[Job - Leona & Eoduun] My Past, Your Future

With the aid of four brave staff members, Leona was finally starting to clean up the Guild Master's office. It was a clutter of books, notes, letters, maps, and other assorted paperwork scattered across desks and tables with no organization whatsoever. Maps were crushed under piles of books, notes were littering the floor under the desk, and she even found a desk drawer stuffed full of letters and correspondence from other Guild Masters, most notably the Guild Masters of Fairy Tail and West Fiore Trading Company. Leona was no neat freak, but the office was an absolute mess. The staff members cleared off the desk and began arranging the books that were on it onto a shelf.

"What do we do with the maps?" A teenage staff member asked.

"Put them in the guild archives for now." Leona instructed. The move was a short-term solution. She would have to sort through them and see which ones were safe to display and which ones had sensitive information on them. She singled out a large map of Earthland which was being carried away to put up in her office. It was a detailed map of Earthland and had no sensitive information on it, so it would be safe to display in her office.

"I want this one posted on corkboard, please." Leona requested. She then turned her attention to the desk drawers. Of particular interest was the drawer full of letters and correspondence from other Guild Masters. Since Leona was now the Guild Master, she was allowed to read the letters without penalty. The first one to catch her attention was an unopened white envelope with the initials "L.V." on it.

Leona knew whose name they stood for. They belonged to Leila Vergious, Silver Wolf's first Guild Master and the one who recruited the blonde for the guild. Leona had always wondered where Leila had went. Maybe the contents of the envelope had an answer. She was just about to open it when another female staff member dropped a large stack of magazines on the desk.

"What do we do with these?" She asked Leona. Leona thumbed through the magazines, starting with the most recent issue of Sorcerer's Magazine featuring Wizard Saint Astrid Foss on the cover. The next was a catalog of enchanted weapons and armor from a shop called A Fighting Chance, which was located in Capital Crocus. That kind of information could come in handy. She was about to dig further into the stack when she heard knocking on the door.

The blonde heard the name "Eoduun" spoken behind the door. The utterance was muffled, but she could make it out. She decided to give permission to enter.

"Keep Sorcerer's Magazine and A Fighting Chance catalog. Everything else can go into the library office. I'll be there to sort through the rest later." Leona instructed the female staff member. She nodded and put the two magazines back in the drawer, then carried off the rest. She opened the door and let Eoduun in and the rest of the staff members excused themselves and filed out. Now it was just Leona and Eoduun. Leona greeted him warmly.

"Hey Eoduun!" Leona greeted him, extending an armored hand to meet his own. She wore the Argent Gloves almost all the time, even in the relative safety of the guild hall. They had almost become a second skin by this point, but she still had to be careful not to crush hands and other objects with her vastly improved strength. She noticed that he had a tea set in his hands, so he might not want to shake hands while carrying hot tea.

"Would you like to set that on my desk before we shake hands?" Leona asked.

[Word Count: 625]
[Total Word Count: 625/4,500]

"You're not intruding, Eoduun. I was just cleaning up and reorganizing this office. Since I'm the Guild Master, I have to be more responsible than I was when I was an Ace." Leona said to him. Being a Guild Master was not about carrying a fancy title and ordering people around. There was a lot of responsibility that came with the power. Leona had to balance the guild budget, ensure that routine maintenance on the guild hall was carried out, update the guild rosters, build and maintain good relations with the outside world, and perform numerous other duties to keep Silver Wolf running. As the blonde had discovered the hard way, a lot of effort went into running a guild.

"My predecessors Leila Vergious and Poko Monstar have left rather big shoes to fill." Leona said to Eoduun. When she joined a few months ago, the blonde had never imagined that she would one day become Guild Master of Silver Wolf. It was an unexpected task, but one that was fulfilling. She had profited immensely from her membership in Silver Wolf. She had always looked for a meaningful way to pay back the guild for everything it had done for her.

Now Leona had been granted the perfect opportunity to return the favor. She would carry the torch that Leila Vergious and Poko Monstar had carried and keep the guild going so that others could flourish under its protection. Leona recalled her pledge to Leila that she would remain loyal to the guild no matter what. The former even promised to die for the guild if it became necessary.

