Sell you a Bridge chapter 74 (Patreon)

The Clock Tower August 6th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

The  next day was another dungeon free day, but not because of Zee. In fact,  my girlfriend was here now. She came through the town portal so she  didn't know where we were, but Jim admitted that she would be useful to  have for item identification, seeing as only she was able to cast the  damn spell. So we had her here sifting through mounds of stuff we'd  brought back over the course of many, many trips. Town portals were damn  hands for dropping off loads of stuff mid delve, so we'd built up quite  a collection with that staff.

I  was sitting at a hundred forty five points now, almost halfway to  shadow dancing and I could almost taste the new power. Not a passive  power like the ones I mostly had, or even a one off skill like my ninja  stuff. I could tell from the description shadow dancing would be a  powerful ability, letting me burn more points to accomplish bigger  tasks. That had been one of the main reasons I'd resisted getting a  stronger power until now. I knew that if I did I would treat it like a  mana pool instead of a points pool. I'd use it when I needed it and it  would make buying new powers exponentially harder in the future.

The  only benefit I could see to the whole thing was that as far as I could  tell I had no limit. I could keep accumulating more points forever,  which meant theoretically I could cast and maintain titanic spells with  enough prep time. Depending on how high my points could go and how much  power certain abilities took I would be able to wield every bit as much  power as someone like Jim. I was a long way from that though. At thirty a  day I'd probably need months to build up enough points to throw around  that kind of power for even a few minutes.

For  now we had shit to get through. Dozens of unidentified rings, blades, a  few shields, some bows, a staff or three, three times that many  ordinary weapons we had no idea what to do with, and above all, gold. So  much gold. Absurd amounts of gold. Enough to cover the floors of a  whole room (that wasn't a random example, Reggie had literally decorated  his floors with the stuff, he had taken my warning about diving but he  enjoyed making gold angels). It was just absurd amounts of gear, and  even though not all of it was any good we would surely find something  for the auction.

I  stepped up next to Zee, who was watching us cart all the stuff out of  our rooms. She'd stashed her own gear in my room because she didn't want  her dad to find it so I got to carry twice as much. She gave a low  whistle. "This...seemed like a lot less when we were stockpiling it.  Damn, how many trips back up here did we make? Though I guess it makes  sense. Almost every enemy drops something and we killed a LOT of stuff  down there. But still. I hadn't realized exactly how big that place  was."

She  wasn't kidding. The loot really piled up, I wasn't sure how much power a  dead human could provide, especially a strong one, but it had to be a  ton for this to be sustainable. Then again Madame Xanadu had said that  people here carried tons of native magic because of Gotham being an evil  curse riddled shit hole. We brought a lifetimes worth of passively  accumulated dark magic with us when we went in. One of the many reasons  Morgana chose Gotham for her little ascension plot.

I  picked up a ring, but it was unidentified so I tossed it back on the  pile and pulled Artemis aside, letting my girlfriend work. "So Arty, you  figure out any more about those mysterious powers of yours yet?"  Despite having the character sheet the powers the girls had weren't  something easily quantified. Holy lightning isn't really a description  of anything, like what does that even mean? Teleportation and fatal  attraction are technically more straightforward, though the mechanics of  a percentage based boost to damage are a bit hazy.

Artemis  just shrugged. "I can't keep either up for long. Teleporting drains my  stamina so with my higher strength I can actually do it more. Basically  it applies the cost of actually traveling to the spot I'm porting to all  at once when I get there. Like the concentrated effort of sprinting  there packed into one burst. I've been investing in vitality to keep up  with it and trying it out. I want to have it licked before I try it in  combat." That sounded rough, but I'd been wondering how it worked. It  was an interesting development.

She  glanced down at her hands worriedly. "The lightning...it feels weird.  Not bad or evil but like it WANTS things. It hungers for blood and  conquest and sex. It's like the lightning is the primal nature of our  race and the closer I get to tapping into that part of me the more I can  bring out. Holy lightning sounds boring and simple, but it's anything  but. The lightning is...I think it's our divinity. Or the little piece  we have. It's love and death and war all at the same time. I want to say  it's creepy but...it feels good. Freeing. Drains magic like a son of a  bitch though I can barely even arc it between my fingers."

That  was kind of alarming to hear to be honest. She noticed my expression  and smiled. "It's not...not changing me. More like showing me. Like  there's a road in the lightning I can walk to greater power. I think  it's because the ritual made us purebloods. We're both first generation  one hundred percent pure nobles of the Heavenly Punishment Tribe. The  bloodline that made our ancestor a goddess is still in there somewhere,  if we're willing to find it." Her face had gone a bit vacant but she  snapped out of it. "Which I'm not anytime soon so don't worry. We have  plenty of growing to do both physically and in levels before we can even  think of digging deeper. If that makes sense."

