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

[Malcolm Tent]

Waking up the next morning felt…weirdly normal. Callie was with me, as per usual, though she was already awake, an abnormality in the morning for my usually grumpy girlfriend. I paused. I guessed the term was fiancee now. Damn, that was weird. Still mornings were not usually her jam. Today though, she was up before me, though still in bed, staring at her hand, or more specifically, the glittering ring that now sat on her third finger.

"It's not going to disappear, you know." I said with a laugh. "That thing might not be D-ranked, but it's basically the most expensive E-ranked enchanted ring I could find."

"I guess I didn't ask about it last night, huh?" She said with interest. "So, what exactly does it do? If it's peak E-rank it must be impressive. Does it summon a swarm of meteors? Turn me into a lion? Give me wings?"

I laughed. "No, no, and if you want wings you can make them out of shadows. It's a shield. It drains excess energy from you when you're in peak condition, just overflow that would go to waste, and stockpiles it for a single use defensive charge. The shield itself will stop a single blow from a Master, though it'll break right after."

"Shane, that must have cost a fortune!" She said in shock. "I love it, but you didn't need to spend so much."

Shrugging, I gave her a sappy grin. "It's self defense. Had to make sure that shield was strong enough. My heart is in there, after all." I felt the love and contentment through the bond as she threw herself at me, pinning me to the bed and kissing me senseless. I finally managed to pull away, laughing breathlessly. "Alright enough of that. We've got big plans today. Meetings with the city planner and the workmen."

Laughing, she sat up, stretching expansively. Standing, she snapped her fingers and her costume was suddenly wrapped around her. It was one of the more useful tricks that a spatial ring allowed for. Callie's was still on her left ring finger, opposite the engagement ring. "Fine." She said grumpily. "But if you're going to make me get up I want breakfast."

"You know." I said, climbing out of bed and letting my armor cover me with the same snap. "When we're married, your pouting is probably going to get less effective."

She grinned widely at me. "And YOU know that the bond lets me feel it when you lie. Now mush, go make us breakfast. I'm in the mood for crepes." She made a shooing motion with her fingers and I laughed, rolling my eyes as I headed downstairs to the kitchen.

Cooking this morning was even more relaxing that yesterday. I just felt so…happy. Like nothing could bring me down. This was the happiest I'd ever been in my life. Getting stronger was great, and I'd had some impressive victories, but this…this was a new level of joy. It was like I'd taken a bath in contentment.

Callie came into the room, plopping down on a stool to watch me cook, and didn't say a word, just kind of smiled, playing with her ring absently. I could feel everything she was feeling, and vice versa, neither of us wanted to hide something like this from the other.

"Wow, you two are even more sappy than usual-" Came Jessie's voice as she entered the kitchen, but she cut off, the sound of breaking glass drawing my gaze to where she stood frozen, staring at Callie's hand. "Is that?" Smirking, my fiancee nodded and Jessie squealed in excitement, hurling herself across the room at as.

I fumbled, yelping in panic. "Hot pan, hot PAN." I managed to save the crepe from burning without lighting myself on fire with F-ranked stove flames, tossing it to the plate next to the frying pan as Jessie squeezed us both hard enough to make our ribs creak. "Yes, we're super happy about it too, but it'll be tough for you to be in the wedding if you crush us like soda cans."

She released us both immediately, wheeling on Callie. "Tell me everything. I want reenactments. Benny is going to be so jealous I found out first."

"Found out what?" Came my best friend's voice as he walked into the room. "Because I told you last time, Shane's love of otters is not a secret and I doubt whatever you're talking about this time is either." Jessie just grinned, grabbing Callie's hand and holding it up triumphantly. He wheeled on me. "Rat bastard! I had next year in the poll!"

Celine breezed in past him, stopping to hold out her hand as he grudgingly dropped a few F-ranked chits into her waiting palm. "That, my love, is because you're almost as dense as he is about matters of the heart." She smiled at us both brilliantly. "Congratulations, to both of you. It's been a long time coming."

"She's right." Said Benny with a shrug. "You're basically married already. Maybe this will stop all the sickening cuteness."

Rolling my eyes, I gestured to the table. "Benny, why don't you put out plates, Cal, you and Jessie go tell everyone else. I've only been through the reveal twice and I'm already getting exhausted."

Callie snickered, popping to her feet and planting a kiss on my maskless cheek. I was wearing my armor but I'd left the crown and mask off. I was home, so it was alright to walk around without it. That felt pretty good to think. "Alright, I'll let you cook. I'd like mine with blueberries, please."

I just laughed as the two of them took off, anxious to tell everyone else, including probably my sister. For now though, I just enjoyed the cooking process as my best friend sat beside me, silent for a minute before he finally figured out what to say.

"You're getting married." He said simply. His tone was disbelieving, but happy, and I knew he approved. "That's…damn, Shane. Holy shit. I mean, I get it, you love her, but still, that's a lot. Was it hard to ask?"

I snorted. "I felt like I was going to throw up all day. I'd like to say I thought it out, planned it meticulously but…I kind of just decided it was time and went with it."

"Of course you did." He said with an eye roll. "It's what you do. But it doesn't sound like you regret it at all. Which is a good sign I'd say. Did you figure out who's going to be in the wedding yet? Or where you're having it?"

It was my turn for an eye roll. "I mean, I obviously already have my best man picked out, dipshit. But the wedding won't be right away. We have the conclave coming up, and that'll be a whole big mess. We're thinking after that. As for where…probably Callus. Callie's mom is there, and I want Maria to come of course, and Stella and Ian."

"Mom and dad will want to be there." He said with a nod. Then paused. "Well, dad will want to be there. Mom will find out what rank you are and how much influence you have and probably try to spin it into some kind of business expansion."

That got a laugh out of me. "I'm sure, but I don't mind. Besides, you're E-rank too. She doesn't need my influence to be sitting pretty. Don't forget we're already top of the charts for Callus, and that's assuming we don't manage D-rank before we show up. I think Callie might do it out of sheer spite so she can lord it over her dad."

"That does sound like her." He chuckled. "You're going to have to work your ass up to keep up with your godslayer girlfriend."

I just shook my head. "We have to get through this shitshow first." I said with a sigh. "Spencer is going to try to kill us, and I'm definitely going to do the same." My voice hardened. "He's too dangerous to leave alive. I won't feel safe leaving this planet unless he's dead." The way he'd looked at Callie, hell the way he'd looked at me. One of us wasn't getting off this rock.

"Agreed." Said Benny coldly. And we shared a brief look, acknowledging how much things had changed. We'd just been talking about my wedding and now we were planning to kill someone. Sure, he definitely deserved it, but it was still a bit surreal. "I'm working on procuring the enhancement artifacts I need. Should have them by the time the month long protections end."

That was good. I'd been a bit worried, though I was sure Benny had benefited from the giant stone golem thing we'd pulled off. It was damned impressive. I had to check my stats actually, I hadn't bothered but I was sure they'd gone up. It would be nice to see after the whole mess with the battle. I was starting to feel weak again.

Tricks aside, I wasn't even close to a power player in the E-rank community. My powerful soul let me pull of some serious bullshit, but it didn't mean I wouldn't be capable of way more with the stats to back it up. Stats were the most important thing an Ascendant could have. More than Skills or anything but abilities honestly.

There was some noise and I turned to see a small stampede of people coming into the kitchen. Bethy and Chelsea and Gabe and Cark and Cass, who I guessed had made their way over with Zeke all tumbled in grinning and congratulating and clapping me on the back. My uncle caught my eye and smiled, nodding slightly as he headed to the table to sit and wait for the crepes.

I was just finishing them up, so I plated some for everyone (only one or two because I hadn't been cooking for the whole inn) and sat down to eat myself, grinning at all the excited chattering.

This was almost as amazing as Callie saying yes. Being here together, with my family and friends, talking about the wedding. It was…perfect.

Which was of course when the city planner and the work crew showed up. Callie hopped up, devouring her last crepe like a taco and kissing me on the cheek (I had to wipe syrup off my face) as she ran out to meet them with Celine.

I finished eating and headed out to find them all clustered up in the front yard, listening to a small, round bellied man with a warm smile and a close cropped black beard point out important landmarks and fill them in on his thoughts about where everything should go. Stopping a few feet away I waited and listened, interested to hear his thoughts on things.

When I realized those thoughts were boring, I tuned them out and turned to run my eyes over the valley, taking in the amazing idyllic scenery.

Zeke stepped up next to me. "Congrats kid." He said with a soft smile. "Your mom is going to flip her lid." His cheek twitched as the mark on his forehead flared and he rolled his eyes, but the geas didn't actually manifest. "You're having it back on Callus?"

"Of course." I said with a smile. "Anyone who wants to come can drag their happy ass to my neck of the woods. Not that I assume everyone will make it." My smile wilted a bit. "People are busy." Neither of us said anything else after that, we both knew I was right, and we just stood and watched the scenery.

Somehow, it all looked different today. I wasn't sure why, but I could feel a sort of hum of destiny around it. That was part of why I'd proposed here. Fate sense, divination, who knew. I'd just gotten a feeling. I didn't know what caused that, but I was betting the place could become special. I couldn't wait to help turn it into something amazing. A month would be plenty of time. Spencer wouldn't know what hit him.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Because of all the planning, I decided to slip off on my own to relax and assimilate some stats. I'd been suppressing some income stat gains for a while, and now that I had some down time I was more than happy to let them roll.

That was one amazing thing about having a stronger soul. The control I had over how and when I received my stats. I'd know of course, that E-rankers especially were capable of this, because I'd seen it first hand. Back on Callus, I'd seen the E-rankers in charge delay stat gains until after the scavenger hunt, same thing with the Moonsong Glade.

I'd known it was soul related, but I hadn't really equated it with my own growing ability to restrain myself stat wise, even though the connection should have been obvious.

Now that I thought about it though I could see small facets of that ability, and the limitations of it. I knew for instance, that it was impossible to use your soul to prevent someone else from gaining stats. I also knew the power of contracts. We'd all agreed to be in that scavenger hunt, and as such, had given permission for the Academy to fuck with stat allocation to maximize gains.

I wondered if I was capable of holding back stat gains for hundreds if not thousands of G-rankers…and then I realized that yeah, I probably was.

G-rankers got a few points here and there, but nothing like the hundreds or thousands I got when a huge windfall landed on my head. Not to mention the massive Impact disparity might lessen the strain on my soul, I wasn't sure about that though.

But it was clear that getting random point bumps mid battle or when you were busy was a liability, and the higher you got up the ladder the more necessary that kind of control was. Smiling and exhaling slowly, I relaxed a clenched part of my soul I had barely even realized I was holding, and I felt the last few weeks of renown hit me all at once.

With my increased familiarity with stats and Skill, I was able to almost feel the secondary effects, like the muscles getting stronger, as the points infused my body, I blinked at the extreme amount of points compared to my usual.

Some of them I got. Creation for example had gotten a full thousand points. That was odd given the limitations of the local landscape where Empire citizens wouldn't generate too much, but I supposed plenty of people might be watching what I was doing after my previous escapades. It was possible some of them had been spreading information about my new construction hobby. That or the construction of the giant stone golem battlesuit during my fight with Weston.

Three hundred Might made sense, since I HAD helped kill a D-ranker, even if indirectly. Nothing like I'd have gotten if I'd offed him personally like Callen, but it was a solid bump, and the five hundred Fantasy probably had something to do with those crazy ass chains I'd used to help bind the bastard.
The two hundred forty Vitality was most likely for surviving the fight, even suppressed. A hit from him should have straight up snuffed me out like a candle.

Finishing up, I looked over my stats, a grand total of fourteen thousand eight hundred points. Even a month ago this would have been an unimaginable windfall, but it was clear that after hitting E-rank, the real grind began. I had a LOT of points to gain before I was ready to become a Master.

"There you are." Said a voice, jerking me out of my reverie. I looked up to see Abel standing over me, looking as relaxed as ever. "Saw you slip off and figured you might be getting some training done. Or you were just getting bored of the building talk."

I laughed ruefully, plopping down next to a fruit tree. Abel sat beside me and, without looking up, smacked an elbow into the trunk, catching an apple as it fell from the branches without even looking.

"You realize we can throw small buildings right?" I asked in amusement. "That's not really an impressive trick. Why bother with the showmanship?"

"You're talking about it, aren't ya?" I blinked, having no real response to that. "Mostly I was here to check on you. After that big mess with the invasion, I know it's probably tempting to bury yourself in pre matrimonial bliss, but distracting yourself from that shit only works for so long. Not to bring down the mood, but if you need to talk, I'm happy to listen without you killing the buzz for everyone else."

That wasn't what I expected at all. "I'm…kind of shocked, honestly. I expected you to be all like 'suck it up, people die, go punch something until you feel better'." I put on a semi-manic tone, imitating my mentor, and he snorted at the attempt.

"I don't sound like that." He said with a laugh. "But in any case, that's shitty advice. Losing people sucks, I've been there. It hurts no matter how much it happens. That's why I don't bother caring about more than a few relatively hard to kill people."

I stared at him. "You're saying…it grinds you down? Even you? I thought all this combat shit was your life?"

"Oh it is." He agreed. "Loss sucks for everyone, but I'm…I'm built different. I don't say that as a flex, or as some kind of brag, it's just true. Do you know why I'm as strong as I am?"

Laughing, I rolled my eyes. "You gave me this speech, it's because you don't care what anyone thinks." My mentor's rant was still firmly fixed in my mind even after months. I knew his reasoning, and as much as I didn't agree exactly, it worked for him.

"False." He rebutted. "I told you HOW I got strong, I didn't tell you why. Do you know why?"
"Because you're a punch happy lunatic?" I said, half jokingly.

He snorted. "You bet your ass that's why." He said bluntly. "I'm like this because I LOVE fighting. I love combat, I love hardship, I even love pain. Hurting makes me feel alive, it lets me know that I'm getting stronger. Every ache, every twinge, its all part of a beautiful song my body sings, a beautiful symphony of creation and destruction where every note works to make me more than I currently am."

"Damn." I said in shock. "That's almost poetic. But I'm sure there are other people who love to train, why aren't they as strong as you."

He shrugged. "Some of them are. But it's not as common as you think. My point isn't that being like that makes me awesome though, even if I think it does. It's a matter of mindset. You like fighting don't you? Like to feel you blood pumping as you crush your enemies?"

"Sure." I said uncertainly. "It's something I enjoy doing once in a while. I'm not going to make it my life, I need time to decompress sometimes."

Pointing at me, he snapped his fingers. "There." He said with a nod. "That's the difference. You like to fight, it's fun for you, but it's exhausting. Mentally, emotionally, you need time to recover, time to build back up. Your body can handle a ton more than you put it through, but your mind isn't ready for non stop grinding."

"And yours is?" I said, half disbelievingly. "You're just some kind of machine that never needs to recover and has no mental strain?" It would have sounded ridiculous from anyone else, but if anyone could make that claim it would be Abel.

To my surprise, he shook his head. "Of course not. People like that don't exist. Everyone gets run down, everyone has problems at some point. Everyone feels pain and fear and exhaustion, even me. I'm not some ultimate warrior that can't be defeated and needs no rest. I like to relax as much as the next guy."

"So what the hell are you talking about?" I asked in irritation. "You said that's the difference between us."

Laughing, he just shook his head. "Because it IS the difference. The difference isn't that I don't feel strain though, it's what I consider relaxing in the first place. Fighting isn't strain, it doesn't push me or wear me out. Fighting is what I live, it's what I breathe. Fights are what I DO to decompress. Training is how I vacation. I LIVE for this shit."

"How is that any different?" I said owlishly. "You just…don't get worn down because you like it?"

He nodded, pleased. "Exactly. People need downtime. Mental health is a real thing, and no one is an island. All that cliche bullshit. But that only applies when you get worn down to begin with. It's like pain. Getting your nose broken sucks, unless you're a masochist, and then maybe it's a good time. It's a matter of perspective. Like I said, I'm just built different. My point wasn't a speech about how great I am though, it's that I KNOW I'm built different and I adjust my expectations accordingly."

"So you think I need to let off some steam about all the death and destruction instead of burying it in good news?" I said quietly.

Another shrug. "Maybe, or maybe you need something good to focus on. That's not my call, kid. I'm just saying I realize talking about this would be a buzzkill on your happy day, and that might stop you from being willing to bring it up. I'm here to listen if you need to vent but don't want to bring the others down."

"Callie-" I started, but he cut me off immediately.

"Callie has her own shit to deal with, and don't forget I have a bond just like yours." He said bluntly. "I know you well enough to know you wouldn't want to bring her down after cheering her up, and I know the bond well enough to know you can avoid it."

I deflated a bit. He was right. I'd been avoiding thinking about all the losses specifically to prevent my bad mood from infecting my fiancee. She was already reeling from Perit's death, even after all this time, I didn't want her dwelling on who had been killed in this mess. We hadn't lost any of our group members, thankfully, but it was still hard to think about.

"Anyone ever tell you you're a dick?" I asked flatly as I made a mental effort to block off the bond so Callie didn't get a heaping helping of guilt and self recrimination.

Abel just burst out laughing. "No." He said sarcastically. "You're the first person to ever say that to me. I'm shocked I tell you, shocked." I glared at him, and despite my mask covering my whole face, he seemed to get how I felt. He grinned at me. "You're thinking about dropping me in one of those dust pits right now huh?"

I clicked my tongue. "Yeah, but you're too close. You'de probably either avoid it or drag me in." I scowled. "You sat right next to me for that exact reason didn't you? So I wouldn't drop you in a hole?"

"Maybe." He said, shrugging expansively. "Who knows. Regardless, I'm just sitting here, minding my own business. I figure you have another hour or two before they finish planning everything out and the missus comes looking for you. Personally I think I'll just sit here eating my apple, but if someone started talking I couldn't exactly tune them out."

Sighing, I shook my head. "You know, you are simultaneously the best and worst teacher I've ever had."

He nodded seriously. "Disappointingly impressive." He said humbly. "It's my sweet spot. Now stop asking my questions and let me eat this apple. Your turn to talk." He took another loud bite, averting his eyes and I smiled. It was nice to know I could vent to somebody. So I did. By the time Callie came looking for me I was feeling a lot better. For someone who didn't care about people Abel was kind of a people person. Who knew?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Are you sure this was a good use of wishes?" I asked Callie as I rolled my shiny new D-ranked chit over my knuckles. "Because we can just like…manifest buildings. We have a month, it's not like there's a rush." Well, we had twenty eight days at least, but still, I'd expected the City Planner to excitedly start raising buildings overnight.

The portly man, whose name is learned was Alvus, was every bit as excited as expected, but it wasn't at the thought of instant buildings, it was at the FOUNDATIONS. He's heard about the way we laid out the wall and was over the moon.

When he heard my question, the jovial planner turned to smile at me. "A good question, my boy. This is the best possible use of wishes. How much do you know about Ascendant architecture."

"I know that it happens spontaneously when someone makes a wish and pays me for it." I said wryly. "Or when Benny uses Inventing, we got a pretty awesome building during a trial back in the day, should we do that again?"

His eyes went wide in panic. "No!" He shouted, waving his hands. "It is NEVER wise to Invent buildings. Inventing allows maximum use of powerful reagents and crafting materials, the more powerful the better, but also the more unpredictable. It's also nearly impossible to impose any controls on building spawns because of the way they manifest."

I raised an eyebrow. "But ours was fine. We got a cool sentry tower and a nice place to hang our hats for a while."

"I assume this took place on a low ranked planet?" He said patiently. At my nod, he chuckled weakly. "As I thought. Inventing uses ALL the ingredients available, and that includes the natural energies of the environment. Higher level planets have more of that energy, and as such, contribute more. That's not even mentioning possible structures like the Undertrek, which might influence things."

I nodded as I started to get it. "Oh. That's why you said they're unpredictable. Trying to use your soul to influence that much power would be difficult, even if I assume the actual result wouldn't surpass the level of your materials."

"Quite so." He said with a laugh. "Invented buildings can have…drastic results, even within their rank. Cursed manors, infinitely spawning machine factories, monster spawning dens, flesh pits that consume the unwary, there are an unlimited number of unpleasant outcomes to using such a risky ability on a higher rank planet."

That sucked to hear, but it meant Benny could still add some new buildings back on Callus when we eventually went home. That might be interesting.

"You were talking about Ascendant architecture?" Callie prodded, rolling her eyes at my tendency to get sidetracked. I shot her a charming grin that she couldn't see but obviously felt through the bond because her lips quirked up in a small smile, though she looked no less exasperated with me.

"Oh!" Laughed Alvus. "Quite right. My apologies. Yes, Ascendant architecture is a fascinating subject. You see, buildings are complex and require multiple skillsets, but most of those overlap within the various crafting professions. Work crews are also often staffed with people with different Jobs, a Carpenter, a Mason, a Plumber, and so on. However, the creation of a foundation is a delicate bit of work for multiple reasons."

I paused, thinking it over. "Because it's earth based? I know there are people with abilities that let them shape earth and they do big business in construction back home."

The man waggled shook his head. "It helps, but one of the main benefits of the Job system is versatility. Stable and consistent growth along with a variety of supplemental skills for your profession. No, it isn't that. What sets Ascendant architecture apart is the variety. The Skills that crafters have vary, with each main Skill being the ability that person was born with."

"And those Skills affect the outcome of a building project." I filled in. "So foundations need to be constructed differently for each one?"

He shrugged. "Need is a strong word. A basic foundation can be laid for any building. Dig out the ground and pour in the material to hold the place up, but for a true Ascendant structure, just like for Ascendants ourselves, the more solid the foundation the more you can bring out of the materials. Even with the proper crafting Skills and disciplines, with a generic foundation, you're limited in what kind of building you can make."

Thinking back to the Callus, I wondered if the Unity building in Rajak had a specialized foundation, or maybe the materials were too low level for it to matter. Still, this did explain a few things.

"Well I didn't understand the specifications you gave me." I said with a shrug. "Smart idea writing them out and wishing for foundations that matched the specs on the paper. Mind explaining what each building will be?" I glanced at Celine. "Assuming it's not like…a state secret or something." I was mostly kidding, I knew my friend would tell me if I asked, but I wanted to let her know she wasn't obligated to share.

She waved me off. "Of course not. As I said, you're always welcome here. This might be my land but it's your home."

My heart warmed at that. I trusted Celine. It might be stupid in some people's eyes to do that after she'd betrayed me, but that was WHY I trusted her. I'd seen what almost losing Benny had done to her, and seen how much she regretted it. I trusted her not to want to go through that again, and so extending her control over this territory was a calculated risk.

So far, she hadn't disappointed me. At her nod, the portly planner grinned, escorting us back to the very first foundation he'd laid. It was at the edge of the water, and represented the far boundary of the future…settlement? Complex? I wasn't sure exactly.

"To understand exactly what kind of benefit we have here, you need to understand how buildings work in the Empire." The planner said excitedly as he led us to the lakeside foundation. "Much like Jobs, there are regional variations of structures developed over time by the residents of different biomes and areas to take advantage of features."

He gestured down to the large sunken pit with the dark blue metal frame in it. "Now, these particular buildings can't be built just anywhere, they require not only special plans and materials, but special foundations that take into account the land and energies around them."

My eyes lit up. "It's like a formation!" I said with interest. "They use the natural environment as part of the enchantments."

With a snap, he pointed at me happily. "Exactly! I already mentioned this in regards to Invented buildings, but any Ascendant structure works on a similar principal. The difference is the amount of control you have with each, which is why we use Enchanters, which are the most stable form of magical crafter."

"So, because of the wish crafter foundations." Callie said slowly. "We can use buildings that would normally only be constructable in special locations?"

He nodded excitedly. "And that is a huge advantage! Every territory has their own specialties. Some their horses, some their shipping, but these are all maximized by the nobles in charge over generations to bring out the absolute best of what their land has to offer. Because of the unique foundations you can construct, not only can we get the best of what our crafters can do, but we can go beyond that."

"Ok." I said with a laugh. "Enough buildup, what is this building going to be?"

Puffing up, he gestured to it grandly. "A pearl farm. The Delton family in Count Eston's territory are famed for their specialty pearls. Because of a special collision of natural energies and geography, they've learned to create a building that can induce and speed the growth of pearls inside a special type of clam."

I blinked at that. "Ok, that's,,,cool?" I said slowly. "Are these pearls valuable?"

"Immensely!" He gushed. "They're a special water type crafting material, and can be used to make a wide variety of expensive goods."

That did sound pretty cool. "Ok, that one is neat." I admitted. "What about the others? There are six more foundations, and can your people make the best of them?" He'd mentioned the benefits, but it sounded like we'd need more than just the foundations, which seemed to act as a pseudo environment.

"They can." He said solemnly. "But we'll need to use tomorrows wishes on blueprints. That isn't an issue though, because we can not only get the proper plans, we can wish for modified versions that take advantage of the external conditions on TOP of our constructed foundations." His excitement was palpable.

Once he was done hyperventilating from joy, he dragged me around the rest of the fledgeling village and showed me the various other useful buildings we were going to have.

I had to admit there were some cool ones there. On the other side of the lake, closer to the waterfall, there was a foundation that would become a power station, where the energy of the waterfall would be harvested to charge gems with Might that we could use in both crafting and battle.

Closer to the inn was going to be a special kind of sentry tower that could let them sense enemies and showed their positions on some kind of giant map display of the area, even having some features that showed relative strength.

There were a few that were less impressive to me. A butcher's shop that increased the speed of meat curing (also apparently the taste). A bar that made extra potent ale which I was told was imperative. And one I thought was amazing,a barracks based on one that was apparently situated on some kind of sword tomb that made training people faster when they focused on the blade.

That last one was damned impressive and I was excited to see it in action, but the last building was the one that really blew me out of the water. With Spencer coming we needed safety more than anything, which was why I was shocked when I was escorted to the long foundation at the entrance to the valley.

"This." Said the City Planner. "Will be the most complex building we construct. Even with the foundations, there are a limit to the number of buildings that can be woven into the natural flow of the world without damaging the natural energies. This won't be the last, but it will most likely be one of them, and it will be worth it."

He gestured grandly. "This, will be a Mistshroud Gate. When constructed, it will hide the entire valley in a natural concealment formation, making it invisible to anyone who doesn't pass through this archway."

"Wait…you're going to stealth the whole valley?" I gaped. "That's possible?"

He shook his head. "Well, invisible is perhaps the wrong word. Camouflage might be more accurate. It'll create an area of confusion for anyone looking. Now in order for this to work it needs to be at least D-rank, which would normally be impossible. But with the correct plans, wishes to gather materials, and specialized tools…this valley should be hidden from any but the Earl himself!"

Which meant it would be hidden completely. If the Earl tried to get involved it would violate the terms of non-interference Zeke had given him. I grinned as I stared down at the long trench with the stone and metal base of what would be my greatest defense. If we could get this done, we would have an unassailable base from which to pick off Spencer's people.

I didn't expect the sociopathic Tolbert to stick to the same back and forth doctrine as Clairdon and Camden, and this solved that problem nicely. I couldn't help but grin as I considered how best to maximize this advantage. I had so many ideas.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Staring down into the lake, I winced. "I don't really want to do this." I said to Benny. "Like, on a scale of one to ten, the amount that I want to do this is like a negative six. That's REALLY deep water." Benny stared at me blankly. "I HATE deep water. Ponds and pools and shit are fine, but I don't want to dive into a fathomless black hole."

"We have to scout it." He said bluntly. "And it's pitch dark so Callie can't use her shadows to map it. Someone needs to go down there. Someone with a special Skill that lets them see things even when it's dark."

I cursed my Eye of Revelation. "But why do we even need to go down there? It's just a random cave?"

Callie stepped up next to me. "Because there might be things down there. Valuable or dangerous things. If it's the former we can set up an expedition, or rather, Celine can, and if it's the latter she can wish to seal up the cavern so they don't get into the lake."

"And I'm the ONLY person with an advanced sensory Skill?" I glared at Callie. "I'm still not sure that whole complete darkness thing is how your power works. I could have sworn you could use your information gathering abilities in the dark."

She reached up and put her hand on my cheek lovingly. "But you can't prove it. And that's the important thing. Now take a deep breath honey, and take your bath." I blinked, and suddenly my world was upside down. As I fell into the water I saw a springboard made of shadow under where my feet had just been, and then I was diving.

I'd held my breath as I dropped in, and with my Might I could inhale enough to last me for about an hour combined with my Vitality, so I triggered Eye of Revelation and began my descent.

I didn't actually mind looking around, but if you don't complain when people make you do things they try to do it more often. Really though, as I swam down into the depths of the lake and then into the dark cavern behind the waterfall, I had to admit this was kind of nice. The serene blue water, the sugar fine sand, the waving seaweed. It was…idyllic.

When I finally reached the cave entrance though, it was like someone flipped a switch. One second it was bright and inviting, and the next I was buried in a cascading avalanche of darkness. It was oppressive and threatening, but luckily, my Eye of Revelation punched through it to reveal…

I screamed, releasing my air as I came face to face with a chalk white face, mad eyes and a wide grin stretching it to absurd tension. I grabbed my staff, lashing out at the thing, but as I blinked it was gone, my staff smashing into the rock behind it, leaving a long crack in the wall but not doing much else.

I spun, looking for whatever the hell that had been. I didn't see it. I didn't see anything really, but at the same time I saw it all. Eye of Revelation had been improved by my crown, and I could see the stats that made up the walls of the cave, and even the darkness itself, which wasn't really darkness at all. It was a creature.

The face appeared inches from mine, and I called on Mephistopheles, smashing my skull into the chalk white abomination. There was an explosion of black flame and I felt the water around me vibrate with an inhuman scream.

The darkness retreated, fleeing from the damage and leaving me in a bubble of light in the center of the cloud of black. I wished I'd had Callie at least TRY to take a look. She'd have noticed this thing. I grimaced. The dark was a monster. The face was a manifestation of it, but the blackness itself was the beast's true form.

Sadly, Mephistopheles, while impressive, wasn't particularly suited to this task. Large diffuse enemies were the opposite of what it was good for. I considered using Belial, but I eventually settled on a more circumspect method of moving forward.

Swimming down, I planted my feet on the stone of the shaft, triggering Mornax. My body turned heavy, dense, and nearly invulnerable at my own rank. The cavern tunnel was at an incline but it was still angled, so I could walk along the bottom, feet planted to the rock. I started moving forward.

Based on my Eye of Revelation, the darkness wasn't just around me, it continued down into the cave. Mornax wasn't made to leave the earth, but since one of my feet was on the ground at all times I was able to push the Skill to function. I walked along the dark tunnel, safe in my defensive form.

The face manifested a few more times, but never close enough to reach. It had tasted pain when I gave it that headbut, and it wanted to avoid another helping.

Finally, I reached the edge of the tunnel, and, very carefully so I didn't lose contact with the rock, I climbed out of the pond in a pitch black cavern. Once I was free, I looked around, unable to make out anything.

The cavern was too big for me to see properly, too dark for me to see much at all actually. Where earlier I could see the dark monster thing because of the light that should have been in the tunnel, now I was well and truly in the dark. I grinned, and without hesitation, triggered Moonlit Night.

A wide, dense fog filled the area, and in that fog I could see everything, easily able to make out the well lit cavern in the glowing fog. I could also see wisps of dark in the fog, but the formerly cohesive dark monster had dissolved into floating bits of wayward black, as if it was confused by the lack of sensory input.
Now that I could think and see properly (and wasn't surrounded by randomly appearing creepy faces, I was able to get a good look around as I slowly walked through the cavern. It took me a good thirty minutes to look around. At one point I got a worried pulse from the bond, but sent back reassurance so Callie knew I was fine. "I'm all good, love." I mentally informed her. "Something weird down here, but it can't hurt me."

Which was true. In fact, with Moonlit Night up, it couldn't even find me. The radius of the fog was a bit wider than usual, about fifty feet, and because of the stealth the monster didn't seem to be able to navigate or even stick together.

After looking around for a while, I finally found the center of both the chamber and, if I wasn't mistaken, the monster.

Lying in the center of the cavern was a small black building. Well, calling it a building wasn't really accurate. More like a roof over a an altar with no walls. In the center of the altar were three things. One was a knife made of black metal, one was a metallic red disk the color of fresh blood with a bird on it, and one was a silver cup, which appeared to be spewing black smoke out the top.

The smoke rolled across the altar, not quite high enough to obscure the other two, and onto the floor where it spread out into the cavern. I was able to drop the fog when I got close to the altar, because aside from the creeping carpet of the stuff on the floor the smoke didn't appear within about a ten foot radius of the thing.

"Gods damn it." I said to nobody. "This is a shrine." Which was bad. Because shrines meant gods. Hopefully not in any important or urgent way. This was probably just a REALLY old place. The god or gods being worshipped were hopefully dead. Permanently dead. I kept telling myself that until I almost believed it.

Walking up to the altar, I stood over the cup, peering down into it with a grimace. I had nothing for…whatever this was. I considered trying to blow it up, but that might backfire. So I decided to call in an expert. "Callie, do me a solid and send my sister down here. She can bring Callen if she's worried, the…whatever it is that's down here can't hurt a D-ranker."

She responded quickly in the affirmative, and after about ten minutes I heard footsteps approaching from the dark. I was standing in the light zone around the altar, and when Chelsea and Callen emerged from the dark.

My sister stopped, staring at the shrine. "Gods damn it." She unknowingly echoed. "That's a shrine, isn't it?"

"Your powers of deduction astound me." I said dryly. "But I mostly want to know if you can stop…that." I gestured vaguely at the cup. "I considered blowing it up, but I wasn't sure what would happen."
She snorted. "Monkeys and typewriters I guess." She shot me a grin to let me know she was teasing and we both snickered. Chelsea was trying to relate to me the way she saw Benny and I interact, and the friendly teasing was new, but I didn't mind it. Striding up to the cup she leaned over and sniffed it. "It smells like watermelon."

