Cassandra Pendragon
"We're coming with. I…" the golden dragoness wasn't angry anymore. She was resolute.
"And how exactly do you think that's going to turn out?" I tried to interrupt. "Ahri is…"
"That's exactly why I'm not asking. I'm telling. Admittedly, I'm not half as good as her when it comes to keeping you in line, but I'm not going to let you run off with Reia. You need someone to tell you when to stop and because your fiancée is currently plenty occupied the honestly ungrateful task falls to me. You can either moan about it or accept it with some dignity. Where have I heard that before," she added as an afterthought.
"Ahri's memories… damn it, that's not the point! I need you here!"
"No… not really. But you do need a babysitter. Ahri's busy, Greta can't… the magical conductors your mom is hunting are much too important to ignore… so, who else is there?" A tickling in the depths of my mind was the only warning I got before we were interrupted scathingly:
"Not as busy anymore, but I'm more than curious to know why the first thing I hear after taking my sister to the shed revolves around you running off to Earth. I thought we agreed that it wasn't a particularly good idea..." a tiny pause, "have you entirely lost your marbles?" Bollocks. Apparently Ahri and Sarai had concluded their elaborate argument and my girl had made her point. So far so good, but her temper was still sky high and that she hadn't been invited on our planned excursion across galaxies wasn't helping. Not one bit. The only reason why she hadn't yet stormed our little sanctum of water and magic was her bone deep exhaustion. I had been right, she wasn't weaker than Sarai by any means, but proving it had cost her.
Almost reflexively I replied: "it's not… I can explain." I really could, but honestly how many times had this particular line ever worked? Especially when you were already connected much more intimately than was advisable for any healthy relationship.
"Then please do. I'm more than curious to hear what you're going to make of the disjointed mess that's going through your mind." Bollocks…
"Time. There was no…"
"Bullshit. You could have called me, you could have waited, you could have…" the rest of her tirade faded away when I focused on Viyara's thoughts, a bubbly, frothing stream of glee that just about made my day. Honestly, why was it such a treat for everyone to see me getting raked over the coals? And to think I called those people friends… but beggars can't be choosers, eh?
"You're right," I suddenly erupted, "I could have done a million things differently, but truth be told I thought I'd be back before you'd even wake up. No harm, no foul."
"Right… one question: do you actually believe the nonsense you're spouting?"
"Partly. Fine… you're awake anyways. Are you coming or not?"
"Do you want me to?"
"That's a stupid question. You know I do. But you're also the creature I trust the most. In case something goes wrong I'd rather have you here holding the fort."
"Am I supposed to feel flattered? You simply don't want to deal with the elves, or rather with Erya meeting her children. You can't dump that on me."
"No, I can't… but I can beg, can't I? So… pretty please?"
"What's in it for me?"
"You mean besides being the grown up and doing what's right?"
"Cassy…"
"Fine. I'd owe you one. Next time I'll stay behind and you can go running off. Either that or I could cook you a meal." Her thoughts stuttered to a halt and I couldn't quite suppress a chuckle in the lingering silence.
"Both," she replied after a few moments. "And you're going to add peppers and you'll join me."
"Your wish is my command…"
"And you won't shut me out. While you're gone I want to know what you're up to the whole time."
"Yes, ma'am. Anything else?"
"How about a proper goodbye?" I sighed.
"Honestly, if I was to see you right now, I wouldn't be able to leave." I could feel a smile spreading across her face.
"That's somehow sweet and pathetic at the same time."
"Usually those two do go hand in hand and you have a tendency to bring out the worst in me. You'll keep an eye on everybody while I'm away, won't you? Which reminds me, did Sarai and you work through your…"
"Egos? Mostly. You don't have to worry. We've been friends for a long a time. A little disagreement won't change that and we're more than capable of working together. How long do you think you'll be gone?"
"In theory? Hours. In actuality? Who knows? I can't imagine that it's going to take more than a day or two, but I've been wrong more often than I have been right."
