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

[Malcolm Tent]

Is this supposed to be someone else? I thought Camden was the noble

Click to shrink...

He is, he's the baron they work for. He took them to the party and this meeting is taking place on the way back in his carriage. Not sure which sentence you're referring to sadly since you just highlighted the name, which one was the mistake? If I messed up I can go back and tweak it.

 

[Lone-sith]

softened. "And that's sweet, but I knew when we did this things weren't going to be safe. I have Camden with me, and uncle Zeke will step in if someone too strong tries to hurt us. For threats closer to our own level...I

Click to shrink...

Forgive me, it was this sentence. It seemed logical for Chelsea to talk about her bodyguard

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After eating, I went to see Zeke. After telling him what had happened, I then spent about fifteen minutes waiting for him to stop laughing at me. "Are you done?" I finally snapped. "I know that fate sense steers us to the interesting, but what are the chances of this happening? Should I be expecting someone from the cult to show up? Be the icing on this extremely unpleasant cake?"

"Sorry." he wheezed. "I shouldn't laugh. But your face is priceless. What did I tell you about rolling with the punches kid? You couldn't be doing that any less right now."

I threw my hands up. "Well sorry if I don't want to get straight up murdered by random nobles! This on top of the normal nonsense that is my life would be enough to kill us all. So please tell me that we only have to deal with one crisis at a time, or do I need to buy a bomb shelter and reinforce it with A-rank metal."

"First of all." He told me with a roll of his eyes. "You could sell every planet you've ever heard of and you wouldn't be able to afford that. Don't let the Necromedes fool you. The Zayne clan are absurdly rich. Secondly, I'm laughing because I just realized you missed one of the basic points of being an Ascendant, and it's probably been causing you to suffer for months now."

I sighed, knowing whatever he was about to say was going to piss me off. He was only this gleeful when he was taunting me, so whatever I missed must have been obvious. "What, exactly, did I miss?"

"Fate sense steers you toward interesting things. Ascendants are drawn toward dramatic and life changing events." He said in a bored tone. "Some people think it's a sort of conceptual gravity and that it's more based on Impact, while Fantasy just attunes you to the draw. Some people are more affected, people with strong lineage tend to be tossed about on the winds of fate quite a bit, but the main point is, crazy shit happens to Ascendants."

I let out an annoyed growl. "I KNOW! I literally said that to you earlier. That's not something I'm missing, it's the cause of my whole issue. Am I going to make even more of a mess by being here."

"That's why I'm laughing, kid. I just told you Ascendants need to be in the middle of craziness. Mostly you can find that anywhere there are lots of us, big populated planets, that kind of thing." I nodded, waving my hand for him to get to the point. "So, my stupid little nephew, what makes you think that fate sense, or conceptual gravity, would pull you toward an adventure, if you're already in one? If it stacked like that you'd have been buried in danger until you died from it."

I shrugged. "So what, I mean, that's good but I don't see what I miss..." I froze, my eyes closing as I let out a long miserable sigh. "Please tell me you aren't saying what I think you're saying."

"There's an old Ascendant proverb." He said, his grin showing far too many teeth. "Great Ascendants don't stay at home and wait for things to happen. They go out and happen to things."

I buried my hands in my face. "You're telling me I could have avoided almost all of the terrible shit that's happened to me by STAYING BUSY!?"

"I mean, not ALL of it." He cackled. "But probably some. Think about it, did anything bad happen during your big trip back to Valen to visit Callie's mom?" He shook his head in disgust. "Honestly I wasn't even messing with you on this one, I just assumed you knew. This whole trip seemed like you trying to head off as much deadly insanity as possible by putting yourself somewhere interesting."

Sighing again, I slumped back in my chair. "I guess subconsciously I probably was. Well at least it worked. What about the rest of it? You can still guard us against D-ranks right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, as usual. Once you hit E-rank though the only person on this planet who won't be able to touch you will be the Earl. Which won't be an issue, obviously. But the Empire is...messy. If I fight an Earl I'm picking a fight with his Marquis, and that'll piss off a Duke. The chances of a King deciding to fight me are minimal, not that I would CALL that a fight so much as a brief moment of resistance before my inevitable demise. My basic point is, try not to piss off the Earl."

"I mean, I'm not trying to piss off anyone. That Magister does WORK for the Earl though. If he tries to kill me and you kill him I can't make any promises." I paused. "What about Chelsea? Aren't you chaperoning? Ranks aside, you're supposed to protect her no matter what, right? Does that mean I might get some rollover protection?"

It was his turn to sigh. "I wish, but the geas won't let me. Plus I don't need to. I have a significant amount of control. I could kill anyone on this planet without implicating anyone else in any way. if someone attacks Chelsea they'll die, assuming the blow would be lethal, and I can tell. Otherwise I'm supposed to let her take the hit. Healing is a wonderful thing, and she asked your mother for the full experience."

Despite knowing he couldn't help, I found myself putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry." I said softly. At his raised eyebrow, I clarified. "I know how much it has to suck to want to help and be bound by your geas not to. I'm not going to blame you for it, but I DO feel bad for twisting the knife. So I'm sorry, for the position my dad put you in by being an asshole."

He gave me a sad smile. "Shane, I appreciate that. But I don't resent Eli for the things he does. He can be a cold and calculative bastard, but he does what he thinks is best. He loves you, and Chelsea, and your mother, and even me. He's just...bad at showing it now. Devils are naturally inclined to manipulation and deception, and his bent towards contracts makes him extremely granular in his approach. I hope someday you learn why he does what he does, and that you can forgive him. As absurd as that might sound now."

"How can you defend him?" I snapped, standing up and stalking away, only to turn and pace back. "After everything he's done. After all the pain he's caused."

His expression was calm. "Because he's my best friend. Because as much as he's changed, he's done more for me than anyone in the universe. Because without him, I wouldn't have you in my life. Take your pick, kid. And partly because I see things at a wider scale. In the grand scheme of things, a couple decades under a geas isn't such a big deal. And someday you'll feel the same."

I wasn't sure that was true. I wasn't sure I WANTED it to be true even if it was. Which, of course, made me assume it probably was. "I can't take this on faith." I said with a sigh. "I can't get past the bullshit. Mom is back, and she's trying, and I'm trying, but dad...he's not. I need to blame someone. Someone needs to be the asshole that put me through all this, and at this point he's all I've got."

"I know." He said simply. "Hell, he probably knows. But just because you feel it doesn't mean its right. I understand, but I'm just telling you my perspective." He tapped his forehead. "Kind of wish I could tell you better. But this damned geas makes that impossible."

I snickered. "I thought you didn't mind it." I raised a taunting eyebrow, relishing the chance to poke him a bit over something he didn't seem to care much about.

"I said in the grand scheme of things it isn't a big deal." He said flatly. "And neither is being punched in the throat. Which I am DEFINITELY doing to your father the next time I see him. We may be best friends, but I live by the motto 'play stupid games, win stupid prizes'. Even if I signed the damned geas in the first place. This has been FAR more irritating than I expected."

My grin widened. "I have to say, it's refreshing to hear you say that. The whole forgiving saintly friend routine was touching, but it's just not YOU."

"I'll have you know that I'm very forgiving." He said piously. "And I'll kill anyone who says otherwise. No second chances."
We both laughed at that, and it was nice to just be back with my uncle, hanging out and talking shit. Sure this was a serious situation, but for once it wasn't my serious situation. This felt more like discussing the weather, if the weather was a terrifying hurricane about to suck up the house we were currently standing in.

Which brought me to another point. I shot him a sly look. "How are things with Anna by the way. She seemed interested. You and Stella weren't dating last I checked. You thinking of starting something up here?"

My uncle just rolled his eyes. "I don't understand where I went wrong that you're basically married at eighteen, but some of us don't feel the need to make lifetime commitments to everyone we date. I swear, your parents splitting up gave you serious attachment issues."

"That's..." I trailed off. "Probably true, honestly. But if it did I think Callie has them too, so it works out." I'd kind of just assumed a lot of what pushed us together was recursion. I loved her and I didn't mind, but thinking about things, our respective family situations probably made us both a bit more ready for a commitment than not. However it happened, I was glad to have her, so I just stuck out my tongue at Zeke.

He snorted. "Eloquent as always. Anyway, Anna and I are spending some time together. I doubt she's interested in travelling the universe with me or anything, but she's fun to be around."

"She's not going to be new auntie?" I asked, widening my eyes innocently and batting my lashes. His unamused expression was enough to break through my teasing and set me off in a cackling laugh. "Jokes aside, it's nice you found someone to talk to. I worry about how isolated you are when we're not around."

His face softened and he chuckled, clapping me on the shoulder. "You don't need to worry about me, kid. A bit of solitude isn't likely to cause much of an issue. I've had time to work on my craft, as well as prepare for my final ascension to A-rank. I hit my stat limit a while ago, to be honest, I'm just preparing for the...other, requirements. I still need something big and flashy to..." He trailed off as his geas flashed. "Huh, guess I can't talk about that even casually, probably for the best."

I knew better than to push, since it would only hurt him, but I was overcome with curiosity. I knew there were other requirements as you got stronger, things beyond just stats. I'd met them up to C-rank and a half step into B, but beyond that was a mystery. I'd been told looking too far ahead could stunt my growth at this level and to just focus on my current trajectory.

Which was quickly approaching E-rank. In fact, I decided to prioritize that. With everything coming, I needed to be as strong as possible. No matter what that everything was, being at the same level as Camden was bound to be a help. I had some stockpiled wishes I'd been planning to use for working on the territory, but also...I realized I still had my alchemy allotment. Elixirs were an option for quick and steady growth at this point. Tomorrow was another day off, and I believed it was time to go shopping.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning I gathered everyone coming along for our alchemy shopping trip. Jessie, Bethy, Benny, Callie, Celine, and Gabe all filed out into the inn to have breakfast before leaving. The others decided to sleep in, so it was just us. "Anna." I said as we approached the bar. She was behind it, cleaning glasses. "We were hoping to wrangle breakfast, and maybe talk to you about some of the local shops. You have some time to sit and eat with us?"

Smiling, she set her glass down, before calling over her shoulder. "Mattie! Tell Cheswick to make a round of bacon and eggs. Then get Lionel out here to man the bar. I'm going to be eating with guests."

An annoyed voice bellowed back. "Gods! I'm doing inventory! Can't you do it yourself?" From the back of the inn, and Anna gritted her teeth, holding up a finger for us to wait as she stalked into the back. After an extremely uncomfortable few minutes listening to Mattie get torn a new one, Anna came back out, pasting a happy smile on her face.

"Sorry about that." She said brightly, I've got a table for you over here." She gestured to the far end of the room. "So, what exactly are you looking for. I won't even charge you for this, because direction to local amenities is more than covered under your room tab. You should take advantage of my wisdom, not many people are entitled to free access." She winked at us. "You're lucky I like you kids."

Looking around at the others, I gestured to Callie and I. "We need elixirs. Neither of us has used our allotment, and we're within a thousand points of E-rank." Honestly I wasn't happy about needing to rank up so fast. As miserable as training was, I felt like it was benefitting me. Once we hit E-rank we'd be on the officer track as per our contract, learning command. We'd miss out on basic training.

"How much will you need?" She said consideringly. "Are the rest of them going to be ranking up with you?" She studied our friends. "Because honestly, that might be a problem. Elixirs are tightly controlled. Getting two thousand points worth might be doable if you look in the right place, but the empire doesn't like people achieving mass rank ups through means outside the imperial roles. Alchemy has a...negative connotation here."

I cocked my head. "They can't. They're not close enough to the next rank. We have alternative means for them to reach E-rank." Nat was working with the two of them. They were only twenty five hundred points away give or take, and between Celine's resources and Jessie doing a bit of off the books healing, they could cover that in only a few months. But I was more focused on the possible ramifications of that news. "How negative exactly? Will we be arrested for using elixirs?" I hadn't considered that alchemists would be something they might not like in such a carefully controlled place.

"Nothing so extreme." She said with a wave. "Don't forget that elixirs are expensive. Nobles are the only ones who can really afford them, so they've taken steps to make sure there are ways to acquire the materials. It's just that those ways tend to be less out in the open. I know a place nearby where you can get your hands on some elixirs, but they're going to cost a premium."

I wasn't worried. I had plenty of money after our trip out here. I wasn't excited to burn it all, but I would if I needed to. Our timetable had moved up now. Luckily, we had four months to before the battle to take over the territories was set to begin. That was enough time for Jessie and Benny to hit E-rank with Nat's help, and hopefully some of the others too. It was also enough time for Callie and I to learn to command troops. I just hoped whatever Spencer Tolbert (if it was him) had planned wasn't going to come to fruition early.

I glanced at Callie, who had picked up my mood from the bond. She couldn't read my mind, but she could feel my impatience, regret, determination, and all the other minute emotions mixed into my current mood. Callie and I knew each other better than almost anyone, and given the circumstances, it wasn't hard for her to extrapolate my thoughts from what I was feeling. She gave my hand a squeeze and smiled encouragingly, and I could feel the love and support through the bond.

"We're interested." I said finally. "I assume this place accepts chits?" Anna smiled and nodded pleasantly. "Alright, then we'll have breakfast before we go. Can you guide us there? Or give us a map?"

She pulled out a beautiful silver hand mirror. "Of course. Do you have your mirror on you?" I blinked dumbly at the thing, and she groaned. "You really need to get one of these. Without access to the scan network here, you'll need mirrors to function. Even if your rings can still make calls to each other, not being able to interface with the locals will be a problem."

"Can we get them wherever you're sending us?" I asked. "Because I can shell out for fifteen of them as long as they aren't too crazy. Given everyone has one, I doubt they're going for too much."

Nodding, she put hers away. "There are different models, but you can get a barebones mirror for five F-ranked chits. I'd recommend investing. They should have some at the thieves quarter."

Benny perked up. "Thieves quarter huh? That sounds pretty cool. Is that where we're going? Are there people with thief jobs in the empire? How does that even work? There's no way they could be on the imperial roles, how do they rank up?" He seemed fascinated by the inner workings of the empire, and I didn't blame him.

"That's...complicated." She said hesitantly. "Theoretically, the dark professions shouldn't be imperially sanctioned. More realistically though, theft and assassination are bound to happen, even without support. Most thieves guilds have arrangements with the local noble. Nobles apportion the renown for an area, and once it reaches them, it's theirs to do with as they please. Often they support the darker guilds and businesses in exchange for a greater say in how they operate."

I frowned. "They can do anything with it? What's to stop them from keeping it all? If they skimmed a bunch off the top they could make themselves much stronger, couldn't they?" The idea that people could control something like renown and actually portion it out like currency was staggering to me. How did it even work? I knew that the Emperor's power had a lot to do with it, but it still blew my mind.

"The Emperor stops them." She said simply. "The Empire is a machine. An esoteric one to be sure, but a machine nonetheless. Every person plays a role, and in order for that to continue they need to be supported. There are ways to increase the net gain enough to have a bit of extra renown to funnel toward other pursuits, such as thieves guilds and the like, but the nobles still have to pay their citizens. If you don't pay the baker, no bread gets baked, the workers don't eat, and eventually, someone comes to investigate. Nobles who try things like that die in public and horrifying ways. The Emperor IS the Empire. To participate and fail to do your duty is to spit in his face. No one is that stupid."

I wondered if the renown generated by people like me, who weren't on the roles, was one of the ways to increase net gain like she said. Honestly the whole thing was so weirdly abstruse I had no idea how anyone could track it. Probably why there was a literal god running the show.

"So the thieves had a deal with Clairdon?" I asked, considering who was probably in charge of the roles in this are. "Will they get involved in the battles?"

She waved my concern away. "Viscount Creck. Barons aren't stable enough to make a long term deal with. Thieves, assassins, and the like, tend to work with more static authorities. Viscounts usually. Their territories don't change hands nearly as often. As I'm sure you know, Mastery is a watershed. Picking a fight with a Master at anything less is a difficult prospect, and it's a rare Baron who can manage."

Which made sense. My Solid Path made me a dangerous opponent at F-rank, but even an Illusionary Path like Callie's Path of the Abyss made a huge difference in combat. All Masters had Paths, and with both stat and Path advantages, it was bound to be a nightmare to try to beat one. Not an issue I'd have if I was punching up ranks, though I'd still have all the other obvious problems with fighting someone stronger.

"So we're supposed to visit this thieves quarter? What's to stop us from thieving US?" I asked cautiously. My group was pretty tough, but here, where we were so badly suppressed, multiple E-rankers could easily roll us for our stuff.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Stealing things to sell only works if you can sell them. Do you think anyone would go to the thieves quarter to buy things if they were just going to get robbed. Thieves that let other thieves steal in their territory don't last long. The quarter is the safest place in the city. Though most of Saltzberg is pretty safe. The guard doesn't allow street crime. Arrangements with the viscount or not, they still serve their purposes. Most robberies are burglaries, and they tend to avoid violent confrontation."

I'd wondered how the guard played into that whole thing, given she'd said people still had to serve their purposes. My thoughts were cut off as Mattie stalked out of the kitchen in the back, carrying a pair of trays laden with bacon and scrambled eggs with cheese. She slammed them down in front of us one after another, turning to glare at her aunt when she finished. "Please enjoy your meal." She hissed through gritted teeth. Then she spun and stormed out of the room.

"Wow, she really hates being polite." Said Benny through a mouth full of eggs. Celine glared at him and he swallowed. "I mean...why's she so upset?" He said weakly. I held back my snicker at the irony, not wanting to draw her ire myself. She was formal and polite most of the time, but Celine could do a pretty good withering stare when annoyed. That would really mess up my meal.

Anna sighed. "She's been out of sorts lately. Lionel too, but his anger is more of a quiet seethe. Mattie takes after my brother Marcus, when she's upset, EVERYONE knows it. Their parents sent them to work here against their will. They were worried about them getting in trouble in the capital. Lionel offended the heir of a Viscount and they packaged him off to Saltzberg to keep him out of sight. Mattie in particular feels caught up in things that weren't her problem."

I winced. "That does sound rough. It's nice of you to look out for them though. I'm assuming you can't just warn the Viscount off?"

"Soft power is more my style." She said with a shrug. "I protect my own, however. I was able to get my friends from the other night out of trouble. Though one of them was beaten in a particularly merciless fashion by someone carrying a big stick." She gave me a pointed look.

I took a sip of the glass of juice that had somehow appeared with my meal. Guava. It was pretty good. She rolled her eyes, turning back to her food when she realized I wouldn't apologize. He'd deserved it. We all enjoyed the food (the bacon was a deliciously crispy maple and brown sugar cured treat) but soon enough it was time to go. Anna sighed and stood up herself. "Well, I suppose with no mirror I'll have to just show you the way. Come along, children. I'll teach you all about honor among thieves."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I'd expected the thieves quarter to be underground. I know, I'm biased because of the WCP, but still, I'd figured it would be somewhere hidden and secure, where no one would be able to find it. Understanding or not, the guards had to guard stuff, so keeping a bunch of stolen shit out in the open would be ridiculous. There was no way they would have the whole thing in an obvious easily locatable spot.

The street signs directing us to the 'Merchant's Quarter' were the first and most obvious indication of how wrong I was. Benny couldn't stop cackling at the fact that merchants were so synonymous with being stingy pricks that thieves would use the designation as an all but open proclamation of their profession, though I was a bit confused.

"What about the actual merchants?" I asked as we walked. "They can't all be thieves in disguise." At that point, even Anna cracked up, and I sulked for five minutes as we walked through the streets, the whole group of them laughing at my word choice.

"Sorry." Anna gasped. "It's just not often someone sets up a straight line like that. I honestly think there were so many possible jokes that it prevented me from being able to tell one. There are merchants, but they tend to mix with the thieves pretty seamlessly. Similar mindset."

Entering the 'merchant's quarter', I was surprised once again. The place was picturesque, like a little shopping district. Cobblestone streets and thatched rooves. "Alright." I said as we approached. "We're looking for Might and Vitality focused elixirs. Where would we go to find that?"

Callie and I had discussed our needs, and while I preferred to more evenly disperse my stats, and Callie had her big concentrations in Perception and Fantasy, we both figured Might would play a solid role in the battles to come, and Vitality would help us maintain our stamina. Ranking up would offset a huge amount of the pressure from the planet and help us return to our more powerful forms (partially at least) but having a physical edge couldn't hurt.

Anna made a considering sound. "I'm not sure. There aren't a wealth of alchemists around. I checked my mirror before we left, and Burton Stovall seems to be the top pick for most accomplished alchemist in Saltzburg. At least according to my sources." She pointed down the street, gesturing to a small, picturesque building with a tiny fence around its bucolic yard. "It might be a bit pricey though, I hope you brought enough money."

We had. In fact, that had been a large portion of the reason we'd decided not to fill out Jessie and Benny's elixir allotment too. We weren't sure we'd have enough. A thousand points of stats was nothing to scoff at. Even for an F-rank assortment of pills it would most likely break the bank to get enough for the two of us. I was hoping the thirty plus D-rank chits I had on me would be enough.

Nodding to her instead of answering, I gestured to Benny. His haggling Skill had hit Lesser after our negotiations with Camden, though he hadn't mentioned it until later. That still wasn't anything impressive here, but it was better than nothing. He, Callie, and I all stepped through the gate, making our way down the idyllic path of flat stones interspersed through the path up to the door.

I pushed it open, going first, and there was a bell-chime as we entered. I braced myself for some kind of lab or concoction room, but once again this place failed to live up to expectations. The inside of the room was open and clean, unsurprisingly bigger on the inside, but besides that it wasn't anything like I'd expected. Glass tubes filled the walls, coming down from the ceilings and each filled with a certain kind of pill.

Solid colors, stripes, swirling patterns that danced across the surface, there were so many it made my head spin, all lined up next to each other in a dizzying display. At the base of each tube was a metal plate with a slot for a coin, and below it there was a small metal hatch that would let out one of the pills. Each metal plate had a small, neatly written label on it.

Behind us, above the door, lay a sign. 'Help yourself, to buy in bulk, approach the counter.' A red carpet ran the length of the store, coming to a stop in front of a small wooden counter, behind which sat a fidgety, neurotic looking man with square glasses, flipping through a massive leatherbound book.

Glancing at Benny and Callie, we heard the others come in behind us, but ignored them for the moment, walking down the carpet side by side. I tried not to look at the pills, because the variety was hurting my head. Some of these were higher rank than I was, but even the F-ranked stuff was in high concentrations and it seemed to be straining the world around it. The glass they were behind glittered strangely, and I realized that as light hit, if I looked VERY closely (something I couldn't do for long) there were runes in the striations in the glass.

"Don't look at those." The man said boredly, catching my attention. "They're warded. The glass is a propreitary cast from a small company on Reigel. Good security is irreplaceable. I assume, having read the sign, you're interested in a bulk purchase." He squinted at us behind the glasses, then his eyes strayed to Anna. "You brought a D-ranker. That's certainly enough to engender my interest."

Not for the first time, I wondered who the hell Anna was. Why was a D-ranker on this planet but not one of the nobility? Why did no one seem to know she existed? Where had she come from? How did this guy know what rank she was, when we couldn't tell and I hadn't seen any sign the Magister noticed her either?

Stepping up to the counter, Benny smiled at him confidently. "Hello, we' re looking for a certain combination of elixirs. One thousand, eight hundred and eight points of Might and Vitality elixir at F-rank. What will that cost us?" Callie was at ninety one hundred points and I was at nine thousand ninety two, so we didn't need a full two thousand.

"First of all." He said flatly. "You can't. Making an F-rank elixir with more than a hundred points in a stat is prohibitive. You'll see high dosage pills like that at lower ranks, because the Impact values are so close it doesn't matter, but past F it becomes prohibitive. I can tell you came from somewhere with extremely low alchemy standards to even ask that question."

Benny faltered, clearly put off by the response. Clearing his throat, he stood for a moment, not speaking. Finally he sighed. "Alright, can you tell us how this works then? We need that value in pills, can you give it to us? In whatever combination?"

He sighed, removing his glasses and slipping a thin cloth from his pocket to clean them. "Basically, your average high end F-rank stat elixir will give you fifty points. In order to make a higher concentration of stats you need rare F-rank materials, which is prohibitive. It's more cost effective to take an E-rank stat elixir aimed at F-rankers. They're tempered specifically to dilute the Impact, and the more powerful base ingredients allow you to more easily hit the values needed."

Knowing how Ascendant values worked, I nodded. "The E-rank pills go up to five hundred points, I take it. The tempering prevents the problems you can normally get from ingesting pills of too high a rank? I thought one rank higher was safe?"

