"Well, well, what have we here..." A powerful female voice reverberated through the vast emptiness. I tried to look around but I wasn't sure if I still had eyes, much less light to see by.

  "Who are you? Where am I? What is going on?"

  "Oh my, so many questions. Where to start? Well, you can think of me as the collective matrix of all beings interconnected by magic. Or maybe I'm just your subconscious making all this up as I go along. Your guess is probably as good as mine. What do you call yourself, my child?"

  I was dismayed and annoyed. I didn't know the first thing about magic so my subconscious probably had no clue either. Which meant that this conversation was more or less pointless. Still, it somehow felt rude not to answer the question.

  "I am Arabella."

  "Welcome, Arabella. Now, as to what's going on, that's an easy one to answer," the voice continued. "Your body is slowly being destroyed and rebuilt using a new template. Someone is trying to alter the All-Mother's work. Very naughty indeed."

  "That just raises more questions, though. If my body is gone, where is my mind?"

  "Probably being stored in some interdimensional hole where time is meaningless. We're the only ones here. Now, as to your final question, I've already answered that in part. You are being reborn, it's true, but the process has what seems to be intentional flaws. Would you like me to correct them as we go?"

  "Huh? I don't understand."

  "Whoever designed the process to remake your body added limitations that we can bypass. Would you like to do so?"

  "I guess? Like, if it will make me stronger and help me reach my goals."

  There was a long pause.

  "Yes, I think I can do that. And your heart is in the right place. Very well, I shall remove what limitations I can. Let's begin. First I'm going to explain to you how this process will work. Right now you have raw potential that can be channeled into various attributes and abilities. As your body reconstitutes, the choices that you make here will affect your strengths and weaknesses and help guide your future growth. Does that make sense?"

  There was a long pause as I tried to process what the voice had just said, then she sighed.

  "Ok, let's take a step back. I was just assuming you were prepared for this. The other knew exactly what she wanted."

  "Other?"

  "Not important right now, my dear. Let's start from the beginning, okay? Right now we have a LOT to go over. First of all, do you know about the three attributes related to your spirit's mana channels?"

  "I know nothing about magic at all."

  "Alright, then don't interrupt. Long ago, as you experience time, your people were obsessed with groups of three; I have no idea why. They divided a human being into three parts: body, soul, and spirit. Your body is obviously your physical form. Your soul is probably what is talking to me right now. It represents your mind and emotions. The spirit is your magical form and is somewhat connected to your physical body. Each of these parts has three different attributes that govern how well they perform certain tasks.

  For your body, the three attributes are pretty easy to explain and understand. They are Strength, which is how powerful a force you can generate with your body, Dexterity, which is how easily you can control your movements, and Durability, which includes your overall health and ability to resist injury and disease. A well-developed physical body helps serve as the base for a strong mind and spirit, don't forget that.

  Your soul, the seat of your intellect and emotions, is divided similarly to the body. Your Intelligence represents your ability to learn new information, draw conclusions, and determine the best course of action, among other things. Charisma is the ability to understand your own emotions and how to affect those of others. Don't be fooled, however, because there's a lot more to Charisma than 'getting what you want'. Charisma also helps you set goals and retain your self-identity. Finally, there is Willpower, which is the mental equivalent of durability. Willpower measures your determination to affect the world around as well as to remain unaffected by it.

  Now, the spirit is a bit different. Your spirit works magic by drawing in, circulating, refining, and expending mana. The ability to draw in and circulate mana is referred to as your Cycle attribute. Refining raw mana into usable energy and applying it efficiently to alter reality is known as Homogeneity. That's a big word that simply means, 'all the same'. And, last but not least, your Density attribute determines how much mana you can store into your spirit and how much can be expended at once. I suggest raising these attributes more or less evenly because each of them controls at least one important limitation within your spirit."

  The voice gave me a moment to digest all the information I'd just received. Fortunately, my mind was already feeling sharper due to the process: I felt like if I could reproduce the entire speech word for word if I needed to. On the surface, it seemed like each attribute was essential in some way to becoming a powerful wizard. But there was one attribute that stood out: willpower. If Willpower truly governed affecting others and remain unaffected, it was an attribute that helped increase both my offensive and defensive abilities.

  "Do you have any questions before we go on?" my companion asked.

  "Yes, I do have one. It sounds like Willpower is the key to becoming strong because it will aid my body, soul, and spirit. Is that true?"

  The voice sounded pleased.

  "I'm glad you noticed. Yes, Willpower is a great stat. But remember, even if you have all the Willpower in the world and the need to move a boulder, you won't get anywhere if you don't have enough Strength."

  "So you're saying that Willpower can only enhance what's already there, right?"

  "Yes. So, any other questions?"

  "How does Willpower interact with Charisma?"

  "I'll admit, there is a bit of overlap there. The ancients weren't perfect. But think of it this way, while both can help you control your emotions and focus on your goals, Willpower is less flexible in a certain sense. It pushes straight through obstacles where Charisma or Intelligence might find a way around."

  "So we're back to, 'I need other things for Willpower to enhance'. Got it."