"Self awareness is the way to improve oneself… alright, I'll play along, provided you give me one more promise."
"And what's that going to be?"
"Simple, really. You'll listen to Viyara. She's about twice as savvy as either one of us."
"Provided she doesn't think with her ovaries…"
"In this case I wouldn't even mind. She won't let you risk your life for a perfect stranger…"
"I always thought that's part of our job description…"
"Sure… except we shouldn't be able to actually risk our life. But somehow you're pretty adapt at breaking that particular rule."
"Fair enough. I promise. I'll see you once we're back. Viyara should be here any minute now."
"With Erya right alongside her. Oh boy… let me guess, you don't want me to allow the fey into the basement?"
"Basement? That's harsh. But no. They've separated. The dragoness is much faster on her own. I'm pretty sure she's brought her vamp along, though."
"Of course she has. Alright, the best of luck. The longer we talk the less likely it becomes that I'm actually going to let you leave."
"Aw, apparently you can also be sweet and pathetic at the same time."
"Bite me."
"No time. But hold that thought. I'll try my best once I'm back. Love you."
"Now it feels like a goodbye. Which it won't be… will it?"
"Not if I have any say in the matter. Is there… isn't here something else you might wanna say?" I could practically see her roll her eyes.
"You know I love you. Still… stay safe, come back to me. Please."
"Always. I…," a blurry image reached me from the nosy dragoness who had been privy to our entire conversation. Viyara was circling above Free Land, the remnants of the spells she had used to get here quickly enough still crackling along her scaly hide. "It's time," I finished lamely.
Barely ten minutes later I had once again become a part of a procession that reminded me more of the beginning of a dad joke than the rescue mission it was supposed to be. A golden dragoness, an ancient vampire, an unconscious, snoring phoenix and two immortals are standing around a sparkling pond, clutching a tiny cherry seedling….
"Great, now what," my sister interrupted my admittedly weird musings.
"Take my hand and don't let go. If I lose anyone of you in transit I'm not sure if I can pull you back out."
"Transit," Viyara, by now in her human and thankfully clothed form, parroted.
"We're going to travel to a planet whose star you can't even see with you magically enhanced vision. It'll take a moment and the sensation might be… peculiar. But whatever happens, don't let go. I'm not kidding. I don't think I'll be able to get you back if you're stuck in limbo."
"And what if trouble isn't waiting for us on the way, but at our destination," Aurelia asked quietly.
"Then we… you will have to deal with it. Once we're off Gaya Reia and I won't be able to use our abilities in any meaningful way. Earth isn't as protected as our home. If I were to unleashed my power…"
"Your siblings might know about it," Viyara finished the sentence. Which would have been a tad more impressive if she hadn't picked the words from my mind. "Perfect. So… the two of you will basically become pretty humans with tails?" I shrugged.
"More or less. I can still clobber someone over the head, but incinerating them would probably be a really bad idea in the long run."
"And you seriously considered going all by yourself lonesome," the dragoness asked incredulously. "Are you bloody insane?"
"You should know by now…" I tightened my grip on Reia and Viyara and made sure that Lamia and Aurelia were securely wrapped up in my tails. "Ready?"
"No… but when has that ever mattered," my sister replied, much more subduedly than she had been before, which I took as a good sign. Not that I enjoyed scaring her, but if she understood that we weren't planning a trip to the park and back she might become a little more… docile or rather inclined to listen. If there was one thing I dreaded it was losing her on a distant planet where I couldn't simply threaten to burn everything in my way until I'd get her back.
"Unfortunately it never has and it doesn't, now," I said and produced the glowing cube from my stamp. It hovered in front of us for the fraction of a second before it rotated on the spot, one of its sides suddenly aglow with an eerie, silver blue light. "Here I come, ready or not," I breathed.
