It was decided, after our talk with Zeke, that we would head down to the WCP and take a look around in one of the larger districts. The E district, specifically, was the target of our next outing, despite the fact that we were absurdly poor by the standards of that place. We took the day off however, and called to apologize to Grimmengap. If I did join a faction I would tell them about my powers at the same time. I'd decided they deserved to know if it was getting out anyway, but until then we couldn't really have them involved.

Once we were done with that we took the rest of the day to calm down and rest, making sure to relax a bit before the big trip. To prepare for it, we did some research on E district, and exactly what we might run into down there. All the major organizations had headquarters in the E district, and while I wasn't able to find much on them, Callie had dug up quite a bit with her hacking ring, managing to uncover some very interesting facts about our next destination. I was curious as hell about what we might find down there, so I left her to explain things.

She spun up the screen, showing me the photos she had found of a massive sprawling gold and white palatial complex. "Ok. So this, from what I've found, is E district. It's completely unique actually, because this place isn't mostly frequented by E rankers. There ARE always E rankers down there, but there's a hundred of them tops, and not all of them even live down there or even use the place. Most of the residents are guild or gang members who represent part of a faction run by a powerhouse."

She spun to another picture. "Despite what it may seem like, only half of the E rankers on this planet are actually Unity. Some are from other places, though they're rare, some are gang lords who moved here to live the high life, and some are members of powerful families that paid to get them the resources needed to rank up, but regardless about fifty percent of the people we might meet won't be involved with the guild. This is extremely important for multiple reasons, but the biggest one is that the ones outside of the guild's influence are mostly guest elders of the WCP itself."

I felt a light bulb go off in my head. "Of course. Giving the local talent leadership position lets them poach up and comers, and a deeper access to local politics. I take it that these guest elders are the ones most likely being courted by this new candidate? What kind of power do they have in the branch? Guest elder sounded more honorary than anything else, but I knew better than anyone that things didn't always make sense. It would be extremely bad if we overlooked something important because of my assumptions.

She smiled at me. "Surprisingly, a lot. Guest elders form a council that acts as a counterpoint to the branch manager. Considering the manager is only E rank it makes sense to share some of the power. The WCP is huge and powerful, but that's far off power, not immediate intrinsic power. If they pissed off all the E rankers on the planet it could make problems for their people on Callus, even if I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to actually kill one the WCP's executive branch without a damn good reason."

Her logic made sense to me, I'd seen from the Jerks first impression that being scary didn't keep everyone off. Some people were too stupid to be afraid. "Ok, then they're a full half of the decision making process. That does make them pretty important, especially if this little game is to get them on board. In that case how do we win them over instead? Can we bribe them or something? I couldn't think of a proper diplomatic way to change minds, but bribery would be a language everyone spoke.

Sadly it wasn't to be. She shook her hand. "No. We don't have the resources. We literally can't pay enough to motivate them all, or even probably one of them. They're E rankers, two full ranks above us. Their pocket change is more money than we'll make in a year. Still, there are other ways to win friends. The Jerks are using one of them, from what I can tell they're taking care of the Cavalcade to open up the way for the Flame Riot Militia to take control of the territory. With Aiden gone they're a huge force in G district now, and they want to make that an official thing."

I knew the Flame Riot Militia was run by an E ranker, but I hadn't realized the political situation of the district. I groaned. "Ok, fine, if the Militia is backing them that's one of the fifty or so guest elders, that can't be enough. How is she going to get the others? Hell how will she get the guild master?" I doubted the branch manager was going to be someone to underestimate if you were smart. They might not be Zeke, but anyone who got to that position had to have the strength and cunning to back that up in a fight.

That got me a snicker. "Because life is a mess. The Militia is part of a bloc of power inside the WCP. They represent a small subset of the elders who are dedicated to expansion at any cost. They're not well liked, because they tend to pick fights for no reason, but still, they're powerful. In this case they wouldn't have time to act on you, but I do wish I knew what the other factions were so we didn't have to go down there. As it is we're stuck with more recon, and this isn't going to be condensed. Lots of traveling in our future I suspect."

