Cassandra Pendragon
Immortals at least became old enough to regret their mistakes. Was I a hypocrite for not stepping in? Maybe… probably. Ideals were all shiny as long as you were fighting for them in someone else's backyard. Add something personal, a mortal who could influence the fate of others and might start playing god for example, and they quickly went out the window. What did I care for this planet, a couple of crumbling civilisations, anyway? Stuck in vicious circles or erased by a higher power, they most likely wouldn't amount to much, either way.
They should still rise and fall by their own decisions, my conscience replied but I shoved the sentiment away. The deed was done, Amazeroth's magic would consume most of this place and even if I managed to kill him now, his spells would still be coming to fruition. And revenge seemed like a paltry reason to start a fight. Revenge for what? I wasn't even sure whether he was wrong, and the only person I knew here was safe and sound… Greta's pained screams ripped through the chaos and my blood froze in my veins. Oh boy, it seemed like there would be a fight, after all.
A ray of light raced back up the tower and not a moment after I had first heard her cry, I materialised in the same, cozy room I had just left. Only this time, there was a thrashing girl on the floor, blood seeping through her fingers where she pressed them against her eyes. Amazeroth was gone and I had a choice to make: to heal or to hunt. If I didn't go after him now, I wouldn't be able to find him again, at least not during this millennium. Valour my ass, the fucking coward. He'd pay for this, I didn't know why but he was manipulating me through the pain of a child and that wouldn't fly. One day… but now, there were more important things to take care of.
My wings swirled around Greta as I picked her up gently. The poor thing was writhing in pain, blood red streaks ran down her cheeks and she was cupping her face in a futile attempt to protect her eyes. Gingerly I pried off her fingers, afraid what I might find. Her eyes were swollen and closed, transcendent runes pulsing around the sockets while light flowed from underneath the ruptured lids. I cursed, sealing the wounds would be easy but I wasn't sure if could restore her sight. Amazeroth had plunged her world into darkness, but so help me, I'd find a way to show her the light. "post tenebras, lux," I murmured while soothing energies streamed from my palms, an immediate contrast to the burning rage that filled my eyes as I gazed towards the stars. He was hiding, somewhere up there, but sooner or later we'd meet again… and then, I wouldn't bother asking questions. No one else would pay for his schemes, if I had my way.
I was comfortable, warmth pressed against my back and the light weight of a blanket rested against my skin. My eyes flew open and for a few seconds I couldn't place the stained tent tarp I was staring at. Hadn't I been in a tower on a small island in the sea? No… that had been a dream, the past, gone but not forgotten. I was… mom!
I shot up, halfway out of bed before my brain kicked in. My sudden movement had dislodged Ahri's tails from my middle and she was raising her head, blinking owlishly. "What…who?" She stammered but I didn't listen. My eyes were glued to a small fox, a silver vixen who just now strode in through the open flap. I froze, unsure and anxious. Could she… was she?
The creature stilled and tilted its head, large, silvery eyes with a speck of blue focused on me, while a very familiar smile split its features into an unfamiliar expression full of teeth. She didn't talk but a tremor raced along her nine bushy tails, which shone like molten silver, before she crossed the distance in one fluid motion. A surprisingly heavy weight crashed into my chest and I found myself back on the bed, the centre of an entangled mess of white and silver fur while my mom was trying to hug me with her paws.
Laughter, unstrained and free, erupted from me and I pulled her close, my other arm snaking around Ahri's shoulders. We had done it, we were still alive. For a while I simply held them, glad that I wasn't alone. Tears began dripping down my cheeks and my throat constricted, but a wide smile remained plastered to my face. Their scent, a mixture of pine trees and stardust, made me feel safe and for the moment I could pretend that the last days had been nothing more than another dream, a distant memory I could leave behind with the new dawn.
But they weren't. As much as I was longing to close my eyes again and let the world sort itself out, I couldn't. I had to know what had happened, who hadn't made it. I felt responsible, they had come after me and those who had died down there had exchanged their life for mine, a debt I couldn't possibly repay. But I'd try to honour it and the least I could do, was care.
I gently placed my mom on the blanket between us and looked from one to the other. I had a hard time reading her animalistic features but Ahri seemed… worn out.