If you're expecting a bone wrenching, marrow chilling, spine crushing description of reality torn asunder you'll be sorely disappointed. In comparison to my misguided experiments with the time stream or any other ill begotten encounter with transcendent magics the journey was boring, easy and over in a literal flash of silver blue light. The advantages of actual expertise, which I had had, once upon a time… In contrast the scene that greeted us once the wriggling flares of silver and blue petered out deserved all the adjectives above and more.
As you might have remembered the location I had wished us to travel to was a remote monastery in the Himalayans without running water, electricity or even a proper loo. It should have been filled with the eternal whispers of the wind and the murmuring voices of monks in prayer, though, but when I felt the hard, unyielding ground under my feet again silence pressed against my ears like a tormented scream. Silence and cold and nothing else.
My fingers tightened around Reia's and my eyes flew open. Silver light flooded the ruins and danced over broken walls, desecrated altars and mutilated corpses encased in eternal ice. The erstwhile serene, immaculate sanctuary of peace and tranquility had succumbed to a storm of violence and death and only the very foundations I had erected with my own flesh and blood all those centuries ago remained as a silent, accusing witness to the wanton destruction that had befallen a place I had once called home.
"Asura," I screamed while I struggled with all my might to keep my powers from leaking into my voice, but silence was my only reply.
"What the," my sister began, but the words withered in her throat when she caught my expression, a prefect mirror image of the deadly cold around us.
"Stay. Here," I hissed, while I already turned away without even making sure everybody had made it through unharmed. I knew where I had to go. Unless a host of immortals had ransacked the place the deeper levels would be untouched, protected by my own magic.
Like a wraith I glided through the rubble, past sparkling shards that had once formed a beautiful mosaic, over unmoving bodies, frozen and untouched ever since they had fallen, their faces still drawn into expressions of surprise and desperation, towards a still closed door in front of which the last of the monks had found their slow, excruciating end.
Someone… something had tortured the survivors in a cruel but fruitless attempt to coerce whoever had made it through into opening the door. But, as I knew from experience, a Buddhist monk was as stubborn as me and once they had made a decision not even an immortal could shake their resolution and thus they had died, cut to pieces, impaled on the uncaring symbols of their faith, while their brethren had been forced to listen to every unbearable second.
"The revenge is mine," I promised before I could even realise what I had said. My hand was already nearing the smooth, black, metallic surface behind which one of my few friends probably laid dead, starved and sunken and perfectly preserved, but then I hesitated. If I saw his corpse now… I knew myself well enough to realise what it would mean. Punishment. I'd rain down the fires of hell on whoever was responsible and I wouldn't stop. The nameless monk had known that I would return, he had known that I would come and what I'd find. Behind that door he had left me a message written in blood. And once I knew I wouldn't be able to let go. Not until the empty, lifeless eyes of the rabid beasts would close in desperation when their bell was finally going to toll. But… the needs of the living always outweigh the claims of the dead.
With an ugly, scraping sound my nails tore deep gashes into the door, the eternal barricade crumbling under my strength like paper. My tails slithered over men, young and old, frail and strong, united in death, united in pain, and I swallowed the words of power that already rose in my throat. Martyrs… those stubborn fools. Why? Who? When?
"Cassy… are you…" I barely recognised Viyara's voice. She had withdrawn from my mind, the dark, swelling storm had cast her out, and her fear was much more potent than it had ever been, even when she had been forced to witness Amon's assault on Free Land.
I shook my head and exhaled deeply, forcing the knot of anger and hatred in my stomach to loosen. "No… no, I'm not alright. And I won't forget. But now…" I turned around, my gaze darting from the dead I owed to the living I loved. There really was no choice, but this… this wouldn't go unpunished. I'd return and then… they would pay. With everything they had. "A life saved is worth more than a thousand monsters punished." Just a little more effort and I might have started believing it myself. "We have to go. There's nothing for us here, but sorrow and regret."
"Go where," Reia whispered, her voice shy as if she was speaking to a wild, enraged animal.
"Save your friend. That's why we've come and that's what we're going to do."