Rebuilding Nebdoui

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 33, Post Number 823

-Nebdoui, the Jarnefeldt family tent-

It had been less than a day ago since Leona had arrived in Nebdoui just in time to speak to Chief Elijah before his passing. Chief Elijah had made her promise to protect both Nebdoui and its allies and his son Joshua, who was now Nebdoui's new chief. Leona had promised him that she would do both things and she would keep her promises to the man who had kept Nebdoui going through crisis after crisis. Now it was up to her to keep the village going through yet another crisis.

Chief Elijah had been cremated in compliance with his wishes and his ashes placed in an urn that sat in Chief Joshua's tent. Shortly after the cremation Leona took the night watch because she could not sleep, partially from the pain of her shoulder wounds and partially because she was concerned that The Golden Band might come back with more men for a second attempt to storm the village.

Leona's eyes opened. She sat up on her cot in the Jarnefeldt family tent and felt somewhat cold. She recalled that she had taken off her outfit top and placed it on the back of a chair so that her shoulder wounds were not constricted by the article of clothing. Her mother had given her a blanket so that she could cover herself up and Leona did.

Leona tried to move her left shoulder and it began to hurt from the grazing gunshot wounds she had taken during the fighting against the Golden Band slavers yesterday. Leona groaned in pain and slowly eased herself off of the cot. It was a good thing that no one was around to see the Wizard Saint without a shirt on. She had worn a bra, but she still needed a shirt on because she had an image to maintain.

She went to go grab her green, white, and gold top when her eyes looked for her backpack. She did not recall taking it off after the fighting yesterday. She did not recall bringing it to Nebdoui either. Leona cursed under her breath when something hit her. She had forgotten it back at the guild hall!

Leona groaned in pain and frustration. She had wanted to slap on her white tank top so that her shoulder was not constricted, but she had no choice but to put on the green, white, and gold top for the sake of modesty. The Wizard Saint picked it up and starting to put it on, groaning as she had to move her left shoulder. Just then she heard someone come in and the blonde quickly covered her chest with the top.

"Hi there, Leona. I see that you're awake." Sophia said to her. The red-faced Leona turned to face her mother. Had her mother just called her by her real name?

"Hey there. Yeah, I'm finally awake." Leona replied casually, trying to shake off the embarrassment of her mother walking in on her. Sophia smiled until she looked at her daughter and saw the scar from the shoulder wound she had taken from being shot by pirate Captain Hector Espada. While the timely help of Henry Espada and the Silver Wolf hot springs had done a lot to heal the wound and had prevented Leona from suffering permanent nerve damage, she still had a slight scar from where the musket ball had hit her.

"Leona, you didn't tell me you've been shot before!" Sophia gasped, tracing the fingers of her right hand over the scar. Leona quickly overcame her embarrassment and got defensive.

"It's fine, Mother. It happened months ago. I'm a Wizard Saint and I face danger all the time." Leona said to her mother. Leona was an angry lioness now. She knew exactly what was going to come next.

She would be told that she needed to give up her titles and come home to Nebdoui to get married and have children. Leona had heard that so many times before. Nebdoui was anything but a safe place to raise a family, but Sophia had her head in the sand and refused to see the danger because she wanted grandchildren so badly that nothing else mattered.

"You may be fine with it, but I'm not. You take way too many risks. You act like your life doesn't matter to you." Sophia laid out her concerns for her daughter. Leona frowned.

"I'm the Wizard Saint of Courage. I'm supposed to confront danger that other people just can't handle." Leona reminded her mother of her Wizard Saint title, making it a point to mention the word "Courage" and emphasize it. She did not know how many times she had to bring that point up to get through to her mother.

"I know what your title is, Leona. I hear about it all the time, about how proud I should be of my daughter." Sophia snapped back. Leona dug in her heels. This was going to be a fight between the Jarnefeldts at a time when they should be pulling together for the sake of Nebdoui. However, Leona was not just going to let this drop. Letting it drop was the mistake that Leona kept repeating that had led to this point.

She had put off this confrontation long enough. She had called herself sparing her mother's feelings, but the time for that had long since passed. The matter needed to be addressed and it needed to be addressed today.

"Why are you so opposed to me having it?" Leona asked her mother.

"I'm worried about the risks you take, but I'm also worried about the expectations placed on you because you have the title." Sophia answered truthfully. Leona was taken aback by that, allowing Sophia to continue making her point.

"I know that you've got what it takes to be a Wizard Saint, Leona. You've got the courage and the fighting ability. You've got the strength of will to get past tough obstacles." Sophia continued.

"The risks you take are hair-raising, but what worries me the most is the expectations placed on you by your title." Sophia made her point. Leona calmed down a little now that this was not going to "come home and start a family" territory. Her mother had made a valid point that Leona had briefly thought about once before moving on. Now Sophia had brought it front and center.

"OK. You're making a good point about the expectations." Leona conceded, letting her mother know that she was not deaf to the latter's concerns. Sophia seemed surprised by that concession but showed it only briefly before her face hardened into determination.

"That's my entire point. I know you, Leona. You're so intent on living up to your title that you'd rather die than let people down. I'm worried that you actually might die trying to live up to other people's expectations." Sophia pushed her point. Leona continued to listen to her mother express her concerns about her daughter's willingness to take any risk to prove herself worthy of being a Wizard Saint.

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It was Leona's turn to be momentarily taken aback by what was said. Her mother had made the entirely valid point that the expectations that were put on the holder of a Wizard Saint title might end up getting Leona killed and the younger blonde was not sure how to respond to that. Her mother had never been this straightforward before... she must have been influenced by the straightforward Leonidas, who never minced words.

"Every time you complete a difficult task the expectations go higher and higher. I know that you don't want to disappoint people by failing. You'd rather die than fail to live up to expectations. I'm afraid that one day the expectations might get so high that you'll actually die trying to live up to them." Sophia repeated her point and elaborated on it. Leona was about to argue back and raised a finger but stopped when she thought about it a little. The Wizard Saint realized something about what her mother had argued.

The point she had made was actually a very good point.

Leona always felt guilty when she went shopping in Capital Crocus Mall or went to take a vacation on Crescent Island or did something other than fight evil. She felt like she had let people down by doing mundane activities. Even doing something important like taking steps to get a formal education made Leona feel like she needed to be out in the world slaying dragons and werewolves instead of shopping for GED test materials or figuring out which level of membership she wanted in the Outside Scholars program.

