400. Of kidnappings, choices and a little bit of desperation

Cassandra Pendragon

"Gabriel," I hissed. My voice made the air ripple like water in a pond despite my best efforts to keep my powers in check. "You've gone too far." Return the trident to me she had said. Unfortunately a part of the weapon was now stuck in my sister. An accident? A coincident? Unlikely. "If you've turned her into a pawn your life will end today," I whispered, the words soaring into the sky and towards the distance on invisible wings. Caressingly I brushed a stray strand of her ebony tresses from Reia's cheek, her head following my movement as if she was trying to hold on to the comforting warmth for as long as possible. My heart ached as I focused on her closed eyes, her pale complexion and the lingering cold of her skin. "She's mine," I added.

"That entirely depends on how much you've grown and what you've learned, my dear," a languid, cold voice flowed through the swaths of ozone around me, freezing the very air with every syllable. "It's dangerous to threaten one's elders. Who'd have thought that the mighty Cassandra Pendragon, the dreaded devourer of immortals could be tamed with a few simple words? Ex abysso lux, appare." Oh, fuck.

I reeled, my wings fanned out, desperately latching onto anything I could touch, my thoughts sped up and a tinge of grey clouded my vision but ultimately it was still in vain. Darkness gripped me, the mouth of an endless, black tunnel opened underneath my feet and shackles of an eternal will propelled me forward, the edges of reality blurring like a dream on the morrow. In that fractured moment, somewhere between the past and the future, I stilled, the weight, the unfettered strength of who I was reared its head and my outline flickered, the form of a towering fox pulsing through the flimsy confines of my body.

Right then and there I could have let go of the reins, I could have answered the call with the inexorable power I felt surging in my veins. I could have tried to resist, to break the transcendent binds that reached for me and, as much as it shamed me to admit it, I would have. The fear of damaging Amazeroth's wards, of turning myself into a beacon my siblings could follow, wasn't there, or maybe it was but I simply didn't care. If the soft touch of Reia's tails against my skin, her reassuring weight in my arms, had wavered even for a moment, I would have torn through every obstacle in my way until I'd have held her again, until I'd have been sure that she was safe. But I didn't. While the contours of the ship, the sun and the deep blue sky waned away her presence remained real, tangible, an anchor to cling on to, and together we fell through the darkness and the cold towards my waiting sister.

I gasped when the summoning spewed us back out, the sound swallowed by the icy, bone chilling, pitch black water around us. The last bit of air left me in a glowing bubble and I felt the pressure of an entire ocean thunder against me, filled with a ravenous intent to grind me into stardust and memories. But the sea wasn't what I was afraid of. Without a thought I marshalled my wings into a protective bubble around us, my energy surged and with a lightning strike that illumined the desolate depths I blew away the suffocating force. A first, timid breath slipped through my throat, accompanied by the frozen, almost liquid stench of rot and decay.

"Please," I whispered as I pulled Reia closer, my ears quivering. The girl was soaked to the bone but she was still alive. Rigid and pale and cold but alive. Reflexively my mind reached out to Ahri, longing, pining for her warmth to help me battle the darkness, but as soon as my magic stirred the ocean floor lit up with silvery blue flames as the outlines of a hidden, intricately cast, silver pentagram flared to life. Fire and sparks, silvery blue swaths of unshackled power and an echo of eternity danced around me like an infinite swarm of magnificent fireflies before my power was repelled by my own strength, thundering against my mind like a battering ram.

With a suppressed curse I fell to my knees, silvery blood pouring from my eyes, my ears, my nose, enfolding Reia like a scintillating blanket of silver. Damn it, the time to fight had passed. I had allowed the trap to close around me and now I was stuck, imprisoned by my own strength. I couldn't even call for help, nobody knew where we were and my connection to Viyara wouldn't fare any better than my transcendent link to Ahri. Had I just killed us both? Had I just allowed my fear of what might happen to destroy our lives? Oh gods…

"You didn't," the same, bone wrenchingly cold voice resounded from the darkness, just beyond the flaming lines that kept me prisoner. A gust of warmth, almost like the first touch of spring, swirled through the endless night and my surroundings became clear as the oppressive, impenetrable walls of water on the other side were swept away like mist under a burning sun. "But it's not over," Gabriel continued as I struggled to my feet and wiped away the silvery streaks that obscured my vision. "You owe me a life and a death, Cassandra, and I'm here to collect."

