The other bridal candidates were far more prepared than Cassandra had been. The first to arrive was Bonnie Hart, a bombastic blond who dressed like the starlets on the cover of Dolly magazine. All the bangles and boots didn't change the fact her previous fiances had mysteriously turned up missing.
"I mean," Bonnie said while shaking White Star's hand, "it was for the best. Freddie never thought I'd make it big on Broadway." She hadn't made it on Broadway, she was here. "And Clyde was just a total work-a-holic. They say love what you do, and it won't feel like work, so I figured I'd give this a go." There was a glimmer of something sliver in her mouth. "Oh, you're still here." She dropped her bags in front of Cassandra with a smirk. "Be a doll and take these to my room." They didn't have rooms. All of them were stuck sharing the same guest quarters, a vast tatami room with comforters for each of them.
"...you know she's going to try and kill you in your sleep." Cassandra said as she picked up the bags.
"That's kind of our deal, remember?" White Star shook his head. There was no reason for this girl to get pushed around by the new visitors, but at least it would keep her busy. Maybe seeing more serious assassins would finally scare her off.
The other to arrive was Elaine Brewster. She had an oversized sweater with a drooping bow knot and butterfly collar. Lace trimmed all of her belongings, and she greeted the household with a breezy smile. Her eyes were blocked out by a thick pair of glasses, making it difficult to gauge her expression.
"What a charming home." She attempted to bow, though far too shallowly to be properly respectful. "It certainly needs a woman's touch though." She dropped her bags in front of Cassandra and evaluated the decor with a shrewd eye.
"If she had her way, this whole place would be wine red with kitten porcelain." Cassandra sighed. They really shouldn't go trusting just anyone with their belongings.
"Now, is that anyway to talk about someone you first met?" White Star teased. "There's no need to be jealous. By the weeks end, all of you will be out of here." Cassandra picked up the bags with a little huff. The last time he was this smug was when he dragged her in front of a monster. He may be stubborn, but so was she.
With all of them there, White Star and Suzuka were charged with giving them a proper tour of the house. He made sure to point out every sharp weapon that had come in contact with human flesh. Elaine would coo at the mention of carnage while Bonnie rolled her eyes, neither of them could tell the difference between ceremonial swords and actual weapons.
"That's where we put the eye-balls of traitors to the clan." White Star said. "Don't get too close, the smell will knock you on your ass." Moldy, wet tobacco was more likely. Did humans just not know what a spittoon was anymore? "And when you die," not if, "you go in that thing." He pointed to an ornate standing vase. Cranes under a starry sky were baked into the glaze. For once, it seemed he was telling the truth.
"Can they hear us?" She asked.
"Can who hear what?" White Star's brow furrowed.
"There's dozens of souls in there, right?" Cassandra tilted her head. "Are they aware? Or is it like an eternal slumber type thing?"
"I don't know..." He shook his head. "The point is, you go in the purgatory pot. Grand tradition demands it." His shoulders slumped, none of the girls seemed the least bit rattled. "Dinner should be ready by now." The group meandered around the bend. Cassandra lingered behind to get a few steps closer to the vase.
"It was a pleasure to meet you." She said, bowing as deep as she could before running to catch up with the others.
Dinner was a tense affair. On one side of a long table were the closest family to Charon and the bridal candidates on the other. White Star glared at his grandfather from the far end of the table as the old man waxed poetic about the glory days of the clan. Cassandra was sandwiched uncomfortably between her rivals. Though, thankfully, Elaine was more than happy to help her keep her teacup full.
"We are named after the light reflected off the river Styx, the only children of the first ferryman." Charon said. "As future daughters of the stars, you will hone your skills and abandon your old name."
"I already did all that noise once." Bonnie said as Cassandra drank her fourth cup. "Don't see the need to rebrand right before I hit it big."
