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

AN// As per the last few books, I had to take down volume three in preparation for publishing, you can find it on amazon and it releases on the 8th of this month! (February 2024) Hope everyone is excited and enjoying the series.

We left. Immediately. Called the others and made sure to tell them to get out as soon as possible. I wasn't sure we could spy on another candidate for long if she decided to look for us, and I needed to find Zeke and ask him about this. I knew he couldn't tell me anything specific if he even knew it, but I trusted my Uncle to let something useful slip, geas or not, if he thought I was in any legitimate danger. He cared too much about me to let a little pain, or even a lot of pain, stop him if my life was threatened. He'd shown that multiple times, and I knew I could trust him.

In my more charitable moments, I wondered if my dad knew that when he left him here, and had been working both sides of the problem, though ascribing that kind of plotting to him made me more uncomfortable than it did reassured. I didn't know if he was an enemy or ally based on how he acted, and assuming that he had that much of my life in his grasp even at this point made me deeply unsettled. Though I supposed that was just arrogance on my part, after everything that had happened. I really had no say in what he could do. He was far too powerful.

Callie was looking at me with worry, though she didn't question my decision to leave. She heard in my voice how afraid I was and she trusted me more than enough to bail on some job even if she wasn't sure we had enough information. I didn't think we were going to be able to turn that mission in. I didn't want the academy knowing there were candidates around. It might make someone pay too much attention to me. I figured Callie would get that more than anyone, since she never pushed me to share what I was with Grimmengap or anyone else.

When we came to a stop though, she looked at me with an expression that took my by surprise. Uncertainty. "Ok, we're out of the way. I take it based on what we heard and your reaction that she was another potential Wishmaster?" She sounded about as worried as I was, but not completely sure about it. Like she didn't know for sure there was anything to freak out about yet and just had a bad feeling.

I blinked at her. "What? Didn't you see the power?" She looked at me blankly. "The magic? Purple electricity? It's the same as my ability when I use it." Nothing. "Do you...not see my ability when I'm using it?" Looking back I realized no one had ever commented on the visual aspect of my power. They FELT it when the power hit them, but they'd never brought up the way it looked. In retrospect that made sense...but it also felt strange I'd never actually noticed it. What else had I missed about my own power?

She seemed relieved that I had a concrete reason to recognize the ability. "No. Nothing like that. I've felt you use your power on me before, and I kind of felt electricity or something, but I never saw anything weird. I guess maybe its something only people in your family can see?" Which made sense. Otherwise our abilities might be more easily recognizable to other people.

My surprise at that little security measure was washed away by the icy feeling of uncertainty when she said the last part. My family. I'd known in the abstract that the other candidates were relatives of mine, and even that some of them might try to kill me, but to hear about it in a more immediate sense made me feel a little sick. Given the whole thing with my parents I was a bit sensitive about the family, and knowing that girl might be a close relative, and worse that she might want me dead, was...awful.

That misery must have been written all over my face because Callie took one look at me and wrapped me in her arms, putting her head against my chest and squeezing me tightly. "Hey. No assumptions. Zeke never said every family member would be willing to kill you off, she might not be here for you at all. Maybe there's another reason. Even if she is nothing says she isn't going to be open to negotiating. There are lots of candidates, and ones much more likely to get to the end. I'm sure team ups happen all the time."

The knot in my stomach loosened a bit. She was right. While offing baby candidates before they were in the public eye did happen, I knew plenty of the more experienced and older members of the family competed openly without murdering each other. There was no reason to assume this particular Wyndham was a murderous lunatic when I obviously wasn't. There were all kinds of people, maybe whoever it was could be reasoned with. Hell, I might even be able to meet one of my family members and have a real relationship with them.

When I mentioned that aloud though, Callie shook her head. "No. We aren't contacting her until we find out more. Just because she isn't necessarily crazy doesn't mean she definitely isn't. We aren't risking your safety, no matter how much I want you to be right. We'll look around, find out more about her, and then figure out what to do after that. Maybe Zeke can tell us more. I doubt she's from this planet, so she has to have a reason to be here. He might know what it is, if he can tell us anyway."

She sounded as frustrated by my Uncle's geas as I was, and I smiled softly at her as I leaned down to pull her into a kiss. When she gave me a puzzled look I just grinned. "That was because you're amazing. You're right. I lost my head for a second, you're the one who always pulls me back when I'm about to do something dumb and impulsive. We wait. Meeting whoever she is can hold off until we know more. Even if I was willing to risk me, I'm not willing to risk you, you or the others either."

