Cass was half expecting her to cackle, turn into a puff of smoke and then suddenly they were in a boss battle.
Thankfully, Cass’ imagination was just strong and nothing of the sort happened. He did get a shock, a minor one, but Gideon noticed and yanked Cass away from her. Taniora stared at her hand in shock while Cass did the same thing.
Gideon pulled Cass a safe distance away, practically back to the side of Lucian and Edgar. Taniora didn’t move. She blinked slowly after a long moment and slowly met Cass’ gaze.
Nothing happened.
Taniora was either doing a great job at pretending she wasn’t the Boss monster, or she wasn’t the Boss monster. While everyone was reeling, Cass stared at Taniora and tried to examine what had happened.
A gentle shock, but that could have been for too many reasons. Cass’ body was an amalgamation of creatures that weren’t supposed to exist. Cass turned to Gideon.
"Gideon, can you touch her hand too? I realised I was a bad choice because I have...everything going on." Cass admitted. Gideon’s jaw tightened and he glanced at Taniora.
"As long as she agrees or is able to agree." He said. It was very Gideon of him to phrase it that way. Taniora stared at him, before she nodded meekly.
"I agree." She said softly. Cass heard Lucian let out a rough exhale behind him. Cass didn’t look back. He could practically feel how hard this had to be for Lucian. When they had spoken about his past before, Lucian had made it rather upbeat. Vague.
Cass wondered if he had to do that to keep himself sane? The man lived for so long, if he didn’t suppress both good and bad memories, he wouldn’t survive. It was a blessing he was able to forget things.
Gideon moved forward, Taniora having not moved since Cass was yanked away. Everyone watched with baited breath as Gideon touched her fingertips, just like Cass did.
However, unlike Cass, he didn’t feel anything. It also looked like Taniora didn’t feel anything either.
"What does that mean?" She asked softly and honestly? Cass just shrugged.
"I can’t say with confidence you aren’t the Boss of this dungeon, but I can’t rule it out completely. However, that does mean that things just got way more complicated." Cass told her. Taniora looked crestfallen.
"I’m sorry. I wanted to be able to help you in some way. I still want to, but I have no memory of how I got here." Cass waved his hand.
"You never do when gods and demons decide to meddle with your life." Cass said. Gideon snapped his head in Cass’ direction, shocked. Not because Cass was revealing something he didn’t know, but because Cass was speaking on it at all.
"Cass?" Gideon questioned and Cass just shrugged again. He felt that Taniora wasn’t the Boss. Maybe that was wishful thinking on his part, but Cass was thinking about something that Taniora said earlier.
"You said that there is something in the lake?" Cass asked and she nodded. "Have you seen it?" He asked and she shook her head.
She suddenly swayed on her feet and everyone jolted towards her. She raised a hand to her head, her expression contorting.
"I’m sorry. This has been happening occasionally. Is it alright if I sit?" Cass nodded, Gideon looked like he was fighting with himself between having his guard up and pulling the chair out for her. Thankfully, the chair was only two steps back and Taniora sat down gracefully.
She placed her hand on her forehead, looking ill and like she was sweating. Cass watched her, curious.
"You said that this has been happening occasionally, right? How occasional?" Cass asked and Taniora sighed.
"I haven’t been keeping track. It happened more sparingly before, but it’s been increasing in frequency recently." Cass wasn’t sure what to make of her words. He wondered if her pain was connected to what Cass had been doing. He felt a momentary tug of guilt, and then pushed it away.
"How does it hurt?" Cass asked and she paused. Her eyes became vacant for a moment, her mouth opening slightly and Cass wondered if she was okay.
Then, she spoke.
"Um, this is going to be hard to explain but...it kind of feels like my body is being tossed around and battered and bruised?" She said, "It’s a deep ache. I feel it deep in my body." She made a claw-like motion above her chest, pulsing it like she was making waves. "I feel it all over, sometimes in my arms, legs, chest, but that time felt like my head was being tossed around." Cass really didn’t like the sounds of that.
Nor did Lucian, who made a slow, deep rumbling sound of displeasure.
"Red dragon." Cass warned, casting a glance towards Lucian in warning. Lucian was scowling, his face twisted and Cass couldn’t even blame the man. That did not mean he could let him get away with that kind of behaviour.
Cass had no idea what that pain was, or why it kept recurring. What he did know now that they had kind of confirmed that she wasn’t the Boss was that they were in the Boss room and the Boss hadn’t shown themselves yet. Cass let out a sigh.
