Wish upon the Stars chapter 362

Rime came through. Or rather, Frostbite did. Upon receiving the call,  our ally combed through the local information sources and got us a  location for a recent fight matching the parameters we gave her. She  wasn't able to actually locate Celine, but she told us where the elf  girl HAD been, and that would be more than enough for me. Eye of  Revelation would let me track her if I had a place to start.

Just  as she said, Callie wasn't pulling punches either. Aside from Rime, she  also called her uncle to ask him to lend us The Four, and with Randall  thrown in that gave us SIX F-rankers. Which was good, because when we  arrived at the address we'd been given...there was a lot of damage.  Like, someone blew up the house levels of damage, except instead of  craters and ash, there were mostly trees.

Branches  and roots had torn the place apart, and I saw the twisted forms of huge  tree golems, though the ones around the house were dead and partially  rotted away. "Um..." I looked at Jessie, who was currently sitting on  Randall's back, her F-ranked green cloak drawn around her for  protection. "Can Celine do this? Because I feel like I'd have noticed."

Benny  shook his head from my other side. "No. Cel is more on the political  side of things. A lot of her Skills are aimed at reading tells and  remaining composed, she does have some nature manipulation stuff, but  it's all either small scale or very slow. This...this is not slow." He  looked at Jessie. "Could you do this? Even just in terms of growth rate?  I know that you can't really control plants like this given the  direction your power has gone."

She  shook her head. "This isn't G-rank plant manipulation. I don't know if  it's closer to F or E, but this kind of power is way beyond what I can  do within any reasonable period of time. But that's not what's bothering  me...there isn't any life in these plants. At least, not much. It seems  like whatever killed the golems sucked it out maybe? Or the plants  tried to defend themselves. The plant user wasn't the only powerful  person here."

That  gave me an idea of what we were dealing with, and it wasn't one I  liked. I walked up to the nearest damaged section of tree and used Eye  of Revelation. Under the view of my new gaze I could see a few clues I  hadn't before. Specifically enough to confirm my guess. "Cultists." I  spat. "This was Black Sorrow. Pietro used something like this. Some  weird kind of conceptual darkness that twists the world around it."

Callie  made an angry noise. "I remember. You think it's something like Fist of  the Red Revenant? That stuff creeped me out, but there's no way someone  like Pietro could be a direct descendant of Black Sorrow. Not if his  dad is only D-rank. Now that I know you can create Skills like  that...maybe he mixed his with a shadow power? Doesn't matter. This is a  lead. We just need to find them now."

She  was right. If Celine was being chased by cultists, we needed to help.  "The question is, where do I start?" I asked sheepishly. "The plant  stuff isn't Celine, so I can't use it to track her. I can only track  over short distances, so I need a location to begin my search." Twenty  feet wasn't a short distance in battle, but for tracking, it seriously  limited my options.

"Here."  Said Benny from off the side. I turned to find my friend kneeling next  to one of the trees, pointing to something I couldn't see. "This is an  earring I gave her. I have a matching ring that heats up a little when  it gets close. I bought it for her as a joke, because she told me she  didn't like surprises. I figured she'd like it, since she'd always know I  was coming. I...I'm surprised she's still wearing them."

That  was a surprisingly touching story, and it made me realize that Benny  and Celine probably had a lot of those. Just because I only saw them  around each other for a little bit didn't mean they didn't have a whole  relationship that none of us were aware of. This was the first real clue  to exactly how much my friend had been mourning, and despite having no  option to learn more without him telling me, I felt bad that I hadn't  understood how much Celine meant to him.

Well,  the only way to fix that would be to help find her. I approached the  earring, which Benny was smart enough not to pick up, and flexed Eye of  Revelation again. The earring glowed a soft green, and beside it, a set  of foot prints shone the exact same shade. "Got her. I can't really see  who might have been with her or following her, but I can tell you which  way she went."

I  started to track her. The residential area around us was shockingly  quiet and unruffled for a place with a giant tree tearing apart one of  its locations. I ignored it all though, following the foot steps behind  the house and past a small lake to a strip of woods. "I think this was a  safehouse or something." I said as we entered the trees. "No way the  cultists are stupid enough to bring them somewhere this close to the  woods. The elves had to have picked this spot."

Callie  made a noise of agreement. "That was my guess too. Based on the amount  of power thrown around, I think this might have been where Celine's  sister Nalia was staying. Which means the cultist around here is at  least E-rank. Which is...less than ideal."

I  could try to get in the way of whoever it was, but if they attacked  anyone but me we were screwed. Still, the E-rankers seemed to be gone at  least. I made sure to take the lead anyway. For one thing I was  tracking so I kind of had to, but for another if some E-rank asshole was  waiting in the wings to attack I'd be the one to get tagged.

