The banquet was being held in a central location. Or rather, THE Central Location, since that was what the people of Tricorn called the building in the absolute middle of the three districts. It was a weird building. Specifically, it was more like three buildings smashed together into some weird chimeric vision. Despite being fairly standardized in the Church district, there was a lot of diversity in the architecture elsewhere, and it was somehow all reflected in that building.

“It looks like someone threw up an architecture catalog.” Said Benny bluntly as we all stared at the misshapen hall.

My mother chuckled. “Yes, it’s certainly hideous. Ascendant architecture tends to be focused on going big. That doesn’t always produce good results. This building is actually a perfect representation of Tricorn itself. A series of contradicting pieces smashed together in an unfortunate way, so at odds with each other they remain paralyzed in their worst form.”

I shrugged. “Not a shock, this place is a mess. Anyway, how are we doing this? I know which entrance but not the actual procedure.”

“Ah, right.” She said with a chuckle. “We never mentioned. It’s simple enough. You’ll be entering with Ezekial, Chelsea with me. The others need no introduction, and honestly they’re probably better off that way. We’ll meet up inside, but you’ll be introduced to the delegation from the WCP first.”

Grimacing, I stepped forward to hug my mother and sister. “Alright, meet you in there. You be safe, alright? Something weird is going on, and I can’t bring myself to believe stealing a few boxes of evil god dust derailed those plans.” My mom chuckled, squeezing me back, and my sister seemed pretty unworried.

“They’ll be fine.” Said a familiar voice, and I spun to see a seemingly normal blonde haired, blue eyed guy about my age, looking rumpled and bored in a hooded white sweater and a pair of long dark shorts. I raised an eyebrow at my grandfather’s outfit, and he shrugged. “I make it a habit not to dress up for formal occasions. If they’re annoyed at how I present myself they’ll stop asking me to go.”

My mother rolled her eyes. “You realize mom is going to tear you a new asshole if she catches wind of this? It drives her crazy when you act all flippant about protocol.”

“Well then they shouldn’t have sent me.” He said with a saccharine smile. “They should have sent Absolute or Daydream. I think Rainbow is the only one of us less formal than I am. But no, master had to try to be clever. Well, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

I raised an eyebrow at my mother. “Wow, he’s actually a lot like me.”

“No.” She said tiredly. “You’re a lot like him. It’s actually astonishing. You act much more like my father than yours. Maybe it’s some kind of bloodline remnant, or maybe it’s genetic. Who knows. In any case, with your grandfather around we should be fine. Though, obviously once you leave our presence don’t mention the relation. MY friendship with Ezekial will be reason enough for us to interact in there.”

Nodding, I gave her one last hug, then gave the old man a serious glare. “If anything happens to them, I don’t care if you’re the pope. I’ll spend the next hundred years getting myself strong enough and then I’ll kick your wrinkled old ass.”

“Please.” He snorted derisively. “Like I need you to tell me how to take care of my own kid. No one will touch them while I’m around. I might be the youngest of the popes, but I’m also probably the third strongest after Moonlight and Rainbow. You have no clue what a demigod is capable of.”

I don’t think I’d actually known gramps was a demigod, but it made sense. “Well, Morgan Lark is going to be in there. So I’ll be counting on you to fight it out with him if he has any bad intentions.”

“Don’t be rude.” Spoke up Bethy with a pout. “Daddy is a perfect gentleman. He never has bad intentions. He only starts a problem if people are disrespectful to him. Or annoying. Or their voices are high pitched. He doesn’t love the smell of fish. Melons, especially orange ones, tend to make him snappish, and he has an intense hatred of rattlesnakes.” She paused. “That’s all of it though. And most people know about those.”

My grandfather snorted. “That melon thing is new. I’m pretty sure he adds quirks just to amuse himself. He’s the only being I’ve ever seen weaponize recursion against himself purely for his own entertainment.”

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“He thinks it's funny.” She giggled. “Plus his willpower is immense. He can just shut down any impulses he doesn’t find useful at any time.”

The old man sighed. “There are…inherent dangers. It’s nothing you need to worry about kid. Watch out for my grandson will you? I like what I’ve seen of him so far, but he’s kind of dense sometimes.” He winked at Callie, who had been letting me have my goodbye. “You’ve got your work cut out for you. I wish you luck.”

“She can handle him.” My mother snickered. “She reminds me of mom. Speaking of which, we need to go, you know how pissed she’ll be if she finds out you’re late. She and grandpa will be watching.”

He sighed and nodded, and I blinked as they left. Grandpa…The Red Revenant was going to be watching the opening banquet live? That was intimidating.

I knew the gods would have an eye out, but to know that he’d be actively spying starting right away was kind of scary. And that my grandmother was watching too? The monstrous talent born with a mirror soul? That was a lot to take in.

Zeke clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I get where your head is at kid.” He said bluntly. “But don’t even think about it. Nothing you can do about who looks down from above, so just put it out of your head and let’s get going.”

