Rather than just sitting and talking around the fire, or in the common area, we returned to the ritual platform. I wanted to make at least three more pears of strength for Kali to maintain, and I had already proven I could multitask through the process. So we talked, all of us, explaining some of the aspects of my magic and what I had managed to do with it. I revealed that I seemed to be linked to some sort of well of knowledge and that I was occasionally blessed with new knowledge, but I ultimately left the details of the Marvelous Mage system out. I didn't want to overwhelm her, and learning that someone had set up an entire system, with points and quests and even a random drawing that might not be so random, was a bit much.

  I did explain that Alya was an elemental and that Kali was a Genius Loci, though I intimated that I had summoned Alya in a one-time ritual and that Kali's growth rate wouldn't just continue. Again, I wanted to keep from overwhelming her, and learning that I had essentially created a localized goddess was leaning pretty heavily into the overwhelming knowledge category. On the plus side, I could finally explain how Alya's bond truly functioned, including how I was the source of her humanity. It went a good way towards helping her understand how not talking to the elemental for a while wasn't exactly rude, and that she felt time differently and would probably not even notice.

  I kept my origin from another world, the fact that I died to get here, and the existence of the entities to myself. I wasn't exactly happy to keep some of that from her, but most of it was for her own good. Not only was the information overwhelming, I couldn't imagine it was healthy to have your worldview blown open like that. It was certainly something I didn't like to think about.

  Besides, no one but me needed to know that I had died, nor how it happened.

  By the time I was done talking and answering her questions, I was putting the final touches on the last ritual, finishing it, and passing the seed to Kali. She nearly skipped away, clearly eager to get started. Not long after she disappeared to her orchard, Olivia and I took a break for an early dinner since I had plans that involved being busy for the rest of the night, and I wanted to get some actual sleep.

  "So… Do you know Dumbledore or…?" She finally asked, a reheated slice of pizza in her hands. "Could you get Harry Potter's signature for me?"

  "That's racist," I said, playing along. "Assuming all wizards know each other? Get with the times, Olivia… The best I could do is Ron."

  That got a laugh out of her, and I managed to keep a straight face. We continued to eat, finishing the leftover pizza and some fruit from my regular enchanted orchard. When we were done, I stood, ready to offer her a teleport back to the city, when she stopped me, grabbing my hand and pulling me back to my seat.

  "I… I want to return the favor," she said, looking off into the darkness that was slowly deepening around the compound. "You shared so much and… You deserve to know the truth."

  "The truth about what?" I asked, cocking my head slightly in confusion.

  "These," She said simply, gesturing at the scars that covered her body.

  That caught me off guard. While they were impossible not to notice, they had long since lost their impact on me when I saw her. The scars were just a part of her, and while I was curious about what had happened…

  "Olivia, you don't need to do that… I didn't explain that to you because I wanted to trade," I explained, giving her hand a squeeze. "You are more than welcome to your secrets, especially ones concerning… Well, I assumed that's when..."

  "My trigger event?" She confirmed, turning back to look me in the eye. "It's fine, and… I want you to know. It defined me for so long, I want you to know."

  "I… alright, I will listen," I said, folding to her wishes. "But don't feel like you need to push yourself. Talking about your trauma… it can help, but it can also be similarly traumatizing."

  She nodded, pulling her legs up so her heels were against the chair, her knees against her chest. She wrapped her arm around her knees and leaned her head against them, her other hand still holding mine. A black cloak, an expression of my gift to her, emerged from her shoulders and covered her, seemingly to keep her warm.

  "My father… he was a member of the E88, back in the 'good old days,'" she revealed, her voice sounding disgusted. "He was... the classic stereotype, really. Covered in tattoos, wore a white undershirt most of the time, used to slap Mom and me around a little when he was drunk. He was a true believer, passed down by his parents... but Mom… she was a casual. She didn't like all the violence of the Empire, but only because she didn't like how it turned good white boys into violent men."

  I listened carefully, watching as she revealed her history. The fact that her parents were part of the largest gang in the city was unexpected, but not surprising. I could only imagine it was a common thread for a lot of people our age.

  "One day, Dad went out with the boys. They used to go to the bar, have some drinks, beat up some minorities, and come home," She explained. "Except Dad goes a bit overboard with his drinking and ends up going a bit further than usual. He stumbled home, covered in blood. Mom made a scene, and he slapped her away before going to clean himself up. A few hours later, a few men smashed into our home looking for him."

  She sniffed, rubbing her eyes for a moment, shaking her head as if to dislodge her grief. She had yet to release my hand, though I wasn't sure she even realized it anymore. I was a little glad for my own enhancement with how hard she was squeezing.

  Apparently, his distaste for minorities wasn't deep enough for him to keep his hands off their female victims," she continued, the disgust thick in her voice. "He punished some Jewish man for existing, then… then he raped his wife. The woman's family took exception to that and came to find him."

  Unable to watch her like this anymore without properly comforting her, I put my free hand on the living wood of the furniture and, with a wordless spell, took control of it. I gently shifted her seat and mine, merging them together so I could pull her into a hug. She accepted the hug after recovering from the surprise, taking a moment before finally continuing.

  "They tied us up after beating my dad for a while," she explained. "Then they left. My mom was sobbing, trying to wake my dad up… when I managed to wiggle free. Instead of helping, I ran to my room and locked myself in the closet. My mom was screaming for me to help… but I didn't. I couldn't. I was too scared to move from the closet. Not even when I started to smell smoke or when she started screaming about the fire burning."