"The point I'm trying to make is that if you die, no one's really going to care. They'll mourn for all of a week and then they'll just find a new Wizard Saint to take your place. They'll find a new Guild Mistress or Guild Maste of Silver Wolf. Life will go on for everyone else, but I'll still be missing a daughter and I don't want to live through that." Sophia said plainly. Leona knew that her mother had a point. The world had not stopped because the previous generation of Wizard Saints had gone missing. The world had not stopped because her colleagues Leila Vergious and Ruvel Mizune had went missing. Leona knew that such was the way of the world, but her mother still had a point... the Magic Council lost nothing while her mother lost her only daughter.

"That's actually another good point." Leona conceded. While Leona knew the risks of the job, her mother had made a good point about how easily Wizard Saints could be replaced if they went missing, which was good for continuity but not as good for those who had parents. Leona could not deny that point, but she wanted to make a reply. She took the chance provided by Sophia stopping for a minute to let her daughter speak to reply to the second point.

"I get what you're saying, mother. I really do. You've made two very good points, but I'd like to say something about the second point." Leona calmly told her mother. Sophia, perhaps surprised by the fact that discussing such sensitive subjects had not turned the conversation into a no-holds-barred argument, allowed her daughter to speak.

"The point of me being a Guild Mistress is that I'm supposed to get Silver Wolf to the point that it would still run if I die or just can't run it anymore. I've got three very good Aces who helped me reorganize the guild and their changes make it run more smoothly. I feel that they'll keep Silver Wolf going if something happens to me. They'll also help my successor keep the guild going if one of them doesn't become my successor." Leona made a point in a calm tone of voice. Sophia continued to listen to her daughter speak without interrupting.

"There will be new Wizard Saints even if I die at a young age. I don't want to die at a young age, but that choice might not be entirely in my hands. I've made several powerful enemies, including the Crimson Sashes and The Golden Band. They'll stop at nothing to take me down and get me out of their way... even retiring won't ensure my safety. But my point is that there will be new heroes to pick up where I left off." Leona finished the second part of her point. Sophia looked somewhat impressed that her daughter had made her points without slinging insults or taking jabs at the older Jarnefeldt. Or maybe she was emotional because Leona had acknowledged the fact that her career path could lead to an early death and chose to stick with it. Sophia then spoke after she had gotten her thoughts together.

"You're right, Leona. There will be other Wizard Saints that will take your place. That's how the world works. Old heroes die or retire and new ones take their place." Sophia conceded to Leona.

"I know that you value your titles and will do everything in your power to prove that you've earned them. But I don't want you to throw your life away, Leona. I don't want you to think that you've got to do that to be a hero." Sophia added. Leona blinked. This was the clearest her mother had spoken in a long time.

"I don't think I have to throw my life away, mother. But I've gotta be willing to put it all on the line if I really want to make a difference. If I'm not willing to do that, I might as well resign the title of Wizard Saint of Courage." Leona replied, the thought of taking a jab at her mother not even entering her mind.

Leona was tired of fighting with her mother and wanted the fighting to end. So far the conversation was calm and rational and Leona wanted to keep it that way. This was the most genuine conversation she had with her mother ever since she had first left Nebdoui over four years ago. She was speaking to Sophia herself, not Sophia the Mother, Sophia the Advisor, or Sophia the Schoolteacher.

Leona was also applying the lesson she had learned from Samira Nassar about learning to think before she spoke. The lesson was paying dividends because her mother was speaking to her as a person and an equal, not as a mother to a child. Leona wanted to keep this going for as long as possible.

"I know, Leona. I wish that it didn't have to be you putting it all on the line, but you've done well as the Wizard Saint of Courage." Sophia said to Leona, offering praise at the end of the sentence. Leona was stunned by what she had heard. Did her mother just praise Leona for her work as a Wizard Saint?

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"People here look up to you, Leona." Sophia said to her daughter. Leona had heard that before, so that was not exactly a new revelation for her. Still, hearing that statement come from her mother instead of from someone else made the statement have a little more impact than it ordinarily would have.

"It's often said that you're one of the few reasons that the village is still here. People know that if we're attacked you'll chase the attackers to the ends of the earth to make them pay. They also know that each attack on the village makes the attackers pay a high price." Sophia told Leona something that she did not know. Leona tried to make each attack on her or her home cost as much as possible out of principle, but she had no idea that it had any effects beyond causing outlaw gangs to pool their resources in an effort to take her down.

"Really?" Leona asked with genuine surprise.

"Really. We haven't had to deal with a lot of attacks from small outlaw gangs ever since you began attacking them. We've only had to deal with attacks from the major players like the Crimson Sashes or The Golden Band. While that sounds bad because the major outlaw gangs have a lot of manpower to throw around, it's actually a blessing because the lull in attacks gives us time to prepare for them by getting weapons and building simple defensive walls like the one you took cover behind yesterday." Sophia answered with a description of the effects the Wizard Saint's offensive against the outlaws of Desierto was having. Leona was glad to hear that she was not needlessly putting herself at risk by going on the offensive. She would have done it anyway because she was a Wizard Saint and taking on bandits was her duty, but hearing that her attacks were actually doing something gave her a good reason to keep at it.

Sophia motioned towards the tent's exit.

"Get dressed and Chief Eli- uh, Joshua will tell you about the situation with the outlaws. He's got an update for you." Sophia said, catching herself before she completely said "Elijah." Leona did not say anything because it was an easy mistake to make. Chief Elijah had been around for so long that everyone thought that he would be the chief forever. Now he was dead and his son Joshua was the new chief of Nebdoui.

"OK." Leona said before quickly putting on her outfit top and closing it up. She hated how it constricted her left shoulder, but since she did not bring any spare clothing with her, she would just have to endure the discomfort. Once she was dressed Leona followed her mother to Chief Joshua's tent to get an update about the status of the outlaw gangs.

-Inside Chief Joshua's tent, three minutes later-

"Welcome, Leona! I've got some good news to tell you!" Chief Joshua greeted Leona warmly as Sophia entered just seconds after the Wizard Saint. It was still odd to see Joshua as the chief and the dark-haired young man picked up on that because he gave Leona an odd look before focusing on the reason she was called here. The younger Jarnefeldt felt bad about that, but there was nothing she could do now. Chief Joshua walked towards the map of Desierto in the right corner of the room and motioned Leona to approach.

