viktoria, the brass aren’t going to like this.’

‘I’ll take responsibility. Get us moving, Flavien. We can worry about how others will react when we’ve saved Shinden from being glassed.’

Sino-Soviet Republic Dreadnaught Xue Chow, Shinden System.

Nava checked her surroundings. She was in a big space full of machinery, which was where she was expecting to be. She patted the invisible form of Karen on the shoulder twice. An instant later, Karen was gone, and Nava was alone in the engineering section of the Xue Chow.

Well, not alone. The engineering crew aboard a Xue Chow-class dreadnaught ran to fifteen hundred people. There were another three hundred in another part of the rear hull to handle the rear missile tubes, though they were probably not doing much currently since the massive ship was flying toward Shinden and they were facing the wrong way. Nava’s immediate concern was the engineering crew. All of them had to die.

There were plenty of people around, moving with a purpose. All of them were dressed in jumpsuits in the dark-blue colour the PSA used for uniforms. Most of them were Caucasian, likely of Russian heritage if you went back far enough. Republican society was somewhat stratified on ethnic grounds. Supposedly, everyone was equal, but you tended to find Caucasians doing the menial jobs while those of Chinese heritage had management positions. Since a lot of the crew here were enlisted ranks, technicians mostly, they were largely Russian. Nava figured she would get around to the upper ranks soon enough.

She raised a hand. No one could see her since she had cast Invisibility on herself before leaving the Yosozume. She could take her time, but she did not. She focused, pressing her mind into a new spell, one she had never tried on this scale before. A ball of light about a metre in diameter appeared in the air before her. A couple of techs stopped to look at it. Someone shouted in a language Nava did not understand. No one knew what was happening, but big balls of what looked like plasma on a spaceship were not to be taken lightly.

Then it got worse. The big ball shattered into a lot of smaller balls. Each was vaguely egg-shaped and about four centimetres long. They scattered immediately, flying out from their starting point at ten to twelve metres per second and aiming for the nearest visible crew member. Surprised, the first couple of men failed to even consider dodging. The little ball of magic passed right through one of them, dropping him immediately to the deck, screaming in agony. The second had a channel burned right through his neck. He collapsed to do nothing but twitch. And then chaos took over.

Nava selected a piece of machinery and pulled herself up onto it, out of the way. Until things got a little more quiet, she would let her spell do the work. At this rank, it created a thousand magical battle drones. That was what she called them anyway. They were concentrations of raw magic given will to act by her subconscious mind. If they hit something material, they would burn off part of their ‘magical mass’ to disintegrate part of their target. Each could make about ten attacks before they ran out of power and vanished. You could attack them, but they were small and difficult to damage. Of course, Nava could always summon more if she ran out, but it seemed fairly unlikely that she would need to.

Armed Courier Yosozume.

‘I’m back,’ Karen said. She reached forward and put her hand on Rhianna’s shoulder.

‘Nava’s in position?’ Rhianna asked.

‘Yes. How’s the shooting going?’

‘So far, the frigates are stopping the missile barrage, but it won’t last. The Xue Chow’s taken out two of the frigates already with those laser turrets. You’d better get started taking the others.’

‘Right.’ Karen looked around at the people floating at the rear of the bridge. They were the best magicians the Greylings had been able to call in. They were not up to Nava’s standard, but they could all use rank three or four of her Summon Battle Swarm spell. That meant that each of them could be dropped into a cruiser to make fifty or a hundred of the little magical battle drones. And the cruisers only had a crew of fifty-seven in total. This was going to be a slaughter. Not that Karen cared. ‘Let’s get started.’

A Forest on Shinden.

‘I wonder what’s happening up there,’ Melissa said. She was looking up at the leaves of the trees rather than she sky, but everyone who heard her knew what she meant.

‘People are fighting,’ Mitsuko replied. ‘I don’t think I want to know the details until it’s over.’

‘That is a practical position to take,’ Joslyn Harris said. For once, the VP was not in uniform; it was a little disconcerting to see her dressed in comfortable jeans and a fairly thick sweater.

‘Mm. The only problem is that I’m lying to myself. The Greylings are up there, doing some of the fighting. I really want to know she’s safe.’

‘She’s not,’ Auberon Ewart said. It was even more disconcerting to see him in comfortable, outdoor clothes, but there he was. ‘She is in a combat situation, I have no doubt, and so she is not safe by definition. However, we both know that the real question is how safe her enemies are, to which the answer is “not at all.”’

Joslyn nodded. ‘I have no doubt that she’ll come through this without a scratch. I suspect the same will not be true of some of the others defending this world. There may be civilian casualties too.’

Mitsuko nodded. ‘Shinden Orbital. They evacuated non-essential personnel and anyone willing to leave, but there are still people up there and it’s a very big target.’

‘How many?’ Melissa asked.

Mitsuko gave a shrug. ‘Several thousand. Let’s just hope the Greylings’ plan works. Otherwise, a few thousand deaths will be the least of our worries.’

