Since this was a semi-show of force, we weren't wearing gaudy formal wear, instead we got to wear our costumes, which was nice. I was more comfortable in my gear than in most outfits, and not just because of my badass coat. The sense of security from F-ranked armor was pretty nice. I was also glad we'd haggled to get a set of armor the next rank up, because it meant the gear wasn't already out of date.

We convened outside the building where Abel had been told the party was, and I had to admit, I was kind of impressed. Rather than a normal building with square floors on top of each other, this place seemed to have been made to resemble a stone whale. The thing was absolutely huge, and the open mouth was covered by a single pane of F-rank glass.

Even for Ascendants, a giant stone animal as a building was kind of novel, and I spent a minute just taking it in when we arrived. I was cut off by Callie, who stopped us all to give a warning. "Alright everyone, just remember, these are elite combatants. The contestants in the tournament were tough, but every one of these people WON their own tournament, or was brought along as backup by someone who did. Be careful out there."

I grinned at her cheekily. "Now, why do I feel like your warning is going to be more specific than most people would expect? I take it you found some way to be able to effectively use your spying abilities? I thought Zeke said it was too dangerous here?"

She returned my grin with a proud smirk. "Only that first day. There was some paperwork I needed to do that he mentioned to me after our nap. I filled it out on my scan ring and submitted it over the network. I was okay'd for spying up to a certain range. Apparently long term bans on powers like that is too much like coddling the juniors, you just aren't allowed to do it without restriction because while any sufficiently powerful Ascendant would sense it if they looked, there's an off chance you might accidentally hear important elder business before they notice you."

Which probably meant they had some kind of countermeasure to her power on a personal scale, and since they knew she was there they could work around it. It ALSO implied a substantially more cohesive leadership behind the place than I had suspected. I turned to Zeke, who was following us in a blank porcelain mask of his own design, presumably in case someone had caught his little show or was a candidate or empire brat who might know him. "Who is running this anyway? I don't think I ever asked."

He chuckled. "See, she's such a good influence on you. You didn't ask. But it's the Lakedeep clan. They're pretty powerful in the Unity's galaxy. The founder is a top executive in the Unity itself, Salara Lakedeep. I'm guessing your girl has heard of her. The higher up you go the more widely known an executive is. All of the Unity's S-rankers are pretty famous in this galaxy."

Callie's eyes were wide. "I...I do know her. Even in a backwater like Callus we've heard of the Kraken. Her summon is supposed to be able to pluck stars from the night sky and eat them. She's so in tune with it she can manifest its traits herself and use them at will."

Zeke nodded. "She's an S-ranker, so she can probably do both of those things, and she can definitely manifest traits. It's one of the more common high rank summoner ability variations. While abilities are highly customizable, there are some basic directions that usually have more benefit. With weapon masteries, manifestations are a common path to take, summoners usually make up for lack of individual combat potential by learning to harmonize with their summons. Not that a party trick like that is the end of the line for an S-ranker. She undoubtedly has much scarier powers than that."

I shuddered, thinking about how terrifying the fight between the B-rankers had been again. "So, the Lakedeep clan is running things and you got permission to use your ability from them." I said to Callie. "I take it you managed to find out the identities of some of the people we're meeting tonight?"

She grinned, pulling her focus back to the matter at hand. "Yup. Most of the others were talking about a few particularly scary standouts." Stopping her recitation she hurled herself forward, gripping me tightly as she squealed. "Oh I love my new power so much! I spent most of the day in the shadows whenever I had a spare moment. It took a bit to get used to filtering through so much input, but with my Focus I managed it just fine. I learned so much!"

I laughed, squeezing her back and grateful she was controlling her strength better. Though it might also just be the new Impact helping me out. "I'm glad to hear it, but that was all you. Most I did was help you get one extra Skill and focus your stats."

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Laughing, she pulled back. "Yeah, because those are such inconsequential aspects of how I got my ability. Not worth mentioning." She rolled her eyes at me, but her smile stayed wide and happy, just how I liked it. "Anyway, there are five people we need to watch out for, the Vampire being one of them. Her name is Bethany Lark. She's apparently the baby of the family, which isn't shocking considering how low rank she is. She's considered mostly stable and sane for a Vampire, though she's extremely touchy about her clothes. Has quite the reputation for it."

I winced. People with a reputation for one specific kind of behavior tended be heavily obsessive about that particular trait. It was actually something some people did on purpose, because weird and quirky people were more interesting, and it helped focus recursion in one direction. It also explained her draining those stat points out of Valk, presumably upset because he burned her dress.

That said, we could work with that, and I saw Callie notice how pretty easily, picking up my emotions over the bond and following them to their logical conclusion with a nod. "Yeah, I figure we can wish for a really nice dress she would like and offer it as a meeting gift. If having the idea first messes with your ability to do it we can just ask Nat, but I'm glad you were thinking the same thing."

