It took about forty minutes to pack all the gold and artifacts back into the box and return it to the bag. I debated keeping the cane out for myself, but since it was communal I could probably use it as payment for a wish so I decided to wait. Once we had everything set up Callie and I walked over to sit on the edge of the open top floor of the hatchery, staring out into the forest. It was still dark out, we'd come back mid afternoon and slept for hours, putting us firmly in the middle of the night at the moment, and it was absolutely breathtaking looking up at the stars out here, as usual.

This view wasn't the same as the one from our first night out here, because not only could we see the night sky, but the forest out into the distance below it, and the whole thing, heaven and earth, had a sort of serene balance to it that just eased my heart. I put an arm around my girlfriend and she laid her head on my shoulder as we watched the night. We even saw a shooting star, and I took the opportunity to make a silent wish to get more nights like this with her. The silliness of wishing on a star when I could literally grant magical wishes wasn't lost on me, but my power didn't work for me so honestly it was probably the best I would ever be able to do.

We sat together like that for a while, just relaxing, but eventually I decided to be the one to break the ice and mention the hunt. I knew Callie well enough to know it was on her mind anyway, she was just avoiding being the one to broach the topic because she knew I wanted to rest. That said, talking didn't mean we needed to go out and hunt down materials, and I knew that forcing her to avoid the topic while she was dwelling on it would have the opposite effect of helping her relax. Better to talk out our next steps so we could move on with our day off. "So, what do you want to do next?"

I felt her shoulders slump and had to stifle a chuckle. Sure enough she'd been focused on our next move and had just been holding back so as not to ruin the evening. Her slight sigh of relief made me even more sure of my choice to mention it. "I say our next move should be to scour the internet for local searches for Ascendant materials. If we can track down some other teams who have been looking for any of the things we just found we can fill out our own list without having to go on a bunch more raids. I doubt we can completely avoid moving out again, but if we play this smart we can put a serious dent in out list without having to do any more fighting too soon."

I'd assumed that was the direction she was leaning, and honestly I appreciated it. I wasn't the only person who felt burned out after the mess in the Necropolis, the others needed some down time too, and this was a good way to make progress without burning ourselves out. "Sounds like a plan. Do you have any leads so far? I have zero idea how to hack anything so I don't know what the time frame or effort needed for that is. Speaking of, when did you learn hacking anyway? It seems like something you would have needed to spend a lot of time on."

Callie sat up, chuckling to herself. "Oh I'm not a hacker. I just use a bunch of premade programs and tools to accomplish certain tasks. The types of message boards that freshmen at the Academy have access to aren't particularly well defended so I can get away with it, especially with Battys ring. It doesn't take long but I don't have any leads so far. We just found out what everything is, and I didn't recognize any of the names from the brief look over I gave my information. Nothing from our own list obviously, but we'll need to feel things out to see if anyone else needs any of it."

She seemed unsure, and I gave her a confident smile, my mask sitting off to one side as we cuddled, same as hers. "Hey, don't worry so much. There can't be an infinite number of Ascendant materials out here. The chances that one of those items are on someone's list is crazy high." I decided dwelling on this wasn't conducive to relaxing after all, so I decided to change the subject. "What about our training. We can do some Balam lessons later tonight. The geas shouldn't be pressuring you since I have the forms down and just need to practice them, but it's still something we can do together."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Only one or two dates in and you're already going for 'lets wrestle' huh? I'll have you know I'm not that kind of martial artist." She gave me a teasing grin, but it faded into a solemn expression. " But seriously. If you want direct training you need to master the forms first. Half the benefit of Balam is its adaptability. If you try to spar with me without establishing your own style first you're going to adopt my habits. The forms are a guide to help maximize the individuality of your combat technique."

I could tell from her serious expression that she meant every word of it. She was worried about training me incorrectly and giving me bad habits. I gave her a reassuring smile. "Ok, no problem, I'll put in the work. We can train later." I leaned in to give her a slow kiss. "I prefer spending time with you relaxing anyway. We don't always have to be fighting or training, and yes I realize how absurd that is coming from me. Despite how much fun it is I think we both spend a bit too much time focused on cultivation."

