Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 472
🕑 Added 2023-10-13 20:01:39 +0000 UTCOnce everyone had gone, I started talking first. I used Stealth just in case, but we could see the rooms for quite a ways around, and I didn't notice anyone. "So." I said casually. "I'm guessing do you know who I am? Did you know right away or...?"
Chelsea sighed. "Not right away. All the pictures mom has of you are old. You don't look exactly like dad either. The resemblance is there, but the bones in your face are softer, more like mom. I figured it out when you told me your name." She swallowed hard. "It's nice to meet you, Shane."
"You too." I said. My voice rough with emotion. "Are we twins? I didn't even know you existed until recently, but we should be around the same age, right?"
She nodded, smiling slightly. Reaching into a pocket, she pulled out a word and beaten up picture. She passed it to me, and I almost dropped it as a wave of...something, tore through me. Frustration, sadness, rage, love, longing, and about a hundred other things trampled each other for the honor of gut punching me as I looked down at a picture of my family. My WHOLE family.
Dad stood behind us, looking somber, while mom crouched down holding us both up. We were too young to really stand on our own, so it was hard to clearly identify us. Well, me anyway. I just looked like a blonde kid. Chelsea was pretty noticeable, given her black and white hair color.
I passed it back. "I guess so. You can keep it, I won't be able to take it out of here anyway. Soul stuff. Do you mind if we sit down? This is really a lot."
"Of course." She said quickly, seeming as nervous as I did. She pulled out a pair of chairs, setting them down in a corner, out of the way of all the doors. "So...how was it? Living with dad? I never met him really. Not that I remember at least. He doesn't come around. Grandpa doesn't like him."
"Shocker." I said with a smirk. "He's a devil now, and I somehow doubt the Radiant Pope approves of his daughter being married to a literal creature of darkness. What's he like Anyway? I've heard some crazy things. Does he treat you ok? You and mom?"
She snorted. "Mom has grandpa wrapped around her little finger. She's his only daughter, and one of his most impressive children. Not to mention all our uncles were from his first marriage. Mom is his only kid with his current wife." She trailed off at that, like there was something she wasn't saying. "The point is, mom and I are treated very well. Some of the stories about grandpa are blown out of proportion."
I didn't mention the whole 'killing a planet' legend. I was sure she'd heard it, and she knew the guy better than me. I had a million other questions, but in the end, I was only able to come up with one. Everything I wanted to ask just dissolved on my tongue, and I ended up blurting out. "Why did mom leave?"
Chelsea looked away. "Because of me. I was born with two abilities. I'm sure you've heard of it happening?"
"Yeah, Aidan, the current Wishmaster has two." I said with a nod. "Why is that a reason to leave? I would think dad would have been thrilled, hell, mom too. Having two abilities is pretty great."
She shook her head. "There's something wrong with one of them. I can't really go into it. But I shouldn't have one of the abilities I do, and if someone found out they might come after me, and you. At least, if they knew who my dad was. By taking me away and raising me on my own, they were able to pretend it was some big secret. It was to protect me, and also to protect you."
"I don't understand." I said in frustration. "How does being born with an ability matter? How did they even know? And what about dad?"
She looked away guiltily. "They knew because of a wish. And the ability I was born with is a bloodline. I wasn't supposed to have it, and its existence gave away some kind of family secret. I can't say more, please don't ask. I'm begging. As for dad. When he found out mom had to go, he was furious apparently. I was too young to remember any of it, but from what mom said, he refused to let her leave."
"That seems to have worked out well." I spat. "Seems like he really stood his ground there."
"She made a wish." Said Chelsea sadly. "As a way to keep the secret. That's how she got her second ability. She thought having it would make it easier to explain mine. It wouldn't have worked, probably, but she paid with the most valuable thing that she had. Your ability. Kept under lock and key until your eighteenth birthday. Another layer of separation between us."
My head was spinning. I'd always wondered about the strange way I'd gotten my ability. Most people just developed it, but mine came in a scroll on my birthday. Mom had done that? Dad had helped? I could have been an early bloomer like Callie. I could have been a fucking B-ranker like Zeke by now. Whose bloodline ability did Chelsea have that prompted all this? I didn't know nearly enough about bloodlines to figure it out.
