In the end, they didn't get much resting done, which Cassandra thought was the whole point of them stopping in the first place. The instant Rapunzel got the whiff of an adventure, she was up on her feet no matter how tired she was. During a normal adventure, where life and death were mere milliseconds apart, that could be rather useful. When the Princess was suffering from a curse that was slowly draining her of all her energy, it was a nuisance. Half an hour was all they allowed themselves, drinking water from a nearby well and doing their best to dry themselves from the heavy rains of the night before. And then, they were off on their way.
"How big do you think the wasp is going to be?" Rapunzel asked curiously.
"Why are you so convinced that it's going to be a giant wasp?" Cassandra nagged her. "The bartender just said it was a wasp. She said nothing about its size."
"But it probably is gigantic," Rapunzel reasoned. "If it was able to chase off so many workers, it has to be pretty big, right?"
"As long as it doesn't shoot fire at us, I think we'll manage."
The cave was located exactly where Jane the Bartender said it would be: on the north end of town, just past the thick river bay that served as the village's namesake. Past a deep weave of trees, it rested, hidden in the shade and sticking out of a massive grey rock structure that swept into the leaves above. The area in front of the cave had been cleared, no doubt by the workers to allow themselves easier access to the valuable goods within. A few wheelbarrows laid abandoned on its outskirts, massive clay pots strewn about the floor carelessly, cracked and bristled. The workers cleared out in a hurry. Cassandra shifted her shoulders, feeling the weight of her sword on her back.
Cassandra climbed off Fidella's back and assisted Rapunzel down before taking a step toward the entrance of the cave. She expected to see nothing but darkness, yet much to her surprise—and Rapunzel's limitless fascination—she could see a bright blue light emanating from deep within the cave structure, illuminating the glistening rock by its mouth. Rapunzel peered daintily into the dark, leaning forward as her eyes scanned the rough stone. Cassandra kept a careful eye on her to make sure she didn't tumble over or enter without her supervision.
"So, this is definitely the place," Cassandra said with a grunt, adjusting her belt. "There's at least one mad wasp queen in there. Probably a lot of mad wasp babies. You don't have any allergies, do you?"
"Not that I know of," Rapunzel said with a shrug. "I don't know if I've ever been stung by a bee, now that I think about it."
"Wasps aren't bees," Cass corrected her. "Bees sting you once and they die. Wasps sting you until you die. That's the difference."
"Either way, it doesn't sound pleasant."
"Exactly," Cass stated. "Which is why you aren't going in."
Rapunzel took the news like she had just been stabbed in the heart. "What? Of course, I'm going in there with you."
"And why would I let you do that?" Cassandra asked, unsheathing her blade and examining it without giving Rapunzel so much as a second glance.
"Because it's dangerous and I'm not letting you go in alone." The Princess's gaze turned harsh and judgmental, and Cassandra had to steel her nerves to prevent herself from immediately giving in.
"Raps, I appreciate your concern," Cassandra sighed carefully, "but the whole reason I'm here is to get you safely to Madrid. I'm not putting you in any more harm's way than necessary, and this? Giant murder wasps? You aren't going in there, especially not in your condition."
Rapunzel sneered. The blue scar on her face scrunched up and stuck out from beneath the cover of the hood on her cloak. "And if you need help?"
"How are you supposed to help me exactly?" Cassandra argued. "Even if you weren't so sick that you were going to fall over any second—which you are—you don't have magic, indestructible hair anymore, Raps. You also don't have magic sun incantations, and last time I checked, there aren't any plants that grow frying pans on them, so you don't have that either. You'd kind of be useless in there."
Cassandra didn't like the look of frustration on Rapunzel's face. A certain helpless was seeping in that came through her eyes and caused her so much shame that she had to turn and walk back toward Fidella. Cassandra immediately regretted the words that just came out of her mouth. Useless. No, not useless. Just…well, something like that. But she didn't mean it the way Rapunzel thought she did. She was certain of that. She knew that feeling of powerlessness all too well, and how easy it was to take a hold of a person's mind and cause them to turn dark. It was hard to think about, but Rapunzel lived most of her life without any power at all, stranded in a tower at the whim of their cruel and selfish mother. That state of mind that created was toxic, and Cassandra realized all too late that she might have just unwittingly forced her best friend back into it. Cassandra tried to say something comforting, but before she could, she heard Rapunzel cry.
Wait, that wasn't right. Not a cry—a laugh. A slow, almost cocky laugh.
