Caer Captus

Caer Captus
“May I present to society Miss Cassandra Destiny Sibyl Dashwood daughter of Lord Henry Dashwood of Hatfield.” At these words from the greeter, Charles Princeton turned with every other guest to applaud the girl as she walked down the stairs. Charles was a visitor in the Hatfield manor, to witness the Coming-Out-Party of his good friend, Lord Henry Dashwood’s daughter, as she had just turned eighteen years of age. Charles often thought that she was quite beautiful. She had the delicate look of a china doll. With a very pale, almost white, complexion, big, blue eyes, and long, wavy, blonde hair. She saw Charles and smiled.
“I see you decided to come,” she says warmly.
“I promise nothing could have kept me away, Miss Dashwood,” Charles stated in a fake formal manner, smiling.
Cassandra blushed and sighed exasperatedly, “How many times must I tell you, Charles, to call me Cassie and not this formal junk!” But secretly she was very pleased with the handsome boy’s reply. She had developed a crush on him since the moment she laid eyes on him, after all he was only two years older than she.
“At least once more, as always, Cassie,” Charles replied simply. He enjoyed teasing her.
At that moment Lord Henry joined the pair, telling them that the dancing was about to begin. Cassie felt her face grow warm and excused herself on the pretense of going to find out when the butlers would serve the birthday cake. She decided to go to the bathroom to splash some cold water on her cheeks, when she was suddenly grabbed from behind and stuck with something sharp. Every thing started coming in and out of focus and she could barley hear the words: “Come, my pretty, to the castle where you are destined to live. Come to Caer Captus with me.”, she had just enough energy to write “Caer Captus” on a piece of masking tape, then she fell unconscious.
Charles was growing very anxious. Cassie still hadn’t come back to the party, it had been ten minutes and he feared something troubling had befallen her. Abruptly a piercing shriek was heard from the hall way. “Lord Henry come quickly, your daughter has been kidnapped!” Charles heart skipped a beat. Lord Henry rushed from the room. Charles followed.
He gasped as he saw a message written in white-out on the stone wall. It read: ‘I have abducted your daughter, Lord Henry. She is the most powerful prophetess in the world, though she does not know this. I will use her to become the most powerful man on earth. Then I will have her married to my son and keep her captive for all eternity (this is where the evil laughter goes). Oh and Merry Christmas.’ His heart filled with despair as he read the message again.
“Well he seems to be slightly off-his-rocker doesn’t he?” Charles asked finally. Lord Henry was silent, and then he spotted something on the ground. He dove for it and picked it up.
“Why it’s a thumb tack!” he exclaimed. He tentatively sniffed it. “It’s been dipped in a sleeping potion!” Disgust filled him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. Then he became hopeful, not many people can brew a sleeping potion he thought, at least it narrows down our suspect list. “I’m terribly sorry we have to end tonight’s festivities early, but there is no point in a birthday party when the one throwing it has been kidnapped.”
Charles was devastated. He hated to think of the beautiful girl, who had been like a sister to him, in the hands of evil. As he turned to walk away, he noticed a piece of masking tape on the ground. The tape read “Caer Captus” in Cassie’s hand. Charles was filled with confusion. What on earth does Caer Captus mean, he pondered. He then decided to tell Lord Henry of what he had found.
All the blood drained from Lord Henry’s face when Charles told him of the piece of tape. “Oh no, I can’t believe I finally have to deal with this,” he muttered. “This is just awful, tormenting, and very serious. Princess Cassandra must be rescued at once!”
“Princess?” Charles exclaimed. “She’s a princess?!”
“Yes,” Lord Henry murmured. “I have never told anyone this, even Cassie doesn’t know, but Cassie is not my daughter.”
“What!?”
