Jebidiah's Change Bk. 01 Ch. 01

Author's note:

This is my first attempt at something like this and I both look forward to and dread feedback at the same time. Reader be warned, if you are looking for lots of bump and grind you will be disappointed. I only intend to use sex to further things along or where it makes sense. I am not much for the wham bam thank you ma'am stories. This is intended to be more of a longer fantasy epic, it may take a few chapters to get into it. David Weber I am not.

A year in this story is close to 2 Earth years so double everyone's age. Everyone engaging in activity will always be an adult.

Update: I've reworked the first few chapters to fix some structure and storytelling issues. I was a bit too ambitious and was including what really should be two separate stories. Hopefully it makes for a more coherent effort.

-- Chapter 1: Tonstar Changing Station --

-- Second Tenday of Antaen 813 AGR --

Jebidiah Overton slowly opened his eyes, naked except for the thin sheet, shaking off the lingering effects of sleep. It was a difficult task. Not physically. It was a monumental task mentally. He dreaded seeing the results that awaited him. Instead, he engaged in his favorite relaxing exercise: compartmentalizing what was stressing him and adding in some mental arithmetic for fun.

It was the morning of his tenth name day, at the start of Tresolmar's summer. It was also the day Jebidiah would find out which way Lady Udite would touch his fate with the Change.

Humans of Tresolmar were under very strict biological guidelines. The "why" was a greatly debated topic amongst the ranking Artificers with no generally accepted theory. Many races could be found on Tresolmar besides humans. The other races followed what was considered normal biological rules and were only able to mate within their species. Elves begot elves, dwarves begot dwarves, and so on. Humans, however, could mate with anyone that it was physically possible to. The 'possible to' part had given rise to a strange genre of books and stories some of the seedier bards and troubadours would tell.

The result of this human exception to the rule was that every child with at least one human parent was born a full human instead of a hybrid. Normally, this would grant the human race an easy majority of the population given their much larger mating pool. The Divine, in all their capriciousness, decided to throw humanity another curveball.

Nature was meticulous in its planning and loved multiples of ten. On any given day, the total number of human births across Tresolmar was a multiple of ten. Several hundred years ago, the surviving human kingdoms had set up the Registry which tracked and recorded all births, deaths, and other vital statistics for every human. Occasionally, a day had a number of births not ending in zero, but the rogue humans were eventually found, and the statistics corrected themselves. Jebidiah was one such rogue human. His birth was not recorded until he was found as an infant in the remains of a burned-out farm.

For every ten humans born, four would always be male, and six would always be female. Always. It was known that the Divine were not responsible for this quirk because it was observed before the Ascendence, the tenday the Divine were created. Multiple experiments to break these rules had been carried out over the years, and all had failed.

On every child's fourth name day, without fail, they were assigned up to three Talents in what became known as the Draw. Diviners would hold a Draw Ceremony and declare the child's Talents or lack thereof. Talents determined either what Guild or what level of servitude an adult was destined for. There was no discernable pattern for who drew what Talent or what caused them to be. Common Talents that were drawn included things like Warrior, Rogue, Mage, and Priests. There were a lot of subclassifications and specializations within those Talents.

On the child's seventh name day, puberty hit, again without fail. Every child would be cursed (also commonly called a draw like with Talents. Nobody liked being called cursed) with a Change. Diviners would hold yet another one of their ceremonies called The Cursing Day and declare the child's Change. Once the Talents and Change were drawn, nothing could be done to alter them short of some divine intervention. At least that was the working theory, as no intervention had ever been recorded since record-keeping had begun.

On the eve of a child's tenth name day, they all fell into a deep slumber that could not be broken even with magical means. During that slumber, the Divine Udite would roll their dice and determine if the Change would take place or not. The odds of being cursed with the Change differed by sex. Males were cursed 82.1% of the time (the actual odds were calculated out to around twelve decimal points), and females around 17.9%, meaning that 44% of the human population was cursed. For every ten humans that fell asleep that day, roughly one human male and five human females would awake. The other four would Change into their new forms.

