The Ice Queen

Faith & Trust

Neytiri

Can time truly change someone like Cassian? As I look around, I can see that time truly does change things. It changed the world as I knew it to something completely different. Cassian no longer has a castle. He lives on an estate that looks drastically different from the ones that I saw over the span of my life. It's foreign like everything else around here. Although the architecture is foreign to me, in some ways, it's beautiful; clean. It is much less ominous and than the dark castles I once resided in with the blood king.

I look back to where Cassian's desk is, and the lights that surround it. That's what he called them. Lights. There are no torches, no horses, and no guards at every door. But there are glass containers that hold something called electricity in them. It's overwhelming and strange all of the new words associated with objects. I don't understand any of it.

Time has changed the world around me drastically, but has it changed Cassian in the same way? I turn away from his desk taking in the view beyond the large windows. The sun has set, allowing me a beautiful view of the buildings in the village. The lights are beginning to come on in each home, proof of what Cassian has done. And with Cassian finally leaving me alone to look, I finally feel comfort for the first time since I awoke.

A light knock sounds on Cassian's door before it opens and Caius steps into the room. His expression is cautious as he takes me in. I saw him only hours ago and attacked him calling him a traitor. I still feel slight animosity toward him as he approaches and he notices, his footsteps faltering.

"Cassian asked that I take you to-"

"So you serve Cassian now?" I snap. Hurt flashes across his features as he watches me.

"You know what he did to me. You know what he did to my people, why would you allow him to take them and put them under his thumb like this?" I ask looking back to the window. Caius releases a breath, his footsteps coming near me. He walks past me looking at the village as well before answering.

"My loyalty will always lie with you. But you and Cassian are married; bound by a blood oath. I serve both of you. I only began to work by his side when he approached me with the idea for this place and you. I only serve him as a connection to your people. That is all."

Cassian seems to have changed drastically. I have to constantly remind myself that it has been centuries since our battle. But it's taking a while for my head to completely trust him. I trusted him more than once long ago and he betrayed me without batting a lash. I can't make that mistake again. But looking at the village in the distance and listening to Caius now, Cassian is the one I need to thank for my people's survival.

"You trust him? You don't think this is some elaborate trick to harm us again?" I ask.

Caius betrayed Cassian for me once. He fought by my side against Cassian to preserve my people and save me. Not only that, but Caius was the one that let me escape all those years ago when they came to slaughter my people. He never does anything unless he truly supports it.

"In some ways, he's truly changed. All he wants is what's best for us. And he works day in and day out to protect what's left of us. I've seen it. He's finally become the leader we all knew he would be... you know, before..."

I don't have to say it aloud. We both know why Cassian became the being he was. It makes me sad to think of what could have been. How all the war and bloodshed could have been avoided. Two tribes could have been united and the world would have never fallen into the hands of humans. Now that all of my memories have returned, I understand things I never would have known.

Cassian and I were betrothed. That was the reason my brothers began this war and attacked the Dragonborn when they weren't expecting it. The Dragonborn were showing the Ikniri the consequences of violating the treaty; that they were in charge and not even the Chief could avoid their rule. My father's punishment was having his daughter taken and raised in the lands of the Dragonborn. While it would have united our kingdoms, it was still a public way of humiliating my father for his insolence.