  "Great. Now that we're clear on that, let's move on to attribute distribution. Your soul and spirit have expanded due to being freed from the constraints of your physical form. You can help guide their growth while you are here with me, and indeed for a while after they will be rather pliable. Your new body will be the same way. What this means for you is that you can choose which attributes will grow the most during this process. We'll start with your new physical form. I'm going to give you a visual representation of the changes that we'll be making, let me know if you see something now."

  The darkness brightened a bit into a deep blue, then white text faded in for me to read.

  "Yes, I see it," I confirmed.

  "Think about what attributes you want to increase. When you want to commit to spending a point, think hard for a moment about increasing the attribute. If you want to undo the change, think about reversing the increase. And be careful about increasing any one attribute too high: when one attribute goes above the combined score of the other two, you'll have to spend more and more points to raise it."

  I took a moment to think about what I wanted. I certainly wanted as much durability as I could get. Between the remaining two attributes, strength seemed a bit more useful than reflexes. After some fiddling around and spending some time getting the hang of allocating and deallocating my attribute increases, I was ready to commit.

  "How does this look?" I asked.

  "Well, it's your body. But I think that's fine."

  This is what my attributes looked like after making my final changes.

  "Alright," the voice continued. "You've got the hang of things it seems. Now let's work on your mental attributes. You'll see a small bonus here from the changes that you made to your physical attribute.

  I was a bit stunned by how many extra points I would get to put into increasing my mind's abilities. A thrill shuddered through me as I considered the possibilities that lay before me. With so many points to spend, I really didn't want to make a mistake here.

  "This is a lot more free points than my physical attributes." I pointed out to my mysterious mentor. "Why is that?"

  "The spirit is more malleable than the body, seeing how it's not constrained by base biology."

  "So do you have any advice?"

  "Well, do you want to gather a lot of allies, or do you see yourself more as a solitary genius?"

  "I certainly want to be a genius, but I'm probably going to need some help down the road. I guess that means I'll need to focus on intelligence, but I can't afford to neglect charisma. What about willpower?"

  "Just don't let it go more than a few points over your intelligence for now."

  It took me a good deal longer to get my mental attributes to where I was happy with them. When I was finished, I looked over them one more time, trying to decide if I should adjust anything, but there was no point in second-guessing myself. I went ahead and locked in my changes.

  "Looking good," my mentor said approvingly as we moved on to the final round of attributes. "Now remember what I said about your spirit's attributes. If one of them is more than a few points higher than the rest you'll get almost no benefit. Let me take a quick look at your spirit...your base attributes are pretty good considering you've never used magic before. I'm surprised you never manifested any powers spontaneously."

  "Well, I did read thoughts. Does that count?"

  "That's good! I wonder what other special powers you might have. We'll talk about those later. For now, focus on augmenting your spiritual attributes."

  I focused again on the white text. After having twenty-four points to put into the mental abilities, I felt ripped off.

  There didn't seem much to do but allocate everything more or less evenly. It took me just a few moments to finish everything.

  "Okay, so we're done picking out how your body, mind, and spirit will grow during your rebirth. Now I'm going to try to correct some of the defects that were deliberately introduced into this process. I'm not sure how successful I'll be, but we should see at least some results. Once that's done, I'll explain how Insights work. Then we'll choose a Metagift for you and decide what path you'll start down as you grow. How does that sound?"

  That seemed like a lot of ground still to cover, but I was feeling pretty good after all those attributes increases. My mind was still sharp and I felt no mental fatigue even after concentrating for who knows exactly how long. I was especially excited about whatever this "Metagift" was.

  "Sounds good to me," I responded. "I'm ready when you are for the correction process. How much do you think my attributes will go up? Will I be much stronger than the average person? And is there anything I can do to help?"

  "To be honest, I have no idea how much this process will aid you right now. And I have no idea how strong the average magic-user of your era is, but out of the four that I can sense through our connection, you are approximately one-fourth as powerful as the weakest of them."

  She must mean Diana, I thought to myself.

  "Now, forget all about that for a minute and just try to relax during the process," the voice continued soothingly. "There will be at least one or two times where you may feel some pain, but I know what I'm doing."

  "Okay, just give me a second to relax, then go for it."

  I took a moment to steady myself and think about all the things I was going to accomplish with my newfound power. I was going to free Ronaldo the Pegasus and we would most definitely be friends.

  I was going to change the world for the better. I was going to..."

  A weird stinging sensation pricked at a part of my being that I never knew had existed. Somehow I knew that my strange ally was making modifications to my spirit, but I hadn't yet developed the correct senses to ascertain what exactly was being done. After a moment, however, the sharp pinprick settled down to a dull throb as a thrum of power washed over me. Along with the influx of power, there was a pulsing sound (if sound actually existed wherever I was) that reminded me of a heartbeat. It was soothing.

  "Arabella, are you doing alright?"

  "Never better," I answered with confidence. "Keep going."

  "This next part is going to be worse. Fair warning."

  Thinking of the rewards that lay in store helped anchor me as I readied for the next wave of pain.

