After the movies (we made Callie watch the first two after we watched the third) I was feeling a lot better. I was itching to do…something, training, combat, whatever. But I was told in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t allowed to do anything but grant my wishes for the day. Which I did, reinforcing various aspects of the defenses in exchange for another D-rank chit from Celine.

Once I finished, I decided to drop in and check on my mother-in-law. I found her in one of the less horrific rooms, spending time with Cass as Cark and Alex played bodyguard.

“That’s a pretty good one.” She beamed at Cass as the girl finished folding a small paper frog. “You’re good with your hands. My daughter could never get the frogs. She got really good at making cranes though. Want to see a secret about the frog? Watch this.”

She folded a piece of paper into a small froggy shape, then put it on the table, and after a second it popped up into the air before tumbling back down.

Cass gaped. “What? How did you do that? Did you use an ability? Is your power controlling paper stuff?”

Amelia giggled. “Nope. No powers involved. It’s just a special way of folding the paper. There’s an easier one where you push on it to make it jump, but I think this is more impressive.” She paused. “Actually I do have a Skill for Origami now, but it’s only a Minor Skill.”

“That’s pretty impressive.” Cass admitted. “Can you teach me how to fold that one? I think a paper folding Skill sounds neat. I bet you could make a cool power with it.”

Laughing, Amelia shook her head. “I don’t know about that. Paper folding doesn’t seem to useful.”

“But you can make a cool power out of ANYTHING. Like Shane. His power is based on a dumb video game.” I was behind her, so she hadn’t noticed me coming in. She let her voice drop to a whisper. “I tried playing it and it’s really boring. I think Butterfly Crashers is way more fun.”

Amelia glanced at me over the girl’s shoulder, trying and failing to suppress a smile. “I think Shane is more the exception than the rule. Though I guess maybe you could try to make a Skill out of playing Butterfly Crashers, once you get your ability.”

She didn’t mention the possibility of Cass not being Ascendant, because there really wasn’t one. Cark would wish for her to get a power if she didn’t have one. Honestly, part of me was curious about how strong an ability I could give someone, given the scaling effectiveness my power had on mortals. Especially after D-rank.

There had to be some limits though. Like I knew that no matter how strong I got, it was impossible for someone to wish for the wish ability.

It was interesting, because understanding skill construction better, I knew WHY that was the case. Aside from the basic fact that people assumed the wish ability was hard to get and so it was, asking wish to emulate and emulation Skill like wish was pretty much putting the Skill into a redundancy loop.

Shaking that off, I walked around the table, dropping into a seat where Cass could see me. “Butterfly Crashers is way too easy. Doom Sovereign has more complex gameplay. BC is for babies.” I made a sound so she’d know I was sticking out my tongue at her, and her eyes narrowed.

“Your game is stupid and boring. Games should be fun. Claiming I’m too dumb to get it just means the person who made it is bad at making it…what’s the word? The one that means people can use it easy?”

“Accessible.” Said Cark with a grin. “And she has a point. They way overcomplicated the barter system. I could never get into DS.”

I snorted. “A dislike of subtlety from the guy whose power is ‘kill it with fire?’ I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you.” I put on a snooty tone, but I was watching Cass, and was glad to see her looking engaged and a little outraged instead of being scared or worried. Probably the reason for the folding party to begin with. “Now, how about one of you shows me how to do this folding thing. I want to get better than Callie so I can tease her about it.”

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Amelia laughed. “Yeah, that would probably annoy her. I learned this from my mother. I tried to teach her as a girl, but she never had the patience for it. She got to the crane and then stopped.” She winked at Cass. “I’m glad I have someone else to teach. Maybe I can pass it on to the baby after she’s born.”

“You guys already know it’s a girl?” I asked, intrigued. I knew nothing about babies or how to find out info about them.

She shrugged. “I know. Technically we can’t be sure yet, but I can feel it. Not from scan heals, just my sixth sense as a mom.” She glanced at Alex. “My idiot is terrified I’m right. He wants a boy because he thinks it’ll be easier.”

Callie’s uncle rolled his eyes. “I am not an idiot, and as someone who WAS a young boy, of course I think raising one would be easier.”

“What if you have twins?” I asked innocently. “Like…those run in families right? You’re a twin. Plus Ascendants have a much higher chance of having twin children right? Hell, I’M a twin, though it’s easy to forget it sometimes.”

That was something I’d noticed in my time as an Ascendant. Because of the prevalence of twin stories and tropes, twin births were WAY more common among Ascendants than among mortals, at least statistically speaking. Obviously given there were considerably more mortals than Ascendants to begin with it ended up evening out, but still, something about recursion seemed to make multiple kids more likely.

