Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Eighty Two

Hello everyone! So, lately, I have been considering taking a break from this story. There are a few reasons, not the least of which is that interest in the story seems to be dwindling. I think we all understand what "take a break" usually implies for fan-fiction writing, but nonetheless, I have been considering it. I would like to hear everyone's thoughts on this, so please comment and let me know. And yes, the story would be replaced by something new, you don't have to worry there.

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With Kali's help, I was able to scan the spirit easily. I could also feel myself getting more used to the process, which made me hopeful that I would be able to do it on my own soon, as long as I kept using the spell. The process was disorienting but manageable, which was an encouraging change.

I had already scanned this spirit before, back when I was choosing who to awaken first, so nothing of what I saw caught me off guard, but I needed to refresh my memory to plan out a proper plan of awakening. The spirit was already leaning towards heroics due to the original owner's tendency to put others before themself, but I could feel some substantial aspects getting in the way. While I had no problem cutting down the need to kill those who threatened him and his, I felt less good about manipulating concepts of family. This was a spirit that had absorbed a particularly powerful desire to fight and sacrifice for family, and I wasn't keen on suppressing or even removing something like that.

Not only was it a bit heavy-handed and potentially unethical, but it was also a waste. The spirit in the medal would make the perfect guardian for a specific family, or a family home. I could tie the concepts of the family to a specific bloodline, and the spirit would get a significant increase in power when defending them. It would be a complete waste to just squash that concept when I could raise it up and create a significantly more powerful awakened spirit.

"I… Don't think I can use this one, guys," I admitted with a frown. "I mean I could, but I think it might be better suited for other things."

I explained the issue I had run into and explained why having a guardian for a bloodline would come in handy to Alya, who didn't have quite a complete understanding of familial bonds. Eventually, after a little discussion, I decided to put the Purple Heart back into storage, saving it for later use.

Hell, maybe one day I would tie it to my own bloodline and have it as a family bodyguard if I ever had kids or something.

Thankfully, this didn't set me back nearly as far as I was worried it would. Alya pointed out that there must be hundreds of things with spirits attached to them across the city, surely one of them would be abandoned. At first, I thought it was a bit of a stretch, but after teleporting into the city and casting the spirit-sight spell, the world lit up like a field of stars. Thousands of tiny little spirits filled the buildings, with dozens of more prominent spirits sitting among them like planets. The vast majority of both types were inside homes and apartment buildings, but as Alya, a golem, and I bounced around the city by teleport, we found several forgotten spirits. A half-rotted book left under a park bench, a pocket knife buried in sand, a bent flute rescued from a dumpster and an old beat-up flask lodged under a rock. I was a bit nervous about what kind of echoes the flask might hold, but nonetheless, I took them all back to the compound, cleaning them off with a quick spell.

"Well, Alya, I stand corrected," I said, laying out our finds on the table near the ritual platform. "I'm not sure what these will contain, but you were right about finding spirits lying around."

"What if none of them have what you're looking for?" She asked, watching over my shoulder.

"Well, I guess I'll store them away in case they might be useful later, and we can go looking again," I responded with a shrug. "If none of that batch is useful, we can call it night, and tomorrow, we can stop at the shops we spotted that had a bunch. I think antique stores and pawnshops are going to be our friends when looking for spirits."

I spent a few minutes cleaning and repairing the objects as best I could. The book was re-bound using my skills gained from arcane focus crafting, while I used metal control to very carefully bend the flute back into shape. I cleaned and washed out the flask, smoothing the surface with the same metal control spell. The pocket knife was actually in the best condition out of all of them, only requiring a bit of magic to deep clean and a bit of elbow grease to sharpen.

Once I was sure none of them would fall apart during the awakening process, I started over again, scanning each of the objects, one after the other.

The flask ended up being exactly what I expected, the property of a struggling alcoholic who eventually succumbed to the disease. Even worse, it was also carried by the owner's son for a while, adding a layer of bitterness and sadness to it. The pocket knife turned out to be an everyday carry of a dockworker, who died a while before the bay was being strangled by the shipwrecks. Despite being in good condition, it was the oldest spirit I found.

The book was a library book, filled with hundreds of flash impressions from the people who read it. That would have been less than useless, probably not even a strong enough spirit, except a homeless girl took it out and never returned it, keeping it with her and reading it dozens of times. It had been an item of safety for her, something that comforted her even when she was hungry or cold. I didn't get a name, and I probably wouldn't without awakening the spirit, but I hoped she was doing okay.

I considered turning the book into the girl's own guardian before letting it loose to find her, but unfortunately, I couldn't just send out a random totem guardian, especially since I had no idea of the girl's fate. If she was already dead, creating a totem guardian to protect her was tantamount to creating a vengeful spirit totem, who would most likely go insane and attack whoever it perceived as the girl's killer.

Out of the first three items I scanned, all three of them weren't what I was looking for. The flask would have been a disaster, and the book would have probably been an equal problem, just in a totally different direction. The pocket knife would have probably worked if I treated it right, but that's not what I was looking for. I wanted spirits that would fit into the role willingly and easily, not be hammered into place. I would keep it as a last resort, but I would likely never use it.

Surprisingly, the flute was a considerably better fit. It belonged to a woman, a college professor, who worked hard to help her students succeed and become more. I could feel the love she felt for the instrument, and for music, despite that not being what she taught. I also realized that the flute itself was not a simple, run-of-the-mill instrument but an expensive, handmade model, made with silver. The spirit within had a touch of sadness, imbued into it by the family of the professor, but I didn't get anything personal from them. Instead, the flute was more focused on how its owner was lost and couldn't play it anymore.

