Cassandra

XVII. In the Company Of Idiots

    The door to the study was still partially ajar when I came back. All the surrounding hallways were completely deserted, and as far as I could tell, there had been no reaction to the Professor's death. Either nobody knew that he had died, or nobody cared.
    It was the strangest sensation, knowing that my brother was waiting for me, just on the other side of that door. My clothes felt strange too, more loose than usual, easier to move in than a dress. The soft leather boots made almost no sound, and I found myself treading lightly on cat feet, even though there was no one to hear me. But wearing Mother's armor was stranger than everything else. The aged leather fitted me almost perfectly, conforming to my movements like a well worn glove, but it didn't feel like mine. It belonged to Mother, and it smelled too much like her. Pausing outside the study door, I realized that Percy had never seen me in battle attire before, and I vaguely wondered what he would think of me.
    Brushing the thought aside, I silently pushed through the narrow crack in the study door, so quiet that nobody noticed my entrance. Everyone had come back to the study. Vex's bear was curled up on the rug before the fire, his giant furry head resting on both his broad front paws, and she was leaning against him, organizing the arrows in her quiver so that everything was in easy reach. The other two half elves, Vax and the redhead, were sitting awkwardly as far away from each other as possible. Pacing up and down, impatiently, was the broad shouldered half giant, balancing his heavy weighted warhammer in one hand. The tiny gnome man was sitting in front of the writing desk with Percy, but I hardly noticed him, my eyes were so magnetically drawn to my brother.
    "Percy," the half giant said, spinning the hammer in his grip, "can we get into the underground caverns from 'ere?"
    "I can take you." Everyone jumped when I spoke, turning to look at me, and Percy's face darkened with annoyance. It seemed that pride was still stinging from our last disagreement.
    "She's going to take us." Percy said.
    "Is that your sister?" The gnome asked.
    "Apparently." Percy returned shortly, cutting off the word sharp severity.
    "So?" I said questioningly, my fingers instinctively running over the hilt of Traitor as I spoke, feeling the comforting leather under my fingertips. "Are we ready?"
    "Lemme see your neck." The half giant said suddenly, looking at me suspiciously. I frowned, but I could see no reason to disobey and I stepped forward, tilting up my chin. I had to crane my neck to look up into the face that towered over me, the man was so much taller than I was. Even if I had stood on my tiptoes I would hardly have reached the top of his shoulder.
    He was completely bare chested, his gray skinned muscles exposed, and across the expanse of his chest ran a milky white scar like a twisted bolt of lightning. Black jagged tattoos covered his head, which was completely bald, and more tattoos were printed across his shoulders. His only facial hair was a thick coarse black beard, as wiry as a scrubbing brush. This mountain of a man before me, almost completely naked but for a kilt of animal hides strapped around his waist, was so much large than me, he probably could have lifted my entire body with one arm. As he stepped up to look at me, I clenched my jaw, feeling a tinge of fear mingled with dislike run down my spine. I knew nothing about him, but he felt aggressive.
    Towering over me, the half giant looked me up and down suspiciously, chewing on his lip in his concentration. What ever he was looking for, he wasn't looking very well. His movements were clumsy as he tried to examine me, like a man who had never seen blood before and was suddenly forced to become a doctor.
    "By the way this is Grog." The tiny man said, leaving his position by the writing desk and speaking to me. If I was small compared to this Grog, then the gnome was ludicrously tiny, and I couldn't help but smile at the ridiculous contrast between the two. I had never seen anyone as tiny before, and not only was he smaller than anyone I'd ever seen, I had never met anyone dressed as gaudily as he was. His hair was pulled back into a curly ponytail with a piece of bright red ribbon, his clothes were all fine silks, a bright array of pink, purple, and gold embroidery, with the shirt spread so that his chest was bare, proudly displaying a light dusting of chest hair. Over one shoulder was a brightly colored strap from which hung a finely crafted lute, and around his waist a red sash in which was tucked his shawm.
