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

[Malcolm Tent]

It ended up taking about four days for my grandmother to arrive. I spent those days relaxing, spending time with Callie, and checking in on everything on the war front to make sure it would run smoothly without me.

Each morning, I stockpiled my scrolls (eleven per day as of about two months ago, when I officially hit A-rank) and spent time with my friends and my team. I still cooked for Callie, but the prospect of a vacation had her in a better mood, so she wasn't quite as insistent that I run myself ragged, which was a nice change.

Now we were waiting at the edge of the foundation the palace floated on, waiting for our pickup, and we weren't alone. Benny, Jessie, Bethy, Chelsea, Elonwy, Dayna, and Abel had all come along with us, each interested in their own opportunities at the library.

"You're sure they'll have flames for everyone?" I asked Chelsea skeptically. "Your purification flame having a parallel makes sense, it's fine. But Abel's infinite blood sea is made of…well, blood. A sea of it. I know Bethy has a blood flame, so I can understand her, and life fire makes sense too, but Benny's dracolich-"

"Breathes necromantic fire," he finished. "Besides, the Promethean Library is more than just a place with a bunch of flames. It's the research institute founded by the Rainbow Pope. It delves into the very nature of flame. There are fires that are cold, fires that burn dark, if you can think of it, there's a flame for it. I've been eyeing the library for a long time, I've just never had a chance to actually visit."

Chelsea snorted. "Because the whole place is restricted. You can only enter if you have a writ of approval from Rainbow, and mostly that only happens if you submit a new flame. Which considering there are more than a million types of fire housed there, is not a common occurrence."

I gaped at her. "Wait…a million? How are there even a million types of fire? Like yeah, I know I have a couple myself, but a MILLION?"

She shrugged. "If I had to guess, based on what El has been teaching us about Mythcrafting, the various flames are made by mixing attributes with fire. Considering you have some that include multiple attributes, it's not too shocking there are so many combinations possible. That's part of why I'm hoping to find something better for myself. I need an upgrade for my purification flame bloodline, and I've been working on a method to make it work. I'm planning to use that as a foundation for my Domain when I form it."

"An upgrade?' I asked in confusion. "Leaving aside the mechanics, don't you have a perfectly balanced dual bloodline?"

"It's not balanced," she grimaced. "The stronger I get, the clearer that becomes. Enshrining Darkness is a Worldforce level ability, albeit weakened because I'm using it. Grandpa's purification flame is strong, for an S-rank bloodline, but it's seriously mismatched with Enshrining Darkness. My Path is based on harmonizing yin and yang, I can't form a Domain with an imbalance, it won't work. I need to create a stronger flame to balance Enshrining Darkness. Luckily, my Path itself lets my combine things together, so adding more flames to my bloodline is possible. I just need to find the right combination."

I nodded thoughtfully. "You could probably help the others integrate whatever flames they find too. Although if you need a light attribute fire to offset the darkness, why not something like my Peaceflame?"

She sighed and shook her head. "Too passive. Peaceflame is relaxed and…well, peaceful. Enshrining Darkness is a creeping corruption, which means I need the counterpoint to be fast and aggressive. It's kind of complicated, but trust me, it'll take some searching. The Library is my best bet."

Elonwy was practically boiling with excitement. "I adore these kinds of niche research projects. Honestly, studying the various ways to combine attributes into flame? It's like doing a detailed analysis of different kinds of dirt." Seeing our looks, she cleared her throat in embarrassment. "Which isn't an insult, mind. Extremely specialized researchers often find the most fascinating things. Especially when they have to pioneer a field. Given the lack of Mythcrafting knowledge here, this Rainbow Pope must have had to create an entirely new theoretical framework for his research. There's so much to LEARN!"

"Don't you specialize in time crafting with a subspecialty in space?" Abel asked dryly. "Also why didn't we take that crazy car of yours. It would have been way faster."

"Access permissions," I sighed. "The Library is in the Holy Dominion. Security is strict, and it might have started a fight. I'm sure El's car could bypass their defenses for the most part, but there's always a chance they have something weird or nasty cooking we don't know about. Don't forget how old the Church is. Just because we don't know about something they can do doesn't mean they can't do it."

Callie giggled. "Also his grandmother insisted. She hasn't seen me since I started showing and she wants to check on the baby. Honestly, that whole side of the family are natural hoverers."

That was true. I'd known Black Sorrow was a dedicated mother, and that my grandmother had always been close to my mom, but everyone had been WAY more over the top about the baby. Black Sorrow had come in person to visit and apologize for any 'misunderstandings', and had brought a giant teddy bear with her. Literally. It was building sized. It was still sitting in my Domain because we had nowhere to put it.

Of course, I wasn't going to deny my kid the best possible environment, and I knew from experience having Black Sorrow on your side was better than not. Still, I made her sweat a little, and forced her to make a few promises about how she and her people would interact with the baby.

Even my Ancestor, the first Wishmaster, had contacted me about her. I was touched, though I was also suspicious. He never interacted with anyone outside his library. I suspected he was hoping to use the baby as a connection to Atlas, but I liked to think he ALSO cared at least a bit about me and my family. He had saved my life once in the Quiet Room, after all.

Speaking of Atlas, he was on the phone with Callie every chance he got. He and Alara had both been thrilled at the news, and Callie was admittedly pretty happy to have them involved. Her own mother had been in touch too, though it was harder for her to keep in contact given Callus's low level of interaction with the Conglomerate at large. Callie had visited, using the starpluck bangle she'd gotten as a wedding gift to make the trip, but Amelia wasn't strong enough to be anywhere near the front lines where we'd been living, so it had only been temporary.

I was startled out of my reverie by a nudge from Benny. I looked up to find my friend grinning at me. "The woes of fatherhood again?"

"Just wait," I said dryly. "You're married now, you'll be joining me soon enough."

He snorted, shaking his head. "Cel and I are waiting until we're stronger. At least A-rank, and she's only barely into B. I can't thank you enough for those elixirs you got us, by the way. A full set for each of us was…generous. I know you gave them to everyone, but Cel needed the C and B-rank sets both."

"Yeah, well, Natalie did most of it," I shrugged. "The two of them are pretty close, and having access to Nat's scroll allotment definitely made the difference."

My cousin was firmly into B-rank herself at this point. I had no idea HOW, honestly, but I assumed she'd worked out a deal with one of the higher ranked family members using all that money Celine had been paying her. It was impressive, she was moving almost as fast as me. Of course, B-rank was where things started to slow down, and without a body tempering technique and a strong soul, she wouldn't be upping her per scroll limit anytime soon.

Benny and I chatted about his life, married and fighting Void Spawn on the front lines with his wife. They'd formed a party with Dayna, who was helping Celine improve her archery, and I was glad to see my closest friends getting along. I hadn't checked in with Dayna much since our trip to the chasm, and I made a note to find her and see how she was doing at some point while we were at the library.

Sadly, our catching up had to end, we were disturbed by Chelsea letting out a low whistle, pointing off into the darkness of space. Sure enough, looking closer, I was able to spot a black metal vessel sailing dreamily between the stars.

Of course, this was the Acheron about to stop. At top speed we'd have had no chance of catching even a glimpse of the S-rank ship.

It slid smoothly to a stop in front of us, shifting in the air (or whatever you called non land in space) with perfect precision until the ramp that descended was touching down right in front of us.

My grandmother popped out of the entrance, looking excited as she practically ran down the ramp to where Callie was waiting. "Calliope!" she all but squealed. "Oh, look at you, you look radiant dear. And I thought the supernova around the library glowed brightly. Let me get a look at you." She took Callie's hands and twirled her, making admiring sounds about the baby.

I smiled ruefully. "Hi grandma," I said with a brief wave, not expecting much of a response.

"Yes, hello dear, nice to see you," she said dismissively. "Now, we've prepared quite an assortment of meals for you. I remember when I was pregnant with Sasha I had the strangest craving for herring and jelly donuts. Our chef is under strict instructions to make you anything you want at any time, simply call down to the kitchen and the food will arrive in short order."

Callie looked overwhelmed, though happy. I smiled warmly at the joy on her face. I knew how much she treasured family, given what her teen years were like. I followed them onto the ship, the others behind me, as my grandmother filled Callie in on all the amenities aboard the Acheron. Having basically lived on the thing for a month or two on the way to Rackham, I was well familiar.

I noticed a familiar face nearby and stepped out of the procession to lean against the wall. "Hey gramps," I said with a grin. "Exciting day, huh?"

My maternal grandfather, Nicholas Anders, just chuckled ruefully. "It's her first great grandchild, let her fuss. She was just as excited for you and Chelsea, but we all know she wasn't able to be around for you. I think part of this is guilt at not being in your life, honestly. You know we were around for Chelsea, and Celia never quite forgave herself for not knowing you as a child."

"Water under the bridge," I shrugged. "Everything turned out for the best. Honestly, I wouldn't change a single thing about my life. Besides, I never blamed you two for that." My parents, yes, but honestly, not knowing my grandparents was low on my priority list for things that sucked about my childhood. Still, it was nice to know how much they cared, and explained how they'd gone to bat for me more than once.

As we watched them all head into the bowels of the ship, my grandfather clapped me on the shoulder. "You know," he said in a proud voice. "I completely understand that sentiment. Now come on, I want to brief you on some of Rainbow's…peculiarities. Always best to be prepared when meeting new S-rankers." I laughed and we headed off after the others as he filled me in. It was nice to be back.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The trip to the library was unexpectedly relaxing. Benny and I spent most of it watching bad movies, sparring, and playing a game we invented where we used our Paths to try to keep an apple core from touching the floor of the kitchen while walking on our hands. We both got in some trouble with our wives for that one, but it was totally worth it, because even suppressing my stats down to his level (sealing powers were really coming along), I still whooped his ass ten to one.

The trip took about three days, and I spent most of it enjoying my downtime. I checked in on Callie a bunch, but between my grandmother, my sister, and the chef, she was taken care of, and I didn't mind having some time to myself to hang with my best friend.

Abel even joined in on the game at one point (he cheated, somehow, though I wasn't sure HOW), and it was just a good time. Sadly, all good things must end, and we'd just been called up to the bridge and informed we were arriving soon.

"So, what do you think it's like?" I asked Benny as we strolled along the corridor. "Like…how the hell do you make a building inside an active supernova? We've seen some crazy things, but this feels like a step further." I was honestly looking forward to the view more than anything, I love seeing all the absurd and over the top construction Ascendants did, especially now that I was almost at a rank where I could do my own.

Hell, I might be AT that rank. As an A-ranker, I might be able to use my Domain combined with Agares to dissolve and reform an asteroid belt or something. I was half tempted to try it on the way back, but I'd just end up leaving behind whatever I made unless I decided to bring it along, in which case it would be easier to just bring in proper supplies and make it from scratch inside Gehenna.

We arrived on the bridge in a good mood, and I was immediately snatched up by Callie, who grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the screen that showed us the outside of the ship. "Shane! You've got to see this, it's amazing!"

She sounded so excited I couldn't help the warm smile as I let her drag me along, laughing as she pulled me to a stop in front of the screen to point me toward…fire.

I blinked, transfixed by the sight. A sea of flames. So big it beggared belief, confused the mind. An eternal ocean of blue white fire seething endlessly in the vacuum of space. My grandfather chuckled as he stepped up next to me, clapping me on the shoulder. "Rainbow's little pet project is always good for a show, eh?"

"How is it burning?" I whispered. "It's a vacuum, shouldn't it have gone out?"

He grinned, pointing off at a nearby section of space. "You see that?" he said as the screen zoomed in to show a large black metal construct. It looked…unfinished, hanging in the darkness at the edge of the frozen ocean of fire. He moved his finger and the screen followed, showing me a few more of the things. "That's a Stellar Flame Formation. It essentially condenses and refines the supernova, hollowing out the interior but super concentrating the heat into special designated areas. Rainbow uses them to forge new types of fire. He takes existing flames he has samples of and injects them all into the starcradle and just clashes them into each other to see what happens."

Elonwy, sitting nearby, winced. "That's…SO inefficient. He just…throws them at each other? And hopes he gets lucky? I mean, the construct is brilliant, and it's definitely a solution, but it just seems so wasteful. It's like doing puzzles with your eyes closed by feeling out the edges of the pieces. Theoretically possible but you're making things much harder than you need to."

My grandmother chuckled. "Yes, well, we were all doing that with everything until you arrived, I'm told. I've watched a few of your lectures that Shane sent me. Fascinating concepts. Rainbow has access, and he's been working on reconfiguring the construct, but it's not exactly manageable. Perhaps you could be of some assistance, if you were so inclined. I'm sure he'd be grateful for the assistance."

El perked up at that. "I'd be honored, it looks like a fascinating process. Optimizing it wouldn't change much in that aspect."

"I'm more interested in how we get in," I said bluntly. "Do we just fly through? I mean this ship IS S-ranked, right? I bet we could handle it." Not that I wanted to try, necessarily, the sea of fire was…impressive.

My grandmother chuckled. "Not a chance. That's not JUST a supernova, like your grandfather said, it's been hollowed out. Most of the excess is funnelled into the starcradles, but some of it is used to reinforce the shell. Beyond that, those formation devices can alter the properties of fire themselves, it's how he collides the different variants together. The shell itself is made of a combination of his most destructive flame types."

"We'd be cooking in here if not for how rigorous the heat control is," my grandfather added. "The thermal shaping is so advanced you could hold your hand up a micron from the surface and not even feel warm. The rings of fire around your Heirworld are based on this technology."

I snapped my fingers. "I KNEW I recognized that from somewhere," I said excitedly. "But this looks a bit more…robust."

"Your technicians couldn't copy the Stellar Flame Formation in its entirety," he shrugged. "Rainbow IS a genius. But still, he doesn't mind people studying the formation. He's usually proud to show it off, so I'm sure he'd welcome the help."

"Well, if we can't enter directly, how DO we get inside then?" I asked with exasperated amusement. My tendency to wax eloquent and beat around the bush for dramatic effect was very much genetic, it seemed. Not that I was in a position to throw stones, or even that I minded that much, it was just amusing to be on this side of it. In fact, I was pretty sure that, given my own tendencies, I knew exactly how my grandfather would respond.

Sure enough he grinned rogueishly at me and said. "Why, we knock, of course." Raising a hand, he gestured at the screen, or rather, through it. In the air in front of the ship, parallel to the plane of the formation plane, a massive hand of white flame manifested in space. With a casual twist of his wrist, my grandfather knocked three times with his flame construct. It slammed into the fire barrier, raising deep, angry ripples in the gently rippling sea of fire, crashing along the surface like waves preceding a storm. I swallowed at the projection, at the sheer size and power of it. I knew what had been, my grandfather's personal combat style, the Final Heaven Fist.

We waited for a moment for a response, and before long, there was a beep nearby. "We have contact," one of the ship's crew said helpfully.

My grandmother sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Put it up," she said tiredly.

On the screen, a new image appeared, a small square depiction of a blocky man with thick eyebrows and wild red hair. "Damn it Nicky, I TOLD you not to do that!"

My grandfather rolled his eyes. "Then maybe you should keep your comms open, Terry."

"I DID!" snapped the enraged Pope on the other end of the screen. "You didn't even TRY to call me this time!"

He blinked. "Oh," he said lamely. "Um…oops?"

My grandmother glared at him. "You told me he couldn't be reached," she said accusingly. "I ASKED if you could contact him to open the door, and you said no."

"Come on, he NEVER keeps his comm lines open," whined one of the only Demigods in the universe petulantly. "I've tried at least a dozen times, and it always ends the same way. How was I supposed to know this would be the exception?"

"Because we're at WAR you lunatic!" snapped the Rainbow pope.

My grandfather pouted. "Well everything sounds bad if you say it like that. It's not my fault you can't stay consistent."

"I'll light you consistently on fire!" snapped the Rainbow Pope. "Why don't we try that?"

"Any time," my grandfather said arrogantly. "You think I'm scared of you? Just because you're older than me doesn't mean you can take me. I'm more afraid of accidentally tripping on an upraised root in a forest than I am of your pretty sparkles."

My grandmother just sighed. "Enough," she said sharply, and both of them shut up. "Rainbow, we're here with my grandson, he's so excited to meet you. We also brought his friend and mentor, who we think will be a coup for your research. If you could let us in we would be happy to introduce you. And Nicholas will wait in the ship?"

"What?" he squeaked in outrage. "But why? Just because he complained? Come on, you know what he's like!"

"I know that you are a grown man," she said acidly. "And you are humiliating us in front of your grandson, his WIFE, and their unborn child. Honestly Nick, you're far too old for this petty rivalry. Act your age."

I winced at that, because it sounded a bit too close to a more annoyed variation of Callie's reaction to my banter with Benny. "I wouldn't go THAT far," I hedged, wanting to help him out a bit. "I mean, they're friends right? Friends talk shit to each other, it's just what they do, I don't begrudge them a little back and forth."

"No, she's right," he sighed. "This isn't the time. We are at war, and I know that. I'm used to not taking these things seriously, and I let my childish rivalry drive my actions. I'm sorry, all of you. Even you, Terry."

Gross," the Rainbow Pope said bluntly. "I hate when you're mature, it makes my skin crawl. Just come inside, I'll do anything to make this awkwardness end."

The screen vanished, revealing the star formation again. Before my eyes, the blue flame wall started to ripple again, this time from the outside in. My grandmother nodded happily. "Thank you, love," she told my grandfather smugly. "Sorry you had to take the heat for that, but you know what he's like."

"The call signs would have taken hours," he sighed in annoyance. "I get it, this was faster. I just hate apologizing to that bastard."

"It wouldn't kill you to try to get along with him," she said reproachfully.

He shrugged. "Maybe not, but why take the risk? We're both happy enough with our current relationship. Or at least I am. I'm not sure about him, but I don't care what he thinks or wants so I'm not sure that part is relevant."

"You're going to need to get over that stupid feud someday," she sighed. "But I doubt it'll be today. Take us down." She called that last part to the crew.

Sure enough, as I watched, the space in front of us shifted as the ship began to descend into the slowly forming gap in the fire formation. Callie, standing next to me, leaned in and muttered. "What was that about?" Clearly about as thrown by that whole interaction as I was, and just as in the dark.

"No idea," I shrugged. "But I plan to find out sometime soon. Sounds like some juicy gossip. For now though, I'm looking forward to finally seeing the inside of this place. I've got more phoenix templates to make, and all kinds of interesting fire to test out. Let's see how crazy I can make this bloodline, huh?" Her answering grin was all the reassurance I needed that this was going to be as fun as I hoped. I really loved my wife.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The inside of the Promethean Library was a unique sort of place. We landed on a platform floating in the center of the supernova, a wide, flat base of dense brown stone. When we touched down, I wasn't sure what to expect from the environment, given where we were, but once I hopped out and looked around, I found myself absolutely stunned.

Under the sea of fire, I'd expected to be blinded by the glaring lights, but instead, the formation seemed to restrain the light to a manageable level. Within the swirling blue, silver sunbursts and explosions of gold flickered and danced, creating a twisting watercolor tempest of glorious dancing light. The visuals were stunning, but the intensity had been restrained to the point where it was only about as bright as a normal blue sky, and I found myself unable to look away from the sight.

"It's beautiful," Callie breathed in wonder as we held hands, staring up at the gentle inferno. "I've never seen anything like it."

My grandfather grunted. "It's fine I guess," he said sourly. "Rainbow's always been a show off."

"Yeah, what is the deal with that?" I asked wryly. "I wasn't aware you were on bad terms with any of the other popes?"

He shrugged. "It's nothing too serious. Rainbow is the third oldest of the disciples, and he always considered himself a bit of a big brother. Especially to Celia, he was very protective, and when we started dating, he made all kinds of trouble for me. Except he's a pure researcher, and I'm a combat savant. So that didn't work out too well for him."

"A combat savant?" I asked with skepticism. "How so?"

Snorting, he shook his head. "I'm one of only five or six Demigods among the five factions. Don't look at how that's technically still a part of S-rank, the difference between a Demigod and a normal S-ranker is qualitative, not quantitative. Lark being able to challenge Unity as a Demigod was shocking, but as an S-ranker it would have been impossible. You need real talent to become a Demigod, or everyone would do it."

El clicked her tongue. "Well…I mean, mostly it's just a matter of understanding the mechanics, same as godhood."

"Yeah, but most of us don't," my grandfather said bluntly. "We just did it through sheer talent."

"Especially Lark," I shuddered. "I'm not sure how he's as strong as he is. Like I get the basic mechanism, but I've seen him do some really scary things. That can't exactly be normal, even for a Demigod."

"It isn't," Elonwy admitted. "But it's not unheard of. Singularities do exist. Outliers who reach absurd levels of power for their rank."

I nodded. "Like the Monstrosity?" I asked, referring to Dean Wallace Harper, the powerful Overgod who ran one of the twelve departments of the Frozen Moment Academy where we'd met.

"Like all the Deans," she said bluntly. "The requirements to reach Overgod are stringent. Only true geniuses ever manage to attain that height. When you're talking about Overgods, a certain level of brilliance is sort of implied. It's like the height limits on one of the roller coasters Bethy took me on. You must be at least this tall to enter. Except that minimum required height is about ten feet tall, metaphorically speaking. Some of them are bigger, but they're all at LEAST that tall."

I snorted. "That does make sense. So you think Lark might manage to become an Overgod someday?"

"Like I said," she responded flatly. "At least. That level of talent is the minimum requirement to reach the height of Overgod. You still need a whole bunch of lucky opportunities on top of that. I think assuming anyone is going to manage Overgod status is foolish. Even the gods you already have. They're all talented, they had to be to reach their current stage, but while their achievement of managing to form Worldforce blindly is impressive, it also means their foundations are shaky. They've got a lot of work to do to build themselves up. More than they would have if they'd stayed S-rankers by quite a bit."

That would need to be dealt with in time, too. Specifically, the fact that with Mythcrafting, we would be seeing more gods soon. Too many and we'd ascend the entire universe, and no one wanted that. However, we had a solid workaround already. Namely, the Void. Hanging Lands and the realms of the Void based gods gave us a solid template for managing that extra Impact.

I was pretty sure most of the six were in talks to create staging grounds in the Void with the help of our allies, using the war as an excuse to found new beachheads into the space for younger gods of their factions to be stationed at when they ascended. It not only took care of a potential issue with Impact management, it also prevented any potential insurrections by keeping the younger deities out of proximity, which was a win win.

Given how many S-rankers we had, I was better I'd be getting a call about that from the old man soon enough. Especially given the utility of my Peaceflame. I got the impression my current position at the warfront, as much as it was my own choice, was supported as much as it was to test my effectiveness against the Void spawn.

I shook off the intrusive thoughts. That had been happening more and more lately. My Perception and Focus had gone out of balance, and I really needed to get it fixed. I had quite a few scrolls to use still, so I knew where to put them. More importantly though, I was here specifically to find myself a new type of Phoenix template, and I should be able to find a Perception based flame to help balance things out.

Forcefully refocusing my attention on the task at hand, I pulled Callie after me toward the large brown stone building in the distance. While the sky was an aurora of shifting colors and lights, the Library itself was a lot more subdued, though no less impressive. A shocking amount of detail had been put into the building, with each stone lovingly smoothed and carved to depict images of heavenly fire, flame beasts, and rising suns. In all honesty, with the columns and the low pitched, gabled roof, it looked more like a temple than a library.

To my surprise, we weren't going to be waiting long for an escort. When we approached, I found the same large, blocky red haired man from the screen waiting, beaming at my grandmother. "Celia," he said happily as he stepped forward for a hug. "It's been too long. And you brought your grandchildren, how lovely. I knew Shane was coming but Chelsea as well? I'm honored." He turned to me and bowed slightly at the waist. "It is a pleasure to host the Wishmaster of this generation, and such an accomplished one at such a young age. A-rank before twenty five is certainly impressive, even Aiden didn't manage."

I cleared my throat, offering my hand. "I appreciate the praise, but I'm just a product of circumstance," I said dryly. "Too much going on at once. I'm just reaping the whirlwind, so to speak."

Callie opened her mouth, then froze. "I…I was going to say that isn't what that phrase means, but it kind of is? It's usually negative, but you have been sucked up into crazy consequences." Of course, I could feel from the bond that she didn't believe I was an innocent bystander for a second, and blamed me for our interesting lives (even if she didn't begrudge me) as much as most of my friends did. She just also realized I was trying to avoid recursion making it WORSE when people associated me with crazy happenings and was helping out.

The big man laughed boisterously. "Humble too. What a rarity for an A-ranker. In any case, I've been fascinated to hear about your research, and I can't wait to pick your brain about the various unique flames to which you have access. You're truly at the forefront of our field in terms of practical application. I too considered cultivating the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art, you know, but the requirements were simply too stringent."

I knew what he meant. Nine Phoenix had been grinding away at his tier for months now and had only just caught up with the others. Without his hard work, not to mention the other demons to act as templates, I'd have had to put in about seventeen times as much work to make progress on the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art.

Still, I was impressed at the depth of his knowledge. The old man had made it seem like that body tempering art was nearly extinct in the world. The fact that the Rainbow Pope had heard of it and considered pursuing it himself spoke to how thoroughly he'd invested in his passion.

"Now, I know we have several goals during this visit," the Rainbow Pope said as he escorted us inside. "But I hope you won't feel too rushed during your time here. While we're certainly in an urgent state of being, this research will be critical for the war effort, so it is our solemn duty to provide the best possible environment for learning and experimentation, which means time for relaxation as much as study."

"Translation: he wants to use you as a lab rat so he's going to give you some cheese and a wheel to run on so you stay happy while you let him study you like a petri dish." My grandfather said dryly.

The other pope sputtered in outrage, but despite making offended sounds, never actually contradicted him. After a moment and the realization that he couldn't claim that truthfully, he cleared his throat and changed gears. "Yes, well, what's a bit of research between friends. I'm sure Shane, may I call you Shane? You must call me Terrence. I'm sure Shane would be thrilled to contribute to my research and the common good of all mankind."

"I don't see how turning fire pretty colors does that," my grandfather said bluntly. "I mean, I have my own flame, and it's useful, hell, most of master's students went in that direction, but your weird obsession with finding every possible variation of fire is pointless."

"It is NOT pointless!" snapped Terrence wildly. "It is, in fact, the most essential direction of study, as you well know."

My grandfather groaned. "This again? There is no "primal fire" from which all flames descend. That's just normal fire. Cross referencing all the flames in creation isn't going to help you develop a super flame, it's just going to get you normal run of the mill flames."

Elonwy looked up with interest. "You're planning to reverse engineer commonalities across your samples to discover a primordial strain of flame?" she asked with interest. "That's a brilliant conceptual model. Especially for an Ascendant, your belief in such a flame makes it much more feasible to discover it."

She strode up to join Terrence, and the two of them started talking animatedly about his research. I grinned at my grandfather as he fell back to walk next to me. "You're a little hard on him, aren't you?" I asked quietly.

He just shrugged. "It's good for him. He fights harder to defend his position when he's challenged. We've been doing this a long time. You saw his reaction when I apologized. He'd be more upset if I DIDN'T give him a hard time. I'll try to ease up a bit though. It's mostly habit at this point."

I just snorted, shaking my head as we headed inside. Soon enough, it would be time to begin the search for my next flame, but before that, I wanted to try to balance out my Focus and Perception a bit with all the scrolls I had on hand. So my next step would be to check my stats again. How fun.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Finding a private place to check my stats wasn't too hard. We were going to be here for a while, so Terrence offered us guest rooms. Callie, knowing my plans for the moment, excused herself and left me to my own devices, and before long I was alone in our new rooms ready to check up on all my details.

I had to admit, the place was nicer than expected. Despite the brown stone walls, the floor was lushly carpeted and there was an actual waterfall leading into a two level fish tank full of brightly colored fish against the back wall. It was very soothing.

The bed was pretty soft, and I flopped down on it, doing a mental tally of all my gains over the last few months as a prerequisite to finding my next template. Among other things, the last four months had yielded an absurd fourteen hundred or so scrolls, and my rank up had improved my per scroll cap as well. I'd used most of the ones I had already, with only about seventy seven on me right now that I'd gathered over the last week. I had plans to use them on Callie, so I wouldn't be spending those, but the ones I'd already used had definitely contributed heavily to my current power.

And of course I had some stats waiting from recent renown gain, and not exactly a small amount of them. I'd been busy on the war front, binding twelve pages in four months, and it had earned me a lot of attention from peers and subordinates alike. My Wishmaster title got me their interest, but I was the one who had to earn their belief. And with belief, of course, came stats.

I was already pretty decently far into A-rank, actually. The full set of A-rank elixirs I'd gotten from the frozen moment academy, combined with my initial hundred million, combined with the bump from all my accomplishments, meant this burst of stats was likely to push me to about a quarter of the way through. With a thought, the purple flames rolled over my vision as I checked my stats.

