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

[Vongrak]

This was so much fun to come back to. I was mostly coming because I happened to find out about the amazon books and that I was nearly going to miss out... but it's been so much fun and better then I remember (I mean I only read new content but you get what I mean). I am now definately going to purchase the first few books... but...

@Malcolm Tent I was wondering if you get a good cut of the money from the paperback copies of Wish? I do sort of want physical copies but I'm mostly doing this to support you. I don't need specifics, but I don't want to pay the extra ten-ish dollars if that's all going to amazon.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

This was so much fun to come back to. I was mostly coming because I happened to find out about the amazon books and that I was nearly going to miss out... but it's been so much fun and better then I remember (I mean I only read new content but you get what I mean). I am now definately going to purchase the first few books... but...

@Malcolm Tent I was wondering if you get a good cut of the money from the paperback copies of Wish? I do sort of want physical copies but I'm mostly doing this to support you. I don't need specifics, but I don't want to pay the extra ten-ish dollars if that's all going to amazon.

Click to shrink...

Honestly I'm not sure. I know I get a chunk of the proceeds, but my publisher handles the specifics. Whatever form you buy the books in I definitely appreciate the support.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The inside of the lodge was surprisingly homey. I'd been expecting it to be some big towering hall, but the first room wasn't a colossal chamber. It was just a lobby. The wooden ceiling was only about a hundred feet up, and the walls were decorated with pictures and memorabilia. There was a marble fireplace set near two of the walls, with a little nook area surrounded by couches.

At the front desk, a clean cut, lanky man with grey hair and a red bellhop jacket greeted us warmly, and after checking us in, showed us to our rooms.

"So." Said my best friend as we walked. "I've got a big night planned in a day or two. We're going to see an E-rank grudge match between a hero and a villain that have been feuding for years, then we're heading up into the aurora to catch light sprites, which are supposed to be good luck, and to finish it off, all of us are going to share a dragon steak, from an actual draconic bloodline monster, that weighs fifty pounds."

I blinked at him in shock. "Jessie is going to be putting together something for Callie and the girls on the same night. But as your best man I naturally needed to give you a good sending off, while acknowledging that your fiancee can read your mind."

"She can't read my mind." I said with a laugh. "But that does sound like a lot of fun. How the hell did you track down a fifty pound dragon steak?"

He snorted derisively. "Out in the universe you may be a super bigshot, but don't forget this is my home turf. My dad owns the biggest mining interest on Callus, and he's still got fingers in pies. Combined with my own strength I can get anything I need to here."

"Yeah, yeah." I said with an eye roll. "You're Mr. Connections. I bow before your superior procuring talents."

"Damn right." He said proudly. Then his teasing tone softened. "Shane…this is a big fucking deal, man. I'm kind of blown away. I mean I knew it was coming, you proposed like ten months ago, but being here, back home. It really drives it home. I'm happy for you. And I'm proud you picked me to be your best man."

I chuckled. "As if there was anyone else I'd pick. Does that mean you're willing to help with all the arrangements? I have to go help Callie pick out a cake tomorrow, double check the venue, get my tux fitted, and about a dozen other things. I could use some backup."

"Can't you split your brain into like…a hundred different parallels?" He asked suspiciously.

Snorting, I waved off his question. "If I want my soul to collapse maybe.I've been doing some research on that Skill for a new form, actually, but it's not ready. Regardless, don't be a dick. As the best man it's your job to help. You and Celine can go with Jessie to check on the flowers. Callie wants black calla lillies as the center of the arrangements. "
He groaned good naturedly, but relented, and we chatted about how nice it was to be home before we got to our rooms, which were pretty close to each other. Before we could go in though, a familiar face appeared. "Alden!' I said with a wide grin. "Good to see you, man, how have you been?"

I clasped the older man's wrist, patting him on the shoulder, but I realized quickly that he looked a bit out of sorts. "You as well, lad. Congratulations on the impending nuptials. Listen, have you seen Cicero? He came with me, but he hasn't checked into his room. I can't seem to find him anywhere."

"Is someone missing?" Callie asked as she and the others came up the hall behind us.

I turned and nodded, shooting a look at Abel, who was frowning. "Yeah Cicero isn't in his room and Alden hasn't seen him. I'm sure it's nothing, but we can help him look around."

Abel snorted. "Knowing my brother, I'm sure he snuck off into the city to try to find some E-ranker willing to invest in the circus. He's always been good at that kind of thing. He's probably fine." Despite his relaxed tone though, I could see some worry in his eyes.

"Well if he's not here we can just keep an eye out." I said firmly. "But there's no harm in getting the lay of the land, and we can look for him as we do."

Alden let out a relieved sigh. None of us really LIKED Abel's brother except Abel, but Alden had basically raised Abel, Mel, and Cicero. The red bearded man was the closest thing Abel and his brother had to a dad.

We got the room number from Alden. It wasn't far, so we all headed over to check it out. To my surprise, I noticed Bethy looking unsettled. I hung back to check in with her. "Hey, everything alright?"

She nodded absently. "It's nothing." She said faintly, clearly trying to reassure herself. "I'm sure it is. But I feel…I feel like we're being watched. I've been feeling it since we got here. Like there's a predator looking at me. I get twitchy sometimes, I'm sure there isn't anything wrong. But with someone missing…"

I straightened my back, coming alert for the first time since we'd arrived on the planet. Being home didn't mean no danger. Callie felt the shift and glanced at me worriedly. My mom and Zeke had gone off to help get Amelia settled, but I wouldn't have consulted them anyway.

This was Callus. Our home. We didn't need high rank protection here. Zeke couldn't interfere with anything given we were at the highest possible rank, and my mom getting involved could be dicey. My grandmother was apparently trying to mediate things with Black Sorrow, but until then, keeping her out of the limelight was for the best, especially when we were RIGHT on the edge of Black Sorrow Cult territory.
"Alden, when was the last time you saw Cicero?" I asked. If it was just an hour or two there was no reason to be worried. Even if I was getting a bad feeling.

He grunted. "Been about five hours. We separated when we showed up, I was taking in the sights and stopped for a meal. By the time I got finished I realized he wasn't around, so I went looking. His room doesn't look disturbed or anything. But him being missing is odd."

When we reached the right door, Abel slipped past us and knocked. "Cicero!" He called. No one answered. "Cy, open your damned door or I'll break it down. And neither of us wants you to have to pay for that." After another minute with no response he pulled back his fist, ready to make good on his threat.

I stepped up in front of him. "Woah there." I said with a laugh. "Why don't you let me take care of it." Focusing on the door, I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind it. I let the illusion of me fade as I opened the door from the inside. "Come on in."

After I let everyone inside, I turned to take in the room. It was nice. Like shockingly nice. Plush carpet, big central fireplace with a sort of stone bench surrounding it, a huge bed, a dresser, and a door leading out onto a full sized patio with a hot tub. I was beginning to regret getting sidetracked before entering my own room.

"I don't see him." Said Abel worriedly. "I thought he might be sleeping. He sleeps like the dead. Can you do your…" He made a bunch of weird random gestures near his face and the opened and closed his hands near his eyes like flashing lights.

We all stared at him. Finally I rolled my eyes. "Yes, fine. I can try Eye of Revelation." I triggered the Skill, scanning the room for anything that might be hidden, my crown activating as I did to improve the power of my eyes. I didn't pick up much. I wasn't sure what exactly I was looking for. My gaze was trailing the length of the room for the third time when I noticed something.

Walking over to the dresser, I knelt down, reaching underneath to fish out an item I'd overlooked the first few passes because it was so innocuous. When I pulled back my hand, I was holding a shiny brass button with a lion engraved on the front.

Abel walked over to take it from me. "That's one of his coat buttons." He said flatly. "He's obsessed with that damned coat. You'd have to pry a button out of his cold dead fingers if it came off. He'd have reattached it right away." his eyes flicked around. "Does anyone see any evidence of a struggle anywhere?"

We started searching the room again, this time looking for anything out of place. Before we got too far though, the door opened. We all spun, and I had my staff out and ready to attack before I even finished moving.

A familiar man in a top hat and a red coat froze as he entered. "Oh." He said slowly. "Hello? Is there a reason you're in my room?" He was standing extremely still, like he was worried we'd eat him if he made any sudden movements, and I felt kind of bad for randomly showing up in his space unannounced like this.

"Where the hell have you been?" Demanded Abel. "Alden says he hasn't seen you in hours." His voice was tense, but he was clearly relieved. I was kind of relieved too, honestly. I'd been winding myself up for some kind of disappearance mystery. It would be par for the course for my ridiculous life.

Cicero shrugged. "I was just out for a walk. I went out into town hoping to make a few friends. See if they might be interested in a circus coming through once in a while. These people are very influential, you know. I didn't even know Wintervale existed until I got this invitation." He tipped his hat to Callie and me. "Thank you again for inviting me, by the way. It's an honor."

I nodded but didn't say anything else. Cicero wasn't my favorite person. Aside from Abel, I'd mostly invited him because he partially owned the land our Pavilion was on, and Alden worked for him. The red bearded man had helped us out quite a bit when we first got to G-district, so inviting his skeevy manipulative ward was the least we could do.

Besides, Cicero couldn't do shit to us at our rank. I could literally go to sleep in front of him and not worry about what would happen. Inviting him posed no threat to anyone and it made Abel and Alden happy, so it wasn't a big deal.

Abel and Cicero bickered for a few minutes, and the man with the top hat apologized to our group for causing them worry. We all headed back to our rooms, and he headed to bed, tired from the day's activities, whatever those might have been.

As the door closed though, I caught his reflection in the knob across the hall. He was staring at me with a cold expression on his face, and despite my earlier thoughts about how he wasn't a threat, I got an unsettled feeling in my gut. Then it was shut, and I felt silly. I met Bethy's eyes, and she looked as embarrassed as I felt.

We'd both blown things way out of proportions. Clearly being out in the universe for so long had made us paranoid. Not everything was an insidious plot to kill us. I followed Callie back to our room, I played with the little metal object I was still holding. I pocketed the little brass lump, but as I did, I mentally recounted the meeting with Cicero. His coat hadn't been missing a button.

 

[Bezarius]

Well, that Cicero is definitely a shapeshifter.

 

[MichaelSuave]

No no, the universe is 100% trying to kill you, and the reference to a man in a top hat instead of ciscero clearly means it isn't Abel's brother.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Not forgetting to get my wishes in, I dropped seventy more points into Fantasy with the help of one of the wedding guests and then Callie and I went to sleep. I didn't mention my worries to her about Cicero right away. Something about that whole encounter bothered me, so I decided to check in with my uncle.

Given his Path, hiding a disguise from someone like him would be near impossible. So when I woke up the next morning I went to his room and pounded on the door. No one answered, so I just kept pounding, Zekie and I didn't have much in the way of boundaries when it came to things like this.

After a few minutes, the door flew open. "What?" Snapped an enraged Stella as she glared at me…until she realized who she was talking to and her eyes widened in horror. Looking down at herself in a misbuttoned collared shirt and no pants, with her hair mussed all over the place.

"Hey Stella." I said, trying to suppress a grin. "Nice outfit. Very avante garde."

Blushing furiously, she looked down the hall to either side of us. "Shane. How…unexpected. I didn't know you'd be visiting. I just…lost my pants. Ezekiel was helping me…oh hells. You're getting married, you know why I'm here. Just don't tell Ian please?"

"Not my business." I said, holding up my hands in surrender. "Though I don't think he'd begrudge you a chance at happiness."

She glared at me. " Zeke and I are just old friends who enjoy each other's company. Things are casual. It's not like we're seeing each other. I don't want Ian to get confused. There's definitely no happiness!"

"Ouch." I said with a laugh. "I'll be sure to mention that to Zeke. He in there? I was hoping to talk to him."

Her scowl deepened. "That's not what I…oh forget it. Yes." She looked over her shoulder. "Ezekial, your menace of a nephew is at the door." She stalked off, slamming the door, still muttering about nosy kids with big mouths.

A minute later, Zeke appeared. "What do you want, kid? It's six in the morning. I knew it was a bad idea to let you join the army."

"Oh wah." I mocked him mercilessly. "You're an A-ranker. You don't even need sleep. I, however, need your help with something. Last night, there was a weird incident with Abel's brother. Did you get a chance to get a look at him?"

"Cicero?" He asked lazily. "Yeah, I checked him out. Better safe than sorry."

I waved my hand impatiently. "And? Was there something wrong with him? That whole thing was really suspicious."

"I mean, he was wearing a bright red jacket with gold buttons and a top hat." He shrugged. "So probably a bunch of things. Nothing ability based though. First thing I thought of was that he might have been possessed or controlled."

Frowning, I went back over the events of the previous night. Had I been imagining things? If Zeke couldn't find anything wrong there wasn't anything to find. Maybe he'd just sewn on a new button. Still, between Bethy's weird feeling and mine, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on.

"Just…keep an eye out?" I asked slowly. "Something is off. I can feel it. Gotta trust my instincts, right?"

He nodded. "Sure…except when you don't, and you're just being paranoid. Being an Ascendant will do that. But it's your party. I'll keep my eyes peeled." If there was an incident, it was unlikely to be related to the candidacy. With the god war ongoing, factional disputes were on hold, and even interfaction issues were mostly being backburnered. There was even talk of the big succession battle being moved up to get it out of the way, though nothing was set in stone.

Thanking my uncle, I headed back to my room, to find Callie sitting up in bed, chin on her palm as she waited for me.

"Hey, you're up early." I said with a smile as I hung my mask, cape, and crown near the door.

She growled lightly, as happy to be up in the morning as ever. "Where'd you go?" She grumbled, trying to fix her messy hair.

"Zeke's room." I told her. Then I filled her in on my suspicions from the previous night. She'd been tired and frazzled the night before, so I avoided mentioning it, but only until I could talk to my uncle. Callie was going to be my wife, and I wasn't going to keep anything important from her if I had a choice.

By the time I finished she was frowning. "He said he didn't notice anything?" She asked suspiciously.

"Not a thing." I said with a shrug. "Probably just me being paranoid. We have a cake tasting today though, so I think you have bigger fish to fry. Speaking of which, I think one of the flavors they're pitching us might BE fried fish. That list was…extensive."

She scoffed. "Savory cakes are all the rage now. Obviously our wedding has to have the most cutting edge style. It's the social event of the century."

If I hadn't had the bond, I might not have known she was messing with me, but I could feel the mischief behind her words. "I'll be stylish as hell when I eat the strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting I'm going to request from the baker."

Climbing out of bed, she stretched and then strolled up, pecking me on the lips before heading to take a shower. "You're still not getting out of tasting. We'll pick together."

Laughing, I walked over to change. I switched into a nice pair of slacks, a button up, and a coat, slipping my mask back on, and when Callie came out she threw on a pair of leggings, a t-shirt, and a black denim half jacket along with her own mask.

Given our relative power (about three Impact points past every other E-ranker on this planet), walking around fully armed was likely overkill, and it would probably start unnecessary trouble. Since we were home, and pretty much at the peak of this planet, we'd decided to wear our civvies, with only the masks as a nod to our cape identities.

To my surprise, when we arrived in the lobby, my sister was waiting for us. "Hey!" She said excitedly when she saw us. "You guys look so cute in normal clothes."

"I feel so weird without my cape." I said, shifting my shoulders. "And these clothes are too light."

Callie grinned at me. "Big baby. You'll get used to it. And if not it'll be over soon." She winked at my sister. "You can see why I brought you along. He's such a whiner when it's just the two of us. Hopefully with you here he'll calm down."

"Not just her." Cut in another familiar voice. We turned to see Felicity, dressed in a hoodie and a summer dress, smiling dimly at us. "I heard there was free cake."

Callie beamed at her. "Of course. The more the merrier. How have you been feeling?"

Felicity gave a tired chuckle. "Better. Worse. I don't know. Less numb, but that's not exactly fun. Mostly I'm just…tired. There's so much bad that reliving it wears me out. I'm almost glad that my recovery is taking so long. I'd say I'm at…five percent. But five percent of an ocean of suck is plenty."

I grimaced. I'd been using my Genesis Burst on Felicity every day to undo the damage her dad had done. It was working very, very slowly, and I was pretty sure she was developing a resistance, but she'd made enough progress that she could slowly start coming to terms with her past, as much as anyone could come to terms with what she'd been through."

"Well today isn't about pain." Chelsea said, face full of forced cheer. "It's about family. And cake. So much cake."

I smirked at her. "You get one slice of each cake, so calm down. I'm not paying for a hundred wedding cakes if you decide to go on a binge." My sister, much like my fiancee, had a penchant for sweets. So did Benny, which was why my best friend had been relegated to flower duty.

Speaking of which. "You bastard." He groaned as Celine and Jessie dragged him over, Callen following behind them. "I thought you were joking about the cake tasting. How could you leave me out of this?"

"Flowers are a dirty job." I said mercilessly. "But someone has to do it. Heh, see what I did there? Because flowers grow in dirt, and also you aren't getting any cake and are therefore a joke to me."

"I will fight you." he said murderously. And received simultaneous elbows from both Jessie and Celine. "That is to say." He said, his voice becoming a monotone. "I am overjoyed to participate in any way you choose in your special day."

Callie shot Celine an impressed look. "That's amazing, how did you get him to do that?"

"I agreed to go to watch the Doom Sovereign PVP league finals with him later this week." She admitted with a sigh.

My eyes widened, and I swung to stare at my best friend. "What? But the finals aren't for another two months!" I didn't keep track of the DS Leagues anymore, but I knew what time of the year they happened.

"Nope." He said smugly. "They got moved up. Some sort of dispute with the fruit vendors union over the snacks at the venue. They had to switch suppliers and the new fruits aren't in season during the original timeframe."

I nodded. "Damn, I'll have to check it out, do you know wh-"

"So sorry." Said Callie as she grabbed my arm, my sister snagging the other as they dragged me away. "We're going to be late. No time to talk about Doom Sovereign or fruit. Enjoy the flower shop!"

Behind us, Felicity laughed quietly, which I took to be a good sign.

It didn't escape my notice that we had the only C-ranker in our group along for the ride, or that Jessie and the others had Callen with them. Someone must be taking my worries seriously, because they made sure we were suitably protected.

Felicity, despite the limits placed on her by the WCP, was still a C-ranker, and while she couldn't intervene directly in my favor for higher level opponents, she could protect Callie and Chelsea if need be. Despite knowing we were among the top one percent of powers on this planet, knowing that my worries weren't being discarded still made me feel better.

We headed for the cake vendor. Callie had hired an E-rank chef, a former heroine who went by Bakery, to cater the wedding, and she was especially excited about the cake. I had to admit, I was excited to taste some high end E-rank cooking myself.

When we arrived at Bakery's…bakery, she let us inside, and escorted us to the back where the tasting room was set up.

Arrayed in front of us was a huge room filled with tables piled high with hundreds of varieties of cakes, each one missing a slice. In the center of the room was a round dining table covered with a white tablecloth and set with a hundred plates, each one with a slice of cake with a tiny numbered flag stabbed into it.

I could feel Callie's excitement as she took in the spread, and I laughed as I saw it mirrored in my sister's avaricious gaze. I'd been kind of worried after last night, but it was hard to keep my suspicions up under the onslaught of such pure joy. I let myself relax as I was dragged along to the table, picking up the first slice and taking a big bite…only to grimace as the taste of okra and fried eggplant filled my mouth. Actually…this day might be longer than I had expected.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The cake tasting was…interesting. There was the usual stuff, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, even a few out there choices like lemon. But Bakery had apparently taken the stylishness challenge to heart, because there were more than a few unique options too. Fish, beef, spicy pickled cabbage.

I had a bite of a lobster pate cake that was surprisingly good with scallion cream cheese, though the raspberry pistachio goulash cheesecake was a close second. "None of this should be edible." I said as I chowed down on a cheddar macadamia white chocolate bundt cake with a chicken stock glaze. "It's weird that it is. But the flavors are weirdly modulated so they set each other off instead of clashing."

"The turkey rhubarb isn't half bad." Said Callie consideringly. "But I think you're right. It's just exceptional cooking Skill balancing it out."

I bit into a caramel carrot cheesecake, enjoying the flavor. "But it's not enough. The actual dessert type cakes are still much better. No need to balance, it's just leaning into the harmony of the flavors head on."

"He's right." Said my sister. "Hate to say it, because that shrimp and onion butterscotch cream cake was definitely on my short list, but I think going for something edgy is going to deprive you of the cake that will serve you best." She held up a fork to my fiancee. "Which, in my opinion, is this."

Callie took a sip of milk to cleanse her palate, then took the bite from Chelsea, and her eyes went wide. "This…this is amazing. What is this?"

"Brown butter pecan poundcake with a bacon caramel cream cheese frosting." My sister said smugly. "The bacon isn't as out there as it sounds. It stops the sweetness from overpowering the taste. Here, try it." She passed me the plate, and I took a big bite, closing my eyes and groaning in exultation.

It was amazing. The poundcake was soft and fluffy, but still dense, the butter was blended into the taste, with the pecans exploding across my tongue like starbursts during a delicious meteor shower, and the bacon caramel frosting was creamy, but with a slight bacon tang that pulled the cake back JUST before it dove off the edge of decadence.

"This one." Calle and I said as she grabbed another plate with the same cake on it and took a bite.

My sister grinned smugly. "Obviously." She said with a lofty tone that she barely pulled off without bursting into laughter. "My taste is flawless and impeccable, you know. Speaking of which…the bridesmaids dresses."

Callie shook her head. "I know we were going to use the ones we picked out shopping on the Tricorn, but then my mom wouldn't have one. I didn't know she was pregnant, so the fitting is going to be useless. I'm afraid you'll have to make do."

"But they were so pretty." Whined my sister. "And the new ones are so…" She trailed off as Callie raised a brow. "Also pretty." She finished lamely. "In a different way. A worse way. I'm sorry, but orange silk? They look like they're made of pumpkin."

