Wish upon the Stars chapter 1026

 The process of Azazel divining the future was…complicated. Mostly because it was almost completely new to me. It wasn’t based on Doom Sovereign, or on normal Ascendant divination as I’d heard of it. It was more…abstruse. As Azazel explained it, his skills were entirely synthesized by the Ten Demons Tree. He had an entire lifetime of memories of slowly learning to predict the future through trial and error.

“Basically, my powers work on probability,” he said as he slowly withdrew a series of small carved bone chips. Symbols were inscribed all over them, but rather than just rhowing them, he began scratching a complicated diagram on the surface of the table. “I can’t tell you what’s going to happen. I can tell you what MIGHT happen, and I can somewhat sense how likely that is, in the abstract.”

“So you can find us the most likely outcomes,” I clarified. “Predict the biggest potential dangers?”

He waggled a hand. “Not exactly. My predictions are based on available data, my own perceptions, and my involvement in the incident in question. Just because an outcome is the most likely one I see, doesn’t mean it's the most likely in general. But I can somewhat refine things as I go. That’s why I’m willing to do this. When Dantalion is finished deducing the data, we can add it to that prediction matrix during the session.”

I nodded, not really understanding but pretty sure I wasn’t going to get it completely. It made more sense to move on. “Alright, so how do we start?”

He set the bone chips on the table, carefully sorting them and selecting a few after careful scrutiny, then handed me five of them. There were, interestingly enough, seventy two chips. I suspected this little trick used my Domain as a basis, and it was a fascinating thought. My individual demons being able to derive more advanced powers through the Domain itself would be potentially game changing later.

When I mentioned it though, he just shook his head. “As the last demon to form, and also the first in some senses, my presence is intricately bound to the rest of the court, and to yourself. The chips represent you and the others, and I’m not included. It’s possible you’ll be able to derive more powerful functions from the others as you improve the Domain, but it won’t be soon. You can think of this as a special level of access I’m due as your first Minister.”

“Ah, so you’re second in command around here, and you can use the Domain for a few of your own tricks because of the access level,” I clarified as I took the chips. “Good to know. So what do I do here? What does any of this mean?”

He gestured at the formation on the table. “This is the wheel of chaos. It contains all things and transforms all things. The collisions of the variable forms and the curves of the shifting diagrams are an every expanding and rapidly changing tapestry of possibility.” He pointed at the bone chips. “These are the lodestones of fate. They represent the journeys of those inscribed. I can’t just predict any future, only OUR futures, and not my own. But using yourself and my seventy one brothers as anchor points, I can pivot the lens of the infinite potential outcomes to gaze upon the external mysteries, briefly glimpsing the truth beyond my sphere of influence.”

“Huh,” I said slowly. “That was extremely unhelpful. I understood exactly none of it.”

He snorted. “Don’t worry about it. Shake the tiles and throw them onto the formation. I’ll do the heavy lifting.”

“See, was that so hard?” I complained as I shook the handful of chips.

Tossing them out, a watched the formation crackle with purple electricity as they bounced once, twice, and then, with a snap, they were sucked down onto the table as if magnetically attracted, slamming down on the wood face up and then sliding along the formation until they reached a specific spot.

Azazel hummed with interest, then began carving strange formuli on the table next to the formation. Green flickers of toxic flame spat and hissed in the obsidian material, showing me that everything here was constructed by Agares, not that I was surprised. Finally, he finished.

“I have a few tidbits,” he said slowly. “But things are murky. I don’t have enough information for a proper reading. Sam, go get Dantalion.”

Sammael nodded, rising and striding out of the door. Doom Sovereign watched carefully, trying to see something in the jumble of random information and clearly having as little success as I was. “Dom,” snapped Azazel. “Throw these four tiles.” He passed them to the regal looking blond, who nodded and did as he was told. Azazel stared down, calculating more, and resumed his carving.

Sammael came back, bringing Dantalion along with him. The hunched elder bowed deeply to me, and then to the ministers, before setting a hand on Azazel’s shoulder. His eyes sparked purple, and a surge of electricity poured from one demon to the other. Azazel’s eyes glowed the same shade, and he smiled wolfishly. “That’s new,” he commented.

Dantalion shrugged. “When I consume the information like that, I can redistribute it. Saves the trouble of transcription.”

Azazel nodded absently, then picked up another handful of tiles and threw them. The same surge of electricity, the same snap of attracted bone. But this time I was able to see that he wasn’t just clocking their final positions. He was studying the paths they took. His formulas were a sort of shorthand notation to track progress.

“First bit of information,” he said slowly. “You were right, the Apostate is one of the witnesses. I don’t have the data to figure out which, but he WILL be present during the final battle in The Quiet Room.”

I nodded. “Ok, good to know. What about the identities of the witnesses? Anything on that?”

