It felt almost anticlimactic when they finally arrived. The mountain trail led to a small plateau. It was like someone cut off the top of the mountain and inscribed a blue pattern across most of the flat stone. Near the trailhead there were stone seats for the escorts. The majority of the mountain top was an enchanted circle, one enormous ritual with branching runes starting in the middle and leading out towards the edges. He had heard it looked like lightning had struck the middle and forked out from there. But Hugo thought it looked organic, like trees growing from one spot, branching and branching further as it neared the edges.

It was vast, the circle taking up more room than his entire school campus had at home. Unlike the dirt path they had walked to get here, this was a perfectly well maintained edifice. Marble and gold made up the flawless surface that looked like it had just been cleaned.

Hugo turned around and looked down the mountain, towards his home city. Too far to see, he still knew where it was. He was a bit sad that he would be missing new years and the heart beat festival. It was the funniest night of the year, full of merriment and intrigue. He loved the festival with its decorations, bright lights, and song. Two heartbeats ago he had his first kiss under a floating lantern. His family would be celebrating without him right now, and later tonight his friends would be out carousing as well. He hoped that they would miss him as much as he missed them, but Hugo was starting to wonder if they would.

It would be another few hours before the heartbeat, but the mountain wardens started getting everyone into place now anyway. All twelve hundred of the assembled hopefuls were assigned a random receiving spot on the spellform. Each year the heartbeat would fill most of the hopefuls with magic, making them ascendants. Most, but not all. A random section of the outer edge of the circle would fail to light up each year. Not all that hope, ascend.

Receiving spots in the center always lit up, and only a few random spots on the edges remained unlit. To counteract this inherent imbalance in desirable spots, everyone that joined the expedition up the mountain received a random number and spot on the enchanted circle. It was a perfectly fair system that rewarded the rich and poor alike.

As with most fair systems the rich and powerful had circumvented it long ago. The center of the design quickly filled with the scions of the eight cities, their uniformly rich garb mocking the idea of equality.

Hugo wasn’t surprised to find himself on the outer circle. It didn’t worry him either. Every part of the outer ritual circle worked equally well. It was just random who would get ascended today, and as Marion pointed out, the odds were still good. He was glad to see his friend, only two spots away. They had a shouted conversation for a bit. The nox and riese standing in between the two friends didn’t appreciate that, so they stopped.

Taking a closer look at his neighbor, Hugo realized he needed to get out more. He was standing next to a riese, and as common as they were, he hadn’t had any as friends. Not that he could go up to one and ask him to be his friend. He doubted anyone wanted to be a token riese friend.

He had plenty of human friends from his neighborhood. A few nox friends, but that was hardly surprising. Like they said, this was a nox world, we are all just living in it. It was hard not to make some friends of the most populous species in the land.

There was still plenty of time before the heartbeat came, and Hugo grew bored even before everyone got to their assigned spot. On every side, there was someone his same age, but none of them wanted to talk. It was a bit inconvenient since they all had to stand six feet apart, but still. He wished that someone would be interested in talking instead of just standing there and stressing. He could hear conversations on other parts of the ritual, but the people around him resisted his efforts to start a dialogue.

He crouched down and examined the runes he was assigned to stand on. A line came in from the ritual center, then circled the spot he was to stand on. Inside the circle were eight runes, or at least the beginnings of one. It looked like the rest of the runes were buried underneath the stone surface. Hugo wondered if he would be able to see the rest of the runes after he was soulmarked. He had heard that they could all see mana. He assumed that the metal was a mana conductor, and if it wasn’t already infused, it would be soon when the heartbeat happened.

Time passed and more and more teenagers grew as bored as Hugo and sat down on their assigned circle. The sun had set, the guides had gotten out lanterns. Lights dotted the plateau, circling the ritual. They were all waiting on the mountain to do its thing. The shimmer that flowed up the mountain’s veins provided the power for this ritual. It was the whole reason that they were all here today, the heartbeat only happened once a year. He didn’t think about it much but he knew the mountain was a living being of some sort. Perhaps the most boring animal in existence, as far as he knew it didn’t do anything other than beating its heart once a year.

