"Alright, so how did we do?" I asked my group as everyone gathered up to submit all the Dew they'd gathered. "Remember Zeke wants us gone before the Vampire gets here, so to be safe this is our last day on planet. Nat and I managed to gather thirty six drops total between us, three per wish. Plus another twenty seven on her part gathered as first dibs." Thankfully we'd already used some, so the subjective value was lower.

Callie grinned. "Between the metals and the spellbooks we managed to swing fifty two." She seemed pretty happy with the haul. "Anna-Marie came around to our way of thinking easily enough. Since there was little chance they could keep any stockpiled drops, they figured it was a better idea to trade it for future favors and wring as much value out of it as possible, especially since the king has already reached full saturation."

"More than a hundred then." I said with a grin. "We'll give the excess to the group members who didn't get any before, fully distributed we should be looking at enough to get us each to about thirty five Impact. It's not forty, but that was never going to happen on a large scale." I glanced over at Zeke. "You sure we can't stay and compete for more?"

"Nope." He said cheerfully. "I'va already arranged our ride out of here. Cashed in a favor with an old friend and caught passage on a transport ship. Like I said, we're taking the long way to the temple. The trial won't be starting for a few months still, and sitting around there waiting won't accomplish much. Better to spend the time improving and getting used to your new abilities."

That made sense. "So, where is this ship then? Do we need to find a way back up to the Bazaar to get on?" I was kind of excited. Teleporting was great, but I was going to be getting on an actual spaceship. Flying through actual space. Despite having crossed a galaxy, I hadn't really had a chance to enjoy that kind of travel. Now I was going to become a real citizen of the universe.

He shook his head. "They're coming to pick up some of their own kids, so they'll be providing a shuttle. The ship itself is too big, so it'll be parked in orbit. The shuttle should arrive in a few hours, so take the time to say your goodbyes and use up that Dew. Carrying it onto a huge ship full of strangers would be pretty stupid."

I nodded. He was right about that. We distributed the Dew, and each of us secluded ourselves to take it, prepared for the insanity to come and wanting to minimize exposure. As for goodbyes, we really only had a few friends here. Bethy and Gabriel were both planning to attend the trials (the Crusader was going to be hitching a ride) so we'd see them there. We hadn't gotten close to anyone else.

Satala would be staying to govern the planet in Bethy's stead, so we would need to say our farewells to her, and Yvette was sticking around to help her, so that was one more person to see us off. We also had to visit Anna-Marie and wish her well, she'd been a good friend to us since we'd been here.

Despite how busy we were, the time flew by surprisingly fast. I took the drops slowly, letting my soul process them since I was still a bit injured. With the improvement though, it wasn't too big of a problem. Still, I was pretty sure given my friends soul strength thirty five Impact was the limit of what they could handle anyway. I could probably have managed thirty seven if we'd had the Dew for it, but it was more important to get all of us on a similar level.

Once everyone had gotten caught up and said their goodbyes where needed, we all filed out to a large open field to wait for the shuttle. To my surprise, the 'kids' that were getting picked up were Annalise and her team, and we waved to the fae girl as we settled in to wait.

It didn't take long before the shuttle descended. A monstrous open sided thing made of black iron and burning with runework. The enchantments were tiny but carved in groupings that created spiraling designs that enhanced the ferocious image of the shuttle, making the jagged dark edges look even more imposing.

Callie tugged bumped me with her elbow. "We totally need to get one of those! I bet I could even imbue it with shadow energy!"

Normally I worried about her driving, but since the sky was basically infinite, if she could literally merge into the shadows it should be fine. Actually given her ability to view things through the dark, I was betting with access to a shadow imbued vehicle she's be a flawless driver now, or at least much better able to avoid accidents. Still, in my head I couldn't shake the image of all the dings on her bike. Best to let Jessie do the driving.

I made a noncommital noise as we headed for the shuttle, and got a suspicious glare as she picked up my emotions through the bond. Once we were on board we sat down on the padded leather couch, taking advantage of the spacious interior (bigger on the inside) while we settled in to wait for the trip to be over.

My own mind was kind of blown when no doors or anything closed, the shields kept the air inside, and we got to watch in real time as the shuttle began to rise, the ground falling away as we watched the planet start to recede. I gave a bittersweet smile as I looked down at the place.

