Chapter 82: Finally, a manager!
Cass hated them. He fucking hated them.
No one ever asked for his damn consent, they just did whatever the hell they wanted. He was angry, the rage inside of him fed by their own actions and he didn’t feel bad that it reared its head. He fucking needed to be chained up.
"You better fucking chain me up or I will figure out a way to hit you." Cass felt like he was spitting fire, the anger heating him up from the inside. He hadn’t been this angry for a long, long time. It overwhelmed the fear that he felt from how big this felt.
Without another word, chains came from the darkness, wrapping around his arms and legs. He jerked against them, angry, pissed, and violent. He jerked, yanked, screamed. It actually felt...good to get out his feelings this way. It was one of the few times he was okay being restrained as he felt like he was losing himself to the anger without being able to get it out.
Fuck. He worried that this was a normal thing for Lord Blackburn, and if that was the case, he needed to figure out a way to deal with this. This was also not normal. Was this a fairy thing or a Blackburn thing? Fuck. Those damn ’gods’ better be poking around in him now, or else he felt like all this thrashing and screaming was useless.
"Caspian, you must stay still. You are behaving like a caged beast." He did not appreciate the way that felt and sounded. He was a caged beast. He had been caged in someone else’s body, and now they were supposed to be checking to see if he even fucking alone in this body.
"Stay still? I told you I don’t feel normal, and now when I express that not normal feeling, you tell me to remain still? Fuck you." Cass spat on the ground. The anger had settled, but not in the way that any of them had probably anticipated. The hardness of it, the sharp edges felt like they were digging into his chest. Each breath hurt, each inhale felt like glass was shredding him inside.
"Well, I can’t say I didn’t ask for that." The creature muttered before the chains tightened and Cass was yanked back. He clenched his teeth, wondering why he had to be held so tightly, while knowing damn well that he was volatile right now.
Cass inhaled as he felt a finger pressed against the middle of his forehead. A terrible, all consuming pain seared through his body, radiating from that point. It felt like liquid fire was surging through his veins from that point, and Cass opened his mouth to let out a silent scream.
"Sh. It will be over soon." The voice murmured, and Cass wanted to punch them. Over soon? Did they even know what they were doing? How painful, how awful this was. Cass felt like he was being shaken to his very soul. The pain was so all consuming he saw white.
Cass felt like the fire was chasing something, illuminating all of the hidden parts within this body, his body. He felt like he wouldn’t be able to hide anything from this power, and begrudgingly, he admitted to himself that this was a god-like power. He didn’t want to admit that anything they did was ’god-like’ on a personal level, even if they had taken his soul from his body and transferred it to another.
He could have brushed it off. Said it was just something a messenger, or an ’angel’ had done. Cass wasn’t much of a believer in these kinds of things, but this? Fuck.
He was pissed all over again. Did they have to do this when he was in the body? Couldn’t they have checked ahead of time?
"That’s...strange." That was never a good thing to hear. "Caspian, have you met any demons yet?" Cass wanted to respond, but he couldn’t. The pain stilled his tongue, and he was unable to speak. "Hmm, it does not appear so. This is...concerning." Cass didn’t like the sound of that, but shortly after the finger, the thumb, was gone, and Cass could finally breathe again.
"W-Wha-" Cass asked, barely able to get a breath in before he was asking. A faint wind, smelling of something floral, wrapped around him and Cass felt a strange sense of calm wash over him.
It felt artificial, and a chill went down his spine.
"Sh, child. I will explain everything as I know it, just rest. Inhale, exhale. Let the breeze wash you clean." Another one? How many fucking ’gods’ were there?!
"I am no child." Cass ground out and the breeze wrapped around him tightly.
"Everything is a child when compared to a great force like I. Now hush. The anger inside of you is trying to settle, and we cannot let it. That anger isn’t yours, and does not fully belong to Cassian Blackburn either." That was new information, and it was enough to make Cass listen for a moment. An anger that didn’t belong to either of them?
Who the fuck did it belong to then?
Cass inhaled the flower scent, and slowly began to realise he’d smelt this before. His sister had liked it. What the fuck was it? Feeling truly like a beast, Cass inhaled over and over before finally he was able to place the scent.
"Cherry blossom?" Cass guessed, confusion filling him and a soft, warm wind brushed past him.
"A favoured scent of mine. Are you calm enough to hear what I have discovered?" The voice asked, and Cass was surprised at the gentleness that washed over him. It was an illusion, obviously. None of the other ’gods’ had been like this, but he couldn’t fight the pull this time.
Exhaling, Cass nodded, and the ’god’ chuckled.
"I don’t know what they mean when they called you an uncontrollable beast. They just didn’t know how to handle you." The ’god’ said, amusement in the layered voices. A shiver went down Cass’ spine at the way they spoke. He did not like being spoken about like that, and given that he was currently chained up, he really didn’t like the energy this creature was projecting.
