Taniora was a rather curious person, Cass found out. She asked a lot of good questions, sitting next to Cass as she did so.

Cass occasionally called Sam in to refill the tea so that they could continue talking, but Cass could rewarm it if it got cold. Sam seemed nervous that Cass was talking to Taniora so passionately, while at the same time, he looked relieved.

Cass wasn’t aware of how tense he’d been, how tightly he’d been holding himself until he began talking with Taniora about this. It felt...good to be able to truly explain all of this to someone who didn’t judge, didn’t have any attachment to this outside of a thread connected to Lucian. Who also understood how bad those who were a higher power than the average could be.

She had a lot of sympathy for Cass, and when Cass spoke of his own death and leaving behind his sister and his family, Taniora hugged Cass again. Cass was getting used to the coldness, and was honestly able to find comfort in it.

The ground around them was littered with the gems of Taniora’s grief for Cass, but neither of them acknowledged it. It wasn’t the time to do so.

She really liked learning about the space that Cass had woken up in, and the space that he continued to go to when he spoke to the gods. Cass then explained why he had been so surprised when he had met her. She had looked horrified at the realisation and the implication of it all.

"Is there a god working with the demons?" She whispered, sounding just as horrified as she should sound. Cass nodded, and then hesitated.

"I can’t be certain, but who else would know what that space looked like? That was supposed to be a meeting space between just Cassian and I, and that was made by the gods. I don’t think the demons have a hold over that spot." Cass said. Taniora looked rather concerned.

"As much as I don’t want to think that there is a chance that the gods and demons are in a war that has traitors on either side, there might be another option. What if...that space is a bit like the world we’re in now? What if they tried to block it from the demon’s view, but someone got in? What if that is the benefit of having your Mother become a demon?" She asked and Cass felt his eyes go wide.

"Oh fuck. I hadn’t even considered that." Cass whispered and Taniora’s brows were drawn. She looked very, very upset that she had to even consider this.

"I hate thinking about this, but if your whole mission coming here to this world was to prevent the demons from winning, then why wouldn’t they be this crafty? Maybe they didn’t even know that this was a possibility until it happened? How many times have you spoken to Cassian in that place?" She asked and Cass hesitated.

"Only a few times. It really hasn’t been that many. Twice? Three times?" Cass suggested, his memory a little fuzzy. Taniora hummed.

"And then I woke up on the same set. You said that it came from Fiona’s backyard, right? Is it still there?" Cass stared at her.

"What do you mean?" He asked and she sighed.

"Well, they had to get my bones to physically put me in the dungeon, it would only make sense that they would have to do the same for the tables and chairs." Cass felt a chill run down his spine.

"Let me ask Byron to go check right now." Cass said, rising to his feet. She nodded, looking as if she really hated making that suggestion, but that it was necessary. Cass agreed. Trespassing on a dead hero’s grave was bad enough, but for them to also trespass on the living hero’s home? That would take things up to a notch that would make Cass glad that Fiona was gone.

It would mean that she was in a lot more danger than any of them considered.

Cass stepped away to speak to Byron and Sam, who both didn’t flinch at Cass’ order. Byron said he would go with one of the fairies, because while Byron had more magic, he was still new to using it properly. One of the fairies would be a better choice to help trace magic or anything else that could potentially be off about Fiona’s house.

Cass was grateful for his suggestion while Sam muttered that he would go make a few sandwiches for Cass to help take the edge off. It was the best Sam could offer since he couldn’t go with Byron. Cass thanked them both and told Byron to come to him immediately after they visited her home.

Byron set off after that.

Taniora was apologetic that she suggested it after Cass had sat down, but Cass waved off her apology. Honestly, it wasn’t a bad thing. Cass had been caught up in his own personal affairs, for good reason, up until now. He had been so angry at Fiona and Ava for leaving that he hadn’t truly looked at why they had.

Cass had kind of brushed off the fact that they had tried to marry Ava off so suddenly relatively early in the story that he hadn’t thought about why. Of course it was on the movement of the demons, that was obvious now, but Cass had originally thought it was a power play by the King and the Dukes.

Knowing now what Taniora was suggesting, it made a bit more sense.

The demons knew something was up with the original story, or their plans were going astray and now they were attempting to fight back. Cass had been so busy finding out that he was a demon and what that meant to really see the bigger picture. It cooled Cass’ blood a little to realise it.

