It took a few minutes to make sure the new ghosts were all introduced and ready to settle into their new situation. Some of the older ghosts would help them with that, and I had made it clear that they didn't have to do any work with me until they were ready. After all, they had just died. I wasn't going to rush them into anything. Especially considering how intense some of the stuff we got involved with could be. They deserved to get gradually eased into it.

In the meantime, I just had a couple more things to do before it would be time to go meet Ehn and find out what he was planning for the next part of my training. And, of course, to find out just how much he actually knew about my current situation. Did he plan the whole thing leading up to me becoming an Ankou-Fae? Something told me he hadn't. Oh sure, he had obviously planned for me to make it to the tower, but I didn't think he had quite that much control over everything. Not enough to have predicted what ended up happening.

But, I would find out how much he knew soon enough. First, I checked the secret hidden cameras Percy and I had set up around Laramie Falls. We had actually set them up before that invasion happened, since I wanted to keep an eye on what was going on over there from the moment I found out we would probably be leaving soon. But now they were even more useful. Yes, we had erased all the Heretic memories of where the village was and all that, but you could never be too careful. The cameras around the village were an insurance policy. No one knew about them but us, so if something happened and anyone in the village was compromised somehow, they wouldn't be able to expose them.

Once I was sure if the cameras were working, I took a few minutes to eat. I’d used a lot of energy in that fight, and really needed the boost. I even took a quick nap. Only about forty minutes, but for me, that was almost the equivalent of a full night. Close enough, anyway.

I’d had enough of a rest by then, I didn't get up just yet. Instead, I meditated for a minute and projected myself into my island Archive. This time, instead of being on Fathom’s ship, I was walking along a path in the park. One of the other members of the Flique was right there with me. She called herself Extra, which was supposed to be a reference both to the whole newspaper ‘extra extra’ thing, and the fact that she was, well, pretty extra herself.

As soon as I appeared, Extra pivoted to walk backwards so she could bounce up and down while staring at me. She looked just like me, of course, aside from the fact that she had her hair cut very short, almost a buzz cut. And she wore baggy cargo pants and a football jersey. “Dude,” she exclaimed, “next time you run into a fight with Heretics like that, you have got to pull more of us out. We can all help, you know? We want to help. Instead of leaving us stuck in here just watching the action. Isn't that the whole reason you've been practicing swapping us in and out of the copilot seat?”

My head bobbed quickly. “I know, I know. I was just nervous about how long it takes. I mean, even with the practice, I still need almost a minute of focus to switch you guys around. Which is kind of an eternity in a situation like that. But I was thinking there might be a way to cut down on that. Maybe not for everyone, but Story and I were talking and we think I can sort of keep just a few of you in what amounts to a waiting room. Not quite all the way out there, but not all the way in here either. A midway point. If I can do that, then it would only take a few seconds to swap in and out. But we'd have to set it up ahead of time, and we couldn't hold it forever. I'd have to know there was a fight coming and take a few minutes to pull you guys into that waiting area.”

Extra shrugged at that. “Whatever you need to do. Remember, we're all you. Which means we all want to help. Imagine how you'd feel to end up locked up in a place like this while the fight was going on. We all wanted to punch Ruthers. Which, for the record, I'm pretty sure you could sell the memory of that to everyone in the rebellion and make enough to retire to your own real private island.”

Snorting at that, I tapped my chin thoughtfully. “Maybe that's something to keep in mind if I ever get tired of all this action.” I couldn't contain my smirk at the scandalized choking sound the other me made at that very suggestion. It was worth it just to see her reaction.

“But yes, I promise I'll work on swapping you all in and out more and giving you more of a chance to participate. At least the ones who want to actively fight.” There were plenty of members of the Flique who preferred to stay in the background. Which I couldn't blame them for. They had become very different people over all the time they have spent with their charges. They might've started out as copies of me, but for some of them, hundreds or even thousands of years had passed. They were more content to rest and let the younger versions do the active work for now.

In all, there were about two hundred active members of the Flique. Others were in what we were calling retirement. Which meant they were essentially sleeping in our hospital on the far side of the island. They’d been awake and active, or some version of it, for so long they just wanted to turn off for the time being. They would sleep until someone woke them up, or until they decided they were done. Which could be years.

But of the two hundred who were awake, roughly twenty had expressed a desire to actively participate in fights right now. Others were ready to step in if need be, but those twenty were the ones that were eager for it. Which meant I had twenty other Versions of myself who could step in and copilot at any point. Twenty versions of myself who could each hold six powers a piece.

Speaking of which, I gave Extra a slight smirk and glanced over to see a couple other members of our group already starting to walk up along the park to join us. “Seems to me that we picked up some new special gifts from that fight.” I was already pretty full on the powers I could hold as it was, and I didn't want to leave myself without any extra slots in case I managed to absorb something big. Which meant I needed to assign those powers to some of these guys.

With that in mind, I set out walking once more, sending the message to the others who wanted to actively participate that they should meet us at the rec center on the opposite side of the park.

It was still strange, even after these past couple of months, to find myself standing in that rec center staring at several dozen versions of myself. They were all like clones of me, dressed differently, styled differently, but all me. it felt disconcerting, to say the least.

