11. Night Talk

Cassandra groaned softly as he woke up for the third time, seeing nothing but darkness and feeling nothing but the blanket that covered him and-

Wait. What? Cassian should be to his right...And then Jizabel should be...Wait, wait. Jizabel is a little farther than Cassandra, but still in the same bed. But where is Cassian? The Trump Card should be sleeping right between him and Jizabel...Perhaps Cassian went outside?

"Cassandra?" Cassandra blinked a bit as he heard Jizabel's voice. "I see you finally noticed Cassian not being here." Cassandra sensed Jizabel shift slightly on the bed, to make himself more comfortable probably.

"You're still awake?" Cassandra asked in disbelief.

"I am still awake." Jizabel confirmed quietly. "Cassian left the room about a few minutes ago. He's probably just wandering the halls. I've seen him do that whenever he can't sleep. And as for me...I can barely sleep. I'm not the type to be a deep sleeper, unlike other people."

Cassandra felt like saying something to the young doctor, like You should seriously try to get some sleep or something like that, but he felt that Jizabel would most likely ignore his advice. The only reason he, Cassian and Jizabel were sharing this room anyway was because there were no guest rooms in this house. Cain and Riff were sharing one room, Carina, Maryweather and Loanna shared another, and Leroy, Adrian, Sven and Riley were all stuck sleeping in the living room downstairs.

"Hopefully we can find Zenopia in the morning." Cassandra spoke up after a moment of silence, changing the subject adruptly. "I think his assistance will be needed."

"I do agree with that." Jizabel murmured quietly in response.

"We can get Zenopia to examine your injuries further in the morning." Jizabel explained to Cassandra hours earlier, after all the explaining about Delilah was done and Carina forced Cassandra to go back upstairs and get some more rest. "As far I can see, it's amazing how you haven't gotten any infection from your eyes being gouged out, and when the Cimmerians first scratched you, Riley mentioned that some of the wounds closed up right afterwards. The fire they emmanate from their paws somewhat cauterized the wounds they made. Heh, ironic, isn't it...That they intended to kill you and ended up partially saving your life instead."

The two went silent once more, before Cassandra spoke up again.

"I tried to telepathically communicate with Justice. It's something we're able to do in our unconsciousness, considering that our power is based around hypnosis and other psychic abilities." He paused, before continuing. "I haven't heard from her since that one time. It's frustrating and...If she's dead..." He left the sentence hanging, but he figured that Jizabel probably knew what he might say to finish that statement.

"I doubt she would go down without a fight, Cassandra." Jizabel responded. Cassandra turned his head to face him. "You know how strong she can be. She isn't going to let any sort of barrier get in her way."

"...True."


Cassian really couldn't sleep. He'd snuck out of the room he, Jizabel and Cassandra were sharing and wasn't really sure of what to do next. He just leaned against the wall, thinking about everything that happened.

How did he end up in this place again? He only remembered Cassandra rushing at Jizabel with that sword, and Cassian was more than prepared to throw a knife at the ex-Hierophant. But then something happened, and there were screams of pain and...Ugh. Cassian couldn't remember anything after that.

"Cassian?"

He turned, to see the familiar girl with ravened black hair, standing a few steps away from him.

"Why are you out of bed already? It's not morning."

Dang it, what was her name? Loanna? Right...

"Kid, I was about to ask you the same question." Cassian responded, turning to face her and taking a step or two closer.

Loanna's face seemed to scrunch up a little in confusion. "You're a kid yourself..."

"Loanna, I'm thirty-five years old, believe it or not." Cassian muttered quietly, letting out a sigh. "I stopped growing when I was around...Well, how old are you?"

"...Ten." She responded after a moment, holding up all her fingers.

"Yeah, I stopped growing two years after that." Cassian responded. "My parents sold me to a circus because of that, and I wasn't treated any better there. One of the people at the circus claimed to love me, but...She was actually placing bets with the Ringmaster for whether I would actually fall for her or not."

"What did you do?" Loanna asked, her head tilting to the side (just like any curious child would, Cassian thought to himself).

"What do people do in fairytales if they're jealous of someone? Let's take Snow White for example." Cassian responded, crossing his arms. "The evil Queen was jealous of her, and I hope you know what she tried to do to that girl."

"...Kill her?" Loanna's eyes seemed to widen a bit, terror slowly replacing her confusion. "You killed her?" She repeated quietly.

"The Ringmaster, too." Cassian responded. "It wasn't a pretty sight. I could probably rattle on and on for hours about how I joined the organization Dr. Disraeli and Cassandra belong to and stuff, but I don't think you want to know." He hated to be blunt about it, but eventually the kid was going to have to see reality.

"..." Loanna paused, terror vanishing as she took a deep breath and spoke up. "I don't know who my mommy and daddy really are. I lived in the orphanage, until it burned down when I was five. Carina let me live with her and..." She paused for a moment, before continuing. "I think that was when the Divine Healers and the Apothecary appeared, after the orphanage burnt down."

"You mean, they weren't here for as long as you lived? Only for the past five years?" Cassian asked, intrigued by this new piece of information. "That's...Interesting..."

"Yes. Only five years." Loanna responded, nodding a bit. "I like Sven the best out of the Divine Healers. He's the nicest. I don't like Briana, she's scary..."

"I thought you would say that." Cassian remarked, letting out a small chuckle. "I don't like Briana, either. She really isn't very nice. Riley seems to be alright, despite him looking intimidating and stuff. And Sven..." Cassian paused at Sven. How fragile is that guy? He's great with kids; he acts like a parent guiding his children whenever he's with the kids, but...There's something else about him... "Yeah, I think you're right. Sven is a nice guy." The two paused, before the Trump Card spoke up again. "I think we should probably get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay." The two started towards their rooms, but then Loanna spoke up again. "Cassian?"

"Yeah?" Cassian asked, turning towards her.

Loanna smiled at him a little. "Thanks for talking with me."

Cassian smiled back a little. "No problem, kid. Goodnight."


Sharing a bed with your master isn't exactly proper. At least, not in London, England.

But, Lord Cain had insisted upon it, and Riff knew that he shouldn't disobey his master.

"I need you to remain healthy. And I don't think sleeping on a floor is considerably healthy for you."

Those were Lord Cain's words exactly, hours ago.

The two hadn't fallen asleep completely as soon as they got into bed at first; instead, they talked of what was going on, about Cassandra, Jizabel and Cassian, and about the Apothecary and Divine Healers as well. It was obvious Cain did not trust Cassandra (which made sense, because who would trust someone who abused one of your sister's friends and massacred thousands of people?), despite all that the older man had gone through, but Cain seemed a bit more alright once he heard that Leroy and Cassandra had made amends with each other somewhat.

Cain didn't particularly trust the Apothecary, and neither did Riff. Nor did they completely trust Jizabel and Cassian, but Cain figured if they were going to kill anyone in this house, it would probably be Cassandra, first...

Now, Riff was wide awake, but Cain was sleeping soundly beside him. The manservant let out a quiet sigh and closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would claim him. Sleeping would be a lot better right now, than staying awake and being forced to have worrying thoughts in one's head.

As much as Riff hated to admit, though, he had a feeling that something would strike soon-and most likely strike towards Cassandra first and not Cain.