Merry Christmas @goldmist
Title: His Wicked Materials
In a universe older and more innocent than our own, a troubling pandemic is on the rise. An unknown illness is afflicting the population’s Daemons - facets of the human soul who manifest as talking animal companions - causing them to suffer sinister symptoms and in some cases eventually to disappear altogether, leaving their human counterparts alive, but as bereft and passionless shells of the people they once had been.
At the height of the crisis, a mysterious organization called the Wicked Materials Department is born, where Dr. Ava Paige and her assistant Director Janson conduct nefarious experiments in secrecy, dedicated to the study of an ethereal substance known only as Dust, and believed to be at the root of the strange plague.
There, an orphan named Thomas, sent as an unwilling research subject, meets a group of young test patients. They include Minho, the favorite, whose Daemon Calpurnica seems to be blessed with a promising immunity to the infection’s deterioration, and the even more mysterious Newt, whose Daemon, Apollyon, is already missing. Although Newt still seems as present, passionate and beguilingly full of life to Thomas, in spite of his loss, as anyone else he has ever met.
Though only, Thomas soon discovers, when he himself is in the room – along with his own Daemon Freyja, who connects instantly with Newt and the echoes of his tragically disappeared Apollyon the first time he touches her. Through an ancient and little-understood bond between Daemons so rare in recent decades it is now all but the stuff of legend – called the Matching – and fabled to have enabled the pair-bonded Daemons of soul mates to communicate telepathically.
Through the bridge between their minds, Freyja is convinced she can find and heal Apollyon and finally reunite him with Newt – that the old myths could be the very cure the Wicked Materials team are searching for. But as Freyja begins to exhibit ominous hints of the illness’ symptoms, and Newt’s memories about his experiences in the research trials and what happened to Apollyon begin to slowly return, can Thomas and his newfound friends really trust the clandestine organization currently holding the fates of all of them – and of the world – in their hands?
On their quest for the truth behind the growing terror threatening their Daemon companions, the unlikely group of young rebels meet with a series unexpected trials; facing a dark and dangerous maze, inhospitable scorched wastelands, and risking fates perhaps worse even than death itself. It’s a race against the clock that will send them on adventures through perils and poignant lessons about friendship, valor and destiny, and maybe even a little bit about true love, as they test their mettle and strive for the courage to let their souls be their guide.
Message to giftee: Merry Christmas goldmist! I hope you enjoy my take on your lovely prompts, and may all of your Christmas wishes come true. xox
