‘Are you okay?’ Mitsuko asked immediately.
‘I’m fine,’ Nava replied, ‘though I’d appreciate it if you could tell your apartment that I’m not here to steal all your stuff or something.’
‘And the Harbinger?’ Courtney asked.
‘It’s not fine. In fact, it’s probably nothing more than a few random fluctuations in the Q-field. Chess was right about it being vulnerable to raw quintessence attacks. There was nothing left.’
‘So, it’s over.’
‘No one else is going to die,’ Nava said. ‘I think calling it over is premature. Candide Stenger is still traumatised. Lambert has quite possibly lost his wife and maybe his child. Petra Faulkner is a mess and Anton Landon is dead. But the living can be told that the thing that was responsible has paid for what it did. I guess that’s as good a result as we could hope for.’
‘Sometimes,’ Mitsuko said, ‘we have to make do with small victories. I’m just glad we didn’t lose you in the process.’
‘Of course not. Now there’s only one thing left to do.’
‘Oh, and what’s that?’
‘I have to beat Chess soundly for not mentioning the part where I end up naked after using that spell.’
235/5/25.
‘I didn’t consider that as an issue!’ Rochester was practically glowing red around the cheeks and throat. It was kind of like someone had refitted his skin with internal LED lighting. Nava was somewhat pacified by this reaction, not that she was going to show that, obviously. ‘T-taking clothes across would have increased the spell complexity.’
‘But you didn’t consider clothing as an issue,’ Nava said, pouncing on the excuse as a means of prolonging her friend’s suffering. ‘How would you know that it would increase its complexity?’
‘Uh, well, obviously, uh–’
‘Stop being mean, Nava,’ Melissa said. ‘Even I know that it would mean an increase in complexity and I’m nowhere near as good at metaphysics as you and Chess. Besides, having to fight an alien thought entity in the buff wouldn’t have bothered you in the slightest.’
‘While true,’ Nava replied, ‘that statement doesn’t negate the fact that I did have to. I’d have liked a warning.’
‘N-next time, I’ll be sure to take n-nudity into consideration,’ Rochester said with a hand over his heart.
‘I’m hoping there won’t be a next time,’ Mitsuko said.
‘And so say all of us,’ Courtney added.
It was late for breakfast, but it was Sunday morning and everyone had decided that they deserved a lie-in. Not much of a lie-in since they had met up in the refectory at nine a.m., but still a lie-in compared to school days. Rochester and Melissa had wanted the full story and not just a ‘yes, I’m fine, it’s gone’ summary from Nava. They would probably be going back to bed soon enough since it was Rochester’s birthday. Courtney and Kyle were there too, partially to see whether anything new was added to what they had heard the night before.
‘Well,’ Nava said, ‘you were right about it being susceptible to quintessence-based attacks, so I suppose that makes up for it. And it’s your birthday… I’ll let you go without diabolical punishment this time.’
‘Just out of interest,’ Courtney asked, ‘what kind of diabolical punishment did you have in mind?’
‘Well, there’s absolutely no reason why I can’t cast that spell on someone else…’
There was a pause while everyone worked out who her target would have been, and they watched the LEDs in Rochester’s face brighten another hundred Watts.
‘You actually thought about that, didn’t you?’ Mitsuko asked.
‘I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I might incriminate myself. Anyway, it was a somewhat interesting experience and the results were positive. For us. For the Harbinger, not so much.’
‘Uh,’ Rochester began, which probably meant that what he was going to say might go down the wrong way, ‘Lambert Stenger did suggest that, if the spell worked as intended, we could write it up for inclusion in one of the metaphysics journals. He, uh, suggested that Advances in Metaphysics might publish it. We would, uh, both get credit as co-authors.’
‘He really thinks AiM might accept it?’ Mitsuko asked.
‘A spell which shifts someone to within the Q-field together with a report on the subjective experience of being there? Yes, he does.’
‘I’d rather not be mentioned,’ Nava said.
‘What? Why?’ Mitsuko looked genuinely surprised. It appeared to be an emotion shared by everyone.
‘Because people will want to know how a first year at SAS-squared was capable of casting a two hundred and thirty Tammy spell. I did say my abilities were to remain a private matter, didn’t I?’
‘Yes. Yes, you did,’ Rochester said. He sounded a little sad about it. ‘I’m sure we can anonymise the report, if that’s what you want.’
‘I don’t mind contributing my experiences there, brief as they were, but I do wish to remain anonymous. Frankly, I don’t need the attention. Too many people know about this as it is.’ She paused. ‘And I do believe this needs to be publicised, so I am happy to contribute. The Harbinger told me, while it was crowing about how it had defeated me and was planning to kill me slowly, that it had been discorporated for its crimes. It’s quite possible that not every Harbinger tulpa out there is as evil as that thing was, but researchers dealing with Harbinger artefacts need to be warned about the possibility of freeing something like it.’
‘There could be more of those things waiting for someone to find them,’ Courtney said.
‘Oh well,’ Melissa said after a second, ‘it’s not like I need sleep…’
Part Five: Death’s Handmaiden
Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 235/7/24.