Wishmaster status. A-rank. Ability: Mythic Wish- Eleven times a day grant a Mythic 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.

Mythic Path of the Demonbinder- The Domain of a Great King.

Might-69,654,183(x 3)

Impact-285

Fantasy-26,472,182

Vitality-37,118,871 (x 3)

Focus-64,434,651

Perception-33,401,420

Creation-27,829,243 (x 3)

Progress to next rank: 258,910,835/1,000,000,000

Soul strength- Mercury Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 36/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 9/9, Third Layer (Ruin Phoenix) 9/9, Fourth Layer (Arcadian Phoenix) 9/9

Chronicle: Myriad Demons Manual (pages bound:100- 4 Zagan, 1 Leviathan, 1 Beelzebub, 9 Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art, 3 Limbo, 3 Overlay, 9 Mephistopheles, 1 Song of Arcadia, 1 Cosmic Waltz, 7 Life Nova, 9 Angelic Bond, 1 Wisdom of Solomon, 12 Dantalion, 2 Sammael, 1 Cosmic Collapse, 1 Cooking, 1 Double Trouble, 13 Doom Sovereign, 9 Azazel, Song of Arcadia 12)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 77(5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Domain size: 108 miles

Soul supported stat number: 25,000

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Pillar of Goetia

Stored: 10 Adherent Fire, 7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges,10 triple strength tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

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

Frozen Moment Academy Credit points: 0

Frozen Moment Academy Contribution points: 0

Archdemons: Kronos- Archdemon of Time- Tier 8 (Limbo, Overlay, Mephistopheles), Bennu- four colored Phoenix demon (Song of Arcadia, Mephistopheles, Life Nova, Cosmic Waltz)

Court of Gehenna:

1.Doom Sovereign- Tier 9 - Timepiece: 27 complications

2.Goetia Staff Art- Tier 8

3.Cooking- Tier 9

4.Inventing- Tier 5

5.Balam- Tier 3

6.Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- Tier 9- Timepiece: 32 complications

7.Piano- Tier 1

8.Guitar- Tier 1

9.First Aid- Tier 3

10.Angelic Bond- Tier 9- Timepiece: 22 complications

11.Dust Construction- Tier 6

12. Stone Limb- Tier 7

13.Moonlit Night- Tier 4

14.Consecration of Flame- Tier 8

15.Ripple Running- Tier 4

16.State of Grace- Tier 6

17.Steam Arrow- Tier 5

18.Afterburner- Tier 8

19.Pit of Despair/ Brad- Tier 9- Timepiece:23 complications

20.Mountain Stance- Tier 8

21.Heart over Body- Tier 8

22.Mercy Kill- Tier 7

23.Double Trouble- Tier 8

24.Touch of Tears- Tier 5

25.Flurry of Blows- Tier 3

26.Heavy Hands- Tier 4

27.Marked for Death- Tier 6

28.False Fatality- Tier 5

29.Blood Curse- Tier 6

30.Creeping Darkness- Tier 2

31.Final Strike- Tier 7

32.Overlay- Tier 9- Timepiece- 31 complications

33.Song of the Soil- Tier 3

34.Rhythm of the Wild- Tier 2

35.Eye of Revelation- Tier 8

36.Danger Sense- Tier 7

37.Piece of Mind- Tier 8

38.Empty Spirit- Tier 8

39.Belial- Tier 8

40.Abomination Engine- Tier 7

41.Mephistopheles- Tier 9- Timepiece: 21 complications

42.Cosmic Collapse- Tier 9

43.Circle of Damnation- Tier 8

44.Cosmic Waltz- Tier 9- Timepiece: 34 complications

45.Mornax- Tier 8

46.Zagan- Tier 9

47.Life Nova- Tier 9- Timepiece: 19 complications

48.Song of Arcadia- Tier 9- Timepiece- 27 complications

49.Bael- Tier 8

50.Beelzebub- Tier 9

51.Agares- Tier 8

52.Dantalion- Tier 9

53.Sammael- Tier 9

54.Limbo- Tier 9- Timepiece: 28 complications

55.Gluttony- Tier 8

56.Wrath- Tier 8

57.Pride- Tier 8

58.Retribution- Tier 8

59.Murmur- Tier 8

60.Leviathan- Tier 9

61.Behemoth- Tier 8

62.Glory- Tier 8

63.Abaddon -Tier 8

64.Wisdom of Solomon- Tier 9 - Timepiece: 32 complications

65.Promethean Fire Soul Body- Tier 6

66.Fate Sense- Tier 8

67.Scent of Truth- Tier 7

68.Damnatio Memoriae- Tier 8

69.Dark Reflection- Tier 8

70. Asmodeus- Tier 8

71. Astaroth- Tier 8

72. Azazel- Tier 9

The changes were earthshattering. Not only had most of my court reached tier 8, several had reached tier 9, putting them on par with me. It was especially clear that binding pages enhanced the talent of demons, and I'd bound my final twelve for Song of Arcadia, determined to get that particular demon to tier 9 as soon as possible.

My enhanced soul and body (Impact was good stuff) had pushed the cap on my per scroll points up by a hundred and fifty percent, Cosmic Waltz had been hard at work expanding my Domain to one hundred and eight miles, not to mention the raw enhancement from the rank up, and on top of all of that, I'd managed to make several more timepieces with my time off, stabilizing multiple powerful demons and perfecting their abilities further.

My stats were absurd, mostly because of the hundred million flat I'd gotten from the elixirs, and the bulk scroll income, boosted as it was after rank up. Of course, that quick progress was just the explosive growth at the beginning of a rank, and was unlikely to be maintainable without access to those elixirs, but still, it was mindblowing to see what all my preparations had been worth.

It was a hell of a start, but if I wanted to keep it going, I needed explosive renown growth. My gains from high ranking foes were big, but they tended to taper off quickly. Ascendant growth was very much a matter of what have you done for me lately.

One of the most glaring problems though, had to be my Focus. Just like I'd suspected, it had skyrocketed. I was pretty sure the credit I got at the Academy for foiling a Void Overgod's plot to break free and kill us all had paid dividends there. But having it outstrip my Perception so heavily was leading to me drifting off into thought like I used to when I was starting out. A nearly two to one Focus to Perception gap wasn't crippling, but it wasn't a good thing either.

I'd been planning to rebalance somewhat with the scrolls I had, but the difference was extreme enough that they wouldn't have done that much good. Just shy of two million points wasn't going to fix the problem, so leaving those scrolls to Callie was still the best choice in the end.

Standing up, I stretched widely, feeling my muscles shift and contract as they got used to the new points. It wasn't anything crazy, in terms of percentage. Only a few tens of millions across all my stats, and with my Domain as large and stable as it was now, I had zero problem withstanding the influx comfortably. At this point, it was just a pleasant tingle, a drop in an otherwise massive bucket, and I couldn't deny how good that felt.

I was STRONG. Not top tier, not among my family and friends, but still. Zeke had broken through a few years ago, and had been active in the war since stepping down as my guardian, and both my parents had been A-rank for quite a while. I was expecting them to be close to the peak of their ranks rather than the bottom like me.

Still, the fact that I was AT the same rank as them at all was…mindblowing. When I first stepped onto this path, I'd honestly never really considered what it would be LIKE to be this powerful. I'd planned to become a god eventually, mind, but it had been abstract.

Now I was almost positive I'd get there, and it wouldn't be too much longer in the grand scheme of things. I was already standing at a level the past me had never even conceived of, with my Domain and my demons making me one of the strongest at my rank, even if the raw stats were still disparate enough that I probably wasn't punching at the TOP of that weight class. Callus hadn't even had D-rankers when I first awakened my power.

And A-rank was firmly in the upper tier of the universe in terms of both hard and soft power. Even outside my position as Wishmaster I had influence now. It was kind of overwhelming.

But I also knew I had a long way to go still. I grounded myself with memories of the Frozen Moment Academy, where gods were teachers and the Deans were Overgods. Not to mention the Void, still waiting in the dark for us to dive in and try to take a portion of it for ourselves.

Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself to head back out to join the others. We would be exploring the library a bit before we had dinner tonight, and I wanted to get eyes on as many flames as possible. Dantalion's current power level was A-rank, so with the staff boosting him I was looking at S-rank capability.

I'd need to upgrade my staff soon, actually, and my armor possibly too. They both served their purpose better when they were a rank higher. That said, it wouldn't be quick or easy to get the armor improved. Finding that many compatible S-rank materials would be a nightmare. At least it was just a suit of armor and not a ship. Those were basically impossible to finish because of the resource scarcity here.

Another reason to venture into the Void, hopefully I would find some interesting materials to work with. After this trip I would contact my ancestor about mounting an expedition. Until then, I'd better go find the others before they got too far into the tour without me.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I caught up with the rest of the team easily enough. While I'd gone to my room to check my stats, the rest of them had started on the tour early. There was a LOT of library to cover, and everyone was excited to get a look. Callie was in contact with me as I chased after them, and she filled me in on the details of the introductory tour as I tracked them down.

Basically, the library was divided into a few different categories. Rather than sorting them by something ridiculous like color or heat, Terry had arranged them into wings, with each one being based on the source of the flame. One wing was naturally occurring fires, one wing was flames created by abilities, and one wing was flames created by the starcradles mashing together combinations of the other two.

Of course, each wing was further divided into things like utility, enhancement, recovery, offense, defense, but those were sort of unstable qualifiers, given the overlap.

Technically speaking, for instance, my Belial flame was both utility, offense, and enhancement. My Ruin flame was offense and utility, because it was both damaging and ALSO aimed at destroying equipment.

When I caught up to my group, they were in the natural flame wing, specifically in the utility section, looking for a flame for my sister.

As I arrived where they were waiting, I slowed down briefly to take in the sight, blown away by the sheer grandeur of the place. While the library itself was made of dull brown stone, albeit gorgeously carved, the interior of the library was a lot more colorful. Along the rows, cubbyholes resembling sectioned off bookshelves were stacked with bell jars containing floating spheres of colored flames.

Rather than dance or burn though, the flames inside the jars were spinning slowly, perfectly compressed to flawless roundness as they spun lazily through the air, the flame rippling as if under some kind of dense suppression.

"What's that one?" Chelsea was saying, her eyes locked on a rippling white flame. Despite all of them being suppressed and spinning the same way, the flames were…different. It was hard to describe, like they had a different texture, almost. Within the bounds of the spheres the things rippled and surged, and I could see the varying thickness and manifestations of the flame.

The one Chelsea had picked out was thick and viscous, the inside of the sphere sloshing like flaming honey. Inside the orb, gossamer white danced with rainbow flickers as they surged like the inside of the world's most psychedelic mother of pearl snowstorm.

Terry, for his part, looked like he was in hog heaven. "That," he said proudly. "Is Celestial Starfire. Harvested from a very special sun whose development was influenced by several nearby light-attributed worlds." He shot Elonwy a grin. "At least, so we assume. We've always been able to categorize energy, but your methods have helped us refine our parameters considerably."

She chuckled. "I suspect you were doing fine without me," she said appreciatively as she traced her eyes around the interior of the building. "This is a fascinating space, and your methodology was surprisingly advanced even before you understood the finer points of Mythcrafting. That formation outside is a work of art."

"Yes, everyone is very good at science," my sister said impatiently. "What does Celestial Starfire DO?"

"The same thing your purification flame does, roughly," he said with a shrug. "It just does it better." He shot my grandfather a smug smile. "It's always amusing to me how many of my fellow disciples can be replaced a well chosen flame."

My grandfather snorted. "Why don't you tell Moon or Judgement that," he said sweetly. "I dare you."

"ANYWAY," Chelsea said loudly, butting into their squabbling. "What do you mean roughly?"

"Means not smooth," said Terry automatically, but he flinched at Chelsea's withering stare. "Ugh, your glare is just like Celia's. That's not fair. Fine. I say roughly because the underlying principles are different. Since we started studying attributes and Mythcrafting, we've developed a new systematic approach to identification. We've figured out how to more completely map the attributes of a flame. We haven't done all or even most of them, but this one has already been mapped. It's basically a purification flame based on the concept of overwhelming goodness as manifested through judgement."

I nodded. "The harsh light of day," I said, bringing everyone's attention to me. "Hey there friends," I said with a cheerful wave. "Sorry I'm late."

"That's a good way to describe it, actually," Terry admitted. "And welcome back. I hope you found the rooms to your liking? We'll head to the dining hall to eat in another…" he checked his wrist. "Twenty minutes."

I glanced at his watch casually. "I can make you a better one of those," I said helpfully. "I have a lot of practice."

While I didn't have a skill for it, I DID have Dantalion, Agares, and Piece of Mind. The ability to make obsidian smooth parts to a microscopic level of detail while splitting my mind into countless threads made me an excellent watchmaker, even without an entry on my skill list. That said though, I'd been considering changing that. I could see a few ways to do it, perhaps using my piano skill as a base. I could work something musical into my watchmaking easily enough.

He looked intrigued, but Chelsea cleared her throat. "Sorry to interrupt, but if we only have twenty minutes I want to look at a few of these before we go. Celestial Starfire is pretty good, but I'm looking for something categorically opposite to my enshrining darkness. Do you think that'll work?"

Humming consideringly, Terry bit his lip. "Maybe, hold on, follow me. I think I might have something."

Turning he headed off down the hall, and all of us piled in behind him. He led us out of the naturally occurring wing and past the ability wing towards the wing where they kept his experimental flames. We took a few turns, down a couple aisles, until we finally arrived in front of another sphere.

This one was the same colors, but something about it was…different. The liquid texture was thinner, moving faster, and flickering with a few colors beyond the pearlescent sheen. Crackles of multicolored electricity jumped through it at regular intervals.

He gestured at it proudly. "This," he said in the smuggest possible tone. "Is Celestial Thunderfire. It's made from a combination of a combination. The thunderfire base infused with scouring windflame to create a storm attribute that we bonded to the Starfire. Balancing the energies is hellishly difficult. But the three of them all have cleansing properties. Thunderfire is known to have scouring effects on certain dark energies, and the windflame came from a desert planet where it formed naturally in a giant sentient sandstorm that blasted the surface clean for ten thousand years."

Chelsea's eyes were locked in the fire, flickering with a sort of reverence I hadn't really seen from my sister before. She reached out her fingers, sparking a white flame across the tips of them and holding it up to the jar. As it grew closer, the storm inside raged harder, still bound into the sphere, but clearly attempting to reach the fire. Her eyes narrowed, and she stepped back.

"Let it out," she said confidently.

"Wow," I commented wryly. "I legitimately can't think of a possible way that's a good idea. Can anyone else?"

My sister smiled tightly, eyes not leaving the jar. "Fate sense," she said simply. "I need to do this here and now. It's in an excited state, and still in flux. I can merge it with my flame through my Path, but it needs to accept. Yin and yang isn't about coercion. It's about balance."

Sighing, I glanced at Terry. "You heard her," I said with an apologetic grin. "You willing to do this?"

"The research value is immense," he said eagerly. "Don't worry about the other flames. The protections are more than up to the task of isolating the process. The REST of us might want to step back. That particular flame isn't exactly safe."

"Is it S-rank?" I asked worriedly. "Because she might not be able to-"

He shook his head. "It's a flameseed. It's TECHNICALLY S-rank, and high S-rank, but that's qualitative. The seeds are a storage method that works through suppression. I've been told you've been to the chasm? Same general idea. In fact, we perfected the process based on data from that place. It's one of the many functions of the formation. If you pay close attention, the spheres look a lot like the supernova's shape."

"Thaumaturgy," Elonwy said appreciatively. "But backwards. Using a symbolic connection to the formation to suppress the flames, relying on the scale of difference to grind down the ranks to a manageable level."

"Yup," he agreed proudly. "Exactly. The supernova is millions of times bigger, so the suppressive force compresses them down millions of times. Of course, we all know Impact isn't really linear, so it ends up being quite a bit less across ranks, but still, it's extremely effective. It takes a while for them to recover though, so the flame will be about B-rank until it does."

I nodded, gesturing everyone back. "Alright," I said lightly. "Chelsea, you ready."

Raising her hands, my sister manifested her yin yang diagram. It spun between her palms, darkness surging and trying to consume the light. I saw her grit her teeth, clearly struggling to hold them in balance. "Do it," she spat.

With a gesture, I had Terry pull away the jar like. As it came away, there was a crack like breaking glass and the sphere shattered. With an unearthly howl of fury, the flames exploded toward Chelsea, blazing across the hallway toward my sister in a column of screaming sentient fire.

Her hands snapped up, palms out, and the flames slammed into her diagram. As they approached, the diagram began to spin. As the spin accelerated, the flames condensed into a funnel, pouring into the single spot of light on the dark side of the diagram. The more it poured in, the brighter the other side blazed. I saw Chelsea's eyes flare up with power, and she stumbled back, Bethy catching her with a worried expression.

It took about five minutes for her diagram to drain it all. Chelsea's yin yang Path allowed her to combine things that shouldn't be combinable. It wasn't as complicated or versatile as mine, but my sister's Path WAS powerful and scary. She was a genius, and a natural soul constitution with dual abilities from birth.

Her merge this time was almost too much, I think. She was infusing the flame into her bloodline, making it part of her, and she was obviously winded and sore from the effort. Her hands parted, the diagram dispersing as Bethy helped her sit down in the middle of the aisle.

"You ok?" I asked her, heading over to make sure she wasn't hurt. "That didn't look fun."

"I'm fine," she rasped blearily. "Just need a second. Once I'm through it I'll be able to wal-" she tried to stand up, her knees giving out as she shouted. "Whoah!"

Bethy caught her, clearly concerned for her girlfriend. "Careful," she said softly. "Don't overdo it."

"Yeah, I think you've done enough," I said wryly. "I assume you'll need time to digest the gains here? Because I can't imagine integrating a bloodline like that is easy."

She laughed, shaking her head. "Not easy. And yeah, digestion would be good. And not just the spiritual kind." She let Bethy help her to her feet, turning to smile at Terry. "I believe you mentioned something about food?" She had used a ton of energy, I was sure, so it made sense she'd want to replenish.

He snorted, shaking his head in amusement. "Indeed," he confirmed. "We're having beef wellington tonight." Everyone perked up, me included. I loved Wellington. Always nice to get a good meal.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Well, that was dramatic," I said as we headed for the dining hall after my sister's big bloodline upgrade. I had to admit, it was kind of nice knowing my friends and family were as capably bullshit as me sometimes. I couldn't have integrated that fire into my bloodline like that, and while Chelsea's Path might not be as grandiose or expansive as mine, it was clear it had some real kick where it counted.

Callie snorted. "Well, she is YOUR sister," she said wryly.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you could possibly mean by that," I lied with dignity. "Anyway, are you excited about dinner? I love wellington, but it's SUCH a pain to make. I mean, I guess I could have Cooking do it for us, so that's something to consider."

Callie's eyes lit up. "Wait, you could have Cook follow me around all the time! Why haven't you been doing that since the beginning?"

I paused, thinking about that. "Honestly…I kind of didn't think of it. Mostly, I just like cooking for you. Food has always been something we enjoyed doing together, and I guess I didn't want to give that up. I guess I subconsciously avoided considering the topic because I didn't want to give up one of the most important ways we spend time together."

Staring at me, her eyes shook slightly as she swallowed hard. "That was the sweetest thing you've ever said to me," she said softly. "I love you so much, Shane."

Leaning down, I gave her a quick, gentle kiss. "I love you too, Cal. But I was being silly. I know you need food more than I can be around. I'll send Cook to follow you around, he's tier nine anyway, so you can consider him a multi purpose body guard until you hit A-rank." I grinned as I added the last part, enjoying her pout as she expressed her annoyance at my overprotective nature.

"I don't NEED a bodyguard," she moaned, though she snuggled up under my arm as we walked, so she wasn't that upset.

"Just give it up," I laughed. "Until you have the baby, everyone is going to fuss over you. We're going to be alive for tens of thousands of years at the lowest, a few months of hovering won't kill you. Now, you see any new flames you're interested in checking out? Some of them are bound into objects, so you might find something interesting to use with the vault."

Distracting Callie with loot was a time honored tradition in our marriage, and the secret to my successful survival in many of our fights. Sure enough, she lit up with excitement. "We passed a few of those on the way. Most of them are those suppressed spheres, and most of the item bound fires are too high rank, but I DID spot a few that were interesting. Like there was one flame that could turn your body semi incorporeal like the wind to make you lighter. It was bound to a pair of shoes."

"That's awesome," I said with interest. "So the inverted version would be a density enhancement? Like the one Benny has?" I hadn't seen my friend use that ability in a while, but it was one of his more devastating powers when we'd been starting out.

The comment seemed to catch my friend's attention from nearby where he was talking to Abel. He turned to look at us solemnly. "If it is, you should be careful with it," he warned. "I did a lot of damage to my body messing with my density back in the day. Nothing I didn't heal from, but just because the material your body is made of becomes denser doesn't mean you're prepared to deal with the difference in the forces you use it to channel."

I shot Callie a worried glance and she rolled her eyes. "I'll use a shadow double to test it," she assured me. "I swear, I'm going to be so reckless after I have this baby. You won't have any idea how to handle all my nonsense."

"What are you going to do?" I asked dryly. "Punch a god?"

"Worse," she said smugly. "I'm going to act like YOU. Just you wait, I'll run around like a maniac starting fights and getting sucked into complicated plots."

I snorted. "You're not going to leave the baby to run off and wreak havoc. I doubt even I'll be starting much trouble until she's older. Face it, love, we're about to become old married people. Sitting at home making smart choices for our future and not doing anything that could get us killed. It sounds like hell."

She deflated. "You're right, I hadn't thought about that. Do you really think it'll be like that?"

"Probably not," I reassured her, making it clear I'd been teasing. "Don't forget we've got a large support system. And ultimately, our ranks are still important. The stronger we are, the safer the baby will be. I was just kidding. You can run off and go crazy after the baby is born. We'll leave her with my mom and you can come along when I'm creating that forward operating base in the Void. We can use the starpluck bangle to check in and visit regularly. It'll be great, you'll see."

I took her hand, squeezing it gently, and she squeezed back. I hadn't realized until I made the joke how worried she was about this. I'd taken for granted that she would be ready to go back out into the field with me after she had the baby, but this really WAS going to change our lives in ways I couldn't imagine.

Still, I was sure we could manage, plenty of people managed to be parents and also have careers, and most of them couldn't make a dozen copies of themselves on command or summon a legion of seventy two loyal demons with a variety of useful powers.

We arrived at the dining hall pretty quickly, and Terry ushered us inside happily. "Welcome, welcome, I'm so glad to have you here with me for this visit." He glanced at my grandfather scathingly. "Most of you, anyway. Honestly, I hope you'll think of me the same way you think of Moon, as a member of the family. Maybe asking you to call me Uncle Terrence is a bit much, but feel free to make yourselves at home." His smile was warm and sincere as he spoke directly to Chelsea and me. Of course, I already knew he and my grandmother were close growing up, so I wasn't too surprised, but it was still a nice thing to hear. I was mostly past the point of needing more S-rank protection, but I'd never turn down more family members, especially ones important to the ones I already had.

My grandmother smiled warmly at him. "We're so thankful for your hospitality, Terry. ALL of us," she narrowed her eyes at my grandfather.

Sighing, he pasted on a big fake smile. "Yup. Happy to be here. Best day ever."

As we sat down and got our plates, I turned to Terry with interest. "So I was talking to Callie about some of the flames anchored to items? She's always on the lookout for new ones, and I personally plan to study as many of them as possible with Dantalion to try to put together a proper design for a Peaceflame carrier. But I was curious about your thoughts on the design. I haven't locked down anything specific, though I was thinking about something like a suit of armor?"

He shook his head. "I recommend against that. When you're making anchoring items, you need to take multiple different limitations into account. Obviously, we can create more well structured armor, but we're looking at mass production. Which means material cost is going to be a factor."

Bethy snorted as she bit into her wellington, talking with her mouth full as she said. "Why don't you just make a watch? You said you're good at those, right?"

I froze. "That…is a REALLY good point," I said slowly. "I mean, I'd need to make some tweaks to the process. I can't use Agares for construction because he's based partially on Belial, and the attribute for the magma underlying that whole material is counter to the attribute of the Peaceflame." I mulled over the problem. "Except I might be able to work around that. If Callie can enshrine a completed watch, I would be able to have Dantalion deconstruct the template. We can just charge it with Peaceflame directly. Maybe have Brad help."

It would be a complicated process, but my experience in watchmaking SHOULD be up to the task. In fact, this would be a perfect project to begin my watchmaking demon creation on. I could use the first completed watch as a foundational object to create the new demon. Actually, my earlier Piano idea wasn't necessary OR optimal from that perspective. I could use Dust Construction himself as a base. That particular demon wasn't based on Belial, so creating watches with him should be cleaner, especially with the Peaceflame as a template.

"I know that look," Callie laughed as she swallowed a bite of wellington. "You've got some crazy scheme in mind that will let you do something ridiculous."

I waggled a hand as I put a bite of my own into my mouth. Chewing and swallowing, I elaborated. "I don't think so. I mean yes, eventually. Once he hits tier nine I can use the staff to boost him to S-rank, basically, though only the VERY earliest point of it. But that's a ways off, the demon I picked is still tier six. It'll make the reincarnation easier, especially with Brad helping, but I'll need to do some serious training with him to get him up to snuff."

"Honey," my wife said kindly. "No one has any clue what you're talking about right now."

I paused, glancing up to see everyone staring. "Right," I said dryly. "Focus. Way higher than Perception. Sorry, everyone. I guess we also need to find a flame that can help with that, if you don't mind," I said with a sheepish wince.

Terry grinned. "I'm a researcher, boy, do you honestly think I've never been caught in a Focus fugue?"

Elonwy laughed at that. "He's right, it happens to all of us at some point. Why do you think my car is such a mess?" She paused. "Well, I also operate in multiple timelines simultaneously which obviously doesn't help. But my Focus is a big contributor."

Nearby, Benny was nodding along, obviously well aware of the problems with being a researcher. I laughed, feeling a bit better for their support. "Thanks," I told them all gratefully. "But…yeah, I'd really like to at least try to balance things out." Of course, I might be able to find a flame that could boost two stats, since I only needed Perception to be about double. I hadn't considered that as an option.

But all that could wait til later. I forced my mind to calm, asserting my will on my brain to make sure I could be in the moment with my friends and family, then I cut a small bite and ate it. I nodded to Terry. "The food is excellent, by the way, thank you."

"You're welcome," he chuckled. "Tomorrow morning we can find your new phoenix template. I suspect your research will be easier once your stats are a bit more balanced. After that…well, I believe I was promised one of these watches, and I have to admit I'm enthused to see what you might come up with."

Honestly, so was I. I had some big plans for this, and I couldn't wait to see them come to fruition. But before any of that, he was right. Tomorrow we would need to finally track down my next flame. Now if only I could figure out exactly what I wanted to pick.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning, we all woke bright and early. Well. Early. It was always exactly the same level of bright in the library. The blue sky was a shining, swirling expanse above us, and there were several cleverly hidden windows to outside that managed to flood the hallways with light without there being any definable SOURCE to that light.

Last night it hadn't been so bright though, so I suspected there was some mechanism to throttle the stuff, and we were using that to determine time of day. After stocking up on my scrolls, I headed out to find Terry, determined to get started on looking for my next phoenix template.

Callie and I were alone for this one, since everyone else had slept in. We didn't see any need for them to follow us around for however long it would take to find something. We met Terry and Elonwy (who had stayed up discussing research directions with him long after dinner ended and we'd all gone to sleep, apparently) in the central hall of the library, and to my surprise, they seemed raring to go, with multiple options prepared for us to look over.

"So, Perception focused flames," Terry said energetically as he led us off down one of the side halls. "There are a few of those, though they aren't exactly common. Most of them have eye focuses. Are you willing to implant a set of eyeballs?"

I paused, considering that. "I'm not…unwilling?" I said slowly. "But it's not exactly ideal. With Brad's abilities implanting them into a demon wouldn't require any surgery, most likely, but if possible, I think something a bit less biological would be best." I didn't like the idea of replacing my demon's eyes. It just felt wrong.

He nodded absently. "That does narrow things down. Not eye based, presumably nothing implanted in the brain then, we have a few that are bound into the form of eyewear. Maybe a pair of goggles?"

"Much more palatable," I agreed. "What do you have in that department? We could probably work with something stealth based too, come to think of it. Callie's vault would be able to swap the attribute on that." I wasn't sure adding another inversion onto my current plan was wise, but if that was the option, I'd take it.

"We have a few," he said with a quick nod. "Here, follow me," he led us off down a side corridor, then turned us into a small alcove. Bell jars were, as with everywhere else, omnipresent along the walls. Unlike the earlier flames we'd seen though, not everything in the bell jars was a ball of fire. I could see several objects floating in the center of the flaming spheres, shrunken down to the size of a fist and floating amid the fire.

