Chapter 124 Wake Up! – Cassis

  Cassis stared at Arianna’s still form lying in their bed. He had brought her home yesterday, after burning down the remnants of Keith’s villa. He bared his teeth in satisfaction just remembering how everything had gone up in flames.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  Neither Keith nor the original slave collar had been recovered. Those two, he would burn gladly as well, sooner rather than later. For now, though, Arianna was his priority.

  She hadn’t woken up yet.

  She had been unconscious for a full day already. That wasn’t normal. He had finally gotten her back, and now this.

  Footsteps approached their room.

  “Cassis, I brought Josh,” Helen called.

  She knew him best, after all. With how jumpy he was right now, how close to violence, she chose to announce the young healer instead of risking a surprise.

  “Come in,” Cassis said.

  Josh looked nervous, but the moment he saw Arianna, he hurried to her side. He admired her greatly, treated her like a teacher. Cassis sometimes wondered if Josh had a crush on her, though he hadn’t asked Arianna about it yet. He imagined that even if Josh did, Arianna would just gush about it, calling it cute, calling it puppy love.

  Now that he thought about it, that exact situation had been in one of the romance movies she had forced him to watch.

  Shaking his head, Cassis began pacing while Josh examined her.

  With a trembling voice, Josh asked, “What happened to her? All her vital signs are fine, as far as I can tell, but her mana is almost completely depleted. My healing doesn’t do anything for her.”

  Cassis had anticipated that answer. Still, he asked, “Can you think of anything else we can do? She’s been like this for twenty-four hours already.”

  Josh frowned deeply, eyebrows scrunching as he stared at Arianna. “I… don’t know.”

  Cassis stopped pacing and glared at him. “You’re a doctor. And our secondary healer after Arianna. Why don’t you know?” he asked sharply.

  Helen shot him a glare.

  Josh looked surprised, and maybe a little scared, but then he squared his shoulders. “I’m a student in my second semester! And how can you even compare me to Arianna? She’s, like, a genius.”

  That stopped Cassis short.

  The young man had a temper. Unexpected, but Cassis liked him for it. And yes, he had kind of forgotten that Josh hadn’t actually learned all that much yet.

  In the other timeline, anyone with even basic healing knowledge or formal education had been considered a doctor. If you had the cleric class, even better. There hadn’t been many of those. People who wanted to heal had spent the early days taking care of others instead of fighting, missing out on easy levels. The world hadn’t understood how important healers were at first.

  Sure, clerics could heal, but those heals weren’t very effective, and they couldn’t be used often in the beginning.

  Arianna had been the exception. And she had taught what she learned to others.

  Cassis exhaled slowly, forcing his temper down. Everything triggered him right now.

  “Yeah. Sorry. I forgot,” he said. “But you’re still our secondary healer. Arianna taught you personally. Don’t you have any idea at all?”

  Helen nodded approvingly.

  Cassis shot her a glare. He was not a child who needed her approval.

  She smiled and mouthed, childish at him.

  He looked away, chagrined. Alright, maybe he was being childish. So what? The love of his life had been abused, forced to do terrible things, and now she lay unconscious. If anyone wouldn’t be childish after that, he wouldn’t trust them.

  Josh thought for a moment, then said hesitantly, “The only thing wrong with her is the mana depletion. But her mana stream is already absorbing a little ambient mana. I think… I think she’ll recover on her own.”

  He didn’t sound confident.

  “Maybe we should put her somewhere with more water?” Josh added, sounding even more unsure.

  Cassis froze.

  That… was actually a good idea.

  He nodded and went to the bathroom to draw a bath for Arianna, then returned to the bedroom.

  As soon as he entered, Josh jumped up. “Then I don’t think I’m needed anymore. I’ll go. Tell me if it worked.”

  Helen snickered. “Will do.”

  She bent down to pick Arianna up.

  That would not do.

  Cassis hurried forward and took Arianna into his own arms. Nobody was allowed to touch her.

  He carried her to the bathroom, then hesitated.

  Should he undress her a little, or just put her in fully clothed?

  The thought of undressing her while she was unconscious made his skin crawl.

  Fully clothed, then.

  The water was warm, a good temperature.

  Cassis carefully lowered Arianna into the tub, making sure her head stayed above the surface. Was that a sigh he heard, or was he imagining it?

  He looked up at Helen, who had stopped in the doorway. She studied Arianna for a long moment, something sad passing over her face, then looked back at him and gave a tiny nod.

  “I’ll go back to my house,” she said softly. “Take good care of her. And text me if anything changes.”