Plus...she'd asked me not to try. She wanted me to let it go. Despite how PISSED I was at mom and dad (less so at mom than I had been, though that didn't let dad off the hook for the way I grew up) I didn't blame Chelsea for any of it, and I could tell from her face that she expected me to.
You'd think that would have made it harder, in some ways. To just...drop it. But it didn't. The realizations from the forest came back to me. Mom and dad weren't here, but that didn't change the impact they had on me. Neither would finding out the truth. It might hurt my sister though, and she didn't deserve it. This wasn't her fault. I leaned forward awkwardly in my chair and hugged her.
Chelsea stiffened at the contact, clearly expecting me to be upset and lashing out, but once she realized what was happening she hugged me back. "Family secret bullshit or not, you got something wrong. This didn't happen because of you. It happened TO you. None of this was your fault." I pulled away. "Now, tell me a bit more about your life. I want to know what growing up as the Radiant Princess is like."
I still had so many emotions tangled up inside. I was still reeling. And honestly, I should have been angry. That she got the childhood I didn't, that she was with mom being adored and fussed over while I was stuck on some backwater nowhere hellhole. But...I wasn't. Any of those things. Forget dad. I'd had Zeke growing up. And Benny. I loved my life, and I didn't need to fantasize about growing up being pampered by strangers.
She groaned at the nickname, chuckling wetly as she wiped her eyes. "Please don't call me that. it's so lame. But really, it's not as crazy as you might be thinking. Mom keeps me out of the limelight when possible. Which can be hard. It's why I had to come to the trial to begin with. She didn't want me using the Church's heritage in case something about my second power leaked."
"How is she?" I finally asked. I'd been avoiding it, but I couldn't help myself. I hadn't seen my mother for so long that my only memory of her was a single glimpse of her face.
"Quiet." She said sadly. "She misses you. A lot. Part of the contract she signed with dad is that she can't seek you out. She did it that way on purpose, so that she wouldn't be tempted and put both of us in danger. She hates herself for it though. I still catch her crying sometimes."
Contract. She'd said wish before, which made me think it was both. My dad was a wish devil, after all, he granted wishes through contracts now. That was basically ALL I knew about him these days. "Does that mean I can't see her?"
"Nope." She beamed at me. "Contract says she can't seek you out, doesn't say anything about the other way around. I think she'd love to see you. We'd have to be a bit creative about it, and it would have to be after the trials. If you want to see her, I mean." Her smile wilted. "I'd understand if you didn't."
"I do." I stated firmly. "I still have questions, but even if she can't or won't answer them...she's still my mom. Knowing she did all this to keep us safe makes it a lot easier to deal with."
Her smile this time was enough to light up the room. "Well, what about you? I noticed you came here with friends." Her tone took on a teasing lilt. "And a girl. It must be serious if you're traveling together. You going to bring her with you to meet mom?"
"Probably." I said without flinching. "I've met hers. And yeah, it's pretty serious. My friends are all from my home planet. Mom ever tell you anything about Callus?" I wasn't actually sure mom had BEEN to Callus, actually. My memory of her didn't come with context or location details. It was possible it had been before I'd moved to the psuedo-D ranked planet.
Chelsea shook her head. "Not that I remember. I's love to hear about it though. Mom said you were raised by dad's best friend?"
I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled forth as I tried to think of how to describe Zeke. "Yeah. He's...he's a hard guy to explain. But he's taken care of me my whole life, and always been there when I needed him. I think you'd like the old drunk. What about your protector? I heard he's a big shot for his level, but he's been keeping his rank down so he can stick around and protect you."
"Callen has his own reasons for remaining at F-rank." She giggled. "But he's definitely kept me safe for most of my life. He's my guard for places higher ranking Ascendants can't go. You'd be surprised how often that comes up." She gestured off into the temple. "He's around somewhere. We got separated in the second trial, of course. I'm sure he's looking for me everywhere, but it's a big place and there are a lot of people."
