Wish upon the Stars 515

"You ok?" Asked my girlfriend as she slipped into the room. My mom  had calmed down and left, not for good, she wanted to have dinner with  Chelsea and I before she headed back to the Holy Dominion. Callie was  invited, and anyone else I wanted to bring, so I'd agreed. I wasn't  going to see her for a while, and one meal wasn't going to kill me.

I  shrugged. "Not especially. But I will be. A lot to process. How much of  that did you get? Emotion wise? I didn't close the bond so I'm sure you  picked up something."

"Frustration. Anger. Grudging  understanding. More anger." She listed casually. "About what I expected.  Though less of it than I anticipated, so that's good. I figured I'd  come in and check on you. If you don't want to talk about it we can  always check in about the stat gains." At my blank look she giggled.  "You forgot we would be gaining a big chunk of stats after surviving  that mess didn't you. I mean, this was a huge incident. Not that many of  us came back."

I shrugged. "Fair. I guess I was  distracted. I'm surprised it didn't all hit anyway. Doesn't it usually  slam into you after the end of the incident?"

"Soul  strength." She said with a smile. "Lets us control our stats better, in  basically every way. We're going to need to relearn how to fight  basically, but it comes with some perks. Still, it'll hit us eventually.  With the extra soul power though, it shouldn't be nearly as painful,  even if it is a big bump."

That made sense actually. Part  of the reason for stat limits was soul weight. Yet another benefit of my  Azure Soul Body. Now that I was paying attention, I did feel a kind  of...buzz in the back of my head. I reminded me of stat gain, at least a  bit. The connection between the soul and stat gain was something I  really needed to look into. There was so much about it that I didn't  understand. Maybe souls shit was how the bigwigs delayed things like the  scavenger hunt. Though how would that even work?

Deciding  I officially needed to get to this, I gave her a worried grin.  "Alright. Well, I guess there's no use putting it off. At the very least  it should take my mind off things." Closing my eyes, I focused on the  buzz, a completely new sensation that my new and improved soul allowed  me to experience, and just kind of...let it in.

I could  feel how muted it had become compared to last time. Sure it was a  smaller percentage, but still, it was a BIG boost, and while it  certainly wasn't pleasant, it wasn't crazy either. The familiar purple  flames rolled across my vision as I took it in.

Wishmaster candidate status. F-rank.

Ability:  Intermediate Wish- Six times a day grant an Intermediate wish in return  for proper  compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the  candidate's own  efforts within a three day period with current  statistics.

Intermediate Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.

Might-1475

Impact-35

Fantasy-900

Vitality-720

Focus-1120

Perception-1204

Creation-554

Progress to next rank:6008/10000

Soul strength- Azure Soul Body

Stored:7  shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges, 0  fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 triple  strength density shifted attacks (ten in reserve). 10 spider leg  attacks (ten in reserve), 10 heal bursts (10 reserve), 3 gravity  attacks, 10 shadow clone (2 in reserve), 19 scan heals (I-rank ability  so Shane can hold more)

Pet- Wolf named Jin

Skills:Intermediate  Path of the Doom Sovereign, Minor Valtek Mastery, Lesser Cooking  Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam Mastery, Minor Piano  Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery,Beginner Paired  Dueling

DS Subskills.  Monk: Stone Limb, Moonlit Night, Consecration of Flame, Ripple Running,  State of Grace, Steam Arrow, Afterburner, Pit of Despair, Mountain  Stance.

Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death

Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rythym of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense

Goetia Staff Art: First form- Belial. Touch of Tears, Stone Limb, Consecration of Flames

Second Form- Mephistopheles. Consecration of Flame, Afterburner, Mercy Kill, Marked for     Death.

I  let out a long whistle at the bump. "I think I'm still riding the god  slayer wave, what little of it I caught. You'll probably be seeing a big  bump too. Five hundred Might, four hundred Fantasy, four hundred Focus,  and five hundred Perception. A big bump to mental stats for figuring  things out and a big bump to Might from my fights with Adrian and the  others. I wonder what the Fantasy is for? Maybe because of the weird  immaterial nature of the place?"

Callie shrugged. Who  knows with these things." She grinned at me, and I beamed back because  she was happy, and smiling, and not devastated, though I expected that  to hit when she had a chance to get her mind off all this. "Now, want to  see what I got?" She sounded like a kid unwrapping a present, and I  knew that this was almost as fun as loot for her. I laughed and nodded,  and she showed me her stats.

Calliope  Reynolds. Ability: F-rank Abyssal Infiltration- Enter the shadows and  emerge where you will within range, shape the darkness to your call,  moving it as if it were part of your body, and even extend your senses  through the shadows to spy on your enemies.

Might-2350

Impact-35

Vitality-342

Fantasy-1605

Focus-908

Perception-2375

Creation-485

Progress to next rank: 8100/1000

Soul strength- Green-50%

Pet-Wolf named Rellia

Skills:  Minor Tracking, Minor Dual Dagger Mastery, Beginner Stealth, Beginner  Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Intermediate  Shadow Manipulation Mastery. Beginner Paired Dueling.

Path of the Abyss-Illusory.