Rapunzel returned to Fidella, flippantly flipping open the bags slung off the mare's back and rummaging through it. She turned to Cassandra with a confident smirk, and to Cass's bewilderment, she pulled out a thick, cast iron frying pan, ten inches across.
"Well then," Rapunzel said innocently, "it's a good thing I've got this with me."
Cassandra's mouth dropped to the floor.
"What…why was that in my bag?"
"Jane gave it to me," Rapunzel said casually, tossing the frying pan into the air and expertly catching it before proudly slinging it over her shoulder. "I went back in and asked her if she had one while you were getting water, and then I snuck it into your bag."
"You did…but…"
Cassandra was at a complete loss for words. Rapunzel sauntered toward the cave, rejuvenated from the familiar presence of a frying pan in her hand. It was like her arm was complete, and she strolled up to the cave entrance ready to face any challenge that was awaiting her inside. And worst of all, she had that smirk. That smirk of getting something over her friend, that stupid, cocky smirk of knowing that she was getting her way and there wasn't a single damn thing Cassandra could do to stop her. That smirk that crossed her face every time she openly threw herself into danger and kissed death on the cheek before barely making it away with her life intact. Cassandra wanted to be mad. She should have been mad. In a right world, she would have taken that stupid frying pan and smashed it to pieces, tied Rapunzel to a tree, and left her there while she did the hideous work of clearing out the hive.
Yet, for just a moment, when she was standing in the shadow of the cave with her hood pulled back, her weapon confidently in her hand and her gaze transfixed on the next adventure, Rapunzel almost looked like her healthy, normal self. And that, all by itself, was enough for Cassandra to lower her guard and begrudgingly accept a deal that she knew was wrong.
"Fine. You can come," Cass sighed. "But you are staying behind me at all times. Got it?"
Rapunzel bowed and gestured into the cave. "Lead the way, oh noble Cassandra."
Cassandra didn't need the mockery, but she resisted the urge to complain if it would lift her traveling partner's spirits. She took point heading into the cave, keeping her sword at the ready in case any giant insect came flying unexpectedly toward her.
The cave structure was unlike anything Cassandra had ever seen before. The tunnel was narrow, bending down one long path deeper into the earth's surface. The stone on the walls was smoothed and polished, carved into steady overlapping layers, like stripes that invited them further along into the cave structure. From the dark, jagged edges where one layer of black stone overlapped the next, a thick blue substance pooled out, glooping into big sticky piles on the floor that Cassandra had to actively step over to avoid dirtying her boots any further. It glowed miraculously in the dark, lighting the path forward, leaving the two of them no choice but to venture forward. They marched forward eagerly, and soon the entrance of the cave was hidden out of sight, and they had nothing except each other, the blue light, and a very, very, very faint humming sound coming from deeper within the cave.
That, and also the smell.
"So, um, this smells awful," Rapunzel said, waving her hand in front of her face.
"Yep. It's a big insect cave. What did you expect?"
"I don't know. I was hoping it would maybe smell like honey," Rapunzel admitted.
"Again, wasps aren't bees. They don't make honey."
"Right. I guess they make jelly. Or whatever this is." Rapunzel casually swiped two fingers along the edge of the stone and scooping up some of the strange blue gel. She pulled it through her fingers, watching it slowly drip down to the floor. It had the viscosity of bad shampoo and smelled so bad Rapunzel nearly gagged when she brought it to her nose. Hopefully, the purified version of the substance would smell more pleasant. She didn't exactly want to rub any of it on her wounds at the moment. "So, now that we're here, what's your plan for putting the wasps to sleep?"
Cass froze in her tracks, and Rapunzel stopped just short of bumping into her friend.
"Wait, back to sleep?" Cassandra said, confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, the wasps were hibernating before. We should put the queen back to sleep," Rapunzel explained. "What's your plan?"
"My plan is to whack the queen with this sword until she's dead," Cassandra stated. While it sounded second nature, Rapunzel seemed horrified by the notion.
"Cass, we can't just kill it. One, it didn't do anything wrong, and two, it's going to hurt the town. Don't the workers here need the wasps to make the jelly in the first place?"
"I'm sure they'll figure something out," Cass grunted. "And by the way, if you didn't have a plan, why did you accept the job in the first place?"
"I thought that we would come up with something when we got here. Like usual."
