Wish upon the Stars

We didn't head back to the inn after the Titanblade emporium, as I'd  expected, and having money on me to spend I decided to just enjoy it. I  bought a giant bacon wrapped turkey leg from a street cart vendor, a  small plush doll from Cass's favorite cartoon that would dance if you  said its name and had a self repair function, and a hat with ears from  some weird animal called a kangaroo, that I was positive didn't exist on  Callus, but made Callie light up when I put it on.

None  of this put too big a dent in my funds, obviously, but it was nice to  just walk around and have fun. Doing dumb shit just to enjoy myself with  friends. Benny had conned me into paying for food for him and Celine as  well, which meant I had to pay for Callie, of course, but they got some  strange cloudlike candy made of spun sugar (Callie let me have a bite,  which for her was pretty much a declaration of undying love) and we just  walked around enjoying the variety of people.

There were  stores for everything I could imagine. I'd expected plenty of weapons  and armor shops, but there were magical foci, ingredients, inventions,  crafting of both the artistic and practical kind. Plus dozens of street  performers and interesting musical acts. "Why is this place  so...lively?" I asked Zeke as we walked.

He just shrugged,  biting into his own turkey leg. "Oh, that. It's mostly an excuse to  blow off steam. Dungeons can get pretty nuts, especially ones that are  closed up for a long time. The locals can be a big surprise, and it's  pretty hostile in there. This is a big excuse to party before getting  serious. Plus there are the smart ones winding through the crowd,  listening for information. I think your girl is doing that as we speak."

Glancing  over at Callie I saw her eyes were kind of blank, like she was  distracted. I took her arm to make sure she was ok and grinned at him.  "Guess so. It's still pretty neat though. Is the dungeon really going to  be that bad? I figured it would be like the scavenger hunt."

He  waggled his free hand, stopping for a second to suck turkey grease off  his fingers, then resuming the motion. "It is and isn't. One thing to  remember, no matter what, is that you aren't there to win. The hunt was a  competition, but this won't be. It might INVOLVE competition, and don't  shy away from that, but at the end of the day the Glade is huge.  There's more than enough resources for your limited timeframe. Don't get  sucked into petty power game bullshit. Work the mission. Ascendants  will turn anything into a pissing contest if you let them."

That  actually sounded pretty on brand for them. It was a surprise to me to  though, to hear Zeke advise me not to pay attention. He seemed to pick  up on that, because he just smiled. "Let me guess, you're wondering why I  didn't tell you to crush your enemies like bugs and cackle over their  corpses?"

At my slight nod, he just shook his head. "Do  you know what the most important trait an Ascendant can have is? For  progressing and getting stronger? Flexibility. Recursion is the change  killer. It'll turn you into a static parody of yourself if you let it.  Sticking with your legend is one thing, but you need to find the break  points, the parts of you that people don't talk about where your story  gives you flexibility. Losing your ability to adapt is nearly always a  death sentence."

"Why tell me this now?" I asked. "Why not  ages ago?" I mean, he'd kind of hinted at it, and Callie had circled  the point, but information this important should just be directly  stated.

He just shrugged. "Because you didn't need to  know. Callus may have seemed big, but it was a tiny corner of the sky.  The recursion from that level of renown wasn't likely to be enough to  warp your personality much. Now we're getting out into the wider world.  You'll be getting more attention, enough to actually get some points  despite your constant improvement with your wishes. It seemed important  you know what's what."

"So you're saying that I shouldn't  fight everyone." I said slowly. "Because people will expect me to? But  not directly, so it's like a loophole?"

That got me a wide  grin and a nod. "Exactly. And things like that will boost your renown  too when others hear about it. Having a reputation for being  unpredictable not only makes more people pay attention, it also grants  you more freedom within your recursion."

I nodded  thoughtfully, not feeling the need to respond. We walked for a while  longer, but stopped as I got a text. I read over it and blinked in  surprise. "Hey guys." I said, causing everyone to stop. "Nat and her  guards left a bit after us. I guess they've been walking around and were  hoping to meet up. Anyone down for dinner?"

Callie, of  course, snapped her head up at the word. "Food?" Benny and I both  started snickering and she just glared. "Shut up you idiots, I'm just  hungry." Her eyes narrowed at me, her tone becoming sickly sweet as she  asked. "Or are you implying I eat too much?"

Rolling my  eyes, I just snorted. "I FEED you most of what you eat. If I thought you  needed a change in diet I'd cook you something different. You can't  intimidate me with your cliche girlfriend terrorist tactics, woman."

She  looked pretty skeptical of that, which was probably fair, but I moved  on. "Anyway, there's a high end restaurant around here that serves  F-ranked steak." I grinned at her. "I believe I promised someone that I  would try to find a way for her to try dragon again after she traded the  memory. I bet a place like this would have it."