The others showed back up, Jin and Rellia having gone with Jessie and Cark so Callie and I had privacy for our date. They all met us at the entrance, clearly unsure of what had happened but worried enough to make haste on the trip back. When they showed up, everyone looked incredibly disturbed. Benny was the first to ask about it of course. "Hey, your message sounded pretty panicked, everything ok?" I could tell he was more worried about my problems than the interruption to his date, and I felt a surge of warmth at the realization.

Unfortunately as much as I appreciated my friend's care, I wasn't going to talk about the issue in front of the others, much less in public where anyone could overhear, so I had to shake it off. Luckily I had a more subtle way to convey things. "Nothing that concerns the group. Saw one of my relatives here and we aren't on good terms. I just want to get out of here before they notice me so I don't end up fighting with them. You know, family stuff." I tried my best to keep my tone casual as I mentioned all that, but I saw Benny's eyes go wide at the mention of relatives.

The others looked confused, which was the point of speaking so indirectly, so I was glad, though they missed the discomfort. I was able to hide the signs of my distress with a subtle application of the stealth Skill, using my Perception to pick up and erase the signs that I was bothered. It wouldn't have worked on anyone with a higher Perception, just like any stealth without some other Skill or ability altering it, but none of my friends had that so I was in the clear.

Jessie and Benny took their cue from me and kept their faces blank, accepting the statement without prying in front of the others. They knew about my situation obviously, but I could tell they were dying to hear about the circumstances of another candidate being here or how I'd found out. I was pretty curious about the first myself, and I desperately hoped Zeke was able to shed some light on the issue, though I was afraid that we might need to pay for the privilege and we wouldn't have close to enough.

So we headed back to the capsule to make our way up to the surface. We offered to let the others stay of course, but since we were leaving Celine had no date to continue and Sarah and Martin didn't want to leave her on her own. Despite the suspicious choice to just leave none of them said a word, and I was pretty sure the effort of hiding my distress had been wasted given how weird it was that we were just leaving out of the blue, though none of them showed any interest in questioning us about it.

I knew that was a deliberate choice. My friends weren't stupid, but they did feel like they owed us quite a bit, especially Cark. Despite our insistence that it wasn't the case, I was certain it played some role in their decision to leave things alone. Of course, it could just be common courtesy too. Family drama was some of the messiest as we knew from Callie's issues with Annie. It wasn't exactly weird for them to leave the subject alone.

The ride up to the surface was tense and quiet. I think they weren't sure what to say, so they were just keeping quiet. I appreciated the thought but I lamented the easy air of camaraderie from the trip down. I planned to do my best to restore that team dynamic when I was in the right head space, but right now I couldn't shake the anxious nervous feeling like something was gnawing on my stomach. I was too distracted to bother with anything as complicated as basic socializing right now.

Once we got back up to the surface, Jessie, Cark, Benny, Callie, me, and all five of our wolves squeezed into the car (which wasn't really big enough to comfortably seat so many) and headed home. Once we were in the car Benny finally asked about what had happened. Cark knew about my ability already, and while I hadn't explained my origin, there was really only one family with the Wish ability. "Ok, so what the hell Shane? You saw another member of your family? Did they see you? Are we in danger?"

I growled in frustration, having wanted to avoid this discussion. "I don't know. I don't know anything. I don't want to tell the story twice so I don't want to go into details but we saw an obvious demonstration of her power. I'm not sure if she noticed us, not sure if she's here for me, not sure if she knows I'm here. I have a few guesses about one or two of those questions, but we just don't have enough information. I'm hoping Zeke can share a bit of info,. Until then you know about as much as I do."

He sighed at my obvious unhappiness, but didn't ask anything else. He could tell from my tone the I wasn't interested in speculating. We sat in silence for the rest of the trip back to the house, and when we finally reached the house we all boiled out of the car as I headed inside to find my uncle. Despite the completely likely outcome of yet another stonewalling, I was wracking my brain for the right tactic to take to ask about this. If I could find a way around the geas I knew he would help me. I just needed to ask the right questions. My life may depend on it.

