Hometown Hero

-Desierto, Nebdoui-

Leona landed on the outskirts of Nebdoui on the back of her Winged Lion summon. She dispelled it and felt a gust of wind throw sand into her face. The blonde was more annoyed by it than anything because she was born in the desert and had become accustomed to the challenges of desert life great and small. Lately it seemed like she could not get away from the area.

Wearing her green-and-gold outfit with Adaptable Armor and Argent Gloves, Leona carried her Nightshade Machete on her back and Silver Longsword on her left hip. Today she was here to answer the call of Chief Elijah. He had sent for her because a slaver raid had carried off some of the villagers and taken them to a location protected by a powerful magic.

Leona dispelled the summon and walked into the village, where some of the tents had been burned down and the signs of battle still present. She saw bloodstains on the sand and so many footprints that it was impossible to track them all. There were also hoofprints on the sand, meaning that the slavers had a cavalry component. The hoofprints led out of the village and into the desert, but pursuit would have to wait because the Wizard Saint did not want to go in without having the full picture. She walked through the village and encountered her older brother Leonidas.

"Hey Leona. I guess you heard about what happened to Nebdoui." Leonidas said glumly. He wore a steel cuirass and pauldrons over his work outfit and had a steel longsword on his left hip. He had a newly made scar starting above his right eye and extending to just above his jaw. His face showed a lot of fatigue and was a far cry from his usual vibrant appearance. Leona was surprised by the abrupt change in his appearance.

"What happened?" Leona asked him.

"It was a mess, Leona. The slavers attacked just before sundown. The village militia barely had time to get their armor and weapons ready before their horsemen stormed the village. We managed to keep them from taking the chief and Mother and other important villagers, but we couldn't keep them from taking Whitney, Erica, Old Man Mustafa, and some of the other villagers." Leonidas answered grimly.

"We also lost the village's blacksmith in the attack. He was killed defending the forge and the other apprentices from the slavers. Since I'm the most skilled apprentice left, I'm effectively the village's new blacksmith." Leonidas added. Her older brother did not sound cheerful in the slightest. Considering the circumstances under which he got the promotion, she did not blame him for not celebrating his elevation to village blacksmith.

"I'll get them back. I'll get them back if I have to walk across all of Desierto to do it." Leona assured him. He knew that such talk was not hyperbole. She would keep her word.

"I know you will, but for now you might wanna get to the chief's place. He can tell you more." Leonidas said before walking away to tend to his new responsibilities. Leona walked away to tend to her responsibilities as a Wizard Saint, which were to find the slavers and rescue the villagers they had captured. Walking through Nebdoui showed that it had been hit hard by the raid. At least two dozen tents had been burned and half again as many scorched by the flames. She could still see lumps that looked like human bodies covered by the tarps of the tents that had not burned completely.

-Inside Chief Elijah's tent-

"Hello, Leona. You've seen and heard about what happened to the village by now, so I'll get straight to the point. We've lost a lot of people. Some were killed. Others were captured by the slavers." Chief Elijah told her without preamble. Joshua looked upset by the turn of events, but what was more noticeable was the arm with a bloody bandage wound around the forearm. Sophia was present but armed with a sword on her left hip, presumably in case the slavers came back for another raid. Leona had not seen her mother with a weapon at her side in a long time.

"Where do I need to go?" Leona asked the chief. He pointed to a map of Desierto with a black dotted line that led to a red circle. It was an area of Desierto that near the middle of the country. That was also where the capital of King Saarghon was reported to have been located. She wondered if there was a connection to the slaver camp and its location.

"Here you'll see that the camp is in the middle of the desert. That alone would be enough protection, but it's also protected by a magical barrier that keeps out non-mages." Chief Elijah said to her. Leona frowned. That sounded a lot like the situation with the House of Souls and the barrier that kept the Order of The Silver Blade's members from getting the codex that they desperately needed. The barrier around the House of Souls had not kept her from getting what she needed then and it would not keep her from getting what she needed now.

"OK. What else do I need to know?" Leona asked the chief.

"According to our Regudo allies, the barrier's maintained by four spherical crystals that are mounted on towers. While they're exposed to destruction, the guards also have a clear line of sight on them and will know when they go down. They'll be alerted the moment the barrier drops." The chief warned her. Leona knew that this was likely going to be a solo mission. Nebdoui and its allies would not have enough men to spare because everyone would be committed to the defense of their respective villages. That was entirely understandable.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 1,000/12,500]

"You'd better be ready for a fight, Leona. They won't make it easy for you. They know your reputation as a Wizard Saint and as an enemy to bandits and slavers." Chief Elijah warned Leona. The blonde was not daunted by the news. Many had tried to take her down before. All who tried had failed.

"I'm ready, chief. Just tell me how to get there." Leona said to him.

"Very well then. Just head for the center of Desierto. Follow the tracks leading out of the village and you'll find them." Chief Elijah said to her. That was simple enough. Sophia looked towards her daughter as the latter turned to leave the chief's tent to begin her journey across the desert.

"Wait! Before you go, I'd like to talk to you." Sophia said to her daughter. Leona looked at her mother and paused.

"All right, but it needs to be quick. I need to get going immediately." Leona said to her mother. Sophia nodded and left the chief's tent with her daughter in tow.

-The Jarnefeldt tent-

"I know you need to get going, but there's something I'd like to tell you before you set out." Sophia said to Leona.

"OK. What is it?" Leona asked her mother. The older blonde woman looked at her with a look of concern on her face.

"I heard that you've been proclaimed a Wizard Saint by the Magic Council." She started speaking.

"I'm proud of you, but I'm also worried for you. I know that you'll work harder to prove that you deserve such a title. I don't want you to charge recklessly into danger just to prove that you deserve to be called a Wizard Saint." Sophia expressed her concern to Leona. The older woman pointed towards a wooden table with two dozen plastic water bottles on top of it. Leona soon understood her meaning.

"You'll need water if you plan on crossing the desert. You'll need a lot of it. You may need to rearrange the contents of your backpack in order to accommodate all the water." Sophia suggested. Leona walked over to the table and began removing anything from her backpack that would not be necessary. She took out the spare clothes and her desert cloak. She put in the bottles of water.

"Another thing, Leona. The middle of Desierto is a route often traveled by slavers and bandits because the sultan's armies rarely venture there, so you need to be very careful when traveling in that area." Sophia warned her. Leona put her backpack by on and hardly noticed the additional weight because she was used to traveling with a backpack. Her armor also helped make carrying it easier because it protected her shoulders from the constant rubbing of the straps.

"I'll be careful." Leona assured her mother while the latter put her daughter's belongings into a wooden chest for safekeeping.

"Good luck." Sophia said to Leona.

