Wish upon the Stars chapter 332

"I was under the impression." I said to the E-ranker who had casually  plopped down on a bench. "That we'd paid for your services with that  little...deposit earlier. So what do you mean you're CHARGING us for the  information we want?" I'd expected once he accepted payment he'd just  show up and tell us what we wanted, but the yellow clad sneak seemed  completely unmotivated to reveal anything. In fact I think he was  basking in our frustrations.

The grin the crept onto his  face was even more annoying than the idea of paying twice. "Oh, no no.  You paid for me to come and LISTEN to you. One and a half F-rank chits  isn't enough to pay for my SERVICES. It just got you this audience to  impress me." He put a hand to one side of his mouth, stage whispering.  "It isn't going well." He closed his eyes and put the brass flute to his  mouth, fingers flying as he played a particularly catchy sting,  seemingly ignoring us completely.

That was a problem.  Because while I personally was safe from Duncan, and I doubted he'd be  stupid enough to attack the others since as a person who specialized in  Perception and gathering intel there was no way he didn't know who I  was, we couldn't do shit to him either. Maybe down the line, but I  doubted "I'll beat you up someday" was a decent motivator. So I only had  one real option.

"You want a wish." I said flatly. He  probably wanted more than one, but if I kept making long term contracts  I'd never get off this fucking planet. Plus I couldn't afford the delay  in stat gains for my friends. So I'd offer one, and if he pushed I'd  deal with it.

To my surprise, Duncan the Liar just came  out and admitted it. "Wouldn't say no. But it wouldn't be for now. I  know enough about the Wish power to know that your ability to affect an  E-ranker would be laughable. I'll wait until after the tournament, but I  want it in writing before we move forward."

I cocked my  head at him. "I'm pretty shocked you just came out and said that.  Shouldn't you have slowly maneuvered me into your web with deception?" I  was half joking, but still it seemed off to me.

He just  shook his head. "People make that assumption quite a bit. But no, not  really. See, I'm not a compulsive liar. I lie often and with ease, but I  tell the truth just as frequently. Lying loses its effectiveness if you  never say anything true. If every word out of my mouth was false,  everyone would just know I meant the opposite of what I said. No, I do  tell the truth, and sometimes I lie, and sometimes I do both at once,  because the truth from a liar can be even less believable than fiction."

That...had  been a really long convoluted way of telling me absolutely fucking  nothing about him. Which I suspected was his entire point. I really  disliked cryptic bullshit. I got enough of that from Zeke courtesy of my  dad's bullshit geas. "You understand." I said archly. "That I can't  just give you blanket promise to grant you a wish after I rank up  without knowing what it is."

My issue was less with the  wish and more with the open ended nature of 'after you rank up'. It  would be easy enough for him to wait and cash that in later. And I had  no interest in being dragged back here when I was higher ranked because  of some old marker.

I could have and would have covered  all that in the contract, but since he was being so up front I figured  I'd do the same. He grinned at me. "Oh no, that's fine. I can include  provisions for when exactly I'll make the wish." He didnt mention  limitations on content, but he didn't need to. His limitations would be  the same as everyone elses. What my stats were capable of accomplishing.

Slipping  out a blank piece of paper I started writing. With over a hundred Focus  and Perception my handwriting was excellent and I could write pretty  damn fast, so it didn't take long to dot my I's and cross my T's. Duncan  looked it over and nodded, filling in the last bit of info, an exact  date for the wish.

I let Callie look over it before I  signed. We were partners and while she wasn't quite as well trained in  contracts she was smart and careful. I valued her opinion. She smiled  softly at me as she took the paper, scanning through it for a minute or  two in a way that told me she was taking her time and doing multiple  read throughs before handing it back.

"Alright." I said as  I signed. "Now, we were told you're the guy to see about information.  We need you to help us locate someone who has been selling it. We  suspect they used a middle man from the WCP but the person themselves is  Unity. If you don't know them I'm sure you can find out."

I'd  been careful not to mention specifics in the information request, lest  it be intercepted or Duncan decide to warn whoever it was before coming  to see us. Still, he didn't seem too surprised by the request. Granted,  it was possible he was just hiding signs of that surprise with his  excellent lying skills, but who could say?

He nodded  thoughtfully. "I can help with that information. Honestly you're lucky  we did it this way. I'd probably have turned you down if we hadn't  already signed the contract. I don't owe them anything, but burning  primary sources isn't beneficial to a broker. Do you just want the  source or do you need the middle man too? Because one of those will be  much more annoying for me."

