Thanks for that movie clip, I don't think I've ever seen WOTW before.

Hannah needs to explain herself, at least. Maybe there's a reason why she did the things she did, right? Maybe someone cast a spell on her from some other plane, and she didn't know it (that's not it, of course, that's just an example). Because: think about it. Hannah was really cool during the first chapters she appeared in, right? And then out of nowhere she did this dovetail.



This is America, though. They'll bring their lawyers, at least make an attempt.

Eminem, nice! 😎

That's right, she was kidnapped. A lot has happened, seems like you've been writing this part of the story since fall.

... Poor Jan. I know she's a fictional character, but I really think she needs to take a nice vacation. Go to Vermont, or something. Of course, that would make for a sleepy set of chapters. Never mind.

No kidding, Cray is here! His attire is just as much a fixture as the capes and skin-tight clothes most superheroes wear. Like, tweeds and sweater-vests are his "super outfit".

Interesting that both of our stories this week have parties in them. 🎈

Yes, MC5! -- Superheroes chugging beer! This is a great party. I almost feel like I am there.

Uh oh, it's Hannah. I'd better come back to this... Wow, Hannah's acting as though nothing has happened. "So, where were we?" Like nothing happened, no racist comments were made. Good. Jan is resisting the temptation to just fall into the Vortex.

I mean, it is a tough spot. Seems like January (as inexperienced as she is) has trouble possibly seeing that there are others out there who could be more compatible. Because this is her first love. But yeah, doesn't sound like Hannah's views have changed.

But she needs to take time away from being a superhero if she's serious about trying to pursue an actual relationship with somebody. Which might be impossible, of course, since she's virtually on call at all times. But that's what she needs to do. Take time for herself for awhile. Which might be impossible.

My suggestion: Jan, put your info on Instacram or Facecrook or Cindr. "Trans lady ISO X" .. Gotta be others out there who'll dig you, and aren't racist piggies.

A wonderful opportunity to try and decompress some after that world-saving epic battle. So Blood Raven is a musician – and a good one at that. Wonderful to see her relaxing some and clearly happy to be surrounded by her coven of Raven protegees.

I understand January feeling on top of the world after surviving that battle. Those feelings are dashed however, as Hannah reenters the scene. It is a shame that Hannah does not see the illogic of blaming everyone of Asian descent for the wrongs inflicted on her by Asians. It is a gulf too wide for the two women. I know that Jan made the right call, but being right doesn’t make her feel any better.

Nice closing scene with the Hungry Ghost. I’m glad he had that chat with Jan and it is encouraging to know that the color of his hat seems to be lightening.

It's interesting that you mentioned Operation Paperclip, because I'd been watching this earlier that day:

Wernher von Braun, by Tom Lehrer

Now this is a party! Great music, great (mostly) people. Though I think that Cray's the star of the show, what with just going in wearing street clothes.

At the very least, this feels like the start of something bigger. People from all over coming together for a greater cause. And a lot of that has to do with January reaching out and making connections. She is really at the center of things in a lot of ways. It's quite a start to her career.

Ah, got a little mixed up between real-time and book-time. Definitely hasn't been long enough for Hannah to turn a new leaf. But the involved parties handled it well. Maybe Hannah can overcome her bigotry, but that's something she has to do with her own.

I also like the ending dialogue with Hungry Ghost. Thinking back to my twenties, I marvel at how stupid and ill-informed I was. Yet I kind of hope that, when I'm in my forties, I feel the same way about my thirties. Otherwise, I'm not learning anything.

Renee: War of the Worlds is a classic sci fi story. HG Wells wrote it back at the end of the 1800s, and he imagined a Martian invasion of Earth. The man was really a visionary.

It has been a long time since we first met Hannah, so I am not surprised her face-heel turn comes as a shock. But if you go back and reread, there are plenty of red flags, especially concerning Okami/Ryo. From being kidnapped by an Yakuza assassin when she was a child, to simply the horrific things that Japan did to China and everyone else in the first half the 20th Century. Look up the Rape of Nanking or Unit 731 if you want to be depressed. To this day there is a tremendous amount of rancor between China and Japan, and Japan just insists upon throwing grease on the fire every chance they get, by doing things like lay wreaths the graves of genocidal war criminals, and insisting that they did nothing wrong.

If January went on vacation I would be obligated to find some way to turn that into an adventure. I will have to think of a good place to do something like that! Maybe she could visit Viuda and Calypso down in the Caribbean and have another adventure there. Or maybe go to Europe and meet some of the supers over there?

I love your names for dating apps. Especially Cindr. What does ISO X mean though? I am not young enough to be hip to all the lingo the kids use these days.


Acadian: If you go waaay back Blood Raven did play the violin before. I believe it was when they had the first official meeting between Blood Raven, Stormcrow, Cray, and Gadget in the Raven's Nest.

It has a been a long time in real time since that book, so I am not surprised the particulars of Hannah's issues faded from memory. She is Chinese-American (well Chinese-Australian). It is only the Japanese in particular that she hates, because of history. Will she ever move past it? Maybe, maybe not. I really do not know myself. We probably have not seen the last of her. Exes have a way of returning to our lives from time to time.

Hungry Ghost is indeed one of those many Heel-Face turns that January has helped to facilitate. I wanted that scene to show his own growth, which stands in stark contrast to his daughter's. It is ironic that January first met Hannah because she was fleeing from the Ghost. Now he is the one she is on better terms with.


WellTemperedClavier: That learning how to speak Chinese line at the end of that video is especially prophetic these days...

I was pleased with how I was able to weave January so tightly into events, without them being truly led by her (Blood Raven has always been the Allied Commander in Chief). But as you pointed out, January is the one who brought all these people together through her empathy and desire to make the world better for the people in it.

As I said before, one reason I like writing January is because she is so much kinder than I am. Hungry Ghost was definitely an author stand in during that scene, though in different ways. We can always learn to be better people.










Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On?


Book 10.27 - Alliance

But she could only distract herself from herself for so long. In the end, she was left there with herself. That empty pit in her stomach widened and widened, and down into it fell all the light and joy in her being. Once more, her throat tightened, and she felt her eyes water. She sniffled hard to keep her nose from running, and abruptly rose to her feet.

She was not going to be some silly protagonist from some teen melodrama, who had just broken up with her boyfriend and went running off to cry as Time After Time by Cyndy Lauper played in the background. Nope, that was not her at all. She had just broken up with her girlfriend, and it was Marvin Gaye playing in the background, asking What's Going On?

She walked through the Aura in a daze. She was barely aware of all the supers assembled around her playing beer pong, dancing, throwing darts, and debating philosophy and video games over foaming mugs of beer. She pushed through the swinging metal door to the kitchen. Once inside and finally alone, she sagged against a wide stainless steel sink. She stared down at the faucet through bleary eyes, and finally she could not hold it back anymore.

She began to cry. No, she began to weep. She felt her chest wrack from the effort, and doubled over above the sink. Her fingers rose to cover her face, but that of course did nothing to dam the tide that poured from her heart. It felt like her world was ending. Like she was empty, cold and alone, and would be forever.

A hand gently draped across her shoulder. She turned to find Blood Raven standing there, her face drawn with a mixture of worry and empathy. The other woman did not say a word. She simply folded January within her arms, and held her tight as her body was wracked with the sobs.

She had not really cried before, after Hannah's outburst at Green Island. Somehow January always thought that somehow things would work out. That was how it always happened on TV after all. The writer just said so, and the world arranged itself to fix things. The gods leapt from their machines to make it so.

But not today. Real life was so much colder, and darker, and dingier than fiction. January no longer had to wonder why Blood Raven was so standoffish. Was the secret to simply never reach out to others, so you never endured this pain of loss? At that moment January really wondered if that were so. She never wanted to feel again.

But, as all things do, eventually her tears passed. She wiped the mucus from her nose, and the tears from her face. Thank Freyja that the sink was there. She used it to wash her face and hands. Blood Raven then produced a hand towel for her to wipe her skin, and even motioned for her to do so a second time, to wipe the makeup that had smeared from her eyes.

She still felt empty. She still felt dark, cold, and alone. Well, maybe not completely alone. Blood Raven was there. The sound of voices and music wafted through the door from the club's main floor beyond. The world was alive with hope and joy, even if she was bereft of those things at the moment. Life went on, as it always did.

Sága rang, and January nearly leaped from her skin. The ringtone told her that the call was being forwarded from her normal phone. She looked down at her wrist computer's screen, and saw her mother's name and phone number displayed in its interface.

"Hi mom!" she chimed. It was her perky phone voice. It seemed nothing could dampen it. Not the literal end of the world, or the end of her love life.

"Honey, are you ok?" There was no concealing the worry that lay under her mother's voice. "I've been trying to get through to you for hours, but there's been no answer."

"Oh, I'm sorry," January's brain began to race for excuses. Sorry Mom, I was too busy fighting the Dark Lord to pick up? Oops, couldn't afford the roaming fee on calls from the Abyss? "It must be all the craziness tonight, with what happened on Belle Isle. I'm over at Avery's. We've been watching WNN from here."

"Oh, that is such a relief," her mother sighed. "I was so worried that you...."

"I'm fine, Avery's fine, we're all fine," January insisted. She glanced at the time listed in Sága's display. It was so late that it was now early. "Since you're still up, why don't I come over? We could have breakfast."

"Are you sure?" Barbara fretted over the other line. "I don't want to keep you."

"I think it would be great," January forced herself to smile. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

"I love you hun," her mother breathed through the phone.

"I love you too Mom." January replied. That was not performative. She really did. Even with the emptiness she felt, she knew that was real. Maybe she really could feel again after all?

So she made some quick goodbyes, and excused herself from the after party.

"Are you really going to duck out on hanging with the world's preeminent superheroes?" Lighthammer asked her incredulously.

"Well, yeah," January explained. "She's my mom after all."

That got not only Cleveland's superhero, but a number of the others to muse about how long it had been since they called their mothers. Even Frostbite went fumbling for her phone to make a sudden call. So January had no regrets as she flew across the night sky to retrieve her motorcycle from Avery's back yard, along with her helmet and gaming backpack. From there she rode to her mother's apartment like a normal person.

She briefly considered flying straight to her mother's place, and just telling her that she was Stormcrow right there. But this might not be the time for that after all. She was self aware enough to know that she had been on an emotional rollercoaster. Making more giant, life-altering decisions could wait for another night. Breaking up with Hannah for good was plenty.

She and her mother made waffles from scratch and watched the coverage on what was already being called the Battle of Belle Isle on both Worldwide Network News and the local stations. January smiled wryly at the sight of Priya O'Neill. Just a few hours before she had spoken to the local reporter in person. Now she was she was watching Priya interviewing herself on TV. That was strange.

Lighthammer liked to say that his life had gotten a lot stranger since he had met her. He had a point. Regular life was strange sometimes. Super life got even stranger. Thanks to who and what her eight times great-grandfather was, her life would never even by normal by super standards.

January shivered just thinking about it. Nátthrafn was still out there, in the Abyss. So too was Choronzon, the Abyss itself if some legends were to be believed. Even now they were undoubtedly plotting their return. She remembered her eight times great-grandfather's arms clamped down around her, pinning her in place as the portal closed before her eyes. She remembered his smell, musty, and rotten, like a dead thing. She heard his voice in her memory.

"You are mine for eternity."

She shivered again. She would rather be dead.

"Are you ok January?" her mother Barbara broke her from her reverie.

"I'm fine," January forced herself to smile. "I was just thinking about... everything that's happened. But I'm still here, and you're still here, and Avery, and all my other friends, and that's all that matters."

"Speaking of that," Barbara began. "All day today I have been thinking about something you and your Aunt Branwen suggested a while ago."

"I want to make that podcast," she declared.

"Barb Reads Comics?" January smiled. "That sounds great!"

"Well, that is not exactly what I had in mind," Barbara explained. Her voice took on a slow, careful tone. January knew that tone. It was the one where she was trying to walk the tightrope between explaining something that was inherently complicated, and reducing it to something that could be easily understood. As a writer, January walked the tightrope all the time, often not as well as she would like.

"Your brother's death, and this... whatever just happened tonight... has got me thinking about our world, and how it got this way. Mostly it has gotten me thinking about how I haven't been seeing it. It's been a wakeup call, and it's been a long time coming. Too long."

"So I want to do a podcast where I do a deep dive into the people and movements that have shaped our world. Where we do it, if you still want to be involved. I am thinking of calling it Heroes and Villains, with the caveat that most of the subjects will be both. None of us are perfect. That's important for me to get across. I don't want to whitewash historical figures or events. But I also don't want to just castigate them either. Well, maybe some. I want to show how people are just people, rather than statues or icons. I want to talk about how both alone and in groups their decisions change the world, and are changed by it in return."

"Wow," January breathed. "That sounds, ambitious... a lot more than just reading comic books. Count me in! To be honest, I was a little uncertain about the comics. I don't like the idea of critiquing living authors. I mean, I really don't want to say someone's creations are crap."

"So, I've listened to a few podcasts lately, to take my mind off... things. I've noticed that there are two basic ways it goes. By two of course, I mean three, because I am a terrible person." Barbara laughed.

"You have the ones where you have one host who writes a script and reads it out. Then you have those where one host does that, and a second host or guest comes in cold, not knowing what the subject will be. That way you get someone's honest reaction to what's being said, and a person who can be a stand in for the audience. That way feels more like a conversation rather than a recitation."

"Finally you get the old-fashioned interview style show, where the host brings on a new guest every week to explain some topic in long form. Sometimes people even mix up this one with the second format of two hosts."

"I like the idea of the second one best," January said. "We could alternate, and each week one of us research a topic and present it, and the other come in cold. Or we could split up each episode, so we each research and present half of it. I know an archaeology podcast that does that really well."

"So who are you thinking of covering?" January then asked. "Karl Marx? Aristotle? Florence Nightingale?"

"Something like that," Barbara explained. "I definitely want to do something on Margaret Sanger, and talk about not only how she championed women's reproductive rights, but also got pulled into the Eugenics movement. Speaking of that, Eugenics would be a good topic too."

"I think I see what you mean," January said. "It's like when that one person at the book signing asked me who my heroes were, and I told them that a lot of them were... complicated."

"Exactly!" Barbara said. "I want to get into those complications, because real people are messy. Even Princess Diana pushed Rain Legs down the stairs."

"But I also want to do the opposite, sort of," the librarian continued. "I would like to get into the people who really were not so great, but are hailed as heroes by some, and villains by others. Napoleon, Atilla, Andrew Jackson, George Washington, etc..."

"Washington? The wooden teeth guy?" January raised an eyebrow in Spockian incredulity.

"They weren't wooden, they came from slaves," Barbara explained. "That's not all. He was known as 'The Town Destroyer', thanks to the genocide he did on the Iroquois. He called himself that too, because, you know, it's something to brag about."

"I love American history," January sighed.

"Wait until you hear about the British Empire..." Barbara murmured, "It's no accident that everyone around the world celebrates their independence from them."

"Maybe we could do some genuinely good things too?" January offered. "It would be a nice counter-balance."

"Yes," Barbara agreed quickly. "I was thinking covering the Jane Collective would be nice, and maybe the Detroit Walk to Freedom."

"The what?" January wondered aloud. "I have never heard of either of those things."

"That is why we should cover them," Barbara insisted.

With that they began to discuss the ins and outs of recording a podcast. They would need software, and microphones, and an engineer, and so forth. January was quick to volunteer Blackjack - or Mister Jack as she was starting to think of him as. Or Ryo, after all, he had collaborated with Jack in creating the video for Crazy For This Crow. Either one of them could probably handle the technical side, though of course they would have to ask.

Then they were off into discussing things like using crowdfunding like Jumpstarter, or running ads to pay for it all. Soon enough January completely forgot about the end of the world. This was her world, right now, and she was going to make it shine.


* * *

War of the Worlds, the 1938 Orson Welles Halloween radio broadcast caused a panic when people tuned in late and didn’t hear the introduction. After a intro stating that it was a presentation of the H. G. Wells novel, the program sounded like a live news broadcast covering a Martian invasion.

That is a good version of Over the Hills and Far Away.

And then there is the two edged sword called history. There are few books that I’ve read more than once. One is Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Puts a whole new perspective on playing cowboys and Indians when I was young.

My dad told me long ago about Orson Wells' radio broadcast (edit: ninja'd! ), in which listeners actually thought an invasion was occurring!

Damn, Hannah was kidnapped. Sheesh. I don't remember that. But I think it sucks she has to take racist attitudes out on Ryo. Oh well. Jan's better off without her.

Oh, I'm not young! We're close in age, I think. ISO means "interested (in) seeking out" and X is just whatever. "TWF iso SBF" (trans white female interested in seeking out single black female). Those were the acronyms used way back when we all read Personal sections in newspapers, way before apps even existed! So I have no idea if those acronyms are still used these days. Because with newspapers the text had to be condensed so all those words could fit.

Time After Time, yeah, that's a breakup song Jan's weeping. Yeah, I get it. Been there so many times.

Uh oh, phone call. I wonder if it's going to be another mission. 🦸 It's mom. And mom has no idea that her daughter just took part in saving the entire world.

Nice, she's back on her bike, back where it all began. So much has happened. I like that all the supers began calling their moms!

She's doing the right thing, I think. Not giving Hannah anything. Leaving the party, to return to what's comforting. And mom's got some really great ideas for this podcast. Margaret Sanger, a real champion from back in the days when it was tougher to do those sort of things.

Such a double life our heroine leads. And mom has no idea.

Thanks for the refresher on Hannah. I recalled she had some racial history but forgot the specifics of who was Chinese and who was Japanese.

*

Great job of painting January’s despair for us. Jan is so far removed from 'the girl next door looking for the boy next door' that finding a potential mate is a real challenge. Someone who can love and accept everything about her - from her sexuality to her superpowers - is a tall order. And Hannah actually filled much of it. A hard loss for Jan indeed. Finally, she breaks down a bit and lets some out. And sure enough, just as Blood Raven was there outside a burning building to hold Jan’s hair out of her vomit, she is there now to hold Jan and let her cry.

I smiled when Jan was able to muster her perky phone voice for Mom. Jan shows us her priorities (no surprise) as she goes to see Mom. And being Jan, with her uncanny ability to influence other supers, I was not surprised when others began calling their mothers.

I was glad Jan debated telling her mother about her super identity – because I debated the same thing internally while Jan was on the phone with her mother. Pros and cons but, Jan’s right: now’s not the time.

Sounds like an interesting concept for podcasting. I look forward to ‘Lighthammer – hero or villain?’

The trope that Moms and Dads are always the last to know is really not true. They know, they just don’t want to believe. To believe could destroy all the hopes and dreams of a lifetime.

Make it easy on your mom, Jan. Fess up so she can hope and dream a new.

Lehrer always stays relevant, somehow. He's actually still alive, though it's been decades since he last performed. Apparently he didn't like performing so he switched to teaching and was pretty happy with that.

It always hurts when things don't work out. January's reaction is relatable and believable. And it's so frustrating that things can't be more like a TV show. Glad Blood Raven is there for her.

