Chapter 34: Chapter Thirty Four

I found Callie sitting in a nearby apartment with the door partly open. She was sitting on the bed, staring at the floor. It was strange to see her so...meek. She was usually so in your face about everything. I knocked on the frame, but she just grunted without looking up. I stood there for a minute, just waiting for her to speak, before finally saying. "Well, that was dramatic." She snorted out a laugh at my understatement, breaking out of her mood a bit.

Heaving a long sigh, she slid over and patted the bed, and I walked over to sit down, still waiting for her to respond. She bit her lip. "He's doing this on purpose you know." I raised an eyebrow, and she must have been looking at me out of the corner of her eye because she seemed to get the implied question. "My father. He's doing this on purpose. I made friends here, so now he's offering you a spot at the capital when I explicitly told him to fuck off for years because he knows that either I go with you guys or I have to watch the only people I spend time with leave."

That confused me a bit. "You have other friends Callie. People you met on your undercover ops, the other executives. What makes us going such a big deal?" She looked up at me, hurt, and I put my hands up defensively. "Not that I'm going to accept! Just...if I did would it really matter that much to you?" I felt so...awkward, asking that. Naked. But I really wanted to hear her response. Even if Callie was WAY out of my league it was still nice to know she cared, even as a friend.

She looked at me like I was an idiot. "First of all, you will ABSOLUTELY accept. I won't have you cripple yourself because you think it'll make me sad. Second of all, yes, moron. I would care if you left. Not just you, Jessie too. Hell, Ian is the closest thing to an actual peer I have here. All the other executives are years older than me. This is the first time I've had friends my own age. He KNOWS that. He knows I'll want to stick with you guys and he knows it means I'll be going to the capital, where he wants me, and I HATE it."

I...didn't know what to say to that. Tell her not to go? Tell her I wouldn't go? The first wasn't my place and the second she had already shot down. She huffed out a laugh. "Annie knew what she was doing too. Because for some reason she thinks that if she can reach out enough times I'm just going to get over it. That we'll go back to being best friends and I'll have some small scale seizure and forget that she only got close to me because my father asked his fucking mistress to keep an eye on me."

Her eyes were wet now, not just with sadness, but with anger. "And you know the worst part? I want to. I want to hug my best friend again, to tell her all the things she missed. To go to the ice cream place down the street where she used to take me after patrols to talk about our day. But I can't. Because she ruined it. All of it. Because every time I look at her I see my mothers face when HE told her that he was leaving, and taking his girlfriend and their new baby with him. I see the shame on her face as she waited outside for him."

She was crying for real now, actually weeping, albeit silently. "So yeah, I know she misses me, and she feels bad, and part of me wants to forgive her, but I just can't find it in me. And now HE's found a way to turn the first real friends I've made against me. To use you guys as a weapon to force me to do what he wants, and I'm going to have to see her ALL the time. Not to mention I have to either leave mom or make her move to the same place he lives, and I can't do that to her."

I kind of wanted to comfort her, but I got the feeling this was one of those conversations where she just needed to vent and I was supposed to shut up and listen. Her chest was heaving with anger as she kept talking. "I don't blame you guys, obviously, and I'm always blaming him for everything anyway so the only real person to direct that anger at is me for being so fucking gullible that I'm falling for his manipulative bullshit AGAIN!" I put an arm around her, slowly, not sure if that was welcome and ready to back off, but after a slight stiffening she leaned into my shoulder a bit.

I thought about what to say. About my experience with my own dad, and how that cold detached manipulation could hurt. My dad was always a frigid person, all about the letter of your word, even before he disowned me after I got my ability. I finally settled on something I wanted to say to myself more than once, and I hoped it would help. "Fuck em'." She turned to look at me in confusion. "Your dad, Annie, fuck them both. Who cares what they want? Who cares what anyone wants. You just do what's right for you. Let him spin his webs or whatever. Ignore his bullshit."

I was on a roll, and I kept going. "He thinks he can just move you around like a piece on a chess board, but you're getting stronger all the time. You'll be F rank soon, then probably E rank within a few years, and someday you'll pass him up, and all his petty tricks and bullshit schemes will be useless because you'll be stronger than he is. No one will remember who Midknight even was, except as a brief note in your biography. So let him play his power games. He's an old has-been who barely made it to E rank and you're going to go so much further than that."

