Brockton Bays Marvelous Mage

For a moment, I knelt there in the dark, my heart rate slowly lowering as I looked around the compound and the clearing. All around me, I could see and feel the weight of heavy, potent magic. As I watched, it slowly dispersed into the rocks, trees, and dirt. It felt like watching water get greedily sucked up and absorbed after being poured on parched, dry dirt or sand.

I let out a long, steady breath, satisfied that the magic had settled. As the moment passed, I delved into myself to check on Alya. I was once again reminded that while my companion was extremely useful, she was also highly specialized, meaning she was physically weak. The pressure wave of magic alone had been enough to knock her for a loop and force her back into my soul, just like when she had passed out after using too much energy. She would be back eventually, probably by the time I woke up in the morning.

Still shaking off the jitters of the rather extreme experience, I quickly stood up from the ritual platform and sat along one of the roots of the storage trees. I looked around carefully for a moment before speaking out loud.

"I know it's rather quick, but do you think you could clean the ritual platform for me?" I asked out loud. "It's okay if you're tired or low on energy, just ignore-"

Before I could finish my statement, a roil of magic, dark blue and purple, waved over the platform, washing away the soot left behind from the previous ritual. In fact, the platform was the cleanest it had been since I had made it.

"Thank you, I appreciate the help," I said with a smile. "I know physically manifesting is going to be difficult, but do you have a name? If not, you're welcome to pick one, or I can pick one for you. It's up to you."

I could feel a warm feeling on my chest, right above my heart, like someone was pressing their hand against me. Then, a soft touch on my lips, accompanied by a general happiness. The connection was nothing like what I shared with Alya, as the emotion was… much more simple and straightforward. Alya and I could talk entirely without words, using complicated emotions, general tugs, and mental gestures to communicate complex ideas and concepts.

What the Genius Loci was doing was a lot more simple, like painting a picture with only primary colors, whereas Alya got a much more generous color palette. Still, they managed to get the point across, the warm touches and emotions telling me that she would be happy with any name I gave her as long as it came from my heart.

"How about Kali?" I asked, "It's a Hindu Goddess, which I admit isn't my strong suit, but she was supposed to be a divine mother, and her name is connected to the Hindu word for black. Considering how you were born..."

A faint, loose hug tightened around me for a moment before it faded, leaving me with a smile. She was happy with the name, even if she was too tired to tell me herself. After the hug, I could feel her disappear, feeling the connection spread to the entire clearing. It wasn't too dissimilar from how Alya would disperse into the air, but where I could feel Alya directly all around me, I could only feel Kali in her metaphysical weight.

As she faded into a sort of dormancy, I looked down at the now clean ritual space. This was exactly why I wanted a Genius Loci around my home. Once she was properly awake, filled with mana, and had a little experience under her belt, she would be able to help me in a hundred little ways, making every task I did at the compound just a bit easier and cleaner.

Eventually, she would be a god in her domain, able to wave her hand and create or do whatever she wanted, shifting the world to her whims. A Genius Loci was fundamentally tied to their location. They were the land they inhabited, and so it followed their wants and desires.

Of course that was hundreds, if not thousands of years from now. Kali would need a lot of time, experience, and effort to reach that level of power. Until then, she would help where she could, maintaining the forest, the compound, and the people in it. A guardian angel for my new home, lending a helping hand or a gentle nudge whenever I needed it, all the while absorbing the residual or dispersed mana coming off from my rituals and other magic I performed in the forest.

I smiled and stood up, dusting myself off and turning the lights back on around the ritual platform. With Kali summoned and tied to her new domain, it was time to work on Olivia's gift.

I quickly copied the complicated ritual from my notebook and onto the ritual platform. This particular ritual was all about imbuing an aspect into a specific item, namely a long black cloak that I had bought used from a second-hand store. It was a bit worn but still in good shape, which was good because objects with history tended to work better for a lot of magic, even if it could make them a bit less predictable.

