Chapter 54 (Patreon)

It only lasted a few minutes, but those were some of the longest few minutes of my entire life.

The cleansing hadn’t hurt as much as it simply burned - a cold, scourging sort of heat that seared me from the inside out, like swallowing a fucking bucket of Icy Hot. Everything, and I mean everything, felt like it had been scrubbed clean with a piping hot wire sponge; my soul, the literal soles of my feet, all the way up to the tips of my dreadlocks. 

At the same time, my brain went through some sort of… metamorphosis? Evolution? I didn’t really feel like a Pokemon, but that was the closest term I could think of to describe the sensation. I didn’t feel necessarily any smarter, but neurons felt like they were firing faster and faster the more I enveloped myself in this change, surrendering myself fully to whatever the hell Divinity would turn me into.

Somehow, becoming some flavor of Divine didn’t sound too bad.

When the pale, blazing inferno finally dissipated, the first thing I noticed was that I was butt ass naked. I glanced down at my body, sliding my hands along the sculpted, muscular contours of my abs and legs, checking for any irregularities or overt changes, but no - there was nothing that I could see on first look. 

Except, maybe… yeah, my skin was fucking glowing. 

Not literally, of course - that would’ve been an immediate Immutable Form moment - but the chocolate brown of my body was almost radiant with health and vigor. There was a thin, almost nonexistent sheen, as if someone had taken an airbrushed photo and applied a subtle filter to make everything pop and shine in just the right way to seem ethereal. I couldn’t see my face without a mirror, but if it had gotten the same treatment as the rest of my body, then…

‘Goodbye secret identity, I hardly knew ye.’

“Jason!”

A torpedo of pink, blue, and black collided with my bare chest, and I both grunted and laughed as the pint-sized form of Cassie wrapped itself around me entirely - arms around the neck and legs around the waist. Her position posed a completely different problem for me, unrelated to whatever changes that’d just occurred, but the way that she was rubbing her nose against mine was just cute enough to pacify the black mamba.

I cracked a grin, supporting her weight with my hands against the fluffiness of her ass. “I’m good, relaaax. The new perk had some bite to it.”

“You’re going to give me a fucking heart attack one of these days, dude. Tell your magic to stop being so friggin’ bipolar,” Cassie mumbled, leaning forward and placing a soft, chaste kiss against my lips. When she leaned back, it was with a narrow-eyed glare. “And stop getting so fucking sexy. This makes a girl feel self-conscious y’know!”

Her hands trailed up the back of my neck, gliding through my hair, lightly tugging on the locs.

“Part of the job description, baby. It said it was gonna make me look as ‘captivating as light itself’... but seein’ as too much didn’t change, I’m guessing I was pretty much there already.” I murmured, not even bothering to hide the cockiness in my voice. 

The tips of my fingers dug into the plushness of her ass, dimpling the flesh, and Cassie squeaked. “Jay!”

Yep, that woke lil’ me right up.

“Say my name like that again and I swear we ain’t leavin’ this house.”

With flushed cheeks and a smug little smile on her soft pink lips, Cassie opened her mouth to speak… only to stiffen in my arms when she felt the stiffness poking against her lower back. I had the pleasure of witnessing, first hand, the myriad of emotions that passed over her face; the adorable embarrassment, the unconscious pride, the heated desire - it all culminated into a flurry of movement as she wiggled out of my grasp and covered her burning face with both hands.

“No, bad boy! You won’t seduce me again, foul incubus - I have magic to frickin’ learn, you have rings to make, and if I fold here then I’ll be knocked out for, like, five hours!” Her voice was muffled against her palms, but I saw the way her fingers twitched, creating slight gaps for her to see through.

I was happy to soak up her attention.

But, at the same time… she was right. I needed someone to get a fucking bat to bonk me with whenever I got too horny.

“Okay, fine. Sucks that the fire fucked up some good clothes, man.” I sighed in genuine disappointment, doing a quick spin and shoving mana down my body in what was now a completely instinctive act. Jeans and a snug white v-neck covered my naked body, the collar of the shirt just low enough to expose the markings on my chest.

