Chapter Text
The Whitestone's winter day was chilling to the bone. Its castle walls were tall and impenetrable. And Kaylie was furious. Just as many times before that the cause of her furry lay in her father. In theory, his idea sounded like a good plan.
"Let's meet in Whitestone", he said, "It's gonna be fun! My old crew is gathering there. We can have some obnoxiously fancy vacation. Come on, this place has everything: heated roads that never freeze in winter, a posh castle with absurdly big baths for some reason, a proud historical legacy of fighting the undead. What better place to have proper father-daughter time?! I bet, they even have a music room for you to practice before the audition."
If anything it sounded like an experience. The first time she arrived at the damned city was to witness her father's dead body. The second was after her kidnapping by a wannabe-god, and she was out of it for the most part both times. Things could only go up from there, right? So far it didn't look like it. For starters, when she arrived at settled time, the beloved parent was nowhere to be found. That was nothing new for Scanlan. Honestly, he was doing much better in the whole "family department" thing. And again it's not hard to miss each other by a day when one is travelling from Kymal and the other from Emon. Still, it rubbed Kaylie the wrong way.
The next unpleasant discovery was the fact that Whitestone Castle was guarded by an exclusive kind of unapproachable prick. Neither wits nor charm could persuade the brute that she, a gnomish bard with attitude, is indeed related to another gnomish bard with attitude – fabled Scanlan Shorthalt and as such expected in the castle. Kicking him in a shin and calling him a dick probably didn't help her case. So now she was stuck in the castle's public gardens – the closest thing to her destination – in the freezing dead of winter, out of spells or means of communication for the day. A reasonable thing to do would be to go back to the city and find a place to stay for the night. A reasonable thing to do was for pussys. Thus she was making rounds around the area and venting at stupid cubic-shaped bushes.
"Fuck, shit, balls, goddammit!"
"Are you frustrated in general, or at the briar bushes specifically?"
"How is that your business?" - Kaylie stared daggers at the young noblewoman who was leaning back on the bench and holding a tablet with some kind of papers on her lap.
"Just curious", she shrugged. Her face had that aloof expression that few people could imitate and every cat mastered. She was definitely noble – simple but immaculately tailored fur-lined jacked left no room for mistake – but if she was offended by Kaylie's rant she didn't show it.
First I can't persuade a guard, now this high-born cow is not impressed by my swears. I must be losing it.
Kaylie gave the noble a closer look. A girl was roughly her age in human years, yet her hair already had a few strikes of white. Interesting.
"Aye, can't stand the sight of a fuckin' thing. Cursed bush killed my whole family." It was a poor attempt at a joke, but then again her day wasn't stellar either.
"Is that so?" A shade went over the stranger's face for a second. She bent her head as if she heard something curious, "Anyway, that briar is quite uncharacteristically not cursed." She followed with the most neutral expression.
That was the most mockingly cool reaction to the death of the family news Kaylie had seen in a while. If she had been in a better mood she would have laughed. I guess, that's the creepy vampire city heritage for you. All right, I can take a joke as well.
"What, you have a menu of cursed stuff to choose from?"
"Let me think", the girl furrowed her brow as if gathering thoughts, "We are a bit short on undead lately. There are always extremely cursed woods with a rich variety of flora and fauna, but it's a bit far to go on foot… Widows Garden is a lovely place – private and lots of poisonous plants, but then again it's not for the public. I'm afraid, the closest thing to attraction here is a gazebo."
Kaylie blinked her eyes very slowly. The problem with the girl was that she said everything with such an unfazed expression that it provided virtually no context. Right now she dropped an unrecognisable word and expected some kind of reaction. If the smart-ass wanted to make a fool of her, Kaylie wasn't going to stand for it. She just needed a bit more information.
If her linguistic intuition was worth anything, gazebo sounded like a goristro's cousin of some sorts. Father had told her tales of him befriending the fiendish minotaur. According to him, it was an extremely aggressive creature prone to rampages if not tamed by magic. It wouldn't make any sense for a normal garden in a normal city to have one. But nothing about this day, or this city, or this girl who was reciting the list of local cursed objects as a small talk was normal.
"What colour is it?", Kaylie started probing for clues.
"Why? Do you have a preference?"
"Well, you tell me one useless piece of information, might as well throw in another."
"It's white, I think."
That made sense in the snowy environment – light-coloured fur was harder to spot and probably kept the creature warm. "Mimicking motherfucker."
"How far away is it?"
"About 150 feet, maybe. It's just nearby."
For a hellish monster, it was far nearer than Kaylie wished it ever would be. She took a glance at her surroundings, trying to look as cool as possible. Nothing resembling the creature was in the vicinity. Which meant it was either even stealthier than she thought or intentionally hidden. Kaylie was hoping for the latter – that would make the local authorities not completely insane.
"How big is it?"
The girl paused for a second, "It's about 30 feet across, 15 feet high. Do you...want me to take you there?", she uttered nonchalantly.
Some daredevil part of Kaylie really wanted to, another rational part hinted that the whole situation had gone completely off the rails.
"Is it tame, at least?"
"I'm not sure that word can be applied to gazebo…", the girl's expression was a bit perplexed.
"It surely can't", Kaylie made a mental sigh. At this point, she gave up being subtle and went into full gather-the-information mode.
"Is it vulnerable to anything?"
Now it was the girl's turn to take a long pause and blink very slowly.
"I guess… to fire or you could try to chop it with an axe… I suppose, but I don't know why anybody would even try. Honestly, I've never seen anybody putting so much thought into a decision about whether or not to see a gazebo…"
"Well, it is a monster."
There was another pregnant pause.
"It's a small house. With open sides. To sit in it. And enjoy the view."
