The trip back to the inn I was staying at was surprisingly long. Not necessarily because of actual time spent, but because the bickering between Bell and Chester had gone from charming to unbearable fairly quickly. I'd retreated into my Focus as best as I could, but I needed SOME Perception active so I didn't trip and roll down a hill or something. I didn't want to trip and break my neck…at first.

When we finally arrived, I had them pay for their own rooms and went up to mine. I had barely gotten through the door when the shadows across my bed rose up into a familiar form, cackling her heart out.

"Your FACE!" Crowed my wife. "I couldn't even see it, but I could HEAR your expression when she bullied you into being her master."

I glared at her as she dissolved in near sobs of laughter. "It's not THAT funny." I grumped. "You could try being a bit more sympathetic you know. She's going to massively complicate this entire-"

"Suicide mission?" She said, her laughter cutting off. "Shane. Darling. Light of my life. I get that you're trying to be all serious and focused here, but you're overdoing it."

I snorted. "I'm not trying to-" I cut off, thinking over my new 'persona'. She…might be right. I might have picked this personality because it was hyperfocused on my goals. "Well, so what. This is a serious job. I can't afford to screw around. Lives are on the line."

"Lives are ALWAYS on the line." She retorted. "That's the world we live in. Black Sorrow isn't the first god to consider killing you. We live with danger every day, and if you don't take CARE of yourself, you're going to burn out and get murdered making a stupid mistake that could have been avoided. You're a charismatic and energetic leader, babe, but this dark avenger bullshit isn't you."

Which was fair. I'd never wanted it to be. This had been supposed to be a role I was playing, a way to separate myself from who I normally was…but that was the rub, wasn't it. I had taken it too far. I missed my friends, missed my wife, missed my family, and I'd decided to HIDE in Mephistopheles.

I considered what Abel had told me so long ago. About how he just had to be true to himself and screw the rest of the world. Zeke had told me something similar about rolling with the punches.

Wearing a mask was fine, but letting it wear me was going to get me killed.

"How the hell could you tell from all the way across the galaxy?" I asked her sheepishly, removing my ACTUAL mask. "I didn't even realize it was happening and I'm right here. You're making me look bad."

She sniffed loftily. "I'm your wife. I know you better than anyone. But I had some clues. For one, I did something similar when we first came to Rajak. Trying to be perfect all the time and never taking a minute to process. Not the same situation, granted, but you need to stop hiding behind this new persona."

"You think taking an apprentice will help?" I asked incredulously.

"I can feel your emotions, darling." She laughed. "It already has. She reminds you of Jessie. Benny may be your best friend, and I may be your wife, but Jessie was always the person who believed in you most out of all of us. Having someone like that around is good for you. You're not built to be alone."

Sighing, I conceded the point. I could do solitude, like I'd discovered in the temple, but…why would I want to. Just being able to endure something didn't make it positive. I had the strength to be an island, did that mean I should be?

Obviously not. I might not be pure support like most of my family, but I worked better with a team.

"So I should trust them?" I said with a frown. "Because that seems reckless."

She rolled her eyes. "Contrary to your experience, most people's alliance options aren't 'nothing' and 'friend you would trust with your life'. Trust, but verify. I know you've been with close friends since pretty much day one, but sometimes you need to work with people you don't implicitly trust with your life."

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"You're enjoying this, aren't you." I sulked. "Getting to play the wise mentor again."

She smirked at me. "Comment on my 'wisdom' much more and you aren't going to touch me for the next decade. But yes, I have to admit, this is…kind of cool. You needed so much help when we started, and then before I knew it you caught up even surpassed me a few times. I miss you needing my advice."

"I'll always need your advice." I smiled softly. "I'm hopeless without you."

"You'd better not be." She laughed. "You're alone on a hostile alien planet doing a series of trials to serve a dark goddess."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm trying to be romantic. Must you ruin all my moments?"

"Considering you'd better only be having moments with me, I think I must." She giggled. "If I find out you're having moments I'm not ruining I'm going to be pretty upset. But I miss you too. Training isn't the same without you. Waking up alone makes everything seem so much emptier." Her shadowy hand took mine and squeezed, and I returned the gesture. I knew just what she meant.

"Speaking of training." I said, changing the subject forcefully. "How is yours? Any new techniques since we talked last?" We communicated at least once a day, but we hadn't talked about training in a little while.

She lit up (which was a weird phrase to describe a concrete shadow being). "Oh, I HAVE been working on something. I can tell you about it, since sharing the story will help reinforce it. I'm calling it…the Anti-Nova." I'd never been more in love with her than when she paused to announce the name of her technique with so much gravitas.