Heh, in all the chaos, I'd sort of forgotten that she still has a masquerade to maintain. Always one of the hardest things about being a super.

Aw, sweet that she's going back to her mom. And this podcast sounds interesting. I wonder if her mom's starting to suspect that January's Stormcrow (or at least a super of some kind). January and Barbara also have a good point about people being complicated. Ultimately, people do both good and bad in their lives. Obviously, there are those who've taken bad to such an extreme that any good they did is kind of irrelevant, but most don't go that far.

Sounds like January's in a good place!

macole: I discovered recently that the whole War of the Worlds panic was a hoax. It was created by the newspapers, who felt threatened by the rise of the new medium of radio. They were afraid it would put them out of business. So they they tried to create a moral panic by claiming that the country was terrified by the War of the Worlds broadcast. Basically what they had done in the lead up to the Spanish-American War. I think I first learned of this on a history podcast, maybe The Constant? It was It's Probably Not Aliens. But you can also read about it here.

John Tams played a character in the Sharpes Rifles series of made-for-TV movies. He sang bits and pieces of Over the Hills and Far Away in the show, which where I first heard that version of it. I think it was afterward that he recorded the full version in that video. He has a great voice.

I hear you with playing Cowboys and Indians when I was a children. The Lions Led By Donkeys podcast recently had a very good series on King Philip's War, which per capita, was the most genocidal Settler-on-Native war in American history. The numbers of people involved were relatively small by today's standards. But the percentages of the populations involved were just staggering.

I expect that January's mom will probably eventually figure out that she is Stormcrow. Probably at the end of Season Two. I almost had January reveal it in the previous post. But it just did not feel right for her to do it then, for the reasons she gave when she talked herself out of it. She had been on an emotional rollercoaster, it was not the time for more life-changing decisions.

Keeping her identity a secret from Barbara (her mom) is a sort of a double-edged sword for January. On one hand, it is really confining to keep the secret. Not to mention how disingenuous it is. It is like being back in the Closet all over again. But on the other hand, because Barbara does not know, when January is around her, she can just be her normal, non-super self. She can have a normal life in those moments. All that goes out the window once mom finds out, because then she will always be both January and Stormcrow around her. So January has some very selfish (even if also healthy) reasons to keep her mother in the dark. Just like the whole point of the Heroes and Villains podcast, it is messy.


Renee: As sad as January is, she is indeed better off without the toxicity that Hannah would bring into her life. Not that it still does not hurt.

I think Cyndy Lauper got paid a royalty every time a teenage girl broke up in the 80s and 90s, because that song always played in the background. OTOH, her song Time After Time always played when a teen girl met a new romantic partner. So she must have gotten a royalty for that as well.

The double life is the classic situation of most supers, at least in the comics. In some ways it drives January crazy. But in other ways, it can almost be a comfort.


Acadian: January is definitely "not like the other girls", which is in itself a standard trope these days. But this just goes to show that she is indeed, just like the other girls where her heart is concerned.

January does have a wonderful form of "soft" influence on the other supers that she has met. That was always my intent with her, and I am glad it is working so organically. She just has to be true to herself, and it inspires others. I got a lot of that from watching the recent Supergirl TV show. The version of Supergirl portrayed in that was a gigantic influence on how I created and envisioned January.



WellTemperedClavier: The podcasting is an attempt to make the story feel current. Everyone has a podcast these days. Especially since Covid. I keep wanting to get an Instagram influencer somewhere in the mix as well, and a Tech Bro villain. But so far those are just not working out. Plus it feels right for her mother to do, as a natural evolution of her character. It is not the only way she will be stretching and branching out in her life in the future. Season Two is going to be pack full of that.

Most real people really are really messy. None of us deserve to be put on pedestals. I think we should either not make statues of people and try to make them heroes. Or we need to put out all the crappy things they did right alongside the good ones. Because otherwise it creates impossible standards that no real person can ever live up to.

This was originally going to be the end of the Book, with that good note for January to end on, with her realizing that she is in a good place after all. But as I began working on the next Book, I realized that some of the stuff there deserved to be in this book. So there is a little more to go concerning the clean-up and fallout of the Battle of Belle Isle before Season One can come to a proper conclusion.











As always the James Henry Thornwell house can be found on the Stormcrow Google Map


Pic of the Thronwell (Hierophant's) house

Fairy Star

Solar Wheel

Pentacle

Eye of Horus




Book 10.28 - Alliance

July 9th, morning

January tried to stifle back a yawn, and failed miserably. She held up a hand to cover her mouth, lest she get any bugs in there. That was always a real possibility while flying. Thankfully she had already separated her wings from her body. Otherwise she would have probably smeared herself across the four lanes of the boulevard below her.

She saw the red brick walls of Michigan Stadium before her, along with the rows of blue seats that filled the Big House to the rim. The place was gigantic. Even the Abyssal Colossus and Y Ddraig Aur could have fit within its expanse. Less grand was a smaller, round arena that sat next to it. This one was enclosed, so she could not see what sport it was for. But it was quite futuristic in appearance.

She swerved to the left, away from the twin arenas. That put her over the finely manicured lawns of a golf course. Each hole was separated from the next by lines of green trees. She swooped over the crowns of the oaks and elms. It was certainly a nice view. The grass was soft and perfectly smooth, the sand traps pale eggshell white, and the single dark pond that she flew over looked cool and comforting. A person could do a lot worse in choosing such a place to spend their morning.

Speaking of which, she did have a worse place to be. She glanced over at Sága on her forearm. Her map app showed that she had overshot. She banked harder to her left, until she was traveling back the way she had come from. Things looked different from up here. It still took getting used to looking down at the world, instead of around at it.

She did not have to work hard though. The red and blue beacons of police lights glowed in her eyes, leading her straight to her destination. It was a two story house that sat just across the street from the golf course. It was flanked by a short row of two story homes, and a slightly taller apartment building. It was the only house that was black, which certainly stood out. Granted, that was hardly shocking in a college town like Ann Arbor.

January came down upon the lawn in front of the house, behind a row of police cars and television vans parked along the street. Almost immediately a rush of reporters and their camera operators tried to close in upon her. But a wall of police officers held them back. That was a relief. January was not really in the mood to deal with the press. She was too tired to pick and choose her words with care. That was a dangerous situation for a cape who found themselves in front of a camera.

She found Blood Raven waiting at the door. None of the cops or reporters stood anywhere near her. Clearly, the ominous reputation she had so carefully cultivated for the past half century had benefitted her in this case. Few people possessed the nerve to ask her for a selfie or autograph, let alone an interview.

The house behind her mentor was alive in the astral. January shifted her senses from the physical to the magical realm, in order to better perceive it. She instantly saw that a cocoon of magical energy had enveloped the building. It reminded her of a mummy wrapped in shining yellow gauze. The mana filled not only every window and door, but even cloaked the walls and roof. Nothing was going to get into there. Not without a serious magical battering ram at least.

"Have you availed yourself of any sleep since the previous evening?" Blood Raven asked as January strode up to her.

January shook her head. "I was up all morning with my mom." She fought hard to resist another yawn. Fought, and failed. That was going to look good on television tonight.

"I understand," the other heroine nodded. "Come thither, this cannot wait. We must complete this final task before we can truly rest."

"We should probably talk to the Attorney General," January said, "maybe the Governor too."

"I suppose it should shock you greatly to learn that I agree," Blood Raven said. "After this, we shall deal with them. Cray, please contact them and arrange the meeting."

"Roger that Raven," the elder hacker's voice came over January's communications link.

"Do your senses spy what I have done here?" Blood Raven turned to gesture to the house. "I have used my power to form a blanket around the house. It is a variation of a standard Arcane Shield spell. It merely requires more power and fine control, and finally setting it to endure beyond one's concentration."

"So it's like a 10th level perk or power stunt," January nodded. "I understand. This is how you kept the cops and the press from poking their noses inside."

"Indeed, there may yet be dangers that lurk within," Blood Raven intoned. "The Hierophant possessed a fondness for leaving torpedoes in his wake. We must uncover and destroy any that may await inside."

"I think they call those land mines now..." January noted dryly.

She heard Cray snorting with barely contained laughter over the comm. Blood Raven merely shook her head, and turned to face the house. She raised her hands, and January saw her power reach out in the astral and connect with the mana that formed the barrier around the house. It was only a slender thread of magic that she used to connect her aura to that of the spell. But she felt the elder heroine's will flow across that link. That caused the spell to change to conform to her mentor's demands. In a moment the barrier that had sheathed the front door melted away. But the rest of the magical walls remained firm.

Blood Raven led her within, and paused a moment to restore the magical ward behind them. January looked around, and saw a completely ordinary living room around her. There was a big TV, a couch, chairs, and so forth. But it was all spare, minimalist. It reminded her of a hotel room. It had all the requirements for life, but none of the truly personal touches that made it feel lived in.

"We can speak freely now," Blood Raven explained. "No magical or physical devices can penetrate the ward."

January stifled another yawn, successfully this time. "Do you really think there are any more monsters or traps in here?"

"Nay," Blood Raven shook her head. "Surely I would have encountered them previously. But one never knows."

The elder heroine reached into one of her belt pouches, and withdrew a small, green vial. "Here, drink this, it is one of Kaelin's."

January took the small vial and pulled its stopper. A clear liquid lay within, betraying no odor. But in the astral, it hummed with energy that felt clean and invigorating. She was not going to argue with her teacher. She lifted the drink to her lips and allowed the cool liquid to slide over her tongue. It tasted vaguely of lime, and fizzled a bit like pop.

Just like that, the need for sleep that had dragged at her eyelids like leaden weights vanished. So too was that need to yawn that had continually blossomed within her throat. Instead she felt sharp, awake, and filled with energy. If she had not known better she would have imagined that she had woken from a good night's sleep, rather than having spent the last day and night awake.

"Nice, a restore fatigue potion," January nodded. She handed the empty vial and its stopper back to Blood Raven, who tucked them away within her belt.

"It is commonly referred to in the community as a Wide-Awake potion," Blood Raven explained. "They can be very useful for long surveillance missions. Kaelin can teach you how to make them."

"I thought you were my teacher?" January asked.

"It will be good for you to spend more time with your sisters," Blood Raven said. "In any event, Kaelin is a far more accomplished alchemist than I am. This is her realm."

"But didn't you teach her?" January wondered.

"I did," Blood Raven nodded. "But she surpassed my alchemical abilities long ago. Remember, the hardest part of teaching someone magic, is that no one can teach you magic. You must learn to learn on your own. All a teacher can really do in the end is show you that you can do so."

January mulled that over in her head. She had heard much the same before, from Blood Raven no less. As she did, she moved through the first floor of the house. The rest of the furnishings were again plain and minimalist. A few paintings hung from the walls, but there was nothing special about them. They did not speak to the personality of the owner. They might have been bought in bulk from a closeout sale.

The same was true for the rest of the house. There were no family pictures on the walls. No little knick knacks from old vacations. No books on the coffee table. Again, it reminded January more of a hotel room than a home. A small office showed a few personal touches, such as framed diplomas on the wall, and a few pictures of Thornwell and what January took for other members of the university staff. But even this was businesslike. It was an artifact of his job as a professor, not his life as a person.

The upper floor was as Spartan as the lower. Most of the rooms were plain and unadorned. The master bedroom showed some signs of life, in the form of a tall bookshelf. It was packed from top to bottom with what January took for being rare volumes of folklore, myths, and various occult tomes from around the world.

None of it was anything magical however. January was careful to study everything in the astral, just to be sure. Granted, the Hierophant had shown a talent for masking his magic. Which is why they were careful to not only look at everything, but also investigate further, leaving nothing unturned.

None of their searching bore any fruit however, at least not until they reached the basement. At first it seemed no different from that of any house. Washer, dryer, furnace, and so on were all represented with dings and dents and chipped paint. Cobwebs hung in far corners that were rarely trod, and the usual junk of decades had piled up in old boxes and crates. Here was an ancient bicycle with dried out and flattened tires. There was an old ironing board, and so on. January wondered how much if it was even the Hierophant's, and how much of the junk might have been from the house's previous owners.

The open doorway to the sanctum however, begged attention. The secret panel fit in perfectly with the rest of the wall paneling, and January doubted she would have noted it had it not already been opened. The only thing she did see out of place was a dusty shelf with a mounting bracket that had been twisted to one side. She imagined that might have been the trigger for the door.

Blood Raven led the way within. It was your standard priest or wizard's lair. Stone altar, another bookshelf, worktable scattered with arcane implements and so on. There was even a seven-pointed star inscribed on the floor, and more magical symbols upon the walls, such as an Eye of Horus and a sun cross.

Now January understood why the rest of house had been so sparse of personality. That was just a space Thornwell moved through. It was not the place he truly inhabited. This was where he lived. This was the reflection of his personality. This was his life, and in the end, his death.

January heard the Hierophant scream, as he realized what she had done to him. How she had reversed the effect of his ritual. The high-pitched sound tore into her body like a spike, sending ice down her spine.

In her mind's eye, January saw his body rip and tear apart, as it was torn into spaghetti. Blood and body parts went everywhere. The gore left a long stain behind him as he was dragged closer and closer to the summoning circle, and the Dark Lord that waited to take form there from his blood and bone.

January blinked hard, and pushed that memory from her mind. Still, her heart raced, and she felt goose bumps race across her skin. It was like she had been there, like it had been happening all over again. It had been so very real.

Thankfully Blood Raven had been too busy pulling out the bookcase to examine the wall behind it. So she had not noticed January's distress. She did not need to worry her mentor with some jangled nerves. They would pass soon enough. All she really needed was a good night's sleep, and she would be herself again. January was sure of it.

January reminded herself why she was here, and pitched into the search. She flipped through the pages of a book laid out on the altar. She noted its title - The Scripta Mortis - but could not make out any of the Latin within. It was the old style, with all the letters cramped together and no space between individual words, let alone punctuation marks or letter cases. As usual, it made her head hurt to stare at it for too long.

"That appears to be an extremely early copy."

January nearly leaped from her skin when Blood Raven's voice filled her ears. She turned to see her mentor standing beside her, one hand gesturing to the ancient tome. The elder heroine went on, as if she had not just scared a decade off her pupil's life. "My estimation is that it dates back to the First Century. It may have graced the library of Tacitus or Suetonius."

Blood Raven reached out and turned the book shut. Then she held it up to January. "Perhaps it should now grace your library?"

"I can't even read it," January begged off.

"Learn," Blood Raven said plainly. "As I have noted before, this book details many dangerous magical creatures and spells, both Abyssal and Earthly. It also explains how to defeat such things. It is a foundational volume to any occult library."

"Maybe I'll just get the EPUB version." January quipped.

"Speak to your sister Silverlight," Blood Raven said quite seriously. "She has indeed reproduced it as such an electronic book, and performed her own translation into English."

"I thought there already was an English version?" Now January was serious, "The Ars Necomantia, by Borellus?"

"Yes, he translated it into both English and French in 1671," Blood Raven nodded. "But sometimes one wishes to do things for themselves. Silverlight loves books, and is quite astute in Classical Latin and Ancient Greek. I would wager far more so than Pierre Borel ever was. Her version is more accurate. I also wager that she learned far more from the effort than she would have from simply reading it alone."

"Yeah, it was an optional quest requirement that gave her a bonus 200 experience points," January murmured. "So her version gives you more mythos points, and a higher loss if you miss your sanity roll?"

Blood Raven leaned back her head laughed.

"Your role-playing games have gifted you with a unique perspective on the world," she said.

"You should try playing some time," January said. "It's fun, you might actually like it."

"I have been playing roles for two and a half centuries." Blood Raven shook her head, and her voice suddenly sounded old and tired. "Student, teacher, innkeeper, mother, nurse, private investigator, soldier, spy... They all grow so tiresome."

January noted something under her feet. At first she had thought it was a stain. But when she poked it with the toe of her boot, she found that it seemed to be thicker layer of dust, with a few hairs and what looked like bits of rotten cloth thrown in. She even thought she saw something brighter in there, like a tooth, or piece of bone.

"What is this?" she wondered, her attention diverted from Blood Raven.

"That was the guardian of this place: a wight." Her mentor explained from behind her. "It set upon me when I first entered last night."

"So that is why you don't think there are any other guardians," January mused. "You already killed them."

"So it would appear," Blood Raven said. "Were there more traps or hidden monsters, I am certain we should have encountered them by this time."

The elder heroine reached into one of her belt pouches and drew out what looked like a square patch of cloth. She unfolded it, again and again, amazing January with just how big it was after all. It reminded her of those road maps from old movies, that folded out from a slender pamphlet to a square dozens of times in size.

It turned out to be a bag. Blood Raven opened it up and stuffed the copy of the Scripta Mortis within. She added several of the other books from the shelf afterward. Yet somehow the bag did not seem to deform from the addition of so many books within it. When she was finished, the elder heroine folded the cloth back up into that little square, and once again tucked it into her belt pouch.

"You have a bag of holding!" January exclaimed.

"Of course," her mentor said. "Unless you plan on adding a backpack to your suit, I suggest you create one yourself."

"How do I do that?" January asked.

"Here," Blood Raven handed her the folded up bag. It was no heavier than an ordinary square of cloth. "It is my gift to you. Study it, and in time, you shall learn to create one of your own. Perhaps you shall then pass it along to one of your own students some day."

"Um, wow, thanks!" January beamed. She stared at the piece of cloth. It felt rough, like a sturdy piece of burlap. She turned it over in her fingers. Again, it was no thicker than the folded square of cloth that it was. Yet clearly, it held volumes within. In fact, it did so literally.

It was like the sanctum in the Witch House. It could not be measured in standard units of space. It continually adapted to whatever size it needed to be. January wondered if by learning more about the sanctum, she might also learn more about the bag of holding? That was something to put on her To Do list, once she got around to spending her experience points. Saving the world must have given her enough to level up quite a few times after all.

They went on to study, poke, prod, and look behind and beneath every piece of furniture in the Hierophant's basement. But it had no more secrets to yield up. No monsters leaped from the shadows. No hidden messages were taped to the bottom of tables, no hidden panels lurked behind the bookcase.

It’s hard to soar with the crows if you spend all night hooting with your mom. Fortunately, Blood Raven is carrying a potent Upper potion - courtesy of master alchemish Kaelin.

Blood Raven has magically secured the perimeter.

No surprise that Higherpants’ house is unremarkable until they get to his lair beneath. Stormcrow learns that Silverlight is another accomplished ravensister who translates ancient arcane tomes better than the original translators.

"You have a bag of holding!" January exclaimed.
Woot! Every adventuress neeeeds one of those.

Blood Raven feels somehow older in this episode, manifesting in what seems like her clear intent to one day pass on her cape to her g-g-g-granddaughter.


Nits:
’So too was that need to yawn that had continually blossom{ed} within her throat.’
"But I didn't you teach her?" January wondered.’ - - Don’t think you want the ‘I’.

