Wish upon the Stars chapter 505

I grimaced down at the small river of glowing green sludge. "Why is  this here?" I asked the others as we stood in the dark cramped tunnel.  The entrance was at the back of a closet that Luggage led us to, and  after climbing down through the floor, we found ourselves in a weird  sort of toxic catacomb.

"Who knows." Said Jessie with a  shrug. "But Randall isn't going to fit in this tunnel, so I think it's  about time for that wish." I grimaced. I wanted to save my last wish for  an emergency, but we did still have Nat with us, and we couldn't leave  Randall behind again, not with a big hole in the floor and Hellhounds on  the loose, and especially not upstairs in the very hallways said devil  dogs were guarding. At my nod, Jessie said clearly. "I wish I had an  artifact that would let me shrink Randall and then return him to the  proper size unharmed as many times as I wanted."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

"Looks  like I have the juice for that. Probably some space warping effect like  Abel used. Anyway, I need some payment if I want to grant it." I  shrugged. "What do you have for me?"

"I was going to offer  ten reserve heals." She said casually. "I mean, it's not creative, but  you do need them. You're full up right now, but you go through them  fast. Another ten free once you run up your current tab should be more  than enough to afford an artifact like that."

Confirming  the wish, I was pleased to see she was right. The power gathered and  then exploded out, creating a small necklace in the shape of a gold  circle with a crystal star shining in the center. I passed it to her,  not getting a charge this time since my heals were currently full.  Reserves were useful as hell when I found myself in need with no wishes  to trade, which like it or not might very well end up happening pretty  soon.

Jessie laughed delightedly as she took it, and the  star crystal sparked once. She blinked, eyes going hazy, and then  grinned at me. "Looks like this one comes with instructions. Granted,  it's not complicated to use." She turned, climbing up out of the tunnel,  and I followed. She pointed the necklace at Randall, then flicked the  star inside the circle, which began to spin. As the image of the bear  changed, Randall himself began to shrink, until he was only a little guy  about the size of a breadbox.

Bethy squealed with  excitement, clapping in enthusiasm as she watched the bear shrink, then  snatched him up, squeezing him tight. "He's so CUTE!" She crowed. "I  wanna borrow it. I can use it on Luggage, and Donuts, and Poptarts and  I'll have super tiny little mini animals to carry around and put on my  shoulders. Or I can turn into swarm of bat kitties and carry them all!"

"Not the time Bethy." I said firmly. "Also doesn't work for anyone but them. Specificity helps cut down on cost."

She  pouted, but I didn't bother arguing with her about it, just turned and  climbed back into the reeking glowing tunnel. "Well, we're ready to go  now." I said, grimacing at the scent. It was worse after getting to  leave for a while and come back. I wished my sense of smell would stop  working, but it didn't seem likely.

"So, I vote we don't  TOUCH that stuff." Rasped Benny. "I'm not sure what it is, but very few  things that glow and smell this bad are a part of a healthy breakfast."

I  nodded. "I'm more curious why they felt the need to make this sewer  tunnel. This shouldn't fit between the floors. We punched through the  ground outside that alchemy lab without any trouble, it was like four  feet thick. Someone purposefully put this here to guide...whatever that  shit is. And judging from the direction it's flowing, it's not going TO  the vault."

Chelsea nodded. "It seems like some kind of  runoff? But what exactly makes this kind of byproduct? Is it part of the  defenses? Is the air conditioning filter worn out? Who the hell knows?"

"I  really wish we could gather information with wishes." Cursed Nat. "That  stupid secret price imbalance is the most inconvenient thing. We could  try anyway? Spam a lot of very general questions and see if anything  sticks. Couldn't hurt to have more info."

I shrugged. "We  walk and talk. We don't wan-" My voice cut off as I triggered Belial,  blurring forward with my staff flashing out to deflect an attack  from...something. Something vaguely familiar. It dove back into the  channel when it saw me, and I waited for any sign of further attack, but  it was gone. "Ok, did anyone else see that? Because I might be crazy,  but that looked like-"

"The things from the woods." Said  Callie with a grimace. "Except mutated. Its antlers looked like blades,  and I think it had a fish tail instead of back legs."

"Oh  come on!" I yelled at the muck. "How is that even a thing? Who looked at  those fucking monsters and thought, 'hey, lets make them way worse'.  That is just...deeply unpleasant." I sighed. "Alright, well it seems  like they're ambush predators, and that they don't work well on land.  Let me take the lead and stay on the other side of me. Belial and my  staff combined make me a solid counter to these things."

Not  as solid as if I'd had time to fully acclimate myself to their venom,  but who knew if they even had the same stuff. We started forward, the  Hellhound hanging back looking miserable and snuffling to his vampire.  This little sewer system wasn't exactly a maze, but there WERE turns,  and he kept us seemingly on the right path. We had a few more scares  with the muck monsters, but when they realized I could sense their  ambushes they stopped bothering.

