Wish upon the Stars chapter 403

"I can't believe we survived that!" I whooped as we came over the  last ridge back toward the bridge. "That was fantastic!" I glanced over  at Anna-Marie. "So what's the allocation deal for these drops? I got  ten, so five you five us, do we get paid or anything for the ones we  turn in? Because we paid for the materials and everything, so it would  only be fair for us to be compensated for the drops."

The  princess giggled. "Eager, aren't you? Yes, you'll be paid for the drops,  we'll need to head into the central cylinder to get your coins." She  seemed to be in the same kind of giddy mood as the rest of us. The  extreme danger followed by the escape had been energizing, and I wasn't  the only one grinning like a loon. It was odd, we'd been in trouble like  this before off on our own, but being here inside the dungeon with no  supervision to bail us out made it more...visceral.

I felt  like I was getting emotional whiplash, going from the joy of battle, to  guilt, to the glee of escape. Everything just seemed...more. More  vibrant, more exciting, more important. Taking a moment, I felt myself  almost buzzing with energy, and glanced at the others. "Hey, do any of  you feel...weird? Like in a good way?"

It hadn't hit me  right away, but this seemed different than my usual emotions. Callie  nodded. "Yeah, I can feel it through the bond. It isn't affecting any of  the rest of us I don't think though." She smirked at me. "It stopped  your pouting so I consider it a net gain."

I muttered a  nonsensical comment about catching HER in a net, but she graciously  ignored it as I turned a questioning gaze on Anna-Marie. The Naiad  princess looked lost for a second, then her eyes widened. "Oh! It was  the lunar event. You passed through the cloud. Must have been dense  enough to absorb into your skin. It can take time to hit you. I've heard  rumors there are some vintages of wine infused with that effect,  they're supposed to be lovely."

That sounded pretty  delicious, but I didn't think it would be affordable at all. Probably  more expensive than the insane drink Abel had tried to con me into  buying for us back in Doomtown. Still, I didn't mind the effect. Nat  rode up next to me, leaning in to mutter. "You might want to be careful  wandering around semi intoxicated like that. Easy to make mistakes or  deals you shouldn't."

When we reached the bridge, a pair  of men in thick black suits of armor stopped us, crossing their spears  in front of us to block the way. "Halt." They said, somehow not  snickering at the cliche. "State your business."

Anna-Marie  glared. "My business is none of yours. Unless bridge guards are  suddenly of a standing with members of the royal family? Or do you  suspect that the fact one of my brothers paid you to harass me will  protect you from my father's vengeance should he hear of your disrespect  to crown and country?"

They visibly flinched, stepping  back quickly and lowering both their spears and heads.  Hopping down,  Anna-Marie handed the reins of her goat to the closest guard and  gestured us to do the same. "I'll consider you stabling these for us you  recompense for being so presumptuous. Should they not make it to their  destination, I may forget to be magnanimous. I suspect this bridge would  be as well served with your heads on those spears as warnings as by  incompetents such as yourselves."

Apologizing profusely,  they grabbed the reins and took the goats, running off toward a well  hidden shack in the distance. She shook her head. "Idiots. Involving  themselves in politics out of greed. My brothers don't care if a few  guards get beheaded. Sadly for them I won't be passively bullied  anymore."

I raised a brow. "You'd really have them beheaded for getting in your way?"

She  shook her head. "No. Not unless it was a repeated offense. But they  don't need to know that. My father WOULD kill them for it though, if he  found out. Respect for the royal family is a paramount value in  Ladrigan. To disrespect a royal is to disrespect the blood, which is  disrespecting the king himself. Not that it stops us from harassing each  OTHER, but it means games like this need to be subtle."

Celine  nodded in comprehension, making an understanding sound from her place  on the other side of Benny. "Ah. Being at the bottom of the barrel made  you easy picking for things like that before. Now that you have, or are  at least going to have, access to the drops, you're in a position to  actually enact punishment going forward, and need to start acting the  part."

Our guide nodded as she led us further down the  bridge. "Indeed. It is important to know one's place. Premature  retaliation would have signaled my readiness to enter the political  arena, which I was very much not. With this kind of head start though,  I'll be more than capable of holding my own, as well as passing some of  the drops to important loved ones who support me like my mother."

I  was about to ask if a point of Impact made that much of a difference,  but considering a single point made you an Ascendant I was willing to  believe it. Plus if things went well this would just be the start.  Before we went out looking for trouble though, I was going to get us  paid, and look into possible protection we could buy, beg, or hire.

When  we reached the doors back into the bulwark, we received no further  trouble, and the trip back down took MUCH longer, as we had to carefully  navigate the traps from the enemy side, making stops to give passwords,  take back passages, or request admittance.

