By now, she knew this was just a memory Cassian teased out of her like the melody of a broken snow-globe. However, every time she lapsed onto that strain of truth, a rush of confusion shrouded her thinking.
Maybe everything is an illusion…
A smile formed on her face as soon as the thought passed. It gave her a sense of peace to think of her memories as different rooms with doors that could be opened or closed at any time. Sometimes, she would see her father and feel the utmost love. On bad days, she would see Cassian’s shadow and tremble. Perhaps “peace” wasn’t the right word, but if she believed these visions weren’t a mechanism of being trapped inside a gilded cage, she could keep finding the energy to push onward.
Cassian spread her legs over his thigh, and he lightly tapped his heel against the wooden floor. As her pelvic bone bounced against his kneecap, Rae counted the exact number of spiders she saw hanging on the dirty cobwebs above the doorway to the living room. Eight legs on all of them. She imagined plucking each out. Was that how Cassian felt when he saw her running away?
Her father simply bowed his head like a fanatic, one of the crazed people in the cities she’d had heard so much about. He praised the accomplishments of his veterans, of his skillful planning and fortitude.
“But let’s discuss what you came to discuss,” her father said.
A jagged grin cut against one side of Cassian’s cheek. “Which is?”
“You have a liking for the girl. Don’t play any games with me, sir.”
He stopped bouncing his heel. Rae squirmed away to her papa, and Cassian let her run.
Pulling on her father’s work clothes, she began to cry. “Daddy, please. I want to stay with you.”
“It’s okay, sweetie,” he whispered. A shiver of darkness ran through her, but her father made no attempt at squelching her fear. “How much is she worth to you?”
“Ten thousand chips,” Cassian said.
Hot air fell from the man’s mouth as he pretended to think about the number. Obviously, it was a great offer. Ten thousand chips would get him through the next five years of instability. It just might save his life.
“I might need some time to think,” he said.
Cassian reached for his belt. A fairly large leather satchel hung off the side, full of lifesaving coins. As he dangled his fingers around the bottom of the bag, they jingled loud enough to tantalize the father.
“Time is something that I no longer have,” Cassian said. “The city of Dagon will fall any day now.”
“Then, so be it. It is the lord’s way,” he said, voice trailing low until it disappeared completely.
“Yes. The lord’s way,” Cassian repeated.
Rae’s father lifted an eyebrow and actually smiled with sudden joy. “Shall we pray?”
Religion was the one thing that had lasted throughout the ages. The passages from the great scrolls could be taken, twisted, molded like the clay that supposedly made men. It was a tool of control much like everything else in this grotesque world.
Cassian stood up and kneeled in front of the girl. “Come. We don’t have to play games anymore. You know what happens next,” he said to her.
Rae walked toward him and put her arms around his portly neck. “Will it hurt like last time?”
Cassian nodded and took her hand. Unfurling her index finger, he dragged a sharpened nail across the skin. “Pain is simply your body’s response to weakness. If it hurts, it is entirely your fault.”
He pressed the tip of his nail until a thin pool of blood formed.
“Ouch!” Rae jerked her arm back and dipped her finger onto the bed of her soft and healing tongue.
Weakness.
She took his hand and watched Cassian channel his blade out of its sheath. “You are mine now.”
She nodded. “So be it. The lord has spoken.”
Quick and easy, he sliced her father’s throat clean through. Sprays of blood showered onto Rae’s nose. Unlatching the leather satchel on his hip, he let the coins fall onto his graying body.
The front door swung wildly as the house started to deconstruct into ashes. Outside, the landscape turned into a darkened mess. He pulled her toward the open storm, laughing wildly.