"Thanks." Leona said before leaving the tent and heading out into the desert. It was midday, which was the hottest part of the day. Going out into it was not the brightest of ideas, but there was no time to waste. She had to get to the slaver camp and free the other villagers before they were taken to market and sold.

-In the desert, two hours later-

The Wizard Saint was walking through a flat part of the desert with no dunes, no rocks, no anything other than a never-ending plain of sand. That was a blessing and a curse. While she could see enemies because there was nowhere to hide, by the same token enemies could see her for the same reason. There was also no shelter from the sun's scorching rays, which beat down on her like a hammer pounding metal on an anvil. Compounding the problem was the blonde's choice of clothing. While long sleeves protected her from getting sunburned, they also made her sweat profusely because the sweat had nowhere to go.

Having followed the trail for two hours, Leona walked right beside the tracks to avoid ruining them with her own footprints. There were a lot of hoofprints and some footsteps that were close toegether, like captives being pulled behind the horses. She was fortunate that the desert wind had not yet blown over them and wiped all traces of the slavers' tracks from the desert. Mindful of that fact, Leona kept up a brisk walking pace to reduce the chances of losing the trail to a gust of wind.

The sweating blonde was making decent progress when she heard the hooves of horses in the distance and the creaking of a wooden cart. She also heard periodic moans from humans. She turned to face the source of the noises and found that it was a cart with a large iron cage full of people escorted by two dozen turbaned men with black sashes on crimson clothing. She had found a slaver gang!

Leona watched as the horsemen spotted her and pointed towards her. A dozen of them broke off from the main group and rode towards Leona. She was not going to let them take her captive. She began to recite a couple of chants to level the playing field.

"O FABLED HARPIES, O SISTERS THREE! LEND YOUR STRENGTH UNTO ME!" Leona chanted telepathically. They appeared in front of her and took flight.

"After the horsemen!" Leona instructed telepathically. They nodded and flew towards the charging horsemen, who were wielding scimitars and riding towards her as fast as they could go. While the harpies kept them preoccupied Leona called in another helper.

"SKY CHAMPION SUMMON!" Leona thought. The green-armored male appeared and brandished his energy blades.

"Go after the wagon! Free those people!" Leona telepathically instructed Rafale. He flew towards the wagon to carry out his objective. Leona watched while the horsemen swung their scimitars at the harpies and the winged women knocked the men off their horses. The blonde rushed to the aid of her harpies and was met by three horsemen charging towards her.

Leona simply raised a hand and fired a Wind Blast, making their horses rear up and dump their riders from the saddle. They scrambled to their feet and Leona drew her machete. The first man rushed towards her with his weapon held high and Leona just slashed him across the chest three times before stabbing him. She kicked him off the blade and hit the next man with a Mach Straight, knocking him to the sand. The third raider approached and was knocked down by a Wind Bullet to the chest that sent him tumbling head over heels.

The second man scrambled to his feet and was met with a single machete slice that cut his throat. The third man turned and ran from her to summon help in the form of three more horsemen charging at her with weapons raised. Leona dismounted all three with a Wind Blast and moved in to deal with the quartet.

[Word Count: 1,200]
[Total Word Count: 2,200/12,500]

The four men tried to use their numbers to their advantage, but the blonde had just the perfect spell to deal with them because they could even get going. A quick Storm Impact sent a cloud of sand up and gave Leona the opening she needed to dispatch them one by one. She killed them quickly and without much trouble. Meanwhile her harpies were harassing the few horsemen that had remained and Rafale had freed the captives from the cage holding them with a quick slash to the lock.

"The captives are free!" Rafale reported. Leona had just withdrawn her machete from the last of the men to confront her when she got the report. She past the horsemen being harassed by the harpy sisters and over to the cage to prevent reprisals against the helpless captives, but that protection was not necessary because the surviving slavers were running or riding for their lives away from the scene. Against her better judgment she let them go to focus on the recently freed captives.

"Thank you!" An old man wearing brown robes and a tattered white turban said to her. The prisoners poured out of the cages and took the keys from the body of a slaver Rafale had killed early in the fight. They began to unlock their shackles and pass the keys down the line until all twenty people were freed. Now that they were freed from their chains, the next concern was getting water.

"Do you have any water with you?" The old man asked Leona. Leona set down her backpack and doled out twenty of the twenty-four bottles that were in her backpack, one for each person in the group.

"It may be a bit... warm..." Leona trailed off as the former captives drank them without caring about their temperature. She was glad that she could rescue them before they reached their final destination.

"Thank you so much. We were afraid that we'd be sold and never see home again." The old man said to him.

"Where do you guys live?" Leona asked him. Their clothing looked to be decent, if not exactly the apex of fashion. They had not been captives for very long.

"We live in the western Tri-Council city. Or we did until we were ambushed and kidnapped on the road to the eastern Tri-Council City." The man answered. Leona thought about the distance involved and wondered how they would get back home without an escort. They were in the middle of frequently used slaver and bandit traveling routes.

"This is prime bandit and slaver territory. How will you get back to the Tri-Council city without an escort?" Leona asked him. A middle-aged man in a white shirt and white pants with a brown leather belt spoke up.

"If we could remove the cage from the back, we could just fit everyone in the cart. But I don't have any tools." The man suggested. Leona looked at Rafale and had an idea.

"Rafale, could you cut the bars to the cage so that the top half comes off?" Leona asked him. The green-armored summon nodded.

"Sylvia, could you and the others lift the cage so that it doesn't crash on the cart when it's cut?" Leona asked the winged sisters. The redhead looked at her for a moment before nodding.

"We can lift it high enough for the cart to be moved, but we won't be able to hold it for very long." Sylvia replied.

"We won't need it to be held for very long. Just long enough for the cart to be taken out of the way, then you can drop it." Leona said. The three sisters nodded and flew into place, using their talons to grip the top of the cart. The captives watched as the white-clad man got into the driver's seat of the cart and grabbed the reins.

"OK, I'm ready!" The man declared. Leona turned to Rafale and nodded.

"READY!" Sylvia, Daphne, and Sandy called out together. Rafale nodded back and took to the air, building up momentum and using his energy blade to cut it exactly where the metal met the wooden sides of the cart without hitting the wood or the driver. The three harpies lifted it and Rafale soon joined them in keeping the metal from ruining the cart when it fell down.

"NOW!" Leona called to the driver. He nodded and moved the cart out of the way within twenty seconds of the command being given. The quartet of winged summons dropped the top half of the cage and the falling iron kicked up a cloud of sand that took a bit of time to settle. When it settled one perfectly good cart remained for use by the people.

"Thank you! Now we can all get back to the city!" The old man thanked her as people began picking up scimitars from the horsemen who did not need them anymore and climbing onto the cart. Leona put away her machete and helped passengers who needed the help climb on board. Once everyone was on board the old man spoke to her.

