Wish upon the Stars chapter 996

Dante was thrilled to join up after the fight. He and Abel really were the same kind of person, and they were both incredibly excited for the opportunity to find a new sparring partner. They made plans to fight again later, after they’d healed up, and I didn’t even have to explain what I wanted Dante to do before he agreed.

We headed back up to the guest wing together, chatting about the tournaments I was planning to hit to find my last few cabinet members, and I was JUST starting to relax when we were stopped.

Well. Stopped was a polite term. Surrounded was probably more accurate. I wasn’t too worried, given where we were, so I just stared down the line of robed figures, waiting for one of them to let us know what they wanted. Sure enough, after a moment, they moved, and a new face emerged. “Well,” sneered the vaguely familiar guy with disdain. “If it isn’t the pretender.”

I blinked at him. “Ah, it’s…you,” I trailed off. “Nope. I got nothing, you look kind of familiar but I can’t place it. Can you tell me who you are so I can proceed with your mockery?”

His face twisted hatefully. “Trash!” he hissed. “You think you’re so special. That you deserve any of this? Your garbage father left the Palace in shame, and then you think you can just come back and take from those of us who are entitled to this? Like we’d ever believe you CAPABLE. I know what you are.”

“Once again,” I said slowly. “That is not mutual. I do not know you. Please introduce yourself, because I’m very lost.”

“Fool,” he snarled. “Play your games for as long as you can. You must recognize your own cousin.”

I raised my eyebrow at him in disbelief. “Do you have ANY idea how little that narrows it down?”

“Devon,” he snarled. “My name is Devon.” I stared at him blankly. “My father is Percival! The eldest of our grandfather’s sons!”

Then it clicked. “Ohhh! You’re Percy’s kid. That makes sense. Kind of surprised we didn’t meet on the Heirworld. Guess you weren’t around for any of the big stuff. Something I can help you with, Dev? Because I’ll be honest, if you wanted to talk you could have called. Maybe sent a messenger. Surrounding me with goons in the middle of the hall is kind of sad.”

“I wanted to give you a chance to take it back,” he snarled. “You ARE family, even if you don’t act like it. Withdraw silently and pass the mantle to someone more deserving and no one needs to know what you’ve done.”

“I mean…someone needs to know,” I said uncertainly. “Namely me. Because I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

He all but screamed in frustration. “Don’t play games with me! You know what you did! There’s no way a D-ranker saved an entire planet. You must have had an inside track on what was happening. You were working with the Void, weren’t you? Biding your time so you could switch sides and cheat your way to victory.”

“Ohhhh,” I said with understanding. “So you’re just an idiot. Sorry. Took me a second to catch up.”

I was pretty sure he barely stopped himself from attacking me. “You’re a liar!” he hissed. “You cheated and I’ll prove it. I’m invoking the charter. I suspect you used outside interference beyond the parameters of the trial to win, and I’m calling your coronation into question. You can play as dumb as you want in front of me, but once the charter is invoked, there has to be a trial. It’s the law.”

“What?” I said with alarm. “That’s ridiculous. You just let anyone claim foul play? What’s to stop any of the dissatisfied candidates from calling bullshit whenever anyone wins.”

“Because,” came the tired voice of my father from off to one side. “Invoking the charter on an ascending candidate over an invalid charge is grounds for execution.” The wall of robed figures parted and he stepped inside, grimacing at Devon. “Congratulations, by the way. You’ve managed to annoy me almost as much in the ten seconds I’ve known you as your father did in the first few years we interacted. That’s a genuine accomplishment, considering how obnoxious my brother is.”

Devon sneered at him. “Well if it isn’t the traitor. I assume you helped him with this farce. You’ll be dragged down in his wake just like the others.”

I was still focused on what my dad said. “Wait…you’re that bitter? You’re willing to DIE on the off chance your totally ridiculous theory turns out to be true? Which, by the way, it isn’t.” I looked at my dad. “Can we walk this back? He might be an ass but he IS my cousin. I don’t want him dying over this.”

“I WON’T die!” he screamed in rage. “Because I’m RIGHT! You’ll be exiled in disgrace and I’ll have the chance to claim my birthright! I was supposed to win! I’m the oldest grandchild! I was going to do what grandfather never could. What father didn’t manage. YOU weren’t even supposed to be a factor. You’re a fucking poison. An infection rotting away the heart of this family. And I’m going to expose you!”

My dad just shook his head. “See, this is why smart people don’t practice Skills like ‘Discord’. Because you do practice, right? You don’t have a second ability, but you were able to learn your mother’s family Skill.”

“Of course,” snorted the cocky idiot. “Why would I possibly neglect such a deadly ability.”

“Because it works equally well on YOU as it does on others,” my father said with a sigh. “You’re lying to yourself. You’re so in denial about this nonsense you’re willing to kill yourself to be proven right. Disturbing your own life because you're applying the Skill in ways you don't understand.”