"I am an uncontrollable beast." Cass murmured, knowing that that was better than being a controllable beast. He would bite his handlers. He knew he would. The ’god’ chuckled.
"You need to at least pretend, Caspian. Otherwise, someone might decide you are not worth the effort to tame you." The ’god’ warned and Cass felt the warning in his soul. Fuck. He couldn’t trust a damn thing in this new life he’d been given against his will. A sigh, wind washing over his face. "Well, threats and lessons aside, it appears that dear Cassian Blackburn is still inside of his body. It appears that an older, more senior deal is being prioritized over the deal we had made with him. Even I, Caspian, am not able to find the reasons behind this. As the world’s function under the rules we have laid down, all we can do is honour the previous deal." Cass felt his mouth dry up.
"Another deal? That you were unaware of?" Cass repeated and the creature he was speaking to laughed. It was so fucking eerie.
"Yes, isn’t that fun? I have grown unused to surprises, but this is certainly one I will remember. About your inability to access those memories that Cassian is holding onto, there is not anything we can do without stepping into the body you are occupying. As you are still occupying it still, I do not feel like now would be the right time. After all, most times when we occupy a mortal vessel it explodes shortly after, and that would be against the mission we have given you." Cass felt a shiver run down his spine.
While this ’god’ felt softer, warmer, he did not trust that feeling for a second. They were scarier than the other ’gods’ he had dealt with. This was probably the ’manager’ that Cass had demanded before. He was regretting his actions and words recently.
"I would...kind of appreciate not having another person in this body." Cass muttered and soft laughter filled his ears.
"What I can do is make sure that at the very least, no one, or nothing else with a soul can enter your body for the time being, until we find out more. I am sorry that everything has been so confusing, Caspian. I was not informed of this mistake until recently, and I am greatly apologetic for how my fellow gods have behaved. I would hate for a sour taste to be left in your mouth over this. Touching the anger inside of you really worried me as well. There was a lot directed at the gods there, and quite a bit of it was recent." Cass felt something touch his cheek and he flinched. "It would do none of us any good if you were to act out in anger and side with the demons, so please take my apology with my utmost sincerity. I promise you I will do my best to find out more about this other deal. I cannot tell you if it is from a god, or a demon as both deals are made in...similar ways. An agreement between the two forces." They chuckled.
"Why are you telling me this?" Cass asked, worried and curious at the same time. They chuckled again, and another soft touch to Cass’ face.
"Did you know? I am the one who selects what souls we line up for our quests. I was most pleased with yours, and had wanted to nurture you properly. Such life, such exuberance in one body, and yet, here we are, and you are half of the creature you were back in your other world. It is exactly what I dislike. When things don’t go the way I planned." Cass swallowed thickly. Fear coating his tongue. Holy shit.
He remembered that the other ’god’, the first one he had spoken to said that they were the one in charge of him. Had they been lying? Or was this ’god’ correct, and he had just passed on the observation of Cass to him? Cass’ head hurt from all of the complex ideas and dealings. He just wanted to read.
"Of course, dear Caspian, your anger is completely understandable. I, too, am greatly angered at how this has all been handled. They told me they compensated you, what did they give you?" Cass opened his mouth, feeling as if he couldn’t refuse to answer them. Honestly?
Cass knew that he should answer them. He could fuck around with the other ones, but something in his very core told him that if he made this one angry, they would go after his sister and the rest of his family. Cass did not want that to happen.
"I can remember all things about the book, and see how it changes as I move through the story. It is still in Lady Fiona’s perspective, but it will show me how things change as I interact with the world."
"Is that it?" They asked and Cass immediately felt bad for the ’gods’ he was throwing under the bus. It was clear that this new one was coming in to do damage control, and after finding out how much damage had been done, was pissed at the level of compensation. It wasn’t like Cass was a returning customer, so Cass wondered what was fueling this reaction.
"Uh, yeah?" Cass replied and a chilling laugh filled the air.
"Well, I shall send you back with some more blessings then, my dear Caspian. I will have to put some work into it, so they won’t be obvious right away. I hear you are having some issues with magic? I will work on that one first. But, you have been here too long, so I will send you back now. Do not be afraid to reach out to us again, Caspian. If you wish to speak to me personally, I am the statue in the middle." A soft, gentle push against his chest and Cass found himself falling again.
He jerked, his eyes opening before he hit the ground and Cass was panting. He felt like he had been running for hours, his own breaths in his ears loud and violent.
He felt ill, he felt gross, and coughing, he threw up on the ground in front of him. Horrified, a thick, black liquid poured out of him. Honestly, it kind of looked like the healing tonic that Sam made for him, but something in him knew that it wasn’t it. Something inside of him knew that whatever he was looking at, it wasn’t good, and Cass heaved again.
Fuck.