The Reunion With Lehanna

OOC Note::

Dressed in a long-sleeved blue turtleneck shirt and khaki cargo pants with white tennis shoes, Leona was dressed as casually as she dared to dress for the occasion, which was an important one for her. Today she was going to speak to fellow Silver Wolf member Lehanna Seraph for the first time since the Ishgar Symposium. Just thinking about the outcome of that event was enough to make the blonde's face burn with shame, but she had to speak to her guildmate if she wanted to finally begin moving on from one of her greatest failures. Leona could not keep running from the meeting forever, so it was best for her to do it while her determination to meet with Lehanna was at its strongest.

Leona walked through the guild hall at a casual pace that just barely concealed the anxiety she was experiencing. She was not sure how Lehanna would react to seeing her again after so much time had passed since their last meeting. The Wizard Saint was expecting to be met with anything from cold indifference to burning contempt to perhaps even explosive anger. At worst she might even be told to never speak to the other mage again. However, concerns over the reception she might receive were not the only reason for Leona's anxiety.

Leona was also anxious because even though it was done for the sake of the mission she had still abandoned Lehanna to her fate when the tension between the pro-treaty and anti-treaty Joyans had finally reached a boiling point and violence had broken out.

The Rune Knights and their specially selected Joyan helpers had worked valiantly to keep the peace, but the angry crowd was just too large for them to effectively control. Leona had not behaved forcefully enough to keep the crowd completely away from the group as she had been instructed to do by one of the VIPs she was helping to escort, but Kyran, Maven, and Lehanna had managed to pick up her slack and the four mages plus the VIPs had managed to get past the crowd without too much difficulty. Despite the rough start everyone in the party had made it... or so Leona thought until a quick head count revealed that Lehanna was missing. After a brief debate over what to do it had been decided that the other Silver Wolf mage would just have to make her own way back to the group if she could.

Having to leave Lehanna behind was a contributing factor to Leona's shame over the outcome of the Ishgar Symposium. She not done much to keep the angry Joyans from getting too close to the group and being forced to leave her guildmate to fend for herself was another source of regret on a day she would rather forget. Thankfully Lehanna had managed to rejoin the group and make a difference in the events to follow, but the damage to Leona's opinion of her worthiness to be a Guild Mistress had been done. Leona believed that she had brought shame to herself and to Silver Wolf and believed that she should have done the right thing and stepped down in favor of someone better able to lead the guild instead of continuing to hang onto a title she no longer deserved.

Leona took a deep breath to try and quell those thoughts, stopped in front of the door she believed to be to Lehanna's room, and knocked on it three times with her right hand. After knocking she opened the door but did not go in just yet out of respect for her guildmate's privacy. Instead she stayed back and spoke into the room to give Lehanna notice that company had arrived.

" Hello, Lehanna? It's me, Leona." Leona said aloud. The blonde's anxiety spiked and for a moment she seriously considered shutting the door and going to the Guild Master's Office or to her room, but she stayed put. She had to do this. Despite her reservations she had to go through with meeting her guildmate. After a minute or two had passed Leona spoke again.

"I'm going to come in now if that's OK with you." Leona called out, then slowly entered the room to give Lehanna time to either get ready to speak with her or to tell her to leave.

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It had been a few days now since Lehanna had come back to the guild hall in any capacity and though she had not been around in a while, she still had a bit of work to sort out and take of. Not to mention a little bit of maintenance and readjusting that had to be done, it was all something that hadn't been done in a while and once she had noticed it, that became something of a nuisance to her that it wasn't done already. So, she spent most of her first day rearranging the confines of her room and then fixing up to it's previous clean state before she'd gotten to do the work that was piled up a bit on her now. Though in this case, Lehanna had opted to do it by herself than to let Elara try and help push through it a little quicker. Frankly, she had no reason to rush things, so there was no reason to worry about not making sure everything was going to be perfect before moving back to business as usual.

That, however was not the only reason for her return to the guild hall. It had seemed in her time of being out and about that she had attracted the attention of someone that she was surprised to a mutual acquaintance of. Frankly, having that kind of information in the wrong hands was very troubling among other things, but Lehanna was above any issues such as that. She had nothing to gain or to lose if she didn't share this information with her Guild leader and it would not be any problem to do so... just not in the public eye. The same manilla envelope that Lehanna had been given by the Sinner had sat on her bed and looked to be closed. Unfortunately for Leona... it wouldn't really be a fully hidden secret either. In the time she possessed this, she had to hide this from Elara and living together only made it much harder to do so... but she did so.