“I know. I adopted her when her mother died when she was oh so young. Her mother was a dear friend of mine and I loved her daughter as my own. So, when she was killed by King Lucifer, her husband’s mortal enemy, I rescued her little girl. Her mother was Cassandra Hope Sybil. She was a highly gifted prophetess, the best in the world next to her daughter. They lived in Caer Captus. Cassie’s real father, the king named Jesus Clark Messiah, was killed in war. I never told Cassie this because I was afraid she would have left me to seek out her true ancestry,” Lord Henry confessed.
Charles stuttered but managed to choke out, “You honestly mean to tell me that Cassie in the greatest prophetess on this earth? That this is actually the truth? That she is not truly your daughter? Is that why she has two last names?
“That is correct,” Lord Henry sighed. “I am assuming that the person who kidnapped her is a descendant of King Lucifer. Cassie does not know her powers or how to use them. What she does not know is that her necklace that she always wears, you know, the one with the solid blue crystal, is the secret to her gift. It is only that which can perform the trances which allow her to see past the present. She must stroke it three times and concentrate on just the stone and she will be able to predict the future correctly, but she must also have a certain watch, one that does not tell time when she holds it. I believe the gift comes to her better than anyone else in her family. For all the women in her ancestry lineage were all prophets.”
His words left Charles speechless. All he knew was that he needed to find the princess and rescue her from her cruel fate. “Do you know where Caer Captus is?” he questioned the lord.
“Alas I do not,” he answered. “What I do know is that there might be some clue by that wall that could tell us.”
He and his young friend went to search. They found nothing but a bent paperclip, and the rest of the unused masking tape.
Charles studied the paperclip closely. He had the feeling he had seen the symbol the paperclip had been twisted in somewhere before. Maybe in a dream or a book some place. He ran his thoughts by the lord who looked rather doubtfully.
“It is possible of course,” he said but without any real conviction.
Charles decided he would go home and search among his belongings for the symbol, he had seen it before he could feel it. He was almost to the door of his apartment when he heard it. There was someone inside searching for something. Being careful to avoid the window so he wouldn’t be seen, he sneaked through the darkness to the back door. He slipped his hand into his jacket pocket; he pulled out his pistol and made sure it was armed. He stealthily dipped through the cracked door, quiet as a mouse. He snaked his way through the darkness of his apartment he went to his bedroom where he could see a shadow rummaging through the drawers in his dresser. Deciding the moment had come he jumped into the room turning on the light as he did so. The person going through his stuff jumped and tried to flee, but not before Charles had seen his face. He gasped. It was the man he knew to be Cassie’s math professor, Mr. James Lucifer. “Stop moving and turn around! I have you on gun point!” He bellowed. The man started shaking so bad he looked like a cat that had had water thrown upon it.
“Don’t shoot!” he croaked. “I’ll sue you if you do!”
“Shut your trap, Lucifer, and tell me why you’re here,” Charles answered coldly.
“I have the right to remain silent and I will be invoking that right!” Mr. Lucifer answered pompously.
“Then I will have you arrested for breaking and entering,” was the simple reply. Then, before Charles could do or say anything, James Lucifer tore through the room and out the window.
Cassie was very upset. She was frightened, hungry, and angry. She had been kidnapped and taken to her childhood home: Caer Captus. She only knew this because when she first arrived she had gone into a powerful trance, which showered her with memories. Memories of her real parents, her powers, her special necklace and of the watch she had given Charles. Suddenly she knew what she had to do. She went to her window, stroked her necklace tree time and put all her energy into sending Charles a dream that would tell him everything. Then the door opened. Her math professor poked his ugly head in. “Are you ready to tell me the future now?” He asked. Cassie merely flung her shoe at him and it hit him in the face. He then called her a witch and shut the door.
