Chapter 10: Chapter Ten

Luckily I apparently slept through the worst of the exhaustion from my first round of enchanting. I woke up in bed lying on top of my covers. My shoes had been pulled off, showing Zeke had been here, and there was a plate of pancakes from the materializer and a glass of orange juice on the end table next to my bed. Next to them was a note from my Uncle, telling me I was an idiot and that I was supposed to space out my enchanting.

Apparently if I gave my first point of Impact time to partially recover losing the second was less awful. I personally was of the opinion that he could have just fucking told me that, but the note basically called me a moron for not exercising basic common sense. I glared at the piece of paper as I drank the juice and ate the cold pancakes before checking my scan ring to see if I had any messages.

Sure enough I had a text from Jessie, so I called her back, sadly noting the bags under her pretty green eyes when she answered. Despite her obvious tired state however she smiled happily when she saw me. "Shane! Glad to hear back from you. I was worried when I called earlier and you didn't pick up." The comment was light, but I noticed a fragile tension in her voice and winced internally. After what happened to her brother it made sense for her to be a bit panicky when she couldn't get in touch with a friend, especially so soon after.

I felt shitty for missing the call, but when I explained that I'd just been taking a nap she seemed to relax a little, even giggling at me for being so lazy. I wanted to tell her about my enchanting practice but it was too soon for me to have picked up the skill so it would have to wait. Still it was nice to hear from her. "So what earned me a call from the prettiest initiate in the Valen branch?"

She blushed a bit absently fussing with her short hair. "Oh stop." Her tone was pleased as she said it though. "Anyway I was calling to tell you we finally got the go ahead to visit the WCP. Apparently the guild master had to pull a bunch of strings to get us in. Cap says that she and the Deacon over there have a bit of history, so getting us access took a bit of back and forth. I'm all ready to go but I wanted to make sure you had a heads up. I actually just got back from getting my new costume and picking my name."

She smiled proudly as she announced that and I grinned. I knew how good that felt and I was really happy for her. "So, what did you end up settling on?" I wasn't sure what kind of costume she would go with honestly. Jessie was kind of a new friend, for all that she seemed to have gotten attached to me when her brother died. I wondered if she had no other friends or if the timing of our meeting just kind of pushed her toward me.

She sent me a picture over email, and said with a proud smile. "I chose Agria as my name! As for my costume I ended up with this!"I opened the picture and...admittedly stared a bit. Jessie's costume was incredibly flattering. She picked the leotard look like Nightstrike, but Jessie was extremely....gifted, physically. The low cut forest green leotard was made of what looked like actual leaves, and the green fishnets under it worked very well with her legs, which were actually pretty long for such a short girl. She had an emerald green cloak that billowed around her and a hood that cast her face mask in shadow.

I probably stared slightly longer than necessary. She smirked a bit but rolled her eyes. "Oh grow up. Yes, I have a nice body, no I don't mind drawing attention to that." I must have look surprised because she giggled at me. "Don't look so shocked, I know I come across like a bit of air head but I'm not completely oblivious. I'd have to be pretty dense to miss how much boys stare at me. I just don't care. I like my costume, I think it's pretty, besides Nightstrike says a bit of fanservice helps your rep spread." She winked at me.

I laughed wryly. "Sorry. I like it, it looks really good on you." It was my turn to wink. "It might be a bit distracting to me in the field at first but I'll get used to it." That got me an eye roll and another blush, and I decided to change the subject before this got awkward. "So you mentioned something about the guild master having a history with the local WCP Deacon? Did Cap give any details?"

Honestly that probably should have shocked me more than it did. Zeke had always been good with women, something about that whole rakish charm thing. Knowing that my sloppy drunk of an Uncle was an uber powerful Ascendant made it even more understandable, but still, I had to give him credit. Stella was gorgeous in that strict sexy librarian kind of way. I vaguely wondered if Ian could be my cousin, but I quickly decided it was unlikely. Zeke may be a fuck up but he wouldn't abandon his kid like that.

Jessie was clearly experienced at getting the dish on people though, and I saw her serious expression as she looked around, making sure no one could hear. She must still be at the guild. She leaned in a bit, keeping her voice low but not whispering. "Cap didn't talk about it but I asked around. Apparently when the guild master was still coming up, about fifteen years ago, she tried to make a name for herself by subjugating the local WCP branch. Just went down there personally and tried to put the fear of the Revenant in them. This was right after she hit F rank."

