Death's Handmaiden

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘I know how you feel, boss, but does it really matter?’ Courtney looked around at Kyle, her eyes widening a little. ‘So, she’s got a background you can’t look into and she has some weird attitudes. Well, weird attitudes don’t make you a bad person. I think she uses her clanless status as an excuse to avoid duels, but that’s not a bad thing. Given her combat capabilities, she could be the biggest bully in the school if she wanted to be. I doubt there’s a sixth year who could beat her. She’s fast and ridiculously accurate. I’m pretty sure that one or two people wanted to get back at her for Devin’s death, but they’re all pretty sure she’d beat them if they called her out.’

  ‘Well, that’s probably true…’

  ‘And you don’t know the background of most of the student body. Recent events suggest that what you could find out would give no indication of criminal intent. Leland Harlow comes from a good family and clan. In fact, his background is probably why he set all this Crystal Mana stuff up. He wanted to increase his own reputation by raising the profile of the school and his clan. You’re never going to see Nava doing something like that.’

  ‘All I want to do is have a normal life, with a normal education, in a… relatively normal school,’ Nava said. ‘That’s probably going to turn out to be a pipe dream, but it’s all I want.’

  ‘You’re on a scholarship from the ASF,’ Courtney said. ‘You might get a “normal” life, whatever that means, while you’re here, but they only hand out grants when they see potential. Once you leave the school, all bets are off.’

