Chapter 6: Complications

Morning light filtered through the curtains of Lyra’s apartment, casting a warm glow on the disarray left from the previous night. Cassian stirred, his mind still hazy with the memories of their shared intimacy. He turned to see Lyra, shaking him more roughly, angrily. Not the kind of thing he expected to feel first thing in the morning from a lover.

“Cassian, wake up,” she snapped, her voice cutting through the remnants of his sleep. “We need to talk. Now.”

Cassian sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Lyra, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Lyra’s eyes blazed with fury. “This bond. Whatever it is, it’s magical, and it ties us together in a way I never consented to.”

Cassian frowned, trying to make sense of her words. “A bond? What are you talking about?”

Lyra clenched her fists and raised them in frustration. She was visibly struggling to contain her anger. “I can feel it, Cassian. This isn’t just any bond. It’s a magical contract. I never agreed to this!”

Cassian's mind raced. He closed his eyes, searching within himself. There it was—a connection and awareness of Lyra that hadn't been there before. He could sense her emotions, her presence, as if she were a part of him. There was nothing else to call it but a bond.

“I swear, I don’t know.”

Lyra’s eyes narrowed. “You expect me to believe that? After what we just...”

Cassian, feeling the weight of her accusations, tried to calm her. “Lyra, I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I don’t even know how it happened. Or what it is. I haven’t been able to cast any magic since I got here.”

Another wave of frustration washed over Lyra’s face, which Cassian found himself sharing.

Cassian wanted to piece together the puzzle, but as he’d said, he didn’t know where to start.

He tried closing his eyes again and feeling at the connection he felt inside. Then he could feel the presence of the plants in the apartment, their life forces intertwined with his own.

A vine suddenly stretched across the room towards him. It moved with a serpentine grace, defying gravity as it bridged the gap between them. The vine wrapped around Cassian’s hand, and a flower bloomed, gentle, its scent soothing, calming his fraying nerves.

Lyra’s eyes widened in awe. “How... How did you do that?”

Cassian looked at her, just as surprised. “I don’t know. I just... wanted you to calm down. Maybe for both of us to calm down. Then it just happened.”

Lyra placed a hand on her chest, still reeling from what she had witnessed. “Even I couldn’t do that so quickly.”

She shook her head, her awe quickly turning back to anger. “It doesn’t matter if you can cast magic now. This bond is the issue. Undo it. Undo it right now!”

Cassian shook the vine from his hand, then sighed, his shoulders sagging. “I can’t. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

Lyra’s face contorted. She was on the verge of tears. “Get out.”

“What?” Cassian asked, taken aback.

“Get out of my apartment!” Lyra cried. “I need time to figure this out and I can’t do that with you here. I can't stand to look at you right now.”

Cassian stood, grabbing his clothes and quickly dressing. The weight of the situation bore down on him, and he realized just how complicated things had become. He kicked himself. It hadn’t been a good idea to sleep with her. But what the hell did I do?

As he stepped out of the apartment, the door slammed shut behind him, leaving him alone in the hallway.

He descended the stairs from Lyra’s apartment, and through the hidden corridor that led through her herbalist workshop. As he made his way through the dense growth, he felt a surge of frustration. The vines that blocked the path, the ones that only opened for Lyra…. He didn’t want to go back to her and ask her to open the way. That would be mortifying.

But then, on a whim, he reached out with his newfound awareness. “Move,” he whispered, willing the vines to part, just as he had before in the apartment.

To his amazement, these vines also responded, shifting and curling away to create a clear path. Cassian walked through, his mind spinning with the implications of what he had just done.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

As he walked away from Lyra’s workshop, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this bond was connected to something deeper within him, something he had yet to fully understand. He needed answers, and he knew there was only one person who might be able to provide them: Aria.

Cassian made his way through the academy, his mind set on returning to the forest. The early morning light bathed the campus in a serene glow as he made the long walk, but his thoughts were anything but peaceful.

He crossed a courtyard, then another, his footsteps echoing against the cobblestones. He made the long, exhausting trek across a campus that senselessly violated the laws of conservation of mass, seemingly continuing to stretch longer and further until his destination, rather than closer, seemed further away the “closer” he got to it.

Eventually he reached the bridge that spanned the chasm surrounding the forest.

As he approached the bridge, Cassian noticed a group of security personnel stationed at the entrance. His heart sank. After coming all this way, the forest was heavily guarded.

“Excuse me,” Cassian said, approaching one of the guards. “I need to get into the forest.”

