The tent Ronnie the Beef slipped into was not an empty one. The place was one of the show tents, and the man in the middle was breathing prismatic fire while riding a unicycle across what looked like a literal hair. I didn't know what power would do that, or if he was even using one instead of some magic gear, but it was impressive to watch, so there was that. Ronnie the Beef made his way over to a crowd of other Jerks, who were all sitting crowded around a black cloaked figure.

We sat within listening distance, though only barely with all the noise, and tried to hear what they were saying. It didn't work out too well. I could tell even from a distance that the other Jerks were mostly H rankers, though I didn't see Punchin' Carl or his shoeless friend. Thankfully. They all sat around the hooded figure who wasn't really visible under the cloak. I assumed that was some kind of magic effect, because the cloak itself wasn't very big, and my Perception should have seen through a bit of shadow.

I leaned over to whisper to Callie, not worried about being overheard by the Jerks from so far with all the people talking in here. Callie was listening in on them, but even she didn't seem to be getting all of it, just the odd word here or there. My voice seemed to jerk her attention to me. "Hey, can you see the face of whoever is in the cloak? I can't which is weird, but their face is in shadow so I figured you would have an easier time."

She scowled. "No. I was trying but there's just...nothing. Probably some kind of identity protection item. Those aren't too rare, but having one that can block me even in the shadows means whoever the person under there is, they aren't a nobody. That's probably an F ranked artifact. What the hell someone like that is doing meeting with the Jerks I have no idea, much less why they would be meeting them HERE."

That was a good question. "Why are they even allowed here. When I heard 'siege' in the mission, I imagined a running battle through the tents or something. They're just walking around here like their normal idiotic selves. How is this a siege of anything? Except possibly the good taste of everyone who has to watch them walk around with those awful haircuts and ridiculous outfits...if you can even call them that."

That got a snicker from my girlfriend. "Agreed, but no. I think sieges down here are different. Given how stable things are, picking an actual fight in a place this central to their power would be stupid. Even for the Jerks. If I had to guess I'd say its something like trying to make them look bad by ruining games and stuff. That seems more like the Jerk style of doing things anyway. You know what they're like."

I did know that, and she was right, but I still didn't know who the cloaked figure was. It wasn't their style to make shady deals with weird people...well, with SUBTLE weird people. A fact I felt the need to point out. "Isn't this out of character for them? Shadowy meetings with hooded figures in dark tents? Well, as shadowy as people like them can manage. Granted there's a huge crowd of multicolored idiots over there, but this may be the one place where they don't draw undue attention for their very existence. Clowns are colorful too."

I could see on her face that she was worried about that too, and could see just as easily that she was trying to play it off as nothing. She gave me a strained smile. "I'm sure it's nothing. This isn't exactly their own territory. It makes sense for them to change things up a bit. Whoever that is probably reached out to Mr. Jack-tastic when he got to town to curry favor with the new power player, and then arranged for them to meet in hiding because they were embarrassed to be seen in public with lunatics like that."

Despite her comforting tone I could tell she didn't believe that. It wasn't that it was crazy, hell it made as much sense as anything, but it didn't FEEL true. When you'd been an Ascendant for a while you started to get a feel for trouble. It might have been some kind of learned subconscious tell we picked up, or it might have been something more ephemeral like some effect of Fantasy letting us read some of the ethereal changes in the fame in an area, I'd heard lots of theories when I looked into it.

Whatever it was though, it was a notable fact that lots of the most powerful Ascendants had something of a sixth sense for trouble, even if they often used that sense to run AT the trouble instead of away from it like a sane person. I hadn't really noticed myself having it before, but to be fair, I'd been gaining lots of renown. It was possibly a consequence of me actually becoming someone of note, or starting to at least. In any case, Callie had it too clearly, and she and I both felt like this was a big deal, even if we didn't know why.

Of course, articulating that wasn't really an option, it would sound crazy, but I trusted her instincts and she trusted mine, even if we didn't bring them up out loud. So when the Jerks and their hooded guest stood up to leave, the two of us dipped back into stealth to follow behind them, determined to make sure that we knew exactly where they were going and what they decided to do. I wasn't sure this was something I'd be dragged into, but considering Carl's vendetta it wasn't exactly impossible, so it was more than worth the effort. Plus we still had our recon to do, though this bit of info might have fulfilled the mission on its own.

