Cassandra groaned and sat up on the hard ground she had been laying on as she came to, shouts and voices flooding her ears. Rubbing her head, she blinked the sleep from her eyes and took in her surroundings. Looking around, she saw a lot of wide, white torsos and the bottoms of spears. Standing up, her golden eyes widened at what she saw.
She was in a very eccentric looking courtroom, with large golden podiums holding up the judge and jury, and a matching witness stand. There was a pulpit at the foot of all three of these, and in it was what appeared to be a little girl in a blue and white dress. Cassandra then fully took notice of who was standing around her. They were all card soldiers, so focused on staying vigilant that they, ironically enough, didn't notice her. Wanting to keep it that way, Cassandra slowly and quietly crept closer to the pulpit. She knew where she was from years of watching the movie with Skip, but that didn't really help her situation all that much. She heard the arrival of the white rabbit, the reading of the little girl's 'crimes', and the calling of witnesses, and just when the sentence was about to be carried out...
"Not today, you bipolar lunatic!", the redhead yelled, jumping on top of the pulpit, which caused Alice to yelp in surprise. The Queen of Hearts looked ready to order her execution as well, but never got the chance due to being interrupted by a scream of 'Incendia!' and a wave of fire that took the form of a great medieval dragon, which let out a mighty roar. Cassandra was shocked by her spell. She had never been able to do that with a simple incendia before.
Grabbing a startled Alice by the hand, Cassandra started sprinting towards the exit. Card soldiers tried to stop her, but were soon stopped by the fire breath of the flame-dragon, who had now taken flight. Cassandra picked the blonde girl up, put her on her hip and made use of her vampire speed to get them out of there, but had to stop when the white rabbit and mad hatter saw fit to block her path.
"N-now wait just one second- !", the rabbit stuttered out, but that didn't last long, because soon the hatter had poured hot tea on his head, causing him to scream. Cassandra took the opportunity to commit more crimes.
"I'm truly sorry about this, my most wonderfully mad fellows, but this is an extraordinary opportunity that I refuse to pass up.", the hatter looked confused at the declaration, only to scream 'HEY!' when the card in his hat band was snatched, the rabbit following his example when his pocket watch was taken. Cassandra clutched her spoils tightly and ran out of the courtroom as fast as she could.
She didn't stop until she reached the place Alice left wonderland in the movie. Setting the child down gently, Cassandra smiled gently at her in an attempt to ease any fears she may have.
"You're safe now. Walk that way and you'll be home; it'll be like this was all a dream.", the golden eyed girl said, kneeling down to the girl's level and pointing in front of her. Alice looked at her in bewilderment, but nodded slowly.
"Thank you for your help.", the fair child said sincerely with a smile. Cassandra nodded and smiled back.
"It was nothing.", Cassandra answered, and before she could say another word, Alice had taken her blue bow off her head and handed it to her.
"You like taking interesting things from people, right? Like souvenirs? Well, it's not much, but you can have my bow as thanks for helping me!", the child said excitedly. Cassandra was about to protest (she wasn't so immoral as to steal from a child), but by the time she got her bearings, Alice had ran off towards the tunnel home and waved back at her savoir frantically.
"Thank you, Miss Trousers!", she yelled back in farewell, and like that she was gone. Cassandra blinked in confusion
"'Miss Trousers?'", the woman questioned, looking down at her clothes. She was wearing the same outfit she had worn throughout the day, and tilted her head before shrugging in understanding. She supposed her wearing pants would be what caught Alice's attention, given the era she was supposedly from.
Looking down at the bow, surprisingly intricate gold pocket watch, and beige 10/6 card in her hand, Cassandra grinned at her new possessions. If this was all a dream or vision like she could infer it was given her slightly psychedelic surroundings, she hoped she could at least keep her spoils.
Sighing, the redhead looked around the dark forest she was in. That was too easy. There was always a 'climax' of some sort in her visions; someone dying or some grand new threat presenting itself. Nothing of the sort had happened yet, and since she wasn't starting to wake up, Cassandra assumed it was only a matter of time before something actually did happen
Sure enough, she was right.
