The girl from the mist

Chapter Three

"Are you insane?"
The clay pots rattled on the table as two beefy hands landed on its surface. Master Howard stared at her with bulging eyes, his face red as a butcher. Presumably he had been just that, back in the day. Now he was just a pudgy man with greying hair and a terrible temper. Cassandra, currently wrapped in a woolen blanket, managed a surly look in return. There was a teacup steaming in her hand.
"What, for picking flowers?" She snapped.
"For going out when I'd already said there was a monster out there!"
Cassandra stared at him, then threw a quick glance at Master Token, seated at the other end of the table. He appeared to be lost in thought, stroking his falcon familiar Athos in an absent minded fashion. The bird was eating strips of raw meat, hungrily. She took a deep breath.
"Okay, first of all, you didn't tell me that, you told your idiot son, who can't be trusted to say the grass is green. Secondly-" she raised her voice to stifle his protests, "- how was I to know it would come out in broad daylight? It's not something that's all that frequent!"
Though it could have been, she reflected silently. Master Token wasn't all that careful with his experiments, and she had been part of the hunting party organised to flush out last autumn's harpy escape. The old Weapons Master's face alternately blanched and reddened with anger. When next he spoke, it was in the voice of someone trying very much to sound like they're just barely controlling themselves.
"If you had acted more like a woman should" he said, through gritted teeth, "you'd know better than to go out when there are monsters about."
"Well, I'll have to take your word for it, for apparently you're more of a woman than I am!"
There was nothing feigned about Howard's expression this time: His face turned white with rage, the way metal turn white when it is too hot to glow. He opened his mouth for a tirade, but a gentle clearing of the throat stopped him mid-shout. Both of them turned to look at Master Token.
"I think perhaps Cassandra has need of a little rest now" he said, gently. Howard, his face slowly regaining colour, scowled, but rose to go. The wizard turned to his familiar.
"Thank you for bringing her back" he told the bird.
"My pleasure" said Athos, alighting from his perch and flapping twice to reach the door. Howard stomped out of the same doorway, looking very much like he wanted to slam the door, but thought better of it. Wizard and apprentice were alone in the kitchen. Cassandra glanced at him, and sipped her tea, uncomfortably.
"I didn't set out to be attacked" she muttered, suddenly defensive. Now that she was back in the safety of the kitchen, the whole affair seemed oddly... Unreal.
"I know, Cassandra, I know" Master Token said, quietly. He moved closer to her. "I'm glad you're safe. And so is Howard, though he expresses it poorly."
Cassandra deflated a bit, and took another sip of tea. It was the good stuff. She usually made it for master Token in the evenings.
"What was that thing anyway?"
Token sighed, sadly.
"A lindworm, I'm afraid."
His apprentice looked up sharply, but the old man appeared lost in thought. She cleared her throat.
"A lindworm, but shouldn't it be- how can it be here?"
He shrugged.
"It is difficult to tell. Perhaps it was summoned, then killed its conjurer and escaped. Or, more disturbingly, the Wards have weakened and it managed to crawl its way into our world on its own. Whatever the conduit, it appears to have found a way out of the Otherworld and into ours. And that is not good new for anyone."
"But- what are we going to do?"
Master Token chuckled, despite himself.
"Well, if Howard and myself had been in our prime, I'm sure we would have gathered up some fighters and gone after it. But we're both rather out of practise, and frankly, I doubt it will stay around for very long. It is not like an Arachnid, which is drawn towards magic, and the swamp here is not very large. No doubt it will move on. You will simply have to stay inside for a little while, that is all."
Anger flared up in her, briefly.
"But you three get to go outside, am I right?"
He met her gaze full on.
"Yes"
She flushed with anger, then with shame, then looked down into the teacup. They sat there for a little while.
"I'm sorry" she said at last. He looked at her with polite interest, and she continued, apparently talking to the teacup: "I'm sorry I'm not better at magic."
The brown liquid in the cup rippled helplessly as she tilted the container. It was true: she didn't have any truck with magic. Oh, she could understand the theory and she could learn the words and the rituals, but when it came to actually practising it... The spark she'd let off earlier today was the best she could do, and even that had left her so drained she collapsed. It didn't matter how much she tried or how much she read, she simply could not channel magic.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up into those clear, blue eyes. Bushy, grey eyebrows crowned them like caterpillars, and wrinkles surrounded them like lines in the sand, but those eyes were full of kindness, without a hint of reproach.
"Everyone has a path to walk in this world" Token said, mildly. "Even if yours is not the path of a wizardess, I still have no doubt it will be an exceptional one."
