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Cassie Aphthiton stared down the Redcliffe Knight in front of her, preparing to cast Smite and hit it with a bolt of electricity. She hadn’t wanted to fight her own people, but it had to be done in order to assist in the war against the Korblox.
As the bolt made a direct connection, a small smile crossed her face. She had never fought in true combat before, but she wanted to tell herself she was doing pretty good.
Would her father be proud…?
…That was a different question. What mattered was that she was putting in her best effort to protect her companion beside her. She glanced at the girl standing next to her. Sword in hand, stanced and ready to strike. She almost admired the other girl, who seemed never to feel any sort of Fear when facing down her enemies, staring them through the eyes before rushing them down with that sword of hers. Her strikes were so powerful that they could often fell enemies in three mere hits. It was… almost enchanting to watc-
Cassie barely caught it out of the corner of her eye. A silver glint of steel, slicing through the air right towards her. In that moment, everything around her both sped up and slowed to a crawl. She barely had any time to brace herself for the sharp sting of a blade which she knew was coming.
But, there was no stinging pain. No sound of skin tearing, and no feeling of blood running down her body. Instead, there was a grinding CLANG that almost made Cassie want to cover her ears. She looked up, and a truly enchanting sight graced her eyes. Her companion had blocked the strike with her own sword, both hands pushing it back against the opponent’s weapon.
Cassie didn’t know why, but as she watched the other girl parry the Knight's hit, time seemed to stop in place for the second time in the same minute. Unfortunately, she was immediately pulled out of her stupor when the hero dashed back to her side.
“A little help here, Your Majesty?” she muttered through gritted teeth. Cassie’s eye’s shot wide as she realised that both of their lives were still, in fact, in danger.
“R- right!” she responded a little too loudly, before throwing a Fireball at the opposing Knight, finally knocking them out. After quick victory celebration, the hero quickly pushed on, but Cassie stayed put for a moment, calling after them.
“Uhm, w- wait! Erin?”
Erin… what a cool name for such a cool hero, she thought. Erin turned around with a quirked eyebrow, staring Cassie in the eyes.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“Um… thank you,” Cassie muttered, a slight hint of red flushing over her face. “For saving me. I’m in your debt, I suppose.”
Erin’s eyes widened a bit, speechless for a few moments.
“No… no problem? Just part of the job, I guess…”
“Right… yeah. Just part of the job,” Cassie echoed back. With that, the two of them pushed forward, looking for any civilians to evacuate while fighting off Korbloxians and Redcliffe Knights. Cassie couldn’t help but keep sneaking glances at Erin, especially during battles. She was just curious, she told herself. One person wielding four of the Sword Fight on the Heights Swords at once, even the Firebrand… of course it was worthy of curiosity! Besides, even if she was, hypothetically, totally not crushing, the Council would never accept it, she told herself.
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The two women stood in the centre of the Splintered Court, High Councilman Robur’s eyes boring into them. He has insisted on trialing them, to determine if they were worthy of saving Trinity. Cassie had stayed silent as the armour-clad man interrogated Erin.
“…having attacked the knights of both Redcliffe and Splintered Skies. Why have you committed such a treacherous deed?”
“I was following the queen’s orders.”
Cassie supposed that was true. She had been the one to drag Erin out of the castle, after all. But something about the way she had said it left her a little flustered…
“…which tells me you were the first to welcome such usurpation into his kingdom in the first place. How do you justify such an action?
“I toppled his tyrannical reign.”
Cassie thought that was a good justification. Apparently, the Blackrock King had invoked martial law shortly before his defeat, which she thought was pretty cruel of a king.
“…Tell me the name of the monstrous lich who rules the Korbloxian Empire.”
“Barbarian King Canavus.”
A name Cassie was all too familiar with. She was quite surprised that Erin knew. Well, a well-educated companion is better than none, especially in a war like this.
“…What did you overcome to retrieve it?”
“I saved a woman from a madman wielding the Firebrand.”
