Stronger Together chapter 96 (Patreon)

We ended up getting to Harry's place at around five in the afternoon.  The old run down boarding house looked that same as it had a month ago,  the basement apartment still invisible at the bottom of its steps. It  wasn't hard to notice there was a place there however because a striking  woman with dark hair and eyes was stepping out of the staircase as we  walked up. Susan Rodriguez smiled at us as we arrived. "Hey guys, been a  while, I was just visiting Harry, I was happy to hear he was back." Her  face became serious "Listen, he told me you really helped him out in  Colorado, thanks for looking out for him." She placed a hand subtly on  her stomach in an unconscious gesture.

She  saw me noticing and smiled wryly. "Yeah, I took a few tests to double  check. I'm pregnant." She gave me a piercing stare for a few seconds  before sighing "And I guess I owe you for telling him. I might have done  something really stupid there. I don't think Harry would have ever  forgiven me. I think I would have reacted out of fear and really  regretted it. Talking it over with him we came up with some options."  She smiled softly down at where her hand rested before snapping out of  her daze "Anyway I have to go, I have a meeting with the Arcane to look  into getting my job back, since I'm going to be staying in town I need  some income. I was sending some stuff in remotely but they filled my  desk so I have to interview again."

She  stepped forward and pulled all three of us into a hug one after the  other before strolling off, clearly happy and upbeat. I was happy for  Harry, though I still wondered about his little jealousy problem with  her and Lara. We descended the steps to the metal security door and  rapped on in loudly. We weren't in danger from the wards of course  because Harry had them set up not to go off on people who just knocked.  He didn't want to fry a girl scout or something. The door swung open and  an out of breath Harry with rumpled hear and a body covered in sweat  answered the door in jeans and no shirt. He seemed a bit confused when  he saw us then cursed and slammed the door.

He  was back in a minute flat wearing an AC/DC t-shirt "Oh hey there guys,  sorry I got a bit distracted doing...research." Yang snickered loudly  while Barb and I had the good grace to hide our amusement as he invited  us in, quickly disabling the wards. "You know I really should get you  all some talismans set up to let you bypass those." He looked over at a  snickering Yang. "Or at least some of you." He raised an eyebrow at the  huntress who stuck out her tongue and then chuckled turning to us. "So,  you showed up later than I was expecting but glad to see you today, we  have some stuff to discuss."

I  nodded at him, curious to see if he was going to bring them down to  talk to Bob. I'd been worried about that initially, mostly because Yang  was both hot enough to get Bob to do most anything he was allowed and  lacking restraint enough to do that. But now I felt like I'd  underestimated the huntress. Sure Yang could be impatient but she was a  responsible person, she basically raised her sister when she was a kid  herself. She'd gone through the forms with much less noticeable agony  than I felt which showed a strong determination (though she'd still been  grateful as hell for the medicinal bath), plus it wasn't really my  place to make the call.

I  shot Harry a questioning look and he nodded answering my unasked  question out loud. "Yeah I'm going to introduce them to Bob. We need his  advice here and I trust all of you guys. Besides Bob will be able to  help us get Yang to the point the rest of you are at, he's better at  training plans than I could ever be." He shot the girls a smile when he  said that, and they smiled back a bit confusedly. Then he led us to the  sub basement, pulling the trap door up and gesturing for them to head  down first. That probably didn't clear things up since they had both  been down there before but they followed instructions and climbed down  ahead of both of us.

I  went next, Harry bringing up the rear and he closed the trap door  behind himself engaging the bolt. I expected Yang to comment on how  creepy or ominous that was but she didn't say a word. The next voice I  could hear was Harry's muttering his candle lighting spell before  turning to regard us. "Ok girls, this is going to be a bit weird, but  it's perfectly safe, also don't take anything he says too seriously. He  can't do much unless I let him out so keep that in the forefront of your  brain when he starts yapping." He turned away from them to the skull  sitting lifelessly off on its pedestal. "Now, Bob, this is Yang and  Barbara."

The  skull's empty eye sockets blazed up with orange sparks like a  campfire's glow as the crisp british voice of the spirit of knowledge  drawled "Well I have to say Boss. I've seen them down here a few times  but faced with actually meeting the little cupcakes I'm impressed. I  think it's the kid, he's clearly a good influence. First the goth with  the massive cans then a busty blonde and a sweet little redhead with a  tight ass? You're spoiling me lately I swear." His eyes focused on me  "weird magical signature on that arm though kid. Never seen anything  like that before. What an odd metal."

