by Bob Dattolo
A fourth ring followed. Then a fifth. Then a sixth. Each time I created another, I’d stare at it endlessly before laughing and pulling another.
Using the prior rings to bolster my output is working! I laughed through the five minutes needed to create the 14th ring and then tested it, coming up with a ring that basically increases power output by 100 percent. Holy shit.
Cursing didn’t seem like an issue now. Like at all.
Holding the ring and letting it twist in my hand, I giggled as I used it and some of the others to create another one that basically matched the highest level. I even made sure they were the same ring styles. Beautiful. Perfect.
I giggled as I looked at the time dedication. All in all, I have less than an hour and a half effort in ring creation, not counting testing. It’s late as hell, but I did it! I don’t even know what to say.
But I know what to do.
I used every single ring in my hands to fire up a ring of speed, dedicating 20 minutes to the effort before testing it.
Wow.
A speed increase of 25 percent with only 20 minutes into it? Niiiiice.
I hit up the ring I earmarked for Steph and had a 30 percent strength increase in the same 20 minutes.
I can get used to this!
I ran some calculations on my original multiplier rings and realized that I can probably get a 200 percent increase with only six more rings. Then tripled in another five or so. That’s heady stuff right there. Very, very tempting. Something to keep in the back of my mind. Just as I need to keep my helper rings hidden.
They went into the back of my drawer, and I attempted to cast a spell on them so that no one could see them but me and Mom. It felt like a good one, so I let it go and sat back staring at the two multiplier rings on one hand and the other two. I’ll turn in the strength ring for class and see if it’s accepted.
I have to say, this magic thing is pretty cool!
Chapter 19
Spending so much time with Steph and then our other dozenal members in the all-together has helped tremendously with being able to handle everything in the bathroom. Granted, not quite the going to the bathroom part, but even that’s getting better. Seeing everyone naked and showering and all of that is not quite old-hat, yet that doesn’t help with my time in the stalls. It’s funny, but in my reading and various movie watching, farting is a big thing. Growing up with only my family and having a bunch of kids that I’ve changed diapers for and help raise, that wasn’t quite as much an issue for me. I get that it’s private and all of that, but it’s not that big of a deal. It’s the actual, umm, pooping, that gets to me. Hearing everyone else handle it like it’s no big deal has helped tremendously.
So, so much.
That being said, I still prefer some alone time. Not that I get it. And not that half of our folks can’t hear everything going on even when they’re not in the bathroom. That’s sort of why they don’t care. Like at all.
At least the magic users have some issue with it. Somewhat. Although it’s really me and Rachel that still have lingering problems with it. Except she doesn’t even need to go any longer.
Nothing happened at breakfast again, and the morning classes moved along really well. Lunch was normal too. The times together as a larger group are getting better and better now that folks realize I’m not about to snap and kill people. It probably helps that Tom gave the number one spot in the school to Stacey since she has enough charms on her in a given day to wreck his world.
Well, assuming he doesn’t attack without warning. Since that doesn’t seem worthwhile, we’re letting it go and she’s setting a far different tone for things. That’s nice to see.
Things changed in magic class as we got started.
“Good afternoon. I’d like to continue where we left off yesterday? We walked through the basics of creating a charm and then I asked you all to think of a spell that you would like to place. The goal is not to create a master-level piece, the goal is to create one at all. If you can create one, even one with very little power, you can create a stronger one with more time and focus.”
He paused at seeing my hand raised, “Yes, Ceri?”
“Umm, I know the goal is to create one in this class, but I sort of created one last night? Does that count?”
The others stared at me in shock, while his mouth fell open. I nearly laughed at that, since he’s so incredibly tight and strait-laced that I’m not sure he’s caught flat-footed all that often.
“You…what? You created a charm last night? Already?”
“Umm, yes?”
He looked down at my hands and squinted a little, “I see a number of rings. What did you create, and which ring is it on?”
“Umm, I actually created a bunch last night? But the one I wanted to submit for review is this one? It’s a ring of strength. I made it for my roommate, Steph.”
“What the fuck?” Christine nearly whispered.
“You made a charm? For your roommate?”
“Yes? Was I not supposed to do that? I made the others for me. Well, mostly me.”
He stared harder, which I didn’t think was possible. “Please join me up front.”
Feeling really awkward, I joined him in front as he held out his hand, “The ring of strength, please?”
I passed it to him and felt magic flow from him around it. It continued for long minutes until he grunted and dropped it. He was still staring at his empty hand when I stood up with it again.
“Mr. Reynolds? Is something wrong?”
His eyes floated around the room, looking at the others before settling back on me. “You…how long did you work on this ring?”
“Just about 20 minutes.”
He laughed, filling the room with nearly crazy sounding laughter for long minutes before it petered off. “There has to be a story behind this. How did you create a ring this strong in 20 minutes?”
Shrugging, I raised my hands and showed the rings, “Well, I was practicing something that I don’t really want to share, and created some rings with a magical multiplier spell on them. Then created the ring for Steph. And this other one.”
