Death's Handmaiden

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘They’re probably real.’

  ‘I was unable to find any research which confirmed that,’ Rochester said. ‘However, that seems to be because spirit magic, necromancy, and demonology proved to be an entirely academic pursuit on Earth and no one has ever tried to use any of the spells associated with those paradigms recently. Or, if they have, they did it in secret.’

  ‘Demonology?’ Courtney asked.

  Rochester made a dismissive hand-wave gesture. ‘It all comes down to the same thing when you examine the metaphysics. Spirit magic assumes the existence of atavistic entities representing natural phenomena or moral standpoints. In some cases, it refers to what we would call gods. Necromancy deals with the spirits of the dead, generally in the belief that death frees one from the constraints of time and allows ghosts to predict the future or reveal the past. Demonology posits the existence of extradimensional or immaterial entities which are not necessarily evil but have powers which a summoner can exploit. There are some badly documented cases of necromancy producing results on Earth. Results as in the summoning of some form of ghost, not of any predictions made. A review of such cases posits that there was limited evidence to suggest that powerful magicians might be able to transcend death in some way.’

  ‘The Harbingers were far more advanced than us as far as sorcery went,’ Melissa said. ‘Maybe they found a systematic way to do that.’

  ‘That is not without foundation. I found two pieces of rather speculative, untested metaphysics research from the first century after the formalisation of the subject. One suggests that it is possible, at least in theory, for a conscious pattern of thoughts to exist within the quintessential field. It is suggested that such “tulpa” entities could arise spontaneously through quantum fluctuations or be formed by the transition of a sentient mind into the Q-field. Another paper suggests a mechanism by which a proposed tulpa could possess a material host. It utilises a metaphysical hypothesis on the nature of conscious minds which has never been proven, and also never disproven. That said, the suggested observable results of such a possession are a good match for what Lambert and Kyle experienced.’

  ‘What’s a tulpa?’ Courtney asked.

  ‘It’s a concept from theosophy,’ Lambert said, ‘common in mysticism and paranormal research prior to the formalisation of metaphysics. The original concept is… Think of it as an imaginary friend, sentient and independent of the person it originated from. An entity of pure thought.’

  Courtney frowned. ‘So, we’re saying that our perpetrator could be an entity of pure thought, normally living in the Q-field but able to assume a physical form by using sorcery to possess a material host.’

  ‘An adequate summary of what we have,’ Rochester replied. ‘It would seem likely that the Harbingers perfected the transfer from physical body to immaterial Q-field pattern and that one of them was, for whatever reason, trapped within the artefact.’

  ‘I think the reason is obvious,’ Nava said. ‘It’s a sadistic monster. It’s unreasonable to suggest that the Harbingers were perfect. Their society probably produced serial killers just as this one does. How do we kill it?’

  ‘The tulpa paper suggested that such entities would be especially vulnerable to surges of quintessence. Attacks with raw magical energy would harm them more than other forms of attack. However, their existence within the Q-field means they need to be attacked from within the Q-field. Or by some means of projecting an attack into the Q-field. Even your Magic Burst spell operates by directing quintessence into this dimension. It would have no effect on the Harbinger which exists outside our reality.’

  ‘Lambert,’ Mitsuko said, ‘have you found anything which might help us?’

  Lambert sighed. ‘The concise answer is no, though I’d like to review what I have in the light of those papers Rochester found. The engineering involved in the creation of the intact components is far beyond our capabilities, but not entirely beyond our understanding. I believe that careful examination will advance some areas of magical engineering by decades, even centuries. The device was able to gather a substantial amount of quintessence from its surroundings despite being substantially smaller than our aggregator technology, for example. I believe that part of the device was concerned with the generation of a force barrier. It shows some similarities to the force screen generators used by the military or in some illusory art installations.’

  ‘There’s a suggestion in one paper I found,’ Rochester said, ‘that it should be possible to create a… standing wave in the Q-field. The proposal is that it would create a solid barrier against sorcery, but my reading is that a tulpa would be unable to cross it. Combined with a more physical barrier and formed as a sphere, I suspect that it would make an effective container for a tulpa. Perhaps the differences you’re seeing are related to generating such a dual barrier.’

