Wish upon the Stars (Original Superhero cultivation sci fi litrpg)

[Malcolm Tent]

After the celebration, it was time for me to meet with the representatives of the factions. There was a prize for the winner, usually something like chits, Skill crystals, or personalized enchanted items. Of course, we'd done all this for one reason, and I was going to use the opportunity to get face time with the various faction reps to have Felicity transferred to our branch.

"This is a good thing you're doing, Shane." Said Callie as she stepped up beside me. It was the last day of the games, so all three of the winners would be meeting with the higher ups at the same time. I had to wait for my name to be called, which would be after they reset the arena so we had a place to hold the ceremony. "I'm proud of you."

"It's the right thing." I said firmly. "You could have ended up like she did." I gritted my teeth. "The thought of it makes me want to scream."

She chuckled. "I know. I can feel it. You're almost as worried about that as you are about Benny." At my surprised glance, she rolled her eyes. "How are you still not getting how this works. Yes I can tell you're still upset. But I don't think you need to be."

"I was scared and I lashed out at him." I admitted. "I was kind of a dick. I wouldn't forgive me if I was him."

She nodded. "You were, and you did. But I think you're underestimating the impact that watching that little show had on him. You showed him what having a Path MEANS. Hell, you showed all of us. That big guy with the hammer…that was a technique right? The thing he did to the mountain?"

"It was." I acknowledged. "Though it was mostly just a really straightforward layering of Might from what I could tell. His Path is weaker than mine, but his stats are way stronger, I'm guessing he has a pretty high Fantasy on top of his Might."

Waving me off, she shook her head. "Doesn't matter. Benny was angry because he felt like you were being unfair, but seeing firsthand the kind of shit you'll be up against…it's hard to call that unfair. I can't read him like I can read you, but I know him well enough by now to see how thoughtful he was about what he saw. Plus Celine will talk some sense into him."

"I just hope it helps." I said with a sigh. "He really does need a Path. Speaking of, how is yours coming along? Any ideas on solidifying it?"

Callie's Path of the Abyss wasn't Solid, obviously, but I had no clue how mine had become Solid, so I couldn't really advise her. However, some of my experiments with Skill creation and making techniques had given her some ideas, and she'd been consulting my mom when possible too.

"Yeah." She said with a nod. "A couple. But I need to learn more about it. I spent some time going over that book. It's a bit dense, but I think I can splice my Path into a Skill manually. I just need to get a better grip on the Path, and maybe get some practice with Skill crafting."

I was going to offer to help, but my mom called me over. Callie smiled encouragingly, pushing my mask aside to peck me on the cheek. "Go do your thing, you'll do great."

Nodding, I headed over to meet up with my mother. My grandfather was already down there with the other representatives, and I had to admit I was pretty impressed, as looking down into the arena, I could see the setting had completely changed. The whole mountain we'd been on earlier was gone, replaced with a stately throne room with seven thrones.

"The Vampire is sitting in too?" I asked in surprise. "Are the independents counted as one of the organizers?"

My mom nodded. "Special circumstances. We tried to involve them more, given the severity of the situation. We need them to side with us, and luckily Lark's reputation made giving him some leeway easier. Are you ready?"

At my nod, she waved a hand, and a bridge of stars coalesced at the edge of the box. We stepped onto it and it carried us down into the arena. I landed next to a pair of people, one of them familiar. Felicity stood primly beside a small, tanned woman with bright blue hair shaved on one side. When they saw me, they both offered a casual greeting, and we turned as one to face the thrones.

My grandfather, Harrison, Captain Cataclysm, Morgan Lark, Princess Levinia Darksparrow, and the Deathwish Pope each sat in one of the chairs. There was a seventh member of the S-rank contingent, who I assumed must be the Imperial representative. He hadn't been at the banquet.

I'd asked my mom about him after our training following the event, and apparently King Nod was considered extremely antisocial. His powers had something to do with dreams (though he was notoriously cagey about what, exactly) and he spent most of his time dozing. The King was lazy and rarely did anything unless forced, and sure enough, the small, pale man with the pencil mustache was snoring away on his throne.

Harrison was the first to speak, his eyes on Felicity and I and practically glowing with pleasure. Two of the three champions were from the WCP, and I knew that would give them leverage during negotiations. I was glad he was in a good mood. It might make this easier.

"Champions." He said officiously. "You have worked hard to be here. Shown yourselves to be powerful and skilled combatants. Wisdom, power, courage. These qualities you have demonstrated and more besides, and as victors, you come before us, the strongest of your factions, and are offered a boon."

His eyes flicked to Felicity. "Felicity Norquill, of the Wish Curse Palace. What gift would you receive for your victory?"

Felicity smiled. It was…disquieting. It was one of the first expressions I'd seen from her, and it looked wrong. When people smile, their eyes light up and crinkle at the edges, even smirks or bloodthirsty grins engage more than just the lower face muscles.

When Felicity smiled, she looked like someone was pulling her mouth up at the corners by hand. If you covered the bottom half of her face her eyes would have made it impossible to tell she had any expression at all. More than that though, there was no spark of happiness or emotion in the expression. It was just a tensing of muscles in a way that imitated joy.

"I thank you for the opportunity, your excellency." She said in her usual flat tone. "But I am simply grateful to serve the Palace. If there must be a reward, please grant it to my father, for without him, I wouldn't be here at all."

My eyes shot to Craygen, who was standing behind Harrison's throne with a smug expression. Harrison nodded amiably, letting her know that he accepted her request and that Craygen would be granted additional resources in his position as aide de camp. Princess Levinia was the next to speak.

"Deena Saffron." Said the fairie princess, in a voice like the singing of joyful birds. "Of the Water Force Temple. What do you request as your reward." The princess was staggeringly beautiful, and up close it was hard not to stare.

It wasn't even a matter of any romantic appreciation, looking at Levinia Darksparrow was like watching the sun rise over a verdant valley, or seeing an aurora the light the sky with colors. She'd surpassed what one could categorize as attractiveness, and attained the sort of beauty reserved for wonders of the world.

The blue haired girl, who seemed just as poleaxed as I was, shook off her distraction. "Pardoning your majesty." She said, giving an awkward attempt to curtsy (I didn't blame her, Levinia just made that seem like the right kind of move) which was thwarted by the fact that she was wearing pants and a vest instead of any sort of gown. "I would like to apply for a single instance of aid for the Temple, in a situation where it is needed."

The Princess smiled. "A worthy request. And one I will grant. Should your Temple fall into danger in the future, one of our number will be dispatched to your aid."

That was…a big fucking deal. There was a WAR coming, and a promise of one time aid from the six was staggeringly valuable.

Deena seemed to think so too, as her face lit up with joy and she bowed deeply, offering profuse thanks. Finally, all eyes turned to me. Harrison, once again, was the one to address me. "Shane Wyndham." He intoned. "You have brought great pride to your family and your faction, and are due a reward. State your request."

I met his eyes. "I request Felicity Norquil be removed from her father's custody and remanded to my branch of the WCP to act as a personal bodyguard. Given my victory, I do not believe accepting such a reward would violate the terms of my candidacy."

Craygen, who had been looking pleased, froze. "What?" He hissed. "This is…this is lunacy! He can't ask for that. Harrison! Tell him he can't ask for that."

The S-ranker turned a cold eye over his shoulder at his subordinate. "You will be SILENT." He commanded. Craygen went pale. "The rewarding of the champion involves the honor of the entire faction. We will not renege on our responsibilities." I started to relax, but he continued. "However, as Felicity too is a champion, her own honor is a factor as well. We will beseech the Wishmaster for a ruling. Amaya."

A small woman with white hair and dark skin hurried forward, her eyes kind as she shot me a reassuring smile. She waved a hand, and a rainbow arced down from the empty sky, slamming into the air in front of him and warping the space. The ripples in the air warped and changed the skin of the world until a mirror coalesced from the disturbed area.

On the other side of it, a relaxed looking man with familiar sandy hair and green eyes sat reading a book on a couch. At the appearance of the mirror, he paused, sighing, and then closed his book with an annoyed expression.

"Father." Said Aiden Wyndham, current Wishmaster of the Wish Curse Palace perfunctorily to Harrison. "I trust you have a reason for disturbing my leisure?"

Harrison nodded. "Of course. We've had a bit of a situation." He described the events of the reward ceremony, and my request. Craygen looked like he was ready to vibrate through the floor with his desire to address his friend, but the order from earlier still hung over his head.

Aiden's gaze turned to me. "How interesting." He said with a wolfish grin. "Hello little cousin. I've heard positively amusing things about you. Trust Eli and Sasha's brat to cause a ruckus." His eyes scanned the assembled S-rankers. "Well played. Fine, take her. But you'll be expected to abide by certain limits. The standard of a C-rank champion from the WCP is far above what you might find elsewhere, and there will be commensurate restrictions."

I nodded, not really caring. The point of bringing her along was to help her, not to get an extra pair of fists. Not that I would turn down her help, but it was mostly just a bonus. "Thanks." I said casually. "Keep my seat warm for me, will you?"

He burst out laughing, throwing his head back to let out a booming guffaw. It was staggering how…big, he was. Not physically, but just the sheer force of personality. He had a hint of wildness in his green eyes, a commanding madness I hadn't seen before. "I'll do that." He said jovially. "Try not to get yourself killed. You're a fun one." And then the mirror dissolved into a watery mist, and I was left facing all the S-rankers. This had gone better than expected.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"I can't believe that worked." I told Zeke after we got back to the inn. We'd gotten Felicity a room, and the list of regulations she had to follow would be passed down tomorrow at the first day of the actual conclave, which would begin following the end of the games. "I expected him to fight it. Craygen is like his Benny, right?"

Zeke shrugged. "I told you, the WCP isn't made up of good people. Aiden is just as big of a bastard as anyone else in power. More, honestly, how do you think he beat Eli out for the job."

"I guess I just expected…" I trailed off. "Not that."

My uncle chuckled. "You expected someone like Eli. Someone cold and ruthless and necessary. But Aiden wasn't ever that type of person. Oh don't get me wrong, he can BE ruthless, but Aiden is more…"

"Wild?" I offered, thinking about what I'd seen in the mans eyes.

He nodded thoughtfully. "That's one way to describe it. Aiden Wyndham is like a force of nature. He's charismatic and vicious and cheerful and…unstoppable. He's like a storm that sucks up everyone who crosses his path and flings them out into the open sky. Sometimes you have wings, and you could consider it a boost. Sometimes you hit the ground. And sometimes a fucking house lands on top of you."

"That last scenario would be for his enemies?" I asked cautiously.

Laughing, he shook his head. "Those would be his friends.He's indiscriminate. He just…does adventure at things and it works out. For him. And often for no one else. Not that being his enemy is safer, he goes through things more often than around them. Eli scares people, and in a world where Aiden didn't exist he would've been Wishmaster. But Aiden TERRIFIES people."

"What is his second ability?" I asked in cautious amazement. "Nobody has ever told me what it is."

He shrugged. "Hell if I know. It's hard to tell, what with stored attacks being possible, plus we're pretty sure everyone who's seen him use it is dead. One of the major benefits of being a candidate is being able to play things closer to the chest since you don't need the renown. I imagine most people find your powers incredibly confusing."

"That's…actually a fair point." I admitted. "Anyway, I'm just glad everything worked out. Having an extra C-ranker during this conclave will be nice. I might be crazy but-"

"Nope." He cut me off. "You're not. Storm's brewing. Everyone can feel it. The bigwigs are just convinced it won't be enough to shake their tree. I'm less convinced. Everyone has been in a relatively peaceful universe too long. They've forgotten what its like to have rivals and counters. New gods are here to level the playing field, and I'm worried."
I shot him a concerned look. "Should we bail? Try to do the questioning remotely and leave?"

"Won't work." He said with a sigh. "Besides, there are no gods here, but Lark is still around. Him and Arble are enough to deter most sane people. Arble is fucking OLD. He's got a lot of reputation, and he's supposed to be strong. I can't tell you how strong, he hasn't been active in ages, but I suspect the list of the top ten S-rankers universe-wide doesn't take into account people like Arble."

I thought back to the Hallow. I still couldn't see the point. Burning people up? Maybe turning them into monsters? It wouldn't do anything at a meeting with nearly ten S-rankers, at least two of whom were demigods.

Shaking off the thought, I sighed. "So…what do we do about Felicity? Can we fix her? I have some ideas for how to attempt it, but I'm not sure they'll lead anywhere. Do you know how to reverse…what is it called, actually?"

"Grinding." He said with a grimace. "Willpower grinding. And there are ways, but none you would have access to. If it was reversible everyone would do it. That spiritual calming belt Benny has might help. Or it might not. Grinding doesn't damage the soul the same way use does. It's more like scarification."

I winced. "That really does sound horrible. But if it leaves damage instead of taking chunks I might have an idea of how to handle it." Zagan could purify a lot of stuff. If she had soul scars or whatever it might help. It seemed to repair at least come soul damage when I used Life Nova, though that might have just been a temporary euphoria from energy rejuvenation.

"Be careful of the conclave, by the way." He said after a moment. "The Deathwish Pope is a cagey fucker. He's Black Sorrow's favorite disciple, which should tell you what a deeply unpleasant person he is."

I paused. "Speaking of which, we've been spending a lot of time with Chelsea. If Black Sorrow finds out-"

"It'll be handled." He said bluntly. "First off, we're in the middle of a war and you two are related to HALF of the current six reigning gods. The old man and the Revenant aside, The Emperor and The Queen won't tolerate internal dissent during such a crucial time."

That made me feel a bit better but, "What about when the war ends?"

"What about it?" He laughed. "These are gods, Shane. They don't do anything on a rapid timescale. I wouldn't be surprised if the war goes on another fifty years. By that time, at this current rate, you might make S-rank, or have become the Wishmaster. You think she's going to be able to touch the reigning Wishmaster?"

I laughed. "So…it's future Shane's problem? That's why you guys have stopped being careful about it?"

"Oh we haven't." He said bluntly. "If she finds out, it won't be an immediate problem, but we've still been keeping it under wraps. I've been with you constantly since we've gotten here. Have you forgotten what my Path is?"

Pausing, I thought about it. "I don't KNOW what your Path is. But I know it's something about…wait, can you MASK secrets with your Path?"

"I can do a lot of things with my Path." He said with a chuckle. "So can you, as you seem to have started realizing after your training with your mother. But yes, I've been masking yours and Chelsea's identities. There are S-rankers who could easily penetrate that mask, but luckily none of them are here, and my Path is unusually strong because of all the time I spent in B-rank."

He winced, and a slight flash on his forehead revealed that the information he'd given me had tripped the geas, which meant it was probably important.

I filed it away like I had a thousand comments that still didn't make complete sense, another piece of the puzzle I was sure would click later. Enough drops of water would fill an ocean, albeit VERY slowly.

"My parents spent so much effort keeping our secret." I said tiredly. "Fucked up our lives so badly. If Black Sorrow finds out, wasn't it all for nothing?"

Shaking his head, he shot me a sad smile. "You're thinking of this the wrong way. You had almost twenty years to grow up and learn what you needed to learn. To get strong and build connections. You're not unique or anything, but you've grown into a promising candidate, and that's its own form of protection. No secret stays secret forever."

"I guess I hadn't considered that." I admitted. "But is it wrong to want to be safe? To want to hold onto what I have now?"

He shrugged. "I don't really do right or wrong, as I mentioned. But if I thought it was a bad idea, I wouldn't be helping. I'm not saying you send Black Sorrow a family holiday card, I'm saying that eventually the truth will out. Our job isn't to make sure it never happens, it's to make sure you're as valuable and powerful as possible when it does, especially with the additional lead the war gives us."

"Did you always know it was going to come to this?" I asked quietly. "Did my parents?"

That got a bark of bitter laughter. "Kid, your journey has been far from normal, even for a candidate. None of us knew how fast or far you'd fly. Your girl killed a god, you helped uncover a plot to start a divine war. We passed any definition of normal ages ago. But opportunity and danger are often bedfellows. Being so noteworthy, and the war itself, have given you a chance you might not have had before. Take advantage of it."

"But no pressure, right?" I said dryly.

He rolled his eyes. "What are you, stupid? ALL the pressure. Pressure is how you grow. And you have. I wouldn't say you're the strongest E-ranker I've ever seen, but you're definitely not weak. Even at less than halfway in and with your stats distributed evenly, you're a threat to an upper level combatant like that Albert kid. There are better Ascendants, but he wasn't bad."

"Yeah, who is the Iron Body Sage anyway?" I asked in exasperation.

"S-ranker." He said shortly. "Follows the Path of Might. And yes, its possible to base a Path off a stat, but it's rarely done because it requires ABSURD specialization."

I blinked at that. "You mean like Jessie has? Because if she has an easy Path, that might be a good idea to mention to her." It wouldn't help with Benny's Path, but sadly, barring this new and fairly intriguing concept, Paths weren't something you could give advice on.

"Possibly." He shrugged. "Mention it to her, it can't hurt. But anyway, Iron Body is a physical monster. His Path is mostly about punching out anything, even things that can't be punched. He's not the most powerful S-ranker, but he's probably the strongest in terms of raw physical might. You saw earlier that muscle isn't everything though."

I nodded, happy with myself about that. Mornax hard countered Albert's physical power, at least until he figured out the trick. The fight would have been easier if I had more ranged options, and I added that to my list of possible forms, but still, I was pretty damned satisfied with what I'd done.

Standing up, I shot my uncle a grateful smile. "Thanks, Zeke. For everything. Keeping our secret, staying with us, you've been there for me when no one else has. I'm still hoping Benny will be my best man, but would you want to be one of the groomsmen at my wedding? It wouldn't feel right without you standing up there."

He swallowed heavily, looking away as he cleared his throat. "Sure kid. I'd like that."

"Plus Stella is going to be a bridesmaid." I continued with a smirk. "And Callie wants to make sure she has someone to dance with."

He rolled his eyes. "You're not funny. I know you think you are, but you're wrong."

"Wonder where I got that from." I said snarkily.

He nodded sagely. "I think that's obvious." After a pause he said. "It was your mother." We both snorted, chuckling at the absurdity. I pulled my uncle into a hug, saying goodnight and heading down to check on Felicity, who was being settled in by Callie and Bethy. Chelsea, Celine, Cark, Abel, Mel, and Jessie were all discussing how to help her, and I didn't see Benny.

I had nothing to add right now. I was tired and sore and I had a big meeting tomorrow where I got to be interrogated by eight of the most powerful people in the universe. I needed some sleep. I stripped off my armor and collapsed into bed, exhausted

This whole ordeal had been crazy, but I was sure it would pay dividends. I'd be one step closer to D-rank after all this, one step closer to reaching the gates of real power, and I couldn't tell if I was excited or terrified. Closing my eyes, I drifted off to sleep to visions of winning the competition, and wondering what kind of Wishmaster I'd be.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful, and when we woke up the next morning it was time for us to make the trip back to the Central Location, this time for the unenviable task of being questioned about everything we'd seen and done in the Temple and Aetherbright Academy. I used up my wishes (Fantasy, to improve my technique foundation) and after getting those seventy points, we just headed out.

"Are you ready for the questioning?" My mother asked nervously. "Did you do as I suggested and go back over the events in your head? Any missing detail might raise anger them. Your grandfather will try to make things easier on you, ostensibly as a friend of Chelsea's, but by the very virtue of that assistance some of the others will act counter to your interests. You can expect Deathwish to be as obnoxious as possible."

Callie gave her a bright smile from beside me. "Don't worry Sasha. We always have each other. It'll take more than some edgelord in a stupid robe to throw us off our game." We were all seated in a lift headed for the Central Location, and we were going over the details one last time so we were as prepared as possible/

"I'm surprised they didn't ask for everyone." I said bluntly, scanning the few people who had been requested. Bethy, Gabe, Callie, and myself. "Is this some kind of credibility thing? Like only people from factions are worth talking to?"

"Yes." Said my mother bluntly. "This interrogation will set the stage for the negotiations to come. The representatives will want to use your actions to paint your factions in a negative light, and use that leverage to further their own interests. The worst part is that everyone except your grandfather will probably be targeting you specifically."

I blinked in surprise. "Wait…what?" Then I closed my mouth. "Shit. Zeke mentioned this. Wishes are an indispensable strategic resource. Aiden sent Harrison because he's a ruthless bastard and will negotiate the most valuable repayment for the wishes they sell. The worse they make me look the more damage they do to the WCP's leverage."

"Exactly." She said with a sigh. "Which means analyzing your every movement and questioning your every mistake."

Bethy rolled her eyes. "Daddy says no one likes a back seat adventurer. Annoying old busybodies who poke holes are the worst." She gave us all a bright smile, showing off her fangs. "Don't worry, daddy will be on your side too. I already told him that if he's mean to my friends, I'm going to find a way to turn myself into a werewolf next time I rank up."

My mother burst out laughing, covering her mouth when we all turned to look at her. "Sorry, it's just hilarious to know that even Morgan Lark has problems controlling his children."

I wanted to keep up the banter, since it was helping me relax, but sadly we came to a stop. With a grimace, mom gestured for us to go. I turned to shoot her a reassuring smile, then realized I was wearing a mask and she couldn't see it. "We'll be fine." I said emphatically. "We're bringing Felicity along, since we need to get her assignment parameters anyway. She's the toughest C-ranker around, and anyone higher up can't mess with us without invoking the wrath of Zeke. Or grandpa. Or both."

Giving us a fretful look, she dove forward, giving me a tight hug, then Callie. "You both be careful." She shot my fiancee a stern look. "If you're going to be marrying into this family you have to learn to stop him from doing stupid things. That's half the reason his father is still alive."

"Sure." Said Callie with a wry smile. "Ask me to do the impossible."

I frowned. "I don't enjoy this. This is a suboptimal dynamic. I didn't think this whole 'mom liking my girlfriend' thing through."

Everyone chuckled as the four of us climbed out and headed into the building. We followed the same path as the last time, only when we arrived at the chamber we'd last been to there was no arena, just the throne room from before, minus any seating.

We were stopped at the door, and the massive armored black knight towered over us menacingly. Andrew, who was guarding the door with him, stepped in front of him. "Welcome." He said cheerfully, ignoring the dreadful knight. "They're expecting you. I'm sure no one would want you to be later meeting the representatives. Would they?"

I got the impression the knight had been planning to menace and fluster us so we came off worse inside, and Andrew had saved us. I shot him a grateful nod, which he returned, and we entered the room. Felicity, however, was stopped outside, Craygen appeared to hand over her guidelines, and we only left once Zeke stepped from the shadows to escort her to hear the verdict. He nodded solemnly to me, and I nodded back. He wouldn't have been able to help against S-rankers in any case.

We headed to the center, where a table had been erected for us to sit at while questioned. After we took our seats, a herald called the meeting to order, and a stenographer confirmed they were keeping the minutes. Finally, the first of the representatives spoke. "Welcome." Said Princess Liliana kindly. "We're glad you could join us. You know why you were called?"

"Of course." i said with a nod. "You're hoping to question us about the circumstances of the god war. We were deeply involved in multiple aspects of its beginning, and have insight that might prove helpful. Would you like us to start with our actions in the Moonsong Glade, and continue from there?"

She beamed at me. "That would be lovely, Mr. Wyndham, thank you. Proceed with your recounting."

And so I did. I told her about the Glade, about the ritual, about the mountain and the battle and the dew and everything. She stopped me occasionally to ask questions, with the others butting in to interject their own questions about the events. Once I finished I continued on, telling them about the Ruined Soul Temple, Travis, the experimental substance that they'd been aiming at, and everything else that had happened on that absurdly long trip.

As I reached the point of entering the Academy, the Deathwish Pope spoke up snidely. "Are you a traitor, boy, or just stupid? You admit to turning your back on a downed opponent like a fool and allowing him to slip past you and trigger a mass teleportation."

"In my defense, at that point in my cultivation journey, I hadn't seen nearly as many scary people." I said bluntly. "Prior to that point, when someone got a hole the size of a bowling ball punched through their chest, they usually didn't get back up right after. Or ever. On account of being dead."

Deathwish glared hatefully. "Don't speak to me as if I'm your equal boy. Show some respect."

"For what, your ability to dress like you live in some kid's closet?" I smirked at him, knowing he could hear it in my voice. "I'm like…nineteen. I don't have all the answers, or much experience at all. Did I make a mistake? Sure. I'm positive you made mistakes at my age, and I'm not going to sit here and let you try to make me sound like a moron because I screwed up once."

He snarled, eyes blazing as his hand shot forward, but I wasn't worried. The wave of darkness that erupted from his hand was consumed by white flame almost before it left his hand.

Now, at first blush, antagonizing the S-ranker who represented the goddess who would want me dead just for existing was probably a bad idea. But this was all about appearances. He was trying to make me look like a moron, and there's nothing more embarrassing than being tricked by a moron.

Deathwish had lost it, and that weakened his position in the negotiations. Harrison would rake him over the coals for that, and the Black Sorrow Cult would pay dearly for that little slip of temper.

"It would be useful." Said Harrison in annoyance. "If you did not BAIT beings who might snuff out your life in an instant, Shane." Then his gaze turned to Deathwish. "As for you, an attempt on the life of a candidate, much less a champion of the games, in full view of half a dozen representatives of major factions is an insult to the prestige of the Wish Curse Palace. Reparations WILL be extracted."

Deathwish glared at him, but said nothing, just leaned back imperiously.

As I'd seen in the banquet, the Deathwish Pope had a nasty temper and a sadistic streak. One of his big problems was that being an S-ranker, he'd long since forgotten what consequences were like. Aside from his goddess and maybe a fellow disciple or two, he was at the top of the heap, and the Cult let people like that get away with anything.

I'd seen that in his behavior when Lark shut him down. He did look afraid, but he also seemed angry. It wasn't that he had no self control, but more that he never had to use it and was out of practice.

His attack on me had been impulsive and reactionary, but in his mind, it was also warranted. I was an E-ranker talking shit to a Pope. Killing me would be a matter of course in the Cult, and whoever was in charge of me would have waved it off as being a matter of self defense. The Black Sorrow Cult was that kind of place.

Even a few months ago if he'd managed to kill me he could probably have just paid a fine or something to sweep it under the rug, but now he NEEDED the WCP, and things were different.

"Continue your story please, Shane." Said Lilliana warmly. "Apologies for the interruption."

Partly because she was being the nicest and partly because I wanted to rub it in Deathwish's face, I did. I took them through the rest of the journey, into the academy, into the room with the chalice and down to the portal chamber where Travis had betrayed us and escaped.

That one didn't seem to get blamed on me, they just treated it like the cost of doing business. I suppose they'd mostly been betrayed before on their way to the top.

When I finished, Harrison turned to the others. "I think we can all agree that without Shane's heroism, we'd never have learned about this impending threat. His involvement may have been a bit haphazard, but his ignorance can't be blamed on him. He stood against our enemies to the best of his abilities and brought back invaluable intelligence."

"Gabriel." My grandfather said. "Tell us your story next. Shane said that you were separated for a quite a while."

Gabe nodded, then proceeded to recount the events of his own journey. I was interested to hear more about what he'd run into. Mostly Wolfhornigators and some other nasty creatures and a few of the cultists.

After him it was Callie's turn. To my surprise, Captain Cataclysm lead her questioning, the big man gently coaxing the details of her own tale and asking questions about her impressions of things. Apparently the Unity highly valued their new godslayer, and I wondered if we'd see her receiving some more overt support from them in the future.

Finally, it was Bethy's turn, and she happily filled her dad in on everything she'd seen, stopping for commentary at multiple points. It was funny to watch the group of terrifying S-rank monsters sit quietly as Bethy excitedly narrated her adventures, like the harrowing tale of finding her squirrel army, or learning the secret of turning into winged cats.

Morgan seemed interested, and when she finished, he smiled and told her she did well, then turned and glared around the room, daring anyone to try to pick on her about the details. No one met his eyes, which was even more hilarious.

With that, we were excused, and our parts in the proceedings had ended. There were still two days of the meetings to go, and we obviously wouldn't be sitting in on those. We would find out from my grandpa how things were going, and then hear the final compromise at the banquet on the last day. Now, we just had to wait.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After we got home from the interrogation, I immediately headed to see Benny. The whole bullshit game with Deathwish had made me think long and hard about power and how or why it should be used. Thinking back to my conversation with my best friend, I realized I'd fallen into the same trap I'd seen so many Ascendants fall into.

It wasn't that I prioritized power, that was an obvious conclusion. I loved Benny like a brother and didn't want to see him die. No, it was that I'd abandoned him to find his Path all by himself.

Of course, common knowledge told us that Paths are deeply personal and need to be discovered on your own, but I was aiming to be a god. I'd already made the decision to toss aside anything that regular Ascendants believed to find my own path to divinity.

Benny had been there for me since day one, and fear or not, if he needed help I'd help him, just like he'd helped set me straight the other day. I knocked on his door and waited patiently for him to get up and answer. When he opened it, his expression was cold. "What can I help you with, oh glorious leader?" He asked stonily. "More edicts to pass down?"

"I've decided I'm being stupid." I said bluntly.

His blank expression cracked a bit, his lips twitching. "I mean, you're awake, so there's pretty good odds. What specific bit of stupidity are you thinking of in this instance?"

"Ass." I said with an eye roll. "Come for a walk with me. I want to talk to you about your Path." His face started closing down again, but I held up a hand. "It was shitty of me to just throw you under the bus because most people can't help someone form a Path. We've been friends for most of our lives, if anyone can help you form your Path it's me. So I want to do that."

He stared at me hard for a minute or two, then sighed. "Alright, I've been wracking my brain for how to manage it, so I suppose we can give it a try. Lead on then, oh stunning genius." He gestured sarcastically and I rolled my eyes again, leading him out into the courtyard of the inn.

"Alright, so tell me what you know about Paths and what you've tried." I attempted to sound confident, but honestly I was kind of worried. I'd formed my Path by accident, and me giving lessons was ridiculous. The only saving grace to this plan was that learning how techniques worked had given me some more insight into what Paths really were and how they functioned.

He shrugged. "A Path is…I don't know, like a special power you use to make yourself stronger. It's a way to exert power in a different way to be more impressive."

I blinked at him. "Wow. I can't even begin to tell you how wrong that is. That's like, impressively wrong. You should try to find some sort of universal record society to submit that definition to, maybe you can win a prize for being more wrong than any person in history."

"I'm sorry, is this supposed to be helpful?" He demanded. "Because I think this is literally the opposite of help."

I shrugged. "Well your answer was really dumb. A Path, you unbelievable dipshit, is the connection between the soul and stats. It joins together two completely separate elements of your being in preparation to truly combine them. You Path isn't some mystical expression of power, it's the way you can exert your full strength more directly than with a Skill or ability. In a word, your Path makes your will a reality, albeit on a small scale."

Techniques were the most direct application of that I'd seen. Fantasy helped you conceptualize and shape your will in a way that allowed you to properly apply a Path. I suspected it wouldn't be necessary inside a Domain, but forming one of those was a last step once you had long since hit S-rank.

Benny paused. "That's…then why are people's Paths so different from their abilities?"

"You're born with an ability." I said bluntly. "You can alter it to suit you better, but only so much depending on what Skills and stats you have. Paths are more personal. But it's not like you can only find a perfect Path. There are people who never manage to crack C-rank because they never find a suitable Path. If you pick the wrong one you can fail to integrate it into a Skill and never condense a Solid Path."

He chuckled bitterly. "So no pressure, right? I just have to pick the perfect Path the first time."

"Nah." I said with a shake of my head. "You can change them, plus you have tons of brilliant people around to work with you. You just need to take the step to form one. Everything else can come later. You don't need a Solid Path to be strong. With techniques you can use an Illusionary Path to be a real threat."

He nodded, letting out a long breath. "Alright. I can work with that. So I just need to figure out what the best way is for me to exert my will on the world. Any idea, since you know me better than anyone?" His tone was dry as he threw my words back in my face.

"A few." I said slowly. "But ultimately it'll work better if it comes from you. Callie got hers after seeing the Abyss of space and being enlightened, but that's rare. Still, I have to assume that being profoundly influenced by a thing would make it more likely for you to form a Path, and a strong one at that. So what influenced you most on our journey?"

He mulled it over. "You know, coming on this trip, I expected to be left behind. When you told me to form a Path I was angry, but not surprised. I thought early on that my power would be enough to keep up, it's got a ton of potential, and I know it can be strong with the right resources. But even on Callus, back when we were at the Academy, I was already feeling how weak and helpless I was compared to you.

"It was tearing me apart, though I tried to hide it, but I think the thing that really turned me around, the one thing that showed me I had a shot, was the Bone Wyvern." He laughed as I cocked my head in confusion. "It's weird, right? Why that? But something about it was just…beautiful. A collection of bones merged together into a single, terrifying, colossal whole."

I nodded slowly. "So you saw it as kind of like a perfect Invention. The most flawless use of resources to create something more than the sum of its parts?"

"Exactly." His face lit up. "Exactly that. That's what I strive for, to be more than the sum of my parts, literally. I can do that in so many ways, I know, but in the end that image sticks with me, that one being exemplifies what I'm striving for."

Closing his eyes, he stopped talking, letting his memory bring him to wherever he felt he needed to go. He let himself drift and I could practically see him tapping into the Focus that was such a big part of him. With that much of the mental stat, he could undoubtedly remember the monster perfectly. Then he started to move.

He punched. Then punched again. Shaking his head in frustration he took out a sword, the weapon he'd been working with.

I activated my Eye of Revelation, letting my crown do its work Behind him, I saw a weird, twisty blob of white trying to form. He swung his sword again, and again. One side of the blob started to sharpen, but it didn't stick, dissolving again and again.

He pulled out a second sword, using one in each hand. He tried to swing them, stumbling over his rhythm when he switched to dual weapons, since he had no training. It was hard for normal people to use two weapons, the brain is designed to focus on one thing at a time, you have to combine the movements from both into a single line of action.

Benny's Focus was pretty damned high though, and he learned fast. One strike, then two. His clumsy swings started to become more fluid after ten minutes, then twenty.

I knew what he was doing. It was smart. Using the physical movements anchor his Path like I did with my forms. Creating a sword art that would let him attach those ideas he had to the physical world.