Armed Courier Yosozume.

‘Shit.’ It was less of an expletive and more of a resigned gesture to indicate an expected disaster. No one asked the sensor operator why he had said it; everyone knew he would explain what they were seeing on the main screen in a second. ‘One got through. Registering a twenty-five-kiloton nuclear detonation at Shinden Orbital.’

‘Results?’ the captain asked, though everyone had a pretty good idea what the results would be.

‘Uh, one second. No, there’s nothing bigger than a man left. Looks like most of the central hub is vapour. Oh!’ The exclamation at the end did have people’s ears perking up; this was an unexpected surprise. ‘The Xue Chow’s engines have shut down. She’s stopped accelerating.’

‘Looks like Nava is living up to her reputation,’ Rhianna said.

‘What did you expect?’ Karen said, her voice coming out of thin air. ‘That’s my little sister you’re talking about.’

‘It feels entirely wrong thinking of you as the older sister, but you are, I suppose.’

‘You suppose? Anyway, everyone’s in place. Can someone make me visible?’

‘Thank you, Karen, and probably.’

‘Probably?’

Rhianna smiled at the spot the voice was coming from. ‘Well, your little sister cast that spell. I can try to dispel it, but it might take a while. It’ll wear off soon enough anyway.’

‘It’ll all be over by then!’

Rhianna returned her attention to the main screen. ‘I certainly hope so.’

Sino-Soviet Republic Dreadnaught Xue Chow.

The engineering section of the Xue Chow was alarmingly quiet as Nava walked through it toward the forward bulkhead. She was surrounded by bodies. It was possible that some of them were still alive, but that circumstance would probably not continue for much longer. Certainly, no one was currently capable of operating machinery, which was why the engines and the aft reactor had shut down; with no one to operate a piece of magical technology, the magical technology did not operate. Unfortunately, the dreadnaught had a second reactor in the bow which meant that the vessel’s force screen and those two forward turrets would still be operating. Those went next.

Nava cancelled her magic drone spell as she reached the bulkhead. She would need her tiny magical warriors later, but she would be using something else for the next part of the operation. She teleported past the bulkhead and started toward the ship’s bow at a run. By now, the surviving crew had worked out they had a problem, what with the engines dying and all. She needed to get the next part set up as soon as possible.

~~~

On the bridge of the Xue Chow, Captain Yun Tan was indeed quite aware that her ship was having problems. There had been a report from engineering that they were under attack. What the attack was, who was attacking, and how were all open questions, and there had been more or less no time to respond before the aft reactor had shut down, the engines with it. Now she could not raise anyone in engineering at all.

Admiral Jingyi Ma down in the flag operations room was not helping. ‘What is the problem, Captain? My strategy calls for eliminating their orbital defences and moving to surface bombardment with all expediency. I cannot achieve that if we are not moving.’ Unlike the ASF, which had been underfunded for decades and had only one admiral, Ma was one of many of his rank and he had attained that rank through the time-honoured method of applying his lips to the right butts rather than through martial skill. He irritated Tan, even though she had become captain of the Xue Chow through similar methods.

‘I am currently determining what the problem is, Admiral,’ Tan replied. She was good: her teeth were barely clenched. ‘It appears that someone is attacking us from within the ship.’

‘That’s impossible,’ Ma stated flatly. ‘Get your people doing their jobs.’

‘Of course. In the meantime, we are still moving, if not accelerating. We have eliminated their orbital facility and half of their frigates. We can begin surface bombardment within ten minutes.’

‘But not precision surface bombardment.’

‘We can, even from here, if we send our cruisers forward to direct our fire.’

‘We’ll keep two back for defence. Make it happen.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Defence against what? There were going to be no ships to defend against soon, the cruisers were basically offence-only, and whoever was attacking them seemed to already be inside the ship.

~~~

In the reactor room at the core of the forward hull, Nava lifted something out of a small pouch stuck to her left thigh. The device was a cylinder about thirty centimetres long and three in diameter, slightly flared at one end. It looked like a large flashlight, but without the bulb. Lifting it, she selected a victim and prepared to make their day short and unpleasant.

She had never tested the device she had taken from Perle Tailler. No one had. Since she had ‘confiscated’ it, it had been locked away in a vault in Castle Grey. It had been considered useful under certain circumstances, but nothing which could really be tried out to make sure it worked. The Greylings were not that kind of spy organisation. And then some circumstances had come up which seemed to make use of it appropriate.