My cousin looked troubled, but shook it off quickly. A literal headshake cleared his clouded face like someone shaking a snowglobe. “You’re just trying to trick me. It doesn’t matter. I made my accusation, and it was witnessed. The trial proceeds. Within the hour everyone will know about your son’s shameful deception. We’ll be called before the elders and he’ll answer for what he’s done. He’ll be banished and I’ll take over.”

“Would you even be in the running for that?” I asked skeptically. “Because I feel like I’d have seen you at the ceremony when we finished if you had the points. You didn’t really come up that I saw.”

His glare became even more ferocious. “Because of cheaters like you! I’m a genius, and I’m destined for great things! Even if my points weren’t up to it, if I expose a Void traitor they’ll have to take me seriously! I’ll be crowned Wishmaster in your place out of meritorious service to the faction.”

“You definitely won’t,” my dad observed helpfully. “I mean, Shane didn’t betray anyone, which should be obvious enough after a witness or two is called, but even if he had, exposing him would get you an attaboy at best. And not a particularly sincere one.”

“Liar!” snarled Devon. “My father told me you were a liar. That you would try to trick me. I know better than to listen to you.”

Snorting, my dad shook his head. “But not better than to listen to him, apparently.”

“What’s going on here?” Came an arrogant voice that I recognized almost immediately. Ayra Vetala, Devon’s mother, swept through the ring of figures, her gaze raking over us. Focusing on her son, she frowned. “Devon? What are you doing?”

“Oh that’s a great story!” My dad said cheerfully. “Your idiot offspring just lodged a formal challenge against my son's coronation under the charter.”

When she’d spotted him, her lip had curled in disgust, but as he spoke, her eyes widened and her face drained of blood. “That’s…that’s absurd. He wouldn’t do that. The charter hasn’t been invoked in millennia. The punishment for a false allegation is execution by soul destruction.”

My eyes widened too. Soul destruction? Gods dad, way to bury the lede. Execution was one thing, you could wish people back from the dead. Having your soul shattered was irreversible unless you were at mirror soul. Which, given Devon was C-rank like I was, I could be certain he wasn’t.

Devon raised his chin arrogantly. “I have faith, mother. I know that my righteous cause will win out in the end. I have truth on my side. There’s no way that traitor’s mongrel can accomplish something like defeating an S-rank Void incursion. This is all a farce, and I’m going to prove it. I won’t let this affront to father’s dignity stand.”

She was staring at him in horrified stupefaction. “Oh, my boy,” she whispered. “My poor, stupid, simple boy. What did you DO?”

From her tone, I was guessing she could see what my dad had. That he’d been training his Discord Skill and it had backfired somehow. It made sense. I imagined if you wanted to believe something badly enough you could convince yourself of anything, even without a Skill that made it easier.

“What he did,” came a somber voice as yet ANOTHER A-ranker showed up. “Was lodge a formal accusation of misconduct against the heir.” His eyes fell on Devon. “Take him into custody. I don’t want him fleeing before the trial…or after.” Two men in dark cloaks and masks stepped out, each one grabbing one of Devon’s arms. His eyes turned to me. “I trust I don’t need to warn YOU not to run?” He asked coldly. “I’d prefer to extend some modicum of courtesy to the heir.”

I was shaken, and it took me a moment to realize he was asking a question. “I…no. I’m fine. I mean I’m good. Not going anywhere. I didn’t do anything wrong and I’m fine with a trial.”

“What is this?” Devon yelled as he yanked fruitlessly at his arms to try to escape. “Unhand me! My father and grandfather are elders! You can’t DO this! This is collusion! They’re covering for him! I deman-” he was cut off by Ayra’s hand smashing into the base of his neck with a sharp chop, his eyes just rolling up as he slumped in place.

“Apologies,” she told the man solemnly. “My son is…out of sorts. Might I take him back to our quarters? I won’t let him run. I know what that would mean. I’ll keep an eye on him.”

Her voice was sad and quiet, and she was looking at her son with the kind of terrified surrender that I could imagine on my own mother’s face in that situation. The A-ranker stared hard at her, but eventually nodded, gesturing for the guards to let him go. Ayra reached out and smoothly caught her son before turning to me sadly. “This was a mistake. I don’t know this will end, but if you can…please be merciful.”

She lifted him up in her arms, cradling him like a baby, and then walked away, the circle of cloaked figures parting before her and eventually scattering. When she was gone, I turned to my dad, who was staring after her.

“I’m not crazy, right?” I asked him quietly. “That was…weirdly convenient.”

He nodded. “It was. Him losing composure like that and making a challenge at exactly the right time…something is going on. Someone is making moves here, under the old man’s nose. Which shouldn’t be possible. Maybe they got to him before he came back?”

Left unspoken was that it didn’t matter. Something was happening, and I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that it was unrelated to the prediction I’d gotten. Not to mention the Void and their ability to hide from almost anything…I had a sneaking suspicion that this mess was only just starting. Things would get worse before they got better. And if I didn’t figure out the game in time to learn the rules, we were all going to be the losers. And I’d just been starting to like it here.