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The change that had come over Cassandra when Eric yelled at her, persisted all the way to Fangtasia. It was like he'd put steel in her spine, she stood straighter and seemed to jerk and stop herself every time she felt a flinch coming on. When they arrived, Eric waved them both to a booth in the corner and began the painful process of placating Pam. This was almost certain to involve the purchase of an outrageously overpriced pair of shoes.
Tucked up safe in the booth, with Godric between her and the crowd, Cassandra fidgeted with the hem of her coat and tried very hard not to let the terror that crowds habitually brought out in her over power her reason. Eric's speech had shaken her badly, she hadn't been handled roughly in a long time but more than that... it seemed to her that Eric understood something about defiance, and defiance was all she had left.
Shyly, and trembling nervously, she reached for Godric's hand and slipped her small one into it, gently lacing their fingers together. Godric looked down at their hands and then turned to smile at her.
"Thank you..." he said, just loud enough to be heard over the music. She bit her bottom lip and leaned towards him, letting her head rest against his shoulder. "We can leave, if you wish. I know you haven't eaten."
She shook her head, took a deep breath and let it out slowly, consciously trying to relax. Godric hooked his free arm around her shoulders and hugged her against his side. There had been nothing like a nightclub when he was human... but there were elements of the familiar in the dark, the pounding music, and the bodies moving together. All reminded him of the midnight festivals to the great Goddess, where class and status meant nothing and the lowest beggar could approach a highborn lady and offer himself to her without fear of reprisal. He wished he could ask Cassandra what she made of the gyrating bodies in the half-light, but of course, she wouldn't be able to tell him, not there.
From up on his throne, Eric watched as Cassandra plucked up her courage and let her head rest against his makers shoulder. Despite himself, he found he liked the little creature. She was resilient in a way he liked to think resembled himself, and there was something bittersweet about watching his maker relax into himself in her presence. He thought about what Godric had said earlier, about feeling like he didn't fit inside his own skin. He could never imagine feeling like that... his every thought and action was tightly controlled.
Three am could not come fast enough for any of them. After Dallas, Eric found it harder to summon the patience required to deal with the adoring masses, and it was obvious to him that his maker wished to be able to speak to his companion, and the little princess though admirably outwardly calm had taken about as much exposure as she could handle for one night. When the doors finally closed they were all grateful.
"There is a shifter outside... with two human children. He wants to talk to you." Pam said with her usual air of sarcastic irritation.
Eric had just reached the booth and he groaned and shot her a glare. "Fine. Bring them in."
The two children, a boy and girl, seemed shy, but interested in everything in the way children often are. Sam ushered them ahead of him but kept them close at the same time. "I need your help..."
"And you brought me dinner to pay for it?" Eric asked with a raised eyebrow.
Cassandra's hand tightened in Godric's convulsively, but he steadied her gently. He could tell when his child was putting on a show, and despite appearances, Eric had a strict sense of honor which protected all children in his sight.
"Bon Temps' gone nuts." Sam outlined the issue with Maryanne and the people in the town while Godric and Cassandra remained quiet, and Eric nodded slowly.
"I...may know someone who could help... Pam, take them into the office. See they are fed and fetch blankets for the children." He looked at Sam, who was finally starting to unwind after his ordeal. "I promise nothing, shifter."
After Pam had led them away he turned to the two oldest people he knew with a raised eyebrow. Godric shrugged, "I know nothing particularly helpful." He glanced at Cassandra was was surprised to find her on the verge of tears. "Princess...?"
"She's a Maenad..." She said quietly, glancing at the passageway down which Sam and the others had gone. "A left-over... abandoned here, forever... just like me."
"What do you mean, abandoned here?" Eric asked.
"Dionysus, he loved her... gave her his power. But he's gone, just like the rest of them... and she's still here. Alone. Pining for him, trying to bring him back... but it's madness. He can't come back for her any more than Apollo can undo what he did to me." She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.
"How do we stop her, Cassandra? She's hurting those people," Godric prodded gently.