"Interesting." I said slowly. "Show your work."

"Well, supernovas are the explosions from a collapsing star. An Anti-Nova is what happens when an Anti-Star explodes. I'd been working on the Abyss thing with your mom and grandma, and I realized that just because I have an inverted image and theme, doesn't mean i can't use their star based techniques. Not just the shape, like you do, but also the form."

I hummed in interest, flopping down on the bed next to her shadowy form. "So you made like a dark star. How does that work?"

"It burns in an inverted universe." She proclaimed seriously. "The dark fire burns with the cold chill of the abyss, and when the dark star goes supernova, that chill expands, consuming the universe in concentrated heat-death. It's solid entropy, the flames from the end of creation, and one day, it will take us all."

Snorting, I grinned at her macabre enthusiasm. "A bit melodramatic, but still interesting. I wish I could use it. Sadly we both know it doesn't work that way, so I'll have to wait until I see you again."

We'd realized early on after our rank up, that while Callie could use my forms, and even the techniques from those forms, I couldn't do the same. Basically, because my Path was a part of me through my second ability, it was within reach of the bond as a Skill. Callie's illusory Path was still separate from her soul, having not gone through the same condensing that mine had when it had become Solid and then part of my ability.

She snickered. "Poor you. I tried using that new technique of yours and almost blew my chest apart. How the hell do you stand it?"

"Mornax, mostly." I admitted. "It's enough to help my body hold up under the enhancement. Also your Might is a lot higher than mine, so there's a higher requirement for durability. You can do two at a time, right? Try using Mephistopheles and Mornax together."

She shook her head. "Two is hard and I can barely hold it, much less do a technique. I can use your forms, but they're not really mine. That combo I used on the Wendigo was the best I've got for the moment. Maybe when the bond hits Master."

"Which might be years at this rate." I seethed. "It's impossible to progress it when we barely see each other. I mean, we use it all the time, but I don't feel like it's getting any stronger."

Her shadowy hand reached up to lay on my cheek. "Peace, love. I know its hard to be so far apart, especially just after our wedding, but we have thousands of years together, or more. A little patience will help put things in perspective. We're already growing faster than anyone has a right to expect."

"But is it enough?" I asked with a sigh. "The candidate competition is coming in less than a year. Do you know how SCREWED we are if we're not strong enough? There will be actual A and B-rankers."

She shook her head. "Not really." She corrected. "I mean, some probably, but only a few. Don't forget, you're not the only one who was expecting this to go on longer. They moved it up because of the war, but that means everyone else is losing just as much time. Your mom says most of the strongest are C-rank, with a FEW B-s as outliers. Not to mention this is a faction building competition. You have some serious power players on your team. Especially if you get this done and your mom can actively support you."

That was one thing that made me feel a bit better. I did have some built in support from my mom's side of the family. Grandpa and grandma would help (not directly obviously, I wasn't even sure we COULD bring an S-ranker to the inheritance competition) but they had access to quite a few A-rankers at the church, which would bridge the gap between me and some of the more powerful candidates.

Hearing that there wouldn't be a bunch of A-rank wishmaster candidates running around helped too. I probably should have discussed this with mom, but I hadn't exactly been flush with time before leaving.

"Tell her I said I love her." I told my wife. "Chelsea too. I miss them. It's weird, I spent so much of my life without them, but having them around for just a short time they became such a big part of my world. I guess that's family for you. Anyway, you'd better go. I need to try to get some sleep before Echelon wakes me up dramatically in the middle of the night."

She giggled at my sulky tone, then leaned up and gave me a soft kiss. "Sweet dreams." She said as she leaned against me and dissolved. I sent the same sentiment back over the bond and rolled out of bed, dragging off my giant set of plate armor. I put my mask back on before i went to sleep though, just so my face was covered.

I woke in the middle of the night to a rapping on my door. Groaning, I got up, stretched, and took the time to re-armor before I walked to the door and pulled it open.

"You are requested." Said Echelon in that raspy creepy voice. He dissolved into feathers again, and I rolled my eyes, walking down the hall and banging on Bella's door, and then on Chester's. If they wanted to be part of this they could wake their happy asses up just like I had to.

They looked fuzzy, but excited as I led them downstairs where Echelon waited. Their first exposure to the creepy bastard seemed every bit as tense and portentous as mine had been, but I'd kind of gotten used to him. "Alright." I said after a minute. "Can you hurry this up? I want to go back to sleep." Callie had been right. No more doom and gloom personality to hide behind. I was Mephistopheles in name only. Shane Wyndham was back, and he was going to kick the asses of everyone in the selection.