Wish upon the Stars chapter 936

We were able to find an auction pretty easily. I wasn’t surprised, really, the city was one of only ten on this side of the planet where B-rankers could congregate, and B-rankers were hardly the only ones around. The population of Veltheim was pretty sizable from what I could tell. Several auctions were held regularly, and with the conclave in town, some of the bigger ones had even been moved up.

One of the biggest was what I had been informed was called the Empty Auction. That was where we were right now. “Alright, everyone have your masks?” I reached up to adjust mine, which was somehow sitting perfectly stably on TOP of my normal wooden mask. It was a tiny thing, a simple domino mask made of incredibly thin glass, but somehow, once applied, everything about me just became…immaterial.

Not in the sense that I was less solid, but in the sense that I was completely unimportant in every respect. It was like I had been placed under stealth, but instead of making me invisible, it just kind of disconnected every bit of my being from the consequences of Perception. People could see me, but their brains didn’t make a connection between what they saw and anything else. It was like everyone was face blind, but for every sense. It was deeply unsettling to experience, especially once my friends applied theirs, but we were able to key the masks for exclusions, so the rest of us were recognizable once we got past the initial fine tuning.

Benny snorted at me. “Yes, DAD,” he said with exaggerated belligerence. “We’re not idiots. Now stop stalling so we can go see what kind of crazy shit we’re going to buy.”

“Don’t know how you plan to PAY for said crazy shit,” I told him with a laugh. “My budget is one hundred percent dedicated to upgrading my gear. Every ounce of cash I’ve got is going toward that. Also some cash I don’t got. Speaking of which, I have an item to put up for bid. Where do I submit that?” I glanced at Crell, who was scanning the crowd worriedly. My advisor didn’t enjoy the blindness that currently afflicted us all. Ironically, for a mythical user of Doubt, he didn’t deal well with the sensation himself.

“Hm?” he asked absently. “Oh, sorry. There’s a counter over there. What exactly are you putting up for bid?”

Reaching into my ring, I withdrew a sphere. More accurately, a ball of black glass inside which burned a fist sized blue black flame. Heretic fire. Callie turned to stare into it, blinking. “That’s…how did you do that? It’s not really supposed to stick around like that. It’s flame and flame goes out after a while.”

“Agares,” I said with a grin. “This was…tricky. Not just condensing and shaping the liquid stone into black glass, but you’re right, the natural state of the heretic fire is to burn off. I have unnoticeable veins of Void corruption I pulled from your Path laced through it. The heretic fire is burning them off and feeding on them at the same time. It won’t last forever, but I tamped down on the burn enough to get a few days out of it.”

This thing was technically useless, but in a very real sense it was also priceless. With the Void infiltrating the planet, having access to a heretic flame would be invaluable. And it COULD burn Void taint, as evidenced by the output. If you found and introduced more you could theoretically farm the stuff. It wasn’t worth the time investment to someone like me who could just spark it up, but since this stuff could cleanse corrupted areas, people, or objects, to anyone else it would invaluable.

We stopped in front of the window protecting the auction counter from the rest of the hall. The man behind it looked…like nothing. I could see him plain as day, but none of the features I was looking at would stick in my head. Like I’d said. Deeply unsettling.

I set the sphere down on the counter. “Heretic fire,” I told him directly. “Anti-void and Void cleansing properties. Highly effective. Starting bid is a single B-ranked chit, but I’m also willing to accept trade for a B-ranked suit of plate, as long as it comes with some adjustments.”

He nodded, picking it up and studying it. “Interesting.”

“You need to appraise it or something?” I asked him mildly. “And is there a commission fee?” I assumed there was, I just wanted to hurry this up.

“No and yes, respectively,” he responded lazily. “We do offer appraisal services, but they cost extra. It is perfectly acceptable to post unappraised goods. Caveat Emptor is in effect, however. Do keep in mind that it is the responsibility of the purchaser to ensure the quality of their goods. Also, should we find out you’ve lied in your description to drive up the price, your anonymity will be forfeit, and we will turn over details of your location to the buyer.”

I snorted. That was classic WCP. Put all the liability on the parties involved and act as an impartial middleman, with just a hint of threat to prevent people from taking advantage. I nodded, then accepted a small tag I would use to claim the proceeds.

Once that was done, we headed into the actual auction hall, claiming a seat near the back. To my surprise, there were some familiar faces, so I squeezed in next to my cousin Alys. Tapping her shoulder, I activated the sharing function of my mask, allowing it to sync to hers and communicate the way my friends had. It said something about Alys that she didn’t even hesitate before accepting, and when she saw me, her face lit up. “Sh-”

I covered her mouth quickly. “Whoa there, no names couz’. You can see me now but most people can’t. Have to maintain anonymity to the outsiders. What are you doing here?”

She jerked her thumb at the unrecognizable figure behind her, who I could only assume was her bodyguard and boyfriend, Cryton. “My…someone is looking for a weapon. Something big and heavy. How about you?”