In the fall the mana would slowly leak from the mountain, causing the monster surge. Then its veins, or ley lines as they were sometimes called, would slowly convert ambient mana into shimmer. When enough shimmer was produced, that would get pumped up the mountain.

Hugo wasn’t quite sure what the difference between mana and shimmer was, but he was told that there was a difference, and it was an important one. Maybe he would learn about it after he attended the academy.

The two emotions of boredom and anxiety warred with each other in Hugo. There was nothing to do here and he wished that he could be doing anything else but sit here waiting. At the same time, he kept glancing at the sky and worrying that the heartbeat was late. Perhaps it wouldn’t come this year. The first time in history, and it would be the one to deprive him. He had almost convinced himself that he was cursed and it would never happen when he heard someone yelling.

“Shimmer coming!” a soulmarked guide yelled from the edge of the plateau.

The hopefuls scrambled to their feet, ensuring that they were standing in the middle of their assigned circle. It wouldn't be long now. A light blue glow surrounded the plateau, quickly growing in intensity. Once it surpassed the brightness of the lanterns, the center of the ritual circle lit up. A column of bright light pierced the sky.

The metal of the ritual started glowing. The teenagers closest to the center took on a glow of their own. Then the next layer out, and the next layer. Faster and faster, the glow covered people like a wave.

The wave started flickering as it reached the outer edges. The girl standing in front of Hugo didn’t light up. The mana entered her ritual circle, but instead of making her glow, she started to vibrate. A high pitched keening escaped her lips, followed by blood. She coughed once, then fell to the ground, dead. Her section of the ritual stayed dark. An acrid, coppery smell filled the air.

The people in the center of the ritual stopped glowing. Then the next layer out dimmed, then the next. Soon the only light was the lanterns the guides had lit. It was over.

Hugo didn’t get soulmarked.

A person was dead, and her death broke the flow of mana. Hugo wasn’t soulmarked. And he would never get another chance. He stood there in shock, even as people started filing out of the ritual circle. They met up with their parents and escorts, and started down the mountain. Right after the heartbeat was the worst time to be on the mountain, and they needed to get going right away.

Yet, Hugo stood, unmoving.

This had been his last chance at greatness. The shimmer guard didn’t want him. The mountain rejected him. He knew he wouldn’t survive long as a harvester. There were no other options. He was going to have to go back home. He would have to tell his mother she was right. Sofia would be so upset.

A pair of guides in their red vests walked up to the girl in front of Hugo. They had a stretcher that they loaded the body onto and covered her with a blanket. He realized that they had prepared for this. Someone had mentioned a danger in the process, that some people died. But he had assumed that was from the monsters, not from the ritual itself. It was chilling to learn the truth.

A different red vest came by, collecting the few hopefuls that hadn’t gotten soulmarked. He guided the hopeless to the side with a promise of an explanation. He had to push Hugo gently before he moved. Once in motion though, Hugo walked over to the crowd of disappointed teenagers and waited for someone to make sense of this. There were a few parents on the outskirts, consoling their children. Most of the people on the outer edges didn’t have escorts though, they were on their own.

“Alright, everyone. You didn’t get soulmarked. It isn’t the end of the world. Three fourths of everyone in the city never rank up, and they lead happy lives. The mayor of Reval isn’t soulmarked and he is a happy fellow. You get a chance to lead a happy life too. And if you don’t want that happy life, the harvesters are always accepting recruits.

“We need to move fast, now that the heartbeat is over. Make sure your bags are strapped tight, and your footwear is in good condition. We took four days going up, but we are going to make it down the mountain in just two days. We head out in half an hour, as soon as the newly soulmarked are out of our way,” the man in red said.

The teenagers looked at each other in confusion. That was it? This was their explanation. They didn’t get soulmarked and they were just supposed to be happy about it? It was the world's worst consolation speech followed by a reminder that their lives were in danger the longer they were on the mountain.

A new man stepped up to the crowd before they could disperse and said, “Please don’t go quite yet, there is another option. You all have another chance at being soulmarked tonight.” Everyone turned to look at the newcomer. He was a tall and skinny man, with the brown and gold trimmed robes of a ritualist.

The red vested guide frowned and yelled to the crowd, “This man produces results, but know that he kills more than he saves. What happens next is on your own heads.” He turned and walked away.