We headed home a few hours later, both in a surprisingly good mood. Lauren and Amber had actually gotten Callie to be pretty friendly once she and Ashley were banned from speaking and by the end of the night I think everyone had fun. I'd have expected the attempted ass kicking and reputation bomb to have stepped on toes, but everyone just kind of blew it off as the cost of doing business. Heroes vs villains. I really didn't get the way the Unity worked. But if it was good for them they were welcome to the weirdness.

When we got back to the house, Amelia was waiting up for us, though just her, and for a second I thought this might be a parent thing. I read moms did that after a long night sometime? I wasn't sure, I'd never really had a long night, and the very few things that might count Zeke hadn't cared much about. He wasn't the helicopter type. I quickly realized though, that this wasn't some curfew policing weirdness, she was waiting up to talk to me about her wish. She was finally ready to get powers.

She gestured for both of us to sit. "Hey you two. Good to see you. I wanted to talk to Shane, Cal, you're free to stay, but try not to weigh in too much. This is between me and him, ok?" Her tone was gentle, but very firm, and Callie nodded solemnly at the statement, just excited to have her mom step on the path. Amelia turned back to me. "So, how much control do I get here. Can I wish for a specific power?"

I gave a shrug. "All wishes depend on what you can pay. I can't really give much advice without compromising the process. I can say that I can give you most Abilities at this point, I expect. Probably nothing like...clan specific, because of the perception of exclusivity, but if you want a specific power, as long as it's minor it should be fine. I can give you a shadow power, if that's what you mean."

"Oh, gods no!" Amelia said, with a loud snort. At Callie's hurt look, she winced at her own outburst. "Sweetie. I love you, you know that. But I'm perfectly aware of why your father left. Don't get me wrong, the man was miserable to live with, and I'm well past being bitter about it, but I have no desire to invite him back into my life by becoming a part of his twisted dynastic fantasies. I can't think of a faster way to make Paul show up at my door than to awaken a shadow ability. I literally want to get as far away from that as I possibly can."

Callie's hurt faded a bit into resignation. "That's...fair. He really has zero concern for other people, I could see him showing up to try to get you back if you got shadow abilities. I'm already getting stronger, in his mind, you developing abilities would make you even more suited to be the mother of his child. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. So, the opposite then? Maybe some kind of light based power?"

She seemed to be warming to the idea now that she knew it was about hating on her dad. I had to fight down a snicker as I saw them bonding over mutual dislike. I'd never met Midknight, and honestly at this point I hoped that streak continued. I didn't like him, but it seemed like everyone was just better off when he was avoided. It was pretty much a moot point right now anyway with him in Rajak. I was just glad we moved out of the Unity building. I didn't think Callie could have opened up like she had under her dad's thumb (or that's how she'd seen it).

Amelia was looking intrigued by her suggestion though. "Light based might be nice. I was kind of thinking about healing? I've always like caring for things, and I bet it would work on my garden. I'm guessing whatever power Jessie has is out. Even if I got her same starting ability and synergized the same Skills with it, if I didn't have the same stat distribution and knowledge base I'd end up with something else. Better to just aim for my own thing. What do you think?"

They were talking like I wasn't there, which was good, because for the purposes of this conversation I kind of wasn't. I just let Callie advise her. She knew more about my power than almost anyone except for me and like...Zeke. Plus like I'd said, I could grant basically any Minor ability they could think of. How useful any given ability was at Minor was a different story. Plus she had to be able to pay for it.

Callie had considered that too, because she bit her lip worriedly as she thought out loud. "Healing would be nice, healers are hard to come by, and I doubt even if you ever headed to the capital Uncle Alex would let the Peace Lord anywhere near you. It would probably be expensive to pay for though. What are you planning to offer for your power. A Minor ability has little value to Shane, so that'll bring down the cost, but Impact is a valuable commodity to anyone even if he can only do the partial point."

I'd expected worry, but Amelia didn't look bothered. "I considered that. I talked to Ezekial a bit about it, he's something of an expert, and I thought over what you told me about the ability. I think some kind of contract would be the best bet. Something like a promise of a safe haven here if it's ever needed for a certain number of years maybe? As long as I make sure Shane is always welcome in our home I feel like that's something of significant value given his feelings for you."

