The Telematrix, Part 1
She did not have a normal childhood. It was not the fact that she was royalty (her father was King Reginald XXVII of West Gilbetronia). It was not that she was abnormally slim (her upper body did not have the strength to hold itself up until she was three years old). Rather, her circumstances were so rare, so inordinately unusual, that there was nobody who could truly relate to her upbringing except her sisters, of which there were three hundred and seventy-four.
The Telematrix was brought into the world during the Sixth Summer of Benevolence, before East Gilbetronia fell to Lord Bobolonious the First. Reginald XXVII had been on the throne for twenty-three years and had yet to yield a suitable male heir. Since children in the royal line were always particularly labourious to produce (the royal genetics were especially tricky, only resulting in pregnancy once in every four or five hundred attempts), hordes of female petitioners made their way to the kingdom to play their odds at becoming queen. However, despite over twenty years of intercourse with thousands of prospective women, not a single seed took hold.
It was therefore hoped that the Mysts of Intervention would submit to magical interference. When Reginald XXVII threw the enchantments on the thirteenth day of the Sixth Summer, the Mysts prevailed and settled over the northern cape of Wisshylna. The king laid out his petition, for the Mysts to come upon him and release a child as they had done for his great-grandfather during the Fifth Summer.
Instead they bestowed in their usual fickle and unpredictable manner the mixed blessing of the Telematrix: three hundred and seventy-five infant girls. In exchange for a daughter of pure blood, it was to become the king’s task to select one child at the age of 21 to eventually accede to the throne. On the Day of Selection, the remaining women were to be sacrificed in payment for the Mysts’ intervention.
Therefore Telematrice grew up with a spectacular amount of sibling rivalry. These children were not just fighting for acceptance; they were fighting for their very lives. And their odds were ridiculously poor.