Wish upon the Stars chapter 974

Arranging Perit’s resurrection took longer than expected. We had to arrange things with the body, wait for my points to be available, then wait until someone could be sent by the family to take care of everything, which given all my relatives who had been present had their OWN points to cash out, wasn’t exactly quick and easy to arrange.

But we’d finally reached the point where we were ready to perform the resurrection, even if this one seemed…different than the last.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” I told my dad as we watched them lay Perit’s perfectly preserved body out on a makeshift altar they’d cobbled together. “The fact that we can just….bring back the dead. You think they’re going to do this for Kent?”

He shrugged. “Probably. But it’s harder for people of higher rank. Your only experience with it is with people below the watershed, right?”

“Yeah, is it really that big a difference?” I glanced at Perit, who had died back at the ruined soul temple, or at least the connected academy. She was pre-watershed too, which seemed like it was a good thing at this point.

“It’s…qualitatively different,” he said slowly. “One point of Impact makes you an Ascendant, ten points makes you a REAL Ascendant, but it’s not too big of a difference because of the values you’re working with. But a hundred? You need to understand that the next watershed is GODHOOD. D-rankers have shed the initial stages of mortality and mounted the path to the divine.”

I grimaced. “So Kent’s resurrection will be WAY more expensive.”

“Unimaginably,” he agreed. “But not impossible. Any of the Branch Heads could do it. Some of the stronger A-rankers. And he was connected. It’s just a matter of horse trading at that level. It might not happen quickly, but it’ll get done.”

“Well, thank you,” I told him sincerely. “Not just from Nat, or even from Callie, but from me. Perit and I weren’t close, but I was responsible for her. It means a lot, you arranging all this.” I snorted. “If I’m going to be the Wishmaster I need to make sure that I use that power to help my friends.” I thought about what my mother said about following my heart. “Power corrupts, after all.”

He snorted derisively. “I hate that saying. Utter nonsense.”

“Why am I not surprised to hear you say that?” I asked wryly. “But I’ll bite. You really don’t think power corrupts?”

“People mythologize power,” he said bitterly. “It’s not some toxic, corrosive force that seeps into you and wears away at your humanity. In fact, humanity is probably the main problem for most people.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “How do you mean?” I’d expected some off the cuff answer about strength and imposing your will on the world, but this sounded more…reasoned. I was intrigued.

“Power, at its core, is just choice,” he said with a shrug. “Humans, even Ascendants, are weak creatures at heart. When given an easy path, they tend to take it. So when they’re offered choices, they inevitably pick the path of least resistance. But no one wants to admit that they’re weak of will. So they put in the groundwork. Power corrupts. It’s poison. That way when they get some and they’re tempted to do the wrong thing, they can point to the power they gained and say, ‘see, I told you’. That way it isn’t their fault. They weren’t weak, the power made them do it.”

I frowned at that. “I mean…I can see how you get there. But don’t you think that choices are kind of…weighted? People with more power get MORE choices, yeah, but they also get more IMPORTANT choices. People don’t choose in a vacuum. And if I have more power, my choices take precedence over yours. It’s easy for me to assume that makes ME more important than YOU.”

“It does,” he said simply. “Demonstrably so. But you’re missing the forest for the trees. We’re not talking about how power affects others. We’re talking about how it influences the self. What I choose to do with my power isn’t about anyone but me. I’m given choices, and the ones I pick show who I am. If someone else’s choices push me into a specific situation, how I react to that situation is still on me. Power doesn’t corrupt, Shane. Power REVEALS.”

I hummed at that. “That’s more nuanced than I’d have expected from you. And more responsible.”

“That’s fair,” he laughed. “From your perspective I’m probably a fairly irresponsible person. I won’t try to change that impression. It’s not my right. I did things that hurt you. I knew they would hurt you, and I did them anyway because I thought they were best. I made the choices that I thought would result in the best outcome for my family, and that revealed who I am. I’m reckless, and arrogant, and sometimes thoughtless.”

Left unsaid was the fact that sometimes, I was all those things too. I appreciated him sparing my feelings, though I had long since grown out of the phase where I got defensive about people comparing us.

Nat and Valk were standing anxiously near the body, Nat’s mother Allison waiting with them, a hand on her daughter’s shoulder to steady her. Allison probably could have done the wish herself, to be fair, but she was heavily invested in the proceedings, given Nat’s emotional tie to Perit. It would have messed with the payment too much.

The man they’d sent to oversee the wish was a tall, bald Wyndham with a hawkish nose and a thick mustache. He must have been ancient, because he looked about fifty, albeit an incredibly fit fifty. He was an A-ranker, and apparently a fairly powerful one.

“So who is he, by the way?” I gestured to the man as I glanced over to my father. “He seems important.”

“Uncle Walter,” he said nonchalantly. “And he IS important. He’s my father’s right hand. I assume dad sent him to oversee this event as a sign of favoritism, and to presumably build himself a bit of good will.”

