Essence pulled from the air collapsing inward and forming at a collective point at the center of the golden room. A large ball of essence serenely inflated and deflated along with the regular beats of the heart it surrounded. At the center of the essential ball at its densest point the essence slowly coalesced into arcana dripping down into the placid heart to be pumped out along with the passing blood. The arcana followed along the body’s blood streams letting the natural transmission of nutrients filter the magical sustenance into every muscle and organ.

The magical control in creating this perfect formation of energizing arcana was a truly masterful display. A beautiful sight to caress the eyes of any lucky or skilled enough to have the proper ocular insights to see those elusive dancing wisps of magical kinetics.

The man whose body was enwrapped by this arcanal power sat completely still. The ball of essence encircling his heart could easily crush it with even the littlest mistake; this possibility did not weigh on his mind however, he was far too experienced to worry about causing such faults.

To better reduce any clothing from interfering with the terribly delicate wild essence, the man practiced this magical control while totally naked and the essential concentration around his heart was so dense that even a layman could begin to see the slight glowing outline of his heart pierce through his soft skin. Of course, as the magic coursing through his veins was pure arcana anyone regardless of the training of their eyes could see the detailed network of his cardiovascular personage.

For an average layman as well as for the practiced wizards, the sight of this man’s magical control was a mesmerizing exhibition of tranquil art, but to those whose consciousness had been unfortunate enough to plunge deeper into the soul sea than most, the room’s atmosphere was anything but tranquil.

“Oh, you must be sooooo hungry right now aren’t you? Aren’t you? You don’t need to answer I know! A little bit of magic to tie you over until eternity, pft please as if. Makes me sick! Don’t even pretend that you couldn’t go for a nice steak right now! A juicy, succulent, steak, mmm yeah. Imagine it with me will you? It’s a little red in the middle… but not too red, you can see the steamy whiffs of sizzling fat tantalizingly float up into the air, that unforgettable aroma following suit finding its hold in your nostrils refusing to let go.” The man’s stomach began to grumble. “YES!! YES!! Despair puny human at what you have lost. The sacrifices for your greed have been too heavy for your shallow mind to carry. You have nary the choice but to humbly take your own life in repentance!”

“The stomach grumble was just because I accidentally let a higher volume of arcana into my stomach.”

To those with a more adept soul sight they would see that the room had in fact contained two individuals. In the center of the room there was the naked man whose chiseled body calmly laid flat on the golden floor. Then directly above that man there was a floating lump of gold that angrily flew all across the room letting out frustrated grunts and curses.

“Wretched, wretched human! Your dark twisted corruptions of nature will be your downfall!” The lump of gold screeched at its indifferent listener. The gold lump spoke not with its mouth but by resonating its entire body, due to such its voice boomed in every direction of the room filling the whole space with its fury. Of course, only those with the proper soul sight would ever hear any of this. Sadly for the man lying in the center of the room, that meant he had to suffer the endless irritations brought by his companion.

The man knew that if he remained silent the lump of gold would simply get louder, at least if he responded to the gold their dialogue would remain to a relatively tolerable decibel; besides, he had started to grow accustomed to the companion and maybe even enjoyed their company…. Maybe. “Isn’t magic nature?”

“ISn’T mAGic nAtuRe?” The gold mocked in an exaggerated voice attempting to make the human sound as childishly dumb as possible. “This is why the spirits curse you fauna! You never see a plant try to redefine the universe nooo… well there was that one time.” The gold lump stopped angrily pacing the room reminiscing of trials once passed. A cold shiver ran down the gold’s rugged body.

Sometimes his golden compatriot would lose itself rambling through these nonsensical tangents that the man could never hope to comprehend. “What are you talking about?”

“Just cosmic cataclysm stuff, you wouldn’t understand… wouldn’t understand so much it torments you! Like a Curse! Yes, you must be drowning in your own empty mind. Do you hate how little you know? How little you will ever know with your pathetic human lifespan?” The golden lump burst into a fit of maniacal cackling.

The man replied as calmly as always. “Nope, I have subordinates to do all that research stuff for me. I just need to know what’s required in the now to best govern my people.” The golden rock deflated at his comment, another torture circumvented.

