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

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Bezarius]

Zeke is definitely one of my favorite character from this story. Best uncle too, strong, helpful, and have a good carong relationship with Shane.

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

Click to shrink...

This will be helpful for Shane to build up his DS skill to be more solid.

 

[Mastersenseinewby]

I'm looking forward to Shane to drop kick his father in the face

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

 

[MichaelSuave]

The Cult is definitely going to either invade or just attack at the wedding... because we aren't allowed to have nice things.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Lone-sith]

Imma be fr, over anything else, throughout his story my favorite parts are the ones connected to his family

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wishmaster candidate status. E-rank. Ability: Expert Wish- Seven times a day grant an Expert wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.
Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.
Might-6005
Impact-65
Fantasy-4250
Vitality-5002
Focus-4020
Perception-4204
Creation-4554
Progress to next rank:28100/100000
Soul strength- Sapphire Soul Body


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

Pet- Wolf named Jin

Financial resources:10 E-rank chits 80 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was one of the things that made me hopeful for Benny's future, even without the kind of absurd growth I had. With those stat boosters (they boosted effect not actual value) he essentially had a high tier racial trait. Because of the interaction he'd need to replace them as he ranked up, but still, it was a great foundation to build a rep off of.

At my comment though, he just snorted. "I'm not taking weapon advice from someone whose entire combat philosophy is 'whack it with a big stick'." He said with an eye roll. "Callen is a genius swordsman, and a LITERAL sword Master. I'm sure he can teach me plenty about how the blade works."

I sniffed disparagingly. "Well fine then. Have fun poking stuff with your oversized butter knife. I'll continue to pursue a higher form of combat."

"You're both weak sauce." Said Abel arrogantly. "Everyone knows real power comes from your fists. I don't need any fancy tools to do damage. Just smash everything in front of me into paste and move on."

Gabe snorted. "Imagine only using your own physical power to attack. Mounted combat is where the real power is. Haven't you ever heard of the Fairy Queen's Dragon Knights?" His lips were quirked up in a smile as he joined in the banter, and I found a matching grin on my own face.

Sometimes it was nice to just talk shit with your friends. Finally though, we got off a bus and stopped in front of a large market full of stalls, tents, and even a few actual shops. When we arrived, we all stopped talking, staring in awe at the bustle of powerful people in front of us. Time to pick my new weapon.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The market we arrived at was one of the smaller ones. It was on the border of Empire and Church territory, and I was hoping we would get better prices because it wasn't quite so busy. Competing with C and B-rankers in the main hub market would be an exercise in frustration, and something a bit more subdued would be better for finding what we needed.

Still, even the smaller market was pretty bustling, and while I didn't see many B-rankers, C and D-rankers abounded.

"I don't even know where to start." I said, blowing out a breath. "There are a bunch of weapon shops. Should I go for the big ones? The small ones? Flip a coin?" I turned to Gabe. "You're from a big faction. Can you help me out?"

He shrugged. "I got my weapon from the Bishop in charge of my home planet's clergy. Won it in a tournament. I couldn't tell you anything about items." He turned to Benny. "You're an inventor right? Can't you analyze the materials and tell us what we should buy?" He pointed at a random axe lying on a nearby table. "Like that one, what is it made of?"

"What am I, an encyclopedia?" Huffed my best friend. "How the hell should I know. The days of me being able to identify any material on sight ended when I reached Intermediate. Honestly I have a sneaking suspicion my Minor Inventing Skill was customized to our specific environment, because looking down from where I am now there's no way I was just given all the materials at H-rank from one small wish."

I nodded, considering my options. "Well, I have this badass crown that boosts my Eye of Revelation. Maybe I should try a little divination." Staring down at the axe, I focused hard on my Eye and triggered the subskill. My mind was flooded with a series of images, constructs of stats that created effects that would empower the weapon. "I…have no clue what any of this means." I said after a minute.

Benny snorted and I shrugged. "Sorry, but my skill at making Skills is still pretty early on in its development. I can recognize the stats its made of, but the structure itself isn't much like anything I've seen. Lots of Might and Vitality, and that's all I've got."

"Well how do we usually tell what things are?" Asked Abel in annoyance. "We have to have some way of identifying items."

