Wish upon the Stars chapter 361

The next three days passed relatively quickly. While fighting on the  first day of each bracket was a pain because I had to be one of the  first in the round, and there were many more powerful opponents for me  to draw, it was also a benefit because I got the full four days off for  each round.

For  the eleventh round it would be another four days, though there would  only be one fight per day instead of two, though there would only be two  days off before round twelve. Over the last few days I'd gotten another  fifteen G-ranked chits from Benny in exchange for twenty Might and  forty Focus, meaning my friend had broken the three hundred mark for  Focus and the seven hundred mark for total points.

I  still needed to upgrade Earthseeking and Sucking Mud, and was having  trouble coming up with a good combination for either of them. While I  could just upgrade them normally without synergizing, now that I'd  realized how to make this Skill stronger I was loathe to leave power on  the table. I couldn't be sure, but I had a decent guess that this  process was similar to how my Wish ability had been created. Maybe not  exactly the same, but I was betting the resulting power when I got DS  Mastery to the peak would be absolutely amazing.

Despite  not having any real ideas for my last two skill upgrades, I was  relatively happy with the results so far. Which meant I was in a pretty  good mood that was completely ruined when I left the training room to  find an agitatedly pacing Benny. When he saw me, he let out a sigh of  relief and rushed forward to shove his hand in my face.

"I  don't know if anyone told you." I said dryly. "But that 'talk to the  hand' thing went out of style years ago. I hear these kinds of trends  are cyclical though, so maybe you can bring it back if you try hard  enough." I smirked at him, but the expression melted into concern when I  saw his face remain twisted in worry. "What's wrong?"

He  seemed to realize that he wasn't being clear, and spun up his scan  ring, shifting it from the normal dormant mode to the screen. As he did  that, I realized that the ring had been what he was showing me. Texts  circled the band when it was dormant. Once he had the display up though,  I was able to more easily read the message from Celine. 'Things are  going wrong, get somewhere safe. I love you.'

"Well  that's...ominous." I said as my stomach began to tighten with  sympathetic anxiety. "Did you call her back?" I knew he had, but I had  to make sure. He wasn't in a good place right now, so overlooking  options wasn't beyond the realm of possibility.

He  ran a hair through his messy brown hair. "Yes. Obviously. Nothing. I  tried six times and got no answer." He started pacing again. "What the  hell, man? What's going on? Celine isn't in the tournament herself. Did  one of the other factions jump her? Is this a trap? Do I care?"

It  said a lot about how far Benny had come that the idea of this being a  trap occurred to him. But it didn't feel right to me. Celine had been  trying to make amends, even put herself in a bad situation with her  family to do it. A trap just felt out of place, which just left some  kind of attack...which wasn't much better.

"Come  on." I said to my friend, grabbing his shoulders to stop him in place.  "We need to go talk to Callie and the others. We'll figure out what to  do as a team, ok?"

His  eyes were shimmering with fear as he looked back at me, and it tore me  up to see the panic and agony in his expression. "What if..." His voice  broke. "What if she's dead? What if the last thing I ever said to her  was that it was her fault I couldn't trust anyone? What if she's lying  somewhere in a ditch with no head like those sleepers Aiden killed down  in G-district." He was shaking, and voicing that possibility seemed to  be too much for him, he blurred down the hall, smashing open the door to  the bathroom.

I  could hear him puking from where I stood, and honestly I didn't blame  him. That had been gruesome, and I tried not to think about it, but the  idea that one of those bodies could be someone I knew. Just imagining  Callie's head exploding like that made me want to vomit myself.

Following  him into the bathroom, I ran the sink and then passed him a cup of  water to rinse out his mouth. he swished and spat, then downed the rest  of it, eyes still vacant and breathing shallow. That...that wasn't just  fear. That was a panic attack. Which made sense in this situation, but  told me that some of what we'd been through affected Benny more than he  liked to let on.

I  clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey." I said, getting his attention.  "She'll be fine. I can feel it. She texted you. That's not something  people can do easily from captivity. She's probably on the run. Let's go  check with the others and make a plan and we can find her and help her.  Don't forget we have Rime around, she goes where we go. Whoever is  after her, if anyone still is, will be in for a rude awakening."

He  swallowed hard, but seemed to cling to my words. "On the run. Right. We  can help." He grabbed a bottle of mouth wash and swished a few times,  so no one would be able to tell he'd just puked his guts out, and I  stepped out of the bathroom while he washed his face with cold water and  tried to breathe for a bit.