"We'll take it from here. We'll go the long but safe way-" The man started before five dozen more horsemen rode up, but these were not slaver reinforcements. They were from the sultan's army!

Leona dispelled her summons and watched as a one-eyed man with a white turban and a uniform with a black eyepatch over an eye approached her with a gleaming blade at his side.

"Hello Miss Jarnefeldt. I am Captain Hisham, the very same man you freed the day you saved the Blue Sky Clan captives." He re-introduced himself to the blonde. Leona remembered him now. He was the man who led the rescue of his men inside the Red Sand Bandits cell.

"Hello, Captain. I freed these captives from slavers and was-" She started before he politely cut her off with a raised hand.

"We encountered those slavers and dealt with them harshly. You need not worry about them again." He promised her. She took that statement to mean that they had been executed, but that was fine by her. She did not have to worry about that gang of slavers coming back for a second fight with her.

"What brings you out into the desert, Miss Jarnefeldt?" Captain Hisham asked her. Figuring that it was better to tell the truth than it was to lie to a captain in the sultan's army, she told him the purpose of her journey.

"I was on the way to a slaver compound to free some of my fellow villagers who had been captured in a slaver raid." Leona told him truthfully. He looked at her and blinked. Then he looked impressed. Whether that was because she was honest with him or because she was going alone was up in the air.

"I see. Does it happen to be one located in the middle of Desierto?" He asked her. It was Leona's turn to blink.

"Yes. Why?" Leona asked.

[Word Count: 1,200]
[Total Word Count: 3,400/12,500]

"This is where our interests align, Miss Jarnefeldt. You see, we have reason to suspect that the capital city of King Saarghon is in the area of the slaver camp. We also suspect that they are using slave labor to dig it up." Captain Hisham said to her. Leona was interested in that bit of information. If the capital really was there, it would confirm what the golden book she had recovered said about Nevineh being located in the middle of Desierto.

She had read from the translation of the book her mother gave her that both the capital city and principal temple were located in the middle of Desierto. According to the book It was a symbolic gesture to indicate that Saarghon's power radiated all across the country and touched all corners of Desierto. While it was a wonderful symbolic gesture, it was also one of the more inhospitable parts of the region in a region that was already hard to live in. City walls had to be built and the royal army on constant alert since there were no natural defenses other than the desert itself.

"So you'd like me to take down the magic barrier so that you and your men can clean up the camp and secure it for the sultan?" Leona asked the one-eyed captain. He smiled widely.

"You are clever... for a desert dweller. You are also correct." He said to her with a smile. Leona ignored the implied insult because she really needed his help for this job. As strong as she was, she could not compete with the manpower that the slavers could muster at a moment's notice. Since they knew that she was both a Wizard Saint and an old enemy of theirs, they would send everyone they had at her to take her down. Captain Hisham and his men would be a big help.

"The magic barrier keeps us out and the captives in. If it were to suffer an accident that destroyed it, we could get in and take care of the rest." He said to her. Leona knew where this was going. She would have to sneak into the camp and disable the magic spheres keeping the barrier active.

"OK, I'll do it." Leona said to the captain. He smiled widely as two dozen of his men escorted the cart of people back to their homes and the rescued captives waved at them both. Leona had done one good thing today... she was going to make that two and save the people from her home village.

"Splendid." He said laconically. Then Leona thought of something. How was she going to signal him when the barrier was down? That kind of thing was important to know before sneaking into a slaver camp and disabling the barrier only to find that her intended backup did not know to charge to the rescue.

"How am I going to signal you when the barrier's down?" Leona asked him. He handed her a pistol of some kind. It was smaller than an average weapon and had a larger opening for the projectile to pass through.

"This is a flare pistol. When the barrier is down, fire it and we will make our attack on the camp." He told her. Leona thought that such an overt measure made sense. As soon as the barrier went down the whole camp would be on alert, so stealth would be nearly impossible to achieve at that point. She put it away in her backpack and listened to him talk.

"I will drop you off at the outskirts of the camp, but the rest will be up to you. Do not let us down." Captain Hisham said to her. Leona nodded and hopped onto the horse of a soldier who offered her a ride. Off the men went to the slaver camp.

-Outside the slaver camp, nightfall-

The soldier dropped Leona off a good distance from the camp, which was a large one that had watchtowers in the corners but lacked walls of any kind. No brick, no adobe, no stone... maybe the slavers figured that the magic barrier would be all they needed for protection. The Wizard Saint of Courage was about to prove them wrong. The soldier rode away to avoid attracting attention from the camp sentries and left Leona to do her work.

Leona put cloth coverings over the metal plates of her gauntlets, then started crawling on the sand towards the camp. The moon was obscured by clouds, so torchlight was the only light available. The tent city was blazing with lit torches, as were a few adobe buildings near the back of the camp. Getting in would be easy, but getting around undetected would be a lot harder.

Leona crawled on the sand for what seemed like an eternity. She should have brought her desert cloak to hide her green-and-gold outfit because the bright colors would stick out against the sand if someone thought to walk her her direction with a torch. There was nothing that could be done about it now except press on. There were sentries with weapons and torches, but they stuck squarely to the confines of the camp and patrolled in rigid, predictable patterns.

There were men in the watchtowers, but they were busy sleeping or staring off into the endless desert waiting for their shifts to end. Their negligence was her gain because she crawled through the sand at a decent pace without anyone spotting her. She was halfway to the front of the camp when she noticed something that she did not see the first time she laid eyes on the camp. Leona paused in her crawl and noticed four stone towers manned by more vigilant men who were standing in front of four clear orbs pulsing between yellow and red at the speed and rhythm of a human heartbeat. Those were the spheres that needed to be destroyed.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 4,400/12,500]

Leona crawled closer to the towers without anyone noticing, then slowly got up when she was close enough to them and huddled at the base of the closest tower. The guard was asleep, so he did not even notice her as she stood up and flattened herself against the base of the tower. She peered up and saw the first tower holding one of four magic spheres powering the barrier. She needed to figure out how to bring them down without giving herself away.

Her plan was to bring down all four spheres at once and use the confusion to slip into the camp, but they likely had contingency plans in case their source of protection went down. She could not hope to liberate all the captives by herself, so she needed outside help in the form of Captain Hisham and his men. Either way she sliced it the magical protection had to be removed. She had an idea on how to remove it while minimizing her chances of being caught.

She would use her summons to do the job, but they had to get into position and strike all four spheres at once before the alarm went up. That should be easy once she summoned them and laid out the plan. However, she would have to be quick about summoning them because she could hear the sound of footsteps on sand not too far from her position.

"O FABLED HARPIES, O SISTERS THREE! LEND YOUR STRENGTH UNTO ME!" Leona thought. The three harpy sisters appeared in front of her and began their customary greetings when Leona silenced them.

"We have to be quiet." Leona said to them. The trio immediately went quiet and instead just waved at her.