I brightened. "Hey, we do." I snapped my fingers, a bag appearing in my hands. Passing it to Zeke I stated confidently. "I would like to buy one knowledge please." I paused. "Wait, no that's ten E-rank chits. I want to buy a bunch of knowledges. Identify stuff for me."

He rolled his eyes. "Commissions for identification are usually pretty high. However I can see a bit of wiggle room here. None of my identifications will be of any value to you except the one you actually buy, so technically I'm only identifying a single item for you personally. Ten E-ranked coins will be enough for that. The rest is just idle speculation."

I grinned, gesturing to the axe. "What about this one? Might and VItality I got, but what does it do?"

He rolled his eyes. "D-rank berserker axe. Fills the user with a burst of physical energy. Makes you stronger and refills your reserves until it runs out. Reminds me a bit of Jessie's ability, with the added Might boost."

I nodded in interest. None of us actually used axes though, so we moved on. Staves were kind of sparse, most of the weapon tables and stalls sold bladed weapons and the occasional ranged item.

The few staves we did see at those places were magic staves, which were NOT the same thing at all. Zeke, in his capacity as item guide, explained the difference. "Staves come in two flavors. Weapon and focus. A focus, as its name implies, is built to channel energy and focus it. The big difference between the two though, is that foci don't NEED to be staves. They can be anything."

"So why do so many magic users carry a staff?" I asked in annoyance. "It's just making it harder for good, hardworking warriors like me who just want to hit people with a big stick." I shot a sarcasm laced glance at Benny when I said that, but I was pretty sure he didn't notice.

Zeke shrugged. "Partly tradition, partly size. Staves are large items while still being manageable. Larger margin of error for enchanting them. You can use say, a ring as a focus, or a crown. In fact your crown IS a focus, just a very specific one. Most foci are more like that orb you got Mel. Amplifies fire magic."

"And since the staff is more of a blank slate to write on than a weapon durability isn't an important factor."

He nodded. "Pretty much. Most of these are foci." We'd stopped at one stall where someone had set up a whole umbrella stand full of staves, some fancy, some old and busted looking, however, my uncle pointed at one specific item in the group. "Though that one has some promise."

I looked at a particularly beat up length of wood. No caps, no visible carving, just an old withered stick. "I'm gonna be honest." I said looking at him. "I feel like you're messing with me."

He snickered. "That's Three Moment Ebony. The enchantments are basic, but they take advantage of the natural abilities of the wood. Every time you hit something with that staff it'll actually take three hits."

"So?" I said with a shrug. "Triple damage. That doesn't seem like that big a deal, I have a bunch of skills that already do that."

Rolling his eyes, my uncle sighed. "I didn't say triple damage. I said each hit lands three times. It's a dimensional effect, when you hit someone reality fluctuates and your hit lands in triplicate. This isn't a power boost, its a base multiplier. For someone like you, it's invaluable. You use lots of powerful meta abilities to modify hits. Some of them only apply once. Like your Afterburner lets you have ten hits. This would make each of them count three times."

"So you think I should buy it?" I asked cautiously. "Because it looks like it needs some repair, and that won't be cheap."

He nodded in acknowledgement. "You're not wrong. Three Moment Wood is rare, and someone who can do these kinds of enchantments without the existing patterns in the wood is rarer, but that means getting it fixed will be a pain. I'd keep it in mind and continue searching. If you don't find anything else you can always buy it then."

That had been my thought. If Zeke had said to buy it right away I'd have listened but we were looking through a lot of different pieces here, and grabbing the first thing we found wasn't necessarily going to get me the best result.

So we pushed on. Benny was on the lookout for a new sword, and we actually talked Abel into trying to find a pair of gloves. There weren't a lot of them, but I'd seen a few and they all had some pretty interesting abilities. Given his skillset literally any damage on hit effect would be a boost to Abel's damage output.

Honestly, it was kind of fun. Listening to all the amazing effects some of this gear had. We found a few more staves meant for combat too. One that expanded its size, another similar to an upgraded version of current one that stored damage like a battery, and a fire element staff that converted everything you funneled into it into flame damage on top of its original type.

