12. The Challenge
Maryweather sat the kitchen table, watching Carina as she poured some water into a few glasses, before putting them on the table.
"Carina?" Maryweather spoke up after a moment of silence.
Carina turned to her. "Yes?" The older woman asked, putting the water jug down. "What is it?"
Maryweather paused, before starting to speak. "I was thinking...About Sven." Carina sat down across from her, motioning for Mary to continue. "When he was taking care of me while my brother Cain was imprisoned...I noticed something about him. That he.." She bit her lip for a moment, hesitating before speaking. "He and Riley shared a close connection to each other. It's kind of like how my older brother trusts only Riff. And...Sven and Riley really don't get along with Briana."
Carina knew of how much Cain and Riff trusted each other. The seventeen-year-old earl looked quite surprised the previous day when Riff told him about everything that happened to himself and Cassandra. Carina assumed that Cain and Cassandra must not have gotten along with each other in the past; but she didn't know that Cassandra massacred thousands of people back where he came from, and abused Leroy before, too. She'd been shocked by that; who wouldn't be? Being able to kill thousands of people and abuse a child was something she wouldn't forgive...
...But then again, it was obvious. Cassandra had changed from who he once was, and he was very, very repentant of his actions and upset about the consequences that followed. He'd actually ranted to Carina several times about the issue, prior to him going outside and running into Maryweather, Sven and Briana. How long ago was it since he'd had a one-on-one conversation with her? At least a week?
Things had changed drastically in the past few days, especially right after the festival yesterday. Carina had a feeling that even more change was going to come quite soon, and that some of it might not be good.
Maryweather paused before she spoke up again. "I wonder how Sven and Riley has dealt with Briana in the past. Do you think they're only together because of the Apothecary?"
Carina hesitated, before speaking in response. "Well, if you put it that way, that does seem to be the situation. None of us here knows anything about Sven or Riley's relationship with each other or Briana or the Apothecary that well except for those people themselves. You'd have to ask them."
"Morning..." The two turned to see Adrian and the others enter the room. Some still looked a bit tired, and Jizabel and Cassian were both struggling to make Cassandra keep walking. The ex-Hierophant had the blindfold over his empty eye-sockets, but Carina knew that she didn't need to look at those to tell he was still somewhat exhausted from the previous day's events. "Did you guys get a good night's sleep?" Adrian asked.
"I would love to say yes, but that would be lying, so no I didn't." Carina responded, crossing her arms. Before anyone else could speak, there was a loud bang coming from the front of the house, and almost everyone took out a weapon. Carina picked up a clean frying pan while Cain grasped onto his cane tightly. Riff even took out his gun, putting bullets in the weapon in case someone were to try to attack suddenly. Adrian put up his fists, as he had no weapons, but then Cassian tossed him a small throwing knife.
Keep it hidden. Cassian mouthed to Adrian, who nodded and hid it in his trouser pocket. Jizabel hesitated for a moment, before taking out a scalpel. Cassandra followed suite, and the two swords used from the festival incident yesterday appeared in his hands. Sven and Riley, on the other hand, tried to keep the children hidden from view (Cassian included, even if he wasn't a kid).
Briana and several armed soldiers marched into the kitchen. "Cassandra Gladstone." She spoke, a glare imprinted upon her fair face. "You are under arrest for disturbing the peace."
"What?" Riley exclaimed, his eyes widening in disbelief. "How can you say something like this? Briana, if it wasn't for him, many more townspeople would have been killed by the Cimmerians yesterday! You can't arrest him!"
"It's the Apothecary's orders, Riley. You have no say in such a matter." The other Divine Healer snapped, before backhanding him in the face. She turned to the guards. "Take away all of them." She spoke coldly, and the soldiers started to move towards them.
"Wait!" Everyone turned to Cassandra, who had spoken up. "Please, leave Carina and children out of this. They have nothing to do with this, at least let them go..." The blindfolded ex-Hierophant could only say that, before Briana backhanded him in the face as well.
