Wish upon the Stars chapter 861

The next stage of the conclave was much less mysterious. We’d left behind the basement full of stone pillars and had retired to a large golden ballroom. The walls were white paneled with gold trim, and the floors were white marble inlaid with gold. Weirdly, despite being similar material to the city outside, this place looked much more refined.

Among the golden trim, the white paint and marble created a sense of restrained wealth and complex elegance, as opposed to the garish “we dumped gold on your town” opulence of the rest of Dawnrend.

The ballroom had been lavishly furnished too, with a huge round table draped in white silk laid out in the center, covered in bone china plates inlaid with gold traceries. Naturally, my friends and I picked a spot near someone we knew, specifically Carmichael, and took our seats. Callie sat next to me, then my sister, then her guards, then Bethy.

At the end of our line of people was Dom, who had started chatting with Dastan about…wolf stuff. He seemed thrilled to find a kindred spirit, and Dastan was slowly recovering from what Bethy had done to him, though he was notably avoiding looking at her and seemed to be unconsciously leaning away when she got closer. Meanwhile, Selvara was on Carmichael’s other side, and Argaunt was on the other side of her. And we were discussing terms of cooperation.

We’d made the initial agreements, of course, terms of service for freedom. We’d ended up with an even fifty C-rank cultivators, even more than expected given that several of the godchildren hadn’t agreed. After handing over all fifty scrolls, my mood had soured a bit. That was potential points down the drain, but Callie reminded me that the renown from leading a C-rank army to charge out of the dungeon and expose the Void Shallow was definitely going to be substantial.

Now we were just deciding how exactly that attack would go down. Carmine and Delilah, the Master of Martial Force and the Mistress of Soothing Whispers, were the most familiar with the defenses at the palace, where the exit was under lockdown, so they were leading the discussion. 

“I’m just saying, we can hit them head on. Sure, they have us outnumbered a bit, but if we surprise attack them, we can take advantage of the lull at the beginning to kill as many as possible.” Carmine, a huge red haired man with a booming voice, slammed his beer mug (which he’d brought with him, because the rest of us had champagne flutes) forcefully on the table, his heavy brows furrowed.

Delilah, a slim, pale woman with black hair that fell to her ankles, sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her mouth was covered with a black veil, and her eyes were a shocking blue. So pale it was almost white. But her formerly composed appearance was shredded by her companion as he waxed on about the tactical benefits of shock and awe.

“We don’t HAVE the element of surprise,” she told him flatly. “They’re EXPECTING us. We would be walking right into a trap.”

He waved that off as if it was a small detail. “They’re expecting SOMETHING. No way they know about our full forces. We send a small group in, with the majority smuggled inside the little Vampire’s domain. Then when they surround our stalking horse we all jump out and tear them apart.”

“And I think it’s too risky,” she sighed. “The initial group would be highly exposed. And what happens if the girl gets killed. I’m guessing we don’t all just pop out of her Domain?”

He snorted. “Bah, she’s squirrely. Did you see her fight with the dog boy? It’s worth a bit of risk for such a pronounced advantage. Anyway, I don’t hear you coming up with any better ideas, eh?”

“You don’t hear anything at all over your obnoxious braying,” she said waspishly. “I think we should divide and conquer. Five teams of ten C-rankers will enter through each of a handful of prearranged passages we can have ‘conveniently’ abandoned. Once everyone is in, the whole palace will go into seizures. They’ll be running all over the place trying to put out fires and won’t be able to mount a stable defense. Our elite groups will punch right through, and can join up at several prearranged locations, growing in strength until we reassemble in front of the exit chamber.”

I frowned at her. “Um…that sounds like a super risky plan.” She’d been so wrapped up in her argument, she took a minute to notice who had spoken, then turned to me and raised an eyebrow. “Never split the party.” I told her bluntly. “That’s dungeon one oh one.”

She groaned in frustration. “Perhaps, but concentrating our forces leaves us open to a battle of attrition. If we get bogged down with the defenders, reinforcements might arrive.”

“What reinforcements?” I asked, suddenly concerned. “I was under the impression all the C-rankers they had on side were city lords. I know they’ve been calling them back, since several of you are city lords who came in with the crowds, but the ones we accounted for should be all of them, right?”

“C-rankers are a major issue,” she admitted. “But not the only one. A sufficient number or quality of D-rank threats can be just as deadly. And there are MANY D-rankers in the Shoals, most of whom work for Skartaris. I mean, our own forces aren’t insubstantial, but a leaky bucket won’t hold water. We’ve been forced to be quite circumspect with our D-rank subordinates to prevent information from leaking too badly.”

