Redsight is described as a heretical exploration of faith and energy, with a sapphic science fantasy story that includes {a partially} sighted heroine based mostly on the creator’s personal experiences. Meredith Mooring makes her fantasy debut with this thrilling, swashbuckling new novel.
Redsight follows a blind priestess who powers warships for the galactic navy by manipulating spacetime. When the captain of her ship is murdered by a pirate with a darkish previous, she should select between a painful lifetime of service or an opportunity at freedom with the galaxy’s most wished prison.
Try an unique have a look at the primary chapter after this unimaginable cowl reveal. The illustration is by Alyssa Winans, and the design is by Sam Gretton.
Chapter One: Korinna
The Church was empty apart from the crimson, whispering our bodies.
As she knelt on the ground, Korinna’s veil caught to the crimson mud she wore over her eyes. Sticky from the warmth of so many candles, plumes of incense thickened the air. Her knees bruised. The marble flooring bit into them with the poison of a viper. She felt all of it and pulled every sensation deep into her coronary heart.
The simulacrum held a handful of different clerics presently within the ship’s day cycle, their heads bent in respect. Meditating on Vermicula’s perfection each day wasn’t required, however this was the one place on the Navitas the place Korinna might discover some rattling peace and quiet.
She huffed her veil out of her face and froze.
Among the many blurred splotches of crimson that had been the opposite clerics, there was a stranger. A lady stood by Vermicula’s altar with the warmth of a candle in her hand. The goddess’ tomb rested on a low platform off the bottom, coated with a recumbent effigy of her likeness.
The dark-haired girl positioned the candle in Vermicula’s cupped fingers and the flame jumped prefer it had been doused in accelerant.
Regardless of her restricted imaginative and prescient, Korinna noticed the girl’s face extra clearly than she had ever seen something, her eyes taking in every element for the primary time. Usually, Korinna noticed in blurs and smudges. She relied on tactus, the tactile power of all issues, to really feel the world round her as an alternative.
She had by no means seen a face earlier than.
Transfixed, she stood up, her aches and pains forgotten. Seeing the shine of the girl’s black hair, the rosy tint to her honest pores and skin from the warmth of the candles, and the heat of her black eyes struck her speechless.
The lady breezed out of the simulacrum, her skirts hissing over the marble.
Korinna’s mouth hung open. The opposite clerics had been nonetheless kneeling on the altar or bent over in prayer within the pews.
Wandering out of the heavy environment of the sacred area, she pulled the crimson gossamer off her head and sucked down the cool air of the ship. A category of novices, largely youngsters half Korinna’s top, trudged down the hallway below the supervision of a pinched priestess. The unsworn adepts eased previous her with quiet steps, shrinking earlier than the doorways to the simulacrum.
A number of of the scholars would turn into clerics quickly in the event that they survived, however lots of them wouldn’t.
Years in the past, Korinna had been certainly one of them. Born and raised on the Navitas, she’d spent twenty years within the Order of Vermicula with out setting foot on land. She was in her last 12 months as a cleric, an initiated member of her Order, however with out the duties or tasks of the clergymen and priestesses.
“Class sizes are getting a bit ridiculous, aren’t they?”
Therese appeared at her elbow together with two different clerics from Korinna’s cohort.
“For now.”
Did she say that out loud? Perhaps Korinna had inhaled an excessive amount of incense, however her mind felt prefer it was working at half its regular capability.
“Excuse us,” Therese mentioned. “You’re standing in the best way.”
“Sorry—There’s—I’ve to go.”
The opposite ladies whispered as they filed into the simulacrum collectively. Thank the Ember she’d completed her meditation already. There could be no peace for the clerics compelled to share the simulacrum with Therese and her buddies.
She’d been a kind of buddies as soon as, earlier than she swore herself to the Order. Korinna and Therese would have been solely 13 then, barely older than the category of ladies she’d simply handed. Earlier than the evening when the others disappeared.
Till they pledged their lives to Vermicula, all adepts had been handled kind of the identical. As youngsters, they studied languages, geography, mapmaking, and tactology, the science of tactile power. At age 13, novices breathed in incense from Vermicula’s altar and so they had been without end sure to her Order.
As soon as Korinna and the survivors joined the Order, nothing was the identical.
Clerics nonetheless had classes, however they had been separated in response to capacity. The most important class in her cohort had ten ladies and three males. That was the category Therese was a part of, the category Korinna had anticipated to be positioned in.
Now she didn’t have a category. She had remedial classes by herself with Mistress Vega, an octogenarian priestess who had dominated as Excessive Priestess of the Order in her day, earlier than yielding the standing to Mistress Renatia.
After spending a lot time away from her cohort, Korinna was an outsider. To not point out she normally lacked for exciting firm, as Mistress Vega didn’t entertain informal speak. Within the mornings, they spent most of their time drawing Korinna’s blood out of her arm and into obsidian vials. Mistress Vega would go to sleep throughout their educational classes within the afternoon. Korinna didn’t have the center to wake her, and used the time to learn the romance tales Vega stored on the tallest shelf in her workplace, even when they had been largely about males.
