Getting a meeting with an E-ranked member of the Unity was surprisingly easy. I'd expected to have to go through channels and maybe bribe some people, but we managed to get something on the books without any trouble once they realized who Callie was. Apparently her well known hatred for her dad as well as the whole scene at the opening ceremonies was more than enough to get us in the door.

Despite the ease, we still had to work around their schedules, so we had a few hours to kill before going for Benny to get his wishes in. We had to space them out because of how much they took out of him, but we got them all done. One triple strength tranq blow, two triple strength density shifted blows, and two spider leg attacks, bringing me to a flat ten in each, for twenty points (my new daily max). He had all the points added to Focus, bringing him up to a hundred thirty three points in that stat, making it his highest,at least until he could even up Might.

"I still think I should go with you." Said my friend belligerently. "I've been getting left out of everything lately, it's total bullshit. Jessie and I can still be useful, even if we aren't in the tournament."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know man. But this isn't tournament business really. I mean, it kind of is, but it's mostly Callie's family stuff. I'm only going for moral support and because my ability might be an asset we can leverage. Nobody is downplaying what you and Jessie can do, hell without you I'm pretty sure Rahm would have killed me, but this isn't a place you can help. I know it sucks, but that's what all the stat gains are for right? Just work on your soul strength, now that we actually know what the hell we're aiming for with that it'll be much easier to keep track of."

He grimaced. "Don't remind me. Eight percent into red after all the training I've done. Honestly it's soul crushing. I thought I'd already overtaken you. Not to mention neither of us is even close to breaking orange like Abel has. Is Zeke sure about those measurements?"

"Not really." I said with a shrug. "He was ballparking it. Not like he has a skill for soul reading or something, he says he can just kind of tell from experience. There's a special piece of gear you can get that measures the soul, but they're expensive and hard to get. For the moment we just have to deal with the estimates. As for catching up..." I shrugged. "I've been training hard for months on this, it's obvious that you would be a bit behind. Coming that close to catching up after just a week or two shows how much of a bullshit advantage you have with that belt."

That at least got a smirk. Before he could say something annoying though, Callie's voice cut through the house. "Shane! What's the hold up? We've got to go. We have a meeting with Frostbite. She was more than willing to meet once I got ahold of her and she found out who I was, but I still had to actually reach her. I got in touch with Cold Snap and he agreed to put us through....for a fee. so we can't miss the appointment. We might not be able to get another one."

That didn't shock me. Cold Snap was a mercenary asshole. If he hadn't been he wouldn't have worked with Aiden in the first place. But since he wasn't the one doing the actual brainwashing, and because we couldn't afford to have TWO E-rank Unity executives planning for enemies (not to mention that he actually fought with us against Aiden) we'd mostly let things lie. Given how we met it was actually surprising he was even willing to go that far.

I sighed and nodded to Benny. "Alright man, looks like we're out. Don't worry too much about all the politics, just focus on your training. I have a feeling we're going to need all the soul strength we can get."

Jessie was driving us to the meeting, though she was just dropping us off and coming back later. As we drove there we sat in silence for a while. Eventually Callie shot me a concerned look. "He's worried about you. I mean, we all are, but you two are close right? It must be hard for him to see you in so much danger and not be able to help."

"Honestly I'm almost glad for it." I admitted. "Seeing you in so much danger already terrifies me. Having one less person to worry about is kind of a relief." She snickered at that, and I shot her an apologetic smile. "Makes me wanting to do this even stupider doesn't it?"

She just shrugged. "It's fine, I knew you weren't too bright when we got together. At least you're pretty to look at." Jessie, who was pretending not to listen from the front seat, tried unsuccessfully to muffle her giggles at that, but I just rolled my eyes.

"No respect." I grumbled. "But seriously, it just feels different. You've had your whole life to train for this, it's easier to put my faith in your abilities. But Benny...he's Benny. My best friend. It's not that I don't have faith in him, it's just...different."

She smiled at me as she reached out to squeeze my hand. "I get it. You grow up with someone, it's hard not to remember their flaws. Doesn't mean you don't love them, just means you don't have them up on a pedestal. I don't begrudge you some worry, Shane. You don't need to explain yourself to me."

