Wish upon the Stars chapter 1244 (Patreon)

The inside of the maze really felt like another world. Sunshineville, even around the hedge maze, had this underlying sense of stability and safety, but this place was different. Here, everything felt kind of…vague. Like I was lost from the moment I stepped inside. My mom frowned as she sensed it herself. “Shit,” she said softly. At my confused look, she sighed, explaining. “This isn’t a maze.”

Lark nodded. “Labyrinth,” he said in a flat voice.

“What’s the difference, exactly?” I asked in confusion. “A labyrinth is the same thing as a maze, isn’t it?”

“Mazes are two sided,” she corrected. “They have an entrance and an exit, but their purpose is to be navigable. Mazes have a bunch of paths, but they also have an entrance and an exit. A labyrinth doesn’t. It has an entrance and a center, but there’s only one real path to get to that center.”

I nodded slowly. “You’re talking about that weird sense of unreality.”

“It’s called directional vertigo,” Lark grimaced. “It’s a labyrinth thing. They’ve got recursion about getting lost. Also monsters waiting inside, usually. Not sure that this one will have that, it might not fit the vibe, but then again maybe it does. I don’t know enough about the Domain holder to say. Just keep an eye out.”

I nodded absently. “Of course. This place is definitely not the nice little hamlet Sunshineville is. It’s pretty gloomy. I wonder if the Domain holder found some way to concentrate all the negativity into this small space? Maybe something to do with his Path? Like how my Domain could seal and bind. Whatever the case, we were here now, and I was no longer wondering if this was the right place. I could feel that we were getting close to the source of this place.

Gripping my staff, I stepped around the corner, ready to take on anything. I still had Mornax at S-rank. I was sure that in his armor, Lark was tougher than I was, and possibly out of it given he was a Demigod, but my gear wasn’t anything to sneeze at either, and I was confident leading from the front in this case. I was ready to hold my ground no matter what I found, ready to handle whatever came my way…until I saw what was actually there and froze in my tracks, gaping at the sight in front of me.

It was…haunted. Not in the grim, terrible sense, though it had some of that too. More in the sense that it looked like a haunted house. Tombstones and cobwebs, spiders and spooky pumpkins, not to mention skeletons standing around with swords and shields.

Everything here was a threat, mind, but it was the most stereotypical creepy setting imaginable, to the point that it created a sense of dissonance. This stuff shouldn’t BE scary, not really, but it was and I didn’t really understand how. There was even a big hexagonal box with a cross on it that I knew was a coffin, and as we came around the corner, it began to open slowly, the noise of its creaking splitting the still air as mist began to usher forth from under the lid.

Lark’s head snapped up, red eyes glaring at the coffin, and the creepily opening lid froze mid swing. The Vampire stared daggers at the box, and the mist was sucked slowly back inside, the coffin lid easing itself closed. The second it was shut I heard a series of clicks, like someone had just thrown a bunch of dead bolts, and the box went still. Lark looked like he was debating ripping it open anyway, but eventually snorted and turned to leave. I swear I heard the box sigh in relief.

I raised a brow at Lark, but he didn’t bother to turn back, and after a suspicious look of my own at the box, I shook my head and followed him, assuming he’d picked up some kind of direction somehow. We walked off down another hallway and the graveyard fell away, revealing another room, this one appearing to be a spooky laboratory.

“This place is weird,” I said slowly as I looked around the room. “But it feels different than the last one. Any ideas why?”

Lark nodded. “Because we found the labyrinth guardian,” he said calmly. He gestured to the center of the room, where a table was reclined at about forty five degrees. It took me a second to figure out what he meant, because there was a sheet over it, but as I watched, the figure on the table sat up, the sheet falling away to reveal a truly colossal man.

The man was pale, his deep set eyes flat and black all the way through like dark glass, his face was sharp, with hard edges and a blocky jaw, and I could feel the staggering power coming off him in waves. This was a Demigod level being, and not a weak one. His eyes bored into Lark’s and I could almost feel the pressure crackling on the air between them as the man climbed off the table.

His physique was strange, his body proportions unsettling, as if he was built from parts that were all slightly too big for their bodies, and the overall effect was far from harmonious. I could see stitching on his exposed flesh, a clear indication that this was a necromantic construct, though one that felt much different than Rawhead and Bloody Bones. This one wasn’t leaking the same terrifying corruption as the last. This being felt…scary. But in a protective way. Like someone had weaponized bad dreams as a shield against evil.

I wasn’t sure what gave me that vibe, but I had it, and I knew that I should follow it. So I did. I stepped forward, between the two Demigods, interrupting Lark before he could attack. “Hello,” I said to the large man. “I’m here to speak to your creator. Is he available?”