We had done this power assigning thing before, the few times that I had picked up new gifts since the situation started. That was where Fathom’s ability to allow people to swim through solid material had come from, after all. But nothing on this scale. I had gained a lot of powers from that fight thanks to the Heretics who didn’t have to survive for the timeline to stay intact. Even though not all of the ones we had killed had even had powers, enough had for this to be almost like Christmas.

First, I brought up a blackboard and wrote down every power I had inherited. Percy had helped out with that earlier by possessing me and giving me the list. Once it was all written down, we all started debating back-and-forth about how those powers could be used and combined, and which of my new partners could make the most use out of them. There were a few arguments, naturally, but for the most part it was all pretty smooth. We were all on the same side, all in the same body. It gave us all added incentive to actually work out who was best for each power, no matter how neat everyone thought they were.

All of that took a couple hours before we had it all settled, though a fair amount of it was from all the extra conversations that kept popping up. It turned out that when you put twenty or so versions of me in a room together, we were easily distracted.

Okay, when you put one of me in a room, I was easily distracted.

But, in the end, we worked it all out. Which meant it was time to assign those powers.

Apparently, the whole power assigning thing could've manifested here in multiple ways. In my case, they came in the form of rings. I had a box full of rings that I could hand out. Each ring was a different power. When one of my other selves put on a ring, it disappeared until either they or I focused on bringing it back. They could each hold six rings, for six powers.

The first person up for swapping rings around and getting new ones was Story herself, the first member of the Flique I had ever interacted with. She was holding a couple minor rings that we swapped around. But in the end, we were both much more satisfied with how she was set up.

First off, she had the ability to touch any bit of writing or drawing and manifest a small, three-dimensional object version of those letters or the picture. She could make the letter objects incredibly sharp, and telekinetically manipulate them to fly around. So she could touch the print on a book and make the word 'puppies' appear as a sharp, three-dimensional object about the size of a dagger, and send it flying into someone.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

And as far as touching books went, the second power she had made it so that any page she put her fingers on, she could instantly know what was written on it. Which included touching the edge of a piece of paper. So she could read entire novels and know the full contents just by running her finger along the side or top of the book. And damn was that ever going to be useful when it came to her attempts to learn as much magic as possible. Not to mention all the history she was trying to learn. I was pretty sure Story and Vanessa were really going to get along once I managed to introduce them. Which was a thought that made me even more homesick, but I pushed that aside. Now really wasn't the time.

The third power Story had was very minor illusions. They couldn't be heard or smelled or anything, and they couldn't be very big. They were just very small visual illusions no larger than a little dog or cat. But, that was combined with her fourth power, which gave her the ability to influence someone's senses. That was also in a minor way, making them hear something for a second, or pick up the hint of a scent. She could even use it to very briefly overwhelm their senses so they went momentarily blind and deaf, though that only lasted for a second. And there were plenty of people who would be immune to it. Either way, it could prove useful. And she could combine the minor illusions and minor sense adjustment to work together.

That left two more power slots for her. The fifth ability was a special magical force field. It wouldn't stop any physical object or attack, and it only lasted for a few seconds at a time. She had to actively focus on it. But while that shield was up, the effects of magic they tried to hit us would be drastically lessened. The better she understood what the magical effect was, the more effective the shield would be. So yeah, obviously I was going to give that power to Story, considering her interest in memorizing spells.

The sixth and final power I gave her was a weird one. It basically amounted to autopilot for our body. All she had to do was think of a physical task she wanted us to do, one that we were capable of, and our body would set out to do that without us paying any attention to it. We could focus inwardly, or even come into the Archive while the body carried out its instructions. if anything unexpected popped up, we'd have to jump in, but for a situation where we didn't need any active mental participation, it could be a godsend.

Obviously, the most immediate use for that was to let our body exercise, eat, and even carry out chores while we were mentally occupied.

So that was how we’d set up Story. She seemed satisfied with her powers, though I was sure we'd end up swapping things around at some point.

Next up was Fathom. She already had that allowing people to swim through solid material power, and she wanted to keep it. Beyond that, when this was over, she also had the ability to stick to any material, even walking on water or standing on ceilings. No matter what it was, she could stand on it and stay there. And she could solidify any liquid into a hard state. Not exactly like ice, since it would be room temperature. It was more like turning liquid into metal. She practiced that by turning a cup-worth of water into a dagger, and the mad cackling that ensued at that came from more than one of us.

Speaking of water, she was also able to multiply the amount of water she had. Whatever water was in front of her, she could magnify that to three or four times the amount. Though she couldn't exactly do that with an entire ocean. She was limited to the base amount being roughly five hundred gallons. Still, turning five hundred gallons into about two and a half thousand gallons could be pretty damn impressive.

In keeping with her water-based gifts, Fathom could also make two beings share the benefits of oxygen. In other words, she was able to make it so someone who couldn't breathe for whatever reason could share oxygen with someone who could. There didn't seem to be any negative side effects for either. As long as one of them was able to breathe, the other would be fine. Which would actually help quite a lot with swimming both through water and the ground itself.

