Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 859
🕑 Added 2025-04-08 00:36:29 +0000 UTCFive days went by in a blur. Forty more scrolls put me at ninety two, just one day short of a hundred (not counting the three emergency scrolls my friends kept on hand), and I wasn’t any less nervous because of the excess. Bethy had been working with Callie and I the whole time, and we’d mostly come up with a stable method of training we were PRETTY sure would help.
Which was what we were doing now. Stacking our influence as we tried to prepare for the conclave. It was starting in about a two and a half hours (for us, there were people there already, but we weren’t needed until the majority got there) and we wanted her to be in the best possible condition for this fight. I had no clue what this werewolf might have up his sleeves, and I wasn’t worried about her losing, but if she lost control and started eating people the C-rankers would have to stop her, and that might be dangerous, assuming she didn’t just escape.
“Alright, are you sure you’re good for the next round?” I asked her worriedly. Bethy looked…bad. Hair matted, face soaked with sweat, and her ever present sparkle was completely missing. She looked grim and determined, which was a side I knew she HAD, but didn’t make it less unsettling to see.
Callie seemed to feel the same. “I think that’s enough Bethy,” she assured her. “We’ve been chipping away at your bloodlust for almost a week now. It’s just one fight.”
Bethy shook her head. “Again,” she croaked hoarsely. “We don’t know what he can do. It’s too dangerous to take chances.” Her face looked gaunt and sallow. The process we’d been using definitely wasn’t healthy. We’d been burning her bloodline away bits at a time and then using the heretic flame to reinforce the stripped spots. Zagan helped her regenerate, but there was some loss, and we’d done more than a few rounds.
The thing was, it seemed to be working. It wasn’t really protecting the areas of stripped bloodline so much as being consumed, but Bethy’s bloodline seemed to actively devour the heretic flame. It was integrating little bits of it into the sections that were restored.
What that actually MEANT I had no idea. I knew that you could alter racial traits, hell the werewolf we were preparing Bethy to fight had done it. It wasn’t EASY exactly, but while not necessarily god level, Callie and I had tricks other people our level didn’t come close to.
Taking a deep breath, I held my hands out. Genesis Burst. I poured the power into her, and Bethy threw back her head and screamed. Grimacing, Callie put her hands on our friend’s shoulders and surged blue black heretic fire into her. Archie trilled, spreading his wings and exploding into a Life Nova that fueled all three of us.
The energy synergized well with Zagan, and it helped me keep up my output. There was an element of Zagan in the heretic flame too, though it changed the composition a bit. I could swear her flames looked a bit more greenish under Archie’s influence.
After ten more minutes (which seemed like hours) we stopped, staggering away to sit down, taking deep breaths.
“Do you think we cut it a bit close?” I panted. “We only have a few hours to rest before we have to be there.”
My sister, looking worried, stepped forward to help Bethy up. She and Gabe were standing by with Dayna. I could see on their faces that they wished they could feed her to help her recover, but if she bit anyone who wasn’t a thrall it would cause agonizing pain as the stats were ripped from the body.
“It should be fine,” she assured me. “Bethy recovers incredibly quickly as long as she has someone to feed on. Dayna is strong, and she should be in fighting shape within the hour.” She glanced at the vampire with concern. “Is this going to be a regular thing? I mean, you can actually FIX her by doing this, right?”
I shrugged. “I mean…a bit. It’s working a little better than the wishes. At this rate we could modify her trait within a few months, provided it doesn’t start to adapt to the changes. At the moment it’s sucking up the heretic flame like a sponge, but the actual changes are VERY minimal. If I had to guess Lark’s mythology is infused into her through the Domain.”
Which was frustrating, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I still didn’t know exactly where Domains fit into the whole soul body dynamic when it came to racial traits. I knew that animals didn’t have them, but I wasn’t sure how they impacted the way the Path connected body and soul. A lot of the way racial traits worked was counterintuitive, and seemed to have been made to compensate for the restrictions humans had that beasts didn’t.
Of course, while it might seem at first glance that beasts had it easier than people, that was hardly the case. The percentage of humans competing for renown was infinitesimal, and it got smaller the higher up you went. With beasts, every single animal was competition for the renown of your species.
Killing other beasts and consuming them helped spread your legend, but beyond that, based on the way that stats were integrated into the bodies of animals, I was pretty sure they might be able to get stronger by eating other beasts. Which meant you had to worry about someone eating you for your renown at any time.
The elixir cap people had was based on soul strength, and since beasts had their soul and body (or at least stats) combined from day one, I doubted it was there. Of course, humans had their own advantages. Communication and systems of information dispersal, for one. I wondered if that had anything to do with why some beasts took human form.
I was distracting myself again. I focused on Bethy. “I’m going to keep trying. Don’t misunderstand. I just don’t want you guys thinking this is a tomorrow fix. It’ll be months if not years before Bethy will see any changes to her trait, if she does at all.”
The exhausted vampire shot me a heartbreakingly bright smile. “It’s ok, Shane. I know how hard you’re working to help me. It means a lot. This is why we’re besties! Come here and give me a hug!” She threw her arms out, stepping forward to hug me, and I dodged back in horror, trying to avoid her sweaty embrace.
