(BL) The Villain wants a Divorce!

Cass saw Lady Ava for the first time in a while when Lady Fiona called for a meeting to discuss the dungeon in person. Everyone had been talking to each other individually up until now, but now that they were only a few days out from leaving, they needed to meet in person.

Cass was all excited to show off the fact that he could have his hands free. Only Draken knew that, since they had continued their magic lessons. Cass was rather disappointed that he had to admit that he was a good teacher, and Draken’s genuine happiness that Cass was doing much better was, unfortunately, heartwarming.

That meant Cass was a little puffed up, a little full of himself as he entered into the meeting room. He was proud to show off something that was so easy for the others, but he thought that was fine. Pretty much everyone in the room knew it was hard for him.

He wasn’t the first to arrive. When he entered the room, Sam trailing behind him, he found that Vespertine was sat at the large, circular table looking exhausted. Next to him was a rather cross-looking Lady Ava, and Cass swore he saw that she was wearing a glimmering strand or something that connected her to Vespertine. Was it a leash of some kind?

Cass had no idea, and no intention to put his nose that deep into their problems.

Vespertine at least didn’t look black and blue, like he had feared. He gave Cass a weak smile as he made eye contact with him. Cass gave him a slight nod in response and looked to Lady Ava. He was surprised to find that she was staring at him rather intently, but there wasn’t any malice in her gaze.

Given how much she had spoken about Cass, and the opinions she had on him, he was fairly certain that she would have been openly hostile. Instead, she was just watching him. Staring at him. And it didn’t stop when more people entered the room.

Shortly after Cass had settled himself down at one of the seats at the table, Lord Ridgewood entered next, followed shortly by Draken and Lady Fiona. Lady Fiona had an assistant following her, helping her carry in some books, papers and other things she needed for the meeting. Lady Ava jerked.

Cass, thanks to some of the memories that Lord Blackburn had been willing to share, knew that that role usually belonged to Lady Ava. The role of helping, or being helpful. It was clear that she was taking the fact that Lady Fiona had someone else assisting her pretty hard. She even looked like she was going to cry.

She held herself together, and Cass noticed how much every little action she took affected Vespertine who sat beside her. On his other side was Lord Ridgewood, and then a free seat on either side of Lady Ava and Lord Ridgewood. Draken sat next to Cass, in one of the two free seats he had placed between him and Lady Ava, and then Lady Fiona had claimed a seat, but was using it to hold materials as she used a weird chalkboard/whiteboard hybrid.

Honestly, it would have been great if they had a projector, or computers, but Cass kind of knew that was a pipe dream. He just knew that it would make all of this easier. Too bad he didn’t know shit about that kind of technology.

Everyone was rather quiet as they waited for Lady Fiona to finish getting ready. Her assistant helped hand out some hand written notes on the dungeon she had made, and when Cass looked over at Draken’s notes, he realised they were written by the same hand. If Cass was to guess, probably Lady Fiona. She didn’t seem like she had a hard time delegating tasks, but that she wouldn’t want to give this one over to anyone else.

When the hell had she had time to write these out? Crazy woman.

Cass just stayed where he was, looking through the notes she had made. They were quite detailed given that they didn’t know much about the gate. Some monsters had been spotted, and so it had all but been verified that they were dealing with an undead dungeon. Cass felt a shiver run down his spine, a sense of warning.

Cass wasn’t sure why, but reading the word undead held just a bit more of concern then it had before.

”Welcome everyone. Thank you for coming on time to the meeting. I see that a few of you have been peeking at the notes I’ve presented, and I’m glad. Today, we’re here to talk about the dungeon coming up.” Lady Fiona swallowed nervously, glancing around the table. She barely let her eyes linger on Lady Ava. Lady Ava flinched, but didn’t do anything else. ”The plan is that we’ll be on the road after the ceremony in two days. I’ve made sure that most of our basic goods have been packed, but take the next two days to get anything extra you need, sorted and packed.” Cass nodded, and everyone slid their gaze towards him.

”Is...Cassian coming?” Vespertine asked and Cass opened his mouth to respond tartly but Lady Fiona beat him to it.

”With the dungeon focusing more on the undead, we will have less need for you and Cassian, so I can’t see any logical reason to leave him behind. Especially when he was given the okay by his Doctor.” Lady Fiona said, her gaze sliding to Sam behind Cass. Cass hoped that if Sam had told Lady Fiona about his condition, all he told her was that he was getting better. Cass waved his hands, free of bandages to accentuate her response.