I agree (about Jan's mom) not knowing she's this world-famous superhero. I'm sort of glad she doesn't know yet; for some reason there's some tension there, or something. The day she figures it out (assuming she does on her own) is going to be one heck of an episode. And that's so true about daughter being able to just be herself. I can see why she doesn't want to give this up.



Instacram!

July 9th, now. Hmm, so when did the Hierophant get pwned? Cool thing is, we can check the first post. Okay, first post has the timeline up until about mid-June. Just trying to figure out how long it's been since the battle. Hmm, probably just a day or two, since later on it states she hasn't slept much.

Everyone wants a quote from Jan, yet they steer clear of her many-times great aunt!

Wow, another coincidence: Raven gets handed a vial which is full of fluid which doesn't have an odor. You'll see why this is a coincidence when the next Laprima gets posted. Oh no! What did she just drink? Lol Restore Fatigue.

Ah, the secret lair in the cellar, hidden by a secret panel. Every bad guy needs one.

And yeah, January needs sleep. Come on, get some before the next mission calls, and it's too late. Well... I guess this is still the same mission (or quest, whatever) and it needs closure.

I assume EPUB = today's version of Cliff Notes. Whoa yuck... guardian goo. 👻



And I think Jan might be following suit as well. The more involved she becomes as a heroine, the less RPGs will be prevalent in her life. 🎲 Because gaming represents downtime, which she hasn't got much of lately. And she's also taking on frequent, real roles herself, almost everyday.

Cool, no monsters are about. Now get some sleep, friend.

Acadian: I thought January's lack of sleep would be an excellent opportunity to introduce some alchemy into the game, in the form of probably the most basic potion there is: restore fatigue. One of these days January will be getting an alchemy lesson so she can learn to make them herself. Or at least learn how they are made, since I don't really see her doing a lot of that.

Blood Raven definitely has learned to keep undesirables such as the police from poking into her business, with things such as this ward around the house. What happens in magic land, stays in magic land.

It was definitely time for January to get something to haul large amounts of objects around, and it just made such perfect sense for Blood Raven to have a bag of holding.

Put a pin in that sense you have that Blood Raven may be ready to retire and pass the cape along to January, because you will probably be feeling more of that.


Renee: When Barbara finds out that her daughter has been Stormcrow all this time, it is bound to be... interesting. Stormcrow has had a big effect on January's mother, as we will see in the future.

It has only been a day since this Book began. But a lot has happened in that day.

The upside to Blood Raven cultivating such a sense of dread about her persona, is that reporters and cops don't tend to bother her much.

EPUB is simply an electronic book format. I went back and tried to make that more clear.

I don't think January is going to ever stop gaming. But her gaming nights are likely to change as people move into and out of her life. It won't be just the old Knights of Nerddom for much longer.







As always you can follow January and Blood Raven on the Stormcrow Google Map

Downtown Detroit

Bailey Bridge



Book 10.29 - Alliance

"The governor is ready to meet you both," Cray said over the comm. "She's currently touring the battlefield at Belle Isle. But she will be returning to her office shortly."

"Very well, please inform her that we shall conduct ourselves to Belle Isle presently." Blood Raven replied to information specialist.

The elder magician took a moment then to close her eyes. January felt power rise up from within her. A moment later a glowing circle of Celtic runes sprang up around her, even as she began to sing in Gaelic. January shifted her own senses to the astral, and watched as her mentor reached out to the web of energy that she had woven around the house. One by one, she took hold of the threads that made up the cocoon, and drew them back into herself. Soon her work picked up speed, and she began to scoop up metaphorical handfuls of the strands and pull them en masse. In time she had gathered up all of the energy, and completely dispelled her barrier.

She led the way up the stairs and to the front door outside. From there she rose into the sky without a second glance to the police and press clustered about the sidewalk and driveway. January however, paused to wave, and shout that all was now clear. Then she too, rose into the firmament on crow's wings, and turned east to follow her teacher.

"Your powers of flight grow," the other woman noted when January caught up to her.

"Lighthammer taught me a lot about flying," January admitted.

"Indeed, one should never let one's mundane skills grow lax," Blood Raven murmured. "Among us, there is a tendency to shirk ordinary learning, and rather rely upon the brute strength of magic or meta-human power instead. I must confess to being prone to such myself."

"Really?" January wondered aloud. "You seem to know everything."

"I have not picked a lock in centuries." Blood Raven laughed. "I should be all at sea were I to attempt to do so now. Thankfully I have had Cray these last few decades to assist me. You can rely upon him in all matters, technical or otherwise."

"That's an odd thing to say," January turned her head from their generally eastward course. "You make it sound like you're going somewhere."

"Hmmm," Blood Raven turned to face forward once more. They skirted around Willow Run airport, even as a cargo jet rose into the sky from one of its runways. January kept her eyes on where she was flying as well. Usually there was nothing to run into once she was high enough. But airports were a different story. They always made her nervous when she was nearby them in the sky.

Soon enough a much larger airfield came into view. Metro Airport was the largest of its kind in Metro Detroit. It had a bigger, more complicated official name of course. But everyone knew it as simply Metro Airport, or Metro to be even shorter. With multiple runways running at angles to one another, and multiple terminals, it was a sprawling complex of concrete and steel.

An airliner was coming in for a landing as they neared, and January followed Blood Raven in banking to give it a wide berth. That sent them skittering north of the large airfield, and put them over Interstate 94. They followed this east without further words. Suburbs stretched out in all directions underneath them, split between small houses and factories in an endless blanket of urban sprawl. They did pass by the Big Tire when the highway turned to the north-east. That always gave January a smile. At some eighty feet in height, the roadside attraction was hard to miss.

In time they came to the tall skyscrapers of Downtown Detroit. They soared between these in an aerial slalom course. January could not resist turning up the speed as she did so. Blood Raven increased her velocity to match, and in moments the two women were racing between the tall office buildings. Past the Federal Building and the Book Cadillac hotel they went. Then came a loop around Blood Raven's own Detroit Radiator Building, which sent them rocketing down to near street level as they threaded the gap between it and the office buildings to its north. They banked hard on Woodward right afterward, and sailed past the Compuware Building and out over Campus Martius beyond.

Once again, January found herself placing a new significance on what should otherwise be an ordinary part of the city. For this was their old battleground with the neo-Nazis of the National Socialist League. Lighthammer, Blood Raven, and herself had all joined together here to fight off the Crystal Death augmented Nazis, and prevented them from murdering thousands during the Motor City Pride parade.

Another sharp turn took January out of the past and between more high rises, and then over the ornate roof sculptures that topped the Old County Building. The Millender Center rose up high to their right, first its seven floor parking structure, and then the rectangular apartment block that stretched over four times that in height. They soared right over Kaelin and Harper's club - the Aura - beyond. Next they threaded the gap between the white Blue Cross Building and a red parking structure beside it.

From here on out it was all open sky, and they turned more slowly this time, and passed over the YMCA and an old church. Once again, January recognized one of her former battlegrounds. For just up ahead was the raised parking structure which she had chased a flock of flying Abyssals through. In front of it was that billboard that said that Trans lives were sacred, which she had gone crashing through in a rather ironic moment.

Jefferson Avenue stretched away to her right. Alongside the divided roadway towered the numerous skyscrapers of the Renaissance Center. That too brought back recent memories of fighting Abyssals around its glass spires. She also recalled her meeting with Octavia Butler there. It was where she had told the reporter from Worldwide Network News that she was not only indeed a lesbian, but also transgender as well. Had that been only a month ago? It seemed like a lifetime now.

After just a few more blocks the green water of the Detroit River was underneath them. The long steel hull of Great Lakes freighter lumbered down the canal. The iron boat would have looked slender, were it not so massive. At a thousand feet in length, the ship was larger than even the Abyssal Colossus that had nearly killed them all the night before.

They winged their way north and east, and followed the course of the narrow strait between the United States and Canada. January idly noted that Canada was to the south, which was quite an unusual occurrence. She had read that the Detroit-Windsor border was unique in that respect.

Then they were over the south-western tip of Belle Isle. So much had changed since January had last seen it. It had been night then, during the battle. Even though her lightning had provided dramatic illumination at times, the gloom had hidden the true scope of the damage their battle had wrought upon the state park.

The entire south-western third of the island was tortured moonscape of rubble and craters. Not a tree or single blade of grass remained here. It was a sea of brown mud and gray concrete dust. Not a building continued standing. The casino had completely vanished of course, with not even one shattered brick left to show it had ever stood. Instead a great bowl-shaped depression had been gouged out of the earth there, in the same shape and size of the spherical gateway that had squatted there. Now filled with water, this formed a circular pond near the end of the island.

The massive complex of marble fountains that had stood nearby had been reduced to a sprawling pile of debris, of which nothing remained larger than the size of a fist. The administration and utility buildings that had girded the island's western shore were likewise reduced to piles of broken bricks. So too was the large boathouse that lay just beyond the head of the bridge to the mainland.

A temporary Bailey bridge had been thrown across the massive gap that Isaac and his mech had blasted through the roadway of the MacArthur Bridge. The source of the repairs was obvious, as one lane of the span was taken up by US Army trucks and tanks. The concrete road dividers and metal light posts that had been moved to create a fortress at the point of the break had also been removed already, and were stacked up along one side of the bridge. Even as January and Blood Raven approached, she could see military engineers working to hoist them onto vehicles and carry them away.

Farther inland she could see that the little stream that cut through the waist of the island was now once more filled with water. It had all been boiled away during the battle. The shelters and pavilions beyond had all been flattened. The only thing that stood was the jumbled walls of Fort Alliance, which she had helped build the night before from concrete road dividers and other wreckage gathered from the surrounding buildings. It had never been the prettiest of sights, and now in the light of day it looked more dilapidated than ever. But January could not help but feel a swell of pride when she set her eyes upon the makeshift refuge. That was where they had stopped the Abyssal onslaught for once and all.

The devastation continued on to the north-east, and did not end until it reached the glass walls and domes of the massive nature conservancy. Here the destruction abruptly stopped at a literal line. On one side was a field of green grass. On the other was a ruined landscape of churned up mud and dust that looked like it was from the First World War. Yet beyond that invisible line of demarcation the island lay as pristine and filled with life as it ever was, with green fields, green trees, and flowers of all colors blooming under the summer sun.

Dominating the no man's land of the island's south-western end was Y Ddraig Aur. The dragon's ghost stood within the rubble that had once been the James Scott Memorial Fountain. It towered hundreds of feet skyward, like a statue made of light and warmth. January could feel the latter as they drew near. It felt like the sun on a warm summer day, which of course it was, being July. But instead of that heat radiating from high above, it clearly spread from the afterimage of the golden dragon, a specter that had been burned into the fabric of reality.

January shielded her astral senses from the glare of the ancient guardian. Even the ghost of her radiated mana, just as she did light and heat. January could feel reality warp around the image of the dragon. Clearly, time and space were not quite the same there. The dragon's existence had dimpled it, scarred it, perhaps eternally.

January mused that scarred was not the best way to think of it. It did not seem like spacetime was harmed by the dragon's presence. Rather it was the opposite. Reality was strengthened by Y Ddraig Aur. She was a bulwark, a fortress that stood against the Abyss. January even wondered if her presence might make it more difficult to call creatures from that benighted realm. Or perhaps even make it impossible? Only time would tell.

As at the bridge, the island was crawling with soldiers. Helicopters came and went from the northern reaches of the island, where the ground was not all chewed up. From these streamed more troops. Not that there was much for them to really do. They either patrolled the empty wasteland, or stood around in small groups.

January did not see the point. The fight was long since over. Maybe they were just there to be seen and inspire confidence? If she had learned anything since becoming a superhero, it was that the image you projected to others played a huge role in how they behaved. Act with confidence and they would rally behind you. Falter, and their morale would likewise crumble as well.

Having a look at the latest Google map, I see a star's located near D.C. Is that from Silverlight's involvement?

I notice the distinction between Major and Minor skills. That's true, you know, the part when she says one's skills can go lax if they don't get used. This is represented in Oblivion (maybe Skyrim too?) when we go to jail. We always lose a few points in skills that haven't gotten as much use. It was also true in Fantasy Trip, the first RPG pencil/paper game I played in high school. If someone's skills or magic didn't get used over a span of time, it was possible to even forget stuff, completely erase that skill or magic out of the stat sheet.

Anyway, if we look at it this way, Flying is a skill (maybe magic) which Raven has mastered, January is still learning, and Avery's a complete Level 1 Novice at! 🦸‍♂️

This scene when they're flying through skyscrapers and such makes me think of the CW.

There's Belle Island. I'd be afraid to set foot there, knowing all that happened. Get the shakes, thinking "gosh, what if...."

Okay, I fell behind a bit. Time to catch up.

Well said about the pedestals. I'm not sure anyone truly deserves the burden of being titled "hero".

So much of a villain's power is simply in their reputation. The Hierophant was a dark magician, and that title alone conjures up the image of an evil master. Yet, as always, the truth is more bare. He was a person, and by the looks of it, not an especially deep or interesting one. This is reflected in his rather bare office. Here we have the meager remnants of what was, in truth, a rather meager person. His quest for power left precious little time for anything else.

Even if he'd succeeded, it's difficult to imagine such an empty person ever truly being satisfied.

Also, I could really use having one of this Wake Up potions from time to time.

Flying over Detroit's a good bit of introspection for January right now. She's not the same person she was a little while ago, and that means she can't see the world around her the same way. It's not just that the world's changed--she's changed, as well. Now the sights remind her of her own exploits as Stormcrow. She's a bigger part of the city than she probably ever expected to be, even when she first donned the cowl.

Much of this episode was beautifully devoted to the joy of flight as Blood Raven and Strormcrow wing their way to Belle Isle.

To the site of the battle for Belle Isle. One thing happily missing from the devastation on this battlefield was corpses, as the abyssal beasts had evaporated upon destruction.

Nice touch, having the almost real shadow of Y Ddraig Aur. Reminded me of the aftermath of the Akatosh/Martin dragon after they kicked Mehrunes Dagon’s butt in Oblivion. Now, no surprise that Jan strongly senses the dragon’s afterpresence in the astral but do mere mortals also see the shadow of the dragon looming over Belle Isle? I was not quite sure on that.

Renee: You can click on each star in the Google Map, and it will tell you all about what it is.

There is going to be a lot more references to raising skills, powers, and talents in the near future, as Jan and company consider how they are going to spend all the experience points they gained from saving the world.

The race through the skyscrapers also gave me very strong CW show vibes, especially Supergirl. She often went racing through downtown LA (or whatever they call it in DC).

What if something got left behind at Belle Isle? Or what if something survived? Put a pin in that thought, Book 11 is coming up soon, and it is all about unfinished business from the battle.


WellTemperedClavier: The podcast You're Wrong About did an outstanding series on Princess Diana about a year or so ago. I would consider her a genuinely good person. But she still pushed her stepmother down the stairs. That is where that remark of Barbara's about her pushing Rain Legs down the stairs is from. None of us are perfect.

In some ways I compare the Hierophant to Fox Mulder, or Darth Vader, or Emperor Palpatine. They were all so consumed by their need to find their own truth, or acquire more and more power, that they never actually stopped a moment to just live in the world. Their obsessions left them utterly alienated from the rest of galaxy.

That is one of the reasons I spend as much time as I do on January's personal life, and why Blood Raven recently told her to take time off from the crusade to just be with her friends. January does not just fight against things. She is a part of the world. She lives in it.

You are right, in that January has absolutely changed so much, that her home is not the same place it used to be. Because she can no longer see it how she once did, given how much she has changed.


Acadian: The playful flight over to Belle Isle was a nice little interlude for me to write, and for the characters themselves to just relax and enjoy being alive. Especially for January, as even though she lacks Blood Raven's flight skills at the moment, she is a part of the Sky in a way her mentor never will be. It is her Element, in more ways than one.

I had considered how utterly gross it would be if the Abyssals had not derezzed back into nothingness when killed. It would be like those old Civil War battlefields that stank for months afterward. Especially given that this is taking place in July, and we frequently get 90 degree weather here in Michigan at that time of the year now.

I was not consciously or deliberately calling back to the Martin Dragon statue in Oblivion. It just felt right when I wrote it. Though I would not doubt that Oblivion unconsciously planted the seed in my brain. Originally it was going to be just a stone statue of Y Ddraig Aur. But then when I was doing my later drafts I realized the connection to Oblivion, and worked on changing the specifics. I am glad I did, as it worked out a lot more interesting this way, as a magical alteration of spacetime itself.

Mundane people can indeed see the ghost of Y Ddraig Aur just as easily as magical folks. That is going to be made more clear in today's post, and the ones following. I imagine that in the months following the battle people will even begin pushing for Detroit sports teams to be renamed "The Dragons" or similar names (and other people saying they ought to try winning a few games first, looking at you Detroit Lions). Detroit might also become the Dragon City, rather than the Motor City. Even Jan and company are going to make their own homage to the dragon in the next Book.








Governor Whitaker (RL Gretchen Whitmer)

MRAPS

The Cone of Silence

The Michigan Accent


Book 10.30 - Alliance

In any case, they found the governor among this sea of tan and green uniforms easily enough. She was the one with a handful of state troopers around her. There were also a slew of news crews with their cameras trained upon her, but standing at a distance. This knot of people all gathered around the base of the golden dragon.

The governor wore a blue blazer with a golden button in the shape of Michigan's twin peninsulas tacked over her heart. A yellow necklace hung down between the open lapels of the suit jacket, and January could see that she wore a striped blue and gray blouse underneath both. Her long black hair was parted on her left side, and spilled down across her shoulders. She looked to be about her mother's age, with fair skin just beginning to show crow's feet around her eyes, and laugh lines around her mouth.

"Hooah!" A ragged cheer rose up as Blood Raven and January approached. The members of the Army were especially vociferous; they held their rifles high and began to chant the battle cry over and over again. They revved the engines of their tanks and MRAPS to add to the noise, creating a low rumble that spread from the island.

They set down in front of the governor and her coterie. Blood Raven paused a moment to face the soldiers. She snapped into a rigid pose and executed a precise salute. Then she let out a hearty "Huzza!" from deep within her breast. January was reminded of the Union uniform in its display case within the Raven's Nest. She was an army veteran as well as a superhero, even if from a far, far earlier conflict.

January did not know what to do. Out of the blue she remembered the raised black fist that Isaac had painted on the side of the Fred Hampton. So she raised a clenched fist of her own in the same manner to the cheering soldiers.

The governor beamed with unconcealed joy and relief, and strode forward to shake their hands. January extended her own hand without thinking, and was careful to gently grasp the other woman's hand in greeting. One of the great things about being a woman was that she did not need to get into ego battles over who had the strongest handshake.

Blood Raven was slower to accept the governor's proffered hand. But in the end, she did take it. Though clearly, she was the least enthusiastic of all three women. Then the elder heroine raised a hand to the sky. January felt mana spring from her fingertips, and descend around them in a tight dome. With that all sound from outside vanished entirely. The cheers and vehicle engines, even the sound of the wind and waves, all ceased to exist.

"Did you just make the cone of silence?" the governor mused as she looked quizzically about herself. "Now I feel like Agent 99."

