Well, here's my latest bit of work... a bit different from what I usually 
produce, but I like it... and I hope you do, as well.  There will be more 
of these coming in the relatively near future, so if you like it, please 
do let me know.  (and if you don't, feel free to let me know that, too).

Obviously, I don't own Soulcalibur II, Namco does.  I'm not trying to 
make any money on this, and nobody else should be either.  If anyone *is* 
trying to make money off of it (not likely, I think), please do let me 
know so I can put a stop to it.  'Nuff said?

This and my other fanfiction works can be found on my new, improved 
website at http://www.stormwalker.org


Stormwalker <stormwalker@stormwalker.org> presents...

Fragments of Soul

A series of Soulcalibur II character sketches by Douglas A. Reeves

First Fragment: Cassandra Alexandra: Steps of Faith

-----------------

     Gazing down from the hilltop to the seemingly endless road that
stretched out before her, Cassandra gave a heavy sigh.  What was she
doing?  Why was she here, by herself, setting out on a journey when she
didn't even know where she was going?  She wasn't an adventurer.  She
wasn't trained for this, and she didn't know what she was doing.  She
wasn't prepared for the journey, much less the confrontation waiting for
her at the end of it.  She had no business doing this... and yet she
could not bring herself to even look back, for fear her resolve would
break and she would return home with the task undone.

     She would have to manage somehow, she told herself.  Her sister had
done it, after all.  She found herself wishing she had listened more
closely to Sophitia's tales of her adventures--when she was willing to
talk about them, that was.  Then again, she'd thought it was all over,
that there would be no more need for her family to be dragged into the
affairs of gods and demons.

     Yet there she stood, staring at the road that would only be the
beginning of her quest.  Conflicting concerns fought for her attention.
Where would she sleep the night?  What would she do for food?  She had
a few gold pieces, but her sister's tales had spoken of lands far away
and travels over mountains and seas and deserts, and she knew what
little she had would not last.  It would have to take her as far as she
could stretch it, and then... she would find ways.

     She did not know much of the wide world, beyond what she had picked
up from Sophitia's descriptions of it, but she gathered it was less than
a friendly place, even for a swordmaiden.  Worse still, the very evil
she sought to destroy would attract the worst kinds of people.  Even
before she reached the end of her quest, she would have to fight, and
while she had no doubts about her own ability to meet those challenges,
it was one more difficulty added to a task that already seemed
overwhelming.

     It was, she told herself, a fool's errand.  No, it was worse than
that... even fools did not charge blindly after some evil they hardly
understood, especially when they had so little idea of where they might
find it, or even what to do if they did.

     Yet her sister had done exactly that.  Twice, no less, even after
the first time she had come back on the edge of death, saved only by the
mysterious woman from the East who had carried her home.  These same
weapons that Cassandra now held, Sophitia had borne to battle against
the demon sword, and returned again.  Of course, Sophitia had been given
Hephaestus' oracle as a guide... but she had no more experience the
first time than Cassandra.

     She closed her hand tightly around the hilt of her sword.  Hers?
No, much like this quest, it was something she had stolen, had taken for
her own when it truly belonged to another.  There were so many others
who could lay claim to the weapon and to the shield that was its
companion.  Rothion, her brother-in-law, who had forged the arms in a
labor of love.  Sophitia, her sister, for whom they had been made, and
who had wielded them through countless battles.  Hephaestus, god of fire
and forge, to whom sword and shield had been dedicated after Sophitia's
second and triumphant return.

     Yet her hands held them now, and her feet bore them on their holy
errand.  She wondered again why she was doing this, even as the answer
still burned into the palm of her hand.  The shard's heat was searing
even through her glove, as though it would burn cloth and flesh alike,
yet it left no mark.  That heat, though, and the angry red glow of the
metal were a constant reminder of the evil that had returned once again
to menace her family.  There was no mistaking the dark energy that
surged even through this small shard of the demon blade.

