Chapter Nine

"Far away, long ago, glowing dim as an ember

Things my heart used to know, things it yearns to remember"

~~Once Upon a December, Anastasia

There was a barn.

Puck really couldn't help it.  He liked barns.  He liked barns a lot.  For such a simple structure, there was so much potential.  And this was a dairy barn, to top it all.  Milkmaids to annoy, pails to knock over, cows to curse, milk to curdle, butter to spill…

Puck liked barns.

He was creeping through this one when he suddenly saw a crimson stiletto heel stomp down in front of him.  He glanced upwards, to where the straps encircled a well-toned calf, then up the tan legs to –

"Puck, if you look up my skirt, you will never seduce another nymph again."

"Yes, My Lady."  He stood up.  "What do You wish of me?"

"Puck, my Daughter – the elder one – isn't turning out as I'd hoped.  She hasn't been wearing the necklace.  I want you to find out what's happened to it."

"But… My Goddess… I…"

"Oh, stop groveling.  I know you gave it to her.  I want to know what's been done with it since then."

"Ah."

Chaos tapped her toe a few times, then glanced around the barn.  "But you can annoy the cows first, if you want."

Puck's eyes lit up happily.  "Thank you, Great Lady!"

"But then get right on the other task!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

~~*~~

"She's… sulking."

Tessan nodded.

"There's no other word for it.  Our Cassadraine… sulking!"

A smirk crossed Tessan's lips.  "Well, there's only one cause for it.  She's been in a foul temper ever since that boy left."

"Gracious.  She really does miss him, doesn't she?"
"Mm-hmm."

Etien had only been gone for two days, and Cassadraine had been moping for the better part of that time.  She knew she only had to wait for him to return, and she would be off to her new life, charging towards her destiny, towards valor and adventure.  But Cassadraine had never been very good at waiting.

She slung her bow over one shoulder and took off into the woods without a word to her aunts.  Selma put a hand to her face and shook her head in dismay.  Tessan just watched her go.

She wandered for nearly two hours.  Though she had brought her bow and a quiver full of arrows, she didn't have the heart to track anything.  The village was well-supplied for a while, anyway.  Mostly she was just contemplating, until a small yip interrupted her thought process.  Cassadraine turned around and saw a good-sized grey wolf standing between two trees.  Its yellow eyes were fixed intently on her, and it sat down quite placidly.

"Oh!  Amani!"  Cassadraine dropped her bow and pack and ran over to the wolf, throwing her arms around his furry neck, receiving a licked face in return.  "Amani, friend, how have you been?"  She was answered only with a happy bark and another sloppy wolf-kiss.  Cassadraine had been forced to give Amani back to the forest when he had stolen one too many of Selma's dinners, but he had never forgotten the golden-haired girl who had saved him from a poacher's trap.

"Come on, Amani, let's take a walk."

They hadn't gone but a few steps when Amani stopped in the middle of the path and started growling.  "Huh?  What is it, boy?"

A whizzing red light suddenly made its presence known.  "Cassadraine, is that thing going to bite me?"

It took a moment for the voice to register.  "Uhh… well, that's rather up to him, isn't it?"

"Could you tell him not to?"

Cassadraine shrugged and buried her fingers into Amani's fur at the neck.  "Sit, Amani."  Amani didn't want to, looking at the buzzing spark, but after a moment he obeyed.  Puck then alighted on a tree branch and took human-sized form.  He stayed perched on the branch, swinging his legs back and forth like a child.  Amani growled but did not pounce and knock the sprite from his position.  "What do you want?"

"Why aren't you wearing the Necklace?"

"That isn't an answer."

"I don't much care."

Cassadraine stroked Amani's head for a minute before answering.  "My aunt took it away."

"Why?"

"She said it was dangerous."

Puck nodded.  "From her point of view, that would be correct."

Cassadraine raised an eyebrow.  "What do you mean?"

"I mean…"  Puck swung down from the branch, landing neatly in front of Cassadraine and Amani, who was still growling in a feral manner.  "I mean that your aunts… belong to Ladies who would not want you with the Necklace."

"Ladies?  What sort of ladies?"

Puck grinned.  "Go and find the Necklace, Cassadraine.  You know you can do it."  She just blinked at him.  "Go on.  You know you can look into Tessan's mind and find out where it is and how to get to it.  It's not very well-protected, I can tell you that."
"And why should I?  If my aunts think it's dangerous, why should I trust you and put it back on?"

