Early morning
Tierney clutched her hands together, brows furrowed with worry. She waited outside the Eastern gates for Cassandra. It had been five days already, and though the usual travel time was three days, her lady would have sent a message via Voxlink if she was going to be late.
The guards were not worried and made tiny remarks that the queen was giving the Praefectus a hard time.
Tierney knew better. She had a weird dream, but her gut told her something bad had happened.
Please, Lumos, let her come back safely. She mentally voiced her prayer for the last few days.
It was not until a figure appeared on the road, half-stumbling down the dusty road. Tierney’s eyes shot open, and she sprinted toward the person she knew so well. Her eyes bled with tears as the wind swept in her face, blowing them away and her beads smacking against her cheek.
“Lady Cassandra!” she exclaimed. She crashed into the woman’s metal armor chest.
Tierney knew something was wrong because Cassandra was usually stronger than this, but it felt like she would have tipped over had Tierney not grabbed a hold around her waist.
“W-What happened to you?” she frantically asked. She tried to get a better look at her.
Cassandra’s face was marred with blood and scratches. Her golden blonde hair was matted with blood, dirt, and other dried clumps. The one thing that made Tierney’s heart drop was the welled tears in her eyes.
“L-Lady Cassandra…Cassandra, what happened?” Tierney softly said.
She hoped she could tell her what had done this to her or where the army she led had gone.
“I…I couldn’t…couldn’t…they’re all…I couldn’t do it.” Cassandra croaked out. The fear and trauma forced trembling lips not to form a complete sentence, but Tierney understood well enough.
“I-It’s okay. You’re safe. We’ll get you a healer. Lady Cassandra? Lady Cassandra?!”
The fallen commander had passed out in Tierney’s arms with her head slumped and her hair covering her face where the tears continued to fall as she mumbled: …The Children of Deimos…They’re real… They're back…
Tierney called out for the guards to help her.
•†•
Cassandra turned in her sleep. Her eyes rapidly blinked as visions of that night filled her foggy mind. She remembered Tierney’s voice, talking to her but not understanding the words. The one thing she remembered would stay forever seared into her mind’s eyes was the faces of her fallen comrades and…him. Sovran #5 Croger of the Children of Deimos.
The battlefield was a chaos of twisted forms and grotesque shadows. Cassandra, clad in her armor, faced off against the monstrous Magycte Beast, its Venus flytrap maw snapping hungrily. A strange mist clung to the air, distorting the shapes of the combatants.
On top of the Magycte Beast, overlooking the fray, Maxwell Croger lounged, his piercing blue eyes locked onto Cassandra. His tailored suit seemed out of place amid the commotion below. Cassandra charged toward the beast. She could not shake the feeling of Croger's gaze lingering on her.
The Magycte Beast, a nightmarish fusion of plant and flesh, lunged at Cassandra with lightning speed. She deftly evaded her ax, Stigma flashing as she struck at its writhing tendrils. The ground beneath her trembled with each movement and collapsed, a testament to the creature's colossal power.
Croger jumped off the monster's head, landing on the rooftop of one of the base's buildings just in time to avoid a crushing blow.
"Well, well, Commander Aegis. It looks like you aren’t Praefectus for nothing. The Aegis family certainly is a marvel to behold."
Cassandra shot him a scowl. "Keep my family's name out of your mouth, Croger. I'm here to end this and end you for the lives you stole."
Croger's laughter echoed eerily. "Oh, we're just getting started."
Cassandra charged forward, but Croger was a disruptive force she did not expect. His movements were a blur as he effortlessly somersaulted around Cassandra, staying out of her range while keeping his hands in his pocket and taunting her.
"You think you can stop this, Commander? The late Praefectus could not stop us. What makes you think you can? You're nothing more than a pawn in a game much larger than you."
Cassandra gritted her teeth, her focus now divided between the relentless Magycte Beast and the elusive Croger. Their confrontation became a dance of chaos and precision.
Croger propelled himself in the air, landing on a nearby rooftop. Their verbal sparring ended shortly as the Magycte Beast seized the opportunity, its tendrils striking Cassandra with brutal force. She staggered; the impact fractured her arm under the armor. She let out an ear-splitting scream as white-hot pain coursed through her body and inflicted searing pain through her arm. The broken limb hung limply at her side as she struggled to regain her footing.
The Magycte stomped over to her, ready to end it.
Despite the pain and disorientation, Cassandra fumbled for a small strange stone hanging from a chain around her neck. As the Magycte Beast lunged at her again, its maw hungry for her defeat, Cassandra closed her eyes and uttered an incantation she had never spoken aloud before.
"Essentia of Wellspring, heed my call. Illuminate the shadows and free me from this thrall."
