Chapter 1
“So what’s all this about?” I ask.
Alinta snorts. “You wait until we’re on the train to ask that?”
I don’t reply, because she’s trying to play it cool. But when Alinta appeared at my dorm, covered in blood and clutching travel bags and insisting we had to go, why was the last thought on my mind.
“We’re heading to my sister’s. She’s recently inherited Elvenore Incorporated, so she’ll definitely hire us,” Alinta smirks. “See, I told you I had a good reason. Now you won’t have to sit through three more tedious years of Blackburn University,”
“You’re graduating this year,”
“Yeah, and it’s not worth it. We’re going to have a great time in London, solving mysteries, killing monsters. It’s going to be wonderful,”
“Sure,” I say. “But, Alinta, are you ok?”
“Of course!” she beamed. “Oh. You mean the blood?”
“Yeah,”
“Don’t worry, it’s mostly mine,”
“That… doesn’t help,”
“It’s the same old story,” Alinta shrugged. “You smile at a girl, she smiles back, she finds out you’re gay, she decides you’re her gay awakening and coincidentally forgets all about her fiancée, who hasn’t. And then the fiancée decides you’re the problem, and not the fact he can’t be bothering to pay attention to her – I mean, if she’s that into me after one date, their relationship couldn’t be that good in the first place, right?”
“I mean, yeah, I guess,”
“Like, that dude was an asshole. And his solution wasn’t to talk to her, ask what’s up, any of that, no, it’s just to slam down on me,” Alinta shrugged. “I’d already broken up with her when I found out she had a fiancée, and it’s not like we even did anything. Hell, we didn’t even kiss, I just treated her like a human being, and if that’s enough for her to want to through everything away, then the problem isn’t me,”
“Then why are we the ones running?”
“He tried to kill me,” Alinta insisted. “He fucking tried to kill me. I have every right to defend myself, but you know what the school’s going to be like. Oh, you’re a phoenix, you can’t die, he’s in critical condition, that was unfair. Just because I’ll recover from death doesn’t mean it doesn’t fucking hurt, you know?”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I took like a shiton of painkillers, and most of my bones have knitted up already cause I was so freaking mad. But I don’t want to go back. I’m so sick of this shit happening,”
“I’m sorry,”
“It’s not your fault,”
“I know, but I still feel bad,”
“Well, from now on, it’s the dawning of a new era,” Alinta poses heroically. “No more will we be oppressed by the nobles! With Anastacia at the helm of Elvenore Incorporated, we will be lead into a fantastic new age, of peace and equality between nobles and peasants!”
“Peasants was deemed an offensive term, and it was outlawed years ago,”
“Yeah, but nobles and all the other people doesn’t have the same ring to it,”
“I know, but I just wanted to flex my literary knowledge before I never use my degree again,”
“Hey, sorry about that,” Alinta scratched her head. “I should’ve thought about that. If you don’t want to drop your degree, of course you can go back,”
“No, it’s fine. The syllabus was disgusting. An absolute affront to literature,”
“I see,”
“I’m serious, they classified the Lokeddas as a religious text. Believing in Lona Loke isn’t a religion, it’s a fact! And they’re a fascinating exploration of history and psychology. There’s no other text in the world detailing the first person experience of countless important historical figures,”
“Well, one historical figure,”
“Actually, there’s theories she’s multiple. You know, the whole, what are we made of, our genetics or our experience. Since Lona’s experience is always different, even though she always ends up looking pretty similar, is she similar mentally? The way her character is presented really varies in every Lokedda,”
“So, what do you think?”
“I wouldn’t like to say, because I’m not sure. But I’m working on an essay,”
“Of course, you are,”
“Did you know, there’s rumours that some nobles are carrying out psychological experiments with Deamons. They’re going to raise them like humans and see if they can be,”
“Wouldn’t that be like raising an animal like a human and just hoping it makes the transformation?”
“I mean, I guess. But it’s still really fascinating,”
“Deamons are just like humans though, aren’t they? Once the transformation solidifies for seven years, I think, they become biologically identical to humans, just with some superpowers based on their original animal attributes?”
“Well, basically. But they’ve spent a lot of their lives as animals beforehand, so they’d probably have some mental retardation? Though if it was a young transformation I guess you couldn’t tell that much,”
“Ooh, Ceron, you don’t remember much from before you were seven, both your parents are dead, and you run really fast. Conspiracy theories…”
“Alinta…”
“Oh,” Alinta said, face twisting. “Oh. Oh no. Sorry,”
“It’s fine,” I say, rumpling my hair back. “Anyway, tell me about your sister,”
“Uh, well, her name’s Anastacia. And, well, it’s kinda weird, we are identical twins, but we don’t look identical. Because of the whole phoenix thing. She looks like me in most ways, we might have different body types by now, I don’t know, but her eyes are mint green and her hair is brunette, and she’s also a lot paler, cause she takes after our mum and I take after our dad, and also, I’m the living incarnation of fire, so,”
“Wow, you took all the Mar’gawse and the melatonin. Sure she isn’t mad?”
“Oh, she is,” Alinta said, grimacing. “She absolutely is. Don’t let it freak you out though, she’s probably a sweetheart deep down,”
“Is she nice?”
“Eh….” Alinta’s face said, morphing. “Well. Uh. The short answer, no,”
“And the long answer is noooooo,” I sigh. “Great,”
“No, smarty-pants. The long answer is she’s a good person, very righteous and all that, always pays back her debts and keeps her promises, the sort of person who’d never murder anyone,”
“Uh, well, thank goodness for that,”
“She would plot murder though. If you annoy her and she stares at you for an uncomfortable amount of time, she’s visualising how she would kill you. It’ll be related to how you mess up, and probably very graphic,”
“Um,”
“She won’t do it. Unless it turned out you were related to our father’s murder, you’re pretty safe,”
“Alinta, your father got murdered?”
“Yup. Disappeared when we were seventeen. They found his body rotting in the city dump years later,”
“Are you ok talking about it?”
“Yeah,”
“Well, then why the hell didn’t you tell me? You have an identical twin sister and a murdered father, and when I was bored as hell sloughing through Magical Apocalypse and Its Impact On Modern Society, it didn’t occur to you to mention your thriller of a life?”
“I also have a homophobic mother, a super long trail of ex-girlfriends, and yeah, no, that’s it. The murdered dad, identical twin sister and living incarnation of fire is the main points,”
“I don’t even know you,”
“You know the stuff that matters,” Alinta shrugs. “It’s kind of hard to lead with ‘hi, my dad’s dead, I’m an immortal fire creature, and I have an identical twin sister’. No-one takes anything you say seriously after that. You were raised by a Haringian cult in the highlands, I don’t see you introducing yourself with the name they gave you,”
“Alright, I get it,”
“Cool, cause we’re here. Grab your stuff and get ready to jump. The trains here are super-fast. And hold tight, or someone will pickpocket you,”
