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

It was the day of the ceremony. Not my coronation. That had been made clear. The actual anointing of my position would be undertaken at a later time, in front of a LOT more people. This was more of a confirmation. An award ceremony for the succession war rather than a passing of the torch as per the leadership of the faction.


Still, it felt…weighty. My thoughts from earlier felt heavy, but unfinished. I hadn't really come to any conclusions, had I? Hadn't really made a decision. I had reframed my way of seeing my journey, but not myself.


So, as we sat in the shuttle (after stockpiling today's scrolls we'd set out immediately), heading to the ceremony, I took stock of myself, and more than that, took stock of everything else. My mother, who was sitting nearby, looked a little worried, clearly able to sense some of the uneasiness in me. "Are you alright, Shane?" she asked me quietly. I felt a shift in the world that told me she'd cut us off from the surroundings so we could talk privately, which I appreciated.


"Just thinking about change," I said philosophically. "About how inevitable it is. Zeke is a big fan of just surrendering to that. Accepting who you'll be and abandoning the past. At least in some ways. But I want something more…permanent. When I become a god, and I do think it's a WHEN at this point, I want to be more me than just a generic deity. So I need to keep something. And I feel like committing to one path or the other is going to impact me heavily, and I have no idea how or how much, so…what do I choose?"


She smiled at me warmly. "Ah, the old growth vs. self debate," she said with a chuckle. "An old Ascendant standby. I can't tell you the answer to that, I don't think anyone can. But I can share my point of view, if you'd like."


"Please," I said with relief. "Anything would help. I just feel like this ceremony marks a huge milestone, and that I need to…understand who I am before it happens. Like I'm locking in a choice that I can't take back. I might just be imagining things or being paranoid, but it feels like my Fatewalker sense pushing me to make a call. So what is my priority? Being myself, or being the best me I can be? And are they really incompatible?"


"You know," she said introspectively. "I don't think they are. I used to buy into that myself, but as I've grown, I've had a much different experience than Ezekial."


I raised an eyebrow at her. "And what is that?"


"People like to talk about the self like it's some…intrinsic thing. Like your base nature is bedrock, and it can either be changed or worn away." She chewed on her lip, like she was trying to put something difficult into words. "But that paints a person's fundamental nature as something static. Rigid. As much as we talk about people twisting, or warping, or breaking, they don't REALLY ever do any of those things. Recursion can beat and bully us into ACTING a certain way, but not BEING that way."


I grimaced. "But how does that help? If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck-"


"Then it's still a person, albeit one who has an unhealthy fascination with ducks," she said bluntly. "The nature of self is not rigid, or unbending. Not unless we allow it. Humans aren't bedrock, we're more like…water. Water can change shapes, it can be compressed, it can be mixed with other things, but no matter WHAT you do to it, it doesn't STOP being water.


"What people in the Ascendant world mistake for being brittle is just being cold." Her eyes were warm and alive. Blazing with righteous fervor. Like she was sharing a fundamental truth of the universe. And maybe she was. "They let their water freeze, and as such it can shatter or crack. But it doesn't stop being water. They just think it does. And that's fundamental Shane, it's KEY. Because you're only as brittle as you let yourself become."


She reached out and put a hand on my chest. "This is what makes you who you are. Not your power. Or your mind. Or even your soul. Just this. Your heart. The heart has a voice, Shane. It has a song. And we can hear it if we listen. It doesn't change. Not really. Not unless you let it freeze over. Just listen for that melody, and it'll never lead you astray. No matter how different you may talk, or walk, or look. As long as you can still hear your heart, you'll always be you. The things that define us aren't what we say, or even how we behave. They're who we LOVE."


I blinked. Because…that felt right. It reminded me so much of the Ruined Soul Temple. Of that long walk in the endless dark, where they stripped away everything that I was.


That had been a formative experience for me. It had shown me I could be strong without the people I cared about to lean on. Helped me break my shackle and advance my soul. But what if that WASN'T what it was trying to show me.


What if the important part wasn't how I dealt with the end, but the journey to actually get there. The fact that even as I stripped away all my senses, memories, and everything else, my love had still been there. I'd realized even then that it meant I would never be really alone, and that it could be a strength, but it was more than that, wasn't it.


I'd thought I needed to abandon my friends to regain my sense of self, at least in some way. But wasn't my mom saying the opposite. That my friends WERE my sense of self? That the version of me that loved the version of them that I did would never change. Impressions were only as strong as the material they were made in, but love was…it was a material that took an impression of both sides.


Friendship, marriage, family, these things captured an image of me. I loved who I loved because of who I was, and because of who they were, and because of who we were to each other. But all of those things meant that the emotions I felt kept an image of that person. To love someone I had to remember the person I was when I developed that affection, and the person they were.


And linking my sense of self to just one of those impressions, even Callies, would be unhealthy, and honestly kind of weak. Depending on just one person to hold up your senses of self, no matter how much you loved and trusted them, was a burden too cruel to put on someone you truly loved.


But I didn't NEED to do that. Because that wasn't what she'd said. The heart wasn't just the feelings you shared with one person. It was the feelings you shared with ALL the people. It was the impression of the me who fell in love with Callie, who met Benny and became best friends with him, who let my parents back into my life despite all the hurt between us. My heart was a thousand versions of me all mashed together, and it was greater than the sum of its parts.


Because people really were like water, in a way. We could move and shift and reform, but we still showed the reflections of the things around us. And as long as I could see those reflections, I could remember who I'd been when I first gazed out at them, and I'd always be able to find my way back.


And that thought, oddly enough, seemed to unburden me. To set me free of the fear and the cloying worry. Not about becoming the Wishmaster, though that had been part of it. But of UNBECOMING me.


Except I couldn't do that. My friends wouldn't let me. I wouldn't let myself. Recursion might change the way I thought, but it wouldn't change the way I felt, and it could never change the way I HAD felt. No matter how simple the Ascendant transformation wanted to make us, humans were not simple creatures. And recursion's most dangerous trick was making us think we were.


I glanced up to see my mother grinning at me. "That helped a little, huh?"


"It did," I agreed. "It's not what I've been told before. I don't think Zeke would agree with you, or even dad. But…I do."


"Oh your father agrees," she said nonchalantly. "He's just too stubborn to realize how he feels."


I grinned at her. "I don't know if that's how it works, but you know him better than I do. Speaking of which, you never mentioned where you thought we should go on our honeymoon. I'd have expected you to weigh in." I felt…settled. I didn't need to ponder my existential makeup anymore. I understood now. So I could change the subject.


She just snorted at me derisively. "I DID. I just didn't do it in front of all your friends." Her tone softened to a happy lilt. "I invited Calliope back to the holy dominion, to the planet where my father's clergy lives. The planet where Chelsea grew up. I thought you two might enjoy the chance to see some family history and get to know your grandparents in their home environment." She winked at me. "Don't tell her I told you though, I think she wanted it to be a surprise."


I blinked in shock. I…hadn't even considered that. I mean, I definitely wanted to do it. I wanted to see my sister's home, meet some of my uncles (who my mother rarely talked about) and just generally learn more about my family. But this was supposed to be Callie's honeymoon. Knowing she had abandoned the chance to see all those amazing planets and places so I could learn more about my family history.


Turning to stare off into the deeper parts of the Shuttle, I smiled at Callie, who was chatting excitedly with Nat about Perit's return. My heart warmed, and my mother chuckled. "Like I said, sweetie. Follow your heart. It won't steer you wrong. And I think yours in particular has excellent taste."


That drew a long, happy laugh from me. A laugh that was sadly cut short by a shift under us as the shuttle slowed down. My mom dropped the shield around us, standing to prepare to disembark. "Good timing though. Seems like you figured things out just in time to be ready for what comes next." She grinned wolfishly at me. "You ARE ready, aren't you?" I could tell that she wasn't worried about me anymore, and had moved on to delighting in my misfortune. Lovely.


I stood, stretching a bit as I prepared. I didn't need to do it, but it helped me mentally shift gears before we got off. "I think I am," I said lightly. "As ready as I'll ever be anyway. How about you, ready to be the mother of the Wishmaster? What do they call that anyway, the Queen Dowager?"


She recoiled in horror. "What? Oh, gods. Don't say that. It makes me sound ANCIENT." I turned and headed for the exit, and she followed after me, calling desperately. "Shane? Sweetie? You're not going to tell people to call me that are you?"


Callie stepped up beside me as I disembarked, threading her arm in mine. "Queen Dowager?" she asked in amusement. "Don't you think that's a little mean." I could see from the twinkle in her eye that she wasn't really bothered, but I still felt the need to defend myself.


"You DO remember her whole speech on you probably having twins when we have kids, right?" I asked her mildly.


Her eyes narrowed. "As a matter of fact, you might be right. Queen Dowager does have a nice ring to it. Or hey, what about Queen Mother? Or respected elder? Something that really underscores her wisdom and experience." We both tried not to cackle at the wordless wail of despair my mother let out from behind us. We were not successful.

Stepping out of the shuttle, I took in the location of the ceremony with fascination. I'd expected something ostentatious, maybe a huge castle or some kind of formation. Instead, we were standing in what appeared to be a soothing garden. Rock features, ponds, topiaries. It was…soothing.


"Perfect," my mom said from where she arrived next to me. "They wanted to put you in some gaudy auditorium. But that's so…expected. This is more impactful, I think. I told your father that a serene and natural environment would underscore your dominance of outside forces."


I raised an eyebrow at that. I hadn't expected her to think so hard about the optics, though given she was an A-ranker, I probably should have.


My own grasp on that aspect of Ascendant culture was fleeting at best, since I mostly bypassed it by using wishes and doing insane over the top things that drew large amounts of attention. It was probably good SOMEONE was thinking about it though. Callie gave an impressed shrug from beside me, and we headed out into the park towards the gazebo in the middle where several figures were waiting for us. Fourteen figures, actually.


The family had mostly been lined up along an aisle of purple velvet carpeting that led directly to the gazebo, with seating on either side currently filled to the brim with familiar faces. Belsara, Derrick, Nat, Delia, and a dozen other relatives I knew sat among crowds of total strangers, all focused on this ceremony of which I was the focal point. Or would be, once I joined the illustrious group of people up on the dais.


"Is that…all the branch heads?" I asked my mom quietly. "I thought S-rankers couldn't touch down here."


The fourteenth figure, a familiar one I'd seen twice now, snorted and addressed me through the assembled family members. "They can't. That's why none of us are actually here. Just projections here to pat you on the back and tell you what a special boy you are."


"Gosh Uncle Aiden," I said in a deadpan voice. "Do you think I could maybe get a cookie?"


He barked out a laugh. "Oh good. I knew you had a spine. You're going to need it with this crowd." As we approached, he turned to the assembled members of the Wyndham family. "It is traditional for the exiting Wishmaster to give a speech at this point. Before we have the official coronation, when it's just family and retainers. Well, I don't much hold with tradition, but it has been…impressed on me, that it would behoove me to say something anyway. So here it is: You all suck."


Everyone winced, but no one reacted with anger. Aiden didn't seem to care and kept going. "I don't say that as an insult. Just as a fact. Water is wet. Most skies are blue. All of you suck. It's not your fault. It's just how you were born. I was born awesome and you were born irritating and pointless.


"If I'd known how much trouble this job would be when I was in MY succession war, I probably would have gone to the beach to work on my tan and let Eli deal with you bastards, but hey, live and learn." He gave everyone a winning smile. "But the good news is that you're now no longer my problem. You're free to suck as much as you want and it won't affect me, so you know, go nuts. Really scrape the bottom of that barrel. Give the kid a run for his money. Because Eli is going to have to deal with all of you morons second hand now anyway, and that makes me smile."


He turned his bright grin on the council of elders. "You know what? You were right? I AM glad I gave the speech. This was a good talk." And then, in the blink of an eye. He vanished.


Harrison, standing off to one side, buried his face in his hands and let out a long, tormented sigh. "Godsdamn it Aiden," he muttered before facing the rest of us with an austere expression of quiet certainty that I was sure he'd practiced in the mirror. "Well. That was…very forthright. Out thanks to the current Wishmaster for his words of…wisdom. And now, without further ado, our reigning champion and FUTURE Wishmaster, the current heir to the Wish Curse Palace in its totality, Shane Wyndham."


He gestured to where I had stopped on the approach to listen to the funniest speech I'd ever heard, indicating I should come down the aisle to join them. They watched us approach (because like hell I was leaving my wife behind for this) and Harrison raised his eyebrow.


Stopping just short of them, I raised my voice to announce Callie. "May I introduce the family at large to my wife, Calliope Wyndham. Daughter of the Heretic God, Adam Atlas, and Amelia Reynolds of Callus."


A hush fell over the crowd. Callie and I had discussed her introduction. If she was going to stand with me it would be best to make sure everyone in the Palace knew she was my equal and partner, and her new divine heritage was a good way to do that (it was essentially what Black Sorrow had done to help me start my rep rolling on a universal scale). We'd ALSO decided her mother deserved to be mentioned, and Midknight could fuck right off.


Harrison looked impressed. "A child of divinity. I was…unaware of her prestigious pedigree. I was led to believe your marriage was one of affection and that your bride was a native of the planet you grew up on."


He didn't sound snobby or condescending about it, exactly. He just said it like he was commenting on the weather. He didn't care if Callie was godspawn or a random space peasant. We were Wyndhams, and no one would really measure up, so he might as well be welcoming to anyone who tried. Sometimes my family's staggering arrogance was ACTUALLY useful.


"Yup," I said conversationally. "So I figured I'd bring her up here with me, if you don't mind."


He looked more amused than offended by me pushing. "By all means," he stepped aside, gesturing to the center of the ring of council members. "Please, take your place among the council. Do you understand your role in these proceedings?"


I nodded. "Yeah, I'm supposed to request confirmation from each of the branch heads. It symbolizes their acceptance of the transfer of power."


Of course, it was also a formality. No one said no or refused to answer. They knew that this was the will of the old man, and no one disobeyed the Wishmaster. Taking my position, I nodded to Harrison, who, as the first in the ring of councillors, gestured for me to proceed. I cleared my throat. "Council of Elders, I, as the heir of the Wyndham bloodline, rightfully chosen by rite of trial, do so request your recognizance of my station. Harrison Wyndham, do you grant this recognition?"


He nodded austerely. "I do. I welcome you to the fold and honor you as the head of our family. And so it is known."


Next up was Desmond, whose daughter Mara and grandson Miles were both branch heads themselves. I repeated the ceremonial request, and he replied in turn. Next was Warren, and after him Miles and Mara. After them was Selina, who was the head of the branch my Aunt Arabella belonged to, and she gave me a warm smile as she confirmed my appointment, seemingly perfectly happy with me getting the position.


Finally, I reached my grandfather. "Malachai Wyndham, do you grant this recognition?"


He beamed at me. "I do. I welcome you to the fold and honor you as the head of our family. Well done, Shane." Harrison glared at him, clearing his through loudly and my grandfather rolled his eyes. "And so it is known. There, are you happy?"


I snorted, moving onto the only one of the branch heads I was actually worried about. "Percival Wyndham," I said formally. "Do you grant this recognition?"


He glared at me. Hard. His jaw was locked tight, and his eyes were narrowed like he was about to attack me. Harrison, to my surprise, seemed to notice something, and he snorted coldly. There was a strange pulse, and the air of menace I hadn't realized was hanging over the interaction dispersed, and Percy blinked absently, wincing like he'd just gotten an ice cream headache. "I…yes. I do, rather. I welcome you to the fold and honor you as head of our family. And so it is known."


I turned my head slightly, glancing casually over to where Harrison had looked when he snorted, to see Ayra Vetala, Percy's wife, pale and holding her head. Next to her, a younger version of Percy I assumed was her son Devon, glared daggers at me in particular. I ignored him, turning back to continue.


Danielle went next. Then Cristoph, then Westley. None of them looked particularly upset of unhappy, smiling encouragingly at me. I heard my wife snort something about two faced bastards in my head and had to clamp down hard not to laugh. I managed, but it was close.


"You have been welcomed to the fold," Harrison said formally. "Aknowledged by the members of this council, chosen by rite of trial, and preceded by the reigning Wishmaster. Now. As is your right, you may address the family."


I nodded, then turned to look out at the faces surrounding us. Some hostile, some friendly, some strange. But…all familiar in their own way. Around the eyes, something in the jaw. These were my people. My blood. I tried to remember being that terrified kid on Callus, worried about this whole mess, scared I couldn't hack it.


But I couldn't. I was fine. Up here with my wife, with my parents in the crowd, with my best friends smiling on proudly, I couldn't have cared less about which of the people out there were glaring at me or not. "I'm not going to tell you that you suck," I said dryly. "Since I don't know most of you and the ones I do know I'm mostly pretty fond of."


There was a polite chuckle at that, mostly from people I knew. But I wasn't done. "I'm also not going to pretend you're perfect. Or that I am. We might be Ascendants, but we're still human where it counts. We make mistakes. I do it. You do it. Even the old man does it." That stirred up quite a bit of muttering, which I ignored. "I have qualms with the way things are done. I plan to make changes. I won't announce them now, because I know getting them past the council will be an uphill battle, but I want to be clear about my intentions.


"But more than that, I want to make this family stronger," I looked each of them in the eye as I spoke. "I want to make us better. And that starts with all of you. If you have something to say to me. Say it. I don't care if it's insulting, or pointless. I want you to feel free to communicate with me directly. To bring me your concerns. Because I want to improve things for the family, and I know enough to know that I don't know what that means yet."


I could have waxed eloquent and told them I was on their side, but I didn't. I hadn't earned that. They didn't know me. They had no clue what I would or wouldn't do. I had said my piece, and if they were interested they would get in touch with me.


But what made my heart sing was that despite most of them looking disaffected and bored, I DID see a few people take me seriously. I saw thoughtful expressions, and even one or two hopeful looks. Maybe my quest to change my family wasn't going to be as frustrating and isolating as I had feared. Maybe there was hope for us all yet.

The rest of the ceremony was mostly just smiling and nodding, unfortunately. I shook the hands of an endless parade of relatives, and they definitely took me up on my open door policy. My head was aching from the sheer number of subtle overtures and attempts at backroom dealing. The politicking started early, and after announcing that I wanted to be hands on, I couldn't very well pass the buck like I might have otherwise.


By the time we got back into the shuttle, I was leaning back, mask off, rubbing my temples in the hopes of making the constant ache go away. "I feel so much sympathy for Aiden now," I groaned. "He was right. They DO suck."


