Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 871
🕑 Added 2025-04-23 23:45:11 +0000 UTCArriving back on Rackham was surprisingly nostalgic. Not just because we’d brought my friends home safe, but because after the dark and despair filled dungeon, the gentle forests of Rackham were practically paradise.
“We’re back!” Shouted Ray in relief, hurling himself off the shuttle to literally kiss the grass. “I’m so happy to be home.”
Elena chuckled as she jumped down. “You’d think you were the one with a kid here. You’re not even from this planet, what are you so excited about?” Despite her words, her tone was every bit as fond and exasperated as I’d expected from her. Elena was everyone’s big sister, and she seemed to have bonded with the others while they were imprisoned.
We’d settled in at a large inn located in the capital, and my mother had rented the place out for the banquet, dropping more money that I’d seen in my life arranging seating and food for everyone. With hundreds of people here, it was a tight squeeze even in the biggest banquet hall, and she’d paid extra for the best chefs.
“So, Shane,” my great grandfather said as he sat beside me. “Tell me about yourself? I’ve heard plenty of stories, but as we all know, legends so rarely tell the whole tale. Not to mention some of the sources were…prone to exaggeration.”
Black Sorrow slammed her hands down on the table, glaring at him ferociously. “Was that a shot at me? You want to die hypocrite? I already killed one god today, I’ll do it again!’
“Mother!” my grandmother snapped reproachfully. “You promised you’d be civil for this dinner!”
Black Sorrow sputtered. “He’s clearly baiting me! You all saw it! Look at his smug fucking face!” She pointed at the Red Revenant, who stared back at her with an innocently puzzled expression so flawless it had to be fake.
Celia rolled her eyes. “You stop it too, dad. Honestly, do you have to wind her up every time you see her?”
He smiled modestly. “It’s a gift,” he winked at the goddess. “Besides, she’s cute when she’s angry.” Black Sorrow snorted, looking away sulkily, but I could have sworn I saw her lips twitch. Seeing the complete lack of sympathy from his daughter, he sighed. “Fine, I’ll be nice too. I was being sincere with my question though, I want to know more about my great grandson.”
I decided that pointing out how he hadn’t wanted that BEFORE wouldn’t be productive. They’d showed up to save our lives, and granted, it had been Black Sorrow’s fault we’d been in danger to start with, but I wasn’t unhappy with how things turned out.
So I filled him in on my life up to now. My childhood, my early days as an Ascendant, and some of my adventures.
To my surprise, Black Sorrow seemed as enraptured as he did. I didn’t know how to feel about her, honestly. She’d been a serious problem for me, but I knew now that everything she’d done had been lining up ducks to make this happen. I couldn’t even process that kind of scheming, but knowing that any of our interactions could have been subtly shaded to make me do or think a specific thing was…unsettling.
In the end though, we’d come out ahead. I was going to net a large windfall of stats from all this, and she’d come to protect me when I needed it. As much as I resented some of her nonsense, seeing her there in front of me when the enemy gods had arrived was the most relieved and safe I’d felt in a long time.
This was the side of her that my grandmother saw, the one that pushed her to defend the erratic goddess even when she did something inexcusable, and I kind of got it. Black Sorrow was condescending, ruthless, and manipulative…but she cared. About all of us. I could see that. Even the Red Revenant held a special place in her heart. Given how easily she’d manipulated us into baiting out Raxus, I didn’t believe that she couldn’t have killed him if she’d been really trying, not with such a long time to do it and when he had such an obvious blind spot for her.
My grandmother’s “death” had damaged their relationship, though I had no idea if it was the only factor. Now that they’d been angry for so long, I wasn’t sure they knew how to make peace. Or rather, that she did.
Mom had told me privately that she hadn’t seen her grandfather this lively in a long time. Being here with his wife, even as the object of her ire, was clearly a joy to him. Watching them together, I felt my heart ache. I imagined that was me and Callie. Imagine watching her look at me with that kind of tentative animosity.
