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

[BJJPanda]

I am excited for this arc to be over, not because it's bad but I want to see the full depth of his new ability

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I am excited for this arc to be over, not because it's bad but I want to see the full depth of his new ability

Click to shrink...

The difference between DS Mastery as a Skill and as an ability are mainly going to show later on. It's a half step into B-rank, which is going to make that much easier, though the actual changes in the moment aren't as pronounced. Though there will be a noticeable effect when he ranks up and the Skill evolves, which will be relatively early in book 9, so you can look forward to that.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My mother was...intimidating. I recognized her. Barely. Not just from me memories but somewhat from my own features, and especially from Chelsea's. Still, the soft smile I remembered as a kid in that one blurry image was nowhere to be found. The woman towering over me as I lay bloody on the ground looked like a warrior. An amazon or something. Tall, blonde, with stern yet kind features. She looked like a saint.

"You're lucky I erected a barrier around us already." She said tiredly. "Someone might have heard you."

I glared up at her, sitting up as Jessie finished filling my body to capacity. I still had healing to do but she'd topped me up and now I just had to wait. Callie helped me stand, and once I was vertical I stood a few inches taller than my mom, not that she seemed to notice. "That's it? No 'thank the gods you're ok'? No 'I'm sorry"? All I get is 'watch your mouth Shane someone might figure out we're related? And I thought dad was the shitty parent."

She flinched like I'd hit her, and I immediately felt bad. Then I got pissed at myself for feeling bad because fuck her, this was her fault. But...she was still my mom, and seeing her like that, looking like she was afraid I was going to attack her or something, made me feel like a scumbag. She swallowed hard. "I...I won't ask you to forgive me. I don't deserve it. I did something unspeakably cruel to you, and there's no way that an apology would fix that."

"Is that what you think an apology is?" I demanded. "Some band-aid you slap on a problem to make it go away? You shouldn't apologize because you deserve it. You should apologize because I do." The fact that she wasn't even trying to defend herself made me even more pissed off.

"That's enough." Said Chelsea as she stepped in between us. "Shane...you're right. Mom screwed you. It was awful. But it's not her fault. It's mine. I-"

My mom held up a hand. "No. Not here. He deserves an explanation, but this isn't the time or place. As much as I wish it was. I'm not sure what's happened, but SOMETHING did, and we need to discuss it. The others are in a frenzy. Ezekial is holding them off for now, but even his insolence can only stall someone for so long."
I snorted at that. "No one calls Zeke that. Do you say it to his face? I bet he hates it."

Her grin in that moment reminded me a lot of mine. "Why do you think I do it? He's insufferable, and very few things bother him. Using his full name is one of the few ways I have to really irk him. He's like the annoying kid brother I never had and usually don't really want."

It was hard to be upset at her when she was acting like a gleeful big sister, especially given I had so few ways to rankle my uncle myself. Still, she was right. This wasn't the time for this discussion. We had bigger fish to fry. "We need to talk to everyone, but probably Zeke first. Some stuff went down where we ended up. I'm glad we're back but we need to get the word out to every faction what's coming."

She looked like she wanted to question me herself, before realizing that I was WCP and possibly Unity, but not with the Church and hence not part of her chain of command. "I'll get him." She said softly. "After things have calmed down...maybe we can talk. You and Chelsea and I. It won't fix things I know, but you're right. You deserve to know, and you deserve an apology even if you don't accept it. Because I AM sorry Shane. So very, very sorry."

The sincerity in her voice, the pleading in her eyes, it almost broke my heart, but I firmed my expression, gesturing for her to go.

Chelsea was watching me nervously as our mom left. "I know I'm the last person who should be saying it, but she feels terrible. Once you know why...well, like she said I doubt it'll magically fix everything, but at the very least I don't think it'll hurt as much."

"You're right." I said sharply. "You ARE the last person I want to hear that from." She flinched just like mom had, and I quailed internally. I might be willing to lash out at my absentee parent, but my twin sister, regardless of whatever nonsense she'd convinced herself of, had been a child when we were separated. She wasn't the problem here. "I'll hear her out." I said more gently. "I promise."

Mom came back with Zeke a minute later, and my uncle smiled and waved casually. "Oh, hey kid. You're not dead. Cool, that would have been a bitch to deal with."

My mom smacked him upside the back of his head. "What he MEANS." She snapped. "Is that he's glad you're alright, because he cares about you, and because if he'd let my son get killed I'd have cut out his tongue and nailed to his forehead." That was...weird. Not the graphic threat, I was used to those. The feeling of my absentee mom telling off my guardian who was always there for not caring enough. It must have shown on my face that I didn't like it, because she blanched. "I mean..." Her shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry."

"Be easy kid." Said my uncle firmly. "Sasha might not have been around much but she..." He hissed, the symbol on his forehead glowing. His eyes snapped up to the empty dark sky around us. "Are you fucking KIDDING ME?" He yelled in outrage. "She's right HERE Eli! When does this fucking thing BREAK?"

My mother sighed sadly. "He's gotten more restricive about his geasa. Ever since he made the shift to devil to break through to A-rank...I can't believe he's changed so much."

"We ALL change Sasha." Said my uncle bitterly. "None of us are the kids we used to be." He looked at me. "Not even the kids we used to be. It's the price we pay for what we are. It's easy to forget that when you live in the Red Revenant's special holier than thou clubhouse I guess. Now, since apparently your bastard father is STILL shutting me up, kid, hows about you do the talking?"

I nodded slowly. "Ok, well the first thing is that this whole mess was apparently caused by the Blood Murder Palace."
"What?" My mom said in alarm. "How? Hatescream is dead. My father was there when it happened. He killed about six S rankers when as he died. He ALMOST killed Black Sorrow and our Lord, and would have if the Wishmaster hadn't stepped in."

"Both of them?" I said, appalled at the sheer power that must have shown. "I heard they worked together for that fight, apparently that's rare?"

"Very." Said my mother firmly. "They hate each other with a passion. God executions are probably the only time I've heard of them putting aside their differences. Lots of bad blood between the churches, it goes back millennia obviously. It proves how seriously they took Hatescream."

Callie, who had been standing protectively beside me, holding my hand, finally spoke up. "I've been wondering about that for a long time. Why? Why do the Red Revenant and Black Sorrow hate each other so much? More than the other gods I mean. It can't just be a worshipper thing or they'd have it out for everyone, but it seems so focused, the grudge between the two of them."

"They were married." Said my mother with a wince. "Before their Ascension. Still are I suppose. Regardless, they have many grudges between them. But we're getting off track. Your story?"

I started. She was right, crazy faction history was interesting enough to distract me, but I needed to get this out. "Well apparently this place was connected to an Academy from some old empire that's been exctint for tens of thousands of years or something. They used the trial as a cover to break in to steal some kind of spiritually reactive biomatter that'll let them sort of clone god flesh."

Then I laid it out for them, told them all the story as I'd heard it. About Hatescream and his plan, about the guy who bought the mountain, about how all of this had been a leadup for a coup, a way to distract the factions and let Hatescream work in the dark to resurrect his people.

By the time I was finished, their faces were both grim. "That's...bad." My mom said, her tone implying a truly monumental understatement. "If that's true then this is going to be war. Not a crusade or an extermination, but exactly what the factions have been trying to prevent for all these millennia. A War of the Gods." I could literally HEAR the capital letters in her voice as she said it.

"I'm sorry." I said through gritted teeth. "It was my fault. I was a moron. I thought that since all those cloaked figures showed up we didn't have to worry about traitors anymore. I HAD that damned cup, and I basically hand delivered it to the BMP like a fucking idiot."

"Hey." Snapped Callie. "That's bullshit. You got us home, which was borderline impossible to start. It wasn't your job to prevent some ancient dark murder sect from accomplishing their grand scheme. You were responsible for us, and you got us out of there. Or...almost all of us." She glanced at Nat, who had left the bubble of isolation when we arrived and was sitting by herself nearby, with Valk hovering a ways away watching her.

My mother nodded. "She's right. They've been planning this for longer than any of us have been alive. If it hadn't been this way, they would have found another. This opportunity only recently presented itself, so there's no way they didn't have a backup plan. Speaking of..." She glanced down at our joined hands. Holding one of her own out to Callie. "I'm Sasha Anders."

My girlfriend blinked, wide eyed, at my A-rank mother, then swallowed hard and, letting go of my hand took hers and shook it. I was secretly grateful to my mom. She'd noticed Callie's sorrow and tried to defuse it by making this an awkward meet the parents thing. It had worked. "I'm Callie, Calliope, that is, Reynolds, miss. Ma'am, madam?" She looked like she was getting more and more flustered.

Laughing, my mom released her hand. "I like you, but let's stick with Sasha, shall we? The rest of those make me feel old, and if you SAY a word Ezekial, your next mask is going to be your own ass." She held up a finger threateningly without looking, and I saw Zeke slump sulkily, muttering about harpies in a voice that was hidden from no one in this bubble."
"Now." She said as her smile slipped. "We need to go talk to the others, tell them what's happened, and try to get some sort of conclave on the books. I'm guessing it'll be a year out at best."

I blinked. "What? It's a potential GOD WAR." I sputtered. "How can they possibly justify that? They should be meeting TOMORROW."

She shrugged. "Might be faster given the severity, but you need to remember how big each faction is. Freeing up big actors like the gods and their subordinates takes a LOT of micromanaging. My father is one of the busiest people I've ever met. Though it's not all downside. Given your involvement I wouldn't be surprised if the Wishmaster brings Malachai for this, so you might be able to meet both your grandfathers."

With that, she said her goodbyes, kissed Chelsea on the forehead, looking uncertainly at me for a moment, and then left. Zeke sighed as he watched her go. He looked like he wanted to speak, but couldn't muster the words, then he too just turned and left. I wasn't sure about the whole mess with my family or what the truth was, but I knew one thing. I needed to find out. That conversation couldn't come soon enough.

 

[Lone-sith]

the god romance sounds really interesting and I love learning things about his parents. Damn the geas, I can't wait for this talk

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I didn't see my mother again for a few hours. We went back to the Necromedes and retired to our own rooms in the building Killian had lent us. It had been a long...however long it had been. I honestly didn't know, with the time distortion we'd felt like we'd spent weeks, but as far as I could tell it had only been a day since we were transported, at least based on my wish ability.

Despite that, I decided to meet with her alone, and everyone else had gone to sleep by the time she showed up. Her knock on my door was tentative, like she was scared of my reaction, but when I opened it I couldn't tell if she'd been more scared I'd open it or that I wouldn't.

My room was pretty spacious, and I even had my own little side kitchen. I'd been nervous and couldn't sleep so I'd made cookies, and I made us both some tea to go with them before we sat down to talk.

"So..." I said, taking a long, slow sip. "Explain." I didn't stammer, or make nice, or try to distract. I wasn't going to make this easy for her. As much as part of me felt bad about how miserable she clearly was, part of me was just pissed off. Why did Chelsea get a real parent while I got dad? Why did she leave me and never reach out. Why had dad all but told me she was fucking dead and made Zeke imply the same?

She let out a shuddering breath. "Alright. Explain. That's going to be tough, but I can do it. I'm just trying to figure out where to start. I suppose at the beginning. Do you remember I told you that the Red Revenant and Black Sorrow used to be married?"

That seemed like a bit of a non sequitur, but I wasn't going to interrupt. I just nodded, hoping I was giving her serious 'get on with it' vibes.

"Well, they also had a daughter. Her name was...well, most people called her Drowning Shade. She wasn't always exactly a nice person, though stories of her nature were somewhat exaggerated. Regardless, she was their only child, and they both loved her. She spent most of her time with her mother, but she would visit Holy Dominion, and while things between them had long since devolved into aggression, she was allowed to come and go as she pleased from a young age."

I frowned. "That...doesn't match what I was told. I thought your dad killed her. In fact, legend has it he wiped out a whole planet doing it."

She nodded. "That's the story. But it isn't what happened. The Red Revenant had one daughter, and seven disciples. His most trusted students. Drowning Shade grew up in and out of the Holy Dominion and she spent time with all of them at one point or another. But she was especially close to the man who would eventually become the Radiant Pope. My father, Nicholas Anders."

"So they were an item?" I asked in surprise. "And grandpa killed her? That's...cold." And honestly fucking disgusting to me. Imagining having to kill Callie, for any reason, made me ill. My mom seemed to notice, because she shook her head.

"Shane, Drowning Shade isn't DEAD." She said emphatically. "She never was. The planet my father 'destroyed' was a false flag operation. He evacuated all the inhabitants before he wiped it out. He and Drowning Shade had been secretly together for years at that point. Something her mother didn't know about or she'd have killed them both. Despite loving her daughter, recursion had long since eroded most of Black Sorrow's humanity. Especially in regards to her husband."

"Alright." I said slowly, still not seeing the relevance. Still, it was interesting history, so I wouldn't derail her. "So why then? From what you said this was ages after they first became a couple. Why did they suddenly need to fake her death after presumably centuries together?"

"Because she got pregnant." Said my mother. "With me. Ascendants, particularly high level Ascendants, aren't the most fertile people. It's rare for high rankers to have children, at least comparatively speaking. Your father and I having twins was...a shock. Twins are fairly common in lower ranking Ascendant couples, for obvious reasons. But you two were a surprise. It's not time for that yet though, I'll get to it."

I was still processing. "So my grandma, who I've never met was...what? A demigod? Except both her parents were gods. What does that even make her? Was she born a god?"

Mom shook her head. "That doesn't happen. The Impact would be unsurvivable. As far as I know she was born with a divine soul. Specifically a Mirror Soul. Past black, which is what you hit at S rank naturally, is the Obsidian Soul Body, which becomes a Mercury and then a Mirror Soul respectively. I'm sure you're well aware of the benefits of having a powerful soul."

I tried not to shudder at what someone could do with a divine soul from birth. Hell, the things I could do for my level with my Azure Soul Body were already absurd. I had more flexibility and raw control over my Skills and abilities than anyone my rank with a normal soul could match.

"So grandma was...scary. Ok." I forced my brain to move past that admittedly huge revelation. "Grandma was born terrifying. Good to know I guess, though I don't seem to have inherited any of that. Did you? Or did Chelsea? Is that why you had to take her away?"

Her face twisted in pain. "Sort of. You know Chelsea was born with two abilities, yes? One my father's Flames of Purification. The other was her grandmother's Enshrining Darkness. The power she got from her own mother. If anyone had found out...Black Sorrow would have killed you. Your sister. Your father. Me. My mother. MY father. Probably the guy who sold us breakfast the day before."

Ok, angry god I could understand. That was a rough thing to deal with. But it wasn't like she was the only one. "But what about your grandfather. The Red Revenant would protect his daughter right? You said he loved her. He must have known about all this."

"You have to understand that my grandparents relationship isn't a healthy one." She said, possibly attempting to attain some sort of universal record for understatement. "My grandfather hates my grandmother. But he also loves her. They've been locked in constant battle for millennia. I don't think he's even capable of killing her at this point. Not just because their powers are at a similar level, but because he couldn't bring himself to do it."

"I don't suppose Black Sorrow SHARES these deeply hidden feelings?" I said, pinching my nose as I started getting a headache.

My mother laughed. "The Red Revenant is a different kind of god than Black Sorrow. Emotion and passion are part of his nature. They aren't part of hers. If she found out about us, she would kill us, all of us, and he wouldn't stop her. At least that's what my father says. He wouldn't tell her, of course. But we wouldn't get any help from him."

"Ok, but what does that have to do with leaving me?" I asked. I could see the problem, obviously, I just didn't get why the solution they'd come to was necessary.

She swallowed hard. "Because Chelsea was born with the REAL Enshrining Darkness ability. The one you see Black Sorrow passing out like candy is a modified version mixed with other Skills to make it more easily teachable. Something like the Fist of the Red Revenant my grandfather made for his disciples. Very few beings have that ability, and that in itself would imply her father was a high up in the cult."

My eyes widened in realization. "Except I have the Wish power, and we're twins. Which means dad was her father and there's no place the ability could have come from except you or him. Considering grandpa is an S-ranker with the WCP I imagine dad's lineage is well established. If your daughter suddenly developed the Enshrining Darkness ability at birth, Black Sorrow would put two and two together easily."

"Despite being a sociopathic lunatic, my grandmother is quite bright." Mom said miserably. "The truly absurd amount of Focus she's got probably helps. So, yes. I had to leave. I had to take Chelsea. Because leaving her and taking you wouldn't have solved anything. I had to abandon my baby." Her eyes were welling up with tears, and it hurt to look at, so I kept following the threads.

"My ability." I said after thinking it through. "You traded it to dad for the first eighteen years of my life. You wanted to make me irrelevant to anyone paying attention for long enough that when I did develop powers they wouldn't associate me with Chelsea. Hell leaving me with Zeke probably helped even more. Most people don't know Elijah Wyndham even HAS a son. Is that why dad left?"

She nodded. "Eli...Eli isn't the same man I fell in love with. He hasn't been in a long time. He reminded me a lot of you at your age actually. But he didn't have the Conglomerate to soften him. The Empire is a harsher place. Eli's response to the difficulties most candidates face was to codify relationships. Make contracts. The stronger he got the more he detached. But he ALWAYS loved you. Chelsea too. His method of keeping you safe wasn't the one I'd have chosen. But it was effective."

I couldn't argue that. Even I hadn't known I had a sister. I was, for all intents and purposes, completely uninteresting. Dad had made me basically invisible. Or at least I had been. I'd been doing a lot to demolish that particular defense. He HAD warned me. If I wasn't ready to risk my life I should just stay home and fade into obscurity. I'd made my choice. But that left one thing I was curious about. "What about the Wishmaster? The original one I mean. Dad's...great great grandfather or whatever. Couldn't he have protected us?"

"The Wishmaster's nature is...mercenary." She said with a grimace. "If we wanted protection we'd have needed to pay. We didn't have enough. Even my father can't throw around the kind of resources you'd need to pay to get him to go to war with another god. I promise you Shane. We couldn't see any other way. I'd have done ANYTHING. Given anything, to stay with you."

Her eyes burned with sincerity, tears still streaming down her face. I had to look away. "I believe you." I said hollowly. "I believe that it wasn't a matter of choosing. That it would have killed all of us, including me." Her face was starting to brighten, become hopeful, and I felt like an asshole crushing that hope. "But I don't know if it matters." She flinched like I'd hit her. But I kept going.

"I don't hate you." I said gently. "Not now. I don't think ever. But I can't just...forget. Maybe I can get past it. Eventually. I'm not making any promises other than to try. But as of this moment I just can't let it go. The years of abandonment, the pain. The damage you and dad caused. I can't just wave my hand and say bygones. I get why you did it. But you still did it."

She nodded slowly, almost like it hurt. "I know." She whispered. "I knew it would be like that. And I did it anyway. I knew it would hurt you. I don't deserve your forgiveness. I told you that. But you were right. You deserved to know."

I stood up, walked around the table, and opened my arms. She fell into them, her tears finally breaking into open sobs. I might not forgive her, but I didn't hate her. She was my mom, and the very least I could give her was a hug. We had a long way to go. I had a long way. But despite the pain I was in...part of me was happy. Some wounds need to be reopened so you can clean them. I was pretty sure we were all going to be ok.

 

[odinori]

What an amazing chapter. I'm glad he was finally able to get the reason of why he was abandoned and I'm happy there was actually a legitimate reason. His dad is a grade a asshole though but at least his mother seems nice.

