CASSIAN AND THE INFINITE THRONE

CASSIAN AND THE INFINITE THRONE

Volume 2: The Road to the Academy

Chapter 48: Seven Living Answers

Cassian landed beside Brightroad. “Five captives remain alive. We discuss everything else after we reach them.”

Renn tightened his grip on the shield. “Lead us there.”

“First, nobody moves while poisoned or bleeding,” Cassian said. “Mira, keep both girls behind the shield.”

Pella frowned through the pain. “The prisoners have waited longer than my arm.”

“They need rescuers who can remain standing,” Cassian replied. “Give me thirty breaths.”

He used Healing Magic without incantation. Healing Current divided into white-blue threads, drawing poison from Pella’s shoulder, sealing Renn’s torn muscle, restoring Tavi’s coordination, easing the strain behind Oren’s eyes, and repairing the stress left throughout Mira’s exhausted body.

Mira crouched behind Renn’s shield beside the two rescued girls. “Cassian can repair your injuries, but neither of us will use Healing Magic without your permission.”

The girl rescued from the abyss kept one hand around Mira’s sleeve. After several uncertain breaths, she nodded.

The second girl touched the bruising beneath her throat. “Will he have to touch us?”

“Only if an examination requires it, and only after asking,” Mira replied.

Cassian remained several steps away. “I can begin without touching either of you. You may stop me whenever you choose.”

After several uncertain breaths, both girls gave their hesitant permission.

Cassian used Healing Magic. White-blue radiance passed carefully through bruised throats, strained joints, damaged muscles, and internal injuries, restoring each wound without forcing either girl to leave Mira’s protection.

Mira followed with a measured Healing incantation. Silver-blue light confirmed the repairs, stabilized their circulation, and eased the exhaustion their healed bodies still carried.

Cassian studied Mira’s breathing. “Your circulation is recovering, but your reserves remain dangerously low.”

“Then stop giving the healer a medical examination while she is healing,” Mira replied.

Pella managed a weak smile. “I support this rebellion against excessive competence.”

“You support anything that delays instructions about your arm,” Mira said.

Renn tested his repaired shoulder. “Can everyone walk without worsening their injuries?”

Tavi flexed both hands. “My fingers have returned to one employer, which feels sufficient.”

Oren rolled one shoulder and tested his focus across the chamber. “My vision is clear enough to shoot, but the edges still blur when I turn quickly.”

Cassian examined his pupils. “Avoid sudden tracking until the residual strain settles. The curse forced your eyes to reconcile competing signals.”

Renn looked toward Mira. “Can you walk without spending the mana we need for the captives?”

“I can walk, assess, and perform basic Healing Magic,” Mira replied. “Cassian repaired the circulation damage. Exhaustion remains my only honest complaint.”

Pella lifted her healed hand. “My poison is gone, my fingers answer again, and I remain offended that recovery came with so many instructions.”

“Your offense suggests normal function,” Mira said. “I will record it as a positive sign.”

Tavi glanced toward the eastern passage. “Then Brightroad is medically irritating but operational.”

Renn nodded after checking each face. “That is the healthiest description anyone has offered.”

They are hurt because I waited, but they are still speaking like themselves. I cannot undo the choice behind their wounds. I can make certain no remaining consequence reaches the prisoners ahead.

Mira began walking with the two rescued girls. “Pella stay beside me. Tavi and Oren guard the rear. Renn, stop pretending your shoulder is attached properly.”

“My shoulder remains attached enough for leadership.”

“Your leadership may continue while I heal it.”

They found the five girls huddled beneath stolen blankets behind two barred doors. Torn clothing, bruised skin, and flinching eyes revealed enough without forcing anyone to ask.

Mira laid down her staff and weapons beside the doorway, then remained outside the threshold. “We came to take you home. Nobody here will touch you without permission.”

An older girl pulled two younger captives behind her. “There were seven of us.”

One of the younger girls stared past Mira. “Did they kill her?”

“He tried,” Pella said gently. “Cassian saved her, and she is waiting nearby.”

The child’s mouth trembled. “The monsters were laughing viciously.”

Mira lowered herself until their eyes met. “The monsters are dead. You do not have to be scared anymore, none of them can reach you again.”

“Both girls from the chamber are alive,” Mira said. “They are waiting outside this room.”

The girl’s face folded with relief. “The three of us from Willowfen were brought here two nights ago. The other four came earlier—two from Dunmere and two from Hollowmere.”

Mira looked back toward Renn. “Record only the village names for now. Let them decide when they can tell us more.”