The menacing momentum building throughout the chamber sputtered, the atmosphere fading as both of them just stared at me in disbelief. The large man spoke, his voice like the rumble of a thousand crashing landslides. “You wish…to talk?” He sounded almost incredulous. I was pretty sure. It was hard to tell with that baritone.

“I didn’t come here to make an enemy,” I shrugged. “We’re here to help. The Blood Witch has been taking your citizens and using them to corrupt this Domain. We want to take away her power, and that coincides with your needs. There’s no reason to fight about this. In fact, I have a lot of questions for your creator, not just about this issue, but about several other things we have in common. So…yeah. I’d like to talk. Will he meet with me?”

Lark looked like he’d bitten into a lemon, but my mom was grinning like a loon. I could understand his position, to be honest. I’d only been Wishmaster for a year or two now, and I’d already gotten used to acting from a position of strength. Someone like Lark would have been a million times more used to getting his way or fighting.

But honestly, I didn’t WANT every single interaction with everyone to be a battle. I wanted to work with the Domain holder, and if that meant exercising a little politeness, I didn’t mind bowing my head a bit.

The big man stared at me for a moment, finally nodding. “I will extend your offer,” he rumbled diplomatically. “My Master will make the determination for himself.”

“I appreciate that, Mr…what do I call you, exactly?” I kept my tone polite and pleasant.

“Stein,” he boomed. “My Master calls me Stein. I would ask that you wait as I seek his counsel. Similarly, I wish for you to restrain your…associate. He appears quite eager to shed blood, and we have residents within these walls who fear his potential reprisal.” I wasn’t sure how he knew that, but it confirmed that there had been some kind of Vampire in that coffin, and that Lark understandably terrified the poor thing.

I shot Lark a look and he grimaced, but nodded. “I haven’t seen any confirmed instances of anything I would be forced to react to with violence.” He said casually. “So long as that continues to be the case, I don’t see why I couldn’t remain here peacefully while you get in touch with your boss.” Translation: keep your vampire out of my sight and I won’t have to kill it.

Which made me wonder how exactly the meeting between him and Alara would go. Had gone? Had they met already? I knew she’d had friction with Bethy, which had then been smoothed over, but I hadn’t heard anything specific about her interacting with Lark that I could remember. How much did his reputation as a vampire scourge control his actions? Clearly he could choose not to cause problems if he wanted to, but was that request not to see the other vampire a kindness or a necessity? Would he go crazy if he caught sight of them?

Whatever the case, he clearly wasn’t crazy now, and he leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms as Stein walked past us, keeping a close eye on the large construct. Once he was gone, he turned to look at me critically. “You sure you want to do it this way?”

I was surprised he sounded so measured. “You’re not going to call me an idiot?”

“I told you,” he said bluntly. “Do everything you do all the way. You clearly want to make peace, and this is a good tone to start with. Just because it's not how I’d choose to proceed doesn’t make it a bad strategy. Plus your mom beaming at you over my shoulder is bound to undercut and criticisms I make, so I won’t waste my breath.”

My mom laughed. “What can I see, you and my husband may be the shoot first questions later type, but I still like to take a diplomatic approach when possible. I’m proud that my son got at least that much restraint from me. Besides which I suspect my daughter in law is going to be just as pleased when I tell her about this. Especially if this ends up netting us another ally for the upcoming conflict. That Stein person seems formidable.”

“He does,” Lark admitted. “He feels…heavy. And I get the feeling he’d be a better match for me than most. I almost want to start a fight anyway to see what he can do. I won’t, obviously, I’m here on business, but it was tempting.”

“Well I appreciate your forbearance,” I said dryly. “It’s nice to know you’re committed enough to the current job not to randomly attack strong people because you’re bored.”

He nodded graciously. “As long as you know. I’m giving up a lot here.”

I rolled my eyes, because I knew there was no way I was winning this argument with Bethy’s dad of all people. He might be less wacky in the day to day, but she’d learned her nonsense from him. Still, it was nice to know he was in our corner, even when he had interests elsewhere, I hadn’t really been sarcastic about that part. He could have started a fight and there wouldn’t have been much I could do.

We stood and waited there for about ten minutes, and eventually, I heard a steady thump in the hall outside. I blinked, looking up to see Stein enter the room. He was moving with purpose, and when he spotted me, he nodded deeply. 

“My Master has heard your request for parlay,” he said formally. “And decided to grant it. You may follow me to his location.” I nodded, expecting him to continue, but he just turned and wandered back out. I glanced at my mom, then at Lark, and then I shrugged and followed behind him. Guess it was time to meet the big boss.