"Well, I would offer you a chair, but both the desk and the chairs are occupied. As you can see, reorganizing the office is a work in progress." Leona dryly observed with some embarrassment. If she had thought to start the task earlier in the day, the office would not look nearly as bad as it did now. She would have to do better about getting up early enough to start important tasks like that.

"I'm not too busy, Eoduun. What did you want to talk about?" Leona asked him. She recalled her vow to Eero that she would help him no matter what. That vow was still in force and she would hold to it.

[Word Count: 386]
[Total Word Count: 1,011/4,500]

Since no other solution readily presented itself, Leona obligingly sat on the floor. It might have been inappropriate for a Guild Master to do, but right now she did not care. She was not one of those people who had to stand on ceremony for something as simple as a friendly chat.

Sitting on the floor reminded her of sitting on carpets or rugs back home in Desierto. Wooden furniture was usually obtained by travel to the Three Cities, which took a long time and was often a dangerous undertaking. Even when bandits were not attacking travelers, the unrelenting desert sun was danger enough to the unprepared traveler. Water was worth its weight in gold and had to be rationed carefully to last the entire journey. More than once Leona had come across the desiccated corpse of a traveler who had run out of water; she knew this fate had befallen them when she almost invariably saw a withered hand clutching an empty canteen.

"It's no big deal, Eoduun. I've sat on plenty of floors in my time, most of them in Desierto." Leona assured Eoduun. She had sat on floors in Nebdoui, Berreb, and the Three Cities. Now she was sitting on the floor of the Silver Wolf Guild Hall in the Phoenix Mountains. She watched as Eoduun used his acid magic to clean dirt off part of the floor, which was a clever and unexpected use for that kind of magic. At least they had a clean place to sit down now.

"Thanks Eoduun." Leona thanked him for cleaning part of the floor. It was a novel solution that showed her that a properly motivated Eoduun could be a dangerous opponent. He could always use the time-tested and perfectly viable "throw acid in your face" trick, but Eoduun could likely think of other applications that could be every bit as deadly. One would be using acid to erode a floor from under an opponent's feet and letting gravity do the rest, like on a precarious mountainside. Another would be using acid to destroy a ceiling or support structures and literally bringing the house down on enemies.

Chances were high that he had already thought of those stratagems. Leona wished that she could think of some "outside the box" applications for her own magic, but that would have to wait. Eoduun wanted to talk awhile and share tea. She was fine with that. Not every interaction between the two had to involve being in a dangerous situation.

"So, you want to get to know me better. What did you want to know?" Leona asked Eoduun. Hime was the first person to really ask Leona anything about herself. Eoduun would be the second person to do so. She wondered why he wanted to speak with her. Did the reason stem from friendship or from curiosity about the person who spared his life?

Leona was not entirely sure about the reason, but in any case she did not mind. It was better to have Eoduun as a friend than as an enemy. She knew that much for certain.

[Word Count: 518]
[Total Word Count: 1,529/4,500]

When asked what he wanted to know, Eoduun did not beat around the bush. He told Leona right out of the gate that he wanted to know why she did not take the gift-wrapped opportunity to kill him. So that issue had finally come up. Leona was not going to avoid it. She would repay his candor with her own.

"So you want to know why I didn't kill you." Leona repeated. She did not want to make him angry or jeopardize their growing relationship, but lying to him would be worse in the long run. She would just tell him the truth.

"The biggest reason I didn't kill you is Eero. But there are other reasons too." Leona said to Eoduun. Actually, it was more complicated than she had let on. Much more complicated.

"Eero wouldn't have wanted me to kill you, especially not in cold blood. He wanted a solution to the problem that didn't involve using violence. Killing you would have solved the immediate problem but wouldn't have brought him any real peace." Leona explained. She knew that he would not like owing his life to Eero. However, Eoduun had come to her seeking answers, so she was obligated to tell him the truth. When he affirmed that Leona indeed had the right to judge him, she had to refute that claim.

