Sell you a Bridge chapter 68

Slaughter Swamp August 1st 2010 11:30 PM EDT

The  preparations for the ritual were incredibly extensive. We needed a  place untamed by civilization and steeped in magic, we needed to do it  at midnight, and we needed help. Luckily we had already decided to tell  Zee what was up and ask for her help. Madame Xanadu was such a legend  using her name in regards to a magic project was basically the  equivalent of  an author using the word magic to explain a contrived  plot device. Zee was happy to be involved, but she had a condition. One I  wasn't necessarily against.

Artemis  looked dubious however. "What do you mean you want to be in it? The  ritual is single use. If you do it then I can't right? Because no  offense Zee but no matter how much I like you I'm not sharing the gear I  got to use for this. It may not be the best stuff but it's all been  hard to get." Artemis looked...jittery. Like she couldn't believe that  this was about to happen and she was expecting something terrible to  take away her chances to become something more. I personally would love  to see my girlfriend gain the ability to level up as I suspected Artemis  would, but this was her ritual, I wouldn't make the call for her.

Zee  shook her head. "You guys read that part wrong. I've been studying this  book. The items are single use sure, but they aren't limited use. You  get one shot at the ritual but more than one person can use it." She  turned to me, the look on her face serious. "Look. You didn't get this  from Madame Xanadu. She's amazing but the principles of magic this  functions on...aren't. As in they aren't principles of magic. They make  no sense. I get what you guys were trying to do but this spell isn't  calculus. It's one plus one equals fish. It's nonsense. But I can feel  magic from these materials somehow."

I  opened my mouth but she cut me off. "I'm not asking where you got it, I  don't expect you to tell me everything. I like you a lot Morgan but  we've been dating like a week, I get that. But this is magic like I've  never seen and I need to be a part of it. That said, I'm not asking for  something for nothing. Aside from helping I'll kick this in." She  reached behind her and pulled out a staff from seemingly nowhere. "Naj's  Puzzler. It's a unique long staff daddy got me in the dungeon. He gave  it to me as a present because it adds resistance and has a built in  teleport."

I  checked the stats on the thing and whistled, handing it to Artemis. She  looked unsure but when she saw it I could tell she was excited too. It  made sense Zatara would bring home presents for his precious baby girl,  and this was a nice staff. I wondered how many League members had been  delving to find something like this. Still, it was a good offer. I  looked at Artemis, this was on her. She bit her lip "That is really  nice. But how would the ritual work for two people? There's only one  sheet."

Zatanna  just waved that off. "Not an issue. The sheet isn't a physical object  so much as sort of indicator for the ritual. Once it's performed the  sheet can adjust to fit the specifications, and that includes changing  size or shape, or even quantity. Granted the magic requirements are way  higher with two people but given where we're standing it shouldn't be an  issue. Slaughter swamp oozes magic, hell using up more of it will  probably be good for Gotham." She stepped forward to put her hands on  Artemis's shoulders. "Please. I know we don't know each other that well  but being part of magic like this...this is a once in a lifetime  chance."

She  was right. More right than she knew actually but Artemis seemed to  understand the same thing. She sighed. "Fine. If you give up the staff  you can be in the ritual with me. Being able to teleport and having a  twenty percent resistance to everything is pretty nuts. Even if it will  shave off some of our health." I sighed in relief when she agreed. I  wasn't going to force her but honestly I was glad she decided to do it.  Partially because my magic nut of a girlfriend would have been  devastated if she said no and partially because that girdle was going to  be destroyed in the process.

It  might be petty but I really wanted my girlfriend to become a new super  sexy species of elf with divine powers of desire. If I'd know the ritual  worked like that I would have given it to both of them probably anyway.  I swallowed hard at the thought of how gorgeous she was going to be.  Part of me really wanted to try it with them, but if the ritual for just  two of them would noticeably deplete the magic even in a place like  this there was no way it would support all of us. Zatanna grinned and  pulled Artemis into a hug before darting off to set up the ritual, staff  included.

Artemis  stepped up next to me and grinned. "You owe me. Sharing my new powers  just so your lady can get sexier. I really am a saint." I laughed when  she revealed her thoughts were the same as mine, at least a bit, but he  smile dropped. "No, in all seriousness I think this will be better. With  your powers you'll definitely find a way to live longer. Having your  girl become long lived and stronger will be nothing but good. Besides,  it's actually kind of nice knowing I won't be the only one. I've heard  how lonely that can be in Superman's interviews. Having a new sister  might be nice." She smiled wistfully.

