My head was spinning. I had more than a few crazy things to deal with right now, but I forced myself to focus on the negotiation. I figured I'd start it with an up front question. "Ok." I said. "What exactly is the point of all this? Why go through any of it. Why are we negotiating at all? Your people are tough, why not just have them kick my ass and lock me in a cell until you take over the planet or something. That would strip me of my qualifications right?" I didn't understand the nuances here, or how she was measuring any of this.

"It was an option." She said. "But I decided against it for a few reasons. What do you know about how the candidacy works? I take it not much based on some of the things you've said. We get sent away as kids to live away from the family, but the amount your parents can and do tell you about the clan before your powers manifest is up in the air. The whole blindsiding you with your nature thing is kind of an old school way to do things, though I'm hardly surprised Elijah decided to go in that direction."

I shrugged. "Only what I figured out on my own mostly. Even my guardian isn't able to tell me much because of certain outside factors." I decided that as much as I liked meeting family, I wasn't exposing Zeke's vulnerability to someone who was basically a stranger. "I have some guesses. I figure the point of the whole thing is to gather our forces. Create factions we can use for...something. I haven't really gotten that part yet."

She nodded along as I spoke. "Close enough. Yes, it's a test of gathering resources and allies. The part you might not know is that not all of those allies have to be outsiders. Alliances between candidate factions DO happen, they just usually don't crop up until later. The early phases of the selection let the other candidates see who is and isn't worth working with. Granted, only one of us can win, but not everyone even wants to. From what I've managed to dig up there have been plenty of candidates who decided to back another candidate, securing a position in the next administration so to speak."

My eyes widened as the implications of that dawned on me. "Oh. So you were impressed enough that you think you might be interested in working with me. Either backing me or having me back you? That seems a bit premature though doesn't it? We've just barely met." Not that I was against the idea. Having an ally would be damn useful, but despite how much I wanted to get to know family, it seemed a bit too good to be true.

"Not exactly." She said matter-of-factly. "You're jumping ahead a few steps. It's more that I've decided you're competent enough to leave in the running. Overt alliances aren't our only option. It's fine to leave certain other candidates who have a decent opinion of you around even without a formal alliance. Trips up your enemies and sows confusion in the selection. I wouldn't commit to an alliance this early, but Elijah is a scary guy, and he and my mom are on relatively good terms. Like I said, full siblings. Having you around and owing me a favor down the line might be agreeable. Provided we can come to an arrangement."

I blew out a breath. "I can get behind that idea I suppose. Before we get into the actual negotiations though, i have to ask. How do you know so much about all this? My dad didn't say anything to me about any of it, and made it sound like he wasn't even allowed to. How was your mom able to share so much? Also how the hell did you find me? It seems weirdly convenient you showed up here right now. If I did something that might have tipped people off I need to know so I can fix it."

That got a chuckle from my cousin. "Same answer, in a way. Most of the candidates focus entirely on grinding up stats to go to higher level worlds. It's the quickest way to the top after all. But my mom advised me to travel between lower ranked planets as much as possible. It slows down your growth but it makes your foundation far more solid. Much more diverse allies and the chance to gather lots of info. My policy is to search new planets I hit for signs of other candidates. The appearance of a bunch of wishes wasn't exactly subtle when I was already looking for it, though you picked up the whole memory trick faster than most."

I blinked at that. "So...it was just a coincidence? That's anticlimactic, I'm not gonna lie." Though on second thought there might be more to it. She might have a high Fantasy stat. The instinct that came with that stat was a useful way to find opportunities, and being on the move constantly would give her a much better chance of stumbling on those than most anyway and that was assuming dad didn't put his finger on the scale. Still, I wondered exactly how many planets she'd been to.

She seemed to dismiss the comment, not bothering to address it before moving on. "Anyway the information I've gathered on the selection has been the result of lots and lots travel. Enough little facts start to add up over time. Of course, Elijah has been completely cutting you off from even the basic family information, but that might be for your own good as much as anything. After all, I didn't know you existed, and if anyone in the family would it would be me or uncle Felix's son Michael."

It was hard not to resent my dad for his secrecy and vagueness, but thinking about it that way did make a bit of sense. He'd even mentioned in his message that if I couldn't handle it, he wouldn't see me again. At the time that seemed cold and brutal, but looking back it almost felt like his way of telling me that I didn't need to do this. That he would keep the family away if I decided to live a normal life. Not that I had any interest in that nonsense at all, but still, it gave me some hope that the old man wasn't the unbelievable bastard I'd painted him in my head. Maybe he was just a regular bastard.