Sunglasses completed the ensemble, and thankfully, the ‘divine fire’ didn’t see fit to melt my Doc Martens. They were a little singed, though.

Cassie slowly lowered her hands, and the disappointment on her flushed face was only challenged by the excited gleam that suddenly lit up her eyes. “Oh. My God. That just reminded me - babe, your hair!”

Tying my boot laces with a couple twirls of my crooked finger, I eyed the girl curiously. “What?”

“I got distracted for a second, but… it changed your hair. It’s not, like, in your face right now so I guess you missed it- hold on.”

Cassie took out her phone, held the camera up to me, and took a picture. I only had a fraction of a second to react before the shutters went off, and I did so by winking and throwing up a middle finger like a true gentleman.

SNAP.

She looked down at the screen and smirked. “Phone wallpaper material for freaking sure. Look!”

When the phone was pressed into my face… I froze.

And stared.

“White hair?” I gaped, genuine befuddlement coloring my voice and raising the pitch higher. “It couldn’t be any less fuckin’ stereotypical?”

“What the heck, it looks good on you! Jay, the elf ears, the tattoos, the edgy white hair… you are literally an anime character now! I’d be throwing a fucking fit if I wasn’t the one dating you. This is, like, twelve year old Cassie’s biggest friggin’ dream.” Cassie exclaimed, pulling her phone back and stowing it in her pocket. She replaced it with her finger, a faux angered expression taking over her face. “If you change it I swear to Allah I’ll be mad at you.”

“You’re not Muslim, dumbass.” I groused, yanking down one of my dreads and practically crossing my eyes in order to get a better look at it. 

Sure enough, it was pure fucking white - just like in Cassie’s uncomfortably high definition pic. It wasn’t a white that blinded you, either; it was more of a silvery white, like the color of moonlight when it illuminated the night sky. I wasn’t mad at the color, or at the fact that the change even happened, since Immutable Form made reversing the dye job as simple as switching it out for black.

No, I was more so just frustrated that it looked so fucking good. What kind of chuuni ass motherfucker was I becoming?

“You have no idea what God I worship, heathen. I could be following the flying spaghetti monster and you wouldn’t know.” Cassie sniffed imperiously, raising her nose up at me and lowering her lids. “... But seriously. Keep it. And let’s take selfies later.”

I exhaled air through my nostrils as I thought about it.

On one hand, this would make having a ‘secret identity’ practically impossible, ‘cause how many black men were there in Brockton Bay with silvery white dreads, unnaturally good looks, and a tendency to wear sunglasses?

Probably not a lot.

But on the other hand… it really did make me feel like an anime protagonist, and if I really needed to go undercover or incognito there were a wide assortment of spells that would make it a fucking cinch. I was a god damned wizard.

So screw it. Chuuni all the way.

“Forget the hair, we’re going to the Graveyard. I’m boutta Professor McGonagall you so fucking hard.” I grunted, shoving my hands in my pockets and hovering up off the floor. Dust stirred in response, reminding me that I needed to either hire a maid, kidnap a maid, or clean the fucking house.

Cassie whooped in excitement, pumping her fist up and down. “Heck yes! I love it when you talk dirty magic to me!”

“Heh. Grab on, spazz - let’s go blow shit up.”

_____________________________________________________

I found myself surprised at just how horrible the Boat Graveyard turned out to be.

I’d seen it, back when I was fighting Lung on the beach - but that had been from a considerable distance away, like looking at a car crash from a few blocks down where it all seems so small and unimpressive. But now, standing over the large, grassy hill that overlooked Brockton Bay’s northern coastline, I had to admit…

This would probably take a bit longer than a long evening’s hard work.

It almost looked… gruesome, in a weird way, as if I was staring down at a bunch of actual dead bodies. They started in the sand - huge, rusted out carcasses of what could have once been ships, but have turned into mere shells of what used to be due to passage of time and the elements. 

Dozens of the hulking metal monstrosities. At least fifty, and that was only counting the ones I could see. The coastline was littered with them.

