Ability to become invisible, fly, phase through walls and possess people and objects [-2]
Mental Control [-1]
The three whiteflame marbles you'd found by reciting the spell in the chest that had appeared first in your dreams and then by your bedside, and a large purple marble of some strange mental whisper that came with it, all were absorbed like smoke toward your head. The world felt...like it cared less, or that a few pieces of it could be told to not care. You had learned to direct yourself along toward the course of your will, like a waking dream or a strange sense of swimming through the air. You had moved through the walls, joined your employer in the art of hiding in things, with rare practice even people.
You, the boringly Mediterranean black-haired grey-eyed Terry Anagnos, had come to the Violet Wood Lodge seeking a job as librarian after some terse phone interviews and a lot of texting, only to find that you were the only staff member besides the building itself. It did most of the work itself telekinetically, and told you what to do for the rest by texting and leaving notes. You were pretty sure it just wanted a human face around to ease the wheels (or a nice ass to look at), since most of it seemed to be signing for deliveries of old books, the occasional 'photograph with a person in it for scale', and very rarely actually being on call to check out something when some burgeoning occultist, easily-baited innocent, or shady old person came to rent a tome and overtly moving around the checkout scanner would get the wrong kind of attention. Where exactly the money came from wasn't clear, but apparently the whole place had a civil servant's worth of salary and as a nominally public building wasn't taxed. Giving up with the building clearly perving on you through unseen eyes, at some point you'd moved in to save on money and not bother with a commute. The place had a small house on the side from its days as a forestry lodge before the town had encroached around it, though it was still pretty wooded on most sides.
The Violet Wood Lodge promised you spirit marbles should you defend against any interlopers. Over time it would birth chunks of power, sometimes even the sacred whiteflame, in its mansus-cauldron of a hidden core. And should anyone care to get greedy enough to do more than borrow some books, enjoy the atmosphere, or actually pay for what they intend to take in goods or services rendered...well. Mind control sure was handy for ensuring people 'paid their debts', and if you had fun doing it all the more entertaining to your benefactor. It was high time you actually made use of that power for more than practice and the occasional peep show, you supposed. Or maybe just a bit more of the latter first. Another spirit marble to be yours was coming soon in the heart of this place, and if it wasn't a whiteflame the next one probably would be. Maybe you'd take up shifting shapes, or libido control: a transformative power like that could really give some oomph to holding minds (or at least make some disappointing one-night stands better future conquests).
You sit concealed behind a shelf near the front entrance, in a good position to get an invisible peek at the incoming through the wall before they got a peek at you, to filter the practicing mages or talented seers from the mundane dilettantes, and fantasy fans. You've intentionally flexed your aura, a thin vibe of cooling amenability-to-listening that wafted about the entrance like so much smoke warning of a central fire, blatantly alerting any incoming magicians that they should talk before trying anything. If they wander into the poorly understood while trying to correct it, that's their own fault.
You hear the door open.