Smokey and I sat back down in the same seats as before, across from the Director. She continued to read her current file, even as Miss Militia walked closer, sat in her original seat, and handed her the sealed file. After another minute of reading, she took the new file and rolled her eyes at the red tap. She reached down and pulled a utility knife out to cut through it, before spending two minutes reading through the contents of the new file.

  While we waited, Miss Militia sent us a few apologetic looks, but I waved her off. We had shown up unscheduled and dropped a whole mess in their laps. I might not be their biggest fan, but I wasn't blinded by it enough to get annoyed that they didn't have everything ready and waiting, or that the Director didn't have everything pre-read, even if it was somehow possible for her to pre-read a report that had only been made a few minutes ago.

  When she was done scanning through the file, Piggot laid it down on the table beside the others she had been reading, shifting all three of them. As she did, I got a glimpse at the previous two, recognizing them as a report from Armsmaster and one from the testing process.

  "Well, first off, congratulations, Smokey. You have been declared a non-AI, sentient, and independent expression of a Parahuman power," She said, closing the most recent file and focusing on Smokey. "Officially, you are what the PRT calls a Case 39. As such, should you ever require it, you can come to a PRT or Protectorate facility to seek asylum from your creator. You would be inducted into the Protectorate, given an official government identity, and protected from your creator, should that be needed. Is it?"

  Smokey looked at me, but I stayed silent, partially because I was stunned that the PRT had such a process in place at all, and partially because it was all I could do. While Piggot obviously didn't think Smokey was here against his will, as they had clearly been observing us this entire time, me telling him how to answer the question was not exactly a good look. He seemed to realize this after a moment and finally responded.

  "I appreciate that, Director Piggot," He said with a genuine smile. "I am happy working with Arcanum for now. Perhaps I might wish to expand my horizons in the future, but for now, this city needs my help. I can't just abandon it."

  "Very well. The offer is open indefinitely, so do not be afraid to return," Director Piggot assured him, before shifting her focus back to me, leaning forward and steepling her fingers as she did. "Arcanum, as I mentioned, you have posed a rather… complicated issue, one I could not answer on my own. I made several calls, finally ending with a rather interesting conversation with Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown."

  She paused, letting the fact sink in that she had discussed the situation with the leader of the entire Parahuman Response Team. I was not a fan of that, but there was nothing I could have reasonably done to stop it. We had come here to try and keep the PRT off our back, and while I was still hopeful for a net positive, it did not look like the easy win we had envisioned.

  "The Chief Director was surprised by your existence, something I particularly enjoyed since she has a rather frustrating habit of knowing the details of what you're bringing to her attention already," She admitted, a small smile curling on her face for just the slightest moment. "I briefed her on what we knew, including the Armsmaster's finding. I will be updating her again once you leave. Considering the contents of these reports, I do not believe her original statement will change."

  "What was her original statement?" I asked, trying to keep from sounding anxious and most likely failing.

  "After a recommendation and statement from me, her verdict was rather light," Director Piggot admitted, sounding mildly surprised herself. "As long as specific stipulations are met, she saw no reason for you to be ordered to stop immediately."

  "Stipulations?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "What kind of stipulations?"

  "She wants us to mentally evaluate your creations," She explained with her ever-present frown, leaning back in her chair. "This would take the form of an informal interview and a few partnered patrols. It would allow us to identify problem behavior or instabilities before they become actual problems."

  "That... could be done," I admitted. "What else?"

  "Only that you continue to keep their numbers at a reasonable level," She responded, once again her voice carrying a mild level of surprise. "And that you continue to work with the PRT when necessary, then she sees no reason to order you to stop."

  "How would she define reasonable?"

  "Around seven or eight reasonably potent constructs, around the level of Smokey here," she explained, gesturing to the Spirit Golem. "If you somehow succeed in creating a significantly more potent one, that number may change."

