Chapter six: New Faces
She began to run, out of fear that she would be too slow and the next stair that collapsed would take her down with it. Then what help would she be to Mizunokierer? A sharp pain formed in her side as she ran, forcing her to slow.
There seemed to be a type of light at the bottom of the stairs. She coaxed herself on.
Once she reached the bottom, and the last stair crumbled, she collapsed to the ground out of pure exhaustion. She had done too much running in too short a time. She lay there on her knees with her head down, waiting for her breathing to calm. Her purple nightgown was torn, nearly to shreds.
After a few minutes she looked up. There was a platform in the shape of a dodecagon, raised up two feet from the original height of the floor. There seemed to be symbols carved into the floor but she couldn’t quite make them out. Time had eroded most of them away. She looked around the rest of the room. All that was in the room were a few rocks/boulders, the platform and a six-foot mirror. There was nothing else.
There was nothing here that seemed to her like a power base except for the platform. And if that was the case she was going to have a bit of a problem carrying it around with her for when she needed it. She looked over to the mirror and eyed herself. She sighed once again and a weariness entered her eyes that seemed to make her look much, much older. She stared at herself. She watched as the person in the mirror stared back, copying her moves exactly. It didn’t quite look like her, she thought. She smiled and the foreign person smiled back. She moved forward and touched the mirror. Their hands touched.
“ You wouldn’t happen to know what my base of power is, would you?” She then laughed, mocking herself.
The image changed. It grinned at her. Caprice looked at the mirror and took her hand off of it. It stretched, grew taller. Her hair grew longer and into a complex hairdo that involved four long swoops of hair ending around her mid-back/butt. Her clothes changed. It was the woman she had seen earlier in her dreams. The Original Cassiopeia. She just stood there looking Caprice up and down with what seemed to be disdain.
“Well now.” She said her eyes stopping on Caprices face. “You are what I’ll look like in several hundred years, millennia or whatever, eh?”
“What do you mean ‘several hundred years’?” Caprice questioned. She refused to be frightened of herself. “You’ve been dead quite some time now.”
Cassiopeia threw her head back and laughed.
“Only in your time, little one! Right now there is a mob outside, and waiting with them is the one I most fear. The one who will kill me. This I know. This will be my last night alive as myself.” She looked down for a second. Her face was sad and a little angry. She looked up and said with a sudden fury. “I do not wish to die like this!”
“But wasn’t the one who killed you- or the one that’s going to kill you… isn’t she…”
“The most powerful in the universe? Supposedly. Maybe there are ones that are stronger than her but I doubt they would interfere to save me… I am quite the black sheep among our kind, you see. When I was created I was never given a sense of right or good. Instead I was created neutral. I don’t know why this happened. It’s the heart that chooses whether I fight for good or evil.” She smiled wickedly and spread her arms. “And you probably know what this heart chose.”
“Yes… In the stories you are known as the ‘unholy one’…”
Caprice said.
“’THE UNHOLY ONE?!?!” Cassiopeia pressed her face and hands against the glass. “Not even ‘The beautiful unholy one’?… Or the ‘Great unholy one’? Just ‘The Unholy One?!”
Caprices eyes grew wide. “Hey, don’t get mad at me. I didn’t make it up!”
Cassiopeia sighed. “I guess then that what will be, will be. I probably don’t have time to complain anyway.” She looked back at Caprice, very seriously. “This will be the last thing I do with my full powers. I know that there will be twelve mages where you are trying to protect my Transformational Pen. Out of these twelve, one is my secret agent. He’s on our side. Watch for him when you destroy the others. He’ll help you. He is a good man and very important to me.” It sounded as if Cassiopeias voice had grown heavy.
Caprice squirmed a little then nodded.
“Now I’m going to transfer my powers all into you. Press your hand against the glass.”
Caprice did what she was told, then Cassiopeia placed hers right on top, then shut her eyes. There was a sudden jolt that speeded up her arm, that snapped her eyes open. The energy spread through her body but stopped at the heart.
“There… Those are your powers. I also installed a little bit of myself in you as a type of insurance. When the time comes to fight you will know what to do. I have just enough power left in me to finish this, then destroy my star seed. I just had to see you to make sure that I would be, in fact, reborn. I will leave with my people a prophecy about my next rise that will ensure that they ever forget that I am to come back. If they are wise they will give up and die the second they know you are awake. Once your full powers have come back, do as I say. Strike back at those who would oppose you with a vengeance. Show no mercy. Take out on them, my revenge. At the end of the fight everything will stop in this kingdom. Do you hear me?”
Caprice nodded. She twisted her hands with worry, not quite wanting to create the bloodbath she was being commanded to create but then she thought of Mizunokierer and put all doubts behind her. She nodded again, more convincingly.
“After you fulfill the prophecy then you are to go out into the reaches of outer space and train yourself. You must become strong. Stronger than I am now, in case Galaxia should ever arise to claim your star seed again. I want her to have a worthy foe. An opponent who is either her equal or better. After you become strong you will then return to your rightful constellation and expand its borders. But be careful. The other warriors of the constellations are out there. Some may aid you, but most will fight you. I know many of the constellations. But most of all beware of the constellation of Pegasus. For I know her quite well. We are enemies. There will be many battles ahead in your future. I envy you. But this is all the time I have left. But remember…
Death among our kind is not necessarily permanent or final. We always come back.” She concluded fiercely.