My fiancee shrugged. "Orange goes well with my black dress. Most of the wedding is black, but we needed a color for a power accent."

"This is ok with you?" Demanded my sister? "You realize you'll be wearing an orange silk vest and tie with your tux, right? You can talk her out of this. We don't need an accent color,it can be monochrome."

Callie flicked an amused glance at my sister's black and white hair. "Really? Because that color scheme definitely doesn't favor anyone."

"I didn't INVENT monochrome." Said my sister in exasperation. "It's a noted style choice. It just so happens to work with my hair but…oh my gods, you won't do it because you don't want me to steal your thunder."

"I am APPALLED that you think so little of me." Callie gasped in offense. "I would never do something like that. Now you'll wear your ugly dress and stand in the background so I look pretty on my wedding day and you'll like it." She winked to show she was teasing and we all burst out laughing, even Chelsea.

Callie wasn't a petty person. I was sure the dresses looked fine, Bethy would be wearing one, and I wouldn't want to be the one to try to convince Bethy to wear an ugly bridesmaids dress.

"How about you?" My sister asked smugly. "You going to get your groomsmen outfitted in time?"

I shrugged. "Suits, ties, vests." I said with a lazy wave. "Easy as cake. And speaking of-"

My fiancee cut me off. "No." She said bluntly. "We're not bringing any of these home. We'd both gorge ourselves and be sick of cake by the wedding day. I'd like to take some back too. That ravioli spinach layer cake with alfredo frosting was delicious, and would make a fantastic dinner."

I sighed, but she was right. "Fair enough. Maybe we can grab one to go after the wedding." I held up a hand, calling over one of the attendants. "Hey, we picked the one we want." I gestured to the poundcake.

"We'll take a thirteen layer, and we want the custom topper. Use our faces, but we'll send you the outfit details." Callie said excitedly.

The woman from the shop, whose name tag said Amelie, smiled. "A wonderful choice Madame. I'm quite fond of that one myself." She winked. "I taste test for Bakery when she tries new recipes, so I've tried almost everything."

"Dream job." Groaned Felicity, who hadn't spoken through the whole conversation. Turning to look at her as she talked, I realized WHY. All the plates within arms reach were clear, and my cousin (easiest way to think of her in my mind) was greedily glancing at the other plates around us, as if ready to pounce across the table.

Chelsea raised a brow. "Liss?" She said hesitantly. "When was the last time you had sugar?"

"I never eat sugar." Said Felicity, eyes darting around. "I never needed sweet food. Da- my father said it was an indulgence. And since I've come to live with you I mostly take my own meals in my rooms."

My sister reached over and gently uncurled the girl's hands from the fork. "Why don't we just take that away." She said slowly as she pried away the eating utensil which was being held point down in a fist like a murder weapon. "You guys can clear the plates." She said as the attendants approached warily. "Liss, why don't we go to lunch and get something a bit more filling for you to eat."

I wasn't sure if a C-ranker could GET a sugar rush, though if it was possible, Bakery would probably be the one to make it happen, at least on this planet. More reasonably, it was probably just excitement at trying something new and an inability to deal with positive emotions, since she was only starting to feel them.

She pouted a bit (albeit subtly, I was getting used to her dim expressions, and my Perception helped me recognize what she was feeling) and the rest of us chuckled. After we convinced her, I noticed a small smile quirking her lips, and became convinced she was messing with us a bit, too. I didn't mind. She hadn't been able to mess with anyone for most of her life, a little teasing was to be expected.

After we left the details of the cake with Bakery, we moved on. Callie had memorized the layout of the town, and led us effortlessly through the streets until we stopped at an unassuming looking shop.

Pushing the door open, we were greeted by the heavy scent of paper and ink. I froze as I took in the neat, handwritten sign behind the counter.

"The SCARLET SCRIBE!" I hissed at my fiancee. "I thought he was dead!"

A chuckle rang out from behind the counter. A tall, thin man with a monocle and a well trimmed mustache smiled genteely at me. "You were meant to. That's why it's called retirement. Welcome to the Scarlet Scribe's Seamless Stenograph. Did you call ahead?"

"We did." Callie answered, talking over me. "The Wyndham-Reynolds wedding. I commissioned you for the invitations?"

"Ah yes." He said with a nod. "I got your requests. I have a few samples for you to choose from before I begin the final product. I was led to understand that these are collectible invitations? Meant to given to the guests as mementos?"

I hadn't been aware of that, but it made sense. Why else would we be coming to talk about invitations after everyone was already invited. I could see the reasoning too. Invitations would be a good gift for the guests too. Cheaper than most things but also personalized. Callie nodded enthusiastically. "That's the one. What do you have for me?"

Nodding slowly, the Scarlet Scribe (a particularly terrifying Rajak villain I'd heard about during my early days in the city who wrote notes in the blood of his enemies) withdrew a box from behind the counter and began laying out a variety of cardstock invitations.

I had to admit, there were some really interesting ones. Some beautiful night sky designs with glittering silver stars, a couple of deep forest scenes (which we both immediately nixed) and finally settled on the last one. The image was of a beautiful sunset, with a dark sky and shining stars overhead spelling out the invitee's name.

The sunset incorporated the black and orange that Callie wanted to use as the wedding theme, and we had all the details ironed out within about ten minutes, after which we set out again for that lunch we'd promised Felicity.

As we were walking though, I felt a strange sensation. I stopped, scanning the road around us, looking between buildings and across rooftops. I flicked on Eye of Revelation scanning between trees and in shadows, searching for…something. Callie looked at me worriedly. "What's wrong?" She asked, trying to see what I was seeing.

Which was nothing, until…I caught a flash of movement, my eyes flicked over to the spot on my periphery but nothing was there. I blurred forward, triggering State of Grace, and was across the intervening distance in a second. When I arrived nothing was there, but I was already on the trail. Eye of Revelation caught some disturbances in the grass and I was off.

Felicity was alerted, but the thing was E-rank, based on my brief glimpse of…whatever it was. Callie and Chelsea and I were on it though, and I kicked on Mephisto's Waltz, pushing myself as fast as I could, but the thing was smart. It kept changing directions and I was going so fast I needed to double back.

Finally, we reached the edge of the city, and we hit the icy cliffs surrounding Wintervale at speed. I triggered Ripple Running and went straight up the side, emerging out into a howling blizzard I hadn't even noticed from inside the valley. Off in the snow, I caught one last glimpse of a lumbering form with icy white fur before it vanished.

Callie saw it for a second as she arrived, but didn't get a good look, and Chelsea was barely able to see the outline based on her timing, but she DID spot it. "What the actual fuck is that?" She said in horror as it vanished into the sleet.

"Well." I said grimly. "Been a year or two since I've seen one, but they're hard to forget. If I'm not mistaken, that was a Wendigo." In the distance, an unearthly keening howl rose above the wind and snow, and within moments another dozen of the same cries rebounded off the air around us. "Nevermind." I grimaced. "My mistake. WendiGOS." I turned and headed back to the valley. I wasn't letting those things ruin my wedding. We needed to put together a hunting party.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Wendigos?" Asked Chelsea in confusion after we got back to the lodge. "I don't know if I I've heard of those." she paused. "It sounds familiar though. Maybe I've read about them? I feel like I'd remember if I'd seen one in person.

Jessie snorted. "You would have." She said bluntly. "I know I sure do. Randall handled the last one we ran into. Back when Serenity was trying to take over the circus. I never did ask where the Peace Lord got the one he let loose on us. They're not pleasant. Big hulking monstrous things that eat human flesh."

"Agreed." I grimaced. "They also have a natural affinity for ice and snow." I pulled some paper from my ring and sketched out a picture from memory. With my Perception and Focus, sketching pretty much anything I wanted was child's play, especially if it was a recreation of something I'd seen. "They look like this." I said when I finished.

I shuddered at my own memory. "They're demons, which is a catch all term for more monstrous bearers of various racial traits." I continued." Not fae or devils, but still powerful and dangerous."

My sister picked up the paper, glanced over it with disgust, and then set it back down. "So…fifteen foot tall horned monsters covered in pale grey skin? How does something that size vanish into the snow? I mean, it looks right, but it seems like something that size would have trouble hiding."

I gestured to Callie. "How does she vanish into shadows? It's just what they do. Wendigos are terrible things. They lose all their humanity in exchange for some pretty horrifying bonuses, and from what I remember of my research, they're WAY harder to kill in the cold. They suck the stuff up like shuttle fuel."

"Callen, can you help?" Asked my sister beseechingly. "With a D-ranker helping it should be easy enough to take care of them. With Liss not allowed to participate, and Zeke and mom out of the running, I'm sure we'd all like a ringer."

The big swordsman shook his head. "If they've been seen here before it's a local matter. We're with the Church, and this is RIGHT next to Cult territory. We can be here because of the wartime truce, but if we start mucking about with local politics we'll give them a justification to start a fight, and none of us can afford that."

"But grandma is going to talk to Black Sorrow." Protested Chelsea. "They're going to sort the whole thing out."

He shrugged. "Key words there being going to. As of this moment they're our enemy, if a somewhat defanged one. We can't give them any excuse. Besides, I'm sure you can handle a few Wendigos. The one you fought before might have been powerful at the time, but think how far you've come. There's no way it'll be a match for you as you are."

He wasn't wrong. We'd all taken a level in badass while we were gone. Benny's Dracolich Path, Jessie's new evolved Companion and her absurd stats, Callie's upgraded ability. The Wendigo wouldn't be a match for us.
"Alright." I said slowly, coming around to the idea. "I can get behind a direct approach." I glanced at Abel. "You think fighting a Wendigo Pack would be enough for the Path upgrade you need? They're no Volcanic Ape, but they honestly probably suit your Path better. Wendigos eat people, they're all about blood and victory."

My mentor just grinned. "Even if I didn't I'd still want to come. It sounds like a party. The question is, how many of them are there? I'd never heard of a pack out here, though I guess it makes sense. The one the Peace Lord was using had to come from somewhere."

"Wendigo's are monsters. The catalyst for becoming a wendigo involves using the actual heart of another ascendant. It's actually much cheaper and easier to get the trait than most powerful racial traits, but the effects on the psyche are so extreme that no one does it if they can help it. What's the point of getting stronger if you turn into a horrifying monster with an insatiable hunger for human flesh.

"That's what was watching us." Bethy said with a grimace. "It felt hungry and predatory. Trust me, I know the sensation. We should eliminate them. Monsters like that don't add anything to the world. I'm in for the hunt."

Gabe nodded solemnly. "Abominations that prey on the weak? You have my lance as well."

"Chelsea, you might be one of our best weapons against them." I said after some thought. "Maybe your flames of purification…" Zagan might help too, but I didn't think cleansing someone of a racial trait was possible. Unlike my green fire, Chelsea's flames of purification did actual damage to impure things instead of just deep cleaning.

Effects like the ones that Primal Chaos Forest disciple used were one thing, but these Wendigos had BECOME something else. Even my power couldn't erase a complete change of species, no matter how much it would probably help.

She nodded thoughtfully. "I can do that. We'll need to track them down. You said they're at home in ice and snow. Can you even track them in the near permanent blizzard surrounding this place?" She held up her scan ring, typing in a few commands before flicking a screen up in front of us with a similar picture to what I'd drawn.

I read over it, recognizing the page. "Yup. They blend in the cold better than most. Apparently when they absorb enough cold air their flesh turns clear and crystalline. Makes tracking them by sight in the tundra almost impossible. Damn it, my Eye of Revelation is probably our only shot. Although…" I glanced at Bethy. "Do you think Luggage could track them?"

She brightened. "Maybe!" She said excitedly. "He doesn't love the cold, but it doesn't slow him down much. I bet he could track them down." She frowned. "But…we're assuming that they'll be together. Predators like that tend to have their own territories. Even if they're a pack, they most likely spread out. What if we miss some?"

I considered that for a moment. "Hey, Chelsea, there anything in there about where their lair might be? Seems weird there's a whole bunch of E-ranked monsters out here and no one knows about them. I imagine eating the witnesses doesn't hurt, but this is a resort town for E-rankers."

"That's because they're not E-rank." Said Stella as she and Zeke appeared on the other side of the table and sat down. "Or at least, they weren't. There IS a pack of Wendigo out in the tundra, but they're not nearly this cohesive, and they don't come near Wintervale because of all the powerful Ascendants. Are you sure you saw one in the city?"

I shrugged. "Well it was either that or a really ugly deer sitting on a gorilla's shoulders. Which, while theoretically possible in the world we live in, seems…unlikely."

"He's right." Said Jessie seriously. "Gorilla's have like…no neck. Sitting on one's shoulders would be nearly impossible." We all rolled our eyes as she winked at Stella, who chuckled lightly.

Amusing as that was though, we needed to focus. "Bethy is right though. We'll need to go out in groups. Abel, Bethy, Mel, Callie, Gabe, Benny, Jessie, and me. Seven groups outside mine, which means one wish for each. I won't tell you what tracking method to wish for, obviously, but since my Eye of Revelation will work on its own, that leaves each of us with a way to track them."

Callie nodded thoughtfully. "If we wish for the right tracking equipment, we can make sure to clear them all. That way when they stop working we'll know we're done."

"That's up to you all." I said blandly. "I can't really weigh in. But everyone will take a team. I don't care if they're random church initiates that Chelsea brought with her, or friends you made here. Nobody goes alone."

We were light on E-rankers, but this entire situation was rubbing me the wrong way. Sudden appearances of powerful groups of enemies who had grown out of nowhere, possible issues with Cicero, and that Wendigo getting noticed at exactly the right time to lure us out to the edge…this was all really convenient, and I didn't like it.

Luckily, we'd caught on early. We still had about six days to the wedding, and I wanted to get out there, take care of the Wendigos, and investigate where they came from in time to finish the variety of wedding chores I still needed to do.

Callie reached out and grabbed my hand across the table, squeezing it. "It's fine." She said in my head. "Everything will be alright. We can take care of this in no time, and everyone will be safe to attend the wedding. Nothing in this world is going to stop me from marrying you."

I made sure she felt the burst of warmth and love that flooded my heart at those words, and I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it softly, her smile lit up the whole room.

"I hope they stop doing this after the wedding." Groaned Benny in exasperation. "But realistically I know they'll be even worse as newlyweds. We should pick our teams. Celine, you want to come with me?"

She nodded. "I'm in. Though I'm not sure any of my nature magic will do much good in the tundra, I'm still E-rank, so I should be able to help."

The rest of us picked anyone we thought could help. Alex went with Callie, Jessie brought Randall, obviously, Bethy had her animals, and so on. I decided to take Nat with me, and the few of us without backup were assigned a Crusader from the church. It didn't count as interfering in local politics if the help was E-rank or lower.

Once we got that set up, everyone made their wishes. I charged Fantasy points, ten each, because I'd been trying to stockpile those to help with my Path stuff. I was up to nine thousand six hundred and seventy points in that stat, so I was making decent progress. Once that was finished, we all headed for the edge of Wintervale, where we'd seen the Wendigo.

Unsurprisingly, the snow had covered any obvious tracks, but my Eye of Revelation let me pick up the non obvious one. I could see the hideous clawed footprints in the drift, like they were glowing in under the light of the aurora.

"Alright everyone!" I called. "Stay together, if anyone has any trouble, use the flares that Benny gave you, and the rest of us will converge. Keep your compasses handy, and once you don't have a lock on anything reconvene with the nearest group and we can all meet back up here."

Everyone had decided to wish for silver compasses that could track the Wendigos, and Benny had supplied the flares from his personal stash. Apparently he had a ton of random stuff from inventing practice that he never had a use for and just stowed in his ring for just such an occasion. I couldn't complain about the added safety, I felt much better knowing we had signals.

With that finished, Nat and I headed out into the snow, taking our time and following the trail left by the same Wendigo I'd chased earlier. It wasn't going to get away this time. I saw my cousin draw a matte black stiletto with an icy blue gem in it and smiled. Apparently running a territory paid well, that was a D-rank dagger.

As we moved further away from the valley, I paid more and more attention to my Danger Sense, just waiting for any sort of tipoff. I wasn't getting ambushed, especially not with my cousin around in need of protection. As the storm swallowed the protrusions of ice surrounding the valley, I focused my senses to the peak. It was time for the hunt to begin.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, this is a fun wedding." Said my cousin glibly as we trudged through the snow. "It's just not an Ascendant party if someone isn't trying to murder us all." She shot me an appraising glance. "You sure we're good out here just you and me? We're not exactly the muscle of the group. Maybe we should have brought Gabe or Bethy."

I scoffed. "Please, you haven't been around lately. I'm a certified badass now. I won these huge games at the conclave for the WCP, took on a bunch of peak E-rankers. I'm not saying I'm invincible at E-rank, but I can handle anything on this planet no sweat."

"Oh really?" Asked my cousin with a grin. "You improved that much, huh? Must have been some crazy shit going down after you left."

Shrugging, I brushed her off. "We can talk about the details later. You'll see soon enough. I assume you have some trinkets on you for protection besides that pigsticker?" I gestured to the D-ranked dagger.

"Plenty." She said with a laugh. "I've been making quite a-" I held up my hand sharply and she stopped talking.

In the snow, the tracks had stopped. My Danger Sense started shrieking at me, and I narrowed my eyes. Just out of sight, I caught gargantuan distortions in the blizzard, creeping here and there, only visible for a moment. As I caught sight of another, and then another, I realized that they were circling us, leaping and bucking their heads, ripping the air with their horns.

The snow beneath my feet began to sizzle as I triggered Mephistopheles and Belial. I kept Zagan on the backburner for now, in case of injuries. Glancing at Nat, I saw her withdraw a black parasol studded with metal skulls and black glass beads.

She spun it once, and a dome of darkness enshrouded both of us, cutting off our vision.

The distortion gave me an excellent idea, and I triggered Moonlit Night, grinning wolfishly as the mist swallowed the area. Inside the fog bank, I could see everything perfectly, even the nearly invisible bodies of the transparent Wendigos.

Which was good, because one of them was charging and about to gore me like a bull. I stepped lightly, Mephisto's Waltz eating the ground beneath me as it rushed past. My staff licked out, interposing itself in front of its ankle, causing the blindly rushing monster to trip and faceplant into the snow.

Its leg began to blacked and crack as the corrosion crept in, but it didn't turn out to be necessary. As it fell, its antlers stabbed into the icy ground, sliding into the frozen dirt, and its body kept going. It skidded to a stop, head and neck at an angle as its antlers held it mostly immobile. I drove my staff forward, a relatively small Cosmic Collapse smashing into and eating its hideous leering face.
Behind me, Nat engaged with one of them, able to see where it couldn't and I was impressed to see my cousin tear the thing apart. The Wendigo snarled and tore at the air, but she slipped neatly between its strikes, and her D-ranked dagger licked out, parting transparent crystalling flesh at the joints of the limbs and where the achilles tendon would be on a person.

It collapsed, and she was on its back within seconds, opening its throat, and I watched a spray of greasy grey blood mist the air as it gagged and slumped into the powder.

I whistled as I let the mist fade. "Damn cous', that was brutal. Someone's been doing some training, huh?" I'd assumed her newly demonstrated calmness and peace of mind was a factor of time, but maybe she'd been a bit more proactive.

She smirked, wiping the blade on her enemy. "Of course." She said smugly. "I've been training with Valk, as well as sparring with all the soldiers stationed at the town." Her expression sobered. "I'm not going to get blindsided because I'm counting on other people to do the heavy lifting for me, and I'm not going to let Valk die because I wasn't treating things seriously enough."

I could see her determination not to lose another friend, and I respected the hell out of it. "I think that's a good way to look at things." I said solemnly. "And it looks like your hard work paid off. That was some damned impressive fighting."

Before she could respond, I saw something off to the side. Spinning, I put up a guard, expecting an attack, but my Danger Sense had going suddenly silent. I realized when I finished turning that I was seeing a red star cutting through the air. My eyes widened as I realized it was one of the flares Benny had given out. I checked to see that Nat was with me and then took off running, using Ripple Running to let us avoid sinking in the snow as we sprinted in the direction of the signal.

When we arrived, we found Mel, injured and surrounded, holding off a half dozen Wendigos. An explosion of force from out of sight told us her partner had been separated from her, and Nat broke off, bolting for the other combatant, who I knew was Valk.

Praying my cousin's friend was alright, I struck brutally at one of the Wendigos, unleashing a burst of black flame that sent it hissing and darting back. I let Belial drop, manifesting Zagan as I approached my friend. I let a Piece of Mind parallel take over one hand and operate Mephistopheles while I appraised her condition.

Mel looked bad. One of her legs was ripped open, but it wasn't bleeding, it was frosted over with dirty grey ice, and what looked like grey frostbite was spreading from the wound. "Shit." I said as I crouched over her, waiting to see if the others would attack. One tried to get close, and I swung my staff one handed, letting a burst of concussive black flame explode on contact as my swing connected.

It was blasted back, screaming in pain. Before it could attack again, Callie and Alex melted from the shadows, and my fiancee's daggers shredded the one I'd just injured as her uncle unleashing a tide of dark spikes.

Sighing in relief, I held my hand above the wound on Mel's leg, unleashing a blast of life fire to cleanse and heal her injury.

The grey frost melted away instantly, and the damaged flesh mended itself even as I watched. The actual wound hadn't been deep, and the Wendigo's had less Impact that Mel, so the damage didn't stick too badly. The infection or whatever it was had been most of the problem.

"Go help Nat." I called to Callie as she finished hers and came to check on me. "She went to check on Valk."

She nodded and took off, and I turned to Mel. "What the hell happened?" I asked in concern. "Did the compass malfunction? How did you get ambushed?" I assumed it had been an ambush. While not quite at the same level as Abel (pretty much no one but Bethy was) Mel had already discovered her illusory Path (Path of the Heavenly Flame) and was a genuinely dangerous fighter.