Behind him, the blob sharpened and took shape. It was a colossal form of gleaming white bones with terrible eyes of cold flame. Benny's was a ghastly pale green. The creature reared and snapped as he moved, and looking at it from further away, I could almost see the swords wings as he moved slowly, figuring out the martial art that would let him take that first important step.

His hands flickered, swords whipping, both at once as he tried to balance it, sometimes tripping up and overdoing it on one side.

Slowly though, the form of the great bone creature changed, became more refined. Not just the shape, but little details that made it seem to be a different creature altogether. I knew what they were, too. The creature had started out the same as the one we'd faced before, a bone wyvern, but it was growing less like a wyvern and more like something much scarier.

We'd both done research into dragons. They were really cool and powerful and we just genuinely wanted to know more about them. Benny in particular had always been a fan, not that it was some novel thing, everyone loved dragons.

The creature behind Benny changed as he moved, Becoming more draconic, more terrifying. An aura of palpable dread surrounded it, of consumption, and I could see that this beast wasn't any mere bone golem in the shape of a lizard. This was a true undead dragon. A monster returned from the grave that forced its soul back into its desecrated remains with magic. A Dracolich.

And why not. Paths could be anything, could represent our hopes and dreams and nightmares. Benny saw himself as this thing, in his wildest dreams. This uncontrollable monster that could devour its enemies and grow from their strength. It was fantastic.

Being sort of macabre didn't make it or even Benny evil. Just kind of edgy, and it wasn't like I could throw stones, what with the whole demon motif. I grinned at him as I saw the creature…solidify, in a way I somehow knew had made it something more than what it had been. "Nice sword style. What's it called?"

He stopped, snapped out of his reverie, and lowered his blades. "I'm calling it the Dance of the Dracolich. My Path is the Path of the Dracolich. I have a few ideas of where to take that."

"Advantages of being late to the party." I said with a laugh. "Callie and I formed our Paths before we knew what they were. We're having to feel them out as we go. Having a potential road to advancement is a good idea."

Slumping down onto his ass, he chuckled woozily. "That was…rough. Does it usually affect your soul this much? I have a headache."

"No idea." I shrugged. "Like I said, wasn't something we did on purpose, so we don't know the normal procedure. Callie might have been a bit shaky after she had her epiphany, you'd have to ask her." I helped him, walking him over to a bench and then dropping down beside him. "So…Path of the Dracolich, huh? Sounds neat. Can't wait to see what you do with it." Because I had a feeling Benny had great things in mind, and I'd make damn sure to help him achieve them.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Benny was understandably excited about creating a Path. This had been gnawing at him for a while, based on how relieved he seemed to be. My best friend had his own pride and liked to play things close to the vest at the oddest times. He hadn't wanted me to know that he was just as worried about things as I was, even when he was pissed at me.

I wanted to help him study some techniques for his new Path, but unfortunately, we ran into a problem pretty quickly. Or rather, a few problems. Firstly, Benny's Fantasy was five hundred and fifty six. Amusingly, his new Path should actually help with that once he could use it properly, that had been part of the calculation of making a more fantastical Path rather than something tech based, but for now, he was VERY low on the important stat.

Fantasy, from what I can tell, substituted for a Domain when it came to using a path, allowing you to create molds for techniques without your own world to use them through. This was entirely based on my own conjecture, not something I was told, but it seemed to fit.

The second big problem was that while I seemed to be a natural genius at technique formation, and Callie was able to piggy back off that through the bond (not to mention she had a pretty high Fantasy stat), Benny didn't have any such advantage. We had no supernatural connection I could use to beam him thoughts and impressions, and without it I had zero clue how to teach him.

He ended up going to find my mom to ask for her help, and once he left, I decided I should start work on helping Felicity.

My first attempt to help her came in the obvious form. I called Jessie over, and I asked my incredibly overpowered healer friend to try to repair some of the damage with her ability. I was ninety percent sure it would fail, this wasn't a bodily injury, but it wasn't like it could hurt anything to try.

When she arrived, we headed over to see Felicity. She was sitting in the library at the inn, reading a book in front of the fire. Her face, as usual, was completely empty, and her eyes were blank as they scanned the words, like she was a computer processing the text.

"Felicity." I said as we entered. "I was wondering if we could talk?"

She smiled her mechanical smile. "Of course, Shane. I am your guardian now, you can speak to me about anything. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Actually, I think there's something I can help you with." I responded bluntly. "I believe you've been injured, and I want to help fix you. Would you mind if Jessie takes a look at you? Her ability is very powerful, and if you're injured she may be able to help."

She cocked her head in confusion. "But I do not feel injured. I suppose I sometimes overlook things like that. My father says I am very clumsy, because I often do not notice when I am in pain." The fact that Craygen blamed his daughter for being a broken shell of a person after he sandpapered her fucking soul was both unsurprising and infuriating, but I just pushed that down.

"I understand." I said reassuringly. "It might be nothing, but as my guardian I need to make sure you're at the top of your game. Otherwise I'm putting myself in danger, right?"

She nodded in understanding. "Of course. If my performance is suboptimal it must be corrected. I apologize, I was unaware I had failed you in such a short time. My transgressions were unacceptable and will not happen again."

I wanted to tell her that was stupid and she hadn't done anything, but if she was going to let us treat her, I figured that particular conversation could wait until she had the emotional depth to understand it. I gestured to Jessie, who nodded stiffly, stepping forward to place her hands on Felicity's shoulders.

Jessie was moving jerkily and her jaw was tight. It was easy to see she was furious, clearly as outraged by what had been done to Felicity as I was. I saw her hands glow as she started funneling her energy into the other girl, looking for something to heal.

She didn't have a scanning ability, but her power was partly based on first aid, which was partly diagnostic. She'd also gotten a lot of practice back on Stratholme, treating different injuries and learning more about how healing worked. Jessie had been slowly increasing her Skills for quite a while now, and she used them to their fullest extent to try to fix the C-ranker.

Sadly, when she removed her hands, her expression was downcast. "I'm sorry." She told me sadly. "I tried. I thought I might be able to do something, maybe there could have been brain damage or something, but I can't find anything wrong with her."

I nodded. "I get it. Not your fault. We figured that would be the case. This was a long shot to begin with. I'll take it from here. I have an idea that might work."

Nodding sadly, she stepped back, letting me take her place. "Felicity, you haven't taken any physical damage, but I think I might be able to treat you with another method. Do you mind if I try accessing your soul?"

"I do not mind." She said blankly. "If I am damaged, I must be repaired. I cannot be of use otherwise."

I was DEEPLY disturbed listening to her talk like that. It was creepy to the extent that my skin was almost physically crawling. The fact that one person could do this to another was an abomination, and that wasn't even taking into account that he was her fucking father. I briefly entertained the idea of trying to have him killed, but that wasn't my place. Felicity was the one who had been hurt. Once she was fixed, she could decide how to handle her father.

Putting my hands up in front of her face, I triggered Zagan. My hair blazed up into green flame, and I closed my eyes, focusing on the space between my palms as I started to condense a Life Nova.

Much like Cosmic Collapse, Life Nova was a scaling attack (if one could call it that). I could slowly build up the power, packing it tighter and tighter. Which I did. I focused, shifting the image in my head as I tweaked the technique on the fly.

I built myself a new narrative, a story about a life giving sun that shone its healing light on a broken world. The sun let the power of rejuvenation fall upon the cracked and broken planet, and it slowly began to heal. Not just the plants or animals, but the world itself, the society. At high enough concentrations, anything could be healed.

Unfortunately, I hit a wall about twenty minutes in. I didn't have enough Fantasy to structure something this complex, and even my Solid Path couldn't support it solo. Without even having to ask, I felt a flood of Fantasy as Callie opened the bond to let me tap into her power, and then let her own Path support mine, giving it strength.

Paradoxically, I almost lost control of the technique when that happened. It had changed too much, shifted too far from the form I was trying to use. I had to backstop it, coming up with a story about Zagan, the life giving demon prince that traded in the fates of others to gain influence.

My head was on fire, I'd had to use about six different parallels with Piece of Mind to balance all the conflicting concepts and stories and influences. This was going to knock me flat on my ass when I finished, but I powered through.

Denser and denser, I layered the Life Nova, staring deeply into the roiling verdant shine, watching the flickers of silver fire in its depths. Felicity sat unperturbed, watching the soothing green light, and then when I couldn't hold on another second. When I couldn't take any more power, I opened my Eye of Revelation and flicked the Life Nova gently with my middle fingers.

Felicity let out an oh of surprise, and as she opened her mouth, the green light exploded towards her, driving through her mouth, eyes, and nose as it burrowed inside and her whole body was lit up by the energy.

Zagan's flame was a mixture of Jessie's power, Chelsea's purification, and my own Afterburner, mixed with Consecration of Flame. It did a lot of things. Purify, heal, and strengthen (Consecration of Flame not only strengthened on its own but its holy undertones synergized well with the purification flame).

The Life Nova did all that times a hundred, and I'd done my best to aim it at exactly the issue we were dealing with, not that I was sure it would work. My eyes were fixed on Felicity as the flames exploded within her, the Life Nova detonating inside the soul in a way that vindicated my theory about soul repair, even if it was at a VERY low level.

Felicity's eyes, formerly blank and empty, flickered slightly with green and silver. She blinked a few times, brow wrinkling slightly before smoothing out. "That was an unusual feeling." She said dully. "I don't believe I've experienced such a thing before. Did you manage to repair the damage?"

I clutched my head, feeling Callie try her best to pull the pain away as she absorbed some of the damage. My parallels had collapsed as soon as I detonated the Life Nova, and the backlash was excruciating. My soul wasn't damaged too badly, since Callie had been helping, but it had been a close thing.

Felicity didn't seem to mind my distracted state, and she simply sat and waited as I recovered. "No." I ground out. "Not completely. But I did improve your condition. We'll need to keep at this. I'll get better at it as we go, but we're on the right track."

Despite the pain, I was triumphant. Like I told her, I couldn't fix her right away. In fact, I was BARELY able to help. Felicity was a C-ranker with both shackles broken. Her soul and Impact were both beyond mine. My Life Nova had, at best, scratched the surface of the repairs she needed.

But they HAD scratched the surface. Even a tiny chip at the damage was something, because it meant that I could keep chipping away and eventually fix it. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it meant there was hope, and that was a huge relief.

Felicity smiled, and it might have been my imagination, but it seemed just a little less stiff and forced than usual. Still unsettling, but more human than most of her expressions. "That is good to hear. I am hopeful that I will be back to proper fighting form before a threat presents itself."

I smiled at her wanly, standing and nearly falling over as I lost my balance. Jessie caught me, flooding my body with life energy that only barely helped. She escorted me to the door, and when it opened, my fiancee's worried face was the first thing I saw. She thanked Jessie, then put one of my arms over her shoulders and escorted me away.

"You're not going to yell at me?" I rasped. "That must have hurt you a lot."

She leaned up to peck me on the cheek. "Some things are worth a little pain. I'm not mad. I'm proud of you. And I'll help however I can until the job is done." We lapsed into silence after that. We didn't need words. She could feel how much that meant to me. She helped me to our room and into bed, and then climbed in after me, and we passed out, drifting into a healing sleep.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We woke the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed. It too me a second of sensing to realize Benny had sat himself outside the door and allowed his spiritual cleansing field to wash over us. Since I hit Sapphire it hadn't really been useful, but it had definitely helped in this case. I shook Callie awake, checking to make sure she was feeling better too.

"G'way." She grumbled, smacking at my hand and face. "Sleeping."

I laughed at that. "Yeah, we both slept, for like…eighteen hours. It was the middle of the day yesterday when we went to sleep."

"Damn." She said in a shocked tone. "That new technique had some serious kick to it. I don't know if you should use it again. I could feel how much damage it was causing, and how much pain."

I shook my head. "Most of the damage was from using six simultaneous parallels with Piece of Mind. If I repeat it it'll be easier. Still absurdly difficult and draining, but not as hard on my soul. I created an actual technique I can trigger, after all."

"What did you end up naming it?" She said, propping her chin up on her palm as she watched me change into some civilian clothes for what felt like the first time in months. I briefly considered going out like that, but in the end I felt too naked without my mask, so I slipped that on.

I cracked my neck, stretching widely and enjoying the feeling of not having anything to do for the day. "Genesis Burst." I said with a chuckle. "It just seemed to fit." With the games finished and the final banquet still one day away, there was no pressure on me to do anything. I'd need to recover before I could use that technique again. I just had the day off.

Holding out my hand to her, I grinned. "Milady, might I interest you in some relaxation?"

She pouted at me. "I don't want to get up. Make me breakfast in bed." She flopped onto her back bonelessly, letting her head turn dramatically away from me.

"A grim vision of my future." I said dryly. "But fine. I suppose I can do that. What do you want for breakfast?" Her head snapped back around, eyes fixing on me like a cat spotting a canary. She clearly hadn't expected that to work.

Honestly, I normally would have badgered her into coming down with me, but she'd been supporting me from behind for the last few days without even mentioning it. During the games, during the treatment, she'd been there without flinching and hadn't expected a thing in return. I absolutely didn't mind making her breakfast.

She felt my gratitude and adoration and her expression softened from exaggerated greediness to a soft smile. "Whatever you want." She said quietly. "I'm happy with anything." Then she paused. "But nothing egg based. That's the wrong texture."

I let out a booming laugh. "I'm in the mood for blintzes. You can borrow my soul book while I cook if you want."

Rolling her eyes, she shook her head. "That's not how you take a day off. I'm going to watch something on the scan box I think. They have them in the rooms and I never checked out the selection. We're in another galaxy, so there's no way the same shows are on. I want to see what people watch here."

"Daytime programming is like death and taxes." I said solemnly. "It never changes and it's inevitable."

She snorted at that. "Go cook our breakfast. If you have time to make ominous proclamations about mundane subjects you have time to cook." She winked to let me know she was kidding and blew me a kiss. Literally, a kiss mark made of shadow floated across the room to thwack loudly against the cheek of my mask.

I just laughed and headed downstairs, making us some food relatively quickly before returning to our room and hopping into bed, passing her a plate. We both ate, then watched the scan box for a couple of hours…but we got bored.

"Lets go visit you mom." Callie said after we'd been lying around for a while. "I bet she'd be happy to see us."

I actually had to do my wishes for today anyway, but I decided to leave it for later. "Yeah, that sounds like fun. Should we invite my sister?" Benny was probably already over there doing some training.

In the end we did invite Chelsea, and she decided to tag along for a family outing of sorts. We arrived at my mom's building to find her sitting at her table beside the lake, pouring some sweet tea from a pitcher. She smiled as we approached. "Shane, Calliope, how good to see you both." She pecked Chelsea on the cheek too, but since my sister basically lived here a special greeting wasn't necessary.

"Hey ma." I said, dropping into a chair casually. "Figured we'd come see how you were. Benny was planning to visit at some point for training."

She gave me a radiant smile. "He already did, dear. He's in the lake."

I glanced over at the body of water. I'd thought it was a pond, but given the expanded interiors of Ascendant buildings a lake would fit too. Looking at it though, I didn't see Benny out there anywhere. "Wait…do you mean like…INSIDE the lake? Like he's underwater?"

"Of course." She said cheerfully. "He's at the bottom. Holding his breath is no problem, but he needed a dark and oppressive environment to help with his image training. That Path of his is interesting. I've seen Draconic Paths before, of course, but most of them are more supremacy themed than based on evolution."

Nodding, I scanned the water for my friend's form. "Yeah. He wanted something more fantastical to balance out his more scientific powerset. Maximizing the advantages of both types of strength. Especially given the role Fantasy plays with technique formation."

"It isn't a bad choice." She said with a shrug. "There isn't really a bad choice to make. Paths are personal things, and making them work depends on the individual. I'm sure you realized that based on your own. Though I suppose in your case it wasn't exactly your own choice, it's certainly working out for you."

I hadn't even realized how lucky I'd gotten with my Path until recently. Advancing to a Solid Path is HARD for most people. They have to combine their chosen Path with their ability, or with a Skill that they combine with their ability later, which can make it even more complicated. My Path just coalescing by itself when I got DS Mastery to a certain point was absurdly good luck, and getting a second ability was even better.

Seeing Callie (and presumably Benny in the future) struggle to get past that step just illustrated how suitable my Path was for me and how fortunate I was that I'd obtained it the way I had.

"So, underwater training, huh?" I said as I glanced toward the lake. "How long has he been down there?" I had no clue how long I could hold my breath now, other than probably a very long time.

She shrugged, glancing at an hourglass on the table. An hour glass that had already been run down by the time we'd arrived a little while ago. "More than an hour." She said after a brief pause. I tried not to laugh at the nonchalance, though Callie didn't even bother with that level of nicety, giggling at my best friend's misfortune.

"So, grandpa still stuck in today's meeting?" I asked with a laugh. "He must be bored out of his mind."

Now it was mom's turn to giggle at the misfortune of others. "He's climbing the walls, not that you can tell from looking at him. He's been sending me messages all day, brainstorming increasingly elaborate plans to get him out of there. He won't actually do it, he's not going to derail negotiations at this level, but he's tearing out his hair in boredom."

"I'd have thought he'd need to stay on his toes when negotiating." I said slowly. "Especially with the Cult there?"

She grinned viciously. "Normally, yes. But you humiliated Deathwish, and everyone else was smelling blood in the water. Harrison has been using that little slip up of his as an excuse to eviscerate them at the negotiating table. There's a few planets on the line, and I think he might be able to get an entire system if he plays things right."

"That's a big deal, right?" I asked with interest. "The factions avoid letting the WCP have their own territory as compensation for allowing them to spread around past borders right?"

"Exactly." She agreed. "But as you know, we're in an unprecedented situation. With the god war looming wishes at the A and S-rank level are invaluable. It could be the difference between losing a planet, a system, or even a whole army. Not all systems are created equal, and there's no way the cult will give up anything central, but then, the WCP doesn't need it."

I nodded thoughtfully. "If anything, border territories are better because they can possibly combine them, and any geographic or power based conditions can be adjusted with wishes." The freedom and flexibility of owning a territory with access to a wish power was something I'd grown familiar with, at least tangentially, on Stratholme. At the higher ranks, I imagined planets and systems could reap similar benefits.

We chatted about that for a while, but eventually got off the subject, because I really wanted to spend time with my family on my day off doing something other than talking politics. Instead, Callie started asking my mother about her life, and my sisters life. We'd already learned some of that stuff from previous discussions, but my sister was almost twenty, same as I was. There was always more to learn.

Mom had plenty of stories about Chelsea growing up, and I found that hearing about her life bothered me less and less as time went on. My engagement especially had eased a lot of the resentment I hadn't wanted to feel but that had been bubbling under the surface.

It was easier to smile and laugh at a story about my eight year old sister getting bored and falling asleep in one of the drawers of grandpa's desk and accidentally kicking off a galactic manhunt because someone decided she'd been kidnapped. I told some stories of my own childhood with Zeke too, and my mom was practically glowing at the conversation.

We had just finished hearing about the time Chelsea accidentally sold one of grandpa's S-rank artifacts (not an active one obviously) for a life size statue of herself made a chocolate (she wandered into a chocolate shop in town and offered the enchanted scales to the owner) when Benny climbed up out of the water noisily, dripping as he slogged up the shore and toward the table.

My mother held up a hand. "Towel." She said, pointing to the ground in front of him where a large beach towel appeared. "And you'll sit in the grass. I don't want you dripping all over my chairs."

They were nice chairs, so I couldn't blame her, though I don't think that stopped Benny, who picked up the towel, dried himself as best he could, and then started taking his clothes off and wringing them out onto the grass like sponges. He maintained eye contact with us, especially my mom, as he tipped his boots over and dumped enough water out of them to resemble a pitcher.

Finally he stalked over and sat down in the grass sulkily, and all of us pretended we weren't trying not to laugh. Eventually, he started smiling about it too, and he joined in telling some stories about me as a kid. It was one of the best days I'd had in years.
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[Malcolm Tent]

"Ugh." I moaned in annoyance. "Why are there so many of these?" I was getting ready for ANOTHER banquet (hopefully the last of this annoying conclave) and I couldn't help but think back to the plethora of banquets and ball's and various other formal events we'd had to go to since our journey started.

Callie giggled at my annoyance, adjusting my cape. "Because they give people a chance to show off, mingle, and eat good food. Everyone loves a fancy dinner. Banquets are a microcosm of the Ascendant culture. Lots of showing off to make an impression while you try to meet people."

"I suppose." I said with a sigh. Turning to look at my mother, I cocked my head. "This is really the end though? Once we're done with this we can leave?"

We'd contacted Killian through my mom, and he'd volunteered (or so we were told, I remained suspicious) to take us back to Callus as a group. Once we were finished here, we'd be headed home for the first time in over a year, back to visit everyone and officially prepare for my wedding.

And yet, I couldn't help but feel uneasy. This felt…unfinished. Like there was more to come. It had all gone down too easy, I didn't trust it. Something was going to happen at this banquet, something big.

My mother seemed to pick up the undertone of worry. "This is the end." She confirmed. "And we're not letting our guard down. We've arranged for backup teams to remain in place from each of the factions. They won't be attending the banquet formally, but will be on standby in case of emergency." She smiled wryly at me. "You aren't the only person to worry that gathering top leadership from all six of the most powerful forces in the universe in one place might present a tempting target."

"Fair enough." I said with a wry chuckle. "I guess I forget that I'm not the only person who expects things to go catastrophically wrong at the drop of a hat."

She just smiled. "Fate moves more strongly around those with the blood of gods. That affects you more than most, but not you alone. We're all on edge. The conclave was necessary to outline the terms of cooperation, but it was also dangerous. Why do you think we invited Lark?"

That made sense actually. Being able to punch up to god rank, even against the weakest god, was damned impressive. It made him basically untouchable at S-rank. Together with the backup she mentioned, I did feel a bit better. We were also on a floating continent in the middle of space. Someone would notice approaching threats well ahead of time.

Despite it all, the creeping unease wouldn't go away, though. I took Callie's hand, squeezing it tightly. I turned to Zeke. "How about you, old man. You ready for this?"

He scoffed. "I'm young at heart. But yes, I've been working on my new masks, have to replace the ones destroyed in my fight with that Duke. Kind of hoping I get a chance to try them out." At my mother's fierce glare, he cleared his throat. "I mean, no. I definitely don't hope for that, that would be bad. I hope this banquet is boring and uneventful."

She nodded imperiously, and he rolled his eyes, sticking his tongue out at her briefly when she looked away, and then putting on an innocent expression when she looked back.

I rolled my own eyes at their antics, turning to check that everyone was arriving. Bethy, Cark, Gabe, Chelsea, Benny, Jessie, Celine, Abel, and Mel. One by one everyone showed up, and I greeted them all stoically as we filed out into the shuttle.

Once we took off, I addressed them all directly. "I've still got today's wishes. I'm a bit worried about what might happen. You guys willing to make them?"

"I'll opt out." Said my sister, Abel and Bethy nodding along. "I've got protection already, and I think the others could use it more."

Callie tried to protest, but I wouldn't hear about it. She, along with all the others aside from the two who abstained, each wished for a one time protective escape, paying with seven D-ranked chits that I suspected had come from Celine. I felt so much more reassured knowing they had that up their sleeves though.

We arrived shortly after we finished, and we all headed inside the Central Location, where the banquet would be held.

The atmosphere at the event was a bit more subdued than the first time, but I had kind of expected that. Going through the conclave had underlined some of what we might be facing, and everyone was currently dragged down by the enormity of what might be coming.

We met with Felicity when we arrived. She'd come separately, but took up her position as one of my guardians without a word. When we entered, we were all announced the same as before, and we made our way over to meet my grandfather where he was standing, talking to Princess Lilliana.

"Mr. Wyndham." Said the Princess with a warm smile. "It's lovely to see you again. My apologies for any discomfort during your questioning. I tried to make it as easy on you as possible."

She shot a glance at my mother, which told me all I needed to know. She knew who I was, and had tried to help me out loyalty to her friend. It meant a lot that she'd been willing to stick her neck out for me, even if that might have benefited her faction.

"I appreciated all your kindness." I said formally. "I owe you one."

My grandfather groaned. "Why are these things always so stuffy? Nobody here knows how to have a good time. At least the food is good." He tossed back a glass of champagne, picking at a plate of finger food. He frowned around at the waiters. "They used local staff though. Odd. I suppose it was cheaper than supplying their own."

"That's-" My mother looked like she was ready to dismiss what he said, but then stopped. "Wait. The staff are local contractors? Who okayed that? That's a security nightmare. Who was in charge of staffing?"

My grandpa shrugged. "That brat with Harrison handled it. We let the WCP run point on the event. It was a meaningless bit of lipservice to let them feel important. We still have our own security in place."

I frowned at him. "Brat? You mean Pret? Why would Pret be in charge of setting up an event like this?"

"Who knows." He shrugged. "He's Harrison's ward and he wanted to be involved. It wasn't worth kicking off an intergalactic incident over something like that. It's not like any of these people are a threat to us. They're just random E and D-rankers."

Something about that seemed off to me. He was right, it wasn't a big deal, but the fact that Pret had decided to push for that seemed…off.

"Speaking of Harrison." He said with a sigh. "We let him do the closing speech. So get ready to fall asleep standing up. That man loves hearing himself talk."

My mother shot him a wry look. "Imagine. A self-important blowhard who doesn't stop talking. I wonder what being around that is like." My grandfather glared, but she just ignored him, and the rest of us stifled our laughter.

Sure enough, within about twenty minutes there was an announcement from one of the heralds, and everyone was asked to quiet down so Harrison could make an announcement. He stepped out into the crowd, eyes blazing with excitement as he took us all in. "Greetings, friends and allies." He said pompously.

"I'm sure you all know by this point why we're here, so I see no need to repeat myself on that front." He had an easy, confident smile in place as he spoke. "I think it's quite a coup for us as powerful forces to be able to put down our pride and work so smoothly together when things are really on the line, and I'm proud to be here, and to be part of this process."

He gestured to the side, where Pret was patiently waiting next to Craygen. "Not only myself, but my adopted son, Pretseltsen, have been working hard for your benefit as well as our own. A rising tide lifts all ships, and the stronger our alliance is the safer we are. In fact, I think he has a few words he'd like to say, and I'd be happy to pass the floor to him. After all, his generation are the future of factions like ours."

It was heavy handed and a little annoying, but effective. He was reminding us all that the WCP was playing a huge part in the war. Claiming that they had 'put down their pride' to help when I was pretty sure he'd extorted every possible advantage was a bit shameless, but then, that was part for the course for the Palace.

Pret, smiling widely, accepted his pat on the shoulder and stepped forward. "Ladies and gentlemen." He said loudly, his voice carrying. "I stand here before you today, a part of a historic alliance. A treaty of such scale and importance that the universe may have never seen its like." His eyes scanned the room cooly, and his smile grew darker. I felt a tightening in my stomach, and I knew something was about to happen.

"Of course, we need to thank all our glorious leaders for deigning to have this little meeting. After all, they're doing all of this for us. This is their method of keeping us all safe, of making sure we're protected." His tone was sickly sweet, and I could tell he was enjoying what he was saying. Something was wrong with the way he was talking, and I wasn't the only one who thought so, I saw several people shift uncomfortably.

He strode away from Harrison, taking a place in the middle of the ballroom in a wide empty space. His movements were slow and graceful, like a prowling animal. "But of course, we aren't safe." He said gleefully. "We aren't protected. We're prey. Victims waiting to be torn apart by the wolves at the gate. Do any of you think this is going to be enough? That this pageantry will have any effect on what's coming?"

The waiters had been moving as he talked, gathering together. There were a lot of them. A shocking amount. I recognized one of them even, and when I did, I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach. He was the bearded guy who had been buying Hallow.

I suddenly had a very bad feeling about what Pret might have done with those crates of the stuff he seized. I didn't think he'd been studying them at all.

Harrison stepped forward, face tight. "Pretseltsen, what is the meaning of this? This isn't the speech we discussed."

"Oops." Said the man cheerfully. "My mistake. I just thought a bit of candor might be nice for once. Just as a final bit of amusement before the main event begins. I suppose there's no point now though. It's already time." He gestured to the groups of waiters that had assembled across the room, small clusters of ten or twenty people.

The staff members had started to change, skin smoking and bodies beginning to break down as they burst into flames. Their placement was clearly deliberate, as I felt something shift in the air as they died. I used Eye of Revelation, but I couldn't see anything useful. This wasn't a technique, though it did feel familiar.

And that was when I got it. Sacrifice. This was sacrificial power, similar to the lamentation liquid Billy had used in the ruined soul temple. People screamed and backed away as E and D-rankers combusted, the flames a sickening blood red.

As we watched, the flames gathered together, coalescing into a series of six massive doors. "It was so kind of you to invite us all to your party." Said Pret with sadistic glee. "We were so touched we decided to invite even more people." Then the doors swung open, and figures began to emerge. This couldn't be good.
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[Malcolm Tent]

I was frozen in place, eyes locked on the doors as figures began to slowly exit. My grandfather was staring at them grimly, his face more severe than I'd ever seen it. "Sasha. Watch the kids." He stalked forward, and I saw the other seven S-rankers walk out to join him. They stood in the center of the empty dance floor, waiting for the group of outsiders.

Thirty of them. Five from each door. "Mom." I said quietly. She held up a finger, then glanced at Zeke. He reached into his coat, pulling out a glass mask, and then flicked it. The crystalline structure shattered, and the glass shards swirled around us, forming a series of runes.

"That should keep us from being noticed." He said grimly. "I custom made it for a situation like this." He shot me a grim smile. "Thanks for the idea shane. Came to me after our talk. It should work even better than my normal Path masking." He turned to my mother. "I can't say much, but you should fill them in."

She nodded. "They're S-rankers." She said to me bluntly. "All of them."

I flinched. "Wait…what?" I was horrified. "But there are thirty of them. That would mean almost a third of the S-rankers in the universe are here."

"No." She cut me off. "These aren't anyone we would recognize. They're from…elsewhere."

I just stared at her. "What else is there? The universe is pretty much everything, right? They can't just conjure people out of nothing."

She sighed heavily. "It's too early for this. But fine. Do you know why there are only six gods? Why the six hunted down and killed the others?" Her eyes were scanning the room worriedly, and I saw the thirty figures come to a stop across from our S-rankers and begin talking.

"Not really." I admitted. "In fact, it seems kind of shitty. What happened to Suvaya was messed up."

She nodded solemnly. "It was. But it was also necessary. See, just like I mentioned to you, forming a Domain is a late step in cultivation. In fact, it's properly done at the Demigod level. Once you reach five hundred Impact, you form your Domain, and using your Saga as a base you fill it with power. In order to reach the god ranks your Saga has to be a certain level of power."

The term Saga was new, but I assumed from context it was what came after a Chronicle. "Ok, but what does that have to do with any of this?"

She acted like she hadn't heard me. "Once your Domain has been fully actualized, it sublimates, and you become a god. Your domain becomes a world, and you become a deity within that space. But much like a normal planet, the universe has a rank. The more worlds connected to it the higher it climbs."
My eyes narrowed at the doors. "What happens when a god dies." I asked, getting a very bad feeling.

"Their world disconnects from the universe, floating in the void like a soap bubble." My mother said worriedly. "But it isn't destroyed. I believe that Hallow was a sort of divine sacrificial ashes. They used it to connect the worlds of the six vanished gods to this universe. I suspect these aren't the main connection points though, because they don't seem very stable."

I glanced at the doors and realized she was right. They were starting to warp, signs of instability and damage appearing on the glowing frames. But the damage was done, there were thirty S-rankers here.

"So this is bad, right?" I asked quickly. "Because the six wouldn't kill other gods if they didn't have a good reason. What's so bad about the universe being elevated?"

She grimaced. "If the universe we live in breaks through, it will break through the void into a higher dimension. That's where some of the gods go when they Ascend, it's one of the choices you can make, using your world to drag yourself up into a higher realm. If it happens to the universe though, everyone goes up. In the higher realms, godhood is just the beginning. People like the six are common, and safety is much harder to find."

"So do the vanished gods want to make that happen? Is that what the war is about?" I asked anxiously. What she was talking about might not sound bad on the face of it, but I knew enough about Ascendants that a whole universe worth of weak cultivators would be a big flashing target for some of the assholes out there. I understood why they were holding us back.

"We don't know." She admitted. "Possibly? Or they might just be planning to butcher the Six and cannibalize their worlds. You can do that, use another gods world to empower your own. These worlds they're connecting have clearly been growing and preparing during their deaths. Five S-rankers each…and that might not even be the end."

I threw my hands up angrily. "So what? We're fucked now? There's nothing we can do but die?"

"Hardly." She said with a hard smile. "They made a big mistake coming here. We invited Lark. None of the vanished gods were alive when the Vampire first came on the scene. I imagine they're assuming his reputation is hot air. But he's basically invincible below god rank. I don't know how many of them he can reasonably take on at once though, being able to overpower someone is fine, but S-rankers have quite a bit of range. Plus we have backup coming."

I glanced around. "Where are they anyway? Shouldn't they be here already? We need help."

"They're trying to recruit our people under threat of death." My mother said with a shake of her head. "The backup will be waiting for the doors to collapse. If they see more show up they might try to force through another few S-rankers. Better to let the entrances disperse." her eyes narrowed. "Ezekial, give us sound, I need to know what's happening, they're getting agitated."

Zeke snapped his fingers, and suddenly I could hear a room full of noise. Breathing, muttering, teeth grinding, all the sounds I would expect.

"You think you can just come here and demand we bow to you?" Snarled Harrison, looking as angry as I'd ever seen him. "We're not toys for you to play with. Just because you have a few S-rankers with you doesn't mean you're a match for us. We have Demigods among our number."

The man in the lead, a ghoulishly pale man with blood red eyes, hair, and armor, grinned nastily. "Do you think we would be making this offer if you didn't? But a Demigod is still an S-ranker. We have some of our own, and you have far fewer people. You can bend the knee to our masters or you can die, trash, it makes no difference to us."

The woman next to him, a dark eyed lady with bronze skin and pitch black hair, scowled at him. At closer inspection, I realized she didn't have hair at all, but a waterfall of feathers falling down her back. "We were instructed to extend a courteous invitation, Roald."

"I'm getting sick of their arrogance." he snorted. "To imagine themselves a threat under these conditions. Just because one or two of them seems impressive by the standards of this decadent modern age. Back during the era of the gods this band of rabble would have been nothing but a guard division."