"I didn't have the right to judge you, Eoduun. I still don't. The only one who even approaches having a right to judge would be Eero. You said that you guys share experiences, right? He'd know more about what you did than I would." Leona explained another reason that she had spared the double.

"I admit that you put us through a lot over the past few days. I also admit that the thought of killing you had crossed my mind more than once. When I spared you, I spent many agonizing seconds wondering if I had made the right choice." Leona freely admitted. It was painful for her to admit that because she did not want to drive Eoduun away when he was making a sincere effort to reach out to her. It also made her feel ashamed that she had even considered violence as the first solution to Eero's problem. Maybe now that she had owned up to them, she could finally start putting those feelings of shame to rest.

"I'm sorry, Eoduun. It's hard to put my feelings into words. I've got more to say, but I won't blame you if you leave after all the awful things I've told you." Leona said to him. She had made it sound like that Eero was the only reason she spared him. He would not like that at all. She would not blame him if he threw hot tea in her face and stormed out of the office.

[Word Count: 474]
[Total Word Count: 2,003/4,500]

Leona was genuinely surprised when Eoduun took her explanation of the reason she had spared him so calmly. She halfway expected tea to be thrown in her face, maybe an obscenity or two directed at her. Instead he took the news surprisingly well. The Guild Master decided to just roll with it. There was no point in rocking the boat or in harping on the subject until he did get angry.

"Eero might have wanted to get rid of you for good, Eoduun. I can't say for certain since he never said that to me. I'm just glad I didn't act before thinking. Jumping the gun would've caused us both a lot of grief." Leona said to Eoduun. She was glad that she did not kill him. Even though he claimed that he was fading from the world, he could have easily been trying to trick her to close in for the kill only to use his acid magic to violently turn the tables on her. She also did not want to get a reputation as a psychopath who looked for reasons to kill. if she had killed Eoduun just because he had inconvenienced her, the blonde would have been no better than Jacob Goodnight or the necromancers.

"In the end, I made the right choice. Eero's not dead. You're not dead. We're sitting here as friends instead of as enemies. I'd say it's a pretty good ending for everyone involved." Leona opined as Eoduun started listing tea types and packages and effects that each tea had when consumed. She had a faint idea what tea was until she reached the Three Cities, where her host Kareem served her some as a show of hospitality. It was an unknown variety that was quite strong, so after choking down one cup she politely declined any more tea in favor of plain water. Now she was going to try tea again, but this time she knew exactly what she wanted.

"I'd like a tea with a mild flavor, please." Leona requested of Eoduun. She did not want to get thrown into the deep end like she had been with Kareem. She would start out with a mild tea before working her way up the flavor scale. That was what she was going to do.

"I honestly didn't know that Eero relied on me so much. He took charge when it came to saving Soho from the wire trap in the tree. Aside from that incident in Spooky Forest, he seemed to be doing a pretty good job of taking care of himself." Leona opined. Eero was not an action movie star, but when the chips were down Eero could get the job done. What Eoduun had said a few minutes ago was the first time she had ever been told anything like that. Eero had been dropping vague hints when talking about his so-called selfish requests, but he never came out and said it plainly. The double had no such problem saying what he meant.

"I'd like to hear about how Eero relied on me, Eoduun." Leona requested of him. Even though that was a selfish request of her own, she wanted to know a small bit of what Eero thought about her. He never said much to her outside running jobs.

[Word Count: 550]
[Total Word Count: 2,553/4,500]

Leona could understand the part about her giving Eero the support he needed to keep going in the face of adversity. She was glad that she could help him. Hearing what she did made Leona feel that she had not been wasting her time and putting herself on the line for nothing. That was why she was so upset with Eero when he was about to give up after the setback in Capital Crocus. He would have been throwing away all their work over one mistake.

Leona was mostly over those feelings, but they still lingered. How could someone easily get over feeling like their relationship was being thrown away because one party wanted to call it quits over a misunderstanding? She had apologized in public twice and Eero still wanted to throw it all away. If things had not turned out different and the matter favorably concluded at Era, Leona would likely still be feeling that way.

