There were easily a dozen G-rankers tapped to come with us down to  G-district, and the first thing I did when I saw them was ask Melinda  why there weren't more. "Ok, I appreciate the help for sure, but isn't  it just asking for trouble sending so few of them down help us? There  are hundreds of G-rankers in the major factions right? Won't they drown  us in bodies this way?" The last thing I wanted was to see all my new  allies killed off. I was pretty firmly convinced that Abel was  invincible in G-rank but that wouldn't save these people.

"Normally  yes." Melinda said with that ever present doting smile. "But not in  this case. While a full on war in G-district might be viable, it's also  attention grabbing. Normally it wouldn't matter if it grabbed attention,  the Peace Lord is paying people off as we talked about, so no one would  get involved even if a full scale army battle broke out. In this case  it's different though. With your revelation about your origins and the  origins of his backer, too much attention would bring in competitors for  your resources."

My eyes widened in understanding. "Ah,  so he's going to send his best, and you'll do the same. Smaller groups  of elite Ascendants to battle it out without draining resources that  would obviously be missed in the dark districts and bring in new  players." She gave me a startled look and I glared at her. "I'm not an  idiot you know. Just because I let Nightstrike call the shots and  recognize she's better at planning than I am doesn't make me stupid. I  notice plenty, I just mostly keep it to myself."

Which was  true. Despite the constant tinge of violence over my thoughts these  days I did think things through, my thoughts were just so scattered and  wandering that I didn't bother to say most of it out loud. I needed to  prioritize Focus. I kept meaning to try to even it out with my  Perception. I was hoping it would fix the whole wandering thoughts  thing. Too much input and not enough processing power to deal with it  was leading to lag in my thoughts that I couldn't afford. I'd gotten  some more points into it recently and that seemed to be helping though.

Melinda  gave me that warm smile again before turning to her people. "Well then,  I suppose I should introduce your companions. I don't have time to give  you a thorough run down on all of them, but these three are the leaders  of our younger generation." She pointed to a trio of Ascendants, two  men and a woman. One of the men was huge and pale with long hair and  intense amber eyes, the second was shorter with darker skin and high  cheekbones framing bright blue eyes. The last was the girl, an olive  skinned woman of middling height who looked incredibly athletic.

Melinda  pointed to the two men. "This is Baric and Croll." Then she pointed to  the girl. "This is Sloane, my apprentice. She's the strongest G-ranked  member of our organization. Her ability is Beginner Beast Embodiment,  and she can use it to assume aspects and body parts of her tamed  beasts." Her voice was proud as she pointed out her obvious favorite.  "Sloane, this is Solomon, a new guest elder of the Beast Lord Garden.  Despite his rank being similar to yours, he's a greatly capable person,  and I expect you to show him nothing but respect. Is that understood?"

The  green eyed girl nodded solemnly, intense gaze fixed on my mask as she  tried to give me a once over to see what made me so special. Her gaze  was intense and a little wild. I wondered how she stacked up to someone  like Abel. That was a hell of a power. My eyes flicked to the animals at  her side. A massive black fox and a small silver bird that perched on  one shoulder. They both gave me the familiar pressure that told me they  were G-ranked. Then I looked to the other two, Baric and Croll. "What  about those two? I'd love to hear about their abilities, if they're open  to sharing."

"Of course." Melinda said proudly. "Baric  shifts into a tiger-man hybrid, and Croll into a lizard-man. Their  alternate forms have other abilities they got through synergizing, but  those are the base forms. They're extremely potent. and are some of our  most powerful front line combatants. Full form shifting is rare. It  provides a bit of an advantage to taming beasts of a similar species as  well, though both of their animal partners are still H-ranked and are  being left at home to prevent them from being harmed in the upcoming  battles."

I paused, thinking back to Fang. "What's the  difference between someone with a form shifting ability and a racial  trait. I met a werewolf recently I think, but that was just an  assumption. His power might have been some form of shifting. Unless  being a werewolf is a form of shifting?" The line between some powers  was tough to spot sometimes, and since these people were experts in the  whole beast thing I might as well ask them while I had the chance.

Apparently  it was a good question, because Mel nodded like I'd pointed out  something important. "Well spotted. The major difference between a  natural shifter and someone with a racial trait like werewolf is that a  werewolf is always a werewolf. Baric and Croll are human when they're  human, and beast form when they shift. A werewolf possesses their  werewolf abilities in human form as well, though they're not as potent.  It's rare to find them out and about, but not unheard of. Still, I'm  surprised you met one here. I'd be interested in speaking to him."

That  didn't seem like a big deal, but it wasn't really my call, so I just  shrugged. "I'll extend the offer. I don't really have any say in what he  does, but I don't see a reason he wouldn't want to. That's the best I  can do though." Seeing that she was happy enough with that sentiment, I  moved on. "So, I take it these three will be the ones I'm going to be  working with most. In terms of...resource allocation?"