That  was great to hear. I'd been terrified that I might have done something  that would change them in the wrong ways. The ritual said it wasn't  harmful, but there are different ways to define harm. Changing someone  might not be considered harm to them but I didn't want to lose my best  friend or girlfriend to some kind of elven princess bloodline. Luckily  that seemed a long way off apparently and I trusted them to be able to  handle it with years of prep and gradual exposure. For now it seemed  like it was just a powerful trump card.

I  put a hand on her shoulder. "If it becomes an issue just tell me. I can  help." And I could. I could feel it. If I wanted to I could destroy  their bloodline or Reggie's powers. They were made from my points and I  could unmake them. I wouldn't get that power back but it would be gone  from them. But their bodies would still be acclimated to their ability. I  could never give them another power if I took theirs away That would be  a last resort. For now I would look into some kind of willpower  training device. They couldn't get any more powers from me but they  could use objects I created.

I  was interested to see if the character sheets would add a willpower  stat if they gained the ability to train it. I knew they could change to  match their owners so it was a possibility. Artemis just smiled. "It  won't. It's not something bad. I know it sounds like it but it isn't. My  bloodline is part of me, it won't hurt me and it won't force me to  become something I'm not. I can't really explain it better than that but  you'll just have to trust me. Even though I don't have the words to  explain it I know what I'm doing." Her voice was confident and strong,  and I took a moment to reflect on the person my best friend was.

I  knew she would take care of herself, and Zee too if she needed it.  Artemis was one of the strongest people I'd ever met. I smiled. "Fair  enough, but if it gets to be too much just come talk to me. I'll tell  Zee the same thing. You guys also have each other though. Speaking of  your new blood sister how is that going? You guys have seemed pretty  close when we go dungeon delving. You been talking outside of our  raids?" I'd noticed them clicking pretty well in the dungeon, it was  nice to see but I was curious if it was an active effort or if their  shared bloodline made them just naturally compatible.

She  smirked at me. "Worried I'll tell your girl all your most embarrassing  moments? Your mom has given me plenty of ammo after all." I actually  hadn't been, though that had now changed, I wasn't sure them becoming  friends was so heart warming anymore. My best friend snickered at my  obvious panic. "Oh relax you big spaz. We've been talking on the phone  at night. At least when you haven't tied up the line having your own  conversations, which I assume are half giggling and half 'no you hang up  first'."

I  wanted to sneer at her but we actually had done that more than once so  it was hard to get up enough venom to make it stick. I just rolled my  eyes and turned to stalk away toward my now panting sweat drenched  girlfriend. Apparently even her incredibly high magic power couldn't  support this much casting non stop. I caught her as I approached,  holding her against me as she wobbled a bit. She smiled up at me softly.  "Thanks. Overdid it a bit there. That's everything I have for now, but  there's plenty of stuff to sort through."

She  wasn't kidding, she'd identified a metric fuck ton of items. I scooped  her up in a princess carry, ignoring her squeak of surprise and carried  my laughing girlfriend over to sit down. She rolled her eyes but  snuggled in close to my chest. I looked down at her with a smile of my  own. "So I was talking to Artemis. About the lightning." Her smile  slipped a bit, her nose wrinkling cutely. I sat down with her in my lap.  "I'm not going to tell you how to handle it or anything. Artemis said I  wouldn't get it. Just know if you run into any problems I'm here and I  can help."

I  also had access to her character sheet, which I assumed would tell me if  she was turning into a...I didn't even know what. Sex murder elf? But  the holy portion of the bloodline should counteract some of the violence  so honestly I had no idea. Her eyes were wide and intense and she  leaned up to kiss my cheek. "Thank you. My dad would have tried to force  me to get rid of it or seal it or something. Knowing that you trust  me...it means so much Morgan." Her electric blue eyes literally glowed  with adoration.

I  leaned down and kissed her softly, thinking about that. I'd considered  freaking out about it, but in the end it was about trust. I trusted my  girlfriend, I trusted my best friend, and I trusted my power. I could  feel deep down that it wouldn't do something to hurt the people I cared  about, so even if this seemed scary I was going to let it go. I shook of  my thoughts and turned to smile at Zatanna. "Now, tell me about the  things you identified. We need to get ready for the auction." Because I  definitely wanted to be able to afford some fun stuff.