Charles sighed flopped down on his bed and took out his pocket watch. He gazed at it speechless then could not suppress a cry of delight. There engraved upon the back of the watch, which Cassie had given him for his last birthday, was the mysterious symbol that the paperclip had been twisted in to. Then his delight gave away into confusion, what does it mean? He asked himself this over and over hoping to get some great burst of understanding, but nothing what so ever came to him, with the exception of increasing drowsiness. At a long last, he dropped into a fitful doze. Cassie wove in and out of his dreams; he also saw two people he expected were her parents. Her father had her same blue eyes and wavy blonde hair, her mother the same complexion and figure. He saw them at a palace he concluded was Caer Captus. Then he saw Lucifer. He saw a boy who could only be Lucifer’s son; they were tormenting Cassie, forcing her to tell them what she saw. When she told them she had no idea she was a prophetess, the beat her and stuffed her in the closet. He saw the mysterious symbol on every door way, vase, piece of furniture, etc. in the palace. He saw palace’s coat-of-arms, the words Caer Captus with the symbol underneath. Then for some odd reason he saw a Latin dictionary open to the word “captus”, but before he could read the definition it vanished replaced by the symbol on the back of his watch and this time Charles could make out the word “power” written in an old strange script, he heard Lord Henry’s sentence ‘She must stroke it three times and concentrate on just the stone and she will be able to predict the future correctly, but she must also have a certain watch, one that does not tell time when she holds it.’ Then he heard Cassie on his birthday ‘I’m sorry the watch doesn’t work, but I thought it was a handsome trinket and that you would like it.’ Yet he remembered looking at it and seeing the correct time.
Charles sat up suddenly and understood everything. Lucifer had been searching for his watch. The symbol on the back of it was very important. It was the symbol for power. Power was what captus meant in English. Caer Captus. The Castle of Power. Cassie’s childhood home was where she was being held hostage by James Lucifer, who was trying to use her to give himself power, he wanted her to marry his son so he could have better control of her. There was only one problem. He had no idea where Caer Captus was. He finally dozed off again and woke much later in the morning.
When he awoke, he decided to go to the library and look up every thing he could find on Caer Captus. He looked through several books before he found something. ‘Caer Captus was a magnificent palace made only for the royal Sibyl family. The last known descendant of the Sibyl family was Cassandra Hope Sibyl, who was tragically murdered in her bedchamber in Caer Captus, which is located on the Thames River, near the Tower of London.’ This is it thought Charles and he rushed to Lord Henry to tell him of his findings. Lord Henry immediately rushed him upon his yacht and they sailed down the river. The castle came into sight soon after they had passed the Tower of London. They docked the boat and rushed out onto the shore.
“I know where the princess’s bedroom is,” whispered Lord Henry as they made their way to the castle. “I’ll go find her while you find Lucifer and his son.”
“Deal,” said Charles and they separated to go about their tasks.
Charles easily found Lucifer and his son. They were in the great hall discussing their plans for when they were rulers of the world. Charles burst in, whipped out his gun and yelled for them to remain still. Both Lucifer’s, keeping a wary eye on the pistol, decided it was best for them to do what they were told.
Mean while Lord Henry had found Cassie and persuaded her to come with hi, which she finally agreed to grudgingly, seeing ad he had lied to her for most of her life. They went down to the great hall where Charles had assembled the police. When Charles saw her, he ran toward her, swept her up into his arms, twirled her around, and kissed her on the cheek. “It was you, wasn’t it? Who sent me that vision?” he demanded.
“Yes, and I’m glad I did or you would have never found me!” She exclaimed.
“I’m glad too. I’m so happy to see you I could burst!” He replied heart fully.
The princess blushed and smiled at the boy who had probably saved her life. She had never loved anyone more in her life. Then she turned to the man she had thought to be her father. “How could you lie to me like that?” she demanded. “You make me think I’m your daughter, then I find out I’m royalty, that I’m a prophetess and that I’ve always been one and you’ve never told me!”
Lord Henry was close to tears. “It was wrong to lie to you, I know that now. My only defense for doing so is this: I thought you would leave Hatfield for Caer Captus to learn to be a prophetess and leave me behind, and I wouldn’t have been able to bear it,” he replied heart fully.
“Daddy I would have never left you,” Cassie replied, softening. “No matter what anyone says you’ll always be my real dad.”