  Lambert actually smiled. ‘There’s a reason you’re always answering my questions in theory classes. Please send me the references to those papers and I’ll check over my findings on the components.’

  ‘It would be my honour.’

  ‘But,’ Nava said, ‘that’s still a method of containing the thing and that’s proven to be an insufficient method of dealing with it.’ She looked across at Lambert. ‘You’re not going to argue that it should be kept alive for study, are you?’

  ‘I can understand why someone would argue the case,’ Lambert said, ‘but I want it destroyed. Frankly, I doubt it would be cooperative if we did capture it.’

  ‘Right. So how do we get me into the Q-field?’

  ‘What?!’ It was not just Mitsuko who responded with some degree of horror. Everyone let out some form of exclamation, except Rochester who had already come to the same conclusion as Nava.

  ‘The only way we have of attacking the Harbinger is for someone to meet it on its own ground,’ Rochester said. ‘Nava is the only logical candidate.’

  ‘What about targeting it from this world?’ Kyle asked.

  ‘Targeting is the issue,’ Nava replied. ‘I can only run one improvised spell at a time. We may be able to work out how to see it.’

  ‘That would be relatively easy,’ Rochester said. ‘A variation on the usual spell for observing invisible objects will do it.’

  ‘Okay, but I can’t see it and improvise a version of Magic Burst which will fire into the Q-field. Hence, I’d be shooting blind. If I’m there with it, I can just use my usual spell, right?’

  ‘Making a number of assumptions about the way it works, yes. I believe that, with some further research, I could define the parameters of the proposed spell to transition someone into the Q-field. The author called it “Ascend.” It would be useful if Lambert could provide his expertise to the process. We could then explain it to you.’

  ‘How long?’

  ‘Defining a spell which could have fatal results needs to be done carefully,’ Lambert said. ‘You won’t be able to do much to the Harbinger if the spell kills you.’

  ‘Fine,’ Nava said, ‘take all the time you think you need. Just remember that that thing is out there, right now, selecting its next victims. I think we’ll be really lucky to stop it from finishing what it does a third time. While we’re planning, it’s killing someone.’

  235/5/23.

  ‘Okay, here’s what we have,’ Courtney said. ‘Two students have been declared missing. I had the administration put in some stricter rules regarding students missing classes, and these two are the only ones today who haven’t given some form of excuse.’

  ‘It’s lunchtime,’ Nava said. Despite being shorter than both Courtney and Kyle, she seemed to be keeping up with them perfectly well as the trio marched toward one of the missing students’ apartments. ‘We could have been doing this hours ago.’

  ‘Yeah. I had words about more prompt alerts. They said they wanted to be sure these two wouldn’t call in sick.’

  ‘If Petra Faulkner is dead,’ Kyle said, ‘they’re going to be really regretting that decision.’

>   ‘Let’s just hope it hasn’t had time to get that far,’ Courtney replied.

  Petra Faulkner Fosse was a first year on the support stream. She was not from a wealthy family, so she was living in one of the capsule blocks not that far from the one where Nava and Melissa lived. Her apartment was on the second floor and, as the trio approached the door, Nava started having second thoughts.

  ‘They’re not going to be here,’ she said.

  ‘What?’ Courtney responded. ‘Why?’

  ‘I live in one of these apartments. There’s not enough room to swing a cat, never mind torture someone to death.’

  ‘I’m not sure that really requires space,’ Kyle said.

  ‘They’re not here. But since we are…’ Nava waved at the lock panel, suggesting that the SSF members do their stuff.

  Courtney unlocked the door using her ketcom and SSF authority, and silence greeted them as the door slid aside. Kyle was through the door first. Nava went in behind him and immediately opened the bathroom door. It took very little time to determine the situation.

  ‘She was right,’ Kyle said. ‘No one’s home.’

