Chapter 3

Leon opened his eyes to find himself on his stomach, facing the familiar black stone walls of the underground infirmary. It had been forever since he had slept in such a comfortable bed. He didn't know what time it was outside, but he felt fully rested and refreshed for once.

Leon winced as he rolled onto his right side to get up. Perhaps it was because he was still in the process of waking up before and he hadn't noticed, but a strong medicinal scent suddenly assaulted his nose.

"They must've put something on my back," he muttered to himself.

He slowly got up and walked to the mirror standing in the corner of the room.

Leon was slightly taller than the six-foot mirror and had to bend over a little to see the top of his head in the reflection. His brown hair fell barely past his eyebrows of the same color. His eyes were a light hazel that lent him a sense of vitality.

He was naked from the torso up, revealing a slim, but toned figure. Under all of the cloth he wore on a daily basis, he hid a body that showed signs of some training but wasn't overly muscular so others wouldn't notice.

Turning around, he saw multiple long, red gashes that stood out in contrast to his pale back. They had partly scabbed and were covered in some kind of white medicinal powder.

Remembering about his knee, he lifted his torn pants to check. After he confirmed that he had no other serious wounds, he took the roll of bandaging cloth from the table to his left and wrapped his torso and scraped knee.

Someone had taken the clothes he came with and swapped them out for new ones, placed next to the roll of bandage. Leon slipped on the simple, white inner tunic and put on a black light cloth armor over it. He found his mother's charm next to the clothes and tucked it in between the tunic and the armor.

"Must be Calas," he thought to himself.

He traded his pants for a pair of loose black cloth ones and threw his old pair onto the table. The last piece was a silver-lined black cloak which he fastened around his neck before leaving the room.

Leon confidently walked down the long hallway Calas had carried him down before. At the end, the hallway split into a T-shape and Leon took the right. He came upon two large, blackwood doors. On them were inscribed and filled in with silver two lions in a lying-down position, one on each door.

He knocked on them and two guards opened the doors from within. Leon walked into the main chamber.

"Keeper," they greeted, heads bowed.

The large chamber was constructed out of blackstone and the same material was used to construct the pillars that spanned from the floor to the ceiling, each measuring at least two times Leo's height. Stone lions carved out of blackstone wrapped their bodies around the pillars, acting as holders for the candles that lit the chamber up.

In the back of the chamber stood a blackwood table and a singular, imposing, blackwood chair whose appearance was not unlike a throne. On it sat a shadowy figure whose face was shrouded in the dark as the candlelight didn't reach.

"Mentor," Leon said, bowing his head.

"Leon. I've heard what happened from Calas." The figure leaned forward shakily in the chair into the light.

The light revealed a man who looked about in his fifties, his forehead wrinkled seemingly due to many years of furrowing his brow in worry and frustration. His gray beard, like his hair, was kept uniformly short, accentuating a pair of striking blue eyes that were partially clouded over.

Leon didn't respond.

Mentor noticed and continued, his voice raspy, "It's good that you're back. It's about time you take over the duties of Keeper."

"Your voice... " Leon trailed off. "Have they still not found an antidote?"

"We don't know much if anything at all about Lilidu poison apart from its name," Leon's mentor sighed.

"What about the assassins?"

"They're slippery, always manage to get away. I don't k-- " Leon's mentor was interrupted by a violent chain of coughs. Once he caught his breath, he continued, "I don't know how much time I have left. You can perform the duties of the Keeper, you've been doing it for three years after all."

"But-- "

"Even if I wanted to help, I won't be of any help... " Leon's mentor trailed off, each word softer and quieter than the one that preceded it.

"You've done a lot already," Leon recalled. The older man's words triggered a memory.

After his birth mother's disappearance, Leon spent little time in the shack they used to live in. Lady Eleas purposely ordered the servants to use the land around the shack to bury the manor's waste. The servants, used to treating Leon and his mother with disrespect, never bothered to bury anything but dumped and piled all of the waste directly in front of the shack. The stench became unbearable, forcing Leon to avoid the shack during the day, only to come back at night to sleep.