He smirked.  Cassadraine wanted to slap the look off of his face.  "Think, Cassadraine.  Can you remember a time before you were alive?  Can you remember your Mother, your real Mother?  Because, you know, you haven't got one here."

"Of course I haven't.  I've lived with my aymas my whole life."

"Only because you haven't got a mother.  You weren't born."

"And you don't make sense.  Goodbye, Puck."  She turned to leave, but the spirit was in front of her before she had taken two steps.

"Ask your aunts," he said.  "Ask them about your mother.  And in the meantime, find the Necklace and put it back on.  I promise everything will make sense then."

"How?"

"You knew you wanted the Necklace the instant you saw it.  Why?  Why did its power attract you?"

Cassadraine wanted to sharply answer that she wanted it because it was pretty, but she and Puck both would have seen that for a lie.  In her moment of hesitation, Amani sprung forward and leapt on Puck, swiftly pinning the spirit to the ground.  Puck grinned, and in a flash of red light, was gone entirely.  Amani looked very confused, and Cassadraine wasn't much better off.  "C'mon, boy…. we'll go home and I'll get you a nice cut of meat…"

~~*~~

Finding the Necklace had been no trick at all.  It had taken a few tries – Cassadraine didn't dare stay inside Tessan's mind too long, lest her aunt realize she was up to something.  She dove in a few times with a good idea of what she was looking for, and by the end of dinner that night, she had found it.  Opening the magical locks on the box had been a little harder.  The box itself was innocuous-looking, small and wooden, painted green with a golden trim.  But the lock was dark black, circular, and spanned the width of one side of the box.

Cassadraine placed her fingers over it.  There was a hole which she initially presumed to be for a key.  But she reached out with her mind and saw the true inner dimensions of the device.  A hidden combination lock… very tricky, Aym Selma… She ran her fingers over the lock.  Carved into the circle were small symbols, rather than numbers.  Cassadraine shut her eyes and let the same unknown force possess her which had led her to the box in the first place.  Come on, come on…  A moment more and her fingers flew, turning the lock to the combination before she realized she knew it.  Ahhh…

Cassadraine paused for a moment before opening the box.  Cassadraine, you know if you open this… there's no going back…  She shook doubt from her mind and flung the top back.

The Red Necklace shined, fairly radiating a crimson luminescence.  Cassadraine took it out and held it, gazing at the scarlet jewel.  Why? she asked herself.  Why do I want this gem so much?  I've never been one to chase jewels and fortunes… I'd've left Jivata years ago if that were the case… so what?  Why this necklace?  She held the Necklace up, and the stone caught the light, bathing her face in a red beam.  Ohh, the beauty… this Necklace… I am meant for it!  She shook her head.  That… that's strange… that's what the necklace does to me… makes me crazed, power-hungry, mad… and yet… it is my destiny to wear it… it is part of me… as though my soul were bonded to it… it is the answer… though I don't know what the question is… but it is the answer to what I am seeking… the dreams and visions… all will be made true in this…  She thought back to what Puck had said, about remembering a time before she was born.  I do, almost… it's not quite there… as though the memories are tangible, just out of my grasp… things I almost remember…

Cassadraine unfastened the clasp and was about to bind the Necklace around her throat when the door to Tessan's room swung open.  "Cassadraine, stop!"

Cassadraine muttered a curse under her breath.  She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't kept up her psychic defenses.  "Eavesdropping on my internal monologues again, Aym Tessan?"

"Cassadraine, you mustn't put that on!"  Selma appeared in the doorframe behind Tessan.  "Truly, you mustn't!"

"Why mustn't I?"

Tessan strode forward and made an attempt to take the Necklace, but Cassadraine snatched her hand back.  "Cassadraine, listen—"

"No!  You listen!  This necklace is mine, and you don't have the right to take it from me.  The faery said this belonged to my mother, my real mother.  Then he said I haven't even got one here, whatever that's supposed to mean.  But I'm guessing you know!"

Tessan took a very deep breath.  "That's because your Mother is a Goddess, Cassadraine."

Cassadraine blinked.  And then her jaw dropped.

"Yes, Cassadraine.  A Goddess."