After  he was stable, we headed to the living room to loop in Callie, Abel,  Mel, and Rime. Cass and Cark were out at the park...thankfully. I didn't  want to explain to the little girl what was going on. After Callie  heard everything that we knew, she grimaced. "That...that's bad." She  bit her lip, gnawing at it in a way I only saw her do when she was  really nervous. "This could be a trap. And even if it isn't...I'm not  sure I can risk us for Celine after what she did."

Benny  looked ready to attack her. "What she did? You mean when she leaked our  next opponent to us so you could prepare for your match? Or when she  helped us learn about information gathering at the academy, compromising  her own advantage so we could get access to information." Callie looked  at him sadly, and he closed his eyes, taking a long, slow breath.  "Look. I'm sorry. I get it. This is risky. I can't ask you to put  yourself in danger."

He  turned to walk away and Callie stood up, grabbing his arm. "Oh stop  being a drama queen." She huffed. "I'm not letting you run off to do  this by yourself. And you aren't wrong. Celine helped us plenty of  times. We might have died during Aiden's siege if it wasn't for her. If  it means that much to you...we can help."

My  friend's relieved smile was cut off as she shoved a finger in his face,  continuing. "But." She said sharply. "If we're doing this, you need to  listen to my orders. You're way too emotional right now. We can help  her, but the person doing it needs to be making smart calls. You have to  follow the chain of command here. If you don't, then I'm going to have  Abel knock you out and lock you in a room, no matter how much you hate  me for it. I'm not letting you get yourself or any of the rest of us  killed."

Benny  looked uncertain, but finally, he sighed and nodded. "Ok." He said  dully. "I can agree to that. But you need to help me. Help her. Do  SOMETHING. Because if that was one long way of telling me to sit tight  and wait it out or something you can fuck right off."

She  smiled wryly, she turned to Rime. "I need you to get in touch with  Frostbite. Find out what's going on. No way there was an attack at the  academy or even in the city proper involving an active diplomatic  attache and she doesn't know about it. We need to know what's happening  and where before we can decide our next move."

The  blue haired F-ranker nodded. "Seems like a good start. I'll need  somewhere private to reach out? You have any quiet rooms I can use? My  scan ring is untraceable but she isn't a fan of being overheard."

Jessie  stood up. "I know a place. This eyesore is bigger than you can imagine,  and I wander around here sometimes. I still don't know why we can't  paint the place, but either way, there's a room I have in mind." She  waves the ice user after her, stopping before she leaves to grab Benny  in a bonecrushing hug. As my friend grunted in discomfort, she buried  her face in his shoulder. "She's gonna be ok, Ben. Just have faith."

He  smiled tensely down at her, resting a hand on her head, and then she  let him go and headed off with Rime. Callie, still in the zone, turned  to Abel and Mel. "I need you two to reach out to the Magnificent Fable  Forest. They're the only real connection we have to Celine's faction,  and are the best bet for getting information from anyone we actually  know."

They  two of them nodded, and I wasn't sure how they would manage it, because  we didn't get a number from them, but they didn't seem worried. They  just headed out of the room, presumably to start getting in touch with  some of their own contacts to try to find a lead. Callie turned to  Benny. "Did you call Sarah or Martin?"

My  friend looked stunned for a second, but then shook his head. Callie  nodded understandingly. "Alright, well that'll be your next move. Reach  out to her team, see if they know anything. Once we've heard back from  all our sources we'll head for the Academy."

"What?" Benny snapped. "Why the hell wouldn't we leave now? She could be in danger, or hurt, or even dying!"

"Which."  My girlfriend said calmly. "Is why we wait. The Academy is a protected  and secure place. While it's possible she might be there, the chances of  her being under threat while she's that defended are low. Which means  if we head there, we might be moving further away from where she  actually is, and not find out until we're already there. So yes, we sit  tight, and once we know more we decide what to do."

Benny  deflated, but he seemed to accept her explanation, slumping down on the  couch like the bones had gone out of him, and staring worriedly off  into the distance, completely oblivious to anything else but the storm  of pain and fear I was sure was in his chest.

It  was funny. If it had been any other situation I might have pointed out  that they were fighting, that he was angry at her, or a dozen other  things. But now...it didn't matter. Because seeing him like that the  best answer to any question I could ask about how he felt, or any  question he could ask either. He would forgive her, I knew he would. I  just hoped to the gods that his forgiveness would still be possible.  Because if it wasn't, I was pretty sure he wouldn't be extending that  same mercy to himself.