With none classes between now and dinner, Korinna was reduce unfastened, a frayed wire fallen out of its braid. She regarded round for the dark-haired girl once more, however noticed solely the same old mass of blurred shapes transferring via the hall. Then she felt for her electrical communicator and browse the ten missed notifications together with her fingers.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered, operating down the crowded corridor to one of many lifts that will take her to the higher ranges of the Navitas.
It took a number of minutes to achieve the Excessive Priestess’ workplace. She arrived panting and braced her fingers towards her thighs. Renatia’s assistant, Pegarda, stood earlier than her. Between gasps of air, Korinna managed, “I’m sorry, isn’t there nonetheless time to satisfy—”
“Completely not,” mentioned Pegarda. “Your assembly with the Excessive Priestess requires an hour of time. It have to be rescheduled.”
There have been nonetheless thirty minutes left. Korinna didn’t perceive why they couldn’t have the assembly now, however this was the Order. There have been guidelines, and traditions, and respect that have to be noticed.
“The Excessive Priestess has a gathering with the Pink Friar of the Ardus Sector concerning the candle provider that can not be pushed again. You’ll obtain one other appointment.”
Korinna scuttled out of the workplace like she’d been swatted with a rolled-up prayer ebook. Had Pegarda at all times been such a chunk of labor? If Korinna hadn’t been so distracted by the girl with the attractive face within the simulacrum, she would have been on time. She couldn’t cease fascinated by her. She didn’t know individuals might look that means, that somebody’s eyes might pin you the place you stood with out them transferring or talking a phrase.
Along with her assembly over earlier than it started, she made her method to the eating corridor. Its excessive ceilings echoed with the sound of voices and the free embers of tactus that got here from having so many Redseers in a single place. Korinna might really feel the waves of tactus reverberating off the marble surfaces and the glass that exposed open area exterior the ship.
She cherished being within the eating corridor beneath the expanse of infinite black. And, whereas she couldn’t see the person stars in that darkish world overhead, their heat beamed down like an array of altar candles.
A flurry of clerics buzzed round a lady within the cohort above hers. Korinna stopped on the fringe of the circle.
“Meifeng acquired a posting,” one of many youthful ones defined.
Everybody was effectively knowledgeable apart from Korinna. Being on the backside of her cohort didn’t lend her many buddies. She waited till the group of youthful college students left earlier than congratulating Meifeng in individual.
“I heard you bought a posting. You have to be excited.”
Meifeng shrugged. “I’m going to the Molaris Sector. A commerce vessel owned by an previous household.”
A place as a tactile navigator on a commerce vessel was prestigious. Commerce vessels had been prioritized over private ships of any dimension, and solely probably the most expert Redseers had been assigned to them. The one postings requiring extra talent had been warships.
Korinna took a seat throughout from Meifeng. “What’s incorrect? Aren’t you content?”
“After all I’m. However… ” Meifeng set free a breath.
“It’s okay, you possibly can say what you imply.”
“You’ll perceive once you get a posting. It’s not simple. They don’t—You aren’t given a alternative.” Meifeng’s voice wobbled.
Korinna wasn’t going to spend her life off the ship, however she held her tongue.
“However you’ll make a unbelievable navigator.”
A watery snigger. “For now.”
She took Meifeng’s hand and squeezed it. It wasn’t mentioned typically, however Korinna had heard tales about navigators who solely lived for a 12 months after receiving their assignments. Redsight was too demanding on them long-term, however sacrifice was anticipated of them as clergymen and priestesses.
The older girl squeezed again. “What am I doing? I’m sorry about that. It’s laborious preserving this in when everybody’s so comfortable for me.”
“You don’t need to apologize.”
“I’d higher go.” Meifeng rose to depart. “However I hope I’ll see you round when you get off the Navitas too.”
“I’m unsure that’s going to occur, however thanks.”
“You by no means know. It looks as if everybody’s getting a posting as of late.” Her footsteps light as she strode off.
Korinna hadn’t heard about anybody else being despatched off the Navitas, however, then once more, she didn’t get to listen to any of the attention-grabbing gossip in her classes with Mistress Vega.
She rose and went to seize a nutrient drink with an additional dose of stimulant paste so she might eat whereas she labored within the library. The hour she’d put aside for her appointment with the Excessive Priestess was normally spent finding out, and he or she wanted to make up the work now or Vega would name her a waste of Vermicula’s radiance when she arrived empty-handed for her lesson tomorrow.
She’d had the identical examine carrel there for years, the place she stored her papers, slate, stylus, and tactile books when she wasn’t within the library or at classes. However she’d spent all day alone.
After transferring her belongings to one of many huge communal tables, Korinna started writing her essay on the affect of star density on homeomorphism. With a deft hand gripping her metal-tipped stylus, she imprinted fastidiously positioned raised dots into the thick paper framed on her slate.