"I'm gonna need your help to destroy some spheres. They're magic ones powering a barrier that keeps ordinary people out." Leona told them the purpose behind their summoning. Daphne was moved to comment.

"What? That's it?" She asked.

"There are four spheres. You'll have to hit them all at once." Leona added. She had just the summon in mind for the fourth one. She raised her hands and made the call.

"SKY CHAMPION SUMMON!" Leona thought. Rafale appeared and brandished his energy blades.

"I need your help destroying a magic sphere, but I'm trying to coordinate their destruction so that all four go down at once. You're the fourth person I need to make it happen." Leona informed him of his place in the plan.

"Of course. What do I need to do?" Rafale asked telepathically. The three sisters leaned in to "listen" to their role in the plan.

"I'm gonna need you guys to split up and each head for a tower. You'll need to be stealthy about it because guards are everywhere. Once you get into position, let me know." Leona told them. They nodded and took to the air, quietly doing their best to slip into position without alerting the numerous guards patrolling the premises and manning the watchtowers. They were surprisingly quiet and surprisingly fast, but she worried that their lack of concealment might work against them and jeopardize the whole plan. Her worry was only validated when she overheard some men talking about "giant birds" flying by.

"Hey, did you see those giant birds that just flew by?" One man asked another.

"Yeah. That's kind of strange. I don't know of any birds that fly at night." The second commented.

"Could they have been owls? Owls hunt at night, you know." The first suggested. The second person made a noncommittal grunt.

"Maybe. But they were too large to be owls." He eventually said in reply.

"Do you want to let the boss know what we saw?" The first man asked. Leona's heart began to beat so fast that she was worried the guards might hear it. She also held her breath and hoped that they would move on before she was forced to exhale. She listened as the guards debated on what to do. The blonde was afraid that they knew of her presence and were just trying to wait her out.

"No. If we tell him and can't show the birds as proof, he'll have our heads." Came the response from the second man.

"Works for me." The first said before they started walking away from her position. Once she was sure that they were gone the blonde exhaled as quietly as she could and tried to calm down to focus enough on the objective. However, that was easier said than done because her heart was beating so hard that she could hear it. She took a few more moments to settle down, then focused and listened for her summons to notify her that they had gotten into place to help enact her plan.

"Sylvia in place." Sylvia said.

"I'm like, ready! just give the word!" Daphne chimed in.

"Ready." Sandy said.

"Ready." Rafale echoed Sandy.

Once she heard that all her summons were in place, Leona paused to listen out for guards in case some wandered around the corner. Leona quickly relocated to the corner of the stone tower and saw Sylvia hovering above her. It was now or never.

"NOW! DESTROY THE SPHERES!" Leona ordered telepathically. The summons all attacked at once with their most powerful attacks and Leona heard the sound of shattering glass sound throughout the camp. She should have picked a better hiding place because some of the sphere's glass came raining down on her and she threw her arms above her head to protect herself from the rain. She listened and heard the commotion as guards began trying to figure out what happened. Leona took this chance to set down her backpack and pull out the flare gun.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 5,400/12,500]

Leona knew that what she was about to do would set off a sequence of events that would be chaotic and violent. She would have to fight and she would almost certainly have to kill. She was willing to go through with it because she was the Wizard Saint of Courage and people were depending on her. Leona was about to blow her cover in the most conspicuous of ways, but she would do it. She pointed the muzzle into the air and squeezed the trigger, sending the red projectile skyward, where it lingered and cast a red light on her and on the area.

Leona heard shouting and the sound of feet kicking up sand. She had only a few moments before a small army of slavers would be coming after her with everything they had. She would not quit now. Leona drew her Nightshade Machete and waited for them to arrive. She was not running anywhere except directly at them.

Soon enough a team of men with scimitars arrived and found Leona waiting for them underneath the red light of the flare. They looked like they expected the lone blonde to be alone and thus an easy target. They would learn that Leona was not alone, but in the company of summons.

"Get them!" Leona commanded. Sylvia dove down on the slavers and her sisters were not far behind. Rafale was last but certainly not least as he effortlessly cut a sword in half in the hands of its startled owner. He fled for his life and Rafale turned to another slaver.

Leona caught one running towards her with a Fast Ball to the face, knocking him down and kicking him in the head for a knockout. Another one ran towards her and she knocked him down with a Mach Straight to the face and followed up with a kick to the head that knocked him out. She turned to a third who engaged her in a sword fight.

Leona and the slaver got into a bladelock and jockeyed for position. They spun around each other looking to get the small bit of leverage that would win the clash. He would push with both hands and Leona would push back in an evenly matched contest of strength and determination. The tipping point came when Leona gave up leverage to bring her right foot up and kicked the man away, sending him sprawling onto the sand. While he was lying on the sand another group of ten rushed into the melee and made a beeline for Leona.

The blonde simply used a Wind Blast to knock them backwards, buying time to engage an enemy who had gotten the drop on her and had grabbed her from behind. Leona threw them over her shoulder and kicked her machete away to keep it from being used against her. When he got up she used a Mach Jab followed by a Mach Straight to knock him down again, then finished with a kick to the head.

By that time the ten-man group had recovered and were running towards her with weapons raised. Rafale and the three harpies dropped down in front of her and hovered just above the sand, making the men rethink what they were doing. Leona "encouraged" them to run by stepping between the summons and using her special roar technique that caught all then in the sound wave. They immediately turned around and sprinted away from her as fast as they could go. Leona had bought herself a bit of breathing room, but she still needed to rescue the captives in case the slavers decided to kill them rather than risk them being freed.

Leona retrieved her machete and began to walk into the camp with her faithful summons at her back. It was at that time that she heard the sound of horses bearing down on the camp. A volley of arrows rained through the air and killed or wounded most of a new group of a dozen slavers who had assembled to stop her. More slavers showed up and they too were turned into pincushions by the newly arrived horsemen.

"We got your signal. Now go and save the captives. We will deal with their camp!" Captain Hisham urged her. Leona nodded and pressed further into the tent city as the one-eyed captain and his three-hundred strong army began to clear out the camp behind her. Leona would leave them to their work because she had a job of her own to do.

-Deeper in the tent city-

Leona rushed by row after row of dull brown canvas tents that served as shelter for the slavers and their army. She was looking for the excavation site they were supposedly working but did not see it yet. What she did see was another group of men assembling to stop her. They were eight strong and looking for a fight.

"Stop her!" One of them, a slender man with an eyepatch, shouted at the rest. Leona's summons attacked four of them, clearing the way for her to engage the other four. They did not wait for her to come to them, but instead rushed at her with weapons ready. Leona used a Wind Blast to knock two of them down but missed the other two, who instead pressed the attack and closed the distance on her.