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My eyes widened. "Wait, what? The WCP is a universal force, you can't attack one of their branches. It's suicide. Even the Unity himself wouldn't have the guts to piss of the whole WCP." Plus I wasn't sure exactly how powerful Zeke was but he was definitely stronger than F rank. He'd made dealing with any of the E rankers on Callus sound like an annoying afterthought, there was no way an F ranker was a threat to him, even at that point.

Jessie shook her head. "I asked about that too. The main WCP branch has certain lines it doesn't let anyone cross, but as long as you don't kill anyone or damage property they let their Deacons handle themselves. And this one did. He walked into the branch headquarters and dropped her in the then guild master's office and told the old man to keep his rookies on a leash. Stella lost it and spent the next five years obsessed with beating him. She challenged him constantly and at some point things turned romantic. They broke up for some reason though and things have been tense ever since."

I stared at her in bewilderment. "How the actual fuck did you get that much information on the guild master's personal life in a single day? Does the guild have a water cooler I don't know about?" I'd never been great with people, and I couldn't imagine how she'd gathered that much info since this morning, especially given she had also gone and gotten her costume made and picked a name. I half suspected she had a Lesser Espionage skill she'd hidden on her scan or something.

Her giggle this time was a bit smug. "I know a bunch of people in the guild. I may not have grown up around here like Cap or Nightstrike but I grew up with some of the high H rankers and a few of the G rankers." Her face fell, the light leaving her eyes, and I immediately kicked myself for asking. "My brother would have friends over a lot, and most of them were capes. When he...lately, they've been coming by to pay their respects and check on me." She swallowed and took a deep breath, forcing her smile back on. "Anyway so yeah we're making our big trip tonight! Aren't you excited?"

I wasn't though admittedly I was interested to see some of the inner areas of the WCP. I technically had clearance for all of it, but I wasn't into window shopping. I didn't have the credits for any of the stuff in the more central areas so I hadn't ever bothered to go. I wished I could bring Benny, he'd had fun in the slum area but I knew he would be psyched to see the central WCP. Our trip last time had been cut short. I made a mental note to hang out with him soon. I would have the stats to get him an ability pretty soon at this rate. I'd have the Impact requirements sorted as soon as I hit G rank.

Jessie and I chatted for a bit longer after that. Just casual stuff with no real depth, but I could tell she appreciated it. She seemed twitchy under the fake cheeriness, almost scared, like she was worried about being alone. Giving her something else to focus on seemed to help, and she embraced any chance to distract herself from thinking about her recent loss. Eventually though, we ran out of things to talk about, and I decided to come down and visit before we left. She seemed excited but I told her I had to go get ready and she hurriedly said goodbye, clearly happy to have company coming.

As I hung up and got into costume I wondered if having me around helped because I hadn't known her brother. I was a new friend, someone who didn't have any associations with her memories, happy or sad, of her life before. Whatever the case she seemed really sweet and I would do my best to be there for her. I knew there wasn't much I could do to help other than just be around, so I would just have to do that as much as possible. I grabbed the tools from my desk and carried them into Zeke's workroom to drop them off.

When I did though, I saw something on the work bench. A black box with my name scrawled across it. I opened it up to find a carved wooden mask. Not painted or anything that would link it to the WCP but clearly good quality. I pulled it out and read the note underneath it. 'Idiot nephew, remembered you saying you needed a mask. Nothing fancy on this one but it'll fit perfectly and won't be too hot, plus it's pretty sturdy. Now you can stop stealing my in progress work. P.S. I like the name.'

I chuckled at the form of address and picked up the mask. It looked...ordinary. I examined the inside and noted a spiderweb of very tiny, delicately carved runes. A lot of them. This thing was enchanted somehow, though I had no idea how or with what. The runes carved into it were a lot more varied and complex than the original nine that Zeke had shown me, which made sense considering his enchanting level had to be pretty damn high.

Still, I trusted my Uncle, so I slipped the mask on without a second thought, despite not knowing what it did. Sure enough like he said it molded perfectly to my face, and I knew it wouldn't come off unless I took it off. I looked in the mirror and had to say I was impressed with how well it went with my costume. The wood he'd used was so dark it was basically black, and this one had eye holes and no paint job on top of not being porcelain so it didn't even look like his work. I looked imposing and pretty damn regal. I flipped up my hood and then headed out. I could look at myself in the mirror later, I had to go meet a friend.

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