But then the gold got another idea. “Well…” it said evilly rubbing its metaphorical hands together. “I know something that magic can’t fix with your curse. Sure, you can feed yourself with magic. But without the ability to touch another oh how alone you must be! How tired and desolate. Yes! Oh the woes of a lively powerful man who can never again feel the touch of a woman! HAHAHAHA!”

The man simply shrugged. “I guess.”

The gold’s laughter stopped. It cocked its proverbial eyebrow and questioned. “Oh, the woes of a man who can never again feel the touch of another man?”

The man chuckled in response. “I don’t swing that way.”

“Well, you have to love something! If there is one thing I can’t deny that you humans do it is lust! Lust, lust, lust, lust, lust. It’s like your species motto! Unless…no. It couldn’t be.” The gold suddenly turned bashful and wiggled shyly in place. “Could you have fallen for my supernatural beauty? You are a king; they do have a history of coveting power and wealth greater than their own.”

The man smiled at the dissonance between his conversationalist’s words and behavior. “Not a chance Goldy.”

The gold sagged visibly even floating down closer to the floor in slight disappointment. “Well, your loss. You wouldn’t recognize an elegant handsome spirit even if it cursed you to timeless torment… which it did.”

The man rolled his eyes all while making sure to keep his magical flow steady. “I can agree that it is torment.” He deadpanned. The man thought on what goldy had just said to him and a curious thought came to mind. “Were you hoping that I had fallen for you?”

Goldy straightened up as much as a rigid metal could, unable to move at all. “N-n-no. Pft what? How silly. Why would I care or desire for the affection of a dirty little human? Do you care for the thoughts and feelings of the bacteria you step on?”

There it was again, the gold speaking about those nonsensical things again. “Bacteria?”

“Oh I keep forgetting. How could I reword it in a way your infantile brain can understand; do you care for the thoughts and feelings of the ants you step on? You at least know what ants are right?”

The man was mildly irked by the condescending question. “Of course I know what an ant is.”

Having completely ignored the man’s comment Goldy excitedly perked up at an increasing sensation wriggling at the edge of its consciousness. “Do you feel that? Sorry how rude of me of course you don’t, lousy human souls, keep forgetting.”

“Just skip the insults and jump to the point.”

Goldy harumphed at the man’s curtness. “Your lard ladled lackey is coming over. Looks like mealtimes over for you now.” A mischievous grin rose from Goldy’s non-existent face. “Had your fill?” Before the king could even respond his stomach did so in his stead by loudly grumbling. The stomach’s wails were music to Goldy’s hearing. “Let me guess, more arcana slipped into your stomach?”

The man cleared his throat, now it was his turn to be embarrassed. “…yes.” He hated to give the pestering yellow spirit even the most minute modicum of satisfaction, but the hunger did in fact get to him at times; it had been twenty years since he had eaten anything after all.

A muffled thumping sounded from the other side of a pair of double golden doors. “Mffhm ffmmfh mhmhhmm mhfmfm.” The deep voice of a person uselessly fumbled from the doors.

The man in the center of the room carefully released his hold on the essence around him cautiously guiding it away from his body before allowing it to dissipate back into the air around him. The man stood up stretching his arms up towards the sky releasing a satisfied sigh as his aching muscles finally got to move again. “Could you let Lade in please?”

Goldy shot an aghast gasp at the man’s audacity. “Who are you, you lowest lowly low lowlife to tell the great me what to do?”

The man replied to the spirit’s question matter of factly, “The lowest lowly low lowlife?”

Goldy began to vibrate as if about to send out its resonating voice but stopped itself. Goldy had a conundrum before it. It could force the doors closed as it remained under the golden dominion and cause both the king and Lade oodles of irritation at the cost of implicitly saying that the king was not in fact the lowest lowly low lowlife; or, Goldy could open the doors allowing the pesky humans to go about their day but with the personal victory of having the king admit he was the lowest lowly low lowlife. Goldy had a slight nagging sensation that this may have been another one of those conniving human mind games tricking Goldy into doing exactly what the man wanted. But since Goldy knew that the man was trying to manipulate it, Goldy could use this meta double analysis to find the exact opposite thing the man wanted Goldy to do and then Goldy could do that. It was clear that the man was accepting the title of lowest lowly low lowlife so that he could goad Goldy into a sense of security and then Goldy would not open the door at which time the king would break his act and laugh at Goldy for admitting that he was not the lowest lowly low lowlife. So Goldy would do the exact opposite!