Leona knocked the first one back with a Mach Straight to the chest and the second took advantage of the distraction to hit her in the face with his own fist. Leona staggered back and recovered enough to block a second punch with her right glove, then countered with a stab to the chest. He backed off and gave the blonde enough space to finish the job with four slashes across the chest, downing him for good. The first man paused for a moment, then hefted his scimitar and rushed at her with his weapon held high.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 6,400/12,500]

Leona waited until he got within range, then hit him with the first strike to Hurricane Punch before he could bring his sword down. He was hit with the first punch and the eleven follow-up punches before he could react. The disoriented man dropped his weapon and Leona finished the fight with a Mach Uppercut that knocked him to the sand and knocked him out. She was getting soft because she was knocking most of them out instead of killing them, but part of her wanted to be known for something other than bloodshed.

Leona would let Captain Hisham decide what to do with the slavers he captured; her job was to free the villagers of Nebdoui and any other captives the slavers might have taken. She moved in on the two enemies she had knocked down with the Wind Blast earlier and took the fight to them. They rushed her simultaneously and Leona had to fight off two attackers at once, but she could handle it. She knocked aside the blade of the first and knocked him back with a Mach Straight to the chest, then hit the second one in the face with a Mach Jab followed by a Mach Uppercut.

The blonde was fending them off when a third attacked from behind, grabbing Leona by the arms and holding her in place for the first two men to attack. She kicked the first one in front of her between the legs and dropped him for a moment, but the second punched her in the left eye and landed four more unanswered punches before Rafale darted in front of him and slashed with his energy blades, cutting the man in half across the waist. Leona felt the man holding her arms being lifted into the air and his kicking feet striking the back of her armor to no effect. Leona knocked out the kneeling man with a kick to the face and she heard the third man being dropped off somewhere in the distance.

"Are you OK?" Rafale asked her. Leona put a hand to her left eye and felt the bruised area. Other than a mild headache and some bruising, Leona was OK.

"I'm all right. I'll live. We've gotta keep moving, though. I don't know where the captives are being held." Leona told him.

"I will scout ahead and let you know if I find them." Rafale offered. Since Leona was in the company of the harpies, she could afford to let the green-clad summon scout ahead for her. Besides, he was able to take care of himself.

"Go ahead. Just let me know when you find them." Leona told him. Rafale nodded and darted off ahead of her, cutting through a team of eight slavers on his way through. He continued to cut through small groups of them before disappearing from sight. The blonde and her harpies were left to fight their way through the remaining groups of slavers, which would be no easy task. Altogether she had to fight through twenty-seven of them before she could progress any further into the camp.

"Don't let her through!" A shirtless, muscular man with a scarred torso and white pants instructed his men. Leona aimed and fired a Wind Blast to break up the group, knocking down ten of them while the remainder charged Leona at once. The harpy sisters dove to the attack with their talons extended as Leona took on the first man to close the distance with her. Leona cut him across the chest three times with her machete before knocking him aside and slugging another man in the face with a Mach Straight. A third rushed in and cut her across the armor, prompting Leona to stab him in the chest twice before kicking him off the blade.

While she was busy with that the remaining men surrounded her with their blades held in a ready position. Leona had a way out of this situation. She used a Storm Impact spell to kick up a dome-shaped cloud of sand and escape the encirclement by jumping over a pair of coughing men, then putting some distance between her and them. The shirtless man did not like that at all.

"Get her!" He bellowed at his coughing men, who were busy trying not to choke on the sand that had been forced into their eyes and lungs by the Storm Impact spell. Unfortunately for him, they were too busy coughing and rubbing their eyes to engage in combat, so he had to take matters into his own hands. Or he would have if the royal army did not interfere by shooting a volley of arrows into the crowd of slavers, ending the confrontation in a decisive fashion.

The surviving slavers ran for their lives as the arrows continued to rain down on them. The boss cursed and used a spell to teleport away before he could be hit by the projectiles. Leona had a feeling that she would meet him again later. Once the arrow storm subsided she heard from Rafale.

"I found the captives! They're deeper in the northeast corner of the camp!" He reported telepathically. Leona turned towards the northeast corner while the horseback archers who had saved her bacon turned back to the fray and rode off to help their colleagues clean up the camp. One of the watchtowers was burning and its occupant lying dead on the sand with multiple arrows sticking out of his chest. Leona looked to the point near where she had entered the camp and saw multiple tents on fire and at least five already burned to the ground.

Leona watched as two soldiers rode down a fleeing slaver and decapitated him before one threw his sword at another one who emerged from a tent and the blade buried itself in his chest. The royal army certainly did not treat the slavers with kid gloves.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Word Count: 7,400/12,500]

Leona got over the beatdown of the slavers and hustled to the northeast corner of the camp before even more enemies could mobilize to stop her. She was getting close enough to the camp to see a few of the captives being herded into tents and slavers with torches waving them wildly while others threw jars of something onto the tents and poured a trail around the entrance. Leona had a bad feeling that things were about to get ugly, so she picked up the pace and broke into a full run to stop what she thought was going to happen. She had a feeling that the slavers were about to try and burn the evidence before she could stop them.

Leona had just passed into the corner of the camp when one of the slavers dropped a burning torch just outside the entrance to a tent. Leona stomped it out and killed the offending slaver with a stab through the chest when the latter advanced on her with a scimitar drawn. The blonde saw more torches in the distance and her stomach turned a flip. The slavers were going to torch them all!

"Quick, stop the slavers with the torches!" Leona ordered her summons to go after the men in the hopes of saving as many people as she could. She hurried and rescued the people in the tent, then rushed on to the next and prevented that one from going up in flames by cutting off the torch-bearer's hand and then stabbing him through the chest, then stomping out the torch before it could ignite the oil.

Meanwhile her summons were doing their level best to prevent the worst from happening by stopping the torch-bearers and fighting off slavers determined to burn the captives alive. Rafale had decapitated a slaver with his energy blade before carving through two more who tried to stop him. The harpies were harassing the men and buying time for Leona to get there. Leona hurried and rescued the occupants of a tent, then hustled over to where her harpies were valiantly playing for time.

Leona arrived and cut off the hand of one of the men with a torch, then stabbed him through the torso and kicked him off the blade. Behind her the sound of hooves filled the air. Some of the royal army horsemen were riding to the rescue! She silently willed them onward while she finished up her rescue of the people inside a tent that was smoldering. Leona guided them out just as it began to catch fire... she was just in time to save these people, but other occupied tents in the area were starting to smolder.

The royal army picked up some of the slack behind her, but Leona had no time to relax. She still had slavers to kill and people to save. Leona ducked into another smoldering tent and hauled out an old man and his wife just before it caught fire. She set them down and rushed into another tent, picking up an old woman too weak to walk and carrying her to safety.

