Chapter 2: Chapter Two

The trip to my Uncle's office wasn't long, but it seemed to take more time than I felt it should have because none of us spoke. I was trying to come to grips with the fact that my drunk Uncle was a Deacon of the WCP. Even out here in the boonies we knew what a Deacon was. Specifically the strongest person at a branch, and the leader of that particular Wish Curse Palace. I didn't know what rank you had to be to become a Deacon, mostly because I hadn't known much about ranks before becoming an Ascendant, but considering how powerful the WCP was I was betting it wasn't low.

I considered my text. No information. I was convinced he only sent it because he knew I would recognize the masks anyway. I'd been seeing those things in his workshop for years, painting them was basically all he did when he was home, which looking back wasn't nearly as often as he should've been. I'd always just figured he was out at a bar or something, but to know he'd been down here lording it over a small city full of super powered criminals was kind of crazy. Finally we came to a solid looking wooden door in a building much further into the city and the two goons in the masks stopped.

They gestured at the door, but when we went to walk inside they put an arm out and blocked Benny from going. The taller of the two spoke. "The Deacon only requested you. He stays." I opened my mouth to argue but was cut off. "He stays! Don't worry, he'll be safe out here with us and you can meet back up with him when you come out. The Deacon isn't someone you can see just because you feel like it. You have an invite, he doesn't." His voice was firm but not unkind, so I just nodded, looking uncertainly at Benny.

My best friend leaned against the wall and booted up his scan ring. "Don't worry so much man it's fine. Go on in. I'll just chill out here and catch up on my email, maybe play some tower defense games or something." He winked at me reassuringly and after a brief pause, I nodded and turned to open the door. I half expected them to get it for me, since the door was so nice I was reticent to even touch the thing, but the two goons just took up positions on either side of the entrance facing out, so I could only open it myself and head inside.

To my surprise, the space inside was familiar. Not in the sense that I'd been there before, but rather in the sense that it reminded me of somewhere I went often. It was like a much bigger and more lavish version of my Uncle's workshop. Plush dark red carpet with a workbench off to one side on a plastic mat that would catch wood shavings or drips of paint, with bench itself covered in hanging masks that had yet to dry or were finished and were just waiting to be used.
Off on the opposite corner was a large dark wooden desk, and behind it sat the familiar rumpled form of my Uncle.

Sitting on the desk in front of him was a single bone white mask, with no eyes or mouth, and the Wish Curse Palace logo painted across the front. When he saw me he gave a lazy nod and gestured for me to take the seat across from him. It was jarring seeing him in this setting. Zeke was not what anyone would consider a leader. He was a relatively good looking guy in his early thirties with a permanent five o'clock shadow, rumpled black hair, and bags under his blue eyes.

His clothes were pretty much constantly wrinkled and distressed, though never actually dirty, and he smelled almost constantly of whiskey and cheap pipe tobacco, despite me having literally never seen him smoke. When I sat down he gave me a pleasant smile. "Hey kid. Little late to the party, guess Eli was really dragging his ass on this one. Still, better late than never. I'm guessing you have a lot of shit to ask. Might as well get that out of the way." He gestured for me to ask my questions, but honestly I kind of froze. There were so many, but I knew the one I had to ask first.

I braced myself for the answer. "Is my Dad the Wishmaster?" Despite my own powers and the craziness that had ensued that was the thing that had always been on my mind, because it was just so...unbelievable. What were the chances of that? That my father would be an arch criminal who ruled over the entire universe (or at least a portion of it) and I'd never even noticed. Was I that dense? Even with me being a kid and never seeing him you would think I'd have picked up something. Some sign or hint.

Zeke grinned. "He said you would ask that first. Short answer is no. Long answer is also no, but he was a candidate like you are now. Elijah was one of the top contenders for the position, but his cousin Aiden was the one who ended up getting it. Aiden gets his ability from both sides, that happens sometimes, dual abilities, but it's stupidly rare. The current Wishmaster is considered kind of a monster even by the standards of the Palace. Most people think he's the strongest we've ever had."

I don't know exactly why but that dragged a sigh of relief out of me. Criminal I could handle, but I didn't think I could deal with having missed my own father being one of the Unlucky Thirteen. "So...the candidate thing, does this mean the WCP will provide me with anything I need? Like I know that black card doesn't make everything free or anything but does being in the...what? Line of succession? Give me a discount or anything?" If I could get that obfuscator for nothing I would be pretty psyched for it. Even more so if I could do the same with other things I needed.