That...certainly had value to me. I was pretty sure it might work. Wishes on mortals tended to be cheaper since they were easier to effect in any case, and I'd been paid in credits for mortal wishes before which set a standard of value. Plus it really was important to me that Callie's mom liked me and was ok having me here. I couldn't comment of course, so I just waited as she formulated her wish.

She gave it substantial thought before finally putting it into words. "I wish that I had the best possible light based power for me that you have the power to grant at this moment." I grinned. She really had been listening to Callie. That was an excellent wish. "In return you will be welcome in my home at any time for the rest of my life, even if things don't work out between you and my daughter."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I didn't love the caveat but I saw the need for it. There was a possibility Callie and I would break up. It was nice of her to offer to shelter me even if that happened as much as I hoped it wouldn't come up. I confirmed.

Stat points sufficient. Requirements: 10 Impact, 100 Creation, 100 Vitality, 100 Might.

I felt the familiar static begin to build in my body, though it was MUCH weaker than usual.

For a mortal wish this was actually pretty pricy, but the low Impact cost was what really told me how low level it was. When I was running up against the edge of my ability it used all my potential Impact to patch up any shorts I had in the required points. This one, despite costing a pretty large amount in terms of individual stats, only cost ten. I reached out my hand for Amelia to take, and she did. As per usual the electricity arced into her, and Callie appeared behind her mother to hold her up as the power coursed through her.

This was a much bigger change than Benny had, because I let his ability come to the surface on its own. This time I was literally molding a power, which had to be more invasive. Luckily I was also much higher ranked, and rank differences seemed to make everything easier. Kind of explained some of the things the current Wishmaster could do. It took about five minutes, which was a while for something like this, before Amelia was finished with her ascension. When it was done, she fell back onto the couch and groaned.

She looked...different. Younger. Not too much younger, since she had already looked pretty young for her age, but she definitely seemed more youthful. I remembered the original description I'd had of Vitality, that it kept you in increasingly good health for your age, while Impact was the deciding factor of how long you live. I was pretty sure Amelia was starting the clock on her Impact based aging late, but I was also sure that just becoming an Ascendant had made her much more youthful for the spot she was at.

Her eyes snapped open, taking a second to focus. "Oh...ok wow. That was pretty crazy. Oh! And I have three stats active. Might, Vitality, and Creation. Vitality is even at 2!" She sounded giddy. Almost childlike in a way, and I totally got it. I'd been just as excited about my abilities when I got them. For someone who spent her life seeing her loved ones use powers she thought she'd never have, this must be absolutely enthralling.

Callie laughed and pulled her mother into a tight hug, eyes swimming with unshed tears. "Gods mom, I'm so happy you're an Ascendant now! We'll get you up a few ranks and make sure you can live a nice long life. I don't want to turn around one day and find you gone. I couldn't stand it. What ability did you get anyway. You didn't say?"

"First of all." Said Amelia wheezily. "Ribs, dear." Callie blushed and let her go, getting a wide grin in return. Amelia might be Ascendant now, but she was also only I-rank, which barely counted. I was pretty sure that was why I was able to even do this. I wasn't giving a point of Impact (which I had tried with Benny and the others and couldn't do) I was pushing someone's natural partial point of Impact to a whole one.

Amelia stretched a bit to work out the soreness. "Secondly. I got a power called Minor Lay on Hands. It scans any living thing I touch and lets me mend small injuries. I suspect higher levels will let me do more, but for now it's mostly cuts and scrapes. Not a surprise, Minor abilities are pretty weak most of the time. Still, a combination scanning and healing ability is very useful. It also works on plants and animals which is pretty versatile." She stood up and walked over, pulling me into a tight hug. "I love it. Thank you so much Shane. As I said, you're always welcome here."

Callie crashed into her from the other side, her arms wrapping around us both and squeezing us in a bear hug as she buried her face in her mother's shoulder. Her voice came out muffled as she added. "Seriously Shane, you have no idea what this means to me. I can never thank you enough."

I just shook my head with a laugh. "Please. I love you. We don't need to keep score. If we did, you'd be way ahead just because of how grateful I am to have you in my life." She rolled her eyes at my sappiness, but I saw a big smile on her face as she pulled back. "Now. I still have four wishes today, so once you're feeling up to it, maybe we can get you up to H-rank. I could definitely use the scanning aspect of that ability. I have my own healing, but I can't really see what I'm doing." It was a good thing Amelia slipped out of the hold before I said that. I was pretty sure Callie cracked MY ribs that time.