A Cassarian Story
Varian always knew that he cared for Cassandra. But he didn't realize how much until she was gone.
Six long years after Cassandra leaves Corona, she finally returns. Varian is overjoyed, but she comes bearing terrible news. A stran...
"If Vex was your friend, why did you act like that?" Opal asks.
"It's called jealousy," Cassandra explains. "I recognized that she had her eyes on your father, and I wasn't happy about it."
"But, if you were trying to not have feelings for Daddy, why did you care?" Opal genuinely doesn't get it.
"You'll understand when you're older," Cassandra says, lovingly stroking her daughter's cheek.
"Let me guess," Rapunzel says from her chair in the corner of the room. "Varian, you had no idea that anything had changed about Cass."
Varian shoots Rapunzel an unamused look, but he shrugs guiltily. "Okay, yes. I was clueless. And anything odd about her behavior towards me that I did notice, I convinced myself that it was all in my head. That I only thought I was seeing it because of how badly I desired it to be true..."
After hopping in their balloon and flying to the area Vex circled on the map, the gang land on a tall hill and disembark in front of the mine's entrance. Just as expected, the infinity symbol is etched into the wall next to the door.
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"And, of course, there's no normal way to open this," Hugo says, inspecting the door as Varian takes a closer look at the symbol.
"The marking on the symbol this time... It's water," Varian says.
"Well that shouldn't be too big of a problem," Cassandra says. She pulls out a canteen, but to her dismay it is empty. "I guess I drank the last of it."
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Abhu digs through their supplies, checking all of their canteens. "Seriously? Are we completely out of water?!"
What? That doesn't seem right, Varian thinks. He knows they were starting to run a bit low to the point that they were going to need to replenish their supply soon, but he is certain there was at least some water left.
Then he notices his raccoon slinking away out of the corner of his eye.
"Ruddiger? Ruddiger!" Varian shouts, until the raccoon slowly turns around to face him. Varian folds his arms and taps his foot. "Did you drink the rest of our water?"
