Wish upon the Stars chapter 1056

After hearing the whole story, Mama Bel looked wary. “Baby girl, you went and got yourself mixed up in some complicated things,” she said worriedly. “The affairs of gods aren’t something to play with. They have a way of sweeping you up into their wake without even meaning to. Divine proximity comes with a sort of momentum. The closer to them you are the more turbulent the waters.”

That…explained a LOT about my life, actually. Ever since I had become and Ascendant, things tended to wrong or right in BIG ways. I’d always assumed it had something to do with my lineage, but hearing it confirmed like that was…well I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

Dayna, to her credit, didn’t even blink. “Mama, I know it probably seems like that, but I don’t think this is a fight we can avoid. I know we’re nominally on the same side as the Void, and want the same thing, but I don’t believe they’ll really let us go so easily when this war is over. The people I care about, people like you and Annie, and even my new friends, they won’t be safe as long as this is all going on. If we can get Solomon to the Lady…”

“He’ll what?” Mama Bel asked gently. “He seems like a very nice boy, and I’m sure he’s talented for his rank, but what exactly do you think a C-ranker is going to say to a god that’s going to sway them? Who is he that his words might influence the divine?”

Which was a fair question. I’d been right to trust Dayna, because she hadn’t informed Mama Bel of anything about me besides my name. I was pretty sure the Lodge was too deep in the Void to have gotten news of my coronation yet, not to mention they were at WAR with us, so I doubted people were in a sharing mood. Verdyn would probably know who I was, but it wasn’t a surprise that Mama Bel didn’t, even if she WAS a local information source.

Sighing, I reached up and gripped my mask. Trust. I trusted Dayna, Dayna trusted Mama Bel, and we needed Mama Bel to trust me if she was going to help us. This was secret information vital to the safety of her faction. Sure, we weren’t planning to do HARM, but it was still classified info she might get into trouble for leaking.

“My name,” I said as I removed the mask. “Is Shane Wyndham. My father’s name is Elijah, my Grandfather’s Malachai. I am the current and newly selected Wishmaster of the Wish Curse Palace. I am here in my capacity as Wishmaster to attempt to broken a peace accord between the Lady of Lamentation, Felicity, and my Ancestor, Alistair Wyndham, the original Wishmaster. I hope that your lord might be a part of that peace, and that you might help me make that happen.”

She stared at me, her face a mix of shock and disbelief, but as her glance fell to Dayna, who nodded, she just blinked in shock. “I think I need to sit down.”

“You are sitting down, Mama,” Dayna said helpfully.

“Oh,” Mama Bel said faintly. Then she stood up and sat back down immediately. “That’s better,” she said in a dazed voice.

That had been a calculated risk. Honestly a potentially very stupid one, but in the moment…it felt right. I LIKED this place, this woman, and I could feel in my BONES that she wouldn’t turn on me. That she was a good and decent person who would help me because it was the right thing to do. Azazel, my Fate sense, even my own instincts, everything in me SCREAMED that this was what I needed to do.

In fact, I suspected Azazel had been influencing me since arrival, because I could have been using Astaroth up to now. I’d given it a passing thought, deciding that it wouldn’t make any difference if Verdyn looked at me and if he didn’t it wouldn’t matter, but thinking back…this had been coming. Arriving here with my real face, even behind a mask, had set the tone, and this was the tone I would NEED to get Mama Bel’s help.

She was quiet for a moment, obviously thinking, and we just sat and waited. I didn’t consider what I was asking her to do a betrayal, but SHE might, and I could understand if she did. It was a big ask, and it wouldn’t be fair to rush her into it.

“Why you?” she finally asked. “Why are you willing to come here, being who you are? Why take the risk? You have to know how foolish that is.”

The same part of me that told me I could trust her was telling me to be honest, so I was. “Because I want to change things,” I said bluntly. “For my family, for the five factions, and even for you. This war is stupid and pointless, and it only benefits monsters like Hatescream and the Void Children. Our people are dying, MY people, for nothing, and I hate it.

“And because if I do this, a thing only I can do because I know the Lady, I might be able to show my family they CAN change. That there’s a better way.” I sighed, continuing because I needed to be up front that I wasn’t just doing this because I was some kind of saint. “And maybe they’ll listen to me about other things and I can truly start making life better for those I care about.”

She stared at me, hard, and then glanced back at Dayna. “You know, I kind of get it. He’s a good boy. You could have picked a much worse friend to stand behind. Fine. I can help you get into Mourne Kayze. I do have access, or at least know where to go to get it.” Her face hardened. “But it won’t be easy. Don’t assume I’m just drawing you a map to a door. The road between the Lodge and Mourne Kayze is a hidden route meant for emergency reinforcement and retreat for the lord’s followers. It’s deeply concealed and heavily guarded.”