”I only need to wrap my hands at night now.” Cass offered, excited, and Lady Fiona smiled tightly.

”That’s wonderful, Cassian. With that being said, this is a rather short timeframe. With the dungeon assumed to have undead, it is rather urgent for us to get there and close it as soon as possible. Undead are the easiest kind of monster to spread, so we really need to get on top of it. The temple has helped out and sent several priests and other holy power users to help maintain the area, but it won’t get better until we close it properly.” Lady Fiona looked at Lord Ridgewood and Draken specifically. ”This dungeon is mostly going to rely on us, with some help from Ava to keep our health up. Ava will also be helping by using her holy powers, so please be mindful of that and try to get hurt as little as possible.” Lady Fiona said. ”For formation, we’ll have our hard hitters at the front, so me, Lucy and Gideon, with Lady Ava in the middle, and Cassian and Edgar at the back. With both of you watching our backs we’ll be able to move forward safely. We’ll clear every inch of this dungeon because if one of them gets out it could decimate cities.” Cass knew from his other world knowledge that undead were scary, but he didn’t realise they were this scary.

Lady Fiona was treating them like they were zombies. Maybe they were, but Cass wouldn’t know until he got there. Well, if he thought about it, zombies were classified as undead. Maybe they just didn’t have other types of undead, so zombies were that. Or they referred to anything zombie-like as undead. Either way, Cass would still have to wait to see if it was true.

All Cass knew for sure was that it was probably infectious. Lady Fiona proved that after.

”I’ve brought the latest style of masks and gloves from the temple as well. They sent us quite a few just to be on the safe side. We have also been approved for using spatial magic to lighten our bags since Draken, who usually carries our bags, will be in the front.” Vespertine nodded, a light finally coming to his eyes at the mention of spatial magic. Cass assumed it was probably related to making the bags bigger on the inside or something, but he wasn’t sure.

He’d had to look at his more advanced books so that he didn’t feel like an idiot asking at the moment. He could feel Draken looking at him, but he didn’t look at him to meet his gaze.

”Is Ava going to be using holy power the whole time?” Lord Ridgewood asked. ”I thought that that was impossible. Even with her level of talent, to clear a dungeon like that is...” Lord Ridgewood, who had spoken, trailed off, his expression thoughtful. Lady Fiona sighed.

”I understand what you’re saying. She won’t be doing it the whole time, but as soon as we make a kill, Ava is to purify the area. This is to ensure that we don’t have to kill things over and over. If that means we’re moving slowly, that’s okay. We’ve been clearing dungeons rather quickly. It’s okay for us to be slow this time.” Lady Fiona said, her eyes bright. ”With that being said, I think we’ll be able to clear this dungeon in a week. If we need to take breaks, that’s okay too. We just need to make sure we’re making a big enough dent each day. With that being said, the temple said they would send over some holy water for you, Ava. So you can take a break when you are feeling yourself growing weak.” Lady Ava nodded when Lady Fiona addressed her properly, her ears and cheeks a little pink.

That didn’t tell Cass much. Were they still together? Were they not? This was so damn confusing.

One thing that was sure was that the temple was stepping in a lot to help on this one. Cass was sure he wasn’t the only one who noticed that. Under Lady Fiona’s orders, Cass had sent a letter to his grandfather, asking for some assistance as they were clearing a dungeon near Lord Blackburn’s home, but hadn’t received word back. Which was rich, since he had received more work from the main house since then.

It was clear that his grandfather really hated his grandson. Little did the old man know that Cass’ slow plan was working, the man was slowly losing his own power, and the fact that he wasn’t helping out with this dungeon would bite him in the ass. Cass knew what they found besides the cloak of protection in here, and he was going to be kicking himself.

”If you need any more funds, just let me know.” Cass said and Lady Fiona gave him a smile.

”Thank you, Cassian. We appear to be doing just fine right now. Alright, I want to go through what we’ve spotted nearby, and a couple of mock up scenarios just for some peace of mind.” Lady Fiona said before turning and beginning to draw on the board.

This was a rather interesting meeting to Cass, since he hadn’t seen these in depth. They had always been brushed off in the story, and now he knew why. Lady Fiona made them, therefore it wasn’t a big deal. That didn’t feel like the truth to Cass.