Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 616
🕑 Added 2024-05-01 23:58:33 +0000 UTCTo my surprise, we entered the bar to the whoops and cheers of all the patrons. I was shocked they’d know about all this, but apparently Griff wasn't shy about owning his decisions. Walking up to the big bearded man I reaching into my ring and dropped ‘Matthew’s’ head on the table with a thump. Calle, Abel, and the rest of our group piled up the other fourteen heads.
“You seem to be short one.” Said Griff conversationally. “We sent fifteen.”
Apparently Callie felt like that was as big a trap as I did, because she just shrugged. “Who knows. The tracking Skill we used isn’t that exact. You gave us a target and we found them. The tracking Skill we used wasn’t that specific, but since the bar is their home base we were able to track them down easily enough. Is the missing head going to be a problem?”
We’d headed straight for the restaurant once we left, and though we lost our pursuers easily enough, we’d also made sure they could follow us to report back. A tracking Skill was the only explainable reason for finding them so quick, AND explained the Stealth. Luckily, Callie even actually had one.
Griff chuckled. “Not at all. We already noticed one was missing. Idiot probably ran off because he was too scared to go through with the raid.” He swung to look at the bartender. “A round of drinks for everyone! And make them doubles for our newest members!”
Callie blinked in shock. “That’s…that’s it? We’re in now? I expected it to be more complicated.”
He barked out a laugh. “We ain’t crafters, girl, we’re killers. Honestly you impressed us. Takes balls to hit an active business. We were expecting you to wait until they were done and follow them home. Maybe hit them in an alley. Filling the place with Stealth fog and leaving behind the bodies as a warning? That’s just art.”
We looked around at the rowdy gang members (none of whom seemed bothered by the pile of heads belonging to what was ostensibly their former friends. I had a small shot glass full of red liquid shoved into my hands along with everyone else, and, since I was playing a part, I tossed it back.
The feeling of the liquid hitting my stomach reminded me of seeing someone drop a lit match on a gas range after it failed to light a few times. I felt an explosion of heat inside my gut (not literally) and it rolled through my veins, sending me reeling.
“What-” I coughed. “What is this stuff?” My eyes were watering and I felt like I’d just been poisoned. Which…I mean I had, because all alcohol is poison by definition. But this couldn’t be how it felt to get drunk normally, or nobody would ever be stupid enough to do it.
A big burly man with a beard and a shaved head flashed unusually sharp teeth at me, slapping me on the back. “Devil Snot.” He said with a laugh. “Hardest shit in E-rank. Been a while since we had anyone initiate in such an entertaining way. Your friends seem to like it.”
He pointed and I turned to see Abel at the bar in front of a line of shot glasses. Head lashing out like a snake he wrapped his mouth around each shot and tossed them back so quickly he blurred before roaring. “I am all powerful!” And then falling off his stool. Bethy, meanwhile was lighting shots on fire and then tossing them back.
I should have known those two would fit in best. Callie grabbed my hand, pulling me away from the big guy and Griff to join Abel at the bar. I grimaced, but didn’t bother to resist. I hoped I could avoid any more shots, but I was sure this party would be a long one either way.
True to my fears, the next few hours passed at a crawl. I was pretty sure Abel was playing up how drunk he was to get everyone to let their guards down, and I was worried I’d blow it so I mainly kept to myself. Eventually though, things started to wind down and we all ended up at the table with Griff, who was telling stories about the early days of the Horned Lords.
“When my grandpa ran things.” He growled gloomily. “We were a real force. You know he was a C-ranker? Until he pissed off some Churchy and got himself burned alive.” He chuckled morosely. “The factions, man. They’re toxic.”
I raised a brow at that. “In what way?” I hadn’t really considered the ideological stance someone would need to be…like this. I’d kind of assumed they’d fit right in at the WCP.
“S’not natural.” He said angrily. “They’re too static. Too restrictive. Ascendants are about evolution, about riding the waves of legend into our own personal myth. Why do you think there are no more gods besides the six?”
Callie shrugged. “Because they killed them all? I heard they do that.”
“Some of them.” He disagreed. “But I heard there’s another explanation. Gods can move on. Once you reach a certain level of Impact you can just punch through the walls of the world and go somewhere else. Somewhere better. But the six don’t do that. They stay behind and lord their power over the rest of us. Stop anyone else from rising up like you said.”
And suddenly, something I’d been wondering about clicked into place. I’d wondered about the reasoning behind purging other gods. I’d assumed it was some preventative bullshit, but the addition of this new bit of info helped me find the last piece of the puzzle.
The six were trying to keep us isolated from whatever this…god place was. I didn’t know why, or if it would work, but it fit with a lot of the ways they interacted.
“Where did you hear that?” I asked cautiously. Because the weirdest part of that little revelation was that some E-ranked gang leader on a floating space continent knew it when I was pretty sure Zeke didn’t.