January noted that her voice as somewhat high and nasal. The Michigan accent was clearly represented. She knew from experience that many of her fellow Michiganders insisted that they had no accent. The Midwest accent was 'normal', and everyone else talked weird. But those hard 'A's were unmistakable. Especially since January recognized them from her own speech.

"This shall insure our conversation remains confidential," Blood Raven explained. "No ear beyond shall hear, and no recording device may penetrate its screen."

"I can see the utility in that," Governor Whitaker replied. She took a moment to collect herself, then spoke again.

"Let me start by extending to you both my thanks for what you did here last night," she began, "both personally, and in my capacity of governor. That goes for all of your friends as well. You all did incredible things. People will be writing history books about this."

January noted Blood Raven's scowl at the latter. Since the beginning Blood Raven had taken pains to shield her family's involvement in this, in order to protect them from the glare of publicity. Now that she knew what it was like to receive the full attention of the media in her personal life, January had to struggle to keep from doing the same.

She had always balked at that. She knew what it was like to live a lie, and conceal the truth from the people around her. But now things looked differently. Especially given the danger her bloodline presented to the world. Julian might now be dead. But both she and her father shared his blood. That meant that either of them might call to the Rauðskinna someday, and begin this all over again. Or someone else might use either of them to do so, as the Hierophant had used Julian.

Blood Raven had been right about that at least. The fact that her blood was the key to bringing Nátthrafn back into the world must never make its way into the new history books.

"You are welcome Madam Governor, umm, Governor Whitaker." January fumbled for the words to reply when Blood Raven said nothing. The elder heroine had never concealed her dislike for authority figures, especially the police. Clearly, she saw no need change that now. Now January wished that she had looked up how to properly address a governor. It was a repeat of her same flub from her first meeting the Attorney General. One would think she would have learned better by now...

"Everyone is welcome," January continued. She realized that she was verging on babbling nervously. "We will always be here for the people."

"You can just call me Gretchen," the governor insisted.

"Well, I guess you have some questions about all of this," January had not expected to take the lead in this conversation. But it appeared that Blood Raven was quite content to allow her to do so. January added an exclamation to the end of her sentence by gesturing up to the eidolon of Y Ddraig Aur that rose up above them, and shone proudly in both the astral and mundane landscapes.

"Well, yes," Gretchen said. "I need to give a press conference soon, to let the people know what happened, and reassure them that it is not going to happen again. That is, if we are certain it is not going to happen again. Please tell me it isn't."

"It isn't," January asserted. "The Summoner is dead. His master the Hierophant is dead. There are none left to call to the Abyss and create another portal, and their notes have been confiscated."

"Where are they?" Gretchen asked. "The police will need them for their investigation."

"Absolutely not," Blood Raven now finally did speak once more. "Whatever information that may prove useful in preventing further incursions shall be noted. The rest shall be destroyed."

"That's a little imperious, don't you think?" The governor's patience was clearly wearing thin.

"It is a necessity," Blood Raven shot back. "Make no mistake, this is not a crime scene, it is a contagion. This virus must be halted for once and all, so that it may never spread again."

"This knowledge is dangerous," January added in a conciliatory tone. "You can see what happened here last night. The secrets of how to do this can't sit in a filing cabinet or on a server, just waiting for someone to come across it decades, or even centuries from now. Then this all might happen again."

"Think of this information as a form of stochastic terrorism," Blood Raven said. "Like propaganda that incites others to random acts of violence, this knowledge will likewise prompt others - whose identities we can never know beforehand - into following the path of the Hierophant. He was a foolish old man who chased dreams of immortality and power. He had no idea that this would be the fruits of his labors. Yet now that the extent of this threat has been laid bare, others will gleefully seek it out, for the express purpose of ending all life within this world."

"That's a little..." the governor let her words trail off, then she paused for a moment before speaking again."Ok, yeah, you are right. There are plenty of people who would be happy to die, just so long as they could take everyone else with them."

Hooah! For a moment I thought Lighthammer's here!

Raven salutes the troops, that's so wicked-awesome. I'm glad they're being recognized for their service.

I wish Lighthammer was here. I bet he'd fist-bump instead of shake. 🤜🤛

Oh no.... Michigan.. y'all got an accent, missy!

WHOA Cone of Silence. Wicked. Now they're talking in private. Any lip-readers will be all over this, assuming they can see inside the cone.

Is Jan speaking to the Governor in her perky voice? Aww... she's nervous. I like Gretchen. She seems down-home.

Whoa "We need them for investigation!!!" Yikes. She hasn't got a clue yet, about how their underworld works. You don't want that sort of information getting leaked out or whatever. No, no, no.

I bet Gretchen still really wants that evidence. If not, some other shadowy government agencies will be clamoring for it. Better break out the incinerator, quick!

------------------------------------------------
Comments section
Wow, really? Didn't realize those map stars are interactive. That's so neat. Mmkay yup. Silverlight's home. Lovely place. Georgetown is incredibly quaint, 'Rosa. Rich people live there but the place is so stylish (rather than conservative). It's fun!

I have watched Supergrrl a couple times and also some other shows on the CW, so yes, I can definitely say you captured the CW vibe. Like, it's a different perspective, reading about flying and other hero stuff instead of watching it.

YES, I don't trust Belle Isle at all. I hope the FBI's getting involved with some of their super-techs. I wonder what their labwork is able to pick up in regards to anything concerning all of that.

Whoa, Princess Diana podcast! I must find that.

Haha! The moment I heard ‘cone of silence’, I too thought of the ‘Get Smart’ TV show.

Neat back and forth with Gov Gretchen. I see Blood Raven continuing to push the Stormcrow into more responsibility and leadership as she lets the younger heroine do most of the talking. What little Blood Raven does say here is pure BS-free awesomesauce though. Stormcrow’s role in this part of the exchange was to make Blood Raven’s truth more palatable as she displays her diplomacy speechcraft skill.

Yah me too. I used to love that show. 99 was sort of like a role model when we were kids!

I used to love Get Smart when I was a children. I had such a huge crush on Agent 99.

Here is one link to the You're Wrong About podcast. It is their first episode on Princess Diana They did a whole series of I think 5 episodes on her. You can get to the others from there. And they have pictures on that site that they refer to in the show.

Awesome, bookmark'd.

Our heroines have indeed gotten to high places. January's gone far indeed.

Hmm, I have a feeling a lot of politicians (and others) would like a "cone of silence". I'm impressed with how agile Governor Whitmer is with this occult information. She's clearly a quick learner (which, from my understanding, is true IRL).

I like how Blood Raven is less enthusiastic about this whole thing. She's been around long enough to see a lot of seemingly good politicians turn bad. Though she might appreciate Governor Whitmer's support, she's not exactly enthusiastic since she knows that sort of thing can bring baggage.

The nature of this eldritch knowledge also makes it a threat. Like the classic HPL stuff, simply knowing it can be dangerous to your health and sanity--and everyone else's. Though I can't help wondering if Governor Whitmer is also thinking of ways for her state and nation to get a better handle on it. Because she's smart, and she's probably seen or heard of a few good supers going bad, and you just never know.

Renee: That is indeed Ligthammer's war cry, and that of the US Army and Air Force.

Raven was one of those troops, at one time. So her antipathy for the police does not generally extend to the military. Not entirely at least.

A lot of people in Michigan insist that we don't have an accent. We talk normal. We definitely have an accent...

You are right, in that a lot of government agencies would like that information, like the CIA. The incinerator is a good idea.


Acadian: I used to love Get Smart back when I was a children. It was hilarious. So whenever it comes to any sort of silence spell to prevent eavesdropping, I automatically think of the Cone of Silence.

You are correct in that Blood Raven is definitely prodding January to take a more prominent leadership role here. It is something she is going to have to get used to.


WellTemperedClavier: It is a long way from that science fiction convention and January's first battle with Lighthammer. Even though it is only been a few months in story time. January's whole life has changed.

I have done my best to pattern Governor Whitaker after RL Gov Whitmer, without ever having met the woman. She seems like a decent sort. And she likes Shark Week.

Blood Raven has a real dislike for not just authority figures, but the very idea of authority in general. She comes from a much different time, and is used to dealing with issues either personally or through communal effort. But not through a State apparatus. She is an Anarchist in a lot of ways, and sees the power of any State as being inherently corrupting. Especially given how prone States are to committing acts of violence upon their own people. Which is not to say that she believes in chaos. She believes in rules, just not rulers.






Book 10.31 - Alliance

"So what can you tell me, that I can turn around and give to the public? People out there are scared. No one knows what to think of any of this."

"Did the Attorney General talk to you about this?" January asked. "I explained it to her the last time we met. I just assumed she was going to tell you too."

"Yes, Dana did tell me about the Hierophant and the Summoner," Gretchen explained. "But that was just that these people were calling up Abyssals. Not that they were planning on destroying the world."

"They weren't planning that," January shook her head. "We were afraid of it, but even we were not sure. When the Hierophant made his final summoning tonight, he brought forth a being of far greater power than those before. That creature in turn opened a gateway to the Abyss. That can only be done from this side, not from the Abyss itself. We spent the rest of the battle trying to close the gateway."

January kept the name of that being to herself. As Blood Raven had said, they had to keep the true details on the down low. There was no need to tell people the name of the creature that could destroy the world, nor that the Rauðskinna illustrated how to do so. That would send others looking for Nátthrafn. It was better to keep things simple.

"You said on television that you killed the Hierophant when he performed the ritual," Gretchen asked. "Is that true?"

"Do not answer that!" Blood Raven made a violent motion to wave January off from speaking. "If the Attorney General wishes to question us, I will oblige her to do so when we have legal counsel of our own present."

"I'm not trying to bust you, either of you. I just want to know what's going on," Gretchen sighed and gestured up at the glowing form of the dragon above them. "Like how that got in one of my state parks."

"It's okay," January waved Blood Raven off. The other woman glared, but said nothing when January went on.

"The Hierophant captured me," she explained. "He drugged me. When I woke up, I was in the Belle Isle Casino. He had others there, a pack or coterie of sorts. But one of them was on our side. Her name is Gola. She was the one in Eloise recently. I helped her out then, showed her that she didn't need to eat people's hearts. She distracted the Hierophant so that I was able to alter his ritual. I was meant to be the human sacrifice. I reversed it, so that he was instead."

"So you played the UNO reverse card on him?" Gretchen nodded.

"I tried to talk him out of it," January explained. "I begged him not to in fact. But he would not listen. He was so blinded by his lust for power that he did not care who he killed to get it. So in the end, he killed himself."

"I trust you shall emphasize this fact in your reporting of the incident," Blood Raven insisted. "The Hierophant killed himself in the process of performing his ritual."

"Like I said, I'm not here to bust the people who saved the world," Gretchen insisted. "I'm sure Dana - the Attorney General - will agree. We aren't dicks. You may find this hard to believe, but we actually do want to make people's lives better, not worse."

Blood Raven said nothing. She simply crossed her arms and stared back with crimson eyes aglow. That the governor did not wilt beneath their glare showed that she possessed backbone aplenty.

"Could you have simply sabotaged the ritual, so it would not work?" Gretchen asked next. "People are going to wonder, so I need to be able to answer."

"No," January shook her head. "I thought about that. If the ritual had failed to work, the Hierophant would have seen what went wrong, fixed it, and simply done it again. He probably would have deduced that I had sabotaged it as well, and simply drugged me once more."

"Then Stormcrow would be dead, and the Hierophant might still be loose today." Blood Raven added. January knew that was not true. Nátthrafn did not share power. He would have killed the wizard the moment he had arrived on Earth. But the world did not need to know that either.

"So, this is all magic then?" Through all of this, the governor had been all business. Only now did her reserve break, and a look of incredulity crept across her features. "I mean, like rabbits out of hats?"

"No, real magic," January insisted. "The power to create change in accordance with will. It's where our powers come from. Blood Raven and I aren't meta-humans. So too with many of the others who were there last night. Magic has always existed, long before Tunguska happened and created meta-humans. It will exist long after us."

"And that, is that really a dragon, like people say?" Gretchen once more gestured up to the ghost of the dragon that loomed above them.

"Yes," Blood Raven said in a more friendly tone. "That is Y Ddraig Aur. Or so the people of Wales addressed her long ago. She is one of the ancient guardians of the multiverse. Ever have they done battle against the Abyss. Their blood is the shield that protects our worlds. I strode the paths of time to make a pact with her. Thusly I called her here, in spirit, if not in flesh. For that was not the full might of a dragon that walked the earth last night. It was merely an avatar, a lesser projection through time and space. I suspect human minds cannot grasp the full extent of their power, no more than an ant might do so concerning us."

"So these dragons, they're friendly?" Gretchen asked. January could see that she really, really wanted the answer to be 'yes'.

"The ancient guardians have no concern for us," Blood Raven shook her head. "They stand against the Abyss, so that we might continue to exist. But otherwise they do not meddle in our affairs."

"So, True Neutral, at least so far as we are concerned," Gretchen nodded. "I guess that's better than some of the other possibilities."

"They will not save us from climate change, nor from our wars and insurrections." Blood Raven replied. "Those are in our hands. But take heart in the knowledge that even now, the ghost of her remains to stand guard against further incursions into our realm."

"So it's going to be here a while?" Gretchen said, looking up at the ghost of the dragon.

Blood Raven shrugged. "I truly know not. This memory of her might vanish tomorrow. Or it might outlast all life on this planet. Only time may recount the tale."

Yah, y'all definitely have an accent, but I'd say it's more of a non-accent. It's not as obvious as a suthr'n accent or if you go to Bahstahn, and so on.

Get Smart! ruled. Loved that show. I have a dim memory of putting on one of my mom's wigs, pretending to be 99. Get Smart! and Gilligan's Island were like the greatest shows EVER when we were kids.

It's a good thing Blood Raven is here, speaking with Gretchen along with January. Thing is, January might not know what's okay to reveal to Gretch, and what should be kept secret. I don't get the feeling Gretch is very familiar with the occult, after all.

Ha ha "Uno card". Yep, she uno'd Higher Pants's behind until he was out, that's for sure.

True Neutral? Gretchen's a gamer???

Really am enjoying the interplay between these three. Jan's got the pulse of modern youth, Raven's got decades and centuries behind her, and Gretchen comes across as actually sort of "with it". Open-minded, at least.

Stormcrow is getting pretty good at navigating the myriad traps of talking to the press or government officials. Of course it helps that Gov Gretchen seems to realize that she owes the continuing existence of her state to the pair of mages before her. Blood Raven and Stormcrow continue to grow as a fabulous pair, whose contradicting and complementary characteristics render the duo much more effective than either would be alone.

As ever, I continue to love how you write Blood Raven’s wonderfully old world dialogue.

Blood Raven's suspicion makes sense. She's been around long enough to see even some of the better-intentioned plans go wrong. Sometimes you can only really rely on yourself.

I don't envy January trying to explain this to the authorities. Receptive though they are, it's hard to describe this kind of thing in a way that makes sense. She's doing a pretty good job, all things considered.

Heh, Blood Raven sounds like an attorney. "You do not need to answer that."

Blood Raven showing her suspicion here. She certainly has reason...

So my memory's a little fuzzy, but is magic widely acknowledged? Or have people just been assuming it's a meta power all this time? I seem to recall the latter, but I'm not 100% sure.

True neutral? Governor Whitmer knows her stuff.

And good point at the end. Magic can do a lot, but it still struggles with systemic changes. Too many moving parts in those for any spell to handle (short of magic mind control, which raises its own problems).

Renee: Thankfully Gov Gretch is a generally benevolent person, who acts in good faith and takes her duty to the people seriously. That all comes from the RL current governor whom she is based upon. If January had been dealing with the governor of a state like Texas or Florida, they would be looking for ways to put her, Blood Raven, and the other Allies in prison.

Gretch must have gone to college at some point. So I figure she at least has a passing knowledge of D&D. Besides, given what blatant nerds her local super team are, I would not be surprised if she did a little research to refresh her memory about alignments, saving throws, and the like. If for nothing else so she knows what they are talking about.


Acadian: I have heavily based January's ability with the press upon that of Princess Diana. She was not an extrovert by nature. She would rather spend the evening at home eating beans and crackers and watching the telly than go to fancy events. But the latter was part of her 'job' as a member of the royal family. So she put all of her energy into being as charming and charismatic as possible. Even though she found it stressful and emotionally exhausting.


WellTemperedClavier: Oh boy, just wait until the next book! Explaining the Battle of Belle Isle is simple compared to how ridiculous what is coming next will sound! One thing about magic that is practically guaranteed, is that it tends to be really flashy, and really weird.

Unlike January, Blood Raven is a lot more suspicious and cautious around government officials. She lived through the Nixon years after all. All the years in fact. She has an inherent distrust of state power, and its corruptive nature.

Most people view magic in the same way as we do IRL. It is either David Copperfield or making animal balloons at children's birthday parties. When supers declare that they are magicians, they are usually just put down as being meta-humans, who think they are magicians. Of course the only people who can really tell the difference are the actual magicians, like Blood Raven and January.

That however, will be changing now. The Battle of Belle Isle is going to kindle a lot of interest in real magic. Enough that I do have plans for January to spin off a limited podcast series from Heroes and Villians to tell the history of magic. Something like a ten or twelve part series that will tell it all, with guests like Silverlight in her civilian ID as a cultural anthropologist, and maybe Calypso in her super ID.









The Heel-Face Turn

A Brief History of Slavery and the Origins of American Policing

The History of Policing in the United States, Part 1

Thief-Takers

Behind the Police

Ope!



Book 10.32 - Alliance

"And that sea monster out there?" The governor turned and gestured to the spiny back of a marine giant that briefly crested the waves of the Detroit River beyond. Only for it to sink out of view a moment later. "That is on our side too, right?"

"That is Mishipeshu," Blood Raven explained. "The great lynx, or underwater panther. You might think of it as a nature spirit. It came because my one time protégé Silverlight called it here for aid. Though I suspect that soon enough it would have arrived of its own accord. It is a part of the Great Lakes, a champion of our world if you will. It would defend the lakes against any alien threat."

"But it's friendly, right?" again, the look on the governor's face showed that she clearly wanted the answer to be "Yes".

"In days of old, people made sacrifices to it, lest it drag them down to drown into the depths." Blood Raven shrugged. "Now... Well I suggest doing nothing to anger it."

"Lovely," the governor sighed. Then she looked from one woman to the other, and her voice picked up once more.

"So, tell me about your team. The Great Lakes Alliance is what some people are calling you, or the Allies for short. Is this permanent? What can I do to help?"

"I... umm..." once more January fumbled, while Blood Raven chose to remain silent. "We haven't really discussed it with each other. But it is not like we are all living in a mansion just waiting for the red alert to go off. We all have lives and responsibilities. Lighthammer is in Cleveland. Blackhawk is in Toronto. Gola is Up North. The Junkman is, well, I don't think he's looking forward to doing this sort of thing again. He said he nearly had a heart attack last night. I can relate. But at least here in Metro Detroit Ôkami, Gadget, Blood Raven, and I will always be ready to help with anything that comes up."