She was pale, the dark circles under her eyes a stark contrast to her white skin and bluish lips. Her fluffy ears were drooping and she was holding herself rigidly, as if the smallest movement caused her pain. I leaned forward and tenderly kissed her neck. She smiled, a small gesture that immediately transformed her face as a light blush returned colour to her cheeks.
"I'm glad you're alive," I whispered. "Both of you," I added, since the little fox had started to growl. I focused on her and asked: "what happened to you? It is you, isn't it?" She barked and the fur along her back rose while she turned around in a circle, chasing her tails.
"You can't talk?" I couldn't suppress a smile. "That's a pain. At least you have enough control to walk, I wasn't so lucky. How about telepathy? Your magic? Is it working?" She shrugged and grunted, as good a way as any to convey: don't ask.
"Mephisto has some ideas," Ahri interjected while her tails sneaked around my middle again. "The gist of it is that she's basically a newborn. While he's certain that she has tremendous magic and possibly even access to a transcendent spark, she can't use it, she doesn't know how. Her memories should give her a huge Head-start but I imagine she's got to learn most things from scratch. He was even going on about how she might be a new, unique species, but I didn't understand half of it. You'd have to ask him yourself for the details."
"He's awake?"
"Oh yes, more so than before. He has hijacked one of the statuettes. Apparently once they were freed of the conscious will that held them in check, there was nothing stopping him from draining them. He's out and about, still linked to the emblem but with much less of a leash, unfortunately."
I petted my mother absentmindedly and quietly asked: "what else have I missed?" They shared a quick glance before Ahri haltingly answered:
"Except for the dwarfs who died while you were still awake, everybody made it out alive. So did the spider. She's still unconscious and barely breathing but she's alive. If it had been up to Xorlosh, they would have already burned her. They're furious and want revenge for their fallen brothers but he reckons you should decide her fate, since you undoubtedly suffered the most at her hands. They've… let's just say they've made sure that she won't flee or harm anyone for the time being. If you want to, we can visit her later but it's not a pretty sight." There wasn't an ounce of pity in her voice, if it had been up to her, Shassa surely would have wished for the flames to take her, before the end.
"The last … ghost, I'm not going to call them gods, still exists. Maybe it'd be easier if I started from when you blacked out." She fell silent for a moment and sorted through her thoughts. A small crease appeared between her brows. "I don't know what you've done but after you fell to you knees beside Helena, you released a storm of power, the like of which I've never seen before. Even the magics down in the chamber paled in comparison, all of them. Anyway, every enchantment, every piece of magic that had somehow survived the final explosion was swept away, like leaves before the wind. We weren't harmed, if anything, it felt like… sunshine, refreshing and warm but it wasn't. Mephisto explained the parts he understood afterwards and he can probably give a much better explanation than me but you essentially filled you mother with enough energy to create a star, his words, not mine. Somehow all of it got channeled into this new body of hers, but the presence of such a force alone was enough to make the statuettes crumble and pull in magic from all around, like gravitation. My own core reacted and I felt my power leaking out, I couldn't prevent it." She smacked the back of my head lightly as she felt my body tense.
"Not much happened, the sparks were siphoned off as soon as they appeared. You did the right thing, I can deal with the backlash. Give me a day without a battle and I'll be fine. Mephisto though, he was nearly lost. Without a body he had much more trouble resisting the pull than I had and he would have vanished if it hadn't been for the thick streams of energies you were drawing in from all around. Before he was sucked in, he cast a few spells of his own. Fuelled by the power in the air, he fused his emblem with two of the dead statuettes and used them to seal himself inside as well as imprison the last spectre again. She had been forced back into her realm when Helena had first transformed and he simply slammed the door shut again."
"If the magic disappeared, how did you get out?"
"Luck, I suppose. Every spell crumbled, even the ones that tethered the different floors of the tomb together. When all was said and done we were back in the first chamber, surrounded by smoking runes and powerless enchantments. We brought the dead and wounded back to camp. That was around noon, yesterday. Xorlosh is preparing a burial for tonight with his uninjured lads, at least he was when I went to bed. Everybody else is probably still asleep or busy chaperoning the kids." I took a moment to digest what she had said.
"Who died?" I finally asked.
"No one you know personally. I'd tell you what little I know but you're going to hear the stories of their deeds tonight anyways. If you want to honour them, listen carefully."
