The Mask Falling
Page 50
My attempts to address what I see as the problematic aspects of French may be imperfect. While I studied a Romance language for eight years and understand some of their gender-based constraints, I don’t speak French. More far-reaching ideas have been proposed within the French-speaking world. Some are pushing for the official adoption of ‘l’écriture inclusive’ (inclusive writing), which uses the ‘point médian’, allowing the feminine and masculine forms of a word to be expressed simultaneously and thereby rendering it neuter, e.g. ‘les écrivain·e·s’. The debate continues.
Scion Sign Language (SSL) is a fictional sign language originating in the Republic of Scion England. Just as English is compulsory across all territories of Scion, so is SSL, but other sign languages remain in use throughout the empire. SSL has been shaped by the specific cultural context of Scion; signs described in the book are therefore not intended to reflect those of any real-world sign language.
People of Interest
†—For humans, the dagger indicates that the character is dead by the beginning of The Mask Falling. For Rephaim, it indicates that they have been sequestered.
CLAIRVOYANTS
Humans with the ability to commune with the æther. They are identifiable by an aura, the color of which is related to their specific means of connecting with the spirit world.
the scion republic of england
PAIGE MAHONEY
Order: Jumper
Type: Dreamwalker
Also known as: The Pale Dreamer, Black Moth, XX-59-40
Born in early 2040, Paige lived a quiet life on Feirm na mBeach Meala— her grandparents’ dairy farm in County Tipperary, Ireland. Her mother, Cora Spencer, died of placental abruption not long after her birth.
At the age of six, Paige narrowly survived the Dublin Incursion, during which her cousin, Finn Mac Cárthaigh, was arrested, and his fiancée, Kayleigh Ní Dhornáin, was killed. Two years later, as guerrilla war raged between Scion and Ireland, Paige was forced to move to the Scion Citadel of London when Scion conscripted her father, Cóilín. Her first significant encounter with the spirit world was in a poppy field near the Cornish village of Arthyen, where a poltergeist made physical contact with her, leaving a scar on her left palm. It was here that she met Nick Nygård, who treated her wounds.
At sixteen, Paige reunited with Nick in London, and he invited her to join the clairvoyant underworld as a member of the Seven Seals, a gang founded by Jaxon Hall. Prizing her rare form of clairvoyance—dreamwalking—Jaxon made Paige his mollisher.
In 2059, Paige was detained and transported to the penal colony of Sheol I, where she learned of the existence of the Rephaim. Arcturus Mesarthim was assigned as her keeper. The two eventually put aside their differences and, with help from some of the other humans and Rephaim in the colony, organized a rebellion against Sargas rule. Paige returned to London and resolved to become Underqueen in order to expose the Rephaite threat. During this period, she came into conflict with the Rag and Bone Man and uncovered his trafficking network, the so-called gray market. She betrayed and defeated Jaxon, who was not inclined toward rebellion against Scion, to win the crown.
As Underqueen, her legacy was the neutralization of RDT Senshield. After a rigorous search across Manchester and Edinburgh for a way to destroy it, Paige surrendered herself to Scion to reach its power source in the Westminster Archon. After enduring twenty-three days of imprisonment and torture, she banished the spirit inside Senshield’s core by unknown means, deactivating all the scanners. Alsafi Sualocin and Scarlett Burnish organized her escape from Inquisitorial custody. Burnish sent her to Paris to work for the Domino Program.
DANICA “DANI” PANIĆ
Order: Fury
Type: Unknown
Also known as: The Chained Fury
A former member of the Seven Seals who also worked for Scion as an engineer. She created a custom-made ventilator for Paige to use so she could sense the æther at a distance. Danica helped rescue Paige from Sheol I and ostensibly sided with her after the fourth scrimmage, but secretly applied for a transfer to the Scion Citadel of Athens two days later, disinclined to participate in the revolution.
While waiting for her transfer request to be approved, Danica inadvertently passed Paige false information, planted by Hildred Vance, which resulted in a botched raid on a warehouse and two voyant deaths. Racked with guilt, Danica unearthed a more accurate piece of information for Paige before her departure from London, which proved vital in the hunt for Senshield’s core. Her status is unknown.
