Wish upon the Stars chapter 17

AN: Due to some confusion from patrons I've renumbered the first 20 chapters to 1-4 broken up into parts. This ensures that all of the patreon and RR chapter numbers line up now to make things easier for patrons. Hope this helps you guys out, sorry for the confusion.

It took quite a while to calm everyone down. Nightstrike spent half  the meeting glaring daggers at her stepmother, who seemed to do her best  to ignore her. Cap looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown  the entire time, and Jessie looked almost as uncomfortable as I felt.  Still Shadowthorn had questions about the case, so we all stuffed our  discomfort in a box and saved it for later. Even Nightstrike managed to  answer questions, albeit in the most irritated and venomous possible  way.

Shadowthorn to her credit basically ignored all of  the animosity and discomfort. "Now. I've read over all the witness  statements from the previous murders. Nothing useful there. That said we  don't have any statements from you Solomon. You were the one who found  Verdant, so you may have seen something you didn't even notice." She  turned to Jessie, her voice kind even behind her mask. "Agria, I was  hoping to go over the events of that day with him, but I know it may be  hard for you to hear. If you'd like to wait outside that would be  perfectly fine."

Even Nightstrike didn't bitch about that,  she just looked at Jessie in concern. My friend closed her eyes behind  her mask, took a deep breath, and let it out. She shook her head. "No.  Thank you for your concern, but I need to learn about these kinds of  things eventually." She hesitated. "Though, if you don't mind me asking,  why are you going over the witness statements? I thought Nightstrike  was in charge of the case." Her tone was hesitant, clearly uncomfortable  questioning a superior, but unable to hold herself back.

Shadowthorn  chuckled. "Callie is more than capable of doing the leg work. I'm  reading over the witness statements to try to piece together some  semblance of an idea of the killers combat style. While finding him will  be up to Callie-er Nightstrike, putting them down will be my job. The  better idea I have of what they can do in combat, the more prepared I'll  be to counter them. Despite the high ranked dagger we don't actually  know for sure that the killer is a low ranker." Her tone was serious,  and it honestly made me like her more that she was being so thorough.

With  Jessie's permission she turned her head to me. It was kind of unnerving  to be looked at from behind a blank full face mask like that. I  wondered if other people felt this off balance when they talked to me.  Shadowthorn cleared her throat. "Ok Solomon. I'm going to ask you to  retell the story of what happened as best as you can remember it. Just  keep going unless I stop you, and if I ask any questions answer them as  best as you can then move on ok?" I nodded. "Ok, start from the patrol  beforehand. Tell me what happened."

So I did. I told her  about The Nobody Men, and the scream we heard, I told her about finding  Verdant's body, and what condition he'd been in. As I spoke Shadowthorn  would ask me to repeat parts of my story, or ask for more details. I  found her calling attention to things I hadn't noticed or really even  processed, asking questions that made me really have to think. It was an  odd experience, having the story change so much from telling it to her,  like she was reaching into my head and dragging out the details.

By  the time she finished Jessie was barely keeping it together. She stood  up, took a deep breath and apologized, saying she needed a minute. Cap  followed her out, clearly worried about his late friend's sister. Once  she was gone Shadowthorn packed up the case files and gave a sad sigh.  "I respect her for staying, but I wish she hadn't. We got through enough  pain in this line of work without inflicting it on ourselves  intentionally." She looked hard at Nightstrike then sighed again and  left the room with a nod goodbye.

Nightstrike watched her  go, staring after her, and I could tell she wasn't doing well. Jessie  wasn't the only one who was upset. I walked over to sit down next to  her. I didn't speak, didn't ask her anything, just sat there, silently  waiting with her. She looked at me sideways and then let out a long,  exhausted sigh. "She was my best friend." I turned to look at her,  curious about who she meant. "Shadowthorn. Annie. She was my mentor.  Like a big sister to me. She taught me how to use my abilities."

I  winced. That was...that was rough. She must have seen me flinch because  she chuckled bitterly. "Fucked up right? She was the first person to  take me under her wing when I joined the guild. She taught me the skills  I used to alter my ability to what it is. She was so...cool. So strong  and brave and heroic. I used to be afraid that my shadow manipulation  ability would get me judged as corrupted, but Annie showed me that  people could still look at me as a hero. " Her voice was sad, and I saw a  tear slide down from under her mask though neither of us mentioned it.

Finally  I couldn't help but ask. "What happened? I heard that your dad left  when he ranked up, got offered the guild master spot in the capital.  That she went with him. What changed between you two?" It seemed hard to  imagine that Shadowthorn would just up and announce 'banging your dad,  sorry about that, but hey we're moving to the capital want to come  with?' There had to have been some kind of connecting event between  those two things. Based on her earlier statement I had a guess what it  was.