"The higher you go, the bigger the Impact difference rank to rank." He said matter of factly. "An E-ranker has sixty two Impact to an F-ranker's thirty two. You CAN take E-ranked pills made normally, but it's a massive strain. The large difference is why you can get so many more stats out of them. It's an advanced alchemy technique called conversion. At lower levels, taking a higher ranked medicine will give you the same amount of stats. Once you get into the higher ranks conversion pills become more commonplace."

I sighed. "Forget the eight points then." I was going to have to grant a wish to get those. I was reasonably sure I could do eight at once when I finished taking the pills, I was already able to trade seven. "Eighteen hundred points then. How mach for those?"

He pulled out a small jewelers loop, looking through it at the both of us and frowning. "Two top grade E-rank conversion Might pills, two middle high Vitality." He said after a moment. "Five hundred and four hundred points respectively." He glanced over at Anna. "I'm willing to price for post conversion, assuming I can count on seeing your benefactor again in the future?" She nodded.

"Twenty E-rank chits." He said finally. Benny opened his mouth, but the alchemist just glared at him. "If you try to haggle the price doubles. If you don't like it you can go buy from the OTHER alchemist who can reliably source E-ranked pill ingredients in enough numbers to have extras beyond what the nobles reserve. Spoiler alert, there aren't any. You MIGHT be able to find enough pills to heap together the points you want, but they'll gouge you worse than I did."

Benny shot me an apologetic look, but I just shrugged. Plans didn't always work out. I passed the twenty E-ranked chits over, grimacing in nearly physical pain. That was months of work. Elixirs got expensive at higher rarities. Still, I couldn't help but glance around. "These can't all be for stats." I said cautiously. "What other kinds of products do you sell?"

Rolling his eyes, the man muttered. "Civilians." Under his breath before gesturing out at the shop. "Alchemy is not exclusively the creation of stat elixirs, despite what the uneducated might think. There are pills for stealth, pills to allow you to see certain kinds of energy, pills to resist cold, or fire, or lightning. Pills that let you protect your mind from intrusion or temporarily harden your flesh to the consistency of stone. Almost any ability a person can have can be distilled into a tincture. There are endless uses for alchemy."

His tone was proud and excited, and it was easy to tell that Burton Stovall LOVED what he did. I even considered buying some more pills, they sounded like they could be damned useful, but I only had ten E-ranked chits left. I was pretty sure he'd given the pills to us almost as cost in consideration for Anna shopping here in the future, too, and I doubted he'd be so nice again.

I indicated we were finished and he bustled away, coming back with four pills, two dark red and two emerald green. Callie and I took one of each color, then bid our goodbyes and turned to leave. As we walked out, I studied the pills again with new eyes, trying to discern what each one did beyond the name on the labels, many of which were abstruse and unhelpful in determining the purpose of a pill.

Alchemy was an interesting field, even more than I'd considered before. It was clear to me that I hadn't gotten a good idea of its depths back home, where techniques like 'conversion' didn't exist. A method of converting higher Impact to more stats. It reminded me a bit of the way my wishes worked, where Impact could act as a substitute for other requirements. Was the alchemist who created the technique on the same level as the original Wishmaster in terms of talent? Was it another god? Maybe one that wasn't around anymore?

I had plenty of questions, but in the end they'd have to wait. We had our pills now, which meant I was only giving Camden the agreed upon five wishes today. My last would be used to gather the eight points I'd need to finish reaching E-rank along with Callie. It was finally time to step into the same level of power as the strongest on our home planet. I for one, couldn't wait to see what it was like.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So." I said, holding the pair of pills. "This is going to fucking suck, isn't it?" We were back at the inn, Callie and I sitting across from each other. Chelsea was sitting in too, having volunteered to be the one wishing for the eight points I'd need to rank up after I took the elixirs. "Our souls are pretty sturdy, but nine hundred points is a decent chunk of our current values. Especially in the stats we have. Almost a quarter of each for me."

Callie grimaced. "The Might won't be a problem, percentage wise five hundred is much less for me than it is for you. Four hundred Vitality is literally more than a hundred percent increase for me, though. It's going to be agony, especially since I don't even have an Azure Soul Body like you do to blunt the pain."

I reached out and took her hand, squeezing it gently. "I'll take as much of it as I can handle. We can go one at a time, so it'll be more like both of us are doing the upgrades together. Do you want to go first?"

"Oh sure." She said shakily. "Soulrending pain is my favorite thing ever. I guess I'd better do Vitality first then. We can deal with it when we're both in peak condition. You sure you want to help me ride this one out? You can't do much more than take some of the pain. It might not be worth it. It's not like it's going to kill me."

Rolling my eyes, I pushed the emerald pill in the box closer to her, and she sighed, nodding as she used the hand I wasn't holding to pick it up. Popping the clear crystal box open, she picked up the shimmering green pill. "Wish me luck." She said as she tossed the thing back like a shot. She sat there for a second, waiting, and then her back arched and her body slammed back against the wooden floor.

Life energy blazed through her, manifesting like a tidal wave of pure Vitality rolling through her whole body. Her hand clamped down around mine like a vise, and my eyes widened as several of my bones cracked. I hissed in pain, but I didn't pull away, letting her grind them together as she choked down screams of pain. It honestly helped me focus as I tried to withstand the flood of agony coming through the bond.

I was taking as much of her pain as I could, this was a weight on my soul sure, and on hers, but more than that, this was her body and state of being adjusting to suddenly being more than twice as strong. I was regretting picking Vitality as the stat we used the elixir for, and I could feel she was too.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour but was probably more like thirty seconds, the pain faded. Callie slumped back, panting in pain and releasing my hand. I triggered a heal burst immediately, using my other hand to try to shift the bones into the right positions to make the healing easier. "That..." Panted Callie. "Was the worst idea we've ever had. Why would I possibly have considered doing that? On the upside I got a full fourteen percent to my soul strength for weathering that shitstorm."

I flexed my hand with a grimace. "Yeah, probably would have been smarter to let Vitality drag up naturally as you ranked and pumped the points into Perception or something else that could have taken it better. On the upside Might should be a cakewalk after that."

She shrugged. "Our logic was solid. It would have been stupid not to fortify my Vitality. Even with the extra Impact from the rank up, the extra stamina and regeneration will be vital. Let's get this moving. Might time." She grabbed the second box, popping it open and tossing it back like she had the first.

This time, there was some strain as she adjusted, but it didn't really HURT. Callie was heavily invested in Might, and the five hundred points she was gaining was far less of a shock. There was still a bit of difficulty as she withstood the E-ranked pill as it converted to an abundance of F-ranked Might, but between the two of us withstanding it was easy.

She completed the stat acquisition simply enough, and after allowing herself to rank up, she ascended smoothly to E-rank. It was almost anti-climactic after everything else. But her soul was strong, and she was able to handle the growing Impact easily enough. In fact, it was stronger than mine now. As she ranked up, it made the shift from green to blue officially sublimating into a form that prevented any further breakage of shackles. Not that she would have a problem with that.

I felt the weight of her beat on the air as she Ascended, breaking through to a rank that I knew she'd been dreaming of since she was a little girl. She was officially an E-ranker like her father, and with a Path already to boot. She was already ready to take the step into D-rank that he could never take on Callus. She opened her eyes, tears spilling down her cheeks as she stared at me in wonder. I could feel the emotion crashing through the bond like a tsunami, her new and weightier sense of self almost overpowering to my weaker being. Almost. She grabbed a piece of paper, writing out her new status and handing it over to me.

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-3350
Impact-65
Vitality-742
Fantasy-2105
Focus-908
Perception-2375
Creation-485
Progress to next rank: 10030/100000

Soul strength- Blue-64%
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...I can't believe it." She said quietly. Staring at the paper. "I'm finally here. Finally as strong as he is. Maybe not as far along, but I have my Path, and that has to count for something. Plus my soul is definitely way stronger than his. I bet I could kick his ass."

I laughed. "Maybe hold off until we hit D-rank. Might as well make a big spectacle when you prove to him what a dumb asshole he is."

She lunged forward, throwing her arms around me. "Shane...you don't know what this means to me. Or maybe you do, but still...I love you. Thank you so much." She giggled. "Apparently helping me achieve my lifelong dream was at least worth a Skill rank. Paired duelling ranked up. I should be able to help you withstand your own stats way easier with a blue soul." She puffed out her chest as she pulled back, proud to be able to help and of how far she'd come.

Blue. The soul of a Master. It was a heady thing. My own upgrade would bring me to the next soul rank, and I was curious what that would be. What was the complete sublimation state after Azure Soul Body? A halfway step into Indigo, I was sure, but what would it be called? Deciding I was going to find out, I grabbed my own pills. One and then the other, I took them, tossing them back and then waiting.

It wasn't...pleasant, but it didn't hurt, not really. Just some pressure, and the small amount of discomfort Callie helped with easily through our new and improved bond. She seemed almost annoyed she couldn't do more, and it was hard not to smirk at her pouting for not being needed during this.

Chelsea, who had been watching the byplay with an amused smile, smiled at me. "Alright, you ready for this? I wish for eight points of Might, and I'll pay with eight points of Fantasy." She enunciated clearly.

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I agreed without hesitation, holding out a hand and grabbing hers, letting the rising static of my power carry the last eight points I needed. I was glad I'd been right about the bump being enough to get me to eight points per wish. It would have been hellish getting stuck at one point away from E-rank. As soon as it settled, I felt the weight of my incoming shift in self.

Impact. The conceptual weight of a being. Thirty points of Impact was nearly double what I had now. But I wasn't worried. Impact weighed on the soul. Stats affected the body, especially ones like Vitality, so there was bound to be difficulties in a big jump, but Impact? The soul weight settled onto my Azure Soul like a warm blanket.

I was uplifted. Ascended. I became more than I had ever been before. My Path of the Doom Sovereign, an ability I'd clawed and scraped together and worked to refine, seamlessly rose alongside my wish power. I couldn't wait to see what kind of changes that brought about. New subskills, sure, but changes to the ones I had I was sure. The changes were gradual to that one. It would take time to settle from its first rank upgrade. I'd check those later, for now I was more focused on the earlier portions of my status and how it had changed.

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-2975
Impact-65
Fantasy-950
Vitality-2162
Focus-1120
Perception-1204
Creation-1554
Progress to next rank:10030/100000
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), 10 triple strength density shifted attacks (ten in reserve). 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 9 heal bursts (4 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


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

There was a lot to unpack there. Seeing Expert instead of intermediate thrilled me, obviously. Seven wishes would come in handy and let me stockpile more for the territory while fulfilling my contract with Camden still, and I could feel my body shaking off the bonds of the pressure it had been under. Not completely, obviously, but some of my old strength and speed were returning.

Then there was my soul. Sapphire Soul Body. Each rank of the soul had its own peak sublimation. The Azure Soul Body was the first, but each rank up would reveal another. I'd never bothered to ask what the peak of blue was, and seeing it, I wasn't sure how to feel. I didn't feel different really, though I suppose I wouldn't. The new clarity I'd gained in the temple had been a result of same rank soul changes. Ascending was the natural method of growing the soul, and it wasn't really supposed to alter the way I felt.

Turning to Callie, I scribbled out my own status, passing it to her, and let her read over it. I could feel her pride and excitement against my soul, the combination of new bond and new us making me feel even closer to her. She finished reading it and threw herself at me again, and I held her as bright, shimmering laughter spilled out of her, pure exultation at we had accomplished together. I started laughing alongside her, and I didn't even care that Chelsea was looking at us like we were lunatics. It was good to be alive.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I'd like to claim that I immediately went through my DS Mastery to see what I got. This rank wouldn't have been a death blow since I'd gotten Marked for Death last time, but I still had to check what new subskills popped up, not to mention see if the ones I had upgraded. My Path wasn't something that could be found in the game anymore, it was unique because of the additions I'd made.

That's what I SHOULD have done. But...I was just so giddy. Being suppressed by the world around us was so tiring. I'd been clocking MAYBE a pound per point of Might in terms of raw strength. Still freakishly powerful for a normal human, but nothing like what I'd had even as an H ranker back on Callus. As a planet of not even D-rank, my old home put almost no pressure on Ascendants, though at the cost of limiting their advancement.

Stratholme, meanwhile, turned F-rankers into veritable mortals. Even at E-rank, I was at maybe a tenth of the strength as I'd be were I completely unencumbered. That said, a tenth of the full output of my body was a hundred pounds of lifting strength per point of Might, of which I had nearly THREE THOUSAND. the lessening of the pressure putting me FIRMLY back into the realm of the superhuman.

I crowed in joy as I hit the street outside the inn at a dead sprint, Callie speeding along at my side. The feeling of freedom, of sheer unrestrained POWER, was intoxicating, and as we approached the walls, we bent our knees and hurled ourselves into the air, slipping the bonds of gravity through main force.

Of course, I wasn't a moron. State of Grace triggered as I soared up, if only to lighten the impact of my eventual landing, and it was the easiest thing in the world to reach through the new and improved bond, allowing it to extend to Callie as she joined me in the sky.

The guards below watched us with bored expressions, and in a shocking twist, I heard Callie's voice in my head. "I'm surprised they don't try to stop us."

My eyes snapped to hers, and she looked surprised. I reached out experimentally, pushing a thought through the bond with the strength of my Sapphire soul. "Can we...talk telepathically now?" I said cautiously. "Wait, is this a deliberate thing or are we reading each other's minds. Because I'm definitely NOT ok with that."

As we reached the apex of our parabolic arc out over the forest outside town, I kicked off the air with Ripple Running, changing direction to send me drifting down toward the trees in a spot where I could see an opening. Callie tapped into the skill effortlessly, doing the same, and we sailed down among the trees like leaves on the wind. "I don't think so." Her voice rang in my mind. "I don't think this is a brain thing. I think we're sending messages with our souls."

We hit the trees, separating as we kicked off a branch each, shooting forward as we sped from branch to branch, weaving through the forest in a blur, losing each other behind the giant boughs of blue leafed giants, but never worrying about not finding each other again.

She was right. I could feel it. These weren't words exactly. They were a sharpening of the empathic impressions we'd had before. A more controlled form of communication through our souls. Whether we gained that control from our massively improved soul power or the new rank of the Skill was anyone's guess. As holders of souls of a Master level, we were bound to be discovering new tricks. Whatever it was, I didn't dislike it.

I could still feel a constant trickle of Callie's emotions across the bond, a comforting low hum in the background of my mind like white noise to fall asleep too. I got clearer impressions along with the words when she spoke, though I knew from my own responses she could have shut that off. She didn't though. Our bond was stronger than ever, and with it came a sense of absolute trust built on living in a world where we were each other's guiding light even in the deepest dark.

The thought and the emotion that went with it clearly carried across, because I felt a tide of adoration and love roll over, me, turning to panic and shock as I missed the branch and went pinwheeling into the brush.

I was so shocked by her fear that I didn't even bother to kick off a Ripple Running platform, just smashed into the leafy expanse of bushes with a crash. Callie was at my side in an instant, worry writ large on her face, but I just brust out laughing as I pulled myself out of the branches, picking leaves from my hair as I straightened my jacket.

"Well." I said breathlessly. "We're going to have to get used to that again. Bit more intense than before. With our current soul power I doubt we'll have trouble controlling it. We'll just need to be a bit more mindful to use a lighter touch."

She wrapped her arms around me, resting her head on my chest as she laughed along with me. "Yeah. Intense. Good word for it. That was...wow. When I focused I got your emotions way more clearly than before. I felt you thinking about me and wanted to know what was going on and...I think I created a feedback loop for a second. You feeling me feeling you feeling me." She giggled almost drunkenly. "There was so much love. It was nice."

"It was." I agreed, a stupid grin on my face. "But maybe not the safest thing to have going on around enemies."
She sized me up. "Or shrubbery, apparently." We both burst into giggles again at that, and I had to even out my breathing as I clamped down with my soul. I'd been wrong about the difference not being noticeable, it had just taken a bit to him me.

"Ok." I said, exhaling slowly. "We'll need to work on that. Good thing we have the day off. Is it me or does it feel like..."
She nodded. "Our souls are way too strong. We should do some kind of big Skill or something, tire them out a bit so we can feel this out gradually. Anything come to mind?"

"Yeah, I need to check out the details of my Path of the Doom Sovereign." I said with a shrug. "Might as well try some of the new tricks out. What about you? Do you have anything that'll strain your soul? Most of your tricks are part of your ability and that doesn't carry much soul weight. Normally I'd say do something complicated, but your shadow manipulation makes that and active part of your ability itself, which prevents too much soul strain."

She winked at me, and then she...SHIFTED. Dark jagged stone coated her body, green magma striations spitting with toxic flame covering her. I felt her tapping into my strength through the bond, not just my Skills, but into my Path itself, through its solid connection to my nature. She was using Belial.

For about a second. Then it blinked out, crumbling off her as she staggered, catching herself on the tree. "Wow." She groaned. "That was rough. I don't think Path stuff is meant to be used through the bond. That felt like deadlifting a small moon. My soul didn't crack or anything though, just got really strained really fast." She blinked a few times like she was clearing spots from her eyes. "We were right though. This feels much less...extreme."

The soul was the basis of the self, and while after the rank up we hadn't really felt too different, it had quickly become clear that even the slightest flex of our soul strength MASSIVELY overshot the mark. The bond was the most obvious place to see it, but far from the only one. With Callie having confirmed the guess, my next move was checking out my Doom Sovereign abilities. Holding up a hand I let the familiar purple flames roll across my vision, this time finally focusing on the part of my status I'd been ignoring.

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.

First were the obvious additions. Piece of Mind and False Fatality. Both far more useful than they sounded. Piece of Mind allowed me to fragment part of my consciousness and create a second self basically. It allowed for divination on the fly, but combined with the shadow clones I had stored would essentially allow me to be do two things at once in a way that even high Focus couldn't. Normally impossible tasks would be achievable once I got the hang of it.

The second, my new rogue ability, was even better. Rather than a fake death skill, False Fatality allowed you to offload a powerful attack onto a specified target. Specifically it worked in synergy with Marked for Death, taking a strong hit directed at me and redirecting it to someone with the Mark. It was a huge lifesaving trump card, even if it required special conditions to set up.

I excitedly explained the new abilities to Callie, possibly geeking out slightly at seeing some of my more powerful DS skills finally starting to come through. I didn't have a monk skill this time, but Mountain Stance was still incredibly powerful so that was fine.

Then I paid more attention to my unique DS abilities and how they had changed. The ones I used most often seemed to have been altered at some level, though some less obviously than others. State of Grace now actively enhanced my speed when in use, Moonlit Night allowed me to apply the stealth damage bonus to others, as well as more easily allow them to see in the fog, and Heavy Hands went from ten percent armor penetration passively to fifteen.

All in all, the utility of each one had increased. It also showed that combining my subskills allowed them to evolve along with my rank ups, though for some reason only the ones I used often seemed to have changed measurably. I was sure that would mean something to me later, but for now I just wanted to try something out.

I used Piece of Mind. In a blink, my consciousness split in two. It was a strange sensation, I was looking at everything twice through the same set of eyes. A sort of constant deja vu assaulted my senses, but I ignored it. Dedication one parallel of my thoughts entirely to using Song of the Soil, I triggered Rhythm of the Wild and staggered at the information overload as I sensed everything within range both on and beneath the ground.

Herbs, plants, stones, I gained a nearly perfect understanding of the environment around us, able to percieve both of them in a way that shouldn't be possible without rendering me completely immobile from information overload. Turning to Callie, I grinned. "Ok, this is actually a strain, but you were right, that helps. I wonder though, can you use this one?"

My girlfriend closed her eyes, reaching through the bond to try to tap into the new skill, and beamed at me as she was able to split her mind like I did. "I can." She said in wonder. "It can only be used for a single instance, but...with my shadow clones, this could let me be in two places at once, or I could devote it to my shadow infiltration so I can use it without having to be immobilized." She cracked her neck, limbering up to try the new trick. "Use those senses to find us something to fight. I want to try this out." So I did. I had to admit I was just as excited.

 

[theaceoffire]

this could let me de in two places at once

Click to shrink...

I 'de' be bah dah buh deh dee...

 

[Malcolm Tent]

One of the first things I'd learned about combat under Abel was the somewhat paradoxical fact that, barring specialized training, having more people with you in a fight was a hindrance more than a help. That had seemed a bit ass backwards to me at the time, numbers are a good thing, but after I'd learned to actually fight with a partner via my paired duelling skill, I understood.

Humans, even Ascendants, are monocentric creatures. We have to be. We're born in one body, see through one pair of eyes, and experience the universe from a single point of view for our whole lives. We may use empathy and communication to try to understand others, but there are more than just five senses. Even if we know what a person tastes, hears, or smells, we don't know how those inputs affect them. We never really understand anyone else.

This leads to discord in combat that needs to be overcome. When you fight with a partner, you're not just both attacking one target. Even if there's only a single enemy, you have to be aware of the attacks your ally makes, aware of their positioning so YOU don't attack THEM. Then you get into overlapping attack patterns and how they can affect each other, and that only multiplies the more people you add to the equation.

Paired duelling, as it happened, was the way to combat that. Feeling the emotions, intentions, and reactions of your partner let you internalize all of the various aspects of combat like they were your own thoughts, allowing true and reasonable cooperation between partners, making paired combat the asset it should be.

Or at least, that had been what it USED to do. Now...now it was so much more. I could feel not just vague impressions of what Callie planned, but detailed ideas she was about to execute. With our souls both as strong as they were, processing and responding was a matter of instants, and I was able to track her progress in battle with the same speed I could my own.

Focus played no role, nor did Perception. We were a single unified force, thoughts flitting from my head to hers as I thought them, and then back just as fast. We weren't just operating seamlessly in conjunction, we were operating BETTER. It was like having two brains, which would have probably been confusing and distracting in any other circumstances, but with the bond, it just felt...right.

We didn't even need Piece of Mind to fight properly, since all this was done through the soul. I had no idea where Abel had learned this Skill, but it was amazing and incredibly complex. I wondered if it had been changed at all by our use, or if Abel and Mel thought like this all the time. It was no wonder they were so in sync.

The opponents I'd found were a pack of strange dog headed lizard things. They had huge hind legs, small, sharp clawed arms, and oversized heads on long sinuous bodies that could build up absurd speed when they leaned forward and charge, and apparently could see heat signatures.

They charged us from all angles, needle like teeth snapping and tearing to get at us, but it felt like...like we were walking on air. Not State of Grace. I didn't use it here. I didn't use any skills at all. This was good practice for learning to fight properly. I still planned to get some training, and I'd still need to learn the formations I'd be using as a commander. I had to get used to the limits of my new and improved physical capabilities, and that meant FINDING those limits.

I reached back, leaving my hand hanging in the air behind me without looking, and feeling Callie's palm slap into mine with the calm certainty I'd have felt if I'd been clapping. Closing my fingers, I pulled, and her feet came off the ground, an enemy rushing past where she'd just been. The monster bisected itself on a hanging slash of darkness from her path even as she landed in a spin, her leg lashing out and smashing into the bend of another of their legs.

The monsters were angry, enraged by the casual slaughter of one of their own, and I pulled my staff, whirling it around my neck to slap into Callie's palm, and then pulling her toward me in a twirl like we were dancing. When she came out the other side the staff came with her, her grip loosening and allowing the staff to slide down its length, extending as it swung.

Callie didn't have the skills to use a staff like that, but I did. My Valtek Mastery was easy for her to tap into. We continued like that for what seemed like an hour. It was beautiful. I felt so close to her, so...complete, and I knew she felt the same.
By the time we were done, there were dozens of the monsters dead around us. It wasn't a particularly hard fight, they were all F-rank, albeit relatively high up in that rank. If there had been E-rank monster packs wondering around this planet would have been much less safe for F-rankers like we had been.

"I think we might have gone a bit overboard." I said wryly as I cleaned green blood off my staff. "We killed a whole bunch of them."

Callie smiled fondly at me. "You don't need to feel bad. They were predators, and they wanted to eat us. Though I think if it wasn't for my stealth they would have run. No way they survived long enough to form a pack by being stupid enough to attack higher ranked Ascendants."

"Not what I meant." I said with a laugh. "I saw several of them tear apart one of the wounded ones. They were vicious bastards and I don't think I'm bothered by that. I just kind of feel like a bully. Being stronger and starting a fight. I don't hate the idea of being this strong though. It'll keep us safer in the future." I grinned at her. "We can finally learn to command troops."

