You can listen to the Book Summary Below
The narrative of Secrets of the First School begins with the startling realization that the protagonist, Ropa Moyo, is dead and has been cast into the Other Place, a bleak realm in the astral plane reserved for wayward spirits. This dimension is characterized by jagged rocks, formless deserts of slag, charcoal-hued clouds, and a constant ultraviolet light that permeates the atmosphere. Ropa experiences a numbing cold and a gnawing hunger, discovering her hands look like dehydrated husks. It is in this wilderness that she is found by Sir George “Bloody” MacKenzie, the seventeenth-century Lord Advocate she previously exorcised, who saves her from being devoured by ether demons massive, tentacled Cthulhu-like creatures that feed on lost souls. MacKenzie takes her to a cave where she is reunited with the spectral form of her father, Makomborero Moyo.
The Secret History of Ropa Moyo
In the cave, Makomborero reveals the horrific truth of Ropa’s origins, which shatters her understanding of her life. He explains that Ropa actually died during childbirth at the Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments clinic twenty-one years prior. Driven by a bright, burning rage and a refusal to accept mortality, Makomborero used dark magic to bind her soul to the world without a vessel. For five years, he conducted illegal experiments, eventually kidnapping infants from the Royal Infirmary to find a suitable body. He finally succeeded in swapping Ropa’s soul into another child’s body, effectively murdering that child’s soul in the process. Ropa is devastated to learn she is essentially a “parasite living someone else’s life”.
Makomborero further reveals that her grandmother, Melsie Mhondoro, and her mentor, Sir Ian Callander, were not her biological relatives but were part of the group that discovered his lab. When they attempted to stop his experiments, a struggle ensued; a young Ropa (in her stolen body) walked into the lab, distracting Makomborero and allowing Melsie to strike him down and banish his soul to the Other Place. Melsie then raised Ropa and her sister, Izwi, weaving a web of lies to protect them from the truth of their father’s “wickedness”.
Escape from the Other Place
The peace in the cave is short-lived as MacKenzie demands Ropa be sacrificed to power a portal he and Makomborero have been building to return to the Realms Beyond. MacKenzie argues that “sacrifices need to be made” and that he has already hunted dozens of souls to fuel the gateway. However, Makomborero betrays MacKenzie, shoving him into the swirling vortex of howling souls to provide the final burst of energy needed to open the door. Makomborero gives Ropa a silver spiral triskele as a “key” and shoves her through the gateway just as the ether demons breach their cavern. Ropa is shredded into a million parts and transported across dimensions, eventually feeling her soul re-tether to a physical form.
The Resurrection and the First School
Ropa wakes up naked in a copper bathtub filled with ice, crystals, and herbs in a ruin on the Isle of Iona. She is attended by Priyanka (Priya) Kapoor, Cornelius Lethington, and the Grand Debtera Qozmos, who used a sacred Ethiopian scroll The Book of the Shaded Mysteries of Solomon to summon her soul back from the Realms Beyond.
As Ropa recovers, Ranjeeta Kapoor (Priya’s mother) and Theodosia Lovell (matriarch of the Travelling Folk) reveal the existence of The First School. They explain that before the scientific magic of the Society of Sceptical Enquirers, there was an older, folkloric tradition of witchcraft. These “Daughters of Scotia” were hunted and slaughtered for four hundred years, forcing them to withdraw into the shadows and pass their knowledge orally from mother to daughter. Ranjeeta reveals that Melsie Mhondoro was a prominent witch and leader within this hidden coven, meaning Ropa was a student of the First School at her grandmother’s kitchen table without ever realizing it.
The Dundas Coup and the Siege of Aberdeen
While Ropa was dead, Henry Dundas (the First Viscount Melville) officially took over the Society of Sceptical Enquirers in Edinburgh, declaring himself Secretary “by right of might”. He has begun consolidating power by demanding blood oaths from all magicians, executing those who refuse.
Desperate to protect her sister, Ropa travels with Priya to the Aberdeen School of Magic and Esoterica. Upon arrival, they find the school under attack by the Dundas cult, led by Lady Rethabile Lebusa. During the chaos, Ropa discovers that her former best friend, Jomo Maige, has joined the cult and kidnapped Izwi. Jomo lies to Izwi, telling her that Ropa is waiting for her in Edinburgh to ensure her compliance. Ropa and Priya are confronted by Fenella MacLeod, who mocks Ropa for not being a “real magician”. A brutal fight ensues, and Priya is forced to kill Fenella by slamming her wheelchair into the girl’s head. Dundas and his followers escape with Izwi on a catamaran, leaving Ropa and Priya stranded on the beach.
