Wish upon the Stars chapter 1027

It was a long walk to the council chamber. Or rather, it felt long. Callie was with me, but the others mostly stayed behind. They didn’t want to see me marching off to get locked up for days on end with potential enemies. My parents came with us, and even my dad looked tense. I raised an eyebrow at him as we walked. “Why do you look so morose? We’re the ones who are going to be locked up in a box for the next three days.”

He frowned. “This feels off. Things aren’t proceeding like they should. If you hadn’t successfully condensed your Domain, I would have shut this farce down already. As it is, I suppose you can protect yourself, but…”

I nodded. “I get it. I don’t like it either, especially not with Callie coming along, but at least we aren’t going alone. Roland is one of the top combatants in B-rank in the whole family. Even having Ellie along wouldn’t be as safe. He’s a friend, and he owes me one besides. I saved his life, remember? He’s not going to half ass protection detail.”

My mother nodded unhappily. “We know. And no one above B-rank should be entering alongside you. Just don’t take anything for granted. Watch out for each other.”

Arriving at the council chamber, I was surprised to see Desmond waiting outside for us. At his side, Devon was standing with a pair of men I’d never seen before. When he saw me, he smirked triumphantly. “Ah, the traitor arrives. I see you brought your wife with you. Couldn’t find anyone else willing to lie on your behalf?” He didn’t mention Roland, but I assumed he was just too scared to talk shit about a powerful B-ranker to their face.

Callie glared at him. “My husband saved your LIFE you ungrateful little twit. I’m starting to think he shouldn’t have bothered. Leaving you around to pollute our air with your stupidity is a disservice to the universe. And gods forbid if someone agrees to BREED with you.”

I raised an eyebrow at my wife. That was unexpectedly vicious. I guess she was really upset that he was doubling down on this nonsense.

“Don’t think I bought his little act,” he sneered. “I’ve long since become aware of your tricks. Having your Void spawn minions try to kill me so you could ‘save me’ and incur my gratitude? Honestly, did you think I wouldn’t figure that out?”

I frowned, because that actually wasn’t a completely insane take on the situation, and it would be nearly impossible to disprove. Our arrival just in time to save him WAS incredibly coincidental, I’d even considered that myself. Callie stepped forward, looking about ready to attack him, but I put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine, love. He’s either crooked or stupid, and either way you won’t make much headway. Zeke always says: ‘never argue with idiots, they’ll pull you down to their level and beat you with experience’.”

She snorted at that, relaxing under my hand, and I turned to look at my cousin. “So, are you going to introduce the complete strangers you’ve asked to come here and testify against me? Because I know neither of these people.”

The sneer came back, wiping away the outrage from my earlier comments. “Go ahead and pretend. Once we enter The Quiet Room you’ll be helpless. We’re beyond your ability to harm, and even if we weren’t, killing the only witnesses to your crimes will only prove your guilt.”

Devon sighed. “We don’t have time for this nonsense, both of you save the bickering until you’ve entered. Opening The Quiet Room isn’t something done easily or casually. If Devon hadn’t made a legitimately compelling case for possible interference, we wouldn’t have agreed to it.” His eyes locked on my cousin. “You are aware that should this turn out to be the farce that he claims, your execution will go from a simple soul destruction to a fate of such agony and cruelty that hardened Ascendant warriors will weep in terror at its mere mention, yes?”

For probably the first time since we’d arrived, I saw a look of unease cross Devon’s face. He glanced at us, looking at me, then Callie, then at Roland, presumably worried my friend would just kill him. I imagined that option was more tempting than it had been previously. He swallowed hard. “I do,” he reaffirmed. “I will not allow his treachery to go unanswered. I will protect this family, whatever it costs me.”

To my absolute shock, that actually smelled true. I glanced at the other witnesses. One of them had to be twisting things, whispering in his ear somehow. The question was why did he trust them so much? Why were they able to convince him they knew the truth? “You never answered my question, Devon,” I reminded him. “The witnesses?”

He shrugged. “Very well, since you can hardly bully or threaten them at this point, or have your minions do it anyway, I suppose I can share. This is Franklin Delmand, and this is Callister Vex.”

Roland snorted. “The PAPER king?” he blurted out. “Your witness is the PAPER king?”

One of the men, a copper haired, sallow faced youth with a curly mop partly covering his steel grey eyes, scowled. “That incident isn’t relevant to my credibility! It was a slight crafting error, nothing more.”

I cocked my head at my friend, who laughed. “Callister here tried to open a paper company, supplying the family with all its stationary needs. Contracts are big business here, you know? Unfortunately for him, there was a small issue with his crafting process. One that didn’t become noticeable for several months after production, specifically after the paper had time to completely dry.”

“It’s paper,” I said dryly. “What kind of issue could be that big of a scandal?”

“It had a tendency to…explode,” the bronze haired man said begrudgingly. “But only a little! And only like…five percent of the time. Almost no one died!”