Sadly none of them were what I was looking for. The Three Moment staff was closest, but it just didn't feel right. It was too close to what I could already do. I needed something that would apply to a variety of attacks, but that wasn't repetitive. Something that took advantage of my strengths.

Benny found a sword he liked (E-rank, he couldn't afford a D-ranked weapon and Zeke said it would be stupid to get one for learning with anyway), nothing fancy but it was made to be extra sturdy and sharp, which he said was all he really needed.

Abel got a pair of gloves that did lightning damage after you built up charge with momentum, and spent the next ten minutes shuffling his feet and poking us to discharge small bolts of electricity into us all until I we threatened to leave him out of every fight we came across for the foreseeable future.

Finally we came to a small shop in the back of the Imperial section, and all of us went inside. It was small and cramped, but it had a certain…atmosphere. The kind that made me think there were real treasures in here. Either that or I'd watched too many movies growing up and the owner just didn't clean very much.

"Interesting." Said Zeke slowly as he looked around. "I've never seen anything like those before."

My head jerked up. "Wait, there are unique items in here? Where?"

"Hmm?" He said, looking back at me. "No, I meant the lamps. They're using a weird filter enchantment for the light to increase ambiance. It's pretty cool. Most of the actual stuff in here is garbage."

There was a thump as a girl stalked out from the back of the shop. "Excuse me?" She demanded. "I'll have you kno…" She trailed off, staring at Zeke in horror. Dropping into a low curtsy she squeaked. "Apologies great one. I didn't think one such as you would be found in my lowly shop."

"She can tell what rank you are?" I asked in surprise. "I thought you were hiding it."

He rolled his eyes. "Craftsman's lens." He said simply. "Right eye. It's like an identification Skill, except it's more limited. More than up to picking up Impact unless I had a concealment artifact, which since I'm a deterrent I didn't bother with today." He scowled at her. "Oh get up. Trust an Imperial to bow and scrape to an A-ranker."

I didn't point out that most people were probably pretty impressed by A-rankers given the Church's reaction to my mom and the devils to my dad. "Ignore my uncle." I said with a wave of my hand. "He's kind of a dick lots of the time. I'm looking for a staff. Weapon not focus."

She nodded hurriedly. "Your august personages won't want the public goods. My premium stock should have something you're looking for." She turned and hurried back out coming out of the room a few minutes later with a pile of sticks. "These may suit your needs? What were you looking for?"

Zeke ignored her. "These four are D-rank." He pointed to a quartet of staves. "This one is a spatial staff that teleports anything it hits, this one gets heavier, this one makes copies of you, and this one…" He trailed off, reaching out to take the staff in question. "Well that's interesting."

The staff was a dark wood, maybe walnut, polished to a shine and shot through with gold. The golden caps on the end were intricate lion heads, four on each cap, facing out. "What does it do?" His voice sounded intrigued in a way I hadn't heard before. I was betting the staff could do something amazing.

"It's called a Staff of Sacrifice. Basically it lets you offload damage onto an enemy along with your attack." He said with interest. "You have to HAVE the injury, but it's similar to healing in a way, you just swap the damage to the enemy."

That sounded…amazing. I couldn't imagine how useful it would be. Given how Impact worked with wounds it wouldn't work on anyone higher ranked, but since D-rankers were so far removed from me anyway that wasn't important. I turned to the girl with a wide grin. "How much for that one?" Then I let Benny take the stage, and the haggling began.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My new staff was amazing. I might have been a bit biased about the issue, but still, I loved it. I wanted to immediately go do some sparring, but I knew that we had other things to do. So, with nothing else to do, we decided to look around the market to see if there was anything besides weapons we could use to our advantage.

There was, but there also wasn't. I'd spent fifty D-ranked chits on my staff, (the woman giving us a pretty amazing deal because she'd had the thing forever and no one wanted it) and only had thirty left. I had a good set of properly ranked armor, and my spatial ring was still fine, so there wasn't much else I needed.

I considered blowing my budget on elixirs, since I still had my ten thousand point allotment this rank, but I decided that it would be better to use it for the last leg of the journey again, because it had worked out well last time.

Which was how we found ourselves standing outside of a small, run down store in the back corner of the district. This one wasn't anything as impressive or dramatic as a weapon shop. It was a book store.

