I was in a surprisingly good mood the next morning. I'd expected to  be worried or terrified, but the evening spent spending time with Callie  and Cass and Cark had mellowed my outlook immensely. Sure, things might  be less than ideal, but I wasn't in any more danger than I had been the  day before, hell, I was in less danger since I knew about what was  going on. I happily made my way to the large luxurious shower in my  bathroom and spent about an hour under pounding hot water, letting my  muscles soak in the heat and relaxation before hopping out and getting  dressed.

I got down to breakfast to find everyone eating  donuts someone had bought, and I snagged a jelly filled as was my usual  custom, taking a big bite of raspberry filled glazed pastry and enjoying  it as I dropped into the chair across from Callie, who was savoring an  eclair. She saw me looking as I sat down and smiled at me with a mouth  full of cream filling, croaking out. "Morning." In a muffled voice as  she ate, unwilling to stop devouring the cream filled pastry long enough  to swallow and talk, which wrung a laugh out of me.

I  chewed a bit, and actually swallowed before responding. "Morning. You  get the donuts?" She nodded happily, starting on another one, and I  interrupted her with a kiss, though I got a glare for snatching a bit of  her eclair as I did it. " So, we're heading down to E district today  right? Who should we bring with us? Or should it be just the two of us?  We could make a day out of it?" I had really been enjoying our date at  the circus until the impending doom had ruined it for us both.

I  felt a smack upside my head and turned to glare at Benny, who glared  right back. "You will NOT run off with your girlfriend and leave us in  the dark when you're dealing with a problem that could potentially kill  us all. We'll all go." He raised his chin pridefully, marching past us,  but accidentally slamming his shin into the table hard enough to get a  wince, even if it didn't do any real damage. His wolf stepped up behind  him, bumping into the back of his knees and sending him tumbling over  the canines back, spilling him one the floor as he tried to steady his  person.

Benny looked torn between laughing and scowling,  but he settled laughing, pulling the 'helpful' wolf down to nuzzle his  face. Callie finished eating with a chuckle, but as she swallowed she  shook her head. "Not all sadly. While the puppies might be welcome in G  district, tamers aren't allowed to bring animals or monsters down to E  district without a bunch of expensive permits we really don't have time  to get. Since the wolves can't come along I think Jessie should stay  with them. We don't want them to be alone and bored in the house. I  trust them not to hurt anyone of course, even if someone was here, but  it would be sad for them."

She looked at Jessie when she  said that, and the tiny blonde sighed, but nodded. "Alright. Cass can  help me play with them. I wanted to teach them some games anyway. They  would be great at hide and seek considering their senses." Her eyes  gleamed with mischief, and I suspected Cass wouldn't actually be aware  that the wolves were playing hide and seek with them until she got found  and became it. Still, if she was taking care of Cass that left us with  another possible companion.

At my glance Cark, who was  eating a bear claw, chuckled. "Hey, I'm in. I normally wouldn't have the  clearance to get into E district. I've heard of the place but you need  to be a higher class member of the WCP to get in. I assume you have that  covered?" He raised an eyebrow in amusement and I just snorted,  reaching into my pockets to slip out the black card and show it to him.  He whistled at the sight of it and I chuckled. I'd been wondering when  the thing would come in handy again, I hadn't used it since I got to  Rajak.

It made sense to limit access to E district.  Granted they couldn't have the whole place run by E rankers, there  weren't enough of them and they were too powerful for that anyway. Since  I knew people could go down there regardless of rank, level of  membership seemed like a decent enough way to control access. I was sure  the WCP had plenty of defensive measures that kept out low level  members, otherwise what was the point of the cards. I wondered what  level you had to be to get into E district? I'd be fine to get us all in  regardless since I had the highest level access.

After we  finished eating we all got ready to leave. I was showered and dressed,  but the others weren't so I hung out in the living room waiting for the  others to get ready and playing with Jin. Despite not knowing any games  according to Jessie, my wolf was pretty damn intelligent for an animal. I  was able to teach him to intercept thrown snacks pretty easily, and it  was pretty entertaining to throw stuff down the length of the room and  watch him bolt over and leap up to snatch it from the air.

Finally  though everyone got back from getting ready and we headed out, taking  the car to the station where we would be able to take a canister down to  E district. Parking was a nightmare, since this was pretty early in the  day, but we found a place to leave the car in a nearby parking  structure and headed down into the station to catch our tube down. When  we got there though, we realized something important. We didn't know  which tube was heading for E district, so we had to do some poking  around.

