Got the Grimoire, Chapter 63

Chapter 63

I drifted through a familiar void lighted by an endless sea of stars. My transmigrated soul, held together by the gravity of the Celestial Grimoire floating in the center. If my soul was a galaxy, then the Grimoire was the supermassive blackhole that everything orbited around.

“Well isn’t this a familiar sight?”

I willed myself to turn and beheld Raziel’s form for only the second time. “You drag me in here far less often than this body’s original soul did.”

Raziel smiled graciously and performed a small bow. “As an angelic being, I am far more at ease when left alone with my own thoughts.”

“Plus you can talk to me whenever you feel like it.”

“…Only to share my wisdom and advice with you.”

Riiiiigggghhhhhht.

“So why have you brought me here this time?” I asked.

Raziel stroked his beard thoughtfully, considering the question. “Have you thought about what you’ll do once this Earth is safe?”

“I assumed I was stuck here. Not to mention that I’m not sure this world ever will be truly safe considering the threats it faces.”

“True, but it will reach a point where you yourself are no longer needed. Have you not considered that other Earths might need your aid?”

No. No I hadn’t. Earth-Bet was my home now, I didn’t like jumping into new things. Just the thought of leaving all of my new friends behind… “I think you’re putting the cart before the horse a bit, Raziel. First I have to defeat Scion, then we can discuss next steps. Besides, can you even give me the knowledge to travel between dimensions?”

I realized how stupid of a question it was even as I asked. Raziel spread his arms wide and I suddenly felt his arcane might more keenly than ever. The Grimoire in my soul was still vast an endless of course, but Raziel could have qualified as a singularity of his own.

“I am the Keeper of All Magic, my host. I possess knowledge of sorcery that you cannot even begin to imagine. Trust me when I tell you that once you are ready, we can move on toward other realms.” His eyes flicker upwards. “And speaking of…”

I look up just in time to see the star descending upon me, suffusing me with arcane knowledge.

Highway to Hell (DC Occult, 400cp): There exists magical pathways between most mystical dimensions. Heaven, Hell, Faerie, Gemworld, and pretty much every afterlife or magical nook and cranny you care to name. With proper knowledge of these pathways, one can easily slip into them, allowing easy access to both them and what amounts to teleportation around earth, as well. And you are one of the few people with knowledge of pretty much all of them.

After this jump, you will retain the ability to travel between nearby magical dimensions and enough knowledge to not easily get lost while doing so. This won’t let you travel to Earth Aleph while in Worm, but slipping into the Nevernever while in the Dresden Files is simple and easy. You also can’t access magical dimensions outside of your current jump until your chain is finished. In jumps that don’t have alternate magical dimensions this simply acts as a form of magical fast travel system instead.

CP Total: 3,800cp-400cp= 3,400cp

Oh hell. I felt some very dangerous knowledge filling my brain. A lot of it wouldn’t be particularly useful in Earth-Bet, except…

I was fairly sure that this would allow me to enter Shardspace. I wasn’t entirely sure what that was, because I hadn’t ever read Ward, but I’d at least heard of the concept.

“Congratulations. Forbidden knowledge that not even I possess,” Raziel said dryly.

“Oh that’s a load of crap. You’re telling me an angel doesn’t know the paths between Heaven and Hell?”

“I know the direct routes of course, should there ever be a war or I need to retrieve a soul that doesn’t belong in Hell,” Raziel agreed. “But there are paths and ways in and out of both Hell and the Silver City that are known to only a select and very special few."

“Another addition to my Mover rating,” I quipped.

“This is no laughing matter. With this kind of knowledge, many new avenues have opened to you.” He gave me a very serious look. “Do not abuse this knowledge.”

“I won’t.”

“Good. Now I do believe its time for you to wake up. You have a number of appointments today.”

***

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

I jolted awake on Raziel’s cue. Light made it’s way through the blinds of my bedroom window, making me scowl. I reminded myself to buy some blackout curtains and then padded out into the kitchen. Coffee was still hot and there was a bowl in the sink. Mimi must have rushed off to work. I was proud of her and all the progress she’d been making.

I grabbed a cup of coffee and then sidestepped through one shadow and out onto another on my building’s rooftop. Made for a hell of a view as I took slow sips and regarded Brockton Bay. The scars left by Lung and the Empire were almost entirely gone, the city dumping loads of cash and workers into seeing the damage to Downtown repaired. One of Brockton’s main sources of income these days was still tourism after all, they had to keep at least some parts of the city presentable.

My morning contemplation was interrupted by my work phone going off. Yes, I kept it with me at all times. It was part of my contract with the Protectorate.

“Hello?”

“Magus, it’s Dauntless,” Shawn greeted me. “Hey, remember on Saturday you were talking about boosting my powers…?”

“Of course. I meant it when I said I’d help you.”

“And I appreciate that. I was thinking about what I could use as a ‘sacrifice’ for your own powers to work and I think I might have thought of the perfect thing. You got time today?” He sounded the most animated I’d ever heard him.

I eyed the time, then my cup of coffee. “I can be at the Rig in half an hour.”