As it stood, Leona was glad to be finished with the chase. They had met the challenge and Eero had gotten some answers. They had settled matters with Eoduun in a non-violent way, so there were no bad feelings on either side. Eoduun did not hate Leona and Leona did not wish she had killed him when she had the chance. Eero was off to seek more answers, but one day he would return... it was a win-win situation for everyone involved.

"I'm surprised that Eero felt that way about me. It's a good thing, though. I thought he'd get tired of hanging around someone whose only real talent is in fighting." Leona admitted. She was trying to branch out and find an aptitude in something that did not involve punching people's faces in. However, she had yet to succeed.

Leona was not much of a scholar. She had only been in the guild library a few times during her tenure at Silver Wolf, and in only one of those times did she actually pick up a book to read for research. It was not exactly a good record for the leader of a scholarly guild. She was slowly improving, though. She was learning the ways of an administrator and learning to organize her office so that it did not look like a library had thrown up in the room.

"I know what he means, Eoduun. I bet it's hard for a scholar like Eero to try and prove he doesn't need me to do his fighting for him or to bail him out of every mishap. I'm kinda in the same boat. Sort of." Leona said. It was nothing like trying to prove that she could stand alone without a double or someone else to help her. Rather, Leona was trying to prove that she could do something other than fight. Fighting was a good skill to have in a world where danger was around every corner, but it helped to have other skills too. Being a Guild Master highlighted that truth.

"I'm trying to find something that I can do other than beat people up. I'm not a good administrator. I'm not a good scholar. I'm not a good people person. To be a good Guild Master, I need to be all of those things." Leona explained to Eoduun. She then recalled his apology for the lengthy lecture on tea. It was nothing to be upset about. Eoduun was trying to help her in his own way. Now it was her turn to dispel the serious mood her words had filled the room with.

"Dimbula will work. Since you know more about tea than I do, I'll trust your judgment. I don't mind a lecture on tea, especially since I have very little idea of what's what." Leona said to Eoduun. Despite his taller and more serious appearance, he still acted a lot like Eero. Due to their connection that was to be expected, but it was still kind of funny to see someone serious like Eoduun go into great detail about a mundane matter such as tea.

[Word Count: 678]
[Total Word Count: 3,231/4,500]

"I think you're right, Eoduun. Maybe I am being hard on myself. I just never expected to be a Guild Master. There's so much I've gotta do and learn to do." Leona admitted her feelings of being overwhelmed by her sudden promotion to Silver Wolf's Guild Master. Eoduun had a good point when he asked if Guild Masters were required to be omnipotent beings. They may not have had to be omnipotent, but they certainly had to have more than just one talent. Based on what she had gleaned from her interactions with Guild Masters Cirven Mizune of West Fiore Trading Company and Sorano Granon of Fairy Tail, it also helped to have some diplomatic ability. It also helped to have a good deal of personal strength so that a Guild Master could back their title with appropriate levels of force if invaders came calling.

"But there are others out there who want what we have. We're a smaller guild with members at varying levels of power. The Silver Moon Faeries alliance has bought us a bit of breathing room, but we've gotta start building up Silver Wolf while we have its protection. We need more members, but more importantly I have to get stronger." Leona voiced her opinion. She worried about Silver Wolf's future. It had less than twenty mages and they were not the strongest, but she was obligated to protect them. That task would be easier if she herself got stronger first. With Leona acting as a buffer between the guild and a hostile world, the other members could get stronger until they had parity with the rank-and-file members of other guilds.

Leoan listened to Eoduun's opinion of her, which was a surprisingly good one. In the opinion he affirmed that Leona was a good fighter but also had some skill in managing other people in a crisis. That was true, but managing just one other person was a lot easier than managing a whole guild at once. Still, Eoduun's approval meant quite a bit to Leona. She could build off of that modest success and make it grow.