I grimaced. Yeah, I knew we’d have a D-rank force coming along for the ride, though they didn’t need wishes to get free. Last count we had two hundred and fifty D-rankers scheduled to come with us. A great many of them were actually peak D-rank, with a possibility of breakthroughs when they emerged, which was great news for my succession war forces, but at the moment, trying to organize them would be nightmarish.

It also meant that the number of D-rankers with each group was only going to be twenty five, with a total of thirty five ascendants each if we went with her plan. I didn’t love that. But I did see her point. We needed to break through as quick as possible. If anyone got jammed up the other groups could converge and help them out, and I had a stockpile of scrolls still I could pass out. I could get some nice points for the help, so two birds there.

Humming uncertainly, I paused to think. We were rushed here. If we had time I’d have loved to teach them some formations, it might have helped our push. But we only had a few days to break out, and the longer we waited the more likely they’d see us coming. Managing to unite everyone so quickly was probably outside Skartaris’s expectations, but they would be expecting us SOON.

Callie had been trying to scout for us, and her Abyssal Path actually helped, allowing her passage through the shadows, but there were a lot of places in the palace that were mysteriously blocked off, presumably by the Abyssal Lords. Which was another problem. Chances were good those bastards were around. I was pretty sure they were confined to the void laden areas, but if we dragged our heels, a quick sortie might be on the table.

“Two teams,” I said finally. “One hundred and fifty apiece. A hundred and twenty five D-rankers and twenty five C-rankers. It’ll let us split attention without leaving ourselves too vulnerable.” I glanced around the table, where the other C-rankers were silent. “Anyone have any issues with that plan? Speak now, because your contracts won’t allow you to defect. We can still change the plan if anyone thinks it's not workable.”

While they were all going to have to fall in line, that was only if they actually escaped. If they didn’t leave, the contracts would be void (pun intended).

 I didn’t think anyone here WANTED to stay in this abyssal shithole after we bailed, but if the choices were that or certain death, they would obviously defect rather than get killed. The easiest way to deal with that was to accept input on team distribution and entry strategy.

That made me think of the other issue. Namely all the innocent people here. While I couldn’t help them personally, I was loathe to leave them here to suffer. Ideally, once we were out, we could have my grandparents dispatch a huge group of D-rankers, or maybe even requisition an Imperial Legion. They could hold the line while we evacuated the civilians before the void shallow finished integrating enough for C-rankers to leave.

I just didn’t know if the five factions had the manpower, with the war ongoing. As much as I hated to admit it, this place might not be a priority. I wondered if there was another way to help them. Maybe have my grandmother open more of those portals so people who were still below C-rank could get out.

I got so wrapped up in my thoughts I missed the suggestions, but the parallel I left in charge of my body answered for me, keeping me apprised of the situation. Piece of Mind might not be flashy, but it was easily my most useful Skill.

Finally, everyone agreed on the plan. We’d had to accept a whole bunch of personnel changes to make everyone happy, and the teams were extremely lopsided, with the majority of the stronger C-rankers focused on the OTHER group, with us having only Carmichael and Carmine. But honestly, I wasn’t bothered. We had our own confidence. My D-rank forces were superior, and most of the D-rank godchildren weren’t bound by contract so I was hesitant to trust them anyway.

Meanwhile, my wife had been overflowing with confidence in a way I had never seen before. She wouldn’t tell me why, just that she was working on something good, but I trusted her to know what she was doing. I was interested to see what had her so pumped, given that this particular change in demeanor had come AFTER her racial trait. She’d figured out some sort of deadly use for her new abilities, I suspected, and I couldn’t wait to see what they might be.

Finally, after HOURS of talking, things started to wind down. With the distribution decided, all that was left was the timing, and everyone agreed that sooner was better. With that in mind, we officially planned the assault for tomorrow. The extra day would mean an extra eight scrolls, which meant an even fifty, one for each of our C-rankers as an emergency measure.

I was ALSO looking forward to seeing if I could get more stats per scroll, given my recent rise in power. Seventy five should be on the table, and any lit bit helped. I had one of my friends make an in person wish to test it, though I didn’t grant it obviously because I’d used all mine up for the day. Still it confirmed that yes, seventy five points were on the table, and I made a not to request specific stats from each C-ranker as I passed them out. 

Once that ended, it was dinner time. We’d been sitting at the table with empty plates for hours, and everyone was famished. A series of empty cloaks emerged from the entrances to the ballroom, trays of food floating beside them, and distributed the food to all of us. I had prime rib and mashed potatoes, while everyone else picked at the variety of unusual local dishes (some of them fish based).

All in all, it was a pretty decent night, considering how it started. I didn’t let it fool me. Tomorrow would be the final push into the palace, and none of us were remotely ready for it. Once we got through though, we’d be out among my family, and we’d all be safe. I was just hoping that there would be room aboard the Acheron for all these people. It was going to be a tight squeeze.