Some of the old vessels lied on their sides, half-buried in the sand - washed ashore by the tide, while others floated out in the ocean for what had to be hundreds of feet, bobbing upright in the water with their decks tilted up at precarious angles. Wooden debris, garbage, and trash all littered the sandy shore, the broken and rotted remains of what was probably once a well-made pier. Even from the distance we floated, overlooking the Graveyard, the salty scent of the sea battled with the heavy, acrid tang of rust, mildew, and a distinctive, vaguely disturbing whiff of rot. 

I set the two of us down near the precipice of the hill, near a crooked birch tree that had already lost the majority of its leaves. Surprisingly, Cassie seemed entirely unbothered by the sheer cliffside that we were standing a few feet away from - instead, her eyes were wide open and shocked at the pure breadth of detritus that plagued the beach below us. 

She inched even closer, the wind whipping her short hair away from her face, and it was only the feeling of Azyr still looming around her body that made me not pull her back.

“... Jay, how the heck are we going to clean this?!” The loud exclamation was punctuated by a wide sweep of her arm towards the Boat Graveyard. “This is- this is heck! Like, I could probably make something that can help, or, like, hire some workers on Craigslist, but-”

“We aren’t going to be cleaning shit.” I snorted, granting the mess one last look before turning away. “And ‘hell’ isn’t a cuss word, weirdo.”

The area around us was flat and spacious. A bit bumpy in certain spots, but that was to be expected at the top of a sheer cliff like this one. The Graveyard, and thus the coastline, was maybe one to two hundred feet directly down the cliffside. There were minimum trees, the closest locations were the Trainyard and the Market, and the road to even get up here transitioned into a dirt path overrun with shrubbery and bushes for a couple miles.

It wasn’t the fucking Tibet mountains, but it sure as hell beat Downtown.

I was getting a sort of Titans Tower vibe from the spot.

“Whaddya mean ‘we won’t be cleaning’? Isn’t that half the reason we’re here?” Cassie frowned, fully turning to me and crossing her arms over her slim chest.

“I am going to give you your gift, and start you on your Karate Kid training arc,” I replied easily, taking my hands out of my pockets. “And while you wax on and wax off, I am going to get started on clearing out the beach. What a fucking eyesore.”

It sorta pissed me off, actually. I didn’t know the backstory to the Boat Graveyard - never cared to read about it, but littering sucked. Ergo, whomever littered sucked even more. 

The mention of magic and her supposed ‘gift’ jumpstarted Cassie’s ADHD. ‘Cleaning the beach’ completely wiped out of her memory banks, she bunny jumped towards me with both hands extended greedily. “Now you’re speaking my language! Mid-Lane Cassie, coming for your ass Jason Black! I’ve always wanted to do magical e-sports.”

“Ha! Sure, we can work up to it.”

Patting the energetic girl on the head, I extended my left hand out towards the grass and focused on the motes of light drifting around in my sea of magic. Standing Stones was a relatively large one - not as powerful as some of my cornerstones, but a potent piece of power in its own right. When I grabbed onto that mote and brought it closer towards the surface, I could feel it trying to divide itself into multiple fragments; thirteen in particular.

This time I had the space and the time, though… so I let ‘em come.

“Stand back, beautiful.”

“Oh! Okay-”

They appeared in a massive bang of raw magicka, like the magical fucking Stone Henge.

Spread out in a semi-circle right in front of us and angling towards our sides were thirteen menhir-shaped stones, weathered and worn but unmistakably ancient. They towered over both Cassie and me, roughly about nine or ten feet in height, and practically exuded magic even at a respectable distance. The mote of light that I now recognized as the Standing Stones didn’t fade inside of my soul, however - it simply dimmed.

Intrinsically, I knew that I could take them back whenever I wanted to. Fortunate, since I’d be renovating this entire hill soon enough.

“... No. Way.” Cassie gawked, brushing past me with stiff, almost robotic movements. Her CodeLink was activated, the visor glinting pink and blue as looked over each stone with slow, incredulous swings of her neck.

In contrast, however, her eyes were blinking mad fast.

“You’re takin’ pictures, aren’t you?”

