Malcolm Tent
patreon
Wish upon the Stars chapter 854
🕑 Added 2025-03-31 23:34:21 +0000 UTCCarmichael took a bit to get Argaunt settled in, and in the meantime, we were all given rooms to stay in. The rooms were BIG. Like, each individual one was an apartment sized chamber. Callie and I were given a huge two story condo looking space with an open concept kitchen. We could see the second floor balcony from the mostly empty living room, and the wall opposite that was made of windows, exposing a view of the rest of Dawnrend, and even the island beyond it.
Most of the view was hidden by the slowly descending clouds, the entire sky a mass of black water, but the city was still a sight, even if it was fairly ugly at first glance.
The more we looked, the more interesting and complex the building designs looked, and the more we could spot the traceries of patterns across the surfaces, even from this distance. I walked over and settled on a stylish but comfortable couch with a sigh.
I had to admire the apartment. They’d really gone all out. Dark marble floors, they’d laid down a thick area rug in the center of the couches. Between the den area and the window, a pair of glass sheets rose from the ground, connecting to a sort of water enclosure, with the water flowing down one sheet and back up the other. Fish swam in the enclosure, which appeared to be floating above the floor. Normal fish, not terrifying evil fish.
We were the last ones to get a room, and it had taken long enough that there was a sharp knock at the door within minutes of me sitting down. I’d taken off my mask, and I shot my wife a pleading look as I groaned in dissatisfaction at the idea of getting up.
“You’re so dramatic,” she sighed in amusement as she rolled her eyes. “You’re lucky you’re cute and can cook.”
I smirked at her as she headed to the door, checking through the peephole before pulling it open. “Carmichael, hey. Come on in. Guessing you’re here to fill us in on the inner circle?” We’d been waiting for this conversation, so his arrival wasn’t much of a surprise.
“I am,” he nodded. “I introduced Argaunt to a guide, set him up with a meeting with the cloak to get some more detailed information, and then headed here. You’ll need to know what you’re going up against before things go bad. Best case scenario is that we can make a deal to get to the exit, but I wouldn’t count on it. Skartaris is pretty much hitching his whole wagon to the void at this point, and letting you go would be stupid.”
I shrugged. “Nothing is ever that easy. We’ve been preparing for a fight since we showed up. We’re looking at around two to one odds, and there are steps we can take to counter that. Mostly I’m feeling rushed to get the hell out of this place before that water touches the ground. I can’t imagine that’ll be something we want to be here for.”
“Confirmed,” Callie said bluntly. “We absolutely do NOT want that. Actually, I think establishing my racial trait before we leave would be best. My connection with the void…it worries me. Even if we won’t be here when the shallow is complete, I want to eliminate it as quickly as possible.”
I nodded. “I’m almost done. I’ve been working on it the whole time, and I’m putting a lot into it. The staff evolving was enough to completely overhaul the whole project, so I had to start over, but it’s worth it. You’ll see. For now, let’s focus on what we need to know. Alright Carmichael, give us the details.”
He nodded. “The inner circle are the ten most powerful generals under Skartaris,” he said after a brief pause. It seemed like he was thinking about the best order to do things in. “They have wildly varying abilities, skills, and temperaments. Each of them deals with some major aspect of the Shoals.”
“Waylon Dreft is the Master of Currency. The minting of the scales and presumably the bone coins are his domain.” He grimaced. “It’s safe to say he’s involved with the void. I can’t imagine how he could have avoided that interaction, given his duties, and he’s a DEEPLY unpleasant person. More accurately, he’s a deeply unpleasant DRAGON, albeit a relatively weak variant.”
I blinked at him. “Wait…he’s a dragon? Like…a transformed beast? That’s super rare though, isn’t it? Most beasts become a more powerful version of their animal form when they rank up, don’t they?”
“Yes,” he agreed. “And dragons are even less likely to assume human form. They’re incredibly prideful and powerful creatures. Waylon isn’t a purebred dragon though. More accurately, he’s a dragon ANT. Don’t ask me why that’s a thing, I couldn’t say. Regardless, he maintains racial advantages after taking human shape, and he’s dangerous.
“Next we have Alanna Rein, the current Mistress of Inquiry,” he looked uneasy. “She’s scary. She’s got a Legendary Sword Skill. She’s in charge of the Mistwardens as a whole. She MIGHT not be a Skartaris sympathizer. I’ve never been able to pin down exactly who she works for, but she’s a very dangerous combatant and a highly respected military officer. If we can get her on our side it would be a HUGE win.”
I was impressed, and said so. “How many people with Legendary Skills do you think there are in here?” Anyone who had a Legendary Skill, according to Carmichael, had a Chronicle, though the inverse was obviously not true.
“No more than two or three,” he assured me. “If it wasn’t rare, I wouldn’t be considered so dangerous. I don’t have confirmation of anyone else. Alanna is just extremely open about her sword proficiency. Third is Crell Preost. He’s the Master of Ceremonies, responsible for any large gatherings, INCLUDING the court. His ability is called Doubt.”