 

I'd half expected Zeke to be waiting to discuss the happenings at the circus when we got there, but when he wasn't I mentally berated myself for the thought. Zeke wasn't all knowing. His stats were insane, but he couldn't be listening to everything happening all over the planet all at the same time...probably. Even if he could processing all of it would be hellish and it didn't seem like his kind of thing anyway. Too much effort for no real reason.

Instead he was sitting on the couch with Cass, watching some show I'd never seen before about goblins or something. It was animated rather than an actual video, and I'd never seen it, but that wasn't really important right now. I nodded to Cark who went and plopped down next to his sister on the couch, the wolves following him up and snuggling with the pyrokinetic and his sister as they watched tv together.

When that was done I nodded at Zeke, who had noticed the byplay. I gestured for him to follow me out of the room, and despite raising an eyebrow in wry amusement at the request, he stood up to follow me out of the room so we could talk. I was pretty sure with his Perception he could tell how agitated I was. I was also fairly positive it was the only reason he didn't hassle me about calling a meeting with him our of nowhere like that.

When we made it into the next room he raised an eyebrow. "Damn Shane, you're jittery as hell. You look like you've seen a ghost." His tone was light, but his face was concerned. He knew I wasn't exactly panicky, especially lately, and seeing me so shaken had him worried. At the very least it seemed like he wasn't aware of the other candidate on Callus. If he knew about her the reason for my distress would be obvious.

I stared hard at him for a minute, not even paying attention to Callie entering the room behind me and stepping up to my side for support, at least aside from taking her hand and giving it a quick squeeze. "I ran into someone...unexpected." Are you absolutely sure there's nothing you wanted to warn me about?" I was fairly sure he had no clue, but I needed to check. Despite the geas I'd always been sure he would warn me if something really bad happened, despite some pain. If that wasn't true I needed to know. I wouldn't blame him, but it would change the way I acted going forward.

He just gave me a blank look. While I was sure a B ranker could lie to me if he chose, I knew Zeke pretty well, Skills or stats aside, I could tell when he meant something. He had no clue. I breathed a sigh of relief. He just squinted at me in confusion. "You know I can't say anything specific to you kid, but I can't think of anything specific I would need to mention. If I could mention anything. Which as you know I can't." He spoke deliberately as he said that last bit, making it clear he was answering without answering.

Now that I knew he hadn't hid it from me, I was free to move on to my next emotion. Annoyance that my B ranked guardian hadn't even detected one of the other candidates showing up on this supposedly safe planet. "Today we went to the circus to scope out the Jerks and learn what they were doing. We spotted and followed them, only to find out they were meeting with a hooded figure. A figure who proceeded to grant them a wish right in front of us. Though Callie couldn't see the sparks apparently."

He nodded absently at that last bit. "Oh that, those are a bloodline side effect, Only other Wish users can see it. As for the rest...I have no idea Shane. There shouldn't be another candidate here. They must have shown up recently. Their guardian is probably shielding them. I haven't been actively searching or anything, so that isn't a shock. Not that I'll start now. But if they're using the Jerks it doesn't sound like they're actively trying to kill you."

Which was reassuring, but only up to such a point as I could find out what she DID want. I threw up my hands. "What the hell is the point then? Why even engage with me? What is she planning?" I couldn't see what she had to gain by doing any of this. Maybe some kind of a resource grab? But why come to a tiny planet like Callus to challenge me, and why not actually seek me out? None if it made any sense.

He shrugged. "She might be trying to box you in. No telling if she even knows who you are. Taking over the local branch could be an attempt to flush you out. Hell, maybe she's trying to prove you unfit. There are more ways than dying to lose the candidate selection. Your old man is still alive and he lost. If she can completely take control of the branches on your home planet she might be able to get you stripped of your qualifications. Of course I don't actually know, which is why I can mention any of this. Once again, I can't give you direct help without violating the rules."

I exhaled in relief. I knew that Zeke would find some way to help without tripping up his geas. Sure it wasn't exactly a dossier, but I didn't care. He was still on my side. I could learn more about the other candidate, I knew where she was and what she was doing, which could very well be more than she knew about me. Even if it wasn't I was at least prepared for her. Still, there was plenty left to handle. I knew he wouldn't be able to tell me anything specific but I figured a direction was doable. "So, if you were me, what would your next move be?"