Not that it wasn’t warranted. The Revenant had known their daughter was alive and kept it from her. I wondered if she was the same person she had been back then though. Black Sorrow was erratic and vicious when provoked, but would she really have killed us all? Would she have killed the father of her own granddaughter? Or had she changed after so long without my grandmother?
Losing a child would make anyone different. Was this a completely new version of Black Sorrow? One who had mellowed after losing everything? I knew from interacting with the Lady that gods COULD change.
“Shane?” my mother said worriedly. “You ok?”
Callie reached over to squeeze my hand. “He’s fine. He just gets lost in his head sometimes. He’s always been more introspective than most people give him credit for.”
“Translation, he has the attention span of a gnat,” said Benny with a snicker.
“Shouldn’t you be training with Sebastian?” I asked vindictively. “Do you really have time for all this socializing? You’re going to need to put in the work to hit D-rank before the succession war, you know.”
He glared at me. “Shut up, I’m working on it. Don’t try to change the subject.”
“Speaking of problems I’m working on,” I turned to Jessie. “I have some good news for you. Callie and I did a bit of trial and error, and it seems like it’s finally time. No rush, but whenever you’re ready, I can finally do it. I can bring your brother back.”
Jessie froze, her fork halfway to her mouth. Her girlfriend, Alyssa (Tasha’s daughter and a D-rank dryad) shot her a concerned glance, but Jessie just stared at me. “It’s…time? You can really do it?” She shot a look at Callie. “And what about…other people?” My wife winced, averting her eyes, and I frowned at her questioningly as I felt a pulse of guilt through the bond.
“That’s not…” she said slowly. “I don’t want to steal focus. We still have to bring back Alan, and Perit later on, I’d love to see Batty again, but-”
“But nothing,” I said as I realized what she’d been thinking about. “Of course we can bring him back. I’m just sorry he missed the wedding. I’m sure he’d have liked to be there for the ceremony.”
Attic Bat had been one of Callie’s oldest friends. When she’d run away from home at sixteen, he’d taken her ion and kept her safe. He was murdered by the same person who’d killed Jessie’s brother, a traitorous serial killer named Stricture who he’d been helping us try to catch.
Honestly I’d almost forgotten him. While he’d been a huge part of Callie’s life, he’d died before I got a chance to meet him. I honestly felt like an asshole for not remembering, but we’d been through a LOT since then, and his death hadn’t been as impactful for me as it had for Callie. She must have been hiding it from me too, because I hadn’t picked it up through the bond. How deeply had she buried that?
I brought her hand up to my mouth, kissing it gently as I smiled at her. Among family I didn’t bother with the mask, not with actual gods here. “We can arrange yours at the same time as Jessie’s, a scroll for each of you. I just so happen to have exactly two in reserve for emergencies.”
My mother beamed at me. “See, my boy is the sweetest. He gets that from his father. Eli used to do romantic things for me all the time when we were younger.”
I gaped at her in open disbelief. To my surprise, Zeke nodded. “She’s right. They were almost as disgustingly sweet as you two are. I used to mock him about it mercilessly. Now that everything is settled and he’s meeting back up with us…” he smirked. “I’m looking forward to seeing how miserable Sasha is going to make him forcing him to make up for your childhood.”
She smiled sweetly. “Don’t be silly, I would never make my husband miserable. If he feels that he has some things to make up for and decides to put in the effort to make it up to our family, I support him in that course of action. If he doesn’t…well, people change their minds.”
Her glance at me was a bit guilty, and I could tell she wanted to force dad to make everything he had done up to me. The thing was, I wasn’t sure that was even possible, and even if it was…I’d moved on. I still wasn’t happy with how he’d handled things, but I could see where he was coming from, and I knew how complicated the situation had been.