Leona did so and as soon as she was standing to the chief's right he began to give his briefing.

"Our allies in Regudo have reported that The Golden Band's been suffering heavy losses lately, mostly at the hands of the Crimson Sashes. The Golden Band's been losing more men than they can recruit to replenish their numbers." Joshua reported. Leona crossed her arms.

"What's the bad news?" Leona asked. Joshua sighed.

"The bad news is that the Crimson Sashes are growing in number. We don't know where they're getting so many people from, but the Regudo seem to think that they're actively attacking smaller gangs and giving them the ultimatum to join or die." Joshua told her the bad news. Leona frowned.

"Yeah, that'll do it." Leona mused about the extreme recruiting method.

"They're also getting a lot of guns and ammunition from somewhere. We know that they take plenty of weapons and ammunition from dead Golden Band members, but that's not enough to sustain their hundreds of members. We don't know where they're getting the bulk of their supplies from, but the Regudo are working on finding that out." Joshua added. Leona blinked. The Crimson Sashes had hundreds of members?

"Is there anything I need to do to stop them, Chief?" Leona asked him, remembering to use his new title. He shook his head.

"No, Leona, there's not much you can do right now. We don't know where the Crimson Sashes headquarters is. Even if we did, going up against hundreds of men with rifles would be suicide even for you." He told her in no uncertain terms. Leona frowned a bit, but it was the truth.

"OK. Is there anything I can help with, Chief?" Leona asked him a second time. This time he nodded.

"Yes, Leona. Some masons from Berreb are coming to teach us how to build adobe houses and how to fortify our wall, but you won't be doing that. You'll be protecting the crew alongside our militia. We're concerned that outlaw gangs will take advantage of my father's passing to raid the village." Joshua told her about her assignment to the security detail. Leona was on board with that idea. She would bungle any building assignments, but she was very good at providing security for her village.

"I'll do my best to protect them, Chief." Leona answered. She was not very much good with a gun, but in close combat she more than held her own. However, her style of fighting was fast becoming obsolete in the face of modern guns. She would need to adapt or die.

"I know you will, Leona. Just being there will give people a lot of confidence that everything will be all right." He told her. Leona recalled what her mother had warned her about working too hard to live up to expectations. All the courage in the world could not protect her from bullets, but Leona was still determined to risk it all to keep outlaws from terrorizing people. She just needed her own gun so that she could fight fire with fire, so to speak.

"When will these masons arrive?" Leona asked him.

"In about... three hours, I believe." Chief Joshua answered.

"Do they have an armed escort to get them here safely?" Leona inquired. He nodded.

"Yes, Leona, the masons from Berreb have an armed escort that will get them here safely." He answered. Leona was glad to hear that. Chief Joshua then smiled.

"Your brother told me that your accuracy with a gun is... not very good." He said to her.

"Yesterday was my first time ever using one." Leona explained the reason for her poor accuracy. The chief continued to smile.

"We might have a solution to that." He said. Leona blinked. What kind of solution did he have in mind?

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Leona wondered by what Chief Joshua had meant by a "solution" to her awful accuracy with guns. Did he mean that she needed to do some target practice on something that would not shoot back? If that was the case, then Leona readily agreed. She needed to learn how to aim one before she could wield one as easily as she did a sword or her magic.

"What do you mean, Chief?" Leona asked him.

"Your brother seems to think that it's a matter of the weapon you use. The model of semi-automatic carbine we use does have a kick even when the user fires single shots, but we aren't in a position to be picky about what weapons we use. We have to either scavenge from dead enemies or buy them from Berreb... at a price." Chief Joshua explained to her that Leonidas thought that the Wizard Saint would benefit from a weapon that was more suited to her stature before adding a side note that Nebdoui could not be picky about their weapons. He then said something else that was of interest.

"A short time ago Berreb hired a mage from another guild to bring us arms and ammunition so that we can re-equip more of our militia with more modern weapons. They're a stopgap measure at best. We need a steady supply, but all our contacts in the Tri-Council Cities are too busy to talk to us all of a sudden." He told her of the nature of their problem. Scavenged supplies were just not enough and neither were purchases from Berreb. The village needed a steady and reliable supply of weapons and ammunition to fend off its enemies, but neither the chief nor the Wizard Saint knew where to go to find a steady supplier.

"Your mother reported that the mage who brought the supplies from Berreb seems to think that it's a plan by the sultans to rein us in and make us dependent on them for our survival. I'm starting to think that there's some substance to it. I think it's the sultans putting pressure on them to not sell us any weapons. Why else would the merchants in the Tri-Council Cities suddenly be too busy for us?" Chief Joshua put forth a hypothesis concerning the merchants suddenly avoiding Nebdoui like it was Morgate Town. Leona concurred; that kind of behind-the-scenes maneuvering sounded exactly like something the sultans would do. Since they could not directly wipe out Nebdoui and its allies without some backlash for destroying the home of a current Wizard Saint, they would work from the shadows to curtail Nebdoui's independence by restricting its supply of weapons and ammunition and leaving it vulnerable to the outlaws.

Leona hated that situation, but her hands were tied. As a current Wizard Saint, it would look very bad for her if it was discovered that she was helping her village get weapons, even if they were for self-defense. Desierto was her home and she did not want to be declared persona non grata by another authority figure. Unlike with Chief Elijah, whose authority was confined to a small village, the sultan's authority extended over the entire country and they had a well-trained and well-equipped royal army with which to enforce their edicts. There was also the threat that the sultans would just send their army to wipe Nebdoui and its allies off the map if the desert villages did something they did not approve of or if Leona failed or displeased them in any way.

That threat against Nebdoui and its allies was how they had roped Leona into their service. They were not so crass as to openly declare that, but the implied threat was so obvious even Leona could see it. It did not occur to the sultans that all they had to do was ask and she would gladly help them like she had helped other clients. They were obviously operating on the belief that they owned everyone in Desierto and did not have to show courtesy to anyone, not even a Wizard Saint who was a native of the country. That seemed to go double for Leona, who was a woman... even camels seemed to get more respect from the sultans than she did.

