Chapter 106: Chapter One Hundred Six

The next day found my team all up on the top floor of the hatchery meeting with Jessie. She'd taken the rest of the night off to spend time with Cassidy and eat and generally just relax a bit. The siege had been hard on everyone and it seemed like the right call to just relax a bit. I'd spent the evening with Callie, just talking, telling her how I was feeling about everything and then once I was fed up with babbling just sitting together and watching the stars, which were infinitely more visible out here than in the city.

Most of today had been spent relaxing too, at least for us, but Jessie had been working with the raven's and had all three of them out combing the forest to identify every nearby faction. As expected, Callie wanted to see what was going on nearby before any of us moved out, and Jessie was more than happy to check out the surroundings. I think she felt like she hadn't done enough during the siege, though personally my ribs and I were well aware of how vital she was to that whole battle. No one is more important to a team than the healer.

Regardless, she seemed thrilled when we all arrived, Cark tagging along with Callie and I and Grimmengap meeting us up there. She was nearly bouncing with excitement. "You're here! I've been watching the woods nearby and even close to us I found out so much! I don't know who everyone is but I think with Celine's sources and the research she's already done we can put some names to faces." She held out her fist for the elf girl to bump, which she did, though she seemed almost confused by the action.

Celine and Jessie had bonded over their mutual love of trees, and it was amusing to see my outgoing teammate engage with the taciturn elf. Though admittedly Celine had put a ton of work into this hunt, and she seemed energized now that we were getting ready to start putting in the work. She was still as stoic as ever, but her eyes burned with energy as she addressed us all. "While Agria may not be able to identify everyone involved my files on the notable participants this year are extensive. One of the first things a noble learns is cultivation of sources." She nodded to Jessie. "If you can describe the nearby participants I can do my best to fill everyone in."

Jessie gave a serious nod, her face smoothing out and her eyes glowing green as she slipped back into the drivers seat of one of the ravens. "Can do. Ok, first up the closest group is a set of three. All dressed in yellow and blue. A short bearded guy with green hair, a tall dark skinned guy with really heavy bracelets on, and a smaller girl with short red hair. I haven't seen most of their abilities, though the girl looks like she might have some kind of teleportation power. She's been spending must of her time in the branches of the trees nearby scoping out the area."

Celine blew out a breath. "One of the notable teams. The Wavestriders. The shorter man with the beard is Boreas, a wind ability user with a noted Might focus. He does powerful bursts and is a bruiser in head to head combat. The teller man is Raleigh. He can change the weight of things he touches. He uses those bracelets as blunt weapons, mostly by dropping them on people's heads. He also carries a hammer most of the time. The two of them are fairly high up the Might rankings, and are usually together."

She bit her lip, looking out into the treeline. "Astara is the last one. Teleportation with a notable lean toward Fantasy. She's extremely skilled at tracking and is one of the bigger threats in the hunt. If they're nearby we need to find out what's on their list. Agria, did they notice your raven? Can you keep them under surveillance and try to get a peek at what objects they're looking for?"

As expected, they hadn't. Jessie was cool as a cucumber during actual jobs, and she hadn't given away a thing. A fact she confirmed immediately. "Not at all. No one ever looks at normal sized birds, and the ravens have such good eyes I can stay well away from them. I'll have that one lurk around for a bit to see if they take the list out. In the meantime I can move onto the other two if you're ok to keep going?" Celine indicated that she was and the glow faded from Jessie's eyes before reigniting.

She had switched birds, and her brows furrowed at whatever she was seeing in this one. "The next closest guy is alone. He's really big and not wearing a mask, his hair is long and red and he's pale and covered in dark tattoos. Lot of chains on him. He's riding a motorcycle somehow, no clue how he got it out here...and he just drove it through a tree. Like literally through one. Like a ghost or something. Guessing that's his ability."

Celine winced. "That's Fisher. Real name as far as I can tell, he doesn't bother with costume's or codenames. His style is closer to Mr. Cark's. He's...very dangerous. His ability is intangibility as far as I can tell, also Fantasy geared. He's got a fearsome reputation on campus already, and is one of the highest ranked on the Fantasy leaderboards among the freshman. He's another one we want to avoid if at all possible."

