The baptism didn’t take too long and within a few minutes Cass, Lord Ridgewood and an invisible Byron entered into the grand hall while a few members of the temple and the family of the child hovered around still. They all paled at the sight of Cass and Lord Ridgewood and Cass did feel a bit bad about that.
He wasn’t trying to chase them out, but it was clear that they thought that he would laser them to death with his gaze alone. So, Cass avoided looking at them and instead turned his gaze towards the steps that led up to where the statues were and the High Priest tended to pray.
The priest with him clearly didn’t know what to do with him, more anxious about the Temple fucking up again as a unit. Lord Ridgewood halted a few steps away, a respectful gesture as Cass continued up the steps. He could feel how the family members who had just received a blessing from the gods were watching him worriedly. However, Cass just kept and bent his head respectfully as he had done thus far.
He was sure that the gods could feel his anger that was growing inside of him. They knew better than to hide from him. Cass bowed his head, closed his eyes, and waited. And waited.
He wanted to make sure that he was here and avoiding him wasn’t going to do them any good.
When he did open his eyes he was happy for their sake that he was in the void. Floating in the darkness but he could tell that there was a shift in the energy of the void itself.
They knew that they were in trouble.
Cass crossed his arms, his body humming with anger and rage.
"Are you fucking serious?" Cass growled, unable to keep his anger inside of him for a moment longer. He could have played a long game, but it wasn’t his style. Plus, they were going to just try to soothe him no matter what. Better to come in guns blazing than to be all sweet and demure.
"We didn’t mean to keep it from you." Whoever was speaking said the wrong damn thing. Cass didn’t recognise the voice, but that didn’t make it easier for him or for them.
"Didn’t mean to? I came to you shortly after I found out the truth about myself, and yet you fuckers couldn’t tell me that you were planning to give Fiona whatever the hell she wanted? After literally stealing my soul from my own world, threatening me, and telling me I had a ’greater mission’ to follow? After all of that fucking bullshit, you give me everything that Fiona was supposed to do while giving her what I was supposed to do? When she doesn’t even know what the fuck that is supposed to be? Are you fucking serious? If I could see you, touch you idiots, I’d be strangling you right now." Cass growled, beyond a simple anger.
The air in the void shifted, becoming a softer feeling, a gentle breeze. Cass recognised that change, knew that one of the gods he had spoken to before was showing themselves. Cass wanted answers, and they would probably be the ones who could give him them.
"Caspian, we apologise that you feel this way. We never meant to harm you, or your spirit. It was also explained to you that it was an accident." The voice was attempting to be gentle, soothing. Cass physically moved his hand to smack it away.
"Oh yeah, an accident that you heavily benefitted from. Do you honestly expect me to believe that at this point? After everything that’s happened? I already was coming into this knowing that the gods couldn’t be that much better than the demons, because that’s always the fucking case. It did not surprise me to find out that you were cut from the same cloth, so I should have known that you would have gone back on a deal that we made." Cass was spitting angry. He had, however, angered the gods as well.
"We never went back on our deal with you." The same god spoke, and Cass gave a dry, bitter laugh.
"Oh yeah? Are you so fucking sure? How the fuck am I supposed to fix what happens in this world when the main fucking character is off living her best lesbian life away from where all the main story happens? Are you fucking serious? You gave Fiona my job! My. Job! How am I supposed to trust any of you to uphold your end of the fucking bargain if you aren’t even upholding the basics of this fucking deal! My job, make sure this world doesn’t fall into ruin. Your job? Make sure my family is safe. I can’t trust you to do even that." Cass told them.
The air grew cold, fearsome, but Cass was not backing the fuck down.
"If you were going to show this much favouritism, you could have just told me that from the fucking beginning. I didn’t think you would take my fucking ideas and give them away to Fiona. Had I known, I would have held my cards closer to my chest." Cass said snarkily, and the gentle breeze turned into gale-force winds. Cass didn’t care. All they could do was send him back to his body.
Oh no. What a nightmare.
"Have you even come up with anything to fix the fucking mess that you’ve made? Who is going to replace Fiona? Ava? Who is going to take the place of your precious little Saintess now that you have a fucking demon as the hero you want to replace your main hero with? Were you even thinking beyond what you could do to make your precious hero stop crying and moaning?" Cass asked.
"She was not crying and moaning." The god snapped, annoyance clear in their tone. Cass laughed.
"Oh, well, good for her. Glad that she has a spine of fucking steel." Cass knew that wasn’t exactly fair to Fiona. He had seen her cry plenty of times, but you know what? Fuck the gods. He could be as crude and mean as he wanted to be. They had already fucked up his life, twice.