We finally found the tube down to E district a  little while later. It hadn't been that difficult to spot with some  searching, though it was much smaller than the others which threw us  off. Still, the much more compact but much nicer and better furnished  elevator compartment was easily noticeable because of it's quality and  elegance, standing out from the areas around it for its luxury.

When  we located it I was easily able to spot a small scanning pad to one  side of it. I slipped out my black card, swiping it in front of the  screen. The lamp and skull insignia etched into the card glowed dimly  and briefly with a purple light that reminded me of the flames my power  used to communicate, and an identical symbol appeared on the screen just  before the doors of the elevator chamber slid open. We all stepped  inside, not in a hurry and took a seat on one of the plush and tasteful  couches arrayed around the exceptionally detailed decorative carpet  lying in the middle of the room.

The door slid shut, and  no one else appeared to be coming, because there was a subtle vibration  and the chamber began to slowly descend. It was barely noticeable, even  with my Perception, so I had to admit this thing was pretty well made,  but then, the other one had been too. This was just much more luxurious.  It made sense that E rankers and their minions would have the best  means of transportation though. As we descended, I turned to Callie  curiously. "So, considering how big these districts are, how do they all  fit under the city. Also I feel like we're just going straight down.  Where exactly IS E district?"

She shrugged. "No one is  actually sure. The WCP goes out of their way to keep the trips from  being obvious or detectable from the access shafts, at least not from  inside the chambers. It's an extra layer of security that no one knows  where it is. Most people think that E district is deeper than the others  though, to keep it safer and harder to find. I do know it's not as  large as some of the others. I think F is the biggest actually, there's  more G rankers, but they make up a smaller portion of the economy. The F  ranked Ascendants aren't the wealthiest group, but the size gap means  the money the E rankers spend tends to be more condensed."

I'd  never seen the F district, but the logic made sense to me at least.  Anyway, I was curious about how deep underground the place actually was,  or if it even was that deep. I knew that elevators in WCP facilities  didn't always just move up and down, the one at the Velan branch hed  moved back and forth too. Regardless we should be there pretty soon, and  I was looking forward to seeing what E district was like. We made small  talk as we waited, and after what seemed like twenty minutes or so I  felt that same barely detectable vibration as the chamber slid to a stop  before the doors slowly slid open.

I  stepped out of the chamber and onto a platform that was nothing like  the one in the station. Where that one was crowded and functional, the  number of people here was limited, but even more than that, the platform  was much to beautiful to ever be considered anything but artwork. We  were standing on a large white marble edifice with stairs leading down  the side. The marble was veined with black, and there was gold trim  around the edges of the steps and the platform itself.

Off  in the distance there were neatly organized streets of huge buildings  made from the same material. Despite being the same style of  architecture and material, each building was easily discernable from its  neighbors from the unique gold filagreed designs sitting in the  triangular face of the upper building above a series of identical white  marble columns. It looked like some kind of ancient temple complex, and  it was absolutely breathtaking to behold, but that wasn't the most  amazing thing.

Past  the mesa the complex sat on, and easily visible in the distance, was a  huge sprawling forest. The forest didn't look wild or untamed, but  peaceful and idyllic, and the man visible gaps in the trees showed  playful animals and gorgeous scenes of nature. More so than that though,  what really made me gape was the sky. As in...there was a sky. And a  sun. Underground. At least I was pretty sure we were underground. And  despite that fact there was a deep blue sky overhanging the entire  place, with lazy gentle clouds floating by.

It  was...paradise. Every single facet of the place worked together in a  sort of overwhelming harmony that was almost intoxicating, like we were  living in some kind of good dream. We all stood there and stared in awe  around the place, absolutely thunderstruck by how peaceful and pleasant  it was. Even the other Ascendants on the platform seemed happy and  relaxed and refused to start any trouble with one another, politely  greeting anyone they passed with a smile or just ignoring them at the  very worst.

I  turned to the others. "Ok. This is...interesting. I think this is my  new favorite place." I looked at Callie, who was still staring in awe,  having obviously never been here. "Cal, you're the boss here, what are  we doing first?" She turned to me, seeming to be knocked out of a  reverie, literally having to shaking her head to dislodge the  distraction. She smiled and handed me a piece of paper, and when I took  it and scanned it I saw it was a map. I had no clue where she'd gotten  it, but I did see what was circled. Apparently we were going to visit  the Flame Riot Militia first.