Lady of Shadows

With her eyes closed, she felt the volley of bullets whistle past her and suddenly a grunt of pain behind her.

"Argh! Dammit!" Leona looked over her shoulder and saw an almost dead Jonathan pierced by bullet holes standing a few meters behind her with his right arm lifted to the air tightly clutching a dagger. Tendrils from behind his back were flailing and gushing blood all over the place. "I won't let you get away from here alive!" He tried to approach her before another volley of bullets hit him before one finally pierced his skull as he attempted to throw the dagger at her but it simply bounced twice on the ground before it slid near her feet. "I'll- kill you…"

He fell on the ground but the body was still twitching as if going to spring back to life at any moment.

"...I'm sorry, lady Minerva. I couldn't save you or your son."

That was when Leona cast a simple fire spell and burnt the body to a crisp, though in doing so she could hear some sort of agonizing squeal coming off from the lump of flesh in front of her as it turned to ashes.

"Miss Leona! Are you alright?!"

The male voice came from behind her and as she turned around she noticed the six guards making their way towards her. At first she was cautious, even going as far as preparing to cast another spell. On closer inspection however she noticed something familiar about the frontmost guard.

"Do I… know you?"

She asked.

"It's me, Henry." He pulled down the face mask he was using. "I was tasked to come look for you, Miss Leona."

"Huh? By who?"

"Captain Olivia. Though it would make more sense to you if I said it was Lawrence's wife." He took a closer look at who the tactician was carrying. "Wait… is this second lieutenant Athena?"

"Yes, she saved me and it almost cost her life. I was on my way to the inn to let her recover but the moment I saw guards patrolling I thought I was done for."

"The inn isn't safe. Captain Oliver sent a squad and took everyone for questioning."

"Wait… what about Krieg?"

"You mean that tall unconscious man with you right?" He shook his head. "There was nobody like him in the inn."

Panic and dread started to grow inside her the moment those words left his mouth.

"T-then where did they take him?!"

"I'm not sure. I only overheard other guards talking about it. Maybe the captain knows more about it…"

"What about the high elf that was with me? Phoebe is her name, she usually wears a cloth over her face-"

He shook his head.

"My sincerest apologies Miss Leona but I haven't personally seen any of your other comrades."

Leona tightly clenched her fist.

"Then… where is your captain? Is she on our side?"

He nodded.

"Come, I'll show you the way." He turned around and motioned to the other soldiers behind him. "We'll escort them back to HQ, I want two of you to help carry the second lieutenant."

"Yes, sir!"

As they took Athena off Leona's grasp the other soldiers began to make their way through the side street of the inn that followed alongside the wall. Henry noticed the rifle hanging from the sling on the side of the bag the tactician was carrying and pulled it forward in her hand.

"Carry it like us so you'll attract less attention to yourself."

"Ah… thank you."

She was too worried with both Phoebe and Krieg to pay attention to such details. Her mind was going down a spiral of despair and regret until Henry started to talk to her.

"I know you're worried about your comrades, but I assure you captain Olivia will know what to do in order to save them."

"Olivia huh…? You said she's scientist Lawrence's wife?"

"Yes. She was in charge of the first and second battalion but when she had to step down once she knew she was going to be a mother."

"I… see…"

She scratched her head as random thoughts started to fill her mind.

'I vaguely remember Lawrence speaking of his wife at one point during our conversation back when I first came here but I didn't know she was someone so important. The true question is however, can I trust her?'

As hard as she continued to think about a way to both save Krieg and look for Phoebe without aid, there was no other feasible option than accepting what help she could get. After all, being in a completely different place without allies to rely on was a death sentence.

They walked for a while avoiding the main streets or anywhere that they could easily be seen as they made their way to the warehouse where she had first met Lawrence. However instead of entering the front door, Henry made his way around the building to where the weapons were stored.

"Come this way." He pulled the tarp off the stacked boxes and asked the other soldiers to remove them from the way. Once they took half of the boxes out of the way it revealed an underground passage that was just big enough for them to carry Athena through. "You three remain guarding this place. Do not let anyone inside."

"Yes sir!"

They replied and he entered the passage after the other two soldiers went in carrying Krieg.