"Probably best to keep that observation to yourself," my mom said wryly. "But you did amazing out there, sweetie. I am SO proud of you." She turned to smile at Callie. "Both of you. Don't think I didn't see you propping him up and feeding him lines during that mess. That would have been a million times harder without you."


"Impossible," I corrected. "It would have been impossible. I'd have punched someone in the throat after fifteen minutes. I swear, I almost stabbed Peter."


Dad snickered. "That's a common reaction to Peter's presence. No one would have blamed you. Honestly you might have made a few friends. It's staggering to me that someone can be so thoroughly unpleasant and still so politically connected."


"How is he related to us, anyway?" I asked with a grimace. "He seemed to be insinuating he was a close family member."


Dad rolled his eyes. "He's your grandfather's second cousin. He likes to play up the family angles with anyone he feels is useful. Oddly, it seems to WORK for him more often than not. I'm surprised he tried it on you though, he and my father have a contentious relationship, and he usually avoids members of our direct line."


I snorted. "If only. But I think all this was worth it." I glanced over at Callie. "What do you think? Was that enough?"


She grinned at me wolfishly. "Can't be sure until we try, but I'm pretty positive we hit the mark."


"We figured you might be skimming off the ceremony to bump her up to C-rank," my mom said wryly. "Honestly, everyone noticed, but being godspawn has a certain cachet, so no one was too bothered. Of course, I may have let slip that she was my mother's personal apprentice. And THAT has plenty of cachet of its own."


Laughing, I leaned over to hug her. "Thanks ma, I appreciate it." I turned to look at my closest friends, who had been fairly silent since the ceremony. "What did you guys think?"


Jessie grinned. "I thought you nailed it. Just the right mix of reassuring and stern."


"And threatening," Bethy chirped. "You were super ominous there for a minute. People LOVE ominous leaders. Daddy says being ominous is like half of his management style. The other half is eating troublemakers."


I chuckled at that. "Noted. I think I'll skip the second part though."


"Probably a good call," she said conspiratorially. "None of them looked like they would taste very good."


Turning to my sister, I raised an eyebrow. "How about you? I saw a lot of people approaching you to talk. I'm glad to see the family welcoming you. I was worried that not having the Wish power might ostracise you, but everyone seemed really excited to get to know you."


She beamed at me. "It was pretty cool. I was expecting them to hit me up for favors, and a few did that, but I mostly just told them that I had to ask you about anything I did, and they all gave me letters to pass you and then moved on to conversation. Speaking of which, I'm going to need a place to put those. The pile is EXTENSIVE."


"Ah, throw me under the bus, lovely. How about you Benny?" I asked my best friend. He'd been oddly quiet since the ceremony. Even moreso than the others.


He blew out a long breath. "I don't know. It was…a lot. Weird seeing you like that. You looked almost competent. I had no idea you were that good an actor." He winked at me, but it wasn't up to his usual standards. He looked…tired. And sad.


Seeing my concern, he waved me off. "I'm good. Just been thinking. I have a lot of training to do during your honeymoon." His eyes hardened. "You better watch out when you see me next. I've got big plans." I could tell something he'd seen at the ceremony had rattled him, but I could also tell that he didn't want to talk about it, so I just nodded and moved on.


Abel hadn't really cared one way or the other, Mel had been impressed, Fade had just nodded his approval. In general it seemed like I'd gotten favorable responses from everyone. Which was nice to know at least, because I didn't think it was universal, and most of my family hadn't seemed impressed. The few that had though, they had approached me during the meet and greet and passed me contact information, which would be a good opportunity to build connections…later.


"So, with all that over with…" I looked to my dad. "I want to arrange Perit's resurrection first thing. But once that's done and we have everyone processed for departure, I plan to skip out for a few months. I'm taking that honeymoon."


He shrugged. "You're technically just the heir right now, rather than the Wishmaster. The old man is going to want to meet you, but as you can imagine, he isn't one to rush. Six months or so should be doable. Though you realize that you won't start getting the really heavy point boosts until the coronation? If you remember from your childhood, members of the Unlucky Thirteen are very famous, but their successors don't come up much."


I just shrugged. "I'll get the renown eventually. And with six months of almost a thousand points of income a day from wishes, I think I'll be alright. Nine scrolls at a hundred apiece is plenty."


"Fair enough," he nodded. "I'll make the arrangements. Natalie, I assume you'd like to be present. Would you like my sister to attend? It shouldn't be too hard to arrange, given her presence here."


Nat seemed enthused by the idea, and when we arrived they headed off to organize more of the details, and Callie and I headed for the cottage. Once we arrived, we settled in to prepare for her rank up. She let out a long, shaky breath. "Ok…wow. Haven't done one of these in a while. D-rank was a doozie."


"Yeah, it's been such a long time since then," I agreed. Then I paused. "How many people do you think would try to stab me if they heard me say that?"


She giggled at that, falling backwards onto the bed. "More than we could count in a lifetime. But I get it. It's been…a lot. Now we're here. Really here. It feels like it should be a bigger deal. But C-rank is almost inconsequential now. I mean, I know you said we can Bind pages in advance, or at least you can, but still. It feels like we're just killing time until B-rank."


"We might be getting a little jaded," I observed. "But if it helps, you'll FEEL the difference when you get to C-rank. Especially you. Your Heretic Archangel trait is pretty complicated, I'm guessing the effect of it ranking up will be…considerable. You ready?"


She nodded, letting out a long breath, then laid back on the bed. Her three pairs of blue black wings spread out behind her as did her hair, which had that same blue black quality in a way I hadn't really noticed before. It was subtle, but beautiful. I felt through the bond as she opened herself to the renown, and let it all pour into her, running through her body as it pushed her closer and closer to C-rank. And then, she was past, and everything…shifted.


It had been so long since I saw another person rank up that I'd forgotten how…impactful it could be. Her body stiffened, eyes going wide, and I felt her soul start to change through the bond. The power crashed into it, overflowing, and the Impact rolled through her body, carrying changes unlike anything I had ever been able to witness personally, as her powerful trait upgraded alongside her soul and took her body with it.


When the changes stopped, she rolled over, hacking and gasping, and I snagged her a cup of water. She drank it slowly, looking a bit unsteady, but as she calmed down her body seemed to adjust. Apparently the physical changes from a racial trait were very different than the normal rank up process.


"So, how did you do?" I asked eagerly. I could feel some of it, but I wanted to know the details too.


Grinning, she pulled a pen and paper from her ring and slowly wrote out the changes, passing the paper to me with relish when she was done. I took it eagerly, reading over everything, and I couldn't help but let out a low whistle.


Calliope Wyndham. C-rank.


Ability-: Grandmaster Trait: Heretic Archangel. An instrument of the will of a faded god. A child of the flame that burns back the heart of the Void.


Weapon:Gossamer (huge black sword housed in Callie's new soul space, a massive cathedral created when she formed her Chronicle)


Chronicle:Book of the Final Flame


Might-257,550


Impact-155


Vitality-159,742


Fantasy-246,520


Focus-157,908


Perception- 176,375


Creation-156,485


Progress to next rank: 1,154,735/10,000,000


Soul Strength: Tanzanite Soul Body.


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


Path of the Heretic Scion- Solid. Technique: Dance of the Abyssal Fairy


"That's…a lot. But also not very much?" I said slowly. "It's wild to me how condensed your stat page is. Your Path changed, apparently, which is cool, and the archangel trait is front and center. Your Skills seem to have fallen behind, I guess the reforging severed the connection your shadow manipulation had with your ability. But it also seems like the bump from the ceremony was more comprehensive than expected."


She shrugged. "A lot of my stats were lagging behind. Hyperfocusing and all. And we know that a rising tide raises all ships, stat wise. I guess people were perceiving me as a bigger all around threat than I actually was, and that evened me out a bit. My Might and Fantasy are still far in the lead."


I gently set down the glass before pulling her into my arms and flopping onto the bed. "And look, you've almost caught up to my numbers. That's pretty impressive."


She gave me a flat look. "Your rank up happened days ago, before the ceremony, before the mess with the Void Ladder even, I think. I have NOT caught up with you, you just haven't updated your status in too long."


"Maybe," I shrugged. "But still. We're both C-rank now. And as a Heretic Archangel, your base form is WAY stronger than mine anyway. So it all evens out."


She rolled her eyes, giving me a long, slow kiss before laying her head on my chest. "I love you, you dope. I don't care which of us is stronger. Because we're BOTH stronger together. And that will never change."


I squeezed her tight, smiling softly down at her. She was right. I'd always be better when I was with her. We closed our eyes and drifted off to sleep there, in each other's arms. And my last thought before I was swallowed up by my dreams was that being there, alone together, was a bigger prize than any faction I could ever be put in charge of. Not that I would ever say that out loud. Some things were too sappy even for me. But from the warm pulse of adoration I felt through the bond…she already knew anyway.

Arranging Perit's resurrection took longer than expected. We had to arrange things with the body, wait for my points to be available, then wait until someone could be sent by the family to take care of everything, which given all my relatives who had been present had their OWN points to cash out, wasn't exactly quick and easy to arrange.


But we'd finally reached the point where we were ready to perform the resurrection, even if this one seemed…different than the last.


"I don't think I'll ever get used to this," I told my dad as we watched them lay Perit's perfectly preserved body out on a makeshift altar they'd cobbled together. "The fact that we can just….bring back the dead. You think they're going to do this for Kent?"


He shrugged. "Probably. But it's harder for people of higher rank. Your only experience with it is with people below the watershed, right?"


"Yeah, is it really that big a difference?" I glanced at Perit, who had died back at the ruined soul temple, or at least the connected academy. She was pre-watershed too, which seemed like it was a good thing at this point.


"It's…qualitatively different," he said slowly. "One point of Impact makes you an Ascendant, ten points makes you a REAL Ascendant, but it's not too big of a difference because of the values you're working with. But a hundred? You need to understand that the next watershed is GODHOOD. D-rankers have shed the initial stages of mortality and mounted the path to the divine."


I grimaced. "So Kent's resurrection will be WAY more expensive."


"Unimaginably," he agreed. "But not impossible. Any of the Branch Heads could do it. Some of the stronger A-rankers. And he was connected. It's just a matter of horse trading at that level. It might not happen quickly, but it'll get done."


"Well, thank you," I told him sincerely. "Not just from Nat, or even from Callie, but from me. Perit and I weren't close, but I was responsible for her. It means a lot, you arranging all this." I snorted. "If I'm going to be the Wishmaster I need to make sure that I use that power to help my friends." I thought about what my mother said about following my heart. "Power corrupts, after all."


He snorted derisively. "I hate that saying. Utter nonsense."


"Why am I not surprised to hear you say that?" I asked wryly. "But I'll bite. You really don't think power corrupts?"


"People mythologize power," he said bitterly. "It's not some toxic, corrosive force that seeps into you and wears away at your humanity. In fact, humanity is probably the main problem for most people."


I raised an eyebrow at that. "How do you mean?" I'd expected some off the cuff answer about strength and imposing your will on the world, but this sounded more…reasoned. I was intrigued.


"Power, at its core, is just choice," he said with a shrug. "Humans, even Ascendants, are weak creatures at heart. When given an easy path, they tend to take it. So when they're offered choices, they inevitably pick the path of least resistance. But no one wants to admit that they're weak of will. So they put in the groundwork. Power corrupts. It's poison. That way when they get some and they're tempted to do the wrong thing, they can point to the power they gained and say, 'see, I told you'. That way it isn't their fault. They weren't weak, the power made them do it."


I frowned at that. "I mean…I can see how you get there. But don't you think that choices are kind of…weighted? People with more power get MORE choices, yeah, but they also get more IMPORTANT choices. People don't choose in a vacuum. And if I have more power, my choices take precedence over yours. It's easy for me to assume that makes ME more important than YOU."


"It does," he said simply. "Demonstrably so. But you're missing the forest for the trees. We're not talking about how power affects others. We're talking about how it influences the self. What I choose to do with my power isn't about anyone but me. I'm given choices, and the ones I pick show who I am. If someone else's choices push me into a specific situation, how I react to that situation is still on me. Power doesn't corrupt, Shane. Power REVEALS."


I hummed at that. "That's more nuanced than I'd have expected from you. And more responsible."


"That's fair," he laughed. "From your perspective I'm probably a fairly irresponsible person. I won't try to change that impression. It's not my right. I did things that hurt you. I knew they would hurt you, and I did them anyway because I thought they were best. I made the choices that I thought would result in the best outcome for my family, and that revealed who I am. I'm reckless, and arrogant, and sometimes thoughtless."


Left unsaid was the fact that sometimes, I was all those things too. I appreciated him sparing my feelings, though I had long since grown out of the phase where I got defensive about people comparing us.


Nat and Valk were standing anxiously near the body, Nat's mother Allison waiting with them, a hand on her daughter's shoulder to steady her. Allison probably could have done the wish herself, to be fair, but she was heavily invested in the proceedings, given Nat's emotional tie to Perit. It would have messed with the payment too much.


The man they'd sent to oversee the wish was a tall, bald Wyndham with a hawkish nose and a thick mustache. He must have been ancient, because he looked about fifty, albeit an incredibly fit fifty. He was an A-ranker, and apparently a fairly powerful one.


"So who is he, by the way?" I gestured to the man as I glanced over to my father. "He seems important."


"Uncle Walter," he said nonchalantly. "And he IS important. He's my father's right hand. I assume dad sent him to oversee this event as a sign of favoritism, and to presumably build himself a bit of good will."


I chuckled. "Well, I can't say it isn't working." As we watched, Uncle Walter withdrew a small black stone and crushed it. The stone was a bindable stockpile where points from the succession war could be transferred or held, and destroying it signified that the point in that particular stone were null and void.


As he crushed it, I saw Nat mouth the words to her wish, and his eyes began to glow with the purple flickers of electricity I had come to expect from my family.


The last time we'd done this, it had been relatively simple. This time though, whether because of who was doing it or the relative strength of the target, things were…different. The purple electricity rolled over Uncle Walter, up and down his body, growing in intensity as it did so. Once it reached a crescendo, he caught it on his his hand and flung it skyward, a bolt leaving his fingers and piercing up into the sky.


Above us, the clouds began to darken ominously, the sky blackening to the pitch of night within an eye blink as sparks of purple electricity danced through the onyx clouds like electric eels slithering just beneath the surface of the blackest water.


The flickers danced around the edges of the clouds as the sky began to shake, thunder rumbling through the air as the power in the sky built and built. We all stood, transfixed, as the air began to crackle and sing with the suppressed power of the building charge. It got stronger and stronger, the field so dense it felt like it was crushing me, until, with a barely audible POP like a soap bubble collapsing, a PILLAR of purple lightning plummeted from above to smash into the prone body on the altar.


Perit's body jerked, her muscles seizing as the damage from her final wound closed up cleanly, the healthy glow returning to her skin as she sat bolt upright, eyes flying wide as she gasped in a desperate breath.


Nat was there in an instant, Valk beside her, hugging her friend and sobbing uncontrollably. Poor Perit just looked kind of confused, staring around her in complete astonishment. "Wh-whats going on?" she rasped. "Why are all these people here? Where is here? Why am I so THIRSTY?"


Valk appeared next to her like magic, holding up a cup of water. "Here, drink this! It's…you were…Perit you died."


She blinked at him for a moment. "Wow. That sucks."


"I…uh I figured you would have a harder time with the whole death thing, honestly," Nat said slowly. "I mean like, I'm glad you're doing ok. But you seem less fazed than I expected. I know resurrection is possible, but it IS rare. I figured we'd have to convince you."


"Well, I'm laying on an altar and my clothes are covered in blood," Perit said shakily. "So…I mean there's some evidence to back up your claim. Also your hair is shorter than the last time I saw you. And based on the pressure we're under I'm pretty sure this isn't the same planet, and both of you are apparently D-rankers now." She frowned up at the sky. "Actually, is space on fire? Because that doesn't seem right."


Nat patted her shoulder. "We've got some things to catch you up on. But before that…someone wants to talk to you." She glanced up and over towards where my wife had been waiting, silent and terrified. I'd wanted to stand with her, but she'd sent me away. She said she'd needed to do this alone. At Nat's glance, Callie slowly walked over to stand next to the altar, looking for all the world like she was waiting for Perit to attack her.


"Hello," Perit said in mild confusion. "You're Shane's girlfriend, right?"


"His wife," Callie said shakily. "We got married while you were…I mean. Yeah, that's me. I'm also the one who killed you."


The other woman frowned. "Well, I can't imagine you did it on purpose, or Nat wouldn't be standing her with you all nonchalant. I don't remember…well, anything really, but why don't you tell me what happened."


"Travis," my wife snarled. "I don't know if you remember him, but he betrayed us. Used translocation to swap himself with you when I attacked him."


Perit frowned. "I don't. Remember him, I mean. But it sounds like you didn't do anything wrong. I don't remember dying. Or being dead. How long was I gone exactly? Because YOU'RE C-rank and that seems like a lot."


"It's only been a year or two," Callie assured her. "We've just been through a lot of stuff."


"Yeah, I can see that." Perit's voice was dry, if a little shaky. "Did you at least get him after he got me killed?"


Nat grinned at her. "Shane did. Killed him a few months later. It was pretty brutal."


They dissolved into conversation, starting hesitant and they slowly picking up speed as the fear and uncertainty melted like snow in the warm summer sun. Nat and Valk being there to support her clearly helped, but Perit also just seemed like a surprisingly emotionally stable person. It was honestly impressive.


"Thank you again," I told my dad. "You're coming with us to the holy dominion right? No way mom lets us avoid family time, even if this is supposed to be my honeymoon."


For the first time, his crimson features twisted in something approximating wariness. "Yes," he said shortly. "I am. Though I don't know if I should. Your mothers brothers do NOT like me." I grinned at that, amused he could still worry about such human things. I hadn't heard much about my uncles, they were much older than my mom and were mostly off doing their own things, but after that revelation I was kind of excited to meet them. It would be amusing if nothing else.

It was time to leave. Two days since the resurrection, one hundred and eight scrolls on hand, all my locals paid up and ready to head off…and I was going my own way. "You need to be careful with that dragon," I told Benny sternly. "I know Sebastian is going to be helping you learn to work with it, but it's still a dangerous animal. You need to treat it with respect, and feed it, and take it for walks."


"It's undead, Shane, it doesn't eat. Or atrophy. Or care if it goes on walks." His voice was exasperated, but kind of hoarse, and I could tell this was going to be tough for him too. I leaned forward and pulled my friend into a tight hug.