Leona could not help but to find it funny how the sultans did not care about the desert villages until they did something that the sultans did not like. That could be anything from recovering historical artifacts found on village soil to arming themselves for defense against constant outlaw attacks. The sultans did not like it when the desert dwellers had ideas to improve themselves so that they would be more than just targets of ridicule for the city dwellers. She was not sure how they would take the masons of Berreb helping Nebdoui transition from tents to adobe houses, but she would find out when the time came.

"What was the solution you had in mind for my problem, Chief?" Leona gently asked the chief, trying to gently nudge him back on track. The chief jolted when he realized that he had gone off on a bit of a tangent about the problems facing him and Nebdoui.

"Oh, right! Your brother seems to think that you'd do better with a pistol instead of a rifle." Joshua finally got back on track.

"A pistol? Like that revolver I found?" Leona asked. The chief nodded.

"Exactly. Leonidas seems to think that you'd be better off using a single-action revolver... whatever that is. I'm having to learn about the new weapons since they're going to take a big chunk out of our village budget, which isn't all that much to begin with. I'm also having to learn how to use a new weapon since swords just won't do the job anymore." Joshua told her. Leona recalled her brother giving her a brief rundown on the difference between single-action and double-action revolvers. She would have to add the difference in handguns to the list of things she needed to study back at the guild hall.

"Unfortunately, we don't have any ammunition for handguns, only rifles. You'll just have to get a pistol of your own from the civilized lands." Joshua told her. Leona kept a neutral facial expression when she heard the bad news, but inside she was not very happy. It seemed like she always had to jump through flaming hoops while blindfolded to get anything she needed. Whether it was books, clothes, armor, or weapons, she always had to go through an ordeal to get something she needed. The Wizard Saint understood that she should not expect to have things handed to her on a silver platter, but would it hurt for her to be able to get something she needed without having to travel the globe for it?

"OK then. I'll add that to my "to do" list." Leona said calmly. So much for getting a new weapon right away. The chief gave her an apologetic look and continued to speak, this time about the status of the village itself.

"In better news, Nebdoui's been getting a steady stream of new arrivals. Our population's growing a little more each day. We're getting a few skilled workers like masons, teachers, farmers, and blacksmiths. They're enough to keep us going until we can improve our situation." He told Leona about the influx of new residents. Leona was glad to hear that, but a new concern came up. The influx of new people made it pretty easy for spies and saboteurs to slip into the village by posing as refugees.

"How do we know that there aren't any spies working for the outlaws or any of the sultan's spies among them?" Leona asked the chief. Nebdoui looking for shipments of weapons and sending for masons to build adobe houses would not go unnoticed by the outlaws nor by the sultans. Both parties would want to know what Nebdoui was up to. Leona sounded like a jackass for saying it and certainly felt like one for thinking it, but she was slowly beginning to shed her naivete and beginning to think more realistically. She was well aware that since the outlaw gangs could not kill her in open battle they would resort to more subtle means to eliminate their hated foe.

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Chief Joshua took a moment to think over the point Leona had made and frowned while doing so. He then faced her with a frown.

"I get what you're saying, Leona, but the thing is we don't have very much choice. My father made it a point to welcome anyone who wanted to move here. I'm worried about the possibility of spies too, but I don't have much choice in the matter. We don't have much choice in the matter. We can't increase our population fast enough through natural means, so we have to take who we can get even if it means spies slipping in." Chief Joshua told Leona, delivering the last sentence in a stern tone. Leona thought back to all the times her mother had told her to come home and start a family. The "request" took on new significance in light of what she had just been told about the village population by the chief.

"I understand." Leona said laconically. She did not have any good solutions to the problem, so she just kept quiet instead of throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what stuck. She did not want to destroy her home by turning it into a village marked by paranoia and distrust of outsiders. Outsiders had been a source of Nebdoui's strength. The new arrivals provided the masons, blacksmiths, teachers, farmers, and other people needed to keep Nebdoui strong.

Chief Joshua's facial expression softened and he looked almost regretful.

"Look, we're not in an ideal position, Leona. We frequently come under attack by outlaws and we can't replenish our population through natural means fast enough. We need all the help we can get. We need immigrants, even if we risk letting spies in." Joshua reiterated his point in a softer tone. Either it was because they had a bit of personal history or because he was concerned about what would happen if Leona got angry enough to turn against him, but he dialed back his tone when he reiterated his point. Leona was not offended by the stern tone he had taken earlier.

Leona knew that Joshua was the village's chief and that he had to make tough decisions to keep Nebdoui going just awhile longer. She also understood that he did not have any room to play favorites... even a Wizard Saint had to obey him when he gave a command. Leona herself had had to do a few things she did not like to keep Nebdoui and Silver Wolf going, so she understood where he was coming from.

However, Leona also appreciated the fact that Joshua did not take her for granted. He knew what a Wizard Saint could do if they were sufficiently angered by mistreatment or disrespect. He also knew that Leona's help was a large part of the reason why he had a village to govern to begin with. Chief Joshua was off to a good start by not pulling rank every chance he got but instead trying to use reason before invoking his authority.

"All right. That subject's in your domain, so I'll let you handle it, Chief." Leona conceded to the chief. She was a fighter, not a leader. She did not have the intelligence or foresight it took to be a leader of a village. Even with the strides she had taken in learning how to do paperwork Leona needed the help of Theo Silversong, Mercury Arsenault, and Aspen Azarov to keep Silver Wolf's paperwork in order.

"On the bright side, we have some masons of our own who came from other villages, so once they learn how to make adobe buildings from Berreb's masons we can take it from there." Chief Joshua said, trying to take the conversation to a more positive place. Leona let her suspicions drop and focused on that... or she would have if Leonidas did not enter the tent and speak to the chief first.

"Chief, Berreb's masons are here." Leonidas said to the chief. Joshua gave a small smile.

"Excellent news!" He said. Leonidas left the tent and turned to Leona.

"I'll get going, Chief. I'll keep them safe." Leona told Joshua. Leona was dismissed by the chief and she walked past her mother, who was holding a scroll of some kind.

"Be careful, Leona." Sophia told her. Leona stopped long enough to face her mother.

"I will." Leona said to her mother before leaving the tent.