She rolled her eyes. "You're twenty thousand, Roald. You weren't alive during the era of the gods. You weren't even alive during the Aetherbright Empire. You spend too much time listening to Lord Hatescream's stories. The consensus was that we would offer them a chance."

Sneering, he turned back to the S-ranker on our side. "Fine. I apologize for my rudeness. We offer you sanctuary and fair treatment. To reach the S-rank, your talent can't be complete garbage. We'll even allow you to select a few subordinates to live through this. We'll need to slaughter most of these rabble to send a message, but you can save some of your descendants and students."

"What!?" Snapped another familiar voice. Pret came stalking out of the crowd. "That wasn't the deal! You promised me I'd become a core disciple of one of the gods. How am I supposed to rest easy knowing one of the S-rankers I betrayed is right down the hall?"

Roalds red eyes shifted. I'd have said they pinned Pret down, but they had no iris, nor sclera. They were just oceans of blood. It was hard to see where he was looking from his eyeballs, but easy to tell where his attention was settled by the pressure in the room. "I'm sorry." He said, softly. "Do you think garbage like you is worthy to demand answers of us? Who was your deal with, trash?"
Pret swallowed, his face paling as he gestured to one of the thirty. "It was Master Demonvein, he said-"

Roald's arm flashed out lazily, moving so quick I couldn't process it properly, and the man Pret had indicated fucking EXPLODED. The crowd screamed as blood and viscera pelted the surrounding bystanders, even fifty feet or so away. "Seems like he won't be able to make good on his deal, he said slyly.

The woman snarled in frustration. "Damn it Roald! You're not supposed to kill anyone on the invasion force. You were warned."

"Oops." He said with a shrug. "I forgot. Besides, it was just Demonvein. Lady Claydria doesn't even like him. She only tolerated him because his brother is one of her guard captains. I did her a favor."

I noted that despite her annoyance, she wasn't actually upset. This guy had just wasted an S-ranker with a casual blow and nobody batted an eye.

Behind the S-rankers, other forms resolved. A-rankers. I recognized the feeling of their Impact, same as Zeke and mom. Roald, the leader, seemed to get bored defending himself and started ignoring the woman, turning to the representatives. "Time is up trash, make your choice, or die." When they didn't answer, he grinned again. "Death it is. I'll handle you then. Sarris, take the others and cleanse this continent. Make it messy."

She sighed sadly. "I suppose I'll have to. A shame. You should have accepted the offer." Roald stepped forward slowly, approaching them as the other S-rankers menacingly turned and started to leave. He took three steps faster than I could blink, but was stopped by a fist the smashed into his chest, the arm caving in as he was sent flying across the room.

As I watched, black grass sprouted under our feet, and a blood red moon lit the sky above us. Morgan Lark, the Vampire, stared impassively at the downed form of the red armored man. "Your arrogance is as pathetic as it is amusing." He said coldly. This would be the formal scary mode Bethy had mentioned.

Roald rose to his feet, eyes darkening as wisps of bloody smoke came off the armor on his hands. "What are you waiting for." He roared. "I said go."

"They can't." Said Lark calmly. "They're being suppressed." His gaze flicked to the other representatives. "I'll keep them pinned down, but it'll take me a bit of effort. I'll need help cleaning up the majority. I can only take about ten of them myself when I'm keeping them penned in."

My grandfather grinned, smashing his fists together as ivory flame blazed up around him. "I can deal with a few. Can the reinforcements get in?"
Lark snapped his fingers, and there was an explosion as the doorways shattered. Dozens of A-rankers still filing in were shredded by the shards, exploding into blood mist, but none of it touched us.

There was a flicker, and another seven S-rankers blurred into existence on our side. Roald was glaring at Morgan, lips peeled back in a snarl of pure hate. "You're dead." He flicked his hand out and a storm of blood colored lightning smashed into the Vampire's steady form.

"Daddy!" Screamed Bethy, trying to run forward. My mom caught her, holding her still. The smoke cleared and Morgan stood there, unharmed and unconcerned, but as I watched he reached up and licked a couple sparks of bloody lightning from his fingers. And then it was on. And all I saw was violence.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Did he just eat that lightning?" I asked in shock as the battle began. None of the shockwaves were reaching us, all contained within Lark's Domain, but I saw some of the A-rankers spreading out, slipping through the edges. Apparently holding thirty S-rankers while fighting ten of them was tough even for the Vampire, because the small fries were slipping the net.

Bethy, who looked relieved he was ok, just giggled. "Of course not. That would be silly. Vampires don't eat lightning." I exhaled, nodding in relief. It was nice to know he had some kind of limit. Though maybe in the current situation not having any would be better. "That wasn't lightning at all. It was plasma."

I groaned but she didn't seem to be joking, and I rolled my eyes because the parent was as ridiculous as the child.

"Look, we need to go." I said bluntly, looking around. "I'd love to stay and make sure…his holiness is OK, but this isn't a place we can afford to stay, even with that domain active." I glanced at my mom. "Is there a fallback point?"

She nodded. "Not all of the reinforcements came. With an incursion this big they'd have left some of them outside to hold the line in case anyone escaped. If we can get past the blockade we should be fine." She paused. "Unless they break through. Then we're all going to die anyway. I don't see it happening though."

I could see in her face she had a lot of faith in Lark, but that didn't seem like enough to support this level of confidence. "Why do you say that?"

She grinned, pointing to a man next to my grandfather. He had dark skin and long hair braided into many thin plaits. He was holding a gleaming white sword, and his eyes were a featureless white. Like…the moon. "Wait, is that?"

"The Moonlight Pope." She said proudly. "The Red Revenant's first and strongest disciple. One of the three strongest S-rankers."

That was good. Still, I couldn't help but worry. We grouped up with mom, Zeke, and Andrew taking up a triangle formation around us, protecting the group from attackers and stray shots, and we headed for the exit. We were far from the only ones, but we had the most firepower, so we were able to push our way out of the crowd.

We reached a hallway and I was about to turn to head for the door, but mom stopped me. "This way." She said quietly. "There's an emergency exit tunnel deeper into the building. We'll go out through Flipside and hopefully avoid the majority of the fighting."

Heading into the building, we moved much slower than we had been before. Zeke took up the front position, and I could see him doing…something. A pulse of light that kind of hurt my eyes to look at was expelled from his hands, bouncing off the walls and floors until he came to an odd, semi invisible shape. Holding up a hand, he knelt and picked touched it in a few places, breaking down whatever the object was.

"How the hell did they have time set TRAPS?" Snapped Zeke as he stood up and stashed the device in his ring. "I swear, if I get my hands on that brat of Harrison's I'm going to make a mask out of a pig and trap him in it for eternity."

I blinked. "Can you actually do that?"

He shrugged. "Kid, I'm an A-ranker, I can do basically anything mask related I want to someone like him. I've never tried, but it shouldn't be too tough."

"Plot revenge later." Snarled my mother. "Survive now. People say the best revenge is living well, but even bad revenge is usually best enjoyed while still alive. Now let's go!" He nodded, then turned to leave…and froze.

A man stood in the way of our egress, tall and muscular with scars all over his pale, exposed chest. His head was wrapped entirely by an iron skull, his eyes blazing an unearthly green as they stared unblinking at us. I heard Andrew curse and turned around to find a smaller, frailer figure with a wide brimmed conical hat looking at us from beneath layers of wrapping bandages.

Beside her stood a lanky, bronze skinned man with a wide easy smile and red hair shaved across one side of his skull. Andrew and my mother took up positions between us and them as Zeke stepped in front of Skull guy. Snapping, my mother passed me a glowing gold orb.

"Wait until we're ten feet away and then break this." She commanded. She and Andrew stepped out to meet their enemy while Zeke did the same. Like she'd said, I smashed it when she was out of range, and a sphere of shimmering gold covered us, then sort of…rippled.

Space within changed, and Abel's head snapped up. "I don't know what that is." He said slowly. "But I don't think we're in the same dimension anymore."Skull mask lashed out at Zeke, who stepped easily aside and let the attack streak toward us.

I didn't flinch, I trusted my uncle implicity. The crackling green slash his palm had made passed right through us, and I knew Zeke had let him attack to prove there was no point in trying. The man snarled, turning his eerie focus back to my uncle. On the other side, the small figure in the hat spoke. "Five faction trash." It said in a screeching voice. "Your heads will please our masters."

"Gross." Said my mom. "Also irrelevant, because they please us too, and we're planning to keep them. Also possibly add yours to our collection, unless you turn around and beat it."

The person in the bandages giggled. "Oh really." They reached into their coat and withdrew a small shabby doll. Next it took out a small blonde hair and wrapped it around the doll's neck. I opened my Eye of Revelation and was barely able to stand as the complexity and power of the image knocked me for a loop. Still, I was able to stabilize myself enough to see a massive crouching demon holding a doll that looked like my mother in a stance that mirrored the figure.

They withdrew a nail from a pocket and punched it into their arm, coating it in thick blood, then drove it cruelly into the doll's arm.

The image did the same to the figure of my mother, and there was a bright flare of life as she snarled in annoyance. The demon howled and dropped her figure, its hands burning with white flame, and my mother just sneered. "You think I've never seen witchraft before?" She said lazily. "Thaumaturgical power like that doesn't work on someone like me. My Stellar Flame Fist is part of my soul. My whole body is sanctified with the flames of purification."

As she spoke, her eyes blazed with white fire, then they overflowed. Flames trailed down her cheeks like tears, spreading as the descended to coat her face and then the rest of her until her form was wreathed in flames. The red haired man beside the figure smiled unpleasantly, then vanished in a rumble of thunder, coming apart into a thousand lightning snakes.

My mother stepped forward, fist crushing the air as she shattered the snakes one at a time. Her punches weren't fast, or even slow, they just sort of ate the time and space between them and target, destroying the lag time with brute force as Cosmic Collapse gathered and then burst on each knuckle.

The figure in the hat vanished, appearing in front of Andrew, and held up another doll, this one a model of themselves. Andrew lashed out with his sword, and the figure made no move to dodge. The blade punched through their chest, but no blood came out. The doll split, stuffing flowing from the torso and the figure reached out and yanked out a piece of Andre's hair.

"Let's see if all of you are so immune to witchcraft." Cackled the figure, and it shoved the hair into the open wound on the doll. Behind it, the demon coalesced again, this time holding a copy of Andrew. With a malicious giggle, it grabbed the doll by both arms and pulled.

There was a horrendous tearing and a scream and Andrew's arms came at the shoulders. My mother's head snapped around in rage and I saw her scream as a lightning snake drilled through her achilles tendon, almost falling before she forced herself to focus. He fist lashed out in a backhand, crushing another snake before her elbow destroyed a followup serpent.

Andrew looked like he was about to die, but there was a burst of flame, and a hooded figure drilled a rapier through the hat wearing witchcraft user, spearing through the shoulder and driving them back. The doll seemed unable to keep up with the damage and burst into flames, tearing a scream from the person as the caught flame themself.

The figure engaged the snakes, and my mother hurried over to Andrew. She pushed one of the arms against his shoulder and punched, and there was a roar of white flame as she…destroyed the damage, reattaching the arm. I was shocked as she repeated the technique, helping him up before sending him to help Zeke's mask. She engaged the witchcrafter directly, but they did something. Reaching into their coat, they withdrew another doll, this one looking like the demon I'd seen. They tossed it into the air and the doll expanded, the figure shrinking to doll size as the demon took its place.

My mother snarled, blurring forward to meet the beast, and it bared razor sharp obsidian teeth as it began trading blows with her. The purification flames didn't seem to affect it too much, and her explosive punches only blew small holes that healed themselves over time.

"A fucking Tulpa?" She snapped. "Who uses those anymore? You know they kill their maker almost every time, right?"

The witch doll cackled. "Risk follows power, girl! If I were you I'd be more worried about yourself. Or rather, about your little friend." The doll gestured past my mother, who didn't bother looking reengaging the demon. I did though, and what I saw made my blood run cold.

I'd taken Zeke's badassery for granted, but sending that mask to help my mom had clearly cost him. Several masks lay shattered on the ground around him, hooded cloaks draped over them. Zeke himself was lashing out with blood colored flaming punches at the man he was fighting, but his mask was cracked in half, exposing a portion of a ruined burnt out face.

The skull masked man wasn't bragging, or taunting. He wasn't making a sound. He was simply oncoming. Inevitable. Implacable. Palm after palm lashed out with a sickening green light, and they crushed Zeke's attacks and avenues of escape.

My mother drove the demon back enough to see my uncle and screamed. "No!" She blurred through the golden space we occupied, fist lashing out at the skull masked man, who crushed her punch with one palm, even as the other acted independently to suppress Zeke. Andrew launched himself at the man from across the hall, sword spearing out at his throat, and leaving the other two to follow and try to attack from behind.

The skull masked man didn't flinch or slow, he fought all three of them at once. I felt my blood run cold at the ease with which he handled them. This was someone very scary. An A-ranker who would be considered an elite. Maybe not on the same level as Lark, but my mom wasn't even halfway through A-rank as far as I knew, and Zeke had just gotten there.

As the three A-rankers surrounded our protectors, my stomach twisted itself into knots. This wasn't going to be pretty, and it wasn't going to nice. I was just desperately hoping I didn't have to watch my mother and uncle die tonight. I didn't think I could take it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"You alright?" My mother asked Zeke as she briefly put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. My uncle looked ghastly, half his face a pristine porcelain white, half a burned and mangled mess. All three of the fighters from our side were watching the skull masked man, worriedly waiting for his next move.

Zeke nodded tightly. "M'fine." He mumbled. "Split my attention trying to help you. Rookie mistake. I've been getting cocky, just because I've never heard of this guy I assumed he wasn't anything special. Hey, you, the macabre bastard in the headgear, what's your name."

The witch doll cackled from where it sat between the demons horns. "You speak to the chosen of the Lady of Lamentation, his excellency Tartarus, youngest of the Unholy Eight."

"Are you two also members?" Zeke said snarkily. "Because that's a lot less impressive to me. I don't think I could be afraid of a group with members like you." Despite his casual words, I could tell he was keeping a close eye on Tartarus, worried he might attack again.

The demon snickered, earning a hiss of disapproval from the doll. "Fool." The witch doll sneered in its high pitched voice. "We are no members of the Unholy Eight. Merely underlings accompanying Lord Tartarus on his journey. The Eight are comprised of the most dangerous champions of the six gods. To reach that step at merely A-rank, one can truly see how monstrous Lord Tartarus is."

Smirking, the redhead chimed in. "Our Lord follows the Path of Lamentation and has been given a Domain seed by the lady herself."

My stomach dropped out. That…that was bad. My mom had been teaching me more about cultivation. One of the biggest things was that Domains shouldn't be established early on except in VERY specific circumstances. The only time she'd mentioned it being anything less than a crippling problem was in the case of Bethy, whose legend was most likely going to be close enough to her father's to use a piece of his Domain to form her own.

Bethy was probably the scariest E-ranker I'd ever seen, and I was pretty sure that wasn't just because I was inexperienced. If this guy was like Bethy, we might be in serious trouble. Hell, he might be worse, because for all his terrifying strength, Lark wasn't a god. No wonder this person was admitted into a group of people that sounded like they were almost entirely comprised of S-rankers.

I was pretty sure I was right about how bad a situation this was, because my mom's face had gone ghastly pale. My mom, who had two abilities and was considered one of the strongest A-rankers in the entire Red Revenant Church, was afraid.

"Sasha." Zeke said stonily. "You and Andrew deal with the small fries. You can jump in to help when you're finished."

Her eyes widened in horror. "What? Ezekiel…Zeke. What are you going to do?"

I saw the cracked and burned skin of his face tear as he forced himself to smile. "Whatever I have to."

Reaching down, he withdrew a mask. Then another, then another. Five different masks, then he reached up and peeled the half destroyed one off his face. But he didn't stop there, he reached down and did something I'd seen him do one in battle, he grabbed his own burned face and peeled it off slowly, revealing a blank mask of white porcelain underneath.

He placed those two in the air in front of him with the others, all of them floating in a line, and then he snapped.

The first mask exploded, then the next. One by one they burst, and each time they did the pressure around him redoubled, stacking and condensing,slowly pushing him to a higher state of being.

Power beat the air like a maelstrom as the masks burst, until finally, the last one broke. The mask that looked like Zeke's face, and there was one final shift. No, not a shift, an ascension. Zeke grew, his Impact pushing him higher up until he stood just beneath the S-rank. He hadn't crossed that line, because I was pretty sure it would kill him, but he came infinitely close.

"What are you doing?" Snapped my mother in terror. "You can't break that mask. You could die. No, more than that, your soul could shatter. If he kills you in that state…"

And I closed my eyes in pain, because my worries were confirmed. Zeke could destroy his masks to overclock their powers, but destroying the mask that was his own face…what the hell was going to happen? Was he already dead? My mom seemed to think not, but how easy would it be for him to lose here?

"You talk too much." Zeke said, power beating on the air from his words. "Go deal with the minions." And then he vanished.

He reappeared behind Tartarus, fist lashing out like a shooting star and smashed into the still turning mask. The huge man staggered, the air cracking like the boom of a cannon with the impact, but didn't go down. He turned on a heel, palm smashing up at Zeke's chin from a low angle, but my uncle was gone.

The teleportation power was the same as the one I'd seen from the Duke, and black destructive energy wreathed his fists. He stomped his foot and dark twisted roots tore from the ground, ones I remembered well from the games.

His masks had been made from new souls, perhaps ones he had saved, I didn't know. I could see some duplicates of his old powers, as well as some new ones.
These weren't discrete abilities though. They were part of him. They'd blended together into one gestalt whole, amplified by the breaking of his self mask, and his mastery over those powers was instinctual and brutally efficient.

Tartarus was driven back, and my mom and Andrew attacked the other two, pushing them back in their shock as they watched their boss get pummeled. But sadly, it wasn't over yet. Tartarus pressed his palms together as if in prayer, and the crackling green energy on each hand harmonized, then expanded.

Before our eyes, a Domain took shape, a black jagged cliff made of blood stained iron overlooking an ocean of poison green light. Above the sea sat an unearthly stretched face, pale skin pulled up at the corners to reveal a gaping black abyss of a mouth ringed with jagged black iron teeth, black sclera'd eyes with glowing green irises beaming gleefully down at us all.

Zeke stumbled, the power on his body wavering, but it didn't falter, just sort of crushed inward as if restricted. His blank white mask reflected the unearthly light.

Tartarus flickered, a palm smashing down at Zeke as he appeared in front of my uncle, and Zeke's teleportation seemed to stall slightly under the Domain. He forced it through, but the palm grazed him as he blinked out, and as he reappeared, there was an explosion of blood as a palm print appeared from inside his back, blowing away muscle as if launched from within him.

He hissed in pain, and a golden light lit up the palm print, but it fizzled as it met crackling green energy, stalling out whatever that was supposed to do.

Tartarus came again, and Zeke teleported faster, having clearly figured out the trick, but while his teleportation was back to full speed, his body wasn't. He traded blows, tearing gouged from Tartarus even as more palm strikes landed on him, and the bloody exposed palm gouges on his back started to accumulate.

The more they fought, the weaker Zeke seemed to get. Tartarus was flagging too, the pseudo S-rank power my uncle was wielding too much even for his Domain, but it wasn't happening fast enough, and I was pretty sure the power was as tough on Zeke as it was on the enemy.

There was a pair of explosions, and my mother appeared, Andrew at her side, at the edge of the Domain. She snarled, body flaring with white light, and punched out. The edge of the green see was so close, but so infinitely far. There was a ripple in the Domain, but no more.

Her eyes widened in panic and she screamed, fists crashing into the bubble of otherworldly space like rain sheeting on rough stone. Implacable as the tide, she punched, a torrent of white flame exploding against the edges of a world, trying to get inside to help her friend, but no matter how hard she struck it wasn't enough.

Zeke was barely standing now. His pseudo S-rank body was all that was keeping him up, but something was happening. The mask on his face was cracking, and rivulets of warm mercury were oozing out.

I remembered what my mother said earlier about his soul shattering. Zeke's soul was mercury, one level off from mirror. If a mercury soul broke you couldn't bring that person back, even with a Wish from the Wishmaster himself. Only mirror souls would retain their selfhood when shattered. That was why you needed one to become a god.

My uncle was dying right in front of me, and nothing was going to be able to bring him back. I heard someone screaming, cursing and pleading and crying, and I realized it was me, and Bethy and Abel each had one of my arms, and they were holding me back because I was trying to charge out of our protective sphere to run to my uncle and help him.

Mom was openly weeping, pounding on the Domain until her fists cracked and bled shining burning blood, but she couldn't get in, and we watched in horror as Zeke collapsed to his knees, mercury soul leaking from that blank white mask.

Tartarus pulled back his palm and it blurred down towards the mask, towards Zeke's face and soul, to deliver the final execution blow that would shatter my uncle forever and wipe him from existence.

And then he stopped. His palm froze an inch from Zeke's head, unable to move forward another inch. I saw something twined into his fingers and up his arm, and followed it back to see his whole body was wrapped in liquid metal chains. No, not liquid metal, mercury. He was wrapped in souls.

Behind him were three figures, a pair of creatures of living mercury, kneeling down and pressing hands to the ground, extending their essence around him like restraints, and in the middle, a man with pitch black hair and blood red skin, with horns on his forehead and golden eyes that used to be the same green as mine.

He stood there placidly, hands folded on a dark cane with a mirror skull at the head, and his eyes fixed coldly on Tartarus. "Who exactly," Asked Elijah Wyndham, the wish devil. "Do you think you're putting your hands on?"

The dark wood of the cane tapped the black iron cliff, and the mirror skull flashed as it cracked, splitting in two, fragmenting the Domain itself in the process, and it dissolved like smoke, leaving them all standing in the hallway we'd first been in.

Mom blurred forward, catching Zeke as he collapsed forward. She examined him worriedly. "I can't fix this." she said in panic. "My purification isn't optimized for something like this, Eli, he needs-"

He reached into a pocket, pulling out a vial full of shimmering reflective elixir. "Soul Serum." He said, tossing it to her. "That should stabilize him until we get him to someone who can heal the damage. It'll stop his soul from shattering." She shot him an adoring smile that I recognized as being just like the ones Callie gave me, and I felt a confusing jumble of emotions as I saw them interact. Now wasn't the time for that though.

My father's eyes slid back to the restrained skull masked man. "In the meantime, I'll get this out of our way. Remind me to have a talk with the venue owners. It's poor manners to leave one's trash in the hallway." Tartarus heaved, tearing through the soul chains and blurring towards him, and my dad tapped his cane again, and the fight was on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My dad didn't seem even remotely worried about the fight. Tartarus struck out brutally with a palm, aiming for his head, but the two mercury demons (I could see now that they had horns and tails, though they looked pretty generic otherwise) appeared in front of him. The palm smashed into the head of one, splattering mercury everywhere, while the second had ducked down and pointed his horns at the skull masked man's stomach.

The momentum of the attack gored him, and he snarled, leaping back to get distance. The mercury head reformed, though crackling green scattered through the body. My dad frowned in irritation, then tapped his cane three more times.

Another three shapes rose from the ground, also made of mercury. Souls. He was using actual souls directly in combat.

"You're certainly a more irritating opponent than expected." He said blandly. "But I suppose you wouldn't have had such an easy time with Zeke if you weren't. Even freshly Ascended he isn't the type to be dealt with simply."

Tartarus, who up until this point had been silent, finally spoke. "Who" rumbled a deep and menacing voice from the depths of the mask. "Are you?"

"Depends who you ask." He said with a shrug. "A disappointment as a father. A failure as a son. An absent husband, an irritating best friend. A monster. A nightmare. I have many faces, though perhaps not quite as many as some." He shot a look at where mom was trying to patch up Zeke. "I think today I am just an obstacle. Or simply your death."

Tartarus snorted. "You think a few disembodied souls will be enough to kill me? I follow the Path of a god."

"Oh." My dad said conversationally. "Then you're an idiot."

We all looked at him blankly. Tartarus growled dangerously. "What did you say? You would cast aspersions on the power of my lady?'

"Not at all." His eyes flicked past me to my sister. "Chelsea." He said benevolently. "Pay attention to what I'm about to say, because it will be important for you to know. It is functionally impossible for two people on the same Path to become gods."

I gritted my teeth. I knew as a WCP representative he wasn't allowed to offer me advice, not to mention that tidbit had been more important to her as someone who was using grandpa's ability. But still, being ignored like that made me want to scream. Chelsea looked confused. "Why?" She asked quietly, clearly as torn over how to address dad as I was.

Dad waved a hand at Tartarus without looking, and the five souls surrounded him, standing at five points around him. "Imperial Demon Funeral." Said my father absently, and all five souls caught fire. Red black flames consumed them, driving Tartarus screaming to his knees, and my father continued to ignore him as he was crushed to the ground.

"Being a god means embodying the entirety of your Path." He told her as if nothing important was going on. Domain seeding someone on a similar Path isn't inherently bad, Paths can change, but trying to directly follow the Path of a divine being is a dead end. Hell, even following it to S-rank is nearly impossible, despite how powerful the wish ability is and how easy it makes things. Why do you think I threw away my complete wish ability?"

I'd wondered about that. The wish ability let us essentially make stats out of nothing. We all grew so absurdly fast, maybe not all as quick as me given my head start, but still, it would be maybe five years tops before I hit the peak of S-rank at this rate. Path stuff would be a problem, but if the Wishmaster had already created a proper path he should have been able to help.

Granted, mom's reveal about why there were so few gods meant I got why no one else reached that step. But dad was right, there should have been more S-rankers than just the thirteen we had.

I thought about the reason, then it clicked. "It's the renown. Anyone trying to follow the same Path to the finish line has to compete against someone with an absurd amount of renown."

I wanted to know more, but sadly he didn't have a chance to reply, Tartarus gave a wordless scream and stood, his Domain exploding out of him and banishing the red black flame and the souls it was consuming.

"What an absurd person." Said dad distastefully. "Those souls don't grow on trees, you know. I'll have to take yours as payment."

Slamming his cane down again, another thirteen mercury figures rose from the ground, coalescing into those some featureless demonic puppets. "Watch closely children." He said coldly. "This is my answer to a power that surpasses even the Wishmaster."

The mirror skull on his cane started to glow, and as I watched, the souls changed. They shifted into more substantial and unique shapes, all becoming actual people. With a snarl, they leapt forward, hands blazing with power, weapons drawn, and more than a dozen different fully formed A-rankers began to rain down attacks on Tartarus.

I doubted it would have been so effective if thirteen normal A-rank cultivators had attacked him, but then, this wasn't normal. They acted like one body, moving perfectly in sync, as if they all had the same kind of bond as Callie and I, thirteen hands moving under the will of one mind.

I was blown away. How had he done this? How was he using so much power without damaging himself? And then it clicked. The skull. That wasn't just a mirrored cane, it was a mirror SOUL. It was just like the mercury souls, except he'd condensed it into some kind of control device. He was casually using the souls of other people as weapons without straining himself at all.

This was what he'd meant, I realized. His new ability, the power of the wish devil. To trade for the souls of others and keep them at his beck and call.

"My soul?" Laughed Tartarus darkly. "How exactly do you plan to do that?"

My dad reached into his black velvet waistcoat and pulled out a golden scroll. Unfolding it he casually reached down, dipped two fingers in the blood from Tartarus's goring by the devil horns, and leisurely scrawled his name at the bottom of a crowded document.

The name flashed with a terrible red light, and then shifted from a messy blood scrawl to flowing penmanship. "A contract is a funny thing." My father said calmly. "It is a binding document that enforces a deal between two people. But not all contracts are willingly entered. This particular ability is called Punitive Contract."

Tartarus snarled and tried to rush him, but the souls had him locked down. Even trying to push them back with his Domain wasn't working, because there was so many that as soon as he stopped to try to push them, at least six of them hit him simultaneously from behind.

"Punitive contract is a very special skill." My father continued. "It only works if the person in question is aware of its use, and of the parameters for its execution. In this case, you activated the requirements by almost killing my best friend, and then subsequently being attacked by me and shedding blood."

With a wild howl, Tartarus managed to push through the crowd of souls, attacking my dad directly, but my father simply twirled his cane between his fingers, knocking aside the palm as he stepped casually aside.

The souls surrounded them, and suddenly he was a part of their terrible dance, becoming the focal point of the attacks, every movement in harmony with the assault of his mercury army. I watched Tartarus land a hit on his coat, and was shocked to see it rebound, because that wasn't black velvet, it was woven Obsidian. Even his outfit was made of souls.

"The final step to execute the Punitive Contract is to fulfill a condition you refuse to allow." My father said as his cane lashed out and smashed Tartarus's knee. The big man stumbled, the followup strike of the flashing mirrored skull slamming into his mask.

Metal collapsed, the helmet crumpling inward under the force, and Tartarus stumbled back into the waiting arms of the soul army.

"You can't do this." Mumbled Tartarus through broken teeth. The last blow had mostly crushed his lower jaw. "I am a champion of the Lady of Lamentation. I serve the will of a divine being. She won't let you take my soul."

My father just smiled vindictively. "Take it? My dear boy, you've just given it to me. Your defeat completes the contract. Perhaps she can save you, but then, Skills usually have so much trouble with souls. Let's find out." He unfurled the contract again, and snapped his fingers, leaving his cane to sit upright on its own.

Tartarus stiffened, screams trying to wring their way out of his throat, but something had them blocked. He choked and gagged, and as I watched, horrified, a pair of hands emerged from his broken mouth. Mercury hands that grabbed his mouth from either side and pulled.

I grimaced as Tartarus's soul tore its way out of his mouth, ripping him apart as it emerged, a quicksilver copy of the monstrous warrior. My dad grimaced, lifting his cane off the bloody ground and wiping it on the mercury pants of the copy. "Messy." He said distastefully.

The being formerly know as Tartarus stood silently at attention among the throngs of souls, waiting for orders. My dad stepped back out of the blood and tapped his cane again, and the thirteen souls disappeared, leaving only his newest acquisition. "Go pick up Zeke." He told it dispassionately. "You injured him, it's the least you can do."

Nodding jerkily, the now once again skull masked man headed over and lifted my uncle effortlessly.

My dad strode over, offering my mother his hand urbanely. "Honey." He said with a small smile. "I'm home." Her beaming smile was so bright it almost hurt to look at. Literally, she was still in her fire form. But if faded away as she took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.

After staring into each other's eyes for a moment, he turned to walk over to us. He tapped the golden barrier with the head of his cane and it shattered, coalescing back into the orb it had been, which he deftly caught. He nodded to Chelsea and me. We stared at each other for a few seconds.

Stepping forward, I reached up and gave him a tight hug…then stepped back and punched him full force in the throat. "Fuck." I snapped as I heard (and felt) a bunch of bones crack in my hand.

"Feel better?" He asked in a tone so bland it couldn't be anything but smug.

I glared at him. "No you asshole, my fucking hand is broken!" But I actually kind of did, in a weird way. Jessie stepped forward, taking my hand in hers, and started manually manipulating the small bones back into position with her thumbs (an experience I never wanted to go through again) and then flooded it with life energy.

Luckily it seemed that the injury didn't really count as being inflicted by an A-ranker, so it didn't take long to heal. My mother smiled in wry amusement. "I suppose I should have included a lesson on not punching things more than four ranks above your weight class."

"Wouldn't have helped." I said as I flexed my now repaired hand. "Some things need to be done, even if they're stupid. Now let's get out of here." Turning away from my dad, I stalked off down the corridor. Then I stopped as I got a mental message from Callie.

Sighing internally, I leaned down, picked up a random piece of debris from the fight, and stormed back down the way I'd come. I held up the rock. "I needed this." I snapped as I did my best not to meet anyone's eyes. Everyone kept quiet, pretending I hadn't just gone the wrong way. Small victories.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We had been walking through the halls for about twenty minutes when everything changed. A wave of…something passed over us, and as it did, the ground changed, black grass sprouting below us as light from a crimson moon spilled over our forms.

"It's over." Sighed my mother in relief. We all turned, and sure enough, Tricorn was gone. The whole central location had vanished consumed by the colossal domain of the universe's most terrible monster.

In its place, a terrifying castle of black rusted iron loomed over us, backlit by the red moon.

On each of the parapets I saw a figure standing proud and tall. One was easily recognizable as my grandpa, one a tall man with dark skin and long hair in a series of braids, and the one at the front, the familiar form of Morgan Lark.

"Greetings." Said Lark in a sepulchral voice. He didn't yell, he didn't need to. Everyone in his Domain could hear him perfectly.

His crimson eyes blazed as they burned down at his dark kingdom. "As you may all be aware, we have suffered an attack. The enemy sent their monsters out among us to sow terror and hopelessness, to teach us our place under their boot."

He snapped his fingers and two dozen plus red torches lit up along the battlements of the castle, illuminating a terrifying scene.

Heads. Thirty heads of thirty S-rankers mounted on spikes around the perimeter of the castle walls. Morgan's ghoulish smile was visible from every inch of the Domain, somehow the central focus, pulling our eyes to his bared fangs. "They were wrong."

Reaching down, he lifted the headless body of Roald as if he was a child brandishing a toy. "These so called vanished gods are fools. Arrogant little toads frivolously spending the lives of their cherished soldiers by fruitlessly hurling them at us to break against our walls. Screaming impotently into the void of our power with their mewling little voices."

"As of this moment." Rang my grandfather's voice as the Vampire stopped talking. "The five faction alliance, the independent faction, and the Wish Curse Palace are jointly at war with the forces of Hatescream and his cohorts. They've fired a shot across our bow and failed spectacularly. They think that age and accumulation will cow us, that their stockpiled fodder can overcome us. They are mistaken."

Morgan's eyes glowed even brighter, seeming to spear all of us individually as he glared down from his lofty perch. "Those of you who are spies, bear witness. Look upon the fate of our enemies, and carry it back to your masters. And may your gods have mercy on your souls. Because ours certainly will not."

Then all three of them vanished, leaving the heads on spikes lit by red moonlight that had cast them only in shadows before, and the dancing bloody light of crimson flame.

"Show-off." Said my dad sourly. "Well, we'd better get back then. Clearly everything is over. I wonder if we lost anyone. I'm surprised my prince wasn't up there with them."