"They swarmed us." She spat. "The compass started going haywire because it couldn't focus on just one of the things, they were circling like sharks. Eight of the bastards. I was more than up to taking on three or four, but the fifth one got behind me and tore into my leg. Valk drew off three of them in that direction and I haven't seen him since." She gestured to where we'd heard the fighting.

I squinted into the snow, happy to see that Callie was coming back, along with Nat and a badly wounded Valk. Rushing over, I checked them for damage. Aside from the big redheaded man, they were all fine. "What happened?" I asked anxiously.

Callie set Valk down nearby. "We found him on the ground being torn into. We took them out, but he's…" She looked down at the wounded man. "They ate part of his thigh and bicep. His whole body seems to be covered in this grey frostbite effect. He can't move at all. Can you fix it?"

I nodded, stepping forward and letting Mephistopheles drop. Focusing entirely on Zagan, I charged up the biggest Life Nova I could manage. I let the green energy burst, covering the injured man, and was relieved to see the grey melt away. Nat collapsed on Valk's prone form, sobbing, and the rest of us took up position to guard them while he recovered.

Despite how much life force I'd used, the repairs would not be fast. Zagan was better for purification than straight healing, and Valk's injuries weren't light. This wasn't a puncture wound to the leg, the Wendigos had fucking EATEN part of two of his limbs. The muscle needed to regrow entirely, and the process was far from instant.
"Hey." I said after he'd had some time to compose himself. "How are you feeling?" Nat was sitting nearby, staring blankly off into the distance, and I cursed myself for bringing her. I'd gotten so used to traveling with my current lineup of friends, who were all powerful and dangerous people. Nat and Valk were BARELY E-rank.

I'd gotten cocky about the level of threat we'd see on Callus. Valk for his part, seemed to be taking it well. "I'm fine." He said calmly. I was surprised how relaxed he sounded. He was normally pretty stoic, but I supposed he must have been feeling the effects of the Life Nova still. I'd probably be pretty relaxed too. "It barely hurts."

Nat's head snapped up, eyes pinning him as he started to move. "You are NOT walking." She snapped. "We'll carry you. Callie, can you make a stretcher for him?" The two compasses the others had were spinning aimlessly, so this had been the last of them, thankfully, and we could head back.

"Sure." My fiancee shrugged. A quick effort of will had the shadows congealing into a pair of poles with a strip of fabric between them. Alex used a shadow cloud to lift him up onto it, and the two of us grabbed hold of the ends and set off for the rendezvous point.

As we walked, I frowned down at the injured man. "What the hell happened?" I asked as we walked. "Mel said you pulled three of them, which, you know, that was brave, but she could have handled the excess better than you could. You almost got yourself killed."

"He was trying to help!" Snapped my cousin. "You sent him out here to help her, remember?"

I put a hand up in surrender, holding the stretcher with the other. "Whoa! Not blaming. Just trying to figure out what went wrong. There might be some kind of clue to where the things came from. I appreciate him helping out, as does Mel, I'm sure."

The red masked woman nodded. "I definitely do. I was on my last leg. Literally. You saved my life. I owe you one."

Valk just waved her off. "It's fine. We were teammates. That was the point. As for clues…nothing I saw. I took off after tagging a few with my axe, and they chased me. They caught up to me quick, and I tried to fight them off, but they worked together and overpowered me. Once they had me down and immobilized..." He shuddered. "Well, you saw."

Arriving back at the rendezvous point, we filled the others in on what happened. Jessie set to work trying to help Valk recover, and the rest of us exchanged information on exactly what had happened out here. Oddly, nothing out of the ordinary had gone down. Find Wendigo, kill Wendigo. Rinse, repeat.

Despite the smooth operation, I saw Bethy frowning out into the snow, echoing my own expression. Something about this still felt off. For now though, all we could do was get back to Wintervale and move on with the wedding prep. But I'd be keeping an eye out.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once we made it back to the lodge, I caught up to my mom and asked her a favor. "Hey, with all these weird coincidences, I'd feel a bit better if we had some security. Do you think you could have some of your E-rankers patrol Wintervale for us?"

"Of course, honey!" She said with a beaming smile. "We can't interfere in the internal politics of the region, but that's mainly a restriction on rank. Having my E-rankers keep an eye out is still fine." She frowned. "I know Ezekial took a look around as he was monitoring you, and I did a little poking about myself after you were all clear. I didn't find anything."

I sighed. "Damn. I guess I'm really just imagining things."

"No." She said bluntly. "I mean I DIDN'T find ANYTHING. There are no traces of what caused those Wendigos to evolve. One or two of them would be fine, but a whole pack of dozens of demons ranking up together? That only happens when alchemy or other unusual means are involved. There was no sign of any of that."

I got what she was saying. "You're saying in this case, the lack of evidence itself is the biggest red flag? Why would something that could hide from YOU be on this planet?"

"That is an excellent question." She said with a troubled frown. "Theoretically it could be some extremely niche ability that happens to perfectly counter my means of investigation, like spatial isolation counters Perception. But the chances of that are…slim."

Sighing, I slumped down into a chair, head in my hands. "Great. So we have to worry about-"

"Nothing." She snapped icily. My head jerked up, and I stared right into her blazing eyes. "You don't worry about a thing. I'll figure out what's going on, and I'll put a stop to it." She leaned forward and grabbed me, yanking me into a bone crushing hug.

Her voice was hoarse as she said softly. "I wasn't here for your childhood. I missed so many big events, so many firsts. I'm finally here with you, at your wedding, welcoming the love of your life into our family. I get to be a part of one of the most important days you'll ever have, and I won't let anyone ruin it. Not for me, but for you. Because I owe you that. That and so much more. I love you honey, and if someone wants to ruin your wedding they'll do it over my dead body."

I squeezed her back. "Hey now, I don't want any death flags here. I just got you back after thinking you were dead most of my life. Don't EVER tell Callie I said this, but we can have another ceremony. Your health is more important."

"She doesn't need to tell me." Said the amused voice of my fiancee as she stepped from the shadows beside us. "Because that's obvious, you big lummox. I know I might have been acting a bit wedding crazy, but what kind of person do you think I am?" Sadly I couldn't hide the surge of smug amusement, and she caught on. "Damn it, how long did you know I was there?"

"Since the beginning, love." I said with a laugh. "It's rude to eavesdrop. If you wanted to know what's up you could just ask."

She plopped down on the bench next to me. We were outside in a courtyard, and as she sat she pulled my mom to sit between us. "He's right though. The wedding is important, but everyone's health and safety obviously takes priority. That said, I have faith in you Sasha. I know you can figure out what's going on and handle it for us."

My mom beamed at her for a second, then her face twisted in an expression of pensive distaste. "Yeah…about that. I've been meaning to talk to you." Callie froze, panic filling her face as she tried to figure out what my mom meant by that. Mom let her stew for another second or two before finishing. "I think Sasha, is a bit formal for a family member. I was thinking "mom" sounds better."

Callie blanched. "I…I mean, that's…wow. But my mom is around and what if she feels weird about that? Not that I don't want to call you that, or I'm not grateful, or that I don't think you're a good mom, because you're a great mom, even though you weren't around for Shane, but that's not your fault and-"

I clapped a hand over her mouth. "Sweet Revenant Callie, BREATHE!" That whole thing had been basically one single breath, I was worried she might suffocate.

My mom just chuckled at her. "Your mother is fine with it. Her only demand is that Shane refer to her the same way. Says it's only fair. He went from having no mother to having two in just a year or so. Probably overwhelming for the boy."

"I'm sitting right here." I informed them helpfully. "In ear shot. Listening to you both talk about me like I don't exist."

My mother patted me on the cheek. "That's nice dear."

Callie burst out laughing, and I rolled my eyes, muttering about being ganged up on. My heart wasn't in it though. I loved that they were getting along. Callie seemed thoughtful for a bit, then finally nodded. "Alright. I'll call you mom. But you have to call me Callie. No more of this Calliope nonsense. I know you only use Zeke's full name because it bugs him, but I want the nickname."

"I suppose that's fair." My mom conceded. "Callie it is." She leaned in and gave my fiancee a hug of her own. "Welcome to the family, honey. I know it's a bit early, and I might not exactly have the right to be the one extending the greeting, but-"

"Of course you do." I said sharply. "Just because I'm still pissed about some of the choices you made doesn't mean you aren't my mom. It means a lot."

She put her hand over her mouth, eyes welling up with tears. "That's…thank you. Shane. Both of you. Thank you so much." We both got caught up in this hug, and I laughed a bit, letting myself relax a bit.

Some kids treat their parents like superheroes. Like they can do anything, and solve any problem. Ironically, my parents basically WERE superheroes, but I'd had that illusion of invincibility stripped away a long time ago. I didn't know if my mom was going to be able to figure out what was going on, and magically fix everything like she wanted to.

But I also didn't care. Because just for a second, sitting there with my family, I was able to let myself believe it. I felt safe, and happy, and even if she couldn't fix things, that was enough. Because she loved me, and she was trying, and that was all I could really ask from anyone, wasn't it?

"Speaking of Amelia." I said, my mind shifting back to an earlier part of the conversation. "Is she alright? Alex was with us, if something is really happening around here, wouldn't she-"

My mom laughed. "I left Andrew with her. If getting past an A-rank soldier of the Church was possible for these…enemies, they wouldn't bother with subterfuge. Assuming there is an enemy and we aren't all just paranoid lunatics."

"It could be both." I admitted with a shrug. "But yeah, Andrew should be more than enough. I hadn't seen him around for a while. Where has he been, anyway?"

She shrugged. "Around. The Necromedes is a big ship, and there are several passenger sections for higher ranked Ascendants with far more luxurious amenities than the areas you're allowed to visit. Pedigree only goes so far, you know. True strength is still the most important thing."

"Noted." I said with a laugh. "Hopefully I can hit D-rank before our next big trip. I look forward to seeing more of that."

My mom sniffed. "I can't believe my babies are going to be Masters. It's like watching you all take your first steps. I'm so proud of all of you. That goes for you too Callie. You're an impressive young woman, and I'm thrilled you'll be joining the family. I couldn't have asked for a better wife for my boy."

Callie smirked. "Well, I need someone pretty to do the cooking while I'm out slaying gods." She winked at me. "He does the job." I felt her love and adoration through the bond, and flooded it right back, reaching over to clasp hands with her.

"You two are so cute." My mom practically squealed. "I'm going to go tell Amy that you agreed. She's almost as excited about this as I am. I'll leave you two kids alone." Winking, she vanished from between us, appearing at the end of the hall casually as if she'd just taken a step.
My fiancee smiled after her. "Am I completely crazy, or did she somehow manage to basically order us to give her grandchildren without verbally saying a word about it."

"Right?" I said plaintively. "It's uncanny. Not that I plan on having kids soon." I said bluntly. "No offense, but we're still really young. I want to marry you, and have a family with you eventually, but we're not even twenty. There's no rush."

She laughed, putting her hands up in pre-emptive surrender. "Oh trust me, I'm right there with you. I adore you, and kids sound good…eventually. But I'm nowhere near that point mentally. I'm still dealing with the damage my own parents did."

"Preaching to the choir." I sighed. I put an arm around her. "But she's right you know. I'm lucky as hell to have you."

She leaned up to kiss my mask. "I make jokes, but I can't imagine spending my life without you. You're…you're a part of me, Shane. Maybe it's the bond, but when you're not with me I feel like there's a part of me missing."

Her head leaned on my shoulder, and I brushed my fingers through her hair. "Save it for the vows, love." I said with a soft smile. "I could go on an hour long rant about all the reasons I love you, but I don't want to use up all my good material. I really can't believe that this time next week you'll be my wife."

"I can't believe I'll be anyone's wife." She said with a laugh. "Not that I wasn't planning to get married eventually, but it's just such a weird label to apply to me. I'm not a wife. A wife is like, mature and wise. My mom is a wife. Your mom is a wife. I'm a perfectionist and an occasional dumbass."

"Occasional?" I asked sardonically, getting an elbow in my ribs and a scathing glare. "I'm kidding. I get it. I don't feel like anyone's husband. But I guess we'll have to figure that stuff out together. Because even if I don't feel like someone's husband, when I think of all the things a wife would mean to someone, all I think of is you."

She grinned smugly. "And you said you didn't want to waste your good material. Now, almost-husband, why don't you get some practice in and carry me over the threshold of our room." She snuggled up to me expectantly, nuzzling into my side.

I nodded sagely. "That's probably for the best." I admitted. "Gotta get my reps in to make sure I can handle the walk. You are shockingly heavy." I activated Double Trouble on a plant down the hall just in time to hear her squawk of offense. I triggered State of Grace and took off for our room, Callie screaming in outrage as she chased me through the halls (I could feel her barely suppressed laughter). Thinking about everything, I'd never been more sure about my wedding. I wanted things to be like this for the rest of our lives.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next four days were both surprisingly busy and shockingly uneventful. Flowers, decorations, catering, clothes, all the things we'd already done needed to be followed up on, and all the things we hadn't still needed doing. I'd barely had time to get the two hundred eighty points of Fantasy from the four days of wishes. Finally though, we got everything finished two nights before the wedding. Just in time for Benny's big night out.

"But I want to go catch light sprites with you too!" Whined Bethy. "Why can't I go?"

I shrugged. "You can, but you have to go to the grudge match too. We're doing everything in order."

"It's going to be a blast." Said Abel with a grin. "Red Tiger and Blade Reaper have been feuding for decades. I used to read their comics when I was a kid." At my surprised look he coughed lightly. "When I was bored or in the hospital from all the fights I got into. I wasn't like…a nerd or anything. But their fight is going to be great."

Bethy sniffed contemptuously. "How barbaric." She said in a lofty voice. "I'm a caring and compassionate person. I don't want to see two big brutes beating each other up. I prefer to kill my enemies with kindness."

"Isn't kindness the name of the huge double headed battle axe your dad makes you leave at home?" Gabe asked suspiciously.

She huffed. "Fine! I don't want to watch some backwater E-rankers fight. It sounds boring! We're all way tougher than them. But Callie's stupid night out dancing sounds way dumber. She's going to that ice cream place after though with over ten thousand flavors. I want to do both things!"

"Well you can't." I said bluntly. "We're not letting you switch halfway. And since it's impossible to be in two places at once…" I paused. "Ok, it's impossible for YOU to be in two places at once. Probably."

The whole guys and girls night thing had ended up being messy and kind of a pain. Cark was more interested in the ice cream thing, Chelsea wanted to see the light sprites, and Mel wanted to watch the fight. We'd decided to just let everyone decide whose party they would go to, and Bethy was the last person to pick.

Except she wasn't picking, she was waffling, and nobody was having any luck convincing her to stick with something. After a minute or two more of complaining, she finally just pouted and said. "Fine. I'll go to the stupid fight. It's going to be so lame though. That steak better be good."

"You shouldn't judge people from this world so harshly." Gabe said reproachfully. "Abel and Mel are both from here."

She shrugged. "Mel is super awesome though. And I don't even know that other guy you mentioned." Abel gave a long suffering groan and put his head in his hands and we all burst out laughing.

"You sure you don't want to come with us Zeke?" I asked my uncle. "You know you're definitely invited. Mom, Alex, and Amelia are going to Callie's party."

He snorted. "Sure, because it's specifically about entertainment. You're all going to be hunting light sprites. That's competitive. Do you honestly think there's any competition you could beat me at? No thanks. I'll be staying home and taking a well deserved nap."

Callie gave him a knowing smirk. "Been working up a sweat lately, huh?"

Stella glared at my fiancee, cutting her eyes towards Ian, who was chatting happily with Jessie across the room alongside his girlfriend Clarissa, who I hadn't had a chance to actually meet yet, even if I'd heard of her.

Chuckling, Callie changed the subject. "Anyway, enjoy your nap old man. The cool kids will be out dancing the night away."

"Please." Said Benny derisively. "You nerds are missing out. I planned the best party ever."

I rolled my eyes. "Can we just go, please. We're going to miss the fight. Who's with us? Bethy, Gabe, Chelsea, Abel, Camden, Nat, Mel." I paused. "Wait, why is everyone coming to my party E-rank?"

"Because light sprites are a pain in the ass to catch." Said Benny emphatically. "They're E-ranked themselves, and they're FAST. Plus the aurora is sort of weird. You can actually walk on it, but only if your rank is high enough."

I glanced at Ian, Alden, Sloane, and all my other lower ranked friends. It was a shame to ditch them, but if they wouldn't be able to participate letting them hang with Callie and co for most of the night was fine too. "Alright, then let's head out. Where's the fight at, anyway? A local arena or something?"

"Nope." Said Benny proudly as we headed for the shuttle. "I didn't mention that the fight and steak were at the same place. Road Rage's Bar and Grill. The fights are live entertainment, and I had to bribe them to move the grudge match to tonight. Luckily, the economy of this planet is WAY underdeveloped compared to the universe at large. D-rank chits go a long way here."

I remembered that, actually. They basically didn't exist on this planet. I laughed, clapping him on the back happily. "Sounds like you really went all out man. I appreciate it."

Abel nodded approvingly. "I didn't realize you'd convinced them to move to the date. Look at you, moneybags. I'll have to keep that in mind for my trip to fight the volcanic ape. I'm planning it after the wedding, since killing those Wendigos helped me make some progress. I'm positive that I'll be able to advance my path." We chatted a bit during the ride, but I was too busy soaking in the sensation of comfort and warmth to mind. Not physical warmth, it was kind of chilly (thought not arctic), but spiritual warmth, knowing my friends were doing so much for me.

Finally we reached the restaurant, and climbed out of the shuttle. "Pretty nice place." I said appreciatively. "I like the aesthetic."

Road Rage's Bar and Grill was pretty unique. It was built into the side of a hill. The building portion was mostly rustic wood, with only a few windows, all shuttered in such a way as to make the facade look like one piece of wood with a few painted spots.

We walked casually up to the door, and Benny knocked. The door opened almost immediately, and Benny passed a wooden token to the door guard, who examined it, then nodded, stepping back so we could enter.

The inside of the place was much less woodsy. While the floors were lacquered planks and the tables were shiny dark wood, the trim was all chrome and steel, creating a somewhat sterile, almost surgical aesthetic that someone made the inside look bigger than the space itself would imply.

Of course, the space was already pretty expansive, given the spatial enlargement, but even so, they'd made excellent use of it.

In the middle of the restaurant, where a bar would normally be, was a recessed pit filled with sand. The edges were gold and gems inlaid in a dizzying array of enchantments and wards to prevent any attacks from getting out of the pit. We were escorted to an especially large table off the side of the fighting area, giving us an excellent view.

As we sat down, empty glasses were set in front of us, and then, in the middle of the table, on a metal slab set into the wood, a fifty pound steak was dropped. A loud hiss erupted from beneath it, showing us that the table was in fact, a grill.

"To get your drinks, simply lift your glass and speak your preference into the mouth." Said the server who had appeared with the steak. "The meat is only a few inches thick, it will be correctly seared in only a minute or two. If you'd like, you can cut your own section, then flip that, or you can all flip it together and cook it in one piece."

He bowed to us solemnly, then turned and scurried off. I sniffed deeply, enjoying the aroma. "Damn." I said with a sigh. "That does smell good though. I'm for medium rare? Anyone else?"

"Medium." Said Chelsea. We took requests, and ended up splitting it about halfway, medium rare and medium. "Well it's good that nobody wanted it well done. I guess we would have had to cut a small section for them."

I grinned at her. "No need to waste meat. I have a spare pair of boots in my space ring. If someone wants to eat shoe leather, I don't have a use for them anyway."

That got a laugh from most of my friends, and we used a supplied knife to cut the steak down the middle, waiting just a minute before flipping the half I was eating from, while the others left theirs on a bit longer.

Finally, the lights started to dim. "Oh shit." I said excitedly. "Showtime." I'd heard of Red Tiger and Blade Reaper too, if not quite as thoroughly as Abel. Tiger could summon a magma cat and even clothe himself in the material like a power suit, and blade reaper could summon bladed weapons of varying sizes.

As I watched them jump down into the pit, I was surprised to see them shrinking, and by the time they landed, they were only a few inches tall. With my Perception that wasn't a problem, but it took me a second to realize it was the same perspective shifting trick they'd used on the Tricorn, just much less sophisticated.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Boomed a voice from the darkness. "Thank you for coming to tonight's show. As you may know, this particular battle is one many of us have looked forward to with great relish. These two old enemies have been battling for decades, but tonight, for the last time, they will cross swords to decide the victor. Whoever wins will claim the title of master of Seerkel City, and be installed as the guild master of that place, either overtly or in the shadows. The other will leave Callus forever."

I whistled. "Wait, the loser has to leave? That's rough. Why now though?"

"Because they both topped out." Said Abel, staring at them clinically. "They're peak E-rank. No further to go while still on-planet. In reality, neither of them is losing out, but it'll be a good fight either way."

The announcer said a few more lines about their backstories and capabilities, but I mostly tuned it out. I was too focused on the two fighters getting in position. Finally, the announcer called to start, and the fight began.

From behind Red Tiger, a wave of magma erupted, forming into a giant tiger's head that lunged forward to bite down on Blade Reaper. Red Tiger was a fairly unassuming looking man in normal street clothes. The sole nod to his identity was the red tiger head mask he wore, the eyes lit like candle flames.

Blade Reaper was wearing a fitted black bodysuit lined with strapped down weapons. It mostly seemed like theater though, because without touching them, he flicked a hand and a pair of colossal bladed whips erupted from the sand to wrap around the magma tiger.

Red stepped back into the magma, and the tiger jerked as an entire human upper body tore itself free. In real size it probably would have been a hundred feet tall, but because the distortion it was more like five or ten. The arms reached up, grabbing the bladed whips, which began to smoke and warp.