 

[Lone-sith]

This story keeps proving why it is goated. I don't suppose that by the end both gods will return sane, same as his dad, and it will end with a whole family dinner and happily ever after?

 

[Mastersenseinewby]

This story keeps proving why it is goated. I don't suppose that by the end both gods will return sane, same as his dad, and it will end with a whole family dinner and happily ever after?

Click to shrink...

I think that would be disappointing but the reverse would be as well. I would like it to be something like he has to make big and small sacrifices to get what he wants and something's sometimes can't be changed no matter how powerful he gets

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"You ok?" Asked my girlfriend as she slipped into the room. My mom had calmed down and left, not for good, she wanted to have dinner with Chelsea and I before she headed back to the Holy Dominion. Callie was invited, and anyone else I wanted to bring, so I'd agreed. I wasn't going to see her for a while, and one meal wasn't going to kill me.

I shrugged. "Not especially. But I will be. A lot to process. How much of that did you get? Emotion wise? I didn't close the bond so I'm sure you picked up something."

"Frustration. Anger. Grudging understanding. More anger." She listed casually. "About what I expected. Though less of it than I anticipated, so that's good. I figured I'd come in and check on you. If you don't want to talk about it we can always check in about the stat gains." At my blank look she giggled. "You forgot we would be gaining a big chunk of stats after surviving that mess didn't you. I mean, this was a huge incident. Not that many of us came back."

I shrugged. "Fair. I guess I was distracted. I'm surprised it didn't all hit anyway. Doesn't it usually slam into you after the end of the incident?"

"Soul strength." She said with a smile. "Lets us control our stats better, in basically every way. We're going to need to relearn how to fight basically, but it comes with some perks. Still, it'll hit us eventually. With the extra soul power though, it shouldn't be nearly as painful, even if it is a big bump."

That made sense actually. Part of the reason for stat limits was soul weight. Yet another benefit of my Azure Soul Body. Now that I was paying attention, I did feel a kind of...buzz in the back of my head. I reminded me of stat gain, at least a bit. The connection between the soul and stat gain was something I really needed to look into. There was so much about it that I didn't understand. Maybe souls shit was how the bigwigs delayed things like the scavenger hunt. Though how would that even work?

Deciding I officially needed to get to this, I gave her a worried grin. "Alright. Well, I guess there's no use putting it off. At the very least it should take my mind off things." Closing my eyes, I focused on the buzz, a completely new sensation that my new and improved soul allowed me to experience, and just kind of...let it in.

I could feel how muted it had become compared to last time. Sure it was a smaller percentage, but still, it was a BIG boost, and while it certainly wasn't pleasant, it wasn't crazy either. The familiar purple flames rolled across my vision as I took it in.

Wishmaster candidate status. F-rank.

Ability: Intermediate Wish- Six times a day grant an Intermediate wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

Intermediate Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.

Might-1475
Impact-35
Fantasy-900
Vitality-720
Focus-1120
Perception-1204
Creation-554

Progress to next rank:6008/10000

Soul strength- Azure Soul Body

Stored:7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 triple strength density shifted attacks (ten in reserve). 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 10 heal bursts (10 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 10 shadow clone (2 in reserve), 19 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Pet- Wolf named Jin

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

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

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

Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rythym of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense

Goetia Staff Art: First form- Belial. Touch of Tears, Stone Limb, Consecration of Flames

Second Form- Mephistopheles. Consecration of Flame, Afterburner, Mercy Kill, Marked for Death.

I let out a long whistle at the bump. "I think I'm still riding the god slayer wave, what little of it I caught. You'll probably be seeing a big bump too. Five hundred Might, four hundred Fantasy, four hundred Focus, and five hundred Perception. A big bump to mental stats for figuring things out and a big bump to Might from my fights with Adrian and the others. I wonder what the Fantasy is for? Maybe because of the weird immaterial nature of the place?"

Callie shrugged. Who knows with these things." She grinned at me, and I beamed back because she was happy, and smiling, and not devastated, though I expected that to hit when she had a chance to get her mind off all this. "Now, want to see what I got?" She sounded like a kid unwrapping a present, and I knew that this was almost as fun as loot for her. I laughed and nodded, and she showed me her stats.

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

Might-2350
Impact-35
Vitality-342
Fantasy-1605
Focus-908
Perception-2375
Creation-485

Progress to next rank: 8100/10000

Soul strength- Green-50%

Pet-Wolf named Rellia

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

Path of the Abyss-Illusory.

I blinked at her in shock. "Sweet Revenant Cal, that's insane. Twenty nine hundred points? I know you're still getting god slayer rep, but that's crazy. You got over a thousand points of Might straight up. And eight hundred Focus. Which to be fair, you really needed." I winked at her. "I was getting tired of being the brains of the operation."

She snorted, rolling her eyes. "Please don't joke about something so horrifying. Imagine if it was true. You'd run us off a cliff or something."

"You actually DID run us off a cliff." I reminded her. "Granted, you made sure we had a hang glider, but still, you definitely did it. But it's ok. You're just the muscle. You punch what needs punching and leave the brain using to us intellectual types." I winked at her, and I could feel her joy and comfort at the teasing, getting back to our usual rapport. I felt the same way honestly.

The lack of teethcracking pain was really nice. I'd expected to be down and out for a while after the points dump, but honestly I kind of felt energized. I turned to Callie, who looked slightly less well off. "You doing ok?" I said, picking up some pain from the bond. "Your soul isn't as sublimated as mine, and you got more points. I know it's been a while, but are you still feeling any pain?"

Chuckling, she laid a head on my shoulder. "Brag, brag, brag. Do you have to show off so much? And no. I'm fine." Her face fell. "Well, I'm fine about that. Shane-"

"Perit was not your fault." I said, feeling her guilt surge again. "We've been over this. You're helping me get stronger so we can help Nat wish her back. Focus on that instead of on what happened. Unless you think self-flaggellation is more important than fixing your mistakes?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "You know I don't. Ass. And don't think I don't know you're making me angry on purpose to make me feel better." Her smile was soft as she leaned up to give me a quick kiss. "And don't think I don't appreciate it. But let's quit talking about my horrible guilt. Instead let's talk about what to do next. Because...we're kind of done here, right?"

That...was a good point. What DID we do next? I had ideas, but nothing that seemed like it would be rational or important. We needed points, and for the first time since we started our journey we didn't really have a destination. We were just floating in space. Both metaphorically and literally.

"There's a war coming." I said, after thinking for a bit. "I'd like to be in the conclave, and we have an invite from what my mom said, but they scheduled it a year out. I assume they'll be doing SOMETHING about Hatescream before that, but nothing we can get involved in."

She nodded slowly. "I agree with all that." She said slowly. "But it doesn't really tell me much. Like I can feel that you have an idea, but for once I'm not really following."

"Simple." I said with a shrug. "We need to learn war. We've been in fights. In raids. But we've never been in war. Not to mention we all grew massively and could use some polishing. The Empire is full of noble houses and cultivators fighting over land. I think we should head out there and sign up with someone. Get some experience in the battlefield. Because given Travis's personal experience with us, I'm betting once things really kick off we're not going to have much choice but to be in the thick of it."

Callie bit her lip. "That's a pretty heavy direction to take." She said finally. "I'm with you, because you're right, we need to get stronger, but the others might not all be onboard. I assume you'll be asking them?"

"Of course." I said with a sigh. "I won't force anyone. Mel and Abel will be onboard I'm sure. Probably Bethy if she's sticking with us. Nat will want training and Valk follows her lead. Jessie...I actually think she might be interesting in learning battlefield medicine, but I'll ask. Benny will probably be in, if I know him he wants to put some of his training to work. Our only real maybe is Celine."

My girlfriend shook her head. "She'll go. She loves Benny. She won't let him run off and get killed. Not given all the guilt she still feels about betraying him. She might even be happy they have some training they can finally do together. Can we just...join an army though? And how does that work?"

"Not sure." I said. "But I'm happy to look into it. We can talk to Vinnie too. Maybe Zeke if we approach it right. Plus as mid to high F-rankers we can actually get into high ranking planets now. It'll be a good place to build up a reputation for the pavilion and recruit new allies. Maybe we can start a mercenary company or something." The more I talked about it the more excited I got.

She laughed. "Let's get all our ducks in a row before we start on details. Chances are good we'll be cannon fodder if we end up in the wrong spot. I want to do some research before we decide where to go. Plus we have to actually GET there. Though it's possible we could get Killian to give us a ride. Speaking of hitching a ride, do you think your sister will come with us?"

"Couldn't say." I said with a shrug. "I hope she does. I'd love to get to know her better. Mom made it sound like she usually gets locked up in the Holy Dominion, but given what's going on the higher ups in all the factions will be busy. If we're going somewhere out of the way she might be able to come." Getting to know my twin sounded amazing, at least if it was possible.

Callie laughed at my clear enthusiasm for the idea. But given all the baggage, she seemed like she just wanted to calm down and distract herself. I saw an idea pop into her head. "Alright. Well I think I could use a workout. How about you and I do some training and then head to bed." I raised an eyebrow and she winked, flicking me in the forehead before melting into the shadows. "Tag." Said her voice from everywhere and nowhere at once. "You're it." I triggered Eye of Revelation. One distraction coming up.

 

[theaceoffire]

Progress to next rank: 8100/1000

Click to shrink...

Calliope Reynolds

Click to shrink...

Typo, she needs 10,000 for the next rank... I freaked out a little bit thinking she was about to level up!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day's wishes were focused on Vitality. It was one of my lower stats now, and an important one, so I scoured the ship for some people willing to give it up. Six wishes, each now giving me seven points (it had gone up after the big bump in stats) left me with forty two new Vitality for the day

I was planning to meet up with Jessie and Benny, but they were both otherwise occupied. I sent an invite to dinner, but they couldn't make it, so here I was in late afternoon with Callie, getting ready to have my first meal in memory with my mother and sister. I tugged on my jacket again, annoyed that it didn't seem to be sitting right, feeling like my lapels were off center somehow.

"Stop that." Snickered Callie as she smacked my hands away. She reached up to adjust my tie, then smiled and leaned up to peck me lightly on the lips. "Perfect."

I grimaced. "I look like a thug. I can't believe there was even a tailor on this ship. This was a dumb idea, why do I need to dress up for a family dinner. I should have just gone in my armor, it would have been totally functional, and it wouldn't have cost us anything."

My girlfriend rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous. This is a formal event with a high ranking member of a faction. We need to present ourselves properly. Remember that nobody else knows the truth. We have the excuse of saving her daughter to explain the meeting, but we need to keep up appearances. If we're taking casual meetings in our armor with an A-ranker people are going to figure something is wrong."

"Easy for you to say." I said with an adoring smile. "That dress makes you look like an angel." Callie blushed lightly, her cheeks setting off her lipstick when they went red and the pale skin providing a contrast against her black hair and long black dress when the blush faded. She looked stunning, but despite knowing I meant it, she still seemed shy about the whole thing.

She smiled sweetly up at me. "Right back at you big man. You look fantastic. And since you know I mean that, can you calm down a bit. Things will be fine. Besides I'm the one who should be nervous."

"About what?" I said in confusion. "You already met my mom and sister. You even saved Chelsea's life. Or at least helped."

"That was just business!" She said frantically, starting to pace. We were just outside the house my mom was using on the Necromedes, and we'd been plucking up our courage to go in. "This is like...meeting the parents. It's a DINNER. You think you're nervous about your outfit? I spent four hours with the tailor waffling about cut. I'm still not sold on this."

Catching her hand as she went by, I pulled her against my, chuckling as I held her tight. "Callie. I worry about a lot of things when it comes to my mom. The choices I've made, the things I've done. She and I might not be close but she's my mother and I wonder if she's going to approve of the way I live my life. I shouldn't care, but I do." She was looking at me nervously.

"But." I continued. "Not a single one of those worries is about you. You're the best choice I've ever made. Bar none. And my mom will either see that, or I don't give a shit what she thinks. No nerves, no hesitation. You aren't negotiable. Not that I think it'll come up. Anyone would have to be an idiot not to adore you. But I just wanted you to know."

Callie's smile was the brightest, most heartfelt thing I'd ever seen, and my heart jumped a bit staring at her face. "If I wasn't worried about smearing my lipstick I'd kiss the hell out of you right now." She said in an awed tone. But since anything more than a peck would make us look like cannibals I'm just going to have to take a rain check. Expect it later though, mister."

I laughed and squeezed her once before letting go, though I kept my hand around hers as we stepped up to the door. We knocked forcefully and the door slid open, revealing my sister, beaming ear to ear. "That." She said with a smirk. "Was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever heard."

I blinked, and then Callie's face twisted in horror. "Oh gods. I wasn't stealthing that. You heard every word we were saying."

"It wouldn't have mattered." She laughed. "Mom is inside and her Perception is insane. She'd have heard it anyway. But don't sweat it. I think if anything it won you some points. You two are sickeningly adorable. I wish I had a boyfriend I loved that much."

My face must have been disturbed because she giggled at my expression. "Don't know how to react to that huh?"

"You're my twin sister, so I feel like I should say something, but I barely know you so I feel like I can't." I agreed. "Plus you're already an adult so I can't really weigh in. "Let's just ignore your lovelife completely, shall we? I'm not equipped to walk on that emotional minefield right now."

She laughed harder. "Fine. I'll take pity on you. Come on in, mom's been wringing her hands and minutely shifting dishes a few microns for the last fifteen minutes. It stopped being funny a minute or two ago, and I'm worried she's going to wear a hole in the table."

Swallowing hard, I squeezed Callie's hand and we stepped into the house. "So, nice place." I said cheerfully. "Mom and Killian go back huh? Makes sense he gave her the good digs. Not that ours weren't, but this is like some high level diplomat shit."

"That happens when you're a high level diplomat." She said with a chuckle. "Mom's chef, Jenny, is pretty great though. You guys will love the food. I usually have to make do with Callen's cooking, which isn't terrible, but it's pretty middling." She paused, looking around quickly. "Oh, good, he's not here. He seems to pop up every time I say that. Here, dining room is this way."

She led us down the hall, into a huge white paneled room with gold trim along the edges. It was an odd design style, lots of intricate scrollwork. In the center was a huge dark wooden table, a white and gold tablecloth tossed over the surface. The table was set with crystal candlesticks and white and gold dishes covered with delicious smelling food.

"Shane!" My mom said happily as she pulled me in for a hug. I was honestly a pretty huggy person when possible so I didn't mind. We were getting to know each other, but it still felt nice to get a hug from a family member. She pulled back, and, without hesitation pulled Callie into a hug. "And Callie! It's lovely to see you dear. Welcome."

Chelsea was grinning at me from off to the side, giving me a look that clearly conveyed her amusement at the fact that mom had obviously heard my speech and was pretending she hadn't so she could score points. She'd even heard Chelsea tell me I was sure, but apparently we were pretending that hadn't happened. I felt Callie's triumph and relief through the bond though, and I was happy to play along if it made her feel like that.

We sat down at the table, and a man appeared, wearing a white suit, he strode to the platters on the table, the same white bone china, and lifted the covers off. "For your dining pleasure tonight." He said in a crisply accented voice. "Beef Wellington as the first course. Served on a bed of grilled asparagus with a full bodied bourbon peppercorn sauce." On the platter lay a series of what looked like tiny loaves of bread on long spears of green.

Plating each one out, he lifted a gravy boat, bringing it to each of us and gesturing to the food to see if we wanted sauce. I decided to try it. Callie was practically drooling like a cartoon dog by the time he got to her, and once everyone had their food we started eating.

It was amazing. The meat was F-ranked, as were the other ingredients, though I didn't know the specifics. Even at out own ranking though, I couldn't have come close to making a meal of this quality. This was the work of a Master chef. Possibly higher. As we ate, my mom shot uncertain looks at both of us, finally stopping and dabbing her mouth with a napkin that matched her white dress.

"So, Shane. What are your plans now?" She asked politely. "I'm sure you've got something in mind,. I'd love to invite you home but..."

I nodded, swallowing my bite. "I get it. Luckily I kept the whole 'she's my mom' thing pretty quiet. Just Gabe and a few of his people from the church know about it I think. I'm sure you can arrange for them to be told to keep quiet." My eyes widened as I hurried to add. "Nicely, please. They're friends. Don't like...kill them and dump their bodies in space."

My mother huffed out a laugh. "You've been spending far too much time around your father's side of the family. The church doesn't execute devoted initiates, darling. Not without a very compelling reason. They'll be rewarded for being of assistance, perhaps given their own branch in some backwater system for a time, should they wish it. There ARE ways to get people out of the way without harming them."

"Speaking of spending time with family, I was hoping to talk to you both about that." I said, figuring this was as good a segue as any. "We still need to talk it over with the others, but I plan to head for The Empire. Their factional approach to cultivation, nobility and such, means lots of small wars and skirmishes. We're going to try to join up with a smaller force's army and learn what war is really like. To prepare for what's coming. I was hoping Chelsea might be able to come along."

She flinched. "Shane...that's- Chelsea isn't supposed to leave the Dominion. Most people outside the Church barely know she exists. That isn't safe at all."

"It is." I said firmly. "Zeke can watch out for her, and for anyone close to her level she has Callen. Plus, like you said, most people don't even know she exists. We just need to keep quiet about our parentage and she should be perfectly fine. I know it's not a foolproof plan but-"

"Make a foolproof plan and the universe just makes bigger fools." Cut in my sister. "I want to go." At my mom's shocked look, Chelsea shrugged guiltily. "Mom. I love you. You know that. But Shane is my TWIN. Now that I have a chance to know him, I have to take it. And I hate being cooped up. I know you just want to help, but I'm an adult. You can't keep me prisoner if I want to leave."

My mom's face was a mask of pain and helplessness as she sighed, letting her head slump forward. "Fine." She said after a moment of silence. "I'll speak to Ezekial. If he agress to look after you, I'll trust him. Anyone below middle A-rank shouldn't give you trouble, and I can pay Killian to change routes to drop you off wherever you decide to go. He'll be around to keep an eye out."

I was surprised it had been that easy, but I was pretty sure some of that was guilt. Whatever it was, I would take it. We had a ride, a destination, and a new traveling companion. I couldn't wait to set sail. I wasn't sure if the training we were going to get was going to be enough to prepare us, but it couldn't hurt. We needed to prepare for war.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Before we could leave, we needed to check in with the others. After dinner with my mom, we went to visit Benny and Jessie. They were up first because they were main team members. Chelsea came along, excited to officially re-meet everyone and learn about her new traveling companions. Callen was around apparently, but we hadn't seen him. With mom around and on Killian's ship there was no reason to worry about my sister's safety.

When we arrived at Benny's place, I rapped on the door. It only took a minute for him to answer. He appeared to have gone to bed early, because his hair was tousled and his eyes looked a bit blank. "Shane?" He said in confusion. "Aaaand you brought your sister." He grimaced, glancing down at his bare torso. "One second." He shut the door, then came back about two minuted later fully dressed. "What do you need?"

I shrugged, pushing past him with a laugh. "You're in bed? At like ten PM? What are you, a thousand? We need to talk about our next destination. You free?"

He rolled his eyes. "Please, come on in. Ass." He turned to Callie and my sister. "You girls are welcome, by the way. I appreciate you having basic manners." He jerked his thumb at me. "This dipshit has been a lost cause for years. We're lucky we were able to housetrain him."

"I will knock you out and dump your unconscious body in a cave." I said flatly. "Now where's your better half? She usually keeps you from making an ass of yourself while we talk."