His mouth snapped shut, and he looked around in paranoia. Apparently he thought there was a chance the authorities weren’t aware of any of this, which seemed like an objectively stupid assumption to me, but to each their own. Then, after he confirmed we were alone, he leaned in. “There are other gods you know.” He whispered. “New ones. Or I guess old ones. They’ve been sending people to talk to all of us. Tell us things the five faction alliance don’t want us knowing.”
Which was exactly what we’d been waiting for him to say. I saw Abel’s eyes sharpen, the facsimile of drunkenness painting his features sloughing off to reveal the razor sharpness that was usually there. “Really?” He said in a faux casual tone. “What do they say?”
Griff guffawed. “So much. They tell us all kinds of things. Did you know the factions are holding some secret meeting here?” He tapped an earring. “They gave us these blockers so we could tell people about what’s really going on, or I wouldn’t even be able to talk to you about it.” THe earring was glowing a lambent red.
“A meeting?” Abel asked innocently. “What about?”
Snorting, the gang leader shook his head. “What else? Us.” He gestured around him to the drooling and often passed out forms of the other gang members. “The gods are all holding us back. Most of them try to preach tolerance and limitations. The Wishmaster doesn’t care about anything but profits and Black Sorrow only shares power with her lunatic followers. We’re stagnating, and they’re worried we’ll notice and side with their enemies.”
He said it with the certainty and the conviction of someone who almost definitely hadn’t ever seen a B or A-ranked Ascendant fight. Zeke and that Duke were both precision fighters, and even watching them go at it had terrified me. I was positive just from watching, even under Zeke’s protection, that if the Duke wanted to he could have destroyed the planet we were standing on.
But of course, Griff wouldn’t think that. Griff would listen to the flattering lies and the talk of rebellion, because he wanted to be special and powerful. I knew the truth, the god war would be between the gods. Having seen even a diminished god I had no illusions that I wanted to be on the other side.
Our gods were whole, and strong, and had been around for ages. Theirs were recently resurrected and still weak. Maybe I was oversimplifying since I was related to literally half of them, but I didn’t think they were going to win this war.
And even if they had been the favorites I wouldn’t have bought into this revolutionary bullshit. This was the kind of nonsense you fed meat shields to get them to die for you.
“They sound like they know a thing or two.” Abel said, sounding intrigued. “Could we meet with them too? Or are their visits a secret?” He gave a low burp, eyelids fluttering masterfully until he shook his head to clear it. Abel was a damned good actor.
Griff nodded eagerly. “Of course you can. You’re one of us now. Ten of us? You’re a bunch of us. Us.” He blinked, losing his train of thought. “Us!’ He shouted as if shocked out of a stupor. “But yes…you can come. We’ll have to show you where though. The meetings are a secret.” He put a finger to his lips.
“They’re not here then?” Asked Abel with interest. “This seems like a nice place.”
Snorting, Griff shook his head. “Nah, not here. More than just us going to the meetings. There are plenty of people unhappy with the status quo. The new gods are strong and just. They appeal to so many different people. You ever heard of flipside?”
My mentor furrowed his brow. “I think so. It’s the underground portion of the continent right?”
“Exactly.” Said Griff brightly. “Big ass floating space world needs lots of enchantments and machinery. They didn’t want to show all the inner workings off, so they stuffed it all underneath the surface. The whole place is a series of interconnected tunnels and chambers full of magic and mad science.”
My eyes went wide. That was why they didn’t know where they were meeting. Machines and magic had presence, they had weight. Machines made noise, enchantments could be sensed, and the high rankers wouldn’t want to spend all their time using Focus to ignore the excess noise.
They would have sealed everything off so there was nothing to sense or hear. It would make actively trying to search the place almost impossible, not because they couldn’t find what was down there, but because there was WAY too much to find.
I saw when Abel realized the same thing, and flashed a cheerful grin at our new ‘boss’. “Well that sounds like something I’d like to see. When exactly is the next meeting?”
Griff slapped the table with a laugh. “That’s the spirit, boy. You and yours can come along when we head down there next. If you’re going to be part of the Horned Lords you ought to know what we’re about. And I can tell you’re the kind to appreciate the truth. The next meeting is tomorrow.” He took another long pull of the beer on the table beside him and then belched. “You know Kyle. I like you. You’ve got a bright future here.”
As Abel got back into his conversation, I slipped my hand into Callie’s under the table as I felt her fear at what we were going to do next. I understood too, but we needed more information on what they were doing before taking this to my mom. Tomorrow we were going to be going to a cult recruitment. Fingers crossed we all got out of it alive.
Comments
thaughton2
That's the "fun" part here. The reborn gods might be right to some extent, but they're using it to radicalize some meat shields. Maybe get some soul smoothies on the side while they rebuild themselves. I don't doubt truth is mixed in there, but I'd be surprised if it really was just fear fueling it.
Dylan Alexander
There’s no doubt in my mind that the 6 gods do want the status quo to stay the same. They clearly fear other gods, even potential ones rising and if there is a higher plane then they clearly fear that too as they’d likely start at the bottom again.
