Penelope spent the rest of the ceremony in a thoughtful silence. From Cadfael's distant look she got the hint that he was thinking deeply on his own, so she observed the other teens as they received their blessings.

Most of them came back with little fanfare, but there were a few that stood out to Penelope. When the blond boy went on the stage, Renslow waited at the foot of the stairs and once he was done with the ritual they switched places, eagerly cheering each other on when they came back. She wondered what connection those two had.

There was also the one girl in the fancy robes who'd called her a "commoner" when they'd met. When she reappeared on the stage she had a severe frown on her face and for a moment Penelope had a hint of schadenfreude imagining that the stereotypical noble girl might have failed to be blessed. But as she descended the stage, Penelope instantly knew something had changed, even if she hadn't seen the approving smile of the priest. The noble's steps carried an unnatural lightness to them that hadn't been there before, like every movement was made with careful and precise poise. Just the way she walked down the stairs was like watching a dance. For a moment, Penelope was mesmerized by the fluidity of the movement before she snapped out of it and remembered to be spiteful.

Of course the privileged princess gets a blessing that actually does something right away, Penelope cursed, then sighed. It's fine. Underdog story. It's an underdog story.

By the time everyone had ascended the stage, Penelope's legs were getting cramped and she silently cheered that the event was coming to a close. When the final girl reappeared on the stage however, she seemed a bit more frantic than the others had and Penelope's attention perked up.

She hadn't taken notice of this girl in the large crowd before. The fantasy noble and tiny furry girl had kind of totally absorbed her attention. In contrast to those colorful characters, the girl on the stage was average height and rail-thin with short brown hair. She wore a simple sleeveless white sundress embroidered with golden flowers on its long skirt. Everything about her appearance was something that would have seemed perfectly normal in Penelope's own day-to-day life.

This girl seemed to be upset about something and was speaking with the old man on the stage in harsh whispers. She gesticulated broadly while he held up his hands in a pacifying plea. Eventually, the girl spun in a huff and scanned the other heroes with a glare. Her gaze settled on Penelope, who shifted reluctantly where she stood before returning the look, futilely hoping that she'd been mistaken and the girl was looking at someone else. She was not.

As Penelope met the girl's eyes she was taken aback to see that they were multi-colored, a prismatic rainbow of light that glimmered in the blue light of the stage. So maybe not such a perfectly normal girl after all.

Eventually, the girl on the stage seemed to relax and ended the staredown, much to Penelope's relief. She turned to speak with the old man on the stage briefly one last time before hopping down to join the rest of the teens.

Penelope watched as the old man slowly returned to the center of the stage to address them. He lifted one hand and made a simple snapping motion. Just like that, the darkness pervading the room retreated quickly into the corners as a bright golden light filled up the opulent hall once more. Penelope yelped, clutching at her eyes to try to block out the suddenly blazing bright light.

"Thus the 40th Inheritance Ritual has been completed. May your patrons' blessings bring prosperity to yourselves and to our Empire!" Penelope squinted up to see the old man nod towards either side of the room. "Retainers! Please escort your charges to the common area where they may take a brief respite as their rooms are made up". With that, he began to shuffle off the stage. As he turned around, the creepy, constantly shifting eye which clung to the surface of his starry cloak slid down to the center of the fabric and gave them one last steady stare.

Penelope almost jumped as the dozens upon dozens of servants kneeling on either side of the room sprang into motion in unison. Most scurried off down the great hall towards who knows where while a few approached some of the teenagers around her and began to guide them away. Penelope noticed that the ones she presumed to be the "retainers" had a large blue bauble pinned to their chests.

None of the servants approached her, which sort of made sense considering that she'd just gotten here. Even if they seemed to be expecting someone like her she doubted that they'd assigned anyone to her yet. She began to wonder if she should just follow one of the other pairs of heroes when a man left the line-up of intimidating officials from the back of the room. He strode directly towards her, making Penelope unconsciously tense up.

