Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 622
🕑 Added 2024-05-10 00:09:38 +0000 UTCThe next day, we all had to get ready for whatever the hell Griff was having us do. We hadn’t headed back to the bar yet, but we’d all gathered up to go over some of the details before we had to leave, and all of us were more than a tad worried about the direction things had been going in that meeting before Barrow had derailed it.
“So, anyone else worried that whatever he wants us to do will blow our cover to hell?” I asked grimly. We were all sitting around a big table at my mom’s place, the same one by the pond she’d made us those sandwiches. Zeke, my mother, and Callen were with us, and I was glad to have their feedback going into this. “Not that I don’t see why we would go, but don’t we have enough now that we know who Patience is?”
Mom shook her head. “If you aren’t up to it you can always back out. I admit you were more proactive than I expected. This might be dangerous, and part of me wants to tell you to back off, but at the end of the day we don’t know as much as you might think.”
“Between those obnoxious jamming devices and their use of the flipside for meeting and travel, they’ve done an absurdly good job shielding their activities.” Zeke said with a grimace.
I could see why he would be upset. As A and S-rankers, the faction leaders and higher ups must be furious that some measly E-rankers were part of this and they had no way to keep track of them. It just went to show that proper tactics and strategy could offset quite a bit of raw power, though to be fair I was pretty sure whoever was making those jammers was strong on their own.
As if sensing the thought (though she hadn’t this time, even if she’d caught the emotion behind it) Callie cleared her throat. “Speaking of the jammers…who is making those? Should they even be usable by low ranking Ascendants if they can stop people like you from listening in?”
“Nah.” Zeke said, shaking his head. “They’re dimensional shunting tech. Basically dumping the vibrations from speech and movement into the void. You have to remember that the physical aspects of stats are just byproducts. Stats are the building blocks of Skills and abilities. Perception isn’t a measure of how well you hear or see, so there are ways to get around those aspects without directly pitting your stats against someone else’s as with Stealth.”
That just left me more confused. “Ok, but then why don’t people do that all the time? Why even use Stealth, and why don’t people with legitimate Perception based abilities scour this whole place for the cultists?”
“It’s not cost effective.” My mother cut in. “Dimensional shunting only works on small areas, as for the latter…” She shrugged. “Politics. There are quite a few treaties in place prohibiting the kind of scans you’re talking about. I’m sure you noticed the black market that gets ‘overlooked’ in Tricorn?”
I blinked in shock. “Wait…nobody is doing scans? I just assumed you were combing this place top to bottom? They tying the representatives up in red tape? That’s so…stupid!”
“Welcome to politics.” Zeke said with a snort. “But there ARE some scans being done, they’re just pretty much only on topside and they ignore a lot of problem areas. You know as well as I do how binding a contract can be, some of the people in charge of Tricorn don’t even WANT to uphold the contracts, but they’re binding all the same.”
My mother sighed. “Don’t judge them too harshly. There are certain promises that needed to be made to establish a place like this to begin with. Agreements put in place by higher authorities and engineered to have extravagant escape clauses that would do serious financial damage to even factions like ours, or worse.”
“I hadn’t considered that.” I admitted. “Is that why the contract in the Glade is so important? Because it provides loopholes in existing contracts? That seems like it would need to be written in on purpose and I don’t think any of us did.”
She just chuckled. “Some of the contracts involved in the creation of Tricorn would take up a library. While this does provide EXCRUCIATING specificity in terms of requirements, it also provides plenty of space for wiggle room if proper precedent is set and applied. There are people whose whole lives are dedicated to maintaining and updating those contracts, when updating is possible at least. It’s part of why this conclave was called. Tricorn isn’t the only aspect of the alliance bound up in red tape.”
“That might explain why Lark showed up.” I said with a nod. “He didn’t want to miss out on what might be a huge change in the way things operate.”
Zeke snorted. “More likely he smelled blood in the water and is here to rip a chunk off anyone who looks vulnerable.” He paused, then glanced at Bethy. “Sorry kid, didn’t mean to bad mouth your pops.”
“Oh it’s fine.” She said cheerfully. “Daddy says that not pouncing on a bleeding foe is insulting. Can you imagine being too pathetic to be considered lunch?”
That got a laugh out of me. “That’s pretty hardcore, but I can kind of see the logic.” I didn’t agree, obviously, but it made sense in the way Abel’s philosophy made sense. It was jarring to see that side of Bethy sometimes, but it was clear after I’d helped her that not all of it was bloodlust. Nature AND nurture had played their parts in forming the exploding ball of napalm sunshine that was Bethany Lark.
Glancing around, I posed the question that had been kicking around my brain. “So…what do we do to prepare? Because I still want to go. If we don’t have enough information this could be a huge help to preventing needless death down the road, so what do we do to be as safe as possible?”
