For a moment, the two individuals stood motionless on either side of the pool, neither daring to make a move. Then, almost simultaneously, they recognized each other.

"Edgar!"

"Cassima! What are you doing here?"

"Trying to find that snake Shadrack, of course! I presume you are doing the same?"

"Well...in a sense, I suppose."

They approached each other at the north end of the pool, then knelt down on the soft grass that grew around it.

"Any luck, Edgar?"

"I…I don't know, Cassie."

Cassima blinked in surprise at being addressed with such a casual nickname by this man she had only met a few hours before. The only people who ever called her "Cassie" were her parents…and they hadn't done that since she was a child.

"'Cassie?'" she repeated contemptuously. "My name is Cassima."

"Oh. Sorry…sorry, Cassie – er, Cassima," Edgar faltered, looking at his knees. "I must not be thinking straight…I'm just so worried about Rosella…"

That name ignited a candle in Cassima's memory.

"Rosella? Where have I heard that name before?" she said, more to herself than Edgar. "Didn't Alexander say she was his…"

That lit a candle in Edgar's mind.

"Alexander? You know of King Alexander, Cassima?"

Cassima's green eyes grew even wider with surprise.

"Know him?" she exclaimed. "Edgar, I'm his queen!"

They both fell into a stupefied silence as the reality of the situation dawned on them. The man that Cassima loved and the woman that Edgar loved were brother and sister…and they had only just realized that fact for themselves.

Cassima had definitely heard Edgar's name before and vice versa, but only in passing, from conversations with their extended families. Prior to this journey, they only knew each other's names and their relation to Rosella and Alexander, and their awkward encounter at the Edge of the World was the first time they had met face to face.

Presently, Edgar recalled what Cassima had said mere moments ago, and he humbly lowered his head as he spoke again:

"You…Queen? Your Highness…I'm so sorry…"

"Don't grovel like that, Edgar," Cassima said. "This isn't a throne room."

She suddenly narrowed her eyes contemplatively.

"Are you royalty too?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Not a king?"

"No," Edgar replied. "A prince."

"I thought your name sounded familiar," Cassima said, glancing down momentarily. "Have you known Rosella very long?"

"No, maybe a few months at most."

By the sudden dull tone of his voice, Cassima could tell that this wasn't his favorite subject, and she made no objection when he quickly changed it:

"I was raised in this land, you know."

"Really?"

"Yes. I was kidnapped from my homeland of Etheria as a baby and raised by an evil fairy in the Impossible Mountains."

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "They're that way, towards the east."

"Etheria?" Cassima asked. "What's that land like?"

Edgar gazed skyward. Though he had only known Etheria for a short time, it had grown quite dear to him.

"It's a chain of islands…"

"Sounds like my homeland," Cassima remarked.

"…Floating in the clouds."

Cassima gaped. This man was simply full of surprises.

"Really? That's amazing, Edgar."

"Thanks, I guess."

There was a deep silence after that, broken only by the sounds of birds and the wind in the trees. Cassima was the first to speak again:

"Do you mind if I ask how exactly you happened to wind up on the Edge of the World with me?"

"Well, as I said then, I was seeking the advice of King Alexander – your husband – in the hopes of finding a way to win Rosella's heart. She gave me that pendant that my mother had found, and I was trying to visualize the Isles, but then, my father burst in, screaming about a dream he had just awakened from about some dark cloak…that must have muddled up my mind, and I wound up in the dark…just like you did."

"That is too strange. I guess I was thinking of darkness when I appeared there because Shadrack is a brother of a group called the Black Cloak Society. Our vizier, Alhazred, was also a member of that cult, and when his plans to take over my kingdom were foiled and he was banished, it made us think that Shadrack would undoubtedly plot revenge against us if he ever found out about it. The Black Cloak Society must have been what your father was dreaming about."

"I guess so," Edgar said, looking slightly downcast at the memory.

The two fell silent again, trying to recall what they could about each other from what Rosella and Alexander had said about them. Their mental searches turned up very little. In the stories of her brother's adventures that Rosella had recounted to Edgar, Cassima was scarcely more than a footnote with a brief description attached, and Edgar correctly guessed that he held a similar level of obscurity in the tales of Rosella's adventures as told by Alexander to Cassima. But somehow, seeing each other began to strengthen the memories of what little they knew of each other. They began to look at each other not as strangers, but as long lost friends or relatives.

Cassima suddenly remembered something she had promised to Edgar shortly before leaving Serenia. She rolled up her right sleeve, exposing the shining adornment beneath it.

"After I got out of the Underworld, I went to Serenia and met a wizard named Crispinophur. He gave me this."

Edgar peered at the bracelet with a mixture of curiosity and uncertainty.

"What is it?"

"It's a magic bracelet that can change me into any of the six animals engraved in it: panther, wolf, raven, lizard, goat or sea lion. All I need to do is recite the name for the animal that is associated with it magically – although I can be changed if someone else speaks the name as well. I used this bracelet to change into a raven and fly here."

Edgar's toes curled and he cringed slightly.

"Er…that's interesting."

"What's wrong?" Cassima asked.

"I've spent most of my life in a different body," Edgar said flatly, shifting uncomfortably. "I'm not really that…intrigued by something like that."

Cassima was about to apologize when she suddenly remembered something Alexander had once told her. She rolled her sleeve down and smiled.

