Chapter 6

A list of power and indulgence I am perusing – 128 allocated places, 128 life stories – as we await the next to step out there.

Have I really agreed to this? Yes I have. Am I responsible for the selection of these mostly females? – people, fully humans, flesh and blood, make no mistake about that – and thereby the impending deaths of at least 112 of them? Absolutely. I could have turned the offer down. They had made that clear to me and I have no reason to disbelieve them. They seem honest enough. The Overseers, that is, whom I initially experienced only as a voice in my head but got subsequently treated to their undeniable power.

Whilst they have the technology, it is my life that has been mined and my subjectivity which decided the extractions as they so clinically – well, accurately – called it. So, 132 individuals ‘extracted’, 132 dreams of what once was and 132 hopes of what may become. The draw is fully made now, complete with seedings, and the tournament will run through the inaugural year of New Eden. Until 16 are left alive, who will then continue competing (but no longer die if they lose) and go on to form a hierarchical pantheon of a divine ruling class, the overall champion being Empress. Um, yes, I am still pinching myself as to who is the Emperor of this planet.