  She took a shaky breath, and I pulled her closer, her tears falling into my shoulder.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "At some point, I must have triggered and passed out because I opened my eyes, and suddenly, the house was a lot more on fire than before. I instinctively phased into the shadows, using them as cover to escape the fire, but there was a flare-up, and it knocked me out of the darkness," she explained. "Without it to shield me from the fire... that's how my scars happened. I tried to run and failed. I would have burned with the rest of my family if a passing cape hadn't pulled me from the fire. I woke up in the hospital, staying just long enough to get bandaged up before running. I knew what I was, and I knew the Empire would soon hear about me triggering. They have ears everywhere, including the hospitals. I spent the next seven or eight months in the shadows, only ever coming out to steal food."

  For a long moment, I was stunned into silence. My mind raced, trying to think of something to say that could actually help, but I ultimately came up short.

  "Olivia, I am… I'm sorry you had to go through that," I said, wincing at just how empty it sounded. "I'm so sorry."

  "Yeah… I know they were bad people. I know my dad got what was coming to him, but… they were still my family. And I left them to die, hiding in my closet in the dark," She repeated. "They were terrible people… but how could I just let them die? They were my parents!"

  I could hear her coming undone, the grip on herself slipping. I could only hold her tighter, doing my best to provide what little support I could. Eventually, after close to ten minutes of sitting there, I could feel her slowly lose the tension in her body as she drifted to sleep, her emotional story no doubt leaving her drained. When I was sure she had fully drifted away, I slowly stood, easily carrying her in my arms. I carefully carried her to my room, laying her in my bed, as it was the only one with blankets and a proper mattress.

  "Keep an eye on her," I whispered to Kali, before quietly leaving.

  Once I was outside, I took a long minute to collect myself. I already wished I could have said and done more, but dealing with trauma like this was far outside of my talents. I could feel a comforting touch on my shoulder, an empathetic feeling coming from Kali, even if I could feel her focus on the enchanted orchard and on Olivia, all at once.

  I made my way back to the ritual platform, whistling quietly for the golems. I could feel Alya as well, pulling in from a large space around me, settling into her corporeal form as the golems lined up along the edge of the platform. Smokey showed up as well, sitting on one of the root chairs grown from the storage trees.

  "Do you plan on awakening another spirit?" Alya asked as I started to make my way to one of the storage trees, pulling out supplies.

  "Yeah, there's no reason to hold back, and the quicker I make a dozen or so of them, the quicker the PRT and other people can get comfortable with the idea," I explained. "I'm going to try and make one a day for the next few days, at least. I'm going to go shopping through some more pawn shops, looking for powerful."

  "That seems a bit backward," Smokey pointed out. "Wouldn't taking it slow be better?"

  I frowned, turning to look back at him, noting that Alya was floating beside him, looking like she agreed.

  "I absolutely refuse to run my plans by the whims of the PRT," I explained with a scowl. "If I waited for them to be comfortable, I would be waiting for a month."

  "I'm not saying you should go that far," Smokey responded, holding up his hands in defense. "But a little patience never hurt anyone. Maybe just make one tonight and hold off?"

  "Two guardians is not enough. I want you guys to take over the patrols in the old ABB territory so that Crow and I can start pushing out the Empire…" I said, trailing off as a thought came to me, before sagging a bit as the idea exploded in my mind. "Unless I reinforce the two of you with a group of golems like Crow and I are."

  "See, you solved your own problem," Smokey said with a smile. "We can give the PRT and everyone else time to adjust, without compromising the plan."

  "I suppose. Though I'm not holding off forever," I added, turning back to the storage tree. "We need more sentient capes to fight against the Empire in earnest, not to mention to fend off whoever comes to fill in the void. We need more than golems to fight the Teeth."

  "Then you can make more in a week or so," Smokey said with a shrug. "A team of four golems can more than fill the gap for now."

  I frowned and eventually nodded, going through the cabinets until I found everything that I needed. The golems had been extremely potent so far, taking down goons and capes alike. I had no doubt that they would hit a wall and not be able to compete with some capes, like Fenja and Menja, but until then, they would remain useful.

  Then again, I wasn't exactly sure how I would deal with the two size-changing brutes.

  "You seem awfully eager to keep from pissing off the PRT," I pointed out with a raised eyebrow. "Why is that?"

  "It's not because I don't agree with you, because I do. The PRT seems to be incompetent, leaving the city to slowly choke to death," he replied with thinly veiled disgust. "I just know how organizations like that can work. Or at least…I knew.."

  He scratched his metal head, trying to work through the confusion of not actually being his echoes, but still having vague memories of them. My knowledge knew that this would settle as he got older, as the echo memories mellowed out into his own memories.

  "It doesn't matter," he said, shaking his head. "Once they label you as a problem, a lot of things are going to become a lot more difficult. On top of that, getting out of their bad books is not gonna be easy."

  I frowned, not liking that I was once again seeing the effects of the PRT being a nuisance. Still, I had created sentient help for a reason, and what he was saying was not wrong.

  "Fine. I will awaken one more spirit and then wait some time before making more," I confirmed, getting a nod from both Alya and Smokey. "I'll have to make more golems, though, since I do not have enough. I'll be taking apart one of them for materials, which means I will only have two ready to go."

  With the matter settled, I slowly got to work preparing to awaken the spirit. I needed to scrap one of the golems, though the core would be intact, so it wouldn't be down for long. Then, I needed to actually start the stabilizing process, working with the spirit held inside the Purple Heart medal to prepare it for awakening.

  As I carefully pulled the medal out of its box, I made my way to a seat by the platform, poking Kali for help working with the spirit. When she was ready, I cast the scanning spell, checking the spirit one last time before starting the awakening and totem guardian crafting process.