Zeke just laughed. "That's always one of the first questions candidates ask. No. If we did that it wouldn't be a competition between candidates, it would be a competition between the branches. Being a candidate does give you access others at your level wouldn't have, but you still have to pay for everything. If you can't build your own reserves with a wish power you don't deserve to inherit the Palace. As both your Guardian and a Deacon I am entitled to intervene if your life is in danger, but only against threats more than two ranks above you, and only until you reach E rank or leave the planet."

I cursed. Yeah, that would have been too easy I supposed. But I had to ask. "What if I don't want to win? Like this whole thing is kind of presupposing that I have any desire to be the Wishmaster. What if I decide to just bow out now? Is there some sort of rule forcing me to participate? What if I lose?" Not that I was sure I wanted to quit. I'd had more fun in the last day or two than I remembered ever having had in my life. But I wasn't a fan of the idea that I was being railroaded into competing in this thing. Another thing occurred to me. "Also why aren't you competing?"

Zeke just shrugged. "If you lose you lose. I told you your old man was a strong contender, and he's fine. You can always quit if you like, there's no real downside to it if you don't want to take over the Palace, though I will say you'll lose your access level and working your way up the hard way will take ages. As for why I'm not competing? I'm not part of the Palace bloodline. Your dad and I were best friends growing up, sort of like you and Benny. He brought me up with him as he Ascended and left you in my care because he trusted me."

I suppose it should have shocked me that my Uncle wasn't a blood relative but it was honestly the least surprising or relevant thing I'd learned lately. Zeke had raised me, and not having the same bloodline didn't change that. I sighed heavily. "I...I think I want to try. It seems like it could be amazing. So what do I need to know about this competition anyway? Is there some kind of rule? Because they didn't state any on the scroll or whatever, and what was the deal with that? Did it give me powers?"

Zeke seemed pleasantly surprised by my quick acceptance. "No, it didn't give you powers, just awakened the ones you already had. People's abilities can awaken at any time really, some get them young, some when they're older. The Wishmaster contract just uses a spark of the current Wishmaster's power to jump start your abilities early. The rules are pretty simple. Basically there's nothing you aren't allowed to do except change your power enough that you can't grant a wish. Abilities can be altered a few different ways, but if you lose the power to grant wishes you lose your qualification."

He laughed at my shocked expression. "I won't get too far into it, it's not something you need to worry about at your level. Cliff notes is there are two major ways to change a power. In order to rank up you need to hit a stat cap. For I rank the stat cap is ten. However what stats you gain those stat points in can affect how your power evolves. Doing it that way though you always get a version of a wish power, just a more custom tailored one. You can also synergize skills with your power to fundamentally change it. That doesn't always make it incompatible with the wish archetype but that's another conversation."

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I opened my mouth to ask more but he cut me off. "No. No more. I can't give you too many answers on how to progress. Partly because it would be an unfair advantage and partly because it'll just distract you for the moment. Worry about rank ups later. Just take my advice and don't synergize any skills in the first few ranks, give yourself time to figure out how things work before you try to reinvent the wheel. You can always do it later. Other than that just go out and work on granting wishes. Your power is your biggest asset right now. Use it."

I nodded, understanding from his tone that we were done. When Zeke sounded like that he wouldn't budge. We were finished with this conversation. I got up with a sigh, so many more questions that would need to wait until later. But as I turned to walk out Zeke called for me to stop and look back. "By the way. We can't give you the obfuscator but reserving it is no problem. It'll cost five million, and we'll hold it until you can afford it. Good instincts to come looking for one by the way, more than a few candidates have been killed or imprisoned because they didn't think to hide their power."

With that he turned his chair, effectively dismissing me again. I strode out through the door, nodding to the two goons as I passed. I walked right out onto the street and Benny caught up, clearly sensing my mood and not bothering to talk, just walking next to me in companionable silence. Sometimes having a best friend is pretty great. As I walked I felt my brain whir through everything I'd been told, everything that just happened. I had so much to learn and so much growing to do. Despite the craziness though I had a direction to go in, and I couldn't help but smile. Time to go grant some wishes.

The next step was, obviously to get a few people to make wishes. But I was somewhat worried I'd end up screwing myself over if word of my powers got out, so I had no idea how to do that. Benny, to my surprise, had an easy answer ready. "Doom Sovereign." I stared at him blankly. "Is there any reason you need to be physically standing next to a person when you grant a wish? Like is that stated in the rules?" I opened my mouth to respond but then paused to think.