That got a wide smile from Zeke, who seemed happy I'd asked the right question. "Well now. I can't give you any advice, but thought exercises are well within my rights. Of course, if you happened to listen in as I talked all of this out to myself I couldn't do anything about it. This isn't for you though, just thinking out loud. So feel free to ignore me." I couldn't help but grin at the tone of almost malicious glee in his voice as he said that, clearly enthused about the chance to screw with the geas.

Of course I knew he still wouldn't be able to say much. If it was easy as pretending I wasn't around he'd have done it ages ago. I was pretty sure he would still be paying a price, I just hoped it would be a smaller one. I waited for him to continue, and the deep breath he took to prepare himself made me pretty sure this was going to hurt him more than I'd like, but despite feeling terrible I didn't stop him. I might be in real danger, my friends might too. Zeke was willing to suffer a bit to keep us safe and I had to respect that. He could handle it.

He focused on me, and I saw the mark I'd seen before start to glow again, though his face didn't change. "If I were you I would look into the current political climate in the WCP around here. I would consider that one E ranker taking over one territory wouldn't be nearly enough to sway anything like the Rajak branch. I'd wonder if perhaps the current situation might be advantageous for some larger party that might have a bigger impact on the branch as a whole, and impact that might allow this new element to benefit."

As he spoke, his voice got tighter, more strained, and his teeth began to grit, clearly starting to suffer from the same pain as before, though seemingly less severe. Despite the obvious discomfort though Zeke didn't stop. "I might also point out that your new friend obviously had to tell some of her new allies about her abilities. It might be necessary to reach out to a faction yourself to counter that influence." He grimaced in pain, finally stopping his speech as the geas called his words to a halt for violating the terms of his deal.

Despite that I gave him a grateful smile. I knew how rough this was for him, but he was doing it anyway and it had definitely paid off. I personally would have never considered allying with a local faction. Telling my friends was one thing, but the idea of outing myself like that was completely absurd. However, in this situation the reasons for it being so stupid were somewhat mitigated. I couldn't be pressured by higher level Ascendants because of Zeke, at least not E rankers, and I could find someone who could actually protect me from F rankers.

That wasn't to say it was a certainty. I'd have to see if I found a faction worth trusting, I definitely wasn't going to just randomly confide in some people I didn't know to get out of danger. That would just be shooting myself in the foot later on down the line. It wasn't important, we could figure that out later. For now I caught Zeke by one shoulder and Callie caught the other. As the geas faded he dropped like a puppet that had his strings cut. His body had been wracked with painful spasms and he'd been putting his all into resisting it, having nothing to keep him standing once the tension was gone.

I panicked a bit. "Zeke! Are you alright?" I hadn't expected even an oblique hint like he'd given us would have done this much damage. I felt a flash of guilt. I'd known he would get at least a bit hurt doing this, but I hadn't stopped him. I turned to Callie. "Help me get him over to the chair over here." We carried my Uncle's limp form over to the big overstuffed armchair off to one side of the room, setting him down gently, though not gently enough to avoid the loud groan of discomfort as his aching body made contact with the surface of the seat.

My Uncle gave a painful chuckle once he'd caught his breath. "I'm fine kid. man, Eli is such a dick sometimes. I should have known he would make the punishment for violating the geas unbearable. He's still pissed about that Void Ravager I left in his closet when we were in the C ranks. I don't know what he's so fussy about, it's not like his face didn't grow back after a year or two." He saw my expression and snickered. "Don't take things so seriously kid. When you're as old and powerful as we are a bit of pain just keeps things interesting. Eli isn't some dastardly traitor or evil sadist, this is just how we interact."

I blinked. I hadn't actually considered that. I'd thought Zeke was a victim of my dad who he'd tricked and taken advantage of, but he was right. The mindset the two of them had was so divorced from mortality that I literally couldn't comprehend it. I couldn't imagine inflicting that kind of pain on Benny, and I knew he'd feel the same. Still, I noted with discomfort that I was much different than I had been as a normal person. Who knew how far that would go. I gave him a worried look. "How much of that is-"

He cut me off. "Recursion? Who knows. You'll find as you get older you try not to ask that question. Those of us in the higher ranks are fighting a constant battle with our legends to maintain ourselves. Looking back and seeing how much ground we've lost isn't a healthy way to live. Ascendants aren't mortals kid, we aren't even really human. For better or worse we're all just the heroes of our own story. But stories skip over a lot of things. They cut out the boring parts. Same with us, we lose the uninteresting parts of who we are."

