Robert Meta
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Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Seventy One
🕑 Added 2025-01-07 16:56:06 +0000 UTCIt took some time for me to calm down, a mixture of frustration and disgust giving me a sort of nervous, manic energy that seemed to rattle around in my bones, fighting to explode out of me. I cried, I cursed, I shouted at the trees and to the sky, but both Kali and Alya stayed close, keeping me from doing anything stupid until I finally worked through it. I ended up making my way to my room, barely taking the time to finish getting out of my costume before collapsing into my bed.
I woke up about five hours later to my phone ringing. When I picked it up, I could see I had already missed three calls from an unknown number. I could also see that it was Lady Photon who was currently calling me. I took a moment to shake off my sleep before tapping the call button.
"Hello, this is Arcanum."
"Arcanum, hello, it's Lady Photon," the familiar voice confirmed. "I just wanted to check in on you and make sure everything was alright."
"Yeah, I'm… I'm okay, recovering at home," I assured her.
"That's good. That was a lot to take in, even for us," She admitted. "We have a lot more experience handling this sort of situation, or at least similar situations... It's not easy."
"Yeah, it was.... worse than I could imagine."
There was a solemn, dark silence over the phone before Lady Photon cleared her voice, pulling us back to the conversation.
"So, sometime after the scene was cleared, the PRT called in New Wave for information when you refused to meet with the Director," She added, and I winced. "We want you to know that we one hundred percent support your refusal. We've been dealing with PRT and Protectorate crap long enough to read between the lines of what they were saying to hear what they were actually doing. While I would recommend trying not to be so… bombastic about it, next time, you don't have to worry about getting in trouble."
"How did you manage that?"
"Director Piggot is a rigid military woman, and she doesn't trust capes. She assumes the worst, and when she tries to wrangle a situation, she assumes her assets will function like military-trained assets would," She explained, sounding exasperated with what seemed like an ongoing issue. "She needs reminding that we are not military assets, that we aren't even her assets to begin with. She doesn't like hearing that, of course, but at least she doesn't pretend it's not true."
"Jesus, what a clusterfuck," I said, leaning on my elbow and running my hand thrush my hair. "How is this going to affect me covering for Amy?"
"We thought of that. With her psychologist's agreement, Amy will be healing at the PRT for now," She explained, continuing before I could open my mouth. "Don't worry. She will be following your parameters rather than following her old scheduling habits. It also plays into her therapy in other ways, but she hasn't discussed that with me, which is fine. She seemed genuinely happy about the setup when we discussed it, but we will be keeping track and checking in consistently. Further, she will never be healing without a member of New Wave with her."
"Good, that sounds good," I said with a nod. "In all honesty, it's probably better to put some space between the PRT and me for a while. Not their biggest fan at the moment."
"I don't blame you," the mother superhero admitted. "Well, I just wanted to let you know we managed to smooth things over a bit, and make sure you are okay."
"Thank you, Lady Photon, I appreciate the phone call," I said honestly.
A few more pleasantries were exchanged before we hung up, leaving me alone in my room until Alya reformed, sitting on the edge of the bed beside me.
"That sounded good."
"Well, I'm not wanted, and it doesn't sound like I'm too far up Director Piggot's shot list," I responded with a shrug. "Both of those are good."
I leaned back on my hands for a moment, before letting out a long sigh.
"Why does it feel like everyone in the government here is holding the idiot ball and can't let it go?" I asked the universe rhetorically. "I really hope it's not contagious."
I sat for a while longer before eventually getting up and stretching. There was no way I was leaving the compound again for the rest of the day, barring an emergency. Instead, I had a late lunch or early dinner before finally getting to work on something I had promised to make Kali a while ago. She had seemed to like the idea of a golem she could boss around here to help with work. Unfortunately, for the longest time, I had been too busy to work on anything that wasn't necessary. Thankfully, I now had some free time.