"Caspian, you have every right to be mad. We wish that we could stand here and pretend that your anger isn’t justified. We’re sorry." Cass had not been expecting the apology. He thought that they wouldn’t have the balls to do it.
"You’re sorry? How about, when you’re planning to yank the fucking carpet out from under me next time you give me a fucking heads up." Cass snarled. The winds were still whipping around him, but as the silence dragged on, he noticed that it was slowing. Gentling. Someone was doing a lot of work to control themselves.
"We are sorry and...we apologise for not letting you know earlier. We truly did not expect that she would take off in the manner that she did." The god said and Cass glared around the void, making sure that they all felt it.
"You didn’t encourage her to leave in the middle of the night? Not even Ava?" Cass asked, sharp. The silence dragged on before the god who was speaking to him spoke up.
"We...did not, but glancing around the gods, it appears that there is a guilty member of our pantheon. Apologies, Caspian." Cass was hearing a lot of apologies, but not a lot of anything else.
"Are you going to make it up to me for doing what you’ve done? You went out of your way to make my job more difficult when you already knew that this would be a difficult mission to accomplish. At the very least, and I do mean the very least, I should be able to see my family to confirm that you didn’t lie." Cass said, his heart racing in his chest. It was a bold move, demanding this from the gods, but Cass wasn’t afraid to throw in their face what the demons were capable of.
If they could project an image from far away, so could the gods. They were just being stingy. Cass believed it with his whole being.
"What? We cannot do that, Caspian. That goes against-"
"The demons can do it." Cass said, lying. Maybe. "They can show images of themselves, and you’re not about to tell me that the demon king is already living on this world in his natural skin, are you?" Cass did his best to sound angry, pissed off, and cocky. Was he all of those things right now? Yeah, but he was also scared.
Every interaction with the gods was a damn gamble. They’d taken his fucking emotions at one point, they could do it again if he wasn’t careful.
The winds picked up for a moment before they faded. Silence reigned for a long, long time before Cass was left in silence. No wind, no nothing. It even felt like no one was watching him either. It was a new kind of punishment, he supposed. Bad kids got left in the void.
How...kind of them.
Cass wasn’t sure how long that time dragged on. How long they left him unattended, without anything to do. He was sure if he kicked up a fuss he might get a reaction, but he wasn’t about to do it when he wasn’t sure if he’d pushed them too far or not. He was pissed, but not foolish. They had been apologising to him up until this point. He could wait.
Finally, their presence came back and Cass braced himself.
"We cannot do it right away." The god said. "We need preparation. That world is usually untouched by the gods, Caspian. It will take a lot to be able to touch them the way you are suggesting." Cass felt like he couldn’t breathe.
"How long are we talking?" Cass asked, the words tumbling out of his mouth due to excitement.
"We aren’t sure. It could be two weeks, it could be several. We need to look into it before we can confirm anything but..." The god trailed off. "We will promise you that we will do it. As a way to make it up to you, Cass, who is doing a very important duty for us. It should be the least that we can do for you." The god said and Cass let out a shaky breath, his heart soaring in his chest. "You will not be able to interact with them." The god warned and Cass shook his head.
"That doesn’t matter. I just want to make sure that they are okay." Cass said. He swallowed. "And the rest? What about that?" Cass asked and heard the other god sigh.
"We have come up with some plans, but nothing that we would be comfortable putting into motion. For now, send Gideon Ridgewood forward once we finish our conversation. That will solve one of your issues. As he is already a holy knight, boosting his powers will not harm him." The god said and Cass blinked.
"Sorry, what?" Cass asked.
"You asked for a solution, well, you’re already a hero, Caspian. You’ve already got the ability to deal with demons through our contract, you just have been unaware. Once we promote Gideon Ridgewood, he will have enough powers to take on any Saint or Saintess who he meets. Do not tell Ava of this until later. She’s already delicate enough, we do not need her falling again." Cass felt shocked.
They were promoting Gideon to Saint status?
"He’s going to have a field day with this." Cass muttered. Lucian and Edgar were going to be pissed they missed this.
"Try to warn him before he comes here." The god said. "When Ava first spoke to us, she nearly fainted." The god said and Cass let out a joyous laugh.
"I...don’t think I will. Oh, this is going to be interesting." Cass muttered, happiness under his skin. He didn’t even care that the gods had said he’d had the power to defeat demons this whole time, or that they were giving Gideon top tier powers.
He was going to be able to see his sister. That was all that mattered.