Nomad

Fortune

Soul puffed out her cheeks. "Why? She's just a lying adult!"

"Because she..." He sighed. "It's complicated. She just got too excited and forgot about her promise to help me. It's no big, I...would've lost anyway, that woman cheated. Heh..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "And she did apologize, so..."

Soul sighed. "Fine."

"Right." Varian nodded. "Now, I'm actually gonna go talk to her some more, so can you let go of my hand?" He looked at his hand in Soul's firm grip.

"Do I have to?" She pouted.

Clyde chuckled. "Come on, Soul."

Soul frowned but walked away with Clyde. Varian sighed and looked at Cassandra before he walked over to her. "Hey, so...sorry about that. Must've been awkward."

"It's fine, I get it. I hurt you, your friends are mad, and I haven't exactly been..." She rubbed her arm sheepishly. "You guys had to save us from being turned into birds forever."

"You and Faith and all the rest, too." Varian looked over at the maid helping prepare food. "She still doesn't know how she got here aside from the green fire. The others got transported to the woods the same way."

"Green fire..." Cassandra frowned. "That sounds familiar..." She looked thoughtful, then gasped. "Rapunzel!" She looked around, then slapped her hand to her face. "Right. Date."

"What is it?" Varian asked.

"We encountered someone that used green fire before. They called themselves a Disciple of Zhan Tiri. It was one of the problems we encountered following the blizzard." Cassandra explained.

"Zhan Tiri..." Varian frowned. "Wasn't he in that legend about Lord Demanitus?"

"You know it?" Cassandra asked.

"Xavier was my tutor when I was growing up, he told me a lot of legends. Apparently, Zhan Tiri and Lord Demanitus used to work together, but they had a brutal falling out. In response, Zhan Tiri sent a blizzard to attack Corona, which was important to Demanitus, and was turned away with a device of Lord Demanitus' making. But, legend says that, when Corona is weakened, the blizzard would return again." Varian said solemnly.

Cassandra nodded. "That horrible blizzard was Zhan Tiri's blizzard returning because of the black rocks weakening Corona. When we used the device, we accidentally unsealed the Disciples of Zhan Tiri, and one of them almost made Rapunzel summon her master."

"How?" Varian frowned.

Cassandra sighed and looked to the side. "The day of the blizzard...Rapunzel had been having a really bad day. Her parents had left her in charge while they went on holiday and—"

"I remember that! I mean, I remember hearing it was going to happen. My dad and I went to Corona before they left and my dad said that we needed more land. Then Rapunzel heard me talking to dad about it in the hall and assured me we'd figure out the black rocks after her parents came back." Varian nodded. "I mean, she ended up not doing so, but it worked out in our favor."

Cassandra cleared her throat. "Right. Well, uh, her first time being Queen...didn't go well. She made a lot of mistakes, a lot of people got mad, it was...a mess. Then the blizzard happened, people had to evacuate into the castle, then Rapunzel learned about the legend and we went to go find the device, Pascal nearly died and she was just...an absolute mess and doubting herself and that's when the Disciple swooped in and talked her into a painting class that ended up being a summoning ritual."

Varian blinked slowly. "...Wow. Yeah, that's...wow." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Heh, we also evacuated, but we evacuated underground since there was no way we'd be able to get to the Capital with the blizzard going. While we were hidden underground, we made the decision to just...leave. Between the black rocks and the damage from the blizzard, it wasn't worth trying to start over there."