Chapter 147: A tired hero is a useless hero
The meeting went late into the night. Everyone looked tired, but Lady Fiona looked particularly exhausted. Cass knew that the woman was attempting to turn over a new leaf, even if he couldn’t forgive her completely for her actions, that didn’t mean he was blind.
He wanted to help her in some way, but he wasn’t quite sure how he could.
While everyone else was getting up, Lord Ridgewood being the first to get to his feet and offer Lady Fiona some help, Cass remained seated, along with Draken. They watched as Lady Fiona turned him down and Cass swore he heard Draken sigh quietly beside him. Cass resisted the urge to look at him as Lord Ridgewood accepted the rejection gracefully, bid everyone else goodnight, and left the room. Vespertine was next, getting to his feet with Lady Ava following sullenly behind him.
"I wish we could be of assistance, but I’m afraid we have some prayers we need to complete." Vespertine told Lady Fiona. Lady Fiona was clearly awkward around Lady Ava, and it was the same for her. Both women were stiff, awkward, and honestly, Vespertine wasn’t much better. Cass had heard that they had been hanging out more, but from what he was witnessing, things were not going well.
As an avid romance reader, he could tell that something was very much off. If he had more time to probe, he might have, but he also knew that these two would view any questions he asked about them as interest.
He knew from experience. He did not want to give them any false hope. Cass was not interested in the slightest.
"Thank you for the thought, Edgar. I hope the both of you have a good night. We’ll see you in two days." Lady Fiona said with a smile. It was tight, didn’t reach her eyes, and Draken sighed quietly again. Once the door had closed behind the siblings, Draken pushed his chair back loudly.
"Wife." He started, and Cass blinked. As did Lady Fiona as she turned to meet Draken’s rather serious gaze. "You should get some rest. Any of the concerns you have racing through your head aren’t going to get better if you don’t rest." Draken’s footsteps were loud, nearly shaking the furniture in the room as he approached her. He crossed his arms, his pecs bulging with the movement and even Lady Fiona had a hard time not looking.
Cass was glad he wasn’t the only one who got distracted by that.
"Well, I’m just fi-"
"Don’t lie to me." Draken said softly, and Lady Fiona shut her mouth. Cass was surprised to see how different her relationship with Draken was compared to the one he had with both of them. This felt...Draken clearly had the upper hand in this relationship, where Cass was pretty sure he had the upper hand in the relationship he had with both of them. "I don’t want to speak for Cassian, but I know I am worried about you. You’ve been working a lot. I have a feeling I know why, and I won’t harp on you for that, but you need to take two days off. Hand off some of the more physical stuff to me." Draken said firmly and Lady Fiona’s expression soured.
"I can’t just hand off my duties to-"
"Why not? I’m your husband, am I not? What else am I here for if not for you to rely on me in times of need?" Draken said, without malice, and Lady Fiona seemed to be struggling. Cass decided it was time to add his own two cents to this conversation.
"I agree with Draken. What good are you going to be in the dungeon if you are overworked, tired, and irritable?" Cass scoffed. "Especially while also being one of the people we are going to be relying on to keep us safe? Hand some of the duties over to me. I’ve been given the go ahead to use my hands, and while I am still working slow, it’s still better than nothing." Lady Fiona’s expression grew pale.
"But you already have so much work to do! I don’t want to-" Cass waved a hand dismissively, silencing her. It almost looked like she was swallowing her tongue. Cass smirked, shaking his head.
"Don’t worry about that. I’ve just been playing the role of the good grandson, it’s okay for me to take a break to help out my wife." Cass said and Draken turned, giving him a bright smile.
"See? Even Cassian agrees that he is worried! Let us help." Draken pushed. Lady Fiona glanced between the two of them, her gaze full of trepidation. She seemed greatly reluctant to give any of this up, and Cass wasn’t sure if it was because she was worried they would fuck it up, or if she didn’t want to hand over her power.
Cass wondered if it was a bit of both, subconscious or not.
"I’ll make sure to run choices past you, Lady Fiona, but you do need to rest. Make sure you get some sleep tonight, otherwise I’m going to send Byron to monitor you. He’s going to be worse than Draken about making sure you rest too." Cass was not afraid to use Byron to threaten her. Only because he knew that Sam wouldn’t leave his side, and Sam could and would educate Byron in the ways he pestered Cass.