"You're closer to the animal kingdom than you think, Edgar. Alexander once told me about how his sister almost lost you, then restored you with an extra life…which was given to her by a black cat."

It was like a pail of cold water had been poured over Edgar. Rosella had never told him this before, and it was probably for his sake that she hadn't. He had often wondered how he had gone from dead enough to enter the Underworld one moment to alive and perfectly healthy the next, yet he had never gotten the chance to ask Rosella about it. Now he knew the truth, and it terrified him. He stared at his shaking hands, then nervously started examining himself with them, as if he expected to find himself covered in fur, with claws and a tail.

"I'm living on a cat's life?!" he cried.

"I'm afraid so," Cassima said, still smiling in spite of herself. "But you're certainly making good use of it."

Edgar groaned loudly and rubbed his face with a palm. As if his insecurity with transfiguration wasn't enough of a problem, discovering that he was almost part animal was nearly too much for him. Destiny seemed to have developed a habit of mercilessly toying with him in this way.

His reaction to this realization awakened some odd feelings in Cassima. On one hand, she felt sorry for Edgar and felt that she should let him resolve his problem on his own, but on the other hand, she felt that she shouldn't pass on the opportunity to have a little fun with him…after all, she might not get such a chance again.

The latter eventually won her over. She looked at the spot where her bracelet was and grinned mischievously.

"I can be a wolf."

Edgar's head snapped up.

"Is that so?" he said, with just a hint of anxiety.

"Yeah. Want to see?"

"No!" Edgar said strongly, holding up his hands. "No, I told you I don't like transformations…"

The fear in his voice made the more rational, mature side of Cassima's mind take over.

"Okay, okay. No transformations today."

The sun was beginning to sink into the sea. After another longish pause, Edgar rose to his feet and stretched.

"I'm going for a walk. Do you want to join me?"

"Certainly," Cassima said, daintily standing and brushing off her dress. The pair made their way south, around the pool, towards the wide meadows of Tamir. Many of the flowers were beginning to close, and crickets were beginning to chirp in the nearby woods. In the darkening sky above, several of the bolder stars were showing themselves.

As he slowly walked through the soft grasses, Edgar occasionally stole a glance at Cassima out of the corner of his eye. She was certainly beautiful – but certainly not in the same innocent, gentle way as Rosella. Behind those emerald eyes and raven hair was something so unpredictable and secretive. Not evil, just…different. To think that she was his future sister-in-law…if Rosella truly decided to marry him, that was. The way she had spoken to him at the pool had shocked him…but that could just be because he had never met a woman like Cassima before. A woman so foreign and wild…and no, he was not going to draw any parallels between this observation and that charm of hers that she claimed could transform her into one of six wild animals. Absolutely not. Edgar cursed himself and struggled to think of something else when he realized that he had just drawn such a parallel.

At the same time, every once in a while Cassima would look at Edgar as she walked beside him. Despite his apparent timidity and insecurity, he was in every way a gentleman. He was respectful and polite, and though it didn't shine through as strongly as his other traits, he was certainly courageous as well – why else would he have volunteered to help Cassima on her mission mere minutes after meeting her? As kind as Edgar was, however, Cassima wished that he would occasionally lighten up and not take whatever she said to him so seriously. Alexander had been enslaved for most of his life, but with that witty sense of humor of his, no one would know it unless he or someone else told them. Even though he had become quite withdrawn and worried over the last few weeks because of those dreams, he was always the first to make light of something dark. Cassima wondered why Edgar couldn't just be a little more like that. His disposition reminded her too much of the way Alexander was when she left him.

"This is a beautiful country," Cassima breathed. "You were lucky to have been raised here."

"I wasn't raised here, in the lowlands," Edgar said. "I've actually never been here. I spent all my youth in those mountains."

"So you told me," Cassima replied.

Just then, a recently formed memory sprung unbidden to the surface of her mind. She tried to push it away, but stopped doing so when she realized that it might actually prove useful not only to her, but to Edgar.

"Edgar?"

"Yes?"

"Was Llewdor the last land you were in before you came here?"

"Why yes, it was."

"Did you explore the desert near it, by any chance?"

"No, I didn't."

"Well, you should. There is an oasis there that I'm sure would be worth investigating."

"What makes you so certain?" Edgar asked.

Cassima tried to come up with a logical reason and failed.

"I just feel it," she finally replied. "I know it's important." I wouldn't have seen it, otherwise, she added mentally.

"If you say so," Edgar shrugged. "Do you think that thinking of the desert and the image of an oasis would get me there?"

"It's worth a try," Cassima admitted.

"All right. I'll be going, then."

As Edgar was preparing to activate his pendant, he looked around at the darkening land, then at Cassima. His face drew itself into a look of unease.

"What is it?" the queen asked.

"Um…you know that charm you told me about earlier?"

"My bracelet?"

"Yeah, that…charm bracelet. You said it could turn you into a wolf?"

"Yes…"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but...you might want to use that bracelet soon. I won't be here to conjure up light for you, and I've heard that wolves can see well in the dark. Well...so long."

Cassima bid him farewell after a brief moment of silence. Edgar focused on the image of the Llewdorian desert and the description of a generic oasis and slowly faded away, leaving Cassima alone in the deepening night.

The queen contemplated what the prince had told her, then smiled as she recalled the fitting name he had given the magical device that allowed her to change forms. A charm bracelet. Why not?

---

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