Benny just snorted, and both of us grinned. Chelsea seemed confused, but Callie just patted her shoulder. "Ignore them. They snipe at each other as a sign of affection. They don't realize how obnoxious it is...somehow. Which is astounding because everyone tells them constantly."

"Anyway." Said Benny. "Celine is asleep. We had a nice relaxing day together. No training. Then we went to bed. Jessie is with Cark and Cass last I saw, since I assume she's next on your list. What did you have in mind for our next leg?"

"The Empire." I said with a shrug. "There's a war coming, and I figured what better was to prepare for a war than to be in ACTUAL wars to get better at it. We're going to go join up with some noble house. I was hoping to talk to Vinnie about it before we leave. Thought maybe we could join up with him. Assuming there's no hard feelings for killing him in the temple. I think we're safe though, considering it turned into a nightmarish survival incident with an almost 90% mortality rate."

He snickered at that. "Yeah, they got off easy. The Empire huh? So what's the question? You're not thinking of leaving me behind, are you?"

"Given how worried you were about Celine I was thinking I'd make the offer." I shrugged. "No pressure either way, I'd love to have you. Although I am curious about what kind of bump you saw from this whole mess. I assume you got a pretty decent chunk of points too?"

He grinned. "Nothing insane, I wasn't front and center here. But between this and the leftover juice from the Glade I did ok. Here, check it out." He grabbed a nearby piece of paper, scrawling out his information carelessly. Between Might, Perception, and Focus, his writing basically looked like a printer.

Benicio Cortez- F-rank. Ability: Intermediate Mechanical Embodiment- Allows the integration of existing inventions into the users body for the purposes of strengthening and enhancing them.

Might-1905
Impact-35
Fantasy-256
Vitality-141
Focus-2683
Perception-282
Creation-171

Progress to next rank: 5473/10000

soul strength: Green 25%

Pet- Wolf named Rolf

Current integrated tech. 10/10. Torso: G-ranked intangibility for short bursts. Right fist: triple punch. Left forearm: F-ranked energy barrier or variable shape. Left fist: minor slow acting tranquilizer effect. Right foot: Density shifting to create heavier kicks and more powerful jumps. Left Foot: momentum neutralization to allow stopping instantly. Head: slight cognitive boost to allow more thinking time. Back: ability to grow a shell to tank damage. Chest: Pair of golden G rank spider legs that arch up from the shoulders. Waist: Belt of spiritual calming. Heart: Illusionary double

Skills:Minor Cooking Mastery, Intermediate Inventing Mastery, Minor Haggling Mastery, Minor Stealth Mastery

I whistled. "Damn. Nice. Seventeen hundred. I'm glad you got a few points in Fantasy. I assume that was upward pressure from your rank. Having any stat that low wasn't going to last long. The rest was in Focus and Might though, which makes more sense with your build."

"Yup." He said smugly. "More than halfway now. Celine did ok too, though nothing nearly as extreme. She was even less of a player this time than I was. Which is part of why I know she'll want to come on this little recruitment drive of yours. She feels bad for not being able to help more. She should be fine as long as we're all training together. Like I said she didn't love how absent I've been lately."

Callie nodded. "Yeah, I was pretty irritated with Shane for being gone all the time too. Though lording my new stats over him helped. Plus he could sense my annoyance and took some steps to placate me. You and Celine should talk to Abel and Mel. The bond is amazing for a relationship. Real communication is the best thing in the world for couples."

Case in point, my ability to feel her gleeful malice as she tried to casually convince my best friend to train with Abel, an experience she knew very well was absolutely miserable. I kept my face blank too, not wanting to ruin her prank. To be fair, the bond WOULD help their relationship. The process of getting it just fucking sucked, mostly because Abel, main teaching method (unless you were a nine year old girl) was to hit you until you figured out how to pick things up.

"So, Chelsea, you're going to be coming along with us huh?" He said as he slumped down on the couch. "Our meeting was a bit brief last time, so in case you forgot my name is Benny Cortez. I've been Shane's best friend since we were kids, so if you want any embarrassing stories I'm an open book."

Callie let out an offended gasp. "Why don't you ever tell ME embarrassing stories about Shane? I need blackmail material."

He shrugged. "Sharing with his sister is one thing, but I'm not about to spill state secrets to the girlfriend. Even I have limits. I might joke about it, but a man's got to have a code." His expression was solemn, and I shot him a manly nod of respect and gratitude...until he continued. "You should ask Maria next time we're home. It's HER job to embarrass him, so she'll be happy to spill."

My sister giggled at our antics. "Seems like you're all really close. I hope I can be part of that. I definitely want to get to know Shane, embarrassing secrets and all. I don't really get out much, and I'm honestly shocked my mom is giving me a pass to go with you."

Benny and Callie didn't know about the exact details of my sister's abilities. They had the general picture, but my mom had begged me not to tell anyone about my grandmother, saying even knowing could be dangerous for them, and I'd agreed. Plus Chelsea's powers were her own to share or not. Still, I wanted them to be friends. Benny and Maria were the closest thing I had to family, and it seemed like Chelsea could use that as much as I could.

"So." Said Benny after a minute. Face getting serious. "We have to join an army. Will you be able to do your wish thing in that kind of environment? Or will you need to keep it secret."

I shrugged. "Zeke will be around to ward off the big guys, and Callen is pretty damned scary. We should be fine. Plus Vinnie knows I'm WCP. And meeting here probably gave him a good idea about what my power is, given it's only the cream of the crop that come the temple for the trials. No way he wouldn't be interested in having a candidate among his army to grant wishes."

Aside from just stats, I had a few ideas for how to help with that kind of thing. "You get a chance to do any research on the way that works, Cal?"

My girlfriend nodded. "Looked into it during my downtime today. Basically it's a pyramid. Every 'noble' from the Emperor down to an Earl has other nobles under them. It's really stratified. Each of them can field an army of their supporters, and battles tend to be pretty rank specific. So we'd be fighting other F-rankers. The Empire doesn't want to waste their nobles in battles with higher ranks."

That sounded pretty similar to what the other factions did. Die in battle with someone your rank and you were just useless, but they didn't want anyone higher up killing too many of their lessers, since it didn't differentiate talent or instinct. That was how you lost good people that could be put to work. "I assumed it'd be like that. Does it matter which army we join?"

"Oh yeah." She said emphatically. "Not all E-rankers are created equal. Some are members of powerful factions and families that allow them more leeway. Family skirmishes, noble houses in particular, are a bit more freeform. Less limitations on rank because your family's seniors are expected to protect you rather than the rules."

That lined up with what I'd heard from Zeke about his family. That hadn't seemed quite so simple. I wanted to go with a big battle, but I didn't want to end up fighting E or D rankers. "We'll have to ask around. Our options should be a bit more varied if Jessie comes with us right?" If there was one thing I'd picked up from games and movies, it was that armies needed healers.

"Definitely." She said with a smile. "Even without the healing, her little energy boosting thing would be a huge help in battle. Imperial conflicts are all about stamina. You don't just fight hard, you fight long. Less losses than you would expect, but it's a drawn out process."

"Sounds like we have our work cut out for us." I chuckled, glancing at Benny. "You still sure you want to come?"
He shrugged. "What's life without a little risk. Or a lot of risk. Or certain death. That's what makes it so much fun. Besides, I want to see if I can make some cool inventions to help with the battles. Maybe some kind of mines or something. I'm sure my Inventing will come in handy."

I hadn't even considered that. He could make some nasty stuff, and even put together buildings that could be used in combat. That was going to make things interesting. At least assuming they didn't have Inventors already around.
We got to talking about details, whatever we knew or could scrounge up from our scan rings. Chelsea really got into it, telling us everything she'd read on the empire's caste system and how nobility cultivation worked. It was a fascinating subject, and we ended up talking well into the night.

Eventually Celine woke up and came down. Benny filled her in and as he mentioned she seemed more than prepared to go into battle with us as long as we all went together. She'd heard a bit about the empire too, since the Faerieland interacted with them more than any other faction, and tossed in plenty of her own trivia. It turned out to be a pretty interesting night. I hoped we had more like it once we arrived. Before that though, we had to leave, and before THAT I had some friends to contact. I was just hoping they weren't too pissed about the whole murdering them thing.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Our next stop (and last on the ship) was talking to Jessie, Cark, and Cass. Nat was almost definitely coming with us, and Jessie was a probable yes, but Cark was going to have to make a call. He'd been hanging with Cass pretty much full time, and I wasn't sure if he'd want to come along and put himself in danger after all the downtime. Of course he'd ALSO been training with Zeke, and gods only knew what THAT had been like.

Knocking on the door of Jessie's place, I didn't have long to wait before pounding footsteps came rampaging toward the entryway. Within a few seconds the door was thrown open and a familiar face grinned up at me. "Shane!" Cheered Cass as she saw me. "And Callie!" She threw herself at my girlfriend, who caught her with a laugh.

"Hey kid. You seem sprightly today." Setting the nine year old on her hip with no difficulty, Callie carried the excited girl into the house. "You been good for your brother and Zeke?"

Cass giggled. "Sure. But Tony hasn't had much time for me anyway. Uncle Zeke has been training him. He's always super tired when he gets home, so I get to do pretty much whatever I want. I mostly watch cartoons and practice my Ragam. I heard Master came back with you guys?"

It was still weird hearing anyone refer to Abel as a respectable teacher. I nodded though. "Yeah, he's off with Mel somewhere. I think she wanted some time off before we head off. Granted, we're going to be in transit for a few months probably. We need to talk to your bother before we leave though. He might want to get off the ship before we depart, or make plans to stop partway."

When mom had mentioned arranging our trip, she'd given me a bit of time. I was using it to double check if everyone wanted to come along, and I was going to get in contact with Bethy and Gabe before leaving. Cark had been with us for a while, but this next leg of the journey was going to be pretty rough. I was happy to let him come along, especially after training with Zeke, but he'd probably be away from Cass a lot of the time. He deserved the opportunity to bail out if he wanted.

"Cassidy." Called a tired voice. "Don't harass our guests please." Cark stepped out of the hall, looking exhausted. "Shane, Callie, good to see you two. Here to see Jessie?"

I was guessing he was in serious pain, because he'd apparently missed all the stuff we'd said to his sister. My second clue was the fact that his eyes were blazing the telltale green of Jessie's life force. He must have been training like a madman not to be feeling energized by that much of her power. As I'd seen with my poison, Vitality prioritized injuries over anything else, so if you got yourself damaged enough it would soak up all the healing energy so you wouldn't be energized. He must have wrecked every muscle in his body to offset that much of it.

"And you." I said with a nod. "If you have the time. We're heading out on another trip, and I was hoping you'd come along this time. It's not like the Temple. Cass can stay with Zeke and you can visit her, but I'm not sure how much, so I wanted to give you the particulars. Though Jessie should also be part of this conversation, is she around?"

There was a loud crash from the back of the building, and Jessie came stumbling into the room, somehow covered in pots and pans on strings. "I'm here." She yelped. "Sorry, Cass and I were building a fort and she just ran off and left me in a big web of hanging pots."

"You were building a fort...out of pots?" I said incredulously, glancing at the wide array of metal cookware.
Cass sniffed derisively. "Blankets and pillows are for babies. I wanted a real fort. Like the ones you read about in books that can stand up to armies and stuff. I told Jessie and she said the biggest supply of metal in the house was all the pots. So were stringing them together and Jessie was gonna grow some special trees around them to hold them in place. Do you want to help?" Her tone was excited and pleading all at once, and Cark turned to Jessie with a frown.

"Why do you let her talk you into these things?" He said in exasperation. "And where is Randall." One of the pots rattled where it had been dragging on the floor, and it popped up to reveal a small bear the size of a loaf of bread. I blinked at him, and Cass squealed with delight, bolting over to scoop the little animal up.

I grinned at Jessie. "Been practicing with that shrinking necklace huh? Seems like it's working well for you." My friend had been untangling herself from the pots, and she didn't bother to look up as she shrugged. "It's convenient being able to take him places without Abel to act as a taxi service. Plus he's super cute like this." She paused, rolling her eyes and glancing at the bear. "That's not demeaning. Being cute is a good thing."

Recognizing the beginnings of an argument between them, I hurriedly cut her off. "Gotcha. Did you hear what we were saying to Cass? I'm thinking Cark was deep in his Focus, trying to concentrate on something other than pair, since he missed it, so I can explain again if you want."

"I got the gist." She nodded. "We have a new destination. You're here to find out if I wanted to go, though I'm sure you guessed I probably would. Mostly here to see if Cark is in, that all?" At my nod, she laughed. "You know I'm with you to the end. I take it you're also here to check on my stat bumps?"

I nodded easily. "Sure, if you want to share. We got Benny's already, and I'm curious to know what you got, though I highly suspect I know already."

She grinned. "My stats do tend to be in a specific vein. Though I'm starting to hit the point where my rank is dragging to low ones up with it. Most of it was what you'd expect though. Lots of Vitality, still riding off the godslayer incident from what I can tell, and a big chunk of Might." She grabbed some paper and scrawled out her stats for us to see.

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

Might-1125
Impact-35
Fantasy-108
Vitality-3292
Focus-105
Perception-115
Creation-108

Progress to next rank: 4780/10000

Pet- Wolf named Lily and bear named Randall(Beginner Beast Bonding with Jessie)

soul strength: Green- 20%

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

One thousand three hundred and twenty two points. Not bad. I wasn't surprised her stats had all been dragged over a hundred, she was the only one of us that still had anything lower, and I'd been expecting that soon. Still, a flat one thousand Vitality and two hundred fifty Might wasn't bad at all. Especially not for Jessie, whose Vitality was higher than any stat any of us had now, despite her being the lowest in total stat points.

"Very nice." i said with a whistle. "No wonder you're so happy to play with Cass. Do you ever run out of energy?"
She chuckled. "I do juice myself up more than I maybe should. Anyway, is that enough points for...whatever you're planning? Actually, what ARE you planning. You've been cagey since you got here."

I considered how to phrase it, but in the end coming right out seemed smartest. "With the big fight coming up." I made sure not to use the W word in front of Cass. "I thought we needed some more regimented training. Not just in fighting, but fighting in a group. Stuff that's going to carry over when we expand the pavilion later and during my candidacy. So I want to head to the empire to join up with one of the noble armies. Get some field experience. I figured you wouldn't be against learning some field medicine."

Her face brightened. "That sounds like a blast. My First Aid Skill is falling behind anyway. I need it at Intermediate before my next rank up. And with my new soul strength I could even get it to Expert maybe! My Horticulture I've been training on my own, just recently got it to Intermediate, so that's taken care of for now. I got a nice bump in the alchemy room back at the Academy."

"We figured you'd feel that way." Callie said with a grin. Turning to Cark, she raised a questioning eyebrow. "The big question is how do YOU feel? You willing to come with us? I'm pretty sure boot camp and being deployed with one of the noble armies isn't going to be fun, but we're almost definitely going to learn a lot. If you'd rather go off on your own we could drop you two somewhere nice though. Or you could keep training with Ze-"

His eyes went wide with panic. "NO!" He almost screamed. "No more. I'll go. Going through basic training sounds like heaven compared to what HE has me doing." Suddenly I was less upset that Zeke's geas kept him from training me. I'd seen Cark take on monsters the size of a bus, but he sounded like he was going to cry just remembering what Zeke had been doing to him. What was it with high level Ascendants that they only knew how to train people like monsters?"

Cass pouted at him. "You should be nicer to Uncle Zeke. He's just trying to help you. Master says that training is three parts hard work, three parts talent, and four parts suffering. You need to keep going if you want to get stronger."
I tried not to snicker at my friend's devesatated expression as his nine year old sister who wasn't allowed to do anything but katas lectured him on hard training. "What is he TEACHING you? And WHEN? I've sat in on all your lessons except the ones Zeke watches over." He glared at me. "This is your fault you know. Your uncle has no concept of human limitations."

"Because he's basically not one?" I said with a shrug. "After a certain level of advancement you start losing that kind of stuff, or so I'm told. Maybe don't expect temperance from the guy whose idea of a relatively long training session is probably spending a hundred years sparring."

I wasn't sure Zeke saw things like that, but some of his comments made it likely. Plus I'd seen him spend like a week almost uninterrupted crafting masks. That level of focus (or maybe Focus with a capital F) wasn't something that normal humans would have. He sighed heavily. "Yeah, you're not wrong. I'm so used to dealing with G-rankers and lower, back home I never had the chance to even interact with anyone at E-rank, nevermind a MASTER anything."

Laughing, I clapped him on the shoulder. "Trust me, I feel your pain. Anyway, I'll ask Zeke to lay off for the duration of the trip. It'll probably take a while, and we can all relax, aside from my basic wish stuff. But before our downtime we have one more job to do. We have to say our goodbyes to everyone else, and talk to a few friends before we leave." Bethy and Gabe were still floating nearby on her dad's ship. I just hoped the Vampire didn't mind us visiting.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"This is a terrible idea." Said Zeke stormily. "Like, I know those are kind of your wheelhouse, but in a short lifetime of terrible ideas, this is easily the most terrible. I TOLD you we shouldn't mess with him. I told you we should avoid him, daughter or not, and now you're taking a fucking day trip onto his ship. The Vampire is the most dangerous S-ranker in the universe. If he decides to kill you, I have zero chance of helping. Your mother either."

I shrugged. "We need to talk to Bethy and Gabe. And realistically if he wanted to kill us, the ship and everyone on it wouldn't be an obstacle. Besides, mom says its fine."

He threw his hands in the air dramatically, whirling and stalking off, muttering in a perfectly audible voice about idiot nephews with death wishes. I took it from that exchange he wasn't coming with us. I turned to my mom, who was standing next to me. "He IS just being dramatic right? Because getting eaten is not high on my priority list. Like...at the bottom. If not lower."

"You'll be fine." She said with a laugh. "My father and Morgan are old rivals, though the power difference has become a bit exaggerated. The old Vampire doesn't eat baby cultivators. He's also not as prone to murder as he likes to let on. Besides, I doubt you'll see him. I'll be splitting off to meet with him about the conclave. Even if you did, he's not so bad. Making a point to kill annoyances just keeps other people from annoying him. "

That was the least reassuring reassurance I'd ever heard. But it would have to do. Since he wouldn't be around we could just focus on having fun with our friends. That did raise another question though."We have permission to board right?" I asked, looking at the absolutely massive coffin shaped ship floating in the void of space. We were currently in a small shuttle taking us between the ships, though small might have been a misleading statement since it was big enough for Zeke to go to another room to sulk. The rest of us were standing next to a transparent field looking out at the ship. My mom, sister, Callie, and I.

My mother nodded. "Of course. THAT might get you killed. One doesn't trespass on The Boneyard. Most S-rankers would be too scared to try to break into that place."

I sighed internally. The Boneyard. It reminded me of some of the stuff Bethy said about her dad and how he leaned into edgy stereotypes sometimes. A giant coffin shaped ship named The Boneyard certainly fit the bill there. From beside me Chelsea whistled as she looked the thing over. "That's...unique. You make it sound like it's old and well known. What is it made of exactly?"

"Stygian Tungsten." Said mom with a chuckle. "A-rank. Finding enough S-rank material to make a ship that size is problematic. I've only ever seen one or two S-rank ships. Still, that one is heavily enchanted, and the metal it's made of is one of the hardest A-rank materials in the universe. Of course, a lot of the Impact was shunted into the enchantments so people like you can actually walk around in there, so that makes is substantially more durable."