Finally,  we got through the bulwark and back into the ringed part of the castle,  which made things much easier. To my surprise, once we hit the rings,  Anna-Marie brought us a different route, using a series of secret  passages to bring us through without having to scale up and down. I  couldn't help but ask. "Why didn't we take this route last time?  Wouldn't that have been faster?"

She  just chuckled. "Yes, but these passages only take you to the cylinder.  They can be sealed in an emergency, and automatically shut down  completely when the bulwark collapses, but since you can't use them to  LEAVE the cylinder, they can't be used to reach the bulwark."

I  wondered why they would set it up like that, but figured it was  probably some inane political reason I wouldn't care about, so I  refocused on our entry into 'the cylinder'. Stepping through the final  passage, we entered a short hallway with guarded doors. I could see a  ton of defenses here, just in case, but it was still nicer than most of  what I'd seen. Anna-Marie waved off the guards, and they opened the  doors for us, allowing us to enter...a whole new world.

The  cylinder ran through the entire mountain, and as such was absolutely  huge. Based on the dimensions I was betting it was spatially enlarged,  because I could see miles and miles of space inside the thing that  didn't match up with it being the smallest area in the mountain.

I  had to try hard not to stare. I'd seen plenty of things as an  Ascendant, and they all had their own special kind of impressiveness,  but the huge underground city was a new kind of amazing. Above us  floated a glowing blue orb, close enough to white not to tint the light,  and large enough to cast the whole cavern in what seemed like natural  moonlight.

Silver  trees festooned the entire area, and I could see skyways crisscrossing  the distance in seemingly impossibly ways, somehow holding up islands of  stone in the air without supports, though all small enough not to  really impede the view given they were spread out and at different  heights. There was dark grass beneath our feet as we walked in, and I  saw foliage and shrubbery along the neat path leading toward the ground  level city.

"This."  She said proudly. "Is the cylinder. Most of the important people in the  kingdom live here. We even have weather systems set up to water the  plants and filter the dirt. The cylinder's interior is fifty miles  across, though I know it can be hard to judge scale from so far away.  It's a bit of a hike to reach the city, which is much bigger than it  looks. Shouldn't be too much trouble for an F-ranker though."

That  was fair. At top speed I could run seventy five hundred miles per hour  at this point. Well, on a normal planet. This one was huge and had much  heavier gravity so it was probably less. Still, even at a brisk walk it  wouldn't be hard to get there relatively quickly.

I  held up a hand, stopping everyone. "Wait." I said firmly. "I'm  interested in heading in there, but I don't want to go at a  disadvantage. We have an arrangement for half the drops, and I'd like to  distribute them now. Will we get much effect from the first one?"

She  nodded. "You will. First drop will give you a point. You'll need five  drops for a second, and it pretty much doubles from there." I was  appalled at exactly how many drops of Moonglow Dew the king must have  used. He'd gotten himself about eight points. Knowing how rare the stuff  was outside awakenings...it was terrifying. I guessed he WAS thousands  of years old, and had been involved in the last awakening too.

"Alright."  I said firmly. "Then we distribute it now. I want us at our strongest  when we go in. Which means our strongest get first dibs. Callie, me,  Abel, Nat, and Valk." I gave Mel a shrug. "If I had a sixth it would go  to you, but I think this maximizes our capabilities. With Nat and I both  getting one it'll make our abilities more useful, and Callie's recon  abilities will be key out here where we don't know anyone."

Mel  chuckled softly. "I get it. Just like I'm sure Agria and Clockwork do.  It's not a bad lineup. But I want first dibs on the next round."

"Deal."  I said with a grin. Pulling the others off the path we headed into the  silver trees, finding a clearing before I reached into the ring and  removed the drops. I left the flowers in, bringing the Dew out on its  own, but to my relief, that was fine. It just floated above my palm like  some kind of mercurial star.

The  dew itself was...confusing. Silver mercurial liquid, shifting  constantly and reflecting scenes of infinite possibilities from within. I  passed the first over to Nat, then Callie, then Abel, then Valk. I'd  gone out of my way to make sure to give them some of the first drops,  because I wanted the team more cohesive, and because coming here had  been mainly their idea. I could tell they were happy to receive them,  especially Nat who looked like she was having her first christmas.

When  we all had ours, I took a deep breath, and the mask slid away from the  bottom of my face like it would when I ate. I popped the thing into my  mouth like some kind of liquid pill and swallowed hard as the explosion  of indescribable sensation washed over my tongue and plummeted into my  throat like a waterfall of living lightning. As the power exploded  behind my eyes it occurred to me it might have been a better plan to go  back to our rooms for this. Oh well, live and learn.