Jebidiah had drawn Orc as his Change. The irony was never lost on him. It was a band of orcs that had orphaned him and burnt his family farm down. The only upside of being orphaned was his forced move to the city's main orphanage, which allowed him to be assigned to his current pod. If he could bring himself to stop staring at the low ceiling of the Changing room, he could easily determine if he had Changed or Awakened. Instead, he thought about the others.

Because of the odd structure that nature had placed on humans, a system had evolved to help everyone get through the various stages. After Talents were drawn on their fourth name day, the children would be grouped together in what came to be known as pods. Each pod consisted of ten children composed of the best possible mix of boys and girls and Talents to get the best results statistically after their Change occurred. There were ten days in a tenday and ten children in a pod, so somewhere along the line, someone came up with a plan where every child in a pod had successive name days in their tenday. The newly formed pods were bundled up and sent off to the local creche for their primary education.

For Jebidiah's pod, Dana was born on the first, Crystal the second, Tenner the third, Selene the fourth, Jebidiah the fifth, continuing on till they reached the tenth. This allowed the pod to experience only one Change each day of the tenday and spread the stress out allowing for mutual support. In the records, there were times they just put all the Changed for any given day together in the Changing Station. The resulting stories often included bloodshed and mass casualties.

When the math and wondering thoughts ran out, he sighed and resigned himself to addressing his predicament. He wiggled his fingers and toes. No changes there. Some movement of arms and then legs felt the same as well. Finally, when he absentmindedly scratched at an itch on his forehead, he saw a very human hand in front of his face. He rotated his hand some to examine all of it then brought up his other hand to inspect it as well. No green and no claws. Sitting up and letting the sheet slide down his body, he finally agreed with his eyes that he was definitely not an Orc.

Now he had to figure out if being human was worse than being an Orc.

Jebidiah had become an Awoken. A confirmed Human with a capital H as well as an adult with a capital A, but he was still one of the Talentless with a capital T. At his Draw Ceremony, he was determined to be without a Talent, which only happened to 23.8% of the female population (again calculated to 12 decimal places) and 76.2% of the males. This left the odds of ending up a Talented Human Male at roughly 1 in 60. Being Talentless meant at best he could find work as an Artificer in the Guild of Science and Engineering or failing that be forced to eke out an existence as menial labor on some lord's lands. Either way, he would never be bound to a polygyny, never see any adventure, never amount to anything in society.

Adding insult to injury, since Talents tended to run in family lines, no one wanted to mate with an Artificer. Meaning he most likely would be sterilized and the overall odds of dying a virgin were becoming a number he wasn't comfortable with. At least he could have gotten laid as an Orc.

Sighing, Jebidiah got off the bed that was the only furniture in his Changing Room and used the pull cord beside the locked door to announce his wakefulness. The viewing slot slid aside, and his assigned guard checked to determine what race he was. Seeing that he was still human, the door unlocked and opened slightly. He was passed in a simple tunic and pants to cover himself, and the door closed again. Quickly donning the nondescript gray garb, he finally left the room and entered the corridor looking left and right to see who else was emerging.

To his left, he could see a pretty blonde and a somewhat plain brunette he did not know in the process of leaving their rooms. To his right, he saw one of his best friends in the pod, Dana, waiting and smiling at his presence. He was on friendly terms with all his pod mates (which did not happen with many other pods from the fights and rumors going around), but he really clicked with Dana, Crystal, Joy, and Tenner, and in the case of the two former, there was a substantial crush.

"I dunno," she said in greeting, "it is good to see you are still part of Humanity, but Orc might have been an improvement on that ugly mug of yours."

Her playful banter didn't faze him; Jebidiah had received enough compliments on his looks over the years that left him with a sense of confidence he wouldn't scare off potential mates. His relationship with Crystal played out as a comfortable need to be in each other's company. His relationship with Dana, however, was an aggressive dance. They traded good-natured barbs and butted heads often, which even turned physical at times. But even in their disagreements, there was a very healthy respect for the other, and they were seldom apart from or angry at each other for long.

