Freedom, Humanity, and Other Delusions (Death's Handmaiden Book 3) by Niall Teasdale (best summer reads txt) 📕

‘That’s probably true,’ Melissa said. ‘There is one other reason to listen to her. I mean, why did she pick Nava? None of us had seen her before she came to our table. Did she just walk into the refectory and pick Nava because she has white hair?’

‘Or did her invisible friend really send her my way?’ Nava asked.

‘Well, wouldn’t you like to know? Maybe she has some unconscious ability to cast Sorcerer’s Eye or something.’

‘That seems unlikely. I guess I’ll try to find out.’

236/1/17.

‘How are you adjusting to life at the school, Carina?’ Mitsuko asked. Classes were over and lunch was being had, and Nava had suggested that the refectory would be a good place to meet. Carina had jumped at the chance, but now she seemed a little more subdued surrounded by people she did not know.

‘Uh, well, okay, I guess,’ Carina replied. ‘The school’s fine. It’s not much different from school on Grimalkin. Bigger. There are more people here. It’s the planet that I’m having more trouble with.’

‘Oh?’

‘Gravity on Grimalkin is lower than here. Like, nearly twenty percent lower.’

‘You’re effectively carrying around an extra seven or eight kilos, just from your own body weight,’ Nava said. ‘If I’m guessing your weight about right. You’ll suffer from various coordination issues until you’ve adjusted to the new environment.’

‘Uh-huh. And it’s so cold here. The average temperature back home is three hundred and sixteen kelvin. Here, even in the summer, it only gets up to three hundred and eight. Now–’

‘We do have rather cool winters,’ Mitsuko agreed. ‘And the uniform doesn’t help.’

For some reason, Carina looked at Melissa. ‘No, the uniform doesn’t help at all. But, you know, I’ve been through worse. I’ll tough it out. And I have Resist Cold to help. I bet you’ve been through worse too, Nava. Right?’

‘We can safely say that I’ve been through worse than a Shinden winter,’ Nava agreed. ‘The gravity here is a little weaker than where I grew up, however. Tell me, Carina, do you have any particular sorcery you specialise in?’

‘Well… Not really. I know a bunch of random spells. Uh, Analyse Magic, Armour, Complex Illusion, Magelock…’

‘Those are good support spells,’ Melissa said.

‘Fire Blast, Heal Injury and Cure Disease, Dispel Magic…’

‘You really seem to–’

‘…Light, Slice, Shield, Telekinesis, Gather Quintessence, Apportation, uh, Resist Cold like I said…’

Melissa’s eyes were fairly wide. Then again, most of the others were looking a little surprised too. ‘You sure do–’ Melissa began.

‘Oh! And Flight. I almost forgot Flight. I have a permit, but do I need to get it renewed or anything here?’

‘You should join the Flight Club,’ Melissa said, sounding a little as though she had just been through ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer. ‘We can check you out and recertify if necessary.’

‘Great! I like flying.’

‘So does Mel,’ Nava said. ‘You know a lot of spells, Carina.’

Carina’s eyes, and mood, dropped. It was like she thought she had given too much away. ‘I do? I guess I probably… Well, Malkins tend to learn every spell they can, you see. Malkins are big on sorcery. The whole clan, even the ones with no talent, are interested in it. That goes double for those who can cast spells. Uh, when does the Flight Club meet?’

‘Sunday afternoons,’ Melissa replied.

‘Which reminds me, Mel,’ Nava said, ‘you are going to learn rank one Gather Quintessence this year. Even if you can’t use it in parallel with Flight, it’ll cut your rest time by a factor of ten and give you far more time in the air.’

‘I know,’ Melissa whined. ‘I’ve been working on it.’

‘Work faster.’

‘Slave driver.’

‘Hm. If you think it would help, I can get my hands on a whip…’

~~~

‘The Key to Darkness,’ Carina said. She had an entirely straight face, all seriousness.

‘The Key to Darkness?’ Nava asked in reply.

Carina gave a firm nod. ‘I’m almost surprised you’ve never heard of them.’

Nava was not entirely sure how to reply to that. She was now alone with Carina, in the girl’s apartment. Carina had one of the mid-range apartments, better than the capsules Nava and Melissa had been in the year before, but not up to the standard of Mitsuko’s old apartment. There was a bedroom, a lounge, a space you could call a kitchen if you were charitable, and a shower room. There was not a lot of decoration; Carina seemed to have brought little with her from Grimalkin. The lounge had a bookshelf in it, but it was basically empty. The only thing on it was a framed photograph which showed a young Carina with two adults, presumably her parents, before her mother was killed.

‘When I was ten,’ Carina went on, ‘they kidnapped me and held me for two weeks while they performed tests on me. Magical tests. Rituals. They were trying to find out whether I was their chosen one, or something like that.’

‘I see.’

Carina frowned. ‘People say that when they don’t believe a word I’m saying.’

‘I haven’t formed an opinion. “I see” is just a phrase used to convey that you should continue. I’m not disagreeing that others may have used it in the way you describe.’

‘Uh, oh. Well, I used to be this magical prodigy, you see. I was very advanced for my age. That’s why they were testing me. I think they decided I wasn’t ready and that they needed to wait for me to get more powerful.’

‘I don’t suppose you know what they planned to use you for?’

‘Plan. Present tense. They still plan to use me to open some sort of dimensional portal. They’re a cult, if you like. They revere an ancient, dark… god, for want of a better word, which was imprisoned outside this world. They are the Key to Darkness because they intend to open the locks holding this thing back and set it free to plunge the universe into darkness. I suppose I’m the key, really. They want to use my power to open the gate and let it out. So… So, I sealed my own