We made it home earlier than expected all things considered, but it was still relatively late. Since we had a battle tomorrow we decided to knock out early, but before we did, I went to go check on Benny. My friend was sitting outside staring up at the stars, and I sat down next to him.

"So, want to talk to me about your meeting with Celine the other day?" I said casually. "I didn't ask because I wanted to respect your privacy."

His lips quirked up in a small smile. "So my privacy isn't important anymore?"

"Nah." I said solemnly. "It was never important, I just forgot that for a minute. Now I remember that I don't really give a shit when you don't want to talk about stuff so I figured I'd check in." I shot him a smile to let him know I was messing with him, but I didn't offer him an out. If he actually didn't want to talk about it, he'd just tell me to get lost. We were close enough not to need to walk on eggshells.

He snorted. "Thanks for that, dick." He went silent for a bit, obviously choosing his words, but I didn't rush him. "It was...weird. I know we weren't you and Callie with your constant affection and PDA, but I got used to us being...close, in our own way. Seeing her right there and acting like she was a stranger sucked."

"Then why do it?" I said seriously. "You know she wants you back. She turned on her family to help us out for you. Why not just...treat her like you always do?"

Shaking his head, he let out a long sigh. "Because it wouldn't be fair. I don't know if I can get over what she did. I want to. But I don't know if that's going to be enough yet. If I start being affectionate and acting like nothing has changed it'll make her think that I'm already over it all. That'll hurt her more. I may not be happy with her but I still care about her. I don't want to make her suffer for no reason."

I reached out to put my hand on his shoulder. "That's...shit man, that's so much more mature then I would ever be. When the fuck did you get so much more adult than I am?"

My best friend put on a profound expression. "One such as yourself can never understand my journey. Don't beat yourself up over your failure, someday you too will be as wise and farsighted as I." His faux condescending tone made me snicker, and I flipped him off.

"I've heard people shrink as they get older." I said with an annoying smirk. "Maybe there's some inverse correlation between wisdom and height. Did this new maturity start to show up once you noticed I was taller than you?" My tone was saccharine and it was my turn to get flipped off.

We talked a bit longer about how he was feeling, and I helped him work through a few things, but mostly it was just an excuse to vent. A lot of feelings had bubbled up for him when he saw her and he needed to let it out, banter and venting both played a big part in that process. Finally we said goodnight and I headed off to my room. Callie welcomed me with open arms (literally, the woman clings like a python in her sleep and I'm fairly sure she would have long since choked me to death if I wasn't so much bigger than her) and I finally drifted off to bed.

The next morning everyone seemed quite a bit more relaxed. Sure, we had a fight today, but we'd managed to take out three full teams from the tournament, which wouldn't change the round numbers, but DID mean that there would be three potential automatic wins available next round. Who knew, maybe we would get one of them.

I granted Rime's wishes, and she paid in Vitality Elixirs that I passed to Jessie, since Benny had hit his cap last time, bringing her Vitality up to a whopping two hundred sixty three. She ALSO had twenty five spare points of Might, presumably from her bond with Randall, allowing her physical strength to somewhat keep up with her stamina. At four hundred twenty eight stat points total, she was closer to the midway point of G-rank than I'd expected.

Once that was out of the way we headed in to the arena. We had a wait once we got to the ready room under the stands so I decided to ask something I'd been wondering about. "So once we get through round eight we're starting individual matches. Are they going to be the rapid fire daily setup like these are starting to be? Because with forty teams breaking down to one hundred sixty contestants there are more than enough arenas to hammer them out one day at a time."

Callie, who of course had done her homework on the tournament. Shook her head. "No. They'll be using four arenas for the early rounds. Ten matches per arena per day. Helps concentrate the audiences in preparation for the finals and semi finals. That means there'll be a four day break between the ninth and tenth rounds, assuming we get sent out at the beginning which seems likely."

I sighed in relief. I needed to get Jessie and Benny as close to the cap as possible before the tournament even ended, since that final month wasn't going to be nearly enough on its own. I'd be able to get them close, and with Randall helping Jessie an extra week or two might get me over the edge. Especially since once I ranked up again I'd have another daily wish. They were already taking jobs together to try to save up for the stats, and that was convenient since I needed cash for my new weapon.

Which I didn't have yet. Unfortunately. I had a few stockpiled contingencies that could help out here, but without my cane to act as a focus my combat capability had dropped drastically. Finally they called us out, and all of us filed through the gate, walking out onto the sand to find a familiar face.

