Chapter 163: Chapter One Hundred Sixty Four

We were all pretty shocked by E district, and while we did have plans  to check in with the Flame Riot Militia's main branch on Callus, we  took our time traveling through, gazing wonderingly at the world around  us. The misty, dreamlike atmosphere of the place made it seem almost  like an illusion, though a few uses of Seek Hidden on nearby things  didn't show any difference between what I saw and what the skill  perceived. Of course, that was assuming it was an illusion I could  actually break, which wasn't a certainty, but by every observable metric  I could find, this place seemed to be real.

Well, maybe  not REAL exactly. I suspected the creation of a place like this required  extremely large amounts of Fantasy. I made a mental note to ask Zeke  about this place. I'd normally have asked Callie, given her penchant for  picking up useful bits of information, but I had a feeling a place like  this didn't normally belong on an E ranked planet like this one. In the  coming days Callie and I would both need to start doing some research  to try to keep up with things like this. I put an arm around her. "Well  now. This is new. I don't think either of us have heard of something  like this."

She chuckled at that, nodding. "Yeah. In fact,  lately I've been feeling more and more out of my depth." She grimaced.  "It's been pretty frustrating how quickly we've outpaced my area of  expertise. I feel like I spent my entire life studying for a test and  when I passed it they just moved on to a new subject right after. I  think it's going to get even worse as we keep going. I'm just going to  be more and more useless." Her voice was mostly even, but I detected an  undercurrent of real hurt and worry in it, and I stopped, tugging her to  a halt as I turned her to face me.

Cark and Benny kept  walking after a brief pause, clearly knowing this was a private moment.  With their Perception eavesdropping would be simple, but I didn't really  care if they heard, and appreciated even the semblance of privacy. I  reached down to tilt Callie's head up so she had to look me in the eye. I  wanted to make sure she could see exactly how serious I was about what I  had to say.

I stared into those shocking blue depths and  spoke slowly. "Hey. You are not an almanac. You're not a text book. I  don't need you with me because you teach me bits of trivia about being a  cultivator. I need you because you care about me. I need you because  you know me. I need you because you're by my side, ready to fight  whenever things go bad. I love you. Not because you're a useful tour  guide, but because you're strong, and intelligent, and sweet, and yes  admittedly the fact that you're drop dead gorgeous doesn't hurt either."

I  gave her a rougish grin, and her shocked face softened with affection,  her blue eyes shining even brighter as I spoke, but I wasn't done. I let  my grin slide off my face, my expression becoming earnest. "You are one  of the people I care about most in the world. In ANY world. I need you  to stay with me, to know that I'd be lost without you. I don't know  anything about this world either, but that isn't a problem, it's an  opportunity." I reached down and took her hands. "We're partners Callie.  In this together. And we can learn all about this amazing universe we  live in together. I think it's more fun that way."

She  burst into giggles, and I gave her an affronted look. She covered her  mouth, trying to get her giggles under control before she stood up on  her toes to kiss me softly. "I'm not laughing at you sweetie. It's  just...you can be such a dork sometimes. In a sweet way. I don't think  anyone less sincere than you could get away with saying something that  cheesy and not sound like a total sap." She looked me up and down with a  mischievous grin. " Though, admittedly, the fact that you're drop dead  gorgeous doesn't hurt either."

I sulked a bit, but she  leaned up to kiss me again, putting her hands on my face and forcing it  down to hers, giving me the same earnest expression I'd given her. "Hey.  I didn't say I didn't like it. You can be a bit weird sometimes, but I  like weird. I love you too, and I'd be happy to go on any adventure with  you." Her face split in a grin. "Besides, I have to take care of my  guy. You might be getting better, but you still do crazy reckless  nonsense because it's fun. One of us needs to be the voice of reason  instead of an adrenaline hungry lunatic."

That did get a  laugh from me. "Sure, provided we don't go near any treasure. I suspect  you might be part dragon based on how giddy you get over loot." I put my  hands on her shoulders, spinning her around before putting my arm back  across them, resuming our walk so we could catch up with the others.  "Anyway, I'm always happy to have you pull me back from doing something  stupid. You go ahead and be the voice of reason, and I can be the voice  of fun."

She snuggled into my side. "It's true, you are  usually a blast to be around. I can say with complete honestly I haven't  been bored for a moment since we met. That's probably what drew me to  you. Thanks though. I... don't think I really noticed how much it  bothered me that I wasn't useful anymore. I see Jessie taming a pack of  wolves and Benny making crazy buildings that spawn secret watcher birds  and I feel more and more out of my depth. It's nice to know I'm not just  a staircase that makes kickass battle plans."