Cassandra was going to deny that fact, but then again, improvising their way out of life-threatening situations was sort of the norm with them. It didn't make the situation any better, but at least Rapunzel was somewhat justified. She still shook her head and continued forward, trying to placate the Princess.
"How about we see what kind of wasps we are dealing with and then we talk, okay?"
"I mean, that's thinking even more on the spot than before—"
"No arguing. I'm on point here," Cassandra cut her off. Rapunzel agreed to the terms with a silent nod, and then the pair resumed their descent into the cave, extra cautious of the unknown danger lurking around each corner.
The humming got louder as they got further along until Cassandra realized that it likely wasn't humming at all, but buzzing. Angry, aggressive buzzing that seemed to step over itself a dozen times over. The wasps were active. Possibly hundreds of them. Cassandra adjusted the grip on her sword and readied herself for a fight. A thick sludge of blue jelly dripped down into her hair, and she furiously brushed it out as her attention was brought to the cave. Was it carved by the wasps themselves? If they were strong enough to do that, she could only imagine how difficult it would be to fight them.
God, why did she ever agree to do this? Wait, she knew the answer to that question. Rapunzel asked her to, and Cass was pathetic.
She rounded the corner, and then gasped and immediately threw herself behind the stone bend for cover. She held out her arm, blocking Rapunzel dead in her tracks.
"What's wrong? Did you find—"
"Sshhh."
Cassandra held a finger to her lips. Very cautiously, she leaned around the corner, just far enough so that she could be confident in what she was looking at. Rapunzel worriedly squeezed Cassandra's arm. She could see the fear apparent in Cassandra's face, and the longer Cass went without saying anything, the more nervous she became. When she tried to move forward herself to get a glimpse around the corner, Cassandra finally reacted to her: by grabbing her hand and immediately walking back the way they came from.
"Nope. We are not doing this," Cassandra said firmly.
"What? Hey," Rapunzel protested, pulling herself free. "We can't leave already."
"Yes, we can and yes, we are. Come on," Cassandra instructed, but as she was prone to do, Rapunzel went off on her own and completely ignored Cassandra's warnings.
"How bad could it be?" Rapunzel asked, turning the corner.
As it turned out: bad. Very bad. The ground immediately fell out at the mouth of the bend, and they found themselves at the edge of a massive cavern with no discernable or easy way down. The cavern before Rapunzel's eyes was vast, plunging fifty meters deep into the earth and branching off into a hundred tunnels just like theirs along the craggy stone walls. The blue jelly seeped from every possible surface, coating the rock like a thick layer of paint. That wasn't what frightened her, though. What did frighten her—what startled her so much that she nearly dropped her frying pan—was that at the bottom of the pit, floating amidst what she could only describe as an ocean of the blue liquid, was a hive that was almost as large as her castle. Its torn walls were frigid and waxy like paper, but within, she could see thousands of honeycomb-shaped holes large enough for her to squeeze inside. The hive was occupied by the wasps, and though their size was hard to make out from far away, she suspected that each one was roughly the size of a person. They were clamoring all over each other in a crude, vibrating mass, vomiting out the blue jelly and stashing it away wherever they could, zipping up and flying around the cave as they went about their busy work. And, worst of all, she could see the queen, perched on top of the hive itself. Its abdomen was the size of a house, its wings were like those of a dragon, and its stinger was thicker than a horse. It lazily moved its head back and forth, scanning its workers below as they followed its bidding. Rapunzel's lips quivered, and so soon after she laid eyes on it, she realized just how out of her depth she actually was.
Cassandra grabbed Rapunzel by the shoulders and dragged her back, shaking some sense into her.
"Now do you see the problem," Cass said through gritted teeth.
"Uh, okay," Rapunzel stammered, "I admit that the queen is, um…a bit bigger than anticipated."
"You want to beat that thing up? With this?" Cass hissed, hoisting up Rapunzel's hand and forcing the Princess to look at her frying pan.
"I may have been a little too confident," Rapunzel admitted quietly. "But I'm sure there's still something we can do."
"And what would that be?" Cass asked pointedly. "Face it. We're in over our heads. This sidequest was pointless."
"Don't say that."
"We are leaving."
"No." Cassandra tried to pull Rapunzel away again, but she held firm. Cassandra sneered.
"What is wrong with you?"
"We promised that town we would help," Rapunzel said forcefully.
"What? No, we didn't."
"Yes, we did," Rapunzel claimed. "We told Jane that we would stop this wasp and get the town their mine back."
