Working Towards Reconciliation

-Silver Wolf Guild Hall, Leona's Room, the next day, 5:16 A.M.-

Leona had transported Eleanor to the outskirts of Capital Crocus without incident... they had landed there around 11:40 P.M. and it had taken them roughly two hours to unload everything and take it to the latter's house. Leona had also accomplished that without incident and once that was finished boarded the Albatross to fly home. Coleridge had flown her to Silver Wolf Guild Hall safely and around 5:05 A.M. Leona finally entered her room. She was still dressed in the navy blue tank top and khaki cargo shorts she had worn out in The Forgotten Deserts, so she needed to get a shower and change clothes before she did anything else like sleep or go to the office.

Leona set down all of her weapons and belongings on her bed before leaving the room to go get a shower. Once she did that she would swing by the office and see what was waiting on her. The blonde was already dreading the visit because she was fairly certain that she would find a mountain of papers on top of her desk.

-In the Guild Master's Office, 5:50 A.M.-

Dressed in a green tube top and khaki short shorts, Leona plodded into the office to find that her worst fear had been realized. The desk was loaded down with at least twenty-five piles of papers. The blonde sighed and shuffled over to her chair to get started on what had to be done. This was going to take at least half the day to finish, if not longer.

-The Guild Master's Office, the next day, 5:50 A.M.-

By drinking more cups of coffee than she cared to count Leona had kept awake long enough to finish all of her work without making a single mistake. Now she could go crash in her room for the next few hours. Or she could crash in the cot behind her desk now. She would do that.

Forcing herself out of the chair, Leona stood up awkwardly and groaned as she turned to face the cot, then plodded over to it and sat down. She then lifted her legs up and pulled the blanket over her body before rolling over and facing the wall of the room. If anyone came into the office they would see only the back of Leona's head as she slept while facing the wall.

-The Guild Master's Office, 3:31 P.M.-

Leona's eyes opened on their own and she rolled over to face the office door, then groaned.

"Why did I do that?" Leona asked herself a question about the wisdom of pulling an all-nighter and drinking so much coffee that she had lost count of the number of cups she had consumed. She thought that much coffee would have kept her wired all night, but she realized that being a habitual drinker of the beverage had enabled her to build up a tolerance to the caffeine because she had been able to go to sleep with no difficulty at all.

Leona groaned again as she willed herself to get out of the cot and stand up. She was going to go back to her room and check to see if any mail for her had arrived since her return to the guild hall. Or at least that was the plan before she encountered difficulty in getting up thanks to how awful she felt. After two minutes the blonde forced herself to get up; she clenched her teeth the whole time and groaned when she finally got to her feet. Now all she had to do was walk to her room, but "walk" might be too generous a term for how she was going to get there.

The blonde began to slowly put one foot in front of the other in a gait that was comparable to a zombie's awkward shuffling.

-Leona's Room, 3:38 P.M.-

It had taken Leona a few minutes to get to her room, but now she was inside with the door shut. She looked down at the wooden floor to check for envelopes that might have been slipped under her door but she did not find any. She took a quiet breath and walked over to her bed, then began slowly cleaning it off so that she could use her bed not too long for now.

She put her Silver Longsword and Scout Laser Pistol in the left corner next to her large wardrobe, then put her Argent Gloves on top of her desk along with the folded-up Nanotech Aircraft Hangar. She then glanced at the newly uncovered bed and tried to resist the urge to lie down on it, but there was no fighting it. Leona climbed onto it and rolled onto her side to face her room door, then went to sleep not too long afterwards.

[Post Word Count: 812]
[Total Word Count: 9,434/10,000]

-Leona's Room, 9:22 P.M.-

Waking up for the second time today, Leona stared at the ceiling for a few moments before rolling over to the edge of the bed, sitting up, and putting her feet on the floor. Now that she did not feel like death warmed over she was able to stand up without too much difficulty... she stood in place for a few moments before walking forward at a slow but more natural gait than the one she had used when returning to her room hours ago. She would go to the office and see how much work she had to do before she did anything else.

-The Guild Master's Office, 9:26 P.M.-

Leona entered the office to find a workload that was light in comparison to the one she had handled last night. Only five stacks were waiting on her, so she walked over to the desk, pulled out the chair, and sat down. She could finish this workload without having to pull an all-nighter, so she got started right away.

