Wish upon the Stars chapter 976

Time. The more of it that I endured, the faster it seemed to flow. A day. A month. Six. The trip to Seraph (the capital planet of the Holy Dominion) only took a month in the Acheron. The other five went by in a blur of revelry, meetings, and general contentment. Meeting relatives, bonding with my sister, spending time with my wife and parents. I felt…whole. Normal.

 Paradoxically, the time following my ascension to Wishmaster status (or partial ascension given my lack of coronation) was the first time since I became an Ascendant that I really felt like a regular person. A husband. A son. A brother. It was the best six months of my life.

But all good things must end. So when I woke up a few days before our scheduled departure and considered how things would be changing, all I could do was sigh.

“Credit for your thoughts,” came the amused voice of my wife. I was lying on my back, hands behind my head as I stared up at the ceiling, but I turned as she spoke, taking in the beautiful sight of her smile as she laid with her head propped up on a pillow, staring at me with a sort of soft fascination that never ceased to amaze me.

I leaned forward impulsively to give her a quick peck on the lips. “Just sad to go. This has been…amazing. And the idea of giving it up to go play shepherd to the political equivalent of a bunch of drunk mutant cats with rabies seems…suboptimal.”

“Well anything sounds bad when you put it like that,” she said lightly. “But don’t think of it as giving anything up. We were overdue for some downtime, but let’s be honest, you’re addicted to danger. You’d have started climbing the walls after a few more weeks. I think we pretty much hit the sweet spot on this vacation.”

I grinned sheepishly. “Well…maybe. But I’ll miss the family at least.”

Meeting everyone had been…overwhelming. Uncle Sam, despite being the most boisterous, had hardly been the only welcoming member of the family. My Uncle Eric and his two daughters, Lara and Sonya, had been here to greet me when I arrived. My Uncle Raph and his son Ben were over the first night for family dinner. My uncle Daniel and his wife Constance had been excited to meet me, they had no kids of their own but had helped raise Chelsea and considered her as the next best thing to their own daughter.

Within the first day, I was buried in new relatives, family friends, and excited neighbors who were dying to meet me, not because I was the Wishmaster but because I was Sasha’s son.

Which was another thing that took getting used to. My mother was BELOVED on Seraph. Gabe’s reaction when he heard her name back in the Moonsong Glade was not at all unusual in terms of responses to her. Sasha the Star Queen was the most popular Saintess in the Church of the Red Revenant, and she was considered to be basically the great hope of the A-rankers, almost guaranteed to reach Pope.

It was honestly sort of disorienting, because whenever I met anyone, their first response was to fawn over my mother, who would inevitably parade my sister, father, wife, and I around like show ponies, loudly announcing how proud she was of us and how amazing we are. This led to a sort of ass kissing feedback loop, where people would gush over us to make her happy, which WOULD make her happy, so SHE would gush over us more, and they would assume she wanted more enthusiasm and then respond accordingly.

Frankly, it was deeply exhausting, but we’d gotten used to it quick, and after a month or two, people had stopped getting quite so starstruck and started to treat us like normal human beings again.

“Are you nervous by the way?” I asked her cautiously. “You’ve been putting off the meeting at the tower for our whole visit. I was surprised you agreed to meet them at all.”

She blew out a frustrated breath, puffing a strand of blue black hair out of her face. “I kind of had to. Holly and Serah are friends. It means so much to them, and it’s not like your mom will let them DO anything to me even if they wanted to.”

“They’d have to get in line before she even got to them,” I laughed. “You’re more popular with my relatives than I am. You should hear my Aunts go on about you. ‘Calliope is so beautiful, so graceful, so strong, Shane you’re so lucky to have married such an exceptional woman’. Between that and my grandmother being your master, you have your own dedicated fanclub. If I couldn’t literally FEEL how much you love me I might be jealous, you’re almost a local celebrity.”

She snorted derisively. “I think we both know who the real celebrity is. Speaking of which, did you know Bethy could SING? Because I did not see that coming.”

Because despite trying her hand at being a designer for a while and achieving some pretty substantial success, Bethy had apparently decided that her newest passion was musical performance. Bethy was currently the darling of Seraph, the most famous performer on the planet, and her concerts were packed wall to wall every time she performed. She was actually really good.

“I mean, nothing she does surprises me anymore,” I admitted. “Though I do think the whole persona is a little silly. Princess Nightmask is, quite frankly ridiculous. That mask doesn’t even HIDE her identity. It’s just a fancy ballroom domino mask.”

“Hon’, I think maybe we don’t get to throw stones about pointless theatricality and masks,” my wife said with a snicker. “Besides, you should be happy for her. It helped her hit C-rank pretty fast, didn’t it? Honestly she’s probably further in than us at this point. It’s definitely creative. Plus have you heard her music?”