He tapped a few of them, pointing out the items inside. "Goggles, glasses, monocle," he listed as he indicated each piece. "The goggles melt illusions, the glasses create a heat lens that bends sight through obstructions, and the monocle burns away confusion."

My eyes snapped to the last one. "Burns away confusion?" I asked cautiously. "How does that work?"

He frowned. "I'm not entirely sure," he admitted. "We haven't exactly finished categorizing every flame, and the item bound specimens are particularly tricky to pin down. Most of them are the result of Inventing."

"Yeah, that checks out," I snorted. "I should have guessed."

Elonwy scowled. "The fact that you people have created a crafting system based on nearly complete randomness and chose to call the practitioners 'scientists', mad or not, boggles my mind."

I frowned at that. "Wait…inventing isn't a thing in the higher realms?" I wracked my brain for some sort of memory of hearing it mentioned at the academy. I…couldn't. There was a crafting department, and I had assumed that since Benny had ended up there, it would be mainly inventing based, but thinking back, I'd never seen anyone from the academy itself who specialized in it.

Even my mentor, Professor Hawkins, practiced an obviously more deliberate and refined sort of mechanical crafting. "Huh," I said with interest. "I wonder if it's an offshoot of the loss of our Mythcrafting knowledge."

"Could be," she allowed. "It would make sense. Lacking a deliberate foundation, establishing a path of randomness to try to strain out the luckiest and most creative would make some sense. Plus I know that at higher ranks you can exert a bit more control. It just rankles me that you call people with no systemic foundation 'scientists'."

I chuckled. I'd actually heard this rant before. Specifically, from Benny of all people. The more he progressed from his origins as an inventor, the more he disdained the random byproducts of the process. Personally, I thought that success had made him a little smug, but hey, I wasn't a subject matter expert, what did I know about the differences between inventing and…well, inventing.

"Can you use that for your template?" Callie asked as my eyes locked onto the monocle. Dantalion was already active in my head, scanning the item, boosted to S-rank with my staff. "And will you be able to do it in time?"

"No," I shook my head. "To the second one. But that's fine. I don't need to complete the bloodline and get the stat boost right away. Just need to get it started. And yes, I can use it. I can use almost anything for a template. At least after all the research I did with the Prof making Cosmic Waltz and Song of Arcadia. I've become something of an expert on the whole process, and creating Bennu really helped with formalizing my understanding."

"Is that the one then?" asked Terry skeptically. "I thought we would have time to see a few more. There's no rush."

I shook my head. "Dantalion's scans show some interesting results for this one. It's what I'm looking for. Do you have a place for me to access my Domain? I don't want to do it here in the middle of all these flames. I can go back to my room if needed."

He shook his head. "Not necessary. We have rooms for people to examine and comprehend the flames. We call them reading rooms, for obvious reasons."

I chuckled at that, and he reached over and tipped back the bell jar. With no hesitation, he reached bare handed into the sphere, locking his fingers around the monocle and then pulling it smoothly out. It was a bit surreal to watch, honestly, because as he reached in, the proportions of his hand changed, seeming to distort and shrink, and as he withdrew, it returned to normal, along with the formerly mini monocle, now about the size of a small plum.

He deposited it in my hand gently, and I was surprised by just how heavy it felt. I could feel radiant heat coming off it, not like it had just come out of the fire, mind, but like it had a beating heart pumping blood through it. It was honestly kind of unsettling.

"B-rank," he commented. "Is that going to be too weak to use?"

I shook my head. "No, even if the demon I ended up picking was higher ranked it wouldn't be too big of a problem. We'd need to do some prep work, but B-rank is actually perfect for this one. I'm going to use Eye of Revelation as the basis here. He's tier eight anyway."

Once the flame was integrated, Eye would need to work with Nine Phoenix for a while while I designed the timepiece he would use. I'd need it to be able to integrate with Bennu anyway, so it would be easy to help him solidify the template that way. I was so used to the process I barely had to think about it anymore, but the designs just bloomed across my mind like a storm of creation. It took me a second to realize Dantalion was still incarnated at S-rank, but I didn't dismiss him. His help would only speed things up.

Following Terry to the 'reading room', I stepped past him, leaving Callie outside with the others. Without needing the Vault, I would be able to do this faster on my own. I loved working with my wife on projects, but this wasn't going to be too drawn out.

Once the door was shut, I projected Gehenna into the surrounding space. Nine Phoenix was waiting, as was Brad. Eye of Revelation wasn't, but that made sense because I hadn't been sure which demon would work best. I sent Brad to get him as I discussed the process with Nine Phoenix, and by the time we were finished gaming it out, the other two were back.

Eye of Revelation was…interesting. A tall, gaunt figure with, oddly enough, no eyes at all. He could obviously see perfectly fine, but his sockets were just empty pits with sparks of golden light in their depths.

He looked nervous, probably because he wasn't traditionally one of the demons I got a lot of face time with. I held up the monocle. "This is a conduit," I explained. "For a form of perception based fire. It burns away confusion, and the attributes are interesting. I plan to integrate it into you and to use that as a foundation to create a phoenix template. If that doesn't sound reasonable to you I'd understand. You won't be forced to do anything you don't want to do."

Despite the lack of eyes, I could easily see his gaze pinned to the monocle. "No," he said immediately. "I want to. I want to be stronger."

"Then you will be," I nodded. "Brad, go ahead and start when you're ready."

He took a deep breath, examined the monocle then focused on the empty pits of Eye of Revelation's eyes. It was kind of disturbing to watch, honestly. Unlike most of the time, when he formed a put from nowhere, this time Brad manifested his power by deepening the ones that were there. Or at least, one of them. The right eye seemed to be his pick this time.

As I watched, the eye expanded, and his hand sank inside, depositing the monocle smoothly before withdrawing.

Eye of Revelation shuddered, stumbling, back and catching himself on the table as his body stiffened and shook. I could feel the changes through Gehenna, feel the way his body was integrating the monocle. It didn't take too long, and as soon as it was done, I opened my stat page to check on his condition.

I found it easily enough. "Gaze of Certitude," I said out loud, chewing on the name. "Apparently the flame is called the clear mind fire. What a fascinating composition. There are several attributes besides fire and mind. Some kind of spirit attribute, a bit of divination, though only for flavoring." I glanced at Nine Phoenix. "Get started on the foundation for the template. Once it's done I'll build the timepiece."

He nodded, and I turned to Brad. "Make sure you're ready for more work," I told him gently, noting how tired he looked. "Get some rest. In order to complete the timepiece for this, I want to make sure I have the best possible foundation, which means it's officially time for me to get started on my watchmaking demon."

I could see my path forward here, and I was excited. Watchmaking was a skill that could use a lot more development, and assigning it to a demon would allow me to qualitatively improve in the discipline. Beyond that, I had a strong image in my head for these peaceflame watches, and the chance to bring them into reality sounded like fun. I could tell that Brad was interested in seeing where I could go with this too, and his eyes lit with enthusiasm as he agreed to rest up.

Turning, I stepped out of Gehenna and into the reading room. I'd known it wouldn't take long. Pulling the door open, I grinned at the others. "Ok, now you can come in," I told my wife. "I'm about to get started on my perfected Peaceflame watch, and I could use your help." Her answering grin made it even more clear than ever why I loved her so much.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

While I began work on my biggest project to date, I sent one of my demons to go get my sister. Callie, who was eager to help, was mostly confused by my reasoning there. "I get why you need me," she said bluntly. "But why Chelsea? We're inverting the timepiece when it's done, right? Are you going to make two and try to combine them?"

"That's an interesting idea," I said thoughtfully. "But no. It's more specific than that. Basically, the Belial flame, which is part of Agares, is corruptive. It's based on my toxic fire, and then even moreso on Belial's ability to subvert everything. It's very different from Peaceflame, but it's NOT the opposite." I'd been putting a lot of thought into this, and while injecting Peaceflame into the completed anchor item might have fixed the issue, it wasn't going to be enough to steadily act as a foundation for one of my demons.

Callie couldn't invert corruption into Peaceflame, because while she had SOME influence on the results of her vault's inversion, she needed to work off what she had.

That's where Chelsea came in. I explained my reasoning to my wife as we waited. My sister's concept was yin yang. Not just combining, but balancing in a certain way. The yang and the yin weren't just pure opposites. They each contained a speck of the other.

Her eyes widened. "OH!" she said excitedly. "That's brilliant. If Chelsea uses Peaceflame and that corruptive fire to form a diagram, it'll inject a tiny spark of each into the other within the item. When I invert it, that spark will act as a guide, smoothly flipping the diagram from one side to the other, allowing Peaceflame to act as the direct counterpoint despite not normally being the right fit."

I tapped my nose. "Got it in one," I said smugly. "After seeing what our Domains can do working together against Deveskane and his boss, I figured it would behoove us to try seeing what kind of synergies our allies have with us. Chelsea in particular is an almost perfect complement to your vault."

She hummed with interest, clearly thinking it over, but I was already moving to the next step. Sitting down, I called up and incarnated Agares, boosting him to S-rank with the staff. I winced when I did. I already had Dantalion at S, and with the staff and I at the same rank, pushing two skills was testing my limits. I closed my eyes, focusing on the thrum of my pulse, and pushed past the small undercurrent of pain.

It wasn't too bad, thankfully, just a vague sense of discomfort. From there, I began the process of creation.
I had a few goals with this timepiece, so I went over them in my head. First: I needed a base timepiece for the new demon. Second, I wanted that base timepiece to represent the power of future timepieces I was planning to make at least somewhat, which meant Peaceflame, and I wanted it to represent my watchmaking as a whole.

There was a lot to cover. But ultimately, the most important factor was the skill itself. Adding Peaceflames would help make these specific timepieces easier, but it wasn't integral to the process. Mostly it was just convenient to scrub the toxicity from the materials.

Which begged the question: how do you make a watch that represents making watches?

Funnily enough, phrasing it that way actually helped. I knew how to make watches, knew the parts, the process. So my first task would be to represent those parts and that process. I reached out with my mind, Agares coming to my call as I constructed my first piece. The mainspring barrel.

I didn't start small. Not yet. Rather, I called the dust from the depths of my ring and crafted the first piece in a larger size so I could perfectly sculpt every bit of the object. It was huge, the size of a plate, but it didn't matter. I could compress it later, and it would only improve the durability. I left it floating there, then moved on. Hairspring. Crown wheel. Regulator.

One piece after another came forth, and after each one, I could feel the information, the shape, flowing a little smoother. They floated in the air, obsidian glass perfection, with flickers of green light dancing along the refracting edges.

The parts spun and clicked in the air, creating a giant model of a watch, a manifestation of my craft. I grinned, doubling down. My hands sped up, calling the dust out and shaping it, sending gears and springs whirling into place. It felt like music. Like a symphony of creation. I added more, letting the process take me, letting the complications pile up. Twenty, thirty, fifty. It was the most complex timepiece I'd ever made.

It built, and built, and I felt something gathering in the air. Meaning. Fate. I had no real idea what it was but it was peaking and I needed to finish this construction soon. I started to compress, even while I worked, the dust was condensed, packed tighter, and the parts all began to shrink. They all got smaller at the same rate, remaining perfectly to scale, in fact, they got smoother and more refined as I forced the impurities out.

The watch band took shape, slats of obsidian connected one to the next, a folding latch to close the band. Then came the hands of the clock, then the face, then the dials. Before long, it was finished, and I held up the hand with the watch. "Chelsea," I called without looking up.

My sister stepped up next to me. "Go ahead," she said calmly. I nodded, then called for Peaceflame with my other hand. She raised her palms and a diagram manifested above the watch, half black, half white, but with a speck of each in the other. Except the black half was DEEP and glossy, just like the obsidian, and the white was dull and flickering.
I pushed the Peaceflame toward it, and the diagram blurred. The white in the wheel began to brighten, sucking in the fire. Alongside it, the pinprick of white among the glassy black strengthened.

It took a few minutes of pouring in power before the watch diagram reached saturation. "It's done," Chelsea said, sounding winded.

Nodding, I set it down, letting my two S-rank incarnations drop. I groaned, holding my skull as all the backlash I'd been ignoring during the crafting hit me all at once. I did not enjoy the sensation.

But I was used to pain. I pushed past it, then lifted the watch to pass it to Callie. "Ready?"

She nodded, took the watch, then vanished. It didn't take long for her to return, and when she did, she held out a new item. Something completely different to what I'd seen before. And as I took it in…I froze.

"It's beautiful," my sister murmured as she beheld the work of art. And she was right. It was.

The design of the watch was the same. Same bezel, same face, same shape. But everything about it had completely changed. Where before, the obsidian gloss had given the watch a menacing, dangerous look, the material had altered states. Rather than black obsidian, the watch was made of perfectly clear crystal. Among the gears, golden swirls spun and shifted, following the pathways of the clockwork.

Despite being merely energy, and the object itself being clear, the dancing waves of golden-white fire gave the impression that parts of the timepiece were gilded, covered with gold or maybe platinum.

With the clear material I could see every single facet of the watch construction flawlessly, both the shapes and the motion. Somehow the edges of the obsidian, the sharp faceted faces and the cruel corners, looked smooth and friendly on the new timepiece. Despite being the same shape, this one was just…kinder. By nature.

Swallowing, I called for Dust Construction, releasing the demon into the world. He was ready and waiting for this, but when he saw me, then the watch, he froze, just as in awe as I was.

"This," I said as I held it up. "Is a Celestial Timepiece." I wasn't sure how I knew that. Maybe Dantalion told me. However it was, it was undisputable. That was the name of this object, no matter what anyone said. "Are you ready for your reincarnation?"

This wasn't a new idea. Or at least, not TOO new. I'd considered it last night, and made sure to speak with my demon earlier. Given the radical changes reincarnation could bring, I made sure to always consult the demons on what they were getting into. Some turned it down, some were excited about it. Dust Construction was the latter.

He nodded solemnly, staring longingly at the timepiece, and I called for the next part of this. Brad emerged behind us. Stepping forward, he raised a hand. In front of Dust Construction's chest, a hole emerged. It was an innocuous thing, but dark and deep. Something empty inside Dust Construction. I could SEE what it was. See the truth of it, and it made me shudder a little. Brad had hit tier nine over the break, and his powers felt…different. I'd missed it last time, when he was working on Eye of Revelation. Or it hadn't required as much for some reason.

Stepping forward, I lifted the crystalline watch, gently feeding it into the hole in the air. Dust Construction shook slightly, falling into a nearby seat someone had prepared.

The change to Eye of Revelation had been slight. He'd remained mostly the same after integrating the monocle, though admittedly, that wasn't the timepiece, and that process was ongoing. This though, this was a big change.
Dust Construction had been tall and pale with dark hair and eyes. His nails, lips, even his teeth had all been glossy, obsidian black. But as I watched him integrate the timepiece, I could see so many small differences. His hair bleached out, becoming white with the occasional streak of molten gold. His eyes shifted to golden flames, his lips, teeth, and nails to porcelain white.

By the time it was over, Dust Construction…no, that wasn't his name anymore. Celestial Fabrication. He was stronger now. Tier seven. Integrating the watch had pushed him a rank.

I dismissed the two demons, still in a state of inspiration, though I gave them both nods of thanks. Once they were gone, I called upon incarnation, bringing Celestial Fabrication to the forefront.

Waving my hand, I dumped a bunch of materials from my ring onto the table. I needed them for this, I knew. Dust Construction was a resource alteration skill at its core. His upgrade might have changed some specifics, but it didn't change HIM. Not really. Waving a hand, the items floated up into the air, I focused, and a burst of Peaceflame erupted from my hands.

Slowly, almost agonizingly so, the white gold flame began to erode the materials. They melted and warped, flowing into a crystalline mass that hardened and then dissolved into a glassy crystal clear dust.

My lips peeled back in an excited grin as the material reshaped itself before my eyes. A mainspring, a bezel, all of it seamless and effortless. It was like the watch parts were part of ME, like I was reconstructing my own hands from memory. Knowledge from Dantalion, from myself, from nowhere at all, it all poured into my brain like a waterfall of molten diamond. I'd forgotten what skills could do, especially when it came to something like crafting.

The material was naturally made with Peaceflame, so pouring more in was like pouring water over a sponge, the watch just soaking it all up. It took maybe a minute all told, and when I was done, a beautiful watch specifically designed to act as a guide, amplifier and conductor of Peaceflame was glittering flawlessly in my hands. I looked up at Callie, grinning like an idiot under my mask. "It's done," I said, raising my hands to display the timepiece. Now I just had to train Celestial Fabrication up two ranks. Guess it was time to do some grinding.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The process of training my Celestial Fabrication was not going to be fast. Firstly, I needed materials. One would think, given the nature of the library, that there would be plenty. One would be wrong. Most of the stuff that made it into the promethean library was high end mats or items with naturally occurring flame attributes. Weak artifacts had long since stopped manifesting anything interesting, so there were hardly any, and the ones that were there were important pieces that couldn't be spared.

This was a problem, but also not, because on the one hand, I couldn't do my work, and on another, when I told Terry that he ordered me a MOON of junk. I had been unaware, up until this point, that a moon was a unit of measurement. Apparently I had been missing out.

Sadly, despite that upcoming resource dump, I was unable to work at the moment, so I was forced to do the one thing I least wanted to do: relax.

"You know, you were just taking a break for a few months," my wife said wryly. "You're not allergic to downtime. You can take some time off to process and decompress once in a while. There are many relaxing things you could be doing that don't involve crafting."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Really?" I asked with amusement. "And is one of those things cooking for you?"

"I have no idea what things you may find relaxing," she said loftily. "If for some reason making nourishment for the love of your life, the other half of your soul, and the woman currently carrying your unborn baby daughter is something you find fulfilling and worthwhile, then I, as your wife, would support you in that endeavor."

Laughing, I put an arm around her. "Relly? You would do that for me? Truly, I am blessed in life and in romance."

"As long as you know," she said with a serious nod. "Regardless, jokes aside, you should do-

She didn't get to finish her thought, because before she could continue, an earthshattering SHRIEK split the air, making me react instantly. I tossed her on the bed, climbing over her and shielding her and the baby with my body as best as I could without putting pressure on her, triggering Mornax with a push to S-rank despite the burn of overuse I got from the staff after my previous crafting session so recently gone.

We sat there like that, still and waiting, for about three minutes, the wail of what I could now process was an alarm going off in the background. "So…what are the chances that's a false alarm or some kind of drill?" I asked my wife sheepishly.

She sighed. "Considering you're here, not high. Though admittedly, my fate has been pretty nonsensical lately too, so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm contributing. And Bethy. And wow, we basically travel with a horde of danger magnets. Alright, I love you for putting yourself in harms way for me, even if I'd have kidney punched you if you actually got hurt, but you can get off me now. We need to go find out what terrible but unlikely event we've somehow managed to trigger."

Laughing, I stood, helping her up. We walked to the door, pulling it open to show Benny with his hand raised to knock. When he saw my face, he just glared at me. "What did you DO?"

"I literally haven't done a thing since I got here except take a tour and do some crafting," I said dryly. "I should be asking what YOU did, Mr. Mad Scientist. This is a science place, after all. Maybe you did something scientific and angered the science gods. Everyone knows the forces that govern science are mysterious and arcane."

"You stop that right now!" he snapped in annoyance. "You know that was all nonsense, and that this isn't my fault. I won't fall for your word sorcery!"

I frowned contemplatively. "I don't have word sorcery, but that does sound useful. Maybe I should invest." I turned to Callie. "What do you think, hon? Word sorcery? That could be a hit at parties. If we ever threw any."

"You hate parties," she reminded me. "You got impaled at the last one."

"Stop ENABLING him," Benny groaned in annoyance. "This is serious. You're pregnant for the god's sakes. It's dangerous for you to be here without anyone to protect you." I was taken aback by his worried tone, though I shouldn't have been. Still, his concern for my family was obviously more extreme than for himself, and I couldn't mock that.

I put a hand on his shoulder. "She'll be fine," I said soothingly. "I can protect her from anything short of a god, at least passively. And she has Atlas's gem for that. We're not nobodies who can be pushed around anymore, Ben. We're strong, and we can take care of ourselves. And you too."

"What are we protecting Benny from?" chirped a happy voice. We all jumped, spinning to find Bethy behind us, dragging Chelsea with her.

"Shane," Benny said dryly. "As usual. Where's everyone else? We were all in the same general area of the guest wing, right?" I noticed that Abel, Dayna, my grandparents and El weren't here, though the latter I was less worried about.

Still, finding them was our first priority. "I saw El with Terry this morning," I said slowly. "Anyone know where he is?"

Benny did, luckily, having been curious about the processing of the flames here. Apparently, he'd figured out where the control room was, and he was able to easily lead us there within a few minutes. When we arrived, we banged on the door, and it flew open to reveal a flustered looking Terry, Elonwy on his heels. "Shane," he said with relief. "Oh good, we were about to send someone to come get you. Come inside, quickly. It's not safe."

"You know," I said wryly as we entered. "That tracks. I was getting a very not safe vibe here. Any chance you can tell us WHAT isn't safe?"

He grimaced. "It's not really…I don't have a term for it in common parlance. The closest approximation you'd understand is something 'fire ghosts', which is needlessly dramatic and not really-"

"They're fire ghosts," Elonwy said from her spot studying the display. "Or at least, they're close. These ones are a special flavor. Namely, Void."

I froze. "What do you mean VOID?" I demanded. "How did the Void get in here?"

"They followed you," Terry said calmly. "Or rather, they waited for you to arrive and slipped in. We have a tolerance for anomalous pyroclastic entities here, and we're nowhere near capacity. Frankly, we didn't even bother screening the ones that slipped in because there's no reason to worry about them until they start to condense."

"APEs?" Bethy said with interest. "Are they primate ghosts?"

He groaned. "No, and that's why I don't use that name. I just don't know how this happened, our screening methods are impeccable, they never should have-"

"Stop," I said firmly, holding up a hand. "No time for the blame game, and if there was, I'm sure I'd win. This stuff just happens to me, and if they followed me in this is my bad. So tell me what to do. It's not like they're gods, right? We have four S-rankers here, five if you count my boosted forms. Can't we just destroy them?" Peaceflame was made for this exact situation, in my opinion.

He grimaced. "The problem isn't what came IN," he said anxiously. "It's what's already here. We have things in the library that require constant suppression. Sentient flames that desire the death of all worlds, fragments of evil fire gods dredged up from the Void, cursed flame weapons that possess their wielder to steal the heat from stars. Some of them are S-rank, but some are higher. There are no complete deities in here, of course, but barring that…well, the sheer number of them is alarming."

I froze. "That's…would they KNOW about that?" I asked urgently. "That you use this place as a fire prison?"

"Some of the Void Children have ended up here," he confirmed. "And escapes have happened. Not many, but it's occurred. We increased security, but you know what Void stealth is like. With so many of them loose in the library there's no telling what they might release."

I looked around quickly. "Shit, we're missing people. Where are my grandparents, where's Abel? If there's things loose in here-"

"Your grandparents went to find your friends," Elonwy told me reassuringly. "Then stop in to check on some of the more obvious problem areas."

"Do we know what they're going for?" I asked worriedly. "Or do you just think they'll try to break out anything they can find?" In my experience, incursions like this usually had a purpose. A mass jailbreak was possible, but the Void tended to have targets. They were surprisingly organized for insane silence obsessed nothing ghosts formed from primordial darkness.

Terry grimaced. "There are a few options," he admitted. "But I suspect they're here for Bitter Conflagration. Of all our prisoners, she's the most deadly. A fragment of a god from before recorded history. Moonlight found her in Void Shallow a few millennia ago and barely survived a fight with her. We suspect when she was alive she was someone on the same level as your father in law. Even as a fragment she's deadly and terrifying. If she were to get loose…"

"So we don't let her," I said firmly. "I can't take a god, even a fragment, but I can take a fire ghost. Tell me where she's being held and we'll go make sure she stays there."

He looked uncomfortable, but eventually nodded. "Fine, if Elonwy goes with you."

"Agreed," I nodded. "Cal, you're staying back." Her eyes flared with outrage but I held up a hand. "This isn't safe for the baby. I get that you want to come with, and you know I wouldn't stop you if it were just us, but our daughter can't protect herself out there. I know it's not fair, but she needs you to do this."

Her eyes bored into me like hot pokers, and I could FEEL her desire to lash out, but ultimately she could tell that I was really worried. She sighed, nodding along. "Fine," she said softly. "I'll stay back. For now. But you'd better keep in contact."

I put a hand up. "I swear. You can talk right into my head the whole time. Chatter away, just really let me have it. I could use the distraction."

She chuckled, leaning up to peck me on the cheek. "I'm sure," she said in a quiet voice. "But try not to get TOO distracted. I need you back here in one piece. So be careful out there. If you run into anything you can't handle, leave it to El. Don't push yourself too much. I can tell you're still sore from all the rank boosting."

I nodded an admission. "I'll try not to let myself get dragged into anything. My grandparents are out there, and I'll probably meet up with them before we even get there. Don't worry about a thing, love."

She wrapped her arms around me, holding tight, and I patted her back. Then I turned to Elonwy and nodded, gesturing for her to follow me, and left without looking back. I tried not to think about what was happening or where we were going too hard. Not because I was afraid (I was largely immune to sensible things like fear of my own death at this point), but because I was getting a bad sinking feeling.

Something about this whole incident felt…intentional. Not like a plan. Like fate. I couldn't shake the feeling that we were supposed to be here, and that our presence was building to something bigger. Something important and relevant to us personally. And unfortunately, none of my premonitions of doom had been wrong up to now. This was going to get complicated before it got simple.

 

[Vongrak]

Why do I get the odd sense that Shane can convert Bitter Conflagration. Like, I have no reasonable assertion for this, but it feels like something that could happen.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Elonwy and I made our way through the halls of the library with purpose. I wasn't taking any chances, making sure to wield my strongest combat power that wasn't likely to burn me out. Sammael, at tier nine, incarnated with a boost from the staff, had me at a fairly stable S-rank for this little incident, and I made sure to prepare for anything as we walked through the halls of flashing light.

Beyond Sammael, I had manifested Mephistopheles, the Ruin fire mixing with Sammael's black flame and enhanced by the boosting nature of the demon's power. Sammael had been my strongest combat form for a long time, and while he definitely wasn't anymore, he was still easily my most adaptable.

Elonwy watched my wings spread behind me with casual interest, I couldn't remember if she'd seen them before, but given my bloodline, if she hadn't seen these she'd definitely seen at least one set.

"They'll be fine," she assured me as we walked. "Your grandparents are unusually strong, even for S-rankers."

I shook my head. "It's not that," I hedged. "It's this 'Bitter Conflagration'. I had a bad feeling about her. Like this is going to lead somewhere bad. We need to make sure she doesn't get out. I'm not sure why, but I can feel that her release would be terrible for us."

My fate sense was screaming at me. Something was wrong. Something I didn't understand and something far more consequential than yet another attempt by the Void to swing things their way. I was so caught up my doomsaying that I nearly missed the swipe of congealed flame that flashed towards my neck as I stepped around the corner. Nearly.

The Pillar of Goetia flashed up, slamming into the flashing edge and neatly deflecting it before whirling back up from behind to strike at the creature who had swung at me. Even as I struck, my eyes focused on the being I was attacking, revealing a floating red robe or cloak full of condensed fire. Free floating red gloves held a long halberd made of glowing red metal with a flameshaped blade at the end.

Despite being A-rank, the creature managed to actively put pressure on me with its attack, and it took me a moment to figure out why. "Shit," spat as I looked around. "This fucking thing is a fire spirit. It's getting powered up by all the fire attribute energy in here, isn't it?"

Elonwy, unfortunately, was already engaging another four combatants, but she had time to shout back a confirmation. I grimaced, preparing to counter it…and realized I COULDN'T. Cursing, I triggered Mornax as I considered my options.

Fire. Every ability I had was fire based at this point, or close enough. I needed a way to suppress fire. Or at least…bind it.

I was familiar with fire. In fact, I might be more familiar with fire than anyone. So many flames I had, so many ways to burn. But because of that, I understood the heat, could predict and control it. And because of the power I'd gotten from devouring Deveskane, that meant I could BIND it.

Dropping Sammael and Mornax, I stood exposed, calling for Dantalion as I closed my eyes, trusting Elonwy to protect me as I arranged my counter to the threat.

Dan was all about perception and processing. Understanding the composition of what surrounded me. I didn't boost him to S-rank, because I didn't need to. I just focused my mind entirely on the flame. On all flame. I shut out the unnecessary and pointless distractions, reaching only for the core, the singular fire that bound all varieties of flame together, just like Terry was searching for.

