Capes and Magic Hats: Chapter 2

As I grew closer to the library, I was beginning to suspect more and more that my earlier theory of this place being some sort of manifestation of my power was correct. Everything about it felt familiar and extremely intimate, like the very air around me was part of my very being.

Ruminating on how strange this all was, I scaled the steps towards the massive double doors, and after spending a moment admiring the tasteful carvings on their wooden surfaces, I pushed them open, entering the building that had been calling to me since I arrived here, only to pause the moment I stepped foot inside.

“Woah.” I uttered softly as I looked around. Just like the outside would suggest, the interior of the building looked just like a library. Only instead of the sparsely decorated and somewhat bland library that I had come to know in Brockton Bay, this one was so much more.

The front of the building was tastefully decorated, soft carpet on the floor and paintings on the wall. There was a small podium with a closed book on it sitting directly in line with the doors, but I ignored it for now in favor of taking in the decor.

Warm yellow light drifted from small lamps sitting on the various tables around the room, bringing with them a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere that was only increased by the cushy looking armchairs that sat around them, just begging someone to relax in them with a book in hand.

All in all, this was the kind of place that I had dreamed of in some of my darkest moments. A place that I could enter and just sit down, getting lost in a world of words, completely at peace and away from the turmoils of my day to day existence.

Though something about this place told me that it was much more than just a simple library, and that theory was further supported as I turned my gaze away from the sitting area and to the rest of the building.

Instead of what one could expect from a normal library, bookshelves, computers, and other things of that nature, this place instead had several large doors sitting against a wall. There were nine of them, made of dark wood with golden handles. Above each of them were large, softly glowing symbols, likely denoting the contents inside.

I studied them, taking in the different crests hanging above the doors. They didn't seem to have a common theme apart from the fact that they were all glowing softly, and I wondered what they could mean.

I turned back towards the podium that I had passed up earlier, wondering if the book sitting on it might hold any insight into what exactly this place was.

What I found was rather enlightening. The book was rather thick, with a dark leather cover wrapped around it. Two words sat on the front, etched deep into the leather.

Archive Directory

A directory. That was exactly what I needed.

“Never heard of a power coming with a directory though, but I’m not gonna complain.” I said to myself as I grabbed it from the podium. It felt oddly light in my hands, as if there was only half as much paper inside as there actually was but that was far from the weirdest thing I'd seen in even the past five minutes so I just ignored it.

Opening the book, I was met with what looked like an introductory message written in elegant black scrawl across the front page.

Welcome to the Archive, Taylor Hebert, A manifestation of your very imagination and the knowledge that you may one day accrue. In the Archive, you will find everything you need to become a magician of great renown. Here, in your innermost sanctum, away from all of the toils of life, you and those you trust will be able to grow and prosper faster than ever before.

Though the Archive may seem empty right now, with time and hard work, it will grow alongside you. Paths that were closed to you will open and you will be allowed to flourish even further.

An entire world awaits you, you must simply reach out and grasp it.

So this place was part of my power. How else would this book know who I was? I was a little confused about the terminology though; magician instead of parahuman? I had heard of some capes calling themselves wizards or witches as a thematic sort of thing, but to my knowledge few actually believed that powers were actually magical.

That said, I had never heard of a power that tuned up your body, shoved someone else’s memories into your head, and gave you your own personal library, so maybe it was best to keep an open mind in this case.

I turned the page, finding a small blurb of text at the top of the next page, followed by what appeared to be a list of the rooms beyond, each entry containing the same symbols that were above the doorways just a few feet away.

In the rooms beyond, you will find texts and tomes filled with knowledge of the various magics that you can currently utilize, as well as one with far more mundane texts on skills that you might come across in tour day-to-day life such as cooking or even driving.

For the moment, your magical abilities are limited to cantrips and simpler spells and as such, the rooms may seem sparse upon first appearance but fear not. As stated before, they will grow alongside your own knowledge. As you master the magics available, you will find that more will appear, waiting for you to learn and master as well.

Nearly all magic can be placed into one of several categories or schools. Those schools are:

Abjuration:
Spells from this school are protective in nature, though some of them have aggressive uses. They create magical barriers, negate harmful effects, harm trespassers, or banish creatures to other planes of existence.

Conjuration:
Spells from this school involve conjuring or transporting objects and creatures. Some spells may summon said items to the caster’s side, while others may affect the caster themselves, allowing them to transport themselves to another location.

