Wish upon the Stars chapter 994

“So, this is where Wulf wants us to meet him?” I asked dryly as I looked around the abandoned theme park. We'd postponed the Kingdom Siege thing Vicky had mentioned after Wulf had gotten in contact and asked for a face to face. “Because I’ll be honest, this does not inspire confidence in his reliability.” I looked around the place with mild curiosity. “Also, what IS this place? The WCP didn’t seem like the kind of place where someone might build…this.”

Vicky shrugged. “It was called Wishland. I think one of the B-rankers built it as a joke. I came here a few times as a kid. Their mascot was ‘Wishy’ a giant scroll with eyes. They hired someone to wear a costume and everything. It was not well thought out.”

“Clearly,” I said as I brushed past a hanging sign that appeared to have popped off the base it was mounted on when one of the corners rusted off.

Abel chuckled. “Yeah concepts for places like this are key. It kind of reminds me of back home though. I wonder if its for sale? I have some money saved up from all those tournaments Mel and I took part in. And I’ve been meaning to invest in some real estate.” He glanced at Mel. “What do you think, honey? Needs a bit of spit and polish I admit, but I bet we could fix it up.”

“If by ‘fix it up’ you mean ‘pay someone else to repair it’ then maybe.” She said dryly. “Because you don’t actually know anything about construction.”

He snorted. “What? Of course I do. It’s just breaking stuff in reverse.”

“That’s-” I started. “I feel like that’s not accurate, but I can’t actually say WHY. I…I have no response to that.” I turned back to Vicky. “Did he say WHERE he wanted to meet us? Behind the creepy abandoned hall of mirrors maybe? Or inside that dark tunnel where I don’t think anyone will be able to hear us scream?”

Bethy giggled. “Don’t be silly. Plenty of people would hear us scream. They just wouldn’t care.”

“Thank you,” I told her dryly. “I feel better now. But jokes aside, I’d ACTUALLY feel better if I knew where we were going, and the instructions didn’t boil down to ‘walk into this obvious trap’.”

“To be fair,” my wife added cheerfully. “That describes like…half of our meetings. It usually works out fine. Except when people try to kill us. Which is admittedly not uncommon. But I have a good feeling about this one.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you think that’s some manifestation of our bond, like you’re using my fatewalker senses?”

“Nah,” she shrugged. “Just a gut feeling.”

Of course, I ALSO had a decent feeling about this. My current ‘nerves’ were mostly just a stalling tactic and to present an opportunity. People like Wulf, who dealt in secrets, were dramatic and showy (hence the meeting place). Easiest way to get them to show up was to give them an opening to appear and make a dramatic proclamation. It would work on me at least.

Sure enough, a voice murmured out from the darkness right after she spoke. “A surprisingly insightful one.”

There was a rush of shadows, or what seemed like shadows (a closer look revealed them to be dark birds) and suddenly a man was standing under the overhang, a dark lupine mask covering the top half of his face, eyes glowing like citrine coals. “Well,” I said after a moment. “That was dramatic. But your shoes are untied.”

“Wait, what?” He looked down, catching himself halfway. “Shit!” He glared at me. “That’s not funny, you know. I was following you for like twenty minutes waiting for the right opening.”

“I know,” I told him with a grin. “That’s why we gave it to you.”

He narrowed his eyes at me, then rolled them with a sigh. “So, you’re the new boss. Boss-to-be, whatever. I’ve heard interesting things. Should I call you Solomon, or would you prefer…Wayne.” His voice was gleeful as he said that last part and my blood ran cold.

“It’s Shane,” Abel said with a snort, unaware of my dark history. “Some information broker you are.”

“Yes,” Wulf said slyly. “Shane. My mistake.”

I sized him up. That little tidbit wasn’t one I’d shared with many people. It had happened inside the dungeon, and I was pretty ashamed of it, so I hadn’t spoken about it to almost anyone. I assumed Wulf had inquired about my information when I contacted him, or maybe when I became the heir, but still. It was an impressive bit of sleuthing.

Not enough to qualify him for Master of Secrets, at least not alone, but enough to warrant further investigation.

“So, I assume you know why I contacted you?” I asked him bluntly.

He nodded. “You’re looking for cabinet members. I assume you’re interested in me as a potential Master of Secrets. If I couldn’t infer that much I wouldn’t be much use in the position, now would I?”

“Maybe not,” I chuckled. “But that does change the tone of this interview a bit. I suppose that only leaves two questions. Are you interested, and are you qualified?”

Bethy’s eyes snapped to him, scanning his body. He noticed and raised an eyebrow at me. “What’s that about?” He sounded a bit uneasy. “I know she’s a vampire, do I look extra delicious or something?”

I sighed. “No, I used the word qualified. I got into an argument with Bethy a few months ago about the definition of the word qualification. Which she insists means turning something into a koala.” I glared at her. “It does NOT, and I told her so, but then she asked me what you WOULD call the process of turning something into a koala, and…I don’t really have an answer.”