The two large golden doors slowly pulled apart revealing a short tubby man dressed in lush multicolored silks. Atop those silks he wore a thin protective garb woven in gold. The tubby man carried with him a delicate white robe so thin it bordered on complete transparency. “Thanks Goldy.”

Nooooooooo foiled again! The golden spirit flopped to the floor foregoing any thoughts of levitation as it fell into despair. Another torture circumvented.

Completely ignorant of the spirits melancholy, the naked king started making his way towards the room’s exit giving its new entrant a cursory smile. Lade, now no longer obstructed by the doors could finally speak clearly. “Your highness, you are going to be late for your hearings if you don’t begin leaving soon.” Lade ran up to meet his majesty extending his hand that held the white robe out as far from himself and towards the king as he could. As soon as the naked king’s soft fingers touched the fabric its colors began to shift, a fine pristine gold washed over the robe spreading out from where the king’s fingers had touched.

The once plain white robe as light as the wind was now a beautiful garment fabricated from heavy gold. The king donned the golden robe, its new metallic form granting it complete opacity shielding his naked body from the world. Though gorgeous, the new material came with a few downsides, namely the biting cold of the metal against his bare skin and the exceptional increase in the robes weight.

Goldy noticed the king’s frown as the metal chaffed against his skin with great glee. “Irritating isn’t it? I bet you wish you could wear normal clothes again, just a simple pair of socks or a coat. How torturous it must be for your squishy flesh to bear the toll of a go- “

“How many more of these do I have to do before I can start doing actual work again?” The king responded to Lade and interrupting Goldy as if he were not even there. Goldy was slapped flabbergasted by the king’s blasphemy in ignoring a prodigious being such as itself. The king couldn’t help but shine a victorious smile letting Goldy know that his interruption was entirely intentional.

The king’s smirk came like a second slap to Goldy’s pride. The second slap was always more offensive. In a spontaneous bout of vengeance, the temperature of the gold of the robe around the king’s nipples dropped to a freezing so absolute it was downright painful. The king’s smirk was immediately wiped away being replaced by an unapt grimace desperately trying and failing to maintain a stoic inscrutability.

To a layman such as Lade who had no means of perceiving the gold spirit in any way this interaction appeared rather strange, and also quite concerning. “Is everything alright your majesty!? What happened?!”

The king cleared his throat and stilled his visage returning to the usual demeaner expected of one above all others. Even so, he still spoke an octave higher as the chilling cold did not relent. “It is nothing Lade; now can you please tell me how much longer it is until I can get back to my real duties.” The king did not wait for Lade’s response nor guidance as he left the room. Lade hurried to keep pace with the king, his short stumpy legs requiring a tiring jog to keep up with the king’s casual gait.

“Still awhile more your highness. You cannot do anything major until at least Bemean begins recovering from the war or else we’ll appear to be taking advantage of their weakness. Plus, the people love the hearings, it’s not like anything really needs to be done anyways. Unlike the rest of Trammel, we have never been better off.” The king could only respond with a heavy sigh, half in annoyance at his political handcuffs and half in relief that Goldy had finally relented his freezing grip on the robe’s gold having not received a satisfying reaction in a long enough time. Goldy could never pull off being a proper torturer; Goldy’s patience would always break before the king’s will did. It was strange how low Goldy’s attention span was despite being a primordial entity nearly older than time itself. At least that’s what Goldy claimed to be, given what he knew of Goldy the king had a few doubts about those claims.

The three made their way through the labyrinthian halls of the castle. The hallway floors were all made entirely of gold and many of the potted plants and ornamental armors that lined the wall were statues of pure gold; the walls of the hallways had many handprints and swathes of gold mixed into the stonework. Shockingly to many of the royal servants there were also a series of golden imprints on the roof.

Goldy found itself bored listening to the king and the loathsome Lade talk forever on about boring politics. Goldy found its entertainment when the three turned a corner where a maid was dusting a series of hung paintings. A wonderfully mischievous idea formed in Goldy’s ingenious mind.

