SENTIENCE

By Elyse Russell and Dany Rivera

A clockwork android named Kyra, completely assured of her place in the world, is becoming riddled in self-doubt and burdened with questions of her own identity.

SENTIENCE, an American light novel, is a 13 chapter mix of prose and comic art (containing approx. 20 illustrations including some sequential art) that is ready to shatter the boun

• Language: English
• Publisher: Band of Bards Comics
• Release date: Oct 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781959049081

Elyse Russell

Elyse Russell has been writing since she was seven. She loves stories in all forms. When writing, she tends to stick to short stories and graphic novels, and most of her works are speculative in nature.Elyse has had works accepted with Mermaid's Monthly, Hyphen Punk, Crone Girl's Press, Outcast Press, Markosia, Last Girls Club, and more. Her horror graphic novella, The Fell Witch, is an allegory for postpartum depression and will be released in 2022 with Band of Bards comics.When not writing, Elyse enjoys long naps with her cats, reading, and donuts. Also cheese. Learn more about her works and world at her website: elyserussellauthor.squarespace.com.

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Prologue

The Harvester's Daughter

The human soul glowed an eerie green color in Tessienne’s paperwhite palms. Growing agitated by its sudden lack of a husk, it flittered and swirled. The Sorceress did nothing to soothe its distress, merely carried it calmly to her arcane workstation. An assortment of gemstones glittered on the onyx tabletop in the light from the gas lamps. Red, blue, and purple winked up at Tessienne as she sat down to think.

The Sorceress closed her pure white eyes and concentrated on assessing the spirit in her hands. She had pulled the soul from the harvesting tanks because she could sense it was a particularly strong one that could be used in many different ways.

Carefully, she selected a gemstone—a yellow diamond—and cupped her palms around both it and the soul. She squeezed and pressed, mumbling incantations under her breath, then bit into her tongue to draw blood.

That darkest of magics, Necromancy, always required blood, bone, and hair. Bone was the strongest ingredient. The more complex the magic, the more bone was needed. Unless the bones used were those of a witch, like Tessienne. There was great power in a witch’s bones.

To trap the soul inside the gemstone, Tessienne would have to use those Necromancy skills. She opened her hands and held the diamond up to her face, then dragged her tongue across it to smear it with red. This completed the first step. For some spells, that was enough.

Tessienne, however, was well aware that blood alone would not contain the soul. She reached into a drawer in her desk and withdrew two small bottles. One was filled with the dust of ground-up human bones. The other contained hair that had been cut into the tiniest of pieces. Tessienne sprinkled a bit of each over the gem as it wriggled on the smooth onyx. The soul inside thrashed in horror at being contained within a cold, non-living vessel.

Gradually, as Tessienne spoke her poison, the thrashing ceased. The soul glowed more dimly. Now, a bright neon green lit inside of the yellow diamond. The color was…unnerving. Unnatural. Tessienne loved it. Indeed, this soul could serve unique purposes. Such a soul gem could run a zeppelin on its own, or fuel the machinery in the factories for months. It was even more powerful than the Soul Energy, a liquid she manufactured and sold at ridiculously inflated rates. Soul gems, however, were much more difficult to make.

For now, the Sorceress tucked her new conquest into a white velvet-padded drawer, which she then locked with an iron skeleton key. Satisfied, she sighed and relaxed in the high-backed chair, her crisp, white robes a stark contrast to the carved onyx.

Any soul could be harnessed into pure energy, and that was the Sorceress’s main occupation. She was the most skilled Necromancer in all of Pangana, as well as the richest. There was a hefty profit to be made in Soul Energy, or SE, and Tessienne had a monopoly on the market. Her assassins made sure to maintain that monopoly for her whenever a lesser witch dared to try making and selling their own SE.

As carefully as she guarded the secret, the recipe for SE had leaked occasionally. Each time it did, for whatever reason, the leak was immediately and violently stemmed. Tessienne would accept nothing less.

The assassins, however, deadly as they were, still suffered from human failings and frailty. There were limits to their capabilities. They erred, they disappointed, and they were even, on occasion, killed.

Which was very, very annoying for Tessienne. It was expensive to train an assassin, after all, and even more expensive to ensure their loyalty. And still, there were those pesky leaks.

