When they turned up at the appointed hired ritual room it seemed James’s feeling of ‘the more the merrier’ had been going around.
They expected the young man who was receiving essences to be joined by family but they actually found what must have been almost his entire extended family. There were so many people jammed in shoulder to shoulder that Lucy didn’t have the space to lay out the ritual. There was a short delay as she went out and negotiated for one of the bigger rooms.
[Do these people all look a little… similar to you guys?] James asked, looking around.
[I think there may be at least three sets of twins in here.] Teddy replied.
[Huh, must be some weird family genetics going on.]
There was every stage of family present. Four little boys were running around dodging between legs, some early teen twins were present eagerly ready to watch the essence ritual as they would be next when they came of age. Proud parents were catching up with brothers and sisters and there were even grandparents in the room.
Lucy returned and beckoned everyone out, they walked down the corridor to a much bigger room. It was a stone amphitheatre set into the floor. The Mitchells all stopped at the top layer as they walked through the door with the exception of Lucy who made her way down to the bottom. A year of adventuring in this world had changed her. Gone was the nervous shy girl she had been in her previous life, she now stood there confidently in the centre of the amphitheatre while the huge family filed in, taking up all the seats. She had a hip cocked and arms crossed. While they were in the city she had put wraps around her vambraces, unwilling to take them off but wanting to soften the look. Her wand holster was ever present but looked fairly innocent, there were only a few wands poking out and the sword hilt which could easily be looked over as there was no sword blade present.
A older man and his son made their way down to the bottom and she shook hands with them. The hubbub of the room died down slightly as everyone was keen to see it start.
“Well now I’ve met two of your brothers I can definitely see you must be the young man we’re here for.” Lucy said, looking at the man in front of her, glancing up at his identical brothers Edgar at the top who was standing next to Edmund the familiar magic shop owner.
“Yes ma’am, I’m Eddie.” He said nervously, he was doing fairly well considering the crowd that was here just to see him.
“It’s just Lucy, calling me ma’am makes me feel old. You’re triplets?”
“Quintuplets actually.” The father said.
“Wow. And you’re the last one to get essences?”
“Yes ma’am. I mean Ms Lucy.”
“Don’t worry about it, you’ll soon catch up. So one of your brothers is a magical artisan specialised in artefacts for familiars. Another is a member of the church of Hero and adventurer, what essences are you going for?”
“Edgar is unusual, we’ve never had an Edland who’s not been a merchant, its strange that he's an administrator for the church. I’ve always wanted to take over the family tailors business!”
“He’s a good boy who has been working the shop since he could walk. We’re proud to say we’ve had four generations working the shop and he’ll be the fifth. We’ve got a tried and tested set of essences and a few awakening stones that should cover everything he needs.” His father said.
“Perfect, so I know what to expect have you got any ritual magic experience? Any martial experience?”
“No Ms Lucy, I’ve only ever been rough housing with my brothers, not easy growing up in a family of five, there’s a few bumps here and there. But I can do ritual magic! I learnt it from dad for a few things in the shop.”
“Well then, there’s a chance you may get a familiar power then, it’s always a good idea to try and learn ritual magic first if you can to improve the odds. Edgar asked me to come and do these rituals for you because we have a power that allows you to see what you receive. These are your powers and no one else has a right to them, I can just add you, you and your father or everyone in the room to see. It’s up to you.”
“Wow, well, I think everyone should see?” He said looking at his father. “It’s for the family after all, they all pitched in to buy the essences and stones, I want to celebrate it with them.”
Lucy nodded and went over to the table set up permanently in the room. It was shielded to prevent anything placed on it interfering with the rituals within. The large room was set up that demonstrations could take place for members of the magic society. Lucy panned her gaze over the waiting family.
“Good morning. Welcome. The magic society kindly let us use this room for the day so please make yourselves comfortable. My name is Lucy Mitchell. I am not a member of the magic society but I am what you might call a specialist in ritual magic. Specifically we have been asked to join you here today to facilitate the awakening of Eddie’s powers as we have a fairly unique gift that will allow him and you all to see the specific details of what he receives. My family members are now going to walk among you.” She looked pointedly at the others until they moved. “They’re going to just say hello to each of you in order to add you to the power temporarily so you can see firsthand Eddie’s gifts.”
She turned back to Eddie and his father. “So do you have the goods?”
The older man nodded and handed a satchel to Lucy. She smiled and turned to lay them out on the table.
Item: Needle Essence
Item: Thread Essence
Item: Cloth Essence
“Hmm, a very specific set of essences for a tailor then, do you know the confluence essence for these?”
“The Master essence, it typically gives a good set of abilities to compliment and improve on the others.”
She continued emptying the bag.