As she went about taking care of her administrative responsibilities her mind turned to a topic it had turned to so often before, which was her "conversation" with Medeia. Leona still hated herself for giving in so readily to the threats, especially the threats to her clothing. Having worn that point out, Leona instead focused on the part near the end where Medeia attempted to tell her that there were some situations where winning was not possible.

Leona found that idea to be absurd. The Warlord was very powerful and very smart, but she was far from invincible. Even Medeia had weaknesses no matter how hard she tried to make herself sound like an unstoppable force... it was just a matter of finding them before she raised the shield she had used near the end of their fight above Hargeon Town. Once that happened Leona's chances of hurting the Warlord dropped dramatically since the blonde had few armor-piercing spells and using one of them required getting within arm's reach of the enemy.

Deciding to move on from that topic for the time being, Leona focused on the paperwork in front of her.

-Leona's Room, 12:15 A.M.-

Once she had completed the work for the day Leona returned to her room and plopped onto her bed, then stared at the ceiling. Her mind wandered to the various pieces of "advice" Medeia had offered when the Warlord was pretending to be friendly and thought about the part where she claimed Leona needed to move on from her regrets. The blonde audibly scoffed at the idea.

Leona's life belonged to her and her alone.

The Wizard Saint was not going to let her regrets go until she was ready to and she was certainly not going to let them go because Medeia suggested it. The people who had died because of her stupidity were not going to be forgotten because they had lives that were cut short and hopes and dreams that would go unfulfilled. Leona was not going to throw the memories away like yesterday's leftovers because she needed to remember that she was not the only one affected by her stupidity.

Medeia probably believed that she was trying to give the blonde words of wisdom, but Leona believed that the Dark mage was full of hot air. That bit of "wisdom" was going to go right into the trash can. Leona was going to go through what had been suggested to her and toss out the useless suggestions before going over what was left to see if any of it was worth keeping.

Leona stared at the ceiling as she started that task. Completing it would take her longer to do than the paperwork she had finished earlier did. However, it had to be done if she wanted to quit thinking about it so much.

[Post Word Count: 648]
[Total Word Count: 10,082/10,000]

-Leona's Room, 1:35 A.M.-

Leona had thought classifying Medeia's "suggestions" was going to be easy, but in reality it had been anything but a cakewalk. Despite detesting the source of the ideas the blonde had not thrown all of them away because a few of them actually made sense. One idea she decided to keep was finding a student... while she was not going to go out and look for one because she did not want to infringe on any Silver Wolf mage's right to choose their own path, if one approached her looking for guidance she would not turn them away.

Another idea Leona would hold onto was the advice to take some time for herself every so often. She had already done so with her first trip to Lion's Island after her defeat and humiliation at Medeia's hands: that trip had set her on the path to recovery after one of the most difficult times in her life after the outcome of the Ishgar Symposium. Leona had experienced the benefits firsthand, so that idea was well worth keeping.

The Wizard Saint had not made up her mind on the rest of them yet, but she would try and reach a decision soon. Right now she needed to go to sleep so that she could prepare for another day; hopefully the paperwork would be as light as it was last night. If not she would plow through it anyway, but maybe luck would be on her side today.

-Leona's Room, 10:33 A.M.-

Waking up after an uninterrupted stretch of sleep, Leona rolled over onto her side and stared at her room door as she tried to find the energy to get onto her feet. As she stared she began to think about the last few days and what she had gained from them. Leona had managed to find any relics for her old client Eleanor Crouch nor had she managed to make peace with Edward Crouch because he had changed his plans to visit his daughter at the last minute, but she had made small steps towards coming to terms with how she had behaved while a "guest" of Medeia.

The Wizard Saint used to think that she had acted cowardly by bowing to the threats instead of resisting Medeia every chance she got, but she was slowly starting to move away from that stance. Leona knew that one thing she just could not handle was having her clothing torn and that stemmed from what Joshua Hamlin had done to her when she was sixteen. Had she not given him two black eyes and a punch to the stomach he would have ripped her outfit top open after touching her breasts and the thought of anyone doing that to her had prevented Leona from fighting Medeia as hard as she had intended to. That fact that another young woman might have done it did nothing to reduce Leona's fear of the possibility.

Moving on from that unsettling thought, Leona tried to get up to get a shower and change clothes before going to the office. She tried to sit up on the edge of her bed, but after two attempts she gave up and leaned back left, letting herself return to the comfort of her bed. The blonde then rolled over and faced the other wall for a second before closing her eyes again.

Going to the office could wait awhile.

[Post Word Count: 572]
[Total Word Count: 10,654/10,000]