Sell you a Bridge chapter 253

June 3rd 2016 Advent Manor, The Nightside 7:00 PM EDT

The  dolls were hellish to make. Zee had ended up forcing me to do the  sewing. Aside from a hundred points of dexterity, I also had lots of  practice with void magic, and the stitching on those damned dolls  required that I sew through at least five dimensions. Even Zee, who  spent about half her free time forcing herself to slowly decode that  absurd void grimoire that I had mostly stopped messing with after Morana  was born, wasn't my equal with the void, and between that and my own  powers I managed to get to put them together in a relatively short  period of time.

Of course, it didn't help that she kept  tweaking the process to do experiments so she could figure out more  about the process, I was lucky ghost flesh regenerated, because I blew  one of my fucking hands off at one point, and it took ten minutes to  grow back. Even Zee, research mad as she was, was horrified to see me  literally maimed in the process of her experiments, and decided she'd  gotten enough info to work out a safer method of repeat production,  allowing me to go back to the detailed instructions.

Once  all that was done, she gave me a long kiss and told me she was going to  check on Artemis, before leaving me alone with my thoughts. I approved  of the idea, I should have considered checking on her myself, but I'd  been busy with my pity party. I'd snapped out of that whole funk when  Zee pointed it out...mostly, but the fact remained that it was still a  good idea to be as powerful as I could get for what was to come. Letting  my friends help didn't change that. I did need to improve, so I decided  to seek out the one person I knew of in the house who could probably  help with that.

Tommy was sitting in an overstuffed  armchair in front of a fire in one of the multiple studies Julian seemed  to have in this place. He was swirling a flute of champagne, sipping it  gingerly before sighing in contentment as he stared into the roaring  flames. When I came in he turned to grin cheerily at me. "Ah, Morgan,  lovely to see you. I was hoping you might seek me out. What can I do for  you?"

He knew the answer to that of course, we both did,  but I was happy to play along. I sat down in a second chair across from  his. "I'm here about your ability. It's something like mine, and I'd  very much like to learn more about it. I know you got it in a poker  game, assuming that wasn't just a joke, but I'd like to hear more about  how it works. Can you tell me a bit more about? And do you know why it  seems so similar to mine? Did it come from the same place?" I wondered  if his power had to do with Del, but decided asking would serve no  purpose. If he did he'd tell me anyway most likely, and if not he  wouldn't know the name.

He chuckled a bit. "No, it wasn't a  joke. I did win my power in a poker game." He shot me a grin. "I was  bluffing at the time too. My brother was there, he still bemoans losing  to me with a pair of threes. He did manage to get a rather useful magic  wand in the next hand though. Regardless, you're right that our  abilities have things in common, though I wouldn't say they're from the  same source. More that they're...thematically similar. There are only so  many abilities in the world, and Nightside tends to host an abnormal  amount of them."

That was a reasonable answer, but not a  satisfying or convincing one. "That's just so...random though. Isn't it a  bit weird to assume that we just happened to run into each other? Sure  there might be lots of powers here, but what are the chances that we  would run into each other like this?" I wasn't a big believer in  coincidence, especially not when it came to things like my ability,  where the concept could be pretty murky. If Tommy had said he sought me  out or was sent I'd believe it, but coincidence was hard to swallow.

I  was surprised by the shrug he gave in response. "It does happen.  Especially here. The Nightside is meant to be the one place where even  heaven and hell can't interfere, but that opens the door for lots of  mucking about with time and fate you can't do elsewhere, the combination  of all the various powers here tampering with reality can cause  instability and odd circumstances. Strange things happen that seem like  coincidence all the time, most of which are just consequences to actions  we never saw or got to be a part of."

If anything  'destiny soup' was more unsatisfying than coincidence as an explanation,  but I wasn't going to get hung up on it. "Fine, so our meeting might  have been random, but I still think you could help me. Our abilities are  similar enough I bet you could teach me plenty. You're willing, right?"  I was pretty sure he followed us for that reason, so i didn't think I  was being presumptuous asking.

He nodded lazily. "Sure. I  can teach you a bit. I mean, we don't have the same ability so anything  you pick up might not apply the same, but I should be able to at least  help." He gestured to the room at large. "Here, do...something with your  powers. Doesn't have to be anything specific, I just need to see how  they work." I was having Gojo flashbacks here, but Tommy wasn't exactly  the same. I couldn't see him beating the shit out of my for training  even if he was capable of it. Though I did brace myself for an attack  just in case. Fool me once and all that.