  Nava nodded. ‘Yes. Yes, that’s probably a fair assessment. But for these six years I can live the life of a typical schoolgirl. And that’s all I want to do.’

  ~~~

  ‘So, Courtney and Kyle are an item,’ Mitsuko observed. The couple in question had left about twenty minutes earlier and Rochester had set off to escort Melissa back to her apartment a minute ago. It was approaching midnight and bed was calling even if none of them had lessons tomorrow.

  ‘You just figured that out?’ Nava asked.

  ‘Well, I thought it likely, but tonight confirmed it. Especially when she picked lint off his uniform.’

  ‘They seem to be rarely apart. He answers questions for her. She isn’t overly protective of him, but she shows more concern for his health than she might. She was more than a little grateful when I healed him after that explosion in the auditorium.’

  ‘Mm. Perhaps the more interesting question is which apartment Mel and Chess are going to end up in tonight.’

  Nava began stripping off her dress as she headed for the bathroom. ‘Separate ones.’

  ‘You think? He’s being terribly gentlemanly. Escorting her here and back. He was always the one getting her a drink tonight.’

  ‘Oh, I agree that them ending up in bed together is likely, just not yet. They’ll both want the other to make the first move. If I had to make a decision, I’d say that Mel will snap first. I just hope it isn’t a disaster when she does.’ Nava laid her dress over one of the sofas and half-turned back toward Mitsuko. ‘Personally, I’m wondering whether Courtney has figured out what we’re up to when everyone’s backs are turned.’

  ‘Probably. Not that I mind in the least. You’re the one saying we should keep it quiet. Also, since Courtney and Kyle keep their relationship quiet, I don’t think either of them will say anything about us.’

  Nava nodded. ‘Probably. I’m going to take a shower before bed. Join me?’

  Mitsuko started toward Nava, grinning. ‘Always.’

  235/4/16.

  ‘Siegmar Tate is out of rehab,’ Courtney reported to the council. Darius was back in his seat. Naomi was now the official chairman of the EAC. This was, effectively, the SSF’s after-action report on the Crystal Mana incident. ‘He’s returning home where his family can look after him. He’s convinced himself that he can’t work magic without Crystal Mana. He had a bit of a rough withdrawal.’

  ‘What about the other addicts?’ Naomi asked.

  ‘They aren’t as lucky as Siegmar. They’ve all been taking it long enough to develop a physical dependency. It’ll be about a month before they’re declared clear and we won’t know how it’s affected their abilities until then. In total, there are twenty-three students undergoing treatment, including four third years, two fourth years, and two fifth years, though those weren’t all down to Leland’s scheme. The rest are split between the first two years where Leland had the most influence.’

  ‘We’ve lost some very promising students to this.’

  ‘The school is treating each case on its merits. I think the upperclassmen will be expelled. Basically, they should have known better. For the others, well, they might be back, but I don’t know what state they’ll be in if they are. Leland and his distributors are being kicked out and facing charges from the ASF. We couldn’t avoid bringing the ASF in on this. It’s a hit to the school’s reputation, mitigated somewhat by us cleaning house ourselves.’

  ‘Well, we’re just going to have to work twice as hard to raise our reputation,’ Mitsuko said.

  ‘That isn’t going to be easy,’ Darius said. ‘We’ll be fighting against the perception that our students use drugs to increase their strength.’

  ‘Yes, we will. Yes, it will be hard. But nothing worth doing is ever easy.’

  Part Four: Quintessential Terror

  The Trenton Mansion, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 235/5/9.

  The sun was hot, the sky was blue with a few wisps of cloud hanging on through grim determination, and Nava was lying in the sun, enjoying the warmth on her skin. Somewhere in the background, she could hear Rochester trying to teach Melissa how to play chess. It did not seem to be going especially well, but it did mean that he did not have to look at an excessive amount of female flesh.

  It was true that Mitsuko had put some thought into ordering Nava a swimsuit. She had considered the fact that Rochester was going to be joining them on their two-ish-day visit to the Trenton Mansion at the end of the late spring break. Nava had suggested, on seeing the garment in question, that Rochester would die of heart failure and then Mitsuko would have to deal with the consequences. Mitsuko had then shown Nava what she would have ordered if Rochester was not a factor and Nava had had to concede that the eventual choice was better…

  Hence, Nava was clad in something which covered all the bits required for public decency while still managing to look like it had come from a lingerie catalogue and probably deserved the name ‘monokini,’ and Rochester was teaching Melissa chess. Melissa actually had a bikini on under a blouse and shorts, but she had chickened out of taking off the outer layer once they had got outside. Nava had been a little surprised that the timid young woman had such a thing as a bikini, though her idea of a bikini was poles apart from what Mitsuko was wearing; there had to be three or four times as much fabric in Melissa’s version for starters. Nava had made Mitsuko walk behind Rochester on the way out to the patio they were using to avoid cardiac infarction.

  ‘We’ll go into town tomorrow,’ Mitsuko said. She sounded as though she was right on the edge of falling asleep and had decided to say something primarily to avoid doing so. She was lying on a lounger beside Nava. Another thing Rochester had had to be distracted from was the lengthy process Nava had gone through putting sunscreen on Mitsuko’s pale skin. Mitsuko had to use the strongest blocking factor available to avoid turning into a lobster and there was a lot of her to smooth the stuff onto.

  ‘Town?’ Nava responded. The mansion was not exactly close to anywhere.

  ‘Alliance City. It’s only thirty minutes or so to get there.’

  ‘By rocket?’

  Mitsuko giggled. ‘Courtney has a contragrav licence. We can borrow a car. We have… an indeterminate number of them in the garage.’ Courtney and Kyle were somewhere else in the complex the Trentons called a mansion. Possibly, they were testing the bed in their room.

  ‘Your family is really rich, isn’t it? Most people can at least count th
e vehicles they own. On one finger, usually.’

  ‘I could say something at this point which would make me sound like a really terrible person. You know the kind of thing. “Oh, wealth is really a curse.” “Money can’t buy you happiness.”’

  ‘I’m glad you decided not to say anything like that.’

  ‘It’s not all a bed of roses. There’s a reason I know how to cast Detect Poison. Taken as a whole, however, I’d much rather belong to one of the most powerful families on the planet than not.’

  ‘I don’t think I can blame you,’ Nava replied, ‘but you have to stop buying me clothes. I have little in the way of outgoings. I can afford to spend money on myself.’

  ‘Well, you’ll have the opportunity to do just that tomorrow. Shopping will be at least one aspect of the trip.’

  ‘It’s Chess and Kyle I pity.’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry. We’ll take them lingerie shopping.’

  ‘It’s Chess I pity.’

  ~~~

  Nava had put a loose shirt on over her swimsuit and gone searching for the sound of gunshots. She traced them to one of the lawns at the back of the house and Zackery Trenton’s shotgun.