A blinding light erupted from the stone, a gem with the power of a Wellspring embedded into its core. The radiant light burst out and consumed everything in its brilliance. The Magycte Beast howled in agony, its form dissolving into the intense radiance. The light expanded, pushing back the mist and the nightmarish visions that had gripped the battlefield. The air cleared, and with an almost ethereal serenity, the chaotic battleground transformed into a quiet, moonlit night.
The light subsided; Cassandra slumped to the ground, her broken arm throbbing with pain. The stone filled with Essentia, now dimmed, still around her neck. The mist disappeared, leaving the aftermath of a battlefield.
"Well, played… Praefectus. Perhaps we shall meet again." Croger's haunting voice lingered in Cassandra's mind as she succumbed to the darkness, unconsciousness claiming her like a merciful veil.
Cassandra jolted awake with a start and yelled in panic. Followed by the searing pain of her broken arm. She hissed and grabbed her bandaged shoulder. She saw her surroundings were not of a battlefield but her bedroom.
That is right…She slowly remembered the events of that night. The Sovran Croger and the Magycte Beast…all those lives lost.
Cassandra’s watery eyes squinted. She felt tired and exhausted but most importantly, drained, and something she had not felt in a long time: terror.
“Cassandra!”
Tierney’s voice pulled her from the wayward thoughts and the girl ran over to her after placing the silver tray on the dresser. She collapsed into Cassandra’s side chest and cried.
“I-I was so worried for you…you…you slept for three days and…and…there was…was… I thought I lost you!”
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Cassandra’s heart stung. She never wanted to make her worried.
Tierney had tired bags under her eyes from staying up all night by her bedside, and she was scared whether she would wake up.
Cassandra coddled the girl’s head with her good arm, hoping to soothe her worries.
“I’m sorry, Tierney, for making you worried… I’m sorry, but… you said that I slept for three days. What has happened since then?”
Tierney sniffed and rubbed her eye as she sat up. “It’s not good.”
Cassandra’s heart skipped a beat, waiting for the incremental news as Tierney told her what happened when she was comatose.
“...And now there’s an uproar of people after the High Cardinal made a brief message to everyone that they would get an answer soon, but no one is happy, and what with everything that happened with the Chancellor and the CC’s message, people are agitated.”
Cassandra shook her head. That’s what Uncle had decided? No, that isn’t right. The people…. they should know what happened to their families. Everyone knows I came back; they must all be rearing with questions.
“Cassandra?” Tierney asked when she saw that she was getting up from her bed. “Y-You should be resting. The physician said you’ll need rest for your body and arm to improve.”
“I can’t sit back and let those people not know what happened to their loved ones. I…” flashes of Phillippe’s face came to her head. She shook the ghosts of her past away. “I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself… help me get dressed?”
Tierney reluctantly nodded and helped Cassandra get ready.
Fully dressed, Cassandra walked down the hallways with Tierney in tow, but at every chance, a guard who told her to head back as the High Cardinal decreed anyone from interacting with the public to stop her.
Cassandra did not care and brushed their comments aside; the guards let her so as not to infuriate the Commander.
Before they reached the front door, Cassandra could hear the people rioting outside. “Let me through, “she ordered the guards at the gate. They looked at each other as if contemplating whether to listen to her or what their High Cardinal ordained.
Not waiting for them to move, Cassandra pushed herself through the doors and opened them. “Stay here,” she told Tierney. She peered out of the gates to see a swarm of common folk shouting at the top of their lungs with raised fists. Several guards were already outside, holding the angry rioters back from barging through the front gates.
“Praefectus, what are you doing out here? You should be inside resting. His High Cardinal gave orders–”
“Just let me speak to them,” Cassandra said to the armored soldier, “These people only express their turmoil and confusion. They cannot grieve properly because no one will tell them anything.”
She clutched her chest with her head bowed.
“I owe them that much. Regardless of what my uncle says.”
The soldier stayed silent for a moment. Only the jeering screams of the crowd from outside, but Cassandra could hear the man’s gruff sigh.
“You have five minutes.”
Cassandra gave a stiff nod. The guard let her pass as she approached the raging crowd a few feet away.
“It’s the Commander of the cohort!
“The Praefectus Vigilum. What is she doing here?”
“How could she have survived?”
“Where are our families?”
The crowd shouted questions at Cassandra.
“Please, if you will all allow me to speak. I’ll give you the answers you seek…” Once she said that the crowd's jeering grew silent as they all glared at Cassandra, waiting for her to tell them something.
She told them the truth. There was no sense in lying to these people; they deserved better.
“...And that is what happened. I am so, so, so sorry. As a Commander, I felt disturbed and full of grief as I tried to save my cohort, but… it didn't prove easy. Their faces will constantly be in my waking thoughts, but I will not grieve until their souls are properly rested and The Children of Deimos are annihilated.”
