Chapter 198: You’ve earned this cold shoulder
Cass didn’t remember casting the magic, but that was okay. This was more of an instinctual reaction than anything else.
One moment, he was surrounded by man meat, the next second, both men were 10 feet away from him on either side, both looking shocked, stunned that Cass had done it. Cass wasted no time in getting away from them. He would rather be around Lady Ava who hurt him just being around her, and Lord Ridgewood who was treating him like a deadly disease then those fuckers right now.
Cass was fine with that, stomping towards the trio in the distance, not even caring about the fact that he’d had people helping him through the severe magic use he’d just gone through. His new plan? Never have to use that level of magic again so that he wasn’t vulnerable like that. And get his body into shape.
He needed to get into shape. It was going to help all aspects of his life.
He couldn’t be collapsing like this again, not if that was the result.
Cass’ heart was racing in his chest, and he raised a hand to clench at it as he made his way with determination towards the others. He didn’t spare the other men a glance, not even caring if they were fine, safe, or anything else. They could figure it out as far as Cass was concerned.
They were big enough men to pin a man between them, they could figure the rest of this shit out on their own.
Fiona looked up with a smile as Cass approached. Lady Ava looked tired, but she also looked happy to see him as he approached. Lord Ridgewood glanced at him, but then looked away.
"Cass! Are you feeling better?" Fiona asked warmly and Cass nodded, clearing his throat before he answered.
"Yes. I am doing much better." Cass told her. He had apparently gathered himself enough that they weren’t saying anything about his condition, or they were being polite enough not to ask about it. Given how they had behaved so far, he couldn’t imagine them being polite about that in the slightest. He could only assume that he’d gotten better on the walk over.
Cass didn’t look up when the others joined them only a few minutes later as Lady Ava was wrapping up her use of power. Cass was feeling a little more attuned to her use of power, his arms and legs feeling a little weak, but he wasn’t going to let that show.
Not after he found out what happened when he let the others know. Cass could still feel the heat of the two men pressed against him.
See if that ever happened again. He was weak, vulnerable, but he wasn’t a fucking idiot. See if they could try to take advantage of him like that again!
~
The rest of the day went without much to note.
They didn’t run into anything else that was as interesting as the chest and the mini boss. They spent more time wandering through hallways with the help of Lucian’s nose. The tension in the air, the thick miasma of the place was pressing down on everyone now though. Cass could feel it like a second skin, as could the others. He could tell just by looking at them.
The two who looked the most ill were Lady Ava and Lord Ridgewood, while Cass and Vespertine probably were doing the best out of everyone. Cass would shiver every once in a while, the fairy blood in his body hating the miasma, but there was something else...something lingering inside of Cass that the more it was exposed to this level of miasma, the more...relaxed it felt.
Cass ignored that. He wasn’t going to look at that spot clearly until he was forced to, and doing so in a dungeon where he was already jumpy, and had already found out too much about himself? Fuck whoever made this dungeon, but Cass just wasn’t going to do it.
Call it stupidity, or ignorance, or anything else. Cass knew his fucking limits, and he was at them. So, when they eventually settled down to make camp and everyone separated to eat their own dinners, Cass didn’t look over any book while he ate. Instead, he went through his memories, pulling out the parts of his lessons with Lucian so that he could better talk to Lady Ava about her powers moving forward.
He was also doing a bang up job avoiding both Vespertine and Lucian. He could tell that Lucian was upset about that. Looking like a damn kicked puppy every time Cass turned away from his touch, but the dumb idiot hadn’t even fucking apologised for what he had done! Cass was not going to allow him near him until he heard an apology, sleeping in the same tent or otherwise!
Vespertine at least looked like he was apologetic. He too, didn’t apologise, but his actions spoke louder than Lucian’s. He was remorseful, and Cass couldn’t exactly avoid him as well as he could with Lucian since they were next to each other in the formation.
Vespertine did his best to put some distance between them, giving Cass the space he was practically glaring for, while also attempting to still help him in subtle ways. Cass could also tell that the rest of the group had noticed the dynamic shift, and Cass hated that more than anything else.