I raised a brow at him, saying in a flat tone. "Oh right, a devil I talked to said that you were a general for the Demon Prince Adramalech. He came with you?" I didn't know much about where he'd gone, but I was a bit torn on how to treat him. I mean, he'd just saved Zeke's soul, but he was also a huge dick.

"Of course." He said with a chuckle. "The devils are part of the hierarchy of the Fairieland. They answer to the Queen just like the Princes and Princesses of the fae. The Tricorn is partly owned by us, so we'd naturally come to support when they asked for backup."

I frowned. "Was this whole thing just one big trap?" I asked bluntly. "So many things about the conclave scream setup from the outside looking in. Were we just bait?"

"Above my paygrade." He said nonchalantly. "But I doubt it. Now let's get back. I suspect everyone will be congregating at the foot of that castle. Otherwise what would be the point of making it such an obvious central location."

I nodded, and we turned around, heading back. I wanted to try to find someone who could heal, because Zeke was seriously messed up. Even with the serum dad gave him, his condition wasn't good, even if it was stable. Maybe a Life Nova could help, but I'd see if there were any A or S-rankers present who might be able to patch him up better.

We made good time getting back, and sure enough, when we found everyone, they were crowded around the base of the castle.

"Well look what we have here." Sneered Craygen. "The golden boy candidate is getting help from his daddy. Maybe I should tell Aiden exactly how little you think of the Wish Curse Palace, you fucking traitor."

My dad glanced at him dully. "I'm sorry…who are you? I don't mean to offend, but I meet so many insignificant nobodies day to day that I lose track of names and faces. You're…I want to say Jeffrey? Is that right?" I remember you were one of the lickspittles my cousin used to tote around, but you all look the same to me."

"You arrogant scum!" Roared Craygen. "You and your spawn both, you think you can afford to ignore someone like me? Just wait until he reaches D-rank and loses that protection. I'll make sure his final screams are an apology for taking away my daughter!"

I expected a screaming or snarky retort, but my dad just stared at him for a moment. "You know…I believe you." He tapped his cane once, and a mercury flash shot out through the grass, it wound up Craygen's ankle too fast for us to even see, wrapped around his neck, and then tightened like a garotte, slicing through his throat.

Craygen's eyes were wide and shocked as they stared in confusion at my father, still locked onto his face as Craygen's head tumbled slowly off his shoulders, thumping onto the grass as the man's body dropped to his knees.

I watched in shock as the mercury snake down into the hole in Craygen's neck, dragging out long wisp of mercury and choking it down quickly. With a flash it retreated to my dad's side, darting up the cane to vanish into the eyehole of the mirrored skull.

Everyone went silent. That had been…not what he'd done to Tartarus. But I realized why as a massive weight of horrible pressure crashed down over us, driving me and everyone below A-rank to our knees. "Elijah." Boomed Harrison's enraged voice. "How dare you! Do you think nothing of the Palace?"

As soon as the pressure arrived, it vanished, and a gigantic man with purple swirled skin and horns emerged from behind my father, baring bright white teeth. "Calm down Harrison, no need to make a fuss."

"ADRAMALECH!" Howled the enraged representative. "Remove yourself from my business. Elijah killed one of my cohort. That debt must be paid."

My dad just sneered at him. "Oh stuff it Harrison. Everyone knows you're the weakest S-ranker in the Palace. The only thing you ever did right was have a freak for a son. He threatened my boy to my face. As far as I'm concerned, he committed suicide by stupidity. So keep your gaping face closed and go find someone else to pester."

The big Demon Prince laughed. "Well said Eli. Suicide by stupidity indeed. Of course, if you demand satisfaction I'd be happy to oblige Harrison. What do you say? Want to dance with the devil?"

"There will be no dancing here." Cut in a cold and familiar voice. "Mostly because I've seen you dance Dram, and nobody needs to witness that a second time." Morgan emerged from the crowd, looking amused. "What's all this about now. We just won a great victory. And with hardly any casualties."

At the term hardly any I glanced around, trying to find out who had died. I noticed to my surprise that the Deathwish Pope was gone. Glancing at my grandfather, I caught a slight look of smugness on his face that made me suspect it might not have been entirely in the line of fire.

"This…mongrel." Spat Harrison. "Murdered my lieutenant in cold blood."
My dad cleared his throat. "That is a lie, sir. I assure you the blood of everyone involved was quite warm. Ninety eight degrees or so. It should still be steaming on the grass a bit."

Morgan nodded solemnly. "It's true, that's what temperature blood is. Do you not know that?"

"He threatened Eli's son." Said Adramalech casually. "So he deserved what he got. I offered satisfaction. I can fight him if he wants revenge."

The Vampire nodded. "I'll allow it." He said after a minute.

"What?" Squawked Harrison. "This is an outrage. How dare you ignore this? My son will hear about-"

Morgan pinned him with a glare, eyes glowing red. "Because you ANNOY me." He said sharply. "Your lieutenant annoyed me. And your son annoys me. If you feel the need to seek vengeance on ME, you can go ahead and attempt to rouse your great grandfather from his retirement to come get it, but since I doubt he remembers your NAME, I wouldn't bother."

I had to choke down a laugh at that, but I forced myself not to make a noise. "Now." Continued Morgan. "If you're done taking a flamethrower to the thin ice you were already on, perhaps we might turn our attention to dealing with the traitor in our midst."

He snapped his fingers, and a pitch black coffin in the rough shape of a person erupted from the grass, falling open to expose the perforated but mostly intact body of Pretseltsen Birchus, who stared glassily around, whining slightly under his breath. Harrison's face grew stormy. "You!" He said, his anger at my dad momentarily forgotten.

"Caught the little bastard trying to slip out after he realized the people he betrayed us for might not be as nice as he expected." Morgan said with a nasty smile. "I thought maybe the WCP would be willing to pay for the privilege of…questioning him."

Harrison's face adopted that same grim, unforgiving smile. "You know. I do believe we may be able to work something out." Morgan snapped, and the coffin clanged shut, then he headed over to hoist it onto one shoulder and the two of them walked off in another direction, several other S-rankers following.

My grandfather checked in on us, but once he knew we were alright, he was whisked away by my mother to find a healer for Zeke, while my dad went with Adramalech to sit in on negotiations.

Once they were gone, I stared after them. Chelsea came up to stand next to me. "That was…a lot." She said numbly.

I nodded. "It really was. "I have no idea what the hell is going on, or what's GOING to go on after this. I guess the war is officially beginning." I couldn't think of many ways this could have gone better for us, and that made me pretty damned suspicious.

"Where does that leave the rest of us?" She said worriedly. "Are we supposed to go join in right away? We did train for it."

I snorted. "Fuck that." I said bluntly. "This nonsense is over, and my ass is getting on a ship back to Callus to have my damned wedding. You can come of course, but I understand if you would rather head to the front lines."

This time she snorted. "Ridiculous. I wouldn't miss your wedding for anything. Plus Callie already asked me to be a bridesmaid. You're not getting rid of me that easy."

I smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder, and stared off after the S-rankers. As we watched, the Domain closed, leaving us all standing in that same ballroom as before, looking that much the worse for wear. Guess the party wasn't over.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next hour or two was excruciating. Callie tried to get me to dance with her to take my mind off things, but in the end I just sat there staring at my shoes for two hours until my mom called for us to come find her. We hurried down the hall after the page she sent, and when we entered the surprisingly plush back room, we found Zeke lying in bed looking drained.

"You almost died. Ass." I accused my uncle. "What am I supposed to do if you kick the bucket? Do you know how mopey Stella would get? And Amelia and Alexander both consider you friends. You would have ruined the whole wedding."

He grinned weakly. "How selfish of me." He said wryly. "I heard Eli was here?"

"I punched him in the throat." I said proudly. "I broke SO MUCH of my hand. Just like…all the bones."

The shocked burst of laughter he let out devolved into a coughing fit, and we all waited anxiously for it to pass. "Ow." He with a chuckle. "Try not to make me laugh. Everything hurts. I think I dislocated my brain."

"That presupposes you have one." Said my mother waspishly. "Which is very much in doubt at this point." He rolled his eyes and flipped her off, which just elicited a glare.

I shook my head solemnly. "Don't be ridiculous. Of course he has a brain." She raised an eyebrow at me as Zeke nodded smugly, and I continued with a grin. "He's not stupid, he's an idiot. Being an idiot means you have a brain but decide not to use it. Much dumber."

"Hey!" Snapped my uncle in an offended tone. "I was saving your life!"

"Well do it better next time!" I snapped back. "If you die in the process that's not success, it's like…barely above failure. I won't have you half assing things like this." He looked like he wanted to retort, but he went silent. I sat there uncomfortable for a minute before I finally said. "I'd be pretty fucking devastated if you died."

He smiled wryly. "I'm not exactly itching for that outcome myself. But better me than you, kid."

My mom swallowed hard. "Thank you, Ezekiel." She said solemnly. "For everything. We owe you more than we can say."

"But not enough to use my proper name." He said sourly. "I'm on my deathbed, woman, you can't cut me some slack?" I saw the color come back to his cheeks as they argued and smirked as I saw mom badged him the same way Maria had badgered Benny and I as kids. They really were like siblings.

She scoffed. "Please, you've already been healed. This is a painbed at worst. Don't be such a baby."

"See if I save your kids again." He complained with a pout. "I get no respect."

I rolled my eyes and reached into my ring, pulling out a few muffins and a plate along with a hot mug of cocoa (the best thing about spatial storage was keeping hot food at peak freshness) before shoving them towards him. "If you can complain you can eat. Have some muffins, you look like you got hit by a bus."

"I feel like I got hit by a bus." He admitted. "Made of S-rank sharks." He sniffed the muffins and took a bite. "Bran." He said with a grimace. "You don't have anything better?"

I shrugged. "The chocolate chip are for Callie. She gets snacky. I have zucchini too, but I know you hate those. Bran is good for you…for some reason. I admit I have no idea why, but it's supposed to be healthy."

He glared at me, taking a bite of the fresh muffin with a thunderous expression but not willing to complain about it any more. I just smirked behind my mask as he sipped the cocoa.

"So…" I said after a minute of awkward silence. "Is this over? The banquet was supposed to be the end, right? So we can leave? Or is this mess going to strand us here for the foreseeable future."

My mom shook her head. "Killian is already on the way back. He'll take us all to Callus."

"And by all you mean…" I trailed off hopefully. She gave me a gentle smile, pressing a hand to my masked cheek sadly.

"I mean those of us who came together." She said kindly. "Your father…stepping in to help was already beyond what he feels he should have done. He told me to tell you he was sorry. He can't come to the wedding. Having both of us there with both of you is too much. Chelsea provides a reason for me to be there, especially after this mess, but Eli…"

Someone would notice. I knew she was right. Being around me was one thing, but putting him next to Chelsea for a long period of time was asking for trouble. I looked almost exactly like my dad, barring a few minor features that could be brushed aside, but Chelsea was more a mix of our parents.

"He's such a dick sometimes." Sighed Zeke. "Couldn't have told the kid himself? I'm guessing he's already gone then?"

She grimaced. "Adramalech was just backup. He and the other S-rankers and their entourages couldn't afford to stick around. My dad let me know they were leaving about an hour ago." She reached out, plucking something from the air, and handed it to me. "He wanted you to have this, though."

It was a small square object, flat and wrapped in paper. A wedding gift, I supposed.

I tore the paper, and inside was a small picture frome. In the frame was a photo of four people. Two of them were obviously recognizable, and two of them were familiar enough to figure out their identities, despite the age difference. A smiling couple with blonde hair, each holding a child on their hip, one the same sandy blonde as the man, and the other with distinctive black and white hair.

Mom glanced down at it and swallowed hard. "I didn't realize there were any copies of that left. We took it on your second birthday. We didn't take many pictures, and most of the ones we had were destroyed when we split you up."

I noticed that the paper was folded in the center, creased deeply as if it had been opened and closed many times.

My reaction to the image was…complicated. I'd never seen my dad smile like that. Hell, given he had red skin and horns I didn't know if I'd EVER seen my dad's real face before today. He'd become a devil when I was younger, so he must have been hiding his appearance. Still, it was staggering to see him looking so…happy.

"That…" I trailed off, searching for the right word. "Fucking coward! I swear, I'm going to make it to A-rank before I see him again out of sheer spite. The next time I punch him in the throat, HE'LL be the one doubled over in pain! How dare he just take off without even talking to me?" I waved the picture at them furiously. "Like this is some kind of substitute? There's not even a fucking note!"

Zeke was trying not to crack up and having trouble breathing. It took him a second to calm down. "That's so classic Eli." He said in a strangled voice. He probably meant it as a sort of unspoken apology."

"If he wanted to apologize he should have fucking SPOKE it!" I snapped, almost panting with rage.

This was so…him. Just like Zeke said, I should have expected this. Show up, show off, and show himself the fucking door. I was so angry I could spit. Not even at him really, but at myself. Because why the fuck had I expected any different? Had I thought we were going to sit down and finally have that heart to heart talk I'd been wanting since I learned the truth about myself?

"Honey." My mom said gently, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You know he loves you. He's just…not good at these kinds of things. He shows he cares in subtler ways. You just need to be on the look out for them."

I pulled away from her. "Why?" I demanded. "Why is that my job? He's the fucking parent. He can't say what he means?" I stalked across the room, pacing. "I'm so sick of everyone making excuses for him. And the worst part is I can't even really be angry. Not completely. Because he DID save Zeke, and all our lives. And I'm sure he thinks that just makes it all ok, and I can't even say that it doesn't! Did you tell Chelsea?"

"I did." She said sadly. "She took it better than I expected. Her relationship with Eli isn't a complicated as yours. He just wasn't around for her at all. Seeing him go like this doesn't effect her much."

I snorted, dropping into a chair. "Good for her." I sighed. "Fuck. I'm sorry, ma. This isn't your fault. I shouldn't be flipping out at you. He just gets under my skin, you know? Nobody knows how to piss me off like he does. I've been planning what to say to him when I saw him again for so long and he just takes off."

"Well, you DID punch him in the throat." Zeke said with a wry smile. "I feel like that got most of the point across."

I chuckled at that. "You know? You might be right. But I have plenty more to say, and I'll be sure that next time I see him he'll HAVE to sit still and listen." I was approaching D-rank, and I knew I could keep going. Once I was A-rank, I could corner him and make him have a conversation whether he felt like staying put or not. That bastard owed me at least that much.

There was a knock on the door, and I opened it, unsurprised to find Callie standing there giving me a sympathetic look. She stepped forward, wrapping her arms around me tightly, pulling me against her and letting me slump into her embrace.

Suddenly, I didn't feel quite so bad anymore. Sure I was still frustrated and confused, but I wasn't alone, not even in my own head. I hugged my fiancee back just as tightly as she hugged me, and I felt the stress melt away. When I let her go, she smiled up at me adoringly, and I knew the expression was mirrored on my own face.

My mother, watching from nearby, nodded in approval. "He's lucky to have you." She told Callie with a warm smile. She glanced between us for a moment, then clapped her hands excitedly. "Now, with all this depressing nonsense out of the way, how about we start work on the wedding. We'll need to send invitations to any external parties ahead of time if we expect them to make it."

Callie lit up, her face glowing. "Well several of the people we were going to invite are here, and they can come with us on Killian's ship if they're willing."

Nodding, my mother manifested a pen and paper from her ring. Licking the tip of the pen, she nodded seriously. "Well that's a good start, but I'm sure you've met plenty of other nice people you'd like to invite. Give me some names."

They launched into a flurry of discussion about people we'd met on our adventures and who could and couldn't come. Nat, Anna-Marie, Camden, a Wyndham wedding wasn't just a celebration, it was a networking opportunity, a way to bring people into my future faction, and both of them seemed intent on exploiting it to the fullest.

I walked over to stand by Zeke, shrouding us both in Stealth. "Why do I feel like I've made a horrible mistake." I said worriedly. Not the marriage, i was thrilled to be with Callie for the rest of my life, but I was starting to think this wedding was going to be…taxing.

He grinned at me wolfishly. "Oh don't worry kid, That doesn't ever go away." I did not appreciate his laughter. The choking when it got too loud, on the other hand, was pretty funny.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Before leaving the Tricorn, we still needed to check in with my grandfather. Aside from not seeing him for quite a while (mom coming to the wedding was one thing, but a Pope showing up on Callus was bound to draw some negative attention) we also needed to make sure the S-rankers didn't need us for anything.

Chelsea and I went alone, though she was unusually quiet as we entered the chamber where we were meeting my grandfather. Mom assured me it was shielded for dignitaries and was impossible to spy on, especially without her noticing, so at least there was that.

When we found him, I was surprised to see how tired he looked. "Damn." I said as we sat down across the table from him in the meeting room. "You look like shit."

"Laugh it up." He groused. "Someday you'll be as strong as I am and you'll have to deal with all this nonsense." He glanced at mom. "I heard from our Lord. I briefed him on everything that happened. He said to tell you that you did well."

My mom's expression was complicated, which I imagined came from knowing he was talking about HER grandfather, and she had to pretend to be a near stranger.

"So…where are you going to go?" I asked worriedly. "Are they sending you to the front lines? They have more S-rankers than expected, no way it was just those five each. Those worlds definitely have more. What if you get ambushed."

He smiled confidently. "Moonlight and I are sticking together. We have reports of what sounds like an S-ranker wreaking havoc at the edge of the Holy Dominion. Between the two of us we'll be fine. Not to mention that the Holy Dominion isn't your average space. Much like the Enshrining Abyss of Black Sorrow, the Dominion is a sacred place. Killing us there will be harder than you might think."

I wondered if that was related to the Red Revenants world and its location. Was the Holy Dominion under the direct protection of a god?

Seeing my expression, he chuckled. "Don't worry about it. We're being careful, and there's nothing you can do at this point. Break through to D-rank and I'm sure we can find you something- ow!" He winced, rubbing his head as my mother held up a glowing hand she'd just used to smack him upside the head.

It was impressive even her ability let her damage him, though he might have just been humoring her. "You will NOT plan to send my baby into a warzone, especially not right after his wedding."

"Sasha, no one is going to be able to stay out of this." He warned. "Our Lord pulled strings to get you reassigned so you could go to the wedding, but once it ends you'll be expected on the front too. It's all hands on deck."

My mom didn't seem bothered by that comment, apparently me being sent out was more worrying to her than going herself, which was actually reasonable given the strength disparity.

"Anyway." My grandfather said with a smile. "Good luck kid, and I hope your wedding is a blast." He pulled me into a tight hug. "Your grandmother wishes she could be here to see you, but things are still complicated…for the moment."

My mother's eyes widened. "Wait…is mom thinking of using the war as a platform to come out in the open? But Black Sorrow-"

"Black Sorrow won't do shit during the war." He said bluntly. "But how about after? Celia is tired of sitting at home worrying. She's thinking of using the enforced detente as an excuse to finally confront her mother. If she comes out of hiding then the rest of you can do the same. She just needs to pick the right time."

That was a big risk. Black Sorrow was…nuts, as far as I could tell. The perception that her daughter had sided with the Revenant, who she hated, would make her murderously angry as far as I was told.

He just smiled at my contemplation. "Don't worry about it, kid. Celia isn't stupid. Despite being a bit inspired by you standing up to that brat Aiden, she wouldn't do this if she didn't have a plan. Black Sorrow is a lunatic, but even she has things she wants. There's no such thing as a grudge that can't be mended."

I was pretty sure they were being optimistic, but I didn't know half the shit that went on at that level. If they thought they could bribe Black Sorrow to come to the negotiating table I was fine with it. If it worked my family would be free of that lunatic.

Chelsea stepped up next to us, holding out her arms for my grandfather, who laughed and gave her a hug too. "Be careful." She said sternly. "You and grandma both. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you. If she can settle things, I want to bring Shane to the Holy Dominion for a visit."

"Sounds like a plan." He said with a smile. "You two be safe." He fished into a pocket, pulling out a small silver charm bracelet. "By the way, this is for Callie from your grandmother and I. A wedding present."

I took it, studying the item, and Chelsea gasped. "That's grandma's starpluck bangle!" She said in shock.

He nodded. "The bangle will let you leave positional marks on places you visit, Callie can teleport there at intergalactic distances. It's an excellent escape treasure. She won't be able to bring anyone with her, sadly, but you've got Zeke looking out for you, so we figured a bit of insurance for your future wife might be just the thing."

I stared at the unassuming bracelet, hung with little silver stars wrapped around shimmering crystal cores. I didn't notice the light until I focused on them, but once I did, I couldn't unsee it. I stepped forward and hugged my grandfather again. "She'll love it, this way she can visit her mom more. Can she use it? Anything that powerful has to be high ranked."

"The stars are individually enchanted and work with the bangle." He assured me. "It was designed to be used by lower ranked Ascendants as an emergency escape measure. Celia got it as a gift when she was a girl, though she's held onto it for a long time because it remained useful. It takes a month or so for it to recharge each star, but otherwise it shouldn't be a problem."

There were four stars on the bracelet, which meant she should be able to avoid getting stranded on any trips.

"Thanks gramps." I said sincerely. "Even with the month recharge, she's still going to be over the moon. She can set a point on Callus when we're there and see her mom every two weeks. Can she use a person as an anchor point?"

He chuckled. "From what I'm told, your grandmother asked the same thing when she got it. Sadly no. Has to be a planet. I assume you were thinking of using yourself so she could return more easily. A ship would work though, so at least there's that. If you ever get enough cash, you can pay KIllian to fly to Stratholme, pop over and leave a star point, then teleport back."

"I'll mention it to her." I promised. "Not to mention that kind of long distance teleportation must go THROUGH something. Maybe she'll get some ideas about her Path. Being able to do even a limited version of that would be amazing."

He grinned at me. "Why do you think your grandmother doesn't need it anymore. Her Path of the Stardancer was partly founded based on that bangle. I'm not sure how realistic it is to adapt an existing one, but as long as it isn't solid maybe she can get some inspiration. Just tell her to be careful. Even stepping on the path to an ability like that can be dangerous."

I glanced at Mom. "Wait, is that where the idea for your Path came from? A combination of your parents?"

She waggled a hand. "Stellar Flame Fist is a Solid Path ability, of course. My Path is the Path of Stellar Flame. But the Path of the Stardancer is more complicated than it sounds, and has more than a few aspects of my mother's inborn power in it. When she dances across the stars, they often go out."

I wondered if her Path spontaneously occurred during evolution like mine did. Her soul was Mirror from birth, and I couldn't image what kind of iron control and flexibility that would give you with Skills. I put the bracelet away in my ring excited to give it to Callie, and finished saying my goodbyes to my grandfather, then waited for Chelsea to say hers.

"Hey." I said as we left. "You're not like…mad Callie is getting the bracelet right? I mean, if it was grandmas maybe you should be the one who-"

My sister held up a hand. "Not even slightly." She said firmly. I exhaled in relief. I didn't want to sound like I was being a dick about it, I was just genuinely worried she'd be upset. She smiled warmly at me. "I don't begrudge you anything I have Shane. You're my brother. My twin. I spent years getting resources and treasures from the Church."

She pulled me into a hug, continuing. "Even if there wasn't a good reason for her to get it I would still be fine, but you and I both know she's the most vulnerable. You're protected by Zeke, and I'm always under guard."

"Yeah." I said with a relieved laugh. "Grandpa really came through. No one is going to be able to chase her across galaxies. I mean, the sheer EXPENSE of an heirloom like that. They went all out to welcome her to the family. I haven't met grandma yet, but just this one gift means more to me than anything else they could have done."

The generosity staggered me. You could probably build an entire S-ranked faction if you sold something like this. I'd never even heard of it, but I knew that people would undoubtedly go to war for something this powerful, especially something their kids could use.

As we walked out of the Central Location back to the others, I frowned over my shoulder. "Do you think they'll be ok? Trying to fix things with…her."

"I think they know her better than we do." She said bluntly. "And grandpa is over the moon for grandma. He'd die before he let someone touch a hair on her head. Combined with the safety they have while the war is ongoing, it should be fine. Plus if they can do it…"

I nodded. "It would be invaluable." I admitted. "I got targeted by her people a few times, and I'm pretty sure they only happened to notice who I was by accident." I still had no clue how Aiden had figured out my identity back when this all started, but it had caused a lot of trouble since then.

She sighed. "I've had assassination attempts too. One of my childhood friends turned out to be a heartripper."

I winced, pulling her into a side hug. That was terrible. I reminded myself to have her spend some time with Cass. Maybe she could help the girl get past things, given her obvious experience there.

As we approached our group, I smiled widely at all my friends. It was finally over, finally time for all of us to go home. Once we were underway, we could stop and digest our gains from this mess in terms of renown, though aside from wishes, I didn't think I'd be doing any training on this trip. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my future wife. Something told me alone time would be at a premium during a wedding this size. I couldn't wait.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Arriving back on the Necromedes was…blissful. Aside from the lack of pressure from the Tricorn's Impact (I'd gotten so used to it I kept having to watch my step to keep from catapulting into the air), I also got to see a bunch of old friends. When Callie and mom mentioned bringing people along, I'd underestimated exactly how many people they meant.

Serah and Holly were coming, as were Yvette, Annalise, Markoth, Nasha, and all my other friends were coming. We'd sent out invitations to various factions we'd encountered on the way here too, and at this point, the list of wedding guests was going to be enough to fill a small town.

Luckily we didn't have any of those on Callus, only big cities that would have plenty of room. For now, we had to get everyone settled in though. The newcomers were blown away by the ship. "You have access to an A-ranked ship?" said Holly in shock. "We belong to an S-ranked faction and we don't have one of those!"

Serah nodded stoically. "Yes. It is certainly in…ship shape."

Bethy giggled at the joke. "Hey that's funny. You're pretty funny." She held out a cheerful hand. "I'm Bethy by the way. What's your name?"

"Serah." Responded the stoic angel. "It is nice to meet you."

I cleared my throat. "As much as the idea of you two hanging out terrifies me to the very core of my being, I wanted to check that everyone was here."

Jessie double checked and then nodded. "Looks like that's everyone. Most of us went to unpack, but Blake said he'd handle introductions and all that." She grinned at me. "You have somewhere else to be right? Isn't it about time you checked?"

I laughed. "You still know me better than anyone except Benny and Callie. Yeah, I've been holding it back, but it's about time." Waving goodbye to the others, I went ahead reached out to Callie. There was a shift in the shadows and she appeared right next to me, grinning. I nodded at her wrist. "So it fits I take it?"

She displayed her wrist with a smirk. "Oh, this old thing? Yeah, isn't it nice? My fiance got it for me because he's the best." She leaned up and pecked me on the cheek. "So is it really time? I was waiting for you. How much do you think we gained?"

"Hard to say." I said as we headed back to our rooms. "I mean, with your godslayer legend propagating, especially after the war declaration, I'm guessing you got a big boost. The games will have pushed me up pretty high too though I bet." I winked at her. "I might just catch up to you at this rate."

She shot me a warm smile. "I hope you do. I always feel my best when the two of us are equal partners."
I put my arms around her, squeezing tight, and then we reached out lodgings. We headed inside, dropped off what stuff we had, and then headed out into the yard in case of any damage. "You mind if I go first?" I asked excitedly.

She shook her head, and I closed my eyes, reaching out with my soul. The ability to put off renown and stat gain was important as you ranked up. People like us had a lot of stories circulating, and the sensation of a constant trickle of power would be way too distracting. It was more convenient to wait until we had time to process everything before allowing the renown to hit.

Given how many points I already had and my soul strength the influx was intense but not overwhelming. Still, it was easy to tell just from feedback that this was beyond any gains I'd had before. I could feel my heart pounding as I pulled up my stat sheet, letting the purple flames roll across my vision.

Wishmaster candidate status. E-rank. Ability: Expert Wish- Seven times a day grant an Expert wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.
Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.

Might-11,500
Impact-65
Fantasy-9530
Vitality-12,242
Focus-6420
Perception-5504
Creation-7554
Progress to next rank:52815/100000
Soul strength- Sapphire Soul Body


Stored:7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 0 triple strength density shifted attacks. 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 0 heal bursts (0 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 0 shadow clone (2 in reserve), 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Pet- Wolf named Jin

Financial resources: 50 E-ranked chits 38 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)


Skills: Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Intermediate Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam Mastery, Minor Fire Manipulation Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery, Intermediate Paired Dueling, Expert Dust Construction Mastery

DS Subskills. Monk: Stone Limb, Moonlit Night, Consecration of Flame, Ripple Running, State of Grace, Steam Arrow, Afterburner, Pit of Despair, Mountain Stance.

Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death, False Fatality

Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rhythm of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense, Piece of Mind



Goetia Staff Art:

First form- Belial. Touch of Tears, Stone Limb, Consecration of Flames

Second Form- Mephistopheles. Consecration of Flame, Afterburner, Mercy Kill, Marked for Death.
Techniques: Cosmic Collapse: comdensed sphere of black flame that explodes out one side amplifying force. Mephisto's Waltz: Movement technique, Damnatio Memoriae: causes the ground itself to dissolve best used on mountains to cause avalanches
Circle of Damnation: defensive technique through destruction

Third form- Mornax. Stone Limb, Triple Strength Density Shifting (x10 F-rank stored attacks), Mountain Stance

Fourth form - Zagan. Heal Burst, Purifying Flame, Consecration of Flame, Afterburner
Techniques: Life Nova, purifying and healing version of Cosmic Collapse.Genesis Burst: enhanced version of Life Nova designed to repair soul damage.


I was blown away. Over twenty three thousand points. Almost twenty four. This last series of events had bumped me nearly one QUARTER of the way to D-rank. I doubted I'd get quite this level of boost again soon, I had mouthed off the Wishmaster in front of a bunch of S-rankers, which had probably played a large role, but still. My feats in the games should keep paying dividends.

I wrote everything out, showing it to Callie with a grin. Her eyes bugged out. "Holy shit, Shane. That's…wow. I mean, You're well past where I was at. I should be getting a bit bump from the war declaration, given people will be looking into stories about gods but…I'd be shocked if I passed you by much.

"I think it was the S-rankers." I admitted. "I know that higher ranked Ascendants have more heavily weighted renown. I impressed some of them during the games. Still, past the halfway point of D-rank…that's not bad. And I passed ten thousand points in multiple stats. VItality and Might make sense. Life Nova and that crazy mountain crushing blast."

She nodded. "Fantasy too, given the obvious technique use. Still a sizable bump. You ready to see how I did?" She sounded eager to compare, and I nodded excitedly. She closed her eyes, letting the renown wash over her. After a moment of focusing and breathing through the sensation, she took a pen and paper from her ring and wrote out her own stats.

Calliope Reynolds- E-rank. Ability: Expert Abyssal Infiltration- Enter the shadows and emerge where you will within range, shape the darkness to your call, moving it as if it were part of your body, and even extend your senses through the shadows to spy on your enemies.

Might-15,550
Impact-65
Vitality-3742
Fantasy-10,105
Focus-3908
Perception-12,375
Creation-9485
Progress to next rank: 55230/100000

Soul strength- Sapphire Soul Body
Pet-Wolf named Rellia

Skills: Minor Tracking, Beginner Dual Dagger Mastery, Intermediate Stealth, Intermediate Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Expert Shadow Manipulation Mastery. Intermediate Paired Dueling.

Path of the Abyss-Illusory. Technique: Shadowed Glide

I laughed. "Damn, you still got me. It's close though. I'm only a couple thousand short. I think you'll pull ahead though. Your godslayer story has clearly been spreading like wildfire with those numbers. Even your low stats have evened out a ton. I think that huge bump from the S-rank renown is going to be a one time thing for me though."

"Please." She snorted. "You're ignoring the tons of points you'll be getting from wishes during the trip. I'll be lucky if you don't hit D-rank before the wedding."

I frowned. "Actually, what about D-rank." I hadn't considered it before, but we'd be on Callus. We couldn't rank up there. "I guess we could suppress ourselves at peak E-rank until we can get somewhere more stable. Maybe the Necromedes. I think Killian is staying for the wedding, so that's an option."

She waved me off with a laugh. "I was just puffing you up a bit. Considering you seem to be stuck at ten points per wish, chances are good we'll both need more time. The four month trip back to Callus would net you less than ten thousand." She frowned a bit. "Speaking of, what about that? Did you get a chance to ask anyone about it?"

I nodded, blowing out a breath. "I asked my mom. Ten is a soft cap. It's a recursion thing. I'll be able to get past it when I hit D-rank and have over a hundred Impact. Just one of those weird things people all believe that screws us a little bit."

"Well at least its solvable." She said with a smile. Walking over to me, she pulled me to my feet, then dragged me over and shoved me onto a couch, curling up against me. "Can you believe in four or five short months we're going to be married." She said as she rested her head on my chest.

I reached up, pulling my mask off, something I rarely did when we weren't alone. "I can." I said softly. "In fact. I couldn't believe anything else. I can't imagine not spending the rest of my life with you."

"Sap." She said in a pleased voice. "But I love it." She grimaced, and at me raised eyebrow blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry, I just thought about my name. I'm taking yours, not sharing one with my asshole dad is nothing but good, but Calliope Wyndham sounds so snooty."

I clicked my tongue. "Honestly darling." I said in a high society voice. "I ordered the crystal chandeliers in the Rutherford pattern. This is clearly Cheffause."

She burst out laughing. "None of those are things." She said in exasperation. "And yet somehow they all sound so accurate it's ridiculous. Maybe I should tell Bethy you're a secret art and fashion genius."

"I don't believe you would do such a thing." I said sagely. "You love me too much."

She rolled her eyes. "Right. That. I knew there was a reason I kept you around. That and reaching things on the high shelves."

"Good to know I'm at least as useful as a stool." I said mildly.

She patted my cheek tenderly. "Oh, honey. Don't sell yourself short. You're far more useful to me than a stool. I have to carry those to the shelves. You just come when I call you."

We laughed together, snuggled up and staring at the ceiling, and I thought about our upcoming life together. Or rather, the one we already had, and how it would change. The comfort and security was soothing, and soon enough I started to drift off. Tomorrow we'd meet up with Benny and Jessie, see how they were doing after this mess stat wise, and then settle in for a relaxing wedding cruise back to our hometown. Life couldn't get much better than this.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning we met up with the others for a team meeting. "So, everyone get settled in ok?" I asked Jessie as we let them into our place. We weren't staying in the same building this time. The Necromedes was huge, and we'd been moved up to a nicer part of the ship. This particular abode was more in the style of some of the Church architecture we'd seen.

