THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ALEXANDRA
"Hephaestus' will is clear in all things."
With these words, her older sister had welcomed the 'misguided Angel of Death' into her unconventional home. Since that point, the young woman had ceaselessly taken out her rage and passions on all who resided within the Athenian household.
Cassandra had dismissed the whole endeavour as another of her older sister's attempts to redeem the fallen. Both her own life, and that of Sophitia, had been punctuated by an excess of confrontations over the ultimate destiny of the cursed blade, Soul Edge.
During the three crusades she had made on behalf of the will of Hephaestus, Sophitia had exercised firmness, compassion and, from Cassandra's point of view, naivety.
It came to the younger woman as no surprise then that, when the 17 year old with the wild eyes and the swarm of ravens at her back had reached their home, Sophitia had welcomed the younger woman into their family.
At first, Tira had contented herself with killing animals, a practise that had excited more and more bad will upon the Alexandra household. Not content with hearing the voices of pagan gods, the people whispered, Sophitia and her family were now sacrificing beasts!
Having gained little in the way of negative reaction from Sophitia, Tira had then resorted to violence against her host. Her older sister's husband, Rothion, had attempted to intervene during these instances but Sophitia, bruised and bleeding, had warned him away.
When Rothion had demanded an answer, Sophitia had simply answered that it was Hephaestus' will that the young woman should express the nature of her grief and, by doing so, expunge the evil energy within her and be brought once more into the bright light of redemption.
Tira had changed tact shortly after that, supplementing her blows to the older woman's body with caresses.
When questioned about this Sophitia had remained calm and proud, claiming that it was Hephaestus' will for her to help redeem the young girl from the evil energy. Rothion had remained unconvinced, at least until Tira had grown tired of simply taking advantage of his wife and broadened her scope.
Shortly after the advent of Tira's claim on Rothion, Cassandra had felt it prudent to send away the distracted couple's children. The notion of either child falling under Tira's sway or accidentally discovering the sway the strange woman held over their mother and father was not a prospect the idealistic younger Alexandra sister relished.
Both of them would be safe with their grandparents, of that Cassandra had no doubts.
And thus the situation continued for months, almost a year. The unpredictable woman would rage against all three remaining members of the family. At first, Rothion had been jealous of the brutal attentions the young girl had shown his wife; as those attentions had grown into include him also, even during times when Sophitia remained watching passively in the corner of the room, so he had finally snapped and fled Athens.
The reputation of the Alexandra family fell into further disrepute.
When Tira had come for her, Cassandra had not been surprised. She had protested at first but the other woman was stronger, the dark energy that imbued her slender frame adding a formidable strength to her youthfulness.
Like Rothion before her, she had soon submitted.
Tira had continued to toy with them - sometimes with Sophitia alone, sometimes with Cassandra, other times she had made one sister watch and other times still, she had engaged the attentions of both women - and the Alexandra name had fallen into a final, unmentionable disrepute.
If there had been a greater purpose in Hephaestus' will, Cassandra had never discovered it. What was clear however was that sometimes, despite the dressing up of motivations or the terminology used to excuse such concepts, even the most noble of intentions resulted in an awkward status quo.
She felt the firm grasp of hands upon her shoulders and knew once more that Tira was behind, wordlessly demanding her attention.
From the chair by the fire in the corner of the room, Sophitia smiled pleasantly and beckoned them both forwards.