Nava set a timer on her ketcom, the time counting down from fifteen minutes on her helmet’s display. She focused on the device, achieved a connection to the matrix within, and directed the spell at a random member of the crew with a detonation delay of fourteen minutes and fifty-three seconds. It felt like it had worked. The spell had not reduced everyone in the room to vapour immediately, which Nava considered a win. Now she had a few more people to curse, and fourteen minutes and forty-nine seconds to do it. Since they were all in different areas of the ship, it was time to hustle.

~~~

Jingyi Ma watched the progression of the operation with growing annoyance because it was not progressing anything like the way he had intended.

In front of him was a holographic display showing the planet of Shinden and its surrounding space out to five thousand kilometres. The positions of his ships were indicated with blue markers. The positions of enemy vessels were marked in red. There was exactly one remaining red marker, and that one would likely disappear in the next couple of minutes. They were already launching missiles toward the planet, toward where their intelligence said there were surface defence installations. All that was according to plan, but…

But the flagship was dead in space. The aft reactor was not back online yet so they could not accelerate or manoeuvre in any other manner. They could still fire, there was that. And now the cruisers were going down. Three of them had stopped accelerating. Attempts to contact them were going unanswered. Those three and another two were no longer firing missiles. There were reports from two others of attackers inside the ships, and Ma would have said that was impossible, but it was exactly what Tan had claimed was happening aboard the Xue Chow.

It had to be magic. Someone had devised a way to make teleportation accurate enough to get aboard a ship in space from another ship. ‘I want a sweep of local space,’ Ma ordered. ‘Search for a stealth vessel within… five thousand kilometres.’ Not that that would fix the more immediate problem, but it might help. He stabbed at the intercom button. ‘Captain, what is the engineering situation?’

‘Replacement crew are entering now,’ Tan responded. ‘Initial reports suggest that A-watch have been entirely wiped out. Some sort of energy weapon.’

‘Investigation can wait until we’ve eliminated the threat and regained our momentum.’

‘I have people scouring the area. There’s no sign of the intruders.’

‘Find them! There must be a lot of them.’

‘Of course, Admiral.’

Ma decided to see to it that Tan was demoted, possibly to an enlisted rank, as soon as they got back to Republic space. He did not like her attitude.

About five metres away, Nava decided that Ma was going to be the one to blow up his own operations centre. She had already figured out that he would make a good target: there was a lot of gold on his dark-blue tunic, suggesting significant rank, and now she knew he was an admiral. She approved of the Republic’s military uniforms. Both men and women wore dark-blue tunics and black slacks. No one had exposed cleavage for no good reason. And all that obvious rank insignia made her job easier.

She raised her spell matrix and cast the Sacrifice of Matter spell on Jingyi Ma. Her timer was reading four minutes and thirty-eight seconds. And now she had to clean out engineering again.

Concentrating, she teleported directly back to the engineering bay. Sure enough, there were people in jumpsuits rushing about, preparing to restart the reactor. Once that was up, the engines would follow quickly. There were also armed men and women in tunics who appeared to be searching every nook and cranny for the team of soldiers responsible for the bodies decorating every surface. Since there was, in fact, only one person responsible, they were not going to have much luck.

And the search was going to end prematurely anyway. A ball of light about a metre in diameter appeared before Nava, and then it shattered into a thousand smaller lights which swept out on the hunt for targets. People started yelling in a language Nava did not understand, probably some sort of Chinese. There was shooting, like that would do them much good. Then again, they might hit something which would cause real problems, so Nava decided to speed things along. Raising an arm, she directed Magic Charge at the nearest security man firing his carbine at the flying orbs. He stopped firing. Nava picked her next target without giving her first a second glance.

Alliance City, Shinden.

The Intelligence Response Directorate were not really a wartime unit. The ASF had a separate military intelligence unit which was more tuned to that kind of data gathering. When war started, the IRD had essentially failed, but they did have the job of making sure that everyone in the organisation had the data they needed, no matter who had sourced it.

That was why Fawn was watching the tactical displays in the unit’s operations centre. It was underground and, hopefully, relatively protected from anything which might happen above, but she was there mostly so that she could watch the battle unfold in real time.

What she was seeing was a barrage of missiles entering the atmosphere and a storm of hypersonic counterfire from surface installations below. There were no longer any ships in space contributing to the defence of the planet, but the surface systems were capable. How capable was something they were about to find out.

‘Is it just me,’ Fawn said, ‘or are there fewer missiles coming in than would be expected?’ She kind of threw it out there for anyone to answer. It was more of an observation anyway.