I knew that shunting Impact like that was possible since it was what they did with the Necromedes, but hearing that it made the thing more durable was interesting. I hadn't really connected the fact that Impact made you tougher to what it would do to the material the ship was made from, even independent of the enchantments.

It didn't take long for the shuttle to enter the docking bay of The Boneyard, the ship we were using was pretty fast and we weren't too far, at least relatively speaking. When we touched down, we were immediately inundated with a massive swarm of...flying kittens. I laughed, rolling my eyes as I let Bethy bat at me from a dozen angles before she reincorporated into her normal form.

"Ta-dah!" Said the tiny Vampire. She was wearing a purple velvet ballgown with black trim today, and a black headband with a purple flower on it. Tracey and Aida were standing off to either side, letting their mistress have her fun, and Gabe was leaning against the wall looking amused. When he saw my mom though, his eyes went wide and he stood up ramrod straight.

"Star Queen." He said formally, kneeling quickly and lowering his head. "This lowly crusader bids you greetings. Apologies for not receiving you in a more proper manner."

Bethy just rolled her eyes. "Don't be so stuffy, Gabe. I'm sure she doesn't want people fawning over her like that. It gets super old. You're Chelsea's mom huh? Nice to meet you. I'm Bethany, but everyone calls me Bethy! My daddy owns this ship!'

My mom laughed. "I'm well aware, young lady. Please, Crusader Brightlaw, rise. She's right. I feel no need to debase hard working members of the church with my very presence. And an Adamant too. What a rare path. I'm impressed with your resolve and courage. Not many are willing to take such a risk, and you've already come so far and been through so much. I wish you luck on your journey."

I was pretty sure Bethy new Chelsea was my sister, but I suspected she ALSO knew she wasn't supposed to mention it. Despite her eccentricities Bethy was whip smart. She liked to be underestimated, so it was always hard to tell how much of her crazy was intentional to throw off her enemies."

Grabbing Callie and I, she started pulling us. "Oh, I'm so excited you're here! I can't wait to show you around. This place is so boring and stuffy usually, but there's so many neat things to see. Now that you're here I just know we're going to have lots of fun. Donuts and Poptarts will be so happy to see you too. They're out roaming the ship, I've got them tapped into the local shadow plane. Callie especially will be a treat for them. Poptarts absolutely adores you."

Callie blinked in surprise. "He...does?" She gave me a questioning look, and I just shrugged. I had no means of communicating with Bethy's cats. If she said one of them was a Callie fan, they must be."

"Of course!" She smaller girl said cheerfully as she dragged us out into a huge open chamber. "You're his favorite person. Donuts is more of a Benny fan." I blinked, unaware the cats even knew who Benny was. Huh. As she dragged us onto a dirt road, I got a better look around, and I revised my 'huge chamber' estimation to 'absolutely gargantuan'.

The whole place was probably about the size of Rajak, albeit mostly open air. It reminded me a lot of Bethy's domain actually. Bloody sky full of dark cloudy with a blood red moon. The light spilled down over black grass and I could see castles out in the distance surrounded by small towns. I was kind of gobsmacked, but eventually managed to get out a question. "What...IS this place? Like what are all the castles."

She just shrugged. "Oh this is where I grew up. At least most of the time. Technically daddy owns the Sanguinis system, the Queen gave it to him for services rendered or something, but he likes to stay mobile. Each of us kids have our own castle here, though most of us share with our mothers. Mommy still lives in mine now that I'm out and about, but I don't think she's here right now. It's a shame, because I'd love to introduce you guys!"

I wasn't sure what to expect of Bethy's mother, actually. She talked about her dad a lot, but I hadn't heard her mention her mom. "Is your mom a Vampire too?"

Giggling, she shook her head. "Silly, only Larks get to be Vampires. None of our mom's are. No, she's a fae. A Maenad specifically." I had no clue what that meant, but Chelsea, who wasn't trailing far behind us let out a squeak of fear. Bethy gave her a bright smile. "Oh, don't worry. She doesn't eat guests. Anymore. Mostly."

At my glance, my sister looked around worriedly, then lowered her voice, layering it with Stealth. "Maenads are wine nymphs. They're the original party animals, and are always looking to have a good time. Which in their case often means eating people who come to their parties. They're known to devolve into a frenzy of slaughter and bloodshed as they revel in debauchery."

I swallowed hard, but glancing at my mother, she didn't seem worried. If we were in danger she'd have mentioned it. Though I supposed that would be recursion, and anyone associated with a high powered Ascendant like Morgan Lark would be able to handle theirs.

It did explain a lot about Bethy though. I wasn't sure how racial traits mixed, but a lot of her personality made a lot more sense. No wonder she was so focused on avoiding her bloodlust, it must be even worse than a normal Vampire.

As we walked, I decided to start telling them about my plans. "So I came to see if you guys wanted to travel with us. We're heading for the Empire to join up with one of the noble armies. Get some training before the big war. I've never had much formal combat instruction, just lots of sparring with Abel and some others. They've taught me a lot about fighting, but that's not the same as war."

She brightened. "Oh, I bet they have super cute outfits! I can put my hair up in a ponytail and be like. 'Attention!' And everyone will be like 'Oh no it's Captain Bethy, she's so serious'." Callie and I both looked at her in disbelief. On the list of phrases I expected to hear in my life. That one didn't make the top million, especially not from hardened soldiers. But whatever her reasons were it sounded like she wanted to come. I glanced over at Gabe.

"How about you man? You in?" I wasn't sure how his whole Adamant deal would mix with training like that, but he was kind of made for breaking lines, so if nothing else I was sure he'd be damned useful. Plus it would be nice to have more friends around.

He shrugged. "I would normally be heading back to the Holy Dominion. I'm not exactly top of the food chain, and the Bishop I report to would be expecting me. But since we're standing in the presence of a Saintess and she seems fine with it there shouldn't be a problem. The only people likely able to countermand her permission would be the Popes, and none of them probably know I even exist."

My mother just chuckled. "I can take care of that much, I assure you. Consider yourself reassigned to my daughter's honor guard with Callen. In any case, I'll leave all of you to entertain yourselves. I have my meeting with Lark. I'll come collect you all when it's time to leave." She beamed at Bethy. "It was lovely meeting you, dear."

"Thanks, you too!" Said our friend exuberantly. Then she turned to the rest of us. "So, we have a while before we need to go? Because there's so many things I want to show you. Daddy has this hilarious room full of skeletons that play their own ribs like xylophones."

That did sound pretty fantastic. With my non Bethy captured arm, I reached back and dragged Chelsea up to walk with us and my sister smiled at me happily as she got sucked into the vortex of fun and crazy that was Bethany Lark. This was a rare opportunity, getting to see inside a ship that most people would never set foot on, and I wasn't going to waste it. This was going to be a good day.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of the day was fun and uneventful. Contrary to my innermost nightmares, I did NOT meet the bogeyman of the entire mortal universe. My mom apparently had tea with him while Zeke sulked on the shuttle, and my friends and I ran around sightseeing and doing random things all day until it was time to go.

My personal favorite part of the trip was definitely seeing how happy it made my sister. She and Bethy had really hit it off given a chance to interact without terrifying death on the horizon. Bethy had sort of taken Chelsea under her wing, able to tell she didn't have much experience having fun with friends and helping her navigate the ship, letting her try new food and activities as she chatted with her about everything under the sun.

Since I'd met her, I'd always been struck by how poised my sister was. She was friendly enough, but it was a reserved friendliness. With the exception of maybe me, she was distant with people her own age, even Callen, but it was functionally impossible to be stiff or standoffish when dealing with Bethy.

By the time mom came to get us, Chelsea was grinning from ear to ear, breathless from laughing and bolting around with the Vampire like a kid on a sugar rush.

We were climbing some sort of haunted mountain when she came to get us, where tame ghosts popped out and shouted creepy limericks at you in an attempt to get you to laugh. It was pretty much the weirdest place I'd ever been, and Bethy told me her dad had it made for her when she was a kid to help her learn to read. She did NOT explain how it accomplished that in any way shape or form, but I supposed that was Bethy.

Once we returned to the Necromedes, Gabe and Bethy in tow, Killian called the crew together to inform everyone of our change of course. A few guests seemed put out, but he offered them a refund and told them he'd be willing to talk to some of the departing factions about hitching rides for them. Some of them took him up on it, some of them decided to stay and enjoy a free ride.

I was honestly shocked he'd been willing to just up and change course like that, but mom WAS an A-ranker, and given the whole mess with the coming war and the conclave, I didn't think anyone was going to find it odd that he was prioritizing the trip she hired him for. Once that was done, we all headed to sleep, agreeing to meet up as a group and talk things over in the morning. After that, we all retired to our own rooms.

In the morning I felt...energized. Another trip, but this one I couldn't be spending the whole time training. I'd worked my ass off during the last three months, but this next stretch was going to be all about relaxing. Mom had to leave for conclave stuff, but my sister was here, and all my friends, and we had plenty to do on the ship.

My first order of business was to whip up some breakfast. I decided to make cheese blintzes, and after a scan ring call to let everyone know we were eating at my place, I started cooking up a storm. The kitchens were stocked, and it was child's play to whip up a few dozen crepes and then a nice cream cheese filling. I folded them up neatly, then served them with some fruit compote I made from a mix of strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries.

Callie, of course, was already at the table, eyes practically shining as she awaited her massively overstuffed plate. I'd made a LOT of blintzes, because there were tons of us and we were all higher ranked. Abel, Mel, Benny, Jessie (with a mini Randall who I gave his own little plate), Bethy, Nat , Valk, Chelsea, Callen, Celine, Cark, Cass, and Gabe all piled in one at a time and took their places as I served the food, each of them apparently ravenous.

Honestly I wasn't sure a few dozen was even enough by the time everyone arrived, but I wasn't making more, so they could suck it up if not. I just slumped into my chair and dug into my own plate. Everyone was wolfing down their food, and it took a minute for anyone to talk.
Cass broke the silence. "That's a really pretty dress." She said to Bethy with a wide, partially fruit smeared smile.

My Vampire friend grinned at her, managing to somehow keep her fangs from showing while letting us see teeth. It was actually really impressive. "Why thank you. My name's Bethy. Fashion is kind of a hobby of mine. I could teach you a bit if you want?" Her tone made it clear that 'teach you a bit' meant 'dress you up like a tiny doll because I find small cute things adorable' but that didn't seem like a huge deal, so we all just watched in amusement.

"I appreciate the thought." Said Cark firmly. "But I think she's a bit too busy for that. She has training and cartoons and she spends lots of time outside exploring."

Bethy grinned at him. "That sounds like fun." She glanced at Cass. "Do you have any pets? I have two cats, a dog, and two hundred and fifty seven flying squirrels. Plus I can turn into an army of kittens. It's pretty cool. I think pets are the best way to spend time. You should totally get one!"

Cass shot Cark a wide eyed look of such tear jerking desperation that I had to look away, but I didn't look too far to see the bounty hunter glaring at my friend. "Maybe when you're older." He answered the unspoken plea. "Space isn't a good place for animals."

"But Bethy has animals!" Complained the nine year old, in that tone that proclaimed to everyone that she she was currently discussing the greatest injustice ever enacted on anyone in the history of the universe. Bethy, her eyes wide an innocent, just snacked on her blintzes as she pretended not to have caused this. Or didn't think she had, it was hard to tell with her sometimes.

Callie, laughing, swallowed a bite and then cut in. "I think we can talk about this some other time. Cass, your blintzes are getting cold, don't you want to finish them?"

Successfully derailed, the little girl went back to eating, causing Cark to sigh in relief. He gave Callie a grateful nod, but didn't say anything out loud. I turned to Chelsea. "So, you ready to strike out on your own? Well, own-ish. You're with us, but this is your first time away from home for a long period right?"

She nodded. "I spend most of my time in grandpa's library. It's certainly entertaining, but reading about ancient civilizations and amazing artifacts isn't really the same as doing things myself."

"You're so much fun though!" Bethy squealed. "I had a blast on daddy's ship, and I'm sure we're going to have even more fun being super stylish army people together." Once again, I questioned if Bethy knew what an army WAS, or if she just had a vague idea that they were groups of people fighting together. Then again, I wasn't entirely sure that an army wouldn't just end up being whatever she wanted when she was introduced, Bethy tended to get her way.

Gabe clearly shared my concerns, because he just sighed. "Bethy, we've been over this. The army isn't just a place to hang out with your friends and wear cute battle outfits. You have to LISTEN to other people. Consistently. Not just run off and do whatever you want."

"I know!" She said in an offended tone. "I have my own army remember. My flying squirrels. I give them orders and they follow them. The army will be just like that. They'll tell us what to attack and we'll all swarm them and beat them down." She slammed a fist into her palm grimly. "I can totally do that. Plus I'll have all those enemies to eat, and eating people is fine when they're bad guys."

Cark looked at Cass sharply. "Eating people is NOT fine when they're bad guys, don't listen to her. And armies don't 'swarm' the enemy. They use training and formations to allow attacks to be as advantageous as possible. Running off to attack them like a mob of random maniacs is the exact opposite of the point."

"That's dumb." Said the Vampire matter-of-factly. "Beating up enemies is easy. You just need to be stronger than them. There's no reason to make it complicated."

Abel burst out laughing. "You know, as big a menace as you are, you're right about things sometimes. I'm skeptical about this training thing. You don't need convoluted strategies. I'll give it a try, but it seems like it'll be a step down in combat potential. I only need one person at my back in a fight, and she's right there." He jerked his thumb at Mel.

To my surprise, the currently unmasked warrior (she'd taken it off to eat) blushed at that. Nat cut in, shaking her head.
"Learning to command a large force is integral to any candidate, and learning what it takes for them to operate in battle will be a huge help. Maybe for powerhouse loners like you two it's pointless, but I think Shane has the right idea here. Plus it'll give us plenty of opportunity to grow." She was clearly talking about having plenty of wishes to grant, but her tone was...off putting.

It made me sad hearing her talk like that. Nat had always been mischievous and a little wily, but she'd also been fun loving and a blast to be around. My cousin liked to tease people she cared about, mess with them and make sarcastic jokes. Now...now she was just cold. Harsh. I knew she was hurting, but I didn't know how to help. I was just hoping a few months downtime would help her come to terms with Perit's death and focus on the now.

We all had plenty to get past. This trip was going to be good for us. No training (aside from what was needed for wishes or just for enjoyment, some of us were maniacs like that), no missions, just fun and relaxation and enjoying the amenities here. According to Killian and Blake, we would be flying for about four months this time, so we had plenty of opportunity for downtime and socializing.

Once we arrived we could worry about the rest. And we WOULD need to worry. There was a war on the horizon, new gods coming to power (or very old ones depending on your point of view) and I still had the competition to worry about. Not to mention the conclave next year. Not to mention I wasn't naive enough to assume it would be simple or easy making our way in the Empire.

High rank protection or not, we would need to learn to deal with all the politics and backbiting, plus they used an entirely different type of cultivation, relying heavily on the job system, so we were going to stand out a lot with our costumes and monikers. Not enough to be unique, thankfully, but it wasn't the norm. People would take notice, and not all of that notice would be friendly.

The Conglomerate was a new and somewhat raw area, especially around the edges where places like Callus were recently founded relative to everywhere else. The Empire was a much older and more stable place, much more set in its ways. I had a feeling it was going to be tough to break into that established order, even as mercenaries with obviously useful skills. Whatever came our way though, we'd handle it. We always did. Together.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Four months. We'd been in space on the road for four months. One hundred twenty days, seven hundred and twenty wishes. Of course, I hadn't focused all that on myself. While training was out as per my promise to myself (any my girlfriend), it was a big ship, and there were lots of people who WERE training. People who got injured doing said training, and I was more than happy to heal them with the charges I got from Jessie.

This enabled me to rack up a sizable nest egg by charging healing fees, as well as continue helping Jessie boost her Vitality, since she was the furthest behind out of all of us statwise.

Half of my wishes went to actually boosting my stats, of course which totalled out to twenty five hundred and twenty points each for us. I still had a bit of bleedover from the godslaying incident ( though not nearly as much as Callie ) which got me up to a solid three thousand points of added stats over the trip. I was officially over nine thousand total and closing in on E-rank which was pretty solid for not putting in any effort.

Aside from Jessie and I, Benny spent a no inconsiderable amount of time inventing, and sold most of it to Nat for wishes to keep up. While I was unwilling to train for the trip, my cousin was much less sanguine, and spent all her time either fighting or granting wishes, except on the rare occasions we were able to drag her away. Benny got a full two thousand points out of her ( Might and Focus, of course), and Callie had her godslayer renown still coming in, which netted her a thousand for doing nothing.

All in all, Jessie and Benny were both right on the edge of seventy five hundred points, with Callie and I both over nine thousand, and I had thirty six hundred F-rank chits (or thirty six E-rank) as a nest egg stashed away from healing fees.

More importantly, I got to spend time with my sister, my girlfriend, and my friends, just enjoying life and NOT worrying about being impaled alive on spider legs or eaten by wolfhornigators. Sadly, all good things must end, because according to Killian we were rapidly approaching Stratholme, an imperial C-ranked planet where would be joining up with a local force.

Vinnie had already left by the time we tried to get in touch, so hopefully we'd see him again at some point. This particular planet had been picked by Zeke after talking to some of his contacts (since this was about the war and not the candidate competition it didn't trip his geas) and would apparently be perfect as an entry point.

So we all gathered up at the house, where Callie and Chelsea had put together an information briefing on Stratholme based on research and preexisting knowledge.

"Welcome everybody." Callie said as we all sat down. "As you know, we've been heading for the Empire, planning to join a noble house for military training. Now, obviously we aren't signing up long term, this is more of a mercenary contract. It'll be for less than a year, but plenty of these places have high turnover, so it shouldn't be too tough to find someone to take us. Before that though, we thought we'd give everyone a breakdown on how the Empire works."

Chelsea nodded. "Most of you are from the Conglomerate. Which, while relatively established, is much more recent than the Empire. Because of that fact, and the structure of the Empire itself, it's a much more rigid and law abiding place. Individuality isn't quite as prized as in the conglomerate, even among Ascendants."

"How is that possible though?" I asked, a bit confused. "Renown is how Ascendants rank up. If nobody is doing anything interesting how does their legend spread?"

Callie chuckled at that. "First off, I think our standard for interesting is a bit skewed. But secondly, because they work on the job system. Much like the Church and the Cult, who you may have noticed tend to be mostly pretty uniform rank to rank. That's because the job system allows you to funnel large amounts of belief to specific roles, rather the people filling them. In the Empire that's nobility. There are other jobs, and those are managed by the Empire's roles, where he keeps records of who does what."

"Basically, the Empire is incredibly stratified because it lets the Emperor funnel renown to all the imperially accepted roles." Said Chelsea. "As a god whose domain is concerned with administration and the running of a nation, he has the power to do that kind of thing. It's why the Empire has MANY more possible jobs than the Church or Cult, which have less than twenty or so each."

Reaching out for a piece of paper, Callie sketched out a quick pyramid. "The Emperor, as a god, doesn't need renown anymore, but as the symbol of the empire it all feeds to him. He funnels it from there, first to the kings, then the dukes, and so on down the line. Each noble is responsible for funneling renown to those in their own territory, a duty heavily monitored and managed by the imperial court. Bakers, candlestick makers, even guards. Everyone gets some."

"That's...weird." I said after a minute. "But if it works for them whatever. How will this affect us? We don't have jobs, is it possible for us to get renown this way?"