I blinked at him. “What…what does that do?”
“Basically, he can convince people their abilities don’t work,” he said with a grimace. “He uses flawed logic to point out holes in your techniques and Skills, and if you buy into it, they stop working.”
“That’s…so fucking broken,” I said in an appaled voice. Most techniques were based on stories people told themselves. If you could take them apart by poking holes, especially if you had some way to SEE what those stories were, you could disable most Ascendants. Granted, my case would probably be an exception. The existence of my Library means that my techniques are recorded and perfected. Assuming he could FIND a flaw, I still wouldn’t question my tome, because I had perfected and engraved it in my mind.
The issue there was that I was a D-ranker, and this guy was a C-ranker. Which meant that we’d need one of our C-rankers to counter him. He was at the peak of his rank, not someone I’d be able to keep up with even if I used all my tricks. I might be able to finish him off if they pinned him down, but since I wasn’t sure they COULD with a power like that.
It was one of those abilities like moment chop that was just extremely well suited to dealing with ninety nine percent of people and luckily not me. One of the benefits of spreading myself so wide, I had counters for most things.
“I’m guessing you’re introducing them in order of importance. Do you know if there are any we DON’T need to worry about?” He couldn’t confirm whether those three were on our side, but some of the inner circle had to be demonstrably in the tower’s corner, otherwise they wouldn’t have the influence they did.
He nodded. “Master of Martial Force Carmine Zevka and Mistress of Soothing Whispers Delilah Scorz. Alanna is in control of the military, and Carmine runs the arenas and duelling houses, as well as controlling the mercenary guilds. Delilah is the tower’s spy mistress. She’s better informed than anyone in the Shoals. The Master of Medicine, Zellman Drexel, is neutral, and will help anyone he thinks needs it. We can probably count on him for this, considering what’s coming.”
He listed the other five, and they all had different jobs. Stuff like logistics, sewage, and a bunch of other pretty underwhelming sounding stuff. When he finished, he sighed. “We don’t know which of them is the boss, like I said. A lot of people assume it’s one of the big three. Carmine and Delilah are unlikely because they’re so up front about their allegiance to the tower. But it might be a double bluff. Or the boss could be Drevan Swull, the Master of City Planning for all we know.”
Despite that last statement, he didn’t sound convinced by that one. I got the impression he agreed with the assumption that the boss was probably one of the top three. Or rather, one of the latter two. The Dragon Ant seemed unlikely, based on what he’d said about him.
Speaking of whom, I was really interested in meeting him. Not to fight, but because I didn’t think I’d ever met a human form beast before. I knew that racial traits were somehow related to them, at least based on my own calculations, and Carmichael’s comment about advantages reaffirmed that, but if I could meet one, it might help with my research.
“Are there any other human form beasts in the Shoals?” I asked him after a minute. “Like…ones who are on our side?”
He nodded. “One of the tower C-rankers used to be an bull, why?”
“Can I meet him?” I was getting excited now. If I could study a humanized beast I was sure Callie’s racial trait would take huge leaps forward. Racial traits, at least the ones I’d seen, started human and then added the nature of monsters or other entities. I had assumed, based on my experience with the Wendigos, that they added recursion too, but knowing what I did now, I suspected the Wendigo spring had actually been pouring Wendigo MYTHOLOGY into people.
He shrugged. “I mean, Farren isn’t exactly a people person, but sure, I don’t see why not. I can set that up. He’s here for the conclave anyway, which starts in a few days, by the way. He’s probably here early, so I’ll reach out.”
“Thanks,” I told him gratefully. “How are Dez, Caladwen, and your wife? Did you get in touch with them?”
He smiled gratefully. “They’re on the way now. I had them tag along with a friend who was heading here, so they’re safe until they arrive. I can’t thank you enough for helping Dez. I don’t want my family stuck in this hellscape.”
I grimaced. “I’d rather not leave anyone, but at this point, I’m more worried about surviving. I’m hoping that once the gods find out about the Shallow they’ll send someone in to clean it out and hopefully help the locals. I assume that Skartaris won’t let the Void Children just massacre all of them right away?”
He shook his head. “Not likely. The population are his source of income and the foundation of his rule. He wouldn’t sign off on killing them until the last minute, when he’s ready to leave.”
That tracked with what I knew of Ascendants too. He’d probably stage some grand sacrifice so he could harvest all the renown. We continued talking for a while, Carmichael filling us in on some of the inner workings of the city, before he finally said his goodbyes and left.
After that, Callie stood up, grabbed my hand, and pulled me to my feet. “Now, with that out of the way, I believe I’m owed some alone time.” She pulled me in for a kiss, and I relaxed as I held her against me. Tomorrow we could start our planning. For now, I just wanted some peace and quiet.
