Wish upon the Stars chapter 1054

“Ow!” I snarled as I tried not to stiffed too much. “Get this OUT of me!” The arrow in my shoulder was STUCK, and I couldn’t use any forms or anything to get it out because the arrow itself was B-rank. It hadn’t been too solid of a hit, and I was sturdy, but it was in now, and I couldn’t get it out without doing way more damage because of the barbs.

Dayna looked shockingly unsettled by the injury, her eyes darting around looking for any solution. Finally she stopped, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. After she opened them, she seemed to have calmed down. “Stop moving,” she said sharply. I did, freezing in place as I watched her warily.

“This is a houndstooth arrow,” she explained, removing a long, thin dagger from her spatial ring. “They’re designed to hurt more coming out than going in, but more than that, they’re designed to BREAK inside the wound. We need to remove it carefully, because otherwise the barbs will snap off. Normally that would be fine, your system would just flush them, but houndsteeth are proprietary arrows designed by the Tormenter, one of Lord Verdyn’s S-rank followers. The barbs melt and metabolize into your bloodstream after they snap off. They’re a VERY potent poison.”

I grunted, forcing myself to sit still as she began slowly cutting into my flesh to free the arrow. “Why design it to only poison when it gets removed?”

“Because if it doesn’t get removed then it did its job,” she said simply. “And there’s no point tainting the meat. The Tormenter is incredibly practical, despite his name. They call him that because his experimental arrows cause absurd amounts of pain unintentionally, not because of any notable sadism.”

“Oh yeah,” I gritted out as she cut the arrow from my shoulder joint. “I’m sure he’s a swell guy. Probably great at parties. Unrelated, who the fuck WAS that and why did they just try to kill us?”

She grimaced. “I assume some kind of bounty,” she shrugged. “This particular attack seemed aimed at you. The question is to what degree are we compromised? How much do they know about our progress and who knows what?”

“Yeah, how DID they know?” I asked sourly. “They shouldn’t have been able to find us. We didn’t even really tell anyone we were coming.”

“I assume the Voidwalker Guild was being watched,” she sighed. “I didn’t see any members of the Lodge, but that doesn’t mean anything. There are a great many people there, and many of them operate masked or using pseudonyms. If a hunter was nearby and spotted me, they could have predicted our course from experience.”

That didn’t bode well. “So they’re some kind of master hunter?”

“The opposite,” she assured me. “Our survival makes that clear. That was a B-ranked hunter, but certainly not a particularly talented one. At least not martially. They’ve clearly focused extensively into Perception and tracking. It’s why their arrows were so weak, and why they were forced to use specialized projectiles to ensure a kill.”

“Fight smarter not harder,” I grimaced. “Get good at landing shots and finding people and make up for the lacking punch with equipment. Effective.”

She nodded. “Were I not here, you’d have removed that arrow and fallen into a coma, if not died outright. On the bright side, it is unlikely he will be able to follow us out. That cave was being swarmed, and there’s no way for him to effectively bypass such a horde to get to us. He’ll need to double back to another exit and go around, and I’m sure he’s well aware he won’t catch up.”

“I’m more concerned with how he managed to spot us through Murmur,” I said worriedly. “That’s the first time someone has pierced it directly like that, at least someone close to my level.”

“I don’t think he did,” she said slowly. “I think he might have been mapping your location based on the gaps in the horde. He might have caught a shimmer or some small clue you hadn’t had a chance to erase yet, but I don’t think he could actually SEE through your stealth. I think he just estimated where we would end up and how fast based on when we left. An expert tracker can do some fairly impressive things with minimal information.”

That actually DID make sense, and it made me feel a little better. I didn’t feel safe knowing my nearly impenetrable stealth had been pierced (literally) but once the first shot fell, my need to evade would have made any subsequent concealment MUCH less effective, especially if he was looking. I screamed in surprise and pain as she suddenly twisted and jerked the arrow, sliding the barbed head from my flesh quickly but painfully.

“Ow!” I repeated again. “Damn it!” I triggered Zagan, flooding the wound with life fire. I felt my phoenix blood drop begin to fluctuate inside me, pushing my natural regeneration and aiding the influx of life fire. Sadly, even that wasn’t going to be enough to get this done fast. We set off walking as I healed, wanting to get away from the place as soon as possible in case the hunter somehow DID find a way through.

“So, tell me about this Lodge,” I said through gritted teeth as I walked. Something had been wrong with that arrow. I didn’t FEEL pain like this. I suspected it had been at least topically poisoned with some kind of pain enhancer. Luckily Zagan was a purification form, so it would take care of the problem as it healed me. It still didn’t feel good though.

Dayne was watching the nearby Roads with caution as we walked, her red eyes scanning the…well there wasn’t a horizon in the Void. But the distance. “The Lodge is Lord Verdyn’s god world. It’s…expansive. The building is endless and complex, spanning the space that would be occupied by an entire star system. It’s ALSO connected to a great many locations in the Void, allowing for frequent travel and hunts.”

