Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 626
🕑 Added 2024-05-15 22:46:00 +0000 UTCThe first thing I did when I got back to the inn was wake up Callie. She was less than thrilled, but once I explained what happened, she agreed it was for the best. I’d filled Zeke in on the way back so he didn’t see a need to interfere. Still, with the extra info, he decided to approach Harrison and request help from the WCP. This seemed like that kind of matter.
One thing Callie and I couldn’t decide on was how much my grandfather actually knew. He’d led me to a dealer trading in Hallow, but how much of that was knowledge and how much was the fishing rod letting him muck with karma? The Judgement Pope was renowned for the complexity of and sometimes the nonsensical nature of his power. Could that be what brought me to the dealer?
I had no answers, and the next morning, when I called to ask, mom told me grandpa wasn’t the kind of person you could request a meeting with. He’d meet you or he wouldn’t, and on his own timetable.
On the upside, while our Church resources might be coming up empty, the WCP DID manage to come through, and Zeke met us downstairs for breakfast with a new associate we’d never met.
We entered the huge dining area to find my uncle at a back table, sipping coffee, and next to him sat a young man a bit older than us (physically). He had long brown hair under a tricorn hat, with two thin braids framing his face on either side, knotted with silver beads. A red bandanna was tied over his mouth, and his eyes were a glowing aquamarine that contrasted with his tanned skin and dark eyebrows.
“Shane.” Said my uncle with a smile as he cut into some eggs. “Glad you’re finally up. I got in touch with Harrison, and after filling him in, he agreed the situation warrants a stronger response. Since we were the ones who found this latest connection, he sent over his best tracker to help pick up the trail.” He jerked a thumb at the hat wearing man in the thick dark coat. “This is Pretseltsen Birchis. Pret is a particularly talented tracked. They call him The Houndmaster.”
Bethy, who was just entering the room from the other side, froze and turned slowly to stare at the man with shining eyes. With a squeal of. “PUPPIES!” She blurred across the room to jerk to a stop leaning right into the stoic man’s face. “You like puppies too? I have the cutest puppy, I named him luggage. I’ll let you meet him if I could meet yours.”
Pret raised an eyebrow. “I suppose I might be willing to bring out my hounds if you’d like.” He snapped his fingers, and a there was a disturbance in the air. Three different substances began to billow from the ground. Fog, smoke, and sand swirling together to make a trio of large threatening mastiffs. Their eyes glowed red as they stared at Bethy intently, not moving or even breathing as their eyes tracked her. “Brutus, Colchis, and Darude.” He said, pointing to them in turn.
Bethy clapped her hands gleefully. Her eyes flashed red for a second and there was a shift in the air as she opened her Domain for a fraction of a second, allowing the hulking dark form of Luggage to slink out, his own red eyes glowing like banked coals. Of course, where the mastiffs were mastiff sized, Luggage loomed over them at the size of a small pony, the hellhound staring down the three constructs.
Pret whistled. “Is that a Hellhound? Where did you get one of those? I thought all the planes connected to those were gone. The gods closed off all but-”
“Watch it.” Snapped Zeke sharply. “That’s not something they need to know about.” His voice sounded…afraid. He was looking around subtly, trying not to noticeably scan the area but definitely checking for something. Whatever it was he didn’t find it. “Anyway, put your dog up Bethy, we need to talk about today’s operation.”
The Vampire pouted, seemingly unaware of what was just almost said. I filed it away because it made me suspicious of a few other things I’d seen and heard, but I quickly zeroed in on the last part of what he said. “Wait…operation? What kind of operation? He’s here to help us figure out where the Hallow is being kept, right?”
“Not exactly.” He said with a grimace. “You know the Palace. No one does anything for free. Pret’s services are on loan, but he’s being paid in product.” At my shock, he held up a hand. “I know, the stuff is probably dangerous. They’re not stupid. It’ll be studied. But if there’s a way to increase the speed of Skill evolution it’s something worth looking into. I’m sure you know what I mean.”
I did. One of the biggest issues with wishing for Skills was that at higher levels it wasn’t feasible. Past Intermediate, Skills were customized to the person evolving them. As I learned for about Skill creation I realized this was less about details and execution and more about stat construction.
Creation of a Skill was hypothetically the foundation of a Solid Path. Like Zeke had said, more perfected Skills would pay dividends later (I assumed when making a Chronicle) but even non Path Skills were easier to use and strained the soul less when they were customized more completely to the user.
All this was to say that you couldn’t really wish for a Skill past Intermediate and have it work right, because the customization involved how the Skill leveraged the soul, which was different from person to person. It could be done, but it wasn’t a good idea, because it was bound to fuck with you later.
I’d already noticed this before now, and it was one of the reasons my friends didn’t just wish for all Expert level Skills. However, wishing for Skills at or below Intermediate was possible, it was just an unnecessary strain on the wisher’s time. A million Minor Skills were worth less than a Single Expert. People tended to focus on polishing their main go to Skills instead of expanding to a wider power base for that reason.