"Thanks, Eoduun. I've gotta grow into the role if Silver Wolf is to survive. I'll need your help to keep the guild going. And if you hang around long enough, you might get to see more of my story." Leona said to him before listening to him explain a bit more about the tea. She still did not fully understand it, but she was slowly catching on. She gathered that he would do the first batch for the both of them, then she would be allowed to make her own cup of tea. At least that was what she had gathered.

"OK. You do the first batch and then I'll do my own the second go-round." Leona replied in the affirmative. She already knew how to fight and was learning to effectively manage people. Now the blonde was going to learn how to make tea. She could hear Sophia Jarnefeldt laughing from somewhere in Desierto. It seemed like Leona was going to learn at least one domestic skill after all.

[Word Count: 523]
[Total Word Count: 3,754/4,500]

Leona was focusing on the lesson in tea making when a question made her forget all about it. It was an innocuous one, but one that really made her think. It had to do with home and how her home was doing.

"How things are back home? I've only read bits and pieces, mostly from my friends Erica and Whitney. And what I've read is kinda hard to piece together. The wording's ambiguous, so it's hard to tell if things back home are really good or really bad." Leona gave a sort-of answer. She had read news that was worrying. Most troubling was the news that Joshua was carrying a shortsword that he was "saving for someone."

"The last letter I got from my friend Erica stated that my family was OK. My mother, brother, and father are still alive. I hope that's still the case." Leona added. There was no putting it off anymore. She would have to tell Eoduun about the incident that led to her exile from Nebdoui. She took a sip of the tea and took a deep breath. Things were going to get heavy... again.

"It all started when I was sixteen years old. I was at a village banquet and Joshua, Chief Elijah's son, approached me. He asked to talk to me somewhere private, so I went with him. Once we were alone, he told me that he wanted to marry me. I really wasn't interested in him, so I tried to let him down gently." Leona started the story.

"Joshua got mad at me and hit me in the face with a tent peg. I punched him in the face in return and it all went downhill from there. We traded punches until I eventually got the advantage... by the time the fight was broken up he had two black eyes, a broken nose, and nine other punch marks on his face." Leona told Eoduun the outcome of the fight. The roughest part was yet to come. She took another drink of tea to fortify herself.

"Mad that I turned him down and even madder that he got his ass kicked by a girl in a fight he started, Joshua vowed to have me and my family burned at the stake. His father overruled him and sentenced me to exile instead. Elijah lightened the sentence from death to exile from Nebdoui because Joshua had started the fight. It's not a permanent exile, though. If the chief lifts the exile order, I can return to Nebdoui some day." Leona explained with a brief tone of hope. Then came the rough part. The part about the sword and the sinister undertones surrounding it came up next.

"However, I received some troubling news a while back. Erica told me that Joshua had been spotted with a new shortsword that he always wore around his hip and never drew for any reason. She asked him what it was for and he answered that he was saving it for someone. Who that someone is I don't know, but Erica and I are both afraid he'll finally make good on his threat and kill my family while I'm gone." Leona admitted to Eoduun. She did not care too much about herself. She had survived and even thrived in the two years since her exile. The blonde was much more worried about her family. If Joshua had harmed them in any way, she would finish what she had started two years ago and hurt much more than his face.

"I'm just hoping that my family's still alive. I haven't read about any bandit attacks lately, so maybe the Nebdoui-Berreb-Regudo alliance is holding. Maybe Nebdoui's OK." Leona put on a front of optimism that was a very poor cover for her concern. An old saying went that no news was good news. She was not so sure about that. Leona hoped that Nebdoui had not been burned down and its people killed by bandits or hauled off by slavers. She would try and find out about her home some time soon.

[Word Count: 680]
[Total Word Count: 4,434/4,500]

"I don't really think much about romance, Eoduun. It's not something I spend too much time on. My mother always wanted me to settle down and have children, but that's not me. Not yet." Leona started the conversation again. She hated dragging down the cheerful mood with her issues.