"All good." She said with a grin and a thumbs up. "Serah and Bethy are becoming fast friends." She paused. "Well, Bethy decided they were fast friends and Serah got swept up in her wake. I think it's good for her to have someone to hang out with platonically. That love triangle with her and Gabe and Chelsea is messy."

"I'm not sure it is a triangle." I said with a laugh. "I can't tell who she's interested in if either of them. Then again, Morgan has multiple wives, maybe she's just planning to date both of them."

Jessie snickered. "I'm sure the Church will be thrilled to lose both one of their princesses and one of their most promising recruits to the independents. In any case, your sister has been showing Annalise and Yvette around, along with Markoth and Nasha."

"Nice of her." I nodded. "Lots to show too. It's a big ship. How about you?" I asked Benny. "How is the training going? You get any techniques done yet?"

He chuckled. "Been working on my sword art. Your mom's training might have been rough but it's really helping. Plus I'm still riding the wave from helping take down that D-ranker. I didn't rake in the same kind of points as you two, but I definitely benefited from being part of that whole mess." He slid out a piece of paper, scribbling out his own stats just like we had the day before.

Benicio Cortez- E-rank. Ability: Expert Body of Inspiration- Allows the integration of existing artifacts into the users body for the purposes of strengthening and enhancing them, two items per placement.

Might-9974
Impact-65
Fantasy-1556
Vitality-1441
Focus-8141
Perception-1582
Creation-2471
Progress to next rank: 25230/100000


Soul strength: Sapphire Soul Body

Pet- Wolf named Rolf

Current integrated tech. 14/20.
Torso: G-ranked intangibility for short bursts, Three times multiplication of Might for five minutes.
Right fist: triple punch.
Left forearm: F-ranked energy barrier or variable shape. Left fist: minor slow acting tranquilizer effect.
Right foot: Density shifting to create heavier kicks and more powerful jumps. Left Foot: momentum neutralization to allow stopping instantly.
Head: slight cognitive boost to allow more thinking time, Three times multiplication of Focus for five minutes.
Back: ability to grow a shell to tank damage.
Chest: Pair of golden G rank spider legs that arch up from the shoulders.
Waist: Belt of spiritual calming, Three times Multiplication of Perception for five minutes. Heart: Illusionary double, Three times Multiplication of Vitality for five minutes.


Skills:Minor Cooking Mastery, Expert Inventing Mastery, Lesser Haggling Mastery, Minor Stealth Mastery

Path of the Dracolich-Illusory. Proto Technique: sword art, Dance of the Dracolich

I whistled at the changes. "Almost ten thousand this time. Clearly that story is getting blown out of proportion in the retelling." He rolled his eyes, knowing I was kidding. "But you didn't mention hitting Expert in Inventing. That's awesome man, congrats. I think the biggest change is the evening out of the rest of your stats. That happened to Callie too."

Callie nodded. "Yeah, it's something I think we were all waiting for. We've been told for a while that once you hit a certain rank the stats lagging behind get dragged up alongside you. 'A rising tide raises all ships' and all that. I think we've all reached a level of notoriety where that effect is starting to show itself. Benny's are curiously uniform though."

He nodded. "I think it's a subconscious thing. Some of my stats were bumped extensively because they seemed like an active part of the proceedings, while some were just passively jacked up because no one would believe anyone below a thousand Vitality, for instance, could take part in something like that."

"What about the Inventing?" I asked with interest. "You didn't mention that going up."

He grinned. "That's new. I've been…experimenting. Trying to incorporate my Path into inventions. Part of the reason I made it was as a more fantastical counterpoint to my ability, hoping the two would synergize and boost me to new heights. Because of that, my Inventing was always supposed to relate to my Path, and be informed by it."

"What did you come up with?" I asked excitedly. "Did you finally find a way to make you creations more targeted? I know you were working on using your soul to steer Inventions to be more specific items."

He waggled a hand. "Well…sort of." He said sheepishly. "I'm still working on that. If anything, my Path made it harder, but I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track." He held out a hand, and a small item appeared on his palm. A black stapler. I reached for it with interest…and then it hissed and tried to bite me.

Its teeth (which had been hidden behind the stapler cover perfectly like lips in a mouth), sank into my gloves and stopped. My armor was very high quality, and my skin had three points more Impact than most E-rankers, so there was no chance of it getting its hooks in. Still I glared at my friend, holding up the stapler as it snarled and tried to dig into my finger. "Why?" I asked blandly.

He shrugged. "It's my new Invention. The Snarling Stapler, I call it. It's only F-rank. The Path of the Dracolich seems to have turned it feral. Like I said, bit of a backstep, but I'm on the right track."

"You realize we're going back to Callus for the wedding." I said bluntly. "Where an F-ranked stapler could probably wipe out a city."

"I…" He paused. "I hadn't considered that. I'll keep it in my ring. Sorry."

I just laughed. "Still, it's important to work on techniques, especially after the Fantasy bump. Those will be our biggest advantage in the future. Skills are important because they're a good basis, but techniques are where we can show real power."

"I think you might be a bit biased, hon." Said Callie with a laugh. "Your mom said you're a genius at forming those, so yours are a bit more effective than most. Not that I don't think they're important, but I think you might be in a better position to take advantage. The rest of us still need to depend on Skills and abilities."

She…might have a point. My Path was unusually far along, I had a strong soul and my unique ability gave me a wide variety of skills to use as a base. Still, I knew that once we hit D-rank we'd be facing more and more people with powerful Paths and we needed to be ready to beat them back with our own.

"Maybe talk to Abel." I suggested. "He made a powerful technique ages ago. The Cicada Stacking Steps are crazy useful" I turned to Jessie. "How about you, you get you Path made yet? Since we're heading home we don't need to worry about running into anybody dangerous for a while. You can afford to take your time."

Benny glared at me. "Oh sure, yell at me and tell me I'm dragging everyone down, but as soon as I get it finished we all go on fucking vacation and everyone else can take their time."
"It's not my fault you're so dumb." I said loftily. "Gotta get you started early if you want to keep up." I moved out of the way as he picked up and threw a coaster at me from the end table next to him.

Jessie rolled her eyes. "You two are like toddlers, I swear. I don't have a Path yet, though I do think the Path of Vitality might be a good fit for me. It'll be a comprehensive upgrade to my abilities, which are all based on that stat. Plus it might be easier to get in contact with. I've been getting some decent stats lately too. Mostly in Vitality as usual, but I've been seeing the same bump in my other stats as the rest of you." She wrote out her own stat sheet.


Jessica Evans- E-rank. Ability: Expert Lifeweaving- Infuse living things with life itself and direct their actions while the users power flows through them. Control has limited effect on sapient entities. Prolonged exposure to life energy may cause lasting effects in controlled subjects.

Might-3625
Impact-65
Fantasy-758
Vitality-17,256
Focus-755
Perception-765
Creation-1958
Progress to next rank: 25182/100000
Pet- Wolf named Lily and Undying Lifestorm Ursa named Randall(Intermediate Beast Bonding with Jessie)

Soul strength: Sapphire Soul Body

Skills: Intermediate Horticulture,Intermediate First Aid, Minor Herbalism, Minor Flower Arrangement, Intermediate Beast Taming Mastery, Intermediate Beast Bonding, Intermediate Shape of the Wild

I gaped at her Vitality. "Seventeen THOUSAND?" I asked in shock. "I mean, I know it's your main stat, but it's higher than any stat I have. Hell, it's higher than any stat CALLIE has, and she's much more focused than I am. I can see where your other stats may have suffered for it a bit though. Was the Might from Randall?"

She nodded. "Yup. I'm annoyed my Focus is my lowest stat. I get Perception and Fantasy, but Focus being seven fifty five? Do I come across as that much of an airhead?" She sounded outraged, and the rest of us had to smother our laughs.

"You know you try to downplay your intelligence." Said Callie with a friendly chuckle. "Guess it worked a bit too well."
Jessie stuck out her tongue at my fiancee, who laughed at her antics. "Anyway, try to find your way onto the Path of Vitality if that's where you're aiming. Like I said, we have nothing but time." I grinned. "Maybe you can teach Benny a thing or two since he's having so much trouble."

He pointed at me menacingly. "Oh that's it. Just you wait, I'm going to spend the next four months mastering my Path, and then I'm going to use it to kick your entire ass."

I snorted. "Please. You're a hundred years too early to challenge me."

"I'm marrying into this." Callie told Jessie with a long suffering sigh. "I'm going to be putting up with their nonsense for the next ten thousand years."

Jessie put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll remember your sacrifice."

"Hey." I said in outrage. "We're right here? Don't talk about us like we aren't in the room. And it's not like you two are a picnic to be around."

Callie turned to me slowly. "And what exactly do you mean by THAT, Shane?"

"Nothing honey." I responded quickly. "You're the light of my life and you make every day better. I'm looking forward to an eternity of wedded bliss."

She gave me an unimpressed snort. "A likely story." She winked at Jessie. "Gotta keep him on his toes so he doesn't start taking me for granted. My future mother-in-law taught me that. She's been giving me lessons."

"When we get to Callus." I said maliciously. "I'm going to ask Amelia for every embarrassing picture you've ever taken. Two can play it that game."

Her eyes widened in horror, but I felt laughter and peace through the bond. I sent my own right back. We spent the next few hours spending time without our friends and talking all about what we'd do first when we got home as the Necromedes made its journey out into the cosmos.

Four more months until we were home, and I'd see everything I'd grown up seeing through brand new eyes. I was so excited to get back, to see all our friends and comrades, and to finally marry the girl of my dreams. This trip couldn't be over fast enough, just four more months to the first day of the rest of my life.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Four months flew by in the blink of an eye. I spent most of my time enjoying the relaxing trip with my friends, doing only the bare minimum for wish granting per day. I got another ten thousand points total. Eighty four hundred for my wishes and another sixteen hundred from pure renown.

Which was, admittedly, less than expected. But we were pretty sure the huge bump after the games combined with the big dip was a testament to the capabilities of the WCP and the five faction alliance. They had maximized the spread of my exploits right off the bat, so I was getting relatively fewer rollover stats.

I'd put five thousand into Perception, bringing it up to just over ten thousand five hundred, and then twenty five hundred each into Creation and Focus, bringing creation up over ten thousand and Focus up to just under nine thousand (ten thousand fifty four and eight thousand nine hundred twenty, respectively) for a grand total of sixty two thousand, eight hundred and fifteen.

The rest of the time I'd spent with my friends, my sister, and my fiancee, working out, eating good food, and playing the occasional game of pool. We also enjoyed plenty of time in an ACTUAL pool, with the sole exception of Abel, who had dedicated most of his time to training.

Which was why, as we approached Callus, Callie, Benny, Abel, Mel, and I were all gathered in one of the big restaurants celebrating, because my mentor had officially created his very own Solid Path.

"It's impressive." Admitted Benny as he cut into a juicy steak. "I'm just saying, why Ragam? Why not incorporate your Path of Blood into your ability in one shot, then you'd be a half step towards making your Chronicle like Shane is."

Abel just shook his head, swallowing the bite of lobster he'd been chewing. "Because there's no rush. I'm ages away from B-rank. I'll take it one step at a time. My Path of the Bloody Fist works well. I still need to percolate on how to integrate it into my ability. Not to mention my Ragam can keep ranking up past my current rank."

Benny turned to me. "That's a good point, actually. Why didn't you do that? Your Path fo the Doom Sovereign is an ability so it's stuck at your rank. Wouldn't it be stronger if you got it up higher?"

"Yes." I said bluntly. "But I wasn't sure I could. Unique Skills have odd and sometimes impossible requirements for ranking up. The higher I go the higher the chance I won't be able to reinvent the wheel again. Not to mention given the add ons I kept slapping on it to rank up the chances of me being able to form a Chronicle at all would have been slim. At this point I'm mostly cleaning up the Skill to prep for B-rank and it's slow going."

Abel nodded. "My Path and Skill are perfectly compatible and very stable, so that's not a concern for me. Though I'm looking forward to sparring with Shane."

"You better be looking through a telescope." Said Callie threateningly. "I'm getting married in less than a week, and if you beat up my fiance before my wedding and it screws up my pictures, I'm going to jettison you into the sun."

He swallowed audibly, and not because he was eating food. "Alright, damn. You don't have to be mean about it."

"Yes." said Callie sharply. "Yes I do. Because you fight anyone for any reason and you don't listen." Her face brightened into a beaming smile. "But congratulations on the new Path, that's super impressive."

Abel stared at her in mild terror before turning to look at me. "My condolences for the rest of your life."

I just chuckled. Callie glared at me, but I just winked back and she deflated a bit. She was really stressed about the wedding, having been working herself to the bone with the planning (I tried to help, but was informed I have terrible taste and am too edgy, whatever that means) and I had to keep reminding her to take a breath.

Sending some reassurance through the bond, I also pushed Piece of Mind to activate, shoving it toward her. She let it kick in, making a parallel to worry about wedding stuff while she relaxed, a compromise we'd come up when she'd started burning herself out.

"Sorry." She said after the parallel took over. "I'm a little tense. Seriously Abel, Solid Path is a huge achievement. You been thinking of any new techniques?"

My mentor's face lit up. "I have, actually. I got some inspiration from Shane and the Star Queen. I'm trying to create a cohesive set of Ragam techniques culminating in a transformation. It's been pretty tough coming up with the moves though. Techniques are hard work, my Cicada Stacking Step was the result of LOTS of trial and error over a very long period of time."

Benny nodded. "It's not a walk in the park, trust me. My Dance of the Dracolich is still forming. Without Sasha's advice I doubt I'd have gotten this far. Have you tried a chance in environment?"

"Not really in the cards for me." Abel grimaced. "Not here at least. When we get back to Callus I might take a trip into one of the forests and fight an E-ranked beast. There are a few of them lording over some of the more extreme areas of the planet."

I nodded thoughtfully. "I've heard stories." I admitted. "The Polar Cat King, the Berserk Volcano Ape. Probably a few more that I don't know about. But they've been around for ages. Those areas or off limits for a reason. I'm not worried about any E-ranker from Callus in terms of humans, but I bet some of those beast kings are actually dangerous."

Mel sighed. "That's what I told him. But he never listens to anyone. I was planning to stop by the Beast Lord Garden with Jessie. If anyone will have a dossier on what those monsters can do it would be the Beast Queen."

"I don't want dossiers." Complained Abel in a voice that told me this wasn't the first time they'd had this argument. "It defeats the purpose. I need to go out there and push myself. Bleed and get bled. If I know all their moves ahead of time there's no pressure. I'm on the Path of the Bloody Fist, not the Path of Slaughter."

Oddly, I didn't need to ask what that meant. I'd been around Abel long enough to understand the difference. Blood was earned through hard work and dedication. Killing wasn't the point of Abel's Path (though he was hardly shy about it). He was just as happy shedding his own blood as someone else's. The point was to push himself beyond his limits. It was closer to a Path of War than Slaughter.

She threw up her hands. "Yes, but you can't invent a new martial arts form if you're DEAD. I'll read the dossiers and wait nearby. If you run into trouble I can just step in to help."

"No safety nets." He said stubbornly. "It'll weaken my resolve. If I can't beat up some giant lava monkey I don't deserve to create a technique." Apparently he was going after the Volcano Ape. That was good to know.

Mel looked unhappy, but not as much as I'd expected. I was pretty sure she was getting more from their bond than we could pick up from the surface conversation. If I had to guess, part of the reason he was choosing the Ape was that it was a fire attribute creature. He was probably planning to have something made for her from the remains.

As I'd seen from watching Randall rank up, beasts didn't incorporate their stats the same way humans did, they more a part of their bodies. Much like naturally occuring runes in gems, certain beast materials would have naturally occurring runes that could be used to make gear.

We all had top notch armor from Camden's cousin, but you could make foci like a staff or like the sphere we'd gotten for Mel ages ago that could amplify her fire attacks.

"Wait until after the wedding, please." Pleaded Callie. "You're a groomsman, and it'll really ruin the atmosphere if you get your face burned off by molten monkey shit. I've heard stories about that Ape. It's a monster. Granted, so are you, but I'd be shocked if it doesn't get in a few licks before you put it down."

Abel raised an eyebrow. "Lot to unpack there." He said slowly. "I feel like that was an insult wrapped in a compliment wrapped in an insult wrapped in a command."

"It's like the turducken of comments." I said wisely. They all just looked at me blankly. "It's a turkey stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a chicken." I clarified. "I learned how to make it from a cookbook I bought on Tricorn." I'd gone back to old Arble's place to see the S-ranker, but he hadn't been in, so I just grabbed some random books before leaving.

My mentor shook his head. "Some things aren't meant to be attempted."

"You're talking about fighting an ancient Volcano monster to create a technique that can alter reality!" I protested.

Benny clicked his tongue. "He's right Shane. Some things are just unnatural."

"How am I the bad guy here?" I said in exasperation. "I was just talking about a recipe I found. Callie, back me up."

I turned to find her glaring at me suspiciously. "You've never fed me any weird recipes like that, right?" She said slowly. "Because I'm not okay with being your guinea pig as you commit culinary violations to the natural order."

Laughing at me crestfallen expression, Abel held up a hand. "Alright, stop picking on him. He might drop the whole table into a Pit of Despair or something."

"I would never do that." I said indignantly. "I'd poison you. Bit of Touch of Tears inside your food. Not enough to be noticeable, but it would only take a little bit entering your stomach to cause some serious pain." I smirked at all of them. "Of course, I'd have to distract you all from the table somehow to do it. Maybe by throwing a huge fit about something innocuous." I glanced slyly at my best friend. "Hey Benny, how's that steak?"

My friend's face went white and he dropped his fork. I burst out laughing as Abel glanced uneasily at his lobster. Callie just giggled. "He's messing with you." She said reassuringly. "I'd have sensed that, and he wouldn't do it to me in the first place. Your meals are safe."

"Spoilsport." I said with a grin. "Look how scared they were. I wanted to see them squirm for a bit longer."

Benny glared at me. "You're not helping your case here. Mutant combo birds, poisoning steak, your cooking is becoming more and more suspicious."

"Then don't eat it." I shrugged. "I don't care if you eat my food. I like what I make and so does Callie. You can eat nutrition bricks for all I care. I'm sure your old food fabricator is in working order. I'll have your folks send it over when we land."

The horror on his face was exactly what I was looking for, and I dug back into my beef stroganoff with relish (the sensation, not the condiment, I wasn't a monster). It was a bluff of course, I'd still cook for him when I had the time, but it was funny seeing how put out he got.

Laughing at my best friend's misfortune, everyone left him to stew as we switched back to talking about Abel's technique plans and enjoyed our meals. We were almost home, and this had been a nice end to a peaceful trip. Once we set foot back on Callus, we'd be completely swamped. I was really looking forward to it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It was hard to really encapsulate the feeling of standing in space, looking down at your home planet. There was nostalgia, joy, triumph, and a little bit of disappointment. Everything seemed so much…smaller. Even from up here, I could focus enough to get a decent glimpse of most of the major cities I remembered. Valen, Rajak, I could see home.

But everyone looked so small and insignificant from up here. I knew they weren't obviously. I had friends and loved ones on Callus. But I kind of got how people like Zeke could become so detached from their humanity.

Oddly, I think the thing that saved me from that was how fast I was getting stronger. I could still vividly remember my life before cultivation.

"We should jump it." Said Benny confidently. I turned and glared at him. He shrugged. "What, it would be so cool. Imagine us breaking through the atmosphere like fiery comets and then landing in cool crouches like all the famous heroes."

I smacked him upside the back of the head. "And exactly how would we do that?" I demanded. "Assuming our legs wouldn't break on impact, which admittedly they probably wouldn't, do you think a pseudo D-grade planet would hold up under a cannonball from someone at E-rank…from SPACE?"

He paused, halfway through yelling at me for the head slap. "Huh. Actually probably not. Oh well, guess we'll have to go down the boring way. Still, it'll be nice to be home."

"I'm so excited to see my mom!" Squealed Callie, practically bouncing with joy. "It's been ages. I try to call home when I can, but it's not the same." She glanced at her wrist, where the starpluck bangle sat. She was obviously thinking about being able to come home to visit whenever she wanted.

Jessie was staring down at the planet with a sort of fond melancholy in her eyes, and I threw and arm over her shoulder, distracting her by ruffling her hair with my knuckles. "Hey, we're almost to D-rank. You'll have your brother back soon enough."

Her face lit up. 'Yeah. You're right. I can't wait to tell him all about our adventures. He's never going to believe it."

"You thinking of sticking around after we bring him back?" I asked, trying my best not to let my tone betray any discomfort at the idea. It would suck to lose her, but Jessie had the right to make her own decisions.

She just smiled and shook her head. "I don't think so. I mean, I'll visit, but…I've changed so much since he died. Seen so much. I've helped so many people, made new friends, been to amazing new worlds. I just can't imagine going back to being plain old Jessie Evans who works at the flower shop."
"Are you sure?" I asked her in surprise. "I know how much you wished for your old life back."

"No. I wished for my brother back." She said firmly. "I still do. Don't forget where you met me. I always wanted to go on adventures, that was why I joined the Unity to begin with."

Callie stepped up on her other side and bumped her with a hip. "Well you're always welcome wherever we go. You're family, and you always have a home with us. Speaking of home, I think it's about time for us to head down. Stella and the others are going to meet us in Rajak."

I grinned at her excitement. I was looking forward to seeing Amelia and Alexander and the others too. She was right that phone calls weren't the same as seeing someone face to face. We headed for the hanger, and when we got there, Killian, Zeke, and my mom were all waiting. "I was wondering where you all got off to." Said the owner of the Necromedes.

"I wasn't." Said Zeke with a chuckle. "First time seeing their planet on a return trip. It's a hell of a sight."

Mom beamed at us. "You ready to go down and get started? I've been talking to Amelia on the trip over, lovely woman. I think she has a surprise for you too, Calliope." She winked at Callie, who seemed just as puzzled by that as I was.

Waving a hand, mom pulled an ENTIRE fucking shuttle out of her space ring. We all gaped, because the sheer size of that thing combined with the opulence of the shuttle was completely out of left field. I turned to Zeke. "Wait…do you have one of those on you? Have you been carrying a shuttle the WHOLE time?"

He shrugged. "Of course. What kind of B-ranker doesn't keep a ride on them. But I couldn't let you use it. That would have been violating the terms of my geas. You had to do it all your own way. Unless you paid me, but you don't have anything worth a ride on any of my shuttles."

"He's right." Said my mom apologetically. "Market price for a seat on something like this would be several A-rank chits. I doubt his are quite that nice, but they're still well out of your price range." She patted the side of the white and gold shuttle affectionately. "My Halcyon is a beauty though, isn't he?"

I had to admit she wasn't wrong. The white metal that made up most of the shuttle was polished to a near mirror sheen. The front was a golden lions head, its open mouth allowing the windshield full visibility. A pair of golden wings folded back to frame the open doors on the sides, and traceries of golden runes swirled over the surface of it beautifully.

This thing wasn't just powerful, it was clearly made by an artist, and I was blown away by the delicacy of the work. I could pick out individual hairs in the lions man, and the capillaries in the feathers on the wings.

The inside, as we stepped in, was as spacious as expected. Moreso, even. It was like we were inside a full sized manor house of some wealthy noble, with both sides of the huge space being enclosed by a pair of window walls that showed the outside of the shuttle as if we were watching on a thousand foot screen.

We'd entered through the open hanger sides, but once we were inside a pair of double doors closed behind us. The spaces inside and outside the shuttle were completely separate. "Wow." I said as I scanned the shuttle. "Swanky."

"Of course." Said my mom as she walked over to sit at the large wooden table in the center of the huge entry chamber. I could see stairs leading up and hallways leading away, but the big day room we were in was already impressive on its own. "Would you all like some tea? She produced a steaming tea pot. "I've got an excellent Night Jasmine Blossom Brew."

Smiling, we all took our seats around her. She poured a glass for everyone, and Bethy inhaled deeply before taking a sip. "I love tea." She said with a sigh. "Not as much as wine, but still."

"I have some of that too." Laughed my mother. "But it's early in the day. Enjoy your tea. I have to say, I'm looking forward to being back on Callus. It's been such a long time since I was last there."

I blinked. "Oh, yeah you lived on Callus for a few years didn't you? Back when we were all together. Do you have any friends there you want to see?"

"A few." She said with a shrug. "I had a friend named Alyssa who made the loveliest apple cider. This was back in Valen, of course. She owned a sort of farmers market, I have no clue if it's still there."

Jessie and Callie perked up, telling her about their time growing up and how Alyssa knew their mothers, and they had a nice chat about her while we finished our tea.

Sadly, the ride wasn't too long, only about a half hour, and as we came to a stop in front of the hideous orange house we still owned in Rajak, we all stepped off the shuttle with a sense of nostalgia and peace. Well, Callie and I did. I was pretty sure Benny was in the same headspace too.

Abel and Mel seemed mostly ambivalent to be back. Not happy but not upset about it either. Gabe, Bethy, Yvette, Annalise, and all our other friends were just glad to get to their rooms and unpack, having not bothered doing so on the ship.

When we opened the door, the wolves came streaking by, Cass on Jin's back as Cark chased after her. Blake had been watching them most of the time, but we'd decided to bring them back to Callus to leave them with Amelia. The big puppies were strong enough to be formidable guards here, and a stable planetary home would be good for them.
"We're HOME!" Squealed Cass as she leapt off the wolf and onto the overstuffed orange couch. "It's been such a long time! Oh I missed you ugly couch!"

Cark rolled his eyes. "Don't be so dramatic. The places we've been staying have been perfectly nice. You make it sound like we fed you scraps through the top of a crate. Or should we leave you here when we head back out. I'm sure Callie's mom would love to have a natural disaster around the house."

She stuck out her tongue at him. "You can act like you aren't happy to be back, but I know you want to see your giiiirlfriend." She singsonged the last word maliciously, as if she'd uncovered some dark secret.

The rest of us tried not to smirk as Cark rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'd love to see Sage. And I didn't say I wasn't happy to be back." He stopped. "Why am I arguing with you, you're not even ten years old." He turned and walked away as Cass let out an outraged shriek and chased after him.

"Well." Said my mom as she followed us in. "This is certainly…interesting."

I nodded solemnly. "Callie picked out the color scheme. She always wanted to live inside of a carrot."

My fiancee spun and glared at me. "Don't tell her that! Not even as a joke! If that gets out people will be giving us a bunch of orange furniture as gifts, and if that happens you'll be the one returning it all."

"I joke, I joke." I said, holding my hands up in surrender. "This place used to belong to some pumpkin themed supervillain or other. Zeke got it for us at a steal because no one wanted to live in such a hideous place."

My mom just laughed at us. Behind her, the door was pushed open and my sister walked in. "That certainly explains the decor." She said with a laugh. "But please tell me you redid at least some of the rooms?" She gestured to the stoic forms of Callen and Felicity, who had struck up something of a friendship with the stoic swordsman.

"Nope." I said with a shrug. "Not even one. We had other stuff to be getting on with." I chuckled at her exasperated look, mirrored on the faces of Serah and Holly as they entered behind the group.

As everyone unpacked, Callie messaged Stella, her mother, and a few other old friends and told them we were here. They'd been waiting at the Unity building, but with Callie's dad being around none of us felt like stopping there. That confrontation would be handled easily enough, but not on the day we got here.

Looking around the house, I beamed at how little it had changed. It had been less than a year since we'd been here, but it felt like so much longer. I couldn't wait to see what had changed while we were gone. It was good to be home.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It didn't take long for everyone to arrive. When they did, it quickly became apparent exactly what the 'surprise' that Amelia had for Callie actually was. My girlfriend gaped at her mother in absolute shock as the older woman placed a stabilizing hand on her very pregnant stomach. "You…you're-"

"Pregnant." Said her mother cheerily. "Yes, that usually comes before children. I'm not sure you should be getting married if you don't know where babies come from." She turned to me, shooting me a wide smile. "Shane, it's good to see you. Come here." She widened her arms and pulled me into a big hug.

I laughed as I squeezed back, then pulled away. "It's good to see you too Amelia. Is Alex with you?"

She chuckled. "He's out front. Stella brought gifts, so he got roped into carrying things."

"Why don't they just put them in their space rings?" I asked with a laugh. Space rings weren't common on Callus, but I was pretty sure most of the E-rankers had them. Alexander was the leader of a major force on this planet. As 'The Nothing' he was one of the big shots among the local WCP.

Amelia just shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe she was just messing with him. Some people consider things like that bad manners when delivering a gift." Her eyes scanned the room, stopping on my mother. "And you must be Sasha." She strode over, giving my mom a similarly effusive hug. "It's so nice to put a face to the name. And such a pretty one. I see where Shane gets his looks."

"From his father, mostly." Mom said with a laugh. "But that's nice of you to say. Calliope looks quite a bit like you too. Both so pretty."

Zeke groaned. "This is torture. Are you both just going to pat each other on the back this whole trip for having good looking children? We're Ascendants, we're ALL good looking. Now where's my hug?"

Laughing, Amelia stepped up and gave him a quick squeeze. "Good to see you Zeke. You seem different."

"I finally made it to A-rank." He shrugged. "Wasn't a fun time, but I think it was worth the pain and effort. And you're already G-rank? Impressive progress for such a short period of time." I was surprised when I took the time to actually pay attention to her Impact, because he was right.

Granted, we'd all taken much less time than that to hit G-rank, but we weren't the norm even among talents from powerful factions, much less a small backwater like Callus.

Amelia grinned smugly. "Seems that being the mother of a godslayer has its perks. I don't get nearly as much renown as she does, but there's definitely some rollover. Especially locally, a lot of the Nightstrike fans have been following your adventures, at least as far as the Moonsong Glade."

My fiancee noticed my smirk and raised a brow at me. "That makes you way more self satisfied than it should. I know we're getting married, but why are you so pleased with yourself."

"Say Amelia?" I asked casually. "What are those old Nightstrike novelty mugs worth at this point?"

She burst out laughing, and Callie started complaining loudly about how embarrassing it was that I still had those mugs. Everyone else came in, Stella trying her best to ignore Zeke while standing as close to him as possible to make it clear she wanted him to start a conversation, Jessie introducing Bethy, Gabe, and the others to Ian, and Chelsea getting a big hug from Amelia in greeting.

I noticed one figure slip off, and after a brief wait, I followed Abel outside, where he leaned against the house, relaxing and closing his eyes as if he was trying to memorize the scent. "So you are happy to be home." I accused.

"Tell no one." He said, opening one eye. "But yeah. I don't hate it. I'm planning to drop by and visit my brother in the next few days." At my glower he just chuckled. "Don't be like that. He might be an ass but he's my blood. I've definitely missed the weaselly little bastard. Not to mention Alden."

I nodded, leaning against the wall. "I'm surprised you're taking time off, honestly." I admitted. "You've never struck me as the type."

He shook his head. "Reaching my Solid Path has put me way ahead of most. Plus I was getting to the point where I was starting to overtrain. I was getting to the point of combat satiation. A break will do me good."

That wasn't a term I knew. "Combat satiation?" I asked slowly. "What exactly is that?"

"You ever heard of semantic satiation?" He asked. I shook my head. "Well, semantic satiation is when you repeat a word over and over until it loses meaning. Combat satiation is when you start to see battle as a math problem. You do the moves so often that it loses all meaning beyond numbers and positioning. When battle just becomes a math problem you start to lose motivation."

I nodded slowly. I got what he meant. When fighting, you always had to look out for attacks, plan your next move, and decide exactly what to do to win. But if you started viewing everything as numbers…it took the soul out of fighting.
I hadn't ever heard it put quite like that, but it was a good way to think of things. "So even you have limits when it comes to training, huh?"

"Everyone has limits." He said with a laugh. "Mine just aren't physical, or even really mental. I love to fight, and like I told you before, it's not a strain on me. That said, sometimes I need downtime so I don't kill my passion. Too much of a good thing, you know. Not something I was aware of until now, but Paths make you look at things differently."

That made sense. "So you're planning to take some time off before you start the fight with the Volcanic Ape. Let your brain reset. I can see how that might help."

"How about you?" He asked with a laugh. "You were so excited to come back. Running away already?"

I chuckled. "Nah. I'm just letting them talk. I'd prefer to do my greetings personally. More one on one. You know how it goes. We have all day anyway. Tomorrow we're heading out to the resort where everyone will be staying."

When we'd contacted everyone back home about the wedding, Stella had extended us the use of the Unity's high ranking resort city. I had never even heard of it, but apparently the E-rankers on-world spent most of their time there, when they didn't have business to handle. The WCP had E-district, and the Unity had the resort, a place called Wintervale.

Unlike most Ascendant nonsense, Wintervale wad a closely guarded secret among the top brass. It was located in the fucking polar ice caps, which explained why none of us had ever seen any sign of it. I'd even looked from space, but apparently we'd been in a bad spot to catch sight of it.

We were actually really lucky, because the invitee list was surprisingly long. Most of the guests were people who lived on Callus, but we had needed to invite basically every E-ranker on the planet because Amelia and the others still had to stick around and actually interact with these people, and we didn't want to burn bridges.

Except Midknight, obviously. He wasn't invited, and if we spotted him in the vicinity I suspected he would have a very bad day. Shadowthorn HAD been invited, but only because Callie wanted her half-brother Eric to be there, and he was too young to come alone. She had been informed that she should stay away from the bridal party and keep to herself.

"This is going to be a clusterfuck." I went on with a small laugh. He cocked his head at me, waiting for me to see more. "We invited a ton of people. Some from nearby systems, some from galaxies away, and I still don't know if they'll all make it. Most of them are strong enough to be considered dangerous on this planet, and we're sticking them all in a secret resort town together for a week."

He just shrugged. "It's a wedding." He said, like that explained anything. And maybe it did. "An Ascendant wedding at that. Might as well have ordered insanity from the caterers. But let me ask you this, kid. Do you think it'll be worth it? Are you worried enough to back out? Under all the bluster, are you hesitating for even a second to walk down that aisle?"

"No." I responded immediately. "Not even for a second. Callie is…I was head over heels the second I saw her. And it's not a pedestal thing either. If anything, her flaws make her more amazing to me. The way she worries over everyone and takes on way too much. How absurdly excited she gets over treasure. How grumpy she is in the morning."