  ‘Not even a Petra Faulkner too sick to call the office,’ Courtney agreed. ‘It must have taken her to Anton Landon’s place. Let’s move.’

  ~~~

  By contrast, Anton Landon Corley came from a fairly well-off family and had better accommodation. In fact, he lived in the same apartment block as Courtney.

  ‘It didn’t go far after it missed me,’ Courtney commented. ‘Down two floors.’

  ‘And to the other end of the building,’ Nava said. ‘Maybe I should’ve wandered around after I stopped it.’

  ‘Second-guessing your actions isn’t going to help. You had me and Kyle to deal with.’

  ‘I’m aware.’

  They stopped outside a standard door on a standard residential corridor. There were no sounds coming from within the apartment, but then the soundproofing was pretty good, the bedroom was at the back of the apartment, and it was likely that Petra had been gagged.

  ‘If it turns out they’re having sex,’ Kyle said, ‘this is going to be embarrassing.’

  ‘Serves them right for skipping classes,’ Courtney replied, and then she unlocked the door.

  The apartment within appeared to be undisturbed. There was not a single thing out of place. The sofa was clean and there was a coffee table on which a stack of magazines had been carefully arranged in a neat, vertical pile. Someone’s ketcom sat on the arm of the sofa. There was a large entertainment screen on one wall, a bookcase against another wall, and there was a desk beside the bookcase with an integrated terminal which looked like it had another ketcom plugged into it.

  ‘It’s here,’ Nava said, her voice low. ‘I can feel it. It’s here somewhere.’

  Kyle headed for the kitchen door while Nava and Courtney started for the bedroom. They had almost got there when Kyle spoke. ‘This is not the apartment of a bachelor fourth year.’

  Both women stopped to look at him. ‘What?’ Courtney asked.

  ‘You’ve seen my place. It’s smaller than this and I still can’t keep it this tidy. There’s something wrong…’ Stepping back into the lounge, he walked over to the desk.

  Nava turned back to the bedroom door and moved forward, reaching for the handle. She pushed it open, ready for whatever might be waiting on the other side, and stopped. Anton Landon was lying on his bed, but he was not having sex with Petra Faulkner. He had been tied down with what looked like torn-up bed sheets in a crucifix posture. He had been fairly good-looking in the ID picture Courtney had showed to Nava, but you could barely tell he was human now. There was blood everywhere, coming from numerous cuts marking his limbs and torso. His face was now a ruin; someone had taken a heavy object and smashed it down repeatedly until the bones had collapsed under the impacts.

  ‘These books,’ Kyle said. ‘There aren’t any titles on the–’

  He was cut off by a shriek. An arm emerged from the bookcase. It was covered in blood and holding a kitchen knife, and Kyle reared back from it. The blade slashed down past his chest in a stabbing motion and a woman emerged from inside the bookcase, coming after him. She was basically unrecognisable as Petra Faulkner: her hair should have been blonde and now it was red and her face and body were coated in thick, red blood. Kyle reacted with his default means of attack and defence: he grabbed at her with his Telekinesis. She slashed at him again, but he was out of reach of her weapon and she could no longer get closer. Lifting her easily, he drove her back into the wall through what had to be an illusory bookcase.

  ‘What the–’ he began.

  A wave of pure, unimaginable, existential terror washed out across the room. Courtney had started moving toward Kyle, around the sofa, and she came to a sudden and complete stop, flinching visibly. Kyle staggered back to end up leaning on the back of the sofa. His concentration gone, Petra was released from the grip of his spell. She dropped to the floor and stepped out of her imaginary bookcase, a broad grin splitting her blood-drenched face.

  And then Nava vaulted over the sofa and punched Petra in the chest. Nava’s punches were nothing to write home about, but the Push spell she often stacked on top was another matter. Petra was slammed backward and into the wall at considerable velocity. Her head hit first and there was a grunt of pain before she dropped to the carpet, unconscious.

  The illusions vanished in an instant, revealing the apartment as it actually was. Blood smeared the wall where Petra had been standing, the seat at the desk where she had used the terminal, and the sofa where she had, presumably, been sitting. There was no bookcase, but there was something standing up, out of Petra’s fallen body, where the bookcase had been. Nava stared at it and it stared back for a second or two before turning and rushing away through the wall. Bolting for the apartment door, Nava yanked it open and rushed into the corridor, but there was no sign of the thing which had been controlling Petra and the sensation of its presence was gone.

  Once again, the Harbinger had got away, but this time it had left a corpse behind it.