Deveraux Wescott answered anyway. ‘It’s not just you. We knew the Greylings were doing something.’

‘Yes, and I’m sure Nava is involved in it, and I know the Greylings are very capable without her, but this suggests they’ve halved the offensive force of the Republican assault group in a matter of minutes.’

‘And disabled the Xue Chow’s engines even sooner.’

‘Several of the cruisers seem to be entirely disabled,’ one of the techs monitoring the sensor feeds reported. ‘We’ve lost most of our telemetry from space, but it looks like six cruisers have stopped firing and five of those aren’t accelerating.’

Fawn shook her head. ‘Nava’s good, but she’s not that good. They’ve come up with some sort of weapon they can deploy to take out ships.’

‘Mm.’ Deveraux glowered at the displays. ‘How much are you willing to bet that she didn’t play an integral part in its creation?’

‘Not much. I might offer a solar as a sacrifice, but my heart wouldn’t be in it. I’m sure she did. I’m sure she’s up there deploying whatever it is now.’

‘I am going to find out exactly who was responsible for the farce around her arrest, and I’m going to have them tried and executed for treason.’

Fawn gave a shrug. ‘Preaching to the converted here, Major. On the plus side, she’s still on our side.’

‘True, but–’

‘That’s weird,’ one of the operators said. ‘Looks like the Xue Chow has lost all its power, but the readings are weird and there’s no indication that they were hit with anything.’

‘Yeah,’ Fawn said, ‘Nava’s up there doing something no one should be able to.’

Sino-Soviet Republic Dreadnaught Xue Chow.

Nava’s timer hit zero.

It was not perfectly synchronised, but over the course of about three seconds, several hundred billion carbon atoms in six people changed from objects with a physical presence to pure energy, largely in the form of high-energy gamma-ray photons. These immediately interacted with the remaining matter of their bodies and the air around them generating heat and a shockwave which expanded behind the burst of energy.

Almost immediately, the remaining reactor went into shutdown since the person responsible for starting it was dead and there was damage to various important systems. The two main missile bays were damaged and non-functional. On the bridge, Captain Yun Tan exploded, taking most of her bridge crew with her, though there were still operational control systems on the auxiliary bridge. Admiral Jingyi Ma wiped out the flag command team and caused the shutdown of life support in the main crew habitation block. Of course, that was not going to have a major effect immediately. Ma’s team had just managed to locate the Yosozume, and he was about to give orders to target it to Tan. The rear missile bay was finally going to have something to do. Those orders were never given.

Due largely to the massive size of the ship, the explosions were not entirely fatal. To the ship and its systems. They were significantly more lethal when it came to the crew, but even then there were survivors who began trying to repair damaged systems and get their broken ship back into something like fighting condition. Only the ones in the reactor room, who wore dosimeters as standard, realised that they had also received a significant dose of radiation. Even those lucky few did not know that they would never get to show signs of radiation sickness.

In the engineering room, Nava examined readouts on a display. There were three operational missile tubes in the forward section, six in the rear, and those six still had a full crew. Of course, no one was handing out commands, but the forward tubes were still being used. She looked around her, checking for signs of any of the replacement engineering crew still being functional. There was no one standing. The rear missile tubes were the obvious next target being closest, but they were useless from a tactical standpoint. The forward bay needed to go first.

Cancelling her summoning, she focused on Teleport and, because she had been there recently, jumped straight into the chaos of the secondary forward missile bay. Sure enough, there were people running around trying to jury-rig repairs to the non-functional launch systems while others used the functional ones to fire more missiles. Nava summoned a new swarm and set them loose. In a matter of seconds, the Xue Chow’s launchers fell entirely silent.

Armed Courier Yosozume.

‘That’s… That’s all of them,’ the sensor operator said. ‘None of the Republican ships are firing. They’ve done it.’

‘You sound surprised, Tor,’ Rhianna said.

‘Well, you have to admit this plan was pretty out there. Teleport multiple operatives onto moving spaceships to use an untried spell to wipe out the crews.’

‘Well, maybe, but it worked.’

‘Yeah, it d– Multiple transdrive arrival signatures. They’re two and a half thousand klicks from the planet.’ There was a pause during which everyone held their breath. ‘It’s an ASF strike group. Transponder signature is the Pride of Shinden.’

‘Break radio silence,’ the captain ordered. ‘Send to the Pride that the Republican ships in-system currently have been disabled. Once you’ve done that, check in with our people on those ships. We’ll start retrieving them if they’re finished with clean-up.’

As the communications officer got to work, Karen stirred. She was visible now, but the thirty-minute spell had only just expired. ‘Time for me to go back to work. They haven’t given me time to recover from the first batch of trips.’

‘We’ll send you for Nava first,’ Rhianna said. ‘She can hit you with Active Recovery, and that’ll have you up to full power in seconds.’