I frowned. “Yes,” I admitted. “Dark Beast is stupidly catchy. Though it does NOT sound like a song called Dark Beast. She picks the most edgy names and her songs are all so upbeat.”

Of course, I wouldn’t say that to her. I was incredibly supportive of Bethy’s music. Both to her face and privately, I just tended to grump first thing in the morning, especially when I was feeling morbid. She’d done a lot with her natural talent and presence since coming here, and it was kind of awe inspiring to see what my ‘bestie’ was capable of even without her dad’s influence.

Sitting up, I groaned and stretched. “We should get up,” I complained as I slipped out of bed and into a pair of pants. “What time did you promise to be at the tower? I want to make us breakfast if we have time.”

Of course, Callie shot out of bed with a happy squeal. “Fritatas!” she cheered. I grinned, rolling my eyes as I turned to head for the kitchen. “Use the spicy sausage please!” she called eagerly. “I’m in the mood for something with kick!” I just laughed making my way to the kitchen of the small wing of the manor my mom lived in on Seraph.

Which had also taken getting used to. My mom lived in a MANOR with WINGS. Wings that had their own self contained living spaces. And this was just one of like…a hundred. The manor was absolutely huge, and that was WITHOUT spatial expansion.

As I stopped in the kitchen and flipped on the stove, I heard a loud knock at the door separating us from the rest of the house. Snagging a shirt from my space ring, I headed to the door, pulling it open after dropping a pan on the open flame to heat up. To my complete lack of surprise, it was my sister and her two best friends. “Holly, Serah,” I told them dryly. “You couldn’t wait until she was ready?”

“We wanted to be supportive,” Holly said cheerfully. “Make sure she was doing alright, wasn’t too nervous, you know, friend stuff. On a completely unrelated note, is that the smell of a warming pan I catch on the air?”

“I should never have gotten my cooking skill up to Grandmaster,” I complained as I turned to head back into the kitchen, leaving them to close the door. “I thought cooking lessons with mom’s personal chef would be a blast, but now people just harass me to cook for them. I have feelings you know! I’m not just a chef’s knife and a floppy hat.”

Holly snorted. “More of a wet blanket I’d say.”

“You get nothing,” I told her primly as I turned to the others. “How about you girls? Want a frittata? I’m thinking of fresh squeezing some juice too. Do you guys look rezvalks?”

Holly reeled back in dumbstruck horror. “What? No! I was kidding! Please don’t make me watch everyone else eat! I LOVE rezvalks!” I felt kind of bad because she looked ready to cry, and I waved her off quickly.

“Fine, fine, just calm down, I was kidding,” I opened the fridge, sifting through it and pulling out a pair of fuzzy purple fruits, a local delicacy that looked like a mix of plums and kiwis and tasted like a blueberry mixed with a watermelon injected with pineapple juice (I literally had no other way to describe them, they were a unique experience). I reached into a drawer to pull out a plastic juicer, then started to crush them into a pitcher one at a time.

“I’m here!” Callie yelped as she stumbled into the room, hopping on one leg as she slid into her pants. She would have fallen but her wings spread to create drag, letting her skate gracefully across the tile and plop neatly into a chair across from me.

She blew her hair out of her face again (she insisted she needed it cut but refused to actually DO it), and looked around. “What did I miss?”

“Holly was being snarky and almost mocked herself out of breakfast,” my sister snickered.

I dropped a pat of butter into the pan, grabbing a big container of eggs and cracking them all into a bowl as I turned to grin at my wife. “And we’re having rezvalk juice with breakfast. Because I’m petty.”

She grinned. “I love when you’re petty. All my best meals come from that. Did he tell you we’re having fritatas?”

“We’re aware,” said my sister dryly. “The eggs were a giveaway. Speaking of eggs, where is-” she was cut off by a delighted trill that echoed through the house as I cut open a packet of sausages. Snorting, I cut a chunk of sausage and tossed it into the air as a familiar green form darted through the air to snatch it up, then flew up to the top of the fridge to hoard it as he ate. “Archie,” she finished wryly.

“He likes to go out for flights on his own,” I shrugged. “We leave the windows open and he comes back when he feels like it. Everyone on the grounds knows him so it's safe enough.”

I laughed as Holly and Serah lit up, trying to call him down to fuss over him. The angels ADORED Archie, something about their fiery nature complimented his well. Even Callie had become more affectionate with him after she became an Archangel.

It was just another reminder of the peaceful life we had here. I mixed the eggs and then added vegetables and meat, beginning the process of making the frittatas. As I considered what this morning was bringing, I thought about how comfortable I’d been here, how easy and convenient everything was…and then I realized Callie was probably right. Much more of this and I’d go stir crazy. I guess the timing really was ideal. She really did know me so well. I made a mental note to never admit to this out loud. A man needs to maintain some mystery.