"Is that important?" I asked eagerly. Did she know what this was? Maybe it was some powerful ancient artifact.

She shot me a confused look. "No. It's just weird. I like to read, I'm not a walking library. These artifacts probably predate the Empire settling on this planet. It would be insane for me to know what they do or mean." She pointed at the cup. "THAT, however, I can tell is…bad. Not how bad, but my power doesn't like it."

"Well it's an evil dark smoke monster." I said casually. "It makes sense that your flame of purification wouldn't be a fan."

She shook her head. "Not that power." My eyes widened. My sister's alternate ability was one inherited from our grandmother by way of her own mother, the goddess Black Sorrow. I didn't know what it meant for that to be the case, but it was probably important.

Holding out a hand, a white flame flickered into existence on her palm, shimmering with an opalescent array of colors around the edges. Without hesitating, she shoved it into the cup.

There was a shudder and then a sort of pause, and then a scream issued out from the cup. White flame ignited the smoke, rolling over the altar and then down across the floor. I had to cover my eyes as the darkness in the whole room ignited like gasoline after someone dropped a match.

I felt heat around us for a flash and then it receded. When I opened my eyes, I could see the cavern clearly, and I gaped at what I found. Up on small plateaus of rock, I saw a dozen or so buildings made of black stone. They all looked to be in perfect condition, untouched by time or wear, without even any dust.

"I have good news and bad news." I told my sister. "The good news is that you're going to be getting out of the library for a while. The bad news is you're the closest thing to a historian we have, so you're going to be looking into this."

Fate sense guided us all, but it seemed to guide me more than most. While this clearly wasn't some imminent threat that needed dealing with right now, I couldn't shake the instinct from my Fatewalker class that this was an important place. The thing that was worshipped here probably wasn't Hatescream, but it might be one of the other gods he was bringing back. We needed as much information as we could get. Thank the gods I wasn't a researcher.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Getting everyone else down into the cavern was simple. After the dark thing had been destroyed, it was just a lazy swim down. Once everyone arrived, we sent out teams to explore the place. My century and Callie's had been turned over to us for defense of the settlement, so we had two hundred F-rankers ready and able to explore, and we put them to work.

Luckily, we found out pretty quickly that the cavern had no other entrances. It made sense, this place was untouched by time or anything else. I wondered if it counted as part of the Undertrek, or if it was just its own thing.

Standing in front of the shrine, I frowned down at the items on top of it, then looked over at Zeke. "You were the only one who might be able to identify this stuff, do we need to pay?"

He shook his head. "No. This isn't directly related to the competition, and is totally out of your depth, not to mention it might impact my duty to protect Chelsea. I'll take a look at them, but honestly…I wouldn't hold your breath. These are sealed items, but they have weight to them. At least A-rank, probably higher."

"Sealed items?" I asked with interest. "Like how I can seal my staff so it isn't so heavy? How did Chelsea destroy the monster then?"

Nodding, he locked his eyes on the medallion, cup, and, knife. "Similar. And the thing she killed wasn't part of these items. If I had to guess it was some kind of shadow elemental or fragment of darkness that fell into the cup and mutated. It was young, only having barely attained any sort of power."

I nodded slowly. "Ok, well then we should know what these are. Why is you Identify Skill so high anyway, I don't think I ever asked?"

He shrugged. "Any decent crafter needs Identify. Sometimes you take a risk or get some inspiration while you're working and need to see the exact result. I went through a lot of masks to get where I am now."

"Alright, so…what can you tell me about these?" I gestured back to the items. "Anything helps."

Nodding, he raised his hands, hovering them over the items. Before he could do anything though, he stopped, then reached into his coat and pulled out a mask. One of his combat masks, though I didn't know which one. He slipped it over his face, then gestured for me to step back.

As he raised his hands, there was a flash of black, and the dark liquid in the silver cup shot out like tentacles, wrapping around his wrists. There was a flash and white opalescent flame leapt up from the spot where the tentacles had touched, the liquid shrieking and pulling back.

"Please, like I wasn't expecting that." Zeke said derisively. "A-rank then, but weakened. Let's see what we can see."

There was a pause, and then he hissed, stepping back quickly. "Sacrificial items. All three of them. They're part of a set. The knife wounds the soul, draining it out with the blood, the cup converts the blood and spirit into power, and the medallion goes in the cup to soak up the energy."

I nodded slowly. "What's the medallion for though? Like is it just a battery?"

"Like I said, sacrifice. It's the emblem of a god." I winced, my guesses being confirmed. When I stared at him, waiting, he just shrugged. "I have no idea WHICH god. Not one I know of. I know it's not any of the six, and it's not Hatescream."

I stared down at the items worriedly. "Can you purify it with the flames from the mask?" I asked cautiously. "I don't really want to just leave these here. Who knows what they could do."

He shook his head. "Not even close. The liquid that tried to grab me is left over dregs after the medallion absorbed most of the power. These are A-rank sacrificial tools. Granted, I'm guessing there used to be a LOT of them lying around, but still. They're out of my depth. Luckily, containment and purification are not the same thing."

Snapping his fingers, he flicked his hand and a huge trunk appeared in the air, slamming down with a thump. He threw it open and started rummaging around, Finally he pulled out a bowl, then emptied a series of vials into it. "You're going to want to stand back."

I did, and he walked around behind the shrine, then flicked a finger and a burst of flames condensed into a hand smacked out and knocked the items off the altar. I heard a few wet plops, and then an explosions of darkness burst up from the bowl in a torrent of horrifying black shot through with an evil red light.

We stood there, taking cover, for about ten minutes, and when it finally ended, I let out a sigh of relief. "What the fuck was THAT?" I shouted at my uncle, who was standing up and wiping off his coat.

"Little mix I use to temporarily disarm failed products to be disposed of." He sounded nonchalant. "Expensive as hell, but when you work with A-ranked materials you need a backup plan. The base is void essence, and the rest is a proprietary mix of shade lurker blood, hope pheonix feather dust, and spinal fluid from an astral ravager."

I stared at the now opaque liquid, which looked an almost uncomfortable shade of grey. "And it…neutralizes them?"

"Temporarily." He reiterated. "But that's where this comes in." He walked over and dug back into the trunk, pulling out a heavy black stone box, which he thumped on the ground. Pulling a key from a pocket, he unlocked the huge dark metal padlock on the chains wrapping the box. Once he'd unwound them all he paused. Walking back over to the trunk he pulled out another vial, this one full of golden glowing liquid.

Walking back to the box, he gingerly kicked it open. As soon as he did, there was a boom and a massive purple serpent far too big for the opening exploded outward, rearing back as if to strike. Zeke hurled the vial, not even unstoppering it, and it burst on the snake, golden fluid drenching it.

The monster roared, smoke rising from its face as it dove back into the box, which just lay there, open, as if nothing was wrong with it. Zeke walked over, picked up the bowl, then dropped it into the box and kicked the lid shut. He re-wrapped it with chains, then locked the padlock and carried back over and dropped it back in the trunk.

"There. Safe as houses." He said happily.

I was frozen, staring at him in terror. "What the fuck was THAT?"

"Prank." He shrugged nonchalantly. "It's a Cosmic Rot Viper I bought ages ago as an egg. I was going to leave it in your dad's sink when I saw him next. Don't worry, it's only barely B-rank and it's starving."

I sputtered, trying to figure out which part of that I should address first. "What did you throw on it?"

He held up the vial. "Sunlight Sherry. They make this stuff out of real stars. Not like, good ones, obviously. I'm not wasting decent liquor on scaring off a snake. Rot Vipers are dark aligned creatures. They're particularly sensitive to starlight, hence the Cosmic tag."

"Fine." I said, shaking my head. "We can talk about that later. What about the items, what did you put them in?"

"Berenthar Box." He said seriously. "The Berenthar family specialize in secure storage items. Their big Vaults are prohibitively expensive, but some of the smaller lock boxes are affordable. It's made of some strange stone mix they created themselves."

I nodded in relief. "Alright. So they're safe for now. What are you going to do with them?"

"Hand them over to someone from the WCP." He said bluntly. "I don't need this kind of trouble. There should be at least a representative at the Conclave, if not the Wishmaster himself. The current one, the old man doesn't really do day trips."

"You don't think the gods will show up in person?" I asked. I'd kind of assumed for something this important they'd put in an appearance.

Zeke just laughed. "No. I don't. Remember that the original Wishmaster doesn't even run the family anymore. Aiden will probably show. The Revenant will send one of his popes, same for Black Sorrow, the Emperor will send one of the Kings, and the Queen will probably send one of her own nobles."

It was nice to get a straight answer from my uncle. Zeke could talk to me about the gods because they were so absurdly above my weight class they didn't trip his geas. It was less like telling me political details and more like telling me which city was about to be hit by a hurricane.

"This is kind of important though, isn't it?" I said angrily. "There are enemy gods out there plotting destroy our whole way of life."

Zeke shook his head. "It's complicated. I don't understand it all myself, but gods aren't…like us. I told you once that I-rankers don't count as real Ascendants. Well, H-rankers aren't really much better. You remember being I and H-ranked right? Did you feel much different than a normal person?"

"Not really." I said with a shrug. "A point or two of Impact isn't a big deal."

He nodded. "Right. Ten points, when you hit G-rank, that's when the differences became apparent. Ten. You saw the same thing at a hundred. D-rankers are a different breed. They're just a higher form of life, and it takes something absurd for any lower ranked Ascendant to kill one."

I followed his train of thought. "That's why gods become gods at a thousand Impact. It's another watershed. The next step up the lifeform ladder. Does it really matter that much?"

He gestured around us. "That touches on things you aren't ready to know yet. The short answer is yes. It matters. Effectiveness aside, the sheer amount of stats combined with the pure power of a Mirror soul is…it defies description. I've never seen a god in battle before and I hope I don't for a long time."

"So what does this have to do with the conclave?" I asked. "Are you worried they might fight?"

I was actually scared of his answer, but he shook his head. "No. The Wishmaster, Emperor, and the Queen would prevent any squabbling Between Black Sorrow and the Revenant, who are the only ones likely to start anything. It's not that I'm worried about what they might do, it's that they don't NEED to be there."

"You're saying they all have methods of making their will known and keeping track of what happens." I said, finally getting it.

"Basically." He confirmed."Besides which, they'll probably already be moving when the conclave begins. You don't get to be a god by sitting around and waiting to see what happens. The six have dealt with other gods before. Maybe not quite so many, but they know what they're doing. The conclave is more to iron out cooperation than anything."

It made me wonder exactly how things worked behind the scenes. And who would be coming to the conclave? Would I meet my grandfather there? Would my dad show up? Did I want him to? Turning back to the buildings around us, I considered my earlier instinct about this place, about the god they worshipped here.

If this was a place where one of the five gods Hatescream had brought back had been venerated, maybe we could learn more about them. Learn their weaknesses, and be a bit more prepared when the war came. In any case we needed more info, and I hoped my sister and the others could get it for us. Knowledge was power, and we needed all the power we could get.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Walking through the darkened miniature city below our territory, I scanned the ground carefully with Eye of Revelation. "This is stupid." I grumbled. "I'm not a metal detector. I get not wanting to waste wishes on this, and dedicating todays to getting the plans for the town was fine, I got paid either way, but why does that mean I have to walk around using Eye of Revelation on everything?" I was up to three D-ranked chits now, and was building a nice little fortune, I was planning to use at the conclave.

"Because we need more context." Callie said seriously as she trailed behind me. " We can't waste wishes with only twenty seven days left. Whatever that dark thing was protected the buildings and the shrine, but it was a mutation, which means there's a good chance whatever happened here that drove off all the people happened before it came into existence."

"Yeah, but why does that matter?" I held up a small basket. "So far we found six forks, eight plates, what looks like a very dirty sponge, and a rock with a face painted on it."

She winced. "Yeah, but at least Chelsea seemed excited about the rock. She seems sure it means something." Her upbeat tone fell a bit flat when I noticed that she was trying not to snicker, but at least she tried.

"Yeah, it means she needs a hobby." I said flatly. "I get why this place might be important, but it's just demeaning to have to-" I stopped. "Hold on, what's that?" I pointed off to one side, indicating a bump in the dirt. My Eye of Revelation showed me something interesting. I knelt down, dusting off the layer of dirt to reveal…a mask.

I reached for it, but Callie slapped my hand away. "Are you crazy?" She snapped. "The mask on your FACE eats people, and that thing looks evil as shit. Call your uncle."

"Ah." I said as I pulled my hand back. "That's a great point." Throwing my head back I bellowed. "Hey! Zeke!" Callie jumped, glaring at me, and I shrugged. "What? You said to call him. Pick a lane."

She held up her hand angrily. "On your scan ring!" She snarled. "Not in my EAR!"

Before I could respond, I heard a cough and turned to see my uncle standing there, looking bored. "What do you want?" He asked in annoyance. "I was teaching Cas how to play Straga."

I groaned. "Don't teach her that. I still have nightmares about taking lessons as a kid. That game is a mess." At Callie's confused look, I sighed. "It's like chess, only you play it on eight boards and usually with four players. Zeke can play three sides himself, and often does, but it's nightmarishly complicated."

"He likes to whine about his lessons." Zeke said pitilessly. "But all you have to do is control your pieces to assault the defensive positions of the inner board, reach the center square of one of the other players, ascend to one of the two second layer boards, beat the other player who managed it, and then get to the third and final heavens board to face off for the win."

I waved him off. "Enough about your stupid six dimensional chess game. We called you here for THAT." I gestured down at the mask, and he glanced at it, eyes narrowing in interest.

He knelt down next to it. "Well now, isn't that interesting." Snapping his finger, he revealed a long wooden handle with a thin metal blade on it, one of his tools, and picked the mask up out of the first with it gingerly.

The mask looked…weird. It was made of rough, dark wood, with several parts of it lacquered in red to form a sort of fierce bird face.

"Do you know what it is?" I asked cautiously. "Like is it going to kill us?"

He shook his head. "Follow me." He said without responding to my questions. He stood and strode off toward the buildings, and we trailed behind. Once he was inside the hall where Chelsea was collecting research material, he dropped the mask on an empty table and pulled out his trunk again.

Shuffling through it, he pulled out a few books, and started skimming through them. I winced when I looked at them, the pages were basically black, the text so small and dense even I could barely read it. I saw a few small boxes that might have been pictures, and finally, Zeke located something he'd been looking for.

Reaching down to flip the mask over, he squinted at the back of it, then shook his head, slammed the book closed and repeated the action. We sat there for about fifteen minutes as he scanned books, before finally finding something he was looking for.

"Detwemer mask." He muttered, then grabbed a new book, starting to flip again. Every now and then he would mutter something else. One time it was "Khalda valley." Then after that. "Rhugash ruins." Finally he came to the last thing he needed, grimacing and nodding before saying. "The Cardinal Cult."

"Was that aimed at us?" I asked after he didn't go back to looking. "Because you've just been sitting and muttering for like a half hour, so it's hard to tell."

He shrugged. "Had to check something. As an artisan I've studied masks made all across history and all throughout the universe. I'm not an expert on ancient cultures or religions, but I AM an expert on masks, and I know where to look for information on them."

We'd expected that, it was part of why I called him, I gestured for him to continue. "Yeah, we got that. WHAT information."

He snorted. "Kids these days have no respect for a dramatic buildup. Fine, I'd seen work like this before, The Detwemers made them, but when I checked it turned out they got the design from some old ruins in the Khalda valley, that place was built on the ruins of the Rhugash. They used the masks for a few centuries but originally they came from the old state religion of the place. The Cardinal Cult."

"The ancient cult used the word 'Cardinal'?" I asked in disbelief.

Pausing, he admitted. "Well, the exact translation is 'bright colored bird with feathers of blood' but Cardinal is pretty close. Plus the alliteration sounds better. But yes, the Cardinal Cult. I don't have much on them, the masks they used weren't a huge part of the religious rites, but what little I know matches up with the other stuff we found."

I turned to my sister. "Ok, what do you know about the Cardinal Cult?"

She just stared at me. "Shane, I'm slightly nerdy, as we've discussed before I am NOT an encyclopedia. I have no clue who or what they are." She paused. "But I might know someone who would."

Without explanation, she got up and all but sprinted out of the room, Callen following her with a sigh as I glanced at Callie in confusion. Of course I figured it out pretty quickly, but wasn't able to confirm it until about an hour later when she came back in. By the time she got back she found us combing through Zeke's books again (I was using a magnifying glass), and had Anna's friend Syl from the library with her.

The tiny blonde woman from the library was a member of the History Hunters, an Archivist faction that searched for historical documentation for an S-ranked force called the Vikram family. She was scowling as Chelsea dragged her in. "What are you doing, Anders. If you found some ruins you just had to tell me. I'd have scheduled…" She trailed off as she came into the room, where all the various odds and ends I'd found had ended up.

"See." Said Chelsea smugly. "I told you there's interesting stuff down here. You're lucky I'm letting you in on this dig."

The blonde stepped forward, poking at a few things. "I'm not familiar with this style of pottery." She said, touching one of the plates. "It's Rakian glazing practices, but the molding of the clay is Veltish." She leaned down, pulling out a small brush as she started dusting off some of the dirtier parts of the dish.

Chelsea stared at her, sighing. "You can study all of this later Syl. We need your input on this." She grabbed the smaller woman, physically turning her body by the shoulders to look at the mask.

Syl had started to get annoyed, but once she saw the mask her expression became interested. "Is that Khaldish?"

"Not originally." I said absently, passing her the book and magnifying glass. We'd marked the passages we'd found on the masks, and she scanned them in fascination. "Where did you get these texts?" She demanded. "This one is a Malkan Artificium. I didn't even know there were any of these left intact. And this one is some kind of porcelain sculpting text from the Drellan Empire."

I blinked. "How many cultures were there before the five factions."

"A lot." Answered Zeke, Chelsea, and Syl in unison. The librarian picked up the explanation after that. "Almost every planet we've terraformed had some other people living on it at one time. Especially higher ranked ones. Just look at the other gods, who do you think worshipped them."

I nodded. "Like the Aetherbright Empire." I said, happy to know something.

Syl whirled on me. "Like the WHAT?" She snapped. "Because I've met probably ten people who have HEARD of the Aetherbright empire, and two of them are S-ranked Historians."

"I've been there." I shrugged. "Or at least some ruins. But that's not important. Do you know anything about the Cardinal Cult?" I tried to refocus her on the task at hand, and despite her glare which promised later conversation, it seemed to work.

She snapped her fingers, and a book appeared. Then another. Then about ten more. She made a pile on the table.

"First of all." She said bluntly. "Cardinal cult is a mistranslation. The word means 'bright red bird with feathers of blood'. That's important, because while I've never heard of the Cardinal Cult, I HAVE seen that word before. Or at least that phrasing."

She leafed through her books for a bit until she found something, then scribbled a few notes on some paper and did it again. Finally, she spun it around., showing us the writing. "I've cobbled together a few different sources, but I have an eidetic memory, and this tickled a few keys for me. From what I can tell, you're dealing with this being."

"The Lady of Lamentations?" I asked as I squinted at the page. "That sounds…morbid. She's a god?"

"Well they don't call her that. But the descriptions basically confirm it." She agreed. "Her name is Felicity, and she appears to be some kind of goddess of torment." She pointed out a few of the references, and as I read them, my blood drained from my face.

I pointed at a line. "Your notes on that aren't clear." I said as a cold feeling of dread settled in my stomach. "You mentioned associates, what's the translation of this one. It says Bellow of Loathing." I could think of another way to say that, and I desperately hoped I was mistaken. She read over it, then crossed a few things out.

"My mistake." She said casually. "I misconjugated. Contextually that's not supposed to be an angry action, but a fearful one. Scream, not bellow. Which changes the sentence structure. It means that other word should be-"

"Hate." I said flatly. "The word is supposed to be one title. Hatescream." Looked like we found a connection to this place just like my instincts told me. I looked at Callie, who took my hand in worry as I turned back to Syl. "We need you to pass this up the chain of your organization." Chelsea could contact mom to have her follow up, but this needed to be checked. I was pretty sure we'd just found the identity of one of the other enemy gods.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

A week flew by, leaving me at twenty days remaining and up to ten D-ranked chits. We put every single wish into building, setting foundations and getting plans, with the occasional wish for a full building to be built when we were dealing with things like houses and markets. With all that out of the way though, the construction workers made great time, and by the time we hit one week the territory was starting to LOOK like a real town.

"This place is really shaping up." Benny said, echoing my thoughts unknowingly from where he sat next to me on the hill overlooking the valley. All of us were lying out enjoying the sun which managed to come through the concealment formation on the wall perfectly despite us having confirmed the valley wasn't visible from outside.

Callie, who was laying in the grass on my other side nodded. "It does look good. I'm still worried about Spencer attacking though. We got lucky last time. The chances of us pulling off another D-rank kill are infinitesimal. We have two D-rankers on our side now, but who knows how many Spencer has?"

"I don't think it's just two." I disagreed. "Clairdon's territory was rich as hell. A lot of the payouts Camden promised hinged on success, but he's had it. With a month to dig up assets I'm betting he'll be able to hire a few more for backup."

Jessie made a sound of agreement. "Plus you can tell how well this place is going based on how close to ranking up Celine is getting."

"I think it's nice." Said Bethy from further down. "The cats love the buildings here. They say they make excellent scratching posts." She seemed…lighter, recently. Like she'd always been a bit wacky, but that had been almost forced. Her manic exuberance had calmed somewhat, and while I would never call the tiny vampire NORMAL exactly, she seemed like she was having more fun.

Which I was happy about until I processed what she said. "Wait, was that YOU?" I snapped, sitting up to glare at the vampire. "The contractors have been furious because something keeps carving up the materials."

"No!" She said, looking offended. "It was Donuts. He's been acting out because Luggage has been getting more attention."

Gabe cleared his throat. "Um, Bethy, I think it might be more that he's been being terrorized by Chalk. Randall is getting harder to push around. The cats are E-rank now too, but they're smaller and weaker."

We all turned to my sister, who was snuggling her rabbit. She shrugged. "Chalk gets jealous of other animals. We've been working on it. Speaking of work, I heard Nat has been over at Camden's helping out. Anyone talked to her?"

"I have." Said Jessie. "She's been doing…better. Not amazing, but better. This mess has given her something to focus on besides losing Perit. Camden has been a machine preparing for Spencer's attack. He has a lot to lose now that he's actually taken over Clairdon's territory. Speaking of…" She looked at me. "Do we have a plan?"

"We do." I said delightedly. "In fact, it's one of my better plans. Spencer is rich, entrenched, and willing and able to declare war on two different territories at once. I considered dozens of potential defensive options…and then I realized, defense is the wrong way to go."

Benny turned to face me with a flat look. "What?"

"Think about it." I said excitedly. "We just got these new territories, we have a month to prepare, we used walls to beat the lions. There are so many indicators that we're going to be taking a defensive stance in the upcoming battle. In fact, just about the only thing Spencer can reasonably count on is that we're going to be reacting and not acting."

He threw his hands in the air. "You don't get to just state common sense things like they're an example of us being predictable and then claim we should do the opposite to throw off the bad guy? That's not clever, it's five year old logic." He turned on Callie. "Just because you're marrying him doesn't mean you need to agree to all his stupid ideas now!"

"I talked him out of the meteor plan didn't I?" She said with an eye roll. "Hear him out though, this one isn't really as stupid as it seems. He actually thought things out."

When Benny finally looked back to me, I grinned. "Ok, so first off Anna will be the one doing the deed. With a few supplementary Skills and artifacts to enhance her stealth abilities, and a decent weapon, taking out Spencer should be easy."

"There's no way he doesn't have a dozen different countermeasures for that." Benny said slowly. Not like he was rejecting the idea, but like he was trying to work through problems.

"Yup." I confirmed. "But we have a workaround. He can't use any items more than two ranks higher than he is. In fact, even using anything C-rank will be tough. The difference between soul strain from E to D is substantial as we've seen. The main issue is that even shutting down the security is going to set it off. We need to give him something else to focus on while she gets in position."

He groaned. "You mean that we need to break into his manor in parallel with the assassin we're sending and get noticed, possibly putting ourselves in mortal peril, so we be BAIT?"

"Exactly." I nodded. "And bait is a good word. We need him to remove himself from the built in security, and he's a vicious little fuck. He'll come out to kill us personally, just to demonstrate he's the better man."

Callie spoke up to reassure everyone. "Don't worry. We have an actual plan, and we'll be using wishes to support. Every step will meticulously controlled and influenced externally to give us the best chance of pulling this off. It's safer than it sounds."

She was right. We'd been planning out step by step instructions for everyone, using a combination of Callie's spying, and Anna's sources. Callie was even going to consult Nat to try and squeeze out what few bits of information she could glean around the inherent disadvantage wishes had towards secrets.

We were doing our best to confirm who, what, when , why, and where. All the mercs Spencer had would be uncovered, as would their abilities, placement, schedules, motivations, and locations. With all that info, we'd be able to plan everything out perfectly. Breaking in, securing a room, setting our trap and then making sure they discovered us and came after us would become infinitely simpler.

"So…did you guys tell Anna about this?" Asked Jessie. "Because we might need her input."

I nodded. "We brought her in last visit. The valley is the only safe place to talk about this stuff. The defenses protect from notice, which is its own form of isolation, plus Celine had a blank room like Camden's set up below the inn."

"So…why aren't we there right now?" Asked Bethy curiously.

I shrugged. "No point. Anna isn't here so there's no reason to spy, especially not at a level that would get past the wall." I glanced up at the hulking structure that created the obfuscation effects over the valley. "Anyway, this stay between us. We need to keep this on the DL because the valley is still going to be fielding a defense."

"You're worried about what Camden said about traitors." Callie said softly. "You don't want anyone knowing to minimize risk."

"Basically." i admitted. "But its more than that. Since Celine is the owner of this territory we aren't expected to be front and center. She is, and Benny will be with her, but the rest of us don't need-"

Benny smashed a fist into the ground. "You want to repeat that again?" He said quietly.

"I said." I repeated slowly, purposefully dragging it out to piss him off. "That you aren't coming with us. If everyone important vanishes at once it'll be obvious. It'll be me, Callie, Bethy, Abel, and Mel."

Chelsea's head snapped around. "Wait what? I'm not going? That's absurd!"

"Of course you aren't." I said patiently. "Callen needs to make an appearance here, or if necessary at Camden's place if they don't find the valley. He'll be tracked without a doubt. Anna will be too, but we're taking steps. We can't take both of our best D-rankers with us, it would draw far too much attention. Same with Gabe."

The Adamant looked upset, but he knew I was right, so he didn't argue. Chelsea didn't have any such compunctions, but I dismantled her points pretty easily, and eventually she had to admit staying behind was the smarter call. Even if she hated it.

"You're doing your research?" She finally asked when she'd given in. "Like, blueprints and detailed plans? I know how much you like to wing it." She smirked at Bethy, who gave her a fang filled grin and a wink. "But that isn't going to cut it here. You've gotten a few rough outlines for dealing with any problems that come up, but you need for info."

"You can even help." I consoled her. "Talk to Anna next time she's here. Ask her if there's anything you can do. I'm sure your nerdiness will come in handy somehow. Like you probably know how like…deadbolts work, or whatever."

Everyone looked at me. "Shane…do you…not know how deadbolts work?"

"What?" I was surprised. "Nobody does. They're some scientific bullshit with magnets or something."

Callie sighed, pinching her nose. "Honey, no."

Benny, meanwhile, was snickering. "Dude, it's literally a crossbar inside the door. You turn the knob and it shoves a piece of metal between the door itself and the frame, holding them in line with each other."

"Duh." I snorted, looking away and grateful my face was covered. "I was…totally messing with you guys." I let out a bark of strained laughter. "I can't believe you bought that. You're all so easy to trick."

Callie patted me on my shoulder consolingly. "It's ok, hon. We all have little things that we never learned for one reason or another that seem obvious to other people."

"Fine." I grumbled. "But we never locked our doors. Probably because Zeke was B-ranked. All the buildings I've been in that did have locks used electronic fasteners." I climbed to my feet, dusting myself off. "Anyway, this is lame. Who wants to go watch the rookies get their asses kicked in the sword barracks."

That seemed to distract them all well enough, and we all hopped up, heading to take in the site of the two hundred soldiers Callie and I had brought with us when we came receiving training. They were technically ours, not Celine's but she'd signed mercenary contracts with us and we were using this place as a garrison. Paying for room and board with manpower made this a business arrangement, which removed any of the obligations that might have interfered in the wishes Celine had been making.

Looking around, I took in the sight of the village, beautiful, peaceful, and new. I'd never been somewhere so serene, though that had something to do with Callie too. I'd been chatting with Abel about the losses in the first battle and was feeling much better lately, and this place had definitely been part of that process.

Soon though, it would be time to go. After the fight with Spencer we only had another month before we had to leave. The trip to the conclave would take time, and we only had six months on Stratholme total, though it felt like it'd been much longer.

For the first time though, I wasn't worried about what was coming. God wars, evil deities, assassins, or cultists. I'd dealt with it all before. Soon enough I'd be a Master, and a real power player in this universe. And I wasn't alone either. I had my friends by my side, and I truly believed there was nothing that could stop us.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next three weeks were consumed by work. Wishes, both to myself and Nat, paid for with money that I was going to desperately need soon enough, finished up the construction of the new territory (which Celine named Bennington in what I was SURE was an obvious troll) and got all the information we needed for the attack.

The last few weeks had been surprisingly good for my progress. Since we were coming up on the big fight I'd not only netted myself another twenty D-ranked chits of spending money, but with legends of my feats spreading even further, gathered another twelve hundred stat points, three hundred Might, two hundred Perception, two hundred Fantasy, and five hundred Focus. Bringing me up to sixteen thousand total.

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-4005
Impact-65
Fantasy-2250
Vitality-2902
Focus-2020
Perception-2204
Creation-2554
Progress to next rank:16000/100000
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 (3 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 10 shadow clone (2 in reserve), 19 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Pet- Wolf named Jin

Financial resources:10 E-rank chits 30 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)


Skills: Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Lesser Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam 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.
Third form- Mornax. Stone Limb, Triple Strength Density Shifting (x10 F-rank stored attacks), Mountain Stance


Turning to Callie, I raised an eyebrow. "Tomorrow is the big day. Are we completely prepared?" We'd acquired so much information, but I'd delegated a lot of the actual planning to the researchers. I didn't have as much experience with any of this as Anna did, and she was the main influence.

"Yup." She said grimly. "And the divination wishes were able to confirm their tactics. Secrets are expensive, but yes or no questions can really help narrow down information in a set window. Since we knew they'd be attacking right after the month protection period was up, we had enough to flush out some details."

Nat had been consulted for a lot of that, and I was glad Celine was rich, because she'd been spending like crazy for this, as had Camden. Speaking of which. "Will Camden need any help? Can we afford to send it?"

Anna, who was here with us preparing for tomorrow's operation, nodded. "He will, and you can. Celine spent a few wishes shoring up the anonymity of this place. With your shielding in place it's a lot easier to make sure no one finds it. All she had to do was pay for it in short blocks of time, and she can afford to dispatch the Garrisoned forces here to Camden's aid."

I whistled at that. "Damn. That's clever. Must have been pretty pricey though. Are you going to use the stealth capability to ambush Spencer's forces once they're mid-attack?"

"Of course." The D-ranker said with a grin. "And Callen will be attacking right alongside them. You have the plans now, study them, learn your part. We'll be hitting them tomorrow at three forty six in the morning. According to our divinations from Nat that's when the most of them will be asleep."

Divination meaning lots of yes no questions based on the specific time blocks we'd already identified. Knowing exactly when they were coming was definitely a big help. It got around the weaknesses that usually prevented us from using wishes for info gathering. I just wished things were always this convenient.

Once they left, I turned to Callie. "Ok, this is going to be a mess. My part is simple…kind of, but your mobility means you'll be separated from me and disabling some of the security alone, and I don't like it. Anna is going to be using those Impact soaking straw dolls to draw off the only remaining D-rank guard, but there's still lots of danger from stronger E-rankers."

She beamed at me. "Now you know how I feel when you go do dumb shit." She put her arms around me, leaning her head on my chest. "But seriously, I'll be fine. We've planned this meticulously down to the second. Just stick to the plan and we'll get Anna her shot. Once Spencer is dead all this ends."

"Then we can start wedding planning." I said with a grin. "I mean, we have the conclave first, but we'll be en route for a while after the Necromedes picks us up. We can use that time to decide on things like location and cake flavor. You know, the important stuff."

"I thought we were having it at my mom's house?" She asked. "That's the cheapest option right?"

I shrugged. "Have you even started on your guest list? We've met a lot of people since leaving home. Even if we kept it to the Pavilion members we couldn't fit. Not to mention all the friends we made at the Bazaar, in the glade, HERE. Mom will want to come, obviously, and I bet Killian will stop by."

"Damn it." She cursed. "This is going to be a whole big thing." Then she paused. "Hey, you're distracting me!" She accused.

"I'm distracting myself." I admitted. "I'm worried. Your stats are probably way up by this point, can you at least show me how much you grew over the last month? With the conclave coming up I'm betting stories about godslayers are going like gangbusters."

She grinned at me. "I wanted to keep it a surprise. I even locked down the bond so you didn't notice the jump. It's been crazy. Three thousand Might, two thousand Perception, four thousand Fantasy, and a thousand Creation. A full ten thousand points,though I'm rounding a bit! I think if anything spread of my story took some time to build up." Her smile dropped. "Just a shame its a drop in the bucket." She passed me a listing of her 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-7350
Impact-65
Vitality-742
Fantasy-8105
Focus-908
Perception-6375
Creation-1485
Progress to next rank: 25210/100000

Soul strength- Sapphire Soul Body
Pet-Wolf named Rellia

Skills: Minor Tracking, Minor Dual Dagger Mastery, Beginner Stealth, Beginner Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Intermediate Shadow Manipulation Mastery. Intermediate Paired Dueling.
Path of the Abyss-Illusory.

