Brockton Bays Marvelous Mage

Once my new ritual platform was complete, I took about three hours to rapid-fire a handful of rituals. Things to redirect attention elsewhere, to subtly dissuade people from getting closer, and to confuse people who somehow pushed past that. Each one was designed to be challenging to detect and definitely on the weaker side, but I was hoping that they would weave together to create a much more potent effect.

They also lacked any sacrificial materials, meaning they would all fade in a day or so. That was fine, however, since it would give me a chance to gather and secure everything I needed to make some more enhanced protections. Setting up the permanent equivalent would likely take a few shopping trips and a few more days of work.

Once the temporary rituals were in place, I headed back into town to do my first round of shopping, then headed back to my temporary home. I had finished designing most of the rituals the day before, but I spent the rest of the night coming up with my final, most important ritual. I was hoping to basically cap all of the protection rituals I was doing with something special, something that would enhance their effectiveness.

The next morning, I packed a large bag, courtesy of my shopping trip, with everything I had purchased so far before making my way back out into the forest. I spent most of the morning and a few hours of the afternoon completing some of the larger, more complicated rituals. I only got through two, since drawing each of them out took two hours separately, and I had to clean up the ritual space after each one. By the time I headed back into the city, the clearing I had claimed as my own would be more and more off-putting the closer any uninvited guests got to it.

It was a more powerful effect than the temporary one I had first put down, designed to convince people that this was an unfriendly part of the forest, maybe even a bit spooky. Each effect I was weaving was a balancing act between powerful enough to work and subtle enough not to draw more attention through its existence.

Honestly, the hardest part of the rituals I had created so far was keeping the effects from doing anything strange to a person's mind. Most of the methods my knowledge came up with when I designed the various Notice-me-not-esque rituals, wanted to help the experience smooth out in a person's mind. Unfortunately, while that would have significantly helped keep the spell subtle and undiscovered, I knew that any sort of mind fuckery that happened outside of the affected area would get a whole lot more negative attention. Setting up a series of perception filters and dissuasion areas was one thing, but making someone forget they ever encountered the location, or reinforcing that they should never come back was not going to go over well.

Basically, I was hoping to give the area a Stranger effect but avoid a Master rating in the process.

I finally finished the perception and dissuasion filters on the fifth day of the new charge cycle. It had been a few days of running back and forth between the forest and the city, shopping for sacrificial ingredients, and creating complicated rituals. By the time I was done, people wandering the woods would simply be redirected without any issues, and people specifically looking for me or my home would be turned around enough that they would never actually succeed. My weakest point was if someone capable of flying decided to investigate but did so from incredibly high up. I could only push the ritual effects so high, after all. St

Still, I was confident that I wouldn't have to worry about people finding me, barring some sort of unfortunate power interaction. Besides, these were just some basic, low-level protections. I was hoping to apply more to my actual home. Speaking of which, now that I was finished preparing the area, it was finally time to start actually building.

Originally, I had envisioned a grand wizard's tower built from a great tree towering over the forest. I had even considered going off to find redwood saplings to start off with. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that massive, fuck off towering trees and hidden secrets bases were very much mutually exclusive. Eventually I would feel confident enough in my magic and what I could to build such an obvious target. For now, however, I was much more confident in my ability to stay hidden than I was to withstand whatever this world could throw at me.

That meant that, rather than a tower, I was going to go with a sort of compound, with several tree buildings spread out through clearing. Each building would serve a different purpose and, once the clearing was filled, would hopefully look relatively normal from up high despite the trees in it being incredibly squat and wide. I was also planning to sink most of the actual functional spaces down three or four feet into the ground, basically living in a stretched and manipulated stump. Not only was that the densest part of the tree, but it would also make it easier to get more bang for my buck, at least space-wise.

I wouldn't need much space, nor would I need very many buildings at first. The platform was all I needed for most rituals, and other than a bedroom to sleep in and somewhere to perform geomancy, that was all I really needed so far. More buildings would undoubtedly come over time, but for now, the list was short.

At the very least, this would serve as a temporary place for me to live while I built up the confidence and powers to build and hold a proper wizard's tower. Basically, this was step one of many.