It said something about the relationship the Wish Curse Palace had with the other powers that they had an active population of Ascendants equal to members of the leadership of the dominant faction in this region on Callus, even if the tiny backwater wouldn't be a priority for the Unity as a whole. This was Unity territory, and for them to be willing to tolerate a WCP branch that could equal the leadership of this planet was...terrifying. Speaking of, I looked at my girlfriend. "Anything in there about the boss here? Must be someone pretty scary to keep all this in line."

She grimaced. "Surprisingly little actually. His name is Facade, but he's very low key. People don't talk about him much because he isn't too active, but I did a deep dive and managed to pick out a few bits of info from the forums I managed to get into. Facade isn't considered to be particularly awe inspiring in a one on one fight. His seconds are supposedly terrifying, but the man himself, despite being peak E rank, is more of a political animal. He's a fop, a partier, and spends most of his time schmoozing with the other E rankers and having expensiove galas at his palace in E district."

Her words were innocuous, but I could tell from her tone she didn't really buy what she was saying. "Why do I get the feeling you think he's more dangerous than he lets on?" I didn't say it in a skeptical tone, if she thought so she had good reasons I was sure, but I wanted to hear her thought process from a fresh point of view, without adding on my own reasons, Maybe I'd see something she missed.

That got me a smile, she could tell I was playing sounding board more than skeptic, and was happy to play along. "Because he's been in power too long. The WCP is a huge power here in Rajak, no way people aren't constantly gunning for his role as branch head, but he hasn't been directly challenged in about two hundred years from what little I was able to find. Scary minions are one thing, but Facade seems to also have a knack for making sure his enemies run into each other when trying to deal with him."

Realization dawned on me. "You said he's social, always cozying up to other E rankers. You think he's manipulating them

to make sure he has a consistent equilibrium in the branch, keeping everything balanced just right to maintain a stalemate. He gets to stay in charge without seeming dangerous, and still gets to spread his reputation by playing the party animal, continuing to gain power using the WCP without dealing with direct challenges or having to show his hand." I smiled ruefully. "Kind of makes the name a little on the nose, don't you think?"

Callie just chuckled. "I think that's the point. He's so in your face about it people don't even notice. Hiding in plain sight and all that. I think we need to be a lot more careful of Facade than most people think is necessary." She paused. "Though, maybe not. If he knows about Zeke he might be too terrified to mess with you. E rank is within his window, and if Zeke decides he's actively interfering he could swat the man like a bug. Speaking of Zeke being able to swat anyone we might run into like a bug..." She trailed off, her face morphing into a worried frown.

I exhaled noisily, having been worried about this myself. "The other guardian. Of course, it's possible that Zeke is an arrangement dad made just for me, but I doubt it. The rules Zeke follows are too concretely defined. More likely there's another terrifying guard on Callus protecting the other candidate. Granted that's not an issue for us personally, since she's G ranked like we are, but if we do end up teaming up with another faction we need to worry about them sending someone too strong to deal with her. It would be pretty shitty to have our allies get wiped out."

That drew a wince from my girlfriend. "Agreed. We'll take that into account when we figure out who to work with, if we work with anyone. For now though, I think our best bet is to spend the rest of the night just relaxing." She grabbed me by the hand. "We have quite enough to worry about without driving ourselves crazy dwelling on things. For the moment we're going to watch cartoons with Cass and cuddle the wolves. Big fuzzy puppies are good for the soul, and I'm curious what exactly cartoon goblins get up to."

Despite the seriousness of the current circumstances I chuckled as she pulled me out of the room to head to where our youngest housemate was enjoying her animated show. When we got down there I was unceremoniously tossed into a huge pile of oversized canine before Callie jumped on top of me with a shout like a diver cannonballing into a pool. Cass giggled uproariously as I groaned and rolled around, pretending my girlfriend had injured me with drop and making comments about how heavy she was.

That got me a pout as she decided she didn't feel like playing anymore, put I'd wrapped her up in my arms and pulled her against me, nuzzling my face into her neck until she started giggling herself and got past it, though Cass apparently decided we were no longer amusing and hurled a pillow at us, shushing us both so she could watch her show. We grinned at each other before settling in to find out what exactly this goblin show was about. As we quieted down I took a long look around the room at friends and family (Zeke had slipped back in) and smiled. Whatever was coming we could handle it. For now we would just relax and enjoy life. Tomorrow would be soon enough to deal with our trip.