Wish upon the Stars chapter 884

The rest of the battle was fairly clean. There wasn’t much time left on the event, and before long, it ended, granting me a pretty decent windfall of points. I was up to twenty five points total now for the succession war, though I had no clue if that was good or bad. Still, it couldn’t hurt to have them, so I was in a pretty good mood when I finally arrived at the nicest inn I’d been able to find in Schvitz.

Much to my surprise, Callie and I weren’t alone. A familiar red haired woman was there, checking in when we arrived, and when she saw us, she gave me a friendly nod. “So. Tall and scary with a blank wooden mask? I bet I can guess who you are.”

“Yes,” I said dramatically. “It is I, Harold Binderman, from apartment 34D. Tremble before my great name.”

Callie rolled her eyes. “Ignore him,” she said with exasperation. “He thinks he’s funny. This is Solomon, or you can just call him Shane. I’m Calliope. It’s nice to meet you…?” She was polite and friendly, clearly interested in making friends with this relative of mine. I could get behind that.

The redhead chuckled. “Belara. Belara Wyndham. And it’s fine. My brothers are the same way. You’re from the Malachai Branch. I saw you talking to the branch head.”

“Yup,” I said cheerfully. “You gonna swear eternal vengeance on me now, or wait until my back is turned for dramatic effect?” I made sure my tone stayed teasing, but my eyes were locked on her face. I could smell lies, and I would absolutely attack if I caught so much as a whiff of bad intent from her.

It might be hypocritical, but I didn’t trust the WCP (or my dad’s relatives for that matter) at all. The environment they grew up in was brutal and ruthless, and while I had plenty of friends from there, I had been warned too many times about their coldness not to keep an eye out for possible treachery, even from the seemingly friendly.

Belara just laughed. “Peace, little cousin. I’ve got no bad intentions. I was impressed by your forces.” She grinned widely. “Of course, it’s early days, and I didn’t bring much in the way of D-rank power. The next zone is when we start separating the wheat from the chaff. But I’m not against teaming up temporarily to get through a tough spot. Early game alliances are hardly unheard of.”

“You aren’t secretly planning to kill me to prevent the rise of a second Aiden?” I asked wryly. She hadn’t lied yet, but that wasn’t the same as telling the truth. Just coming out and asking seemed like the easiest move.

She shrugged. “Not yet at least,” she grinned. “But in all seriousness, I’m from an orphan branch. Our branch leaders are a bit more progressive than the old fuddy duddies at the top of the heap. New blood isn’t something we have issues with. You’re certainly competent, and even if you do make it through, we’ve seen from Aiden that branches affiliated heavily with the boss can still benefit. Your relationship with Malachai and his people doesn’t seem to be entirely harmonious, and your father is a notorious renegade. We were given instructions to evaluate you and see if there was room for cooperation.”

Callie nodded in satisfaction. “I figured that might happen. The WCP seems way too factional for any sort of large group censure to be effective.”

“Good read,” Belsara complimented. “Yeah, despite the sweeping condemnation from on high, benefits are the name of the game. You’re impressive, so people are going to want to ally with you. Don’t forget that while the prize is a big motivator, there are other benefits to be had. Even if you don’t take the top spot, the points you earn can be exchanged for resources, manpower, or directly used to free powerful Ascendants who you can swear to your service.

“The outside world might not know it,” she continued excitedly. “But the succession war is the biggest shake up for the WCP. Not just because we choose a new leader, but because performance can dramatically alter the landscape of competition between the branches. Earning the fealty of a few A-rankers and having the points to bring them out can cause a qualitative shift in the power balance of an entire branch.”

Which I knew, in the abstract, but I hadn’t really considered it from that angle. “So people are going to be making deals to get ahead and improve their scores early on even they don’t think they can win.” I mused. “Because any bit of gain might reflect on their whole branch.”

“Which begs the question,” my wife said slowly. “What kind of alliance are you looking for, and what does it entail?”

Belsara gestured us forward, letting us start checking in, and once we finished, waved us over to a couch on the side of the lobby. The inn we’d found was less “inn” and more hotel, a tall stone building with a gorgeous spacious lobby. The whole place was padded with plush carpet, soft earth tone lights casting the warm brown walls in shadow, and several ponds containing golden fish were scattered along the length of the room, the fish catching the lights as they swam by, reflecting streaks of gold, red, and orange light.

“This town,” Belsara said once we sat down. “Is something of a safezone now. Temporarily. It’s not official, but once the event ended, it was decided that the internal forces would keep the peace to recover before the next mission. This isn’t uncommon, because town defense usually implies a sort of claim that tends to be rigorously enforced. But the truce only lasts until we leave. Once we step foot outside it's a free for all.”