With a massive heave, the lava golem tore apart the chains, and was immediately impaled on a hundred spears as they erupted from the ground to pin it in place. I turned, grinning at Benny as things started to heat up. "Ok." I admitted. "You were right. Best. Party. Ever." He just grinned back and we settled in to watch some violence. It was going to be a good night.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Ok." Bethy admitted as we strolled out of the bar and grill. "That was a decent fight. No crazy Path powers, but they both made good use of what they had. That blade summoner guy was pretty cool, he was like 'whoosh' and those giant wrappy chain things were all over the place, and the tiger guy was like 'not today chain guy!' and then turned into that giant magma kitty."

I laughed. "It's not that weird. It makes sense people stuck at E-rank with no chance to move up would maximize their advantages, especially since everyone else here is also at E-rank. Polishing your rank like that is a good way to get stronger. That's how Abel did it?"

"Who?" She said in confusion. "Are you talking about a friend of yours? Are they really strong? I thought Adler was the strongest person you knew here."

Abel threw his hands up in frustration. "That one isn't even a name!"

"My mistake." I told her solemnly. "He's no one important. Anyway, practice makes perfect. Still, I wonder if there's anyone on Callus with a Path?" Alas, my curiosity would go unsated, because we'd arrived at the shuttle, piling in and taking off for our next activity. I had bigger questions now that we were on the way. "So…tell me more about the aurora. You said we can walk on it? How is that possible?"

Benny shrugged. "Who knows? How is anything we do possible. All I know is that the aurora is supposed to be amazing. The colors vary, creating paths through the lights, and you climb them to try to find light sprites. The sprites are supposed to be good luck, and they emit a mysterious light that polishes your soul."

"Really?" I asked with interest. "That's not exactly a common power. Soul refinement is one thing, but polishing mostly seems to be a factor of time and use. And is that luck thing legit? I wish we could have brought Sydney and Megan with us, they'd have a better idea. Sadly they're nowhere near E-rank."

My best friend just laughed. "Who knows. It should be fun though. Apparently the different colors of light create varying amounts of suppression. From red to violet, the further you go the better the sprites. Everyone has to start on red, then that run along the red road, turning of onto other colors as they twist around each other. I thought we'd make a game out of it. Whoever catches more sprites wins."

"It definitely sounds like a blast." I chuckled. "Any idea where the lights come from? The effect seems weird."

Chelsea perked up. "Oh! I know!" She said excitedly, putting a hand in the air. "Crystals. There are fields of ice crystals spread out through the tundra. The lights refract through them and create the aurora. It's kind of like a natural formation."

Speaking of the aurora, I glanced out of the shuttle, realizing we were rising up over the city, up into the air where the auroras waited. Glancing up at the lights, I realized that the ribbons of luminescence were indeed single colors, all wrapped around and intertwined.

The colors shifted and wove together in such a way that they weren't in any real order, some ribbons dipping under other lower level colors and then back up, creating a big shimmering rainbow mess. The shuttle circled a few times, seemingly searching for something, until we came to a stop in front of the end of one of the ribbons, a shining path of red light.

"It's so pretty." Said Bethy, wide eyed as she stared at the complex network of lights before us. "I want to lick it."

I pointed at her sharply. "Do NOT lick it." I said firmly. "I watched your dad eat lightning because he considered it 'plasma'. With our luck, you'll end up gobbling the whole thing down. Just run on it. You can eat one of the sprites if you feel like it." I paused. "Wait, the sprites aren't like…sentient creatures, right?"

"No." Benny laughed. "I checked. Just balls of colored light. Kind of like willow the wisps."

I nodded solemnly, putting a hand on Benny's shoulder. "Fair enough. I have to say man, this whole thing is amazing, and there's something I really wanted to say before we start this little race."

"What's that?" He said, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

I patted his shoulder twice. "First." I said kindly, then hooked my foot behind his ankle and shoved. He went down in a squawk of indignation, but I was already moving.

Turning on my heel, I activated State of Grace then Mephistopheles, using my Waltz, to cross the expanded interior of the shuttle. I felt someone shove me and had to use Ripple Running to stabilize as Bethy blurred past me, giggling madly as she put one platformed boot on the red light before anyone else, and then took off at top speed.

Cursing, I hit the light right after and followed behind her. Once I was on the light, I realized that the ribbons actually diverged into multiple paths. I didn't feel like competing with Bethy for sprites, so I turned left at a five lane fork, heading deeper into the tangle.

I felt a surge of energy from beneath me, as if the light was supercharging me, pushing me forward, and the faster I went the more weight seemed to pile on me.

Of course, I'd been to higher ranked planets, so this was nothing, as I rounded a bend, I saw another ribbon of light loop around the one I was on, and on it, I saw an orb of light. Without thinking, I pushed off, flipping in midair, my feet slamming down on the blue light path, and as I landed, the new gravity actually helped me stabilize as it slammed me down onto the blue path with way more force than the red.

Reaching out, I snagged the blue orb, and as I grabbed it, I felt it melt into me. There was a wash of cleansing energy, and I felt refreshed. I kept running, looping through the sky on the blue road. I glanced around, looking for my friends. Chelsea was on the orange, and Abel and Bethy had both switched to green. Not every path connected so easily to a more powerful color. I'd gotten damned lucky.

Sadly, most of the ribbons looping around my current route were yellow and red, with the occasional green. I had to stick to my current path until I found something better. Apparently the blue had a higher concentration of energy or something, though. More sprites were spawning on my road, and I grabbed them as I ran, feeling that cleansing energy washing over me again and again.

I still wasn't sure what soul polishing actually DID, but whatever it was couldn't be a bad thing. The further I ran the faster I went, and the higher the pressure, like I was being forced forward and down, but the pressure seemed to push the cleansing energy even deeper into me. It felt…intentional.

Curiously, I looked around, activating my Eye of Revelation, trying to find some kind of pattern in the light paths. If I hadn't been out in the universe, if I hadn't read the skill book, and if I hadn't talked to Camden's cousin, I probably would have missed what I was seeing. Luckily, I'd done all of those things, which is why I was able to recognize the man made formation that this aurora actually was.

Of course, knowing that meant nothing. I knew it was a formation, but not what it did or how. I considered the problem for a minute. I could ignore this, move on and just have fun, but something told me not to. Fate sense, fatewalker class, my Path, who knew? But something was pushing me to do…something.

I tried my overlay, and nothing happened, but the arrows were different than usual. Frowning, I tried something new. Piece of Mind. I triggered a parallel, then another, then another. I used Eye of Revelation and the overlay with each of them, superimposing them on top of each other, forcing them to work together as I triggered Afterburner.

The combination of the stacked, brute force approach and the supercharge did the trick. My overlay traced the lines of light, shifting and changing to show me a specific path through them.

I started moving, hopping from one to another, blue to green to red to yellow, following some kind of pattern I couldn't articulate. I landed on the violet and followed it down, absorbing sprites as I went and enjoying the cleansing, but focused on my goal, I leapt off the violet path onto the red and then ran straight off the side where it curled back over a yellow…and vanished.

There was a shift as I went through some kind of spatial distortion, and suddenly I was standing in an icy cavern full of frozen crystals. The crystals were frosted over, but I could see dark shapes inside them. Blinking, I walked back to where I'd entered, stepping through the distortion and back out onto the paths.

"Hey guys!" I called excitedly. "I found something. Come check this out!"

I caught a few confused stares, but then I turned and stepped back through the distortion, not bothering to wait. I'd needed to take a special path to get there, but now that I'd been in, the entrance was open. According to my intuition it would close in about thirty minutes, unless someone was inside it.

It only took ten for the others to show up. Bethy came shooting through the distortion, Abel, Mel, and shockingly Benny on her tail. The others took a bit longer, but finally we were all here.

"Check it out." I said, gesturing around the room. "Seems like the aurora is some kind of formation. I think the sprites are power leaking out of it. So this might be some kind of like…soul cleaning formation?"

Chelsea shook her head. "I don't think so." She glanced at Bethy. "What do you think? Cold storage?"

Bethy nodded. "Been here a while too, I bet. Daddy has one for some of my brothers and sisters. When they get start to slow down in their progression and he thinks they might lapse into obscurity."

"Most of the major forces do." Said Chelsea. "Though this is…flashy. Not like any of the ones I've seen."

I threw my hands up in frustration. "Can you guys share, please? What is cold storage."

"It's a means of putting people on ice." my sister said. "Basically anyone who seems like they aren't growing anymore. Sometimes it can be hard for people to break into the scene. Too many talented competitors, too little ability. Rather than let them get old and miss their best years to make a splash, some factions freeze their descendants."

Bethy nodded. "Yeah, and the cleaning thing makes total sense too." She gestured around her. "Cold storage is a stasis field, it has to nourish the soul and cleanse the effects of time passing." She walked up to a crystal, wiping off the frost. "This is a pseudo D-ranked planet, so it makes sense they'd freeze some E-rankers. Unfreeze them once the planet ranks up maybe."

I wiped some frost of one myself, and blinked. The clothes they wore…they weren't costumes like ours. Plate armor, velvet doublets. These looked almost imperial, but more old fashioned.

"Well that makes sense." I said slowly. "But with that said, I'm forced to ask an even more important question." I knocked on the crystal. "This doesn't seem to be unity work, and these people are dressed real old fashioned to be from the conglomerate. So…how long have they been here, and where the hell did they come from?"

Rather than be worried, I was pretty excited for this new mystery. These people wouldn't necessarily be hostile. This could be a great opportunity to do some recruiting. I shot my best friend a thumbs up. He really knew how to throw a party.

 

[MichaelSuave]

Snip

Click to shrink...

You made Mario cart's rainbow road into a story prop...

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So how long do you think they've been here?" I asked in awe as I trailed through the cavern, checking the ice crystals. There were a hundred of them, which was…nuts. There were as many E-rankers in this cave as on the entire planet normally. More importantly, none of us recognized anything about any of them.

Granted, they weren't wearing costumes or anything, but several of them had VERY noticeable features, and having reached E-rank, we should have heard SOMETHING about them. One guy had wings made of amethyst feathers. Not the color, the fucking GEMSTONE.

It was impossible one of us hadn't heard about an E-ranker like that. Or the one with flowers for hair. Or the MINOTAUR. Or any of the dozens of extremely unique and powerful Ascendants in these ice crystals. As I was walking through the cavern though, my foot scuffed something under the snow. I frowned, kneeling down, and brushed it away.

"Hey, I found something." I was kneeling in front of an ice crystal containing a pixielike girl with rainbow dragonfly wings and lilac feathered hair. As I brushed away the snow, I found a plaque set into the ground. "Velliana Summerpeace- Heiress of the Summerpeace dynasty, 19 years old, peak E-rank. Interred- 742 SDC." I read aloud.

My sister stopped next to me, staring in shock at the plaque. "That's not possible." She said firmly.

"You've heard of her?" I asked in surprise. "What are the chances of that? Is the Summerpeace dynasty a big deal or something?" Had we found the descendants of some uber powerful lost tribe of fae?

She frowned at me. "What? No, these are random E-rankers, no way they made enough of a splash for me to have heard of them. I'm talking about that date. SDC. The Solemn Doubt Calendar hasn't been in common usage in EONS. These people predate any of the current factions, and based on the few scattered dates I found when I looked into it, PROBABLY the Aetherbright Empire."

I looked over the cavern with new eyes. Moving down the line, I stared to clear the snow from more plaques. More names, similar dates, and more factions and families I'd never heard of. All of them were peak E-rank, which implied to me that they'd been stuck below Master just like all the other E-rankers here.

Which was…weird. Planets could rank up. It made sense for Callus to restrain people below D-rank now, it wasn't exactly ancient, but if it had been a Pseudo D-rank planet for eons…that made far less sense. It should have broken through at SOME point.

"Do you know how big a find this is?" My sister squeaked excitedly. "An INTACT cold storage from the pre-faction era? Do you know how many questions they might be able to answer? The Historical Society would buy this cavern for more money than any of us could spend. You could charge an entire A-ranked planet for this place."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Interesting." I admitted. "But no. I'm not turning Callus into an archeological dig, especially not in the middle of a war. That'll draw way too much attention." I reached into my ring. "We can discuss this with the others and figure out a plan. If nothing else it'll be a trump card to use if we get in trouble, we can trade the info for some help or something."

Drawing up a quick contract, I passed it around. "I'm swearing everyone to secrecy on this. No one says a word to anybody except Callie, my mom, and Zeke. I don't want to mess with this place until we talk to them."

This was a huge find…but it was also a risk. Something about my power had pushed me here, walking the winds of fate, but I didn't feel like it was time to put this place to use. I might be imagining things, but something in my gut told me to keep this on the down low, and I'd been learning to listen to my instincts.

To my surprise, the others didn't seem to mind. They all just shrugged, signing to contract. "Well, at the very least, we can absorb the sprites in here right?" Benny gestured around. "The leakage inside the cavern is even more intense than in the aurora."

He was right, there were dozens of light sprites of varying colors floating above our heads. I'd been so distracted looking through the crystals I'd missed it. I glanced at Chelsea curiously. "That should be fine, right?" She knew more about formations than I did, so I was happy to let her make the call.

"Seems fine." She shrugged. "People have been siphoning the overflow from the aurora for centuries, at least. It doesn't matter if we take a bit more. As long as we don't damage the ice. These crystals are laid out in a very specific pattern, directing and shifting the energy in the formation to sustain the cold storage." Her eyes scanned the place in wonder. "This is incredibly sophisticated work."

I didn't know that much about the subject. "So like…a D-rank or C-rank formation?"

"No." She said after a brief hesitation. "It's E-rank. It's just…complicated. It's like if you built a house out of stone and one out of wood, the stone would be better, but if the stone house is a hut made of stacked rocks and the wood house was designed by a master architect, the former might not be much sturdier. The person who made this was brilliant."

I sighed. "Great. Well, you heard the woman, don't touch the ice, but otherwise gobble up as many of these things as you can." I winked at the others. "Our competition is still on, I suppose." Then I stepped off the air and blurred toward the nearest purple sphere. I wanted to get as much soul polishing as I could, and if the good luck rumors were true, I wouldn't mind some of that either.

As I passed through the various orbs, I felt them melt into me. I kept count, but it was almost an afterthought as little by little, my soul was polished. Triggering a Piece of Mind parallel, I let it take over as I tried to focus internally on my soul.

It was a strange thing to do, honestly. I'd looked into my soul multiple times, checking on my Skills and examining their construction, but that was more liking looking OUT from my soul. Trying to study the specifics was a bit like rolling my eyes up to try to look into the back of my skull. It took me a minute to figure it out.

When I finally nailed the technique, I was surprised to see my soul in all its Sapphire glory. But rather than a shimmering wall of blue like I expected, I saw a field of murky cerulean, cloudy and opaque. My soul in its pre polished state. As I watched it, I passed through another orb, and then two more. The energy sank into me, and I watched it strike the surface of my soul and roll over it like a ripple in a pond.

Where it passed, the cloudiness began to clear. Not immediately vanishing, but slowly dissipating as the blue became more and more translucent. It was fascinating to watch. I wondered what exactly polishing a soul did. The clarity was improving, but what effect would that have on me? I could see the necessity, given the journey of the soul found its end in a mirror sheen, so I was betting it had some use.

I tried a few skills, nothing seemed different. On instinct, I shifted to Mephistopheles again and triggered Mephisto's Waltz.

The world seemed to slow. The energy flowing through my body was smoother and calmer than it had been before. Thinking back, the Waltz had felt a bit more natural during the run, but not to this extent.

I'd questioned for a while how the soul related to Paths exactly. I knew it acted as a way to leverage my stats when I used techniques, but I hadn't been sure of its exactly role. Now I could feel it. The soul acted as a channel between the Path and stats, including Fantasy, which established the pseudo Domain that allowed techniques to work. The more polished my soul the faster and more easily that power flowed, and the less pressure it put on my soul.

My Waltz unspooled, Ripple Running let me step on air like it was solid stone, and I blurred through the cavern, snagging every one of orbs I could get, enjoying the visible proof of my improvement as I watched my soul clarify.

All too soon though, I was out. I touched down lightly, feeling oddly winded. Between my Piece of Mind parallel and the Waltz, that had taken more out of me than expected. My movement technique was based on using explosions of powerful destructive energy to eat up space, so it made sense it would be an energy hog.

"Twenty seven!" I crowed, throwing my hands in the air. "And half of them were purple! Beat that, nerds!"

Benny cursed. "Fourteen." He said acidly. "But not so fast. It'll only be fair if we do this by point value. Reds are one, oranges two, et cetera. Everybody add up your totals."

"One hundred and thirty six." I said after a brief recount. Focus really came in handy during times like this. I was confident in my score, I'd hit the violet path the earliest, and absorbed most of my sprites from there.

Sadly, I forgot who I was messing with. "One hundred and sixty!" Squealed Bethy happily. "That was so much fun. Did anyone beat me?"

Gabe raised a hand. "One eighty." He said with a small smile. "Nobody said we couldn't use Paths or abilities. My starlight charger was perfectly suited for this." We all stared at him in shock, he must have waited until we split up to summon it. I had to admit that was clever.

"Cheater." pouted Bethy. "If I knew we could ride animals I'd have ridden Luggage."

I glanced at my mentors. "Mel, Abel? How about you? You guys beat that?" I was hoping Mel had used her firepowers to get some extra speed. I didn't begrudge Gabe the win, but I wanted the locals to represent at least a bit.

"One twenty nine." Said the red masked woman. "Abel got one forty seven."

I laughed. "Well, you beat me. How about everyone else?" We took a count of everyone's scores, and in the end, Gabe took it by a landslide. Bethy was second, and my sister was third at one fifty eight. I was impressed.

We left the cavern together, retracing my steps to get back to the shuttle. I climbed in, laughing with my friends, and settled back to enjoy the ride to the lodge. As I watched the aurora fade away, I enjoyed the beautiful scenery as we descended back down into the valet. I caught something out of the corner of my eye and my gaze snapped over to the shuttle driver.

His eyes were locked on me, and for a second, I felt a sense of familiarity. It wasn't his face, or body language, or anything specific. I just got this sense that we'd met. It faded when my eyes landed on him though, and his own gaze slipped away. All this travel was making me paranoid. I'd have Zeke check him out just in case, but I really needed to relax.

So I did. Tomorrow was the last day before my wedding. I would be married in less than forty eight hours, and I couldn't wait. Closing my eyes, I settled in to listen to my friends banter, losing myself in the sounds, smells, and sensations of my home planet and my closest companions. It was a good night to be me.

 

[MichaelSuave]

You jinxed it... you taunted Murphy

 

[Lone-sith]

I'm really getting weird vibes, I don't like this

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"An ancient cold storage formation?" Asked Zeke in surprise when I filled him in on what we'd found. "Damn, that's not a bad find. You're not going to take over the universe or anything, but they might have some interesting abilities. Sounds like lots of unique racial traits and bloodlines among them too. That's a treasure trove for a candidate."

I nodded thoughtfully. "So you think I should bring them out now? I just can't shake the feeling it isn't time yet."

"Follow your gut, kid." He shrugged. "Everyone has their own way of doing things. Plus your wedding is the day after tomorrow, I get deciding to wait. Speaking of which, how was your party? Have fun?"

"It was a blast." I admitted. "Benny knows me well. Just the right blend of mindless fun and actual progress. The soul polishing was interesting. Though something weird did happen." I mentioned the driver to him, and he sighed.

He paused as if choosing his words carefully. "I can't do much for you there. I haven't seen anything around, and I've been looking. And I can tell you that because the wedding isn't part of your candidacy. With the big truce, you're officially off limits to any high rankers associated with other candidates, so if I found something I would be allowed to tell. If I found another candidate making things happen I couldn't tell you, but I could NOT tell you very obviously."

"Which means nothing is going on." I said, my shoulders slumping. I pulled my mask off, since we were alone, suddenly feeling a bit suffocated by it.

He shook his head. "Which means either nothing is going on or whatever IS going on is so far out of my weight class I can't tell. But honestly, that's always an option. Living your life in fear that you're being seamlessly manipulated by an untraceable puppetmaster so powerful you can't even tell they exist is how people go insane."

"So you're saying don't worry about it?" I asked in a deadpan tone. "This more of your 'if you can't change it ignore it' advice?"

Rolling his eyes, my uncle laughed. "Well if you knew what I was going to say, why bring it up?" He raised a brow at me, and I felt a force settle over us, masking our conversation. "Be honest. Is there any chance this paranoia might be a manifestation of cold feet? Trying to find a reason to put things off?"

"Not even a little bit." I said firmly. "My feet aren't cold. They're the opposite of cold. I have hot feet. Like, walking on coals hot."

And shockingly, it was true. I'd considered how surreal this was, wondered if I deserved it, considered how big a commitment I was making…and none of them had made me waver for even an instant.

I loved her. More than I'd ever loved anyone in my entire life. I'd sacrifice everything I had for her, give her anything she wanted, do anything she asked. I'd pluck the sun from the sky if she gave it a wishful glance. And she felt the same. I felt that every day. That surety, that peace, that love. She lived in my soul, for all intents and purposes, and I lived in hers. We were always together in a way more intimate than most couples could imagine, and exchanging vows was just making it official.

That was the part that floored me. How lucky I was. To know for sure what so many people had to guess at. I could live without it, mind. I'd proved that to myself in the ruined soul temple, but I didn't WANT to. I didn't want to live without it. I didn't want to live without her.

He must have seen that on my face. "You really aren't, huh? That's no small thing, kid. I'm happy for you. Gods know I'm not exactly that sure of anything myself."

"So we're not going to be attending yours and Stella's wedding anytime soon?" I asked sardonically.

"That depends." He said quietly. "On if I get up the guts to ask her." He snapped his fingers, and a box appeared in his hand. "I got this years ago." He said, staring at it wistfully. "Back when things were good. But you were young and I had responsibilities. Wasn't a great time. THen she figured out I wasn't quite as harmless as I portrayed myself, and things between us went sour."

