As Miles and Mary were carried along in the procession, he made a concerted effort remain vigilant of their surroundings. Anything and everything around them might prove useful in regards to their survival.

The first thing he noticed was that their group of a few thousand had swelled. It seems that branching paths had met with theirs and other groups were being funneled together towards their current destination. It gave Miles a small amount of hope that there were more survivors than he’d originally thought.

They hadn’t been given any instructions, but it was quite obvious that they were meant to be going in the direction they were headed.

By the time they’d reached the end of the hallway they’d been walking down it had been roughly half an hour. The numbers in their group had reached upwards of 100,000 people before it finally stopped growing. Miles was truly stunned at the sheer size of the vessel they were on. Aside from being able to hold this many prisoners, the distance they had covered wasn’t anything to scoff at. Not to mention that there was nothing to indicate just how much of the ship they had actually seen. And yet all of that paled in comparison to the room they entered at the end of their journey.

An enormous amphitheater met them. The room seemed to have a very gradual slope towards its center, but it was truly so large that it was nearly imperceptible. Squinting his eyes, Miles could just make out some sort of podium situated in the middle. As the rest of their people filed into the room, a circle of guards ushered them into a circle around the podium.

The room itself was the same dark gray metal, but there were eight seams in the walls that emitted a soft orange light and met at the top of the domed roof. That same orange light began to appear around the edges of the circular podium as the last of the humans trailed into the room.

Miles could hear the soft hum of machinery as the Podium lit up and began to raise above the floor. The circular platformed hovered until it was about twenty feet above everyone in the room, when a small iris in the middle of it opened and a ray of blue light appeared and stretched down in the bowels of the ship beneath the platform. The beam pulsed several times before emitting a blinding flash of blue light.

As the room dimmed and once again was illuminated by just the orange seams in the walls, Miles rubbed his eyes. He’d had the wherewithal to cover his and Mary’s eyes, but he was still seeing spots. As his vision returned to him he saw what had appeared from the pulsing beam of light. They hadn’t been there even a second earlier, so he assumed that it must have been some sort of teleportation device.

“Hello humans!” Bellowed the creature that stood in the center of the podium. With a cursory glance one might have even thought him to be human, if not for the color of his skin or the fact that he was obviously a giant. He wore ornate red robes with orange trim, and a headdress had two crests running from front to back. It gave him the appearance of some sort of holy figure. That being further confirmed by the four monstrous armored aliens surrounding him.

“I understand that this has been a trying time for you, but I, Iltanis, wish to congratulate you on your survival.” He gave a smile that oozed a practiced facade.

“It was never our intention to kill any of your species, but certain sacrifices must be made in the name of progress. Those who could not understand their inferiority had no place amongst us.”

The man, Iltanis, gave the humans in the room a few seconds to process what he’d said. Clearly the deaths of their friends and family who’d fought back had been meant to send a message. One that communicated just how powerless they were.

“We, the Vel ‘Tar, have bestowed upon you a mighty gift! You shall receive the blessing of mana, and you should survive the Tempering, you shall be given a role in the most powerful empire in known space!”

Miles shook his head and tried to reconcile what he’d just heard with what he already knew. The priest had said the blessing of mana...as in the resource most commonly associated with magic. He hadn’t seen anyone use magic, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t. He craned his neck to get a better view as the speech continued.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I am sure you have many questions. I assure you that they will all be answered in due time. For now, I ask that you all step bravely forward into your new destiny!” As he said that last sentence he gave a flourish with his hands and the eight seams in the walls opened to reveal eight identical hallways.

Everyone just stood there, not quite knowing what to do. The priest, however, seemed quite done with the whole affair. There was a scowl quickly forming on his face until the first person stepped into the hallway nearest to himself and vanished from sight. It seemed that that had been our intended destination all along, as soon people were filing into the orange light at a rather steady pace.

Still holding the girl, Miles approached the wall of light and hesitated. He looked down at her and she just smiled back, relaying her trust in his decisions. He stepped forward into the light and suddenly felt as though he was being swallowed by rushing water. It was as if his lungs were filled with hot liquid, but he could still breathe. He pushed down his panic and tried to control his breathing.

As he opened his eyes he found himself on a bed in a small room of polished white metal. There were a number of display screens around the room and two of the Vel ‘Tar seemed to be preparing some sort of mixture.

One of them noticed his presence and asked him to stick out his hand. Thinking it prudent to continue on the path of least resistance, he did as he was asked. The alien in question then stuck out a small needle and pricked his hand before proceeding to place his blood onto to one of the display screens, where it was absorbed into seemingly nothing.

“Honestly this place is insane.” Miles mumbled to himself. He was having a tremendous amount of difficulty wrapping his head around how advanced they were as a species.

“Miles T. Reed,” the female assistant spoke to him and shook him out of his musings. “It’s a shame about that leg of yours, it’ll make the next step of your Tempering quite difficult, but you are otherwise healthy. We can now proceed to unlocking your mana potential, please lay down.” She gestured for him to lay back onto the table that he was seated on.

Miles was about to ask how she knew his name and about his leg, but he caught a glimpse of the screen in front her. It seemed to be a complete diagram of his physical status and personal information. “All that just from my blood…” He thought to himself.

As he situated himself he couldn’t help but unleash his curious nature about the situation. “So what exactly is it that you plan to do to me? I suppose it would be hoping a bit too much that it could somehow regrow my leg?” He laughed a bit at the ridiculous question, but figured it couldn’t hurt to ask.

She smiled as she grabbed his arm and applied an anesthetic to it. “No harm in telling you I suppose. We will be injecting you with nanites that are programmed to rewire you genetic code to access your mana nodes. Simultaneously, they will be installing the necessary code for A.I. integration. Each of you has been given clearance for a guardian, which is essentially a low tier A.I. that we will surgically implant while the nanites are working. As for your leg...no, not yet.”

“Not yet?” He asked, clearly picking up on her subtle hint.

She just smiled at him and turned to say something to the other male in the room, at which point he made his way over to the table.

“Hello Mr. Reed, my name is Lanis. We will be putting you under for his part of the procedure, as the nanite reconstruction can be quite painful. When you wake up, you may feel a bit disoriented, but if you have any questions you can direct them to the Artificial Intelligence Interface.” He paused, before concluding that the look on Miles face was one of confusion. “In other words, just think the question and you’ll receive a response. Now, any further questions for us before we proceed?”

For some reasons or another, Miles’ head was remarkably clear at the moment. He didn’t feel anxious or afraid, just curious. He did have one question to ask however. “When I walked into that orange light I was with a young girl, could you tell me what happened to her?”

The man gave him a sympathetic look before answering, “All species are different in regards to mana accessibility. Often times, in species that don’t naturally have access to it, interfering with genetic code at such a young age can cause mortal trauma. As the priest said, we would like to avoid unnecessary death outside of the Tempering itself, so children are often set aside and sent to care facilities until they are of age.” He tapped a panel that was floating to his right and scrolled through a few sheets. “It appears that the minimum age for your species is twelve cycles.”

Miles simply nodded and closed his eyes. For the time being it seemed that Mary and the other kids would be safe and well taken care of. From the sound of things, he’d need to be far more worried for himself. Whatever this Tempering was that they kept mentioning; there’d been more than enough context clues to indicate that it was quite possible to die during it. As he focused his thoughts on the near future, he felt a prick in his arm and slowly lost consciousness.