"Just take care of yourself, idiot," I told him roughly. "Don't make Celine worry about you. She'd be super bummed if you got eaten by a zombie lizard."


He snorted. "First of all, Toast is NOT a zombie, that's an incredibly low class form of undead and even saying it is insulting. Second of all, you want ME to take care of myself? Anyone want to take bets on how many dead gods Shane is going to unearth on this trip? Because statistically the answer is 'more than zero'."


"Benicio Cortez," my wife said threateningly. "If you just jinxed my honeymoon I'm going to throw you off the tallest building I can find with an anchor tied to your boots."


He just shrugged. "Jinxes aren't real. You'll be fine. What's the worst that could happen?"


"I will STAB you!" Callie hissed, manifesting Gossamer in one hand as she stepped towards my best friend menacingly.


"Kidding!" Benny squeaked. "I was kidding, please don't impale me on your giant demon weapon. I'm just a harmless little D-ranker." He darted behind Celine, who rolled her eyes, but we were all pretty relaxed. If Callie had ACTUALLY meant to hurt him he'd be hurt.


I grinned at the elf girl my friend was so crazy about, someone we'd known for years now and who I'd trusted to basically own a planet for me, and considered how far we'd come. From her betrayal back on Callus to her help on Stratholme, Celine had been with us through so much. "So, you excited to have him all to yourself? I think he's still in warranty if you're sick of him. Maybe return him for a nicer model."


She chuckled at that. "I would, I suspect, miss him." She gave my best friend a soft smile, the kind I recognized from the looks I got when Callie was feeling affectionate. "He's…special. He's always been there. Whenever I needed him. I'm sure you know what I mean."


"I do," I said without hesitation. "Take care of him for me, will you? He's got this stupid idea that he needs to catch up to me. I'm worried he'll overdo it." She nodded solemnly.


"I am RIGHT next to you," Benny protested. "Like, I can hear you both. This is super demeaning. Wait, Shane, where are you going? You can't just walk away while I'm still talking! You're such a dick!" He called that last one at me from a few feet away, and I had to work not to laugh as I strolled off.


Callie caught up with me, smiling wryly. "You could have said an actual goodbye, you know. You two don't have to be dysfunctional ALL the time."


"We function fine," I said with a shrug. "And this way is better. He would have been all sad if we'd just said a teary goodbye. Now he's annoyed and motivated. He won't get all weepy for another few hours, and by that point we'll be gone. It's just…I get the feeling I won't see him for a while. Not forever, obviously, but…for a while. Longer than the few months we're spending on the honeymoon."


She took my hand and squeezed, but didn't comment. My instincts could be complex, but they weren't often wrong. I just had to hope whatever the reason was, it wouldn't be something negative.


"You finish saying your goodbyes?" my mom asked as we approached my family. "My mother is taking us home in the Acheron, and the rest of your people will be heading for Stratholme on the Necromedes. Obviously, we've got a small party coming along, of course." She pointed to the crowd of people behind her.


Gabe, Holly, Serah, Fade, Alanna, and of course my sister. But more unusual than that was…"Bethy why are you coming on my honeymoon?"


"She's not," Chelsea said primly. "She's coming home with ME. Got a problem?"


I just laughed. "I mean, I don't, but is the holy dominion really ready for Bethany Lark? Give those poor people a chance."


Bethy stuck her tongue out at me. "I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to check out the fashion shows. Seraph is the crown jewel of the universal fashion industry. They're doing things there with water vapors that are going to revolutionize the textile industry, and don't even get me STARTED on lightweave."


"My mistake," I said apologetically, holding up my hands. "Happy to have you aboard. And you two?" I hadn't seen the angel sisters in a while, so it was surprising to find them lined up with everyone else, after all, it wasn't like my sister needed guards.


Holly scoffed. "Your wife is an ARCHANGEL now," she said derisively. "The tower doesn't even have one of those. Our Tower Master is a Throne. So we're sticking to her until we can convince her to pay a visit. Plus we have so much we can teach her about how to use her powers. Magic bullshit soul weapon and magic fire aside, she doesn't know much about being an angel. We can help."


Serah nodded solemnly. "We'll make sure her competence soars."


"Right," I said with an eye roll. "Well if she doesn't care it's not really my business. Just don't bug her when she's trying to relax and we'll be all good. So…where is dad? Is he hiding from one of my uncles? Are they coming to pick us up?"


Mom snickered. "My oldest brother Samuel is coming. He was in the neighborhood and wants to meet his nephew."


"Uncle Sam is coming!" Chelsea squealed happily. "That's amazing! I haven't seen him in ages! Is he bringing Roxy?" Seeing my sister so excited about relatives left me feeling a little conflicted, but mostly just enthusiastic. They must be pretty great people for her to be this worked up.


My mom shook her head. "Roxanne is deployed as an attache to one of the legions the empire lent us. Samuel is coming by himself. He travels faster that way anyway."


"And dad is afraid of him?" I asked with amusement.


Zeke snorted. "Your father is not AFRAID of Samuel…he's terrified. Like a little baby. It's hilarious. I thought he was going to cry when Sasha told us." He threw back his head and laughed mercilessly…and loudly. I was sure my dad had heard that, and that Zeke had meant him to.


"I am NOT terrified," my father said as he stepped out from behind a nearby stone pillar. "I simply assumed that things would go smoother if I let Samuel calm down and greet his niece and nephew before he saw me. And possibly if we had a couple of human shields in the way when it finally happened. For SASHA'S sake, because I know she doesn't want her brother to get hurt."


"Ezekial, please don't TAUNT my husband when I'm trying to deescalate his meeting with my brother," my mom said acidly. "Don't forget I'm asking my mother to take Stacy on for training. I don't expect gratitude, but baseline civility would be nice."


Zeke was about to respond when he was cut off by a booming voice. "BABY SISTER!" Bellowed a person so LOUD that the wall of sound from his shout pushed my BOOTS a couple of inches. Then there was an explosion of air pressure hitting me in the face and my mother was being picked up and squeezed in a spine cracking hug that I was worried might snap her back in two.


The man holding her was…big. Like…absurdly big. Seven feet tall, long flowing blonde hair like a lion's mane, well groomed blonde beard and bright blue eyes. He had a wide smile on his face that seemed like it belonged there, and he was already setting mom down and turning to beam at Chelsea before any of us had time to relax. "And my favorite niece! Don't tell Lara or Sonya, they'll go crying to my brother and I don't want to listen to Eric bitch."


Chelsea giggled, wrapping him in a warm hug. "Your secret is safe with me, Uncle Sam."


He pulled away, then rounded on me, his grin wide and welcoming. "And THIS must be Shane. Look at the size of you, boy! That's how I know you're an Anders. None of those tiny little Wyndham noodle arms here. And that ARMOR. That's suit's a real beauty! Come here!" He pulled ME into a hug next, and I just kind of…stood there. He laughed, then stepped away, still patting my back hard enough that I had to bend my knees not to fall over.


But his jovial mood vanished in an instant when his eyes settled on my dad. "Elijah," he said coldly. He walked towards him slowly, his steps measured, and I think we were all waiting for him to attack. Instead, he held out a hand. My dad looked at it like a venomous snake, but eventually reached out to take it and-


I didn't see what happened next. It was too fast. But because of the aftermath and the distortion in the air, I was vaguely able to reconstruct the probable events. Step one, Sam grabs dads hand. Step two, Sam pulls dad forward. Step three, Sam slams his forehead into dads nose so hard it breaks spewing blood everywhere. There was no step four. My dad stumbled back, nose gushing like a fountain, and my mom whirled on her brother in a rage. "Samuel Aloysius Anders!" She hissed. "What was THAT for?"


"That was for making you cry," he said bluntly. "I told him if he ever did that I'd break his face. Cause. Effect. We're good now. Right Eli?"


Grunting in annoyance, my dad nodded. "It's fine, love," he assured my mom. "He's not wrong. He DID warn me. Admittedly I kind of assumed he meant it in a traditional, rhetorical sense. But I can't say I wasn't told in advance. You have an unusually hard head, Samuel."


"If you idiots are done," called a voice from behind us. I turned to find my grandmother looking none too pleased, and I noticed Uncle Sam duck his head to avoid eye contact. "We really should be on our way. It's a month to Seraph, even with the Acheron, and I want to make good time."


Uncle Sam hunched his shoulders. "Sorry mama," he muttered. Then walked past her towards the ship. Celia just rolled her eyes at him. I did note that when he passed my grandfather, Nicholas gave him a pleased nod, then quickly looked away when his wife turned to glare at him. I couldn't say I wasn't amused my self. I'd been planning something similar when I saw him again the first time, after all. Must run in the family.


Callie didn't seem too upset either as she folded my arm around hers and followed me into the ship, the others taking up a steady pace behind us. My mom, meanwhile, fussed over my dad despite his insistence that it was fine, and weirdly, despite all the chaos and nonsense, I couldn't help but smile. This…this was what family felt like. And I kind of loved it. I had a feeling this trip back to mom's homeworld was going to be a fun one.

Time. The more of it that I endured, the faster it seemed to flow. A day. A month. Six. The trip to Seraph (the capital planet of the Holy Dominion) only took a month in the Acheron. The other five went by in a blur of revelry, meetings, and general contentment. Meeting relatives, bonding with my sister, spending time with my wife and parents. I felt…whole. Normal.


Paradoxically, the time following my ascension to Wishmaster status (or partial ascension given my lack of coronation) was the first time since I became an Ascendant that I really felt like a regular person. A husband. A son. A brother. It was the best six months of my life.


But all good things must end. So when I woke up a few days before our scheduled departure and considered how things would be changing, all I could do was sigh.


"Credit for your thoughts," came the amused voice of my wife. I was lying on my back, hands behind my head as I stared up at the ceiling, but I turned as she spoke, taking in the beautiful sight of her smile as she laid with her head propped up on a pillow, staring at me with a sort of soft fascination that never ceased to amaze me.


I leaned forward impulsively to give her a quick peck on the lips. "Just sad to go. This has been…amazing. And the idea of giving it up to go play shepherd to the political equivalent of a bunch of drunk mutant cats with rabies seems…suboptimal."


"Well anything sounds bad when you put it like that," she said lightly. "But don't think of it as giving anything up. We were overdue for some downtime, but let's be honest, you're addicted to danger. You'd have started climbing the walls after a few more weeks. I think we pretty much hit the sweet spot on this vacation."


I grinned sheepishly. "Well…maybe. But I'll miss the family at least."


Meeting everyone had been…overwhelming. Uncle Sam, despite being the most boisterous, had hardly been the only welcoming member of the family. My Uncle Eric and his two daughters, Lara and Sonya, had been here to greet me when I arrived. My Uncle Raph and his son Ben were over the first night for family dinner. My uncle Daniel and his wife Constance had been excited to meet me, they had no kids of their own but had helped raise Chelsea and considered her as the next best thing to their own daughter.


Within the first day, I was buried in new relatives, family friends, and excited neighbors who were dying to meet me, not because I was the Wishmaster but because I was Sasha's son.


Which was another thing that took getting used to. My mother was BELOVED on Seraph. Gabe's reaction when he heard her name back in the Moonsong Glade was not at all unusual in terms of responses to her. Sasha the Star Queen was the most popular Saintess in the Church of the Red Revenant, and she was considered to be basically the great hope of the A-rankers, almost guaranteed to reach Pope.


It was honestly sort of disorienting, because whenever I met anyone, their first response was to fawn over my mother, who would inevitably parade my sister, father, wife, and I around like show ponies, loudly announcing how proud she was of us and how amazing we are. This led to a sort of ass kissing feedback loop, where people would gush over us to make her happy, which WOULD make her happy, so SHE would gush over us more, and they would assume she wanted more enthusiasm and then respond accordingly.


Frankly, it was deeply exhausting, but we'd gotten used to it quick, and after a month or two, people had stopped getting quite so starstruck and started to treat us like normal human beings again.


"Are you nervous by the way?" I asked her cautiously. "You've been putting off the meeting at the tower for our whole visit. I was surprised you agreed to meet them at all."


She blew out a frustrated breath, puffing a strand of blue black hair out of her face. "I kind of had to. Holly and Serah are friends. It means so much to them, and it's not like your mom will let them DO anything to me even if they wanted to."


"They'd have to get in line before she even got to them," I laughed. "You're more popular with my relatives than I am. You should hear my Aunts go on about you. 'Calliope is so beautiful, so graceful, so strong, Shane you're so lucky to have married such an exceptional woman'. Between that and my grandmother being your master, you have your own dedicated fanclub. If I couldn't literally FEEL how much you love me I might be jealous, you're almost a local celebrity."


She snorted derisively. "I think we both know who the real celebrity is. Speaking of which, did you know Bethy could SING? Because I did not see that coming."


Because despite trying her hand at being a designer for a while and achieving some pretty substantial success, Bethy had apparently decided that her newest passion was musical performance. Bethy was currently the darling of Seraph, the most famous performer on the planet, and her concerts were packed wall to wall every time she performed. She was actually really good.


"I mean, nothing she does surprises me anymore," I admitted. "Though I do think the whole persona is a little silly. Princess Nightmask is, quite frankly ridiculous. That mask doesn't even HIDE her identity. It's just a fancy ballroom domino mask."


"Hon', I think maybe we don't get to throw stones about pointless theatricality and masks," my wife said with a snicker. "Besides, you should be happy for her. It helped her hit C-rank pretty fast, didn't it? Honestly she's probably further in than us at this point. It's definitely creative. Plus have you heard her music?"


I frowned. "Yes," I admitted. "Dark Beast is stupidly catchy. Though it does NOT sound like a song called Dark Beast. She picks the most edgy names and her songs are all so upbeat."


Of course, I wouldn't say that to her. I was incredibly supportive of Bethy's music. Both to her face and privately, I just tended to grump first thing in the morning, especially when I was feeling morbid. She'd done a lot with her natural talent and presence since coming here, and it was kind of awe inspiring to see what my 'bestie' was capable of even without her dad's influence.


Sitting up, I groaned and stretched. "We should get up," I complained as I slipped out of bed and into a pair of pants. "What time did you promise to be at the tower? I want to make us breakfast if we have time."


Of course, Callie shot out of bed with a happy squeal. "Fritatas!" she cheered. I grinned, rolling my eyes as I turned to head for the kitchen. "Use the spicy sausage please!" she called eagerly. "I'm in the mood for something with kick!" I just laughed making my way to the kitchen of the small wing of the manor my mom lived in on Seraph.


Which had also taken getting used to. My mom lived in a MANOR with WINGS. Wings that had their own self contained living spaces. And this was just one of like…a hundred. The manor was absolutely huge, and that was WITHOUT spatial expansion.


As I stopped in the kitchen and flipped on the stove, I heard a loud knock at the door separating us from the rest of the house. Snagging a shirt from my space ring, I headed to the door, pulling it open after dropping a pan on the open flame to heat up. To my complete lack of surprise, it was my sister and her two best friends. "Holly, Serah," I told them dryly. "You couldn't wait until she was ready?"


"We wanted to be supportive," Holly said cheerfully. "Make sure she was doing alright, wasn't too nervous, you know, friend stuff. On a completely unrelated note, is that the smell of a warming pan I catch on the air?"


"I should never have gotten my cooking skill up to Grandmaster," I complained as I turned to head back into the kitchen, leaving them to close the door. "I thought cooking lessons with mom's personal chef would be a blast, but now people just harass me to cook for them. I have feelings you know! I'm not just a chef's knife and a floppy hat."


Holly snorted. "More of a wet blanket I'd say."


"You get nothing," I told her primly as I turned to the others. "How about you girls? Want a frittata? I'm thinking of fresh squeezing some juice too. Do you guys look rezvalks?"


Holly reeled back in dumbstruck horror. "What? No! I was kidding! Please don't make me watch everyone else eat! I LOVE rezvalks!" I felt kind of bad because she looked ready to cry, and I waved her off quickly.


"Fine, fine, just calm down, I was kidding," I opened the fridge, sifting through it and pulling out a pair of fuzzy purple fruits, a local delicacy that looked like a mix of plums and kiwis and tasted like a blueberry mixed with a watermelon injected with pineapple juice (I literally had no other way to describe them, they were a unique experience). I reached into a drawer to pull out a plastic juicer, then started to crush them into a pitcher one at a time.


"I'm here!" Callie yelped as she stumbled into the room, hopping on one leg as she slid into her pants. She would have fallen but her wings spread to create drag, letting her skate gracefully across the tile and plop neatly into a chair across from me.


She blew her hair out of her face again (she insisted she needed it cut but refused to actually DO it), and looked around. "What did I miss?"


"Holly was being snarky and almost mocked herself out of breakfast," my sister snickered.


I dropped a pat of butter into the pan, grabbing a big container of eggs and cracking them all into a bowl as I turned to grin at my wife. "And we're having rezvalk juice with breakfast. Because I'm petty."


She grinned. "I love when you're petty. All my best meals come from that. Did he tell you we're having fritatas?"


"We're aware," said my sister dryly. "The eggs were a giveaway. Speaking of eggs, where is-" she was cut off by a delighted trill that echoed through the house as I cut open a packet of sausages. Snorting, I cut a chunk of sausage and tossed it into the air as a familiar green form darted through the air to snatch it up, then flew up to the top of the fridge to hoard it as he ate. "Archie," she finished wryly.


"He likes to go out for flights on his own," I shrugged. "We leave the windows open and he comes back when he feels like it. Everyone on the grounds knows him so it's safe enough."


I laughed as Holly and Serah lit up, trying to call him down to fuss over him. The angels ADORED Archie, something about their fiery nature complimented his well. Even Callie had become more affectionate with him after she became an Archangel.


It was just another reminder of the peaceful life we had here. I mixed the eggs and then added vegetables and meat, beginning the process of making the frittatas. As I considered what this morning was bringing, I thought about how comfortable I'd been here, how easy and convenient everything was…and then I realized Callie was probably right. Much more of this and I'd go stir crazy. I guess the timing really was ideal. She really did know me so well. I made a mental note to never admit to this out loud. A man needs to maintain some mystery.

The Seraphim Tower was…big. Not intimidating, or imposing, exactly, just big. If anything the building was strangely comforting in its size. Like a big reliable bodyguard that loomed over the nearby area. It sat in the middle of a valley, surrounded by fluffy golden clouds, and the top of the tower exploded out above the skyline like a great beast rising from the sea.


