It was three days before I had a moment alone to test my new abilities. I had to endure watching the king’s slowly diminishing pushups, Athella repeatedly disarming Vivi, and Boshe having a prolonged meeting with a high-ranking member of the trader’s guild before I had a night where the throne room was empty. It was annoying that every member of the royal family seemed to conduct their secret activities in the same place. Did they schedule it in advance, or were they just good at knowing when to give each other some space? It was impressive that they never managed to step on each other’s toes, but it slowed me down a lot.

  Eventually, though, I was alone in the throne room, and it was time to start my first foray into magic. I didn’t have traditional eyes, but I could ‘see’ in the direction that I wanted to by focusing on different parts of my cylinder, including directly underneath me. I used this to look at a shiny, ornate shield positioned directly above the king’s throne so that I could observe myself.

  I sat like that for a few embarrassing minutes before I realized I didn’t have the first clue about how to cast magic.

  ‘Hey Void, this is gonna sound crazy, but I’m realizing that I do not really know exactly how to, you know… cast my spells. Is there anyway you can give me a walkthrough?’ I hated having to ask Void. It had been slightly more willing to speak with me, but it had a habit of making me feel like a cylindrical container full of garbage, if you get my drift.

  OF COURSE. MAGIC IS AS SIMPLE AS WALKING FOR THOSE WITH INNATE TALENT IN THIS WORLD. CASTING MAGIC SIMPLY REQUIRES SUFFICIENT MANA AND IMAGINATION. FOCUS ON THE NEEDED OUTCOME AND FEEL THE MANA FLOWING WITHIN. MAGES OF THIS WORLD THINK OF MANA FLOW AS BREATHING. THIS IS SUFFICIENT INFORMATION TO START.

  Okay, great. So all I had to do was visualize my ‘breath’ flowing into my outcome and I could cast spells. I let go of the feeling of sight and turned my focus inward, towards myself. Since I had nothing but time, I had been attempting to connect with the mana inside myself these past few days, albeit half-heartedly. I didn’t want to accidentally grow arms in front of the king, after all. I felt it most strongly whenever garbage inside of me was destroyed by my Devour skill. I still couldn’t trigger it on command, but I did know how it felt: a sudden surge of energy and ‘heat’ covering my body followed by rapid cooling.

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  I pictured four metal pipes coming from my base, pushing me upward and balancing me. I reached deep into my mind and really imagined what it would feel like to grow these pipes, to have them rapidly assemble from nothing to something. With this image, I concentrated to find the ‘heat’ feeling of mana I experienced when I emptied myself.

  It didn’t take long. As soon as I pinpointed the feeling of heat, there was a gentle ‘pop!’, and then underneath me were four spindly pipes in a square shape. They were about a foot long, and I realized I could feel them the same as my body. I had done it! I had done magic!

  I pictured myself facing the throne and willed the two legs in front to move. It took a second, but then they jerked forward rapidly, bending at a 45-degree angle from my bottom. I followed up with the rear legs, then the front legs again, then the rear legs, until I had traveled twenty or so feet to the throne.

  I was walking! I could move! I wanted to jump for joy and scream. After a year straight of sitting, I could walk! Okay, it wasn’t very fast or particularly graceful. My reflection in the polished shield looked downright nightmarish, like I was some stop-motion monster lurching drunkenly forward. But still! Movement! I was one step closer to getting out of here before I was either discovered or the demon apocalypse started! I experimented with changing directions quickly by repositioning my ‘eyes’ while I walked. It was tough, and walking with four legs was definitely a change from two, but it was possible.

  I haven’t described the throne room, but it is basically a huge, carpeted chamber with suits of armor and swords and shields mounted on the wall, a plush red carpet underneath, stone walls, and two massive thrones for the king and queen on the opposite side of two oak doors. Cleaners came in early before the royal family every day, and at night—assuming no one was having any of their secret meetings or training sessions—no one ever came in. In fact, the oak doors to the entrance were left propped open right now.

  I knew it was a bad idea. I had just gotten a massive upgrade; now was the time to slowly and surely figure out my limits and abilities to plan some sort of genius escape. But something in me just couldn’t wait any longer. I had been stuck in one position for years, hearing and seeing the same faces day in and day out in the same scenery. I wanted to stretch my legs, go for a walk, and also maybe find something more nutritious to digest than rotten apple cores and discarded paper. I sprinted to the doorway, took a second to make sure no guards were waiting, then crept out as slowly as I could. I was going to do something totally unlike me.

  I was going to take a chance.