I spent the next few days getting ready. I took my daily jobs, trying to focus on accruing skills this time. Both new ones and addendums to strengthen the ones I'd already gotten. I got a few doubles, bringing my skills up a bit. A single instance of Minor Inventing Mastery, though that was far from enough to even put a dent in the necessary progress to Lesser. Aside from that I got extra instances of my Guitar, Swimming, and Piano Mastery. I also managed to gain three instances of Minor Cooking Mastery, and I could tell I was close to boosting that skill to the next level. I also ended up with three new skills.

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, Minor Poker Mastery, Minor Archery Mastery, Minor Boxing Mastery

Poker, Archery, and Boxing. All useful in their own ways, and two of them skills I could see playing a role in my combat style. Not as a primary, but maybe as support for my DS Mastery. It also occurred to me that I might be one of the few people who could find use for unique skills later on down the line. Nothing this low level, but if I kept getting new ones like this than skill synergies might be a good way to keep the numbers down.

Regardless, during that time I'd been informed of a few important things. Callie had, as expected, decided to face her father and come with me. I was happy to have her along, and I promised her I'd do everything I could to be by her side when she had to deal with him. My own issues with my dad had only grown more thorny after my talk with Zeke, but at this point it wasn't about that. Callie was a special person, and seeing her treated like a pawn pissed me off. I kind of hoped he tried to fuck with me honestly, as an E ranker he was within Zeke's strike zone as my guardian.

Jessie had decided to come with us too, which was a relief because I'd gotten attached to the little blonde. She was a breath of fresh air and an excellent source of intel. I was pretty sure she would do well in the capital. She said she didn't feel right staying behind when she and Maria were still just talking. They were going to keep in touch (apparently high ranking Unity officials could set up communication lines through the information blockade, and Stella helped with that) but for the moment Jessie was heading to the capital with Benny, Callie, and I.

Now, days later, we were all gathered together on top of the Unity guild hall, apparently waiting for a transport. Shadowthorn was up here with us, but she was standing a ways away. Our group was me, Benny, Callie and Jessie. I turned to the girls, both of whom would be more likely to know how this worked. "So, how exactly are we getting to the capital? Being up here on the roof makes me think we aren't taking the bus." Skyrides were an option but considering the size of the capital and that I'd never spotted it on the horizon I was guessing it wasn't close.

As expected Callie knew the answer. "We're taking an air shuttle. Since Callus was only seeded recently in terms of the general occupation, over the last few thousand years the capital expanded out into a few dozen first tier cities like Velan. Since there are only a few dozen on the whole planet though they're thousands of miles apart from each other. A normal Skyride would take weeks to make the trip. The capital has access to air shuttles that can do it in a fraction of the time, but they only dispatch them for VIP's."

She shot Shadowthorn a scathing look. "Anyway, it's the standard method for travel between cities. While it's technically possible to make the trip in a regular skyride, almost no one is willing to spend weeks in a car." She turned to Benny, who she had been too distracted by her step-mother and former best friend to greet properly. "Nice to meet you by the way. I'm Callie." She wasn't in costume at the moment, and I'd vouched for Benny, not to mention with all the family nonsense he would definitely find out who she was, so she just greeted him normally.

My friend swallowed and shook her hand. "I...uh, I'm Benny." He'd been pretty shellshocked to meet some of the biggest celebrities in town, and Callie was at the top of the list. It had been funny watching him freeze up when he came in here, and I was going to remind him of this once he became a member. "I'm glad to be going with you guys. I've known Shane for years and it just wouldn't be the same here without him." His smile at that was a bit forced, and I had to push down a wince as I noticed it.

Benny's mother, Amber, had not been happy that her precious boy was leaving. She was very much a political animal, but she loved her children, and losing her son possibly for years depending on if or when we made it back, was not something she handled well. I was honestly slightly worried she might smother Maria with misplaced affection. Benny's dad, Hector, was much more accepting of his son leaving, and promised to do his best to get Amber to come around after the huge fight they apparently had when he told them he was leaving.