Karen curled up again. ‘I have another few minutes then. Just because she’s stopped the missiles doesn’t mean she’s finished slaughtering everyone.’

‘Maybe. It is a big ship…’

Pride of Shinden.

‘We are two thousand four hundred and seventy-six kilometres from Shinden,’ navigation announced.

‘Reading multiple Republican vessels,’ sensors said. ‘One dreadnaught, ten cruisers, ten frigates.’ Pause. ‘Captain, only the frigates are moving. Everything else is coasting and I’m not getting energy readings. All their screens are down. Uh, they’re not firing.’

‘Targeting solutions on the frigates,’ Flavien ordered.

‘It looks like all the others have been disabled somehow,’ Ruben said. ‘From what I see, there’s no sign of external damage, but they’ve been disabled.’

‘It’s the Greylings, Captain,’ the communications officer said. ‘Message from the Yosozume. They say the enemy’s offensive ships have been disabled. They ask us not to fire on those ships since they have people on them. Uh, they say the frigates are all ours, if we want them.’

‘I’ll take the breadcrumb,’ Flavien said. ‘Fire when we have the solutions.’

‘They’ve started running,’ the sensor operator said.

‘Delphine-class frigates are basically useless in offence,’ Ruben said. ‘They have a couple of twenty-eight-centimetre missile launchers. Their intended purpose is point defence. If they don’t have anyone in overall command of them, they’ll run.’

‘Hm.’ Flavien tapped his intercom link to the flag bridge. ‘Rear Admiral, you’re aware of the situation? Commander Ruben Trenton suggests that the frigates pose no real threat.’

‘I concur, Captain,’ Viktoria said. ‘And getting missiles through their defensive array is possibly a waste of ammo. Track them but let them leave.’

Flavien nodded. ‘Rescind that fire order. Now we just–’

‘Multiple transdrive arrival signatures,’ the sensor officer announced. ‘Range is three thousand two hundred kilometres. I’m seeing… ten frigates and a carrier. The local frigates have changed vectors to close with them.’

‘That’s a Jīng Yú,’ Ruben said. ‘That’s the carrier they sent to follow up the planetary bombardment. And it’s launching Type Ninety-Seven fighters, which are no joke.’

‘It appears, Captain,’ Viktoria said, ‘that we will have something to do besides watching the enemy withdraw. Let’s get Offensive Plan A going before they have time to overwhelm us with fighters.’

Flavien straightened in his seat. ‘Yes, ma’am.’

Alliance City, Shinden.

‘There’s no way that force is going to be a problem for Viktoria Engel,’ Fawn said. ‘They’ve got numbers, but that’s about it. The Republic doesn’t arm its frigates with nukes, so it would take a miracle for them to get anything past the Pride’s screens.’

‘Mm,’ Deveraux said in reply.

Fawn looked at her commanding officer. ‘You think–’

‘No, you’re right. I suspect the Republicans will back out as soon as they realise they can’t rescue their disabled ships. The issue is more that the Pride’s strike group is here and not in Mandalore. Someone is probably going to complain about them breaking with orders.’

‘Seems petty.’

‘Yes.’

‘And probably right.’

‘Yes. What’s the status on that ground strike?’

One of the people monitoring things turned briefly from their console. ‘We confirmed a single twenty-five-kiloton detonation seventeen kilometres from the city. It seems like they were aiming for a missile battery out that way. It wasn’t a direct hit, but the site has gone dark, so it seems like it was close enough.’

‘We have power outages across half the city from the EMP,’ another operator said, ‘but there’s no structural damage. There are a couple of towns closer to the detonation which could have problems. Comms are out, so it’s hard to tell. There are emergency teams on the way.’

Deveraux nodded. ‘Frankly, we got off lightly.’

‘Thanks to the Greylings,’ Fawn added.

‘Thanks to the Greylings. I expect some people in the assembly to get pissy about that too.’

A Forest on Shinden.

Nava dropped smoothly through the trees toward the camp where the rest of the school was waiting out the fighting. She was still in armour, but she now carried a large backpack, and she was not wearing her helmet. Nava never looked anything other than calm, but someone who knew her might have detected a slight element of relief in her posture or expression. The plan had worked and there was not a crater where she was expecting to find her friends.

It was Mitsuko, of course, who noticed her arrival first. ‘Nava! It’s over?’

‘We’re not getting much in the way of news out here,’ Melissa added. She was not immediately rushing over to hug her friend, but she looked very relieved.

‘They managed to get a single warhead through to the surface,’ Nava said. ‘The EMP has caused some problems with power and communications.’ Fending off Mitsuko was futile, so she let the hugging and kissing happen until her girlfriend was willing to stop for air. ‘The fighting is not entirely over. The Pride of Shinden and its strike group are currently engaged with the remnants of the Republican forces. However, it seems that those forces are trying to escape, so we can consider this a victory, to some extent.’

By now, the arrival of someone who knew what was going on had attracted more attention. The principal and vice principal were closing in. Hoshi and Rochester had been nearby and were on their feet. Yaeko, Sommer Chevalier, and Dove Harris were walking over.

It was Joslyn Harris who spoke. ‘To some extent? There have been losses?’