She smiled back at me, and I could feel the comforting bubble of her excitement as it percolated through the bond. The time fighting had helped us both learn exactly how to moderate the bond. We could clamp down or ease up on the connection at will from either side, and we were both comfortable with the basic empathy that stretched between us. Being without it was like missing one of our senses.

Offering her my arm, we started our walk back to the city. "Kind of glad we waited on the armor stuff." She said as we walked. "The new costumes being tailored to our post breakthrough bodies should make them a better fit. Plus being at E-rank ourselves will make using them easier. The Stygian Branch was much easier to handle. Even with the bond it used to be hard for me to move it much. Now it just feels like a stick."

"I noticed that too." I said with a nod. "I can't wait to integrate this into my future forms. I've been working on a new defensive stance. Might be tough to do it before Benny breaks through to E-rank though. I was planning to include a stored attack when I created it. First time trying that, but with my soul as strong as it is I should be able to hold things stable while I form the structure of the new form."

She gave a thoughtful hum. "Can you just use ten of them? There's a ten times difference between ranks, so you might be able to make it work."

I nodded slowly. "That...that might work. I'll give it a shot when I have a minute free. How about you? Any big plans now that you've managed to hit E-rank? In terms of your capabilities I mean? I know you'll be training tactics too, will you focus on that exclusively? Or maybe join my political lessons?"

"Those both sound like fun, and I might sit in, but mostly I'm going to focus on my Path." She said decisively. "Seeing what yours can do, I'm excited to reach the Solid Path state, and to integrate that path into my ability. To truly wield the powers of the abyss." She sounded almost gleeful at the idea of wielding such a dangerous power, and I couldn't blame her. It was pretty cool.

Reaching Saltzburg, we entered without a problem and headed for Camden's estate. I wanted to check in with our patron, plus I still owed him five more wishes. Speaking of which, I saw a familiar form stomp up to me. "What the hell?" My sister said in exasperation, throwing up her hands. "You guys just took off. I spent like twenty minutes sitting there like an asshole waiting for you to come back."

I froze, blinking at her in slight confusion. "Oh...Chelsea. Hey..." I was at a loss for words. I'd been so overwhelmed with all the changes I'd just...forgotten she was there.

"You completely forgot about me, didn't you." She said with a sigh. "It's fine. I know that rank ups can be intense. You're back now, so I can come with you to...wherever. Actually, where are you going?" She looked a bit embarrassed to have only just ask, since we'd started walking again and she was strolling along beside us.

I gestured into the distance. "We're going to hit up Camden's manor." I said in explanation. "I want to let him know we're going to be moving up in the training camp. So sad for you guys that you're going to be stuck with the torment for a while longer, but honestly you should be coming up on a breakthrough right? You and Callen were both pretty close to E-rank last I checked."

"That's true." She said with a nod. "I'll catch up with you two soon. Does your contract cover me for command training too? Because I've always been fascinated by books about tactics."

That was a good question, actually. I glanced at Callie, who shrugged. "I...don't remember." I admitted. "I think so, and if not we can tweak things. Wishes aside, he owes us for sticking around. We could find someone to buy the contract out easily, and honestly there are a couple of hazard pay provisions and political specificity clauses I could use to break the damned thing if I really wanted to."

We arrived at Camden's manor to be greeted by Alister, who stared at us in shock as he escorted us into the manor. We didn't bother to hold back our auras or use stealth this time. We were here to show off, and being low profile would be counter productive.

When Camden saw us, he whistled. "Damn, you guys made quick work of that. I have to say I'm impressed. I knew you had enough of your elixir allotment left to get the bump, but those can be hard to find here. Congratulations are in order I suppose. Welcome the the E-ranks. If you were locals I'd welcome you to Barony, but I suppose that will have to wait until you get some land and appoint your regent."

He gestured for us to sit down, and I brought up Chelsea's question. He seemed a bit uncertain as well, so we busted out the contracts and pored over them, finding out that yes, Chelsea was entitled to command training as well under the final version I'd drafted. I commended my past self on excellent wording. Once we sorted out the details of our promotions, we got Camden's wishes out of the way and then we headed back to the inn. Tommorow we would return to camp, and be upgraded to our new barracks. Until then, we were just going to enjoy the rest of our day off.

 

[theaceoffire]

Ha! I love the threadmark for this chapter update!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Callie and I woke up refreshed and energized. We'd been sleeping under the equivalent of a lead blanket for the last week, and just the sheer bliss of being able to breathe freely and easily was almost intoxicating as we greeted the day. We had to be back to the camp for the command tent meeting, which was thankfully after Revielle, so we didn't need to go back a night early and could have breakfast with Cass and Zeke, something we both enjoyed immensely.

"These parfaits are amazing." I told Callie as I dug into the cup of smooth, sweet yogurt, covered with granola, fresh fruit, and drizzled with delicious honey. "So the command tent meeting is at ten, right?" She paid more attention to that kind of thing than I did.

She let out a blissful sigh as she took her last bite. "The blackberries are so fresh it's crazy. This is so much better than the eggs and bacon from the mess hall. It's not bad, but it gets so old after a while. I wonder if we can have breakfast here every morning."

Zeke took a long sip of his coffee as Cass ravaged a plate of pancakes with strawberry syrup. "You totally should." She said through a stuffed gullet. "We could eat breakfast and hang out and and it would be so much fun."

"Cassidy." My uncle chided without looking over at her. "What did I say about talking with your mouth full?"

She paused, thinking it over. "To make sure I'm eating something that was pretty colors so people have something to look at? I am though, look my pancakes are red." She stuck out her tongue, exposing her chewed food, and I grimaced and looked away from the poor display of table manners.

Raising an eyebrow as he read the paper (I hadn't known Saltzberg even HAD a paper) he scoffed without looking. "And how many colors, might I ask, is red?"

Slumping, the ten year old swallowed her food with a pout. "Just one." Somehow that logic seemed unassailable to her, and she sulkily started gorging on her food again as Callie looked at her in confusion. I just chuckled, because I remembered similar conversations with Zeke as a kid. My uncle was surprisingly good with children, to the point that I wondered if he'd ever had any of his own.

That was one question I had never asked. If Zeke had kids, he didn't see them anymore, and I'd never heard him mention them. It was clearly either a non issue or a painful subject, and I'd never been cruel enough to bring it up in case it was the latter.

"I don't think every morning will be possible." I said apologetically. "It's too far from camp. We're already here, so we can make it since the trip is one way. If we had to COME here and then go back we'd be too late getting to the meetings, and we have to sleep in our new dorms except on weekends. Even officers aren't exempt from that."

Callie sighed as she stared longingly at her no finished parfait, but eventually pushed out her chair. "We should probably get going then." She smirked at me gleefully. "We can make it to the camp with plenty of time given how quick we are, but showing up to our first command meeting at the last second won't exactly make the best impression. If we're going to be working with these people for the next four months it'll be best to make a good impression."

"I'm kind of worried about commanding a century of soldiers." I admitted as I stood up and shrugged on my coat. "Even with Camden's formations I'm scared I might get someone killed."

Zeke gave me a comforting smile. "Oh, don't worry about that." I waited for him to continue, but he just sat there smiling.
"Because..." I prompted. "I have a natural gift for command and will excel at being in charge of an army so they'll all be fine?"

"No." He said casually. "Because it's probably inevitable you'll get SOMEBODY killed, so there's no real point in psyching yourself up about it." At my glare, he just shrugged. "What? Do you know how many people manage zero casualties in command of their first battle?" After a pause, he prompted. "Well, do you? Because I have no idea, but I'm assuming the number is low."

I briefly considered flipping him off, but we had SOMEHOW managed to keep Cass from picking up the gesture despite the frankly gratuitous use it saw in the house, and she was sitting right here, so I just glared. "You are the literal opposite of helpful, do you know that?"

"Nah." He said in a dismissive tone. "I'm super helpful. You just can't recognize it yet. My amazing and flawless teaching style flies right over your immature heads. You'll look back on this time in your life for centuries, mining my every word for nuggets of priceless wisdom. Appreciate your elders, foolish children, for they will be gone too soon, and you will have no more wells of experience and practical advice to mine."

I pointed at his face. "You've got whipped cream on your chin."

"I know." He said spitefully as he wiped it off. "I was using it to underline my point. You're too easily distracted by the superficial. It'll spell your doom."

Callie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Zeke, even Cass can tell you just made that nonsense up, and she's TEN. Can we get going please? Because we have important places to be, and I can feel myself getting dumbed just sitting here listening to you two bicker about this."

"Good thing you don't need to worry about that happening to Shane." My uncle said snarkily. "I don't think he can get much dumber without his head literally imploding."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Cass, sweetie. Cover your ears for a minute. I have a few things to say to-"

"Nope." Callie grabbed me, dragging me away physically. "Not letting you get sucked in. He's trying to bait you because he's bored. It's obvious. How are you BOTH children when one of you is centuries old?" I couldn't help it, I started laughing as she dragged me away.

Zeke and I hadn't really teased each other much since this whole trip started. Not like we had when I was a kid. Talking about my dad the other day had been rough, but it seemed to have eased a tension with my uncle I hadn't even realized was there. Zeke was one of the most important people in my life, and since I found out about the geas, part of me had always felt like he'd been forced to be there for me.

Knowing he didn't hate my dad, despite my own anger at the man, it was a weight off my shoulders. If he didn't hate dad for putting him under the geas, then that meant he didn't feel burdened by it. Maybe I was reading too much into things, but it felt like I was right to feel like that. Like we were back to our old selves. Judging by the gleam of amusement in his eyes, Zeke felt that too, and I caught him shooting me a fond smile as I looked back.

Gripping my hand, I turned to see Callie smiling at me. "I'm glad you're happy." She said softly. "I hadn't even realized things were strained between you."

I shook my head. "They weren't really. It was just me being stupid. I pulled away from Zeke because I didn't want to burden him more than I had to. But it was a stupid way to look at things. He used to tell me 'Shane, family means never having to say thank you. It also means being able to say 'you're welcome' in a really passive aggressive voice when the other person doesn't.' I guess I forgot that."

She dissolved into giggles, and I cocked my head. "Sorry." She snorted between laughs. "It's just, that sounds SO MUCH like Zeke. You too, now that I think about it. I think you and Benny are a good example of that concept in action."

"I guess we are." I said with a laugh. "I can think of worse people to be like. Zeke might not always be in the right, but he cares about the people in his life." I trailed off, leaving any mention of my dad unsaid, and the hand around mine squeezed a bit tighter in comfort.

We walked in silence for the next five minutes or so, finally arriving at the camp. I wanted to drop our stuff in our new barracks, but I didn't know where it was, so we just headed for the building where the command meeting would be. I wondered if Hamill would be there, or if he was exempted for his training duties. Probably the latter given we'd seen him every day last week.

"Halt." Said a crisp voice. We both slid to a stop, turning to look at the towering figure of a man who stepped from the shadows. I'd noticed him, actually, but he'd been standing so still in full plate armor I thought he was a statue. I wondered if that was an unusual stealth application, of if he was just that easily overlooked. "Who goes there?"

Normally I'd have given a sarcastic response, but we WERE new, so saying it once didn't seem like it would be too out there. "Solomon and Nightstrike." I said plainly. "Newly minted century commanders. Our promotions just went through."

Reaching up, the man removed his helmet, a cascade of crimson hair flowing down his shoulders. There was a scar splitting his lip, neatly bisecting the left side of his well kept goatee, and it made him look like he had a permanent sneer. "Ah, the new bloods." He said in a dead sounding voice. I couldn't tell if he approved of us or wanted to roast us over an open flame with apples in our mouths.

"That's us." I agreed. "So can we...like, go in?" I gestured past him at the door he was blocking. "Don't want to be late for the meeting, do we?"

He blinked at me, cold blue eyes showing no emotion. "Lateness..." He trailed off. "Is unpleasant."

I waited for him to continue talking, but he seemed to have finished, stepping back to let us pass. "Right." I said slowly.
"Big fan of punctuality. Good to know. You have a name, big guy?"

"Charles." He said succinctly. Real chatterbox, this one. Nodding to him, we stepped past him as he replaced his helmet and resumed his perfectly unmoving stance. I could see how we missed him before. He really did seem to just vanish into stillness. Looking at him was like seeing a statue. It was deeply unnerving now that I knew the person in that armor could move and interact.

We entered the command building, and everyone already there turned to look at us. I saw Camden and Alister standing over a map table covered in small models, and a group of E-rankers surrounding them. The other commanders, from what Camden had said, were all non-noble Jobs, mostly combat oriented. Barons didn't often work under other Barons, but other E-rankers were available for hire.

Camden looked up. "Ah, Solomon, Nightstrike. Lovely that you could join us. We were just about to start." He gestured for us to step up to the table, and we crowded around, staring down at...the tunnel he'd had me make. He shot us a wink as he began filling the others in on his secret digging crew and the months of work that went into its construction, and I had a hard time not snickering as everyone started complimenting his foresight. Finally, he finished up his explanation, and our first meeting as commanders started in earnest.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

With the preamble out of the way, Camden had us all take a seat around a truly gargantuan wooden table packed with chairs. Callie and I sat close to the head where Camden was, just so we could be involved, but we didn't plan on talking too much. Listening was the best way to learn, and these meetings had been going on for ages without us attending. They had their own trajectory that we needed to pick up. At least that was the plan, sadly Camden didn't get the memo.

"Welcome everyone." Said Camden as we all sat down. "As you've noted we have newcomers among our number. Nightstrike and Solomon have recently reached E-rank, and due to special considerations in their contracts, will be assuming command of a century." I knew not every E-ranker in the army was in command. There were several squad leaders and trainers who were higher ranked, though his words led me to believe I hadn't seen all or even most of them.

A dark skinned man nearby with a placid expression and amber eyes nodded at us. "Lovely to meet you both." He said in a light, slightly melodic voice. "As newcomers, I suppose we should introduce ourselves to you. My name is Marco Powell, and I'm the captain of the first regiment of Baron Tolbert's military. The other commanders report to me when his grace is indisposed, so we'll be working closely together."

"That's IT?" Spat a sickly looking blonde man, slamming his hands on the table. His eyes were an odd golden color, and his dark hair was shaved on the sides and bleached on the top. His face was sunken and he was tall but unusually thin.
"They show up and hit the next rank and we hand over an entire century? We all broke our backs to be here, signed contracts that last for decades. I heard these bastards won't be sticking around for more than half a year? What the hell?"

Camden's eyes narrowed. "Sigmund." He said softly. "I don't recall where in your contract you were given the authority to question my decisions? Are you secretly the general of this army? Why was I not informed of something so important? Nightstrike and Solomon paid for their positions and more. Their contributions to our endeavors are substantial, and do NOT need to be enumerated at your request."

The other eighty plus people looked similarly upset. We had, from what Camden said, five regiments, totalling eight thousand people. Each of the five had two companies of eight hundred, each broken down further into eight centuries.
There were another two thousand elite troops under the command of Hamill, who were considered core forces most likely to become high ranking officers once the territory was settled. As century commanders we would be educated in field maneuvers, formations, training techniques, and various other base level instruction styles.

There had been talk, back when we were drawing up the contract, of just promoting us to company commanders, pulling soldiers from the core forces for us. In the end we decided to start small and earn our way up. It was less likely to cause problems, and most of what we needed to know for our territory we could pick up here.

Marco, smiling disarmingly, held up both hands. "Your grace, we don't question your decisions. If you say they've earned their place we're of course happy to welcome them into the fold. I think Sigmund is just voicing the concerns he feels may impede their integrations, so we might disarm a potential distraction before it becomes problematic. It is YOUR decision whether they're allowed to remain, of course, but we'll be working with them. Perhaps a bit of information on our new colleagues might put us all at ease."

Camden looked annoyed, but I could see that Marco's method of doing things was harder to just crush. Not to mention Marco was a regiment commander, one of only five in the main force, which meant he was probably pretty strong and had a lot of authority. "Fine." The Baron said with a sigh. "The two of them are the team leaders of Agria, the new healer we recently acquired. I trust you've all made use of her talents?"

To my surprise, that seemed to settle them all down a bit. Sigmund looked pensive. "She's been instrumental in keeping me on schedule." He admitted grudgingly. "Team leaders huh?" He glanced at us, then sighed. "Not used to how the other factions do things, but assuming that means she's like a vassal, I could understand the credit. Healers are invaluable. Especially one so useful."

Marco nodded with a wide smile. "Agreed. Lady Agria has been a great boon to the camp. She's saved us time, energy, and prevented not a few deaths. At this rate, she'll put us far ahead of our expected progress. Which century will they be taking command of."

Seemingly pleased with the return to matters at hand, Camden smiled back at the regiment commander. "I'm giving them Olena and Stern's centuries. Those two have been causing problems, and I've had them reassigned to Weber's unit in the core force for...disciplinary training." Every person at the table shuddered visibly as the seemingly innocuous words, and I made the brilliant deduction that I didn't want to ever find out why.

"The thirty third and the nineteenth?" Sigmund burst out with a laugh. "Why didn't you just say that? No reason to be jealous of them getting THOSE units. Laziest and most difficult centuries in the entire main force." He shot us a pitying look. "I actually feel bad for you all now. Olena and Stern were problems from the start, and they were given the most recalcitrant recruits. Thugs and morons mostly."

I grimaced. That wasn't ideal, but we had ways to handle things. I glanced at Camden, who was grinning at me mischievously, and rolled my eyes internally. "Is that so?" I said lightly. I should have known he'd find a way to screw me at least a little. If I brought it up he'd probably feed me some bullshit about learning more with a more difficult task, but I was pretty sure he was just passing the buck on a problem. "Then I want to request a few transfers. Two specifically. Gabriel Brightlaw and Abel Castleton. One for each of us."

Camden made a noise of amusement. I'd been polite about asking, knowing more about how far to push after my lessons on diplomacy, brief though they had been. Eventually, he held out a hand to Alister, who stood behind his chair. The seneschal passed a scroll, and the Baron opened it, skimming the names. "Mercy and Desmond. Those two are outliers in terms of productivity. They'll take your friends places in the tenth and forty third centuries. Acceptable?"

Since I didn't know who those people were, I just nodded. If these assholes were so obnoxious the other commanders were pitying us, we'd need all the help we could get. Sure, as E-rankers we could kick the shit out of all of them, but if we had to keep crippling and healing our people to get them in line it would look bad. Letting Abel and Gabe do it would be MUCH more reasonable.

"Well that's the easy part taken care of." Said Marco cheerfully. "Now we need to figure out who is going to be instructing them on training methods. It'll need to be someone running one of the more disciplined centuries, since they'll have to be away for a while helping these two adapt. Any volunteers?" He scanned the room, and a pair of hands went up. A small, olive skinned girl with aquamarine hair and kind blue eyes, and a tall tanned man with dark, intense eyes and long straight hair.

Camden reconsulted his list before nodding. "Demia and Niles, is it? The fifty seventh and sixth centuries?" At their agreement he glanced at me. "Very well, the two of you should be suitable. Make sure to help your new comrades to the best of your ability. This isn't a punishment detail. I have faith that Nightstrike and Solomon can whip those units into shape, and anyone found derailing that goal will be penalized. Understood?" He cast his glance across the table, and everyone nodded solemnly.

I was glad he'd said that. His little joke aside, if the other commanders got the impression we were intended to fail, they could make things difficult for us in plenty of ways. Making sure that we weren't the victims of hazing was the least he could do, and made me wonder if he really HAD given us problem units to make us better commanders.

The rest of the meeting was much less tense, and much less focused on us. Camden checked up on troop movements, assigned field exercises, patrol routes and just did general upkeep stuff I hadn't even known was going to come up, and once he was done, we were all dismissed. He asked Demia and Niles to wait for us outside and called for us to stay back to talk to him.

Once everyone was gone, he slumped a bit in his chair. "I hate doing these." He groaned. "Sitting all still like that is terrible for my back. Alister, get a back pillow made for my chair." The seneschal made a noise of confirmation and jotted down a not, and the Baron turned back to us. "That went pretty well, all things considered. Do you have any questions?"

"You mean like why you screwed us over on unit selection?" I said dryly. "I assumed its some nonsense about adversity building skill."

He barked out a laugh. "Nope. Politics. As you noted, once I mentioned your assigned units the dissatisfaction abated quite a bit. I can't babysit you two, and if the other commanders have a problem with you it'll make things much harder around here. Olena and Stern were bastards, no one liked them. If I'd given you a proper unit, I'd have had to take it from a more respected commander, and it would have turned everyone else here against you."

"This way we can prove ourselves." Said Callie in understanding. "If we can straighten up the problem children, we'll get a reputation for being competent, and without depriving some well liked commanders of their posts. But are you sure we can actually DO this? Olena and Stern were E-rank too, I assume."

He shrugged. "Barely, and they didn't really try much. They weren't exactly command material. Olena's brother Matthias is a particularly competent bastard who runs one of the units in the core force. I put them in charge as a favor to him, but once they proved they couldn't hack it he had no issues with me pulling their command. THEY had plenty of issues, but attacking fellow soldiers in the camp is taboo. They might challenge to a duel though, so I'd watch out for that."

I nodded solemnly. A duel wasn't too bad. We were newly minted E-rankers, but we had our own advantages. If these two were beginners we could definitely take them. "Demia and Niles." I said leadingly. "They're talented?"

"Two of my best." He said with a laugh. "I know all my top recruits, checking the list was just to make it look like I wasn't playing favorites. I had Marco approach them before the meeting to volunteer. The first thing you need to learn about command is to make sure you don't leave anything up to chance. That was all scripted, Marco, Sigmund, all of it. Now everyone knows what I want them to know about you, and nothing more. I've given you a good position, what you do with it from here is on you."

With that, he dismissed us, and Callie and I headed out to meet our new teachers. Demia and Niles were waiting for us at the entrance to the tent and once we joined them, they escorted us to meet our new units while Abel and Gabe were summoned for their new duty. Time to meet our personal armies.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Demia and Niles split us up, Demia coming with me and Niles escorting Callie. When I arrived at my section of the camp, I found Gabe standing at attention in full armor, waiting for us to arrive. "Commander." He said with a serious salute, thought I noticed a slight twitch of his lips that made me sure he was fighting a smirk.

I paused to think about everything I'd heard of military etiquette, and returned his salute with an. "At ease." I glanced at Demia, who nodded encouragingly, and Gabe finally let his grin show. "I can't believe you and Callie hit E-rank already. I'd already used up my elixir allotment, or I'd have asked her Ladyship to help me achieve those heights so I might better protect her."

"Hitting her up for money huh?" I said teasingly, avoiding mentioning Chelsea was my sister only with effort. "You sure Bethy won't get jealous?"

He chuckled. "Of which of us? She and Chelsea have been getting pretty close. I think it's been confusing her. She doesn't seem to know how to act around us anymore. At least not alone. I don't suppose you have any..." He trailed off. "Advice? The situation has been confusing me as well."

"I'm not getting involved in either of their love lives. Chelsea for obvious reasons and Bethy because she terrifies me." I said with a snort. "Figure it out yourself. Now isn't the time for that though. Demia here is going to help me whip my century into shape, and I asked for you specifically to aid us in the task. It seems like it would be frowned on for me to kick them around at E-rank, so I need someone to act as my fist." I glanced at Demia. "Or is that a bad idea?"

She smiled back at me placidly. "Not at all. Most commanders have an intermediary to establish discipline and order. Being forced to personally punish your recruits is considered a sign of weak management." Her tone was gentle and incredibly hard to parse for emotion. Not monotone, exactly, but she sounded the same whenever she spoke, and it made reading her impossible.

I'd been right. Politics. It pervaded every aspect of the Empire, including the more militant parts of the culture. Not to mention as Ascendants we were all somewhat impressionable, and prioritized reputation.

Recursion DID happen in the Empire. While the Job system protected people from individual recursion much better than heroic cultivation, it had its own effect on its users. Jobs themselves caused recursion, pushing their users to fit better into the mold. It was less extreme since a Job didn't define your personality, but the perception of what a thing SHOULD be definitely affected what it WAS. Given the political leanings of most of the imperial heirarchy, it was no shock that even lower ranking Jobs would be swept up in their games, just by virtue of the assumption that they always did.

These had been some of the things included in my political lessons, which had been substantially more complex and nuanced than what I expected.

"Well, either way, he's here now." I said, straightening up. "I think its about time I met my century. I'm curious why they have their own territory though? Shouldn't they be training with Hamill like we were?" The differing command structures was odd. Hamill must be high up in the heirarchy, so why was he teaching random grunts.