Tessienne glanced over at the unorganized stack of papers on the corner of her desk, covered in sketches and designs for her next great plan. If this worked…

If this worked, she would never again lose a daughter. The question was, could she call back the one that had already died?

Tessienne had her most trustworthy slaves begin work on welding the pieces for a metal body. It would be a clockwork contraption with the form of a person: an automaton. Tessienne already knew, from multiple experiments, that SE could bring life to that which was already dead. It was a half-life, of course. The original soul was lost. But the body could be re-animated, as long as decomposition hadn’t yet wreaked too much damage to the tissues.

If SE could animate flesh, perhaps it could also animate other materials…like metal. This was Tessienne’s greatest hope. It would solve many of her problems. If she could have indestructible, magic-fueled assassins…ones that she could control absolutely…

Of course, the human assassins would then be a liability. They knew too much, and they were too dangerous. They’d have to be disposed of. It was difficult to assassinate an assassin, but not impossible. Perhaps that could be the first assignment for the first clockwork android.

At the end of each long day, she would descend to the underground work chamber, where slave women toiled to mold the perfect killing machine. Already, bits and pieces were being put together; a leg was in the first stages of testing for functionality on one table, while the flexibility of the fingers on a hand was the focus of another workstation. Tessienne oversaw all of this with impatient approval.

The most difficult part would be the head. Magic could only do so much, after all. The basic mechanics had to work on their own. Vision, speech, cognition, memory: all of these were the main concerns for her talented slaves, each of them magically gifted themselves. And they knew exactly what would happen to them should they fail.

Tessienne allowed the corners of her thin mouth to twitch upward, wondering just how much energy she could harvest from the women working before her. How much she would harvest, actually, since she had no intention of letting them become elderly and useless. Nor would she waste the opportunity for a harvest, especially the harvest of magic-wielding souls. They were, after all, slightly more powerful than the souls of regular people. Of course, the slaves before her had no idea of her plans for them. She suspected that it would decrease their productivity.

At last, a completed clockwork android lay assembled on the table. Its eyes were closed, and its arms and legs lay limp at its sides. The silver and bronze metal plates shone dully in the light of the lanterns. After dismissing the slaves with a curt wave, Tessienne prowled around the creation, taking in every detail. She touched the tips of her long, pale fingers to the cool metal and traced curlicues across the surface.

Then she stopped and held the android’s face between her hands. She closed her eyes and imagined the only person she had ever felt any affection for inhabiting a cold shell like this one. Could it work? She would make it work.

After all, she had discovered every other step that would be necessary to achieve her ultimate goal. She had found a way to harvest human souls, then figured out how to ensnare a soul within a gemstone. As a Necromancer, she could recall souls from the dead. She knew the magic for reanimations, both partial and true. Her bones resonated with a power so deep that even common humans could feel its presence. A blind person would shy away from Tessienne’s presence.

She would test the process on this machine. If it worked, she’d build another, even better model. And that one would serve as a host for…

Tessienne wouldn’t allow herself to complete the thought until it was more of a certainty. One step at a time. After all, her methodical nature had kept her alive and prosperous thus far.

She reached into a hidden pocket in her voluminous white robes and removed a gemstone. It was a flawless sapphire of such a deep blue that it almost looked black in the low light of the chamber. In its very depths, Tessienne could catch just a glimpse of glowing green. It reminded her of the glass neon lamps in the city of Haikin across the mountains. It was beautiful. It would work. It had to work.

Open your eyes, Tessienne commanded.

Immediately, the metal lids snapped open, revealing black eyes with a small circle of glowing green where the iris would have been on a human eye. The circles traveled back and forth before finally settling on Tessienne’s face.

Your name is One, and I am your Creator, Mother, and Master, Tessienne informed the clockwork android. Tell me who I am.

You are my Creator, Mother, and Master, One responded.

Her voice was without intonation, and it rather grated on Tessienne’s nerves. They would have to fix that. She had been expecting some tweaking with the magics, anyway.

Sit up, and then stand in front of me, Tessienne ordered.

