I was feeling much better when I woke up. This bed wasn't nearly as comfortable as the one at the Inn, but it was still pretty nice. Sleeping in my armor wasn't ideal, but with my Vitality it wasn't exactly going to give me problems. I got up, stretched a bit, planning to change the clothes under my armor to something clean (because I didn't want to have to wash the coat and the leather armor every day) after a shower in the fairly huge connected bathroom.

There was probably something insulting about being relieved there was a shower here, but I honestly didn't care. I'd been terrified for a minute when I woke up that I'd need to have servants fill up a tub for me like some kind of ancient barbarian. Cleansing water should rain down from above like the tears of heaven, smoothing away the cares and worries of your life. Soaking in your own filth was disgusting, and I held no appreciation for baths.

Sadly my daily communion with the gods of falling water was interrupted by a banging on the door. "Shane. We're busy today, you can't just sit in there for two hours like you usually do."

"I always get things done!" I yelled back. "I only shower on my downtime. Can't I have five minutes of peace?"

Callie, who was interrupting my attempt at inner peace, groaned. "I have to shower too, and you're...well I don't know how much hot water there is, but you've been in there an hour. Get out so I can get ready." I did, grumbling the whole time about controlling girlfriends who don't appreciate the finer things in life.

She just rolled her eyes, shoving past me rudely, and I rolled my eyes as I went to get dressed, first in new clean clothes and then in my armor and coat. My mask I waited on, because I really preferred not to wear it as often as possible. It starts to fuck with your sense of self when you see a blank piece of wood every time you look in the mirror.

After ten minutes or so Callie slipped out, throwing on her own clothes. She had to wash hers daily since you can't really wear an outfit under it. Since we left places with accessible clothes washers, she'd picked up a box at the bazaar that did the same thing, some kind of water magic item she kept in her spatial ring that could clean everything in five minutes or so. Sadly it wasn't made for leather stuff like mine.

"Oh don't pout." She chuckled as she looked at me. "You can take another one before bed tonight, stay in there for a nice long while since we'll be done with everything for the day."

I shrugged. "Fair enough. I wasn't really that upset about it, it's just early and I felt like sulking a bit." I winked at her. "Gotta save the little fits of pique for alone time now that I'm the boss. Wouldn't do to have me people see me as undignified."

"Lucky me." She drawled sarcastically. Still, she strolled up and kissed me good morning. "Oh, by the way. Thank you, for everything with Anna-Marie. I know you didn't do it for me, but you made the right decision with no hesitation. It's really sweet." She blushed. "I know it's lame but she kind of reminds me of me in a way. I feel bad for her. Her dad is a controlling dick and she has no confidence."

I chuckled. "Not that I object to the gratitude, but she seemed like she needed help. " I hesitated before saying gently. "Although if you insist on sympathizing with every person in the universe that has a shitty dad, we're going to get sucked into a LOT of bullshit."

"I know." She winced. "I'm working on it. Being away from home helps, out on my own I have to think about it less. Plus the thought that I'll probably be stronger than him next time I go home. I think in this case it worked out for us though. But hey, you're the one in charge now, so you can make sure I don't go overboard. It's a win win."

My smile melted into a frown. "We're still partners you know. Paired dueling, and...you know, us." I reached out and pulled her against me. "You always listened to my ideas when you were in charge, and honestly I don't think I could do most of the things that need doing without you. Your understanding of politics and just people in general. I mean, Celine helps, but..."

"She does though, right?" She said emphatically, her voice tinged with shock. "Like, damn she's useful to have around. I was just doing Benny a favor, but she's helping a ton."

Our conversation was cut off sadly, as ANOTHER knock came, this one from the large door to our room rather than the bathroom. I headed over to pull it open, and found Anna-Marie waiting outside with a pair of guards. She smiled brightly at me. "Oh, Solomon. It's nice to see your face. I admit your mask can be somewhat unsettling. Knowing there's a person under it is...a relief."

I cursed internally as I realized I wasn't wearing it, but honestly it wasn't like secret identities mattered. It had defensive properties, but I didn't really need them in my room. Still, I pulled it out of my ring and slipped it on both saddened and secretly relieved to be wearing the damned thing.

"Sorry I can't stay like that. Safety thing." I said wryly. "But I'm glad to put you at ease. Anyway, what can we do for you? We just woke up so we haven't really had time to eat or anything yet."

Her face brightened even further. "Oh! That's why I'm here. I wanted to invite everyone to breakfast in one of the feast halls so we might discuss the awakening."

"That sounds lovely." Callie cheered as she shoved me out of the way. I rolled my eyes as she bulled past me to snag the princess's arm, noting that Valk was towering off to the side, the red bearded warrior having been the first person she picked up apparently. I raised an eyebrow at him, and he huffed and averted his eyes. Interesting.