That was a fair point. The gods could do anything they wanted. Spending my time worried that some distant deity was watching everything I did sounded like a good way to live in a state of constant anxiety. Taking a deep breath, I smiled as Callie stepped up beside me and wound her arm around mine. “You good?” She asked quietly.

“Yeah, just thinking too much.” I winked at her. “That’s my curse you know. How slow and methodical I am when doing things.”

She giggled, rolling her eyes at my obviously ironic statement. I tended to go with my gut most of the time. I didn’t have any regrets about how I handled most things, but I knew myself well enough to know that introspection aside, I tended to run on instinct. I wondered how much of that was recursion, how much of it was my fatewalker Path, and how much was a combination of the two.

With everything sorted out, we walked around to the slightly medieval looking portion of the building that reflected the Empire. We’d be entering through this side, since the WCP didn’t have their own presence on Tricorn.

When we reached the door, a pair of hulking men in dark suits of armor waved us through, and we were stopped at a large double door. The doors opened slowly, and a thin, regal looking guy with pointed ears showing he was an elf, took a deep breath and called. “Shane Wyndham, known as Solomon, son of Elijah Wyndham, ward of Janus, representative of the youngest generation of the Wish Curse Palace.”

I glanced up to see that Zeke was wearing a mask and robe I hadn’t seen him put on. He nodded to me, and we all followed him down the luxurious purple velvet to a small gathering where I recognized one person. Pret.

An older man, visibly in his later thirties, which meant he must be ANCIENT or had ranked up very slowly, locked cold green eyes on me. “Ah. Shane. I’ve heard so much about you. I appreciate you taking the time to meet with us this evening.” He held out a hand, and I realized that like my grandpa (it was kind of hard not to think of him as Nick given how approachable he was) this guy had no apparent Impact.

Whatever they were doing to hide it worked a lot better than just clamping down on a soul like I did. I took his hand, shaking it firmly. “Happy to help. We all need to do our part with this war coming, right?”

“Quite so.” He said with a smile that made me feel like he was humoring me. I remembered what Zeke had said, this guy was an ambitious dick who prioritized gains over everything. It was probably the reason Aidan sent him. He’d work the hardest to dig out the most benefits, and wishes were even more valuable during the lead up to a war. “So, I take it you’ll be representing our E-rank contingent?”

I nodded. “I will. Who is going to be representing us in the other ranks?”

“Well, first of course is Mr. Birchus for D-rank.” He said proudly. “Pretseltsen is my adopted son. He showed such immense talent as a child that I decided to take him in myself, and he hasn’t disappointed me so far.”

A tall, sallow man with sunken eyes and yellowing teeth grinned at me as he cut in. “And for C-rank my daughter will be our representative.” He gestured to his side where I saw…well she was hard to describe. Silvery hair, pale, large dark eyes, and legitimately the most motionless person I’d ever seen.

“Craygan.” Zeke sneered. “Aiden sent you to make sure his daddy doesn’t sell us all for a steak dinner I take it?”

Harrison stiffened, but didn’t say anything, which was weird. He was an S-ranker, so he shouldn’t be scared of Zeke, which meant either he was scared of my dad (unlikely, he was also A-rank) or my paternal grandfather. He didn’t seem like the type who would stay his tongue for any reason but fear.

Craygen, the pale guy, just chuckled. “I see you’ve finally joined us in A-rank. You certainly took your time.”

“The more stable and concrete your chronicle, the faster you advance in A-rank. Means less Authoring to do.” Zeke said serenely. “Don’t worry Cray, I can still kick your ass. Your daughter is C-rank already though? I have to admit that’s impressive.”

The girl dipped her head, a movement that made me jump out of sheer surprise given her stillness up until that point. “It is an honor to hear your praise.” She said in a voice flatter than a sheet of glass. “I am Felicity. I hope we can work well together.” Her cold, emotionless voice made me shudder a little.

Zeke’s eyes narrowed at the man. “I see you’re as good a father as you are a human being. Overcooked that one a little, didn’t you?”

“She still functions.” Said Craygen with a shrug. “My training just smoothed out some of the rough edges. Didn’t it darling?”

“Yes father.” She responded mechanically. “I have reached my optimal state. I hope to bring our family honor in the games. Victory for House Wyndham.” Despite her words being passionate and inspired, her voice remained flat and emotionless.

Zeke was glaring at the man like he wanted to rip him in half, and I was pretty sure I was missing something important. Sadly I didn’t have time to consider it because the herald at one of the other sets of doors boomed out an announcement.

“Nicholas Anders, Radiant Pope of the Red Revenant Church, his daughter Sasha, the Star Queen, and granddaughter, Lady Chelsea Anders.” It occurred to me that despite my sister and my grandfather using the Anders name, my mother didn’t.

I might have heard it once and forgotten about it, but by and large she just went by her first name. Just one more thing about my family to keep me up at night. When the announcement ended I joined Zeke in moving away from my relatives. We needed to get a read on the other attendees before the games. Time to mingle.