Nava glanced around those assembled. Then she shrugged. ‘This is all going to be public knowledge soon enough. It’s not like I’m in the ASF anyway. Shinden Orbital has been totally destroyed.’ There were a few gasps, and not just from those immediately surrounding Nava. She continued talking, but she slipped her pack off her shoulders and started opening it up. ‘The nuke they got past the defences was aimed at a point-defence battery. It hit outside Alliance City, but a twenty-five-kiloton nuke is not a precision weapon. The crew of that battery are likely dead. There may be casualties in towns near the detonation. The detonation was insufficient to cause damage in the city. It was a ground burst, so there will be fallout which may or may not cause further injuries.’ From her pack, Nava lifted a bundle of casual clothes, and then a box which she placed on the ground at her feet. She reached for the closure at the back of her neck and paused. ‘I’m going to change clothes. Anyone uncomfortable with seeing me in my underwear should turn their backs.’

Auberon Ewart did so. ‘On the Republican side?’ he asked.

Nava took that to mean their losses and answered as such. ‘They lost sixteen thousand two hundred and fifty crew aboard one dreadnaught and ten cruisers. Those ships have not been destroyed, but I doubt they’re getting them back. Assessment of their losses in the current battle will have to wait until it’s over, but they were not doing well before they decided to retreat.’

‘That’s a very exact number,’ Joslyn said.

Nava was, in fact, wearing a simple teddy under her armour which covered her quite well. Averting their gaze was probably not needed, but she had felt a warning was appropriate. ‘That’s the expected crew complement for ten General-class missile cruisers and one Xue Chow-class dreadnaught.’

‘The entire crew were killed, and without damaging the ships?’

‘It was the only way to be sure they would no longer be a threat. The Xue Chow was damaged. It could probably be fixed, however.’

‘I don’t suppose you’d be willing to explain how that was achieved?’

‘I’m afraid that it’s a family secret. We would rather not have knowledge of it get out since someone might develop countermeasures.’ Finally dressed in jeans and a sweater, Nava opened the box and pulled out a bottle. ‘Anyway, it should be safe to return to the school, but it’s late and it’ll take hours to get everyone back. I suggest we camp the night here. And it was suggested to me that we might like to raise a toast to those lost and our safety. I did not argue because, to be quite frank, I could really use a drink. I can’t supply the entire school with booze, but I have a case of spirits here.’

‘That sounds appropriate,’ Auberon said. He risked a glance, discovered Nava was dressed, and turned around. ‘I agree that staying here for the night would be the best plan even if I am not really the kind of person to enjoy camping.’

Nava handed him a bottle. ‘I do not have enough cups for everyone, so I hope you all remembered to pack one.’

As the drinks were being poured, Mitsuko stepped closer to Nava, lowering her mouth to Nava’s ear. ‘How many did you personally kill?’

‘The crew complement of the Xue Chow is fifteen thousand six hundred and eighty, including flag staff.’

‘Are you okay with that?’

‘They were enemies needing to be eliminated.’ Pause. ‘It felt rather more justified when I returned to the Yosozume and found out about Shinden Orbital. I’m not uncomfortable with the situation.’ Another pause, and then, ‘Before I came to this school, that much death at my hands wouldn’t have bothered me in the slightest. Now…’

‘I don’t think that’s a bad thing.’

‘No, neither do I.’ Nava raised her mug, which now had a passable whiskey in it. ‘To my personality development.’

Mitsuko shook her head. ‘I don’t feel like celebrating.’

‘Why not?’

‘If we’re staying here tonight, we won’t get to celebrate properly until tomorrow night!’

Nava shook her head. ‘My personality may be changing, but yours remains reassuringly libidinous.’

Mitsuko grinned. ‘That’s a good thing, right?’ Pause. ‘Nava?’

‘What? I’m thinking about it…’

Epilogue

Alliance City, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 238/4/33.

There was a lot of security at the Sino-Soviet Republic’s embassy in Alliance City. ASF troops from the Diplomatic Protection Unit, but currently dressed in combat armour, guarded the outside. Within the walled compound, Republican security personnel were on alert. None of them were much impediment to the three people who entered the gate on the morning after the battle; the meeting with the ambassador had been arranged first thing, so the trio were expected. Actually, the ASF contingent were not too keen on allowing them through, but they were given no choice in the matter since it was a private meeting and, technically, had nothing to do with them.

The current Sino-Soviet ambassador was a woman named Guanyu Lam. Opinions varied over whether being made ambassador to the Clan Worlds was prestigious, a punishment, or given to someone the Republic did not mind losing. If recent events were anything to go by, it was the latter, but Lam was loyal to her native state and at least pretending to be angry over the current situation. She was not a big woman, which did not help when she was trying to be imposing, though she was not the kind of tiny Chinese woman you saw in period vids. She was somewhat delicate, so you could not imagine her toiling in the rice fields. She was a pretty woman with shoulder-length black hair and very dark eyes, and the fact that she was of Chinese origin rather than Japanese made her stand out more to Nava, who had mostly only met people with Japanese ancestry.