“Jason. You- these-... These are the fuckin’ Standing Stones, babe! This is, like, friggin’ sweaty neckbeard Stone Henge, or- or ultra geek Mount Rushmore!” She almost seemed afraid to approach them any closer, her body practically trembling with excitement. “If you pull Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker out of your butt next, I will literally jump off that cliff.”

“Don’t know what that is. And why are your extremes always ‘crying’ or ‘killing yourself’?” I drawled, a wry smirk forming on my lips.

“Unimportant! And we’re definitely taking your WoW virginity at some point.”

Swallowing thickly, Cass slowly and carefully walked towards the first stone, her hands clenched into little fists beneath her chin. Although I knew that they were safe, the overprotective boyfriend in me - which was basically all of me - found himself shadowing each nervous step, ready to act if ol’ Grimmy decided to pull a ‘haha xd’ on my ass and drop Alduin from the sky.

But nothing happened, and before long we stood before the Apprentice Stone. The front of the massive monolith held the engraved constellation of a young, youthful sorcerer wielding a staff.

Cassie narrowed her eyes at it, her excitement momentarily dimming. “Crap. No, um, inscribed description or anything? Do I need to touch it, or…?”

No, that didn’t feel right.

I tilted my head, staring at the stone as well. “Mm. Nah, you touch any of the stones and you’ll automatically attune to it. Heh, all this nerdy excitement and you don’t even remember what they do?”

“Not this one! And I hop between games a lot, so all I really remember was the first three- the Warrior, Mage, and Thief stones,” she pouted, shooting me a lukewarm glare. “I can look them up now, but the game isn’t, um, actually out yet in Aleph. I know a guy who knows a chick who works for-”

“I get it,” I snorted, shaking my head in amusement. “That’s not necessary, though - I know what each of ‘em do. That’s the Apprentice Stone, and it basically grants you one-hundred percent mana regeneration in exchange for one-hundred percent magic vulnerability. In more technical terms.”

Her nose wrinkled. “In other words, it makes me squishy…er, but I’d recover my mana faster. Right?”

“That’s right.” I nodded, keeping my face carefully stoic. The decision had to be hers at the end of the day, and I’d work with whatever she decided to choose. It was her gift after all. But the Apprentice Stone was really not worth it once we left Earth Bet.

“... Does that even matter?” Cassie blinked, turning her head to give me a confused look. “You’re the only person with magic here, right? So wouldn’t this just be free mana regen?”

…

Annoyingly observant at the most random of times, but I loved that about her.

“I plead the fifth.”

Cassie blanched. “Jason, that is quite literally the worst response to that question. Do we have to worry about more fucking wizards?!”

I really needed to get those rings done, actually. The Graveyard could wait.

“It’s one of those things I’d rather talk to you about all at once, Cass.” I replied placatingly, waving both hands in front of my chest. “Trust me on that and assume that other people havin’ magic ain’t off the table. Okay?”

Her eyes didn’t stray away from mine for a second. Cassie searched my expression relentlessly, but there was nothing but open honesty on my face. I didn’t have anything to hide, but while I was cool with saying that I had magic in front of her Shard and potentially Scion, I wasn’t cool with making it known to them that there was a whole fucking omniverse out there with beings a lot stronger than the Entities.

Paranoia? Not really. I simply wasn’t trying to get me and my girlfriend killed off of a spontaneously stupid decision.

After a few more moments, she sighed and fixed me with a long-suffering smile. “You owe me so much reassurance and headpats once we have that talk.”

“Trust me, you can have all the lovin’ you want. I’m gonna need it too.”

Cassie began to rebuttal, the twinkle in her eye betraying the fact that she was about to make some stupid, geeky pun or lame attempt at a flirt, but the shifting inside of my soul distracted me, pulling me away from the minor back and forth. It was another yank of the internal fishing line, the Celestial Grimoire’s lighthearted tug of power, and I swiftly and methodically scanned through it.