I shrugged  nochalantly. "More of an escalator really." She rolled her eyes at that,  but I focused on her last statement. "Speaking of kickass battle plans,  or even non battle plans, do we HAVE one of those for this meeting?  Because I feel like busting into the Flame Riot Militia and screaming  'hey, are you guys the ones helping a baby wishmaster conquer the  world?' probably won't yield any good results." I grimaced. "I hate  problems I can't punch. Damned F rankers. I really hope someday I can  punch up ranks."

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While I wasn't comfortable with the idea  of violence being my first resort in every situation, these guys were  pretty violent themselves, so I didn't mind a bit of asskicking if I'd  been capable of it. Sadly I wasn't which made me a bit worried we  wouldn't be able to safely visit them. When I brought that up though,  Callie shook her head. "That at least isn't an issue. Anyone who gets  down here has some sort of clout of pull. Us being in E district without  any obvious supporters that people know about will just make them  wonder who is pulling our strings, which will make them cautious."

That  at least was good news. Granted I wasn't planning on pushing things any  further than Callie wanted to. I wouldn't start any fights with anyone  though, and it sounded like that would be enough. Still though, that  didn't solve the biggest issue. "So how do we approach them to find out  more? The Flame Riot Militia are probably the ones behind it right? I  doubt they're open to sharing their plans with random outsiders." I  couldn't see how visiting them was going to do any good for us.

My  girlfriend just shot me a sneaky grin. "Which is why won't ask THEM.  We're going to the Flame Riot Militia to map out their political  situation down here. We pretend to be potential recruits and pump them  for information about their rivals and local enemies. Then we ask THOSE  people more about what the Militia might be up to. Any big organization  will have exponentially more spying capabilities than we would. That  also has the added benefit of tipping off their rivals about their  movements if they don't know them already."

My eyes  widened. "And THAT will give us a better idea of how each of the  factions operates. If we need to back someone it would be a good idea to  find somebody ideologically opposed to the way they do things so we  don't have to worry about them turning on us. Plus we can scope out  their responses and see which ones are too brutal or not active enough  in their responses. We would need to do that research anyway, so why not  let them do it for us." I shot her an admiring glance. "That really IS  genius."

She rolled her eyes at me. "You don't need to  sound so surprised. I can come up with all kinds of plans. Unlike SOME  people my expertise isn't limited to hitting people with sticks really  hard." She poked me in the ribs, just hard enough to feel a gentle tap  through my armor. It was my turn to roll my eyes, but I didn't argue  with her, because it was above my dignity, and definitely not because  she had a point. I leaned down and kissed the top of her head as she  snickered, snuggling closer to me.

The  annoyed voice that interrupted us, turned my amusement into a scowl as  Benny complained. "Can you two not be sickening in public please? I wish  you'd just gotten it over with and gotten together back in Velan, all  this honeymoon shine would have worn off by now. I never needed to know  what my best friend sounds like when he giggles." He gave Cark a long  suffering expression.

My  own face twisted into an offended gape. "I DO NOT giggle. Ever. I  snicker, I chortle, I chuckle, I even occasionally guffaw, but I have  never giggled in my life." As soon as I said it I knew I'd made a  mistake. I'd reacted far too dramatically to his jab. I winced  internally as I tried to think of some way to make it seem like that  comment hadn't bothered me. Sadly it was far too late.

Fortunately  Callie was here, and she had no interest in seeing us devolve into  juvenile bickering, so she cleared her throat. "I think this particular  argument isn't necessary, and we should focus on the coming task." Her  lips twitched with amusement, so I could tell she actually kind of  enjoyed the verbal sparring, but she didn't want to deal with it once it  really got going. Still, she turned to Cark. "I have a feeling you're  going to be our ticket into this place Tony. You game for this?"

The  big bounty hunter, who had been watching us all with amusement, let the  laughter slide from his face. "It's not a problem. I see your point  too. No organization called the Flame Riot Militia would turn down a  high G ranked pyro. Their boss has very similar powers to mine. I  honestly doubt there are many of them with fire based abilities, we're  fairly rare. I can get them talking, trust me. No one shows off more  than gang members that are trying to recruit you."

He  sounded like he spoke from experience, but I didn't bring it up. If he  wanted to talk about it he would. For the moment there wasn't much time  for chatting anyway, because we had officially arrived. We stopped in  front of one of the temple buildings, the area above the columns coated  with intricate shapes of dancing flames and weapons. We all stopped,  staring up at the open entrance before Callie gave a nod of confirmation  and we headed inside. I was curious what the Flame Riot Militia was  really all about. I guessed we would find out.

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