We flew in to reach it, of course. Seraph, unlike many of our other destinations, was an A-rank planet. We COULD withstand the pressure, of course, but many of our lower ranked companions couldn't so we mainly stuck to safe areas where the Impact pressure was reduced, especially since those were the areas where the family stayed, given many of them had children who needed the consideration.


As we approached though, I was kind of blown away by the sheer majesty of the place. The Seraphim Tower wasn't what I expected. For one, it didn't seem like a tower at all. THe majority of the building was something like a modern skyscraper, a tall building with mirror reflective golden windows set into a white marble base.


The marble itself made up the bones of the building and flowed along it to the top, where it ended in a soaring white marble castle, built directly into the architecture of the tower itself.


You would expect the combination of a skyscraper and a castle to look discordant, but something about the cohesive design, the transition between the castle and the roof of the building, made it almost seamless.


We touched down on the parapets of the castle directly, and as soon as we arrived, Serah and Holly bolted from the shuttle in excitement.


As soon as their feet touched the building, I felt a sort of shudder in the air, a tremble in space itself as the white marble resonated with them. Their eyes lit with their respective fires, and the crystalline veins in the marble I hadn't even noticed flooded with angelic fire in response, as if the castle itself was celebrating their return.


To my surprise though, when Callie jumped down, there was another pulse, and blue black fire joined the gold and bronze. Making sure my own wings were out, I stepped down next, and sure enough, strands of black flowed among the crystal veins to join the other colors.


It felt…wonderful. Like I was home for the first time. The tower was resonating with the fire inside me in a way I'd never experienced, like my soul was singing a hymn of peace and joy in perfect harmony with the building. "Wow," I whispered as I felt the sensation from not just my own soul, but Callie's.


For her it was even deeper. The tower wasn't just harmonizing with Callie, it was singing counterpoint. Like she was taking charge of the song and it was content to support her with background vocals.


"This is…breathtaking," she exhaled softly. "I've never felt anything like this before."


"I should think not," chuckled a warm voice. There was a ripple in the air, and a man stepped from the space beside us. As he arrived, the tower pulsed again, and white fire joined the others inside the veins, twirling happily among the multicolored flames. "The Seraphim Tower is a unique artifact, after all."


We turned to take him in, and I was blown away by the sheer presence of the man. S-rank, from what I could tell, and strong. Maybe not like…Lark or my grandfather,but powerful. Behind him, two pairs of shining white wings sat folded against his back.


Serah and Holly bowed low. "Lord Isaac. It's an honor to have you meet us here."


"The sisters Hallah," he smiled happily. "It is a blessing to have you returned to us at last. I trust your journey was fruitful?"


Holly nodded quickly. "It was, my Lord."


"I'm glad," he chuckled. "Ariel has been all a tizzy since you left. She worries about you so. But when she heard you were bringing a wayward Archangel back with you for a visit…I don't think I've ever seen her so proud. You've brought great honor to your mother, young ones."


Holly, who I had never seen respond to almost anything with positive feedback, flushed and beamed at him. "Thank you, Lord Isaac. Callie, this is Isaac Nova, Tower Master of the Seraphim Tower, and the sole Throne in Dominion over the denizens of the tower. Our strongest A-ranker, and a close personal friend of your grandfather-in-law."


"Hi Grandpa Isaac," chirped Chelsea from behind us. "It's been a while."


He boomed out a laugh. "Chelsea, it's lovely to see you. I hear you've been off having adventures of your own. And this must be Shane. You definitely favor Elijah, but you've got that Anders height. Samuel must have been crowing about that." His eyes flicked to my wings. "Though I admit, I hadn't heard about this…development."


I shrugged. "It's not real. Just a form I can take. I based it off the racial trait from Holly and Serah, but it's nowhere near as complex."


"The Tower sings of your arrival," he said solemnly. "You are kin to us. Though admittedly, its harmony is drowned out by the choir of exultation it emits at the return our lost one. It has been many millennia since the tower shuddered at the presence of an Archangel."


"What exactly IS the tower?" I asked as he turned to lead us down into the castle. He hadn't asked us to follow, but we just kind of…knew we should.


We descended the stairs, and I saw several other angels off in the distance. None of them approached, all seeming to be almost afraid of Callie. "Originally? It was a cup. It belonged to the god who created the first Angel. After the foundation of our species, more deities began to use the trait. Angels were, for a time, the most sought after servants of the divine. Some were created right here, their inner flame lit with a spark from the cup, others were born, or created by their gods in our image."


His voice was strong and proud, and I could tell from his intensity that he was passionate about the subject. "Even after…well, that's not appropriate conversation for children. Suffice to say that after the number of gods dropped off, we maintained our vigil. To be taken in service to a deity or their retinue is the pinnacle of angelic achievement. I myself am your grandfather's emissary, and we've been on many adventures together."


Holly nodded. "It's why we traveled with Chelsea," she admitted. "We were sort of auditioning for a role as her emissary. No rule saying she can only have one, though it usually works that way."


"Wait…so the angelic bond isn't just something Callie and I have?" I asked in shock. The angelic bond was what the connection between our souls had become after she'd become an Angel. I explained a brief version of the process, and the Throne nodded.


"That's more…intimate than most of them," he said carefully. "I've heard of bonded with relationships like that, but it fell out of favor a long time ago. The bond is usually more transactional than romantic. An angel draws strength from their patron to act as their shield, their voice, or any number of other functions. Though of course the bond can be used in reverse."


We continued down a winding marble staircase, finally coming to a stop in a large chamber, at the center of which sat a brazier blazing with the most confusing, chaotic, random flame I'd ever seen in my life.


Blue, red, orange, black, white, every color, shade, consistency, luminosity, and any other possible attribute of flame danced inside the brazier.


"Behold the heart of the Seraphim Tower," he said with unshakable pride. "The flames of eternity. The original spark that lit the flame of the first angle, kindled with a flicker of angelic fire from every angel to have ever passed through the tower's halls. The ancestral fire of our people. It's why I've asked you to come here today."


I felt…overwhelmed. Mezmerized. The fire was so complex, so varied, so awe inspiring, that I was having trouble keeping my brain from overloading and shutting down from overstimulation.


Callie took my hand, squeezing it tightly. "You want me to contribute my flame," she said quietly. "Why? What do you get out of it?" She sounded cautious, which I approved of. Holly and Serah didn't seem offended in the slightest either.


"I understand this must seem suspicious," Isaac said reassuringly. "But we simply wish to take your flame into our ranks. You see, when a new Angel is born within the tower, their inner flame is kindled with a spark from the flames of eternity. If you add your flicker, in the future, more angels may be born with your unique fire. It is a rare and precious chance to add new flames to the brazier, and we would be in your debt should you allow us to do so."


He smiled at me warmly. "And Shane, I would be honored if you would lend your own fire to our ranks as well. It feels quite potent. In return, the tower will accept you as members of our race. You will become true members of the Seraphim Tower, and we will treat you as our own kin. Should you have need of us in the future, you need only call, and we will be at your side."


That brought me up short. I was going to be the Wishmaster. Having access to such a powerful faction would be incredibly useful. I turned to Callie, silently telling her that she was the one who got to decide. I wouldn't force her to do this. Her flame belonged to her and her father, not to me. I couldn't make that call.


But to my shock, she didn't even hesitate. She flicked her fingers, manifesting a sphere of blue black flame, and then tossed it into the brazier.


There was a rumble beneath our feet and the flames exploded upwards, a column of multicolored fire erupting up the shaft of the spiral staircase and out through the top of the tower itself.


"Welcome, little sister," Isaac said formally as he bowed to her. "We are honored to hear your song join our choir."


Knowing it was my turn, I called for Sammael's black flame, tossing a spark into the brazier. I too felt the welcoming shudder, but it was much less dramatic. Isaac's greeting was more perfunctory for me, but I got it.


Then, he clapped his hands together. "Now, with that out of the way, how about we retire to Ariel's rooms for dinner. Holly and Serah's mother has been eagerly waiting to meet you all."


Seeing our friends perk up at that news was probably the most heartwarming thing that had happened here, and I couldn't help but smile as they practically ran down the hall towards the rooms we were supposed to be heading for.


As we walked, more and more Angels peeked out from hallways or behind columns. They were clearly interested in seeing more of us, and I couldn't blame them.


Callie though, she barely seemed to notice. My wife had this quiet confidence about her these days that I couldn't begin to match, and I adored it. I always felt at ease with her at my back. When we arrived at the rooms in question, a platinum haired woman who looked like Holly's older sister pulled the door open. "MY BABIES!" she wailed, pulling the girls into a bonecrushing hug.


I felt a flush of warmth through the bond from Callie, and I returned it, both of us happy for the girls. When she released them, she stepped back and smiled beatifically at us. "And you must be our guests. Please, come in. I'm so excited to get to know you!" She turned and beckoned us into her rooms, and once I entered, I couldn't help but be blown away by the smell of the food. Whatever this woman's cooking Skill was, it was even higher than mine. This was going to be a fantastic meal.

Dinner with Ariel was really nice. She was an extremely warm and welcoming person, and Holly and Serah both adored her. But despite that, throughout the entire meal, I couldn't help but notice Callie was…distant. I'd expected after contributing her flicker to the flames of eternity she'd be excited or energized. Instead she seemed mostly out of it. Isaac, once we finished eating, offered us a room at the tower, and we accepted, so after we finished eating we headed out for a tour, and spent the rest of the day ooh'ing and aah'ing over the various amazing angel amenities.


When we were finally ready to go to sleep, we headed down to our room, and once we were inside, I went ahead and triggered Murmur, boosted to B-rank by my staff. Once we were as secure as we could get, I turned to her with an expectant smile as I pulled off my mask.


She pouted at me. "What?"


"You seem off," I told her bluntly. "Ever since our meal with Ariel. Or rather, since we saw the flames of eternity."


Her face twisted into unhappiness. "It's not going to be enough," she finally said. "I mean, I've been excited about all the power. The weapon. The legacy. It's all pretty amazing. But it's all about the Void. During the war that'll be huge, but after? When we become gods I'm going to be totally pidgeonholed. You're so damned versatile and I'm this one trick pony. And it's not even my trick."


Walking over, I flopped down on the bed next to her. "Ok. So…fix it. You've got the tools to do anything you want. So, what is that? New move? New path? Hell you could build a new skill from the ground up. Want to wish for something as a baseline?"


"No," she said firmly. "I don't. I'm already…I have my path. I know where I'm going. I just…I need to do more with it."


I didn't speak. She seemed like she was onto something, and I didn't want to knock her off the scent. I knew that expression, that moment of inspiration that was slowly dawning. It was the same one I'd seen on her face back when we'd first left Callus, when she'd stared out into the Abyss and it had stared right back.


She held up her hand, and an orb of fire flickered to life. Blue black flames just like she always used. She stared into them, searching. Then she shook her head and closed her eyes, letting the fire go out.


I raised a brow, but knowing where she was going, I decided to follow. I wanted to see where this went.


Between one blink and the next, we were standing in her temple. It looked mostly the same. Big, empty, kind of dark. She strode past the pews, the stained glass, all the way up to the altar where her sword hung suspended. Gossamer. She grabbed it, then tossed it over onto a nearby bench as she raised both hands, conjuring a roaring bonfire of black and blue flame on the altar itself.


Walking over, I sat down at the nearest pew, looking on with interest as she circled the flame. "You have a plan here?" I asked casually. "Not to rush you, just kind of interested in where your head is at."


"I have a few," she said slowly. "My first idea is atavism. This flame used to be the flame of the void, right? Like he added to it to make the Heretic Fire. So what if I do…this," she turned and grabbed Gossamer, and then just started hacking away at the fire. It took me a second to figure out her objective, but I watched with interest as she tried to…I guess cut away the blue parts.


I was pretty sure that wasn't how atavism worked, but she was on the scent, so I just waited. Ten minutes. Twenty. She was standing in front of the fire, flickers of blue flame littering the ground, her face soaked with sweat.


"This isn't working," she said angrily. She slammed her blade into the ground, then stalked away, pacing unhappily. "Damn it. I need to think. I thought being in my soul space with the sword would let me brute force it. But I need to try something more…esoteric." She walked back to the altar, reached down, and picked up the bonfire.


It floated above her hands, molding into a sphere, and she carried it gingerly into the center of the church, then held it up above her head. Slowly, carefully, she pulled apart the hands cradling the flame, and as she did, it grew.


Or rather, it stretched. As she pulled her hands further apart, the orb got thinner and more diffuse, expanding until I could see through the space between the tongues of flame. When it reached its largest form (about the size of a small shuttle), she stopped and stared up at it. Then she condensed it back down.


She pushed smaller and smaller, until it was about the size of a pinpoint. Then slowly expanded it back out. Small, big, small, big, she kept expanding and contracting it, gathering speed as she did.


It took me a second to figure out what she was trying, but once I did I blinked in surprise. The fire wasn't…cohesive. I mean it was, but it was still distinct. The blue and black parts of the flame didn't MOVE the same. The faster she expanded and contracted it, the more the two flames began to become distinct. Blue fire, black fire, they were slowly separating…until finally she snapped out a hand and closed it around a spark of black, letting the whole thing go out around her.


Panting, she held up her palm, opening it up to reveal…a butterfly. A very small, very black butterfly made of onyx flame. She stared at it for a moment…then rolled her eyes and blew on it, letting it just go out like a candle.


She slumped down into the nearest seat. "What was that about?" I asked her gently. "You got it."


"It wasn't right," she said morosely. "Conversion rate was absurd, and it just felt…stilted. Hollow. It WAS the fire of the Void, but I realized I didn't want that."


I shrugged. "I mean, you have a research direction at least, right? You don't need to fix it today."


She shook her head. "You don't get it. I'm basically helpless right now. Against any normal person I've got nothing. I mean, my sword I guess, but that's just a weapon, and I still need more training. My work with Alanna and Fade has really slowed down. I need something new. Need to innovate. I didn't realize until I was forced to face the possibility of a bunch of angels just like me how…unprepared I am. How specialized. I haven't been this helpless since I first got my powers. At least with shadows…"


She froze. Her eyes, previously flickering with frustration and annoyance, narrowed. "Shadows," she said slowly, coming to her feet. "Shadows. Shadows on the wall. What kind of shadow does darkness cast?"


Hurrying back to the altar, she manifested the flame again, leaving it to flicker and dance. She snatched up the sword and…stabbed it into her feet.


I yelped, coming to my feet to stop her, but she ignored me. I forced myself to calm down, to trust her, as she slowly and methodically sawed at the ground around her shoes. One foot, then the other. Then, both of her hands cloaked in blue black fire, she leaned down and shoved them INTO the ground at her feet.


She pulled. And pulled. Her hands, which had sunk into the shadows, began to resurface. I hadn't realized she still had those powers. Or maybe she didn't. But I was transfixed. Clasping her fingers as she pulled was another pair of hands. Not shadows. Just blue gloves. She pulled, and as I watched, another person began to emerge.


Heaving the other form (one almost identical to hers in size and shape) free of the ground, she set her down, and then dusted off her dress with a satisfied grin.


The figure across from her was…her. But not. Blue hair with black highlights instead of the reverse, black eyes that got lighter and faded to blue in the center. Blue wings with black undertones. Even the dress was the opposite.


Callie raised her sword, and the other figure raised hers, a bright blue blade. "Nice to meet you…my shadow self." She purred.


There was a flicker, and Callie BECAME the blue haired girl, who vanished completely. Squealing happily, she twirled in place, her ballgown spinning as her sword whipped the air, leaving trails of bright blue fire with barely any black.


"Ok…nice makeover," I said slowly. "But maybe tell me what just happened?"


She beamed at me. "Shadows," she said confidently. "They were always my ability. And sure, that changed when I got the fire, but they're still THERE. Just different. Shadows became the Abyss became the Void became the Heretic Fire. But fire still casts a shadow. The shadows cast by the heretic fire should be different, right? And then I considered my problem.


"I had power that would only work on the Void, and I wanted power that would work on everything else. Then I got to thinking of my shadow clones." She was so excited she was practically vibrating in place. "I heard a story, a long time ago, about a type of monster. A monster that mirrors its originator perfectly, becomes the opposite of everything they are. A shadow self. A doppleganger."


She gestured down to herself. "Might I introduce you to my shadow self. Calliope Wyndham. Adherent Archangel. It even changed my Shadow Manipulation ability. I…I think this a pseudo-Domain. I can feel the pressure on my Chronicle. But it's still me. Still my power. More my power maybe."


"Adherent Archangel," I mused. "Adherent to what?"


She hummed with interest. "You know, that's a good question. I don't know. It just felt…right. Adherent feels like the opposite of Heretic. Like this version of me is searching for something to believe in, instead of rejecting those beliefs. Maybe it's the story Isaac told us, about angels searching for their bonds. I've found mine already, but maybe I'm still looking for something else."


I laughed, then opened my eyes and emerged from her soul space, scooping her up and tossing her onto the bed. In the real world, she was still in her Adherent form, her hair still bright blue with black highlights, and she laughed as she flopped down on the comforter.


"You feel better?" I asked as I laid down next to her, propping my head up on my palm.


"I do," she said with a long, happy sigh. "I feel…new. Different. You kind of inspired me with all your nonsense forms. Though I suspect I'll stick with just the one."


I shrugged. "Well, not everyone can be as cool as me. It's fine to know your place."


Jaw dropping, she smacked me on the chest. "I can't believe you said that to me. Just for that, you have to spar with me tomorrow. And I'm not holding back."


"Alright," I told her with a wry smile. "But if you're going to throw down with the Wishmaster, you're going to need a boost. I've been raking in the points lately. You have to use all my scrolls. I'm already ahead, this is the only way you'll keep up."


I felt a surge of warmth and adoration through the bond, and I tried not to let it show on my face how smug I was about it. She just rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said with a sigh. "But don't come crying to me when you regret it." Despite the grudging agreement, I could see the glow of happiness and contentment in her eyes. I leaned down to pull her into a kiss, and then there was no more talking for quite a while.

We ran into a slight problem with Callie using all my scrolls…she couldn't pay for them. If she'd just been reshuffling her points it would have been fine, point for point, but unfortunately, wishing for MORE stats meant cost, and she just didn't have enough to pay for it. We'd tried paying with stored attacks, but the bond gave me full access to her Heretic Flame, so it didn't work as payment. In the end, she'd been forced to postpone the scroll usage until she could find a source of income.