"And you would have made a good Elf, though losing that red hair would have taken some getting used to. At least you got to keep the long legs."

Not all curses were curses per se. There were many, tens if not hundreds, of humanoid races and several hybrids that can result from the Change. The vast majority fell into the major races that retained much of their sense of humanity. The Higher Ones, or the Light, such as Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, and so on were considered to be allies of humanity. The Dark races were those that resented and despised what they lost, like the Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, and the rest of the Lost Ones. They were considered the enemies of humanity. Some of the Changed became outright monsters with no remaining sentience left, the Truly Lost.

There was nothing concrete about if a Changed aligned with the Light or Dark. There were Dark Elves just as there were Light Orcs. There were even useful Truly Lost, but they were no longer capable of reasoning right from wrong. Since it could not be divined if the Change would follow through for any given child, there were no proactive options for handling the Change. The current Changing Station buildings, fortified and secured, with sound-proof weaponless rooms were the best that any kingdom had come up with in the last several hundred years. After their Change, the obvious Dark were normally destroyed without ceremony in as painless a fashion as possible while the Lost were observed until usefulness was determined. All was handled in a process called the Judgment, another Diviner ceremony.

As they walked side by side down the broad hallway observing who was emerging from their rooms, Jebidiah once again snuck a sideways glance at his companion. Dana had been lucky enough to draw a Warrior and Druid Talent so her body was very toned with minimal body fat. She was taller, several inches above even Jebidiah's imposing height, which came from her Elven Change. If she had undergone the Change, she would have gained even more inches while retaining the same weight. The outfit that was provided did not include undergarments which left Dana's very pronounced breasts to test just how much the thinner fabric could stretch. Wearing the traditional pleated skirt instead of pants her very long legs left a lot of bare skin showing. For the millionth time Jebidiah remembered what it felt like to run his hands up and down those legs as he spread them wide and feasted.

Those thoughts, while fond and distracting, only drew his attention back to said missing undergarments via his involuntary attempt to test the fabric limits with a rather large tent pole. He attempted to hide his discomfort, and while he did rearrange things, he caught a smirk on Dana's lips as she kept her eyes on the approaching doorway.

They entered the mess room together to enjoy their first meals as official Humans. Awoken Humans were given the remaining days in their tenday to celebrate, and their first breakfasts were veritable feasts. After piling their plates high with fresh fruits and slices of various meats and bread, the two sat at their pod's assigned table to wait for their other friends to join them.

Dana was the first to break the silence. "Now that it is here, it is hard to fathom that some of our pod will be sitting in Judgement in five days' time."

Jebidiah retorted quickly. "Bah, Judgement. What a crock. There is no justice involved. No hand of Aesis present. The Lost are neither Light nor Dark, so how can they be judged? Oh, there's the 'It's what's best for society' minotaur shit they spout, but what the hell is 'Society'? Can you point at it? Oh wait, over there it is!"

"By Comlain's breath, you are one stubborn bastard." A new voice broke in. "After spouting all that crap, how can you doubt you'll be a Master Artificer? Look in the Lexicon under Artificer, and it has your picture followed by: See Dipshit."

A strikingly gorgeous sandy blonde-haired girl, now a woman, sat down across from Jebidiah to join them. She was a Mage Talent, brilliant and confident if a bit lacking in common sense. She had eyes of the deepest azure that almost seemed to glow the longer Jebidiah stared into them. Her face was probably the most perfectly proportioned face he had ever encountered. The perfect proportions continued to the rest of her body. Of medium height, her heart-shaped ass sat perfectly at the top of her legs. She was dressed like everyone else in the gray sameness of matching outfits but managed to still stand out. She had the bottom front of her tunic tied to show off a smooth stomach, but the bunched shirt hid the two ample half-globes. Her breasts were at the exact height to allow one to catch a nice glimpse of cleavage while struggling to maintain eye contact.