I whistled. "Seven thousand Might? That's insane. "And eight thousand Fantasy. Man the stories about that must be nuts to drive that one so high. But it's hardly a drop in the bucket, Cal. Twenty five thousand! You're a quarter of the way to D-rank. I'm jealous as hell. Not to mention the boost you'll get off marrying me."

Smacking my shoulder, she scowled at me. "That's not why I said yes and you know it!"

"Of course I do." I said soothingly. "But it's true. The wedding is going to bump both of us up a ton. All the high rankers that'll be coming? There will be stories all over. And I'm glad. The stronger you get the safer you are. I don't consider you benefitting from us getting married a bad thing."

We'd had this conversation before, and it never failed to put a scowl on her face. "I don't like it." She repeated for the tenth time. "That's why I wanted to do a small ceremony at my moms. I don't want people thinking I'm some ladder climber. Making a big deal out of the wedding for attention seems like something my dad would do."

I pulled her close. "We're getting married because we love each other and because we want to be together forever. You didn't even think of the wedding benefits until I mentioned them, which I know because I felt your surprise when I brought it up. It would be stupid to avoid it just because your dad would approve."

"I know." She muttered. "I guess it's unavoidable."

"Besides." I said with a grin. "I'm the one marrying a godslayer. If anything I'm getting the better end of this deal. With the war blowing up your story like it is, I'm gonna rake in some serious points for landing you." I said in the most dramatic voice possible. "Maybe I should retire and let you become a god while I live a life of indulgent luxury."

Callie just rolled her eyes. "Right." She said sarcastically. "Because I'm definitely guaranteed to become a goddess. Because I'M the one with a foot halfway into B-rank already. I'm not even sure I'll manage to hit C."

She'd been worrying about her Path lately. We'd talked over how I'd gotten DS Mastery to a Solid Path, but my experience was hardly usual. I was pretty sure just shoving Skills willy nilly into one big super Skill normally wouldn't have worked. Especially knowing what I did about proper Skill construction. I was convinced it had been a fluke.

That didn't help her calm down, since her own Path was still Illusionary (something I'd repeatedly told her was completely normal and even advanced for her rank). "Look, get to Master and THEN worry about it. Besides I don't think B-rank is going to be as easy as the earlier ranks." At her flat stare I grimaced. "Ok, not easy…straightforward. Zeke has implied it gets more complex."

The one thing I knew was that learning to make Skills properly was going to be important, and I'd been working on it for a while, taking apart and rebuilding the worst of my Skills to be more efficient.

She sighed, cuddling into my side. "I miss back when things were simple. Catch a serial killer running around our small town."

"Well…I mean, I almost got butchered with a snack knife." I said. "So maybe not THAT simple."

Snorting, she shook her head. "You can't let me have my misplaced nostalgia? You're a terrible boyfriend." She stuck out her tongue at me and I couldn't help but laugh at her antics.

"Fiance." I reminded her with a grin. "And how about I cook us dinner to make up for it. I got fresh clams for linguine." I'd been planning to surprise her before the big day, but the immediate light in her eyes told me telling her now was a good choice.

Grabbing her hand, I pulled her after me out of the basement of the inn, off toward the kitchen where I would put dinner together. Despite the big mess tomorrow though, I felt at ease. Risk was always present, but Callie and I were on the right track, and as long as we were all together we could do this. I forced myself to temper that confidence so I didn't overlook any important details, but I held onto the sentiment. I had a feeling I'd need it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We slipped out of the valley at two forty five the next morning. It was a simple thing to do, we had Anna, Callie, and Bethy with us, and the latter's domain made what might have been a risky exfiltration easy as pie. We didn't speak for about ten minutes as we walked the miles between the valley and Spencer's estate, but when we finally got to the edge of the property, we stopped for a powwow.

"What the fuck was that?" I hissed, spinning on Anna. "I thought they didn't know where we were. We passed ten different search parties!"

She shrugged. "I said they didn't know, not that they didn't care. I didn't expect them to put in that much effort though." She glanced at Bethy. "That Domain of yours is damned useful. I didn't know it worked with stealth."

"It's a vampire thing." Said Bethy casually. "Stealth is one of the powers attributed to us. Vampirism is a flexible and powerful trait. I'm totally awesome at making stuff go whoosh!" She waved her hands dramatically. "And just disappear. Illusions are easy, so I made us all like ghosts."

I chuckled. "You scare me sometimes." I told my friend. "But I'm glad you're on our side. Speaking of which, you and Abel are first up on the docket. Anna will be filling you in on the details, but you'll be getting us through before we all split up to do our parts."

Anna nodded, gesturing ahead of us. "This is the weakest spot in the ward scheme. There are detection enchantments, combat enchantments, and a few shields mixed in there, but the foundation for the manor can't hold an unlimited amount of magic. They already had extensive wards, and while Spencer paid to tune them up there was only so much he could do."

Reaching into a bag hanging on her belt, she pulled out a handful of powder and blew it lightly. The crystalline sand flared out in a small cloud, and before our eyes landed gently on a series of multi-colored sparks where enchantments were standing. My Eye of Revelation could make out most of them, but there were a few even I hadn't been able to spot.

"This." She said, gesturing to the bag. "Is all seeing mirror dust. It's rare and hard to make. You need to enchant a mirror with truesight, then crush it into powder without breaking that enchantment. The preparation method is complicated."

Bethy clapped happily. "It's so pretty. I want some, can you get it for me? I could use to make murals in the air!"

"No. It's expensive." Said Anna in exasperation. "But it did its job. You can see the gaps between the wards. Can you do your part?" She gestured to a series of complicated and twisty avenues where we could see space between the overlapping defenses. Some of them were big enough to squeeze through, some of them were the size of a pin. Luckily, that was what we'd brought Bethy and Abel for.
Bethy turned to my mentor. "You ready for this Alice?" She said lightly. "It's going to be tough." He didn't even bother to respond verbally, just nodding, and she closed her eyes, stepping up next to him and expanding her Domain until we were all inside. "You're up." She said tightly. "I won't be able to allow your ability to affect this for long, so hurry up."

Grinning, Abel raised his hands, spreading them slowly and then pushing them in. Around us a large area of lubricated space manifested, and as he brought his hands together, it compacted, shrinking until his palms were cupped around an orb shaped space and the spatial distortion was perfectly overlaid on the Domain.

Instead of stopping, he continued to compact it, pressing and slowly shrinking US, using the separated nature of the domain and his own spatial powers to slowly warp the area we were standing in. Then he started to push forward. The sphere changed shape, becoming a snake and I could feel a stretch and pull as he slowly slithered us forward.

Shrinking, twisting, turning, I felt like I was in kaleidoscope and a blender all at once, we warped and shifted, the Domain being reshaped and slipping between the wards in a way that neither Bethy nor Abel couldn't have managed alone. Finally, we touched down in an open space Anna had pointed out, and Abel dropped, wheezing, Mel catching him as Bethy let the Domain fade with a quiet grunt of effort.

"We're in." Said Bethy solemnly. We all just stared at her and she pouted. "What? I've always wanted to say that. I think I earned it."

I chuckled. "Agreed. So everyone has their own mission. No need to go over them again, split up and get it done." I looked at Callie. "Be careful with those straw dolls. Use the shadows to activate them at a distance, because that D-ranker will be on you within a second once that aura pops."

"I thought we weren't restating people's jobs." She said with a smirk. "I love you too honey. Be safe down there." She pecked me on the cheek through my mask and then stepped into the shadows, vanishing. Anna went after, with Bethy giving a toothy smile and erupting into a cloud of surprisingly stealthy winged cats.

Abel hunkered down to wait, sheltering under a nearby tree. Mel gave me a nod. "Wish I was coming with you on this." She said. "It's right up my alley. But he's wiped out, and he needs me."

"I knew this was a solo op for me." I said with a smile. "Don't sweat it. I'll make sure everything goes as planned." Waving, I turned and tapped into Callie's Stealth, her Perception letting me make me way unseen. Past the wards no one would be looking for sneaking, so unless someone tripped over me I should be fine. Fortified positions were the worst for anti-stealth, according to Anna, because they got used to relying on preventative measures like wards and didn't do regular sweeps.

Despite that, I still had to be careful. A long, slow walk into the manor, Eye of Revelation letting me slip by the sparse wards inside. They may not take security seriously enough, but it wasn't nonexistent. We'd gotten our hands on the blueprints, and I knew exactly which way to go, so with a bit of careful stepping (sometimes on the ceiling with State of Grace) I eventually made it to a door that led to the basement.

Unlike us, Spencer didn't have access to wishes to magically build a whole town in a month. He might have been able to pay to have it rushed, but it would take away from his funds for hiring soldiers. Instead, he'd reoutfitted this building, and we'd been able to get nearly up to date blueprints and then tweak them with wishes so we knew all the details.

Slipping through the door, I made my way down into the dark, easily able to see with my Eye of Revelation. The basement was actually pretty nice, but I knew where to go, so I avoided the finished parts, heading to the back to a crawlspace that took me to a room under the finished floor.

The whole place was full of running water, acting as a sort of sewer culvert, with multiple pools of water draining in and then back out. I couldn't smell anything, but that might just be my mask. Walking out onto the dirt floor between the six stone troughs where the water poured in, I looked around, noting multiple pillars in different positions.

Counting them, I came to one in particular. Putting a hand on it I closed my eyes and activated Pit of Despair. I had to shape it, altering the dust so only specific parts of the pillar came out. We knew exactly where Spencer would be, but I had to carefully execute this part of the plan in order to roust him to the area where Bethy was setting the traps we'd prepared.

Forty five degrees, two feet up at an angle. Apply a bit of poison fire. I moved on to the next pillar on the list. Same thing. Slight modification that wouldn't bring it down, but would weaken it. The contractor we'd hired to do the math on this had been given a wish and paid with his memory, but none of us understood construction enough to do it ourselves.

After weakening the six pillars indicated, I walked over to the steps, climbed up and then hung down from the crawlspace to get line of sight on the area in the middle of the dirt. Taking a long, slow breath, I focused and then created a pit of despair in a very precise spot I'd measured out with paces.

The ground warped, and I lifted the dust out with my Dust Construction, pulling it to me where I used it to create a new makeshift pillar near my hatch as I'd asked the contractor to plan out. I didn't want to end up screwed along with the people that were about to be caught in this.

There was a shift in the ground, dirt moving and buckling, and then there was a loud crack, then another, then four more as the weakened supports gave out in exactly the right order, and a full fucking QUARTER of the house collapsed into a giant sinkhole. Not even waiting, I booked it, taking the entrance out of the basement opposite the collapsed section as I headed for the dining room where Bethy was waiting.

I felt a shift and Callie appeared next to me, grinning. We didn't speak aloud, but I checked in on her mentally and she flooded the bond with excitement and triumph. She'd planted the dolls to draw off the D-ranker, as well as compromising the wards in a few key locations that would confuse any leftover defenders trying to react.

We hit the dining room at a dead sprint, finding Bethy waiting for us with Luggage out to defend her. She still looked exhausted, clearly having used up a lot of energy arming everything. On the far end of the room I could see a busted wall where a section of flooring had slid at an angle bursting through and setting up an entrance directly into the room.

The whole place was covered in dust, and I waited cautiously as Spencer and a squad of E-rankers made their way carefully toward us. They couldn't see the traps, but clearly one of them had some kind of danger sense of their own, because they stopped on the edge of the floor section ramp without touching the tiles of the room.

Spencer grinned, clapping slowly. "Very nice." He said sincerely. "I expected you to hole up on the defense, but you brought the fight to me. I can only assume that little collapse was supposed to injure me?" He spread his arms, showing off a glowing golden vest. "Because it might have, if not for my defenses."

We'd known about that, but the traps to deactivate his defensive artifacts were in the room itself, so we'd need to bait him out.

"What can I say?" I told him with a shrug. "Crushing usually works on insects."

His smile tightened, before he waved my comment away. "Oh well, these are your last words. Go on then. Feel free to say what you like. Maybe you have some speech locked and loaded about how I'm a monster, I'm sure Camden has told you plenty."

"He has." I agreed. "But I don't really need him to tell me what I already know. In fact, I just realized I don't need to have this conversation at all." He gave me a politely quizzical look, and I grinned back before looking down and triggering Pit of Despair. As he dropped onto the floor of the dining room, I flexed Dust Construction, creating a dozen spikes that I sent slamming into his guards at random just to sew confusion.

When his feet landed, there was an explosion of magical force as the golden light of the vest faded, and Spencer's eyes went wide as he stared down the formerly active defense…and that was when all hell broke loose.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We waited for a second after he hit the ground, hoping to see him just spontaneously die, but when that failed I cursed under my breath and shifted gears. "That's plan B then" I sent to Callie mentally.

I'd really hoped we wouldn't have to use plan B. This particular part of the plan was hands down the most uncontrollable. We'd machined things down to the smallest detail we could, but when we were doing the planning we ran into a snag.

After Callie set the straw dolls in place as bait. We'd only have a minute or two of lead time tops on their D-ranker. We were hoping they'd be so distracted by the collapse and what felt like a dozen D-ranked attackers popping up that they wouldn't think to check on Spencer.

In that scenario Anna would backstab him out of nowhere. However, if things fell through the second plan was to overlap herself with one of the dolls and use it as a distraction to attack and possibly kill the D-ranked guard.

Since she wasn't here, that meant plan B version two, which meant she'd missing the instant kill on the backstab but had caught their attention and was drawing it off so we could finish things.

This was fine. We had Bethy, who was a monster, and Callie and I worked well together. Plus I'd impaled six of the guards with my spikes which should at least slow them down.

To make best use of our element of surprise, once I realized we wouldn't be taking him out quickly, I triggered Moonlit Night, flooding the room with fog.Within seconds, everything disappeared. Callie was connected to me through the bond so it was easy to allow her to see through the fog, and Bethy was close by so including her was simple enough, barely any strain on my soul.

Without a sound, Bethy dispersed into her cat swarm, streaking out to land on all six of the impaled guards. Each of them was covered in several cats, and within second I heard them start to scream as they collapsed to the floor, twitching as their stats were consumed. It was easy enough to tweak the fog to allow the screams to carry, travelling to the others through the cloak of mist.

Valk had mentioned how terrible it was, and he'd been kind of twitchy about the experience, but given Bethy's demeanor I kind of assumed it wouldn't be that bad. I'd been wrong.

Stats were a part of us, fragments of the whole that made us up, and hearing them torn away…the screaming was terrifying, primal and heart wrenching as she ripped out pieces of who and what they were. No wonder she refused to do this to Gabe, it was terrifying.

Even Spencer, who had gotten his groove back quickly after losing his defenses, seemed genuinely disturbed by the sound of his people being fed on. I understood better now why Morgan Lark was considered so terrifying. Sure, he was scary and tough, but so were plenty of others. This though. This was what people were REALLY afraid of. No wonder Bethy hated doing this.
I felt bad asking her to feed like this when she'd just gotten better control. I hadn't know how traumatic it was going to be, but I didn't have to for a pity party. I had to take advantage of this gap.

Triggering Mephistopheles and Belial, I lunged forward, my staff lashing out in a straight thrust, the cap on the end aimed right at where Spencer was standing.

Only to slam into one of the remaining six guards as he dove in front of the blow. The explosion of black flame ripped a hole in him, and I watched him collapse to the ground screaming as the corrosion spread. The multiple amplifications of the two forms stacked on top of each other, increasing their effectiveness.

It wasn't enough to kill him, he was a strong E-ranker, and despite being completely unprepared to intercept the attack (some more of Spencer's oathbinding I assumed) he was able to drag himself off to the side.

Meanwhile, the second he bought them allowed the other five guards to form up around their boss, and I grimaced as I realized that I wouldn't be able to sucker punch him to end this.

I started to circle, muffling my steps with stealth, looking for an opening. The screaming was still going on, and I wondered exactly how much she was taking from them. How much COULD she take? There had to be limits.

Examining the situation I considered my options. Dust Construction was out, unfortunately. The floor in here wasn't thick enough for it to be a valid sea of dust for me to move in. I'd just end up dropping us into the basement, which I didn't want to do because it would entirely nullify the traps we'd set up.

With that off the table, I needed to lean into something else. Some other area where I had an advantage. Which meant Impact. I had several more points than the rest of these E-rankers, making me a bit more durable, and I had a method of taking advantage of that.

Blurring forward, I planted my feet in Spencers eyeline, then sent a message to Callie as I dropped the fog in front of him and his people, calling on Mornax. My body turned to stone as I took up a defensive stance, waiting for them to notice me. While I could move slightly step by step, it wasn't fast, and trying to do it in combat wouldn't work on this many people.

If I tried to engage I wouldn't be able to hold their attention, but luckily, I didn't need to. I was the only visible enemy in an impenetrable fog bank full of the screams of their colleagues and I was standing five feet away holding a weapon. Not a single one of them even considered holding back, and every single member of Spencer's entourage attacked instantly and without mercy.

The screaming and fog were scary, but seeing me stand there and tank every one of their blows without flinching (between my armor and all the boosts to defense they couldn't even scratch me with off the cuff attacks, and they were all too panicked to stop and try something with buildup) really put them back on their heels. That was good because it hurt like a bitch despite not damaging me.

My hands flew, my staff intercepting and deflecting attacks where it could. I made sure to make plenty of contact with both the fighters and their attacks, draining life energy into my staff. Finally, after a minute or two, I hauled it back like a spear and hurled it at Spencer's head. I condensed every bit of black flame into it that I could manage, having dropped Belial but still using Mephistopheles alongside Mornax.

He saw it coming and sidestepped it easily, letting it sail by without worry before turning to grin at me. "Is that it?" He asked snidely. "All that-" His words cut off as my staff, wielded by Callie, smashed into the arm that he'd barely gotten up in time. An explosion of death energy and black flame consumed the limb, and as the others spun to protect him, I activated Pit of Despair at last.

The E-rankers dropped through the floor, finally in position away from him because of their assault on me, and I blurred forward at the panicking psychopath.

Callie had emerged from the shadows behind him, caught my staff, and then turned it on him, and she was able to pass it back just as easily. Dropping Mornax, I slipped back into Belial alongside my still active Mephistopheles before triggering an old favorite, Flurry of Blows, along with Afterburner.

My staff struck out like dark wooden lightning through the clouds of fog that had rolled back in with my assault.

I had to hand it to spencer, even stripped of his defensive artifacts and guards, he was no slouch. He practiced some kind of weird trusting martial art that left behind after images, and only every few blows landed. He had a wicked looking dark knife he'd pulled that seemed genuinely threatening and he was waving it around to make space.

Each hit slowed him down though, and I could see the erosion from the black flame and corrosive energy tearing away at him.

Despite all that, I could feel the guards heading back. Dropping my two forms, I switched back to Mornax and hurled myself directly at him, tackling him to the ground. Callie screamed in concern as the knife vanished into my chest, my hands planted on the ground to maintain my stone form, pinning him to the ground.

Howling with rage, she streaked down on the struggling Tolbert, slamming a blade of shadow through his eye socket and into his brain, and I felt her pull on Mephistopheles briefly as an explosion of black flame consumed his brain, exploding out through his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

"Shane!' She screamed as she flipped me over, terrified and searching my chest for damage. Of which there was…none. I grinned at her through my mask. "You seem upset, everything ok?"

The dagger, which was on the floor, roiled with awful looking energy. Neither of us wanted to touch it, but she gestured down at it emphatically. "I…I saw him stab you. He drove that thing right into your chest. Your armor didn't even slow it down."

I stood up, gesturing down to an empty hole in my torso. "True." I said happily. "In point of fact, nothing slowed it down. Because it didn't hit anything but air." Waving my hand, I resealed the hole, allowing it to resume the form of stone. "Pit of Despair plus Dust Construction." I said with a grin. "Because my body was made of stone."

Putting my arms around her, I pulled her close…and paused when a series of attacks slammed into my back. Rolling my eyes, I turned slowly to look at the guards, who had just gotten back.

"I'm sorry." I said in annoyance. "Who exactly are you working for?" I pointed at Spencer. "Because that guy is dead, so your whole army will be falling apart momentarily. If I were you I'd bail before Camden and Celine's people start hunting down stragglers. Maybe spread the word if you have any friends among the armies."

They stared at me in fear, then turned and booked it out of the room, the fog having faded and none of them bothering to try to help the feebly weeping men Bethy had torn into. They all looked…bad. Thin to the point of emaciation.

Bethy herself was huddled in the corner, blood all over her face, pressing her manacles over her eyes. I nodded to Callie when she shot me a questioning look, and she went over to help our friend, having to sooth Luggage who was standing guard.

"She looks like shit." I heard from behind me, and turned to see Anna limping into the room, a long gash over one eye and a split lip. She was holding her ribs like they were broken, and I snorted a bit at the comment.

"You're one to talk." I laughed. "Glad to see you're ok though. I think we're going to be tied up here for a bit, do me a favor and let Camden know what happened. He might be able to defuse the situation a bit, and I don't trust those guards further than I could throw this house."

She nodded, reaching into her pocket, and withdrew a piece of paper. Pressing it to the wall she scrawled a note, then put it in an envelope and and stamped it with a black wax seal. The message was consumed in fire and she turned to nod to me before slumping down against the wall.

Looking around, I took in the damaged Dining Room and sighed. This place was going to be a pain to repair and disarm. I was just glad it wasn't my job. No…my job was done. And I couldn't be more relieved.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Alright." I said after a minute or two letting everyone recover. "I think we should get moving. Things should be over, but that doesn't mean we won't run into looters or something, I bet people will start picking this place clean soon."

Callie nodded. "Good point. So what's our next move?"

"Looting." I responded bluntly. "We're going to pick this place clean." Despite being mildly traumatized, Bethy let out a wet giggle, wiping her face as she looked up. I could see a lambent red glow in her irises, but it was incredibly faint.

I offered her a hand. "You ok?" I asked cautiously. "Because I didn't realize that was going to be so bad."

She shook her head. "Feeding from multiple people at once like that was…rough. I take more than just stats when I drink. So many different inputs, so much pain from so many people at once…I've never done that before. And I don't want to do it again."

Callie reached down and pulled her into a quick hug, offering a soft smile. "We know. We'll do our best to make sure we never need your help for something like that again. Right Shane?"

"Definitely." I said with a nod. "If I'd know it would be so hard for you I wouldn't have asked." Not to mention how terrifying it was going to be. I was still shuddering on the inside from the screams, but I wasn't going to say that, because I wasn't an insensitive idiot. Bethy was already feeling bad enough.

Deciding that changing the subject would be better, I turned to Anna. "So what happened with the D-ranker anyway? I take it from the timing he noticed what was going on, but even then you had a lot of advantages. Why not just take him out and show up late?" I'd been kind of hoping for a backstab on Anna's part to put down the other D-ranker fast.

She grimaced. "He was a Centurion with an Iron Body ability. Tanky as hell and the worst possible opponent for me. I tried to stick a knife in him from behind and missed. Luckily I had access to a pretty nasty poison."

"Wait." I blinked. "You mean…the wolfhornigator venom? I know I gave you my vials, but it shouldn't have an effect on a D-ranker."

She grinned. "It wouldn't have. At least not until I distilled it and sifted out that nasty corrosive energy inside it. Took me a few vials of the stuff just to make a couple drops, but I infused them into a nast dagger I had that soaks up poisons and it made a world of difference. The dagger itself actually amplifies poison efficacy."

"And that killed him?" I said incredulously. Those wolfhornigators had been nasty, but not THAT nasty. Unless Belial had helped more than I'd though when I was dealing with the venom."
Anna just grinned. "Not quickly. But enough ant bites will kill an elephant. I spent about fifteen minutes cutting into him. The first dozen didn't do much, but the more little nicks I made the more poison got in."

"What happened with the straw dolls?" I asked worriedly. "I mean, we set them up in very specific places. Not only would he have had to run all over to find them, Callie sabotaged a bunch of the defenses in certain spots before she placed them so there would be buildup of wounded soldiers to distract him."

Nodding sagely, Anna said. "Ah, but we made one key mistake." At my cocked head she clarified. "He was an asshole, he didn't care about any of the rest of those soldiers."

"Damn." I said with a sigh. "Oh well, that's what plan B's are for. Now, lets get going. I remember seeing a storeroom on the blueprints that I don't think anyone will have gotten to yet. Not sure whats in it, but I bet its pricey."

Callie's head jerked up, eyes glinting as she heard me mention loot. I swear that girl loved loot almost as much as me. I just grinned, turning and heading off as she scrambled after me. We had a good idea where we were going, heading being easy to figure out between knowing where the room was and the careful collapse of a big section of the manor. Landmarks made navigating easier for everyone.

We came down the hall, then eventually stopped at a door. I gestured for them to follow me and we went back down into the basement, and headed down a side corridor. The collapse had cut off a big chunk of the place, but not all of it. We were able to move around pretty easily with my mental map.

Finally we came to an out of the way room in the basement, when we arrived, I gestured for them to shut the door and stand back. At first glance this was just a closet, but once they had moved out of the way I turned my gaze up, staring at the floor.

I triggered Pit of Despair and then Dust Construction, catching the disintegrating floor sections and smoothing and shaping them before returning them to stone.

Once I finished, I turned to Callie with a grin, bowing deeply as I gestured to the now neat and stable staircase leading up into the second floor where the store room was.

Grinning like a loon, Callie practically skipped up the steps, much to the amusement of our other two companions. When I reached the second floor though, I whistled in awe. Callie had stopped and was staring at the room in awe, and I couldn't blame her.

Materials lined the room. Stacks of expensive looking metals, wood piles, gems, and various other construction odds and ends, all of which would make the creation of more buildings in the village all but free. And it wasn't wish based so we could just donate it, or better yet Callie could wish for plans for herself and have them design us a nice guild hall or something.

This whole experience had shown me that my power might not be QUITE as strict with the whole 'not benefiting' thing as I'd thought, but it was a better safe than sorry kind of thing. I had no clue where the line was with that, and I'd rather be cautious than have a bunch of wishes get nixed because of unfair compensation.

"Alright." I said loudly. "Start getting this stuff in your rings, and I'll close up the floor behind us when we leave. No dragging your feet either. Someone is going to be here soon, and it would be better for us if there was no sign of us. Word gets out we stole a bunch of stuff and we'll need to fight our way back to our own territory."

They all nodded, and started stockpiling the materials, stuffing them away into their spatial storage. We all had plenty of room, so it didn't take too long. We finished up and hurried back down the steps, and I used Pit of Despair again before taking control and closing up the floor.

Making sure it was in good shape, I grinned at the others. "Alright, we're good people, let's move. Abel and Mel should be safe from sucker punches behind the wards, since no one but us is likely to take that route, but they could still get pinned down from this side."

We took off, taking the same hallways I'd taken to get here, with Callie and Anna covering us stealth wise. Bethy seemed…shaky, and pale, even for her. I was a bit worried, and wanted to get her to Jessie to look over and perhaps fuss over a bit. Our healer always knew how to make anyone feel better.

When we arrived at the spot we'd left the others, they were still there, standing around. Abel looked annoyed. "This was boring." He said in irritation. "We just stood here and nothing happened. This whole thing was too easy."

"No.'' I said with an eyeroll. "It was carefully planned. We made sure to account for…" I trailed off suspiciously, looking around. "MOST things that could go wrong." No use tempting fate. "And this was our reward." That didn't feel like enough to offset the jinx, so I knocked on the tree they'd been standing under.

He shrugged. "Whatever. This next part is tough enough to be amusing, and maybe we'll trip over some defectors on the way out." he turned to Bethy. "You ready for this?"

"Sure thing." She smiled wanly. "I've got your back. Just let me get the domain in place."

We all frowned worriedly. Bethy hadn't come up with a stupid fake name for Abel. That wasn't like her. She loved teasing my mentor. And he always made sure to pretend to get all out of sorts about it because he knew it made her smile.

Great, I'd potentially traumatized my friend. My sister was going to kill me, as I wasn't worried enough. She got her Domain up and then I nodded to Abel, who seemed to hesitate before finally recreating the process of overlapping his spatial alteration with the Domain and then slowly snaking us between the wards.

When we got out, I let myself relax a bit. We headed back toward our territory, but apart from stealth we didn't really do much to hide. We were finished.

I put my arm around Callie. "Ok, that was rough, but we got through it fine. We planned everything out perfectly. And there was no blowba-" I was cut off by an explosion of flames in the shape of a giant sword construct appearing above us and smashing down towards my head, ready to bisect me.

It was so fast I couldn't even think, let alone move. Luckily I didn't have to. A massive square shield I recognized from back on Callus appeared around us, and while the blade punched through it, the momentum slowed, grinding the sword to a halt only a foot or two from my upturned face. My eyes were wide as I looked around, trying to find the source, finally locating a man standing in the air above us, looking down at me coldly.

"You killed my son." The man said flatly. "MY son." He said it strangely. Not like he was sad, but like I had crossed some sort of line. "Show yourself, guardian. Lest you think I fear your skulduggery."

Zeke appeared across from him, dressed in a set of long robes with a porcelain mask on his face. Despite the outfit I knew it was him. I'd recognize him anywhere. "Do you know what you're doing? Whose kid that is? Because I don't think you do. What kind of Duke takes a swing at an E-ranker?"

I felt my blood grow cold. Duke. I could feel his power, feel it eclipsed mine by a huge margin, but I hadn't realized it was by THAT much. Dukes were A-rankers. I'd seen Zeke kill an A-ranker before, but those had been punk ass pirates, not real A-rankers from one of the five core factions. This guy was a fucking problem.

In fact, judging by how strong A-rankers were and their sheer stat value, combined with how long it took him to get here, he might have come from another PLANET when he found out his son had been killed.

"He killed my son." Said the Duke. "He dies. If his parents have a problem they can take it up with me. Remove yourself from my path guardian, and you might survive."

Zeke stared at him for a few seconds, then slowly reached up and cracked his neck, first one way, then the other. "Bite my ass." He said bluntly. "You want to touch my nephew, you go through me. Your kid was a psycho anyway."

The duke's grim face finally stretched into an ugly smile. "I was hoping you would say that." Reaching down to his hip, he drew a small rapier, a sharp, fancy looking black with a gilded hilt set with gems. Taking up a fencing stance, he nodded at my uncle. "I'll give you attack priority. Make your move." Standing below a burning simulacrum of that very sword, I stared in fear at my uncle hovering above us. I wasn't sure we could get out of this. It all depended on Zeke. I just hoped he would be ok.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"This is bad." I said bluntly to Callie and the others. "Like, worse than most things. On a scale of one to ten this is like a fifteen." I knew that because I could see Zeke standing up there. I could hear him talk. And he didn't sound confident or laid back. He sounded ANGRY.

That wasn't good. If Zeke was angry he was affected, which meant he was worried, and if Zeke was worried, it was because he might lose.

Which didn't seem…possible. Zeke was Zeke. He was an irresponsible drunk who never took anything seriously, but he was also a supreme badass who never lost a fight. Forgetting that if he lost we would all probably die, HE would die. I didn't want to lost my uncle. I almost tried to tell him to run, to leave me and go get Chelsea out of here, or to take Callie and the others and let the Duke have me.

But…I didn't. Because it wouldn't do any good. We'd all been party to his son's death and he'd come for all of us. Maybe not Bethy, because there had to be a limit to the amount of revenge crazy someone could be, but running would just leave an opening for him to use.

"Stay in the shield." I told the others seriously. "He's an A-ranker with probably some mobility Skill. There's nowhere we can reach that is safer than here."

I tried to think of some way to help. Maybe some wishes or something…but this guy was so far out of my league we weren't even playing the same game, and even stacking the strongest wishes any of us could make was unlikely to slow him down for even an instant.

All I could do was watch, helplessly, and hope that Zeke could pull off another miracle. I'd seen him fight up before, and he could do it again.

Staring hard for a moment, the Duke sat stoically before nodding. "I am Duke Crassus Tolbert, third son of Pericles Tolbert. Your charge is guilty of slaying my only son."

I glared up at him, so angry that I didn't even bother to keep quiet in the face of overwhelming power. "He was your kid? You know he killed your daughter right? Do you even care?"

"Be silent, boy!" Hissed the Duke. "You know not of what you speak. Of course I knew. My son was not as devious as he thought himself. What he did…it went beyond the everyday cruelties of our house. It was a monstrous act."

I threw my hands up. "Then why are you trying to kill me? I did you a favor, did you really want that lunatic getting named heir?"

"I knew." He said simply. "But my wife did not. Would not believe it. Losing our daughter so young nearly broke her. Losing a son would have finished the job. His japery was enough for her to hold onto, and so I allowed it."

I gestured around us. "And all this?" I demanded. "The stone lions, the murder attempts on Camden?"

"Don't mistake me boy." He said coldly. "My disdain for my son was founded in his senseless cruelty. Killing a child, your own sister, it's an abomination. Because a child is no threat. No competition. Killing my nephew is a justified course of action."

I was incensed, and about to respond, when a web of dark chains erupted from the ground, wrapping the Duke tightly in black metal. He frowned and started to strain at them, but looking close I could see something terrible about the chains. Something hungry. Just like the fight with the elf archer, my uncle was stacking the effects of two masks together.

The conceptual erosion, the decomposing and rotting, it didn't effect the chains, but strongly impacted the Duke. His eyes widened, hissing in outrage, and his eyes flashed as his blade danced out, taking apart the chains like a hot knife cleaving butter.