Still, she had become incredibly famous in the time since my initiation ceremony, and she'd raked in quite a number of stats with her powerful reputation. The more people heard about her the more they learned about her past. Not just being the daughter of a mysterious god, but her feat of slaying Suvaya back in the Moonsong Glade, her identity as my grandmother's disciple, not to mention her recent status as a revered member of the Seraphim Tower, though that one hadn't really had time to spread.


"You sure you don't want to wait on this?" I asked her worriedly. "I mean, the extra stats might be important. There's no need to rush, right?" It was the next day, and I'd gotten my scrolls packed away and prepared to have our little sparring match, only to realize the issue too late.


She grinned at me wolfishly. "Nuh-uh, you're not getting out of this. I'll accept the stockpile that I have waiting from the last six months, and then we throw down. I want to know what this new form can do. Besides, I can't let down my adoring public, now can I?" She gusted behind us to where the stands set into the walls of the training room sat FULL of angels.


Which was…disconcerting. I wasn't a stranger to fighting for an audience, but they didn't have to look so eager to see me lose. Which I wasn't even sure would happen.


The only reason I was willing to do this at all was that while Callie was accepting the points from the last six months, I was still withholding mine. My soul was clamped down tight on all my stat income, so I was still sitting at one point one million and change, while she was most likely going to pass that with this next boost.


Despite her abilities, some of my abilities, including my staff's power to bump one of my skills up a rank, would make it impossible for someone at my own level to beat me, barring people at the peak like Ellie or absolute bullshit artists like Bethy.


Who…I hadn't actually SEEN today. Which worried me. She and Chelsea had vanished after we arrived. At the very least Holly and Serah weren't here so they were probably together, that made me feel a bit better. My sister and the angels should keep Bethy from burning down the tower. Plus it was some sort of god artifact based on flames, so it should be at least SLIGHTLY fireproof.


Callie, meanwhile had closed her eyes and allowed the weight of her growth to settle over her. I could feel through the bond when the stats slammed into her, but given her powerful soul and high total points it wasn't enough to cause any real problems. When she opened her eyes again, they gleamed excitedly. I raised an eyebrow at her and she pushed an impression through the bond as a thought, essentially beaming her stats right into my head.,


Calliope Wyndham. C-rank.


Ability-: Grandmaster Trait: Heretic Archangel. An instrument of the will of a faded god. A child of the flame that burns back the heart of the Void.


Weapon:Gossamer (huge black sword housed in Callie's new soul space, a massive cathedral created when she formed her Chronicle)


Chronicle:Book of the Final Flame


Might-307,012


Impact-155


Vitality-229,236


Fantasy-246,541


Focus-209,302


Perception- 218,186


Creation-210,643


Progress to next rank: 1,421,075/10,000,000


Soul Strength: Tanzanite Soul Body.


Skills: Minor Tracking, Beginner Dual Dagger Mastery, Intermediate Stealth, Intermediate Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Grandmaster Adherent Ascension


Path of the Heretic Scion- Solid. Technique: Guilt in Gossamer


I blinked in shock. That was a lot to unpack. Not the changes to the skills, really, that was expected. More the sheer number of stats. It felt like a lot until you realized it had been six months. I expected a lot of her reputation boost had been with weaker Ascendants and had probably run out of steam after a month or two. Still, it was a solid bump without having to actually DO anything, and I was betting it would explode after word spread of her addition to the ranks of the tower.


I also noted the change to her technique. Guilt in Gossamer was…new. I assumed it was the sword art she'd been training in, or some aspect of it, but it reminded me that maybe I'd been taking her too lightly. My wife might not be a monster like Bethy, but she was a powerful warrior. I considered possibly letting myself bulk up after all, but resisted. I'd already committed to fighting as I was. I WOULD use my staff to boost Mornax if necessary.


She seemed to take in my hesitation, grinning wildly at me as she tapped into her grandmaster Skill. It was interesting that her form change manifested itself as a skill and not just a pseudo-Domain. It could be a factor of perception (lower case p) I knew that people influenced their stat readouts with intention, or it could be because of her trait based body. Either way, it was clearly a powerful skill, and one that made a hell of an impression.


Before my eyes, her hair rippled, bleeding to mostly blue that faded to black instead of the opposite. Likewise her isises became black voids that lightening into eerie pinpricks of glowing blue, and her wings inverted color alongside her newly drawn sword.


"Nice, right?" she asked giddily as she tapped her blade on the ground. With a single tap, it ignited into bright blue flames, with only a bit of black shot through the tongues of fire. "Ready?"


I nodded, spreading my own wings and calling on Glory, my most powerful combat form. My staff whirled, the end coalescing into a spear of black flame as I spun it crossways along my body to knock the blade aside.


My strike was heavy, leveraging the whirling momentum of my staff to bat aside what I perceived to be a powerful blow. But the second my weapon made contact, it deflected smoothly, and Callie spun off her back foot, bringing her whole body whipping around in a pirouette, using the momentum to lend speed to her slash.


My staff was out of position, but I was wearing my Seal of Solomon. I triggered Mornax and brought a fist up to deflect the attack with my forearm…and screamed.


I washurt. I blinked, flickering back as I cradled my arm. Not because it was that bad, but because I hadn't been injured by someone my rank in Mornax in…a long time. I stared at my arm, stripping off my gauntlet to see a strange cut across my forearm, looking almost translucent.


"Shane?" Callie yelped worriedly, scrambling over to check on me. I flexed Zagan, flooding my arm with purifying fire, and it returned to normal, but it was still VERY interesting. "Are you ok? What was that? What happened? I thought your armor would stop it."


I grinned at her, triggering my staff to bump Mornax up to B-rank. "I'm fine, Cal," slipped my gauntlet back on. "You just caught me by surprise. That felt really weird. It bypassed my armor, somehow. I think the flames carried it through. I don't think it was able to cut my defenses exactly, more like it erased a small portion of my body for a minute. Try it again."


"I will NOT," she spat. "That's so dangerous, are you crazy?"


Waving her off, I shook my head. "It's fine, I upgraded Mornax. You won't be able to burn away a B-rank defensive form no matter how weird and off beat you attack is. I should be able to at least tell what it's doing this time." I triggered Dantalion, focusing on my arm as I held it out to her. Her attack couldn't damage a B-rank me. Because it hadn't damaged my armor. It had BYPASSED my armor by going around it, but there wasn't a scratch on the metal.


Grimacing, she lifted her sword and brought it down on my arm again. This time, I caught what happened. I was watching closely, and I saw the fire flare for a moment. My eyes widened.


"That's…holy shit that's insane," she stared at me in confusion. "Your sword cut me from the void. The Heretic Fire rejects Void influence on realspace, purifying the present of Void entities. This…Adherent Fire does the opposite. Rather than rejecting the Void from realspace, it embraces realspace from the Void. Like you summoned the cut from the other side of the veil right into my flesh. That's why it injured me through Mornax, too. You were attacking the physical with the metaphysical, cutting away at my reality."


In layman's terms, she'd transposed her sword out of reality and then used that illusory state to make part of ME illusory. It didn't work on my B-rank defenses, nor my armor, they were too heavy for her to discount, but against anyone at our rank?


I grinned at her, stepping back and raising my guard. In this form she couldn't hurt me, which meant she was free to test and experiment. "Again," I told her bluntly. "Do it again and try to get a feel for it." I could see her eyes shining with excitement as she raised her sword in a guard. When I nodded, she blurred forward, flicking out experimental cuts.


My staff deflected the blows, carefully offsetting the leverage of the strikes, but I could feel the flames rolling down the weapon, sometimes seeping into the cracks in my armor around my hands or elbows, or even my shoulders.


The flames seemed to act as a vector of some kind, carrying the attacks, and wherever it seeped in the cuts were carried from the Void to try to sever my flesh. I felt it scraping at my defensive form, unable to break through. As we fought, she seemed to become more attuned to it. She started flicking out slashes of fire that cut the air in great waves, aiming for as large an area as possible.


I flowed between the strikes, but as I did, I saw something click in her head. She lashed out again, this time with the blue jewel at the butt of her weapon, and it struck the air. Space SHATTERED. Cracks formed in the skin of the world, not enough to expose the Void, but galaxy fractures still radiated from the strike. Grinning, Callie lifted her flaming sword and drove it into a single piece of fractured air.


All around me, the shattered pieces of sky reflected the image of her attack, and a hundred blades emerged from the refractions, blazing with blue fire.


Cursing, I closed my eyes and turtled up, trusting my defense. There was a horrible SHRIEKING sound as the blades skidded over my armor, just strong enough to carve small furrows in about a dozen places. But I hadn't just given up. Dantalion was active when she attacked, and I'd been scanning the world around my.


Zagan flashed and I slammed my staff into a seam in the air, unleashing a wave of green fire that wiped away the Adherent Flame, causing a flare of teal as the fractures sealed. I grimaced at my wife, who was smiling sheepishly at my now scratched up armor. "Ok, new plan," I said mildly. "You need to do a LOT of training." Despite the wryness, I couldn't hide the unmistakable sense of pride in my tone. I had very little idea what that been just then…but when she mastered it, it was going to be TERRIFYING. I couldn't wait.

Callie was in a great mood when we finally met up with the others. I was really happy for her too, of course, but also somewhat terrified of where they'd BEEN. "Hey guys," I greeted my sister, Bethy, and the angels. "Where did you wander off to?"

Bethy beamed. "I was trying to become an angel!" At our confused silence, she put her hands up to clarify. "Oh, not like…forever. But I decided that I could totally do it. I can turn into bats, and bats have wings, and I can turn into mist, which is like smoke, and where there's smoke there's fire, and so…" She threw her arms in the air dramatically, and a huge pair of bat wings unfolded from her back. "Ta-da!"

"Do they…do anything?" I asked her slowly. "And did you actually CREATE fire?"

She pouted at me. "Duh, they fly. And yuh-huh. Watch." She closed her eyes, holding her hands together, and her fingers started to blur. Into mist. Mist which was made of water, as far as I knew.

"Bethy, I don't think-" there was a tiny whoosh, and between her hands a tongue of blood red fire caught and floated inside the mist. "Huh." I said slowly. "That's…what even is that? Mist is water, not smoke. And blood is water. And wine is water. Where the hell did you even GET fire powers?"

She just stared at me in pity. "Blood is HOT. Fire comes from heat, everyone knows that."

"That's…ok, please put that out, my head is starting to hurt." She shrugged, then flicked her fingers and the mist dispersed, taking the flame and wings with it. "Oh wow, Callie your hair looks so cool!" she said as she caught sight of my wife for apparently the first time. "And is that a new dress? It looks like the one I gave you but way better."
Callie grinned at her. "Something like that. I have a new form. Kind of like yours."

"We could be twins!" she squealed excitedly. "I've always wanted a twin! I've never even met any."
Chelsea frowned at her. "Bethy…Shane and I are twins."

"Nuh-uh," she vampire responded derisively. "Your hair is black and white. His is yellow. Plus he's way taller than you, you look nothing alike."

Weirdly, THAT offended me. "Ok, my hair is BLOND, not yellow. Secondly we are FRATERNAL twins. Which means we
were born at the same time to the same parents but we don't look the same. People aren't twins just because they look alike."

"Then how are Callie and I twins?" she asked acidly. She blurred appearing next to my wife, putting on an exaggerated "cool" expression to match my currently nonplussed spouse.

Deciding this fight wasn't worth my sanity, I turned to the angels. "So, we were here to donate a spark to the brazier, right? Because as much fun as this has been, we're not too long out from needing to head for my coronation. You two are coming with, right?"

Holly nodded. "Obviously. Your sister is going and we're trying to bond with her, remember? Plus, having angels at your coronation is super auspicious. You're lucky to have us around. Everyone is going to be so jealous." Despite the semi joking tone, I oddly didn't smell any untruth there. That was interesting to know.

Still, we'd come here to talk to Isaac, so it seemed rude to leave without telling him. Callie obviously thought so too, because she said. "Hey, can you take us to where your tower master is? I wanted to say goodbye before we left." As she said it, she relaxed her hold on her transformation Skill and slipped back into her normal angelic form.

Bethy gasped. "You have a CLOTHES dyeing Skill? And it works on your hair? That's even cooler than I thought! Is that what being an angel is about? I need to work on my angel form more, clearly I misunderstood the core essence of angelic power." She started chewing her lip, lapsing into deep thought about something. I sighed but didn't bother to comment. Hopefully it would keep her busy until we left.

They led us off in some direction or other, and as we walked, Callie fell back to drop into step with me. "So…I changed my mind," she said abruptly. At my confused head tilt, she explained. "About the wishes. This new ability is complicated and weird. I already just got a huge bump, and I don't want to complicate the learning process any further. Plus…I worry. About you and this coronation. I want you to use those scrolls to grow your own stats."

I frowned. "I guess I get that," I said slowly. "And we DO have a tower full of potential sources of points here. I imagine plenty of them would love to realign their stats a bit. But are you sure?"

She nodded. "The whole mess before we got here, with my…my dad, and Gossamer and my Chronicle. I did too much at once, and it took me ages to sort everything out. All my training in the sword and in understanding my power, that's what led me to realize this new path. I built it slowly. I need to focus. Buckle down and learn what this can do. I won't be accepting any more new stats for a while. Not until I have a better grasp on my Adherent form."

I sighed. "Alright. It's your call. I'll talk to Isaac, I'm sure his people wouldn't be against using my stockpile. I have over seventeen hundred scrolls lying around, so it's not like we don't have enough for everybody." Six months of stockpiling at nine a day had created quite a nest egg for me to crack into.

When we arrived at the top of the tower (not the VERY top where the brazier was, but Isaac's office was pretty high up), we were greeted by an enthusiastic Ariel. "There you are," she scolded her daughters lightly. "I've been looking all over for you." She shot us a warm smile. "Apologies, you four, I needed to speak to my girls before they ran off again without saying anything."

"We were NOT going to do that," Holly said bluntly. "Tell her Sera!"

Her sister nodded, her usual somber appearance fully on display. "She is correct, mother. We had no intention of making our absence felt without taking the time to say our farewells." Her point was underscored by the complete lack of any stupid puns to punctuate her statement, a rarity in regards to the monotone angel comedienne.

"As for you all," she told me as she snagged their arms to drag them away. "Isaac was looking for you. He had something he wanted to say before you go. He didn't JUST want you here because of the brazier. But he was hoping to delay his main business until the end of your visit, so you could enjoy yourselves a bit longer."

I sighed. I had been kind of afraid of that. This whole visit had ostensibly been at Callie's behest, but it had become clear that while Isaac may not have commanded the twins to invite us directly (or maybe he had, I wasn't sure), he'd at the very least planted the idea. Looking back I realized he'd ADMITTED this had been his idea when he first met us, and I just hadn't been paying attention, distracted as I was by the tower.

We thanked her and then headed into the room she'd pointed out, where we found Isaac sitting at a large dark wooden desk, shuffling around papers. When I knocked on the open door, he looked up, his face breaking into a warm smile. "Shane, Calliope, Chelsea, and of course Lady Nightmask, it is an honor." He gave a dignified half bow to Bethy, who nodded back solemnly, then walked over and plopped down in one of the nearby chairs.

"So…" I said as I took one of the other unoccupied chairs. "You wanted to talk to us about something?"

Isaac frowned, biting his lip and straightening the papers as he seemed to contemplate what to say and how. "This tower was once the item of power of a god." He began, seemingly deciding to start at the beginning. "A cup, inside which the fires of heaven blazed. To drink from the cup was to sup of the flames of eternity. But eternity is not found in a blazing moment. It is all times, all things, all places. And so, the flames burn not just at one time, but for all of the cup's existence."

I grimaced. I understood what he was talking about. I did a lot of stuff with causality and temporal instability, and I'd learned a bit about artifacts that dealt with those kinds of concepts. "Divination," I said with a sigh. "The flame is always burning, always has been burning, so if you look into it…"

"You see the length of its existence," he nodded. "The scope and scale of the cup's truth. This ability is…taxing. As the sole S-ranker of this tower, I am the only one who can use it. The objects of gods are not toys. It takes skill and knowledge to alter a divine instrument to be used by mortal hands." He shot Callie a weighty look, and she blanched.
"But I do sometimes dabble in the flames. I consult the fires of eternity, for myself, and for my allies." His gaze moved back to me. "Allies such as your grandfather."

"A prophecy," I said flatly. "You're going to give us a prophecy, presumably of something catastrophic."
He waved me off dismissively. "I am no seer. Such is not my gift. Prophecy is vague, but often complex. I simply see moments, snapshots in time. They are up to my interpretation, and can be changed or avoided. If one is aware of them. I seek not to place a burden upon you, only to forewarn and thereby forearm."

That got my hackles down a bit. I hadn't really interacted with prophecy, but I was pretty wary about anything that told me something bad was going to happen. Because they were usually right, and I didn't need to stress about that shit before AND after.

But this wasn't that. A warning that could be USED. That could change things. That was something I was willing to hear. Maybe it could help me save someone I cared about.

Seeing me focus on him, he nodded. "Very well. Prepare yourself. This knowledge may very well derail the very tracks of destiny." I nodded back, waiting, and he closed his eyes. "I saw an image of you. Standing in a large chamber, surrounded by shadowy figures. And you were in danger."

"I…I'm sorry?" I asked him slowly. "Did you see…where? When? Who the danger might be caused by?"

"Not at all," he responded earnestly. "You were simply surrounded. There was danger. The people surrounding you might not have been involved. As for timing, I have no idea. The place was also a mystery." I was about to get up and storm out after telling him off for wasting my time, when he continued. "I did hear a word. Just one. You said it yourself."

My eyes snapped up to him, pinning him with expectation. That was something I could work with. Was it a name? Some kind of clue?" "What was the word?" I asked him, my tone steely.

He stared at me, eyes lidded and face closed down. He looked menacing and alien, somehow completely other in a way he hadn't a moment ago. The light seemed to bend around him without actually being bent, like the universe had focused itself on him subconsciously and it hadn't even noticed itself. "Just one word," he repeated. "Apostate."

The word hit me like a closed fist. I felt a shiver run down my spine, carried from somewhere in the future by my fatewalker instincts. A premonition of loss and destruction and the death of all hope. My blood ran cold in my veins in a way I'd never experienced before, and I felt my teeth buzz with the uncontrollable urge to spit that word out into the air myself to cleanse it from my mind. "Ah," I rasped, my voice shaky. "Well at least it's nothing ominous."

After the unfortunate revelation that some kind of…something was going to try to kill me at my coronation (probably), I made Isaac an offer. With over seventeen hundred scrolls to burn, finding enough people to use them all with any expedience would be tough on my own. Luckily, I was in the presence of the tower master of the Seraphim Tower, and after I made the offer, he was more than happy to make the arrangements.