She didn't have a chance to respond however, because the air on top of the building started to move slightly. From one second to the next, the space was empty, and then, out of seemingly nowhere, a large rectangular vehicle appeared. It floated in the air, not bobbing or dipping like one would expect, but rock solid steady right next to the building. I looked for some form of propulsion but didn't see anything except a webwork of of complicated runes carved across the surface. Some of the runes were too advanced for me to recognize, but I did spot a few Fantasy runes sprinkled in there.

I realized after thinking about it that since there was no propulsion mechanism, that air displacement had to come from motion. The thing moved so fast it caused a literal shockwave preceding it. Callie whistled. "Damn. That's a lot sleeker than the last model I saw. I wonder if the old man sent out a high end shuttle for Annie, or if there's just been a general upgrade in the shuttle fleet. Either way, that thing is F ranked at least. Higher ranked shuttles are a bitch to make too. They take a ton of materials."

I could definitely see how that would be the case. At least theoretically. I'd never made a permanently enchanted item before sadly, but considering the sheer complexity of the operation of that shuttle I expected a massive number of runes would be needed. I didn't know the formulas for materials needed versus runes or stats imbued into an item, but an F ranked shuttle would require tens of thousands of stats, and the materials would need to be able to hold up under those kinds of forces.

Shadowthorn was the first one on the shuttle, not taking much time to look at us. I could tell she wanted to avoid Callie as much as possible, and it sent another pang of sadness through me when I saw her sitting alone. I wished I had some way to talk to Callie about trying to make amends with Shadowthorn, for her own sake as much as the older woman's. It seemed like most of the fault there was with Midknight, and I was pretty sure Callie would regret not getting to know her brother.

That said I personally wasn't in a position to make comments about anyone's family situation, and I doubted Callie would appreciate the attempt. We climbed on board the shuttle, and I expected the thing to dip in the air or something under our weight. Just like it didn't bob in the air though there was no give as we stepped aboard. It felt like I was walking on a bridge or something. We all took our seat on the opposite side of the interior of the shuttle from Shadowthorn, and I was briefly grateful Zeke was finding his own way. It was pretty crowded as it was, even with just the five of us.

Stella and Ian had said their goodbyes already, as had Lindsey, who was in tears over losing Jessie and who promised to come visit as soon as she could get transferred. So, with everything taken care of we were free to enjoy the trip out of town. Once we were in and sitting down the shuttle officially took off. Just like the thing didn't move when we walked, the interior didn't so much as rumble as we took off into the sky. It was terrifying and weirdly anticlimactic at the same time, watching the city and then the countryside flash by like we were seeing it on a tv screen.

We all stared, of course. It was beautiful. The emerald trees and valleys fell away as we ascended into the sky, racing out over the countryside. In the distance I could see the quarries outside the city where the miner's union did their work under Benny's dad. It occurred to me that Hector was supposed to run the union for the whole planet, so he must have some means of communication. I wondered if the Unity were the ones to decide who the miner's union would report to, if he had to earn clearance for that.

None of us spoke really, even after an hour or two the constantly shifting and speeding landscape was amazing. If we'd been closer to the ground I suspected it would just be a blur. I saw crystal clear lakes and rivers splayed out below us, each of them shimmering like a blue jewel in a sea of shifting shades of green. I leaned over to murmur to Jessie. "So is this the way you got to the capital last time?"

She shook her head, staring down in awe. "No. We took a skyride. It was way slower and we were much lower down. This is...amazing. I've never seen anything like it." She swallowed hard as she looked down at the incredible heights. By all rights it probably should have been terrifying to be this high up, but the lack of vibrations or wind just made it so...surreal. It was easy to pretend we were just watching an amazing movie because we were so divorced from reality up here that there didn't feel like a reason to be afraid.

But none of that prepared me for the thing I saw next. After Jessie answered we flew forward far enough that the horizon shifted and from that slice of land on the edge of the sky I got my first glimpse of the largest city I had ever seen. The buildings were absolutely towering, thousands if not tens of thousands of skyscrapers with ten times that many smaller buildings peppering the ground below them. Tiny specks flew around the skyscrapers, so distant it took all my considerable perception to notice them, but I was sure they were skyrides. Callie grinned at our shock when we saw the capital. "Yeah it's pretty impressive isn't it? I haven't been here since I was a kid, but it's as crazy as I remember. Welcome to Rajak."