Wish upon the Stars chapter 1031

Devon was not grateful. Or rather, he was pretty unhappy to see us in general. “You,” he hissed as we approached. “Here to silence me?”

“Oh, if only that were possible,” I said dryly. “Sadly no, I’m here to save your life again. Which I did. What’s with the tone? You can’t possibly not have figured out what’s going on yet? Roland planned this whole thing. You were played. Duped. Bamboozled. Hoodwinked-”

“Honey, he gets it, continuing is probably not productive at this point,” Callie cut in.

I shrugged. “I’m not trying to be productive. I’m trying to be petty. I’m super pissed off. This moron almost got you killed because he was jealous I got the JOB he wanted.”

He glared at me for a second from inside of the transparent bear trap…and then slumped. “You’re right,” he said weakly. “About everything. There were signs. I should have noticed. Looking back I can see how he manipulated me, how he twisted his words and my envy and used me as a weapon.”

“Yeah, well he’s good at that,” I admitted. “He walked us right into this mess too.”

“No,” he said sharply. “That’s not enough. I…I thought I was helping. Protecting the family.” His fists clenched tightly. “I was just trying to do right by everyone. I wanted to be the Wishmaster because I wanted to HELP. Things are so broken. My parents, grandpa, and now Derran is dead. How did everything go so wrong?”

His tone was desolate, and I blinked as the bear trap faded, releasing him to fall to his knees. Cursing, I put a hand on his shoulder, pushing Zagan’s energy into him as I held him steady.

“Look,” I said as I helped him sit down properly, continuing to heal him. “This isn’t on you. Not really. And that’s my OFFICIAL declaration as the heir. The accuser dies, that’s the rule, but you weren’t the accuser. You were a patsy.” He flinched at that, and I grimaced. “Ok, I could have said that nicer. But the point stands. I’m not saying none of this is your fault, I’m just saying your intentions were good and you aren’t the one responsible for this.”

He stared at me for a moment or two, his expression complicated. “It’s not fair,” he finally muttered. “I worked so hard for it. I spent years preparing, and then you just swept in and took it. I didn’t even get a chance to fight.”

“I’ve been a lot of places,” I mused. “Seen a lot of things. Fought monsters I couldn’t have imagined, fallen in love, made friends and been to war. Since I became an Ascendant, my life has been full of wonder and adventure.” He raised an eyebrow at me, clearly curious where I was going with this. “No matter where I went, or who I talked to, there was one thing I never saw even once. I never saw a world where life was fair.”

Which was cold to say, maybe. But not without reason. Not least because Devon himself benefited from the unfairness as much as I did.

He seemed to recognize that from my tone, and chuckled wryly. “No wonder they hate us so much,” he sighed. “Just…” he looked off into the distance. “Try not to waste this? Even if they wanted to kill me, they’re still in pain. I actually liked them, and I’d like to think they have some chance to live.”

“It’s on the table,” I acknowledged. “Not for Roland. He needs to die for a lot of reasons, but those two are just tools. I won’t hold back on them, but if they survive I won’t push the issue. Anyway, you should be good enough to walk, come on.” I pulled him to his feet. “We have to get out of here quick, we can just follow…” I paused, looking around for the familiar winged form. “Hey, where did it go?”

“Who?” my wife asked in a perfectly innocent tone. I turned to glare at her indignantly.

“Don’t you start!” I said, trying not to laugh at her terrible joke. “But seriously, did you see which way the owl went?”

She shook her head. “It vanished when we spotted the others. I don’t like that it just appears and disappears like that. I don’t trust it.”

“That’s what I’M saying,” I agreed enthusiastically. “Owls are suspicious as hell, you know they can rotate their heads all the way around? What is the biological purpose of an ability like that? Treachery!”

She stared at me flatly. “I mean that it shouldn’t be here and it’s weird we keep seeing it. I am not SUSPICIOUS of owls. That’s nonsense.”

I was about to respond, but a sudden chill ran down my spine. “Shit,” I snapped, looking around to try to spot a threat. “Callie, we need to go. Can you pull your shadow world trick again? Because we’re kind of sitting ducks down here, and I don’t think we stand a chance at escaping Roland in a flat out sprint.”

The biggest issue with this situation was that we had JUST driven off the other two. If we started a fight with Roland, chances were good they’d be drawn back, and not only was Devon not fully healed, he was injured enough that Callie would need to protect him. Even if I summoned one of the demons to do it, I’d be fighting them three to two while trying to keep my idiot cousin alive. It just wasn’t the right time.

She nodded, closing her eyes, then summoned Gossamer. Meanwhile, I extended my Domain over the three of us. It wasn’t going to stop them from finding us, but it should hide us from detection while my wife charged up her big move.

Devon froze, staring around us in shock and amazement. “Y-you condensed a Domain? A Domain you can project over this big a space? How? When? Could you do this back on the heirworld?”

