I forced myself to take a deep breath and spent a bit of mana on a calming spell I had learned. The fear was still present but its icy claws no longer gripped my body. That would have to do. I followed Narabel out of the door and into the glare of a harsh spotlight. There were hundreds of people stomping, clapping, and cheering as we made our way to center stage, where the Empress was waiting for us on her enormous levitating throne.
Alcazar lined us up with our backs to the crowd so that we faced the Empress, then led us into a deep bow.
"Your Royal Highness, Ruler of Terra, Light of Creation, Mother of Magi, and Master of all Magics, Empress Vashti, I would like to present to you our newest Citizens. They are ready to participate in the Oathtaking and take their rightful places in our society."
From her vantage point upon the pitch-black throne, the Empress dipped her head slightly in recognition of our chaperone's words.
"Thank you, Alcazar the All-Seeing. You are dismissed."
Alcazar bowed again and slipped away. I wasn't sure exactly where he disappeared to because it was impossible to look away from the Empress for even a moment. I had to keep reminding myself to breathe as she greeted us.
"My dear children, I welcome you to our glorious empire. We are the chosen ones blessed by the All-Mother with powers commensurate with our charge: to maintain our civilization, our way of life, and our planet. You have undergone the Metamorphosis, which is a process that I created to mold you into the best Citizens possible, and now that you have become adjusted to its effects, you are now ready to take on the rights and responsibilities that come with being a Citizen.
Soon you will find that the mana gifted you as part of your birthright is beginning to run low, when that happens you will need to find work that is profitable and suitable to your talents. Maybe you will focus on creating a profitable estate, find employment within the government, create items to sell, or join a mining crew. Whatever you do, know that you are working to advance a noble cause: the advance of civilization and the mastery of the natural world."
The Empress spoke at length on different subjects, most of which she had already covered in her book, for quite some time. Despite how boring the speech was, I felt compelled to look directly at her and pay attention at all times. Finally, just as I was beginning to wonder how much longer I could plaster a smile on my face and pretend to be interested, she brought the speech to a conclusion.
"So it is with great pleasure that I welcome you into society. I look forward to seeing you grow and develop your powers. In time, you will become experts in your chosen areas and pillars of the community. For now, you will each be assigned mentors to guide you through the next steps. You will receive your assignment after tonight's festivities.
And now, it is time to take the Oath. Hold up your right hand as I am and recite together."
I raised my hand and waited for a signal. There was a tension in the air that mounted until it felt like my chest would burst, and then it was time. The words came to me easily.
"I, Arabella Unbound, pledge my fealty and everlasting loyalty to Empress Vashti and the Empire that she leads. I will use my power to advance the wellbeing of all Citizens, but most of all the will of my Empress, who guides us and protects us. Together, we will build a greater future for the entire world. I will remain vigilant for any threats, both external and internal, that would threaten the stability of our Empire. This pledge I seal with my body, soul, and spirit."
As my voice rang through the hall, I could feel the Oath taking shape and attempting to bind itself to me just as the one I had sworn to Ronaldo had done. Even though I had anticipated this based on the wording of the Oath and had spent the entire last week working on a plan, I hadn't expected the binding effect to be so powerful. New threads of magic wound around my entire being with frightening speed.
"Come on, Mia!" I shouted internally even as my mouth continued intoning. "This had better work!"
"Initiating phase one of protocol," was the calm response. "New Spirit Oath detected. Attempting reconciliation with existing Oath...failure. Spirit Oath rejected.
That was good news, but there were still two more components of the Oath to handle.
"New Soulbind detected. Diverting mana now. New target acquired. Soulbind incompatible with target soul. Soulbind failed. Target status nominal."
I breathed an inward sigh of relief. One of my biggest fears was that Mia would be corrupted in this process and rat me out.
"New Fleshbind detected. Diverting mana now. New target acquired. Fleshbind incompatible with target body. Fleshbind failed. Target status nominal."
"Awesome, Mia! You're amazing. Okay, initiate phase two."
"Phase two underway. Data falsification complete. Status report transmitted."