Cain noticed the pleading look on Cassandra's face when he'd said that statement. He wasn't doing this out of mere kindness, he was doing this for other reasons. Cain had a feeling Cassandra didn't want Leroy going through any torture, that he didn't want Maryweather getting hurt or Loanna to cry, or for Carina to get hurt, either; and that was why he'd begged Briana to let the children and Carina go.
"Fine, since you so properly begged, you peasant." Briana muttered, before turning to the soldiers. "Let the woman and children go, but arrest all the men."
As Jizabel was partially dragged away by the soldiers, he knew that Cassandra had some sort of plan in mind. Cassian was being left behind with Carina and the kids, and Cain had a good idea that Briana probably had no idea about Cassian actually being a thirty-five-year-old with a child's body.
As soon as all the soldiers (and men) were gone, Cassian let out a sigh of relief. "For once, I'm actually thankfully for my underdeveloped body." He muttered under his breath.
"What are we supposed to do now!?" Leroy asked, turning to Carina. "We can't just stand here and let the Apothecary do what he wants with them!"
"I know..." Carina trailed off, letting out a sigh. "But if we were to initiate violence against the Apothecary, we would be heading into a death march. Everyone who has tried to go against the Apothecary never survives..."
"So I guess this means I can't throw knives at the soldiers, huh?" Cassian asked.
Carina shook her head. "No, there are more of them where they come from, anyway. There's no point of wasting weaponry..."
Loanna and Maryweather exchanged glances with each other, both unsure of what to say or do. Before anyone else could do a thing, a short, elderly man walked into the room. He wore a somewhat dirtied lab coat with a collared shirt and dark trousers and shoes. He adjusted his glasses, before turning to Cassian.
"Cassian..." Zenopia gave a nod to the Trump Card. "I'm glad to have found you." He glanced towards the hallway. "I saw Jizabel and Cassandra being dragged away by several soldiers, as well as two of the Divine Healers. I figured you were probably left behind, since I didn't see you with them."
Cassian was thankful that the Hermit finally ran into them. "Yeah. Cassandra persuaded Briana to let go of the women and children. I guess I should be grateful that I'm a thirty-five-year-old stuck in a child's body for all eternity." He responded, briefly grinning.
"Cassandra Gladstone...So we finally face each other." The Apothecary spoke as he circled around Cassandra. Adrian, Cain, Riff and Jizabel were being restrained by the guards. Sven and Riley were both tied to a post, with Briana nearby holding a whip in her hands. "The reason I got Briana to bring you here isn't due to the crimes she accuses you of. In fact, it's for a different reason entirely."
"What would that reason be?" Cassandra asked. "And if it was merely for that, why go and have your Divine Healer accuse me of crimes I did not commit?"
"I had to give a cover for something. People would be questioning why you, out of all people; the one who saved the villagers from the Cimmerians, were sent to see me." The Apothecary responded cooly, before letting out a chuckle. "I want you to prove to me you're the legendary hero that they speak of in the myths. The hero that couldn't physically see and saves this world from a great evil."
"But-" Cassandra hesitated, biting his lip for a moment before speaking. "I don't know if I'm that hero." He finally blurted out. Me, the hero? The Apothecary must be crazy. "Someone else could be that certain person, or-"
"You'll prove you are or die trying." The Apothecary hissed back, glaring at Cassandra. "If you can defeat Briana in a duel, you're probably that hero. If not...You're dead. Simple as that. And if you refuse my offer, your companions here will suffer a great deal."
Briana raised the whip, about to strike Riley on the Apothecary's signal. Cassandra couldn't see the actions being done, obviously, but he didn't want anyone getting hurt.
"Fine." Cassandra spat out, turning to the Apothecary. "Fine, I'll do it. But let my companions go first, or I'll go back on this deal."
"Bring them to village square and release them there." The Apothecary muttered to the soldiers, who dragged the others out of the room. He then turned to Cassandra, smirking as he crossed his arms. "You and Briana will battle in the village square. There, in front of everyone, we will see if you really are this hero or not."
Author note: ...Yeah, I haven't updated this in a while...Sorry...
Life outside fanfiction has been really busy lately, so I wasn't able to really start working on this chapter until one or two days ago. I hope this makes up for the delay, and I'll try to update sooner. Thanks for your patience!