Wish upon the Stars chapter 998

“What do you mean he’s DEAD?” I asked her in horror. “Like…someone snuck into his room and killed him? Here? And no one noticed?” I glanced around, suddenly much less secure in my knowledge that we were safe in the Wishworld.

My dad noticed the slight motion and shook his head. “These are the heir’s private quarters. The security here is far beyond what any average B-ranker would have. I don’t know what killed him, but it would need to bypass S-rank security measures in order to enter. No one would be able to manage it here without attracting the old man’s attention.”

“How did he not notice THIS?” I demanded. “This world is HIS, right?”

He nodded. “It is. But extending his Perception through it requires at least some effort. He doesn’t bother, dedicating his mental processes to research.”

I remembered meeting him, and what I’d seen with that book. He sealed portions of his consciousness into research projects to maximize study efficiency. I wondered exactly how cognizant the old man even was most of the time. I gritted my teeth in frustration. I didn’t know if my parents were right about him being apathetic, but he was definitely at least fairly nonchalant.

“Derran is your oldest sister’s son, right?” I asked my dad. “Arabella?”

He nodded. “Ari is going to be…” his face clouded. “I feel bad for her. Having a child undergo soul destruction is unimaginable. I didn’t know the kid, but his dad is a decent man, and Ari is my sister, even if we don’t always get along.” His tone was quiet and sad, affected in a way I had never heard from him before.

My mom laid a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll go extend our condolences after Shane is settled,” she said softly. He nodded, giving her a grateful smile.

I hadn’t seen my dad this emotional before, really. Not this way. He’d always seemed so calm and measured. It hit me how absolutely horrifying this was going to be. More than that, it hit me how horrifying it COULD be. “What about the others?” I asked quickly. “Derrick, Delia, Roland, all the friends I made in the succession war. They need to be put under guard.”

“It’s been handled,” my paternal grandfather said as he strode into the room. “I came as soon as I heard, and I dispatched an A-ranker to guard each of them. I’m not sure if that’ll be enough, but they’re in constant contact with each other, so it should at least act as a deterrent.”

“Dad,” my father said with a nod. “Has Ari been notified?”

Malachai swallowed hard. “No. She’s in seclusion working on a new technique. I sent Davis to get her. He’s…not doing well. Derran was a good boy. I try not to get attached to the young ones, just in case, but he was…talented. Charismatic. He had a bright future.” His eyes were hard and angry. “Someone is going to scream for this. They killed a promising young man. It’s such a waste.”

“How the hell did this HAPPEN?” I demanded. “Was there no security on his rooms? This is the Wish Curse Palace! And we’ve got visitors, there has to be some kind of active security measures in place.”

“Patrols,” he said in an empty voice. “The killer slipped right through the rotation. Could be an inside job. Or some kind of predictive power. I asked Aiden to contact the Ancestor, but he says the Great Book Heavenly Library is sealed. I’m assuming he’s gone into retreat to deduce whatever information he can extrapolate from what you showed him. The timing is…suspect.”

I wasn’t sure if the fact that they’d timed this to avoid him made me feel better or worse. At least he wasn’t completely unconcerned. Of course, this meant that despite some modicum of interest being possible he wouldn’t be available to help us. It ALSO meant that the possibility of this being an inside job had gone up, and that the person ‘inside’ was substantially more connected than we’d hoped. At least I assumed so.

“How many people knew he was in retreat?” I asked grimly. “And do you think this is related to the mess with Devon?”

“Highly possible,” he admitted. “I’m going to have someone examine Devon for influence. We assumed he just snapped out of envy, if I’m being honest. It’s not exactly out of character, the boy is an irredeemable brat. His mother spoils him. The timing here is too coincidental though. This is a targeted assault.”

My dad sighed. “My concern is that precautions were taken to prevent discovery. If it IS an inside job they probably used wishes to cover their tracks. You know as well as I do that secrets trend towards concealment. It’s easier to obscure than reveal.”

“I know,” my grandfather admitted. Malachai looked tired. “I…I don’t know what to do here. This has never happened before. A member of my direct lineage murdered INSIDE the Palace? Soul dispersed by an unknown assailant?" His jaw tightened. “It’s an outrage. But I don’t know where to aim my anger. And Ari…” he looked lost. “I’m not supposed to have favorites. But you and Ari have always been the children I was most proud of. I’m sure that’s not a surprise.”

My dad shrugged. “I’m not really concerned with making you proud.”

“I know,” said my grandfather with a bitter smile. “That’s why you manage it. Ari though, she’s my eldest daughter. Her mother was my first wife, Layla. She and Percival were my only children with Layla before she passed.”

Dad nodded. “I’ve heard of her. She was gone before I arrived, but mom mentioned her a few times. Said she was good people.”