“Understood,” Renn replied. “No questions that do not help us bring them home.”

Pella carefully removed her cloak and held it toward the girls. “Take this first. You do not owe us explanations before you feel safe.”

Tavi stepped back into the corridor. “Oren and I will guard the door from a respectful distance.”

Oren gave one curt nod. “Call only when you are ready for us to enter.”

Cassian lowered himself to one knee outside the threshold. “I can heal physical injuries. I need permission from each of you before I examine anything.”

The older girl watched his face. “Will it hurt?”

A younger captive gripped the blanket. “Why is the healer younger than us?”

Cassian kept both hands visible. “Because age and training do not always arrive in the expected order.”

Pella sat beside the threshold. “He is annoyingly competent, but he listens when someone tells him to stop.”

“He usually listens when someone tells him to stop,” Mira added.

Cassian glanced at her. “This is not the most reassuring introduction.”

The older girl’s expression loosened by a fraction. “It is more reassuring than pretending nothing is strange.”

“Some wounds may ache while they close,” Cassian said. “I will stop whenever you ask.”

“Can Mira stay beside us?” another girl asked.

“She will remain for every examination,” Cassian replied. “Pella may stay as well, and the others will wait outside.”

Mira extended one open hand without crossing the threshold. “You choose who enters, who stays, and when treatment begins.”

The older girl looked at each frightened face before nodding. “Then begin with the youngest.”

Consent came slowly, one frightened nod at a time.

I want to ask them of what happened, but that question would serve my anger before it served their recovery.

Cassian voiced a gentle Healing incantation for each girl. White-blue radiance entered bruised tissue, infected cuts, strained joints, and hidden internal damage, restoring their bodies without touching the memories behind their fear.

The youngest watched the light fade from her bruised wrist. “Is it gone?”

“The injury is gone,” Cassian said. “The fear may take longer, and that does not mean anything is wrong with you.”

Stolen story; please report.

The older girl looked away as tears gathered. “Can magic make us stop remembering?”

Cassian’s answer came softly. “Healing Magic cannot remove memories. It can give your bodies enough strength to begin recovering while people you trust stay beside you.”

I know how useless that answer must sound beside what they want. I can rebuild torn flesh in minutes, yet the wound they most want removed lies beyond everything I know how to touch.

Mira followed each treatment with a gentle Healing incantation. Silver-blue radiance stabilized circulation, eased exhaustion, and confirmed that Cassian had left no untreated wound beneath the restored tissue.

I can repair what their bodies endured. I cannot take the memories from them, and pretending otherwise would only make their pain lonelier.

When the last wound closed, Mira wrapped every girl in a clean cloak.

The older girl looked toward the corridor. “Can we leave now?”

“Yes, we will leave now.” Renn said.

One younger girl tightened her borrowed cloak. “Are there more monsters between here and outside?”

Cassian answered before anyone softened the truth too far. “Seven goblins remain alive elsewhere in the warren. Brightroad will remove them before you cross those passages.”

Pella rested one hand against the wall. “You will remain near Mira until the road is clear. Nobody will bring the fighting near this room.”

“Will you come back?” the child asked.

Tavi leaned into the doorway from the corridor. “We have already developed a professional dislike of leaving people behind.”

Oren added, “We will return together, and we will tell you before anyone moves.”

The older girl studied their faces, then nodded. “We will wait.”

They are trusting promises from strangers because the alternative is unbearable. I need every word we give them to remain true.

◆ ◆ ◆

Mira and Pella remained with the seven rescued girls while Renn, Oren, Tavi, and Cassian returned to the marked route.

Cassian extended his senses through the hill. Two goblins still struggled beneath the sealed hatch, while five more hid within crawlways between the prison chamber and the entrance.

Seven heartbeats remain between us and the prisoners. I will not let even one reach those doors.

“Seven goblins remain alive,” Cassian said. “All are ahead of the girls, and none will pass us.”

Renn drew his sword. “Brightroad clears the route together. Oren takes the crawlways, Tavi confirms every body, and Cassian prevents anything from disappearing beyond recovery.”

Tavi drew both blades. “A familiar plan, except our provisional Steel now controls the geography.”

“The geography has caused enough trouble for one commission,” Cassian replied.

The first crawlway opened into a narrow chamber where three goblins waited with poisoned knives.

“Left wall carries a second opening,” Cassian warned. “Oren take the visible pair. Tavi catch the one behind the screen.”

Oren loosed twice without shifting his stance. “The visible pair are finished.”

