Bannon & Clare

Emma Bannon, forensic sorceress in the service of the Empire, has a mission: to protect Archibald Clare, a failed, unregistered mentath. His skills of deduction are legendary, and her own sorcery is not inconsiderable. It doesn't help much that they barely tolerate each other, or that Bannon's Shield, Mikal, might just be a traitor himself. Or that the conspiracy killing registered mentaths and sorcerers alike will just as likely kill them as seduce them into treachery toward their Queen.

The service of Britannia is not for the faint of heart - or conscience...Emma Bannon, Sorceress Prime in service to Queen Victrix, has a mission: To find the doctor who has created a powerful new weapon. Her friend, the mentath Archibald Clare, is only too happy to help. It will distract him from pursuing his nemesis, and besides, Clare is not as young as he used to be. A spot of Miss Bannon's excellent hospitality and her diverting company may be just what he needs.

Sorcery. Treason. Madness. And, of course, murder most foul...A shattering accident places Archibald Clare, mentath in the service of Britannia, in the care of Emma Bannon, sorceress Prime. Clare needs a measure of calm to repair his faculties of Logic and Reason. Without them, he is not his best. At all. Unfortunately, calm and rest will not be found. There is a killer hiding in the sorcerous steam-hells of Londinium, murdering poor women of a certain reputation. Once more Emma Bannon is pressed into service; once more Archibald Clare is determined to aid her.

It could have been aliens, it could have been a trans-dimensional rift, nobody knows for sure. What's known is that there was an Event, the Rifts opened up, and everyone caught inside died. Since the Event certain people have gone into the drift...and come back, bearing priceless technology that's almost magical in its advancement. When Ashe - the best Rifter of her generation - dies, the authorities offer her student, Svinga, a choice: go in and bring out the thing that killed her, or rot in jail.