Going from ideas and concepts that I had gotten from druidcraft, I started my first building. Rather than start with something crucial, like my bedroom, I instead started with a storage tree, a place to keep ritual materials, or whatever else I had lying around. This was practice and confirmation of the methods and ideas I saw in druidcraft. Also, since it was probably going to be full of ritual stuff, I grew it right next to the ritual platform.

Just like the fruit trees I had grown for the homeless communities, I used a variety of spells to encourage the modified oak to grow, stopping several dozen times to adjust its shape. As the tree got bigger and bigger, I specifically grew it around the side of the ritual platform. Its roots tangled and merged with the roots of the ritual platform, forming a corner wall on one side, which I modified with organically grown shelves. An actual door formed, which I would have to cut free in order to use, that led into an enclosed section for more sensitive storage.

Seeing an opportunity, I used another acorn on the opposite side of the platform, growing it in much the same way, before connecting the branches of the two towering trees, creating a natural canopy. It wasn't a hundred percent watertight yet, but that would come later. For now, though, I had a partially enclosed ritual platform with storage on opposite sides.

"Well… what do you think?" I asked, watching as Alya took her physical form to inspect the finished structure.

"It is beautiful," She said, running her hand over the smooth, sturdy shelves. "Will the other structures follow this pattern?"

"More or less," I said, vaguely responding with a shrug. "It really depends on what it is. My bedroom is going to have to be sealed, for example, unless I want to be damp twenty-four seven."

"I'm sure you could design a ritual to solve that."

"Of course I could, but that doesn't mean I should," I explained. "Nothing wrong with solving things the old-fashioned way. Either way… I have an idea to help with that anyway. A final ritual when I'm done with the first run of buildings."

Rather than try and push my luck and attempt to build a bedroom tree, and most likely end up messing it up as I build in the dark, I decided to head back home. Handily enough, I could now leave behind most of my equipment, which, so far, I had been hauling back and forth. My chalk went into the closed-off interior storage while everything else, including some spare sacrificial material, went into the shelves.

The return trip home started off quiet, the city slowly winding down as the sun got lower and lower over the horizon. As I made my way home, the scanner radio I had bought sparked to life. This was nothing new, as I had been studiously ignoring it report things I couldn't help with, either because it was too far away, or because the police had a handle on it already.

This time was different. I stopped to listen, reaching into my coat to turn up the volume. Multiple instances of gang activity started to pour in, with riots trashing multiple storefronts downtown. I opened my mouth to tell Alya to start scanning around for any trouble when my phone rang. With a sinking feeling in my chest, I pulled it out and put it to my ear.

"Hel-"

"Arcanum!" John's familiar voice shouted through my phone. "Listen, the Empire is here, looking for you!"

I froze, my body going cold like someone had dunked me into the bay. This was it, the other shoe dropping.

"Who? How many? As many details as you can!"

"It's three of them, and goons, we-"

The sound of a heavy impact, sounding suspiciously like a fist hitting someone, silenced John. I clenched my fist as I listened to someone grappling with the phone. Eventually, it went quiet before I heard a new voice.

"Arcanum, is it good to finally get a hold of you," The voice said. "Now, as you can imagine, we would prefer to meet you face to face. I suggest you make your way over here, or perhaps I will start making examples of the disgusting vermin-hiding cesspit."

Before I could say anything, the phone cut out, and I cursed. For a moment, I was tempted to hurl my phone into a nearby wall, but I managed to hold back.

"Alya, lead me to the dealership community," I said, already preparing to run. "The Empire is making a move to try to recruit me or take me off the other board."

"Turn around and start running," She said, her voice tinged in concern. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Attacking the alone?"

"Alone? Fuck that. I know what's going on here," I explained with a snort, already running back the way we came, following Alya's subtle instruction and turning on my next right. "They are going to try and take me by holding the other group hostage. If they are going to play dirty, so am I."

As I ran, I quickly called Assault, who immediately revealed there was more than just a few riots going on.