So, similar to the Wishworld in a way. My ancestor used his world’s dispersal to create trade routes. This sounded different, but maybe it was more like the terminal, where you could only leave through the exits instead of being two way.

I frowned. “So…what are the chances that there will be more people trying to take bounties on us there? How should we get in to meet Verdyn?”

“We shouldn’t,” she clarified immediately. “Under no circumstances should we seek an audience right now. Lord Verdyn is a hunter, he doesn’t negotiate with prey. We’re visiting the Lodge to find the fastest path to Mourne Kayze. Once you get in touch with the Lady and have swayed her, she can help convince Lord Verdyn.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” I asked curiously. “They’re kind of in lockstep, aren’t they? How are they connected?”

She blinked in surprise. “Strakkenthar,” she said simply. When I just stared at her, she sighed. “The Lady’s father. He was Lord Verdyn’s mentor. He taught the Lord everything he knew, and Lord Verdyn was actually one of the Lady’s bodyguards growing up.”

“Wait…what?” I said in disbelief. “Wasn’t Strakkenthar kind of…a huge dick?”

“He was, as my mistress would say, ‘a whole ocean of dicks’,” she agreed. “He was also a paranoid and distrustful lunatic. Paradoxically, this resulted in an above average standard of treatment for his subordinates and disciples. He rarely gave anyone a reason to betray him. Though on the occasions where he did, he summarily executed them before they got the chance.”

I snorted. “Gee, what a humanitarian.”

“As I said, he was a very unpleasant being by all accounts,” she clarified. “But Lord Verdyn has some level of fondness for his mentor, and by extension, his mentor’s daughter. They are not, as you said ‘in lockstep’, but he tends to weigh her needs when making decisions, if it is not inconvenient for him to do so.”

I nodded at that. “And he’s not going to notice us entering?” I clarified. “I mean, it IS his world. Won’t he be…aware?”

“The number of sentient beings that enter and leave the Lodge on a daily basis make such scrutiny needlessly frustrating,” she assured me. “If he had reason to search for us, he would discover us near instantly, but there is no reason for him to do that. Not unless the hunter we avoided gets back first and starts talking to people. Which is why we need to hurry.”

I grimaced, then picked up the pace. The Road was wide and empty, the edges showing the same trees we’d been seeing since we entered this territory. Unlike the earlier trees though, the closer we got, the darker these became. Branches became sharper and more menacing, leaves became shadowy and insubstantial. More than that, the actual glow from the Road itself was getting…not dimmer, but…less bright? It was hard to describe. It was still lit but the light itself was almost more like darkness, and with a strange misty quality. It was honestly deeply unsettling.

We sped up, partly because of the need to get there fast, and partly because I was starting to feel something strange. The closer we got, the more I felt a prickle on the back of my neck. Nothing physical, mind, but a sensation of being watched. Stalked. Hunted.

That was it. I felt like I was being hunted. The closer we got to the Lodge the more I felt like prey. I turned to glance at Dayna, but she seemed fine. She was speeding up because I was, and when I brought it up, she raised an eyebrow. “Hm? Ah, that? That’s just the terror. The primal aura of the hunt permeates the interior of the Lodge, and it leaks out every time someone leaves. You could think of it like the aura of the god in question.”

“The old man’s aura doesn’t leak out of the Wishworld, though,” I pointed out. “What’s the difference?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea. I’m used to this, so I hardly feel it anymore. I did think it was odd that there was no pressure from the Wishworld. I suppose you ancestor is simply more economical. Maybe he puts it to use like shipmakers do with the Impact of high rank ships. Regardless, this isn’t the same as being subjected to the concentrated pressure of a god, as I’m sure you can tell. It’s just runoff. You’ll get used to it soon enough.”

I nodded as we pushed through, still walking a little faster than normal, but once I’d realized WHY I was hurrying I had downshifted a bit. We still needed to get there soon, but I didn’t want to come across like I was afraid (even if I kind of was). When you run from predators, they chase you.

“So what are we doing once we get in?” I asked as the air became gloomier and more shadowed. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going to see a friend,” she said simply. “The Lady’s Domain is connected to Lord Verdyn’s, but the entrance is in a remote and difficult to access location. We need someone to help us reach it. I know someone who can lend us that aid, for a price.”

A price I assumed I could pay in scrolls. They were excellent currency for this kind of transaction. We stopped, and I turned to glance at Dayna, who had withdrawn that same arrow she’d used to open the paths before. Slowly, methodically, she pressed it to the air and drew it back, separating a thin membrane of reality ever so carefully.

As soon as it was open, an explosion of pressure poured out, slamming into us like a physical blow. Reaching up with two fingers, Dayna tugged on the parted veil of air, pulling it back to reveal a large wooden hallway made of rough hewn logs. “Welcome,” she said solemnly. “To The Lodge.” Oddly, I didn’t really FEEL that welcome.