Wish upon the Stars chapter 36

I spent the next few days getting ready. I took my daily jobs, trying  to focus on accruing skills this time. Both new ones and addendums to  strengthen the ones I'd already gotten. I got a few doubles, bringing my  skills up a bit. A single instance of Minor Inventing Mastery, though  that was far from enough to even put a dent in the necessary progress to Lesser. Aside from that I got extra instances of my Guitar, Swimming, and Piano Mastery. I also managed to gain three instances of Minor Cooking Mastery, and I could tell I was close to boosting that skill to the next level. I also ended up with three new skills.

Wishmaster candidate status. H-rank. Ability: Lesser Wish- Four times a day  grant  a  Lesser wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be  feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three  day    period  with  current statistics.

Might-15

Impact-2

Fantasy-11

Vitality-12

Focus-13

Perception-22

Creation-6

Skills:   Lesser Doom Sovereign Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Cooking  Mastery, Minor Gymnastics Mastery, Minor Swimming Mastery, Minor Guitar    Mastery, Minor Singing Mastery, Lesser Enchanting Mastery, Minor  Inventing Mastery, Minor Poker Mastery, Minor Archery Mastery, Minor  Boxing Mastery

Poker,  Archery, and Boxing. All useful in their own ways, and two of them  skills I could see playing a role in my combat style. Not as a primary,  but maybe as support for my DS Mastery. It also occured to me that I  might be one of the few people who could find use for unique skills  later on down the line. Nothing this low level, but if I kept getting  new ones like this than skill synergies might be a good way to keep the  numbers down.

Regardless, during  that time I'd been informed of a few important things. Callie had, as  expected, decided to face her father and come with me. I was happy to  have her along, and I promised her I'd do everything I could to be by  her side when she had to deal with him. My own issues with my dad had  only grown more thorny after my talk with Zeke, but at this point it  wasn't about that. Callie was a special person, and seeing her treated  like a pawn pissed me off. I kind of hoped he tried to fuck with me  honestly, as an E ranker he was within Zeke's strike zone as my  guardian.

Jessie  had decided to come with us too, which was a relief because I'd gotten  attached to the little blonde. She was a breath of fresh air and an  excellent source of intel. I was pretty sure she would do well in the  capital. She said she didn't feel right staying behind when she and  Maria were still just talking. They were going to keep in touch  (apparently high ranking Unity officials could set up communication  lines through the information blockade, and Stella helped with that) but  for the moment Jessie was heading to the capital with Benny, Callie,  and I.

Now,  days later, we were all gathered together on top of the Unity guild  hall, apparently waiting for a transport. Shadowthorn was up here with  us, but she was standing a ways away. Out group was me, Benny, Callie  and Jessie. I turned to the girls, both of whom would be more likely to  know how this worked. "So, how exactly are we getting to the capital?  Being up here on the roof makes me think we aren't taking the bus."  Skyrides were an option but considering the size of the capital and that  I'd never spotted it on the horizon I was guessing it wasn't close.

As  expected Callie knew the answer. "We're taking an air shuttle. Since  Callus was only seeded recently in terms of the general occupation, over  the last few thousand years the capital expanded out into a few dozen  first tier cities like Velan. Since there are only a few dozen on the  whole planet though they're thousands of miles apart from each other. A  normal Skyride would take weeks to make the trip. The capital has access  to air shuttles that can do it in a fraction of the time, but they only  dispatch them for VIP's."

She  shot Shadowthorn a scathing look. "Anyway, it's the standard method for  travel between cities. While it's technically possible to make the trip  in a regular skyride, almost no one is willing to spend weeks in a  car." She turned to Benny, who she had been too distracted by her  step-mother and former best friend to greet properly. "Nice to meet you  by the way. I'm Callie." She wasn't in costume at the moment, and I'd  vouched for Benny, not to mention with all the family nonsense he would  definitely find out who she was, so she just greeted him normally.

My  friend swallowed and shook her hand. "I...uh, I'm Benny." He'd been  pretty shellshocked to meet some of the biggest celebrities in town, and  Callie was at the top of the list. It had been funny watching him  freeze up when he came in here, and I was going to remind him of this  once he became a member. "I'm glad to be going with you guys. I've known  Shane for years and it just wouldn't be the same here without him." His  smile at that was a bit forced, and I had to push down a wince as I  noticed it.

Benny's  mother, Amber, had not been happy that her precious boy was leaving.  She was very much a political animal, but she loved her children, and  losing her son possibly for years depending on if or when we made it  back, was not something she handled well. I was honestly slightly  worried she might smother Maria with misplaced affection. Benny's dad,  Hector, was much more accepting of his son leaving, and promised to do  his best to get Amber to come around after the huge fight they  apparently have when he told them he was leaving.

