Wish upon the Stars chapter 63

Getting the others together was easier than expected at this time of  night. Then again higher Vitality meant we needed less sleep, even if I  usually tried to get as much as I could. So gathering them all up to  meet in my room was pretty simple. It only took about fifteen minutes to  get them all in the same room with me. Before they arrived at my room I  used my one final Skill charge for the day to activate Seek Hidden,  scanning the room for listening devices or bugs. The last thing I needed  was to be eavesdropped on.

There  weren't any. I had kind of figured. The executives lived in rooms like  these, and there were literally thousands of them from what I knew.  Monitoring the residents would be a full time job, not to mention  invasive to some of the top brass, and we weren't important enough to  merit specially planted bugs or ending up in a room designed to spy on  someone. Still my power confirming it did make me feel much better about  discussion this.

Once  they got to the room I closed the door and made my way to the center of  the space. I felt nervous and sort of exposed, and being in the middle  of the room kind of helped for some reason. Like I was on stage or  something. It made this feel less real. I cleared my throat nervously as  they all shuffled in. Benny looked like he knew what I was going to do,  which wasn't a shock. He knew me pretty well. He gave me an encouraging  nod as I faced the girls, ready to finally tell them the truth.

Jessie  and Callie were looking at me with confused expectation, completely  unaware of what the hell was going on. I swallowed hard. "So. I called  you guys in here because I wanted to tell you some things. You may have  notices some...strangeness surrounding me. Fast rank ups, sources I  shouldn't have, too many skills, that kind of thing. I'm sure you've  been curious about it."

Callie  gave Jessie a knowing smirk. "Alright, time for him to come clean. What  was your bet again? Because mine was Unity's secret love child. No one  knows what his power is, but it could totally be some weird video game  related thing." She turned back to me. "No offense, but your power is  NOT woodworking. Granted, even if it was you could just be Skill  focused, but you rarely use wood for anything. That's realistic for an  enchanter, but not for you personally. You're obsessed with min maxing  and properly mixing abilities for combos."

I  winced. Yeah my fake power was fine at first glance, but to anyone who  knew me they would be aware just ignoring a big chunk of my powers would  seem suspicious. I sighed and nodded. "Yeah, that's fair. I kind of  phoned that in, but in my defense I wasn't planning for it to be an  issue. Most people would assume I synergized my enchanting skill into  something else." I turned to Jessie. "Her guess was...weird, but I could  kind of see it. I'm guessing you have one too? I admit I'm curious to  hear what you came up with."

Jessie  grinned at me. "My guess was that you're some kind of video game  elemental. Maybe a unique racial trait. It fits with all your powers and  I bet it would make grinding up skill points way easier!" I blinked at  her. That was...weirder. But actually kind of almost made sense? I  should have expected something ridiculous but weirdly insightful from my  bubbly blonde friend, it was kind of her MO.

We  all just kind of stared at her in shock. She shrugged. "What? It kind  of fits. Judging by the looks that isn't it but still, I stand by the  guess. At least based on what we've seen from you. Plus it would explain  Benny getting a power out of nowhere too! Like, you could have added  him to your party and given him some kind of video game elixir or spell  that would do the job. It makes perfect sense!"

That  last part felt like a stretch to me honestly, but I could see her point  in the abstract. She was good at thinking out of the box, and with the  small amount of info she had I could understand the guess. I chuckled.  "Sorry to break it to you but no. That's not even close. The game stuff  is a Skill like I told you all. My actual power is less...overt. It's  sort of a support ability. You've probably heard of it, or at least  heard of someone who uses it, even if you didn't know the name or  details of the actual power. My ability is called Wish."

Callie's  eyes went wide. "No fucking way." Jessie looked at her confused and  Callie laughed. "Right, everyone knows the original owner of that power  but they don't know the power itself. It makes sense he would be able to  pass it on though. Once you hit S rank your ability becomes integrated  as a bloodline. All the skills that make it up merge into one single  source and it can be passed on to children or grandchildren." She  blinked. "You're a part of the Wishmaster's clan? That's...awesome."

I  hadn't actually known most of that. It was interesting information.  "Huh...I didn't really know the mechanism behind it. That makes sense  that there's some kind of dividing line. But...yeah. The Wyndham family  is the family of the past and current Wishmasters. In fact, the new  Wishmaster is picked from among the family members. The current  Wishmaster is about to set down the mantle, and someone with my ability  is going to get it. Which is kind of the impetus behind a lot of things  I'm going through. I'm one of the candidates."