I stared at him in shock. "You're serious?" I asked cautiously. "That's…kind of huge. When are you going to ask?"

"I don't know if I am." He said thoughtfully, tossing the box up and catching it. "Not all of us are you, kid. Not all of us find our soulmate. Or maybe we do, and we're too stupid to see it. I missed her when I was gone. That's not something I'm used to. I'm a very 'in the moment' kind of person. I don't dwell."

His tone was light, but I could tell this was weighing on him. Not just this either. "You're waiting for me to hit D-rank." I said solemnly. "Until your geas breaks."

"Maybe." He shrugged. "Or maybe that's an excuse. I'm not necessarily going to bail on you as soon as you rank up, kid. My geas breaks and my time as a guardian will end but my job as your uncle isn't over by a longshot. Especially with the competition's final stage moving up. Some of the older candidates are at my level. You'll need someone my strength for the final contest."

I didn't know much about the final contest, and I was sure he couldn't tell me. But I believed him when he said I'd need him. It didn't matter. "I don't want you throwing away your happiness for me. Stella is E-rank. Only one more to D. Mastery is a watershed. You could help her, like we helped the others. Because you're worried about that too, aren't you."
He sighed. "A to E is a big gap. I won't stand here and say that's not a factor. But more than that…this is new ground for me. I'm not sentimental, Shane. Not about this. I've had girlfriends, don't get me wrong, but no one that stuck. But Stella…I saw her face." His voice dropped, sounding tired as I'd ever heard it. "When I was fighting that skull masked fuck. When I thought I was going to die. I saw her face in my head. I wanted to see her again. Just one more time."

"Really?" I said in surprise. "That's kind of huge. Why didn't you tell anyone?"

He shrugged. "Bad business to advertise your weaknesses, kid. That's Ascendant 101. Your girl is a powerhouse, and you've got that connection. You're coming up together, so the cat's out of the bag. Stacey…she's not. She's a vulnerability." It took me a second to remember that Stella was her hero name. It had been a long time since I'd heard anyone call her anything else.

I wanted to disagree. Wanted to tell him he was being stupid and he should just be happy, but I'd seen the ugly side of the five factions. Seen what someone was willing to do to his own daughter just for a bit of power. He wasn't wrong. "So make her strong." I finally said. "You can help her find a Path. It's not like she needs to make it to godhood. It doesn't have to be a new Path. Just something that works. Hell, ask my grandmother, her Path is star based, right?"

He burst out laughing. "That's your solution? You want me to call up the secret daughter of a pair of feuding gods and ask her to make my girlfriend her apprentice because I hung out with her daughter when we were younger?"

"Or have mom ask her." I shrugged. "Or have mom teach Stella. Whatever you decide, you have options. Don't let fear take your choice away. What's the point of working your way up to A-rank if you're too scared to use that power to protect the things you love. Live your damn life, Zeke."

He blinked at me. "That…is wildly arrogant advice. I'm actually kind of proud. And you're right. I'll think it over. I have to talk to her about it, first. But at least I have the ring. Speaking of which, do you have yours?"

Laughing, I reached into a pocked, pulling out a small box of my own. I opened it, and inside sat…something spectacular.

"That." Said Zeke with wide eyes. "Is a Cosmic Moment. THose are REALLY rare. How the hell did you even get that? I don't think I've ever even seen one." He gingerly picked up the ring, and stared at it in fascination.

"Where else would I get a crystallized supernova." I said with a shrug. "It was moms. She gave it to me during the trip. She said she wanted me to have it."

The ring was beautiful. A midnight black band of crystal, within which spun a thousand galaxies. Set into the top was a brilliantly glowing stone that pulse with a blue white light. A Cosmic Moment, like Zeke said. The captured energy of an exploding star.
The engagement ring I'd given Callie was nice enough, and the starpluck bangle was a great gift, but this was our wedding ring. The one she'd be wearing for the rest of our lives. And I wanted it to be special. I knew my moms offer was partially based in guilt and wanting to be part of my wedding, but honestly, that made it more special, not less. Getting the ring from my mom felt…right. Like it was one more thing showing that Callie was part of the family.

Zeke whistled as he put it back. "You know what you can do with one of those?" He asked ruefully.

"Nope." I responded without hesitation. "No clue what it's good for. But I know it's priceless, and special, and beautiful. So it's about half as important as Callie as far as I'm concerned. If that."

He chuckled. "You're such a sap." I put the box away, returning it to my ring, and Zeke leaned over to clap me on the shoulder. "Hey." He said, getting my attention. "I'm proud of you. For all of this. Who knew when your dad left you with me all those years ago you'd grow up to be a halfway decent guy."

"You probably would have." I said fondly. "If you hadn't been so drunk most of my life."

He snorted. "Please. Like any of the swill on this planet could actually affect me. I just like the taste."

"So all those times you embarrassed me and passed out when I had friends over, you were just being an asshole?" I said in mock outrage. Zeke had never done anything that bad. He was mostly just not around. Now that I thought about it, that might have been his excuse to run the WCP branch in Valen.

We laughed together, talking about my childhood, and I was surprised how much of it he remembered. Things he hadn't even been there for. Zeke really had been watching out for me my whole life, even when I couldn't see him.

After our talk, I said goodbye, giving him a tight hug, and then headed for my room. I wanted to get some rest, plus spend some time with Callie. She was insisting we sleep apart the night before the wedding, so tomorrow night I'd be crashing with Benny. Something about not seeing the bride in her dress before the ceremony.

She was waiting for me when I got back, lying in bed with a soft smile on her face, and I curled up around her, feeling her warmth against me as I nodded off. The feeling of warmth and safety and love as I drifted off was irreplaceable. My feet, as I'd mentioned to Zeke, were toasty warm.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning was surprisingly quiet. I'd gotten so used to things being busy and frantic, but with everything taken care of, I almost felt like we were in the calm before the storm. I woke up slowly, smiling down at Callie's peaceful face. I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, my smile widening as she grumbled and slapped at my hand.

Her brow furrowed slightly, but she didn't wake up. I leaned down and kissed her forehead gently before sliding out of bed and walking to the doors of our balcony.

The air outside was crisp and refreshing, still with that morning chill, and the silence around me was heavy on air. Oddly, I didn't feel the need to break it. More often than not, the silences I dealt with on mornings like this felt oppressive, but this one was different. Harmonious, almost.

Above us, I watched the aurora dance in the sky, visible even more vividly in the early morning, before the sun had risen. I was completely immersed in the sight, and almost missed the movements behind me, but it became clear who was moving when a familiar arm wrapped around my waist as Callie tucked herself under my arm.

"Sorry if I woke you." I said shortly. It felt almost sad to shatter that peaceful silence.

She just shrugged. "Hard to sleep." She said idly, staring up at the aurora. "Just one more day. It'll be weird sleeping alone tonight."

"Your rule." I said with a wry grin. "I'd be happy to scrap it.

Snorting, she shook her head. "Not mine. My mom's. She's superstitious about the weirdest things. But it makes her feel involved when I listen to her, and that's important. Speaking of important, I need you to do the once over of the venue. Make sure everything is up to snuff. I have to get my dress fitting double checked."

"You haven't changed even slightly over the past couple months." I pointed out. "You haven't even gained muscle because we weren't working out on the trip."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "When will you learn to let me have my quirks? Measure twice, wear once. That's a known thing in fashion. Bethy told me that."

"Then she lied to your face." I laughed. "That's a known thing in CARPENTRY. It's measure twice, cut once, and that saying is about literal wood beams." She looked unimpressed, so I rolled my eyes and gave her a quick peck. "Oh fine. Yes dear. I'll check on the venue."

Beaming at me, she gave me a tight squeeze. "Shane…I just wanted to thank you. I know this has been a pain. I've been going out of my mind with worry. It just feels like…I have to get this perfect. This is the first time the world will be seeing us together as a married couple. I want everyone to know that we're a team, that we support each other and have each other's back."

I could feel what she wasn't saying. "Is this still an insecurity thing?" I reached down to put my finger under her chin, raising her head to look me in the eyes. "You, Calliope Reynolds, are amazing. I was in awe of you from the moment I laid eyes on you. I'm lucky to have found you, and anyone who thinks you're not good enough, or are using me, or whatever crazy ridiculous thing you've convinced yourself people will think, is an idiot, and I will strike them violently about the head and body with my magic stick."

That threw her off enough that she burst out laughing. She was used to my support and adoration, and she just thought I was biased, but the unexpected joke had jarred her out of her funk. She laid her head against my side and closed her eyes, smiling peacefully. "I love you."

"I love you too." I said without hesitation. "And I always will. Now, if the wedding being perfect means that much to you I'll make it happen, so I have a venue to vet. Sadly, that means I can't make you homemade cinnamon buns for breakfast like I'd planned." Her jaw dropped in outrage as I dipped back, avoiding her grab for my shirt. "I'm sure future you appreciates your sacrifice thanks bye!"

I laughed maniacally as I bolted out of the rooms, ignored her joking cries of faux anguish at the thought of missing a home cooked breakfast.

About halfway down the hall, I ran into Benny, who was coming out of his own room. "Whoa there." He said with a laugh. "Where are you going in your civvies?" He gestured to my sweats and t-shirt. I'd slipped on my mask but hadn't bothered with my armor for the same reasons I hadn't needed it the other day.

"Benny!" I said happily. "Congratulations, you're being conscripted."

He grimaced. "Am I joining the army again? Because that was way less fun than you made it sound.

"You're so whiny." I said teasingly. "You made me join the army Shane. This tournament is hard Shane. I can't survive swimming in that volcano Shane, I'll die. You have absolutely no sense of adventure, you know that?"

He shot me a deadpan look. "Where is the adventure in having to help set up your wedding? You're just using me for free labor."

I threw and arm over his shoulder. "This is all about mindset. You don't 'have to' help me set it up. You 'get to' help me set it up. Or else. Just look for the silver lining. These are useful and important skills you can use to plan your own wedding someday."

"Except I'm not a Wyndham, so I won't need to make such a big fuss." He groused.

I just snorted. "Your girlfriend is elvish nobility. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you ain't seen nothing yet."

He frowned deeply. "I really wish that didn't make sense. Damn you."

"It's ok bud." I said consolingly. "That's a problem for future Benny. Present Benny is going to be so damned busy he won't be able to worry about it." I paused, looking up at the driver of the shuttle I'd just walked us up to. "Harmony Hall please."

Benny blinked, looking around in shock. "Shit, you distracted me. Come on, I can't even get breakfast?"

"You can eat when you're dead." I said mercilessly. "Or when my work is done, either is fine."

He glared at me sulkily. "Despot. Fine. But only because tomorrow is the big day and Callie has been going out of her mind with the planning. We should take some of the work load off her mind so she can enjoy things more."

"Agreed." I said with a sigh. "That's mostly why we're doing this. She needs a chance to relax a bit before the wedding so she won't be all burnt out."

We chatted for the rest of the tide, and despite our back and forth, I could tell my best friend didn't mind getting sucked into things. I considered bringing up Celine again, but I knew Callie and I had taken this step earlier than most recursion aside. I wasn't going to poke him about something that might make him genuinely uncomfortable, at least not too much.

I was pretty sure my talk with Zeke and the wedding itself had put me in a weird headspace about the whole thing.

Finally, we arrived at the venue, and I thanked the driver (not the same guy who had weirded me out the day before) and hopped out, excited to take in the place where I'd be getting married.

Sure enough, when we disembarked, I was awestruck. We'd rented a sort of garden spring gazebo in the center of Wintervale. While most of the place was green and relatively warm, the spring had collected all that frost and cold and condensed it into a single area. A small black pond sat in the center of the garden, with the gazebo behind it.

An ice bridge led over the pond, formed of black frost. The gazebo was clean and peaceful looking, if small, and the garden around the pond was a cascade of gorgeous flowers, growing up and around rows of intricately carved seats. I could see engravings of animals and beautiful scenes carved into the dark wood.

I'd expected the orange and black plants to be ugly, but to my surprise the vibrant starbursts of color among the deep black plants homogenized with the black ice and the pond, and the orange fairy lights hanging from the gazebo tied the whole thing together shockingly well. Even the grass was black. I could see some of the flowers Jessie had mentioned, but instead of arrangements it looked like they'd planted them and let them grow over the seating.

"Damn." Said Benny in an impressed tone. "This looks better than expected. I was kind of on the fence about the color scheme, but it looks good."

I smiled wryly. "Same here. It's weird, I think she decided to do orange partly because of the house back in Rajak. Like a nod to where we came from. But it seemed like such a terrible choice to me. I kind of get it now."

"You say that." He smirked. "But you don't have to wear a completely orange dress. Celine was NOT pleased, though she obviously didn't make too big a fuss. I think once she sees all this she won't be as unhappy. Lucky we only need orange ties."

Laughing, I resumed my circuit, taking in the details and double checking everything Callie wanted to make sure of. The gift bags, custom invitations included, were set out, the plating was done on the big fancy tables behind the gazebo (though none of the food was out yet obviously) , and there was a stage set up for the band (because DJs were tacky apparently).

All in all, everything was where it was supposed to be. Oddly, the more I confirmed, the more uneasy I got. My sense of peace from the morning was slowly eroding, and I wasn't sure why. I used my Eye of Revelation on everything, making sure there was no poison or traps or hidden weapons caches, I checked all the staff I saw and didn't notice an issue, I just couldn't figure out what was bothering me.

Eventually I just shoved it down. I was here for Callie, and if something went wrong I'd handle it, but for now, I was going to make sure this went as perfectly as possible. I owed her that much, and so much more. She deserved to have this day go just as perfectly as she wanted, even if the insecurity was a little silly. I grimaced as that pushed me back into the worry spiral, putting me back at square one.

"Hey." Said Benny casually. "You still have wishes for today right?" I glanced at him, and he grinned. "I know you're distracted, but we might as well get them out of the way." He reached into a pocket and flipped me a D-rank chit. "Credit for your thoughts?"

I rolled my eyes, but I was glad he was here. He always knew how to distract me. Plus,seventy Fantasy would put me over ten thousand, and milestones like that felt important.

Benny wished for seventy Might (putting HIM over ten thousand) and traded for the Fantasy I needed as we got back into the shuttle. We'd confirmed everything and now had the rest of the day to kill. I wasn't sure if it would be over in a flash or drag on forever, given how nervous I was.

As we took off, I looked back down at the gazebo, trying to pinpoint what was bothering me. Try as I might though, nothing was coming clear. Reaching out for Callie, I sent her a supportive burst of love through the bond, getting one back, and that helped me calm down. The last errand was out of the way. Tomorrow was my wedding. It was almost here.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I woke up alone. I didn't feel particularly strongly about that. No, loneliness was not on my list of emotions. The cold, gnawing dread was up taking up most of my emotional bandwidth. It was so pervasive it took me a minute to realize I hadn't woken up on my own, I'd been helped along by a knock on my door. Or rather, Benny's door, Celine and Callie had switched rooms so we'd all have somewhere to stay.

"Hey man, you awake?" Asked my best friend as he came into the room with a cup of hot cocoa and a plate full of food. "I figured you could use some food.

I grunted, sitting up, and gave him a grateful nod as I took the meal. I forced myself to chew, despite my stomach being a rioting mess and the bacon tasting like ash.

Like I'd told Zeke. I didn't have cold feet. I couldn't wait to marry Callie. No, the problem was that I was terrified SHE would rethink marrying ME. This girl was way too good for me. She was smart and beautiful and perfect and I was a lazy battle junkie with daddy issues.

Benny raised a brow at me. "You certainly seem to have your head on straight. Steady as a rock. I'm surprised, you usually freak out when you're doing something big. I guess you've grown up a lot."

"What are you, fucking insane?" I snapped at him. "I'm about to puke. My heart is hammering like an automatic rifle and palms are sweating for some weird reason. How am I supposed to regulate that? What if it happens during the ceremony? What if the ring slips off and she leans down to get it and I accidentally knee her in the face and her nose breaks and she leaves me forever-"

He covered my mouth with his hand, looking appalled. "Shit man, you buried that crazy in a shallow grave. My mistake. Luckily, I come bearing more gifts than just food." He reached into his pocket, pulling out a folded piece of paper, and handed it to me.

Taking it, I opened the note to find a short, succinct message. 'I love you, idiot. Calm down.' I laughed, folding it up and putting it in the pocket of my pajama pants.

"I can't believe I took the under." He said with a disgusted sigh. "Almost two years at this and you only managed a decent poker face. Bastard. Seems like that helped though. Let's try this again. Pushing down any insane panic spirals about elaborate farcical comedies of errors ruining your wedding, how are you feeling, you absolute moron?"

I patted my pocket, closing my eyes as I pictured the note again, and laughed quietly. "Sorry." I said as I opened them. "I'm good. She does know me well. Did you see her? Did she seem ok?" I reached for my bond, getting a pulse of adoration and excitement, which I returned in force, but nothing specific.

"I didn't." He said. "Celine brought me that. I love how your wedding means my girlfriend doesn't sleep in our room. If I'd know being best man meant having to bunk with your big ugly ass, I'd have let Zeke do it."

I gave him a sympathetic look. "Jealousy is such a petty emotion." I said kindly. "But don't worry, we're only nineteen. I'm sure you'll grow into your features someday. Until then, try to control your envy at my refined and glorious features." I framed my chin with a finger and a thumb like a check mark and grinned cheesily.

"No wonder you managed to form a Path so early." He said pityingly. "You've completely lost touch with reality."

Shrugging, I winked at him. "Maybe it's the air up here. It gets thin at this altitude. You wouldn't know about that though, would you?" I never let him forget my current one inch height advantage after Callie traded me an inch for a wish.

"I'll let that pass because it's your wedding." He said with narrowed eyes. "But starting tomorrow you better watch your ass."

We both laughed, and I pulled him into a huge. Benny always knew when I needed to banter and let off steam. "How about you?" I asked when I let go. "You ready? Got the ring?" I'd handed it to him last night, and if he'd lost it I was going to hyperventilate.

"I'm not an idiot." He said with an exasperated sigh. He patted his pocket. "It's right here." He froze. "Wait, where did it go?" He patted his pockets frantically. "Shit, I swear I just had it…You're not buying this at all are you?" His panicked expression gave way to a toothy grin. "I thought you might be nervous enough to believe me."

I rolled my eyes. "Luckily I know you well enough to expect your poorly timed and amateurishly executed attempts at humor. You should talk to Serah. I'm told she's the funniest angel in her whole tower."

He burst out laughing. "She does crack me up sometimes. But it's a bit hit or miss. She pulls off most of her jokes because of the deadpan delivery, and I just don't have it."

"I shudder to think what she's teaching Bethy." I said with a terrified expression.

"Speaking of, she seemed awfully excited to be a bridesmaid. It was sweet of Callie to ask her. Maria really appreciated it too."

I smiled fondly. "Yeah, she's sweet like that. Though speaking of Maria, what's up with her and Jessie. They break up or something? They haven't really seemed to be interacting much, I was expecting them to hang out once we got back."

"They were never really together." He shrugged. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder sometimes, and sometimes it just puts distance. They decided to just be friends. Jessie was telling me about it the other day. They're just doing different things with their lives. Not everyone has a fairytale romance with their first girlfriend."

I shot him a withering look. "Dude. You're dating an ACTUAL elf princess."

"She's not a princess." He said quickly. "But fair point. Anyway, they're still friends, just not pursuing anything romantic, so it won't be awkward."

"Up to them." I shrugged. "I kind of get it. Long distance is hard enough for established couples. Trying to start something that way would be rough." I stood up, grabbing the bag with my suit in it and stepping into the bathroom to change. "Man, I thought being so sure of this would mean I wouldn't be as freaked, but if anything being so committed to the idea is making the pressure heavier."

I finished changing and stepped out, cracking my neck and spreading my arms wide. "So, how do I look?"

He shrugged. "Maybe half as good as I do. Which is still ten times better than usual."

"Remind me to replace your mirrors." I said with a mock sneer. "Apparently they're all the funhouse kind that Cicero uses at the circus."

He gave me a knowing smile. "You know we're going to have to quit stalling eventually." He said in a surprisingly kind tone. "There's nothing to be scared of. She's crazy about you, and it's not like this will really change anything. You're basically newlyweds anyway, you're so into each other it's sickening."

I laughed, pulling him into another hug. "Thanks man. You're right. Let's go."

We slipped out of the room, taking a specific hallways so we didn't run into Callie and climbing into a shuttle. The ride to the venue was shockingly quick, and when I arrived, the usher led me to the gazebo where I would be waiting.

We were early, by a substantial degree. Most of the seats were empty, but my mom and Amelia were already there. "Shane!" Callie's mom said happily. "You look so handsome!" She stepped up the adjust my tux, then adjusted it back a second later before nodding in confirmation. "Are you ready?"

"A little shaky." I admitted. "I'm worried she won't show up. I mean, I know she will but what if she doesn't, what if she dec-" Benny's hand covered my mouth again.

"Let's not get him started." He said with a laugh. "He's fine, and he'll be more fine when she gets here. Is everything ready?" He turned to my mom, who was standing off to the side in an orange silk dress, beaming proudly at me.

She brushed the question off with a snort. "Obviously. "I'm not half assing my baby's wedding. Our seating is all lined up, bridal party and groomsmen are aware of their places, caterer has already delivered the food, flowers are out, gift bags are ready, cake is here, photographer is standing by, the wolves are dressed in little outfits, and we nixed the doves because we were pretty sure they would get eaten."

"Where's the ring?" Asked Jessie as she arrived. "I want to give it to Randall before the ceremony, we have his pillow all set up."

Benny fished in his pocket. "I got it. Best man holds the ring until the ring bearer gets it. Or ring bear, I guess." He shot me a reproachful look. "Was the bad pun really necessary. You could have had Callie's half brother do it."