She  didn't have a chance to respond however, because the air on top of the  building started to move slightly. From one second to the next, the  space was empty, and then, out of seemingly nowhere, a large rectangular  vehicle appeared. It floated in the air, not bobbing or dipping like  one would expect, but rock solid steady right next to the building. I  looked for some form of propulsion but didn't see anything except a  webwork of of complicated runes carved across the surface. Some of the  runes were too advanced for me to recognize, but I did spot a few  Fantasy runes sprinkled in there.

I  realized after thinking about it that since there was no propulsion  mechanism, that air displacement had to come from motion. The thing  moved so fast it caused a literal shockwave preceding it. Callie  whistled. "Damn. That's a lot sleeker than the last model I saw. I  wonder if the old man sent out a high end shuttle for Annie, or if  there's just been a general upgrade in the shuttle fleet. Either way,  that thing is F ranked at least. Higher ranked shuttles are a bitch to  make too. They take a ton of materials."

I  could definitely see how that would be the case. At least  theoretically. I'd never made a permanently enchanted item before sadly,  but considering the sheer complexity of the operation of that shuttle I  expected a massive number of runes would be needed. I didn't know the  formulas for materials needed versus runes or stats imbued into an item,  but an F ranked shuttle would require tens of thousands of stats, and  the materials would need to be able to hold up under those kinds of  forces.

Shadowthorn  was the first one on the shuttle, not taking much time to look at us. I  could tell she wanted to avoid Callie as much as possible, and it sent  another pang of sadness through me when I saw her sitting alone. I  wished I had some way to talk to Callie about trying to make amends with  Shadowthorn, for her own sake as much as the older woman's. It seemed  like most of the fault there was with Midknight, and I was pretty sure  Callie would regret not getting to know her brother.

That  said I personally wasn't in a position to make comments about anyone's  family situation, and I doubted Callie would appreciate the attempt. We  climbed on board the shuttle, and I expected the thing to dip in the air  or something under our weight. Just like it didn't bob in the air  though there was no give as we stepped aboard. It felt like I was  walking on a bridge or something. We all took our seat on the opposite  side of the interior of the shuttle from Shadowthirn, and I was briefly  grateful Zeke was finding his own way. It was pretty crowded as it was,  even with just the five of us.

Stella  and Ian had said their goodbyes already, as had Lindsey, who was in  tears over losing Jessie and who promised to come visit as soon as she  could get transferred. So, with everything taken care of we were free to  enjoy the trip out of town. Once we were in and sitting down the  shuttle officially took off. Just like the thing didn't move when we  walked, the interior didn't so much as rumble as we took off into the  sky. It was terrifying and weirdly anticlimactic at the same time,  watching the city and then the countryside flash by like we were seeing  it on a tv screen.

We  all stared, of course. It was beautiful. The emerald trees and valleys  fell away as we ascended into the sky, racing out over the countryside.  In the distance I could see the quarries outside the city where the  miner's union did their work under Benny's dad. It occurred to me that  Hector was supposed to run the union for the whole planet, so he must  have some means of communication. I wondered if the Unity were the ones  to decide who the miner's union would report to, if he had to earn  clearance for that.

None  of us spoke really, even after an hour or two the constantly shifting  and speeding landscape was amazing. If we'd been closer to the ground I  suspected it would just be a blur. I saw crystal clear lakes and rivers  splayed out below us, each of them shimmering like a blue jewel in a sea  of shifting shades of green. I leaned over to murmur to Jessie. "So is  this the way you got to the capital last time?"

She  shook her head, staring down in awe. "No. We took a skyride. It was way  slower and we were much lower down. This is...amazing. I've never seen  anything like it." She swallowed hard as she looked down at the  incredible heights. By all rights it probably should have been  terrifying to be this high up, but the lack of vibrations or wind just  made it so...surreal. It was easy to pretend we were just watching an  amazing movie because we were so divorced from reality up here that  there didn't feel like a reason to be afraid.

But  none of that prepared me for the thing I saw next. After Jessie  answered we flew forward far enough that the horizon shifted and from  that slice of land on the edge of the sky I got my first glimpse of the  largest city I had ever seen. The buildings were absolutely towering,  thousands if not tens of thousands of skyscrapers with ten times that  many smaller buildings peppering the ground below them. Tiny specks flew  around the skyscrapers, so distant it took all my considerable  perception to notice them, but I was sure they were skyrides. Callie  grinned at our shock when we saw the capital. "Yeah it's pretty  impressive isn't it? I haven't been here since I was a kid, but it's as  crazy as I remember. Welcome to Rajak."