“Wishes.” Said Callie bluntly. “You still have seven today, we can stack the deck in our favor, even if we don’t know exactly what cards they’ll play. Not enough to do escape wishes for all of us sadly, but we might be able to swing some good luck, a bit of early warning in case things go bad, that kind of stuff.” She glanced at Zeke and my mom. “You two have way more experience with this than us, any ideas?”
Zeke grimaced, miming a zipper across his lips, but my mom nodded. “I might have a few.” She glanced at me. “Shane, dear, can I have a few minutes with your darling fiancee?”
Knowing they wanted to prevent me from weighing in and possibly compromising the fairness of the compensation (though I was beginning to think I was far too cautious about that most of the time) I turned and gestured to my sister. “Hey, you know this place better than I do right? Since it’s like…a standard layout?”
“It’s not standard.” She chuckled. “But yeah, I can find my way around. You want me to give you the tour?”
I laughed. “Oh sure, I imagine there’s all sorts of cool stuff in this building I haven’t seen yet.”
“Not as many as you would think.” She laughed as she led me away. “But a few.” We left the others behind to discuss the possible wishes while she took me around and showed me various rooms. There was a small arena inside the building used for sparring, an awesome armory stuffed with impressive weapons, and a hanger full of shuttles of various shapes and sizes.
Mostly though, I just enjoyed the chance to talk to my sister away from everything. “So, how have you been enjoying your time out among the stars? Is being back in Church territory making you miss the Holy Dominion?”
She shrugged. “Parts of it. I might be sheltered, but I DO have a few friends, mostly other relatives of powerful clergy members. I miss seeing grandpa, and sleeping in my own bed. My bed is…” She trailed off, giving a happy sigh. “Well, it’s made from some very high tier materials, and it’s lovely. Made with Dream Sheep Wool. I highly recommend getting one.”
“Dream sheep…” I said suspiciously. “You mean like counting sheep before bed?”
She giggled. “Dream Sheep are real creatures. The practice of counting sheep is an ancient one, and it’s supposed to allow a Dream Sheep to enter your Dreams. They eat nightmares, and their presence promotes health and good rest along with good dreams. Even their wool helps people sleep more deeply and wards off bad dreams. Not to mention it’s SOOO soft.”
“That sounds awesome.” I said with interest. “I might try to pick some up for Callie, she loves a soft bed, and good dreams are always nice. How much?”
She froze. “Um…” She looked embarrassed. “Dream Sheep are A-rank creatures. Well, the full grown ones, Lambs are B-rank, but they’re way softer and harder to get so they’re more expensive. I think my mattress cost like four B-rank chits.”
I choked out a laugh. “Yeah, bit out of my price range. What is that? Forty thousand D-rank?” past D-rank, each successive rank was a hundred of the previous. A hundred D-rank chits would net me a C-rank, but I’d need a hundred of THOSE for even one B-rank. It really put into perspective how little money I had in the grand scheme of things.
Wincing, she just nodded. “Sorry, but it’s not like you won’t make that much long term. Consider Celine paying a D-rank chit for your current wishes. Not many people make money like that. Seven chits above your rank per day? And on your next rank up it’ll be eight on top of the stat and Impact increase.” I did look forward to seeing what breaking one hundred in Impact would do for my wish ability, aside from the obvious one I was expecting,
“Plus I’ll be able to start making scrolls.” I pointed out. “I was told D-rank was when I would be able to make those.” That was one of the things I was most looking forward to about D-rank. Not having to actually manually use wishes daily to avoid wasting them would do wonders for my versatility. I could stockpile them and sell them (or give them away? I wasn’t sure how compensation worked with those) all at once when I was in a good position.
I didn’t bring up Zeke, or how he would probably need to leave when I hit D-rank. At the very least he wouldn’t be my guardian, and whether that would give him more freedom or less I had no idea. I hadn’t had the guts to talk to him about it much, though I’d need to change that soon.
After a few minutes of walking around chatting we got called back. “Alright.” Said Callie happily as she rubbed her hands together. “We put together a pretty good list. Lots of useful little wishes.” She pulled out a familiar bag (one of the ones Celine used) and tossed it to me. I opened it and counted out seven coins. “That’ll be your pay for the day, so get ready.”
Laughing, I took my seat, interested in what they’d come up with. I felt a lot better going out there with precautions in place in case everything went bad, because I had the weirdest feeling something was coming.
Whether it was the big mess of the conclave, the possible attack, or something more immediate I had no idea, but I wanted to do everything I could to get us ready. Whatever happened, I was going to make damned sure my friends and family had the best chance at surviving it. No way in hell was I missing my wedding, god war or not.
Comments
JJB4345_80_815
Thank you for the chappy! Friendly possible edit: Wait…nobody is doing scans? I just assumed you were combing this place top to bottom? They tying the representatives up in red tape? That’s so…stupid!” They tying ==> They were tying