Amelia glared at me. “We hadn’t considered that. Thanks for bringing it up.” Her tone made her lack of actual gratitude clear. “Anyway, I was just getting to know Cassidy. She’s a very charming young lady.”

“She’s alright.” I said blandly, shooting a quick look at Cass who was now fuming. “Little short though.”

She stood up, pointing at me in outrage. “I am perfectly sized for my age! You’re just a giant! I bet when I’m your age I’ll be even taller than you!” Amelia had to try again not to laugh at the little girl’s attitude, and I was right there with her.

“Maybe so.” I said solemnly. “But you’ll need to make sure to eat right and do your exercises, otherwise you’ll just stop growing. What are you, two feet tall?”

She literally stomped her foot in fury. “I’m four foot three! That’s exactly average for a girl my age! It’s not my fault all of you are giants! I’ll definitely be the tallest! You just watch, I’ll be way taller than Callie!”

Cark rolled his eyes, laughing at his sister. “Ok, it’s fine. We know you’re not that short. Shane is just messing with you.”

I shrugged. “You take shots at my favorite game and I’m gonna get revenge.”

Glaring at me, she slumped back into her chair. “You’re just being dumb. If you want to prove your game is better why don’t you beat me at folding paper. I bet I can totally learn to fold the jumpy frog before you can!”

That was extremely unlikely, given my stats, but I wasn’t a monster. I wasn’t going to bully a ten year old with my superpowers. “Oh yeah? Why don’t you prove it.” I swept my cape back over my chair and grabbed a piece of paper. “Amelia-” I caught a stern look and flushed. “I mean…mom. Why don’t you teach us.”

She beamed at me. “I would love to.” Grabbing a sheet of paper, she started slowly going through the steps, teaching us the exact folding patterns.

Cass ran into a bit of trouble, and she seemed frustrated, but she was a quick learner. I, meanwhile, purposefully hung back on the folding so I was making a bit less progress than she was. It was enough to push her to improve but not enough to make her feel rushed or hurt her confidence.

After about ten minutes, she finished, whooping with excitement as her frog jumped off the table. “Yes!” She shouted triumphantly. “In your FACE Shane! I totally won!”

I clutched my chest dramatically. “You got me! Curse you Cass! Looks like there’s a new paper folding champ in town. Why don’t you go show this to Abel. He and the others just got back and I bet they’d love to see you.”

Callie had let me know our team was returning just a minute ago. They vanished from her sight once they entered the necropolis, but she’d seen that they were uninjured. Cark nodded to me as he followed her out.

“That was nice of you.” Amelia chuckled. “Letting her beat you like that.”

I laughed. “She’s TEN. I wasn’t going to be the asshole that crushes her dreams. How has she been? Since the wedding I mean.”

“Not bad.” She said sadly. “She’s putting on a brave face, but even under that she’s mostly dealing with things.” She smiled softly. “She’s a strong girl. It’s like looking at Callie when she was younger. I forgot how nice it was having them around at that age.” She put a hand on her stomach. “Only ten years til I get another one.”

“What if it was sooner?” I asked bluntly. “Cark works with Zeke, and he’s pretty strong, but he’s not…he doesn’t come with us on most jobs, and we end up leaving Cass on the ship through all the dangerous stuff. Plus after this mess Callie will want you to have some protection.”

She looked shocked. “I mean…Cark isn’t really young enough to need parents. But Cassidy…if she was interested in that I would love to have her live with us. The compound gets a little lonely most days, if I’m being honest.”

“Not my call, in the end.” I cautioned her. “But as team leader, I DO decide if they come with us. I won’t kick them out, but I could mention it to them. If you want.”

I had no idea where our journey would take us next. In a year or so we’d have the candidate selection, but until then…we needed to expand our forces more. Make some new allies and friends. How we’d do that was anybody’s guess. I could almost guarantee it would be dangerous though, and no way would the Necromedes be on hand to play chauffeur.

She nodded slowly. “I’ll think about it.” She shot a smile at Alex. “My idiot would need to sign off on it too.”

Despite the nickname, he gave her a smile almost as silly, and I couldn’t help but grin myself at their obvious happiness. Standing up, I moved over to her and gave her a hug. “Well, I came to check in. Callie and I were worried. If you need anything reach out, I can make it happen, until then, you two enjoy some well deserved down time.”

Squeezing me back, she laughed. “I’m glad to hear she’s doing alright. I know she wasn’t happy that I yelled at her. But I still think she made the right choice.”

“She knows.” I reassured her. “And she doesn’t hold it against you.” And with that, I headed out. I needed to check in with the team who had just come back too. I wanted to know the details of how everything had gone before I sent out tomorrows rescue.

I had to shake things up. We were already falling into a holding pattern and if I let our moves get predictable my friends would pay the price. So I would get started on my research now. Tomorrow's attack would be as unpredictable as I could make it.