Some of her paperwork had begun to feel a little bit more intrusive than she had anticipated in her mind. Reports that she had been working on were dated and mentioned about a red haired teenage girl who was fighting an older woman in the middle of a town. The written description and antics had come to remind Lehanna of the day she met Kalama. Just the very recollection made her left hand holding her pen shake slightly from anger and a bit of fear reliving those days in agonizing pain from her forcing this curse upon her body.

That was when she heard a knock at the door. For a second, her mind snapped from her memories and she felt her stomach drop at the thought of her having come here of all places. Her free hand reached for her cloth wrapped sword and just as she had her hand gripped around the hilt of the weapon did she hear a voice call out from the other side. Leona letting herself be known as the party knocking on the door gave the teen a huge sigh of relief as she had felt that fear shed away like an anvil dropped from a plane. She then sat in silence, trying to calm her racing heart, shaking hands, and trying to return from getting ready to try and thrust her sword through the door to a possible enemy. "Y-Yeah, that's alright, ma'am."

Her voice might now have come off immediately as seeming rattled or shaken, but Lehanna simply rushed herself to feel as normal as she could. It hadn't been until the blonde woman had opened the door that something finally occurred to her: Her appearance was not what Leona would have been expecting at all. Instead of long, red hair, the guild mistress would instead see equally long, dark black colored hair that had a few streaks of a seafoam green shade by her bangs. Her hands and arms the same shade of green with a tribal like design in colors of red, blue, and white accents trailing all the way up. A pair of horns protruding from her head as well. Adding to this strange appearance was a tail that gently swished about from behind her seat.

"Oh fuuuu- f-funny you should come by, Miss Leona. I had something to discuss with you." She said, trying to redirect her realization of her physical appearance to that of the last time she would have seen her own guild member. "All of this... it-... There is an explanation for this. If you want to come in, please come in, shut the door, and have a seat on the bed." Her voice remained rather calm despite her response and bit of a nervous thought. Just another lovely part of this curse, but perhaps it would be a benefit in this case. Letting her keep her emotions from riding along and ruining chances of having the chance to explain the situation for this. "I was going to come to you when I finished this report, but I guess this is all for the better given the contents of.. that." Her finger pointed to the envelope on the bed near where Leona would potentially be sitting, having her name written on the front.

"Forgive me, but I did look through it a little out of safety for you, but that they were rather adamant I deliver it to you and you alone..."

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Part of Leona had expected to be sent packing with a stern tone of voice and an equally stern warning to never come back, but instead of being chased off she had been welcomed into the room by Lehanna. Leona did as requested and entered the room, carefully and quietly shutting the door behind her once she was inside. She paused for a moment when asked to sit on the bed but ultimately complied, walking towards it until she spotted her guildmate, who was looking radically different from the last time Leona had seen her. The sight made the blonde pause in place to make sure that she was seeing what she was really seeing.

Lehanna had long dark hair, a much different skin color that varied in color in a few different places, and a pair of horns, features which to Leona's knowledge were not present during the Ishgar Symposium. The blonde also spotted her guildmate's new tail and looked at it move about for a few moments before catching herself staring and looking Lehanna in the face again. Leona quickly recovered from the faux pas and walked slowly over to the bed, where she took a seat and faced the other Silver Wolf mage again, this time keeping eye contact with the latter.

"I'd like to ask you about your new appearance later... if you'd care to speak about it, that is." Leona started off calmly in an effort to mask her anxiety over speaking to Lehanna for the first time since the symposium. Once she had opened the door to a possible discussion some time in the future she immediately refocused on what Lehanna had called her in for, which was an ordinary manila envelope. Leona looked to where her guildmate was pointing and spotted it only a short distance away from her... the envelope's most distinctive feature was her name, which was written neatly and carefully positioned on the front where it would be nearly impossible to miss. The blonde's eyes remained fixed on the object as she reached over and carefully picked it up.

"So you were tasked with making certain that I received this?" Leona calmly asked her guildmate while taking a brief pause to prepare herself for what might be waiting inside. The blonde's curiosity was piqued because she did not know who given Lehanna the item she had carried to the guild hall and had guarded closely to ensure Leona received it as instructed. Looking towards her guildmate and making eye contact, the Wizard Saint remembered enough basic social graces to ask a question that should have been asked from the start.