DIDION WAITE
Order: Guardian
Type: Binder
A poet and pamphleteer of the clairvoyant underworld and the long-term rival of Jaxon Hall. Widely considered a poor wordsmith, Didion finally rose to prominence in London when he established the Juditheon, an auction house where spirits could be sold to the highest bidder—a move that made him unpopular in some circles, since the binders in his employ would often poach valuable spirits from outside their own sections of the citadel. Didion is the younger half brother of Pantaléon Waite, a grand duc of the Parisian syndicate.
DIVYA “IVY” JACOB
Order: Augur
Type: Chiromancer
Also known as: The Jacobite, XX-59-24
Ivy grew up in the sealed-off community of Jacob’s Island, where the vile augurs of London were imprisoned after the publication of On the Merits of Unnaturalness, which portrayed them as dangerous and unclean. She was raised by Wynn and Vern Jacob. After escaping with her girlfriend, Chelsea Neves, Ivy moved to Camden, where she worked for a kidsman for three years. Chelsea, meanwhile, became mollisher supreme to the Underlord, Hector Grinslathe.
When she was twenty, Ivy became mollisher to the Rag and Bone Man, mime-lord of II-2. During their time together, she would help him select voyants for “employment”—a euphemism, unbeknownst to Ivy, for their sale on the gray market. When she noticed that the voyants she chose were disappearing, Ivy reported her mime-lord to Chelsea, who was now known as Cutmouth. For this betrayal—which ultimately brought the corrupt Hector into the trafficking ring—the Rag and Bone Man sold Ivy to the very market she had helped to run.
In Sheol I, Thuban Sargas was Ivy’s Rephaite keeper and subjected her to months of physical and mental abuse. Ivy escaped the colony during the rebellion and took shelter with three other fugitives in Camden, finally confessing her role in the gray market at the end of the fourth scrimmage. Her confession forced the Rag and Bone Man to flee from London and exposed one of his accomplices, the Abbess.
For her involvement in the trafficking ring, Ivy faced trial by the high commanders of the Mime Order in late 2059. With the deciding vote, Paige—now Underqueen—initially gave Ivy no punishment, but this angered many of her subjects. When ScionIDE and Senshield threatened the syndicate, Ivy sacrificed herself to a life in the Beneath to buy sanctuary for her fellow clairvoyants there. Her childhood friend Róisín Jacob joined her. At Paige’s behest, Scarlett Burnish had them both extracted.
ELIZA RENTON
Order: Medium
Type: Automatiste
Also known as: The Martyred Muse
Raised by aster dealers in Cheapside, Eliza was next to join the Seven Seals after Jaxon Hall founded the gang with Nick Nygård. She became the breadwinner of the gang by practicing ethereal forgery, painting copies of famous pieces of art while possessed by the spirits of their creators. She remained behind when the rest of the Seven Seals rescued Paige from Sheol I and was initially skeptical of Paige’s stories about the Rephaim.
For years Eliza was unwaveringly loyal to Jaxon, but chose Paige’s side after the fourth scrimmage. Paige made her mollisher supreme of the newly formed Mime Order alongside Nick. She traveled with Paige to Manchester and Edinburgh during the search for Senshield’s core. After Paige was arrested, she returned to London and became interim co-ruler of the Mime Order alongside the Glym Lord.
EMMA ORSON †
Order: Jumper
&nb
sp; Type: Dreamwalker
Also known as: Fair Emma, Marie Jeanette Kelly (?)
A nineteenth-century dreamwalker, the first of her kind to be imprisoned in Sheol I. After the Ranthen released her and she escaped to London, Nashira Sargas sent the clairvoyant who would become known as Jack the Ripper to retrieve her. He was unsuccessful—either because he murdered Emma, or because she escaped.
EZEKIEL “ZEKE” SÁENZ
Order: Fury
Type: Unreadable
Also known as: The Black Diamond
When Zeke’s clairvoyance first revealed itself, he was a whisperer, able to hear the voices of the dead—until a traumatic incident rendered him unreadable. Seeking help from Scion-based clairvoyants, he came to London as part of an American tour group with his younger sister, Nadine Arnett, in 2057. They joined the Seven Seals the same year. By 2058, Zeke was in a relationship with Nick Nygård.