She smirked, the least peaceful expression I'd seen on her face so far. "The General likes to take a hand in the first two weeks of conditioning. He says it establishes the proper baseline of fear and resentment in the soldiers, even those not directly under his command. Once those two weeks are up, they get cycled out to normal commanders. There are eighty centuries, surely you didn't think you'd seen them all in your training class?"

That was a good point. I supposed when he mentioned 'training starting' back during our initial meeting, Camden meant this particular training cycle. "Ok. So...before I introduce myself, what am I going to be doing today?"

"That depends on your management style." She said with a shrug. "I've known commanders who invite every soldier to attack at once and crush them under their boots. But that strategy is unlikely to bear much fruit unless you have subordinates at the same rank, for reasons already enumerated. You can go with a softer approach, offer rewards for certain milestones, or even just ignore them like Olena did. I'm hear to give you the tools you need to train them, not to train them for you."

I stroked my chin. She wasn't wrong. But I had a few ideas that might work. Ideas that utilized elements from all of those styles.

Marching into the cordoned off area in front of the thirty third barracks (apparently each century had their own after they got through the basic training cycle) I found a group of ninety nine people in the standard armor Camden had given us to use in training. Some of them were grouped up into cliques, some of them lounged by the barracks, and a few of them were just hanging out individually sleeping or reading.

"Officer on the field." Snapped Demia, in the harshest voice I'd heard her use. "Attention!" The shout split the air around us and I jumped slightly, staring down at the unusually loud for her size woman. They all got up, lazily assuming loose rows, though most of them didn't seem too motivated. "This." She said gesturing to me. "Is your new commander. Solomon."

I nodded to her, and stepped up next to her as I surveyed the various faces. "My name, as she mentioned, is Solomon. I'll be assuming command of this unit. I hear some of you are problematic. I'm sure you resent my presence here, and if you don't you probably will once you dig into me a bit. I don't actually give a shit." Demia looked surprised by the tone change, though not disapproving.

"I'm supposed to train you." I continued. "To guide you. And to learn by doing so. The skills I'm going to pick up from this are important for my future, and I'm not going to let some whimpering devil may care assholes fuck up my plans. If you have intentions to fuck around, abandon them, if you're expecting this to be easy, don't." I nodded to Gabe. "This is Gabriel. He's a friend, and he's also my second in command. As an E-ranker, it's unseemly for me to discipline you personally, so he's going to do it for me. Which one of you is the strongest here?"

Everyone turned to look at an unassuming girl standing near the back. Her hair was ivory, her eyes a virulent toxic green, and her pale face delicate in a way that reminded me a bit of Callie. Her eyes met mine, and she smiled. "I guess that's me. My name is Alanna Sunwell. It's nice to meet you...sir. I take it you want me to face your friend there in combat? Establish his chops in front of us all to show it how its done?" Her tone was sarcastic and snide.

"Sure, but you can say no." I said with a shrug. "I'm sure someone else would be interested in the five E-rank chits I'm going to pay the winner."

Every eye in the place snapped to me, and I grinned internally. These people had signed up here as mercenaries. They respected money, wanted money, and would demonstrably FIGHT for money. I had officially begun speaking their language.

Alanna stared at me suspiciously. "That's...a lot of money. Are you really going to pay up if your boy loses?"

"I want you guys to fall in line." I said with a shrug. "That only happens if you're incentivized. Not only will I put up five E-rank coins on the outcome, but I'll be setting up a little tournament. Once Gabe proved his mettle, he'll be withdrawn, and I'll let the top ten percent of you fight it out once a month for an E-ranked chit."

An E-ranked chit was ten F-ranked chits and a hundred G-ranked. G-ranked chits were usually base currency. Acting as a single unit in most markets, which made the prize pool a decent chunk of change. Especially with Gabe being counted out.

I had to do that, because as an Adamant with a path he was almost definitely going to crush the competition, and if they decided I was fleecing them it would have the opposite effect.

It was two birds and one stone. I would earn some goodwill and establish my lieutenants superiority, thereby preventing future challenges.

As Alanna accepted and followed Gabe to a training field in the center of our designated area, Demia stepped up next to me. "You sure he's going to win this?" She asked casually. "It's going to bite you on the ass if she puts him down, and Sunwell is a nasty fighter."

I just smiled knowingly. "Gabe can handle it. Just watch." I pointed at the training ring. I was looking forward to this myself.

Alanna strode out into the ring, hands in the air like a returning champion, and several of the other unit members hooted and hollered encouragement. Seemed like she had a rep among my people. Good. That would make this so much more effective.

Gabriel flipped his wrist, and the massive lance he used for his charges appeared in his hand. I saw him adjust his grip as the pressure and his current near mortal state made it a trial to hold it up, but hold it he did.

"Wow, compensating for something?" Taunted Alanna gleefully. "Not that I can complain, I tend to work with a lot of hardware myself." She waved a hand, and a fan of gleaming spears made of ice arrayed itself behind her, shifting in the air to point straight at Gabe.

Demia nodded. "Lancer Job. Ice based main Skill. She uses it to deadly effect. Like I said, she's going to be a tougher opponent than you might think."

Of course, Gabe didn't seem phased. He stomped his foot, a starlight charger manifesting beneath him as the crusader took his stance, preparing to charge. "You may wish to defend." He said politely. "It would be a shame to kill such a promising recruit by mistake."

From anyone else that would be arrogant, or at least mocking, but Gabe wasn't like that. He wasn't arrogant, he was just certain. The charge of an Adamant wasn't something just anyone could withstand.

Alanna sneered, about to respond with some kind of scathing remark, but before she could Gabe began his charge. I'll give her this, she wasn't stupid. She could sense the momentum, the sheer POWER behind his assault, even as his roar of 'RUBRUM GLORIA' split the air and his body was endowed with the power of his Path. Adamant. Unyielding. Nothing could stop him.

The hooves of the charger thundered across the hard packed dirt as his lance flashed toward her, and Alanna panicked. Her hands went up, grasping two more ice spears from the air as the others overlapped in front of her, positioned in front of the incoming holy lance. Gabe hit her makeshift shield like the fist of an angry god, his lance punching through the ice and smashing into her defending spears as she crossed them to tank the attack.

There was an explosion of light and force and Alanna was sent sliding back, desperately trying to stop herself. It wasn't to be though. Her feet left divots in the ground as she was driven backwards until her spine hit the barracks building.

Her eyes were wide with terror as she stared down at the lance, the tip of which was pressed flush against her windpipe, having pushed just past the skin and drawn a trickle of blood. Following the lance up, I could see that Gabe's arm wasn't fully extended. He'd stopped on a dime before spearing her through the throat. He retracted his lance, and she fell to the ground, shuddering. Damned if that man didn't know how to make an impression.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Alright." I said as everyone got back in line. There was a palpable air of fear overlaying the camp as they all stared at Gabe and I. Alanna was in the back, glaring at me, and everyone else seemed to afraid to even speak. "Now that we have that out of the way, we can move onto our real first day activities. Don't be so uptight, I already said Gabe won't be involved in any of the upcoming monthly tournaments. Alanna is the one to beat next time." I gestured to the silver haired girl.

That seemed to perk them up. Having Gabe fight the girl had been effective on multiple fronts. Establishing his rep was one, but it also diminished hers. She's had too much authority outside my command structure, and now she didn't. This had the added benefit of increasing the confidence of all the other recruits because she wasn't quit so unassailable anymore. Gabe hadn't just beaten her, he'd CRUSHED her. One blow to end the whole thing.

Bringing up the future prize pool seemed to shake her out of her funk too. She squinted at me in suspicion, but eventually her face smoothed into a determined expression. Demia looked pleased, and I was with her there. Step one of my plan was finished, now for step two.

"For your next exercise." I said with a grin. "We're going to be doing a bit of teambuilding. The winners of this exercise will receive points. That's how I'll keep track of the top ten percent and figure out who can participate in the monthly tournaments. If you all do well, I'm open to increasing the prize pool for the tournaments. Possibly including stronger gear or materials."

Carrot and stick. I'd never been a commander obviously, but I'd run raids in DS before. Managing a large group required a few special considerations.

One, give them a reason to do what you want. Two, give them a reason to be afraid to screw up. And three, give them a reason to ignore the second reason when it's not relevant. Now I just needed a better idea of what everyone could do so I could figure out where to focus my attention.

Once everyone had calmed down, I sent them out unto the training field. Alanna raised an eyebrow. "Ok...we're going to stand around in a big crowd? You gonna start shooting and see who ducks behind a rando?"

Snapping my fingers, I withdrew a series of brushes, passing them all out. "Nope. Your job is easy. You're going to pick teams. Ten people. Each team will get a color of paint, then I'm going to put you all under a stealth effect to prevent you from seeing. I want to see what Hamill's training taught you. Winning team gets a point each."

They took the brushes and I went ahead and got out some paint. I'd been considering a similar exercise for a while in the abstract so I had the stuff on me. Once that was done. I grinned and waved a hand. "Well, looks like we're good to go. Now...begin." I triggered Moonlit Night. After that, I triggered Piece of Mind.

While the stealth fog blanketed them, the secondary mental process tweaked the skill, splitting my focus so each team could see their own members but nothing else. The soul weight was minimal of course, given my current soul strength, so the mental component was all I needed to worry about.

Piece of Mind was weird every time I experienced it. I'd tried it out already, though not on anything big, and it was such a strange sensation.

In DS they obviously couldn't beam a second concurrent mental process into your head. It was closer to picture in a picture. A small image in your eyeline that let you keep track of more than one thing at once. In reality though, Piece of Mind actually let me focus on two things at once.

The biggest thing I had to get used to was that both minds were using my eyes and ears, but since they were focused on different things, it split my focus in a fascinating fashion. It was like trying to look at things individually with both of my eyes. My focus was split but it was still MY focus. I looked forward to seeing how the ability would advance, because I could already see so many uses for it.

My recruits, meanwhile, were shocked and alarmed. The whole area had been consumed with fog that muffled the senses, and aside from teammates they couldn't see a thing.

Gabe had stayed out of it, so I let Alannas team stick with nine. She'd get an extra point if she won, which I hoped would somewhat temper her frustration at being used as an example. Once their sight vanished, I expected them all to freak put, but to my surprise, everyone kept a level head.

They were all seasoned mercenaries and had gone through Hamills training, so maybe I shouldn't have been so shocked. Immediately, I smiled, triggering a shadow clone to slip out into the fog.

My shadow clone was a stored F-rank ability, so it wouldn't be too unfair, aside from the obvious visibility advantage. I had it slip among the recruits, tagging legs and shoulders with its staff, drawing attention to the proper directions to get things started.

"An interesting exercise." Admitted Demia. "I'm not familiar with any like it. Where did you get the idea?"

I shrugged. "Various tests and fights I've been in. You run into things like this enough and you learn to twist your brain into that shape. My own mentor loved doing stuff like this. My way is a bit more humane I think, but then, I'm not aiming to get them a paired combat skill." I paused. "My girlfriend and I have a Skill called paired duelling, that allows us to synchronize in battle, is there a large scale version of that?"

"There is."She said bluntly. "But it takes years in the same unit to build the cohesion necessary to get it. No newborn mercenary unit is going to manage. Especially on their first day."

I briefly entertained the fantasy of having them all wish for it, but that was untenable for multiple reasons. Firstly there was no way I'd be able to scrape together enough wishes on top of my contract, second I wanted them to get it and had a vested interest, which would make fair compensation nearly impossible, and thirdly I wasn't sure if it would be more expensive because it was such a rare Skill. Theoretically it could be cheaper because it required so many components, but that was unlikely.

As I watched a recruit get pinned to the ground by a swarm of ice spears that somehow didn't turn him into a lifeless slab of meat, I made a considering sound. "What is this Skill called if I might ask?"

"Legio Unius." She answered in a reverential tone. "It takes decades of training for units, even small ones, to achieve that level of synergy. Of the imperial armies I've heard of, only the Emperor's royal guard has managed, and every single one of them is at the Marquise level. Working in concert they're capable of holding off threats in the low King level. A full legion of five thousand soldiers all specializing in the same Path and able to synergize flawlessly. If they someday reach the Duke or even King level, they'd be unmatched."

I was...boggled. Five thousand B-rankers taking on an S-ranker was nuts. Even a weak one, it was staggering. The differences between ranks became more pronounced as you went up. For instance, the next rank up I'd get was D-rank, which would not only MASSIVELY increase my stat cap, it would also push my Impact up over one hundred points. At B-rank, two ranks up was more than a hundred points of Impact just for advancing.

Of course, I imagined their souls were all the full two ranks ahead and polished. Strung together with the kind of bond I had with Callie, it was no wonder they were terrifying. I hadn't considered the outliers that must be roaming the universe really. Like I knew the Vampire could fight a god at S-rank, but it was clear there were many other roads to power. What kind of monstrous aces did the Church and the Cult have up their sleeves that I just hadn't heard about? I'd have to ask Chelsea.

To my surprise though, I wasn't worried...I was excited. I had my own army now, and even if they didn't jump ship to my territory when I got it (I was sure I could buy out their contracts from Camden for a bit of extra wish priority) I was going to learn to make my own force like the one she was talking about. Maybe Nat could help me and the others all get that Skill if they ended up working for me. I was imagining a vanguard of attackers channeling Mephistopheles, cavalry with Belial.

Interpreting my silence correctly, Demia burst out laughing. "Learn to walk before you run, Solomon. And yes, I know what you're thinking. Every commander thinks the same thing when they hear about the royal guard. Usually as children, but still, it's a common thought process." I was pretty sure she was wrong, or at least only partially right, but I saw her point.

"Yeah, I might've gotten carried away." I chuckled wryly. "This is going faster than expected." I noted as Alanna demolished yet another team. "I have no clue how she's penetrating the fog, but she's perceiving something. Think she has some kind of truesight?"

The blue haired woman nodded. "Probably. Lancer's a precision Job. They're best served with extreme accuracy and a heavy perception focus. Might plays a role, but knowing where to strike is as important as how hard. You should have a roster waiting for you back at your barracks when the day ends, with a list of your recruits and their Jobs and specialties. That'll help with the formation training we're going to do."

We watched in silence for the next ten minutes as her team of nine finished sweeping up the competition. I allowed the fog to dissipate, nodding to the last of the team members, smirking around at the sprawled bodies covered with markings of orange paint.

"Impressive." I told her diplomatically. "I'm going to be learning more about formations for us to use, but assuming we need squad leaders you'll definitely get the job. As MVP you'll be receiving two points instead of just the one that the rest of your team will get."

The others didn't even look mad, but Alanna beamed. The points were nonsense, of course, though I was considering making them a kind of currency tradeable for better gear or something once I had my funds in order. I needed to talk to Anna about monetizing some wishes. I looked around at the others, all getting to their feet and resuming their neat rows at attention.

"Excellent work. I saw plenty of promising recruits, and I have a good idea of how you all operate." That was true. my second thought process had been keeping track of them via Piece of Mind, and I marveled again at how convenient that skill was. "Now that I understand how you fight, I need to know what your limits are." I saw faces fall, and I tried not to smirk as they all realized what I meant and collectively gulped.

Of course, that didn't save them. As someone who had spent the last week or two grinding myself into meat paste with shitty conditioning exercises, I had plenty of ideas for what to put them through and what kind of limits to place on the training. As they all dropped to the ground to start their burpees, I smirked behind the privacy of my mask. Misery loved company. And I didn't want them thinking I was TOO reasonable.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next few days flew by. Demia was a patient and understanding teacher, shockingly so given the environment. The carrot and stick combination worked well with my unit, and they continued to improve over time. That comfort and relaxation obviously couldn't last. I was sitting with Camden for my nobility lessons with Celine, Chelsea, and Callie, when Alister hurried in to announce a new guest.

"Your grace." He blurted in an uncharacteristic tizzy. "You have a guest. I'm not familiar with them but they're...powerful. Viscount level, though I've never seen her before. She said to ask Solomon to vouch for her."

My eyes narrowed. Anna was here. Anna had never interacted with Camden that I was aware of. Her showing up to speak to both of us was...bad. I didn't know how but I knew it was. Camden glanced at me, raising an eyebrow. "One of my associates. She shouldn't be a threat." At D-rank, Zeke couldn't protect me from Anna anymore, but not only did Anna not know that, he could still protect Chelsea, who was in the room.

I had a bunch of stockpiled wishes to act as payment, in case she needed them, though my preference was to avoid using them. If she was here though, it meant something had gone very wrong. 'This seems like it might be a problem'. I heard
Callie's voice in my head. I didn't even jump at the sound, I was so connected to her I'd felt her intention to speak.
'Anna tries to stay under the radar. I'm not sure why she would interact with Camden directly unless it had something to do with the person targeting him. But why would she get involved?' I could only think of one real reason, and I didn't like it. Anna wouldn't have done something like this unless whoever was threatening Camden was going to be a problem for the planet at large. More specifically for Saltzberg and her own interests.

Hearing my tone, Camden nodded to Alister, and the seneschal fled to get Anna, clearly terrified to keep a D-ranker waiting. Which I got. They were terrifying.

Anna strode into the room a moment later, Alister on her heels. "Baron Tolbert." She said with a nod. "Thank you for seeing me. I'm glad our mutual friend saw fit to lend his support. I've been looking into your...situation. I expected our friend might charge me to find out more about what was going on. I've come across some disturbing news. Disturbing enough that I won't charge for the initial tip off, because I need your input to make sense of what I found."

Camden nodded slowly. "Understood, I appreciate your efforts and your willingness to share whatever you know. I assume this news concerns my cousin Spencer?"

"Possibly." She said with a shrug. "Do you have an isolation formation on this room? I'm not certain I trust my stealth Skills with this level of information. I don't know of anyone with spatial spying abilities on Stratholme, so the formation should be safe enough."

Nodding to Alister, Camden stood and walked over to close the door. The seneschal hurried away and came back with a large wooden box. Opening it, Camden withdrew an ornate bronze globe. Opening it, he lit a candle, then closed the small bronze hatch and spun the globe forcefully. The light from the candle surged and then expanded outward in a bubble of golden light that hit the walls and stuck to them like flypaper. "We're safe to talk for the moment." He said solemnly.

"Good. Now, I heard from my sources you came to Stratholme for the sole reason that you wish to distance yourself from family affairs. Is this accurate?" This really must be serious if Anna was being so formal. She never struck me as the type.

"It is." Camden admitted. "I prefer being alive and obscure to being famous and dead. Spencer is a particularly bitter enemy, or I doubt he'd have followed me. I take it he has some sort of plan that you think will cause widespread destruction? I'm afraid to say that's not out of character."

She shook her head. "You misunderstand. Spencer didn't follow you here to hurt you. In fact, Spencer didn't follow you here at all. According to my sources, Spencer was here before you were. Months before. He's been doing...something. Something involving the cave systems that run under most of the planet. I don't know WHAT exactly, but several of the people he sent down there didn't come back."

"That's not possible." Protested Camden. "I didn't tell anyone about my decision to come here. Hell, I didn't MAKE the decision to come here until a few months ago. Shortly before I arrived."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "Really. And it was entirely your own idea to choose Stratholme as your location? It wasn't suggested to you? Because the only way I can see this being a possible outcome is if he steered you to the planet in some way."

"No." he said firmly. "I picked the planet out of a carefully curated list of..." He froze. "Sara." He said in a daze. "She made the list for me. It wouldn't have been hard for her to surround this planet in particular with ones I wouldn't pick for other reasons. Thinking back the other options all had minor flaws that would have made them untenable to me. One was a desert, one had a strong magnetic field that eroded spellwork." He slumped back. "She aimed me here. Into a trap. I thought we were friends. She was my main source of intel after I left the family."

Sighing, Anna pulled out a chair and sat down. I saw Alister twitch and had to fight a smile, though Callie frowned at my amusement. I just shrugged, and she rolled her eyes. "Betrayal is never pleasant. But I'm sure you understand the implications of this information?"

"I was herded here. Spencer arrived before me and is doing something dangerous in a poorly explored part of the planet's crust." He said succinctly. "This is a trap, and the fact that he picked this planet specifically means it probably involves some deeply buried secret of Stratholme. Are you aware of any such dangers? And what of the Earl, will he step in? His mind appeared to be running full bore, sifting data and trying to figure out a next move.

Anna grimaced. "Your cousin is involved with the Magister, who is the Earl's right hand. I suspect he's made arrangements for the Earl to play a minimal role. Not ignore whatever is coming, that wouldn't fly, but minimize his footprint by occupying himself with some small part of whatever attack or event he has planned. As for the issue of lore, I'm no history student. I concern myself with the now, and not the before. At least not at that scale. I do have a friend we might consult. If you decide to involve me in this."

"Ah." He said with a smirk. "I was waiting for you to hit me in the purse. I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint. I don't have much in the way of liquid funds."

As she panned her glance to me, I crossed my arms. "He has an allotment, he can pay out of that. I'm not tossing you freebies because of this. I'm already severely limited in the wishes I can use for my friends, putting myself further into debt is a no go." I paused. "Actually, I do have a question Camden. I thought this guy was your arch nemesis. How did you not notice him vanishing for months before you left?"

For the first time in these lessons, his composure cracked as he threw his hands up in irritation. "We don't have sleepovers every night in matching twin beds, he tries to kill me sometimes. Usually by proxy. It isn't unusual for me not to see Spencer for years at a time. Houses like the Tolbert family span multiple galaxies, possessing influence wherever the Empire exists. We're one of the strongest Ducal houses. Keeping track of what everyone does is something only the head of the family or his direct subordinates can manage."

That was fair. It was like asking me to quote you the location of one of the Wyndhams. I didn't know who everyone in the family even was, how was I supposed to know where they went. Anna smiled placidly. "I can tell you this much. Given the number of people who have vanished into those caverns since he arrived, whatever he's planning is big. If you know what it is you can prepare ahead of time, if not you might die here."

"What about us?" I asked him, suddenly remembering something he'd said. "You used someone specific for the information on us, is it possible your cousin will figure out who we are if he has that person on his payroll?" My wish power was one of our biggest aces in the hole against anyone who didn't know about it. It was also one of the main reasons I'd decided to stay here. Although now that I knew if I ran I'd be increasing my chances of running into trouble of a more personal nature I had another reason to stick it out.

He hesitated, but shook his head. "I used a different one of my sources to dig into you. But there are plenty of other secrets Sara knows about that might be a problem. I just..." His face twisted in hurt. "I can't believe she would do this. Spencer wants to kill me. She knows that. Herding me here is all but signing my death warrant."

I winced, but as much as I felt for him, I also knew we needed to stay focused. "I get it man, I really do, but it's not the time. Can you work something out with Anna to help us? Her abilities would be a huge boon to us. She managed to rescue a bunch of her people from the Magister after that mess at the banquet. She's good." I glanced sideways at her. "I assume you have potential measures to take to aid us should you be brought onboard?"

"Of course." She scoffed. "A few of my boys are standing by at some of the entrances Spencer sent his people through. They'll infiltrate the cave systems and do some scouting. Unlike his random mercs, my people are masters of stealth. They're never seen unless they want to be."

I nodded wisely. "Ah, of course. Like they never get beaten about the head and body with a magic stick. That must have been another group of shadowy thieves."

"Have we discussed medical expenses for that?" She asked sweetly. "Because that fucking stick did some serious damage."
I smiled. "Consider it the cost of doing business. Maybe next time he won't try to put his grubby hands on my girlfriend. She didn't exactly have pockets, and I can't think of any acceptable place he would have been able to check for valuables in that dress. He's lucky I didn't smash his fucking kneecaps and let them heal wrong."

Callie stiffened at that, clearly not having considered that aspect of things. Anna herself looked pensive, and I suspected her pickpocket friend was going to be answering some pointed questions. Good.

Finally, Camden seemed to finish processing and rejoined the conversation. "I agree to your involvement. I'll require a more detailed contract, but I see no reason for Shane, Callie, Chelsea, and Celine to stay for this part. We can end lessons early tonight, I'm sure you'll all be happy to get to sleep early."

"Don't have to tell me twice." I said, popping to my feet. "Let us know how this all works out. And Anna, set us up to talk with your friend who has a handle on the local lore. Best to know the possibilities in case your boys don't find anything." Planets were big, no reason to put all our eggs in one basket. With that we all waved our goodbyes and headed out. I really was happy to be leaving. I was tired, and had a lot to think about.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day was pretty standard. Tactics practice, training, some formation drills. We had a mock battle against the fifty third on friday to test our formation drilling, and I wasn't entirely worried we'd lose. Granted, the fifty third were a total joke, but we had been too until recently. Once I finished that, did the wishes for Camden (I was up to nine stockpiled) and then retired to my barracks.