Tavi drove one blade through the painted screen. “Hidden disagreement resolved.”

The next passage held two wounded survivors dragging three dead goblins beneath loose stone, trying to bury the bodies and their cores before Brightroad arrived.

“They know what we collect,” Oren said.

Cassian lifted the stones before the goblins reached cover. Renn ended both with clean thrusts through their throats, then marked the three hidden bodies for later recovery.

Cassian separated the stone brace through ambient manipulation. The two trapped goblins attacked when the hatch opened; Oren’s arrow entered one throat, while Renn drove his sword through the second goblin’s neck and severed its spine.

Tavi checked the bodies. “Five along the crawlways and two beneath the hatch. The living count is finished.”

Cassian sensed through every passage once more. “No remaining goblin movement. The route is clear.”

They returned to the prison chamber exactly as promised. Oren announced their approach before anyone crossed the hanging blanket.

The older girl searched their faces. “Are they all gone?”

“Every living goblin between this room and the entrance is dead,” Renn replied. “Cassian checked the entire route twice.”

The youngest girl looked toward Cassian. “Then you really came back.”

“We promised,” Cassian said. “Promises should not become surprising.”

I expected suspicion after everything the goblins did. Hearing surprise in her voice hurts more, because it means broken promises became ordinary before we arrived.

“The road is clear,” Renn said. “We are leaving through the same passage we entered.”

Mira organized the seven girls between Brightroad’s shields. Pella remained beside the youngest, while Tavi walked backward whenever the darkness drew frightened glances.

At the blocked entrance, Cassian placed one palm against the central boulder.

“Earlier, you said this was beyond you,” Renn said.

“Earlier, revealing the truth would have endangered people outside this cave while another survivable route remained,” Cassian replied.

“Would you have opened it if the deeper route became impossible?”

“Before allowing anyone here to die. I was delaying exposure, not choosing it over your lives.”

Pella released a breath. “That answer matters more than I expected.”

“Trust becomes difficult when one person knows every available choice and the rest of us see only one,” Mira said.

Cassian accepted the criticism. “I understand what that responsibility requires.”

I hated leaving that wall closed while they believed escape was impossible. I still cannot regret protecting my family, but I can regret making Brightroad carry fear without the truth behind it.

Ambient mana spread through the collapse. Every fracture shone pale beneath stone, while invisible pressure braced the hillside as one connected structure.

The wall never trapped me. It trapped everyone else inside a decision I refused to explain. I cannot let that happen again.

Boulders lifted in silence. Smaller debris streamed from the gaps, roots pulled free without snapping, and the obstruction separated into ordered layers before settling safely beside the entrance.

Rain-cooled air entered the cave. Mira and Pella guided the rescued girls beneath the sheltering pines while Oren confirmed that the exposed ceiling would not collapse.

◆ ◆ ◆

The girls rested beneath the pines within sight of the entrance. Brightroad gathered several paces away, while Mira remained close enough to return the moment anyone called. “We discuss this honestly, and gratitude does not erase the difficult questions,” Renn said.

Oren spoke first. “Could you have ended the warren when we entered?”

“I could have destroyed its fighting force,” Cassian said. “Doing so without exposing the method was impossible, and I believed another survivable route remained. I judged that secrecy still protected people outside this cave.”

He answers without pride or excuses. I wanted a simpler confession, something I could condemn cleanly. Instead, he gives me a choice I understand and still resent.

Mira’s voice sharpened. “Pella was poisoned while you protected those limits.”

“I know what she suffered. No explanation can erase it.”

His answer does not erase Pella’s wound. I understand why he chose restraint, and I still hate that she carried the cost before he did.

Pella touched the healed skin beneath her sleeve. “Do not make me evidence against yourself. I chose to enter. What I need is honesty before another hidden limit decides for us.”

Renn held Cassian’s gaze. “When a concealed ability changes whether Brightroad can retreat, rescue someone, or survive, you tell me before the decision.”

“I can agree to that while I travel with Brightroad.”

Oren crossed his arms. “The Guild already knows that you’re strong because of your examination. They may believe you defeated the King. But I think we shouldn’t tell them about the speed or silent magic.”

Pella studied Cassian. “We thought Gold rank was a reasonable comparison. After tonight, Adamant class is the only name I can even place nearby.”

“I have never met an Adamant-class adventurer,” Cassian replied. “I will not claim a comparison I cannot verify.”

Mira shook her head. “You truly do not know where your strength belongs.”

“I know what I can do. I do not know the highest limits other people have reached.”

