We waited for a few more hours, and two of the remaining three teams showed up. One was the team with Christina in it, the blue fog wielding psycho I'd been warned was not to be taken lightly. She glared hatefully at us, but didn't attack, staying behind her apparent boss, a weaselly dark haired guy with a pencil mustache that Gabriel sneered at as soon as he saw him.

"Bad blood there?" I said casually as we watched the other team approach the team I was pretty sure was Alistairs. The cloaked man I suspected was my relative reached out a hand and greeted the mustache guy.

Gabriel, literally the most controlled person I'd met up to this point SPAT on the ground to one side. "Templeton."

Bethy hissed. "THAT'S Templeton? As in SIMON Templeton? The youngest current descendant of The Whispered Lie?" Her eyes narrowed. "I'd heard he was going to enter, but I didn't think he would make it in. His powers aren't suited for a tournament setting."

The Crusader sneered. "Templeton doesn't do his own dirty work. He probably had a dozen participants lined up waiting to pass him the entry slots."

"Ok." I said cheerily. "How about we pretend not everyone is part of your super special young masters and mistresses club and that I don't know who any of these people are. And then we can stop pretending because that's the exact case here and you can just tell me what the hell you're talking about."

Bethy giggled at that. "I knew there was a reason I liked you, Sol. Sorry. I'll explain." She gestured us closer, triggering a Stealth Skill so her voice wouldn't carry. I'd been developing a feel for that kind of thing. "The Whispered Lie is...well, he's a monster. A mind mage who brainwashed his entire planet into loyal servants. Templeton is a descendant, and he inherited the Lie's powers, but they aren't a clan. The Lie only has one son, and he only had one son, Templeton."

"What kind of mind mage?" I asked uneasily. Magic, I knew, was just Skills that were distilled from unusual abilities and taught. Mind magic would be the same, but mind control seriously skeeved me out. I didn't like the idea of telepaths or mind readers, even without adding free will diluting bullshit to that.

Gabriel interjected. "The Whispered Lie's power is complex. When he speaks, his words are...weighted. If he says something untrue and you believe it, he can then say something true and make you believe it's false. The more he talks the more the truth starts to bend. He can convince you of anything, and he uses his ability to deadly effect. Templeton does the same. It doesn't sound like mind control, but that's what it is when used the right way."

"Do we need to worry about him?" I asked. "And what about the other group, anyone know them?"

Craygen, who was in our little group and could therefore hear us, nodded. "Dralka. He's imperial. Nothing special or weird, just a scary ass fighter with a ridiculously powerful sword ability. Master candidate. Dralka isn't one to mess with. We're still missing one though."

I shrugged. "We'll need to ask around about them. But this is the end of the waiting period. We need to get this party started." Bethy nodded, letting the Stealth Skill drop, and I walked towards the center of the flat space we were occupying, where everyone could see me. "Excuse me." I called. "We're about ready to start. Anyone seen the last crew?"

Valsa, the girl at the easel, shook her head, her purple hair bouncing. "Ferak was the last but...he was closer than I was last I talked to him. He wouldn't have missed this either, not with your warning. I suspect he's dead. We can check after the conclave, but I move we begin proceedings."

"Seconded." Intoned Dralka, a huge bear of a man with thick black hair and bushy eyebrows. Apparently we were being super formal about this, good to know.

"The motion carries." I said smoothly. "We'll begin immediately. Allow me to introduce myself before we begin. My name is Shane Wyndham, from the Wish Curse Palace." I decided to use my real name because if I didn't no one would listen to me, and it wasn't like these people had any context for it anyway, so my identity wasn't a huge deal.

Alistair stepped up, pushing back the cloak to reveal a fine boned, skeletal man with green eyes much like my own. I could see echoes of my dad's features, around the eyes, but it was faint. Apparently we'd inherited some stuff from the Wishmaster in terms of looks, since this guy was supposed to be from a whole other branch. "Greetings." Said the man in a quiet voice. "I am Alistair Wyndham, my branch elder is Darius."

"Malachai." I said bluntly. "My grandfather." I was assuming branch elder was the person who founded his branch, the S-ranker who was allowed to start his family. His eyes narrowed a bit, but he was interrupted as Nat stepped forward. She nodded and I pointed to her. "My cousin Natalie, same branch."

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Alistair looked floored. "You're in an alliance? Well...that speaks well of you. It's uncommon someone so low in rank manages to make an ally in the family. You mentioned a threat, but weren't too specific, just that there was a problem with the Dew and powerful enemies. I mostly came because the Crusader and the Vampire were involved, but I'd be willing to hear your story."

