Cassandra's Journey

Chapter 1:

Traveling Home

Cassandra left Moorgate reluctantly. Her brother supported her in gold as she sojorned in Cosrin, but the taxes were, well... taxing, so she had to leave for a while so not to bankrupt her adopted brother. Since she herself is still a student of the land, her ability to obtain gold is limited. But she knew she will to visit Cosrin occasionally and sometime in the near future return to Moorgate to live again.

Still, it was a melancholy day that day she left. She made her way through the streets of Moorgate to the lockers. She slowly and dejectedly put all the items she had collected inside for safe keeping. Her conker (which she had no idea ever even existed before she lived in Moorgate) and a piece of charcoal. That silly old battered telescope that she found on the causeway that everyone said was of no use, but she loved to take to star point to peer at Jacob's star. Now that the observatory was built, there was no reason for the telescope, yet she kept it just the same. She is quite sentimental about such things. She took honey and tea out of the locker, for she knew she would need them. Traveling the causeway she could find oysters easy enough, but she tired of the nasty tasting slime quickly. Honey and tea would be perfect for the journey. She also took her two bottles of Bliss that Arabelle had given from her private cellar. They would last her for years probably, since one sip would send her into a deep sleep for hours, something she could ill afford in the hinterlands with wandering beasts near her home, but they would remind her of her times with Arabelle and Isabeau. And.. occasionally, she thought, she might just need a sip. The only other thing she brought with her was some sludge, for she realized that she might need it to sneak in places, and her two roses, magically preserved all these months with some help from friends and immortals.

She felt so heavy and weighted down as she made her way to the east gate, even though her pack was lighter than it'd been in months, she had to walk. She approached the East gate. She looked down Broadside as far as possible, hoping to see her friends. But, she saw none. She began to cry. She sat there under the gate sobbing, reluctant to leave all her friends, her new home. Fighters like Fjorgynn, Trancer and Brood, Rogues like Midnight and Monks like Merrlord. Of course all her wonderful Mage compatriots, Eris, Ilyshin and Calista, Ifalna, Cloudwolf and so many. So many she could not count. The thought of only seeing them on rare occasions kept her there under the gate for hours.. weeping. She would've said goodbye, except to her goodbyes mean forever..and she knew she would return. Hopefully, she thought to herself, they will have made peace with each other by the time she returned. She feared for Moorgate. The fighting was weakening it even while there were dangers from the outside bearing down on it. She sighed.

She finally picked herself up and ventured out the East gate on the long journey to her the home of her childhood. What awaited her there she did not know. She had been gone for years now, ever since that fateful day when the orcs destroyed here home, her family's farm and her parents and uncle disappeared. She feared to go back. She feared what the memories the place would bring would do to her. But she new it was finally time to make the search she promised to herself years ago.

She flew East. An Ogre appeared on the road and promptly spotted her. Luckily, she had chanted her spell of ensnare and the vines quickly agreed to her suggestion and entangled the beast. It gave Cassandra just enough time to lurk and head east and to unknown fates.

Sprites

As Cassandra makes her way across the Southern Causeway, where it veers north and becomes the Eastern Causeway, she meets up again with her distant cousin.. crazy auntie they call her.

"Hi again Cassandra!"

"Hi auntie" Cassandra says softly "I have some nice honey and Bliss from Kegville. Perhaps you would like to share it with me?"

"Oh no, thank you anyway, but honey makes my throat itch and Bliss, well you know what that can do!"

Cassandra sighs. Every week or so she passes this way, each time she offers Auntie a little something. Every time the crazy sprite declines. She is quite polite about it, but as weak and tired as she seems, you would think she'd not be so choosy. She refuses everything from tea to Troll hearts.

"well.. you can have some if you wish"

Cassandra dips a short stick into the bottle and pulls out a little honey. Licking it, she rubs her stomach.

"sooooo good, auntie. Sure you don't want some?"

"Positive darling. So where are you off to today? Another scavenger hunt I suppose" the crazy sprite laughs

"No, I am leaving Moorgate and Cosrin for a while. Don't really want to go into the reasons right now" Cassandra takes another lick of the honey "Kegville beekeeper really knows how to get those bees to make good honey!.. sure you don't?....."