Her creation obeyed. One was exactly the same height as her Mother, and the two stared directly into each other’s eyes. One was preternaturally still. There was no movement from breathing, nor did she display any of the fidgety tendencies of so many humans. This pleased Tessienne, who found signs of life irritating. She walked in a full circle around One, examining every gleaming inch of her. Tessienne was quite satisfied with what she saw. Now, she needed to see how well the android could perform.

Come with me, Tessienne ordered.

She did not look to see whether or not One obeyed her, but after a moment, she heard the metallic clanking and clinking of her creation’s footsteps on the stone floor behind her. Tessienne led One to a large gymnasium where her best assassin was waiting.

This person is to be your teacher, Tessienne informed One. You will listen to everything he says, and do whatever he asks of you.

Yes, Creator, Mother, and Master, One responded.

Mother will suffice.

Mother.

Tessienne smiled coldly and stepped back to watch the training of an immortal killer begin. She stayed for the entire session, and when she was quite pleased with the way that One moved and remembered, she issued another order.

Now, One: kill your teacher, Tessienne demanded.

The human assassin’s eyes widened with shock. He shook his head in disbelief; he had always thought he was Tessienne’s favorite, that she trusted him implicitly and valued him above all others in her employ…

His expression of shock was still displayed on his face a moment later when his head rolled to a stop at Tessienne’s feet. She smiled slightly, then looked up at One.

Very good, One, she praised.

The clockwork android tilted her head to the side, listening and absorbing the approval. Tessienne could have sworn that the metallic woman somehow looked…pleased. Good.

Your next assignment, One, is this: hunt down and kill all of my human assassins. They are no longer needed. Go to Menula the spider, in her cave beneath the palace. She has a list of their names.

Tessienne gave One directions to the skin weaver’s cave. The clockwork woman nodded and bowed to her Mother.

One left, and Tessienne sighed. She resolved to ensure that the androids (for there would be more, of course) would never know how they were animated. Better to let them think they were mindless killing machines, devoted to her.

It was turning out to be a very productive day. Many steps had been taken. And most importantly, she now knew that her invention worked. She could create clockwork androids, and she could make a vessel of the next one. A vessel for the most important soul in the world.

Later that night, Tessienne sat alone in her chambers. The stained-glass windows were open to allow the night breeze to enter and run its fingers through her long white hair, which hung over the back of her chair and spilled onto the floor. In one corner of the cold room was an enormous stone basin, filled with loamy earth and home to every species of bioluminescent mushroom imaginable. Chains and manacles hung from one of the walls, but the rest were barren. No art or mirrors adorned them.

In one hand, Tessienne held a small lock of curly black hair. In the other was a wicked-looking ceremonial knife with a hilt made of human bone and a serrated blade imbued with blood magic. The silver blade would occasionally catch the light just right and flash a deep crimson color along the edge.

Tonight, she would go to extreme lengths to reach the spirit that was always in her thoughts. None of her other, normal methods of Necromancy had worked thus far. A larger sacrifice, it seemed, was necessary.

Tessienne’s eyes were rolled back in her head, though an observer wouldn’t have been able to tell, since her eyes were always solid white. There was never any hint of pupil or iris. They never showed any reflection in their depths. They were as dull as old plates.

The hand holding the black hair lifted, trembling, to the Sorceress’s mouth. She deposited the hair underneath her tongue and held it there tightly, her lips pinched into a tight line. The hair felt crispy and itchy.

Then, she slowly lifted the knife and brought it to hover over the smallest finger on the opposite hand. An eerie hissing noise issued from her throat, and then she began to hum. There was no musical quality to the humming; it sounded like rocks being scraped together deep underground.

The knife flashed suddenly, and the Sorceress’s pinky finger tumbled into her lap. Blood ran down the arm of the chair. The humming continued. She didn’t even twitch from the pain.

Tessienne allowed the knife to clatter loudly to the ground. As the blood poured from her hand, the bioluminescent mushrooms in the corner glowed brighter and the breeze blew harder. The air became heavier and carried the scent of decay.

She lifted the small, severed finger from her lap, leaving a red puddle soaking into the pure white fabric, and placed it underneath her tongue as well. Black tears streamed down her porcelain cheeks. Then, with a jolt, she leaned forward and opened her mouth, letting out a terrible screeching sound while keeping her tongue pressed