Wish upon the Stars chapter 1188 (Patreon)

I woke up relaxed. I opened an eye drowsily, looking around, expecting to need to go do something important. I’d been reexperiencing my life for the past two weeks, and while I’d had time off, I hadn’t been completely free of responsibility in a while.

Granted, we were leaving today, but it wouldn’t be right away, and honestly, catching a ride wasn’t exactly rocket science. Unless we were riding in a rocket, in which case someone else would presumably have done the rocket science part and I would just be chilling in the back. But since this was an Ascendant academy, I was pretty sure that wasn’t how we’d be leaving.

“Why are you up?” grumbled Callie as she poked her head out of the blankets. Callie couldn’t stand light on her eyelids when sleeping, but she didn’t like masks (I had mentioned the irony), so she tended to sleep with the blanket pulled up over her eyes like a hood, because she also didn’t like her mouth covered. “We have to leave in like six hours, we should be sleeping. How am I supposed to sleep when you’re up?”

I snorted, rolling out of bed and popping to my feet. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll manage. You do almost every morning.”

“No, but now you WOKE me,” she whined, burying her head in the blanket. “I won’t be able to get back to sleep. You should at least go get me-”

“Breakfast,” I cut her off, waving a hand and letting a literal silver platter appear on my side of the bed. “And coffee,” I snagged a steaming cup from my ring. “Because you are nothing in not predictable, and I have to check in with everyone. We’re all meeting up in Common City. Elonwy is probably already there, Winnie too. But I want to beat Benny so I can make fun of him for being so slow.”

She snorted as she poked her head out, taking the coffee and sipping greedily with a happy sigh. “You should cut him some slack. He was so upset you didn’t get to see him show off his new tricks. Abel said it was really impressive.”

“I know,” I groaned. “But he’s a B-ranker now. Once we get home he’ll be hitting the front lines with the others. He’ll have plenty of time to prove himself. Honestly, we had bigger things to worry about during that whole mess. Not that I would SAY that to him, I’m not a complete bastard, but still, he’s got to know it deep down.”

“It’s comforting to me that despite having the ability to literally see through time, you still manage to miss the point somehow,” she said fondly. “He’s feeling ignored, Shane. He’s your best friend, you brought him along to this because you wanted him around, and then we all got separated and barely got any time together. I know it wasn’t your fault, but you could try to make some time for him in the next few months.”

I grimaced. “I have twelve more pages to bind, so I’m going to be on the frontlines myself. Not to mention we have more problems than just the Void. Drexel is still around, and you just KNOW he’s going to pop up at the least opportune time.”

“That does seem to be the way our lives work,” she admitted. “Just…try. He’s getting married soon. Maybe you could do a bachelor’s vacation or something. Take the boys to a war zone and fight some Void Spawn. Or whatever you do when I’m not around, I honestly lose track of your hobbies.” She winked at me.

“Eat your breakfast, woman,” I told her with an eye roll. “My only hobby is getting out of this conversation.” I blew her a kiss and turned to leave, ignoring her laugh as I headed over to check on Winnie. My friend had already left for the meetup, so I decided to head over there myself.

I made decent time, and I arrived to find the place packed. Dozens of Asura were already there, chatting and laughing. Apparently they’d all had a good time here too. I made a mental note to get to know some of my wife’s subordinates, since just referring them as ‘the Asura’ was probably not great for morale, at least if I did it out loud.

Besides them, I noted my own people intermingling. Abel, Chelsea, Bethy, her siblings and…her friend with the butterfly wings. Casi. I raised an eyebrow as I spotted her. “We have another tagalong?” I asked in surprise. “I wasn’t expecting another travel buddy.”

“Nah, Casi just wanted to say goodbye,” Bethy beamed. “We’re going to keep in touch and she might even visit. Apparently her family is a big deal in one of the higher realms, so she knows how to drop in. It’ll be so much fun to get visitors!” she clapped her hands excitedly, and I cocked my head at my sister.

She shrugged. “You know Bethy, always making friends. Besides, having a channel to an upper realm might be useful. SOME of us have to think about the family.” She made sure her tone was teasing as she needled me about my constant distraction from my job

“Please,” I scoffed. “I just hired an S-ranker to act as a personal Mythology tutor to our A and S-rankers. The rest of the Wishmasters had never even HEARD of Mythcrafting. Speaking of Wishmasters, where are my other cabinet members. I saw Crell at the big throwdown, but I haven’t seen Wulf, Peter, or Marco. And where the hell is Vicky?”

My cousin tended to remain in the background most of the time when we were doing violence, being more inclined to artistic pursuits like her painting, but I didn’t expect her to be quite THIS absent.

“She’s around,” my sister assured me. “She got WAY into the enchanting department. Found a mentor, made friends, she was really broken up about leaving. I think she’s still saying her goodbyes. She’ll be here though. Nobody is going to miss our departure window, and we still have a few hours.”