Beneath the metal, I saw his clothing burned and tattered, and quickly fading burns on his skin from the energy.

"Was that a-" his mockery was cut off as an arrow the size of a bus, flickering with the white flames of purification, slammed into him from above. There was still dark energy gathered in the air from the chains, and like before, the two colliding energies detonated, exploding in a massive cloud of unchecked destruction.

Zeke, who I'd though had been standing across from the Duke, stood a few dozen feet above us, drawing back a familiar bow, specifically the one the elf archer had used during our trip to the ruined soul temple.

The version of Zeke we'd been talking to just hung there at the edge of the cloud silently, and I grinned as I realized Zeke had put my distraction to good use.

I grinned up at the cloud, ready to see a corpse or a seriously injured Duke, but my smile dropped off my face as I took in the scene before me.

The Duke stood impassively, hand at his side gripping his sword. His other arm was raised, and while it was definitely burned and bloody, it seemed to be the only part of him that had taken any damage.

"Fucking Duellists." Spat Zeke in annoyance. "Don't think twice about giving up your off hand. I thought I'd at least remove the damned thing."

The Duke examined his arm. "This will be expensive to repair." He said, in a voice like someone discussing the weather. "I suspect you've got enough treasures on your person to compensate me, however. You can take pride in dealing such an injury to me."

Zeke chuckled. "Oh I'm not done yet. Did you think that was all I had?"

The Duke gestured to Zeke's face, "I think you've overdrafted at least one of your masks. I can see the cracks from here. Had I to guess it was those chains. I suspect they weren't built to support the all consuming hatred of a goddess."

This wasn't going well. That had been one of Zeke's biggest punches, and somehow I didn't think his mask on face trick would work this time. I was pretty sure that arrow had actually been THREE masks, one of them A-rank and it had barely done any damage at all.

Drawing his sword, the Duke performed a fencer's salute to my uncle. "You've proved yourself a worthy foe. But I'm afraid this is over."

There was a sudden absence of a form, too fast to even be considered a flicker of motion, and an explosion of force that shattered both the flaming sword construct and the shield it was stuck in.

I shot a panicked glance from the fragmenting light up to my uncle, and sighed in relief as I saw him still standing. Hanging in the air, my uncle had a familiar block box playing with red lightning in front of him. Chains of enshrining darkness wrapped the box like a magic trick, and plunging right through the middle of it was the Duke's sword.

Whatever the thing was made of, it had punched clean through, but stopped inches from Zeke's chest, though it looked like he was having trouble holding it in place.

I'd seen him use that box to ricochet attacks from high level bishops, and that was without the chains. The Duke looked impressed. "I've rarely seen such a powerful application of B-ranked Skill." He praised. "It's a shame to have to kill you. I'm imp-" He didn't get to finish with his comment as another arrow speared down from above, and the Zeke holding the box vanished, leaving it floating in midair.

Then the box came apart, and I looked up to see it appear in the hands of another Zeke. Calmly, almost in slow motion, Zeke drew four masks from the air, and slapped one of them on top of each face of the box. "You were wrong earlier." He said to the Duke. "THIS is what it looks like when I overload a mask."

He hurled the box, and it spun towards the Duke, whose eyes widened in fear as he blurred toward it. I assume he wanted to hit it before it detonated on its own, and his sword, now glowing with golden flames, slammed tip first into the rotating box of darkness.

When it pierced the closest mask, there was a wailing screech as black energy started to seep from the object, then from the other side as white flame flickered free of the spot on the other side where it had pierced through. On either side, the other two masks flashed and the box expanded, chains wrapping tightly around the exterior, trapping the Duke inside.

There was a cacophonous boom and the ground lurched, and I saw cracks begging to spread of the box and chains as they disintegrated releasing plumes of ash and smoke out into the air.

Zeke stood above us, panting. "Ow." He spat. "I hate backlashing my masks like that. Pain aside, do you know how long it takes to replace those?" When there was no answer, he snarled, about to say something else before a colossal flame rapier bisected him.

Or tried to. The blade split another illusion. The smoke cleared, and I saw The Duke glaring up at Zeke, fury etched on his face. He was holding the sword in the wounded arm Zeke had speared last time, and most of his body was raw like he'd had a terrible sunburn times a hundred.

Of his other arm, the one he'd been wielding the sword with before, there was no sign, just a burned stump, and his breathing was heavy and irregular. "Wily." He snarled, eyes glancing around, trying to find Zeke. "Destroying the masks to increase their output. A resourceful trick, but one only used once. Now you've lost a full third of your strength. I may be diminished, but you are much moreso. I can kill you without an arm."

"Maybe." Called Zeke's voice. We all whirled to see him standing on a tree branch, holding a black book with a pair of silver masks on the cover. In his hand was a pitch black quill that shone with a glassy texture. Obsidian. "Or maybe you're about to to help me make a jump I've been meaning to make for a long time."

The Duke's face went pale. "Did you just…" He trailed off. "Are you insane? You know the consequences of using an uncertain event as the final page of your Chronicle." Zeke snapped the book shut, and the air around us changed.

I considered opening my Eye of Revelation, but quickly decided it wouldn't be wise. The black book started to shimmer and shine, as did the quill. Not with light, but with a metallic luster, an almost liquid effect as the two objects ceased to be Obsidian and began to shimmer into the consistency of Mercury.

That was what gave it away. The book wasn't quite a singular object, it gave me a powerful feeling of Zeke's own Skills and legend. His Path. The book was his Path, somehow made manifest, and the Mercury Quill was his SOUL somehow able to manifest itself into the real world.

The change I was seeing was his soul elevating itself from Obsidian to Mercury. Which is to say, A-rank. Whatever Zeke had just done had ranked him up, and I watched the book change and evolve as the Impact poured into him through it, pushing him and reshaping him into something…more.
I'd seen rank ups before, even one to D-rank, but watching someone become an A-ranker was different. I'd never experienced anything like it. It was like watching a star being born. Zeek barely changed physically, but somehow there was so much more of him than there had ever been.

Reaching into his robe, he pulled out a blank mask, then snapped his fingers, and a blood burned arm appeared in his hand. He squeezed and it shattered into a fine powder, which he blew towards the mask in his hand.

The mask glowed golden, then faded back to blank white, and he studied it critically. "Won't last for more than an hour without stabilizing, but that should do." His eyes turned up to the Duke as he removed his current mask, revealing a wolfish grin. "Now." He said, raising the new mask to his face.

There was a ripple and Zeke's form shifted, leaving behind an exact replica of the Duke himself, only without any of the injuries. "What was that you said about only needing one arm?" The Duke asked himself in my uncle's voice.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"What have you done?" Snapped the Duke, eyes frantic. "You've doomed yourself! To enter an event into your Chronicle before it has come to pass. You know what will happen if you fail!" Despite his words, he sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.

Sure enough, Zeke, or rather, the version of the Duke that was Zeke, looked amused. "Oh I'm so happy to hear you're worried about me. Most people would be more concerned about the identical copy of them that had to kill them to make sure his soul didn't shatter like cheap sugar glass."

The Duke flinched. "Fool!" He sneered. "So you've taken my shape. Maybe you have my stats, or over my Skills, but you don't have my equipment. What good is a duellist without a sword." He brandished his rapier with a slight wince, obviously trying to look threatening.

It explained some things. I'd been wondering why he didn't run, but he was in tatters, and if Zeke had all his abilities there was no way he could escape as wounded as he was.

He had a point about the sword though, or I thought so until the Zeke-Duke grinned. "Oh you're right. I definitely should have a weapon to take best advantage of your Skills. And I don't have a rapier." He snapped his fingers, and suddenly a MASSIVE claymore appeared in his hand, which he hefted cheerfully over his shoulder.

"Why do you have that?" The Duke spat. "And do you think you can really defeat a master duellist with that oversized hunk of iron." Despite the derision in his tone I saw his eyes locked on the huge blade.

"Maybe not." Zeke said. "Than again-" He blinked out of existence and suddenly he was smashing the blade down on the mutilated form of the original Duke. There was a crash and the damaged A-ranker was sent hurtling into the ground with a crash. "You only have one arm to block with. And it's wounded."

The Duke climbed out of the crater he'd left in the ground, glaring up at my uncle. "Imposter!" He spat. "You'll never surpass the real thing!"

"Probably not." Zeke admitted cheerfully. "But do I need to? This is math, my friend. Seventy percent as good with your abilities is still twenty percent better than a version of you operating at half capacity."

Gritting his teeth, the Duke flickered forward, rapier flashing. I stared in awe as he engaged Zeke, his single arm blurring, sword licking out like a storm of steel, so fast my eyes could barely track it. I was getting a headache just trying to follow it. Zeke wasn't, and his blade intercepted the other man's before it made contact, holding the big claymore in front of him and using small economical movements to knock aside dangerous attacks.

"How are you doing this?" Hissed the Duke. "I refuse to believe you are my equal with the blade!"

Zeke just shook his head. "I'm not." He said with a sigh. "But right now, neither are you. You're slowed from injury and blood loss, and while I don't have the kind of training you do, I DO have your Sword Skill.Lucky I had this A-ranked sword I picked up traveling, or this might have gotten awkward."

"I refuse to lose to a cheap copy!" The noble howled. "I will not be killed by a pretender wearing my face! You'll have t-" There was a flash of light, and he stopped talking, he coughed, blood leaking from between his lips, and looked down. A golden arrow was sticking through his chest. "What? That's not…"

He plummeted from the air, slamming into the ground with a bang and leaving another crater, this one smaller. Zeke put the sword away and followed him down. Peeling away the mask, he laid it on the Duke's face.

The Duke's body cracked and dissolved, turning to golden dust that flowed into the mask. Setting it on the ground, Zeke started taking out vials and bottles, then a set of brushes and chisels. He laid it all on the ground and began working on the mask, carving and painting and filling in details.

None of us moved, frozen in place, transfixed by the sight of a soul of Mercury captured and stuffed into the mask. He worked on it for about fifteen minutes before he finally stopped, sighing as he gingerly picked it up and set it in a box that he then closed and stashed away.

"That should do it." He muttered. "Cut it kind of close there." He glanced up at the hooded figure with the bow. "You come back too. All of you. I have four replacements to make and several upgrades planned." He snapped and the figured collapsed, the robe wrapping the mask and the whole thing flying back to his hand. Six more masks returned and he stashed them all away.

He turned to us. "You can move now." He said wryly. "Thanks for not trying to run off. You'd probably have died."

"We assumed." I said as we approached, staring at the spot where the Duke had been. "Is killing him going to cause a problem? Because I feel like it's not ok to just show up in Empire territory and off an A-ranker from a major force."

He waved it off. "He attacked you directly. Taking issue with his death would mean taking issue with the candidacy process. It's why guardians exist. Granted I'm stronger than most, which is why I'm so limited, but still, just doing my job."

I'd never considered that. I'd seen Nat's guardian and she wasn't anything special in the grand scheme of things. Zeke was far and away more impressive, plus Nat's guardian was from another Branch. Was the reason for Zeke's absurdly strict geas that it was necessary for dad to leave him with me? It made me rethink a lot of things. Though speak of the geas. "Can you tell me what…" I gestured around us. "That was? Or is that cultivation shit you can't share."

I tried to keep my tone even, but Zeke knew me well enough to know when I was pissed. Callie put a hand on my shoulder. "Shane, honey." She said lightly. "Maybe now isn't the time for that conversation."

"No, he's right." Zeke said, shaking his head. "This falls into the 'so high level I'm allowed to talk about it' category, and you could use some context here. We should get somewhere safe before we talk. How about the Inn?" He glanced at Anna. "The Imperial Fork I mean, it's closest, and you have that safe room Shane installed."

Anna looked…green. Half horrified half in awe as she stared at Zeke. Like she was standing in front of a wild tiger. It took her a second to process everything, but she eventually nodded dully, and we all headed for Saltzburg, which was pretty close by.

I hadn't really noticed how far we'd traveled to get to Spencer's place, but we'd gotten near town, and it wasn't a long walk to Anna's place. When we entered, she waved off her niece and led us to the back and then down into the secret room she'd wished for. Once we were inside she activated a device I recognized as one of the isolators Camden had been using.

"Alright." I said once the field went up. "That should be enough. You're the only A-ranker on the planet, and that's the best security we can get, so why don't you tell me what the hell that was about?"

He blew out a breath. "Alright." He said after a momentary pause. "I assume you're asking about the comment he made about me dying?"

"No shit." I snapped. "What did you do? If your soul shattered we could never bring you back. Not unless you managed to get a Mirror Soul Body, which I know from seeing yours earlier you didn't!"

He smiled at me. "You're learning. Good. To explain what I did, you'll have to understand how I did it, and to understand that, you'll need to understand what B-rank is."

I blinked. I'd been curious about this for ages but he'd kept putting me off. I wondered if seeing him do that had been some kind of condition in the geas. It must have been, or he wouldn't be telling me this. "So you're finally going to tell me how to reach B-rank?"

"Yes, but you can't try to do it." He warned. "There's a reason B-rank is so high up. Trying too soon is dangerous. To reach B-rank, you need to condense your Solid Path inside your soul to create a Chronicle. It's a book that you use to record a hundred of your most important deeds. Your soul is needed to fill in pages, as you saw, which means it has to be formed inside you."
I raised a brow at that. "But yours wasn't?" I asked cautiously. "And why record them at all? What does a Chronicle do?"

"Short answer? It's a method to control recursion." He said with a shrug. "By carefully selecting your deeds you can shape the way outside perception changes you. It allows you to more closely align your stats and the renown that shapes them with your soul in preparation for S-rank."

That sounded amazing, and I was so tempted to try to form one, but he'd just told me how dangerous it was so I just focused on what I'd seen. "You said it's in your soul. So how was yours outside? And what did you do with it that was so dangerous?"

"I've been at the peak of B-rank stat wise for a while." He admitted. "And at ninety nine of one hundred pages Chronicled. But the legends you write in a chronicle have to be true. If they're not the book destabilizes and shatters, and since a Solid Path is part of your soul…"

I nodded. "You die." I said hollowly. "That's what he meant about doing it early. You gambled your advancement to A-rank when you did that. If you hadn't killed him you'd have failed and died." My tone was flat and angry, and I glared at him, willing to hear how pissed I was he'd taken that risk.

"I did." He said unapologetically. "And would again. If I hadn't done that I would have died. You would have died."

I growled in frustration. "Ok, well what about now? Your Chronicle is filled in and you're an A-ranker, so what do you do next? How do you continue to…what was it you said? Align your renown more closely with your soul in preparation for S-rank?"

"That's none of your concern." He stated bluntly. "I've already told you more than you needed toi know. We're done." He stood up, and I was confused. Why even bother to tell me this? Why not just blow me off if he was only going to answer a handful of questions. He headed for the exit, but before he got halfway he stopped.

As if stating an afterthought, he tossed one last comment over his shoulder. "Oh, by the way. Forming a Chronicle isn't something just anyone can do. The more perfected the Skill your Solid Path is based on the better your chances of managing." He stopped talking, teeth snapping shut so loudly I heard it from where I was sitting.

He strode forward stiffly, looking like he was in pain, and I stared after him in shock. The geas, he'd tripped the geas. And judging by this whole conversation he'd done it on purpose, using the farce of answering my questions to slip me extra info.

Sighing, I shot a sad smile after my uncle as Callie put her arm around me. I was so glad he was safe, and he was still doing his best to help me even after all that. The old man might not say it much, but he showed how much he loved me every day. I was damned lucky to have him in my family. Someday I was going to pay him back for all this. I swore it to myself.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We met up with the others back at the valley (I still refused to use the term Bennington, because it was stupid and definitely not because I was jealous I didn't have a town named after me) and I just felt…exhausted. It was strange, really, I'd been fine for the whole month, time with Callie and training and building had distracted me from the enormity of the situation.

Now that it was over though, I felt drained. It was like holding your breath for a long time. At first it was no big deal, but once you let it out you realized how hard it had been to hold it in to begin with.

"How is everyone doing?" I asked as I slumped down at the table under the inn. "I know everything was a bit crazy, but it looks like we all came out of it ok."

I looked around, happy to see all my friends, stronger and better geared than when we arrived. Benny looked as exhausted as I felt. "Fine." He said with a sigh. "We didn't lose anyone else that we knew, thankfully, and obviously no one in the team died. But this has been rough. Now that it's over what's the plan?"

"We've got about a month left." I said with a sigh. "Before the Necromedes gets back and we head for the conclave. I kind of figured we'd the usual. Help Celine build up the village, train, spend time with everyone. One way or another someone is going to stay here."

Nat raised her hand, drawing lots of attention. "I'll do it." She said flatly. "I just…I can't do this anymore Shane. I've been trying, helping out with wishes, but it's just not the same. This was supposed to be a trip with my closest friends. I never really expected to win or even get close, and you outstripping me so badly shows that was the right attitude. But I'm just…tired."

I sighed, nodding. Nat had been withdrawn, quiet, and generally cold since Perit died. Not that I blamed her, I'd be a mess if I lost Benny, but this wasn't exactly out of left field.

Celine spoke up. "I've already talked with Natalie about this. I'm fine with making her my seneschal and giving her the power to operate in my stead. We've agreed to sign a contract where she grants me he wishes going forward for a stipend, payment for a job rather than ownership of the land so there's no conflict. She's going to be remaining here indefinitely."

"As will I." Said Valk, to no one's surprise. "It's been an honor to travel with all of you. To learn and grow and fight with each of you." He said, his eyes trailing over Abel, Gabe, Bethy, and the rest of us. "But my place is here with Natalie."

Chelsea, who had been silent this whole time, sniffed a bit, and I looked at my sister in concern. "Sorry." She said, wiping her face. "It's just…I was really hoping to get to know you better. We're family after all. But I know you've been going through a lot so I steered clear and now I kind of wish I'd pushed you."

Smiling widely, Nat stood and walked over to give my sister a big hug. "Hey, none of that. You know you guys are always welcome here, and you're even taking my boss with you. Come back any time. Plus there's no possible way I'm missing my cousin's wedding, so Celine will need to find someone to take over for me when that rolls around."

"Which will be a little while." Said Callie. "But not too long. After the Conclave at least. You're welcome of course." She said, giving my cousin a tight hug. Under her breath, I heard her mutter. "I'm sorry."

Nat just squeezed her back, pulling away with a sad smile. "I've told you I don't blame you for what happened. Just keep your man in line." She raised a brow at me. "No slacking off little cousin, you're definitely going to rank up before I will, and I expect you to be ready to bring my friend back as soon as you have the stats for it."

Not that we knew when that would be. All I knew was that it required a version of the wish ability higher than my current one.

"What about your guardian?" I asked. "Zeke took over for this trip since he was already watching Chelsea and mom decided to send her back to the WCP as a messenger, but with us leaving who is going to look out for you?"

She chuckled. "I think I'm going to officially drop out of the running. I won't need a guardian. Like I said, I'm just done."

I was next up for a hug. She squeezed me so tight my ribs creaked, but when she pulled back I could see tears in her eyes. "I want you to know I don't regret coming with you at all. I've seen and done amazing things, and I couldn't have done most of them without you. Even among candidates you're something special, little cousin. Don't give up, I really think you can make it."

"Ok, I feel like this premature." Laughed Valk. "They aren't leaving for a month. The heartbreaking goodbyes should wait until it's actually goodbye. Otherwise you won't have anything to say day of."

Nat looked embarrassed. "I'm trying to have a moment here, shut up." She pouted. We all laughed, and I gestured upstairs.

"How about I make us all something to eat and we talk over what to do for the next month over dinner." Everyone cheered, and I grinned as they followed me up into the kitchen. To my surprise, I found Zeke and Cass there, the little girl running to tackle hug her brother as my uncle grinned at me.

Callie snickered. "Shane didn't even know he'd be cooking until just now. If not for the kid I'd assume you ran or teleported, but you just knew him well enough to predict it huh?" She shook her head in exasperation. "I have much to learn."
"I don't like this." I said bluntly. "The two of you conspiring brings imbalance to my life. Stay in your lanes."

Zeke snorted. "Mouthy for a cook, aren't you." He shot Callie a conspiratorial look. "Is all the attitude really worth it? Personally I got sick of him when he was about five, and sticking around has been rough for me ever since."

I flipped him off as Callie started giggling. "I think you're misremembering the past. I hear that's common for people your age. Luckily we have access to a historian, maybe we can find some cave paintings of what it was like when you were our age."

"Old jokes?" He sneered. "You can do better than that. Anyway, you going to try to buff up the village? Or are you thinking of just leaving it to Nat since she's staying." At my questioning look he just rolled his eyes. "What? Like I wasn't going to figure it out? Honestly I'm proud of the kid. Not many of your candidates are smart enough to call it quits before things get bad."

I nodded. "She's contracted to help, so I figured I'd leave it to her. Honestly I'm not sure why giving up the territory to Celine even worked. I was half expecting my ability to veto the village building wishes."

"It's because you're leaving." He said simply. "You might be a bit attached, but in the end you're not staying. Even if you planned on maybe having her give it to you later on, since that can't happen and you're not sticking around you don't really consider it yours, so upgrading it isn't really a benefit to you."

That did make some sense. "Anyway, what am I making for dinner?" I asked with exasperation. I saw a bunch of people start to speak, but a voice cut through the din.

"Quesadillas!" Shouted Cass at the top of her lungs. "Everybody likes cheese, and you can put different meats on everyone's if they want it and we can have it with sour cream and maybe some salsa and some juice to wash it down." Ah, children, masters of the run on sentence. Even I was short of breath listening to that, but I smiled and nodded.

The others looked annoyed but I shrugged. "Sorry everyone, first come first served. Cass gets to pick tonight."

Callie looked murderous, but Zeke just snickered at everyone else's misfortune. My bride to be glared at me imperiously. "You're making guacamole, right?"

"Yes dear." I said innocently, trying to hide my laughter that she'd been outdone by a nine year old."

Nat came over to sit next to me as I cooked, while everyone else cleared off the table from the earlier meal the inn guests had. "So, how are you doing?" She asked in a small voice, and for the first time since Perit died, I saw a little bit of my exuberant cousin under the sadness. It was nice to see that spark back in her eyes, even if it was because she was worried about me."

"I just don't know if I can do this." I said in a somber voice. "I mean, how will I feed myself? Pick out my clothing? What about walking? Without you there to tell me I might forget which order my feet move in. Is it left left right?" I'd cracked and started snickering halfway through my diatribe, and by the time I was done she was rolling her eyes as I dissolved into laughter.

If not for her lips twitching I might have bought her glare. "Dick. See if I ever check on you again. I was just seeing if you were ok with me leaving."

I put an arm over her shoulder, pulling her in for a side hug while I cooked one handed. "I know, and I'll miss you. You were the first family member I ever met as an adult. But I'm not selfish enough to ask you to stay if it's hurting you. Besides, you were totally right, we can come visit you whenever we want."

She nodded stiffly, staring at the wall in a way I suspected had more to do with staving off tears than any desire to see something in front of her.

"You've grown up a lot." She said quietly. "I remember that kid I met at the circus, and he wasn't a patch on you. But you didn't lose the part of you that feels compassion. That wants to help people. The part of you that wouldn't kill Satala even though her mom wanted us dead."

I shrugged. "That's all Callie. She keeps me on the straight and narrow, you know that."

"No!" She snapped. "That was YOU Shane. It was your heart. And I hope you don't ever lose that. We've got a lot of scary people in the family, but not to many heroes. You're the closest I've seen, and you better hold onto that. If you come back here and you're some ruthless dickbag I'm going to punch you in the throat."

I laughed at that. "Alright, I'll do my best. I should be fine, Callie won't let me drift too far. But I'll do my best to make you proud."

She reached up over my crown, having to stand on her toes to reach, and tousled my hair. "You always made me proud, Shane. You make a lot of people proud, they're just too obnoxious to actually tell you so." She turned and stuck her tongue out at Zeke, who sniffed and turned his head away, barely hiding a smile.

Rejoining the others, she left me to cook, and I went ahead and finished up cooking dinner, bringing it to the table for everyone as I sat down to eat. Looking around with a smile, I felt my heart soar. Goodbyes or not, my family was pretty great. We'd survived. We'd thrived. Now we'd enjoy our month together before we made our way to the next adventure.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

A month flew by. I was pretty shocked at exactly how quickly it had gone. Spending time with Chelsea and Nat, as well as wedding planning and helping with the construction. It occurred to me the next day that I really could use the money from working on the village, so I'd ended up pitching in to prepare for the Conclave.


It was being held on a big floating continent in neutral territory between three factions, which was pretty cool, and the place hosted a pretty big cross section of people from multiple factions and tons of objects to sell or buy.


That was all a problem for future Shane though, because for now all our time was up and we needed to get ready to go. "Alright, does everyone have anything?" I asked anxiously, sweeping my room to make sure I hadn't left anything behind. "Because if you forget something it's going to be ages before we can come get it."


"Yes, MOM." Said Benny exasperatedly. "We went over all our stuff, it helps that we use extra dimensional pocket spaces that can hold houses worth of items that sits in a ring on our fingers and weighs nothing."


I just snorted. "You say that like you've never forgotten anything in your life. You'd forget your head if you didn't have it stuck up your ass."


He flipped me off and ignored as everyone else snickered. I gave Nat another hug, telling her to keep in touch and wishing her good luck. Then I turned to Zeke. "Ok so when are we leaving? Do you know when and where we need to meet up with the shuttle?"


"KIllian is in the system." He nodded. "Told me when he'd be here about an hour ago. We still have a few minutes and it isn't far from here. You have time to say your goodbyes."


Nat shook her head. "He already did. They all did. I'll miss them but they should go." She turned to Celine. "I'll take care of the valley for you, you're already E-rank so you won't need to collect the renown for a while. You can't do it from a distance right?"


"If there's a way, I don't know it." Celine acknowledged. "Since it needs to be distributed to the residents. Just keep a stockpile of the stones they use to transport it. I'll collect it next time I'm here. I appreciate you staying to keep an eye out."


She nodded, and after one last round of farewells we all tromped out of the inn, headed for the forest where Zeke had indicated we'd be meeting our shuttle.


I fell in next to Benny. "So…going to be weird being in transit again. You thinking about buckling down on training? You've been getting some decent point income from renown based on some of our other adventures, but I'm not against helping you blitz a bit."


"Nah." he said with a laugh. "We're going to be at E-rank for a while. I'm not rushed. I get why you might feel that way, but the Conclave is going to be full of people too tough for us. Might as well take our time, since even hurrying won't bridge the gap."


I made a sound of acknowledgement. I didn't disagree. Plus D-rank was when my guardianship ended. After I became a master I'd be on my own. No more Zeke to keep me safe, though I wasn't sure if he would leave or just keep hanging around as an asset. It was something I'd been afraid to ask him up to this point.


Now that he was A-rank, having him with us would be the safest possible thing. Not to mention I was kind of worried about him leaving and missing my wedding. I didn't expect dad to be there, but I wanted Zeke to come. I needed him there, after everything we'd all been through. I knew I was being stupid, but it felt like him being my guardian was the best way to make that happen.


On the other hand, I was a bit worried about E-rank. This was the most dangerous time in my candidacy. The jump from E to D-rank was quantitative as well as qualitative, and killing up ranks with that gap between the two was all but impossible. Without Zeke being able to intervene, masters were a huge danger to all of us.


I shook off my thoughts. "I get that. So you'll just let the passive income boost you? Going to spend some time with your lady?"


"Yeah." he said with a mock glare. "Because SOME moron went out of his way to up the ante by proposing and made the rest of us look bad. Now I have to keep things fresh or else I look like an inconsiderate dick because I'm not writing her sonnets or some shit."


I clapped him on the hand supportively. "Hey, don't talk down about yourself like that. You're perfectly capable of looking like an inconsiderate dick all on your own." He rolled his eyes and slapped my hand away, and I just grinned.


"Be nice to see the puppies again." He said after a moment of comfortable silence. "It's been ages. I know Jessie has been missing them like crazy."


I snorted. "Callie too. And I admit it's great having Jin around to cuddle with. It's sad we left them so far behind. I wish there was a way to rank them up faster. Bethy and Jessie have their power sets for that, but for us the pups are just pets."


"Sucks." Agreed Benny. "How badass would we look riding wolves everywhere?"


I laughed at that. "So badass. I actually tried that a few times. It's pretty awesome. And they use Might better for travel than we do. I'm really jealous of Gabe sometimes, with his crazy starlight horse thing."


"True." Agreed Benny. "But hey, at least that means we get to send him to do stuff instead of going ourselves. That's a plus." We both laughed as we saw Gabe up ahead, turning to shoot us a dark look that didn't really seem all that dark. He was pretty obviously trying not to smile, and it made it made us laugh all the harder.


When we reached the clearing in question, the shuttle was already there, and to my surprise, Blake was there to meet us. Killian's son looked us over. "You're already E-rank? You bastards."


"It's ok." I said kindly. "You too will someday be powerful and impressive like us. Instead of being a loser who lives in his dad's basement." I winked to show I was messing with him, and he laughed, rolling his eyes but not engaging.


Callie smacked my shoulder with a snort. "Be nice. Is Sasha still onboard, I was hoping to talk to her about…things." She flushed a bit and I didn't bother fighting a grin since no one could see it anyway. I like that she was so excited about everything.


Sadly, Blake shook his head. "Nah, she disembarked a while ago. She left word she'd meet up with you at the Conclave, she'll be attending personally. She wasn't sure about her father though."


I wasn't really sure if he knew she was my mom, or if he was just fulfilling orders as she'd left them. It was hard to keep track of that kind of thing. Zeke looked around in annoyance as we entered the shuttle. "Killian can't even come and greet an old friend? I see how it is. No time for all us little people now that he's a big shot spacefaring badass."


Blake brightened. "Oh, he thought you might say that, so he left me a message to give you." he pulled out an honest to gods scroll, unfurling it and clearing his throat. "He says. 'Yeah, pretty much. Shut up.' And nothing else." He handed the scroll to Zeke, who took it and read over it before wadding it up and throwing it into a trash can.


"Someday." he told Blake kindly. "You're going to get older and end up more like your dad. When that day comes, I want you to remember something very important. Your dad is not funny. And you probably won't be either. Even if it seems to you like you are. It'll be an illusion, don't believe it."


I tried not to snicker at his obvious saltiness, but I failed, and he turned to glare at me. "Hey, don't look at me, I thought it was hilarious."


"Where did I go wrong." He bemoaned. "How did I fail so badly in raising you."


I didn't even try to hide my snicker this time. "Being drunk most of the day and leaving me to my own devices a large percentage of the time might have been a bad start. Not that I'm complaining."


"That's how you teach someone independence." He said loftily. "Plus it's not like I didn't have an eye on you from a distance. Even if you didn't notice it at the time."


The shuttle lifted off, and Bethy, who was standing by the open side of the conveyance near the transparent shielding, stared at the receding ground with a whoop of excitement. "That's so cool! I wish I could fly like this." At all of our deadpan glances she shrugged. "I mean like, high up. My kitty storm form only goes up a few hundred feet. Cats are NOT designed for high altitudes."


That was fair. "So." I said turning to the others. "Any big plans for the trip? It'll be a few months on the ship. I'm probably going to relax aside from doing some points stockpiling. Well, relax and wedding plan. We have a lot to figure out." I turned to Blake. "Speaking of, do you and your dad want to come to our wedding? I proposed to Callie back on Stratholme."


She giddily showed off her ring, and he made the proper appreciative sounds. "Congrats man." He finally said. "I'll pass on the invitation. I know I'd love to come. Where will it be?"


"Callus." I said without hesitation. "Our home planet. It's kind of small, on the edge of Cult territory in the Conglomerate, but it's a pretty cool place. Callie's mom is there and we want her to be in the wedding, plus lots of friends. It's going to be a big deal." I knew just having my mom there would make it a crazy affair, now Zeke was A-rank too.


Chances were good the Unity would send someone to keep tabs, and if Killian came that would blow things up even more. A-rankers all over the place. It was going to draw all sorts of attention, and I really did like that Callie would probably get a renown boost of this. I would too, but that was less important. I had wishes after all. Making Callie stronger was what mattered most.


As we approached the hulking mass of the Necromedes, I couldn't help but wish the Conclave was already over. I was ready to start my new life, to be happy for a while. But since that seemed unlikely. But hey, at least Callie was excited. She was insistent she was going to buy her wedding dress at the Conclave.


I glanced over to her, sitting happily chatting with my sister, and my heart warmed. I'd been through so much since becoming an Ascendant. I'd been in so much danger, lost people, been through agony I couldn't describe.


But I hadn't been alone. Not since that night in the scavenger hunt when she told me she wanted to be together. No matter what came next I'd be ready for it. We all would. Gods, monsters, whatever the danger. We'd face it together. As a family. And honestly? I felt kind of bad for whatever got in our way. Making my way over I sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders, ready for the next step in our journey.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Four months went by faster than I'd expected. Our last journey had been almost eternal in comparison, probably because aside from wishes I hadn't really done much training at all. I'd just…lived. Spent time with Callie, gotten to know my sister. The small bit of actual training I'd done had mostly been fun stuff like the occasional spar with Abel or Gabe or Bethy.

Benny had spent most of his time with Celine, not that I blamed him, though he did join us for some of the sparring sessions when he was free. It was peaceful and, as I slowly came to realize, necessary.

The Empire had been a great experience and one that had taught me quite a bit, but it had also been extremely draining. Constant learning and fighting. We'd been given our own armies basically (we'd rented them to Nat while we were gone for forty D-rank chits which Celine had footed the bill for, leaving me at eighty and Callie at twenty) learned to command them, fought against some terrifying people, and even killed a D-ranker.