Divination:
Spells from this school reveal information. Glimpsing into the future, dispelling illusions, or even gaining visions of distant people or places are just a few things that this school’s practitioners are capable of.

Enchantment:
Spells from this school directly affect the minds of others, influencing or controlling their behavior. Unlike the School of Illusion, these spells directly target one’s mind, altering their very perception of the world or even forcing them to make a specific action they otherwise would not have.

Evocation:
Spells from this school manipulate raw magical energy to produce a desired effect. Fireball and Lightning Bolt are the favored spells of many Evocation practitioners, while others may instead channel their magic to heal the wounds of their allies.

Illusion:
Spells from this school deceive the senses or minds of others. They may plant suggestions in the minds of their foes, cause themselves to become unseen, or even tweak the memories of their victim to remember things that never occurred or forget things that did.

Transmutation:
Spells from this school focus on altering a person or object. A practitioner may transform an enemy into a harmless creature, bolster the strength of an ally, or enhance a creature's innate healing abilities to rapidly recover from injury.

Necromancy:
Spells from this school manipulate the very energies of life and death. Practitioners of this school may drain the life of their foes or bolster the life force of themselves or an ally. At the higher levels, one may even manage to bring the dead back to life.

“Bring someone back to life…?” I whispered with wide eyes as I read that last sentence. To my knowledge, there wasn’t a single power on earth that was capable of doing something like that. The closest thing that came to mind was the Faerie Queen, but those were mere shades, puppets for her to use their powers through, not full on resurrection like the book implied.

Could I bring anyone back? What was the limit? Time? Age? Cause of death?

…Could I bring my mom back?

I shook my head not dwelling on that thought and the emotions that it wanted to evoked, instead turning my attention back to the directory.

While these are the schools that you are currently able to access, some schools have sub-magics that will one day be available to you as well.

With work and perseverance, there is little that will be beyond your abilities.

There was much more written inside the book, but I decided to stop there in order to properly take in everything that I had read so far.

This place was claiming that it could give me powers, magic, and as far-fetched as it sounded, I believed it. Why wouldn't I? This place was part of my power. There was no reason for it to lie to me.

With that thought, came a sensation of giddiness that I hadn't felt since I was a child as I realized just what kind of opportunity I had here.

Each spell in each of these schools was equivalent to a full power all on its own. The sheer versatility of the illusion school alone would make someone an incredibly powerful cape. All of them together? People would start calling you a miniature Eidolon or something.

And I could learn them all. The directory hadn't mentioned any limit to what I could learn, only that it would take work to do so. That meant that if I worked hard enough, I could become one of the strongest capes in the world. I could become someone so much more than Taylor Hebert, the girl who eats her lunch in bathroom stalls because she's scared of a few bullies.

I could actually be someone.

I placed the directory back onto its pedestal, promising myself to go over it fully later. For now, I wanted to see exactly what was in those rooms.

Though the necromancy room interested me quite a bit, I doubted I'd be able to do anything with it right now. The directory said it was a higher level skill and I was just beginning. It would probably be best not to focus entirely on that and instead start with something that might be useful in my day-to-day.

With that in mind, I turned towards the doorways, heading towards the Transmutation section, marked by a glowing blue swirl above the door. I could have chosen the door that led to the mundane skills but come on, it's magic.

Making my way through the door, I found that the room itself was set into a half-circle shape and was nearly as big as the foyer of the library. Several bookshelves sat up against the wall, split into two sections by a gap and decorated with numerous thick tomes and books. Though there were many, something inside of me told me that this was only a fraction of what should actually be inside of here.

I put it out of my mind for now, looking around the room once more. Off to either side of me were comfy looking lounges. Soft couches sat around a small table in the cozy alcoves, just as inviting as the ones in the room behind me had been. Also like the front of the Archive, there was a book on a podium sitting in the middle of the room, though this one was much thinner than the directory was. I made my way over to it first, wondering what it could possibly be.

The face was completely blank apart from a small shield that was similar to the one that hung above the door to the Abjuration room. What was it doing here?

I turned it over, taking in the smooth leather cover that was completely bereft of any sort of decoration or summary of what could have possibly been inside. There wasn’t even a title on unlike the ones on the shelves nearby.

