Reunion at Sea

Evil

Cassandra sighed as she sat apart from the others, watching for any danger. She was supposed to be keeping Rapunzel out of danger from everything, even herself, the King had said. Her father was counting on her to make sure this trip went smoothly. She scoffed a bit, thinking of how he'd probably be disappointed in her if he saw her traveling with Varian now, and not putting chains on him.

Chains...he never should've been put in them. He was just a kid, a lonely, desperate kid that everyone overlooked. Even her. She was no better than the King, she looked at his skills and instantly thought "I can use this". She made a promise she didn't intend to keep so he could help her attain her goal, then broke his heart and bandaged it with a blue ribbon that he'd only not gotten because his assistant had...well, nearly killed the judge. The assistant that should have been her. Some apology.

She heard footsteps approaching her and looked up, her hand on her sword, before she relaxed. "...Varian." She sighed, letting go of her sword. "I thought you were Lucas or Hector."

"You need to learn my footsteps. Trust me, memorizing footsteps could save your life." He sat down next to her. "How's patrol?"

"Quiet." She sighed. "Can't sleep?"

"Don't normally sleep." He reminded her. "And especially not after all I learned today."

"Hah, yeah. An aunt, an uncle, your dad having a secret past as a warrior and now you're in a demon tree with..." She made a vague motion. "Who is Lucas, to you? He said he was in the Royal Guard."

Varian sighed, tugging at his glove. Cassandra watched the motion, her brow furrowing. "And why do you wear gloves all the time? You replaced the missing one pretty quick."

He glanced at her. "Well...Lucas was part of the group that corralled me for weeks, and then one of the brutal High-Security guards. He was always cruel, but treated it like it was a game to him, like a cat batting at a mouse because it was too full to eat but still wanted to hunt."

She cringed. "So...him being here must be pretty upsetting to you."

"Yeah." He nodded. "I won't feel safe until we leave this tree." He admitted.

"So...what about the gloves?" She gestured to them.

He closed his eyes. "I don't know. My dad, for as long as I can remember, has told me to always wear gloves and never, ever take them off. I've always been wearing gloves from when I could walk, and I learned to walk pretty quickly. I always thought it was just one more rule, right up there with 'don't talk about your mom' and 'don't touch the rocks'. Which...I listened to, until the Princess asked me to help her figure them out. And, you know,"

"She's the princess." They said in unison, then sighed.

"But, you know...earlier..." He looked down. "When everyone else was collapsing, dying, I just...I didn't feel a thing. I mean, not emotion-wise, I definitely felt some emotions, but...you know? No pain. No...dying. And it's been bugging me ever since. Why wasn't I affected? Does it have to do with my dad hiding things from me? Why did he never tell me he could fight, and that he was a trained warrior?" He sighed and wrapped his arms around himself. "I feel like I never knew him at all."

Cassandra frowned thoughtfully. "...I don't know. Why doesn't he want you to talk about your mom?"

"It's..." He sighed. "It's complicated."

"What do you mean?" Cassandra asked.

Varian sighed. "My...mother disappeared when I was three years old. She went on a trip and, when I was four years old, her traveling companion came back with mom's bag, apologized, then left forever. Ever since, dad closed up all her belongings in a locked room, hid the family portrait in his room and told me to not talk abut her, It's...part of why he disapproves of my doing alchemy. It was...her thing." He took off his goggles and held them close. "I think he gave up on trying to get me to stop and just accepted that it's my thing, too."