Wish upon the Stars chapter 969

Making it back up to the surface was exhausting, but not in the one you would expect. The slow, plodding rise out of the depths of perdition should probably have been grating. A pool of dread filling my stomach as I inched closer to the surface and the results of the competition (which wasn’t over, granted, but I was probably far enough ahead not to have to worry about much). But that was kind of the opposite of how it felt.

It felt like…liberation. Each step brought me further from the things that happened, lightened my burdens and lifted the weight from my shoulders. But once that was gone I felt…untethered.

My body felt like it was going to float away, like I was drifting into an endless void (lowercase V) from which I would never return. All the weight that had been pinning my in place was gone, and now I was just…empty. And tired. I’d been carrying so much for so long, now that it was gone, I didn’t remember what it felt like not to be overburdened. My muscles aches without the strain, like I was still clenching for an impact that would never come, and starting to cramp from the effort.

“You need to calm down,” came a wry voice to one side. I blinked, turning to see my wife grinning at me fondly. “This is my least favorite side of you, you know? The introspective, maudlin version that shows up when you’re bored.”

I huffed in outrage. “Bo- I am not BORED. I’m just processing my newfound freedom and its implications.”

“You’re bored,” she said bluntly. “You’re addicted to running from crisis to crisis and now that there isn’t one you don’t know what to do with yourself. Staring dramatically off into the middle distance and bemoaning the cursed weight of your colossal destiny doesn’t change the fact that you’re spinning out worrying about what you’ll do with yourself now that all this is over.”

I…frowned. Maturely. It wasn’t a pout, even if I could see Callie trying hard not to call it one. “Can I have like five minutes to feel sorry for myself inside my own head, woman?”

“Nope,” she chirped, popping up her toes to kiss my cheek. “You don’t have to feel bad by yourself. We’re in this together. And that means I’m here for you when you feel down. I’d do almost anything for you, Shane, but I won’t let the man I love suffer for his own stubbornness. Any more than you would let me do the same. Or am I wrong?”

“No one likes a know it all,” I said petulantly. But I still wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against me. She was warm and soft and made me feel…supported. “Speaking of knowing it all, I’d be shocked if this whole mess doesn’t push you to C-rank. Are you excited? It’s quite a shift. Especially for you, seems like trait holders always get a more dramatic upgrade when ranking up.”

She grinned. “I have to admit, it does seem like it’ll be pretty cool. The last month or two has been…wild. I’m almost looking forward to things settling down after my rank up. There’s only so many crazy evolutions I can handle.”

“Speak for yourself,” I snickered. “If I win this succession war, I’m on the fast track for a hell of a renown boost. You’ll probably be riding the gravy train right alongside me too. People won’t just be talking about the Wishmaster, they’ll be talking about his gorgeous godslaying angel wife. It might not be crazy upgrades or divine evolutions, but we’re definitely going to be on the fast track.”

Although, given the huge difference in the amount of stats needed between reaching C and reaching B, we probably wouldn’t be ranking up THAT much faster.

“More importantly though…are you sure that THAT was a good idea?” she pointed down the stairs to the back of our group, where I saw Benny and Celine riding on the back of a colossal black entity. Specifically, a fucking DRAGON.

I shrugged. “Sebastian said it’s fine. He managed to resuscitate it after it died, and Killian stitched its soul to Benny’s. Between my mom and you, the Void is purified from it. It’s still an undead dragon, but…well I have a feeling it’s going to be a BIG help to Benny. Besides, he was falling behind. Getting a boost will be helpful to him. Though I do feel bad for him about the name. It seems unfair that Bethy decided to name it before he had a chance, but it just kind of stuck.”

“I don’t know,” Callie hummed. “I think Toast is a cute name for a dragon.”

I snickered at the mention of the title of my best friend’s new…companion? Pet? I wasn’t sure how their bond worked, honestly. Benny’s whole ability set worked oddly, and Killian and Sebastian knew much more about it than I did. Still, I WAS happy for him. I was betting he’d hit C-rank in no time with an ACTUAL dragon at his back.

When we finally reached the surface, we split up. I went home with Zeke and mom while my dad headed off to turn in evidence of our bounties and try his best to maximize my point totals.

It felt almost anticlimactic, in a way. But I knew it was anything but. There had been so many things that had needed to go right for this to turn out as anything but a tragedy. I was so lucky I hadn’t used that damned token before now, honestly. I couldn’t imagine how bad things might have gone if I hadn’t had it.

We all settled in for a nice dinner once we reached my folks place, enjoying the company and decompressing until finally, my dad slipped in and dropped into a chair near me, right next to where mom was sitting. “So, I haggled for quite a while. And I managed to talk them into counting Wise as an S-rank threat. That’s a thousand points on its own, and with the others all added up, we managed to net you a cool three thousand. Your final total is four, and that puts you firmly in the lead and unlikely to lose the top spot.”