"Empire went crazy about five minutes ago, started throwing Molotov cocktails and flipping cars," He explained, sounding like he was also running. "Fenja and Menja are running around downtown too, with Hookwolf and Cricket fucking up some stores not too far away. We had no idea what the riot was about, though now…"

"They are distracting you," I said. "Fuck!"

"Arcanum… we can't come to help you," He said. "Not until things have calmed down or we get reinforcements in from the people who are off shift, but that takes time."

"I know…"

"Give us six or seven minutes, and we can get you some support," He said, continuing when I stayed silent. "Arcanum, you can't-"

I hung up before he could try and convince me not to go, mostly because I was worried he would succeed. This was insane, stupid, and so fucking reckless, but I didn't have a choice. John and his people didn't have five minutes. The E88 would know their timeline, and there was no way they would wait around for someone to get ready.

If I waited for reinforcements, the community would be slaughtered. The E88 were bloodthirsty enough to go through with their threats, and considering that the homeless in Brockton Bay were dime a dozen, their image wouldn't even take a scratch. The community was in danger because of their association with me, and there was no I would let that slide.

Still, while I continued to run, I had time to plan. Trying to bargain was out because I couldn't submit myself to the E88, and that's all they wanted. I refused to help them, but I also knew I wasn't strong enough to resist if they started getting bloody. Sure, given a week and a few days, I could dump six charges into a teleport spell and just leave, but who knew what they would do to me in the meantime. The E88 had connections to the Gesellschaft, and they were known for some pretty fucked up methods of breaking and mind control.

Nine days was plenty of time to be broken.

If using myself as a bargaining chip was out, and appealing to their better nature was a lost cause, then talking at all was pointless, which meant striking before they could react was my best bet. No giving myself away in the name of a fair fight, no conversation to try and talk them down, just immediate assault.

I couldn't afford to hold back, not with innocent people being held against me like that.

"Alya, as soon as I attack, I want you to start zapping any E88 phones or radios," I said, darting into an alleyway. "Then focus on being the eyes on the back of my head."

"Very well."

A minute later, we were approaching the community, so I pulled out my staff and extended it. My most powerful lightning spell was already inside the crystal, but I was saving that for something special. I let the marathon spell drop, quickly charging a jump spell to leap up onto the roof of the dealership, still running full tilt. I then leaped across the gap to the garage. There, I could finally see the community.

The E88 had corralled the homeless along the fruit trees I had planted only a few days ago. Most of the tents and shelters were now destroyed, with one even on fire, billowing up black smoke. There were around ten goons armed with weapons that varied from baseball bats and knives to pistols and rifles. Around them stood three capes. Luckily, the E88 enjoyed showing off their capes, which I could identify pretty easily from my research.

The most obvious was Rune, as she was hovering in place on a manhole cover. She was decked out in a black and red robe, a witch or magic user's costume that actually sent a ping of annoyance through my brain. She was kneeling on her floating ride, looking down at the people below. Just under her and further away was Alabaster, dressed in combat boots, a tan shirt with red lines running up along the slides, and black pants. His skin was white, like paint white, and since his appearance made having a civilian identity impossible, he didn't even wear a mask.

The last, standing tall with his arms behind his back like a general observing his troops, was Krieg. He was dressed in a literal Nazi uniform, with a heavy, older-style gas mask covering his face.

I skidded to a stop at the far end of the garage. Already, I could see some of the Empire goons turning to look at me. Without hesitation, I jabbed my staff forward, clenching my eyes shut while covering my face with my free arm. I shouted as loud as I could, pouring my magic into the spell.

"Excaecati et attonitus!"

Even with my eyes shut tightly and my arm over them, I could still feel the spell being fired off. It was a simple spell to stun and daze, meant to be cast nonverbally. Now, however, I cast at its absolute most powerful and focused it through my new staff. While I couldn't see it, I knew it was flying forward across the camp. When it detonated, the light was still bright despite my eyes being covered and closed.

The explosion of concussive force slapped across me, the world suddenly silent as my hearing was ruined like a snapping cord. If I didn't have healing, I had probably just ruined my hearing significantly, if it recovered at all. Thankfully, I was already casting a spell to fix it as I opened my eyes and leaped off the building, face at a snarl as I prepared to fight.