It had been 60 years since Power Gems had been introduced and the Kingdom had developed rapidly in that time.
A few of the Gems had been used up in the early years, but people quickly figured out how much energy could be used at once without exhausting the Gem, allowing them to be used indefinitely. The Inventor of the Gems had made clear that there was a limited number of them, wich led to the introduction of a law enforcing energy efficiency. Infinite energy coupled with the enourmous number of Mages in the Kingdom led to new inventions being created at a rapid pace. Magically powered Vehicles allowed people to quickly cross the Kingdom's vast plains of grass, using roads that ran through them. Anyone that didn't spend most or all of their time as a Cow benefitted
from the plethora of magically powered devices that were being made, making the Kingdom one of the most desirable places to live.
Unfortunately, the Wizard that invented the Power Gems had died 20 years ago, taking the secret of their creation into his grave.
Meanwhile, Queen Beth had become a cultural icon. Many statues of her had been built throughout the Kingdom,
few of wich were accurate, except for the ones depicting her as a Cow, though using that to identify her would be next to impossible,
as many who chose to be transformed picked an appearance similar to her.
Her disappearance had become somewhat of a mystery, though most believed that she had temporarily taken a step back,
after seeing how well things were going in her realm. It wasn't hard to believe that she had gone on a few decades of vacation,
considering the fact that she was immortal. The energy network, that had started construction nearly 10 years ago,
had recently been finished, supplying even the most remote parts of the Kingdom with energy and, unbeknownst to everyone, allowed most of the pieces of Beth's Soul to be connected again for the first time in decades.
It took Beth a long time to organize her thoughts and understand what happened, she could barely make sense of what was happening,
due to essentially being in thousands of places at once. She was aware of everything her Soul was powering, from important government facilities to self-flushing toilets, and some parts of her had regained awareness at earlier points, giving her years of memories that she had a hard time organizing. She wasn't even sure of what she was anymore, one part of her even believing that she WAS one of the self-flushing toilets, due to having powered one for almost sixty years, until she reconnected with a part of herself that powered a number of Scrying Orbs, wich were, for all intents and purposes, used as magical security cameras.
Connecting with them allowed Beth to see most of the Kingdom, instead of being limited to feeling the objects she was powering.
She quickly understood the changes that had taken place and reconnected with more and more parts of herself,
sometimes being confused for a while when the parts brought new memories with them. After having connected with most of her parts,
Beth decided to start searching for her body. It took her some time, due to many citizens wanting to mimic her appearance.
But when she finally succeeded, Beth felt a certain disconnect between the dumb, listless Cow she saw and herself.
Was this really her? Did she just think this was her because a piece of her Soul was in this Cow?
She searched through herself, trying to determine what else she could be.
Beth was certain that she had been a Cow at some point, due to it having become common knowledge in the Kingdom.
But what was she before that? And what was she when her Soul was trapped in the Gems and scattered?
Many of the parts that had regained awareness first had strong impressions of what she was supposed to be, but were any of them right?