Trail 36

--- Jon ---

“Alright, so I get what you’re going for here, but I feel like you’re not fully taking advantage of what you’ve got to work with.” His Ma told him, looking over one of his concept prints for their haunted house.

“What do you mean?”

“Right here this trap works decently, but if you were to trigger it after they walk past instead of before you can get them from behind twice by making them turn to the distraction and back.” His Ma explained, illustrating her plan by moving her hands on the paper.

“Okay, yeah I can see that…” He nodded, not having planned a double scare like that. “But won’t that box them into place?”

“Not if we move it a little further down the hall so that they have an ‘open’ door to run through.” His Ma smirked. “Remember a big part of using traps isn’t just having people wander into them, but also manipulating where people will go to avoid them.”

“Thereby having them walk into an even worse trap.” He nodded in understanding before giving his blueprint another once over. “In that case… If we’re already converting this square of offices into a maze, then we can use a few traps at these intersections to better direct them.”

“Not a bad idea, especially if we use a few lighting shifts to make them think the hallways are different.” His Ma agreed, sketching a few more adjustments to the plan.

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Ma’s help gained 1XP to Combat and Trapmaking.

--Currently: Combat Lv. 6 (3/14) and Trapmaking Lv. 8 (17/18)

---

With his and Ma's morning training done, he found himself with the rest of the day to himself, and so he grabbed his creature compendium book in the hopes of finding something interesting to read.

(Might as well start from the beginning I guess.) Flipping to the beginner’s list he shifted to the suggested summon after Flufflepuffs, which revealed a small sphere-like creature surrounded by smoke, that based on the shading seemed to be glowing.

(‘Willowisps, also known as the will-o-the-wisps.’) He began to read. (‘Suggested Contracting Rank: F, Magic Cost: A+, Sociability: A-, Combat Threat: F+, Magical Ability: E+, and Protective Ability: F.’ So harmless, but would probably win a fight with a Flufflepuff.)

Outside of the Arcane context, he was mildly familiar with the creature -or its myth at least- knowing that they were supposed to be a glowing fairy of sorts that led travellers astray in the dark of the night with their flickering lights and some of their myths being theorized to be natural gas briefly igniting under the right conditions.

The actual creatures themselves however were a type of nature spirit sometimes considered as part of the fairy family. And while wisps are extremely prone to mischief (even by fairy standards) they were also extremely friendly if befriended, often working as a guiding light of sorts to whoever had earned their favor, with some Arcane believing they will lead one to their destiny.

(If you believe in that garbage.) He couldn’t help but scoff, before continuing to read.

(‘Now while Willowisps are not the most powerful of summons, they are considered one of the staple summons of all contracting beginners due to two powerful reasons, the first being their [Swarm] trait which functions as a powerful multiplier to an otherwise harmless creature. The second (and arguably more important) reason is the fact that Willowisps possess an affinity towards [Fire], [Air], and [Light] magic, making them a versatile gateway summons to those wishing to expand their mystical repertoires.’)

“Huh, they can manipulate three different elements…” He knew that wasn’t actually all that uncommon, with most creatures possessing three inherent affinities, but “That combined with their [Swarm] trait… even if their individual effects are relatively weak, together they could probably do some damage.”

He was about to move on when he noticed one last note at the bottom of the page. “A unique non-Contracting trait of the Willowisp that is actually common in most Spirits is the fact that they have numerous variations, with a number of the creatures in the Spirit family ‘evolving’ into these Variants over the course of their Contract.” (Just like Pix and I are trying to do with her…)

A buzzing sound from his phone drew his attention away from his reading and musing as took it and read this week’s sale at the Witch’s Wares. (‘Contracting Supplies twenty-five percent off…’) “Why not?”

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1 XP to Occult and Contracting: Summons

--Currently: Occult Lv. 6 (11/14) and Contracting: Summons Lv. 4 (8/10)

-Willowisp is now available for summons.

---

Stepping into the Witch’s Wares he found that for once he wasn’t the only customer present as he spotted a tanned young woman a bit older than him, wearing a green fatigue jacket, a zip-up guitar bag, and a burgundy beanie. Now normally he wouldn’t give a stranger so much attention, if not for what she was purchasing from Ms. Delacroix.

“Should I be concerned you sell soul fragments?” He asked, more curious than actually worried.

“What’s it to you?” The girl growled, stuffing the fragments in one of her pockets.

“Certain contracting summons eat the emotional residue.” Ms. Delacroix explained, her saleswoman skills having likely picked up on his mentality towards the matter. “Surprised you know what they are though, most people hear ‘soul fragments’ and think ‘dark magic’.”

“I mean technically they could be used for that.” He felt the need to point out. (I’m pretty sure that’s what De Sade used the box in his desk for anyway.) “But as long as you aren’t burning out the core of the soul, there’s nothing too wrong with it.” (After all that’s the one part that the soul can’t regrow.)

That rationalization -and the fact that Miss Edna had been the one giving him it- were the only reason he was okay using so many of the fragments against the Beast of Blackwell.

(He could feel so many things coming from the crystals in his hands. Joy, love, and laughter from the ones Miss Edna had given him, as well as fear, pain, and pleasure from the ones DeSade had handed him. All things that made up the lives of the people who the fragments had been made from.)

Looking at a fragment that the girl had missed, he felt a slight but familiar sense of dread coming from the crystal, and prickling at the edge of his mind as it called upon his fight or flight instincts. “Fear?”