She smiled back, and brushed her cheek with one hand. It was silly, really. She hadn't shed a tear over the lindworm attack. Her smile broadened into a sheepish grin.
"Sure you wouldn't have preferred a more talented apprentice?"
The wizard puffed angrily into his moustache.
"Pff. And have some little upstart try to overthrow me down the line? No thank you; I'll take hard work over gifted brats any day."
He got up, massaging his back a little bit as he did so. He wore midnight blue robes, over which his  grey beard fell nearly to his belt. He limped to the door.
"We'd best be off to bed" he remarked. "You've had a rough day, and I haven't slept since Tuesday."
"It's Monday, Master" Cassandra volunteered.
A confused expression came over Token's features.
"Ah. Then what have I been doing the last week?"
"Actually, I think I'll stay up for a little while" Cassandra said, suddenly. Master Token was stroking his beard, muttering to himself, but turned towards his apprentice. A scrutinizing look fell on her, and she ducked her head to take another sip.
"Why?"
"Oh, just... Too rattled to sleep" she said, evasively.
He inspected her for a while in silence. Cassandra avoided his gaze.
"Cassandra" he said at last. "Promise me you won't do anything stupid."
Cassandra took another sip of tea.
"Cassandra?"
"Oh, all right!" She said loudly, straightening up. She lifted her hand for an oath. "I promise I won't do anything stupid, like Vance would. Happy? Master."
He nodded, satisfied.
"Happy" he agreed, and shuffled off to bed.
                                                                           ---
Technically, she hadn't lied, Cassandra reflected as she left the dwelling under the cover of darkness. Vance talked a big game, but he would never go into the forest at night with a monster about- so she was covered.
Nevertheless, she didn't light the lantern before she was sure the trees covered her in a more literal sense. Master Howard despised lanterns, she recalled. The only fitting lighting for an adventure was spluttering torches, or that eerie light that inexplicably occur in dark caverns just in case a human adventurer happened to be passing by. No good story could have a lantern in it.
But Cassandra liked the lantern. It was well made, and it didn't use oil, but rather a wondrous substance called phosphorus, which Token had taught her how to extract. It burnt hotter and brighter than oil, but was highly reactionary. She had enjoyed making it. It was almost like a type magic she could do without mysticism.
Her lack of occult flair was not what was on her mind today, however, but instead a rather dubious and illogical mission. Well hidden from the houses on the hill, she swept the lantern in a wide arch across the path. There were no snakes here. Whether they had all been chased away by the lindworm or whether they simply hid from the lantern wasn't clear, but without the creeping reptiles, she felt slightly reassured. Presumably the monster was hunting elsewhere this evening.
There is something disturbing about seeing a familiar place at night. Every branch and every rock casts an unfortunate shadow, merging and shifting in the light. All those stories- which you know are just stories!- come back to haunt you. Cassandra pulled the cloak tighter about herself, but carried on. She wished she had her iron rod with her; there's something awfully reassuring about a heavy metal object. But it was still in the meadow beyond the little cliff.
It was this cliff that had spurred her to leave the presumed safety of Gnoll's Keep to venture into the nocturnal darkness, and it was this cliff that now lay before her. The trees ended some few steps away from them, creating a natural clearing, and right now it was bathed in the light of the moon. The rocks looked almost like silver filigree, a fairy castle rising out of an emerald sea. The wind moved the grass gently, and she stood amongst the trees for a little while, watching it, before she approached.
She didn't know if the lindworm could burrow through rock or not. She hadn't asked Master Token, but somehow, it seemed unlikely. She wished she knew more about these creatures, but the Otherworld was really more for the advanced student, as magic went. She didn't know if the hollow in the rocks would have protected her, but she did know that it had been occupied.
And was so still.
Holding the lantern over the narrow cranny in the rock, it illuminated a tall, lithe figure, almost ethereal in appearance. It was clad in a shimmering black cloak, contrasting disturbingly against the deathly pale skin. Cassandra looked at her for a moment, quite mute, before she placed two fingers at her throat, checking for a heartbeat. It was weak, but it was there.
The skin was cold as ice.
Whoever she was, she was in a bad shape. Her strange clothing was torn, and she noticed a number of cuts and bruises on her face and hands. She inspected the larger wounds with some trepidation, tracing them with hand. Flipping away the snow-white hair from the other girl's temple, Cassandra suppressed a hiss.
She had expected the wound to continue for a while. Luckily, once the hair was removed she saw that it did not.
It also revealed that the figure in the rock had pointed ears.