It took us all of five minutes to get everyone else, though we had to stop for Abel first so we could get Randall out of Jessie's room. Apparently there was also a balcony off the room he could theoretically use, but the weight of a giant bear falling from several hundred feet up would leave a huge hole, even on the off chance that it didn't hurt Randall given the extra gravity here and the hardness of the stone below.

My State of Grace would actually be perfect for getting down from there, and I filed it away as an emergency exit if we needed one, though I hoped it didn't come up. When we all made it to the feast hall, we sat down and servants began to bring out heaping plates of food as Anna-Marie chattered animatedly, telling us all about the castle and the kingdom.

Once again I noted she spoke more about history and landmarks than current citizens, not that I blamed her there. She loved the kingdom, clearly, even if she could take or leave the people in it. It made me wonder exactly what kind of ruler she would be if we helped her get the crown. She seemed like a sweet person so far, and mixed in with her history lessons there were some pretty interesting political ideas (at least to me) so that was a good sign.

Finally, I decided to get us on track. "Anna-Marie, I'm really enjoying the stories and the information about the kingdom, but I think maybe we ought to talk about the actual awakening. We don't know much. How do we harvest the Dew, how much will we get, and how many chances? Not to cut you off, but we want to make sure to get as much as possible for both of us. Speaking of, what kind of distribution did you want?"

She winced. "Well, the standard is half, because of the resources needed to ferry the outsiders around and the guards we lend them." Her eyes went wide and she hurried to add. "We can talk it over though. I'm open to changing things. As for the rest..." She sighed. "I'd wanted to wait until after breakfast since it can be a bit involved." She took a dainty bite of her breakfast, some kind of filleted fish breakfast sandwich, chewing and thinking before finally swallowing to speak.

"The god Dew spawns from flowers. Specifically Lunar Cascade Lightblooms. They're extremely rare, and they die after being harvested." She closed her eyes, as if trying to remember a lot of information. "They tend to concentrate in high places, require dense humidity, and are obviously nurtured by moonlight. Outside of awakenings moonlight is difficult to come by, the sky becomes dark and turbulent. We get the occasional streak of moonshine breaking through, but they rarely happen to coincide with a patch of flowers, hence the rarity of the Dew in normal circumstances."

This was useful info, though not the kind we needed now, so I waited for her to continue. "The flowers are incredibly difficult to find, but we've noticed over the years that outsiders seem to be drawn to them unconsciously. We believe our attunement to the planet makes us too accustomed to the energy they use. Fantasy can draw one toward opportunities, but the flowers aren't opportunities for us. They're slightly unusual but they do pop up and then die with some frequency, even if they aren't saturated with moonlight at the time."

"That's pretty fascinating." Said Callie with interest. "I didn't know fate sense worked like that. I could see why you'd need us then. What are the flowers like exactly? And how much Dew do they produce."

The princess winced. "Not much. Six drops per flower patch, usually, sometimes a bit more, sometimes less. The ones we find will also most likely be contested. Maybe by our own, maybe by the teams from neighboring kingdoms. They're most often found in the mountain ranges north of Ladrigan, which act as a sort of core for the ring of kingdoms. " She pointed out a window at the end of the room. "Those mountains, actually. The castle was placed here as a defensive rampart against invasion, though the mountains are treacherous enough that few try."

That didn't sound ideal. "Define treacherous. Like...slippery and with poor visibility?" I wasn't sure how those things would dissuade an army of F-rankers though, so I suspected it wasn't that.

"There are monsters that roam the mountains." She said apologetically. "Arctic werewolves, Yeti, snow women, ice goblins, and dozens of other creatures at home in the frost. Some of them have harvested the flowers themselves and grown strong. There's even an ice wyvern nesting somewhere up there, though we aren't sure where."

"No wonder they want to send us." I said with a wince. "You mentioned resources earlier though. What kind of resources? Some kind of enchanted gear to make travel easier?"

She nodded in relief, clearly having expected me to flip the table and storm out when I learned we were being used as fodder. Not like I expected much better from someone like Crighton. "Among other things. Warming enchantments, certain antidotes to frost poisons common up there. The list is...extensive." She looked troubled. "But I have nothing to trade for the necessary resources. We'll be at a huge disadvantage."

Having slept and gotten back all my wishes (though I was pretty sure I'd forgotten to use one or two of them in the hubbub yesterday) I just grinned at her behind my mask. "Well maybe I can help with that." I said mischievously. "Tell me, what do you know about the Wish Curse Palace?" I wasn't going to tell her the whole story, but claiming to have access to wishes had worked before, no point not using that excuse again.