More memories flood back as Casandra continues toward a filigree of fire. She recalls arriving home to find a strange woman sitting on her living room floor. The woman, who had red hair, a pale complexion, and green eyes to match Casandra's, rose as Casandra approached. Casandra realized that they were the same height.
The woman bowed at the waist and said in accented Japanese "Hajimemashite. Shukubo Fiona desu. Dozo yoroshiku. Anata wa Yuri Shimada-san desu ka." Casandra's eyes rolled back and she feinted.
Casandra began to regain consciousness but gave no outward sign as her mind raced. "How did this person know her name, a name she had not used in over 160 years? What did she mean about being Casandra's aunt? How did she get in my house?" A voice interrupted her thoughts, "O-genki desu ka."
Casandra opened her eyes and replied, "Genki desu. Perhaps English would be an easier language?"
"As you wish," Fiona replied. "I have spent a great deal of time and effort tracking you down Casandra. I know some things about your past which may be of interest to you."
Casandra pulled herself together and suddenly realized that she has been a poor host. She offered, "can I get you something to drink, perhaps some green tea?" Fiona accepted the offer, in part to let Casandra collect her thoughts. After a few minutes Casandra returned with a tea service and served Fiona ceremoniously.
When she had been served, Fiona told Casandra about Amber, and Eric, and Shadow. It took several hours to answer the inevitable questions. Fiona left, and was not seen again for over a year. Casandra used that time to come to grips with what she had learned and how she fit into this new reality. When she returned, Fiona taught Casandra about trumps, and how they are created, she also prepared Casandra to walk the Pattern.
As Casandra paces around the Grand Curve, she can feel herself being transformed by the experience. She continues through many more curves and twists, the sparks ever rising. Her whole body tingles and she can barely see where she is going by the time she reaches the Final Veil.
Once again she is faced with a wall of resistence. The experience is physically painful, like being stung by millions of grains of sand whipped by the wind's fury. Casandra is unable to move at all. All of her effort and will are insufficient to force her foot to move forward. Her whole body seems to be paralyzed.
Painful memories wash down the canyons of Casandra's mind like a flash flood. Fighting in Korea in 1894 with Japanese forces. They put down the rebellious Koreans and then the Chinese. Dressed again as a man, Casandra had joined the Japanese forces as a rifleman. Conditions in the camp were disgusting, with no place for Casandra to properly bathe, food that would make a jackel retreat, and unsanitary and inadequate medical facilities. The fighting was mercifully brief, but Casandra's luck ran out in her sixth month there. A bullet ripped through her, paralyzing her from the waist down. She was dragged off the field of battle in tremendous pain and sent home two weeks later.
It was three long years before she could feel a tingle in her feet again and another two until she could move as before. Casandra whiled away the months running her business, painting, and learning how to walk again.
With the same fierce determination, Casandra focuses her will on moving, channeling every ounce of her strength and determination into breaking through this last barrier. Casandra seems to recall every second of the years she was paralyzed in the time it takes her to pass through the Final Veil.
Eventually it parts before her and she nearly falls forward. It takes a long moment for Casandra to realize that she has done it. It is an effort just to keep from falling over, and it requires the last of Casandra's willpower to stand upright. It suddenly dawns on Casandra that she is quite literally at the Center of the Universe. She has the power now to travel through shadow and find her every desire, and of course, the power right now to go anywhere she wishes in an instant.
The choice is a simple one, in more ways than one. For there is only one thing that she desires at this instant. With a thought she is back in her home, in Japan. She removes her sweat-soaked clothing as she runs a hot bath for herself. She pours some jasmine into the water and lights several candles. Casandra submerges in the hot water, washing away the tears, the sweat, and the agony. At last she floats alone, and naked, in the center of her own little universe.