The forest went pitch black, until she was in nothing but a never ending abyss of darkness, only being able to see due to her enhanced eyesight. Turning around slowly and cautiously, Cassandra took in her barren surroundings. As she did so, however, she heard the splashing of something she was stepping in underneath her feet. Kneeling down a bit, she reached her hand into the liquid and looked at the substance staining her fingers in shock. It was the same oily black ink Grumpy had secreted.
"What is this...?", she whispered to herself. She had barely registered it the last time she had seen it, but the ink seemed... malevolent, somehow; like it had a mind of its own. Cassandra took a step backwards, but gasped when she hit something. Looking behind her, she discovered it wasn't a something, but rather a someone.
Cassandra turned around quickly, and gasped at who she saw. It was Riddle, or more accurately, something wearing Riddle's face, because that was where the similarities ended.
The false Riddle was wearing a tattered red and black dress, his skin was deathly pale, and one of his insane gray eyes glowed red with a black lace pattern around it. He wore an unhinged expression to match his crazy eyes, but that wasn't the most glaring thing about his appearance; it was the black ink that dripped from every part of him and made up most of his clothes.
The doppelganger gave an unhinged, shrieking cackle that echoed through the inky black darkness. When it had calmed down a bit, it tilted its head and looked at her in manic glee.
"It's only a matter of time!", the creature cackled out excitedly. Cassandra growled at it.
"What's only a matter of time! Answer me!", she barked back, but the creature only kept grinning at her with that crazed grin. Sneering, Cassandra turned around to leave but was surprised to find the creature there again.
"It's almost time!", the creature yelled out excitedly, getting on the tip of its toes with its hands behind its back so it could get uncomfortably close to Cassandra's face.
"Tick tock, little Alice!", it whispered conspiringly, cackling loudly before turning into ink and melting into the ground. Cassandra watched the whole occurrence in apprehension, jumping away a bit when the creature abruptly melted, and looked around frantically when she began to hear the creature's maddening cackle echo loudly around her, the sound seeming to come from all over.
Cassandra saw white light begin to shine up from the ground, and looked down to find a large, glowing symbol the size of a house.
It was three triangles, one pointing up and two pointing sideways towards each other, forming a rhombus when they overlapped. The laughing got louder and louder, turning deafening to her sensitive ears, and as this happened and the light from the symbol got brighter, Cassandra wracked her brain for what the mark might mean. She found nothing in her mind, only the primal feeling she got from the sight of the mark.
It felt like oblivion. Like permanent death.
—------------------------------------------------
Cassandra shot up with a gasp, clutching her palpitating heart, disoriented after her dream-vision-whatever the hell it was. Shorter, who was sleeping beside her, immediately felt the loss of warmth and woke up, having sensed her distress. Concerned, he took the heavily panting woman into his arms.
"Baby, baby breath.", he gently asked her, whispering the term of endearment into her ear like a prayer. Cassandra was still very disoriented, but did as he said, taking deep breaths. After a while of simply breathing and being held, Shorter spoke again.
"Bǎobèi, zěnmeliǎo? Fāshēngle shénme?", he asked softly, speaking in Chinese so that
whatever they said stayed between them. Cassandra had stopped hyperventilating by now, wrapped her arms around Shorter's neck and held on tight.
"Wǒ kàn dàole yīxiē dōngxī. Wǒ bù zhīdào nà shì shénme, dàn tā dàizhe lǐ dé'ěr de liǎn, gǎnjué hěn xié'è. Xié'è de, jīhū hé wǒ de jiārén yīyàng lǎo. Tā... tā gàosù wǒ shíjiān chā bù duō le.", the distressed redhead explained. Shorter looked at her in shock.
"Shíjiān gànshénme?", he asked. Cassandra shook her head.
"Wǒ bù zhīdào. Gèng duǎn, wǒ hěn dānxīn. Wǒ rènwéi lǐ dé'ěr huì fāshēng yīxiē shìqíng.", she said. The purple haired vampire's expression became extremely serious at that.