It also had a little tag worked into it. While the cloak would be Olivia's, it was still made from my magic. I made sure to strengthen that bond quite a bit, so that if I wanted to, say, give it a mental yank while she was close by, and turn it into so much fluff and torn cloth, I could. I got a good feeling from Olivia, and I felt like I could trust her to help me keep an eye on the Docks community, but I wasn't crazy enough to leave her completely unchecked with enhancements I made. And since it was something I had to consciously do, rather than some sort of hidden mechanism or triggerable consequence that might pop up if she wasn't careful, I felt comfortable not telling her about it.

When I was done, I carefully laid the cloak down in the center circle of the ritual before then placing out all of the material sacrifices. First was the vial of Olivia's blood, which would hopefully give Olivia a sort of claim over the cloak. It wasn't enough to keep other people from using it entirely, but it would undoubtedly give Olivia an advantage, while giving everyone else a disadvantage.

After her blood was in place, next came a vial of my shadow, taken with as much light contrasting it as I could, so that the shadow was the darkest and most well-defined. While the containment vial was filling up, I focused on the idea of general human shadow, rather than mine specifically, something the ritual symbols doubled down on.

Looking back, I could have also used a sample of Olivia's shadow, maybe to run counter to the "general" sample. If I wanted to upgrade this cloak or make her a new one, that was something I could consider, but for now, I would rely on the blood sample to connect the cloak to my friend.

Next was a sample of dark, moonless light, which looked beautiful inside the containment vial. It was a swirling black liquid dotted with stars that twinkled as the liquid moved. I made sure to grab a dozen samples of that, just in case I wanted some for later.

The rest of the samples were more mundane. A trio of onyx gemstones, several raven feathers, a jar of black ink for fountain pens, and finally, a container of deep black paint. If I had been making this for myself or anyone else, I would have most likely included something like coal, dark smoke from a fire, or even ground-up charcoal, but judging from the burns on her body, I knew Olivia had a bad history with fire. I wasn't about to traumatise her by making the cloak smell like ash or billow like smoke.

Once everything was in place, I quickly shut down the generator, and the clearing almost went completely dark. With a frown, I looked up at the hanging, newly made glowing light that Alya had hung from the protective canopy above the platform.

"Damnit…"

I cursed, looking around for a way to get the light down without damaging the ritual. I was about to get up and start manipulating the tree with magic to pull down the branch when suddenly I could feel Kali again. It was subtle, her energy barely rising from dormancy to tap the small glass vessel. The light inside dimmed for a moment before going out completely, leaving the entire area nearly pitch black.

"Oh… Thanks, Kali," I said with a smile, settling back next to the ritual.

Unlike the previous ritual, which had created an entire sentient entity, this ritual was much lower on the power scale. That meant that once I started pushing my energy into the lines and arcane symbols, I only had to keep pushing my mana for ten minutes before everything flared up and activated. I watched as, one by one, the material sacrifices fed into the cloak, fading into nothing as the ritual progressed. I could feel the excess energy being pulled back into the space around me, as opposed to floating free and fading into nothing. I could also feel Kali, still quiet and mostly dormant, reaching out and prodding the ritual, using her influence to enhance and reinforce the result.

Once everything was done, I quickly turned the lights back on, rushing to the center of the now burned-out ritual to pick up the cloak and inspect it.

Any sign of wear that the original piece of clothing bore was gone, completely healed by the ritualization process. It was also a much darker black, going from your average black cloth to a much deeper, almost illusory black, a color that wasn't natural.

I resisted the urge to try it on, wanting Olivia to be the first to wear it. I was honestly not entirely sure what it would do, but it was so steeped in the concept of shadow and darkness that I knew it would interact with her powers.

Once I was done examining it, I carefully folded it up and put it inside a paper bag before finally storing that inside Troy's chest. I had one last task for the night, something simple that I would need when I woke up. I quickly copied down an old ritual, one that took heavy inspiration from a ritual designed to make planter boxes self-watering from the druidcraft subject. When it was done, I put it onto the large water storage bucket I had grown with the creation of my private outdoor shower.