He stared at my wiggling finger, “And what does that ring do?”
“It’s a speed charm? To make my reaction times faster? It’s something Steph mentioned as possibly being useful, so I figured it can’t hurt.”
He nodded then shook his head and then rubbed his forehead, “I’m missing something. You created two different magical multiplier charms? Can I feel one? You’re not telling me something.”
Fudge. I so, so don’t want to give him one, but he’s my teacher.
He cradled the ring and his magic flowed again while I huddled in on myself and stared at the others, semi-wishing that they could stop this somehow. When his magic pulled back, he staggered a few steps and collapsed into his chair, my ring rolling across his desk to fall into my hand as I caught it.
Carl half stood up, “What the fuck did you do, Ceri?”
“Umm, I created a ring?”
Zach laughed, “Seriously? You created a ring? You don’t get that kind of reaction from a teacher like Mr. Reynolds without it being something that shouldn’t be possible. What the hell did you create?”
Christine touched his shoulder, “We know what she created, just not what level. What power level did you create? How long did you work on it?”
“Uhh, I worked on it for hours altogether, but spent more time testing than actually building. Not much more than an hour and a half on actual spell casting. And…it’s at 100 percent. Both of them are.” I wiggled the other ring. “I made one for me and one for my mom.”
Mr. Reynolds drew our attention again by laughing. It still sounded slightly insane, “She says that so easily. So, so easily. Not only does that ring hit 100 percent, which I’ve never seen before, but she set it up so that only she and Rasphael the fey can access the power. That’s…the amount of money you could charge for that is staggering. I owned one ring of magical multiplier in my life and it was
within a hair of 20 percent. I sold it for more than 50 million in today’s dollars. It didn’t even have the restrictions in place.” He shook his head and stared at my hands again, “And you created it in under two hours? And then created a second one? How long did that take?”
I blushed at that, “The second one took five minutes.”
The entire class burst into laughter that didn’t stop for long awkward minutes.
“I see. I see. Then you spent 20 minutes working on the ring of strength and another 20 on the one for speed?”
“Yeah? Should I not have done that?”
His normally staid face split into a huge grin, “Not have done that? No…no. If you can continue that kind of output, I shudder to think how powerful you can be just with charms.”
Carl fell into his seat, “I’m not sure we really need her being more powerful? Like at all?”
“Truer words, Mr. Jones. Truer words.”
Class didn’t start again for almost five minutes, leaving me standing in front of everyone feeling like a freak.
When it started, I was a bit thrown off by him collecting us all together. “Come. Let’s see what we shall see.”
No one responded to my questioning looks, probably because they’re just as lost as I am, and we followed him through the halls. Two turns later, we stopped at a room that I’ve never been in before. He knocked and then entered, bringing us in to where our classmates were in shifted form, all doing I don’t even know what. I’ve seen them all shifted at times and it never fails to impress the hell out of me. Especially Steph. Sarah’s longer as a tiger, but Steph’s massive in comparison. It’s pretty freaking cool if you ask me.
A teacher I didn’t recognize was in the front of the class, “Something, Mr. Reynolds?”
“Yes, Ms. Ahmed. In our class we’re working on charms starting this week, and one of our students appears to have created a ring of strength with the intention of giving it to her roommate. The ring is spelled to only work for the intended owner and the builder, so I was hoping we could test to see if it is really functioning as I expect it is?”
The teacher looked impressed, “This is a gift? That’s impressive!”
Mr. Reynolds looked back at me, “Uhh, yeah? It’s a gift. I wasn’t expecting payment or anything like that.”
Steph shifted back to human, stepping forward a few steps, “You really made me something?”
Mr. Reynolds held the ring out, “First off, do you have a baseline for how strong you are?”
Ms. Ahmed chimed in, “We do. Part of our efforts are to get everyone stronger throughout this class, so I know right where she falls.”
“Excellent. Then this is for you? Let’s see if it helps you the way it should?”
Steph took it and looked at me before sliding it on. As soon as it was on, she perked up and her brows came together as she twitched. Once that was done, she stared down at her hand and flexed it. I was impressed to see that the ring is sort of fading from view. I wondered how that would work. It’s something I threw in at the last minute, not really sure if it’d do anything.
“How do you feel?” Mr. Reynolds asked.
Steph smiled, “It’s strange. I feel stronger?”
He nodded over at the machines, “Then by all means?”
Less than 15 minutes later, we knew it worked.
Ms. Ahmed snorted at the results, “That’s insane. A 30 percent increase in strength?”
“That’s what I picked up from my testing of it. Given her time commitment, that’s unheard of.”
Ms. Ahmed looked over at me, “A month? Two?”
“20 minutes, Ms. Ahmed. 20 minutes.”
Her clipboard fell from her hands as she stared at my teacher, “Oh…oh my.”
“Exactly. Oh my.”
After classes were over, my friends corralled me in my room, “All right, how did you do it?” Armand demanded. “How did you create rings that powerful in a night?”
