Wish upon the Stars chapter 494

My head was pounding as I woke up. That was a pretty common thing for  me when waking from unconsciousness, but this time it felt different.  Or rather, it felt normal. I reached for my ability and for the first  time since I entered the trials I felt my wish power respond. Six  wishes. Apparently I'd been unconscious for longer than expected, at  least depending on how fast time passed while I was in the trials, but  whatever the case, I had my wishes back.

Which was going  to make this situation easier, but also not. I needed Callie to make the  wishes, but we could find our group and then...what? We couldn't trust  anyone. The Blood Murder Palace was here. They'd come for something and I  couldn't imagine we'd be in a good spot when they found it.

Pushing  down the panic I looked around. Finding Callie nearby I headed over to  shake her awake. "Cal." I whispered, shaking her. "Come on. Wake up." I  glanced around. All I could see around us was...trees. Familiar trees.  Not individually, but the type of tree seemed similar to something I'd  seemed before.

Then it clicked.  The fortress trial. The trees here were the same as the ones back there.  Figuring I could keep an eye on Callie from above, I made sure she was  comfortable and mostly uninjured (thank you scan heal) at least aside  from minor burns from her fight with Billy, and then made my way over to  a nearby tree and started to climb.

State  of Grace helped me make the trip up easily, and when I got to the top I  started looking around, hoping to identify any landmarks.

I  saw nothing. At least nothing specific. The fortresses weren't in  sight, nor was the mountain Abel and I wrecked, but still, looking out  over the forest, the layout was the same. I remembered Biscuit the  squirrel and how realistic he'd been. Maybe he was a real creature  accessing the trial from the other side. I tried my Eye of Revelation to  locate him, but he must have been too far away if he was here.

The  one thing I DID manage to spot hadn't been in the trial. A massive  white stone building towering into the sky, backlit by the startling  blue sky. The Royal Academy, I was sure. I didn't see anything else  nearby, but with how absurd Ascendant construction could get, maybe the  Academy was inside some kind of pocket dimension.

Stepping  off the branch, I floated down to the ground, glancing worriedly around  to try to see anyone who might be nearby. I checked on Callie again.  Her wounds weren't too threatening, but apparently they were stress  enough to monopolize her Vitality. I cursed myself for running out of  heal bursts, we needed to find Jessie soon.

We  needed to find ANYONE we knew. Who knew where the other Blood Murder  Palace initiates were hiding, or what the hell they had planned. I  doubted Billy killed himself so the BMP crowd could retrieve  Hatescream's 'world's greatest butcher' coffee mug. If they went through  all this trouble, there was a reason. A bad reason if I had to guess.  More importantly, they were dangerous unknown people mixed in among my  allies.

Any  of my friends could be in danger right now, and have no idea. I glanced  worriedly down at Callie, reaching to shake her again, when she finally  started to stir. "Owwww." She groaned, sitting up slowly and clutching  her head. I helped her sit up.

"Are  you ok?" I asked worriedly. "You're not too badly injured, but you  scared the piss out of me passing out like that. What happened?"

She  groaned again. "Soul strain." She grimaced. "My reward was a Skill  upgrade. Shadow Manipulation Mastery to Intermediate. I thought it would  help prepare me for dealing with Billy, but the upgrade pushed my soul  hard. Cranked me up to fifty percent of green and left me a little  fragile. Trying to USE that Skill during the fight, at least as much as I  had, was a bit much."

So  she hadn't been pushed to an Azure Soul Body. Apparently that  sublimation had fixed up some damage too. Good to know. I sighed,  pulling her against me. "Fair enough, take it easy for a bit. No need to  get too excited about all this. We can figure things out in a minute,  but right now, your recovery is the most important thing."

Chuckling,  she snuggled into my embrace. "I'm in enough pain that I'm going to let  myself believe that, despite all evidence to the contrary. But once my  head is on straight we'll need to figure out a plan."

We  sat there for a while, letting our mental states recover. I was still  somewhat reeling from the pain earlier, so it was a good idea for me to  let myself recover a bit too. Finally though, after about an hour,  Callie bestirred herself with a sigh. "That's about all we can afford  for now. Tell me what's going on."

I  recounted my experience on the treetop and told her my suspicions about  the place, and she seemed almost excited. "Biscuit is here? Maybe we  can find him!" She was practically bouncing with excitement and I had to  stifle a laugh at her glee. Good to see she wasn't too caught up in the  details. It was a good attitude to have. Still, we had other  priorities.

"We'll  get to that." I said with a worried frown. "But we need to find the  others first. We can use wishes to track them down probably, though I  can't give you any suggestions on method. Once we're together we can  find Biscuit and worry about what to do about the Blood Murder Palace  assholes. We need to stop them from doing whatever they're here to do.  I'm positive it's not a good thing, whatever it is."

