#bc she DOES spell her name with a c in our campaign lol

[lovevalley45]

#fictober22 day ten

"It's my name on the line."

original fiction (dungeons & dragons)

word count: 562

By now, Kassandra was used to bickering with her mother. It was the only time she felt like she had her full attention, when she wasn’t telling Katharina to tutor her or telling Kaleb and Klaud to listen to their sister. 

This fight, though, was the last one they’d have for a long time. 

“I don’t think you truly understand how important this position is, Kassandra,” her mother was saying. “I can’t have you coming with me unless I know you’ll behave.”

“Behave?” Kassandra scoffed. “You’re asking me to pretend to be someone else.”

“I’m not asking that. Just don’t spread any of your nonsense, please. No cards, no trying to tell the future-”

“Then what is our job?”

Her mother sighed. “It’s my name on the line, Kassandra. Our name. We earned the name Stjerne for a reason.” 

It always came down to this. Her mother would never, never agree with her. When Killian had turned away from the family legacy to embrace another circle, her mother had welcomed it. But when Kassandra wanted to honor things different, that was when things went bad. 

“I know, Mother. I studied the stars. Katharina knows that I know my stuff.”

At the mention of her name, her older sister glanced up. Katharina rarely stepped in, not wanting to challenge their mother’s authority. That time was no different. 

“Yes, Kassandra. But your methods… any veering from tradition is frowned upon. We stick to our star maps. Not… silly cards.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d heard it, and certainly not the first time from her mother. But Kassandra stood up from where she’d been sitting on the couch as she got lectured at. Although her height would have been intimidating to anyone who wasn’t a Goliath, her mother still had a few inches on her. “I’ve earned my tattoos. What can they do, take them away?” she asked. 

“Kassandra, please.”

“Fine. Go without me. But I might not be here when you come back.”

She turned to head to the room she shared with Killian. But as she stepped into the hall, she felt Katharina’s hand on her shoulder. 

“Please, don’t tell me you’re actually thinking about going,” she said.

“I’m old enough,” Kassandra said. “I’ve been saving up money, I can make it on my own.”

“It’s just one fight-” Katharina started to say.

“It’s never one fight!” She cleared her throat, moving her sister’s hand. “We’re just clearly too different. I have to find my own ways. I have to… I’ll actually go help people out there. And then she’ll see.”

“If you stay until we return from the summit, things will cool off.”

Kassandra sighed. “For how long?”

She opened her mouth to say something, but Katharina back at their mother, still fuming in the other room. “If you do leave… keep in touch. Please.”

“I’ll try.”

Her room was empty when she stepped inside and started to gather her things. She grabbed her old star maps, her cloaks, but paused over her journal.

The first page had her name written in her neatest lettering - Kassandra Stjerne. But she grabbed a quill off her desk and crossed it out, leaving a new name in its place: Cassandra.

Her mother had thought her name was on the line, but if their name was so fragile, Cassandra could leave it behind as well.