He didn't attack  me, just allowed me to make a small change to the world around me. I  picked up a small figuring on a nearby shelf, one of a series of  multicolored statuettes, and then another. I showed them both to Tommy  and then closed my hands, using a brief exertion of will to swap the  hands they were in showing him the figures to illustrate that the colors  of them had switched. I'd just switched the colors, not the figures,  because it required less power. At least I was pretty sure it had.

He  rolled his eyes, which was fair, it hadn't exactly been tough, but he  hadn't asked me to strain myself. "That'll do. Now, why did you choose  to do that? Specifically out of every possible use of your powers why  THAT one?" I opened my mouth to respond and he held up a hand. "Stop.  You're answering too fast. You're going to give an answer that makes  sense, but you don't need to. I'll get what you mean if you're honest,  so don't try to frame it in a way that might make sense to normal  people."

I nodded at his comment. He was right. I'd been  about to do that. I often reframed unintuitive parts of my powers in a  more understandable way for the normal people around me. It actually  took me a second to figure out why I'd done it in a way that would make  sense to me rather than something more palatable for others. "It was a  smaller lie. Convincing the figures they were in the wrong hands would  have been harder, or lying to you so you thought they had been swapped.  The color wasn't important, so it was easier to change."

The  existential detective grinned in satisfaction. "Exactly. Your ability  is powerful, but you don't know how to apply it. You tell the world a  lie, and then scream it in the world's face over and over until you  badger it into believing. That's contrary t0 the nature of your ability.  Lies are delicate, they're subtle and easy to miss. Big obvious lies  are pointless and rarely work without a great deal of effort. You need  to tell more efficient lies. Subtler, more complex lies that are more  convincing with less effort spent."

I growled in  frustration as I stood up and started to pace, setting the altered  figures back on their shelf. "How does that help me? The lies I tell are  the ones I need. I need my powers to do certain things. Telling me  'want less strenuous stuff' isn't teaching me anything. You might as  well tell me that using my power less will cost less effort. It's  obvious and not at all helpful to my situation."

I was  starting to get angry. I knew that wasn't really fair, but he'd gotten  my hopes up that he could help me take another step, and then he'd let  me down. I expected anger in response, but he just snorted at me.  "You're hearing things I'm not saying. I said you need subtler lies, not  that you need to lie about subtler things. The end point isn't the  issue here, it's how you're getting there. It's like killing someone  with a round from a gun. Shooting them is the obvious way to do it, but  you're insisting on beating their heads in with a sock full of bullets.  It still works, but it's wildly inefficient."

There  was something about that description that just...made sense to me.  "That might be accurate." I admitted. "But how am I supposed to do it  different? I want a result so I make that result happen, sure it sucks,  but I can't really see how I would do it differently. I could try to  make something else happen, something easier, but I can't make it happen  a different way. I don't know how the hell my power works in the first  place, so how am I supposed to know how things are happening as it is? I  just think about the result I want and sort of...force the world to  accept. Are you saying I should try being less insistent? Take longer  maybe?"

In  the past I had used logic like that with my points to make a portal  easier, so that might work, but I didn't know how useful it would be in  combat. To my surprise though, Tommy just gave a frustrated growl and  threw up his hands. "Damn it boy, stop thinking about this so logically.  I'm trying to describe music and you're doing math." He made a pained  noise. "Fine, maybe a different tactic. Rather than focusing on what is  supposed to happen, trying focusing on WHY. Not the mechanics, but the  reason. Come up with an excuse the world can use to justify the change."

Something  in the back of my head twinged a bit when he said that, and I felt like  it made a lot of sense. I'd been brute forcing the small changes I  could make, or the changes to my power (which could be somewhat larger  thankfully), but I hadn't really considered it from that angle. I  reached out and picked up one of the figurines. I stared at it intently.  I wanted to to change it, maybe make it into some other material. I  could force that to happen, but it would basically black me out to do  it.

Instead I  decided to focus on what Tommy said. I wanted this to be gold, I  decided, but I wasn't going to turn it into gold. It had always been  gold. It was just covered in some other material. I felt my power flare,  but it was more like the ache of a good workout than the flashing pain  I'd felt in my head before. It felt good. Right. I reached up and  scraped a nail across the figurine, and a layer flaked off, revealing a  gleaming gold exterior. I grinned widely up at Tommy. "Well now. Isn't  that interesting." I knew my limits with my power, and this would have  been close to beyond them, but right now I felt fine. I could work with  this.