Once again I was amazed at Mia's capability for dissembling. Not only had she been transmitting fake data reports since I awoke from the Metamorphosis, but she had also helped me create a plan from scratch to save me from binding myself to the Empress.
The process had involved diverting or defeating all three components related to the Spirit Oath. The Oath itself would create a Spiritbond once accepted by my spirit. Additional effects were created by the specific wording of the Oath and, although they would be weakened by my Spirit's rejection, would bind my body and soul to serve the Empress.
It was relatively simple to reinforce my defenses against the Spirit Oath itself. The power of my existing Oath to Ronaldo helped me reject any Oath that opposed its goals. The soul binding was a bit harder to handle, but Mia was able to divert the magic towards herself. Since she was incapable of forming a second Soulbond, the binding failed. Finally, since Ronaldo and I were able to share physical attributes through our link, Mia and I developed a counterspell that allowed us to confuse the magic into thinking my body was that of a magical beast rather than of a human.
It was shoddy work, I have to admit, but at the time I didn't realize the danger. By all rights, the magical backlash from ruining all three of the Oath's effects should have slain me outright. I suspect what saved me was that Empress Vashti never imagined that anyone would try to subvert the Oath to begin with, much less pull it off. The odds of a newly Metamorphosed Citizen having a hacked merged intelligent assistant and a bonded magical beast are pretty ridiculous.
Back on the stage, we finished reciting the Oath and stood in silence, waiting for the Empress to respond. For a moment her eyes seemed to glaze over and I wondered if she was communing with an entity similar to Mia, maybe verifying that the Oath had taken hold. The thought sent shivers down my spine.
"Mia, can you show me the report you sent?"
"Accessing," Mia responded primly.
Arabella (Arabella Unbound)
Insights: 2
Epiphanies: 5
Revelations: 1
Current Path: Sensate
Metagift: Bookworm
Specials: Delayed Metamorphosis, Heat Resistance (hands), Natural Telepathy, Spiritbind (Royal Oath), Soulbind (Royal Oath), Fleshbind (Royal Oath)
Physical Attributes
Strength 28
Reflexes 27
Durability 38
Mental Attributes
Charisma 44
Intelligence 38
Willpower 39
Spiritual Attributes
Cycle 45
Density 45
Homogeneity 45
Derived Attributes
Resistance 147
Mana Reserve 251 (theoretical maximum)
Hourly Mana Recovery 32.5 (estimated)
That looked about right, considering I had no idea how my attributes had changed during the Metamorphosis process. Mia had given me enough to work with
"Ok great, good job."
I pulled up my actual attribute screen for comparison.
Arabella (Arabella Unbound)
Insights: 4
Epiphanies: 5
Revelations: 3
Current Path: Sensate
Metagift: Tactile Magic
Specials: Delayed Metamorphosis, Soulbond (stage 2), Spiritbond (stage 2), Heat Resistance (hands), Natural Telepathy, Unknown
Physical Attributes
Strength 57
Reflexes 56
Durability 70
Mental Attributes
Charisma 61
Intelligence 81
Willpower 92
Spiritual Attributes
Cycle 100
Density 99
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Homogeneity 100
Derived Attributes
Resistance 314
Mana Reserve 553 (theoretical maximum)
Hourly Mana Recovery 70.3 (estimated)
My attribute growth had slowed after obtaining my first revelation, but I had still grown much stronger in just ten weeks. I was certain that I was stronger than the other newly-minted wizards here, with the possible exception of Darlene. As the Empress finally finished whatever she was doing and smiled benignly down at us, I reached out with my senses to see if I could size her up, half expecting some sort of painful retaliation. Instead, I found nothing. She was certainly there in the flesh, but as to whether or not she was weak or strong, how she felt in this particular moment, or what her opinion of me was, there were no hints at all. I might as well have been sizing up a cow. When she spoke again, her lips moved without disturbing any other part of her body, as if they had a life of their own.
"Well sworn, my children. Now the ceremony is over and the festivities may begin. I am afraid I cannot stay to drink to your success, urgent business is waiting for me elsewhere. I hope to see you all again soon."