“What kind of book doesn’t have a title?” I asked aloud, staring at the symbol on the front. After a moment of debating, I decided to open it and find out. It was clear that the Archive had deliberately placed it in the middle of the room for me to see after all, as if it had wanted me to read it first.

The moment I opened it, the words seemed to spring out of the page at me, resonating within my mind as my eyes flew over the oddly pristine paper. Phrases like ‘Protection’ and ‘Strength’ flew past my eyes as I read, and one paragraph in particular stood out to me above all of the rest.

“It’s a chant.” I realized almost immediately. I read it over slowly, memorizing the words that were written before beginning to carefully recite them slowly, an unknown force inside of me guiding me to speak the words aloud.

“For it is in transformation that we achieve immortality…” The moment I began speaking, something swelled within me, something raw and powerful that hadn’t been there before. I paused, the feeling consuming me strange but oddly right, “...We shed the skin of who we were, becoming a paragon of our own making, rising above the limitations we once believed defined us. Infinite possibilities lie before us, unbound by the shackles that once held us, we only have to accept them.”

The moment that the last word left my lips, I gasped, the book falling from my limp fingers and onto the podium as energy burst to life within me, filling me to the brim and bringing along with it an almost overwhelming amount of strength and power.

I looked down at my hands in wonder, taking in the softly glowing energy that had settled just above my bare skin. Looking down at the rest of me revealed that it wasn’t just my hands. My entire body was encompassed by the same glow, peeking through even my dense hoodie as it lit the air around it a pale silver color.

Moments later, the glow slowly began to fade, sinking back into my body like it was never there. I clenched my fingers, opening and closing my hands and feeling the new strength behind them as I wondered what in the world had just happened. What was this energy?

Almost immediately, a word popped into my mind, a name for this power that the book had bestowed upon me.

“Aura…” I said aloud, still staring down at my hands. My mind supplied me with the information, memories of colorful capes glowing with the same, radiant energy that I was flashing through my mind as I connected the dots. Each of them was the equivalent to a low-tier brute, able to tank attacks that would have killed anyone else and walk away basically unscathed so long as it didn't exceed a certain threshold.

And it was all thanks to the very energy that I myself now possessed.

As the glow faded completely, I stared at the book that had been responsible, staring at it in wonder as I realized what had just happened, “This book gave me a power just by reading it!” I said in shock, before immediately picking it back and reading over the next page.

On it was a small description of the power I had just gained. It was mostly stuff that I already knew thanks to my implanted memories, but there was a small bit at the end that left me even more shocked than before.

Aura is the power of the soul made manifest. Your very humanity given form. It acts as a bulwark against all danger and enables feats of strength far beyond what you would be able to manage without it. If you so wish, you can manifest this power in others, giving them the same protection that you now possess.

“I can give other people powers too!?” I stared at the words in shock. If what this thing was saying was true, then my power was so much more incredible than I already imagined it was. I could count the number of people who could give other people powers on one hand, and even fewer were able to give them out permanently.

Something like aura especially could be a game changer. An average civilian with aura would immediately become the equivalent to a low-tier brute.

This place… It was even more incredible than I originally thought!

With a slightly giddy smile on my face, I turned towards the bookshelves, taking in the dozens of thick books that sat upon them, each and every one of them containing knowledge that would give me power beyond what I already had.

There weren't many of them all things considered, but if what the directory said was true that would change with time. All I needed to do was learn and practice what was already available to me, something I was more than happy to do

Walking over to the shelf, I looked over the various titles written on the spines searching for one that sounded the best. After a moment, I found one that interested me enough to grab it, and I turned and headed towards the nearest couch to begin reading.

“A well-renowned cantrip from the Transmutation school of magic, Prestidigitation is a spell that is capable of a wide variety of effects. Heating food, cleaning clothing, and even soiling that very same clothing are all things that this single spell can accomplish if one so desires.” I recited aloud, “Despite its seeming complexity, this spell is one of the simplest spells to learn and master. As such, it has become a fast favorite for those who have just taken an interest in magic.”

Huh. It seemed like I had picked the perfect spell to learn first. Good for me.

As I read, I quickly realized that unlike the book that had given me aura, this was much more like a step-by-step guide on how to use the spell itself. It seemed that I wasn't going to just be handed the magical abilities that the archive promised me and would actually have to work for them.

“Guess it's a good thing I was already probably going to skip class.” I muttered as I settled in for some studying.