Wish upon the Stars chapter 951

The trip up the glacier was tense. I’d expected that, with all of us stuck together in a very small area (relatively speaking) and unable to leave. Given the rank of the planet, the distance to the ground, and the makeup of the rock at the bottom, for anyone who DIDN’T have wings, falling off this platform was going to be a quick trip to the morgue, assuming there was even enough left to bother burying.

Luckily, we were in a decent position. Roland and Delia were serious heavy hitters, and with my newfound cousin being friendly with the former, that meant most of the B-rankers on this platform were pretty safely in our corner. Most. Kent and Shelby were obviously not allies, but we outnumbered them by quite a bit. Unfortunately, those weren’t the only B-rankers here, just the closest ones we’d interacted with, and once we got moving, factions started to form quick.

Kent and Shelby attracted another sixteen B-rankers, most of them allied with weaker candidates. I wasn’t sure if some of my less industrious distant cousins had failed to fill all ten slots, if some of their B-rankers had died, or if they were just avoiding showing their full force somehow like we were with Bethy, but whatever the case I was sure we were only scratching the surface in terms of numbers. There were about two hundred people on this platform, and probably half of them were B-rank, though naturally only a few of those were actual Wyndhams.

Which put me distinctly off balance, and made me VERY uncomfortable. It was impossible to say where our side stood in terms of alliance strength, given how independent everyone seemed to be, but the general impression I got of this place was definitely ‘powder keg’.

My only consolation was that at least I had a new relative to get to know. Derran had settled nearby and was happily chatting with Chelsea and I. He’d been shocked I’d brought my twin sister with me, given her lacking candidacy, but didn’t seem at all unhappy to meet her. We were getting to know a bit about his mother, and I was fielding some questions about dad.

“So is he really as terrifying as he’s made out to be?” Derran said contemplatively. “Some of the rumors-”

I shrugged. “Most are probably true. He’s a complicated person. I love him, but I don’t like him very much most of the time. He’s…cold. Distant at the best of times. I’ve been told that hides genuine concern for me, but he doesn’t demonstrate that well. If you’re asking if he’s DANGEROUS, then yes, very much so. He can and will kill you if you get in his way. I suppose the best endorsement I can give is that he isn’t needlessly cruel. He just also isn’t needlessly kind.”

Chelsea looked unhappy at the summary, which I didn’t begrudge her. In some ways, Chelsea had gotten very lucky in her placement during our childhood, but in others, a bit less so. She was obviously better off with mom, but her eventual let down was a lot worse than mine.

While I had found my mom, who adored me and had been desperate to make her absence up to me, Chelsea had ended up finding dad as her long lost parent. I wasn’t sure they’d even spoken more than a few words since my great grandmother’s threat had been lifted. I suppose they might have been in touch through calls or something, but I knew my dad well enough to know he wasn’t the daily chat type. While I envied my sister her childhood, I did not envy her the disappointment of having my father dropped on her as an adult. He was an acquired taste in the most generous terms.

Derran seemed interested. “That sounds about right. My mother isn’t fond of him. She says he’s a dead fish, though I suspect being grandfather’s favorite has more to do with her dislike. Even after leaving the family, it’s well known that Malachai adores Elijah. He considers him running off to join the devils a daring escapade rather than the betrayal that many of his siblings see it as.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure how much difference that makes,” I admitted. “Malachai seems to foster a fairly cutthroat political attitude among his kids. I’ve only met a few Aunts and Uncles, and most of them were dad’s full siblings, but I got the impression from Uncle Percy that his position as Malachai’s favorite is more curse than blessing, not that I think he CARES about that at all. One of the few good things I can say about dad is that he isn’t the type to be swayed by popularity.”

Derran nodded ruefully. “That might not be a bad read. I’ve met grandpa a few times, though we aren’t close. My mother is actually a member of Seline’s branch. Most of Malachai’s kids stuck with the one of the family branches, but mom and Percival don’t get along and she was motivated to go out on her own.”

I could see how that decision wouldn’t endear her to Percy, though it also made her dislike of my dad a bit more hypocritical. I didn’t SAY that obviously, because I wasn’t an idiot. But it was on my mind.

We chatted like that for a while. It was a combination of family bonding and information gathering and we both knew it. I was learning more about Davis in preparation for coming up against him in the last round (and regardless of Void interference that was what Arcadia was) and he was feeling out more info about my dad.

Of course, we weren’t really giving each other anything useful. We’d been telling emotional stories with lots of personal context and very little power scaling information. It fit with the narrative of the conversation well enough and denied the other person any real useful dirt.

