Authors Interviewing Characters: Kate Heartfield

About Assassin’s Creed: The Magus Conspiracy

London, 1851 – When Pierrette, a daring acrobat performing at the Great Exhibition, rescues the mathematician Ada Lovelace from a gang of thugs, she becomes immersed in an ancient feud between Assassins and Templars. But Lovelace is gravely ill, and shares her secrets with Pierrette, sending the acrobat in search of a terrible weapon which she’d been developing for a shadowy figure known as “the Magus”. Pierrette’s only ally is Simeon Price, Lovelace’s childhood friend, who belongs to a Brotherhood devoted to free will. With Simeon’s aid, they uncover a startling web of political assassinations destabilizing Europe. As they race to foil the Templars’ deadly plot, murders and bombs are everywhere they look, but hope is nowhere in sight.

Kate interviews Pierrette and Simeon.

Kate: What is the Brotherhood of Assassins?

Simeon: We can’t say anything about—

Pierrette: It’s an ancient order dedicated to human freedom, locked in a generations-long struggle with the Templars, who want to control humanity for their own purposes. We protect the innocent, working in the darkness to serve the light.

Simeon: Staying in the shadows.

Pierrette: Exactly.

Simeon: Staying out of sight.

Pierrette: Simeon, I understand your point. I’m just choosing to ignore it.

Kate: But you weren’t always Assassins. I believe the two of you met through a mutual friend?

Pierrette: More because of a mutual friend, really. I met Lady Lovelace—Ada to her friends—in 1851.

Simeon: And I met her years before that, when we were children. I came from a poor family, and was one of Ada’s mothers’ failed philanthropic experiments. By 1851, I was shipping out as a British soldier, bound for the Cape Colony.

Pierrette: But Ada always remembered Simeon as the only person who was a match for the way her mind worked. When she died of a terrible illness, she left me a strange notebook, and instructions to find this man named Simeon. Easier said than done.

Kate: What made Simeon so difficult to find?

Simeon: I was dead.

Pierrette: Well, in a technical sense. You see, his ship went down, and he was assumed lost.

Simeon: I was lost, in a manner of speaking. I knew I could no longer follow the orders of desperate, fearful men. I was searching for brotherhood and a code that made sense to me. I had no idea, of course, that a young French acrobat named Pierrette was looking for me, until she found me in a highly inconvenient way.

Kate: It sounds like the two of you don’t find it easy to work together.

Simeon: I wouldn’t say that, exactly. She takes risks. I suppose it’s only natural, since she’s a circus performer. She’s the bravest person I know, and I am proud of the wonders she’s been able to achieve. I’ve seen her do things I would have said were impossible.

Pierrette: Simeon has taught me so much. And I try to be a good student, I really do. Simeon is always true to himself, to his principles. That’s courage of a kind, even if it isn’t as showy as mine. My family is the troupe of circus performers who practically raised me after my parents died. But Simeon is like a brother to me, as well as being my mentor.

Simeon: I’ll remember this the next time I ask you to stop practicing throwing knives by throwing them into the wall.

Kate: What is at stake for the Assassins in the 19th century?

Pierrette: The future is at stake! And many lives. Science is advancing at a rate even Ada couldn’t fully predict. In the wrong hands, new weapons can take a terrible toll. Simeon and I have travelled all over Europe. Everywhere we go, we find the Templars at work, eager to take advantage of new science and to twist vulnerable people to their ends.

Simeon: Everything my parents put their faith in has failed us. Governments across Europe have let their people starve, and turned their armies against their own people when they asked for help. Those armies are frequently led by underqualified men who bought their way to power. Someone has to stand ready on the side of the common people.

Kate: And who is this ‘Magus’ you’re trying to find?

Pierrette: If we knew that, he would be dead by now.

Simeon: All we know is that he corresponded with Ada, that she helped him develop some sort of weapon. But she grew to fear him and cut off all contact.

Pierrette: And her dying wish was that we find him and stop him from using her work. We won’t let her down. 

Kate: Finally, here’s a question I get a lot. Do readers need to be familiar with the Assassins’ Creed videogames to understand your story?

Simeon: I’m sorry?

Pierrette: What’s a videogame?

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Kate Heartfield is a writer of novels, novellas, stories and games. Her 2022 historical fantasy novel, The Embroidered Book, was a Sunday Times and Globe and Mail bestseller. She’s working now on The Resurrection Plot, the sequel to her Assassin’s Creed novel, The Magus Conspiracy. Her work has won or been shortlisted for several major awards, including three Nebula nominations in the novella and game writing categories. A former journalist, Kate lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Find out more at kateheartfield.com

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Interviews, On Writing