Wish upon the Stars chapter 220 (Patreon)

Once we got to G-district, we headed right for the Pavilion. Once we  got there I found a private spot and spoke to Beric the were-tiger. He  was eager to get his stats redistributed, and I picked up 15 points of  Focus first thing, since he was a pure physical combatant. He had them  all funneled into Might, to my absolute lack of surprise. That brought  me up to 88 Focus, which helped to bring it closer to evening out with  my Perception. Once it was done I did a quick check of my status to  catch up on all the changes.

Wishmaster candidate status. G-rank. Ability: Beginner Wish- Five times a day grant  a Beginner 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-97

Impact-12

Fantasy-21

Vitality-71

Focus-88

Perception-90

Creation-82

Stored:9  shadow attack, 1 fire attack, 7 triple strenth tranq blows, 4 triple  strength density shifted attacks. 2 spider leg attacks, 8 heal bursts

Skills:Beginner  Doom Sovereign Mastery,Lesser Enchanting Mastery, Lesser Cooking  Mastery,Lesser Inventing Mastery, Lesser Stealth,Lesser Balam Mastery,  Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Gymnastics Mastery, Minor Swimming Mastery,  Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor Singing Mastery,Minor Poker Mastery, Minor  Archery Mastery, Minor Boxing Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery, Minor  Herbalism Mastery.

I could see an accounting  of all the stored attacks I had access to, and I whistled internally at  the list. Those would be some damn powerful trump cards if I needed  them. I also took note that I was only a few tens of points shy of a  five hundred total, nearly halfway to F-rank. I was glad I'd figured out  the whole attack storage thing, because I never would have been able to  keep up in terms of raw output without it. Spreading myself so evenly  across every stat made me much weaker in terms of individual stat  values, even if it was the optimum build for my Wish power to show its  worth.

Once the day's wishes were done we headed for the  Pavilion itself, where Callie, Jessie, Benny, Alden, Abel, and Mel were  currently holding a meeting about how to deal with the potential sea of  G-rankers coming to most likely burn this place to the ground. After a  discussion we all came to the conclusion that destroying the cavalcade  would be the most expedient way to erase its influence and pave the way  for Sanctuary Hall to take over, and the new information from Melinda  made that much more likely, at least to me.

Once I got in,  I introduced the three G-rankers and their nine companions. To my  surprise, at least one person was already familiar. "Sloane!" Jessie  squealed with excitement, tackling the other girl. Melinda's apprentice  gave a small grunt as the tiny blonde barrelled into her, sweeping her  up in a crushing hug. "I didn't know you were coming! This is so great,  we really need the help, and you're so strong!"

Sloane,  for her part, was laughing affectionately as she squeezed Jessie back.  "Good to see you Agria. You'll definitely be a huge help down here.  Especially given we're going to be fighting the damn healer capital of  the planet. Good thing you're worth a dozen of those garbage bandage  peddlers." Jessie put her down as she heard her speaking, and I could  see a blush on my teammate's face at the compliment.

I  raised an eyebrow, cocking my head so my confusion was visible. "I  thought the Garden was all about earning your keep. Melinda didn't want  to give Agria any special treatment, how did she end up palling around  with the Beast Queen's personal disciple?" It occurred to me that I had  taken way too much of what Melinda said at face value. It seemed like  she was taking care of Jessie behind the scenes even before I revealed  my ability. I couldn't exactly be mad, but it made me wonder what else  I'd missed.

Sloane just shrugged. "Master can't directly  interfere with newbies without breaking established tradition, but  there's no rules about who can and can't be friends. Agria is a sweetie,  and she has a damn useful power. She's also a fast learner. I was able  to teach her the Beast Taming Mastery Skill pretty quickly." She shot my  teammate a bright smile, and Jessie beamed back at her. Despite the  blushing I didn't think Jessie's interest was romantic, she was just  extremely flattered to have such a high evaluation from someone she  respected.

"Well this is all very nice." Mel said, cutting  in. "But we kind of have other things to deal with. Another thirteen  G-rankers is a solid boost to our capabilities. The pavilion itself has  ten of us at a level I'd be comfortable fielding in combat. The  cavalcade has another eight I'd call combat capable, but they're all  directly under Cicero, and we need his support if we want them to jump  in on this." I could literally hear the disgust in her voice as she  asked Abel. "Can you talk to him about lending aid?"

The  rabbit masked man rolled his eyes. "Yes, Mel. Revenant, you act like  he's pure evil. He's not going to leave us twisting in the wind. Gods,  even if he wanted to, this is his place too, at this point he doesn't  really have a choice on whether to join in or not. They're coming to  tear down the whole cavalcade, when they come at all. His options are to  help or watch everything he's worked for get destroyed, possibly dying  in the process."

I cut in before Mel could snap back.  "Speaking of the cavalcade, should we try to talk him into closing it? I  don't think anyone here wants a bunch of civilians underfoot when the  attack goes down. I know the defenses are supposed to be powerful, and  I'd rather not see them all get mowed down in the crossfire." Left  unsaid was my worry that Cicero wouldn't be quite as worried about  civilian losses because he was a selfish dick.