Callie shrugged. "Somewhat. There's always excess, and the Emperor can't access of distribute renown outside the imperial scope. It won't be much though. Just not how the Empire works. Not a huge problem for us, since that's not why we're here, and you can always get a job officially to gain renown that way. But we've gotten off track. I mention this particular fact because it means there's actually LAWS in the Empire. More than just the haphazard random 'hey probably don't do that' guidelines we had back home."

To my surprise, Celine cut in. "She's right. The Conglomerate, especially the edges where you were, is chaotic. The Empire is a more regimented and lawful place, so we'll need to confine any issues we have to specified combat areas. Costumes should be fine, they're not the norm but there are people from all over in the Empire so they're hardly going to shock anyone."

"Speaking of costumes." I grimaced, glancing down. "I need a new one. I tried patching that big ass hole where Travis shivved me and nothing will stick. I have zero Skills for tailoring, and honestly I'm almost outgrowing the things anyway. They were really nice when we got them from Cicero, but it's been months, and I really need to get something a bit more suitable before I hit E-rank."

Abel snickered at that. "If anyone back home heard you say that they'd probably stab you again. Your progression is absurd. I'm lagging way behind at this point. If it wasn't for Nat I wouldn't even be at the halfway mark. Hopefully I can get a temporary military role while I'm on Stratholme and pump my numbers."

I hadn't even considered that Abel and Mel might be lagging. They were the strongest of us, pretty much. It just made it even more obvious how terrifying my mentor was, though I suspected he was also heavily focused in one area like Jessie was, and that probably helped.

"ANYWAY." Said Callie loudly, bringing us back on topic. "Stratholme is our first C-ranked planet. It's going to be pretty rough. Our stats are going to be suppressed by the native Impact, though everyone else's will too. There are certain areas like cities and special residences that are exempt, places where children are raised and such, but they're under heavy guard and the actions you take inside are tightly restricted."

She pulled out a few more papers, covered in tightly packed scrawls. "We looked into the various factions on Stratholme, and as a C-ranked planet, it obviously has C-rankers. In the Empire that's an Earl. The Earl in charge of the planet is Earl Nevius. His family pretty much runs things, though there are Viscounts, or D-rankers, of various factions, and each of them is in charge of several Barons, or E-rankers. Those E-rankers mostly field armies of F-rankers, or Lords, which is what we are. Any lower and they pretty much can't function on a C-ranked planet."

Which meant we were probably going to be the next best thing to mortals on this planet. With the weight of the Impact we were going to be under serious strain, luckily, we were at least HIGH F-rank, we'd probably be stronger than most. Good for training, bad for everything else. Joy. "I'm guessing there's a lot of political bullshit going on behind the scenes?"

"Tons." Said Callie with a grimace. "But the basics are this. The Earl is peak C-rank. He did...something, and the Emperor censured him, which means he stopped his renown gain. He's stuck unable to enter B-rank, but still isn't someone anybody wants to mess with. Because of that, he doesn't micromanage much, just lets the Viscounts do whatever."

I sighed. "Which means their Barons are probably fighting like a hundred cats in a five foot bathtub. We're going to be avoiding working for any of the big power players right? Because I don't need to get mixed up in imperial bullshit. We're here for training and possible faction building, not to get sucked into regional nonsense."

She nodded, circling a few names. "There are a few Barons that are essentially free agents. They call them Robber Barons. They don't answer to the Viscounts for anything more than lip service and taxes, and fight amongst themselves. Territory there changes hands semi-often, they don't actually lose TOO many fighters, and there's a high turnover as people prove themselves and use the reputation to join a reputable faction. Low commitment, medium risk, high intensity."

"That's perfect." I said with delight. "Let me see that list?" She passed me a piece of paper with a series of names and descriptions, rank, approximate level with that rank, personnel reviews. She'd really dug into this. It was a good thing the Empire was on the scan ring network. "Tell me about this one." I pointed at a Baron three quarters down the list.

She found him quickly enough. "Camden Tolbert. Father is a Viscount from the Tolbert family, big money in the Empire. Camden hit Baron young, decided to go out on his own. Bit rough around the edges and a tad battle crazy, but supposedly an honorable guy who takes care of his own. He was on my shortlist too." She read over her notes before nodding again to herself in confirmation. Before we moved on though, she reached over and put a hand on mine. "Are you sure about this Shane? This is going to be rough."

"I know." I said grimly. "But you heard Nat before. This will help us run our own faction when we reach that point. And mercenaries like this will be perfect for recruiting. Is everyone else still good?" I asked my friends, looking around for confirmation.

They'd all been quiet, listening to us talking and memorizing the information. Benny spoke up. "Honestly, I'm kind of looking forward to it. Being just another face in the crowd sounds nice. Like I'm sure you and Nat will tell this Tolbert guy about your powers when you can trust him, but until then, we're going to be bottom level grunts. I'm even looking forward to being normal levels of strong again."

I laughed at that, but nodded in agreement. We'd been getting so powerful, getting involved in such crazy shit. Having to prove ourselves and fight our way up would be a nice change of pace from fighting gods and their crazy fanatic worshippers. Of course, I was just as sure that was going to change quickly when we got to Stratholme. For now though, I just settled in for the rest of the briefing. I wanted to learn as much as I could.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After our meeting, I wanted to head back to my place and cuddle with Callie for a while, but I decided to stop and talk to Abel. He hadn't sounded exactly...unhappy, about dragging behind, but I wasn't the most observant about emotions, and I was trying to be a better team leader. So I pulled him aside to check in once the briefing broke up.

"Hey man." I said prensively. "I just wanted to check in, see how you were doing with all this. You mentioned feeling like you were getting left behind. I can focus more on you for wishes if you want. I know you did some work with Nat."

He shrugged. "I wouldn't say no, but it's not a big deal. I'm still growing, and jokes aside I'm happy with my progress." He shot me a wry smile. "I suppose you're trying to feel out if I'm getting bitter or discouraged. I appreciate the thought, kid, but I trained alone in a sausage stand for a few decades, remember? It'll take more than some time at the same level to bother me."

That was a solid point, and I let out a rueful chuckle. "I guess I forgot who I was talking to. I mean, Bethy's needling seems to really get to you, so I just figured.."

"It doesn't." He said with a smile. At my disbelieving silence, he laughed. "Really. I play along because it amuses me, but she's not hurting my pride or anything. In fact, I pretty much think pride is a completely useless emotion. That was part of how I broke my first shackle after all. I think I mentioned that. But...it's more than that too."

His voice was inscrutable, and his face was more serious than I usually saw it. "What do you mean?" I asked, curious what made him suddenly get so somber.

"This is my own personal theory." He said with a shrug. "But I think part of why I am the way I am is because I decided to let go of what other people thought of me. Not all of them, I care about Mel, and her opinion of me has weight, but so much of what we all do is wrapped up in appearances. And that's the duality of being an Ascendant, isn't it? The more you care the more effort you put in and the more hold it all has on you."

I blinked at that. "Are you saying that recursion is...optional?" It wasn't a take I'd heard before, or one that would make sense coming from most people.

He shook his head. "Is shame optional? Is embarrassment optional? Hypothetically I suppose. It's more that we walk a tightrope. We need the regard of others to Ascend, but I think the fact that we CRAVE that regard leaves us open to recursion in the first place. People like me, we don't really care. We just...let it go. Pride is just investment in the opinions of others, and I don't need it. And when I came to that conclusion, it felt like recursion lost a lot of its hold."

I thought back on our time together. In some ways, Abel had always been the most stable of the people I knew. Not because he was normal or healthy, but because he was what he was. He knew his role, knew his place, and it didn't change or twist over time. Some of that might have been a coherent story about him making the rounds, but the rest...

Zeke was like that, too, now that I thought about it. All the really powerful Ascendants I'd seen had this...core of steel. This conviction in who and what they were. Purpose. Sure, they might play the role, but the recursion didn't seem to touch them and I'd never known why. Callie had even mentioned it way back when we first talked about this. Willpower. That ineffable thing that let some people climb up without being swallowed by recursion.

"You think that the secret to that is just...not caring?" I said slowly. "Just let go of the influence others have on us completely and do whatever we want?"

My mentor just shrugged. "Doubt it. It was that for me. I see all these people talking about reputation and respect and I just...I don't care. I don't care who respects me. I don't care who acknowledges my power. Power isn't an opinion Shane. It's a fact. Respect isn't some magic wand that makes my punches work. If someone has a problem, I'll kick their ass, if someone doesn't like me, they can fuck off, who cares?"

"Why tell me this?" I asked after a brief pause. "Why give me the secret to your success. Is this some kind of wisdom you're passing on?"

He burst out laughing. "Nah kid, I'm telling you because I don't care if you know. Not that I don't care about your opinion of me, we're pals so it has some weight. Not enough to keep from doing my thing but some. It's more that I don't care if you spread it around. Maybe it'll help you. Maybe it just lets you understand me a bit better. Hell, maybe it's payment for caring enough to check on me, who knows?"

I nodded slowly. "I don't think I can do much with it to be honest. I just...I DO care what people think of me. Some of that is wanting to get stronger to help my friends, but some of it is just...me, I guess. I wish I didn't. That I could just brush off things like that."

"Well living alone in a shack for thirty years helps." He chuckled. "But really, if you want a guide, I can't give one. I'll say this though. It's all about consequences. If someone says something bad about you, what do you lose? How does it hurt you? What consequence does that have. And how does reacting to it benefit you. What makes that person important enough to matter?"

That was just such a...brutal way to look at the world. Like everyone was a ghost, with only a few select people mattering enough to be real. It fit well with Abel's personality, but I didn't think it would fit mine. I didn't want to just throw away my concern for everything that wasn't my friends or family. It would be easy, convenient even, and it probably would help me resist recursion. But that didn't seem like enough.

I glanced at my teacher. "I can accept you not having more of a reason, but what about the timing?Why now? Why share this tidbit at this moment? Is it really just repayment for caring enough to check on you? We're coming up to the Empire, is this something you think I'll need?"

He shrugged. "You're floundering kid. You've got a reason to fight, a backbone, and strength to push through, but you're missing something. I thought I'd volunteer my perspective. Maybe it'll help, maybe it won't, but like I said, my reasons for doing things aren't that complicated. I do what I want. You're the kind of person I respect enough to consider worth talking to, and if I can help my student, why not?"

That seemed to be pretty much it for him in terms of serious conversation. Abel wasn't a big fan of somber philosophical talk, and I could tell it had been tedious for him to try to put all that into words. Even now I wasn't sure I got it all, but I got enough, and I continued to let it swirl around in my head as I said my goodbyes and headed back to my place to pack.

Packing, as it turned out, is really easy with a spatial ring. And I got that done quickly enough, I got so lost in thought that I barely noticed time passing until Callie came to get me. "Hey, there you are." My girlfriend said cheerily as she found me sitting on a large padded chair in the living room. "I've been looking for you, we're close enough to use the shuttles, Killian said to gather everyone disembarking in Stratholme."

I almost jumped out of my skin, my Focus had been sunk into parsing everything that had happened to me so far through the lens of Abel's odd worldview, and in trying to retroactively puzzle out how recursion had changed me. I hadn't had much luck. "Sorry." I said, hopping to my feet. "Bit distracted, it's time to go already?"

"Yeah..." She said slowly. "Are you sure you're ok? You feel...tangled. Like there's a lot on your mind. You know you can talk to me, right?"

I leaned down to kiss her before putting on my mask. I hadn't been wearing it as often and it was going to take getting used to again. "Always. But this isn't a problem I can solve by talking or thinking. I've done enough of both. We came here for a reason. Let's go see where we've ended up." I offered her my elbow, and she stared at me impassively for a moment before taking it and following me out of the building.

We headed straight for the docking bay we'd first come into when we arrived on the ship, and everyone else was already there. Jessie, Cark, Benny, Zeke, Cass, Nat, Valk, Chelsea, and all our other friends were crowded together at the edge of an immense gap in the side of the ship, the same one we entered through, a permeable shield keeping out the vacuum of space.

Benny saw me coming and waved me over excitedly. "Shane! Come check it out. Our first real higher ranked planet." He sounded excited, and I didn't blame him. We'd been on ships, dungeons, floating staging areas and even an old ruin, but this was different. This was just a normal higher ranked planet like any Ascendant would travel to. Part of the experience of Ascending. It felt somehow safer and far more dangerous all at once. Anything could happen to us down there.

Stopping next to him, I stared down at the massive sphere of the planetary body. It was...big. Not that I'd expected less, it was C-ranked after all, but it just seemed large and imposing from here. Mostly dark blue with a large splash of purple that I was pretty sure was water. I took Callie's hand in mine as I stared down at it. It was...beautiful. Imposing. And HEAVY. I could sense the Impact from here. Immense and weighty.

"The Necromedes will be circling back." Said Killian from behind us. "We've taken a few small jobs in the area doing transport for nobles and cargo. Until we return you're stuck here. So make the most of it. Zeke should be up to the task of taking out anything that poses a real threat, so you just have to worry about things your own level."

I held out a hand to him. "Thanks again Killian. I appreciate all the help, and definitely the ride. I know that probably wasn't pleasant to break to the passengers."

He shrugged. "We got a better gig, and it was an emergency situation. We'll get them where they're going eventually, and we have contracts for this exact scenario. Extenuating circumstances and all that. Take care of yourself kid, and tell your old man hello if you see him."

I grimaced, which he couldn't see behind my mask thankfully, but nodded. "I'll do that. Safe travels." And with that we all headed for the shuttle, the smaller conveyance being the fastest and most convenient way to ferry us down to the planet's surface. As I climbed aboard, I took one last look at the Necromedes, where I'd spent more than half of my last year. I was going to miss the place, but hopefully not too much. After all, I was going to be busy pretty soon.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The first thing I noticed when I stepped off the shuttle was how...nice it was. Being back on a real planet, one we were going to be staying on for a while was special. It felt good to have my feet on solid ground that wasn't ACTIVELY trying to murder me. Of course, the second thing I noticed was when I crossed the shield on the shuttle and the ground started actively trying to murder me.

Ok, that's a tad dramatic. I mostly felt like someone dumped a small galactic cruiser on my head. It wasn't dangerous, just really strenuous, and I could feel not just my body but my mind and even my soul compress under the conceptual weight of the planet's Impact.

We all stepped off and stopped, trying to process what was going on, with the singular exception of Cass, who was holding Zeke's hand and seemed perfectly fine. One of the many benefits of his absurdly high rank was his ability to manipulate his Impact in ways like this. We'd seen it when he suppressed his aura on Callus, but this seemed much more impressive and direct.

With Cark coming with us, Cass's safety and protection would be left to Zeke, who could obviously protect her better than any of us, and he'd made it clear that something like this wouldn't be an issue for him.

Standing our ground, straining against the Impact of this massive planet though, I didn't feel crushed or beaten down, I felt...nostalgic. This was what it felt like to be a normal person. Well, I was high F-rank, so it was probably what it felt like to be a professional mortal athlete or a minor superhuman, but still. This was almost nice.

"Fantastic!" Crowed Abel as he limbered up. "This is just fucking phenomenal. I haven't had a playing field this even in years. If everyone at F-rank is this suppressed this trip is going to be a blast. I wonder if there's an arena in town?"
Mel sighed. "I'm sure there is, but don't forget we're joining an army. They usually expect soldiers to be...you know...soldiering. You can't just run off to punch idiots." She held out a hand and concentrated, a small flame sparking in her hand. "Plus, our Skills still function, even if it a drastically reduced level."

She was right. I focused on Belial, letting the power roll over me. A thin layer of dark toxic stone covered me, and I could feel the poison being severely limited, but it did work. Focusing hard, I pushed with my Path, focusing on the Fatewalker aspect of my staff form, and the rock got denser, the green glow beginning to brighten.

"Use your Path if you can. Impact does less to hamper it I guess." I said as I felt some of my strength return. Nowhere near the full amount, but Belial did make me stronger than the baseline human I had been before. In exchange though, the power was slow and hard to conjure, the Impact pressuring my Solid Path and making it a strain that I couldn't keep up for long. It receded after only a few minutes, leaving my soul quivering and aching.

The others mostly didn't have a Path, and the ones who did hadn't reached Solid, so their usage was more instantaneous, but I could see when Callie tapped into her Abyssal Path and Abel his Path of Blood that it was exhausting for them.
"Well." Said Benny with a sigh. "This is definitely going to get old. Why didn't we go to a lower ranked world again?"

I rolled my eyes. "BECAUSE it'll get old. This is a perfect place to train. We're unknown, pitted against people our own strength, and this will give us a chance to get some ground up military training we couldn't get easily with so many stats under out belt. Besides, we're all pretty close to E-rank, and once we hit that we're going to be able to function way easier here, so it's not like it's long term."

Turning to Zeke, I cocked my head. "So, you walking with us to the next town? Or are you going to fly to the capital or something?"

He shrugged. "I'll stick with you, that way you guys can visit pint sized over here between engagements. I won't be involved with any of this training anyway, so no reason to worry about setting off the geas."

"Sounds good." I pointed off in a random direction. "Onward!" I announced boldly, striding off into the (unfortunately prevalent) blue green forest. Callie caught me on the way, pulling me back to whisper in my ear, and I cleared my throat before proclaiming. "That was a test to see if you were paying attention. Most of you failed." I swung my hand about sixty degrees. "We're going that way."

Benny snickered under his breath and I flipped him the bird, making sure to angle my body so I didn't teach Cass a fun new hand gesture. Our language wasn't going to fix itself anytime soon, but I didn't want to add to the problems.
Celine, for one, looked positively enchanted by the place, and as they drew even with us, I couldn't help but ask. "Hey Celine, you seem less bothered by all this Impact. Is it just being in the woods? Because I'm already getting sore and it's been like a minute."

She laughed, shaking her head. "I grew up on a higher tier planet. Below F-rank isn't safe on anything above a C, but my home planet had areas where children could try to slowly acclimate to higher Impact levels. It's good for training the soul early on as well. It wasn't something we could do for long, and it wasn't this extreme, but I remember learning to hunt and fish under higher Impact on the grounds of mother's estate."

I couldn't imagine someone shunting the Impact from an area that large like Zeke was doing for Cass, but hell, Zeke could probably do it. I guessed it made sense as a training tool, even if it kind of highlighted how dickish Celine's family had been to her growing up. Though I guessed any proper training was a pretty shitty way to raise a kid. I'd had some basic drills and games and stuff growing up that dad had run me through, but no actual combat training, and I was kind of grateful for it.

As we set off, I froze in my tracks after about fifteen feet. "Um...small issue." I said slowly. "We're walking at normal people speed now right? Because of the Impact pressure?"

I'd told the shuttle to drop us about twenty miles from the nearest town, so we wouldn't need to deal with anyone seeing us come in and mark us as targets or enemies or whatever other stupid reaction we might get from random Ascendants. But...I'd neglected to consider the fact that we couldn't cross twenty miles in like ten minutes at a brisk walk anymore.

Callie gave me a horrified look. "You didn't factor in travel time? I assumed you had some kind of plan for that! Normal humans walk at about two to four miles an hour. That's a ten hour walk! Especially since we can only walk as fast as the slowest person in our group. Who is a NINE YEAR OLD MORTAL!" I very carefully didn't mention that it was probably a worse problem for her at five foot five than for me at nearly a whole foot taller than she was.

"Zeke can carry Cass." I said firmly. "He's B-rank, what's the point of keeping him around if he can't do manual labor. Plus Cass isn't involved in the competition so his geas won't prevent it. We'll be fine. We're all mid to high F-rank, so we're stronger than your basic human, even here. We'll almost definitely be able to walk faster than average, probably like five miles an hour. And that's a perfectly respectable four hour walk."