Leona felt the pressure and was starting to get a headache from the stress, but she had no time to pause because one tent had already caught fire with people trapped inside. Leona rushed in and the intense heat took her breath away. She quickly grabbed the children inside and tossed them outside, where a waiting Captain Hisham caught them and set them on the ground. Leona jumped through the flames and narrowly avoided being caught in a collapsing tent that was on fire.

She repeated the act with another burning tent full of children and barely managed to rescue them before the tent came down. The burning canvas fell near the back of her legs and Leona had to pat out some sparks that landed on the back of her skirt. Elsewhere she saw captives being led to safety and over two dozen tents that had already burned down. Leona was sick to her stomach with the implications, which were only confirmed by the captain.

"I am sorry, Miss Jarnefeldt. We could not save everyone." Captain Hisham told her solemnly. Leona nodded and felt sick to her stomach.

"For what it is worth, we killed every slaver we could find. They will answer for their crimes in the afterlife." He added further. Again Leona simply nodded. She was too upset with herself to even talk to him. People were counting on her and she had let them down in the worst was possible. Even the confirmed survival of Whitney and Erica did nothing to lighten her mood.

Leona halfway listened to Rafale as the latter tried to tell her something of importance.

"...In the caves!" Rafale said. Leona was not paying attention to a word he said.

"Some of the slavers took refuge in the cave! The cave the captives were excavating!" Rafale informed her. Leona finally snapped out of her self-loathing and asked him where this cave was.

"Tell me." Leona ordered telepathically. It was too late to save the dead captives, but she could bring the rest of the slavers to justice and get revenge for the innocents they had killed. Leona would gladly settle for getting revenge.

"The cave is not too far from your current position. It is just to the northeast of you, just outside the camp. It is on the bottom of a cliff face, so you cannot miss it!" Rafale informed her. Leona was already on her way.

"Where are you going, Miss Jarnefeldt?" Captain Hisham inquired.

"I think I've found a cave that the slavers were excavating. One of my summons told me that some of the slavers have taken refuge in the cave. It's to the northeast of here and at the bottom of a cliff face." Leona told him where she was going.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 8,400/12,500]

"All right then. Do with them as you see fit." Captain Hisham said to her. Leona nodded and walked away to do just that. Stopping the escaped slavers would not bring their victims back, but it would stop them from being able to capture more people. The blonde walked towards the cliff face with the harpy sisters flying just behind her.

Leona felt like a failure for what had just happened in the slaver camp, but she had to get over it and focus on the task at hand. She had to make sure that none of them got away to enslave more people. Leona walked over to the cliff and spotted Rafale standing close by with a pair of dead slavers at his feet. The interior of the cave was supported by standard wooden bracing that looked brand new, which implied that the excavation was recent.

"There are more inside, Leona. I heard them talking about a tunnel deeper inside the cave that they were planning on using." Rafale said to his mistress. Leona looked over his shoulder into the cave and saw numerous lit torches providing the only lighting in the structure. The sight of torches burning in the cave was inviting.

"OK. I'll take it from here." Leona said to him. Her emotional state was one of turbulence as she walked into the cave in the cliff face. She wondered what was so important that slave labor was used to gain access to it. She would probably find out in the course of her hunt for the remaining slavers.

"Sylvia, you guys sweep the area outside the cliff face for footprints, hoofprints, whatever. Just help me find those slavers!" Leona ordered them. The harpies took off and left Leona to enter the save in search of her quarry. Hiding in a cave would not save them.

-Inside the cave-

Leona stepped into the torch-lit cave and immediately began her search for escaping slavers to apprehend. Unfortunately for her, aside from some footprints in the dirt there was not a whole lot of life in the cave except for her. She dutifully followed the trail and found nothing but more footprints and abandoned work tools like shovels and pickaxes. What had happened to them? Had they taken a secret way out that Rafale did not see?

It could be possible that she was just on a wild goose chase in the middle of the desert and they had ridden off into the desert long before she had even fought her way through the slaver camp. Still, she had to try. She walked past an abandoned wheelbarrow filled with rocks and kept going down the straight tunnel while putting away her Nightshade Machete and drawing her Silver Longsword in case she had to fend off supernatural threats. More abandoned work tools, more abandoned wheelbarrows full of rocks, and more footprints littering the floor of the tunnel were the sights she was treated to as she traveled in search of the tunnel's end. She traveled until she reached the very end of the cave, which featured a large stone door framed in an equally large arch.

The blonde looked at the doorframe and saw an inscription in Court Heiromesh just above the door. Leona immediately forgot about the slavers and began to read it. It was an advertisement of sorts for that reliably self-absorbed ruler of ancient Desierto, King Saarghon. This ruler could not resist any opportunity for self-promotion no matter how small it may have been.

"All who pass beyond this door, pay homage to King Saarghon, he who rules the sands!"

Leona was not terribly surprised that the inscription was yet another expression of praise for the king who could not get enough of self-promotion. She looked around for any other clues concerning the slavers who ran this operation and could not find any. It was possible that the clues had either been taken with the slavers who fled or destroyed the moment Leona entered their camp. However, the captain would be interested to know that the information the sultan received about King Saarghon's connection to the site was not just hot air. The blonde put away her weapon and turned around, leaving the door behind her and walking away.

-Outside the cave-

Captain Hisham and some of his men waited outside while the blonde put away her sword and reported her discovery to them.

"The information that the sultan got was right. There's a stone door in the cave and it's connected to King Saarghon." Leona informed the one-eyed captain while jerking her thumb back towards the cave. He looked at her with his one good eye and smiled.

"Splendid. The sultan will be pleased to hear that." He said to her. He motioned for a young messenger in a white turban to approach him. The captain handed the man a scroll and told him to take that to the sultan. The youth mounted a horse and rode out of the camp and towards the Tri-Council City while being escorted by eleven soldiers.

"And what of the slavers?" He asked Leona. The blonde frowned.

"I didn't see a single sign of them. I saw a lot of footprints, but they were mostly likely made by the captives forced to excavate the cave." Leona informed him. The captain frowned when he heard that news. He sighed and spoke to the mage.

"I am sorry to hear that, Miss Jarnefeldt. I am also sorry that you lost some of your fellow villagers." He apologized to her.

"It's not your fault, Captain. I just wasn't fast enough." Leona told him.

"You did well to save as many as you did. Altogether you lost 73 villagers, but you saved 147 more." He said to her as if that would comfort her. Somehow the count only made her feel worse about her failure. Nebdoui only had 800 villagers in the best of times and now 73 of them were confirmed to be dead. That was not good for a village with such a small population.

"Thanks, Captain." Leona said softly. She was used to death and should not have been so affected by it, but seldom had it hit with such force as it did now. Did the loss hurt so much only because the dead were from her home village? She had no idea.

"Leona, I know you might not wanna hear this, but I'll tell you anyway." Sylvia said to her. Leona looked in her direction and motioned for the harpy to speak.

