Wish upon the Stars chapter 982

Getting back to my mom’s estate didn’t take much work to arrange. We could have taken a shuttle, but after some deliberation we decided to fly back. The angels, Callie, Bethy and I all had wings, but my sister didn’t, so Sera and Holly took one arm each and carried her. Bethy seemed mildly put out by that fact, and insisted on doing it herself, but Chelsea found her offer of “whooshing around on a cloud of bats” less than enticing so the sisters did it.

One of the things I hadn’t noticed about the tower until we got back up to the top was how perfectly situated it was for flight. Like yes, it was huge and mostly surrounded by empty airspace, but it was more than that. The placement made it easy to see clear flight paths to several major cities, and finding the route back was simple enough.

“You ready?” I asked Chelsea as we all stood up at the top of the tower. “Flying is pretty wild, but being carried like this might be scary at first. Don’t worry about falling though, I have plenty of ways to catch you.”

She snorted with amusement. “I’m not worried. Bethy won’t let me fall even if you do.” Despite her verbal certainty, however, I saw a bit of concern. I hummed with consideration.

“Actually, what if you could fly yourself?” I asked slowly. “Your diagram can combine things right? Opposites? Well you and I ARE twins. Sammael’s black flame is pretty much diametrically opposed to the white flame of purification. Do you think you could use the diagram to trigger your own angelic form if I helped?”

She bit her lip. “Maybe?” she hedged. “I mean, I have a Solid Path for it, but not a Chronicle. I’m still D-rank too. It might be too much for me to affect.”

“Try using it on me,” I told her. “I’ll do my best to help. I have a few ideas.”

Chelsea was my twin sister. That was a bond. Maybe not the same as the one I had with Callie, but the Skill was angelic bond not wife bond. If she could get partway there, I might be able to use our blood connection to push the connection to where I needed it to be. She closed her eyes, and above her head, the diagram rotated into existence. White flame blazed over her fingers as she clenched her fists, and I felt the connection attempt to form.

It wasn’t going to work. I was a C-ranker, and Sammael was a potent form, it was too much for her diagram…normally. Focusing on our blood tie, I wrapped it around the Angelic Bond Skill, using that to connect our souls temporarily, and then using that connection, I triggered my staff’s upgrade ability. I pushed her diagram Skill up a rank, and as soon as it hit C-rank, our blood tie, the angelic bond, and the balance between our abilities all clicked together and..”Oh!”

Opening my eyes, I grinned at the downy white wings spreading from my sister’s back. She blinked, flapping them once. Then again. “Man that’s weird,” she said slowly. “It’s like I have a pair of really clumsy new arms I didn’t have before.”

“It’s temporary,” I reminded her. “This is straining my Chronicle. Not enough to do any damage, but enough that I won’t be able to hold it for more than an hour or two.”

She nodded slowly. “Yeah, I get that. It’s…interesting. I wonder if I can create my own version. I have a few ideas, but for now…we’re going flying right? Why don’t you show me around the sky, little brother?”

I rolled my eyes at that last bit, unwilling to get into a ‘who was born first’ argument, but jumped up on the battlements, spreading my wings. “Flying is easy,” I told her authoritatively. “It’s just falling with style. Lean forward, spread your wings and…” I let myself drop, my wings catching the wind as I pitched forward. I was aimed down, so I fell at an angle, sort of a dive. I pulled in to steepen it, spun, and then used my momentum in a sort of swoop to slingshot myself back up into the air.

My wings were wrapped up with my subskills, one of which was state of grace, which meant that the restrictions of gravity were more like suggestions to me, so my navigation was smooth and easy, but Chelsea’s wings were a counterbalance of Sammael, so she was probably in the same boat.

I shot past them on my upswing, then spread my wings wide as I reached the peak, hovering in the air above them as I grinned down at my sister. “Like that. Give it a shot.”

Snorting in challenge, Chelsea got a running start and threw herself off the tower, wings spread…and proceeded to plummet like a rock. Cursing, I shot down after her, grabbing the back of her shirt and letting state of grace establish itself on her. Guess that answered that question.

Holly and Sera shot down and snagged her arms, pulling her up to the battlement again and setting her down. I landed and shook my head. “Ok, that was my bad. This was more intuitive for me. Now, what you did there was wrong. You let your whole weight drop right on top of your wings. Like the flying version of a belly flop.”

Spreading my feathers out behind me, I indicated the structure. “When you fly, you’re not holding yourself up with wing strength. That’s tiring and counterproductive. Like I said, falling with style. You need to use your wings to guide yourself into a sort of smooth forward motion. Don’t try to hover. What I did a minute ago was sort of cheating, and I can see how you would take the wrong lesson from that. But you want to be in constant motion.”