Again the silly sprite refuses.

"How long you be gone from that dirty city?"

"Not sure. I am going back to the farm. I want to look for my mom and dad"

Cassandra waves the stick around to let the sweet odor waft past her nut of a cousin.

"Darlin, ya know it is a hopeless cause. I am sorry to be the one to have to tell you. Orcs might be stupid, but they are persistant" The crazy sprite cackles not caring much for her distant relative's feelings.

Cassandra holds back a few tears of mist at the painful words of the crazy lady and then sighs to the heavens for hope for her hopeless causes.

"I know. I guess the lot of my life is that of hopeless causes. I believe I follow the star of hopeless causes, if there were one. I've never seen one. Guess even that is hopeless. Sticking to Jacob's star for now"

"and they call me crasy!" laughs the hungry yet choosy sprite. She starts to mumble something about nutty shaman sprites thinking they can make it in such a hostile world without killing.

"guess all us sprites are a bit nuts" Cassandra says softly, only half meaning it.

"Speak for youself Darlin" At that the only half-there sprite flutters after a butterfly in the half-hearted attempt to catch it.

Cassandra puts her honey away a bit perplexed and frustrated by her cousin. She flies up from the grass blade on which she was resting and continues her way North.

Orc Town

Cassandra makes her way north along the Eastern Causeway. She passes most of the creatures unnoticed, so this leg is relatively uneventful. At one point, tired more from thought and emotion than flight and journeying, she ducks east to a beach. The wind off the water was cool and fragrant and it invited her to remain a while.

She ablidged. She was lingering in Cosrin, she did not want to leave. Her two transluscent wings seemed to be pulling her it two separate directions. One to her old home, the other her new. The breeze's invitation to stay was accepted easily. A compromise between two destinations. She rested there, in a depression she made in the sand with the fluttering of her wings, safe from beast or care. Quickly she fell asleep, exhasted from sorrow, traveling and one sip of Arabelle's Bliss too many.

She awoke with a start. In the middle of a nightmare. In the southern half of Moorgate were hundreds of fighters including her friends, Fjorgynn, Trancer, Curdie, Brood, Nightflare, Sabin and many others, both friends and many more she did not know. In the Northern streets of the town were gathered Mages, Thieves and Monks. There aligned were Midnightrogue, Eris, Ifalna, Ilyshin, Alluna, Calista, Merlorrd, Jihad, Penilord and many others. Swords, flails, bows, staffs, runes, potions were wielded, chanting heard throughout the city. The citizens of the town were hiding in their homes, doors locked shut. Then Penilord called up a creature so hideous..... the battle began. The confusion was so that had never been seen before. Buildings burst into flame. Walls tumbled. The gates of the city fell. As the guilds fought, outlaws murdered merchants, priests and even dogs and butterflies with impunity. Black smoke billowed from each of the guilds. Before long even the town guards fled the city. Refugees from the town were slaughtered by fire dragons and eye demons as they vainly sought sanctuary.

In the midst of it all, the noise and din of slaughter so loud, an invasion force of dwarfs, Ogres and Orcs from outside Cosrin entered the city from the South and the North, unnoticed and unheard. They quickly slaughtered most of the battle weakened citizens of Moorgate and took the rest as slaves, then proceeded to level what was left of the city. Silence.

Cloudwolf, the lone wanderer, wandered from the north, his head low. He picked his way through the city rubble. He approached what was left of his guild's entrance. A ranger lay inside the fallen Mage's guild, bleeding and near death. He chanted an incantation of healing, healed her and shook his head, a tear falling. The ranger stood up, a first unsteadily, then ran past Cloudwolf toward the South without a word.

Isabeau and Arabelle looked down on Cosrin weeping for the loss of it all.