"I think the bandits used an invisibility spell to fool Rafale." Sylvia calmly said to her mistress. Leona would not be surprised if that were the case. That big guy from earlier likely knew spells to get out of trouble.

[Word Count: 1,150]
[Total Word Count: 9,550/12,500]

"What will you do from here?" Leona asked Captain Hisham.

"My job is to secure this place for the sultan. He will be quite interested in whatever lies beyond the door you told us about. We may need your help to discover exactly what it is." The captain replied. Leona herself was interested in helping, but her mood was not currently conducive to exploration. She was upset about the villagers she and the army were unable to save being burned to death and upset about the slavers managing to escape. She was not sure which was the worse of the two. The slavers would answer for what they did one day, but today they had managed to escape.

"Now it is my turn to ask a question. What will you do from here, Miss Jarnefeldt?" Captain Hisham asked her. Leona did not have to think very long about that answer. She would go back to Nebdoui and try to get over this whole mess.

"I'm going to return to Nebdoui and make sure the surviving villagers get back home safely. It's the best thing I can do for them at this point." Leona told him.

"Very well then. I wish you well. We will be in touch, Miss Jarnefeldt." He said to her. He clapped his hands and a small caravan's worth of horse-drawn carts filled with food and water were brought forward for the use of the survivors. Leona was glad for that because she was no logistical genius and had no idea of how to get everyone home. The captain's generosity had saved her from trying to figure out the solution to that problem.

"Thank you, Captain." Leona thanked the one-eyed man. He had done a lot for her tonight. He and his men had kept her from being overwhelmed by slavers before she could even rescue the slaves. He and his men had kept the body count from being higher than it was. Now he had provided her with transportation for her people to get back to Nebdoui.

"It is no problem. The slavers have no use for these carts and supplies any longer." He said to her. The grateful villagers began to pile onto the carts and began to help themselves to the food and water. Some of the healthier villagers took the reins of the carts and waited for the order to move out. Leona dismissed Rafale and brought out the Winged Lion, then got onto his back. She would escort the caravan from the sky and make sure that no harm came to them while they crossed the inhospitable desert.

"Good luck to you, Miss Jarnefeldt!" Captain Hisham called out before the caravan got started. Leona waved to him and got the Winged Lion airborne, then looped around and flew above the lead wagon of the caravan. She would spot threats and either drive them away or kill them before they attacked the wagons. At least that was the plan. As Leona learned to her cost, very few plans survived contact with the enemy.

-In the desert, two hours later-

It was two hours out from the camp and the sun was just beginning to rise in the sky, a fact which was a mixed blessing. Leona appreciated the increase in visibility that morning brought, but it would also mark an increase in temperatures in a desert region renowned for its heat. Since Leona could not control the weather nor the temperature, she would just have to grin and bear it. She needed to focus on spotting threats before they spotted the wagons.

"Sorry about what happened, Leona." Sylvia apologized to her. The other harpies quickly followed suit.

"It's OK, guys. You tried your best, but there were just too many slavers to stop." Leona told them. It was not their fault at all. If anyone deserved blame, it was Leona herself.

"We'll get them next time." Sylvia assured her. Leona was not terribly concerned with meeting the slavers again because a second meeting was all but assured. Leona would be looking for revenge for the villagers who were killed. The slavers would want revenge for her killing so many of them and breaking up their operation. The two opposing forces would eventually meet again, but when and where was unknown to the blonde.

The flat desert "plains" made her life easier because there was nowhere for bandits to hide. They made her life harder because there was no cover for the caravan to take to avoid detection. The presence of a blonde mage on the back of a winged lion was also a dead giveaway that there was something important on the carts. Be that as it may, it was her job to get the caravan to safety no matter what was against her.

"Do you see anything yet?" Leona asked her harpies.

"Not at all." Sylvia replied.

"It's, like, nothing but sand! Sand everywhere!" Daphne complained.

"I don't see anything dangerous." Sandy chimed in.

"OK. Keep looking." Leona told them. She ignored the rising temperature and focused on the endless sand that stretched before her. Being on lion-back and more directly exposed to the sun was not something Leona wanted to do regularly because her choice of clothing did her no favors. Long sleeves and armor were making her more than a bit warm. However, if it helped get the survivors back to Nebdoui, the blonde would fly over the sand any time.

Travel had been uneventful so far, which was a blessing. At the moment the only enemy was the heat itself, but the people of Nebdoui were familiar with how to cope with it. The survivors had enough food and water for the trip. The only thing that remained uncertain was physical safety. Leona was one of the few who had any weapons.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 10,550/12,500]

-In the desert, two hours later-

The desert sun was higher in the sky and it was starting to beat down on the plains like it always did. Leona was starting to feel its effects and was sweating a lot. The only saving grace was that being in motion helped cool her down a little. The heat was likely worse on the people below her because they were moving slower than she was. Still, they were safe so far.

Leona wanted this trip to be over with so that the survivors could return to Nebdoui and be out of danger, but they were still a few hours away from home. The blonde would just have to stay vigilant until then. That was easier said than done because she was tired from the travel to and from the slaver camp and distracted by her thoughts wandering back to what happened in the tent city the slaves were in. She tried to shake them off and focus on spotting threats to the convoy, but her mind wandered back to the burning tents and the number of villagers Captain Hisham reported as lost.

73.

73 villagers died because she was too slow to save them from the flames.

It was only due to the efforts of Captain Hisham, his men, and Leona's summons that more lives were not lost to the slavers. She did not have very much choice in the matter. The tribes allied to Nebdoui were unable to help and if she had waited for the army's support, more people would have died while she waited for help that was not guaranteed. Leona did what she thought best and while it still cost some innocent villagers their lives, a lot more lives were saved by her hurrying to the rescue. All things considered, Leona did very well to save as many people as she did.

Then why did she feel so terrible?

Maybe her brother was right. In their earlier meeting Leonidas had predicted that Leona would push herself a lot harder after being proclaimed a Wizard Saint. He and her mother had both expressed concern that the blonde would push herself because of the title and one day bite off more than she could possibly chew.

But what was Leona to do? Sit back and let slavers do what they wanted to Nebdoui? She was not going to let that happen, not as long as she was still alive. She was the Wizard Saint of Courage and she would oppose the slavers and bandits of Desierto to the very end. She would oppose all the evils of Earthland until the very end.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of the lead cart turning away from a group of over three dozen oncoming horsemen. Leona could not identify them, so she dove down for a closer look. If they were enemies, they would focus on the mage diving down on them instead of the carts of villagers. Some of them had taken weapons from deceased slavers, but the newly freed people were in no shape to fend off a bandit attack.