"I know... I know. Um... the power of her faith keeps her alive, makes her immortal. She'd have to consent to die."
"Why would anyone do that?" Eric snorted softly, only to look down at the two Ancient Children before him who had almost matching expressions of sadness.
"She'd die to be with him again... if we convince her to be the sacrifice instead of the shifter. He'll never come here to be with her... she'll have to go to him." She looked up at Godric sadly. "She's lonely. Desperate. It shouldn't take too much..."
"Thank you." Godric closed his hands over hers and touched their foreheads together gently before looking over at Eric. "How do we convince her?"
"More importantly, where is Sookie?" Eric rumbled, standing straighter. "You have not known her long, but I can assure you, she will be in this up to her neck by now."
"Sookie is not without her own defenses, Eric," Cassandra said, pausing when Eric snorted in derision, to glare at him. "Just as you are not without your charms... though you look and act like a howling barbarian."
Godric gave her a warning squeeze, but there was something passing between her and his child that bypassed him completely. Cassandra looked up at Eric, her face stern and stubourn, but not provoking as it had been in the hotel, and Eric returned her look steadily for a long time before narrowing his eyes.
"You're not going to tell me, are you?" Eric growled softly, though it was irritation, not threat that he expressed.
"Not yet. You're not ready to know yet and neither is she."
"But you know..."
"Yes. Look at it this way Eric, this is the only insurance I have. I have to trust you with everything... you just have to trust me with one little secret."
"One my ass. Something happened on that roof in Dallas. Something you have convinced Godric not to share with me out of fear of driving you away!" Eric stalked away from the table, turned and paced angrily before them. "For a thousand years there have been no secrets between us..."
"Eric... I keep nothing of myself from you. This secret isn't mine to tell..." Godric stood, leaving Cassandra in the booth and moved to stand before his aggravated child. "I need you to trust me. Her secret cannot hurt you, nor me, nor Sookie..." He sighed and put his hands on Eric's arms gently. "This distance between us is my fault. You are angry with her, to avoid being wroth with me. I do want to fix the breach between us, but it cannot be done in a single night, nor by my breaking faith with someone else. After a thousand years you can see no wrong in me, though I have made many mistakes." He smiled up at the Viking then, tenderly and mischievously, "Just as I excuse any faults of yours, but it does not make them go away."
"The girl is trouble." Eric said in Swedish, not noticing Cassandra's expression...
"We have three thousand years of experience between us, Eric. How much trouble can one girl... who seems to understand your language perfectly, really be?" He hadn't turned around, but something in the tension of the air had told him that the prophetess had no difficulty decyphering their words.
Eric looked at her sharply and Cassandra instantly scooted back in the booth, her back against the wall and bit her lip. The Viking made an exasperated face and forced his shoulders to relax. "I'm not going to hurt you, Cassandra," he said wearily. "Stop that, and come here."
To Godric's surprise, she shuffled forward out of the booth and came to stand obediently beside them, fiddling the buttons on her jacket. Eric reached down and stilled her hands, "can you speak to the Maenad? Will it listen to you?"
"She's closer to being a god than a human now... the curse shouldn't affect her. She might listen to me, maybe. To be honest it could depend on the mood she's in or something as random as what I'm wearing... they're theatrical things." Her fingers twitched a little in Eric's grasp and he pointedly held on moment longer, to force her to calm down before letting go.
"Then we will be theatrical. Wear your dress, we will fetch your cloak, and then we will see." He glanced back at her after a moment. "Stand up straight." He said distractedly, and Cassandra complied. She came nowhere near looking him in the eye, but the way she folded down on herself trying to disappear irritated him.
When she retired to the bathroom to freshen up, and calm down, Godric looked at Eric seriously. "Why are you both testing each other so?"
With one eyebrow raised in mild amusement, Eric leaned back against a table and smirked. "Because we both know something you seem to have missed." When his maker looked surprised, Eric actually laughed quietly and crossed his arms over his chest. "If you manage to get past this childhood courting fantasy you're both indulging in, then she and I will be family. Family have to know each other."