“Nope,” I admitted without hesitation. “This is new. And Roland still has no idea. I hope to keep it that way too, so-”

“Done!” Callie called. “Drop it the Domain.”

I did, and she swung her sword, the gem in the hilt flashing as it carved through the air, leaving a trail of burning fire. A second swing bisected the first, forming a cross, and a casual flick tore away the four sections, showing a black square of empty space. Callie jerked her head for us to follow and stepped inside. Once she was in, she snapped, her hand flashing with black flame, and swiped it across the slowly closing hole in reality.

Holding up her still burning sword, she gestured off into the distance. “Follow me,” she said quickly. “And stay close. I spent most of the time you were out refining that technique, and it’s a LOT cleaner than it was, but it’s still pretty new.”

Devon looked around the dark space in awe. “How did you do this? Are we in the Void?”

“Not really,” Callie answered distractedly. “It’s kind of a pseudo-Void. A shadow world cast by reality. Realspace is in constant contact with the Void, and there’s…overlap. I can’t explain it in a way that would make sense to you, but we’re traveling at high speeds and there’s no possible way they can find us in here.”

He perked up. “So does that mean we can wait out the rest of the trial in here?”

“Sorry, no dice.” She shook her head. “This isn’t a real place. Just a kind of…trick I’m playing on realspace. It can only stay open for a few minutes. If I could connect to the ACTUAL Void it might be more stable, but given how isolated we are there’s no chance.”

Devon wilted slightly, and I actually felt bad for the guy. “It’s fine,” I assured him. “We’ve got you. Once we heal you up, we can work on some strategies. With my Domain to help deal with them, you won’t be in much danger. Would be useful if you had a few scrolls on you though. Did you bring any with you?”

He flushed in shame. “Roland convinced me not to,” he admitted. “He said he was worried about you stealing them. He told me a bunch of stories about how sneaky you are, and he made it sound very…”

“Convinving?” I asked dryly. “Yeah, like I said. He’s good at that. Admittedly, coming here unarmed was extremely dumb, so you have reason to be embarrassed, but don’t worry too much.” I had scrolls on me I could give him, but given our intertwined interests here, there was no way he’d be able to use them. Nor would I be able to use any he could produce. I didn’t have any scrolls from anyone else on me either. Even the ones I’d sourced from Nat were all gone at this point.

Finally, Callie stopped, and with a quick flick of her sword, carved open a hole in the air and gestured us through. Once we were out, she exhaled in relief as she waved her hand, black flame devouring the hole in the air. Heretic Fire had Void consuming properties, and apparently it worked on pseudo-Voids too.

I looked around, relieved to find we were in a MUCH different geography. A strange coral hall that appeared to be underwater. Through the arches between the columns outside the hall, I could see a deep ocean full of grasping seaweed and what appeared to be the vague outline of very large fish. “Welcome to my nightmares, shadowy megashark,” I said dryly as I caught one of the shapes diving out of view. “I take it this is far away from the last spot we were at?”

The fish actually worried me slightly. We hadn’t seen any living beings besides the owl, but then again I hadn’t SEEN the fish either, just a vague silhouette. Callie slumped back onto a nearby bench. “Furthest I could get us. During my monitoring, Angelic Bond brought Dantalion and Pride over to my church to help keep track of you. I used Piece of Mind with the bond to split my attention and spent most of the time you were out refining the technique.”

I’d forgotten Pride was one of the demons. That meant I still had access to my library, which was something to look into when I got a chance. Still, I was happy she’d been working on it. Speaking of which, being underwater might help shield us, but isolation would help more. Expanding my Domain again, I covered us all, minimizing our presence by essentially packing it into an expanded space to make it smaller.

Devon looked impressed, but less than before. I gestured, and a green haired form appeared, along with two others. Life Nova, Zagan, and Genesis Burst. “Patch him up for me guys,” I told them casually as Callie and I walked by. “Devon, you can trust them. Once they’re done healing you they’ll bring you to meet up with me in the throne room.”

He looked a little lost, but nodded and allowed himself to be led away. Meanwhile Callie and I entered to palace, heading for the throne room. Azazel met me at the door, and I nodded to him gratefully. No words were necessary, and my first minister returned the gesture with a smile. We retreated to the back room, where Sam and Dom were waiting for us, my other two ministers both uncharacteristically somber.

Looking them over as I sat down, I sighed. “You all saw what happened,” I stated bluntly. They nodded. “Then you know we need a plan to take on Roland. We’ve seen him fight multiple times. We’ve seen the Apostate Flame in action up close and personal. We have some of the best C-rank predictive and deductive capabilities in the known universe at our disposal. I want Dantalion, Wisdom of Solomon, Fate Sense, and literally any other potentially useful demon in here to help. By the time I run into Roland, I want to have an exact counter for him.” And then, we got to work.