Cassandra Pendragon
“Well, I better get dressed before my mom returns. You could have at least put me in a nightie or a shirt, you know? You’re wearing one yourself.”
“I could have, but I honestly didn’t want to. After I scrubbed more gore and grime off of you than can be found on a battlefield, I thought I deserved as much. Why, does it make you uncomfortable?”
“Not in the slightest, if we were alone. Having my mom waltz in while I’m in bed with you, naked, on the other hand…” I shrugged and disentangled myself from her to stand up. There were no scars on my body but when I carefully touched the spots where the legs of the statue had pierced through me, I still felt a tingling, followed by a faint echo of the pain I had been in. I hissed in surprise and reflexively wrapped my tails and arms around me.
Ahri had followed my movements, dreamily at first but now she got up quickly. Warmth spread through me and I relaxed when her tails covered mine. “That spider will pay. I’ll take more than just her legs before it’s over,” she whispered, more to herself than anything else.
“No, she won’t. We need her,” I grudgingly admitted. “There’s still too much we don’t know and she most likely has some of the answers. But I’m done asking nicely. You can let go of me. I won’t suddenly collapse.” She hugged me for a moment longer before she stepped back and allowed me to open the chest she had pointed at earlier. There wasn’t much inside, my clothes and hers, two blades, the white cloak Barzuk had given me and surprisingly her letter and the toy I had taken from Boseiju. Somehow the sight of them brought tears back to my eyes and I croaked a “thank you” in a strangle voice before I threw myself at her.
She held me tight, her soft voice continuously whispering in my ear while I cried. Fear, agony, hope and anger, everything I had kept inside burst to the surface and for a while, there was nothing I could do but cling to her while the storm inside of me carried me away.
I didn’t know how long we had stood there until the worst of it blew over. My tears began to dry and the strangled sobs turned into hiccoughs. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I’m a mess…” she pulled me closer and gently ran her fingers up and down my back.
“Shush. Don’t apologise. You… all of us have gone through more than a lifetime full of grief lately. If all I have to do to make you feel better is hold you, I’ll gladly oblige. Cry, Cassandra, cry for as long as you have to and tomorrow you’ll laugh again.” I breathed in her scent and the pent up tension gradually drained from me. I felt shaky and exhausted but also relieved, as if an invisible weight had been lifted off my shoulders. She was right, tears could be cathartic and I’d shed as many as I’d have to. After darkness always came light, post tenebras lux.
“How do you do it? You’re always composed, fearless… perfect.” I whispered. Her breath brushed over my ear and her quiet laughter sent a warm shiver along my tails.
“Fearless? Prefect? Cassy, I just spent a night clinging to you because I was scared out of my wits that you’d vanish again. I couldn’t even bring myself to dress you because I wanted, no, I needed to feel your warmth, your breath under my fingers. Xorlosh nearly lost a hand when he suggested bundling you up with the injured dwarfs, so they could keep an eye on you and I’d get some uninterrupted sleep. Do you want me to go on? I’m about as far removed from the hero you make me out to be as I possibly can.”
“Not to me. To me you’re much more than a hero… When do you think my mom will be back?”
“Any second now. Why?”
“It doesn’t matter, then. I should really get dressed…” But I didn’t move. I took me another minute until I finally let go and shrugged into a pair of clothes I had felt burn to ashes on my skin. They were just as comfortable as I remembered and I had to admit, wearing trousers again did wonders. I had never realised in how many different ways clothes actually helped us hide. Not having to parade my naked ass across camp for the second time was an added bonus.
Ahri had joined me and it took us a while since we spent half the time ogling the other inconspicuously, without much success, I might add. Consequentially we were just about presentable when my mom waltzed back in, head held high, my brother on her tails with a large parchment in his arms.
He looked tired, but healthy and his stern expression lit up with a smirk when he saw us both standing there, as if we had just fallen out of bed, which, admittedly, we had. “I hope we’re not interrupting? Mother even had me wait for a while before we came over.”