Cassandra ended her speech with a heavy heart. Her eyes filled with tears as the names and faces of her fallen comrades came into her head. She thought this would make the people feel at peace and confident that Cassandra would do everything in her power to give their loved ones peace of mind.
However, that was not what happened.
A shadowed blur flew toward Cassandra before she could register it, and a hard surface rammed into the side of her face. Her head twisted to the side from the force, and several events happened simultaneously.
“Lady Cassandra!” she heard Tierney shout back at the gates. Followed by Cassandra touching the base of her head where the solid object had ambushed her–a sharp, blunt rock–she removed her hand just above her eyebrow and saw red.
Her vision doubled, staring at the blood on her fingertips. The warmth of it dripped down the side of her head.
She lifted her head to see the furious faces of the crowd yelling at her angrily. Some of them were crying and weeping, calling her foul names and asking how she could call herself a commander. Others called her a liar and said the Children of Deimos were mere legends and no longer a threat. More guards came out from the gate as they pushed back the raging crowd from moving forward.
Cassandra felt strong, metal arms around her. The same guard had warned her previously. He told her to ‘let’s go, it isn’t safe’, but Cassandra’s feet were heavy like lead. Her heart crashed into its chest.
She saw a weeping little girl clutching the clothing of an elderly man who looked far too unstable and sick to be standing. Despite the crowd's incessant screaming, Cassandra could hear this little girl's plea above all the others:
“Give me back my brother! Why have you taken him? Please, Lumo,s don’t take him from us!”
The tears shed from Cassandra’s eyes as she stared at the little girl and the elderly man—Phillippe’s family.
She had not realized it, but the guard had scooped her up from the ground and carried her inside. Cassandra could not register anything around her as she stared into nothingness. Tierney’s arms scooped around her neck– her wailing close to her ear– that Cassandra broke free from her reverie.
The voices of the angry crowd remained.
They were gone, all of them. All of their families blamed her for their deaths. They screamed that she was not a Commander and that she should not have come back if so many had died.
They're right. Why would Lumos keep me alive but let so many others die? How was I any special from the sons and daughters, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters that so many lost?
Cassandra did not know the answer. She was stunned and lost for words.
It wasn’t until the clicking of heels and Tierney loosening her grip that Cassandra’s teary-childlike eyes looked up at a man clothed in a white cloak. He wore a white biretta on his head with intricate golden embroidery, a symbol of his spiritual authority. A silver amulet engraved with sacred symbols hung around his neck, radiating an otherworldly glow—the same amulet Cassandra used to ward off the Magycte Beast.
A power of the Wellsprings that had the ability of one hundred Locksmiths, all given to the Aegis family.
Tierney and the soldiers around her bowed their heads as they addressed the man, High Cardinal Valentine Aegis, or uncle, as Cassandra would call him.
High Cardinal Aegis stood at an average height, exuding confidence and grace in his commanding presence. Despite being in his early 50s, his age did not show. His jet-black hair, meticulously groomed and free of any trace of gray, cascaded with a certain vibrancy.
His thick brows furrowed together, and his shared blue eyes stared at Cassandra with disappointment at her actions. Cassandra said nothing. Under the High Cardinal’s glaring presence, she was legally prohibited from speaking until given permission. However, there were times when Cassandra played around with the rules and spoke more freely than others, and because of her hard work and status, she never received punishment.
Today was not one of those days.
Cassandra was meek and lacked her usual confidence. She submitted to the higher power, her uncle, and the High Cardinal.
“You’ve caused quite an uproar, Cassandra. I’ve told everyone here to heed the outside, strict instructions, and what do you do?”
Cassandra said nothing. She bowed her head in defeat.
“This could have been avoided. The Tsar and I would have handled this, but you have crossed the line. It is something I cannot ignore.”
“I…I…. forgive me…uncle. Please understand I was… only trying to ease their pain.”
He grunted. “And more pain is what you have given them.”
The tears fell, burning her cheeks, as Cassandra let them break free and roll under her chin.
“W-What do we now?” This time, Cassandra looked up at her uncle. His usual charismatic demeanor, which he showed the public, was gone, and she faced the complex man she had known since childhood.
“Not we. You will do as I say from here on out. Is that understood Praefectus Vigilum?” Her commanding title slurred past his lips, mocking her.
Cassandra gulped, reluctantly nodding as she submitted. He had a slight, callous grin pulled at the corners of his lips but never reached his eyes. A nerve struck Cassandra’s core; she had not felt this fear since she was a girl. He never showed a loving side. They had always had a complex relationship, but Cassandra had grown thick skin in her role to become commander.
However, this man before her was not her uncle at this moment but something far more powerful.
“Yes, High Cardinal.”