Quintet is the story of Leina Grey, a young loner girl who is pushed to create a School of Soul Seeking prodigies, in order to resist a soulless, authoritarian regime called the Red Shepherds, led by their Protector.
Read the story in tweet-thread form: https://twitter.com/mekarpeles/status/1432731912242614273
The story of Leina Grey is a monomyth / hero's journey, thematically most similar in world and intensity to the Lord of the Rings, but with a younger audience, accessible and fast-paced writing style, and emotional feel-good characteristics of harry potter.
Our story takes place in an earth-like world called Orbis, a land not unlike ours, not yet spoiled by industrialization. Beautiful blue skies, lush woods, and cobblestone roads set the peaceful stage to contrast upcoming turmoil.
In this world, magic is not a ubiquitous construct, it is legend; a lost skill, and mostly explainable. While not magic, per say, the world has elements that are naturally fantastical or indistinguishable from magic in their own rights, similar to how science is both explainable and in many ways imperceivable from magical in our world. In this world, there is a lost art called "soul seeking" which is the ability (not unlike the idea of the "Force" from Star Wars). Similar to how Wim Hof might claim to manipulate the temperature or immune response of his body, soul seeking is the deep art and mastery of using one's life energy to catalyze interactions between cells, or invoking such reactions in another. While this phenomenon occurs naturally in the universe and nature, certain materials and areas seem more conducive to performing "soul seeking". One such material is the Oracle Stone, a type of black obsidian rock that behaves almost like a magnet for amplifying or focusing biological signals. On Orbis, there is a massive rock formation of Oracle Stone, simply called, "The Oracle", which extends deep into Orbis's mantle, its gravity concentrating an energy field towards and around it, as might a Tesla Coil.
There is a passage in Leina's soul seeking manual that she takes for granted as gospel, but which she learns no one else seems to know:
The Oracle is Death, where souls speak no more. Your final breath she seals, beneath the Orbis core.
"signatures" in soul seeking – individuals leave a unique energetic imprint. The Red Shepherds are beginning to develop methods to detect these signatures, posing a growing threat to any potential resistance.
A political faction called the Red Shepherds (or the "Reds"), under the mythed merciless leadership of one simply called the "Protector", seeks to command the power of soul seeking to overcome their human limitations, to achieve mental and physical superiority, and to challenge death itself.
Leina Grey is a fourteen-year-old loner girl, the protagonist of our story, who was never raised to know a concept of "fun". She's smarter & more mature than the kids her age, most adults for that matter, and is very sensitive of the ways her experience lacks behind her theoretical knowledge.
Leina's mother, Nume, is paranoid, intense, and a bit crazy (maybe not without justification) and educates Leina harshly. Leina's job is essentially being a full-time college student while in "7th grade".
Leina is athletic but at the same time frail; she often falls sick. Nume is very private and refuses to take Leina to a doctor. She instead personally cares for her daughter using a book of medicine; a particularly old, annotated edition of the Soul Seeker's Manual which has been in her family for countless generations. For some reason Leina can often perceive when people were sick.
The Manual is one of many books in her family's expansive library. Its approach to medicine is slightly woo; heuristics & classical approaches. Somehow, perhaps having heard it so often, Leina feels a strange connection to the text. She can almost perceive when others are sick
For some reason Leina always found the approaches of the Soul Seeker's Manual intuitive, comfortable, and strangely familiar, if not a bit wrong or off in subtle ways she couldn't describe...
Leina can only take so much living w/ Nume & independently decides to move into the guest quarters of her widowed uncle, Nume's brother. He's a pushover; clearly scarred from growing up w/ Nume. Leina takes several books.
The Red Shepherds are trying to come to power. Their strategy is not only to achieve superior medical proficiency, but search for ways to boost their followers into superior soldiers. Their ultimate goal is immortality and the strength to conquer. They're after the Soul Seeker's Manuals, especially a fabled, annotated editions that may help them unlock the true power of the texts.
The one edition of the Soul Seeker's Manual with answers to these inquiries is the copy that Nume had, which now resides with Leina.
The Red Shepherds send an assassin to find the manuals. Aside from being circumstantially heartless, the assassin literally has a heart defect & is told his life depends on acquiring a specific annotated edition of this manual, as well as the help of the Red Shepherd's Soul Seekers, who can interpret & practice the book's medicine.
Leina's grandparents appear on soul seeking records under the control of the Red Shepherds. The assassin pillages her uncle's home and Leina is told by her spineless Uncle she must leave (for his own safety). The assassin finds Nume and dispenses of her in cold blood, Leina sees from outside the window. When he leaves, Leina goes inside to regard her mother and to gather supplies to flee but finds herself in the Assassin's trap.
Leina can inexplicably sense the Assassin is sick, perhaps her innate connection to Soul Seeking and years of exposure to the manual, and warns him that the book cannot help him, but if anyone can (she says with uncertainty), it's her. The assassin grabs her puts a knife to her throat and, in a moment of desperation, she undertakes a radical experiment; a spell of sorts to bind her life-force to his (similar to Leon the Professional). Ardivous can feel the change grip his heart as Leina explains: she is all now that prevents his heart from failing and he will meet this fate should she die or be turned against... But at what lost to Leina? She does not know.
