I woke up with my head in pain...again. But at least I did wake up, which I hadn't been at all sure would happen. Apparently my desperate last strike had been effective. I groaned and sat up, a bit shocked at the give of a mattress under me. I looked around, finding myself in a familiar room. Or rather, not a familiar room exactly, but a room with a familiar layout. One of the apartments at the guild. I felt...good. Weirdly good. Which meant that I'd gotten some new stats from killing Stricture. I pulled up my stat screen, curious about what I'd missed. I assumed my notifications had come and gone when I was out.

Wishmaster candidate status. H-rank. Ability: Lesser Wish- Four times a day grant a Lesser wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics. Might 15 Impact 2 Fantasy 11 Vitality 12 Focus 13 Perception 22 Creation 6 Skills: Lesser Doom Sovereign Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Cooking Mastery, Minor Gymnastics Mastery, Minor Swimming Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor Singing Mastery, Lesser Enchanting Mastery, Minor Inventing Mastery

My eyes almost fell out of their sockets. Sweet Revenant how long had I been out? Thirteen Perception? Five Might? Three Vitality, and seven Focus? My eyes focused on the bottom of the skill section too, where I could see that my Enchanting had actually reached Lesser. That one was less of a shock given all the Minor Enchanting skills I'd been stacking with my wishes, but still, very nice. The stats were the craziest thing though. I was up to eighty one! Only nineteen points off from breaking through to G rank.

The door clicked open and Callie came in, her face lighting up when she saw me awake. Jessie came barreling in after, followed by Ian, Shadowthorn, and the guild master herself. The tiny blonde hurled herself into my arms, squeezing me tightly, and it occurred to me that almost losing a friend so soon after her brother's death was probably a terrifying experience. I squeezed her back, arching an eyebrow at everyone. "I had the strangest dream. You weren't there, and neither were you, or you. And I HAD TO FIGHT A SERIAL KILLER BY MYSELF!"

I smiled to take some of the sting out of the dig, but it faded a bit when I saw Ian and Callie wilt a bit. I winced internally, I'd never been great in social situations. Apparently making jokes about your own near murder at the hands of a psychopath was in poor taste. Noted. I offered them both a smile. "Hey, I'm kidding guys. Even I didn't expect to randomly stumble on the Evil Eye's identity and get dragged off to his evil lair. Speaking of which, how did you guys find me?"

Callie raised a hand. "That would be me. When I came back and you were gone I got worried and started looking around for you. I have the Minor Tracking Mastery Skill, if you remember, so I followed your trail for as long as I could. I lost you a few times, but after a few hours I managed to track you to where you were being held. I think Stricture planned on coming back and waylaying me after he...disposed of you. I called the others for backup and we busted in to find you laid out on the floor next to his corpse. Internal decapitation as far we could tell." Her voice was a bit dull as she recounted the events leading up to my rescue.

My eyes went wide. That was...much more impressive than I expected honestly. I'd gotten lucky there. If he hadn't died in one shot I'd have been fucked. I looked around. "So...exactly how long have I been unconscious, because I've got a LOT of stat points that I didn't when I passed out. Mostly perception." I purposefully didn't mention how many points. I was pretty sure being at eighty one after only a few weeks of being a cape was not normal. I was going to need to take a bit of a break from point gathering for a bit. This achievement would probably explain me breaking through in a few weeks, but even with the big feather in my cap this was way too fast.

Stella answered. "About a day. I'm not sure what you actually did, but whatever it was it really did a number on you. We also put out a press release about the Evil Eye and your role in things. An active serial killer is a problem, a defeated serial killer is a coup. Granted we didn't feel the need to mention he was one of our most respected H rankers, but still, people are aware of what you've done for the city." She smiled at me encouragingly, and I flushed a little. I may have some slight issues about not being acknowledged by mother figures, learn something new every day.

Jessie, who had been clinging to me like a limpet glanced up at me through teary eyes. "Benny and Maria called me when they couldn't get in touch with you. I made sure they knew you were ok, and Benny said he would tell your Uncle. He heard about what happened on the news, and told me to tell you, and I quote 'good job on the serial killer thing, but it doesn't count as a win if they have to carry you away from the fight'." I snorted at that and she smiled brightly. "Maria seemed much more worried, but I did my best to help her stay calm." She blushed. "We've...been talking a lot lately."

I raised an eyebrow at that. I was a bit surprised but I was happy for them. Zack was an asshat, and Maria deserved better. Jessie was super sweet and I thought they made a cute couple. Besides, while Jessie was cute I may or may not have been leaning in a different direction with my affections. Speaking of which I shot Callie a smile. "Thank you. Seriously. If you hadn't found me who knows what would have happened. I might have starved to death in that place, or gotten killed for my gear or something."