    "Oh yes," Percy suddenly put in, "these are my friends by the way: Scanlan, Keyleth, Vax'ildan, his sister Vex'ahlia, and you've already met Grog."
    As he spoke my brother gestured around at the people to whom the names belonged. Keyleth, the red haired woman, waved awkwardly when her name was mentioned, and the tiny gnome Scanlan swept a deep theatrical bow.   
    "Alright Scanlan, take it easy..." Vex'alia said, putting a restraining hand on Scanlan's shoulder, as he came out of the bow. He paid her almost no attention, and as he turned away he shot me a wink.
    "Let's do this shall we?" Vex hinted to my brother.
    "Lead the way sister." Percy said, gesturing toward the door, and the other members of the band stood up, ready to follow my lead. I quietly slipped back out into the hallway, all six of them trailing after me, and with the same light footed care I traced my footsteps back toward the front of the castle. Our little band stretched out, Percy lingering close at my side, Keyleth alone behind him, Scanlan skipping jovially along between the twins, with Grog and the bear Trinket bringing up the rear.
    "Can we expect anymore traps, that you're aware of?" Vex asked.
    "That I'm aware of, no," I murmured cautiously, "but I'm certain that there will be. They know you're coming it seems, so be wary."
    "Hey Percival." Scanlan said, appearing at my brother's side and smiling up at him as he bounced along. "Any chance you could load up Ripley's gun for me?"
    "I don't know if that will work actually." Percy said doubtfully. "I'd probably have to train you how to use it."
    "Really? I've seen you use it, you just pull your finger on the finger part, and the big boom part goes out." Scanlan said brightly, pantomiming using the gun as he spoke.
    "It's a little more complicated than that actually!"
    "Well," the gnome replied, fairly arguing the disagreement, "you have to point it at the thing that you want to be boomed..."
    "I'll load it for you I suppose." Percy said, drawing Anna Ripley's four barreled pistol from his coat, and absentmindedly searching for bullets.
    Without waiting for the gun to be loaded, Scanlan eagerly seized the pistol, bouncing it in his hand. Then, with an awkward flick of the wrist, he spun the gun on one finger, and tried to tuck it into his red sash next to the shawm. He managed to pull the stunt off without dropping the gun, but a loud click echoed out over the hallway while he did it, as the empty gun went off in the gnome's hand. Percy flinched, and closed his eyes, as if praying for Pelor to grant him strength of forbearance.
    "Ok." Scanlan said, holding out his hand expectantly. "Now give me a bullet."
    "We're seriously going to give him a gun right now?" Vex said doubtfully.
    "I'm a big boy!" Scanlan retorted indignantly, adding defensively, "Well I'm actually a little boy...but I'm a little, big boy!"
    Taking back the gun from Scanlan, Percy began to load four bullets into the chambers. The tiny man watched every movement Percy made, his eyes shinning with anticipation. At last my brother passed the gun back, and Scanlan took it, brandishing the loaded weapon with a flourish.
    "If something goes horribly wrong--" Percy began, but before he could complete his sentence, the half elf Vax'ildan silently appeared behind Scanlan, and plucked the gun out of his hand. The half elf had moved so quietly that Scanlan hadn't noticed his approach, and as the darkly clad man whipped the gun away, he was so quick the gun almost seemed to disappear and reappear in the thief's hand.
    "No! Give that back!" Scanlan exclaimed petulantly, jumping up and down in a useless effort to reach the gun. "It's mine!" But the half elven man, deaf to his companions pleas, silently passed the gun to his sister. She emptied the gun of all the bullets, tucking the ammunition away, then passed it back to Scanlan, and ruffled to top of the tiny man's head. As Scanlan took back the empty gun, Vax returned to the front of the group, taking up a position at my side.
    "I was at the door." Vax said, speaking hesitantly, as if he was unsure how I would accept his words. "He had a knife to your throat...He wanted you to say something to us. What did he want you to say?"
