We talked over meeting with Maria about the wish, but I realized no one had explained to her about how it worked it, and if I offered her one I couldn't tell her to wish for an ability without compromising it we decided to make that a tomorrow plan. Today we were going in to see Stella and Cap at the guild. Amelia was coming with us to do her Intake, but other than that it was just Jessie, Callie, Benny, Celine, and I. Cass and Cark decided to sit things out with Zeke and Alexander at home, since they weren't Unity.

Celine, as a member of the Academy, was welcome of course, and Benny seemed excited to see the Valen branch of the Unity as much as to show it to her. "This is going to be amazing!" He said as we all sat together on the bus. "I've never really spent time at the guild, except for that time you got kidnapped by a psychopath and we were waiting for you to wake up." He said to me cheerfully. "Understandably I didn't do much sightseeing there at the time."

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry my near death experience ruined your day trip. I'm sure this one will be better." I briefly worried Jessie might be upset at the flippant joke about Stricture, given what he'd done, but apparently a combination of the fact that he was dead now and the fact that we were planning to bring back her brother made it much less stressful to think about. Speaking of Jessie. "Oh hey, Agria, are we meeting Sparkdove here? I figured she'd want to spend time with you while we're in town."

Sparkdove was Jessie's brother's friend Lindsey, who had been on a team with him before his death. They'd been close, and after he'd died, Lindsey had taken it upon herself to look after Jessie as best she could. They'd kept in touch via scan ring after we headed to Rajak, as far as I knew, though Jessie didn't talk about their conversations much. I got the feeling she confided a lot of the things she liked to push down in her childhood friend. She'd been a lot better since we'd talked about bringing Alan back, but everyone had bad days.

Our blonde teammate lit up at the question. "She is! She's been taking a more active role in the guild since we left. I was so happy to see her when we touched down, but we didn't get to spend much time together, so this will be awesome. Cap is going to be meeting us there too, right?"

Callie answered this one with a grin. "Yup, and not just him. He's been spending all his time with Blue Fox since we left. I think those two are FINALLY dating. Honestly watching them dance around each other for years was getting frustrating for pretty much everyone. I was beginning to think Stella was going to have to assign him a mission to finally ask her out before he would get around to it."

Amelia just laughed. "Oh gods, I remember those two coming over to the house. It's nice to know they ended up together. Ian was always a good boy. I liked his mother quite a bit. I always thought picking her as successor was the only thing your father did right when he was in charge here. Paul was hopeless at paperwork. Stella did all of that for him anyway. She deserved to be recognized for her contributions to the guild."

It was weird to hear about Stella when she was younger, but thinking about it, despite her youthful appearance (especially now) Amelia was in her forties. She was part of the generation before Stella took over. Though that brought up another question I'd had. "Why didn't Harvest take over? She's G-rank, but I'm pretty sure she's at the higher end. I bet if she became Guild Master she could have broken through, and since she grew up with you she'd have had seniority right? Why did Stella get tapped?"

"Oh that." Amelia said dismissively. "Paul didn't ask because he knew Alyssa would say no. Hell, if she wanted, she could have taken over before he did. Alyssa has always been good with people, but she's also not an ambitious person. She likes her woods and interacting with people at the grove. She doesn't want to be in charge of anything. She just wants to enjoy her life."

Jessie nodded. "That's true. Alan mentioned a few times that he wished she'd be more active in the field. It just isn't her scene though. I think she partly bowed out because she didn't want to rank up. F-rank comes with a lot of attention in Valen. If she got there she would be forced to interact with the higher level factions whether she liked it or not. I got the impression catching up with her that she's more than happy to stay where she is."

That almost reminded me of Abel in some ways. It was interesting how many reasons some people seemed to find not to rank up. It was a good reminder that not everything in life was about progression. Finally, the bus made it to the guild hall, and we climbed out. I stopped outside, staring up at the building with a smile. It had only been a few months since I first stood here for my intake, and so many things had changed. I had new friends, a girlfriend, power, and I knew things about myself and my family I never could have imagined.

It looked so different now, having seen what I'd seen. Smaller and less impressive in some ways, but more special in others because this was where I came from. It still looked like a courthouse, with columns and a marble facade, but it didn't look nearly as large or imposing as it had the first time. Not with buildings like the Unity headquarters in Rajak to compare it to. We headed inside, Callie pointing things out to Benny and Celine since this was their first visit aside from the wait to find out if I was alive for Benny. She seemed just as excited to be back as I was.