I'd been through a lot since becoming an Ascendant, but the Moonsong Glade had been a special experience. No Zeke, no family nonsense really, just crazy Ascendant bullshit I hadn't expected and had to adapt to. We'd made friends, fought battles, and established even more of a reputation than we'd had before. Now we were heading back out into the universe, stronger than we'd ever been and ready to take on whatever came next.

Even more incredible was when the jungle of the core, the massive mountain range of the ring, and the rest of the Glade fell away and we were staring out into the perfect dark of outer fucking space. I could see stars out in the distance, but I put an arm around Callie and just stared in awe and wonder at the emptiness of space firsthand. The Bazaar had been huge, so it had just been like looking at the night sky, but actually being out here was...amazing.

"It's so...dark." Said Callie in a daze. "I've seen dark before, but that's nothing compared to this. Shadow is only the absence of light, but this...it's like it's swallowing everything. Like a bottomless Abyss." Her tone was soft and shocked, like she was being hypnotized. I could feel through the bond she was in a weird state, but before I could shake her out of it, Zeke put a hand on my shoulder.

"Whoa kid, hold up. She's gaining enlightenment." He seemed genuinely amazed. "That's extremely rare, especially at lower ranks. Might be because of all the renown she's gained recently pushing her forward. She might be on the edge of discovering a Path, or at least the nascent version of one."

"Is that a big deal?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. "I mean, Abel and I both have a Path, and so does Gabriel. I mean, it's good that she might step onto one, but it's not like it's some crazy thing."

Zeke rolled his eyes. "Kid, you need a Path to advance to D-rank. It's one of the requirements for Mastery. Plenty of people NEVER develop one, and the ones who do usually do it at the peak of E when their souls are notably higher quality and they have a lot more raw stats to stack up for it. Abel is a freak, and so is that Gabriel kid, and you just happened to get stupidly lucky."

I'd kind of figured that D-rank thing out from what he'd said about it before, but it was nice to have confirmation. Since it was a rare chance I went ahead and left Callie to contemplate her possible path and went back to staring out at the vast expanse of nothingness in front of us.

At least...it was nothing to start. Then we reached the right height and turned, and suddenly my vision was absolutely filled with a metal behemoth of a vehicle. Expansive dark metal plating engraved that I was sure would be engraved with runes, but that even I couldn't get a good look at from this distance, sprawling for miles below us as it loomed over the Moonsong Glade like a specter of death.

"That." Said Zeke with a grin. "Is the Necromedes. The current flagship of Killian Zayne, the Black Arbiter. Kill and I go way back. His father was actually the one who taught me the Soul Dissection Skill that I used to create my Voltomancy ability. He and Eli and I went on plenty of adventures together. He was the second of our little group to hit A-rank actually. But I don't count it because the Zayne clan is old as dirt." He cut off with a wince.

I was fascinated by the idea that my parents had once been in a group like mine. I could see from his expression as he stopped talking though that Zeke had run up against his geas again. Still, that meant that Killian Zayne might know more about my mom and dad too. I'd definitely ask him about it if I got the chance.

As we approached the ship, the form of the Necromedes loomed larger in my sight, consuming the whole of my view as we approached a small open bay that seemed to be protected by a similar shield to the one keeping us all from being sucked out into space.

Touching down, I turned to check on Callie, who was still in a bit of a daze. Taking her her arm in mine, I led her off the shuttle leaving her to process whatever she'd gained from the view. The whole thing made me incredibly curious about how things like renown and the soul played into Path formation. It made sense it would all be intertwined, but I wasn't sure how.

The bay around us was completely empty, with only some other shuttles around. Zeke gave a whistle. "Man, Kill's taste is as bad as ever. These things look like they were hammered together out of scrap."

"At least I don't paint porcelain masks like a weirdo" Bit out a voice from behind us. Turning, we saw a tall, thin man, his pale chest exposed by his long red velvet coat, which lay open down to the ankles of his leather pants. His eyes were a swirling mix of red and black and his hair was black and white, split right down the middle. It should have been too much honestly, lots of colors, but weirdly he pulled it off.

Zeke grinned at him. "You might want to invest. Your face is pretty terrifying, a few nice masks to put people at ease could only help. I can't imagine the scare you get when you look in the mirror."

The tall man laughed, stepping up to hug my uncle, clapping him on the back before pulling away to nod at us. "This is Eli and Sasha's kid huh?" He said with interest. "Poor kid takes after his dad far too much. Oh well, welcome to the Necromedes everyone. I guess I should probably show you around." And with that, he turned and strode off, leaving us all to stare after him for a second before following. Man, why were all the high rankers I knew so weird?