  "That… is reasonable," I said, pausing to drop the 'unexpected' that I wanted to include. "I-"

  "She also wanted me to warn you that if your group starts to destabilize, if your constructs begin to spread or become aggressive, if we see any sign of you beginning to lose control, she will drop a Kill Order on you so fast your head will spin," She explained, cutting me off. "And that the Triumvirate will most likely come to collect that order themselves."

  "...Understood," I said simply and firmly, only pausing to give her words the weight that they deserved, not breaking eye contact with Piggot as she spoke.

  The Director studied me for a long moment, looking for something, though I had no idea what. Whether she found it or not, I don't know, but she leaned back with a sigh.

  "I said it before, but you are walking a very delicate line here, Arcanum," She said, sounding tired. "I want you to succeed, but we cannot afford to let you fall off and spiral out of control. We are keeping a close eye on you."

  "Understood… and I don't blame you," I admitted with a shrug. "I know I push a lot of panic buttons and that my own threat assessment ratings must be jumping all over the place. But for what it counts, I am determined to save this city, and after that, help the rest of the world."

  "I'm sure you are, Arcanum," She responded. "I'm sure you are. Thank you for coming in and trusting us. I know our track record has not been the greatest, and this has been a… nerve-wracking experience, but I appreciate the level head and the patience."

  "We are all on the same side, Director," I said, standing up and leaning over the table, my hand extended. "I just hope our patience and level-headedness continue to prevail."

  After a moment, the Director stood and leaned forward as well, shaking my hand with a tight grip before sitting back down, focusing back on the reports. Spotting the obvious dismissal, we stood, Miss Militia guiding us through the building. It didn't take long for us to reach the front entrance. Before we could step out, Miss Militia stopped us.

  "I wanted to thank you again for your suggestion for seeking outside help," she said, holding her hand out to shake, both Smokey and I accepting the gesture. "And for extending this olive branch. I know that in a lot of situations, the instinct is to push the Protectorate to the side to avoid the restrictions and red tape."

  "You can thank Smokey, honestly," I admitted. "I was all ready to leave you guys in the dust, but he convinced me it was a good idea. I'm glad he did. We learned a bit about his powers and settled on a middle ground I think I can accept now."

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  She nodded, and after another short goodbye, Smokey and I left through the front entrance. We stepped off to the side and, with a quick chant, teleported back to the compound. Almost immediately after our arrival, I could feel Alya unwind from around me. She had been sticking pretty close during the entire encounter, staying almost completely silent as well, I had assumed she was just keeping a close eye on me, but her sudden unwinding contained an undertone of relief I didn't expect.

  "Hey Alya, everything alright?"

  "I am fine, I simply dislike being in that particular building," She explained, sounding mildly annoyed. "Every inch of it is under watch. I can feel people staring, alert, and waiting. It's why I was so silent. I have no doubt that they were listening to everything we said as well and that there are pressure sensors through every corner of the testing facility and the interrogation rooms."

  "Well… we didn't say anything important, as far as I could tell," I responded with a shrug. "I'm sorry it made you uncomfortable, but if it helps, I don't think we will be going back to those spaces much anytime soon."

  "... it does, actually," She admitted, seeming to take a mental pause to calm down. "Thank you."

  "Of course, Alya. You're my partner, and I want to make sure you're comfortable," I assured her with a smile, before looking over at Smokay. "How about you? Is everything okay?"

  "Yes, it went about as I expected," The guardian spirit responded, pulling off his hat and hanging it near my costume rack, following my example as I changed into civilian clothes. "We did not consider how strongly they reacted, but we most likely should have."

  "All's well that ends well," I responded with a shrug, even if I still wasn't exactly happy with the whole process. "I can handle the restriction of eight guardian spirits, that should be enough to defend the city."

  "Especially with them working with golems," Smokey pointed out

  "Exactly. If we pair the guardians up, give each of them four golems, that's four teams in total," I said, mostly thinking out loud, going over the numbers in my head. "That is a potent force to keep crime down. Hell, I might even have one or two of those groups patrol other places, then rotate the groups through those areas. That way, more of the public can get to know you guys, and you would get a break from the higher stress areas."

  "That sounds like a good idea."

