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1423 Words
Their platform passed through a shimmering barrier, and they were in dry air once again. Matt should have expected the area to be spatially expanded, but he hadn’t. When they arrived in one of the smaller edge bubbles, its outer dimensions had only seemed to be that of a large building. The inside was actually a huge expanse dripping in luxury.
The edges were lined with balconies that wrapped the entire sphere. There was a circular area in the center that held a floating statue, seemingly made of light. It was sculpted into the shape of a ballerina, frozen in a moment of their dance.
Matt was mesmerized for a moment until the bustling crowd bumped into his back. They didn’t have to climb down the ladders this time, as the bubble had dedicated moorings for the shuttles. With the exit made apparent, the passengers poured down the ramp in a wave.
The signs bombarded him with advertisements for all kinds of extravagant goods and experiences. There was everything from rare wine tastings to specialty cheese shops.
“Wow.”
Conor’s exclamation matched Matt’s own thoughts. Annie broke him out of his stupor with a poke to his side.
He looked at her in confusion, before she pressed her hands together with three fingers each and split them off.
Matt grinned at her. He decided to throw her a bone after noticing the eye roll from her sister.
“This place looks amazing. We should split up so we can cover more of it. The main auction starts in three hours, so we have time. I’ll make sure we get a box like we said earlier. Why don’t Conor, Annie, and Aster go together, and the rest of us will do our own thing. We can message each other about anything amazing we might find.”
Aster jumped up into Annie’s arms and yipped a yip Matt knew all too well, so he headed that off with, “Only give her a small bowl of ice cream. I’m sure she’ll want more at the banquet that they’re holding after the auction.”
His fox’s ears dropped, but Annie kissed her in between the ears and said something that caused them to perk back up.
Matt ignored the foreboding implications and turned to leave with Liz and Emily. Before they left, he made sure he put the kingdom’s colors armband on Aster, which she refused to wear as a headband, so he had to settle for a scarf.
They all had their own on as well. While it hadn’t been a hard rule, it had been suggested strongly for anyone attending the auction.
Annie’s sister scoffed when they were out of range of her sister, leading Liz to ask, “Do you not like Conor?”
Emily sighed. “No, it’s not that. Conor is actually much better than the last few crushes Annie’s picked up. One tried to get us to have a threesome with him. Like, come on.”
Matt’s face scrunched up at that.
Liz threw an arm around the shorter woman and said, “Then isn’t it a good thing Conor doesn’t seem to be that type?”
Emily nodded at that but accompanied it with a shrug. “I guess, but none of them started out being weird. Just call me a pessimist. I haven’t seen him checking me out when he thinks I’m not looking, at least. That’s something more than I could say about most of her crushes.”
The brown-haired woman perked up and changed the topic. “What are you guys interested in checking out? I looked up some of the amenities, and there’s a spa section that has a massage parlor. We don’t have enough time to really enjoy it, but we have enough time for a half-hour massages and mani-pedi.”
Liz jumped at the idea. “Yes! My feet are always in boots. I’d love that.”
Matt agreed. “It won’t hurt, that’s for sure. But I’ll skip out of the mani-pedi. I would rather have a longer massage.”
They moved through the bubble, down toward the center of the concourse. They made their way down a tunnel set at a declining angle, with a gravity nullifier that allowed for faster transport. It was fun to throw himself down the tube and catch himself at the end with a flip that let him land with a solid thunk.
He was tempted to go back just to experience the weightlessness once again. It was exhilarating.
Seeing that the women wanted to move on, Matt shrugged it off. They were in the central bubble, and the sheer size of the area boggled his mind. The entire center was carved out, so that the balconies had a clear view along with the progressively larger boxes that trailed up the side of the inner area. Near the bottom, there was a section of what looked like standing platforms that Matt wanted to avoid being placed in.
They found a booth to reserve a private auction box, only to find out that they already had one set aside for them. Or at least, Matt and Liz did. Emily didn’t, which they found odd.
Guessing what happened, Matt sent a message to Juni asking if he did that, and almost immediately received a response with a laughing face and ‘You’ll see.’
He and Liz didn’t think they were being set up in a bad way, so they decided not to push for more information. They reached their reserved massage appointment after three more transfers through the weightless tunnels.
The massage was everything Matt had thought it would be and more. The worker dug into his back with fingers of soft steel, while two others attacked his hands and feet at the same time.
He was glad that he had a towel covering his face, because he was pretty sure he was drooling by the end of his appointment.
The three of them bonelessly moved to a bench near a wall to watch the fish and other underwater creatures slither and swim by.
“Do I still have feet?” Matt lifted his now rebooted feet to the giggles of the two women.
He went along with it. “I’m just pissed that I’ve never done this before. I always figured that it couldn’t be worth the money. Damn, was I wrong.”
Seeing something in the reflection of the wall, Matt turned in confusion as he noticed a massive turtle walking up behind him. Upon further inspection, he was taken aback a second time from the discovery that the approaching figure really was a turtle.
Standing around four feet tall from floor to shell, the turtle was short but stocky. The sections of his shell were more spiky than normal, appearing like small, sharp hills on its back, instead of the smooth humps he had seen before on the mundane variants. The turtle’s exposed skin looked more scale-like, reminding Matt more of a lizard than of a turtle. As the light played over his shell and scales, it reflected like dull metal.
Liz noticed him looking and turned to glance as well, saying, “Ah, a mountain metal tortoise. Poor guy was born in beast form, which kinda sucks. At least he seems to have a friend.”
Matt looked and saw that there was a woman with purple hair and a wide-brimmed hat talking with the tortoise. How Liz knew it was a male, he had no idea, but he went with it. It was a good reminder that the Empire was wider than he really knew.
“Why do they do that? It seems cruel.”
Liz sighed. “I’d agree personally, but there are advantages. One is litter births. You can have more children if done in beast form. Tying in with that, there’s an increased fertility that comes with both parents being of the same species and both in beast form. Also, there’s the belief that children born like this are stronger or have better Talents. It’s not really confirmable, but there is enough anecdotal evidence to make something of the rumor.”
Seeing the queendom’s colors on both, Matt sighed in annoyance. He had no idea how to fight a turtle. His shell looked to be thick and made from metal. He was glad that he had a blunt weapon at his Tier, but he honestly doubted that it would do him any good against a shell made for defense.
- Writer
