Wish upon the Stars chapter 876

The inside of the chamber was fairly upscale. A big open space with a large dark wood table in the center. The table was rectangular and long, and took up about half the space, but the room was so spacious there was plenty of room in the surrounding area for people to mingle. Which they were, spreading out into small groups and hopping from one crowd to another like we were at some kind of job fair.

Which in a way, I guess we were. Because these people weren’t just elders and branch managers. Some of them were my age, or at least closer to it. The candidates were here too.

“Listen up, kid,” Zeke said to me quietly. I could tell from the way the sound had shifted that he was keeping us inaudible. “This is the meet and greet. While all of these candidates came from a specific branch, they were raised outside the family, just like you. Because of that, there’s some room for negotiation when it comes to who represents who.”

I cocked my head. “So people switch branches? Is that common?”

“Depends,” he said, waggling his hand. “Branches with extensive family lines sometimes fail to properly impress descendents, so it’s not unheard of for people to jump ship. This is where things like family resources come into play. The candidacy is neutral, and you can’t interfere too heavily in the leadup, but once you’re on the heirworld, things are a little different.”

“In what sense?” I asked warily. That didn’t sound good for me.

He shrugged. “It varies. Mostly, alliances. While interfering DIRECTLY is still off the table, there are lots of candidates involved. If your branch decides you’re worth supporting, they might push some of the other candidates to help you out. Alternatively, some of the local residents are still in contact with their old branch or faction. A branch can influence local forces to hear out their candidate, though they can’t punish them for not helping, so it mainly becomes a matter of whether the faction thinks the candidate has a chance.”

“Will they try to get me on their side then?” I asked with interest. “Maybe we can play them off each other a bit, take some of the pressure off.”

“That won’t work,” said a voice from beside us conversationally. I jumped and spun around to find Malachai standing next to us, smiling patiently. “Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt. You seemed so invested.”

Zeke glared at him. “Stop piercing my stealth you old showoff. Don’t you know it’s rude to eavesdrop?”

My paternal grandfather shrugged. “Your seal was decent. I doubt anyone else would have even noticed it was there. Security through obscurity is an interesting tactic. But I was right next to you, boy, don’t underestimate an old man just because you had a little bit of success. I’ve been an S-ranker since before your ancestor learned to shave.”

“What do you mean it won’t work?” I cut in, not wanting to listen to Zeke banter. “It’s what everyone else is doing.”

He nodded. “Because there are benefits. Changing branches is fine and dandy, the WCP is all about personal enrichment. But benefits require commonality. No one would want to miss out on investing in a future powerhouse, but you have to take the situation into account. It’s risk versus reward, and the risk of you being the second Aiden makes the remote possibility of you becoming strong enough to be useful irrelevant.”

“He’s that big of a problem to them?” I asked in disbelief. “I mean, they’re all on the same side, right?”

“The council is full of old timers like me,” he said with a shrug. “Tens of thousands of years of tradition and stubbornness. They spent generations slowly eroding the Wishmaster’s power within the faction, taking advantage of the ancestor’s laissez faire attitude to manipulate the situation. There’s a bottom line, but with enough time they were able to move the needle bit by bit.”

I sighed. “Until Aiden.”

“Exactly,” he beamed. “The only member of the council that likes the way Aiden has been running things is Harrison, because he benefits from it directly. The rest of us have had to watch him trample all over millennia of slow progress with brute force. Everyone loves talking about the next big genius in their faction, but those great figures rarely benefit the ones around them much in the short term.”

We stopped at a smaller table off to one side, where a few figures were standing. Zeke surreptitiously dropped his stealth technique and we rejoined a conversation where Bethy was chattering excitedly about how cool my great grandmother was and everyone else was trying not to whimper in fear. My grandparents, meanwhile, had shown up at some point, having been off talking to someone most likely.

“Felix,” Malachai said with a grin. “Come meet your nephew.” He waved to a tall, rangy blonde man with long hair and a close cropped goatee. His eyes were the same green I saw in the mirror, and I could see my dad in his features a bit, though he was so much taller and thinner the effect was a lot like someone had stretched my dad out on a rack and put a wig on him.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “So, you’re Eli’s boy. I thought you’d be more menacing. Then again, I can’t see your face, so maybe you’re giving me the death glare right now.” He saw my mom and smiled lightly. “Sasha, been a while.”

My mom smiled back, surprisingly. “Felix. It’s so good to see you. And this must be Michael,” she beamed at the slightly shorter, even thinner blue eyed version of the man standing next to him. “You’ve gotten so big. The last time I saw you your head didn’t even come up to my knee. You going to keep an eye on my kids in there? You are the oldest.”

“I’m hardly the oldest,” he laughed. “Some of the older Aunts and Uncles have kids in their hundreds.”

My mom frowned. “Hmmm,” she said ambiguously. 