“Gross, Bethy you’re covered in grime! Don’t get my armor all sweaty!” Summoning some energy from deep within herself, she darted after me, cackling like a madwoman. I saw my wife snickering behind her hand and dove over her shoulder, taking refuge behind her much smaller form.
She gasped. “TRAITOR!” Then she wheeled on Bethy. “Bethany Lark, if you get my new costume all sweaty two hours before a big event, you will PAY. I’ll make you sit with me and sort through Celine’s economic impact reports. And I’ll QUIZ you.”
The maniacal vampire froze, reeling back in horror. “What?” She wailed. “But that’s BORING! Celine’s writing is SO flowery. It’s like reading math based poetry. Anything but that!”
I wasn’t aware we even GOT economic impact statements from Celine. I shot my wife a pulse of gratitude through the bond, and she just rolled her eyes. Bethy, pouting but subdued, turned and strode out of the room, head held high. Her adoring fans smirked and waved goodbye as they followed her out.
“I can’t believe that worked,” I marveled at my wife. “You made BETHY behave.”
She blew on her nails, buffing them against her cloak. “What can I say? She knows who’s really in charge in this family.”
“My grandmother,” I said dryly. Now it was Callie’s turn to pout, but it quickly turned into a squeal of surprise as I tossed her over my shoulder. “Now let’s go get cleaned up. We have to look presentable for this conclave.”
We headed back to our rooms, each taking a shower (an hour a piece) and then spent the last thirty minutes relaxing together before meeting up with everyone else.
Carmichael was waiting for us in the hallway outside our rooms. “Alright, are you all ready?” He asked worriedly. “I have to admit, I’m pretty worried about this fight. I get the feeling it won’t be as easy as you all seem to think.”
“You might be right,” I admitted. Everyone turned to stare at me in surprise. “What? I’ve been trying to cut back on my instinctive arrogance. Bethy is scary, but she’s not operating unrestricted. Whoever this guy is has the backing of a deity. Admittedly, the whole werewolf vs. vampire thing is actually pretty cool, but there are a lot of species of werewolf, and I’ve seen a few scary ones. This will be a tough fight, even for Bethy. That’s why we put so much effort into purifying and reinforcing her bloodline. The resistance to the bloodlust will let her tap into her power more deeply.”
Her fight with me had stretched her limits, but there had been some purification after, while it had mostly faded, combined with all our work this last week it should be enough to let her put in some serious effort. Her fight with Dayna had been WAY beyond what she’d done against me. It showed how much stronger she could be when she wasn’t holding back.
Dayne herself nodded. “I’ve fought you both. I believe you to be stronger, but don’t underestimate Dastan. The Hound of Verdyn is a dangerous foe. Don’t take this battle lightly. Lady Bethy needs to be in top form. No holding back.”
We all glanced at our excitable vampire friend, and she just stared back innocently. “What? I always take things seriously. Except when I don’t. That happens sometimes. But this doesn’t seem like one of those times. I bet I’ll be completely focused.”
“Why are you WAGERING on that like it’s out of your control?” snapped my sister. “Just don’t mess around!”
Bethy nodded solemnly. “For sure. I’ll definitely probably do that. I think.”
“Alright,” I said with a laugh. “Bethy stop taunting my sister, Chelsea you know better than to expect a straight answer about something like that from her. Bethy comes through when it matters, we have to trust her.”
Chelsea had been winding up to argue, but at the last sentence, she froze. She glanced at Bethy, bit her lip, and then nodded. Gabe put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a warm smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right there with you. If anything goes wrong, we can step in instantly. No D-ranker in the world stands a chance against all three of us. And that’s only if we beat Abel and Shane there.”
“Which you definitely won’t,” Abel said conversationally. “It’s not even on the table. I would never miss the chance to save her life. Imagine it, every time she tries to pretend she’s forgotten my name, I can just be like ‘Well I bet you remembered it when I was saving your life’.”
Bethy recoiled. “What? That’s not…that’s never going to happen. Stop it.” She glared at him. “I don’t need your help Alice, I’m going to totally win this and you’re going to be like ‘Oh my gods, Bethy is so cool, I don’t even care if she can’t remember my dumb name, she’s the best in the world’. That’s you. That’s what you’ll sound like.”
I shared a smirk with my sister as we watched Bethy officially shift from whimsical to focused. Apparently the idea of owing Abel her life was literally a fate worse than death. As we walked towards the conclave, Abel continued needling her, earning waspish replies from the vampire, and the rest of us just grinned and followed behind. Sometimes a little healthy rivalry was the best motivation.
Comments
Malcolm Tent
They have sex most nights, and it's been semi mentioned once or twice, but I don't bring it up because Amazon readers don't usually respond well. Savage Awakening is one of my favorites and people complain a lot about all the sex mentions so I just avoid it. The wholesome romance thing plays better with my reader base for WUTS lol. But they flirt with each other and it's been mentioned that they sleep together. Cass had a little comedy scene where she caught Callie coming out of Shane's room and questioned it, which I thought was pretty funny lol.
michael stitcher
So I have to ask, why thr sexless marriage? You don't even fade ro black. They were lovey dovey and attracted to each other and now they barely touch even when showering and going off to a battle against overwhelming odds... the intimacy of thought and then nothing physical is just really jarring and breaks the story coherence with characters so bonded together.