All descendants of Vermicula had been born with Redsight. It restricted their imaginative and prescient whereas permitting them to govern tactus, and so Korinna had realized to learn and write via tactile markers. Within the Galactic Imperium her situation was known as blindness, however on the Navitas it was how everybody lived.
She labored till the essay was almost completed. The stimulant paste had cleared her head of no matter fumes she’d ingested within the simulacrum, thank the Ember.
Conscious as she was, Korinna didn’t miss the commotion when a gaggle of clerics entered the library. They had been from her cohort, and Therese was behind the herd.
They ambled from one desk to a different earlier than pausing by Korinna’s workspace.
“Let’s not sit there,” one of many males mentioned.
His innocuous phrases made his buddies snigger into their fingers, sharing some inside joke at her expense. Korinna gritted her enamel, questioning if this was one other a part of her Pegarda origin story, if this was how she would find yourself as a bitter secretary wielding affect over the tyrants from her youth whereas these extra gifted in her cohort took positions throughout the celebs.
Earlier than Korinna might snap her stylus in half she felt a clean brush alongside the again of her neck, silky and highly effective. She straightened in her chair and whipped round, however there was nobody behind her. Other than two bored nuns grading papers by the heating unit, she was alone.
That couldn’t be proper. She felt round till she caught a thread of sensation, an echo left within the wake of highly effective power. It felt acquainted. She’d felt the identical sensation earlier immediately within the simulacrum.
Korinna darted out of her chair, almost tripping over the hem of her gown. Arms outstretched, she looked for that thread and pulled till the weave of matter round it buckled, exhibiting her the best way.
Somebody was strolling via the library and so they didn’t wish to be detected.
It was advanced work: the form of power switch that required nice pure capacity. Reforming matter to hide a transferring being was so tough Korinna had solely examine it within the histories of the Enlightened Ones, Vermicula’s early descendants.
Softening her footsteps, she adopted the thread via the stacks of tactile books. She couldn’t keep in mind the final time she’d wanted something from the cabinets in these obscure sections of the library.
A heavy door creaked open and he or she froze in her tracks. For the second time in her life, Korinna noticed the clear options of a face. That face. The gorgeous, dark-haired girl from the simulacrum.
And right here she was once more. In some a part of the library Korinna knew she should’ve visited earlier than. However now, standing earlier than this radiant determine, with each characteristic seen in minute element, every part else round her light away.
All she might see was her.
Korinna darted for the open door, however when she reached it, the girl was gone.
Stepping inside, she teetered on her toes like she was bracing towards a wind. The crest of tactile power from the volumes contained on this room subsumed her in a riptide of tactus. There have been texts that held the imprint of different worlds, that contained traces of stars and cosmic electromagnetism. She ran her fingers over the spines of a few of the titles. Not all the volumes had been written in tactile script—a few of them had been clean. Written in print.
It struck her for the primary time that there was a big universe exterior the Navitas that lived otherwise, that learn books otherwise, that noticed faces each day and located the expertise unremarkable.
Who was the girl from the simulacrum? How had she gotten into this room, deep within the warrens of the Order’s library, and left with out anybody noticing her? How had she hid her presence so effectively?
“Who allow you to in right here?”
Korinna spun round as a claw-like hand clamped round her forearm. So consumed by her ideas, she hadn’t seen anybody strategy. She’d been studying one of many spines—Grimoires of the Pink Vestals—when she was jerked out of the room like a baby being dragged by the ear.
“Let me go!”
Thrashing in protest towards the nun’s unbreakable grip, Korinna stomped down on her foot with all her power. The lady yelped, withdrawing with a curse.
“Depraved lady! After all it was you I discovered operating your fingers throughout these terrible books! This room is off-limits to clerics. There’s nothing in there that may make you a stronger Redseer.” Her tone sharpened. “That door was blessed by the Excessive Priestess herself, so inform me how you bought inside.”
Korinna took a second to straighten her robes. “Somebody left the door open. I didn’t know what the room was, so I went inside.”
The nun requested her to repeat herself. When she held her level and insisted she didn’t know the room existed till the door was left open, the nun relented.
“You may have died standing in there. You’re fortunate I discovered you. A few of these books have an urge for food, and you’ve got much less tactus to spare than the remaining.” The nun paused as if considering a punishment. “Off to mattress with you. If I ever catch you in that room once more, I swear by the Ember I’ll string you up over Vermicula’s tomb for the following blood providing.”
“Sure, ma’am.”
Korinna gathered her slate and some of her papers earlier than leaving. She’d need to punch out the remainder of her essay in mattress earlier than falling asleep.
Excerpt from Redsight by Meredith Mooring reprinted by permission of Insurrection Publishing.
Meredith Mooring’s Redsight will probably be launched February 29, 2024 within the U.S. and March 2, 2024 within the UK.
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