[Spirit Attendants(MtG - Kamigawa) - 100CP]: Your state in the world creates energy constructs when you will it. These ‘Attendants’ are merely spiritual energy constructs formed as extensions of your will and can range a series of shapes from lamps, to hands, to willow wisps, to small sprites. These smaller constructs of your will have enough autonomy to do minor things on their own and at any time you can control it as if it were a limb, disconnection not mattering the least. The largest one of the Attendants can be is around the size of a man’s torso. You can easily produce them, an effort of will and a few moments to make one, and have hundreds of them ready to attend you or your worshipers.

It didn’t take much more than a cursory glance to accept the tiny mote of light into my ever expanding ocean. While I doubted that they’d be able to do much heavy lifting, like clearing out the Boat Graveyard by themselves, having a shit ton of spiritual constructs cleaning up the garbage, picking up driftwood, and moving smaller objects out of the way would help tremendously. Not to mention the fact that there didn’t seem to be a range limit.

Maybe it was something Amy could learn to utilize a bit later on? More hands for the witch doctor didn’t seem out of place.

Yoink.

My mental analyses must’ve been getting better, because I tuned right back into Cassie finishing her corny joke.

“-for mercy because I won’t take it easy on you, hehehe.” She cackled, rubbing her gloved hands together evilly.

Cassie thinks she can outfreak your freak.

“Huh. That right?” I murmured in response to both my girlfriend and the magical, disembodied voice whispering secrets in my ear. “I love provin’ you wrong, but let’s focus on choosing our Stones for now. After the Apprentice, we’ve got the Lover…”

Getting through the rest of the Standing Stones actually took around fifteen or so minutes, since Cassie decided she wanted to notate and write down exhaustive descriptions for each one. Something about being the ‘pioneer of a new magical age’. I let her do it because having written notes would make it easier for when I introduced the Stones to the other, but I also made it clear that Magic wasn’t something I planned to just give out like hotcakes.

Thankfully it was just a joke, but it needed to be said regardless. With these Stones, I had the ability to grant small magicka pools - mana - to anyone who attuned to certain ones. I’d effectively be giving people Trump ratings considering just how far you could take The Elder Scrolls’ magic system. Thinking about it more dropped a bit of weight on my shoulders, actually. 

I really could pioneer a new age of magic in this world.

Only, I didn’t trust Earth Bet farther than I could throw it, and I couldn’t throw entire planets just yet. While I could share secrets with Cauldron in the interest of defending this world, I couldn’t grant them magic on a silver platter and hope that they used it purely selflessly, nonetheless random people. Even the Protectorate held corrupt and greedy leadership, and the villains had moles fucking everywhere. It simply wasn’t an idea I planned to entertain.

Sherrel, Trainwreck, and Aisha - I knew that I could trust them. Less so Aisha, but I had the unique advantage of knowing, from my previous life, that she was someone good… as far as you could stretch that word when the world gave you lemons like the ones she got. Maybe I’d become more open to spreading the joys of magic in the future, but for now, I would focus more so on the people I care about.

In the end, after gratuitous discussion, we stood in front of the Mage stone.

“I feel like the choice was kinda obvious the entire time, eh?” I smirked, nudging an exaggeratedly solemn-faced Cassie with my elbow. Her head was bowed towards the engraving, hands clasped beneath her chin, and at my words she peeked up at me through black bangs.

“Shhh. Offer your prayers to the, um, Nine Divines! Or something. I don’t know, this feels like a super important moment in my story.”

“This isn’t one of your fanfics, silly. But I can appreciate the enthusiasm.” I took a step closer to the Stone, my hand rising to hover just over the wizard engraving on the front. “Can you feel the magicka? It’s filling this whole clearing… just raw, pure magic.”

I don’t exactly know when I became sensitive to the feeling of mana, or magicka, or just magic, but the arcane presence had slowly but surely become a constant companion. Whether it was the Winds of Magic, the aftereffects of my own spellcasting, or just the feeling of my own mana wafting out of my inner ocean, I was becoming more and more sensitive to the mystical energies. 

Cassie tilted her head, her own hand lingering near mine. Her fingers twitched and fidgeted, nearly touching the worn stone, and an awed look took over the girl’s face. “... Now that you mention it, I can. Kinda reminds me of when you released your werewolf pheromones last night.”

