The Quest for Normania #1: The Door of Andrios

28. Chilly Reunion

Nik was sure he heard somebody in the upstairs chamber.

He frowned. 'Who could it be? Wait, isn't that Cassandra's chamber?' He snorted aloud. 'What would she be doing here, daring to come back? Maybe pick a fight with me again? Did she finally grow a manly spine?' He chuckled. 'Nonetheless, I need to check and make sure everything's all right; it's neglect that brings down empires.' He smirked. 'Like my predecessor did!—he did not see me coming!'

He rose from his bed in his second-floor chamber, his edges of the robes covering his naked body falling to the ground beneath him. When he walked out the door and towards the third floor, it trailed behind him, sweeping everything in its path. He readied a weapon that he always kept in his nightgown pocket: he removed the dagger from its sheath as he approached the former eurin's old room.

He paused outside to listen. Only silence greeted him from the inside.

Slowly, he turned the knob and pushed it open. He peered inside, but still, nothing. He looked around and spotted the open balcony door.

He snorted and went towards it. "This is what happens when I neglect, see?" he muttered to himself as he pulled the big double doors shut. "I should probably let one of the maids in tomorrow and tidy this room a bit. Darkarous knows, this place will be crawling with enemies who want to kill me!"

He took another look around the room and, satisfied, swept back out, the same way he had come, back to his cosy bed and to continue his good night's sleep, even if it meant, like it always did, snoozing with one ear listening.

If only he knew he was being watched by an invisible figure inside the room...

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Cassandra landed on steady ground with a deep thud.

"Ow," she groaned, eyes closed and reaching with a hand to rub her forehead, which ached, not because she hit it – she had landed on her buttocks – but due to the impact of her fall. "That wasn't as long a fall as I thought. What happened?"

She opened her eyes and looked around her, expecting empty midnight grounds of the palace. In fact, there should've been grass at her feet, but instead, it was hard cold stone.

Also, she was supposed to be alone, not with familiar faces...

Suddenly, something lighter but heavy landed squarely on her torso and hugged her so tightly, she gasped. The bond she had felt just before she let go of the railing in the balcony of her room came swirling back to her in a tidal wave and she rested her head on the stone beneath her, relaxing.

"Teresa?" she asked.

The weight on her moved as the head buried between her covered breasts nodded.

"I missed you, too. I'm sorry I let my thoughts stray when I went through that portal."

The body on top of her shifted and Teresa's big blue eyes stared down at her. "You don't have to apologise. You weren't the only one to do that, you know?"

"She's – right."

Cassandra turned to her left to see Norin sprawled on the cave floor not many feet from her, his face pained but smiling.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" she gasped.

The mage shrugged. "Out of fuel."

"You mean, magic?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry."

"Well, you weren't the only one, you know. I did it. I made that device and I fucked up. I landed back home, thankfully outside. I couldn't teleport myself directly without the right spells, so, I went all the way to Yela Rumin's shinto. She helped me get the locations of everybody else – well, except for you, I'm afraid. I quite forgot about you when I was in the shinto and could think about –" He paused and blushed. He had been about to 'Ayesha'! He collected his bearings and went on: "– about Mithra. I'm very sorry. But when we remembered you again, Teresa and I figured you would've landed near your palace in Seliana. We were right."