During the day, Leon would be out drinking at taverns and frequented the Lavender Garden instead of studying and learning the family medicine business. Although Leader Eleas was ashamed of his third son's identity, he half-heartedly tried to teach Leon some business basics. However, Leon wanted nothing to do with the family he felt was responsible for his mother's disappearance.

Instead, Leon spent most of his time at Lavender Garden drinking and listening to music with the girls, never once buying any other service. Historically, the manor never gave him and allowance so he pushed his bills to Eleas Manor. As he drank and ate his fill that the manor neglected to provide him, the bills and the discontent from the manor began to pile up.

One day, Leon's eldest brother stormed into Lavender Garden with a handful of Eleas family guards while Leon was downing his second jug of wine of the day. His eldest brother's entourage dragged the drunken Leon out of Lavender Garden, threw him giggling and spouting nonsense onto the street. The guards then began kicking Leon on the ground.

The people on the street simply walked around to avoid the bunch as fighting in front of Lavender Garden was a common sight.

Not wanting to draw unwanted attention to his family by killing someone on the street in broad daylight, the Eleas family eldest son and his guards left, leaving Leon bloodied and bruised, but alive. Before they left, they didn't forget to throw the bills Lavender Garden delivered to the manor in Leon's face and declared the Eleas family would not honor them.

Traffic on the street quicky filled the space that was taken up before and Leon limped drunkenly toward the doorway of Lavender Garden to avoid getting stepped on.

The entire event was seen by the Lavender Garden's manager, who came out from inside and sat down next to Leon as he propped himself up against the doorframe of one of the many doors of the business. He offered Leon a washcloth to wipe the blood off his face.

"You're not drunk," the manager pointed out.

Leon didn't respond.

"You come here daily to settle down in an inconspicuous corner inside, never explicitly asking for a girl, but never turning them away when they want to drink with you."

Finished wiping, Leon dropped the washcloth and stared forward, silent.

"I reckon you're not here for the girls or the entertainment, but for information."

Leon grew stiff, but didn't break his stare.

"You're smart, I'll give you that. If I wanted information, I'd come here too." The manager chuckled, startling Leon. "All the wealthy come here to fulfill their filthy desires and waste their money. Hell, not just the wealthy, even the merchants who think they have some money stop by for some fun when they enter the capital."

Leon understood this. He knew that the men who visit Lavender Garden often share interesting and sensitive information with the girls simply because in their arrogance, they believe the girls are incapable of anything other than servicing them. When the men become drunk, they spill more and juicier secrets.

"What are you trying to investigate?" the manager asked.

Leon ignored the question. The manager smiled and wiped the sweat off his well-kept beard, blue eyes staring in the same direction and Leon.

"Six years ago, you took me into Shade and taught me how to collect information from the shadows," Leon recalled, snapping out of the flashback, voiced filled with gratitude. "Manipulation, too."

"You never told me what you were investigating. Now that I'm retired, surely you can tell me, right?" the old man joked.

The two of them chuckled as they shared the fond memory, then silence accompanied them as they each reminisced about the past.

In reality, Leon's mentor figured out early on about Leon's search for clues about his mother's disappearance. Leon knew his mentor caught on and didn't hide it from him. He suspected his father was the culprit, but some suspicious parts in the event forced him to try and cover all the bases by investigating information from both inside and outside the capital.

It wasn't long before his mentor revealed to Leon the existence of Shade and his role as its commander, the Keeper. The old man saw potential in young Leon and trained him to be his successor. A few years later, on his way back from a nighttime meeting with some influential people in the capital, Leon's mentor was ambushed by multiple assassins, each stronger than anyone he's ever traded blows with. He managed to fight them off, but was wounded by one of their blades. It wasn't until later that he realized the blade had been dipped in Lilidu.

"Keeper!"

Their thoughts were interrupted by an underling rushing into the main chamber.

"Keeper. Ex-Keeper," the underling greeted the two men, bowing his head toward Leon and his mentor in succession.

"What is it?" Leon asked.

"Someone died upstairs," the underling reported.

Leon's eyes widened. No one in the capital dared to fight, much less kill in Lavender Garden.