Wish upon the Stars chapter 963

Creating my scrolls the next day was anticlimactic. There were nine of them now, which was new, and they were C-ranked, which was new, but they were…just scrolls. The same ones I always made. After getting that done and kissing my wife goodbye, I headed for my meeting at The Empty Room.

I left everyone behind except my dad. The current master of The Empty Room was a man named Vacant, an A-ranker of considerable power with a very mysterious nature. Of course, being a Void specialist who gave most Ascendants the creeps, the man did a lot of his business with the devils, the WCP and the more…morally grey members of Ascendant society. My dad, being one of Adramalech’s generals, was in a position to have interacted with the man a time or two, and so he would be making introductions.

“So, what do I need to know before this meeting?” I asked him as we walked up a small hill towards a large foreboding looking manor.

He hummed consideringly. “I’d say just try not to worry too much. You’re a C-ranker, which means nothing you can do could protect you from an A-rank threat. I’ll be outside, and I’ve taken measures to ensure your safety. Leave it to me and ask your questions.”

His eyes flicked down to my shadow, where an Obsidian Soul Body he’d bound was lurking seamlessly. He’d attached it to me before we arrived, just to be safe, and I wasn’t sure if knowing he could do that made me feel more or less secure. When we reached the door, he knocked on it sharply with his cane. There was a brief pause, and then the door creaked slowly open, admitting me to the house.

Nodding stoically to my father, I stared through the doorway, into the interior of a house that I…couldn’t see an inch of. Nothing lay past the door. Just darkness. Like the frame was a hole in the world.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped through, preparing myself to fall or stumble or feel some sort of change.

Nothing came. Inside the house, the temperature was the same, the atmosphere was the same, everything remained exactly as it had been, except that I was just standing in nothingness. I activated Dantalion, hoping for some kind of feedback, but nothing came. Aside from the exact amount of ground my feet were in touch with, I appeared to be standing in a vast chasm of nothingness. I took a tentative step, and the ground appeared under my feet. Then another.

I walked for about ten minutes through the nothing, stepping into darkness for the ground to form under my boots, before I came to a stop. I sensed…something. Not concrete, but a presence nearby. I was being observed. Whatever it was, my Empty Spirit wasn’t enough to counter it, but I was getting a sensation of observation, which meant that even when my immunity couldn’t hold up it would at least warn me something was there. I cleared my throat. “Traditionally, it’s polite to introduce yourself when greeting a guest.”

“A guest?” came an amused whisper in the dark. It was carried around me like a swarm of locusts, buzzing on the air and not coming from any one location. “One must visit a home to be a guest. Is this a home? Can you visit that which is not?”

I snorted. “I would argue that constructing your home in such a way as to pose that question says more about you than you might like.”

A sharp bark of laughter tore at my skin, scraping across the surface of my body like I was standing naked in a sandstorm. “Perhaps,” the voice whispered jovially. “Or perhaps I simply do not wish to be visited? You come to impose on my solitude. You seek knowledge from beyond the edge of this world.”

“I know,” I told him bluntly. “I’m the one who decided to come here, I know what I seek. The question is, do YOU know what I seek? And what will it cost me to learn?”

“Cost,” he mused. “A fickle thing. Information is priceless. Or perhaps worthless. Will you pay in kind? And what information would one such as you possess that I might wish? I remain on this planet because it suits me. I am not beholden to your bloodline, and should I wish to flee, even your ancestor would not stop me. I know many secrets about the deep places of the world, and they can be used for more than just barter.”

I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t threatening you. I was asking a genuine question. But fine, you want information, I have some.” I had discussed this with Callie when we found out about the visit. We only had one bit of information a Void scholar might want, and she was the only person who I felt had the right to decide if I revealed it. She hadn’t hesitated for a moment, giving me permission to share her new father’s story.

So I did. I recounted the story, and the voice waited with bated breath, listening intently to the tale until I finished. “Your offering is…magnificent,” he breathed into the dark. “What knowledge do you wish?”

“I want to know the names and affiliations of the vessels you know about on the heirworld right now.” I said without hesitation. “I suspect some of them have contacted you with tales of an alliance. They contacted me, and I have far less in common with them. The alliance is a lie.” I informed him of our theory and the possibility of a new Void god.

A snarl tore through the dark. “Deception,” he hissed. “Your gift of further information is appreciated. I will answer your question, but I owe you a further debt. One favor of your choice, to be collected at a future time.” I nodded solemnly, accepting that for the massive boon that it was. “I am sad to say I do not have information commensurate to your payment, however. A deal was proposed, and so I will share what I know, for whatever use it might be.”