He was wearing the same shirt and trousers as us, his sword dangling from the belt. The wounds he must have sustained from his clash with Horus had vanished except for a beautifully coloured bruise below his collar bone. He dropped the parchment, the corners of which shimmered with interwoven, golden lines, and strode over to us, arms opened wide. He smelled like soap and weapon oil but when we hugged, a faint scent of wild flowers tickled my nose. He had spent time with Erya, enough that I could still smell her on him, even though he had taken a bath afterwards. Oh my…
“You don’t seem to have been in too much of a hurry,” I quipped while I rubbed my eyes. “It’s good to see you. Thanks for coming after me.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly voluntary. You girlfriend and our mother would have skinned me alive if I hadn’t jumped immediately. But I’m glad you’re alright. You are alright, aren’t you?”
“As far as I can tell. Physically at least, I’ve healed. How about you? Your stamina doesn’t appear to have suffered.” He didn’t even blush as he answered with a shrug:
“A few aches here and there but everything works just splendidly…” he was interrupted by a bark. My mother had pushed the parchment closer and was trying to get our attention. I felt for her, I really did. Tiny and speechless, one of the most annoying, frustrating experiences one could have.
-banter can wait. Asked others to leave us alone. Have a little time. What happened?!-
“I could ask you the same thing. But while you sketch out an answer I guess I can start…”
It was a lot easier this time around, having told Ahri before allowed me to quickly summarise what had transpired, even though I left out my dream. For now, I neither wanted to discuss Amazeroth, nor Greta. Especially not Greta. “…so, for now we basically have to make sure the seed has been destroyed and, if possible, find out what happened to the piece of the heart it was linked to.”
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Mordred and my mom had listened with rapt attention, while she was absentmindedly scribbling on her parchment. It was hard to read upside down, also, her new handwriting was abysmal, but I didn’t have to puzzle for long. My brother readily translated:
“We should probably include Mephisto, in case he can be tempted away from his new toy, but some of what he mumbled now makes sense. He was going on about how the energies didn’t add up. Apparently he had access to much more than the waves you ripped from the statuettes and enchantments down there and he didn’t know where it had come from. I wouldn’t worry too much, the power you unleashed when you saved mother attracted every drop of energy. Each artefact somehow connected to the place has definitely been sucked dry, heck, even the dwarfs felt the pull on their life force and that’s protected by their armour, bodies and an iron will.”
I wanted to believe him, I truly did, but I wasn’t so sure. I had and still did imagine the seed as a sort of root and when it had withered, my access to the main plant had been cut. To stay within the metaphor, it might have lost some juice but I couldn’t imagine I had managed to poison the whole thing. And if Amon had it in his grasp… I had to know for sure. And I knew a traitorous bitch who would tell me, whether she wanted to or not.
“Let’s hope you’re right,” I said out loud and focused on the small fox. I wasn’t too keen on continuing down the path the conversation was taking, not before I had a chance to speak with my mentor and interrogate the spider. “How is mom… how are you holding up? Any ideas on how long you’ll be stuck like this?” She barked again and shrugged, motioning with her paws for Mordred to answer.
“Unfortunately not. Mephisto spent some time examining her, but according to the demon, he’s never seen nor heard of a transformation like this. She’s unique, her body is more of an idea come to life than anything else, which makes it impossible to tell how she’ll develop.”
“Are you… is she like us?” I asked quietly.
“You mean like you and Ahri? We simply don’t know. He said, am I’m quoting right now: she’s a dream made real. The question is: whose? Mortal or immortal of origin, only time will tell.”
“I think I know.” Every head whipped in my direction, surprise and confusion clearly written across Ahri’s and Mordred’s faces. My mom though, she seemed to be smiling.
“I… I think it’s both, in a way. Her transformation happened before I actively got involved. I don’t know what she did, exactly, but her spell was infused with sparks of my energy, the ones Shassa has ripped from me to power the enchantments down there. You remember the wisps? The small, glowing balls of light? They were mine and when they were destroyed, their magic was released. Somehow it didn’t devour the constructs mom was working on but instead, a part of it fused with them and made her spells… well, real. I only added enough energy later on, so that her new body could fully form without killing her.
In a way, her imagination and whatever purpose she poured into her spell formed the blueprint but it has been changed, altered when my magic bound to hers and possibly even further when I tried to revive her.” I turned to fully face her. “If I’m not mistaken, you’re just as much what I want you to be as you are, what you think you need to be. I’m sorry. I never meant to change you.” She got up and quickly rubbed her tails against my leg before she furiously scribbled a short line.