Zeke participated in rescuing Paige from Sheol I. After the fourth scrimmage, he sided with Jaxon Hall. Paige has not seen him since.
THE FERRYMAN
Order: Augur
Type: Hydromancer
A member of the London syndicate. He blamed Paige for the expansion of Senshield and rejected her authority as Underqueen.
THE GLYM LORD
Order: Medium
Type: Physical medium
Also known as: Laurence Adomako, Glym
Known to the clairvoyant syndicate as Glym, Laurence is currently interim Underlord of the Mime Order in Paige Mahoney’s absence. He was originally one of her six high commanders and has always been a firm supporter of her rule. His closest friend, Tom the Rhymer, was killed during the search for Senshield.
HECTOR GRINSLATHE †
Order: Soothsayer
Type: Macharomancer
Also known as: Haymarket Hector
The former Underlord of the Scion Citadel of London, Hector was notorious for his greed, cruelty, and sloth. Among his many vices, he was a member of the gray market. Not satisfied with the cut he was receiving from Jaxon Hall for selling his own subjects, he targeted Jaxon’s mollisher, Paige Mahoney, and sent her to Scion without Jaxon’s knowledge. This resulted in her six-month incarceration in the penal colony of Sheol I.
In retribution, Jaxon arranged for Hector and his gang to be assassinated by the Abbess, another member of the gray market, who was possessed by the spirit of Jack the Ripper. Along with almost all of his gang, the Underbodies, Hector was disemboweled in his own parlor. Only his mollisher, Cutmouth, escaped—but was later killed in the same manner.
JACK THE RIPPER †
Order: Fury
Type: Berserker
Also known as: The Whitechapel Murderer
A clairvoyant serial killer who operated in the London district of Whitechapel in 1888, before the foundation of the Republic of England. Prior to the murders, he was a red-jacket in Sheol I. Nashira Sargas entrusted him to retrieve the dreamwalker Emma Orson after the Ranthen secretly facilitated her escape.
“Jack” pursued Emma to London, where he murdered several other women. He was unsuccessful in returning her to the colony. Nashira used his killing spree to bring about the fall of the monarchy and presumably executed him for his failure. His spirit—a violent poltergeist—is now among her fallen angels. After the failed rebellion of 2039, Nashira used the Ripper to mutilate several members of the Ranthen, who feel intense pain when Jack is close—or when Nashira wills it. The Abbess allowed Jack to possess her so that she had enough strength to dismember Haymarket Hector and his gang, the Underbodies.
JAXON HALL
Order: Guardian
Type: Binder
Also known as: The White Binder, the Grand Overseer, An Obscure Writer, XVII-39-7
Orphaned at the age of four, Jaxon Hall was an impoverished gutterling until 2031, when he shot to underworld fame as the author of On the Merits of Unnaturalness, a pamphlet that divided clairvoyants into seven “orders” and caused an outbreak of gang warfare in London. His writing attracted Scion’s interest, and he was subsequently arrested and transported to the penal colony of Sheol I for Bone Season VIII. Upon discovering a nascent rebellion against the Sargas family, he betrayed it in exchange for his own freedom. This resulted in the massacre of almost every human in the colony and the disfigurement of the Rephaite conspirators, including Arcturus Mesarthim.
Although it was initially agreed that Jaxon would remain under Scion surveillance for the rest of his life, he slipped the net, returned to the underworld, and built a new life as mime-lord of I-4, founding a gang named the Seven Seals and calling himself the White Binder. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to his gang (including his mollisher, Paige Mahoney), he maintained contact with Nashira Sargas—never meeting her in person—and began selling her rare clairvoyants for the Bone Seasons, accruing significant wealth in the process. Several other syndicate members joined this enterprise, including the Rag and Bone Man, the Abbess, and even the Underlord, forming a trafficking ring known as the gray market.
Jaxon attempted to become Underlord in 2059 and came close to it, but Paige betrayed him and used her gift to force him to yield. With the gray market exposed and the crown no longer in his grasp, Jaxon revealed himself to Nashira, defected to Scion, and was granted the title of Grand Overseer. His motives for his actions remain unclear.
JED BICKFORD †
A former Underlord of the Scion Citadel of London. He was found dead in the Thames with a knife in his back. Hector Grinslathe, who won the ensuing scrimmage, is suspected of having murdered both Bickford and his mollisher.