-Outside the chief's tent-

"Hey Leona. Did the chief tell you about my idea?" Leonidas asked his sister while handing her a semi-automatic rifle and a bandolier with five magazines. Leona took the bandolier from him.

"Yeah. He told me that you said I'd do better with a pistol than a rifle." Leona replied in the affirmative as she draped the bandolier onto her right shoulder, wincing as she raised her arms to do so. She was doing exactly what she should not do, which was aggravate her newest shoulder wound, but it had to be done. She had promised Chief Elijah that she would protect both Nebdoui and his son and she would keep her promises. Once it was on she took the weapon from her brother.

"Yeah. We don't have any pistols and very little pistol ammo, so you'll have to find a pistol and ammunition in the civilized lands." Leonidas repeated what Joshua had told her.

"The chief told me that you suggested a single-action revolver." Leona added. The pair started walking towards the wall while talking. The white-clad masons had arrived safely and had brought supplies with them, including a whole lot of adobe bricks.

"Yeah, it's a good starting weapon for you. It'll handle the conditions of the desert a lot more readily than a semi-automatic handgun because it's a simpler weapon with fewer moving parts and fewer moving parts means fewer parts to get clogged with sand. You also won't have to pull the trigger as hard to get it to fire, but you've gotta remember to pull back the hammer with your thumb before each shot." Leonidas answered. Leona blinked. He could tell her about how to work a single-action revolver until he was blue in the face, but Leona needed to get her hands on a revolver and use it a few times before she would know what he was talking about.

"Interesting. I'll have to look for a gunsmith because I may commission a custom gun. I'll need a gun that can hurt supernatural beings because I end up in the Cursed Lands a lot and normal weapons are useless against ghosts and vampires." Leona told her brother.

"That's a good idea, but I suggest that you buy a basic revolver first before you purchase a custom model because you don't want to spend hundreds of thousands of Jewels to find out that your new purchase doesn't suit you." Leonidas counseled her. He made a good point, one that she would have to keep in mind.

"OK. But before I think about that I'll need to keep the masons safe. We'll talk later." Leona told him. The Jarnefeldt siblings had spent enough time chatting. The Wizard Saint needed to get to work and keep the masons safe while they went about their work.

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"OK, Leona. See you later." Leonidas said to his sister before turning around and heading back into Nebdoui, leaving the Wizard Saint to her work. Leona stood a short distance away from the wall while the masons from Berreb and Nebdoui were working to both fortify and lengthen the waist-high wall so that it would be a tougher obstacle for invaders to surmount. She walked around the busy people to the front of the wall so that she could look for trouble and alert the masons in time for them to get to safety should there be an attack. Meanwhile militia members patrolled the village itself and stood to the sides of the wall to be in position to slow down attackers until a more formidable defense could be mounted.

Leona slowly walked to the outskirts of the village and stood on ground that she had defended less than a day ago. She was within five meters of the wall and could reach it in about ten seconds of sprinting if she had to. The Wizard Saint then began to walk a patrol route in front of the wall so that any enemies or visitors would not go undetected. Maybe today would go smoothly and the sun and boredom were the only enemies she would have to fight.

-Two hours later-

Leona had begun to sweat under the sun, but the masons were safe and she was already seeing the results of their work. The wall had been extended two meters to the left and to the right and it looked a little thicker as well. She had not seen anyone approach the village. There had also been no alarms raised from the sentries patrolling the village, so everything was going very well so far.

Her left shoulder was beginning to hurt a little, but the pain was not bad enough to affect her too much. Taking two grazing gunshot wounds to the top of her left shoulder was worth it to repel The Golden Band and put a dent in their dwindling membership. She felt that the beating they had taken yesterday would keep them from making another attack... for a couple of days, at least.

Leona looked at the horizon and began to think about what Chief Joshua had told her about The Golden Band and how its membership had been reduced by repeated attacks from the Crimson Sashes. She also wondered whether the Crimson Sashes forcibly drafted Golden Band members or simply killed them on sight. That was a question for another day... she needed to focus on the present and keeping the masons safe while they did their job. Leona stopped gazing at the horizon and resumed her patrol while the wind blew through her hair and kicked up a small cloud of sand that nipped at her calves.

-Two hours later-

The masons were still at work on the wall and were making good progress; the wall had been extended another three meters to the left and to the right. Leona was watching them from five meters away when she saw Leonidas walking around the wall and walking towards her at a leisurely pace. She wondered what her brother was doing away from his tent. She thought that he was busy on one project or another for the village, but she did not mind his company.

"Hey Leona." Leonidas greeted her.

"Hey Leonidas." Leona greeted her brother.

"What brings you out here?" Leona asked him seconds later.

"I was sent by our mother to see how you were doing." Leonidas said. He then made a second statement before his sister could respond to the first statement.

"She told me that you two had talked in the family tent earlier and that it seemed like you two were going to reconcile." He said to her. Leona nodded.

"Yeah. We had a real conversation for the first time in years. She must have taken lessons from you because she got straight to the point of what she was trying to say without wasting too much time on emotional displays." Leona replied, making a joke at her brother's expense. He smiled briefly. Leonidas was straightforward and never minced words... people learned exactly how he felt about something.

"I was talking to Sophia herself. Not Sophia the Mother, Sophia the Advisor, or Sophia the Schoolteacher. Just Sophia. She stayed calm the entire time and went straight to the point." Leona explained to Leonidas what she had meant by her comment about their mother taking lessons from him.

"And that point was...?" Leonidas asked just as the wind kicked up another small cloud of sand at their feet.

"The point was that she was worried about me. She was worried that I'd kill myself trying to live up to the expectations people had for me because I was a Wizard Saint and Guild Mistress. She was worried that if I died I'd be easily replaced, that I'd just be a name on a list that people would forget about after a week when a new Wizard Saint came along." Leona gave her brother the short version of what her mother had told her in their conversation this morning. Leonidas nodded.

"She's right." He concurred with their mother. Leona was amused by his laconic statement because that was classic Leonidas. He did not believe in using a lot of words to express what could be said with a few words.

"I told her that she had made good points about me striving to live up to the expectations of others and how that could get me killed." Leona informed him. Leonidas seemed surprised to hear that his sister would concede anything to their mother, especially considering how often they clashed over Leona coming home to start a family.

"Really?" He asked her with genuine surprise.