The vast, almost grey expanse of nothingness around us was only broken by a looming mountain, its flanks reflecting the dancing flames in silver and blue. From the dead seabed, devoid of light and life, it rose like a towering giant from ages past but I still recognised the crack that'd lead ever deeper into its bowels, ever closer to the half forgotten cave where I had lost my courage and Gabriel her innocence. Like a gaping maw the passage beckoned, a pitch black hole amongst the crevices of frozen magic and burning ice.

I swallowed dryly, my stomach felt like a smouldering lump of lead and my eyes wandered across the grey, silent fields of sand towards the deceptively small figure on the other side of the formation. There she stood, the only spark of life in this wretched domain. Without a doubt I knew that we weren't on Gaya anymore, the absence of even seaweeds or faded bones more than enough to convince me that we didn't abide in the fields of the living anymore.

"Where are we," I asked, my voice taunt and shaky. I was scared. For the first time in weeks I was truly scared. Not for me, I had known for a while now that my life would end like this. If not here then in some other godforsaken place far away from the light. But Reia… she couldn't die here, she wouldn't die here. And it was up to me to make sure. I simply didn't know if I had it in me.

"My prison, the sealed, seventh realm," she answered, her pale, luscious lips drawn into a cruel smile. "The very place where I suffered for years, for millennia, for aeons. Miserable, isn't it? I thought you should see… and your seals might yet come in handy." An icy cold fire ignited in her mesmerisingly blue eyes while the rest of her youthful, agonisingly beautiful face froze into a dead, unmoving mask. She exhaled an azure shower of frozen sparks which wreathed itself around her bare, breathtaking figure like a chiton. Her power surged and her arctic blue hair rose and flowed around her as if we were still under water. If it weren't for the smouldering flames of eternity in her eyes she'd have looked like a young princess of the seas, a perfect, merciful angel of the ocean, there to rescue the wayward souls from the depths.

She raised her arms, a small frown marred her perfect, bluish skin and with the sound of breaking bones and tearing flesh her wings appeared. Skeletal, broken, ugly things bursted from her back, decaying strips of skin sadly dangling from the claw like limbs. The scent of rot became almost unbearable and I inadvertently took a step back, my tails pressing Reia against my middle as if she was my newborn.

"What's that," she purred, her words like shards of glass in my ears, "fear? Do you actually fear your little sister?" I shook my head hesitantly and whispered:

"I fear for her. For both of them. Gabriel, what have you done?" She closed her eyes and tilted her head, a faint blush rising to her cheeks. 

"Is that really the first thing you want to say to me?" No, there was so much more but it didn't matter. I couldn't change what I had done… I wouldn't change what I had done, but:

"I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry. I let you down. Whatever my reasons I failed you." She jerked.

"You just bought yourself a few minutes. And an explanation. As for your apology… I'll accept it once this is all over. If I still can," she sighed and opened her eyes again, the flames within were still there but much less… hungry, "and if you still want me to. I meant what I said. You owe me a life and a death. Her," she pointed her faintly glowing hand at Reia, "life and my death. It'll be up to you to decide how much of either, if you have the strength to free yourself. Save your breath. This isn't revenge, it's a debt you owe and I won't change my mind." She fell silent, answering the rising hum from my wings and the cresting glow in my eyes with indifference. I wasn't rallying my powers to strike at her, the circle would keep her safe and make me suffer if I tried, but the heat, the song of eternity always brought anger, anger and clarity.

The crackling behind me was the only noise in the oppressive emptiness and when I spoke my voice was steady. Steady and cold. As cold as ice. As cold as hers. "Neither will I. If you make me choose you will die. Is that what you want? Force me to honour my word?" A low chuckle, tainted with the shadow of insanity escaped her.

"No, Cassandra. I don't want to be erased. I want to live and I want you to raise and protect me. That's the life you owe. And the death… well, if you do nothing it will be your sister's. Or do you believe she'll keep a spark of who she is alive, when the entire life of an immortal is going to drown her? How old is she? Twelve? Fourteen? It took me that many centuries to find the strength to open my eyes after what you did to… after what we did. She'll vanish like a candle in the ocean." The flaming walls around me roared defiantly, the surge of power in my heart strong enough to trigger a reaction as my tails suddenly grew, the soft fur turning into even softer scales. From one second to the next Reia was entirely covered, protected from my sister's crazy glare.

"Your weapon," I murmured, "you marked her. You want her to carry your core?"