The spirit flowed through the desire to help and raise up, to aid those around them, especially through teaching, and music. They stood up for what was right and weren't afraid to step on their toes to have their voice heard. It wasn't perfect, but it would serve as an excellent foundation for a heroic guardian spirit. I just had to do a good job setting its aspects into a proper and aligned will.

Once I settled on using the nascent spirit inside the flute, I spent a bit figuring out the best way to solidify its foundation before I eventually awakened it. The echo within the spirit was not a fan of violence, preferring to use words and negotiations. While that was an admirable stance, I needed the spirit to be ready to throw down when necessary. I also tamped down the desire to teach, emphasizing the desire to help and protect those who couldn't defend themselves.

After several rituals to refine and solidify the spirit, I put them aside to work on the frame and golem core. For the frame, I used the metal from one of the golems, though I had to make the core from scratch, which took a couple of hours to complete. When the core was done,  I  shaped the golem frame into a much more human shape, though I didn't carve any features into it, leaving it like a mannequin. I then installed the core, awoke the spirit, and put them both inside the frame. Once everything was sealed up, I stepped back and activated the awakened spirit.

Unlike Smokey, who had struggled for nearly a minute to speak correctly, this spirits first words were crystal clear.

"Good evening, why have you awoken me?" They asked, their voice deep and feminine, but with a slight vibration to it that almost sounded metallic.

"Hello, my name is William Kalus," I explained, stepping closer. "I have awoken you because Brockton Bay is struggling. It is infected with gangs and in danger of collapsing, and I need help if I'm going to help and protect the innocent people living here."

"I am to fight?" the spirit asked, looking past me to Smokey and Alya. "Like a cape?"

"That's right. It's not ideal, but our options are limited," I explained with a frown. "I wish we could peacefully negotiate, but the scum running around won't back down because we ask nicely."

"I know, my owner was disheartened by the gangs," they responded. "They wished they could help, and did their best to keep her students from falling in with them."

"With your help, we can stabilize the city and take down the worst of the gangs," I explained. "We have already taken down the ABB. Now we just need to keep other gangs from expanding into the cleared space."

"Very well," the newly awoken spirit confirmed with a nod. "I will fight with you against these gangs."

"That's great," I said, reaching out to shake their hand, the golem frame reaching out to take it. "Welcome to the team. How about we start by working on your frame to get it looking how you want it. While we do that, let's talk about what's been going on, and how you feel in your new totem body."

"Very well… Do you have any clothes?" they- she asked, the vague, undetailed totem guardian shifting as she looked down at their body, moving as if to cover themselves before stopping. "I find myself leaning towards a female form, and I find the lack… disconcerting."

"Oh crap, sorry. Yes, let me-" I started to say, only to feel a tap on my shoulder. "Huh?"

I turned to find Kali standing behind me, inhabiting her golem form, holding out a stack of clothes. I took them from her, recognizing them as my own.

"Oh! Looks like Kali is ahead of me," I said, holding out for the newly awakened spirit. "These will have to do for now. We can go into town in the  morning, and you can pick out something for yourself."

"Thank you."

I turned to give her some privacy, and she quickly put on the clothes, before following me to the common area, Smokey and Alya trailing behind. I introduced both of them, and Alya immediately disincorporated after she greeted the newcomer to the group. After that, I began to fill in the spirit on what had changed in Brockton Bay, as well as what we had achieved. Some of the information she knew from the echoes and memories she contained, but a lot of the details were new information. While we were doing that, I worked on turning the sort of vague human, almost mannequin-like frame into something the spirit actually liked.

The process took some time, starting with her coloration. Where Smokey had chosen a black iron and burnished brass, the newly awoken female spirit had asked for me to use copper to give her a warm, dark orange-brown coloration, highlighted with the same burnished brass. I did my best on her looks, giving her sharp features and long, almost elvish ears. Her jaw was strong, and she ended up being tall and thin. I carved her hair short, since I couldn't attach the hair to her shoulders without restricting her movement. She wasn't super happy about that, but she still seemed to like the pixie cut I gave her.

The finished look was pretty good, though I was glad I had a chance to work on Smokey first, as I had learned a lot working on his frame. I was tempted to spend my last, floating point on something like arcane sculpture or something like that, but I held myself back.

As we talked and sculpted her body, she demonstrated her ability. She could summon an ethereal flute to her hands, which glimmered silver despite being partially translucent. When she played it she could buff those around her in a variety of ways. The power of those buffs depended on how much power she fed into it, and while she was a powerful spirit now, her pool wasn't endless. Still, she could easily buff all of us with a variety of effects, including a mild healing. It was a potent ability, one that could absolutely change the tide of battle.

The PRT was going to hate that I could just whip up capes like her.

Our final conversation before I had Kali gently wake up Olivia was about the newly awakened spirits' name. We tossed around a few ideas, this time careful not to suggest anything strange lest she picked something like Smokey.

After a few minutes of brainstorming, her face cleared, and she smiled as if finding a moment of enlightenment.

"You can call me Piper."

I nodded in appreciation, reaching out to shake her hand with a smile. I could see Smokey nodding as well, Kali and Alya's approval coming in waves through our connections.

"It's a bit on the nose, but there's nothing wrong with that," I said with a smile as she shook my hand again. "Welcome to the team, Piper."

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Please read the note at the beginning!