One should give credit to the noble upbringing – she managed to get to the end of the sentence before covering her face with her hands and bursting with laughter.
There is a limit to how much bad luck you can have in one day and stay angry about it. Kaylie could feel something cracking inside of her with that last bit of information. She wanted to hold onto her anger, really wanted to… but the world was too absurd, this day was especially absurd and this situation even more so. She folded onto herself and rocked with laughter.
Also, as Kaylie noticed after the first blow of emotion, the stranger had a surprisingly good laugh. Not sarcastic, by any means, and very genuine. It made her look almost like a normal, alive person. It weirdly agreed with her, like sleep agreed with the sleep-deprived. She could use more of those.
The girl took a deep breath collecting herself, "Please, pardon me. I did not realise that my language was confusing. I meant no disrespect…"
"You were giving me a list of local cursed sights. How does a garden house come into that equation?"
"I was attempting a joke… What I meant is, there's nothing to see in particular…"
"Well, you surely succeed.", Kaylie puffed with fake irritation.
"I'm sorry!", the girl gave her an apologetic look, "How about I give you a proper tour around the place?"
"I've been touring here for a while, but I'd love to see a gazebo now. Name's Kaylie by the way."
"Where are my manners… I'm Cassandra. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. It's this way." She rose from the bench and made an inviting gesture.
The Gazebo was indeed nearby, proudly facing a small frozen pond. It was indeed white and quite successfully blended with the environment. Kaylie went in the middle of it and tapped her foot on the wooden floor.
"Well, it's a bit anticlimactic."
"Gazebos tend to be", Cassandra smiled slightly, "You are not from here, are you?"
"Naw, from Kymal. Small town – rich on coal and cheap booze, not on scenery or fancy tents."
"That's quite a long way. What brings you here?"
"I was going to meet with my father, but the old bastard got lost somewhere along the way."
"When was the last time you heard of him?", Cassandra frowned.
"Three days, give or take."
"Maybe, it's time to alert the scouts – like I said the woods are dangerous and things can happen even on safer roads."
"Ah, I'm sure he's fine. Punctuality is not exactly Scanlan's virtue. I'll send him a message tomorrow."
"Oh, all right then."
Her companion relaxed, tension leaving her shoulders a bit too easy at the mention of the bard's name. Kaylie searched with her eyes a better subject for conversation than family matters. Her gaze stumbled on the tablet in Cassandra's hands.
"What's that?"
"Oh, nothing interesting. Some drafts for the future population census. It's like … a list of how many people live in the city and general information about them."
"I know what a census is, thank you kindly."
"I merely didn't want to assume things any further."
"Is it something you want to do now, though?"
"At least set things on track. Why?"
"It's about two weeks before the Winter's Crest. People worry about where to get a nice piggy for a festive table, not about filling in the questionnaire. But more importantly quarter of them are going to drink themselves up to the Raven Queen's alley. What good will all that data be then?"
Cassandra opened then closed her mouth and rubbed the back of her neck. She looked lost.
That's the part where she tells you to go fuck yourself. Serves you right, Kaylie. You just couldn't keep your opinion to yourself.
"Well, those things take a few months to organise anyway.", Cassandra still had an expression of a person who bit more than they could chew and got caught in the process.
Something was off about the whole situation. Not the stupid conversation about how to kill a garden decoration and the follow-up, the fact that they were having a conversation. Cassandra was a lady - notoriously unapproachable kin in general and for the likes of Kaylie specifically. She acted unapproachable, yet she turned out to be the easiest person to approach so far.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"By all means."
"Why are we talking?"
"Don't you want to?"
"I do, what I meant is – all I did was throw a bunch of swears at you and interview you on the subject of a deformed greenhouse. What exactly told you 'Hey, let's give her a guiding tour'?"
Cassandra gave a chuckle and took a moment to think over the answer, "What if I tell you, it was the first normal conversation I had in a while."
"That is your idea of a normal conversation?"
"I guess, it's not the most conventional example of one. But if you think that was a strange interaction you should see my average day. Once, I was woken up in the middle of the night, because somebody had made a very lucky shot at the spinning orb in the basement. To be fair, it was a very important orb and that all makes sense in context."
Kaylie gave her a once-over. She could tell by the tone, the girl wasn’t bragging. Just describing a curious Thursday at best. Or she was bragging but didn’t show it, which made it even cooler.
"I'd surely love to hear that story."
"Maybe sometime. What I want to say is the ability to manage emotions while engaging with insanity comes with the job. You didn't come to me with requests, or emergencies, or empty talk to be polite –"
"I surely didn't."
"You were just... venting your frustration."
There was a peculiar undertone to the last part – a very careful excitement as if she never used those words together before. Usually, people sound like that when they speak a foreign language first time in public.
"That's sounds… just impossibly sad."
"I didn't mean it that way. Anyway, it's getting late."
"Dahm right it is. I should probably get back to the city."
"Nonsense, you were supposed to stay in the castle, weren't you?"
"Well, yes, but –"
"Let's go, I'll let the guards know you'll be staying."
It took Kaylie a moment to understand what her companion was saying.
"It's Lady Cassandra, I presume?"
"It is."
"And that's your castle."
"It is."
"And I've made a fool of myself."
"Maybe a little. Shall we?", as they were getting closer to the castle, Cassandra was back to her aloof persona.
Kaylie narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "What, just like that?"
The lady shrugged, "If you are impersonating somebody to get into the castle, you've made an odd choice. Even if that's the case, I can think of at least two people write away who can prove your identity. I don't believe that would be necessary, though. You do have your father's bone structure and abrasiveness". She uttered the last phrase with a sly but courteous smile.
At the end of the day, Kaylie did make it to the castle. And she did manage to charm her way in, in a sense. As she was passing through the small gait she noticed her fury fading.