Cassandra awoke from the nightmare sweating and scared. She was about to fly back to Moorgate to make sure it still stood, that those she loved still lived. But she realized that if it had fallen, there was little she could do. If it was a dream of the future, then she could not see how it was that she could forstall such a thing. Just the same, when Immortals send dreams of truth, they are usually couched in symbols and tokens. Nothing so blatant and brash. This was probably her own fears speaking in her sleep, perhaps prodded by the Bliss languishing in her blood.

She flew up from her resting place, feeling utterly unrested, but resolved to carry on. She reentered the causeway, headed north for a short while and then took a westerly route towards the Orc town. Her heart became too heavy to carry. Each flap of her wings slower than the one before. It seemed to take days to go but a short distance. She did want to go where she was going, or leave where she was leaving. She had decided earlier to to go to the Orc town on the way home. She had been there many a time before, both as a child and recently. She had gone mainly as a scavenger. Though gold and items were very rare, when she did find them, they were priceless. This time though, she had no use for items or gold. This time she went on a quest for knowledge. If anyone was to know what happened to her parents, it'd be the vicious orcs of Orc Town, the very ones who attacked her home so long ago. She wasn't sure what she was going to do once she got there. She couldn't very well flutter up to the nearest merchantile and ask "Excuse me, have you seen my parents?". Perhaps, she thought, her new ensnare spell would help. She'd ensnare a shaman or priest and then interogate them. Though she wasn't sure how that was going to work either. She neither knew Orcish nor was she a particularly intimidating figure. It was on the way home, and she had to try at least.

She finally approached the walls of Orc town. Slowly, her memory still a bit fussy, she picked her way through secret passages and entrances she learned as a young woman in a life befor. The orcs protected their town so well at the gate, she died once trying to enter, being hit by Bak tahr before she even knew there was danger. But the orcs were not too bright. They hadn't found yet the secret passages entering their city, so they never closed it. It took Cassandra months of trying to finally enter. But now she knew the way. She sneaked and wended her way till finally she was within the walls. The stench of thousands of orc offspring, unkempt and uncleaned, nearly made her lose her Bliss. Again she forgot not to eat or drink before she entered that place.

Now, to find a priest or shaman.

Orc Priest

Cassandra enters Orctown through the usual paths and gyrations. Yet this time, for some reason she is a bit anxious. She has never talked to an Orc before, well, unless you count the half-orcs she has met in town. It is filled with trepidation that she slowly makes her way through the town, the stench nearly overwhelming. She prays to whatever god will listen that it is not a Swordsman or Stun Jelly it is first she meets. Her whole plan would be ruined and she have to come back another day.

As she turns a corner, she eyes an Orc priest. Lurking, she makes her way behind a corner to wait for the priest to pass. Quietly chanting, she readies her spell of ensnare. Looking around somewhat suspiciously, the priest turns the corner, Cassandra comes out of hiding and points to the priest in hopes the vines of the land will listen to her suggestion. They do. Quickly the vines wrap themselves around the priest's legs, body and arms. The priest is so surprised he seems to be confused, but then suddenly he screams for help. Almost as soon as the first horrifying note leaves his mouth, Cassandra gestures to the vines and they wrap themselves around the priest's mouth.

"Do you wish to die?" Cassandra asks wondering if the Orc sees the bluff in her face.

The priest shakes his head no.

"Then I shall release the vines from your mouth. But the next tightening will be around your neck" Cassandra has never spoken so aggressively. She fears the priest might hear the hesitancy in her voice.

The priest nods his head and the vines retreat from around his mouth.

"Why you stand there silly girl? Kill me! Or i kill you when vines tire"

Cassandra shakes her head, yet inwardly she is happy to find a priest that actually speaks common, a fortuitous day this is. "I don't wish to kill you. I have questions to ask you"

"Me!?" laughs the priest outloud "You have questions of me? Why do you think I answer question of a silly sprite girl? Swordsman come soon, you dead"

Since Cassandra has no dagger or weapon with which to threaten, she quickly thinks of another way to threaten the priest. Without knowing if it will work, she chants her lurk spell and targets the priest. He slowly disappears in shadows.