"The Junkman, he's the one in the giant mech right: the Fred Hampton?" Gretchen asked.

"Yep," January nodded. "He's helped us behind the scenes before as well, with mechanical stuff."

"Aren't he and his pet robot - Archie is it? - the ones who robbed Global Titanium and Source One Metals?" the governor pressed.

"Well..." January was not sure how to respond to that. She found herself trying to loosen the neck of her suit, as suddenly it felt uncomfortably tight.

"I am not going to try to arrest the man who helped save the world last night," Gretchen assured. "I get it, the Heel-Face turn is one of the oldest tropes in the book. Sometimes you just need to give people a chance to make good on past mistakes, or rise above their circumstances."

"In fact, I've noticed that a lot of your friends started out as your enemies: Lighthammer, the Junkman, this raven-woman Gola, Hungry Ghost. As governor I am in a position to grant clemency to all of them, at least here in Michigan. Give me a list of names, and I will make it so."

"Let me talk to them, and I will do that." January declared.

"On a similar subject, Dana - the Attorney General - and I have been talking," the governor went on. "We would like to offer you both full, legal empowerment here in the State of Michigan."

"I find that to be insulting," Blood Raven's tone was low, but her eyes glowed with the fire of a volcano.

"I-" the governor sighed in exasperation before finding her voice once more. "Are you being deliberately combative? I have been trying to act in good faith through all of this. Yet you have been nothing but obstructive."

"Yes, you are correct, I have been," Blood Raven admitted. Once again, January's mentor surprised her with her candor. "I possess very strong feelings on this matter. Those feelings are borne of centuries of experience with the slave patrols and mercenaries who now call themselves the police. They exist for the sole purpose of doing violence upon the People, at the bidding of the State. I stand for the People. I will have no association with such creatures."

The governor shook her head and sighed. January could feel for her. She knew what it was like dealing with Blood Raven. Her mentor never compromised in her beliefs. Sometimes it seemed like they butted heads more often than a pair of rams. But through it all they shared a mutual respect, if not love. The governor had yet to earn such respect from the other woman. January feared she never would, given that Gretchen was starting from a position of authority.

"And you Stormcrow, do you share her feelings?" the governor now looked to January.

"It's... complicated," January said honestly. "I'm Queer. My best friend Gadget is Queer, and he's Black. We don't look at the police and feel safe. We probably never will. I mean, we celebrate Stonewall because that is when people like us said 'F' it and fought back against police brutality, and won."

"So that's a no as well," Gretchen did not hide the disappointment from her features. "I had hoped we could forge some sort of accord here. I wanted to reach out to you, to all of you."

"It's not a 'no'," January shook her head. "It's just not a yes either. I don't know. It's something I have to think about, and discuss with the others. Does this offer include them as well?"

"At this point, Dana and I only considered the two of you," Gretchen said plainly. "But that does not take Gadget or Ôkami off the table. They are both just a little too unknown so far. As I understand it Blackhawk is Canadian, so I don't have the authority in her case. Lighthammer is in Ohio, so that's also a gray area. Gola and the Junkman, we just don't know enough about at all. I mean, I won't hesitate to wipe their slates clean here in Michigan. But beyond than that, it requires more scrutiny."

"Then I suggest we table the idea for now," January said. "Not abandon it, just hold off. I have no problems working with you and the Attorney General. We do not. We have so far after all. That is why we are here right now."

January looked pointedly to Blood Raven. The other woman said nothing, but did nod in return.

"We are always going to be here for the people, you can always count on us." January heard both her personal assistant and Blood Raven's own wrist-mounted computer ding with an alert of an incoming message. Cray's voice was in her ear a moment later explaining what that was for.

"Cray - he's our tech guy - he just sent me a general timeline of events and information that you can release to the press. If you can lend me your phone for a minute?"

January held out her hand, and was relieved that the governor did not hesitate to hand her smartphone over. She could not help but notice that was a top of the line Hamsung, with a folding glass screen. It probably cost a hundred times what her own cheapest of the cheap phones was worth.

January pulled a micro USB cable from Sága and plugged it into the governor's phone. It took just a moment to copy over the information, and she handed the phone back a moment later.

"I should probably give you my phone number too," Gretchen said. "Needless to say, you can call me anytime."

January suspected that Cray already had it. But it might sound creepy to relate that. So she went through the motions of sharing numbers back and forth with the governor. She did take a moment to savor that. She was sharing phone numbers with the governor of her state! Now that was something she had not seen coming just a few months ago!

"Ok, I think that covers it all," the governor nodded. "Thank you again for coming to talk to me. My door is always open, to both of you, and your friends." Gretchen looked pointedly at Blood Raven. "Since the news is already here, do you two feel like joining me and repeating most of that on camera?"

"We would be glad to," January forced a smile to her lips. Blood Raven may have fumed, but she did not dissent. She dispelled her dome of silence, and the three women walked to where the reporters crowded. In no time at all an impromptu press conference was convened. The governor did most of the talking, calling in January to offer up details.

This time January took Blood Raven's advice about not saying that she had killed someone on television. She also pointed out that the final summoning ritual had a trap built into it. She had alluded to this with Gilda Gadfly after all. She further explained that the Hierophant had discovered this and fixed it. She then went on to explain that she had sabotaged the ritual, in order to change it back. In the end, his own ritual killed him.

Blood Raven said nothing at all. She merely stood in the background and looked ominous, as was her wont when in public.

When it was all over January felt exhausted. Not physically - Kaelin's restore fatigue potion had taken care of that - but emotionally. There was something about being on TV that just stressed her out to no end. She could not see how some people craved it so much. It was awful. She would sooner fight an earth elemental than do another interview.

"Stormcrow!" a familiar voice rang out from the crowd at the end of the conference. "This is Gilda Gadfly! Would you care to make any more comments? Everyone is talking about that kiss you and Vortex shared at the end of the battle? Are the two of you back together? The people are dying to know!"

Ope! January had to fight the urge to plant the palm of her hand into her forehead. Some things never changed. Of course that was the takeaway. Not the end of the world. Not the dragon. No, it was her second lesbian kiss on national TV. Now January could see the value of Blood Raven's decidedly standoffish approach to the press.

Yeah, Gretchen's got a good feel for the way things are done, that is true. She's also rather hip.

I was just thinking that too, about more conservative government figures, who definitely wouldn't put up with the way the supers frequently dance around laws. If The Stormcrow took place in any of the states where abortion's now illegal (or headed that way) this story would prob'ly be over by now. Or it'd be stifled, at least.

The Ope article is interesting. I've never heard anyone say "ope" before. I used to work with a gal who said "uff-da", though. She had Scandinavian background.

There's a monster in the Great Lakes! Wow, Gretchen knows all about "The Junkman" as well. I suppose she would. His tech would've gotten exposed by the press after the past episodes he was featured in.

Hamsung!



That's awesome. For Branwen this means nothing, but for Jan it means a lot.

I like that Gretch is considering extending law priviliges to the two metas. Sure, Raven's going to turn that down, but at least the offer is there.

Uh oh, Gilda's here. Just what SC doesn't need, another interview. PLeA$3 get some sleep. Because pretty soon the next crisis shall strike.

Gov Gretch has no position to bargain from really. She needs the superheroes (primarily to combat supervillains) but the superheroes have little need for her or her state. The best I think the Gov can hope for is an understanding that, hopefully, Blood Raven and Co will continue to answer the call to combat evil forces beyond the ability of the state. In the end, like Batman or Superman, the only real control of a superhero is their own noble nature. That in itself raises some interesting questions that our nonfiction world does not have to deal with.

I feel for Jan. She certainly rises to the occasion, but I’d be stressed out having to deal with the press as well. Whereas Blood Raven has no use for the Gov or her government, Jan hopes to be able to benefit from some cooperation, sharing intel, etc I figure.

Ah, a podcast sounds good. Especially since there will be tons of dis/misinformation about magic cropping up in the coming months. Granted, a lie's traveled halfway around the world by the time the truth has put on its shoes...

The governor's gotta be worrying a bit about liability here. In fact, I'm sure legislators are going to have big debates on this while the lawyers salivate.

Hm, I can definitely understand why Blood Raven's suspicious of the offer. Still, I think state-backing will be useful for January. An individual hero can exist outside the state if they stay small enough. But once you get a group together, you either have to work with the state or against it, and in this case going against it would probably create more problems than it would solve.

Or I guess you do what Heisenberg did and make your own state.

Okay, putting it aside for the time-being sounds more reasonable. That lets January get a better idea of what's being offered, and see how her compatriots feel about all this.

I don't blame January for being exhausted. I'd hate being a public figure, or anything close to it. That's one of the reasons I deleted/deactivated all my social media accounts, and I'm not even close to being semi-famous. Wonder if January's going to need to hire an Internet PR firm for the Alliance?

And here's Gadfly with something stupid. Fame and heroism do come with a high price.

Renee: If January was in one of those states, then it would just be a matter of time before she was a revolutionary. Blood Raven would be way ahead of her of course. She has plenty of practice at killing fascists.

We say Ope all the time in Michigan, in place of things like Oops. Its as Pure Michigan as Faygo, or Koegels, or Strohs.

The monster is the same one from earlier - Mishipeshu - who Silverlight summoned to help her fight the Hydra.


Acadian: There is a lot that Gretch can do for January and company, and already has. Starting with her offers to grant clemency to the many legally-dubious members of Jan's team. Full legal empowerment also puts her inside the cop house and gives her real authority among the badges, rather than just moral authority and the need to build personal relationships with individuals that might later help out, like Emelia Mercado or the Sterling Heights police chief. Plus of course a paycheck.

Sometime in the future January is going to have a sit down with some of the Sentinels to get their advice on going legit, as they are. As always, there are benefits and drawbacks.

As ever, January and Blood Raven are stark contrasts. It is one of the things I like about writing them together most.


WellTemperedClavier: The subject of damages will be coming up soon. Mainly in that Gov Gretch will be asking for federal disaster relief, the same as for hurricane or earthquake damage. Thankfully most of the damage was restricted to one end of Belle Isle, which is a park. So nothing truly critical was destroyed.

There is indeed a lot that official backing of the State can bring a cape. Plus some drawbacks. I will be exploring that now that we are in Season Two. Thankfully for January, she is on good personal terms with both the governor and attorney general. She lucked out with those two. And all of that is honestly just luck. I decided to base both upon their real world counterparts, which is why they are basically good people. Just ten years ago and things would be very different.

Hiring a PR firm, or person, is not something I ever thought of. But it is an excellent idea. If the Alliance is going to have a permanent social media presence, they should definitely have someone else handling it. You never want to read the comments yourself.

Gilda was not originally going to be in the end. In fact, my original ending was with January meeting her mother after the battle, and agreeing to start the podcast. I wanted to end both the book and the season on a hopeful note, and that worked really well. But then I realized that I was leaving loose ends about how the story of the battle would be presented to the public.

Usually I use a short Gilda Gadfly broadcast for that. This time I went into more detail with Jan and Blood Raven cleaning out the Hierophant's lair, and then talking with Governor Gretch. I wanted to show January stepping into the role as leader of the team. Her shouldering more responsibility is going to be important very soon.

But with all that seriousness, I still wanted to end on a funny note. So I turned to my old standby of Gilda, and had her ask a characteristically shallow and ridiculous question.







Riven in civilian attire

Kaelin

Inspiration for Kaelin's Outfit

Calypso Aqua Form Inspiration

Silverlight's Goddess Form inspiration (RL goddess Selene)




Book 11.1 - Raven Sisters

July 10 - 18, 2019

July 10th, morning

January closed her eyes and felt down for her mana. As ever, it was a cauldron of energy that bubbled deep inside of her. Here in the sanctum it was stronger, clearer, and brighter than usual. Now it was a fountain of power that suffused every atom of her being. She reached inward and took hold of that power, then stretched out with it to the room around her.

As ever, the sanctum defied description. The designs formed by the pebble mosaic of its floor, the strips of metal inset into its walls, and the strings of beads that hung from its ceiling flowed and changed like water. One moment it was a cube, the next it was a pyramid. Then it was monochrome, and after that a rainbow of color. It was everything, and nothing, at the same time.

She sang quietly to herself, and counted imaginary crows. She felt her power meet that of the sanctum and flow into it. She focused upon the teleportation waypoint that was fixed into the floor. Blood Raven had taken her through it numerous times. It had many different endpoints, each another waypoint that the elder heroine had forged throughout the city and beyond.

She could feel them all as the node came to life beneath her feet. She could see them in her mind's eye. There was the abandoned factory in Eastern Market, then the children's hospital in Ann Arbor, and another, and another. She flipped through them all as if she was swiping right through Scissr, looking for the one she wanted.

She slowed down when she came to the waypoint within the stairwell of the parking structure beside the Detroit Radiator Building, deep in the Financial District downtown. She knew from experience that she was nearing her destination. At the next point she finally came to a halt. This one was tied to the penthouse of the Radiator Building itself. January reached out, sent her energy into it, and brought it to life.

Her mana fell into the pathways inscribed by the runes of the two waypoints, like molten metal poured into a mold. The runes glowed to life and became a bridge, linking one point to the other. For that instant, they both existed in the same place and time.

Then just as quickly as the bridge had been formed, it vanished. January relaxed, and allowed her energy to ebb back down into that well of power deep within her being. She opened her eyes in time to see the pentacle inscribed in the floor fade from sight.

That floor had changed greatly from a moment before however. No longer did she stand upon the pebble mosaic of the sanctum. Instead the floor of the Raven's Nest lay beneath her feet, made of soft gold marble. The sprawling loft in which she stood rose for three stories in height, and was square in outline. A massive block of black marble filled its center, and stretched from floor to ceiling. January noted that the expansive family tree that had once inscribed its surface had been wiped clean, as if it had never existed in the first place.

Against this face of the marble tower stood a desk of lustrous cherry wood that stood upon gently curved legs. The last time January had seen this Ben Franklin desk its surface had been piled high with papers. Now it was bare, and she suspected that those documents were filed neatly away in the vintage wooden filing cabinets beside the desk.

She turned around to see the black baby grand piano gleaming near the floor to ceiling glass doors that led to the balcony outside. Lying atop its closed lid was a wooden violin case. Between it and the Ben Franklin desk were some new additions. Now there was a low coffee table of elegantly carved wood, whose surface was polished to a near-reflective sheen. Bracketing it were a pair of long, Victorian couches, overstuffed in blood red velvet. Similar chairs sat at either end of the long table. It looked like a scene from any five star hotel, in 1800s London...

Out through the window and beyond the balcony, she could see the decorative columns of the Book Cadillac hotel. Beside that loomed the Brutalist concrete pile of the Federal building. Farther still the Detroit River stretched like a green ribbon, and miles away the Ambassador Bridge spanned its emerald waters.

She felt Ôkami's hand fall from her shoulder, and turned to smile at her partner in capeness. The latter was clearly a term that was going to need more work... Like her, he was clad in his armor. As ever, he made her think of a high-tech samurai, for while his armor was forged from nanotwinned cubic boron nitride and dragon silk, it otherwise would not have looked out of place in 16th Century Japan. Except for the mini-computer built into one of his forearms of course.

January heard women's voices, and turned back to look deeper into the loft. She heard someone shout, and turned the corner to the computer lab. This was Cray's domain. The elder hacker was not here however. But several others were making use of his computers, to play a video game of all things. January recognized it as Doom. Not one of the newer versions of that first person shooter. But the original, so old it did not even have 3D graphics, but simple sprites. It was so old in fact, that it predated January herself.

"Cowabunga!" shouted a woman with long blonde hair. Her nose was not quite straight, and the arms left bare by her frayed New Kids on the Block tee showed more than one scar. Her skin was tanned from the sun, and looked a little worn by age. Combined with the crow's feet that faintly pattered around her eyes, January guessed she might be in her forties, maybe even fifties. January recognized her voice, and her bearing, as that of Riven. She had met the Californian heroine at the Battle of Belle Isle, and the party afterward. But she had practically grown up seeing her in action on television news and the internet.

Beside the older heroine sat Kaelin, making quite the contrast to Riven. Like January, she was half the other woman's age. Her smooth skin was fair, but not quite as pale as January's. Her hair was now dyed bright green, and rose up from her scalp in numerous spikes. She wore a black goth-punk outfit that consisted of a feathery jacket slung over a low cut top. Her legs were poured into a pair of skin-tight leather pants, with big, chunky boots that shod her feet.

They both looked up as January stepped into the computer center. Kaelin smiled, and Riven spoke up before January could say hello.

"Were we supposed to wear our Halloween costumes?" she laughed, looking at January's armor.

"I don't have one," Kaelin pouted.

"Oh, you are doing just fine," a mellifluous voice wafted in through one of the open doors to the balcony outside. Its author flowed into the room a moment later. It was Calypso. Like January, the Bahamian heroine was clad in her armor of dark gray leather and vibrant green coral. She was not in her sea-form however. Instead the completely normal skin under her mask was dark brown, and a mane of curly black hair rose from her head rather than a spiny frill.

"Dress like that in Nassau and believe me, you will stand out," she said wryly.

"I guess we all tend to do that." January murmured. Suddenly she felt self-conscious in her Stormcrow armor. Should she have come more laid back? What about secret identities? Riven certainly did not seem worried about that.

"Well, not all of us," Riven gave a pointed look behind January. She turned to see Ôkami vanish from sight. He just faded into nothingness, leaving only a vague shadow behind that wafted toward the central block of marble. In a moment he seemed to melt into the black surface of the stone, and January could no longer tell where one ended and the other began.

"Now that is quite the trick," Kaelin mused.

"Said the alchemist," January replied.

"Groups of strangers are stressful," Ôkami's voice rose from the black surface of the marble pillar. Otherwise there was no sign of his presence.

"Aren't they indeed?" Another woman strode from around the far side of the black marble that blocked of the center of the loft. She held an oversized tome in one hand that was worn and weathered by time. Her skin was made of milky white marble, and a staff of what appeared to be the same material was clutched in her free hand. The weapon was topped with white stone that looked quite different from the marble, possessing a rough and pitted appearance that gave a sense of great age. It was shaped in the form of a gibbous moon, and soft light spilled from its cratered surface.

She was clad in a suit of loose gray and white cloth with numerous folds. A hood was thrown back from her head, revealing a slender diadem with a crescent moon that rose from her brow like a pair of tiny horns. A belt of moonstones was slung over her hips, and similar moonstone bracelets girded her wrists. Finally, a long cape trailed out behind her.

"So we are all here then Silverlight?" Calypso nodded to the lunar-themed heroine. "I am eager to make our new sister's acquaintance."

Loved your description of Stormcrow’s magical travel. In ESO, once you discover a wayshrine, you can travel to it from any other wayshrine. So when you activate a wayshrine, you basically navigate a menu to the one you want. You quite creatively gave this ‘menu’ feature a magical flavor.

’...turned to smile at her partner in capeness. The latter was clearly a term that was going to need more work...’[
- - Yeah, agree - some more work. Crowbro? Herohomie? Supersidekick? Nah.

