Wish upon the Stars

The slide that materialized was mesmerizing to look at. Whirls of  shifting silver moonlight woven into intricate spirals and shifting  symbols I could barely understand. Some looked like runes, some looked  almost like pictures, at least for a second, and some I had no words  for. "That's...amazing." I murmured, reaching out to touch the silvery  substance.

Zeke reached out and smacked my hand away. "Not  yet. If you touch it you'll get sucked in. Make sure you have  everything prepared before you make contact." I shook my fingers,  glaring a little, but nodded.

"So...what is this anyway?  Did he make this just now?" The music had woven the slide, but something  about it seemed too...profound to have been made by the old man. Not in  terms of Impact, it was only F-rank like we were, but in terms of  complexity. It was like I was looking into an absurdly deep puddle. Even  if it was the same size as other puddles in terms of width, the depth  was leagues deeper.

Zeke shook his head, looking at it  with interest. "No. More like...called it? He gave it a place to  connect. The slide is part of the glade. An important part." He shook  off the faraway tone. "Doesn't matter. You need to go. The slides don't  connect for long, and someone will have noticed." He patted my shoulder.  "Be safe kid. I'll be keeping an eye out, but I won't be any good out  here." He looked at the others. "Watch his back."

I looked  around. "Hey, where is Jessie? We can't leave without her." Our healer  was the most important member of our group, especially in a place like  the Moonsong Glade, which would be full of wild animals and nature.

Callie  pointed out the door. "She's outside waiting for the animals. You  didn't think she'd leave without Randall and the wolves did you? It was  the whole reason we brought them. It's fine though, she texted them as  soon as we got here,and if she went out to meet them they should be  arriving any second."

I turned to Abel. "Can you help her  get them to the slide? They're too big to fit through the door, but your  spatial lubrication should help get around that. Once they touch the  silver they'll be snapped up."

He just shrugged and went  outside to help. I looked back at Zeke. "Alright. Once that's done we're  leaving. Don't drink too much while I'm gone, keep up with Cass's  training, and teach Cark a few things too." I paused. "And tell them I  said goodbye and that I'll see them soon enough."

I  debated telling him about my decision to look for my mother, but I knew  he couldn't do anything in the Glade anyway, and I was worried he'd try  to talk me out of it. I decided not to mention it. There would be time  later. Unless I was dead and then I wouldn't care.

Giving  my uncle a quick hug that surprised me almost as much as it surprised  him, I stepped back and took up a spot near the silver slide. I saw the  air warp as the spatial lubrication created a path to the slide, Abel  leading it in so Randall could reach the stream of energy. With one last  look around, I reached out and touched the moonlight...and fell.

That's  the only word that worked for it. Falling. Despite the slide going  straight up for a bit and then curving slowly, as I rocketed up it I  felt myself picking up speed. It wasn't anything as simple as gravity  reversing, because I didn't feel like I had a body at all, it was like  my soul was being sucked down a tube, but the tube had a million curves  and twists and turns and was straight as an arrow at the same time.

Every  inch I traveled felt like I'd gone through a maze, but at the same time  I not only didn't slow down, I picked up speed. Like someone was  shoving the impression of having traveled a winding path into my head  every inch I moved, but they were all different winding paths, and my  brain was having trouble keeping up with them, and then, suddenly...I  wasn't.

I was just standing in the forest. The trees were  swaying, the leaves were rustling, and I was trying my best not to  vomit. There was a flash of moonlight and Callie was there. I had barely  enough presence of mind to step in and catch her before she toppled  over. Abel was fine, oddly, and it made me wonder if soul strength made  it easier to adjust. Benny seemed to do relatively well too.

Nat  and her guards looked sick but managed to stay standing, and Jessie  landed still on Randall's back. Having four legs presumably helped,  because none of the animals fell over. Jin, Rala, Lily, and Rolf, our  wolves, all looked oddly energetic and excited actually, and I felt bad  that we'd been keeping them cooped up in the city. Randall would want to  stay with Jessie, but I would be thinking about possibly leaving the  wolves if they wanted to stay.

We were lucky they were  able to come along at all, it had been a relief to find out animals  didn't count towards our slots. Sapience was a big thing in this case  apparently. "Alright." I said with a rasp, my voice not working right  yet. "Is everyone ok? No one hurt?"

"Only mentally and  emotionally." Moaned Benny. "I feel like I fell out of an existential  dread tree and hit every branch on the way down. That was awful. I'm not  sure if I feel like less than when I went in or more, or which of those  things is worse because they're both somehow terrifying to me right  now."

I grimaced. "Don't think about it. It sucked but  it's over, and chances are we won't need to do anything like it again  anytime soon."

