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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Darnalian Autumn Honey Mead?” His eyes snapped to the box. “That’s…certainly interesting.”

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

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

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

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

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

I whirled on my sister. “You told!” I accused her. “You said you’d let me tell her.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Open hand dear.” My mom said kindly. “You’re less likely to break something.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Even if they don’t they can make them.” She sighed. “Upgrading planets is far from beyond their scope.”

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

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

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