"I was  already planning to do so." Came a familiar voice from behind me. I  jumped slightly, not having expected to hear it so soon, and spun to see  Cicero stepping into the Pavilion, Emery following at a distance that  seemed aimed at providing the top hatted man room to move around, while  still staying close enough to step in if anything went wrong. I wasn't  sure what the point of that was honestly, unless Emery was WAY more  dangerous than I'd been led to believe, there was no possible way the  spymaster would be able to stop Abel if he chose to attack his brother.

It  didn't matter anyway. Abel stepped forward with a wide, welcoming  smile, opening his arms in greeting. "I've been back for hours and  you're just now stopping in to visit? You're a terrible host. I'm  surprised this place hasn't gone belly up with you in charge the last  few years." He stepped forward to hug his brother, and Emery tensed  until Cicero waved a hand subtly meeting his brother's embrace with a  tight hug of his own.

To my shock, the mustachioed ring  master stayed like that for a minute, squeezing his big brother tightly  as if reassuring himself he was real. I might be misreading him again,  but I got the impression that despite his double dealing personality,  not all of Cicero's stated affection for his brother was a lie. Maybe  her personal strength really wasn't the only reason Mel had lasted so  many years sewing dissent around here.

The hug only lasted  a minute though, and once he composed himself Cicero pulled back, his  face melting from a peaceful expression of relief that I'd almost missed  as he turned to face us, to it's usual calm, positive smile, the one I  knew for a fact was utter bullshit. His eyes raked over the assembled  group. "Well, it seems the lot of you have been busy. What an  interesting array of allies. Tell me then, Melissa, are these here to  deal with me? You seem to have suborned my new spies easily enough.  Perhaps you've become more skilled at gathering subordinates yourself."

Despite  the dire nature of the question he didn't sound distressed at all,  perhaps reassured that Abel would come down on his side. "Yeah, she's  got this revolutionary technique called not being an asshole. I was  bowled over." I chimed in helpfully. Callie snorted out a laugh, and Mel  raised a hand to her mask in an exaggerated cough to hide her own  chuckles. "Sadly, as much as I would love to participate in a rousing  game of 'kick the bastard in the hat' we have bigger problems now, and  Mel is on your side, though I suspect she'd rather have her teeth pulled  than admit it out loud."

Mel gave a silent shrug, her  lack of commentary a clear agreement with my sentiment. Cicero raised an  eyebrow, seemingly unbothered by my hostility, or at most slightly  miffed. He sighed. "Well, I suppose an explanation is in order. That  does explain why my brother has shown himself. Very well. Regale me with  your tale." He walked over to one of the massive bench seats lining the  dirt ring and sat, leaning back casually to wait.

Abel  looked over at Mel, who glanced away, then at me, then at Callie. When  he saw none of us were willing to tolerate talking to his asshole  brother without being forced to, he sighed heavily, rolling his eyes  before beginning to fill Cicero in on everything that had happened. Mel  had apparently given him all the details she had, as had Callie, because  his summary of the situation included quite a few things he hadn't  known before (though he didn't mention the candidate or me, so Callie  had held at least a few things back) but he gave a coherent and concise  summary of events.

Cicero  waited, listening to his brother for a few minutes, before turning to  glare at Mel. "So our resident firebrand put as all in horrible danger  with her recklessness and thoughtlessness, how shocking. This is what I  get for tolerating your nonsense for all these years I suppose. I should  have handled you years ago." To my shock, his voice was laced with  actual rage, some of the first negative emotion he'd allowed himself to  show in my presence.

Mel  stepped forward, golden flames roaring to life in her palms. "YOU  tolerated ME? You want to try to evict me yourself you cowardly fuck? I  was here at the beginning of this entire place. I would have left years  ago if I wasn't worried your poison would ruin the place Abel and I  worked so hard to create. You're a pathetic, simpering, backstabber, and  if you want to start a fight I'll gladly oblige!" Mel's tone was every  bit as enraged as Cicero's and Abel was staring between them in shock  and what looked a bit like panic.

Before  they could actually fight though, a wave of crushing force smashed into  my shoulders, and theirs too from the looks of it, forcing us all to  our knees. "Enough, children." Came an authoritative voice that was  barely recognizable for it's intensity. We all turned to look at Alden,  who scowled through his beard at the three of them. "I've had enough.  You're fucking adults, act like it. Cicero, you'll supply the manpower  we need and deal with your issues with Mel later. Mel, you'll focus on  the task at hand and worry about your grudges when we aren't all about  to die."

His  eyes flicked to Abel, who looked relieved to have been skipped. "And  you!" Abel's eyes jerked up in surprise as his teacher laid into him.  "If you're going to come back after so long have the decency to deal  with the trouble you start. You're one of the most terrifying people  I've ever trained, but you refuse to stand up to Mel or your brother and  it's absurd. I realize you worried about hurting them as kids, but you  aren't ten anymore. You can't just let them do whatever they want  because you don't want to upset them. Stop coddling them and grow a  spine."

The  three of them all looked like they'd been slapped, and I thanked Zeke  mentally for the mask he'd made not showing my mouth, because I was  grinning at seeing them all chastised. The older man sighed in  annoyance. "Damn kids will be the death of me. Now, the rest of you,  gather our forces while Cicero clears this place out. Who knows how long  we have before the enemy arrives." He gave us all a savage grin. "We  need to make sure to show our hospitality, and thorough preparations are  a necessity for a proper welcome."