"It's been awhile since we last met. How you have you been doing, Lehanna?" Leona asked her guildmate. She kept the shame of abandoning her during the symposium off of her voice because at the moment the discussion was not about her. It was about Lehanna, who she knew little about besides her name and membership in Silver Wolf. However, as soon as the question about the young woman's well-being had left her lips Leona felt a twinge of concern that the timing of the inquiry had sounded like an afterthought, something asked only to keep the conversation sounding somewhat natural instead of one asked out of genuine interest in the other person. Hopefully that concern about the timing was just a product of Leona overthinking things due to being socially awkward.

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The sudden twitch in the teens eyes at the mention of her appearance was not something she willingly showed. Her intention had been that she wanted to approach this as relaxed as she could, but the sense in her mind-- that aching voice and negative cloud prodding her brain with the worst case scenarios had made it harder to get this out of the way and to feel as though she'd been able to find a way into approaching the topic as opposed to feeling herself procrastinating. She was able to tell Elara the whole thing straight away, but then again, much like Leona... she kind of walked in when there was no chance of approaching it in a condition more on Lehanna's own behalf.

At least Leona didn't almost attack her in her own apartment...

"That actually... ties into the reason I wanted you to come actually, ma'am." She replied, turning in her chair until her back was to the reports. Her head lowered, looking at those strange limbs she had been cursed to look at before she looked back up toward her guild leader. "It isn't that I am opposed to speaking about this, but i guess part of me is relieved you're rather calm over this whole thing. Between the last time you'd seen me in person and the couples article with Ela and I, this is a much more drastic change in my appearance for sure." At this point, her voice had evened out to a calmer fashion, but it could also be noted that it really carried little to no emotion either.

Her eyes peered down to the envelope before her own cheeks slightly blushed at the memory of her seeing the photos within. Quick to clear her throat, she waved her hand a little as to motion that she should probably open it for herself. "I'd had a string of bad luck since the symposium escort... to say the least. Part of why I guess I wasn't around after that. The report of a young red haired teen fighting a blonde woman in the middle of a town? Well, that was me. The woman was named Kalama and... I was in way over my head. I let my emotions get the better of me and as a result, she opted to use me as her guinea pig instead of killing me." With a big sigh to begin a pause, Lehanna took a second to collect herself without letting those memories get to her again. "She'd taken my magic from me. Something I thought to be impossible, but I greatly feared coming back without magic for a while. She then afflicted me with this curse of hers and.. something went awry. I spent days in agonizing pain only to come out of it like... this. I... I detest it, honestly. The curse itself allows me to at least disguise myself to feel normal, but I know it can't remove this aching hatred of myself I have."

"Honestly, it's a little tolerable now. I guess that kind of sums up your question on how I've been lately. Well, it's a start. I don't want to add my burdens onto you, especially once you open that up." She quickly chimed back in. Her attention aimed now at the envelope with Leona's name on it, she lightly shook her head and then scoffed. "After trying to acclimate myself to the public with this appearance, I'd met someone who was vastly knowledgeable with curses who offered to help me out. Not long after that, I was ambushed by some professional person and found myself once again a damsel in distress of sorts. I woke up in the room of a woman named Medeia... The exact one I recalled and double checked is indeed one of the Sinners." At this point, the teen had adjusted herself in her chair and yet her body continued to be relaxed, which would hopefully give Leona a little sense of relief if those thoughts popped into her mind of that night. "She shared with me that you two had some kind of personal time together. And those are to.. remind you of that night together. Or so I gathered." As this went on, she wondered who of the two of them would end up feeling as though they needed to vent to the other one more now.

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Leona had seen a lot of unusual things over her career like animated grilled cheese sandwiches capable of speech, the Recheeserator, the dimension of Meshi, an animated alcoholic drink named the Cerulean Chaser, zombie crows, Samira's summons, Odhran Aegisbane and his helpers, and a Warlord who also had aspirations of being a therapist. As a result she was not alarmed by Lehanna's new look. Instead of showing fear or apprehension Leona remained calm and listened to what her guildmate was telling her about how she came to possess the appearance she had now.