With those final words Cassiopeia faded leaving the mirror a swirling mist of colors where she had been.
Caprice hit the mirror with her fist frusteratedly. “But how do I find the freakin’ transformational pen! Noo.. you couldn’t think to tell me that, now could you?!”
Cassiopeias image swirled back up so suddenly that Caprice jumped back and fell on her butt.
“Whine! Whine! Whine! Is that all I’m ever going to do in the future?! You’d think that I gave you enough help but nooooo… you want me to do practically everything for you, don’t you?” Cassiopeia huffed at her. “Just go and stand on the platform in the middle and call to it for goddesses sake!”
The picture faded once again. Caprice blinked and got up, a sheepish expression on her face. She double-checked the mirror to make sure that she was really gone this time. Finding nothing she turned to the platform and climbed on.
She paused a second, as she scraped her knee to rub it a little then stood up telling herself not to be a baby. She walked to the middle and then began calling out to whatever it was Cassiopeia had so reluctantly described to her. She paused as she saw a black abyss appear before her with a glowing light inside of it. It molded itself into a of pen with a symbol on top of it. Caprice reached forward with her mind and gripped it, pulling it out into reality.
The pen materialized in front of her. She reached out and grabbed it. Gray mists swirled around the ground and shaped themselves into people with dark red cloaks, one at each point of the dodecagon.
The twelve Mages… Caprice thought. She looked around and tried to figure out which one was on her side. She looked back towards the mirror and face-vaulted. Cassiopeia was back and grinning at one of the mages, giving a ‘happy face’ thumbs up. Caprice looked over to the mage Cassiopeia was looking at and saw him in his scariness turning and giving her an exuberant peace sign.
A giant sweatdrop appeared on Caprices head as she looked back at Cassiopeia, who promptly gave hera thumbs up and a wink before disappearing again.
Caprice gave another look to the mage on her side. He was merely sitting there looking all gloomy and scary now that Cassiopeia was gone. Then, suddenly, some of mages raised their hands towards Caprice and spoke in a foreign tongue. A burning sensation erupted throughout her entire being and she screamed. Then the Mage who was supposedly on her side turned to the others and began attacking them. He turned to her, his hood falling back to reveal dark black hair that fell in his face covering his pale white skin that came down to his shoulders, baby fine, and dark blue eyes. He stared intently at her and then spoke.
“Hurry up and transform to your true form. I will not be able to hold them off long.” He gave her a dazzling smile then turned his full attention back towards the eleven other mages.
A different mage yelled at him. “I always suspected you of treason! You were too close to the creature to make good judgements! You were corrupted by that filth! She is evil and must be destroyed!”
“No.” Her mages voice was firm, sad and calm. “Things are never so simple as to be black and white.” His power grew. “No matter what she was… I would, and I will, follow her.” He blasted the ones in front of him, his supposed compatriots. He looked at her. “Transform! Now!”
She gathered her courage then nodded. She felt the words rise from deep within her.
“Constellation of Cassiopeia! Star Power.. MAKE UP!”
“NOOO!!” The other mages began to scream.
She felt herself grow several inches and her hair lengthen and go up into the hair style of Cassiopeia. Her fuku appeared along with her staff. The Pen disappeared. Her tiara blazed to life upon her forehead. After around a minute her transformation was complete. She raised her staff and pointed towards the opposing mages.
“Beauteous dark Cyclone!” The energy gathered above her head and ran down her hands, into her staff. She blasted it out towards the mages.
The only ones left standing were her mage, and herself.
He turned to her smiling sadly.
“There’s my Cassiopeia…” He spoke comfortingly. He knelt in front of her, his long black hair falling slightly into his face. “With your awakening we awoke once again as mortal beings. I am alive again, only to be with you. To serve and aid you my Queen. I will be by your side for as long as Father time permits me.” He looked up at her searching her face.
“I.. I’m sorry. I don’t remember everything yet. But thank you. I’ll try to do my best not to disappoint.” She looked back at him, slightly bewildered, but relieved that she now had a friend who was fully on her side. She would not have to be alone in this.
“My name… Is Leo.” He bowed to her once again.
“Leo…” The name sounded very familiar. Like something from a dream that she just couldn’t place…
A blast of light flashed brightly in front of her and struck Leo. He screamed and fell forward, his energy level rocketing towards non-existence. Towards death. One of the mages who opposed her was still alive. He grinned at having finally struck a blow against the evil ones then collapsed, dead.
“No!! Leo No! Don’t die please!!!! Don’t leave me!” She began to cry. She ran over to him and gathered him into her arms weeping. She had just found a friend. Someone to be with her through this and now he was leaving her alone.
He opened his eyes and just looked up at her, sad. “It always seems that once we are together again that the other one has to depart. I’m so sorry.” He leaned back and began to fade back into mist. His voice echoed throughout the room.
“No matter where you go. Who you become or what you are… I will find you again. That was our promise to each other long ago. But remember… The heart.. The heart determines everything. Goodbye, Cassiopeia. I have always loved you.”
Tears streamed down her face for the stranger she had just met. He was warm and kind but now he was gone. What made it worse was that she couldn’t even remember who he was in her previous life. And yet… since the second she saw his eyes once again… she knew that she had loved him at one time. Maybe even still.
But now he was gone.