On the upside, this let me target my stat gains a little more narrowly than would normally be possible with that kind of volume. I asked him to focus on Fantasy and Creation, my two lowest stats, and then let him loose to track down my potential sources of income.

Callie waited until he was gone to turn to me with concern written across her face. "Apostate?" she asked worriedly. "Why does that feel like it scares you?"

"It DOES scare me," I admitted. "But hell if I know why. It's the usual fatewalker bullshit. I get this sense of…doom. I don't know. Like I know what the word means. Someone who renounces a god or religion. In some ways it's not dissimilar to a Heretic, honestly. But something about it…I feel fear, Cal. For the first time in a while I'm genuinely scared and I don't know why. I don't GET scared. Not like this."

My sister hummed. "It certainly sounds bad. But we can keep an eye out. Not just us, mom and dad and the grandparents. Even great grandma and great grandpa. You're not alone anymore, Shane. You have the whole family on your side. Hell, BOTH families. Grandpa Malachai wouldn't let anything happen to you before your coronation. I think even Uncle Percy would be forced to step in if someone tried something."

That was a good point. Trying to prevent me from winning the succession war made sense. I was an enemy, and having me in charge would be a problem. But once that was actually DONE? Now we were all one big happy family. The name of the game was get along to go along. I was the Wishmaster, or would be soon, and killing me NOW would be going against the old man and Aiden both, which could be described as a particularly elaborate and masochistic form of suicide.

She put a hand on my arm. "Hey, we'll tell mom and dad when we get home. They'll stick close on the trip. Mom is going to be bringing a few of the uncles with us to the coronation, and a couple A-rankers are coming along. We'll be safe as houses, especially with grandma and grandpa there."

"I…" I trailed off in embarrassment. "I kind of thought the old man might come. Like I wasn't COUNTING on it or anything. But I'm his successor, right? I mean I know I'll be meeting him soon, but I figured he would be at my coronation."

Neither of them knew what to say, and Bethy appeared to be practicing her blood flame again, which was a whole other thing I didn't want to think about. Eventually, I felt an influx of stats start to roll in. I held it back for a moment. "Stand back guys, this might be a little overwhelming.

Wishmaster candidate status. C-rank. Ability: Grandmaster Wish- Nine times a day grant a Grandmaster 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.

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

Wishmaster candidate points-1000

Might-320,923

Impact-155

Fantasy-205,750

Vitality-290,156

Focus-298,645

Perception-297,614

Creation-202,371

Progress to next rank:1,615,614/10,000,000

Soul strength- Tanzanite Soul Body

Chronicle: Ten Demons Tome (pages bound:1)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 0 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Ten Demons Tree (reincarnation tree staff that lets him simulate alternate lives to perfect his forms, and when combined with the library lets him simulate and deduce techniques in a process called the "Wisdom of Solomon")

Financial resources: 0 B-ranked, 0 C-ranked, 0 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)

Skills: Grandmaster Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Grandmastery of Cooking, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam Mastery, Minor Fire Manipulation Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery, Grandmaster Angelic Bond, Expert Dust Construction Mastery

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

Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death, False Fatality, Blood Curse, Creeping Darkness, Final Strike

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

Goetia Staff Art:

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

Techniques: Abomination Engine- uses Mephistopheles flame to supercharge the magmatic body of Belial, creating a demonic machine of pure destruction

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

Techniques: Cosmic Collapse: condensed sphere of black flame that explodes out one side amplifying force. Mephisto's Waltz: Movement technique, Damnatio Memoriae: causes the ground iself to dissolve best used on mountains to cause avalanches

Circle of Damnation: defensive technique through destruction

T

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

Fourth form - Zagan. Heal Burst, Purifying Flame, Consecration of Flame, Afterburner

Techniques: Life Nova, purifying and healing version of Cosmic Collapse.Genesis Burst: enhanced version of Life Nova designed to repair soul damage.

Fifth form- Bael. Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation (inverted), Afterburner (full effectiveness is seven times base Perception due to stacking, can only currently stack a single stat, unlike wish power which stacks them all)

Sixth form- Beelzebub. Piece of Mind, Stone Limb, Dust Construction, Shadow Clone. Create twelve copies (thirteen versions total) of Shane, each copy able to use a single form without straining Shane's soul past the strain of the original technique, which is only slightly more of a strain than a normal form and still allows one additional form to be used without overstraining. Can't remote control the forms, but can communicate with them remotely via telepathy principles from Paired Dueling. Might and Perception stacking, most versatile and well designed form yet.

Seventh form- Agares. Pit of Despair, Dust Construction, Stone Limb, Shadow Manipulation, Afterburner. Ability to mold and shape the earth, into black liquid tar, solid abyssal stone, or burning ash

Eighth form- Dantalion. Eye of Revelation, Overlay, Song of the Soil, Scent of Truth, Danger Sense, Piece of Mind, Rhthym of the Wild, Afterburner

Ninth form- Sammael. Baseline of angel trait, energy source: Enshrining Darkness. A more powerful baseline that acts as a foundation for all the other forms, allowing them to reach their true power. Amplified by the angelic bond.

Pseudo Domain: First Circle of Hell- Limbo. Belial, Mephistopheles, Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation. A psuedo Domain of confusion and mental manipulation, distorting the senses and controlling the body.

Recreated version: Piece of Mind, Overlay, Belial and Mephistopheles, Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation. Uses Piece of Mind as it was meant to be used, to parse multiple timelines for Mephistopheles to destroy, forcing the victim to conform to a specific future.

Second Circle of Hell: Gluttony. Mephistopeheles, Mornax, Dark Reflection, False Fatality. Reinforces the body and uses the damage redirection skills to shift damage and pain into the pit of destruction in the stomach, consuming attacks to break them down for power. Can be used to fuel Abomination Engine.

Third Circle of Hell: Wrath. Mephistopheles and Agares. Creates an all consuming lake of burning dark ash infused with the fire of destruction.

Thirteenth Circle of Hell: Pride. The infernal library of techniques that serves as the foundation of the infernal realm. Deduce, refine, and perfect techniques. Refine and perfect Skills, albeit more slowly, and still requires a foundation of knowledge.

Fourth circle of Hell: Retribution. Dark Reflection, False Fatality, Gluttony to stockpile, Afterburner, Abomination Engine. Collects all the damage done to fuel Gluttony and inflicts it on the enemy.

Fifth circle of Hell: Murmur. Bael, Dantalion. Use Dantalion's overwhelming information gathering powers to more deeply eliminate traces of passage through Bael's perfected stealth.

Sixth circle of hell:Leviathan. Zagan, Promethean Fire Soul Body. complete immunity to mental attacks below B-rank, enhancement to purification of internal corruption.

Seventh circle of hell: Behemoth. Agares and Mornax. Creates limbs of constructs of invincible rock.

Eighth circle of hell: Glory. Sammael,Mephistopheles, then Mornax and Agares, added some heretic fire, threw in Afterburner. Creates a seven foot behemoth of infused stone and turns the staff into a halberd to create a single combat capable battle form.

Ninth circle of hell: Abbadon. Mornax at B-rank, Heart over Body, Beelzebub+ 12 instances Zagan

I grunted as the weight of the power smashed down on me. About five hundred thousand, almost half of my current stockpile. More than a hundred and seventy thousand of that was from the scrolls, mostly funneled into Creation and Fantasy, which had been smart, because they were STILL my lowest stats, and by a much wider margin now.

My highest, of course, was Might, but to my surprise, Perception and Focus had both skyrocketed. Presumably figuring out the Void's plan and being smart enough to counter it had both given me a reputation among my subjects for intelligence. Maybe the boost would help me stop being so damned impulsive all the time. I'd honestly welcome a reprieve from what I chose to believe was recursion.

I'd netted almost a hundred and thirty thousand points each in those two stats, which was staggering when you considered that SIX MONTHS of scrolls had only been about a hundred and seventy thousand total.

Using the trick I'd learned from her earlier, I let Callie get a peak at the purple flames rolling across my vision, and I smiled proudly as she whistled. "That's not bad," she said appreciatively. I kind of expected more, though."

"The ceremony was low key," I shrugged. "All the big name players are going to be coming to the coronation. Once I gain my title, the word goes out, and I become the Wishmaster in truth. Remember when we were on Callus? None of us knew who the Wishmaster's HEIR was. We just knew the office. This is just a taste of what's to come." I winked at her. "So you better get serious if you want to keep up."

She held up a hand, a ball of blue fire rippling up from it. "I wouldn't worry about that. I've got a whole new bag of tricks. Once we're back to your parents house I think I'm going to see if Abel will give me some pointers. Can't think of anyone better to teach me to use space flames."

That was a good point. I couldn't wait to see what she could do. For now though, I just got up and stretched widely. "Damn, that was rough though. Fifty percent stat gain. Glad it wasn't more, actually. I'd have been laid up for a week." The door opened, and Isaac stepped back inside, nodding to me as he headed back to his desk. "Hope that was helpful," I told him with a grin. "But now, I think it's time for us to go."

He smiled solemnly. "You remind me quite a bit of your grandfather. I'll give you the same advice I'd give him. Be careful, Shane. The moments when we feel most in control are often the moments when we're closest to losing our grip." And with that ominous declaration, he lowered his gaze to the papers on his desk, essentially dismissing us. Why did old Ascendants always have to be so damned cryptic?

Getting back to my mom's estate didn't take much work to arrange. We could have taken a shuttle, but after some deliberation we decided to fly back. The angels, Callie, Bethy and I all had wings, but my sister didn't, so Sera and Holly took one arm each and carried her. Bethy seemed mildly put out by that fact, and insisted on doing it herself, but Chelsea found her offer of "whooshing around on a cloud of bats" less than enticing so the sisters did it.


One of the things I hadn't noticed about the tower until we got back up to the top was how perfectly situated it was for flight. Like yes, it was huge and mostly surrounded by empty airspace, but it was more than that. The placement made it easy to see clear flight paths to several major cities, and finding the route back was simple enough.


"You ready?" I asked Chelsea as we all stood up at the top of the tower. "Flying is pretty wild, but being carried like this might be scary at first. Don't worry about falling though, I have plenty of ways to catch you."


She snorted with amusement. "I'm not worried. Bethy won't let me fall even if you do." Despite her verbal certainty, however, I saw a bit of concern. I hummed with consideration.


"Actually, what if you could fly yourself?" I asked slowly. "Your diagram can combine things right? Opposites? Well you and I ARE twins. Sammael's black flame is pretty much diametrically opposed to the white flame of purification. Do you think you could use the diagram to trigger your own angelic form if I helped?"


She bit her lip. "Maybe?" she hedged. "I mean, I have a Solid Path for it, but not a Chronicle. I'm still D-rank too. It might be too much for me to affect."


"Try using it on me," I told her. "I'll do my best to help. I have a few ideas."


Chelsea was my twin sister. That was a bond. Maybe not the same as the one I had with Callie, but the Skill was angelic bond not wife bond. If she could get partway there, I might be able to use our blood connection to push the connection to where I needed it to be. She closed her eyes, and above her head, the diagram rotated into existence. White flame blazed over her fingers as she clenched her fists, and I felt the connection attempt to form.


It wasn't going to work. I was a C-ranker, and Sammael was a potent form, it was too much for her diagram…normally. Focusing on our blood tie, I wrapped it around the Angelic Bond Skill, using that to connect our souls temporarily, and then using that connection, I triggered my staff's upgrade ability. I pushed her diagram Skill up a rank, and as soon as it hit C-rank, our blood tie, the angelic bond, and the balance between our abilities all clicked together and.."Oh!"


Opening my eyes, I grinned at the downy white wings spreading from my sister's back. She blinked, flapping them once. Then again. "Man that's weird," she said slowly. "It's like I have a pair of really clumsy new arms I didn't have before."


"It's temporary," I reminded her. "This is straining my Chronicle. Not enough to do any damage, but enough that I won't be able to hold it for more than an hour or two."


She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I get that. It's…interesting. I wonder if I can create my own version. I have a few ideas, but for now…we're going flying right? Why don't you show me around the sky, little brother?"


I rolled my eyes at that last bit, unwilling to get into a 'who was born first' argument, but jumped up on the battlements, spreading my wings. "Flying is easy," I told her authoritatively. "It's just falling with style. Lean forward, spread your wings and…" I let myself drop, my wings catching the wind as I pitched forward. I was aimed down, so I fell at an angle, sort of a dive. I pulled in to steepen it, spun, and then used my momentum in a sort of swoop to slingshot myself back up into the air.


My wings were wrapped up with my subskills, one of which was state of grace, which meant that the restrictions of gravity were more like suggestions to me, so my navigation was smooth and easy, but Chelsea's wings were a counterbalance of Sammael, so she was probably in the same boat.


I shot past them on my upswing, then spread my wings wide as I reached the peak, hovering in the air above them as I grinned down at my sister. "Like that. Give it a shot."


Snorting in challenge, Chelsea got a running start and threw herself off the tower, wings spread…and proceeded to plummet like a rock. Cursing, I shot down after her, grabbing the back of her shirt and letting state of grace establish itself on her. Guess that answered that question.


Holly and Sera shot down and snagged her arms, pulling her up to the battlement again and setting her down. I landed and shook my head. "Ok, that was my bad. This was more intuitive for me. Now, what you did there was wrong. You let your whole weight drop right on top of your wings. Like the flying version of a belly flop."


Spreading my feathers out behind me, I indicated the structure. "When you fly, you're not holding yourself up with wing strength. That's tiring and counterproductive. Like I said, falling with style. You need to use your wings to guide yourself into a sort of smooth forward motion. Don't try to hover. What I did a minute ago was sort of cheating, and I can see how you would take the wrong lesson from that. But you want to be in constant motion."


"It helps to think of it like swimming," Holly added. "When you're in the water, you use forward momentum to keep from sinking. You CAN just float, but not everyone is able to do that. For a lot of people, they need to paddle hard or do a backstroke or something to keep from sinking. Gravity is dragging you down, so don't fight it, just help it decide where to drag."


She leapt forward, wings catching, and smoothly glided out into the open air, doing a slow, lazy half circle and coming back. "See? Nothing to it."


Callie nodded. "She's right. One of the big problems I had with learning to fly was fighting the urge to stop trying to just overpower the air with my wings. Flight isn't a battle. The air isn't your enemy, it's your partner." She glanced back at her new wings. "Of course, I can't really be much help as I am now. Flying with six wings is way different than two. Honestly I expected to have trouble with it, but it just sort of came naturally."


"It's your trait," explained Holly. "You have natural instincts for flight. I have no idea how Shane adjusted so quickly to his wings."


I did. State of grace. But I couldn't share that with Chelsea, so it wasn't useful here, so I just shrugged. "Just a talent. But you're doing fine. You tried to do it wrong, but the actual process of spreading your wings and flying was pretty smooth. Your technique just needs a little work."


After a few more attempts, Chelsea was able to get her sea legs (sky wings?) and we were off to the races. The feeling of weightlessness as we jumped from the tower was…indescribable. No matter how many times I flew, I'd never really get used to it. The sense of freedom that came with having wings was unlike anything else in the world. Being an Ascendant let you do so many amazing things, but even high ranked Ascendants could only fly on planets at or around their own rank. With wings though, I could touch these skies that only A-rankers should be able to traverse in a way that had nothing to do with bloodlines or wishes.


In some ways, Sammael was my crowning achievement. Of all my strange and amazing forms, that one was the one I was most proud of. Because I made it myself. I studied the trait the angels had and created something completely unique.


Callie's original trait was based on Sammael too, as was her Archangel trait, indirectly. I knew that her new Adherent Archangel form made her feel the same way. THe indescribable pride of taking the tools she was born with and turning something powerful into something truly unique that belonged only to her.


Drifting across the sky, I reached out and took her hand, the two of us flying together, eternity stretched out below us like a tapestry of tumbling time, an endless riot of possibilities falling away as we soared above the world together.


Her hand squeezed mine tightly, and I felt the love and peaceful joy that washed through our bond.


"Ewww can you NOT right now?" Yelled my sister from not far away. "I'm CONNECTED to that. I'm glad you two are so happy together, but EXPERIENCING it personally is…deeply unsettling."


I laughed, and Callie tightened the bond to cut off the flow of adoration. She didn't say anything to Chelsea though. Having to be a witness to someone's deepest emotions sounded uncomfortable to me too. I'd honestly forgotten she was even connected to the bond. Another reason not to do this again too often.


For now though, I couldn't help but enjoy the sights and sounds of soaring above the clouds. "This is so cool!" Bethy shrieked happily as she glided along behind us on her wings. "I've flown as a bat before, but this is totally different. I feel like I'm back on that crazy glider thing from the Moonsong Glade!" She laughed happily, twirling in midair in a way I wasn't sure I could have managed myself, arms spread in joy like she was embracing the sky.


I'd forgotten that day. Gliding off the top of a mountain that turned out to be the hand of a dead god. It was amazing to me how far we'd come since then, and how far we still had to go.


Seraph was beautiful, and the rolling hills and shining oceans skimmed beneath us as we flew, making pretty good time through the air. Finally though, we came upon the specific city we'd been heading for. The capital of Seraph, Elion. And on the second tallest mountain, a shining golden edifice of power and protection, my mother's estate.


We banked toward it, and while we were still over the ocean, I dove down to skim over the water, letting my fingers drag in the surf as I blurred along the surface before pulling up hard and shooting off into the air.


The others followed suit, doing some fun tricks and just generally enjoying themselves until we passed the water, at which point we headed for the estate directly.


My mother was waiting for us when we arrived, and as soon as we touched down she hurried forward to sweep us all into tight hugs "There you are! It's our last family dinner before leave, I was afraid you'd miss it." She reached up to tug at me windswept hair. "Oh, honestly Shane, we need to get you a helmet. Or a haircut."


"I like it long," Callie preened as she reached up to run her fingers through my nearly shoulder length locks. "And a helmet feels a little stiff. Maybe a crown? Or would that be too on the nose."


"No helmets," I said bluntly. "I don't want hat hair. And a crown is too much. My hair is fine the way it i- hey, where are you going? I'm not finished talking yet!" The two of them turned and strolled away, chatting about my current aesthetic, and I just sighed and followed behind them. Whatever, it wasn't like they could make me wear anything I didn't want. Now I just had to wait for dinner and goodbyes to distract them.