He gave me a sad look."You need to decide which parts aren't important to you, and hold onto the ones that are. It's the best any of us can do. But as for the parts that are gone? Don't dwell on those too much. I've seen people a lot more powerful than you lose themselves second guessing the person they've become. Being an Ascendant means power, but it also means weakness. We are what they make of us." And with that ominous declaration he rolled over and went to sleep. I stared down at him uneasily. I had a lot to think about.

 

It was decided, after our talk with Zeke, that we would head down to the WCP and take a look around in one of the larger districts. The E district, specifically, was the target of our next outing, despite the fact that we were absurdly poor by the standards of that place. We took the day off however, and called to apologize to Grimmengap. If I did join a faction I would tell them about my powers at the same time. I'd decided they deserved to know if it was getting out anyway, but until then we couldn't really have them involved.

Once we were done with that we took the rest of the day to calm down and rest, making sure to relax a bit before the big trip. To prepare for it, we did some research on E district, and exactly what we might run into down there. All the major organizations had headquarters in the E district, and while I wasn't able to find much on them, Callie had dug up quite a bit with her hacking ring, managing to uncover some very interesting facts about our next destination. I was curious as hell about what we might find down there, so I left her to explain things.

She spun up the screen, showing me the photos she had found of a massive sprawling gold and white palatial complex. "Ok. So this, from what I've found, is E district. It's completely unique actually, because this place isn't mostly frequented by E rankers. There ARE always E rankers down there, but there's a hundred of them tops, and not all of them even live down there or even use the place. Most of the residents are guild or gang members who represent part of a faction run by a powerhouse."

She spun to another picture. "Despite what it may seem like, only half of the E rankers on this planet are actually Unity. Some are from other places, though they're rare, some are gang lords who moved here to live the high life, and some are members of powerful families that paid to get them the resources needed to rank up, but regardless about fifty percent of the people we might meet won't be involved with the guild. This is extremely important for multiple reasons, but the biggest one is that the ones outside of the guild's influence are mostly guest elders of the WCP itself."

I felt a light bulb go off in my head. "Of course. Giving the local talent leadership position lets them poach up and comers, and a deeper access to local politics. I take it that these guest elders are the ones most likely being courted by this new candidate? What kind of power do they have in the branch? Guest elder sounded more honorary than anything else, but I knew better than anyone that things didn't always make sense. It would be extremely bad if we overlooked something important because of my assumptions.

She smiled at me. "Surprisingly, a lot. Guest elders form a council that acts as a counterpoint to the branch manager. Considering the manager is only E rank it makes sense to share some of the power. The WCP is huge and powerful, but that's far off power, not immediate intrinsic power. If they pissed off all the E rankers on the planet it could make problems for their people on Callus, even if I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to actually kill one the WCP's executive branch without a damn good reason."

Her logic made sense to me, I'd seen from the Jerks first impression that being scary didn't keep everyone off. Some people were too stupid to be afraid. "Ok, then they're a full half of the decision making process. That does make them pretty important, especially if this little game is to get them on board. In that case how do we win them over instead? Can we bribe them or something? I couldn't think of a proper diplomatic way to change minds, but bribery would be a language everyone spoke.

Sadly it wasn't to be. She shook her hand. "No. We don't have the resources. We literally can't pay enough to motivate them all, or even probably one of them. They're E rankers, two full ranks above us. Their pocket change is more money than we'll make in a year. Still, there are other ways to win friends. The Jerks are using one of them, from what I can tell they're taking care of the Cavalcade to open up the way for the Flame Riot Militia to take control of the territory. With Aiden gone they're a huge force in G district now, and they want to make that an official thing."

I knew the Flame Riot Militia was run by an E ranker, but I hadn't realized the political situation of the district. I groaned. "Ok, fine, if the Militia is backing them that's one of the fifty or so guest elders, that can't be enough. How is she going to get the others? Hell how will she get the guild master?" I doubted the branch manager was going to be someone to underestimate if you were smart. They might not be Zeke, but anyone who got to that position had to have the strength and cunning to back that up in a fight.

That got me a snicker. "Because life is a mess. The Militia is part of a bloc of power inside the WCP. They represent a small subset of the elders who are dedicated to expansion at any cost. They're not well liked, because they tend to pick fights for no reason, but still, they're powerful. In this case they wouldn't have time to act on you, but I do wish I knew what the other factions were so we didn't have to go down there. As it is we're stuck with more recon, and this isn't going to be condensed. Lots of traveling in our future I suspect."