"Look at your hand!" Cassandra demands

"Oh my Orc Children!! What have you done?! I am gone?!" The orc screams in fear. Cassandra is relieved is scares him, but then realizes he might be released before the shadows recede and he will be able to kill her without her seeing him. Why does she always do before she thinks, she berates herself and hopes against hope.

"If you do not answer my questions, I will make you completely disappear. Never to return to this world. Instead you will spend forever in the pain of being eaten alive in the underworld" Cassandra says thinking to herself she is really going a bit too far. But it seems to be working.

"Ok, I think about it, what you want to know? I may tell you" the orc relents.

"Where are my parents?"

"How I know? Silly girl!" the orc yells.

"A raid some eight years ago, on the forest glade of the Alana sprites. You killed all the sprites. I want to know what you did with my parents!"

"Fool! If we kill all, then we made their wings into fried chips and had a party!" the orc cackles.

Cassandra feels both a surge of rage and fear.

"Not all! I am alive, 'fool'! Shall I chant again!? What did you do with all the sprites? I know you know what I talk about!"

Cassandra yells, not caring if the other orcs hear and a bit nervous his vines are about to release.

"Oh yes. A glorious day! We broke the protection spell of your silly glade. We destroy your village!" the orc blurts out.

"Why? Why?" Cassandra begins to let her hurt show, but she wants to know why.

"Because your village killing our children!" the orc says angerly.

"We are Alana!!!! We never kill!" Cassandra begins to anger more than she ever has before.

"No, maybe not. But you heal all the rangers and berserkers that came to our town to hunt us and kill our warriors, priests and shamans and leave hundreds and thousands of orphans! They then come back and kill us more, you are a stupid girl!" The orc yells louder... or is he closer?

"We would have healed you too! You never came to us" Cassandra is more confused than ever before. Healing brings more death, not less? What if someone not accept healing? She doesn't have enough time to think this through now...

"We sent one to get healed! He was the one to steal that powerful rune of protection that kept your people so safe from us. You are stupid, you sprites! It was a glorious day.. we killed a hundred sprites and had a feast. The rest we sold and got rich!!" The orc screamed. It sounded as if it was in her ear.

It was. The orc was free and just as he thrust his dagger into Cassandra's side, the shadows receded and the orcs hidious nose was in her face. Cassandra fell back, screaming. So confused she forgot to chant, she retreated to the south and right into a swordsman! The force of the collision sent her reeling backwards. Luckily the swordsman's swing missed because of it. The priest enters the street yelling. "KILL HER!" Cassandra chants and begs the shadows to hide her. Slowly, as the swordsman advances, she disappears.

Cassandra runs to the north and then quickly out of the town as she hears the priest yell "find her.. she is from the cursed Alana!! Kill her!". In the nearby forest, hopefully out of ear-shot of the orcs, she chants a heal spell and heals herself.

She begins to make her way through the forest trails to lands not on the Cosrin map, known to few if any. Cassandra wonders now if she is going to make it. She is bleeding profusely and has no spell that will bind her wounds. She is running out of strength to chant and is a bit afraid she shall not find her home before she dies.

Yet she does.

She descends into a valley. The small valley is filled with huge trees, with gnarled roots. Moss hangs down from the lower limbs and the undergrowth of ferns and wild-flowers is thick. As she passes through the valley she only then realizes the extent of the destruction. There is not a single home left, not a single building. In the lowest branch of the largest tree, where once a beautful shimmering public hall stood, there was nothing but rotting fabric. She descended further past what used to be of the Alana village, down to a stream where her family's farm used to be. Like everything else, there is nothing left.. except...

The rose garden. It is where her mother hid her that fateful day. The rose garden was nestled between the roots of a large tree on the other side of the stream. Her mother had hoped the orcs would miss it, being so far out of the way, which they did. Now the bushes were overgrown with moss and weeds. Only one rose had managed to push it's way out of the tangle.

Cassandra looked at the rose. "I feel like that rose" she said softly to herself "pushing its way through the world, knowing it is all hopeless" She looks around wondering that now she is hear, what is she to do. For the lack of anything better to do, she flies down and begins to clear the rose garden of moss and weeds, her bleeding wounds draining her of strength.....