Thus, in our emerging epic tale, Leina has found a way to secure her life & her mentor figure, whose fate (a la leon the professional) is now intertwined.
This story is about Leina's survival, and how it ultimately drives her to start a school of Soul Seeking (a la harry potter) and collect a group of trustworthy people to her side to stage a resistance against the Red Shepherds.
In the pursuit of survival, Leina must simultaneously yield to the assassin's agenda and leverage her soul seeking abilities and strategic prowess to amass enough power to gain the upper hand.
- Isolated Beginnings & The Looming Threat: Leina's unique childhood under Nume contrasts with the rising power of the Red Shepherds.
- Forced Flight & Accidental Bond: The death of her parents forces Leina into a dangerous world, where she inadvertently binds her life to the assassin Ardivous using her nascent abilities and the artifacts she carries.
- The Unwilling Mentor: Leina and Ardivous navigate their codependent relationship, a tense mix of survival and conflicting loyalties.
- Gathering Strength & Allies: Leina's journey involves evading other threats, healing those harmed by the Reds, and discovering individuals with soul-seeking potential, leading to the formation of her resistance.
- The Offensive: Facing imminent discovery, Leina decides to confront the Protector directly, leading a team to the Oracle.
- The Confrontation & Unexpected Twist: Leina's attempt to bind with the Protector backfires; the bond unexpectedly includes Ardivous.
- The Ultimate Sacrifice: Ardivous makes the devastating choice to sacrifice himself, taking the Protector and destabilizing the Oracle.
- Survival & a Changed World: Leina survives Ardivous's act, returning to a world where the Protector's power is weakened, but the fight is likely not over.
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Madeleina (
Leina) Grey - a loner who doesn't understand fun. She is the main protagonist of our story. She's smarter & more mature than the kids her age, and most adults. And is very sensitive of the ways her experience lacks behind her theoretical knowledge. For some reason Leina always found the approaches intuitive and strangely familiar, if not a bit off or wrong in subtle ways she couldn't describe.- Leina is a young girl (14)
- She is way too mature and intellgent for her age, not by choice
- Does not especially like adults
- Hates the idea of politics but is quite political
- self-reliant
- tormented
- wants freedom, peace, solitude, a simple life
- wears a necklace with a large trillion of oracle stone
-
Nume- Leina's mother, is paranoid / a bit crazy (may not without justification) and educates Leina harshly. -
Ardivous Retik
- an Assassin sent by the Red Shepherds to find the annotated Soul Seeker's Manual. Aside from being circumstantially heartless, the assassin also has a heart defect. He is beholden to the Reds who tell him his life depends on acquiring this book and the care of the Red Shepherd's Soul Seekers.
Nume Moore Grey- Leina's mother- sharp nose, almost like a witch
- curly dark brown unkempt hair
- manic-depressive
Alistair Grey- Leina's father- Famous, though it's unclear for what (good or bad)
- The annotations in Leina's soul seeker's manual are from Alistair, but Leina won't learn this until much later when she recognizes the handwriting
- may play a similar complicated role to Snape or Boromit
Haesius Moore- Leina's uncle & Nume's brotherSamuel "Sammy" Smithens- the town librarian- An old frail man with white hair, mostly on the side of his head
- Treats children like adults, believes good ideas can come from anyone
- The
Protector- The Leader of the Reds - The
Collector(s)- A group of elite Reds and a fabled band which operates in secrecy to do the Protector's will. Everyone pays tribute to the Collector(s), through groups such as the Red Shepherds. It’s not known who is in charge (it’s somewhat faceless, like anonymous). Johan Lemeus- Leina's next door neighbor- Used to be in the Westhaven guard
- He is having an affair with
Lindy Abigale
Lindy Abigale- She works at the market
Leina faces the Protector, near The Oracle. Leina attempts to play the same card, binding her fate to the Protector, and intentionally claiming her life in the process to take the Protector with her, but what is not expected is that Ardivous is also bound to Leina and keeping her alive. He must decide whether to break free of Leina and survive or give his own life to the cause and ultimately he makes the difficult decision to save her.
- Thousands have died resisting the Protector and the Red Shepherds.
- It's discovered (via Alistair's annotations) that many of their souls have been returned to The Oracle, only furthering the Protector's drive for power.
- as the Reds knowledge increases, so do their capabilities, and they become closer to identifying the signature of the rebellious soul seekers, led by Leina -- simply called the "Defenders". On the precipice of being discovered, Leina must go on the offensive.
- Leina goes with a team to face the Protector. Her hope is to join his fate with hers, similar to what she did with Ardivous, and then to take her own life, thus taking the Protector with her.
- But Leina is overwhelmed by the Protector and unable to maintain control. The Protector commits her life force to the Oracle.
- Except the joining of fates had been successful: what really happened, unexpectedly, is the Protector was joined not only with Leina but also to Ardivous.
- Realizing this, Ardivous makes the impossible decision to take his own life and commit himself and the Protector to the Oracle. The Oracle becomes overwhelmed and unstable and the Protector's city begins to crumble.
- By the grace of Ardivous, Leina survives.