"Ránhòu wǒmen zhǐ xūyào zǔzhǐ zhè zhǒng shìqíng de fǎ shēng.", he said, resolved. Cassandra pulled away and took in his expression. Seeing how seriously he was taking the situation, she nodded solemnly in agreement. Shorter then smiled at her comfortingly.
"It'll be alright, babe. We're not exactly normal, remember? We're all gonna be okay.", he said, kissing Cassandra on the forehead before he crept quietly into the kitchen, presumably to start on breakfast for the humans and so the non-mortal residents of the dorm wouldn't look suspicious for just drinking tumbler cups full of god-knows-what.
Cassandra then frowned in contemplation and looked out the window. The sun was barely up and the party wasn't for another several hours, but she wasn't getting back to sleep after that bad trip of a dream. Quietly standing up, she tip-toed around the still asleep young men and went up to her room. After quickly taking a shower and changing into a black and gold t-shirt with The Death tarot card on the front, a pair of black leggings, a pair of black converse (Or this world's off-brand version of it, at least), and her new favorite signature leather jacket, the redhead huffed in quiet frustration and ran a hand through her hair. Frowning, she plucked the key to the treasury out from underneath her shirt and sighed.
'None of this is making any sense. First Hades and his servants, then the sword, soulmates, that weird-ass Monty Python prophecy, my and the Yue's new magic, and now this demonic version of Riddle and that symbol.', Cassandra thought, putting the key back where it was and walking over to the desk where her art supplies lay. Without really thinking about it, she took a seat at the desk, took out a thick black leather-bound sketch book, and began to sketch the symbol she had seen in her dreams, as well as the unhinged version of Riddle she had encountered. Cassandra frowned in concentration.
'He seemed like Grumpy; overtaken by his negative emotions and some outside supernatural force. Not to mention dripping head to toe in that god-awful ink.' , Cassandra then began to sketch Grumpy on a separate page, both in his true form as a dwarf and in his monster form. When the drawing was done, Cassandra kept her pencil on the page and clutched it tight in frustration.
'There's gotta be a connection between the ink and that mark, but what? And why did I see Riddle? Was seeing him a vision of what's to come? That it's almost time for him to turn into that?', the redhead questioned mentally, before huffing and loudly shutting the sketch book.
'And what about that scene from Alice in Wonderland? Why did I see it? Was it another way of warning me of future events, or... ', Cassandra's golden eyes widened as she realized something. On her first day she had speculated with Ace and Grim about the true tales of the Seven, so...
'... Was it a way of making past events clear?', she thought, before groaning loudly and throwing her head back, gripping her hair and screwing her eyes shut in the process.
"This is too fucking complicated! Back home the most complicated mysteries were the cases I worked on, and even then they weren't this convoluted!", Cassandra yelled, opening her eyes and releasing her hair before laying her head on the desk with a quiet 'thud' and a deadpan expression.
"Cases have a thought formula; 'I noticed this which led to that which could only mean this.', or something along those lines. But this... this is another thing entirely.", she whispered, sighing again before getting up and walking over to her bed. She flopped down on top of it and stared at the dark red canopy overhead.
"It's like every time I figure something out I find out about another thing that takes me twice as long to understand.", Cassandra whispered, before groaning loudly and gripping her hair again.
"This is driving me crazy!", she yelled in frustration, but soon silenced herself when she felt a cool breeze hit her and heard another voice.
"Someone's having a bad time.", the voice drawled. Cassandra stiffened, sat up and grabbed Excalibur (which was hidden in a basket of cloth bolts near her bed. She would give Yue props for the creative hiding spot.). She snarled and pointed it at the perceived threat, a tall figure leaning against the railing of her room's balcony. They smiled at her and held their once-crossed arms up in surrender as wind blew through the balcony doors that had seemingly magically opened and swept through the billowing curtains.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?!", Cassandra yelled demandingly. Excalibur seemed to glint brightly and the figure's smile dropped, now replaced with a look of slight fear as they walked forward.