-don’t be. You’re my child, becoming what they want to see in you is every parent’s wish. That blasted, undersized and mute body aside… thank you. But couldn’t you have imagined me as fully grown?-
“I’m afraid that wasn’t me,” I laughed. “Your body is brand new and it does what we all do in the beginning: grow. At least no one is going to force you into frilly dresses, even though I have to admit, you’d look adorable with a little ribbon on top of your head.” She hissed and her fur rose along her back, which made her look like a disgruntled cat. The message was clear never the less, but I wasn’t yet sure if I’d comply. There were quite a few instances I remembered that required some pay back and now it seemed like I’d finally get the chance.
“Makes sense,” Ahri interjected. “The growth part, not the ribbon,” she hastily added when my mom bared her fangs at her. “Since you woke, you’ve spent most of your time eating, Helena, and I swear you’ve even grown since last I saw you. Which reminds me, what time is it?”
“Two hours past sunrise,” my brother replied. “As soon as we’re done here, Xorlosh wants to meet with us all, he even saved some food from our new born wolverine. The dwarfs should have finished repairing the ships by now and I expect they’ll want to leave directly after the burial. Which begs the question: what are we going to do?”
“Depends,” I answered. “Even if we managed to destroy the mana heart, Amon is still firmly seated on the Pirate Throne. We will have to face him sooner or later but if we don’t have to, I’ll gladly postpone the first meeting until we have a little more to work with than a rag tag band of fugitives. But I also loath the thought of leaving him alone, he is bound to brew up more trouble until we are ready to return. We all agree that we have to get the children to Arthur as fast as possible, right?” Everyone nodded.
“If we aren’t forced to deal with one of his schemes immediately, we should stick to our original plan. Split up to keep tabs on Amon and warn whoever will listen to us. Only… if at all possible, I’d like to visit Ahri’s family instead of staying here. I’ve got a feeling it’s about time we got to know their full story. It’s an old family, really old, they might even have knowledge about his first rise to power. At the very least I’m sure they’ll help us out. It’s not too far from the elven capital either, so we can accompany Aspera and Astra when they return home.” I touched Ahri’s hand. “That is, if you don’t mind.” Before she could answer, my mom drew our attention to her with another bark while Ahri linked our fingers and squeezed mine reassuringly. She’d support me, either way.
-Who should stay here then-
“Well, Pete’s a given. He’s the only one who knows his way around the locals but someone needs to have an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t sell us out the first chance he’ll get. Erya is the logical choice, they’re already linked and she’ll have no trouble keeping him in line or communicating with us.” I turned to Mordred. “If she agrees to stay, I assume you’ll stick with her?”
“Probably. She’s fun to be around and I’m not much of a diplomat, as you already know. Getting to live a pirate’s life on the other hand could just be right up my alley. But what made you change your mind? Last time you were adamant about how you wanted to stay here to put a stop to the emperor’s … Amon’s plans as soon as possible. What happened? I don’t see how the situation is any different now.” Frankly, it had been Ahri. She had made me reconsider Amazeroth’s words and I was by now willing to try out his advice, which meant getting the seed back from Erya, visiting the Arete family and finding allies. Preferably in that order.
I wasn’t keen on a full scale war in any sense of the word, actually I dreaded the prospect, but the more time I had to think about it, the more I found myself agreeing with Amazeroth, it was inevitable. We could spend as much time as we wanted to, running after Amon and plugging holes, so to say. We’d always be a step behind. For instance, who was to say that the Pirate’s Islands were the only place he had sunk his hooks into our continent? He had been trying to open a gateway for all I knew, which made it plausible that his plans had developed the furthest around here. But it didn’t meant that there were no other puppets, spread out all over our islands. And sooner or later, we’d miss one. It’d be much better to stop reacting and get ahead of the game.
But I could hardly say that out loud without explaining my most recent dream… which I still didn’t want to share. “He has suffered a defeat.” I counted each point off with my fingers. “We are still alive and free and he’s lost everything related to Boseiju, even the merchants he was in contact with are dead. His draconic vassal is gone, a few of his ships and a good junk of his turned acolytes were destroyed and if we’re lucky, even the fracture of the mana heart in his possession is damaged or drained. Not to mention that he now has made mortal enemies of us, a dragoness, the dwarfs and probably the elves. He’ll have to rebuild, carefully, and he might make mistakes. When he does, we have to be ready. I’m not naive enough to believe that we can convince several kingdoms to work together, but we need people who are willing to listen to us, we need allies.”