Unlike the barracks for Hamill's training crew, or the barracks for the centuries, the officer barracks were, if not nice, at least more private. The rooms were about fifty by fifty feet inside, though they were built as five by five, and barely more than closets from outside.

I was in my room alone, but after an hour of my training there was a knock. I didn't bother getting up, just sending a silent 'come in' to Callie. She stepped inside, raising an eyebrow at me sitting on the floor in the middle of the room with a pile of rocks. She raised an eyebrow at my position on the floor, looking at the pile of stones trying to see how there were special.

They weren't of course. They were rocks. Not even particularly sturdy ones. G-rank rocks.

"What a flattering use of your alone time." She said wryly. "When you said you wanted to enjoy your solitude I assumed you had some sort of training to do. But I see now that your interests are wide and varied and I shouldn't have made assumptions. If I'd known I was driving you to play with loose rocks I'd have given you space ages ago."

I rolled my eyes. "Your rapier wit is as sharp as ever. Now if only you would stop clubbing people over the head with it, you might actually be funny."

She smirked, flipping me off as she strolled across the room to slump into my bed. "You love it. Now, explain your thought process here? I can tell emotions and hear things you send me on purpose, but you really do just seem to be playing with rocks like a moron."

I held up a hand, rock in my palm, and focused on it, flexing my soul. The rock dissolved into a pile of fine dust. I waited a second, then focused again, and it reformed into stone, though still in the shape of a pile of dust.

"Damn." She said with a whistle. "You've got that much control over Pit of Despair?"

I grumbled and tossed the pile shaped rock behind me into a pile of the vaguely cone shaped stones. "Yes, but that's not what I'm trying to do. Turning it to dust is fine, but when I turn them back I'm trying to restore them to a the shape they took as stones."

She seemed confused until she caught on. "Ah, you're trying to create a tangential Skill. Something like my shadow manipulation."

"Or like my staff forms." I agreed. "We can create Skills that effect other Skills. Even though Pit of Despair is a subskill, I should be able to make a Skill that can act on the things it does. It can dissolve and reform rock. With enough effort I SHOULD be able to alter the rock while its in its dust state. The first step to that is figuring out how to return the dust to its original shape. Once I can do that I can figure out how to assume more control over what the dust does as dust."

It was going to be a massive boon in combat, but more than that, I was pretty sure I could learn to make it into a crafting Skill. Seeing what my wishes had done with that room amazed me. If I could establish foundations, I could probably exploit that even more, or rather, Callie could. Plus the idea of being able to make things out of stone was cool.

"Is your Sapphire Soul Body really that strong?" Flexing skills was hard work, or it had been. Doing something like this...it was taxing, even for me. I was packing a massive skill effect into a small area, then I was reversing it early, and I was doing it on repeat. It was hard. My soul was strong now, like a powerful leg. That didn't make picking up grains of rice with my toes any easier.

I shrugged. "It gives me more stamina with skill alterations for sure. As for the effect..." I blew out a breath. "Probably? The thing is, this isn't doing one thing. Making my skill take a shape and tweaking a parameter is easy enough. This is fine control over time. It's difficult and draining. If you liken changing a skill to drawing a picture of what you want, this is more like trying to draw a picture while holding the pen with chopsticks. It's hard to put into words."

"This is your first time making a skill like this. She pondered. "Unique Skills are hard to make, and I imagine this will make it even tougher. You soul should help, but I bet this'll be a challenge." She perked up, the bond telling me she had an idea. "Wait a second. Here I want to try something." Sitting down in front of me, she took my hands in hers, placing a rock on my cupped palms. "Alright, now turn it to dust but don't turn it back."

I did as she told me to, and the rock dissolved into fine powder. Before I could ask what next she focused, and a wave of shadows climbed up onto my palm. I felt through the bond as she SHOVED the shadows into the sand, hard, using her own soul and an ability I hadn't seen her use in a while. The power to imbue darkness into objects. It was temporary and inefficient on most materials, but her blue soul made it possible in this instance.

As my eyes widened in shock, I felt her reach out with Shadow Manipulation Mastery, guiding me along our bond as she showed me what it looked like to alter and shape the dust. It wasn't going to give me a dust shaping Skill, but it showed me...how. Little mental constructs and tricks for how to move something like what she was working with, supplied by her baseline Shadow Manipulation Skill and refined through practice.

Finally, panting and sweating, she let the shadows flee the dust, slumping back to catch herself on her hands. I shot her a concerned frown. "That too much?"

She shook her head. "Not even a headache. Not yet at least. You were right. It's not the same as taxing your soul through brute force. Less like muscle fatigue and more like a hand cramp from making lots of tiny motions. Unpleasant but bearable. How was that though? Did it help?"

Focusing on the pile of dust again, I pushed with my skill. Pit of Despair wanted to return the dust to stone in its current shape, but Callie had shown me what to do, even if I had to do it with a whole different Skill. I focused on the feeling of the shifting shadow sand that I'd felt before through the bond, then enforced that feeling on the dust and SHOVED with my whole soul.

The dust smashed back together into a spherical stone shape, but did so with such force that the stone exploded into a puff of smoke. I winced. Little too much english on that one. I focused the same way, but instead of shoving my soul against the concept, I pushed it slowly. Raising the amount of soul strength I used as I went. The dissolved rock in palm began to slowly float up into a small cloud of stone dust, before putting itself back together into an ovoid rock.

I was panting by the time I finished. Callie had been right. It felt like a muscle cramp in my soul. Fine manipulation was harder than brute force in some ways. No possible breakage or massive headache, but the dull throb wasn't that much better.

Callie was bouncing in excitement. "That's amazing! Did you get a Skill?" She was fascinated by the rock, taking it from me and studying it carefully.

"No, but I didn't expect I would." I said with a chuckle. "Not from that. I made the rock its original shape, but that's just reversing the course of the Pit of Despair. Now I need to take it further. I put it back to 'rock' shape. Now I need to change that rock shape. I think a perfect sphere would work best."

I turned the stone to dust, then focused again the same way. This time, as I pushed with my aching soul, I had to split off a second consciousness with Piece of Mind to alter the shape, since this was taking all my focus. As I watched, the stone began to reform again, slowly taking its old shape, but my other mind pushed and prodded, altering the flow of the dust with some of the mental constructs we'd just learned from Callie.

Rather than an irregular stone, the dust reformed into a completely perfect spherical shape. When it finished, I slumped forward, the strain on my soul having magnified exponentially when I had my other self working with it. That was a good way to train with it, and I filed away the information for not only myself, but Callie, who still needed to reach Sapphire.

I spent the next hour working on some serious soul strain. I hadn't had a chance to put my new soul through its paces, especially since the rank up, but the dull throb turned into the usual soul strain headache eventually with my flagrant use of Piece of Mind. Still, I was able to learn quickly and advance my new training method, learning to shape the stones as they reformed.

Pyramids, diamonds, and as I went on, even more variable shapes. I made an hourglass, and what might, if one squinted, be considered a duck. By the time I finished going through my paces my head was in agony, but I had a bright grin on my face as I checked my stat sheet and found a new Skill.

Minor Dust Construction Mastery. An odd Skill name, but it WAS a Skill. I felt the click in my head as it became one, and I felt the soul strain decrease exponentially when it did. I wasn't twisting Pit of Despair into knots anymore, I was using a unique Skill I'd made. On PURPOSE. It was a great feeling. I would have practiced with it, but Callie forced me to stop.
"I'm not letting you give yourself an aneurysm because you want to play with your new toy." She said firmly. "You have training tomorrow anyway, you can deal with it after."

Sighing, I nodded grudgingly and got up, dumping the rocks on the floor as I climbed up onto my bed and wrapped myself around her. She snuggled up against me. I could feel her pride and happiness for me over the bond, chased by some worry about the soul strain. She was able to stay in here because apparently the gender specific dorms weren't enforced for officers. Sleeping next to her again was easily the best part of my rank up. I'd missed her terribly, and I found I couldn't sleep right without her in my arms.

"I think this is going to be the beginning of an amazing power." I told her as I started to drift off. "I can't wait to see what I can do with it." This unique Skill was completely different to any earth shaping Skill I'd seen or heard of and I was going to test it thoroughly. With my Perception letting me see the specifics, I could create incredibly dense and sturdy stones. I bet I could even focus Pit of Despair to make the dust even finer. Tomorrow after training I would start testing. I had so many ideas.

 

[meloa789]

You forgot the threadmark.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Waking up in the morning was surprisingly relaxing because I realized up doing so that Callie had been wrong. We didn't have training, we'd both gotten so wrapped up in working with our centuries we'd forgotten weekends were free time, even for commanders. Callie had to force me to promise not to strain my soul today, since I was still raw from creating my Dust Construction Mastery.

So we headed for Anna's place after stopping to pay, Camden and banking a tenth wish. When we arrived, we didn't even have a chance to go in. Anna met us at the door. "Oh good." She said, stepping out and pulling a shawl around her shoulders. "You're both here. I arranged a meeting with my historian friend, but we need to go now." It was surprisingly cold today, not that I really felt it in my costume. Our meeting with Camden's artisan had been pushed back, and would be tomorrow, having been delayed when he found out about the plot against him.

I glanced at Callie, shrugging. "I kind of wanted breakfast, but if it's time sensitive I'm fine waiting." I smirked at Anna.
"But it's going to be on the house." We were supposed to meet everyone, but Zeke would have heard this conversation even if Anna hadn't told him, and my uncle wasn't going to leave everyone hanging.

"You're a petty little thing for someone from one of the richest families in the universe." She complained as we set off. "Shouldn't you be inured to the trappings of wealth?" She was talking in her formal businesslike tone, which kind of clued me in to the nature of her friend.

I burst out laughing at that. "First of all, I'm a candidate. I grew up on a backwater psuedo D-rank planet in the ass end of Conglomerate space. No one on my planet has even MET a D-ranker, much less become 'inured to their wealth' second of all, have you met scions of wealthy houses? They're the most particular people I can imagine. In case you missed the overarching theme here, I'm cheap, and I want you to give me free food."

She threw her hands up. "Don't you have any pride as a Wyndham?" She said in disbelief. "The other people I've met with your ability carry themselves with a bit more...decorum. I doubt they would be impressed with your demeanor." Despite the words, I could see a twinkle in her eye, like this was some kind of test, not that I cared.

"Fuck em." I said bluntly. "I'm not overly impressed with them either. This whole cuckoo bird child rearing strategy is bullshit. I love my dad, and my cousin, but I don't know anyone else in my family. I'll act however I want to, and if they have a problem with it they can kiss my ass."

Part of my big soul realization in the temple was that I wasn't doing what I was doing for my family. Not really. I wanted to change them to make things better, but I didn't need their approval for that. All I needed was my own peace of mind, and I was going to prioritize that. It was the biggest part of what Abel had said that resonated with me. I wasn't like him, I cared what other people thought, but only to a certain extent.

Honestly, it almost felt hypocritical to make a declaration like that while trying to learn politics, but it made sense to me. I was here to make my own faction, to draw people in and convince them to support me. To do that I needed to know how to act in political situations, even if I made the choice to act counter to that information. Knowledge was power, and being stubborn wasn't the same thing as being stupid.

She laughed aloud at that. "Well look at you. How bold. How about you? You going to support your man as he tells his whole clan to go to hell?" She aimed that question at Callie, but I wasn't worried.

I felt a torrent of love and support rush through the bond, enough to stagger even me. Callie took my hand and held it tightly as she stared down the D-ranker. "Without a second of hesitation. You might not know this, but Shane supported me when I went against my family back home. It's the least I can do to offer my own support. He wants to win the competition, and I support that dream, however he decides to pursue it."

"You know." Said Anna thoughtfully. "Seeing you two looking all devoted and steadfast, I'd ALMOST believe he might pull it off. Almost. It's almost sad you kids have no clue of the depths of the waters you're wading in. But hey, I've been surprised before. Even if you don't go the distance, I think you'll make it far." Her tone was firm, like she'd just made a decision, and part of me realized this HAD been a test. She wanted to see if we were worth following. I didn't know what she'd decided, but I wouldn't have changed my answer even if it had been a negative.

Finally, we arrived outside a large stone building, columns holding up a massive stone roof. "Welcome to the Saltzberg Archives of Imperial Knowledge, the largest library in a thousand miles. It's not under the control of the nobles, but is an extension of the imperial power. All citizens are entitled to basic knowledge about possible jobs and career paths. It's what makes the empire function. Though some, like nobles, require certain conditions like birth or bestowal to gain."

"That's actually kind of cool." I said with interest. "Shame we don't have time to hang around. Maybe we should mention this place to m-" I caught myself. " To my friend Chelsea, she loves books." My sister had moved away from the Holy Dominion to experience life, but that didn't mean she automatically hated reading now. I was sure she'd be excited about such a big expansive library.

I was also hoping that Anna hadn't caught my slight slip up, though even if she had it would be covered by our contract. Gesturing us inside, she steered us through the stacks and to the back of the library. In a far corner, surrounded by walls of books, we found an overburdened table stacked with piles of tomes. I could hear someone moving around. "Syl." Called Anna loudly. "I brought guests, come say hi."

There was a thump, and a curse, and then an incredibly tiny woman crawled out from under the table between a few book stacks. "I'm here." Said the small blonde. She had huge glasses that made her eyes look massive, and was only about halfway past four feet tall. Her face was serious and focused, and she didn't give the feeling of being young so much as just very small. "What do you want?"

Anna had explained on the way, after our heart to heart that her boys had gone down into the tunnels. They hadn't found any easy answers, but had found a few clues. That was why we were having this meeting now. She wanted to get Sylvie's opinion on what they'd uncovered so we had a direction to focus on.

Snapping her fingers, Anna pulled out a stack of papers, passing them over to Sylvie. I'd expected some plesantries, but the small historian was apparently not one for niceties. She snatched the papers, scanning them over. She paused, raising an eyebrow. "Someone is mucking around with the Undertrek? Terrible idea. All sorts of nasty things down there. In the deepest parts there are things even the Earl wouldn't want to disturb. Planets don't reach C-rank overnight, after all. This one has been here for quite a while."

She flipped through the papers, held up a hand, and then climbed back under the table. There were a series of bangs and grunts as the table was battered from beneath, book piles wobbling as she knocked into them. Finally she came back out holding a pair of books. "Those will help us?" Anna said hopefully.

"A bit generalist." She admitted. "But yes. One moment." She flipped through the books. And I mean that literally, she riffled the pages, barely glancing at them as she 'read'. "Ah." She stopped on a page. "That might be it." She switched books, did it again, and then switched back. She pulled a pen from behind her ear, somehow woven into the braid and then started scribbling things down.

Callie raised an eyebrow. "Don't you need any more details? I mean they only went down and scouted around. Unless they found some kind of big neon sign that said 'CLUE' I don't see how any of their accounts will help."

Sylvie snorted, looking up over her glasses, which had fallen down her nose. It was a very disdainful look. "The Undertrek is made up of millennia of sunken architecture, natural cave systems, and various other oddities. I've made a career of studying this planet's history. I know when certain civilizations fell, how they interacted with others, and where those interactions took place."

"So...this planet predates the empire?" I asked in amazement. "I thought most planets people lived on were seeded by the five factions? To grow the population."

She rolled her eyes. "One!" She said sharply, holding up a finger. "Seeded by the five factions doesn't mean terraformed. Several powerful planets had native inhabitants. Second, most is an accurate qualifier, but you have to understand that there are hundreds if not thousands of lower ranked planets for every one that manages to Ascend. Low ranked planets are the strong majority, and the ones the factions seeded trended strongly toward those. Makes it easier to raise a new population."

"People like Sylvie aren't exactly uncommon." Anna said with a nod. "Archivists and historians that study the ancient ruins of previous civilizations on inhabited planets. They share and cross reference their findings between factions freely, using their knowledge to enrich us all. The Vikram family heads the History Hunters, and they're an S-rank clan. There are also a few other major subfactions under the banner."

I got the gist. "Ok, so Sylvie has all sorts of reference material and has been crossreferencing the various societies and cultures here. How does that help us?"

"Idiots." Sylvie muttered as she went back to rifling through books. "The cave systems are made up of sunken ruins as well as normal stone. The qualities and design of those ruins heavily informs what might be lurking there, as do the locations, the depth, the type of stone in the tunnels, and about a dozen other factors. These caverns were relatively close to the surface, so the problem shouldn't be too difficult to discern. The issue is as I said, C-rank planets take a long time to form. Close to the surface not only doesn't mean recent, but can be a variety of possible cultures."

I gestured to the list she'd been making as she came back out, and she passed it to me. I scanned it. "Mykean, Radikt, Vessar. Ground dragon nest? Bubonic hate rats. Toxic spores, Stone Lion Prides, Necromantic Armies, Tomb Guardians, Mummies, Lantern Fiends." I scanned the variety of possible suggestions, some monsters some just vague references to civilizations. "What the fuck is a Spine Burrower Horde?"

"What does it sound like?" She said sweetly. Obviously done with us, she shoved several books into my arms, which I slipped into my ring immediately. "That's everything you should need. There are detection methods and tests you can run. Now I've taken too much time from my latest paper. I'm researching the trace stat elements in the soil and how they've leached in. Some of it is from the planet, but I think I can conclusively prove the effect of groundwater on specific stat proliferation."

Anna cut her off. "That was all we needed Syl. No need to bother with us plebian morons. Just get back to work." From her hasty words, I gathered Sylvie would have talked our ear off. With a shrug the small woman slipped back under the table. I glanced down at the list. Seemed like we had a place to start.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"This is not a present." My annoyed sister informed me. "This is grunt work. Just because I like to read doesn't mean you can force me to do research and pretend you're doing me a favor." She gestured to the small pile of books on the table. "That said, I did look through the list, because I agree it's important, and I skimmed the volumes she gave you. My final determination is...I don't know."

I blinked at her. "That's not a determination." I said flatly. "That's the opposite of a determination. Also it wasn't like I just dumped it on you and expected you to get it done. I offered to help, you just sent me away after a few minutes."

"Because you wouldn't stop HUMMING!" She snapped. "And you were tapping your toes nonstop. I couldn't focus. "

I threw up my hands in a 'there you go' sort of gesture, and she snorted in annoyance, turning back to her books.
"Anyway, point is, no, I found nothing. Or rather, I found too much. There are at least five possible options for what
Spencer might be doing in those tunnels, even after factoring in all the possible eliminating features. This isn't some video game where the scouts use their identify spell to figure out the special dirt at the base of the walls and use that to puzzle out the answer. I'll need to go down there and look around. And I'll need access to someone with scouting capabilities. I think we should bring Bethy."

Smirking at her, I made sure she could hear the smile in my voice. "Oh really? You sure you don't just want some alone time with the pretty vampire? I have better things to do than chaperone your first date."

"I don't...I...that's...what are you even...shut up!" My sister's face had gone bright red, and it was hard not to crack up at the panic on her face. "Bethy is a valuable and useful member of this team, and I need her services so we can find evidence. Her cats and even her new dog will be invaluable for searching underground in dark tunnels. I wouldn't say we should bring her just because she's pretty." Her eyes went wide. "I mean not pretty. Well, not not pretty but-"

I held up a hand. "Please stop. I promise to stop teasing you if you promise to stop stammering and blushing. This is going from amusing to awkward at absurd speeds. I'm down to go exploring with you and Bethy, but I'm not sure how safe that would be. People are disappearing down there. Even though Anna's people made it out, that doesn't mean we can go down there without any worries."

"I know." She said with a sigh. "Even with Gabriel and Callen alongside us, we wouldn't be safe from most of the beasts that might trouble us. We need someone in the D-ranks at least. Higher would be better, but as long as we don't go too deep we should be fine. Which is why I think we should bring Anna."

Snorting, I shook my head. "You planning to pay her? Because I'm fresh out of accessible wishes."

"I could." She admitted freely. "Though it would put a big dent in my walking around money. But I don't think I need to. Try asking her. No offers of payment, just one friend requesting help from another."

My sister's naivete was kind of charming, so I decided to humor her, tracking down Anna and asking her outright. "Hey, we were heading down to do some recon on the tunnels but it's not safe to go alone. Will you come with us?" I expected her to just blow me off, so I didn't bother trying to wheedle or phrase it in some enticing way.
"Sure." She said with a smile.

"Ok, no problem." I nodded. "I figured you'd be bus-wait what'd you say now?" I blinked, my brain crashing to a halt at the weird about face.

"Traditionally." She said kindly. "When someone says yes you shouldn't question them about it. Not only does it make you seem unconfident, it makes them reassess helping you. But I'll let it slide this time since your shocked face is so funny to look at."

I gestured to my blank wooden mask. "You couldn't see my face. You had no idea it looked shocked."

"I have a good imagination." She laughed. "Plus you just confirmed it. Anyway, go get the others. You bringing your lady love on this recon trip?"

Shaking my head, I explained. "Callie has some training to do today. Plus she can feel what happens through our bond." It was also a good chance to spend time with my sister, though obviously I couldn't say that. Chelsea and I hadn't really hung out, and a big nerdy research trip seemed like a fun getting to know you exercise.

Bethy would be along too, but in my experience she spent half her time vanishing when you weren't looking and reappearing being chased by monsters. Chances were good we would have time to talk, even if we couldn't let on about our family situation with Anna nearby. She shrugged, sending me off to get the others, and I strolled off to find our resident vampire fashionista.

To my surprise, I found her out front of the inn. Gabe was sitting and reading a book and Bethy had her head in his lap, a small dark umbrella held between his thighs casting shade on her face as she napped.

"Hey." I said as I stepped outside. "Sorry to interrupt reading time, but I was hoping to talk to Bethy."

She sat up excitedly. "Are you finally going to let me fix your hair? I'm so excited, I thought you were never going to figure out how bad it looks!"

"No it's-" I froze. "Wait, what's wrong with my hair?" I self consciously ran my fingers through my sandy blonde locks. "I guess it's getting a little long, but it doesn't look that bad, does it?" I glanced at Gabe who just shrugged, and made a mental note to ask Callie.

Bethy shook her head. "Of course it is, you look like a wheat field after a tornado, but that's not important right now. What did you want to talk to me about?"

"What?" I said, having been checking the camera on my scan ring to try and figure out what she meant. "Oh, we have a recon mission I wanted help with. Poptarts and Donuts would be perfect to run scouting for it, and Luggage would be good to watch our backs down there." I shook off the hair stuff, cursing myself for getting sucked into Bethy's pace. First rule of talking to Bethy was not to let her lead the conversation. That way lay madness.

I'd gotten distracted, and when I turned around, I saw Bethy staring back at me seriously, wearing a big yellow hardhat with a light on it and holding an actual pickaxe. "Sergeant Bethy of the tunnel expedition team reporting for duty, SIR!" She saluted with the pickaxe, and Gabe had to roll out of the way so he didn't get caught in the face. Bethy glanced back and giggled. "Oops, sorry. This is an E-ranked pick, I underestimated the weight a bit."

"Where did you get..." I sighed, waving it away. "Never mind. I'm glad to have you along. But you know you aren't a sergeant of anything right?" She'd already walked away, humming excitedly, the pick over her shoulders as she strode inside. "Bethy?" I called after her. "Bethy I need you to tell me you don't think you're a sergeant! You're in the military, this is kind of a big deal!"

She didn't respond and I sighed, putting my hand on my mask. "It's fine." Said Gabe with a laugh. "Jessie keeps her from interacting with anyone in an official capacity. Healers get a lot of leeway, and she keeps Randall and Luggage around looking scary just in case. She's not going to walk into some random barracks and assume command." He paused. "Probably." He got up and headed for the door. "Actually it might be a good idea to clarify things."

After we clarified with Bethy that she wasn't an officer, and informed her that the phrase 'you are what you eat' did NOT mean that she could snack on an officer and get an official rank, we filled her in on the details of our fact finding mission.

"Of course I'll come with you guys!" She squealed excitedly, once we gave her all the context. "Donuts and Poptarts have been dying to get out and stretch their legs. Plus I love hanging out with Chelsea." She shot my sister a grin. "We're going to find all sorts of terrible monsters, right bestie?"

I grimaced. "No, Bethy we don't WANT to find any monsters. Like there's probably something, but best case scenario we find nothing."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be a baby, Shane. Monsters will give us something cool to fight. Plus if I'm lucky there might be a new kind of kitty down there. Wouldn't it be so cool if I could get an underground kitty? Oh! I could get one for Chelsea too! She doesn't have any pets."