I shrugged. "Not a huge issue though, right? If you die in here you just get kicked out. It's a safe place for you to do some exploring on your own. What's the power you can use, by the way, since the other one is a secret."
She held up a hand, and an ivory, crystalline flame flickered into existence. It looked weird, like an animated opal statue of fire. "Purifying flame." She said proudly. "It's grandpa's bloodline, though he uses it a bit weird, so most people don't know that." I was kind of curious what that even meant, but I decided there'd be time for that later.
I changed the subject, asking her more about her childhood, and she asked about mine again. I shared stories, embarrassing incidents, and just stupid things I'd done, and she did the same. We got to know each other, sitting there in that stone room and catching up with our lives. The rest of them got further ahead in the next trial, but I didn't care. i was finally getting to know my sister, learning more about my family, and that was plenty for me.
Comments
Malcolm Tent
The wish ability is weighted VERY heavily because of the perception about how powerful it is. Same reason it's functionally impossible to wish for it even at low rank.
Dani
How did his mom get a second ability? She sold his ability? Or did she seal his ability as payment? Tho that doesn’t seem like an appropriate price for an ability for an A-ranker.
Malcolm Tent
Elijah is not a particularly good person. There have been several hints toward this. Shane's reaction to him severing ties, the fear that other WCP clan members feel toward him, becoming a devil, and even Zekes geas. They aren't surprised because Elijah's reputation as an Ascendant is well established. It has to be for him to be A-rank. People know what he's like. The things he's done are pretty awful from a parenting standpoint, but Acendants have a different standard for interacting than normal people. He's not...evil, exactly, but he's a ruthless bastard with ice in his veins. He does care about Shane, but he's not one to mix business and sentiment.
Ryan N
So I have one sorta large issue with this chapter. Why did he and his sister just completely gloss over the fact that his dad abandoned him...Thats a huge deal and his sister knew he was raised by his father's best friend? And no one thinks thats weird?? She actually was raised by her mom and had family interaction where he had Zeke only. It stretches disbelief a bit and I hope that is addressed adequately because if his sister and mom are not upset by that or ignore it then it seems very contrived to push a happy ending fantasy. I'll reserve judgement on his mother's actions for now, but its not a functional family if someone does not address the above issue and it would suck for Shane to pretend that dynamic would be anything other than gas lighting him.
Malcolm Tent
His dad more than his mom. It wasn't a matter of "lets abandon Shane so Chelsea will be ok" it was more like. "Chelsea needs to go away so she and Shane don't both get murdered." The reasons for that were actually guessed in a prior comment, but suffice to say they separated them for both their sakes. Also he was a baby and not in charge of his own life and he was her kid so his ability was within her rights to trade. Kind of sucks but Wishes tend to be pretty realistic.
Tim Elliott
I'm curious how his mother paid with his ability? She didn't possess it, so how was she able to use it to pay for a wish? Also, damn, both his parents are terrible people. Abandoning one child and stripping away his ability for the other? Good thing he has Zeke, because both of his parents are utter A-holes, pun intended.
BlodWedd
So what is holding him back is wanting to be a good person. all the time - then he will get the realization that it is okay to be a monster sometimes so long as your friends know who you really are - will tie back to the forest I think
CringeWorthyStudios
I’m actually really glad that his mum is super upset over it, makes the whole thing much more tolerable. That and Chelsea seems pretty cool.
Melody Haren Anderson
I am a bit surprised the father isn't quite what we thought, though obviously a BIT... but seems like it's an unfortunate thing all around and made no one happy.
Baconwargod
Fuck youre so right. Crazy how similar Shane and his grandfathers taste in women overlap. They both like the goths it seems.
oaclo
Knew it. Planet-killing duel was a sham and gramps eloped with the god-child he was supposed to have killed. Sister got the devouring darkness power or whatever it is.
Baconwargod
Or at least tried a little instead of causing it
Baconwargod
Ah…catharsis. Though it does seem like his dad is less of a dick than I thought probably. He was worse but it seemed like he tried as much as he could.