Callie gestured around us dramatically. "In the forest. We hate the forest Shane. And look at these roads. They're dirt. And not packed dirt either, we're out of the way. The chances of us running into someone driving around here who can give us a ride are insanely slim."

I sighed. I was high F-rank like she was, which meant I was stronger than pretty much anyone here at the moment under the suppression. Not counting Zeke or Callen, obviously. I turned around. "Fine. Climb on."

She blinked at me, backpedaling a bit. "Oh, I didn't mean... Shane that's sweet but I was just a little annoyed about the walk, I don't expect you to carry me. I'm exhausted just standing here, and you must be just as tired. I don't want you making it worse dragging me around."

"You sure?" I asked. "You're not exactly gigantic, and we're the same level of Impact so it wouldn't be too tough."

Benny let out a loud groan. "Come on! We're in the woods exhausted under this annoying new suppression, please don't also make us watch you two be adorable. There's only so much hardship a man can take."

"I'll give you a hard ship upside your head." I said spitefully to my annoying friend as he stepped on my moment.

He sneered at me. "That doesn't even make any sense. We're nowhere near a dock. Where would you even get a ship in the middle of the forest?"

I snapped my fingers, triumphantly holding up a book. "A boat building tome from the wizard's tower. Nerd. And we're surrounded by trees. I'll study the book, build a boat, and THEN hit you with it! You have anything to say about that? I didn't think so! Now you-hey!" I was cut off as Callie jumped on my back, sending me staggering forward. "What happened to not wanting to make things worse."

"I reconsidered." She said imperiously. "You two were being annoying. Worse is fine." She squeezed her knees like I was a horse. "Onward noble steed!" I was outraged, but I was mildly appeased when I saw Bethy jump on Gabe's back out of nowhere and mimic Callie's war cry. At least I wasn't suffering alone.

We made better time than expected. Three and a half hours, and carrying Callie really wasn't that bad. When we finally arrived I had to admit I was a little thrown by the entrance to the town. "Welcome to Saltzburg." I read aloud off a sign by the gate. "The imperial guard sees all. Huh. Clearly they're got a firm grip on this whole tourism thing. So...giant closed wooden gate. Do we knock?"

Almost as if they were waiting, a panel slide to the side on the gate at eye level. "Halt!' Bellowed a voice. "Who goes there?"

"I'm Shane." I said directly. After he paused for a minute and didn't respond I continued. "See why that's a dumb question now? We're strangers, we've come to try to get into the city. Can we get in?"

The voice was silent for a moment. "Do you have an imperial crest? Because that would make this much simpler."

"Do we LOOK like we have an imperial crest?" I demanded. "We just walked out of the woods covered in sweat and dirt. Is that imperial crest having behavior? Come on man, I'm sore, tired, and my girlfriend is getting bored. I don't have time for this shit. How do we get in? Like can I just bribe you?"

"A bribe?" The voice said cheerfully. "Well why didn't you just lead with that? Five G-ranked credits per person. Pleased deposit the money in the donation box to the left of the gate." I glanced to the side where a brass rectangle with a single knob at the top was set into the wall. I looked at the others, who seemed just as surprised as I was, then shrugged, setting Callie down. Well, it was nice to know some things were consistent at least.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The inside of Saltzberg was...weird. There was a word that people in DS would use in roleplay servers when someone said or did something that didn't fit the meta. Anachronistic. Saltzberg was like that. The construction was mostly kind of old timey. Not straw and mud or anything, but gabled roofs and cobblestones, but only mostly. One second I would see an old style house, the next a more modern building.

Rather than cars, people were using...not wagons, really, but metal boxy conveyances obviously running on enchantments. "So...this is kind of weird." I said to Callie as I stepped in after Nat paid the toll. "I was just expecting a normal city, why is it so...quaint?"

Zeke chuckled. "The Emperor is a big fan of control. He doesn't like things that are wild or untamed. Mad Scientists are the definition of that, and because of it they aren't on the Empire's roles. They get almost no renown here, and as such most of them don't bother coming. Because of that, along with being one of the oldest existing factions, the Empire took a...different technological path. They lean Enchanter heavy."

Not that it precluded tech. I could see plenty of things that showed me their technology level was just as advanced as ours, it just manifested differently. Rather than scan rings, people were watching things and talking to each other through handheld enchanted mirrors, some large with a handle and some in compact form. In fact, checking it on a whim, I realized there was no network here. Not one I could use at least. I'd still be able to contact my friends through the more walkie talkie features of our rings, but otherwise they were just tiny computers.

I knew that some of the Empire's information was on the larger networks from the Necromedes, but apparently they had alternate forms of communication. It probably helped a lot with the Emperor's control of the renown in the faction's territory.

We walked for a while, taking in the sights and sounds. "So, they obviously take chits here." I said as I inhaled deeply, enjoying the smell of freshly baked bread. "So first thing we need to do is use that to find a place to stay."
Chelsea beamed. "I knew you'd say that. Which is why back on the Necromedes part of my research was into the local area. Saltzberg in particular, since we knew this was our destination." She flicked a hand and a projected screen appeared in front of her. "No network here, but I do still have all the information I saved.

I studied the page on display. A list of inns, rated based on comfort and aesthetic. There was even a map showing where all of them were. Looking around, I could see a few tourists, though I wasn't sure why, so I got where the info came from, but it was nice to know my sister was on the ball enough to save it for later. I scanned through the list, looking for the right fit, and went through my criteria.

First we needed a place to stay that had spacious rooms, and also a lot of rooms, and also long term rooms since chances were good that Zeke and Cass would stay there after we left to go and talk to our prospective employer. That eliminated a few of them right off, then I nixed a few that were marked down as being run down or where the staff was unfriendly. With all the obvious stuff out of the way I was left with three, and I picked the one with the coolest name.

So that was how we found ourselves standing outside the Imperial Fork. I stared up at the sign in some confusion for a minute after we arrived. The image on the sign was just...a fork. It was a fancy gold fork with lots of delicate engraving, but it was a fork nonetheless. Shrugging at Callie, I pulled the door open, only to be hit in the face by noise and warm air and the smell of delicious food.

Inside, the Fork was a cozy little place. Dark wood and lots of low lighting. Candles sat on every table and the room was alive with cheerful conversation. No one noticed us coming in, and a pretty older lady in her mid twenties (she carried herself like she was older, but it was hard to tell age with Ascendants) "Welcome." She said with a smile. "I'm Anna, and welcome to the Imperial Fork. Quite a group you have there. How many rooms?"

I looked back, counting our party quickly. Bethy, Gabe, Nat, Valk, Benny, Jessie, Chelsea, Callen, Zeke, Celine, Cass, Cark, Abel, Mel, Callie, and me. Callie and I would room together, same with Benny and Celine. Cass would room with Cark, and Callen would want to be close to Chelsea, while Valk would want a room near Nat. "Thirteen rooms." I said slowly. "Close together if possible. You guys have an expanded residential floor, right?"

She beamed at me. "Yes sir. One of only five inns within city limits with the permits. Thirteen rooms is more than feasible. How long will you be with us? And do you want to include meals? Our chef is one of the best in town. I'll even throw in a bowl of the beef stew on the house. We don't usually get such big parties checking in."

That sounded fantastic. "Two rooms will be long term, we'd like them right next to each other, the rest will be for..." I glanced around. "What do you guys think? A week maybe? I'd like to look around before we sign up for training."

She chuckled at that. "Ah, here for Baron Tolbert's recruitment drive? We've had quite a few newcomers arriving for that. Before he arrived, lord Tayle was the only game in town, and his forces have long been at capacity. People are excited to work with such a young and promising noble."

After meals, accommodations, hot water, and a few other incidentals, I ended up paying six E-rank chits for the whole stay. That was honestly a bit pricey, but not so much that it seemed excessive. There was a bit left over, but I decided to leave a tip. Always best to endear yourself to the host.

Anna was thrilled, the older woman immediately escorting us through the back to a larger dining area clearly meant for private parties. Randall, in his tiny form, was sharing with Jessie, he was the only animal anyone but Bethy had brought along. We'd left the wolves on the Necromedes with Blake, since bringing them into a war seemed awful, so we didn't need much extra food. She had seventeen bowls of stew brought out, since we asked if she wanted to eat with us. She clearly knew quite a bit about the area and knowledge was power. Once we were all settled in to eat we started in on our stew, enjoying the tender, well seasoned meat as we peppered her with questions.

"So." I asked between bites. "The Imperial Fork. That's an...interesting name. Where does it come from?"

Anna gave me a wide eyed look. "When my parents were young, they saved the life of a nobleman. They were invited by him to be his guests at an imperial ball. While my father was there, he pocketed a single golden fork. It's our family treasure, and we keep it proudly displayed on a pedestal in our ancestral home."

I raised an eyebrow. "That's an interesting story. I'd love to see it sometime." I tried to remain polite about the stupidest reason for naming something I'd ever heard. At least until I noticed her mouth twitching and she finally dissolved into laughter.

"I can't believe you bought that." She cackled. "Or I can, because it works every time. But still. Do you honestly think we're so backwater and destitute that we engage in fork worship? Saltzberg is on a three way imperial intersection, it's named after the bend in the road. I just thought the sign was funny."

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose as my friends laughed at me for falling for an obvious line of bullshit. "Alright I kind of deserved that." I admitted ruefully. "Sorry, it's just kind of weird seeing all this old timey stuff."

She took a bite of food, still chuckling. "It's fine. Honestly though, we have most of the same things you do, they're just more magical than technological. The Enchanter's Guild is employed directly by King Shadrak. The Emperor can keeper a tighter grip on commerce by using magical artifacts for industrial applications. We do have visitors though, so it isn't like I've never seen a scan ring."

It struck me exactly how much control the Emperor had over his faction. The micromanaging that must take, I was betting he'd been Focus heavy as a mortal.

Callie was grinning at the dark haired, blue eyes innkeeper. "You seem to have your finger on the pulse around here even without a scan network. Or whatever the equivalent is. Mirror network? We saw some people using magic mirrors to communicate and watch movies."

"The Mirror Space is similar to your scan network, albeit more ethereal. A void of floating screens and images you can search through for specific contacts, information, or sights." She laughed. "As for why I'm so well informed." She winked.
"Innkeepers and bartenders are always the ones to hear the dirty secrets. Why do you think I offered you lot a free meal. You're clearly interesting folk."

Benny snorted at that. "Doesn't seem like a great way to pump us for information. You just told us your intentions."

"I find it doesn't much matter." She said with a shrug. "Even if you don't tell me anything, you've got questions and I've answers. The things you need to know will tell me plenty about you. There are more ways to gain information than to just be given facts. So, tell me, what are a group of talented youngsters like you doing coming from one of the other factions to this little hole in the wall just to sign on with an upstart like Tolbert?"

It was my turn to shrug. "We need the training, and we don't want to get wrapped up in politics. Not everything has an ulterior motive."

Zeke, who had been watching Anna with interest, snickered at that. "Still teaching the kid subtlety. Maybe you can give him some pointers. You seem like a capable woman." She turned to look at my uncle, giving him a once over.

"Well I hardly noticed you there handsome." She said with a raised brow. "Content to let the kids do all their own talking? Most of them were quiet, but you practically blended into the background. I wouldn't have ever thought to look your way if it wasn't for this little cutie here." She smiled winningly at Cass, who was too busy eating stew to notice.

My uncle smirked, taking a bite of his own food. "What can I say. I only make an impression when I mean to. I'll be sticking around though, and I have plenty of questions about the local political environment, so I'm sure we'll get to know each other." I grimaced internally at seeing my uncle flirt, but mentally tuned it out. He and Stella weren't together, at least not consistently, and he didn't usually show much interest in anyone. We weren't going to be around anyway so if he wanted to date one of the locals it was his business.

Returning my focus to Anna, I started asking questions about Tolbert and his circumstances, letting the conversation veer back toward more businesslike topics. I had to say though, despite our rough start here (and I was still exhausted from the walk) I was loving the stew. I wondered if I could get some cooking lessons at some point while we were here.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Are you sure this is the place?" I asked Callie as we stood outside a rather large house. "Because I'll be honest, it's not what I was expecting." We'd left the others back at the inn for a while and decided to take some time to ourselves to walk around. Inevitably our constant need to be doing something pushed us to check out Tolbert's manor, where we'd be signing up for our stint as mercenaries.

The house WAS huge and imposing, as one would expect of a noble, but that was where the image fell apart. The huge wrought iron gates were wide open, as were the doors to the manor, and we were able to walk right in without issue. Not that there weren't any people there, in fact, there were far TOO many people. Random men and women walked in and out around us, chattering and measuring and doing any number of other things.

The house itself was empty, no furniture or anything, and a large man with long dark hair and a goatee was standing in the middle of everything, fielding questions and barking orders as people bustled about. I did see a pair of men carrying a couch up the stairs, so I guessed they were moving in.

Callie looked as confused as I did. "I thought he'd been here for a while, since so many people have apparently showed up to sign on, but this looks like he's barely broken ground."
I just shrugged. "We're getting in on the ground floor. Maybe we'll get better terms that way."

"You won't." Chimed in a voice from behind us. I turned to see a whip think blonde man with a hawklike nose and an honest to gods monocle staring at us. "The terms are fairly awful. Camden put most of his personal wealth into securing this estate and establishing his claim on the local territory. This is such an unusual event that even if he was expecting people to fight for free they'd sign up for the chance to possibly become part of a noble coterie."

Grimacing at the news, I held out a hand. "Solomon. And this is Nightstrike."

He chuckled. "Conglomerate, I assume." He took me hand and gave it a firm shake, offering the same to Callie. "Alister Morgan, Camden's seneschal. Apologies for the chaos. As you surmised, we've only just arrived. I must say, it's a shock to see any possible hirees from such a distant place. We have the occasional fae signing up, but the Conglomerate is a ways off. How did you hear about us?"

Deciding to play it safe, I shrugged. "I have a friend in the Empire." I said evasively. "He hears things. From your earlier comment I assume the pay here isn't great?"

"Sadly not." He said ruefully. "Most of the volunteers are hoping to be offered a permanent position among the Baron's forces once he manages to establish his foothold. Camden's family isn't...thrilled, by his decision to set up his operation in such an out of the way area."

"Then why do it?" Asked Callie. "It seems like a lot of risk for not much reward. Not that I'm an expert on imperial politics, but this isn't exactly prime real estate, is it?"

Alister frowned. "It's complicated. The Tolbert succession isn't exactly neat and tidy. Camden wants no part of the family squabbles, and is hoping distancing himself will prevent any...accidents. Seven of Camden's cousins have been poisoned in the last year alone. His grandfather is ill, you see, and when he dies, Camden's uncle Vallis will take over as family head. Someone from the next generation will be chosen as heir and the position comes with quite a few perks."

That I could understand. It wounded even more obnoxious than my family drama. "Ah, so he's striking out on his own, and hoping that starting his own little sub branch will make him an unattractive target for the assassins?"

"Even so." Nodded the seneschal. "So I'm afraid if you came expecting a generous payday you've been misinformed. The contracts for employment are heavily weighted towards eventual payout rather than immediate gratification. We do accept short term employees, but their compensation is far reduced. Though if you're here for a long term assignment we'd be happy to put you through the necessary assessments."

Despite not being here for money, that wasn't really ideal. Still, a job was a job, and Camden seemed like the kind of person I could work with. "Sadly no. We're here for something a bit more short term. Maybe a year tops. Little less. We're not against taking a pay cut for a good fit though, and we're hard workers. We came with quite a few friends, since we heard you need all the help you can get."

I noticed something that made me feel a bit better about being here as I watched everyone bustling around. Despite him barking at a few of them for different things, none of these people seemed afraid of Camden Tolbert. The big noble was gruff, but everyone seemed more focused on keeping busy than flinching when he made any demands.

It said a lot about him that his employees were comfortable enough with him to ignore his temper like that, and it made me more willing to work for him by the second. "Alright, well, can we talk to Baron Tolbert? We'd love to hear more about his operation. You understand we can't commit to anything before we take the terms back to our companions, but hearing him out sounds like a good start."

Given we were joining an army, establishing myself as an authority figure seemed like it might cause problems. Best to take a more collective approach, since Tolbert's people would probably want to establish their own heirarchy rather than use ours.

Alister's face lit up. "Why, of course. As mentioned assessments will be forthcoming, but we're happy to discuss collaboration pending those results."

He led us over to where Camden was standing, glaring at a defiant looking woman with red hair in pigtails and soot stains on her face. "I'm telling you upfront." She said bluntly. "I can't turn your chandelier into a defensive emplacement with those specs. I understand your basic request here, but the power requirements are prohibitive."

"I told you to use Might gems for the crystal spikes." He growled. "I even budgeted for it. So what the hell do you need these energy storage runes for? Not to mention the extra hardware."

She pointed up at the ceiling. "Because the Might gems provide the power for attacks, but they don't launch themselves." She paused. "Well, they could, but I can't fit that kind of runework on the frame you commissioned. We need a secondary rune sequence for setup and launch, and it's going to require Perception. I can't do it with your current supplies. Get as pissed as you want, but that's not changing."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "How much for the Perception gems? And what kind of changes will we need to make to the frame? I'm not made of money."

"Ten E-rank chits for the whole upgrade." She said sympathetically. "We're going to have to rework the whole frame, melt it down and reforge it. OR we can just go with the original design and nix the launch sequence. Have it shoot straight down when they walk under it."

Sighing heavily, he rubbed his eyes. "Fine. But I want delivery for the frame included. That's transport to the enchanter and back." She agreed instantly and he turned to us with a wry smile. "Sorry. Certain conventions need to be upheld for a noble establishing a manor, but I'm trying to get as much utility as possible out of the useless detritus I'm filling my home with. Now, I take it you're here about the army?"

I nodded. "Got it in one. There's fourteen of us pretty much. Varying levels of combat experience, most of us halfway to E-rank or higher. We have a healer with us who comes as part of a package deal if we decide to sign on, and her power can also wipe away fatigue."

Jessie's lifeweaving was even more valuable here because of the Impact pressure. Doing things here as an F-ranker was exhausting, and having access to a pick me up was bound to be helpful.

Sure enough, Camden looked interested. "A healer? Those are expensive and hard to find. My forces weren't a draw for many since they have so many other options. No one turns away a good healer. As for the fighting experience..." He shrugged. "It doesn't mean much. Fighting in a formation is quite different than single combat. In fact we prefer amateurs for the rank and file because they have fewer bad habits to train out. That said my drill instructor is damned good, so we can work with anything you bring us. Provided you're all up to standard physically and you can bring me the healer you're in."

"What about pay?" I said, mostly to make it clear I wasn't an easy mark. We were offering him a vital service, especially with Jessie coming along.

He looked us over, spotting the hole in my armor easily. "Tell you what. Every member of my forces gets a stipend and a set of gear. Forgo the stipend and I'll let you design the gear yourself. If your healer is willing to give up payment I'll even shell out for E-ranked materials. It'll end up being cheaper than paying by the injury in any case."

That...would be a huge win for us. It also made me wonder how much healers made, because it was an absurd amount of
money he was talking about. "I'll talk to her about it." I said firmly. "I can't commit to that big of a move without her input. Is the offer time sensitive?"