With that, the Empress and her throne vanished. There were a few gasps from the crowd. No longer having a reason to be facing the rear of the stage, I turned around to examine the throng of Citizens that was now fully my peers. As I did so, I saw Alcazar hustling back towards us from the direction we had originally entered the stage.
"Thank you, everyone!" he managed to project in a booming voice while walking at top speed. He reached centerstage and halted in front of us while he addressed the crowd. "This concludes the formal part of our ceremony. We will now move on to the fun part: the games! Each of our six new Citizens will be competing for a selection of fabulous prizes, and for your enjoyment of course!
What is going on here? I thought to myself. I thought this was a solemn ceremony followed by overeating. No one said anything about competition.
"Before we begin our first game, let me tell you good folks what our players will be competing for! For the winner of tonight's games, a bounty of twenty-five thousand mana and a top-of-the-line massage chair."
Alcazar paused to let the crowd absorb the information and motioned to the far side of the stage.
A woman wearing a low-cut dress and a practiced smile wheeled out a leather chair to show the crowd. She posed with the chair as Alcazar extolled its virtues.
"This genuine leather chair was crafted by none other than Lanna the Artificer and has been endowed with state-of-the-art enchantments that will relax your muscles, promote health and well-being, and may even aid with mana regeneration."
The woman wheeled the chair offstage while the audience clapped.
"Anna the White'll be right back, folks," promised Alcazar, "because we have more fabulous prizes to show you. Our runner-up will receive a purse of ten-thousand mana and a three-dimensional mirror with new and improved Imagilink functionality!"
This time Anna brought a hemispherical smoky-white stone and put it on the ground in front of her. Almost immediately a duplicate of Anna appeared hovering a few inches above the stone. Anna and her double both turned and waved at the crowd. The duplicate continued to rotate while her sequined dress changed from blue to green, then from green to yellow, and finally from yellow to red. the crowd ooohed and ahhed each color change. After the demonstration, the duplicate faded away in a burst of sparkles. Anna daintily picked up the stone and once again exited the stage to a burst of applause.
"And finally, for our third-place contestant, five-thousand mana and a genuine Catoblepas-hide rug!"
An assistant walked out behind Anna with the rug in question, which looked like it came from a cow. I had no idea what a Catoblepas was, but it didn't seem all that special. Anna did her thing, gesturing with enviable grace at the homely item, the crowd clapped, and then she waved and glided offstage.
"Thank you, Anna. You're amazing as always," Alcazar praised. "And now that you've seen the prizes, dear contestants, I hope that you'll do your best to win! Let the games begin!"
"Do you have any idea what is happening," I whispered to Narabel as the crowd cheered and stomped. He slowly shook his head.
Alcazar clapped his hands twice and the entire auditorium began to re-arrange itself. The stage began moving toward the audience and changing shape, while the wings of the seating area began to wrap further around, eventually encircling the now round stage which stood in the middle of the auditorium. The lights on the ceiling now formed a ring to match the new configuration, while the upper seats had shifted down to take advantage of the extra space.
The room continued to change. The ground beneath the six of us shifted, pulling us away from the others. A metal disk descended from the ceiling and Alcazar floated up to meet it. The floor opened, allowing transparent panes of what looked like glass to rise up and divide the round stage into six equal portions as if it were a pie. The middle of the "pie" was open, so we weren't completely shut off from each other.
"Mia, you got any idea about what's going on here?"
"Negative."
I looked across the stage at the girl in pink and green, whose name I still hadn't learned, who was now facing me. It was likely that she would either be my ally or my first opponent. I hoped it was the latter. While I sized Pinky up, the floor opened up again and three sphere-topped pedestals emerged.
"Contestants!" Alcazar called from his perch high above us. "Your first challenge is simple! Knock your opponents off their feet using nothing but the balls provided, no magical attacks or spells are allowed. Last one standing wins!"
I grabbed one of the balls, which was just barely possible to do with one hand due to its size, and took a moment to absorb the information that flowed through my fingertips. The ball was not heavy but it seemed...big somehow. I could also tell it had some sort of absorbing ability but, without active experimentation, I had no way to determine what the ball absorbed and how to activate it.
