Blood Shaper

Book 5: Chapter 6

The throne room in the palace wasn’t large enough for everything that was planned for the coronation. Sure, the typical thoughts of a monarch being crowned invoked images of a king kneeling before their throne at the end of a long and luxurious carpet, usually purple with gold embroidery, the crown being placed on their head after they swore their oaths as the king or queen of their nation and their people. At least it did for Kay, but that wasn’t really going to fly for this. While there were multiple reasons for that the main one was that Kay wasn’t going to make this a ceremony limited to only the influential who would jockey their way through a short invitation list limited by the size of the venue. Kay wanted his people to be involved, all of them. Without television to broadcast the event to the citizens of Avalon, the only way to let them be involved was to have the coronation be in the largest outdoor space possible.

Visiting dignitaries, potential assassinations, and just pure logistics meant that the event had to happen inside the city walls. As the final days before the coronation approached, the final preparations began and the city’s traffic began to change. The very first public square in Avalon City would be the most impactful place to have the coronation occur, symbolically at least, but it wasn’t big enough. Instead the largest public square was cordoned off and business alongside it and the main roads that ran through it were paid to be closed for the next several days. The streets were cleaned, any chips or ruts were repaired, and temporary structures were built. Spectator seating was the first thing to be erected, with a focus on the fancier areas for dignitaries first. The less expensive, less gaudy, seating for everyone else was no less safe, but it took less time and thus got started on later. Tables and chairs were also gathered, donated, or bought from all over the city and stored inside the empty businesses, ready to be pulled out after the formal ceremony ended and the party began. There needed to be enough to seat thousands of people, and most if not all of the chefs and cooks from the restaurants around the square were getting paid twice, once to have their businesses be closed for the event and again to cook for the party after it. The very center of the square, where all of the action would take place, was left empty. Kay needed to show off his might as a Class Line Progenitor as much as anything, and a massive display was planned in advance. The Blood Guard and a few of the other citizens of Avalon who had started to learn Blood Manipulation and try it out in other facets of life were going to be involved, but Kay would be doing the heavy lifting.

On the day of the coronation crowds began to gather before the fainest glitter of dawn was even visible over the horizon. Guards, including members of the Blood Guard, the Wardens, and the Sentinels were already deployed and began directing foot traffic. The early birds and go getters got the best seats available and the rows and rows of stands began to fill as the sun crested over the mountain to the east. Thankfully the sun was coming from the other direction than the mesa that loomed above the city, so there was plenty of natural light available.

Keeping with the plan for the event to be a celebration as much as it was a political move, prearranged entertainment started, with dancers, acrobats, and more drawing the attention of the spectators. Displays of strength and magical power were shown off to the delight of the crowd, including a few displays of Blood Manipulation. Salespeople and food vendors began to hawk their wares, and while most were allowed to go about their slightly dubious business, a vast majority of those selling products among the stands had failed to follow the proper procedures and get licenses to do so, others were firmly apprehended and led away. Technically breaking a few rules and selling food without a permit was one thing, publicly selling illicit substances or stolen goods was another beast entirely.

As the morning passed the last available public seats, obviously the ones farthest from the center, were quickly filled and the remained of the square and the streets became thronged with more and more people. Even more guards of all kinds were out in force as the criminals started to work their trade in the significantly more crowded areas. Pickpockets stole wallets and valuables from unwatched pockets, the smarter fences and dealers sold their wares to those unlucky enough to miss the better seating, and conmen and grifters began making new friends and peddling wondrous opportunities. When possible those taking advantage of the overworked upholders of the law were caught, but the main focus was on making sure people didn’t get crushed in the crowd, thats fights didn’t start and deaths didn’t happen.

The foreign dignitaries and official representatives of dozens of powerful organizations began to arrive generally all at once, with a few stragglers here and there, as they’d been asked to. They were escorted through the crowds using the smaller roads that had worse visibility of everything going and were thus less full. They all took their seats without much issues and while a few among them began jockeying for position or trying to make deals most merely sat and waited tor the show to begin.

Exactly at noon, with the sun high in the sky and the crowds buzzing with anticipation, the sheer force of so many people talking shaking the seats, armored Blood Guard began marching out of opposing buildings across the square simultaneously. Their movements weren’t perfectly in sync, the Blood Guard existed as a functional force not a ceremonial one, they were close enough especially for the many spectators too far away to make them out perfectly. They marched toward each other in the large gap between the spectator stands and turned to head up along the seats for the more influential guests and visitors, forming a red wall of faceless armored figures along the bottom of the stands. They turned to face each other again and brought down the butts of their weapons, all halberds in honor of their king, and slammed them down against the ground.

There wasn’t complete silence, there were far too many people present for that to ever happen, but the almost overwhelming wave of sound dropped to an indecipherable murmur of thousands speaking to each other in low tones. Dancers began to stream into the square, swirling about gracefully in red accented costumes as they moved toward the center. When they came level to the line of Blood Guard they began releasing bundles of red flower petals from small pouches and baskets they carried making it look like there’d been a rain of flowers that broke apart of a sudden windstorm that had ripped through a field and deposited its stolen bounty there. The petals drifted to the ground as the dancers continued on, leaving even more behind as they kept going until they were out of sight, dipping into other buildings that had been left empty for them. Piles of petals sat there for a moment before suddenly transitioning into liquid. All of them dripping and ran, spreading out to create a massive sheet that covered the ground, a glistening red carpet that stretched from the line of Blood Guard to its end.

