Page 22 of Stars May Fall

Callum scratched one cheek. “Not precisely, Mister Gregane wasn’t the most forthcoming, but the biggest part was certainly what I’d describe as ‘health.’ Until a kryalcomy collar was placed around your neck, your health and vitality was being sucked into this disk. You were dying. We had to reverse it. Other traits that seem to have been removed as well were compassion, empathy, self-preservation. You can tell that just by looking at a halfsoul. It’s what makes them similar to the Kollenstar soulless. However, there was also this.” He placed a black disk on the table and removed his hand quickly. “Things had been added to you which we had to take away, sucked back into this. Violence. At least, that’s the only way I could describe it.”

I blinked, trying to process the use behind such devices. “So if kryalcomy has two poles, one was me, the other was each of these disks. One to harvest health and humanity from me, the other to make me violent.” I stared at the black disk. “Maybe the lack of humanity and added violence was so I’d bite and infectothers so life could also be harvested from them. Like how rabies is spread by making its host aggressive.”

Callum nodded encouragingly. “Exactly! My thoughts exactly!”

Kasten leaned forward, his finger curled under his chin. “But how did one pole of the kryalcomy get into Sophie? The halfsoul bit her. It didn’t put metal on or into her.”

Callum held up one finger. “This Mister Gregane refused to explain, but I can only imagine it is a form of haemalcomy where miniscule pieces of metal are bound to something that can spread from saliva into the bloodstream. To some sort of protein, perhaps. Maybe bound to an infection similar to rabies but less deadly.”

I sat up straight. “So that metal could still be inside me?”

Callum nodded. “I don’t know if your body has excreted it somehow or if it will be in there forever. There is much more information I would like from Mister Gregane and Lord Lyrason.” He picked up the two disks, balancing the black one on top of the silver one so he didn’t have to touch it for long. “And that is why, when he tried to leave with these disks, I held a knife to his throat until he handed them over. If one pole remains in your body, we must keep these safe or people could misuse them to perform haemalcomy on you at any point. Either to add things”—he held up the black disk—“or take qualities away.” He held up the silvery disk. “We should keep both of these safe, just in case, or destroy them.”

Kasten had grown tense as Callum spoke and rested one of his hands protectively on my knee. I put both my hands over my mouth in sudden shock. “I could still be infectious.” I turned to Kasten with wide eyes. “You’ve kissed me!” Realizing I’d said that in front of Callum made my cheeks heat.

Callum snorted a laugh. “You’re not infectious. Mister Gregane said the infectious stage only lasts a day and a halfat the most. But he didn’t say if the haemalcomy substance, whatever it is, disappears from your body completely.” He waggled his eyebrows at Kasten. “Looks like Kasten thought that kiss was worth the risk of turning into a halfsoul, anyway. Such a selfless experiment.”

Kasten cleared his throat and appeared to be studying the disks with intense concentration. “Can you work out what they’re made of?”

Callum grimaced. “Yes and no. I’ve taken slivers off them for testing. I can work out the metal alloy components and even the temperature the kryal was heated to. But there’s other substances in it that I can’t identify. I suspect things extracted from bodies.” He shivered. “How one makes haemalcomy channel things like emotions and health, I still can’t fathom. I’m not sure I want to.”

Kasten grimaced. “Destroy them.”

Callum winced. “I thought about it. But what if there’s a time we want to give Sophie additional health? Maybe if she became very sick. Or what if her symptoms relapse?”

My heart shot to my throat. I stood up in alarm, my palms flat on the table. “I would never take health or vitality or anything from another person. Not even the worst criminal. Not if they were on their deathbed.”

Kasten looked at the disks, running a finger across his chin as he frowned in thought.

I leaned over the table to Callum. I couldn’t believe they were even considering this. “This isn’t up for debate. Destroy them.” How could anyone else’s life be considered less valuable than mine?

Callum’s lip twitched up as if amused to see me so forward and animated. “Fine. I will. Though I’ll want to keep the fragments for further testing.” He pocketed the metals.

Kasten didn’t react any further to the exchange. He just stared off into the rose garden. “But why was Lord Lyrason harvesting ‘life’ or ‘health’ or whatever it is? Is he trying to live forever? Is he ill? He has no close family.” He narrowed his eyes. “He’s only ever released one or two halfsouls at a time, and they rarely infected others. The latest ones did feel more violent, however. It has the feel of testing and experimenting.”

Callum nodded. “I suspect the end goal is for them to effectively self-spread like a disease, each one infecting several others before they die, all harvesting life into those disks. A plague of halfsouls.”

Kasten grimaced. “If he released a large group of them and they effectively spread, making more and more halfsouls, you’d need a whole army to get rid of them.”

I swallowed and wrapped my shawl tighter around my shoulders, which were suddenly cold. “With that much life harvested, would it be enough for somebody to live forever?”

Callum shrugged. “If the halfsouls replicated themselves on and on, it could be limitless.”

Kasten still hadn’t looked away from the rose garden. “What if it’s a war weapon? What if they’re testing the halfsouls to get them ready to release hundreds on Kollenstar? They’d spread, and Lyrason could use the harvested life in those disks to extend the lives of our soldiers or nobility or whomever he wanted. It could wipe out the whole nation.”

Callum tapped his finger on the table. “It’s a theory, though we have no evidence of anything on that scale. And I don’t think Lyrason could fit that many halfsouls inside his mansion ready to be released.” He gave Kasten a meaningful look. “But the more I think about it, the more I struggle to believe Lyrason was doing something this big on his own. If he wanted a long life for himself, he could have been far more simple and subtle. There would have been no need for halfsouls to infect and create morehalfsouls, no need for such complicated experiments. He would just need to keep a few locked up.”

I tightened my grip on the edge of the table. “So you agree with Kasten and suspect that the king is involved after all?”

Callum grimaced. “Again, It’s a theory. It would make sense of why he was so eager for Lord Lyrason to sort out the problem while he distanced himself from it. But we shouldn’t assume that.”

Kasten sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “Maybe Princess Annabelle will get to the bottom of it. We’ve done our part in exposing and stopping as much as we have. She’s aware of our suspicions. I don’t want to be involved in Adenburg politics anymore.”

Callum snorted. “Don’t pretend every noble in Adenburg is not wetting their pants about you right now, Kasten. There is no way they are going to leave you alone. Not when people rallied to your name the second you took a stance against a single noble. Not when they saw a sliver of what you are capable of.”

I swallowed down my rising anticipation and nervousness as Kasten dragged a hand down his face. “Are you suggesting a solution, Callum, or just listing my problems?”

Callum grinned. “Neither. I just wanted to highlight the whole picture to you both before I handed this letter over so you understood what we were up against.”

---