The guard, a burly man with a stern expression, shook his head. “No one is allowed into the forest.”

“But why?” Cassian asked, trying to keep his frustration in check. He considered lying but he wasn’t sure what lie to tell.

The guard looked at him skeptically. “As a student, you should know.”

Cassian reddened but stood his ground, glaring at the guard. The guard sighed, clearly annoyed that he had to explain something so fundamental. “You…must be new. There are rifts in the forest. They're in all the biomes. They make monsters out of the animals in the forest. Though I suppose if you really are a student, you'll go in eventually once you're properly trained and go in eventually. With the guidance of a professor, of course. Only graduates and research teams with special permissions enter without faculty, and almost never alone.”

Cassian didn’t think he’d be able to talk his way past. Indeed he should have already known about the rifts in the biomes. In fact, he was sure it had been mentioned in class at some point. It want something gone into detail, however, like the way you mention something everybody knows about and so you don’t feel the need to explain.

He decided he would return at night. After all, at night was when he arrived in this world. Perhaps it would be unguarded then. But damn, he would need to walk the length of the campus again.

You’re really getting your steps in today, aren’t you Cassian, he complained to himself. How the hell does anyone else do this?

Finding lodging was much simpler than Cassian expected. It turned out that Professor Lyra had been intentionally delaying his assignment to an apartment in the dorms.

He approached the housing office, a small building tucked away near the edge of the campus. The clerk behind the desk looked up as he entered.

“Good morning,” the clerk said, smiling politely. “How can I help you?”

“Hi,” Cassian began, feeling a bit awkward. “I’m Cassian Varn. I believe I’m supposed to be assigned an apartment in the dorms?”

The clerk checked the list and nodded. “Ah, yes. You’re on Professor Lyra’s scholarship. We have a room ready for you. Just sign here, and I’ll give you the key.”

Cassian signed the necessary paperwork and accepted the key, relief washing over him. At least this part of his life was falling into place. The clerk handed him a small map of the campus with directions to his dorm.

“Your room is in the North Dormitory, Room 214. If you have any questions or need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Thank you,” Cassian said, grateful for the simplicity of the process.

On the one hand, Lyra brought the unpleasant situation between them on herself. Hadn't she been a little horny faun setting him up from the start? On the other hand, he shouldn’t be an asshole and lay the blame at her feet. He hadn’t been coerced to sleep with her. And so, he couldn't fault her for being angry that something had been done to her against her will. Whatever it was, and however it happened.

Cassian opened the door to his new dorm room and stepped inside, taking in the sight of the small, bare space. The room was minimalistic, with plain white walls and a single bed pushed against one corner. A simple wooden desk with a chair stood opposite the bed, and a wardrobe with a full-length mirror completed the sparse furnishings. The floor was bare except for a small, thin rug beside the bed.

There was no sign or hint of the previous occupant. It was a blank slate, ready to be transformed by whoever moved in next. For Cassian, though, the task was daunting. He had no clothes to unpack, no possessions to arrange. All the clothes he had worn so far had been provided by Lyra, and they were all still in her quarters. He didn’t have any money either, making the situation seem even bleaker.

He was suddenly aware of how much effort Lyra had put in to make him comfortable in this new world, even if she was a horny faun. He resolved to thank her some day, maybe after all this mess between them was cleared up. He would do so even if she didn’t forgive him.

Determined to make the best of his situation, Cassian decided to clean up his new space. He stepped out to ask around for cleaning supplies and was met with varying degrees of confusion and unhelpfulness. The first student he asked shrugged and said, "I just use spells," before walking off. Cassian cursed under his breath and decided to head to the administration office. There, he found a helpful clerk who provided him with an ancient broom, mop, and bucket.

Cassian returned to his room with the cleaning supplies and set to work. He wiped down the surfaces, swept the floor, and even rearranged the furniture slightly to make it feel more like his own. It wasn’t much, but it was something to keep him occupied and give him a sense of control.

After finishing his cleaning, Cassian collapsed onto the bed. Then roused himself in the evening to make the trek across campus to try his luck at the bridge.

It was no different than before. There were just a different shift of guards. Cassian wondered how he had no issues when he first arrived, but then he realized it had, of course, been Lyra’s doing. Professor Nyx…Professor Lyra? No, he couldn’t think of her as anything but Lyra. It’s just something that happens when someone has been naked and on top of you, he guessed.

By the time he got home and finally went to sleep for good, he was cursing his legs and cursing this world for lacking Uber.