[h2][color=f26522]Cassandra[/color][/h2]
[@WeepingLiberty]


With her potential new friend gone inside, Cassandra wasn't sure what to do with herself. Sure, she would never in a million years say she liked Dominique's company, but having none at all was honestly bizarre.  She hoped she had spoken correctly to Lillie and her partner. Going over etiquette lessons, it seemed correct, but was leaving her normal, or a bad sign? Maybe she should have acted more honestly with them, like she did with Dom. He hadn't liked it, but it had brought them onto a strange kind of equal footing. But he was gone. 

She was in an uncomfortable middle ground. She had never been on familiar terms with anyone besides her parents, but at the same time, she had been under watch and tutelage for almost as long as she could remember. She didn't know how to make friends, but was unaccustomed to being alone.

It was the magic that was to blame. She might have had a normal childhoood, even if she was a mage, if she hadn't awakened so early. It was one of her strongest and earliest memories. She had vague notions from before, remembered her brother, and what had happened to him. Enough that she felt the stark difference between her life before and after, even if she hadn't understood it at the time. 

It had been like burning alive, she nearly destroyed the kitchen in the process. 

[hider=Fire][img]https://i.imgur.com/GykYHX8_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium[/img] [/hider]

It hurt, but it was the last time fire had hurt her. Like the first fire had sloughed off her weak human skin, and she had a scaled hide underneath. Of course, she looked perfectly normal after. The power was too strong for her weak child’s body, though, and it was an immense relief when it was sealed away, to await her coming of age.  She’d hated it at first. The magic that had taken her brother. That she only survived because her family was being watched after the first child died.  

She had no choice but to embrace it, though.  If she was going to be forced to be a mage, she would do it.  And she would make sure that people were looking at her because she was powerful, not because her brother had caused trouble when his own magic was unsupervised.

She stood close by the Astorio mailbox(or, rather, the Roth mailbox, since Dom had left), and was looking east, hoping to see the first rays of the sun.  It would be a few hours still, but she wanted to see it when it happened.  

But someone approached.  A vampire.  Taller than her, and apparently a noble.  

“[color=f49ac2]I take it you are one of my new neighbors? I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure of a proper introduction just yet. Would your partner mind if I invited you in for a cup of tea and a conversation? Seems the teachers want us in doors this evening, in fact the guards are rather insistant on it.[/color]”

How to greet her?  None of her social interactions had been in any way successful so far.  So, at a loss for what to do otherwise, Cassandra just answered the question as if they were two normal people, and not a noblewoman of the ruling class, and someone else’s servant.  

[color=f26522]“I don’t think he’d mind anything, as he’s left.  I, uh, don’t know where to, or what I should do in the meantime.  So, I guess tea would be nice.  I’m Cassandra.  Cassandra Roth.”[/color]