Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 623
🕑 Added 2024-05-10 23:54:14 +0000 UTCSeven wishes. Two of the same type as last time, luck entering and getting out, and five serving a variety of purposes from information gathering to defense. Without any overarching info, they had to go with vague language like ‘best possible position to overhear important information’ and ‘luckiest position for witnessing nefarious actions’.
Mom and Zeke must have coached them, because there were quite a few wishes that seemed worded to get around the weakness my power had to secrets by explotioting chance and probability in a vague enough way that it minimized cost.
“So…” I asked as we stood across the road from the bar. “Anyone have any clue what they’re going to ask us to do?”
Abel shrugged. “Probably rob some people, same as they had the others do to draw attention.”
“You mean the ones they hired us to murder and decapitate?” I said bluntly. “Those others? Because I’ll be honest, that comparison does not fill me with confidence.”
“That’s fair.” He admitted. “But then, we’re not them. We don’t trust Griff, and between our own abilities and quite a few preparations they have no legitimate way of countering we’re as safe as we can be in this situation. If shit goes south, we bail.”
Callie nodded. “He’s right. Between me, you, Abel, Chelsea, Mel, Gabe, and Bethy, we have some of the most dangerous E-rankers I’ve ever heard of. Vampires and Adamants and Abel, nobody is going to be ready for that. But this is a unique chance to find out what’s coming. They’re DEFINITELY going to take a shot at the conclave, and we’re going to be AT the conclave. This is the best way to ensure our long term safety.”
“I know.” I sighed. “It was my idea. I’m just having second thoughts. Then third thoughts. I was double taking any more, I’d be spinning in circles like a confused dog chasing its tail.”
Abel opened his mouth, probably to make a dig at me related to being dumber than a dog, but at a glare from Callie he shut up, recognizing this wasn’t the time. Or just being scared of my fiancee, she was a pretty scary person when she was pissed.
“Abel, you’re up.” I finally said, gesturing to the door. “Griff thinks you’re the boss, so lead us in. Keep your eyes peeled everyone, this could go bad fast and easy.”
When we stepped inside the bar, I was expecting it to be wall to wall with people. As far as I knew, the entire gang should have been here, but instead, it was just Griff, sitting at a table reading a book, sipping whiskey. When he heard us enter, he looked up with a wide smile. “Kyle, Alice, so glad you could make it. Come, sit.”
He gestured across his table to a bunch of chairs. Not enough for all of us, but three or four. It was obviously some kind of test to see who would sit. Abel, Callie, Mel, and Bethy sat down. Griff scanned them, then nodded slowly.
“So, I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re here?” He said cheerfully. “Well, the rest of the gang are out making a mess, and I need you all to go pick something up for me.” He pulled out a box, pushing it over to reveal a series of small blue gems set into a variety of jewelry. “These are jammers, like mine, and you’ll be wearing them to make the pickup.”
Abel raised an eyebrow. “No offense meant, Griff, but…why us?”
“You mean because you literally just joined?” Griff chuckled. “Well damn, boy, that’s the whole point. New members are less likely to be watched. Of course, if you manage to get caught or turn on us, we just lose a single shipment. Small price to pay to catch a traitor.”
Callie frowned at him. “Not filling me with warm feelings, but fine. What kind of shipment? How is it getting here? Where do we pick it up?”
“Well, it’s about a metric ton of none of your fucking business.” He said bluntly. “But we have it cut up into crates. You go to the address I give you, stick the crates in your rings. You bring them here and drop them off. You don’t ask questions, you don’t open the boxes. If one of them is missing or light, you’ll be joining our old friend Matthew over the bar.”
He pointed over our shoulders, and we turned to see the severed heads we’d brought them mounted up over the liquor shelf, faces all locked in a screaming rictus. Classy. I hid my grimace as I turned back. It helped that they weren’t real heads, but I was really glad we’d wished for them to indistinguishable from real ones, or else we’d have been fucked.
“Ok, damn.” Said Abel, hands up defensively. “We were just trying to get a handle on what we were being asked to do.”
Griff glared at him. “See, that’s the issue. You ain’t being ASKED to do shit. I gave you an order. You’ll follow it or we can test how tough those knuckles of yours really are. I’m not fucking around about this Kyle. Missing a shipment isn’t going to kill me, but it’ll definitely kill YOU. Still, I’d prefer to just avoid the mess completely.”
Abel nodded, and the big man sighed, pulling out a piece of paper. “You have one hour to get the goods and come back. That’s a generous travel time. If there’s traffic, you better figure it the fuck out. Understood?”
He passed the note to Abel, who read it over before slipping it into his coat. “Yeah.” He said solemnly. “We got it. No delays, don’t fuck with the merchandise. I assume this pays? Because I joined a street gang, not a charity.” He held out his hand, eyes hard as he glared Griff down, daring him to counter.
It was a good move. Griff was pushing, possibly to rattle us enough to do something stupid, possibly just to assert dominance, but nobody at Abel’s level was going to take shit for free. He might do what he was told, but money would be his first priority.
