Hello, everyone, I hope all is good and well with you so far.
First things first, some review answers!
Well, it appears that my reviews are getting some spam. I am usually not one to do these sorts of things, but please for the safety of everyone else, report these appropriately. I have fallen for these in the past (yes, im dumb dumb) so I know from experience.
Now that the reviews with questions have been answered, enjoy the reading my dear... well, readers!
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Monsters, Gods with Arcanum etc. talking"
Premise:
The promised day is here and Kaida departs for Melen along with a few other members of the Familia. Meanwhile, Orario is in a tumult over an incident...
Standing before the gates, for the first time since she arrived in this world, Kaida felt nervous. Anxious even. A year had passed and, as predicted, Ishtar had sent a letter demanding Kali's assistance in toppling Freya, the first part being to meet up in Melen with her best and brightest. This means that Ishtar was preparing her own to go to Melen, where they will inevitably clash with Loki and her executives due to them investigating potential other entrances into the dungeon.
However, Kaida wasn't nervous about the departure. No. Having spent over a year here in Telskyura, it inevitably grew on her and she found a certain fondness and homey love for the city and its people. No, the nervosity was from having to inform Kali of the deal they made. 1 Year of service before she leaves. However, now that she was going to address this, Kaida had to admit she wasn't completely sure if Kali would honor the agreement.
She pushed the gates open and stepped into the large throne hall, her eyes directly aimed at the Goddess of Destruction, eyeing her small form for any signs of tension or irritation. "Kali, we need to talk"
"ouh, 'We need to talk'! So ominous!" She mused with a humored tone of voice before clapping her hands twice, causing the guards within the hall to disperse and leave, giving the two women privacy.
"So..." Kali started before sitting upright and leaning forward. "You came to unlock your Falna for transfers, am I right?"
Kaida gulped, then slowly nodded her head before stepping forward a bit closer. "Like we agreed, I remained in service to you for the entire year. I strengthened your nation, helped it prosper, I enabled your captain and vice captain to level up. I have more than done my part, and now I want you to do yours."
Kali narrowed her own eyes slightly as she listened to Kaida speaking, a tense seriosity beginning to emenate from the small goddess. "And there is nothing I can do to convince you to stay? Or at least to keep my falna?"
Kaida slowly shook her head in order to give her answer. "Unless you intend to come to Orario with me, no. I will need to unlock the Falna in order to join a Familia that resides there. It is in the interest of my goals..." she began, though she remembered what that Great God said about her fate in this world. "And possibly find a way to flee my fate"
Kali suddenly rose her eyebrow up in curiosity. "Flee your fate? Explain it to me"
Kaida gulped again. This was what she would do, she made up her mind. Kali was many things, but she was surprisingly trustworthy with secrets, as it turned out. She detests gossiping and trashtalking behind someone's back, she prefers to be rude to their faces and to have an open confrontation, as such she doesn't abuse secrets or shares them to anyone. "Over the year I spent here, I made numerous friends, but no one turned out to be as trustworthy and admirable as you, Kali. I am happy to call you friend, but that trust is something I am going to have to ask of you all over again for what I am about to tell you"
Kali merely raised her eyebrows in curiosity and leaned forward while Kaida's mouth opened...
"To think..."
Kali was being contemplative after she had been told everything. It was... a lot to take in, for sure, but it wasn't the craziest thing she had known in her infinite life as a Deusdea. "Well, that does sound like the Great Makers, I reckon" she responded with before breaking into a lengthy burst of laughter.
"Wait..." Kaida then said, gulping slightly while looking at the goddess with a nervous expression. "You're not even remotely questioning me?"
"Why would I?" Kali spoke before laughing for a quick moment once again, then hopped off her throne and closed the gap between herself and Kaida, tapping the tall woman's shoulder. "Not only did you never once lie as you spoke, but the look in your eyes showed that you weren't merely believing what you said, but experienced it. Well all that and, as I said, it sounds like something they would do. The Great Makers have even worse boredom than we Deusdea do, and that says a lot."
Kaida chuckled lightly before letting loose a sigh. "Damn, and here I thought I'd have to fight for your belief. You truly are my one friend."
"Hehe" Kali chuckled as well before she and Kaida exchanged a high five, and with that, their conversation came to a rather positive, wholesome end.
