Wish upon the Stars chapter 964

The next day was hectic. Arranging the full court press of searchers we needed required calling in a lot of favors with a lot of people. Some of those favors I called in personally, some my parents called in, but the result was the same. We had officially gathered enough people to head down to clear out the anchors.

Of course, we weren’t going in completely blind. We had the two anchors we already knew about documented, but more than that, we had an army of Wyndhams, and that meant a LOT of spare wishes.

In order to make the most of that, we’d had everyone wish for compasses that would lead them to the nearest anchor (the compasses would ignore anchors that already had a compass locked onto them, unless the owner died without reaching them). We’d ALSO managed to make contact with the folks upstairs and tweak the bounty board to reward anchor captures.

The tricky part was that we were sure there were active traitors, so we couldn’t ANNOUNCE that fact en masse. We’d ended up arranging for the board to change at a specific time, hoping the anchor bounties could all be applied at once before anyone else noticed.

Our own forces were, of course, under strict contracts arranged by my father in exchange for the compasses, which kind of killed two birds with one stone.

While all this was being set up though, my old man had begun the process of trying to track down the Vessel who went by “Wise”, hoping to head off some of our future problems by being proactive. He failed, unfortunately, but was finished with time to spare on following us down to take out the anchors.

Which led us to now, standing at the top of the colossal staircase at the heart of Arcadia, about to head down with all our forces.

We split up into multiple groups again, and mine was, as before, only twenty five people, with three of our A-rankers leading the way. I’d wanted them to split up, actually, but mom had been adamant that I was heavily at risk down here and that she refused to let me go without at least my parents and Zeke as guards.

Now we were back down in the dark stone level, searching for the anchors we had clearly marked, ready to take them out first thing.

Despite the fact that everything was going according to plan (or possibly BECAUSE of it), I was deeply uncomfortable about…something. I just couldn’t tell if it was one of my precognitive senses acting up or just my own paranoia. Or if those two things were even any different from each other at this point.

“You doing alright?” Asked a familiar voice. I turned to blink at Jessie, who was giving me a soft, sympathetic smile.

I shrugged. “Fine, just worried. This…this whole trip has been nonstop chaos. I should be happy that Callie’s Path problem is handled. But now I’m worried this whole planet is going to be shredded into confetti and jettisoned to the furthest corners of the Void in a plot to make some kind of dark anti-god.”

She stopped, grabbing my arm. I let her pull me to a halt, though there was zero chance of her being able to move me at D-rank. “That’s my point,” she said bluntly. “Are you ALRIGHT? Like…in a general sense.”

Her eyes were shining with concern, and despite not having a bond like I did with Callie…I knew what she meant. She was asking if I was ok being around my parents. Being around them with my sister. Being around my cousins, and potentially becoming the boss of my entire family, after which I would need to reconstruct the entirety of the system that led to me getting there in the first place, at least as much as was possible given the strong resistance I would face from the council of elders.

And the answer was that I had no idea. To make sure we had some privacy I triggered Murmur at B-rank. It wouldn’t work on my parents or Zeke, but I wasn’t really worried about them hearing this. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I don’t think I CAN think about it. I’ve been going non stop for years now. And that used to just feel like a fun game, like I was on a nonstop adventure, but now…

“I’m going to hit the end of my task soon,” I admitted. “If I win this. If I BECOME the Wishmaster, then I did it. I accomplished that first goal. And I’m not sure I’ll have it in me to pick up the next burden. To shift gears and just turn my focus to stopping a war, or ruling the WCP.”

Because at the end of the day, I wasn’t sure what I was anymore. Not without this. Not without the quest I’d been on since day one. Because once I accomplished the goal (assuming I fucking LIVED through this mess), then I had to start the WORK. Becoming the Wishmaster wasn’t the end, it was the beginning. The beginning of the hardest part of my journey, and after everything I’d already been through, I wasn’t sure I had that in me.

I expected a pep talk. Some kind of encouragement or confidence. I expected an oath of loyalty or a promise to be by my side every step of the way. But Jessie had a way of knowing what people needed even better than they did, especially people she knew well.

She just hugged me. I froze, not sure how to respond. Not because I minded her hugging me, but because I couldn’t really remember the last time someone had just given me a hug because I needed one. I just put my arms around her and held her back, resting my chin on the top of her head, and felt the strain drain away from me.

Because it didn’t change anything. Not a single solitary factor of all the shit I had to deal with. And in a way, that made it exactly what I needed. Not everything needed to be this momentous colossal task or great shaking revelation. Not everything needed to be BIG just because we were Ascendants. 