Obviously, I couldn't find that. But I found a few fairly core attributes to the fires that all of them seemed to possess. Then I reached out with the power of sealing inside me and locked. Slamming it shut and throwing the key away.

There was a ripple around us, and the heat just…ceased. My eyes opened slowly. Nearby, I could see frost forming on the walls and floor, see the fire spirits attacking beginning to slow as the heat was drained from their bodies. A-rankers like me, which meant even without the boost, they were well within my strike zone. And strike I did.

A pair of quick slams with my staff shattered one of the frozen fire spirits and then another into pieces, shattered remnants of frozen flame tinkling to the floor. I felt the power burning through me, and I felt the world respond to my domination, if only for a moment. For a few seconds, it felt like the world held its breath…and then it ended, and the heat and motion came rushing back as I stumbled to the side, catching my nearly boneless body against the wall.

"Woah there," El said as she caught my elbow. Blinking, I glanced to find hers down too. She'd taken the opportunity to take out the three I hadn't gotten while they were frozen. I was relieved. "Impressive moves there, kid. That's a scary Domain you've got there. I didn't know you could suppress attributes."

"Neither did I," I admitted. "It was spur of the moment. I'm not sure I could do it with anything but fire, but with so many phoenix bloodlines in me I'd have to be idiot not to have picked up a talent for the stuff." Every bloodline I'd developed gave me a deep and intrinsic understanding of the relevant type of fire, and since all of them had fire as a base…combined with my various flames and Dan's analysis, I'd managed something cheap on the fly.

That said, I was interested in exploring possible future uses for that ability, especially here where we were ass deep in every conceivable kind of fire. Whatever I chose to do though, it would need to wait a bit, because I was wiped from that little party trick.

I spent a few moments letting myself recover, calling on an old friend to help. From my Domain, a shriek of challenge erupted, and then Archimedes, my Life Nova Phoenix, emerged. He glared down at me in irritation, taking in my condition, then reached up with his wing and slapped me in the face with a green flaming wing.

Coughing, I jerked back as the Life Nova Flame flooded my body, igniting the nine drops of Life Nova Bloodline in my heart and flooding me with energy. Archie wasn't A-rank, he hadn't been able to keep up with my insane pace recently, but he WAS B-rank, and we had the same bloodline. Much like a single spark could light a bonfire, his burst of life nova flame could ignite my bloodline…only: "Why the hell did you HIT me?" I demanded as I spat out a few flaming feathers.

He let out a shriek of defiant annoyance and I grimaced. "Ok, yeah, it's been a while, but it's not like I left you alone. There's been a lot going on." I ignored the disdainful snort. Or tried to. "Hey you benefitted from all this nonsense too. Not as much, but you're pretty deep into B-rank now."

Elonwy snickered at us. "Are you two done? I think we need to go."

"Yeah," I said sheepishly. "Sorry. I'm good." I turned to Archie. "Here, one second." Reaching for Asmodeus, I called forth the demon of enhancement. He laid himself over Archie, and my Phoenix let out a screech of triumph, wings flaring as the feathers changed and horns erupted from his head. I scoffed. "So dramatic. No idea where he gets that."

Archie, now rocking an A-rank power level himself, screeched challengingly and swept away in a blaze of green-black fire. Chuckling, I followed behind him, waiting to see where he would lead us. With his A-rank power, he was faster than I was, and smaller, and had wings, so he was the natural pick for a scout, and he knew it.

He swept out ahead, ranging down the corridors and circling back. I held up an arm and he landed on it, trilling excitedly. "He found something," I told Elonwy. "Apparently it's a…wait, what? What the hell do you mean you found a lakeside villa?"

Frowning, El raised an eyebrow at me. I ignored her, aiming that same question internally at my wife, who passed it on to Terry. I expected to play a game of telephone, but to my surprise, Terry himself appeared around the corner moments later, dressed in a bright red three piece suit. I got a seriously scary vibe from that suit, and I assumed it was some form of armor, S-rank for sure.

Raising an eyebrow at him, I gestured down the hall. "What's up with the lake? You guys have one of those here?"

"No," he said grimly. "Which means it's PROBABLY a Domain projection. We're inside an S-rank formation with suppression elements designed to ensure space and energy stability. Which means if there IS a Domain being projected here, the Domain itself has to be stronger than the formation. One of the god fragments is awake."

"See," I sighed. "I was afraid you were going to say something like that. Just out of random curiosity, which direction is the place where the Bitter Conflagration is imprisoned? You know, the place my grandparents probably went first?"

He smiled tightly, raising his hand and pointing the way Archie had just come.

"That checks out," I sighed. "Alright, let's go then. Everyone stick close." I triggered Mornax and boosted it again, hoping my S-rank defenses would be enough against a fragment of a god that had been described as being on the same level as Atlas. Mornax was supposed to be invincible at the same level, and a fragment wasn't a real god…but there were degrees to everything.

We made our way down the hallway, slowly, and I kept my staff ready in case of combat. We turned the corner and sure enough, as soon as we passed the edge of the wall, there was a subtle shift in space, and suddenly we were standing at the edge of a huge lake. I froze, looking around worriedly. "Ok…this is really big," I said warily. Staring off into the distance, I saw the lake was surrounded by an endless sea of evergreen trees.

Size and Domain strength weren't DIRECTLY correlated, at least not one to one, but larger Domains tended to be capable of bearing more pressure, which could easily translate into power. I knew that from personal experience.

"This is a realm," said Terry in a tight voice. "An actual fragment of a world manifested by a deity. It's basically a hanging land." In front of us, a towering wooden villa climbed into the sky, set at the edge of the lake with a long dock leading out onto the water. Despite the danger though, we all knew what we had to do. We advanced, moving forward slowly toward the villa.

There were no defenses, no guards, no traps or hidden dangers. We were able to just walk across the yard unaccosted. When we reached the door, we knocked, and it opened on its own, letting us inside.

Glancing at each other warily, we all nodded firmly, and then we stepped inside. We could hear speaking off in the distance, and I recognized my grandfather's voice. Without any hesitation, I headed in that direction, following the sound to a large open concept dining room where several people sat having tea.

Dayna, Abel, my grandparents…and a woman I'd never met before. A woman who I didn't know at all…but whose face was incredibly familiar. She looked almost exactly like my wife. Or rather, more accurately, like my wife's older adopted sister and ancestor, Alara. The red haired, slightly older version of my wife turned to lock eyes with us and smiled warmly. "Oh, guests! Please, come in and have some tea." Damn it. Not another one.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I swallowed hard at the appearance of the Bitter Conflagration. She looked like Callie. I knew, in this universe or the others I had interacted with, exactly ONE person who looked like my wife who was not Callie herself. Her sister Alara.

Despite calling themselves sisters, Callie's actual relation to Alara was mostly unknown, at least via number and function of relatives. Ancestor was probably a closer term, but even Alara herself couldn't say how many generations separated the two of them. Callie's appearance had, most likely, been a strong motivator behind Adam Atlas, the Heretic God, deciding to adopt my wife when he performed her racial trait upgrade.

Alara, who had supposedly been dead until we found her in the chaos chasm post vampirism, was nearly identical to my wife in looks, with only small differences between the two. This woman, obviously, had her own deviations from the template the two sisters established, mostly via her apparent age (late twenties early thirties rather than the late teens early twenties or my wife and her vampiric sibling), not to mention her fiery red hair, but she still looked close enough to identify the relation at a glance.

She wasn't slow on the uptake either, she noticed my reaction to her. Smiling warmly, she leaned forward to pour another cup of tea. "You're running low, dear," she said kindly. "Oh, it is SO lovely to have guests. It's been quite a while since I've seen visitors. Well, except those Void spirits who came here before you. But they were very rude, they wouldn't even sit for a drink."

My grandfather tensed. "The Void spirits were here before us?" he asked nervously. This woman was…scary. I could feel the power rolling off her like a bonfire.

"Oh yes," she said cheerfully, taking a long sip of her tea and sighing a happy sigh. "I do wish they might have shared a cup with me. This is my favorite blend, you know? I've been so cramped down here, and their loosening of my shackles was so very kind. It was a shame they decided not to accept my hospitality. But I repaid their kindness at least, they died quickly, and the pain was only horrible."

Everyone at the table froze at those words, except the woman herself, who seemed oblivious to the disruption her little admission had caused. I swallowed hard, reaching out to Callie to try to stop her from coming. As soon as she'd caught my emotional response to the woman, she'd set off to join us. She'd even shut the bond to prevent me from trying to convince her. Whoever this person was, her obviously unstable worldview was NOT something I counted as safe to have around my wife, resemblance or not.

I kind of wanted to run, to meet Callie outside and block her. I didn't know what she thought she could do to help and I didn't care. It wasn't safe here. Unfortunately, I was beginning to get the strong sense that if we tried to leave without permission very BAD things were going to happen.

"The tea is lovely," I said blandly as I took another sip. It actually was delicious. "Might we be so forward as to request the pleasure of learning your name, miss?"

She giggled, like she hadn't just admitted to butchering S-rank fire ghosts for the sin of not being polite enough. "Well aren't YOU the dashing little gentleman. Of course you may. I am Belsara, the bitter conflagration, goddess of the creeping fire, vessel of the burning heart. And who might you be, little gentleman?"

"Shane Wyndham, ma'am," I answered politely. "Wishmaster of the Wish Curse Palace." I kept my response as sanitized of anything to do with Atlas as possible. I felt like I was dealing with Black Sorrow again, only worse, because Black Sorrow cared about my relationship to my grandmother, and Belsara had no idea who I was. Although, the name did make me curious. It kind of reminded me of Alara's in a way, and made me even more certain that there was some relation there.

Nodding like she had any clue what that was (though I wasn't really convinced) she favored me with another smile. "How impressive. You're a very accomplished young man, aren't you? I can sense the fire of your vitality, and it burns strong. I'd put you at…perhaps twenty years of age? Maybe a bit more? And already A-rank, how precocious. Tell me, are you godspawned, child?"

"Not exactly," I hedged. "I have several deities in my family, but my parents are not gods. Nor are my grandparents, who sit here before you."

If she could sense how OLD I was, I wasn't confident I could lie to her, or even hide anything particularly big. I was starting to panic a bit. That panic was magnified exponentially when I heard a bang at the door outside. The link flew open, and a flood of terror and desperate worry washed over me. Belsara looked up with interest. "Oh? More guests, how lovely." She frowned. "But how will I answer the door? My guests are already here, and if I get up and leave it would be horribly rude. I suppose I'll just have to kill the new visitors, musn't neglect my company. One moment," she raised a hand, fingers beginning to glow, and I barely stopped myself from tackling her.

"WAIT!" I yelled frantically. "I mean, wait," I adjusted my tone as she cocked her head at me in concern. "I can send someone to get them. I have demons in my Domain, quite a few of them. They would be happy to help. If I could have your permission to invite one out into your home."

"Hmmm," she hummed indecisively. "I suppose that would be alright. I don't know if I have enough tea though. What if there are too many of them?"

"It's only two," I assured her quickly. "My wife is worried and came looking for me."

Her face lit up. "A FAMILY visit! How novel! Yes, yes, send your retainer, I would welcome your wife into my home."

While that SHOULD have made me ecstatic, and I was definitely happy Callie wouldn't be casually incinerated by an insane goddess, I had a knot in my stomach I couldn't get rid of. Callie shouldn't be here. I didn't know why she would come…ok, that was a lie. I did know. She'd been scared for me and given her interactions with her dad and sister she figured Belsara might be more likely to let us go if she knew Callie was involved. She might even be right. But I couldn't shake the feeling that this was all very wrong. Something bad was happening, was happening to all of us RIGHT NOW, and I couldn't stop it.

My wife shouldn't come into this house, but if she didn't she'd die. And then I would die, because I WOULD attack Belsara if she hurt my wife, goddess or not. I conjured Azazel, hoping he would have some way of influencing things, though I realized that was unlikely. Then I sent him to get the door and let Callie and Terry inside.

At the very least, she hadn't come alone. If Terry had let her run off into a base under attack without protection I'd have blown up his stupid formation myself. There was very little wait from the front door to the dining room, or at least, there shouldn't have been. I frowned. Azazel was walking further than he should have to. Which meant either she was enlarging the space to the door or she had SHRUNK the space to the door when we arrived.

And suddenly this whole thing felt wrong. Belsara's weird casual crazy about manners didn't make sense, not when we'd just walked into her house and joined in. And the Void Spirits must have been able to enter easily to get in before us, but they'd been dead before my grandparents arrived. She'd killed them quickly, and most likely not over manners. She'd wanted them gone before we showed up.

Beyond that, her earlier threat didn't make sense. Fragment or not, she was a god, and a strong one. If she wanted to kill Callie and Terry, I wouldn't have seen her start the attempt. Everything that was happening here was being carefully curated. Nothing we'd done since we entered this Domain had been unscripted. She was manipulating us. But why? What was the point? If she was free, why not just leave? Why involve all of us in whatever this was. What was she hoping to gain?

In fact, how had she done this so easily? Thinking back, I remembered the changes to the bond. Had Callie actually shut me out at all? Or had Belsara hijacked it somehow. Because that series of events had been far too convenient to be a coincidence.

My heart hammered in my chest. This was wrong. All of this was wrong. We needed to leave, NOW. But we couldn't. None of us could. We weren't strong enough.

I watched in horrified fascination as Azazel arrived at the door, somehow visible from where I sat, and opened it to admit Callie and Terry. The look on Belsara's face as they entered was one of such glee, such profound triumph, that I knew I'd been right. She'd known this would happen, all of it, and had arranged us like pieces on a chessboard to achieve this exact result.

Which begged the question…why? I could assume that there was some reason she couldn't just walk out and grab Callie, maybe something about the formation? Could there be some way to beat her contained within the suppression of the library? Obviously it was capable of restraining her somehow, and had been doing so for a long time. Was there some way to activate it again? I was reminded of the tower with Drexel, only this situation was a thousand times WORSE. Drexel had been massively suppressed by the Chaos Chasm, but while Belsara too had been bound in captivity, the formation clearly wasn't on the same level as the chasm.

"Shane!" Callie yelled as she spotted me, bolting past the insane goddess and my grandparents and throwing herself into my arms. "What happened? One moment I was trying to talk to you and the next the bond just slammed shut! Why did you close it?"

My eyes flicked to Belsara, whose eyes were wide and glittering as she stared at my wife. Yeah. Just like I suspected. She'd jammed Angelic Bond. Which realistically should be nearly impossible, but then again, the bond was based on the angel trait that Atlas had created for Callie when she formed her Chronicle. Assuming Belsara KNEW Atlas (which was all but certain at this point), it would be completely reasonable for her to have figured out a way to jam it inside her own realm.

"Must have been some kind of interference," I said flatly, shifting my body slightly to put myself between my wife and the dangerous trapped goddess. "Why don't you say hello to our host, Cal. This is Belsara."

She frowned, turning to look at the other women and…froze. "Oh," she said in a small voice. "Hello,"

Belsara's eyes BLAZED with fanatical excitement. "Hello little one," she said, soft enough to not spook my wife. "Welcome to my home. I hope you weren't waiting too long. It's truly wonderful to meet you."

As expected, she'd known. She'd known all of it from the first moment we arrived. I frowned, considering my options…but eventually decided that the time for treading carefully was past. "Who exactly are you?" I asked quietly as I drew myself up to put further distance between the two of them. "And how do you know Adam Atlas and his daughter Alara?" Her eyes snapped to mine, narrowing in anger, and I sighed internally. Sometimes, I really hated being right about things.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I thought Belsara might attack me for a moment, her eyes lit with incandescent rage…and then it passed, and her smile, which hadn't actually changed during the dangerous moment, warm and inviting. "Why, what a peculiar question," she said airily. "Though I suppose hardly a surprising one, considering the obvious resemblance. Very well, why don't you all sit down. Calliope, darling, would you like something to eat? I have these DIVINE finger sandwiches I can whip up."

She didn't seem to care that I hadn't mentioned Callie's name, and with a flick of her fingers, she conjured a pair of chairs behind my wife and Terry, knocking into the backs of their knees and depositing them in the seats. In the blink of an eye, a cup of tea appeared in one of Callie's hands and a plate of tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off in the other. Terry got tea too, but it just appeared in the air in front of him and he had to fumble to keep it from spilling all over him. But hey, at least she wasn't biased.

Callie watched warily, scooting her chair over so it was next to mine, instead of behind me where she'd ended up due to my protective stance. She took a sandwich, biting it gingerly, but her eyes lit up as she offered one to me. If Belsara wanted us dead we'd be dead, and poison would be pointless, plus my Danger Sense wasn't warning me about the sandwiches, even if it WAS going apeshit right now.

I took the offered sandwich and bit into it, impressed by the depth of that flavor despite only really tasting cucumber and cream cheese. "These are amazing," Callie gushed. "What's in them?"

Belsara preened, and I frowned internally. I didn't think Callie was as aware of the danger here as I was. Possibly because she wasn't IN any danger from Belsara, but I didn't think she could sense my emotions through the bond if she was this relaxed. Which meant Belsara could not only SHUT the bond, she could probably tinker with it. That was VERY bad.

"The secret is finely chopped watercress mixed into the cream cheese," Belsara said modestly. "It was my daughter's favorite summertime snack as a child. I'm so glad you like it."

Callie swallowed hard, her face apprehensive. "Your daughter…Alara?"

Hot rage swam through Belsara's eyes. "My lucky star," she said roughly, her teeth clenching like she was in incredible pain. "Dead too soon because her failure of a father couldn't be bothered to pay attention."

I blinked at that. Right. Alara had been presumed dead when we found her. Even Atlas hadn't expected her to come back. I tried to decide how smart it would be to tell Belsara that…but unfortunately my wife was having a very different experience right now, and she didn't have that reservation. "But Alara's not dead!" she said excitedly. "She DID die, but there was an accident, and she came back as a vampire!"

Belsara, who had been taking another casual sip of tea…froze. Now, some people would use that term to mean that she went very still, but that wasn't what happened. Belsara FROZE. Not into ice, but almost in time. In fact, everything that wasn't US froze. It was like the world just stopped. "What did you just say?" she asked calmly.

"Alara is alive!" Callie gushed. "She was in stasis for a long time, so she's still pretty young, too. She ended up sealed in the Chaos Chasm!"

Belsara's hands shook slightly, the only sign of disturbance on her serene face. "That is…you're telling the truth. I can hear your honesty," her voice was shaky, despite the complete lack of facial expression, and I couldn't say I blamed her. I didn't even HAVE a daughter yet and the idea of something happening to her broke my heart. Maybe my premonition of doom didn't take this into account? Maybe things were turning around.

"What happened, exactly?" I asked her slowly. "Between you and Atlas? What happened to Alara?"

It wasn't too big of a leap to assume she and Atlas were an item if she was Alara's mother, not that I'd had much doubt before. But the sheer MALICE she expressed when talking about him gave me a not so nice feeling.

"My daughter was always daddy's little princess," she said in a shaky voice. "Ever since she was a little girl, she was Adam's pride and joy. I loved how close they were, of course. We were a family. But we were never his first priority. Not really. You see, Adam hated the Void far more than he loved either of us."

Callie looked confused by that. I didn't blame her. Atlas was an attentive father, even to Callie, who he had adopted later in life. He doted on Alara too. But then, if this story was going where I thought it was, maybe that was the point. Maybe he'd lost his family because of his hatred and tried to change. It would explain why he was so resolute about claiming Callie as his after giving her the archangel trait. "How did Alara die?" my wife asked in a small voice. I could tell she had never considered the question before. Honestly neither had I until today. I knew Alara, and she was still around, so I never bothered to ask.

"Treachery," she said coldly. "Adam was blinded by his hatred and trusted someone he should not have trusted. My husband was always far too emotional. We drifted apart after that, I'm afraid. I never could forgive him for letting her die."

That was truth, I could smell it. But it wasn't the WHOLE truth. I could almost feel the unspoken words behind that statement. The tragedy, the anger, the betrayal. How had she gone from that situation to this one? How had she been shattered and then trapped here? I somehow doubted she was the kind of god that any old divine being could destroy. And she had been very careful just then to change the subject when the fallout came up.

If I had to guess, I would have bet that Atlas himself had killed her. And I was willing to hazard a guess that she wasn't exactly blameless in that incident.

But I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't tell Callie, not with the bond being interfered with, and if I said something out loud she would probably just kill me. So I decided to play along until we could get out of here. "Well, I'm sure you're excited to see her once you're free," I said cheerfully. "I'm sure she missed you terribly."

Her face shut down, going blank. "Perhaps," she allowed. "But who knows what stories her father has been filling her head with? After I lost my lucky star, I was inconsolable." She reached out to take Callie's hand. "I'm afraid I did some things that I regret. You're going to be a mother soon, Calliope, surely you can understand my pain." She lowered her eyes in shame. "I'd love nothing more than to reunite with my daughter, but I'm not sure she would want to see me."

Callie, being one of the kindest, most empathetic people I've ever met, naturally melted. She squeezed back, offering Belsara a comforting smile. "I think you're underestimating my sister," she said softly. "When Alara came back, and found out that dad had adopted me, she didn't hesitate to embrace me as part of the family. If you're truly sorry for the things you did and work to change, I'm sure she'll forgive you. Family means everything to Alara. And I'm sure dad will be happy to see you too-"

"No," Belsara snapped, breaking the spell (metaphorically, I was almost positive). "I refuse. He can't be trusted. It was his fault. I warned him his crusade would end her life, and he ignored me. It was his fault she died. I wouldn't have needed to betray him to the Void if he had kept her safe!"

And there it was. I had kind of figured it would be something like that. Callie's face went pale, and she tried to pull away, but Belsara's hand clamped down on her wrist like an iron vise. I didn't hesitate, I blurred forward, calling on Bennu, pushing him to S-rank, flooding my body with as much power as possible as I funneled that five colored fire, now enhanced by my new flame, into and through my Domain, hurling the power into a seal designed to clamp down on Belsara and hold her long enough for us to escape.

I made it five inches before I froze in place. I raged against the binding, throwing every ounce of power I had at her, but it wasn't enough. Not at A-rank. Even with the boost, I could only barely breach the S-rank threshold. She was a god, even if only a fragment, and even my grandfather was helpless to do anything. I screamed and twisted and pulled, calling on every demon I could think of, but the solid hold of a god's Domain was beyond my power.

Callie, for the first time since she saw I was ok, looked afraid. "What are you going to do to me?" she whispered.

Belsara reached up with her other hand, cradling my wife's cheek. "Oh my child," she crooned. "I'd never hurt you. You OR your baby. Blood of my blood. I can see your spirit, how strong and beautiful it is. All I could ever ask for in a child. Alara will forgive me in time, I'm sure, but you said it yourself, she'd do anything for family. For her new little sister. I won't return you to Adam. Won't let him twist you the way he did her. Won't let him fail you. You OR your daughter."

"So…you'll let me go?" Callie asked hopefully. "You won't hurt anyone?"

"Of course I won't," she purred comfortingly. "I won't need to. After all, you're going to be a good girl and come with mommy, aren't you? I'll take you somewhere wonderful, where you and the baby will be safe."

My mouth was full of blood, I was clenching my teeth so hard they had cracked, my bones were groaning under the strain as I hurled every ounce of power inside me against the hold of her Domain. I couldn't let this happen, I couldn't let her take my wife, take my baby. My blood was blazing, all my bloodlines ignited, my soul was screaming, my demons were raging, Gehenna boiled inside my skin to explode into reality and rain down hell on anyone who threatened my family. I was blazing with more power than I had ever even considered possible…and it did nothing.

Callie turned to me, tears in her eyes, and I could see the trust, the love, the faith she had in me. I heard her whisper through the bond, telling me to find them. To be safe. That she loved me.

And then the house was gone. The table was gone. And both of them were gone. We were alone, kneeling on hard brown stone in the library, everyone except my wife, and the goddess who had stolen her.

The seal was gone, the fire erupted, and I screamed in loss and unbearable agony as I drove my fists into the floor, smashing through the stone as I unleashed every ounce of stored energy I'd failed to use to save Callie into the rock below. I punched, and I punched, and I punched. The energy faded, the power left me, my hands shattered, but I kept punching, like I could smash my way through the floor and into a tunnel that would take me to her.

A hand landed on my shoulder, then the other, my grandparents comforting me, but I never looked up. I fell forward into the crater I'd made, into the slurry of my own blood and the dust of the shattered stone, and I started to cry. That was the last thing I remembered before the darkness swallowed me. Mercy at last.

 

[SilverEagle2121]

Eh. I have to say, I do not like this chapter and how it ended.

 

[Quenster06]

I've never been fond of the "abduct someone close to the MC for dramatic tension" trope. Most often it takes away a character I like and twists them in some way against the MC, which is frustrating story telling for me, personally. Malcolm writes well, so I'm hoping it doesn't last long or result in a depression spiral.

 

[Vongrak]

I think the frustration of this sort of thing comes with the whole "Callie had one job and it was to not run into danger... and thus she immediately ran into danger". I'm not saying it's out of character in fact it's incredibly IN character. Still kind of frustrating though. The kid should change things. It doesn't because well, changing habits is hard and Shane was RIGHT THERE and needed help but... yeah.

On the other hand, I'm mostly ok with it because we have a really good reason for Callie to be both kidnapped and safe... ish. Alive at least. There's long term risk with corruption and whatnot but if acted on swiftly it shouldn't be a problem. The real concern would be this taking too long and missing out on seeing the kid growing up and repeating the cycle of absentee parents. Though if that did happen I think I really would be annoyed. Shane has tried so hard to avoid that for his kid and it's not really his fault in this case.

Anyway, point is, I don't like it for obvious reasons but it's not a bad narrative decision and I'm ok with it as well.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Shane," Benny's voice washed over me, but I didn't pay attention. My eyes remained locked on the ceiling, staring up at a single spot on the stone like it held the secrets to the universe. Or a universe. Any universe but this one. "Shane," he said again. "I need you to respond, man. Say something. Anything."

I didn't move. Didn't speak. I just stared. "Damn it Shane," snapped my sister as she stalked over and grabbed me by the breastplate, yanking me upright. "What the hell are you doing?" she demanded.

"Who knows," I said dully. "What have I ever done? Really? Callie's gone, Chelsea. A fucking GOD took her. I don't even know where. I've been trying to use the bond, but it's been shut down. I can't find her. My wife and unborn daughter just got kidnapped and I have…nothing. No leads. No heading. No idea where to go. So what am I doing? Nothing. I'm doing nothing. Which is all I'm good for."

It wasn't reasonable. I should be getting up, getting ready to charge off on another quest. I should be preparing to go punch a sun or something until it told me where she was.

But I couldn't. I couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't BREATHE. She was gone. Callie was GONE. Not in the sense of being missing, we'd been away from each other before. But I couldn't FEEL her. Her soul and mine were constantly connected. Even if the bond was closed, I could still feel it pressing against my spirit, but I didn't. I was alone. Truly alone for the first time in years.

And I couldn't deal. Callie was my heart, my motivation, the source of my strength. I could sit through literal torture if I had her, had done so a dozen times. But this…I didn't know how to do this. How to process her and the baby being gone.

"Shit," my grandfather muttered. "He's in a recursive loop."

My grandmother sighed. "There's a reason people don't usually have soulmates. Not that I suspect it would be much better without the bond. She's carrying his child. Can we break it?"

"From the outside?" he said warily. "Maybe? But given how wrapped up their souls are I wouldn't want to try. Better to have him do it." He knelt down in front of me, grabbing my chin and jerking it up to meet his gaze. "Shane, you need to get up. It's a lot, I know. Your stats are heavily wrapped up with Callie, nullifying your bond unbalanced your recursion. You're spiraling. You need to pull up if you're going to find her."

I froze. That was…right. Find her. I should be finding her. Callie was ok. She was just lost. I needed to find her. I staggered to my feet, heading off…somewhere. I'd figure it out. I started to call Dantalion, but my grandfather's hand cut me off. "Whoa there," he said quietly. "Calm down, kid. I get it. It's scary. But we both saw what happened. That crazy goddess won't hurt your girl. She WILL hurt you if you push things. Which means we need to do two things. One of them is obvious, and the other won't take much thought. What are we doing? Think it through."

I clamped my eyes shut, forcing my brain to work. It wouldn't. So I triggered Piece of Mind. And again. And again. I filled my mind with parallels, with noise that could distract me from the pain and the fear.

My eyes opened, calm and rational. "We need to find out where she went," I enumerated. "And we need to learn more about Belsara. The second one we can solve by going to find Atlas. What about the first?"

"Judgement," he said immediately. "Belsara might be able to mess with your link, but there are deeper ties than skills. She won't be able to block your Karma. Especially not to the baby. That's your blood. Judgement CAN help. But that's just a direction. We need more than that. We need Atlas. Which means we need Alara. Unless you plan to make the trip over the Void Roads down to the Chasm again. I'm sure she had some method of contacting him."