  ‘Pull!’ At the command, something hidden out of sight in some dip in the lawn launched a missile of some kind into the air. Zackery’s gun swung through the air and fired. The missile was reduced to powder at some thirty metres from where Zackery was standing.

  Nava watched three more of the red discs being destroyed before Zackery had to stop to reload his weapon. At that point he noticed her and pulled off the ear protectors he was wearing. ‘I hope I’m not intruding,’ she said.

  ‘Not at all. Suki’s not with you?’

  ‘I left her baking in the sun. The gunshots drew my attention. If you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing?’

  Zackery raised an eyebrow. ‘You’ve never seen clay pigeon shooting? Sorry, that’s a foolish question. A lot of people have never actually seen it, but most would recognise it if they saw it.’

  ‘I had something of a sheltered upbringing,’ Nava said, trotting out her usual excuse. ‘Those projectiles don’t look much like pigeons.’

  ‘Ha! No. Not that I’ve ever seen a pigeon, but no. The idea is to recreate the sport without having to slaughter animals. Would you care to give it a try?’ He shifted the weapon in his hand as though ready to hand it over to her.

  Nava walked over to where he was standing, beside a small table set up with a box of ammunition for the shotgun, but did not hold out a hand for the weapon. ‘I don’t believe I would be particularly good at this using that weapon, sir. I’m a reasonable shot with a pistol, but even using a multiple-projectile load such as this, I doubt I would be able to reliably hit a target travelling at around twenty metres per second at thirty metres.’

  ‘It’s always best to know one’s limitations. I’m impressed that you’ve learned to use a pistol, being a sorceress.’

  ‘I had a sheltered but unusual upbringing. Might I try an alternate method of destroying these pigeons?’

  Zackery’s eyebrows both went up this time. ‘Be my guest. The launchers are voice activated. When you call for a clay, either of the launchers can fire one.’

  Nava nodded. She had worked that out from watching. She raised her hand toward the empty field. ‘Pull!’ A clay launched from her right and she swung her arm to follow it. She was unsure whether Zackery spotted the distortion in the air, but he certainly saw the pigeon evaporate into a puff of smoke. ‘Pull!’ Puff. ‘Pull!’ Puff.

  ‘Impressive,’ Zackery said.

  Nava switched tactics. ‘Pull!’ This time she snapped off a shot almost immediately, cutting the range of the shot while forgoing the benefits of aiming. Still, she blasted the clay to pieces. Then she took out three more the same way. ‘This is definitely a worthwhile test of reflexes and marksmanship,’ she said.

  ‘I’m feeling old. You’re using a Concussive Force spell, aren’t you?’

  ‘A cantrip, but yes.’

  ‘Never got the hang of the difference. I have to shoot a couple of hundred pellets at the clays to hit them and you’re doing it with one pulse of magic. Without aiming.’

  ‘Yes, but–’

  ‘I can see why Suki wanted you as a bodyguard, young lady. And I can see why Devin Girard stood no chance in that duel.’

  ‘He lost because he was playing a game and didn’t understand the rules. Or, he didn’t understand that the rules had changed.’

  ‘And you did?’

