Mare goes back to the other servants, her head spinning because the (supposedly) nice guy who saved her is actually part of the class she hates so much. (Although, she’s still saved, and she barely knew Cal, and it seems the whole NOT GOING TO DIE IN A WAR thing is more relevant? A surprise, sure, but she acts like her situation has fundamentally changed somehow.)

The Queenstrial ceremony continues, and in another cool move a telekinesis silver moves the garden around so that the spiral turns into a big open cylinder with all the terraces being boxes lined up along the walls. Although since Mare mentions electricity a moment later (and also that the garden boxes were all on tracks) it seems like kind of a waste of a power. That could have been automated. I do dislike magic that merely does what we can already do with no change. Doing normal stuff with flair, alright, but once you have machines in your world already the magic needs to step up its game.

In fact, next there’s a machine that makes a frikkin net out of lightning bolts, which 1) is not something we’re currently capable of, if it’s possible at all and 2) is so much cooler than spinning boxes, why couldn’t this have been the magic part?

The lightning freezes, solidifying in midair, creating a clear, purple shield between the floor and us. Between us and whatever might appear down there.

??? So totally magic, just use magic for this part, making it mechanical makes no sense.

Then the Queenstrial begins in earnest, and one at a time girls come out in the floor of the cylinder and put on a display of their mutant powers, vying to be chosen as the most powerful contestant. And possibly the most pretty? There’s mention of preening and such, but no telling how much other, non-powers things are considered.

This goes on for a long time, with girls displaying powers Mare has never seen before (and only a few of which she describes to us) but one has Black Canary type powers and now all I can think of is this.

The last girl to come up is Magneto. Apparently she’s the most powerful, but I can’t really tell what their standards are. Doesn’t it all depend on circumstances? Take her out into the Stilts where there’s less metal around for her to bend, and wouldn’t the super strong girl be better off? Take her on a wooden rowboat in the middle of the ocean, and wouldn’t the water nymph win? There’s no mention of their powers being measured in intensity, because all these girls are doing is destroying whatever’s put in front of them, so it makes it really hard to actually do any sort of comparison. They’re all apples and oranges. Except they’re all apples and oranges doing exactly the same thing: smashing stuff. No matter what method these girls use, the arena gets smashed, that’s always the end result. How do you determine that one smashing is better than the next?

Well, Magneto Evangeline gets extra smashy by pulling the lowest level of boxes out of the wall, and Mare falls out of it and lands on the purple see-through lightning shield. Instead of killing her, the electricity energizes her and she gets all amped up before it breaks and dumps her on the arena floor.

Evangeline stares at me, her eyes wide. She looks angry, confused – and scared.

Of me. Somehow, she is scared of me.

“Hi,” I say stupidly.

I lol-ed.

Evangeline answers shock with aggression and throws metal shards at her, but Mare accidently fries them into exploding with her lightning.

Guards try to capture her, but Mare runs through the ripped up walls that Evangeline destroyed earlier. Somehow, even though these are the elitest of the elite of guards, she evades them. Cal catches her instead, using the fire magic/power that’s iconic of his family to trap her, and Mare ends up passing out from the heat/smoke.

Dun dun dun.