Wish upon the Stars

I was feeling much better when I woke up. This bed wasn't nearly as  comfortable as the one at the Inn, but it was still pretty nice.  Sleeping in my armor wasn't ideal, but with my Vitality it wasn't  exactly going to give me problems. I got up, stretched a bit, planning  to change the clothes under my armor to something clean (because I  didn't want to have to wash the coat and the leather armor every day)  after a shower in the fairly huge connected bathroom.

There  was probably something insulting about being relieved there was a  shower here, but I honestly didn't care. I'd been terrified for a minute  when I woke up that I'd need to have servants fill up a tub for me like  some kind of ancient barbarian. Cleansing water should rain down from  above like the tears of heaven, smoothing away the cares and worries of  your life. Soaking in your own filth was disgusting, and I held no  appreciation for baths.

Sadly my daily communion with the  gods of falling water was interrupted by a banging on the door. "Shane.  We're busy today, you can't just sit in there for two hours like you  usually do."

"I always get things done!" I yelled back. "I only shower on my downtime. Can't I have five minutes of peace?"

Callie,  who was interrupting my attempt at inner peace, groaned. "I have to  shower too, and you're...well I don't know how much hot water there is,  but you've been in there an hour. Get out so I can get ready." I did,  grumbling the whole time about controlling girlfriends who don't  appreciate the finer things in life.

She just rolled her  eyes, shoving past me rudely, and I rolled my eyes as I went to get  dressed, first in new clean clothes and then in my armor and coat. My  mask I waited on, because I really preferred not to wear it as often as  possible. It starts to fuck with your sense of self when you see a blank  piece of wood every time you look in the mirror.

After  ten minutes or so Callie slipped out, throwing on her own clothes. She  had to wash hers daily since you can't really wear an outfit under it.  Since we left places with accessible clothes washers, she'd picked up a  box at the bazaar that did the same thing, some kind of water magic item  she kept in her spatial ring that could clean everything in five  minutes or so. Sadly it wasn't made for leather stuff like mine.

"Oh  don't pout." She chuckled as she looked at me. "You can take another  one before bed tonight, stay in there for a nice long while since we'll  be done with everything for the day."

I shrugged. "Fair  enough. I wasn't really that upset about it, it's just early and I felt  like sulking a bit." I winked at her. "Gotta save the little fits of  pique for alone time now that I'm the boss. Wouldn't do to have me  people see me as undignified."

"Lucky me." She drawled  sarcastically. Still, she strolled up and kissed me good morning. "Oh,  by the way. Thank you, for everything with Anna-Marie. I know you didn't  do it for me, but you made the right decision with no hesitation. It's  really sweet." She blushed. "I know it's lame but she kind of reminds me  of me in a way. I feel bad for her. Her dad is a controlling dick and  she has no confidence."

I chuckled. "Not that I object to  the gratitude, but she seemed like she needed help. " I hesitated before  saying gently. "Although if you insist on sympathizing with every  person in the universe that has a shitty dad, we're going to get sucked  into a LOT of bullshit."

"I know." She winced. "I'm  working on it. Being away from home helps, out on my own I have to think  about it less. Plus the thought that I'll probably be stronger than him  next time I go home. I think in this case it worked out for us though.  But hey, you're the one in charge now, so you can make sure I don't go  overboard. It's a win win."

My smile melted into a frown.  "We're still partners you know. Paired dueling, and...you know, us." I  reached out and pulled her against me. "You always listened to my ideas  when you were in charge, and honestly I don't think I could do most of  the things that need doing without you. Your understanding of politics  and just people in general. I mean, Celine helps, but..."

"She  does though, right?" She said emphatically, her voice tinged with  shock. "Like, damn she's useful to have around. I was just doing Benny a  favor, but she's helping a ton."

Our conversation was cut  off sadly, as ANOTHER knock came, this one from the large door to our  room rather than the bathroom. I headed over to pull it open, and found  Anna-Marie waiting outside with a pair of guards. She smiled brightly at  me. "Oh, Solomon. It's nice to see your face. I admit your mask can be  somewhat unsettling. Knowing there's a person under it is...a relief."

I  cursed internally as I realized I wasn't wearing it, but honestly it  wasn't like secret identities mattered. It had defensive properties, but  I didn't really need them in my room. Still, I pulled it out of my ring  and slipped it on both saddened and secretly relieved to be wearing the  damned thing.

"Sorry I can't stay like that. Safety  thing." I said wryly. "But I'm glad to put you at ease. Anyway, what can  we do for you? We just woke up so we haven't really had time to eat or  anything yet."

Her face brightened even further. "Oh!  That's why I'm here. I wanted to invite everyone to breakfast in one of  the feast halls so we might discuss the awakening."

"That  sounds lovely." Callie cheered as she shoved me out of the way. I rolled  my eyes as she bulled past me to snag the princess's arm, noting that  Valk was towering off to the side, the red bearded warrior having been  the first person she picked up apparently. I raised an eyebrow at him,  and he huffed and averted his eyes. Interesting.