"Rebrand!?" Charon raise a brow. "Child, we live in secret to protect those close to us. We leave no trace behind." Bonnie rolled her eyes, clearly uninterested in upholding tradition. Suzuka and Genbu launched into a heated debate over who's turn it was to man the tv after dinner. Elaine tugged the on cup Cassandra was still drink from.
"Sorry dear," she said, "I just need to check something." She took a sip from the cup. Quickly she coughed, a small trail of blood on her lips.
"Is something wrong?" Cassandra asked. Elaine took out a blue pen and stabbed her thigh with it. "Are you allergic to hemlock?"
"Most people are." Genbu said. He took the cup before Cassandra could take another sip. "Nightshade and arsenic as well, impressive you managed to keep it from overpowering the green tea."
"Thank you," Elaine dabbed the blood off her chin with a napkin, "I was starting to think I lost my touch. It's a wonder you're still breathing dear." It was easy to forget how fragile humans were. Cassandra pretended to cough, even though she'd been given hemlock for coughs growing up. There was no way to fake any blood, but she could act a little faint.
"I'll be fine." Cassandra said. Elaine eyed her up and down before passing her a blue pen.
"No hard feelings dear." She said. "I just wanted a chance to show off my specialty. You understand." Cassandra bit her lip as the needle stung her leg. Maintaining appearances now was more vital than bragging that no one at this table could kill her, even if they wanted to. Charon laughed the whole thing off, but at his side, his wife narrowed her eyes in shrewd judgement. There was a time and place for everything.
"In the morning, Seiryu will show you around the training grounds." The lady Nyx said. "I suggest you all get a good night's rest."
Hours before dawn they were dragged out onto a practice field. Long wires connected the surrounding tree tops. A small creek had roped platforms that bobbed on the surface. Bulky wooden rigs and obstacles had been pulled out of storage. Cassandra only had the one set of borrowed clothes to take into the arena. Her rivals each in their own idea of tasteful sports wear. Seiryu was perched high above them on a single wooden post.
"Today you'll run this course as fast as you can." She pulled throwing knives out of her sleeves and hair. "You know what a rainbow looks like, right?" She threw one at each of the obstacles in the order they were to be preformed. "I don't care if this isn't 'your area', as the future Star Clan, you must be able to hold your own in a crisis." She launched herself up into the air, head over feet, before landing with a short sword pointed at them. "You'd be surprised how quickly an art is no longer impressive enough to carry you." She twisted her hand, and the sword retracted into a belt buckle. "As unfair as it is, regular mooks can turn their foot into a scythe and kill people nowadays. It takes more than the element of surprise to be a master assassin." She glared at all the girls and raised a hand in the air. "On my count, follow me!"
Cassandra blinked and Seiryu was already halfway down the river. The other girls leaped into action, following the dirt path and leaping across the creek from platform to platform. Back home, Cassandra had relied on her magic for everything. She never jumped around, or balanced on things, or climbed. She fell into the river immediately. Unable to climb back up onto the platform without dunking herself back in the water, she had to swim back to the beginning. Everyone else was on the third or fourth obstacle by the time she got to the other river bank.
Running as much as she could to make up for lost time, she pulled herself up into the trees. Her arms burned as she got to the top platform. Less worried about injury and more about starting over, she crossed the ropes like a sloth instead of running across it like she should have. She got down to the ground where Seiryu was waiting for her.
"The others have finished." She said.
"Five left to go, right?" Cassandra gave her a sheepish grin. The other girl was going to be stuck out here until she finished. Seiryu nodded and walked beside her as she ran up to a set of rolling logs that were a few feet apart. She was supposed to jump from one to the next, but it she frequently found herself dumped in the mud. "What were the other girl's times?" She asked as she pulled herself off the ground.
"I don't know." Seiryu winced when Cassandra narrowly missed the final platform.
"What about you?" Cassandra threw herself onto the far platform with an inelegant thud. "What was your time?"