So someone else pulled the Firebrand before Erin…? It sounded as though she had to fight for it. Cassie wondered who the mentioned woman was. Someone Erin knew? She almost found herself wishing she was that woman. Just to be able to witness the fight, of course.
“…Do you, the accused, consider yourself a good person?”
“Nobody is perfect.”
Was that… a yes? A no? Cassie thought Erin was a pretty good person. She was willingly fighting for Trinity when she had only just arrived. Although, she supposed she didn’t know much about Erin herself… something to put on her to-do list.
“I see,” Robur muttered, staring down Erin intensely. “Well, this court has reached a verdict. My queen, by reason of law and this court, I find Erin…”
Cassie held her breath. Surely Erin had proven herself to be a good person, right? Robur had to believe them, the fate of Trinity was resting on them being able to reach the Windforce.
“…to be of genuinely good intent. You have made an apt judgement of character.”
Cassie let out her breath as the court burst into applause, barely hearing Erin do the same next to her, almost as if the two were in sync. After a short speech from Robur that Cassie didn’t much pay attention to, he bestowed upon her his Sanctum Shard, making them two thirds of the way to being able to open up the Seventh Sanctum and pull the Windforce. As the two of them turned to leave the court, Robur’s voice rang out one last time.
“Wait!”
The two women froze in place, both turning back to face the High Councilman. He was now pointing at Erin, and while his face wasn’t visible under that helmet of his, Cassie could have sworn she heard the smirk playing on his lips.
“Do take good care of our queen. She seems… rather fond of you.”
Cassie nearly squeaked at his request. ‘Rather fond’?! What was that supposed to mean?! Surely he wasn’t implying- nope, she didn’t want to think about it. Erin stood in place, eyes visibly flicking between Cassie and Robur, a slight hint of red dusting over her cheeks. She was probably just embarrassed, Cassie told herself.
“Uh… yep, will do. I’ll… make sure she doesn’t die, and stuff,” Erin half-muttered back, fiddling with the edge of her pink sweater (that Cassie was shocked didn’t have a single tear in it from all those fights). “I guess we’ll, uh… go now. Bye,” Erin quickly spoke out before grabbing Cassie’s wrist and dragging her out of the court, which lit the queen’s face up red like a firework.
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After a long few fights through the Astral Isles, Cassie felt as though Trinity’s army had more than enough healers, summoners, and supporters should a larger war ever break out. But more importantly, Cassie and Erin had met with High Scholar Azuri in the Astral Observatory. The two had hoped she would place faith in them and simply hand over the final Sanctum Shard, but she had other plans, locking them in the small dome-shaped room until they completed a series of puzzles.
…Cassie was sure she had read a few fanfictions with a trope similar to this.
After scouring the room, Erin decided to look through the big telescope protruding down from the ceiling. Cassie watched her fiddle with the device, moving it around to view the stars. As she watched, she felt a strange sense of comfort overtake her, as though just being in Erin’s proximity was enough to calm her down. The girl was quickly broken out of her stupor when Erin called over to her.
“Hey, Cassie, look at these constellations, they’re… speaking to me.”
Huh? Cassie was confused for a moment, but then a bolt of realisation struck her. Of course! Azuri’s telescope allowed her to commune with the stars, of course they would be the solution to the puzzles. Cassie rushed over to the telescope to take a peek, looking at all the constellations.
“Wow…” she muttered. “They really are beautiful… but they want to speak with you, Erin,” Cassie glanced over at Erin, who was staring at her. Or maybe it was her imagination. Probably that. Erin approached Cassie again, shifting closer to her so that there was room for both of them.
“W- we can share the telescope, look…”
Cassie’s face flushed deeply again. At this proximity, she could feel every strand of Erin’s hair brushing against her shoulder, hear every breath, and it was killing her. She stayed still as Erin peered through the telescope, listening to what she muttered as the stars talked to her, and occasionally taking a quick look through the telescope herself.