"I will. I owe them. And you, both of you. I don't think I'd have gotten out if it hadn't been for you. How did you even manage to find me?" She pulled me closer and the fox snuggled up against my side. Ahri's fingers trailed across my tattoo, goosebumps erupting in the wake, and whispered:
"I'll always find you, one way or the other. But by now, I'm not the only one. Cassandra, between your mother, Viyara and me, there isn't much anybody can do to hide you from us, yourself included." With a smile in her voice she continued: "so there's no point in running."
"Thanks." I gently took her hand and pressed it against my lips. Afterwards I sat up straight and picked up my mother, ignoring her undignified squawk. She looked exactly like the towering fox I had seen underground but she wasn't longer than my forearm. Her tails made her appear taller, though, adding at least as much length. Her fur was incredibly soft like woven moonlight and if it hadn't been for the electric blue sparks in her eyes, she would have looked like one of our folktales come to life. As far as I could tell, she wasn't hurt or injured but judging from the slowly building growl in her throat, she wasn't very fond of me lifting her up.
I lowered her back down and ran my hand through the fur on her flank. "How are you holding up?" She rolled her eyes and somehow managed to slither up and down my arm, like a snake. Before I could react, she flitted across the room and vanished behind the flap. Reflexively I tried to follow but Ahri's tails held me back. Her soft laughter washed over me and she explained:
"She'll be back in a moment. Astra enchanted a piece of paper for her. She can use her claws to write on it, that'll make your conversation much easier. And before you run out that door, you should maybe put on some clothes. Yours were still in the tent after you had vanished and I brought them along. They're over there," she gestured towards a closed chest beside the improvised bed we were still on. "But first, I'd like to know what happened. How did you end up down there?" I felt her tremble as she remembered how they had found me. "And why did you go naked?"
I slumped back down into her embrace and thought about how I could answer. I didn't intend to lie to her, I simply had to organise my memories while three things kept bugging me, minor as they were. First, my original set of clothes had been incinerated by a spell, but now that I knew that they were actually over there and untouched, I had to wonder if they even could have continued to exist, seeing as there already was an alternate version of them lying around. In other words, had my set been destined for destruction? And secondly, what had happened to the rope Mordred had brought along? Was it still stored away? Probably, but I wanted to know for sure. And third, if that was the case, why did I still feel the promise I had given to Ahri in the depths of the catacombs circle around my core? Not that I minded, I wasn't going to leave her anyway, but I was still curious how it worked. Minor things, but I couldn't let them go. Time travel was much too complicated for my liking.
"I didn't. I actually started this journey with pants, believe it or not, and you, Mordred, Viyara, Erya and Reia by my side." I sighed. "It didn't go too well and I was offered the chance to try again. This whole complex is ancient, you see, far older than I originally thought…" I told her everything I remembered, how we had made our way through the ruins and why. I spoke about the temporal distortions and the artefacts that had caused them. I explained how Shassa had come into the story and why they had found me impaled beneath her statue. And I told her about my dream.
"Did you know?" I finally asked.
"That we raised Greta in a previous life to become our mentor in this one? Or that Amazeroth is an ambiguous, scheming bastard? I've known the latter for as long as you, I told you about my memories the very next day after I had remembered. As for Greta…" she tightened her tails around me before she continued: "I didn't know but I'm not surprised, either. I always thought it strange that she had practically been a recluse before she began teaching you. I suspect you've never thought about it as she's been in your life since you were two years old, but it caused quite a stir back then that the old hermit would allow anyone into her life. Not only that, she treated you and me, on the few occasions I met her, like family, not strangers or nuisances. And the things she knew… it makes sense, but I can't say that I'm truly feeling the loss like I should. I liked her and I miss her, don't get me wrong, but she hasn't opened a hole in my chest I can't fill." I felt her breath on my ear as she whispered: "but I'm more than grateful that she kept you safe. For that alone I'll readily forgive Amazeroth most of his schemes, even if he is a fallen angel, unlikely as it sounds."
Damn it! I had been fully prepared to write him off as a poisonous fruit, but I couldn't deny that even though he had been at the root of our troubles, he had made sure that we'd come out the other side in one piece. Something I couldn't easily explain away.