I could once again feel Kali poke and prod the ritual as it was underway. This time, as I wasn't so laser-focused on the ritual, I could really watch and feel what she was doing. Kali's understanding of magic was instinctual, as she was born from it. She was magic, and as such, she could feel it as easily as I would feel my breathing. She could also feel what I wanted, and as the spirit of the land, of my home, she could nudge the ritual as she pleased. I had hoped she would be capable of helping with my magic, but to watch her do it so easily, so quickly after she was given form was astonishing. It completely validated my decision to make her in the first place, as well as the price I had paid to do so.

With the water-gathering bucket finished, I pushed it into place above the shower, growing a tangle of branches and vines to hold it in place. Already, the interior of the vessel was looking moist, as if dew was collecting on the interior, dripping down the side, and pooling together.

When I was finally done getting my morning shower started, I made my way around the living space tree, heading down inside before shutting the simple door behind me. The interior was still pretty threadbare, as the bedframe was still just a frame, but that wasn't something I couldn't solve. It took me a good thirty minutes to get it right, but eventually, I managed to grow an interwoven lattice of tree branches to create a spring-esque mattress. I covered it with my overcoat for just a bit more of a cushion.

It wasn't optimal by any means, but I could remove the lattice work easily with another spell later. Besides, all things considered, it was actually pretty comfortable. Or maybe it was just that I was so incredibly exhausted from doing ritual work for literally eight hours straight. Either way, after rolling up some bags to use as a pillow and lying down, I fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning, I woke up to the smell of coffee and toast. I nearly jumped out of my bed, my brain confused with what was going on. When I finally gathered my wits, I stopped and tilted my head. There, sitting on the small table next to the wicker, woven chair, was a steaming hot mug of coffee, two pieces of toast with peanut butter on them, and a perfectly sliced apple. All things I had brought with me from my temporary shop home, but obviously in different states.

"It was Kali," Alya explained, sitting on the edge of my bed in a semi-corporeal state. "It was here when I regained consciousness, and it's all stayed at basically the same temperature."

"Jesus, really proving me right here. Thank you, Kali. How are you feeling?" I asked as I gently sat down at the table. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

A gentle hand rested on my shoulder, and I could feel a happy smile radiating from the Genius Loci. After a moment, though, it shifted to a slight hunger, a question of how she would grow.

"Well, any ritual or magic I create here should help you grow," I pointed out. "I'm sure you could feel the rituals I did after I woke you up. Plus, all the trees and rituals for protection."

While the hand pulled away from my shoulder, I could still feel her confirmation that she was pulling the excess mana from what I had created. It was hesitant, though, as if she was worried about the amount.

"Well… I could also feed you magic directly?" I suggested, getting her attention. "Maybe a necklace that absorbs and pushes out my excess mana constantly. In fact… I bet that would help me increase my mana reserves, as if I was constantly using it…"

I considered the idea of a few seconds. The ritual of creating such a thing would be remarkably easy. I could easily create a simple temporary version with no material sacrifices just to test if it works.

"That's what I'll do, and I'll wear it around here so that you can absorb all my extra mana," I confirmed, getting a happy, eager feeling from my latest friend. "Also, I plan on making you a few golems. They should put off some extra magic, and you can influence them directly to do your bidding. That way, you don't have to do everything to manifest your higher powers. I'm sure this took a good chunk out of your energy reserves, didn't it?"

I guessed, gesturing to the food, only to chuckle at her response. It felt like every stereotypical mom or grandmother waving away compliments for her food or hard work.

"I appreciate it, Kali," I repeated with a smile. "I'll need to go shopping a bit to make more golems. I used the last of my gemstone resources to make the one I used to call you forth. I can do it between going to visit the Docks and the hospital.

I chatted with Alya and Kali for a few minutes, finishing my breakfast. When I was done, I grabbed my clothes and carried them outside with me to my shower. I nearly cried when I realized that Kali had heated the water for a ridiculously luxurious hot shower, with no need to go out and fill buckets or anything. Even with it being a bit short, it was well worth the work I put into making it.

When I was all clean and ready for the day, I dressed in my costume and quickly applied a steel absorption. When that was done, I whistled to summon Troy, climbing onto his back and riding him out of the forest, heading for Downtown.