He could feel that Fiona wanted to ask about it. Cass knew that was the case, but he was kind of avoiding her too. So he was left with very few options for defense from the others. While Cass didn’t really want to hang out with Lady Ava, hanging out with Lord Ridgewood sounded exhausting.
He just knew the man would open his mouth and ask a bunch of questions if he opened up that can of worms. Cass was already exhausted, he didn’t need to be bone deep tired. He was still recovering from yesterday.
So, when dinner was over, everything else was set up, Cass called Lady Ava to a little spot still close by, but far enough away that they had a little bit of privacy to talk. Cass could feel how everyone was watching them, but Cass didn’t take it personally.
They were slightly out of the circle, they were both delicate, and both had gone through something heavily involving their powers. Even if Cass had barely used his magic the rest of the day, he was still at a base level weaker than everyone else. Everyone was going to watch them.
There was also Lady Ava’s most recent mentality shift, but hey, Cass was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt while they were in the dungeon. For survival purposes.
"Alright, Lady Ava, let’s start from the beginning. I’m sure you’ve read magic books, yes?" Cass asked, turning to face her and found that Lady Ava had a complicated look on her face.
"Uh, first off, why are you calling me Lady Ava? You called me Ava earlier in the day." She pouted, looking upset and Cass stared at her. He was surprised that was something she was having an issue with.
"You are Lady Ava, and I don’t think we are close enough for me to call you by your name. You were also in a distressed state, so calling you by just your name seemed appropriate." Cass told her and Lady Ava frowned. She didn’t bring it up again.
"I haven’t read any magic based books. They are banned for saints and saintesses. They say that when you are learning to harness your holy powers if you look at magic books and try to absorb their theories it could mess with your connection to the gods." It sounded like she was reciting that from memory.
Cass was horrified, but not that surprised to hear her response. He let out a sigh.
"Well, that’s fine. We’ll talk about what you do know, what you’ve learned, and we’ll go from there." Cass muttered, running a hand through his hair in frustration. They shouldn’t have been treating magic that way, especially if they knew that it came from the gods.
Holy power and magic weren’t the same thing, but they could work in tandem. At least, Cass was pretty sure.
The next hour and a half was Cass just listening to Lady Ava speak about her powers, what she had learned and everything that went with that. Cass was writing everything down on some paper that he had brought with him, making note of everything so that he could compare it to what he learned about magic and what could potentially be some common ground that they shared.
As far as Cass could tell, like mages, priests had a core of magic inside of them. The difference was, with Lady Ava, hers was full of holy power while Cass’ was full of magic. They came to their first tough question pretty quickly.
"But...isn’t Vespertine able to use holy power?" Cass asked and Lady Ava froze. Vespertine, who had the hearing of a vampire, also froze, but then he relaxed. He didn’t come over, didn’t even let it be known to anyone else that he had heard. He was going to let Lady Ava answer this question for him. Cass fought a slight smile.
"W-Well, that’s...I’m assuming it’s because his family has been blessed by the gods for generations. There are bound to be some exceptions, and while I am the saintess, I am not privy to all of the gods plans." Lady Ava muttered, looking embarrassed.
It was a good answer, a very good answer. She was media trained, even if she forgot that she was sometimes. Cass chuckled.
"Well, it’s not something I’m actually worried about, so we can drop it." Cass told her and watched as she visibly relaxed. Cass wanted to laugh, but he didn’t and instead turned back to all of the information that he had before him.
Honestly, it felt like compared to the education Cass had received from Lucian, Lady Ava had only received a rather paltry education. The level compared to a mages education? Elementary level. Cass wondered if that was purposeful, or if they had just never done further development for holy powers because...they were holy powers? Most priests didn’t leave the temple, so they never had to worry about over-exerting themselves. This was only a problem when they left.
Like Lady Ava had, to join the hero party.
Cass sighed. This was going to be a lot of work. Fuck.