Nodding, I looked around to make sure the others were listening, then began to fill them in. The temple, the fight, the information we'd gotten from the others, and all the suppositions we'd made based on the evidence we had. It didn't take too long to tell it, but I was still glad I waited and told them all at the same time.

The biggest reason for that was that with my Eye of Revelation active I was able to somewhat observe everyone's reactions. That might seem pointless, but there were several interesting things I noted during my recitation. Templeton, for instance, didn't look worried or afraid, he seemed to momentarily light up, then his gaze shot over to Gabriel. I was assuming Templeton was thinking that he might have the means to get rid of the Crusader.

Annalise looked tense and worried, and I was pretty sure she knew the team that had gone missing and agreed with Valsa about their probable death. Alistair looked wary, though even my eye didn't give me any clues as to why that might be. Once I was done, I waited for any response. Chad was the one who reacted first. "Well...shit." He said succinctly. "Show of hands, how many of you have ingested some of the Dew?"

I put my hand up, and so did more than half of the assembled ninety people. I sighed. "Well, seems like most if not all of our teams are stuck here. Anyone in contact with any of the others? Seems like the slides might have dropped us off at least somewhat in the proximity of our closest neighbors, considering we all seem to know each other. I can only assume the other teams are further away since they didn't respond to the message, any of us have means of contacting them?"

A few people nodded. "Alright, after the conclave I suggest any of us who might manage to do so contact one of the other teams. There are a thousand of us out here and that's a solid force to bring to bear. They've already gotten the same message you did, so they know the basics."

Annalise nodded, before intersecting. "I'd like to stay here. We can use this place as a sort of home base. Some of the more distant teams may have only come into sight range of the mountain recently, or might not have done so at all. If they make their way here I can relay what we've learned."

"Speaking of which." Drawled Templeton. "I believe we have quite an advantage here. Three Wishmaster Candidates in one place. With the proper wording and a decent mind for deduction, we could bypass even the infamous 'secrets' vulnerability of the Wishmaster. The right questions in the right places would give us information that might not be the most complete, but eighteen points of correlation is enough to find the shape of the issue, as it were."

His voice was...oily. I disliked him almost immediately, and his power made trusting anything he said suspect and incredibly uncomfortable. But he'd basically repeated what we'd already considered doing, and he had a point. Gabriel spoke up. "True. But I think I speak for all of us when I say YOU shall not be the one asking such questions. I'll thank you to remove yourself from any such information gathering."

Templeton shrugged. "So suspicious. I'm naturally the best fit for such a thing. My skill at sussing out information is legendary." It was...nervewracking, listening to the man talk. I kept trying to figure out if he was lying or telling the truth. If I believed a lie he'd be capable to making me disbelieve a truth later, and while that seemed innocuous, being able to tell someone something you KNOW they won't believe is as good as being able to tell them something you know they'll take as fact.

I was pretty sure he hadn't lied yet, but that might be the whole point. Annalise cleared her throat. "We of the fae are known for our gift for such matters. I take it no one has a problem with ME being the one to try to suss out the direction of this vanished goddess's plans?"

Most of the rest of us breathed a sigh of relief, shaking our heads. Alistair smiled at her. "Personally, I have no issue with Simon being the one to attempt to wrangle us some answers, but I'm always happy to work with the fae. Such fascinating people your lot are." Annalise raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed with the obvious flirting, and Alistair just turned his attention to us. "Well, how many wishes do the two of you have remaining?"

"Six." I said directly. "I haven't used mine yet today. Just woke up a few hours ago. Nat?" My cousin indicated she was full up too. "How about you? You have all of yours remaining today?"

He nodded. "Eighteen in truth then, Templeton is right, even with our...limitations, we can get some decent information. Not to mention we already have a decent idea of the shape of things. Whoever makes the wishes can simply confirm things we believe and then go from there. Yes or no questions are easier than just asking for information, not to mention we have so many chances."

Sighing, I agreed, and we all gathered around Annalises canopy bed. As we'd spoken, she'd gestured to her...hair maids? And they're started plaiting it into a ridiculously complicated braid that somehow shortened it by about twenty feet. Sitting up she poked her bare feet out, and one of her maids slipped a pair of dainty slippers on her feet as two others helped her down from her perch.

She gave us all a calculating look, then pulled out a small journal and a pen. "If we're to do this properly, we must learn as much as we can and extrapolate as much as possible from what we know. Please repeat everything the undead said. And you as well, Vampire. Then we will compare notes and decide what facts we can take as indisputable. When we verify those, we can then begin to deduce." I blinked, because that sounded pretty damned effective. Bethy shrugged at me from nearby when I looked at her, and then she began to tell her story. I had a feeling this would be a long day.