The Wizard Saint learned that a blonde mage named "Kalama" was responsible for Lehanna's transformation, which had been foisted on her via a curse. Stranger still was the claim that Kalama had managed to somehow take away Lehanna's magic, but Leona did not think about that for long because hearing that the other Silver Wolf mage was prone to hating herself after the transformation occurred struck a chord with the blonde. Leona had hated herself ever since the tragic outcome of the Ishgar Symposium and that self-hatred had only increased after losing to Medeia in a clash over Hargeon Town. Adding still more fuel to the fire was how she had been cowed by Medeia's threats to damage her clothing... Leona hated herself for being so weak. After all she had been through up to this point the Wizard Saint had a good idea of what Lehanna meant by hating oneself.

"The Ishgar Symposium didn't do me any favors either, Lehanna." Leona hinted that that fateful day had taken its toll on her. Ever since the symposium the blonde could not stand to hear any discussion about that event or see any media coverage of it. Her self-loathing had started on that day but let up a bit after defeating Odhran Aegisbane and successfully defending the village in Bellum from a Viking raiding party during the most recent part of the ongoing war between Bellum and Pergrande, but that turn for the better was not meant to last. Her negative feelings towards herself had come back with a vengeance after being defeated by Medeia and being forced to spend time with her in wherever it was she was taken to.

Leona listened again as Lehanna talked about her effort to meet with someone who could possibly have aided her in removing her curse only to be ambushed by someone else and end up in a strange place. The blonde's heart rate went up when she heard that Medeia was in the strange place and it was all she could do to keep a straight face so that Lehanna would not think Leona was mad at her for bringing up that name or being forced to be the Warlord's guest. When she was able to control her emotions enough to speak in a steady voice the Wizard Saint spoke to her guildmate about her own encounter with Medeia.

"I don't know what exactly Medeia told you, but I didn't go with her entirely by choice. It was either that or she destroyed Hargeon Town." Leona started the story as calmly as she could. The blonde felt the weight of another failure come to rest on her shoulders as she felt regret for being unable to protect Lehanna from the Warlord.

"I walked into Hargeon Town to get a cup of coffee before heading to Haunted Castle or Haunted Guild... I can't remember which location I was going to go to, but while I was looking for a coffee shop I encountered a purple-haired young woman named Armina making a mess of the town. I fought her and managed to kill her, but as it turned out that only made Medeia angry because that young woman was her maid. I tried to fight Medeia anyway and held my own for awhile, but once she raised a shield that was too strong for most of my spells to punch through I couldn't win. She made the offer of either going with her or Hargeon Town being destroyed by one of her spells. I didn't want another catastrophe on my hands, so I chose to go with Medeia." Leona gave a brief version of the story of how she and Medeia had met. After that tale the blonde's eyes went towards the envelope and lingered on it. She was not entirely certain what was in there, but her gut feeling was telling her she would not like what she saw. She recalled Lehanna's words about the purpose of the contents and felt a sense of apprehension towards the seemingly innocuous object.

There was no need to send any reminders because Leona remembered everything about that night whether she wanted to or not.

Taking a quiet breath, Leona finally picked up the envelope and was poised to open it with her right hand when she lowered her hand when a thought came to her. She faced Lehanna again and spoke.

"Before I open this, please tell me as much as you can about this "Kalama" person." Leona requested of her guildmate. Her words and actions might have come across as flagrant stalling to Lehanna and in a way they were. Leona was not looking forward to opening the envelope, but she also wanted to know about this "Kalama" so that she could determine if they were someone who was pursuing their own agenda or if they were just another minion of Medeia's.

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Something had seemed to be wrong with Leona. What that was had been a bit confusing and shrouded from the teen, but she could tell that the topic of the Symposium had left some form of a scar of some kind within her. Why that might be, she wouldn't have any real idea. if it was the way that someone had destroyed nearly all of Joya with a single spell, that was something she'd heard of but never really sought to look into the issue. At that point, she had much more pressing personal issues to attend to. Everything regarding the escort itself didn't seem to stick out to her as they had come to be a fairly straightforward job, including the animatronic enemies that had come to self destruct as some form of a counter measure upon being defeated... or so she assumed that to be the case.

Careful planning. Honestly something that Lehanna would have possibly devised too if she wanted to be sure something could get done without the care of the means in which the job was accomplished.

Lehanna remembered exactly what Medeia had told her about the incident in Hargeon. In fact, it seemed to be more than Leona had known given the little detail she provided to her guild member in that moment, but something felt.. heavy. Perhaps this felt a little disheartening to Leona. Maybe she was the type that believed for some time that the good guys always won in the end and the reality of the ultimatum simply took a wrong turn in her mind as a failure rather than what Lehanna would see this to be as a martyrdom for the greater good. "So, I take it she never told you then? Probably hurt her pride to admit it to her... maybe in fear of retaliation in her own home." She commented, seeming to be much more calm and emotionless over the ordeal than anything.