I  blinked at her in shock. "Sweet Revenant Cal, that's insane. Twenty  nine hundred points? I know you're still getting god slayer rep, but  that's crazy. You got over a thousand points of Might straight up. And  eight hundred Focus. Which to be fair, you really needed." I winked at  her. "I was getting tired of being the brains of the operation."

She  snorted, rolling her eyes. "Please don't joke about something so  horrifying. Imagine if it was true. You'd run us off a cliff or  something."

"You actually DID run us off a cliff." I  reminded her. "Granted, you made sure we had a hang glider, but still,  you definitely did it. But it's ok. You're just the muscle. You punch  what needs punching and leave the brain using to us intellectual types."  I winked at her, and I could feel her joy and comfort at the teasing,  getting back to our usual rapport. I felt the same way honestly.

The  lack of teethcracking pain was really nice. I'd expected to be down and  out for a while after the points dump, but honestly I kind of felt  energized. I turned to Callie, who looked slightly less well off. "You  doing ok?" I said, picking up some pain from the bond. "Your soul isn't  as sublimated as mine, and you got more points. I know it's been a  while, but are you still feeling any pain?"

Chuckling,  she laid a head on my shoulder. "Brag, brag, brag. Do you have to show  off so much? And no. I'm fine." Her face fell. "Well, I'm fine about  that. Shane-"

"Perit  was not your fault." I said, feeling her guilt surge again. "We've been  over this. You're helping me get stronger so we can help Nat wish her  back. Focus on that instead of on what happened. Unless you think  self-flaggellation is more important than fixing your mistakes?"

She  narrowed her eyes at me. "You know I don't. Ass. And don't think I  don't know you're making me angry on purpose to make me feel better."  Her smile was soft as she leaned up to give me a quick kiss. "And don't  think I don't appreciate it. But let's quit talking about my horrible  guilt. Instead let's talk about what to do next. Because...we're kind of  done here, right?"

That...was  a good point. What DID we do next? I had ideas, but nothing that seemed  like it would be rational or important. We needed points, and for the  first time since we started our journey we didn't really have a  destination. We were just floating in space. Both metaphorically and  literally.

"There's  a war coming." I said, after thinking for a bit. "I'd like to be in the  conclave, and we have an invite from what my mom said, but they  scheduled it a year out. I assume they'll be doing SOMETHING about  Hatescream before that, but nothing we can get involved in."

She  nodded slowly. "I agree with all that." She said slowly. "But it  doesn't really tell me much. Like I can feel that you have an idea, but  for once I'm not really following."

"Simple."  I said with a shrug. "We need to learn war. We've been in fights. In  raids. But we've never been in war. Not to mention we all grew massively  and could use some polishing. The Empire is full of noble houses and  cultivators fighting over land. I think we should head out there and  sign up with someone. Get some experience in the battlefield. Because  given Travis's personal experience with us, I'm betting once things  really kick off we're not going to have much choice but to be in the  thick of it."

Callie  bit her lip. "That's a pretty heavy direction to take." She said  finally. "I'm with you, because you're right, we need to get stronger,  but the others might not all be onboard. I assume you'll be asking  them?"

"Of  course." I said with a sigh. "I won't force anyone. Mel and Abel will be  onboard I'm sure. Probably Bethy if she's sticking with us. Nat will  want training and Valk follows her lead. Jessie...I actually think she  might be interesting in learning battlefield medicine, but I'll ask.  Benny will probably be in, if I know him he wants to put some of his  training to work. Our only real maybe is Celine."

My  girlfriend shook her head. "She'll go. She loves Benny. She won't let  him run off and get killed. Not given all the guilt she still feels  about betraying him. She might even be happy they have some training  they can finally do together. Can we just...join an army though? And how  does that work?"

"Not  sure." I said. "But I'm happy to look into it. We can talk to Vinnie  too. Maybe Zeke if we approach it right. Plus as mid to high F-rankers  we can actually get into high ranking planets now. It'll be a good place  to build up a reputation for the pavilion and recruit new allies. Maybe  we can start a mercenary company or something." The more I talked about  it the more excited I got.

She  laughed. "Let's get all our ducks in a row before we start on details.  Chances are good we'll be cannon fodder if we end up in the wrong spot. I  want to do some research before we decide where to go. Plus we have to  actually GET there. Though it's possible we could get Killian to give us  a ride. Speaking of hitching a ride, do you think your sister will come  with us?"

"Couldn't  say." I said with a shrug. "I hope she does. I'd love to get to know  her better. Mom made it sound like she usually gets locked up in the  Holy Dominion, but given what's going on the higher ups in all the  factions will be busy. If we're going somewhere out of the way she might  be able to come." Getting to know my twin sounded amazing, at least if  it was possible.

Callie  laughed at my clear enthusiasm for the idea. But given all the baggage,  she seemed like she just wanted to calm down and distract herself. I  saw an idea pop into her head. "Alright. Well I think I could use a  workout. How about you and I do some training and then head to bed." I  raised an eyebrow and she winked, flicking me in the forehead before  melting into the shadows. "Tag." Said her voice from everywhere and  nowhere at once. "You're it." I triggered Eye of Revelation. One  distraction coming up.