We were still people. Still humans deep down. And abandoning that like Zeke suggested might be easier, but it made it almost TOO easy. Made it too simple to gloss over the hurt, or the worry, or the fear, instead of dealing with it. And maybe that was WHY Ascendants could be so inhuman at the higher ranks. Because they had to be. Except when they didn’t. Because maybe admitting you needed a hug from a friend because you were scared was ok too. Even if it wasn’t a very Ascendant thing to do.

And paradoxically, admitting that, letting that worry in and accepting it could be part of me…helped. Acknowledging that I wasn’t failing to live up to my future godhood by being scared. That I could be a god AND a person, even if most people didn’t.

Part of me wondered about the timing of that revelation. After meeting Atlas, after seeing his sorrow and regret. After hearing the story of what the Void had done to him. He’d become the perfect god in some ways. The ultimate god. But it hadn’t stopped him from being a slave to the Void. His humanity had done that. Adam Atlas the god had failed. Adam Atlas the person had saved the universe. Had he wanted me to see that? Had he been trying to show me by example what not to do?

Or maybe I was projecting way more competence and ability onto him that was warranted. Maybe he routinely let people assume he was all knowing and secretly manipulating things behind the scenes.

In the end it didn’t matter. What I took from my meeting with Atlas was my own. Despite who and what he was, no one became a god the exact same way as anyone else. I could learn from him and keep what I needed, then drop the rest.

I released Jessie, stepping back with a chuckle. “You know, your power only lets you heal the body. You have no business being this smart about what people’s minds and hearts need.”

She just shrugged, giggling. “What can I say? I’ve always been the smartest of our group.”

“Yeah,” I laughed. “You kind of have. Thanks, Jess. Sorry I’ve been a little bit distant lately. With everything going on…”

She rolled her eyes. “If I was going to throw a fit every time my friend gets busy, I’d have picked different friends. You ARE going to win this competition, and become the Wishmaster, and when you DO, you’re going to be even busier than now. But can you make me a promise? Please?”

“Anything,” I told her solemnly. “Anything you need. You know that.”

She smiled softly at me. “Take care of yourself Shane. And let other people take care of you too. After this is over, don’t jump right into the saddle. Promise me you’ll finally take Callie on the honeymoon you’ve been talking about. The WCP can survive a few months of vacation with the council running things.”

I couldn’t help it, I just laughed. “Yeah,” I promised her. “I will. I’ll make sure to-” I stopped, letting Murmur drop instantly as my head jerked up. Doom. Overwhelming horror and death. My Danger Sense was screaming so loud I couldn’t hear myself think, couldn’t process anything but the sheer overwhelming panic. “Mom!” I called loudly, trying to get their attention.

My parents had stopped just ahead, and at my call, my mother nodded. “Yeah, we noticed,” she said grimly. “They snuck up on us. Used the spatial instability to get close.”

“Who did?” Callie asked, appearing at my side. “Who’s there?”

A low laugh echoed from the darkness. “That would be us,” came an amused voice. And then several figures appeared from the shadows. Or rather, five. Five figures. Five A-RANK figures. Two more than we had.

Before we could speak, Zeke was standing behind us. A series of masks flowed from a pouch on his belt, enlarging as they drifted into the air and began orbiting the group. Everyone except for my parents, who were trapped outside the circle of masks. Alone. Without even Zeke for backup.

Not that the two of them seemed fazed. My father tapped his cane on the ground thoughtfully. “A trap then,” he said contemplatively. “I’m guessing you had some sort of detection array around the anchors? Assumed we’d be back for them?”

Which meant they didn’t know about the plan. The contracts had held up, and he was trying to warn us to keep our mouths shut.

I understood. They couldn’t have dispatched any more A-rankers than this anyway. Or if they could it wouldn’t be many. Sebastian and Killian were both powerful combatants. It would take more than a single enemy to take them on. The full court press could still succeed at wiping out enough of the anchors, provided they didn’t catch on and find some way to counter our plan.

The tallest man there was familiar to me. Not because I knew him, but because he had about five points of similarity to Dayna, including the pointed ears. Bremman, the Heaven Murder Elf. He seemed to be the leader of this motley collective.

“Well, you’re not complete idiots,” he said lightly. “Shame that even the partial idiocy you’re guilty of carries the death penalty.”

My father’s lips peeled back from his too white teeth, his horned visage so like mine and so very different at the same time. I hadn’t seen him quite like this before. So excited about the prospect of violence. “I’d have thought the servants of the Void would have more imagination. But don’t worry. By the time I finally let you leave this world, I’ll have demonstrated the DEATH is the least of the penalties I plan on applying to you.” Then he tapped his cane again, and the world was consumed by shadows.