Waiting until the blonde woman had finished explaining her side of the story did make something of a little more plausibility to Medeia's story. As much as she disliked the idea of admitting it, there was a connection between both women's stories that made her believe it to be true. In fact, if that assassin was actually the witch in disguise, then that would probably make two Silver Wolf mages who managed to strike her before being bested by some means. "What she had told me that night-- and to be clear I was abducted by some assassin for hire to begin with during the night, was that you had actually done a little damage yourself. I guess too prideful to admit it to you, which is why she probably resorted to giving you such an ultimatum." Giving a light scoff, the cursed mage rolled her eyes a little, not so much wanting to admit to it, but she best get things out there now than let future endeavors hurt her and/or this guild more. "Much like she did to myself and Elara in return for cooperation while I was there. Blackmailing the idea that she and I may be turned over for some perceived bounty to Pergrande."

There was an air of silence that swept her room in the moment Leona had picked up her folder. She wanted to badly to spill the contents to her, but truthfully if anything else resided in it for her, she was unaware. Beyond a couple of pictures seen, the contents were but a mystery to the ebony haired teen. "Well, I will do that, but there is something I have to get off my chest in regard this whole odeal between yourself, Medeia, myself, and even the symposium if that happens to be a vice in your mind for some reason." Fixing herself up in her chair in a bit of a pause, Lehanna would make it clear by her staring at her guild masters eyes that she was prepared to be upfront, blunt, and serious. The curse wouldn't really afford her a luxury otherwise...

"I do idolize you. It wasn't so much so beyond your feats and title prior to the Symposium upon our going together, but that day showed me beyond a reasonable doubt why you did and still do hold that title. I don't just mean your magical capabilities either, but your dedication, your passion, your courage... I envy that. I may not be showing it emotionally from this damned curse, but please just listen to my words and let that convey it please. I don't know nor can I say what trivialities you had in the rest of the Symposium and Hargeon is self explanatory. You put the safety of so many others above your own, risked yourself for people you may not have known but a glance in a street, a brief point of sale in a store interacting. But you did it because in the end, you're a caring person. As someone who grew up without someone to idolize, it's my opinion and possibly that of many others that you're a hero. You're human and everyone is not perfect. Nobody can hold that against you. Many others would have done the same if they had the chance and information at the time you had as well." Letting a big exhale of breath out, she would nod her head just a little bit as a little weight fell off her shoulders letting this all out. If it was something that she needed, she didn't really know. All she did know was that she felt to be the time she might not get again to express this... maybe ever if her future did not go as she or this curse would allow.

"Now Kalama is... as I put it, quite a calculated sadist while seeming to present herself as a chaotic genocidal maniac. I spent about two or three weeks captive as she had applied this curse to me and it was frankly worse than the pain I felt from that cretin named Prada..." Her hands and even her body started to shake lightly, unable to escape those nightmares of that experience... being tortured for hours in having parts of her body... teeth, joints, organs... everything one piece at a time being torn away to try and achieve some sort of goal to achieve some gateway only she could somehow access. "But it felt as excruciating as that and it lasted for days... maybe almost week where I almost never slept but for when I blacked out. Even now I get bouts of those pains... nightmares never ending. Sometimes I just can't stand to sleep near Ela in fear my screams and nightmares will keep her up and worry her." Shaking her head of the worries to the side, she tried to refocus herself to the main story at hand. "What time I spent under her captivity after the pain subsided was still grueling. Her end goal was to experiment on people, looking for what I assume to be a loyal disciple or minion of sorts. Assuming by the curse warping their mind through her experimentations. As a result of my time there, I hated myself so much. I felt this dreadful sense of so much self loathing for weeks after to the extent I refused to leave my apartment, contemplated dark things for so long. I felt useless, pathetic, and disgusted with myself to the point of thinking spiraling thoughts of self harm, being ostracized from here for one reason or another, Ela leaving me and regressing to the bully I despised in her when we were younger. I've taken so much time to learn about curses and of this one if possible, and I want so badly now to control it, to break to my own will and use it to kill her. I don't truly think there is a way to free myself of this otherwise, but until I do, I am going to do my best to go one step at a time."