I snorted. “Ah yes, minimal casualties, the hallmark of good stationary.”

Roland chuckled, then looked at the other man, an incredibly tall, gaunt behemoth with bulging muscles and a long curly beard. “You I only know by combat reputation. I heard you killed Craven Sever. I fought him once. Scary old man. Every single one of the pages of his chronicle was bound with the death of a rising star of the new generation, someone capable of fighting up a rank. He was getting close to A-rank, wasn’t he?”

The big man nodded. “I would have been his hundredth.”

I whistled. I’d heard of people like that. A lot of people didn’t create their Domain at B-rank, but waited until A-rank or even higher. Theoretically, the more distinguished and impressive your pages, the more powerful your Chronicle, and the stronger the Domain it could bear. Domain strength had a large impact on the eventual power of a god, and on the strength of an Ascendant in general. I’d somewhat cheated by using the staff to share the burden, and the function of my Gehenna Domain was abnormal anyway, but if this Craven Sever guy had bound a Chronicle with pages like that, he’d have been incredibly strong at A-rank.

“Since the defense may not be aware,” Desmond said after we finished speaking. “I will introduce the concept of The Quiet Room.” We shut up to let him talk. “In situations where outside interference is suspected, the prosecution may invoke the use of The Quiet Room. This room is a place of absolute solitude that defies all means of observation, communication, or manipulation. 

“Due to the suspicions from the prosecution, the defense was not notified of this change,” despite the words, his tone was knowing, and he smiled slightly at me. They hadn’t told us, of course, but we’d been advised to study the charter. Clearly my lack of surprise made it obvious we’d listened, and were prepared for this eventuality. “Of course, to preserve the safety of the two sides, you will be placed on opposite ends of The Quiet Room space. Should you choose to seek each other out to interact, we will be unable to intervene, but as mentioned, any deaths will negatively impact the case of the surviving participants. Do you have any questions?”

“Um, where is The Quiet Room?” I asked slowly, raising my hand subconsciously like a school kid. “This is the entrance to the council chamber, right?”

He nodded. “It is. And it isn’t. The council chamber and The Quiet Room are both sealed spaces created by the ancestor. This door represents the entrance to several similar locations, each of them connected directly in the Void at hidden locations. Externally, only the ancestor is aware of their coordinates, and internally, only this one door can be used to access them. This is the most heavily guarded location in the palace, and once inside, your safety and solitude from outside forces will be assured.”

It sounded like a reassuring answer, but I could see a slight emphasis in his eyes when he mentioned outside forces. He wanted me to be careful of the other witnesses. I contacted Callie directly as we approached the door. “Did you pick up anything about those two?” I asked through the bond. “Any Void energy?”

She sent me a feeling of denial. “Nothing obvious. But I could only sense them if they were actual Void spawn. Vessels can be unpredictable in terms of feedback. Some of them I can pick up, some of them are more deeply hidden. Even higher rankers might not notice, given the Void’s ability to isolate and disguise.”

I had been afraid of that. Even back during our legion training with Camden, we’d been told about the abilities of Void stealth. Stealth in general operated by confusing Perception, but the Void’s ability to remove things from realspace made it unparalleled for disguise and deception. Wise had demonstrated that again on the Heirworld. I slipped my hand into hers, intertwining out fingers as Desmond pushed the doors open. “The defense will go first,” he said solemnly. “After ten minutes, the prosecution will enter. Step off the path at any time to arrive at a random location inside The Quiet Room.”

We nodded, stepping out onto a long, winding path of pure white light that led off into darkness. Callie, Roland and I stepped onto the path, setting off into the dark as the door closed behind us. We walked for two or three minutes, then stepped off the path as instructed, and…suddenly we were somewhere else. Standing on a plateau overlooking a great desert.

“Alright,” I said with a sigh. “Let’s set up camp here. I should get some warning before they find us.” I contacted Azazel silently in my Domain, telling him to be on alert.

Roland nodded, flopping down on a rock. “Agreed,” he groaned. “That was so tense. Being around high ranking members of the family like that always stresses me out. It’s creepy not knowing how much they can tell about you. It’s like talking to a person with X-ray vision. Who knows what they’re looking at. Glad that’s over.”

“We appreciate the assist,” I told him gratefully. “Without you to bear witness, who knows how this would have gone.”

“It’s nothing,” he assured me. “I owe you. Not just for saving me, but for looking into what happened to Darren. He was my friend, you know? I still can’t believe he’s gone. Making him suffer to the point he destroyed his own soul…it’s horrible.”

I froze. Because I hadn’t mentioned that to anyone. It was a tidbit that Wulf had uncovered during his research, and it had come from a guard who worked for Derran’s parents. I’d only learned about it from Azazel’s notebook while he was doing the calculations for his precognition. Roland stiffened, his eyes flicking to mine, meeting my gaze and clearly seeing the realization in them. His expression flattened, growing cold. “Oops.” And then he attacked.