“Furry.”

Her cheeks tinged pink, but the mystified glaze in her eyes didn’t diminish. “Screw you. But… yeah, I think I’m ready. Let’s do this! You said it’ll enhance my capability to learn magic, right?”

“By a decent amount, yeah.” I grinned, excitement building in my chest. “You’ll be a master sorceress in no time. You’re just gonna touch your hand to the stone, and that magic you feel? It’s gonna reach out to you, brush itself against your, uh- gumball machine. Just let it happen.”

She exhaled softly, anxiety joining the excitement and anticipation. “Okay.”

“Then attune, Cassie. Now.”

And in the background, almost as if it were ambience noise naturally descending upon the clearing, music began to quietly play.

Even with shaky hands, Cassie stiffened her upper lip, put on a brave face, and pressed her hand down on the Mage Stone at the exact same time I caressed it with my fingers. The feeling of ancient magicka lashing out and attempting to tether itself against the my whirling sea was violent in its tenacity, but the actual connection felt… peaceful, almost, like holding hands with a long lost friend. There was a sense of loss as some of my mana was sapped away, but that feeling was immediately overshadowed by warmth and enlightenment - so much, in fact, that I almost became lightheaded. 

In front of me, Cassie’s knees buckled, and she would’ve fallen in the wake of the arcane backlash if I didn’t wrap my other arm around her waist, holding her up with effortless ease.

“Look!” she whispered fervently, excitement and awe coloring her voice as she pointed at the Standing Stone. Blue magicka thrummed through the engravings, the magic bringing with it a deep rumbling that beat within our chests like peals of thunder. It traced every grooved line of the Mage constellation, and within moments, the entire display shone brightly with raw, unadulterated magic - magic that was swiftly seeping up towards the circular opening at the top of the stone.

As it reached that opening, the low sound of rumbling heightened into an almost twinkling, bell-like whistle that somehow seemed even louder than before. The glowing lines of magic became a glimmering blue laser that shot up through the tip of the stone and out into the sky at speeds that even I couldn’t keep up with. One second it was there, and the next, it was piercing up through the dark gray sky like a beacon of arcane light, tearing a hole through the very clouds.

It was probably one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever witnessed.

Cassie and I simply watched the dazzling spectacle, eyes widened with childlike amazement at the magical scene that we’d both only watched on our computer monitors. Here and now, actually living it, with the thrum of magic bone-deep in our bodies and the glow of magicka illuminating our faces, I genuinely didn’t think I’d ever want to exchange that experience and memory for anything else in the world.

It was only a minute or two after the light show and the music had faded away did Cassie take her head off of my shoulder and smile up at me. Her eyes were misty, but I wasn’t sure if that was because the beacon was so bright or if she’d just gotten emotional. For privacy’s sake, I didn’t push for an answer.

“Let’s bring Amy up here soon. Have her choose her own Stone. I… I think it’d make her feel a lot better,” she said quietly, nodding firmly to herself.

I smiled as well. “Yeah.”

“But only after I knock these spells out of the water, though! I’m going to show off my super cool magic spells to the pretty girl first, mister. You wait your turn.”

“Heh… ‘ight.”

“Now!” Cassie disentangled herself from me and raised her hands up to the sky, her smile turning into a wide, genuine grin. I ignored the way she ‘subtly’ wiped her eyes with her shoulder. “First spell… Sparks, right? I’ve been thinking about how to cast this for a while, and I think I got an idea. Can you do, like, a rain dance or something? Or splash water on my face? I need to become one with the elements to-”

“Cass,” I sighed, hovering away from the stones and raising one hand. Lightning sparked within my palm, quickly overtaking my entire forearm in its crackling grasp. “Shush, child. We’re takin’ this from the top.”

Pouting, the hacker pointed up at me with gremlin-like aggression. “Noooo. You are not about to school me while floating like some God! Come down here and teach me like a human!”

“I did become Divine today. Made learning and teaching magic a lil’ bit easier too.” 