“It helps to think of it like swimming,” Holly added. “When you’re in the water, you use forward momentum to keep from sinking. You CAN just float, but not everyone is able to do that. For a lot of people, they need to paddle hard or do a backstroke or something to keep from sinking. Gravity is dragging you down, so don’t fight it, just help it decide where to drag.”

She leapt forward, wings catching, and smoothly glided out into the open air, doing a slow, lazy half circle and coming back. “See? Nothing to it.”

Callie nodded. “She’s right. One of the big problems I had with learning to fly was fighting the urge to stop trying to just overpower the air with my wings. Flight isn’t a battle. The air isn’t your enemy, it’s your partner.” She glanced back at her new wings. “Of course, I can’t really be much help as I am now. Flying with six wings is way different than two. Honestly I expected to have trouble with it, but it just sort of came naturally.”

“It’s your trait,” explained Holly. “You have natural instincts for flight. I have no idea how Shane adjusted so quickly to his wings.”

I did. State of grace. But I couldn’t share that with Chelsea, so it wasn’t useful here, so I just shrugged. “Just a talent. But you’re doing fine. You tried to do it wrong, but the actual process of spreading your wings and flying was pretty smooth. Your technique just needs a little work.”

After a few more attempts, Chelsea was able to get her sea legs (sky wings?) and we were off to the races. The feeling of weightlessness as we jumped from the tower was…indescribable. No matter how many times I flew, I’d never really get used to it. The sense of freedom that came with having wings was unlike anything else in the world. Being an Ascendant let you do so many amazing things, but even high ranked Ascendants could only fly on planets at or around their own rank. With wings though, I could touch these skies that only A-rankers should be able to traverse in a way that had nothing to do with bloodlines or wishes.

In some ways, Sammael was my crowning achievement. Of all my strange and amazing forms, that one was the one I was most proud of. Because I made it myself. I studied the trait the angels had and created something completely unique.

Callie’s original trait was based on Sammael too, as was her Archangel trait, indirectly. I knew that her new Adherent Archangel form made her feel the same way. THe indescribable pride of taking the tools she was born with and turning something powerful into something truly unique that belonged only to her.

Drifting across the sky, I reached out and took her hand, the two of us flying together, eternity stretched out below us like a tapestry of tumbling time, an endless riot of possibilities falling away as we soared above the world together.

Her hand squeezed mine tightly, and I felt the love and peaceful joy that washed through our bond.

“Ewww can you NOT right now?” Yelled my sister from not far away. “I’m CONNECTED to that. I’m glad you two are so happy together, but EXPERIENCING it personally is…deeply unsettling.”

I laughed, and Callie tightened the bond to cut off the flow of adoration. She didn’t say anything to Chelsea though. Having to be a witness to someone’s deepest emotions sounded uncomfortable to me too. I’d honestly forgotten she was even connected to the bond. Another reason not to do this again too often.

For now though, I couldn’t help but enjoy the sights and sounds of soaring above the clouds. “This is so cool!” Bethy shrieked happily as she glided along behind us on her wings. “I’ve flown as a bat before, but this is totally different. I feel like I’m back on that crazy glider thing from the Moonsong Glade!” She laughed happily, twirling in midair in a way I wasn’t sure I could have managed myself, arms spread in joy like she was embracing the sky.

I’d forgotten that day. Gliding off the top of a mountain that turned out to be the hand of a dead god. It was amazing to me how far we’d come since then, and how far we still had to go.

Seraph was beautiful, and the rolling hills and shining oceans skimmed beneath us as we flew, making pretty good time through the air. Finally though, we came upon the specific city we’d been heading for. The capital of Seraph, Elion. And on the second tallest mountain, a shining golden edifice of power and protection, my mother’s estate.

We banked toward it, and while we were still over the ocean, I dove down to skim over the water, letting my fingers drag in the surf as I blurred along the surface before pulling up hard and shooting off into the air.

The others followed suit, doing some fun tricks and just generally enjoying themselves until we passed the water, at which point we headed for the estate directly. 

My mother was waiting for us when we arrived, and as soon as we touched down she hurried forward to sweep us all into tight hugs “There you are! It’s our last family dinner before leave, I was afraid you’d miss it.” She reached up to tug at me windswept hair. “Oh, honestly Shane, we need to get you a helmet. Or a haircut.”

“I like it long,” Callie preened as she reached up to run her fingers through my nearly shoulder length locks. “And a helmet feels a little stiff. Maybe a crown? Or would that be too on the nose.”

“No helmets,” I said bluntly. “I don’t want hat hair. And a crown is too much. My hair is fine the way it i- hey, where are you going? I’m not finished talking yet!” The two of them turned and strolled away, chatting about my current aesthetic, and I just sighed and followed behind them. Whatever, it wasn’t like they could make me wear anything I didn’t want. Now I just had to wait for dinner and goodbyes to distract them.