Benny added. “Peter was in the trade department, and given the mess with their Dean, well…things have been complicated over there. He passed his exams with flying colors, of course, but one of his teachers got swept up in the purge when they cleaned out the cultists, and he had some last minute redos on work to pay back a few revoked credits.”

My master of banking was the perfect fit for the trade department, so I wasn’t surprised there, but I WAS pretty shocked that he hadn’t come to me about such a big mess. “How did you know all that anyway?” I asked Benny. “Were you guys hanging out?”

“Nah, Marco told me,” he said with a laugh. “We ended up at the crafting department together.”

I nodded. My master of development was Peter’s brother in law, and as much of an inventing prodigy as Peter was a logistics savant. Keeping track of his brother in law made sense, and I was happy to hear Benny was making friends with him. Marco had been taken advantage of by shady business types in the WCP before I found him, and I’d broken his contract myself when I found out exactly HOW shady.

Abel piped in. “And Alanna, Fade, Dayna, and Mel are all running late. There’s some last minute auctions at the weapons department. They're trying to score some deals before leaving. Mel isn’t exactly a weapon user, but she does like those fire foci. I’m skeptical they’ll have anything for her but it never hurts to try.”

“That’s the spirit Amber,” Bethy said encouragingly. “Just keep at it. I’m sure if you don’t give up you can learn to fight someday and maybe even be part of Shane’s team.”

“I was his COMBAT teacher,” Abel bellowed in outrage. “I’ve known him longer than you!”

Bethy scrunched up her face. “That doesn’t seem right. I’m pretty sure Shane and I have been besties since we were born. We grew up together. I remember when we were kids and we met in-”

Benny held up a finger threateningly. “I will cut you,” he said bluntly. “I might suffer for it, I might even die, but I’ll still do it.”

Clearing her throat, Bethy flushed. “I…sorry, I got carried away. I was just kidding.”

“Steal someone else’s backstory,” Benny said bluntly. “I know all about what you did to Samuels. We still can’t remember his first name.”

“That wasn’t my FAULT,” she protested. “Everyone knows vampires can steal your name. Also he lost it to me fair and square in that poker game.” At his blank expression she sighed and nodded, not hiding her pout. “Ok,” she mumbled. “Sorry I guess.”

We spent the next few hours catching up, laughing and just generally enjoying ourselves. Callie showed up an hour or two later, and Elonwy, and Winnie. Casi left and Elonwy handed me a small bronze key she said was a gift from the Prof. There was a note wrapped around it explaining its use as a one time access point to the tower even without the physical building around. I was kind of touched, until he told me he was opening a tab for me in credits to be paid back if I ever used it. That was less heart warming.

Finally, the sun began to set, and it was time to go. “Alright, so how are we leaving?” I asked El, curious about this part. I had honestly wondered how we were supposed to get out, since our entry came through the frozen moment rooms.

She raised an eyebrow at me in disbelief. “Um, obviously we’re driving,” she said like I’d asked the stupidest question in the world. She pulled out a set of keys, pressing a button, and her car just…appeared. Several of the nearby Ascendants jumped, though I definitely wasn’t one of them no matter what Benny was mouthing at my back mockingly.

“Will we all…fit?” I asked skeptically. “I know it’s expanded-”

“It’s a fourth dimensional construct,” she said acidly. “It’s as big as it needs to be. Just get in, I’ll show you.” Snorting, I gestured for the nearest member of my crew to climb inside. First in was Fade, of course, as my bodyguard. Then Alanna, then Abel. Bethy followed, then the Asura started to get in. It was honestly hilarious to watch, like a bunch of clowns climbing into a clown car.

Eventually, it was my turn, and I climbed back inside, not that surprised to find the whole thing much bigger than before. In fact, it had changed completely. Carpets were replaced with tile, seats with diner style booths, and there was even a counter with a soda fountain on it.

“Is this kitchen functional?” I called out the still open door.

“Of course it is!” Elonwy called back. “Knock yourself out. This trip will be a bit longer than the last one. Further to go.”

I’d given El directions based on Dantalion’s instructions. He’d spent enough time in out home dimension to have absorbed a lot of background data like that. Shrugging at the news, I stepped behind the counter, calling Beelzebub and then having all the copies incarnate Cooking. Everyone stared as the other me’s spread out, and I grinned at them as we started to raid the fridge and cabinets.

“Well, you heard the lady, we’re going to be here for a while.” I spread my arms expansively. “And you know what we do when we finish a big mission and have time to settle down. Everyone get your orders in, we’re having a feast.” There was a cheer of excitement, and Callie all but teleported to my side, seriously informing me of her truly gargantuan order, which she would no doubt justify by being pregnant despite having always eaten like that. I grinned and looked out over the faces of my friends and colleagues. Leaving the academy wasn’t so bad after all, I supposed. Not when I still had all this going for me.