"Not unless I magically get another high level healer knocking on my door." He chuckled. "But basic starts in three days, so I suppose I'd prefer your response by then." He held out his hand. "On the off chance you accept, I'd like to welcome you both and your group to the Tolbert Military."

I shook, as did Callie, and we left, both of us feeling a bit unsure of what just happened. "So..." I said slowly. "We need to do a ton of research on local materials and healing costs right? I mean we'll bring it to Jessie, but he seemed way too excited to be paying that much money. I feel like he's dramatically undercutting us costwise. How rare are healers in the Empire?"

"It's not the Empire." She said, shaking her head as she slipped into stealth speech. "I think it's just here. Didn't you hear him? Healers can write their own meal ticket. Chances are most of them move up to more lucrative positions and more financially flourishing planets. We can look into it, but as for leverage..."

Grimacing, I did the same, isolating our conversation from prying ears. "Yeah. we're stuck here for the moment. Camden is the only game in town if we all want to stay together. Of course, he doesn't know that, but it's still true. At least we might get new costumes out of it. E-ranked gear for everyone is pretty enticing."

I really needed new armor, and everyone else getting their own was a stroke of luck. I was sure Jessie would be interested, though I hadn't been lying about not being willing to push her into it. We also hadn't mentioned Randall. I wondered if we could get HIM an E-ranked gear set. The idea of a giant bear in powerful armor amused me and seemed like it would be useful.

Walking back to the inn, I considered everything I'd learned and how this would probably work, and I couldn't help but get excited. Something about being back at a human level and being about to go through real training to work with a team from people who knew how to actually train others had me excited to start. Before that though, I had to fill everyone in about our conversation with Camden. We had some choices to make.

 

[Lone-sith]

I'm just curious how he can leverage the Wish ability, that sounds even more useful than healing tbh

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So...that's basically all of it." I finished, filling in the others in on our talk with Camden. "I didn't want to commit to anything without consulting anyone. Being the leader is one thing, but signing you all up for military service working on commission for gear without asking seemed like a dick move." Benny snickered a bit at that.

Jessie, who was the person whose opinion I was here for, nodded. "I appreciate you checking, but yeah, I'm down for that. Helping people is what I'm here for. You really think we could get a set of armor made for Randall? Because that sounds crazy expensive." Despite her words her tone was eager. Apparently it sounded as cool to her as it did to me to outfit her giant animal companion with high ranking armor.

Everyone else seemed just as eager for the new gear, and we quickly confirmed everyone was interested. Once that was done, I moved onto the plan. "That said, I think waiting a bit to get a better handle on the local environment before we sign up. Training doesn't start for another three days anyway, so it makes sense to make the most of our time. First thing I want to talk to Anna about who exactly we're going to be fighting. The rest of you can do whatever, just let me know if you learn anything interesting."

We all split up, but rather than going with Callie, I decided to spend some time with my sister. Chelsea and I both headed downstairs to find Anna and ask about the local power dynamics. "So...how is it to be out on your own?" I asked my twin as we headed downstairs. "Must be pretty jarring."

She chuckled at that. "You have no idea. I'm definitely still getting used to it. I've been sleeping in the past few months. I'm always expected to be awake at the crack of dawn back home for training. Here I can just...be. It's lovely. I've also had a great time getting to know your friends. They've been so welcoming. I really appreciate you bringing me along with you, Shane."

"I'm happy to have you here." I said with a laugh. "Though that sleeping in thing isn't likely to last. Military trainers are pretty infamous for being strict about timetables."

As we'd been talking, we were strolling around the inn, with the expanded residential portion it was much bigger than expected. The place had five floors and dozens of rooms. Luckily Anna was down in the main bar area, so when we reached the first floor we found her easily.

The dark haired proprietress of the inn was washing and drying glasses behind the bar. I didn't see a bartender, though there had been one last night. Maybe she took shifts. She smiled as we walked up. "Ah, well if it isn't two of my favorite guests. What can I do for you?" I was pretty sure everyone was her favorite guest when she talked to them, but it was nice to get such a warm greeting.

"Hey Anna." I said, sitting down at the bar. "We were hoping to get some info about local politics. The movers and the shakers. We were talking to Tolbert and it looks like we'll be working with him so we want to know what we're up against."

She smirked at the question. "You sure you can afford it? My services don't come cheap. I have the best sources on Stratholme, and more than a few throughout the empire at large. Even a basic information package from me is bound to be more than you can afford."

"I'm sure we can figure something out." I said with a laugh, thinking of my wish power. I hadn't used any wishes today, so I was in a great position to bargain from. "Can we get some of the Shepherd's Pie by the way?"

Since we'd prepaid for meals, she didn't charge us when dishing out the delicious smelling meal, just retreating to the kitchen and coming back with two heaping bowls of potatoes, meat, and veggies. "So." She said, setting them down in front of us. "What exactly do you think you could pay me that would be worth my time? You lot aren't even Barons yet."

That drew me up short as I squinted at her thoughtfully. I'd never actually checked what rank Anna was. She didn't feel stronger than us, but I knew from Zeke that it was easy for strong Ascendants to keep that suppressed if they felt like it. Was Anna a D-ranker? I couldn't imagine her being any higher than that. How the hell had we picked this place out of all the others if she was high ranked? What were the chances? Fucking Fate Sense.

Whatever rank she was, it wasn't higher than Zeke, obviously. There was only one C-ranker on this planet, so we were safe enough to negotiate. Especially if she was D-rank, since that was just past the limit. "Well, that depends." I said smoothly, reaching into my pocket to pull out my WCP card. Aside from giving me access to branches, it also acted as a form of identification. "What do you want?"

She blinked, eyes snapping to the logo on the card. "Ah." She said thoughtfully. "That would explain the looker who came along with you. Seemed odd for such a powerhouse to be puttering around with a group of kids. Do you have a stock of scrolls, or can you actually grant wishes?"

"The latter." I said bluntly. "Six per day. And I'd be willing to trade for information, if that's something you're willing to discuss."

That got a laugh from the innkeeper. "Of course it is. I can't think of anyone sane who would turn down a wish. You're a bit young, so I'll need to keep it on the lower end of extravagant, but I'd still be interested. Though of course the limits will effect what kind of information I'm willing to trade."

Her familiarity with the process brought me up short. I expected her to recognize the crest, but this was a bit much. It finally occurred to me to ask the question I hadn't bothered to ask before now and probably should have. "Wait...do we have a branch on Stratholme?" Realistically I should have assumed that. We'd had several on Callus, and that was a much lower ranked planet.

"Of course you do." She snorted. "Three of them actually. Though one is in Crenwick, which is clear on the other side of the planet, and another is in Velholm, which is in the ice caps. The closest is in Roarfield, the capital. We don't merit an actual Wyndham obviously, though there has been a member of the family passing through now and then. Still, a resident Wyndham is bound to draw some attention."

While some people might have considered this a threat, or an attempt to gain leverage, based on her tone it was clear to me that Anna was giving me a friendly warning. She was an information broker, and I'd given her information. If I wanted to make sure she didn't sell it to anyone I needed to make preparations to keep it from spreading.

Luckily, I had an easy means of doing this by virtue of my geasa. I'd already planned to include the cost of keeping my bloodline to herself as one of her wishes, but I appreciated her pointing it out for me just in case. At the moment though, I really wanted to hear more about the local WCP. "I imagine the branch head is one of the Viscounts?" I asked, trying to focus.

"One of them." She agreed. "Though no one is sure which. The WCP operates a bit more in the shadows in the Empire. They aren't an illegal organization, but they keep a low profile because of the stricter legal precedent. Makes things easier for everyone. The capital branch head goes by Drelan. No one has seen his face that I know of."

That was interesting, closer to the way they did things in Velan than in Rajak. If anything it would keep them out of our faces though. No reason for them to be all the way out in Saltzberg if they were laying low.

Knowing there wasn't a time limit on that information though, I was more willing to waif. "Alright. We can talk about that later. I need information on who we're going to be fighting for Tolbert. If we're doing wishes we could use a place with more privacy. Don't exactly want to advertise."

Frowning, she turned to call back into the kitchen. "MATTIE!" She bellowed. "Come work the bar for a bit!" After a minute, a small blonde woman around my age in an old fashioned dress stepped out, looking annoyed.

"It's my break." She said belligerent. "Why can't Lionel do it?"

Anna rolled her eyes. "Because Lionel is unloading the kegs. Do YOU want to unload the kegs?" Her glare made it clear that the question was not rhetorical.

Mattie put her hands up in surrender. "I was just asking, gods. I'll do it. But since I'm working through my break I get to keep all my tips right?" Despite backing down from the presumably backbreaking work of loading kegs in this ridiculous exhausting planet, the girl didn't back down, her amber eyes narrowed like she was getting ready for a fight.

"Fine." Anna sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Keep your tips. But I'm checking the bottles when I get back. No freebies, and no pouting drinks for yourself when you pour them for customers."

When the blonde nodded, Anna gestured to us and escorted us to the back of the inn, into a storage room packed with everything from glassware to burlap sacks of potatoes. "Not afraid to mouth off to the boss, is she?" I asked as we stepped inside. "I'd recognize that complete disregard for authority anywhere. She your daughter?"

"Niece." She said with a laugh. "Lionel is her brother, and neither of them are nearly afraid enough of me. I take it you're related to your guardian."

I shrugged. "My dad's best friend, but basically yeah, he's my uncle. I suspect he gets just as exasperated as you by my own antics. So, here's how this will go. You make a wish, I let you know if I can grant it, and if I can get you offer the information you think it's worth as payment. Assuming my power accepts, I grant the wish and then we move on to the next one. Your last wish will be paid with a geas keeping you from divulging my secrets. Understood?"

This was a perfect solution to a lot of my problems actually. Because wishes concerning secrets were so expensive, information was at something of a premium to me. Since Anna had it to spare, we both got what we wanted out of this. She mulled it over, then nodded. "Sounds straightforward enough. Now, for my first wish..." She trailed off, clearly too excited to pick the first one. Eventually her eyes lit up. "I wish for a copy of Baron Clairdon's trade manifest."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I confirmed, and the values for the wish scrolled across my vision in purple flame. I'd expected not to be able to grant it, since that sounded like secret information, but apparently wishing for a physical object was a way to partway negate the issue because it was just within my parameters. I blinked in surprise at Anna, who grinned at me. "I told you." She said with a chuckle. "There have been Wyndhams here before. In payment I'll offer everything I know about Baron Clairdon's forces."

Assuming he was someone relevant, I confirmed the wish, then held out my hand. The building electricity in my body welled up and manifested in my hand as a small leatherbound book. Anna took it gingerly from my hand, flipping it open and then rifling through it. Snapping it shut, her eyes returned to me. Thus began my crash course in Stratholme's local politics.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Baronies. On Stratholme, the undisputed ruler was the Earl. Vanden Nevius was a peak C-ranker that was stuck at the threshold of B-rank after pissing of the Emperor somehow. Even Anna wasn't sure how, apparently asking was considered a taboo, and pissing off the strongest man in the world was a pretty obvious no go. Beneath Nevius the twelve Viscounts stood supreme, D-rankers of varying strengths, each of them having carved out a decent chunk of the planet.

Viscounts, however, didn't micromanage. They were there to collect taxes and be left alone. The real movers and shakers on Stratholme were the E-rankers. The Barons. There were dozens of them, and dozens of Baronies that they ruled, though more than a few had several territories under their sway. As long as you paid up on time, the Viscounts didn't care what you did, so there was quite a bit of social mobility among Barons.

The Robber Barons were the E-rankers who didn't report or owe allegiance directly to a Viscount, and traditionally squabbled over poorer territories like Saltzberg, which was the whole reason we came here. That did NOT, however, mean that Saltzberg didn't already belong to a Baron, which was where Anna came in.

Baron Alexander Clairdon was first on the list. The Baron whose family had possessed this land for the last five hundred years or so was well known for his trade acumen, and until recently his rule had been fairly stable. At least until about a century ago when the neighboring Baron suffered and accident and his son took over. Chancey Highgrave was young, vicious, and had something to prove, and he'd declared open war on Clairdon almost immediately.

Unfortunately for Highgrave, Clairdon, while not particularly talented as a commander, was still much wealthier than the younger man, and had been throwing money at his forces for decades now, slowly whittling down both his own fortune and the Highgrave military. Due to this struggle, an opening in the local power structure was being created, and Camden had come to exploit it.

Because of the way politics was handled on Stratholme, none of the local forces had any wiggle room to try to break Clairdon or Highgrave's hold on their territories, lest they expose their own flanks, since the surrounding Baronies were all fairly weak ones, which made this a uniquely suitable place for someone like Camden, who was hoping to avoid his family politics by establishing himself as an independent.

Since we were here to help him, that meant we needed to be up to date on the information for Clairdon, Highgrave, and the closest neighbors who might risk exposing themselves to attack if the power imbalance got too extreme.

First up was Clairdon. Anna had asked me for a copy of his trading ledger, and had gotten it, but unfortunately for her the man wrote in code, and the decryption was too expensive for me to afford with my stats. She also figured out, after some perusal, that Clairdon didn't keep all his accounting in one place, he actually had four ledgers, and each of them made up a part of the decryption, with the code being written line by line across all four books.

How she knew this I had no idea, but she apparently had a Skill for cracking codes, and while she couldn't just breeze through whatever he'd done, she was able to get enough out of the books to figure out the basics.

Clairdon, as I was told in payment for the first book, was particularly adept trader, specializing in quick ship travel. He had an entire shipping industry setup along the river that ran through his territory. Because of this trade flexibility, his gear was better than most, and he put all those resources into heavy infantry. Every man a Might focused Job called a Cavalier and decked out in absurd amounts of heavy armor.

Highgrave, on the other hand, focused more on mounted warriors, and fielded mainly cavalry units called Hussars, a form of light cavalry known for their speed and mobility. The absurd overgearing Clairdon had done to his Cavaliers made them a nightmare for the Hussars, since harrying them didn't really do shit when you couldn't hurt them, though Highgrave continued to put pressure on the older Baron by using his forces to attack shipyards and other land based supply lines.

This had been happening for decades now, and both sides were bleeding men and resources at this point, hence Camden's presence.

After she explained the main players, Anna filled us in on the two closest Barons most likely to make a play if opportunity presented itself. Simon Prentiss and Albert Carrey. Prentiss was an entrenched Baron with centuries of time watching over a lucrative F-ranked iron mine, and his specialty was heavy cavalry. Slower than the Hussars but much harder to stop, his lack of mobility meant he was unlikely to exploit any small openings, and would only be a problem if everything went to shit.

Carrey, however, was much more likely to interfere at the slightest hint of weakness. The Carrey family possessed a force of powerful Dragoons. A type of mounted infantry that they used to devastating effect, riding to battle for mobility and then dismounting to fight on foot.

I wondered if Camden knew all of this, and when I asked her about it Anna just laughed me off. "Camden Tolbert is a scion of one of the great houses of the Empire. His information resources far outstrip my own, and even if he tried to keep things low key there's no chance he doesn't have detailed dossiers on every Barony in this area. His main weakness is that since he's making a patchwork militia, he can't field any specialized units like the others. The Tolbert family specializes in training Hoplites, but there's no way he's going to be able to specialize a bunch of random mercs into a new Job quickly enough for it to be helpful. I hope he brought a good general, because putting together a battle plan with a force like that will be a nightmare."

I had no clue how the Job system worked, though knowing you could change Jobs didn't surprise me. I knew all of them would have also been born with native abilities, though they would be Skills now that they had Jobs. "Alright, so...how does this work then?" I asked her after she'd given me the run down on all the players. "I know we'll be training, though I'm shocked Camden was able to buy property here when it's so obvious he's going to try to take the territory."

"Clairdon had no choice." Anna said with a snicker. "Until Tolbert actually declares, he's a visiting noble, and one from a powerful family. Not to mention Clairdon needs the money to keep Highgrave at bay. Tolbert would have still showed up to try to take the territory even if he'd said no, he'd have just been harder to pin down. Worst case he could have set up in the woods or something and Clairdon would have had no idea where the attacks were coming from."

That sounded stupid as hell to me, but politics usually did. "Isn't he worried about the defenses on that place though? Like if he digs in and builds it up it'll be impossible to get him out." We'd seen some of the defensive measured Camden was taking, and they would be hell to get past.

"Nobles rarely assault each others homes." She said with a shake of the head. "Any core dwelling will be heavily defended, and it's considered bad form. The only exception is the final push to take a territory, but it takes years to reach that point."

I groaned. "This is all such nonsense. It's more like a game than an actual war. We WILL be having actual battles right?"
"They call them skirmishes, but yes." She chuckled. "For quick and easily struck targets, raids are common, but in order to negotiate for border areas that could be contested by either, skirmishes are held. Basically both sides bring a whole bunch of soldiers and line up on either side of a field and then beat the hell out of each other for hours until one side is routed or surrenders."

That was more like what I'd expected, though it ALSO sounded stupid when phrased like that. It would be good enough though, at least for our purposes. "Alright." I said with a sigh. "Two more wishes. Payment for the first will be a map of the area complete with territorial markings and up to date affiliation. Second will be a geas from you binding you not to mention my presence here to anyone without my explicit permission, nor to allude to it through less direct means in any way you suspect may result in my discovery."

Her lips split in a wide grin. "Well someone knows all the tricks doesn't he? That's a tightly worded geas. Fine. For my fifth wish I want a new room for my inn. An underground space no one will be aware of, where I can conduct business of a...less than savory nature."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

Moving some dirt around wasn't exactly a stretch for me, though the Impact this planet had made it quite a bit tougher than it might otherwise have been. Still I could manage, and I told her so. Once that was confirmed she went ahead and had me create the room under the storage area we were already in. I walked to the back corner and discharged the building static into the ground, and the area in front of me glowed purple for a moment before the energy faded.

Reaching down according to what my power had told me as it was working, I pressed hard on the floor in a specific spot near the wall, and the stone dropped away to reveal a small wooden ladder. We all climbed down, and a switch near the wall lit up the whole area, exposing the new room.

It was...empty. She'd asked for a room and it was a room, with wooden posts supporting a ceiling structure that held up the stone and nearby earth. I whistled at the sight. I'd never used my power like that before, but realistically it wasn't a stretch. I could easily vanish dirt with Pit of Despair already, and a few wooden beams wasn't too much more effort. Seeing it all together like this just drove home the absurdity that my wish power was capable of though.

Anna grinned widely, then held up a finger, vanishing for a few minutes and coming back with a rolled up paper. She passed it to me. Unrolling it slightly I checked it over, and sure enough it was a map of the area with plenty of notations. "Last one." She said eagerly. "For now at least. I wish this room was tied into the rest of my wards. Not too many runes since there's not much in here. Should be doable, especially with permission. In exchange you get me under that geas."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I confirmed, repeating the earlier geas to make sure there was no tricks. As the static built, she glanced around the room happily. "This shouldn't be hard to manage." She repeated. "My place is under recursive thaumaturgy wards. Each individual piece of the building is tied to a wardstone which in turn is tied to the building as a whole. You hit any part of the inn, and it gets redirected to the wardstone and back to the building in its totality, so you can't break any single piece of the building without demolishing the whole thing, and there are a LOT of pieces."

As I took her hands, discharging the static, my symbol appeared on her forehead for a second before fading, and runes began to appear on the beams and the tiles in the ceiling. They flashed once before fading, and the wish completed, my last for the day, confirming our safety here and concluding our business. I had to admit it had given me a lot to think about. I needed to talk to Callie about everything I'd learned. But first, I should spend some time with my sister.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day we did another information swap with Anna (Callie had more questions), but the day after we'd already gotten what we needed, so it was back to the normal point swap. I got forty two Fantasy from Chelsea, swapping for forty two Might to fill out her physical stats a bit before training. With everyone having done their own thing for a few days, it was officially time to sign up with Camden.