I debated telling her not to bring home any tamed monsters...but she never listened to me, so it would be wasted breath. "Alright then, lets go. Anyone know where the entrance to these tunnels are?"

Chelsea raised her hand. "According to the books, there's a bunch of them. Closest one is the wishing well on the south side of town. Apparently the thing is so deep it intersects one of the tunnels. They've never bothered to plug it because monsters don't go into that part of the Undertrek."

"Can we stop to make a wish?" Asked Bethy excitedly. "I've always wanted to make a wish and have it come true!" We all stopped, turning to stare at her in complete bewilderment. "What?" She said innocently.

I was...ninety percent sure she was fucking with me right now, but she had such a good poker face it was impossible to tell. "Right." I said slowly. "Let's go." Chelsea, Bethy, Anna and I all set out, heading for the south side of town where this wishing well was located.

Anna was talking to Bethy, laughing her ass off at the younger girl's antics, and I briefly wondered if it was a good idea to introduce them, but I doubted Bethy could influence a D-ranker, and I doubted ANYTHING could influence Bethy. Although, I still needed to talk to her about her bloodlust. We'd talked about helping her but things had been so damned hectic we hadn't had a chance.

When we arrived at the wishing well, I gestured for Anna to go first. "I'll follow you down." I said to the information broker. "I'm at E-rank, so I can catch the other two if either of them stumbles."

She agreed, and with a quick casual step she vanished into the hole in the ground. I followed behind her, stepping off the edge and activating State of Grace. I drifted pleasantly to the ground, touch down soundlessly and then having to scramble out of the way as a horde of bat winged cats carried my sister down through the hole, depositing her on the ground in a gigging mess.

"That tickled!" Said Chelsea with a laugh as Bethy reformed, grinning at us. "Why didn't you just let Shane catch me?"
Bethy gave her a solemn look. "Cats always land you on your feet." She said seriously. Before winking and skipping off into the dark a ways. When she was a bit apart from us, two dark shapes rose from the ground. As Donuts and Poptarts appeared, the world around her shimmered, her domain opening and a massive black dog with red eyes stepped out. I looked around slowly. The hound was here. Time to hunt.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The Undertrek was a whole different world from the surface. I'd expected it to be dark and gloomy, but the biggest difference for me was the silence. Even with my Focus to block most of it out, the surface was teeming with life and sound. Wind, small animals, distant people. The million little sounds of life that had become like a background symphony to which we all lived.

In the Undertrek there was none of that. No wind, no animals that I could hear, just complete and utter stillness. Silence and dark that made the atmosphere almost oppressive.

"Well." Said my sister sarcastically. "This is nice. It's what I always imagined under my bed to look like when I woke up from nightmares as a child."

Bethy sighed wistfully. "I never looked under my bed as a kid. My daddy used to rent the spaces under all our beds to some of his monster friends. It always felt like an invasion of privacy." At our collective horrified looks she giggled and held her hands as if to ward off misunderstandings. "Oh don't worry. They paid rent."

"This silence doesn't seem natural." I said, shaking off the Bethy shock more quickly after multiple rounds of exposure. "There should be like...worms and shit down here right? Insects and burrowing creatures. We didn't fall into the center of the planet, that was like two hundred feet. It wasn't nearly far enough for us to be in some kind of alternate exosystem or some shit."

Anna shook her head. "You're thinking like a mortal. Consider the difference in the nature of the renown for above and below ground, especially with the added dangers from past civilizations. There's probably a bunch of undead fortresses at the core of this planet or something. Whatever is down there, it's best avoided. We aren't going too deep, and if bats in the belfry over there lives up to her end of this we won't even have to do that."

"Hey." Snapped Chelsea. "That's not necessary. Bethy is down here helping us out of the goodness of her heart. You don't have to be a bitch about everything."

Smirking, the D-ranker raised an eyebrow at her. "Well if it isn't the princess coming to the rescue. You sure you want to pick a fight with me little miss prim and proper?" She gestured to the walls. "We just discussed the lack of sound. No insects or animals means nothing down here to hear you scream."

"If you think Zeke wouldn't notice us down here you're cracked." I said calmly. "Not to mention if you attack her you'd have to kill me, which even if you managed it means no more wishes. Not that it's a problem either way. I'd appreciate it if you'd stop pushing buttons to find out what we're about. If you have questions just fucking ask them."

She grinned. "You got me. I was testing." She smiled at Bethy. "Sorry about that little one. Just checking some things about your fearless leader. I didn't mean to scare you."

Bethy smiled sweetly at her, but she pulled back her lips, exposing razor sharp fangs. Her eyes began to glow a lambent red, lighting the darkness around us somehow far further than they should have and too dimly to see more than dancing shadows. "It's ok. There's no need to be sorry if you didn't mean it. I know you wouldn't really threaten my friend down here alone in the dark with me. That would be...unwise."

Anna's face went pale, and she stepped back slightly, swallowing hard. It was easy to forget that manic wacky Bethy was a Vampire, and the favored youngest child of a man who fought fucking GODS at the S-rank. I didn't think Bethy was E-rank yet, but even if she wasn't I wasn't totally sure she wasn't capable of hurting a D-ranker if she felt so inclined. The pitch black form of Luggage towering over her from behind probably didn't help.

There was also the fact that there was only one family in the universe who had fangs and red eyes like that. Even if Bethy didn't manage to hurt her, Morgan would not take well to someone touching his baby girl. Finding out you're sharing a dark tunnel with a teen apex predator would shake anyone's nerve. The most impressive part was how fucking scary she still managed to look wearing a big yellow hard hat paired with her puffy blacc gothix dress.

"Now that we've finished discussing Anna's gruesome horrible death and the variety of painful ways it might occur, I think we should get back to the mission at hand." I said casually. "She doesn't seem likely to stir up any more trouble." I chuckled. "I think we can just count that as a preemptive pass for any further tests you had in store for all of us, don't you Anna?"

She grinned at me. "You're a mean little bastard when you want to be, aren't you Shane? Yeah, tests passed. Didn't expect to get bullied by a bunch of brats, but hey, if you want to watch the gods laugh, predict the future." I'd never heard that saying before, but I kind of liked it.

"Anyway." Said Bethy cheerfully. "Poptarts and Donuts are back. They did a quick grid pattern sweep of everything within about five miles. They found lots of rocks and dirt, and not much else. But they said some of the rocks had carvings on them. We can check those out if you want?" I hadn't even seen the night pride return. Fucking shadow cats. Squinting, I could vaguely make them out.

Bethy pointed randomly down a tunnel. We had some light from the well above us, and with our Perception we could easily pick it up, but the direction she pointed was pitch black. "They said the symbols are that way."

"Do they know what the symbols are?' I asked hopefully. Maybe we wouldn't have to go down there at all. Rude or not Anna wasn't wrong about avoiding the depths being preferable.

Bethy just shot me a pitying look. "No Shane. They're cats. Cats can't read. Did you not know that?"

I suddenly felt a lot more sympathetic of Abel and his endless torment (even if I knew he played along). Sighing, I nodded and just followed them down the tunnel forlornly, stoically ignoring the muffled sounds of laughter from Anna and my sister. I was pretty sure even the fucking cats were laughing.

As we moved further into the tunnels, Chelsea held up a hand and conjured a fistful of white fire. The purifying flames cast a bright and sanctified glow on the walls of the tunnels, and somehow I felt the silence recede a bit. There were no noticeable sounds once it appeared, but the quiet just seemed...less.

Our footsteps seemed to echo further on the hard packed dirt and occasional stone we walked over as we traveled down the tunnel. When we arrived at the symbols, Chelsea held up her flame and I crouched down. I peered solemnly at the carvings for a few minutes before nodding sagely and saying. "I was afraid of this." They all looked at me questioningly. I pointed to the symbols."I can't understand a word of what this says."

My sister smacked her forehead with her palm. "Move you idiot." She said waspishly. I snickered as I backed up, having successfully gotten my revenge for their unfair mockery earlier by making them sit around and stare at nothing for five minutes.

She squinted through the light at the tiny etched letters on the stone, reading over them for about fifteen minutes. We all got a bit bored, and Bethy started shifting from foot to foot like she was resisting the urge to start a fire. "You ok?" I asked her quietly. Bethy was energetic and enthusiastic, but she wasn't one to freak out over nothing.

"I don't know." She said slowly. "I feel...like we're being watched. Anna would have noticed though I'm sure. I'm probably just imagining things."

I groaned. "On the list of things you should never say out loud, that's probably third, right after 'I'm sure nothing bad will happen' and 'it's probably just a power outage, I'll go check the fuse box in the basement'. Now I'm SURE something is watching. Can you send the cats to scout for it?"

"I did." She said with a frown. "They didn't find anything. I can't SEE anything either. I just...feel it." I'd never seen her this serious, it kind of worried me.

Anna stepped up next to her, peering out into the dark. "I'm a stealth focused D-ranker. If there's something there I should be able to pick it up. You Perception is well below mine I'm sure. That said, no one with a brain between their ears dismisses the instincts of a Vampire. I had no idea Shane had one of you with him." She narrowed her eyes at the darkness. "I feel something. The dark itself seems to be...alert. Not alive exactly. How did I miss that?"

My eyes widened and I swung them to Chelsea. "Hey, take a break from that and come here." Her flame cleansed whatever was making the air stifled, maybe that was an effect of offsetting whatever was watching.

She grumbled, but stood up and walked over to stand next to me. "Why are we staring into the dark?" She asked as she tried to peer through the gloom. As she stretched out her hand to see better, the dark receded, but even outside the light of the flame it seemed to thin slightly. "Oh." She said in interest. "That's fascinating. Let me try something." She reached into a pocket and pulled out a red metal symbol. Brandishing it in front of her, she bellowed. "RUBRUM GLORIA!"

As she shouted, she channeled flame into her hand, and it was sucked into the symbol, which began to blaze with an incandescent light. The expanded range of the light smashed into the dark around us, and I heard a high pitched scream, overlapping disharmoized voices hurting my ears.

Once it was done, I looked around, able to see the entire cavern we stood in thanks to the still blazing light. "So..." I said conversationally. "Did anyone ELSE notice the big black doors twenty feet from us?"

Anna whistled. "Sneaky. Some kind of stacked Perception overload. A woven charm of overlapping discordant voices pulled together into a spell. Whoever did it stitched it through the darkness around us seamlessly. My Focus pushed it away as useless noise. D-rank work. Probably the Magister. That's not...ideal."

"How did Chelsea break it?" I said in confusion. "If it was D-rank...she hasn't even hit E."

Chelsea shook her head. "I didn't. This is a D-ranked focus. Grandpa gave me the crimson icon to focus my powers of purification. It's basically useless ninety percent of the time, but curses, poisons, and dark based spells and Skills don't hold up well."

Nodding, I made my way forward, moving slow. "Alright folks, we just go in, check on the threat if it's in there, and then leave. Nothing else." I glared at Bethy. "No monster taming."

She pouted but agreed and we stepped up, leveraging the heavy dark metal doors open as we stepped inside. The cavern inside was also pretty dark, but the crimson icon was still lit. Looking out over the larger cavern mostly sunk below the huge ledge we were standing on, my eyes widened in fear.

I thought back to the list, picking through the half remembered possibilities until I found the obvious culprit. Blow us, stretching out into the endless distance, lines upon lines of large, leonine forms carved of dark grey rock. I stepped back, covering Chelsea's hand and pushing my sister out of the room as quietly as I could. We'd found the threat. Stone Lions. A LOT of them.

 

[Lone-sith]

Lions. Sounds like cats to me. Gotta catch them all

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Chelsea and I headed back to the inn directly from the site of our…discovery. Anna split off to take care of her own affairs (which is to say, figure out how the hell we could survive this) and my sister wanted to dive into research immediately, but I called her back. I could understand wanting to learn more after such a terrifying sight, but I had other plans for the moment.

Seeing those stone lions down there, thousands, hundreds of thousands, all at least F-rank and many higher, had terrified me, sure. But it had also driven home a point that I felt the need to raise with my friends. This wasn't what they had signed up for. I needed to give them a chance to back out of this. Even if they didn't accept, even if they decided to do it anyway, this might be a suicide mission and they needed to decide for themselves.

Bethy had sent her flying squirrels ahead to gather everyone before slipping away herself to do who knew what.
When we finally arrived, everyone was gathered in the downstairs of the inn. Anna must have ordered Mattie and her brother to clear everyone out, because it was only my people down there, and I said a silent thanks to the spy mistress, for making that at least easier.

"So, thank you for coming." I said with a weak smile. "I have some bad news, and I hope you can all think over what I have to say." I filled them in on what we'd found, our trip down to the tunnels and the army of stone lions we'd seen below the earth.

Callie listened, and then smiled at me softly. "You want to offer us an out again." She said simply.

"Well it's not like you signed up for THIS." I said hotly. "Sure, we agreed to stay before, but that was mainly my lead, and it was predicated on the situation being manageable. We could all die here. I can't make this call alone. Everyone needs to get a vote. So…what do you all think?"

To my complete lack of surprise, it was Benny who responded. My best friend lacked any of his trademark levity or wit, his face solemn as he asked me earnestly. "What do YOU think Shane? I'm not saying I'll do whatever you say, not with this, but I still want to know where your head is at."

"I think we should stay." I admitted. "Not just because of our contract with Camden, but because we came here for exactly this. To train with an army. To experience war. This is going to be war, and sure, we can run from that since it's not exactly what we thought, but what will that accomplish?"

"It'll save our lives." He pointed out. But not like he was disagreeing, more like he was prompting me to elaborate. He got like this sometimes when he was considering.

I nodded. "It might. But then what? War is coming. Not just to the planet, but to the entire universe. And we're going to be involved, we played too big a role in uncovering things to be ignored. Sure, we can run now if we want, but then what? What about next time when we can't run?"

Abel laughed. "I mean, you don't have to threaten me with a good time, kid. I want to get my hands dirty here. I wouldn't miss a fight like this for the world. Can you imagine how many enemies will be here?" He glanced at Callie, who was glaring at him. "What? Are you pouting because I don't care about all the dead randos? You should try not to be so judgy."

"I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people." She snapped in exasperated fury.
He shrugged. "Then you should stop trying. You already made the sale kid, talking me OUT of helping isn't in your best interests. I'll do my thing and you do yours." He glanced back to me. "I'm in, obviously. Even if your girlfriend wants to throw a fit about why."

Mel scoffed, smacking him upside the head. "Ignore him." She said flatly. "Of course we'll help. And we care about SOME of the people here. We won't let you two down."

It occurred to me from that interaction that I'd missed so much subtext between those two it wasn't even funny. It explained so much about them, the way they talked, bickered, the way she'd moved past his switching sides in the temple. They were like Callie and I, as we were now, only they'd been like that for much longer. I wondered if that was our future.
Shaking that off, I turned to the others. "So? Abel and Mel aren't a surprise. What about the rest of you. What do you think?"
Benny nodded, sighing. "You and Cel have been doing tons of work here to prep for this territory. And you're right that if we run it probably won't solve much long term. Based on what Zeke told you fate sense would probably crash us into a pirate fortress or something. At least here we have time and resources to prepare. I'm in."

Celine nodded, showing her solidarity. Cark looked unsure, but when he glanced at Zeke who was playing with Cass, he sighed and accepted. "Agreed." He said in a sad voice. "Cass is taken care of, and I joined this army for better or worse."
Chelsea followed suit, and Gabe and Callen followed her lead. But when I got to the next person I'd expected to agree…Jessie remained silent.

As if she felt my confusion without seeing my face, she looked down, eyes swimming with tears. "I don't…I don't know if I can, Shane. I'm really scared. Fighting is one thing, I can do that fine. But I'm the healer. If this is going to get as bad as you said it is, I'm the one who's going to have to patch up all the victims and…I won't be able to save them all."
I winced, because I couldn't argue that. I considered just telling her to go, that we didn't need her. But we did.

Callie walked over and knelt down in front of our blonde friend. "I get it." She said softly. "I get how much it sucks to lose somebody. To watch another person die and know it's your fault. But we need you here, Jess. It's selfish, and shitty, but it's just true. People might die, but if we don't want any of OUR people to die, we need our healer."

She flinched back like she'd been slapped, looking around at everyone in fear. Nat spoke up, shocking everyone. "She's right. I know it's scary, that seeing so many people die sounds unbearable, but if you run, and any of them die, imagine how you would feel." She gestured to the three of us. "Could you handle that?"

It was nasty, and manipulative, but…it was true. And Jessie knew it. She nodded. "You're right. I can't lose any of you. Can't lose any more family. I wouldn't be able to take it."

Her eyes fixed on me, and I suddenly gained a spark of understanding through the bond as Callie took in her expression. Jessie had worshipped her big brother. He was her hero, her best friend, her parent. Since he died, she's been lost, until I told her I would help her get him back. Once that happened she had a place in the world. Had a family. Now she saw ME as her big brother, and I wasn't sure I could handle that kind of pressure.

Forcing my mind away from that complicated issue, or how I felt about getting ANOTHER sister when I just found my first, I looked at Callie. "I take it that means you're in as well."

"Idiot." She scoffed. "Like I'd let you fight an army of angry rock cats on your own. You're hopeless without me. Besides…I want to help. Not just Camden and other people we know, but our recruits, and the rest of the army, and the people here in Saltzburg. I can't just leave all these people to die."

Benny raised a hand. "Speaking of which, what about the actual ruler of this fucking planet? Shouldn't the Earl be read in on this?"

"He knows." I said grimly. "The stone lions resting place was under a spell to disguise it left by the Magister. He's the Earl's right hand man, so we can assume he's aware. Spencer probably paid him off."

He looked appalled. "Can he even do that? Ignore his planet? I thought the Empire enforced duties on the rulers. Won't he be punished if he doesn't protect this place?"

"Unfortunately no." Said Chelsea with a grimace. "Anne filled us in on the way back. The Earl IS the ruler of this planet, but he's an administrator. There are guards for martial protection. None of them will be able to help too much. The Earl would look bad if he did nothing, but there were some higher ranked stone lions, I imagine he's making preparations to immobilize them and take them out so he can claim he did his best."

Callie's expression was disgusted. "But there are millions of people on this planet. They're his citizens, how can he just let them die? And how can Spencer unleash an army on this planet and not care what happens?"

"Because he doesn't see them as humans." Said Celine, breaking her silence. "I've met nobles like him before. Generations of exposure only to sycophants and powerful relatives breeds out all compassion. Humans are either powerful family members or expendable tools. To him, this is just washing away a hill of ants."

That kind of casual apathy chilled me. The concept of just not caring as millions, maybe billions of people died was disgusting to me. What kind of monster was that divorced from their humanity. Turning your back was one thing, but wiping out a planet to kill one person, and a family member at that, it was despicable.

Nat spoke up. "I think you're right Shane. We need to do this. I need to get stronger, to go further. And you'll need my wishes to pull this off. We ARE allies." She smiled, the barest shadow of my effervescent snarky cousin showing through the grief and the anger.

One by one, they all agreed, every one of my friends had my back, and I felt my chest tighten at the show of loyalty and trust. "Alright." I said with a nod. "We need to tell Camden about this. I was going to do it anyway of course, but I waited to see if I'd need to break our contract as I informed him. Since that's not the case, we should go find him."

Everyone nodded, and we stood up, ready to head for the manor together. There would be lots of planning to do, lots of prep work. But deep down, I felt like this was the right call. Not just because of all the work we'd already done, but because of who we were. Leaving, running away and letting these people die, that wasn't us.

I felt Callie slide her fingers between mine and looked down to see her shooting me an adoring smile. Our bond was flooded with love and pride, and I shared my own feelings with her as I gazed in awe at the amazing woman I was sharing my life with.

I should have been afraid, should have been sick with terror, but looking down into those bright blue eyes, I couldn't find it in me to fear. We would get through this, we would win, like we always did, because we were together, all of us, and there was nothing we couldn't do if we set our minds to it. Because that was what heroes did.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Camden was, as we expected, furious. The normally composed noble grabbed the table we usually sat at under the end an without blinking, hurled it sideways, smashing the end into the fireplace in the dining room and shattering the brickwork so thoroughly we could see the next room through the hole.

"Fucking SPENCER!" He bellowed. "A whole planet? Are you fucking KIDDING me? I know he's a fucking monster but this is beyond the pale. And Sara? How could she be part of this?" He slumped into a chair, burying his face in his hands. "What the fuck do I do?"

I hesitated. "Can't we just deal with it later? We don't even have a time table. It might not be too urgent."

He laughed hollowly. "No. We know exactly when it'll happen. The day of the final showdown with Clairdon. Spencer wants me to die, and he wants it to be as painful as possible. Snatching defeat from the jaws of my victory is just his style, not to mention if we're already mid battle our defenses will be nonexistent."

"Shit." I cursed. "Ok…well, that might not be as bad as it sounds. We still have my wishes. We can rope in some of the other nobles and lock them into geasa to prevent news from leaking."

His head snapped up, confusion crossing his face. "You're not…leaving?" He asked in disbelief. "I mean, I appreciate that, but…are you fucking insane? This whole planet is going to be overrun by stone lions.You should leave. Hell, I want to leave, and I probably would if I wasn't sure my asshole cousin had at least one contingency for that, probably something involving a bomb on a ship. He likes doing that. He killed two of my siblings that way. And one of his."

"That's not a bad idea." I said slowly. "Why don't we evac the planet? If we announce whats going to happen-"

He shook his head. "If the Earl is in on it that won't work. Causing a public panic is illegal. He'd send the planetary guard to arrest you. That's a valid use of his power. I'm also guessing he issued a blockade on the mirror world. That's going to draw attention eventually, but inter-planetary calls are expensive, they don't happen too often at lower levels of society."

"And the nobles are all scared shitless of the Earl." I guessed with a sigh. The worst part was that while the Earl couldn't do shit to me, if the planetary guard showed up I'd be screwed. Those guys were all D-rank or lower. I cursed under my breath. "So what the hell do we do? How do we stop this?"

He shrugged. "We fight. If we take the battle to Clairdon early when he's unprepared, we can scoop up the territory. Once Saltzberg is under our control, we can start building up defenses and moving the citizens out of the way." He glanced at my sister, who had been unusually quiet since we arrived. "They'll come up out of the well, I take it?"

She started, needing a second to catch up. "Ah, yes. There are other entrances to the surface but they're further out. It's unnecessary to delay. They'll probably tear their way out though, and that hole will get wider. Any chance we can start on the defenses early? Some of the buildings near there are for sale."

Making a curious sound, he grabbed a map, rolling it out before realizing he'd thrown our table across the room and pinning it to the wall with a few throwing knives he pulled from thing air. "South side? Let's see." He ran a finger over the area. "Coulomb Bakery shut down a few months ago, and Art's Dirt Depot has been hemorrhaging money for years…damn, the Altamont Smithy."

He pointed at a specific spot and I leaned in to squint at the image. To my surprise, as I did, the map fucking zoomed in. Neat. "How popular is the Altamont Smithy?" I asked hopefully.

"Very." He said with a grimace. "They're also OLD. Place has been there since Saltzberg was founded. They won't sell."

I cursed. "Do we need them? Two buildings should be enough. We expand them into one large compound surrounding the well and then start reinforcing the ground there. When the big showdown happens, the lions will be held at the walls and so will Clairdons people. We hit them and then draw them out. Drip feed the lions and maybe even use them against Clairdon."

"Won't work." Said Chelsea with a shake of her head. "The higher ranked ones will punch right through. What we need is to make another exit point, something that leads somewhere we're less worried about them ending up. When the big boys come out the high rankers can take care of them."

I wished Callie was here. She'd have some ideas, but Chelsea and I had come alone, because my girlfriend wanted to check in with her recruits. Gabe was handling mine, but Abel was much less trustworthy when unsupervised.

Camden seemed intrigued by the possibilities, and I left them to argue particulars, turning to the one out of place person in this room. "Demia." I said cautiously. "Can you teach me a formation I can drill into my people that will help dealing with the lions?" I had some ideas for possible weaponry, but their use would be critical.

She looked surprised to be acknowledged. She'd come along because Camden had thought this was some kind of debriefing about my century, and he said he trusted her implicitly.

"I may have some ideas." She admitted. "I'd prefer to see the creatures, study their vulnerabilities, but barring that, there are several defensive formations that allow for spear work. I assume you did want to corral them and stab them to death and aren't stupid enough to fight an army of animals head on?"

I nodded. "We do need more information about their physiology, but most likely." I turned to call out to Camden. "We were supposed to meet up with your armorer, though that kept getting pushed back. I trust they can do weapons too? Or know someone who can?"