"Not just any Goddess," Selma added quietly.  "Chaos.  Dela.  Ivlana.  Kaistar."

"Wait… d'you mean…"

Tessan sat down on her bed.  "The world is not quite as you imagine it, Cassadraine."

"All the deities of all the religions – L'ai'kiva, Temrol, Saivit – they're all either demigods and demigoddesses, or they're imagined incarnations of the Four Goddesses.  Life.  Death.  Nature.  Chaos."

"They rule over everything.  Death – Dis in the immortal language – is perhaps the most blindly evil of them.  But your Mother, Dela, Goddess of Chaos, Destruction, Fire, Mayhem… She is crazed, demonic.  Wild and unpredictable."

"But… if I'm Her Daughter… how did I come to be with you?"

"We found you on our doorstep," Selma said.

Tessan turned and opened a drawer of her bedside cabinet, and she pulled out a roll of parchment.  "This was with you," she said.  "Read it and see."

Cassadraine kept the Necklace clutched tight in one hand and read the scroll with the other.  "The Daughter of Flame…" she whispered, and something in her soul flickered in recognition.  When she spoke the words, the Red Necklace flared a bit.

"See?  Do you see?" Selma was shrilling.  "It's evil, that necklace is!"
"But why?  Why would my Mother abandon me?" Cassadraine demanded.

"She didn't abandon you.  You were put into our care by Life and Nature.  Those are their marks, down there at the bottom."

"We suspect you were put here for your own safekeeping.  For your soul's sake."

"My soul!"

"You must understand, Cassadraine," Tessan declared, "your Mother is disaster incarnate.  Life and Nature didn't want you as Her minion."

Cassadraine gazed into the depths of the gem.  "They feared my power…" she said, her voice coming out darker than usual.  The flicker of knowledge sparked in her brain, a glimpse of what she had been.

"Cassadraine, all we know is that we must protect you, keep you from turning evil."

Cassadraine threw the parchment back at Tessan and stood up.  "You haven't said anything to convince me," she snarled.  "There's no good reason I shouldn't put on the Necklace.  What if it's meant to bring me back to my Mother?"

"She's evil!" Selma insisted.

"And you've lied to me!" Cassadraine cried.  "All my life, you've been lying to me!  About who I am, where I come from, my religion, my background, my life!  All lies!  And now you set yourselves to keeping me from my Mother and the truth?  No.  No!"

"Cassadraine—"

"No!"  She stood and defiantly put the Necklace about her throat, fastening it securely in place.  Again, there was a brilliant flash of red light, flooding the room and nearly blinding Selma and Tessan.  When it subsided, Cassadraine was gone, having stormed out in a fury, slamming the door behind her.

In the bedroom, Selma was weeping quietly.  We've failed, Tessan… we've failed Them…

Not yet, we haven't.  There's something special about that boy… that Etien… he's here for a reason.  He's got a purpose.

One of Dela's demons, more like!

No, no… don't you see it?  Oh, you're as daft as a child.  You never were very good at reading auras.  His is brilliant!  Bright blue!  He'll be good for her… he'll save her, I'm sure of it.

I sure hope so.

Cassadraine had meanwhile torn out of the house and run into the woods, Amani at her heels.  She raced to the top of her favorite hill, overlooking the river.  It was just sunset, the best part of day in her opinion.  She ran faster and harder than ever before, spurred on by her flaming emotions.  At the top of the ridge, she collapsed in a heap, sobbing from a combination of exhaustion and the heartbreak of realizing the women who had raised her had been lying to her all along.  Amani came up and curled up at her side, and she buried her face in his fur.

Because her eyes were squeezed closed, she did not see the red gem on the Necklace begin to gleam with deep scarlet light.  But she did raise her head to the heavens when she heard a voice from nowhere.

Welcome home, My Daughter.

[Authoress's Notes:  That was a fun chapter to write.  I hope you all enjoyed it.

[Next time:  Chaos gets stuck in Cassadraine's head… and how, exactly, does that affect the Cassadraine-Etien dynamic when he comes back?  Check back soon!  And in the meantime, review, blast you!

[Random aside to Christine:  It won't be long, mea carissima.  Trust me.

[Random aside to Kristen:  I wonder how many of these you show up in.

[Random aside to Jamen:  Get on with it, already!]