    For a brief instant I paused, considering my words, but Anders was dead, and I had no reason to protect him or his memory any longer. "He wanted me to shout for help." I replied truthfully. "He wanted me to draw you in."
    "How?" My companion probed cautiously. "How did it come that he had a blade to your throat today? How did it all unravel? Have you been living here?"
    "Well, after the arrows felled me...I guess I should start at the beginning..." And with that short prelude I quietly retraced the whole tale, following the events all the way from that horrible night in the dark, Father Rynoll, the failure of the first rebellion, and the aid I offered Archibald in building up the second one. It was a short tale, and I felt very little emotion as I told it. Instead the sensations I felt were those of an efficient machine, carefully choosing my words, and considering everything I said. Mostly I kept to the truth, it was more believable that way. But I said nothing of the bond between me and my new family, and when I spoke of Archibald, I knew better than to admit that I had been writing him under Delilah's full knowledge and guidance.
    Even though it was a relatively short narrative, we had passed down the stairs, through the servant's wing, and reached the indoor entrance to the cellar by the time I had finished it. The others quietly listened to my story, and as quietly accepted it when I came to an end. Once again reaching out to feel the wall, I led the way down the cellar stairs. Faint light was filtering through the outer doors, and in the half light a well trodden line of footprints could bee seen through the dust on the floor, the work of many feet passing endlessly backwards and forwards.
    "Can we do one thing," Percy said quietly, his voice echoing slightly in the wide dusty silence of the cellar, and he put a hand across the head of the stairs that lead down into the de Rolo mausoleum, stopping me from continuing downwards. "Before we go down, I just...This is the best day of my life and...I can't help but be suspicious."
    His words though hesitant, did hurt, more than I thought they would. If he is suspicious, you certainly deserve it...only a fool wouldn't be...I reprimanded myself, but I still had to pull myself together to keep from showing that it hurt on my face, and squared my shoulders with a smile saying, "I completely understand."
    "Is there any way to check if she's being controlled?" Percy asked, turning to Keyleth. "A spell of Restoration seemed to work, do you have that?"
    "Didn't learn it." Keyleth said gloomily, winding a piece of red hair around one finger. "Not for today. I kind of thought Pike's magic would hold up..."
    At the mention of this new name everyone's face fell, and a shadow settled over the group. For a moment everyone seemed lost in thought, then Keyleth sighed and shrugged, casting a blank glance at the rest of the group.
    "I could try," Grog suddenly put in, his face screwed up with the effort of his concentration, as the rusty gears of his intelligence sluggishly turned, and he balled one hand into a fist. "And...Jog her memory..."
    "You mean punch her in the face?" Scanlan asked gleefully.
    "Well...Yeah..." The half giant replied sheepishly, and everyone else in the group but Scanlan rolled their eyes.
    "What can I do to make you trust me?" I asked.
    "I do trust you." Percy admitted, the declaration strangely gratifying. "That's the problem."
    "Whatever you need." I promised.
    "I've got nothing..." Percy said with a shrug. He seemed to have little hope, but clinging to a last shred of possibility, he turned to Vax. "What would happen if we put your helmet on her?"
    "If she's already controlled..." Keyleth said, her face doubtful.
    "It might disrupt it maybe..." Percy argued. "We could try it."
    "Well, I doesn't hurt to put a hat on." Admitted Keyleth with a shrug, meditatively biting the end of a long strand of carrot colored hair, before glancing down at what she was doing and throwing it away. Vax'ildan all this time had been sitting silent as Keyleth and Percy argued, and his stillness coupled with the darkness of the cellar made him extremely difficult to see. Both he and his sister were almost completely invisible against the shadows. At last he stirred, quietly pulling down the dark hood that covered his head, fully revealing his long black hair, as well as a curved piece of metal that shielded the back of his head. It glowed faintly in the near darkness, a soft blue tinge glimmering around the metal, and as he pulled it away from his head the glow faded.