‘The next item is the summer dance,’ Melissa said. She did not actually have to check her agenda notes for this, but she did so because she felt it made her look efficient. ‘We now have two weeks remaining to finalise everything.’
Mitsuko sighed. ‘Half a year gone, just like that.’ She shook off the sudden flash of melancholy and turned to Naomi Himura. ‘Music.’
Despite the brevity of the implied question, Naomi knew exactly what she was asking. ‘The Music Club has a line-up of three acts organised to appear. Each represents a different genre, I’m told. Brandy Scherer Voll is handling things. She’s been running the Music Club for three years, so she has a good handle on what’s needed.’
‘That seems to be covered. Decorations?’
‘The Art Club is on that. I’m told it’s a combination of fixed physical art, lighting, and static and animated illusions. I’ve seen a few of the concept sketches and they look good. I’ll send them around for you all to look over, but I don’t see any problems.’
Nodding, Mitsuko turned to the treasurer, Marie Royce. ‘We’re keeping to budget?’
‘So far, there have been no unplanned expenses. I managed to negotiate a small discount with the school’s catering department, so we may even come in under budget this year. However, I’m not going to officially say that just yet. Two weeks is a long time in accounting.’
‘Accounting jokes? Really?’
‘Accounting is never a joke.’ Marie’s poker face was ruined when Melissa giggled. Melissa’s giggles always seemed to ruin Marie’s normally dour expressions and, as far as Mitsuko was concerned, that alone justified Melissa’s inclusion in the council this year. ‘Being serious,’ Marie went on, ‘it looks like we won’t have any issues with the budget this year. We haven’t needed to dip into the slush fund at all. So far.’
‘Well,’ Mitsuko said, ‘we can hope. Mel, when are we getting the menu for approval?’
Melissa checked her ketcom again, this time because she needed to. ‘That should arrive on Monday. I’ll forward it to everyone as soon as it arrives. Oh, and the final bill for renting the hall came through. I’ve sent that on to Marie.’
Maire nodde
d. ‘It’s as expected. No surprises.’ The student council organised two parties each year, the summer dance and the winter ball. Each was held in the school’s theatre with the chairs removed, and the school charged the council for ‘rent’ of the facilities. Since the school largely financed the council, most of this was handled as an accounting exercise rather than the actual transfer of funds, but the council also got money in from alumni and even a few organisations with an interest in sorcery education. For example, the ASF provided an annual grant to the student council since many of the students at the school would eventually join up.
‘Good,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Security?’
‘My people are briefed and ready,’ Courtney replied. ‘Obviously, we’ll be holding additional briefings on the run-up to the event. There’s rarely any trouble at the summer event, but we’ll have it covered.’
‘We do want the SSF members to have some time to enjoy themselves too.’
‘I have some auxiliary members, people who make up the numbers if we have people down with illness and the like. They’ll all be taking a shift so that the regulars can relax for a while.’
‘Excellent. Anything else we need to look at? Darius, are you aware of any issues?’
Darius Miller shook his head. ‘Nothing, President. Everything seems to be moving along smoothly.’ There was a slightly bitter edge to his tone. Increasingly, Darius was being side-lined when it came to council matters. He was, essentially, superfluous and he knew it. It was not sitting well with him.
‘Good. I’ll be counting on you to give me some time to actually enjoy this event, Darius. I don’t want to be watching that things are going well for the entire time. That said, we’re also both going to have to make some sacrifices for the greater good.’
Surprise registered on Darius’s face. Whether it was from the sacrifices comment or that Mitsuko was actually planning to have him do his job was unclear. ‘Sacrifices, President?’ The question did not really clarify his thought processes; he was hardly going to admit to surprise at being delegated some responsibility.
‘Yes. We’re both going to have to dance with the important and the shy. Some of the higher-status students are going to expect a dance from the student council staff. I’m afraid this will partially apply to you too, Mel and Marie, but it’s me and Darius to a greater extent. Courtney can probably escape by faking an emergency.’
‘Can and will do,’ Courtney put in, provoking another giggle from Melissa.
‘I’d also like us to try to get the wallflowers involved. Not in a pushy manner, but if there’s someone clinging to the sides and not dancing, it would be appropriate to issue an invitation. I’m sorry about this, Darius, but as our only man, aside from Naomi of course, you’ll be busy.’
‘Uh, okay,’ Darius said. ‘But can’t Naomi lend a hand in that respect?’
‘Have you seen Naomi?’ Everyone looked around at the big, stoic-looking chairman of extracurricular activities. He looked stoically back. ‘If Naomi asked a shy girl to dance, she’d probably either run screaming or melt into a puddle.’
‘It’s true,’ Melissa said. ‘Naomi is really intimidating until you get to know him.’
Naomi raised an eyebrow. ‘And when you get to know me, Melissa?’
Melissa swallowed. ‘Well, then you’re really intimidating.’
~~~
Naomi was not as intimidating as Melissa thought. Or at least, that was the impression he got whenever he talked to Nava. He watched her walking out of the woods where she had been playing the fox again, and once again he prepared his arguments knowing he was going to fail.