Dinner was a busy affair. Everyone from the family who lived nearby had shown up to see us off. My Uncle Anders had brought his daughters Sonya and Lara, who were losing their minds over the fact that Bethy was at the dinner. They were younger than I had been at the beginning of my journey, only fifteen or sixteen, and were HUGE fans of her music.


"I can't believe you know Lady Nightmask," Sonya gushed excitedly. My younger cousin was a redhead with bright green eyes. Her dimples made her eyes look bigger and more expressive, and she was enthusiastic about everything, though this was another level entirely.


Lara, the older one, had dark hair and calm blue eyes. She wasn't as excitable, but had still been welcoming to all of us when we arrived. While she wasn't melting down like Sonya, it was clear she was a little starstruck by Bethy. "I find your music so inspirational. I'm sorry to see you go, but I'm sure you'll accomplish great things, Lady Bethany. I'm curious though, where have the proceeds from your concerts gone? Are you saving for something?"


To my surprise, Bethy's face smoothed out into a serious expression. "I've been dedicating it to research, actually." She said quietly. "My…dietary preferences, are a big source of frustration for me. I've been working on removing them as an issue."


"Wait…you're trying to CURE your need to drink blood?" I asked her in confusion. "That's got to be a complicated process. Like doing brain surgery on your own trait. Do you need any help?"


"Nah," she said with a wide smile. "I'm not doing anything that crazy. I'm not all good at that stuff like you are. I'm sticking to what I know. I've been trying to create a type of wine that can replace blood for vampires."


Given what I'd seen Bethy DO with wine that wasn't as farfetched as one might think. Callie seemed to agree. She leaned forward with interest. "How are you planning to do that? I know you have to feed from thralls or cause pain. Is there some method of mixing non thrall blood with the wine that like…infuses it with what you need without having to drink from thralls?"


"Not exactly," Bethy said excitedly, her eyes lighting up with passion as she got to discuss her project. "See, taking blood and mixing it with wine doesn't work. The wine dilutes the vital essence. It's sort of complicated, but in order to create a wine that can substitute for blood I need a way to make the wine itself alive when I make it."


Chelsea lit up. "Her solution is GENIUS. Tell them what you did!" Apparently my sister had been in on the plans. Not a surprise considering she, Bethy, and Gabe spent all their time together, especially with the angels following Callie the last few months.


Bethy shrugged modestly. "Well I was thinking about what the wine needed, and I realized that to be living wine it needs to come from living grapes. Then I got to thinking, grapes are red and grow on vines, which are KIND of like a circulatory system. So I got in touch with some local botanists and began working with them on repurposing a grape vine into a living plant with a circulatory system. Literally, a thrall vine."


"Wait…" Callie said slowly. "You made VAMPIRIC grapes?"


"Thrall grapes," Bethy corrected. "Vampiric grapes would just DRINK blood, which would defeat the whole purpose. But the living grapes can be carefully collected and pressed into a special wine that has shown real promise as a blood substitute. The only issue I keep running into is that I can't grow ENOUGH of the grapes. And the blood used has to be VERY specific."


It had been a long time since I'd been involved in any of the more physical sides of crafting. My Dust Construction Skill had been largely folded into Agares, and I'd all but abandoned enchanting. I did a lot of crafting of forms, techniques, and even skills sometimes, but it wasn't the same.


Bethy was clearly working with physical mediums in a unique and fascinating way, and I was intrigued. "What are the requirements?" I asked her with interest.


"Well, the blood needs to come from a thrall," she said, ticking off her fingers as she listed. "The thrall needs to be at my own rank or higher. But not too much higher, because then I won't be able to make the wine. Also, the blood needs to be circulating. So there has to be a heart in the root system to pump it through the vines. I've managed to create a small vine, but to support a larger orchard we need a bigger heart."


Chelsea nodded. "We got the one we're using from dad. Bethy was able to transfuse it to change the blood circulation to an essence signature matching a thrall. Dayna donated a bunch of blood. Not too much at once, of course."


I blinked at her. "Wait…DAYNA? Dayna is here? I didn't see her when we made the trip?"


"She's been living in my Domain," Bethy explained. "Your dad suggested I bring her. He's got the soul of that Heaven Murder Elf bound and he's been using it to teach her. I think because I spend so much time with Chelsea he considers Dayna to be like a secondary bodyguard to her. Anyway, we found a Blade Bat heart that we were able to use as a basis for a root system. The energy signature from Dayna's blood was close enough to function. But for a bigger animal, and bigger vine patches, it gets more complicated."


"And you're not using wishes?" I asked nonchalantly. "Because it seems like you could have skipped a few steps."


She shook her head. "No. In order to make the wine work I need to be involved in every step of the process. It's…personal. I'd have totally asked if I needed help though." She winked and gave me a thumbs up. "Don't you worry about a thing, bestie. I got this."


Sonya, who had apparently gotten bored with shop talk, turned to beam at me. "Oh, hey I heard daddy is going with you guys for your whole conjuration thing."


"Coronation, Sonya," sighed Lara helplessly. "It's a CORONATION. It's a ceremony that involves the crowning of a ruler. Because he's going to be the WISHMASTER. We've told you this like six times.


"And I told YOU that's stupid," my cousin said waspishly. "Because the Wishmaster is a god like great grandpa. Shane is pretty cool but he's totally not a god."


I laughed at that. "She's got me there. The Wishmaster isn't just a person. It's also a job. The old Wishmaster retired ages ago, and there have been a bunch since then. I just got picked to be the next one."


The fact that she didn't get the concept of the hereditary Wishmaster title wasn't strange. Sonya grew up in the heart of the Church, where her great grandfather was the ONLY Red Revenant and was not even remotely replaceable. The Wishmaster's businesslike approach to inheriting the title was pretty atypical among the major factions. In fact, as far as I knew the old man was the only god to pass on his title. The rest were all being directly governed by an active deity.


In fact, I wondered if that was why the WCP wasn't actually considered part of the five faction alliance. There were six gods, and that was widely acknowledged, but the alliance excluded one of the divine forces. I'd always been told that was because the WCP was more diffuse, but maybe there was more to it than just lacking a location.


"So it's Uncle Eric and Uncle Sam?" I asked them with interest. "I thought we'd be bringing more A-rankers."


My mother, who had been sitting nearby talking to my Uncle's wife Tara, turned to chuckle at me. "That's what happens when you don't pay attention. I told you that each faction his a limited number of high rank slots. My parents are burning up two of ours, as are your father and I, and finally two of my brothers. Not to mention Ezekial, Sebastian, and whoever else comes, because as the Wishmaster, you don't get your own slots since its assumed that all of the WCP are your subordinates."


"Yeah, that sounds like the kind of political nonsense they would spout," I sighed. "What about S-rankers? We have a few more we could invite. What about Bethy's dad and dad's boss?"


"Adramalech declined," she said with a grimace. "He's nominally a member of the Faerie Queen's camp, and she and your ancestor don't get along. They're not ENEMIES, exactly, but fae are careful about entering Wishworld."


My eyes widened. "Wishworld…wait…is the coronation being held in the VOID?"


"Not as such," she assured me. "Wishworld, like all the godworlds of the six, has some overlap with realspace. It's why the six eliminated the vanished gods to begin with. Too many beachheads into realspace and the universe Ascends. The majority of Wishworld is in the Void, but it's anchored to realspace, and we're going to be receiving visitors in the welcome palace, which is in the physical portion of the godworld."


"Is that why the old man isn't coming?" I asked suspiciously. "Because he doesn't want to enter realspace?"


My dad had been listening quietly from the other side of her, but he shook his head. "No. The ancestor doesn't attend coronations. Part of his retirement was an agreement to distance himself from politics. If he shows up at your coronation, it'll be seen as a sign of support for your ascension to the office. He DIDN'T do that last time, or the time before. It'll piss off the branches affiliated with previous candidates for no reason."


"But I thought gods basically WERE their godworlds," I pushed. "Wouldn't he be there anyway, perceiving it all through his connection to the world?"


"Not exactly. Wishworld is massive. It covers a whole galaxy's worth of space, pretty much." He slowed down, choosing his words carefully. "He can be anywhere within its borders instantly, can perceive anything when his attention is focused. But he DOES need to focus. He usually doesn't bother. Not to mention we're at war, both in the Void and in realspace he's actively countering the influence of other gods. Don't look at your great grandmother as a typical deity. Black Sorrow's habit of manifesting avatars outside of her Domain is uncommon."


I wasn't even sure she'd done that. Callus bordered Black Sorrow Cult Space. I wasn't sure where her Domain WAS exactly, so she might have just been operating inside it the first time we met. As for the second time…well, that had been a special occasion, the death of a god.


Still, I was a little sad I wouldn't see the old man there. I'd just have to take his measure when I met him in person the first time. I had to admit, I was curious what this ancient deity, from whom so much of my power came, was really like. Not just my wish ability, but Pride, my most useful pseudo Domain, came from the Great Book Heavenly Library my dad had reverse engineered from the old man. I thought about it for the rest of the meal as we talked and ate and enjoyed each other's company. When we finally finished eating, I let myself go quiet as I considered what I might be in for as we headed back to our rooms, but I felt myself stopped by a hand on my elbow.


My mom, seeing my contemplation, smiled at me and squeezed my arm. "Don't expect too much from the Wishmaster," she told me softly. "He's been alive a long time, and he's not human in a lot of ways that might surprise you. He might look like a human, and talk like one, but never forget that you're basically looking at a concept in the shape of a person. Wishes aren't known for being forgiving or compassionate. If you slip up, he'll exploit it. Just…be yourself. Slow and steady. And everything will be fine." And with that ominous proclamation, she let me go.

Finally, the last day or two passed, and it was time to go. I had to admit, I was nervous. Coming here had been amazing. Feeling the warmth of family, spending my days relaxing, I had learned and grown so much in ways that weren't possible to track on my stat sheet. But now…now it was time to go back to the real world, where the kind of growth I'd need was ONLY the kind that showed up on my stat sheet.

The closer I'd gotten to this day, the more afraid I'd become. Not that I would die, or be destroyed, or what have you. Afraid that I'd never get this back again. That I'd never just be able to live in peace with my family.

Despite how many friends I'd had, and how much Zeke had cared about me growing up, this was…new. You don't know what you don't know, and I hadn't understood what having a normal (for certain definitions of that term) life was really like until now. Part of me didn't want to leave. But…I knew that part of me wasn't real. I was scared, hiding behind the familiar and considering burying my head in the sand because it would be easy.

Which is why I wasn't going to do it. I gathered my friends and family at the landing pad where the Acheron waited. "So," I asked my dad as we all gathered together. "How do we get to Wishworld? I've never BEEN to a godworld before, but aren't they anchored in specific galaxies? Like great grandma can only manifest inside Black Sorrow territory easily, right?"

He made a contemplative sound. "You could say that. But also not. Space in the Void is more…fluid than realspace. There are several methods for constructing a world there. Some are condensed, solid spherical constructs like a planet that occupy fixed locations in realspace. Some are mobile. Wishworld is…sort of a combination of the two. Different points in the Void correlate to different points in realspace. That's how the Vanished gods are able to travel there so easily.

"Of course, there are other ways to travel in the Void besides teleporters," he amended. "But the Roads of Void are complicated and difficult to navigate. They've been closed for centuries, and the insides are infested with Void spawn."

I waved my hand to indicate that he should move it along. "Right, so HOW is something both stationary and mobile?"

"It's not exactly," he admitted. "It's more…diffuse. Because of the nature of the Void, traveling even a few feet in one direction can bring you miles away in realspace. The old man took advantage of this and created his world in a highly irregular shape. Because of the odd construction, it connects to many WCP Branches in different galaxies rather than just being a big lump of expanded space that overlays a single area."

I imagined a kind of giant twisty starfish made of clear tubes…which was probably not an accurate representation of what the Void was like, but it made me smile.

"So we need to head for a nearby Branch?" I asked with interest. "Are there any in the Holy Dominion?" I didn't actually know what the situation of dispersion was like for the WCP inside the various powers, only that they had permission to establish locations. The Holy Dominion though, was the core of the Church's territory, so I cloud understand if they didn't want us around."

"Yes, but that's not where we're going," he said with a grin. "The old man is a visionary. Connecting the Wishworld to a few high ranking branches is great, but he wanted more than that. He wanted shipping routes. The Wishworld doesn't just connect to realspace at those branches, there are several connection points that allow easy travel into a variety of faction territories. There's a reason the WCP is the only universe spanning faction, and it's not JUST that we have more S-rankers."

That was…brilliant. Using the Void to travel with teleporters like the vanished gods did was useful and scary, but it was temporary. For a god to build their whole world around the concept of tactical and financial flexibility. "Is that even possible?" I asked in astonishment. "Creating some kind of unnatural spatial construct like that to hang in the Void?"

"It is," Callie said as she sidled up next to me. "Hey hon, sorry I'm late. I was helping Bethy uproot her grapes and transplant them into her Domain. She doesn't want to lose her progress."

My dad hummed with interest. "It's fascinating research. A bit niche, but I could think of quite a few alternate applications. Bethany is a brilliant girl. Strange and occasionally frustrating, but brilliant. You're lucky to have her on your side."

"Don't I know it," I chuckled. "But what were you saying about the Wishworld, Cal?"

"That it's possible to make a Void construct like that," she clarified. "I mean, I couldn't. Not yet. But with my Adherent Fire, I've started to pick up some interesting information about the Void. Like did you know that technically Domains are personalized Void shallows anchored to a human soul?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but came up short. I hadn't known that…but it made a weird amount of sense. God worlds were anchored in the Void, and almost all spatial effects touched on the Void, so it logically followed that Domains were at least partially in the Void.

The sheer scope of what the old man could do was staggering, and I wondered how much of it was from the library. Like he was obviously deeply gifted before that since he created it, but still, the idea that I might someday be able to do something similar (despite the differences in the expression of our powers) was pretty intoxicating.

We all filed into the ship, and Callie and I headed for the bridge to check in and to hopefully get a view outside the ship. I wanted to see what these connecting points looked like.

Watching Seraph fall away was bittersweet. Even as we left I could feel the shackles of caution and homesickness that had been pinning me down earlier loosen in the face of the call of adventure. A new world. More family I hadn't met. Power and influence and a great quest only I could undertake. My heart was starting to race a little. Callie had been right, I'd been going stir crazy already and had been in denial. I'd miss my family but this was going to be fun.

"How far out are we?" I asked my dad as we all lined up in the bridge of the Acheron. My grandparents and uncles were there, along with Zeke.

"Not far," he smiled. "You know how fast this ship is. There's an entrance a few systems over. I'd say at top speed we'll make it in an hour, maybe a bit less. Assuming we are going at top speed?" He shot a questioning look to my grandmother, who sighed.

"We are," she said in a sad tone. "I'd hoped we might have a bit of time to sightsee, we're passing through the Elohim cluster, and it's so very beautiful." she shot Zeke a grin. "My new apprentice only left her home planet a few months ago, and I think she ought to see the sights in the greater universe. You should look into that."

My Uncle, well used to this ribbing since Stella had started studying under my grandmother, just rolled his eyes. "If I wanted to hear from someone's mother about my relationship I would still be in contact with mine. Why must you hound me?"

"Because Stella is one of my disciples now," she said gently. "And because you raised my grandson. Like it or not, you're family, boy, and that comes with as many demerits as it does perks." Despite the harsh words, her tone was warm and welcoming, and I could have sworn I saw Zeke's lips twitch slightly.

Stella herself, who had become almost pathologically quiet since arriving on Seraph, cleared her throat. "I appreciate the thought, Master, but I really would prefer you let me handle matters in my own relationship."

My mom cackled in glee. "Hah! You tell her. She spent years hounding me about my relationship with Eli. Don't let her get away with that!"

"YOU ran off with a degenerate and left us all worried sick," my grandmother snapped. Then she smiled at me apologetically. "No offense, Shane. You know we love you and your sister, and we wouldn't have you if that never happened, but at the time it was quite jarring."

My dad raised an eyebrow. "What about me? Don't I get a no offense?"

"You can be offended if you like," Celine said with a shrug. "I'm not YOUR grandmother. Though I will say I've grown to see your value over the years. Doesn't mean I'm not still unhappy that you absconded with my daughter."

"He did not ABSCOND with me, mother," my mom said with an exasperated groan. "I was an ADULT and I left home."

My grandmother's eyes narrowed. "You didn't even leave a NOTE. You sent a message back after the fact. I-" she closed her eyes, cutting herself off with a sigh. "No. No that's not productive, it's ancient history. You're right. I only meant to tease. We like you perfectly well now Elijah."

"Yes," my dad said dryly. "I could FEEL the love during my visit."

She shrugged. "That wasn't US. You're a devil. You ought to have assumed there would be some friction in the Holy Dominion. Besides, it was just a couple of pointed looks and unsubtle comments. We made sure no one tried anything."

My mom looked sorry she'd brought it up, but oddly, the whole experience seemed to have acted as an icebreaker. Everyone split up to talk amongst themselves, and I dropped into the chair next to my grandfather. "Hey, you excited to see some old friends?"

"Is this where you make a joke about how all my friends are old?" he said wryly.

"No," I lied unconvincingly. "I wasn't going to say that." He stared at me flatly until I grinned and admitted. "Ok, I was. But it was right there." We bantered for a bit, and it was nice. Just comfortable back and forth with family. It helped keep my mind off the trip, though I only needed that because I was so impatient to see-

"We're here," a voice interrupted my reverie. I turned to see my dad standing next to us, staring up at a floating holo screen in the air displaying…I blinked. "Is that…a door?" I asked incredulously. "Just floating in space?"

It was a rhetorical question. The doors were FAR too large to mistake for anything else. A huge pair of double doors made of black metal, criss crossed with heavy looking chains. Under the chains, a skull inside of a lamp emblazoned the surface of the barrier. Its eyes were locked on us, or at least looked like they were, glowing the same eerie purple as my lightning and the flames of my stat page.

Along the length of the chains, similar light flickered in the shape of complicated symbols. My dad smiled. "It is," he said with a laugh. "But it's safer than it looks. No one but a Wyndham can see it. The chains cloak it, as well as keeping unwanted visitors out."

I nodded in awe. "Yeah, I can see why you'd need to. The damned doors are huge. How do we get inside though? Do we have to unlock them? Is there a key?"

"In a manner of speaking," he said, a bit smugly. You should be feeling it already. I can't open it anymore. Not since my trait altered my bloodline." Sure enough, as we approached, I felt a sort of buzz inside my head, like something was trying to make contact. "Go ahead then Shane. Request permission to enter your kingdom." So, with a slight flex of my will…I did.