“Thank you. If this goes well… Well, it’ll be a sight to see, that’s for sure. Dauntless out.”

I contemplated what exactly my fellow hero might be thinking of offering me that he had in large quantities, but just shrugged to myself. I personally wasn’t so hopeful about my power giving him too large of a boost, after all I’d gotten a pretty large sacrifice from Eidolon and it’d only netted him a 33% increase of power. What could Dauntless offer me that was worth the same?

***

“A… vase?” I questioned.

Dauntless nodded proudly. We were both in costume in my ‘lab’, but I had my face mask off and his helmet was sitting on a workbench nearby.

“It’s a nice vase I guess,” I said skeptically. “But it doesn’t look particularly valuable.”

“Take it. It’s yours now.”

I hesitantly picked up the object, feeling an electric tingle as I did so. “What the…?”

Shawn grinned and folded his arms. “Look, the first several years after my trigger, I didn’t know how my powers worked, so I was just wasting my charges, putting them into random items around my house. I’ve got dozens, hundreds even of such objects just lying around not really doing anything, because the PRT eggheads don’t really know what to do with them. So I figured I’d see if you could make any sense of them.”

“Well… People used to use all kinds of things as sacrifices.” I allowed the object to energize and empower me. It was a good chunk. Not anywhere close to what I’d gotten from Eidolon’s offering, but still sizable. “Alright, come over here.”

I took the power and allowed it to flow from me and into Shawn. His eyes popped open, practically bugging out of their sockets, but a grin formed.

“It worked.”

“What worked?”

“It gave me a charge back. Or most of one anyway. Some power must be lost through all the transferring, like a currency exchange, but- Do you have any idea what this means?”

“You’re projected to be a peer of the Triumvirate in two to three years,” I said slowly, realization dawning on me. “And you have way more than that put away in storage, don’t you.”

He nodded eagerly.

“Well… This makes things a little more interesting,” I said with a grin of my own. “Let’s make some phone calls.”

***

Emily Piggot loathed the day to day bureaucracy that ensured the PRT functioned. She was a soldier, dammit and she could direct troops effectively as evidenced that she’d managed to keep Brockton Bay from being overrun by villains a long time ago. That being said…

There weren’t anymore villains to fight. Perhaps a slight exaggeration, there was still Uber and Leet, the Undersiders (though they’d been suspiciously quiet as of late) and the Merchants, but the biggest threats, the A-class threat that was Lung and the virtual army of capes that the Empire 88 could field, had been dealt with handily. That left Piggot more time to play politics and deal with some of the Bay’s building issues that she’d had to ignore just trying to keep the lights on.

It was a two-edged sword in her book. Much as she hated that she was less a commander and more a bureaucrat and politician these days, she knew that she was helping the Bay more than ever. Thanks to the Bay no longer being in danger of being declared a lost cause, funding was actually coming in again. Including adding the therapist back on rotation to keep an eye on the mental health of her capes. Contrary to many peoples’ beliefs, Piggot knew that shrinks played an important role. She just needed every penny before and a bulletproof vest or extra confoam sprayer was just more important at the time than having someone make sure her capes were sane.

Something she regretted deeply after the Shadow Stalker situation came to light, but…The girl was still of use at least, off in Madison. It had still damaged their ability to recruit a new Ward, if Magus was to be believed about the independent hero Arachne.

And damn him, he probably is right.

Magus had a bad habit of knowing a little too much about people. If he wasn’t so damned earnest, Piggot would be tempted to hold it against him.

She decided to take a break from the accounting reports and leafed through some files on the remaining capes in Brockton Bay. Still the same variety of independent heroes that operated maybe once or twice a week, but Piggot had a feeling their numbers would rise as they didn’t get themselves killed by accidentally pissing off one of the large groups. Petty thugs and criminals who were just hired muscle at best. And then the biggest of the bunch: The new trio who had unofficially declared the Docks their territory. Arachne, the bug Master who Piggot was almost certain was the Hebert girl that Shadow Stalker had bullied, but she still had to at least make a show of following the unwritten rules. Firestorm, a new player, but a very powerful pyrokinetic. Thinker analysis rated her as a Shaker/ Blaster 7 at least. And then Kage, their leader…

Piggot didn’t like the connection between his name and the ABB. Anything overtly racially themed had dangerous connotation in Brockton Bay, yet he’d chosen one anyway. A shadow Shaker of some kind, no one knew exactly what his powers were, except that he had encountered and survived fighting Lung, even beating him before he’d ramped up too far. Piggot was just glad that they considered themselves heroes, but the reports of missing persons coming from the edges of their territory was more than a little concerning. Piggot made a note to start formulating strategies to take the three down should they cross a line and such a contingency became necessary.

She moved onto some other reports that were pending. Latest intelligence said that no other cape groups had tried to break into the Bay’s cape scene yet, but Piggot still remembered the Boston Games well, it was inevitable that one group or another would let greed or ambition control them and then they’d have blood on the streets.

With her capes and troopers in better condition than ever though, Piggot was confident that they could keep the collateral damage to a minimum. No other group would ever reign over the city as badly as the Empire had in it’s prime. She’d pick up a rifle and go down fighting herself before letting that happen again.