I  decided not to mention that her old sister still thought about her,  because I'd said I wouldn't, but it was nice to think of my best friend  and girlfriend being close like that. Artemis had been with me from the  start, even if that wasn't such a long time. She liked Kit and Reggie  fine, but she didn't have a female friend she was as close to as she was  to me. This might work out in more ways than one. Plus this would give  Zee and active role in my power. This way when I told her she would have  a reason to keep my secret. I knew hedging my bets like that wasn't  ideal in a relationship but after Annabel it just seemed smart. I would  probably need to get over that at some point.

Zee  started setting things up according to the book. I could do the actual  reading part easily enough, but Zee had the skills for this kind of prep  work so we let her do her thing as we started taking out the gear for  this. First we had her Ferocious Belt of the Angels. The holy damage  seemed like it would go well with Aphrodite's Girdle, and extra damage  didn't hurt. The Amulet of Precision we decided we didn't need since  Naj's Puzzler already gave ten dex on it's own. The Butcher's Cleaver  gave strength and added a certain violence and the Raiding Hunter's Bow  of Storms, gave lightning damage and attack speed, and hopefully an  affinity for ranged combat.

It  was literally anyone's guess how all this would mix together, but at  the very least I was sure the resulting race would be unique and  probably powerful. Not to mention partially divine given the provenance  of the girdle. Zee looked as manic and excited now as we did, clearly as  excited to be a part of this as Artemis and I. I really should have  thought to include her, given her obsessive love of magic something like  this was basically a dream come true for her. Watching her almost  sprint back and forth to set everything up was honestly adorable.

I  glanced around nervously, we'd had Zee teleport us out of town to avoid  being followed, and I was pretty sure the Slaughter Swamp would be the  very last place we would end up seeing the Court, but I was still  slightly worried. Another major upside to this was the fact that Zee  would be safer from the Talons and their ilk if she had more power and  especially if she could level up. I still wasn't positive about the  leveling but it made a ton of sense that having dungeon artifacts baked  into your DNA would give you the ability to get XP and level up.

Finally  she finished the setup and the girls stepped into the circle together.  Zee stopped to go through the book with me, giving me pronunciation  notes on the Latin incantations which due to having a perfect memory I  only had to hear once. Once the clock struck midnight I officially  started the ritual. The incantation was...odd. Some of it was Latin,  some was English, some was other languages I'd never even heard of but  that we had managed to puzzle out because they were similar to Welsh.  For the odd languages there seemed to be a pronunciation key which  definitely helped, the last thing we wanted was to blow ourselves up.

I  activated my aura sight, almost flinching at the tangible aura of blood  and death in this place. The ritual seemed to drink it all in, most of  it seemed to be sucked up by The Butcher's cleaver, and I was suddenly  very glad that we were going to be consuming the thing soon because  leaving it here to drink up dark magic like that seemed like a bad idea.  Luckily the holy aura of the girdle and belt seemed to be purifying the  magic inside the circle to a large extent. Including that holy energy  had been a good call.

As  I chanted the words though the energy around us began to shift. Slow at  first, just drifting a bit around the circle, then a bit faster. The  faster the drift the further out the energy started to move, and as I  spoke I realized why. The circle was forming a whirlpool in the magic of  slaughter swamp. I could see so much like this, standing at the center  of the ritual, the Swamp itself seemed to be resisting the pull, but my  power was a law of nature. It said the ritual would work and so it would  work. The energy around us was dragged in despite its resistance, like  it was being dragged kicking and screaming into the vortex.

The  whirlpool began to pick up speed and the candles and stones flared to  life. The aura was so thick in the circle if it had been solid it would  have been a liquid, but all the blood lust and death had been soaked out  of the energy by the cleaver with the rest all purified by the two  belts. The spell started to build, gaining momentum, and I could see  something behind the ritual, a vague outline of something huge and  powerful, but it felt...familiar. Like I was looking at myself. The  rhythm of the magic finally reached its climax thirteen minutes past  midnight and I finished the ritual with a flourish.

I  felt something give way under the magic. I'd used my power more than a  few times but I'd never seen any of the resulting abilities or objects  work on this scale. Reality was being rewritten in front of me, and I  somehow knew that if I hadn't been able to supply all this energy I  wouldn't have seen this kind of shift in the world with my own eyes for a  very long time. The world turned, moved just a bit on its axis by my  power as if shifted by a giant lever and the magic snapped like a rubber  band. The my girlfriend and my best friend changed forever, and the  entire planet changed with them.