It  was hard to think of a way to obliquely hint at wishes and be  understood, but after thinking about it I realized I didn't have to. The  whole point of the guest elder position was to be able to act  semi-overtly without being questioned. From the explanation she gave  during the contract negotiation, guest elders were a mostly ceremonial  position given to people who had something to contribute but wanted  independence and secrecy outside the organization. Saying 'I'm doing  this don't ask about it' was fine. Plus the whole resource claim could  easily be explained away by an ability to acquire wishes made by others.

Melinda  nodded. She glanced over at the other nine G-rankers, having them  remove themselves from the area, and then activated the formation again,  this time with the three elites inside. "As our most promising seeds,  these three can be trusted. I won't tell them anything, I'll leave that  to you, but know they're all bound by fairly strict contracts as well as  being people I personally consider absolutely loyal."

I  weighted my options for a minute, before figuring that I'd have to tell  them something eventually, and inside the stealth formation was probably  the best spot anyway. I fixed my gaze on the three of them. "I have  access to a steady supply of wishes from the WCP main branch due to a  favor I did for an executive." I fed them the story Callie and I had  come up with to explain my access to wishes if push ever came to shove.  "I can, most interestingly to you I suspect, grant Skills and reallocate  points between stats to align your build more closely with your  preferences."

That got an approving smile from Melinda,  clearly happy I'd chosen to share. "Their main stats are Vitality,  Might, and Perception. Shifters tend to be mainly physically focused,  and Sloane needs plenty of Vitality to fuel her embodiment. I trust you  can work with that?" I grinned internally, though I only gave a solemn  nod to acknowledge the comment. That was perfect actually. My Fantasy  and Focus were both falling behind, with Creation being a distant third.  My Fantasy stat in particular was only twenty one, easily the lowest  stat I had.

The three Ascendants, for their part, were  wide eyed, and starting to look a bit excited. The idea of respeccing  was such a novelty that they hadn't even considered it. They were smart  enough to grasp the value of that gift, especially for someone still  early enough in their path that it would make a marked difference on  their still developing reputations, compounding the gains over time. It  had taken me a bit of time to notice that. I wondered if that meant they  had high Focus stats?

Apparently  hearing I could give them pretty much anything they wanted had made me  worthy of the treatment, because that appraising look I'd seen from  Sloane earlier had faded completely from her gaze. I'd figure out more  about their details later though, when we had actual time to grant some  wishes. For now having their respect (even if it was by proxy) was  plenty. I addressed my one final concern to Melinda. "So, how do we do  this? We need to make sure they don't send too many don't we? Do we  like...challenge them directly? Do we send them some kind of declaration  of war?"

"Gods  no." Melinda laughed. Covering it with a cough when she realized it  might have come across as rude. "Ahem, sorry. No. There's no need. This  is E-district. Every faction keeps an eye on what happens here. You  coming to meet us and possibly joining wasn't enough to make waves. But  the seeds moving out is bound to stir up some attention. We usually keep  them down here for personal training. It won't be enough to raise any  real red flags, but once Sanctuary Hall notices them heading for  G-district our position will be clear. They'll dispatch their own elites  soon after, as well as mobilizing any forces they have down there  already in reserve."

Which  meant the Jerks were finally going to come into play for real. Way  Crazy Wyatt wasn't the only G-ranker left in that crowd, and we'd be  facing the others. It was just lucky for us we had the Pavilion members.  I hadn't gotten a read on the total number of G-rankers down there, but  I knew we had at least three or four, depending on how combat capable  Cicero was. With the twelve represented here that was a solid force.  With a basic gameplan we officially decided to move out. Melinda took  down the formation and bid Sloane and the others goodbye and good luck,  and we all made our way to the elevators.

As  we mounted the lift, I sat down and considered exactly how thinks might  go from here. I didn't know how wars functioned in the WCP, not really.  I had the impression that anything I had learned should be taken with a  grain of salt though. There was a difference between stories and the  real thing, even in a world like ours. But the war itself wasn't my  biggest worry. This action had effectively declared my ability to stand  as a real threat to the other candidate, as well as made it clear I was  aware of her presence.

Something  told me with that challenge on the table she wasn't likely to stick to  the shadows. There was a good chance the coming war would be managed by  her directly. I didn't know what another candidate would be capable of,  but one thing was for sure. I needed to be as strong as possible before  that fight finally occurred. I couldn't afford to face a member of the  family with anything less than my best. It was a good thing I had all  these new clients to make wishes, because I needed to pad my stats quite  a bit, more than that though, I needed to train. It was time to see if  Abel would be willing to teach me directly.