I chuckled. “Well, I can’t say it isn’t working.” As we watched, Uncle Walter withdrew a small black stone and crushed it. The stone was a bindable stockpile where points from the succession war could be transferred or held, and destroying it signified that the point in that particular stone were null and void.

As he crushed it, I saw Nat mouth the words to her wish, and his eyes began to glow with the purple flickers of electricity I had come to expect from my family.

The last time we’d done this, it had been relatively simple. This time though, whether because of who was doing it or the relative strength of the target, things were…different. The purple electricity rolled over Uncle Walter, up and down his body, growing in intensity as it did so. Once it reached a crescendo, he caught it on his his hand and flung it skyward, a bolt leaving his fingers and piercing up into the sky.

Above us, the clouds began to darken ominously, the sky blackening to the pitch of night within an eye blink as sparks of purple electricity danced through the onyx clouds like electric eels slithering just beneath the surface of the blackest water.

The flickers danced around the edges of the clouds as the sky began to shake, thunder rumbling through the air as the power in the sky built and built. We all stood, transfixed, as the air began to crackle and sing with the suppressed power of the building charge. It got stronger and stronger, the field so dense it felt like it was crushing me, until, with a barely audible POP like a soap bubble collapsing, a PILLAR of purple lightning plummeted from above to smash into the prone body on the altar.

Perit’s body jerked, her muscles seizing as the damage from her final wound closed up cleanly, the healthy glow returning to her skin as she sat bolt upright, eyes flying wide as she gasped in a desperate breath.

Nat was there in an instant, Valk beside her, hugging her friend and sobbing uncontrollably. Poor Perit just looked kind of confused, staring around her in complete astonishment. “Wh-whats going on?” she rasped. “Why are all these people here? Where is here? Why am I so THIRSTY?”

Valk appeared next to her like magic, holding up a cup of water. “Here, drink this! It’s…you were…Perit you died.”

She blinked at him for a moment. “Wow. That sucks.”

“I…uh I figured you would have a harder time with the whole death thing, honestly,” Nat said slowly. “I mean like, I’m glad you’re doing ok. But you seem less fazed than I expected. I know resurrection is possible, but it IS rare. I figured we’d have to convince you.”

“Well, I’m laying on an altar and my clothes are covered in blood,” Perit said shakily. “So…I mean there’s some evidence to back up your claim. Also your hair is shorter than the last time I saw you. And based on the pressure we’re under I’m pretty sure this isn’t the same planet, and both of you are apparently D-rankers now.” She frowned up at the sky. “Actually, is space on fire? Because that doesn’t seem right.”

Nat patted her shoulder. “We’ve got some things to catch you up on. But before that…someone wants to talk to you.” She glanced up and over towards where my wife had been waiting, silent and terrified. I’d wanted to stand with her, but she’d sent me away. She said she’d needed to do this alone. At Nat’s glance, Callie slowly walked over to stand next to the altar, looking for all the world like she was waiting for Perit to attack her.

“Hello,” Perit said in mild confusion. “You’re Shane’s girlfriend, right?”

“His wife,” Callie said shakily. “We got married while you were…I mean. Yeah, that’s me. I’m also the one who killed you.”

The other woman frowned. “Well, I can’t imagine you did it on purpose, or Nat wouldn’t be standing her with you all nonchalant. I don’t remember…well, anything really, but why don’t you tell me what happened.”

“Travis,” my wife snarled. “I don’t know if you remember him, but he betrayed us. Used translocation to swap himself with you when I attacked him.”

Perit frowned. “I don’t. Remember him, I mean. But it sounds like you didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t remember dying. Or being dead. How long was I gone exactly? Because YOU’RE C-rank and that seems like a lot.”

“It’s only been a year or two,” Callie assured her. “We’ve just been through a lot of stuff.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Perit’s voice was dry, if a little shaky. “Did you at least get him after he got me killed?”

Nat grinned at her. “Shane did. Killed him a few months later. It was pretty brutal.”

They dissolved into conversation, starting hesitant and they slowly picking up speed as the fear and uncertainty melted like snow in the warm summer sun. Nat and Valk being there to support her clearly helped, but Perit also just seemed like a surprisingly emotionally stable person. It was honestly impressive.

“Thank you again,” I told my dad. “You’re coming with us to the holy dominion right? No way mom lets us avoid family time, even if this is supposed to be my honeymoon.”

For the first time, his crimson features twisted in something approximating wariness. “Yes,” he said shortly. “I am. Though I don’t know if I should. Your mothers brothers do NOT like me.” I grinned at that, amused he could still worry about such human things. I hadn’t heard much about my uncles, they were much older than my mom and were mostly off doing their own things, but after that revelation I was kind of excited to meet them. It would be amusing if nothing else.