Chapter 164: Chapter One Hundred Sixty Five

When we stepped into the Flame Riot Militia headquarters I expected  to be noticed. I figured people would show up and try to rope us in, or  there would be someone conveniently having a hushed conversation we  could overhear. There was, obviously, nothing like that. I did my best  not to let on what I'd been thinking when we'd showed up because I was  embarrassed. Being a cultivator made my life kind of a story at times,  the interplay of recursion causing some outlandish things to happen.  Being reminded that reality was still reality was a bit jarring.

I  suspected that happened less as you got more powerful and ended up  around larger concentrations of Ascendants though. The way some of the  cultivators acted made me suspect that this was partly what Zeke had  been talking about when he'd mentioned how cultivation could change us  for the worse. Reality warped in odd ways around Ascendants, and not  just the obvious ones.

With so many of us around, biases  and assumptions would slowly change things to a more dramatic and  fantastical bent, and even everyday things like this would be more  likely to end with coincidences and interesting developments. Things  like 'fortuitous encounters' (the unbelievably pretentious way I'd heard  some rich kid at the Academy refer to lucky shit happening) became more  commonplace because people heard more about them. The world of  cultivators was a strange place, and it got stranger the deeper you got.  We were all the heroes of our own story, like Zeke said.

In  that light I couldn't help but wonder how much of my own  accomplishments were even mine. I was a child of the Wyndham family, a  scion of the Wishmaster. Did that make me the recipient of more of that  implicit bias. Was people's subconscious assumptions about what someone  like me could do altering the course of my destiny? Did it even matter  if they were? All Ascendants dealt with recursion...maybe- I jumped.  Callie was standing in front of me, arms crossed and fingers raised as  she snapped them in front of my face.

She raised an  eyebrow at me. "Callus to Shane? Where's your head at babe? You  look...odd. Are you alright?" Her lips were twisted with worry for me,  and I forced myself to take a deep breath, exhaling slowly after holding  it in for a second. I did that three times, closing my eyes as I did,  before opening them with a reassuring smile. When she saw me relax she  looked relieved. "Ok, well you seem to be a bit calmer now. What exactly  was that?"

I just shrugged. "Nothing important. I had an  existential crisis related to cultivation. Some of what Zeke said the  other day shook me a bit, and I just made a few realizations about it as  it pertains to me. I'm fine though. Thank you Cal." I leaned down to  kiss her softly, and she melted into me, relief evident in her body  language. I pulled back from her lips but kept hold of her. Having her  here with me was nice. Life affirming I guess, or whatever you would  call it. But eventually I had to let go and step back.

She  seemed to realize when I did where we were and she flushed. She looked  around, seeing that we happily hadn't drawn much attention because no  one cared what we were doing. "I'm glad you're ok. As for the  rest...yeah. Honestly that whole thing shook me too. Like...what are we?  Are we still people? And if we are, when do we stop being people? Can  we prevent ourselves from losing that? Should we even try? The  ramifications of recursion get kind of terrifying when you think about  them."

She shivered lightly, and I put and arm over her  shoulder as I took my place next to her again. "You know whose problem  that sounds like? The future versions of us. They can figure it out.  Stop trying to sabotage my living in the moment, I work really hard at  it." I winked at her and she giggled a bit at my ridiculousness. Then I  kissed her again. "Can you live in the moment with me? Or do I have to  go figure out where your head is at and drag you back here myself?  Because I can do that." I poked her in the side like she'd done me,  earning an adorable squeak that caused her to look mortified as soon as  she made it.

She smacked my hand away with a playful  scowl. "Alright you giant goon, fine. I'll live in the moment with you.  Just stop poking me." Then she smiled sweetly and snuggled up against my  side. "Come on, lets go sign up for this place. Benny is hopping foot  to foot like a kid who needs to use that bathroom, and if we keep  ignoring him he's probably going to break down and cry." She shot a side  ways glance at my now appalled best friend, and I grinned at her.

Benny  had absolutely been about to start harassing us, though I thought it  was less wanting attention and more nervousness about us all not being  on our guard. His offended expression made even Cark burst out laughing  though, and we all headed for the counter deeper into the room where the  receptionist was waiting, leaving him stammering with offense behind  us. I looked solemnly down at Callie. "I think you broke him. Don't get  used to this. Making him shut up is a rare and wonderful thing, but it  isn't something that can be planned, only obtained by chance."

She  cracked up at my serious delivery. When we finally got to the counter  we were all in a much more relaxed mood, which I think was a good thing.  Infiltrating any place I could think of would go smoother without  having to deal with being all tense and suspicious. It's easier to stay  unnoticed when you aren't drawing attention to yourself by being super  twitchy and obvious about hiding something.

