We head down into the bowels of the manor, taking a set of stairs hidden behind a door off the corridor near the library which I wouldn’t have noticed at all if Nicholas hadn’t drawn my attention to it.

  The pale marble-like floors of the main part of the manor have been replaced by more dark wood which practically sucks in the light. There are light sources on the walls but they only illuminate a small patch of the corridor each time. The rest is left in a shadowy half-light which hides more than it reveals. At least, it would if I wasn’t using my Darkvision. With that, the corridor is lit almost like daylight to my eyes.

  We stop outside a door. Nicholas hesitates for a moment and looks down at Bastet.

  “Your Bonded must remain here. This ritual is not difficult, but the presence of a third being might disrupt it. That could have…unfortunate side effects.”

  “I see,” I reply, reluctant to leave Bastet behind, but recognising that I know nothing about rituals. “Bastet?”

  I will stay right here, she promises, moving to sit next to the doorway. If you need help, I am close.

  Thanks, I tell her gratefully. I mean, I shouldn’t need any help with Nicholas – we’ve just sworn an agreement which should take things like unexpected betrayal off the list of possibilities, but I value her offer all the same. “She’ll stay here,” I relate to Nicholas, looking back up at him.

  “Very well,” he accepts, then pushes the door open.

  Inside, the room is much bigger than I imagined it would be. We are standing at the top of a flight of steps which go down at least two storeys. The room is like an amphitheatre with stepped seating stretching around a circular central area.

  It kind of reminds me of the Colosseum in Rome, though tiny in comparison. But the way the central area is covered in sand and the tall walls that surround it…. There’s even a barred gate in the wall opposite the flight of steps that descends before me.

  “What is this place?” I ask, my nerves rising to the fore again. The design of the place brings back to me my worries of being forced to become some sort of gladiator. I know now that that’s not the case, but Nicholas hasn’t explained what the ritual is. What if I have to fight during it for some reason? Then again, surely if that was the case, I wouldn’t have had to leave Bastet outside.

  Nicholas has already started walking down the steps but at my question, he pauses and looks back up at me.

  “It’s the family arena,” he answers easily. “It carries significant enchantments which make it a good choice for any battles we do not want to be damaging to those around, or detectable to others outside this room. I would have originally summoned you here if the ritual I conducted didn’t have the requirement of being above ground.” It did? Good thing I wasn’t in a cave at the time, I guess. Unless it was only a requirement on this side of things.

  “So you do all your rituals here?”

  Nicholas chuckles.

  “That makes it sound like I perform them as a matter of course. I won’t deny that I have a fair amount of theoretical knowledge of them, but only Ritualists actually get much use out of rituals on a regular basis. However, when I do need to conduct them, yes, I prefer to do so down here. There are too many Skills and devices out there which are capable of detecting ritual usage by all but the most talented Ritualists for my preference.”

  “And today we’re doing an…adoption ritual?”

  “Precisely – a House adoption ritual, to be accurate. I am not adopting you as my son, but as my heir.” He hesitates. “Unless you wish to be adopted as my son? It would mean I would replace your father in every way. Some participants of family adoption rituals even report that the new parent replaced the old one in their memories.”

  “No, thank you,” I refuse politely but firmly, not needing to think about that one. My relationship with my father was…tumultuous at times, but he was still my dad. There were as many good times as there were bad, especially when I was younger, and there is no way I want to replace him. Especially not in my memories since those are all I have left of him. “This House adoption ritual won’t do the same, will it? I don’t want to lose my memories of my father,” I check, pausing on the step I’ve got to.

  “No, definitely not. Though even in the family adoption ritual, I doubt that would be the case for you. Generally that effect is only experienced by young children and it’s usually seen as a good thing at that point. But no, the House adoption ritual adds me tenuously as a third parent in your lineage, and is more about the magical connection than the blood one.”

  “Will it change the way I look or anything like that?” I ask warily.

  “No,” Nicholas answers immediately, then he hesitates. “Well, there is the chance that you might gain the same purple eyes as I have – it’s a characteristic of my line and occasionally an adoptee has received it as a result of their adoption.”

  “This is something you’ve done before, then?”

  “Not me personally, but my family, yes. Although it’s not exactly common, it is not very rare either. Most Houses are happy to adopt accomplished or talented people into their families, strengthening the House at the same time as giving backing and protection to the talented people in question. Though not usually as their heirs, admittedly. My family has kept records about past adoptions that I’ve seen. About ten percent of the adoptees received purple eyes. The rest experienced no unexpected changes.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Unexpected changes,” I repeat, eyeing him cautiously. “What expected changes are there, then?”

  Nicholas makes his hand-gesture shrug.

  “The usual from a House adoption. An increased ease with the family Class; some who didn’t have a Class before actually developed it spontaneously. Improved receptibility to Skills linked to the Class, particularly ones from other family members. The ability to use family-restricted items and access family-restricted areas. You know – the main reasons for doing the adoption in the first place.”