     She could not see it, could not feel it, without thinking of her
sister.  Even being near to this fragment had brought Sophitia pain,
the wounds once opened by similar shards aching anew.  More disturbing
than that were the reactions of her niece and nephew, who had fought
over the shard so that they had to be restrained.  Had they all been
infected by the blade's dark energy?  It reminded her of one of her
sister's stories, of the men who had wielded the weapon, and of the
dominion it held over their souls.  Was the darkness of the demon sword
to hover over her family for another generation?

     She would not have it.  Soul Edge would not have power over her
sister or any other of her family.  Sophitia would not have to take up
this fight again, would not be troubled by this darkness a third time.

     Fear.  There had been fear in Sophitia's eyes, and that had stirred
something in Cassandra's soul that she could not hold down.  Taking the
shard herself, she had run to the shrine on the mountain, the very place
where this had all begun.  Sophitia had received an oracle there, and a
quest... Cassandra had gone seeking only an answer for her fury.

     What had happened then, she still as not sure she understood.  She
had screamed to the heavens at the gods for inflicting this pain on her
sister once again.  She had shouted her rage until she collapsed at the
altar's foot.  Then, as she pleaded for another answer, she raised her
eyes to the altar itself... and the holy weapons which resided there.

     Sophitia had her own life now.  She had her husband, and her
children to care for, a family that needed her.  The gods be damned if
they thought they would put this burden on her again.  They could find
another champion.

     Perhaps, she thought with a twist of irony, they had.

     When she first saw her sister's old arms, the resonance was
undeniable.  That sword and shield had done battle with the demon blade
before, and the presence of its shard seemed to awaken something within
them.  She'd picked up the sword, and in that moment felt something new.
Could it be that this was the answer she had sought?

     She wondered what her sister had thought when she visited the
shrine and found the sword and shield missing.  Had she known, then,
that Cassandra had taken up her quest?  Was she angry?  Would she worry?
Probably; Sophitia had never been the kind to foist her work off on
others... but that was one more reason this had to be done.

     She turned her eyes away from the shard, looking back to the road
ahead.  It was a long journey ahead of her, with nothing to guide her
but a faint sense of leading.  Was it the fragment that gave her this
direction, the dark power of Soul Edge reaching out to be reunited with
the whole of the blade?  Or was it something higher, more noble?  Had
Hephaestus looked kindly upon her even in her rage, and deigned to bless
her efforts in spite of it?

     She wanted to believe that.  This felt right to her, even in the
face of all the reasons it should be wrong.  She hoped it was true;
she knew well the might of the evil she would face on this quest, and
she knew she would need that kind of help.  She would have to trust that
it was so, that the holy arms she bore would provide her with their
protection.  She had no doubt of her own skill, but with the stories her
sister had told, she knew there were powers beyond skill at work here,
powers for which she had no other counter.

     No... there could be no doubt in her mind, in her heart.  She had
to believe, had to trust with each step that she was doing the right
thing.  She had to trust in her skill, trust in her heart, trust in the
divine powers that had protected her sister through two such journeys--
trust that those powers would lead her safely home again when all was
done.  She could not delay; if the demon sword was truly awakened, and
she knew that it was, there would be others seeking it as well.  There
was no time for hesitation, and none for fear.  She would have to be
swift, and strong, if she hoped to bring the horror of Soul Edge to a
final end... and bring peace to her family once and for all.

     She tightened her grip on the sword, holding it up before her, and
as it gleamed in the morning sun she knew, somehow, that she would
succeed.  This was her quest now, given to her by the gods, just as it
had been to her sister before, and she could not fail.  Drawing in a
deep breath, she took her first steps forward onto the long road ahead.

**********
End

     
     -- 
Stormwalker - <stormwalker@stormwalker.org> - Douglas A. Reeves
Network analyst, anime fan, hopeless romantic, and sometime writer
"The heavens declare the glory of God..." Psalm 19:1
Tempest - http://www.stormwalker.org



             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'