She  blinked at me, jaw hanging open. "Wait...as in, like to inherit the  whole WCP? Because...Shane that's insane. The WCP is a universal power.  They're the sixth faction level influence. The only reason they aren't  part of the alliance is that they don't really hold territory. The  Wishmaster's power made diplomacy a much easier thing for him, and he  was able to grow the WCP through the other factions as opposed to around  them, using his power as leverage for their leaders. At least as far as  I know. Information gets murky that high up. Regardless the resources  available...how are you not like already F ranked? I bet you can get any  elixir you want."

I  had to laugh at that. "No. Not even close honestly. As a candidate I  have top level access to the WCP but I don't get anything free. My  guardian says that if they did that it would turn into a competition  between branches and not people, so they limit things. I have a black  card that gives me unfettered access but I still have to pay for  everything I get from there. I don't have even close to the resources to  buy the kind of elixirs and items you're talking about. All I have is  my power and some emotional support from my Uncle, and even that's  pretty limited by circumstance."

The  confused expression and cocked head were pretty obviously wondering  about that comment. I smiled ruefully. "You know how I've been pretty  sympathetic about your dad? Well, that's because mine is pretty shitty  too. I grew up raised by my Uncle Zeke. Apparently he was my dad's best  friend and he handed me over to him to protect. Except like a few months  ago my old man sent me an email basically disowning me unless I got  strong enough to come find him. To top it off he used his own abilities  to put a geas on Zeke so he can only tell me certain things."

Callie's  eyes widened at that. She swallowed hard. "I...wow. That explains some  things." She walked over to stand next to me and pulled me into a hug,  squeezing tightly. "I did say you could share whatever was going on with  your dad with me, and I meant it. I'm here for you. Your situation  sounds complicated as hell, but I'm here to listen." Her arms were warm  around me and it felt nice to be supported like that. I'd never really  been in a hugging sort of relationship with another person. It  was...comforting.

Still,  after a minute or two I pulled back, clearing my throat. "I appreciate  that Callie, but I still have more to tell you about my powers and why I  called you in here." I took her hand as she stepped away. She froze,  looking into my eyes and I gave her a grateful smile. "It's noted  though. And appreciated. I'll keep it in mind for later for sure." She  nodded almost shyly as she pulled away, and I ignored the knowing smirks  from Benny and Jessie.

I  shook my head ruefully. "Anyway, the reason I told you all this, aside  from it possibly being the reason the Heartripper Society wants to kill  me, is that I have some ways to increase your power with my ability. My  Wish power can do lots of things, and among them is grant skills or even  stat points. I need fair compensation for that, but you can use skills  or stats you don't use or need to trade for the ones you do. It  basically lets you reallocate your points however you want or even add  new ones based on what you want your power to be."

Callie  jumped up excitedly. "That's why the sudden meeting! You think you can  give me points in Might to help balance my power?" Her eyes were wide  with excitement. "That would be perfect! It would cover my one weakness.  More Might would let me use my shadows in combat directly and my  utility would go through the roof! Not to mention the reputation bump  from how much stronger I would get would help even more." She looked  like she was about to squeal with joy, and I had to work hard not to  laugh.

I  nodded confirmation and turned to Jessie. "And you can focus all your  stats you don't need into Vitality. Your ability is really specific, so  that one stat is going to pretty much make you a serious threat. Other  than maybe some Might to keep up physically you don't need much else  besides possibly Creation. Being able to focus like that on one aspect  of your build is going to make you much stronger than others at your  level. I know being specifically focused on one stat is incredibly  difficult, and my ability to rearrange them would help. You could  definitely hit the top of the charts in the Vitality faculty."

She  looked excited about that. "Yeah, Vitality is basically all I need.  Creation only really comes into play if I MAKE plants and not grow them,  which I don't really do. Might would make my plants stronger too so it  would make sense to have as a secondary but I wouldn't need anything  else. Maybe two to one Vitality to Might? Imagine how strong I could  get!" Her eyes were blazing with excitement at the thought, I grinned at  Benny who smiled back.

Telling  them had gone much easier than expected. They'd been banking on  something weirder anyway and had been open to hearing anything. They  were excited rather than angry and while some of the energy was probably  from shock, it was still about as well as this could have gone. I  didn't know why I'd been so worried about telling them, but now with it  out of the way we were ready to start getting stronger. Just like Benny  though they would need to develop some skills or get some resources if  they didn't want to lose too many stats, which meant one thing. We were  heading back to the Academy.