It was simple really, just about the easiest golem I had ever created, with living wood as a base and only a handful of ritualized gemstones on a stone core. It could follow commands, sure, but struggled to comprehend complex instructions. I had intended to make it much more complicated, but Kali intervened and explained, through some complicated imagery and feelings, that that was all she needed. When it was done, she seemed happy, but within an hour, the golem had disappeared. Kali seemed smug when I asked about her, teasingly implying that I should be patient.
The following day, I quickly completed my rounds at the hospital before leaving to check on the docks community. I spent some time repairing the damaged golems, which I had left alone for way too long. I also promised to bring a pair of metal golems soon, to really solidify the place's defenses. The four metal golems that followed me around had proven to be extremely competent and durable, so building a few specifically for defending the community would help considerably.
I had Ayla keep her eyes peeled for Olivia, but she was nowhere to be found. She was either avoiding me or avoiding the community altogether. I left her a message through George that I was looking for her, but I didn't have high hopes.
I went on patrol alone after that, making a push to no longer ignore the gathering of ABB forces we stumbled on. It slowed down the patrol considerably, but we busted a small drug house and a few small groups of goons at separate places. It was well worth the extra time, especially because some of them seemed shocked that I had picked them up. Guess they thought I was playing softball to keep from stirring any trouble up, but the time for that had long passed.
When I traded off patrols with New Wave, I immediately teleported just outside the junkyard I had used to make my golems. Another chunk of cash and a few spells later, and I left with enough metal for several more golems, though this time I didn't form the metal into anything yet, instead leaving it in large metal chunks. Having some metal lying around the compound might come in handy at some point, and I could quickly form them as needed rather than beforehand.
Once I finished and delivered the metal golems to the community, I spent the next few days working on the compound. I still performed my daily tasks, but most of my time was spent out of the city. The patrols were much more intense than before, sure, but in most ways, I was taking it easy, recovering from the Farm raid. I also made sure to check up on the victims in the hospital, even as most of them were discharged to return to their lives. The ones who remained were still struggling mentally, and would soon most likely be relegated to mental health institutions, where they would hopefully recover.
For one, long night, I considered trying to create a mental healing spell. My knowledge automatically fed me a bare framework, even just from thinking about it, but I hesitated to keep going. Messing with people's minds, even in a good way, was something I wasn't sure about. Magical healing was incredible, yes, but it wasn't perfect. The nature of the healing itself brushed most of its shortcomings to the side, but that wouldn't be the case with mind healing.
The brain was too complicated to just memory wipe the trauma away, as PTSD and other mental trauma symptoms can exist without memory of the actual event. Healing mental trauma would equate to a full mind massage, tweaking, poking, and prodding the brain back into shape. It was absolutely mind control, and there was absolutely no way I would ever be able to convince people it was all I could do, as that's just now how powers seemed to work here.
At some point, when the cat was out of the bag, and I had people who believed me that I was using magic, I might offer that sort of spell to people. For now, however, having a spell like that would most likely get me locked up, along with anyone I used it for potential master effects.
On the seventh night of my current charge cycle, I got a rather shocking scare. I was sitting by the fire, brainstorming some ideas for what I would spend my next charges on, when a large, almost skeletal form began to pull itself from the dirt a dozen or so feet past the edge of the compound lights. The movement caught my eye immediately, but I still froze as the dark form seemed to yank itself free of the ground, crawling from the earth, clumps of clay and mud falling from its frame.
Finally, I recovered enough to react. I held out my hand and gave my staff, which was leaning against the wall not far from me, a mental yank. It slapped into my hand, and with a flourish, I aimed the business end at the shadow. I was just about to turn said shadow into a very bright fire, when Kali sent a wave of calm through the compound. I slowly lowered my staff, and the shadow walked closer, slowly stepping into the fire pit area.
It was her golem, the one I had made her a few days ago, though it hardly resembled what I had first created. What had been a simple, headless humanoid frame was now refined and remolded to match human proportions. It had a head, arms, legs, and a torso, all proportional to its height and size. As I watched, short green leaves began to grow from its scalp, creating what was almost like a pixie cut, finished with a large single rose growing just above the temple.