With a light sigh, Lehanna was able to feel more physically relaxed. There were signs of her being emotionally worked up, but in the end, this curse kept her emotions feeling so disconnected. "And you are the second person I've told this to. Momma Kita doesn't even know... I don't want to worry her any more than I can help it with her."

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"I tried everything I could to stop Medeia. I hit her more than a few times with some of my most powerful spells and for awhile I think I was actually doing something, but I just couldn't hurt her enough to turn the tide in my favor. In the end that shield of hers was what thwarted me. I couldn't get past it and the one spell of mine that could get through it wasn't working anymore because she had seen me use it a few times earlier in the fight." Leona told Lehanna a short but detailed version of how Medeia had won their clash. The coffin spell had certainly played a part in the Warlord's victory, but the real clincher was her shield, which was so tough that only Leona's Silver Blade spell could punch through it. Silver Blade did its job well, but once Medeia had seen it in action a few times she learned how to dodge it, resulting in the spell becoming useless.

Leona frowned when she heard that Medeia had considered handing Lehanna and Elara over to Pergrande in order to get the first Silver Wolf mage to talk. That was another nail in the Warlord's coffin and more evidence to support Leona's belief that Medeia was a major-league hypocrite. Medeia wanted freedom for herself but would gladly take it from others to get what she wanted or because she enjoyed having power over people who were unable to defend themselves.

"Making that kind of threat sounds like Medeia all right." Leona remarked dryly with the frown still plastered on her face. She knew all too well the lows to which the Warlord would stoop to get her way and threatening to deliver mages to a country infamous for its anti-mage stance sounded about right. Leona kept her growing irritation at the Warlord in check and listened to Lehanna praise her, something the Wizard Saint was not used to receiving and did not know how to feel about. When Lehanna was finished speaking the blonde made eye contact before responding.

"I've never had anyone say anything like that about me before, Lehanna. And I appreciate every positive thing you said." Leona started off with a sincere statement of appreciation. She was not going to deflect the praise or downplay her accomplishments, such as they were. Leona felt like all she had to her name was one confirmed high-profile failure and another one in the making, but she kept her mouth shut on those incidents. However, if Lehanna still believed that she could keep doing good deeds then Leona would keep going despite her self-doubts.

"I became a Wizard Saint to try and protect people from threats that are just too much for the average person to handle. I know what it's like to be helpless in the face of a danger that seems unstoppable. When I was a child I survived a lot of bandit and slaver raids back home, but a lot of people around me didn't. No one else should have to go through that." Leona gave a brief explanation of why she had become a Wizard Saint. She was not going to drag Lehanna down with all the grim details like seeing the bodies of people she had talked to earlier in the day lying lifeless on the sand or having to hear the sobbing of people whose family members had been carted off into slavery. Those memories were why Leona had been reluctant to meet new people... she saw little point in getting to know people who might die or otherwise disappear soon after talking to them.

Moving onto the subject of Kalama, Leona briefly turned her attention to that deeply unpleasant person.

"What she did to you or to anyone else can't be justified or forgiven. Science should be used to improve people's lives, not ruin them." Leona gave her opinion on the lunatic who had used Lehanna as a guinea pig. The Wizard Saint might go after Kalama soon not just because of what had been done to her guildmate but because of the harm the sadistic mage could do if left unchecked. While it might be a bad idea for Leona to go after another Dark mage right on the heels of her defeat at Medeia's hands, she was willing to take the risk because she could not let someone like Kalama continue their twisted experiments.

Moving away from that subject and looking down at the envelope for a moment, Leona felt the sense of apprehension about what might be waiting for her inside start gnawing at her again. She was not looking forward to finding out, but she had stalled for long enough. Now was the time to finally see what Lehanna had been tasked with delivering to the Wizard Saint.

Leona looked down at the envelope, carefully opened it, and gently reached inside, lowering her right hand until the fingertips brushed against something. She grabbed the mystery object and held onto it, pulling the object out slowly and looking at her prize once it was clear of its container. Leona's eyes narrowed and her face turned red when she saw what she was looking at.

It was a photograph of her when she had first arrived at where Medeia had taken her and she was sitting in a chair while tied up, blindfolded, and gagged!

"I can't say that I wanted to see this again." Leona dryly remarked in a serious understatement. The dry tone of voice was both an expression of how she felt about seeing a reminder of something she would rather forget and an attempt to conceal her embarrassment. However, it was probably not a good attempt because the color of her face probably told Lehanna that Leona was not nearly as calm as she tried to act and sound.

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