'Tales of Trayven' was old, musty, and dark. The light was dim inside and the walls were stacked high with books of a variety of shapes and sizes. Rather than stack them neatly on a shelf, the books had been jammed in at every possible angle, some vertical, some horizontal, some diagonal.

Because of the huge variety of sizes and shapes, the walls looked like a chaotic mess, and rather than have discrete shelves, the walls were lined with books themselves, stacked to the rafters (and some IN the rafters). Behind the counter at the back, reading a book by the light of a mostly melted candle sticking out of an actual human skull, was an old man.

I'd…never seen an Ascendant that old before. I had no concept of what his age must be to look like he was in his 90's at…well I wasn't sure of his rank, but it was higher than D. Sure, he was in good shape for an older guy. But between the steel grey hair and the lines on his face, he was probably nearing the edge of his D-rank years.

"Well?" He asked, voice sharp and commanding. "Are you going to stare at me like an idiot or tell me what books you're looking for."

Benny cleared his throat. "Well, we aren't really sure what we need. We were just hoping to-" He cut off as a book came whirling from behind the counter like a throwing star and thunked right into his forehead. "Ow. What the hell?"

"Moron!" Snapped the old man. "I run a book store, not an information directory. Don't come in here and waste my time with nonsense. Come up with a subject to ask about or get the hell out!" He gestured at the walls, which given this was an Ascendant shop, were much larger than the outside of this building would suggest. "This is the finest collection of rare tomes in three factions."
Abel perked up. "Do you have any Skill or Spellbooks-" He dipped to the side to avoid the next thrown book, but it curved in midair and smacked into his forehead, just above the mask. He glared at the old man, rubbing his head. "What was that for?"

"This is a book store." The old man reiterated. "Not a Skill repository. The books here contain knowledge. If you want to learn a Skill go buy a crystal."

I nodded slowly, carefully considering how to ask. "Well…how about books on the vanished gods? Do you have any of those?"

His head finally came up out of his book, eyebrow raising. "Well now. That's an interesting request. No one has seen fit to come ask old Arble about the times before the times. You'd think being all high and mighty powerful would make them smarter. Still morons though."

"Arble?" Asked Zeke in disbelief. "YOU'RE Arble? Arble the Ancient? Arble the oldest A-ranker? What the hell are you doing running a shop in a place like this?"

Able sneered at him. "And where else would I run a shop, moron? Some political shithole den of snakes in one of the galactic centers? The day I need some A-ranked puppy to tell me where I should do business is the day I drift peacefully off into the great sleep."

Zeke just snorted. "So…I assume you came for the meeting then? Lark brought you?"

"Morgan-boy might have asked me to hang around." He said lazily. "Lots of people here for this little shindig. Old Arble is always happy to bring education to the blithering masses. Morons like you need a firm and guiding hard, don't you know?"

Rolling his eyes, my uncle shook his head. "If you're Arble the only reason no one has asked you for information is because they don't know you're here. You're one of the oldest A-rankers in the five factions. Over twenty thousand years last I heard it. No wonder Lark wanted you around. So do you have any info on the vanished gods?"

"Knowledge is power." Arble said thoughtfully. "What right do you have to seek my power, brat? Just another puffed up A-rank baby trying to tell old Arble how to organize his books. Your young man there knows how things are done." He nodded to me. "Came in a customer and asked old Arble to show his wares. None of this ridiculous war nonsense, just a curious youth looking to find knowledge."

I cut my uncle off, nodding to the old man. "So, do you have a book we might reference? Something with more than one deity mentioned maybe?"

He nodded approvingly. "That I do. In fact, I have several. Historians seek knowledge like a dying man seeks water in the desert, and they've sometimes got a hankering for strange and obscure subjects. That's how they become renowned, you see. You do research on a niche subject hoping to exploit it for popularity, and if your subject becomes important for some reason your rank explodes. Quite a few niche historians going to rise to prominence off this war."

I was surprised to hear that. I knew about historians and archivists, people who worked with the historical society set up by the Vikram family, but I hadn't considered how that might be related to cultivation.