Wow, Rivan’s a looker!

After you described Kaelin’s outfit, I chuckled as she lamented not having a Halloween costume.

A gathering of much of the coven it seems. I’m guessing ‘our new sister’ is the very young witch under training that Blood Raven and Stormcrow discovered.

Ah, looks as though we've started a new book. Another page is turned. And Miss January has gotten some rest.

I'd love to see this sanctum in action. Somehow, I don't think the CW would be able to portray this as magnificently as our imaginations can, even with all their CGIs and whatnot. Hmm, seems like she's astral-projecting. 🔮 No, teleporting

Somebody is playing Doom! mirocu's favorite game.

Wow, look at Riven. Kaelin's a cutie, too.

Aw, Okami's shy. Doesn't feel comfy around these gals, perhaps.

Nice, Silverlight is here. 🌙

I love how unearthly the sanctum is. Gives that eldritch feel without seeming evil about it. And the place offers a very handy means of getting around.

I know the story goes that you can run Doom on just about anything, even a refrigerator. Have a feeling Cray could take that to some interesting places...

So it looks like the Alliance has its home base. One with a pretty solid entertainment network. Great for unwinding between missions.

Acadian: When I included the first of the waypoints back in Book 5: Crystal Death, it was just so Blood Raven had a hidden way to get into and out of the Raven's Nest without being seen. Sort of like Batman driving through a fake waterfall to get into and out of the Batcave.

I have expanded on the idea since then, especially since now January is actively using the waypoints. I turned them into an entire network of waypoints linking numerous sites together. I played Diablo II again a little last year, and that really helped flesh out the idea of them being part of a network. Like with ESO, you will recall that it too had a whole system of waypoints linking each map to the next.

Maybe January just needs to stick with Homies! (which is half serious. I worked up a Crowverse version of Insane Clown Posse - the Mad Fae Corps - who I think I am going to work into a future story. In the very least they and their Faegallos get a mention in this book.

A while back I played Blood Raven in Pillars of Eternity, and for that I found some some inspirational artwork for Riven so that she could be part of the Conspiracy of Ravens. For this time out she was going to appear out of costume, so I needed to really work out what she looks like normally. In the end I went with current day Jeri Ryan. I saw her recently in season two of Picard, and I was really impressed with her in that.

I did laugh about Kaelin lamenting her lack of a Halloween costume. As Calypso noted, she does not exactly blend in!

Our new sister will be making her appearance this very post.


Renee: This is a new Book, and a new Season. Welcome to Season Two of the Crow Show!

The sanctum would be tough to do in either live action or even animation. It is always shifting with each individual's perceptions. It is whatever you need it to be at the moment.

Riven is an oldie. She is in her mid-forties! So she has been playing the original Doom since it came out!

Ôkami is on the Autistic/Asperger's spectrum, and like a lot of neurodiverse people, social situations are very difficult for him. That is why his main power is to disappear. It is what being around most people makes him want to do.


WellTemperedClavier: The sanctum is one of the places I am most pleased with creating. I am glad I was able to make it into something that goes beyond being just a study or training room, but has an actual character all its own.

Cray can probably run Doom on the toaster in his apartment. Though using his tabletop supercomputer to play a 30 year old video game is sort of like using an ICBM to kill an ant. That is one of the reasons I went with Doom. It is just so incongruous, given the setting.

TBH, one of the problems I am having, if that is the right word, is that the Allies have too many bases. January has the Witch House with its sanctum. Then there is the Raven's Nest downtown with its super penthouse headquarters. A new area in the basement is going to be introduced in the basement of the Raven's Nest later in this book. So I find myself wondering if I should move the entire cast into the Raven's Nest to live there full time? Or if stick my original thought of them living in the Witch House? Right now they are bouncing between the two. Granted, they could just continue to do that indefinitely. Or use the Witch House as their place of 'normal' residence, and the Raven's Nest as their work HQ.






Xochitl

Calypso in civilian attire

Ryo in civilian attire

Blood Raven in civilian attire

Silverlight in civilian attire

January in civilian attire

January's Iron Maiden tee

Styx - Mr. Roboto


Book 11.2 - Raven Sisters

"Just go easy on her," January found herself saying. "She's new to all this. In fact, it might be a little overwhelming. I mean, have you looked at us?"

"Speak for yourself sister," Riven rose to her feet. With her tee shirt and jeans, she was the only one of them who looked ordinary.

"Some of us have identities to protect," Silverlight pointed out, "as you well know."

Riven shrugged. "If someone wants to kill my parents to get to me, they are welcome. The world would be a better place."

"You still wore your mask and suit for your wedding pictures in Person magazine," Kaelin pointed out.

"That was different," Riven waved one hand. "That was for the public. This is personal; it's just us and Xochitl. If she's going to be part of this sorority, then she has meet us, the real us, not just the parts we play on stage."

"Besides, there are ways to keep identities secret," the older heroine went on, "pacts to seal a covenant. When you have been around as long as I have, you learn to chill out."

No one replied to that. Instead they all turned their heads as one. They looked to the far side of the loft, beyond the great ebony stone that filled the center of the space. The waypoint hidden within the golden marble of the floor behind it burned to life. She could not see it. But January could feel the mana from it warming the air. She could smell it in her nostrils, sweet as flowers. It was alive and filling the chamber with magical life.

As when January had so recently arrived by the same method, the waypoint bent space and time. Some distant place joined this one for an instant, so that they both existed together. Then reality snapped back to normal again, and the pentacle faded away to nothingness beneath the floor.

They all strode around the penthouse to find that the mistress of the Raven's Nest now stood upon the waypoint. Her scarlet mane blew gently from a wind that did not exist. Her frame was clad in black and red dragon silk and Chobham armor. But January did not have to see Blood Raven to know she was there. Even without deliberately sensing in the astral, she could feel her mentor's presence. She had come so attuned to her ancestor's astral scent, that she could feel her in the room as easily as the floor beneath her feet.

The elder heroine slid one red-gauntleted hand from the shoulder of the girl beside her. January did not like thinking of other women as girls. It was diminishing. But the fact was Xochitl was not an adult. Nor was she a child either. She was somewhere in the middle of her teen years. They were those wonderful, painful, confusing years when one did not know what one was, or was going to be. But one certainly knew what they were not anymore.

January did not miss those years one bit.

She smiled, and shook her head. Here she was, not quite twenty yet, and she was being as patronizing as someone in their thirties, or worse, their forties! Goddess forbid she ever become so ancient and decrepit a Methuselah as that!

Xochitl wore a runched mini dress of floral pastels and a pair of sandals. Her coal black hair was pulled back from her face in a long, single braid. Her dark eyes grew to the size of saucers as she stared out around the Raven's Nest. But they quickly fell upon January and the others, who now gathered near the two of them at the waypoint.

"Xochitl, it is my estimable pleasure to introduce you to your siblings." Blood Raven swept one hand out to indicate the gathered heroines.

"I... umm.... ahhh..." were the only words that could escape from the teenager's lips. January caught herself frowning. She forced herself to stop, and instead forced a welcoming smile across her features. Riven had been right. It was a little overwhelming for a fifteen year old. To be honest, it would have been so for one of any age.

As if bidden by January's thoughts, the blonde heroine stepped past the others and reached out to Xochitl. She took the young woman's hand in her own and gave it a gentle shake. Then she led her to one of the long overstuffed Victorian couches that now took up space between the waypoint and the glass doors to the balcony that ringed the building outside.

"It's all a bit over the top, isn't it hon?" she said in a breezy, relaxed tone. "Don't worry. We're all just getting our costumes ready to go trick or treating this October. I'm Riven. But you can just call me Jeri. That's with an 'I' not a 'Y'."

"Hey, I dress like this every day!" Kaelin laughed. She sauntered over, and plucked herself down on the couch opposite Xochitl and Riven. She crossed one of her legs over the other, showing off the massive chunky boots that girded her feet.

"Kaelin usually has a bit more color though," January found herself interjecting. "She has a plaid skirt that really pops."

"Yeah, most days I like to put more punk in the goth-punk," the alchemist admitted. "But hey, you only live once right? It's good to meet you sister. I did get your pronouns right, right? I'm a she/her, or a they/them. I can be a little fluid that way."

The young woman simply stared in amazement at the goth-punk alchemist and nodded.

Silverlight and Calypso came and sat down as well. January noted that when Silverlight let go of her staff Mene, it simply stood straight up from the floor where she had left it, rather than falling over. As ever, the moon at its head glowed with soft light, just like the real moon on a dark night.

That made January realize that Calpyso had not brought her own staff: Bagua. She would have sensed it if she had simply put it down somewhere in the loft. That made January wonder if she had left it behind in the Atlantic. Could she call it to her, as January could summon her own armor, or Blood Raven could with her swords?

Blood Raven appeared then, making January realize that she had not noticed that the other woman had disappeared. She brought with her a silver platter bearing a tea service, which she set down upon the coffee table between the couches and chairs. She began to pour the steaming brown tea into one delicate ceramic cup after another. Riven reached out and took a small plate of crumpets from the platter, and began to pass it around after taking a bite from one.

"So I thought there was like, a brother too?" Xochitl finally spoke a full sentence.

"I am right here." Like most of the others, January nearly jumped from the couch when Ôkami spoke from behind her. Even as attuned as her magical senses were, she had no idea he had been there. When she craned her head back, she saw him squatting atop the back of the sofa, perfectly balanced on the thin strip of wood that ran along its crown.

Only Blood Raven made no reaction to his sudden appearance. Instead she simply handed him a steaming cup of tea.

"Domo arigato," the Japanese-American man nodded as he accepted the drink.

"Mister Roboto..." Riven murmured through a mouth filled with crumpets. Everyone stared, and she looked back.

"Don't tell me I'm the only one who remembers Styx?" she shook her head. "Way to make a woman feel old..."

Blood Raven laughed. It was a simple, yet warm sound. One January so rarely associated with her mentor. Yet it broke the tension, and soon everyone was laughing along with her. Except Ôkami of course, he never laughed at jokes after all.

"This is too much, is it not?" Blood Raven finally said to Xochitl. "Yes, I see it is. I was a fool to press so hard. I suppose I was caught up in the enthusiasm. It has been a tonic to renew my acquaintances with all of you; the young people whom have filled my days with such life and light in recent years."

With that Blood Raven closed her eyes and sang softly in Gaelic. January felt power rise up in her. A moment later it sprang to life in a glowing stream of Celtic symbols such as triquetras, triskelions, and other knotwork designs. These patterns wove their way around her body, only to fade moments later.

In their place Blood Raven stood in ordinary civilian attire, in this case a jumper dress with a white long sleeved top under a rust-colored strappy dress. Her hair lost both its length and color, shrinking to a bob with a decidedly softer shade of auburn.

January took a deep breath and did the same. Goodbye secret identity. She just hoped that Xochitl did not grow up to become her arch-nemesis, as so often happened in fantasy and sci-fi stories. She closed her eyes, and followed her mentor's example. When she opened them again, her armor had vanished. Instead she wore a pair of cutoffs and her Iron Maiden tee.

"Now that is more like it!" Riven exclaimed at the sight of the top. "I have the one with the Live After Death cover of Eddie bursting out of the grave."

"My mother gave it to me when I turned nineteen last year." January looked down at the image of the monster mascot Eddie from the band's Killers album cover that was now plastered across her chest. She touched the fabric with one hand. "She bought it when she was nineteen. I guess it's sort of a family tradition now."

"Wait, you're January Ward!" Xochitl's eyes glowed with amazement, and she pointed across the space to January. "I met you at the library. I've got your autograph, and a selfie!"

"It's actually January Ryan," January smiled softly. "Well, it will be soon. It's a long story."

"She is in a room with half a dozen superheroes, and it is the comic book writer she gets excited about." Calypso smiled, clearly amused at the dichotomy.

"I know you too!" Xochitl bubbled. It was as if the floodgates to her speech had finally burst. "You do all the ocean videos! You're based AF!"

Calypso laughed. It was a deep and rich sound that filled ones ears with delight to hear. "I thank you sister. Reaching out to people is indeed the ultimate goal of my work."

The Caribbean heroine's armor vanished a moment later, and she too revealed herself as an ordinary woman in a white sundress and sandals. She pushed a pair of oversized sunglasses up onto her scalp, and they fought for space among the explosion of curls created by her halo of jet black hair.

Then Silverlight's voice filled the space.

"From her immortal head a radiance is shown
from Elysium and embraces the Earth;
and great is the beauty that ariseth
from her shining light."

A glowing circle of silver light sprang up around her feet, outlining the same words in Ancient Greek script. January felt energy well up from within her, and reach out to wrap her in a cocoon. It collapsed a moment later, revealing her to be a woman in her thirties or so, with long, straight black hair and sun-bronzed skin. Her silver diadem had migrated down to a pendant that now hung from a chain around her neck. Her staff vanished entirely. She looked like a school teacher, wearing a peach sport coat over a V-necked cream top and matching slacks.

Ôkami did likewise as well. He spent a few moments working his fingers through a complicated series of Kuji-Kiri hand postures. Then his samurai armor disappeared, and he squatted there wearing his normal standard casual attire: a pair of loose chinos, a faded black t-shirt, and a worn black leather jacket.

Kaelin stared from one superhero to another, all of them having now changed into ordinary clothes. "I hope you don't all expect me to do that," she remarked. "I always dress this way."

"Wow," Xochitl breathed. "You are all so awesome! I wish I could be half a dope as you all are."

"We aren't dope," Riven shook her head. "Whatever that means... We're just people. Just ordinary people, the same as you. Even if some of us don't put on our pants one leg at a time."

"Yes," Silverlight chimed in. "Do not put us on a pedestal. We don't belong there."

"Yeah, in spite of my incredibly sick look, I am just a bartender." Kaelin remarked.

"I run a martial arts studio." Riven added.

"I am a marine biologist and science communicator," Calypso said.

"Cultural anthropologist and research scholar here," Silverlight explained. "Which is a fancy way of saying I read old books for a living, and talk to people about them."

"I code," Ôkami said curtly.

"And you know me, I'm a student, and a writer. At least I hope to be." January admitted.

Blood Raven sat silently through all of this, simply sipping her tea. Yet her eyes betrayed a sparkle of satisfaction. Perhaps even triumph? That made January wonder if this was exactly what she had hoped for when she had invited them all here together.

Now all eyes turned to the elder heroine. Blood Raven still said nothing. Instead Silverlight was the one to speak.

"She is the Raven Ravenous," the Greek-American woman declared severely. Then her tone softened. "And she's a good friend too. The best you could ever have."

"Even when she's a pain in the ass," Riven sighed.

"Especially then," January laughed in spite of herself.

Blood Raven simply continued to smile quietly, though the corners of her lips did incline upward somewhat at the quip.

"I just hope that someday I can live up to all of you, and all the things you have done." Xochitl licked her lips and swallowed hard.

"Do not," Calypso held up a hand and shook her head. "You need not earn a place at this table. You would not be here if you did not already belong. We all sat exactly where you are. That is why we are here. You don't have to live up to our example. You just have to be yourself."

"Easier said than done," Kaelin breathed. Riven nodded from across the coffee table at the young goth-punk.

"She knows," Silverlight softly. "We all do. That's the point."

"Yeah kid," Riven said. "No one expects you to be a superhero. Just figure out what you are passionate about, and try to make that part of your life."

"So what are you passionate about?" Xochitl asked pointedly.

Riven laughed and leaned back into the red velvet cushions of the couch. She brought her hands up and cracked her knuckles loudly. "I like to plant my fists in asshole's faces."

"I like to drop acid and play twister with Harper," Kaelin murmured. That brought a burst of laughter from everyone. Even Blood Raven chuckled. "Finger painting on each other is fun too."

"So what now?" Xochitl asked. "Do we play Jenga, or Pictionary?"

Crow Show! cute.

Ow wow, Xochitil is back. She's that teenager who got involved with the Hierophant's nonsense, if I recall correctly.

These are great pictures of them all. Ryo is exactly as I was picturing (although a bit older). Wow, look at Raven. HOY look at Silverlight. Not what I was picturing! She looks like a real estate agent! But yeah... that's her in civilian attire..

Jan's a cutie. Hmm. Think I've seen her face before, on some show or in some movie. Mister Roboto = STYX!!!

Forties ain't so bad. Actually, I predict by the time she's in her 40s a lot of the problems she had growing up, dealing with adverse modes of thinking from others who don't get it, a lot of those problems will be gone, by then. Most of society will become even more accepting. It's like if we look back to the '90s. Back then, it was so *Shocking* to see people getting piercings other than their ears, or dressing like punks, or even dressing outside the norm at all. These people got derided, criticized, they were "freaks". Now such things are completely normal, unless you're in some conservative area which is behind the times.

But I think by the time she's in her 40s she'll be having an easier go of it.

Cool. Xochtil is here. Spelt that wrong. Xochitl.

Blood Raven serving tea. That'd be an awesome sight. All the magnificent things she's done, ridding the world of baddies, righting wrongs, casting her powers to no avail against those who deserve it!!! Yet here she is, serving tea. ☕ That'd be a moment to rewind and play back on the Crow Show once or twice.

Xochitl knows Stormcrow's identity! Uh oh. Not that the younger teen is going to do anything nefarious with this information, it's just that she's young. Might not know about discretion, yet. Like, will she blab to her bestie (or anyone such)?

It's cool how they all have day jobs, neat.

’…the mistress of the Raven's Nest now stood upon the waypoint. Her scarlet mane blew gently from a wind that did not exist.’
- - I’ve notice this trademark of Blood Raven before but have not yet mentioned that I love it!

A wonderful welcome for young Xochitl. Quite the bonding ritual of trust as each hero stripped away their super persona to reveal the somewhat more normal person underneath.

Ah yes, what to do with a staff that is taller than you are when not in use. Unsummoning is handy but just having it stand there on its own is pretty cool too.

So Riven’s first name is Jeri – that makes it real easy to remember who she looks like.

Dang, this really is a swank HQ.

I hear January on not missing one's teen years. They can only be pleasant to those with selective memories.

Okay, so a big moment here: showing their real selves. Does build trust, though it means there's a risk as well. Classic porcupine's dilemma.





Looks like the GLA is off to a good start! They get along, and are quite enthusiastic about this whole thing. Eventually, of course, comes managing the team which can get tricky. It's like how The Sopranos was, in many ways, a show about the pains of middle management that just happened to involve the mafia. Superheroes are obviously much more reliable on the whole than mafia members, but there's still a lot of dealing with outsize personalities.

Renee: Yes, Xochtil is the young mageling whom the Heirophant used to set a trap for January and Blood Raven earlier. The one Blood Raven agreed to train.

Real Estate agent is a good call for Silverlight's look. I actually wrote that down in a list of possible civilian professions to chose from for future supers.

I have posted the pic of January before, so that is probably where you have seen her. The real person is Georgie Stone, an Australian.

Blood Raven has served tea many times in her two and half centuries. It is something she would have learned to do back in Mrs. Gibson's School For Proper Young Girls after all.