Reaching out to the gate was an odd experience. It was a bit like calling for my soul weapon, but also not. For one, I could FEEL the doors, and they were much more powerful than my staff was. Something in me though, my bloodline, or maybe my position, seemed to resonate with the massive metal slabs though. I focused hard, and there was a flash of power through those skeletal eye sockets.

The skull, to my surprise, began to open its mouth slowly. Inside the mouth, a slow vortex of purple lightning began to coalesce. It started as just a small spark, rotating faster and faster, collecting power from around itself as it grew, siphoning in energy from the universe.

Grinning, my grandmother's eyes locked on it. "Ah, so THAT'S where we're heading."

"You can't see the door?" I asked her in surprise. "Like, that vortex is in its mouth, you can't see any of the metal?"

"Nope, just the portal. I did hear you two talking about it though." She shrugged. "Wyndam business, right? The Wishmaster is much more powerful than either of my parents. Among the six, the Queen, the Emperor, and the Wishmaster are considered the strongest."

I nodded, having heard that before. "Alright, well if you can see the entrance lets head in." Then I paused. "Wait…why is there a door at all if the skull opens a portal and people can't see it?" The metal was powerful I could feel that, but I didn't see the point.

"If you saw a big door with chains all over it, what would you do to get inside?" my dad asked dryly.

I blinked. "I'd…I'd try to open it. Huh." That was either brilliant or really dickish. Possibly both.

"Yup. Doors don't open. The chains bind the metal to the void so only the portal can allow admission." He chuckled. "If someone DID manage to pry them apart, it wouldn't even reveal the entrance. They'd still need to open a portal into the Void."

Grinning at the old man's deviousness, I nodded to my grandmother, who gestured the pilot forward, into the swirling purple lightning vortex.

Passing through it was…disconcerting. It felt like I was getting vertigo, but with my soul. I'd been through the Void before, but this felt different. It only lasted a moment or two and then the ship rocked and we were through. The purple lightning cleared like clouds parting over a morning sea, and we got our first good look at the Wishworld.

"Well…this is nice," I said dryly. "I mean, I kind of assumed that a godworld would be idealized, but it's nice to know that the old man prefers to go with a more natural feel." The words were pure sarcasm. The place we were currently waiting was a barren wasteland. Cold black rocks under dim blue skies filled with dark clouds. Purple lightning danced in the clouds, but with all the winter shades even that just looked washed out and bleak.

My dad rolled his eyes. "This is an entry path, Shane," he said with an exasperated chuckle. "It's not the Wishworld. It's the outskirts. And it's designed to be inhospitable and hostile. Which is why we should touch down." His eyes flicked nervously up to the clouds. "That lightning isn't a special effect for ambiance. It's a defense system. Shane's presence should cover us, but the ship might be a bit too conspicuous, and the defenses aren't people."

My grandmother grumbled, but nodded to the pilot, who took us down to land on a nearby plateau of dark stone.

Once we touched down, we filed out of the ship and, with a swipe of her hand, my grandmother made it vanish. I assumed she'd pulled it into her Domain. As soon as it vanished, I could see the lightning above flicker slightly and then dim. My dad breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, how do we get to…wherever we're going?" Callie asked as we all headed over to the edge of the plateau to look down into a canyon of black rocks. A canyon I didn't plan to enter, because staring down into the dark I could see faint movement from blurry shapes I couldn't identify. I absolutely did not want any part of those things.

A sardonic voice came from off to one side. "I'll be taking you."

I jumped, both in surprise that someone had approached and in shock at WHO had just spoken. We all turned to stare, taking in the sight of Aiden Wyndham sitting on a rock nearby, looking as bored as I'd ever seen him. "Heya kids," he said in an almost sleepy sounding voice. "Welcome to the Wishworld."

"Aiden," I nodded. "Didn't expect to see you so early. Don't you have better things to do than escort a bunch of children?"

"One would think," he said sardonically. "But this comes from the top. The old man doesn't want any accidents with the Void so active. There's a VERY small chance that a Void entity might have slipped through the barrier when you came in. Plus after we drop them all off at the palace, I'm supposed to escort you to your meeting. Now that you're here…he wants to see you."

My stomach dropped. He wanted to see me. The Wishmaster. My ancestor. That was…intimidating. So intimidating. Like I'd met gods before, but he was the first god involved in my life. The origin of my bloodline.

I'd known I'd be meeting him. He couldn't come to the coronation for political reasons, but he always met with the incoming Wishmaster. Hell he met with promising runners up sometimes. My dad and Zeke had met him. But there was a difference between academically knowing and being aware that I was on the way to a meeting with him.

Aiden seemed to sense my internal conflict. "Don't put him on a pedestal, kid," he advised me. "You'll just end up disappointed. Gods are strange, and often unknowable. Just treat them like natural disasters. If a hurricane is coming, make sure you strap down all your stuff and board up your windows. As long as you prepare properly and treat the situation with respect you'll come out of it fine."

"Respect?" my dad asked wryly. "From you? I didn't think even the old man warranted that."

"I'm contrary, not stupid," Aiden snorted. "Or at least not usually. Winning the succession war in my day might count. You son of a bitch. You couldn't have tried a LITTLE harder? I was so smug when I beat you, then I had to spend years surrounded by sycophants and backstabbers while you ran off and married a holy princess and became a devil. That sounds so fun!"

"Didn't you marry Azazel's daughter?" my dad asked mildly. "Davina is supposed to be an impressive warrior."

For the first time since I met him, Aiden's bored and condescending expression softened. "That she is. Only good part of this job. At least usually. She's pretty gung ho about me doing my duty though. Always killing my fun at work 'Go to your meeting Aiden', 'don't kill the messengers Aiden', 'he's an elder Aiden, you can't light him on fire'. Which was NOT true by the way, that guy went up like a torch."

"I think she maybe meant that you…shouldn't do that?' my mom said dryly.

He shrugged. "Probably. But that's not what she said. Sounded like a challenge to me. Even if she did make me personally host the next ten council sessions to make up for it. Anyway, I'm free now, fuckers. All I have to do is deliver the kid to the big man, wait out the end of the coronation, and then I can retire to the warfront where I can spend my time with my lovely bride, immolating Void spawn en masse. You know, the easy life."

"Damn," I said in disappointment. "That actually does sound really nice. Is being in charge really that bad?"

He opened his mouth but was cut off by my mom shoving a burning finger in his face. "If you make my son any more nervous than he already is, I'm going to kick you off this plateau and into those clouds to see what happens."

Putting his hands up defensively, he glanced at my dad. "I take it back. Only the devil thing sounds fun. My condolences."

"Keep them," my dad said with a wolfish grin. "This is my favorite side of her."

"Excuse me," my grandmother said with a sigh. "As much fun as your posturing is, children, we DO have an occasion to get to. Shane's coronation is almost here, remember? That's why we brought Wilkie." She jerked her thumb at an inconspicuous crew member who had followed us off. "He's going to get the whole thing on camera. Oh, and Shane dear, we were hoping you and Calliope might post for some late wedding pictures. I'm afraid the quality of the ones you gave us was a tad low."

My eyes widened. "Wait…you brought a PHOTOGRAPHER?" I asked her in horror. "Like…a personal one? Grandma, they're going to HAVE photographers." I stopped to look at Aiden. "I mean, I assume."

"More of a live broadcast to certain interested parties," he corrected. "But yeah basically."

"See," I said desperately. "A videographer. That's even better. You can have someone back on Seraph record for you."

She snorted. "Don't be absurd. This is your special day. We need photos to commemorate. We'll take the wedding shots, then a few of you accepting the…is there an actual crown? It doesn't matter, we brought one just in case. We even have a matching tiara for Calliope. Oh, you two will look so darling together all dressed up in your best. Of course you'll need to wear a suit. That armor is very impressive dear, but it's hardly formal."

Every word increased the pressure on me, and I turned to shoot a pleasing glance at my mother, who grinned back at me vindictively. "That sounds like so much fun, mom. In fact, you should have Chelsea pose with them. Maybe Bethany and Gabriel as well."

"Nonsense," my grandmother chastised. "We've had plenty of pictures of Chelsea. This is Shane's day."

I cleared my throat. "Hey, I have a meeting with a god. We should go. Do you guys want to go? Let's leave immediately." I tried not to let my desperation show in my voice. I felt…weird. On one hand knowing my grandparents cared so much and were so excited to share this with me was nice. On the other having them dress me up in a suit and what I was pretty sure was a custom made crown to take family photos in front of my future subject was the most mortifying experience I could imagine, and I had been in the literal presence of a TORTURE goddess.

Aiden laughed. "Sure kid, let's go." He waved a hand and a glassy wall of fire consumed the air between this plateau and the next. As it faded away, it left behind a kind of…mush in the air. He flicked his fingers and the melted air solidified, giving him an easy path across.

Callie blinked in shock. That had been spatial fire. He'd melted SPACE. The burned remains had created a solid surface to walk on, but being able to do that at all, especially here, was…impressive. I glanced at my wife, who looked back excitedly. She hadn't been able to learn much from Abel, because his power didn't work like hers, but it looked like Aiden's might.

So, as we followed behind the older man, I made a mental note to try to ask him about helping Callie with her training. It probably wouldn't be one to one, but I was betting he could at least help. Walking along behind him though, I was brought up short by something. I felt…relaxed. My family had helped calm me down. I couldn't help but smile. I was pretty lucky to have them.

We made our way through the bleak rocky landscape pretty easily. Not that I expected trouble with Aiden around. I was sure my grandparents were tougher, given my grandpa was a demigod, but something about having the ACTUAL Wishmaster on hand in case of trouble was, admittedly, soothing.

When we reached the edge of the rocky entry path, though, that was when the place got really interesting. The first thing we ran into was…well, mist. A lot of it. A huge wall of mist. And it was mist I recognized too. "Is that the spatial mist given off by infinity crystal?"

He waggled a hand. "It's similar. I erected the mist myself. Well, actually it's closer to an ash cloud than mist. But that means I can do this." He waved a hand and the mist (or smoke I guess?) shifted slightly, forming a small tunnel. "After you," he nodded to us. We all trekked inside, and when we emerged from the other end of the cloud, we all came up short.

"Ok, now THIS is what I call a godworld," I said approvingly. "This is…beautiful. How big is this place?"

Wishworld was, in a word, paradise. I couldn't even figure out why at first. It was just a world. Trees, grass, clouds, mountains. It looked mostly normal, just better. I had to stare for a minute or two before it really clicked though. Colors. And shape. They just felt…more. Like every tree, leaf, and flower was just…idealized. Perfect. They weren't the same, exactly, but they were all more…them than they should have been.

Aiden nodded. "It's always jarring the first time. And this isn't even the actual Wishworld. This is the outskirts. The whole place is built in layers, kind of. Anyway, this was the old man's pet project for a few millennia apparently. He was obsessed with the theory of forms and its possible application in formation building. Which, by the way, this whole world is. Not that you'll see it at your level."

"What's the theory of forms?" I asked him as I looked around. "And what does it have to do with…this?" I gestured to all of it.

"You ever seen a lamp?" He asked dryly.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I've seen a lamp," I said in annoyance. "What kind of question is that?"

"The important kind," he said solemnly. "Just answer when I ask something. You've seen a lamp? Nod if yes." I nodded. "You've seen more than one lamp?" Another nod. "Ok, were they different?" Again, I confirmed. "Perfect. So if those lamps weren't the same as each other, how do you know they were lamps? How do you know any lamp you see is a lamp? Lamps can vary wildly. The range of what is and isn't a lamp is pretty vague. So how do you look at some strange, barely functional experimental lamp and just KNOW it's a lamp?"

I paused. "I mean…there are specifications, I guess?"

"Are there?" he asked archly. "What makes a lamp? Is it a stand with a bulb? But what if it has two bulbs, does it stop being a lamp? What if there's no bulb at all? What if it's an oil lamp? What about old style lamps like the one on the WCP logo? Those are all lamps, but they don't have the specifications you mentioned. When you saw that lamp outside, did you know what it was?"

I frowned. "I mean…yeah. I guess I did."

"Theory of forms," he said again. "The idea that all objects of a certain type have an archetype. A primal version of that object that is THE definition of what it means to be that thing. Somewhere out there is a lamp from which all other lamps are modeled. The ultimate lamp. The pinnacle of all lampness."

I looked around in awe. "So these are all archetypal trees? But there's so many of them."

"They're not," he admitted. "But they're based on the concept. The old man decided that if there's an archetype that shares features with all derivates, that you should be able to reverse engineer something that might not be PINNACLE of form, but approaches it. Deducing the traits of lamps until you could make lamps that are like…ninety percent more lampy than normal lamps. He spent centuries on it. Studying various trees, lakes, grasses, all trying to create evolved forms. Not perfect, just…better."

My dad hummed. "I think this came from the concept of the library. And I THINK it's where he got the idea to perfect the Wish power to create the three times multiplier. Evolving his own ability until it became its most perfect form. Or close enough."

"So Wish…it's the Archetype? The original ability?" I asked in wonder. "Or at least, the old man's attempt at creating it?"

Aiden nodded. "That's what I always suspected. Iteration after iteration, he refined it until it was as perfect as it could get. That's why changing it at all ruins it. It's his life's work. Or at least, it was MOST of his life's work. It was complete in its present form a while ago. It makes you wonder what he's working on now? Is he still tinkering? Or did he accept it was as good as it would get and move on?"

"He's not the type to accept limits," my dad snorted. "If he hit a wall, he's not done. Just biding his time."

They shared a wry smile and a nod, then looked back out into the paradisical world. "You said this isn't the REAL Wishworld," I commented. "Where is it? Where are we going?"

He nodded up, pointing into the sky. "The Wishworld connects to a lot of places. The core of the world needs to be central, and because of the shaping it tends to warp and twist at the edges. Best central spot is up there."

I hadn't noticed it because of the clouds. It sat on them, floating innocuously. But I noticed something odd. There was no shadow. Actually, come to think of it, nothing here had shadows. There wasn't even a sun. The light was just kind of omnipresent. But the building he pointed out, once I saw it I couldn't unsee it.

Black. Not like black as night, or even the void of space. Black as the soul at your lowest point. Black enough that not only did it eat the light, the light nearby that it DIDN'T eat seemed dimmer from proximity.

The building was massive, too large to comprehend it properly, and once I saw it I wondered how I could have ever missed it. But I had. And now I couldn't see anything else.

"That," Aiden said with a grin. "Is where we're going. The core of this world. Or at least the place where the core is kept. THAT is the Wish Curse Palace." He said the words with such emphasis and weight that I knew he wasn't talking about the faction. This wasn't a headquarters. The Wish Curse Palace wasn't just a group. It was a place. This place. The REAL WCP. And seeing it like this, I had no idea how I could have ever assumed anything else. Because I couldn't imagine not knowing that this was the real deal.

My wife was gaping up at it. "Wait…the Wish Curse Palace is a LITERAL Palace? I thought it was just one of those noun verb noun organization names everyone seems to be so fond of for some reason."

Bethy was gaping up at it. "That is SO cool. How do we get up there? Do we have to climb a rope? Did you bring a grappling hook?"

"Bethy, you realize like half of us have wings, right?" I asked her dryly.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "You can't fly up to a giant spooky castle, Shane. There's probably gargoyles protecting it or something."

"Lightning elementals, actually," Aiden said. "But yeah, aerial approach is a bad idea. I told you, this whole world is a formation. Trying to forcibly go anywhere you aren't cleared to access is a very poor decision. If you want to access the Palace, you need an invitation." He gestured grandly up at the colossal building. "So please, come on in."

There was a shift in the air, and the ambient light brightened, and for brighter, and brighter, and brighter, until it reached critical mass and exploded into a shower of golden sparks that shot up towards the Palace, leaving behind a seven colored trail of light that slowly built itself along the route to the clouds the palace sat on as it shot up into the sky. Bethy gaped at it. "Is that…a rainbow?"

"Of course," he said proudly. "The rainbow path is the only way to connect the ground and sky and enter the palace. It's part of the formation, so it bypasses the defenses." He stepped forward, feet touching down on the rainbow light, and it rippled under his foot like water around a dropped stone. Despite that, his foot found purchase easily and he stepped up onto the path. "Stick close, though. The defenses won't touch anyone on the path, but Wishworld has been around a long time. There are a few things up there that aren't part of the formation."

My dad snorted. "Oh gods, I forgot about cousin Jessica's birds. They're still alive?"

"Yes," Aiden said shortly. "And they're much bigger now. Plus they had hatchlings. Those fucking scavengers are deadly. I still don't know what Jess was thinking. What convinced her that something named a 'Scythian Torment Vulture' would make a good pet?"

Dad shrugged. "She was always a little odd. Had a penchant for darker wishes. Remember the zombie mountain?"

"Ugh," Aiden said in disgust. "It took so long to kill it. Didn't help they kept burying people up there. You'd think after the third legion rose back up they would have figured it out. I mean, really, she didn't call it a zombiFYING mountain. I still say they had no clue what they were doing. They got lucky with that forest fire."

I just shook my head as we followed behind them, letting them chat. "You good?" I asked Callie as we fell behind and let everyone else get some distance. "This place is wild."

She grinned at me. "I think maybe you're projecting a bit, love. I'm fine, how bout you."

"I…might be a little nervous," I admitted sheepishly. No matter how many gods I meet it never stops being crazy, but even beyond that…this is the one who started it all. The guy my bloodline comes from."

"He'll love you," she said casually. "Or he's an asshole and you should ignore him." She shot me a wild grin before saying semi jokingly. "If he's mean to you I'll have my dad beat him up." I could tell that she didn't mean it (Atlas was dead anyway), but still loved being able to say it. I just laughed and put an arm around her, leaning down for a kiss.

When we reached the top, Aiden led us to a large black door in the wall. A snap of his fingers opened it, and he whistled once. In front of us, a new figure appeared, some kind of tiny imp. It looked like a demonic baby almost, but meaner. It had horns and dark blue skin and sharp fangs so packed into its mouth it couldn't close. "Darius," Aiden said dismissively. "Bring them to their rooms. They'll be staying close together. I have to escort the kid to see the big man."

The imp bowed, then gestured to everyone else. I turned to my friends and family. "Alright all. Get settled in and I'll catch up with you soon. I have a meeting to get to. Wish me luck." And with that, I turned away and followed Aiden off into the dark hallway. I hoped I'd been telling the truth just then, and that I'd be back soon. Or at all. Oh hey, my paranoia was back. Fun.