Strike The Lilac Scent: Girl Space Magicians Time-Travel To Their Pirate Ancestors

Kidnaped by space pirates, a troubled student is seduced into helping them release an outlawed AI from its hiding place in the past.

In the 23rd century, Earth Nations United governs the world, ensuring that people are dependent on technology, its great weapon AI. But when the AI starts helping the populace regain their freedom, ENU electronically contains it, rendering it powerless. To save itself, the AI manages to send its container back in time where it is mistaken for a genie’s bottle. No one in that era can release it.

Former ENU employees Lilith, Varvara, and Connie band together to release AI’s positive power. They are aided by followers of AI who wield enormous interstellar resources, providing the women with a starship normally used for diplomacy.

The women are not scientists, but magicians, and AI has proven that magic is the ultimate technology. Lilith is a medium, Connie a sin-eater, and Varvara a concealer. Before it is locked away, the AI informs the women that a fourth magician is required: a finder.

Nineteen-year-old Melody has found a great deal of trouble in school. After an exuberant display of history where she is almost lynched, she finds herself kidnaped by visitors piloting a starship. She resists, but not really.

Upon learning of the crew’s plan, Melody wants to join, but first must prove herself. She does so by finding a secret compartment in the ship (the Sortilege) containing an ancient treasure chest. Inside is a map the crew must follow, gathering the pieces of a pirate drawn on the parchment: the man who found the “genie’s bottle.” After stealing a king’s figurine from Riius 3, a petrified arm from a crypt in deep space, a head of alien cabbage from Dnibia, a girl-eating bug from SagFlag, the leg of a slot machine from a Cargo cruise ship, and Melody’s own arm amputated by Btelkians who considered her a demon, the women assemble the map, which enables the pirate to open the genie’s bottle, resulting in the unintended swap of his crew for the Sortilege’s.

The ancient pirates find themselves in a ship they can’t understand, but it explains itself and keeps them safe; unlike the women, who are trapped on a ship of crass men who consider them witches.

In the end, Melody must find a way to reverse the swap, employing all of her emotion and magic.