Like all of the people back there, this man had an overwhelming air to him that set her on edge, though there wasn't anything specific she could identify as the source of this feeling. He was clean shaven with a mess of medium length, black hair that highlighted the piercing green of his sunken eyes. His hunched shoulders and slow steps gave him the look of a sleep-deprived scholar, though this contrasted with his large stature and the dark, raggedy gray-green jacket draped across his shoulders. Penelope noticed that, oddly, one of his hands was much lighter than the other. She almost mistook it for a glove at first before she realized the pale white skin was actually his flesh. It was a relatively small detail, but the uncanny nature of it set her on edge. And looking at his deep, perpetual scowl and glare Penelope instantly knew she didn't like him.

"Miss…?" He spoke curtly, in a clipped tone.

"Um… Penelope. Penelope Morris." She stood up a bit straighter and introduced herself clearly. She felt that this person was appraising her and she didn't want to get on his bad side right away. If he even had a good side.

"Morris." He said her name slowly, seeming to consider it. "I'm not aware of a house Morris."

"No house. Just Penelope Morris."

"Ah." That was all he said. He gave her another calculating look then gestured for her to follow him, leaving no room for debate. "Come."

She sprang to follow him, keeping on his heel as they filed out of the room. She tried to ignore the stares from the rest of the line-up of people behind the stage as they passed them by.

Beyond the stage was an enormous gateway, well over half a dozen meters tall. Most of the room's people streamed out this gateway including the other heroes, but the man led Penelope towards a much smaller, simple stairwell off to the side. It curved upwards in a spiral and she couldn't help but think of a lighthouse she'd visited as a child. Though that stairwell had been lit by small windows out to the sea whereas this one was illuminated by more hovering golden crystals.

When they reached the landing above, the passageway opened back up into a much smaller, yet no less extravagant hallway of sky-blue marble carved in various places with a pearlescent filigree. Along the wall on either side were a series of high, arched windows which let in light from the outside, though even that light was tinted blue and cast shimmery shadows on the floor below.

As they passed the windows, Penelope realized that instead of glass they were covered in a thick bubble of gently rippling water which obscured the world outside. She tried to observe more of wherever they were through the water, but she could only vaguely see the murky outline of something orange below, something that looked like a dark, blobby stormcloud in the distance, and the bright blue sky overhead. She could guess that they were somewhere high up, but no more.

While continuing to walk, Penelope cast a surreptitious glance towards the man guiding her, who simply continued to walk straight forward at a brisk pace. Seeing this, she ever so slowly let her path drift towards the side of the hall. Before she could second-guess herself, she brushed her hand along one of the walls of water, suppressing a euphoric giggle upon feeling the tips of her fingers brushing into the cool water. She'd expected that there may be some sort of invisible force blocking her from touching the water outside, but it seemed that wasn't the case.

This is so cool.

Penelope experimented a little more boldly and, with one more cautious glance at her guide, paused to pull up her sleeve and reach her arm into the water as far as it could go. She was surprised to find that even with her arm fully extended into the water she still couldn't feel feel anything outside other than more water. Marveling at the sensation for a moment, she reluctantly started to retract her arm. She was surprised that the skin of her arm was cool yet free of any fluid clinging to it. However, when her fingertips left the watery surface, a trickle of water began to pour out from where they'd exited the bubble, like it had sprung a leak.

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"Ah!" Penelope squeaked and started to panic, jumping away from the window to keep her clothes dry from the slowly growing puddle.

"What's going on?" The man's gruff voice reminded Penelope of his presence. She hid her arm with the sleeve still rolled up behind her back and struggled with what to say.

"There's- I- Um…" Penelope stammered as he walked up towards her. His boots splashed in the puddle as he bent down to look at the leak.

"Huff. Looks like the wards are running low on mana." He waved a hand over the window and the leak slowly sputtered to a halt. He then made a scooping motion with his hand and the water on the floor slowly cascaded upwards. With a flick of his wrist, it shot back into the bubbly window, leaving the hallway floor once again dry.