Griff smiled, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a coin, flipping it to Abel. I glanced down, confirming it was a D-rank chit. I knew that though it didn’t seem like that much to me, a D-rank chit was serious pay. “One before the job, one after.” He said succinctly. “If you have any more questions, you can mutter them to yourselves bitterly as you get the fuck out of my bar. Your time starts now.”
With a snap, he slammed down an hourglass and Abel cursed, standing and spinning to stalk out the door, the rest of us on his heels.
“What the actual fuck?” I said quietly. “This isn’t what I was expecting…but it might be worse. What the hell are we supposed to be picking up?”
Abel threw his hands up. “How the fuck should I know? You think he was blinking at me in code? Whatever it is we better move. Escaping is one thing, but if every member of the Horned Lords comes after is we’re not going to be able to keep our cover. And this seems like it’s important. The timing of this being right after that meeting can’t be a coincidence.”
“I wonder if that wish to put us in the right position to learn more is the reason we got picked?” Asked Callie. “It sounds like they alternate groups so no one gets followed.” She played with the black bracelet with the blue stone on her wrist, the jammer.
We made our way down the road, hopping a bus toward the Imperial District. “So, how do you think they get it into Tricorn?” I asked. “Whatever IT is.”
“Probably the same way they’re hiding from everyone.” Said Chelsea. “I was thinking it over the whole time we were in there, and I bet they’re using maintenance tunnels through flipside to get it up top. Not sure what it is or how it helps them though. Maybe like…bombs?”
I considered it, but shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. Besides, wouldn’t someone have seen them approach?”
Bethy giggled. “Nah, daddy says too many baby Ascendants think of universe like a plate. It’s more of a globe. There’s as much up and down as there is side to side. Tricorn is pretty big, if they came in from the bottom and used stealth tech in their ships I bet they could reach the bottom unnoticed.”
I blinked. “Holy shit.” I said in awe. “That’s…a REALLY good point. Whenever I think about other planets I think of them in terms of cardinal directions on a flat place. I never even considered the three dimensional heading. There could be a planet billions of miles straight down from us right now and we’d never even know it.”
Callie looked just as poleaxed, and we spent the rest of the ride bullshitting about the universe and how small we all were. Or at least, most of us. I knew an A-ranker with a decent movement Skill could cross from one planet to the next nearly instantly, like the Duke had. I was pretty sure that Skill couldn’t be used too quickly in quick succession because he hadn’t used ti to kill Zeke, but still. It really put the absurdity of higher level Ascendants into perspective.
By the time we reached the address on the note, we were all…well, not relaxed, but distracted at least. I triggered Eye of Revelation, feeling for Danger Sense just in case, but I got nothing. We entered the abandoned house on the residential street tentatively, worried about possible ambushes.
The inside was empty, barren, and torn apart. No furniture, paint stripped from the walls, and sections of drywall stripped out leaving exposed gaps where I was pretty sure wires and pipes had been. We reached the stairs, and Abel consulted the note, reaching over to twist a bannister knob. The stairs (or a section of them) fell inwards with a thump, leaving a new small staircase leading down into the dark.
We descended into the secret basement, which opened into a large cavern carved into rock, and inside the cavern we found a huge pile of crates.
Stepping forward, I approached a crate. “Alright, we can’t pop the lids without them showing it, but I think I can at least get a peek inside. Should I give it a shot?” I wanted a second opinion on this because it affected all of us. If I tipped them off to our intentions everyone would be in danger.
All of them agreed, so I stepped up the one of the crates and closed my eyes, triggering Piece of Mind. With one of my parallels I triggered Pit of Despair, smashing it down until I was only dissolving a coin sized section of the wood.
It was a small strain, since wood wasn’t rock, and because of the change of size, but my Sapphire Soul handled it easily enough. My other parallel kept the dust from falling in with Dust Construction, removing it from the hole so I could see inside…and I saw nothing. Or rather. I saw more dust.
A quick sniff clarified that it wasn’t dust. “Ashes.” I said in confusion as I resealed the box. I checked a few more. “All ashes. We’re smuggling ashes.” I gave them all a confused look, but something about the situation bothered me. When things got confusing it meant there was a threat you couldn’t see all of.
We stashed the crates away quickly and headed back up to catch the bus. We needed to get back to the bar before our time ran out. We also needed to pass the info about this to Zeke and my mom. This bore further investigation, and by someone a lot more skilled than us. Something was going on, and we needed to figure out what before it was too late.
Comments
JJB4345_80_815
Thank you for the chappy! Friendly possible edits: [Quote] It helped that they weren’t real heads, but I was really glad we’d wished for them to indistinguishable from real ones, or else we’d have been fucked. [/Quote] to indistinguishable ==> to be indistinguishable [Quote] Escaping is one thing, but if every member of the Horned Lords comes after is we’re not going to be able to keep our cover. [/Quote] after is ==> after us [Quote] Bethy giggled. “Nah, daddy says too many baby Ascendants think of universe like a plate. [/Quote] of universe ==> of the universe [Quote] I was pretty sure that Skill couldn’t be used too quickly in quick succession because he hadn’t used ti to kill Zeke, but still. It really put the absurdity of higher level Ascendants into perspective. [/Quote] used ti to kill ==> used it to kill