  Nava shook her head. ‘I wasn’t playing.’

  ~~~

  Mitsuko was not actually out on the patio; she had gone inside to get drinks – and for a break from listening to Rochester explaining how knights moved – only to discover that her mother was in the kitchen.

  ‘Ah, Suki, I wanted to have a little word.’

  Parents saying something like that was never a good sign. ‘Oh?’

  ‘Your father and I… Please don’t immediately jump to the wrong conclusion.’

  Really not a good sign. ‘I’ll try.’

  ‘Your father and I were wondering what your intentions are regarding Nava.’

  Mitsuko frowned. Her parents had shown every sign of considering Nava a ‘good find.’ Certainly, there had been no issues with them sharing Mitsuko’s bedroom after the party back in February. ‘I’m not entirely sure how to answer that.’ Definitely not to her mother. Mitsuko was still grateful to her mother for never even broaching the subject of ‘the birds and the bees’ with her. ‘Is there a problem?’

  Yuzuki’s face shifted into a brief grimace at the suspicion in her daughter’s voice. ‘Do you want the long answer or the short one?’

  ‘I think I’d better have the long one. The short one would probably make this situation very awkward.’

  ‘More so than it already is? Very well. First, we will support you, no matter what you wish to do.’ Ouch. Not good. ‘We have seen no reports of your relationship with Nava, so it seems that you are keeping it quiet.’

  ‘For now.’

  Yuzuki nodded. ‘Very well, for now. If you make it public, or even official, there will be repercussions. I assume you understand that?’

  ‘Yes. No one has mentioned marriage, Mother. Something like that is far too premature.’

  A smile slid onto Yuzuki’s face. ‘And I am glad to see that all semblance of common sense has not left you. If you become less quiet about your relationship, there will be… unpleasant stories in the media. There will be gossip. There are some who will shun you for your choice of partner. There are many who will view Nava as a gold-digger. Her treatment is likely to be harsh.’

  ‘That kind of thing doesn’t bother her in the least.’

  ‘It will bother you.’

  Mitsuko paused and then nodded. ‘You’re right. It would. Alright, you asked what my intentions are. What I want is that Nava moves into my apartment and that we make the relationship public, at least as far as the school is concerned.’

  ‘I see.’ There was no disapproval in Yuzuki’s tone. Then again, Mitsuko knew that her mother was almost as good at hiding her feelings as Nava was.

  ‘What we’re doing is waiting. Nava insisted. If we’re still together at the start of next year, then she’s agreed to be my roommate as well as my, um, lover.’

  Yuzuki actually grinned this time. ‘Don’t want to say that word in front of your mother?’

  ‘It was like pulling teeth.’

  ‘This is why an arranged marriage is better. The parents are expecting sex to be involved so there is no need to mention it.’ A puzzled sort of frown replaced the grin. ‘Of course, my mother insisted on giving me “the talk” on the night before our wedding, so perhaps it all evens out. I assume, from your wishes and their resolution, that Nava has insisted upon the delay?’

  ‘Yes. She may not care what people think of her, but she is concerned about my reputation. Probably more so than I am.’

  Yuzuki picked up the gl
ass of juice she had poured. ‘As I said, Zackery and I will support you, no matter the outcome, but you should think on the matter as seriously as, it seems, your lover has.’ There was a very slight emphasis on ‘lover’ which brought colour to Mitsuko’s cheeks. ‘Off the record, the more I learn of Nava Ward, the more I think that she is an excellent catch. If you break up with her, we may have to put her on the payroll to keep someone else from grabbing her.’

  With that, Yuzuki swept out of the room, leaving Mitsuko moderately confused. And still blushing.

  ~~~

  Michiko was sulky at dinner because she had heard that her Onee-chan was going to the city in the morning and had been told that she was not allowed to go too. Rochester did – mostly jokingly – suggest that she take his spot, but Onee-chan was being firm.

  ‘I’m not sure how you can deny anything to someone that cute,’ Kyle said. He was grinning, but he was also right. Michiko was dressed in a T-shirt and shorts today, rather than a yukata, but she was terminally cute whatever she wore.

  ‘Years of practice,’ Mitsuko replied. ‘You must show Kyle your Telekinesis, Michiko. Kyle is something of a specialist in that kind of thing.’

  ‘You are?’ Michiko asked, all her sullenness vanishing in the face of someone who might appreciate her magic.

  ‘Well, I suppose I am,’ Kyle replied. ‘I have a number of ranged spells, but I’m really a close-combat specialist. With the Telekinesis spell, I can fight someone far away with the same moves I’d use close up.’

  ‘Oh. Are you going to join the ASF when you leave school? Are you really still in school? You look too old to be in school.’

  Kyle grinned. ‘I am still in school, but I won’t be next year. And, yes, I do plan on joining the ASF, though which part of it is… unsure at the moment.’

  ‘My fault,’ Courtney said. Her cheeks were a little red. ‘I plan to go into policing work and Kyle’s not sure whether he wants to go the same route or stick with the regular marines.’

  The comment was really more for the adults at the table, but Michiko pondered it carefully. ‘I think the police are more important. We haven’t had a war in a long time. The police keep everyone safe at home.’