After all that, taking a few months to decompress and relax was just what the doctor ordered,our month of downtime before leaving was nice, but it still felt…fraught. The journey was just that. A journey. Nothing we had to concern ourselves with.

Now we were finally arriving, and it was sad to see an end to all the leisure time, even if the thought of what was coming was both exciting and terrifying. Which was how I found myself standing next to Callie and Chelsea in the same room we'd used to view Zeke's fight with the elven archer all those months ago.

"So…that's Tricorn huh?" I asked, staring at the colossal three cornered continent floating in space. "It reminds me of the bazaar we went to for the moonsong glade."

"Not even close." Said Zeke as he stepped up next to me. "Tricorn is a permanent structure, unlike the bazaar. It's C-ranked, like Stratholme, and is considered one of the most integral trade hubs in the five faction alliance. It sits on the corner of Church, Fairyland, and Imperial territory. This is where some of the most important business in the universe gets done."

I nodded. "I can understand the need for a place like this, since all the most powerful artifacts and objects are made and sold in galactic centers where forces have the strongest grip. What about the WCP?"

"Not really a factor." He shrugged. "The WCP exists across faction lines, and are sort of an alternative to this kind of place. You'll note that the Cult and the Conglomerate aren't connected, and while they have people here too, their presence is less solidified. Not to mention all of this is monitored by the main governmental entities of the three factions, which means it all has to be legal."

That was one thing about the WCP that hadn't sat well with me at first. The whole 'criminal' vibe. We weren't, really, we were just pretty much unbound by any ethical or moral restrictions, which lots of people claimed was criminal because of the stigma. Still not ideal, but we weren't breaking any laws most of the time, at least that I'd seen. The reminder that some aspects of the organization was extralegal wasn't exactly a welcome one.

I took a long breath. "I think I might try to change that aspect of things. Not completely, granted, because we need the networks to function, but trying to limit the activities of the Palace a bit might endear us more to other forces."

Zeke just chuckled. "Won't work kid. Sorry." At my confused glance, he just shook his head. "The standing Wishmaster isn't really the leader of the WCP. I mean, he is, but not unilaterally. The position is there to help a promising talent rise quickly by way of entry to the Unlucky 13. Everyone on the Unlucky 13 is an up and comer who needs the renown to grow."

"Wait." I said, crestfallen. "So I won't be able to change things? I can't fix the cuckoo bird bullshit that the family does?"

He waggled a hand. "That you might be able to swing. It's related to the candidacy and as the Wishmaster your say over matters of selection for the next round is pretty much absolute. But stuff like instituting wide reaching trade and political engagement policies? That has to go through the council."

"The council of….?" I said, having not heard anything about this before.

"Elders." He said with a shrug. "Branch leaders one and all. The S-rankers, both family and close associates. They're the strongest forces in the clan outside the old man, and we don't really bother him if we can help it."

Something about that caught my interest. "Wait…not all the S-rankers in the clan are family?"

"Of course not." He snorted. "The Wyndhams have the wish ability. Think about Benny, about me. Our clan has the most advantage in creating powerful Ascendants. Only half of the council are Wyndhams. The other half are close friends and proven associates. All under geasa to ensure loyalty, of course, but not particularly restrictive ones."

I knew there were only about a hundred S-rankers in the universe, at least ones that we'd been able to dig up information about, and knowing we had a whole council of them really shed light on how we were able to keep our autonomy despite not having our own territory.

Then again, I didn't know a lot of things, and it had been implied before that some of the clans had their own S-rankers who had retreated from public view for one reason or another, presumably to make the attempt at godhood. How many demi-gods like Morgan Lark were out there?

Come to think of it, how did that even work? Impact was the necessary step to reach godhood. I couldn't imagine how much you'd need to spend trying to acquire more than five hundred points of Impact. Was regular renown even necessary after S-rank? Was that why most of them faded into the background?

I felt a soft bop on my head, and turned to see Callie smiling patiently at me. "Chit for your thoughts?" She said casually.

"Sorry." I said, shaking my head. "Didn't mean to space out." I glanced at the stars outside the viewing panel. "I mean…get distracted. I was just thinking about how big the universe is. Tricorn is huge, but it's nowhere near as big of important as some of the central planets. The galactic centers have main planets right? A-rank worlds?"

Zeke shook his head. "No need to worry about that. It won't be relevant to you for quite some time. Just focus on Tricorn, and why we're here." He pointed out into space where I saw other ships slowly fading into view. White and gold monoliths, dark metal monstrosities, red steel beasts, and dozens of other strange and spellbinding transports I couldn't even put words to.

"That's a lot of expensive ships." Said Zeke. "The Necromedes is a total boondoggle and some of those are even worse. No Saintships, thankfully,. Apparently even the faction leaders have enough common sense not to dangle an entire ship made of S-rank material out in the middle of space."

Killian stepped up on his other side. "The wealth on display there is worth more than one or two Saintships from an objective standpoint. Though no one would be willing to piss off that many high ranking faction members from that many forces. There are S-rankers on board I'm sure. The gods will have sent their best."

"Old man Anders is here." Zeke grimaced. "Sasha warned me before I showed up. He's never liked me much. Always considered Eli and I a bad influence. Not that he's going to do much about it here. Good to know ahead of time though."

My head jerked up. "M-My friend Chelsea's grandpa is here?" I said, catching myself before I blurted out something stupid. "That's…interesting. What about mine?"

"Malachai didn't come." He said with a sigh. "Which is a shame, because we could have used a friendly face. They sent Harrison. He's the youngest branch clan leader. Aiden's father. He likes to think that gives him a lot of influence, even though it doesn't."

Aiden was the name of the current Wishmaster, the one who was retiring to make way for whoever won my candidate selection. "Is he…like an enemy of ours?" I said carefully.

He waggled a hand. "He's not a friend. But not an enemy. I don't think he's going to try anything in such a serious situation. As the only witnesses to what happened in the Aetherbright Academy, you'll be expected to testify. We passed on everything you told us, but the bigwigs want to question you themselves."

I nodded, letting out a long breath. "Do we know who is coming from every faction? Or just those two?" I wanted to be as prepared as possible for what was coming, even if that wasn't going to be all that much in the grand scheme of things.

"No idea." Shrugged Zeke. "And they won't be here yet anyway. We made good time, we're still about a week out from the start date. You can do some shopping and make inroads with some of the other visiting factions. Maybe meet up with some old friends. I suspect several of the people you met during the Moonsong Glade incident will be present, since it's related."

I turned back to stare out at the rapidly approaching continent, and I felt Callie take my hand and give it a squeeze. It was a lot, but at the same time, knowing we'd be seeing old friends was definitely a bonus.

"What about independents?" I asked, realizing I hadn't really thought to ask. I knew they existed. The Vampire was one, and there were more than a few unaffiliated clans, like smaller versions of the WCP, that I'd learned about recently. "Are they going to have representation here?" That would be yet another powerful person I'd have to deal with meeting.

Grinning, Zeke raised a hand, pointing out the panel and into the distance. I blinked in shock at the sight of a familiar floating black metal coffin in space.

Bethy, who had just gotten to us, saw what he was pointing at and squealed with joy, bouncing up and down in place. "Daddy's here!" She cheered. "I can't wait to tell him all about my time in the army. I was the best soldier ever, he's going to be so proud!"

I was unsure Bethy had even technically BEEN a soldier, though I certainly wasn't the one who was going to tell her so. I was more worried about why the Vampire had made an appearance. Was he some kind of de facto leader for the independents?

Whatever the reason, I couldn't imagine his presence was going to have a pacifying effect on things. The gods had sent their strongest, but they were all still just S-rankers. Morgan Lark was the closest being to godhood, able to take on even a deity (albeit a young one) in pitched combat and come out ahead.

Him being here signified both how seriously everyone was taking this and how dangerous it was going to be. I knew the Vampire hated being sucked into politics and tried to avoid interacting with anyone.

Was he here because of the danger? The opportunity to fight unknown gods? I knew he could siphon stats. Could he drain a god's Impact to help himself ascend. Would they allow him a position among the factions if it meant getting his support? This was all way above my paygrade, but I knew it would be important in the future.

Regardless of all that though, I knew that this conclave was going to be a mess. This many high rankers and children and disciples of gods? The winds of fate around this place would be whipped into a frenzy, it would be like my life times a million. I just hoped they were all ready for it. I was sure I would be. I didn't have a choice.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Stepping back onto a suppressed landmass after four months on the Necromedes was a bit jarring, but we adapted much faster than the last time. "This place is…big." I said in awe. The continent was triangular, with each of the three main factions taking up a corner. The Church, The Empire, and the Fairyland. Each of them had their own section of town, and we were headed for the first.

"I can't wait to see mom!" Gushed Chelsea, pulling me along. "She's going to be so jealous I found out about the wedding first!" Zeke trailed behind us, eyes scanning the crowds lazily as if expecting an attack. I hadn't seen him this tense outside combat.

Laughing, I pulled back, forcing her to slow down. "Might be a good idea to bring my fiance along instead of leaving her to get lost in the crowd."

"Thanks." Callie said as she caught up to us. "Inhuman speed is less useful in a crowd like this. Is there a way to clear a path?" She looked uncomfortable around so many powerful Ascendants, and I didn't blame her. Everyone nearby was at LEAST E-rank, and I counted more masters than hairs on my head.

Zeke shook his head. "Not smart." He admitted. "I could probably make a hole, but these are faction elites. Chances of one of them having a spare Arch-Bishop or Duke kicking around aren't low, and I'm pretty new to this rank."

Benny jumped, spinning around with his hands coming up in a fighting stance. "Someone just tried to pick my pocket." He patted his pants and then pulled out a small rectangle. "Wait, no they put something into my pocket." He squinted at. "Karen Carllson's Kidney Collection." Grimacing, he shredded the card and dropped it on the ground. The paper turned to ash on contact, and a small lightning bolt leapt up and shocked Benny who leapt back with a yelp. "What the fuck?"

"Anti-littering enchantment." Said Zeke boredly. "Maybe don't drop your trash on giant continents co-owned by literal deities."

Benny glared at him. "You could have warned me?"

"I guess so." Said my uncle innocently. "I could also warn you that fire is hot or that you can't breathe underwater. Some things should be common sense."

I rolled my eyes, stepping between them. "Alright that's enough. Zeke is messing with you. Any of us could have made that same mistake." I paused. "I mean, we didn't, so we're definitely all going to make fun of you for it, but we could have. Thank you for your sacrifice."

"That started out so nice too." Sighed Callie. "Can we get going? I'm super nervous about this meeting." She picked at her sleeves. "Like I know she liked me fine last time, but this is totally different." She cut off, not wanting to mention my family relation directly out in the open like this. I put an arm around her as we started walking again.

"It'll be fine." I told her, giving her a squeeze with the arm I had over her shoulder. "I can't think of anyone who wouldn't be excited to have you in their family."

Chelsea grabbed her other arm. "Definitely. You're awesome. Isn't she Callen?" She glanced at her D-rank guard, who nodded lazily, not bothering to speak. The big bearded swordsman wasn't one for chatter. Gabe would have been more verbose, but he'd gone with Bethy to see her father.

That left me, Jessie, Callie, Benny, Celine, Abel, Mel, Chelsea, Zeke, and Callen. Plus assorted pets. Specifically Chalk and Randall. Ten people. It was objectively a decent sized group, but somehow it felt…small. Incomplete. Nat and Valk were missing, and they'd been a part of us. It seemed wrong.

We chattered for a while, talking about nothing, and I kept an eye on our surroundings, taking things in. As we moved toward a corner, the streets eventually started to change. Not that it was a short trip. The Tricorn was huge, and we had to take large public conveyances I hesitated to think of as busses (they were so fancy) more than a few times on the way.

Soon enough though, the streets started to change. The buildings got fancier, the construction materials used leaned more towards white stone and gold trim, with lots of columns and intricate scrollwork. Somehow I knew this was Church territory without asking.

"It's just like home!" My sister beamed. "Oh I missed the architecture. Grandpa's palace has the most lovely atrium, full of beautiful plants and wonderful fountains. The whole place is a karmic gathering formation the Judgement Pope designed for him and it's supposed to bring good luck to people who walk through it."

I couldn't even imagine what something like that was probably worth. Considering the very brief limited good luck wish back in the scavenger hunt had been so pricey…I supposed it was harder to do things like that to more powerful Ascendants and in more powerful places, but still.

"Is his palace one of those places on higher ranked worlds where the Impact is blunted to let lower rankers walk around?" I asked curiously. "If you spent a lot of time there I'd assume he made arrangements."

She shook her head. "No, that was considered a security risk. I had minders growing up who escorted me. You can use your own Impact to shield someone nearby from the pressure if you've practiced it. Sometimes it was mom, sometimes it was others. We did have our own manor in a lightened section of the city though."

It fascinated me to hear these little tidbits about Chelsea's life growing up. I'd heard some here and there, but she tried to avoid bringing up stuff like this because she worried I'd be jealous. I'd mostly moved past that though, the engagement helped put a lot of things in perspective. If I hadn't had my life I wouldn't be who or what I am now, and that sounded pretty terrible to me.

Finally, we stopped in front of a particularly fancy looking building. Chelsea checked…something on the building and then nodded. "This is it. She'll be here."

I was curious how that worked. "How can you tell where she is just by looking at the building? Is there some kind of energy signature there I can't detect?" It would be useful to know more about how that worked in case we ever had to come back on our own.

"Nope." She said cheerfully. "It's the building itself." She pointed up at the facade, where I could see the delicate scrollwork that graced all the buildings nearby. "Those little stylistic flourishes look decorative, but they're actually carefully constructed and contain messages. It's an identifier that shows what the building is for and instructions on its usage. They're a bit complicated, and they change based on a variety of factors, but knowing how to read them makes it easier to identify important strategic locations."

That sounded…complicated. "And you use these back in the Holy Dominion?" I wasn't sure why anyone would need a system like that in a protected location.

Sure enough, she shook her head. "No, only in battlefield conditions. But mom insisted I learn to read facades before I went to the Ruined Soul Temple. It's standard procedure for important officials or their family members when leaving the dominion. If you want I can teach you later, I find a lot of the symbolism fascinating."

"That sounds fun." I agreed. "We're going to be here for a while probably, so being able to navigate would be helpful, not to mention it might come in handy in the future."

Chelsea beamed at me before heading for the entrance to the building. As she approached, there was a flare of light, and a pair of lightly armored guards (both D-rankers) were suddenly standing there. "State your purpose." One of them intoned.

"Chelsea Anders." My sister said confidently. "Here to see the Saintess."

I was pretty amazed at the two guards. Not because of their ranks, I'd seen D-rankers before, but because from what little I'd just seen they used stealth in a way I hadn't seen before. I knew objectively that stealth wasn't really elemental. It was the erasure of Perception from the senses of others to allow you to move unseen.

That said, the method of that erasure tended to be flavored by certain external characteristics. When Callie used stealth she did it with the mental image of cloaking herself in shadow, as did I because the stealth I used was hers.
The guards, however, clearly used a stealth based on LIGHT. The flash had been them allowing themselves to be seen. They bent the light around them to remove themselves from visibility. How that worked with sound or other senses I had no idea, but then, I didn't really get how darkness could do it either, it just kind of did.

The whole thing made me seriously reconsider a lot of things about stealth. Rather than a discrete Skill, it seemed stealth was more of a meta Skill, a way of applying other Skills you had similar to a manipulation Skill like Callie had. I wondered how many other ways there were to erase presence, and if there was just a basic application of the stealth skill unflavored by others.

My sister, while I was having this epiphany, had approached the guards and handed them some papers to prove her identity. They had a quick back and forth before the guards retreated, allowing her inside, the rest of us on her heels.

When we passed the threshold we found ourselves inside a colossal palace, decorated in austere white and gold. "What was that about?" I asked as we followed Chelsea down a large hall she turned us into. "Why would mom need guards, especially D-rankers?"

"She wouldn't." Said my sister cheerfully. "But in order to confuse anyone trying to find and bother her, the Church put guards on every building in this district. D-rankers were the most plentiful pool of troops to draw from. If there were D-rank guards outside this building and no others it would be too obvious."

Callie blinked at her from where she'd been taking all of this in. "Wait…your mom assigned dozens if not hundreds of MASTERS to guard duty so no one would notice she was under protection and bother her?"

"Of course." Said my sister in confusion. "She's meeting with her children. Family time is important, especially since we just got Shane back. Oh, and you can all talk freely here. No one can eavesdrop with mom here, at least not without her knowing about it. Now come on, she's probably waiting for us."

At one time I might have asked how she would know we were coming, but I knew that well enough by now. She was an A-ranker. I only barely had an idea of what that entailed or the sheer volume of stats (not to mention the methods to apply them) A-rankers had. I'd seen a glimpse of it when watching Zeke fight, but I knew my uncle was much subtler than most of his peers.

Finally, we came to a doorway that led out into a large open courtyard. Above us stretched a blue sky that shouldn't be there, trees surrounded us and birds sang sweetly in the branches. My mother sat at a table near a small pond, set with plates heaped with sandwiches and other foods.

She beamed at Chelsea and me when we came in, and I felt…warm. Seeing her so happy to see us was new to me, but not unpleasant. I was still a bit conflicted about my mom, but nearly a year of time to reflect and contemplate the things I had in my life had allowed me to put everything in perspective.

Walking over I dropped into one of the chairs, Chelsea and Callie sitting on either side as I grinned at my mother, deciding to remove my mask completely rather than retracting the mouth. Raising an eyebrow at her, I simply asked. "Hey ma, what's for lunch?" I guessed there was more than one way to feel like you were home.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Shane! Chelsea! It's so good to see you!" My mother stood and hurried over, tightly hugging both me and my sister before ushering us toward the table. "You made good time, I wasn't expecting you for at least a few more days."

I shrugged. "Killian was expecting to run into some trouble in the Aratra asteroid field. He said there's usually a contingent of bandits there. Apparently they're gone though."

To my surprise, her smile died. "Varthra's Fang is missing? That's bad news. They've held that field for almost a century. If someone ousted them I'd have expected lots of noise. I'll have someone look into it. That's Imperial territory, so hopefully the King they sent will take it seriously." Her eyes flicked to Zeke. "Looks like someone finally stopped dragging his heels. Congratulations Ezekial."

"I was not 'dragging my heels'." My uncle said in annoyance. "You know as well as I do that careful Binding of a Chronicle cuts down on the time needed to get through A-rank. SOME of us just prefer to do the work right the first time."

My mother shrugged carelessly. "The work won't get done at all if you die before you can finish. But I suppose it's academic now that you've finally made it. I heard about your final page. Not quite as dramatic as Eli's, but scribing it in advance was…brave." Her face softened. "Thank you, Ezekiel, for protecting my children at such great risk. You're a true friend, and my husband and I are both lucky to have you."

I blinked in surprise. I…hadn't known mom and dad were still married. I guessed no one had said otherwise, even when they were claiming she was dead, but it was strange to hear out loud.

Zeke just waved her off. "Don't be so serious about it. I've been taking care of one of your brats for years, what's an extra for someone as amazing as me."

Rolling her eyes, my mom reached down to the table, moving aside some of the food to reveal a long wooden box. "Well, if you don't want a thank you, I suppose I'll have to return this bottle of Autumn Honey Mead I bartered with Princess Levinia for."

"Darnalian Autumn Honey Mead?" His eyes snapped to the box. "That's…certainly interesting."

I was more interested in what she'd said before that. "Wait… a Princess came from the Fairieland? I didn't even know that was a noble rank."

"Because it's not in the Empire." Said Celine. "The Empire has Kings at S-rank, because their ruler is the Emperor. The Queen is our god, however, and as such elevating nobles to her station would be heresy. S-rankers in the Fairieland are Princes and Princesses, though we don't have many."

Mom smiled. "I've known Levi for ages, ever since we were girls. Her mother, Princess Valeria, is one of the Queen's eldest children, and an old friend of my dad's. Not all of the S-rankers in the Faerieland are the Queens children, mind, but they make up a majority. Being the child of a god comes with many benefits."

I remembered Satala, and how she'd reached A-rank so young, and my grandmother, Drowning Shade, who had been born with a mirror soul body. Benefits was an understatement.

"But that's enough business talk." My mother scolded playfully. "Sit, eat, I want to hear all about your trip. I know we exchanged the occasional missive, but that's hardly the same as hearing it in your own words over a meal." Her eyes wandered to Callie. "Besides, I hear there's big news to be shared."

I whirled on my sister. "You told!" I accused her. "You said you'd let me tell her."

"Shane." My mom chuckled. "If you think my only son could get engaged and then subsequently tell everyone around him ad nauseum for months and I wouldn't hear about it, you're dramatically underestimating my reach. Your sister said nothing. I'm sorry if I ruined the surprise though, I was just excited to congratulate you."

Callie swallowed hard from next to me. "So you're….happy, about this? Because having your blessing means a lot to me and we'd love to have you at the wedding."

"Of COURSE." My mother said emphatically. "I'm so happy for both of you. You seem like a lovely young lady. Driven, intelligent, beautiful, and completely devoted to my son." She beamed at Callie. "I'm honored to welcome you to the family, dysfunctional as it may be."

I grinned at my fiancee. "See? I told you! Anyone would be thrilled to have you as a daughter-in-law." I moved my eyes back to my mother. "And you'll come to the wedding? I know there's a lot going on with the war and-"

"Wild star eaters couldn't keep me away." She said firmly. "I'm anxious to meet your mother, Calliope, I've heard wonderful things from Ezekial."

Zeke shrugged. "She's good people. Alexander isn't so bad either. Paul is an asshole, but it'll be fun to see him thrash impotently in fury when you show up stronger than he is." It was easy to forget that as the former head of the Valen branch of the WCP Zeke would have met Paul before. They hadn't really interacted last time we were there.

"You going to bring Stella to the wedding?" I teased. "I believe we have you marked for a plus one."

He grimaced at me. "Keep your nose out of my relationships kid. Not all of us met our soulmate at eighteen. I don't really know. Anyway, do you want me to…pass a message to Eli? See if he wants to come?"

I glanced to Callie, who nodded. "You can invite him." I said after a long pause. "I doubt he'll come, but despite all his dickishness it would be good to see him again. Even if I'm not sure I'll be able to resist the urge to slug him."

"Open hand dear." My mom said kindly. "You're less likely to break something."

That surprised a laugh out of me. It also deflated some of the tension. Inviting my dad had been a hard call. Honestly I didn't want him there, but Callie told me I should. As shitty as the way he'd treated me had been, it seemed like he was acting from a place of concern for me, wanting me to stay out of the competition so I wouldn't be in danger.

It was funny, but Callie's dad was such an asshole it made it easier to put my own father's neglect in perspective. The invite would be an olive branch, not for me, but for the version of me that might someday look back on not inviting him with some regret.

We all sat down at the table, eating and catching my mom up on everything. She demanded a word for word recounting of my proposal, and I felt like I wanted a hole to open up in the ground and swallow me whole as I tried to stammer my way through it. Callie refused to let me plead forgetfulness, reminding me when I 'slipped up' and she seemed to think it was the most romantic thing ever, which I supposed was a good sign.

I got different reactions, some heartfelt and touched, some mocking, and I took them all with good humor and lots of profanity in cases where it was warranted. It was…nice.

My mom, Zeke, Chelsea, Callie, Benny, Celine, Abel, most of my best friends and family were here, and it just felt right. Once we finished the food, it was time to bring up the more formal portions of this.

"So…what's going on?" I asked my mom. "I know we're supposed to testify. What does that mean?"

She shrugged. "Nothing negative. Your grandfather will do the questioning. His flames of purification are so controlled he can burn the falsehoods from a testimony. It's one of his roles in the church. It won't harm you, just stick to the truth and the flames won't even make you sweat. It's more a formality than anything else."

"Why would we need a truth detector?" I asked in shock. "Who would make something like this up?"

Rolling her eyes, she let out a huff. "Your connection to the church has raised…concerns among some of the representatives. We suspected that might happen, it's why we always planned your attendance. Once we do this, we can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that your testimony is valid and our leverage to get things moving in terms of an alliance will be much stronger."

She was talking about the cult. They hated me, partly because of who my mother was. I wasn't sure how they'd found out, but it was one of the reasons that on top of separating us, my parents had hidden Chelsea's second power. Multiple layers of deception seemed like overkill until you remembered there were gods involved.

It made sense those lunatics would be holding things up, and if I could help brush aside the obstruction I would.

"So after the testimony the conclave starts for real?" I asked. "What does that entail. Like once they know can't we just…go all out?"

"No." Said my mother bluntly. "For one, we have to arrange deployment of forces. It'll take a while. Part of the reason the WCP is present will be to help with that. Wishes to help map troop deployments and so on. We need to know where they'll hit, when and then tailor our approach to that. Plus there's politics to take into account, making sure the troops deployed don't have an enmity with factions in the area."

I grimaced. Politics. "How will they get that info? We're talking about secrets of a divine level. The cost has to be astronomical."

"Undoubtedly." She agreed. "But that's why they sent a branch clan leader. There are very few things an S-class Ascendant with the Wish power can't afford stat wise. Especially not one who hasn't diversified his power and still has his modifier. It'll be expensive, but we can afford it."

Zeke laughed. "Not sure you can." At our glances, he shrugged. "This is…big. It wouldn't shock me if they decide that it's a good time to push for expansion. You NEED the WCP for this war if you want to win, even with the Emperor and Queen's raw power, the old man is still one of the strongest three gods."

"You think they'll ask for territory?" Mom said with a wince. "That might jam things up. No one is going to want to give the WCP more power, they're already buried in every galaxy. None of us want them establishing a solid foothold."

He shrugged. "They know that, but you know how the WCP is with leverage. Give them an inch and they take a mile, and they're going to be getting way more than an inch here. Be prepared to bleed some planets. I wouldn't be shocked if they tried charging you a few high ranking worlds."

"Even if they don't they can make them." She sighed. "Upgrading planets is far from beyond their scope."

"True." he admitted. "If they go that route they might end up taking a lot of smaller planets around the edges of a bunch of territories and trying to cobble together a system or cluster for themselves. Harrison is a scheming dick, but he's a competent one. It's probably why Aiden sent him. He knew he'd maximize the gains where Malachai might take the bigger picture into consideration."

I hadn't heard much about my paternal grandfather, but that at least didn't sound bad. Knowing he would help was a good thing at least. "So…what should we do? Until the testimony and then I guess after." I asked.

"Same thing you've been doing." Said my mother firmly. "Make friends, expand your contacts. Tricorn is a hub of power and talent and plenty of items. Figure out how best to benefit." With that said, we all lapsed into silence. It felt petty to worry about that on the eve of war, but in the end finding more people would help me get stronger. I supposed after we found a place to stay it would be time to start exploring.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We ended up finding a nondescript inn near my mom's place to stay, Chelsea making it clear to the owners that we valued our privacy. Once we all settled in at The Randy Skink (easily the worst inn name I'd ever seen) we headed to bed, eager to wake up the next morning and meet up with Gabe and Bethy. We made arrangements to rendezvous with them outside out inn.

"Shopping!" Cheered Bethy as she blurred up to us, Gabe nearly sprinting to keep up with her.

I grinned at my enthusiastic vampire friend. "Definitely." I said with a laugh. I shot Gabe a wry glance. "I take it she's been excited like this all morning?"

He sighed like the weight of the world was on his shoulders."Very much so. She's been all but vibrating with excitement. I had to remind her that we all have our own money and that she doesn't get to tell us how to spend it. There was pouting, but it wore off after about fifteen minutes or so."

The aforementioned pout reappeared. "You're all stupid." Bethy said mutinously. "I am a connoisseur of fashion and style. No one can help you pick the best outfits like I can."

"We aren't here to buy clothes." I said with a laugh. Then was forced to amend my statement by Callie's threatening glare. "MOST of us aren't here to buy clothes. You can help Callie look for a wedding dress if you want."

Bethy squealed in glee, clapping her hands and bouncing up and down. "That's so exciting!" Her face turned serious as she whirled on Callie. "How do you feel about spider silk? The softness is exquisite, but it's very thin, which means layers. I'd give it a six in tactile accessibility, a two in pricing, and maybe a four in auditory grace."

Callie just blinked at her. "Auditory grace?" She asked hesitantly.

"Obviously." Said the deadly serious vampire. "You don't want to walk down the aisle with your dress tearing the air like a foghorn. Ascendant fashion is a higher level of art than mortal design. Our enhanced senses means that things like sound and smell are crucial. I've even seen formation dresses that blend the wearer with the flow of energy in the environment. Now THAT'S avant garde."

I began to have a sinking feeling about my chances of getting out of this trip with much of my money left over. "Well, we need to get ourselves some new weapons while we're here. My current staff is starting to get a bit out of date, and I want to take the opportunity to pick up a D-ranked weapon."

"Shoo." She said with a sniff. "Go buy your stabby things, real fashion is happening."

Laughing, I turned and headed off. Callie was a big believer in the groom not seeing the dress before the wedding, and she was hoping to get her bridesmaids dresses in the same place as her wedding gown, so she ended up taking Mel, Jessie, Celine, and Chelsea with her, with Callen following behind to keep watch on his charge. Gabe took the opportunity to escape, leaving just me, him, Benny, Zeke, and Abel.

My uncle was mostly just trailing behind, taking small sips from the expensive mead bottle my mom had given him and sighing with bliss. And I was pretty pleased Callie hadn't needed any chits for her dress. Not that I wouldn't pay if I had to, but I'd almost forgotten after sharing pavilion expenses for so long that she had her own cash on hand for things other than wishes.

"So…weapons." I said with a small laugh. "I'll need something stronger. I know once you get up to Master rank weapons the two rank gap on usable gear turns to one, so I'll have to stick with something D-rank."

Zeke snorted. "The hundred to one chit ratio carries on from D-rank. You're not even at a single C-rank chit, and weapons are expensive if they're any good. It'll be a while before you're capable of affording a C-rank weapon. You SHOULD be able to get a pretty decent D-rank staff for what you have, provided you don't get ripped off."

I grimaced, but nodded. It wouldn't be easy mobilizing even a D-ranked staff at my level. Much like my E-rank staff had been when I'd gotten it, it would be an adjustment, especially since I was pretty early into E-rank. Of course, between my income from wishes and my slowly growing renown, the last four months had pushed me much further ahead than I'd been before.

At ten points per wish and seven wishes a day for a hundred and twenty days I'd gained eighty four hundred points, and I'd gotten another thirty seven hundred in points from renown over that period, a total of twelve thousand one hundred stats.

It would have absolutely shattered all the windfalls I'd had before, but at E-rank that was just a drop in the bucket, barely more than a tenth of what I needed. Or it felt like that. I knew realistically that I was making absurd progress, and that it was only possible because of who and what I was.

Even other candidates wouldn't be raking in points like I was, not having the boost from renown and great deeds like godslaying or winning a war. The excess was adding up, and the snowball effect was pushing me through E-rank faster than expected. Looking over my stats, I let out a low whistle at the differences.

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-6005
Impact-65
Fantasy-4250
Vitality-5002
Focus-4020
Perception-4204
Creation-4554
Progress to next rank:28100/100000
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 (3 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 10 shadow clone (2 in reserve), 19 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Pet- Wolf named Jin

Financial resources:10 E-rank chits 80 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 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

Two thousand points in each stat (I'd decided to concentrate on the ones the renown didn't touch to round out my wish granting ability) plus the extra hundred had boosted my Vitality over five thousand. I'd also come close to breaking thirty thousand. Absurd progress for sure.

It would be more than enough to handle a well chosen D-ranked weapon, as long as I didn't go overboard and get some uber heavy D-rank metal staff or something.

I hadn't been sharing my progress with my friends over time (except Callie) because it just hadn't come up, but when I mentioned how far I'd gotten to Benny he looked like he was about to fall over. "Damn it." He swore. "Your power is such bullshit. It's ridiculous that the WCP isn't just full of S-rankers."

"Becoming S-rank isn't as simple as it sounds." Denied Zeke. "Even getting to A-rank is exceptionally rare. Stats are the easiest part of progressing when you reach my level, and plenty of the advancement relies on things wishes can't do much about."

That was easy to forget for me, since I'd basically tripped into pushing through a lot of the bottlenecks I would face. Until I hit the peak of C-rank and formed my Chronicle, I wouldn't be able to break through to B, but until then it was smooth sailing.

Except…maybe not. The Chronicle itself and some of the other aspects of advancement made me think some of the things Zeke had told me offhandedly were more important than he let on. Creating Skills, the connection between my legend and King Solomon's, the way your path was supposed to help align your soul and stats.

The whole thing was part of this big overarching process I'd only been seeing parts of up until now, and it made me want to go back over everything I knew to see exactly what wrong conclusions I'd come to.

I shook that urge off, it wasn't the time. For now I needed to find a good staff, something that would help me maximize my usage of my forms. Between my higher than average Impact and a higher ranked weapon, I'd be able to hang with even higher levelled E-rankers.

It was sad that the days where I could punch up with a high ranked weapon were gone, but even with a D-ranked staff I had no chance of seriously injuring a Master. Zeke had made that very clear when asked about it, because I wasn't the first person to consider it. If that was all it took Callen wouldn't have needed to use all his accumulation just to make the finishing blow on Weston.

To my surprise though, I wasn't the only one thinking along those lines. "I want to get one too." Benny said after we got a heading toward one of the markets. They tended to be on the edges of the territories, some with overlap between two factions and one big one in the center. "I've been talking to Callen and I think I want to learn to use a sword."

I clicked my tongue. "Nah, you should get a hammer. With your abilities a big heavy mallet would work great. Especially since you got your hands on those flat stat amplifiers before we left Stratholme."

It was one of the things that made me hopeful for Benny's future, even without the kind of absurd growth I had. With those stat boosters (they boosted effect not actual value) he essentially had a high tier racial trait. Because of the interaction he'd need to replace them as he ranked up, but still, it was a great foundation to build a rep off of.

