470 Come Winter

Cassie had changed since the last time they met.

Her hair was longer, and there was a strange silver half-mask covering her eyes, its surface blind and intricately engraved. It matched the polished steel of the armor she was wearing on top of a midnight blue coat, comprised of a short cuirass, vambraces, greaves, and a segmented pauldron.

The Quiet Dancer hung on her belt, but there was also a long dagger opposite it, its guard twisting upward.

What changed most of all, however, was her demeanor. The blind girl seemed… much older, somehow. Firmer, poised, but also weary. As if pressed down upon by the weight of years.

'What? What years? She's younger than me!'

Sunny struggled a little, then pretended to smile, too, for the benefit of the young Fire Keeper who no doubt expected a warm reunion.

No one knew what had happened between them, after all.

"Yeah. I received your note… cryptic as it was. And here I am. In the flesh."