Instead of the dismissal or sheepishness I expected Callie's expression became furious. "How can you say that?" She spat the words through gritted teeth. "I let you get kidnapped by a psychopath right under my nose!" Hey bright blue eyes were blazing. "You came to visit me and ended up almost getting murdered! Between this and the risk I put you at during that nonsense at the fights how can you even look at me right now?" Her eyes were glistening a bit with unshed tears, and I was frozen at the sheer venom in her voice.

That was...shocking. Callie didn't tear up. Hell she rarely stopped smiling, even if most of the time they were more like smirks. I just kind of gaped at her, lost, before closing my mouth and giving her a stern frown. "Did you know the move I used to kill Stricture was the one you helped me practice during our first training session together?" She blinked at that. "I'm not someone you were hired to babysit Callie. I'm an Ascendant. Your job as the highest ranking member of my team was to prepare me for danger, to make sure I could survive. Which you did, and now I'm alive because of it."

She seemed to be at a loss for words, which I took kind of a petty, childish pride in, since she was usually so quick to retort. Stella broke in, giving the flushed heroine a break from being the center of attention. "So, we were able to confirm Stricture was the killer, he had the murder weapon out when we found you, but how did YOU figure it out?" She seemed to get how that sounded a second later. "Not to imply you aren't intelligent Shane, but for him to just grab you like that you must have witnessed something pretty damning."

I shrugged, explaining about the secret band and the tie and Stella gritted her teeth in anger. "The Black Sorrow Cult. Of course they would help with something like this." She gave a bloodthirsty grin. "I suspect after I inform him of this incident Harlequin might see fit to...renegotiate the terms of their shop contract in the local WCP." When she realized what she'd just said she blushed, making her the fourth person in the room today. Maybe there was an epidemic.

Seeing an opportunity to cut in Shadowthorn cleared her throat. "Apologies for the interruption Stella, but I was hoping to speak to the young man about about a few guild matters. Might I borrow your conference room again?" Her voice was polite and respectful, but Stella's eyes narrowed at her. I remembered Jessie saying the two of them had been members together at the lower ranks and that Stella wasn't a fan of Shadowthorn. Callie meanwhile looked about ready to pincushion the other woman with shadow blades.

Stella let out a long sigh."I don't suppose you're going to tell me what this is regarding? As his direct superior it is my right to know what the capital branch wants from one of my initiates." Her eyes were suspicious as she glared at Shadowthorn, who just sadly accepted the scorn. Honestly Shadowthorn had been nothing but nice about all of this since she got here, I felt kind of bad for her, not that I was going to get in the middle of that mess. Granted, I didn't know why Stella disliked her, it might have nothing to do with Callie's situation so maybe I was completely in the wrong.

Shadowthorn looked tired as her shoulders slumped. "Fine. I would have preferred to do this in private, but seeing as how you do have the right to be aware of the situation I'll come out and say it. Due to certain provisions in Solomon's seed contract that needed to be signed off on, he technically counts as an initiate of the capital branch rather than this one. Because of this, the guild master has made the executive decision to offer him and the other members of his team of appropriate age the opportunity to attend the Ascendant Academy in the capital."

That seemed like a good thing to me, but judging by her tone she was pretty sure the other people in the room wouldn't agree. Callie stalked across the room, eyes blazing and slapped Shadowthorn across the face almost too fast for me to track, then cradling her hand, she stormed out of the room, the sad eyes of the older woman on her back as she stalked away. I was stunned. I had no idea what the hell that had been about, but apparently Shadowthorn did. She had clearly been expecting that slap and had just taken it.

Everyone else seemed pretty shocked too, but I couldn't tell if the slap was what had shocked them or if it was the offer to let me go to the Academy. Shadowthorn turned to me with a polite smile. "Sorry you had to see that, but the offer stands Solomon. Your starting stats were impressive, to say the least, as is your knack for skill acquisition, but mostly it's your growth we're interested in. To go from nothing to strong enough to kill a peak H ranker in so short a time..."

My face must have paled because she held up her hands. "Please, don't worry about us prying. It's bad form to ask for a persons stats, but you clearly have some skill or ability that lets you fight on a level with those far above your experience, and such things are always valued." She turned to leave. "I'll leave you to think it over, no need to rush. I'm going to be here for another week or so sorting out the paperwork. This branch will need a new accountant after all." And with that last word she strolled out, leaving us all in stunned silence.