Her supposed anger over the war was carefully hidden behind a smile when she greeted her guests. Carefully hidden, as in it was obvious that she was annoyed and that she was trying to hide it. Perhaps less obvious was that all of that was a manufactured appearance; that was what Lam wanted her guests to see. Whether she was a diplomat sent out to die or not, Lam was good at her job. Still, Nava got the impression that Lam was at least moderately annoyed that things had gone so far.

The main problem the ambassador currently had was that she did not really understand what was going on right now. There was another element to her expression which she was doing her utmost to genuinely hide: confusion. ‘Secretary General Misaki Himura,’ Lam said by way of greeting. ‘What can the Sino-Soviet Embassy do for you in this trying period?’

Misaki returned the smile. Misaki’s smile was entirely genuine and confident. Misaki did know what was going on. ‘Guanyu, there’s no need for formalities. I admit to a small subterfuge, I’m not really here as the Secretary General of the Clan Council. Today I’m just Misaki Himura, and I’m here to facilitate a meeting with my clan’s leader.’ She turned slightly. ‘Ambassador Guanyu Lam, this is Commander Zackery Trenton Sonkei. The Sonkei clan wishes to speak to you, not the council, assembly, or administration.’

Lam looked up at Zackery. Zackery smiled down at her. ‘I see. Of course, I know who Commander Zackery Trenton is, though we’ve never met.’

‘I leave the diplomatic parties to Misaki,’ Zackery replied, holding out a hand. ‘It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ambassador.’

‘Likewise. Might I ask who your other companion is?’

Nava was standing a little back from the others. She was wearing a suit not unlike the kind the DPU usually wore. Rhianna had supplied it with a mischievous smile. ‘Nava Greyling Sonkei, Madam Ambassador,’ Nava said.

‘Nava is here as our, well, bodyguard,’ Zackery explained, ‘and as a representative of the Greyling family. They like their intelligence fresh and they are, obviously, interested in the results of this meeting.’

‘I see,’ Lam said. She had heard of Nava Greyling, one of the family’s newest recruits, and was a little surprised that someone like that would be trusted to handle security for two of the most important people in the Sonkei clan. ‘And what is this meeting about, Commander Zackery Trenton?’

‘Our undeclared war, obviously. First, the Sonkei clan did not want this and attempted to stop it. Unfortunately, we have no official voice on the council or in the assembly. They can choose to ignore us, if they wish, and they did. Second, while that is the case, the Sonkei clan is loyal to the Alliance, and we will defend the worlds of that Alliance if required. Third, while we understand your position, we must register our strong condemnation of your attack on Shinden yesterday.’

‘The Republic has already registered its condemnation of the Alliance’s attack on Dalniaia Granitsa. What happened here was simply a proportionate response to the Alliance’s aggression.’

‘Dalniaia Granitsa is a military base. It serves no other function. Shinden is a populated world, was largely undefended, and your vessels were attacking civilian targets. You destroyed Shinden Orbital, an unarmed, civilian facility, with nuclear weapons. Some ten thousand civilians died on Shinden Orbital and the towns near where you detonated a nuclear weapon on the surface of Shinden.’

‘And, I’m told, your forces executed sixteen thousand loyal Republican soldiers aboard–’

‘I am an ex-member of the ASF, Ambassador. Death in the line of duty is always a possibility. Your sixteen thousand dead were responsible for ten thousand people dying who were going about their everyday lives. We don’t have the treaties to make that a war crime, but it is a most immoral action for which they paid. “Executed” was possibly the correct term for what happened.’ Zackery’s eyes were bright and there was very clear anger behind them.

Lam was intelligent enough to know that her state’s doctrines of war were not exactly viewed with favour by the other trans-stellar groups, even if some of them had similar policies. She backed down because she was not going to win that one. ‘We will have to agree to differ, Commander.’

‘Yes, I suppose we will. Ambassador, yesterday we deployed a weapon we preferred not to in order to defend ourselves. It proved itself to be very effective. The council and assembly are calling for us to explain what we did and hand that system over to the ASF. I am refusing to do that.’

‘Is that some sort of threat? You’ll give them the technology if we attack Shinden again?’

‘No, Ambassador. The Sonkei clan will not be giving our weapon to any other clan. The only people who currently know how it works are in the Greyling family. We are not even letting the secret out into the rest of our clan. The system will not be used to attack the Republic, or anyone else for that matter. However, it can and will be deployed to defend any world within Alliance space you choose to attack. We can have it operational within thirty minutes of being notified of a need for it.’ Zackery paused briefly. ‘I hadn’t considered the Republic foolish enough to attempt another strike against Shinden. If you did, we would have to consider ourselves, as a clan, to be at war with the Republic. Exactly what we do under those circumstances is, as I indicated, something I haven’t considered. I think it’s reasonable to assume that we would take it badly. Please advise your superiors to avoid that.’

‘So, this is a threat.’

Zackery smiled. ‘Only if you choose to take it that way, Ambassador.’

Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, 238/5/3.