Still, we stood up and slipped out after them, moving amongst the crowds silently, leaning into our stealth Skills to avoid being spotted. Callie held back as we went, keeping her stealth to closer to my level so she didn't leave me behind. She knew this was tough for me and that she had to give me time to make sure I was able to keep pace. Her stealth Skill was much higher than mine at Beginner, after all.

The biggest issue was that while in some ways getting lost in a crowd was easier, it was also much harder because of how stealth worked. With the stealth Skill, you used Perception to find and erase traces of your passing, detecting and isolating sound and visual cues through the filter of the Skill. It was incredibly complex even at the best of times because you had to constantly keep track of and eliminate multiple variables to make sure you couldn't be detected.

In a crowd like this there were hundreds more people to see and hear me, to sense me, more angles to cover and revise and keep track of. At these levels stealth actually relied heavily on Focus as well, though only the aftereffects like how much processing power we had. Of course, we weren't eliminating all traces, just the ones we picked up, so people with higher levels of Perception would be able to see right through us, but given the number of people here and the fact that our Perception was pretty high, we would most likely be fine as long as we weren't too obvious about tailing them.

Still, stealth in a crowd this big was taxing the hell out of me, and Callie had her hand in mine, resonating her stealth Skill to help take some of the burden off me by channeling it through my body, her massively higher Perception helped take some of the pressure off me as we trailed them. The Jerks weren't exactly watching for us though, and busy as they were shoving each other and shouting insults back and forth if I made any slips they didn't catch them. I was worried about the hooded figured but it was hard to tell if the person in the cloak had noticed anything given their obscured face.

The Jerks bulled their way down the thoroughfare in the middle of the circus, bumping into people who avoided making a scene when they noticed Ronnie's hulking fuschia haired form looming behind them. As we followed them, the crowds became thinner and thinner until we finally took a turn down a side path and had to slow down because we didn't have as much cover anymore. Callie called the shadows to us, cloaking us even more deeply as she supplemented her stealth and mine with her ability. We stuck to the sides of the tents where shadows were more plentiful as we trailed them.

They came to a stop in a dark and secluded area behind a towering roller coaster. When they came to a halt the forms of the Jerks surrounded the cloaked figure, but also retreated, forming a wider circle that showed they wanted to put pressure on the cloaked person without risking themselves. Ronnie seemed much less worried, and stalked up to the hooded form, making the slight figure look positively miniscule in comparison to the massive hulk of a man. I could see the figure was probably only about five foot at the tallest, but they seemed unconcerned by the difference if body language was anything to go off of.

Ronnie glared down into the blank faced figure. "We've been here for days! Why are you just now showing up again? The deal was one a day, not one whenever you felt like gracing us with your presence. We've held up our end, putting pressure on the cavalcade. Are you going back on your part of the bargain? Mr. Jack-tastic isn't some punk kid you can push around, no matter where you came from! An E ranker isn't someone for you to disrespect!" His voice was deep and rumbling, but surprisingly articulate for a Jerk. I supposed at G rank you had to pick up some Focus even if only by accident.

The hooded figure somehow managed to show how bored it was without a face, a kind of knack for body language that most Ascendants picked up after wearing a mask for a while. Even if I hadn't already known this person was G ranked I'd have guessed they were Ascendant from that. The voice that come out of the hood was surprisingly lyrical and feminine however. "I said one a day, not one daily. I can do more than a single payment at one time, so shut your pie hole. You get three today, and my respect or lack thereof for your boss is none of your damn business."

Ronnie growled at the smaller girl, clearly angry but just as clearly much less willing to start trouble than he was to talk shit. I didn't blame him. The hooded figure sounded way too calm about his anger. People that confident usually had a few nasty tricks up their sleeves. He glared down at her for a minute. "Fine. Let's get this over with. I'll be collecting payment for the day. Hands out." His tone was nasty, but he refrained from any actual insults, showing his fear of the figure.

The hooded form reached out a hand from under the cloak, revealing a slim and relatively well muscled form in efficient looking black armor and two thin and delicate hands. Ronnie took hold of them tightly, glaring down into the hood. "I wish for three more points of Might. Payment is services rendered for the ongoing task we've been hired for." I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach as I saw a series of purple sparks play over the hands clasping Ronnie's. I stared in horror as I watched the figure grant Ronnie's wish. That was the Beginner Wish ability. The cloaked figure was a candidate like me. This...was not good. There was another possible Wishmaster on Callus.