Item: Awakening stone of Scissors
Item: Awakening stone of Wind
Item: Awakening stone of Frost
Item: Awakening stone of Connections
Item: Awakening stone of Fabricate
Item: Awakening stone of Vision
Item: Awakening stone of Cognition
Item: Awakening stone of Precision
“This is a good collection of stones to get you well on your way!” She commented.
“Well as you said, I have a lot of catching up to do!”
Temporary group: [Edland Family] has been established.
Custom permissions and settings have been created.
“Ok we’re ready to rock and roll.” She turned to the room again. “We’re about to start, you can see the interface in front of you, If you think about moving it around then it will shift. Eddie, you ready?”
He nodded, hugged his father then moved to the middle of the room. Lucy took the first essence and handed it to him. Kyra was standing next to the door and used the controls to dim the light slightly for ambiance. Lucy raised her arms to the ceiling. The others recognised that this wasn’t necessary but she was doing it for showmanship, making a memory the family would remember forever. Dual rituals spilled from her eyes in glyphs of gold. Swirling in helix down each arm to form Rune circles in the air, when the last glyph spilled off the end of her finger and joined the slowly rotating circles she dropped her arms and the circles fell to the floor around Eddie.
[Eddie Edland] (human, normal rank) has absorbed [Needle Essence]
[Eddie Edland] speed attribute has progressed to: iron 0%
[Eddie Edland] has unlocked [Needle] essence ability [Fire Needle]
[Eddie Edland] has awakened the racial gift: [Slim Penetration]
Ability: [Fire Needle] (Needle)
Special attack
Base cost: Low mana
Cool-down: Nil
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Conjure needles of fire that can be thrown to embed themselves into a target. Chance to cause the [Burning] condition.
Burning effect: enemies suffering from this condition will suffer ongoing damage unless healed or water based powers used. Resistant to healing magic. Chance for the [Burnt] condition.
Burnt effect: enemies suffering from this condition will no longer be able to generate health or stamina until healed.
Racial gift
Ability [Slim Penetration]: Any attacks made against an enemy will penetrate further than normal for baseline strength.
“Wow, a very good power to start off with! All those conditions associated with it.” Lucy remarked to Eddie.
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He didn’t look at her, he was looking at his father, mortified. A sussurance was going through the crowd as they read through it slower.
“Dad…” he said worried, scared almost.
“Don’t worry son, nothing to worry about, everyone gets some combat utility with their powers, it’ll be fine.” He said to comfort his son but there was no hiding he’d gone paler.
Eddie nodded and looked at Lucy. “I’m ready for my next.” Keen to make amends.
Lucy handed him the next one and stepped out of the circle, this time she had the glyphs flow around her body, stirring her arms around her like she was in a giant cauldron. She swept her arm out and the glyphs shot out to form a stream that curved around Eddie until the circle was complete.
[Eddie Edland] (human, normal rank) has absorbed [Cloth Essence]
[Eddie Edland] Recovery attribute has progressed to: iron 0%
[Eddie Edland] has unlocked [Cloth] essence ability [Cloth Spectre]
[Eddie Edland] has awakened the racial gift: [Radiant Raiment]
Ability: [Cloth Spectre] (Cloth)
Summon
Base cost: very high mana
Cool-down: Nil
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Conjure a cloth familiar to serve the user.
Racial gift
Ability [Radiant Raiment]: gain extra boons from making or wearing magical items.
“There we are son!” Eddie’s mother said from the front bench. That’s more what we were expecting! Hopefully a familiar to help in the shop and a very suitable racial gift.”
Lucy couldn’t help think to herself that she hadn’t seen many familiars that were suited to shop work but she kept that to herself. She brought the next essence over to Eddie. “After this we’ll have a look at the summoning requirements, I may have them on me and we can get that going for you.”
This would be the last essence ritual Lucy would do, having three essences generated the confluence essence on its own and Lucy had a finale. She started throwing the glyphs into air from in front of her eyes, they hung in mid air as she built the circle. When it was done she stopped, raising both hands high to ‘grab’ the circle she brought it down on Eddie’s head like she was trying to break a large, round, golden stain glass window. The next ability caused more outrage than the first.
[Eddie Edland] (human, normal rank) has absorbed [Thread Essence]
[Eddie Edland] power attribute has progressed to: iron 0%
[Eddie Edland] has unlocked [Thread] essence ability [Headsman’s Bootlace]
[Eddie Edland] has awakened the racial gift: [Gray man]
Ability: [Headsman’s Bootlace] (Thread)
Special attack
Base cost: Low mana
Cool-down: Nil
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Conjure a garrotte made of undetectable wire. As well as dealing considerable damage the Headsman’s Bootlace rapidly absorbs health, stamina and mana into the user from the victim. If the user is undetected damage is doubled.