JULIAN AMESBURY
Order: Soothsayer (?)
Type: Unknown
Also known as: XX-59-26
One of Paige Mahoney’s closest friends during her time in Sheol I. Julian worked with Paige to plan and execute the rebellion, and was responsible for setting fires on the evening of the Bicentenary, which prevented the Rephaim from sending an assistance call to London. He never reached the escape train. Paige initially assumed he had died in the colony, but Scion is still looking for him, suggesting that no body has been found.
LISS RYMORE †
Order: Soothsayer
Type: Cartomancer
Also known as: XIX-49-1
A talented cartomancer, Liss was another of Paige’s closest friends in Sheol I, where she was imprisoned for a decade, having been captured during Bone Season XIX. Gomeisa Sargas was once her keeper, but he expelled her to the Rookery, where she became a performer, specializing in aerial silks.
Frightened by stories of the failed rebellion of Bone Season VIII, Liss was initially reluctant to resist the Sargas—but after Arcturus Mesarthim saved her from spirit shock, she joined Paige and Julian in planning the rebellion. Before she could leave with Paige on the train, Gomeisa murdered her by causing her to fall from the silks.
MICHAEL WREN
Order: Fury
Type: Unreadable
As a teenager, Michael terrified his parents with outbursts of the spirit language, Glossolalia—the gift of a polyglot. Loyal to Scion’s ideals, they attempted to “exorcise” him. The experience left Michael so traumatized that he became unable to speak. He fled to live on the streets of Southwark, and two years later, he was arrested and transported to Sheol I, where he was treated as an amaurotic.
Nashira Sargas gave Michael to Arcturus Mesarthim, who taught him Scion Sign Language. Michael grew to trust Arcturus and later assisted him in planning the rebellion of 2059 with Paige Mahoney. After leaving Sheol I on a hijacked train, he and Paige were separated while fleeing the Tower of London. Michael has not been seen since.
NADINE ARNETT
Order: Sensor
Type: Whisperer
Also known as: The Silent Bell
Nadine joined the Seven Seals in 2057 after coming to Scion on a college tour. The secret aim of the trip was to get clairvoyant help for her elder brother, Zeke—a former whisperer, now unreadable. The two evaded their tour guid
es and disappeared into the citadel. A whisperer with a talent for the violin, Nadine’s main work for Jaxon was earning money through busking in Covent Garden. She chose to side with Jaxon after the fourth scrimmage.
NICKLAS “NICK” NYGÅRD
Order: Jumper
Type: Oracle
Also known as: The Red Vision
Born in the Scion Republic of Sweden, Nick—a child prodigy—was training as a doctor when his younger sister, Karolina, was murdered by soldiers under the command of Birgitta Tjäder. This incident led Nick to the path of rebellion, and he resolved to move to England, the heart of Scion, to fight the anchor from within. He first met Paige Mahoney in the small Welsh town of Arthyen.
During a visit to London, Nick met Jaxon Hall and became the first member of his gang, the Seven Seals. After meeting Paige again, Nick brought her into the gang. He has been her closest friend and confidant ever since, and served alongside Eliza Renton as mollisher supreme. Siding with Paige after the scrimmage forced him to part from his boyfriend, Zeke Sáenz, who chose to support Jaxon.
Nick was drafted into the Domino Program at the same time as Paige and sent back to Sweden to stir up anti-Scion sentiment there.
OGNENA MARIA
Order: Augur
Type: Pyromancer
Also known as: Yoana Hazurova
Born in the Bulgarian mining town of Buhovo in 2025, Yoana Hazurova was among those who rebelled against Scion’s incursion into the Balkan Peninsula. At the age of fifteen, she joined a youth army under the command of Russian insurgent Rozaliya Yudina, who was killed in a psychological trap by Hildred Vance.
Following a failed resistance in Sofia, Yoana was imprisoned for several years and sentenced to hard labor in the new Republic of Scion Bulgaria. She escaped across the Black Sea and traveled on foot across Europe, seeking a large community of fellow clairvoyants. Eventually, she found sanctuary in London, where she became mime-queen of I-5 and took the alias Ognena Maria, the name by which she is now most commonly known. She is a trusted friend of the Glym Lord.