  “Well, since this is the first time I’ve heard of the thing, no, I don’t know,” I point out dryly. “Not that what you’ve said doesn’t sound good and all, why exactly is it so important that we do this House adoption? You said upstairs that this is almost as important as making the agreement in the first place.”

  “A House adoption is important because it adds a tag onto your magic which identifies you as being part of House Titanbend. That’s a necessity to be its heir. Without the magical identification, you will constantly encounter problems when using such services as banks, lawmen, or shops. You will also find it harder to gain access to services in the palace as you will always need to be accompanied by someone who can vouch for your identity. It is the surest way of identifying both a noble and the House of the noble and is the only way of accessing certain papers which are necessary for other processes.”

  Is bureaucracy so insidious that it exists even in a world with magic? I despair even as Nicholas continues talking.

  “This is why anyone who joins the House as family, heir or not, undergoes this ritual. But as heir, it is even more important that you do so – if I should die, you will need the House magic in your blood to take on the mantle of lordship and to access the areas that only the lord can enter. It really is essential, and since we’ll be leaving tomorrow, we need to do it immediately.”

  “We’re leaving tomorrow?” I ask, surprised. “Where are we going?”

  “To Crownseat – to the palace.”

  “The palace?” I demand, feeling more than a little overwhelmed at the idea. I only just arrived in this world yesterday and tomorrow we’re going to be visiting a king?

  We reach the bottom of the stairs and Nicholas pauses to look at me.

  “Yes, the palace. I must register you as my heir officially with the Recordskeeper – the palace genealogist – and we need to enter you into the competition. There is no time to lose in preparing for it. As it is, it will take a good two weeks by carriage to reach Crownseat – and that’s only if the roads are kind to us. If we encounter problems, it could easily take us three weeks.”

  My heart rate slows down a little. OK, so I’m not meeting the King tomorrow. Phew. Still, two weeks of travel fills me both with excitement and dismay. On the one hand, it will be really interesting to see this world and learn more about it. On the other, travel is always uncomfortable and I’d rather been looking forward to settling in a bit first. Plus, this is a very different culture from what I’m used to. I’ll have to lean heavily on Loran and Nicholas to help direct me through it.

  “I understand,” I say finally. Ultimately I’ve sworn to do my best to benefit the House and if travelling for two or three weeks to the palace – and then presumably the same back – is what I need to do, then so be it.

  “Good. Now, do I have your consent to conduct the House adoption ritual on you?” Nicholas asks.

  “So it’s kind of like a magical ID card, then?” I check. Nicholas looks confused for a moment.

  “...I do not know what this eye dee card is.”

  “Something people can carry back on my world to prove their identity.”

  “In which case, yes. Though it is far more secure than the identity papers which commoners use – it is exceedingly difficult to mute House magic, and even more difficult to make it appear as something else. Forging papers, on the other hand, is almost commonplace, especially the ones without any sort of magical marks – those are only carried by the rich who can afford to have them produced, or nobles.”

  “Good to know,” I comment, taking note – I bet there are just as many scammers and fraudsters here as on Earth. “And yes, you have my consent. Though, no offence intended, but I rather hope that my eyes don’t change colour.”

  Nicholas makes his shrugging gesture again.

  “No offence taken. I can understand the importance of preserving one’s lineage.” Given that that is exactly why he called me from Earth, I bet he can. “Stay here while I prepare the space then, please.” After giving his command – obvious in the tone of his voice – Nicholas strides into the arena. It’s about four times the size of my room so, while large enough for small fights, I don’t imagine that they ever have any mass battles here. It’s probably only one on one or small groups facing each other. Once in the centre of the sandy space, Nicholas crouches down and starts pulling out items from his Inventory.

  “The ritual is relatively simple,” Nicholas tells me once he’s finished pulling things out and has started to draw in the sand with a white-coloured stick – a bone of some sort? Or a horn? “Essentially, my own House magic ‘marks’ your magic. It is not harmful, nor does it interfere with any sort of magic use. The only reason why we need to do it down here at all is because it has a tendency to create a pulse which detection instruments and Skills can pick up. Those practised at interpreting the readings can get an uncomfortable amount of information about the participants and the House in question. I would rather not reveal more than necessary, especially with your position as outworlder.”

  “That’s a problem, is it?” I ask sharply, noticing a strange note in his voice. A faint grimace flashes across Nicholas’ face.

  “It is not something you should make obvious, no.” He hesitates for a moment and then continues. “Let us undertake the ritual of House adoption and then I will give you more context so that you can avoid missteps in the future.”

  “I’d rather you explain now,” I respond, crossing my arms over my chest and giving Nicholas a hard look. I don’t like the hints of trouble that I’m picking up here. And if it’s something that might pose a threat to me or to my Bound, I want to know.

  Nicholas pauses in what he’s doing and looks up at me, his expression guarded.

  “If you insist,” he replies slowly, standing up. I move closer so that neither of us needs to struggle to communicate.

  “Opening a rift to the Between breaks one of the kingdom’s capital laws,” he says almost conversationally.

  “Capital meaning…”

  “That it attracts the death penalty, yes.”

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