It said something about the relationship the Wish Curse Palace had with the other powers that they had an active population of Ascendants equal to members of the leadership of the dominant faction in this region on Callus, even if the tiny backwater wouldn't be a priority for the Unity as a whole. This was Unity territory, and for them to be willing to tolerate a WCP branch that could equal the leadership of this planet was...terrifying. Speaking of, I looked at my girlfriend. "Anything in there about the boss here? Must be someone pretty scary to keep all this in line."

She grimaced. "Surprisingly little actually. His name is Facade, but he's very low key. People don't talk about him much because he isn't too active, but I did a deep dive and managed to pick out a few bits of info from the forums I managed to get into. Facade isn't considered to be particularly awe inspiring in a one on one fight. His seconds are supposedly terrifying, but the man himself, despite being peak E rank, is more of a political animal. He's a fop, a partier, and spends most of his time schmoozing with the other E rankers and having expensiove galas at his palace in E district."

Her words were innocuous, but I could tell from her tone she didn't really buy what she was saying. "Why do I get the feeling you think he's more dangerous than he lets on?" I didn't say it in a skeptical tone, if she thought so she had good reasons I was sure, but I wanted to hear her thought process from a fresh point of view, without adding on my own reasons, Maybe I'd see something she missed.

That got me a smile, she could tell I was playing sounding board more than skeptic, and was happy to play along. "Because he's been in power too long. The WCP is a huge power here in Rajak, no way people aren't constantly gunning for his role as branch head, but he hasn't been directly challenged in about two hundred years from what little I was able to find. Scary minions are one thing, but Facade seems to also have a knack for making sure his enemies run into each other when trying to deal with him."

Realization dawned on me. "You said he's social, always cozying up to other E rankers. You think he's manipulating them
to make sure he has a consistent equilibrium in the branch, keeping everything balanced just right to maintain a stalemate. He gets to stay in charge without seeming dangerous, and still gets to spread his reputation by playing the party animal, continuing to gain power using the WCP without dealing with direct challenges or having to show his hand." I smiled ruefully. "Kind of makes the name a little on the nose, don't you think?"

Callie just chuckled. "I think that's the point. He's so in your face about it people don't even notice. Hiding in plain sight and all that. I think we need to be a lot more careful of Facade than most people think is necessary." She paused. "Though, maybe not. If he knows about Zeke he might be too terrified to mess with you. E rank is within his window, and if Zeke decides he's actively interfering he could swat the man like a bug. Speaking of Zeke being able to swat anyone we might run into like a bug..." She trailed off, her face morphing into a worried frown.

I exhaled noisily, having been worried about this myself. "The other guardian. Of course, it's possible that Zeke is an arrangement dad made just for me, but I doubt it. The rules Zeke follows are too concretely defined. More likely there's another terrifying guard on Callus protecting the other candidate. Granted that's not an issue for us personally, since she's G ranked like we are, but if we do end up teaming up with another faction we need to worry about them sending someone too strong to deal with her. It would be pretty shitty to have our allies get wiped out."

That drew a wince from my girlfriend. "Agreed. We'll take that into account when we figure out who to work with, if we work with anyone. For now though, I think our best bet is to spend the rest of the night just relaxing." She grabbed me by the hand. "We have quite enough to worry about without driving ourselves crazy dwelling on things. For the moment we're going to watch cartoons with Cass and cuddle the wolves. Big fuzzy puppies are good for the soul, and I'm curious what exactly cartoon goblins get up to."

Despite the seriousness of the current circumstances I chuckled as she pulled me out of the room to head to where our youngest housemate was enjoying her animated show. When we got down there I was unceremoniously tossed into a huge pile of oversized canine before Callie jumped on top of me with a shout like a diver cannonballing into a pool. Cass giggled uproariously as I groaned and rolled around, pretending my girlfriend had injured me with drop and making comments about how heavy she was.

That got me a pout as she decided she didn't feel like playing anymore, put I'd wrapped her up in my arms and pulled her against me, nuzzling my face into her neck until she started giggling herself and got past it, though Cass apparently decided we were no longer amusing and hurled a pillow at us, shushing us both so she could watch her show. We grinned at each other before settling in to find out what exactly this goblin show was about. As we quieted down I took a long look around the room at friends and family (Zeke had slipped back in) and smiled. Whatever was coming we could handle it. For now we would just relax and enjoy life. Tomorrow would be soon enough to deal with our trip.