Malachai sighed. “Sasha doesn’t approve of my family dynamic. The fact that I have so many children with multiple mothers offends her.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” my other grandfather said smoothly, trying to unruffle feathers. “Sasha is just concerned about Shane. Your internal family matters aren’t her business, we just all hope that Shane can get through this safe and sound.”

My grandmother arched an eyebrow. “Oh really? You don’t disapprove of his situation? Very impressed with him having children with multiple women, are you?”

He froze, swallowing hard. “What? No, obviously not. That isn’t what I meant, I was just saying Shane is the priority right now. We don’t have time to educate Malachai on his excesses and help him see the light.” He shot Malachai an apologetic grimace, and the other man smothered an obvious snicker at seeing him get in trouble.

I rolled my eyes. I knew that my mother disliked my dad’s father, not just because he had so many kids, but also because she thought he was a bad influence on my dad morally and emotionally. I didn’t actually see any sign of that kind of coldness, but Zeke had also made it clear that Malachai favored his own people, and that his real ruthless streak was usually reserved for those outside his good graces. My dad was Malachai’s favorite kid, and he was NOT shy about telling people so if they asked. Apparently I was benefiting from some of that regard now.

Sure enough, my mom wasn’t willing to let nonsense get in the way of my safety. She exhaled loudly, clearly putting down her issues for the moment, before favoring Malachai with a smile. “My dad is right. Shane is the most important thing here.”

Malachai nodded solemnly. “Agreed. Trust me, the better he does, the better I look. Even if he decides to follow in Aiden’s footsteps and suppress the council, being from my branch will open up certain opportunities.”

“How about my Uncle, Percival?” I asked hopefully. “Can we count on his support?”

He grimaced. “Not even remotely. His son Devon is competing. Percival won’t compromise his chances for a direct line successor sitting in the big chair. Eli and Percy never got along particularly well, either, so he’s unlikely to help out of sentiment.”

Zeke snorted. “No one gets along with Percy. He’s a smarmy asshole who thinks the sun shines out of his ass. He’s the oldest, so he thinks he’s always right, and being an S-ranker hasn’t helped. Doesn’t help that he married the Vetala girl from that Ducal clan. He loves flaunting his Imperial support.”

“At least I HAVE imperial support,” sneered a new voice. We all turned to find a new man standing nearby. He was the spitting image of my grandfather, but with red hair instead of blonde like most of the family. He was glaring at most of us, especially Zeke. “But then, what would you know about the trappings of power, bootlicker?”

“Percival,” snapped Malachai. “There’s no need to be rude. Ezekial is a contestant, and your brother’s closest friend.”

The red haired man sniffed haughtily. “Friend, is it? I thought he was a dog. Guarding Elijah’s mutt for table scraps.” He smirked at Zeke, and I could see the malice in his eyes as he tried to bait my uncle into a fight.

“What the FUCK did you just say about my son?” My mother hissed, eyes starting to glow white as she stepped forward. My grandfather reached out and grabbed her arm, but his face didn’t look much friendlier.

Percival gave her a smarmy smile. “Apologies, Sasha. I got a bit carried away. You do have a certain pedigree I suppose. An acceptable addition to the family. You just chose a poor partner. Honestly, I don’t understand why all of you flock to defend Elijah. What exactly is so impressive about my little brother that it inspires such loyalty?”

I could see from his nearly manic expression that he actually wanted an answer. I wasn’t sure why, but this HATED my dad. Not like I used to hate my dad. Like I had hated fucking TRAVIS. What inspired someone to this level of malice towards a family member.

Before I could decide how to respond though, there was a shift on the ground. A pair of hands erupted from the marble floor on each side of Percival, mercury hands grabbing ahold of his ankles and holding him in place. There was a slight ring as something sharp split the air, and a mirrored sword was suddenly pressed to Percival’s throat.

A long absent voice, one I hadn’t heard since I was forming my chronicle, drawled into the now silent tension. “Insult my wife or son again, Percy, and I’ll fucking show you.” We all turned to look and found my dad leaning against a column, cane twirling between his fingers lazily as his golden eyes pierced his oldest brother. The colossal knight holding the sword to Percival’s throat reflected the scene around him perfectly, and I knew what that meant.

A mirror soul. My dad had brought out an S-rank combat asset. Percival, as far as I could tell, was a relatively fresh S-ranker, and my dad had been in A-rank a lot longer than Zeke and was infamous. I wasn’t absolutely positive he could fight his brother up a rank, but I also wasn’t sure he couldn’t and judging by the hate tinged fear on Percival’s face, neither was he.

My dad turned away from his brother, dismissing him, and ran his eyes over our group, stopping on my mom’s face with a devilish grin. “Honey,” he said with amusement. “I’m home.” I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. I was so impressed with his entrance, I didn’t even try to hit him in the throat with my staff…yet. After all, the night was still young.