She just chuckled a bit, snuggling back against me. "You're not wrong." She frowned a bit, her face taking on a pensive cast. "I know I tend to hyper focus. I spent such a long time wanting to prove myself, to show everyone I could be strong on my own despite who my father was. I know intellectually that it doesn't matter, that I should be comfortable just enjoying my life, but some part of me still feels like when people look at me as see how strong I am, they give him the credit, and I absolutely hate it. I feel like I'll never get out of his shadow."

If my dad ever did anything I approved of it was not telling me about his cultivation. Seeing Callie so distressed after years of both she and everyone else comparing her to her father I could only be glad I didn't have that same drive. Not that I didn't want to get strong, but despite wanting to ask my dad some very pointed questions, I wasn't driven by the need to surpass him. I was fully confident it would happen eventually, but it wasn't a priority for me. Not like it was for Callie.

I gave her a reassuring squeeze. "I get it. But you're on a whole different track than he is now. We're going to keep getting stronger and leave this planet behind, and in another few years you're going to have completely eclipsed him. This isn't me doing the boyfriend thing and saying 'oh you're going to be better than he could ever be' at this point, given the team we have and the effort you're putting in this is basically objective fact. Your father is a nonentity to you at this point, the rest of the planet just hasn't figured that out yet."

She gave a vicious grin. "In some ways that's even better. I kind of want to leave before it becomes obvious. I want to be long gone and let stories about me spread back here, so he can only sit around and seethe about being known as Nightstrikes father and nothing else. He spent decades crafting his reputation, and being forced to acknowledge that I'd done more for it just by existing is going to drive him crazy. Especially given I've made my disdain for him pretty well known, so it's not like he's going to get the credit for it."

That got a laugh out of me. "See. So despite how it feels it's ok to take breaks. To let yourself recharge. You're not just a hero you're a person, and it's ok to enjoy that. I've been getting as caught up in all this as you, but I feel like if we just live for getting stronger then what are we getting stronger for? Protecting people we love and helping them accomplish goals is good, but we need to have lives too or what the hell is the point of living for such a long time. If we never ranked up again we would both still live for almost a thousand years."

While Impact slowed aging, Vitality kept you at perfect health FOR that age. In nine hundred and sixty years I would be the physical equivalent of a hundred year old, but I would be the healthiest damn hundred year old imaginable. It didn't expand the lifespan as much as make living to the absolute maximum possible, but still even independent of the Impact mechanic most Ascendants could live to the anatomical age of a hundred to a hundred and twenty before dying of old age, and quality of life before that happened was pretty damn good too.

But all that lifespan meant nothing if I just used it to grind away and become stronger. I'd been too focused on the part of my future plans where I got stronger and had access to more places, and I'd overlooked that in order to actually enjoy being a powerful explorer who went out and saw things, I had to enjoy actually SEEING them. Living for some hypothetical future adventure that would be better than all the others was a stupid way to do things. I needed to enjoy the ones I was already having just as much, and that meant savoring moments like this.

Callie wasn't exactly working on the same life plan as me, but I could tell she wanted to slow down a bit too. Now that she didn't need to worry about surpassing her dad, she was trying to live in the present more too, and I wanted to help her with that as much as I could. Hell all of our friends could probably use a bit more of that. We were all either looking forward or looking back, and I was pretty sure it wasn't good for anyone not to be able to live in the now.

In some ways I'd overcorrected for my past aimlessness. I needed to find a middle ground between living with zero idea of what I wanted to do, and focusing constantly on my future goals. The past and the future were important, but not as important as the present. I made a decision, standing up and stretching, I pulled Callie to her feet. "Let's go swimming." She raised a questioning eyebrow at me and I laughed. "There's a creek over there we've been completely ignoring. Just staring at it for no reason. Let's get everyone together and go for a swim in the moonlight."

She giggled at my ridiculousness. "I'm pretty sure deciding to just have a life isn't something you can rush. But I'm game I guess. I haven't been for a swim in ages. I'll go get the others." She leaned up to give me a quick kiss and headed down to talk to the rest of the team. She didn't wear her mask, but honestly I approved of that. I wasn't going to wear mine either. Living in the now meant appreciating our friends. Everyone here had earned my trust after all we'd been through. Solomon had been through a lot with these people, now I felt like I could introduce them to Shane.