"About five minutes." Seiryu said. "This is the beginners course." Cassandra dodged and weaved through moving pendulums only to struggle at a steep wall she was supposed to climb.
"Then I'll beat that." She gritted her teeth, ignoring how Seiryu laughed at her naivety. "I'll show all of them." Coming here wasn't a mistake, even if she no longer could see some futures with as much clarity. She was meant to be here. Any weird rule, or challenge, or snippy remark wouldn't matter. "I belong here damn it!" Her cathartic shouting devolved into a shriek as she tipped over into a watery, muddy pit. She was supposed to avoid landing directly under the wall. As she dragged her self onto dry land, she heard something cheep in Seiryu's hand.
"One hour and twenty two minutes." Seiryu said with a shake of her head. "If you're going to kill yourself on this thing, at least have breakfast first." Cassandra gave her a weak thumbs up before pulling herself up onto shaking legs.
Night had cooled the earth and disguised half the course in black shadows. A grinning moon watched her run round and round like a rat in a maze. Around noon she'd managed to get around it in close to fifty minutes. Her body was rattled with pins a needles, like her muscles had been scrubbed with brillow pads.
An hour twenty-five.
An hour fourty-two.
Each go around her time kept getting worse. Bruises darkened her skin as she stumbled into obstacles she'd previously danced around. Her eyes drooped shut at the worst possible moments. On the rollers, she slipped, and the wind knocked out of her chest as she landed on the dirt. The cool grass soothed her aching bones and fatigue threatened to weigh her down into sleep there in the dirt.
"Oi, stupid." She opened her eyes. White Star was leaning over her, a halo of moonlight trapped in his silver hair. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to beat those vultures." Her voice was hoarse and flat. For a second, she couldn't remember when she drank water today.
"That's what I heard." He offered her a hand. She stared at it, her hands refusing to move another inch. Feeling quite pitiful, she avoided looking at him when he bent down and pulled her up by her arms. "You're not going to do that over night."
"Yes I am." The very thought of standing now a far greater task than anything she'd done before. "...A little help." He rolled his eyes and got her onto her feet.
"How bad is it back home that you'd do this?" He asked. She was steady on her feet again, but slow. Like a long trudge to a shallow grave. "You seem like a nice, normal girl. That's not usually the crowd we attract." She'd been getting a lot of looks of pity from trainees and elder alike today. When she looked up at the sky, she saw hundreds of dying stars. Their light destined to linger long after they'd passed.
"To me, your family has been very kind. That's not the crowd I tend to attract either." She said. "There are some things in life you can't change, but being here..." All over the world her fellow witches were being hunted down for weapons. The witch queen Iroha abandoned her post and gave her magic to Lord Death. Standing beside White Star, the vision of his inevitable death was haunting, and no amount of kind words had made it waver. They were destined to part far too soon. "This is the one thing I have control over and I'm going to make the most of it." As she got to the steps of the house, she wobbled. "And when I conquer that thing, I expect an apology." She huffed, leaning on the wall for good measure. "And some roses too. You've been quite prickly about this whole arrangement like it was my idea." She stuck out her tongue, but her merely raised a brow. As far as he was concerned, none of the girls here were actually his fiancé. "You can be quite stubborn, you know that?"
She slide the rice paper door shut as roughly as possible. White Star left, that nagging suspicion something wasn't right had only grown. Her motivations were so earnest and pure and quite frankly misguided. The other assassins he could understand why they craved the protection the Star Clan had to offer. No doubt, once he rejected them, they'd try to charm a lower ranking member of the family instead. As much as he disagreed with his grandfather, this had been the way things always were done. It was just one of the traditions he'd hoped to get rid of as head of the family.
He could feel a presence lingering in his room. Only one of the girls was asleep in the guest room when he walked Cassandra back to it.. He cloaked himself in the shadows and quietly moved one of the heavy runner tables from the hall in front of his door. There were plenty of other places for him to sleep that wouldn't have a nasty surprise waiting for him.