  "And I plan on putting you in charge of the groups," I said, smiling at the spirit froze, turning to look at me. "What? Your echo provided you with good instincts, you can work with people, you are kind, and your powers are decent. Don't worry, you'll be sharing the responsibility with your partner."

  "Piper?"

  "Most likely, unless you two don't get along for some reason," I said with a shrug. "This is why I wanted sentient help, or at least one of the reasons. I can't manage every aspect of everything and still have time to advance and utilize my magic."

  "I... alright, Arc," Smokey said, pausing for a moment before straightening up, like he was standing at attention. "I won't let you down."

  "I know you won't, Smokey," I said with confidence, patting his shoulder. "Now, let's Piper and talk to her about all of this. When that's done, I can plan out the rest of my week and figure out where I'm going to get my resources. I think I should probably make complete groups, so I'll make a bunch of golems and then two more spirits, then rinse and repair. I could probably make two more teams by the end of the week that way…"

  We stepped off the ritual platform and headed further into my home, walking around the trees to find Kali and Piper sitting around the unstarted fire pit. Piper was reading a book, one of the occult books I had bought for ideas, while Kali idly grew flowers and other plants around the space, making the area look more alive and colorful. She must be using her wolves to find wildflowers in the woods, and using them for seeds.

  After some short greetings, we discussed how everything had gone, and the final conclusion. When we were done, Piper asked how I felt about everything that we had learned and the line that Director Costa-Brown had drawn in the sand.

  "I think… I think I'm okay with it," I finally said, leaning back in my chair. "I was telling Smokey that eight of you would make four groups. Augmented with the golems, that's a lot of muscle patrolling the city. I mean, even ignoring the part where it would probably take me… the rest of the week to make four more spirit guardians and the teams of golems to go with them, having a cap of eight isn't that bad, for now. Unless we get screwed and someone shows up who can hard counter all of you, four patrolling teams actually sounds pretty good. I could put three on patrol and one in more populated, stable areas as sort of a PR and rest patrol.

  We talked for a while longer before I finally started on the first step of my next large project, shopping. Unlike before, not only did I have access to multiple towns at once, but now I could also see spirits clearly, meaning I could pick out objects I knew contained strong spirits, not just make guesses and buy random things. This meant that finding a few dozen potential objects to work with only took about an hour. After that, I stocked up on supplies for the dozens of frames I would be making.

  I ended up visiting the boat graveyard to harvest some of that metal, negating the need to visit a bunch of scrapyards.

  After that, I spent another two hours bouncing between shops and jewelry stores, buying everything I needed. I did some rough calculations to get a ballpark, then bought extra since I knew I would use it eventually. With everything I was buying I actually did some damage to the money I had been saving from healing, though I knew that wouldn't last long.

  Once I bought everything I needed, I got to work. It started with a night of golem-making, followed by a day of spirit guardian crafting. I still had to take time to keep up with my responsibilities, as well as taking some time for myself to keep from going insane, but beyond that, I focused almost entirely on the project.

  By the time I hit the seventh day of the latest cycle, I had made four more guardian spirits and eight more golems. While I was doing that, Piper and Smokey were working with the newly created guardian spirits, first taking them on patrols to explain how everything worked. Once they had done that a few times, they took them to meet the PRT and Protectorate, shaking hands and undergoing their interviews.

  I felt bad for creating them and then rushing them off to patrol, but both Piper and Smokey were stable enough to handle most of the grounding, and I really did need to branch out and delegate a lot of the process. I foresaw making hundreds of these guardians eventually, and while it was unfortunate to just shoo them away to be taken care of by someone else, I would need to get used to it. I could still make time to meet and shake hands with all of them, but by the time I finished making all of them, I was mentally exhausted.

  Besides, as I found out with Piper and Smokey, while they were sort of empty and open at the beginning, I found I had very little control over the personality that developed. Better to wait a few days for them to solidify a bit before getting to know them better.

  I did make sure that Smokey was absolutely not allowed to help them pick their names. We had made that mistake before, and it was not something I was keen to repeat.