Wish upon the Stars chapter 889

We avoided the kobolds in the next few chambers. Between Dantalion and Callie’s Path, we were able to safely navigate the other groups. We DID hear several violent confrontations through the caves. Or rather, we felt them. Those kobolds were WAY more dangerous than they looked, and I wanted no part of it.

Sadly, we didn’t even get any loot from that dragon thing. It had dissolved as soon as we got rid of the wizard. The only upside was that we had gotten the axe for Benny, and my best friend was enthusiastically planning what to do with the soul inside as we walked.

“I could turn it into armor,” he said consideringly. “Or maybe some kind of utility item? There are so many options.”

Bethy squeaked with excitement. “Oh, why don’t you replace your eyeballs. People always talk about sharp glances. You could make it so your eyes can cut people. Like ‘hey what did you just say to me punk’? Schwoom eye slash!”

Her hands blurred out as she stepped into a complicated series of chopping and kicking motions that had nothing to do with eyes at all. Benny just hummed with interest. “I mean…I don’t hate that.”

Celine cleared her throat. “You will NOT gouge out your own EYES so you can cut things. I like your eyes, and I would prefer you be able to look into mine without blinding me.”

Benny laughed guiltily, scratching the back of his head. “Right…yeah. Probably turning my eyeballs into weapons is a bad idea. You know, outside of battle.” He hummed to himself. “I’ve been thinking about creating a secondary vessel. Like a puppet corpse body I can use in battle. Sebastian mentioned that as an option to prevent screwing up my foundation like he did. But honestly, I don’t know if I have the materials for that.”

“I say use your leg,” I cut in. “Assuming the axe is going to be part of the invention, axe kicks are a notable thing. Infusing your kicks with severing force would be cool, and it wouldn’t affect your leg outside combat probably. I assume you can control this new form of crafting well enough to arrange that?”

He beamed at me as we walked through the tunnel. “I can! Souls are beyond the grasp of most Skills. Necromantic crafting like mine uses spiritual essence to enforce structure on the usually unpredictable mechanisms of mad science. It’s a genius discipline. Sebastian is a grade A monster in his own right, he just took some wrong turns early on. With the benefit of his wisdom I won’t have that problem.”

I hadn’t considered that aspect of thing. Part of me wanted to try to learn a bit of it, to see if it might help me with me own soul manipulation, creating better forms or even Skills. But ultimately, I didn’t have the time to try to explore MORE bullshit. I already had about two dozen combat abilities I had to keep track of and improve.

We stopped at the entrance to a cavern. “Bethy?” I asked my Vampire friend. She nodded and dissolved into mist, flowing into the chamber.

It looked empty, as they all had so far, but we did our best not to be sloppy about it. I stared into the center of the chamber, trying to spot the golden sphere. This one was a bit different than the first. We’d been through two more since then, and they were all a little different. This one was a dense jungle in the center of a large cave, like an indoor oasis. To my surprise, once Bethy made it in, there was a second of pause before the mist flowed back out of the trees.

She appeared in the middle of the cave floor looking confused. Shane?” She called out across the cavern.“I…I don’t know what happened. I went in and then came out at like the same time.” She spun in a full circle, like a dog trying to catch its tail, but didn’t seem to find anything.

I frowned, stepping forward slowly, Dantalion flaring to encompass the area. I rolled my Perception over the nearby cavern like a small wave rolling over the beach, taking in everything I could about the place.

What I discovered was…nothing. I frowned as I tried to focus harder, but I could tell that I would need to spend a lot of time here to dig up anything pertinent.

Not that I was drawing a blank exactly, more that I was getting really vague surface data that was completely useless to me. Plant types, growth patterns, seasonal distribution of nutrients in the soil…a whole lot of nothing.

Turning, I searched the crowd for some familiar faces. Daysia, Celine, and Alyssa were all over with Jessie and Randall. I waved them over, and when they arrived, I gestured to the oasis. “So…any of you have any ideas on what the hell that is? Bethy went in an came back out immediately with no delay. I figure trees might be to blame since…you know, trees are all that's there.”

Daysia raised an eyebrow. “Seems a little unfair to assume the trees are doing it. Most trees don’t bother with mischief. They’re too busy growing and living their lives.”

“True,” I shrugged. “But they also don’t grow into solid stone in an underground cavern with no sunlight.” I pointed at the oasis, and she hesitated. “Look, no disrespect to trees here, can you just check?”

“Sorry, reflex,” she said apologetically. “I’m used to defending trees. It’s rare for them to have any real malice.”

Alyssa grimaced. “Except Wisteria trees. Fuck Wisteria trees. They’re all monsters.”

“Well, obviously” the yellow haired dryad allowed.  “But everyone knows that. I mean like…most trees. It doesn’t matter. That oasis isn’t all trees. There are some shrubs there too. Luckily Celine is here. Her forest magic is less tree specific. Cel, can you help us out with this? For recon your ability will be way more effective.”