All in good faith. Sam never meant harm. And Byron would have Draken’s strength, and ability to sense if things were off. Honestly, Cass was liking this plan the more he thought on it. Byron would also be a good character to get some spying done, see what else was going on.
"Actually, I insist. Byron’s a good boy to have by your side, and he’ll be able to reach me quickly if you need me." Cass said, a smile touching his lips. Draken looked a little less enthused, and so did Lady Fiona.
"Cassian, I don’t need-"
"He’s been vetted by Draken, and trained by him in some regards, so you know he’ll be able to help you in a pickle. He’s strong, and he’s only just started working on his letters. So he isn’t able to report things back to me in that regard." Cass told her with a warm smile. Lady Fiona, as if at her wits end, pulled out a chair and sat down, putting her head in her hands.
"Why is that something you would bring up? I’m not worried about you of all people spying on me. If you wanted to, you would have already planted people by my side." Lady Fiona mumbled, and Cass felt his eyes widen, before a smile touched his lips. He was glad to see that she knew Lord Blackburn well enough to know that. Cass didn’t know if he had planted people by her side.
He had a feeling that he had.
When Lady Fiona looked up at him, as if to confirm her statement and just found him smiling at her, she sighed, shaking her head.
"I know you two want to help, hell, everyone does, but I just...I don’t feel comfortable giving my workload to you. This is the weight that the hero has to carry. It’s part of the duties I have to fulfill as the hero." Lady Fiona’s face scrunched up, and from this close Cass was able to tell how deep her bags under her eyes were.
She looked so much like Cass’ sister in the moment that his heart ached. Fuck.
"Whether the others know it or not, you are not alone anymore, are you?" Cass said and Lady Fiona jerked her head back, meeting Cass’ knowing, soft gaze. "So, you shouldn’t have any problems giving some of it to me, hmm? Maybe this is what they meant when they assigned me here? To help you out with anything you need." Cass wasn’t above lying about the mission the ’gods’ gave him.
Not if it got him what he wanted.
He needed Lady Fiona at her best. Especially since tensions between her and Lady Ava were high. Plus, he would also like to see what kind of paperwork a hero had to do, and what kind of bullshit bureaucratic shit she had to put up with? If it was something stupid, or ’simple’ in his and Lord Blackburn’s eyes, he wouldn’t mind dealing with it, especially as he was getting used to his magic. He was almost ready to start moving onto more delicate work. Like writing, or flipping pages.
If he moved onto that kind of thing successfully, he would have more free time to scheme, since he wouldn’t have to spend as long as he was writing letters by hand. He would be a real magic user.
Plus, he had a feeling that some of the nobles were talking down to Lady Fiona. It was just a hunch, and he was fairly certain he wasn’t wrong. She was a ’commoner’ to everyone. The King hadn’t claimed her yet. That didn’t happen until about two months after this dungeon, at a grand party Lord Blackburn had been unable to attend because of his ’monthlies’.
If Cass was going to try to get into her good books, this was a good way to do so. And, she might be more open to a divorce if that was the case. Cass was grinning widely as he stared at Lady Fiona.
Eventually, she just sighed, giving in, and Cass knew that they had won.
"I...fine. I understand what you are saying. It’s the least I can do if you’re so insistent. I will...go to bed on time tonight, shortly after I get back to my chambers. I will send over some of the work in the morning." She seemed greatly pained to give it up, but Cass just nodded, smiling.
"Thank you for taking our concern seriously." Cass told her and she didn’t seem pleased about it.
"I feel uneasy now that you two are close enough to gang up on me." Cass snorted.
"Well, now you know how I’ve felt all this time." It was meant to be a joke, but Cass was pretty sure everyone else in the room took it poorly. Cass forcibly ignored that and smiled. "Now that everything is sorted, I have to go have a late snack and head to bed myself. Good night you two. I shall hear from you in the morning, Lady Fiona." Cass warned and she sighed.
"Yes. I did just promise that, Cassian." She confirmed and Cass gave her a warm smile.
"Good. Don’t make me have to chase you down for those papers. You won’t like the results." Cass warned before he left with Sam. He had a little pep to his step as he headed back to his chambers. That had been fun. Maybe he should do that kind of threatening more?