Keep On: Cassandra's Tangled Journey

Five gems. FIVE GEMS! Only two left. Cassandra couldn't believe her luck. After four boss fights and many, many other obstacles along the way, Cassandra realised that she was genuinely having fun on this quest. Sure, she had gotten pissed off quite a bit, but she found that she thrived off of the thrill the unpredictable nature of this universe gave her, and she was actually excited to see what else would be lying in the way of her reaching the indigo and violet gems, and not just excited because she was another step closer to getting the fuck out of there. 

The atmosphere of the castle had also noticeably brightened up, partially from the glow of the replicas of the green and blue diamonds that were mounted into two new statues that were placed along the balconies. As Cassandra skipped up the first flight of stairs, grinning from ear to ear with pride, she glanced to her left to find a statue of the dragon looking menacing as ever, directly opposite the jack-in-the-box statue on the other side of the second storey. 

"A greedy brute, the treat dragon is prepared to guard his land of cakes to the last macaroon, and he certainly isn't prepared to share his pretty blue rainbow gem!"

Damn right he wasn't.

After reaching the top of the second spiral staircase, Cassandra had to take a minute to check out the statue on the base to the left of the magic mirror. She needed to look twice, because she was almost certain that the statue was of her- well, technically her shadow, but she understood that it was probably more fun for Sabrina to sculpt Cassandra herself out of bronze.

"The mischievous shadow lost its gem in Cakeland after being chased by its guardian. Too cowardly to return, maybe someone else can find it for them?"

Wait, what? First of all, 'Cakeland'? Cassandra had been referring to it as 'Candyland' in her mind. Secondly, the gem didn't actually belong to the shadow? Which potentially meant Cassandra had avoided fighting another unknown guardian? Unless that guardian was the dragon. She could ask Sabrina about it later. But wait, so would the statue/guardian shadow be of whoever was making their way through the Castle of Illusion, and in this case it was Cassandra? Would everything reset itself and so all of the statues disappear the moment she completed this task? It was best not to think of it too much.

Passing the magic mirror, Cassandra stumbled as she felt the clothes on her body suddenly turn a lot heavier. She looked at her reflection, and found that the outfit had changed again, this time into something less stupid. She was dressed head to toe like an explorer, wearing a loose-fitting ugly green shirt with sleeves that reached her elbows, and baggy shorts of a slightly lighter colour that cut off just below her thighs. The massive black and white clown shoes on her feet had been replaced with some olive and sage walking boots, which were uncomfortably heavy, and the costume was topped off with a round hat, the same sickly colour as the bottoms being held up around her waist by an anchor-grey belt. She slipped her hand into her pocket, just to make sure that all five of the gems were still there. They were. Cassandra breathed a sigh of relief. It was time to stop faffing around. Now it was time for her to step through the final portal. 

Cassandra spawned right in the middle of a castle hallway, set up similarly to Corona's castle, but with a vastly different aesthetic. Rapunzel's home was more vibrant, with a pastel colour palette, the walls of the hallway painted iris, decorated from top to bottom with the king and queen's fancy possessions, and there were elegant chandeliers hung high above on the ceiling every couple of feet. This castle, however, did have a thick purple rug lining the stony path ahed of her, but the only other decorations were some dirty flags hanging above the dangling torches on the walls, and a couple of barrels along the edge of the railing. Out of curiosity, Cassandra went to take a glance over the balcony, and noticed a steaming purple gloopy mixture deep, deep below her. She gulped, and started making her way along the corridor, just as a knight in shining armour started marching towards her. She didn't need to think twice about it- she knew there was no person behind the helmet.