It made sense though. Creating an academic structure like that would be beneficial for society, circulating important discoveries to help historians who were important rank up so they could keep contributing. I glanced around the shop. "Are all of these books written by niche historians trying to discover the next big historical find?"

"Oh it's not all academics." he said lazily. "Historians are useful in many ways. Archeological finds, tombs, ancient cities. As many of them are treasure hunters as academics, though far fewer of those accomplish anything of consequence. Moron children with moron dreams. And not all of them stick to singular topics. Some of them research larger subcategories."

I could see where he was going with this. "So there have been historians that studied the banished gods as a whole? Cataloguing them maybe?"

"Departed Deities." He said, flicking a finger and catching a book that sailed off a shelf without any physical contact. "By C. Albert Crick." He passed me the weighty blue leather volume. "Not much information on each." He admitted. "But for scope it'll do you just fine. I have another copy, but those S-ranked brats will need to pay through the nose for it." He winked at me. "Don't let them pressure you into showing them yours without extracting concessions."

I laughed at that. "I won't. I was curious, by the way. Do you have any books on Skill construction? I've noticed there doesn't seem to be a Skill for that."

"Of course not." He said with a snort. "Build Skills with your soul, don't you? The soul is beyond the system that quantifies our skills and stats. But also of it. A complex topic. As I told your friends there, knowledge beyond the scope of Skills and abilities can still be useful."

Nodding slowly, I considered that. I was sure you COULD make a Skill out of plenty of these, but he wasn't wrong. Just because you needed information didn't mean you needed a Skill. Historians in general probably worked on that premise. Not everyone wanted to become an archivist just to learn some things about the past.

"As for a book…" He looked me over. "A Wyndham, are you? Interest in Skill development is to be expected, but younger than most. A good head on your shoulders."

He reached under the counter and pulled out a key, turning to unlock a cabinet. Pulling out a small, unassuming book bound in grey leather. He passed it to me, and I read the spine. "Basics of Skill design by Alistair Wyndham." I raised an eyebrow at him. "A family member huh? Thanks, I appreciate that, but I don't know if I can afford both. I have to assume these books are pricey."

"Bah." He snorted. "Wyndhams. So concerned with price and exchange. This is my bookstore, whelp, and if I say they're not too expensive then they're not. Thirteen D-ranked chits for the pair of them, and not a single coin more."

My eyes widened. "That's… that's very generous, thank you." I snapped my fingers, storing the books away, and counted out the chits.

He stared at me. "You remind me of someone I used to know. An old friend. He was much smarter than you are, but he had the same look in his eye. Like he wanted to devour the world and come back for seconds. You come back sometime, next time you figure out what kind of knowledge you need. Old Arble has books on everything."

"I'm getting married in a few months probably." I said wryly. "You have a book on how to not fuck that up?"

He snickered at that. "You ever find a book that tells you that, you bring it here and sell it to me. I'll pay you your weight in A-ranked chits. You read those books careful now whelp. Plenty of things in there to help a young buck like you."

I thanked him and then turned to leave the shop. Something had caught my eye. Another book with a familiar name on it. I walked over to the shelf and reached in between two huge tomes, pulling out a small book bound in red leather. "Contract efficiencies and subclauses by Elijah Wyndham." I opened it, finding thin, densely packed pages full of information on contract construction.

Despite the years, I recognized some of the terms and quotes as things my dad had included in my lessons as a kid.

"Haven't seen that in years." Said Zeke with a whistle. "Historians aren't the only ones who publish, though academic reputation doesn't often add much to a combat focused Ascendant. You going to pick up a copy?"

I snapped it shut, sliding it back onto the shelf and turning away. "No thanks." I said calmly. "I've learned all I need to about that topic."

My dad had shaped so much of my life growing up, even without actually being around. But as I'd grown, especially since Ascending, I was more and more certain that I didn't want to be him. Didn't want to do things his way.

I was on my own path, finding my own way. I wouldn't turn down knowledge for the sake of it, but that book wasn't anything I needed. The others followed quietly, probably digesting the same information I was, and thinking about the strange encounter. Or…you know, they didn't want to get hit in the back of the head with a book on the way out. Could be either one.

 

[Lone-sith]

Great chapter