    "I want to suggest something to you," the half elf murmured softly, looking down at the metal cap as he spoke. "That we rest here for a few minutes, and I give this to you. This came from a very strange creature. It will help you resist any control, if there is any control. And one of us, you could even choose, could strike you, and try to take you out of it. If you're not being controlled, then your being struck across the face, and I'm sorry for that. But if you are, there's a possibility we could pull you out, and I know that would hurt, but it would go a long way to earn our trust. Your choice."
    "If that's what it takes..." I said slowly, taking the metal construct from the half elf's grip, and examining it. The forging was very rough, little more than metal scraps that had been hammered together, with a string of runes that I felt under my fingertips, but couldn't read in the half light of the cellar, carved around the edge. "Shoddy craftsmanship..." I added, placing the metal against my head.
    Instead of falling off, the metal remained where I placed it, and I felt a patch of tingles rise on the back of my head where the helmet was placed. After several minutes of waiting for some affect, I didn't feel any different, and pulled it off with a shrug. "I don't feel any different."
    "What if the little one struck you?" Vax suggested, taking his helmet back, and swiftly replacing his shadowed hood.
    "Struck her?" Scanlan said, a little taken aback by the suggestion at first, but as soon as he had said it I could see his inclination warming to the idea.
    "Whatever you choose..." I said, glancing down at the tiny man sitting next to me, and the ridiculous contrast between our sizes, made me smile condescendingly.
    "Wait!" Percy said, his face suddenly lighting up, and he began to furiously rummage through his pockets. "I have a potion! This should solve all of our problems."
    "Or you could save that for when one of us becomes a vampire." Scanlan suggested. But Percy hardly noticed his words, something that I was coming to realize wasn't that uncommon where Scanlan was concerned. For a moment we all watched silently, as Percy continued to search for the answer he was looking for. Then at last with a triumphant flourish he pulled out a small vial of potion, the color and texture of which couldn't be distinguished in the darkness, and he hastily tugged the cork off with an impatient jerk.
    "If you are controlled, this could fix it." He said, holding out the uncorked potion to me. The undertone of hope was unmistakable in his voice, and without a moment of hesitation I seized the potion, drinking it in one long pull.
    It had a very sandy taste, like finely ground earth congealed in a thick oil, and it was difficult to swallow. As I drank it down, thick grainy substance coated my throat like honey, warm fire spreading through my body. Warmth bloomed in my fingertips, banishing the clinging chill that had sunk through them when my throat was slit. I waited for some change, but the potion, after burning through me, faded without any sign of a difference.
    "That was actually a minor healing potion." Percy declared with a grin after a moment's expectant silence. "I was just seeing if you drank it intentionally."
    "I thought I recognized that terrible earthy taste." I said, tossing the bottle back. Laughing, I shook my head affectionately. "You always were the clever one."
    "I figured it was worth a shot."
    "Am I supposed to punch her in the face now?" Scanlan asked, perking up hopefully.
    "No!" The rest of the group forcefully returned, and Scanlan wilted under the several discouraging looks cast in his direction.
    "Alright." Percy said resignedly. "Let's go down and take care of this..."
    "Well hang on," Keyleth interposed, "before we enter, it's safe to assume that they know we're coming, correct?"
    "Yeah." Vex'ahlia said with a shrug, and Percy nodded darkly.
    "Are the Briarwoods going to be down there?" Scanlan asked, turning to me.
    "They spend most of their time down here," I explained, "preparing for something..."
    "And have you ever been down here?" Vax suddenly asked out of the darkness, his form little more than a dark blur as he spoke.
    "I'm not allowed down here, by their orders." I said. "But I've snuck down a few times, out of curiosity. I've only gotten so far, before I had to return, but I've made it through the undercroft, most of the tunnels, and made it to the distillery. That's about as far as I've gotten."