I cringed at that, “Umm, I’m not sure what I can say. I need to talk to Mom before I say anything. I’m not sure if what I figured out is something that only I can do or even some sort of secret that people will try to kill me for. Please don’t try to force me on this.”
He backed up a step, squinting at me, “You…you think that people might go after you over this?”
I shrugged, not meeting his eyes, “I’m not sure. I don’t know enough to guess either way, but I wouldn’t be surprised.”
He looked at the others before Tom nodded, “All right, we won’t try to pressure you. On the other hand…how much would you charge for charms for us?”
“Umm, I’m not sure? Let me talk to Mom first and see if she has any issues? I’m not sure why I couldn’t just give them to you.”
Tom raised his hand, “Uh-uh. No. I’m sure we’d all take it, but you can’t just go handing out powerful magic like this and not take something. It sets a horrific precedence. A discount on price is enough for this sort of thing, even among friends. The fact that you gave Steph a ring that increases her strength 30 percent is…I don’t even have words. Almost like declaring her your lover or a family member or something like that.”
His words had me staring at Steph, “Is that what I basically said by giving that to you?”
She shrugged and flexed her finger, “Pretty much?”
“But we’re not either?!”
Her smile had me smiling back, “Well, aren’t we at least lovers? Granted, not with the romantic side of things, but close enough for most people. Bears don’t connect that way as a general rule…but anyone outside of here would probably say that we’re at least there.”
Oookay. That’s an odd thought that I hadn’t really had before. We’ve been having sex literally every morning and most nights since I came here, so that probably does put us into the lover category. She’s right, there’s no romantic angle from my perspective, so it’s probably good that there isn’t one from hers. This is so strange. So very strange.
“Umm, okay. Let me talk to Mom first and get her thoughts. I want to make sure I don’t set anything in motion that will cause issues for people. Especially me.”
They agreed with that, and I disappeared outside, heading out across the grounds of the school. I’ve been out on walks countless times, and it’s beautiful. Also not especially packed with people most of the time.
Once I was pretty sure I had a safe spot, I texted Mom and waited for a reply, opening a portal to her a few seconds later. “Hi, Mom.”
She smiled at me from her bedroom and I tried to overlook the extra skin. It’s getting slightly easier to do. “Good afternoon, dear one. How was school today?”
I shrugged, not quite feeling right about this for some reason. “Umm, good? Did you, by any chance, see what I was doing last night?”
She frowned a little, “With the rings? Somewhat. I know you were working on charms, and it seemed like you were successful?”
Slipping one of the matching rings off, I handed it to her through the portal. “This is one of the rings I made last night. My teacher was shocked by how strong it is. And that I set it up to only work for either of us. Can you test it?”
She raised an eyebrow at me and her magic flowed, appearing as scintillating green lights. I’ve never seen her cast magic like this before, and it’s beautiful. It took her only a few minutes to cut the flow and hiss. “How did you create a ring so powerful? How long did you work on this?”
Sighing, I sat on the ground and fiddled with my rings, “Umm, have you ever thought about stacking spells?”
She cocked her head at me before squinting, “Stacking them? How do you mean?”
Ugh, I hope this isn’t something that I made up out of the blue that will get me killed! “Umm, this sort of only works with the multiplier spell, but let’s say that you can put out a certain amount of power to create the spell and it does a certain amount itself. If you then take that set spell and put out the same effort while using the spell, you create a se
cond spell that’s more powerful than the first.”
Her jaw fell open. “Oh…Oh my. Then you use both to create a third? And then all three to create a fourth?”
“Right. Each step along the way, each successive spell gets more and more powerful with the same effort.”
She stared at the ring in her hand, “How many iterations did it take you to hit 100 percent?”
“14. With just about five minutes per level, not counting the testing I did. So an hour and ten minutes of actual effort to create that ring. Then another five minutes to create the second. One for me and one for you.”
She began laughing, and I couldn’t help joining. If anything, the bell sound from my voice came through stronger today for some reason. “And how many iterations do you figure to get it up to 200 percent?”
“Another six. Then five more for 300. I figure with 45 iterations, I can hit 10 times.”
She blinked slowly at that news, smile growing wider than I ever expected it to. “Is that something you would be willing to do?”
I smiled back at her, “For who? Me and you? Or others?”
Her eyes danced with delight, “For the two of us? Not for others. The thought about what others would do with that level of power…it’s disturbing.”
“I can do that. Do you want me to?”
She nodded, “If you’re willing, then yes. Anything to make us safer.”
I held out my other hand, “I also created a ring of speed. It’s at about 25 percent right now. Would you want one of those as well? I also created one of strength for Steph. It’s at 30 percent.”
She smiled wide, “I don’t know that either of us need those, but I would be willing to take one of each.”
“Umm, I gave the ring of strength to Steph. My other classmates want things as well? Should I do it? They said I shouldn’t give things to them; it would declare them to be family or a lover?”
She frowned, “That’s a good point. Not that you need to worry about that with your friends, but with me? Make them, but do not give them to me just yet. I can purchase them, though. That would keep the connections away for now.”