I also knew that she was going to feel guilty if she didn’t, since she blamed herself every bit as much as him. I had come a long way in my relationship with my mother, and in some ways I thought that not holding it against her made it WORSE for her. I shook off the various dramatic issues surfacing after so long and glanced at my great grandparents, who were sitting in silence, eating and glancing at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking.
Smiling, I dug into my food. The steak was excellent, the company was good, and for the first time in a long time, I felt…whole. We’d killed a god, I was with my whole family (minus my dad, but I wasn’t too bothered), I wasn’t under threat of death from any external factions, and I had months before I had to be ready for the succession war.
Not to mention I was finally keeping my word to Jessie, and helping my wife get over a devastating loss at the same time. Especially after seeing the darkness and depression in the dungeon, I couldn’t help but appreciate what I had and how lucky I was to have it.
After everyone finished eating, my grandmother convinced her parents to stay for dessert, but eventually Black Sorrow got pissed at the Revenant again and almost attacked him, so we called the family dinner a tentative success and she sent them on their way. Then we all headed over to the inn.
The next day we met with the others to say goodbye. Elena was staying home with her husband and kids, though she insisted we stop in to say hi to Simon, and I left him one of my scrolls for the day just in case he needed something.
Once we said our goodbyes, we brought most of them along with us. Ray, Desria, Cavallo, Chess, and of course, Bella, all came with us. The Acheron was surprisingly capable of containing so many of our people, and it wasn’t even that crowded. There were whole sections of the ship I hadn’t even seen yet.
We found an out of the way spot and Callie and Jessie made their wishes. They paid me a C-rank chit each for the resurrections, and they went surprisingly smoothly. After that, we officially left Rackham space and set our course for the Heirworld. In just a few short months, the final fight over future of the WCP would begin. But hey, no pressure.
Comments
Malcolm Tent
I considered devoting a chapter to the resurrections, but decided against it for a few reasons. For one, while important to an extent both of them are fairly low level. It felt like an underwhelming ending note compared to the conversations with the gods. Secondly I wanted to introduce Alan and Batty after they'd had time to adjust, because I felt like doing a mini arc about their struggle with being back would be more attention than they warranted at this point in the story. This is the end of volume 13, so I wanted to save that for the beginning of the next book. As for the gods, that was kind of the point. It was just a normal family dinner. Despite them being terrifying forces of nature they're also just people, which is what I most wanted to hilight here.
Matija Milošević
I can't help but feel like this chapter is super rushed. Like...the entire conversation with 2 gods was two paragraphs? And did I miss something about resurrections? While Jessie is not exactly a focus, a resurrection of her brother is a big deal, yet it completely lacks any impact. Not to mention Callie's friend. I usually like the pacing of this work but this just completely missed emotional mark, at least for me personally.
Malcolm Tent
Takes a lot of stats. But his full effort right now goes for about a C-rank chit.
LadyLark
C rank chits? Did the wish price change at some point? I thought it was supposed to be expensive to do?
GeneralTusk
Feel a bit cheated we didn't see the resurrections
CringeWorthyStudios
We found an out of the way spot and Callie and Jessie made their wishes. They paid me a C-rank chit each for the resurrections, and they went surprisingly smoothly. After that, we officially left Rackham space and set our course for the Heirworld. In just a few short months, the final fight over future of the WCP would begin. But hey, no pressure. > and we don’t get to actually see the reunions? For shame! (Or maybe For Shane! 🤣) I’ve been looking forward to that for ages. Thanks for the chapter!
Anime Problem
I can only imagine how manic a chapter from Black Sorrows perspective would be it'd also be interesting to see if Shane could heal some of her worse traits that are outside her desires with an S ranked Genesis burst or something significantly stronger. God the more i think about the potential interactions of Shane and the more doting side of black sorrow and how disturbing that'd be for him the funnier it gets. Red Revenant himself from what I can see would never develop those more grandfatherly or great grandfatherly doting for shane they seem more like they'd get along in a more informally friendly way at least from what we've seen of him more interested in each others hobbies and abilities than anything truly familial.
