Returning to the bar was anticlimactic. We weren’t pressed for time, so we didn’t need to worry too much about safety, which meant we were mostly just sitting around trying to guess what the crates were full of for twenty minutes. We shut up as we arrived, bringing them into the bar and stacking them up next to Griff’s table.

He checked a watch (a surprisingly stately pocket watch with nice internal gearwork visible) then flipped Abel another coin. “Alright, you’re done for the night. Get out of here.”

“What…that’s it?” Said Abel incredulously. “You called us down here to run a one hour errand and then just send us on our way? Doesn’t seem like the best use of our time there, boss.” His smile was easy, but his eyes were hard and sharp. He wasn’t pleased.

Griff just smiled grimly. “I don’t really care how good a use of time it seems to you, Kyle. You just hit the nail on the head. I AM your boss, and I’m not going to explain myself to members of my own gang. You came down here because I wanted you to, and now you’re leaving for the same reason. I don’t pay you to think, Kyle. Remember that.”

And suddenly it became much clearer why we’d been picked for this. Or at least why HE thought he picked us. I imagined the wishes probably steered things our way, but the second reason was simple. He’d wanted to show us our place. Make it clear to Kyle the ambitious badass that Griff would use him but he’d better remember who was in charge.

I triggered Eye of Revelation, and sure enough I saw miniscule signs of concealed people in the room. Not sound or even visual cues, but shifted chairs, slightly out of place bottles. Griff wasn’t alone here, he just wanted it to look like he was.

Not wanting to draw attention and fuck up our dynamic, I mentally asked Callie to intervene, and she stepped up to grab his arm. “Kyle.” She said pleasantly. “I for one am glad to have a night off. And a paid one at that. Griff is being generous, and I say we don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“Listen to your sister Kyle.” Said Griff coldly. “This doesn’t need to be a problem. I trusted you to get a job done and it’s finished. Go enjoy your downtime. And leave your jammers on the table.”

To my shock, I saw something I didn’t think I’d seen since that first night when I watched Abel kill that guy who had been beating Alden. True anger. Fury even. Abel was enraged, and I could see he was seconds away from attacking. I felt his Path manifest, the weight of the lives he’d taken and the blood he’d shed weighing down on the bar for a second as a crazed gleam flickered in his eyes.

And then it was gone, and he was smiling cheerfully, dropping the bracelet he wore onto the wood. “Fair enough, I’m always glad for some time to relax. Come on sis, let’s go.” He turned and strolled toward the door not waiting for us to follow him, and we all filed out, depositing out jammers as we left. Before we even hit the street Callie had us under Stealth again.

“You ok man?” I asked Abel cautiously. “Haven’t seen you that pissed in a good long while. Why did that get to you so much anyway?”

My mentor’s face had lost its smile, eyes hard as he stared ahead of us. “I’m a weapon.” He said shortly. “I know that. I embrace it. But I’m MY weapon. I follow your lead because I trust you and because it was my own choice. But being used like that. Forced to do some menial nonsense just to ‘teach me my place?’ My place is standing over that fucking trashcan of a gang leader grinding my boot into his throat. That’s where my fucking place is.”

He was hissing his words and I heard the crackle of electricity from his gloves as his fists clenched. Mel was looking at him sadly, and it occurred to me that Cicero had used him in a very similar way, based on the stories I’d heard. He left to get away from that, but never actually stood up to his brother until years later.

I made a mental note that if we had to deal with Griff and company in a more permanent fashion, I’d leave the gang leader to Abel. He deserved at least that much.

We headed back for the inn, and it was nice enough out that we decided to walk. I’d snagged a minute sample of the ash in the box while we were on the bus. I didn’t touch it, but I’d found that Dust Construction applied to it so I’d made a marble of the stuff and stuck it in my ring. Maybe mom had someone on staff who could figure out what it was.

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I hadn’t been planning on taking any of the stuff, but one I realized Dust Construction worked I’d decided to take a chance. Between that and the wishes we’d made to minimize our traces I doubted they would notice, and if they did…well we were going to fall out with them eventually.

Zeke was waiting when we got back. He’d been following us, but from too far for us to see. “I missed most of that because of the jammers.” He said calmly. “Though I caught your teacher’s little tantrum. I have my own thoughts on that, but now isn’t the time. Fill me in on exactly what happened and leave nothing out.”

He sounded off, and I couldn’t figure out why until I took a minute to go over everything in my head. Zeke had been worried. He knew this was the best move, but he didn’t like me going, even with his protection.

I filled him in on everything, and by the time I was done he was frowning. “That’s…I mean, if your wish pushed you all toward that situation it has to be relevant. Unless it was just to get you in deeper with the Horned Lords. You said you took a sample?” He looked concerned, so I didn’t bother commenting, instead just pulling out the marble and passing it to him.