“Armor,” I shrugged. “I’ve almost outgrown my current set. Plus, I heard someone is auctioning a sphere of some kind of anti void fire.” I lowered my voice conspiratorially. “With the invasion coming up, something like that could be invaluable. I don’t think we should spread it around TOO much, but if you have any friends here let them in on it. Anyone who gets it will be able to help us out a lot and it doesn’t matter who it is as long as they’re on our side right?”

Callie snorted in amusement, giving me a judgemental look. I shot her the mental equivalent of a shrug. Nothing wrong with word of mouth advertising, it wasn’t like I was lying, the heretic fire WAS ant Void. I told her as much mentally and she sent back a grudging acceptance that came with lots of mental judgement, but I ignored her.

Alys, of course, all but exploded in joy. Alys was the type of person to make friends with everyone. She had all of Bethy’s bubbly personality without any of her edge, and her sheer effervescence made her almost impossible to dislike.

Within five minutes, everyone in the hall knew about the orb, and what it did, and how useful it was, and there was a low murmur of excitement about possibly acquiring it. I was beaming behind my mask, and I made a mental note to put Alys in some sort of PR position in our faction if she joined up. You couldn’t buy advertising talent like that.

Soon enough, everyone quieted down as a man took the stage. As with everyone else, I had no idea who he was…but maybe that didn’t need to continue. Reaching for my staff without withdrawing it from my soul, I triggered my special ability to bump my skills up a rank and then Dantalion. I winced slightly at the influx of information when it all spilled into my head, but I ignored it, splitting off a parallel to deal with the buildup while I waited to see if that would yield results.

The masks prevented me from seeing anything specific to start, but I was wondering if I could grind through their defensive power. They weren’t particularly high ranked. Fielding so many of them meant that it wasn’t viable to use B-ranked masks, they were sticking with a simple C-rank design they could mass produce. With the boost from the staff, I was PRETTY sure I could get through eventually. I ignored the parallel while I focused on the auctioneer.

“Welcome guests!” He boomed gregariously. “To the Empty Auction. Here, the outside world is like a mirage, and all that matters are the contents of this stage. By the time you leave, it too will return to emptiness.”

My eyes narrowed at that. That was…flowery. Extremely flowery. But more than that, it was the exact kind of nihilistic claptrap that the Void LOVED. I glanced at Callie, who looked similarly uneasy, but we didn’t do anything. Being creepy didn’t make you a Void infiltrator. Plenty of Ascendants were regular run of the mill creeps, and the darkness and abyssal crowd was dramatic and scary, a combination that Ascendants of all stripes enjoyed. Callie’s own family was famous for that imagery back on Callus, despite have no Void ties at all.

I shook it off. I needed to focus. If the Void wanted to pull some shit it wouldn’t be now, with a room full of dangerous high ranking threats. Probably. Dantalion might pick something up if I left it running. I tuned back into the auctioneer.

“Now, originally we were planning to have our opening item be a particularly powerful set of magic bracers that grant a massive boost to Might,” he said jovially. “But based on the rumblings in the room and some of the whispers that made it to our ears, we’ve made the decision to move up a new offering.” He reached down for the silk cloth draped over the plinth next to him, whipping it off to reveal…my orb.

“Some of you may have heard we recently gained access to this fascinating trinket,” the B-rank auctioneer beamed. “This is an orb of “heretic fire”. A unique anti Void substance that hasn’t been seen in realspace in over five hundred thousand years. It took us quite a bit of effort to dig up the information on this stuff in our data banks. Given the whispers floating around the heirworld of Void infiltrators, I think everyone here can understand the true value of this substance. In fact, we have a live demonstration of exactly what it can do for you here tonight!”

I frowned, not sure what he meant…and then I noticed. Or rather, I started noticing, between one breath and the next. One of the members of the faceless sea of unrecognizable figures became suddenly completely noticeable. He didn’t seem to get it at first, but when he saw all the eyes on him, his own flew open in panic. He shot to his feet, looking around angrily, then snarled up at the B-ranker. “SILENTIUM REVIVERE!” He bellowed, and his eyes flashed blue as he threw back his head, black smoke erupting from his mouth.

But the auctioneer had been waiting for this. He reached down, casually picked up the orb, and chucked it overhand at the C-rank Void agent. It streaked through the air, exploding into a pillar of blue black fire as it lit up the infiltrator, who had already been fully consumed by the fire.

Before the screams could even fade, the man snapped, and the fire just sort of…rewound. It recondensed into the orb, retracing its path to land smoothly in his hand, the interior roaring with a much denser flame. “Now,” he said cheerfully. Opening bid as a single B-rank chit, with B-rank intervals. But preference is for a B-rank suit of armor and a complimentary adjustment. Bidding starts…now!” And the whole room exploded with shouts. In his spot on the stage, waiting for the bids to roll in, the auctioneer winked at me. Perhaps I might be able to make something even more interesting out of this visit. But for now, I just had to sit back and rake in the money.