Wish upon the Stars

My favorite part of being the boss was delegating. I think Callie should have done that more, because I didn't see any reason to take all the small stuff on myself. For instance, resupply was not something I had any real desire to learn, so we left it to Celine and Benny. Sure, I had to sit in on it, but it was still a relief not to have to try to think of every little eventuality. I was just the purse strings here.

 

Which was how I found myself in negotiations with one of the other princes right now. Wulfric Deville was the third prince of Ladrigan, and one of the better connected. His mother was the king's current wife, and a transplant from a kingdom on the other side of the ring called Eledar. She had a lot of political sway, and her son used it to great effect, being one of the favorites for the heir position.

 

Not that it mattered. He saw Anna-Marie as pretty much the opposite of competition, and the chance to get some wishes was too good to pass up. To his credit, he was fairly polite to her so far during this meeting, but it was clear he didn't think she was a threat. "Anna." He said with a grimace. "Must you be so stubborn? You and your friends could trade these 'wishes' for money, power, influence. You don't need to get involved in this hunt. Even if no other outsiders are found in the kingdom, you could still back out. I would be willing to act as their patron, I can fulfill any commitments you made."

 

I bet he would. Luckily Anna-Marie wouldn't budge. Celine cleared her throat. "Your generous offer is noted, Prince Wulfric, but as of this time we are determined to continue. In this scenario it would be in both of our best interests for you to meet our needs. After all, such a connected person will obviously be able to recruit his own team of outsiders, and having us as allies would be advantageous in the field."

 

That was probably going to happen. The other royals had begun scouring the surrounding areas for teams, and I was sure one would pop up soon. There were a hundred teams of ten in this dungeon, and only ten kingdoms total in the ring from what I knew.

 

Seeing he had no chance of convincing us he sighed. "Alright. I'm told you have six of these wishes in your possession. What exactly are you asking?" I'd decided to give my daily limit as a hard cap. I'd use one day's wishes here, but I could just pretend to not have any more and keep the others to myself for the moment. If I had to contradict myself later I'd just claim to have lied, which I hadn't actually done technically, except by omission, so if anyone with truth detection powers was around I could feasibly get away with both statements.

 

Anna-Marie had spoken with us at length about our needs here, so we'd made a pretty comprehensive list. "We want fifteen pounds of summerspark crystal, eight bottles of frost antidote, sixteen ice goblin teeth traps, eleven snowstep enchantments, ten stonestrider goats and a blizzardbane ward." I said firmly. We were going to need to negotiate, Anna-Marie had been clear that this was the absolute best possible haul we would get, but that it was nearly impossible for us to get it all in the quantities we wanted.

 

Wulfric hissed in dismay. "That's absurd! I don't even HAVE fifteen pounds of summerspark crystal. And while I do have ten stonestrider goats, that's ALL I have. I'd be depriving my own forces of valuable mounts. Five pounds of crystal and three goats. We can discuss the rest as we go. But those two are easily worth a 'wish'." He wasn't peak F-rank or anything, but I knew eight points wasn't a huge deal. Luckily wishes weren't limited to points, and while stats were all important, sometimes you needed a more subtle solution.

 

"Wishes aren't so casual a thing." I said gravely. "Haven't you ever had a Skill you couldn't find? A location you wanted to discover? Wanted to look different? Perhaps change the ability of someone you know? I can do all these things and more." My voice was low and soothing, trying to lull him into daydreaming of the possibilities. I saw his eyebrows crease in uncertainty.

 

He looked down at the list. "I...that is...ten pounds. And five goats. I really can't do any more than that. I'll be dangerously underprepared with just that, so you can take it or leave it."

 

I looked at Celine, and nodded subtly. "Then that is what we shall accept." She said with a smile. "Wonderful, two down and four to go. Now, we can assume the blizzardbane ward will be acceptable, we only want the one, but if the goats are going to be halved the snowstep enchantments will be twice as necessary." Anna-Marie had been pretty sure we wouldn't be able to get the goats. The snowstep enchantment allowed you to walk on the top of a snow drift without sinking in or slipping.

 

Sadly, it was consumable, hence the numbers we asked for. But without the goats to navigate (stonestrider goats apparently had absurd balance and never slipped) some of us would need to walk, and we would need two of them at a time for Randall, since he'd be making the trip with Jessie on his back.

 

Wulfric sighed. "I can part with the ward. I'd prefer to downgrade it to a coldgap barricade, but if you're set on it I can make do. The enchantments...I can do ten. That really is as far as I can go though. Fifteen traps are all I have for trade, and the antidote...I can part with that. I want you to be safe after all." He smiled warmly at Anna-Marie, who actually seemed a little touched.