I grinned. “So…I won?”

“It’s not a done deal yet,” he cautioned. “But given what you did for the Palace by saving this whole planet, its unlikely the council will pull anything too overtly underhanded. You won. And not JUST that, you have more than enough points to bring all of your local recruits out, and even grab some more. If I were you, I’d start thinking about what else you’d like to do with them.”

I blinked at him. “Wait…what? What do you mean? They’re for freeing locals, right?”

He snorted. “Shane. This is the Wish Curse Palace. Points are CURRENCY. Like yes, you can obviously use them to free captives and expand your forces, but that’s not ALL they do. You can use them to access the WCP treasury, the Wyndham Vaults, you can even request a wish from one of the higher ups paid in points. You could get a personal wish from the old man.”

I blinked at that. It was…wow. A lot. I mean, I was sure I wouldn’t have a TON of points left over. I had a lot of recruits. I didn’t know the point values for freeing them, but twenty five hundred people wouldn’t be cheap.

But past that…what did I want? Gear? Power? None of that sounded particularly useful to me. I had my soul weapon, my new set of armor, and I’d just ranked up. I didn’t need legendary items of special skills. I was about to be the Wishmaster, I could get all that on my own. “Can I…keep them?” I asked slowly. “I assume even as the Wishmaster I can’t just take anything I want.”

“Of course not,” he agreed. “Fair compensation is the cornerstone of the Wishmaster mythology. You have to pay for everything. Even as the boss. But yeah, you can hold onto them. Like I said, it’s currency.”

I chuckled. Of course nothing could be that simple. “Alright, then I’ll hold onto as many as I can. But I do have one thing I want, as soon as possible.”

I glanced down the table to where my cousin sat with Daysia, Alyssa, and Jessie. “Perit. Nat’s bodyguard. I want a resurrection. She died because of Travis’s bullshit, and she didn’t deserve it. I want to bring her back.”

The room went silent. Everyone turned to look at me. Nat was staring. “Shane…that’s…I mean of course I want her back, but these points are a big deal. You heard what he said, you can get a wish from the original Wishmaster. I can bring Perit back on my own. I’ve been getting stronger, and I’ll get there eventually. I appreciate the thought but-”

“Nope,” I shut her down. “I already made the request. It’s a done deal. And before you try to talk me out of it, remember who was the one who accidentally landed that killing blow. I know you don’t blame Callie, but SHE does. I don’t want my wife living with that guilt, I don’t want my cousin living with that pain, and Perit deserves to come back as soon as possible, to get something close to the life she left behind. You can always resurrect her later, but if it takes too long, think of how much the world will have changed. How much she might lose. I’m the boss here, and you all need to get used to it. So this is my first decree.”

Nat stared at me, hard. Her lip trembled, then her eyes glistened, and then she burst into tears and literally threw herself across the table to tackle me in a hug so intense I was pretty sure if she’d been C-rank my spine would have been permanently damaged.

She curled against me, sobbing into my armor, and I just let her. I could feel the tension draining out of her body, the year or so of built up stress and expectation and guilt. Nat had been furious that she hadn’t been able to bring Perit back. Not at Callie or me, but at herself. SHe’d felt like a failure, and seeing my previously gregarious and snarky cousin turn into a ghost of herself under the weight of sins she hadn’t really committed had broken my heart.

But I’d never forgotten. Not what I owed her, not what she was going through. I could never forget. Seeing her lose Perit had driven home how devastated I’d be if something had happened to Benny or Callie or Jessie. And it had been my fault. Because my wife may have struck the killing blow, but Travis had only managed it because of me.

That had been why I’d taken his betrayal so personally. He hadn’t just hurt my friends and family. He’d made ME hurt them.

But he was dead, and gone, and now the last of his bad work would finally be put right. Perit would need help and support to readjust, but she hadn’t been gone too long. She could get her life back. Could help Nat and Valk do the same. “You and Celine will be heading back to Stratholme with Valk and Perit.” I told her as she pulled away for air. “Benny will be going with you.” My best friend looked up at that, and I grinned. “That’s right, you’re going to need to work on some training with Toast. Get him integrated into your combat system.”

He pouted at the name but otherwise didn’t complain. I knew how much he missed Celine, spending time with her would be good for him. And speaking of which. I turned to the others, standing up to clink my glass with a fork. “Excuse me,” I said, unnecessarily really, given they’d already been paying attention. “My first decree is, of course, Perit’s return…my SECOND decree is that once I’m confirmed I’m officially taking a vacation. I owe my wife a honeymoon, and I intend to pay up.” Honestly, the cheers of support felt almost as good as that adoring smile on Callie’s face. Almost.