It took  us all of five minutes to get everyone else, though we had to stop for  Abel first so we could get Randall out of Jessie's room. Apparently  there was also a balcony off the room he could theoretically use, but  the weight of a giant bear falling from several hundred feet up would  leave a huge hole, even on the off chance that it didn't hurt Randall  given the extra gravity here and the hardness of the stone below.

My  State of Grace would actually be perfect for getting down from there,  and I filed it away as an emergency exit if we needed one, though I  hoped it didn't come up. When we all made it to the feast hall, we sat  down and servants began to bring out heaping plates of food as  Anna-Marie chattered animatedly, telling us all about the castle and the  kingdom.

Once again I noted she spoke more about history  and landmarks than current citizens, not that I blamed her there. She  loved the kingdom, clearly, even if she could take or leave the people  in it. It made me wonder exactly what kind of ruler she would be if we  helped her get the crown. She seemed like a sweet person so far, and  mixed in with her history lessons there were some pretty interesting  political ideas (at least to me) so that was a good sign.

Finally,  I decided to get us on track. "Anna-Marie, I'm really enjoying the  stories and the information about the kingdom, but I think maybe we  ought to talk about the actual awakening. We don't know much. How do we  harvest the Dew, how much will we get, and how many chances? Not to cut  you off, but we want to make sure to get as much as possible for both of  us. Speaking of, what kind of distribution did you want?"

She  winced. "Well, the standard is half, because of the resources needed to  ferry the outsiders around and the guards we lend them." Her eyes went  wide and she hurried to add. "We can talk it over though. I'm open to  changing things. As for the rest..." She sighed. "I'd wanted to wait  until after breakfast since it can be a bit involved." She took a dainty  bite of her breakfast, some kind of filleted fish breakfast sandwich,  chewing and thinking before finally swallowing to speak.

"The  god Dew spawns from flowers. Specifically Lunar Cascade Lightblooms.  They're extremely rare, and they die after being harvested." She closed  her eyes, as if trying to remember a lot of information. "They tend to  concentrate in high places, require dense humidity, and are obviously  nurtured by moonlight. Outside of awakenings moonlight is difficult to  come by, the sky becomes dark and turbulent. We get the occasional  streak of moonshine breaking through, but they rarely happen to coincide  with a patch of flowers, hence the rarity of the Dew in normal  circumstances."

This was useful info, though not the kind  we needed now, so I waited for her to continue. "The flowers are  incredibly difficult to find, but we've noticed over the years that  outsiders seem to be drawn to them unconsciously. We believe our  attunement to the planet makes us too accustomed to the energy they use.  Fantasy can draw one toward opportunities, but the flowers aren't  opportunities for us. They're slightly unusual but they do pop up and  then die with some frequency, even if they aren't saturated with  moonlight at the time."

"That's pretty fascinating." Said  Callie with interest. "I didn't know fate sense worked like that. I  could see why you'd need us then. What are the flowers like exactly? And  how much Dew do they produce."

The princess winced. "Not  much. Six drops per flower patch, usually, sometimes a bit more,  sometimes less. The ones we find will also most likely be contested.  Maybe by our own, maybe by the teams from neighboring kingdoms. They're  most often found in the mountain ranges north of Ladrigan, which act as a  sort of core for the ring of kingdoms. " She pointed out a window at  the end of the room. "Those mountains, actually. The castle was placed  here as a defensive rampart against invasion, though the mountains are  treacherous enough that few try."

That didn't sound ideal.  "Define treacherous. Like...slippery and with poor visibility?" I  wasn't sure how those things would dissuade an army of F-rankers though,  so I suspected it wasn't that.

"There are monsters that  roam the mountains." She said apologetically. "Arctic werewolves, Yeti,  snow women, ice goblins, and dozens of other creatures at home in the  frost. Some of them have harvested the flowers themselves and grown  strong. There's even an ice wyvern nesting somewhere up there, though we  aren't sure where."

"No wonder they want to send us." I  said with a wince. "You mentioned resources earlier though. What kind of  resources? Some kind of enchanted gear to make travel easier?"

She  nodded in relief, clearly having expected me to flip the table and  storm out when I learned we were being used as fodder. Not like I  expected much better from someone like Crighton. "Among other things.  Warming enchantments, certain antidotes to frost poisons common up  there. The list is...extensive." She looked troubled. "But I have  nothing to trade for the necessary resources. We'll be at a huge  disadvantage."

Having slept and gotten back all my wishes  (though I was pretty sure I'd forgotten to use one or two of them in the  hubbub yesterday) I just grinned at her behind my mask. "Well maybe I  can help with that." I said mischievously. "Tell me, what do you know  about the Wish Curse Palace?" I wasn't going to tell her the whole  story, but claiming to have access to wishes had worked before, no point  not using that excuse again.