He shook his head. “Unclear. I can’t get anything that specific. This whole situation is a mess. And I think The Quiet Room is blocking my divination attempts atemporally. Which is absurd, and would be way more shocking if it hadn’t been made by a god to keep other gods out of his business. As it is, I’m only getting quick flickers of potential outcomes, and only because we’re inside your Domain, and you’ll also have it open when the incident is occurring.”

That…actually made sense. If Domain’s were partial Void shallows anchored to a soul that meant they existed partially outside realspace. Still, I didn’t think it was as easy as he was making it sound. If a Domain was enough to bypass The Quiet Room it wouldn’t be considered god proof.

Seeing my skepticism, he chuckled. “My abilities leverage advantages we all have. Having so many points of contact, both unique and cohesive, gives me an unusual amount of grip on the possibilities. Especially considering the connective tissue of the Domain itself is the Ten Demons Tree, and we’ve all been more or less created by the tree, which is connected to your soul. For all intents and purposes, you’re asking me to look into my own future, for some values of selfhood. Of course, I can’t look at what my fate is as an individual, but there’s a layer of separation between yourself and us, even if it can get a little fuzzy.”

Doom Sovereign grimaced. “Your esoteric babbling is unnecessary. We seek only results.”

“You say that because YOU can’t do this,” Azazel said waspishly. “But our lord possesses all that I am, as well as access to your own considerable power. He can learn this method, and should he understand it, his safety will increase when he is out of reach of our assistance. Not that I expect that to happen, but better safe than sorry.”

“I appreciate that,” I told him kindly. “But Dom is right. At least in this instance. I’d love to learn more from you, and I might try incarnation soon to pick this up more easily, but you’ve explained the basics and now we need to focus. You had him throw, so what kind of feedback can you give?”

He sighed, but nodded. “Very well. I got some very vague responses. Firstly, you’ll need to dispatch Dom to fight independently, mobilizing several of his subordinates. I can’t get an exact number of enemies confirmed, but there’s enough that the forces you’re bringing won’t match up.”

Which meant there would be at least three witnesses on Devon’s side. With Callie and Roland as my backup, I was confident in a three on three. For some reason, I’d envisioned Devon bringing two just like I was, but if he had something up his sleeve, it was good to know about it.

I was about to pry more into the possibilities, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. I raised an eyebrow, but nodded to Dantalion to open it.

Crell was waiting on the other side. “We just got word. Devon has invoked the charter. He’s requested seclusion in The Quiet Room as the tribunal makes their final judgements. He’s citing the recent unrest as motivation to seclude early. He says it’s evidence that external forces are attempting to sway the course of the trial.”

I frowned as I gestured him inside. “The tribunal aren’t buying that, are they? Why would I have been involved in the attack AND helped fend it off. Not just saving Devon, I got heavily poisoned by Hatescream’s corrupted land. I’d have to be a moron to let myself get nearly killed by a plan I had a hand in.”

“They didn’t,” he said with a sigh. “But while external forces aren’t welcome in the trial, the tribunal IS still part of the elder’s council. They’re receiving subtle pressure from the other branch leaders.”

Left unsaid was that they probably weren’t resisting too hard. Non-interference was a point of principle, but The Quiet Room was a backup plan created specifically to ensure that very thing. None of them would consider its use to be interfering, or at least not enough to put up more than a token resistance. They had no reason to distrust Devon or his intentions in this matter, and I couldn’t really give them one.

Prophecy was notoriously unreliable, and based on Azazel’s feedback, it wasn’t supposed to even WORK in The Quiet Room. I grimaced. “They tell us who the witnesses are ahead of time by any chance?”

“Nope,” he said tiredly. “We won’t find out until you actually get there. And I won’t find out at all. Like I said, no lawyers in the box. It’s an anti-tampering measure, and for some reason everyone has a deep and fundamental distrust of giving us unsupervised access to the witnesses.” He snickered wryly. “Can’t really blame them there.”

“Granted,” I laughed. “But it doesn’t make my job easier. You get in touch with Roland already? Make sure he’s prepared?” I paused. “Wait, we can bring weapons in, right?” I hadn’t even considered what to do if they tried to disarm us. Forget Roland being weakened, Callie and I had our weapons in our SOULS. I had no idea if it was even possible, but I definitely had no desire to find out the answer in either case. 

Thankfully, he shook his head. “Nah, it’s generally accepted that weapons are kind of superfluous. You’re Ascendants. You won’t have a problem killing each other one way or the other. However, there IS a time constraint. You’ve been requested immediately. You’re to be locked up until the end of the trial, at which point you and Devon will receive the final judgement together.”

I glanced at Azazel, who nodded back solemnly, and I sighed as I stood. “Alright. I’ll retract the Domain. You take the others out of here, I doubt they’d react well to me trying to sneak you in.” As for the demons…I’d cross that bridge if I came to it. Hopefully it wouldn’t be an issue. I had enough problems.