"No… I'll make her my vessel unless you manage to burn me into oblivion before the change. If you can… her wish will be granted. But you'll have to escape first. I don't think you have it in you."

"You've always underestimated me, even though you could never beat me. How long will you give me?" She shrugged.

"Ive already said you've earned yourself an explanation. Once we're done this body will die. You know the rules. Seven seconds for my core to form, seven seconds for the voyage, seven seconds to merge. You'll have 15 seconds at the most before your little sister will turn into… well, your other little sister."

"Why do you even give me a chance to succeed," I asked and the fires of insanity in her eyes returned with full force.

"Because I'm still hurting," she hissed. "Have you any idea what we have done? This soul has crumbled, it has seeped through the cracks and poisoned me. If I have to go on like this I'll burn the whole cosmos. What little sense I've left is screaming at me to end it, but on the other hand…" she chuckled. Coldly. Cruelly. "It's not that loud of a voice. Poor little thing. That's why I'm not going to break the circle."

"Then you won't get to her," I replied evenly and tightened my hold on Reia.

"Do you really believe that? You're mine, Cassandra, mine. I can borrow your magic and there's nothing you can do to stop me." Her slender fingers moved in a beckoning gesture, the circle came to life again with a furious howl and Reia's weight vanished from my embrace. 

"No," I hollered, as I dropped to all fours, soft, silvery paws scraping across the sandy ground. Without sparing a single thought for the futility of my actions I charged forward, shrouded in a screaming cloak of silver blue flames. Faster than light I moved, the sand instantly turned into glass before it was blown to pieces. The very atoms in the air shuddered and split, hot, white explosions erupted along my feline body, the world vanished behind a curtain of ravaged elements and then I crashed into the circle. 

When I came to I felt a distant ache in my back, the translucent walls of the formation singeing my skin. I laid naked at the bottom of a perfect sphere, thrumming with my own power. Everything within the circle had simply been annihilated. There was nothing left. Not even dust. "Ouch," I rasped, more out of reflex than anything else. My voice sounded strange in my own ears, deeper, fuller… older. "Can't say I'm surprised." A soft, genuinely amused chuckle reached me and I blearily looked up towards the edge of the crater where a stunningly beautiful girl held a sleeping vixen by the scruff of her neck while a speck of violent, silver light danced around her other hand. 

"You actually created an anomaly that would have devoured this entire galaxy out of spite? Oh boy, and I thought I was the crazy one." With a lazy flick of her hand she sent the ravenous mote towards my prison where it immediately dispersed. With a suppressed yelp I rose a few metres into the air as a surge of energy thundered through the spell structure.

"You can't break my circle," Gabriel continued. "Why do you think your brother's people were cursed? I used the essence of your tribe, your people, your blood, of the very children you love to forge your chains. Unless you've learned how to escape a summoning spell you're mine." She shook Reia gently. "And soon she will be, too." Her last words had been soft, filled with longing, but I didn't hear her anymore. 

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. In the burned out bubble of mutilated nothingness I had reached for the one thing that hadn't shattered, yet. Time. With a bloodcurdling wail like an entire planet dying the passage of time ground to a halt, the pressure of creation slowly mounting against my wings. Cracks immediately tore through the small realm we were in, the fragile construct much more flimsy than Gaya's adamant walls. Time… as ludicrous, as paradoxical as it was I didn't have much of it. I could only pray that it'd turn out to be enough. Enough to change, enough to evolve and escape my chains. Enough to strangle my sister with her own insanity and protect the little bundle of flesh that I couldn't live without anymore. 

"Mine," I echoed in the frozen moment and closed my eyes, my senses directed inwards. There wasn't much for me to find, the connection to the outside had been locked by magic and the blocked up time stream, but I still had my memories. My memories, Amazeroth's book, my cube, the diadem Gabriel had sent me and the damned ring on my finger. Don't ask me why, maybe I had remembered something without realising, maybe it was just my intuition, but somehow I had become convinced that I'd only have to remember, that I'd only have to grasp what the gods damned ring was for and my eighth tail would sprout. That would change me, that would allow me to escape. And then… Ahri thought I might have been able to challenge one of our siblings. I'd know soon enough. Three beings had entered this realm, but only two would leave again.

With a thought I reached for my stamp before three shimmering objects materialised in front of me, the only specks of colour in a greyed out world. "Brothers," I mumbled, "let's hope you're as clever as you've made yourselves out to be. This is it. I've seen your miracles before and now, please, grant me another one. Allow me to grow when it isn't already too late. Just this once."