While I was trying to figure out what I was working with, Pinky across the way wasn't wasting any time. She ran towards the center of the stage and launched a ball at me as hard as she could. Her throwing motion was interesting: the ball seemed to hang in the air for a moment as she pushed as hard as she could on it. Suddenly, the ball rocketed directly toward my face with much more velocity than I had expected. Still, I easily ducked under the ball, following its trajectory as it slammed into the wall behind me and ricocheted back the direction it came.
I turned my full attention back to my opponent to find that she was already winding up for another throw. I prepared a throw of my own but held off on winding up until the second ball whooshed past my chest. As the ball rebounded and slowly rolled toward the middle of the stage, I put my entire strength into pouring kinetic energy into the ball, which seemed to move slower the harder I pushed against it. At the end of my throw, I dug my feet into the ground and pointed my arm right at Pinky's midsection, and gave one final push before removing my hand. The velocity imparted to my throw surprised me: my ball streaked across the stage in an instant and slammed into my opponent, who was in the process of leaping out of the way. There was a sharp THWAP and a cry of pain as the projectile connected. Pinky's momentum from her jump combined with the force of the impact caused her to fly sideways and backward for almost a full second before she slammed back into the ground.
With my first opponent defeated, I was at liberty to observe the other fights. Darlene had already knocked Narabel down and presumably completely out because he wasn't even moving at all. Darlene's other accomplice, the one in red, was sparring with the man wearing yellow. They seemed fairly evenly matched: neither of them was to be able to hit the other.
The breakthrough came when the girl in red ran out of balls and grabbed one that was rolling back to the middle. Her next throw left her hand in a blur of motion so fast that I lost track of the ball for an instant. It impacted dead center on her opponent's chest and flung him end over end until he finally landed face down on the ground. I looked up at Alcazar, who was watching our match with what appeared to amused nostalgia. I doubted the man in yellow was seriously hurt since our umpire didn't seem to be bothered.
"Well played, contestants! Now the three remaining players will face off in free-for-all. Remember, last one standing wins!"
The three defeated Citizens floated away as the stage began to reform once again. I didn't see where they ended up because I was too busy collecting and replacing the spent balls so I'd have a full complement when the game resumed. The walls that defined my slice of the stage slid further apart and the open space in the middle grew larger. The new arrangement meant I could easily target both of my opponents.
Darlene wasted no time lining up a shot and her friend in red began winding up a throw as well. It was clear to see that this was going to be a two-on-one affair, so I edged away to give myself as much room to dodge as possible. Since their throws were uncoordinated, it was relatively easy to avoid Darlene's powerful throw and duck Red's slower one. I grabbed Darlene's on the ricochet and sent it right back at her. The ball rocketed from my hand with a kick that knocked me off balance for a moment, but the tread on the bottom of my feet helped me stay up. Darlene must have predicted my reaction because she was already ducking as the ball took flight. The ball missed her by a hair.
I grabbed another ball, this time aiming for Red, who was winding up a shot of her own. I leaped high in the air and grabbed the ball in both hands as my opponent's ball streaked underneath me. The force of my fall helped me impart extra kinetic energy into the shot, which caught Red right in the face. I felt bad as she hit the floor with a thud: even though I hadn't unleashed my full strength I had hit her harder than I had wanted.
I didn't have time for my conscience, however, because Darlene was already hurling another ball my way. By sheer accident, I had landed right in front of the first ball that Red had tossed. Without thinking, I grabbed the sphere with both hands and used it as a shield, deflecting the incoming ball with surprising ease.
Of course, I thought. The balls are charged up by absorbing inertia.
Darlene must have figured out what had happened, because she grabbed another sphere and held it in both hands, waiting for my return throw. But I had a different idea. Grabbing my last ball, I slammed the two spheres together with all my might. I could feel the inertia transfer from one ball to the other. The problem was, the other ball transferred the same amount back to the original ball, making the effects cancel each other out. My next attempt was a modified version, I held the already charged ball stationary and whacked it with the other ball. Once again I could feel the inertia transfer but this time the immobile sphere charged up a little bit.