Acadian: Blood Raven's hair was inspired by Mother Talzin from the Clone Wars TV show. I always liked the way her robe always waved in the air, like it was underwater, or being blown by an unseen wind.

The whole question of how much can you share with your teammates is a question I constantly wrestle with as the writer, even as the characters do the same themselves. On one hand you can never have an actual relationship with someone until you trust them. On the other, well there is the way things worked out between Obi-Wan and Anakin...

Staves are really cool. But like two-handed swords, kind of annoying to deal with when you are not using them. So I came up with Silverlight's method of having it just stand there on its own. While Calypso has the other way, of unsummoning it.

For a while now I have been in the habit of finding a picture of someone as a model for each character, and then describing that picture when I describe them. Lately I have been leaning into that by also using the model's name. Hence Riven is Jeri, after Jeri Ryan. Xochitl is likewise named after Xochitl Gomez, whom her picture is of as well. It just saves me from thinking of names.


WellTemperedClavier: Blood Raven would not be caught dead in a crappy lair. Well, she is a vampire, but she does know how to live. Come to think of it, she did grow up in a mansion. Though with her father's death when she was in her early teens, that changed dramatically, and she and her mother went to live in a working class neighborhood in Boston's North End.

This is not the Great Lakes Alliance. That is Gadget, Lighthammer, Blackhawk, etc... This is the Daughters of the Raven. I know it gets tricky because it is sort of like a second super team that January is part of now. But they are not really a team, not officially. It is just a collection of Blood Raven's proteges from the last 30 years or so. Which of course gets murky because some of them have done super stuff together now, and more will in the future. But I see it more of a mutual aid network going forward. Which granted could also be called a team.






Book 11.3 - Raven Sisters

"Now, we find our power." Blood Raven leaned forward and set her tea cup down on the table. She stood and stretched out a hand to Xochitl. After a moment the teen rose to her feet and wrapped her fingers in Blood Raven's. The elder heroine led her to the waypoint and called up its power. She paused there, and turned to beckon the others to join them.

They all stood from the couch and walked to join the pair. Hands reached out, and each took hold of the next. January closed her eyes, and simply let herself bathe in the wash of power that flowed over and through her. She felt space and time warp, stretch, and finally bounce back to normal. When she opened her eyes once more, they were standing within the sanctum of the Witch House.

January studied the faces of her cohorts as they turned and looked about the room that was not a room at all, but rather an amorphous intersection of realities. Ôkami was of course as nonchalant and unmoved as ever. That was just normal for him. But he was also accustomed to training within the sanctum by now, as was January herself.

Xochitl was the exact opposite. She turned in place and tried to stare in all directions at once. Her mouth dropped open in wordless amazement, and her eyes became as wide as saucers. Her sisters however, were all somewhere between. They looked around with varying mixtures of wistful nostalgia and comfortable familiarity.

"It is good to return here," Calypso smiled as she reached up to run her hands through the beads that hung from the ceiling. The multicolored stones all blended together into what appeared to be one solid mass from a distance. Stranger still, the plane they created soared hundreds of feet overhead. Yet the Bahamian heroine touched it nonetheless.

"It flows like watercolors," Xochitl finally said. "It's a canvas you can paint your dreams upon."

"I have heard the sanctum referred to as many things, but that is new to me." Blood Raven intoned. "Yet you are quite correct my apprentice. My own teacher Keziah created this place, either long ago or long from now, depending on one's point of reference. She is a traveler of both space and time. She forged this place to hone those skills."

"You will find your magic much more accessible here," Silverlight explained. "In this place that is everywhere and nowhere, there are no laws of reality to inhibit it."

"So magic is stronger here?" Xochitl asked.

"Not stronger," Kaelin shook her head. "Closer the surface, more easily grasped and molded."

"Anything you do here, you can do elsewhere," Riven went on. "It just takes more time and effort on the outside."

"That is what makes this such a good place to start out," January explained. "When you are searching for your power, this room will reveal it to you. It will dispel the fog of doubts and misconceptions your own mind has created."

"The heroism we recite,
would be a daily thing,
Did not ourselves the cubits warp,
for fear to be a king."

January nodded along as Silverlight intoned the words of one of Emily Dickinson's poems.

"Just remember kid, we never know how high we are, until we are called to rise," Riven added.

"And then if we are true to plan, our statures touch the skies," January finished the stanza in that poem.

"TL;DR, do not sell yourself short sister," Ôkami said plainly.

"Let us begin," Blood Raven brought everyone's eyes around to her. "Xochitl, what is magic?"

"It's the ability to create change in accordance with one's will." The young woman practically recited the words, as if she had read them from a textbook. January remembered the electronic books that Blood Raven had given Xochitl on their first meeting. She imagined that she had indeed, read that from one of those tomes.

"I said shooting fireballs the first time," Kaelin murmured.

"Slaying dragons," Riven added.

"Inscribing curse tablets," Silverlight said.

"This is not fair," Calypso pouted. But January sensed that the other woman was being facetious from the sparkle in her eyes. "You gave her something to read first."

"It's so much easier to share media electronically these days," January answered before Blood Raven could speak.

"Welcome to the age of digital magic," Silverlight frowned. "I like the old books. I like feeling the texture of the paper under my fingers, reading the faded ink, breathing in the scent of centuries. Reading off a screen is just not the same, even if it might be more convenient."

"I am sorry," the Greek-American heroine's voice became stronger, clearer. "This is about you Xochitl. I didn't mean to detract from that."

January looked from Silverlight to the other assembled heroes, all apprentices of Blood Raven. Then she looked to their mutual teacher, and noted the glimmer in her eyes. Somehow, she suspected that this was not purely about Xochitl after all. It was about all of them, together.

"Remember, we can all use magic," Blood Raven resumed her lecture. "Some do have a gift for it, just as some have a gift for playing the piano, or striking a tennis ball. But we all can do so. The only people who cannot, are those who believe they cannot, for they will always sabotage their own efforts."

"And let's face it, a lot of people in this world go out of their way to tell everyone that they can't change it. They insist that things have always been how they are, they can't change them, and it would be wrong to even want to. Because bOtH SiDeS R TeH sAmE!" Riven interjected. She added extra emphasis to that last sentence, so that one could not mistake her contempt for those who uttered it. "It's very easy to lose faith in yourself - or never have it to begin with - and fall into that trap."

"This is crucial," Calypso now spoke. "Magic is the ability to change reality; to reshape it according to our will. Stormcrow does this every time she creates her wings. Riven does it when she manifests her weapons."

"You must know that you can create change," Ôkami said. "Just like you know that the sun will rise tomorrow, or that something you drop will fall to the ground." He reached out and a pool of darkness issued before his hand. In moments it coalesced, and formed into the shape of a sword. Then the shadow was gone, and his katana Chujitsu lay gripped in his fingers.

He immediately let go of the sword. It fell to the floor with a loud clatter of steel, sending echoes reverberating from the walls. Then he poked one toe under the grip and kicked up. The katana shot up into the air, and he easily caught it with his left hand. A moment later another shadow formed in the space around the weapon, and the katana simply vanished into its folds.

January stepped closer to Xochitl, and lifted her left wrist for the teen to see clearly. The scars that crossed them stood out in stark relief upon her pale skin. Several were faint marks, her first, hesitant attempts. Then there was a single, thick white ridge that crossed her entire wrist. That was when she really put her mind to it.

She lifted her other hand, and revealed a similar, if somewhat slighter, scar upon her right wrist. Changing the dagger to her left hand had been difficult; thanks to the tendons she had severed there. So she had not been able to hold it as strongly, or do as much harm to her right wrist with it.

"I did this because I did not believe I had any agency," She said quite honestly. "I did not believe I could ever change my life, or my world, and I just could not bear it anymore. I was wrong. Thanks to my mother finding me before it was too late, I survived. I endured, and you know what, I did learn to change myself, and my situation, one step at a time. That is when I learned magic."

She felt Ryo lay a warm hand on her shoulder. Some distant, analytical part of her brain reminded her of how rare that was. He did not like to touch people, at least not skin to skin, as he did now with his bare hand. This was a tremendous gesture for him.

"I used to think I was broken, a failure," Ryo said plainly. "Everyone called it being 'Special'. But I knew it meant I was less than everyone else. But watching January, I learned that just because I thought differently - and experienced the world differently - I was not broken. I simply have challenges that others do not. I was born into a world that was not made for people like me. Living in spite of that is what taught me to use magic, without even knowing it. I was determined to reshape my world and how I lived in it, and that is exactly what I did."

"Listen your siblings," Blood Raven walked across the space and waved a hand to indicate the gathered heroes. "They have much wisdom to impart. They have all walked this same road, each in different ways. They can help you find your way to walk it."

"So how do I walk it?" Xochitl asked.

"First we will learn to feel our magic," Blood Raven said. "Close your eyes. Everyone. That means you too Riven. Even you too still have much to learn, even as I do myself."

January did as her mentor asked, and shut her eyes. She followed along as the elder heroine walked them all through the same exercise that January had learned long ago in one of her books on Wicca. Unlike that time, her power did not manifest with a mere tingling in her skin, or a lightness in her head. Instead it was a cool wash of energy, like a crystal clear mountain stream. It was there - as always - gurgling deep within her being.

Thanks to long practice, it was child's play to lift that energy up and suffuse her body with it. She imagined that she was a tree, and that the power was sparkling through her branches, down to the very tips of her leaves. From there it dripped off like morning dew, and fell back down to earth. But that was not the end. Now she soaked up that power within her roots, and pulled it back up into the trunk of her body. She did this over and over, and constantly recycled the magic. It flowed through her being like water, and washed her clean and pure as a fresh spring day.

"I can feel it!" Xochitl exclaimed.

January stifled a giggle. She heard one of her sisters who was not quite so adept at containing themselves do so out loud.

"Oh lawd, I'm havin' an orgasm!" Riven cried out with great theatricality.

That brought peals of laughter from all around, and broke the spell. January lost her focus, and opened her eyes once more. She found that the others had done the same. Even Xochitl was laughing. But at the same time, January could see the triumph in the young woman's eyes. She had done it.

"At least someone here is having one," Silverlight murmured dryly.

"I have them frequently, and continually," Kaelin remarked.

"Yes, everyone in Charlotte Amalie learned that last Carnival," Calypso noted.

Kaelin stuck out her tongue at the older woman, only for Silverlight to reply once more.

"If you're not careful with where you put that, some of us might end up having an orgasm too," the Greek-American laughed.

Whoa, they're back in the Witch House. That would never get old, warping in and out of locations. Scare the heck out of the in-laws.

Oh, Xochitl is here too! Yeap I can imagine she must be blown away.



QFT.

That is right, Jan's mother rescued her long ago. And then when Ryo touches her that reminds me of something. Can't think of what it is now. Ach, it'll come to me.

But it's neat to read about how magic works within them all. Seems like it's all quite a different process for each of them.

TLDR – I learned this from the official ESO forums. How appropriate for gamer Ryo to use the term.

A fascinating review of how magic works. The common threads and differences between practitioners. Too many mages could spoil the brew, but that simply did not happen here. Each imparted wisdom in their own way yet it all clearly reflected the one common mentor they all share.

Simply orgasmic!

All right, so the circle is growing their powers. Good explanation of magic here, and I quite liked the way you tied the underlying principles into the developments of the characters. Magic always seems to be a personal journey, in the end. Perhaps because it's the ultimate reflection of agency.

Renee: The Witch House is a fun place to write. I expect to be using it more now that we are in Season Two of the Crow Show. The Sanctum is of course its center piece. The part that really wows. It is a lot for anyone to take in.

Ryo does not like to touch people, or be touched, at least bare skin to skin. So that might be what you are thinking of. It is a big deal for him to reach out and touch January.

Magic is indeed different for everyone. That was one of they joys I had in writing this sequence with the Raven Sisters all gathered together. It was also one of the hardest parts of it. Because I had to explore how each of them interacted with magic in their own individual way.


Acadian: I actually keep a text file that I constantly update when I come across modern slang, so I can keep up with what the Zoomers are saying.

There is a special chemistry from gathering all the Daughters of the Raven together. They are each unique. But they all have a lot in common, thanks to their single mentor. In some ways, she has been as inspirational to others as January has. She inspires others to be the best they can be. She will accept nothing less.

Riven's orgasm joke just came to me off the cuff as I wrote it. So it had to go in. It really encapsulated her blunt, yet good natured, well, nature.


WellTemperedClavier: That was an excellent observation about magic being a reflection of agency. It is what I have been going for all this time. Coming up in a few more posts Blood Raven has a remark about how an oath is a statement of intent, and every time one uses magic, they are making their intent reality. So every time one does magic, one is making an oath.




Book 11.4 - Raven Sisters

"Tell me Xochitl, what is it that you felt? Describe it to me." Blood Raven prompted the teen.

"It's like... a color," the young woman frowned. "No, more than that. It is like, a paint set, buried deep inside me. I can see all the colors. I can mix them. I can spread them around, draw fine pictures with them, or just slop them all over the canvas."

January nodded along. It was completely different from what she felt. But she had come to expect that from magic. Everyone seemed to sense it differently and how was often rooted in their own lived experience. January herself experienced it as a flow, like water or wind, or a martial arts kata. For her it was tied into the elements, and if she was being honest: fighting. But Xochitl was an artist. So it was no surprise that she interacted with magic in such a manner.

"Good, good," Blood Raven nodded. "This is your power, it is yours and yours alone. Become accustomed to it. See it. Know it. Understand it. For it is part of you, and an expression of who and what you are."

"What is it called?" Xochitl wondered, "magicka, or mana?"

"There are as many different names for it as there are people who use it," Blood Raven said.

"The Romans called it numen or numina." Silverlight interjected. "The Greeks called it aion, which is the term I prefer."

"The Chinese call it qi, or ch'i," Ryo spoke next. He was in rare form. Usually he only became this gregarious on gaming nights, when he was getting so into character that he forgot everything else. "In Japan it is ki. This is how I know it."

"The Pacific Islanders called it mana," Kaelin explained. "I think that's where modern role-playing games get it from. I call it magicka though, like they do in some video games. I practically grew up playing Oblivion."

"In Yoga and Hinduism it is prana and kundalini." Calypso was the next to speak. "While in Yoruba it is ase. That is what it is to me."

"Yadda, yadda, yadda," Riven made a spinning motion with her hand, to simulate moving things along. "Islam calls it Barakah, Elphias Levi called it astral light, and so on. Everybody's got their own name for it."

"What do you call it?" Xochitl asked.

"I call it what is kid: energy," Riven said plainly. "Or if I've been getting into the devil's lettuce: mojo."

"Oh, what's your favorite strain?" Kaelin wondered. "I grow my own that I call Astral Light, after old Elphie."

"Well it depends, I mean for pain relief you can't beat..." Riven's voice trailed off as multiple eyebrows were raised in her direction. "Hey, it's perfectly legal these days. Not that I would give a crap if it wasn't."

"I can recall when one could buy cocaine and laudanum from any apothecary," Blood Raven murmured. "Yet we digress with such botanical observations. Xochitl, you must find your own terms for your power."

"What did the Nahua call it?" she asked.

"The Mexica knew it as teotl," Blood Raven answered easily, "While the Maya knew it as chu 'lel. But do not take my word for those, especially the Maya. There are numerous Mayan languages, it may well vary from tongue to tongue."

"Then I guess I'll call it teotl," Xochitl said with a thoughtful expression.

"Do not guess, know!" Riven laughed.

"Know your magic," Silverlight continued. "Your will must be absolute. Do not doubt, do not wonder, do not guess."

"A conjure woman who doubts, is a conjure woman who fails," January interjected as well.

She looked over to Blood Raven to see if her mentor was frustrated or upset at their hijacking of her lesson. But to the contrary, she seemed quite satisfied with herself, as if this was what she had hoped for all along.

"Now Xochitl, feel your teotl," Blood Raven focused all of her attention upon the teen now. "See it. See the colors. You will use them to create a light. Visualize that plain, simple ball of light glowing in the air before you. Do you bear witness to it within in your imagination?"

When the young woman nodded, the elder heroine continued.

"Take your teotl up in your hands," she instructed. "Pour it into that image in your head. Paint with the colors to create that light. Will it to take shape in the real world. Hold nothing back. Commit yourself entirely."

Xochitl shut her eyes, and thrust her hands out before her. Her features scrunched down with effort, her lips turned into a frown, and her eyelids clamped shut hard. January could see the muscles on her hands and arms tighten, and sweat sprang from her brow. She heard the young woman grunt, as if trying to lift a heavy weight.

Yet nothing happened.

Finally, Xochitl relented, and paused to gulp in a deep breath of air.

"I can't," she gasped. "I just can't. I can feel it there, it just won't do what I want."

"Welcome to magic sister," Riven practically laughed. "I bet not one of us got it right the first time. Just keep trying. Rome wasn't burned down in a day after all."

"The Great Fire took over a week," Silverlight murmured.

"I could feel your magic within you my sister," Calypso said. "Yet it did not rise to meet your will. Perhaps we should discuss centering techniques? They can help you focus your power."

"Yes," Silverlight nodded. "Before Tunguska, no one could do magic without first attaining an altered state of consciousness. Today chaos magicians call that state gnosis. The Neo-Platonists in the past called it illumination, or ecstasy."

"When I say ecstasy, I don't mean sex of course," the cultural anthropologist went on. "Plotinus defined ecstasy as the liberation of the mind from its finite consciousness, and so becoming at one with the infinite. Plato said it was the ardent turning of the soul toward the divine."

"This when you focus your mind on one thing, and lose track of everything else," Kaelin explained. "Like when you are driving and your mind wanders, and you forget that you were driving, at least until you snap back to reality."

"They say that before Tunguska it took hours, or even days, for a magician to even be able to tap into their power, much less cast a spell," January related. "That is why ceremonial magic like that from the Golden Dawn is filled with such elaborate rituals. Doing the ritual is supposed to get you in the right head space for the actual magic that follows."

"To be a conjure-woman, you must embrace your power," Blood Raven stated. "As your siblings have noted, that is in spite of everything the world does to trick you into thinking that you are powerless. Next you must find this state of consciousness to call your energy. Today that is usually simple. It is just there, waiting for us to draw it forth as we might water from a well."

"However, the old techniques continue to have value." Blood Raven continued. "For those less naturally talented, or simply less practiced, they may be the key to unlocking their magic. Even for those with greater ability they can aid tremendously in focusing one's will."

"You can also use it to calm your mind and just vibe, even without doing magic." January interjected. "It is a way to remain silent in the presence of the divine."

"Until it removes the clouds from our eyes and enables us to see by the light that issues from ourselves." Silverlight now finished the quote from Plato. "Not to see what we think is good, but what is intrinsically good."

The Greek-American heroine stood up and closed her eyes.

"From her immortal head a radiance is shown
from Elysium and embraces the Earth;
and great is the beauty that ariseth
from her shining light."