I nodded quickly. "Yes," I said in relief. "Yes. Alara. She can help." I forced myself to focus, trying to shake off the fog in my head. "Shit. Recursion can BACKLASH? Why the hell didn't anyone tell me that?"

"Because most people don't build their recursion around material things," he said wryly. "Paired Ascendants aren't common. But it's not just you. It's obviously to a much lower extent, but you see similar spirals from swordmasters who lose their sword, or tamers whose bonded companions die." At my glare, he held up his hands. "I'm not comparing your wife to a pet or a weapon, Shane, I'm just telling you how the mechanism works."

"Sorry," I said after a moment. "I'm just…my blood feels like it's on fire. I need to be doing something. Anything. This isn't enough. I already wasted who knows how long spiraling-"

Benny cleared his throat. "About an hour," he informed me. "Wasn't that long. I don't…" he trailed off. "Shit, man, are you ok?" He sounded unsure of himself, and not at all like the Benny I knew, but I understood. Seeing me break down like that must have been weird for him. Hell, it was pretty weird for me and I'd been the one doing it.

"Not really," I said bluntly. "But I'm filling my brain with noise to make it easier to focus. Kind of glad I didn't manage that Perception balance yet. This would be way worse if I couldn't distract myself so easily." I turned to Terry. "Look, I need to go. With Song of Arcadia and Celestial Fabrication working together I should be able to get those timepieces going soon. Is it ok if I have yours delivered later?"

"Of course," he said firmly. "Family first. Go take care of it. You've gotten what you needed."

Nodding, I turned to my grandmother. "Speaking of going, can the Acheron get us back to the battlefront faster than the trip here? I need to get in touch with Atlas as soon as possible."

"It makes more sense to consult Judgement first," my grandfather pointed out. "We're in the Holy Dominion as we speak, and his lodge is nearby. In fact, we might not even need the ship to get there." He glanced at Terry. "Can we borrow the Starcannon?"

"To TRAVEL in?" he said uneasily. "I mean, maybe? I guess your Domain should be capable of withstanding it. Are you really that concerned?" At my sharp glance he shook his head. "Of course, my apologies. Yes, you can use the cannon." He shot me a sympathetic smile. "It'll get you where you need to be fastest. We use the cannon to launch flame fragments into nearby stars to test them. It's a complicated process, but barring a Domain like Nicholas's, I wouldn't recommend using it as a means of transport. I was simply concerned for your safety, I'm well aware of what's at stake."

Nodding, again, I let him go ahead, leading us toward this 'Starcannon'. I frowned at my grandfather as we walked. "Ok, what did he mean seeding stars?"

"The Starcradles aren't just called that because they make fire," he said as we hurried along behind Terry. "Those spheres you saw ARE stars. Or at least prototypes of them. They're suppressed to that state by the formation, but the actual manifestation process involves firing those small flames, called 'Starseeds' into nearby stars. If the seed takes root, it begins to convert the star, consuming its flame as it alters its core properties. Then it's harvested with the formation and condensed into an orb like the ones you've seen around."

"So, we're about to climb into a cannon that can fire small seeds of flame at a high enough velocity to drive them into the heart of STARS in neighboring systems?" I asked cautiously.

He nodded. "We are. Unless you'd rather take the long way."

"No, the cannon is fine," I said immediately. "But we need to be ready to head back as soon as we're done. Can we have-"


"Your grandmother meet us there?" he cut me off. "Of course. I was planning on it. Our arrival and consultation with Judgement should provide enough time for them to arrive to pick us up, and if not it should be close."

Swallowing hard, I nodded. I was having trouble processing everything, even with all the parallels running to distract me. I had shifted tactics to try to improve my response times, stacking my parallels to have them all repeatedly run through each thought so I could process them faster. It seemed to help a bit, grinding away some of the fog the distraction wasn't doing much about.

I didn't care too much about the cannon. If my grandfather thought it was safe I was sure it was fine. I just needed something to latch onto to keep me going.

My grandmother followed behind us, her face pinched with worry. "Nick, are you sure-"

"He'll be fine," he assured her. "My Domain is more than up to the strain. And it IS the fastest way there. I can exert control as we approach and land us safely, but the distance will pass almost instantly."

She frowned. "If it were anyone else I wouldn't allow it," she said bluntly. "Even I wouldn't be confident, and you know how much I've researched stellar travel. As a Demigod, you should be up to the task, but be careful. I want our granddaughter and great grandchild safe as much as you do, but not if it costs Shane his life. Urgent but not reckless, Nicholas. Please."

His expression, which started so resolute, softened a bit. "I know," he said quietly. "I won't take any stupid risks. But I WILL help him get his family back. If it was you, or Sasha…I don't know what I'd do, but it wouldn't be safe, that's for sure. With me there, he'll be better off."

She stepped forward as we came to a stop. Wrapping her arms around me, she pulled me into a tight hug. "She's going to be ok," she murmured into my ear. "They both are. And so are you."

I squeezed her back, then stepped away while she hugged my grandfather. "Watch out for him," she warned him again. Then she turned to Terry. "Can you set the vectors to pass Delraune? Nicholas can derail their passage easier than he can slow an atmospheric descent."

He nodded quickly. "I can do that. Should I adjust the parabola? With a Domain descent it should be feasible to curve the shot. Would cut down on deceleration trauma, even with a Domain to soften the blow. I'll have to rework the flight path slightly to account for the curvature, but it shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

"Too long," I said bluntly. I called out Dantalion, triggering the staff to push him to S-rank. He emerged solemnly, and I didn't even need to speak for him to know what to do. A jerk of my chin and he followed Terry off towards what I assumed was the control room for the cannon.

Speaking of which, the doors to the room we'd arrived at opened not long after they left, admitting us into a huge metallic chamber. The rooms was in the shape of a cylinder, and looking up the barrel I could see a faint gleam of light. It was WIDE too, almost a mile across at the widest point.

"Be safe," my grandmother said as my grandfather led me to the center of the room. She stepped out and he manifested his Domain around us. I waited for a moment or two, and felt Dantalion return to Gehenna. I tapped his shoulder to tell him to get ready, and we prepared for launch. There was a countdown, off in the distance, almost out of earshot, and then, with an almost physical roar, the room dissolved into a sea of fire.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Space is big. Now, one might consider that an obvious statement, given the place in question, but you don't really get a grasp on HOW big until you travel via Domain. Ships are enclosed, it's like a building, and while you can look outside to see what's going on, you're not ACTUALLY in the middle of the cosmos.

Domains are different. My grandfathers Domain was huge, to be clear, at least a thousand miles wide. But even THAT was so insignificant it was basically a speck in comparison to the void between stars. Seeing the endless dark of space flash by outside the Domain's boundaries was, quite frankly, deeply unsettling. We were moving so fast that I could occasionally catch glimpses of stars in the dark, moving like comets shooting over the skyline of a planet. Only they weren't moving, we were, and probably faster than I'd ever moved before.

While we traveled, I took the time to look around my grandfather's Domain for the first time. I'd never been inside of it, or even seen the inside. I had expected something grandiose like mine of Lark's or even Callie's, but shockingly, it was mostly just…empty. As in literally empty, his Domain appeared to be a huge open canyon.

"So…" I said slowly as I looked around. "What is this place?"

"Canyon of cleansing," he grunted, eyes still fixed on the distant starline. "I found that purification didn't lend itself so well to construction. Rather, I felt more in tune with the idea of stripping away layers bit by bit as I grew stronger. I DID build a small cave mansion at the bottom, if you need to sleep or anything, though I doubt we'll be mobile for that long."

I nodded and flopped down on the ground, leaning back on my hands. "You need me to leave you alone while you steer, or we good to talk?"

He shook his head. "Nah, it's not complicated. Just hard. Like lifting something heavy. I don't need to concentrate on how, I just need to do it. Besides, I won't deny I'm worried, I've been hoping to check in with you a bit. How is your head?"

"Empty," I admitted. "But not like nothing is inside. More like it's full of nothing, if that makes sense. I tried to take up some of the lack of space with parallels, but now that we're moving like this…it's sneaking up on me. Don't suppose you can purify some of this recursion for me so I can focus better?"

He shook his head. "Not how it works. I can't purify just any old thing. Recursion is tied to stats, and if I could purify THAT…well, let's just say people aren't so friendly to those kinds of abilities. They call those 'refiners', and they're considered pretty dangerous."

I made a mental note. "So what do I do?" I asked him tiredly. "I just can't focus. My head is a mess."

"No advice for that, I'm afraid," he said with a sad sigh. "I've been where you are. Celia in danger and unable to do anything. It's not a situation I envy, but you never know how you're going to deal until it happens. Everyone processes it different. Some people need to rage, some people need to calm down, some people need to get distracted, some people need to swim in it. I can't tell you which one you are, much as I'd like to."

I sighed, not having expected much. "It's fine. I get it."

"The older I get," he said. "The more I realize that all the worst fights of your life you don't get any backup for. I thought when I got to the top I'd be untouchable, that I could fight anything. That's why I created my Fist of the Final God. It was a statement. A call to arms. I would impose my will on the world, cleanse anything that stood in my way. I'd be the strongest and keep everyone safe."

I nodded along to his rant. "Yeah, I get that feeling. I'm the same way."

"Except the really scary stuff, you can't fight," he said sadly. "It feels like there's always higher to go, like you can keep growing and improving until you can handle anything. But once you run out of room, once you finally slow down, you realize there's just as much to be afraid of when you're strong. More in some ways."

I scowled at him. "You suck at making people feel better," I said bluntly. "If this is a pep talk, it's not working."

"It's not," he laughed. "Just honesty. Because you need to know what's coming for you. You're a lot like I was, you know. I know you look like Eli, but you take after me in terms of attitude. Your father was always a cold bastard, no matter what his little buddy or your mother tell you." He frowned. "Truthfully I never much liked him with Sasha. But when those two met…well, you get your stubbornness from Celia, and Sasha puts her mother to shame. So I put on a smile and played nice. Even if your dad is mostly a smarmy little twit I'd like to slap in the mouth."

I let out a surprised laugh. "Really? You always seem so…relaxed. Even around him. I didn't take you for the type." I didn't point out how similar that sentiment was to my OWN feelings about my father for most of my life.

He snorted. "I'm not made of stone, kid. I'm just more centered than most. Function of my abilities. Cleansing my mind and all that." He shrugged. "Plus there's no point in making things awkward with the brat. Sasha's crazy about him, always has been. Making a fuss would have just pushed her away, and I love my daughter. If I had to smile and play nice with him to make her happy it was hardly the end of the world."

"Do…do you think I'll be a good dad?" I asked after a moment. "You seem to have it down. Do you think I could be like that?"

"Can't say," he said gently. "It's not something you can predict. There's nothing quite like being a parent, you know. No way to prepare. No way to be ready. You can't train for it, at least not the first time. It DOES get easier after you've had a few tries. Samuel and I butted heads like you wouldn't BELIEVE when he was young. It's harder with sons, I think. Too much like you. Celia was always better with the boys. She and Sasha have their friction, of course. You've seen as much."

I nodded. "I remember. Nothing crazy, but they like to argue. So if there's no way to be ready, how do I…prepare? Like I can't just do nothing, right?"

"There is a secret to parenting," he said after a moment. "Well, not really a secret. It's pretty obvious. But it's a good thing to hold onto. If you want to be at least a decent parent, just remember one thing. Love your kids, and let them know it. Don't assume they can tell, don't keep it to yourself, don't let pride stop you from saying it out loud.

"Love doesn't fix everything, of course," he warned. "But there aren't many ways to screw up your kid that can't at least be mitigated by really loving them. At least in my experience. Try to do right by them as best you can, make sure they know you're trying, and try to listen to them when they tell you something. Do those three things and maybe, just MAYBE, you'll manage to raise a kid as amazing as I did. Though, to be honest, your mother turning out the way she did was about ninety percent dumb luck."

That drew a surprised laugh from me. "Aren't you supposed to take credit for everything?" I said mildly. "That's Ascendant 101."

"Being an Ascendant doesn't have much to do with being a parent," he said gently. "That's another thing to keep in mind. Your kids don't need power. They don't need skills or weapons or tools. Not at the start. Giving them those things is great, but if you do it too early, you're just passing the buck. Keeping them safe is your job. You're the one who needs to be strong. Their job is to be whatever they want to be. That can be tough to remember."

My face flattened, the smile fleeing as I remembered the circumstances of this trip. "Yeah," I said quietly. "I get that too. Seems like maybe I won't be so good a parent after all. My kid's not even born yet and I'm already fucking up."

"I could tell you that you didn't," he said bluntly. "But you wouldn't care. So I'll just ask the obvious. What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to get them back," I said, a cold, dark anger bubbling in my gut. "And I'm going to tear apart anything that gets in my way. I've killed gods before. I don't care how far they ran, or where they hide, or how many people they have. They took my family away, and I'm going to get them back."

He nodded approvingly. "Damned right you are. And we should be ready to begin the process shortly."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," he chuckled, pointing up into the sky. "That you were so distracted talking about the meaning of life you didn't notice our approach. We're coming up on Delraune now. Judgement's lodge is in a forest on the east side of the planet. As long as we come in gently and land in the right spot, finding it won't be much of an issue."

I watched in awe as a shining mass in the distance came closer, enlarging as we approached. A huge sphere of landmass, mostly covered in water. I hadn't even been able to tell it was a planet when I first saw it. The whole planetary body was wrapped in some kind of shimmering golden mist that I'd never seen before. My grandfather noticed me looking and chuckled. "You can see it, huh? Most people can't. It's the mist of gathering Karma."

We approached the planet in a streak, not heading AT it but slightly to the side. As we did, my grandfather stood, cracking his neck and narrowing his eyes. As we were flying past, he stepped forward, drew back his fist, and PUNCHED. The Domain stopped on a dime. There was a loud crack and the whole thing froze completely, like he'd just LITERALLY shattered the momentum keeping us going. Then he reached up and grabbed the air. The motion revealed a deep crack in space, and with pure, brute force, my grandfather slipped his fingers between the fragments and PULLED.

There was a sort of strain on the air, like someone trying to suck something through a straw, and the whole Domain shuddered. Then we lurched forward, through the cracks in space, and with a pop like a soap bubble bursting, we were suddenly on the ground in a clearing among a whole bunch of very tall trees.

I gaped at him, but he was too busy doubling over, wheezing lightly with hands on his knees. "I forgot," he panted. "How deeply unpleasant doing that is."

With a flicker of will, his Domain vanished, recalled into himself, and he groaned and stretched like a cat waking up from a sunbeam nap. "Ugh, holding that for so long was NOT fun. But we're here now. If my heading is right, we should be going…" he scanned the horizon, then pointed off to the left. "That way," his tone was firm and confident, though I was pretty sure he was guessing. Either way, I just sighed and set off walking. If we were going the wrong way, we'd figure it out quickly enough. Better than sitting around doing nothing.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, how is this a lodge?" I asked gruffly as we stopped on a hilltop, staring down at what was the least lodgelike building I'd ever seen in my life. Huge and made of crumbling stone pillars, moss overgrowing the sides, the building looked like nothing so much as a-

"He doesn't like the word temple," my grandfather shrugged. "He feels it's disrespectful to my teacher."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "He…knows the point of being an Ascendant is to reach godhood, right?"

"He disagrees," my grandfather said bluntly. "In fact, I suspect if he wanted to, he'd already have done so. Moon is the strongest of my teacher's students, but besides being the oldest, Judgement is by far the most talented. I firmly believe the only reason he isn't a god is because he doesn't want to be. In fact, I suspect he's spent quite a few centuries finding other ways to gain power. I'm not certain Moon or I could beat him at this point."

That brought me up short. "You can do that?" I asked. "Just…find another way?"

"You can do almost anything," he confirmed. "Judgement has an almost unhealthy amount of reverence for our teacher, and believes godhood to be his sole purview within the church. He considers the fact that no other member has reached Divinity to be proof of that fact. As such, he's never tried to reach it himself. Despite his complete lack of stat gain over the last few centuries though, I can never shake the feeling that he's getting stronger every time I see him. Harder to see through."

I frowned at him. "Are you sure we can trust this guy? Everything I've heard about him is kind of shady."

"Judgement is easily the most trustworthy of the lot of us," he shrugged. "He doesn't play the same games as the others. No need to compete for renown or resources. Not sure what exactly he DOES compete for, but he always comes through when we need him."

I nodded tiredly. Honestly, I normally might have pushed, been a bit more suspicious, even if just because it was my first instinct, but now…I didn't care if he was shady. My wife and unborn child were missing, I'd work with Morwenna herself if I thought it would get them back. "Then lets go and ask our questions," I said grimly.

We made our way down the hill, climbing the small mountain where the temple rested with purpose but no haste. I considered just flying up, but my grandfather stopped me. "It's a pilgrimage," he said gently. "A karmic bond that connects you to all those who have come before and will come after. Even we don't get to skip it. Not if we want his help." I could tell he was aware of how frustrating that was for me, but he didn't budge.

So we climbed. One step at a time, up the side of the mountain, along the steep and winding path. I had to admit, it felt…weighty. Not like Impact did. But like every step brought me closer to my destiny. It was the spiritual equivalent of a massive spire towering over us, expanding in the horizon as we drew closer to it. Of course, there was no actual spire, but that's how it felt.

Finally, after what felt like hours, we reached the top, arriving in a flat, overgrown courtyard of mosaic glass. The platform was beautiful, red and gold and white glass mixed with obsidian and dark blue. The tapestry of color swirled and blended into a dizzying and barely recognizable image. Beyond the mosaic lay a large stone door, cracked and faded with age, but thrown wide to reveal an interior that was in much better condition.

The inside of the temple was like another world. Not by virtue of magic or ascendant nonsense, it wasn't bigger on the inside or an open sky. It was just…maintained. Well cared for and cherished.

At the door, waiting, was a tall, willowy young man with a black cloth tied over his eyes. His clothes were worn and battered, but sturdy, and his hair was long and as dark as the cloth, likewise tied, but in this case back into a ponytail. He stood motionless, hands behind his back, as we approached, and then nodded. "Nicholas," he said in a soft, ethereal voice.

"Percival," my grandpa said with a nod. "It's good to see you."

"There's no need for lies, Nick," the Judgement Pope said lightly. "But you're welcome all the same. And this must be your grandson. A strapping lad, but carrying more weight than one would hope. Lay down your burdens here, young man. There'll be time enough to shoulder them again once you've gone."

I grimaced. "It's not that easy to lay down a burden," I said bitterly. "And I don't have time to lay this one down. I need your help. My wife is missing, taken by a fragment of an ancient goddess. I need a way to find her."

He stared at me. Or at least, I think he did. It was hard to tell with the blindfold. "You have the tools you need," he said softly. "If you learn to use them properly."

I frowned at the cryptic answer. "Tools I don't know how to use aren't exactly helpful."

"Truth," he nodded simply. "We are all equipped for so much more than we think. But it is only the tools for which we have understanding that show their worth. You have many tools, and very little understanding."

"Fuck you too," I snapped back, annoyed at the dismissal. "Look, I don't have time for this dime store wisdom bullshit. Normally I'd play your games and bow and scrape, but my wife is in trouble, as is my unborn child. If you can't help me find them how about you do me a favor and say that so I can stop wasting my fucking time."

My grandfather winced, but to my surprise, the Judgement Pope didn't get angry. "Haste makes waste," he said sadly. "The fire that burns you now is consuming your reason. I said to lay down your burdens, but I think perhaps you aren't carrying them at all. Perhaps your burdens are carrying you. Despite what you may think, I am not wasting your time, I am showing you a path. Your ability to walk it depends entirely on yourself."

I almost snapped back, but my grandfather put a hand on my shoulder. I paused, turning to look at him. "Listen to what he's SAYING, Shane," he said gently. "Listen to the words he's speaking, not just the ones you want to hear."

Forcing myself to calm down, I reached for Piece of Mind. What an ironic name. The more parallels I ran, the easier it was to distract myself. I really could give myself peace of mind. I closed my eyes, splitting off multiple parallels. Finally, I opened them slowly. "Karma," I said in a serene voice. "You mean I'd need to use Karma, and that my emotional attachments were going to make it harder."

He smiled proudly, nodding his confirmation. "Well reasoned," he said simply. "Many think the intricacies of Karma require a lack of attachment. They do not. Connection is the heart of Karmic communion. That said, certain types of connection are harder to see past than others. With rage predominant in your spirit, finding the links to the ones you love would be much more difficult. The Karmic connections of rage carry the Karma of vengeance, of hatred. Emotions are part of Karma, and to find the connections you seek, you must find the emotions they carry."

Having calmed myself down a bit, I could understand that somewhat. Still, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do here. "Well, that's good to know, but I don't have any Karmic abilities. Like I can't see the threads of…" I stopped.

Threads. Lines. Arrows. I blinked in stupefaction, then reached out with my mind, calling up Owen's power. My Overlay was the first of my powers, and it involved time and fortune in ways I didn't understand. But thinking it over, those arrows were…distinct. The lines of probability, yes, but also of connection. I should have known that, I'd created a timepiece for that one already. It seemed that my timepieces could still improved as I learned more, even beyond just adding complications.

I triggered Overlay, and then Dantalion, pushing both of them to the next rank. Then, considering my strategy, I triggered Azazel. Oz had access to some fairly obscure divination powers, and if anything would let me tap into Karmic lines, it would be his nonsense.

I didn't think that Overlay WAS Karma. I'd have realized that sooner. But I didn't think the lines were a coincidence. I opened my eyes to take in the world, trying to see beyond the Overlay, beyond the data, beyond even Oz's divinations. To the spot where it all collided, where every ounce of information swam behind a sea of possibility, swirling through tides of destiny and potential.

A hand landed on my shoulder, and I heard Percival's voice. "You seek what need not be found, young man. Karma is always with us, always part of us. It clings to us, transposes us. Karma is not something you discover, it is something you accept. Tear away the veil of convention. Accept what is."

His words were like a lever, wedging themselves under my perception of the world and hoisting it up and over. Shifting my worldview JUST far enough sideways that the shape of my power clicked into an unseen divot, slotting into place and unlocking a whole new world.

It wasn't an Archdemon. Not on its own. I hadn't created the timepiece mounts to do that. But Percival's gift helped me force a resonance, create a simulacrum of that process and unlock a new form that could help me find my wife. "Archdemon:" I intoned as I felt the world open up."Yama."

Before me spread a tapestry, an endless weave of golden lines, shot through with streaks of black and red and grey and a few other colors I couldn't even identify. There were so many types of strand, so many types of bond. Every one was different. Some were thick like chains, some thin like strands of golden silk. Some wrapped back on themselves, forming strong ropes after years of steady reinforcement, and some were frayed, rotting away over decades of disuse, on the edge of snapping entirely.

But one of them stood out above all the others. An unbreakable white shackle that anchored itself into my chest, stretching off into the distance uncaring of the space between us. Inside the chain, a smaller, more delicate chain of silvery white metal threaded through the links, shielded and supported by our unbreakable bond. Callie. And the baby.

I only got a second of it before the whole thing collapsed and I stumbled forward, falling to my knees with a groan as I clutched my head. "Owww," I groaned, hissing through my teeth. "Gods that sucked."

"All knowledge comes with a price," Percival said simply. "Did you pay enough to receive your answers?"

"Yeah," I grunted as I staggered to my feet. "Yeah I did. Thank you. It'll take me some time to get back to that state on my own with a little work. I'm sorry, for earlier. For yelling at you. I didn't realize what you were doing. But I appreciate it."

He nodded solemnly. "Children need not find their own wisdom," he said with a warm smile. "But only accept that which adults have earned through hardships of our own. The only thing we wish in this world is that our young do not have to suffer as we have suffered. I sense that you've known quite a bit of suffering, but perhaps my wisdom might save you a bit more." I nodded thoughtfully as I considered his words. "Now, come inside, I'll pour some tea while we wait for your ride. I am not SO wise that I can't benefit from a little gossip. I want to hear all the latest news from back home."

If it had been before, I might have declined, too agitated and impatient. But seeing that diamond chain in my heart, seeing what the bond looked like between my wife and I with my own eyes…I wasn't feeling better, exactly. But I was more at peace. It would take more than some punk ass god fragment to break a bond like that. The rest I could figure out as I went.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My first order of business when I got on the Acheron was to get back to work. Tea with Percival and my grandfather had been…less of an imposition than I'd have expected. Knowing I could find Callie and being able to see she was alright were both powerfully soothing factors, and it allowed me to calm down enough to have a civil conversation, since I was waiting for the ship anyway.

But once my grandmother arrived and I boarded, all that impatience came flooding back. At the very least, Yama was necessary to properly keep track of the karma, and I threw myself into my research with a vengeance as soon as we were underway.

I wasn't sure how many hours I spent working, Celestial Fabrifaction getting a serious workout as I poured all my fabrication knowledge (boosted a rank, of course), into adjust Azazel, Overlay, and Dantalion to allow them to connect together and create my Yama form properly. Eventually, though, I finished my work, and began to take stock of all my other demons, beginning preliminary designs for all the rest of their timepieces, as well as upgrades for what I had.

Power. I'd thought I had it, enough to protect the ones I loved, but I'd been so damned helpless when Belsara had trapped me and taken Callie away. I knew it was stupid, getting angry at myself for not being able to defy a god, but I WAS. I was so angry. Not just at me. At my grandparents, at Belsara, at Atlas. It wasn't fair of me. To any of us, but I couldn't stop that bubbling cauldron of rage from boiling away in my gut.

So I'd get stronger. Train harder. Perfect my power. Because next time, I HAD to find a way to fight back. To do SOMETHING. I'd helped defeat an Overgod, I shouldn't be so helpless against a pale imitation of a deity. Belsara was just a fragment. I had to be better. Do better.

The knock on my door shook me out of my spiral, and I frowned, getting up to walk over and open the door. I wasn't too surprised to see Benny on the other side. He wasn't looking at the door, having turned away to wait, but when he turned back…he flinched when he saw my face, uncovered as it was by my mask.

"Gods, Shane," he spat, his face horrified. "You look like death warmed over."

"Gee, thanks," I said dully. "You look nice too. Now do you need something? I've got work to do before we get back to the palace."

He snorted, shoving past me as he entered the room. I blinked in surprise that he'd managed that, being a rank lower. Maybe I was pushing a little hard. He stalked over to sit on my bed, turning his eyes to me, his expression torn between frustration and worry. "You need to slow down, Shane."

"Sorry I'm concerned about my family, Benny," I snapped. "If you can't handle me ignoring you for a few hours-"

"Days," he cut me off.

I blinked at that. "Soort, what?"

"Days," he reiterated. "It's been four DAYS. You haven't eaten. Haven't slept. Haven't stopped working. Judging by how pale you look, you haven't even stopped to get a boost from Zagan. I get how scared you are, man. I GET it. But you won't be helping Callie or your kids with anything if you kill yourself before you even get to Atlas."

Kids. That word brought me up short. The baby…or babies. We'd never actually confirmed if it was twins. Callie hadn't wanted to know ahead of time. She said she could tell the baby was a girl, and we'd been treating her that way, but we still didn't know if we were having multiples.

It was such an inconsequential thing for my brain to trip over, such a small detail compared to the absurd stakes of everything going on. My thoughts stuttered, grinding to a halt for a second and Benny sighed, standing, grabbing me and dragging me over to an overstuffed chair nearby. I groaned, feeling the energy drain from my body. A second ago I'd been fine, animated by ignorance and anger and desperation, and now…I was empty. So empty.

"What did you do to yourself, Shane?" my best friend asked in a soft, sad voice. "This isn't healthy, man. You're no good to them like this."

My head hurt. I reached for Yama. I needed to see the bond again. Just for a minute. But when I did, my vision went fuzzy and I started to topple over. "Shit!" Benny spat as he dove to catch me. "Stop that!" He stalked over to the door, yanking it open. "JESSIE!" He yelled down the hallway. "Get in here, we need you!"

He whirled on me. "Don't DO anything else. Not even calling demons. Jessie will patch you up, and then you're going to get some fucking sleep."

"No," I mumbled. "Gotta work. Gotta-"

"I will knock you unconscious if you don't sit the hell down," he snarled at me. "Don't push me, Shane. You're going to kill yourself. Look at you, I didn't realize it was possible for you to strain yourself like this. It's not physical, either. Is this soul strain?"

I shrugged. "Dunno," I slurred. "Ignoring it."

"Well THAT'S brilliant," he snapped. "You realize that you're not at S-rank yet? Mercury souls can't be recovered if they shatter." There was a brief lull in the conversation, until the door opened and a familiar if blurry form slipped in. "Thank the gods, Jessie, he needs energy. Not much you can do about the soul stuff, but his body is completely wrung dry too, I think."