The blonde haired, blue eyed captain of the Heavensong Tower gave us a friendly smile as we stepped out. "Oh. Hello all! Good to see you. I have to say I wasn't expecting to meet up with your lot so early." I froze at the sight of him, my veins filling with a cold sense of dread.

I had no idea why, honestly. Alec wasn't particularly tall or intimidating, and I doubted he was a Master Candidate or we'd have heard about it by now. Something about him was just...terrifying, though. He reminded me of Abel the few times I'd seen him upset, this sort of predatory edge to his amused gaze that made it seem like he could kill me without blinking.

Behind him stood the rest of his team, who I'd made the mistake of ignoring up to this point. A smaller blue eyed blonde girl with twin pontails, a tall dark haired girl with olive skin and serious brown eyes and a dark skinned man with a shaved head and an intense green stare, who was about the same height as Alec, but twice as wide at the shoulders.

Callie kept her cool, despite me feeling through the bond that she was just as wary as I was, and smiled back. "It'll be an experience I'll tell you that. Anyone who made it this far must be strong. I'm looking forward to our match. Hope you all don't disappoint us."

The blonde girl with the twin tails giggled. "Oh I doubt that'll be a problem. I bet this match won't last long enough for you to be disappointed."

"Lena." Scolded Alec lazily enough to make it clear he wasn't really scolding at all. "There's no need to antagonize our friends here. I'm sure they're very strong. I've heard of some of the teams they've beaten. I have no doubt that they can give us a decent work out." His tone was dripping with sincerity, and despite being almost sure he was mocking us, I couldn't really prove it. Alec was just one of those people that ALWAYS sounded like they were making fun of you.

The taller woman snorted. "Doubt it. Some backwater Master Candidate isn't enough to stop us. Besides, we can't lose any face for the church. We've kept ourselves out of the political nonsense so far, but if we don't make an example we're going to bring shame on the faction."

I grimaced at that. Fuck. The Church was involved here too. I'd been wondering where the last of the five factions was in all this, but I'd hoped we were lucky enough to miss them. Apparently not. I looked at Callie, using the bond to ask her if we should share about my mom.

There was no way to be sure that my mother's position would buy us any good will, but it certainly bought us BAD will amongst their opposition. She shook her head in a short, sharp motion. Which was fair, there were still cultists here, and finding out I was a 'heretic' was sure to make me a target. Though it made me curious. "If you're with the Church why haven't the cult members targeted you more specifically?"

I was sure they'd been attacked when we all had, but that wasn't the same as being hunted down like me. Granted a Saintess was pretty damn high up in the heirarchy of the church, but still.

Alec shrugged. "The lunatics do what they will. If I had to guess it would be because the Heavensong Tower's affiliation with the Curch is distant. We're raised to its tenets, but we're nominally in the Unity's sphere of influence. They probably don't count us. The Church doesn't have many teams here either, because we don't work with mercenaries, and there aren't many legacy factions like ours in this system."

Yeah, that sounded about right. Shame, I'd been hoping we could get some backup. Even if sharing in public like this wouldn't work I was sure Callie and I could find a way to tip them off to my bloodline without everyone and their mother finding out.

The muscular guy with the green eyes sighed. "Can we just start this? I don't feel like sitting around bantering. I didn't get near enough sleep last night. Having to do these every day is such a drag." His complaint was said with such soulcrushing boredom that I felt tired just listening to it.

The others just rolled their eyes. Lena, the blonde, pointed a finger at him. "Damn it Carlos. Can't you play along? We're supposed to be making an impression here. We'll never be taken seriously if everyone thinks we're lazy bums like you!"

Before he could respond, Alec cut them off. "Enough." The edge of amusement faded for a moment, replaced with a sharp edge. "We're in public. Deal with your nonsense later." He nodded solemnly to Callie. "Sorry about that. They can get carried away sometimes." He smiled menacingly. "To make it up to you, I'll end this quickly so we can all go home."

He tensed and was clearly about to move, when Abel's fist smashed straight out at him. He snarled and a tornado condensed around his own hand and he lashed out with a four fingered chop. The wind formed a massive blade and as it did, his hand caught fire, creating a slashing wave of golden fire. It didn't look like peak Intermediate, more like he was using wind and fire manipulation at the same time, but something was off about those flames. Whatever was going on, it split Abel's fist manifestation in half. Huh. Guess I was right. This was going to be a tough fight.