I remained silent as he organized his information, and then he began to speak. “I know of seven Vessels currently active on this planet. Five are A-rank. One B-rank and one C. The last, I suspect, is the one you met, for it was he who approached me about this alliance. In my hubris, I considered this an assurance. I assumed one such as he could not lie in my presence. Perhaps my understanding of the Void is not what I once thought.”

“We’ve all been there,” I shrugged. “Anything you know might help. Do you know who they’re Vessels FOR?”

That got a sigh. “A few of them. Void Children are…complex. Not all of them have a cohesive enough identity to be described. The three I’m aware of are Schnex the Keeper, Doranka, and Roviram. They are complicated beings, but their core natures are more consistent than most. Schnex is a collector. It finds promising talents and then nurtures them to add to its collection. It is…unusual, for a Void Child, in that it ALMOST doesn’t hate Ascendants.”

“That sounds horrible,” I said cheerfully. “Who is its Vessel?”

“His name is Bremman,” said the voice heavily. “He is a Heaven Murder Elf.” My blood froze at that. Heaven Murder Elves were rare. I had met one, but she had been under the protection of one of the vanished gods. I’d been under the impression they were mostly extinct. Heaven Murder Elves were scary. Like…Vampire scary. They were natural geniuses at weaponry and combat.

A collector of the Void having one made sense, even if I REALLY didn’t like the idea. Especially if he was an A-ranker, which, upon asking, he was. “Roviram’s Vessel is an A-ranked Dullahan named Vex. Roviram is obsessed with the concept of finality, and his army of executioners bring true death to all that fall beneath their blades. Doranka, meanwhile is a parody of fire, manifesting a cold flame that freezes all it touches. His Vessel is a woman named Violetta, also A-rank.”

He went on to describe the other two A-rankers, a man named Drewell who used exclusively his fists, and a woman named Nasha who used sonic attacks. That one sounded particularly nasty to deal with, and I had to wince at the idea of fighting her, even for someone like my dad.

The B-ranker’s name was Pell, and he was some kind of falconer. Which sounded cool, except the Vessels all had access to a variety of terrifying Void spawn, and I was guessing his was an army of evil Void falcons, which was about as terrifying as it was awesome.

Which left us with the last one. The C-ranker I’d met. It was unfortunate we didn’t know the name of his patron, but whatever Void Child he served had gone out of its way to fly under the radar. “The one I met didn’t give a name at first, even to myself. I forced him to part with it as payment for information given. He called himself “Wise”. A pretentious moniker, but one told true when asked. That is the name he associates with himself.”

I snorted at that. “Yeah, he seems like the self aggrandizing type. Did you see his face? He appeared to me as an image of myself. I wasn’t able to get a good look at any actual features.”

“He came cloaked in shadow, as many of the Void are want to do,” the voice admitted. “My own concealment was learned from them, and they possess perhaps the most advanced means of Stealth among the Ascendant factions and their equivalents.” I noted he used the term equivalents as a plural, and I wondered what he meant by that, but now wasn’t really the time. “He was not concealing himself, mind. But I believe was under the protection of something greater.”

“Can you tell me anything that might help me find him?” I asked desperately. “I think he’s the key to this mess, and we need to stop him from accomplishing his goals. If they’re what we suspect, we’re all going to be VERY screwed if he pulls this off.”

He hummed ponderously. “Perhaps. I detected something subtle. A scent clinging to his concealment. Liquor. A particularly expensive brand native to Arcadia. It isn’t TRACKED, per se, but it is uncommon. Perhaps an investigation into that might bear fruit. That is all I know.”

Honestly, it was more than I’d expected. Even as a potential alliance partner, I doubted Vacant had been put in a position to learn all this easily. It was clear he’d investigated his potential partners thoroughly. He had been willing to work with the Void where I might not have been, but at the very least he’d done his due diligence. I should have expected as much from a veteran A-ranker, I suppose. You don’t last long enough to reach the penultimate step below god if you’re an idiot.

Thanking him for the information, I turned and headed back the way I came. Or at least I was pretty sure I did. Orienting yourself in a pitch black void wasn’t exactly easy. But I made it to the door easy enough, and when I stepped through, I was suddenly back in reality, standing next to my dad.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “So…learn anything interesting?” I recounted the events of my conversation, and he grimaced but nodded along anyway. “Well, that’s better than nothing. A shame he couldn’t give us more on this “Wise” fellow. I’ll look into the liquor. He didn’t say what kind specifically?” 

I was about to confirm that he hadn’t, until I realized something was crumpled up in my palm. I’d missed it because my gauntlets prevented fine tactical feedback like that, and the thing was almost cobweb thin. I unfolded it, realizing it was a label. “Apparently he did,” I said wryly. I handed it over to my dad with a chuckle. “So, think you can do anything with that?” Judging by his answering grin, he did.