I frowned at that, but nodded anyway. “Thank you. Seriously. It means a lot. I’ll do my best to make sure things get better for everyone.”

“This war has been consuming too much of our foundation,” she said quietly. “How many of my kids are out there now? How many of them aren’t ever coming home? I can’t say, and I almost don’t want to know. But anything that can make it stop sounds like a good thing to me.”

I thought about Dayna’s friend Anabelle, lurking at the edge of the Void near the war front to scavenge possible treasure with her friends, and of my own wife on the other side of that border. It almost made me smile, because Callie would LOVE the idea of scavenging loot from beyond the Void. Maybe I should mention the possibility to her. We could make it a date night. “So, this path, you said it’s hidden?”

“In the forest,” she said with a nod. I knew the one she meant. The killing glade, the forest where Lodge members underwent their D-rank trial. They were sent on scavenger hunts to find items to earn their credentials as a hunter. “Not just in it either. DEEP inside.” I knew that the traps in the killing glade got more complicate and difficult the deeper you went, and more importantly, they got DENSER. The glade had expanded from a central point, and over the years that center area had become much more heavily laden with dangerous traps.

I’d learned all about the glad when we’d been in the shallowing where we found the arrowhead. That place had been a strange, amalgamated version of the Lodge and Stralthrem’s Domain, the mixing caused by the blood left on the arrowhead after Verdyn had used it to shoot the god of Dread Fabrication at some point.

Of course, the REAL glad was at least a hundred times larger and more dangerous, and it lacked the weird mechanical infection that had been caused by the taint of the other deity, so our experience there wasn’t going to do much to prepare us.

“Do you have any possible routes we could take?” Dayna asked worriedly. “You know as well as I do that the glade requires months of planning and strategy. The hunts we undertake there have time limits as long as years or decades, and going deep would require even more. Plus you said it’s guarded, how could there be guards in the glade? Everything in there is long dead.”

Mama Bel nodded. “There is a route. I can draw you a map. But to even access it you need to reach the third ring, and I’m sure you know what that means.”

“A guide,” sighed Dayna. “We need a guide.” At my confused look, she explained. “When someone undergoes the killing glade trial, they usually set off some traps. If you set off enough of them, you can sell the information, and the people who buy it put together maps that can be used to skip to deeper areas. High rankers don’t get any value from exploring the edges, so they pay a small fee and follow a preestablished route to get to a point more in tune with their skills. It saves time.”

“Among other things,” Mama Bel chuckled. “The glade is also often used as storage and a hiding place. Certain factions keep items in protected locations, and often use the guides to reach them. Because new traps are being laid down constantly, it’s a full time job keeping track of the glade. Your brother Marius is a particularly effective guide.”

Dayna grimaced. “Oh, him.” I raised an eyebrow at her, wondering what the problem was with him, and she sighed. “He’s nice enough, but he’s very…loud.”

“That he is,” Mama Bel said fondly. “But he takes care of his siblings. Of all my kids, he’s the most likely to help because I asked, or even because you did. You all look out for each other, but Marius will do anything for family.” She leaned over, tugging open a drawer on an end table, and pulled out a piece of paper. She wrote out a quick note, folded it, then handed it to Dayna. “Here, give him this, it should expedite things.”

We nodded, standing up, and she stood with us. Dayna smiled warmly at the older woman. “Thank you, Mama. For everything.”

“Why are you thanking me,” Mama Bel said in amusement. “I haven’t given you the map yet. And have you forgotten you’re staying for lunch? No need to act as if its time to leave, girl.” She grabbed my friend’s hand, dragging her out of the range of Murmur. “Now, come along, I need to introduce you to all your new brothers and sisters. They have so much to learn from you.” She glanced over her shoulder at me as I put my mask back on. “And you come with us, you can carry the sandwiches.”

I laughed at that, but did as I was told. I didn’t mind doing some manual labor, and I really wanted to try the gravy and beef sandwiches I’d been smelling.

When we got to the kitchen, most of the kids were excited to see us, Daniel and Holly both nodded, the former a bit more sullenly, and they crowded around Dayna, chattering excitedly as Mama Bel introduced her.

I just sat back and watched, leaning against the wall with a smile. It was…nice. Beautiful, really. The warmth and acceptance and familial love. I hoped that someday, the WCP could be like this, or at least parts of it. In these kids, I could see the exact kind of future I wanted to build. I sent a mental snapshot of it across the bond, emotions and all, and received affection and joy back, and I smiled. This was the kind of life I wanted to live. Now I just had to make that wish a reality. Guess I was finally doing the title justice.