Wish upon the Stars chapter 508

As we hit the ground, we could still hear screams from above.  Everyone was freaking out, but despite that, the person I was most  worried about was Callie. Horror, guilt, self loathing, pain. Feeling a  heart break in real time was an absolute nightmare. Perit hadn't been  super close to either of us, but Nat was, and the tall blonde woman had  still been part of the group. "Oh gods." She whimpered. "Oh gods what  did I do?"

I was at her side in a second, catching her  hands as I shouted out. "Chelsea, lights please." A blinding white flame  coalesced on my sisters hands and flooded the room with light. Callie  was crying, tracks running through the makeup on her eyes and trailing  over her mask, mixing with the dust on her face. "Callie." She didn't  respond. "Cal! Honey, it's ok. It wasn't you. It was the translocator."

Nat  was sobbing over her friend's body. I let go of my girlfriend and  walked over to check on my cousin. "Natalie." I said quietly, kneeling  down and putting my hands on her. "Nat I know this is horrible, but we  need to store her body. I've never done a resurrection wish before, but I  imagine the less decomp the better. If we put her in one of our spatial  rings it'll probably make it easier to bring her back."

She  let out a ragged laugh, a hollow, empty sound. "Bring her back? Do you  know how much that costs? Do you know how high rank the wish GRANTER  needs to be? Never mind the payment. And it scales. Perit was a high  F-ranker. It's not like bringing back a mortal."

I nodded  in sympathy. "I know. Jessie has been trying to get her brother back.  But it IS doable. I checked and the wish is valid, just outside my  abilities."

"You're not thinking this through." She  snapped. "This will ruin her life. Of course I'll bring her back, but  think about what she's losing. People lose interest when a story stops.  Any reputation she's got, any chance to get stronger, it'll be gone.  Valk and I will be way higher rank than she is, and we'll have left her  behind. Assuming we can even do it at all. What if we die? Then we wait  what? Ten years for you to maybe bring me back? Death isn't something  casual you can just shrug off."

I put up both hands, not  missing Jessie's worried expression, but not having time for it. "I get  that." I said soothingly. "But we CAN bring her back. Most people don't  get that option. And you can help her when we do. Grant her wishes to  grind up her stats. Fast track her."

She took a long  breath. "I appreciate that Shane." She said, exhaling deeply and trying  to calm her trembling voice. Tears still rolled down her face. "But that  only works up to the edge of E-rank. Paths are soul bullshit, and you  can't wish for them. Help forming one maybe, but not past that. You're  right though." She waved a hand and the body vanished. "Better condition  should make it easier."

Callie bolted over, eyes wild,  and grabbed her hands. "Nat! Oh my gods, and Valk! I'm so, so, so  sorry!" She flinched, eyes losing focus. "What am I saying? Who says  that? Sorry I killed your friend? Like that even means anything. I'm a  monster."

She burst into a fresh wave of tears, but Nat  reached out and put a hand over her mouth. "Enough." She said finally.  "It's...awful. Gods is this awful. But I saw what happened clear as day.  It wasn't you. It was that catty fuck and his bullshit teleporter. If  he wasn't probably dead I swear-"

Callen cleared his  throat. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but he probably isn't.  Some of those robed assholes were stuck in the hall, chances are good he  swapped with one."

"I thought translocators can only affect other objects?" I asked carefully. "Is it possible for him to do that?"

He  nodded. "It is. Low level translocators struggle with the ability  because it requires a large amount of Fantasy. Don't ask me why."

Valk,  who had been standing to one side, stone faced and staring at his  partner, spoke up, voice raw. "As terrible as this is, we do need to  keep moving. I'm not sure where that bastard was going with that cup,  but chances are good he needs to get back to the temple. Or somehow  teleport out somewhere else. Who knows. Wherever he's going, we should  be following. We need to get that cup back, or at least find a way out."  He glanced at Nat's hand. "Or we'll never bring anyone back."

"Agreed."  I said solemnly. "Anyone have any clue where we ARE?" I scanned the  huge room we ended up in. It probably shouldn't have fit in the first  floor, but then, when had that ever stopped Ascendant architecture. The  room was full of pillars, and between them I could see tables. Long  wooden tables wounds tight with dense green vines that almost seemed to  be moving in the flickering light.

Oh, nope, they were  ACTUALLY moving. Awesome. Jessie frowned at them. "Those aren't...right.  They've mutated. The energy inside them isn't life force. Not really.  It's like that gross green stuff coming off the skull. I can feel it  twisting them, making them stronger in an awful way. We need to leave."

"Don't  have to tell me twice." I said with a nod. "Chels, can you make a hole?  Fire plus purify equals bad for plants plus abomination energy. I can  pump you up if needed."