"Damn it, Shane!" Jessie snapped as she stalked forward. My head had started to tilt, but she caught me under the chin. "What is wrong with you?"

I groaned slightly as life energy poured into my body, soaking into my muscles and bones like warm water. It felt like my flesh was a desert and Jessie's power was a timely rain. Even the blurry vision faded slightly. Though I wasn't particularly happy it had, because it let me see the red rimmed eyes of my healer friend as she stared at me like I was about to implode.

"Shit," I rasped. "Don't look at me like that. I'm fine."

"Bullshit," snapped Jessie, to my surprise. "I'm not Benny. I know what exhaustion looks like and how close you are to it. I'm an experienced healer, so don't try to placate me. Benny, go get me some of that soup from dinner last night. The heavy stuff with the cream base. And some bread."

I grimaced. "I'm not hungry," I protested.

"You're starving," she said bluntly. "You've just been ignoring it so long your stupid body is pretending you aren't because it doesn't think hunger is doing any good. You DO know we still need SOME sleep and food, right? Even with your Vitality, your body requires more energy to function. You can sleep LESS, but you still need to sleep."

I let my head loll back, resting the back of my skull against the top of the chair as she continued pouring in energy. At B-rank, Jessie's energy wasn't exactly up to standard for my body. Granted, with her bloodline and focus, her Vitality WAS actually at the A-rank standard by this point, but there was still an Impact difference. If her trait wasn't so overpowered I doubted she'd have even been able to make a dent.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "I just…I can't sit still." I had a moment. A single moment when I first saw that bond back on Percival's planet, where I felt hope again, felt like everything would be ok. But it hadn't lasted long. Because there was still a hole in my chest. Callie had been a constant presence in my life for years now. She was with me every day, even when we didn't talk or see each other. She was always there, and now, she was just gone. I couldn't feel her. It was like missing a limb.

Jessie must have seen it on my face, because she sighed and leaned forward to wrap me in a tight hug. "Well?" she demanded of Benny after a moment. "This is a group hug, moron. Team effort. Get in here."

Snorting, Benny leaned down to grab me in a hug of his own. I let my head slump, unsure what to do. I just felt so helpless. So pathetic.

"You need to rest," Jessie said softly. "And eat. And sleep. Do you think Alara is going to bring you to Atlas looking like this? Do you think he's going to tell you anything about Belsara if you can barely stand? But most of all, you need to let us HELP. You're not alone Shane. Callie is my best friend. I love her like a sister. I'd do ANYTHING to help her. And it's not just me. Bethy has been on call with Lark since we got back on the ship, convincing him to come with you when you go off to rescue her. Chelsea has been in touch with the Red Revenant, and your grandmother called Black Sorrow. They've been searching for any and all information about Belsara."

I blinked. "I…I hadn't even considered," I said slowly. "I mean I know Atlas knows-"

"See," Benny said in exasperation. "Tunnel vision. I told you. He always hyperfocuses when he's having a problem. He did the same thing when we were fourteen. He got jammed up fighting a field boss and spent three weeks trying to beat it with the exact same build. He was ready to quit the game before I told the idiot to try respeccing and he killed it in one try. Took him less than five minutes."

I scowled at him, my foggy brain clearing enough for me to automatically retort. "Who the hell gives a fish LIGHTNING RESISTANCE? And there was no notification about it either. It was just a passive skill. That chain lightning build should have been a hard counter."

"The fact that it wasn't dying didn't tip you off?" he asked dryly.

"I just thought it had way too much health!" I snapped. "You only figured it out because you looked up a walkthrough, and SOME of us have more dignity than that."

Jessie let out a giggle. "Now that's what I like to see. You two idiots bickering like five year olds."

The smile slid off my face. Callie would have said the same thing. Jessie sighed when she saw my expression fall. Benny put a hand on my shoulder. "Look," he said slowly. "I don't know what you're going through, man. I can't. I'm not going to pretend like I understand, because I can't even imagine. But I DO know you. Better than anyone except maybe Callie herself. And I know that if I don't derail this self destructive bullshit you'll run yourself off a cliff."

I wanted to argue with him. To scream and rant and rave about how I deserved to feel like this…but I didn't. Because in the end, he was right. Callie needed me. More than I needed to wallow. I closed my eyes, took a long, slow breath, and nodded.

"Good," Jessie said warmly, her power still pouring into me. "Benny, where the hell is that soup?"

"Group hugs or soup, woman?" he complained as he stood to go search for food. "Pick one and stick with it." Jessie just laughed, tossing a nearby bottle at him, and he caught it casually as he strolled away.

She snorted, looking back to me. "It'll take him a while to heat that up and get back with it, and I need some time to finish rejuvenating you. Why don't you take a nap. We'll wake you up when it's time to eat." Despite the warm power flowing into me, I was too exhausted to protest. I just closed my eyes and let the dark take me.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I felt…not better, but human at least, by the time we reached the palace at the battlefront. I'd slept, eaten, and done a modicum of supervised research with Elonwy, who had strict instructions from my family to keep me from going overboard. Still, I did get some work done, and having an S-rank research assistant was actually pretty cool. I'd laid a solid groundwork for a bunch of my timepieces, which was better than nothing.

Three days went by faster than expected, and the thirty scrolls I condensed went right into the stockpile. It was almost relaxing. Almost.

Except I couldn't relax. I could rest my body, and distract my mind, but my soul was still in knots. Stepping off the ship to stare into a face VERY similar to my pregnant wife didn't help that sensation at all. I winced visibly when I saw Alara. She noticed, and I saw a bit of sadness flicker through her eyes. "Apologies," she said softly. "I hadn't considered…"

"It's fine," I grunted. "I forgot too. Just didn't seem important enough to register in light of everything else. I take it you know what happened?"

Her jaw clenched. "My mother," she said tightly. "I hadn't realized she'd survived. But I suppose it is to be expected. Gods are difficult to kill. I had been warned of her condition, but hearing that she's degenerated to such an extent…I am sorry." She bowed her head, clearly devastated by the news just as I was.

"Don't even," I said bluntly. "You think I take credit for all the shitty things my dad has done? You're not responsible for your mom. But I do need to know more about her. About where she might go. I don't suppose you-"

"Unfortunately not," she said quietly. "Her death took place quite some time after mine. According to my father, my loss caused her to become heavily disillusioned with him as a person. She didn't reveal her distaste immediately, but colluded with his enemies to exact what she believed to be vengeance on the one responsible for my death."

I nodded. "Thought it might be something like that. So she won't hurt Callie or the baby?"

"She will not," she assured me, no doubt in her tone. "Based on what I was told, she wants to use Calliope as bait. She'll have heard of our good relationship, and will seek to hold my sister and niece as leverage for my, as she would view it, safe return."

"Guessing that's not on the table?" I asked tiredly.

She shook her head. "I would be more than willing," she said apologetically. "But my father would crack the universe in two. Mind, he's not far off doing that right now. I've barely convinced him to remain in the chasm. He isn't recovered yet, and things would get…complicated if he emerged too soon. But still, he isn't handling my sister's abduction well."

"He can join the club," I said flatly. "I'm not thrilled with him right now myself."

Sighing, she just shook her head. "I can understand that point of view," she allowed. "But I ask you to reconsider it. He's beside himself with worry, and he didn't cause this. I know it may FEEL like he caused it because he brought my mother into your life, at least in some way, but given my sister's appearance, I suspect this outcome was inevitable from the moment she entered my mother's sphere of influence."

That…that was probably fair. Atlas had been one of my primary targets for anger, even after I had to take my downtime. But honestly, the week off on the way here had cooler my rage all on its own. It was HARD to stay pissed off for a solid week. I could have done it, but it would have required an actual effort, which would have meant questioning why I was doing it to begin with. In the end I'd let my anger fade, and while it had flared up a bit at the mention of him, I was honestly just too emotionally exhausted to maintain that kind of rage for no benefit.

Alara smiled at me, and it sent a knife through my gut how much that smile reminded me of Callie. "You are not a hateful person," she said gently. "That isn't a failing. It's a virtue. It's one of the things my sister loves most about you. When she comes home and finds out you didn't take your frustration out on our father, she'll be proud."

That hit me like a punch in the gut, and I had to take a second to catch my breath before I nodded. "I need to speak with him." I said simply.

"Of course," she smiled. "I expected as much. As did he. He sent transport to escort us to him. But this might not be a quick trip. If, as he suspects, you enter the Void to follow her, you may not return quickly. He suggests you settle your affairs before we depart. Perhaps check in with your parents, your mother is rather distraught."

I winced at that. Another person I'd ignored because I was too caught up in my own grief. Of COURSE my mother would be worried about her daughter in law and grandchild. I felt like such an asshole. "When is our ride getting here?"

"Tomorrow night," she said with a wan smile. "You have time."

"Thank you," I said sincerely. "I don't know what to say other than that. I just…I don't know what to say."

She leaned forward, giving me a light hug. "It will be alright," she said firmly. "We'll get her back. You have my word. And until then, she'll be safe and well taken care of. I'll make sure of that, too." Her eyes hardened and she turned and stalked away. I wasn't sure what she was going to do, but I had a feeling it would have a big impact. I couldn't bring myself to worry about it.

Turning, I headed inside the palace. I knew where to go. Knew where my parents would be. I found their door easily, knocking with purpose, trying to psych myself up to deal with my crying mother. When the door opened, I DID find my mother crying. Just not in grief.

My mom's jaw was clenched, her eyes red but hard as steel. When she saw me though, it was like a dam broke. She leapt forward, wrapping her arms around me. "Oh Shane," she murmured. "I'm so sorry." Her voice was rough, clear signs that she'd been not just crying, but screaming. I just hugged her back.

"Hey ma," I said hoarsely. "I'm home."

"Come in," she said, turning to look into the suite. "Eli, Shane is here. Come say hello." I chuckled as she bustled inside, getting back to doing…something.

I looked around the room. "Are you…organizing you room?"

"No, dumbass," my father said as he walked in carrying a basket of socks. "We're packing. This is the difference between seasoned Ascendants and newbies. We prepare for travel, don't just subsist on whatever dregs we've got floating around our spatial rings."

My mother reached out, fast as lightning, and smacked him on the back of the head. "Your son is a WRECK you insensitive twit. Show some compassion."

"Don't baby the boy," he complained, rubbing his head. "He knows she'll be fine, he doesn't need his mommy to coddle him and tell him it's going to be alright. He's the Wishmaster, damn it. He can handle more than you give him credit for."

She snorted. "I give him ALL the credit," she said imperiously. "But I'm his mother, and he's hurting. Just because someone doesn't NEED support doesn't mean they can't use it. This is why you two have no relationship, you know. You dole out affection like some kind of reward system instead of honestly communicating your feelings."

He groaned, shoulders slumping. "I'm just not BUILT like that Sasha. Besides. He knows I'm…you know. That."

"That?" she demanded. "You can't tell your grieving son you're proud of him? Can't even say the word? How stoic. How manly. Maybe I should start being stoic. You don't NEED me to show you affection, right? You know that I'm, you know…that."

I couldn't help it, I snorted a bit, laughter bubbling up, then it leaked out. More and more laughter until I was cackling, then I was sobbing, and my mom stepped forward to hug me again. My dad just stared at me, a look I'd never seen on his face before. It took me a minute to realize he looked…sad.

"It's alright, love," my mom said soothingly. "Let it out. I'm here."

I did NOT cry on my mother's shoulder. For more than a few minutes. And when I was done, I noticed my dad had gone back into the room to keep packing, giving me space. I kind of appreciated it. Mom didn't seem annoyed, so I suspected the bickering had been partly for my benefit. "So, why are you packing, anyway?" I asked, clearing my throat to brush away some of the cobwebs from totally not crying.

She shot me a puzzled look. "Well, I assumed we would be gone for a while. Your father, is right about this, dear. It's always best to prepare specifically for a journey."

"But where are you going?" I asked in confusion.

She rolled her eyes. "We're GOING to save your WIFE, dear. Obviously. Did you think we'd let you run off to the Void alone? You're barely A-rank. Eli, Ezekiel, and I will obviously be accompanying you on the trip. Samuel wanted to come as well, but my parents are staying here to hold down the fort in your absence, which means he's needed back home."

I gaped at her. "Wait…what? You're coming with me? All three of you?"

"Of course," she scoffed. "This isn't some political quagmire you need to navigate on your own. This is family business. That's our grandchild that girl is carrying, and besides that, I'm VERY fond of your wife. She's a wonderful influence and a kind and intelligent girl. I'd never allow anything to happen to her if I could prevent it."

I was stunned. I didn't even know how to process this. Because I just…had never had this kind of support. My mom had always felt guilty about not being around, and she was affectionate and caring, but the divide between ranks had always been such a hard limit for what people could lend assistance with…except I guessed now it wasn't. Because I was A-rank too. The WCP could limit them from lending aid when I was lower ranked, but now that I was the Wishmaster and we were all equals (and didn't THAT feel weird), they couldn't stop them from helping.

It warmed my heart a bit. Knowing they were gearing up to move out on a journey into the unknown. And for Callie's sake. I knew my mom was a fan, but my dad was too cold to really develop a fondness for anyone. Most of the time I wasn't sure he liked ME.

"Thanks, ma," I told her sincerely. "Seriously. Thank you so much. I couldn't begin to tell you how much that means. And I'm sure Callie will be just as honored."

"Please," she snorted. "You don't need to thank me for supporting my own child. Speaking of which, your sister will NOT be coming along, obviously. She's still at B-rank. We can't afford to slow down."

I nodded. "Elonwy needs to stay because her contract stipulates she be training people, and Alara says there's no way Atlas will let her go. But Bethy was on call with Lark the whole way back. She says she's convinced him to come with us. Black Sorrow and Revenant said they can't do much. Fully manifested realspace gods need to be careful about entering the Void."

My mother smiled warmly, putting her hands on my shoulders. "That's more than enough, Shane. Don't you worry. We'll have her back before you know it." And somehow, for some reason…I really believed her.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning, I called everyone together. All my friends, my cabinet, my allies. I called them all and I laid down the law. I told them what I was doing, where I was going, and why. And I was humbled by the fact that every single one of them volunteered to go with me and help. Unfortunately, while I WAS honored, I was also realistic enough to acknowledge that a lot of them shouldn't be going.

"No B-rankers," I said bluntly. Everyone had been chattering excitedly, but my words cut off the talk like a boulder tossed into a pond, the ripples silencing the dissent before it even started. Not that they looked HAPPY to be silenced, but they waited to hear my logic. Well, most of them.

"Oh go to hell," Benny snapped. "I'm not letting you run off to pick a fight with an actual goddess without me."

I grimaced. I had expected that. And honestly I was so grateful. But I wasn't willing to take that risk. I held up a finger. "Gods are out," I said to start. "Because of the way they manifest in realspace, following us in would risk getting them stuck in the Void. If one of the Void gods decided to slip through while they were away, they'd be stranded and we'd be screwed."

Raising another finger, I ticked off my second point. "S-rankers are covered. Lark is coming along, and he's worth a hundred. He's ALSO the only one we can really spare, because S-rankers are a strategic resource. Independents like Lark are rare, and of all of them, he's the only one we know of who is strong enough to be worth bringing. At least from realspace. I'm planning to stop off in Mourne Kayze and try to leverage the Lady for help, but whether it works is up in the air." In fact, even the stop depended on how close we ended up to the place when we entered the Void, but I didn't want to worry them.

I raised my third finger. "B-rankers aren't strong enough." He flinched, but I kept going. "I know you want to help. I wish you could come. But the fact is that even if we boost you up to fight up ranks, we're going to be fighting the kind of A-rankers who can already do that, and probably some S-rankers to boot."

He glared at me hotly. "You're telling me I'm too weak to help my best friend save his wife."

"I'm telling you that I can't take the risk," I said bluntly. "I'm telling you I need my friend here where he's safe so I can concentrate on doing whatever I need to do to help the woman I love. And that I need you to be ok with that, because it's the best possible thing you could do to help me do that. You want to help Callie, I get that. She's family to you. Like you're family to me. So the question is, can you take a step back. Can you put her needs before yours? Or before mine? Because I need you to?"

He clenched his teeth so hard I worried they might crack. "You're an asshole," he said acidly.

"I know, man," I said sadly. "But I don't have the luxury of being nice right now. I hope you don't hold it against me. But I'd do it anyway even if I knew you would. Losing you would devastate me, and I'm going on this trip to SAVE someone I love, not to make a trade."

It was harsh, but I knew I was right. Benny was my brother in everything but blood, but he wasn't ready for this. Not at early to mid B-rank. If I'd had more time I might have been able to push him up to A. Might have been able to bring him anyway. But I didn't have that time. I was leaving today, and he wasn't coming with me. I wasn't wearing my mask, not for this, and I stared into his eyes, hoping he could see how badly I needed him to be ok with this.

"Fine," he spat, falling back into his chair. "But I'm going to be busting my ass to hit A-rank, and once you're back with them, and I make sure Callie and the kid are ok, I'm going to kick your ass so you can see how 'weak' I am."

I could see from the glint in his eye that he got it, and I grinned at him. "That's the spirit. Shoot for the stars. Nothing is impossible."

"Your mom is impossible," he snapped automatically.

Chelsea coughed loudly. "Hey," she said in an offended tone. "Also she's right there," she gestured to my mother, who waved at him in amusement.

"Sorry," he winced. "Sorry everybody, that was my bad, ignore me!" He called around the room like he was making a public service announcement. My mom was laughing, so I don't think she minded, but Celine was rolling her eyes in a way that I was pretty sure meant he'd be getting yelled at later. Hah. Nerd.

I looked over to Jessie. "Am I going to have to give that speech again? Because I'd actually feel really bad if I had to talk to you like that."

She giggled at Benny's outraged yelp. "No," she said with a laugh. "You can do most of what I can do on your own, as long as you're not being stupid. And I don't think your mom will let you be stupid."

I looked over at Abel, but to my surprise, he didn't back down. He just grinned. "I'm going with you," he said bluntly. And then…something shifted. I blinked as I felt a wave of power roll over him, into him, and through him. A very familiar wave of power. He sat through it without much trouble, and when it was done, he was looking very smug.

"Really?" I said flatly. "You waited until NOW to bind your last page? When did you hit your stat cap?"

He chuckled, buffing his nails on his chest. "A while ago. I spent the last four months out on the battlefront racking up pages. I don't think I'm the only one, either." He frowned over at Bethy. "Am I?"

She pouted. "You're the worst, Axel. You always ruin my fun. Biggest killjoy I know."

"But you DO know me," he said smugly. Sure enough, Bethy sighed and repeated his words, using her decision to join the team as her final page and ascending to A-rank. That was less of a shock, considering her position in the Frozen Moment Academy, and the fact that it was known for providing page binding opportunities.

So, Bethy and Abel were at A-rank. That was a surprise, and not an unwelcome one. They were two of my most formidable friends, and I was glad to have them along. Similarly, I glanced over at Crell, Alanna, and Fade. "What about you three? I know you said you'd go, but I need you to confirm it. This is a volunteer only mission. We're going somewhere we might not be coming back from."

From their flat looks, I could tell that I didn't need to ask, but they all confirmed anyway. "Grandma and Grandpa will be staying behind to mind the shop," I said, glancing to them for confirmation. Once they gave it, I looked at my parents. "Mom and dad are coming along, and Zeke, you're sure you want to come?"

"Boy, I'm still stronger than you," he said archly. "If you try to give me that speech you gave the kid, I'll show you how 'weak' I really am. Don't go thinking hitting A-rank means you've caught up to us old timers. We've still got a few tricks."

"Don't lump yourself in with me," my dad snorted. "I hit A-rank years ago. You BARELY beat him here."

Zeke raised a snarky eyebrow. "Go ahead and comfort yourself with that knowledge while you can. Once he hits S-rank you're going to be making just as many excuses as me." He snickered at my dad's sour expression, and even my mom got a bit of a chuckle.

She reached out for my dad's hand. "Both of you stop it," she said gently. "You've both been part of helping Shane become the man he is. He did most of it, granted," she said, shooting me a proud smile. "But his success is thanks to you too. You should celebrate how strong and brave he is. I know I do. I don't know if I ever really thanked you, Ezekiel, for being there for my son when I couldn't. But I will now. Thank you. From both of us."

"See what she does?" my dad said with a soft smile. "Can't even let me act tough in front of my friends. Has to be all sentimental and wonderful." He raised the hand she was holding to his lips. "Don't ever stop doing that for me, love. It's why I need you most."

I smiled at the byplay. It wasn't often I saw my dad sincere. My mom was just kind of like that, she was a kind person with a strong moral compass and she felt it was her job to let people know she cared about them. But he wasn't the type to wax sentimental. Not when she wasn't around. That was what she did for him. Kept him human, horns and all.

My eyes closed for a moment, opening on a world of strings and wires, following a shining white chain from my heart into the distance. I stared at it for a moment, then closed my eyes again, and opened them back on the world I'd left. The one with a hole in it that I needed to fill.

"So, that's the team," I said, looking around. "Abel, Bethy, Mom, Dad, Zeke, Crell, Alanna, Fade, Lark, and me. Small, elite, and hopefully with a few more helping hands from the Order of Mercy if the Lady is feeling generous. I considered recruiting someone from the family, but I don't trust any of the council enough for this kind of job. No offense, dad."

My father shrugged. "None taken, I don't trust those old bastards any further than Benny could throw them."

"Hey," Benny whined. "Why is everyone taking shots at me today?"

We all chuckled at that, even Benny. "Anyway, everyone get your things ready and talk to whoever you need to talk to before we go. Alara says Atlas is sending someone to pick us up tonight, so that's when we leave. Bethy, is your dad going to be here in time?"

"Oh daddy's been here for days," she shrugged. We all turned to stare at her. "He agreed on the trip over and he beat us here. He's been skulking around in people's shadows for the last couple days for fun to see if anyone would notice. I think he was testing Ansel today," she smiled at Abel sweetly. "You pick up on anything?"

"I think I'd have noticed if the old man was-" he turned and screamed in fear as Lark's pale, aristocratic face appeared in front of him, emerging from the darkness.

Lark smiled darkly. "You were saying something about noticing me? And about my age?"

"What?" Abel said in a high pitched voice. "I would never. I have the deepest respect for you, master."

Lark nodded to the rest of us. "I'll make my appearance among you when it's time for us to depart. Until then, I'll be borrowing your training room. My apprentice appears to have forgotten his training now that he's a powerful A-ranker. I suspect I'll need to remind him of his fundamentals."

He stood and began to walk away, Abel floating weightlessly in the air in his hand, struggling to get free. "No, I didn't mean it, I was wrong, please, somebody HELP ME!" That was the last sound we heard as the door slammed shut.

"So before we go, does anyone have any requests for snacks," I said, clapping my hands enthusiastically. As it would happen, people did.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The pickup we'd had arranged wasn't what I'd expected. I'd figured it would be a teleporter, or maybe a ship, but when we arrived to meet Alara, neither of those things were present. Instead, sitting next to her, gleaming white against the void of space, was a tall set of magnificent double doors.

I blinked in surprise at the sight. "So…that's a door," I pointed out, admittedly a bit obviously.

"Excellent catch," Zeke said with false enthusiasm. "Unrelated, we're standing on rocks, wearing shoes, and are all Ascendants."

I rolled my eyes at my uncle. "I meant where did it come from, ass."

"For shame," he gasped, putting a hand to his heart. "What kind of disrespectful child speaks to their lifelong guardian in such a manner. I am shocked and appalled at your behavior, and demand satisfaction from the rapscallion who instilled it in you."

My mom rolled her eyes. "You're BOTH children. Honestly."

"Nope," he cackled. "You already said those nice things about how grateful you were to me. Can't take it back now."

Alara sighed. "The door," she said, cutting through the banter. "Is on loan from one of my father's…guests. Vorinder the Door god. There's only a fragment of him left, but my father has been exploring the necropolis to dig up some of the remnants of some of their objects of power. The door was one such artifact, and with Vorinder's…let's say cooperation, its use can provide a direct link to our home in the Chasm."

"Magic door," I said appreciatively. "Nice. Can we get a magic door? Because I don't LOVE using ships to get everywhere. I know ours are good, and teleporters are an option, but I feel like doors like this would be pretty useful."

Unfortunately, Callie was our spatial expert, and she was the one I'd have normally asked about this, which wiped away my good humor somewhat. Still, I added to the mental list of things to ask her about when we got her back as we approached the door. Crell, who was following behind me, nodded with interest. "I might be able to work with Elonwy and make something happen. She can do that space and time thing with her car. And my Doubt skill makes limitations…negotiable."

"Interesting," I said slowly. And it was. I wondered if Celestial Fabrication could be used like that. I imagined making a door of clockwork. It wasn't called Celestial Watchmaking. Callie would be excited to look into that with me when she got back.

We stopped in front of the door, staring up at the towered barrier. "So…am the only one who is slightly worried about what the hell might have needed doors this big to pass through?" Abel said grimly.

Lark let out a bark of laughter. "Yes," he said bluntly. "Most of us have seen things at least this big out among the stars. Giants, beasts, some of the devils are around that tall, even. You might be strong enough, boy, but don't forget that you've hardly scratched the surface of this universe. Power and wisdom are far from synonymous."

"Daddy," Bethy sighed. "You aren't going to give boring speeches the whole time we're on our trip, are you?"

To my shock, Morgan Lark, The Vampire, the strongest mortal in existence, the scourge of the universe, actually flinched back, looking wounded. "You love my speeches," he protested. "You always used to say that they were your favorite part of your day. Sharing wisdom with your dear old dad."

"I DO love your speeches, daddy," she said gently. "But I think my friends might not be quite as enthused by them. Let's try to keep it to a minimum, at least."

He scowled at me. "She was never this rebellious before she started traveling with you."

"That can't possibly be an accurate statement." I said dryly. He glared at me for a moment. Then another.

Finally lips pulled back into a too wide grin, baring his long sharp teeth. "Oh, I like you. Yes, I think I'll be very pleased to help you find your family." He glanced at Bethy. "You were right about this one. He DOES have spine."

I snorted at that. Mostly I just didn't have the energy to be afraid of him. If Lark wanted me dead I'd die. Probably. Actually, Alara might be able to take him. She seemed convinced she was strong enough, at least she had been, so maybe I'd be fine. Either way, his poking just seemed so petty at this point, I couldn't bring myself to bother reacting.

Not that I'd ever SAY that. I wasn't stupid. Passing Lark's test meant he'd be more willing to lend a hand, and that was priceless, not just now, but in the future.

We finally arrived at the doors, which to Abel's credit WERE actually very tall. The reason we'd walked so long was because the sheer size of the things made them seem closer. When we arrived, Alara put her hand on the nearest door and pushed. The door swung open, revealing a familiar dining hall.

All of us started forward, but Alara held up a hand. "Just Shane," she said quietly. "I'll open the other door and escort you to the residential quarters."

I nodded to the others, stepping through without bothering to worry about potential dangers. Atlas could snuff me out like a candle if he wanted to, so there was no point worrying. As the door slammed behind me, I headed toward the table. It took me a moment to see where Atlas was, given the whole hall was dark, but eventually I did.

He looked…bad. The tall, dark haired god was leaning back in his chair. His long hair was messy and limp, his eyes dull, and I could smell the alcohol from where I stood. He looked up at me blearily.

I glared at him. "Really?" I demanded. "You're DRUNK?"

"I'm not drunk," he sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I'm drinking. It's not so easy for a god to get drunk I've been waiting for you. Please, come sit."

Sighing, I made my way over to the chair next to him, sliding into the seat before turning to regard him steadily. "You know why I'm here," I said tiredly. "Are you really going to make me ask you about it?"

"I won't," he sighed. "But I need a moment. I'm feeling…morose. Not just because of Calliope, though of course I'm worried."

"Belsara," I filled in the blanks.

He nodded sadly. "We were a happy family, once," he said quietly. "Alara was our whole world. I took it as badly as she did, you know? Losing my girl. But where she broke under the pressure, I put it all into the fight. I became the best warrior I could be. I fought everything. Gods, Void Children, if it existed I did battle with it. I was fighting so hard I didn't even realize I was already in a war for my marriage. I lost that one."

"So what, because you loved her you'll just let it go?" I demanded, my anger rising.

"Did I say that?" he snapped. "I'm not done yet. All I'm doing is explaining how we got here. Just…let me speak. Please?"

I nodded, and he continued. "That was why I chose to adopt Calliope. Because she looked so much like Alara. And I really was so proud. She was just like my girl. Strong, brave, caring, and with that light deep down that you can't put out. It felt like fate. Like a second chance. To do it right and be a better father."

"Even after Alara came back," he said fondly. "And I will owe the both of you forever for that, by the way. Even after that, I still considered her my child. I still felt that pride in her accomplishments, in her decisions. Even her choice to marry you made me proud. You two are such a good match. It's important to remember that. Important to understand how much I want to see you two back together."