A few hours later, a large crowd had gathered at the entrance of the Capital City's southern gate. The crowd was made out of the citizens, ranging across every age range and race, as all of them were there to bid farewell to their main force for the next couple weeks up to a month.
Why? Well, the Capital City was not coastal, which meant they had to travel to the closest city with a harbor which was to the south, and from there take a ship to Melen.
As for why the crowd had gathered? Typically, Telskyura as a whole was not very united as far as its individual citizens go, but that did change a year ago when Kaida came. She made many reforms, the most noteworthy and first of them being the education and training of newer generations, which had a positive yet still cataclysmic range of side effects, such as parents being more positive and appreciative, a sense of unity being impaired into the new youth, and from it new inspiration for growth was awakened within the combat-abled populace of the city.
In short, bit by bit, everyone began to believe in the reform and benefited from it largely, if not exclusively with positive experiences. Sparring fatalities sunk to almost null, though accidents still occur, they are not nearly as frequent or severe as before. This leads to higher morale and willingness to train, which then leads to greater growth and better results.
The average stat growth per week almost doubled as a result, and the people were happy.
Once more, in short: Kaida's reform works. It works extremely well, and all the citizens had something to thank her for in return.
It also helps that Kaida forced the executives and high level members into community service under the guise of 'special training', which helped bring them into positive light with the common citizens.
All of this, applied repetitively over a year, culminated into Kaida being the single most beloved person in the entire nation, and her departure was grounds for tears however short it was, and Kaida's departure was planned to be permanent. The children would miss their 'Onee-san hero', the parents of said children would miss their great Guardian Angel, the elderly would miss their greatest community worker and voluntary aide, the army would miss their great captain and trainer. Even Kali herself was in tears, though she would rather kill before ever admitting to that publicly.
With a raised fist, Kaida turned around to face the crowd one last time. "LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH NO REGRETS AND LIVE IT LONG, YOU SORRY LOT!"
""WE WILL!"" Damn near everyone responded in unison to her words, words she had used time and again towards people she either saved, trained or helped out. It was her primary motto, 'A long life with no regrets', born from her desire to live it well and with joy.
Many tears were shed that day...
The trek towards the harbor city took them almost 2 days, and when they arrived, a second crowd was there which received the news of 'The Great Kaida' departing from Telskyura. Needless to say, the whole thing about the departure was repeated and Kaida had to give a second farewell, this time atop a ship.
"SET SAIL!"
With the command given, the anchors were lifted, the sails were lowered to pick up the wind and the ship they boarded began to leave the harbor and sail out into the open sea, its destination being Melen...
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Since that night a few months ago, Cassandra slept extremely poorly. Again and again, the memory of 'The Dragoness' staring back at her within her vision, daring her to gaze into the future again, terrified her to no end. It was the most traumatized she's ever felt, and the terror seemed to follow her wherever she went.
It did not help that her familia, that is to say the Apollo Familia, had reacted with great hostility towards her screaming half the mansion awake every night, which lead to Apollo eventually putting her inside one of the soundproofed rooms meant for interrogation so she would stop giving the others a scare with her screams.
But all that did was show Cassandra that she was alone in her terror, and the psychological damage she took from it was not without consequences. The next to nonexistent sleep lead to her being extremely easy to frighten, constantly jumpy and wary, underrested and suffering from split-second-sleep damn near every few minutes. Her mental and physical health were at such a decline that she could not even perform her medicinal duties as the Familia's healer, which only got her into a worse light with the familia members, so much so that one of the other female members physically assaulted her...
All of this culminated into one catastrophic event that caused Apollo Familia to suffer tremendously during the wargame with Hestia Familia.
The event was known as 'The Harrowing'.
What this event was, and why it is relevant enough to mention?
Cassandra snapped.
It was best described with that simple choice of words.
She completely and utterly snapped and went onto a maddening rampage, a complete psychological break that had been built up over months of abuse, solitude, isolatory confinement, hostile environment, lack of any support even from her supposed best friend Daphne, and probably worst of all, a constant reminder of the source of it all... 'The Dragoness'.
Cassandra assaulted the Apollo Familia by herself hours before the confrontation and left the Familia in an extremely sorry state. Most of its members were incapacitated by the maddened magician and healer, which was completely unexpected and served as a terrifying wake-up call to them about the error of neglecting her.
