Her aim must have been a little off, they appeared on her kitchen table knocking their heads on the hanging lamp. Cassandra's eyes darted around trying to take everything in at once while Kate made her way off the table and looked around for Elani and Aithan. Her wrists warmed and she looked to see two brown leather bracelets on each. One's clasp was a pure white moonstone that looked a lot like Elani the other was clasped with a smokey quartz that looked like Aithan.
"It's too hard for them to stay corporeal in the mortal world," Cassandra said noticing Kate's puzzled look as she climbed off the table. Her skin was still pale and she had run a shaking hand through her hair. The poor girl didn't look good, in fact...
"Why don't you sit down?" Kate pulled a chair out and ushered Cassandra into it, she dropped her bags on the floor and grabbed the kettle filling it with water.
"I'll make us some tea, and sandwiches, magick can take a lot out of a person and I've discovered portals leave me starving," she set the kettle on the stove flicking on the burner. She turned and went to the fridge, grabbing cheese and bread, she also grabbed a pan and started spreading butter on a couple of slices.
"I don't mind the magick so much, being a seer isn't anywhere near as strong as a vessel but magick isn't the problem."
Kate unwrapped some cheese and placed it on the bread, and turned around to face her, "You're that afraid of Artemis? Why? Apollo betrayed you, not the other way around."
"It wasn't as simple as that, Apollo and I were in love once."
"So what happened?"
Cassandra sighed sadly, "My father happened."
Kate turned and flipped the grilled cheese, set the spatula down, and grabbed a couple of mugs from her cupboard, she wasn't going to push, she would finish when she was ready. She grabbed a couple of bags of lavender tea and set them in the mugs.
A few minutes later she was placing a mug of steaming tea and a toasted grilled cheese in front of her and sitting down with her own. She had taken a few bites watching Cassandra pick at hers and look around the kitchen in fascination, "So much has changed since I was left in Hekate's realm."
Kate laughed, "Yeah the Trojan War was a few years ago," she sipped her tea, then asked, "So what happened? How did you find yourself in Hekate's realm?"
Cassandra sighed, "Apollo was satisfied his curse was enough of a punishment and he left me to be detested and disdained by my family, his sister however wasn't so satisfied."
Kate's lips pursed and her eyebrows scrunched together, "Artemis put you there?"
Cassandra nodded, Kate couldn't believe it, she knew that the twins were overprotective of each other, but to banish her to a goddess's realm, then something worse occurred to her.
"Did Hekate know you were there? Did she help Artemis put you there?" She didn't want to believe it but how else would Artemis be able to put Cassandra there without Hekate knowing?
Her face must have shown her worry because Cassandra reached out and placed her hand on Kate's, "The gods have changed since then Kate, she is not the same goddess she once was."
"But she...she helped trap you in a different realm, for hundreds of years. How does someone do that?" she reached inside her trying to pry Hekate out, she needed to answer her questions. But it was like she was shying away from her reach, she was either still very tired or she was avoiding her questions.
"She did keep me there, but up until everything with Ares, it was a pleasant place to live. Along with beautiful weather and scenery, I was fed amazing food, and Hekate always trusted my visions. I was happy for a very long time when Ares started his," she waved her hands around, "Tantrum, she found somewhere to hide me, I was safe until you showed up and brought me here."
Kate leaned back in her chair and studied the contents of her tea, she watched as the brown and cream colors swirled, she had never questioned Hekates morals before, she had been a part of her family for hundreds of years. But she didn't know what to think now, she had kept a mortal prisoner in her realm and left her there when she ran. What kind of goddess did that make her?
"Kate?" Cassandra's voice broke through her thoughts, she shook her head trying to clear it, and looked up at her.
"Yeah?"
Cassandra smiled softly, "I said, we talked about my love life, what about yours?"
Kate started to laugh so much she teared up, "I'm so sorry Cassandra, I am not laughing at you," she wiped her eyes and cleared her throat a couple of times. " No, I don't have a love life," she pointed at her head, "It's hard to have a decent relationship when there is a goddess living inside of you. Try explaining that to a mortal."
Cassandra laughed, " I suppose that could be difficult, but..." she trailed off, she looked down at her hands, "How weird could it actually be, the gods have always had their fingers in the mortal realm."
Kate bit her lip, she wasn't sure how to explain things to her, "Since you have been gone the gods have more or less faded from most mortal's minds." Cassandra's eyes widened, "So you mean to tell me no one believes in the gods anymore?"
"Not exactly, there are some who still worship the ancient gods but now most people, the ones who still believe in any higher power, are called Christians and believe in only one god."
"One god?" she leaned back in her chair, blinking, trying to process the information, then she giggled, "No wonder everyone is on edge, I thought it was just Ares and Hekate who were the problem, but if no one is praying to the gods then they are slowly losing their magick."
This was news to Kate, Hekate had always been so powerful, it had never crossed her mind that she might have been even more so once.
Cassandra stood with her plate and cup and went to the sink setting them inside and turned back to Kate. "I am sorry if I upset you, Hekate might have technically been my jailer but she was always kind to me, kinder than any other god I have ever encountered."
Kate stood and placed her dishes in the sink as well, "It's okay, but Hekate and I are going to have a conversation about this once she is strong enough to talk again. I have questions and she owes me answers," she sighed and led Cassandra to the living room, "I don't know about you but I am exhausted, I am not a hundred percent sure how long I have been gone but I am sure my partner is going to kill me for leaving my cafe in her hands for however long," she went down the hallway and pulled a blanket and pillow from the closet. She made up the couch and turned to Cassandra, "Anyways, I have a lot to catch up on tomorrow so I am going to call it a night." She stood in front of Cassandra awkwardly for a moment, then said heck with it and gave her a quick hug before heading to bed.