Somewhere in that world is Town. Its main urban center is Horizon, all overbuilt and Gothic. That's where Principal Entropy keeps his School. He's God or the Devil, the stories say, although they're a bit ambiguous on which.

I started School about 5 years ago. I've known Kseniya pretty much that whole time---a foot taller than me, stronger than all the boys, with the blood of giants and magicians coming down to her from both sides. I didn't meet most of the others until a year or two later---not Vanessa, who wanders the basements like a spirit in a wan white dress; not Giselle, who's something of a fiend for checkers; not Mikhael, who does chemistry for Lee Scathing and is a bona fide Christian; and certainly not Elya, who I can't actually remember but who probably was nice.

Mom was a scientist---I mean, ordinary science, I mean, clean science, not the other stuff. I don't have as much to remember Dad or Desmond by.This is the story of my first kiss, how I was struck by a dodgeball and achieved enlightenment, and how and why I plan to turn into a brass cephalopodan war machine and rip up Death.

I'm kind of the boring one, though; it's really rather more about my friends.