This resulted in Hestia Familia winning with half their plan going up in poor smoke.
After this event, Cassandra fled the scene. She had been sighted within Orario now and then, but any attempt at apprehending her had been a complete failure. All reports however had one thing in common.
They reported that Cassandra mumbled something about 'The great Dragoness'.
Most people simply wrote her off as having gone completely mad, or worse, having been brainwashed by some malicious third party.
The one and only exception to this was Daphne Lauros. She had come to a realization. A realization which lead her to figuring out a few things. Such as that she may have really been foreseeing things, because no mere dream would ever affect her sanity this severely. Daphne knew Cassandra enough that she wouldn't be traumatized by a simple fantasy or figment of imagination. Something serious, something REAL was connected to it. And she was going to find out what it was.
Days were spent chasing down any leads on Cassandra, until finally, Daphne caught up to her friend and cornered her.
"TELL ME!" Daphne roared as she stood before the dishelved, chaotic-looking Cassandra, who's hair was completely messy and seemingly going into all directions, her clothes dirty and torn in multiple spots. "WERE ALL YOUR DREAMS TRULY VISIONS!?" She roared, her voice echoing across the walls of their location, which was the sewers within Daedalus District. "WAS I WRONG ALL THIS TIME!?"
Cassandra for her part, however... she felt life return to her for the first time since the incident. "You... are just saying that to soothe me..." she began, taking a step back, hands on her staff and ready to fire off an offensive spell at any moment. "You were one of my greatest doubters... it was you who suggested I be moved to a soundproofed room..."
"And I am sorry for that, I will regret this decision for the rest of my life! Just please, answer me!"
Cassandra's eyes regained a tiny glimmer of sanity within them and she slowly let loose a sob and a hic. "You... are serious?"
Daphne threw her rapier aside and took a careful step forward, testing the grounds. Cassandra didn't retreat and even lowered her staff slightly. "I should have believed you from the start... if only I had known..."
"YOU KNEW THIS ENTIRE TIME!" Cassandra suddenly snapped, shouting at the top of her lungs. "I KEPT TELLING YOU, AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN! BUT WHAT DID YOU TELL ME EVERY SINGLE TIME?"
Daphne gulped, the guilt soaring to the highest that it could at the hearing of these damning words.
"You told me to 'snap out of it' and to 'stop bothering everyone with my silly dreams'." She continued, a suspiciously calm tone, almost as if defeated.
"And it was the single biggest mistake I ever made... I should have listened to you. Instead, I damned you to months of suffering! Please, Cassandra, you're my friend. Let me help you-"
"YOU CAN'T HELP ME ANYMORE!" Cassandra shouted before suddenly sobbing again. "No one can... we are doomed..."
"Then..." Daphne spoke, slowly closing in on Cassandra. "Tell me... what is dooming us?"
Cassandra slowly fell to her knees, her arms losing whatever little strength they had and she let go of her staff. In that moment, Daphne seized the moment and embraced her in a hug, her right arm slinging around the frail looking girl's upper body before connecting a syringe with Cassandra's neck, the needle perfectly aimed at her carotid artery, injecting the poor girl with a sleeping agent to knock her out.
"I'm sorry, Cassandra... I failed you"
Cassandra let out a lengthy breath as she feels her eyes become heavy for the first time in many months. But still, she had to let loose some words before she succumbs to the sleeping agent. "Daphne... Watch out... for the Dragoness... she will kill this city... if we wrong her..."
With those words, Cassandra's eyes closed fully and she was knocked out.
Daphne meanwhile could only let those words sink into her fully. With the realization that Cassandra might have actually been foreseeing the future in her dreams, her words were not good news in the slightest.
"If what you said is true..." Daphne spoke to the knocked out Cassandra as she hoisted the girl over her shoulder so she can carry her away from this place. "...Then we have to prepare for the worst... this time, I won't leave you, Cassandra..."
Cassandra and Daphne will be having a bigger role as you may be realizing now. They are, in my opinion, woefully underused characters and I intend on giving them their due spotlight, which is why they are having this build up.
Leave a Review to your thoughts about this, as this is a fairly recent idea of mine so I want to know what everyone else thinks about it.
Cheers!