"Randall is adorable." I said in a dignified voice. "Plus Eric is too young. That ring is worth more than this entire star cluster. Cass is out flower girl though."

Jessie beamed. "I picked out the cutest petals for her to use. They burst into flames when they touch the ground. But like…not hot flames. Orange ghost fire. It's going to be very tasteful, and not arsonisty at all."

"That's good to hear." I said dryly. "Callie was very clear about how much fire the wedding was allowed to be on. Which is none. She's against it."

"I know." Said Mel as she stepped into the gazebo, Abel following behind her. "I tried to convince her to let me do a fire dance, but she said it's too dangerous. Something about G-rankers being so flammable I might ignite them from a distance by accident. So insulting. Security is standing by." She told my mom. "The last sweep came up clean."

I raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you two were helping out with that? I appreciate the assist. And thanks again for the manpower mom."

"Of course sweetie." She said happily, fixing my jacket exactly the same way Amelia had and actually messing it up worse. Her hands came up to grip my face. Or mask at least. "Look at you. I wish you're take this thing off for the ceremony. I'm surprised Calliope didn't insist."

I shrugged. "She knows it's a safety issue. Plus I think it looks good. It's my brand."

We talked for the next hour or so, double checking everything as guests began to trickle in. It was crazy seeing the mix of old friends and new, seeing powerful E-rankers we'd grown up hearing about next to people we were friends with and had fought with side by side. The whole wedding had a surreal vibe to it, without even touching on how crazy it was that I was marrying the woman of my dreams.

Eventually, Amelia, Chelsea, Mel, and my mom stepped over to where Callie's bridesmaids were waiting, and Abel joined Zeke, Gabe, Ian, and several other friends with the groomsmen. Benny stayed by me waiting at the end of the aisle.

After everyone was seated, the band started up the music, and my heart thundered in my chest as another shuttle, this one sleek and understated, landed at the end of the aisle. My eyes were locked on the exit, and I couldn't stop myself from swallowing as a figure emerged. Calliope Reynolds, the woman who was going to be my wife, started her walk down the aisle, and I'd never been so transfixed by any sight in my entire life.

 

[Mastersenseinewby]

I wouldn't mind some pictures about the various different things that happened in this story

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I felt like time was standing still. People say that all the time, and it always sounds hokey to me, but in this case, it was the only phrase that fit. It was like I got stuck between one heartbeat and the next because I literally couldn't process how perfect my fiancee, no, my WIFE (at least in a minute or two) looked at that moment.

People were talking, birds were chirping, and a thousand other things were making some kind of noise, but I couldn't really hear any of it. The world was just gone, and all I could see was the love of my life at the end of the orange carpet laid over the grass, smiling softly back at me.

She looked like an angel. No, more like a goddess, floating across the grass in a black lace ball gown studded with shining black crystals. Her hair was woven through with orange flowers, somehow blending perfectly with the rest of her look.

I stared into those bottomless blue eyes as she walked down the aisle, the music barely audible to me, until suddenly, she was in front of me, and I was drowning in love and adoration and pouring mine right back into the bond. We stared for a minute or two, until my mom finally cleared her throat. "Shane?" She said in amusement.

Blinking, I turned to where she was waiting to officiate. She'd volunteered to do it, because as a literal Saintess she was more than qualified to do the ceremony.

"What?" I said dumbly. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing at that moment.

She smirked, suppressing a chuckle. "I believe you mentioned that the two of you wanted to say your own vows. I just got to that part."

I hadn't heard her do the introductory part of the ceremony, but I'd been distracted, so I took a deep breath and turned back to Callie, taking her hands in mine as I stared into her eyes. "I guess I can go first." I said with a laugh. "But honestly I'm not sure where to start. You mean so much to me, how do I put that into words? How do I say what I've said a thousand times even more emphatically, because every time I'm with you the love I have for you only grows.

"I think." I said after a moment. "I'll start with fear. Or rather. Without it. Because that's what you give me. Ever since I first started this journey a few years ago, my life has been constantly threatened, I've been thrown from one enemy to the next and I've almost died a dozen times. But I wouldn't trade a second of it for the world."

Pausing, I tried to force the words to express everything I felt, but it wasn't enough. I just had to keep trying until it clicked. "But when I met you, everything changed. The scary things about entering a dangerous new world melted away, and all that was left was the joy. The excitement and the adventure of being with you has made my life one of discovery and beauty. Since the first time we spoke, my life has never been the same, and I'll love you for that more and more every day of my life."

Her eyes were wet, though she was trying not to cry, and she closed them slowly, taking a deep breath before responding.

"Shane. You are the best thing that's ever happened to me." She said hoarsely. "I spent so much of my life alone. I felt like I couldn't trust anyone, like I'd just be thrown away when I wasn't convenient, and like I was just a useful tool for anyone who did invest their time."

Her eyes shone like cerulean stars as they bored into me. "But from the first time I came to get you to go to that fight club with me and you freaked out about riding on my bike, I knew you were special. You didn't care about my family, or my name, or any of that nonsense. You were fun and brave and a little silly, and I adored you for it.

"Thinking of spending the rest of my life with you doesn't scare me." She said firmly. "Because I've been doing that for months. Since before you proposed I've been spending my life with you. Because I knew you were it. You were everything I'd ever need. And getting to show everyone we love that we belong together forever makes me so happy. Getting to share how much you mean to me with everyone who is important to us means the world to me."

My mom beamed at us. "It certainly sounds like you're both very serious about this. Do you, Shane Elijah Wyndham, take this woman to be your wife. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or poorer, so long as you both shall live?"

I squeezed both of Callie's hands, willing her to feel my certainty. Holding hands was something Callie and I did often. It was a way to show support without speaking, to lend physical strength to each other silently. And now, it was a way for me to show her that I wouldn't ever let her go. That I'd hold onto her for the rest of our lives.

Glancing back, I found a miniaturized Randall toting a little orange pillow tied around his neck, and on it sat the ring. I picked it up, sliding it onto Callie's left ring finger as I responded. "I do."

She turned to look at Callie. "And do you, Calliope Reynolds, take this man to be your husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or for poorer, so long as you both shall live?"

"I do." She breathed, her own hand taking the ring from Jessie and sliding the black metal band onto my ring finger.

My mother smiled so widely I thought her face might freeze that way. "It's a big commitment." She said gently. "To pledge yourself to someone, especially another Ascendant. Talented young people like you can live for thousands of years, tens of thousands. To help start off your life together, members of my family have a tradition, a ceremony we perform on those we help usher into their new lives. Would you like me to perform it?"

Mom hadn't mentioned that to me, but I trusted her, and Callie did too. We both nodded, and she closed her eyes, raising her hands, allowing them to flare up with white fire.

She reached out for us, placing a hand on each of our heads, but I didn't flinch or resist. When her hand made contact, flames flowed through my body, and I felt myself heat up in a strangely cleansing way.

"Marriage is a difficult thing." My mother said, eyes still closed. "And it can test you as surely as fire tests gold. Before you enter this new phase of life, let me first cleanse your insecurities, cleanse your doubts, cleanse your worries and your fears. Be washed clean of the poisons that might taint your happiness, and emerge free of burden."

I wasn't sure if that little ceremony actually DID any of that, but I felt like it was cleansing something. Purifying my body, mind, and soul. I really did feel unburdened, and as she opened her eyes and stepped back, all I could feel in my heart or Callie's was joy and peace.

"In the name of the Red Revenant, of the Radiant Pope, and in my own name. I pronounce you man and wife. May your loves be forever intertwined, and may your love for each other carry you across a thousand oceans and through a thousand storms. You may kiss the bride."

And I did. My mask retracted like it always did and Callie threw herself into my arms, pressing her lips to mine as the bond lit up like a supernova, flooding with all the love and happiness. In fact, the light began to shift, and I felt the bond changing as it overflowed with those feelings and evolved, rising to Expert level in one step.

Callie stiffened for a second, but relaxed against me as she recognized the feeling too, and finally we pulled away from each other. Callie's eyes were overflowing with tears of joy, and she was smiling wider than I could ever remember seeing. I could feel her even more deeply now, like she was part of me, like she'd replaced the heart in my chest, and it just felt…right.

We turned to see the others, our friends and family, here with us on the most important day of our lives…and froze. Among the groomsmen and the bridesmaids, several figures had drawn weapons, pressing them against the throats of some of our friends. Cicero had a knife against Abel's throat, and Valk had gotten close enough to threaten my sister.

At the end of the aisle, looking relaxed, was the driver from the other day, the one I'd noticed before, standing in the middle of the carpet, unbothered by the multiple powerful Ascendants surrounding him. "Oh by all means." He said with a smile. "Don't let me interrupt.

My mother was glaring at him. "Who are you? How dare you threaten my daughter? I could snuff you out like a candle flame."

"I'm sure." He said without worry. "But you won't. Those knives they're using are specialty weapons. They're hooked through the edges of the soul, if they're withdrawn before being deactivated…well, bad things happen. We were very careful when arranging all this, so just be good and let me get through my speech. It's important to toast at a wedding."

I glared at him. "Who the hell are you? I feel like I recognize you from somewhere, but my Danger Sense isn't going off. Even now, when you're so close."

"Well, that would be the arrangements I mentioned. Cloaks from Delthrys, god of Secrets. I do have to thank you Shane, you've been such a busy bee. If you hadn't made such a nuisance of yourself I could never have gotten the resources to make this example of you. As for my identity…" He pouted, then ran a hand over his face. As I watched, the features melted, rearranging into a familiar visage that reminded me of betrayal and agonizing pain. "I'm hurt." Said Travis. "I thought for sure you'd figure it out once you got the first hint."

Valk's face, Cicero's face, and the faces of several other guests melted away, revealing different (though still unknown) visages.

I stared in horror at the hostages, at my mother, who didn't seem to be able to do anything, and at my wife, whose panic I could feel through the bond. "Please." I said quietly. "This isn't necessary. You want to hurt us, I get it. Make your example. There are plenty of witnesses to spread the word. I'm the most notable target. Just take me. Make a spectacle, it'll be so much more impactful."

Travis, the rat bastard translocator who had stabbed me in the back, betrayed us to Hatescream and caused Perit's death by my wife's hands, stared at me for a second. "You?" He said through his giggles. "You're not the example Shane. You're just the garnish. No, the example isn't one person, it's this whole PLANET." He slipped an object from his pocket and threw it at the ground.

There was a colossal blast of red light that obscured all vision, and when I looked up, my blood ran cold. My mom, Zeke, Callen, Felicity. Every person at the wedding above E-rank was gone. Above us, the sky began to warp, lines of light, far above the aurora, up in the atmosphere, began to arrange themselves into endless shapes of mazes. "Now." He continued in satisfaction. "We can REALLY start the fun."

 

[Vongrak]

Honestly? So glad we had that bit of extra clarification to remind us (me) what/who Travis was. Like, I did remember the betrayal and stuff but I had completely forgotten his name by this point. It's just... Travis. The great and terrible traterous translocator... Travis. I hadn't really thought he'd be relevant again for a good while perhaps? I dunno. This was very much not on my bingo card.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My entire body was locked up. Not by some effect or ability, but by indecision. My sister, my friends, they were all being threatened, and by someone I KNEW was capable of killing them in the blink of an eye. "What the hell was that?" I growled at Travis. My eyes were glued to the knife at my sister's throat. "And you have us surrounded, can you please…deactivate those knives or whatever?"

"These knives?" He asked casually, translocating his glove for the one that had been pressed against Chelsea's throat. I surged forward toward her, but Callie caught me as I realized nothing was happening. "Yeah, they're just knives."

I strained against every bone in my body, desperately wanting to attack now that I knew that, but they did still have knives on several of my friends, even if they weren't magic soul eating knives.

Travis pouted. "Aww, you didn't get all shocked at the big reveal. Ascendants can be so jaded. Still, I have to thank Delthrys for the cloaks. When no one knows what you're capable of, bluffing is so much easier. They didn't even sense my people drawing the blades, and they were RIGHT next to them. Divine work, right?"

"Where did the others go?" I demanded, trying to hold onto my last shred of rationality, at least until I knew what was happening."

He grinned. "That was a Banishment Bauble. I tuned it to this planet, and it rejects anything higher rank than the planet itself. All those pesky D-rankers and above are just kicked right off. I imagine the ship in atmosphere picked them up."

"So…what?" I asked acidly. "You just wanted to piss them off? They're gone but it'll take them seconds to get back."

"No." Said Abel grimly. "It won't." His eyes flicked up to the lines in the sky. "I recognize those patterns. I'm not sure how they're here. But I know what they do. This whole planet has been anchored in space. There's a bit of tolerance, but if anyone above E-rank by more than a few points sets foot on Callus, it'll shatter and send us plummeting into the void."

That sounded familiar. "You mean like that one guy you paid for the labyrinth? What was his name again?"

One of guests stood up dramatically, flinging away a heavy coat and hat, and yelled. "It was me! Mad Madigan!" Energetically. "Heya Abel, long time no see. You look like you got strong. Isn't this a fun reunion?"

The man looked…crazy. He was sallow and thin, with dark rings around his eyes so deep they looked like bruises, and a manic, sort of jittery energy.

"Maddy." Said Abel with a grimace. "I thought you were dead."
Madigan threw up his arms like he was sticking a gymnastics landing. "Ta-dah! I'm still here! I just got lost for a while. But I found my way into one of those cool mini worlds the gods use. They were so impressed they offered me a job! I've been helping ferry people in and out of their sealed pocket dimensions, and they've been helping me get way stronger." He flexed a bicep. "Lookit."

"So…you sealed the planet like Abel's old labyrinth." I said, focusing on Travis. "I assume you filled it with powerful E-rankers. The Wendigos were yours, I take it?"

He shrugged. "I tried a few things. We have a really good teleporter, so I've been here a while. I can't believe you didn't invite me to your wedding, Shane. We've been through so much together. Lucky for you I'm a conscientious guy. Not only did I crash, I brought presents with me anyway.

"You're kind of lucky your friends and family are all here, really." He said nonchalantly. "Because the rest of the people on this planet are NOT having a good time. Or won't be soon. Most of my friends are surrounding Wintervale right now, but hey, I made sure to leave a few buddies to invite all your favorite cities to the party. Not much of an example if we just snag the few of you."

"You're just going to kill everyone on the planet?" I demanded angrily. "Just to…what? Warn people off from interfering with your gods?"

He shrugged. "You know how Ascendants are about good press. Have to make sure they know what we can do. Your vampire buddy did a good job of rallying the rabble to your cause." He grimaced. "Hope is such an insidious thing. Some of the more hotheaded gods wanted to ambush him, but the it was decided that would do more harm than good."

I saw Bethy tense out of the corner of my eye, but ignored my friend for now. Morgan would be fine, he was a monster. But I could at least push them further in that direction. "A bunch of gods having to gang up on a mortal? That certainly wouldn't strike fear in my heart. Where's the dignity?"

"Exactly!" He said emphatically. "It's pathetic. No, we don't need the big boys mucking about in mortal business. It's beneath them. What we needed was to make an example of someone at the same level. It's more…appropriate."

I snorted. "Oh, sure. And outnumbering us, what? Twenty to one? That's totally in the spirit of fairplay. Why don't you back your bully boys off and we can settle this one on one."

"Please." He snorted. "I didn't want my gods humiliating themselves, but I'm hardly opposed to a little dirty dealing, as you well know. No, you and all your little friends are going to be part of something bigger than yourselves. Imagine it, and entire planet ritually sacrificed to our pantheon, the blood of ACTUAL gods spilled in the dirt from the veins of their descendants as their elders watch impotently from orbit." He sniffed. "I'm sorry. It's just so impressive it's making me tear up a bit."

"You're legitimately the worst human being I've ever met." I said bluntly. "And I helped kill a guy who stole and brainwashed children into sleeper assassins. So that's a pretty high bar. I'm absolutely going to murder you before this is over. You know that, right?"

His smirk turned cold. "It's nice to have dreams, bud. But don't get lost in your delusions. You're not leaving this clearing in any condition to ambush anyone. But don't worry. You won't die until the ceremony. Can't make any promises for your friends though. So how about you be good, and I won't have to teach any nasty lessons. Okay?"

"I could do that." I said slowly. "Or I could just leave." I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind the guy holding a knife to Chelsea's neck. Pulling him off, I tossed him away towards Bethy, who surged forward and ripped his throat out in a rage. "Bethy, Domain!"

Her eyes flared red, and the blood red moon filled the sky. At the same time, six different explosions went off, blinding everyone aside from the few of us who knew to close our eyes. Part of the security measures had been arranging escape measures with today's wishes. Just because I trusted my mom, didn't mean my paranoia wasn't still going full blast.

The seventh wish had been granted to Bethy herself. She'd pulled everyone we actually LIKED into her Domain as planned, and the escape wish shunted her out of the venue, carrying the rest of us along with her in another bright flash.

I felt the world shift, and then a crash as I landed back first on black stone. "Ow." I groaned as I rolled over. "Everyone ok? Did anyone get left behind?"

We'd chosen a place far away from the venue for the escape point, and we were lucky we had.

Part of me had considered blitzing for the entrance to the cold storage, if what Travis had said was true, we were stuck on this planet with quite a few E-rankers, and backup would be helpful…but in the end, we'd decided discretion was the better part of valor. Who knew how long it would take to recruit them if we even could, and with no wishes left today…

"Shane!" Said Nat in a panic. "Valk! They replaced Valk! Is he…do you think he's dead? I can't lose anyone else."

I did think he was dead. But right now was not the time for that conversation, so I just put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't jump to conclusions." I told her reassuringly. "They didn't kill him out in the tundra at least. We'd have noticed a body. Maybe they have him in some sort of dungeon. We can look around once we get settled."

Offering her false hope might be cruel, but I really didn't know for sure if he was gone. Nat was…we'd need her. Her hanging onto hope until we absolutely confirmed Valk was gone wasn't the worst thing in the world. I looked around, trying to find the others, the grass had receded, and we were standing on the battlements of a very large, very familiar castle.

"The necropolis?" Said Callie as she stepped up next to me. "Damn, been a while since we were last here. Not a bad hiding spot. No way anyone who isn't local would be able to find this place, much less think to look here."

I nodded. "Nat can help with that too." I nodded to where Abel and Celine had taken her aside to start working on some security wishes. "This is a fucking mess."

"It is." She said icily. "And someone is going to pay. My mother is here with us, Shane! She's pregnant." Her voice was laced with anxiety, and I put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. "And she'll be fine. I promise. We slipped the noose, and we have information about what's going on. But I need you to check in up top. Talk to my mom and Zeke."

Callie looked confused for a second, then her eyes flicked to her wrist. "The Starpluck Bangle!" My wife said in excitement. "I can get up to the ship and back down. I bet they won't expect that." She frowned. "But I can't bring anyone with me. What good will that do? Plus I only get one trip there and back and then I need months to recharge."

"Because you can still bring things with you." I said maliciously. "This is enemy action, and not part of the candidacy. Which means interference is definitely on the table. Zeke and my mom are both old and powerful. They must have tons of weapons and armor we can give out to the E-rankers we DO have, and that bangle will bypass any blocks they have on this planet for sure."

Her grin was bloodthirsty. "That is an excellent point. I want to check on my mom, but once we've talked through what everyone knows I'll head up." She turned to leave and then stopped, turning back to pull my mask aside. "Oh. And I know it kind of got overshadowed by this but…we're really married now." She gave me a soft kiss. "Once we kick these bastards off our planet, I expect a hell of a honeymoon."

She headed off to find her mother, and I turned to the battlements, affixing my mask as I looked out over the necropolis we'd raided back during the scavenger hunt more than a year ago. I let the feelings hit me full force, anger, pain, frustration, even some hope and joy left over from the wedding.

Then I took all those emotions, and I tossed them away. They weren't important right now. I had work to do, civilians to protect, friends to defend. We'd been prepared enough to get away, even with everything they had done. My paranoia had paid off big time. Now though, now we had to counterattack. There was an enemy force occupying my planet. They were going to regret that by the time we were done.

 

[Quenster06]

Man, it would be hilarious to get a POV of Travis freaking out about how in the world they got away and such. Thank you for the chapter!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Before Callie left for the Necromedes, we all had a meeting about what exactly we might need. To my surprise. Benny actually shot down my plan, or at least advised an adjustment.

"Look. I get what you're going for." Said my best friend. "But more than gear, what we really need is intel. Except we've tried reaching out, and all the means of communications we can find are jammed."

It took me a second to catch up, given how keyed up I still was, but I finally caught on. "Shit. We have no eyes on pretty much anything that's happening." I turned to my wife. "Any chance your range with Abyssal Infiltration covers the whole planet?"

"Not even close." She said bluntly. "I could maybe get eyes on Valen from here if I pushed my power to work in a straight line, and even that's up in the air."

I glanced at Benny. "You want her to stay up there." I said eventually. "Act as our eye in the sky. I'm guessing you want to use the bond to bypass any communication blocks?"

The bond was…esoteric. Even in the faction games I was able to communicate with Callie on some level, and having just ranked up it was a good bet it would work even more smoothly. Actually, I was fine with the idea, but I was betting-

"The fuck you say!" Callie spat. "I'm not going up to space to eat bon bons on a high ranking space ship while my friends and family fight for their lives on an occupied planet!"

"Yes. You are." Came Amelia's voice. We all turned to see the expectant mother looking at her oldest child grimly. "Because despite how much it sucks to be useless, you'll do what you need to do end this nonsense."

Callie looked pained. "Mom. I can't just-"

"Yes you damn well can!" She snapped back. "I don't care about your pride or your reputation. I care that my daughter is safe and that it gives us the best chance of getting out of this Alice. So you get over whatever martyr complex is telling you that you need to stick around and you go do the damned job, Calliope."

I'd never heard Amelia sound so harsh before, but her eyes were hard and determined.