Having my cousin around was damn useful, even if we couldn't engage in any wish looping after forming our alliance because of the family rules. She provided an easy source of wishes to work with even if she wasn't willing to be as creative with payment structures as I was. Sadly she charged points for points almost exclusively, so none us had really availed her of that service, but for utility wishes like this she was a perfect second option.

Callie waved me off. "We can think about it after, or just offer Bethany a wish and let her decide for herself, you still have three for today right?" I nodded. I'd traded three for my new staff and the six rings, one of which I'd slipped on immediately after filling it with all the odds and ends in the back we'd been using as a makeshift storage due to that magic box we found in the Necropolis.

"Good. Now, the other four standouts." She said, moving on. "One of them is a member of your family. Alistair Wyndham. His branch of the family is different as far as I know, so I doubt you're more than distantly related. I asked Nat but she doesn't know anything about him. Sadly most of the gossip about him is absurd nonsense about Wishmaster Candidates in general, about three quarters of which we know isn't true, so all I got was a name."

That was plenty though, it was good to know about the only other candidate around. I doubted I'd be lucky enough to meet two friendly ones in a row, and Nat was my literal blood cousin which I think had helped. Plus if he was from another branch he might not be as scared of dad, so I made a mental note to watch out for him.

"Flicker and Blink are twins. One of them creates clones and one of them teleports, and they seem to be able to share powers, which gets...obnoxious. They're higher level F-rankers with a Fantasy focus, which means their fate sense is pretty absurd." My girlfriend sounded a bit wary of those two, and I could see why, but hopefully like Zeke said we wouldn't need to fight every single person. We could make alliances and try to get help."

She sighed as she moved on. "The last one is a Crusader for the Red Revenant church. That's the fourth Job advancement in their warrior caste. Gabriel Brightlaw. He's more than halfway into the F-ranks, and he's supposed to be terrifying. He's a Master Candidate with the lance, and a summoner who can call up some kind of Celestial Charger he rides into battle. He's also an Adamant cultivator."

Zeke whistled. "That's...rough. Not a lot of those make it that far in a cluster this remote." At my confused head tilt he rolled his eyes. "You know, you should do SOME research. Your girlfriend is not a walking encyclopedia and neither am I. An Adamant cultivator is someone with a reputation for being unbeatable. Adamants become stronger, more skilled, and more...in tune with combat, the longer they last."

"So..." I said slowly. "Like Abel? Abel never loses."

"No." He said flatly. "Abel RARELY loses. Plus he's too quiet to be an Adamant. It takes a serious reputation for that kind of thing. You have to be in the spotlight from day one and win every fight with ease. I suspect Abel would find the idea of being an Adamant pretty boring. He doesn't need the help. And the idea of losing doesn't bother him." He shot a glance at my mentor, who nodded confidently.

I got his point, but it was worrying. "Can recursion make someone harder to beat? I know it kind of alters reality, but it doesn't actually MAKE him unbeatable, does it?"

Zeke shook his head. "Adamants can and do break all the time. They become functionally useless once it happens, which is why it's not a path people take often. Mostly that kind of thing gets purposefully derailed early on. The higher they go, the more precarious it is. They aren't invincible, though they are in kind of a zone all the time. Their recursion keeps them at peak form constantly, which combined with fast advancement because of their impressive skills makes them a pain in the ass to fight."

"The point is." Cut in Callie. "We don't want him to be an enemy. It might be worth telling him about your mother. The Star Queen is apparently a legend in the Church, and your grandfather being the Radiant Pope will earn you plenty of points too." She looked at me with a slightly jealous expression. "Having S-rankers for both grandfathers is pretty damned useful."

I laughed bitterly. "Yes, I particularly enjoyed the constant murder attempts because of my mother's side of the family. Nothing like having a Cult of bloodthirsty shadowy lunatics out for your blood to make you count your blessings." My voice was...perhaps a bit more edgy than I'd have liked, and combined with the bond, she actually flinched a bit. "Cal, I didn't mean-"

She held up both hands. "No. You're right. That was insensitive. Your family is a sore spot and bringing it up like that was shitty. You've had a lot of problems because of them. I should have remembered that." She leaned in for another hug, this one much gentler, and I felt the apology through the bond, no words needed between us. I squeezed her back so she knew I forgave her, but we were interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing.

"This is sweet, but can we maybe do it another time." Abel said mildly. "We have a party to get to. And I kind of want to fight this Adamant guy." We groaned aloud, and the rest of the trip inside was filled with the sound of Mel berating her boyfriend for being a battle maniac and an idiot. It really lightened the mood. It was pretty cool having such good friends, even if sometimes they were morons.