  Then she left.

  Cassis remained kneeling beside the bathtub, not letting go of Arianna. He would stay here the entire time. Maybe he’d need to get a chair eventually, since this position would become uncomfortable sooner rather than later, but he didn’t want to let go of her any longer than absolutely necessary.

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  He gently ran his fingers through her hair.

  She looked so peaceful right now, as if everything that had happened had been nothing more than a bad dream.

  He wondered whether the last week would leave lasting scars. How could he help her when she woke up?

  When, not if.

  His Arianna was a fighter. She never gave in. Not to anyone.

  But… Cassis knew, deep down, what must have happened in that villa. He only knew fragments, what Arianna had told him during their brief conversations through the patron-avatar chat. She must have kept things from him. Things she didn’t want to burden him with.

  And he needed to know them. If he was going to help her, truly help her, he couldn’t stay ignorant.

  She wouldn’t like what he was about to do.

  But she knew about his abilities. And she was still wearing the heart carving he had made for her, resting right beside her sapphire pendant. In a way, that felt like permission.

  He reached out and touched the heart, activating his woodcarver’s ability.

  Grain Whisperer.

  If he was lucky, he might get impressions, feelings, maybe even fragments of memory embedded in the wood. He couldn’t be sure. But trying wouldn’t hurt.

  The ability took hold.

  Emotions flooded into him.

  Sadness. Helplessness. Despair.

  So much pain.

  Then, a memory.

  Arianna lying on a bed, clutching the heart carving, crying bitterly. Calling out his name.

  She had wanted him to rescue her.

  And he had failed. Spectacularly.

  He had been too slow. And later… too merciful.

  He shouldn’t have listened to her. He should have burned everything down immediately. If he had, she would have been spared the final mana explosion, and the incident that had happened just before it.

  Cassis dragged his hands over his face.

  They came away wet.

  He still couldn’t quite believe it.

  Arianna had killed someone.

  Not just anyone, but Faith. Someone she had considered a friend. Someone she had wanted to save.

  He had no idea how that would affect her.

  His sunny, forgiving, na?ve Arianna.

  He knew she wouldn’t be the same person after this. How could she be?

  And it was all his fault.

  If he hadn’t brought her to this world, she wouldn’t be suffering like this now.

  The water was starting to cool, so Cassis let it out and filled the bathtub again.

  This time, Arianna definitely sighed.

  Relief surged through him. He was sure there was more colour in her face now, too. The water was helping. It had to be helping.

  While he waited for her to wake, he talked to her.

  He told her how much he had missed her. He told her what had happened in the neighbourhood over the past week, how Mrs. Walker had actually managed to give a few volunteers a buff after they ate one of her new dishes. She was working hard on her cooking profession now, experimenting constantly. He told her how Mrs. Tchekova was doing well with her seamstress profession, already trying to make basic gear.

  He talked about the foxes, Taliah and Kael, because he knew how much Arianna adored them.

  Every story ended the same way.

  “Please wake up.”

  As he spoke, Arianna’s eyelids twitched. Sometimes she sighed again, soft and faint.

  All good signs, he told himself. They had to be.

  Time passed slowly. Painfully.

  And then, half a day later, Arianna finally opened her eyes.

  “Cassis,” she murmured, a sleepy smile curving her lips.

  He softly petted her head. “Yes?” he asked, just as gently.

  She scrunched her eyebrows adorably, confusion settling in. “Why am I in the bathtub? And why am I wearing clothes in the bathtub?”

  Cassis immediately grew serious. “You depleted your mana. We thought an environment with more water mana would help you recover. And your clothes…” He hesitated, then said firmly, “I didn’t want to do anything without your permission.”

  She looked at him, her eyes shining with laughter. “That was very thoughtful.” Then her expression shifted. “But why was I—”

  The light in her eyes dimmed as the memories crashed into her.

  Cassis took her hand softly, careful not to grip it, careful that she could pull away at any moment. Careful not to make her feel trapped.

  She tried to stand, and immediately sank back down. Her hand flew to her mouth.

  “Toilet,” she mumbled urgently.

  He understood at once.

  Cassis helped her up and guided her to the toilet. Just as he expected, she threw up. He held her hair back and rubbed her back, useless in every way that mattered. He had never felt so helpless.

  When she finally finished, Arianna turned to him.

  She must have seen something in his face, because the pain that had been visible in her eyes vanished, shuttered away and replaced by something else, something Cassis couldn’t quite name.

  “I want to brush my teeth,” she said.