He was hinting that he might  need to dissolve the contract (we had provisions for that on both sides  in case of extenuating circumstances) if I went after the middle man.  Luckily I didn't need to. "Just the source is fine." I said firmly.  Honestly depending on who it was, we might not even be able to do  anything to them in the short term. Rime and Frostbite both seemed  unhappy (if resigned) about the leak, so if it wasn't someone related to  Fimbulwinter we might be able to use them to take care of it, but they  hadn't been able to make any promises.

Duncan nodded  approvingly. I expected him to just give us a name, but the unusual  E-ranker turned his amber gaze away from use, and, staring off into the  distance, started speaking. "I've always been enamored with information  you know. Not just its acquisition, but it's application. Whether by  virtue of its absence or presence, truth changes many things about the  world. Learning the truth of others lets me know my own, and you can't  lie to other people properly if you're lying to yourself."

Despite  the apparent non sequitur, I didn't interrupt and Callie followed my  lead. Duncan kept talking. "I started learning other people's truths,  and met other people on the same grand quest. I've met many people like  that over the years. Some of them hungry for knowledge, some of them  desperate to learn more about the reality of this storybook world, to  see past the lies that even the universe tells us."

"The  person you are looking for." He said firmly. "Is not one of those  people. He doesn't want to learn more truths, or see past the facade. He  wants power. This insults me. Lies are art, they are a delicate and  subtle manipulation of minds of others for the purpose of shaping your  world. They are not commodities."

I had to admit, this was  not what I had expected of the guy everyone hated, who someone had  recently turned into a fish. "I didn't expect you to be  so...philosophical." I said carefully.

Duncan's stoic and  distant expression cracked, becoming a manic grin. "Maybe I'm not? Maybe  I just like playing with baby cultivators. I can smell confusion on you  like cheap cologne." He waved his hand dismissively. "No matter.  Believe or don't. No business of mine. I've decided that I dislike this  person, and so I will hand them over to you. Take that as you will.  You're looking for an F-ranker who works at the Unity building. He goes  by the name Kalway."

Callie and I both looked at Rime, who  shrugged. "No clue. Name doesn't ring a bell. If he works at the main  building he's probably not entirely unconnected though. I'll look into  him and get back to you."

Nodding, I turned back to Duncan  and...blinked. Nothing. There was no one on the bench. The locker he'd  come out of was still open, but there was nothing in there that might  explain his disappearance. When I looked back down, I noticed a note  where he'd been sitting and picked it up. Opening the page, I unfolded  it, to find a picture of me unfolding a picutre of me unfolding a  picture. Which then exploded. Into confetti. Sharp confetti.

Luckily  my armor and mask took all the cutting edges, though the locker next to  us wasn't so lucky. Calli and Rime were behind me and therefore  untouched. I sighed. "Now I get why people don't like him."

Callie  leaned over next to the locker, giving a deep sniff. "Especially since  I'm pretty sure these are poisoned. Nothing super dangerous, I think  just a mild paralytic. Though I wonder why he would bother-"  There was a  puff and about two hundred pounds of glitter dropped from above us,  scatting across all three of our bodies. "Ah. Keep us in place.  Well...that worked I guess."

I  didn't see any particular reason for that little prank, other than  amusement. Callie was right though, that was pretty decent motivation  for turning him into a fish. I turned to Rime. "So, you said you can  look into Kalway? If Frostbite can plug the leak before we get too much  further in we can possibly avoid a lot of trouble."

Callie  nodded. "Especially if she makes a production of it. If other locals  see her crack down hard on someone leaking tournament info they'll be  much less likely to try it."

The  F-ranker sighed. "Which I'm sure would be her intent, but it depends on  who the guy is. There are certain factions in the Unity that make  dealing with things like this...tricky. Some of the executives claim  priority on their own subordinates and will give them a slap on the  wrist instead of actually punishing them. They consider it a blow to  their own reputation for their subordinates to be held accountable."

"Isn't  Frostbite like...INFAMOUS for that?" I asked carefully. I'd heard  Frostbite was incredibly biased against her own people, which, granted,  was nice since that was US now.

Rime  grinned at me. "Yeah, like that. So we might not be able to pin it on  him in an obvious way. Of course, some of the executives are  more...objective. Really depends who he works under. Or if he's just  rank and file his ass is grass. I'll get into it."

"Sounds  good." Callie said dryly. "Meanwhile lets get out of here. I want to go  home and wash all this damn glitter off. We can use Stealth to leave." I  nodded, and we each put a hand on Rime's shoulder, getting ready to  help her out as we left, before stopping.

I  closed my eyes and sighed. "Ah. That would be why he used glitter. All  that excess light shifting around makes Stealth MUCH harder. Ok. " I  triggered one of my stored up Stealth charges, synergizing it with my  own Stealth skill, and Callie added hers in, and we were barely able to  make it to the parking lot without being noticed. Yeah. Definitely  understood the impulse to turn him into a fish.