Interlude III
Thirteenth National Treasure of BiPrism
“Yes, you have seen the evidence with your own eyes, regressor Cassie Cruise, A.K.A. Cassiopeia Spiritlight, has done the seemingly impossible. She has personally created her own cure for the Blight.” The news narrator says, as he goes through some of the major developments for the day. “Now we have top bigwigs from all over the world, coming out of retirement and desperately trying to get to the Spirt Tower of Arcanarus. Some say this is just a ploy by the game’s algorithm, allowing the first known cure for the Blight to originate from a low level no one from the spirit realm.” The announcer pauses as they let this information settle.
“The first cured was Mallory Redding, A.K.A. Marauding Mallory, who up until recently had been a streaming favorite due to her death-defying battles. Only slowing down recently due to her contracting the Blight, something that up until Cass’s arrival was seen as a death sentence. Now Mallory like so many others is reporting that the rumors are true, that now that she had the blight for three years, her magic tier rating has in fact increased. While she would not comment on the extent of the increase, we have seen that she was practicing Tier XIII spells.”
The scene cuts away from the announcer and shows a follow of Mallory out in the middle of the wasteland that now exists outside of the Arcanarus Tower. Out there, she can be seen focusing her mind for a moment, before a vast dimensional gate of blinding golden light appears, only to open causing a glowing chariot of fire to charge forth racing forward and burning everything in its path. The chariot that had been flying in the air burns everything both above and below in a destructive golden light. The chariot makes one lap around, then a second lap, seeming to follow Mallory’s commands, then proceeds to go back into the still open gates that they arrived from. “HAHAHAHA!” A clearly exhausted Mallory cackles with delight. While it was clear that the spell had been taxing on her, she was apparently more than happy with her results.
“Yes, that was at least the Tier XIII spell Apollos Chariot, a spell previously thought to be impossible to cast due to its Tier rating being beyond what anyone could ever handle. Yet, there it is, indisputable evidence that the impossible is now possible. It should be noted that Mallory is not the only one who has noticed an increase in their magical abilities. Everyone who has gone through and been cured by Cass of the Blight, have all experienced the same phenomenon. Everyone who has had the Blight and survived have all had their magic Tier ratings improved by at least two tiers. As you can expect both the cure, and the reward for the cure are spreading like wildfire. Warring nations have stopped, due to suddenly wishing to fight the Blight. What was previously seen as a death sentence, being sent to fight the Blight on the front lines, is now being seen as a reward. The regressors ruling the Maltese and Legrand empires have both offered a temporary treaty, as they both wish to go out and fight in the Blight filled lands directly. Yes, before what people had lived in fear of, the fear of getting the eternal wasting disease, is now curable thanks to one relatively new player on the scene. Speaking of, there has been a lot of conjecture recently on as some of you might have noticed last night during her daily reading session, a segment that has continued to grow in readership, those of you that didn’t just listen to the narration, but actually paid for the full viewership, might have noticed a slight change. And no we are not talking about the way she is now seeming to mimic the voice of Glenn the Thieves Guild bodyguard for the voice of Rahul, though that did seem to go over quite well with a lot of listeners. No what we are referring to is her seemingly new appearance.”
With that the image on the screen once again changes, going away from the announcer to Cassiopeia Spiritlight. The image shows her with bright purple skin, deep one color emerald green eyes, and light blond, nearly white, hair that seems to flow nicely with her deep purple skin color.
“For those of you that have not seen the recent changes to our Blight healer, and reader of romantic fantasies, it would appear that she has managed to not only cleanse herself of her previous Shade Touched bloodline, but managed to awaken an entirely new bloodline never seen before. The solid green eyes, are the first we have ever seen on any Dark Elf, even those that are touted for being exceptional healers. The vibrant purple skin shows that her bloodline has awakened. For those of you that do not know what she looked like prior, or those who wish to see the changes, we will place up two more images of her that help show how drastic the changes were.”
With that the one image of Healer Bloodline Cass shrinks from the full screen, as an image of her with dark hair and red eyes appears.
“This is the look she had while undergoing her recent cleanse of her previous bloodline. We will not show what she looked like during her time as being cursed, mainly because we do not have a good image of what her eyes actually looked like at that time. We will show you however what she looked like while still fully under the markings of being a Shade Touched dark elf.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
At that a third image appears showing a slightly younger Cass, this time with black eyes that seem to glow with white sparkles, just looking at the eyes seems to denote a sense of otherworldly power.