Racial gift
Ability [Gray man]: while the baseline strength of your aura may be detected no other information is discernible within. Highly resistant to tracking magic.
“Dear gods!” The most well-dressed elderly man in the room said from the front row. “Imagine if the customers find out about this!”
Eddie was looking shocked and horrified, swaying slightly and staring into space after reading the description. He almost missed what came next.
“Eddie.” Lucy whispered gently, careful as he was so unsettled. “Take it, take the confluence essence.”
He seemed to come to his senses more and saw the essence cube in front of him and reached out to take it.
[Eddie Edland] (human, normal rank) has absorbed [Master Essence] (confluence)
[Eddie Edland] spirit attribute has progressed to: iron 0%
[Eddie Edland] has unlocked [Master] essence ability [Brutalise]
[Eddie Edland] has awakened the racial gift: [Combat focus]
Ability: [Brutalise] (Master)
Special effect
Base cost: Nil
Cool-down: Nil
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Especially brutal attacks made will cause ongoing damage. Successive attacks above the threshold will be multiplicative.
Racial gift
Ability [Combat focus]: Racial ability that allows the user to spend mana to boost special attacks. Amount of mana divestment increases with strength of the user.
“Oh dear! Oh dear!” The woman sat next to the elderly gent said and got up holding a handkerchief to her face and swept the room.
Edland matriarch has left the group.
“Please everyone!” Eddie’s father said to settle the rest of family. “Please. It’s not what we planned, not what we’ve seen before. But there must be a way to come back from this!”
He paused as Lucy stepped forward and raised a small tent up around Eddie who was swaying looking queasy, the tent had rituals stitched into the fabric to block sound and smell. She handed in some crystal wash before closing the tent, the ritual room would absorb the filth.
“Please stay, at least for the familiar summoning, an extra pair of hands in the shop would be welcome indeed!” He turned to Lucy with pleasing eyes. “Do you have what you need?”
She opened a small Rune circle and her inventory contents zoomed by and she pulled out what she needed. There was a slight break in the show as Lucy helped Eddie draw the circle himself once he had recovered, she felt it was important considering it was going to be his familiar for the rest of his life that he was the one to work the ritual. She purposely took her time with it, the young man was obviously shaken and she wanted to give him the time to wind down.
“You see how this line is not completely straight? I find its easier to re-draw the section completely rather than rub it out in one place.”
“Sorry! I’m sorry! So sorry.”
“Relax, its ok, we have all the time you need, we have the room all day.”
“I’ve never done a ritual this complicated before, It’s normally to help with very basic ones.”
Lucy took a moment to look at the ritual with fresh eyes, she was very used to banging out complicated rituals in seconds using her rune lore power. With her Rune Lore and Clarity powers she could hold multiple complicated rituals in her mind. With objectivity she assessed the ritual, she had seen a few variations and she confirmed that this was indeed a rather complicated example. She held her breath for what that meant for the young man, she was fairly sure this wasn’t going to just be a helpful pair of hands for the shop.
The ritual was ready and everyone was seated again, Lucy had a quiet word with Eddie about the incantation, it hadn’t appeared on the interface and she wanted to be sure he was happy with it. After speaking to him she was confident she knew how it was going to go and she knew she had to talk to the assembled crowd.
“What you are about to see is a privilege. The rituals of summoning are unique to their powers and invite entities from the astral to join us in our tribulations. Keep in your mind that the words of the summoning are set, they cannot be changed but they do not determine the character of the entity summoned and you should trust in your family member that he is good and will have a partner that matches him.”
[How bad is it?] James asked.
[Bad. Like it makes Lechuza’s summoning chant seem downright friendly.]
Eddie was standing by the summoning circle now and the room went quiet. Lucy have him a nod. He looked nervous and self conscious but he couldn’t back out now.
“I call to the darkness,
The deepest hood and the darkest cloak,
The darkness that cannot be shifted,
Where the secret things dwell that do not see the light,
Secrets that bring down dynasty’s and change the fates of millions,
Bring me the power to strike down monoliths that have stood for generations,
The fabric that holds society mine to change,
Dominion holds no power over the force in the darkness, unseen it strikes.”
[How is that a cloth familiar?!] James exclaimed on the interface in the moment of stillness as the last syllable hung heavy in the air. From halfway through the chant the young man’s voice had gone incredibly deep and reverberating, sounding like a menacing dirge by the end.
The lights in the room dimmed, Lucy’s eyes whipped to the lights that were magically protected from interference. There was a thin gauze creeping over the lights from behind.
