God, I'm so excited I could scream! I finally get to unlock my space affinity, and all I had to do was sign that contract? Ha! Best deal ever!

  The elders and the head of the house, that being lord Quillith of the Aschel family, had finally discussed my involvement in their program to recruit young elites to help in the war. It was a bit worrying that I would be deemed an elite based solely on my spatial affinity that they would unlock for me, but I wasn't complaining.

  And yeah, the contract they wanted me to sign was mostly fair, if slightly in their favor, but that wasn't what made me so deliriously happy. Food, weapons, training, accommodation, and clothing would all be provided upon signing, with the possibility of better options available depending on my performance. I would also receive a minor stipend but considering I would spend most of my time at the frontlines, that wasn't particularly relevant to me.

  The only thing that tipped me over the line was one tiny clause, hidden in the middle of the agreement, that more or less said that I would be an indentured servant for the Aschel family for the remainder of my natural life if I survived after the war was over.

  I needed all the self-control I had cultivated to not immediately explode or reveal anything on my face when I read that.

  And while I would technically be getting paid as a servant, any and all supplies that I made use of during the war would be considered as the family loaning them out to me, to be taken into account once my indenture period began, likely as a higher interest rate...one that I could never reasonably be expected to pay off in a human's natural lifespan.

  So, when faced with something that I saw as a slavery contract, or one step away from it, what did I do? I signed the contract with my blood, as required, with the lord even promising that I wouldn't regret the decision I made today.

  Well, what he and the rest of his elves didn't know, and wouldn't until the war was over, was that I used a little technique from the Trove to ensure I wouldn't be bound by the terms of the contract, even with the additional aspect of my blood being used.

  In fact, if my blood wasn't called for, I would be way more screwed, as they had no way of knowing that I could control my blood even after it was on the page, thanks to the Trove technique of nullification.

  Essentially, any agreement between multiple parties required some kind of medium, in this case, the contract, and a binding agent, my blood.

  If the agreement wanted to bind me to its terms, it would do so using my blood, which was connected to me deeply on multiple levels beyond the physical (or so I had learned). The nullification technique allowed me to block those connections, and once mastered, would prevent them from forming in the first place without any other signatory party being aware of it.

  Well, unless they were a high-level god or something like that, but considering that 'god' was such a rarely used word on this planet, I found that possibility unlikely.

  So when the elves looked at the contract later, they wouldn't find any problems with it. In fact, they'd probably laugh about the foolish human that unknowingly signed away his future. Little did they know I wasn't planning on following through.

  It was a bit of a shame, actually. I quite liked the Aschel estate and its calm vibes. Too bad its leaders were a bunch of malicious pricks. If I had the opportunity after the war, I would control them all, but for now I was looking forward to finally, finally, finally getting my spatial affinity unlocked!

  God, tomorrow couldn't come fast enough!

  I tried to meditate, but my excitement was a difficult thing to wipe away. It felt like I was on the verge of Christmas, a promotion, and my birthday all at once.

  Writing off meditation as a lost cause, I fell into bed, tossing and turning until sleep finally found me.

  And once I woke up, a servant informed me that I would be staying in the barracks from today onwards...after I opened my space affinity, which was scheduled for after breakfast.

  I was almost manic in my desire to speed through the day, but past experience had taught me that heightened emotions would only get in the way, so I quickly got a handle on my enthusiasm and shoved it down until I felt confident in maintaining a neutral expression without a smile or smirk breaking through it.

  The chief of staff personally escorted me to the ship before it took off, with only a handful of crewmen to man it on its journey through the skies. I wasn't sure if I'd ever return to this estate, but if I did...well, it would be a lot more chaotic, that's for sure.

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

  I finally got a glimpse of the city below the floating island, and it was about the same view as I would expect from a plane, if a bit more magical. Below the underside of the floating island and the great canopy of leaves from the central tree supporting it, the city extended out without walls to denote its borders, with farmlands clearly noticeable due to their differently colored crops and marked boundaries. I could see beast taming was at least somewhat common here, as elves rode winged creatures across the sky, so that was one doubt I had that was taken care of. But besides that, it just looked like any other city.

  The scenery quickly changed as the ship swiftly gained speed, until the only things I could distinguish were the tops of trees as we flew past, the occasional field or lake, and the sun.

  Finally, we reached our destination as I felt the ship slow down and lose altitude, gently landing in the middle of a massive bullseye painted right beside the border of the beach.

  "We've been instructed to drop you off here, Rhaaj," one of the crewmen said to me as the gangplank began descending for me to disembark.

  "Do you have any instructions to take me anywhere else after this?" I asked.

  "No."

  Sighing, I said, "That's too bad. Well, take care of yourself and I'll see you around, yeah?"

  I walked off the ship and waved goodbye to the crew, the last of the people who I knew spoke a language I did, and watched them leave as fast as they'd arrived. Before I could wonder about what would happen next, a team of well-dressed elves in heavily-enchanted protective gear rushed towards me with wide eyes and creepy smiles on their faces.

  Zealots.

