(Named 12-B due to Numerology)

  [A Very Early Sunday Morning of 20XX]

  [The Skylark/The Harrier] [The Docks]

  [Holdport] [Somerset] [The UK]

  [Universe Sierra-Hotel-1]

  [Katie McCabe, 1st Person]

  I finished meditating with my sleeping meditation, even as I’d done my work on my computer. And what had been my practice of how to fight with magic in a lucid dream, and what I’d been doing of balancing my Lux and Nox of my Vitality of my Elan Vital. Of Lux being the analogue to Yang and Nox being the analogue to Yin.

  With my meditation though I had been drawing on the Primary Source of Elan Vital (Or Vi, Qi, Chi, Ki, or such and such), what is Vitality or Valour, out of The Infinite Sea. Of how the magic Corpus is in everyone and everything gives them their Vi. While as a thing secondary to Elan Vital of what is Vitality in every bit of existence, of The Vi being in all of what you could eat. ALL OF IT. Mixed into the general background magicks of The Ambient, magic what is everywhere and everywhen.

  A bit like the Magical Adepts of one of the types of Mages who is connected to The Infinite Sea and gets power from it. Except this is the universal version of it anyone can do with learning and practice.

  Of being connected to The Wylde, out of what all souls of all sprang and spring from out of what is also called The Soul Realm. Of the energy souls are made out of and draw power from to do the Primal and Original Magicks. What forges the Eternal, Immortal, and Indestructible Souls out of.

  The rate The Magic Corpus of a Magical Adept fills up is usually slower than the expenditure rate when spell casting. And the same for the Rate of Elan Vital in The Vital Core, of Vitality, when using Vi, while meditation and focus can regenerate both faster. There’s a pool, with its regen factor, but usually in combat there’s more drain than regen than normal.

  And it is before you get into The Witchcrafts of Phagy Magicks, of The Devouring Arts.

  However, I looked at where Tara was at her computer, at the current time of around quarter past four in the morning. (Or 04:16 (precisely) for those of you who don’t speak British English.) I closed my Nickebook, stood up, and I said to Tara, “Wanna see The Magic?”

  Tara laughed, and she quoted XKCD, “I would, if you hadn't said that in the tone of voice of ‘Wanna see a dead body?’”

  I laughed right back, as I noted, “This is for the McCabe and Evans kid chat,” myself, Kara, Kaylee, Tara, Jeffery Evans who is Tara’s Twin and my cousin, Jan Evans who is Janet Evans of another cousin, and Hester Evans of my other cousin.

  At least for the seven of us in the group chat of the part of the family of the children of our mothers, along with me making a magical chat out of seven people. Because, Trust Me, I’m A Numerologist! Also, I’m a magical Engineer. So, Trust Me, I’m An Engineer! Is in play too. ... Not getting into the sad fact if it should be nine people, considering a certain dead older brother and a dead older cousin.

  I tacked on, “You know, with our little game of sharing XKCD comics at each other as a whole sequence,” I mean, we can’t be the only people to do so.

  I shook my head, to get back on topic, “With the group I’m founding of The Harriers, if I can convince you to join up? There’s an ally who I want you to meet, and the other member of The Harriers who helped with The Scrying Spell to find you.”

  She took in a breath, and accepted, “A team does sound like something I should be a part of so I don’t end up captured by vampires again.”

  I clapped my hands, to announce, “Right! Are you listening, ‘Tor?”

  There was a flicker from the city, and in a shimmer of motes of blue light, an avatar formed. Wearing black clothes, a black baseball cap (And as a Brit, why haven’t we come up with our own name for such a hat?), with white hair, blue eyes, complemented by his youthful face. Whose form was six foot (182.88 cm) tall, while the white hair was short and framed his face.

  I gestured to the genius loci as I introduced him, “Presenting Hector Port, or Tor, the Spirit of The City of Holdport, the man who helped me with scrying your location to find you within Holdport. Who also helped with the divinations to find out the vampire attack on The Horrible Goose,” he bowed as he doffed his hat with the light built into the sun shield, he stood back up as he did.

  He grinned as he easily said in a deep voice, “A pleasure to meet you, I am the City of Holdport, it’s spirit.”

  Tara blinked, then blinked again, and she had to say, “What.”

  He laughed, glanced at me, for him to check, “You were working on the seventh ritual you’ve added to the classical six?” Other than him having a Peak Empowerment ritual designed for a Genius Loci of a Maxima or Maximus ritual he has The Classical Six Western European Empowerments. The first three rituals grant his avatars his speed, whether human or not, though most of the time he takes human form.

  This his form shifted and morphed, his clothes morphing with his proportions, for him to become a her. With her hair lengthening to become a long braid of white hair which went down her back. And I gestured to her again, to once more state her name, “And in this form she’s Hazel Port, or Haze.”

  She made the same bow, and to greet Tara in a much more musical tone, “And it’s a pleasure to meet you again in this form.”

  Tara paused, she had to reiterate, “Wait, What.”