"Yeah." Leona answered, taking a page from her older brother's book and being laconic.

"Why?" He asked another question with an economy of words. Leona took a breath of warm desert air before answering.

"I was tired of fighting with Mother. I wanted to end the fighting one way or another." Leona replied truthfully.

"So you wanted to either reconcile if you could or break all contact with her if you couldn't reconcile?" Leonidas asked. Leona nodded.

"Yeah." Leona replied laconically. Her brother looked her in the eyes.

"I thought back and noticed that whenever I went into a conversation loaded for bear Mother would respond in kind, so I applied a lesson that Samira Nassar taught me long ago. That lesson was to think before I spoke. I applied that lesson and went into the conversation calmly. I didn't hurl insults or make snide remarks about anything." Leona added without prompting.

"How did that approach work?" Leonidas asked.

"It went pretty well for me. I'm sure that it surprised Mother. She probably expected a screaming match to break out at some point, but a screaming match never occurred. I never raised my voice and she didn't raise her voice." Leona answered without sarcasm. The wind picked up and rustled the hair of both Jarnefeldt siblings. They paused for a few moments to gather their thoughts before resuming their conversation.

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"That's great, Leona. I'm glad that you were able to talk to Mother without it turning into a screaming match." Leonidas said to her after the lengthy pause. A year or two ago Leona would have taken that as a backhanded compliment, but now she took it in stride. Her older brother had raised a valid point, after all.

"Yeah. My friend Samira Nassar taught me to think before I spoke. It's a lesson I should have learned long ago, but no one ever said that I was smart. I've had to learn a lot of things the hard way." Leona freely admitted to him. Leonidas looked stunned.

"You've changed, Leona. You've changed a lot." Leonidas told her. Leona nodded.

"Yeah. Even someone as dense as me can change given enough time and the right reasons." Leona took a jab at herself and how she learned things that most people already knew at a slower than average pace. She was still learning how to operate a laptop computer when most people had already moved on to iLacs and other advanced technology. She was just learning about revolvers and bolt-action rifles when most people already knew what they were and had moved onto more advanced guns. The Wizard Saint was not the sharpest tool in the shed, but with time and experience she was getting better. Maybe one day she could be as comfortable in the library or laboratory as she was in the desert.

"Speaking of change, you won't believe what Mother told me the other day." Leonidas said. Leona turned to him and made eye contact.

"You know about how she's always wanting grandchildren? Well, she's changed her approach. Instead of hammering me over the head with requests, she told me that from now on it'd be up to me if I had them or not." Leonidas told her about their mother's abrupt change. Leona's jaw dropped.

"Yeah. I was every bit as surprised as you are, Leona." Leonidas replied to his sister's expression of disbelief. He then went on to add more to his story.

"When I asked her why, she told me about the conversation with that brown-haired mage from Sabertooth who had delivered the weapons. She told me that the mage was the first person to ask about her besides me. She told me that she told the mage about how she really felt about you and your life as a traveling mage." Leonidas continued. Leona continued to let him talk without interruption.

"Mother told me that she told the mage that you and she were in a contest of wills. She didn't want you to always be in danger and you didn't want to be stuck living in Nebdoui for the rest of your life." Leonidas added. Leona nodded. That was the best way to sum up the nature of her conflict with her mother. Sophia meant for Leona to live here and start a family. Leona meant to continue living freely and to live life as she wanted, not as her mother wanted.

"Mother finished by telling me that her longing for grandchildren was driving you away from her. She said that the only reason you kept coming here was because of work. She was worried that if she kept on nagging about grandchildren you wouldn't come here anymore and you wouldn't want to see her." He concluded his story.

"She was right. I was tired of getting nagged about it." Leona admitted bluntly. Leonidas looked at her with surprise. He was clearly not used to his sister being that blunt about something. Leona then began to explain why she had spoken that way.

"It felt like our mother didn't care about everything I've accomplished as a Wizard Saint and as a Guild Mistress and that the only value I had to her was for grandchildren. I didn't want my life to be nothing but staying here and having children. That wasn't for me." Leona said to her brother.

"Tell me about it." Leonidas told her flatly, indicating that he had had the same problem with their mother as she had.

"Now that I'm not the only blacksmith in the village I've had some free time on my hands and Mother was hounding me about giving her grandchildren. I felt like she didn't care that I was the village's blacksmith and that I had to supply arms and farming implements to our allies. All she valued me for was grandchildren." Leonidas commiserated with his sister. Leona did not know that the pressure on Leonidas was as intense was it was on her, but now she knew. She would have known sooner had she stopped running from the problem and had just asked him.

"But now she's backed away from that. It's been a few days and she hasn't made a single request for grandchildren. She said that from now on it's our choice as to whether we give them to her or not." Leonidas added.

"I'm glad she feels that way. I was tired of fighting with her over the issue but didn't know how to go about addressing it. I called myself sparing her feelings, but I was really just running away from the problem. I should have said something much sooner." Leona said to her brother and admitted that part of the problem was her fault. He shrugged his shoulders before speaking again.

"Speaking of problems, I'd like to talk to you once you're off guard duty. I want us to talk. Just you and me." Leonidas told her.

"OK. We'll talk then." Leona assured him. Leonidas turned around and walked back to the village while Leona resumed walking her patrol route and watching for visitors or intruders. Leona wondered what her brother wanted to discuss with her later. If their mother had backed off of the constant demands for grandchildren, what else was there to discuss?

-Eight hours later-

The sun was beginning to set and Leona had been relieved of guard duty by some of the village militiamen. Now that night was coming the village's militiamen were to remain within the village's borders to better protect it. Leona followed the militiamen back to the village and noticed that the wall had been built to about four feet high, which would make them harder for enemy horsemen to jump on their steeds. She also noticed that the framework of an adobe house had went up and the foundation was being laid.

Leona entered the village and found Leonidas waiting for her near the family tent.

"Hey Leona." Leonidas greeted her.

"Hey Leonidas." Leona greeted her brother.

"Do you have time to talk?" Leonidas asked her. Leona nodded.

"Yeah." Leona answered laconically. He motioned for her to enter the family tent and she obliged.