  He moved instantly, turning away to grab her toothbrush and toothpaste. When he turned back, Arianna was already standing, a little unsteady, one hand braced against the wall for balance. He hurried back, and she gratefully took the items, brushing her teeth in silence.

  When she finished, she sighed contentedly. “Dan was right. This really does make you feel better.”

  Then she closed her eyes. A single tear slipped down her cheek.

  Cassis lifted his hand to wipe it away, but Arianna was faster. She scrubbed her face almost roughly, then looked at him again.

  “What happened after I…” She paused, then corrected herself. “What happened after the mana explosion?”

  Her voice was detached, too controlled. The fact that she hadn’t finished her first sentence told him everything.

  So Cassis gave her the facts.

  “All the guards died in the attack. Bryce and Shari took Faith’s body and left. Keith escaped. And the original slave collar couldn’t be found.”

  Bam.

  Cassis flinched.

  Arianna, his mild-tempered Arianna, slammed her palm into the wall.

  “Damn it all!” she snapped. “That bastard escaped!”

  Cassis stared at her. Her gaze was filled with pure loathing. “I wanted to torture him slowly,” she continued quietly. “Make him feel pain he’s never even imagined.”

  What had Keith done to her to draw out this kind of hatred?

  She hadn’t told him everything. Not even close.

  And yet, even like this, furious and burning, Arianna looked beautiful.

  Without thinking, Cassis reached out.

  She flinched back.

  He froze.

  That reaction…

  What had that animal done?

  Heat surged through him, sharp and violent, only to be cut off immediately by her.

  “Don’t,” Arianna said grumpily.

  Then she stepped forward and hugged him herself.

  “Don’t you dare let your rage out,” she snapped, glaring up at him. “This anger is mine. It’s not yours to take away or to pay back for me. He’s mine.”

  Her eyes sparked with fury. Cassis could only stare.

  She was terrifying. And breathtaking.

  Then his heart sank.

  He had never seen her like this before.

  Suddenly, Arianna shoved him back. He stumbled and hit the wall.

  “Don’t you dare look at me like that.”

  She didn’t shout. Her voice was low, heated, razor-sharp.

  Cassis lowered his head. “Sorry.”

  Slap.

  For a moment, he didn’t understand what had happened. One second he was looking down, next he was staring at the wall beside him.

  Slowly, he turned back.

  Arianna was massaging her hand, watching him grimly.

  Realisation hit.

  She had slapped him.

  He raised a hand to his cheek. It stung.

  His temper flared. “What was that for?”

  And immediately, he hated himself for the tone. After everything she’d been through, he should have been gentle. If she wanted to slap him, she damn well could. He deserved it.

  But to his surprise, Arianna smiled.

  Satisfied.

  Cassis stared at her.

  What in the world was his chaotic healer plotting now?

  Arianna stepped closer again, then gently touched his cheek.

  “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I shouldn’t have done that. I just…” Her voice wavered. “I can’t have you looking at me with pity.”

  Then she rested her head against his chest. “Never do that again.”

  Cassis carefully wrapped his arms around her, ready to pull back the instant she flinched.

  She didn’t.

  Holding her softly, he murmured against her hair, “I’m sorry. I promise.”

  She sighed, and the sound loosened something tight in his chest.

  He had almost taken her agency away from her.

  Arianna was a victim, but more than that, she was a survivor. She had saved herself, and he had nearly made her feel small for it. His Arianna didn’t deserve pity. She deserved admiration.

  She drew in a deep breath. When she exhaled, he felt the tension finally drain from her body.

  “Good,” she whispered.

  Then her next words made him freeze.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I can’t be na?ve little Arianna anymore.”

  His grip tightened before he consciously loosened it again.

  “Why can’t you?” he whispered back. “I promise I’ll protect you better this time.”

  She shook her head against his chest. “Impossible. In this world, only I can protect myself.”

  She stepped back, but kept eye contact. There was sadness in her eyes, along with something unyielding.

  “Cassis, wake up,” she said quietly. “Nobody stays the same. I won’t either.”

  She swallowed. “I really want to kill Keith. Slowly. Violently.”

  She watched him closely, gauging his reaction.

  “Right now,” she added, “I can even understand your paranoid tendencies.”

  There was a brief pause.

  Cassis didn’t know what to say, but she didn’t give him time to worry.

  “Do you still want someone like me?”

  For the first time since she’d woken up, she looked truly unsure. Not the usual confident Arianna. Not furious Arianna. Just… her.

  He couldn’t believe she felt the need to ask.

  Without hesitation, he opened his arms again, wanting her close.

  “Always.“