Callie had mentioned plans to wish for a detailed description of the Stone Lions, so I'd only be doing the base five today for Camden. Since it was Saturday we'd be free to get in touch with the armorer all day, and should have plenty of time to squeeze in some quick research. Callie checking in on her century was more formality than anything so it shouldn't take long. They were off for the weekend too, she just wanted to stay available. That was part of why I hadn't worried about sending Gabe to deal with things.

"Of course." He said with a smile. "Though I've seen your staff, and it's better quality than anything my smith is likely to have the materials for."

I waved him off. "Not for me. I had another idea. Anyway, let me go get Callie and the others. We should probably bring Bethy too, since I know she'll throw a fit if she doesn't get creative input. Where is your armorer anyway?"

He chuckled. "Sonia works in the basement. She says the sound of idiocy throws off the crafting process. I brought her with me when I came here. She's a distant relative, though not close enough to the main family line to be a potential threat. She's got an…interesting personality."

"I'm sure she and Bethy will get on like a house on fire then." I laughed, imagining the damage our fashionista vampire could do with access to a skilled armorer. We'd never wear the same clothes more than once ever again.

He shuddered. "Please don't joke about that. We had to pay triple for D-rank fire suppression on the basement. They weren't happy about tying the higher ranked spells into the general ward schema. Sonia is…enthusiastic, when crafting, and she isn't particularly worried about fire because of her inborn Skill."

I wondered exactly what that Skill might be, but I didn't have time to ask. Instead of going to find her, I flexed my soul and shot a message off to Callie to bring everyone here. It was an odd sensation, because while the bond worked over distances, this particular feature felt less intense when we were separated.

The message seemed to wing off into the ether, at least until I got a quick affirmative response from my girlfriend. "They're on their way, and I told Callie where to find us." I informed our host. "Why don't you take us down to meet your armorer, and I can ask my questions before anyone arrives to start work on their armor."

Shrugging, he gestured for us to follow. "A few rules before we go down there. First of all, don't speak to Sonia until she acknowledges you, if you interrupt a crafting session and something goes wrong she WILL try to kill you. Second rule, don't touch anything, even innocuous looking stuff, because it might be enchanted or possibly cursed."

We both nodded, and he led us to an innocuous door in the corner of an alcove off one of the main hallways. It didn't look too sturdy…but the bulky metal door covered in bars and locks behind it looked nearly impenetrable. Camden led us into the room between the two doors, closed the one to the hall, then stepped up and started yanking bars and turning knobs.

The metal door began to glow with a roiling blue green light, and the light brightened after each undone lock. Once he finished with the bars, he pulled out a ring of keys and started unlocking locks.

"This opens much easier from the inside." He said as the door finally swung back, opening onto a stone staircase leading down. "We're more worried about people getting in than anything getting out." He paused. "Except during Sonia's golem phase. But that was before we got to this planet, and she grew out of it after the…er, incident, at Lichtenbright."

Leading us down, he ceased all talking, and remembering his earlier warning I did the same. As we got deeper I could hear a rhythmic ringing sound echoing along the stairway. Clang. Clang. Clang. It was pretty obviously metal on metal. When we reached the bottom of the steps, Camden held up his finger to his lips and slowly eased open the door, waving us in.

We emerged into a massive stone room. Along the walls were dozens of devices and objects I had no knowledge of and couldn't begin to guess the purpose of. In the center of that room, standing over a flat cube of dark matte material glowing with blue runes, was a tall, willowy woman with scarlet hair.

She had on an apron over light clothes to protect from sparks presumably, but her heavily muscled arms were scarred and bare down to the forearm where her gloves covered her vulnerable fingers. Said fingers were currently gripping a huge square headed hammer set with glowing blue stones.

As she slammed down her hammer on the unidentifiable shape on the cube, I focused harder, triggering eye of revelation to try to see what she was staring at, since it wasn't her anvil.

I gasped as I saw the air around her manifesting a huge blue holographic image. As she brought down the hammer, a big chunk of it lit up, changing shape as the blow landed, and she used her non hammer hand to shift the pair of tongs holding the object. This time the image lit up in a different spot.

Inhaling sharply, I realized what this was. That anvil thing created a giant representation of the magic and material in that item she was making, allowing her to adjust her control and forging to address minute, normally imperceptible issues. Even if Perception could let you see fine details, that was only external. The internal stuff wasn't visible. I grinned to myself. Yeah, THIS was who I wanted making my armor. I couldn't wait to see what she could do.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Despite being in a forge and looking at the handling of glowing metal, it was surprisingly cool down in the basement. I could see the air warping closer to the cube, but I suspected some of those glowing runes trapped the heat.

As I watched, the glowing shape I could see with Eye of Revelation, slowly transformed, being compacted and refined until it went from a relatively oblong structure to a massive holographic representation of what I could see would eventually be a breastplate. It was fascinating to watch the metal warp and buckle under the hammer blows, sometimes being completely deformed only to be hammered out again into the same shape without a small defect I could only see in hindsight.

Finally, after about twenty minutes, the smith picked up the new breastplate with her tongs, lifting the still glowing metal and carrying it over to a peaceful basin filled with a dark blue liquid.

Dropping it in, I watched the substance swallow the metal slowly, like it was being submerged in pudding or something, and once it had vanished the blue liquid resumed its flat and undisturbed state.

Sighing contentedly, Sonia turned, noticing the three of us, and sighed. "Oh, Camden." She said dully. "Here to make more requests? I'm in the middle of my research on alloy compositions, so unless it's important can we do this another time? This new quenching bath I had the alchemists whip up SHOULD increase tensile strength by forty percent."

"So…like increasing the Impact?" I asked, curious despite myself. I knew there were differences between different materials even at the same Impact, but forty percent seemed pretty high.

She scoffed. "Obviously not. Investing Impact raising materials in equipment is not only prohibitively expensive, it's also wasteful. No, this treatment improves the base durability of the metal, creating a minor percentage boost PER point of Impact. It's less than a single percent per point, but cumulatively it's a groundbreaking enhancement." Pausing mid sentence, she blinked at me. "Wait…why am I talking to you? Who even are you?"

I laughed at that. "I'm Solomon. This is Chelsea. We came down here to talk to you about a few projects."

I'd been planning to wait until later to get the Stone Lion details, but when I'd found out I was coming down here I'd mentioned it to Callie and she had a better idea. She'd made the wish with Nat when she went to pick her up, and would be bringing the data with her.

"Projects?" She said archly. "And what gives you the right to ask me to undertake any 'projects' for you?"

I shrugged. "It's not for us. It's for Camden, though you could say it's for you too. I'll leave how much to tell you up to him." Raising my head, I grinned up in the direction of the doors. "Perfect timing, actually. Camden, Callie is here with Nat and the others. Can you let her in?"

Sighing, he headed back out of the room, though since the door opened easily from the outside he only took a minute before he came back with everyone.

I wasn't planning to stick around after designing my new costume, because this was going to take ages. There were so many people to get to. Callie grinned at me, holding up a small booklet, which she'd just closed. Chelsea snatched it up triumphantly, beginning to flip through it, and my girlfriend gave me a quick mental summary.

As I suspected, my plans would work fine. "So, the project we were hoping for was a special weapon made to kill a certain kind of creature. A spear that can pierce through stone easily, even when it's covering flesh."

Demia had stayed silent, but I made sure to meet her eyes and nod as I spoke, so she knew exactly what kind of formation we needed.

Chelsea finished flipping through the booklet and then passed it over to Sonia. "Something that could kill a creature like this?"

The redheaded smith opened the booklet and perused it, going much slower than my sister and girlfriend, clearly taking her time to sift through the facts. "This…is comprehensive. Magical structure, composition, vulnerabilities? I could make a weapon optimized for killing a creature like this easily."

Before I could get excited though, Chelsea cut in. "Would it be reusable?"

"Well, no." Said Sonia with a shrug. "Bane weapons are almost never multi-use. There's no point. You sacrifice longevity for efficiency. The more specifically the weapon is designed to counter a beast the less effective it is at anything else. Optimizing it for single use output means you get the most bang for your chit."

I turned to Camden, who sighed and nodded, and then I launched into an abbreviated explanation of what had happened. She waited for me to finish, then frowned, consulting the book again. "I suppose I could make something more durable. It won't be cheap, and it would be best if I could get a sample. This information will have to do though. Snatching one of them might set off the horde."

Walking over to the cube, she pulled out some paper and a pen and started scribbling. Not a picture, but a few vague outlines surrounded by large blocks of text. I stepped up next to her before she could get too into it. "Not just the weapons, though we need about ten thousand of those, we're also here for special custom armor we purchased from Camden."
I wasn't letting any of my people go into this fight without their best possible gear, and I wasn't sure how long it would take to make our armor.

Sonia nodded thoughtfully. "He did mention a possible slew of custom orders. More of you than expected, but He has enough jobs booked from me to cover it. Fine, I don't like being distracted and I want to work on this project, so go lets get that out of the way." She turned and strode off, calling behind her. "Follow me, we need to scout for your materials."
I glanced over at Camden. "Um…what does she mean scout? She's the smith, shouldn't she KNOW what materials to use?"

Sonia made a disgusted sound without turning. "This is CUSTOM gear, plebian. I'm a proper smith, not some mass production machine. You'll be interacting with the materials I have on hand, seeing what synergizes well with your soul and Skills. Utilizing gear as foci is one of the major benefits of custom work?"

I cocked my head as she stopped in front of a blank section of wall and tapped out a quick rhythm on the stone, only for it to life, revealing a massive carved in set of shelves, each filled with a different type of metal, stone, wood, or hide. "What do you mean gear as foci?"

She sighed, turning to my with a pitying look. "You have gear right? Magical items?" I nodded. "And these items, they DO things?" I nodded again. "Perfect. Now, you also have Skills. So what, pray tell, do you think happens if you channel a Skill through an item with a built in enchantment or Skill that MATCHES the Skill you're using?"

I blinked. "I…don't know?" I said slowly. "I'd never considered doing that. Does it make the Skill stronger?"

She waggled a hand. "It can. Though that's not exactly the best use of armor. For weapons that's a useful addition, but armor is more useful as means of lightening the load of certain Skills that might otherwise be taxing. Defensive abilities are particularly good choices. It'll depend on the materials that resonate with you."

"Ok, what do you mean resonate?" I asked as I stepped up next to her in front of the shelves.

She reached into her apron, pulling out a small metal object. It took me a second to recognize it as a tuning fork. She reached up and tapped it against my head, allowing it to begin ringing, and causing the metal to glow.

Stepping up to the shelves, she began running the tuning fork in front of the materials, walking up and down the rows as she stared intently at the device. I noticed the glow of the tuning fork brighten or dim regularly, until she came to a specific shelf. On it, I saw a black roll of leathery material.

Bringing the fork up to the material, she tapped it against the leather, and the glow was sucked out of the fork, causing it to blaze up with its own glow. She repeated this four times, finding a few objects, a purple gemstone, a bar of silvery metal, and what looked like a pile of black bones.

Nodding with interest, she grabbed them all then gestured me back over to the cube. She unloaded all the items on the cube, then began to explain what they are.

"These materials each resonate with something about you." She pointed to the leather. "Abyssal Wraithskin. Came from a demonic creature native to the devilish parts of the Fairyland." Next the metal. "Phantasmal Platinum is a Fantasy heavy metal with deep connections to dreams. The gem is a Venomblood Sapphire. A congealed drop of blood from a very venomous Wyveryn."

I nodded as she filled me in. I could see how those things might resonate with me for different reasons. Dreams and wishes were similar, I used poison often, and my dad was a devil. "What about those?" I said, pointing to the bones.

"Bones from a Stareater Thrall." She said somberly. She sounded almost reverent as she spoke of it. "There are many strange creatures in the universe. Some eat animals. Some eat plants. Some eat planets, or even the stars they orbit. However, as is the case with all predators, sometimes they fall victim to predation themselves. More commonly, they bring thralls to aid their assaults. These bones came from a thrall consumed by a black star."

Black flame. Much like Mephistopheles. I understood the connection. "Ok…so this stuff will all be turned into armor that will suit me and amplify my abilities? How are you going to do those enchantments, do I have to teach you my Skills?"

I couldn't and wouldn't do that. If she said yes I'd take some generic gear, it was better than nothing. She smirked. "Maybe if I was an amateur with amateur equipment. This, however, is a lifestone cube. It allows me to map the magical matrices of a material. I'm going to have you channel your Skills through these materials and then study the patterns caused by the effects. Then I'll forge your new equipment with those patterns inlaid naturally."

Blinking in shock, I gaped at her. "You can DO that? Is that something any blacksmith can do?"

"Blacksmith?" She chuckled. "I'm not a blacksmith. I can do blacksmithing, but I'm an Arcane Armorer. It's a specialized high level Job that involves a combination of enchanter and blacksmith Skills at a high rank. I also have multiple supplementary Skills. Point is, no, not many could do this. You're lucky you met me."

She sounded so proud of herself I had to smile. Her pride deflated when Camden coughed, gesturing to the rest of the group. "That's great, Sonia, but you still have another thirteen or so customers. Plus this bear." He gestured to Randall, who reared back on his stubby legs with a quiet roar, throwing his hands up threateningly.

Sonia turned to glare at him. "A bear? You want me to outfit a bear? Not just a bear either. A little cub. He's basically a stuffed an-" Her voice cut off as ANOTHER roar split the air. A much louder one, from a much bigger animal.

Turning, she saw Randall,in his full sized glory, towering over her, eyes fixed on her face in a narrowed glare. Camden smirked slightly at her obvious shock. "I'm sorry." He said in a tone that showed he was anything but. "You were saying?" I was lucky I was able to keep from laughing. Pissing off the woman making my gear seemed unwise. The look on her face was hilarious though.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After resonating everyone and giving us a basic sketch of the spears we were kicked out of the forge. Apparently finding out about the time crunch and seeing just hot many items she was going to have to make sent Sonia into fits of rage (not that those were uncommon for her according to Camden) and we were all banished, told to return only when individually summoned.

Since today had been long and exhausting, we all said our goodnights and headed for bed. The library in the morning, then the Undertrek, our big meeting, then the meeting with Camden followed by our introduction to Sonia, the whole day was packed with excitement and we were all relieved to get some sleep.

Which meant in the morning I was nice and rested and ready to get started on a bit of crafting, with Callie standing by to act as a secondary source of soul strength in case I needed it. I was going to make the training weapons for both my century and hers since she was going to help me out with training. Since it was Sunday and we were still off we had the training yard mostly to ourselves, except a few training nuts supervised by Gabe.

"Alright." I said excitedly. "You sure you're willing to help with this? Now that I have the Skill it'll be a lot less exhausting to craft. If you help me offset the soul weight I can make your century some training weapons too!"

She grinned at me, leaning back against a wall as she watched me send a bunch of my people out to collect rocks.
"Someone's excited about doing more crafting. If you love it so much, why haven't you been focusing on it more? I know you used to do Enchanting. Why did you end up getting rid of that?"

I shrugged. "At the early ranks we moved up too fast for my own Enchanting to keep up. Using it as a part of my DS Mastery made more sense. Plus our life isn't exactly conducive to sitting around working on making things."

"Well, we've got nothing but time now." She giggled. "So you can sit around making stuff all you want." She gestured to the nearest rock one of the recruits had brought back. "I take it you're going to make some of the training weapons with your Dust Construction? Do you have the precision to do that?"

I shrugged. "If I don't I'll get it. I have the Skill now, so it'll be way easier. I just need to practice." I walked over, picked up the rock, and used my Dust Construction Mastery. It dissolved into grains of sand, then reconstituted as I shoved at it with my soul. I pushed as hard as I could, trying my hardest to impose the image of the spear onto the dust.

There was a bang as the air cracked from a rapid change in the volume of the dust, and a small dark item dropped into my hand.

I squinted down as I picked the object up between two fingers. It looked like a toothpick at first glance, but on closer examination… I groaned, and Callie burst out laughing at the sight of what I was holding. "Oh, you've got this down." She cackled. "Tooth decay doesn't stand a chance against you. None of our soldiers will ever get corn stuck in their teeth again."

"You're not funny." I glowered. "It doesn't look BAD." I held up the tiny sharpened dark object. It was a spear. Well, more of a javelin really. Or it would have been, if it hadn't been about the length of my fucking pinky.

She chuckled, taking it from me. "Guessing you can't exactly take shortcuts here. Using your soul to impose the image of the weapon?" When I nodded, she smiled softly, handing it back. "Your soul was way too strong for random rock dust. It crushed it down into that shape, but condensed the dust into something much stronger."

I pinched the tiny tooth spear, and it took me a slight bit of effort to break it. Not MUCH, it was F-rank, but more effort than it would have taken to crush a normal F-ranked rock. If I'd had to guess, this was metal levels of effort.

My next attempt I tried to go lighter, pressing infinitesimally with my Sapphire soul, trying to avoid crushing the rock down too small. Callie snorted in amusement at the result. "Well." She said with a smirk. "At least it's pointy…kind of." The misshapen and only vaguely sticklike object was pretty much the opposite of what I wanted, so I decided to try something new.

"Alright." I said pensively, ignoring the potential embarrassment in favor of excitement at learning to use my new skill better. "Here, pile a bunch of them up in this circle." I told my recruits as I traced out a ten foot shape on the ground. My people were just coming back, so they carried the rocks over and stacked them up.

A huge pile of stone quickly filled the circle, and I had everyone stand back. I triggered Pit of Despair to turn them all to a fine dust, then using my Dust Construction, I grabbed hold of it, and CRUSHED it into shape. I triggered Piece of Mind as I did it, allowing my second parallel of thought to address the fine details.

The compression blew a wave of air that kicked uip a ton of dust, but when I finished, I was holding an intricate dark stone javelin. I spun it effortlessly between my fingers, then tossed it to Callie, who curled it a few times. She gave me a flat look. "You realize no one here is going to be able to lift this except us right?"

She tossed it back and I gave it a few swings. It was hard to gauge the weight given my current strength. I could easily lift tons, but considering the relative weight of the normal stuff I could carry around…shit. "I mean, I'm sure SOMEONE can? It's a few tons, and at F-rank any given Might specialist should have enough strength to lift that, albeit barely."

"Lift, yes." She agreed. "Wield, no. These are training weapons, we need people to be able to use them all day."

I nodded, grimacing. I'd taken a shortcut so I didn't have to learn to moderate the pressure from my soul and it hadn't worked out. I needed something lighter, which meant less material, which meant I'd have to do this slow and steady."
Still, I took a second to flex the spear with both hands until it broke, noting that it had required a bit more effort. This spear was definitely as difficult to break as a piece of F-ranked steel. Because of how much dust there was, I'd created a super dense stone that could stand up to most F-rank damage if I didn't miss my guess.

It was a fascinating bit of information, and one I would definitely put to use later if I had a chance. Sighing, I tossed aside the broken spear ends, walking over to where my century had continued stacking rocks. A hundred F-rankers carting stones from the nearby forest meant basically a revolving door of stones. I picked up a few decently weighty ones. I actually spotted a few E-rank rocks in the pile, but even if I made something of them no one here could use it. I shot Callie a message to put them aside.

Placing the stones in the circle, I checked to made sure I had enough. Rather than the massive pile I'd had my recruits set up before, this was a few hundred pounds of rock tops.

Triggering Pit of Despair and Piece of Mind, I began. The description Sonia had made was a sketch with a lot of detail, but it was all external stuff. I had to make the shape, but internal construction was just regular materials, no fancy smithing tricks or whatever. Since this was just a training weapon, it had to be quick to make.

Piece of Mind allowed me to carefully work on the task at hand, with one parallel handling the task of creating a mold, and one handling the task of filling it with dust.

Unlike the last time, I had to pay way more attention. Because I didn't want it to small or heavy, I couldn't fully condense the dust into its densest state, but I needed it to be denser than the normal rock at least, so it would hold up in combat.
After I shaped it, I triggered Eye of Revelation, scanning the spear to make sure I'd properly configured the material and hadn't left any weak spots in the construction before I allowed it to resume its stone composition, using Dust Construction to return it to solid form.

It took longer than expected, but I had my second parallel recording every instant, engraving it into my memory so I'd have a perfect recollection of how to repeat this trick.

Letting the spear drop out of the air, I snatched it up, spinning it at high speed in a whirling staff form Willow had taught me back in the Glade. Grinning, I whipped the spear around at top speed and hurled it behind me, right at the space next to Gabe's head.

I didn't aim AT his head, obviously, and I whistled as I did it, so my second in command had no problem snatching it from the air as it went by. As a lance used, the big guy also had no problem putting it through a quick spear form of his own, then tossing it up in a whirling display and catching it seamlessly on its way down.

"So?" I called over. "How does it handle? I need to know if it's too heavy to use for long term training."

He frowned, spinning it a few more times, passing it hand over hand and snapping it out in a fest test jabs. "It's…not light." He admitted. "Short term it's simple to use long term…possible. Difficult but possible. I'd say it's an excellent training weapon. The balance is superb."

I nodded. I could feel the density of the weapon, and see the composition with my Eye of Revelation, it made balancing child's play, especially with such a detailed design to work from.

Eyeballing how much rock had been in it, I walked over and picked up another four hundred pounds or so of stone. It was nearly weightless with my E-ranked Might. It occurred to me that having slightly higher Impact might make my effective Might slightly higher point for point, given the suppression.

That was a big advantage if it was true, and definitely something to leverage when I could. Setting the stones down, I cracked my neck and triggered my Skills again. The next spear was too light. The one after was top heavy. The one after THAT was brittle because I'd solidified the stone unevenly.

It took another ten of them before I managed a second perfect spear. Once I ironed out the difficulty though, the process became smoother and smoother. Not just faster and easier, but I was able to focus less per spear, which mean my second parallel could be set to the task of creating a second spear.

Two at a time, it only took me a few hours to finish, Callie lending a hand so I didn't overload my soul with all the work. By the time I finished, a field of dark stone spears were planted point first into the dirt of the training ring.

Callie stepped up next to me, beaming at the massive pile of weapons. "This…" She said with a grin. "This is amazing. I can't wait to get started on training. Demia said she had something that would work for tomorrow? She sounded almost as excited as I did, which I knew was probably because her own mentor and Demia were friends and she'd be learning the same thing. With a tired smile, I put an arm around her shoulder, answering in her head. Maybe getting ready for this war wasn't impossible after all.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once we finished up the last of the spears Callie took her half back to her own barracks. I passed mine to Gabe, but before I could meet up with Demia for instruction I got a message from Camden. Alister showed up in person to let me know that I was requested in the basement of the manor to begin work on my new armor.

The seneschal escorted me to the door down to the lower floor, opened it, and then stepped back. I raised a brow at him.
"You're not coming?"

He snorted. "Sonia and I don't get along. I don't enter her presence without the Baron present. It usually starts a fight. Just follow the stairs, she's waiting for you."

Shrugging I set off into the basement, my stomach fluttering slightly in nervousness. This felt…consequential. Important in a way I couldn't comment on. My first set of real custom gear. Important and unique to just me. As long as I'd been doing this, all my gear had been generic. Even the suits that Abel's brother Cicero commissioned for us weren't specifically tailored to our abilities. Though Callie's had been close.

When I arrived in the room, it was empty except for Sonia. The tall redheaded smith was standing beside the black cube she'd been smithing on. "Sit." She said bluntly when she saw me, pointing to the top of the cube. I walked over and climbed up onto it, taking a cross legged position and looking down at her in cautious curiosity.

"You're not going to like…turn me into a hat or something?" I asked in a faux casual tone.

She smirked at me. "Too tall. Stovepipes are so out of fashion." At my lack of response she snorted. "No, I'm no haberdasher. I told you these items would need to be exposed to your Skills to imprint the signature of your power onto them, and so I can analyze how they resonate. I take it you have a decent idea of exactly which Skills will work for which material?"

I nodded. "I think I have some idea. What material do you want to start with?" I was excited to see how this worked. I'd channeled Skills through gear before, but the way she described this made it seem different. This gear would allow me to tap into my forms and Skills without almost any strain. That might not sound amazing, but considering that my Piece of Mind skill let me do two things at once…I had ideas.

Turning around, she walked over to a table covered with a variety of materials, grumbling about overwork as she dug out a small pile of bones that I recognized from my last visit. "Bones from a Stareater thrall." She said with a grin. "One of the most effective materials I have on hand. Only barely E-rank because of all the damage."

I nodded, already sure what I needed to channel into the bones. She stepped up, laying them down in my lap with my hands wrapped around them like I was holding a bowl in my arms. "You sure this will be enough?" I asked. "I'm only barely touching some of them."