The elf girl nodded solemnly. “I can try to map it, but it’ll be easier for us with a point of contact. We should call Sable over. Her root golems are perfect for this kind of thing. If the oasis has a built in defensive system, it’s probably a formation, Chelsea might be able to help too. I heard she’s not bad at those.”

So we called over Sable and my sister. Chelsea hurried to join us, looking intrigued, and I smiled. She was always so interested in formations. I wasn’t sure what rank her formation Skill was at, but I suspected it wasn’t bad, even if she wasn’t at the level of being able to do things like explore Grandmaster formations on her own, as I’d seen in the dungeon. Reaching into my ring, I withdrew one of Nats scrolls, then handed it to my sister. She shot me a grateful smile, then withdrew a coin and made a wish.

A scroll appeared, and she knelt down, unrolling it to study the layout of the formation. She hummed with interest. “Fascinating. This is a natural labyrinth formation. It’s…hard to explain. Imagine you have a wheel, and there are a hundred spokes. You step into one side but you emerge from one specific spoke. All the spokes teleport you to that one exit spoke, except for one, which leads inside. The trees are like that. The spaces between them are all recursive interlinked paths. Step into any of them and walk right back out like you didn’t pass through.”

Bethy pouted. “I knew it, the trees are broken. It totally wasn’t my fault.”

“Sable,” I said to the witch. “How many of those root golems can you make, exactly? It sounds like my sister might need some trial and error to get us through.”

Chelsea nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good strategy. I have a few ideas for possible life gates, a term for safe entry points on formations like this, but I don’t have the skillset to dissect this quickly. Brute force is the smarter play.”

That got a brilliant smile from Daysia. “THAT we can help with. Am I to understand the root golems work better with more powerful roots?”

“The more life energy is dormant in the roots the stronger the golem,” Sable agreed. “The seeds I use sometimes are condensed from special vital plants soaked in blood. Usually my own, don’t worry, but the energy soaks into the fibers and strengthens the roots, not to mention my own connection to them. Witchcraft works through symbolic connections, and having an actual blood tie to the golems makes them easier to control.”

“Jessie can help with life energy,” I mused. “And if you can use your tree singing to help control the golems, you might be able to make them feasible without the blood tie, right?”

Alyssa beamed. “That would definitely work,” she said excitedly. “And once we find the path in, Celine can use the signature to map the rest of it, which will let us maneuver the trees out of the way, opening the entrance wider and making it easier to get in. We can all go in force, which would be a lot safer.”

The dryads gathered together, approaching the edges of the oasis. Kneeling down, they began to hum. Tree singing was something I didn’t know nearly enough about, but it was definitely interesting. Under their consistent inducement, the roots of the outermost trees began to churn and break through the stone, slithering out towards them. When they got close, Sable cut herself on a sharp athame she pulled from her ring, then flicked her fingers at the snarled net of roots.

“I don’t need lots of blood,” she explained. “Because they’re helping, but each drop can still be used as a control node. The roots integrate the blood, and then I can form a connection between the system of roots and my circulatory system. Then I treat the roots like my own body and manipulate them. It’s a foundational precept of witchcraft.”

I got what she meant. The less native energy in the roots the more of her own power would be needed. She’d have needed a LOT more blood for this without the dryads.

Once the bloody glow spread over the root surface (slowly, mind) Jessie stepped forward and held up her hands. Green energy exploded out, soaking into the roots which all began to writhe and buck like agitated snakes.

Sable began to murmur, reaching into her pocket to pull out a small wooden doll she’d clearly carved herself. The doll was her, and it was very lifelike. She pulled a few strands of red hair and wrapped it around the doll. As soon as she got it secured, the ends of the hair caught fire, burning away to leave only a collar of blackened strands around its neck. She raised the doll, and before our eyes, about a dozen wooden figures formed from the root system.

These weren’t the rudimentary golems I’d seen before. They each looked like the doll. At my glance, Sable shrugged. “Using a focus makes it easier to control a lot of them. Chelsea, where are they going?”

My sister had been scribbling on the diagram she’d wished for, and when Sable asked, she gestured down at it. “Fifteenth from the left, tenth, ninth, seventh, third from the right, eighteenth, twenty fifth. We’ll continue from there.” She pointed across the cavern at the spots as she mentioned them.

Sable nodded. “Sounds good, let’s get started.” She flicked her fingers and the forming golems stood and began to shuffle towards the forest. Once they arrived, they split up, entering the indicated sections. Most of them reappeared from random spots on the outside…but one didn’t.

“Third from the right,” Chelsea said with a smirk. “Now we have to start on the next one. GIrls, if you could open up a path for me to work?” She glanced at the dryads and Celine, who grinned and began humming again. It was always so nice to work with competent people.