Ian met us downstairs in costume, alongside Blue Fox, who I didn't know very wall. A tall, friendly girl with bright blue streaks in her blonde hair that matched her cerulean eyes, along with a wide infectious smile. She cheered in excitement as she saw us, or rather one of us in particular, as she slammed into Callie, sweeping my girlfriend up in a crushing hug. "Nightstrike! It's so good to have you back, we really missed you." While Blue Fox was pretty tall for a woman at five foot ten, Callie was on the short side for anyone, a full foot shorter than the energetic blonde.

It was amusing to see my kickass girlfriend who was on the high end of G-rank manhandled by an H-ranker, but Callie just smiled fondly and squeezed her back. "Nice to see you too, Fox." She nodded over to Ian. "Cap, I see the two of you are as close as ever. Did you actually bite the bullet and finally ask her out? I was almost positive, but it's hard to tell with you to so I figured I'd ask."

Ian just rolled his eyes, giving me a hand shake before getting an enthusiastic hug from Jessie, and then a more measured one from Amelia. "Yes. We're dating. We started going out last month, and not that it's any of your business, but SHE asked me."

Callie spat a curse. "Shit. I owe Stella five chits. I had you being the one to finally get up the guts to ask. Why must you always find new ways to hurt me." She shot Blue Fox a wide smile. "Not that I'm not happy for you guys, I'm glad one of you has a spine at least. I'm just annoyed at losing the money. So, why, don't we show Celine and Clockwork around. Actually..." She paused, turning to Celine. "Do you not have a codename? I just realized that."

Celine chuckled. "No. I don't use the heroic cultivation system. Where I'm from we don't really use them. I just go by my regular name, same as I don't use a mask. Still, I'm on good terms with the Unity branches on this planet, so a tour should be fine. I'm interested to see how things work here."

"Wait." Ian said, eyes widening. "Are you an elf? Like a real one? I saw the ears but I figured it was some kind of Skill or ability based change. Like some people have oddly colored hair. That's so cool!" We all looked at him in amusement and he flushed. "I've never met an elf before ok? Only low level fae like Suki. Elves are cool." He stood there awkwardly for a minute as we stared at him before huffing. "Oh shut up, let's just go."

Blue Fox, or rather, Clarissa, snickered and put an arm over his shoulder. "It's ok sweetie. I'm sure you aren't the first nerd Celine has met." She kissed him on the cheek, smiling sweetly at Ian as he gaped in betrayal, and then grabbed Callie and dragged her ahead of us into the building.

I stepped up next to my former team leader. "Oh, I like her. Just sorry I didn't get to meet her when I was in town the first time. How've you been boss man? You seem happy, mortification at being a 'nerd' notwithstanding. Things been going ok here? With the Jerks gone I bet the city has been quieter."

We started walking, Celine and Benny catching up with Callie, with Jessie trailing behind. Ian grimaced. "Less than you would think. Mr. Jack-tastic was a lunatic, but his whole brand was being MOSTLY nonthreatening. There were a few psychos like Ronnie mixed in there, but for the most part the jerks were more zany than actually threatening. With him gone, some of the other gangs in the city have been moving to hold some of that territory."

I hadn't been expecting that. "Can they even manage that? Without an F-ranker how would they be able to keep up with the Queen of Hearts or The Nobody Man. I'd have figured the bigger factions would be snatching up the free territory to split between them."

"Some of it." He admitted with a sigh. "But there are limits to what they can comfortably hold. They're fighting over the prime real estate, but that leaves turf wars popping up in the smaller and less important parts of open territory. Granted, the bigger gangs will probably just annex anything that gets taken later, but that's its own kind of benefit." He shook his head absently. "Not your problem, kid. You have stuff to worry about already. Leave that to us. Mom is excited to see you. Her little investment. She was over the moon when you won the freshman scavenger hunt at the Academy. Hasn't stopped bragging about it since."

With the F-rankers from the capital coming to support Amelia I doubted the political situation would stay too unsteady. I flushed a bit at the other comment though. "Wait, bragging? About me? I mean, that's really nice, but I didn't know she cared that much."

He just laughed and clapped me on the back. "Of course. You and Callie represent Valen on the world stage. Now she gets to tell everyone how she has such a good eye for talent because she got you into that contract early. Plus a not insubstantial amount of gratitude mixed in for catching Stricture, and a bit of guilt. She's definitely team Solomon though. She'll be glad to see you home." I smiled a bit under my mask at the words. Not just because Stella was proud of me, which felt...weird, but good. But also because he was right. I did feel like I was home.