After a few minutes of human-to-celestial-body chat, the two of them had finally managed to figure out the answers to Azuri’s puzzles, although Cassie was barely thinking straight by that point. They all revolved around tools Erin had collected on her quest, including her ball, some weird, oozy-looking potion, and- a stick of dynamite? Azuri would risk having her office blown up just to test them? Cassie could never quite figure her out, and this was another quirk to add to the pile of Azuri’s oddities.
Regardless, after the puzzles were complete, and both Erin’s and Cassie’s ears were sufficiently ringing from the explosion, the Sanctum Shard appeared in a puff of smoke, and the door blew open in typical Azuri fashion. Cassie scooped up the Shard, and looked at Erin.
“Uhm… th- thank you, Erin. For helping me get this far. I think I’m… I’m ready to go forth on my own,” she half-mumbled. She could have sworn she noticed Erin’s eyes widen up a little, but she kept talking. “You’ve done so much for me already, I can’t ask you to do anymore. I have to show everyone what I’m made of, prove to them that I am worthy of the titles of queen and Wind Walker. So from here on out, I have to go in alone. Thank you again… f- for everything.”
With that, she dashed out of the observatory. She heard Erin make some sort of strangled sound, like she was trying to shout after her, but couldn’t find the words. But she didn’t want to look back, she couldn’t look back. She had to go back and pull the Windforce to protect everyone. She was strong enough, she had to be… she would defeat the Korblox and talk to Erin again after.
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Cassie’s eyes fluttered open. The first thing she registered was that she seemed to be laying in the centre of Trinity Castle, judging by the large pointed ceiling above her. The second thing that she registered was a familiar face hanging over her. It was Erin.
…shit, it was Erin!
Cassie shot up at the memory of what had happened over the last few hours. She remembered pulling the Windforce, seeing those horrible visions, and then Erin arrived… and they fought back Arg'll and the dragon Frostmaw… and then she passed out.
“Cassie, you’re awake!” Erin exclaimed, pulling her into a hug, before quickly letting go and clearing her throat. “Ah- ehm… I was… worried about you,” she mumbled, diverting her gaze a little. Cassie stared at her, taking a solid few seconds to properly process her words.
“Wha… did you…?”
“After we defeated Frostmaw, I carried you back out of the Sanctum… I think Reginald nearly jumped me when he saw me carrying you unconscious, ehe…” Erin let out a nervous laugh as she recalled the encounter, which Cassie was sure had probably left her a little shaken. Even after they had fought him earlier, Elite Commander Reginald was still a pretty intimidating guy.
“I, um… I don’t really know how to thank you enough, Erin… without you, I would have…” Cassie sat on that, not really wanting to think about what would have happened had Erin not shown up when she pulled the Windforce. “A- actually, I’m not really going to say anything… you can, uh… c- count this as my thanks…”
Before either of the two could say anything more, Cassie pulled Erin in for a quick kiss. It was only a couple of seconds, but it probably took more courage than anything else she had done that day combined. When the two separated, they both looked like they had been hit with a Daze attack, gazing at each-other speechlessly. But their focus was quickly diverted when they heard the drawing of a heavy weapon.
“How DARE you!” the voice of the Elite Commander Reginald yelled out, pointing his axe at Erin. “Hero though you may be, an outsider should not be permitted to-“
“At ease, Reginald,” the voice of High Councilman Robur sighed, cutting the warrior off. “Let her majesty have her… moment, won’t you? She has more than earned it.”
“And I want to see where this is going,” sung High Scholar Azuri. “Feel free to continue, you two. There isn’t a point in stopping it now.”
Cassie and Erin looked between the Council, then back at each-other, both of their faces deeply flushed. The two of them both stood up and looked away.
“Would you like to, uhm… t- take a walk…?” Cassie whispered to Erin, who nodded slightly.
So, the two of them grabbed each-others’ hands and rushed out of Trinity Castle.
“Sooooo…” Azuri spoke out to the others. “What do we do when the queen needs an heir-“
“Don’t even go there right now,” Robur shot back.