He snickered. "Yeah, she has her problems. Though you're no walk in the park either."

"Yeah no shit." I snorted. "I'm an indecisive adrenaline seeking battle nut with more family issues than your average magazine series. My great grandmother is an evil goddess who probably wants to kill me if she knows I exist at all, and I appear to be basically cursed to suffer endless calamities because I have the blood of fully HALF of the existing gods running through my veins. Not to mention those gods are now at WAR."

I was panting by the time I finished my rant, and he raised a brow at me in amusement. "You done?" He said after I stopped talking for a minute. "Because you know that shit isn't your fault, right?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't make it any less true." I ground out. I hadn't realized how much that had all been bothering me. I couldn't bring it up to Callie because she'd just tell me I was being-

"You're an idiot." Said the firm voice of my fiancee from behind me. I blinked, turning to find her staring at me stonily, arms crossed. "For being worried, AND for not telling me about it. Double idiot. Idiot squared. You are an idiot to the idiot power. Do you honestly think any of that matters to me?"

I grimaced. "No, but-"

"Or do you think," She went on icily. "That after all the nonsense we've been through, and after all the times we've both almost died. That I'm too much of a coward to marry the man I love because of a little danger?"

I turned slowly to stare her down. "I don't think 'evil homicidal goddess' counts as a little danger."

"Ah." She said, her face morphing into an expression of understanding (my Danger Dense actually went off because that was such an obvious trap, thanks for nothing Danger Sense). "So I'm the kind of person who leaves when the going gets tough? I can't stick it out if there's any real trouble?"

Abel put a hand over his mouth, and stage whispered. "It's a trap. Don't answer."

I ignored him. "No." I finally said, letting my shoulders sag. "You know that's not how I think of you. Just like you know I'm worried. You could sense that."

"Well yeah." She snorted. "But if I yelled at you for being an idiot inside your own head I'd never take a breath." She winked, and I knew we were ok. She stepped up and put her arms around me, laying her head on my chest.

"That." Came a voice from behind us. "Was the cutest thing I've ever seen." We both froze, and turned in horror to find our smirking mothers watching us, one of them holding…oh dear gods. They'd gotten that on tape. I had a feeling I'd have to make some serious concessions for them not to play it at the wedding. Damn it, we couldn't leave for the resort fast enough.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We ended up heading for the resort just a few hours later. Amelia wanted a room to stay in, and unpacking in the house just to move immediately didn't make sense. We left Cark, Cass, and a few others behind since the wedding wasn't for a week. Cark wanted to check in on some friends in Rajak and Cass wanted to spend some time at the house.

Since Stella, Maria, Amelia, Alex, and all our friends from Valen were already with us, we just decided to skip a step and head right over. "So. Wintervale," I prompted Alexander. "What's it like? You've been before I take it?"

"I have." He acknowledged. "My brother may be the guildmaster of the Unity branch on Callus, but as you might be aware, he splits his authority with a council of guild elders. I'm on good terms with several of them, and they mostly live in Wintervale. The Moravian is probably the most famous of them, since he's the oldest Ascendant on Callus."

I nodded. "Three thousand. But I doubt he's going to be anything impressive, given where he is. Callus is pretty backwater in terms of cultivation knowledge."

"Don't bet on that." Said Zeke seriously from where he was sitting across the table. We were in my mom's Halcyon shuttle again, so there was room for everyone. "Anyone who has been at E-rank for a few millennia is bound to have some tricks. And just because grunts like you didn't know anything about cultivation when you were here doesn't mean the bigwigs are as ignorant."

My mom nodded. "He's right. There's a long history of talented people stuck at a certain level perfecting their strength beyond what even some faction talents manage."

"Damn." I said with a sigh. "I forgot about that. Abel was like that, spent like a decade working on his strength at G-rank. But they can't be Master Candidates right? Or I guess Grandmaster Candidates since they're at E-rank. They wouldn't have the soul strength."

Alex shook his head. "It wouldn't surprise me if the Moravian had been to the Ruined Soul Temple. Don't forget it opens regularly. His origin is somewhat mysterious actually, he kind of just appeared out of nowhere from what I know."

"There are quite a few older Ascendants who don't bother with the limelight anymore." Said Amelia with a frown. "Since they can't reach D-rank, renown isn't important for them. They bide their time, hidden away in Wintervale. Paul mentioned them quite often when we were married. The elders are a consistent source of aggravation for all the guildmasters."

I just shrugged. "So maybe there are some decent fighters here. But we're not pushovers. I'm not scared of anyone in E-rank, and I doubt Abel is either. Plus we have Bethy, Gabe, Callie, hell even Benny is getting to be decently intimidating."

"Hey!" Snapped my best friend. "Don't add me as an afterthought….ass. Not everyone can be a total monster like all of you. I'm damned impressive for my level."
"It doesn't matter anyway." Cut in Callie. "We didn't come here to stage a coup. The elders aren't our enemies. We're here to get married, and we invited everyone who would have gotten offended." She winked at me. "Plus they're all probably super rich. Think of the wedding gifts."

I chuckled. "The loot goblin awakens. I hope you all put some effort into your gifts, because she'll be inconsolable if she doesn't get lots of shiny things to hoard."

"I do not HOARD." She snapped in annoyance. "I COLLECT beautiful and valuable items. In a pile. Inside my space ring. And sometimes I take them out and roll around in them. But that isn't hoarding. It's just enthusiastic appreciation."

Bethy sniffed loftily. "She's right. You'll never understand the appreciation a true artist has for their craft. Philistines."

"I don't think robbing people counts as an art." I said with a smirk.

Callie narrowed her eyes at me. "I don't rob people. I simply forcibly collect a toll for allowing them the pleasure of my company in combat." She swept her hair back over one shoulder dramatically. "It's their honor to get beat up by someone as beautiful as me." She raised a brow at me. "Right?"

"You're picking up bad habits from all the ridiculous nobles we've run into recently." I snickered. I knew she was just playing, but her impression of all those lofty second generation nobles was way too on the money.

"Excuse me." Said Celine in an offended voice. "I'm sitting right here!"

I patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry. We didn't run into you recently. We've had a long time to get used to your ridiculousness."

She flipped me off, and Benny rocked back in his chair, clutching his heart dramatically. "Did you see that? Did all of you see that? Celine gave someone the middle finger. This must be what true love is like."

"Does that mean you're planning to propose like Shane did?" Jessie asked sweetly. "We could have a double wedding."

Benny glared at her. "Don't put that in her head!" He paled, turning to Celine. "Not that I'm saying I don't want to marry you. We're just really young. Not everyone can be as nauseatingly infatuated with each other as Callie and Shane."

"If that's in your best man toast, I'm going to punch you in the kidney." I said cheerfully.

We looked at each other for a second, and then we both burst out laughing. The others just rolled their eyes at our antics.

"If you idiots are done." Called my sister from near the wall of windows. "I think we're coming up on Wintervale. This is actually pretty amazing. Come and see."

I hopped up, hurrying to the window, and what I saw when I arrived took my breath away. A mesmerizing aurora lit the sky ahead of us, twisting and writhing over a small (by Callus standards) city nestled into a huge crack in the polar ice.

It was one of the most serene places I'd ever seen. The city was set within a verdant valley, pine trees and lush grass dotting the space, with buildings set in small recesses along a winding road. There were some shopping districts, a huge lodge, and dozens of smaller buildings that seemed like they might be restaurants.

Oddly, the weather seemed to shift abruptly once we entered the valley, which fit with the image of the place. From above it almost looked like the center of a flower, with the ice arching up over the top, leaving only enough open space to show the aurora. That was why I hadn't seen the resort from space. It was hidden.

When we touched down, we were greeted by yet another round of reunions. Some of whom were surprising. Sydney and Megan from the Wave Warren, Lament and Wren from the Spear Legion, and Sloan, Beric, and Croll from the Beast Lord Garden, were all waiting for us when we touched down.

"You guys!" Callie squealed as she charged over to start giving out hugs. I laughed and followed, giving Wren a fist bump in greeting as Sydney and Megan tackled me. "Shane! Look how many people showed up!"

An amused voice sounded from behind us. "Oh, I see how it is. You saw us recently so we don't get the enthusiastic greeting, huh?" I spun, eyes wide as I saw my cousin and Camden grinning at us.

"Nat?" I gasped, putting down the rabbit girls to hug Nat. "How did you guys get here? I didn't think you'd make it in time, but even if you did it would have been closer to day of."

She chuckled. "Well, after Zeke offed the Duke, there was a big shift in power in the Tolbert family." She nodded at Camden. "His grace over here is getting way more attention from the top brass, and he was able to arrange faster transport. We took an A-rank ship to the nearest system hub and caught a portal to Callus."

"You must have left around the same time we did." I goggled. "Lucky catching a ride."

"What can I say." She said cockily. "I've got the moves." I just laughed, squeezing her tight before I let her go. In the nearly ten months since I'd seen my cousin, she seemed to have been doing well for herself. Her quiet and withdrawn demeanor from after Perit died was gone, replaced with a slightly sadder version of the same cousin I remembered meeting before I first left home.

Valk, who had been standing off to the side, gave me a quiet smile and a nod, which I returned.

Bethy, who had been saying hello to our friends from the Wave Warren (screams of 'bunny!' rebounded across the clearing) spotted my cousin and blurred over to catch her in a hug. "Natty!" She squealed. "You look so great! I'm so glad to see you! How have you been? How are things back in the secret valley?"

"Hey Bethy." Laughed my cousin as she hugged the tiny vampire. "It's good to see you too. And the territory is fine. I'm sure Celine would be happy to give updates if you ask. I heard everyone got to meet your dad, I'm sorry I missed it."

Behy nodded quickly. "It was awesome. Daddy got to meet all my friends and then he beat up a bunch of S-rank enemies and scared everybody senseless."

"It was definitely quite a sight." I admitted. "Lark's Domain is terrifying. But I'm glad you weren't there, honestly. It was scary as hell, and we all almost died a bunch of times. Even Zeke barely made it out."

She grimaced. "I heard Uncle Eli made an appearance."

"An appearance is a good way to put it." I sneered. "Then that asshole booked it out of there before I could see him again." I smirked. "I punched him in the throat though."

"Broke your hand?" She asked with a knowing smirk. When I nodded she just rolled her eyes and laughed. "You're so melodramatic. Bet it felt pretty good though. Now where is my future cousin in law?"

Callie emerged from the crowd of well wishes. "Here I am!' She called with a laugh, embracing Nat before pulling away. I saw a bit of worry and hesitation in her eyes, and felt more through the bond, but Nat's open acceptance and greeting soothed her worries. Callie still blamed herself for Perit's death, even if Nat didn't.

"I trust you left room in the bridal party?" I asked with a laugh to take her mind off things.

Callie just rolled her eyes at me. "Yes, obviously. Leave all the important stuff to mean and your mom, sweetie. You can pick the music or something." She winked to let me know she was teasing, but I latched onto the joke immediately.

"Hell yes I'll pick the music." I said with a grin. "You ever heard of Witzern Delta?"

Her eyes widened in horror. "You are NOT hiring a singing comedian to sing at our wedding Shane. We have foreign DIGNITARIES coming to this. Witzern Delta uses PROPS!"

I cackled maniacally as I raced away, calling for Benny as my fiancee shouted in panic for me to stop messing around. I slowed to a walk when I was out of sight, enjoying doing a bit of teasing of my own, and then made my way up to the lodge.

We still needed to check in before we got started looking around as the venue and the rehearsal space and all the activity sites (Ascendant weddings were complicated and dramatic, much like Ascendants themselves). Benny caught up with me as I approached the front desk, and laughed when I told him about my earlier joke.

More and more old friends were showing up, and I couldn't wait to see them all. Despite being in the polar ice caps, I felt warmer here on Callus than I had for over a year. Now I just needed to find someone to get my wishes out of the way, and I could really relax for a change.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The inside of the lodge was surprisingly homey. I'd been expecting it to be some big towering hall, but the first room wasn't a colossal chamber. It was just a lobby. The wooden ceiling was only about a hundred feet up, and the walls were decorated with pictures and memorabilia. There was a marble fireplace set near two of the walls, with a little nook area surrounded by couches.

At the front desk, a clean cut, lanky man with grey hair and a red bellhop jacket greeted us warmly, and after checking us in, showed us to our rooms.

"So." Said my best friend as we walked. "I've got a big night planned in a day or two. We're going to see an E-rank grudge match between a hero and a villain that have been feuding for years, then we're heading up into the aurora to catch light sprites, which are supposed to be good luck, and to finish it off, all of us are going to share a dragon steak, from an actual draconic bloodline monster, that weighs fifty pounds."

I blinked at him in shock. "Jessie is going to be putting together something for Callie and the girls on the same night. But as your best man I naturally needed to give you a good sending off, while acknowledging that your fiancee can read your mind."

"She can't read my mind." I said with a laugh. "But that does sound like a lot of fun. How the hell did you track down a fifty pound dragon steak?"

He snorted derisively. "Out in the universe you may be a super bigshot, but don't forget this is my home turf. My dad owns the biggest mining interest on Callus, and he's still got fingers in pies. Combined with my own strength I can get anything I need to here."

"Yeah, yeah." I said with an eye roll. "You're Mr. Connections. I bow before your superior procuring talents."

"Damn right." He said proudly. Then his teasing tone softened. "Shane…this is a big fucking deal, man. I'm kind of blown away. I mean I knew it was coming, you proposed like ten months ago, but being here, back home. It really drives it home. I'm happy for you. And I'm proud you picked me to be your best man."

I chuckled. "As if there was anyone else I'd pick. Does that mean you're willing to help with all the arrangements? I have to go help Callie pick out a cake tomorrow, double check the venue, get my tux fitted, and about a dozen other things. I could use some backup."

"Can't you split your brain into like…a hundred different parallels?" He asked suspiciously.

Snorting, I waved off his question. "If I want my soul to collapse maybe.I've been doing some research on that Skill for a new form, actually, but it's not ready. Regardless, don't be a dick. As the best man it's your job to help. You and Celine can go with Jessie to check on the flowers. Callie wants black calla lillies as the center of the arrangements. "
He groaned good naturedly, but relented, and we chatted about how nice it was to be home before we got to our rooms, which were pretty close to each other. Before we could go in though, a familiar face appeared. "Alden!' I said with a wide grin. "Good to see you, man, how have you been?"

I clasped the older man's wrist, patting him on the shoulder, but I realized quickly that he looked a bit out of sorts. "You as well, lad. Congratulations on the impending nuptials. Listen, have you seen Cicero? He came with me, but he hasn't checked into his room. I can't seem to find him anywhere."

"Is someone missing?" Callie asked as she and the others came up the hall behind us.

I turned and nodded, shooting a look at Abel, who was frowning. "Yeah Cicero isn't in his room and Alden hasn't seen him. I'm sure it's nothing, but we can help him look around."

Abel snorted. "Knowing my brother, I'm sure he snuck off into the city to try to find some E-ranker willing to invest in the circus. He's always been good at that kind of thing. He's probably fine." Despite his relaxed tone though, I could see some worry in his eyes.

"Well if he's not here we can just keep an eye out." I said firmly. "But there's no harm in getting the lay of the land, and we can look for him as we do."

Alden let out a relieved sigh. None of us really LIKED Abel's brother except Abel, but Alden had basically raised Abel, Mel, and Cicero. The red bearded man was the closest thing Abel and his brother had to a dad.

We got the room number from Alden. It wasn't far, so we all headed over to check it out. To my surprise, I noticed Bethy looking unsettled. I hung back to check in with her. "Hey, everything alright?"

She nodded absently. "It's nothing." She said faintly, clearly trying to reassure herself. "I'm sure it is. But I feel…I feel like we're being watched. I've been feeling it since we got here. Like there's a predator looking at me. I get twitchy sometimes, I'm sure there isn't anything wrong. But with someone missing…"

I straightened my back, coming alert for the first time since we'd arrived on the planet. Being home didn't mean no danger. Callie felt the shift and glanced at me worriedly. My mom and Zeke had gone off to help get Amelia settled, but I wouldn't have consulted them anyway.

This was Callus. Our home. We didn't need high rank protection here. Zeke couldn't interfere with anything given we were at the highest possible rank, and my mom getting involved could be dicey. My grandmother was apparently trying to mediate things with Black Sorrow, but until then, keeping her out of the limelight was for the best, especially when we were RIGHT on the edge of Black Sorrow Cult territory.
"Alden, when was the last time you saw Cicero?" I asked. If it was just an hour or two there was no reason to be worried. Even if I was getting a bad feeling.

He grunted. "Been about five hours. We separated when we showed up, I was taking in the sights and stopped for a meal. By the time I got finished I realized he wasn't around, so I went looking. His room doesn't look disturbed or anything. But him being missing is odd."

When we reached the right door, Abel slipped past us and knocked. "Cicero!" He called. No one answered. "Cy, open your damned door or I'll break it down. And neither of us wants you to have to pay for that." After another minute with no response he pulled back his fist, ready to make good on his threat.

I stepped up in front of him. "Woah there." I said with a laugh. "Why don't you let me take care of it." Focusing on the door, I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind it. I let the illusion of me fade as I opened the door from the inside. "Come on in."

After I let everyone inside, I turned to take in the room. It was nice. Like shockingly nice. Plush carpet, big central fireplace with a sort of stone bench surrounding it, a huge bed, a dresser, and a door leading out onto a full sized patio with a hot tub. I was beginning to regret getting sidetracked before entering my own room.

"I don't see him." Said Abel worriedly. "I thought he might be sleeping. He sleeps like the dead. Can you do your…" He made a bunch of weird random gestures near his face and the opened and closed his hands near his eyes like flashing lights.

We all stared at him. Finally I rolled my eyes. "Yes, fine. I can try Eye of Revelation." I triggered the Skill, scanning the room for anything that might be hidden, my crown activating as I did to improve the power of my eyes. I didn't pick up much. I wasn't sure what exactly I was looking for. My gaze was trailing the length of the room for the third time when I noticed something.

Walking over to the dresser, I knelt down, reaching underneath to fish out an item I'd overlooked the first few passes because it was so innocuous. When I pulled back my hand, I was holding a shiny brass button with a lion engraved on the front.

Abel walked over to take it from me. "That's one of his coat buttons." He said flatly. "He's obsessed with that damned coat. You'd have to pry a button out of his cold dead fingers if it came off. He'd have reattached it right away." his eyes flicked around. "Does anyone see any evidence of a struggle anywhere?"

We started searching the room again, this time looking for anything out of place. Before we got too far though, the door opened. We all spun, and I had my staff out and ready to attack before I even finished moving.

A familiar man in a top hat and a red coat froze as he entered. "Oh." He said slowly. "Hello? Is there a reason you're in my room?" He was standing extremely still, like he was worried we'd eat him if he made any sudden movements, and I felt kind of bad for randomly showing up in his space unannounced like this.

"Where the hell have you been?" Demanded Abel. "Alden says he hasn't seen you in hours." His voice was tense, but he was clearly relieved. I was kind of relieved too, honestly. I'd been winding myself up for some kind of disappearance mystery. It would be par for the course for my ridiculous life.

Cicero shrugged. "I was just out for a walk. I went out into town hoping to make a few friends. See if they might be interested in a circus coming through once in a while. These people are very influential, you know. I didn't even know Wintervale existed until I got this invitation." He tipped his hat to Callie and me. "Thank you again for inviting me, by the way. It's an honor."

I nodded but didn't say anything else. Cicero wasn't my favorite person. Aside from Abel, I'd mostly invited him because he partially owned the land our Pavilion was on, and Alden worked for him. The red bearded man had helped us out quite a bit when we first got to G-district, so inviting his skeevy manipulative ward was the least we could do.

Besides, Cicero couldn't do shit to us at our rank. I could literally go to sleep in front of him and not worry about what would happen. Inviting him posed no threat to anyone and it made Abel and Alden happy, so it wasn't a big deal.

Abel and Cicero bickered for a few minutes, and the man with the top hat apologized to our group for causing them worry. We all headed back to our rooms, and he headed to bed, tired from the day's activities, whatever those might have been.

As the door closed though, I caught his reflection in the knob across the hall. He was staring at me with a cold expression on his face, and despite my earlier thoughts about how he wasn't a threat, I got an unsettled feeling in my gut. Then it was shut, and I felt silly. I met Bethy's eyes, and she looked as embarrassed as I felt.

We'd both blown things way out of proportions. Clearly being out in the universe for so long had made us paranoid. Not everything was an insidious plot to kill us. I followed Callie back to our room, I played with the little metal object I was still holding. I pocketed the little brass lump, but as I did, I mentally recounted the meeting with Cicero. His coat hadn't been missing a button.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Not forgetting to get my wishes in, I dropped seventy more points into Fantasy with the help of one of the wedding guests and then Callie and I went to sleep. I didn't mention my worries to her about Cicero right away. Something about that whole encounter bothered me, so I decided to check in with my uncle.

Given his Path, hiding a disguise from someone like him would be near impossible. So when I woke up the next morning I went to his room and pounded on the door. No one answered, so I just kept pounding, Zekie and I didn't have much in the way of boundaries when it came to things like this.

After a few minutes, the door flew open. "What?" Snapped an enraged Stella as she glared at me…until she realized who she was talking to and her eyes widened in horror. Looking down at herself in a misbuttoned collared shirt and no pants, with her hair mussed all over the place.

"Hey Stella." I said, trying to suppress a grin. "Nice outfit. Very avante garde."

Blushing furiously, she looked down the hall to either side of us. "Shane. How…unexpected. I didn't know you'd be visiting. I just…lost my pants. Ezekiel was helping me…oh hells. You're getting married, you know why I'm here. Just don't tell Ian please?"

"Not my business." I said, holding up my hands in surrender. "Though I don't think he'd begrudge you a chance at happiness."

She glared at me. " Zeke and I are just old friends who enjoy each other's company. Things are casual. It's not like we're seeing each other. I don't want Ian to get confused. There's definitely no happiness!"

"Ouch." I said with a laugh. "I'll be sure to mention that to Zeke. He in there? I was hoping to talk to him."

Her scowl deepened. "That's not what I…oh forget it. Yes." She looked over her shoulder. "Ezekial, your menace of a nephew is at the door." She stalked off, slamming the door, still muttering about nosy kids with big mouths.

A minute later, Zeke appeared. "What do you want, kid? It's six in the morning. I knew it was a bad idea to let you join the army."

"Oh wah." I mocked him mercilessly. "You're an A-ranker. You don't even need sleep. I, however, need your help with something. Last night, there was a weird incident with Abel's brother. Did you get a chance to get a look at him?"

"Cicero?" He asked lazily. "Yeah, I checked him out. Better safe than sorry."

I waved my hand impatiently. "And? Was there something wrong with him? That whole thing was really suspicious."

"I mean, he was wearing a bright red jacket with gold buttons and a top hat." He shrugged. "So probably a bunch of things. Nothing ability based though. First thing I thought of was that he might have been possessed or controlled."

Frowning, I went back over the events of the previous night. Had I been imagining things? If Zeke couldn't find anything wrong there wasn't anything to find. Maybe he'd just sewn on a new button. Still, between Bethy's weird feeling and mine, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on.

"Just…keep an eye out?" I asked slowly. "Something is off. I can feel it. Gotta trust my instincts, right?"

He nodded. "Sure…except when you don't, and you're just being paranoid. Being an Ascendant will do that. But it's your party. I'll keep my eyes peeled." If there was an incident, it was unlikely to be related to the candidacy. With the god war ongoing, factional disputes were on hold, and even interfaction issues were mostly being backburnered. There was even talk of the big succession battle being moved up to get it out of the way, though nothing was set in stone.

Thanking my uncle, I headed back to my room, to find Callie sitting up in bed, chin on her palm as she waited for me.

"Hey, you're up early." I said with a smile as I hung my mask, cape, and crown near the door.

She growled lightly, as happy to be up in the morning as ever. "Where'd you go?" She grumbled, trying to fix her messy hair.

"Zeke's room." I told her. Then I filled her in on my suspicions from the previous night. She'd been tired and frazzled the night before, so I avoided mentioning it, but only until I could talk to my uncle. Callie was going to be my wife, and I wasn't going to keep anything important from her if I had a choice.

By the time I finished she was frowning. "He said he didn't notice anything?" She asked suspiciously.

"Not a thing." I said with a shrug. "Probably just me being paranoid. We have a cake tasting today though, so I think you have bigger fish to fry. Speaking of which, I think one of the flavors they're pitching us might BE fried fish. That list was…extensive."

She scoffed. "Savory cakes are all the rage now. Obviously our wedding has to have the most cutting edge style. It's the social event of the century."

If I hadn't had the bond, I might not have known she was messing with me, but I could feel the mischief behind her words. "I'll be stylish as hell when I eat the strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting I'm going to request from the baker."

Climbing out of bed, she stretched and then strolled up, pecking me on the lips before heading to take a shower. "You're still not getting out of tasting. We'll pick together."

Laughing, I walked over to change. I switched into a nice pair of slacks, a button up, and a coat, slipping my mask back on, and when Callie came out she threw on a pair of leggings, a t-shirt, and a black denim half jacket along with her own mask.

Given our relative power (about three Impact points past every other E-ranker on this planet), walking around fully armed was likely overkill, and it would probably start unnecessary trouble. Since we were home, and pretty much at the peak of this planet, we'd decided to wear our civvies, with only the masks as a nod to our cape identities.

To my surprise, when we arrived in the lobby, my sister was waiting for us. "Hey!" She said excitedly when she saw us. "You guys look so cute in normal clothes."

"I feel so weird without my cape." I said, shifting my shoulders. "And these clothes are too light."

Callie grinned at me. "Big baby. You'll get used to it. And if not it'll be over soon." She winked at my sister. "You can see why I brought you along. He's such a whiner when it's just the two of us. Hopefully with you here he'll calm down."

"Not just her." Cut in another familiar voice. We turned to see Felicity, dressed in a hoodie and a summer dress, smiling dimly at us. "I heard there was free cake."

Callie beamed at her. "Of course. The more the merrier. How have you been feeling?"

Felicity gave a tired chuckle. "Better. Worse. I don't know. Less numb, but that's not exactly fun. Mostly I'm just…tired. There's so much bad that reliving it wears me out. I'm almost glad that my recovery is taking so long. I'd say I'm at…five percent. But five percent of an ocean of suck is plenty."

I grimaced. I'd been using my Genesis Burst on Felicity every day to undo the damage her dad had done. It was working very, very slowly, and I was pretty sure she was developing a resistance, but she'd made enough progress that she could slowly start coming to terms with her past, as much as anyone could come to terms with what she'd been through."

"Well today isn't about pain." Chelsea said, face full of forced cheer. "It's about family. And cake. So much cake."

I smirked at her. "You get one slice of each cake, so calm down. I'm not paying for a hundred wedding cakes if you decide to go on a binge." My sister, much like my fiancee, had a penchant for sweets. So did Benny, which was why my best friend had been relegated to flower duty.

Speaking of which. "You bastard." He groaned as Celine and Jessie dragged him over, Callen following behind them. "I thought you were joking about the cake tasting. How could you leave me out of this?"

"Flowers are a dirty job." I said mercilessly. "But someone has to do it. Heh, see what I did there? Because flowers grow in dirt, and also you aren't getting any cake and are therefore a joke to me."

"I will fight you." he said murderously. And received simultaneous elbows from both Jessie and Celine. "That is to say." He said, his voice becoming a monotone. "I am overjoyed to participate in any way you choose in your special day."

Callie shot Celine an impressed look. "That's amazing, how did you get him to do that?"

"I agreed to go to watch the Doom Sovereign PVP league finals with him later this week." She admitted with a sigh.

My eyes widened, and I swung to stare at my best friend. "What? But the finals aren't for another two months!" I didn't keep track of the DS Leagues anymore, but I knew what time of the year they happened.

"Nope." He said smugly. "They got moved up. Some sort of dispute with the fruit vendors union over the snacks at the venue. They had to switch suppliers and the new fruits aren't in season during the original timeframe."

I nodded. "Damn, I'll have to check it out, do you know wh-"

"So sorry." Said Callie as she grabbed my arm, my sister snagging the other as they dragged me away. "We're going to be late. No time to talk about Doom Sovereign or fruit. Enjoy the flower shop!"

Behind us, Felicity laughed quietly, which I took to be a good sign.

It didn't escape my notice that we had the only C-ranker in our group along for the ride, or that Jessie and the others had Callen with them. Someone must be taking my worries seriously, because they made sure we were suitably protected.

Felicity, despite the limits placed on her by the WCP, was still a C-ranker, and while she couldn't intervene directly in my favor for higher level opponents, she could protect Callie and Chelsea if need be. Despite knowing we were among the top one percent of powers on this planet, knowing that my worries weren't being discarded still made me feel better.

We headed for the cake vendor. Callie had hired an E-rank chef, a former heroine who went by Bakery, to cater the wedding, and she was especially excited about the cake. I had to admit, I was excited to taste some high end E-rank cooking myself.

When we arrived at Bakery's…bakery, she let us inside, and escorted us to the back where the tasting room was set up.

Arrayed in front of us was a huge room filled with tables piled high with hundreds of varieties of cakes, each one missing a slice. In the center of the room was a round dining table covered with a white tablecloth and set with a hundred plates, each one with a slice of cake with a tiny numbered flag stabbed into it.

I could feel Callie's excitement as she took in the spread, and I laughed as I saw it mirrored in my sister's avaricious gaze. I'd been kind of worried after last night, but it was hard to keep my suspicions up under the onslaught of such pure joy. I let myself relax as I was dragged along to the table, picking up the first slice and taking a big bite…only to grimace as the taste of okra and fried eggplant filled my mouth. Actually…this day might be longer than I had expected.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The cake tasting was…interesting. There was the usual stuff, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, even a few out there choices like lemon. But Bakery had apparently taken the stylishness challenge to heart, because there were more than a few unique options too. Fish, beef, spicy pickled cabbage.

I had a bite of a lobster pate cake that was surprisingly good with scallion cream cheese, though the raspberry pistachio goulash cheesecake was a close second. "None of this should be edible." I said as I chowed down on a cheddar macadamia white chocolate bundt cake with a chicken stock glaze. "It's weird that it is. But the flavors are weirdly modulated so they set each other off instead of clashing."

"The turkey rhubarb isn't half bad." Said Callie consideringly. "But I think you're right. It's just exceptional cooking Skill balancing it out."

I bit into a caramel carrot cheesecake, enjoying the flavor. "But it's not enough. The actual dessert type cakes are still much better. No need to balance, it's just leaning into the harmony of the flavors head on."

"He's right." Said my sister. "Hate to say it, because that shrimp and onion butterscotch cream cake was definitely on my short list, but I think going for something edgy is going to deprive you of the cake that will serve you best." She held up a fork to my fiancee. "Which, in my opinion, is this."

Callie took a sip of milk to cleanse her palate, then took the bite from Chelsea, and her eyes went wide. "This…this is amazing. What is this?"

"Brown butter pecan poundcake with a bacon caramel cream cheese frosting." My sister said smugly. "The bacon isn't as out there as it sounds. It stops the sweetness from overpowering the taste. Here, try it." She passed me the plate, and I took a big bite, closing my eyes and groaning in exultation.

It was amazing. The poundcake was soft and fluffy, but still dense, the butter was blended into the taste, with the pecans exploding across my tongue like starbursts during a delicious meteor shower, and the bacon caramel frosting was creamy, but with a slight bacon tang that pulled the cake back JUST before it dove off the edge of decadence.

"This one." Calle and I said as she grabbed another plate with the same cake on it and took a bite.

My sister grinned smugly. "Obviously." She said with a lofty tone that she barely pulled off without bursting into laughter. "My taste is flawless and impeccable, you know. Speaking of which…the bridesmaids dresses."

Callie shook her head. "I know we were going to use the ones we picked out shopping on the Tricorn, but then my mom wouldn't have one. I didn't know she was pregnant, so the fitting is going to be useless. I'm afraid you'll have to make do."

"But they were so pretty." Whined my sister. "And the new ones are so…" She trailed off as Callie raised a brow. "Also pretty." She finished lamely. "In a different way. A worse way. I'm sorry, but orange silk? They look like they're made of pumpkin."

My fiancee shrugged. "Orange goes well with my black dress. Most of the wedding is black, but we needed a color for a power accent."

"This is ok with you?" Demanded my sister? "You realize you'll be wearing an orange silk vest and tie with your tux, right? You can talk her out of this. We don't need an accent color,it can be monochrome."

Callie flicked an amused glance at my sister's black and white hair. "Really? Because that color scheme definitely doesn't favor anyone."

"I didn't INVENT monochrome." Said my sister in exasperation. "It's a noted style choice. It just so happens to work with my hair but…oh my gods, you won't do it because you don't want me to steal your thunder."

"I am APPALLED that you think so little of me." Callie gasped in offense. "I would never do something like that. Now you'll wear your ugly dress and stand in the background so I look pretty on my wedding day and you'll like it." She winked to show she was teasing and we all burst out laughing, even Chelsea.

Callie wasn't a petty person. I was sure the dresses looked fine, Bethy would be wearing one, and I wouldn't want to be the one to try to convince Bethy to wear an ugly bridesmaids dress.

"How about you?" My sister asked smugly. "You going to get your groomsmen outfitted in time?"

I shrugged. "Suits, ties, vests." I said with a lazy wave. "Easy as cake. And speaking of-"

My fiancee cut me off. "No." She said bluntly. "We're not bringing any of these home. We'd both gorge ourselves and be sick of cake by the wedding day. I'd like to take some back too. That ravioli spinach layer cake with alfredo frosting was delicious, and would make a fantastic dinner."

I sighed, but she was right. "Fair enough. Maybe we can grab one to go after the wedding." I held up a hand, calling over one of the attendants. "Hey, we picked the one we want." I gestured to the poundcake.

"We'll take a thirteen layer, and we want the custom topper. Use our faces, but we'll send you the outfit details." Callie said excitedly.

The woman from the shop, whose name tag said Amelie, smiled. "A wonderful choice Madame. I'm quite fond of that one myself." She winked. "I taste test for Bakery when she tries new recipes, so I've tried almost everything."