Callie nodded. "I've heard of him actually. You're going to want to hang back a bit Jessie. He's on the Perception rankings too, I saw him when I was doing my test. You still have one more raven out right? Hopefully the last one won't be aimed at anyone who will give us trouble. They can't all be terrifying competition." She sounded like she was joking, but I could tell from the stress in her tone that she was really hoping the final raven was a dud.

Jessie shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. I don't know who is who. But the last raven I have out is following a pair of small guys in cloaks. They're quiet and careful, and I keep losing them, but they don't seem overly threatening in any direct way." She looked at Celine. "No real identifying features. Are they any people you can think of that fit that description? I realize that you don't have much to go on."

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It was honestly a relief when Celine responded. "No. Nothing just based on that. Keep an eye on them if possible, the fact that you've lost them at least once isn't reassuring. I would suggest rerouting the raven following Fisher to search for other targets. He's likely to notice it and I doubt he's going to expose his list anytime soon." She looked to Callie. "Assuming that works for you, I realize you're the one in charge of this operation. I don't mean to step on any toes."

My girlfriend was pretty much the opposite of petty however. "Not at all. I agree. I know how scary his Perception is and that raven could be looking for other possible threats. You heard her Agria, peel off and do a sweep for any more incoming hunters." Jessie gave a salute and cycled back to another raven, obviously peeling off the specified bird. Callie turned to the rest of us. "So, with all that in mind we need to figure out what our next move is. I have a decent idea of where we should go from here but I'm open to suggestions."

Cark looked out over the clearing from the opening in the hatchery. "Hard call. Depends on the overlap from the lists. If it's a common thing we need to leave people here to play guard for the stuff we've already gathered. We have two items down and if those are things others will need we can't leave them unattended. If it's uncommon than the two we have are unlikely to be on anyone else's list, much less the people nearby, and we can play offense. Celine, do you know how much the lists coincide?"

The elf girl sighed. "No. They purposefully kept the lists from everyone. It's one of the aspects of the hunt that they conceal to make it more difficult, a second layer of security in case anyone finds out where the location is ahead of time. Your point is well made though. I know there is at least some overlap, because they mention that as a warning, but I'm not sure exactly how much of our list will appear on the others. Thinking about it though given the sheer number of participants and the scarcity of Ascendant materials I would guess even if the overlap is small we'll have quite a few people after us."

That was less than ideal. Clearly Callie thought so too. "I hadn't considered that. But it fits with what I was thinking. We need a small team that can track and hunt out there. G rankers with combat potential who have mobility and the skills needed to find and identify materials. Some of them will need more and we can call in backup, but initially I think Solomon and I should head out as a scouting party. That work for you?" She raised an eyebrow at me inquiringly.

It did work. It sounded like a great way to spend my time actually. But it wasn't something I could do just yet. It was a new day, which meant I had new wishes. "I'm in, but I have something to do first. Tony, you free for a quick chat buddy? Wanted to go over that thing we talked about yesterday." I tried to be as vague about it as possible, but I saw his face light up as he got what I was talking about, and Callie obviously understood too.

She gave me an encouraging smile. "Sounds good. I'll wait outside and we can get going as soon as you guys finish your talk." She gave me a smile before heading downstairs, and I gestured to Tony who followed me outside. Jessie in the meantime went back to filling in Celine about all the details of what was nearby, presumably to make sure we had a decent idea of where everything was for her next report, but it distracted the elf and her team enough that I knew they wouldn't overhear my upcoming talk with Tony. I still brought him downstairs and then outside though, just in case.

We made it outside and he turned to me. "Ok. Is it time? You said it was going to be soon but I didn't think it would be this soon. You can really fix her? I just need to wish for it?" He looked so excited I was surprised he could stand still and I just chuckled. He noticed and took a few calming breaths. "Sorry. This is just a big deal. So all I have to do is say the words? I wish my sister was free of any Heartripper influence? Does that work?"