quintet

Quintet is the story of Leina Grey, a young girl who founds an academy of prodigies to shield her from society.

Story Outline

Read the story in tweet-thread form: https://twitter.com/mekarpeles/status/1432731912242614273

Leina is a loner who doesn't understand fun. 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.

Leina's mother, Nume, is paranoid / a bit crazy (may not without justification) and educates Leina harshly.

Leina would often get sick and her mother refused to take her to the doctor. Nume wasn't a doctor but was always able to somehow help Leina feel better. For some reason Leina could often perceive when people were sick.

Among many of her mother's books was a book called the Soul Speaker's Manual which had slightly woo approaches to medicine. Heuristics and classical approaches.

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.

The group in power, the Red Shepherd, are trying to come to power. They aspire not only for superior medical skills, but are searching for ways to boost humans into superior soldiers.

One one edition of the Soul Speaker's Manual has notes on this practice, and it is the copy that Nume has

An Assassin is sent by the Red Shepherds to find the book. And aside from being circumstantially heartless, the assassin also has a heart defect is told his life depends on acquiring this book, and the Red Shepherd's Soul Speakers (those who interpret the book and practice medicine)

Leina is told by her Uncle (with whom she lives) she must leave (for his own safety). The assassin tracks and discovers Leina. Leina can somehow sense that the Assassin is sick and warns him that the book cannot help him. But (she says uncertainly) she can.

Thus, in our epic tale, Leina has found a way to secure her life and her mentor figure, whose fate (a la leon the professional) is intertwined.

This story is about Leina's of survival, and how it ultimately drives her to start a school of Soul Speaking (a la harry potter) and collect a group of trustworthy people to her side to stage a resistance against the Red Shepherds