"It'll be fine." She said with a lazy wave. "Just do it. I'm excited to see exactly what makes you compatible with such a rare and difficult to work material. Not many have Skills that allow them to harmonize with such a destructive element."
Without responding, I closed my eyes and triggered Mephistopheles. The black flame washed through me, pouring into the bones. I expected them to burn, but whatever fire the Stareater Thrall had been consumed in was much more destructive than even my black flames.

Rather than burn, the bones began to glow. Well, that was the wrong word. Glowing things gave off light. This was the opposite of that. They started drinking in light, to the extent that the dark was radiating off them in a similar fashion to a glow. Sonia told me to sit still and hold it, so I did, not using too much effort since I wasn't attacking.

Mephistopheles wasn't easy, even with a Sapphire soul. I could hold it for a decent chunk of time I was pretty sure, but I wouldn't be able to do much else. That was what had me so excited about this set of armor. If it offset the difficulty of my forms, I could use other abilities in combination with them more easily, or even use more than one of them TOGETHER.
Runes lit up along the surface of the cube, visible in the variety of reflective metallic surfaces as Sonia circled me, muttering to herself and occasionally smacking me in the head and telling me to sit still when I hadn't moved a micron.

"Alright." She finally said. "You can move. That's…a complex working. Messy and oddly lacking in cohesion for all that it functions properly."

I raised an eyebrow. "You mentioned something like that before, studying the patterns. You're not using enchanting? Runes can be made to do almost anything with the right modifiers, why bother studying anything."

"I am using runes, they're just more…natural." She explained. "I'm sure you've seen items before with naturally occurring form runes. Gems or metals or wood where exposure to a certain type of energy or a reputation for a certain type of renown causes them to form specific energy patterns?"

That did sound familiar. I remembered a year or so ago, back on Callus, Callie had been talking to a fae who had offered her a sapphire with a naturally occurring water form rune. "I have. It's kind of like formations right?"

She waggled a hand as she took the bones one by one with the other, carrying them gingerly to the table. I noticed her glove lightly smoking and worried a bit, but she just ignored it. "Sort of. Higher level enchanters certainly prefer to use more efficient runes, and the naturally occurring ones are the most naturally suited to the environment and materials."

"So by studying them you can learn what kinds of runes and patterns are most effective for certain tasks rather than trying to brute force it?" I asked, catching on.

Grinning, she snapped her finger and tapped her nose. "Got it in one. Micromanaging your runes manually and forcing the energy is the hallmark of an enchanter with either no Skill or FAR too much. Experienced crafters can make things manually that can equal a naturally formed item and with far more flexibility. For people like me though, this little trick is far more reasonable."

"What about my Skill?" I asked curiously. "What did you mean about it lacking cohesion? I made it myself and it works fine."

That got a laugh. "No it WORKS. It doesn't work fine. You're holding it together during use with your unnaturally powerful soul. It's functional, but it's not well crafted. Skills aren't just random imagination smashed together into a ball. The warp and weft of stats and energy has patterns, and the more you understand them and apply them to your Skills the less your soul needs to be leveraged to effect them."

I hadn't even considered there might be better ways to construct stats, but thinking about it I'd already seen an example. My wish ability. Something about its construction was so absolutely flawless it tripled the efficiency of stats used. If I applied any changes or synergies too it, that modifier dissolved.

Not once in all my time with the power had I followed that bit of information to its logical conclusion. Skills could be badly or expertly made. Mine were apparently mishmashes of total nonsense held together with twine and packing tape.
"Does that mean that you're going to make a better version for my armor?" I asked slowly. "So that I can not only use them easier, but slowly refine them into better Skills?"

She shook her head. "I'm not a Skill specialist. I'm an Arcane Armorer. I can't teach you how to fix Skills. I can make armor that help you utilize yours to their fullest, and in that vein, take this." She passed me the Phantasmal Platinum.
I held it up, looking at it cautiously. This one I was less sure about. I had the sneaking suspicion it might resonate with my wish power at first but…how would that work? If this stuff boosted wishes everyone in the family would use it. No, it did something else.

Dreams weren't just wishes though, they were also visions of possibilities. I squinted at the thing for a second and then triggered Eye of Revelation. It began to shine, swirls of energy rising off it in strange patterns. Through the haze I could see faint visions, shadows and hazy figures projected across the walls.

She took it from me. "Sensory Skill? How fascinating. Something for the head. Maybe a crown?" I opened my mouth to respond and she waved me off. "Not your concern, silence."

Next she handed me the Amethyst. This one was simple, I channeled Belial through it, and the stone began to blaze and flicker with green lights among the facets of purple. Next she passed me the roll of hide, the Abyssal Wraithskin.
Holding it, I was able to identify that the material was much thinner and more tightly wrapped than expected. I was holding a much larger spool of it than I'd thought, and I was sure she'd have enough for my gear.

This one had been a hard pick. I could go defensive, or offensive, or any number of other potential utility options…but I was sure I knew what this stuff was resonating with. I channeled State of Grace. The skin of a wraith, Abyssal or not, was meant for freedom of movement. Combined with my danger sense that would be my best possible outcome.

As I watched, the material shimmered, becoming sort of semi invisible before returning to normal. I passed it to her and she snatched it up. "Perfect!" She cheered. "Now MOVE!"

I did, hopping clear as she dumped all the materials there. After a brief pause, she strode over and snatched up another bolt of cloth, a purple silk I hadn't interacted with before. Stalking back to the cube she slapped it, and then reached into her apron for a series of tools she laid out as it started to hum, the same energy and projection coalescing above her.

And then, she started to craft. Her hands moved in fits and starts, sometimes flowing, sometimes jerking frenetically scissors split the fabrics, a small handheld blowtorch blazed up, rendering the platinum molten, and she handled it with just one hand as the other worked the leather and then the silk.

As I stared, openmouthed, my armor began to take shape. The bones were ground up into a paste, mixed with some of the molten platinum to form a dark metal, the leather was stacked, reinforced, and then stitched with platinum threads drawn from the seemingly ever expanding molten ingot.

The armor was huge and imposing, covered with intricate spiderwebs of silvery scrollworn. The joints and vulnerabilities were lined with the dark metal made from the bones, and as she poured the last of the bone dust into half of the remaining platinum she started to twist them together.

Metals mixed with each other, forming a black and white damascus, which she shaped into a wide crown with jagged spiked sticking up intermittently around its circumference. Into the front of it she set the Venomblood Amethyst, and as soon as she did, I felt the whole thing sort of…shift. There was an inaudible click as the power in the set merged into one glorious whole.

As she finished the armor, the purple silk was sewn into the leather with the platinum wire, tying the whole thing together. It even went with my mask, the damascus of the crown and the winding patterns of the scrollwork somehow creating a harmonious image with the grain of the wood. Stepping back, the Arcane Armorer grinned over at me. "Well, here you go, Solomon. A raiment fit for a king." And damned if it wasn't. I'd expected the crown to be too much, but it called to me. I couldn't wait to try it on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Monday morning came just as fast as expected. Demia had gone over a rough outline of the formation we'd be learning, just to be sure I understood it enough to direct my recruits, and once we'd passed out all the spears, we were all ready to get started training. After a quick stop at Camdens for wish allocation (I granted an extra brining my stockpile to eleven) we all met the training field to get started.

I marveled at my new armor as I walked, how light and responsive it was, how secure I felt. Even the crown just felt RIGHT on me, in a way I definitely hadn't expected. The cape swished behind me gloriously as I walked, and I had to admit I felt pretty fucking awesome. The impression I was making was clearly the one I'd been aiming for because all of my recruits were staring in awe at my magnificence.

More than that, the ten lines of ten in front of me seemed much straighter and more orderly than before, and I smiled with pride at how well things had been going. We'd done a few more point exercises, and our next monthly tournament was coming up soon. The carrot and stick approach had really worked out.

"Alright." Said Demia "Anyone with a defensive Job up front. We're doing three rows of thirty with ten alternates standing by in case of injury. First thirty will be defenders. Crouch down in the front. Shields up if you have them, which you'd better if you're a defensive Job. Behind them I want Attackers. Have your spears pointed forward and be ready to thrust between the defenders. Underhand grip and coiled to strike. Last row is overhand strikers. Any ranged attackers will be there channeling their Skills through their spears."

Everyone nodded, taking up their positions. The first thirty recruits knelt down, though Demia adjusted their stance a few times. They needed to be able to stand and move if needed, but also be solid enough in stance to tank a hard push. Shields from the first row were interlocked slightly to share force among the others, with their spears ready to stab out between the gaps after an assault where they pulled back their shields.

The second rank was just regular standing spearman, using underhand grips to stab over the shoulders of their kneeling defenders. Last row was overhand spears, and anyone who could channel ranged attacks through a weapon was stationed there, both because they were the least defensible and to put them to best use.

"Now, to test out your defenses, we decided that we needed something a bit more…lifelike." I said with a devilish grin. "A good friend of mine let me borrow the services of her animal companion to serve as a sparring partner."
As if on cue, from behind the nearest building came a colossal earth shaking roar. A form stalked out, sized specifically to match the F-ranked stone lions we'd seen, but infinitely more terrifying.

Though also F-rank (albeit very close to E at this point) Randall was nothing if not intimidating. The huge bear was rippling with muscle courtesy of his heavy Might leaning, and the new outfit that Sonia had finished for him yesterday certainly didn't help.

Dark green plate armor ran the length of the massive animal, shoulders stacked with defensive pauldrons, midsection plated with flexible overlapping pieces of green metal, and arms covered with sturdy greaves that linked up to a set of flexible foot coverings with frankly unnecessarily long claw augments. His head was covered in a blank but bear shaped mask of green metal with lenses over the eyes that gleamed in the daylight like some kind of weakness sensor.

The material, according to Jessie, was something called 'Vital Vanadium' and was an allot of Might and VItality leaning metals that maximized both durability and forward momentum. Every plate was carefully and delicately carved with beautiful forest and plant scrollwork that worked to camouflage the enchantments imprinted into the metal.

I had no fucking clue what it DID since Jessie didn't want to share, but it did something. Who knew how animal Skills worked, but Randall just seemed so much stronger in the gear, though it being E-rank probably helped.

"You want us to fight THAT?" Squeaked Alanna. "He's a MONSTER. We'll all die if that thing hits us."

Shaking my head, I waved her off. "Nah, I told him to hold back. Plus it's safer. Nightstrike's century is training with a Hellhound. Trust me, this is way better. You can't hurt Randall in his armor, especially not with those spears, so he has no reason to try to hurt any of you. You're just going to practice holding charges. We'll start slow and then work up to his best. Once you can stop him you'll be well and truly ready for anything."

I didn't mention the stone lions directly, I wasn't sure what Camden was telling people, but this was his show.
Looking at he big metal clad bear I raised an eyebrow. "You ready Randall?" He chuffed, nodding in my direction, I swept an arm at the formation. "Then let em' have it!" With a savage roar, Randall bolted forward, his body blurring as the full weight of his massive form strwaked toward the defenders.

The front row panicked, standing up and trying to adjust to…something. Randall hit them head on and they went flying in every direction like bowling pins. Some of them went into the dirt, some into the air, and I saw one of the middle ranks get flung into the side of a building hard enough that the top half of him punched through it and only his legs were sticking out.

I waited until they got back up and resumed their formation stances. "Ok." I clapped my hands together to get everyone's attention. "I have some notes. All the stuff you just did? Do other stuff. Like almost anything else. You're in the stances you're in for a reason. Don't move before impact, that defeats the purpose." I glared at one of them. "Ichabod, if I see you trip Betty again you're going in the front row WITHOUT a shield. Or armor. Don't fuck up my day Ichabod, or I'll fuck yours up way worse."

The muscular dark skinned man averted his eyes, and I turned my attention back to the group as Alanna raised snapped.
"That's easy for you to say at E-rank. That thing is terrifying. He's fully armored in E-rank metal. Might as well be a giant wrecking ball."

I shrugged. "Impact affects durability and conceptual weight, that's true. But there's a HUNDRED of you. If you're in the right formation the armor vs. all of you. You should come out on top. Might is a factor too, but you're all mid to high F-rankers. Formations are made specifically for situations like this. It's a relatively small gap."

Part of my reason for this was to show them that the gap between F and E-rank was surmountable. On the off chance one of the E-rank lions took a shot my people should be able to stay calm. Low E-rank anyway. We'd take care of anything else. That's what the elite units and the commanders were for after all.

Eventually, I decided that their problem was less about power and more about appearances. I spun up my staff. "Alright then. How about this. I'll try to break your formation personally. I'll hold back enough not to punch through anyone's shield or armor. All you have to do is block my charge. That work for you?"

Despite making a complete lack of sense, they seemed to calm down a bit at that. I supposed it made some sense. I wasn't a bear the size of a bus (or more realistically a large car right now) and I was human and more capable of holding back in their eyes. Everyone shuffled, assuming their positions.

I set myself, getting ready to attack. I considered several strategies, several dangerous moves, and I almost wanted to battle test my armor, but any actual effort would tear them apart like wet tissue paper. In terms of raw Might I was probably lower than quite a few of them, but the pure multiplier of my Impact would mean anything I did would be exponentially more effective.

No poison, no black flame, and Pit of Despair would be a hard counter to a formation so it was useless for this. That left me with good old fashioned brute force. When I was sure they were ready for me, I set my staff across myself, holding it in both hands parallel to the ground so it would hit the largest surface area.

Then I charged. My body, under a consistent effect of State of Grace because of my armor, blurred forward, barely touching the ground with each bounding step.

With a primal shout, rather than retreating, the first row roared, shoving their shields forward to close any gaps and form the strongest defensive barrier. My staff hit length wise, the force spreading through all the shields more evenly because of the wide dispersal, and the phalanx grunted as they were forced back but not knocked over.

Hopping back lightly, I held up my hands. "See? You stopped me. I wasn't going all out or anything, but I'm an E-ranker, and quite honestly a tougher one than most in terms of pure Impact. Randall isn't E-ranked. He's just wearing some bulky armor. If you can stop me you can stop him."

That almost definitely wasn't true. Randall was Might specced, and with that armor in a head on contest of raw strength I wasn't sure I could even come close to beating him, but he was holding back quite a bit here, so it would be fine for them to think so.

I saw multiple faces firm with determination, and was glad I'd decided to show them that. Of course, I also made a note to show off my new functionality with Mephistopheles at some point. Wouldn't do to have them lose respect for my raw power. I had them reset again, and gestured to Randall.

He took up position as I walked over to Demia. "So, what do you think?" I asked my blue haired teacher.

"That was well done." She said with a nod. "It was clear you held back as well, but it built their confidence. At this rate, they'll be more than ready to grasp the proper formation when the real spears are finished."

I nodded. "Sonia worked up a design, but she has another specialist who works with weapons, so aside from the basic construction she won't be doing most of the work. She IS an Arcane Armorer. That means we'll be making good time with two crafters on the project. They should all be done in time."

Of course, there were the E-rank spears that would need to be made for the commanders and elites, but there were far fewer of us than the rank and file, so those would take a fraction of the time. We should be well and truly ready when those four months elapsed. Or as ready as we could be.

We watched as Randall hit the ranks of the defenders again, and they actually held this time…until he backhanded one of the weak links and smashed through the formation. I winced at that, but seeing their crumbling defense reminded me that I still had to upgrade my own. I smirked to myself as I realized this would be the perfect time to perfect my new stance.

Once training was over, I sent everyone away except Randall. The bear would be perfect for helping me perfect my new defensive form. I needed something that would soak damage. Something less dependent on stored attacks or stability. I had a hell of a lot of great defense skills to work into it, and some perfect ideas on how to make it work.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Defense. One of the biggest Issues I had facing me. My Impact was a little higher than most, but I was still substantially weaker than the majority without some kind of buff because my stats were so evenly distributed. I had quite a few defensive skills like Mountain Stance that would do the job, but I always ended up stacking a bunch of them together to stick out attacks.

As I'd seen with Belial and Mephistopheles, my forms presented an amazing chance to combine and refine my abilities. They created a method to tap into multiple powerful abilities without having to trigger them one at a time.

More than that, though, this particular session presented a method for me learn more about the concept of Skill creation, and to refine my own slightly. The better the job I did the less strain the Skill would place on me, and it might give me the insight to reconfigure some of my older ones to make them more efficient.

I doubted I'd ever reach the point my ancestor was at, where I created Skills so perfect they became more than the sum of their parts, but I was sure that refining the ones I had would make everything easier for me in the long run, and even in the short term it couldn't hurt.

The question then became, how was I supposed to see a Skill? The first step to making them more functional would be learning to observe the functions to begin with.

Before doing anything else, I sat down and crossed my legs, trying to think over all my experience with Skills. Randall grumbled, but I just waved him off. "Go nap or something, this is going to take a while." He snorted, but turned and laid down in a big pile of bear and metal, beginning to snore almost immediately.

Once the big baby was distracted, I closed my eyes to review all my Skill experiences. I'd altered Skills before many times, I'd now created a new Skill from repetition with my Dust Construction Mastery, I'd used other people's Skills, and I could store them. I'd probably had more experience with Skills than anyone I could name, but I'd never SEEN a Skill. Not in the way I needed to.

Frowning, I reached up and took my crown off my head. The metal and gem were both heavily enchanted with my own Skills, so if I could identify the enchantments, then use the Skills and compare the two, it would give me a much better idea of what I was looking for.

I started with the gem. I knew my forms better than anything. Comparing the naturally occurring rune Sonia used to my own experience with creating Belial should at least give me a place to start. Staring at the Venomblood Amethyst, I triggered Eye of Revelation, staring deep into the crystalline structure.

It took me a minute of scanning. I could see the runes here or there that had been added during creation, but I knew without even checking they weren't what I was looking for. It took me a minute to realize that I was looking too close, when I unfocused I could see the delicate construct made up of all the runes, a naturally occurring (seemingly) shape that was hard to track and even harder to puzzle out. As I stared, I triggered Belial, and used Piece of Mind so I could have one of my parallels study the rune while the other studied the Skill itself.

The gem began to glow in my hands, and I felt a harmonizing effect between the Skill and the crown. The runes all lit with an unnatural green glow, the shimmer making it easier to see the master rune from the Skill.

Staring into the blaze, I could see the curls and jagged cuts of the rune, and in spotting it, I was able to slowly identify each portion. Sharp teeth from Touch of Tears, solid lines from Stone Limb, and complex swirls from Consecration of Flames. Despite fitting together, it all looked kind of…unfinished. The flow of the rune was functional, but inefficient. These three skill just barely fit together, and I could see warping between the sections where the rune was bunched up like there were bad welding spots.

Putting the crown back on, I meditated on the runes I'd seen, on the subsections and how they fit together. As I sat, I started searching within myself, trying to find a way to see the rune fragments inside my head without having any external help.

It took me about an hour, but I finally figured out that if I tried to trigger a Skill, then caught it with my soul and wrapped it up to stop it from activating, I could preserve it in a way that let me observe. It took me a few tries before I perfected the process, and I needed Piece of Mind to do it, because it took all my concentration to hold the skill immobilized and I needed a second parallel to study it.

Once that was done, I went through all my skills one by one, draining myself with the consistent use of both Piece of Mind and extremely precise soul manipulation (that same cramp from using my soul delicately came back) after studying the runes and referencing the way they fit together as fragments in the combination skills I had I came to a few conclusions.

Conclusion one: most skills could fit together, but the more skills you combined the more difficult it was. Conclusion two: even if the skills DID work, the order in which you arranged them was still important. Conclusion three: my plan to use F-ranked stored attacks in my construction WAS possible, but it would require some serious delicacy.

Even my Sapphire soul was going to be hard pressed to complete the form I was thinking of doing, and I'd need at least two parallels of Piece of Mind on top of my normal brain to pull it off. Luckily, I hadn't pushed TOO hard with all my scrutinizing, the ache was more from fine manipulation than overwork.

I realized looking at it that I'd been using my soul in the least efficient way possible when I made Dust Construction. The Skill wasn't bad, but it was dinged up hard. Lots of welded points. I'd made the fragments from captured pieces of Pit of Despair without meaning to and smashed them together with my soul until they started working. It was disturbing to look at, but since it was so low level on construction I was able to smooth it out.

That was another thing I hadn't known. As Skills rank up, they change, much like the soul, they became firmer and more difficult to alter. Combination was still possible, but harder. The soul improved too, so it almost evened out, but there was a serious benefit to making your Skills at low levels and ranking them up, as the process smoothed out some of the rough edges.

Inhaling slowly, I focused on myself, on my soul, and began the complex process of attempting my first TRUE Skill construction. I started with Stone Limb. As I'd seen before, it had thick sturdy lines, and I was under the impression it would be a good base.

The central shape without any additions was basically a triangle, which seemed like a good start. Pulling off that, I expanded the rune, stone limb altering to cover more of my body, thick lines branching off each fact of the triangle. On each of those, I put one of the stored density shift attacks I had, stringing them together to create a shell of fractal patterns around the stable center, each instance reinforcing the rest of them to creat the solid enhancement I wanted.

Finally, I came to the last part. Where the first two Skills intertwined, the last one was its own separate segment onto which they had to be placed. A five sided rhombus burned itself into my sight from Mountain Stance, and with extreme delicacy, I set the fractal triangle inside it, shifting until it clicked into place in a way I couldn't explain.

The lines began to shift and move, thinning in some places and thickening in others as my extreme familiarity with the Skills in question allowed me to push form up to my current level of understanding. Intermediate, basically. Unlike my other forms, which were kind of just macros for using a bunch of skills at once, this one became a singular cohesive whole.
What that meant I had no idea aside from that looking at it I could tell it was demonstrably higher quality than the others. I'd have to rework them later to get them up to the same level.

I stood, stretching slowly as I worked out the kinks in my muscles. That had been rough. Three separate parallels working at once, juggling so many different concepts. It was absurd, and looking at my new Skill, I could see I had barely scratched the surface. My efficiency would have been improved quite a bit over other forms, but it wasn't perfect.

Confirming that was simple, all I had to do was isolate my wish ability and look on the masterpiece my ancestor had wrought. It was…beautiful. There were so many different elements, all woven together into a sprawling tapestry of complexity and perfection.

While ranking up would smooth out the edges of a Skill, they didn't automatically work. You needed to make something stable enough to actually create a Skill to begin with. I was still shocked I'd managed with my Dust Construction. I'd gotten absurdly lucky and only my freakishly strong soul had allowed it to work.

The wish power though…it contained dozens of skills. Maybe hundreds. I could see tiny fragments of so many types it made me dizzy. Imagining constructing a Skill like that made me want to vomit. Holding that many fragments together with my soul while slotting them in exactly the right places. It would require a mental fortitude I couldn't imagine to do it without Piece of Mind, and even with it that was far beyond me.

Strolling over, I took my place across from Randall, not wanting to think about it anymore. "Wake up you big lazy ox!" I called over to the bear. He opened an eye, grumbled a bit, then rose to his feet, shaking himself off to prepare. After we set ourselves, he charged.

Planting my staff for stability, I bent my knees, and then I activated my new form. "Goetia staff art third form." I intoned. "Mornax." The legend of the minotaur demon known for his invincibility had spoken to me for the defensive form, and as I felt myself shift, I knew it had been a perfect fit.

My body became stone, not just any stone, the densest stone possible. Mountain Stance multiplied my defense by three, and the triple stacked density shift combined with Stone Limb set the starting bar pretty high. I was probably ten times more durable than normal E-ranked stone with my Impact.

The charging bear, armor glowing green as he channeled his power into it to increase his momentum and strength, smashed head first into me as I stood, waiting to take the attack….and bounced right the fuck off. I didn't even feel it, though the stone cracked a bit from the armor.

Of course, Mountain Stance being part of Mornax meant I couldn't really move in this form. I could bully it into staying together for a slow step or two, but the soul weight multiplied dramatically. Either way, if I didn't move my feet, I barely felt any drain from this form. I'd accomplished my goal.

My soul was exhausted, but tomorrow I could start work on reforming my other stances, figuring out what to add or tweak to make them more stable and easier to use. By this time four months from now, I'd be going into battle a completely different person. Those stone lions better watch out.

 

[MichaelSuave]

So. Just because they found the stone lions, doesn't mean that was the only surprise waiting for them... or does it?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

So. Just because they found the stone lions, doesn't mean that was the only surprise waiting for them... or does it?

Click to shrink...

That'll be addressed actually, but

Spoiler

it's the only surprise from the undertrek at least