Her intercom buzzed and her secretary spoke briskly. “Director, Magus would like to speak with you in person. He doesn’t have an appointment.”

Piggot frowned, thought about playing a petty power game of making the man wait before discarding the notion. If he needed to see her so urgently, it was with good reason. At least he was being polite about it. “Send him in.”

Like most Movers of his caliber, he didn’t bother with the door, instead just stepping out of the shadows at the edges of the room. “Director, thank you for seeing me,” he said politely.

“You usually make appointments ahead of time. What’s so urgent?”

“I need you to release all of Dauntless’ empowered items that you have in storage back into his custody,” he said. “Dauntless and I tested my power-granting ability by having him give one such object he still had laying around at home and the amount of energy it gave me was enough to give Dauntless almost a full charge of his own power back. There was a small loss of power, but still…”

“It would enable a use for all that junk and drastically boost Dauntless’ powers,” Piggot realized. She almost cackled in delight. She already had one S-class cape on her roster. Now she’d be adding a second. Her next meeting with the other Directors was going to be interesting. “I’ll call them now, they’re yours. Good work.”

He gave a mock salute before just vanishing between one blink and the next.

Thank God he’s on our side. Just his Mover abilities alone would make him a nightmare to fight.

Piggot began to look through one last report, one from her Boston counterpart.

A group called the Travelers were on the move, last seen headed south. For some reason, Piggot felt a headache already beginning to form.

***

“Drive!” Krouse bellowed as he threw himself into the passenger seat.

Luke didn’t hesitate, slamming his foot onto the gas, tires screeching as they began to accelerate. Gun fire punctured the side of the vehicle, but Krouse’s preparations paid off. Their getaway van was well armored and with Jess and Marissa keeping Accord’s capes busy, they had a real chance of making it out of Boston alive.

“I’m going to switch us on three, keep anyone following off our backs,” Krouse said to Luke.

His friend gave him a brief glance before nodding and taking out a handful of ball bearings. Krouse allowed his power to suffuse Luke before abruptly swapping their seats. Krouse settled his hands on the wheel and feet on the peddles, making sure to keep making a beeline south. Luke didn’t even bother aiming, just sticking his hand full of bearings out the window and then triggering his power. The gunfire immediately cut out.

“That should make them keep their heads down for a minute,” Luke said with grim satisfaction.

“Yeah,” Krouse muttered.

He was still pissed about Boston. He’d thought it was a good idea, that Accord with all his connections might have something to help Noelle, but it had just ended in disaster. He still felt a little bad for Cody’s fate, but he’d brought it on himself.

“Where to next, boss?” Luke asked. Good old reliable Luke. He didn’t follow orders mindlessly, but he trusted that Krouse knew what he was doing as their group’s leader. Shame he’d stopped getting along so well with the others, but it was better than some other members he could name.

“A city not too far from here,” Krouse said grimly. “There’s a healer there, they say she’s the best in the world. If anyone might be able to help Noelle, it’s her.”

“Hm. Don’t think she’ll be willing to help us if she’s seen the news lately,” Luke mused.

“She won’t have much of a choice,” Krouse snapped. “Not if she wants to keep her hands blood free.”

Not that Krouse would kill the girl or anything, but…

Well, not much could keep Noelle pacified these days. Not his fault if she lost control.

“We might have to worry about that new guy,” Luke pointed out. “The one who fought the bitch at Canberra. Uh… You know, the magic themed guy.”

“I’m aware. He strikes me as a glass cannon though. Anyone of us will give him trouble if we catch him alone. It will be fine, Luke, I’ve seen us through worse.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it will be fine,” Luke muttered. “Still picking the others up at the next rest stop?”

“Yeah. We’ll call them when we get there just to make sure they’re still alive. Otherwise we’ll have to keep going without them.”

Luke shot him a sharp look. “I thought you said they’d be fine? That your plan was fool-proof?”

“I’m sure they are. Jess and Marissa are strong, especially when working together, but Accord is a damned dangerous Thinker for a reason. It’s just a precaution,” he said soothingly.

Luke grumbled and twisted in his seat to keep a close lookout on the road behind them.

Krouse let out a breath and let his hand fall away from the gun on his left hip. He’d have hated to shoot Luke, but he’d have done it if necessary.

Noelle was his fault. His mistake. He’d do anything to make everything right again.

“Next stop, Brockton Bay,” he muttered to himself.
***
A/N: I kinda sorta forgot about the Travelers. My bad. My timeline is fuzzy on when exactly Coil brought them to the Bay, but it seems likely that it wasn't until very short of canon, because they're still a relatively unknown group during the Somer's Rock meeting. Anyway, finally rolled something interesting, so I grabbed it. It's hard to limit myself when rolling, because there's some stuff in the Grimoire that is just absolutely useless, but I gotta play by the rules.

Oh, also if there's any confusion on the dates, I noticed a couple chapters ago that I got the dates a little confused, probably looking at the wrong year on the calendar. Should be all back to normal now though.

Thank you all as always for your gracious support. I appreciate more than I can convey in mere words. See y'all next time :)