My head snapped up. I knew NOTHING about my maternal grandmother. I’d never met her or even heard her MENTIONED. I considered asking about her, but given the circumstances it didn’t seem like the time. I made a mental note to bring it up later.

Malachai just sighed. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to Arabella. How do I tell her I let her only son get butchered right under my nose. That the person she cared about most was murdered in the one place where he was supposed to be safe.” His fists clenched so tightly I heard his joints crack. “How dare they? How DARE they do this here? “

To my surprise, my mom was the one to comfort him, putting a hand on his shoulder. My mom didn’t like my grandfather. At all. His handling of my dad’s upbringing, even after returning to the palace, infuriated her, and the number of children he had and how many women he’d had them with bothered her. That said, as a mother who had lost a child (albeit in a not quite so permanent fashion) I could tell seeing him in pain bothered her.

“We’ll help you talk to her,” she said kindly. “I’ve never met Arabella, but I’m sure she needs people to lean on in such a horrible time. Her husband, her family. We’ll be here for her.”

I was actually kind of worried she was going to blame me for this. It seemed clear to me that Derran was killed in order to cast doubt on the trial. But then again, that was only clear to me because I had a lot of context. I doubted Arabella was going to put that together from the available information, and given she was almost definitely A-rank at minimum, I had no desire to paint a target on my back where she was concerned.

At the same time, I DID want to help her. Derran had been a good guy, and I’d liked him. Back during the succession war he hadn’t hesitated to welcome me to the family despite being competitors, and he’d looked out for me without any real prompting. I couldn’t believe he was just…gone. I’d just been getting to know him.

This was my first time encountering soul destruction. When people died, it was sad, but it wasn’t really the end. You could bring them back later, like we had for Perit and Alan. But this…Derran was gone. Even the gods couldn’t bring him back. 

Soul destruction was just…the end. This wasn’t the shattering of the part of the soul people like my dad and Benny used in crafting and combat. This was a complete cessation of existence. An absolute unmaking of everything you had been as a person. That was why Devon’s potential punishment for this challenge was so terrifying to most people. Unless you had a mirror soul, there was no coming back from having your soul shattered.

It was tragic thinking of it happening to someone like Derran, a cousin I’d just been getting to know. More than that, it made me even angrier about Devon. My other cousin was, without a doubt, being used by someone or something to get this trial going. And if I survived, he wouldn’t. I had no doubt that if I got ejected from the faction, I’d be dead within days. Whoever was doing this wanted me out from under the protection of the Palace, and once I was, nothing good would wait for me. But even if I DID get out of this, I’d be losing ANOTHER cousin.

Which was unacceptable. I wouldn’t allow Devon’s family to go through what I was watching right now. I might not LIKE Ayra Vetala, but I didn’t want to see her suffer something like this. And I could see from my dad’s expression he was thinking the same thing.

The question was, who the hell was DOING this? And why? Were they just after the Wishmaster position? Were they after me to get to Callie? To stop me from contacting the Lady on behalf of the WCP? I’d gotten involved in a frankly ridiculous amount of things well out of my depth up to this point, so it wasn’t exactly easy to tell.

One thing I did know though, this wasn’t over. More surprises were coming during this trial. Whoever was making moves here had an endgame I couldn’t predict, and whatever it was, I was pretty sure it had to do with the Apostate. Whoever or whatever that monster might be, it was coming, I could feel it hovering over top of me like a headsman’s blade, ready to fall the second I stopped thinking about it.

Callie sidled up next to me, wrapping an arm around my waist, and I put one of mine over her shoulder. She shook against my side, every bit as afraid as I was. The idea of soul destruction was…well, it was horrifying. More than even normal Ascendants, Callie and I had an understanding of the soul. We were in contact with each other’s every day. The idea of seeing Callie’s soul shatter. Of feeling her vanish forever in a way I could never fix, tore a gaping hold in my chest.

She was even more afraid. I’d cracked my soul multiple times in combat. I tended to be impulsive and innovative when fighting, and more than once I’d gone too far and put my soul in danger. She’d been terrified every time, but it had been academic. She’d never SEEN anyone’s soul destroyed.

I could also feel the terror and nausea of her reaction to his death. People kept using words like ‘butchered’ and as she buried her face in my shoulder, I tried very hard not to think about what my wife must have seen done to my cousin to make a hardened warrior like her this sickened.

“Where is he?” The silence was broken by a loud voice echoing through the halls outside. “Where is that bastard?” The door of the room smashed open, and a tall, dark haired woman with steel grey eyes strode into the room, only for those same eyes to fix on my dad. “This is YOUR fault!” She snarled, and then she snapped a black baton shaped object and the room filled with blood red lightning.