-Inside the Jarnefeldt family tent-

"I'll give it to you straight, Leona. I envy your life of freedom." Leonidas said to her without preamble. Leona set down her rifle on her cot and took off the bandolier with great effort... her left shoulder began to hurt again, but she ignored it in favor of getting ready for a possible clash with her brother. Leonidas would be every bit as formidable as their mother, if not more so.

"You do?" Leona asked him. Leonidas nodded.

"Yeah." He replied tersely. Leona could tell that he had been hanging onto these feelings for a long time. The Wizard Saint decided that now was the best time to address any problems that he had with her.

"OK. Tell me how you feel, Leonidas. Don't hold anything back." Leona told him in a serious tone of voice. She had made a mistake by not addressing the issues with her mother until today. She was not going to make that mistake with her brother. Leona would strike while the iron was hot.

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Leonidas frowned when he heard his sister's invitation to speak freely.

"Do you think I'm being funny?" Leonidas asked his sister with a stern voice. It was clear that he was more than a little upset about how his sister got to travel the world while he was stuck at home with their mother having to fend off constant demands for grandchildren. What Leona had said probably sounded like she was mocking him and he was reacting to that. Instead of getting defensive Leona took a deep breath and thought about Samira Nassar's advice to slow down and think before talking. That was easier said than done when standing in front of an angry lion, but Leona had to try.

"I'm totally serious, Leonidas. Tell me how you really feel about me and why you resent me. Don't hold anything back." Leona replied in a completely serious tone while making eye contact with him. Now that he knew that she was not mocking him Leonidas paced back and forth in front of her and calmed down a bit before speaking again.

"I hate how I got stuck here while you got to travel the world. I hate how I had to hear all about your adventures from people around the village while all I had to look forward to was shaping metal and having to hear Mother ask about grandchildren, grandchildren, grandchildren." Leonidas started off angrily.

"No how was your day, no how did everything go in the blacksmith's tent, no did you manage to make the deadline for those tools, just when are you gonna give me grandchildren? Day in and day out. It gets old fast." Leonidas groused. Leona had the good sense to remain quiet while her brother was ranting. He had been hanging onto those feelings for the better part of four years and now he was unloading them, so it would behoove her to keep quiet until he was finished.

"I'm a bit unhappy, Leona. More than a bit. I envy you and I know that I shouldn't, but I do. I want some of that freedom but I'm never going to get it. I'll be stuck here for the rest of my life wondering what it's like just beyond the horizon." Leonidas said to her, then went into a sullen silence. Leona had never seen her brother act this way before, so she would have to proceed carefully when addressing him. However, she was not going to be cowed into submission by her older brother. If he got verbally abusive with her Leona would gladly show him the error of his ways.

"I never thought that I'd be free either, brother. I'd stare at the horizon and wonder what the world was like. I was certain that I'd never get to go beyond the village in any meaningful way. Those few times we went beyond the village boundaries to get water or iron ore felt like it was as good as it was gonna get for me." Leona calmly said to him. She was not going to go on the offensive or tell him how limiting her experience living in Nebdoui was because he too had lived a limited life here. Instead she would address his argument one point at a time.

"Yeah. We were both trapped here. The horizon was standing and waiting for us just beyond our reach." Leonidas commiserated with his sister. He knew what she was talking about when she mentioned the horizon.

"I wanted to be free to travel ever since our dad told us stories about his travels. I wanted to see the things that Old Man Mustafa told us about like genies and flying carpets. When I finally got my freedom to go see those places and things, the price I paid wasn't worth it." Leona confided to him. His eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean?" He asked, a stern tone returning to his voice and an angry look crossing his face. She could tell that Leonidas felt like she was making light of his feelings by sounding bored with the freedom she had "won" that day. Leona recalled Luna's advice to think before she acted and calmed down. She did not get defensive but remained calm and addressed his point.

"When I was exiled I got to leave the village and travel like I always wanted, but I had to worry about whether Nebdoui would still be here when the exile order was lifted and I could finally come back. I was worried that the Crimson Sashes were gonna burn the place down and kill everyone. I was worried that slavers would carry everyone off in carts and I'd come back to a deserted hometown. I was also worried about Joshua having you and Mother killed behind the chief's back to get back at me for turning him down and beating him up." Leona admitted to him that her time away from home before the exile order was rescinded was far from carefree. Leonidas' face softened a bit when he heard that confession. Leona took advantage of the pause to speak further.

"You have every right to be envious of me, Leonidas. I got to go free and travel the world and meet a lot of people while you were stuck here for over four years. I don't like the price I had to pay, but I got to be free while you didn't. I don't blame you for feeling the way you do." Leona assured him that he had the right to be envious of her. He had to play the dutiful son to their mother while Leona was out trotting the globe and punching evil in the face. If their places were reversed Leona would definitely be envious of Leonidas.

"I... I didn't expect you to be so honest with me, Leona. I thought you didn't care about this village at all. I thought you'd go away and never come back." Leonidas said, his tone softening even further once he realized that his sister was not merrily skipping around Earthland and whistling happy tunes while he labored endlessly to keep the village and its allies supplied with iron weapons and metal tools and endured their mother's demands for grandchildren. Leona stayed silent while he spoke.

"I was angry at you, Leona. I was angry for a long time. I wanted to travel and see the world beyond this village. I wanted to go beyond the horizon. But instead I got stuck here with nothing to look forward to other than work, work, and more work with freedom being forever out of reach." Leonidas said to her, losing his anger with each sentence after the second. Leona kept quiet and was rewarded with more of her brother's feelings about her adventurous life.

"I don't know what to feel anymore, not after what you told me. I can't stay angry, but I'm still angry. I'm in the shadow of my little sister. Every day I hear people talking about your latest adventure in some corner of the world and what you accomplished there. You're out there and I'm here." Leonidas continued to speak, his anger starting to fade away before flickering back to life like a stubborn spark left over from a campfire. Leona remained calm. As long as she remained calm and let him talk without getting defensive the Wizard Saint stood a good chance of getting through to him. Leonidas tried to form more words but eventually gave up and went silent, giving Leona a chance to speak.

"It's OK, Leonidas. I'm not expecting you to get over your feelings this instant. You can be angry if you want." Leona tried to assure him that it was OK for him to have feelings without sounding patronizing. Leonidas glared daggers at her for a moment, then his face softened again.