"Henry, wait." Leona called him which prompted the man to turn around. "Is this where Captain Olivia is?"

He nodded.

"I received direct orders from her, if that is your worry."

"I see… I'm sorry, I'm just paranoid from what just happened."

"No harm done. I'm sure you would be tired of all of this."

Leona entered the passage walking beside the soldier. The long corridor was well lit despite being underground with various light bulbs installed in intervals so as to not leave anywhere dark. Even so what surprised her wasn't the light sources but the fact it was well ventilated, unlike the stuffy underground passage of her father's mansion it seemed like there was a very faint breeze coming from the direction they were walking towards that kept the place ventilated.

"Do you happen to know who built this place?"

Leona passed her fingertips through the wall as they were walking, it was surprisingly smooth and very cold to the touch.

"Oh the headquarters was Captain Olivia's idea, though originally abandoned by the kingdom, sir Lawrence took responsibility to see it finished before she retired from service. Only a few soldiers know of its existence though."

"I see. Was she distrustful?"

"No, nothing of the sort. She just wanted to be extra sure there was a safe haven should the death angels directly attack the capital."

"She did become a bit more skeptical after the prime minister came into power." A female voice came from the front where the soldiers were carrying Athena. "Can't blame her though. The guy's a major dick when it comes down to the army, even putting his own son in charge of the first battalion-"

"Enough Jill. We are here to protect Miss Leona and escort her to safety, not talk about politics."

"Aye, aye sergeant."

"I don't mind it really." Leona looked to the other soldier who hadn't spoken a word until now. "What about you? Do you have any opinion on this?"

Jill started to chuckle.

"Hank? Ha, as long as he has booze he doesn't care- ow!"

Hank elbowed her in the ribs.

"Fool." He looked over his shoulder which on closer inspection Leona noticed his left eye was blind and his voice was on the rougher side, as if he already went through more than his share of troubles in life. "I'll always be loyal to the late king Uriel. The prime minister is nothing but trouble when it comes to handling affairs regarding the defense of the kingdom, it's a miracle no death angel broke through our defenses as limited as they are."

Leona scratched the side of her head, she was trying to puzzle together a reasoning as to why things are like they are in the kingdom.

'First our supposed arrest. Oliver wouldn't have a reason to do so unless we were getting in his way, but then he would've done something before bringing us to the capital…"

"We're here."

Jill spoke as they emerged out of the long corridor into a spacious room, it was underground so the only source of light was from the various lamps scattered across the corners of the room. It was furnished with beds, tables and open cabinets holding all kinds of food from conserved meat in glass jars to dried pieces of fruit stored in the same way.

Both soldiers left Athena resting on a nearby single bed as they made their way over to the chairs arranged around the wide table.

As impressive as it was, Leona was too deep in thought to notice the environment change around her and she simply auto-piloted to the nearest seat she could find in order to continue with her thought processing.

"Second would be… Krieg's disappearance from the inn, if they were investigating us they wouldn't have taken him, unless-'

Her eyes went wide as she covered her mouth.

"No… he can't be-"

"Miss Leona?"

Henry looked at her to ask what was going on before she turned at him with despair in her eyes.

"Henry, tell me right now- is the prime minister responsible for creating any new 'lifeform'?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"Huh? What are you talking about? I don't kn-"

"I'll take it from here. Sergeant." A female voice came from the other side of the room near the other doorway directly opposite where they came from. "Leona Crossford, correct?"

The tactician looked to where the voice came from and noticed someone emerging from the other room through the doorway. She wore a similar uniform to Athena's though one obvious difference was the higher amount of golden aiguillettes tied to her shoulder alongside the silver cross necklace that rested on top of her breasts.

"And you would be?"

Holding a smile that could melt the frozen hearts of any Londrian, captain Olivia looked at her with kind crimson eyes before she approached her. The shin long black skirt was adorned with golden details along the side of the sewing depicting just how important she was. Upon walking closer, Leona could feel the weight of the woman's long silver hair as it fluttered against her for a brief moment before she reached for the tactician's hand with both of her own. Between both her long silver fringes she looked straight into Leona's eyes.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Princess Leona. My name is Olivia of Astera. Former captain of the first Londrian battalion."