"Probably not." She sighed. "You're right, we need to find the others. Who first though?"

I  glanced at her wounds. "Jessie." I said firmly. "With any luck she'll  be with Benny and we can kill two birds with one stone. Plus the others  have more combat potential and are less likely to get ambushed. Plus  giant bear in the woods seems pretty useful."

She  nodded. "Right." Holding out a hand, she said clearly. "I wish that I  had a compass that could lead us to Jessie. I'll pay with..." She  flicked her hand and a bag of chits appeared. "Five H-ranked chits."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I  confirmed, and was relieved when the wish went through, giving me the  necessary stats, thankfully well within my reach. I felt the familiar  buzz of static across my skin as the wish built, and it shocked me how  big a relief it was. Spending so long in the trial had really made me  appreciate how useful my ability was. It was such a relief to have  solutions to problems again.

The  time inside had also been a gift though. Proof that I could handle  myself without wishes, and not only that, confirmation that I could  become strong in my own way. I'd gotten a second ability, albeit one  with incredibly vague wording in terms of explanation. I'd already  accomplished something my dad never had, making myself powerful enough  to move on without losing my qualifications to become the Wishmaster. No  wonder Aiden had won the contest last time.

Finally  the purple electricity burst out from me, condensing into a spot of  dense electricity, resolving into a small bronze compass with a needle  that didn't point north. Callie grinned happily, snagging five chits and  tossing them to me lightly. With my Might and Perception I picked them  all out of the air one by one with ease, dropping them into my ring.

Offering her my arm, I chuckled. "Shall we?" She grinned and grabbed my arm and we set off in the direction the compass pointed.

And  then my Danger Sense went haywire. I grabbed her, hurling both of us  aside as a throat tearing roar rattled the leaves from the trees. A  massive scaled paw slammed down on the dirt where we'd bin, and I  followed it up to a...thing. An ugly thing. It was fifteen feet tall,  and looked like a humanoid wolf almost. Rather than fur, it was covered  in sickly green scales. Its arms were long and distended, the knuckles  of its razor taloned hands dragging the ground as it stalked, and its  head had a rack of long, sharp dark antlers, from which I could see a  noxious green liquid dripping.

"What  the fuck is THAT?" I said in appalled voice. I'd seen weird shit  before, but most of it followed some kind of logic. The mantis centaurs  had been fucking gross, but not as disgusting as this thing"

Callie  was backing away, dragging me with her. "How the fuck should I know!  Whatever it is though, it's definitely not friendly! Run!" She bolted in  the opposite direction, and I trailed after her, we barely avoided the  monster as at lashed out with its too long arms, its claws raking the  trees.

Judging  by the burning gouges in the wood and the blackening of the bark around  the damaged areas, those antlers weren't the only part of the monster  that was venomous. I glanced back at it, triggering Pit of Despair as we  ran, and the forest floor vanished under it as it dropped into the  hole. Sadly, the hole was ten feet deep, which meant its antlered head  was still above the ground and then some.

I  let the skill drop, the ground resolidifying, and it roared in rage,  its head whipping around as it chomped and gnashed its teeth. Not that  we stayed to watch, because fuck that noise. We booked it around the  long way, following the compass and taking off towards Jessie, leaving  behind the roaring of the creature as we did.

"That was fucking terrifying." I panted breathlessly as we ran. "I hope we never have to see one of those things again."

"Yeah."  Said Callie uneasily. "It's just..." She trailed off, looking around  anxiously. I could feel her fear through the bond as we fled, and I  wasn't sure what she had to be so afraid of.

I  glanced at her in concern. "What? What is it? That thing is going to  take a minute to get free, and we'll be well out of tracking range  hopefully. I'm sure it'll run into something else to distract it before  it catches our trail." I paused. "Though we should definitely use  stealth once we're a bit further away. Really ensure our escape. Is that  what you were thinking?"

She  shook her head." No. It's not that. It's just...that thing's head  shape, the way it carried itself. It kind of reminded me of a wolf."

I  chuckled. "Ah, yeah I saw that too. It was definitely a weird looking  bastard that's for sure. But why focus on that one aspect? Whatever that  thing was, it had a little bit of everything in there. Why does the  fact that it looked like it was part wolf matter."

There  was another twinge in my Danger Sense, and this time Callie felt it  through the bond and yanked me aside as the claws lashed through where  I'd been standing. I heard another monstrous howl, and then from the  other side of the clearing a third, and then a fourth, and I paled as I  realized what Callie had been saying.

"Because."  My girlfriend said grimly as she drew a pair of dark daggers and took  up a fighting stance. "Wolves hunt in packs." From the darkness, half a  dozen looming green scaled forms resolved themselves, envenomed horns  scraping the boughs and branches of trees as the emerged surprisingly  quietly from the shadows. I reached back to draw my staff with a  grimace. I was really starting to fucking hate the woods.