"Dream job." Groaned Felicity, who hadn't spoken through the whole conversation. Turning to look at her as she talked, I realized WHY. All the plates within arms reach were clear, and my cousin (easiest way to think of her in my mind) was greedily glancing at the other plates around us, as if ready to pounce across the table.

Chelsea raised a brow. "Liss?" She said hesitantly. "When was the last time you had sugar?"

"I never eat sugar." Said Felicity, eyes darting around. "I never needed sweet food. Da- my father said it was an indulgence. And since I've come to live with you I mostly take my own meals in my rooms."

My sister reached over and gently uncurled the girl's hands from the fork. "Why don't we just take that away." She said slowly as she pried away the eating utensil which was being held point down in a fist like a murder weapon. "You guys can clear the plates." She said as the attendants approached warily. "Liss, why don't we go to lunch and get something a bit more filling for you to eat."

I wasn't sure if a C-ranker could GET a sugar rush, though if it was possible, Bakery would probably be the one to make it happen, at least on this planet. More reasonably, it was probably just excitement at trying something new and an inability to deal with positive emotions, since she was only starting to feel them.

She pouted a bit (albeit subtly, I was getting used to her dim expressions, and my Perception helped me recognize what she was feeling) and the rest of us chuckled. After we convinced her, I noticed a small smile quirking her lips, and became convinced she was messing with us a bit, too. I didn't mind. She hadn't been able to mess with anyone for most of her life, a little teasing was to be expected.

After we left the details of the cake with Bakery, we moved on. Callie had memorized the layout of the town, and led us effortlessly through the streets until we stopped at an unassuming looking shop.

Pushing the door open, we were greeted by the heavy scent of paper and ink. I froze as I took in the neat, handwritten sign behind the counter.

"The SCARLET SCRIBE!" I hissed at my fiancee. "I thought he was dead!"

A chuckle rang out from behind the counter. A tall, thin man with a monocle and a well trimmed mustache smiled genteely at me. "You were meant to. That's why it's called retirement. Welcome to the Scarlet Scribe's Seamless Stenograph. Did you call ahead?"

"We did." Callie answered, talking over me. "The Wyndham-Reynolds wedding. I commissioned you for the invitations?"

"Ah yes." He said with a nod. "I got your requests. I have a few samples for you to choose from before I begin the final product. I was led to understand that these are collectible invitations? Meant to given to the guests as mementos?"

I hadn't been aware of that, but it made sense. Why else would we be coming to talk about invitations after everyone was already invited. I could see the reasoning too. Invitations would be a good gift for the guests too. Cheaper than most things but also personalized. Callie nodded enthusiastically. "That's the one. What do you have for me?"

Nodding slowly, the Scarlet Scribe (a particularly terrifying Rajak villain I'd heard about during my early days in the city who wrote notes in the blood of his enemies) withdrew a box from behind the counter and began laying out a variety of cardstock invitations.

I had to admit, there were some really interesting ones. Some beautiful night sky designs with glittering silver stars, a couple of deep forest scenes (which we both immediately nixed) and finally settled on the last one. The image was of a beautiful sunset, with a dark sky and shining stars overhead spelling out the invitee's name.

The sunset incorporated the black and orange that Callie wanted to use as the wedding theme, and we had all the details ironed out within about ten minutes, after which we set out again for that lunch we'd promised Felicity.

As we were walking though, I felt a strange sensation. I stopped, scanning the road around us, looking between buildings and across rooftops. I flicked on Eye of Revelation scanning between trees and in shadows, searching for…something. Callie looked at me worriedly. "What's wrong?" She asked, trying to see what I was seeing.

Which was nothing, until…I caught a flash of movement, my eyes flicked over to the spot on my periphery but nothing was there. I blurred forward, triggering State of Grace, and was across the intervening distance in a second. When I arrived nothing was there, but I was already on the trail. Eye of Revelation caught some disturbances in the grass and I was off.

Felicity was alerted, but the thing was E-rank, based on my brief glimpse of…whatever it was. Callie and Chelsea and I were on it though, and I kicked on Mephisto's Waltz, pushing myself as fast as I could, but the thing was smart. It kept changing directions and I was going so fast I needed to double back.

Finally, we reached the edge of the city, and we hit the icy cliffs surrounding Wintervale at speed. I triggered Ripple Running and went straight up the side, emerging out into a howling blizzard I hadn't even noticed from inside the valley. Off in the snow, I caught one last glimpse of a lumbering form with icy white fur before it vanished.

Callie saw it for a second as she arrived, but didn't get a good look, and Chelsea was barely able to see the outline based on her timing, but she DID spot it. "What the actual fuck is that?" She said in horror as it vanished into the sleet.

"Well." I said grimly. "Been a year or two since I've seen one, but they're hard to forget. If I'm not mistaken, that was a Wendigo." In the distance, an unearthly keening howl rose above the wind and snow, and within moments another dozen of the same cries rebounded off the air around us. "Nevermind." I grimaced. "My mistake. WendiGOS." I turned and headed back to the valley. I wasn't letting those things ruin my wedding. We needed to put together a hunting party.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Wendigos?" Asked Chelsea in confusion after we got back to the lodge. "I don't know if I I've heard of those." she paused. "It sounds familiar though. Maybe I've read about them? I feel like I'd remember if I'd seen one in person.

Jessie snorted. "You would have." She said bluntly. "I know I sure do. Randall handled the last one we ran into. Back when Serenity was trying to take over the circus. I never did ask where the Peace Lord got the one he let loose on us. They're not pleasant. Big hulking monstrous things that eat human flesh."

"Agreed." I grimaced. "They also have a natural affinity for ice and snow." I pulled some paper from my ring and sketched out a picture from memory. With my Perception and Focus, sketching pretty much anything I wanted was child's play, especially if it was a recreation of something I'd seen. "They look like this." I said when I finished.

I shuddered at my own memory. "They're demons, which is a catch all term for more monstrous bearers of various racial traits." I continued." Not fae or devils, but still powerful and dangerous."

My sister picked up the paper, glanced over it with disgust, and then set it back down. "So…fifteen foot tall horned monsters covered in pale grey skin? How does something that size vanish into the snow? I mean, it looks right, but it seems like something that size would have trouble hiding."

I gestured to Callie. "How does she vanish into shadows? It's just what they do. Wendigos are terrible things. They lose all their humanity in exchange for some pretty horrifying bonuses, and from what I remember of my research, they're WAY harder to kill in the cold. They suck the stuff up like shuttle fuel."

"Callen, can you help?" Asked my sister beseechingly. "With a D-ranker helping it should be easy enough to take care of them. With Liss not allowed to participate, and Zeke and mom out of the running, I'm sure we'd all like a ringer."

The big swordsman shook his head. "If they've been seen here before it's a local matter. We're with the Church, and this is RIGHT next to Cult territory. We can be here because of the wartime truce, but if we start mucking about with local politics we'll give them a justification to start a fight, and none of us can afford that."

"But grandma is going to talk to Black Sorrow." Protested Chelsea. "They're going to sort the whole thing out."

He shrugged. "Key words there being going to. As of this moment they're our enemy, if a somewhat defanged one. We can't give them any excuse. Besides, I'm sure you can handle a few Wendigos. The one you fought before might have been powerful at the time, but think how far you've come. There's no way it'll be a match for you as you are."

He wasn't wrong. We'd all taken a level in badass while we were gone. Benny's Dracolich Path, Jessie's new evolved Companion and her absurd stats, Callie's upgraded ability. The Wendigo wouldn't be a match for us.
"Alright." I said slowly, coming around to the idea. "I can get behind a direct approach." I glanced at Abel. "You think fighting a Wendigo Pack would be enough for the Path upgrade you need? They're no Volcanic Ape, but they honestly probably suit your Path better. Wendigos eat people, they're all about blood and victory."

My mentor just grinned. "Even if I didn't I'd still want to come. It sounds like a party. The question is, how many of them are there? I'd never heard of a pack out here, though I guess it makes sense. The one the Peace Lord was using had to come from somewhere."

"Wendigo's are monsters. The catalyst for becoming a wendigo involves using the actual heart of another ascendant. It's actually much cheaper and easier to get the trait than most powerful racial traits, but the effects on the psyche are so extreme that no one does it if they can help it. What's the point of getting stronger if you turn into a horrifying monster with an insatiable hunger for human flesh.

"That's what was watching us." Bethy said with a grimace. "It felt hungry and predatory. Trust me, I know the sensation. We should eliminate them. Monsters like that don't add anything to the world. I'm in for the hunt."

Gabe nodded solemnly. "Abominations that prey on the weak? You have my lance as well."

"Chelsea, you might be one of our best weapons against them." I said after some thought. "Maybe your flames of purification…" Zagan might help too, but I didn't think cleansing someone of a racial trait was possible. Unlike my green fire, Chelsea's flames of purification did actual damage to impure things instead of just deep cleaning.

Effects like the ones that Primal Chaos Forest disciple used were one thing, but these Wendigos had BECOME something else. Even my power couldn't erase a complete change of species, no matter how much it would probably help.

She nodded thoughtfully. "I can do that. We'll need to track them down. You said they're at home in ice and snow. Can you even track them in the near permanent blizzard surrounding this place?" She held up her scan ring, typing in a few commands before flicking a screen up in front of us with a similar picture to what I'd drawn.

I read over it, recognizing the page. "Yup. They blend in the cold better than most. Apparently when they absorb enough cold air their flesh turns clear and crystalline. Makes tracking them by sight in the tundra almost impossible. Damn it, my Eye of Revelation is probably our only shot. Although…" I glanced at Bethy. "Do you think Luggage could track them?"

She brightened. "Maybe!" She said excitedly. "He doesn't love the cold, but it doesn't slow him down much. I bet he could track them down." She frowned. "But…we're assuming that they'll be together. Predators like that tend to have their own territories. Even if they're a pack, they most likely spread out. What if we miss some?"

I considered that for a moment. "Hey, Chelsea, there anything in there about where their lair might be? Seems weird there's a whole bunch of E-ranked monsters out here and no one knows about them. I imagine eating the witnesses doesn't hurt, but this is a resort town for E-rankers."

"That's because they're not E-rank." Said Stella as she and Zeke appeared on the other side of the table and sat down. "Or at least, they weren't. There IS a pack of Wendigo out in the tundra, but they're not nearly this cohesive, and they don't come near Wintervale because of all the powerful Ascendants. Are you sure you saw one in the city?"

I shrugged. "Well it was either that or a really ugly deer sitting on a gorilla's shoulders. Which, while theoretically possible in the world we live in, seems…unlikely."

"He's right." Said Jessie seriously. "Gorilla's have like…no neck. Sitting on one's shoulders would be nearly impossible." We all rolled our eyes as she winked at Stella, who chuckled lightly.

Amusing as that was though, we needed to focus. "Bethy is right though. We'll need to go out in groups. Abel, Bethy, Mel, Callie, Gabe, Benny, Jessie, and me. Seven groups outside mine, which means one wish for each. I won't tell you what tracking method to wish for, obviously, but since my Eye of Revelation will work on its own, that leaves each of us with a way to track them."

Callie nodded thoughtfully. "If we wish for the right tracking equipment, we can make sure to clear them all. That way when they stop working we'll know we're done."

"That's up to you all." I said blandly. "I can't really weigh in. But everyone will take a team. I don't care if they're random church initiates that Chelsea brought with her, or friends you made here. Nobody goes alone."

We were light on E-rankers, but this entire situation was rubbing me the wrong way. Sudden appearances of powerful groups of enemies who had grown out of nowhere, possible issues with Cicero, and that Wendigo getting noticed at exactly the right time to lure us out to the edge…this was all really convenient, and I didn't like it.

Luckily, we'd caught on early. We still had about six days to the wedding, and I wanted to get out there, take care of the Wendigos, and investigate where they came from in time to finish the variety of wedding chores I still needed to do.

Callie reached out and grabbed my hand across the table, squeezing it. "It's fine." She said in my head. "Everything will be alright. We can take care of this in no time, and everyone will be safe to attend the wedding. Nothing in this world is going to stop me from marrying you."

I made sure she felt the burst of warmth and love that flooded my heart at those words, and I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it softly, her smile lit up the whole room.

"I hope they stop doing this after the wedding." Groaned Benny in exasperation. "But realistically I know they'll be even worse as newlyweds. We should pick our teams. Celine, you want to come with me?"

She nodded. "I'm in. Though I'm not sure any of my nature magic will do much good in the tundra, I'm still E-rank, so I should be able to help."

The rest of us picked anyone we thought could help. Alex went with Callie, Jessie brought Randall, obviously, Bethy had her animals, and so on. I decided to take Nat with me, and the few of us without backup were assigned a Crusader from the church. It didn't count as interfering in local politics if the help was E-rank or lower.

Once we got that set up, everyone made their wishes. I charged Fantasy points, ten each, because I'd been trying to stockpile those to help with my Path stuff. I was up to nine thousand six hundred and seventy points in that stat, so I was making decent progress. Once that was finished, we all headed for the edge of Wintervale, where we'd seen the Wendigo.

Unsurprisingly, the snow had covered any obvious tracks, but my Eye of Revelation let me pick up the non obvious one. I could see the hideous clawed footprints in the drift, like they were glowing in under the light of the aurora.

"Alright everyone!" I called. "Stay together, if anyone has any trouble, use the flares that Benny gave you, and the rest of us will converge. Keep your compasses handy, and once you don't have a lock on anything reconvene with the nearest group and we can all meet back up here."

Everyone had decided to wish for silver compasses that could track the Wendigos, and Benny had supplied the flares from his personal stash. Apparently he had a ton of random stuff from inventing practice that he never had a use for and just stowed in his ring for just such an occasion. I couldn't complain about the added safety, I felt much better knowing we had signals.

With that finished, Nat and I headed out into the snow, taking our time and following the trail left by the same Wendigo I'd chased earlier. It wasn't going to get away this time. I saw my cousin draw a matte black stiletto with an icy blue gem in it and smiled. Apparently running a territory paid well, that was a D-rank dagger.

As we moved further away from the valley, I paid more and more attention to my Danger Sense, just waiting for any sort of tipoff. I wasn't getting ambushed, especially not with my cousin around in need of protection. As the storm swallowed the protrusions of ice surrounding the valley, I focused my senses to the peak. It was time for the hunt to begin.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, this is a fun wedding." Said my cousin glibly as we trudged through the snow. "It's just not an Ascendant party if someone isn't trying to murder us all." She shot me an appraising glance. "You sure we're good out here just you and me? We're not exactly the muscle of the group. Maybe we should have brought Gabe or Bethy."

I scoffed. "Please, you haven't been around lately. I'm a certified badass now. I won these huge games at the conclave for the WCP, took on a bunch of peak E-rankers. I'm not saying I'm invincible at E-rank, but I can handle anything on this planet no sweat."

"Oh really?" Asked my cousin with a grin. "You improved that much, huh? Must have been some crazy shit going down after you left."

Shrugging, I brushed her off. "We can talk about the details later. You'll see soon enough. I assume you have some trinkets on you for protection besides that pigsticker?" I gestured to the D-ranked dagger.

"Plenty." She said with a laugh. "I've been making quite a-" I held up my hand sharply and she stopped talking.

In the snow, the tracks had stopped. My Danger Sense started shrieking at me, and I narrowed my eyes. Just out of sight, I caught gargantuan distortions in the blizzard, creeping here and there, only visible for a moment. As I caught sight of another, and then another, I realized that they were circling us, leaping and bucking their heads, ripping the air with their horns.

The snow beneath my feet began to sizzle as I triggered Mephistopheles and Belial. I kept Zagan on the backburner for now, in case of injuries. Glancing at Nat, I saw her withdraw a black parasol studded with metal skulls and black glass beads.

She spun it once, and a dome of darkness enshrouded both of us, cutting off our vision.

The distortion gave me an excellent idea, and I triggered Moonlit Night, grinning wolfishly as the mist swallowed the area. Inside the fog bank, I could see everything perfectly, even the nearly invisible bodies of the transparent Wendigos.

Which was good, because one of them was charging and about to gore me like a bull. I stepped lightly, Mephisto's Waltz eating the ground beneath me as it rushed past. My staff licked out, interposing itself in front of its ankle, causing the blindly rushing monster to trip and faceplant into the snow.

Its leg began to blacked and crack as the corrosion crept in, but it didn't turn out to be necessary. As it fell, its antlers stabbed into the icy ground, sliding into the frozen dirt, and its body kept going. It skidded to a stop, head and neck at an angle as its antlers held it mostly immobile. I drove my staff forward, a relatively small Cosmic Collapse smashing into and eating its hideous leering face.
Behind me, Nat engaged with one of them, able to see where it couldn't and I was impressed to see my cousin tear the thing apart. The Wendigo snarled and tore at the air, but she slipped neatly between its strikes, and her D-ranked dagger licked out, parting transparent crystalling flesh at the joints of the limbs and where the achilles tendon would be on a person.

It collapsed, and she was on its back within seconds, opening its throat, and I watched a spray of greasy grey blood mist the air as it gagged and slumped into the powder.

I whistled as I let the mist fade. "Damn cous', that was brutal. Someone's been doing some training, huh?" I'd assumed her newly demonstrated calmness and peace of mind was a factor of time, but maybe she'd been a bit more proactive.

She smirked, wiping the blade on her enemy. "Of course." She said smugly. "I've been training with Valk, as well as sparring with all the soldiers stationed at the town." Her expression sobered. "I'm not going to get blindsided because I'm counting on other people to do the heavy lifting for me, and I'm not going to let Valk die because I wasn't treating things seriously enough."

I could see her determination not to lose another friend, and I respected the hell out of it. "I think that's a good way to look at things." I said solemnly. "And it looks like your hard work paid off. That was some damned impressive fighting."

Before she could respond, I saw something off to the side. Spinning, I put up a guard, expecting an attack, but my Danger Sense had going suddenly silent. I realized when I finished turning that I was seeing a red star cutting through the air. My eyes widened as I realized it was one of the flares Benny had given out. I checked to see that Nat was with me and then took off running, using Ripple Running to let us avoid sinking in the snow as we sprinted in the direction of the signal.

When we arrived, we found Mel, injured and surrounded, holding off a half dozen Wendigos. An explosion of force from out of sight told us her partner had been separated from her, and Nat broke off, bolting for the other combatant, who I knew was Valk.

Praying my cousin's friend was alright, I struck brutally at one of the Wendigos, unleashing a burst of black flame that sent it hissing and darting back. I let Belial drop, manifesting Zagan as I approached my friend. I let a Piece of Mind parallel take over one hand and operate Mephistopheles while I appraised her condition.

Mel looked bad. One of her legs was ripped open, but it wasn't bleeding, it was frosted over with dirty grey ice, and what looked like grey frostbite was spreading from the wound. "Shit." I said as I crouched over her, waiting to see if the others would attack. One tried to get close, and I swung my staff one handed, letting a burst of concussive black flame explode on contact as my swing connected.

It was blasted back, screaming in pain. Before it could attack again, Callie and Alex melted from the shadows, and my fiancee's daggers shredded the one I'd just injured as her uncle unleashing a tide of dark spikes.

Sighing in relief, I held my hand above the wound on Mel's leg, unleashing a blast of life fire to cleanse and heal her injury.

The grey frost melted away instantly, and the damaged flesh mended itself even as I watched. The actual wound hadn't been deep, and the Wendigo's had less Impact that Mel, so the damage didn't stick too badly. The infection or whatever it was had been most of the problem.

"Go help Nat." I called to Callie as she finished hers and came to check on me. "She went to check on Valk."

She nodded and took off, and I turned to Mel. "What the hell happened?" I asked in concern. "Did the compass malfunction? How did you get ambushed?" I assumed it had been an ambush. While not quite at the same level as Abel (pretty much no one but Bethy was) Mel had already discovered her illusory Path (Path of the Heavenly Flame) and was a genuinely dangerous fighter.

"They swarmed us." She spat. "The compass started going haywire because it couldn't focus on just one of the things, they were circling like sharks. Eight of the bastards. I was more than up to taking on three or four, but the fifth one got behind me and tore into my leg. Valk drew off three of them in that direction and I haven't seen him since." She gestured to where we'd heard the fighting.

I squinted into the snow, happy to see that Callie was coming back, along with Nat and a badly wounded Valk. Rushing over, I checked them for damage. Aside from the big redheaded man, they were all fine. "What happened?" I asked anxiously.

Callie set Valk down nearby. "We found him on the ground being torn into. We took them out, but he's…" She looked down at the wounded man. "They ate part of his thigh and bicep. His whole body seems to be covered in this grey frostbite effect. He can't move at all. Can you fix it?"

I nodded, stepping forward and letting Mephistopheles drop. Focusing entirely on Zagan, I charged up the biggest Life Nova I could manage. I let the green energy burst, covering the injured man, and was relieved to see the grey melt away. Nat collapsed on Valk's prone form, sobbing, and the rest of us took up position to guard them while he recovered.

Despite how much life force I'd used, the repairs would not be fast. Zagan was better for purification than straight healing, and Valk's injuries weren't light. This wasn't a puncture wound to the leg, the Wendigos had fucking EATEN part of two of his limbs. The muscle needed to regrow entirely, and the process was far from instant.
"Hey." I said after he'd had some time to compose himself. "How are you feeling?" Nat was sitting nearby, staring blankly off into the distance, and I cursed myself for bringing her. I'd gotten so used to traveling with my current lineup of friends, who were all powerful and dangerous people. Nat and Valk were BARELY E-rank.

I'd gotten cocky about the level of threat we'd see on Callus. Valk for his part, seemed to be taking it well. "I'm fine." He said calmly. I was surprised how relaxed he sounded. He was normally pretty stoic, but I supposed he must have been feeling the effects of the Life Nova still. I'd probably be pretty relaxed too. "It barely hurts."

Nat's head snapped up, eyes pinning him as he started to move. "You are NOT walking." She snapped. "We'll carry you. Callie, can you make a stretcher for him?" The two compasses the others had were spinning aimlessly, so this had been the last of them, thankfully, and we could head back.

"Sure." My fiancee shrugged. A quick effort of will had the shadows congealing into a pair of poles with a strip of fabric between them. Alex used a shadow cloud to lift him up onto it, and the two of us grabbed hold of the ends and set off for the rendezvous point.

As we walked, I frowned down at the injured man. "What the hell happened?" I asked as we walked. "Mel said you pulled three of them, which, you know, that was brave, but she could have handled the excess better than you could. You almost got yourself killed."

"He was trying to help!" Snapped my cousin. "You sent him out here to help her, remember?"

I put a hand up in surrender, holding the stretcher with the other. "Whoa! Not blaming. Just trying to figure out what went wrong. There might be some kind of clue to where the things came from. I appreciate him helping out, as does Mel, I'm sure."

The red masked woman nodded. "I definitely do. I was on my last leg. Literally. You saved my life. I owe you one."

Valk just waved her off. "It's fine. We were teammates. That was the point. As for clues…nothing I saw. I took off after tagging a few with my axe, and they chased me. They caught up to me quick, and I tried to fight them off, but they worked together and overpowered me. Once they had me down and immobilized..." He shuddered. "Well, you saw."

Arriving back at the rendezvous point, we filled the others in on what happened. Jessie set to work trying to help Valk recover, and the rest of us exchanged information on exactly what had happened out here. Oddly, nothing out of the ordinary had gone down. Find Wendigo, kill Wendigo. Rinse, repeat.

Despite the smooth operation, I saw Bethy frowning out into the snow, echoing my own expression. Something about this still felt off. For now though, all we could do was get back to Wintervale and move on with the wedding prep. But I'd be keeping an eye out.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once we made it back to the lodge, I caught up to my mom and asked her a favor. "Hey, with all these weird coincidences, I'd feel a bit better if we had some security. Do you think you could have some of your E-rankers patrol Wintervale for us?"

"Of course, honey!" She said with a beaming smile. "We can't interfere in the internal politics of the region, but that's mainly a restriction on rank. Having my E-rankers keep an eye out is still fine." She frowned. "I know Ezekial took a look around as he was monitoring you, and I did a little poking about myself after you were all clear. I didn't find anything."

I sighed. "Damn. I guess I'm really just imagining things."

"No." She said bluntly. "I mean I DIDN'T find ANYTHING. There are no traces of what caused those Wendigos to evolve. One or two of them would be fine, but a whole pack of dozens of demons ranking up together? That only happens when alchemy or other unusual means are involved. There was no sign of any of that."

I got what she was saying. "You're saying in this case, the lack of evidence itself is the biggest red flag? Why would something that could hide from YOU be on this planet?"

"That is an excellent question." She said with a troubled frown. "Theoretically it could be some extremely niche ability that happens to perfectly counter my means of investigation, like spatial isolation counters Perception. But the chances of that are…slim."

Sighing, I slumped down into a chair, head in my hands. "Great. So we have to worry about-"

"Nothing." She snapped icily. My head jerked up, and I stared right into her blazing eyes. "You don't worry about a thing. I'll figure out what's going on, and I'll put a stop to it." She leaned forward and grabbed me, yanking me into a bone crushing hug.

Her voice was hoarse as she said softly. "I wasn't here for your childhood. I missed so many big events, so many firsts. I'm finally here with you, at your wedding, welcoming the love of your life into our family. I get to be a part of one of the most important days you'll ever have, and I won't let anyone ruin it. Not for me, but for you. Because I owe you that. That and so much more. I love you honey, and if someone wants to ruin your wedding they'll do it over my dead body."

I squeezed her back. "Hey now, I don't want any death flags here. I just got you back after thinking you were dead most of my life. Don't EVER tell Callie I said this, but we can have another ceremony. Your health is more important."

"She doesn't need to tell me." Said the amused voice of my fiancee as she stepped from the shadows beside us. "Because that's obvious, you big lummox. I know I might have been acting a bit wedding crazy, but what kind of person do you think I am?" Sadly I couldn't hide the surge of smug amusement, and she caught on. "Damn it, how long did you know I was there?"

"Since the beginning, love." I said with a laugh. "It's rude to eavesdrop. If you wanted to know what's up you could just ask."

She plopped down on the bench next to me. We were outside in a courtyard, and as she sat she pulled my mom to sit between us. "He's right though. The wedding is important, but everyone's health and safety obviously takes priority. That said, I have faith in you Sasha. I know you can figure out what's going on and handle it for us."

My mom beamed at her for a second, then her face twisted in an expression of pensive distaste. "Yeah…about that. I've been meaning to talk to you." Callie froze, panic filling her face as she tried to figure out what my mom meant by that. Mom let her stew for another second or two before finishing. "I think Sasha, is a bit formal for a family member. I was thinking "mom" sounds better."

Callie blanched. "I…I mean, that's…wow. But my mom is around and what if she feels weird about that? Not that I don't want to call you that, or I'm not grateful, or that I don't think you're a good mom, because you're a great mom, even though you weren't around for Shane, but that's not your fault and-"

I clapped a hand over her mouth. "Sweet Revenant Callie, BREATHE!" That whole thing had been basically one single breath, I was worried she might suffocate.

My mom just chuckled at her. "Your mother is fine with it. Her only demand is that Shane refer to her the same way. Says it's only fair. He went from having no mother to having two in just a year or so. Probably overwhelming for the boy."

"I'm sitting right here." I informed them helpfully. "In ear shot. Listening to you both talk about me like I don't exist."

My mother patted me on the cheek. "That's nice dear."

Callie burst out laughing, and I rolled my eyes, muttering about being ganged up on. My heart wasn't in it though. I loved that they were getting along. Callie seemed thoughtful for a bit, then finally nodded. "Alright. I'll call you mom. But you have to call me Callie. No more of this Calliope nonsense. I know you only use Zeke's full name because it bugs him, but I want the nickname."

"I suppose that's fair." My mom conceded. "Callie it is." She leaned in and gave my fiancee a hug of her own. "Welcome to the family, honey. I know it's a bit early, and I might not exactly have the right to be the one extending the greeting, but-"

"Of course you do." I said sharply. "Just because I'm still pissed about some of the choices you made doesn't mean you aren't my mom. It means a lot."

She put her hand over her mouth, eyes welling up with tears. "That's…thank you. Shane. Both of you. Thank you so much." We both got caught up in this hug, and I laughed a bit, letting myself relax a bit.

Some kids treat their parents like superheroes. Like they can do anything, and solve any problem. Ironically, my parents basically WERE superheroes, but I'd had that illusion of invincibility stripped away a long time ago. I didn't know if my mom was going to be able to figure out what was going on, and magically fix everything like she wanted to.

But I also didn't care. Because just for a second, sitting there with my family, I was able to let myself believe it. I felt safe, and happy, and even if she couldn't fix things, that was enough. Because she loved me, and she was trying, and that was all I could really ask from anyone, wasn't it?

"Speaking of Amelia." I said, my mind shifting back to an earlier part of the conversation. "Is she alright? Alex was with us, if something is really happening around here, wouldn't she-"

My mom laughed. "I left Andrew with her. If getting past an A-rank soldier of the Church was possible for these…enemies, they wouldn't bother with subterfuge. Assuming there is an enemy and we aren't all just paranoid lunatics."

"It could be both." I admitted with a shrug. "But yeah, Andrew should be more than enough. I hadn't seen him around for a while. Where has he been, anyway?"

She shrugged. "Around. The Necromedes is a big ship, and there are several passenger sections for higher ranked Ascendants with far more luxurious amenities than the areas you're allowed to visit. Pedigree only goes so far, you know. True strength is still the most important thing."

"Noted." I said with a laugh. "Hopefully I can hit D-rank before our next big trip. I look forward to seeing more of that."

My mom sniffed. "I can't believe my babies are going to be Masters. It's like watching you all take your first steps. I'm so proud of all of you. That goes for you too Callie. You're an impressive young woman, and I'm thrilled you'll be joining the family. I couldn't have asked for a better wife for my boy."

Callie smirked. "Well, I need someone pretty to do the cooking while I'm out slaying gods." She winked at me. "He does the job." I felt her love and adoration through the bond, and flooded it right back, reaching over to clasp hands with her.

"You two are so cute." My mom practically squealed. "I'm going to go tell Amy that you agreed. She's almost as excited about this as I am. I'll leave you two kids alone." Winking, she vanished from between us, appearing at the end of the hall casually as if she'd just taken a step.
My fiancee smiled after her. "Am I completely crazy, or did she somehow manage to basically order us to give her grandchildren without verbally saying a word about it."

"Right?" I said plaintively. "It's uncanny. Not that I plan on having kids soon." I said bluntly. "No offense, but we're still really young. I want to marry you, and have a family with you eventually, but we're not even twenty. There's no rush."

She laughed, putting her hands up in pre-emptive surrender. "Oh trust me, I'm right there with you. I adore you, and kids sound good…eventually. But I'm nowhere near that point mentally. I'm still dealing with the damage my own parents did."

"Preaching to the choir." I sighed. I put an arm around her. "But she's right you know. I'm lucky as hell to have you."

She leaned up to kiss my mask. "I make jokes, but I can't imagine spending my life without you. You're…you're a part of me, Shane. Maybe it's the bond, but when you're not with me I feel like there's a part of me missing."

Her head leaned on my shoulder, and I brushed my fingers through her hair. "Save it for the vows, love." I said with a soft smile. "I could go on an hour long rant about all the reasons I love you, but I don't want to use up all my good material. I really can't believe that this time next week you'll be my wife."

"I can't believe I'll be anyone's wife." She said with a laugh. "Not that I wasn't planning to get married eventually, but it's just such a weird label to apply to me. I'm not a wife. A wife is like, mature and wise. My mom is a wife. Your mom is a wife. I'm a perfectionist and an occasional dumbass."

"Occasional?" I asked sardonically, getting an elbow in my ribs and a scathing glare. "I'm kidding. I get it. I don't feel like anyone's husband. But I guess we'll have to figure that stuff out together. Because even if I don't feel like someone's husband, when I think of all the things a wife would mean to someone, all I think of is you."

She grinned smugly. "And you said you didn't want to waste your good material. Now, almost-husband, why don't you get some practice in and carry me over the threshold of our room." She snuggled up to me expectantly, nuzzling into my side.

I nodded sagely. "That's probably for the best." I admitted. "Gotta get my reps in to make sure I can handle the walk. You are shockingly heavy." I activated Double Trouble on a plant down the hall just in time to hear her squawk of offense. I triggered State of Grace and took off for our room, Callie screaming in outrage as she chased me through the halls (I could feel her barely suppressed laughter). Thinking about everything, I'd never been more sure about my wedding. I wanted things to be like this for the rest of our lives.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next four days were both surprisingly busy and shockingly uneventful. Flowers, decorations, catering, clothes, all the things we'd already done needed to be followed up on, and all the things we hadn't still needed doing. I'd barely had time to get the two hundred eighty points of Fantasy from the four days of wishes. Finally though, we got everything finished two nights before the wedding. Just in time for Benny's big night out.

"But I want to go catch light sprites with you too!" Whined Bethy. "Why can't I go?"

I shrugged. "You can, but you have to go to the grudge match too. We're doing everything in order."

"It's going to be a blast." Said Abel with a grin. "Red Tiger and Blade Reaper have been feuding for decades. I used to read their comics when I was a kid." At my surprised look he coughed lightly. "When I was bored or in the hospital from all the fights I got into. I wasn't like…a nerd or anything. But their fight is going to be great."

Bethy sniffed contemptuously. "How barbaric." She said in a lofty voice. "I'm a caring and compassionate person. I don't want to see two big brutes beating each other up. I prefer to kill my enemies with kindness."

"Isn't kindness the name of the huge double headed battle axe your dad makes you leave at home?" Gabe asked suspiciously.

She huffed. "Fine! I don't want to watch some backwater E-rankers fight. It sounds boring! We're all way tougher than them. But Callie's stupid night out dancing sounds way dumber. She's going to that ice cream place after though with over ten thousand flavors. I want to do both things!"

"Well you can't." I said bluntly. "We're not letting you switch halfway. And since it's impossible to be in two places at once…" I paused. "Ok, it's impossible for YOU to be in two places at once. Probably."

The whole guys and girls night thing had ended up being messy and kind of a pain. Cark was more interested in the ice cream thing, Chelsea wanted to see the light sprites, and Mel wanted to watch the fight. We'd decided to just let everyone decide whose party they would go to, and Bethy was the last person to pick.