When we arrived back at the manor, it looked a lot less empty. They'd carried in a ton of furniture and the place had transformed so thoroughly you'd have thought everything had been here for years. I whistled as we entered. "Do you think somebody here has an Interior Decoration Skill? I have to assume that's a thing somewhere, everything else is. I wonder what that would look like."

"Expensive." Came a familiar voice as Camden stepped into view. "It would look expensive, which is why no, no one here has it. Do you know how much experience it takes to rank up a Skill like that? The sheer number of houses and buildings you'd have to decorate even to make it to a point where you could apply it to other things?"

I didn't, though to be fair, I was biased. DS Mastery alone was something almost no one else would have been able to rank up. Forgetting the experience needed to start, just the sheer number of Skills I'd had to accrue to fold them in before my intermediate rank up was absurd for any non candidate. Focusing on our host though, I nodded solemnly. "Baron Tolbert."

He waved a hand. "Camden, when we're not in an official setting. Nobody has time for that Baron Tolbert nonsense. So, which one of you is my new healer? I assume you're here to take my offer?"

Jessie stepped forward, holding out a hand, and Camden grinned, stepping forward to take it, though he pulled back slightly as a miniature Randall poked his head over her shoulder and growled. Jessie shushed her bear. "Sorry about that Camden. Randall is a bit protective, especially in his small form. He prefers to guard me at a full size though, so when I start healing I'll need a sizeable tent."

The bear grumbled and settled back down, but the E-ranker was barely bothered. "Of course. I'll also be assigning you a guard. You can pick anyone you like. It's important to make sure you're well defended. No Baron would attack a healer in service to another noble, but anyone at the Lord rank will be free to try to kidnap or eliminate you. Better safe than sorry."

"Bethy." She said bluntly, pointing to the tiny vampire. "I'm positive no one at the...Lord rank, will be able to overpower her." She didn't mention the strong likelihood that our eccentric friend would be incapable of obeying any sort of military directions and would probably start some kind of camp riot after she got bored of trying on new uniforms. That actually solved a lot of problems I'd been worried about.

The vampire pouted. "Awww, I wanted to strike fear into the hearts of my enemies as I crushed them under my snazzy platform heel." She glanced down at her shoes, which were platform (though I wasn't really qualified to comment on their snazziness) then shrugged. "Oh well, I'm sure me and Jessie will have so much fun together. And I can let Luggage out to play! He's been so cramped in my Domain. He doesn't like to snooze as much as Poptarts and Donuts."

She waved a hand and a hulking black dog with glowing red eyes appeared in the middle of the room, shocking everyone who wasn't us as Luggage growled menacingly at the newcomers. Camden just closed his eyes and sighed. "Why do I get the impression that you all are going to be even more of a headache than having a healer will be a benefit?"

"Because you're a smart guy?" Said Benny with a snicker. "But you'll sign with us anyway, because we're a hell of an asset. Now, where are the contracts we'll be signing. Shane, Celine, and I are all going to need to go over them. Shouldn't take long, not with Focus like ours."

We'd decided to try to get the best possible terms out of signing up, so Benny's Haggle Skill, Celine's negotiation experience and political savvy, and my contract knowledge would all be put to good use here. Snapping his finger, Camden summoned a tall rail thin man with slicked back white hair and a well sculpted mustache, who handed him several sheets of paper.

"We had these made up. If you'll follow me I can have my lawyer walk you through them." He led us into a study, where a massive dark wood desk sat on plush carpet amid walls lined with bookshelves. A woman with red hair in a ponytail wearing an expensive looking suit sat at the desk, seemingly waiting. "This." He said as we entered. "Is Patricia Smallbrook. The Smallbrook family are some of the best lawyers in the system, and are known for skill and discretion."

Lawyer was apparently a job on the Empire's roles, from what I gathered. "So, you'll all be joining our little operation?" Said Patricia with a smile. "Glad yo have you aboard." Her green eyes twinkled as she gestured to the three chairs on the other side of the desk. I had to wonder if those had been there the whole time or if she set them out before we arrived. Either way it was impressive.

I sat at the far end, followed by Benny and then Celine. The contracts were laid out in front of us in stacks. "These are all the same right? Except Jessie's, which I imagine is more detailed given her particular status here. So we can just each read one and then adjust them as we go?"

"By all means." She said cordially. "You can each go over the healer contract one at a time if you like. We have nothing to hide."

That was a nice sentiment, but it didn't change what we needed to do. I picked up the contract closest to me and started parsing the language. It was mostly pretty clear cut, with a clearly stated term of employment, mention of the benefits we'd be giving up in exchange for our armor, and a few target goals for us to hit in terms of training and battles won. I had to stop a few times to clarify certain terms native to the local legal statutes, but for the most part they'd been pretty fair to us.

Benny, on the other hand, was having a field day, changing terms and altering certain stipulations when it came to our armor. Increasing the material threshold, potential enchantments, and he caught a tricky piece limit on our armor sets that probably would have screwed us. Between Inventing and Haggling he knew exactly what we should aim for, even if he wasn't really in a position to get it.

Once he found those, Celine took over, her noble negotiation skills making for quite a challenge to the smiling lawyer, whose grin became less smug and more acknowledging by the second as our resident elf worked to get us the best deal. It was probably closer to what Patricia was used to, given the Fairyland also used the Job system (alongside the Domain system we'd seen in the tournament).

Apparently the legal terms were more familiar to Celine, because she and the lawyer were bartering back and forth without pausing for breath, changing materials, enchantments, and even equipment types rapidfire as they negotiated. I grabbed Jessie's contract as they bartered, finished it (after making notes) then passed it to Benny who did the same before handing to a just finishing up Celine, and back into the negotiation they went.

Even with my Focus it was hard to follow, though I did hear her bring up Randall's armor, which brought them into an entirely new phase of bargaining. As we'd talked about, Callen had given up his right to new equipment for Randall, since he was already pretty well geared. Camden had to be consulted on a few of the changes, given the huge size difference between the bear and the swordsman, but eventually we came to an accord.

After a second time going over everything for each of us, just to make sure we hadn't missed anything, we finalized the contracts and each signed our own. Six months with an option to re-up for another two, as well as possible command training for any of us who reached E-rank.

We'd agreed to leave four months for travel to the conclave, given how long the trip here had taken. Once we finished all of our negotiating, Camden poured us each a snifter of brandy to toast our new partnership, and filled us in on exactly what we could expect.

"Well, first thing is you'll be staying in the barracks." He clarified as we all retired to a library with a whole host of overstuffed chairs. "Male and female barracks are sepeaate to prevent fraternization. It can be a distraction. You'll get weekends as time off, though we recommend you don't stay up too late because you'll be expected to be awake and ready to start your day at Reveille each morning."

Callie's expression darkened at BOTH of those things, we'd gotten used to bunking together, and she hated being woken up early. We'd expected them though, so she didn't say anything. "Any rules about healing?" I asked cautiously. "We used to have a trainer who insisted we go without. Said it was better for muscle memory."

"It is." Admitted Camden. "But most of the people here have had physical training already. Formations are more of a mental thing. There will be combat drills to train you with your standard issue weapons, but for the most part we'll be working on formations, since we don't have time to get people into the Jobs we would normally prefer. Healing should be fine. Be warned though, I can't guarantee you constant access to the healer's tent, even if you are friends."

I knew we'd have to work around injuries, both training and battlefield, but luckily for us I could act as an intermediary because of my stored heal bursts. As long as heals were allowed we'd be fine. I was pretty sure we would need them too, this planet's Impact was going to make the whole experience here hell.

The excitement I'd been feeling had only grown. This was going to be such a good environment to correct some of the bad habits and weaknesses I had from growing up a mortal. Maybe not erase them completely, but it would be more than enough to improve my foundations as an Ascendant and a combatant. Even if we hadn't been planning to hit E-rank within a month or two and then get bumped up to command, I'd still have signed up.

Of course, at nine thousand plus, Callie and I could do it easily, and I was sure the others would be at E well before we left the planet. My goal was to have us all there by the time we hit the conclave, because I hoped it would help them take us more seriously. Plus we didn't know where it would be held, and if it was a B-rank planet F-rankers like us wouldn't even be able to stand up there let alone function.

With all the negotiations finished and our brandy sipped (apparently it wasn't a chugging alcohol) we thanked Camden and split up, Patricia offering to escort the girls to the womens barracks. I gave Callie a quick kiss before she left, hugged Jessie and my sister, and then followed Camden himself to the mens barracks to set up my space, a much easier feat with a spatial ring. Then I got in bed and went to sleep. I had to get to bed early, tomorrow was my first day of basic training.

 

[Lone-sith]

I don't yet why there was not a contract for the two wish users? Does the count not know?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I don't yet why there was not a contract for the two wish users? Does the count not know?

Click to shrink...

He is not aware of Nat, no.

 

[Aurael]

This was going to be a whole new world.

Click to shrink...

Look, I'm not sure if that was intentionally or some kind of bug/incident/whatever or maybe you already know about this Information and doing something about it, but Chapters 5 - 121 are gone. Like, straight gone. Which is sad because I just started reading Wish upon the Stars and I liked the first 4 Chapters. Not sure why they are gone, but is there a way for me to read them? Maybe another Site? Or maybe you can somehow recover them?

 

[Lone-sith]

Look, I'm not sure if that was intentionally or some kind of bug/incident/whatever or maybe you already know about this Information and doing something about it, but Chapters 5 - 121 are gone. Like, straight gone. Which is sad because I just started reading Wish upon the Stars and I liked the first 4 Chapters. Not sure why they are gone, but is there a way for me to read them? Maybe another Site? Or maybe you can somehow recover them?

Click to shrink...

It's because he is publishing them as actual books. You can find them on kindle unlimited if you don't want to buy, or just buying them. As someone who came and read it all, as well as the first book on KU, I thinks it's worth it

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Look, I'm not sure if that was intentionally or some kind of bug/incident/whatever or maybe you already know about this Information and doing something about it, but Chapters 5 - 121 are gone. Like, straight gone. Which is sad because I just started reading Wish upon the Stars and I liked the first 4 Chapters. Not sure why they are gone, but is there a way for me to read them? Maybe another Site? Or maybe you can somehow recover them?

Click to shrink...

Yeah, like he said, I published them on amazon and audible. The first two are available on Kindle Unlimited. Amazon doesn't allow you to keep the chapters up on other sites, so I had to take them down everywhere, even my patreon. I'd thought there was an AN at the cutoff point, but I'd have to go back and check.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

In my life, I'd been through plenty of unique and often unpleasant experiences. I'd had ribs broken, been stabbed in the gut, been beaten, and a host of other torments. All of these things had sort of crowded my memory, and made it difficult to remember EARLIER pain and hardship, which paled in comparison. Yet, despite the scale of it being dramatically different, there was one pre-ascendant hell that I still remembered with absolute clarity. Alarms.

I HATED waking up to alarms. It was the one guaranteed way to completely ruin the quality of my sleep and destroy any sense of wellbeing I gained from slumber. I looked back on the few times I'd found it necessary to awaken to an alarm with disdain and irritation.

The first morning in the training camp cleansed me of all those memories. I no longer looked back on alarms with loathing or disdain. My entire concept of an unpleasant wakeup was washed clean by the absolute HELL that was "Reivelle'.

Once could be forgiven for not understanding how awful it was from the word itself. Reveille sounded light and airy, almost charming. It did NOT sound, just from hearing it, like a wall of screeching sound that pounded your eardrums like a drop hammer as you writhed in impotent agony on your bed, clawed from slumber by the shrieking wail of a sound that reminded you of nothing so much as a flock of geese being run through a rusty trash compactor.

I rolled clear out of my bed, hitting the floor with a surprising amount of force and grunting as I dragged myself up off the floor, disoriented and in legitimate pain from what was basically a sonic attack. I looked around, finding my friends for the most part just as disoriented, though Abel and Callen both seemed only minorly annoyed as they calmly got up and started changing into our new uniforms.

Armor would be waiting until the end of the first week, as per the contract, at least our personal sets. We'd have an assigned set of gear for battles so we would be a cohesive part of the unit and those would be passed out fairly soon.

Once we finished changing we were called outside, and we all stumbled out the door, blinking sleepily in the far too bright morning sun, the far too cold air like razor blades on our skin as we puffed out small clouds of steam. Camden was there, as were the girls, on the other side, and a series of stern looking figures I didn't recognize but pretty much already hated just from context.

"Good morning." Called Camden sadistically (he may have just been speaking normally, I'll admit I might have been projecting). "Welcome to your first day of training. Beside me are your instructors. Each of them is an experienced warrior proficient in a certain skill, and they'll be passing those skills on to you. Weapons training, formations, conditioning, and any number of other important and useful skillsets will be yours to acquire in this camp."

He gestured to the tall, dark skinned man beside him with a close cropped dark beard and piercing green eyes. "This is Commander Hamill. He will be in charge of your physical conditioning drills. While most of you are already familiar with combat, the ability to function and push through pain on a C-ranked planet is one that must be honed. It will be unpleasant, but it will probably save your lives in the field."

I grimaced at the thought, but he wasn't wrong. Being able to get tired again was a big change, and learning to work through it would be integral to being able to function in combat. Most of us were so far from human on lower ranked planets we barely even remembered what getting tired was. I'd already experienced some of that when we got here, but I had a feeling I'd be gaining a new appreciation for it before the day was done.

Camden continued, introducing the other trainers, then turned and nodded to Hamill, who stepped forward, glaring coldly at us. He gestured behind him. "Between those two buildings, one of which is the mess hall and the other being the healer's quarters, you will find a freshly dragged dirt path. At the beginning of that path you will find a rack, and on that rack are weighted vests. You will each take a vest and begin running laps. You will not stop until given permission."

Forcing myself to start moving, I wondered why in the name of the Revenant I had been excited about this? My head hurt, my eyes hurt, my fucking skin hurt, and that was just from the abrupt wakeup. Benny, who was stumbling along next to me, looked almost as bad. Despite having much lower stats, his might was four hundred points higher than mine because he was so specialized. Lucky bastard.

The rest of the company looked even worse, and I was deeply thankful for the extra Impact we'd picked up in the Glade, which was clearly blunting our reaction to the pressure more than I had realized. Of course, once we reached the rack and took down the vests, I quickly realized that wasn't going to be as helpful as I'd have liked.

Strapping the thing on, I started running, almost staggering under the weight at first before I forced myself to push through it. Callie fell into step next to me, dark circles under her eyes. Even in agony of my own, I had to shoot her a teasing grin. "So...how's your morning going?"

"Jump in a hole." She growled, her irritated gaze locked on the distant horizon as we ran. "A deep one. Full of spikes."

Laughter really was the best medicine, because my cackle of glee made me feel infinitely better as I picked up my pace a bit. "Love you too honey." Taking pity on my girlfriend, I left her to wallow as I turned to talk to Benny. "So, what do you think they'll serve for breakfast. I'm fucking starving."

My best friend's face took on a greenish tinge. "Don't bring up food right now. Imagining eating is making me motion sick. I'm glad they didn't feed us before this. We'd be puking our guts out."

The mental imagine made me cringe. He was right, but I wish he'd phrased it different. As we ran, I was reminded of all the terrible sensations I'd felt as a normal human being. My knees were throbbing, my lungs were burning, and I had a stitch in my side. Even my Vitality wasn't enough to offset the pain.

I desperately wanted to heal myself, but part of the contracts had been amended for this exact situation. We WERE allowed to heal, but only after the entire day's training was done. I now thoroughly understood why Camden hadn't been worried about it. We were still getting the full effect of the training this way.

In fact, knowing I could have healed myself at any time and been full of energy was making the pain WORSE, because it all felt so damned pointless. I just had to push through it, watching the blue leaved trees as they slowly crept by, trying not to focus on the agony that was my entire body and losing myself in the staccato rhythm of feet pounding dirt.
We ran. And ran. And ran some more. Did I mentioned the running? Finally, Hamill stepped out into the path in front of us, signifying it was time to stop.

Rather than coming to a halt, most of us just dropped to the dirt where we were, caked in sweat and panting as we twitched on the ground. The impassive looking Commander nodded. "Good. That was exactly what we needed." He looked down at the path, a circular track we'd run dozens of times, and tapped it with his boot. "You packed the dirt down. Now the track is ready for use. All of you hit the mess hall. Once you eat we can start that actual training."

We all stared at him, horrified, before glancing down at the dirt path which, as he'd said, had been packed down hard by our boots as we ran.

I almost wanted to say something, but I was saved by the fact that my lungs were in too much agony to easily speak. So just like everyone else I watched in silence as he turned and strode off. Crawling over to Benny, I used him as a handhold to lift myself up, climbing to my feet painfully. I considered taking off the vest, but decided against it since no one else was.

Benny glared at me from the ground, and I almost offered a hand, but I didn't think I had the strength to actually lift him, especially in his vest. Instead, I walked over and offered my hand to Callie, who was much smaller and weighed less IN the vest then Benny did without one.

The vests were weighted with more than physical weight too. They were F-ranked materials themselves, which added to the strain. My best friend flipped me off but crawled over to help Celine, and then we all headed for the mess hall as a group. I debated finding the others, but I was pretty sure they could track us down, and I was too sore to delay. It felt like it took an hour to drag myself to the building indicated, but apparently it was only a few minutes, because there was still plenty of food when we arrived.

I'd expected shitty food, but they'd kind of gone all out. Eggs, bacon, sausage, a full breakfast including fresh squeezed juice from some native fruit called a gwunch (disgusting name, but a pretty decent taste, kind of like a mix between a guava and a pineapple) that I had four glasses of.

Mentally, I knew I shouldn't fill up. I knew that it would make working out worse, but between the hunger of having recently woken up and the hunger of my body trying to repair itself, I had no choice but to pig out. It. Tasted. Amazing. I didn't know if that was due to the cooking or my hunger and I didn't care. I just devoured the stuff.

Once I finished eating, I shoved the plate forward and let my head thunk onto the table, groaning in relief at the sheer ecstasy of not moving. I heard a chuckle and had to lever my head up to see a lanky, olive skinned blonde woman and a short, powerfully built tan man with red hair. They both looked... better than I did. The woman grinned at me. "First time doing an adjustment drill?" She asked with a chuckle.

I meant to respond, but all that came out was something like. "Urgh." Which just made both of them laugh harder.
"It gets easier." She promised. Once you acclimate to the pressure. The thing they don't tell you is the drills don't just help you push through the pain, they also teach you how to properly leverage your muscles. Might is what decides your output, but just because you're strong doesn't mean you know how to engage your strength. It's an important skill, and not one that many people bother with."

I hadn't really thought of it that way, but it did make sense. "Thanks." I grunted, managing speech this time. "Solomon." I jerked my head in either direction to indicate Benny and Callie. "Clockwork, Nightstrike." Then nodded to our fourth party member, who also seemed surprisingly unbothered. "Celine."

The woman laughed again. "Loretta. And this is Owen. We've been mercs for a few decades, though we're new to the planet. Tell you what, stick with us an we'll help you navigate the ins and outs of the first few days." I nodded gratefully and forced my hand up, holding it out slowly to shake. Which they both did. Two new friends on the first day wasn't bad. I just wished I wasn't so sure my day was going to get much worse from here on out.