  Hazel rolled her shoulders to explain, “I’m the spirit of a city of four hundred thousand people, one in existence for a very long time. I contain multitudes, and it’s not an all-male or all-female city. Nor is everyone attracted to just one gender, just like I’m not. I am Holdport,” she gestured to her hair, and she morphed back into male form, “And I take the wisdom of years in my hair,” he waved down his body. “And I take a form in either gender to represent the majority of people in either gender who have lived in my city over the years, just one I choose the age of.”

  And it goes without saying he’ll take on an avatar different to his current one if it suits his purpose to get involved in a certain group or such. He (or she depending on what she’s feeling) is the city, the embodiment of it, and they will quite well abuse their shapeshifting.

  His form rippled as his black clothes became what was a black uniform, a black trench cloak, of a trench coat with a hood formed over him. Of what on this Earth had been what The British Supernaturals had worn in World War I in this alternate history to my past life.

  Of the first four years between 1910 to 1914 of just men, joined by the introduction of women into the forces between 1914 to 1918, and the dropped conscription age from 18 to 16 in 1916. Out of what was said magically altered war ...

  ... and with a lack of the Spanish Flu afterwards due to the Supernatural Community preventing it. It roughly balanced out the demographics a bit more after a worse war as the whole swings and roundabouts of this universe ...

  Well, The Trench Cloak became what was and is an integral bit of what is British Supernatural Culture for the most part. Other than ceremonial robes for certain rituals or for people cosplaying or LARPing around wearing robes.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  But he had the hood down and not up, a hood accompanied by a black metal mask clad most of his face, other than the square beneath his mouth to not go down to his jaw. So, he could still eat with it on, and said metal mask was enchanted with an Awareness Shroud on it to stop people identifying one of his avatars.

  A black mask with Arachne Plastic Lenses built into the eyes. And I resisted the urge to comment about the meaning of mask colours in Hunter Culture of Vampire Hunters and various types of Monster Hunters. He knew what it meant.

  He gave a little bow with his knee length Trench Cloak flowing when it did, as he commented, “Shapeshifting and reasonable size-shifting of my form is a part of what I have under my abilities. With it I can shift into what is a Minikin Form, of the Minikin City State of Holdport and their four million people. There has never been much of a giant population living in Holdport, other than the Giant Blooded people descended from Hill Giants.”

  Tara was going to ask, and I answered before she could, “The usual height of a Minikin is between five to six inches tall,” 12.7 cm to 15.24 cm tall. “Though it can go down to four inches and five sixths of an inch or up to seven inches and one sixth of an inch in height,” to 12.276 cm (or 12.276 six recurring cm) to 18.203 cm (or 18.203 three recurring cm). “While Hill Giants Blooded range from nine to ten foot tall,” 274.32 cm to 304.8 cm tall, “With actual Hill Giants being between ten foot to twelve foot tall,” to 365.76 cm tall with said twelve foot height. “Even if Giant Blooded of Hill Giants can go up to said twelve foot tall, or down to seven foot tall,” or 213.36 cm for said seven foot tall height.

  Holdport, he laughed, as he commented, “The Holdport Zoo also lovingly provides with forms I can take, including what are the various types of pets, and the usual animals living in Holdport. And I don’t just have to take one avatar if I want to manifest an avatar of a flock of birds, or a swarm of bees.”

  I glanced at him to add, “And as he’s older than the Domesday Book as a being, and being a genius loci of a city of four hundred thousand people, with the added Minikin Holdport City State of people? He has quite the mystical potential.”

  He gave me a slight glare when he noted, “I’m not going to just throw my power around wastefully, I have a city to protect against multiple supernatural threats.”

  I jabbed right back, “Well, Polis, you have the magical potential as given by the Minikin. You can throw around at least some of their Classical Four Elemental Magic of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth instead of the Ten Elements.”

  Tara interrupted as she had to make a timeout gesture, as she burst out, “Wait, go back to their being four million tiny little people running around Holdport!”

  I shrugged to answer, “There’s about ten Minkin to every one human on Earth, if usually not in little villages and such. Nor are they in the one hundred million people around Sol off Earth. On Earth, with those Minikin of their population who should be in space? There are a hundred billion Minikin. Due to their size and how they have to deal with the nature of being so small? They’re more organised into City States, such as the Nation of Holdport, or the Nation of Bristol, or the Nation of London. With city states having alliances.”

  And I’m not getting into The Secret Realms and The Hidden Kingdoms right now.

  I tacked on, “There’s for example The South West Alliance of their city states, an Alliance having its representative capital in Bristol. They’re about one twelve the size of the average human, so by what is XKCD's extra bit of a What If? Of the Fairy Demographics What if, they have the one in one thousand seven hundred and twenty eighth’s mass of a human,” 1/1728, or 1 in 1728ths of the mass of a human, and when talking about just the What If and not a Winged Fae of The Fair Folk. “With an average weight of thirty five grams, using said XKCD What If, they only weigh three and a half million tonnes,” 3,500,000 metric tons, or 3.5 billion kg.

  I shook my head, to instead reroute the conversation, “Anyway!” I clapped my hands, “I need to introduce you to System, then I need to perform the ritual to wake up the boat, followed by making some kit I want, plus the artificial spirits I want to make. And finally, there’s the invocation of Plutus for the bank details of the vamps we killed and slayed.”