I DID pick up a few tidbits here and there. My ability to smell truth made it easier to slightly shift the conversation in directions where I could confirm or deny things without coming across as prying. I kept one of my parallels active at all times, keeping an eye out for the Void. I doubted MOST of the Vessels would be willing to start a fight in this cramped environment, but there would be some. More importantly, Callie was a prime target, and Fade and Alanna had strict instructions to guard her closely…which was literally the only thing that saved her.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash, then heard a scream. I whirled to find Fade standing in front of my wife, a dagger in his side, and his sword Devlos drawn and arching toward the throat of a very panicked looking B-ranker.

The assassin wasn’t one of the big name B-rankers that had been pointed out. Just a mousy brown haired guy a bit younger than me. But I DID recognize him. Or rather, I’d seen him before. Sure enough, the blade lashing at his throat was deflected by an oversized axe that smashed into the ground where Fade had been seconds ago as Shelby pressed an attack to drive back my retainer.

Alanna appeared next to Fade, her eyes glowing with rage as her sword flickered for Shelby’s eye, obviously going for a killing blow from the jump, and the axe wielding woman snarled and ducked behind the haft of her weapon to avoid being speared through the brain. The dagger wielder had retreated into a crowd of Kent’s retainers who had shown up, and my own teammates had all gathered around us. I was at my wife’s side instantly, checking her for injuries, and glaring at Kent across the crowd.

“Hey, fuckface, you better explain yourself,” I snapped, my blood boiling with rage. That asshole had tried to MURDER my Callie. I was going to see his skin peeled off and nailed to a door when we got to the top of this glacier.

He sneered at me. “Watch your mouth, boy. Your betters are speaking here. If Roland or Derran has a question for me, I’ll happily listen. But I won’t be threatened by some-”

“Fuck off!” I snarled. “Explain or fucking die! I have five A-rankers waiting at the top of this lift, and their first mission upon reuniting with me will be mounting your fucking HEAD on a spike if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on. That’s my WIFE your errand boy just tried to kill you pompous simpering little prick. Not to mention a noted threat to the Void. The only reason someone like you would have to try to kill a D-ranker like that would be if you were in league with them.”

He blanched, though whether because of the threat of being butchered by A-rankers or because of the accusation, I couldn’t tell. I also didn’t have the chance to find out, because before any of us could react, the same dagger that had been driven into Fade emerged from his chest. He blinked, staring down at his chest and then looking back at the B-ranker in confusion. The man was grinning like a maniac. Everyone froze, staring at the obvious killing blow.

I didn’t know what was up with that dagger, but given that my sister, Ellie, and every other member of our group with flame or purification related powers were pouring them into the wound on Fade’s side, I was guessing some kind of poison. Whatever it was would have immediately killed Callie, and had done the same to Kent, who was sliding bonelessly to the ground as the light faded from his eyes.

He never made it. With a desolate howl of “NO!” Shelby crossed the intervening distance, her axe coming across in a sweeping blow that cleaved the fucking SPACE itself, bisecting the body of her employer and beheading his killer in the same stroke.

That attack was the match that lit the powderkeg. With a roar of gleeful sadism, about a dozen different B-rankers lashed out with suicidal attacks toward their nearest neighbors, doing their best to take someone with them. They were nearly instantly cut down to a man, but several Wyndhams were killed in the ensuing attack.

None of the Wyndhams revealed themselves as Void agents, but I wasn’t entirely sure that was because they were all clean. I suspected this whole assault was a cover to help some of the better hidden Vessels get into Arcadia more easily. But I hardly had time to focus on that. I dove forward, wrapping my whole body around my wife, putting as much of my armor between her and harm as possible.

“Shane, stop it!” She screamed as she tried to break free. “You’re going to get yourself killed idiot!”

I heard a gurgle of stunned pain from beside me, and turned to see Kara, Darren’s retainer, driving a spear into his gut. Roland let out a roar of betrayal and cleaved her head from her shoulders with a flick of his wrist. He produced a scroll, popped it open, and muttered under his breath as he removed the spear.

We all exhaled in relief as Darren’s gut wound healed, all except Darren, who was staring in devastated horror at the head of his second in command lying on the ground nearby.

Luckily, the assassins had MOSTLY failed. Several of the Wyndhams had defensive wishes in place, and even their subordinates had been mostly protected. Still, some of the attacks had been vicious and quick enough to claim lives. I saw Shelby on the ground, cradling the top half of Kent in her lap and rocking it as she cried uncontrollably, Darren was nearly catatonic from shock and horror, and even the various survivors had looks of numb terror on their faces. I know I did.

So of course, that moment was when we all felt a lurch as the platform began to slow. We passed out of the cloud bank we’d been sliding through, and the stone shuddered as we came to a stop at the top in front of an absolutely massive gate, upon which stood about twenty of figures in dark robes. A-rankers, waiting for their charges. We looked up at them, they looked back…and then all hell broke loose.

Author's note: Devon's name has been changed to Darren because Devon is the name of Shane's uncle Percival's son and I didn't want people to get confused.