"Alright. So, Taniora doesn’t belong here. I think we can all agree on that, yes?" Cass asked. He got an affirmative response from the men. "Is there anything we can do to...make sure she doesn’t get stuck behind once we close the dungeon?" Cass asked.
That seemed to be something that no one else had been considering, and Edgar made a soft, thoughtful sound.
"Well, you were able to touch her, right? So does that make her an undead creature or a ghost or something along those lines?" He asked. Cass shrugged. He didn’t have a fucking clue.
"No idea. Not my area of expertise." Cass admitted easily. Gideon sighed.
"From what I’ve read," he began, "we might be able to take her with us. If she’s a ghost, she’s probably bound to something in the room. It’s not like the room fades as soon as we clear the dungeon so we can take our time searching the area for the item the demons used to bring her here. It probably would be something she was attached to when she was alive. In the book I read on this kind of occult thing, they usually used bones or another item someone always had on them." Well, wasn’t Gideon a wealth of knowledge?
"Why the fuck do you know that?" Cass asked, unable to control his mouth. It was said more in amazement than anything else. Gideon flushed.
"You had the book in your personal library. Don’t ask me that." Gideon mumbled. Touché, Gideon.
"What you are saying is that they desecrated her grave?" Lucian asked quietly. "And the Kingdom did nothing to protect it?" It was a soft question.
Anything Cass had been about to say to Gideon died on his tongue. Lucian was angry. Very angry. Cass didn’t need to have their completed bond to know that. The man’s powers were out of control. He was barely containing his dragon.
Cass turned, reaching for him and grabbing Lucian by his shoulders. Taniora looked pained for her friend’s sake. It was clear she wasn’t attached to a place that had never been for her, but Lucian? A friend who had probably mourned her for years after?
"We don’t know what happened." Cass said carefully and Edgar snorted. Cass glared at him, but Edgar shook his head.
"Cass, I know you’re trying to calm Lucian down, but it’s not going to work. I’m pissed too. The sites of fallen heroes are supposed to be protected. Immortalized. Especially...I’m making an assumption here, but Lake Taniora is a very important place to the capital city. It’s quiet, beautiful, and where my eldest brother proposed to his wife. Neither are with us anymore, but it’s a place like that." Edgar said, painting an image of a place that lots of people in the capital knew of. It wouldn’t be a place that some digging would go unnoticed.
Cass, through Cassian, had no memories of the lake. It wasn’t that surprising that he didn’t. Cassian wasn’t going to pretty lakes to flirt with others. He was going to dark offices to plot his grandfather’s very slow demise.
"While I understand that, Edgar, we don’t know where the Boss is if it isn’t Taniora. I would rather not trigger it to attack. Lucian, you need to temper your anger for now." Cass told him. He knew he was asking a lot of the man, his mind and body already on edge from his upcoming shed and heat.
Cass winced, realising as his powers got more chaotic and his body began to twitch and twist, that Cass was going to have to take drastic measures.
Frowning, his face flushing, Cass reached up and wrapped his hand around Lucian’s neck. The dragon didn’t budge, but Cass was determined. He stood on his tiptoes and pressed his lips against Lucian’s. Normally this would be enough to distract him, but Lucian didn’t relax.
At first, at least.
Cass thought it had failed until he tried to pull back and Lucian’s hand snapped out, sinking his fingers into Cass’ hair and holding him in place. He didn’t try to deepen the kiss, just kept him in place.
Slowly, Cass could feel the size and power of Lucian shrink until even his lips were softer, calmer. That was when he started trying to deepen the kiss and Cass finally fought back against him.
When Cass met his gaze, his eyes were softer, his expression warm. He was still pissed, that wasn’t gone, but he was able to tuck it away.
"Thank you." Cass whispered and Lucian nodded. "I’ll make sure to look into it. When you get back, we’ll have a full report." Cass told him and Lucian nodded.
Cass turned to the others and found Gideon flushed, embarrassed. Edgar was lost in thought, and Taniora had a wide, shit-eating grin across her face.
"Is it him?" She asked and Lucian’s chest puffed out.
"Yeah. It’s him." Lucian said, sounding like he was bragging. "He’s a fairy too, and a hero. He’s very good at magic. I’ve gone toe to toe with him." Lucian was bragging now and Taniora glanced at Cass, curious but happy.
"Oh? I’m almost disappointed that I’m not the Boss because I’d love to see it." She joked and Cass smiled at the dark joke, but he could tell Gideon didn’t like it.
Suddenly, there was a splash from the lake. A ripple, a few bubbles, and Cass felt his hair stand on end.