"Hey, hey! Let's just put the most dangerous weapon in existence down for a minute, okay?! I come in peace!", the shadowy figure said frantically, and once they came into the light of the room, Cassandra was shocked to see her patron god.
"It's you.", she said breathlessly, eyes apprehensive and a bit curious as she slowly lowered Excalibur and sat it down on the bed. Hades lowered his hands and sighed in relief.
"You really gotta watch where you point that thing, kid. It's more dangerous than you know.", the deity explained, stopping his trek a few feet away from the girl. Cassandra raised an eyebrow.
"Coming from a god, that means something. Elaborate.", she asked-more like demanded of her patron. Hades chuckled at her tone.
'Hasn't even known about her status for a week and she's already come into her authority. Excalibur chose well.', he thought before answering her truthfully.
"That book your professor gave you- yes I know about that, I've been looking in on you from time-to-time, but i try not to violate your privacy; I'm a god, not a stalker, even though there isn't much of a difference with most of the people on Mt. Olympus...", Hades started, murmuring the last bit, before continuing on.
"Anyways, the book your professor gave you is mostly speculation. It leaves a lot of important information out. Like the fact that Excalibur can kill gods.", Hades stressed, causing Cassandra to look at her sword in shock.
"Really?", she asked, picking up the blade that began glimmering at her touch gently and holding it. The Ruler of the Underworld nodded.
"Yep. Cut my head off, stab my heart, slit my throat, or harm me in any way that would kill a normal human with that sword, and I die.", he said, and Cassandra gingerly put the sword down.
"So what do you want?", she asked. Hades grinned.
"Just to clear some things up. To start things off, I'll give you the reason why I'm sponsoring you.", he said, taking a seat at Cassandra's desk and turning the chair around to face its owner. The redhead straightened herself in anticipation at that.
"Talk.", she urged bluntly. Hades chuckled.
"Alright, alright! Jeez, pushy much?", he laughed. Cassandra only narrowed her eyes at him and Hades chuckled once more and took that as his hint to get on with it.
"The reason is that you and your boyfriend squad sent out magic 'shockwaves' of sorts when you arrived here. Most of us who could sense them, aka the gods, just didn't care enough to look into them, but I did. When I saw you and your grand entrance, I knew helping you would be a good investment, so I sent you a few spirits to serve as servants and gave you access to the Underworld treasury; you know, as a sign of 'I have your back, please don't decapitate me when you become my supreme overlord.'", Hades explained, and Cassandra laughed at his joke.
"You've already accomplished that last part, my friend.", she said, and Hades's toothy grin widened.
"Good to know, but back to the topic at hand; Excalibur can do a lot more than the old geezers who wrote that book made it seem like. For starters, aside from being able to cut through and kill anything, it can knight people.", Hades declared. Cassandra blinked.
"Knight people? What's that supposed to mean, and how do you know all this? No one has ever used Excalibur before me.", she asked suspiciously. Hades grinned wider, if that was possible.
"I'm a god, hun; I know things. Divine beings just know more about things within our domains than most humans. As for what knighting means, it essentially means what you think it means; you can bestow the title of knighthood onto anyone you wish. A title given by Excalibur, however, is more... binding than a normal knighthood.", the flame haired deity trailed off. Cassandra gave him a look to continue.
"Keep talking.", she said, and the god did as he was told with a grin and a nod.
"A knighthood bestowed by the wielder of Excalibur isn't just some empty title; when a person becomes your knight, they are bound by magic to serve you. If you give an absolute order, they physically cannot disobey. They are your servants and most loyal soldiers and advisors, and once the title is given, it cannot be revoked.", the usually lax god said seriously. Cassandra nodded along and memorized every word. Hades continued.
"Once someone gains a knighthood, they gain a special sword, a product of Excalibur. The sword, like it's progenitor, cannot be destroyed, and has all of the abilities of Excalibur, except for the incantations. That is exclusive to you, and before you ask why Excalibur is different, it was made using the remnants of two powerful artifacts known as the sundrop flower and the moonstone, and these are what allow you to use both incantations.", the gray skinned god elaborated, confirming Cassandra's suspicions about the makeup of Excalibur.