Cassandra furrowed her brow. "Raps, we promised one person that we would do this so that they'd sell us something at a discount. We're not in this for the town. We know nothing about this town. Only one person even knows that we're doing this, and that person doesn't care about what happens other than the money she can make. This isn't us being altruistic. This is so we can get you medicine. I thought you knew that."
"Is that all you think this is?" Rapunzel said, startled and offended. "Do you really not care about this town? At all?"
"Raps, hey, keep your voice down."
"Yes, we are getting medicine, but we are also helping people. We always helped people before, no matter what. Remember?"
"Raps, seriously, I don't even know what you are talking—"
"I'm talking about doing good beyond ourselves. I'm talking about making sure we aren't just forgetting about what really matters. We have to do something good, Cass."
"I am doing good. I'm helping you."
"You're ignoring these people."
"We can't help them."
"Yes, we can. We just have to—"
"To what?"
"We'll think of something."
"No, we won't. We're wasting time."
"Helping people is never a waste of time. I thought you knew that."
"We can't help anyone by dying."
"I'm already dying, Cass!"
Cassandra fell silent. She had been so frustrated, so fearful of the hive beneath their feet that she only just noticed how worked up Rapunzel was getting. She was breathing heavily. Her cheeks were flushed. A whisper of tears glimmered in her eyes. She was shaking as she clenched her fists and swung her frying pan downwards, slamming it through the air as she worked through the emotions eating away at her. All Cassandra could do was watch.
"I…I have to do something, Cass," Rapunzel gasped. "I can't just waste away. I have to…I have to keep helping people. I have to know I can do that. If I can't do that, if…if I can't be me, then what's even…"
Rapunzel trailed off and hung her head in shame. By the time she realized what she was saying, it was too late to take it all back. Cassandra's sneer faded, and in its place came a pity that Rapunzel forced herself to look away from. Her arms hung loosely by her sides, and she couldn't bring herself to say another word. Cassandra struggled in her own way on whether she should smack Rapunzel for selfishly dragging them into this mess or just give her a giant hug. She couldn't help but wonder what it was that set Rapunzel off; she knew the curse was playing with her mind, but it wasn't possible that she also led Rapunzel to act this way, was it? Now that she thought about it, she did talk a lot about adventures before they arrived in the town. She was worried about Rapunzel judging her, but maybe…
Cassandra cut the thought off when she noticed something.
"Wait a second…what happened to all the buzzing?"
Rapunzel's head snapped toward the corner. Cassandra's gaze followed. They looked at each other nervously. The buzzing was gone. Nothing took its place but the silence.
The long, dreadful silence.
Cassandra took one step toward the corner.
Then another.
Then another.
She pressed herself to the wall and held her breath.
Silent. She had to be silent.
She slowly inched her head around the corner.
Her sight broke free of the wall.
She saw nothing out in the cavern.
A massive wasp suddenly dropped down into the cave opening, staring face-to-face with her with its vicious, insect eyes.
"Ahh!" Cassandra lunged back in horror, and on pure instinct, she swung her sword up through the air. The tip of the blade caught hard flesh, and the wasp was cut through the thorax before it could lunge at her. It dropped down into the massive cavern below, but before Cassandra could sigh in relief, she heard the buzzing return. Angier. Louder. Closing in fast from every direction. Cassandra turned, grabbed Rapunzel by the wrist, and took off sprinting as fast as she could back to the front of the cave tunnel. Rapunzel didn't argue, racing with Cassandra as they charged through the dripping cave. She turned just for a moment to glance behind, and instantly regretted it. She saw a swarm of human-sized wasps, blue-striped and buzzing like a storm, flying through the tunnel after them, their masses so clustered together that they formed almost a single, fluid massive of writhing wings and spindly legs. Their buzzing was a powerful, deafening drone, and they were gaining. They were gaining fast.
"They're gaining fast!" Rapunzel shouted.
"I know that!" Cassandra screamed, equally panicked.
They were at a disadvantage. Cassandra hadn't realized just how much their voyage into the cave was on the descent until she found herself sprinting back on the same path uphill. Her adrenaline was enough to keep her just barely ahead of the wasps, but she was running out of stamina fast. Dragging Rapunzel was a drain. Normally, Rapunzel would be the one sprinting ahead of her, but in her condition, she could barely keep up. Over the nightmarish swarm of the wasps, she could hear Rapunzel breathing hard. No matter how far they raced through the cave, they never seemed to be any closer to reaching the mouth. Cassandra could have sworn that they hadn't gone that deep, but she couldn't see daylight despite how hard she looked. She couldn't let it end like this. After everything she had fought for, she was going to die by getting devoured by wasps out in the middle of nowhere? Bullshit. That was all she could think about: how much bullshit her death would be.