Finally, I gave her superbreath. She could fill her lungs with a truly impressive amount of air, and blow out one hundred and fifty mile per hour gusts. Yeah, sort of like Superman, honestly. But mostly, I was just amused by the idea of her using that to push her sailing ship around.

Then there was Locke, my survival and hunting-focused self. The first thing I had given to her was the harpy power, the one allowing us to track people by their blood. It felt right for her to have it, and that opened up a slot for me to put another power in later. Additionally, she had a power that gave her immunity to basically all toxins, diseases, poison, gas, anything like that. Very, very few things in that vein could affect her. And she could also pull any small object, as long as it was less than a pound in weight, to us from anywhere within about ten feet or so. Once that small object reached us, we could either take it, or make it stick to our body. When the object was stuck to us, it could be boosted to be much tougher than it should've been, allowing it to act as a sort of shield. More importantly, we could hold a whole bunch of those objects against our body and stick them in place at the same time, enough to completely cover us. Basically, if we had enough small objects, we could encase our entire body with them and make it act like armor. Armor that can stand up to a huge punch.

Locke also liked animals, so I gave her a power we’d picked up to compel and somewhat control them. They had to have only animal-level intelligence, and it couldn't be too complicated, but they would obey even if they were supposed to be hostile. Well, in some cases. It depended on just how hostile and why.

Then she had this healing smoke stuff. It used the magical energy in someone's body to cure their wounds up to a certain amount. Which seemed pretty helpful in survival situations, and that was what she specialized in.

And speaking of survival situations, the last power she had was this stasis ability. The person she used it on had to be willing, or at least not consciously resisting. If they were unconscious or a friend or whatever, she could put them in a stasis lock that would prevent them from bleeding out, getting hungrier, or anything like that. Nothing about their body would change as long as they were in that stasis lock. And we were the only person who could move them through that. We could freeze them, move them somewhere else such as to the hospital, then unfreeze them. It would also work for nonliving material, though it didn't really play nice with certain active magical effects, so it might be hard to freeze a bomb spell or anything like that. Still, useful.

Sometimes sitting down with various members of my… collective here to come up with names we could refer to them as took a long time. Hot Type was not one of those times. They came up with the name themself, and it definitely fit. It was another newspaper term, this one had to do with the way they used to typeset text with molten metal before switching to more modern methods in the eighties. Nineteen eighties, that was. Clarification was important when you were walking around in the fifteen-eighties.

Either way, Hot Type was a version of me who was… um, different. They were very sensual and quite direct about it. Confident, sexual, teasing, and they seemed equally comfortable wearing slinky dresses or tight suits. Oh, and they were quite eager to talk to anyone who would listen about how attractive basically everyone was. It was… uh, strange seeing a version of myself like that.

I didn’t have six different appropriate powers for them. Just three. The first allowed them to turn flame into solid, glass-like material and reshape it. Which included shrinking it down. When that material broke, it would go back to being live flame the size it had originally been. So they could take a house-sized fire and gradually condense it down into a glass ball that fit in the palm of our hand. With the second power, they could generate and control these long black and red… tentacle things that looked like they were made of hot ash and charcoal. They could control the temperature of those tentacles, from luke-warm up to leaving severe burns on an unprotected person. And the last power they had, at least for the moment, allowed them to absorb and disperse heat that was affecting not only us, but anyone else we could see. If we were looking at someone who was engulfed in flames, we could make those flames not affect the person simply by drawing the effect of the fire to us and then dispersing it somewhere else. They usually channeled it in waves from our palm. And yes, we heard plenty of ‘you’re so hot’ jokes while they practiced with it.

Most of the other members of this group had various minor gifts, physical enhancements they could use in a fight that I picked up here or there so they wouldn't be totally helpless if it came down to it. Extra was the other one with specific unique powers. In her case, the first thing I gave her was the ability to magnify the effect of any physical exertion she made. No matter what she did, if it was a physical action like jumping or punching someone or anything like that, she could magnify the effect by several times. It fit her name pretty well. Plus, she could absorb kinetic energy. That seemed useful for someone like her too. Too much could overwhelm her, but up to a certain amount she could take and turn into a physical boost for us.

The third power I’d given her was the ability to turn bits of air solid for brief times. Long enough to act as shields or allow us to walk on it. She could also control how slippery the solid air was, so we could slide along it. By the same token, she could make us lighter or heavier, from about a quarter of our weight up to three times, without changing our size. Making us lighter to slide further after a jump sounded like a lot of fun to play with.

Her last two powers were a sound magnification or dampening ability that could be set to different levels for different people (so she could make some people hear things in a deafening tone while others didn’t hear anything at all), and a touch-based electric zapping attack.

By the time I’d assigned all those powers and made sure we set aside time to practice with them, it was already pretty late. I said my goodbyes and promised to visit soon (and to work on that whole switching them in and out of fights more often thing), before opening my eyes back in the real world.

Percy was there, waiting in the doorway of my room in the replica Haunted Mansion. “Are you ready, Flick?

“Because it’s time to meet Ehn, and see where… or when he wants to send us next.”