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1484 Words
When Matt woke up, he found that Aster was still upset about the pyramid of household objects stacked on and around her. She was ignoring everyone while sending chilly gusts of wind at anyone she thought it would bother.
Currently, her only targets were Matt and Liz, as they were the only ones in the living room.
Not long after Emmanuel had left, the party had devolved into various drinking games.
Possibly because she was the first to pass out last night, the fox was feeling the best.
Matt felt like someone hit him in the face, but he was at least able to function.
Liz was only doing slightly better than Matt, and had an arm thrown over her eyes while trying to find a comfortable position on the couch she’d taken over at some point.
Despite the fact they were much higher Tier and fully able to control their bodies, the immortals were doing far worse than the three of them. The high Tier liquor they had started drinking apparently hit a lot harder than what the three of them had drunk.
Mara was currently in a tiny phoenix form and had at some point created a miniature nest in a bookshelf. She wasn’t actually in the nest; she had gotten stuck in the chandelier that hung over the kitchen table. She had struggled valiantly, but eventually gave up and slept entangled in the gems and chains.
Leon, if Matt remembered correctly, and if his ears were working properly, had been stuffed into the fridge, and was currently asking for someone to open the door.
Matt ignored that and looked around for anyone else.
He found Sam curled up under the table using a bottle of silvery liquor like a pillow.
Leah and Alice were nowhere to be seen, but he could see Erin’s slippered-foot sticking inside the apartment from the balcony.
Matt eventually found Daniel when he noticed the second couch was extra lumpy and looked closer.
The middle sibling had apparently decided that getting under the couch pillows was the most comfortable position to be in.
Considering that Matt had woken up with a pile of stacked cans and a chair falling on him from when Aster freed herself, he wished he had thought to protect his head as well.
Moving slowly, he started to cook everyone breakfast after letting Leon free from the fridge, where he had been stuffed inside an intricate bottle as a storm cloud.
Matt didn’t even try to remember what the older siblings had been thinking when they convinced the man to get into the bottle.
He remembered it had been funny, just not what the actual joke was.
By noon, everyone was up and moving, which actually allowed them to catch the official start of the games.
They had used the capital city’s location for the opening ceremonies, which was six or so hours behind their current location on the planet.
It was an impressive showing, and everyone watched the proceedings with rapt attention.
The Emperor had given a speech at Tur’stal’s floating estate. They were in a spatially expanded garden, and he addressed the crowd of millions as the sun broke over the horizon.
Most of it was political fluff that passed through one slightly hungover ear and out the other, but seeing the Emperor use a primitive flint and steel to start the fire that would stay aflame for the next year was a sight to behold.
There was something entrancing about watching a man that could easily summon fire at a whim create it through mundane methods.
Matt was sure that there was some greater symbolism to it, but the subtler aspects of the ceremony were lost on him.
From then on, there were seemingly endless banquets and parties as the weeklong countdown began.
The Emperor kept things interesting by crashing random gatherings and doing impromptu meet and greets between his official appearances at various higher Tier events.
It gave the random Pathers a chance to meet the Tier 50 personally, and despite not having more than a minute to spend with each person, he somehow made everyone he interacted with feel like he had taken note of them specifically.
Matt was pretty sure that the Tier 50 was abusing a cloning skill or Talent, but it didn’t change the fact people were ecstatic to meet him.
The three of them spent most of their time in their normal identities so they could hang out with their friends, old and new. But they also donned their Quill and Torch personas to attend a few of the masked parties.
But as the final day approached, the atmosphere of the planet took two distinct turns. The Pathers got serious, and like an unspoken switch was thrown, the partying and fun time stopped when the day counter ticked over into hours.
At the same time, everyone else’s parties seemed to kick into high gear.
When there were only minutes until the official start, Matt and Liz stood with Melinda’s team, Annie’s team, Kacy’s team, and Felix in the crowd of participating Pathers. Quill and Torch, run by Luna and Kurt, were off in the distance with the other top ten maskers.
They actually had a much better view of the festivities, but Matt and Liz had wanted to be with their friends.
From the sidelines of the massive open area that they had all congregated in, the stands were full to bursting.
They were spatially expanded to the limit. Both the building in general and the stands that wrapped the venue were expanded to hold the fourteen billion people who were attending the event in person.
The staggering number only consisted of the lucky few who had won the planet-wide lottery to earn a seat. Everyone else on the planet that housed trillions, and all the viewers throughout the Empire had to watch on a screen.
And Matt had to be honest…
Anyone not here in person was missing out.
There were two dragon and phoenix pairs chasing each other around the venue’s sky in an acrobatic display that was dazzling even before their handlers started to add illusion spells to the showing.
The two dragons chased the phoenixes around in loops that brought them seemingly within arm’s reach of the crowd, but that was more an illusion created by their massive sizes than anything else. The great beasts were larger than some buildings but were still nimble enough to turn tight circles. Matt was pretty sure they were cheating with some form of magical flight.
Something that big just shouldn’t be able to turn that quickly.
Throughout the show, the dragons and phoenixes shot jets of elemental magic at each other, so their attacks fizzled out in colorful displays of magic that dissipated above the standing Pathers’ heads. Lightning flashed in elaborate geometric patterns, and the sky itself shifted to all manner of gorgeous colors. Stars even emerged in brilliant constellations depicting iconography from across the Empire.
It was an amazing backdrop to the entertainers who wandered above their heads and performed acrobatics and other impressive stunts in miniature performances.
An illusionist was performing sleight of hand card tricks near the group, but his shadow was constantly disrupting his tricks and pulling the hidden cards out of his pockets, to the annoyance of the main body.
After running through a few shows, all the hovering performers shifted places on an unheard cue.
Matt was watching a woman juggle half a dozen flaming blades with her feet, when all the performers faded away as if they were made of mist.
As they started to vanish, everyone’s attention moved to the large stage that took up the center of the venue.
With billions of eyes watching, the empty stage that had held a few larger performances just moments ago was covered in a rising mist.
As quickly as the mist appeared, it vanished in seconds, and the flat platform was replaced with the royals standing in a semi-circle around the Emperor.
At the first sight of the Emperor, the crowd went wild, and screams and shouts blasted out in waves.
The Emperor was the only royal that reacted, and simply waved at the crowd, letting them burn off their excess energy.
Matt’s eyes were drawn to the royals flanking Emmanuel. On the right were Leon and Mara, standing next to each other with stern looks on their faces.
Seeing them up there, he looked to where he knew the Moore family was in the stands and found the real versions of Mara and Leon shouting and waving like anyone else in the crowd. No one else recognized them, or any of the other Moore’s as someone of stature in the crowd. Matt had checked with Kyle, and he only saw normal-looking people in the Moore family’s places. In fact, he couldn’t even see their shenanigans.
- Writer