Bethy pouted. “Stuff can mean two things. I just wanted to see if he was actually koala-fying. But he’s just a dumb human person in a wolf mask. He’s not even secretly birds like that guy you told me about. He was just using them for cover.”

“Anyway,” he said loudly, reclaiming our attention. “I can’t tell you if I’m qualified. That’s your decision. I CAN tell you no one within a few ranks of me has the kind of connections I do. I can tell you the access I can get you, not just here but throughout the faction, is unparalleled. The WCP are active in almost every system in the known universe. You don’t just need someone who has friends he can ask for information, you need someone who has friends who have friends who can tell you ANYTHING.”

His tone was confident, and I could understand why. Because his little name drop earlier was a hell of an advertisement. That information had been something he could only have gotten through contact with someone who had come out of the dungeon. That was a short list, and he’d have needed to do it fairly quickly to have the information ready for this meeting.

“How about a test?” I asked after a moment, a grin growing on my face. “I’ll give you a person to find. You have to find him. If you do, you’re in. You get the position immediately. What do you say?”

Snorting, he cocked his head. “You think YOU can ask me to find someone I won’t be able to locate?” He looked dubious. “Challenge accepted. Who is the target?”

My grin was so wide I wouldn’t be surprised if he could see it past my mask. “He’s an old friend of my parents. His name is Tim.” He paused, blinking at that. “I don’t have a last name,” I went on. “But he traveled with them when they were younger, and they were pretty well known. He might have even been on my dad’s team during the last succession war. Is that enough to go on or do you need more?”

He puffed up. “It’s plenty,” he said acidly. “I’m a professional, you know. I have contacts you can’t imagine. Just wait on my word, boss.” Then he stepped back, vanishing into the darkness in a rush of feathers.

I turned to look at Bethy, who held up a finger, brows furrowed. After a moment, she nodded. “Ok, he’s gone.” She pouted again. “So sneaky. Not Koala-ty at all.”

“So, you sent him after Tim,” my wife said wryly. “Isn’t that the friend your dad said hasn’t been seen in decades and habitually wanders into pocket dimensions? The one he compared to Bethy? You really expect him to be able to find that guy?”

“Nope,” I said with a cheerful grin. “Not even slightly. But he has a bit of an ego. I figured I’d give him an impossible task to knock him off his game a bit before I tell him he has the job. People work harder when they don’t think they’re meeting expectations. I shot her a wink and she rolled her eyes.”

Despite her amusement, she seemed almost impressed. As did my cousin. Vicky was shaking her head in awe. “That’s…so mean. But so amazing. I can’t believe you did that. He’s going to be furious when he finds out.”

“I think I’ll risk it,” I laughed. “Now, second topic, do you know anyone here roughly my size with similar hair?” I’d been planning to just grab someone for the Master of Substitution position, but walking around I’d made an unfortunate discovery. I got most of my height from my mom’s side of the family. Wyndhams were, by and large, not my size. And the ones that WERE didn’t have my same hair color. The mask would keep them hidden, but the body shape and size needed to match.

I’d also probably need to lend them my old armor, because I sure as hell wasn’t giving the Seal of Solomon away. My Abyssal Plate was a little tattered from the tail end of its usage, but it was still mostly intact, and we could patch the holes if needed.

That seemed to bring her up short. She looked me over. “Huh. I mean…you’re a big guy. I can think of one or two, but the height is the only thing that fits. They’re too wide in the shoulders, wrong hair, etc. Maybe Dante? His hair is the right color, but it’s longer. You’d need to convince him to cut it, which wouldn’t be easy, he’s been growing it out for a century from what I hear.”

“Got a picture?” I asked her with interest.

She just sneered at me, plucking a paintbrush and a palette from her ring and then quickly painting out an image of a tall, relatively lanky guy with long blonde hair. It was a good likeness. Well, it was a good likeness of SOMEONE. I didn’t know if it looked like the person she was trying to paint because I’d never seen him. I nodded anyway. “Got it, and I don’t suppose you know where to find him?”

“Oh sure,” she said with a grin. “Anyone can tell you that. He never goes anywhere besides the fighting pits in the fifth sublevel. He’s a battle maniac. If you want to recruit him though, you’ll have to beat him. No other way.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but I was cut off by a musical laugh. “Sounds like fun,” I turned to find Bethy grinning, her fangs showing and eyes glowing an eerie red in the shadows of the abandoned park. “Time to show everyone around these parts what your Champion can do, huh boss man?”

“It is,” I agreed with a chuckle. “But FIRST, I think we can spare some time to check out this abandoned theme park. It’s kind of cool, and if Abel wants to buy it we need to scope the place out. So…anyone interested in checking out the haunted house with me?” That got a series of laughs, and we all headed off to explore. Had to take moments of fun where we could get them.