I  was a bit worried about it actually. Ambushes from dangerous monsters  made sense, but these things backing off was odd if they were security  beasts. Which meant they probably weren't. These weren't like the  Hellhounds that were left here on purpose with orders. They were just  here. So where had they come from? Did it have something to do with the  runoff? What exactly was IN that vault?

As  we continued, Bethy pulled back. "Luggage says the smell is getting  worse. He says this a bad place, and his nose is starting to not work."

"Is  there any way for you to put him...somewhere? Like with the cats?" I  asked, shooting the poor hound a concerned frown. Tried to kill us or  not, he was pretty cute dog, and he was helping. I didn't want him to  suffer for no reason when we were probably getting close. It looked like  a straight shot from here anyway.

She  bit her lip in thought. "Maybe? I can't keep him in my shadow. He  doesn't work like that. But I used my domain to catch him. I might be  able to put him inside for a while. I won't have access to my domain  while he's in there though. And I might be a little distracted."

"It's your call." I shrugged. "But if he's suffering that bad it might be best for him."

After  thinking for a moment, she nodded. "You're right." She got down on her  knees to face the hound, listening to his snuffled directions, before  kissing him on the top of the head and scratching behind her ears. Her  eyes started to glow that unearthly red, black grass beginning to sprout  from the stone beneath her heeled boots. Then, after a second, the  grass faded, as did the form of the dog.

Bethy  stood, eyes glowing still, and sighed. "Alright, he said it's straight  down the pathway. We're almost there. Good idea Shane."

"It's  nothing, glad he's ok." Bethy's crazy might be rubbing off on me, or he  might remind me of Jin, who was back on the Necromedes who knew how far  away, but I thought the Hellhound was kind of cool. We continued down  the passage, and I felt more than a few brief hints of danger before the  creatures noticed me and backed off. They were testing me, checking to  see if I could still see them coming.

Finally,  we came to the end of the tunnel, where a waterfall of green muck  poured from a brass grate in the top of the tunnel. On either side of  the canal, set into the dark stone, were a pair of brass ladders marked  with a myriad of delicately carved symbols. Before anyone could step  forward, I held up a hand. "Chelsea, can you take a crack at deciphering  these? Maybe Nat can help. I don't want anyone touching the ladder  until we know what the symbols do."

Something  about this place was off. The vault was supposed to have the item that  the Blood Murder Palace needed, not...this. Toxic waste? Something was  wrong with this vault, and I wanted to know exactly what that ladder and  the spellwork strewn hatch above it led to before anyone of us touched  it.

They  nodded, stepping forward as Callie leaned in next to me. "What is it?"  She asked quietly, stealth muffling her voice to keep it from anyone but  me.

"I'm not  sure...it's-" I cut myself off as I thought of something. Triggering my  overlay, I pushed with my Eye of Revelation, shifting the context  slightly and..."There's no safe way forward." I said with a grimace. "A  few neutral, but no gold arrows. None of the ways we can enter that  place are good for us."

She  scowled. "We have to go forward though. We have no way back. Whatever  is in that vault is our only leverage if we can't figure something out.  And if we CAN we don't want them to have it."

"I  know." I said tensely. "But I don't want to lead us into a trap either.  Maybe if they figure out what the ladder does and why it's there, we  can find a safe way to proceed. Just because none of our current options  are any good doesn't mean we can't make our own way."

Chelsea  called out to us after a minute or two. "I think we got something." We  headed over to stand with her, and she pointed at a few symbols. "It's  some kind of filtration system. I don't know why they need it, but this  whole thing is cyclical. At least based on the enchantments. It pumps  this stuff through the entire surrounding area, and the soil and  wildlife leeches...something, out of it, making it safe to use. Then  they do something to it up there and it becomes tainted."

"Is the hatch safe to use?" Several of the white arrows pointed up, so I suspected it was at least survivable.

"Maybe?"  She said uncertainly. "Nothing is supposed to go up this ladder. Things  come down it to do maintenance on this place, but going up isn't what  it was designed for. In fact, climbing DOWN it is supposed to filter  some of whatever is infecting this muck."

Looking  around, I took in the place around us. Staying down here was a bad  idea. I was sure this stuff was going to do something to us if we  lingered, and going up seemed like it might be worst, but we needed to  do it. "Chelsea, can your flames of purification cleanse the area around  us and on the other side of the hatch? Just for a minute so we can get  through there and hopefully to somewhere safe?" She looked uncertain,  but I had a plan. Holding out my hand, I triggered Afterburner. "Well  then how about I give you a boost."