Luckily  his final comment distracted the girls from being annoyed as they  turned to stare at my metallic limb. I'd been hoping to ask about it so I  was glad he brought it up. "Ok, not filled with confidence that ever  the spirit of knowledge doesn't know what it is. I've been calling it  godsteel. I have a ring made from it if you want to take a look?" I  slipped the ring of godsteel off my finger and walked over to drop it on  the pedestal next to Bob on top of a stack of ratty romance novels.  Aside from being a great time to get these questions out of the way this  distraction would help stop Barb from smashing the invaluable spirit's  home.

Bob's  eyelights flicked to the ring beside him and fixed there. He sat  motionless for while staring in curiosity at the substance. Finally the  eyelights snapped back up to me. "I've never seen anything like this,  but I've heard of some divine metals with properties that are similar.  Titanic Bronze absorbs energy for instance, this stuff can store massive  amounts of magical energy per square inch, much more than should be  possible with natural material, and it amplifies magic when cast through  it. But that's just a side effect. Whatever this metal is was made to  retain power. Enchantments degrade over time, like Harry's duster. But  this stuff doesn't have that problem. You put a spell on this and it  stays there. Forever. It's basically cheat metal for making permanent  enchantments."

I frowned at  that. "Ok that sounds awesome sure, but I'm confused, Harry's force  rings don't wear out, and neither does his staff. I just thought metal  stuff always did that. I figured the whole degrading enchantment thing  was only for more easily damaged stuff or something. If Harry made a  force ring out of that for instance what would it do different?" The  Dresden files was actually really shaky on how enchantments worked.  Harry did all his off screen, Lea enchanted him a set of armor once but  it wasn't real metal so I had no clue if that was the same. She had  transformed the stuff. Maybe it kept the magical potential of the  original material or something?

Bob  made a noise of understanding. "I get why you might be confused but  those are all very different cases. First, the force rings do need to be  re enchanted regularly, less often than other things because they can  be charged externally and the force is released later. Staves aren't  enchanted at all, or at least they don't have to be. Think of them as a  circuit that directs energy, you feed the magic in and the staff helps  shape it. Most of them are basic but thing's like Harry's blasting rod  work on similar principles. There are ways to make permanent  enchantments but they're almost always incredibly complex and usually  flukes. Powerful legendary object can become permanently enchanted by  accident or circumstance."

The  skull sounded excited by the possibilities. "Some wizards or magical  creatures can make items that trade longevity for usability. A single  use or even multiple use object with limited charges that can be kept  for longer times, but all enchanting has limits unless done by a master.  This stuff would let someone like Harry weave his duster enchantments  just once and it would be there forever. Not to mention because of the  increased magical capacity he could layer much more spellwork into it  and the amplification ability would make that much more effective than  it would normally be. This stuff was basically made for enchanting and  making focuses. Of course even with the enhanced capacity a piece this  small would be limited in storage space so to speak, do you have more?"

I  figured I might as well go all in and I explained the process for  making the stuff. How I had to channel soulfire into my arm along with  other mixed in energies and making anything bigger than a thimble would  probably take more power than all of us had together at the moment. He  listened intently, but finally I got to my idea "What about chain mail? I  was thinking of making some for Kara? Could I form one small ring at a  time and make a chain mail coat? Would that have a massive amount of  enchantment potential for Harry to work on?" I shot an apologetic look  at Harry "If he was ok with that of course, sorry boss." Assuming he  would make powerful gear for us without asking him seemed a bit rude.

Harry  laughed and waved it off "It's fine kid, but to answer your question  not exactly. Chain mail seems like a perfect solution up front, and it  would definitely work, but the extra magical space would be severely  depleted. When you enchant something like chain mail you cant just drop a  spell on the whole coat. That leaves a thaumaturgical weakness in the  enchantment. Your enemy might attack one of the rings instead of the  whole thing and break part of the spell." He explained the process  concisely but I could tell there was a bit more to it than just that.  Still if it wouldn't work I'd have to wait and make one large piece.

He  seemed to sense my disappointment but he went on with his explanation  "You have to enchant each ring with a series of interlocking  enchantments. It takes up much more of the capacity than enchanting a  single piece would because each enchantment has to be able to stand  alone as well as be part of the whole. Still I could definitely  enchantment something like that, it would just take a while and it  wouldn't be as powerful as a single piece." 

I grinned at the news, Kara  was weak against magic a magic coat of armor would be huge for her, even  if it would take me a long ass time to make it. With the others helping  charge me up I could probably do it in a couple months. I thanked my  mentor as we turned back to the skull. Time to find out more about this  iron crown. Anything that had the vampires this excited could not be good news.