I frowned at him, dread churning in my stomach. "Why is that important?" I said quietly. "What's going on."

"I heard you saw the lodge," he said, taking a long sip of his wine. "That you entered her forest. But that's not really her Domain. It's just the edge. A piece of the whole that doesn't mean anything. Belsara's Domain is so much more than just that. So much more complicated. And if Calliope is there now, it's important for you to understand what you'll find when you reach her."

My stomach was a black hole now, a bottomless pit of pressure and gravity. "What will I find?" I said softly. "Is she…will she be ok?"

"Oh, of that I have no doubt," he reassured me. "If anything, the Domain will ensure that. Belsara's realm of endless summer isn't built for torment or captivity. But it is built to…dull the senses. To change the passage of time relative to experience. A week in the realm of endless summer is a day outside."

I understood what he wasn't saying. "It'll be longer," I said slowly. "Longer for her than for me. Months. Maybe years if I take too long." How long had it been already? It had been a week for me. So what? Nearly two months? And that was just a week. I made to stand, but his hand lashed out, gripping my wrist.

"Not yet," he said sharply. "You don't understand. I know you want to rush, but if you're to get her out of that place you need to grasp how it works. It's not meant to be escaped. If it helps, she might have taken a day or two to find the hanging land she needed to reestablish her realm in the Void. If so, it might have been a bit less time. But it's important that you don't run off blindly and ruin your attempt at rescue. Rules are the most important thing in that Domain, and knowing them is how you succeed."

I forced myself to calm down. Time differences weren't ideal, but they weren't unknown to me. I'd studied temporal mechanics at the Frozen Moment Academy, after all. I nodded firmly, letting him know I was focusing, not letting my emotions get away from me.

And so he began to talk. He told me about Belsara, about her nature and her past and her dreams and the reasons she did the things she did. He told me about her Domain, her Path, her Chronicle, and even more complicated aspects of who she was that I wasn't sure would be useful, but that I refused to discard just in case.

Eventually, I joined him in drinking, though not much. Just a small glass of wine to sip as we spoke. Something to do with my hands.

Finally, we finished talking. "One more thing," he cautioned gravely as we were about to adjourn from dinner. "Belsara is, at her core, a decent person. She's done things we may consider wrong or ruthless, but she does them with good intentions. This is a fundamental fact you need to internalize, because it means that at any given time, she WANTS to be the good guy. Give her a way to look good. Make her the hero, and she'll do your whole job for you."

I nodded. I didn't know what he meant, exactly, but I suspected I would soon enough. Over the course of the conversation, I'd really allowed myself to process my anger toward him. Not let it go, like I had before, but sort of…couch it. Save it and nurture it. Not to use on Atlas himself, mind, but to use on Belsara.

Whatever she thought of herself, she was not, in fact, the good guy. And if she got in the way of me getting my wife back, I wasn't going to be a very good guy either. I just hoped it didn't come to that. If she was really treating Callie as well as Alara thought, I doubted she'd want to see the woman hurt. Whatever happened would depend entirely on that.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, we have a few problems," I told my friends as we left the chasm. "The Realm of Endless Summer, as Atlas calls it, is…complicated. The entire thing is built on very esoteric principles, ones of emotion and disconnection and-"

"It's a webworld," my dad cut in. "Isn't it?"

I raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged. "I've spent time in the Void, Shane, I know about Hanging Lands and the different ways they manifest. Based on what you told me about the fragment you saw and that description, it wasn't exactly a leap."

Abel frowned. "What's a webworld?"

"It's…complicated," I said slowly. "Webworlds are built using spiritual foundations. They're harder to construct, but also harder to break. Your normal Domains are built using a Chronicle as a base, build on top of the legend and into the Void to create a sort of self actualized shallowing. Webworlds still do that, but the construction involves the soul. It's almost impossible to do unless you're born with a freakishly strong one. My grandmother could have made a webworld, for instance."

"She didn't," my mother said with a sigh. "Because they're inherently unstable, and so are the people who make them. The closest thing I've seen to one is the WCP. Your ancestor used webworld concepts to create the absurd accessibility of the Palace. But it's not the same as a real webworld. A REAL webworld can be accessed from almost anywhere when it's properly constructed."

I shook my head. "Not when it's been shattered. Atlas says a broken webworld loses a lot of functionality. Basically entering a fragment can lead you into a shared space where they all connect, but it's not cohesive. Certain fragments connect to certain others, so you have to move through them in order. He says it's going to make Yama less effective, though not INeffective."

"Makes sense," my dad nodded. "And I'm guessing that means we need to enter in specific places. Which is going to be a problem. Do we even know which Hanging Lands we're supposed to be looking for?"

I nodded. "He had some ideas. Webworlds don't break the same as normal realms. When they shatter, they carry through the emotions they're woven out of. The fragments drift to places of meaning to the god in question. Or at least close as they can get in the Void, in this case. I have a list of locations to check, and Yama should help narrow it down, at least."

We stepped out of the chasm and onto the Void Roads without incident. I'd gotten a heading and been eager to be on my way. Knowing Callie would be experiencing a week for every day this took was hell for me. Was she ok? Was the baby? How long would this take?

A hand landed on my shoulder and I looked up to see Zeke smiling at me. "It's gonna be fine, kid," he said quietly. "We're doing well. I've been on a lot of jobs, and a lot of rescue missions. You've kept your head, kept your focus, and assembled a team and the tools you need to succeed. Don't lose it now when we're finally underway."

"He's right," my mom said in her warmest, most upbeat voice. "I mean, remember the time Eli got kidnapped by that fae sorceress and locked in that enchanted tower?"

My dad froze, whipping around to glare at her. "You promised not to mention that ever again!"

"No, that was me," Zeke said, raising his hand. "You didn't ask her to swear because you assumed she was too nice to bring it up."

"Sorry, hon," my mom said apologetically. "But it's for a good cause."

I couldn't help my grin as I saw him sulk. "So dad was a damsel in distress, huh? Why did she kidnap him anyway?"

My mom grimaced and Zeke burst out laughing. "The sorceress in question was obsessed with him. She thought Sasha was a bad influence and was keeping him from his full potential. She wanted him to run away with her, and when he refused she locked him in a tower and tried to force him to be her dark lord boyfriend. He had one window out onto a square she would regularly fill with peasants. The peasants would make wishes, but they were all "evil" wishes."

"They weren't EVIL, they were just STUPID," my dad hissed. "One of them wished that hamsters on that planet could make revenge plans. What does that even MEAN?"

I blinked at him. "Did you grant it?"

"Of course I granted it," he shrugged. "He paid for it. Besides, it wasn't the dumbest wish I granted there. One of them wished to have crab claws for hands. Weirdly, he did not consider all the uses he had for opposable thumbs before asking. I granted that one too, but that was much less annoying. Especially when I had his friend untie his shoe laces."

"You know, I could kind of see you as a dark lord," I said contemplatively. "I'm surprised you didn't just go with it."

He flinched. "Your mother would have plucked out my toenails one by one." My mom glared at him and he coughed, backpedaling. "I mean, that woman was completely ridiculous and I had no desire to engage in that sort of reprehensible behavior, especially not with her."

"Says the man who became a LITERAL devil," I said dryly.

"The devil thing isn't as big of a deal as people make it out to be," he shrugged. "We're mostly just a type of fae. I mostly made the switch for the symbolism, though Sasha WAS unhappy about the transformation. We weren't really around each other at the time, unfortunately, but she made her displeasure known with a strongly worded letter."

Zeke snickered. "Like she needed to do anything else. Your dad has always been a sucker for your mom. Anytime she's upset at him he tears his hair out trying to fix it. For someone as disaffected as he is, the idea of his darling wifey being upset with him has a surprising amount of influence over his mental state."

My dad just glared at him. "You know, I can still kick your ass. Just because we're the same rank doesn't mean you're as tough as I am."

Zeke just snorted. "As if I care. If I was worried about that I'd never make fun of Lark."

"You know," the Vampire said dryly. "Someday, I AM going to do something about that. It's not like I leave you be out of fondness. It may surprise you to know that I've never actually liked you."

"Yes, you've always been very clear about that," Zeke said dryly. "In fact, I think your first words to me were 'you, know, I don't think I like you'. But you respect the fact that I'm not afraid of you like everyone else, because they're all, and I quote 'whimpering little sycophantic lickspittles'. Until everyone else stops being afraid of you, you value my input too much to crack down on me."

That had been a surprise to find out. I knew Lark knew my dad, but I hadn't been aware he knew Zeke. They weren't very forthcoming on HOW, but apparently they'd been acquainted for a long time. It was interesting to hear about their pasts, even if I knew they were only bringing it up to distract me. Still, I did need to focus. "Alright, time to pick a direction," I said grimly. "There are a few possibilities, so we'll go with whatever Yama pulls me towards."

The Void wasn't exactly easy to traverse when you were looking for realspace matchups. Space over here was complicated and twisty, often not lining up with realspace properly. This enabled easy travel on the Void Roads if you knew the paths (which basically no one did because the Void was huge and the Roads were absurdly complicated), but it also meant trying to match up the two locations could be difficult if not impossible.

Atlas was able to point me in the general direction of a few places he considered to be likely to be close to one of the fragments we needed, but there were a few of them, and he only had a general heading. Sure enough, when I manifested Yama, I saw the familiar glittering chain stretching off into the distance, turning to point off down the Void Road. "We're going that way. Which, based on Atlas's directions means we're probably headed for Bloodcrest."

"That's unfortunate," my dad grimaced. At my surprised look, he shrugged. "I've been in the Void before, and I do know some general information. Bloodcrest is a particularly attractive hanging land for exiles and criminals. I've visited it myself, and it is extremely dangerous, though admittedly an excellent place to find desperate people to make deals with. I have a few friends there, but there's a small problem. Bloodcrest isn't JUST a hanging land. It's stable, and there are access gates inside it to other realm fragments. No one is quite sure HOW, but it's one of the reasons it's remained so popular."

I grimaced. "Ok, so we'll have to search inside Bloodcrest to find the right gate. Not ideal, but doable. Yama should-"

"It's not that simple, unfortunately," he interrupted. "The Void is huge and dangerous, keeping hold of a hanging land is nearly impossible from the outside, you can only enter and conquer it internally, but Bloodcrest-"

I groaned. "Bloodcrest is a stable independent space full of other stable independent spaces," I groaned. If I knew one thing about Ascendants, it was that they LOVED claiming ownership of things. Especially worlds. With Bloodcrest allowing gate access, I could already guess what my dad was about to say. "The gates are all under the control of other forces, aren't they?"

"They are," he said grimly. "And whats worse, I suspect that there might be more than one gate connected to the lands of endless summer in Bloodcrest. It's an expansive kind of place, and there are a LOT of gates. Your connection is leading us to the right general area, but since we don't know how many gates may be inside, we don't know which of the gates it might be leading to. Bloodcrest might be acting as a sort of signal booster."

"It doesn't matter," I waved him off. "We'll know once we're inside. It might make accessing them more complicated, but it's hardly the end of the world. Do you know anyone there we might be able to hit up for information?"

He grinned. "Oh yes," he chuckled. "A great many people. The Wish Devil was quite popular in Bloodcrest. The WCP doesn't deal with exiles most of the time, but the devils are less selective. Not to mention my power to make unbalanced deals means places like Bloodcrest are excellent sources of desperate people looking to make deals. I made quite an impression on the populace, for good or ill."

I expected my mom to be unhappy, but weirdly she didn't seem bothered. I remember how ruthless she could be sometimes. My mother was a good person, but she was still an Ascndant. You didn't reach A-rank by being squeamish.

"Well, it doesn't matter who knows who until we get there," Abel pointed out. "And the Void Roads aren't exactly safe to travel."

I blinked at that. They'd seemed safe enough to me. But then I remembered a conversation I'd overheard on my last trip. Everyone who was anyone had been at the warfront last time I'd been here. With the tower's descent, the war had cooled somewhat. It had heated up when we got back, but there was no telling if the residents of the Void, spawn or not, had gotten the memo.

Sighing, I shook my head. "Well, we'll see how it goes. Only way to know for sure is to make the trip. Everyone get ready, we move out in ten minutes. We're heading for Bloodcrest." No time to waste, I didn't want Callie waiting for me any longer than necessary.

 

[Deathbun]

Nvm, apparently the site I use to find fics just didn't recognize that this fic had that tag already

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We were attacked six times on the road to Bloodcrest. None of the attacks were particularly successful, and Lark didn't even need to get involved, but it was still a stark contrast to my relatively peaceful journey on the Void roads not too long ago. It didn't bode particularly well for…well, anything.

Still, over a span of five days, it wasn't TOO crazy. It was, at the very least, a good distraction from the fact that my wife had now been waiting for another month plus. It was frustrating and scary, but I kept my eye on Yama to watch the chain, and I was able to confirm that she and the baby were both safe. In fact, the baby was growing like a weed. The chain looped through Callie's had been getting thicker over time, and I could see how strong she was becoming.

I wondered if the fact that there was only one chain made twins impossible, but given how weird twins could be in terms of souls and abilities, it was also possible there WERE two of them and they just shared one link. Or it could be a factor of them not being born yet, it was hard to say this early.

Still, distraction could only do so much, and when we came within sight of the entrance to Bloodcrest I couldn't help but be relieved.

"Oh hey, another door," Bethy chirped excitedly. "I wonder where this one goes? Maybe to a secret garden full of flying fish? Or like…a mountain of candy." She paused. "Actually, I feel like logistically a mountain of candy would be a problem. Like there would be no way to keep it all clean, it would probably mostly go to waste. You'd need a special environment."

"True," I said with a chuckle. "One of our honeymoon destinations was a candy planet, I think. I didn't think to ask how that would even work."

We arrived at the end of a long line. I was kind of shocked to see so many people out here, given we were in the Void. We hadn't really spotted many humans on the Void roads up to now, just a few stragglers in the distance who made a point not to get close. Here though, there were dozens of people lined up and waiting, so we could only queue up for entry with all the others.

My mom laughed as she got in line behind us. "It's an ecosystem thing. On a fully candy world all the particulates are candy. The dust, the rain, the oceans. A fully enclosed candy ecosystem remains untainted as long as outside factors don't pollute it. Most places like that take measures to prevent visitors from dirtying the place up, purification artifacts being among them. My dad actually does business with some of them."

Bethy perked up. "Can you schedule me a visit? I want to make CANDY wine! It'll be my next big thing. I can sell it at my concerts, delicious candy wine that you can only get while listening to me sing!"

I paused. "That…actually doesn't sound bad," I admitted. "I don't like wine much, but candy wine might be ok. I do like sweets."

Zeke sneered at me. "Philistine," he snorted. "Your childlike palate simply can't appreciate the complexity of a sophisticated vintage. Unlike those of us with more refined tastes. Where did I go wrong?"

I rolled my eyes. "I once saw you accidentally drink drain cleaner because you put your whiskey bottle too close to it on the counter," I said dryly. "You don't get to play the sommelier card you crusty old drunk. Although…how the hell did you even GET drunk on Callus? There's no way you had B-rank booze lying around."

"I didn't," he snorted. "I got lightly buzzed at most. I just pretended to be drunk to give you the freedom to gain life experience."

To my complete shock, scent of truth…detected honesty. Kind of. I was pretty sure that was at the very least shaded in his favor, but still, if there was ANY truth to that statement it recontextualized a lot of my childhood. Zeke hadn't been an absentee guardian, really, but he'd mostly left me to my own devices. It had worked out and he was always there when I really needed him, but I was shocked that had never come up before.

I was snapped out of the confusion by a hand waving in front of my face. "Toll?" demanded an impatient voice.

Blinking, I looked up to find a pair of beefy men in heavy armor glaring at me. One of them had absurdly long hair and a clean shaven face and the other had a huge bushy beard and was bald. It was quite the contrast. I looked at my dad, who reached into a pocket and withdrew a familiar stone. Infinity crystal. He tossed it to the nearest guard who literally bit down on the stone to test its authenticity before waving us in.

"Infinity crystal?" I asked him as we entered.

He nodded. "Bloodcrest is in the Void, and space is in short supply here. Or at least they always need more of it. Infinity crystals are currency here. I always carry some on me just in case, as well as every OTHER type of currency I've seen. Always pays to have a full wallet."

I made a mental note of that. Keeping various currencies on hand for traveling did seem smart, given how much space I had in my Domain. My ring was convenient still for transport… I froze. Everyone turned to look at me, standing just through the door and into the city. "The rings!" I sputtered.

Dashing over to the wall, I tore free a piece of paper and a pen, scrawling a message and dropping it into the paired ring. I stayed stock still, waiting for a second before a message popped up in return. I held it aloft, checking the paper. "I forgot about these things," I read aloud. "I love you too, and obviously you're coming to save me. Good to know about the time difference, I'll be waiting."

I grinned at the others triumphantly. "Our wedding rings," I said excitedly. "They're connected. A shared space that works between dimensions. Even divine artifacts can be put through them. It's how we got the scythe to Black Sorrow after Rackham!"

With a one week to one day time dilation, she had minutes to respond on her side when only seconds passed on mine, which was a relief, but just knowing that she was safe, even discounting Yama, was enough to make me weep with gratitude. I didn't even remember where we GOT the rings, a wedding present I was pretty sure, maybe from my mom, but knowing they provided a connection still was too comforting for words.

My mom was at my side in an instant. "She's alright? Thanks the gods, here give her these!" She started digging out items, shocking them towards me. "These will be good for the baby, and these will help with morning sickness, and this is to help with her feet swelling." She piled items into my arms frantically, and I couldn't help the warm smile. I knew she was worried about Callie for my sake, and because she cared for her, but seeing how much effort and time she put into helping her through the pregnancy.

I tossed it all into the ring, along with a note for my wife. Naturally, she responded in moments, and I smiled as I passed my mother the note. Shaking off my new state of jubilation, I turned to the others. "Alright," I said cheerfully. "We got some good news, but we have a job to do. Dad, who are we meeting up with first? I'd prefer not to break out Yama in the city's front porch. I doubt anyone will be able to tell what I'm doing, but doubt isn't fact."

"Agreed," he said after a glance around. "I think House Ralkyne is probably our best bet. We left things on good terms and they were pretty powerful. Which is nice because it means they're useful AND I didn't take advantage of them too badly. Some of my contacts may be…less than thrilled with me."

"I don't think I want to know what you did," I said, vividly remembering him forcibly conscripting souls on the heirworld. "These Ralkyne people DO actually like you, though?"

"They paid up front," he shrugged. "Too powerful to bully or threaten. Too stable to tempt."

I snorted. "Good to know you have standards. Do you remember where they live? Or do we need to ask around?"

"Nah, I know where they are," he assured me. "Though we need to head to an old haunt of mine first. All my directions are relative to that place, I have no idea how to get anywhere from here. It's not too far though, I don't think. I want to say…that way?" He pointed off to the left uncertainly.

"Oh, well if you're sure," Zeke said acidly. "I'm glad we're not leaving this up to chance."

My dad smiled sweetly at him. "How I about I leave YOU up. On the moon."

"We're in the Void dipshit," Zeke taunted. "There isn't even a moon HERE. Maybe instead of stealing souls you should have charged one of those suckers you conned some common sense."

Lark sighed. "This is truly fascinating interplay," he drawled. "And while I would LOVE to see Elijah send Ezekiel on a lunar sabbatical, we ARE on a job here."

My mom rolled her eyes. "Just tell us where we're going, Eli. What is this old haunt of yours?"

"The Hollow Pumpkin," he said immediately. "It's not far from here. I can't actually see it from here but it's not hard to recognize. Follow me." He gestured in the same direction he'd been pointing, and we all trailed after her. I'll give him credit, he did seem to navigate the streets smoothly, finding alleys and turning down side paths I hadn't noticed. We walked for about ten minutes, before stopping in front of…

I glanced at my dad. "You're kidding me," I said dryly. "I assumed it was a BAR called the hollow pumpkin."

"It is," he shrugged. "It just happens to also be housed inside an ACTUAL hollow pumpkin."

"Well, at least they don't need a sign," I sighed. "You know how to get to our destination from here, then?"

"I do," he admitted. "But it would be smart to check in there. You can look into the link once we're inside. Then once that's done we can use it to pin down which gate we need to access and contact the Ralkyne with all the information. It'll make negotiations easier."

Sighing, I nodded as Bethy squealed with delight. "I bet they have PUMPKIN wine! I bet pumpkin wine tastes so good. I'm totally going to grow pumpkins to make wine out of. Vampires have a natural affinity for pumpkins, you know. There are always pumpkins around when people dress up like vampires."

I opened my mouth to respond, but Abel clapped a hand on my shoulder. "Just…let her have this one," he said dryly. "Plus once she actually tries it she'll change her mind. I've had pumpkin juice before. It's not great. I can't imagine the wine is any better."

Since she heard him, Bethy just huffed and started telling him off, the two of them heading into the building with my parents following behind, accompanied by Lark, Crell, Alanna, and Fade. As I watched them go, I couldn't help but smile. This was far from over, and obviously I wasn't feeling completely better, but the relief of making contact lifted a heavy burden from my soul. Beyond that, all my friends had been doing their best to keep me engaged and upbeat, and I appreciated it. I had the best family in the world. Now I just needed to go make sure it was complete.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The Hollow Pumpkin was surprisingly crowded. I don't know why the word hollow had convinced me the place would be completely empty, but when we stepped inside, I was shocked by just how noisy and energetic it was.

Groups of Ascendants at tables, doing shots, playing cards, occasionally doing something crazy like breathing fire. Once group was playing darts, trying to get the projectiles through moving smoke rings blown by a nearby witness. I winced as one of the darts went stray and hit someone in the face, though he seemed more annoyed than injured.

"I missed this place," my dad grinned. It was honestly weird to see the expression on his face. He smiled sometimes, but it was usually either malicious or the soft kind he rarely sent at my mother. I'd never seen him look so…wild and free.

"Well, well, well," came a lazy drawl from behind the bar. "If it isn't the wish devil himself. I thought I recognized that handsome scarlet mug of yours, Eli."

My dad rolled his eyes, turned to smile back at the woman behind the bar. "Surprised you can recognize anything Serena, given your penchant for dipping into your own product. You still have to order an extra three kegs a week for your own abuse." He snorted, nodding over to us. "Shane, Sasha, come over here and meet a friend of mine. Serena and I go way back. I'm the reason she owns this bar, which is why I drink free here. Serena, this is my son Shane and my wife Sasha. Don't be yourself."

She flipped him off. "I'm so sorry you two have to put up with this insufferable ass. I only knew him for a few months back in the day and I was already sick of him by the time he left. And I never said you drank free here. I have a business to run."

My mom snickered. "Don't let him bully you," she advised. "Eli will push and push until you set some boundaries. We'll be happy to pay for drinks."

Serena shook her head. "I was just giving this idiot a hard time. I'm not gonna charge you. I wouldn't have been able to build this place at all without him." She glanced around fondly, taking in the building.

I followed suit, studying the place, and I had to admit it was kind of cool. The interior of the pumpkin had been hollowed out, but rather than just leaving it to dry, it seemed like they'd coated the walls in some kind of varnish. The texture and look reminded me a lot of dark wood, and it really brought the inside of the bar together.

Along the walls, big iron lanterns hung burning, casting a flickering glow across the slate grey floors (which I was pretty sure had been made with ACTUAL slate), and the furniture was built in a strange boxy design aesthetic with rounded corners that seemed to compliment the pumpkin shape.

"Where did this place come from, anyway?" I asked with interest. "Like, where do you get a pumpkin this size?"

"The Garden of Coloss," she said with a frown. "One of the nearby gates. It used to be the realm of some giant plant god. Everything in there grows huge, but the larger plants are sentient. My family fished this thing out after a huge fight about three hundred years ago. My brother was set to inherit, but Eli…took care of it."

Bethy lit up. "Oh! Did he kill him?"

"What?" Serena asked in confusion. "No, he just helped him get a job working for another local family. Honestly, what's wrong with kids these days?"

I chuckled at that. "Just Bethy being Bethy, she doesn't mean anything by it."

The bartender snorted. "Whatever. My brother needed help acquiring some skills that helped him land a job. Eli hooked him up and he made room for me to take over this place. It was a favor I appreciated, though I doubt Eli himself thought twice about it. He probably only warned me it was coming out of habit. Why reap one benefit when you can reap two, right?"

"That does sound like him," my mother chuckled. "Well, I won't insist if you're sure. I suppose we'd like drinks then. Bethany, I believe you wanted to ask about pumpkin wine?"

"Pumpkin wine?" the bartender asked in confusion. "Who would make pumpkin wine?"

Bethy slumped. "Oh," she sighed. "I really wanted to try that. But I guess pumpkins aren't great for making drinks or whatever."

"What? No we have pumpkin drinks, they're just not WINE," Serena scoffed. "We have pumpkin BEER. Does this look like a damned vineyard to you? The only wines we keep on hand are the local specialties and that weird mushroom wine my brother tried to market before he handed me the place. I've owned it for years and not a single cup of that stuff has ever sold. I spilled a bottle of it once and I think it ate a hole in the floor."

My dad winced. "I remember that stuff. He kept trying to pay me with a case of it. Liquid shouldn't LUNGE."

"It doesn't do that anymore, to be fair," she added brightly. "Well, not unless the mice get too close. But I think I'd consider that to be more like pouncing at this point. We keep it in the basement now though. The cold keeps it docile."

"No," I said immediately as I saw Bethy's contemplative expression. "Under no circumstances are you allowed to buy any of that."

Bethy glared at me, stomping her foot and turning to pout at her dad. He just shrugged. "You swore yourself to his service," he said casually. "Means he's the boss of you. If he says no mushroom wine that means no mushroom wine."

I shot him a deadpan look. "Gee, thanks. I'm so glad to have you here to immediately pass the buck as soon as she gets upset. Truly, I see the courage of the strongest mortal in the universe."

"True strength is knowing when to turn and walk away," he said sagely. "Also my daughter can get very loud when she's upset and she sulks for weeks. Not worth it. But hey, now it's your problem. You and your sister. I just get to spoil her rotten and leave you to deal with all the annoying parts. Thanks for that."

I just stared at him. "Aren't you supposed to be some menacing figure of mystery?"

"Menace and mystery are overrated," he shrugged. "I usually only bother in public. Right now, I'm on vacation."

Chuckling, I turned back to the bartender. "I'll take a…" I glanced at the scrawled menu hanging behind her. "Wizzlefisker?" I frowned. "What is that? And why does it sound like it's covered in gears and probably steaming?"

She snickered, turning and grabbing a large bronze mug. Stepping over a series of taps behind the bar, then started pulling, mixing about a dozen liquids together. Then she grabbed a stick or something out of a nearby barrel and plopped it into the drink. The stick had a metal pinwheel on it, and when she flicked it, the pinwheel let out a high pitched shriek and sparks erupted out of it.

I gave her a blank look, then shrugged and took the mug, taking a cautious sip. "This…what is this? I don't know what the hell I'm drinking."

"Pineapple, orange, grape, apple, a few other assorted fruits cut with brandy and a dash of rum. My own personal blend. The secret is the ratios. If any of the juices are too dominant or not dominant enough it unbalances the taste. If you do it JUST right it combines into something that doesn't really taste like anything else you've ever had." She winked at me. "I'm a Mythic Mixologist."

I chuckled as I took another sip. "This is weirdly delicious. I kind of can't stop. Anyway, you have a place I could use for a bit of quiet self reflection?"

She snorted, then tossed me a key off a nearby hook. She pointed across the building, to a door under a set of stairs bolted right into the outside of the pumpkin, ones that led up to a smaller second story. "We rent that room out for private parties. Should work for what you need."

I nodded as the others ordered their drinks, scooping up the key as walking over to the door. I pushed it open, bumping it closed with my hip, and then set my drink down on the well crafted carved wood table. Then, without hesitation, I triggered Yama. The word was consumed with strings and threads, karmic ties and chains and bonds covering the space around me. The most important was exactly where I knew it would be, right in my heart, strung through with a single ch- I froze.

The red chain within Callie's larger shining chain. It wasn't a single chain anymore. It was two. The two chains were wrapped around each other tight, so I barely noticed until I looked closer. But it had split. I just stared in awe as I processed what I was seeing.

Twins. We were actually having twins. A lot of people had made jokes, comments, even predictions. Hell, I'd made them. But seeing the single chain I'd convinced myself we'd all just been off base. Now though, now I could see it, definitive proof we were going to have two babies.

I reached for a piece of paper, about to send a note through the rings…but I stopped. Callie had said she didn't want to know. I didn't want to ruin the surprise. It wasn't like she was going to be more protective of two babies than one. She'd do her best for our kids no matter how many there were. I smiled mischievously and put my hand down. She'd been the one who asked me not to confirm it. I was just doing what I was supposed to. Eventually though, I snorted and wrote a note anyway. Then I folded it and wrote "Baby secret: spoilers", and dropped it into the ring.