“That’s mine.” The girl snapped at him, swiping the crystal before marching towards the door. “I’ll see you when I need another refill Sam.”

“Sure thing.” Ms. Delacroix waved at the retreating girl before turning to him. “Just ignore her, she gets a bit defensive around new people.”

“It’s not a problem.” He’d met more than one kid like that at camp. (Heck, Ying used to be like that when we were younger.)

“So, what can I do you for?” Ms. Delacroix asked getting down to business.

“I got a text mentioning you were having a sale on Contracting supplies.” He began.

“Ah, that’s why Val was here too.”

“Val?” He repeated, before connecting the name to the girl and frowning. “Soul fragments are a contracting supply?”

“If you’ve contracted a spirit that eats them, yes.” Samantha nodded.

(Ah, right… Most people probably don’t use those for the same reasons as DeSade’s cult, or the Beast’s cult.) (Or me.) He shook his head at that thought. (Blackwell has too many cults.)

“Anyway, um, I wanted to get another one of those Confidant Contracting Catalysts.” He continued, ignoring the little detour his thoughts had taken.

“Uh, you sure about that?” His fellow magic-user frowned. “I mean didn’t you already use one?”

“Yes?” He answered warily. “I just thought you could use them multiple times?”

“You can but…” Ms. Delacroix seemed to consider it for a moment before giving him a look. “You still have that Arcane Ring I gave you?”

“Yeah?” He nodded pulling said ring out of his pocket, since he couldn’t be sure if Ms. Delacroix would need it to verify his magic rankings again.

“Hand it over.” Once she had the ring she pushed a bit of magic into it and said. “Main User, Contracting Capacity… Huh, alright you’re sitting at six out of ten so you should be alright with the catalyst though you might want to wait a bit.”

“Uh, what exactly is a contracting capacity?” He felt the need to ask as he took the ring back.

“It’s… alright, so your Contracting Capacity is how many contracts your spell system can handle connecting to itself.” Ms. Delacroix explained. “If you try to form too many contracts at once it can… well you’d be flooding your system with more Anima than you can handle which…”

(Blood leaked from the man’s smoking eyes and mouth as the flesh around them and his eyes slowly blackened and the scent of burning meat filled the air.)

“Wouldn’t be good…” He finished solemnly, forced to remember the Blackwell cultist who’d used far more magic than he could handle even with the Beast’s blessings.

“Yeah…” Samantha nodded, before forcing a grin. “But look on the bright side you’ve got a fairly decent capacity, and the Catalyst has a safety measure to keep you from summoning anything you can’t contract, so you should be fine. It’d just be best if you gave your system a little more space, so it doesn’t have to limit your options.”

“Yeah, that uh, that sounds like a good idea.” He agreed.

Scene Consequences

-Gained Confidant Contracting Catalyst.

-Gained 1XP to Contracting.

--Currently: Lv. 4 (9/10)

-Jon has become aware of his Contracting Capacity.

--A Contract’s capacity is equal to (Summoning Lv. + Occult Lv.), with the capacity used by each contract equal to its rank for instance: Pix (E-Rank = 2), Wolf (C-Rank = 4).

--Currently: (6/10) Capacity.

---

After getting back home he stashed the Catalyst away, deciding to hold off on using it for another day or two before picking up his creature compendium and flipping to something that was bothering him. It admittedly took him a few passes through the index to find what he was looking for, but that was more due to the fact that the book seemed to be actively trying to hide it. (Which given the subject is fair.)

While he wasn’t truly worried about the fact that someone had summoned a spirit that ate soul fragments, he was worried about the possibility that anyone could summon a spirit that ate soul fragments. (Because not all of those spirits are going to play nice.)

Admittedly the fact that he’d had so much trouble finding the subsection of spirits that fit the criteria of soul-eaters was a point in the Arcane Association’s favor as far as spreading that information went, but wouldn’t be satisfied until he actually knew just what they were advertising in ‘the beginner’s’ book.

(‘On the darker side of the summoning spectrum are entities that many would refer to as ‘Demons’ Spirits who feed off the thoughts, flesh, and emotions of others.’) He began reading. (‘Due to their inherent danger it is both recommended that Contractors avoid summoning these entities, as well as highly regulated by the Arcane Association.’)

Admittedly that was what he was expecting and hoping for as far as the Association’s stance on the matter. (Can’t expect everyone to deal with demons like the Devil of Blackwell.)

(Though this does bring up the question of how and why that girl had a contract with one, let alone why Ms. Delacroix was so okay with it…) For a moment he was tempted to investigate, to get himself involved in whatever was going on there, but eventually he shook his head.

“No. This is not my problem.” He told himself firmly. “No one I care about is in danger, and I doubt Ms. Delacroix wants anything that can cause her trouble. It is not my problem.”

Almost as if to contest that point he felt DeSade’s books on Demonology staring at him from within the bag he’d hidden them. “No! I already put down one monster, I don’t need to go looking for another!”

(That doesn’t mean there’s not another one looking to eat.)

Forcing his eyes shut he threw his book onto his bed before stomping his way out of his room as he tried to escape the too deep shadows of his mind.

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1 XP to Occult and Contracting: Summons

--Currently: Occult Lv. 6 (12/14)

--*Skill Level Up* Contracting: Summons Lv. 5 (0/12)