It was easy to forget when I was talking to her how much she'd been through. She'd been the wife of a unity branch guild master, and was an Ascendant now in her own right. She didn't seem scared of panicky at all. Hell, she was more stable than I was right now.

"I…" Callie looked pained. "I guess you're right." She looked miserable. "If this is the best way to keep everyone safe I'll do it.

I could feel her frustration and rage through the bond, but even without it I'd have known how upset she was. Her face was tight and her jaw was locked. I stepped forward to wrap my arms around her. "Hey." I said quietly in her ear. "We're lucky we have this kind of option. An eye in the sky with a direct line to my brain? We'll run circles around the idiots with your intel."

She took a deep breath and nodded. "Ok. Everyone should be safe here anyway. No one beyond E-rank is on this planet, so any wishes should be more than up to holding them off."

Unless they had more divine toys to play with, but I was pretty sure if they were sporting anything like that they'd have used it. I couldn't imagine those cloaks were easy to make, even for a god. This plan was just a basement level terror op, I doubted they had THAT much support from their gods.

Callie hugged her mom, said goodbye to Cass, gave me a kiss, then closed her eyes and focused. There was a flash from her wrist, and when it faded she was gone. The starpluck bangle had worked. I grinned smugly. No way that asshole Madigan's space barriers would interfere with something that powerful.

"Can you hear me?" Callie's voice asked in my head. "Because if not I'm coming RIGHT back to help."

I laughed, replying mentally. "I'm here, love. Sorry, you're stuck on overwatch. Find my mom and Zeke immediately, see what they have to say." We might not have them on hand, but we could still benefit from their wisdom.

"They found me." She said in amusement. "In like…fifteen seconds. Your mom is freaking out and hugging me. Zeke looks like he wants to punt someone into the sun. I'm telling them all about what's happening. Hold on." I felt a flex of the bond and Piece of Mind triggered for her. Sorry, that was really bugging me. Talking out loud and in our brains at the same time is weirdly complicated."

I rolled my eyes. "I mean, I'm glad you figured that out, but what are they saying. The bond ranked up, can we like…share senses now?"

There was another flex, and before I could blink, I was looking at my sobbing mother. "Are my babies ok?" She was asking frantically. "How about your mom? And Bethany? Did everyone get out of there alive?"

"We're fine mom." I answered reflexively. Her eyes widened, and I realized that my own voice had responded. "Oh, shit." I said in confusion. "That's super weird. I can feel Callie seeing through my eyes. She's not talking to anyone but I think she could." I shook my head, clearing it of distractions. "Sorry, focusing. Anyway, we need you to help Callie run surveillance. I have the brief beginnings of a plan, but it'll be rough."

Shockingly, my mom adjusted to my voice coming out of my wife's mouth quicker than I would have. "Intel is always a good start. Does your plan involve that cold storage you found?"

"Yes." I said with a sigh. "But those bastards are probably still surrounding Wintervale. We need more than eight or nine E-rankers. We need an army. Which means we need to do some recruiting."

She nodded. "You need information on the WCP and guild branches in the various cities so you can pad your forces. We can do that from up here. We can even help you plan your moves." Her eyes hardened. "As soon as this labyrinth is down we'll come to help. Do you know where the creator is?"

"Nope. He's an old enemy of Abel's. Or friend. Or something? It was hard to tell, he's VERY insane." I gritted my teeth. "But I don't know where he went when we bailed, and chances are good they'll hide him. The only upside is I don't THINK they know about the cold storage. There's no way any of our people told them. We all signed a contract, and I don't think any of his copies were present anyway. We have time."

"Agreed." She said slowly. "Which is good, because most towns don't have many E-rankers, if any at all. You'll need to work your way up to retaking Rajak. Luckily I know most of the Unity and WCP leadership have shelters and backup plans. Even with numbers, they aren't going to be taking this planet as easily as they might think."

Her voice was proud, and honestly, I was right there with her. It was nice to think of Callus resisting. Certainly nicer than considering all the people who were probably already dying.

She escorted Callie to one of the observation decks, having the Necromedes lock onto the planet and scan it for life signs. A holographic image of Callus appeared in the center of the room, and she circled it, observing the feedback. "Ok. There are…a lot of them. A thousand or so. I do not recommend a straight fight. You're all good, but quantity is a quality all its own."

"That's what the intel is for." I assured her. "We aren't going to fight a force of people two entire orders of magnitude larger than we are. We're going to recruit all the E-rankers on the planet and fight a force ONE order of magnitude larger. And win." My mother's face twisted in a parody of a smile, but it was obvious she couldn't manage real amusement. I pulled her into a tighter hug. "Don't worry about it. We'll be fine. We have Bethy and Gabe and Abel and even me. We're kind of monsters, if you hadn't noticed."

Snorting, she gave me a tight squeeze. "I suppose you're all decent. But don't let it go to your head. Be careful. We don't know how many E-rankers survived. My forces in Wintervale are probably mostly gone, but several of my powerful E-rankers had escape measures in place as a matter of course."

"They'd probably have gone to ground." I said with a grimace. "The tundra is a pain in the ass to track in. I can send Bethy. She's tough enough to escape even if she gets noticed. Wish we had some more people with transportation based abilities. Maybe we can find the teleporter who ran the scavenger hunt. He might be useful." I didn't remember his name, but I was sure someone would. "Oh, and keep an eye on my wife for me, will you. She's not happy about being left out, and honestly I wish I had her with me. We're stronger together, but her position up there gives us a huge strategic advantage."

"We've got her, kid." Said Zeke solemnly. "You just focus on where you're going to be recruiting. Branch managers and guild masters will be E-rank in most relatively large cities. Stella can help. She knows what's what. Oh, and kid…"

"I've got her back." I said before he could finish. "Chelsea too. And Gabe. We'll all watch out for each other."

"Good boy." Said my mom tearfully. "Oh…and tell your sister not to bother hiding her abilities anymore." Her face hardened. "Even if my mother doesn't take care of Black Sorrow, we can worry about it later. Make those sons of bitches sorry they ever tried to lay a hand on my kids."

I grinned, the feeling odd using Callie's face. "Oh she's going to love that. Zeke, any advice on combining those two powers?"

"Yeah." He said wryly. "Don't do it in an enclosed space. Corruption and purification are diametrically opposed. Enshrining Darkness doesn't play nice, even for a corruption Skill. I have no idea where Black Sorrow came up with that shit. It's like…anti reality toxic waste. Make sure Chelsea knows the ratio won't be one to one. If she mixes them it'll be more like ten parts flame to one part darkness. Otherwise the flame will be consumed, they are NOT on the same level."

I hadn't noticed him doing that back during his fight, but it was possible he'd just used really thin darkness to disguise the imbalance. Whatever he'd done, he was the expert, and I promised to pass it on. Telling my family I loved them I slipped back to my own body.

"Take care of my wife?" Callie's voice rang in my head waspishly. "Who's going to take care of YOU when I get my hands on your condescending ass?"


I smiled softly. "You will, same as always. Love you too honey. Don't worry too much. I'll be careful down here. Just give me the details I need and I promise I'll get us all out of this in one piece."


There was a long pause. "You're better. If you die down there I'm going to kill you. Be safe, Shane. I love you." The bond relaxed, still there but not so actively in use, and I turned back to go find Stella. She had info we needed, and I couldn't wait to get at it. The faster we got some more E-rankers to fill out our ranks, the faster this would be over, and my wife and I could go on our honeymoon. Hopefully without any tragedy marring our happy times.

 

[Quenster06]

I care that my daughter is safe and that it gives us the best chance of getting out of this Alice.

Click to shrink...

I believe you mean *alive* not *Alice*.

"You're better. If you die down there I'm going to kill you. Be safe, Shane. I love you."

Click to shrink...

Also *You'd* not *You're*.
Loving the chapters as always!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Alright." Said Stella after we found and talked to her. "Show me the data." I pulled out a pen and paper and started sketching out a quick map of Callus, with notations for where large gatherings of enemy Ascendants were at last update. Last update was pretty much instantaneous, because Callie and I both had parallels running through Piece of Mind communicating with each other through the bond.


She scanned my notes, nodding slowly. "Well, I think it's pretty clear Valen is a trap. That and Rajak will be the first place they expect us to hit. As much as I'd love to free my people, the actual combat will probably be more dangerous than the occupation."


"I had a similar thought." I said with a grimace. "But I don't know the rest of Callus well enough to pick a secondary target."


She stared pensively for a minute, then tapped a spot on the map. "Trevally. Dox and Revna are both lighter defended, but those might be bait. Trevally is light on manpower, but not compared to the other cities, the guild master is a teleporter, and I've been there before, so I can guide us when we arrive."


"It's a bit far though." I grimaced. "Do we have any means of transport? I guess Gabe's charger maybe?"


"I can take someone else too." Said the Adamant. "Bethy can transport people in her Domain, so if I carry her…" He trailed off, and the vampire girl lit up. It was basically the same plan we'd used to get here, but given both of their capabilities, there was a good chance of them avoiding problems as a two man team. It would damn sure be less obvious than trying to steal a shuttle or force march an army.


I glanced at the angels. "I'd be happier if he had backup just in case. Can you two fly fast enough to keep up with the charger?"


"It won't be a problem." Said Holly, cracking her neck. "This planet is so…floaty. I haven't been anywhere this low rank in my entire life. Trust me, we'll make good time. Plus, we're fast enough to provide a distraction once they get there."


Serah nodded solemnly. "We can kill two birds with one stone."


"Why would you say that?" Demanded Holly. "We have WINGS. Do you know how big of a jinx that is. If I get killed because of your bad jokes I'll haunt you for eternity."


Abel snorted. "You don't want her around for eternity, trust me. As far as I can tell that's how long she's been complaining already, so I know from experience." Holly glared at my mentor, who stuck his tongue out at her.


"Children." I said with a sigh. "Focus please? We're about to raid an occupied city on a besieged planet where everyone is looking for us. Now, Stella, who exactly are WE looking for. I assume it's not just one person."


She shook her head. "Trevally has four E-rankers. The Unity guild master, the WCP branch leader, and a pair of crime lords. The Unity rep for that city is Walker. He has an ability that lets him fold space as he moves, every step is ten miles. That might not seem like much, but given how fast Ascendants can walk, it's a huge advantage. If we get Walker, especially if we combine his ability with Mr. Brightlaw's charger, we'll have the run of the whole planet."


"What about the WCP manager?" I asked. "Is their power something that can help us?"


She shrugged. "I don't know her as well. I'm pretty sure its Whisp. Her ability is a sort of smoke transformation. Not the undisputed strongest on the planet or anything, but fairly scary to have as an enemy and nearly uncatchable. The crime lords there are Dead Eddie and Sam Slaughter. Eddie is some kind of undead, and he's nearly impossible to hurt at the same rank, and Sam gets stronger the more blood he spills. It wears off after a few weeks, but in conditions like this…I wouldn't want to screw with him."


Abel snorted. "He's a hack." We all looked at him. "Slaughter was in the Titan Twenty with us back in the day. Well, more like he was on his way out when we hit the scene. Big thug with a chip on his shoulder, always sneering at everyone." He cracked his knuckles. "If he gives you a problem I'll take care of it."


"So Abel is dealing with Savage." I said with a laugh. "I'll approach Whisp. I'm a Wyndham, and she might know Zeke. I have the best chance of getting her on side. Stella, can you recruit Walker?"


"Easily." She said with confidence. "He's notoriously pigheaded, but it's not like I don't have experience with that."


Bethy raised a hand. "I can handle Dead Eddie. Vampires have a special status among most human seeming undead. I'm not sure what species he is, but he's almost definitely heard of daddy. By the time I'm done, he'll be your loyal follower!" She gave me a big cheesy thumbs up and a fang filled grin.


"I hesitate to unleash you on Callus unchecked." I said with a laugh. "Take Gabe with you. Chelsea, you're on distraction duty with the angels. Mom says no need to hold back. You're allowed to go all out. Both abilities."


My sister's face twisted into a cold smile. "Well isn't that nice. I can't wait to get some experience with that."


"Zeke said to tell you to stick to ranged, and the mix should be one to ten dark to flame." I tried to keep the comments vague, but I knew she understood.


"Alright." I said after we went over a few more things. "We need to move before they have a chance to catch their breath. If they grind down all the resistance it'll make things that much harder. Gabe, you ready to ride?"


My friend nodded firmly. "Any time." He snapped his fingers and his starlight charger manifested next to him, glimmering like the night sky.


"Archimedes!" Squealed Bethy. She leapt onto the horse, snuggling into his lightspun mane. "I missed you so much you big good boy. Mean old Gabe wouldn't let me see you." She beamed at us. "When Gabe and I were on daddys ship he used to let me ride all the time."


The big man put a hand over his face. "Bethy, we've been over this. The horse is a construct made of my energy. He has no emotions. You can't bond with him. Or name him. Because he isn't real. And scoot back, I'm the one steering, we have to use my Path for this if we want to make the best time."


Bethy pouted, but scooted back with a sigh. Gabe rolled his eyes and climbed onto the horse. "Now. Time to go. Everybody close your eyes and count to ten…nevermind too late!" Bethy's Domain exploded out, covering Abel, Stella, Mel, my sister, me, Benny, Celine, Jessie, and Randall.


We left behind Nat and the others to guard the civilians, and it was odd seeing the world melt away as the Domain covered us.


Domains were complicated. I knew there was a spatial component from seeing Lark do his thing and restrain all those S-rankers, and we'd used it to get here, but I still didn't understand exactly how it worked.


Bethy's Domain, from what I could tell, was a 'seed domain' like the one Tartarus had used. Lark had made it for her, and it was extremely powerful because Lark had basically condensed the entire vampire mythos into his singular domain by killing and eating all the other vampires outside his family.


I wondered if the thing my dad had said about not following the same Path as a god would be a problem for Bethy. Or maybe Lark had already altered his own Domain to clear the Path for her, I couldn't imagine him sabotaging her future.


As we took off, I couldn't even see the outside of the Domain, though I could sort of feel the motion. I turned to Benny and Jessie. "Hey, you two be careful ok? Stick with Stella. Randall is a badass, so as long as you all stick together he should be able to cover for any weaknesses. But just…don't do anything stupid."

Benny snorted. "Coming from the mayor of moronville. I should be telling you that. But yeah, we'll stay low. Get in, grab the E-rankers and any of their associates and get out. Leave the fighting to the distraction team."


"Unless you see an opening." I corrected wryly. "Then take a shot. Once we're all back together I fully expect Gabe to kill a few when he's breaking the encirclement. There are ten of them in town, so we're not outnumbered much, but they have backup at plenty of nearby locations, so we can't afford to drag our feet."


He snorted, drawing his sword. "Don't underestimate me, nerd. I've been training. My Path of the Dracolich is powerful as hell. Plus it's FOCUSED, unlike your cavalcade of half assed demon forms."


"Yeah, because a dead lizard is so much scarier than infernal royalty." I sneered. "You wish you had my kind of muscle."


"You're both very tough." Said Jessie exasperatedly. "I wish Callie was here to shut you up."


I snorted. "Callie's not the boss of me!" I paused, double checking the bond to make sure she hadn't heard that. I would have noticed if she tapped into it, but better safe than sorry. "Also…please don't tell her I said that."


Benny started laughing, and I just winked. I wasn't afraid of my wife, but a little levity made the situation seem less dire.


"Don't underestimate these people, kid." Said Abel as he walked over to where we were talking. "I know it's tempting to assume that being well travelled makes us invincible, but Slaughter is a competent guy. I'm sure I can take him, but it won't be quick and easy. The only upside is I know if I beat him he'll fall in line. He's cocky, but he has a code."


I grimaced. That was just the locals, we also had all these assholes following the dark gods, and who knew what they could do.


There was a pulse of warmth, and I smiled. Callie felt my worry and had sent a flash of reassurance and love. It really did help no matter what the situation, I felt like I was drinking a warm cup of tea for my mental state.


Finally, we came to a stop. It was easy to tell once you knew what you were looking for, the moon had been turning slowly as we traveled, and now it was stopped. The Domain retracted, leaving us all standing in a warehouse in Trevally (I assumed). "We're here!" Said Bethy cheerfully. "Quick trip, huh?"


Gabe was leaning against the wall. "Quick but not easy." He wheezed. "We picked up a tail halfway, and I had to shake them. I need a minute."

The angels stepped up, bringing Chelsea with them. "We've got it. We know what to do. Go make some noise." My sister sounded eager, and I considered warning her to be careful, but surprisingly, Bethy beat me to it.


"Hey, this is important ok?" Bethy said gently. "So don't rush it. Get in position and just do what you need to do. After I finish with Dead Eddie we'll come and help out, ok?" Chelsea gave her a grateful smile, and we all headed out to accomplish our assignments.


I stepped out into the street, doing my best to stay out of sight. Liberal use of Double Trouble let me skip wide open spaces, and my Eye of Revelation helped me avoid any concealed watchers. I followed the directions my parallel fed me from Callie, and finally arrived at my destination, the entrance to the Trevally WCP branch.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The entrance to the WCP was familiar. In fact, I was shocked to see that it was nearly identical to the back in Valen. It took me a while to sort through my ring to find some of my older gear, and dig out the black card I hadn't touched in so long. I ran my fingers over innocuous card, not feeling much except the smoothness I'd expected.

Swiping it in the card reader, I stepped onto the elevator. It felt…surreal. Hundreds of miles and years of time separated me from my old self, from the wide eyed newbie who had taken an identical elevator down into the depths of the Valen branch only to find out the branch manager was my drunk of an uncle.

Now I was in another city, heading to meet one of the masters of Callus, someone who was the same rank I was, after having been chased out of my own wedding.

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened, letting me out onto a familiar catwalk. Rather than actually descend though, I headed off to one side and took up a spot out of sight of whoever might be down there.

Despite spending the last few months relaxing, I'd been thinking long and hard about my needs. I had forms for attack, deflection, healing, and defense. What I needed still though, among other things, was a way to move undetected. My Moonlit Night was an effective and powerful skill, but it was also obvious as hell.

I'd been considering a new form for quite some time, and I'd come up with some ideas on how to make it work. It was a tall order. Moonlit Night itself couldn't act as a proper base, I needed at least three different skills to build it. One of them would be Afterburner, since it boosted effectiveness qualitatively. I always included it in my forms.

It had taken me quite a while to figure out what other pieces I could use to build it. I'd considered stealth, but that was a part of Moonlit Night and I didn't want to overbalance it. But after studying my skill book for quite some time, I realized there was another way to do it. Specifically, I could invert the skill I needed to create something new.

It only worked because of the way stealth functioned. As a Perception based ability, one needed to be able to detect the traces of something and then erase those traces to create stealth.

By inverting Eye of Revelation and using Afterburner to multiply the effectiveness of both that and Moonlit Night, I was able create an exponentially more powerful stealth ability, one that detected and erased its own traces, using the fog as a cover and then erasing the fog to provide double layered stealth with each layer having multiplied effectiveness.

I started constructing the ability, using my crown and Eye of Revelation to slowly and meticulously weave the stats together to create a flawless construct that would channel all the power I needed. "Goetia Staff Art. Fifth form." I intoned. "Bael."

Looking down, I saw myself…vanish. Fog covered me and then dissolved, whisking away all traces of my body. Multiplied effectiveness. It wasn't the same as stacking, creating a skill that was more than the sum of its parts was a mark of how much I'd grown as a skill creator.

All my forms had Afterburner, and other meta skills that amplified them, but this was different. The skill wasn't just amplified by Afterburner, the layers amplified each other. The total effectiveness of my stealth was worth something like seven to ten times my ACTUAL perception, which was pretty damned impressive.

It wasn't even close to what my ancestor had done, of course. THe wish ability tripled the effectiveness of EVERY stat, including Impact, which was just…monstrous. I still had no clue how the hell he'd managed. That wasn't just "more than the sum of its parts" it was making something out of nothing, and I had a long way to go until I reached that point.

Bael, however, I could still manage. Specifically because the multiplicative effect was only using one stat, which was fairly limited. I couldn't have added a second, which severely compromised the variety of forms I could make at this level.

Still, it was a step in the right direction. The more proficient I got at constructing skills, the closer I got to making my chronicle later on down the line and creating a more perfect foundation.

Now that I was all finished with my form though, I was confident in pulling this off. Rather than take the steps down, I vaulted the railing of the catwalk, letting State of Grace slow my descent, with the occasional Ripple Running platform to alter my direction.

I landed in a back alley, out of view of the street, and slipped quietly to the edge to peek out. I was careful, but I didn't honestly expect it to be necessary. With Bael active, my effective Perception for the purposes of stealth was over seventy thousand. I was confident nobody in E-rank would be able to detect me, barring some hyper focused monster who only used that stat.

The streets were empty for the most part, but my Eye of Revelation picked up signs of a struggle, and a few bloodstains on top of that. I could see plenty of barriers on the surrounding shops, locks and gates and door bars. There were people here, but they were hiding.

I ignored them for now. Flicker could help me coax them out when we finished talking, but I was guessing if there was blood the enemy was already down here.

Slowly creeping down the street, I watched for any sign of occupiers, ready to attack at a moment's notice. I had my staff out and in position, and even activated Mephistopheles alongside Bael, slowly condensing dark fire into a cosmic collapse for a powerful finishing move.

As I came around a corner, I stumbled on a group of creepy looking guys in patchwork leather armor. They had a variety of (suspiciously human looking) skin cloaks hanging over their shoulders and bone jewelry, eyes flickering from side to side as if scanning for prey.

All three were pale and tall, with overly long arms and lank hair in a variety of earth tone colors, like a pile of leaves on a forest floor. The one in the middle, the shortest of them, froze in place, sniffing the air. "Do you smell that?" I rolled my eyes, triggered Double Trouble, and smashed the cosmic collapse into the back of his skull.

Moonlit Night had a damage boost on attacks made from stealth, and the cosmic collapse was already a powerful technique, the staff penetrated into the base of the skull and the explosion of flame consumed the brain, exploding out from the eyes, nose and mouth.