They had tried to take the Saintess. They had almost done it too, would have if Cass hadn’t been, well, Cass. He was the one who fought back, pushed them out from doing what they wanted.

Now they had two saints wandering the world, two heroes, and it still didn’t feel like enough. What was it about this Demon King that made him so dangerous compared to the others? What had he done?

Made a deal with a fairy, the first of its kind. Forced Cassian into said deal, took a fairy in as a demon, and...then what? Cass knew that the deal was to give birth to the next Demon King, but why was that so important?

Cassian died before that could happen, as far as Cass was aware. Cassian wouldn’t have cheated on Fiona, he’d had his hands full trying to be a part of the hero party while also plotting behind them. He was a minor villain, not the main villain. That was still the Demon King, and yet, after everything he had done, it had been for nothing.

He had betrayed them and it hadn’t worked out for him.

Cass’ job was to make sure that he didn’t die, but why? Why was it so important for Cassian not to die? Was it tied to the deal with the Demon King? He was told that he needed to change the ending of the story but how? Obviously, Fiona wasn’t part of the hero party right now so his killer wasn’t around him, Cass had no plan to steal the weapon from them when they found it since he knew that it wouldn’t change whatever Cassian was trying to change.

It was like a switch flipped in Cass’ mind at that moment.

"Cassian found out about the deal." Cass whispered. Taniora stared at Cass in confusion.

"What?" She asked and Cass breathed slowly, his eyes wide. He looked at Taniora but he wasn’t really looking at her.

"Cassian found out about the deal! He didn’t know, like I didn’t know about the deal that our Mother made. He was panicking all on his own about it. Didn’t think he could confide in anyone because it would just prove that he was a demon like everyone thought he was. That was why he stole the final boss item! It was supposed to be able to kill any demon! Maybe...maybe he was trying to either break the contract, kill the demon blood inside of him, or something along those lines and it didn’t work!" Cass was shouting, standing on his feet as he felt like he was finally seeing the full picture.

Taniora stared at him, her eyes wide too. She stood up as well.

"That...That might make sense. You said that his relationship with the others wasn’t close like it is now, right?" Taniora asked and Cass nodded.

"Absolutely abysmal, actually. They all suspected him, didn’t trust him, but they didn’t think that he would steal from them. I always thought it was strange. He could have just asked and I know that Fiona would have supported him. He didn’t have to steal it." Cass said. "But being here, being him now...he didn’t think that he had a choice." Cass said. Taniora sighed.

"Okay, so why is the deal so important?" She asked and Cass paused.

"I’m still...trying to figure that part out. I know that they want to keep Cassian alive, but I’m trying to understand why. Cassian dies at the end of the novel, killed because he betrayed the others. It was kind of an accidental death, but he still dies. The gods told me that the world ends shortly after that." Cass said. He wasn’t yelling now, his emotions calming down slightly after his explosion.

Both of them were quiet for a second, thoughtful.

"Can demons make more than one deal at a time?" Taniora asked. Cass froze.

"What?" He asked as she raised her gaze slowly to Cass’.

"Can demons make more than one deal at a time? Can gods make more than one deal at a time? Is this something that others have even considered before?" She asked. "Because I don’t know. We never considered how many deals demons could make before." Cass’ jaw was on the floor.

"Let’s ask Sam." He said and Taniora’s gaze sharpened.

"Would he know? Is that something that demons inherently know? Because if it was, wouldn’t you know, Cass?" She suggested and Cass blinked. Her words got right to the point of it all. Sam had been raised to be at Cass’ side essentially. Would he even know?

"Let’s still ask him when he comes back. He might not know, but he might know where to find out." Cass said and Taniora nodded. Then her expression brightened.

"I’m so glad that I can be of use." She said quietly. "Even if this isn’t a particularly happy conversation." Cass couldn’t help but agree.

"Still, these are questions I should have been asking myself. I just took too long trying to adjust here." Cass said and Taniora gave him a sympathetic look.

"Of course you would. From what I’ve heard, you needed to. Now though, it seems that things are getting serious if they are making moves like this. It’s a miracle that I didn’t turn out to be evil after they gathered me." Taniora said and Cass couldn’t help but agree.

It was a small blessing that she had remained herself, and it was clear that neither of them knew why. The only guess either of them had was the fact that she was a powerful fairy before she passed, and that was it.

Now, they needed to wait for Sam and Byron to come back.