Mitsuko let out a long sigh. ‘I really needed this.’

‘Mm,’ Melissa said, ‘so did I. I think we all did.’

‘Cari hasn’t been particularly stressed,’ Nava said. ‘I don’t think she really needs to be here.’

‘Watching the three of you run about has been enough to stress me too,’ Carina replied. ‘I never thought I’d get to enjoy something like this. It’s kind of embarrassing for someone from Grimalkin.’

‘I thought you’d got used to it?’ Melissa asked. ‘I did. Pretty quickly actually.’

‘I can’t help it. We don’t have public bathing on Grimalkin.’ Carina shrugged and the water in the house’s sento rippled around her.

‘I can’t help but think,’ Mitsuko said, ‘that someone listening to this conversation from outside might think we had been doing something other than relaxing in a bath.’

‘I have no idea what you mean,’ Nava said. ‘Anyway, we’ve spent four days, plus a few more hours here and there, running around trying to organise things here, I think we deserve an afternoon of relaxation. Assuming I don’t have to rush off for some emergency anyway.’

‘Trust your staff.’

‘I do. They all need breaks too.’

School was currently suspended. The late spring break would have been happening next week anyway, so the decision had been made to close things down a week early. Various students who would not have tried to go home during that week were going home. Of those, the ones trying to leave Shinden because their families were worried about them or whatever were causing the most problems. Basically, Shinden had lost more than half of its capacity to handle spacecraft. The debris left behind by Shinden Orbital was causing additional problems and would need to be cleared before a new station could be constructed. The planetary spaceport was designed with the assumption that a lot of traffic would be handled by the orbital station, and now a lot of people wanted to get on or off world through a system with reduced capacity. Things had not been easy for the student council, the SSF, or the school’s administration.

‘We’re going to go to the mansion for a few days next week,’ Mitsuko said. ‘We can operate remotely if needed. If you are needed, Nava, you can fly back under your own power in a few minutes.’

‘Mm. I think things will have settled into only mild chaos by then anyway. Give the news cycle a week without anything happening in this war they created and they’ll get bored. Once that happens, things will settle into a state of the usual cold war, maybe warmed over a little.’

‘And Suki’s father threatening the Republic with the Champion of Light should make them back off, right?’

‘It’s not a certainty, Cari,’ Mitsuko said, ‘but it’s probable. Overtly anyway.’

‘They’ve lost two of their three dreadnaughts,’ Nava said. ‘They aren’t in much of a position to mount a concerted attack anyway. I’m more concerned about whoever is behind all this and what they’ll do. Someone we haven’t seen directly wanted a hot war between the Alliance and the Republic. They haven’t really got that. I don’t think they’ll give it up as a bad idea.’

‘That’s a cheery thought,’ Melissa said.

‘I’m an eternally cheerful person, Mel.’

‘You are not fooling anyone, you know.’

Nava gave a shrug and then slipped a little deeper into the steaming water. To those who knew her, she seemed rather content. ‘I’m aware.’

###

About the Author

I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.

Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.

I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.

Recently I took the big step of quitting my day job and taking up full-time writing. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, J.D. Robb, and Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.

For More Information

Take a look at the Witches and Ray-guns blog: http://witchesandrayguns.wordpress.com

Links to book vendors and other information can be found there, along with a view on what I’m up to and when it might happen.

Other Books by this Author

The Thaumatology Series

Thaumatology 101

Demon’s Moon

Legacy

Dragon’s Blood

Disturbia

Hammer of Witches

Eagle’s Shadow

Ancient

Dragonfall

The Other Side of Hell

For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll

Vengeance

Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe

Tales from High Towers’ Study

Tales from the Dubh Linn

The Aneka Jansen Books

Steel Beneath The Skin

The Cold Steel Mind

Steel Heart

The Winter War

The Greatest Heights of Honour

The Lowest Depths of Shame

Hope

The Ultrahuman Books

Ugly

Shadows

Hunting Mink

Frostburn

Guardian

True Dark

Liberty

Royal Flush

The Unobtainium Books

Kate on a Hot Tin Roof

King Solamet’s Mines

The Fox Meridian Books

Fox Hunt

Inescapable

DeathWeb

Criminal Minds

Emergence

The Ghost in the Doll

Eden Burning

Dominance

The Hellas Find

Dancing with The Devil

The Princeps Venator Books

Hunter’s Kiss

Be My Valentine

Blood Magic

The Misfits Series

Misfit Magic

Misfit Witchcraft

The Twilight Empress Trilogy

The Iron Princess

The Death’s Handmaiden Series

Death’s Handmaiden

Bitter Wind

Freedom, Humanity, and Other Delusions

Futures

The Aquaria Incident

Loyalty

The Tatsu Yamada Series

Sign of the Dragon

Mask of the Demon

Other

Reality Hack

The Zanari Inheritance

The Vanity Case

The Eyes of the Huntress

Gunwitch: Rebirth

The Girl Who Dreamed of a Different World

Age of Atlantis: Return

The Empress’s Mage

Titans

Fallen

Table of Contents

- Part One: Black Sheep
- Part Two: Boot Camp
- Part Three: Jenna
- Part Four: Redwing
- Part Five: The Voice of Magic
- Part Six: Broken People
- Part Seven: A War Someone Wants
- Epilogue
- About the Author