It...wasn't. The wishes were stipulated to have to be within my stat allocation for three days, but there was nothing on the contract that made it seem like I had to be right next to them. I blinked. "Holy shit. Ok, that might actually work. Plus with Doom Sovereign as a medium no one would know who I was. Complete anonymity." We were on the bus headed back from the WCP and I was trying to figure out how the hell I was supposed to use my powers safely and make the money needed for my obfuscator, but this would definitely do it if it worked.

Benny grinned. "Hell yeah man. I can imagine it now. Secret rumors of a shadowy in game figure who makes deals that can give you anything you want for the right price? Very cool. We just need to figure out a character name." I gave him a blank look because he'd lost me there, I had a character. He rolled his eyes. "Your current character has been associated with you for a long time, man. Plus there's registration to your scan gear and all that stuff. No, we need to set you up with a new ID, something clean and untraceable. Luckily my sister bought a new scan box for her degenerate boyfriend with concealment protocols on it. I can convince her to give it to us."

By which he meant blackmail her using knowledge of her whereabouts tonight, but I wasn't in a position to be picky. We agreed to split up so he could go get the box. You could technically play Doom Sovereign with a scan ring, which was basically a scaled down version of a box, but the amount of the game that would rendered was much lower. A decently powerful scan box could create an AR hardlight representation that covered a whole room, a scan ring would only do a foot or so in any direction. As one might expect, playing a game where you can only see a foot isn't really appealing.

I got off the bus and headed for home to take my setup apart so we could install the new box. My scan box in my gaming room was set up in a dedicated cradle that supplied power and kept the connection stable. It didn't take long to remove the box and then it was just a waiting game while I killed time in preparation for Benny showing up. When he arrived he looked sour but handed me the box. "I had to promise to help Maria sneak out for a concert next week, so thanks for making me an accomplice."

I shrugged and set up the box. My gaming room, contrary to the image one might have, was a big empty space with a scan box in the middle. The lack of furniture made the hardlight construct of the AR interface easier to project. We fiddled with the settings for a bit before we got the new avatar set up and finally it was time to boot up. I hit the button on the box and the room shifted, becoming a hardlight representation of a small fantasy village. Doom Sovereign spanned more than a few genres, but I tended to prefer the fantasy segments, and my target audience would be here too.

The next several hours were an exercise in frustration. Aside from having to grind up a new character I also tried to interact with some other players to try to get them to make a wish. Turns out aside from anonymity Doom Sovereign being a game also made it nearly impossible to convince people I was serious about my ability to grant their desires. I was dismissed as a crackpot and a troll by basically every person I met. Benny had left a while ago, since two player rigs were rare he couldn't do anything but sit and watch and he decided to try to join up and convince people from his end.

On the upside my new skills were...impressive. Lesser skills might not sound like much but I was absolutely crushing every quest and battle I came across. If nothing else maybe once I had ground up some levels I could convince some people to wish for something. I kept putting the word out and grinding, enjoying myself as my new much higher level skills let me crush my enemies. Finally though, I got a friend request. 'Priscilla_Penguin has invited you to her friend's list. Accept?' I didn't have any reason to refuse so I confirmed the request.

A split second later a buzzing sounded from my pack. I took out the communications mirror that everyone got as a starter item in Doom Sovereign and accepted the call. It was actually a base model, and you could get much better ones but this was a new account so I hadn't bothered. My game character was as bland as I could make him and about forty physically since I figured that would help sell my gravitas. When I activated the mirror an image of a girl appeared, with my own image projected back to her.

She was tiny and pretty cute actually. Very thin and kind of gaunt but intense. When she saw me her eyes lit up. "Hi, are you the guy?" I raised an eyebrow at her and she huffed impatiently. "The guy who can grant wishes or whatever? I mean, I know you probably can't that's crazy, but I'm desperate. So, are you the guy?" I nodded and she sighed with relief. "Cool, so here's the deal, I'm up for a scholarship in my university, I won't say which one because I don't know you."She seemed somehow sheepish and dismissive at the same time, which was new.

Despite that she kept talking. "This girl keeps beating me out on all our tests and I KNOW she isn't as smart as I am. But tomorrow is the cut off date for the scholarship and if I don't ace this test I'm going to lose it. So, I wish that I knew all the answers to the test later today." She finished talking in a bored sort of resigned tone that told me she legitimately didn't believe this would amount to anything and was actually just desperate to do SOMETHING.