At my comment though, he just snorted. "I'm not taking weapon advice from someone whose entire combat philosophy is 'whack it with a big stick'." He said with an eye roll. "Callen is a genius swordsman, and a LITERAL sword Master. I'm sure he can teach me plenty about how the blade works."

I sniffed disparagingly. "Well fine then. Have fun poking stuff with your oversized butter knife. I'll continue to pursue a higher form of combat."

"You're both weak sauce." Said Abel arrogantly. "Everyone knows real power comes from your fists. I don't need any fancy tools to do damage. Just smash everything in front of me into paste and move on."

Gabe snorted. "Imagine only using your own physical power to attack. Mounted combat is where the real power is. Haven't you ever heard of the Fairy Queen's Dragon Knights?" His lips were quirked up in a smile as he joined in the banter, and I found a matching grin on my own face.

Sometimes it was nice to just talk shit with your friends. Finally though, we got off a bus and stopped in front of a large market full of stalls, tents, and even a few actual shops. When we arrived, we all stopped talking, staring in awe at the bustle of powerful people in front of us. Time to pick my new weapon.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The market we arrived at was one of the smaller ones. It was on the border of Empire and Church territory, and I was hoping we would get better prices because it wasn't quite so busy. Competing with C and B-rankers in the main hub market would be an exercise in frustration, and something a bit more subdued would be better for finding what we needed.

Still, even the smaller market was pretty bustling, and while I didn't see many B-rankers, C and D-rankers abounded.

"I don't even know where to start." I said, blowing out a breath. "There are a bunch of weapon shops. Should I go for the big ones? The small ones? Flip a coin?" I turned to Gabe. "You're from a big faction. Can you help me out?"

He shrugged. "I got my weapon from the Bishop in charge of my home planet's clergy. Won it in a tournament. I couldn't tell you anything about items." He turned to Benny. "You're an inventor right? Can't you analyze the materials and tell us what we should buy?" He pointed at a random axe lying on a nearby table. "Like that one, what is it made of?"

"What am I, an encyclopedia?" Huffed my best friend. "How the hell should I know. The days of me being able to identify any material on sight ended when I reached Intermediate. Honestly I have a sneaking suspicion my Minor Inventing Skill was customized to our specific environment, because looking down from where I am now there's no way I was just given all the materials at H-rank from one small wish."

I nodded, considering my options. "Well, I have this badass crown that boosts my Eye of Revelation. Maybe I should try a little divination." Staring down at the axe, I focused hard on my Eye and triggered the subskill. My mind was flooded with a series of images, constructs of stats that created effects that would empower the weapon. "I…have no clue what any of this means." I said after a minute.

Benny snorted and I shrugged. "Sorry, but my skill at making Skills is still pretty early on in its development. I can recognize the stats its made of, but the structure itself isn't much like anything I've seen. Lots of Might and Vitality, and that's all I've got."

"Well how do we usually tell what things are?" Asked Abel in annoyance. "We have to have some way of identifying items."

I brightened. "Hey, we do." I snapped my fingers, a bag appearing in my hands. Passing it to Zeke I stated confidently. "I would like to buy one knowledge please." I paused. "Wait, no that's ten E-rank chits. I want to buy a bunch of knowledges. Identify stuff for me."

He rolled his eyes. "Commissions for identification are usually pretty high. However I can see a bit of wiggle room here. None of my identifications will be of any value to you except the one you actually buy, so technically I'm only identifying a single item for you personally. Ten E-ranked coins will be enough for that. The rest is just idle speculation."

I grinned, gesturing to the axe. "What about this one? Might and VItality I got, but what does it do?"

He rolled his eyes. "D-rank berserker axe. Fills the user with a burst of physical energy. Makes you stronger and refills your reserves until it runs out. Reminds me a bit of Jessie's ability, with the added Might boost."

I nodded in interest. None of us actually used axes though, so we moved on. Staves were kind of sparse, most of the weapon tables and stalls sold bladed weapons and the occasional ranged item.

The few staves we did see at those places were magic staves, which were NOT the same thing at all. Zeke, in his capacity as item guide, explained the difference. "Staves come in two flavors. Weapon and focus. A focus, as its name implies, is built to channel energy and focus it. The big difference between the two though, is that foci don't NEED to be staves. They can be anything."

"So why do so many magic users carry a staff?" I asked in annoyance. "It's just making it harder for good, hardworking warriors like me who just want to hit people with a big stick." I shot a sarcasm laced glance at Benny when I said that, but I was pretty sure he didn't notice.

Zeke shrugged. "Partly tradition, partly size. Staves are large items while still being manageable. Larger margin of error for enchanting them. You can use say, a ring as a focus, or a crown. In fact your crown IS a focus, just a very specific one. Most foci are more like that orb you got Mel. Amplifies fire magic."

"And since the staff is more of a blank slate to write on than a weapon durability isn't an important factor."

He nodded. "Pretty much. Most of these are foci." We'd stopped at one stall where someone had set up a whole umbrella stand full of staves, some fancy, some old and busted looking, however, my uncle pointed at one specific item in the group. "Though that one has some promise."

I looked at a particularly beat up length of wood. No caps, no visible carving, just an old withered stick. "I'm gonna be honest." I said looking at him. "I feel like you're messing with me."

He snickered. "That's Three Moment Ebony. The enchantments are basic, but they take advantage of the natural abilities of the wood. Every time you hit something with that staff it'll actually take three hits."

"So?" I said with a shrug. "Triple damage. That doesn't seem like that big a deal, I have a bunch of skills that already do that."

Rolling his eyes, my uncle sighed. "I didn't say triple damage. I said each hit lands three times. It's a dimensional effect, when you hit someone reality fluctuates and your hit lands in triplicate. This isn't a power boost, its a base multiplier. For someone like you, it's invaluable. You use lots of powerful meta abilities to modify hits. Some of them only apply once. Like your Afterburner lets you have ten hits. This would make each of them count three times."

"So you think I should buy it?" I asked cautiously. "Because it looks like it needs some repair, and that won't be cheap."

He nodded in acknowledgement. "You're not wrong. Three Moment Wood is rare, and someone who can do these kinds of enchantments without the existing patterns in the wood is rarer, but that means getting it fixed will be a pain. I'd keep it in mind and continue searching. If you don't find anything else you can always buy it then."

That had been my thought. If Zeke had said to buy it right away I'd have listened but we were looking through a lot of different pieces here, and grabbing the first thing we found wasn't necessarily going to get me the best result.

So we pushed on. Benny was on the lookout for a new sword, and we actually talked Abel into trying to find a pair of gloves. There weren't a lot of them, but I'd seen a few and they all had some pretty interesting abilities. Given his skillset literally any damage on hit effect would be a boost to Abel's damage output.

Honestly, it was kind of fun. Listening to all the amazing effects some of this gear had. We found a few more staves meant for combat too. One that expanded its size, another similar to an upgraded version of current one that stored damage like a battery, and a fire element staff that converted everything you funneled into it into flame damage on top of its original type.

Sadly none of them were what I was looking for. The Three Moment staff was closest, but it just didn't feel right. It was too close to what I could already do. I needed something that would apply to a variety of attacks, but that wasn't repetitive. Something that took advantage of my strengths.

Benny found a sword he liked (E-rank, he couldn't afford a D-ranked weapon and Zeke said it would be stupid to get one for learning with anyway), nothing fancy but it was made to be extra sturdy and sharp, which he said was all he really needed.

Abel got a pair of gloves that did lightning damage after you built up charge with momentum, and spent the next ten minutes shuffling his feet and poking us to discharge small bolts of electricity into us all until I we threatened to leave him out of every fight we came across for the foreseeable future.

Finally we came to a small shop in the back of the Imperial section, and all of us went inside. It was small and cramped, but it had a certain…atmosphere. The kind that made me think there were real treasures in here. Either that or I'd watched too many movies growing up and the owner just didn't clean very much.

"Interesting." Said Zeke slowly as he looked around. "I've never seen anything like those before."

My head jerked up. "Wait, there are unique items in here? Where?"

"Hmm?" He said, looking back at me. "No, I meant the lamps. They're using a weird filter enchantment for the light to increase ambiance. It's pretty cool. Most of the actual stuff in here is garbage."

There was a thump as a girl stalked out from the back of the shop. "Excuse me?" She demanded. "I'll have you kno…" She trailed off, staring at Zeke in horror. Dropping into a low curtsy she squeaked. "Apologies great one. I didn't think one such as you would be found in my lowly shop."

"She can tell what rank you are?" I asked in surprise. "I thought you were hiding it."

He rolled his eyes. "Craftsman's lens." He said simply. "Right eye. It's like an identification Skill, except it's more limited. More than up to picking up Impact unless I had a concealment artifact, which since I'm a deterrent I didn't bother with today." He scowled at her. "Oh get up. Trust an Imperial to bow and scrape to an A-ranker."

I didn't point out that most people were probably pretty impressed by A-rankers given the Church's reaction to my mom and the devils to my dad. "Ignore my uncle." I said with a wave of my hand. "He's kind of a dick lots of the time. I'm looking for a staff. Weapon not focus."

She nodded hurriedly. "Your august personages won't want the public goods. My premium stock should have something you're looking for." She turned and hurried back out coming out of the room a few minutes later with a pile of sticks. "These may suit your needs? What were you looking for?"

Zeke ignored her. "These four are D-rank." He pointed to a quartet of staves. "This one is a spatial staff that teleports anything it hits, this one gets heavier, this one makes copies of you, and this one…" He trailed off, reaching out to take the staff in question. "Well that's interesting."

The staff was a dark wood, maybe walnut, polished to a shine and shot through with gold. The golden caps on the end were intricate lion heads, four on each cap, facing out. "What does it do?" His voice sounded intrigued in a way I hadn't heard before. I was betting the staff could do something amazing.

"It's called a Staff of Sacrifice. Basically it lets you offload damage onto an enemy along with your attack." He said with interest. "You have to HAVE the injury, but it's similar to healing in a way, you just swap the damage to the enemy."

That sounded…amazing. I couldn't imagine how useful it would be. Given how Impact worked with wounds it wouldn't work on anyone higher ranked, but since D-rankers were so far removed from me anyway that wasn't important. I turned to the girl with a wide grin. "How much for that one?" Then I let Benny take the stage, and the haggling began.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My new staff was amazing. I might have been a bit biased about the issue, but still, I loved it. I wanted to immediately go do some sparring, but I knew that we had other things to do. So, with nothing else to do, we decided to look around the market to see if there was anything besides weapons we could use to our advantage.

There was, but there also wasn't. I'd spent fifty D-ranked chits on my staff, (the woman giving us a pretty amazing deal because she'd had the thing forever and no one wanted it) and only had thirty left. I had a good set of properly ranked armor, and my spatial ring was still fine, so there wasn't much else I needed.

I considered blowing my budget on elixirs, since I still had my ten thousand point allotment this rank, but I decided that it would be better to use it for the last leg of the journey again, because it had worked out well last time.

Which was how we found ourselves standing outside of a small, run down store in the back corner of the district. This one wasn't anything as impressive or dramatic as a weapon shop. It was a book store.

'Tales of Trayven' was old, musty, and dark. The light was dim inside and the walls were stacked high with books of a variety of shapes and sizes. Rather than stack them neatly on a shelf, the books had been jammed in at every possible angle, some vertical, some horizontal, some diagonal.

Because of the huge variety of sizes and shapes, the walls looked like a chaotic mess, and rather than have discrete shelves, the walls were lined with books themselves, stacked to the rafters (and some IN the rafters). Behind the counter at the back, reading a book by the light of a mostly melted candle sticking out of an actual human skull, was an old man.

I'd…never seen an Ascendant that old before. I had no concept of what his age must be to look like he was in his 90's at…well I wasn't sure of his rank, but it was higher than D. Sure, he was in good shape for an older guy. But between the steel grey hair and the lines on his face, he was probably nearing the edge of his D-rank years.

"Well?" He asked, voice sharp and commanding. "Are you going to stare at me like an idiot or tell me what books you're looking for."

Benny cleared his throat. "Well, we aren't really sure what we need. We were just hoping to-" He cut off as a book came whirling from behind the counter like a throwing star and thunked right into his forehead. "Ow. What the hell?"

"Moron!" Snapped the old man. "I run a book store, not an information directory. Don't come in here and waste my time with nonsense. Come up with a subject to ask about or get the hell out!" He gestured at the walls, which given this was an Ascendant shop, were much larger than the outside of this building would suggest. "This is the finest collection of rare tomes in three factions."
Abel perked up. "Do you have any Skill or Spellbooks-" He dipped to the side to avoid the next thrown book, but it curved in midair and smacked into his forehead, just above the mask. He glared at the old man, rubbing his head. "What was that for?"

"This is a book store." The old man reiterated. "Not a Skill repository. The books here contain knowledge. If you want to learn a Skill go buy a crystal."

I nodded slowly, carefully considering how to ask. "Well…how about books on the vanished gods? Do you have any of those?"

His head finally came up out of his book, eyebrow raising. "Well now. That's an interesting request. No one has seen fit to come ask old Arble about the times before the times. You'd think being all high and mighty powerful would make them smarter. Still morons though."

"Arble?" Asked Zeke in disbelief. "YOU'RE Arble? Arble the Ancient? Arble the oldest A-ranker? What the hell are you doing running a shop in a place like this?"

Able sneered at him. "And where else would I run a shop, moron? Some political shithole den of snakes in one of the galactic centers? The day I need some A-ranked puppy to tell me where I should do business is the day I drift peacefully off into the great sleep."

Zeke just snorted. "So…I assume you came for the meeting then? Lark brought you?"

"Morgan-boy might have asked me to hang around." He said lazily. "Lots of people here for this little shindig. Old Arble is always happy to bring education to the blithering masses. Morons like you need a firm and guiding hard, don't you know?"

Rolling his eyes, my uncle shook his head. "If you're Arble the only reason no one has asked you for information is because they don't know you're here. You're one of the oldest A-rankers in the five factions. Over twenty thousand years last I heard it. No wonder Lark wanted you around. So do you have any info on the vanished gods?"

"Knowledge is power." Arble said thoughtfully. "What right do you have to seek my power, brat? Just another puffed up A-rank baby trying to tell old Arble how to organize his books. Your young man there knows how things are done." He nodded to me. "Came in a customer and asked old Arble to show his wares. None of this ridiculous war nonsense, just a curious youth looking to find knowledge."

I cut my uncle off, nodding to the old man. "So, do you have a book we might reference? Something with more than one deity mentioned maybe?"

He nodded approvingly. "That I do. In fact, I have several. Historians seek knowledge like a dying man seeks water in the desert, and they've sometimes got a hankering for strange and obscure subjects. That's how they become renowned, you see. You do research on a niche subject hoping to exploit it for popularity, and if your subject becomes important for some reason your rank explodes. Quite a few niche historians going to rise to prominence off this war."

I was surprised to hear that. I knew about historians and archivists, people who worked with the historical society set up by the Vikram family, but I hadn't considered how that might be related to cultivation.

It made sense though. Creating an academic structure like that would be beneficial for society, circulating important discoveries to help historians who were important rank up so they could keep contributing. I glanced around the shop. "Are all of these books written by niche historians trying to discover the next big historical find?"

"Oh it's not all academics." he said lazily. "Historians are useful in many ways. Archeological finds, tombs, ancient cities. As many of them are treasure hunters as academics, though far fewer of those accomplish anything of consequence. Moron children with moron dreams. And not all of them stick to singular topics. Some of them research larger subcategories."

I could see where he was going with this. "So there have been historians that studied the banished gods as a whole? Cataloguing them maybe?"

"Departed Deities." He said, flicking a finger and catching a book that sailed off a shelf without any physical contact. "By C. Albert Crick." He passed me the weighty blue leather volume. "Not much information on each." He admitted. "But for scope it'll do you just fine. I have another copy, but those S-ranked brats will need to pay through the nose for it." He winked at me. "Don't let them pressure you into showing them yours without extracting concessions."

I laughed at that. "I won't. I was curious, by the way. Do you have any books on Skill construction? I've noticed there doesn't seem to be a Skill for that."

"Of course not." He said with a snort. "Build Skills with your soul, don't you? The soul is beyond the system that quantifies our skills and stats. But also of it. A complex topic. As I told your friends there, knowledge beyond the scope of Skills and abilities can still be useful."

Nodding slowly, I considered that. I was sure you COULD make a Skill out of plenty of these, but he wasn't wrong. Just because you needed information didn't mean you needed a Skill. Historians in general probably worked on that premise. Not everyone wanted to become an archivist just to learn some things about the past.

"As for a book…" He looked me over. "A Wyndham, are you? Interest in Skill development is to be expected, but younger than most. A good head on your shoulders."

He reached under the counter and pulled out a key, turning to unlock a cabinet. Pulling out a small, unassuming book bound in grey leather. He passed it to me, and I read the spine. "Basics of Skill design by Alistair Wyndham." I raised an eyebrow at him. "A family member huh? Thanks, I appreciate that, but I don't know if I can afford both. I have to assume these books are pricey."

"Bah." He snorted. "Wyndhams. So concerned with price and exchange. This is my bookstore, whelp, and if I say they're not too expensive then they're not. Thirteen D-ranked chits for the pair of them, and not a single coin more."

My eyes widened. "That's… that's very generous, thank you." I snapped my fingers, storing the books away, and counted out the chits.

He stared at me. "You remind me of someone I used to know. An old friend. He was much smarter than you are, but he had the same look in his eye. Like he wanted to devour the world and come back for seconds. You come back sometime, next time you figure out what kind of knowledge you need. Old Arble has books on everything."

"I'm getting married in a few months probably." I said wryly. "You have a book on how to not fuck that up?"

He snickered at that. "You ever find a book that tells you that, you bring it here and sell it to me. I'll pay you your weight in A-ranked chits. You read those books careful now whelp. Plenty of things in there to help a young buck like you."

I thanked him and then turned to leave the shop. Something had caught my eye. Another book with a familiar name on it. I walked over to the shelf and reached in between two huge tomes, pulling out a small book bound in red leather. "Contract efficiencies and subclauses by Elijah Wyndham." I opened it, finding thin, densely packed pages full of information on contract construction.

Despite the years, I recognized some of the terms and quotes as things my dad had included in my lessons as a kid.

"Haven't seen that in years." Said Zeke with a whistle. "Historians aren't the only ones who publish, though academic reputation doesn't often add much to a combat focused Ascendant. You going to pick up a copy?"

I snapped it shut, sliding it back onto the shelf and turning away. "No thanks." I said calmly. "I've learned all I need to about that topic."

My dad had shaped so much of my life growing up, even without actually being around. But as I'd grown, especially since Ascending, I was more and more certain that I didn't want to be him. Didn't want to do things his way.

I was on my own path, finding my own way. I wouldn't turn down knowledge for the sake of it, but that book wasn't anything I needed. The others followed quietly, probably digesting the same information I was, and thinking about the strange encounter. Or…you know, they didn't want to get hit in the back of the head with a book on the way out. Could be either one.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We met up with the girls and Callen back at the inn, because Callie didn't want me to see her dress before the wedding. They all seemed happy and relaxed, and I realized I felt pretty good too. A day just hanging and shopping with friends was pretty fun, though I wished we could've all gone together.

"So I ran into an old friend." Said Callie as she plopped down next to me at the table in the inns common room. "Do you remember Annalise from the Moonsong Glade?"

I blinked in surprise. "I do. I hadn't expected many of the Glade explorers to be here. Are they looking into the purchase of that mountain?"

"Partially." She said with a waggle of her hand. "Mostly they're using the contract we signed there as kind of a template. It's one of the largest cooperative agreements between the factions in recent history, so it's a good starting point. Most of the factions brought their signatories. In fact, Annalise told me there was going to be a meeting tonight between the signatories, just a kind of catch up session between old friends."

Friends was a bit of a stretch, but it would be nice to see some familiar faces. This place was kind of intimidating so finding some allies would be a big comfort.

"So who came?" I asked cautiously. "Because if Templeton is there…"

She shook her head. "I asked. The Whispered Lie apparently has some issues with Lark. They deeply dislike each other, and he avoids the Vampire like the plague. Markoth and Nasha are here. Gabe came with us. Morgan brought Aida, Tracey, Satala, and Yvette. With his protection the Glade will be ok unattended for a while." Bethy's thralls were here, that was good, it would help her a lot.

Gabe nodded. "Valsa contacted me as well. The Empire sent her here in hopes of the same sort of reciprocity. Dralka came with her. Do you know is Harrison brought along Alistair?"

I glanced at Zeke, who shook his head. "He didn't. You're the WCPs representative for the younger generation. Alistair worked too closely with Templeton and people hate that family, it was considered an unwise gesture to ship him all the way out here."

"I never asked about the sold mountain by the way." I said, thinking of something that had been bothering me. "Isn't the guy who bought it part of an S-rank clan?"

Zeke nodded casually. "He was." He said in an even voice. "Now he isn't. The Labyrinth Lord and his immediate family are dead, and the rest of their clan has been disbanded." We all froze, staring at him.

"An S-ranker DIED?" I asked in a small voice. "And we didn't even hear about it?"

He shrugged. "The Labyrinth Lord was responsible for his grandson's rise to power. When Valak betrayed the five faction alliance to Hatescream and it was confirmed? Well, that Felix kid screwed Valak when he tipped his hand. He most likely didn't expect you all to get out, but when you did…"

"We killed him." I said blankly. That was…being responsible for someone's death was one thing, even doing the deed myself I had practice with. But wiping out a whole FAMILY casually, and an S-rank clan at that, because of the actions of one guy?

Callie put a hand on my shoulder. "It's ok hon. I get it, that's a lot. But they made the right call." I turned on her, confused and waiting for an explanation, and she just sighed. "Zeke said his IMMEDIATE family. His grandson was an A-ranker, I'm guessing his kids and spouse were all up there too. It's not like they were killing children."

Thinking about it like that did help. "An S-ranker not knowing one of his descendants was colluding with the BMP long term is unlikely right? Not to mention he'd have had to spend family funds on that mountain and then explain where it went."

"We're pretty sure they were all involved." He confirmed. "And even beyond that, we couldn't afford a potentially traitorous S-ranker. It was decided he was either a traitor or too stupid to live. You could consider that the first act of the war. The Judgement Pope killed them personally. His powers are tough to counter."

I shook my head. "In any case, that's a yes from me to the party. We can pool information about what's going on in Tricorn, maybe figure out our next move. Speaking of, did any of you hear anything while you were out about potential allies? There are local factions here that might be useful to make inroads with."

"We heard some mentions." She shrugged. "Just bits and pieces of conversations where they didn't bother to use Stealth. Apparently there are a lot of gangs in the different sections of the city, though more of them form on the edges, where territories rubbing up against each other causes friction."

I nodded. "I got the same impression. We caught a few conversations wandering around looking for weapons. No real idea who is who, but I heard someone mention the Death Adder Collective and the Monster Factory."

"The Soul Song Temple came up a few times." Callie shrugged. "And apparently the Church section of the continent has been inundated with a new group calling themselves Seven Colored Sunlight. They're making quite a splash, though they've avoided enough scrutiny that no one knows who their members are. Masks and cloaks and all."

I blinked. "That's a really cheerful name for a street gang. Kind of cool too."

"You would think that." My fiancee said in a fond but somewhat scathing tone. "But maybe we can have Chelsea look into it. If they're making that much of a ruckus then they're bound to be pretty impressive." She heard me start snickering and glared at me. "What?"

"Ruckus." I repeated. "Makes you sound old, like Zeke."

My uncle turned to glare at me. "Hey! No friendly fire! I'm not even part of this conversation."

I snickered at him, but turned back to Callie. "That's not a bad idea though. With Callen along I'm sure she'd be safe enough asking around, especially with mom in town. She's been a Saintess for ages, plus she has two abilities. I'd imagine that makes her pretty scary even by A-ranker standards."

"It does." Confirmed Zeke. "Your mother is infamous among people our rank. You don't get a title like she has without making some impressions.Plus her combination of abilities is uniquely effective."

I gestured to my uncle. "See." I glanced over to where my sister was sitting with Bethy. "Hey Chelsea!" I didn't raise my voice too much, without stealth it would be impossible for her to miss it.

She glanced over at me and I waved her to the table. She came over to sit with us, Bethy following behind. "What's up?" She asked as she arrived. "I caught the tail end of that, but I was focused on something else, something about protection and street gangs? Do I need to beat someone up for being mean to you?" Her tone was serious despite the obvious teasing glint in her eye.

"Yes." I said solemnly. "Zeke is being mean to me. Sick em'."

She burst out laughing at that. Bethy looked outraged. "He's what? Which one of them is Steve? I'll totally kick his butt."

Zeke froze, turning to glare at her. "I'm sorry, what exactly do you mean Steve? I'm an A-ranker, you can't just purposefully get my name wrong to make me angry like you do with what's-his-face."

Abel, sitting nearby, threw up his hands with a strangled cry of impotent rage before burying his head in his hands. Mel patted his back, and I just chuckled, knowing it didn't actually bother him nearly that much. He just liked to play along because it lightened the mood. I was pretty sure Bethy even knew that, but she did it anyway because it made everyone smile.

"Calm down, Steve." I said seriously. "Bethy is just kidding around. We're all very impressed by your breakthrough to A-rank. Making it to such a high rank with such a lackluster name is a real accomplishment."
Callie burst out laughing at his outraged face, and he rolled his eyes before getting up and storming off dramatically. Not that he was actually upset, just playing along. "Anyway." Said Callie, getting us back on track. "There's a street gang in the Church district calling themselves Seven Colored Sunlight. They're new but apparently very powerful. We were hoping you could reach out to them. Or at least ask around."

The mask and cloak thing was a bit reminiscent of the Heartrippers, but these were actual Church natives and my bad reputation with th Cult should actually be an asset in these circumstances.

"Seven Colored Sunlight huh?" She said musingly. "Sounds like they might be supporters of the Rainbow Pope. He can use this weird energy that's a combination of sever different types of sometimes conflicting power. He can separate it and recombine the individual parts into different types of sub-energy. Aside from you he's probably the most versatile Ascendant I've ever seen."

I blinked at that. "Is the Rainbow Pope…like, on good terms with us? Or do we have some sort of feud with him?"

"Ostensibly the Popes are all fellow disciples who get along famously." My sister said. "Though the Judgement Pope tends to be something of a recluse, and the Twilight Pope has a serious feud with the Absolute Pope. She's fine with the others though."

Aside from learning about two more popes, I focused on her last comment. "Wait…is there no feminine for Pope? Like wouldn't it be Popess or something?"

"Have you ever heard anyone use the word Popess?" Asked my sister flatly. "Because if you have I hope you slapped them. It sounds stupid. No there are two female Popes in the Church. Twilight and Daydream."

"How many popes are there total?" I asked curiously. "That's six that I know of."

She chuckled. "Seven, the last is the Moonlight Pope. He's second oldest after Judgement. I've never met him, he tends to be out and about most of the time. Sort of a wandering warrior type. Apparently he's the strongest in a straight fight, though Judgement is considered the most dangerous."

"You never answered my question. Are we ok with the Rainbow Pope?" I said, filing away all this for the future before refocusing on my target.

My sister nodded. "He's fine. He and Grandpa get along pretty well. Grandpa is the youngest disciple, and Rainbow is next up the list, so they look out of each other. The older ones tend to talk down to them. Not out of malice or anything, but they just kind of see them as babies or juniors. Grandpa rants about it sometimes."

"Good." I said with a smile. "Then you can reach out to them to see if they might be interested in meeting. If they can make a rep for themselves here they must be pretty tough customers. I wouldn't mind a little backup on our side here beyond who we have on hand."

Mom's suggestion to expand our social circle had implications beyond the competition. She'd all but confirmed that making friends might keep us safe in the long run, and I was going to take her warning seriously. She wouldn't have brought it up if it wasn't important.

My sister agreed, and when invited to our little get together tonight turned us down. She didn't want to intrude, and despite us assuring her she wouldn't be didn't seem to want to come along. Bethy was happy to go of course, and Gabe, so we all agreed to meet in the common room at around eight P.M.

Once that was done Callie and I went upstairs to lie down, deciding to nap a bit before the shindig so we would be in fighting form. Or partying form, either one. Large gatherings of Ascendants tended to get out of hand, so best to be ready for anything. I had a feeling ti would be a long night either way.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The party was being held at a restaurant called Flat Bridges. I had no clue WHY it was called that, but no one else seemed to think it was weird so I didn't bring it up. "So…" I said as we stopped in front of the doors to the restaurant. "How do you want to do this? If we're trying to be political our entrance is important. What should we say?"

We stood like that for a second before Bethy shrugged, kicked in the doors and squealed joyfully. "We're back, bitches!" As she strode into the place.

"That'll work." Said Callie wryly. I just laughed and draped an arm over her shoulder and headed inside as Abel, Mel, Gabe, Celine, Jessie, and Benny followed us in. "This place is really nice." She commented as we entered. "And the food smells amazing. What is that?"

I took a quick sniff. "Meat? Smells like something is grilling." Sure enough, when we entered we realized that the place seemed to be designed around the concept of grilling your own food. A series of long tables with grills in the middle were laid out along the length of the room. On the sides of the grills were plates of different foods along with small bowls of marinades and what look like breading.

The whole thing was making me hungry, and we immediately found our part, or at least, the people we recognized. Not everyone who had been at the Glade was here, but there were enough of them to fill the place. The signatories were at the last table, and the rest of us hurried to join them, finding Valsa, Annalise, Markoth, Nasha, Drake, and a few other familiar faces.

"Tala!" Squealed Bethy. "I didn't see you on the ship, it's so good to run into you." She hurled herself onto the dead god's daughter, giving her a tight squeeze. Aida and Tracey were beside her, the two thralls clearly having already greeted their mistress.

Satala smiled warmly. "It's lovely to see you as well Bethany. I was happy to hear you've been growing so quickly. E-rank already, I see."

"Yup!" The vampire said brightly. "I joined the army. I was super good at it too! They made me Jessie's bodyguard, and I totally kept her safe from all the bad guys. They were like 'Let us in Bethy!' and I was like 'POW! Not today!' Tell them Jessie!"

I turned to my healer, who had taken a seat across from her. "Oh, you guys were attacked?"

"Not once." Said Jessie matter of factly, and Bethy clutched her chest, falling backwards out of her chair only to be caught by Tracey (or was it Aida, I had trouble remembering which was which). She was being even more effervescent than usual, and I noticed she'd been acting similar around her thralls when I met her. Maybe it was her way of making sure they didn't worry.

Satala snickered softly. "Well I'm glad you had a good time. The Master has been keeping an eye out for the Glade, and the recovery effort has been going very well. Anna-Marie sends her best. She wanted to come with us, but the Glade is her home and someone needs to keep an eye on things while I'm away."

I laughed at that. "So things worked out for her in the end huh? Bet she's glad she stumbled on us in the woods."

"She's said as much many times." She said with a wide smile. "You're always welcome to visit, you know. Without the disruption entry and exit is simple enough. The bazaar has been converted into a standing market, and it acts as a sort of staging area where people can prepare to enter. Without my mothers Impact, there are far fewer, but there are many rare and precious ingredients growing there, some of which have been lost to time elsewhere."

Callie looked delighted. "That sounds lovely, but actually, we were going to extend an invitation of our own." She grinned, holding up her hand to show off her ring.

"You're getting married!" Squealed Bethy. We all turned to look at her. "What? I know I already knew that, but it's very exciting. Plus I get to pretend like I'm just finding out. I want to be a part of things too!"

Satala just laughed. "Congratulations the both of you." She said with a wide smile. "I'll see if we can make it to the wedding. I'm sure Yvette will be interested in attending. I couldn't convince her to come tonight. She wasn't a signatory and considered this sort of outside her purview."

That sounded like Yvette. "So Annalise, it's good to see you again." I greeted the fae. "Same to you Valsa, Dralka. Thank's for the invite, we don't know many people on Tricorn."

The regal fairy nodded her head. "Nor do we. It's been a strange time settling in, though I was told you've only just arrived. I appreciate you accepting our last minute request. The food here is quite exceptional."

I glanced down at the plates of meat and vegetables. Callie was sitting beside me, her eyes locked on my mask, and I sighed. "Fine, I'll cook it because I have the Skill. It shouldn't make THAT much difference." She just smiled triumphantly, and everyone laughed while I put together a plate for her.

I grabbed plenty of beef (I thought itt was beef, it was multiple different colors) and some veggies, then I whipped up a quick tempura batter before dipping the vegetables and laying them on the hot grill. The smell of frying food bloomed, and I flipped them nearly instantly, careful not to overcook. Then I seared the beef and set it all out on the plate before handing it to her.

Once she had her food I repeated the process for my own, excited to try it. My personal favorite tempura was the sweet potatoes, so I made sure to fry extra for me. I finished them up, taking a bite of the still piping hot food and groaned in bliss. "Ok, that's really good. How's the beef?"
Callie was just stuffing a piece in her mouth, and held up a finger while she chewed. "I like the purple stuff best. The red is ok. The blue is weirdly tart, but not terrible. It goes well with the zucchini, and the red is good with the carrots." She turned to Jessie, pouting. "Can I taste yours to see if Shane's cooking Skill made a difference?"

Our healer rolled her eyes, offering a piece of freshly seared purple meat. Callie chomped down delightedly. She nodded in contentment. "Definitely better. But not like, crazy different. I'd have thought it wouldn't be possible for people without the cooking Skill to make ingredients of this quality into food."

I waggled my hand. "First off, I'm pretty sure these grills are enchanted. Secondly anyone can prepare ingredients of any quality, assuming they have access to a heat source that can cook it, or knives that can cut it or what have you. The cooking Skill just guides that preparation so they don't end up producing inedible charcoal. Cooking gets more complicated once you get to higher level ingredients."