A glowing circle of silver light sprang up around her feet, outlining what January suspected were the same words in Ancient Greek script. The crescent moon pendant that hung from her neck rose up and transformed into a diadem around her forehead. Her clothing vanished, only to be replaced by the white and gray robes of her super suit. Her skin transformed into white marble, and wings of shining moonlight sprang from her back. Even her staff Mene once more appeared in her hand, adding its own soft light to the room. Finally she opened her eyes, revealing them to be solid silver.

"Good goddess!" Kaelin nearly leaped from the couch.

"Yes, indeed," Silverlight intoned. "For me, it is my connection to the goddess Selene that is my center. I pray to her. Not that I believe that she is an invisible person living in the moon of course. Rather I invoke what she symbolizes, and I create that within myself. The goddess is my guide, my focus, my touchstone. The idea of her helps me remain silent in the presence of the divine, and see what is intrinsically good."

She closed those eyes of silver light, and took a moment to breathe deeply. Once again the Ancient Greek characters glowed to life around her in a turning circle. Then they were gone, as was her suit, wings, and staff. She stood before them as a perfectly ordinary cultural anthropologist once again, and sat down beside Calypso.

"I have an elemental mantra that I run though my head, or say out loud," January explained next. "I alternate it between English and Old Norse. Switching between languages helps me concentrate. It forces me to think of the words, and even how I think. That keeps my mind from wandering to other things. It forces me to focus myself."

"Sometimes I do the entire mantra. Sometimes I only do parts of it, when I want to concentrate on a single element." January closed her eyes and focused on Air.

"Air give me quickness in body and wit. Let the weights of the world fall from me."

With that her midnight black raven's wings sprang from her back. Thunder crashed over head, and a single bolt of lightning cracked loudly outside. She took a moment to flex her wings. They always felt good. They were a part of her after all, just like her arms and legs.

Finally she allowed the thunder and lightning to abate, and with them those glorious wings.

"Lately though, I have been doing something different," January continued. "I've been going back to a memory from my childhood. It was a day in autumn, because the leaves were turning colors, and falling like rainbows to the ground. My mother sat me down on the front porch, and taught me to sing a song that her own mother had taught her when she was little.

"One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.
Eight for a wish,
Nine for a kiss,
Ten for a bird,
You must not miss."

"We counted crows as we sang," January explained. "Well, we counted all the birds. They were all honorary crows that day. It's really a magpie song. But I'm not picky. They are all crows to me."

She looked down, and found that she was clad in her Stormcrow armor, and her wings once more rose from her back and stretched out around her.

"This," Calypso rose and laid a hand on one of January's wings. "This is a most powerful form of centering, as is Silverlight's. When you draw upon not only a skill, but something with real emotional weight as well, it can focus your power to its greatest extent. Remember, magic is not about logic, or rational thought, or mathematical formulas. It is about power, and emotion, and will."

"I have a memory from my own childhood," the Bahamian explained. "It is of my mother teaching me to swim in the ocean. The water was soft turquoise as she stood in the surf, and the white sand welled up around her toes beneath its surface. The waves were a constant roar as they beat upon the shore, like the heartbeat of the ocean. The sky was an endless blue overhead, from horizon to horizon."

"My mother held me up at the surface of the water, while I lay face down. I pin-wheeled my arms and legs back and forth, splashing the water everywhere. My mother walked with me, and we moved through the water. Eventually I forgot about everything else. It was just me, my arms and legs, and the sea. Finally I looked back, and my mother was standing a dozen feet away. I was swimming on my own, and I had not even realized it until then!"

"I always go back to that memory," Calypso said. "I lose myself in it and how I felt then, with just myself, my mother, and the sea. It is a simple thing. But it brings me great strength."

I’m not surprised you maintain text files to help with your longer stories. At your suggestion long ago, I maintain a ‘Style Page’ file to ensure consistency. I also maintain a robust ‘Buffy Lore’ file to help keep track of things.

*

A fascinating exploration of magic and how it is unique to each mage.

Mojo!

So, Xochitl is going to be a teotler. That she can feel it within is good. I’m not surprised that she is a bit teotlstipated her first attempt to bring it forth.

Again, I love how the sisters share their own perceptions of magic. So different from each other yet each notably appropriate for their unique natures.

Silverlight’s explanation and display was awesome. I’d think her focus on Selene not only helps focus her magic but also keeps her on track for its use since it shows her what is intrinsically good.

If I was Xochitl, I’d have two questions: “Silverlight, what's the purpose of that staff?” and, “Blood Raven, what do you use to focus your magic?”

*

Nits:
"I've grow my own that I call Astral Light, after old Elphie." - - Not sure if you wanted ‘I’ve grown’ or ‘I grow’.
"The Mexica knew it is teotl," Blood Raven answered easily,’ - - Do you want ‘is’ or ‘as’?

Wow, a Zoomer slang text file! That's really dedicated. Branwen has no idea about this sort of slang (slang to her might be "bird thou never wert...") but Jan and Avery are all about it.

Kaelin grows her own pot, goodness! Anyway, energy seems a good generic term for magic. That's what it is, after all. All the other terms lend more of a mystical nature though.

The part when Raven seems pleased about the lesson going off-track, yes. I know not much about magic (except what I've read from the books) but one thing I know is it's a good idea to follow wherever it goes. Raven being open-minded, very positive indeed.

Silverlight's awesome. 🌙 Calypso learning how to swim... goodness her mom's lucky she didn't start to drown! Maybe it's because she knew daughter knew how all along.



When people talk though, we don't always say things entirely grammatical. Sometimes we even make mistakes!

Ha!

Another example of how personal magic is. Just as each culture develops its own practices, so too does each individual within that culture. But whatever you call it, the power is real.

Acadian: My memory is not what it used to be, so when inspirations come to me I write everything down. I literally have dozens of text files of various notes in my Stormcrow folder, in addition to the actual stories. Super names that I might use in the future, different types of monsters, future outlines, and just general ideas for big or minor plots, and so on. Plus tons of pictures set aside for inspiration for things like powered armor, robots, super suits, vehicles, magic stuff, and so on.

Aside from the Austin Powers sexual prowess connotation, I have often seen the term Mojo used as slang for magic. Mostly in the 90s and early 2000s. But that is the right era for Riven to have picked it up.

Silverlight gets a lot of attention in this book and the next one. I really enjoy writing her. She would be a fun character to play in an RPG. In fact, she is the cleric in January's current team in Pillars of Eternity.

Silverlight might laugh, and say that her staff is for smacking people who annoy her with foolish questions! Hah! I am not sure if it got explored or not in Battle of Belle Isle. But the moon rock that forms it headpiece allows Silverlight to draw a limitless supply of magical energy from the Moon. But only if it is in the sky overhead. So it is a bottomless well of power for her, when she really needs it.

We have seen Blood Raven's centering skills. She creates those magic circles of Celtic knotwork when she does complicated magic, and sometimes she sings in Gaelic.


Renee: Blood Raven does try to keep up with slang, as has often been noted with humorous results, such as her endeavors to not be sus. She will even soon be cautioning someone to delay their rotation.

Kaelin is an alchemist, so she definitely has her own setup to grow special herbs and the like. No reason not to do it with the old Mary Jane as well. Both she and Riven are potheads. Riven for the pain relief and stress relief. She's been a super for 20 years, and it helps her stay sane. Kaelin just because she's young and likes to feel good.

Raven may not be so pleased about the lesson going off track, as she is with her proteges all stepping up and reaching out to Xochitl. This is not just a magic lesson, it is a bonding experience. Otherwise there would be no need for the others.


WellTemperedClavier: Trying to insure that each of these magicians has their own unique perspective on and relationship to magic has been really challenging. But it is working out pretty well. I am glad that I was able to create a really diverse group with what is essentially a soft magic system.





Book 11.5 - Raven Sisters

"So what should my centering skill be?" Xochitl's eyes were wide with unconcealed amazement.

"You tell us hun," Riven said. "I do a sword dance, because that's me. You got to do what is you. You dig?"

"What is it that you love doing?" Silverlight asked. "What brings you peace, and makes you lose yourself while you do it?"

"Well, I like walking in the woods," the young woman lifted one hand to her chin to think. "I like to draw too."

"Then do so," Ôkami said plainly.

"I don't have my pencils, or art pad," Xochitl sputtered. "I can't do it now."

"Yes you can," Blood Raven rose to her feet and stepped away for a moment. January felt power stir within the elder heroine, and reach out to the sanctum around her. Then she vanished through the waypoint system. She returned a moment later. In one hand she held a pad of drawing paper whose covers were dog-eared from use. In the other she gripped a credenza filled with colored pencils which were just as worn down.

"Why didn't I see it before," Silverlight slapped her open palm against her forehead. "My friends, I think we have a rune mage among us."

"A what?" Xochitl wondered as Blood Raven handed her the art supplies. January saw her flip open the pages of the sketch pad. Now she recognized it as one that she had seen previously in the young woman's bedroom. Illustrations of both herself and Blood Raven spanned its pages, along with landscapes, and various gods and monsters from Mesoamerican myth and folklore.

"Of course, runes, why didn't I see it too," January murmured.

Runic magic had been right in front of her eyes of late. The summoning circles that the Hierophant had used to summon Abyssals had all been so. She had even defeated him by reversing some of those runes. Then there was Blood Raven's waypoint network. When it came down to it, those were all runes as well.

Xochitl was an artist. How else would her magic be based?

"When we use magic - any magic - we raise power, visualize the result we want, pour our magicka into that, and will it into reality," Kaelin explained. "When one uses runes, it takes the place of the visualization. You draw what you want to happen. Then when you put your power into that, the rune directs the magicka to create the effect you want."

"It's like a traffic sign for magical energy," Riven said.

"So I just draw a light, and it becomes a light?" Xochitl considered.

"It does not have to be that specific," Calypso said. "Often runes are ideograms - characters from an alphabet - which each have a meaning. You choose an ideogram with the correct meaning, and it will do the work for you. Just remember to concentrate upon what you wish to occur when you draw the symbol. It will infuse your desire into the rune as you create it."

"So what rune do I draw then?" Xochitl asked.

"We don't know," January shrugged. "The hardest part of teaching someone magic, is that no one can teach you magic."

"This is all about you," Silverlight explained. "It is your journey. Only you can drive the car. We are just passengers along for the ride."

Blood Raven stepped near to the young woman, and laid a comforting hand upon her shoulder. She snapped her fingers with her other hand, and a small combo desk appeared before them. It looked like it might have been plucked from any high school, with its chair and small writing surface all built into one piece. She gestured for Xochitl to sit, and stood by while the apprentice stared at an empty page in the book.

"Close your eyes and take one of the pencils," Blood Raven said in a soft, soothing voice.

"How do I know which one if my eyes are closed?" she asked.

"You will know," Blood Raven replied gently. "Slow your breathing, ease your heart. Relax. Close your eyes, and feel your power. Now take the pencil."

January felt energy stir within the core of her newest sister. She watched as Blood Raven guided her hand - now with a yellow pencil gripped within her fingers - to the blank page laid on the desk before her. Blood Raven gently lowered her hand until the tip of the pencil touched the paper, then stepped back.

"Now think of your past. Think of your people. Think of the things you love to draw. Think of what brings you light."

With that the young woman's hand began to move. Starting from a single point, Xochitl pulled her hand around in an ever-widening circle. That created an expanding spiral in the center of the page. When she reached its outermost edge, she began to draw a series of petals that streamed out at right angles. Together, these formed into a corona, mimicking beams of light flowing from a central source. When she was finished, she dropped her pencil down one last time at the center of the spiral.

With that the power within her was unleashed. January could feel it flow from Xochitl's aura and into the rune. There the ideograph took that energy and formed it into a specific pattern. This ground down into the physical world. With that a soft golden light began to glow from the page. It rose up in a shining ball, and hovered in the air before the young magician's face.

January was back in the Belle Isle Casino. She knelt helplessly on the floor, surrounded by other runes. Runes written in Elder Futhark. She saw the Hierophant standing across from her, surrounded by an opposing set of runes. He began the ritual, and sent his magic into the sigils. They glowed to life one after another, as the mana flowed like water through the circles and pathways that linked them. Soon they all shone with a horrific light, and bathed her in terror. She heard screaming, and saw blood exploding...

January forcibly blinked her eyes open and shut, to dispel that image from them. Where in Niflheim had that come from? Her heart raced, and she fought to control her breath. She felt like she had just gotten off of a rollercoaster. It had all been so real, as if she had been there once again, trapped in that moment in time. It felt so real. It felt just like it had when it had happened.

She looked past her magical comrades to see that Xochitl had leaped up from her school desk. She was jumping for literal joy, reaching out for the glowing ball of golden light that she had created with her own power. She saw Blood Raven standing beyond the young woman, looking quite satisfied.

The elder heroine's features fell when she locked eyes with January from across the space. For a moment it felt like she was looking into her soul. It was as if she could sense the distress that had so suddenly grasped hold of January's mind.

January looked away. Whatever that had been, this was not the time for it. This was Xochitl's moment. It was her journey. She did not want to spoil it.

The others had crowded around Xochitl to offer their congratulations. Well, Ryo hovered slightly nearer, as back slapping was not his bag. January moved in too, to be part of the celebration. This was a big deal. Xochitl had a right to be proud of herself. She had taken a big step into forging her own destiny.

January allowed the warmth and joy she felt for the young woman to wash over her, and push away that strange flashback she had of Nátthrafn's summoning. Whatever that had been, it must have just been a blip. It was nothing to take seriously. It was probably just the result of too little sleep, and too much stress and excitement in the last few days. After all, living through the near end of the world was bound to have some side effects after all, right?

"I don't understand something," Xochitl asked after things settled down. "Does this mean that drawing runes is my centering skill? Or does it mean it is the only way I can use magic?"

"No, and that remains to be seen," Blood Raven answered quickly. "It may be a close relative to your centering skill, perhaps that will be something very similar. I suggest we explore drawing in general to learn that."

"But that is not the function of runes in magic. Originally they were a necessity for complex spellcasting. As has been pointed out, before Tunguska it was often too much for a magician to hold in their head. So instead most of us would inscribe our spellwork in the runes of magic circles, veves, and other symbology."

"The waypoint system which we all used to travel here is one example. I created it so that I need not perform the intricate calculations of spacetime travel every time I teleport from site to site. You may find this surprising, but even I have my limits when it comes to magic use. Teleportation is one of those things which some others may find trifling. But I find it quite vexing to execute without much preparation. So instead I imprinted each jump into the pentacles that become visible when I use the waypoints. Now I need only choose which leap I wish to make, and allow the runes to do the work for me."

"So it's kind of like an artificial intelligence, or digital assistant, but in magical form?"

"I think not," Blood Raven shook her head, though she did seem to still consider the idea. "Remember, a rune has no will, nor power of its own. Think of it more as a record one has pressed, with a spell imprinted upon it. We need but play it back to hear the song, rather than perform it ourselves at that moment."

"What's a record?" Kaelin beat January to asking, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

"It is a-" Blood Raven stopped when she realized that her youthful protégé was being facetious. Her face took on a somber affect, and then she spoke again with exaggerated gravitas. "When the Earth was young, and we rode dinosaurs to our employment within the rock quarry, we spun these 'records' about to cut our way through the slate. We sliced them into hamburgers, which we then ate for dinner."

"Ancient history is so fascinating," Kaelin nodded along, trying not to laugh. "Can you explain floppy discs too?"

"Not in this lifetime, my young apprentice," Blood Raven shook her head. She turned back to Xochitl.

"The rune is simply your way of visualizing the effect you wish to create," she explained. "It may be that it is the only means by which you might effect spellcraft. That was certainly the case for practically everyone for hundreds - if not thousands of years. For some it does indeed remain so to this day. Or perhaps you may learn to create these runes in your mind, and in so doing implement your spellcasting. We shall learn in time."

"So I might not be a real magician then?" There was no mistaking the downward cast to the young woman's eyes, or the self-reproach in her voice.

"Nay!" Blood Raven insisted. "Banish such thoughts immediately my young apprentice. This is by no means inferior, or lesser. It is simply yet one more variation, in a field of endless variations."

"I can imagine there are a lot of advantages to rune magic," Kaelin was now quite serious. "It's similar to what I do: alchemy. You can store a spell within a rune and leave it there for future use. Perhaps use by anyone, not just yourself. That is how potions work. I put a healing spell, or flight, or night sight, or whatever it is I want into a potion, or candle, or what not. Then anyone can drink it, or burn it, and the spell goes off. I don't even have to be there for it to work."

"So she could probably make scrolls this way," January offered. When several of the others gave her puzzled looks, she explained further. "Like in RPGs. A scroll has a spell imprinted on it. You just pull out the scroll and read it, and the spell goes off. It works even if you don't know the spell yourself, or have the mana. Sometimes you can even use it if you are not a magician. It depends on the game."

"Yes, yes indeed," Blood Raven acknowledged. "All of this is possible. I once knew a man in the Pacific who did this with tattoos upon himself and his friends. A powerful mage was he."

"You mean I could tat myself up with magic spells?" Xochitl said. That disappointed look now transformed into one of wonder. "Or body paint up with them?"

"Absolutely," Kaelin nodded. "I enchanted the body paint that Harper and I wore at Belle Isle in order to protect us. We still have some left over in fact."

"So long as it is what is right for you, there is nothing that can hold you back." Blood Raven added.

"So let's do my centering skill next!" she cried.

"This is revelation enough for one day," Blood Raven shook her head. "For now, practice your light spell. Use your power, grow accustomed to how it feels, make it a part of you. For it is a part of you, it always has been, and always will be."

That's neat, two of these gals are into the wacky lettuce. It's just an unexpected detail I would not expect on the Crow Show. But one which definitely fits the times. Now... I wonder if any of the blackhats might dabble in some other substances. Like maybe those Nazis from earlier chapters have messed around with something really EVIL like meth (or some derivative of methamphetamine), as Hitler prescribed for his troops. 💊

Rune mage! See, Xochitl's cutting her own specialty from the multiverse. And what a cool talent to have while you're still in high school. Something which really sets her apart from other students. I foresee plenty of corn meal being bought from whatever local supermarket's near her parents' house...

Jan's having PTSD symptoms.



YUah!!!! Too little sleep, been saying this. Then again, what quality of sleep could she get with all this activity going on, anyway?

That is a great explanation: runes are a way to lay magic outside of a magic-user's head. Sort of like those Poppets which have been laid all over place (I think "poppet" is what they're called). When something untoward occurs near one of them, Jan or Branwen are able to feel the presence of whatever's causing them to ping.

Cool. I'm really psyched to play some Morrowind now, with a brand-new Bosmer Illusionist of my own!

Another fascinating delve into the nature of magic and its variability. This time exploring what seems to be Xochitl’s affinity for runic magic.

My mind went the same place that Jan’s did – so that is how scrolls are made.

What a hoot when Blood Raven mentioned a phonograph type record as an example to a barely teenager. I admit the elder mage’s comeback to Kaelin was well done.

Nits:
- "It may {be?} a close relative to your centering skill, perhaps that will be something very similar.”
-"I can imagine there are a lot of advantages to rune magic," Kaelin was now quite seriously {serious?}.