She chuckled. "What happened is my all powerful F  rank father was too stupid to realize he should wear a condom. Because  hey, finding out your best friend is hooking up with your dad doesn't  hurt nearly enough, she needed to get knocked up just to really twist  the knife." She let out a bitter laugh. "You know she wanted me to go  with them? She begged me to see her side of it. Said she loved him. Said  she loved me. Wanted us to be a family. Except I found out she only  started mentoring me because he told her to. Wanted her to babysit his  bratty daughter so she didn't get into trouble."

I put a  hand on her shoulder. "Nightstrike. Calliope, if that's your name, I  hate to be the one to tell you this, but your dad sounds like kind of a  bag of dicks." She snorted out a laugh, dissolving into giggles. I  reached up and took my mask off. "Shane, by the way. Since I already  heard your name a few times, it only seems fair. Plus you're an  executive and could easily find out my name if you don't already know it  anyway."

She took her own mask off, rolling her eyes.  "Callie. Please. I hate my name. Everyone I don't want to punch in the  throat calls me Callie." She was... insanely pretty. Like supermodel  gorgeous. She had cute features, surprisingly delicate for someone as  tough as she was. I reached out my hand and we shook. "Sorry to dump  that on you. Annie being here is...unpleasant for me. Which he knew.  It's why he sent her. He likes to remind me he can make me uncomfortable  if he feels like it. I think he's under the impression it'll make me  grateful for all the time he spends leaving me alone when I ignore him."

I  really didn't like her dad. I made a mental note to have Zeke kick his  teeth in once I left the planet. I was pretty sure when I was gone my  Uncle would be free to do whatever he felt like doing. Nothing  permanent, just a light ass kicking, maybe have him shaved and tied to a  tree in public or something. It was a satisfying mental image, even if  it was probably not going to happen anytime soon. Hell by that point I  could probably just kick his ass myself. I decided we needed a subject  change. "So, do you think Jessie will be alright?"

She  winced. "I...don't know. Probably. It's hard to say. Some people never  recover from loss. It consumes them, becomes part of them. Jessie seems  to be trying to move on, I just think she might be trying to do it a bit  too fast. Alan was a good guy, he wouldn't want to see her hurting like  this but..." She shrugged and I nodded. We couldn't take her pain away.  We just had to let her deal with things in her own time. It just  sucked. She didn't deserve what she was going through, but then, no one  said people always got what they deserved.

As  I stared at her downcast expression I decided to offer my help as best I  could. "Look. I know it's not worth much coming from some low ranked  newbie, but I'm on your side here. Maybe together we can find and take  down this killer before Shadowthorn gets to him." Honestly I kind of  felt for Shadowthorn too, she seemed like she was genuinely hurt by how  much Nightstrike hated her, but that wasn't anything I could or should  try to fix as a stranger anyway. Nightstrike needed someone who had her  back, someone she felt she could trust.

She  looked surprised. "Really? You know that even if Annie doesn't get mad  about that my old man will probably pitch a fit at having his plans  disrupted. I suspect he's hoping once I see how strong she's gotten in  the capital I won't be able to resist coming back and begging for his  help. He rarely ever does things for one reason. I know you're trying to  move up in the Unity, he can make that pretty difficult if he decides  he doesn't like you." Her voice was disdainful, showing what she thought  of that plan, and even having known her a short time I could tell that  wouldn't work.

I  just smirked at her. "You're not the only one who can be stubborn." She  smirked back at me, eyes flashing with gratitude. In all honesty, while  I did like Callie, the reason I was helping her wasn't because her  story had touched my soul, or because she was gorgeous and I wanted to  look good, or even because it was the right thing to do. It was because  fuck her dad, that was why. Seriously. His whole attitude pissed me off.  I admit there may have been some projecting going on there, I may have  been focusing my anger at my own dad at Callie's shitty absentee father,  but honestly, I didn't care.

Besides,  the Unity was a convenient cover for my growth, not some sort of  necessity. I liked the place and the people seemed nice, but I could get  just as strong somewhere else. Hell, with my abilities I could just  catch a trip off planet and register at another Unity branch. I wasn't  really interested in the other factions for various reasons, but I could  even leave the Conglomerate altogether. The Empire wasn't THAT  different I was pretty sure. Regardless I had options no matter what, I  could afford to be a little immature and irrational.

With the mutual understanding between us in place, Callie and I nodded to each other in  silent agreement and stood to head to the door. Cap was still tracking  down and trying to comfort Jessie, and it was shitty to leave them on  their own. We were a team after all, and even if we hadn't been together  long, I kind of wanted that to mean something. I wanted to have people  who would have my back like Zeke had my dads. Obviously Benny would be  one of those people once I could help him get an ability, but until  then? I'd have to take care of the team I had.