I nodded in understanding. “And you’re worried you’ll be targeted? I take it your D-rankers aren’t specced for combat?”

She shrugged. “I’ve always been more a fan of utility. My higher end combat power isn’t bad, but all my best retainers are in the other zones. So yeah, I’m hoping to piggy back off your forces to make it further in. But you know as well as I do that having another candidate along is a net benefit. You can leave the offset for the wishes to me and my people. We have training for this kind of thing. As far as I can tell, you were planning to rely on a combination of overwhelming force and surprise for your counterwishes?”

“Something like that,” I admitted. “You can do better?”

As much as I wanted to deny it, my education in counterwish tactics was pretty lacking. If I could get someone onboard who had a solid grasp on that process, it would take a lot of stress off my plate, not to mention I would save up a ton of scrolls I could use for other things. I was sure we’d have to supply some too, more people meant more scrolls needed, but it would at least let us save MY scrolls for emergencies. Being at seven hundred and fifty thousand points made me a top tier combatant in D-rank, and that meant my wishes were valuable in this zone.

“I can,” she confirmed. “And beyond that, I have connections in the city. Or rather, lines of connection further into the zone and into the next.”

I cocked my head. “You’re willing to introduce us to your connections?”

“Look,” she said with a sigh. “I’m not one of the elite. I don’t have a huge secondary faction or clan backing me. I don’t have a brilliant genius as a retainer to carry my banner. I’m not winning this. I’m not even the favorite in my own branch. But you? You’ve got a shot. Your father is here, in the war, supporting you. Elijah Wyndham is a name people remember. He’s SCARY, and jumping ship didn’t make anyone forget that. Your mother and his retainer Ezekial were both part of his original team. Not to mention Lark’s second.”

“So your whole thing about wanting to see how I did was-” I started wryly.

She held up a hand. “True. We have a long way to go before we hit the core zone and reach the A-rankers for support. If you weren’t up to it, I’d have dropped the whole thing. But your people are good. YOU’RE good. I don’t know how you were doing half the shit you did out there, but I was impressed.”

Reaching into my ring, I pulled out a piece of paper. I scribbled out a contract, stopping to adjust a few bits when Callie or Belsara noticed something that needed changing, and once I finished, I passed it to her along with a scroll. “Here’s my terms. You’ll give me a term of service service adhering to the letter of that contract for the next year. As for the actual wish, not my business, just figure out what you want.”

She chuckled. “Not a bad way to do things. Contracts can be useful. I should have figured Elijah Wyndham’s kid would be a stickler for the letter of the law.” She read it over, then unrolled the scroll. I saw the terms of her wish pop up, and I laughed. She was asking for a contracts Skill. I granted it, Beginner just below Intermediate, and the contract burst into flames as the wish codified it into a payment, making it iron clad.

Belsara beamed. “Fantastic! It’s a short term contract, so I’m not getting pinned down to anything big, and I get to build out this Skill how I like it.” She hopped to her feet. “Anyway, seems like my work here is done. We’ve all had a long day, and I want a nap. Meet you both down here in five hours for dinner?”

My other retainers were currently spreading through the city on my orders, finding places to stay and mixing with the locals looking for information, but my inner circle would be here soon enough, and I would need to introduce her. “Sure,” I laughed. “Go get some rest. We’ll check out our room.”

We’d gotten a suite because Callie was insistent we treat this like a partial honeymoon. I think she mostly just wanted to sleep on a big fancy bed, but I wasn’t going to argue with her on this.

Once Belsara left we took the elevator up to the top floor. “Man, it’s nice to be somewhere the tech level is normal.” I said with a sigh. “Magic is great, but something about machinery just makes me more at ease, you know?”

My wife laughed. “I feel that. I never really thought about how convenient technology was until I had to start substituting magic.”

I put an arm around her shoulder. “Hopefully the amenities in this place are nice as the lobby. I can’t wait to get a nice hot shower. It feels like its been ages.” It hadn’t been, just a few hours, but something about hotel showers always made me happy. Like an adventure.

Maybe I should have been more worried, more on edge, but I couldn’t muster that right now. I felt…at home. This succession war was my home ground, and I was kicking ass. I wasn’t out of the weeds yet, obviously, but I was going to stay balanced and at ease. Like Zeke had told me so long ago. Why worry?

I felt Callie squeeze my arm as she caught that, warning me through the bond not to get cocky, but I sent back reassurance. I wasn’t under the impression I was invincible, but I knew my worth. And besides, I had a good feeling about this. I could feel the winds of fate blowing across me even as we rose through the hotel. Things were already changing, and all I needed to do was keep up.