"Maintenance workers should've caught that. I'll need to speak with some of the managers for this floor." With that he turned brusquely and continued down the hallway. Following behind, Penelope pulled her sleeve back down and wisely chose to keep it to herself that she was fairly sure she'd been the one to cause the leak.

After a long series of twisting corridors and winding passages, they finally arrived at an ornate door emblazoned with the emblems of twelve animals. She'd suspected it when she was in the ritual area with all the different animals racing about her, but this confirmed her suspicions that the "Zodiacs" corresponded with the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac from her world. They didn't seem to be one-for-one given that, but it seemed more than a coincidence.

As she was considering these things, the man accompanying her gave a heavy knock on the door, answered by a "Come in!" from within the room. She recognized the response as the voice of the older man from the ceremony. Opening the door, the man entered, but as Penelope moved to follow she froze in shock.

Inside the enormous room was a veritable gallery of magical artifacts and memorabilia. Baubles and trinkets of glowing crystals and intricate rune-inlaid devices covered the walls and filled the battalions of display cases to bursting. On either side of the room were two tall bookshelves stretching floor-to-ceiling and stuffed with every manner of magical-looking tome Penelope could imagine in her wildest dreams. The older man himself, thankfully missing his eerie eyeball cloak, sat at a grand, golden wood table at least 2 meters with several heavy tomes laid atop it. And above it all hung an enormous sphere of golden medal encased within concentric rings offset at odd angles.

But all of that barely registered in Penelope's eyes. She took a few cautious steps into the room, her focus never leaving the window in front of her.

She tried to speak, moistened her lips, then tried again. "Is… Is that what we were chosen to fight?" Penelope's voice came out in an awed whisper, her eyes locked on the scene outside.

The older man gave a cursory glance out the window, then up at Penelope's guide who simply shrugged his shoulders. "What is it, child?"

"What is it?" Penelope repeated his question, growing more and more agitated. "That! That- That thing out there." She pointed at it. "Look!"

Her pleas were so desperate that both the old man and even the stoic, burly one turned to look out the window again. Outside, a great track of clear, open water could be seen, and beyond that idyllic fields and rolling green hills. What caught Penelope's attention was even farther in the distance.

Even from what must have been miles away, a massive, purple cloud blotted out the horizon, towering over the small specks of trees she could barely make out in the distance. Streaks of blue and neon violet exploded in the mist like dark lightning, illuminating unnaturally roiling silhouettes which seemed to wriggle and squirm just beneath the surface of the purple fog. As the small gathering watched on, a massive, amorphous limb extended from the mist, shooting into the atmosphere and scraping the dark clouds overhead in one broad stroke. It must have been the size of a skyscraper. Suppressing a shudder, Penelope looked at the old man expectantly. He turned back towards her with a smile.

"No my dear. Though I understand it can be frightening for someone who has yet to familiarize themselves with the Mists of Swamp Hirudin for the first time, you weren't chosen to deal with a turn of the weather. However bad it may be." The old man simply chuckled. She watched as the monstrous gray limb slowly retracted into the roiling cloud. "Please, have a seat." He gestured towards a chair and she was more than happy to oblige, her mind still reeling from what she'd witnessed.

Once he was certain that she was settled in, he began introductions, trying to steer the conversation back on track. "My name is Elder Ptoly. I am the current leader of the Zodiac Inheritor Council and will be overseeing your training and Vestige trial while you're with us in the city of Loria. My assistant here, and your imbuement instructor, is Mr. Jacoby." The Elder nodded towards the tall man who gave a small grunt of acknowledgment.

"And your true mission," his elderly voice took on a much more somber tone. "Is to protect the people of our Empire and utilize your blessings to realize a better future." He frowned. "Something which should have been made clear when your emissary recruited you. Was the creature remiss in its duties?"