  The god who is Plutus would take 10% of the money of the slain vampires in their bank accounts as a tithe by the ritual to the Greek god of wealth. He gets you said money with his powers, he gets a ten percent cut. A deal considered by Vampire Hunters and other Monster Hunters to be a pretty reasonable one and is easier than having to set it up without him.

  And yes, the various governments will tax you on the 90% you keep. Though with numerology you can get investment returns on it, like say five years of Stock Market prediction can make it back.

  I waved my hands at thin air, and an avatar of System appeared as I pulled a little on The Wi-Fi for her to appear and manifest an avatar. I flapped my hands at her again to state, “Behold! The Spirit of The Internet! The avatar of The Webs! The Young god of Computing, The Internet, and Tech! The goddess of Memes!”

  Tara took in a breath, she exhaled, and took in another breath. For her to shake her head, for her to throw her hands up in the air, and she exclaimed, “Fine! The universe is weird, and I shall just accept its weirdness as a fact!”

  She breathed in and out as her lungs heaved oxygen in and carbon dioxide out as she probably lied about trying to Get Used to It, to reference the excellent Beware of Chicken. And she had to take a step back to ask, “If Hector, if Polis, is a member of The Holdport Harriers ... Why weren’t they there in person helping you rescue me?”

  Polis answered, “Simply put I was trying to find where the vampires in my city had come from. Where they’d originated from, this avatar and other avatars were working on talking with other cities to try and figure out where The Vamps came from. While I did have a backup avatar watching if Katie needed help.”

  Tara breathed out, to simultaneously go, “A valid reason, but I have to raise the point of one two of your words. Did you really have to go and claim Holdport as, ‘my city,’ Batsy?”

  Hector smiled, even as System explained, “He’s the spirit of The City, of course it is his city. Like how your body is your body.”

  Tara paused, nodded, and shook her head. And we moved onto something different.

  [Lore]

  [Population]

  There are 10 billion in The Sol System, with 9.9 billion on earth. A 100 million of those people are in space. There are 50 million in Earth Orbit, 15 million on Luna, 5 million in Lunar Orbit, 10 million on Mars, 5 million in Martian Orbit, 10 million in The Asteroid Belt, 5 million in The Outer Solar System past The Belt, and 50,000 in the Venus Orbitals.

  Making 1% of humanity being in space at any one time. As, before getting into the magical space lift capabilities, capabilities due to The Deception, have to be hidden? (Like usual for The Deception and as the actions of the gods.)

  How if you were to design a properly made spacesuit, or you don’t need to breathe, a medieval grade flying broomstick or medieval grade magic carpet can make it to space. If you really want to do it in a somewhat hellraising flight, without even getting into reentry. The Sea Dragon was built and made by the US of A, and the design was stolen by multiple other governments.

  An act of what the various magical governments everywhere on Earth Sierra-Hotel-1 actively deny they were the ones to proliferate The Sea Dragon. Of how they claim it was not part of what is The Mystical Alliance of Nations (MAN). But with magic, and various technologies like Fusion Reactors? Have allowed an actual Heavy Lift Orbiter to get people into orbit. Plus, yeah, those magical governments are lying, and they were responsible.

  It was done by MAN! As the meme goes.

  ... At least for the Population of The Known Natural World. Not the Population of the Secret World of Magical Kingdoms and Realms. The 10 billion population is off the Natural Population of the World and not of Hidden worlds around the planet.

  To take it into account, there is about 6,400 times more surface area than the normal Earth per given part of the world for any given area in a country. At least with what The Earth should have naturally without spatial expansion.

  So say Imperial China has about just over 824.75 times more Surface Area than The Earth should have without being bigger on The Inside. About 824.76903988183200 times China km2 divided by Dry land of Earth as a percent is about 6.44350812407681% of the land surface of The Earth.

  You have places like Sheep Holm and various other locations at random add about another 6,400 times more surface area in specific places rather than in the general stretches of land. Little hidden places far bigger than they should be in little nooks and hollows.

  To make a world with about 12,800 times more Surface Area of The Earth than the original Natural parts of it. In the Natural Parts there are about 10 billion people. To make the Earth have a bit more surface area than the Surface Area of The Sun.

  And on average for said bigger on the inside places, there is an average of another billion humans per surface area equalling The Earth. And without going into the various Supernaturals living in those places, like as a random example? Most of The Giant Population of The UK who hid when The Deception happened.

  To make an estimated 12,810 billion humans, or 12 trillion and 810 billion humans. With the 10 billion of The Known World as part of The Natural World being the definitive and known part of the world. The 10 billion number is about the known Natural Locations of The Earth of Earth Sierra-Hotel-1 and not the added Secret Populations of people living in various places.

  And it is an average, because you can have whole stretches of hidden parts of The Earth for whole Natural Surface Areas of The Earth stretches with no one. And you can get to places with more than 10 billion people living in them, with great cities and such.

  Thus the 10 billion population number is the number without going into various possibilities and stretches without having to take a massive divergence to explain it. And to go on about the various extra bits of population of The Earth.