It was hard not to feel guilty anyway. Like I should be just as reluctant to let her be part of this. Which made me feel like an asshole for pulling her into it anyway. But that wasn't a productive line of thought so I decided to focus on what would be useful right now. "So..." I said, changing the subject. "Tell me about Frostbite. I assume you did some research into her. This is going to be your show for the most part."

She smiled fondly at me. "I know it is. And yes, I did plenty of research. There's a lot out there on her. Like I mentioned Frostbite is famous for being a pretty biased person. She takes care of her own first and everyone else second. In some ways that isn't ideal, but it makes her an excellent person to be in an alliance with. If she decides to take your side, she follows through. Not sure if that's recursion or just her way of maintaining her reputation, but either way it's good for us."

"Assuming we can actually get her to commit to working with us." I pointed out. "No guarantee's she'll be willing. She's one of your dads rivals?"

Callie snorted at that. "There are more than a few of them. But yes, she's definitely up there on the list. His tendency to try to promote his own people to positions of power out of paranoia is inconvenient to someone like her. Part of taking care of her own subordinates is helping them accrue power, and the old man doesn't share well. Add in the fact that she's considered pretty powerful among the top brass, and she's too much of a threat for him to ignore."

"How does that even work in the Unity?" I asked. "Like in the WCP people like that try to undermine and kill each other by proxy, but the Unity has an image to maintain, how do they act against each other?"

This whole thing was kind of a headache for me, I was glad this meeting was mainly Callie's thing. I was just going to be a bargaining chip if we needed it. "Politics." She said tiredly. "There are a lot of ways to compromise someone's power base, I won't get into it now, we don't have the time. But she'll still step in personally if needed, which is what we're looking for. We need insurance against enemy F-rankers without dragging the WCP into a regional war."

I nodded in acknowledgement. I knew that already, but if she needed to talk things out to remain calm I was happy to listen. I could feel her anxiety through the bond, a bit of repetition was the least she deserved. "So where is this meeting anyway? I forgot to ask." I hadn't really cared to be honest. Callie would have mentioned if we were walking into something dangerous, and I preferred the surprise if I could get it.

"It's called the crystal palace." Callie said, her tone shifting to something a bit more excited. "Frostbite built it herself out of specialized ice. Never melts, not too slippery. It's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. It's a huge tourist attraction. Unlike the WCP the Unity E-rankers tend to be spread out throughout the city, each one with their own territory to manage and control. Keeps them out of each other's hair."

That was probably a better system in some ways, but I could see why the WCP wouldn't use it. Because of the existence of the deeds, no one actually owned territory in the WCP. You could lease it, but in the end the WCP was the true ruler. Without the restrictions placed by the Unity and their own reputations, letting the E-rankers establish their own territory was more likely to cause frequent bloody battles among civilians. While the WCP wouldn't care as much about what people thought about their methods, that would be a waste and prevent the rise of lower rankers.

I knew that renown among Ascendants was more powerful than renown from mortals, so raising plenty of low rankers to feed the machine was important. It was natural for the WCP to make sure they had a place to grow. Hell, that was the whole point of planets like this wasn't it? Lots of mortals to feed the low rankers, and once you outgrew that you headed up to a higher ranked spot.

Shaking my head, I tried to focus, I got existential when I was nervous, and I really was nervous about this. Despite this being Callie's meeting to succeed or fail in, I wanted this first one to work out. The longer we waited the more danger we were in. Not to mention Callie would feel so much better knowing she secured us aid on her own merits if we didn't need it. Her having a way to fight back against her dad and the other dangers in our lives would mean a lot to her, I could sense that easily.

As the car finally came to a stop, I checked my mask and hopped out. Turning to Jessie as I did, I said. "Alright head out. We'll be done in probably an hour, you have any places nearby to hang while you wait?"

She waved me off. "There's a plant nursery I wanted to check out about ten minutes from here. I looked it up when Nightstrike gave me the address. Go to your meeting. I trust you guys to do your best for us." As I turned to leave she said. "Hey." I froze, focusing back on her. "Benny does too. And you should trust him more. None of us are the same people we were when this started. That's kind of the point."

Her voice wasn't reproving or condescending, just matter of fact, but I slumped a bit all the same. "Yeah, you're right. I'll...I'll keep it in mind. See you in a while." I shut the door and the car lifted off the ground, speeding away and leaving us alone in front of the crystal palace. "Alright." I said nervously. "Let's go meet the ice queen."