"Very funny Tenner. Har har har. Still, I am glad you stayed you." replied Jebidiah. He didn't necessarily have a crush on Tenner, but they got along easily. She was the playful and sneaky one from the pod, usually roping one of the others into some sort of prank. He also enjoyed her lack of filter and social awkwardness it brought out until it was aimed at him.

"I'll bet you are Jeb. You still get to ogle my tits whenever you think I'm not looking. I imagine you'll have the balls to do it after I'm bonded as well." Her devilish grin immediately dropped to a slight frown as soon as the words left her mouth. "I'm sorry, I didn't think that one through. Again."

"It's ok Ten, really. I've sort of come to grips with my lot in life. I mean, I would give anything to be able to bond you, Dana, and Crys, but even if I had a Talent, the odds were low one of us would match up." "You still have a warped view of the Judgement, Jebidiah. Very bitter." Dana said.

"Don't wind him up again." Tenner said with a look of horror.

"Seriously, there's no justice involved, so there's no reason to call it a Judgment. Good or bad only comes from people doing things. Nobody has a choice in what happens with their Change." Jebidiah continued. "Even divination magic like Detect Good and Evil spells work on intent."

"Okay, okay, I give!" Dana laughed and held up her hands.

Just then Joy and Henna sat down with their food. Joy's bubbly exuberance immediately took over. "Jeb! You are still you! I'm so glad. Even though you are gloomy, you would have made a horrible orc. That would have been sad. What do you guys think the next tenday will be like?"

After their Changing and Judgement ceremonies, the remaining members of the pods would enter the Guild they had been accepted into based on their Talents. With the Change passed, those latent Talents often began to immediately manifest, so true training needed to begin. A half year's training later, everyone entered into either the National College or, if they desired or needed Tonstar citizenship, the Bh'orel Academy. They would be assigned teams of members with complementary Talents based on their pod mixture, normally one male and five females. The grouping was determined by yet another Diviner ceremony aptly called The Grouping.

The groups would go through more training and schooling while learning to work as a unit. If no issues presented themselves, the group would be permanently bonded into a polygyny of a single husband with multiple wives. Each Talented woman gained the status of Sister Wife then selected one of their number to be Prime. Depending on the social stature and family lines of the Wives, two or three Talentless women would also be bonded as support staff and to handle the sexual needs of the husband if the Sisters did not wish to. The groups were not designed or centered around the husband; instead, the grouping process considered the desires and demands of the women first. With the male population being so scarce and Talented males even scarcer, the husbands were relegated to a supporting role. They were protected to serve their purpose to produce progeny for the women. The support wives, being Artificers, were magically sterilized to reduce the chance of another Talentless birth.

Tenner leaned across her plate to quietly reassure Jebidiah, "There's nothing in the rules that says we can't still trade blowies right up until we are bonded."

"Stop it, Ten." Dana said. "He's already having issues controlling his boner today. You know how the thought of you or I or even both of us taking our turns bobbing our heads under this table will affect him. He'll pass out from blood loss. Oh Jeb, would you be a dear and get me another muffin?"

"Not even close to funny Dana." Jebidiah said while his face turned crimson. "I'm not even attempting to walk around right now. If Crys was here you two would behave yourself."

The status of Crys dampened the mood of Jebidiah. She had not emerged from her Changing Room on her name day. He resorted to his mental arithmetic relaxation and looked around at the other eleven tables in the room. Of the one hundred and twenty children that entered the Changing Station at the beginning of the tenday, sixty had gone through their Change and only twenty-three were present. Jebidiah and three of the others were the only males. That meant eleven more humans should be joining them this morning. Thirty-four more through the rest of the tenday and only two of those would be male according to the established percentages.

Jebidiah continued to do the math in his head, focusing on their pod. Two of their number had already lost their humanity this week, including Crys, accounting for five of their Change. Of the five left, Polly was sixth, Joy was seventh, then Charlene, Henna, and last Stern on the tenth. The odds sadly said that only three more of their female friends would join them this week until Judgment was called, and only one of them had a Talent. Stern's odds were non-existent.