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As  we had crossed the room I had to take the time to marvel at the decor.  The walls were the same white marble as the rest of the building, but  something about the dimensions of the room changed the feel when you  looked at the material. From the outside, it was sacrosanct, like a  temple, and the white stone was pristine and gave a feeling  inviolability. Inside though, through some trick of the angles and  furnishing, that same marble made the place seem welcoming, homey  almost. Whoever the architect who designed this place was, he was  demonstrably fantastic at his job.

The  woman at the desk was also...interesting. She was about five foot six  or so, with close cropped black hair that was purple at the ends and  black lipstick. Her nose and eyebrow were pieced and she was actually  kind of cute in a girl next door way, though it was obvious she was  working very hard to avoid that impression. She was reading a magazine,  looking bored, when we made it to the counter, and we had to knock on  the countertop to get her attention. When she finally looked up, it was  with annoyance. "What?"

I wondered why they would put  someone with people skills like that on the counter, but that wasn't my  business or my problem, so I just mentally shrugged it off. Cark,  knowing this would mostly be up to him, stepped forward with an easy  smile. "Hi there. I'm here to sign up for the Flame Riot Militia? I know  you all usually do this in the other districts, but I thought I might  be able to skip the line if I came down here myself." He shot her a  wink, raising a hand to call a ball of blue flame into existence.

The  girl's bored expression melted into interest, though I couldn't tell if  it was the bounty hunter's flirting or his ability that caught her eye.  "Well then. That's a whole different issue. Pyro's are pretty rare. I  can definitely get you a meeting with someone." She leaned forward,  lowering her voice conspiratorially. "Most people probably couldn't, but  I'm kind of a big deal around here." She held out a hand to him, which  he took, kissing the back of her hand gallantly. "I'm Sage by the way."

He  gave her a dazzling smile, giving her his first name rather than his  usual moniker, which I kind of understood, and I made a mental note to  apologize to Benny for Callie and I flirting all the time. He was right,  sitting here through this was annoying. I cleared my throat and Sage  pulled her hand away, making sure to bump her scan ring against Cark's  as she pulled free of his loosely gripping hand. She turned to us, her  semi uncaring expression reasserting itself, though with a more polite  cast. "Oh, sorry about that. We don't usually recruit here like he said,  but really important people sometimes come down to sign up at this  branch. Being able to get down here is kind of a test, not to mention  being a pyro is a surefire way to get a meeting. If you guys take a seat  I can call this up."

We all nodded in relief, and I  wondered if Callie had know about people being able to sign up in the  branches here. I honestly hadn't even considered that they might not  accept applications down here, but now that I thought question it I felt  stupid for not wondering about that. Callie didn't seem worried or  surprised at all though, so I guessed she had looked into that already. I  was glad she was the one making the plans, because I clearly didn't  have a head for all this political shit.

While  Sage left to set everything up, we all sat down in some of the chairs  lining the walls. Made from rich, dark wood, the chairs lined each side  of the entry hall, sitting on either side of the wide, plush carpet that  led from the open double doors of the entryway to the desk we'd just  come from. The chairs were a polished dark wood with white cushions that  were surprisingly comfortable for how thin they were.

We  all sat comfortably, chatting as we waited, and the three of us teased  Cark a bit about the girl's obvious interest, but he just grinned  shamelessly and shrugged it off. I got the feeling he was used to it.  The rest of the time we just chatted about what we'd seen so far, trying  to avoid any sensitive topics. We were probably being watched, and none  of us needed Callie to mention that we shouldn't talk about our  business here where people might catch us.

Finally  though, Sage came back. She was escorting a small red haired man, with  warm brown eyes and an easy smile. He was a literal foot shorter than  me, but he wasn't making any effort at all to hide his Impact. Just from  his presence, it was obvious we were dealing with an E ranker, and I  only knew one of those in the Flame Riot Militia. He was considered the  strongest person in the gang and their undisputed leader. I saw the  others come to the same conclusion, and I wondered if he was planning to  do something to us. Had we been figured out somehow? Was the other  candidate here?

Burning  Fist, one of the hundred strongest people on the entire planet, grinned  down at us pleasantly, not a sign of violence of unhappiness in his  eyes as he completely ignored both Callie and I and focused on the  relaxed form of Cark. "Well now, my daughter said we had a blue flame  pyro on our doorstep looking to sign up. I haven't seen a new one of you in a dogs age." He stepped back, gesturing us all through a side door he had  just come out of. "Please, come in, and bring your friends." I felt  myself relax internally. Oh. He was just scouting Cark. Well damn, maybe  this plan would work after all.

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