She reached out with her white  flame and poured it on the nearest vine. There were some under us, we'd  just been insulated by all the dust from the floor above. As the fire  touched the plants, an unearthly scream echoed up, seeming to break in  multiple registers at once. It sounded like nails on several chalkboards  of varying distances. I couldn't help but wince.

"I got  it." She said stonily. "These things will be cake." Raising her hands,  she focused, and twin torrents of white fire like a flame thrower  started to spew forth. She aimed them at the plants in the aisle near  us, towards the closest door, and then slowly began to burn away that  horrible plants, ignoring the screams."

I wasn't sure  about the exact stat requirements, but judging by the sweat starting to  drip down her brow it was hardly easy. She moved down the aisle, step by  step, hands like flamethrowers as she burned away the obstacles before  us. Callen was at her back, sword drawn, waiting and watching for any  possible threat. As she did that, I took the time to walk over and put  my arm around Callie.

My girlfriend was a strong person.  The strongest I'd ever met, in a lot of ways. She was also a kind  person, one who cared about doing the right thing. Killing an innocent  person, much less a friend and someone that was loved by other people  she cared about. It was anathema to her. It was just about the worst  thing Felix could have done.

And FUCK Felix. I didn't care  about gods or murder cults. I was going to kill him for this. For  making the person I loved most feel THIS. I could feel the emotions  through the bond, like a fucking parasite eating away at her until  nothing was left, and there wasn't shit I could do about it. How do you  fix something like that? How do you unring that bell?

She  stopped, pulling me to a halt and looked at me, hands reaching up to cup  my face. Or my mask I guess, but wither way. "Don't." She said softly.  "I can't feel that too, baby. I can't take your heart breaking while  mine does. I'll be ok. It's awful, but I have a way to fix it. I'll help  you get strong so Nat can wish her back. Just like Jessie is. I believe  in you. I know you can do this."

"I can FEEL you  suffering." I said plaintively. "I can't just ignore that. Ignore you.  How am I supposed to not hurt when you hurt?"

She chuckled  wetly. "By letting me do this myself. I'm sorry, but knowing how much  this hurts you is making it worse. I'm alright, I have something to  focus on, but I think we need to close the bond until we get out of  here. Just so we can both function, because the feedback is going to  make us useless."

"Well can we at least beat Felix into a bleeding weeping mess and kick him into a ravine?" I asked hopefully.

Her  face hardened. "We can kick him into TWO ravines." I wasn't actually  sure what that meant, but she sounded like she had ideas. As ominous as  that sounded, I was glad she was focusing on anger instead of guilt. I  felt her rage before she closed down, and it was frankly a relief  compared to what I'd been getting from her before. And then...it was all  gone. Knowing she was hurting made losing contact all the worse, but I  pushed it aside.

I half expected to be jumped by evil  plants, but whatever the things were that were slithering around they  weren't smart enough to ambush thankfully. Chelsea burned us a path to  the door, and when we opened it, we slipped out into the hallway, ready  to follow after Felix.

Before we did though, I forced  everyone to stop. "Alright guys. This...this was bad. I know we're all  tired. Scared. Hurt. I know this is a shit situation. But we have to  keep going. We have to find Felix, because he HAS to have a way home  with that thing. But I just want you guys to know, I'm GOING to get us  out of this. No one else dies. So we do this careful, and we do it  smart. First thing we need is to get out of here." No arguments at that,  which surprised me. But I guessed they were pretty shaken up. "Callie, I  want you checking for traps. Shadow clones, trap Skill, the works."

She  looked at me suspiciously, probably wondering if I was giving her busy  work...but she WAS the one with the trap Skill, so after a second she  got to work. Chelsea was leaning against the wall looking worn out,  sweat matting her hair. "I'm...gonna need a minute." She said, panting.  "That was a lot. Whatever that energy is its bad news. It took some  serious effort to purify it."

"You're fine." I said with a  smile. "Callie needs time to do her thing anyway, rest up. I'll get  Jessie over here to give you some juice. We have a healer for a reason."

I  waved over the blonde, who was looking a bit pale. This whole thing was  probably bringing up a lot of shit she was trying to push down. "Hey  Jess, can you top my sister off. She's feeling a bit wiped." I saw  Callen's eyes widen a bit, and realized he didn't know. Oops. Seemed  like a bad time to worry about that kind of thing though. Hopefully he  could be trusted, but if not we might all die anyway.

"Sure  thing Shane." She said weakly. She stepped over, laying her hands on  Chelsea, and green light poured out from her hands. I nodded to her  gratefully and then went to stand next to Callie as she scanned the  hallway. I didn't say anything, just took her hand and laced my fingers  in hers. Even with the bond shut I got an echo of gratitude that she  pushed over to me, and it made me smile. We'd get through this.  Together. I just wished I could figure out how.