Chapter 2
Darkness didn't feel peaceful as expected.
It felt crowded instead.
Heavy, like something was pressing in from all sides, sinking into my chest, wrapping around my lungs until the realization arrived far later than it should have.
I wasn't breathing.
That seemed like something I should have noticed sooner.
Panic came in properly after that, sharp and immediate, and I kicked instinctively, arms moving without coordination, fingers clawing at nothing until suddenly there was resistance, movement, direction-upwards.
I need Air.
I broke through the surface with a violent gasp, coughing hard as water rushed out like my body had been holding a grudge. My hands scraped against rough ground and I dragged myself forward, inch by inch, until I collapsed onto solid land, soaked, shaking, and very inconveniently alive.
For a moment, I just lay there, staring up at the sky.
Bright.
Clear.
Very much daytime.
I frowned slightly, still trying to catch my breath. "That seems... inconsistent," I muttered, because the last time I checked, I had fallen into a river at night, not taken a refreshing overnight swim and resurfaced into a completely different schedule.
Slowly, I pushed myself up, water dripping from my hair, my sleeves-
My sleeves?
I paused.
Then looked down.
"...Wait a minute."
I grabbed the fabric, holding it out in front of me like it had personally betrayed me. "Where are my jeans?" I asked, because this was clearly the most urgent issue.
What I was wearing instead was... not jeans.
It was a gown.
A long, heavy, extremely dramatic black gown that looked like it belonged in a historical tragedy and felt like it had been specifically designed to ruin my day.
I wrung out the fabric with a deeply unimpressed expression. "Who approved this?" I muttered. "This is impractical. This is aggressively impractical."
I tried to stand.
The gown objected.
My foot caught in what felt like several unnecessary layers, and I nearly introduced myself to the ground again.
"And it's sticking to me," I added, thoroughly offended now. "Fantastic. I almost died and this is what I wake up to."
I pushed wet hair out of my face and finally looked around properly.
And then I stopped.
Because this was not the bridge.
This was not even slightly close to anything I recognized.
Green stretched endlessly around me, too neat to be wild, too structured to be natural. There were stone pathways, distant buildings with intricate designs, and an overall atmosphere that screamed historical setting with an unreasonable budget.
I turned slowly, taking it all in.
"How long was I in that river?" I asked out loud. "And more importantly, where exactly did I come out?"
"Cassiane!"
I froze.
The voice came from behind me, sharp and familiar in a way that made absolutely no sense.
"Cassiane, there you are!"
I turned, mostly out of curiosity, because clearly she was not talking to me, and continued wringing out my very unfortunate gown.
A middle-aged woman hurried toward me, her posture rigid, her hair tightly pinned back, and her outfit just as elaborate and equally unnecessary as mine.
She stopped right in front of me, slightly out of breath, and placed her hands on her hips like she had been personally inconvenienced by my existence.
"Cassiane, I have been looking for you everywhere. Why are you wet?"
I blinked at her.
Then pointed at myself. "You're talking to me?"
She stared at me for a long moment, then stepped forward and placed a hand on my forehead.
"Are you running a fever?"
I grabbed her wrist and moved her hand away. "Woah!! Back off lady."
Then I turned and started walking away, because clearly I had hit my head on the way down, and this was now an extremely detailed hallucination.
That was the only logical explanation.
Except-
Two steps in, I stopped.
Because hallucinations were not usually this... consistent.
I looked around again, more carefully this time.
Stone archways.
Uniformed guards.
People moving with purpose, like this was all completely normal.
None of this was normal.
"Lady Cassiane Valerith Ardentia."
The name landed behind me with enough force to stop me completely.
I stopped cold.
Every single muscle in my body locked as something very unwelcome settled into my thoughts.
Slowly, I turned back.
"What did you just call me?"
She hadn't moved. She was still standing there, arms crossed now, looking at me like my behavior was becoming increasingly questionable.
"What you heard," she said, her patience clearly thinning. "Must I repeat myself?"
I stared at her.
Then I let out a short, disbelieving laugh.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Her expression didn't change.
That was not a good sign.
I pointed at myself again, this time with significantly more concern. "Cassiane Valerith... Ardentia?"
Still nothing.
No hesitation.
No correction.
Just quiet confirmation.
My mouth went slightly dry.
"No," I said, shaking my head as I took a step back. "No, that's not-"
Because I knew that name.
Very well.
I looked at her again, then at the gown, then at the entire very wrong world surrounding me, all of it suddenly fitting together in a way I did not appreciate.
"You mean that Cassiane?" I asked slowly. "The Cassiane?"
She gave me a look that suggested my intelligence had officially become a concern.
"Yes."
Silence stretched between us.
I inhaled slowly, trying to process this without immediately rejecting it, which was difficult, because everything about this deserved to be rejected.
Then I pointed at myself again, just to confirm that reality had, in fact, lost its mind.
"You're telling me," I said carefully, "that I am Cassiane Valerith Ardentia."
She nodded once, clearly done with this conversation.
And I just stood there.
Staring.
Because that was impossible.
Completely, utterly, unbelievably-
"Oh, this is bad," I whispered.
Because Cassiane Valerith Ardentia...
...was the villainess.