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The petals left beyond that gathered together and rose in the air, turning into droplets that ran together then solidified to become a solid platform. Government officials, notable bureaucrats, and members of Avalon’s Parliament strode out to take the places on the platform. As the last few of them took the small set of stairs up, another set began to grow from the platform and a second layer formed at the top. Thing drips of blood became solid columns that supported it and higher ranking officials and members of Parliament who had made slightly better deals with their fellows or just got lucky on the original random draw for spots took their places, and a third staircase began to grow. The third and final level was filled with Kay’s Ministers, Meten the head of the Sentinels, Curcius Mapsight the leader of Avalon’s military, and Eleniah, Kay’s first teacher and oldest friend on Torotia. Cindy strode alongside them and took her own place at the edge of the tallest platform, generating new whispers and questions among the dignitaries and representatives that didn’t know about her, or only knew she was another Outworlder. Her presence in a position of importance was a surprise and curiosity to those trying to suss out the flow among Avalon’s halls of power.

At that point the conversations dropped into an even quieter lull as everyone awaited the star of the show. Several moments passed as the anticipatory hush spread throughout the crowd and was quickly broken as people began to notice the pool of blood spread across the ground, mimicking a carpet, began to ripple. Small waves began to radiate out from the end farthest from the platforms and an armored head rose from within. Like Venus in her shell, Kay’s armored figure rose from the pool, red frothy waves pulsing around him as he ascended. His armor was the same as ever, making him into a faceless figure, visibly more of a red statue than a man. He began to walk forward as he became level with the ground and upon reaching the front of the stairs he stepped up, completely missing them. Without stopping he rose into the air, taking step after step above the staircase, rising up to the level of the third and highest platform with no visible support under his feet.

Upon reaching the highest level his armor began to flow around him. It cascaded down from around his head first, his helmet dripping into his breastplate, then that too became liquid and flowed around his body. Some of it rising up and some of it dropping down as it formed a red cape that trailed behind him as he approached the end of the platform. He stopped at the very end of it and turned, revealing to the spectators the subdued and dark colored outfit he was wearing. He turned his head from one side to the other, surveying the crowd and everyone quieted down until it was as close to true silence as it could be with this many people in one place.

“Greetings to all, both citizens of Avalon and our guests.” He began, his voice amplified through magic so everyone could hear. “Today is a momentous day for all of us, a grand step in the endless march of progress. But the march we’re on didn’t start anywhere great. Before I came to Torotia I was an average man. I worked an average job, I made an average income, I lived in an average home. The only thing about my life were the people in it who I cared about, because each and every one of them are special to me. My life was eminently normal. That changed when I was suddenly brought here, to a world that, to me, is fantastic and wonderful. The Earth I come from had no System, no levels, no Skills, no Classes, and no magic. Every moment was as fascinating as it was terrifying, What started me on this path that all of you have joined me on was not my drive to succeed or my desire for power, it was pure random chance. The Class I happened to be assigned as an Outworlder was Blood Mage.” He kept speaking over a wave of raised voices. “My first and only Class was to be burned out of me immediately, but the Bureau of Outworlder Affairs official who was with me gave me another option, to swear to the System that I would never use my Skills on another person to control them or take their free will from them. The System heard my oath and considered my words, and from that the Class I will have until the day I die became mine. That was how I became a Blood Manipulator, and that was how I became a Class Line Progenitor. This is the example I want to show to you, to exemplify to all of you, as the man who will be your king. When an opportunity comes to you, seize it, even if it is not exactly what you planned for or expected. I did not plan to be moved into another reality, I did not plan to become a Class Line Progenitor, and I didn’t even plan to found a city, which today becomes the capital of our new nation. I came into the wilderness with my mentor to train, to learn, and to test myself against what monsters we could find. But upon meeting new people with wants and needs of their own, who saw my title and looked to me for guidance, I decided to step up. I am not perfect. I have made mistakes and I will again, but I will always learn and grow in their wake. I will not be a standard ruler. I will bring ideas and thoughts from my first world and mix them with the thoughts and ideas of my second world, and together we will bring about something new, something greater than the sum of it’s parts. That is who I am, that is who I will be, and that is the man that will be your king.”

Kay reached to the side where Eleniah handed him the shining crown of Avalon. Newly made, its base was a solid band of gold with two thinner bands in the center made of shining platinum. The top of the crown had a circle of peaks inlaid with tiny rubies and in the center, between the strips of platinum, were even larger red gems. Although they looked like more rubies they were in fact gems of blood made to enhance Kay’s Skills, created by his own hand. They were secretly removable so that they could be exchanged with others, whether that was for Kay to supplement new Skills he gained later on or a successor some day in the hopefully far off future. Kay took a moment to look it over as he held it between his hands before looking back to the crowd.

“On this day I swear before all of you, that I shall, to the absolute best of my ability, rule with wisdom, with mercy, with strength, and with courage. I swear, not only to all of you that are my people now but to all of those who will also be my people in the future, that I will not only be your guardian against the monsters that roam this world, the dark powers that seek ruin and terror for any they come across, and other people who would scheme against you and cause pain and suffering. I will not only be your leader through times of plenty and times of loss. I will strive every day to be an example to all who look this way, to show all of you what can be done if you reach out and grasp the opportunities to grow and become better that appear in front of you, whether through luck or through your own hard work.”

Kay raised the crown above his head and gently brought it down so that it rested just over his ears. Behind him the cape made out of blood stretched out and detached from his shoulders, transforming into a tall throne that sat on a thin dais on the platform. He glanced around at the massive gathering of his citizens as they began to cheer.

“On this day I am crowned as King Kay the First of Avalon.” He declared, then sat into the constructed throne behind him.

For decades later people would claim that the cheers that erupted could be heard in distant towns, hundreds of miles away.

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