"I-" Penelope was about to explain that "the creature" had kidnapped her with zero explanation from a clothing store, but then she stopped. Wait. Was that gray screeching thing in the store trying to speak with her? She thought it was just some weird little gray monster of some kind, but the voices of the other people of this world also sounded like screeching gibberish before she got that Message about some kind of translation module.

She still considered answering honestly that she had no idea what was going on, but she remembered Cadfael's warning from earlier and decided it would perhaps be best to keep silent for now. "No! Not at all. I'm simply from a far ways away. I didn't understand most of what it was talking about. But I understand much more clearly now that I'm actually here."

He cracked another smile. "Excellent! Now we ourselves know little about you or your past. Your emissary found you itself with little input from us. Our aspirants are more than welcome to their privacy, but it would help us greatly to know a little more about you and what your training will require. Might I have your hand for a moment?" He offered his wrinkled hand across the table towards her.

She leaned forward and took his hand a bit nervously. The Elder closed his eyes and muttered a short chant. To Penelope's surprise a small screen flashed above where his hand clasped hers.

Name:

Penelope Morris

Level:

1

Class:

Initiate of the Rat

It was a condensed version of her stat screen showing just the bare minimum details, but from the way the Elder and Mr. Jacoby fixed their eyes on it she could tell that this screen was visible to them as well.

Elder Ptoly had a measured response and simply nodded appraisingly, but she could practically feel heat radiating from Mr. Jacoby with how intensely he was staring at the screen.

"The Rat! And a level one no less… Elder Ptoly, you can't- ! " The larger man began to murmur but the Elder held up a hand to silence him. He seemed to be a lot calmer than Mr. Jacoby, but Penelope took note of how he pushed the book he had been reading further to the side to lean in closer to the Message.

Penelope coughed awkwardly. "I'm sorry, is being level one a bad thing?"

Elder Ptoly shook his head and smiled. "No, it's a very good thing actually. A very good thing indeed." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Tell me, Miss Morris, do you know what the legacy of the Rat entails?"

Penelope shrunk in her seat. She had the feeling that an average resident of this world ought to know something like that, but she wasn't sure what to say.

"Sort of," she mumbled.

"The Rat is the first of the Zodiacs. Their leader and commander, on the battlefield and off of it. Not only does the mantle of its title place a great deal of responsibility upon your shoulders - the weight all leaders must bear - it also imparts a significant source of power in its blessing."

"The blessing didn't seem that strong to me," Penelope blurted out.

He laughed. "Its strengths are not so easily anatomized. Suffice to say the advantages you now wield will serve you well in the future. Now, the question is do you feel that you're prepared to accept that responsibility?

Penelope thought about it for a moment. "Yes." She declared, somewhat hesitantly. She wasn't very confident in her abilities, and still had little concept of what leadership would actually entail, but she wanted to accept her role whatever the cost. Being able to be a fantasy hero was just too exciting to give up just because it sounded a little difficult.

"And do you intend on performing your duties as a hero of this Empire? Not this nonsense about challenging natural phenomena?" He said the last sentence jokingly, but there was a steely glint in his eyes that hadn't been there before. Penelope was a bit taken aback by his intensity, but quickly gathered herself and spoke confidently.

"Yes. I'm honored to be chosen as a hero! And as for my loyalty to the Empire." She thought about it for a moment, then smiled. "Well I'm more loyal to the Empire than I am anything else in this world."

Some of the tension in the Elder's face seemed to ease as she said that. "That's good to hear!" He said warmly, then released her hand and stood up. "Now, I've assigned a new retainer to you and he should be waiting in the main hall at present. He'll be sure to do what he can to help you get your strength up before your lessons begin tomorrow. I trust you know your way back?"

Penelope's excitement grew hearing about the prospect of heroic lessons the next day and she eagerly nodded and got up. "Thank you Mr. -uh- Elder Ptoly, Mr. Jacoby!" With one last glance towards the dark splotch on the horizon, she whirled around and scurried out the door.