With a smug little smile, I turned my fingertips up towards the gray sky and shifted the mana flowering through my system. Instead of a constant stream of magical energy sliding against each other like friction, I followed my instincts, halting the flow heading towards my arm and letting it build up to an almost uncomfortable degree.

“Wh- what are you doing?” Cassie asked suspiciously, taking a slow step back. “Why are you grinning like that?”

Huh. I thought I was just smiling.

“Watch. I think I cracked a new spell.”

I forced the gathered mana through my arm like a missile, redirecting the flow already in my hands back down to my core so that it rubbed against the sudden output. All the while, I envisioned lightning in all of its aspects. The scent of ozone. The destruction left in its wake. The way the sound of its arrival sent chills down my spine...

And that made all the difference.

My hand became hot, arcing blue strands of lightning filling the air with the obnoxious chirps of birds, and although it took a second to fire-

CRAAAACK…

BOOOOM!

The massive bolt of lightning that ripped its way out of my finger tips immediately made every strand of hair on my body stand on end. It screamed as it blasted through the air like a silvery-blue anaconda, disappearing into the clouds within fractions of a second. Distantly, as if the world itself was annoyed by my display, thunder boomed back, and natural lightning streaked across the sky.

The clouds shifted uncomfortably.

“And that,” I breathed, glancing back down to a pale-faced Cassie. “Is Lightning Bolt,  an Apprentice-level spell. You wanna learn that too, don’tcha?”

Slowly, woodenly, she nodded.

My grin turned sadistic. “Then follow my instructions and don’t complain, sweet-cheeks. First step… let’s get that mana flowing. Hands facin’ me, and start pushing out those gumballs. Lightning spells need friction, and you need to be able to fine-tune your mana output in order to get the right consistency.”

“Yesss sensei.”

It started off slow, but Cassie was damn near a genius, and the Mage Stone was no joke. She was able to grasp the fundamentals of manipulating and channeling her mana extremely fast. It probably helped that she was already a huge nerd, so visualizing what she needed to visualize in order to make her magic do what she wanted it to do was easier for her than it would’ve been for some boring old guy with no imagination.

She was able to perform Sparks within half an hour of tutelage, though her output was lacking in both consistency and power. After another thirty minutes, she was able to scorch the bark off of the lone birch tree we were practicing beneath. Once I was sure that verbal instruction was all that was needed for the rest of the beginner spells, I sat down on the grass and started fucking with my jewelcrafting kit.

Spoiler alert: I had to look up Youtube tutorials on how to get started.

But sitting there, with my girlfriend practicing magic beside me and the wind running through my now frizzy dreadlocks, I couldn’t help just being thankful for the one peaceful day out of this stressful, death-filled shithole of a month.

The odds of it staying this way was low. Almost impossible, really. But I’d handle the bullshit as it came to me.

For now?

I simply enjoyed the downtime while it lasted.

_____________________________________________________

Perks Accepted:

[Spirit Attendants(MtG - Kamigawa) - 100CP]: Your state in the world creates energy constructs when you will it. These ‘Attendants’ are merely spiritual energy constructs formed as extensions of your will and can range a series of shapes from lamps, to hands, to willow wisps, to small sprites. These smaller constructs of your will have enough autonomy to do minor things on their own and at any time you can control it as if it were a limb, disconnection not mattering the least. The largest one of the Attendants can be is around the size of a man’s torso. You can easily produce them, an effort of will and a few moments to make one, and have hundreds of them ready to attend you or your worshipers.

A/N:

We arrive at the Boat Graveyard! Cleanup hasn't happened yet because I wanted to get the Standing Stones and the beginning of Cassie's instruction out of the way. Our girl finally gets a taste of real magic, and the Mage Stone will actually help her out a shit ton.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna be honest... with Infinite Potential, Divine, and the Mage Stone - Jason is straight up a magical prodigy now. Figuring out different spells and how to modify them, or learning new ones, will be pretty fucking easy for him now.

Next chapter we'll get a look at Invictus and how their efforts to clean up the mooks are going. And Aisha will even get to meet Avalon? Probably!

Amy is honk-shooing. Mimimimimi.