Rapunzel felt like her heart was going to explode. Her head was spinning. Running for just a few seconds at full power drained everything she had. She was almost too weak to hold onto her frying pan. Her knees felt like the jelly that dripped from the walls. How she kept herself upright was something she'd never know. She couldn't see Cassandra's face. What was written on it? Fear? Regret? Or was it hatred? Hatred toward her for letting her arrogance and her selfishness doom both of them. The buzzing drew ever so closer, nipping at their heels, and Rapunzel didn't dare turn around to see how close the swarm was. She could only look off hopelessly into the endless, similar-looking rocky cave ahead of her, knowing that they were nowhere close enough to escaping. The only other thing she could make herself look at was Cassandra's blackened hand desperately holding onto her gloved wrist, the last tether she was ever going to have to another person.
Cassandra's blackened hand. Her gloved hand.
And then it hit her. A final, very stupid, very dangerous idea. With the swarm of thousands of angry wasps directly on their tail, about to reach them at any moment, she didn't have any choice left. Her other options were extinguished. She only hoped that Eugene would forgive her—and that Cassandra would be able to let go.
Rapunzel shut her eyes tight.
"Wither and decay."
Cassandra's eyes shot back toward Rapunzel, startled. "Raps, what are you doing?"
"End this destiny. Break these earthly chains. And set the spirit free."
Cassandra screamed. "This is not the time, Rapunzel!"
Rapunzel shook her head. She spoke louder. Concentrate. Concentrate, please, concentrate.
"Wither and decay. End this destiny. Break these earthly chains. And set the spirit free."
She felt the wind on her back from the fluttering wings of the wasps. She felt their daggered stingers edging against her spine. She felt her legs about to give out from underneath her.
"Wither and decay."
A little more. Work. Please work.
"End this destiny."
She hated those words. God, she hated those words so much. But she needed the universe to give her something. Anything.
"Break these earthly chains—"
Lightning struck through Rapunzel's chest, and an unseen power forced her eyes open and drew the oxygen out of her lungs. Cassandra gasped as Rapunzel's eyes became dark as shadows, and all of the fear was sucked out of her face and replaced with a sorrowful rage. Cassandra only had a moment to react, and at the last second, she released her grip on Rapunzel's wrist—just as the gloves on her hands burned to ash from the cruses power. Rapunzel stopped dead in her tracks and whipped around, extending her arms toward the swarm that was only a few meters away, screaming with scratchy, broken sobs.
"And set the spirit free!"
The wasps flew toward her, ready to sting; and then, all at once, the buzzing stopped, and they fell. All of them. Every single wasp from the front of the swarm to the back fell like dominoes, collapsing to the ground and becoming instantly stiff as they slid to a grinding halt to her bare feet on the cold, unforgiving stone. She watched them all fall into massive, croaking piles of hard shells and unmoving faces, stacking up on top of each other all the way back down to the cavern entrance. Her arms trembled before her, and Cassandra could see the scars on the backs of her hands glow with tremendous power that she had never seen. She was standing behind Rapunzel, but she could feel the wind and death coming off of her, a dry fog that seeped into her throat and poisoned her from within. When the last of the wasps fell, and the last one of their gigantic bodies stopped twitching, Rapunzel lowered her arms, and she just stood there.
She stood there, unmoving, for a long time.
She fainted soon after.
Cassandra dove forward to catch the Princess before she cracked her head on the stone, and Cassandra kneeled with the unconscious Rapunzel in her arms, trying to comfort her the best she could. She felt more concerned than she had since the curse began. She shushed Rapunzel and gently caressed her scarred cheek.
The endless corpses of the wasps lied in front of her. For them, she felt nothing.
"Did you feel that?"
"How could I not, Sister?"
"It's growing stronger faster than we anticipated. At this rate—"
"I know. We have to act. Now."
"Are you thinking—"
"The Psychopomp. Send for her."
"Is that not too drastic?"
"The power has been awoken. We have no more time to sit and watch. Send for her."
"Understood, Sister. May God have mercy on her soul."
"May God have mercy on us all."