Malcolm Tent
patreon
Wish upon the Stars chapter 769
🕑 Added 2024-12-03 00:45:20 +0000 UTCAfter I finished training with Bella, I headed into the Heart and got some sleep. Specifically, I hit the hot tub, and I deeply enjoyed the effects of the soak, especially when I realized Chess had filled the tub with a high end rejuvenation potion of some sort. Even without Archie pumping extra green into me I felt relaxed and completely at peace as I finished my soak and headed to bed, and I woke up completely refreshed.
Sitting up, I looked out the window, noting that the sun wasn’t even up yet. I almost fell out of my bed when I noticed a shadowy form mostly hidden by the gloom, and let out a relieved laugh when I realized it was a form of ACTUAL shadows.
My wife rolled over in annoyance, raising an eyebrow at me as she sat up with a yawn. “Must you ruin the best sleep I’ve had in months?”
“Well excuse me for being freaked out that a person was in my bed who wasn’t there when I fell asleep. In almost any other circumstances I’m sure you’d prefer I be upset about that.” My tone was bland as I slumped back down next to her, letting her cuddle up to my side. “To what do I owe this visit? Not that I don’t love waking up next to you in the morning.”
She pointed out the window. “I’m not sure what the hell THIS is, but I don’t think I’d call it morning. Anyway, I have the day off, and so do you.”
“I do?” I asked in amusement. “I wasn’t aware.”
“Well, you can be a little dim,” she said sympathetically. “I’ve come to accept it. But yes, you’ll have the day off. Specifically, you’ll be taking me out for a day on the town. I have a spare mask and a full body outfit to wear so people don’t realize I’m a shadow clone. Unless you have something better to do?”
I smiled at her softly. “Better than spend the day with you? I can’t think of anything that fits the bill. I assume you know where you want to go?”
Callie was someone I knew better than anyone. She loved to make plans, do research, and generally prepare for any eventuality. There was no way she’d proposed a date around here without finding a dozen places she wanted to see.
“I was thinking we could visit Dosketsk,” she said enthusiastically. “It’s a former temple complex from a defunct religion that predates the terraforming of this planet. The historical society excavated it a few centuries ago and after they’d checked everything out, they sold it off to a local Marquis. It’s been repurposed into a spa and resort town.”
I hummed with interest. “That…actually does sound kind of cool. Where exactly IS Dosketsk?”
“North pole,” she said bluntly. “They found it under a glacier. Why? Is the big bad Mephistopheles afraid of a little cold weather?”
I just laughed. She knew I preferred the cold. I usually kept my room at about sixty. Giving her a quick kiss, I got out of bed, changing into my armor and slipping my mask on. “So, we heading out, or what?”
Laughing, she bounced out of bed, retrieving a mask and a well fitted black outfit from my paired ring and slipping them on. Sure enough, with gloves, a long shirt, pants, and a mask on it was pretty much impossible to tell that she was a shadow clone. Even her hair wasn’t a giveaway, given the variety of colors you could find in Ascendant styling.
Callie, of course, insisted on stopping to speak to Elena, say hi to Simon, talk to Bella, and just generally pump everyone involved in my current day to day for information. I had to basically drag her away, though she made plans with Elena for later in the week.
After that it took us about an hour to reach Dosketsk, and we ran the entire way, just enjoying each other’s company. Being able to speak mentally at top speed was pretty convenient for a brisk run. Finally, we crested over a particularly large snow covered hill and emerged over a huge valley.
“It’s…beautiful,” Callie said in a hushed voice. I agreed with her too, it WAS beautiful. We’d made it hear just as the sun was rising, and the light coming over the snow fields had struck the crystal walls of the buildings that made up Dosketsk.
The light bounced around inside the faceted surfaces of all the structures, redoubling and warping and shifting in a way that was almost alive. Inside the shimmering rainbows of color I could see the silhouettes of animals dancing and celebrating, people building villages, angels descending from on high.
A million scenes of historical and mythological significance rioted through the crystal too fast to even really capture, creating an almost subconscious feeling of historical awe as they engraved themselves into the depths of my consciousness.
“Milady,” I said, offering her my elbow. “Shall we?”
“Race you down, there,” she chirped, then stuck a foot in front of me and shoved. I yelped as I went tail over teakettle down the snowy hill, barely noticing Callie blurring past me. I scrambled to try to regain my feet and managed, coming to a stumbling stop at the bottom where my wife was waiting smugly. “I win, now you have to do whatever I say.”
I growled at her as I tried to shake snow from my armor. “First of all,” I said waspishly. “I didn’t agree to a race. Second of all I didn’t BET anything, and third of all I ALREADY do basically whatever you say.”
“That’s true,” she said with a nod. “You are kind of a pushover. Now, why don’t we head in and start our date.” She offered me her elbow cheekily. “Milord.”
Laughing, I looped my arm in hers, letting her drag me into the city. It felt…nice. Being with her like this for the first time since I’d come to Rackham. “So, you get a chance to test out the new forms yet?” I asked her as we walked.