"To be fair, my mother Sophia's from the Three Cities but has lived in Nebdoui for almost twenty years. She rode the caravan trails until she was nearly killed, then she settled down in Nebdoui a few years before my brother and I were born. She's seen its population drop because of bandit attacks, slaver raids, and famines. In her own small way, she was trying to keep the village going by making sure I gave birth to the next generation." Leona said without any hint of humor. It must have been hard to spend a good deal of one's life in an inhospitable place like the desert. It must have been even harder to live in a village that was slowly dying. The alliance with Berreb and Regudo would help keep Nebdoui going, but for how long? Was Chief Elijah only delaying the inevitable?

"But I didn't want my most important role in life to be pumping out children in a desert village. My mother and I argued a lot about the issue. On occasion my brother Leonidas got dragged into it. Sometimes it seems like all my mother wants is grandchildren. She doesn't care if my brother or I have any plans of our own... she just wants us to settle down and start families." Leona let animosity seep into her voice. Out of all the things she disliked about her mother, Sophia's obsession with having grandchildren was the worst. Why should Leona give up her life and ambitions to have kids who might not live very long because of famine or who might get captured and sold into slavery?

"Yeah, I know it's not the best tea time conversation. It's not the funniest or most entertaining conversation. But it is what it is. And you don't have to tell me your story right away. Tell me only when you feel ready to tell me." Leona told Eoduun. Now to lighten the mood. Kind of.

"Anyway, I might need your help with Nebdoui. After punching Joshua a few more times than I should have, I don't think I have much of a fan club waiting for me back home. Somehow he was hot stuff with the ladies." Leona commented. How anyone could be attracted to him was beyond her. It must have been the prestige of marrying into the chief's family.

[Word Count: 442]
[Total Word Count: 4,876/4,500]

"Thanks, Eoduun. I'm gonna need the help." Leona admitted to him. She did not know what kind of reception she would receive in Nebdoui, but she would get a bad one from Joshua's adoring fangirls. It was to be expected. Much like any irrational fanbase, Joshua's fans would never admit to him doing anything wrong even if the misdeed was committed right in front of them.

Leona obligingly reached out to touch the artifact offered to her by Eoduun and felt nothing at first. Then she felt a dark energy, a dangerous energy, try to assert itself. What was she dealing with? Was it residual dark energy like she felt from the double during the hunt for him?

"That item's got a lot of dark energy to it, Eoduun. But you didn't need me telling you that. Still, I'd be careful with it." Leona gave her opinion of the item before handing it back to him. She felt nothing at first but then was hit with a strong negative feeling, a feeling of power waiting for the chance to emerge. It was not something to be trifled with. Putting the feeling out of her mind, she recalled his offer of help. There was already a way that Eoduun could be of assistance.

"There's already a way you can help." Leona informed Eoduun. She needed help running the guild. Eoduun knew his way around a library and made a good sounding board for ideas. He was also a good calming presence who kept Leona from making rash decisions. She would ask him an important question.

"Ever since I was promoted to Guild Master, we don't have a Guild Ace. We need to establish continuity of leadership in case something happens to me. You've proven your worth to the guild as both a scholar and as a fighter." Leona told him. Now came the important question. She hoped that he was ready for it.

"Would you be willing to become an Ace of Silver Wolf?" Leona asked him in a serious tone of voice. This was no joke nor was it a prank. She wanted a straight answer from him.

[Word Count: 358]
[Total Word Count: 5,234/4,500]

"All right. It's settled then. You're now Silver Wolf's new Guild Ace." Leona said to him. She would soon begin the paperwork to make it official, but for now she was just glad to have someone to support her. The guild needed a good leader in case Leona died or was otherwise unable to continue as Guild Master. Eoduun had the wit necessary to keep the guild going.

Eoduun was more tactful and thoughtful than she was. He would both think a problem through and reach a good answer faster than she could. He also had a better way with people because he stopped to consider what he said and tailored his comments to the situation.

It was not all doom and gloom for Leona, though. She was gradually learning how to become a reasonably competent administrator and diplomat. She had an Ace who was qualified for the job to help. And she had made good connections with two more powerful guilds and was on fairly good terms with their leaders despite her weaker magical power. Leona would get stronger and learn to run a guild... it would just take time and effort on her part.

[Word Count: 196]
[Total Word Count: 5,430/4,500]