The magic was held in the summoning circle, it didn’t dissipate like it normally did into the ground. The force exploded out like a wind, blowing everyone back in their seats, a moment of stillness with a vacuum of emptiness in the centre before all the force rushed back to the centre. Everyone’s clothes and robes were whipping, being pulled by the wind. The wind rushing towards the centre lasted longer than the rush outwards, the sustained force seemed to rip and tear the clothes, strips of cloth ripped off but left no damage, flowing towards Eddie. He was wrapped in all the strips, no matter what colour cloth they came from they appeared mottled black around him. It formed what looked like cloth armour, a weave that hugged his figure.
The wind stopped and everyone looked down at the boy.
Ability: [Cloth Spectre] (Cloth)
Familiar (ritual, summon)
Cost: Extreme mana, extreme stamina, extreme health.
Cool-down: None
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Cloth Spectre serves the user. When absorbed grants the user the ability to change clothes to suite the environment.
When deployed can be used to form highly versatile cloth armour. Armour is highly resistant to slashing attacks, less resistant to stabbing and blunt force attacks. Highly resistant to magical attacks. Armour allows the user to blend into their environment.
Any cloth within the users aura may be replicated by the familiar. An enemy within the user’s aura may be targeted by the familiar. A special attack may be used that deals strangulation damage and forces cloth down the targets throat to suffocate them.
He was head to foot in mottled black cloth armour, his boots were covered, he had wrapped legs covered by a slightly stiffer fabric partial kilt that would protect the outside of his legs. His torso was wrapped tight but had ragged straps that flowed as he swayed with exhaustion. Thick stiff cloth panels covered his chest and shoulders. He had a mask which completely covered his face, thin gauze obscuring his eyes but allowing him to see and a deep hood that hid it making it sinister. A short cape completed the ensemble, flowing in a wind that had died away.
This time there was no pregnant pause, family members fought each other in the rush to evacuate the room. After a surprisingly quick exit the only people left in the room were the Mitchells and Ragnar around the top, Lucy in the centre with Eddie who hadn’t moved and his father looking shocked.
No one moved and Lucy looked from Eddie to his father and back, the father looked horrified staring into space. Eddie was guiltily looking at his father like he had ruined his life.
“Let’s get these awakening stones done and we can talk about this.” Lucy prompted. The father didn’t move, catatonic.
Eddie nodded at Lucy, grateful for the distraction. They got through them quickly and quietly, not pausing between.
Awakening stone of Scissors [Combat Shears] (Cloth)
Effect (iron): conjure a pair of combat shears to be used as a weapon. Can be separated to allow dual wielding.
Execute ability: decapitation, bonus damage to attacks that are aimed to decapitate the enemy.
When he pulled out the shears they were more like two foot long garden shears with serrated edges, they could indeed be opened up then pulled apart to have one in each hand. Eddie had dropped them in shock when he conjured the sinister weapon.
Awakening stone of Wind [Blowpipe] (Needle)
Effect (iron): conjure a blowpipe to fire summoned needles.
Awakening stone of Frost [Frost Needle] (Needle)
Effect (iron): Conjure needles of frost that can be thrown to embed themselves into a target. Chance to cause the [Frozen] condition.
Frozen effect: reduces mobility and speed in effected area. Chance for the [Frostbitten] condition.
Frostbitten effect: causes ongoing damage to the target area, are affected will continuously peel of in frozen flakes.
Awakening stone of Connections [Assassins Stitch] (Thread)
Effect (iron): summon a thread with a dart on each end, when thrown at two targets it will connect them. Mana from one target will be used to cause damage to the other. Effect will be swapped at intervals.
Awakening stone of Fabricate [Tailors choice] (Cloth)
Aura power
Effect (iron): Allies within the aura receive a random boon to their armour. Enemies within the aura receive random damage to their armour or their armour gives them a random affliction.
The naming convention of the aura power had caused the father to come out of his catatonia before he read the effect and he fell into a squat to his heels, holding his head in his hands.
Awakening stone of Vision [Focussed Eyes] (Master)
Effect (iron): Increased aim with all projectiles.
Awakening stone of Cognition [Frog Dart] (Needle)
Effect (iron): Conjures needles coated in a poison that causes hallucinations.
Awakening stone of Precision [Killer instinct] (Master)
Effect (iron): All attacks from user find weak points on the enemy to cause extra damage.
“Just stop.” Croaked the father. He was still staring at the floor. “Stop. You have done enough.” He stood up and walked over to his son. He hugged him and the fabric armour melted into his regular clothes he had been standing in when they started. “Just leave. His life he wanted is over. Go, we never want to see you again.”
The Mitchells were so shocked at what had happened here they couldn’t say anything, they quietly left the room leaving the father and son in the bottom of the amphitheatre holding each other now their lives had been forever changed.