“Yeah, the mud thing is really neat,” she chuckled. “I couldn’t make a crazy lifespring earth magic hideout like you did, but I did put together a pretty nice little cabin behind your grandmother’s winter palace.”
“Winter palace?” I asked incredulously. “Where the hell ARE you guys? I assumed you’d be on the Necromedes.”
She waggled a hand. “We’ve been traveling a lot. If I didn’t know better, I’d think your grandmother is giving us a tour of potential allied forces for after your mission is over. We’ve made some inroads with the pavilion on several planets, and once you get finished I wouldn’t be shocked if she had you do followup trips to try to collect a few more allies before the start of the competition.”
“That’s pretty sneaky, and I like it,” I laughed. “It’ll certainly help with our recruitment tour on the way to the candidate selection. So, you liked Agares, how about Dantalion? Pretty fucking amazing, right?”
“Honestly…it’s annoying,” she said with a shrug. “I tested it out. Anything above C-rank I can’t get much out of, and the stuff I could required lots of time and attention to gather anything meaningful. IN combat it’s kind of useful in that it lets me predict people’s movements to an extent, but honestly it’s a lot of very detailed nonsense I have to sift through.”
That was fair. “I didn’t love it to start either. It’s amazing for casing an area though, or for finding things out about people. Hell, probably interrogation too, considering it lets me detect lies and decipher body language.”
I actually hadn’t considered using it for interrogating people, but thinking about it like that gave me a bunch more ideas.
“What about your last form?” she asked with interest. “You have any ideas?”
I did have a few, but before I could mention then, I felt a slight buzz in my head. A familiar buzz. Danger Sense. I came to a stop, careful not to look around. Shifting myself in Dantalion briefly, I extended my senses around us before shutting it down. “I don’t,” I said lightly. “I was thinking of taking a page out of our old friend Spencer’s books. This situation reminds me a lot of the one we were in when we first met him.”
Callie, to her credit, didn’t freeze. She took that in stride, acknowledging the hint about Camden’s insane cousin and moving on.
I could have mentally messaged her through the bond, but my pause had necessitated some kind of outward reason, so I’d made an offhand comment. While I’d been talking though, I’d flexed my will, activating Beelzebub and Bael. It took some doing to manifest my copies in stealth, but I managed, and then sent them off to circle around the people following us.
Reaching for Callie, I pushed Bael around us both, the two of us vanishing from the sight of the people following. A quick use of Double Trouble was enough to get us clear before the attack that had been launched as we vanished actually hit us.
“Well, that seems excessive,” I said in disapproval. “Since when is attempted murder an appropriate response to stealth?”
She glanced uneasily at the purple ghost fire flickering on the ground. “Not sure, any idea what they want with you? They certainly seem a bit upset.”
I grimaced. I did know what they wanted. Dantalion aggregated data, and the longer you spent on a target the deeper I could dig. Some of these guys had been exposed to Dantalion before, and I recognized their profiles in my head. “Hypothetically I might have helped a friend steal a necklace from them. Not sure how the hell they caught me though, my heist was flawless.”
Ray wouldn’t turn on me, and if this was a bunch of high rankers chasing me down I was screwed with no way out, so my only real option was that I’d made a mistake. I wasn’t sure how or when, but it was over and done with now. At this point I just needed to manage things. I triggered Piece of Mind, inserting the parallel into one of the stealthed clones.
Dropping Bael with that particular duplicate, I stepped out in the street. “Excuse me,” I called pleasantly. “I was hoping to speak to whoever is in charge here.”
There was a brief delay, and then a man appeared. Rangy and sallow, he had a tricorn hat on over a bandanna and a thick leather coat with way too many buckles. “Return the stone,” he said bluntly.
“Don’t have it,” I responded just as candidly. “A client hired me to steal it. The priesthood of Raxus has it now. Sorry.” Which was true, technically, it just left any hint of connection to Ray in the abstract.
He glowered at me. “You will pay,” he said after a brief pause.
“Like literally or like-” there was a roar as some kind of explosive charge swallowed the clone and the ground within about a hundred feet of it. By the time it vanished, there was a smouldering crater in the ground where the other me had been standing.
I winced. “Guess it was a figurative payment structure,” I told Callie wryly. “I’ll be honest, I’m relieved. Most of my funds are NOT liquid.”
“Honey,” said my wife sweetly. “Shut up. And after we finish taking care of these we’re going to have a discussion about breaking and entering, since it clearly isn’t something that bothers you. Stealing is wrong.”
“If it helps, it was more of a trade,” I pointed out. “But yeah, we can deal with that later. Until then, we can take care of all these assholes. Hope you brought your A game love, because they came out here in force. It’s gonna be a hell of a fight.”
Comments
CamChains
tftc
Michelle Ray
Thanks for the chapter! 💚
Kevin McGuire
As the Fat Electrician says it's Strategically Transferring Equipment to an Alternate Location
CringeWorthyStudios
Lmao, *Callie* of all people is getting on Shane’s case for, ah, creatively repurposing assets? Hypocritical little loot goblin. 😅 Thanks for the chapter!