"I shouldn't be angry at you, but I am. I shouldn't be, though. I'm confused right now, so I'm just going to go back to my tent and sleep for awhile. I'll see you later, Leona." He said to her.

"Later, Leonidas." Leona bade him goodbye for the time being. Leonidas walked past her and opened the tent flap to leave when he turned around.

"Thanks for not getting mad at me, Leona. I know this tent isn't the best place to talk about our issues, but I'm glad we talked about them." He said to her. His anger was all but gone.

"No problem." Leona said to him. Her brother waved goodbye and left the tent, leaving Leona alone with her thoughts.

That conversation turned out a lot better than it could have. While Leonidas had started the conversation angry Leona did not get angry herself. She stuck to Samira's advice and gradually calmed her brother down by calmly addressing his points, making him feel that his opinions really mattered to her instead of agreeing to them just to get him off her back. While tonight was not a decisive win for Leona, she still felt like she had a good chance of making peace with her brother once he came to terms with his resentment towards his sister the Wizard Saint.

With that in mind, Leona took the rifle and bandolier off of her cot and carefully took her left arm and shoulder out of her outfit top before she went to sleep. She covered herself with the blanket her mother had loaned her and tried to go to sleep before she had to wake up and pull guard duty again.

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-The next day, 8:00 A.M.-

Leona woke up and slowly got out of her cot, being careful not to put too much strain on her left shoulder. She might have overslept a little... she would find out whenever her mother showed up. Leona had just put her top on when Sophia strode into the room and found the Wizard Saint gearing up for another eight hours of guard duty.

"Hey Leona." Sophia greeted her.

"Hi there." Leona greeted her mother. Leona carefully slipped on the bandolier and made sure that it was in place before grabbing her rifle.

"Leonidas told me that you talked to him last night." Sophia said to Leona. Leona frowned. She was sure that her blunt comment about being tired of the pressure to have children had reached her mother's ears and now Sophia was going to verbally rip Leona apart.

"Leonidas told me that you listened to him explain how he felt about you without getting angry at him. He appreciates that a lot." Sophia told Leona.

"He has a right to be envious of me. I'm living the dream while he's stuck here with freedom just out of his reach." Leona answered with the same bluntness with which she had told Leonidas that she was tired of being pressured to have children. Sophia flinched a little. Leona had taken a page from her brother for a second time.

"While I can't say that I like how you voiced your opinion, I respect your honesty." Sophia replied. Having made her point, Leona did not make a response. She should have said all of this long ago, but back then Leona was unprepared to have a discussion without it turning into a screaming match where both Jarnefeldt women felt that the other was too stubborn to see the other person's viewpoint.

A few years ago Leona was way too proud and way too defensive for her own good. She thought that if she conceded even a single point to her mother Sophia would take it as Leona agreeing with her view. Having four years of experience in the world outside Nebdoui and having gone through quite a few humiliating experiences had made Leona take a look at herself.

"Leonidas also told me that you didn't like how I pushed you to have children." Sophia brought up the point that Leona had been dreading. The Wizard Saint had been called on it, but she was not going to backpedal. She would stand behind what she had said to Leonidas.

"I didn't like it, Mother. I felt like none of my achievements mattered and that the only value I had to you was in how many children I could produce before I got too old to bear children. I want more out of life than that." Leona replied bluntly. Sophia flinched when she heard her daughter's unvarnished opinion on the matter. The older Jarnefeldt looked at the ground for a moment before looking up again.

"Again, while I don't like how you voiced your opinion, I can respect your honesty." Sophia conceded. Leona did not really care if her mother liked how she voiced her opinion or not. The Wizard Saint had told her mother how she really felt and it was up to her mother to accept it or not. Sophia took a deep breath before speaking.

"I'll tell you like I told your brother. From now on the choice to have children or not is entirely up to you." Sophia told Leona in a gentle voice. It was Leona's turn to take a deep breath.

"When I spoke to that brown-haired mage the other day she made me realize that I had been pushing you away by constantly asking for children. I had also pushed Leonidas away. I called myself trying to keep both of you safe by keeping you here." Sophia started.

"This isn't a safe place for either of us." Leona allowed herself a blunt remark directed at her mother. Sophia frowned.

"This isn't a safe place. Not yet." Leona added. Sophia's expression lightened just a little.

"Desierto will never be totally safe, but it's getting slightly safer. We've already beaten back multiple attacks from the big-name outlaw gangs. Since we've fended off the heavy hitters, the small fry are starting to stay away from us. We just need to keep at it. It's easier said than done, but we've lasted this long... we've just got to hang on until I can take care of the big outlaw gangs." Leona told her mother. That was easier said than done, but Leona had learned to take small steps towards reaching a goal. One step that would make the goal more attainable was to focus on destroying weaker outlaw gangs. From what Chief Joshua had told her yesterday, The Golden Band was on the ropes from a series of attacks from the Crimson Sashes. Maybe Leona should finish off the slaver gang before she turned to the matter of the Crimson Sashes.

"I don't like how the burden falls on you, Leona. I don't like it one bit, but you've fought for us this long and you've succeeded, so I need to quit standing in your way and to have faith in you. You'll succeed in making the desert safer for us and for everyone." Sophia said to Leona. Leona took a deep breath. She felt the long-held animosity towards her mother slowly fading away. For the longest time it felt like Sophia had no faith in her daughter's ability to take care of herself, but now her mother was finally starting to believe in Leona.

"I'll make the desert safer for everyone." Leona replied.

"I know you will. Just take care of yourself." Sophia said. Leona nodded.

"I'd better get going. I'm sure I'm late for guard duty as it is." Leona said before walking out of the tent.

-On the outskirts of Nebdoui-

Armed with her rifle, her bandolier of extra ammunition, and a can-do attitude, Leona walked the same patrol route as she had walked yesterday. The masons were at work building adobe houses that were more defensible than canvas tents. Despite the heat and the occasional cloud of sand that was blown into her face by the wind Leona was feeling pretty good.

She had begun to patch things up with both her mother and her brother. In return they had begun to patch things up with her. It would take time for all three Jarnefeldts to let go of their old grudges and misgivings about one another, but in time they would would become a real family, not just a bunch of people who shared the same last name.

Looking towards the horizon just like she had when she was a child, instead of sadness Leona felt hope, hope that maybe things would turn out OK after all.

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