"Speaking of being  over..." Said Jessie from her perch on Randall's back. "Does anyone know  where we ended up? Because I feel like the whole danger thing might  just be getting started. The puppies don't look comfortable here, and  they have pretty solid instincts."

Staring  around us, I took in the trees. We'd ended up in a clearing, natural  from the looks of it. part of me secretly hoped there would be some  Moonglow Dew conveniently sitting around here, but there wasn't. Just  darkness, shadow and foreboding thick between the trees. Which was when  my brain caught up to the fact that we had our own expert on shadow and  foreboding.

"Cal."  I called, my girlfriend looking up at me as she tried to shake the  cobwebs off from our entrance. "We're in a deep dark shadowy forest,  think you could take a listen and get us an idea what we're walking  into. See if there are any people nearby, or civilization maybe."

Shaking  her head to physically rattle something loose, she grinned at me.  "Sounds good. Give me a second." She knelt down, hand pressed to the  shadow, and I saw her sink into the darkness beneath the tree, vanishing  into the empty shade. I hadn't seen her do that exactly, I'd known she  could, but it was still kind of crazy to watch.

As  she slipped out, she shot me a frown. "Ok, there isn't much within my  range aside from animals, but I did catch the very edges of a  conversation somewhere nearby. Just at the edge of where I can listen,  which means not close but not far enough for my liking. They're coming  this way too. But since they're out of range I just got some noise and  voices in a language I didn't know. Can't even give you a number. What  do we do?"

I  paused. We could run, but we didn't know where we were, and we could  easily end up even worse off. Being solidly in place as well as having  the numbers and power to protect ourselves, meant this was as good a  time as any to run into another team. Worst case we could run away.

"We  wait." I said firmly. "Callie, if you have the materials maybe set a  few traps nearby, something we can avoid and lead them into if we need  to get away." Just because we were going to make contact didn't mean we  had to be stupid about it.

She  nodded, pulling some materials from her ring. Nothing too fancy, her  Trap Skill wasn't high enough anyway. She turned and got to work, and I  prepared to greet the other team, whoever they might be. It would be  nice to assume we'd know them but we couldn't count on that.

I  half wanted someone to make an escape wish, but I might need the ones I  had for bargaining. I started hearing them coming pretty soon after,  breaking branches and crackling leaves heralding the approach of...I  froze. Too many people. More than ten. More than twenty. I panicked,  getting ready to tell everyone we needed to go, but as I triggered Eye  of Revelation I realized we were already surrounded.

A  man stepped out of the trees. Pale with dark hair, in plate armor. He  glanced around at us for a minute, before speaking in, surprisingly,  completely legible if heavily accented common, the language of the  Conglomerate (and from what I'd seen most of the universe). "Outsiders.  How...unpleasant." He sniffed disdainfully, and I decided I didn't  really like him much. While I'd have like to mouth off because of that, I  was the boss now, which meant everyone's safety was my responsibility.

Sadly,  that didn't make me a politician or diplomat, but it DID mean I needed  to be responsible enough to keep my damn mouth shut. I glanced to  Celine, giving her a nod, and she stepped forward politely. "Pardon our  intrusion sir. Might we impose upon you for our location? If we've  trespassed on sovereign territory we heartily apologize, and would be  happy to remove ourselves from your land."

The  man's lip curled under his hawkish nose. "Remove yourselves? Why would  we allow this. You expect Ladrigan to be the only kingdom without  outsiders? Pelegar has already acquired four groups. We will not allow  ourselves to be bested. You will come with us. The awakening approaches,  and outsiders are the best possible source of the god Dew. You're all  drawn to the stuff."

That...wasn't  what I expected. Any of it. I knew there were locals, but not that they  had fucking KINGDOMS. Not that they knew we'd be coming and wanted to  use us as Dew detectors. I forced myself to calm down. We were safe, and  if they needed us they wouldn't kill us, or hopefully hurt us if we  played along.

"That  sounds fine." I said cheerfully. "We'd be happy to help our new hosts,  and we appreciate your hospitality. We're quite lost, so it's kind of  you to offer us a place as your guests."

His  eyes widened, and then narrowed, his face contorting as he presumably  started to contradict me, when a musical voice cut him off. "What  amiable intruders." Said a girl, stepping from the trees. She had long,  cascading aqua hair, and pale blue skin, as well as ears as pointed as  Celine's. "But very well, if it will smooth things over, guests you  shall be." Her eyes turned to the pale man. "Drakov, escort them to my  carriage. I'll bring them back personally."

Her  accent was much milder than his, barely noticeable, and somehow much  fancier. She gave us a warm smile, her completely blue eyes (no iris at  all) glinting like spheres of ice blue metal as she stared at as, then  she turned and strolled away, expecting us to follow. I had no idea what  the hell that was about, but I was betting it was complicated. Joy.