“Why is this a big deal? Why are we spending so much of tonight’s segment talking about this one level 24 no one? Simple, everyone who is anyone is going out to meet and likely try to recruit her. There is the fail of Winston Palmer, former billionaire and lead frontline warrior for the Juggernauts Guild who tried and spectacularly failed at trying to get information out of Cass. If you want to see a recap of his attempt to outwit Cass, please click on the paid link below. That said, the Midnight Hunter Guild has set up a small rotating police force for the tower. If your family wishes to go to the tower, but is having a hard time finding Spirit Protection potions, look no further, for a handy markup you can get one day’s worth of supplies to go and see the healer. Go early, because the line is already quite long and getting longer. Also, if you plan on going in with only your own supply of potions, don’t. Part of the markup for housing the guard and recently constructed entranceway to the tower is made from profits of an entry fee being charged to would be explorers. This entry charge also requires an oath be made that they promise not to harm the town of Crossroads, nor hurt Cassiopeia Spiritlight in any way, shape, or form. No doubt the spell displayed earlier today, Apollos Chariot, was meant to show the full might and capabilities of the Midnight Hunters guild. Even when she was injured no one wanted to mess with Marauding Mallory, and now that she is healed and apparently stronger, that sentiment is doubly so.” There was a slight pause, as the screen once again changed to show a team of four high leveled adventurers on a different level of the Acanarus Tower. Each person’s skin clearly glowed with unnatural energy, as each person seemed to be suffering greatly from the effects of some unknown ailment.
“What does this mean for the intrepid group of explorers who charged head long into the tower trying to get the first clear bonuses? Well aside from suffering two Blight related casualties already, the survivors have all holed themselves up on the 52nd floor, trying to look for a doorway or exit that seemingly will never come. What is worse, is they have all themselves contracted the Blight, ironically, there is now a cure for this, in the town that they so nearly destroyed. How will this…”
Click.
Vanessa Redding, chairwoman, COO, and owner of Redding House turned off the news, glad her subordinate messaged her about it. Seeing the news report, was both inspiring and scary. It was inspiring to see that her grandmother was not only cured, but stronger for her years of suffering. Tier XIII, that was amazing and if Vanessa wasn’t mistaking her grandmother was holding back, only showing a sliver of her true power in public, until it mattered most. That meant she was likely even more powerful, still to think that the Blight would be such a benefit. Well the Blight itself was terrible and nearly cost her and the family everything, particularly when her grandmother’s stream started to lose memberships and sponsors left and right, no one wanted to see a hero slowly wither away and die before their eyes. Fortunately, they had diversified, Vanessa’s mother was still there, still pulling in viewers, but she was a pale imitation of what grandmother was. Now that grandmother was back, her viewership was skyrocketing again, there would still be time before she was up to her pre-crash level of earnings, but that was only a matter of time, particularly with stories like this showcasing her newfound potential. The fact that she seemed to get along so well with this no one, this random healer was only a boon. Yes, having the only known healer of the Blight in her guild would be invaluable, but they had something deeper a connection that was nearly impossible to define.
Of course, Vanessa had tried to reach out, Redding House was always willing to sponsor the small people who could become big. That was when she found out the sad truth, that this fool of a woman had taken the flaw Dark Horse, meaning a direct sponsorship from Redding House would be out of the question. This was terrible, especially as she so loved to hear the woman bring to life the characters of Rahul and the Maiden.
Then something about the conversation the two had caused Vanessa to pause. Pulling up the recent clip of grandmother’s interactions with the healer, she played the part that was sparking an idea.
“Yes, my granddaughter just loves your storytelling.”
Hearing that Vanessa just shook her head in annoyance. Of course, she did enjoy the stories, they were fantastic, and Cass’s ability to bring them all to life was nothing short of exceptional, but to call her out like that in front of billions of viewers. Still Vanessa kept playing, forcing her way through the initial embarrassment that welled up inside her.
“Oh, my. If my granddaughter heard that I was reading that, oh wow. I would be so embarrassed.” Cass said, as her face went through a few levels of cuteness.
Pause.
Vanessa paused the clip right there, then shouted “exactly. Come on grandma.” Then shaking her head, she realized why she stopped right there. If she couldn’t employ Cass directly, there were ways that she might be able to help out a future family asset.
Click.
“Dave.” Vanessa said, clicking to life a button on her old mahogany desk, a relic of a bygone era.
“Yes?” The voice of Dave called through the intercom.
“Get me all the information you can find on Cassie Cruise and her family. Let’s see if we can bring them over to Redding House.”
“As you wish.”
Vanessa paused at that, then realized she would need a mental break.
Click.
“Dave, also please note that I would not like to be disturbed for the next three hours. Oh, also if you would, please bring me my dinner.”
“Very well.”
With that Vanessa realized she had nothing better to do, but to get caught up on her new personal pastime.
Calling up the most recent segment of the Blind Reading Club, Vanessa preened excitedly for a minute then settled down as she pressed play.
The minute she did the voice of Cass, channeling a new deeper and richer sounding Rahul could be heard. “My darling...” Pause. At that, Vanessa had to pause the production once more.
“You truly have outdone yourself this time, Glenn was an amazing choice to mimic for the part of Rahul.” Vanesa said to herself, once again shaking and taking another moment to ready herself. “Okay, here we go."
“…You are far too innocent and pure to fall for the likes of me. I only wish that one day, I could find myself to be half the man you truly deserve…”