 

I was in a surprisingly good mood the next morning. I'd expected to be worried or terrified, but the evening spent spending time with Callie and Cass and Cark had mellowed my outlook immensely. Sure, things might be less than ideal, but I wasn't in any more danger than I had been the day before, hell, I was in less danger since I knew about what was going on. I happily made my way to the large luxurious shower in my bathroom and spent about an hour under pounding hot water, letting my muscles soak in the heat and relaxation before hopping out and getting dressed.

I got down to breakfast to find everyone eating donuts someone had bought, and I snagged a jelly filled as was my usual custom, taking a big bite of raspberry filled glazed pastry and enjoying it as I dropped into the chair across from Callie, who was savoring an eclair. She saw me looking as I sat down and smiled at me with a mouth full of cream filling, croaking out. "Morning." In a muffled voice as she ate, unwilling to stop devouring the cream filled pastry long enough to swallow and talk, which wrung a laugh out of me.

I chewed a bit, and actually swallowed before responding. "Morning. You get the donuts?" She nodded happily, starting on another one, and I interrupted her with a kiss, though I got a glare for snatching a bit of her eclair as I did it. " So, we're heading down to E district today right? Who should we bring with us? Or should it be just the two of us? We could make a day out of it?" I had really been enjoying our date at the circus until the impending doom had ruined it for us both.

I felt a smack upside my head and turned to glare at Benny, who glared right back. "You will NOT run off with your girlfriend and leave us in the dark when you're dealing with a problem that could potentially kill us all. We'll all go." He raised his chin pridefully, marching past us, but accidentally slamming his shin into the table hard enough to get a wince, even if it didn't do any real damage. His wolf stepped up behind him, bumping into the back of his knees and sending him tumbling over the canines back, spilling him one the floor as he tried to steady his person.

Benny looked torn between laughing and scowling, but he settled laughing, pulling the 'helpful' wolf down to nuzzle his face. Callie finished eating with a chuckle, but as she swallowed she shook her head. "Not all sadly. While the puppies might be welcome in G district, tamers aren't allowed to bring animals or monsters down to E district without a bunch of expensive permits we really don't have time to get. Since the wolves can't come along I think Jessie should stay with them. We don't want them to be alone and bored in the house. I trust them not to hurt anyone of course, even if someone was here, but it would be sad for them."

She looked at Jessie when she said that, and the tiny blonde sighed, but nodded. "Alright. Cass can help me play with them. I wanted to teach them some games anyway. They would be great at hide and seek considering their senses." Her eyes gleamed with mischief, and I suspected Cass wouldn't actually be aware that the wolves were playing hide and seek with them until she got found and became it. Still, if she was taking care of Cass that left us with another possible companion.

At my glance Cark, who was eating a bear claw, chuckled. "Hey, I'm in. I normally wouldn't have the clearance to get into E district. I've heard of the place but you need to be a higher class member of the WCP to get in. I assume you have that covered?" He raised an eyebrow in amusement and I just snorted, reaching into my pockets to slip out the black card and show it to him. He whistled at the sight of it and I chuckled. I'd been wondering when the thing would come in handy again, I hadn't used it since I got to Rajak.

It made sense to limit access to E district. Granted they couldn't have the whole place run by E rankers, there weren't enough of them and they were too powerful for that anyway. Since I knew people could go down there regardless of rank, level of membership seemed like a decent enough way to control access. I was sure the WCP had plenty of defensive measures that kept out low level members, otherwise what was the point of the cards. I wondered what level you had to be to get into E district? I'd be fine to get us all in regardless since I had the highest level access.

After we finished eating we all got ready to leave. I was showered and dressed, but the others weren't so I hung out in the living room waiting for the others to get ready and playing with Jin. Despite not knowing any games according to Jessie, my wolf was pretty damn intelligent for an animal. I was able to teach him to intercept thrown snacks pretty easily, and it was pretty entertaining to throw stuff down the length of the room and watch him bolt over and leap up to snatch it from the air.

Finally though everyone got back from getting ready and we headed out, taking the car to the station where we would be able to take a canister down to E district. Parking was a nightmare, since this was pretty early in the day, but we found a place to leave the car in a nearby parking structure and headed down into the station to catch our tube down. When we got there though, we realized something important. We didn't know which tube was heading for E district, so we had to do some poking around.