 

I didn't know if they had a good relationship, but she clearly thought well enough of him to believe he had her best interests at heart. Celine, doing her job, retorted with a counter offer, and they bickered for a while until they finally settled on ten traps and six antidotes in exchange for two more goats.

Once that was done, Wulfric looked nervously at me. "So...how does this work? I just say what I wish and you can make it happen? No matter what it is?"

"No." I laughed. "Even pre-made wishes like the ones I was given have limits. It takes stats to grant them, and I have a limit to what's loaded into these." I actually wasn't sure if it worked that way, since I couldn't make wishes like that until D-rank.

Which made me excited to think about. Wish scrolls were essentially currency, and unlike wishes themselves, there were no rules about their use or trade. Paying for things at D-rank would become much simpler, not to mention none of my wishes would ever go to waste again.

Sure, there were downsides. I wasn't positive stored wishes were limited by the creators stats but it did seem likely. Even with that though, it would be damned useful to have the option.

Swallowing hard, Wulfric nodded. "Right. I wish for the Subtle Persuasion Skill. Beginner rank." He had been warned I couldn't do Intermediate Skills already I guessed. Or he was just hoping to upgrade things his own way.

I confirmed, and after a moment got the stat requirements which I met easily. I was an F-ranker now, I didn't need to worry about paying for Beginner rank Skills.

I felt that familiar charge on my skin as the electricity built, and I reached across the table to set it free. I could contain it if I wanted, let it burst free into the ether like it did for things like luck wishes, but hands on was simpler for me. The prince stiffened, gritting his teeth as the sensation of my power poured through him, and when it faded he was panting and sweating. 

He was also grinning. He'd clearly gotten what he wanted, not that I was surprises. Having the confirmation made him excited for the other wishes though. He'd paid the first with summerspark crystal, and we crossed it off the list.

We went down the list. Each new item paying for a wish, slowly stockpiling what we needed as the prince got more powerful. Or at least developed the potential to do so. He'd been wishing for Beginner Skills, which were a bit behind F-rank, but long term he was clearly making a good choice.

Finally we finished, and he wasn't the only one sweating and panting. I'd used up a lot of energy binging them all like that, but it was worth it. The prince rose on shaky legs, smiling wanly at me as he bid us goodbye, then staggered out of the room.

I looked at Anna-Marie. "So. How did we do? You know the value of this stuff better than we do. Did we get ripped off?"

Not that I expected her to say yes. But asking her to confirm it would make her feel valued, and would remind Celine of her role in things. Callie said little acknowledgements would help me with the group, letting everyone know I noticed how much they did.

Shaking her head, she shot me a grin. "We did excellently. Granted, it's hard for me to measure value for something as ephemeral as a wish, but we got what we needed."

"Preaching to the choir." I said emphatically. "But fair enough. Celine?"

The elven girl smiled at me subtly, as was her way. "I think we did well. In the future, it might behoove us to offer a cheaper wish as a demonstration and negotiate from there. The effect of seeing such an impressive ability clearly swayed him, but we'd already settled on a price."

That was a good point actually. It was also possible we might not even need to. The prince had gotten his wishes and that might get around. Then again it was also possible he would keep a lid on it. I probably would if I were him. Even without more wishes as a motivation, wanting new Skills to be a surprise was only natural. They'd make a bigger splash that way and be much more effective.

As we talked, servants tromped in and out carrying trunks and boxes. Some large, some small. None of them contained goats, much to my relief, I suspected those were outside. We stashed the materials in our spatial rings and once they had been packed up I turned to Anna-Marie. "I think we're ready for a trial run. Is there a place nearby where we can enter a nearby part of the mountain range?"

She nodded with a worried smile. "Yes. As I mentioned this castle was built on the edge of the ring. There's a back entrance that is fortified against assault. We have patrols running through the immediate area to prevent ambush attempts. We'd have to travel away from the castle to enter territory where we might find the flowers, but not too far."

"That's perfect!" I said excitedly. "We can make it a day trip, Since it'll be short distance a few of us can even double up on the goats. That way we won't need to waste the enchantments early."

Her face lit up at my enthusiasm, and she started filling me in on helpful tips. I couldn't contain my grin. Adventures were almost as much fun as battles. I couldn't wait to look around and see more of this place.

I glanced over at Callie, whose eyes were burning with glee and intensity. I had a feeling my sensing Skills would be getting a workout, not just the plant one either. There was treasure up in those mountains, and I was damned sure we were going to find some of it.