‘They’re getting better,’ Nava said as she approached the control tent. At this time of year, the tent was popular because it was out of the sun. It was a blazing-hot July Saturday, but the heat did not seem to be affecting Nava.
‘You still appear to have wiped out all the hounds,’ Naomi countered.
Nava pointed at her left shoulder where a yellow light was glowing. ‘I did, but they wounded me. I’ve got better at camouflaging myself too, so there’s a definite improvement compared to spring. I don’t know whether they’ll win anything at the war games, but I don’t think they’ll sully the school’s good name either. Even against some of the professionals that go to that event.’
‘We would do significantly better if you were to join the team.’
‘And yet, I’d prefer to keep my participation to helping get your teams ready.’ Nava still had not officially joined the MagiTag Club. She turned up and went through various games every so often, and she had been turning up every Saturday for the last six weeks, but she never put herself on the official list of members.
Naomi allowed this for a couple of good reasons, and one weak one. The weak one was that the club had enough members that its official status was not in question. One more would make no real difference. The real reasons why Naomi liked Nava taking part in the games were training and humility. Nava was no teacher, but just seeing her do battle had a habit of inspiring the other members. It also had a habit of keeping the members’ egos in check. It was hard to be a pathologically confident MagiTag player when a girl on the support stream could walk in having not picked up a pistol for three weeks and trounce you as though it was another day at the office. Still…
‘I really wish you would reconsider,’ Naomi said.
‘I’ve explained this, Naomi. I’m not confident enough in my ability to compartmentalise games like this from real combat. If I’m up against professional magicians or an ASF team, I might just start thinking that the situation is serious. If that happens, there could be fatalities.’
‘I think you’re underselling yourself. I believe you have more control than you admit.’
He possibly had a point. There had never been an issue at school. She had never wanted to kill anyone in a game. Yet. ‘I’d prefer not to test my limits at a public event,’ she said. ‘Has the council meeting wrapped up?’
Naomi sighed, but he accepted the change of topic. ‘Yes.’ His brow creased a little. ‘You’re not one of Courtney’s ‘standby’ SSF members, are you? She mentioned she had some auxiliary officers–’
‘Oh no. I don’t do SSF work on any kind of regular basis because then I would definitely end up killing someone.’
‘But you helped with that incident in May. Courtney gave us the rundown on what happened.’
‘Yes. I told her I would be available for situations where my talents were useful. In May, something needed killing and I was probably the only one who could do it. An SSF operation perfectly made for me. Generally, Courtney wants people taken alive.’
‘I see.’
Nava was fairly sure that he did understand, but that was not going to stop him from asking again next week.
235/7/25.
Naomi was not the only one trying to get Nava to compete for the school in a competition. Carlton Horne Sonkei, chairman of the Flight Club, was just about as bad. Then again, Naomi would turn up at Flight Club these days to pressure Nava there too. Sundays were becoming irritating because she had two people trying to pressgang her into competition.
For this reason, Nava was spending less time near the ground, testing out her aerobatics, and more time at high altitude. Since Melissa could not stay airborne for as long as Nava could, the situation was not ideal. One of the reasons Nava came to the club was to spend an afternoon enjoying herself with Melissa. And, eventually, Nava had to come down…
‘Your stamina is quite amazing.’ Carlton belonged to one of the weaker families within the Sonkei clan, but he was still one of the Sonkeis and he had a handsome face and fit body to add to his charisma. If he could just learn to take no for an answer…
‘So I’m told,’ Nava replied.
‘We haven’t seen you in any of the practice areas for a while. It’s a shame. It’s really quite something to see you sliding around the obstacles.’
‘With the aerobatics competition coming up during the summer holid
ay, I feel it is more important to give those competing as much time as possible to train. I won’t be competing, so I don’t need to train.’
Carlton did not have Naomi’s poker face. His expression shifted from false joviality to disappointment. ‘I’m aware. You’ve made it quite clear, but I still think you should reconsider.’
‘Carlton, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I come to this club to enjoy myself. I have no interest in competitions of any kind. There are plenty of people in the club who are enthusiastic about competing and have the skill to do well.’ Nava paused briefly to consider her next words and concluded that, no, she was not feeling generous today. ‘Frankly, your determination to get me on the team is undermining the other members’ confidence. I don’t take this seriously and you try to persuade me to compete every week. I’d be taking someone else’s place. Someone who wants to compete would be unable to because you pressured someone who doesn’t want to be there into doing it.’
‘I see.’ She had hurt his feelings. Or, more likely, she had rubbed an unpleasant truth in his face and he did not want to hear it. ‘Then I suppose I should concentrate on those who do wish to represent their school.’ Turning, he set off toward one of the aerobatics training areas.
Melissa, who had been watching from a distance, walked over. ‘Well, you finally told him. I wondered how long it would take before you got angry.’
‘I’m not angry about that.’
‘You’re not? You sounded angry. Uh, well, no you didn’t. But there was a definite aura of angry about you. Or, well…’
‘I’m not angry about him asking, yet again. I’m angry that he’ll do it again next week.’
‘Oh.’
‘Really, why won’t anyone in this school accept that some people don’t want to perform like a pet monkey just because they’re asked to?’
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