She nodded in interest as she popped another piece in her mouth. "These are F-ranked." She said after swallowing. "Makes it easier to cook them I assume? Or at least easier not to screw them up. An enchanted grill is interesting though. Does it act to replace the cooking Skill?"

"Basically." I said with a shrug before biting into a piece of fried and battered broccoli. "Moderates the heat and exposure for you. Intermediate cooking Skill, but not quite at the same level as mine."

Benny nodded from where he sat diagonal to us, stuffing his face with the red meat. Finally he swallowed, then turned to Annalise. "So, you've been here for a while right? Any advice?"

She nodded slowly. "A few pieces, perhaps. Stay away from Sunset Lane. It's at the edge of Fairyland and Empire territory, near the outer limits of the Tricorn. It's where the most notorious criminals go to trade."

"Why don't they just clean it out then?" Asked Jessie in confusion. "Seems like a bad idea to leave a nest of bad guys sitting around."

Annalise shook her head. "Each district is beholden to the laws of its faction, and that means certain things are forbidden to buy and sell. By overlooking the criminal element in Sunset Lane the powers that be allow for some wiggle room in terms of legal sale and trade. Some things can be difficult to get your hands on legally, but are still extremely beneficial."

I wished Zeke was in here, but my uncle had decided to wait outside so he didn't intimidate everyone in here. I decided to broach my question to the group to see if anyone could answer it. "If that's their aim then why don't they just let the WCP put down roots here?" I asked bluntly.

"Power." She answered simply. "Despite being overlooked, the sellers are all citizens of the three factions at play. If necessary they can stop ignoring them, and the sellers know that, so they're leveraged to keep them happy. The WCP is one of the most powerful factions in the universe, and their territories are truly neutral under universal law. That means no leverage."

I nodded slowly. "I can understand that, it makes sense not to want to-" I was cut off by a loud crash, and all of us turned to see a group of men entering the restaurant.

"Who the hell is that?" Asked Callie in annoyance, shooting her food a devastated look. We were all staring at the group of about fifteen men, all E-rank, standing at the entrance to the restaurant.

Each man was wearing black leather pants and black shoulder pads with horned skull masks. Chains wrapped their torsos and their eyes blazed red, probably some sort of special effect of the mask. I honestly wasn't impressed. "Well, well, well." The shortest one crowed in amusement. "What do we have here?"

"It's a restaurant, boss." Said an absolutely gargantuan man standing next to him. Easily seven and a half feet and about five feet wide at the shoulders.

The short guy paused, putting a hand to his mask like he was gripping the bridge of his nose. "I was trying to be ominous, Bruno. I KNOW what a restaurant is. I meant why are all these people here that I don't know? In Horned Lords territory."

Bruno shrugged. "I dunno boss, why don't you ask em'?" I had to clamp down desperately to keep from laughing, because I knew it wasn't going to help things.

The short guy was nearly frozen with frustration, the sounds of his teeth grinding audible from where we sat. Finally, his shoulders slumped and he sighed, turning away from the big man. "This is Horned Lords territory!" He shouted, trying to regain his air of menace. "You're all new here, so we might be convinced to let you off with a warning for not paying the toll. An expensive warning."

"Yeah." Shouted Bruno. "Give us your dinners!" Every single member of the gang turned to stare at him. He froze. "I mean. Pay us money and also your dinners!" He shrugged at the others. "Sorry, I skipped lunch."

Abel was openly chortling at the production. "Alright." He said pleasantly. "You guys are funny. So tell you what. Turn around and leave, and we won't kill most of you. As thanks for the dinner theater."

"Do you know who we are?" Shouted the short guy. "We're the Horned Lords. We work directly for the Red Brethren!"

I saw Annalise go stiff at that statement, and was about to tell Abel to stop then a massive fist image made of lightning smashed into the short guy, sending him THROUGH the front wall and tumbling out into the street, smoking as he went. Abel flexed his fist, letting the electricity settle. "Loving these new gloves." And then the fourteen remaining gang members attacked.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The second the other members of the Horned Lords charged, the rest of us moved. I rose from my chair, foot touching down on the edge of the grill table and hurling myself up. My State of Grace was pretty much permanent in my armor, so I soared up into the air weightlessly.

I'd probably have hit the ceiling if I hadn't been paying attention, instead I pushed off into a gainer (a backflip performed while moving forward according to Abel) and bent my knees enough that my feet missed the ceiling at the top of my arc. Continuing the motion I came down towards the crowd of gangsters.

My staff appearing in my hands, slamming down in a brutal thrust to smash into the head of the one I was coming down on top of. He stumbled back and I pushed off his chest, purposefully using very little force so I'd land quickly.

Once my feet hit the ground, I triggered Mornax, and the crowd of them rushing me didn't have the time to stop as the first one slammed into me in a shoulder charge and STOPPED with a loud crack as something broke in his collarbone. He dropped to the ground howling in pain, and several more of them tripped over his flailing legs and ended up in a pile on the floor in front of me.

Tapping the ground, I triggered Pit of Despair, the group of enemies sinking effortlessly into the dust before I removed the Skill and let it harden around them.

"That's four!" I called gleefully over my shoulder. "And they aren't even-" My Danger Sense went off and I crouched, not wanting to lose my powerful defense by jumping. A fist erupted from the ground below me, smashing into the side of my knee with terrifying force, and I even felt a slight twinge as it made contact.

At sixty five Impact, not to mention being made of stone, not to mention density shifted, with the ADDITION of Mountain Stance, an E-ranker hurting me with a punch was a staggering accomplishment.

Literally, as it turned out, I staggered under the blow, and the ground shattered as the four gang members burst free and threw themselves at me.

Cursing, I slammed my feet back down, activating Mornax again and then stacking Belial on top. I could have used Mephistopheles I supposed, but explosions of destructive armor eating fire weren't exactly environmentally friendly. I could turn off the corrosion when I was done if it ended up tagging something I didn't mean to hit.

My staff licked out, slapping aside the fist of the closest one before smashing the knee of another trying to circle me. One appeared behind me, driving a fist into my kidney, but I shrugged it off with a grunt as I slammed my staff back and down, driving the butt of it into the foot of the third attacker. I felt about a dozen small foot bones break and heard a howl of pain before I drove my elbow back into the spot the sound came from.
There was a crack and a thump as my stone elbow crushed the nose of his mask and he collapsed. I stared at the two in front of me, eyes scanning for the missing fourth guy. I'd lost track of him when they came out of the floor (which I was going to need to fix probably). I heard a constant stream of breaking dishes and cracking furniture around me as my friends worked on the rest of them. Apparently someone decided to leave me to my fun, and I wasn't sure if I was grateful or annoyed.

"Ok, where did your friend go?" I asked the two still circling. I didn't expect them to answer, but I figured one of them might give away the game by accident. And they did, the one on the left turned his head unconsciously to look at something, and I spun to intercept… "Oh god WHY!?" I yelped, hurling myself to one side.

The fourth guy, the one I hit in the face to start, had turned into some kind of giant spider demon beast and was hanging above me, slowly lowering down. My Danger Sense had been pinging nonstop since they erupted from the ground, so it hadn't warned me.

Once he saw me notice him he tried to drop on me, but I was already flying through the air, so he ended up just landing on the gravel, viciously sharp forelegs coming over his shoulders and raking into the stone to tear it apart. He threw back his head and roared, and I caught sight of the mandibles under his mask.

I waved a hand, triggering Pit of Despair under him. He'd already seen it, so he retreated up onto his webs…which meant he was completely vulnerable to the forest of razor sharp spikes I sent spearing up toward him from the dust with Dust Construction.

The spikes perforated him in about a dozen places, and he roared with pain and fear as he tried to struggle. The struggling slowed, and I turned to face the others dispassionately. Play stupid games win stupid prizes, I was past the point of waffling over every enemy I killed in combat. I spotted one of the others but realize one was missing for a split second before I felt a surge of fear.

Not my fear, Callie had spotted the last one, and as I spun to intercept he drove some sort of ghostly blade into me. It had sharp hooked teeth and was viciously curved, and it slid right past my armor and into my guts with a thump.

Callie screamed in rage and fear, but I just sent her a reassuring pulse of confidence. The other one had come up behind me to help his friend, and when the first one pulled out his dagged my staff blurred back and slammed into HIS gut. There was a slight burn, and then the pain in my stomach was gone as the Horned Lord collapsed with a surprised scream.

The dagger wielder looked at him in confusion, and when he turned to stare at his friend I triggered Steam Arrow. I wasn't in Belial or Mornax anymore, but the normal attack was E-ranked like I was and with my Impact it was much more damaging than it should have been.

The plume of boiling hot condensed vapor hit him straight in the eye socket of his mask, and he reeled back, screaming. I choked up on my staff and swung it like a bat, smashing it into his jaw with all the force I could muster. He slumped over, his brain having been rattled against his Skull by the carefully aimed blow (thank you Overlay).

I glanced down at the one twitching and bleeding on the floor and sighed. He hadn't been the one to try to spider murder me or stab me, and killing one of them in battle was different than letting someone die in agony of a wound that should have been mine. I tapped him with my staff, funneling a heal burst into him.

I had three left and I was only using one on him. If he died anyway it wasn't my concern. He WAS an enemy, and there were limits to my compassion.

Turning to look at the restaurant I grimaced. The place had been totalled. We'd taken the fight right to them so most of the Glade survivors were fine, we'd avoided all the F-rankers getting murdered.

That had been why we'd had to attack. With so many there was no way we could have contained the damage if they spread out, and too many of our people were weak. Abel had known it from the start, I was sure, or he wouldn't have unilaterally made the decision to attack. Battle maniac he may be, but he had a good head on his shoulders.

Callie came rushing up to me, throwing herself into my arms. "Are you ok? How did he get past your armor?"

I squeezed back, then walked over and picked up the weapon. The hooked dagger hadn't been an ability, as I expected, it was a weapon. A D-rank weapon at that, and how the hell had I missed that?

Callie took it from me, examining it. "This seems to be almost MADE of ectoplasm. I've never seen anything like it."

Her spectral severer (though woefully out of date) was made to HURT ghosts, but not out of actual ghost material. I gestured for her to put it away. "Keep it, it seems like it might be valuable. Any of them die except spider guy?"

"Nope. Lots of injured, but none dead." She said with a smile. "Hopefully that makes whatever backlash we might face from their benefactors less of an issue."

I shrugged. "The Red Brethren sound scary, so they're probably at least partly C-rank. If they send anyone Zeke can take care of them, or if they send a D-ranker we have Callen. We're not exactly in a bad position." Glancing around, I realized the fight was over. "We should go figure out what the hell is going on I guess." I said with a sigh. "What do you think the chances are that this was just a random coincidental robbery?" She just stared at me. "Yeah, I was afraid of that."
Walking over to the front, we found the two original gang members. The big one, Bruno, was partially sticking out of a wall, groaning as Gabe leaned against the stone next to him looking bored. The short guy who had been talking though, he was…otherwise occupied.

Specifically, he was hanging from a series of long strands of silk thrown over a few rafters. Bethy was standing to one side, giggling madly as she hauled back on the silk, sending him flying up into the air and just out of the reach of Poptarts and Donuts, who were circling on the ground, lunging for him every time he got close.

"Oh gods, please!" He howled desperately. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know people like you were here. Please stop." He was actively sobbing, and I heard him yelp as Donuts (I think, it was hard to tell the difference) managed to score a scratch on his stomach.

Bethy clicked her tongue. "Well, I guess if you're sorry. I don't think interrupting people's dinner is very nice. Do you?"

"No!" He squeaked in panicked agreement. "It was rude. I was a rude, mean person, and I've learned the error of my ways and will never be man to anyone again and OH GOD THAT ALMOST TOOK OUT MY EYE PLEASE STOP!"

She didn't look convinced. "What about your friends? You said they were going to come hurt me if I didn't let you go."

Before he could answer, I cleared my throat. They all froze as they turned to stare at me…except one of the cats who reached up really quick and slapped him in the face with its paw before acting like nothing happened. "Bethy." I said in amusement. "Made a new friend I see."

"Yup!" She said enthusiastically. "He's been playing with the kitties. They're having a marvelous time. Can we keep him?"

His head snapped up to me. "NO!" He screamed. "You're in charge of her. Tell her to let me down please? I'll pay you. I'll give you whatever you want. Money, information, I don't care, just get me away from her."

"Let him down." I said with a sigh. "But don't untie him. I have questions, and if he doesn't give me the answers I what he can always go back to playing scratching post." She huffed sulkily and then let go of the silk, letting him crash unceremoniously into the ground with a thump. He groaned for a second before scrambling up, eyes wild behind his mask. I smiled at him as he looked around. "There, now that you're comfy, why don't we have a chat. I have SO many questions."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The short Horned Lord (whose name we learned was Matthew) was eager to tell us what we wanted to know. And more. He actually ended up spending about fifteen minutes babbling about nonsense I didn't care about, and if I hadn't been sure he was absolutely convinced Bethy was going to feed him to her cats, I'd have suspected him of stalling.

"And then I stole my friend Ben's muffin tops." He yammered. "I shouldn'ta done it, his mom made them special, and it was his birthday. But I was so sad after my dog died and I just really needed a win that day. He never figured out it was me. I told him Sal did it and he blamed him for the rest of Sal's life, which wasn't very long because Ben jumped him in an alley two years later and caved his skull in with his boots. I know it was wrong but-"

I threw my hands up in frustration. "ENOUGH!" I was almost shaking with frustration. "I don't CARE." I said plainly. "I'm not your priest or your therapist. I asked for information on your GANG."

He shook his head. "No, see, I know but I needed to give you the context there so you'd understand-"

"He's stalling." I said to Bethy. "Feed him to the cats."

His head jerked back in shock. "NO! I promise I'm trying, it's just complicated." I glared at him and he slumped. "I'll uncomplicate it. Word came down from the Red Brethren, they were upping the taxes for all their subordinate gangs because of the visitors. They said we need to make quota or we'll BE quota, so they sent us out to raise a little hell, poke some high and mighty types who might be new to town."

"And none of you questioned this?" I said in exasperation. "Like say…you didn't wonder WHY so many new people were showing up and what kind of backing they had? Like you have no idea why they instituted this policy so suddenly? Because I feel like if you were actually that oblivious you wouldn't have lasted this long as a gang leader."

He shrugged. "The Red Brethren work for one of the Devil Princes. Nobody says it out loud, but it's common knowledge. Who the hell are we to piss off an S-ranker. Come on man, you don't need to do this. We learned of lesson. You already killed Julio. Bruno is going to have trouble walking, Marco is probably going to lose an eye. And don't get me stared on what you did to poor Ted."

I blinked, processing the discrepancy in names. No time to think about it too much. "Look, I don't have a problem letting you go. You'll need to settle up with the owner yourself, but our people are fine and you lost somebody." I sighed dramatically. "But see, Bethy here, she loves her cats." I gestured to the vampire, who nodded enthusiastically. "And now you got them all excited and if they don't get to play with you more they'll be sad."

"They totally would!" She said with a pout, calling Donuts (or Poptarts, again, not sure how to tell) from her shadow and shoving hes head right in front of the trembling gang member. "How can you say no to this face?" The cat peeled back its lips, exposing razor sharp fangs as it hissed menacingly at the man from inches away. Which Bethy proceeded to ignore as she cooed at her pet. "He's an ANGEL!"

He wailed, trying to scramble backwards, but the cat put a paw on the silk holding his arms and pinned him in place, keeping him from escaping. I swear the damned thing was SMILING. Fucking cats, man.

"PLEASE DON'T LET IT EAT ME!" He screamed. "I don't know why they sent us out to raise trouble, I swear. But it wasn't just them. The Weeping Blade did it too. And Ancestral Night. They're all vaguely related to S-rankers, but not the same ones. Please that's all I know, I'm not important enough to know any more!"

I glanced at Bethy. "What do you think? You've got some mental tricks, can you tell if he's telling the truth?"

"Nope." She said with a shrug. "I can normally get an idea from heartrate, but he's so terrified I don't think it can get any higher. I believe him though. He's genuinely afraid to die."

I sighed, turning to look around. Eventually I saw a tall, pale man with a ring of hair around his otherwise bald head and a white beard that flowed down to his knees. He seemed to be the strongest person here, and was standing in front of some people who I was pretty sure worked here. "You in charge of this place?" I asked him casually.

He gave a long, slow nod. "I am." He admitted. "I suspect I realize what you wish to say, and I have to be honest. I wish you had just let them rob us. We can't handle dealing with a gang on the level of the Red Brethren."

"Don't worry about that!" Bethy said cheerfully. "I'll make sure my daddy puts a good scare in them. They won't come bother your neat restaurant!"

He raised an eyebrow skeptically, but I just chuckled. "Her dad is Morgan Lark." I explained with amusement. "If he decides you're going to be ok, you will be. I'm not sure where the princes rank in terms of S-rankers, but I know for a fact who is at the top of that list."

Blanching in fear, he swallowed hard, turning to give Bethy an odd salute. "Apologies, young mistress. Had we known your identity we would have served you better."

"Your food is super good!" Said Bethy happily. "Don't be sorry, I like this place. I'm totally gonna bring the rest of my friends here before we go. Anyway, we'll leave this guy to you, you can get your money back from him, right?" She turned and gave Matthew a wide smile that showed plenty of fang.
He jerked to his feet, stumbling over the silk as the cat backed off. "Of course!" He said enthusiastically. "We're happy to help. We can clean up and put things back together and…" He turned his head. "Bruno!" He shouted. "Wake up and come help with the cleanup."

Gabe chuckled from his spot sitting against the wall. "I wouldn't bother, he'll be out for-" He was cut off by a groan and the sound of shifting rock as the huge masked man slowly started extricating himself from the wall. "Wow." He said with naked admiration. "That's actually really impressive. Even Abel would have had trouble shrugging that off."

Bruno groaned. "I'm up!" He said blearily. "What's goin' on?" I just chuckled, before heading back over to our table, meeting everyone else there.

"Well, that was bracing." Said Abel happily as we all retook our seats. "Nothing like dinner and a show." He glanced across the room at the perforated spider guy. "Not exactly the most appetizing decor, I'll admit. Those spikes going to go away?"

I shook my head. "Dust Construction is a crafting Skill. I made them out of the dust on the floor, they're not going anywhere. Before we leave I'll have to manually turn them back to dust and resettle the floor. Pretty crazy though, I have to admit." I glanced at my fiancee, who had taken her seat next to me again. "How was your pre-dinner workout honey? Also did anyone see what happened to the one I kind of gutted. I tried to heal him in passing but…"

"I got him." Said Jessie helpfully. "He might have lived anyway, but I saw you wanted to spare him so I figured I'd help out. That wound was nasty though. It needed more life energy than I expected to close. What made it?"

Callie cut in. "Some freaky ghost knife. Shane stashed it, we can have Zeke identify it later." She arched an eyebrow at me. "And my fight was fine. I only got one, because SOMEBODY had to be greedy and fight four on his own. And then get eviscerated. If you tell me you let yourself get stabbed to test that staff, you can forget the couch, you'll be sleeping in the trash can outside."

I put up both hands defensively. "Whoa, I'm reckless not stupid. I dropped Mornax because I got knocked off my feet, but I thought my gear would stop the attack. A D-rank knife that ignores armor was the last thing I expected."

She nodded, shoulder slumping. "Sorry. I just…that was scary. I could feel your life draining away. I don't suppose the wound transfer got rid of the blood loss?"

"Don't think it works that way." I said with a laugh. "I'll make sure to eat plenty. So…I guess I should bring up the bone wyvern in the room. Are we going to leave this alone? Because it seems like something is brewing and we can still probably stay out of it. We can just head back to the Church district and avoid the territory of any of the involved gangs."

Benny snorted. "As if we've ever been able to avoid getting involved in anything. Not to mention based on what he said this could be some bottom up plan to disrupt the conclave, which would obviously be bad. I say we look into it."

"Seconded." Said Abel as he popped a slice of red beef in his mouth. "We don't have anything to do until the conclave starts anyway. Might as well dig into this mess and see what's going on."

I nodded. "I'll tell mom about it too. Worst case she can't do anything without more to go on, but keeping her in the loop can't hurt." I glanced at Annalise, giving her a wry smile. "Sorry your dinner got lost in the mad shuffle of random street violence. Do you want to look into this with us?"

She stared at me critically for a moment before sighing. "I might as well. The Fairieland has quite a few holdings on Tricorn, and one could say it's my duty to assist." Valsa and Dralka gave similar responses, and I was glad to know we'd have some friends on hand to help. Those three in particular had hit E-rank since the Glade too, which was impressive as hell.

Speaking of rank, I reminded myself to check with the others about theirs. I hadn't asked Callie about her stats in a while, and Benny and Jessie for even longer. I was betting they'd made some pretty serious progress too, especially Callie, who had been much higher than me to start.

I'd look into it as soon as we got back to the inn. For now, I just wanted to enjoy the rest of the night. Despite the fight and bloodshed, everyone seemed to be in a good mood, we'd had no losses and had cleaned up quickly so everyone counted it as a win. We were all in excellent moods, laughing and chatting, and I realized that despite not seeing them for a long time, I did consider these people friends after what we'd been through. It was good to see them again.

Eventually the night wound down, and we said our goodbyes, agreeing to meet up again before the conclave if possible. I used Pit of Despair and Dust Construction to fix all the damage the Horned Lords hadn't been able to repair, and the owner told me my next meal was on the house, which would have been a lot more flattering if he hadn't been side-eyeing Bethy in terror when he said it.

I had Bethy send Poptarts out to follow Matthew without him noticing so we could find out where their territory was so we could start investigating. Then we all headed back to the inn to get some rest. We had a plan for tomorrow now, and it couldn't come soon enough.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"I feel exposed." I complained as we walked into a shady empire controlled area. This was supposedly the central territory of the Horned Lords, and it was the first place we were cheking for clues about what the hell was going on. "Like, do we have to walk around like this? It's embarrassing."

Callie rolled her eyes. "You'll be fine. I think you look great. You're wearing plenty."

"I mean…I'm not." I corrected her. "I'm wearing leather pants and a vest with no shirt, but that's not what I'm talking about. Walking around with my naked face hanging out feels so weird." After more than a year of wearing my mask almost all the time, walking through a crowded street without it was INCREDIBLY stressful.

She shrugged. "No one here is going to recognize you without it. It's not like hiding your identity here is going to do much." She gestured at her own bare face. "And I'm not wearing mine either."

"Yours is a half mask." I complained. "It BARELY conceals your identity. Mine was a full blank face concealing piece of wood. And speaking of barely any mask at all, Bethy, what are you DOING?" I demanded of the vampire, who was standing to one side dressed exactly like normal except sporting a masquerade mask that just covered her eyes.

She put a finger to her lips. "Shhh!" She said emphatically. "Don't use my name! I'm in disguise."

"You're not in disguise." I said in exasperation. "And even if that mask did count as a disguise, how would people know your name? And what are we supposed to call you?"

She grinned triumphantly. "I've decided to go by Betty."

"That's…virtually the same name you already have." I groaned. "There's literally a one letter difference."

Snorting, she shook her head. "Nuh-uh, Bethy is short for Bethany, and Betty is short for Elizabeth. They're so totally different. No one is going to figure it out. As for the mask, of course it'll work." She turned to Callie. "Have you not explained to him how masks work?"

To my surprise, Callie cleared her throat sheepishly. "It hasn't come up." She said with a shrug. Turning back to me, she explained. "Masks are complicated, but they're kind of covered under recursion. Like if you're really stupid obvious people can figure out who you are, but it's harder than you would think. Wearing a mask is SUPPOSED to hide your identity, so it does, even if the mask isn't very large or complicated. Unless you give it away."

"Makes sense I guess." I said begrudgingly. "I could have used that info earlier though. Try to remember I have a lot less experience than you in some ways?" She smiled sheepishly, kissing me on the cheek and apologizing.
She refocused, waving the whole thing off for the moment, since she could sense I didn't care enough to dwell on it.. "So we're meeting up with some of the others here right? I'm not sure how many but I know it won't be everyone."

"Four more." I agreed. "Chelsea, Mel, Abel, and Gabe. They'll also be in disguise. We're just supposed to be lingering around, looking for 'work'. Bunch of E-rank muscle should be plenty useful enough to draw some attention, but keep your ear to the ground about anything. Especially with your shadow listening power."

She nodded. "I'm going to be tapping into Piece of Mind to keep up appearances while I listen. The shadows here are…thicker. I don't know how to explain it but it's going to limit my range a bit."

"Probably some defensive enchantment on the Tricorn." I said with a grimace. "Just do your best. Anything you learn might be helpful." Zeke was around to help if things got rough, but he needed to stay out of sight so as not to blow our cover. Callen was nearby too, waiting with him to jump in.

We found our friends easily enough. My sister was wearing a mask and hood, and gabe had a half skull mask on. Abel was shockingly bare faced, and it was so uncommon I barely recognized him, while Mel's face was a bit more familiar, since we'd seen it a few times. Chelsea waved excitedly as we approached. "Shane!" She shouted energetically. "I look so cool right?"

She spun around, clutching her black velvet cloak as she showed off her dark looking armor. Her mask had little black devil horns, and she mostly looked like some kind of assassin. I gave her a thumbs up. "Nice. I look ridiculous."

Callie clicked her tongue, giving me a once over. "I love the pants, and the vest makes your shoulders look way wider. You should wear this all the time."

"Why can't I wear big ass plate mail like Gabe." I gestured to the mans thick black suit of armor. "I'd look awesome in that." It looked kind of heavy and sweaty, but it was better than walking around super exposed.

She rolled her eyes, feeling my nerves. "Why don't you just shift into one of your forms and maintain it. Belial would probably be easy to trace, but what about Mornax, you could just pretend you have some kind of iron body ability."

I blinked. That…wasn't a bad idea. My feet were on the ground, and I could walk in Mornax, as long as I paid attention. With Piece of Mind running it in the background I could keep it up pretty much indefinitely with my Sapphire soul, especially considering Mornax was a pretty much perfectly structured Skill, at least by my standards.

Triggering it, I felt my whole body toughen, and I relaxed a bit in the knowledge that with my high Impact and all the defensive modifiers it would be easier to stab through E-ranked steel plate than scratch my skin.

"They we go." She said with a smile. "Now, where the hell are we supposed to start this little exploration."

I pointed across the street. A run down looking bar made of wood painted with dark, cracked paint stood recessed back into the shadows. "Damned Souls." I said matter of factly. "The bar the Horned Lords make their lair in. Don't worry, we made sure none of our friends from yesterday would be here."

Callie stretched, seemingly readying herself to enter the bar, and I noticed her own 'disguise' (leather pants, a vest, and a short white shirt cut to about her rib cage) wasn't much different from mine. She grinned at me, sidling close so I could put an arm around her, and cloaking us in stealth so no one would hear. "Did you JUST notice that we match?"

"I was distracted by other things." I complained. "This is a very trying time for me."

She clicked her tongue reproachfully. "So self-absorbed, you're lucky you're so cute." She studied me thoughtfully. "You've actually gotten better looking I think. How did I not notice that? Must be the mask."

I frowned, pulling a mirror out of my ring to study my face. She was…not wrong. My jaw was sharper, my features more symmetrical, and the green of my eyes had gotten brighter. I still looked like my dad with a little bit of my mom thrown in, but until she mentioned it I hadn't realized how DIFFERENT I was from the person I'd been back on my eighteenth birthday.

Now at nineteen, I'd changed in more ways than just internally. Callie just patted my cheek. "Don't worry so much about it." She said with a soft smile. "You're still you, and I still love you just the same." She gestured to herself. "You're telling me you haven't noticed that I've changed too?"

I honestly hadn't. It had snuck up on me really, her changes, like mine, were gradual. "Recursion I take it?" I asked in confusion.

"It's a common thing." She said with a shrug. "High rankers are venerated. Just think about the way they treat E-rankers back home. Not everyone gets prettier, but it tends to smooth out the rough edges. People like you have an advantage, having your face covered all the time makes people assume you're secretly hot."

I raised an eyebrow. "Couldn't they assume I was ugly?"

"Walking around with me?" She snorted derisively. "Have you SEEN me?" I knew she was joking, and wasn't nearly that vain, but she had a point.

I shrugged. "Whatever, a few cosmetic changes aren't a huge deal. It's not like I wasn't living with them already. As for you…you're beautiful whatever your features are like. I love you for who you are."

"Uh-huh." She smirked. "Good answer. Anyway, you're obviously stalling. You're really worried about this, aren't you?"

Sighing, I nodded. "Yeah, I really am. With Mornax active I can tank most anything below D-rank, but my staff is really noticeable, as are my Skills. I'm stuck with relying on subtle subskills and brute force."

She put an arm around my waist. "Don't worry, hon. I'll keep you safe. Now let's get in there and start poking around."

I squeezed her a bit tighter as we rejoined the rest of the world in time to hear Bethy explaining her fiendish plan to use a slightly different name. Chelsea was being politely supportive, while Gabe looked like he wanted to facepalm.

"Enough gabbing." I said, letting my voice roughen a bit as I roped them all into stealth. "Betty's not wrong about picking new names. I'll keep it simple, call me Nate." I tried to put on an air of menace as I talked, and nobody started laughing so I counted it as a win.

Mel cocked her head. "Call me Lacey. And he's Kyle." She gestured at a sputtering Abel, who immediately started complaining about not picking his own alias.

Chelsea put her hands on her hips. "Bella." She said confidently. "Short for Isabella."

"Alice." Said Callie with an eye roll. "I always liked that name. Gabe, you're the last one up. What do we call you?"

He sighed. "Mike. It works as well as anything. Now, I think Nate should go in first, given his durability, and Kyle and I should follow. Then the rest of you enter after. We don't know what kind of place this is going to be, and I need to protect 'Bella' unless I want a certain someone to peel my skin off and choke me to death with it."

Chelsea patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. "Don't be silly." She said in a compassionate voice. "There's no way my mother would let you die. Your agony would be neverending and eternal." He flinched and she pulled away with a giggle. "I'm kidding. She's here guarding me personally. It's fine. Don't worry so much."

"Yes." He said blandly. "Worrying about perpetual torment. How silly of me.
"Now YOU'RE the ones stalling." I announced as Callie and I let go of Callie and swaggered forward. "But Mike is right. I'm the best suited to go first. Even without my armor." Taking a deep breath as I strode forward to the entrance, and when I reached it I shoved both doors open dramatically, stepping inside.

The music didn't stop, people didn't turn to look, and nothing really changed. This wasn't a movie. One guy sitting near the door glanced at me real quick before going back to his beer, and I slumped a little in disappointment.

The others filed in behind me, also not drawing much attention, and I waited for Callie to rejoin me before we both walked up to talk to the bartender. "What's on tap tonight?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound like an idiot. I didn't DO alcohol, so I wasn't sure what I was supposed to ask in this situation.

He glanced at me, obviously bored and not remotely intimidated. "Beer." He said flatly. "We also have 'not beer' if you're feeling adventurous."

"I'll…have the beer?" I asked cautiously. He grabbed a mug, shoved it under a tap, pulled a lever and then shoved a mug of frothy yellow liquid at me. "F-ranked chit." He said dully, and I reached into my ring and dropped one on the bar. I took a sip, and I barely managed to keep from wincing. I hated beer.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Damned Souls was louder than the name implied. Or maybe it was just louder than the name led me to infer. I'd kind of assumed that the name spoke of a hallowed place full of dread whispers, but it was probably my mistake. I'd been in enough bars to know what they were like, and this one wasn't much different.

A pool table, a series of booths, what looked like a card game going on in the back. Nothing groundbreaking or mindblowing. Just a place for people to get drunk and be stupid.

Abel, or rather 'Kyle' had figured out the trick to this place pretty much immediately. Which was to say there was no trick, in order to fit in with all the drunk people doing dumb shit, he just did the same thing they were doing. He downed a pint of the terrible beer (I was nursing mine, which I think made it worse), slammed his hand down on the table, and howled "Who thinks they can beat me at bloody knuckles?"

"No gloves." Growled a huge bear of a man as he sat down at the circular table we'd taken up position at in the middle of the room. "And what's the bet?"

Abel grinned wildly. "F-ranked chit per punch. Before you swing, you put some in the pot, whoever gives first loses, winner takes it all. I'm Kyle by the way. Best to get the introductions out of the way before I humiliate you so badly you try to kill me."

The man barked a laugh. "Griff." He said simply. "We using abilities in this littler game? Or are we keeping it simple?"

"Your call." Said Abel lazily. "I can do either, though abilities or Skills might be a bit destructive."

Griff nodded thoughtfully. "How about this? No abilities or non-physical Skills. One inch of wind up for the punch so we don't break the furniture."

Having no idea what exact physical Skills Abel had I couldn't comment, but he seemed fine with it. Stripping off his gloves, he held out a fist. It stunned me to see how rock steady his hand was handing there in the air. Not a single tremble, like it was anchored to the world with a deadbolt or something.

Griff smiled wolfishly, set a chit down on the table, then raised his hand and place it in front of Abel's. "You ready?" Asked the wild looking giant, dark eyes gleaming under heavy brows and teeth glinting from behind his thick brown beard. His long hair was well taken care of and brushed, but still styled to give the appearance of being unkempt.

When Abel nodded, Griff MOVED. It was hard to describe, sort of like a line of dominos. First his heel picoted, then the motion rolled up his leg, along his hip, through his back, then up to his shoulder and down his arm.

By the time the force found his fist and propelled it forward, it felt like some kind of unstoppable tsunami of power, slamming his fist into Abel's hard enough that the one inch of movement shattered the sound barrier, creating a small sonic boom that blew my hair around.

