Heart to Heart with Cassandra (locked to Cassandra)

[prince_returned]

Anne's celebration had taken his mind of things, but not entirely. And that was why he was walking away from it now, Cassandra and him arm in arm as they walked by the shore

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[eternity_denied]

She closed her eyes, trying in vain to push back the visions swirling on their surface.

"We all are," she whispers to her baby brother who grew into a man but who was still so lost and innocent.

"The past defines us. The present chains us. And the future... Is nothing but the two playing tricks on us."

She turned towards the sea and swears she sees the phantoms of a thousand Grecian ships as they sail closer towards the land of her destiny yet looking back at the renewed palace... This was not home. Not anymore.

"Some histories are better left forgotten. Some pasts are most fortunate to be ignored. And some people... are more luckier dead."

[prince_returned]

A frown found its way on his face. Some people never changed. Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "What happened to trying to be more... Well, not exactly joyous, but less depressing? You speak in your riddles again, like there are visions that plague you unceasingly. I would think that in this life they have stopped. You have long been out of Apollo's favor and as hurtful as this truth may be, out of his thinking."

There was that feeling of annoyance at his sister's words, as always when Cassandra seemed fit to predict the inevitable downfall of everything he held dear. It was not her fault, yes. But he wished that for once, her visions were of a happier nature.

[eternity_denied]

She raised her eyebrow.

"You know better than that. Once the Gift is given, He can never take it back. Even if death, the world after it, and now my secong life, this Power is mine."

She turned back to the seas.

"Besides." she says airily, the lightness of tone as weightless as the winds from the north of the earth and just as cold, "we're not here for me."

Glancing at him from the sides of her eyes, she said, "Riddles? Depressing? Who is more confusing and sad? The woman who has returned to her world to find it changed and yet the same but her the odd one out... Or the man who has found love and life and still seems to be looking for a reason for both?"

She does not mean to be cruel but she knows the kindness in Paris' heart can only go so far. He needs to be angry and not feel ashamed about it. Who better than her? She's used to this.

[prince_returned]

He glanced sharply at her, trying to rein in his temper, as Cassandra always seemed to raise his ire without any effort on her part, in counterpoint with all the effort it took for him not to snap at her.

"I do not question the love or life I have found. I am thankful for both. I never thought it possible to actually be happy without the prospect of a horrible end looming ahead of me. I only question..." he trailed off.

Paris stopped walking, eyes on the Aegean Sea again, seeing the ghosts of ships his sister saw moments earlier. Some thoughts, some habits were hard to erase.

"I question what happens next. Because as always, something is missing."