We  followed the footsteps into the trees, then down a narrow gully, and  through a stream. As we crossed the river the footprints got REALLY  faint, and almost flickered out, but I managed to keep with them by  slowing down and shrinking the radius of my Eye of Revelation.

I  hadn't had much chance to train this one in the field, and the  knowledge that I could condense the twenty foot radius to increase  effect was damn helpful. It was also a minor change in the skill, which  meant my soul was barely taxed by keeping it up. Something that would be  necessary on long tracking missions if that became necessary.

"This  is weird." I murmured, using the bond to tap into Callie's Stealth  Skill to keep my voice from carrying. I still had stored charges of  Stealth too, but it didn't seem smart to use them when I had other  options. "The tracks are fading out. I'm keeping up, but I can't really  figure out why they would be doing that."

"Because."  Said a pained voice from up ahead. "I was trying to make them disappear  as I left them." We all looked up to see Celine propped up against a  tree, hand on her side, and blood leaking between her fingers. She had a  black eye and her hair was matted to her scalp with dark fluid on one  side. The biggest problem though, would have to be her other hand. The  flesh was black, like she'd been frostbitten, and it hung limply off to  one side.

"Cel!"  Shouted Benny, practically blurring across the space between them. It  was jarring to realize that his Might was way higher than mine because  of his specialization, something I knew but hadn't internalized really.  He stopped just short of grabbing her, looking on anxiously. "Are you  alright? What happened?" He looked over his shoulder. "Agria, can you  come help patch her up?"

Jessie  hopped down from the bear, zipping over to lay glowing green hands on  the elf. She winced. "These were made by an F-ranker. This will take a  while, Celine, sorry."

The  elf shook her head mutely, sighing in relief after a minute. "No." She  said with a hoarse voice. "It's more than enough. Thanks. Nalia and her  guards drew most of them off. The F-ranker that was left behind was  extremely injured. I was barely able to finish him off."

Reaching  down to touch the blackened arm, Jessie winced. "This...I can't fix  this." Benny's head snapped up. "This isn't damage, it's some kind of  persistent effect. Like a curse or something. If it was damaged or even  dead I could probably do something about it with enough time, but  whatever the force that made this wound is, it's still active, and it's  not something I can work against directly."

Celine  chuckled. "It's fine. The wound in my side is already feeling much  better. I can find a solution to the arm later. We need to get out of  the open. There's a cave near here. I've been slipping out to watch for  reinforcements, trying to use my Woodcraft Skill to stay out of sight.  It's only at Beginner, but my Perception is relatively high." She shot  me a wry look. "Though apparently it isn't useful on whatever it is  Solomon was doing."

I  just shrugged. "I don't play by the rules. It's a character defect."  Dropping the joking tone, I frowned at her worriedly as Benny and Jessie  helped her stand up. Jessie needed to keep a hand on her to heal, and  Benny was clearly reticent to let her out of his sight. "You sure you're  going to be ok? That hole in your side looks nasty."

She  just smiled. "I appreciate your concern. I admit it feels...nice, to  know you all care." Her smile wilted as she looked at Benny. "I  didn't...I didn't mean for you to come. I just wanted to say goodbye,  and say..." Her cheeks darkened. "That." Benny's smile could have split  his face in two, it was so wide.

"Of  course I came." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you too." He  hesitated, before saying quietly. "I'm not saying we're good. You  really hurt me. I'm not over that. But...it's less important right now  than making sure you're safe. We can work on things later. If you still  want to."

Leaning  her head against him, she nodded, her smile still in place, though  quieter and filled with pain. We got into the cave and helped her sit  down so Jessie could have better access, and I stepped up to use a combo  heal and scan heal. Jessie's ability (being the source of my heal  burst) was much more powerful, but scan heal could help target injuries  better, and might even be able to do something about her arm.

Sadly,  that didn't turn out to be the case. When I apologized she waved me off  again. Benny looked concerned, but Jessie had an idea how to help her.  She said she needed to check in on a few things but she knew someone  whose ability could help. Actually apparently we did too, though with  everything happening I couldn't think of who.

"Alright."  Said Callie after we'd mostly gotten Celine patched up. "As glad as we  are all to see you ok, we need to know what happened. Who did this?" We  had a general idea, but we needed confirmation.

Sure  enough, Celine immediately responded. "The Black Sorrow Cult. They  snuck many more people onto this planet than we expected. They lured me  here with a fake information leak and showed up in force, three  E-rankers and ten F-rankers. Nalia stalled the other E-rankers, my  sister has always been the most martially inclined member of our family,  but there were just so many..." She trailed off. "I don't think this  was an isolated attack. If they hit us, they probably hit the other  factions." I was already sprinting out of the cave for a signal, calling  Natalie. If they had F-rankers in those numbers she was in danger even  with her guardian. I just hoped my cousin was ok.