"Excalibur also cannot be stolen, lost or destroyed. It will always return to you, the Once and Future King. Oh, yeah, almost forgot!", he trailed off slowly, before his eyes widened and he snapped his fingers as he remembered something. Getting up and walking over to Excalibur, he gingerly picked it up and handed it to Cassandra, who held it similarly.
"Think of it shrinking to an easily hideable size.", Hades said simply. Cassandra raised an eyebrow but closed her eyes and did as she was asked. After a few seconds of imagining Excalibur a little smaller than her index finger, she felt the comfortable weight of the sword shift and disappear in her hands. Opening her eyes, she was surprised to find Excalibur the exact size she had imagined it in her right hand, strung on a thin silver chain like a pendant. Blinking a bit, she shrugged and put the sword-now-pendant on under her shirt. Hades grinned.
"And that should be about it. If you have any other questions, or just wanna talk, my number is in your phone. Now, if you'll excuse me, l'll be taking my leave. Happy Unbirthday, red!", he called out, and in a swirl of gray smoke and blue fire, he was gone. Cassandra blinked at the place where he stood, before taking out her phone and scrolling through her contacts. Sure enough, Hades's name was there under 'H' with blue fire and skull emojis beside it. Cassandra snorted a bit at the extraness of the contact before chuckling as she became more aware of her situation.
"I have a god's phone number... ", she said, trailing off and shaking her head a bit at the hilarity of the situation. Deciding she had sulked long enough, Cassandra got up from the bed and made her way to the door, still processing the new information she had gained on Excalibur. On her way out, however, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that there were several new objects on her vanity. Blinking, she backed up and went over to see what they were. When she saw what they were, she blinked in shock before grinning widely. They were the things she had taken in her dream.
"So I do get to keep the things I steal... ", she trailed off, chuckling a bit as she picked up Alice's bow. She proceeded to tie the bow around her right bicep, using her left hand and teeth to do so. After that, she picked up the golden pocket watch and marveled at the beautiful designs. It was different from the large, overstated watch the white rabbit had in the movie, but in a good way.
"Rabbit has taste, I'll give him that.", Cassandra said, before she grinned widely and opened the watch, eyes glinting at the beautiful interior before she placed the 10/6 card inside the cover and closed it back.
"Never had a pocket watch before, but this piece of art is too beautiful to just let sit in the dragon's den.", the golden eyed girl said to herself, hooking the golden chain of the watch to the inside of the right pocket of her jacket. Opening it, she wind it so the time lined up with the one on her phone, and registered how late in the morning it was when she was finished.
"Crap, everyone's probably awake by now. If I don't get going, they'll- ", Cassandra started to grumble to herself, but felt her eyes widen in surprise when she heard someone yell out.
"CASS, GRIFFIN'S TRYING TO SET THE KITCHEN ON FIRE AGAIN!", Skip's voice yelled out from down stairs. There was a loud 'crash!' and the clanging of pots.
"NO I'M NOT! I'M JUST TRYING TO HELP!", Griffin yelled back. More crashing and banging ensued.
"LIKE HELL YOU ARE, YOUR TRYING TO KILL US ALL IS WHAT YOUR TRYING TO DO! ASH, COME GET YOUR LUNATIC ASSHOLE OF A BROTHER!", Shorter yelled out. More banging, crashing and indiscernible yelling ensued. Cassandra sighed.
"No rest for the wicked...", she trailed off, mumbling. She made her way out the door, shutting quietly as she leapt out of the frying pan and into the fray.
Sorry that took so long, I was taking a break and lost motivation. Got most of the Excalibur exposition out of the way, so that's good; oh, and I indirectly revealed the story's big bad this chapter. If you watch Legacies, you know who/what it is. Next time, Unbirthday party preparations, anonymous gifts and Cater's lament.
So long and Good night, Thackery Binx.