My opponent switched from defense to a similar tactic. However, instead of using two balls, she held one ball in both hands and began to spin like a top. Realizing that her method was likely to be more efficient than my own, I took my charged ball and wound up. I repeated my technique of launching myself as high as I could, but this time I added a few front flips into the wind-up to add some extra momentum.
We launched our attacks at almost the exact same time. There was a sharp crack like a bullwhip as my projectile whipped out faster than I could follow with my eyes. Darlene was caught off guard, having just finished her spin. My shot caught her in the hip and spun her around a few more times.
I opened my mouth to cheer but only a woof of air rushed out. Then the force from Darlene's throw registered: a painful shockwave that ripped through my stomach and lungs before rattling my entire body. I distinctly remember the impact forcing me back up into the air. I don't remember hitting the ground at all.
************************************************************
A growing knot of pain in my gut heralded the return of consciousness. I opened my eyes to find a woman I hadn't seen before wearing a form-fitting black dress holding her hands uncomfortably close to my midsection.
"Ah, you're awake," she said. "I'm almost done healing you. The pain should be gone in a minute."
"Where are the others?" I asked.
"They'll be on their feet in no time. Well, all except JayJay the Cray. His skull was cracked, so we're keeping him under observation for a while."
A quick search of my memories reminded me that I wasn't the one who had knocked out that particular contestant. I tried to heave a sigh of relief but ended up with a painful coughing fit instead.
"Lie still and rest, yeah?" the woman healing me said. "Your next contest is starting soon."
I breathed carefully for a few long moments before breaking the silence again.
"Thank you for helping me. I'm Arabella. Arabella Unbound."
"Everyone knows that, love. I'm Quill N. Squib, author and historian."
I wanted to ask her what she wrote about, but at that moment Alcazar walked in.
"Congratulations on winning round one," his deep voice rumbled through the small chamber. "Round two will begin shortly. Are you feeling well enough to compete?"
As Quill had promised, the burning in my stomach was subsiding by the second. I allowed her to help me to my feet and took another deep breath. My diaphragm behaved itself this time.
"Yeah, I feel a lot better. How are the other contestants?"
"One young man will need to drop out, but the others will be rejoining the contest shortly. You took one of the nastiest hits. I'm surprised you weren't more injured."
"I've favored durability over strength and reflexes," I answered truthfully. "I think that helped."
Alcazar looked at me thoughtfully.
"Yes, that would explain it. Alright then, take a moment to prepare yourself and then head on through the door there. Round two awaits!"
I shook hands with Quill and thanked her once more before opening the door and stepping back into the blinding spotlights. There was a whirring sound behind me as the door I just exited began to descend back into the stage. Somehow Alcazar had regained his perch in the air above us because moments later his voice echoed throughout the room.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's have a round of applause for our remaining five contestants."
The crowd exploded into shouts and cheers. I even heard some people chanting my name. Looking around, the stage had reverted to its original six slices. All but one were occupied. In the center, a giant round table emerged from the floor and a yellow line appeared on the ground several arms lengths from the table's edge. The table was divided into six separate compartments, each covered with bottles partially filled with various liquids. Each bottle was unique and had a label: one, three, five, and ten. As the applause died down, Alcazar's voice rose above the din.
"Now we move on to round two! In this challenge, our competitors will score points by consuming intoxicating beverages. Each beverage is clearly labeled with the number of points the contestant will earn by drinking it. As always, competitors may NOT cross the yellow line. They'll have to rely on magic to bring the drinks to them! And now, without further ado, let's have two minutes on the clock!"
A grey cube appeared high above the center of the arena. Red lights formed a massive "2:00" on each of the cube's faces.
"Alright! Contestants to the yellow line!"
I walked forward and planted my feet a few inches behind the yellow line and looked to my left and right. I could see three of the other contestants. The only one I couldn't see was Darlene since she was straight across from me. This annoyed me to no end.
"And begin!" cried Alcazar.