    "Are there sentries?" Grog asked. "Can we expect to find traps? Lookouts?"
    "It's certainly a possibility, so move quietly and be careful."
    "What is Lady Briarwood?" Vex suddenly asked, breaking the silence that had fallen as we continued to move down into the mausoleum.
    "What is Lady Briarwood?" I paused in the stairwell, bringing our progress to a standstill for a moment as I considered my answer. "She's a wicked beast of a creature is what she is. I'd use less savory words, but my brother's here."
    "There's a first time for everything I suppose." Percy said wryly.
    "She's not like her husband, that I know, and as far as I can tell she's human. But she has a very powerful control over life and death." I shuddered, knowing the truth of my words. I had seen so many proofs of it. "She's a practitioner of the arcane most certainly, but her focus seems to be necromancy, on a wide scale. And while Delilah and Silas are man and wife, they speak of another..."
    "They speak of another?" Scanlan repeated.
    "Yeah," Vex said, "the guy they're trying to bring back."
    "Oh, this is the king that will rise again?"
    "They don't say any names." I said, shaking my head. "They refer to them as 'Him' or 'The Whispered One,' no reference beyond that..."
    "Oh, another question for Cassandra." Scanlan said, changing the subject yet again. "The duke, Negmire? Vegmire? Vegman???"
    "Vedmire, yes."
    "Have you seen him around the castle today?"
    "I think I've only seen him in the castle three times since I've been here..." I said with a shrug.
    "Because," Scanlan explained, turning to the half giant. "Grog, he's a half giant..."
    "Wha--What?" Grog said, caught off guard.
    "He's a big, big half giant..."
    "How'd you see him?"
    "Oh you know," Scanlan said modestly. "I was a dinosaur, and I burned down a house, and I killed a bunch of people--"
    "You fought him?!"
    "I wouldn't say 'I fought him.'" Scanlan said, still with a show of modesty that didn't fool anyone. "Because I sort of beat him really easily, and then I ran away..."
    "Oh, so you killed him..."
    "No, no, I just pushed him off a building...And then I thought that was enough for the day, so I went home."
    "It's a shame you're not as tall as your tales, small one." I said with raised eyebrows. To say that I was skeptical of his story would have been putting it lightly. I had met bards of his type before, and in every case, they all had tall tales that were probably not in the least true.
    "Well..." Scanlan said, with a slowly spreading grin. "Thank you--"
    "No." Percy suddenly cut in, speaking to Scanlan over one shoulder.
    "--I take that as a complement." The gnome continued suavely, as if Percy hadn't even spoken.
    "NO."
    "Oh don't worry." Scanlan said lightly, grinning at my brother.
    "I said no."
    At last we reached the bottom of the stairs, pausing in the entrance to the mausoleum. The whitestone tombs and small burial shrines were just as silently dignified as before, darkness lurking in the corners of the long wide chamber. Percy was holding a torch, while Grog lit the iron head of his hammer on fire again, and as the light cascaded outwards I could see that the tombs were not as undisturbed as they first appeared. Every single stone coffin had been broken into, their lids thrown aside, and every single one was empty. It was chillingly cold, and as I stood in the doorway I shivered. Something about this place felt wrong. It felt defiled.
    "Before we cross the precipice into this Undercroft." Scanlan said, stepping forward and looking into the room. "Percival, we all have fought with you this whole time. You know that we have your back, and that we're with you in this one hundred percent.
    "Yes."
    "But I'd like our enemies to know that as well. So with your permission, I'll cast Seeming on all of us, and make the girls look like Cassandra and the boys look like Percy..."
    Before my brother could have either agreed or protested, Scanlan laced his fingers together, and breathed into the gap between his palms. A blur, like a momentary blindness, obstructed my vision, and a puff of air stirred my clothes. When I opened my eyes and was able to see again, every single member of the group had been changed into an exact copy of me or my brother. The miniature battalion of de Rolos around me was the strangest sight I had ever seen.