The Glasgow Betrayal and the Zvishiri
Ropa and Priya travel to Glasgow to seek help from the Lord Kelvin Institute. However, Professor Fergus Cattermole reveals that Glasgow has betrayed the other schools, choosing to remain “independent” in a backroom deal with Dundas. He demands Ropa hand over the Fairy Flag a magical artifact stolen from Dunvegan Castle that Dundas needs to solidify his power over life and death.
Fleeing the city, Ropa and Priya are chased by Nathair Walsh and Avery MacDonald. In the struggle, Avery attempts to cast forbidden magic that goes horribly wrong. The fabric of reality splits, and Zvishiri unholy corvid-like creatures from Zimbabwean lore emerge from the void and devour Avery’s soul. Ropa realizes that the boundary between the living world and the everyThere is unravelling because of Dundas’s interference with the Fairy Flag.
The Vision and the Blood Oath
Back in Glasgow, Ranjeeta drugs Ropa with a dreaming potion. In a trance, Ropa visits the Land of the Tall Grass, the paradise of the Shona ancestors. She speaks with the spirit of her grandmother, who explains that Ropa is destined to be a svikiro (a great medium). Gran offers to be Ropa’s guide, and Ropa is filled with the collective memories and understanding of generations of women who came before her.
Ropa accepts her “heirlooms”: her mbira (now combined with a piece of the Fairy Flag), her magical scarf Cruickshank, her grandfather’s jacket, and a walking stick that serves as a symbol of authority. The Daughters of Scotia and a small contingent of Doric magicians (from the Aberdeen school) gather at Dean Cemetery. Ropa gives a rousing speech, reminding the witches of Frances Cockburn, Theodosia’s daughter, who was a spy for the coven and was brutally burnt at the stake by Dundas. The women perform a blood oath upon Louisa Stevenson’s grave, committing themselves to the battle against the magicians.
The Final Battle at St Andrew Square
The witches launch a multi-pronged attack on Dundas House in Edinburgh. Theodosia Lovell uses an ancient, powerful spell to pull down the massive Henry Dundas statue on St Andrew Square, using it as a battering ram to smash the western wall of the Society headquarters. A chaotic melee follows, with witches using unconventional magic like topiary animals and moonlight vines against the magicians’ Zeusean lightning and thermospheres.
Ropa uses her mbira to manipulate the fundamental vibrations of the universe, bypassing the need for Greek incantations. She discovers she can create sonic pulses and even summon the voykor the horse-headed guardians of the everyThere at will.
The Duel and the Voykor
The battle is interrupted by the arrival of King Charles (accompanied by English magicians and Lord Sashvindu Samarasinghe), who demands an end to the “breach of the king’s peace”. Ropa challenges Henry Dundas to a duel for the position of Secretary, a challenge the King permits. Dundas, who has taken on a fully physical and vigorous form by stealing the essence of others, initially overwhelms Ropa with superior willpower.
In a moment of desperation, Ropa stops trying to fight Dundas with “scientific magic” and instead summons the voykor from the sky. The terrifying creatures descend and rip Henry Dundas apart, devouring his soul and ensuring he can never return.
Resolution: The Witch’s Choice
In the aftermath, Lord Samarasinghe kills the remaining cult leaders, including Montgomery Wedderburn, to hide his own complicity in the scheme. Ropa rescues Izwi, who reveals that Dundas wanted to use her to channel the King’s dead mother.
The King meets with Ropa on the Royal Mile and, recognizing her wisdom and courage, frees her from his service and ensures she will no longer be harrassed by the police. Dr. Pythagoras Maige, now a broken man without a library, asks Ropa if she will take up the Secretaryship of the Society. Ropa rejects the offer and the Society entirely, declaring her true identity to the world: “I ain’t no magician, man I’m a motherfucking witch”.
The book concludes with Ropa, Priya, and Izwi together in Morningside, finally at peace and ready to face a future defined by their own rules rather than those of the magicians.