  ~~~

  ‘We have an issue,’ Rochester said as he put his tray down at dinner.

  ‘Straight to the point, I see,’ Mitsuko said.

  ‘Sorry. Good evening, President. How has your day been? Mine has been fruitful and yet frustrating. By the way, we have a problem.’

  ‘I think I preferred it when you used to stammer every time you looked at my chest.’

  Without thinking – and possibly as Mitsuko intended – Rochester’s eyes flicked down. His cheeks flared red. ‘I-I-I–’

  ‘That’s mean, Suki,’ Melissa said. ‘What’s this issue, Chess?’

  Rochester sat down beside his girlfriend, his cheeks still burning. ‘I… That is to say… Well, you see…’

  ‘Calm down. Deep breaths. I’ll let you look at my chest all you want later.’

  ‘And that’s supposed to make him calmer?’ Nava asked.

  Strangely, Rochester did seem to recover his composure rather quickly. Maybe the thought of breasts he could actually make contact with was easier to handle than ones he had to look at from afar. Well, about a metre. ‘With Lambert Stenger’s assistance, I was able to produce a good schema for the Ascend spell,’ he said when his breathing had steadied.

  ‘That sounds more like a good thing,’ Mitsuko said.

  ‘It’s excellent news as far as it goes, but the schema suggests a spell complexity of two hundred and twenty to two hundred and thirty Tammys.’

  Melissa and Mitsuko both winced. ‘My biggest spell is only sixty-seven Tammys,’ Melissa said.

  ‘Seventy-five,’ Mitsuko said.

  ‘Sorcerer’s Eye is sixty-five,’ Rochester said. ‘We’re talking about something three times as complex. We’re going to need–’

  ‘It won’t be a problem,’ Nava said. She was looking down, concentrating on her food in the kind of studious fashion she displayed when she was having to reveal something she did not r
eally want to.

  ‘But–’ Mitsuko began, cutting herself off. ‘What is the complexity rating on your highest spell, Nava?’

  ‘I’d rather not–’

  ‘If you’re saying that two thirty isn’t an issue…’

  ‘Two hundred and fifty-two.’

  Silence.

  ‘I-is that your Magic Burst?’ Melissa asked.

  ‘No. None of you have ever seen me use that spell. And I’d rather none of you ever did. Most of my spells are less complex, though that’s partially because I’ve never taken the time to enhance some of them. Magic Burst is a hundred and fifty-seven. Third rank Gather Quintessence is a hundred and thirty-five.’

  ‘You’re incredibly powerful. I mean, that kind of potential and you can hold four active spells.’

  ‘I can manage two,’ Mitsuko said. ‘What are you even doing here, Nava? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you came to SAS-squared. Really glad.’

  ‘You just want me for my body.’

  ‘Yes, but you could have done anything with that kind of power. Why are you here?’

  Nava lifted her head and looked around the table. ‘I wanted a normal life. A normal life at a relatively normal school. With friends and learning and all the other stuff young adults normally have. And I have that. And I don’t want to lose it, so I’d appreciate it if you all avoided mentioning what I can do.’

  ‘Our lips are sealed,’ Mitsuko said. The others nodded.

  ‘Okay, so, I’ll take a look over this schema. If I know what I have to do, hopefully I’ll be able to implement it. And then comes the actual problem we have. The Harbinger has killed, but I doubt it plans to stop after a success and it’s Friday night. It could basically get a free pass to spend the next couple of days slaughtering students. We need to find it and stop it. Short of quartering the campus until I can feel it nearby, I can’t think of a good way of doing that.’

  ‘I’ll speak to Courtney after dinner,’ Mitsuko said. ‘She’s the aspiring detective. Perhaps she can come up with a plan.’

  ‘You saw it, didn’t you?’ Melissa asked of Nava. ‘The Harbinger. You used that See Spirit spell Chess came up with, so you saw it.’