My staff whipped over, planning to use the element of surprise to kill a second one, but my eyes widened and I was forced to trigger Double Trouble again to avoid a dinner plate sized hand tipped with claws like butcher knives.

The distended grey form of the wendigo howled in fury as it and its friend tried to pursue my. I stepped off the air twice, coming up over the edge of a building. As soon as I broke line of site I triggered Bael again.

While my new form WAS powerful, using that backstab trick forced me out of it. I'd assumed it wouldn't matter, given one was dead and the second was on his way, but clearly I was wrong.

"Fun fact." I sent to Callie through the bond. "Wendigos can take human form. Probably some vanished gods bullshit. Still, something to note." I saw the hideous horned heads of the Wendigos emerge from over the lip of the roof. They scanned around, sniffing heavily, and they seemed to fixate on my for a second.

I was getting ready for another charge when I noticed something odd. Smoke. There were curlicues of smoke wafting up from the building below, the Wendigos seemed to notice it as I did, and they glanced down, confused.

The curlicues coalesced into the form of a woman as soon as they averted their eyes. She grabbed a set of antlers and jerked them to the side, snapping the neck of the Wendigo and swinging it bodily into its companion, knocking them both off the roof. I triggered Pit of Despair below the building, racing to the edge to see the result.

The Wendigo backflopped on the melted stone, body crushed by his dead companion, and started sinking into the ground immediately. I dissolved my skill, letting the ground harden, and the monster ended up half submerged in rock, tangled up with the corpse of his buddy and hissing for release.

"Nice reflexes." Came the raspy voice of the person I assumed was Flicker. "And I like the mask. Familiar style of craftsmanship, that."

I glanced over to focus more on her. Flicker was short and muscular, with a dark mantle and hood. Her own mask was one of those pointy beaked ones you see in old timey video games, and the eyes were a blazing ruby red. She looked ominous as hell.

"Shane Wyndham." I introduced myself directly. "My uncle is Ezekial Cavendish, formerly the branch managed in Valen. And your mask looks pretty familiar too." Specifically because I remembered Zeke making it when I was eleven. That thing had given me nightmares for weeks. It had this creepy living avian vibe, like it hated everyone around it.

She stared for a moment, eventually nodding. "You're here about the invasion." She guessed, though I suppose it was actually pretty obvious.

"Followers of the vanished gods." I confirmed. "I'm not sure how much you know, considering how recently things went down. They're looking for me and mine, and are planning to mass sacrifice everyone on the planet to make an example. We're looking for powerful locals to join up. We have a plan, but we need more muscle."

She turned, flicking her finger, and a spear of smoke arced down and smashed through the skull of the still screaming Wendigo. "Sorry." She growled. "That was getting annoying. If you're a Wyndham, you know how this works. We can't do anything for you without payment."

I sighed, I'd been afraid of that. Luckily there was more than one way to skin a cat (a deeply disturbing saying whose origin I had always wondered about) . I stepped off the edge of the building, floated down to where the entwined Wendigos lay immobilized, and ripped an antler off of the one I'd immobilized.

Tossing it from one hand to the other, I grabbed hold and bent it slightly, nodding in satisfaction. "This would probably go for about ten E-grade chits. Two per head, and undoubtedly plenty of wendigos to go around. You help us, and I'll let you keep them all. Even the ones we kill."

She cocked her head. "That's…an interesting offer. I suppose I'd be forced to intervene personally in any case." She mulled it over before finally sighing. "I accept. I suppose you have some sort of means of enforcing loyalty?"

I grinned, pulling out a piece of paper I'd worked up on the ride over. I left plenty of room for it to hold multiple signatures. She leapt down and I passed it to her. Reading it over once, she nodded, then pulled out a pen and scribbled her name. "There. Now that I'm onboard, what exactly is our next move?"

Spinning my staff lazily, I grinned at her from behind my mask. "Oh that's simple. Now we go and help the others. We still have a bunch more new friends to pick up. We can take care of the stragglers down here first, though. Grab the antlers and get ready to go. You can bring anyone you like, but have them wait at the entrance down here. Up top will be dangerous."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Cleaning up the rest of the enemy occupiers was shockingly easy. Flicker had more firepower than I'd expected, and combined with my control skills, we'd made pretty short work of them…for the most part. We'd rolled up all the stragglers, but we were currently surveilling some kind of dance hall, where the last group was camped out.

They weren't all Wendigos, there were a few of the actual invaders, and this last spot was where the leader was waiting, sent to deal with Flicker specifically. "So, what do you know about this guy?" We hadn't had time to do much recon here, and even if we had the guy was staying put without doing much, so we couldn't get a good measure.

"Not much." She said grimly (although realistically, Flicker hadn't exactly been a ball of sunshine when she'd said anything else either) "I've been watching them since they entered, taking their measure. But that one hasn't moved much. He posted up here and let the others run rampant. I've spent most of my time moving my people out of harm's way, so I wasn't close enough for him to take a swing."

Less than ideal, but I had a workaround. "It's fine." I said after some consideration. "I can send a clone in to take a look."

Sadly, while my clones were versatile and could use my Skills, my forms weren't so easy to utilize through borrowed abilities. Especially since the forms had been perfected and were so much more powerful now. I was working on a clone based form that would fix that issue, but at the moment I only had borrowed clones I could use via stored attack or through the bond.

Closing my eyes, I used one of my stored clone charges to create a shadowy version of me. It nodded mutely, then slipped off the roof we were stationed on to surveil the dance hall and vanished. At least, it vanished to Flicker. I'd used Piece of Mind to slip in a parallel, so I was more than aware of what the clone was doing.

I had the clone slip up to the side of the building, circling around to find a back entrance. There was no second door, but he did find a window about ten feet up the side of the wall in the alley. Ripple Running made the trip up to the window easy, and once he made it in, he stuck to the shadows, blending in with the darkness as he made his way around the edge of the building, trying to find the target.

It didn't take long, with my Perception, it was easy enough to locate them even in a tiny building. Stealth through the bond mixed with his shadowy nature meant getting caught was unlikely provided he didn't get too close.

"They're dying out there, you know?" Said a voice as I closed in. "We're not supposed to let too many of them die. They're a pain to replace with our resources cut off."

The speaker was a tall, thin woman with copper skin and an elaborate series of brains in her hair. She had a nose ring and a leather vest, and her green eyes shone like frozen venom, poisonous and cold.

The two men with her were dramatically different. One short and pale with silver hair and purple eyes, and one tall and hulking with green skin and a thick beard to go with his long dark hair. The pale man had pointed ears studded with silver rings, and he looked relaxed, reclining against a wall from his perch on top of some kind of work bench.

"Relax." He said lazily. "They're just locals, and not even useful ones. Wendigos are rabid, even in human form. No point keeping them around. They're consumables, we don't have to worry about consuming them. Besides, our surveillance has made good use of their deaths."

She shook her head. "I don't like it. They keep vanishing. We don't even know where they are right now. They could be here listening to us."

I tensed, worried they might have noticed something, but they hadn't, a shadow hiding in shadows was a tough thing to spot, especially with stealth active. The lazy elf snorted. "I'd have noticed anyone entering. You know how my Domain works. I've claimed this place as my own. The only thing in here is us." He paused. "Well, and some furniture, bugs, that kind of shit. Nothing that doesn't belong. Though they do have a rat problem."

The woman shuddered. "I hate rats. Creepy little things. Always scurrying around and staring with their beady little eyes."

"That's rich." Said the third guy in a gravelly voice. "Coming from the girl with the spider powers."

She sneered at him. "How cliche, being afraid of spiders. You're an Ascendant Hamilton, grow up. My lovelies are sweet and gentle, and they're artists. Nature's greatest weavers. Unlike RATS, who only spread pestilence and decay."

"Rats do not spread DECAY." Said the leader with an eyeroll. "Any more than any other animal that can kill with a bite. They aren't zombies."

"Some of them are zombies." Cut in the big guy, Hamilton. "I've seen zombie rats before. They're gross. Rotting little bags of pus with yellowed teeth and beady red eyes." He grinned maliciously at the woman. "And the smell. It's unbearable."

The leader groaned and hopped to his feet. "Oh for the love of the gods. I can't sit through any more of this. Any of the mutts left?" At the woman's head shake leader guy nodded. "Time to bait the trap. Go get me one of the hostages, and activate the transmission feature on the cameras. Branch leader can't watch a bunch of her people get murdered, now can she?"

They nodded so deeply it was almost a bow, suddenly serious, and then headed out. I weighed my options. The other two were gone, and this was just a clone, no need to hold back. I triggered Double Trouble, shoving my staff as hard as I could into the base of his skull, unleashing a mercy kill enhanced strike at his head.

It was a pitiful strike. No poison fire in case it gave me away, no stealth bonus from Bael, just my normal strength amplified by Mercy Kill.

Because of those factors, I wasn't at all surprised when leader guy tensed as I emerged from stealth, and vanished where he was standing, appearing ten feet away facing toward me. "Oh?" He said with interest. "I suppose that rat problem was worse than I knew. How are you here without tripping my senses? A shadow? That makes some sense."

There was a pulse of…something, and my clone just stopped existing. I cursed as the parallel ended forcibly. I hadn't been able to tell exactly what had done it from that point of view, but luckily my main body has Eye of Revelation locked onto the leader.

"Domain user." I said clinically. "Nothing crazy. Something about wires and wind maybe?"

Flicker grunted. "Veddo Dunfrey. Haven't heard that story in years. Kid made a pair of wings out of spider silk to sneak out of his house. Bribed a spider to teach him to weave, but he never paid up. The spider left his education half finished and when he tried to fly out the window, the wings came apart. It was windy outside, and the wind swept up the threads and carried them down to an outdoor banquet, shredding all the guests. Killed his whole family."

I grimaced. "What a charming story. Where did you hear this?"

"My parents." She said dryly. "They used to tell it to us at bedtime. It's a common WCP children's story. Moral of the story is to always pay your debts."

"Of course it is." I laughed. No wonder my dad had wanted me raised topside among the Conglomerate. "Anyway, I don't know the story well. Is there some sort of like…weakness we can exploit?"

She paused, thinking it over. "Veddo met the spider when he destroyed its web. Knocked a glass of water on it and it dissolved. The threads were strong as steel, but not so good with moisture. You have anything water based in your arsenal? Because I'm fresh out I'm sad to say. Smoke and fire and what have you."

I wracked my brain. "Maybe." I said finally. I started charging cosmic collapse. Moonlit Night was based on Mistwalking, which conjured mist from the moisture in the air. It had been modified, but should still work. I conjured another clone, sending it in the same way. As it entered, I triggered Moonlit Night, flooding the whole chamber with obscuring mist. Of course, my clone could see perfectly, and I used its line of sight to trigger Double Trouble.
As soon as I landed, I activated Mornax. Unlike the clones, I could use my forms fine. THere was a whisper of something in the air, and I felt some small scratches on my stone shell, but they were barely noticeable. Moonlit Night had mostly dissolved the wires, and my extra defense had been unnecessary.

Despite that victory, though, the leader elf dove forward out of the path of my cosmic collapse. I tried to alter the trajectory, but sadly that wasn't to be. I caught a hand in the larger radius, but he got away with just that injury.

Of course, I followed up, my staff smashing out, black flames licking as Mephistopheles emitted my most dangerous destructive power. I wanted to chase with the Waltz, but it couldn't be used with Mornax. Too much movement and time off the ground. Luckily I wasn't alone. I'd tweaked Moonlit Night to allow Flicker to see like I did. Among the mist, it was impossible to see the smoke, and the leader didn't even notice himself inhaling clouds of it.

His escape stopped, freezing in place as he clutched his chest, then he threw up blood and toppled over.

A cloud of smoke emerged from his mouth, coalescing into Flicker, who gave me a lazy wave before becoming smoke again and flashing off. I heard a few screams within the next couple minutes, and when she returned, she had a dozen civilians with her.

I chuckled at the brutal efficiency, but mostly just ignored it as I knelt beside the leader. I reached down, picking up a necklace that had fallen out of his shirt when he fell. It seemed…important. Something about it spoke to me, so I ripped it off, slipping it into my ring. Standing, I turned to Flicker and the others. "Everyone good to go?" I asked, mostly aiming the question at the civvies.

Getting a bunch of nods, I smiled and turned to lead them back to the crowd of survivors we'd already gathered. They would be waiting down here while we went up to deal with the rest of the city, Bethy could transport plenty of people, but until they got into her Domain they would be sitting ducks.

Once we had them all gathered up, we gave them instructions on where to wait, and the two of us headed back up the elevator to involve ourselves in some of the action up top.

As we rode up, I reached out to my wife. "Cal," I sent mentally. "I need a location on one of the other groups. Preferably not Abel or Bethy. So…not one of the other groups. Just specifically Benny's group."

I could literally FEEL the eyeroll through the bond as she sent me the information, and I returned it with a burst of gratitude. When we emerged from the elevator, I triggered Bael, letting just my voice emerge as I told Flicker where we were headed. Then I activated Mephistopheles again and triggered my waltz, blazing off into the distance towards my friends. Once we helped them get our target, we'd be out of here and back to base. I wanted to look into that necklace. I had a feeling it might be important.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The streets of Trevally were much emptier than I'd expected. We were stealthed, but it didn't turn out to be that necessary. We passed a few wandering enemies but made it to the Unity building otherwise without incident. While the WCP branch had been nearly identical to the one in Valen, the Unity branch was very different, a strange bronze building with faceless hat wearing men kneeling to hold up the roof instead of columns.

"Well, this is…interesting." I said from across the street as I faded back into view. Flicker was next to me, staring down at the construction, and for the first time I heard her chuckle ruefully.

"That's the Hall of Hats." She said with a amusement. "Haberdasher was the first Unity guild leader of Trevally and had…eclectic tastes. Admittedly his style of doing things worked, because almost any native Trevallian can tell you at least a vague history of that building, even those of us who grew up more in the WCP."

Another one like Jerks then. "Fair enough. I don't suppose you happen to know the entire layout too?"

She shook her head. "Haberdasher is a local legend. I'm sure wherever you're from had some famous founder everyone knew about too. But it's just cursory stuff who he was, what his costume looked like. That kind of thing. As for an entrance, I've never really been to the Hall of Hats, I was never Unity."

I could have gone in the huge entrance with the double doors, but since Stella and the others hadn't come out, I needed to assume the guild had traps of some kind that made a slow entrance necessary. In fact, I could check that myself. Triggering Eye of Revelation I focused hard on the entrance and side walls, tapping into Callie's trap Skill.

Several places on and around the hall lit up in my vision, and I grimaced. Sure enough, the defenses were activated. Stella would have ways around that, but as backup I hadn't needed to know them. Which meant I was going to need to slip us by them.

Luckily, this planet was pseudo D-rank, which meant we didn't have access to Master Level trap builders, especially not in smaller cities. The building was weird, but it was also going to be easier to break into as an E-ranker. I decided to send in a clone, conjuring one through the bond from shadow and sliding in a parallel. Then, with my main body on overwatch, I sent it into the maze of traps surrounding the place.

I got about halfway in before the clone died. Wincing, I made another, then another. Integrating Callie's trap skill with Eye of Revelation took a lot of effort, and wasn't working as well as I'd have liked. To support, I triggered Song of the Soil, letting me get a better look underground, and that yielded better fruit.

My next clone got to the door, then finally got inside. "Alright, follow that path." I said to Flicker. "I'm taking the quick way." Focusing on the clone's vision, I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind a smaller stone statue inside. As soon as I arrived, my Danger Sense went off, and I had to dive sideways as a literal whip of magma carved through the statue. I landed and triggered Mornax, letting the whip slam into my body on the second strike and then grabbing it firmly.

The attacker, a short man with dark shin and long red hair, yelped in surprise as I wrapped it around my hands and tried to haul him off his feet, but he was able to stop me once he realized what I was doing.

Mornax made me very stable, but it didn't make me stronger, and my Might wasn't as high as this person's so we ended up in a bit of a deadlock. At least until my clone came up behind him and smashed a Mercy Kill empowered blow into the side of his knee. There was a loud crack and he screamed, losing his footing and flying towards me.

I stomp kicked the flying form in the face, letting his own momentum do most of the work as he hit my (as far as he was concerned) nigh-invulnerable shell.

His nose broke, and he dropped to the ground screaming. Reaching into my ring, I pulled out some rope, tying him up securely. It took a bit of wrestling, but a few stomps on his face from my clone proved a sufficient distraction.

Flicker coalesced from smoke next to me, looking impressed. "That was a good takedown." She said approvingly. "Most Wyndhams aren't quite so handy in a pinch. Good to see you're not one of the layabouts."

I nodded. "I do what I can. I figure we could question this one. He seems like part of the main invasion force, so maybe he knows details of what's going on."

The captive cackled. "Fools!" He said acidly. "I'll never talk. You can peel off my skin and drown me in boiling oil, feed me to an ant colony, pluck out my eyeballs, I'm prepared for any form of torture."

I blinked at him oddly. "I mean…I was just going to ask you and then move on." I glanced at Flicker. "Those sounded really persuasive though. Should we try them?" I obviously wasn't going to torture him, aside from not even having time, I found the idea morally repugnant…but he didn't have to know that.

His bravado faltered. "Wait, no shit, don't do that." His expression was haunted. "That's just like…a saying. I didn't mean it. I don't want to boil alive in oil. That sounds horrible."

I was glad I had a mask on, because watching him talk himself into confessing was making it hard not to grin and give away the game. Instead I just stayed quiet. This guy was questioning himself way better than I ever could. My implacable wooden face was probably helping, so I just waited.

"You don't have to boil me alive." He babbled. "You could just beat me, I mean wait, don't beat me, you can throw me in prison, but I don't want to go to prison, shit." He looked ready to cry, and finally he let out a groan of mental anguish and wailed. "Fine, you got me, I'll talk, I'll tell you whatever you want to know, just don't do any of those horrible things to me!"

Holding back gales of laughter was tough, but knowing my friends might need help made it easier. "Who did they send to take Walker? Can't be easy to pin down someone like him. Must be someone strong."

He nodded quickly. "Definitely!" He said "They sent Bon Voyage. He's super fast. Impossible to catch! Even Walker won't be able to get away."

We spent the next ten minutes trying to sort relevant details from the word vomit of Marshall's (his real name, though apparently he went by Fire Marshall when in costume) life. He shared WAY more than we needed to know, and was seemingly unable to stop talking. By the time we left to help the others we'd officially learned enough of his life story to write a biography, but we had the info we needed.

Walker was in here, but having figured out what Bon Voyage could do, rather than face him head on, he'd retreated and activated the defenses. Super speed was less useful with no room to move around. He'd been sending people to try to root out the guild master, but wasn't having much luck. When Jessie, Benny, and the others showed up things just got more complicated and our friends had decided to look for their target rather than start a fight, which was the smart call.

Since the person who built this place had also been insane, he'd honeycombed the whole thing with secret tunnels and passageway, some of which the enemy had found but most of which were eluding them. Stella seemed to know them though, which gave them a big advantage over everyone but Walker, who had evacuated everyone else. In fact, his power was perfectly suited to using the passages against the enemy, and he'd been picking off stragglers while he avoided Bon Voyage until our team showed up.

I'd tried calling them, but I hadn't been able to get through. What I HAD been able to do was extract (for some value of that word) the last location they'd been from the prisoner.

Once we arrived, I used Eye of Revelation to pin down the location of the passage entrance and then opened it up to follow them into the passageway.

With Benny's trail (not to mention Randall's) I was able to track them with my skill easily enough, and it only took about twenty minutes to reach the end of the road. As I opened the entrance, I felt a twinge of Danger Sense, but it immediately faded as Benny's voice shouted. "Wait!"

My staff was up and flickering to life with poison fire, but at his words I froze, as did the man with the top hat and the umbrella poised to spear me through the eye. And I mean VERY poised. I'd gone into Mornax as soon as my Danger Sense triggered so it wouldn't have killed me, but I'd never taken a blow to eyeball in my defensive form, it might have actually done some damage. The guy was FAST. "Walker, I assume." I said dryly as Benny explained who I was. We stepped forward into the passage, the wall closing behind us.

The inside of the passageway had glowing stones set into the top that kicked on when the light from outside cut off, so we could all still see. Stelle stood behind Benny, holding a pint sized Randall while Jessie waited behind her. With a sigh of relief Jessie launched herself forward to hug me. "Shane!" She said happily. "You're alright. There were way more of them than we expected. The speedster actually carried some reinforcements into the city at the last second."

I winced. We hadn't considered that option, though we should have, since it was basically the same as our plain, albeit way less well thought out. "Well it's fine." I said with a wave. "We have enough people to fight our way out, and we might not need to, this place has escape tunnels right? We can go meet up with Abel and Bethy."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible." Said Walker calmly. "The exit tunnels have been collapsed. Some of the interlopers attempted to follow my people out and they were forced to respond. We only had the one escape route, and it was designed to be collapsible in case of just such an emergency."

Cursing, I let out a loud sigh. I'd mentioned fighting our way out, but I'd hoped that would involve all of our people. We couldn't even count on Callie's overwatch because this building was in an enlarged space. Views from outside were meaningless when you went past a certain level of spatial enlargement.

None of the other buildings in the city were at that level, but the branch headquarters were the most advanced premises in town, despite being so old. They kept these places up to code, weird construction or not.

"Alright." I said after a minute. "Then we'll need to break out of here by force. Walker, is there a way to see what's going on in the hallways without leaving the passages?" If I had been building passages like this I'd have made spy holes or something.

Smirking, the dapper man nodded. "But of course. Follow me." He turned setting off at a casual stroll in a seemingly random direction, and we all followed. Finally we came to a large chamber between tunnels, the walls lines with mirrors showing various points in the building. "Do you mean something like this?" I grinned viciously behind my mask. This would do perfectly.