Wish upon the Stars chapter 942

The truce was hashed out pretty quickly, and we shared our information without reservation. They all looked unsettled, and I didn’t blame them. I wasn’t exactly feeling balanced and carefree myself. Being here without any backup bothered me. Not that I didn’t like Alys and Derrick and the others, they were family. But I was still getting to know them, and this was clearly not a friendly place for me to be. Having Bethy or Callie or Abel at my back would have made me feel a lot better.

Luckily, the socializing and “family time” wasn’t foremost on the agenda. They let us mess around until everyone arrived, and then when we were all accounted for according to the trial, Delia called the meeting to order.

Delia was…intimidating. Short and steely eyed, with platinum blonde hair tied back in a tight, severe braid, eyes hidden behind a pair of sleek but functional glasses. They weren’t the same green as mine, not that all Wyndhams had those. Delia’s eyes were ice blue, a pale color close to white, and they were uncomfortably intense as they stared across the conclave at the rest of us.

Roland stood behind her, a tall red haired man with a colossal sword hanging over his back. He didn’t speak, just kind of loomed behind her looking menacing. He was good at it.

“You have been summoned,” she said in a cold, implacable voice. “And you have come. That is good. This is an unusual circumstance, I know, and plenty of you had reservations. Confusion and doubt runs rampant. This was not an oversight. You will notice that our number is small. Many refused the call. Their qualifications have been revoked.”

Everyone froze. That…that wasn’t supposed to happen. I knew the score, so I understood why they did it, but these trials were voluntary. Not doing them meant no points to free locals, which would hurt your faction, but no one was FORCED to participate.

There were nine other cities in this ring, and nine other meetings presumably taking place, but assuming similar numbers to here, that meant there were now only about a thousand candidates left in the running for the position of Wishmaster. Hell, it meant more than that, because some of the ones who didn’t show were probably competitors with higher point values.

“You see my earnestness now,” she continued icily. “This is not a game. It is not politics. This is a matter of survival. I personally believe the succession war should be postponed at this juncture, but wiser minds than I have decreed that we shall continue, and continue we must. That said, during this next action, any attempts to curry favor, or remove rivals, or undermine the cohesion of this family will be met with swift and violent reprisals.”

Roland stepped forward, his hazel eyes sweeping the crowd. “I am Roland. You know me.” It wasn’t a question. “Delia’s threat will be carried out by me personally, should it require fulfillment. We are not, however, unreasonable. Any who do not wish to participate may leave. As we mentioned, your qualification will be removed, but you will live. Should you decline this generous offer, you are giving your implicit consent to be used by us for the duration of this trial. It will be dangerous. Some of you will die. Those who do not will benefit. Make your choice.”

Alys grimaced. “Delia is smarter than this. Choosing Roland to support her was smart, he’s very strong, but she shouldn’t have had him speak. He’s blunt to the point of brutality, and she’s already incredibly in your face. She should have picked someone political who could dress it up better than that.”

“No,” Nadia corrected her. “She doesn’t want that. This isn’t a matter that will be solved with numbers. We need quality not quantity. Anyone who could be swayed into it with smooth talk wouldn’t be the kind of person they want on the team.”

That didn’t fill me with confidence, but at the same time, it kind of did. Based on what they were saying, this “trial” was some kind of punitive expedition against the Void. Reading between the lines, Delia and Roland belonged to a faction who wanted to proactively eliminate the Void and abandon the succession war. The people in charge were naturally not fans of that idea, given their investment in the ritual, but the Void made someone worried enough to give their faction control of a trial to use us for housecleaning.

The fact that they seemed so resigned told me that they didn’t expect this little crusade to actually DO much, but that it was the best they were going to get.

To my surprise, the threatening show wasn’t enough. Someone raised a hand lazily. “Hello there, I’m Wesley, nice to meet you all. I’d like more details about exactly what we’ll be expected to DO for this trial before I accept your unlimited control, thanks very much. Perhaps you might illuminate us as to your plans?”

It was reasonable, polite, and just the right amount of sarcastic. Enough that everyone knew he wasn’t happy and was making it known, but not so much as to give Roland an excuse to react negatively. He was clearly pleased with himself, thinking he’d made it impossible for any rational person to deny him that request.

“No,” said Roland bluntly. He did not elaborate further. We all just stared at him, and he stared back.

Wesley seemed to be at a loss for how to respond to that, and someone else neatly stepped in, raising a hand. A tall, athletic looking blonde girl with a ponytail and a wide, magnetic smile. “Hi, Catherine here, I was wondering if we could get some more background on the threat in general? I totally understand not wanting to share battle plans,” she sneered at Wesley. “SOME of us have better sense than to try to compromise operational integrity to score brownie points, but I think most of us are a little confused right now, and any light you could shed on the situation would be helpful.”