  "Okay, I think I'm ready," I responded. There was no point in dragging things out. A different sort of pain grew inside my mind, a slowly increasing sensation of pressure that felt like someone was attempting to inflate a balloon inside what used to be my head. It grew difficult to think as the searing pain enveloped my whole being. Something like a scream echoed louder and louder as the agony consumed me from the inside out.

  At the very instant I felt like I was going to be torn to shreds, the pain drained away much faster than it had grown and I was once again mistress of my own thoughts. They were not exactly happy thoughts: even forming simple sentences hurt.

  "That. Sucked," I complained to the voice.

  "Yet you did well." my tormentor and possibly benefactor rebutted.

  "Your mental plasticity and cognitive limits are already showing significant improvements. You should be able to detect the difference by now."

  A few moments of uncomfortable rummaging around in my memories proved she was right: the events of the past were much easier to recall and understand. It was easy now to see that Tonya the milkmaid and Marshall the sous-chef were totally in love. Or that Bandar had known it was a long-shot trying to extort money from me. Or that the empress was trying to buy my favor with her lavish gifts.

  "Are you ready for the final adjustment?" my invisible friend asked, interrupting my train of thought once again.

  "Let's get it over with," I answered with a mental sigh. "Before I get cold feet. Will this one be the worst?"

  "Not at all. Your body is reforging itself rapidly, but it's still only loosely connected to your spirit and soul. You probably won't notice anything."

  That was just fine with me.

  "Hurry up then, I want to learn about Metagifts."

  The voice chuckled.

  "All in good time. We still have a lot of ground to cover together, and unless I'm mistaken your body will not awaken for some time. Stand by."

  An odd vibration thrilled through my entire being as the limitations on my physical form were assaulted. It was nice to be able to feel my arms and legs again. There was an odd burning sensation in my lower abdomen, but other than that I felt no pain. The vibrations melted away into a pleasant tingling that left me completely relaxed but somehow energized. My muscles ached to be unleashed like coiled springs, my nerves crackled with nervous energy, and my bones seemed as unbreakable as adamantine pillars.

  "Well, that went as well as I could have hoped for. You'll have quite the advantage over any fledgling individual. Just remember that all of this power will be quite tempting to abuse. I have unlocked your potential because I believe you will use them for good, not for selfish gain, remember that."

  "Agreed. There will be time to indulge my own desires later. Now, you were going to tell about Epiphanies, Revelations, and Epics now, right? Are those related to mastering magic?"

  "Indeed they are, and they are essential to the mastery of magic. Without them, you'd be stuck as a fledgling wizard for the rest of your life. Now, an Epiphany is but one step towards..."

  The voice paused so abruptly that I knew instantly that something must be wrong. A quick check of my spirit and soul revealed nothing, so I focused my attention on my newly formed body. There was something attached to it that hadn't been there just a few moments before. Whatever it was, it was emitting some form of magic that sought to harmonize itself to that produced by my spirit. With a reaction speed that surprised even me, I allowed it to attune itself to a small fragment of my soul that had altered itself to act as a gateway between myself and the magical device.

  As the connection solidified, a new voice introduced itself.

  "Hello, I am Mia, your melded intelligent assistant," it announced in a detached voice that somehow felt less than human.

  Even as the voice spoke, I could feel tendrils snake out from the device, seeking to gather information about me. I quickly sated its curiosity with some partially true information, conjuring up a glimpse of my attributes as they were before my benefactor had guided me through the increases. Whatever I did must have worked, because the device immediately stopped sending out feelers and began to solidify its connection with the segment of my soul that served as a gateway between it and my true self.

  "Attunement complete," the newcomer broadcast through our link, although I wasn't sure if the message was directed to me or to someone else. "Scanning for defects."

  There was a short pause as the device sent out more probing signals through the link. I was understandably hesitant to give my invasive guest permission to rummage around my innermost being, so I sent back more false data that I hoped it would accept. Without the mental enhancements, I had just received, I would have had no chance at pulling off this deception at all. As it was, I had no idea if I could even fool the thing.

  "Relaying scan results," the device alerted. "Transmission complete."

  I breathed a mental sigh of relief. For some inexpressible reason, I was deathly afraid of being caught sending false data to the device. Someone high up, possibly the empress herself, must be highly interested in how my Metamorphosis was going. On some level, it was hard to blame them: I was the oldest individual to undergo the process for several centuries. My transformation should have attracted some interest from those interested in the historical and scientific aspects of the process. I just hadn't expected such in-depth scrutiny so soon, and I certainly didn't want anyone to know my exact abilities and true potential, especially since I knew so little about myself and the world I was being reborn into. Letting my guard down, even for an instant, did not seem safe. A girl's gotta have some secrets.

  My train of thought was interrupted by the device's reactivation. It was sending out a new signal, one that my new senses perceived as a triple helix. As the signal propagated throughout my essence, I could feel my body, soul, and spirit begin to respond. Then the device sent a final message through our mental link.

  "Metamorphosis complete. Subject will now regain consciousness."