Silence, thick and absolute, surrounded her from all sides.
The first thing Cassandra noticed when she opened her eyes and peered around was the vast emptiness. There was no scaffold beneath her. No jeering crowd.
The cold ache that had settled into her knees after kneeling upon rough timber was gone. The restraints that had bound her wrists had disappeared. Even the lingering sting where iron shackles had rubbed against her skin had vanished as though it had never existed.
The executioner no longer stood behind her, ready to chop off her head with his blade.
She slowly sat upright.
There was only a large body of water, for as far as she could see. Its surface was perfectly still, dark as polished obsidian, stretching endlessly beneath a sky without stars or sun. There was no horizon. The black water and the sky simply faded into one another until they became impossible to separate.
Cassandra frowned.
She wasn’t wet. When she looked down, she saw that her feet rested upon the water as though it were solid ground.
She stood and took a cautious step.
The surface rippled gently beneath her bare feet before becoming perfectly still again. She took another step but nothing changed.
In this strange place she had wandered into there was no wind. No sound of chirping birds, nor distant waves.
Nothing at all. She was all alone in this strange place she did not recognize.
Her throat bobbed with a swallow, unease making her fingers tremble at her sides.
"Where am I?" It was barely a whisper, swallowed up immediately by the endless emptiness that surrounded her.
She remembered the looming presence of the executioner at her back, remembered the light breeze that had caressed the back of her neck just before the blade had descended.
She was dead, she had to be but this wasn’t at all what she envisioned death to look like.
Just as she had made up her mind to venture further, she heard it. Soft, gentle footfalls echoed behind her, as if their owner were simply taking a leisurely stroll.
Cassandra spun around, pulses pounding in her ears. She had no idea what to expect and yet nothing would have prepared her for what stood before her.
The strange woman stopped only a few feet away. She wore a long dress the colour of freshly fallen snow that dragged behind her as she moved, the hem brushing lightly across the water without disturbing its surface or getting wet. Her hair fell loosely to her waist.
She appeared neither young nor old. An ancient creature, timeless in its existence.
Cassandra found it impossible to ignore the immense power that radiated from her. It was unlike anything she had ever experienced before.
The woman’s eyes were hard to describe. They were like twin pools of obsidian, similar to the water beneath her feet. Those strange eyes finally settled upon Cassandra and it was as though she could see straight down to the core of her being, cataloging every shameful bit of Cassandra’s existence.
"Welcome, Cassandra Ashford." The woman’s voice was gentle, almost melodic. Yet it carried an authority that made Cassandra stiffen instinctively.
"How do you know my name?" Cassandra questioned.
"I always know the names of those who enter my domain. I rule the dead and you, my dear, are one of them now. This here is the bridge that connects my realm with the world of the living." She said as she gestured at where they were. Then she held out her hand for Cassandra to take. "I shall guide your passage to the other side."
But Cassandra only stared down at the woman’s outstretched hand. She made no move to take it as she replayed the woman’s words in her mind.
So this was it. This was how it ended. The finality of the situation had only just dawned on her and she didn’t know how to process all the emotions it drudged up within her. Labeled a murderer, executed as a traitor of her kingdom.
No, she didn’t want to accept it. She couldn’t. This couldn’t be all life had to offer her, this couldn’t be it.
"You seemed troubled. Why is that?" The woman asked though Cassandra had a feeling she would have already known without asking. Just as she had known her name at a single glance, she would have known every bit of Cassandra’s life, down to the distant memories that she could no longer recall.
"I was framed and killed for a heinous crime that I did not commit." Cassandra said, the words tumbling out of her before she could even make sense of them. "They stole so much from me and I want it back. Queen Delphine needs justice for what was done to her. I need a chance to make things right and destroy all those who are responsible for her death."
The woman did not withdraw her outstretched hand just yet, silently observing Cassandra with a look that was hard to describe.
"Countless people die every day, many of them robbed of their lives far too soon. What makes you believe you deserve a second chance more than those who came before you?"
Cassandra opened her mouth to speak and promptly closed it. How did she begin to answer such a question? She feared no answer she gave would be correct or even enough.
The strange woman continued when it became clear no answer was forthcoming.
"Tell me, what would you do if you were offered a second chance?"
"I would go back and I would protect the one I care for the most. I would make things right." Cassandra said, hoping the ancient being before her could feel the sincerity in her words.
"Death is inevitable and death is eternal. But many forgot that death is also peaceful. Here you are no longer shackled by the constraints and burdens from your life. There is none of the pain and misery you experienced before. Here you are free to simply exist. Why would you want to trade this for a second chance at life when there is a high chance you might fail in this endeavor?"
"Love." Cassandra breathed. "I am not more deserving of a second chance than those before me but I will risk and give up anything for it."
The woman regarded her in silence. It stretched so long that Cassandra began to wonder whether she had already given the wrong answer.
Finally, the woman withdrew her hand.
"You seek revenge." She said but it wasn’t accusingly.
Cassandra did not deny it.
"I seek justice." She responded.
The woman’s unnatural gaze did not waver.
"If vengeance becomes your sole purpose, then history will repeat itself." She took a slow step closer. "The dead cannot be brought back, Cassandra Ashford. Not your Queen. Not the innocent lives already claimed. By giving you a second chance, I am offering you neither a reward nor a miracle. I am offering you a burden. The path ahead will demand sacrifice. The future you remember will not remain unchanged. Every choice you make will reshape it until certainty becomes doubt. You will make mistakes and you will lose people. You may fail a second time. Knowing this, will you still return?"
Cassandra did not hesitate. "Yes."
"Why?"
A faint smile touched Cassandra’s lips.
"Because even if I fail, I would rather spend one lifetime trying to protect the people I love than staying idly by, wondering what I could have done differently."
For the first time since arriving, the woman’s expression softened.
"Then I shall grant your request." She placed two fingers gently against Cassandra’s forehead and almost immediately, the still waters beneath them trembled, ripples spreading endlessly across the dark surface.
"This is my gift and my burden." The woman said, voice raising louder than the sound of the restless waters. "When your purpose in the world of the living has reached its end, you will return to me."
The world fractured.
The endless water shattered like glass and darkness swallowed her whole. Cassandra struggled against the heavy current trying to pull her under but her efforts were futile. One moment she was drowning and the very next, she woke with a violent gasp.