As its hair grew, the golem's face shifted and moved, smiling happily at me as the clearly feminine golem stepped closer. Its whole body was clearly sculpted after a woman's, with coils and branches of my enhanced wood forming strong limbs. Unlike the normal golems, this one sported rather tight and refined definition, rather than stocky, brutish trunks.
Covering a large portion of the golem's body was a dress of leaves and flowers, which pulled tight around it, almost like a layered kimono nightgown. Overall, the very feminine golem had very sharp, almost wolfish features, with large, brilliant green eyes. It was like looking at a wooden anime character. The features were alien enough, however, that it skipped over the uncanny valley, settling into a space that was sharp, but expressive, while very much not being human.
As the golem got closer, it smiled, and trees around us shuddered and swayed.
"...Kali? Is that you?" I asked, my own eyes wide as I stood up slowly, leaning my staff against the chair.
I stepped closer, and the golem made a "so-so" gesture with their hand. Between our connection and her hand motions, I got the gist of the situation. She was inhabiting the body, which she had spent several days working on underground, but it wasn't actually her body or anything, just a vessel she could use. Better than ordering around some golems by far, even if she had drained some of her stored energy to get it done.
It was incredible, an artistic creation beyond anything I was capable of, with a detailed, layered magic that I didn't even know where to start interpreting. She seemed to love it, happily stoking the fire, walking around the compound, tending some of the flowers and berry bushes that had started to grow around the edges, and even bringing me a cup of hot chocolate as it started to get late. It felt like I had gained a magical dryad caretaker, who seemed to love every minute of finally being able to interact fully with the real world.
Thankfully, she seemed to switch seamlessly between inhabiting the golem frame and letting it form into the side of a tree not far from the edge of the compound. I could actually feel the difference when she did that, her being going from a quiet, subtle blanket to a heavy, colorful point, walking around the compound itself.
Kali was growing at a steady rate, as the magic nature of the compound itself encouraged her growth. I could already tell that her domain was pushing further into the forest around us. Towards the city, it felt like a dozen feet or so had slowly fallen under her influence. On the other side, however, almost three times that had been claimed. She was growing more powerful as well, and her influence on reality in her domain was beginning to show.
It was exciting to see her growth, and I could tell she was happy with her progress as well. With a temporary body set up, I was excited to finally be able to talk normally to her, which she seemed to think wasn't too far away.
The day after Kali's golem form rose from the mud, I finally heard from Olivia. I woke up to a message on my phone from her, telling me to pick her up for patrol like normal. So far, up until that point, I had been covering our patrols alone, which was honestly fine since I had the support of my golems. Four powerful metal golems and a rapidly learning mage were more than enough to handle a small army of ABB goons. Either way, I wasn't about to force anyone to work with me as a hero. I didn't want anyone beside me that didn't want to be there.
Technically, I could have found her whenever I wanted, using my connection to the magic in her cloak. However, I had already breached her trust once, so stalking her with the equipment I gave her seemed like a universally bad choice. Unless she was in danger or had crossed a very hard line, I had decided to leave her alone. She did deserve her privacy, after all. Thankfully, she reached out to me, saving me the issue of worrying about it at all.
That morning, I did my regular morning business before saying goodbye to Kali and teleporting away to the city. Rather than heading directly to the pickup spot, I grabbed a couple of coffees and a pair of breakfast burritos. Forgiveness was always easier with a full stomach, after all.
I teleported to the alleyway to find her sitting in her usual spot, leaning back against the wall of the alley. She spotted me immediately and leaned forward, but before she could say anything, I put the burrito and coffee into her hands. I could practically feel her eyes rolling when she shook her head and opened the paper bag to see what I had gotten her.
I didn't hear a single complaint while she ate it, though. When we were both done, I sat on a crate on the opposite side of the alleyway. After a moment, we both spoke up at the same time.
"We need to talk."
"We need to talk."
Comments
Michael Rojas
TYFTC I'm glad to see that Kali is getting stronger. Also any thoughts on what the next charges will be spent on? A big part of me wants him to double down on the crafting aspect of stuff for a week or two and then start branching out, but he's probably going to need to start thinking about stuff that will counter and make endbringer fights survivable.