Except she wasn't picking, she was waffling, and nobody was having any luck convincing her to stick with something. After a minute or two more of complaining, she finally just pouted and said. "Fine. I'll go to the stupid fight. It's going to be so lame though. That steak better be good."

"You shouldn't judge people from this world so harshly." Gabe said reproachfully. "Abel and Mel are both from here."

She shrugged. "Mel is super awesome though. And I don't even know that other guy you mentioned." Abel gave a long suffering groan and put his head in his hands and we all burst out laughing.

"You sure you don't want to come with us Zeke?" I asked my uncle. "You know you're definitely invited. Mom, Alex, and Amelia are going to Callie's party."

He snorted. "Sure, because it's specifically about entertainment. You're all going to be hunting light sprites. That's competitive. Do you honestly think there's any competition you could beat me at? No thanks. I'll be staying home and taking a well deserved nap."

Callie gave him a knowing smirk. "Been working up a sweat lately, huh?"

Stella glared at my fiancee, cutting her eyes towards Ian, who was chatting happily with Jessie across the room alongside his girlfriend Clarissa, who I hadn't had a chance to actually meet yet, even if I'd heard of her.

Chuckling, Callie changed the subject. "Anyway, enjoy your nap old man. The cool kids will be out dancing the night away."

"Please." Said Benny derisively. "You nerds are missing out. I planned the best party ever."

I rolled my eyes. "Can we just go, please. We're going to miss the fight. Who's with us? Bethy, Gabe, Chelsea, Abel, Camden, Nat, Mel." I paused. "Wait, why is everyone coming to my party E-rank?"

"Because light sprites are a pain in the ass to catch." Said Benny emphatically. "They're E-ranked themselves, and they're FAST. Plus the aurora is sort of weird. You can actually walk on it, but only if your rank is high enough."

I glanced at Ian, Alden, Sloane, and all my other lower ranked friends. It was a shame to ditch them, but if they wouldn't be able to participate letting them hang with Callie and co for most of the night was fine too. "Alright, then let's head out. Where's the fight at, anyway? A local arena or something?"

"Nope." Said Benny proudly as we headed for the shuttle. "I didn't mention that the fight and steak were at the same place. Road Rage's Bar and Grill. The fights are live entertainment, and I had to bribe them to move the grudge match to tonight. Luckily, the economy of this planet is WAY underdeveloped compared to the universe at large. D-rank chits go a long way here."

I remembered that, actually. They basically didn't exist on this planet. I laughed, clapping him on the back happily. "Sounds like you really went all out man. I appreciate it."

Abel nodded approvingly. "I didn't realize you'd convinced them to move to the date. Look at you, moneybags. I'll have to keep that in mind for my trip to fight the volcanic ape. I'm planning it after the wedding, since killing those Wendigos helped me make some progress. I'm positive that I'll be able to advance my path." We chatted a bit during the ride, but I was too busy soaking in the sensation of comfort and warmth to mind. Not physical warmth, it was kind of chilly (thought not arctic), but spiritual warmth, knowing my friends were doing so much for me.

Finally we reached the restaurant, and climbed out of the shuttle. "Pretty nice place." I said appreciatively. "I like the aesthetic."

Road Rage's Bar and Grill was pretty unique. It was built into the side of a hill. The building portion was mostly rustic wood, with only a few windows, all shuttered in such a way as to make the facade look like one piece of wood with a few painted spots.

We walked casually up to the door, and Benny knocked. The door opened almost immediately, and Benny passed a wooden token to the door guard, who examined it, then nodded, stepping back so we could enter.

The inside of the place was much less woodsy. While the floors were lacquered planks and the tables were shiny dark wood, the trim was all chrome and steel, creating a somewhat sterile, almost surgical aesthetic that someone made the inside look bigger than the space itself would imply.

Of course, the space was already pretty expansive, given the spatial enlargement, but even so, they'd made excellent use of it.

In the middle of the restaurant, where a bar would normally be, was a recessed pit filled with sand. The edges were gold and gems inlaid in a dizzying array of enchantments and wards to prevent any attacks from getting out of the pit. We were escorted to an especially large table off the side of the fighting area, giving us an excellent view.

As we sat down, empty glasses were set in front of us, and then, in the middle of the table, on a metal slab set into the wood, a fifty pound steak was dropped. A loud hiss erupted from beneath it, showing us that the table was in fact, a grill.

"To get your drinks, simply lift your glass and speak your preference into the mouth." Said the server who had appeared with the steak. "The meat is only a few inches thick, it will be correctly seared in only a minute or two. If you'd like, you can cut your own section, then flip that, or you can all flip it together and cook it in one piece."

He bowed to us solemnly, then turned and scurried off. I sniffed deeply, enjoying the aroma. "Damn." I said with a sigh. "That does smell good though. I'm for medium rare? Anyone else?"

"Medium." Said Chelsea. We took requests, and ended up splitting it about halfway, medium rare and medium. "Well it's good that nobody wanted it well done. I guess we would have had to cut a small section for them."

I grinned at her. "No need to waste meat. I have a spare pair of boots in my space ring. If someone wants to eat shoe leather, I don't have a use for them anyway."

That got a laugh from most of my friends, and we used a supplied knife to cut the steak down the middle, waiting just a minute before flipping the half I was eating from, while the others left theirs on a bit longer.

Finally, the lights started to dim. "Oh shit." I said excitedly. "Showtime." I'd heard of Red Tiger and Blade Reaper too, if not quite as thoroughly as Abel. Tiger could summon a magma cat and even clothe himself in the material like a power suit, and blade reaper could summon bladed weapons of varying sizes.

As I watched them jump down into the pit, I was surprised to see them shrinking, and by the time they landed, they were only a few inches tall. With my Perception that wasn't a problem, but it took me a second to realize it was the same perspective shifting trick they'd used on the Tricorn, just much less sophisticated.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Boomed a voice from the darkness. "Thank you for coming to tonight's show. As you may know, this particular battle is one many of us have looked forward to with great relish. These two old enemies have been battling for decades, but tonight, for the last time, they will cross swords to decide the victor. Whoever wins will claim the title of master of Seerkel City, and be installed as the guild master of that place, either overtly or in the shadows. The other will leave Callus forever."

I whistled. "Wait, the loser has to leave? That's rough. Why now though?"

"Because they both topped out." Said Abel, staring at them clinically. "They're peak E-rank. No further to go while still on-planet. In reality, neither of them is losing out, but it'll be a good fight either way."

The announcer said a few more lines about their backstories and capabilities, but I mostly tuned it out. I was too focused on the two fighters getting in position. Finally, the announcer called to start, and the fight began.

From behind Red Tiger, a wave of magma erupted, forming into a giant tiger's head that lunged forward to bite down on Blade Reaper. Red Tiger was a fairly unassuming looking man in normal street clothes. The sole nod to his identity was the red tiger head mask he wore, the eyes lit like candle flames.

Blade Reaper was wearing a fitted black bodysuit lined with strapped down weapons. It mostly seemed like theater though, because without touching them, he flicked a hand and a pair of colossal bladed whips erupted from the sand to wrap around the magma tiger.

Red stepped back into the magma, and the tiger jerked as an entire human upper body tore itself free. In real size it probably would have been a hundred feet tall, but because the distortion it was more like five or ten. The arms reached up, grabbing the bladed whips, which began to smoke and warp.

With a massive heave, the lava golem tore apart the chains, and was immediately impaled on a hundred spears as they erupted from the ground to pin it in place. I turned, grinning at Benny as things started to heat up. "Ok." I admitted. "You were right. Best. Party. Ever." He just grinned back and we settled in to watch some violence. It was going to be a good night.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Ok." Bethy admitted as we strolled out of the bar and grill. "That was a decent fight. No crazy Path powers, but they both made good use of what they had. That blade summoner guy was pretty cool, he was like 'whoosh' and those giant wrappy chain things were all over the place, and the tiger guy was like 'not today chain guy!' and then turned into that giant magma kitty."

I laughed. "It's not that weird. It makes sense people stuck at E-rank with no chance to move up would maximize their advantages, especially since everyone else here is also at E-rank. Polishing your rank like that is a good way to get stronger. That's how Abel did it?"

"Who?" She said in confusion. "Are you talking about a friend of yours? Are they really strong? I thought Adler was the strongest person you knew here."

Abel threw his hands up in frustration. "That one isn't even a name!"

"My mistake." I told her solemnly. "He's no one important. Anyway, practice makes perfect. Still, I wonder if there's anyone on Callus with a Path?" Alas, my curiosity would go unsated, because we'd arrived at the shuttle, piling in and taking off for our next activity. I had bigger questions now that we were on the way. "So…tell me more about the aurora. You said we can walk on it? How is that possible?"

Benny shrugged. "Who knows? How is anything we do possible. All I know is that the aurora is supposed to be amazing. The colors vary, creating paths through the lights, and you climb them to try to find light sprites. The sprites are supposed to be good luck, and they emit a mysterious light that polishes your soul."

"Really?" I asked with interest. "That's not exactly a common power. Soul refinement is one thing, but polishing mostly seems to be a factor of time and use. And is that luck thing legit? I wish we could have brought Sydney and Megan with us, they'd have a better idea. Sadly they're nowhere near E-rank."

My best friend just laughed. "Who knows. It should be fun though. Apparently the different colors of light create varying amounts of suppression. From red to violet, the further you go the better the sprites. Everyone has to start on red, then that run along the red road, turning of onto other colors as they twist around each other. I thought we'd make a game out of it. Whoever catches more sprites wins."

"It definitely sounds like a blast." I chuckled. "Any idea where the lights come from? The effect seems weird."

Chelsea perked up. "Oh! I know!" She said excitedly, putting a hand in the air. "Crystals. There are fields of ice crystals spread out through the tundra. The lights refract through them and create the aurora. It's kind of like a natural formation."

Speaking of the aurora, I glanced out of the shuttle, realizing we were rising up over the city, up into the air where the auroras waited. Glancing up at the lights, I realized that the ribbons of luminescence were indeed single colors, all wrapped around and intertwined.

The colors shifted and wove together in such a way that they weren't in any real order, some ribbons dipping under other lower level colors and then back up, creating a big shimmering rainbow mess. The shuttle circled a few times, seemingly searching for something, until we came to a stop in front of the end of one of the ribbons, a shining path of red light.

"It's so pretty." Said Bethy, wide eyed as she stared at the complex network of lights before us. "I want to lick it."

I pointed at her sharply. "Do NOT lick it." I said firmly. "I watched your dad eat lightning because he considered it 'plasma'. With our luck, you'll end up gobbling the whole thing down. Just run on it. You can eat one of the sprites if you feel like it." I paused. "Wait, the sprites aren't like…sentient creatures, right?"

"No." Benny laughed. "I checked. Just balls of colored light. Kind of like willow the wisps."

I nodded solemnly, putting a hand on Benny's shoulder. "Fair enough. I have to say man, this whole thing is amazing, and there's something I really wanted to say before we start this little race."

"What's that?" He said, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

I patted his shoulder twice. "First." I said kindly, then hooked my foot behind his ankle and shoved. He went down in a squawk of indignation, but I was already moving.

Turning on my heel, I activated State of Grace then Mephistopheles, using my Waltz, to cross the expanded interior of the shuttle. I felt someone shove me and had to use Ripple Running to stabilize as Bethy blurred past me, giggling madly as she put one platformed boot on the red light before anyone else, and then took off at top speed.

Cursing, I hit the light right after and followed behind her. Once I was on the light, I realized that the ribbons actually diverged into multiple paths. I didn't feel like competing with Bethy for sprites, so I turned left at a five lane fork, heading deeper into the tangle.

I felt a surge of energy from beneath me, as if the light was supercharging me, pushing me forward, and the faster I went the more weight seemed to pile on me.

Of course, I'd been to higher ranked planets, so this was nothing, as I rounded a bend, I saw another ribbon of light loop around the one I was on, and on it, I saw an orb of light. Without thinking, I pushed off, flipping in midair, my feet slamming down on the blue light path, and as I landed, the new gravity actually helped me stabilize as it slammed me down onto the blue path with way more force than the red.

Reaching out, I snagged the blue orb, and as I grabbed it, I felt it melt into me. There was a wash of cleansing energy, and I felt refreshed. I kept running, looping through the sky on the blue road. I glanced around, looking for my friends. Chelsea was on the orange, and Abel and Bethy had both switched to green. Not every path connected so easily to a more powerful color. I'd gotten damned lucky.

Sadly, most of the ribbons looping around my current route were yellow and red, with the occasional green. I had to stick to my current path until I found something better. Apparently the blue had a higher concentration of energy or something, though. More sprites were spawning on my road, and I grabbed them as I ran, feeling that cleansing energy washing over me again and again.

I still wasn't sure what soul polishing actually DID, but whatever it was couldn't be a bad thing. The further I ran the faster I went, and the higher the pressure, like I was being forced forward and down, but the pressure seemed to push the cleansing energy even deeper into me. It felt…intentional.

Curiously, I looked around, activating my Eye of Revelation, trying to find some kind of pattern in the light paths. If I hadn't been out in the universe, if I hadn't read the skill book, and if I hadn't talked to Camden's cousin, I probably would have missed what I was seeing. Luckily, I'd done all of those things, which is why I was able to recognize the man made formation that this aurora actually was.

Of course, knowing that meant nothing. I knew it was a formation, but not what it did or how. I considered the problem for a minute. I could ignore this, move on and just have fun, but something told me not to. Fate sense, fatewalker class, my Path, who knew? But something was pushing me to do…something.

I tried my overlay, and nothing happened, but the arrows were different than usual. Frowning, I tried something new. Piece of Mind. I triggered a parallel, then another, then another. I used Eye of Revelation and the overlay with each of them, superimposing them on top of each other, forcing them to work together as I triggered Afterburner.

The combination of the stacked, brute force approach and the supercharge did the trick. My overlay traced the lines of light, shifting and changing to show me a specific path through them.

I started moving, hopping from one to another, blue to green to red to yellow, following some kind of pattern I couldn't articulate. I landed on the violet and followed it down, absorbing sprites as I went and enjoying the cleansing, but focused on my goal, I leapt off the violet path onto the red and then ran straight off the side where it curled back over a yellow…and vanished.

There was a shift as I went through some kind of spatial distortion, and suddenly I was standing in an icy cavern full of frozen crystals. The crystals were frosted over, but I could see dark shapes inside them. Blinking, I walked back to where I'd entered, stepping through the distortion and back out onto the paths.

"Hey guys!" I called excitedly. "I found something. Come check this out!"

I caught a few confused stares, but then I turned and stepped back through the distortion, not bothering to wait. I'd needed to take a special path to get there, but now that I'd been in, the entrance was open. According to my intuition it would close in about thirty minutes, unless someone was inside it.

It only took ten for the others to show up. Bethy came shooting through the distortion, Abel, Mel, and shockingly Benny on her tail. The others took a bit longer, but finally we were all here.

"Check it out." I said, gesturing around the room. "Seems like the aurora is some kind of formation. I think the sprites are power leaking out of it. So this might be some kind of like…soul cleaning formation?"

Chelsea shook her head. "I don't think so." She glanced at Bethy. "What do you think? Cold storage?"

Bethy nodded. "Been here a while too, I bet. Daddy has one for some of my brothers and sisters. When they get start to slow down in their progression and he thinks they might lapse into obscurity."

"Most of the major forces do." Said Chelsea. "Though this is…flashy. Not like any of the ones I've seen."

I threw my hands up in frustration. "Can you guys share, please? What is cold storage."

"It's a means of putting people on ice." my sister said. "Basically anyone who seems like they aren't growing anymore. Sometimes it can be hard for people to break into the scene. Too many talented competitors, too little ability. Rather than let them get old and miss their best years to make a splash, some factions freeze their descendants."

Bethy nodded. "Yeah, and the cleaning thing makes total sense too." She gestured around her. "Cold storage is a stasis field, it has to nourish the soul and cleanse the effects of time passing." She walked up to a crystal, wiping off the frost. "This is a pseudo D-ranked planet, so it makes sense they'd freeze some E-rankers. Unfreeze them once the planet ranks up maybe."

I wiped some frost of one myself, and blinked. The clothes they wore…they weren't costumes like ours. Plate armor, velvet doublets. These looked almost imperial, but more old fashioned.

"Well that makes sense." I said slowly. "But with that said, I'm forced to ask an even more important question." I knocked on the crystal. "This doesn't seem to be unity work, and these people are dressed real old fashioned to be from the conglomerate. So…how long have they been here, and where the hell did they come from?"

Rather than be worried, I was pretty excited for this new mystery. These people wouldn't necessarily be hostile. This could be a great opportunity to do some recruiting. I shot my best friend a thumbs up. He really knew how to throw a party.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So how long do you think they've been here?" I asked in awe as I trailed through the cavern, checking the ice crystals. There were a hundred of them, which was…nuts. There were as many E-rankers in this cave as on the entire planet normally. More importantly, none of us recognized anything about any of them.

Granted, they weren't wearing costumes or anything, but several of them had VERY noticeable features, and having reached E-rank, we should have heard SOMETHING about them. One guy had wings made of amethyst feathers. Not the color, the fucking GEMSTONE.

It was impossible one of us hadn't heard about an E-ranker like that. Or the one with flowers for hair. Or the MINOTAUR. Or any of the dozens of extremely unique and powerful Ascendants in these ice crystals. As I was walking through the cavern though, my foot scuffed something under the snow. I frowned, kneeling down, and brushed it away.

"Hey, I found something." I was kneeling in front of an ice crystal containing a pixielike girl with rainbow dragonfly wings and lilac feathered hair. As I brushed away the snow, I found a plaque set into the ground. "Velliana Summerpeace- Heiress of the Summerpeace dynasty, 19 years old, peak E-rank. Interred- 742 SDC." I read aloud.

My sister stopped next to me, staring in shock at the plaque. "That's not possible." She said firmly.

"You've heard of her?" I asked in surprise. "What are the chances of that? Is the Summerpeace dynasty a big deal or something?" Had we found the descendants of some uber powerful lost tribe of fae?

She frowned at me. "What? No, these are random E-rankers, no way they made enough of a splash for me to have heard of them. I'm talking about that date. SDC. The Solemn Doubt Calendar hasn't been in common usage in EONS. These people predate any of the current factions, and based on the few scattered dates I found when I looked into it, PROBABLY the Aetherbright Empire."

I looked over the cavern with new eyes. Moving down the line, I stared to clear the snow from more plaques. More names, similar dates, and more factions and families I'd never heard of. All of them were peak E-rank, which implied to me that they'd been stuck below Master just like all the other E-rankers here.

Which was…weird. Planets could rank up. It made sense for Callus to restrain people below D-rank now, it wasn't exactly ancient, but if it had been a Pseudo D-rank planet for eons…that made far less sense. It should have broken through at SOME point.

"Do you know how big a find this is?" My sister squeaked excitedly. "An INTACT cold storage from the pre-faction era? Do you know how many questions they might be able to answer? The Historical Society would buy this cavern for more money than any of us could spend. You could charge an entire A-ranked planet for this place."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Interesting." I admitted. "But no. I'm not turning Callus into an archeological dig, especially not in the middle of a war. That'll draw way too much attention." I reached into my ring. "We can discuss this with the others and figure out a plan. If nothing else it'll be a trump card to use if we get in trouble, we can trade the info for some help or something."

Drawing up a quick contract, I passed it around. "I'm swearing everyone to secrecy on this. No one says a word to anybody except Callie, my mom, and Zeke. I don't want to mess with this place until we talk to them."

This was a huge find…but it was also a risk. Something about my power had pushed me here, walking the winds of fate, but I didn't feel like it was time to put this place to use. I might be imagining things, but something in my gut told me to keep this on the down low, and I'd been learning to listen to my instincts.

To my surprise, the others didn't seem to mind. They all just shrugged, signing to contract. "Well, at the very least, we can absorb the sprites in here right?" Benny gestured around. "The leakage inside the cavern is even more intense than in the aurora."

He was right, there were dozens of light sprites of varying colors floating above our heads. I'd been so distracted looking through the crystals I'd missed it. I glanced at Chelsea curiously. "That should be fine, right?" She knew more about formations than I did, so I was happy to let her make the call.

"Seems fine." She shrugged. "People have been siphoning the overflow from the aurora for centuries, at least. It doesn't matter if we take a bit more. As long as we don't damage the ice. These crystals are laid out in a very specific pattern, directing and shifting the energy in the formation to sustain the cold storage." Her eyes scanned the place in wonder. "This is incredibly sophisticated work."

I didn't know that much about the subject. "So like…a D-rank or C-rank formation?"

"No." She said after a brief hesitation. "It's E-rank. It's just…complicated. It's like if you built a house out of stone and one out of wood, the stone would be better, but if the stone house is a hut made of stacked rocks and the wood house was designed by a master architect, the former might not be much sturdier. The person who made this was brilliant."

I sighed. "Great. Well, you heard the woman, don't touch the ice, but otherwise gobble up as many of these things as you can." I winked at the others. "Our competition is still on, I suppose." Then I stepped off the air and blurred toward the nearest purple sphere. I wanted to get as much soul polishing as I could, and if the good luck rumors were true, I wouldn't mind some of that either.

As I passed through the various orbs, I felt them melt into me. I kept count, but it was almost an afterthought as little by little, my soul was polished. Triggering a Piece of Mind parallel, I let it take over as I tried to focus internally on my soul.

It was a strange thing to do, honestly. I'd looked into my soul multiple times, checking on my Skills and examining their construction, but that was more liking looking OUT from my soul. Trying to study the specifics was a bit like rolling my eyes up to try to look into the back of my skull. It took me a minute to figure it out.

When I finally nailed the technique, I was surprised to see my soul in all its Sapphire glory. But rather than a shimmering wall of blue like I expected, I saw a field of murky cerulean, cloudy and opaque. My soul in its pre polished state. As I watched it, I passed through another orb, and then two more. The energy sank into me, and I watched it strike the surface of my soul and roll over it like a ripple in a pond.

Where it passed, the cloudiness began to clear. Not immediately vanishing, but slowly dissipating as the blue became more and more translucent. It was fascinating to watch. I wondered what exactly polishing a soul did. The clarity was improving, but what effect would that have on me? I could see the necessity, given the journey of the soul found its end in a mirror sheen, so I was betting it had some use.

I tried a few skills, nothing seemed different. On instinct, I shifted to Mephistopheles again and triggered Mephisto's Waltz.

The world seemed to slow. The energy flowing through my body was smoother and calmer than it had been before. Thinking back, the Waltz had felt a bit more natural during the run, but not to this extent.

I'd questioned for a while how the soul related to Paths exactly. I knew it acted as a way to leverage my stats when I used techniques, but I hadn't been sure of its exactly role. Now I could feel it. The soul acted as a channel between the Path and stats, including Fantasy, which established the pseudo Domain that allowed techniques to work. The more polished my soul the faster and more easily that power flowed, and the less pressure it put on my soul.

My Waltz unspooled, Ripple Running let me step on air like it was solid stone, and I blurred through the cavern, snagging every one of orbs I could get, enjoying the visible proof of my improvement as I watched my soul clarify.

All too soon though, I was out. I touched down lightly, feeling oddly winded. Between my Piece of Mind parallel and the Waltz, that had taken more out of me than expected. My movement technique was based on using explosions of powerful destructive energy to eat up space, so it made sense it would be an energy hog.

"Twenty seven!" I crowed, throwing my hands in the air. "And half of them were purple! Beat that, nerds!"

Benny cursed. "Fourteen." He said acidly. "But not so fast. It'll only be fair if we do this by point value. Reds are one, oranges two, et cetera. Everybody add up your totals."

"One hundred and thirty six." I said after a brief recount. Focus really came in handy during times like this. I was confident in my score, I'd hit the violet path the earliest, and absorbed most of my sprites from there.

Sadly, I forgot who I was messing with. "One hundred and sixty!" Squealed Bethy happily. "That was so much fun. Did anyone beat me?"

Gabe raised a hand. "One eighty." He said with a small smile. "Nobody said we couldn't use Paths or abilities. My starlight charger was perfectly suited for this." We all stared at him in shock, he must have waited until we split up to summon it. I had to admit that was clever.

"Cheater." pouted Bethy. "If I knew we could ride animals I'd have ridden Luggage."

I glanced at my mentors. "Mel, Abel? How about you? You guys beat that?" I was hoping Mel had used her firepowers to get some extra speed. I didn't begrudge Gabe the win, but I wanted the locals to represent at least a bit.

"One twenty nine." Said the red masked woman. "Abel got one forty seven."

I laughed. "Well, you beat me. How about everyone else?" We took a count of everyone's scores, and in the end, Gabe took it by a landslide. Bethy was second, and my sister was third at one fifty eight. I was impressed.

We left the cavern together, retracing my steps to get back to the shuttle. I climbed in, laughing with my friends, and settled back to enjoy the ride to the lodge. As I watched the aurora fade away, I enjoyed the beautiful scenery as we descended back down into the valet. I caught something out of the corner of my eye and my gaze snapped over to the shuttle driver.

His eyes were locked on me, and for a second, I felt a sense of familiarity. It wasn't his face, or body language, or anything specific. I just got this sense that we'd met. It faded when my eyes landed on him though, and his own gaze slipped away. All this travel was making me paranoid. I'd have Zeke check him out just in case, but I really needed to relax.

So I did. Tomorrow was the last day before my wedding. I would be married in less than forty eight hours, and I couldn't wait. Closing my eyes, I settled in to listen to my friends banter, losing myself in the sounds, smells, and sensations of my home planet and my closest companions. It was a good night to be me.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"An ancient cold storage formation?" Asked Zeke in surprise when I filled him in on what we'd found. "Damn, that's not a bad find. You're not going to take over the universe or anything, but they might have some interesting abilities. Sounds like lots of unique racial traits and bloodlines among them too. That's a treasure trove for a candidate."

I nodded thoughtfully. "So you think I should bring them out now? I just can't shake the feeling it isn't time yet."

"Follow your gut, kid." He shrugged. "Everyone has their own way of doing things. Plus your wedding is the day after tomorrow, I get deciding to wait. Speaking of which, how was your party? Have fun?"

"It was a blast." I admitted. "Benny knows me well. Just the right blend of mindless fun and actual progress. The soul polishing was interesting. Though something weird did happen." I mentioned the driver to him, and he sighed.

He paused as if choosing his words carefully. "I can't do much for you there. I haven't seen anything around, and I've been looking. And I can tell you that because the wedding isn't part of your candidacy. With the big truce, you're officially off limits to any high rankers associated with other candidates, so if I found something I would be allowed to tell. If I found another candidate making things happen I couldn't tell you, but I could NOT tell you very obviously."

"Which means nothing is going on." I said, my shoulders slumping. I pulled my mask off, since we were alone, suddenly feeling a bit suffocated by it.

He shook his head. "Which means either nothing is going on or whatever IS going on is so far out of my weight class I can't tell. But honestly, that's always an option. Living your life in fear that you're being seamlessly manipulated by an untraceable puppetmaster so powerful you can't even tell they exist is how people go insane."

"So you're saying don't worry about it?" I asked in a deadpan tone. "This more of your 'if you can't change it ignore it' advice?"

Rolling his eyes, my uncle laughed. "Well if you knew what I was going to say, why bring it up?" He raised a brow at me, and I felt a force settle over us, masking our conversation. "Be honest. Is there any chance this paranoia might be a manifestation of cold feet? Trying to find a reason to put things off?"

"Not even a little bit." I said firmly. "My feet aren't cold. They're the opposite of cold. I have hot feet. Like, walking on coals hot."

And shockingly, it was true. I'd considered how surreal this was, wondered if I deserved it, considered how big a commitment I was making…and none of them had made me waver for even an instant.

I loved her. More than I'd ever loved anyone in my entire life. I'd sacrifice everything I had for her, give her anything she wanted, do anything she asked. I'd pluck the sun from the sky if she gave it a wishful glance. And she felt the same. I felt that every day. That surety, that peace, that love. She lived in my soul, for all intents and purposes, and I lived in hers. We were always together in a way more intimate than most couples could imagine, and exchanging vows was just making it official.

That was the part that floored me. How lucky I was. To know for sure what so many people had to guess at. I could live without it, mind. I'd proved that to myself in the ruined soul temple, but I didn't WANT to. I didn't want to live without it. I didn't want to live without her.

He must have seen that on my face. "You really aren't, huh? That's no small thing, kid. I'm happy for you. Gods know I'm not exactly that sure of anything myself."

"So we're not going to be attending yours and Stella's wedding anytime soon?" I asked sardonically.

"That depends." He said quietly. "On if I get up the guts to ask her." He snapped his fingers, and a box appeared in his hand. "I got this years ago." He said, staring at it wistfully. "Back when things were good. But you were young and I had responsibilities. Wasn't a great time. THen she figured out I wasn't quite as harmless as I portrayed myself, and things between us went sour."

I stared at him in shock. "You're serious?" I asked cautiously. "That's…kind of huge. When are you going to ask?"

"I don't know if I am." He said thoughtfully, tossing the box up and catching it. "Not all of us are you, kid. Not all of us find our soulmate. Or maybe we do, and we're too stupid to see it. I missed her when I was gone. That's not something I'm used to. I'm a very 'in the moment' kind of person. I don't dwell."

His tone was light, but I could tell this was weighing on him. Not just this either. "You're waiting for me to hit D-rank." I said solemnly. "Until your geas breaks."

"Maybe." He shrugged. "Or maybe that's an excuse. I'm not necessarily going to bail on you as soon as you rank up, kid. My geas breaks and my time as a guardian will end but my job as your uncle isn't over by a longshot. Especially with the competition's final stage moving up. Some of the older candidates are at my level. You'll need someone my strength for the final contest."

I didn't know much about the final contest, and I was sure he couldn't tell me. But I believed him when he said I'd need him. It didn't matter. "I don't want you throwing away your happiness for me. Stella is E-rank. Only one more to D. Mastery is a watershed. You could help her, like we helped the others. Because you're worried about that too, aren't you."
He sighed. "A to E is a big gap. I won't stand here and say that's not a factor. But more than that…this is new ground for me. I'm not sentimental, Shane. Not about this. I've had girlfriends, don't get me wrong, but no one that stuck. But Stella…I saw her face." His voice dropped, sounding tired as I'd ever heard it. "When I was fighting that skull masked fuck. When I thought I was going to die. I saw her face in my head. I wanted to see her again. Just one more time."

"Really?" I said in surprise. "That's kind of huge. Why didn't you tell anyone?"

He shrugged. "Bad business to advertise your weaknesses, kid. That's Ascendant 101. Your girl is a powerhouse, and you've got that connection. You're coming up together, so the cat's out of the bag. Stacey…she's not. She's a vulnerability." It took me a second to remember that Stella was her hero name. It had been a long time since I'd heard anyone call her anything else.

I wanted to disagree. Wanted to tell him he was being stupid and he should just be happy, but I'd seen the ugly side of the five factions. Seen what someone was willing to do to his own daughter just for a bit of power. He wasn't wrong. "So make her strong." I finally said. "You can help her find a Path. It's not like she needs to make it to godhood. It doesn't have to be a new Path. Just something that works. Hell, ask my grandmother, her Path is star based, right?"

He burst out laughing. "That's your solution? You want me to call up the secret daughter of a pair of feuding gods and ask her to make my girlfriend her apprentice because I hung out with her daughter when we were younger?"

"Or have mom ask her." I shrugged. "Or have mom teach Stella. Whatever you decide, you have options. Don't let fear take your choice away. What's the point of working your way up to A-rank if you're too scared to use that power to protect the things you love. Live your damn life, Zeke."

He blinked at me. "That…is wildly arrogant advice. I'm actually kind of proud. And you're right. I'll think it over. I have to talk to her about it, first. But at least I have the ring. Speaking of which, do you have yours?"

Laughing, I reached into a pocked, pulling out a small box of my own. I opened it, and inside sat…something spectacular.

"That." Said Zeke with wide eyes. "Is a Cosmic Moment. THose are REALLY rare. How the hell did you even get that? I don't think I've ever even seen one." He gingerly picked up the ring, and stared at it in fascination.

"Where else would I get a crystallized supernova." I said with a shrug. "It was moms. She gave it to me during the trip. She said she wanted me to have it."

The ring was beautiful. A midnight black band of crystal, within which spun a thousand galaxies. Set into the top was a brilliantly glowing stone that pulse with a blue white light. A Cosmic Moment, like Zeke said. The captured energy of an exploding star.
The engagement ring I'd given Callie was nice enough, and the starpluck bangle was a great gift, but this was our wedding ring. The one she'd be wearing for the rest of our lives. And I wanted it to be special. I knew my moms offer was partially based in guilt and wanting to be part of my wedding, but honestly, that made it more special, not less. Getting the ring from my mom felt…right. Like it was one more thing showing that Callie was part of the family.

Zeke whistled as he put it back. "You know what you can do with one of those?" He asked ruefully.

"Nope." I responded without hesitation. "No clue what it's good for. But I know it's priceless, and special, and beautiful. So it's about half as important as Callie as far as I'm concerned. If that."

He chuckled. "You're such a sap." I put the box away, returning it to my ring, and Zeke leaned over to clap me on the shoulder. "Hey." He said, getting my attention. "I'm proud of you. For all of this. Who knew when your dad left you with me all those years ago you'd grow up to be a halfway decent guy."

"You probably would have." I said fondly. "If you hadn't been so drunk most of my life."

He snorted. "Please. Like any of the swill on this planet could actually affect me. I just like the taste."

"So all those times you embarrassed me and passed out when I had friends over, you were just being an asshole?" I said in mock outrage. Zeke had never done anything that bad. He was mostly just not around. Now that I thought about it, that might have been his excuse to run the WCP branch in Valen.

We laughed together, talking about my childhood, and I was surprised how much of it he remembered. Things he hadn't even been there for. Zeke really had been watching out for me my whole life, even when I couldn't see him.

After our talk, I said goodbye, giving him a tight hug, and then headed for my room. I wanted to get some rest, plus spend some time with Callie. She was insisting we sleep apart the night before the wedding, so tomorrow night I'd be crashing with Benny. Something about not seeing the bride in her dress before the ceremony.

She was waiting for me when I got back, lying in bed with a soft smile on her face, and I curled up around her, feeling her warmth against me as I nodded off. The feeling of warmth and safety and love as I drifted off was irreplaceable. My feet, as I'd mentioned to Zeke, were toasty warm.