This way she could make the decision for herself, and the worst that could happen was that she figured it out from context based on the tag. I also debated on sending over some juice or something for Callie, maybe the same drink I got minus the brandy and rum. I decided against it because I was worried Belsara might notice the cup so in the end…I just sent her a video.

Picking up an old scan ring, hit the record function. "Hey Cal," I said softly. "I'm sorry it took so long to get in touch, I know it's been months for you. I realize I explained the time difference but I still feel bad. I'm sure you'll be careful listening to this, just like you are with the notes, probably checking them in the vault, but I wanted you to see my face and hear my voice. I wish I was there with you guys, and I will be soon. Just…be safe, be careful, and I know I love you so much."

I slipped the scan ring into the paired rings and waited. To my surprise, it reappeared within about thirty seconds. Which made sense given the time difference, I guessed. When I took it out, I saw a new video saved.

Hitting the button, I watched a holographic screen appear, and almost melted with relief as my wife's face appeared. "Hey hon," she said softly. "We can't do too many of these, because I DO have to watch them in the vault and I can't be in here too much. But I got your notes. ALL of them. Thanks for ruining the surprise, you jerk. All three of us love you too. You be safe too, and we'll see you soon. Love and miss you." The recording cut off, and I stared at the ring for a moment…then I watched it again. I played the video four more times before tossing back my drink and double checking the heading. Then I headed back out to the others.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We spent a while at The Pumpkin. Bethy DID, in fact, try pumpkin beer, and she drank way too much of it, and we all universally agreed that Bethy wasn't allowed to touch beer ever again because whatever Maenad nonsense made her immune to wine didn't work on the stuff apparently. We weren't kicked out, but we WERE asked very firmly to leave and come back another day, and none of us could really argue.

Rather than head right over to House Ralkyne, we decided to stop at a local inn my dad knew to rest before meeting our potential allies. If it had been before, both the stop and the rest would have been unthinkable to me, but after actually hearing Callie's voice and knowing she was ok, I was more willing to take my time. I was still determined, but I wanted to go in as deliberately as possible. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, as Abel had said to me more than once during training when I was starting out.

When we woke up the next day, we headed right over to meet them, and it didn't end up being a long walk. The place we arrived at was…unsettling. It was carved from the stone of a cliff, one that had been pared down over time into a huge hulking building that seemed to all be one big piece. Built right into the side of a mountain, the walls and entrance were formed from dark, jagged stone shot through with veins of flickering ruby gemstone. It was gorgeous to look at, but something about it seemed almost malicious, like the rock was watching and waiting for us to turn our backs.

"This place is creepier than I remember," my dad said, squinting up at the towering edifice. "Suddenly this feels less like a good idea."

My mom smacked him upside the back of the head. "Don't say that out LOUD in front of Shane," she scolded. "It's way too late to back out now." She shot me a warm smile. "It's fine, honey, we'll be out of here in no time, tracking down Calliope and my TWO GRANDBABIES!" she all but squealed the last part. Or rather, she did squeal it, and I had to wince at the volume, even as the sentiment made me smile.

My mother had been ecstatic when she found out that we were having twins, and had been at least partially responsible for Pumpkin Beer Bethy when she INSISTED on making multiple toasts to the babies. It had been sweet and deeply appreciated, at least until it resulted in our expulsion from The Hollow Pumpkin when Bethy somehow bit the building and started draining it of Impact, causing the roof to partially collapse.

"Can I help you?" came a quiet, almost whispered voice.

We all jumped, turning to find a massive, pale man with long dark hair looming over us. His eyes were deep set and surrounded by dark circles, and his back was hunched, as if he was bending over to avoid some invisible doorway that was too short for him to walk through. His gaze was weirdly intense, and his eyes burned with a strange dark light that reminded me of way the red glow reflected off the stone behind him.

My dad grimaced at him. "Dawkins," he said distastefully. "You're still here. Lovely. I'd hoped you were dead by now."

The tall man's eyes flicked to my dad, who he'd been studiously ignoring. "Ah, the peddler. Come to sell more of your snake oil? Why, it feels like it was only yesterday you were here, making a general nuisance of yourself and being a bad influence on the young lord and lady. I confess, I too had prayed for your demise, I suppose my pleas for divine mercy went unanswered."

"Then I should probably thank you," my dad said sweetly. "Given how unpleasant you are there's a strong probability at least one or two of my miraculous survivals in the last fifty years were the gods spiting your prayers."

"Hello," my mom said, stepping between them. "Apologies for my husband, we've been trying to house train him but he's having some trouble learning to go outside. Please don't take any offense. We're here to speak to House Ralkyne." She waved sheepishly. "My name is Sasha, and this is my son Shane and all his friends."

One thing I hadn't really consciously noticed about my mother up to this point was how…persuasive she could be. She was a warm, caring, charismatic person, and she just had this sort of natural charm to her that made it impossible to ignore her.

Most of the time it wasn't obvious, but when she actually turned it on, it was easy to see why she was the only person I'd ever even heard of who could influence my father. It was impressive to see her dazzle a random person in real time though, and I wasn't really prepared to watch the conversational whiplash as Dawkins shifted gears from vocally hating my dad to being charmed by my mom.

"Oh, well…I suppose that's alright," he said uncertainly. It's hard to be pissed at someone who is being genuinely friendly to you, and my mom had always managed to sound incredibly sincere whenever she spoke. It was definitely coming in handy here. "What are you looking to discuss?"

"We need a guide," my dad cut in. "Specifically, we want to hire Stanley."

Dawkins whirled to glare at him. "How DARE you! The young lord is not some…servant for you to employ at your convenience! He is an honored and dignified member of House Ralkyne and far beyond such petty concerns as your nonsensical errands."

"Well damn, Dawkins," my dad said acidly. "I didn't realize you'd been adopted into the family. That IS what happened, isn't it? Because you MUST be a member of the Ralkyne line to be making definitive statements like that on behalf of the heir apparent. You must be pretty high up, too, if you expect him to listen to you."

The big man's mouth snapped shut, and he glared at my father. "I will…" he bit off his words, grimacing like he was physically forcing them out. "Alert the young lord to your presence," he hissed. "And defer to his judgement."

"Of course you will," my dad said with a smug grin. "Because you're a very good dog, aren't you? Who's a good boy? You are! Yes you are!"

Dawkins looked seconds from lunging across the gravel at my dad, but eventually forced himself to calm down and then whirled and stalked away. My dad grimaced as he left. "I REALLY don't like that guy." He said idly.

"We noticed," I glared at him. "But what the hell, dad? We need these people to help us, why are you antagonizing their doorman?"

"Because he's not a doorman," he corrected. "Dawkins is more like a butler. And he's not THEIRS. He works exclusively for Culver Ralkyne. Culver is the nominal lord of the house, but he's a recluse and is rarely around. Dawkins does odd jobs for Stanley and his sister Violetta, but is mostly a spy for their father. Neither of them can stand the man, and they take a special joy out of seeing him angry."

I blinked at him. "Wait…that was a show for the people we're here to see?"

"No," he said bluntly. "I just really hate that guy. But it will also most likely amuse Stanley. As for Dawkins himself, I could care less what he thinks or wants to do to me. If he tries anything I'll turn him inside out and drown him in a tub of lemons. Seriously, I cannot begin to describe how deeply unpleasant of a human being that old man is. I've met actual slimes that are less slimy, and cuddlier cacti."

My mom nodded. "Noted. I'll keep an eye on him. Do you think I played that wrong, then?"

"Nah," he waved her off. "Your instincts were good. Dawkins isn't completely ineffectual, and having someone in his good books won't hurt. I doubt Stanley and Vi are going to hold basic politeness against you. This way, we get the best of both worlds."

I blinked at them. "Wait…you guys did that on purpose?"

"Your father was being aggressive," my mom shrugged. "Which meant I could be passive. You'd be surprised how many situations require both carrot and stick. Why do you think I smacked him. It was one of our signals, telling him how I planned to proceed. There were a few verbal responses that would have changed my trajectory, but he let me run it my way, which I always appreciate."

That was actually really impressive. "How many scenarios have you guys gamed out like that?" I asked carefully.

"More than a few," she smiled. "We've been married for quite a while, Shane. We might not have a soul bond like you and Callie, but we know each other about as well as two people can. Chances are good that if you catch us bickering or interacting in a way that seems odd, there's a reason for it."

I thought back to the number of times I'd watched them snipe at each other. My mom being occasionally pushy, my dad being a grump. Thinking back, almost all of those times had been when something else had been going on. Maybe I'd needed distracting or maybe the situation was tense. Maybe they'd ALL been for other reasons and some of them were just ones I hadn't been able to put my finger on.

Seeing my silent contemplation, my mom just smiled. "Trust, Shane," she said warmly. "Is the most important bond a husband and wife can have. Remember that. Your connection with Callie is magical and special, but it's not all you need. All the empathic sensing in the world is useless without trust. Your marriage doesn't work so well because of the soul bond, it works because of how you use it. To open up to each other. To communicate. That's what makes the two of you such an amazing couple, and it's going to be what makes you even better parents." Her eyes took on a sad shimmer. "Better parents than we were, by far."

My dad put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly, and she gave us both a forced smile. I could tell she didn't want to burden me with her guilt. Her wish was granted by the most unlikely of accomplices. Dawkins.

Returning in a huff, the butler stalked out of the opening in the cliff house angrily. "The young lord and lady await you in the solar." He said stiffly.

My dad nodded casually to him, then grabbed my mom's hand and tugged her along behind him as he strolled inside. Shooting a glance at Abel, I gestured my friends to follow as I trailed behind them. Abel caught up pretty quickly. "So, your dad was right, this place IS creepy."

"I know," I admitted. "But there's not much to do about it at this point. We're here, and my mom is right. We need them. We don't have time to do this the slow way. My heading from Yama tells us where to go generally, but there are quite a few gates around here and most of them are protected."

We needed Stanley as a guide to tell us which gate we were looking for. If we just followed the chain, we might stumble into one that was just between us and where Callie was, or run into one we couldn't access at all. The Ralkyne were power players here, and they were exactly what we needed to find the right gate. Which meant I'd play whatever games they wanted and go into the creepiest houses they had if it got me this meeting and their help. Callie was waiting, and I was going to be there as soon as I could.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The interior of the Ralkyne house was just as unsettling as the outside. The same black stone and red veins permeated the inside of the house, but more than just the materials made it jarring. Somehow, the angles of the place seemed wrong. Jagged lines where none should be disrupted the flow of vision, while outcroppings and growths occupied places that seemed discordant in a way that was difficult to quantify but no less real for the confusion.

"These people should fire their decorator," Bethy noted clinically. "I get wanting to be spooky and stuff, but this is just tacky. The lines are so choppy."

Abel groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Bethy, there's an A-ranker within earshot, and I'd be shocked if the guy who owns this place isn't S-rank. Can you not make comments about their house when the butler is right there?" He pointed at Dawkins, who had stopped and turned to glare at our cheerful vampire.

"I wouldn't worry about that," Lark said airily, his eyes locked on the larger man. "I'm sure Mr. Dawkins has better things to do than take out his frustration at his employer's poor decorating choices on my daughter. Don't you?"

Dawkins, who had previously been turning to glare at Bethy, froze in place as the sensation of a very large predatory eyeing him up rolled over the hallway so heavily even the rest of us could feel it. He stared at Lark out of the corner of his eye, body stiff, and I could see him trembling slightly under the regard. "Of…of course," he rasped. "I'd never dream of imposing on such a lovely, well mannered young lady."

Lark prowled forward, clearly having taken my dad's comment about Dawkins to heart. Lark loved to mess with people, and having found a target who aroused his ire, it was clear he wasn't going to let it go. He put an arm around Dawkins hunched shoulder, pulling him down at what must have been an uncomfortable angle. "See," he said in a blandly cheerful yet somehow deeply threatening voice. "That's not what I said. I said that you wouldn't take out your employer's bad taste on Bethany. Do you agree with that statement? You should confirm verbally."

Dawkins looked terrified, and he nodded quickly. "I…I do. I think the manor is…gauche. I dislike the decor as well. It is the height of garishness."

"See," Lark said, letting him go. "What a friendly, approachable person. This is the kind of help you want to hire to watch your house. Assuming, of course, you have a house that dosn't suck so they don't have to stew in resentment at being forced to work there. Cheer up Dawkins, I'll make sure to tell your boss about your feelings when I meet him. I'm sure he'll be happy to work with you on the decorating to make this place more suitable to your tastes."

Still shaking, the butler stalked ahead, trying to put space between himself and the terrifying vampire.

"Don't you think it's a little crass to bully the help?" my mom said reproachfully.

Lark shook his head. "It was subtle, but there was a flash of killing intent aimed at Bethany when he started turning. He's lucky I didn't peel off his skin and nail it to the front door. Remember kids, predators can always sense when you have the intent to kill. If you don't have a way to restrain that aura, try to keep your planned reactions nonlethal."

I blinked at that. I hadn't realized he could do that, but then, I was pretty sure Bethy had demonstrated similar sensory abilities. I'd seen her track people through abstracts like that before, so it made sense Lark would be even scarier.

Previously I'd felt kind of bad for Dawkins, but hearing he'd been thinking about killing Bethy washed that away quickly. What kind of asshole gets homicidal over decorating critiques? My dad hadn't been kidding about how unpleasant that guy was. Luckily, we didn't need to spend much time with him, following along until he reached a large open plan room in the upper story of the house. "The young lord's solar," he said, stepping back and bowing as he gestured us in.

We nodded back, dismissing him from our minds as we stepped inside to find a pair of people waiting for us.

Stanley and Violetta Ralkyne were interesting. Thin and fine featured, with deep olive skin and lilac hair, the two of them were dressed in what I could only describe as historical imperial dress. Violetta wore a voluminous gown with short cropped sleeves leading into lace demi gloves, and Stanley wore a frilly looking suit with a ruffly ascot tied at the neck and a literal monocle set over one eye. They each smoked a carved wooden pipe covered with complex designs, the black material covered in the same red veins as the stone of the manor.

"Eli," Stanley said with a grin, leaning back and puffing his pipe. "Welcome back! I see you haven't lost your sense of humor."

My dad grinned at him. "I know how much you hate Dawkins. He still trying to poison you?"

"Only on days that end in Y," he said dryly. "He's recently begun pumping it through the vents. We use the pipes to neutralize the toxins. I wouldn't worry too much about yourselves, it requires long term exposure and he wasn't trying to kill us anyway."

"Your butler is trying to poison you?" I asked skeptically. "Isn't that like…the opposite of what he should be doing?"

He chuckled. "You would think so. But Dawkins finds our handling of house affairs undignified and uncouth. In the event of illness or unfitness for duty, custody of the house would be remanded to him. He's been trying to arrange for myself and Vi to have a survivable but deeply inconvenient 'Accident' for years now. The poison started when we were about twenty or so. I suspect he was worried about stunting our growth if he used it earlier."

"That's…really messed up," I pointed out bluntly. "In a bunch of ways."

"It's life," he shrugged. "We've been trying to kill him for just as long. Old bastard just won't die. We need to be subtle about it, you see. He works for my father, which means he's technically protected. I think the last time was…damn, was it the locusts in his wardrobe?"

Violetta shook her head. "It was the chandelier," she reminded him. "The locusts were before the exploding cigar box. After the tiger in his bathroom."

He grimaced. "We didn't think that one through. That tiger has been wandering around for years now. I think it snatched one of the maids last week. Hard to say though. Obviously it keeps eating the evidence. She might have just quit."

"It PROBABLY would have wandered off if you hadn't spent months leaving meat out for it," she scolded. "But please, have a seat. I'm sorry we've been boring you with our petty family squabbles. What can we do for you?" She said this like she hadn't just described multiple murder plots and a literal wild animal loose on the premises, and my dad apparently decided to just go with the vibe."

"This," he said, jerking a thumb at me. "Is my son, Shane. He seems to have misplaced his bride, and we were hoping you might help us locate her. We've managed to trace her to the area, but all we have is a general direction, and given the gate density…"

Stanley nodded. "You're concerned you might waste time entering the wrong gate. What do you know about where she's being kept?"

I sighed in relief. "It's called-"

"Wait," my dad said immediately, cutting me off. "We discuss payment first." I was about to interrupt, declaring that I didn't care what I had to pay, but he cut me off with a sharp glare. Realizing that giving up our leverage might not be a good idea, I settled back to let him do his thing.

Stanley smiled brightly. "Payment? Don't be silly. You did so much for us last time you were here. We'd be honored to help, no charge."

"That's kind of you," my dad said flatly. "But we couldn't possibly impose."

The young lord chuckled again. "Oh, very well. I suppose we can discuss compensation if you insist. What's your offer?"

My dad snapped his fingers, holding out…something. I had no idea what it was, actually. I'd never seen anything like it. It reminded me slightly of an infinity crystal, but the facets were full of swirling silver starstuff, with flickers of strange grey lightning playing through it. While I didn't know what it was, it was clear Stanley very much did. His breathing stopped. "An infinity mineheart?" he breathed, his eyes transfixed. "Where did you-" he reached for the object but my dad pulled away.

"Questions aren't confirmation," he said mildly. "Do you accept the terms?"

"You didn't name any terms," Stanley protested. "I can't just agree to a blanket request for hel- wait no stop! I'll do it! I'll help you! However you need and for as long as necessary!" He tried to argue, but as soon as my dad made the crystal vanish he surged to his feet desperately. My old man smiled, withdrawing the crystal again, and then produced a contract. He set the crystal and the page down on the table, then handed the other man an old fashioned feather pen.

Stanley glared at him, but took the pen, reading over the contract with his teeth clenched before signing it quickly, then snatching up the crystal. "Now," he said tightly. "What do you know about where she's being held?"

"It's called the land of endless summer," I said confidently.

He stared at me for a moment, waiting. "Ok, and?" he said slowly. "Most of the gates here open to unclaimed world fragments no one has ever identified. We don't KNOW their names, so we give them new ones. Knowing what it used to be called is not helpful. What's the directionality, what special features does it have?"

I blinked at him. I hadn't considered that. "I mean…time passes different there? Seven times faster, from what I can tell. And I think it's a forest, or at least contains one. Heading from here is about fifty eight degrees northwest." It took me a second to calculate that based on our new position, but not much longer than that.

He hummed, considering what I'd said. "Four," he said after a moment. "I can name four different gates that might apply to." I grimaced, and despite not seeing my face, he grinned at me. "Don't be too discouraged. Four isn't bad. There are a lot of gates here. I can get you access to three of them. The fourth I can make an introduction for, but securing entry is up to you. Agreed?"

"That's fine," I confirmed. "I can enter the first three to check, and we can address the fourth on the off chance it's none of those." A seventy five percent chance of finding the right place wasn't bad.

Stanley chuckled again, leaning back and taking a deep puff on his pipe. "I'll need to make arrangements for entry. None of the gates in question belong to Ralkyne. We have good relationships with the forces who do control them, however, so it won't be too much trouble to secure your passes."

My dad nodded solemnly, clearly pleased with how things had gone, then he leaned back and smiled. "Excellent. Now. As per the terms of the contract, you'll be putting us up while we're here. Why don't you show us to our rooms."

It was hard not to laugh at the sour look on Stanley's face as he snatched up the contract to read over it again. I knew there was a reason I'd let my dad be the one to make the deal. I wondered if meals were included?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I woke up the next day feeling refreshed. It felt…good to sleep properly, to let myself unwind. Now that we were so close, I felt like I could breathe for a minute. Not too long, mind, I had work to do, but it was nice not to feel like an axe was hanging over my wife's head for a minute. Reaching for my ring, I checked it for messages, and I had to smile when I found a note.

"Morning lazy bones," I read aloud. "I assume you're sleeping like a log while I'm being kept permanently awake by your children, I hope you fall and can't get up. PS, I love you."

I rolled my eyes, sending a quick message back. I told her good morning, said I loved her, and asked her if she wanted me to send her some scrolls from my stockpile. To my surprise, she informed me that she didn't need them. Apparently she was a local celebrity, which wasn't too surprising, and she was getting a substantial income of points just from the notoriety. On top of the income from news of her kidnapping making the rounds, she was looking at potentially making it to A-rank before I found her.

Of course, she wasn't quite ready for that breakthrough, she didn't have enough pages bound, but she had nothing but time there, and had been hard at work over the last four months.

On the one hand, I was happy my wife would be able to protect herself better, but on the other…I hated knowing we'd been apart so long from her perspective. How far along were the babies? I was too scared to ask, and she hadn't told me. I was sure she was worried it would hurt me. If I missed their birth…or worse, missed MORE than that, I didn't know what I'd do.

Closing my eyes, I climbed out of bed. If I couldn't get there now to help, I needed to improve myself. My previous ease was gone, replaced with steely determination. If Callie didn't need the scrolls, I would use them.

Of course, I needed someone to use them ON, but I had a few people with me that I was sure could help. So I dragged myself to the bathroom, showered (even this had lost its luster) and strode off to find my friends…only to become IMMEDIATELY lost. The interior of Ralkyne Manor wasn't just creepy, it was also CONFUSING. All the hallways and walls looked the same, and while impressive, it made finding anything nearly impossible. Finally I just gave up and triggered Dantalion.

I smiled in satisfaction as the flood of information rolled over me, and I followed the proper turn to the room where Abel was staying. I knocked on the door, and he opened it within moments. He blinked as he took in my expression. "Hey Shane," he said slowly. "What's up?"

"Wanted to see if you were interested in trading some points," I asked with a shrug. "I'll ask the others too, but I figure you might benefit from aligning your stats a bit. Just don't go overboard, obviously." We'd seen from Jessie how much good specializing could do, but my own situation was proof positive that letting your stats get too unbalanced could also be a detriment.

He hummed with interest. "I mean, I'm not AGAINST that. I've got a hundred million to play with. If I skim a bit off everything I could seriously boost my might."

"Perception is a particular priority at the moment," I said wryly. "Though I know you use that one more often than not. Still, I'm sure you can spare something. Anything at all would be useful. I need all the help I can get."

"I'm sure you'll be netting some Perception," he pointed out. "I mean, you're currently off on a tracking mission that everyone in the WCP knows about. I'd be expecting a big bump."

I blinked at him, but realized he was probably right. Of course, I'd probably also be netting a ton of Focus, but I wasn't exactly displeased with the idea that I might be able to balance my Perception a bit. Though now that I recognized that, I realized my next flame would probably need to be Focus based to balance out the Perception.

Following him inside, I started pulling out my scrolls. I was JUST about to have him start wishing, however, when a loud, rapid knocking sounded at the door. Frowning, I walked over and pulled it open to find Bethy, Crell, Fade, and Alanna.

Bethy waved excitedly. "Hey boss!" she chirped. "We doing wish stuff? I wanna!"

Abel groaned behind me. "Sure, everyone come on in. Might as well make it a party, anyone bring any booze?"

"Um, only DUH!" Bethy squealed as she burst into the room, two huge bottles of wine appearing in her clenched fists. "Now you're speaking my language Abner! Come on, lets all get hammered and wish to be fuzzy mammals!"

"We JUST took the wine from you," Crell frowned as he pried the bottles from her fingers. "We can't afford to get drunk in this place. Don't you feel how creepy it is? We're here to help Shane, because he won't be able to focus on balancing his stats right if he only has one person to work with. Am I wrong?"

I shrugged. "I mean, not really, that's a fair assessment. Even distributing things evenly wouldn't be enough, I'd be worried about unbalancing Abel's build."

"Exactly," he nodded sagely. "So instead you unbalance ALL of our builds. Just…y'know. Less."

Sighing, I gestured to the nearby table, where I started laying out the scrolls. They dug into the pile, getting started right away, and I waited for the influx of stats before I allowed myself to FINALLY relax and process the weeks of pent up power.

Wishmaster status. A-rank. Ability: Mythic Wish- Eleven times a day grant a Mythic 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.

Mythic Path of the Demonbinder- The Domain of a Great King.

Might-99,654,183()

Impact-285

Fantasy-46,472,182

Vitality-57,118,871 ()

Focus-84,434,651

Perception-75,501,420

Creation-47,829,243 ()

Progress to next rank: 411,010,835 /1,000,000,000

Soul strength- Mercury Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 36/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 9/9, Third Layer (Ruin Phoenix) 9/9, Fourth Layer (Arcadian Phoenix) 9/9

Chronicle: Myriad Demons Manual (pages bound:100- 4 Zagan, 1 Leviathan, 1 Beelzebub, 9 Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art, 3 Limbo, 3 Overlay, 9 Mephistopheles, 1 Song of Arcadia, 1 Cosmic Waltz, 7 Life Nova, 9 Angelic Bond, 1 Wisdom of Solomon, 12 Dantalion, 2 Sammael, 1 Cosmic Collapse, 1 Cooking, 1 Double Trouble, 13 Doom Sovereign, 9 Azazel, Song of Arcadia 12)

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

Domain size: 108 miles

Soul supported stat number: 25,000

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Pillar of Goetia

The influx of strength was, frankly, kind of staggering. Not really in relation to the amount of power I HAD, but relative to what I EXPECTED. I'd netted more than a hundred and fifty million points. That was substantial, even for the Wishmaster. Granted, six or so mil of that was from the scrolls, but the fact that it was such a substantial boost was still kind of absurd.

When I mentioned the total to Abel (because I needed to tell SOMEONE), he just rolled his eyes.

"You're on a vengeance quest to save your pregnant wife who got kidnapped by a long dead goddess, AND you recently hit A-rank. At twenty one. I don't think you understand quite how absurd all that recursion is getting at this point, Shane. A-rank is a BIG deal. I asked around. It took Aiden a decade, even after becoming the wishmaster. Your growth, your accomplishments, your travels…it's a potent mixture. Bringing the void gods to the table, even if not all of them, bringing Elonwy to teach people how to possibly become gods, you've done a LOT. For the WCP and this universe as a whole. People notice."

I blinked. I hadn't really looked at it like that. I mean, I knew hitting A-rank so young was impressive, but it wasn't like it was just me. Abel was A-rank now, as were Bethy…and it occurred to me that I had just listed the two most freakish geniuses I had ever met as my measuring stick for what was normal progression. Maybe he had a point.

"Well…at the very least I got some much needed relief from that Focus imbalance," I groaned. I hadn't QUITE equalized them, but it was a lot closer now. I'd poured all those scroll points into Perception to help, and it had clearly done the trick, at least combined with whatever income I got from rumors of this mission. I wondered how much of those rumors my own people had started, and how much was just the normal leaky faucet of the rumor mill. I honestly didn't care if it got me strong enough to save Callie, and I was pretty close to halfway through A-rank now, which definitely didn't suck.

Unfortunately, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. I'd been way too busy for my proper training, which meant I hadn't even started in my fifth layer of nine phoenix. I had the flame on hand, but I was just so swamped I didn't have to do the work. At the very least, I knew Nine Phoenix himself was working with Gaze of Certitude to form the template, and that was assuming it wasn't already done.

But still, I felt good. Strong. I knew the extra power would help me on my journey back to Callie and the kids. I just needed to actually get GOING on that journey. I turned to Crell and the others. "We get any feedback from the Ralkyne yet? I assume my parents are with them now?"

"Last I checked," he nodded. "As for feedback, nothing yet. They claim they can't rush the responses. They sent out feelers, and now we just need to wait for access to the gates. The three he can get us access to, at least. The fourth…well, Stanley said he set up that introduction, it's up to you when to accept the invitation that came with it. He said you'll be expected to attend a formal dinner."

I frowned at that. "By myself?" I asked suspiciously. That sounded like an ambush waiting to happen.

"You can bring a plus one," he said with a headshake.

"Oh! I want to go! I'm your master of challenge, right?" Bethy bounced in place excitedly. "I want to go and show off at the party and let everyone so my sick dance moves. I learned this really fun one from Benny where you move your arms like a cyborg."

I snorted. "That's why you're NOT going," I cut her off. "This isn't a game. It's a serious meeting with political ramifications. Plus there's a ninety percent chance your dad would follow you, and if someone made a rude comment, drown the whole place in a sea of blood. Since we need them to presumably LIVE to help us, I think bringing someone more political would be useful."

Crell winced. "It's gonna be me, isn't it? I hate when it's me. Can it be someone else? Please? Anyone? You could bring that coatrack. It looks very stoic." He pointed across the room at a wooden coat stand.

I rolled my eyes. "Suck it up. You've been raking in the points as one of my cabinet. Time to pay up. I don't want to be there any more than you do, so watch my back, tell me if I'm about to offend someone, and don't let me drink poison." I paused. "Or eat poison. Help me avoid poison in general." Oddly, he didn't seem comforted by my comment. Strange.