We finally found the tube down to E district a little while later. It hadn't been that difficult to spot with some searching, though it was much smaller than the others which threw us off. Still, the much more compact but much nicer and better furnished elevator compartment was easily noticeable because of it's quality and elegance, standing out from the areas around it for its luxury.

When we located it I was easily able to spot a small scanning pad to one side of it. I slipped out my black card, swiping it in front of the screen. The lamp and skull insignia etched into the card glowed dimly and briefly with a purple light that reminded me of the flames my power used to communicate, and an identical symbol appeared on the screen just before the doors of the elevator chamber slid open. We all stepped inside, not in a hurry and took a seat on one of the plush and tasteful couches arrayed around the exceptionally detailed decorative carpet lying in the middle of the room.

The door slid shut, and no one else appeared to be coming, because there was a subtle vibration and the chamber began to slowly descend. It was barely noticeable, even with my Perception, so I had to admit this thing was pretty well made, but then, the other one had been too. This was just much more luxurious. It made sense that E rankers and their minions would have the best means of transportation though. As we descended, I turned to Callie curiously. "So, considering how big these districts are, how do they all fit under the city. Also I feel like we're just going straight down. Where exactly IS E district?"

She shrugged. "No one is actually sure. The WCP goes out of their way to keep the trips from being obvious or detectable from the access shafts, at least not from inside the chambers. It's an extra layer of security that no one knows where it is. Most people think that E district is deeper than the others though, to keep it safer and harder to find. I do know it's not as large as some of the others. I think F is the biggest actually, there's more G rankers, but they make up a smaller portion of the economy. The F ranked Ascendants aren't the wealthiest group, but the size gap means the money the E rankers spend tends to be more condensed."

I'd never seen the F district, but the logic made sense to me at least. Anyway, I was curious about how deep underground the place actually was, or if it even was that deep. I knew that elevators in WCP facilities didn't always just move up and down, the one at the Velan branch hed moved back and forth too. Regardless we should be there pretty soon, and I was looking forward to seeing what E district was like. We made small talk as we waited, and after what seemed like twenty minutes or so I felt that same barely detectable vibration as the chamber slid to a stop before the doors slowly slid open.

I stepped out of the chamber and onto a platform that was nothing like the one in the station. Where that one was crowded and functional, the number of people here was limited, but even more than that, the platform was much to beautiful to ever be considered anything but artwork. We were standing on a large white marble edifice with stairs leading down the side. The marble was veined with black, and there was gold trim around the edges of the steps and the platform itself.

Off in the distance there were neatly organized streets of huge buildings made from the same material. Despite being the same style of architecture and material, each building was easily discernable from its neighbors from the unique gold filagreed designs sitting in the triangular face of the upper building above a series of identical white marble columns. It looked like some kind of ancient temple complex, and it was absolutely breathtaking to behold, but that wasn't the most amazing thing.

Past the mesa the complex sat on, and easily visible in the distance, was a huge sprawling forest. The forest didn't look wild or untamed, but peaceful and idyllic, and the man visible gaps in the trees showed playful animals and gorgeous scenes of nature. More so than that though, what really made me gape was the sky. As in...there was a sky. And a sun. Underground. At least I was pretty sure we were underground. And despite that fact there was a deep blue sky overhanging the entire place, with lazy gentle clouds floating by.

It was...paradise. Every single facet of the place worked together in a sort of overwhelming harmony that was almost intoxicating, like we were living in some kind of good dream. We all stood there and stared in awe around the place, absolutely thunderstruck by how peaceful and pleasant it was. Even the other Ascendants on the platform seemed happy and relaxed and refused to start any trouble with one another, politely greeting anyone they passed with a smile or just ignoring them at the very worst.

I turned to the others. "Ok. This is...interesting. I think this is my new favorite place." I looked at Callie, who was still staring in awe, having obviously never been here. "Cal, you're the boss here, what are we doing first?" She turned to me, seeming to be knocked out of a reverie, literally having to shaking her head to dislodge the distraction. She smiled and handed me a piece of paper, and when I took it and scanned it I saw it was a map. I had no clue where she'd gotten it, but I did see what was circled. Apparently we were going to visit the Flame Riot Militia first.