I expected false modesty, but he truly does not know where he stands. That uncertainty frightens me more than arrogance would.

“And the silent manipulation?” Mira asked. “That was not compressed casting.”

“It was direct manipulation of ambient mana. I cannot explain the method safely.”

Renn looked across the company. “The report will state that Brightroad engaged and defeated the main force, held the chamber entrance, broke the formations, and eliminated the shamans. Cassian separated from us and defeated the Goblin King single-handedly.”

“That gives him full credit without naming the impossible parts. The evidence can support an incomplete truth.”

I know why the lie is necessary, but signing my name beneath it will make the secret mine as well. I hate building an official truth from carefully chosen absences, yet I hate the thought of the Guild learning what completes it even more.

My signature will bind my judgment to his secret long after tonight’s gratitude becomes something quieter and harder.

Pella placed her hand over Renn’s. “I will protect the secret because his family should not pay for saving us.”

Mira joined her. “I will protect it because seven girls are alive.”

Oren added his hand. “I will protect it because the Guild would turn one unanswered question into a hundred.”

Tavi completed the circle. “I will protect it because he trusted us after learning exactly how badly we misjudged him.”

He saved every life I could not protect, then placed his family’s safety in our hands. I am frightened of him, and ashamed that fear reached me before gratitude.

“Brightroad keeps the secret,” Renn said. “That is my order as leader and my promise as the man you saved.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Mira and Pella remained outside with the rescued girls while the others returned for the evidence.

Tavi and Oren extracted cores while Renn recorded each location. Cassian moved the sacks through ambient pressure, keeping ordinary, hobgoblin, shaman, and King evidence separated.

Oren followed the blood trail. “Two behind the false screen, twenty-three from the voice-shaft engagement—including three the survivors moved—eighty in the central chamber, and seven killed while clearing the return route.”

Renn added the numbers. “One hundred twelve ordinary goblins. Nobody closes a sack until the physical count matches the cores.”

Tavi wiped blood from his gloves. “The Guild truly expects location records after a Low Ruin battle?”

“Classification disputes become payment disputes,” Oren replied. “The Hall will compare cores, trophies, patrol evidence, and our written route.”

Renn opened his field ledger. “Four shamans and a Goblin King make the original High Steel assessment impossible to defend. We recommend emergency reclassification, inspection, and rotating patrols.”

Every core proves those villages were abandoned to a threat far beyond the posted commission. I feel the ledger growing heavier with every count, because someone must answer for that failure.

Tavi held up one shaman core. “Does the Hall pay extra for being catastrophically wrong?”

“The danger adjustment should increase the commission,” Oren said. “Seven rescued captives and complete evidence will support the claim.”

Cassian shaped shallow stone trays beside the heavier remains, then lifted each body onto them through controlled ambient pressure. “Damaged cores may be rejected or valued lower. Keep every extraction cut away from the core itself.”

Tavi looked at him. “You know the Guild’s accounting rules too?”

“I read the regulations after I went to my inn.”

Oren tied another sack. “Most children become bored.”

“I was bored,” Cassian replied. “The regulations were nearby.”

They are joking again. I did not realize how badly I needed that sound until the cave stopped feeling like a grave.

They recovered all one hundred twelve ordinary goblin cores, sixteen hobgoblin cores, four shaman cores, and the Goblin King’s larger core.

For identification, they secured left ears, hobgoblin armor plates, the ritual staves, marked charms, the King’s head, surviving armor, and its broken cleaver.

Tavi tied the final sack. “The Guild refuses to pay heroic stories unless every corpse submits documentation.”

Oren checked the written count. “For once, your complaint is completely accurate.”

Outside, Pella adjusted a borrowed cloak around the youngest girl. “Brightroad returns together. That includes secrets, evidence sacks, and people too stubborn to admit exhaustion.”

Tavi lifted a sack of ordinary cores. “I volunteer to carry the category least likely to argue.”

Oren took the heavier end. “Those are goblin cores. They argued throughout the entire cave.”

Renn saw Cassian turn toward the conversation. The tension in the boy’s shoulders eased more than it had when the Goblin King died.

He never looked proud of the slaughter. One simple conversation, and more tension leaves him than when the King died. I can fear his power without forgetting the person choosing how to use it.

When the last evidence sack emerged, Brightroad left Blackroot Hill together, bearing the proof, their wounded pride, and seven living answers to a commission that had named none.

Renn had entered Blackroot Hill believing Cassian was the sixth person he needed to bring home.

He left knowing Cassian had been the reason any of them returned.

End of Chapter 48