Because of all that, a substance that could increase the speed of Skill growth would be exponentially more valuable to the WCP than anyone else. Wish for a bunch of Beginner or Intermediate Skills and then dump the recipient full of Hallow (or whatever non evil version of it they tried to synthesize) and watch their Skills fill out at lightning speed.
It was brilliant, and it was absolutely not something they would let us ruin. Unless one of the other forces got involved, no one was going to stop the WCP from taking that Hallow.
Which…I found I didn’t care about. Sure, it wasn’t nice, but at least it would be off the streets and presumably away from where it could do the most damage. I wasn’t sure how it connected to the cults and what they had planned for the conclave but I knew damned well that it did. I’d do pretty much anything to protect my people.
“Fine.” I said eventually. “I’ll bring him to where I met the dealer, and he can help us find whatever their distribution center is. Will he be able to help us raid it?”
Pret chuckled. “Oh most assuredly.” Said the D-ranker. This isn’t a matter of candidacy. This is a matter of payment for services rendered. It’s a win win situation. My master is overjoyed Janus decided to approach us with this opportunity.”
Internally, I grimaced. Maybe it was growing up in the Conglomerate or maybe it was dealing with my dad when I was younger, but that kind of ruthless self serving pragmatism left a bad taste in my mouth. Pret was making it clear he didn’t care what happened to any of the people on Tricorn, and was only doing this for the payday.
It tracked with what Zeke had mentioned about Harrison, who was known to be ambitious. I wondered if Aiden was like that too, or if he was just too busy to bother keeping a lid on it during all this.
When we agreed to work with him, everyone sort of refocused on breakfast and the occasional question. The others all came down and we started eating, but I was too lost in thought to pay much attention to my food. Now that we’d gotten the reasoning for today’s raid out of the way, I was thinking back to what Pret had said.
He’d been about to mention the gods, and he’d said something about other planes. Did he mean the Hellhound came from the same place as the gods went when they Ascended? If that was even real. And if not, did the planes have anything to do with why the six killed all the other gods?
After hearing about Chronicles I thought I was coming close to seeing the whole picture with cultivation, but it seemed like I was only scratching the surface. Hell, I was pretty sure some of what I knew was wrong.
Zeke being able to Rank up to A-rank on a C-ranked conflicted with what I’d been told back on Callus about planets ranking up…or did it? I tried to remember what was said exactly, about whether not being able to rank up to higher was consistent to planet rank. I wasn’t sure. Maybe because the planet was Pseudo D-rank?
D-rank was a watershed, and entire new state of being. A planet below that might not be able to handle someone reaching Master. Had I just assumed you needed to rank up on a planet the same rank as you without ever questioning the logic?
The more I learned, the more I realized all the gaps and flawed assumptions in my knowledge of the way the world worked, the more I understood that I didn’t understand.
Part of me was excited about that, was enthralled with the idea of expanding my worldview and seeing more of what the universe had to offer. Part of me though…part of me was afraid. There was so much to know and learn, so much I needed to understand, and it just made the chasm between me and the real powers of this world seem to yawn even wider.
And then…I stopped. This. This was the whole reason Zeke didn’t tell me most of this shit. THe reason for the geas. Questioning myself, letting my fear overrule my good judgement. Panic and uncertainty.
A hand took mine and squeezed, and I turned to see Callie smiling at me calmly. I felt a wave of reassurance over the bond, and my heart warmed. Callie knew she would be ok, because she had me, and I would be ok because I had her. I wasn’t alone, wasn’t helpless. I was learning and growing every day, and so was she.
I focused back on what Zeke had said to me all those months ago on the Necromedes. Don’t worry about it. It had taken me all this time to really grasp what he meant. If I spent every second worrying about terrifying ineffable enemies waiting in the darkness to rip out my soul I’d never sleep again.
Ascendants needed to roll with the punches, to let what would come do so in its own time. I flooded Callie with the certainty, and I felt her hand tighten around mine as she understood the same thing. I knew she was too much of a perfectionist to take it to heart like I had, but she would try, and I would help her.
Finally, everyone finished breakfast and we all suited up. I felt right with my mask on. I’d worn it last night, but being out among my people in costume again made me feel whole. Once we were all ready I led us to the spot where I’d seen Danny the shadow guy selling Hallow, and Pret’s dogs picked up the scent. With that we were off to find their distribution site.
Comments
JJB4345_80_815
Thank you for the chappy! Friendly possible edit(s): "This is Pretseltsen Birchis. Pret is a particularly talented tracked." tracked ==> tracker “Oh most assuredly.” Said the D-ranker. This isn’t a matter of candidacy. This is a matter of payment for services rendered. It’s a win win situation. My master is overjoyed Janus decided to approach us with this opportunity.” This ==> "This (missing quotation mark) Zeke being able to Rank up to A-rank on a C-ranked conflicted with what I’d been told back on Callus about planets ranking up…or did it? Insert the word "world" between "C-ranked" and "conflicted" (I think) THe reason for the geas. THe ==> The