My  girlfriend literally squealed with joy and hurled herself into my arms,  and I was sure I'd have gotten a pretty enthusiastic kiss if I didn't  have my mask on. She squeezed me so hard I felt like my spine would  break, then just before that happened, let me go, grabbed my hand, and  started hauling me off in a random direction. She was so excited she  didn't notice she had no clue where she was going until a minute later,  and then asked where the place was.

I  followed the location ping my cousin had sent me (I didn't know if my  scan ring could do that, but if it couldn't I was sure as hell going to  get one that could) and we arrived at the steakhouse within a few  minutes. Apparently Mel, Jessie, and Abel had gotten the same text,  because they showed up just after we did, and my mentor gave Callie an  excited high five while Mel and I rolled our eyes at our gluttonous  significant others.

The  good mood lasted until we got inside and were seated at the table  Belloc's Steakhouse, and then it was derailed by all of us staring at  Valk, who looked...not great. "What the hell happened to YOU?" Said Abel  in apaled fascination. "You look like you fell out of a sickness tree  and hit every branch on the way down. I can kind of see your BONES under  all that sallow skin."

He  wheezed out a laugh. "It's temporary, I'm assured. I made the  incredibly mistake of picking a fight with a fucking Vampire. Drained  off literally twenty points of my damned Vitality. Perit pulled it off  me." He nodded gratefully to the tall blonde woman, who gave a placid  nod of her own.

Zeke's  head had snapped up when he heard that, however. "You...you met a  Vampire here?" We all turned to stare in shock at the tone of caution in  my uncle's voice. Zeke didn't worry about people. Definitely not  F-rankers. But after hearing about the Vampire he seemed...unsettled.  Not afraid, I wasn't even sure Zeke could feel that emotion anymore, but  he sounded unhappy all the same.

"Yes."  Said Valk firmly. "Trust me. You don't mistake that for anything else. I  felt like she was...TEARING out a piece of me. Like she ripped out part  of my soul. It's fading, and I'm healing as we speak, but the  sensation." He shuddered violently. "It was the most horrifying thing  I've ever experienced. The helplessness, the weakness. I'd rather die  than feel that again."

Zeke  nodded. "I got bit once. It's not something that fades with time. If  there's a Vampire here, you need to be careful. Do you remember what I  told you about vampires?"

Callie  nodded. "Yeah, you said they're stupidly rare. All from the same  family. I was surprised because vampire stories are common enough.  Seemed like there would be tons of them."

"There  used to be." He said emphatically. "Morgan Lark fucking ATE them. This  was centuries ago, back when he was still young. He started hunting down  all the Vampires his own rank he could find. He drained them all dry.  Some people think that's how his ability became what it is, that he  drained some sort of vampiric power from them one by one. Regardless, no  one takes Vampire racial traits anymore, and if you get one, you  fucking CHANGE it."

"Are  you scared of this guy?" I said in surprise. "Because he can't be that  much stronger than you are. And even if he is, he's not going to fuck  with the family just for fun right?"

Zeke's  eyes pinned me on the spot. "Morgan Lark is the strongest S-ranker in  the universe. He is widely considered to be the being closest to  godhood. He's so powerful he's literally fought the Unity in direct  combat and survived. This was AFTER the Unity attained his divinity. The  Vampire is a monster of the most terrifying kind, and anyone who ISN'T  afraid of him is either stupid or VERY insane."

He  let out a long breath, calming himself down. "That said, he's also a  hands off parent. He isn't likely to pick a fight with us over a little  dustup with one of his spawn. He doesn't have that many of them  relatively speaking, but he's old as dirt, so relatively speaking  doesn't mean much. He's in the triple digits. I'm guessing this one is a  baby. Don't kill it if you can help it, maybe make friends, but it  shouldn't be a problem either way."

I  tried to imagine what The Vampire would be like, someone who would  scare Zeke. Scare my dad. Scare the terrifying S-rank GRANDFATHER I  hadn't even met yet, and the image was not a nice one. I breathed a sigh  of relief as I saw Jessie plan a hand on Valk and start pumping life  energy into him. It seemed to help at least, and I was glad to see the  man filling back out from the living skeleton he'd been turned into.

Looking  around the steakhouse, I took in the intimate, design. Dark wood walls,  candle light, rich plush tablecloths. I nodded at my cousin's taste and  made a mental note to bring Callie back her along for a date. Speaking  of my girlfriend, the waited had finally made it out, and she was  thrilled to see that dragon steaks WERE on the menu, albeit dragon  variants that were probably easier to find.

She  ordered, and I smiled at her cheerfully as I removed my mask. I was at  dinner with my team, my family, I hardly needed it right now. Zeke was  here personally and besides, it wasn't like anyone could recognize me by  my face out here. She leaned up for that kiss from earlier, and didn't  pull away until Benny started loudly clearing his throat to be annoying,  and we were both grinning like loons as she did. Well, Vampires weren't  that scary anyway. I felt better now.