    It was still, in a vague way, possible to tell which was which, Grog having been changed into the tallest most muscular copy of my brother I had ever seen, Vax'idan's image of my brother still melting uncannily into the shadows despite his changed appearance, and Scanlan was still far too short to imitate my brother, so the figure standing next to me was a stunted dwarf of my sibling. But far stranger than the copies of my brother, were the perfect images of myself. Not inverted like I would be in the mirror, but how I actually appeared to everybody else. It was extremely uncomfortable, and even though Vex was a little shorter than me and Keyleth a little taller, the resemblance was uncanny.
    "Curious..." I faltered.
    "But abrasive right?" A mirror image of myself said hopefully, but it was Keyleth's voice that came out of my mouth. "You're put off by it, so it works..."
    "Abrasiveness is his most powerful weapon." Percy said tiredly, looking around at the images of himself with look of hopeless resignation.
    "Which I'm beginning to see." I admitted.
    Whispering under her breath, the shorter copy of myself swirled her hands together, and a burst of black shadow exploded over the group. The shadows almost seemed to descend over everyone in the group, clinging persistently to the body, and the forms of both Vax and Vex became almost impossible to see in the darkness.
    "Vax?" The image of myself with Keyleth's voice said questioningly, going from one copy of my brother to another, looking for the right one.
    "Yeah," an extremely short version of my brother said, pooching out his lips as if asking for a kiss. "I'm Vax."
    "I just..." Keyleth said awkwardly, "I just wanted to say..."
    "Yes?" The tiny figure said, trying to imitate the half elf's deeper voice "Yes it's me Vax."
    "Kiki," another image of Percy said, melting out of the shadows, and tapping the woman on the shoulder. "I'm over here..."
    "No! No!" Scanlan said, still trying to imitate Vax. "What do you need?"
    "Goddammit Scanlan!" Keyleth said, suddenly noticing how short this version of Percy was. She shoved him away with a grimace, turning to Vax and murmuring awkwardly "Ummm, be careful..."
    "I will be." Vax promised gently, taking Keyleth's hand.
    "He will be" Vex'ahlia said, suddenly appearing behind her brother, and even though she looked like me, her threatening attitude was unmistakable.
    "Y--you know what," Keyleth said uncomfortably, Vex's rude appearance startling the two out of their romantic moment. "Lets just go."
    "Sister Vex..." Scanlan said, still trying to imitate the brother's voice, as the troupe moved into the solemn silence and darkness of the Undercroft. "Would you mind giving me that gun again?"
    "No you can't have it."
    "Why, because I'm three feet tall?"
    "Because I want it."
    "Wait." Vax said, interrupting their petty disagreement. Holding out his arms, motioning for everyone to stay back, the half elf stooped, and plucked something out of the powdered dirt scattered in front of the earthen tunnel that ran down to the acid pits and distillery. "What the fuck is this?"
It was a shard of the green Residuum glass, that looked almost black in the torchlight. After turning it over in his hand, Vax passed it to Scanlan, who also looked at it closely. Keyleth bent and retrieved another small shard from the ground, and when I looked down I could see that there were several scattered pieces in the dirt, no larger than pebbles.
    "No idea..." Scanlan said, shaking his head, and passing the shard of glass back to his half elf companion. "Sorry..."
    "Maybe it's a symptom of something." Keyleth murmured, examining the shard she had picked up very carefully, licking her finger and it against the glass. "Like when they melt the whitestone?"
    After a moment Keyleth tossed the glass shard away. Vax slithered through to the back of the group, moving back up the long hall, and melting into the darkness. I shivered, a chill running down my spine, and my breath puffed out cold in the frigid air. Why was it suddenly so cold? An undefinable sense of dread settled over me.
    "Look out!" My brother called, drawing his pistol in one fluid extremely practiced motion. And at the same moment Vax's voice shouted "We got company."