Abel's fist remained rock steady, not even twitching, but I saw a ripple of force travel along his arm and down his body, and the floor creaked under his feet as he smiled cheerfully. "Ouch." He said wryly. "That one had some kick." He reached into a pocket and tossed an F-ranked chit onto the table. "My turn?"

Griff nodded, obviously trying not to look impressed and failing. "You've got some training." He said with respect.

Abel shrugged. "Just a bit. Not a lot of work for someone of my talents here. All the street gangs around town are just looking for big flashy abilities with lots of firepower. Not a lot of people respect what discipline and training gets you."

As he finished talking, something happened and Abel BLURRED forward. As opposed to the rolling buildup of power Griff had used, Abel's whole body just sort of shifted an inch forward, the full momentum of his entire form focused on his hand as it smashed into Griff's knuckles hard enough to crack a mountain in half.

The bigger man grimaced, breathing out through gritted teeth pulled back in an expression the uninitiated might call a smile. "Ah, I suppose we didn't mention Paths. Why do I get the feeling you picked bloody knuckles on purpose."

My mentor just shrugged. "Who can say? Be pretty stupid for my to bang knuckles with a peak E-ranker if I hadn't though."

Griff barked out another laugh. "Oh, I like you. Too many people out there mistake power for strength, but just as many mistake stupidity for bravery. We've got plenty of both in the Horned Lords, but not many like you. I assume this is an audition?"

"Your turn to stake." Said Abel helpfully. "And yeah, something like that. Word around town is the Horned Lords are moving up in the world. But I saw a few of your boys out and about and I wasn't impressed. Upward mobility is valuable, but not if it slams you into a rock wall. How high do you think the Horned Lords could take someone like me."

It was shocking to see Abel do his thing. I knew for a fact he didn't give a shit about mobility or advantages, but every single bit of body language stank of naked ambition. It was like he was a completely different person. And I supposed he was. He was Kyle, and Kyle was willing to do anything to get ahead.

Griff's eyes roved over the rest of us as he set down another chit and took another punch. Abel took this one just as easily, though as I activated my Eye of Revelation I was able to pick up slight tells of how much this was straining him.

Not from Abel himself mind you, but from Mel, who was tense and staring worriedly at her boyfriend.

"I thought you might be looking for work." Said Griff as his expression took on a predatory edge. "And we do have some openings. As for your question…that depends. If you want the Horned Lords to carry you, you've gotta be willing to work for it. Changes are coming to Tricorn, some obvious, some not so much. There's a lot of work for someone like you, provided you can be…flexible."

I had a sinking feeling this situation was a lot more complex than we'd assumed. This sounded less like rabble rousing and more like recruitment. Which was concerning, because where the hell would they be DOING that recruiting. There were S-rankers here, surely they would know all about it. If someone was trying to turn people before the war.

Then again…maybe they did. Mom had sent us out to look around, maybe this was why. Thinking it through, completely stomping out any traces of the enemy was useful, but this conclave was a big obvious target. They WOULD try something, and better to know which door they would be using when they tried to break in.

Of course, I might just be making assumptions, but it felt like the right answer. If you were going to get attacked, making sure you knew who and where seemed like an important aspect of weathering the storm.

It was also possible that this was some kind of lower level testing to help us gain renown and grow, like how assassins guilds would use steadily increasing levels of assassin to take someone out. Hell, it was probably a bit of all of that, mixed in with a bunch of reasons I couldn't imagine.

Callie was on the same page, and we traded a few mental observations before she cleared her throat. "That's all well and good. But my brother here tends to think with his fists." She gestured to Abel. "Seems risky doing that sort of thing under the nose of…other residents nearby. How do we know this isn't some kind of trap."

Classic espionage 'How do we know you're not a spy?' is the first question most spies will ask you, because what spy would bring up spying if they were a spy themselves? Unfortunately, it's also the first question most non spies will ask you, because how do they know you aren't a spy is a valid concern.

Griff's eyes focused on her, seeming to drill down into her soul. "I don't recall asking you for your opinion, girlie. How about you let the menfolk talk and you just stand there looking pretty. You're real good at it."

I felt a flash of rage, but I choked it down. Callie could handle herself, and in fact, she NEEDED to do so in this instance. If she came across as a damsel needing to be watched over, it would give far too many of these assholes ideas.

Callie smiled coldly, and Griff's face blanked in surprise as the front two legs of his chair fell into its own shadow. From behind, a braided cable of shadows flushed up and wound itself around the big man, binding him tightly. I expected him to break out, but Callie was damned good at what she did.

The cable had yanked Griff's arms up and around into an awkward position where he couldn't exert much strength, something similar to a full nelson hold. The cable also wrapped around his neck, and every time he yanked it tightened around his throat.

He hung there, suspected off the table by his throat and upper body, and Callie drew her dagger. She pushed it into a shadow she made in her cupped hand, and Griif's eyes widened in terror as the point emerged from the shadow of his head, slowly inching toward his eye, stopping a fraction of an inch from his cornea.

"Oh gosh." She said with exaggerated ditziness. "Did I interrupt you? I'm so sorry. I can be so rude sometimes. I didn't realize this was a private conversation, I should probably just stay out of it. How about I just dissolve that rope around your neck and let you finish your game."

I expected him to panic, but instead he just chuckled. Within a blink his hair caught fire, the flash of light banishing Callie's weaker shadows. The rope was too strong for that, but the small shadow she'd been using to maneuver her dagger was banished and the blade went with it. Griff grunted and strained and the braided rope tore apart.

He was still laughing as he stood, rubbing his neck. "Well damn, girl. Put me right in my place didn't you? Good. I don't stand for cowards or wilting violets in my gang, woman or man. If you can't stick up for yourself you ain't got no place among the Horned Lords. The rest of your little clique as gutsy as you two?"

Callie narrowed her eyes, deciding if she trusted his whole 'I was just testing you' thing. Finally, she nodded. "Every one. But I'm guessing you're not going to take our word for that."

"Smart as well as tough." He said approvingly. "Ain't no free lunch." He paused. "Actually, that's not really true, once you're in the gang we have prime rib lunch days on wednesday. Those are free. But that's only for gang members. You want in, you've got to prove yourselves."

Abel swept up the pile of coins, getting a glare from Griff, which he countered with a grin. "You didn't punch, that's a forfeit. Should have spent more time on the game and less time baiting my sister." The big bearded man sighed but nodded, a few F-rank chits was literal chump change anyway. "So what are we doing?"

"A few days ago I got a suggestion that I should send out some of my boys to rattle some cages." He said lackadaisically. "One of my teams never came back, I sent them to raid some restaurant and they just stayed there."

Abel nodded slowly. "You think they got caught." He said, not letting on our involvement at all. "So you want us to what? Go break them out of whatever jail they're in?"

They weren't in jail, but it was important for us to figure out how much Griff knew. The gang leader laughed cheerfully at that, but shook his head. "Nah, nothing quite so complicated." He said with a jovial smile. "I want you to kill them and bring me their heads."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We waited until we left the bar before Callie put us under Stealth. "Ok, that can't have been a coincidence right?" Chelsea asked in a harsh whisper. "We come there and he immediately sends us to deal with the fallout of a situation WE caused?"

I shrugged. "It could be. It's not even really that much of one. We went there specifically to find the gang of the people we stopped, and apparently they were the only team that didn't come back. It kind of makes sense for our test to involve something a bit gruesome, and if he had us kill some OTHER gang's people he risks tipping off a war when there's other stuff going on."

Callie grimaced. "Well we obviously can't kill them."

"I mean, we could kind of kill them." Abel said matter of factly. At her glare, he just shrugged. "What? It's not like we know or care about them. They attacked us first. It's justified."

"No." I said bluntly. "It's not. Killing people offering us violence is fine. Play stupid, games win stupid prizes, but killing defeated enemies who surrendered to us out of combat is wrong." He started talking but I cut him off. "And yes, baiting them into attacking us for the express purpose of murdering them counts."

Callie nodded approvingly, beaming at me in pride. It was staggering how her beauty could still beat me over the head after a year together, though admittedly we mostly wore masks around each other. Still, I'd drown in those eyes if I wasn't careful. I felt a pulse of adoration from the bond and realize all of that had been leaking through, and I took her hands in mine, smiling down at her.

"Ugh." Said Abel disgustedly. "You two can't get married fast enough. I can't wait until the shine comes off that apple."

Mel snorted. "How romantic. Maybe you're just mad Shane is making you look bad, Mr. 'I spent our first anniversary in jail for assault'. Why don't you ever gaze lovingly into MY eyes? Ass." Her tone was playful, but Abel just turned to glare at me.

"You see what you do?" He demanded in annoyance. I wasn't fooled though. Their bond was even deeper than ours, and there was no way Mel was secretly pining for romance and Abel didn't know about it. She was just giving him a hard time. "Anyway, if we can't kill the bastards what do you propose we do."

Bethy snorted. "I mean, duh. We're just supposed to bring him heads, we just make some fake heads and then sneak them off the continent so he doesn't notice they're still alive. Oooh! We can make them out of paper mache! I know a really cool mix of corn syrup and red food dye that looks like blood!"

"No one ask her why!" I shouted, cutting off several people in our group. "I don't want to know. Good idea though Bethy. Maybe not paper mache though."
She pouted. "Fine, I guess we can make a dumb wish or something. Nobody ever lets me have any fun. Can we wish for an extra though? Daddy showed me how to make a cup out of a skull when I was little but I've never been able to make one."

"I guess." I said with a shrug. "If you want. Does this love of morbid crafts apply to your fashion? You going to make a bone dress or something?"

Rolling her eyes, she gave a disdainful sneer. "No Shane. I make stuff because it's FUN and do fashion because it's PRETTY. We've been super busy though so I haven't had time for arts and crafts."

"We're getting off topic." Sighed Gabe. "Skull cups aside, we have a plan now, the question is what we think is going on."

I explained my theory about this possibly being some kind of training exercise or way to keep tabs on them and everyone agreed. We decided to get this out of the way immediately, heading for the restaurant where they would still be doing repairs. "So…how are we supposed to do this?" Asked Chelsea. "Because while ditching or adding masks and changing our clothes might work on most people, they'll probably figure it out pretty much immediately, recursion or not."

"Yup." I said with a grin. "Which is why we're going to use the situation to our advantage. Chances are good that Griff has figured out where they are, I mean, it's the last place he sent them, and he's not an idiot. He didn't have people watching them yesterday because they WERE the people, so we have that going for us."

Callie nodded. "Makes sense, but the main issue is that if we walk up and engage with them it'll become obvious what's going on. Hell, the restaurant staff might pick us out, though we had the advantage of being in a huge party."

"Which is why we don't give them the chance." I beamed. "I'm going to use Moonlit Night, and then we're going to have a quick conversation with them while some of us make noise. Then we make the wish and leave behind the bodies, sans heads, and the reaction from the staff will help sell the fiction."

"That's not bad." Admitted Abel with an impressed tone. "It assumes Griff will be watching us, but it's what I would do."

Callie snorted. "Oh he is, I've been tracking his people following us for about ten minutes now. They're having trouble keeping track because of my Stealth, but I'm trying to make sure we don't lose them completely. They can't hear us, obviously, but the occasional glimpse keeps them on our tracks."

When we arrived at the restaurant, we all stopped across the street. "Alright." I said to confirm. "Everyone knows the plan? I can rope them into the fog so we can all talk and no one else will pick it up, but we need to do this fast." Before leaving, Callie made two wishes (one for the entrance one for the exit), paying with a pair of D-ranked chits she had left from what Celine had paid for her century, to make sure things went as well as possible. We could still fuck it up, but as long as we stayed on plan, our chances of people taking things exactly the right way were pretty high.

Once everyone confirmed they knew their roles, we crept across the street. Callie was running Stealth for all of us, which was the obvious choice given her much higher Perception, but when we got close enough, I triggered Moonlit Night. Instantly, a fog billowed out, consuming the restaurant and some of the nearby street.

It was the easiest thing in the world to push the Skill to include the others so they could see, and all of us blitzed into the place, though I slipped my mask on before going in to talk to them..

Callie and I headed straight for where I was able to sense the Horned Lords, Matthew and Bruno working on repairing the wall where the bigger man had been smashed through the stone by Gabe.

It took a minor flex of will to include them in the Skill so they could see, and I stopped in front of them. Before they could speak, I held up a hand. In the background I could hear Bethy and Abel casually brawling to make a mess. "Look, not much time. Griff basically hired us to kill you, we don't want to do it, we have a way to fake your deaths but you have to trust us."

Matthew froze, looking indecisive, then sighed and nodded. "I understand. You already let us live when you didn't have to. What do you need?"

"I'm a Wyndham." I said bluntly. "I can offer you a few wishes to help." I couldn't tell them exactly what to do, luckily Callie didn't have that issue.

She jumped in when I stopped talking. "We need fake bodies, and we need you gone. Short range teleport or disguises or whatever you want to do, but when we leave here you need to look dead and not be around anymore."

Matthew nodded. "We can disguise and mix in with the crowd." He said, removing his mask. "As for payment…" He reached into a pocket, pulling out a bag. "I've got E-ranked chits, about fifty of them. I wish you had headless copies of our bodies that would stick around permanently and fool any form of inspection."

I grimaced as I got the feedback on that. "Too general." I said apologetically. "Any form of inspection is out of my depth."

It took a few more tries for them to get the right wording. By the time we finished we barely had enough time to shove them into the clothes and slap on the illusion jewelry they'd managed to swing with the five wishes their coins had afforded them. Wishing them well, we grabbed heads, then came peeling out of the restaurant, letting the fog fade.

Screams of fear and disgust erupted from inside when they found the 'bodies' left behind, and we all grinned at each other as we fled the scene, sure we were being noticed by whoever Griff had watching. Callie Stealthed us again once we got further away, and I turned to grin at my friends, laughing.

"That was fantastic." I said breathlessly. "With the two meta wishes Callie made I'm sure that went off without a hitch." I turned to Abel and Bethy. "Your fight was perfect. It sounded so lifelike. I swear I heard Abel screaming and cursing like he was really injured."

He glared at me, and I noticed he was cradling his left arm. "I WAS injured." He snapped. "That airheaded lunatic broke my arm in four places. I THOUGHT we were holding back!"

Bethy looked devastated. "Oh Andy, I'm so sorry. I thought you WERE holding back. I promise if we ever have to fight again I'll be super duper careful. Daddy says I'm never careful enough when roughhousing with weak people."

Abel's face turned red and he started sputtering, unable to form words through the obvious offense taken at her comments. I took the opportunity to walk up to him and put a hand on him. A quick Scan heal let me see how the bones were aligned, and when I noticed a slight misalignment, I grabbed his arm casually and jerked it, setting the bones before I double tapped heal burst, burning the last of my supply.

"Fuck!" He howled as the bones ground together. His face turned red and then faded back to normal as the healing energy coursed through him. "You could have been nicer about that!" He snapped as he rubbed his shoulder.

"Yup." I said jovially. "And you could have decided not to shock me with your stupid lightning gloves. We all make choices."

He blinked at me in shock. "Seriously?" He gaped at me. " Have you just been waiting for an opportunity to fuck with me about that since it happened?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I said cheerfully. "But if I did I'd suggest that next time you test your little static tricks on someone who doesn't occasionally hold their life in your hands. Ass."

Mel, to my shock, burst out laughing, having to catch herself on the wall as she howled with amusement, literally doubling over for a minute until she straightened up, drying her eyes. When she caught our eyes, she managed to choke out. "Sorry. If you could feel what he's feeling you'd be laughing too. He can't decide if he's proud or pissed."

"Yeah, yeah." He grumbled. "If we're all done we ought to get back to Griff's place. With the wishes Callie made he shouldn't connect us to the original fight, but if we take too long after they lose track of us he might get suspicious." I imagine he thought we'd refocus on the task at hand and get moving. Unfortunately for him we were still laughing when we got back to the bar. If nothing else, being so amused post 'murder' helped sell the impression we wanted to give.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

To my surprise, we entered the bar to the whoops and cheers of all the patrons. I was shocked they'd know about all this, but apparently Griff wasn't shy about owning his decisions. Walking up to the big bearded man I reaching into my ring and dropped 'Matthew's' head on the table with a thump. Calle, Abel, and the rest of our group piled up the other fourteen heads.

"You seem to be short one." Said Griff conversationally. "We sent fifteen."

Apparently Callie felt like that was as big a trap as I did, because she just shrugged. "Who knows. The tracking Skill we used isn't that exact. You gave us a target and we found them. The tracking Skill we used wasn't that specific, but since the bar is their home base we were able to track them down easily enough. Is the missing head going to be a problem?"

We'd headed straight for the restaurant once we left, and though we lost our pursuers easily enough, we'd also made sure they could follow us to report back. A tracking Skill was the only explainable reason for finding them so quick, AND explained the Stealth. Luckily, Callie even actually had one.

Griff chuckled. "Not at all. We already noticed one was missing. Idiot probably ran off because he was too scared to go through with the raid." He swung to look at the bartender. "A round of drinks for everyone! And make them doubles for our newest members!"

Callie blinked in shock. "That's…that's it? We're in now? I expected it to be more complicated."

He barked out a laugh. "We ain't crafters, girl, we're killers. Honestly you impressed us. Takes balls to hit an active business. We were expecting you to wait until they were done and follow them home. Maybe hit them in an alley. Filling the place with Stealth fog and leaving behind the bodies as a warning? That's just art."

We looked around at the rowdy gang members (none of whom seemed bothered by the pile of heads belonging to what was ostensibly their former friends. I had a small shot glass full of red liquid shoved into my hands along with everyone else, and, since I was playing a part, I tossed it back.

The feeling of the liquid hitting my stomach reminded me of seeing someone drop a lit match on a gas range after it failed to light a few times. I felt an explosion of heat inside my gut (not literally) and it rolled through my veins, sending me reeling.

"What-" I coughed. "What is this stuff?" My eyes were watering and I felt like I'd just been poisoned. Which…I mean I had, because all alcohol is poison by definition. But this couldn't be how it felt to get drunk normally, or nobody would ever be stupid enough to do it.

A big burly man with a beard and a shaved head flashed unusually sharp teeth at me, slapping me on the back. "Devil Snot." He said with a laugh. "Hardest shit in E-rank. Been a while since we had anyone initiate in such an entertaining way. Your friends seem to like it."
He pointed and I turned to see Abel at the bar in front of a line of shot glasses. Head lashing out like a snake he wrapped his mouth around each shot and tossed them back so quickly he blurred before roaring. "I am all powerful!" And then falling off his stool. Bethy, meanwhile was lighting shots on fire and then tossing them back.

I should have known those two would fit in best. Callie grabbed my hand, pulling me away from the big guy and Griff to join Abel at the bar. I grimaced, but didn't bother to resist. I hoped I could avoid any more shots, but I was sure this party would be a long one either way.

True to my fears, the next few hours passed at a crawl. I was pretty sure Abel was playing up how drunk he was to get everyone to let their guards down, and I was worried I'd blow it so I mainly kept to myself. Eventually though, things started to wind down and we all ended up at the table with Griff, who was telling stories about the early days of the Horned Lords.

"When my grandpa ran things." He growled gloomily. "We were a real force. You know he was a C-ranker? Until he pissed off some Churchy and got himself burned alive." He chuckled morosely. "The factions, man. They're toxic."

I raised a brow at that. "In what way?" I hadn't really considered the ideological stance someone would need to be…like this. I'd kind of assumed they'd fit right in at the WCP.

"S'not natural." He said angrily. "They're too static. Too restrictive. Ascendants are about evolution, about riding the waves of legend into our own personal myth. Why do you think there are no more gods besides the six?"

Callie shrugged. "Because they killed them all? I heard they do that."

"Some of them." He disagreed. "But I heard there's another explanation. Gods can move on. Once you reach a certain level of Impact you can just punch through the walls of the world and go somewhere else. Somewhere better. But the six don't do that. They stay behind and lord their power over the rest of us. Stop anyone else from rising up like you said."

And suddenly, something I'd been wondering about clicked into place. I'd wondered about the reasoning behind purging other gods. I'd assumed it was some preventative bullshit, but the addition of this new bit of info helped me find the last piece of the puzzle.

The six were trying to keep us isolated from whatever this…god place was. I didn't know why, or if it would work, but it fit with a lot of the ways they interacted.

"Where did you hear that?" I asked cautiously. Because the weirdest part of that little revelation was that some E-ranked gang leader on a floating space continent knew it when I was pretty sure Zeke didn't.

His mouth snapped shut, and he looked around in paranoia. Apparently he thought there was a chance the authorities weren't aware of any of this, which seemed like an objectively stupid assumption to me, but to each their own. Then, after he confirmed we were alone, he leaned in. "There are other gods you know." He whispered. "New ones. Or I guess old ones. They've been sending people to talk to all of us. Tell us things the five faction alliance don't want us knowing."

Which was exactly what we'd been waiting for him to say. I saw Abel's eyes sharpen, the facsimile of drunkenness painting his features sloughing off to reveal the razor sharpness that was usually there. "Really?" He said in a faux casual tone. "What do they say?"

Griff guffawed. "So much. They tell us all kinds of things. Did you know the factions are holding some secret meeting here?" He tapped an earring. "They gave us these blockers so we could tell people about what's really going on, or I wouldn't even be able to talk to you about it." THe earring was glowing a lambent red.

"A meeting?" Abel asked innocently. "What about?"

Snorting, the gang leader shook his head. "What else? Us." He gestured around him to the drooling and often passed out forms of the other gang members. "The gods are all holding us back. Most of them try to preach tolerance and limitations. The Wishmaster doesn't care about anything but profits and Black Sorrow only shares power with her lunatic followers. We're stagnating, and they're worried we'll notice and side with their enemies."

He said it with the certainty and the conviction of someone who almost definitely hadn't ever seen a B or A-ranked Ascendant fight. Zeke and that Duke were both precision fighters, and even watching them go at it had terrified me. I was positive just from watching, even under Zeke's protection, that if the Duke wanted to he could have destroyed the planet we were standing on.

But of course, Griff wouldn't think that. Griff would listen to the flattering lies and the talk of rebellion, because he wanted to be special and powerful. I knew the truth, the god war would be between the gods. Having seen even a diminished god I had no illusions that I wanted to be on the other side.

Our gods were whole, and strong, and had been around for ages. Theirs were recently resurrected and still weak. Maybe I was oversimplifying since I was related to literally half of them, but I didn't think they were going to win this war.

And even if they had been the favorites I wouldn't have bought into this revolutionary bullshit. This was the kind of nonsense you fed meat shields to get them to die for you.

"They sound like they know a thing or two." Abel said, sounding intrigued. "Could we meet with them too? Or are their visits a secret?" He gave a low burp, eyelids fluttering masterfully until he shook his head to clear it. Abel was a damned good actor.
Griff nodded eagerly. "Of course you can. You're one of us now. Ten of us? You're a bunch of us. Us." He blinked, losing his train of thought. "Us!' He shouted as if shocked out of a stupor. "But yes…you can come. We'll have to show you where though. The meetings are a secret." He put a finger to his lips.

"They're not here then?" Asked Abel with interest. "This seems like a nice place."

Snorting, Griff shook his head. "Nah, not here. More than just us going to the meetings. There are plenty of people unhappy with the status quo. The new gods are strong and just. They appeal to so many different people. You ever heard of flipside?"

My mentor furrowed his brow. "I think so. It's the underground portion of the continent right?"

"Exactly." Said Griff brightly. "Big ass floating space world needs lots of enchantments and machinery. They didn't want to show all the inner workings off, so they stuffed it all underneath the surface. The whole place is a series of interconnected tunnels and chambers full of magic and mad science."

My eyes went wide. That was why they didn't know where they were meeting. Machines and magic had presence, they had weight. Machines made noise, enchantments could be sensed, and the high rankers wouldn't want to spend all their time using Focus to ignore the excess noise.

They would have sealed everything off so there was nothing to sense or hear. It would make actively trying to search the place almost impossible, not because they couldn't find what was down there, but because there was WAY too much to find.

I saw when Abel realized the same thing, and flashed a cheerful grin at our new 'boss'. "Well that sounds like something I'd like to see. When exactly is the next meeting?"

Griff slapped the table with a laugh. "That's the spirit, boy. You and yours can come along when we head down there next. If you're going to be part of the Horned Lords you ought to know what we're about. And I can tell you're the kind to appreciate the truth. The next meeting is tomorrow." He took another long pull of the beer on the table beside him and then belched. "You know Kyle. I like you. You've got a bright future here."

As Abel got back into his conversation, I slipped my hand into Callie's under the table as I felt her fear at what we were going to do next. I understood too, but we needed more information on what they were doing before taking this to my mom. Tomorrow we were going to be going to a cult recruitment. Fingers crossed we all got out of it alive.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning found all of us in varying levels of discomfort. I was mostly fine, I'd minimized drinking as much as possible, and chased it with plenty of water, but the others weren't all so lucky. Gabe, Chelsea, and Mel were all twitching messes. Callie seemed like she might be a bit hungover, but she also just generally hated mornings, so it might have been that.

Abel and Bethy were both fine, of course. My mentor's physical toughness and Bethy's vampire constitution apparently made them better suited to long bouts of self poisoning.

"That was so much fun!" Squealed Bethy in a register that made several people in the bar moan and cover their ears. "We should totally do that again sometime. Shame everyone here is such a lightweight." She dug into her plate of eggs (the kitchen at the Randy Skink made breakfast for Horned Lords members before opening, and it was pretty good) unheeding of the scrape of fork on plate.

Gabe groaned loudly, wincing to himself at the sensation. "Please stop." He begged. "So loud."

I felt bad for Gabe. I didn't think he was a big drinker, but like me I was pretty sure he felt like he needed to blend in when we were undercover. I hadn't even had that much in comparison, but I was already mentally promising myself never to drink again if I could help it.

"Mornin'!" Said an unreasonably loud and cheery voice as someone slammed a backpack down on the table. We all looked up to see Griff grinning down at us, and at our collective wince he barked out a laugh. "Aww, you still get hangovers. That's so cute. How's your crew doing Kyle? You still want to tag along to the meeting?" He kept it vague but felt compelled to add. "It's a long and uncomfortable trip."

Abel snorted. "We're still in. I want to hear more of this 'truth' you were telling me. We just need a few minutes to get cleaned up. You got a shower around here?" We'd slept in the bar (and thank the gods for vitality because we'd be made of knots and sore muscles if we weren't Ascendants) and we all smelled pretty bad.

Chuckling, Griff just shook his head. "Nah, you won't need one of those. No real point where we're going." He turned and walked off with a snicker.

"What do you mean by that?" Ask my sister as he walked away. She turned to us, eyes filling with panic. "What did he mean by that?" She sounded so genuinely distressed I was taken aback. It took me a minute to figure out why, and when I realized it I felt stupid for not assuming.

My sister didn't come across as a neat freak. She didn't insist on extra stops or wince at germs or any of that. However, that was because her power was literally cleanliness. Purification flames could remove dirt, grime, anything unclean she wanted, and it didn't need to be used long or obviously to do it.

Thinking about it, Chelsea always looked clean to me, and now that I thought about it, her power was probably constantly in use keeping her that way. Since we were undercover she couldn't use such an obviously Church related ability.

"It's fine." I said kindly, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. "He just means we're probably going somewhere hideously filthy. Maybe a sewer or some kind of charnel pit. We'll be covered in muck of one sort or another, made up of gods know what and we won't be able to wash it off as we travel for hours into an underground labyrinth of disgusting effluvia."

Her glare was so intense by the time I finished I was worried she might lunge across the table and bury a knife in my eye.

Callie kicked my shin, and I just shrugged. "What?" I asked innocently. "I'm teasing her. It's what siblings do."

She held her glare for another few seconds before finally breaking down in a fit of giggles. "Honestly." Gasped my sister. "You're so easy. I'm not a five year old, Shane, you won't hurt my feelings by teasing me a bit. Besides, you'll be almost as miserable as me, it's been like two days since your last shower."

I froze. She was right. I was filthy and I hadn't had any miraculous steaming tears of the gods pouring down on me from above like a storm of divine forgiveness.

"Thanks for that." Scowled Callie. "I'd been distracting him from that realization. Now I'm going to have to experience his moping about it all day. Well played." My sister grinned, but I was too distracted with surreptitiously itching at my skin to really get into it. I suddenly felt so unclean. I wondered if I could borrow a pitcher of water and dump it over my head.

Which was…weirdly extreme. I did love taking long showers, but I wasn't…I paused, turning to Callie. "Do you guys ever MENTION my shower addiction to anyone? Like outside of our general group."

She shrugged. "I guess. Like as a funny story here or there. Why-" She stopped, then her lips twitched, and she eventually dissolved into gales of laughter. "Oh my gods, you have SHOWER related recursion. How bad is it?"

"Not terrible." I shrugged. "But I might commission someone to make a portable shower for long trips."

Everyone at the table started laughing, and even I joined in. As far as recursion went I could think of worse. It made me smile to think about it too, even if I was a bit itchy. Sadly, the amusement didn't last long. Griff barked out a command, and the rest of us all headed over to him, ready to follow.

Everyone in the bar had dragged themselves out of their post drink funk, some splashing water on their faces to wake up and some not bothering. When we were all gathered, Abel raised a brow at Griff. "So…how do we access flipside. Is there an elevator or something?"

"Nah." The big man shook his head. "Flipside isn't exactly residential. It's more like maintenance tunnels. There are lots of entrances, but most of the access to deeper spots is under the central market. They have a sort of underground district made up of black market shops down there, accessible through staff stairwells from the larger buildings where the major corporations and clans do their business."

Callie cleared her throat. "Isn't that…risky?" She asked worriedly. "Like we're supposed to be avoiding scrutiny here, right? How are we doing that bringing a bunch of rough looking gangsters in masks into an upscale shopping complex."

"Excellent question." He said with a grin. Walking over to the back of the bar, he took a position next to one of the booths. Reaching down, he slid his hands under the edges and squeezed. There were a pair of clocks and he lifted, revealing that the whole booth was on some kind of trapped door and opened to reveal a slight indent in the ground with a big hole in the center.

The hole led down into absolute darkness via ladder, and Griff gestured to it grandly. "The entrance to the deeper sections can only be found in the underdistrict, but access to THAT can be gained from plenty of places. The easiest way to find the primary tunnels is sewer access. It's how we get around most of the time when we're on serious business instead of rattling cages."

I was actually kind of impressed. There was no visible seam on the floor and that table hadn't seemed unusual in any way. It was perfectly camouflaged, and the table itself was much bigger than the small vertical shaft, so it didn't like, thunk hollowly when used, at least not from my recollection.

He gestured us forward, and I shrugged, stepping out into the shaft and flecking State of Grace a bit. Always on or not, I could tweak the usage, and a quick pull of my soul let me drift gracefully down and touch the floor of the tunnel nearly soundlessly.

Stepping aside, I held out my arms as Callie dropped right into them. I'd felt her plan through the bond, and she'd even shot me a quick message, so it was easy enough to catch her.

We both moved as the others came down, though not just our group, the rest of the Horned Lords were interspersed throughout the descenders, until finally, we were all standing in the darkened tunnel.

I noted the edges of it were arched and made of cobblestone or something, and the whole place had a very historical feel. Griff snapped his fingers, and a lantern on a stick appeared. He opened it and lit it, flooding the tunnel with light, then closed it and held it out in front of us. Once that was done he removed a small remote from his ring and pressed a button, and the booth above us swung down, sealing us all in what would have been darkness without the lantern to light our path.

Callie grabbed my arm, looking unhappy. "Stay away from the walls." She said calmly. "Those aren't natural." She pointed at the stone, and I watched the movement of our flickering shadows along the walls in the dancing candle light. Or I WOULD have assumed that, if she hadn't said anything.

In between the naturally shifting shadows, a series of other dark forms danced, twirling and spinning and throwing themselves back and forth. As I watched, my heart started to pound, taking on a staccato beat like drums. I stared in fascination until I got a smack upside the head. "Ow." I complained, turning to Callie. "What was that for?"

"You were standing there almost a minute without responding." She said bluntly. "And it wasn't just you?" She gestured around at the others, some being woken from their stupor, some seeming fine. Bethy was chatting amicably with Chelsea, both of them seemingly unaffected.

"I don't think everyone has noticed yet." She said with a shrug. "Without my shadow senses I wouldn't have. Though I think Griff knows. That lantern seems to be keeping them away."

We all turned to look at the gang leader, who was grinning at us. "You got me." He said with a chuckle. "Just one more little test. The forsaken live in the dark down here. The lantern keeps them off but their dance is hypnotic." He turned to look at the others. "OI!" He barked. "Quit lollygagging."

Everyone who was distracted snapped out of it. I was curious why some of the others didn't seem to know about this, but before I could ask, he reached up and flicked a switch on the lantern, closing one of the four shutters, and the dancing of the flame was subdued. The shadow forms faded, not longer visible, and I realized he really HAD been testing us. And not just us either.

Once the little interlude was over we set off through the tunnels. I'll give Griff this, he was a damned good navigator. He took us through about a dozen nearly identical intersections and chambers, taking us up and then down a few ladders, until finally we came to one large chamber that was different than the rest.

Approaching the side of the room, he slid the lantern stick into a bracket in the wall next to a small waterfall. When he did, a small platform emerged from the water, splitting the flow and opening a door as a series of round stones rose to sit just above the water, forming a walkway.

He gestured us in, and we all entered. He removed an identical lantern from the opposite side and the waterfall resumed its solid form. It took another fifteen minutes before we arrived at the entrance to yet ANOTHER huge cavern, but this one was filled with people, rushing about in a variety of states of hurry. "Well, here we are." Said Griff happily. "Welcome to the underdistrict."