Despite her warm smile and sincerity, she might as well have had a billboard behind her mocking him for being gauche and overly obvious. He glared back, but she just ignored him. The black haired girl next to her, who looked nearly identical except the hair color, just smirked at him. Sarah, I would assume.

Delia took this one. “That was on the agenda for this conclave, yes. We will address those concerns once any of our more hesitant relatives extricate themselves from the proceedings. Do we have any takers on that offer?”

There was a slight hesitation, just a brief pause where people weighed the options, and then about ten people got up and left. Delia and Roland didn’t seem particularly upset about the loss. She waited to see if anyone else would leave, and I was actually kind of surprised no one did. Once she was sure she had our complete attention, she nodded.

“Very well,” she said calmly. “Now that we are all in attendance, I will begin by catching everyone up on current events. As of this moment, this planet is under siege by the forces of the Void. The limitations inherent in the terrain remain stable, but attempts have been made by the Void to subvert those limitations to their advantage. Thanks to several enterprising groups of Ascendants, those attempts have failed, but that have NOT ceased.”

Sarah raised her hand this time. “What kind of attempts?” she asked warily.

“Construction appears to have gotten underway to build a Void ladder, with the express purpose of submerging the heirworld itself, along with all of us on its surface, into the depths of the Void.” She said stoically. “Should these attempts succeed, I trust I need not spell out what our fates will be.”

Everyone I could see flinched. Like it was choreographed, every one of my relatives physically recoiled from the thought. It occurred to me that I might have accidentally missed out on something of a communal nightmare of my family based on my relatives and experiences.

Wishmasters nominally controlled who we could help or grant wishes to. Nominally. But if someone captured me and forced me to grant a wish on pain of death, or of losing Callie, I would do it. Fair compensation would still be required, but that was to prevent me from benefiting and unbalancing the wish. Being FORCED to help would most likely just increase the price a bit, if that.

For everyone here, the idea of being held captive and used as an on demand wish service must have been their most horrible nightmare come to life. Being with Zeke, then my mom, and then in various “safe” locations (and wasn’t that a weird thing to think unironically, but from this perspective it fit) meant I hadn’t had to worry about that particular bit of horror up to this point.

Having seen the Void, I could understand even better what they were afraid of, and it made my heart ache a bit. Competitive or not these were my family. My blood. I didn’t know them well, but I didn’t like the idea of them being terrorized like that.

Delia, surprisingly, seemed to agree. “There is no shame in fear,” she said to the disturbed crowd. “I do not hold the desires of those who left against them, I simply consider them unworthy to lead us. Similarly, your own fear is immaterial, especially in light of your bravery and willpower. You have faced your terror and emerged victorious. Bravery is not the absence of fear, but its conquest.”

Wesley, who had stayed, looked unhappy with the direction things were going. He tried to interject. “What do we know about the Void forces?” he asked loudly. “I assume we have some sort of data on what resources that have available? Or are we going in blind?”

“If you wish to attempt this task blind, I could carve out your eyeballs,” Roland said mildly. “Does that sound helpful?” The swordmaster stared the younger Ascendant down coldly, not a hint of joke or mercy in his tone.

Wesley reeled back. “What? No! I don’t…that’s not necessary. I was just hoping for some intelligence.”

“A wish beyond even our ancestor’s ability to grant you, I suspect,” Delia said in a stoic tone that made her casual insult WAY more devastating. “But we might be able to gift you some information instead.”

That got a smattering of laughs from the crowd, but Delia didn’t focus on it. She started outlining a few discovered bases, double agents, and supply chains they’d discovered. I was pretty shocked, honestly, my family was way more on the ball than I’d expected. I supposed I tended to take the competence of others for granted, but you don’t run a faction equal to the five faction alliance members without some serious skills.

“With all of that laid out,” she said. “We have only one opportunity to lay waste to these attackers. Any we miss will be warned off and will scatter, potentially never to be seen again. As such, we will be splitting into teams. Five of you in each, with your guards included. You will be given a location, as well as several neighboring locations. Should you accomplish your primary mission, you may move on to assisting with another operation. The entire strike will have a duration of one hour.”

She went on to clarify the rules, elaborating on the power distribution of the individual bases and how they would be strictly curated to be within our capabilities. Wishes would be used to ensure the match ups would be as close to fair as possible, though that would ensure the strongest of us would be fighting the most difficult battles. She also mentioned that we could have members of our retinue accompany us, but that there was a manpower limit, and that we would need to get permission to get help during this trial. I sighed. Let the negotiations begin.