"As fascinating as all this is." I said, with far more poise and tranquility than I was feeling. "I can't help but notice none of the things you've mentioned have been terms. If this is a negotiation then there'll be give and take. The give here is you leaving, and hopefully taking your guards and maybe a few robe idiots with you. So what is the take? What do you want in exchange for bailing on this. I can't imagine the Peace Lord will be happy to hear you left, and I don't want to cause trouble for you. But I kind of need you to go, so what is that going to cost me?"

She snickered at that. "Now that sounds more like the Elijah I've heard stories about. You do have a bit of your dad in you. No sentiment, just brass tacks." I winced at the comment. Callie was right, that did NOT feel good to hear. I didn't even hate my dad, but it made my skin crawl to think of people comparing me to him, not to mention the added dimension of recursion making it actively dangerous. She didn't seem to notice thankfully, or chose not to comment. "I want a promise from you."

I raised an eyebrow. "A contract of some kind? It obviously depends what it is, I'm not stupid enough to agree to binding terms without knowing the fine print." Callie put a hand on my arm, squeezing lightly, and when I looked at her she caught my eye and flicked hers out of the bubble. I got it immediately. "Oh, and we don't just want you to leave, we want information on the people the Peace Lord sent."

"Good catch." She said, nodding approvingly. " The Moonsong Glade is about to open. The slots for it will be decided by tournament. The winner gets ten spots, and its going to require cutting through a line of this star system's best. The glade is limited to F-rank, and it's rarely accessible. To keep the higher ranking forces from just curb stomping everyone the tournament is restricted to peak G-rankers. The presumption is that participants will be able to break through before the glade opens. There's another dungeon local to the area that usually crops up, but this one has something that's important enough that everyone in the Gloryfire System will be attending, and even a few well informed outsiders. Moonglow dew."

At my blank look she smiled. "Moonglow dew can grant the user a point of Impact." I jolted at that, my eyes going wide. Giving Impact was a big fucking deal. I'd never seen anything that could increase it. Benny had even tried wishing for Impact before, my Beginner Wish Ability couldn't even make the attempt past giving the partial point needed to push someone into being an Ascendant in the first place. It was like trying to wish for Master level Skills. Just completely impossible with my rank.

Getting even one point of Impact essentially made you more than anyone else your rank, making you that much tougher and harder to hurt. It even stuck with you, because the amount of Impact a person gained when ranking up was set. Getting one point now meant you would ALWAYS be stronger than people your rank. I swallowed, aware now that this wasn't something to play around with. "So, what exactly do you want. We're obviously entering. Do you want us to take a dive or something?"

She chuckled. "Not at all. No need for any self-sabotage. Like I said, they'll be giving ten spots to the winner. We want three of them if that's you. We're relatively certain we can get the win ourselves, but if we can't, no reason not to hedge our bets a bit. You agree, and we leave. I'll give you the information you requested as a thank you. The Peace Lord can fuck off, I'm not scared of that asshat. My people are strong enough to deal with a couple F-rank hillbillies, and if he tries to touch me my guardian will smash him like a bug, which he knows."

I had the urge to shrug and agree, but one of my dads few lessons to me during our talks as a kid was never to show how much or little you valued the terms of an agreement. Every payment was simultaneously priceless and worthless until you figured out which option would benefit you the most. I pretended to think it over for a bit before grudgingly agreeing. "I can agree to that. But I want the same agreement. Four slots for my team if you win. You're already considering becoming my ally, why not just use this chance to cement an alliance?"

She stared for a few minutes before sighing. "I suppose if you manage to get through this you'll have proved your value here anyway. Fine. If you repel the attack without losing control of the circus I'll accept your terms. Consider it an audition. As for the information, there are more G-rankers here than I could bother to remember, but there are only three of consequence. Serenity, the Peace Lord's daughter, who inherited his ability, and a pair of hired mercenaries who are on the Titan Twenty named Beat and Sever. Their abilities are shockwaves and cutting respectively."

With that she turned and flipped her hood back up, heading for the exit to the dome. "It was nice meeting you, little cousin. Lets see exactly what you're capable of here, you AND your allies. I look forward to learning more about what you can do." She chuckled as she and her lackeys passed through the dome and out of sight, and I turned a worried look on Callie. Something told me if these people were so weak that Abel and Mel could handle them without issue, she wouldn't have been so interested to see what happened. There were only two of them in any case, and there was no telling if there were other strong fighters around besides those three. We needed to get out of here and go help.