The blonde flew lower to get a closer look at the oncoming horsemen. They wore turbans and had bows in their hands, but they were not immediately hostile to her. Maybe they were just as surprised by her sudden appearance as they were by the sight of someone on a winged lion diving down on them. Leona came around to get a closer look and noticed a familiar face among the horsemen, a familiar face wearing a white turban. It was Prince Hakeem of the Regudo people!

The horsemen came to a halt and Leona landed beside them. Prince Hakeem rode over to her while she was still on the lion.

"Hail, Leona of Nebdoui!" Prince Hakeem greeted her while the people on the carts looked relieved that they were not caught in a bandit attack.

"Hi there, Prince Hakeem." Leona greeted the prince in a slightly less formal fashion.

"Your chief told me of your situation and I was sent to help." He informed her while glancing at the carts behind her. Leona was glad to hear that. It was all she could do not to hug the man then and there. Having a Regudo escort would be of immense help because the horsemen would be quicker to react to hostile attacks than she could react. Their help also meant that Leona could afford to relax, but only a little.

"Thank you." Leona said to him without further embellishment. What else could she say to his timely arrival? She was glad to have the help.

"We will escort you and your people back to your village. The road ahead is clear of bandits for now, but we should not delay." The prince told her. Leona agreed completely. The group did not need to waste any more time out here.

"OK. We'll get going whenever you're ready." Leona said to him.

"Let us go now." He said to her. He turned his horse around and his men followed suit. Leona took to the sky and the carts of the caravan began to move again. Maybe the day would end on a good note after all.

-Four hours later, Nebdoui-

Leona, Prince Hakeem and his men, and the liberated villagers arrived on the outskirts of Nebdoui without incident. They arrived to the cheers of the assembled people of Nebdoui. Leona was not sure what they were cheering about because 73 of them did not make it home, but she had no right to stop them. Who was she to take away their joy at seeing their friends and family again? Leona spotted some in the crowd who were crying because their friends and family did not make it home. That sight hurt a lot worse than any weapon the slavers could have used on her.

"Welcome back, everyone!" Chief Elijah greeted the caravan of freed slaves.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 11,550/12,500]

-Eight hours later, Chief Elijah's tent-

Leona was inside the chief's tent with the chief, Joshua, and Sophia. Earlier she had told them about what happened in the slaver camp and was now listening to the chief apprise her of the state of the alliance, which was faring well at the moment. Berreb, Regudo, and the Blue Sky Clan stood ready to help if another slaver raid targeted Nebdoui. Leona could not pay very much attention because she was too tired to really focus on Chief Elijah's words.

The blonde was too busy thinking about the day's events and the people burning to death in the slaver camp. She was too busy dwelling on her failure to save them to pay much attention. She drifted in and out of focus with alarming ease.

"...And the Regudo have reported no signs of bandit activity in their area ever since they repelled a raid on their village three weeks ago." Chief Elijah droned on. Leona just wanted the briefing to end, but it dragged on and on for what seemed like hours. She focused on the chief and tried to follow him the best she could. Sensing that her attention was waning, the chief cut to the chase and shortened his lecture.

"We lost some people today, but you helped saved a lot more. Based on what you said, there was no way to save everyone with the limited resources you had. You did well to save as many people as you did." Chief Elijah assured her. Leona was not entirely convinced by his words, but she could not mope about what happened forever. The other Wizard Saints likely had some regrets of their own, to say nothing of the Gods of Ishgar. She would overcome this setback and keep fighting the good fight.

"Thanks, Chief." Leona said to him. She was slowly starting to climb out of the pit of emotional turmoil that she had fallen into. It would take time to fully recover, but she would get there because Nebdoui needed her. Silver Wolf needed her. She still had obligations to fulfill and moping about would not help fulfill them.

"You've had a long day with a lot of travel. Why don't you go home?" Chief Elijah suggested. Leona was glad to take him up on that offer, but she had to be careful to avoid looking too eager to leave. She had to choose her next words carefully.

"If you don't mind, I think I will." Leona said to him. He nodded and Leona left to go to the Jarnefeldt tent. She was not up to traveling back to Silver Wolf Guild Hall at this point. She would just spend the night here like she had done before. Part of her also wanted to be here in case someone else decided to attack the village.

-Inside the Jarnefeldt tent-

Leona walked into the family tent, sat down on her cot, and took off her Adaptable Armor for a moment. She would put it on again soon because she needed to stay ready for trouble, but it felt good to remove the armor for a moment. Leona stood up again when she heard rustling and saw that it was only her mother Sophia.

"Hi there." Leona greeted her mother with a raised hand.

"I heard about what happened, Leona. I'll spare you the whole song and dance about not feeling guilty. I know you'll feel responsible for what happened even if you weren't the one to pour out the oil, light the torch, and drop the lit torch onto the oil." Sophia started to say to her daughter. The older Jarnefeldt was not pulling her punches and Leona appreciated the honesty. Instead of treating her daughter to canned speeches, Sophia was telling Leona nothing but the truth.

"I'll be fine one day. I'm not going to shake it off no matter how much people tell me it's not my fault, but I'll recover." Leona told Sophia with equal candor. She was not going to shrug it off right away. Very few people could shrug off the knowledge that 73 people burned to death close to them and shrug off that knowledge on command. With time and enough support Leona would recover.

"As rough as it sounds, I don't want you to shake it off right away. No one's asking you to. They just want you to know that what happened isn't your fault. You did what you could in an ugly situation no one should ever have to go through." Sophia told Leona. Leona was glad to hear that someone was on her side. She wondered how news of this would be treated back in Fiore.

Would she be hailed as a hero for what she managed to accomplish despite the odds or treated as a failure of a Wizard Saint? Wizard Saints were held up as heroes who never failed no matter what challenges were in front of them. If that was true, Leona had achieved the dubious distinction of being the first Wizard Saint to fail in a mission. Technically she had saved most of the villagers, but she had not saved all of them.

Leona was too tired to think about that too much, so she let it go and started to think in terms of what her mother and the chief told her. The blonde had gone up against daunting odds and managed to save a lot of people despite facing down a small army of slavers and the army having a head start in disposing of the slaves. She would be satisfied with that victory.

"I heard that you were proclaimed the Wizard Saint of Courage." Sophia continued.

"That's right." Leona said concisely.

"I think it's a fitting title for you." Sophia opined. She then walked over to Leona.

"There's been many a time that I thought I cursed you when I named you in honor of the lion. I read about your exploits and feel like I've condemned you to a life of nothing but fighting and danger. I still feel that way sometimes. But you've kept going despite it all. The world needs people willing to stand up to the darkness." Sophia said to Leona before hugging her tightly. Leona did not resist the gesture. She was glad that her mother still cared for her despite her refusal to settle down and have children right away. Leona would need people like that by her side if she wanted to have a lengthy tenure as a Wizard Saint and as a mage.

[Word Count: 1,120]
[Total Word Count: 12,670/12,500]