The maid stopped dusting as she saw the king approaching, she made sure to straighten her posture and give him a perfect ninety-degree bow. Her eyes were glued to her feet as the two nobles walked on ignoring the commoner. The maid wasn’t much for the gossip of noble happenings, she paid attention to their conversation enough to ensure they were not addressing her but other than that it was all in one ear out the other. The maid saw two sets of feet graze by her vision when she suddenly felt a hard smack on her behind. The sudden force caused her to squeak out a startled yelp. The two nobles paused briefly, she remained bowing and hoped that they would ignore her assuming they misheard something. Thankfully, they resumed strolling past continuing on with their conversation.

Once the two nobles left, she finally stood straight again. She craned her neck around to look at her skirt where she felt that force. On her dress in the exact spot she felt the gentle strike was a golden handprint on her outfit. The maid’s cheek flushed red and she whipped her head left and right to confirm no one had seen.

Hahaha yes! Lament fragile peon lament! Goldy could see it on the king’s face, he knew exactly what just happened. “You can ignore me all you want ‘kInG rEx’ that won’t stop me. How does it feel to have your reputation crumble to nothingness? How will the other nobles think when they see that you have marked the women of this vapid building!” Goldy relished in king Rex’s demise. His face may have remained wholly flat to anyone unadjusted to the king’s behavior, but Goldy had spent a lot of time with the man and could see the chaotic rage hidden below that impassive expression. Goldy did realize that this torment sort of betrayed the whole karmic monkey paw torment theme which was the original goal, but it was torment nonetheless and at this point that was good enough for Goldy.

They soon made their way to the throne room, entering through a small door at the back. The room was incredibly long and equally wide. Every inch, every object, every aspect of the room was bathed in that familiar cold yellow. The gold so absolute that the seams from floor to wall and wall to roof all blended together beyond distinction. The room appeared as if an endless plane of gold with a sole chair standing in the middle.

Rex walked over to the golden throne and sat himself down. “Alright, I’m ready for the first hearing. Let them in.” Rex sighed out sending a hollow stare to the golden doors across at the front of the room. In compliance with Rex’s demands the two doors swung ajar being pushed open by two guards on the other side. A tall lengthy woman entered the chamber rolling in a strange wooden contraption. A large flat board laid close to the ground was held up by four wheels at each of its corners. On top of this platform was a half-constructed contraption of indecipherable purpose. Rex raised a brow at the odd contraption, he lent a few seconds to attempt and predict the purpose of the tool when.

“LALALALALALALALALALA! Hey Rex. LALALALALALALALALA! Is this annoying? Am I annoying you? LALALALALA! Tormenting isn’t it? LALALALALA!” Goldy floated right next to the regal monarch shouting into his ear as piercingly loud as it could. Without vocal cords, Goldy could tune its pitch to the most perfectly irritating frequency possible. This time Goldy was going for a cry so high-pitched that Goldy’s voice would occasionally crack out of the human’s audible range.

The woman’s mouth was moving, explaining the miraculous purpose of the tool she brought. Rex couldn’t hear a single iota but Lade’s jaw had practically dropped to the floor, that was either a very good sign or a very bad sign. Eventually the woman pulled out a set of wooden segments of the contraption, a couple beams, cogs, and even a large ball of yarn. She placed all the objects in front of her presenting them excitedly to Rex and then quickly retreated back a few steps to behind her contraption almost nervously.

King Rex raised out of his chair and walked to the objects presented.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Ooh wait what’s that?” Rex ignored the gold spirit and crouched down briefly touching his hand to each object. “Hey Rex, there’s a thing doing a thing.” Rex closed his eyes blocking Goldy out of his consciousness and he kept moving along each of the presented wooden items until they were all turned to gold. “No seriously Rex, this isn’t me playing a game anymore. You got company.” Rex pretended he was a completely normal human with no soul sight whatsoever, one of those people who the most annoying pest that hovered around their head was a mosquito. He stood back up glancing to the woman, to his surprise she wasn’t even paying attention to him nor her transmuted components. Her gaze shot straight over his shoulder to some apparently astounding thing behind him.

Rex turned around to see a pink featureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards Rex holding onto a glowing parchment: it read.

You have been invited to The Tournament You are The Lead