He took it, then held it up to an eye. He spent the next two minutes rolling, sniffing it, throwing it up and catching it, and a dozen other strange tests. After he finished he pulled out a trunk I’d seen before and popped it open, digging around inside of it.

Withdrawing several glass beakers, he poured in a bunch of solutions, measuring them out before scratching a bit of the marble into each. I raised an eyebrow and he shrugged. “The further you get into crafting the more crossover there is. I don’t do alchemy, but I do make solutions. Or did you think my masks paint themselves?”

Each of the beakers began to bubble. One by one they had different reactions, and he pulled out still more of them, pouring new vials and solutions, mixing some of them and making notes. By the time he was done, he had one last beaker, and he dropped the marble into it.

“What is it?” I asked as he stared at the final bubbling beaker, filled with coruscating red lightning after he’d dropped in the last of the substance.

He stared hard at it. “The non-gaseous, non-aqueous remnants of solid material post combustion.” He said firmly. I raised an eyebrow to see if he would elaborate, but I was surprised to find Chelsea glaring at him.

“We KNEW that!” She snapped. “Tell me you didn’t waste our entire sample confirming that it was ash.”

He shrugged. “Well not all of it. I have some suspended in this beaker. I’ll pass it along to an expert. I don’t actually know much about this stuff. I’m not an alchemist.” At my glare he winced. “Sorry, I was probably more confident in that situation than I should have been. There ARE some small bits of crossover in crafting disciplines, but I guess not as much as I’d have liked to think.”

“It’s fine.” I said, rolling my eyes. “I assume you put someone on the crates anyway, since following them to their distribution point is the next common sense move.”

Barking out a laugh, Zeke tapped his nose with a finger. “That’s my boy. See, you CAN be taught.” He frowned. “Speaking of being taught where is that good for nothing disciple of mine. I got distracted for a bit after ranking up, has he been slacking?”

I blinked at him. “You got…Zeke that was four months ago. You haven’t thought about Cark’s training for almost half a year?”

“Like I said, just distracted for a bit. I take it he and the kid are sitting things out?” He didn’t sound particularly unhappy about that, and I suspected it was what he’d have done in my situation.

Chelsea giggled. “Cassidy is staying with mom. She hasn’t had a kid around in ages, and she’s loving the chance to spoil the girl rotten.”

I hadn’t known that. In fact, i felt bad for not knowing that. Between wedding prep and whatever big mess we were currently ass deep in, I hadn’t even questioned where Cass and Cark were. How had I missed that? Callie felt my distress and took my hand, squeezing it with a reassuring smile.

“So…where do we go from here?” I asked the others. “I say we stick it out with the Horned Lords at least until the conclave starts. We already went through the trouble of getting ourselves embedded, so it would be stupid not to take advantage.”

Benny looked annoyed. “Oh sure, run off and play gangster while Cel, Jessie, and I are stuck here like prisoners. We would have liked to come along you know? You don’t have to leave us out of everything.”

“I left you out because Celine is a noble and too important to risk, Jessie is freakishly powerful for her level and has a really obvious power, and you’re not far enough into E-rank to be helpful.” I said bluntly. I saw him flinch, and part of me felt bad, but I respected Benny too much to sugar coat it.

He scowled at me. “I’m plenty strong. With all my multipliers I could keep up with anything you can. What do you have that I don’t? Hell, what does SHE have?” He pointed at Callie.

“Same answer in both cases.” I admitted. “A Path. We’re getting to the point where it’s a liability not to have at least an Illusionary Path, man. Hell, Callie’s almost halfway to D-rank. Until you can form a Path I can’t have you out with us. Not in a place like this, not out among elites and hardcore gang members. It’s too risky.”

He looked like I’d slapped him. Glancing around at the others, he didn’t see anyone to take his side, so he stood up, shoving his chair back, and then stalked off.

I glanced at Celine. “Talk to him?” I said with a sigh. “I don’t want to sideline him, but if he can’t form a Path he’s going to top out at D-rank. It’s not fair to expect it this early, but we don’t exactly live in a fair world.” She grimaced, but nodded, standing to follow him out.

“That goes for any of you without a Path.” I said, looking around at the others. “You’ve all got various bullshit cheats or incredible powers, but at the end of the day, if you can’t hit D-rank you can’t continue on with us.” I looked them each in the eye. “You’ll be sidelined more and more until we have to leave you behind.”

Not wanting to talk anymore, I stood up and strode out of the room, heading for bed. Today had been eye opening in a lot of ways, and I’d finally laid down an ultimatum I’d been trying not to think about since Perit died. I just hoped I hadn’t ruined my oldest friendship in the process.