  I knew their type and could pick them out instantly, obsessed and immersed in their religion and their god, and too 'devoted' to see anything but what they wanted to. I wasn't expecting to see any fanaticism here, but it shouldn't have come as a surprise. Where there was free will, there were bound to be people looking for something greater than themselves to believe in.

  The leader of the team, an older elven woman, took charge and greeted me. Or at least, I think she greeted me, given that she didn't speak human or beastkin, and I only heard her say my name at the very end of her sentence. Unfortunately, only one person among them spoke beastkin, and he only knew a few general words and phrases.

  What followed was awkward exchanges of pantomiming, pointing, gesturing and shouting as I was led into an underground tunnel that led to a wide facility that stretched out into the sea. It was an enormous transparent dome with layers of compressed and solidified air protecting it from the seawater and its inhabitants.

  When I was pulled along to the center of the dome, I saw that the elven woman I had designated the leader grab my shoulders and led me around until I stood in a marked circle, at which point she smiled and said something softly to me, patting me on the arm as she did so. Once she stepped back quite a distance, I waited for them to begin....until I felt a tingling beneath my skin and looked around me, seeing the faces of the four elves gleefully shouting as they loudly exclaimed...something.

  My heart began beating slower and slower, and I felt the tingling feeling inside me connect to something around me, an almost imperceptible shaking.

  Vibrations.

  As the tingling grew stronger, my other senses began to fall away, until I was no longer in that underwater dome, but in a field of pure whiteness. I had no form, even as I 'looked' down at where my hands would be, and I could see nothing, hear nothing. In fact, if it weren't for the absence of the Seed, I would say that this was my soulspace.

  But despite the lack of my senses, I could feel something, only it wasn't the usual tactile sense that my body was familiar with. It was my magical sense, the one that made me aware of the essence around me, that let me sense the movement of the magical energy. I felt sensations that I had experienced before but lacked the ability to make sense of.

  Ripples.

  Waves.

  Tunnels.

  And most of all, vibrations.

  The tiniest of movements caused echoes that rippled around the source, making me aware of movements I I had no idea even existed...until now.

  And just like that, I was in the underwater dome once more, standing right where I remember -

  Why was I kneeling on the ground?

  And why was I so hungry?

  And what was that heading towards me?

  Ah, it's the floor. I'm falling. Hopefully, this won't be too painful.

  And with no time to anticipate that I would be falling unconscious in a room full of zealous strangers, my head met the floor and I blacked out.

  -------------------------------------------------------------------

  "I don't suppose any of you know any healing spells?"

  "Should we ask for a healer to be sent over?"

  "No. From what I gathered, that human isn't worth that much to the family, or else they wouldn't have left him here all alone and unaccompanied by one of their people. There's no way they send a medic for someone like him."

  "For now, take him to your bed and clean him up as much as you can, Nia."

  "But my bed is -"

  "Now, Nia!"

  "Tsk, fine."

  "Someone will have to monitor him until he wakes up, and some food and water wouldn't go amiss either."

  "I'll watch the human!"

  "Peen, you just don't want to do any actual work, do you?"

  "I can't hear you, I'm busy watching this human and making sure he doesn't die or anything!"

  "Sigh, Olid, would you mind fetching some snacks from our pantry? Our guest will likely be hungry if and when he wakes up."

  "Yes, leader."

  "It's just us here. You don't have to be so formal."

  "I know." After a brief smile, he turned away. "I'll see if there's anything safe for humans in our kitchen."

  Having assigned her subordinates to their tasks, Ranva approached the sound-sending formation on the wall and tried to conceal her excitement, but as always, it came out unbidden, a fact that her superior picked up on, despite only hearing her voice through the formation.

  "IT WORKED! BY THE MOTHER, IT WORKED! WHO IS THIS HUMAN? WHERE DOES HE COME FROM? YOU HAVE TO LET HIM STAY HERE, PLEASE, I BEG YOU -"

  "Calm down, Ranva."

  "HOW CAN YOU EXPECT ME TO CALM DOWN WHEN I JUST WITNESSED A SPATIAL AFFINITY BLOOMING WITHIN A HUMAN RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES!"

  The tired voice on the other end sighed in exasperation. "You'll have the opportunity to answer all your questions...after the war is over. That human is now a military asset, and the elders have already laid claim to him."

  She clenched her fists in frustration. The human was right there in front of her, the answer to all the questions she had, and perhaps more than that. His existence alone was proof that several theories she had discarded in the past would need to be revisited. But she was no fool. Offending the elders was how she landed here in the first place.

  She could wait a few years for answers. It was time enough for her to conduct several experiments.

  "Fine. I just thought you'd like to be aware of the fact that your military asset fainted after his affinity bloomed."

  A moment of silence followed before the voice spoke again. "Is he still alive?"

  "For now," she replied.

  "Then do as you've been told. Get him awake and send him over as soon as possible."

  "Understood."

  She withdrew her supply of energy to the formation, ending the conversation, as she turned around and began doing as instructed, gathering reagents and referencing manuals in preparation for the next step of her work. Maintenance was half the reason she was here.

  The teleportation formation always took a long time to prime, and it had been a long while since she'd received authorization to activate it.