She gave me a wet, toothy grin. "Ah, the old 'you're way better than him and he's going to eat your dust' pep talk. A classic, but still very effective. I give you a C for originality, but an A for passion, and an A plus for being a good friend." I blushed a bit at the light teasing in her tone, and looked away, but she reached up to turn my head back toward her. "By the way, some of that sounded like it might not have been aimed at just me. No pressure, but if you ever want to talk about YOUR dad, I'm always here to listen."

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I smiled softly back, staring into those bottomless blue eyes of hers when I heard a throat clearing from the still open door. We both jumped, and Callie pulled her hand back like she'd been burned as we scrambled away from each other, both of us realizing we were sitting on a bed with her stroking my face and how that probably looked. Jessie gave us a wry smile, her voice filled with mirth. "I came in here to check on you, but clearly someone else had it handled, I can go if you want to pick that back up." She gestured to the door. "Door closed? Open? What?"

Callie hurled a pillow across the room at the tiny blonde, who ducked it with a giggle, before standing up to smooth out her black leotard. She glared at Jessie. "You know, I think I liked you better when we first met, back when you were all meek and fangirly." Despite her tone and narrowed eyes though, her lips were quirked up in a small smile. "But we never asked how do you feel about the offer. It's a big change."

Jessie's smirk wilted and she frowned a bit, shrugging. "I...I don't know. Alan would have been so excited for me, and honestly leaving behind this city where everything reminds me of him might be good for me. I'd miss Lindsey though." She blushed. "And Maria is still two years younger than me so it's not like she can go with me, we just started talking more." She bit her lip. "I'm glad Shadowthorn gave us time to think about this. I don't want to rush it."

That...was a good point, damn. I'd been so psyched to go I hadn't considered what I'd be leaving. I was pretty sure I could bring Benny. He was eighteen and despite the isolation it should be easy for me to just make bringing him along a stipulation. He was going to be an Ascendant soon anyway, not that they knew that, and being initiated at the capital branch would help him get into the academy. Plus I was pretty sure I could give him points if he wished for them without spending my own permanently, though it would be slow and really expensive.

I wasn't actually positive about that, but since being an Ascendant meant having Impact and I could make him one I should be able to give him other stats., or at least partial stats like I'd already done. I didn't think I could do a second point of Impact, since apparently it got exponentially harder to get those with each point, but I could definitely help him rank up faster than most. Probably best to make sure that bringing him was feasible though. "Callie can I bring a friend with me? Assuming they can leave on their own I mean. Even if he isn't an Ascendant?"

She shrugged. "There are a hundred billion people in the capital, not all of them are Ascendants. It works out to around one percent same as here, everyone else is mortal. Moving between cities is a pain in the ass normally because of the information curtain, but up is easier than down for that exact reason, so yeah, you should be able to bring someone with you. Just mention it to the guild master." She winced. "Speaking of, I don't think Ian will be coming along, which is a shame, it would be nice to keep the team together."

It would have been nice, but I could see why she thought that. Ian was Stella's son and was most likely being groomed to take over as the local guild master. Plus he was too old for the Academy, and it wouldn't be fair to drag him along. I sighed. "Well. I think I know what I'm doing, you guys need to make your own choices, but if you decide to come I'll be glad to have friends with me." I smiled at Callie encouragingly, and expression she returned. The I clapped my hands and stood up. "In the meantime I think I could use a bite."

I held both elbows out to the girls, who rolled their eyes and ignored my gallant gesture, prompting an offended gasp from my lips as they stood up to get ready to head out. I assumed they wanted to go to the cafeteria, but before that could happen I smiled a bit. "Hey Jessie, I know how much you love ice cream, I heard about this new place nearby from a friend, want to try it?" Callie's eyes widened and snapped to my face, and I gave her an encouraging smile. She swallowed hard and gave a shaky one back.

Jessie, for her part, either missed the looks, didn't care, or was tactful enough not to mention it, because she just cheered excitedly. "Of course! I haven't had ice cream since we went out with Benny and Maria! Hopefully you're hungrier this time.' She gave me a skeptical look. "For such a big guy you sure don't eat much." It was hard not to glare at the bottomless pit in the shape of a girl as we followed her out of the room, but I think I managed.

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