ZOE GALAXY: The Invitation

Chapter One: The Invitation

"The Invitation is a question, 

Infused with the power to  

Unlock the shackles of Real Life.  

That question is: 

 Who Am I?" 

 ~The Voice for Qua, Operations Manual for Invitations & Enrollments 

It is a little-known fact that everyone in Real Life is invited to attend one of the only two remaining mystery schools still in operation: the Dragonfly School of Magical Arts or the Academy of Qua.

Just because the majority of the Invitations are unrecognized, misunderstood, or ignored does not change the fact that they are issued -- a statement Alfred Cain McKnight, Head of Invitations & Enrollments, has often made in his defense. After thirty years of employment Alfred can't explain why mystery school enrollment is a mere .01%, making a new enrollee the perfect example of the Real Life slogan: You're one-in-a-million.  

Today Alfred would cast his vote on the motion to individualize The Invitation, a motion initiated by those who believed doing so would increase enrollment. Although Alfred was sure everyone else thought he didn't deserve a vote, since no one even bothered a nod in his direction, someone from the Office of Qua had invited him to participate. And rightly so. 

For Alfred may not be a mystery school Master, a Qua Official, or even a Real Lifer, but he did know a thing or two about issuing Invitations.  

In the twenty-nine audits conducted during Alfred's tenure, the Council of Humane Evolution reported that every Real Lifer had received at least one mystery school Invitation during their life. Not one person had ever been missed. And -- as he often boasted to anyone who cared to listen -- his invitation-per-person-average was sixty-five, the mean was eighty-nine, and the highest number of invites was five-thousand-one-hundred and thirty-two (issued to an extraordinary genius who refused to deviate from his logical mind). All three were department records. 

Alfred sat perfectly straight in his arena seat, wearing a custom vintage tuxedo and Italian wingback shoes and doing his best to look like he belonged. On this third day of deliberation and debate he found himself struggling to pay attention, unable to drag his mind away from the blazing, violet words suspended in mid air over the arena stage.  

Who Am I? the words burned in the air. 

He couldn't figure out why this question was included in The Invitation. How did it unlock the shackles of Real Life? No matter how many times he'd asked himself, his answer was always the same: I am Alfred Cain McKnight, Head of Invitations and Enrollment. And that response didn't change a thing. 

This was Alfred's first time in the Quarena. Thousands of windows covered the crystalline walls, like eyes on the face of the soft violet sky. And the air was different inside. It shimmered and made him feel giddy and paying attention seem like a chore. He'd already made a list of every attendee noting their name if he knew it or distinguishing physical characteristics if he did not. Four-hundred and forty-four voters would decide the course of Real Life today. And Alfred was among them.  

Finally, the last opposing argument was being given by a legendary Real Lifer who'd been present during the Dark Reign. He hovered over Alfred's section, standing on the floating six-foot wide disc that allowed the speaker to easily move around the audience to make eye contact. "And so, my fellow Qualanders, although the use of the standard Invitation has greatly reduced enrollments, more importantly it has eliminated the dominance of the dark Masters. Let us not again create an opportunity for those with a lust for power and a sadistic allegiance to destruction to rule again over Real Life. Vote 'nay', for the good of Real Life. And, for the good of all."