Chapter 40: Chapter 40: The Lioness’s Choice

Leona finishes her workout. She walks back to her room where she carefully placed her sword down. She takes her clothing off. And checks on the inner carvings inside her bones.

From young she has been carved with runes to make her body stronger. When she’s not training, what she does is to check on her runes and check on her education.

It’s easy for her. She took a glance at her studies and found them somewhat lacking. She could improve upon it, but her soul’s more into training her body.

An obsession that was born from somewhere.

After checking the state of her body she started to wear her clothing. Her father had told her to cut her hair, but it was something she insisted on keeping no matter.

Her peers had asked her why. But somehow she found her long hair like a treasure she wouldn’t let go off.

After wearing the appropriate clothes she traveled with her chauffeur to the place where her peers gathered. A place where the Magi Families were gathered.

Entering the circle she sat in her place and proceeded to show them a frown worthy of her blood. Those who didn’t have the balls kept away while the rest laughed at her glare.

The contents of the meeting were the same. Everyone wanted to know where to strike and where to prove themselves into being worthy of their blood. The rest were arguing while the others wanted to find the Sin-Eaters to cull their numbers.

It was foolish without any hint of strategy.

“What about you Leona?”

One of her peers asked. She scanned them with an icy cold glare and then spoke her mind.

“It’s reckless and suicidal. We are strong friends. But we aren’t tested by the battles. I myself have known how strong our CASE friends are.”

Leona thought back to the man she saw. First impressions were great and despite being Enforcer, he was able to contend with her squires. He had a glare that resisted her charms.

She had dug info on Robert Oswald. He was your typical recruit that became an Enforcer after going through one hell of an experience. A man who could resist the devil and endure Lesnik.

Not to mention those all-senses of his were worthy of praise.  Their war with the Sin-Eaters and the Order of the Solar Temple was making her peers so obsessed with winning glory. She was participating in the hunt and yet she knew that what her peers were doing was nothing more than a reckless act.

She had been humbled by an Enforcer. A lesson that she learned and took well. Nonetheless, even father had said almost sadly, that their wars are never going to be just combat. All the scheming and the stabbing in the back were handled by the seniors of the Magi Families while the young were chosen to pick them apart in the front. She had seen through this and she did not like it. Nonetheless, Leona fights not for honor, but to get rid of them.

Her family are knights that will remain strong even if magic passes away. The passing of it won’t affect them and they have developed means to retain their bodies and continue their pride.

Nonetheless, she also knew that her father wanted nothing more than to adapt to the times, creating companies, pouring funds, and creating an empire that would allow them to remain on the top even if their main strength was gone.

After the meeting she had her driver take her back to her main compound where she found the sight of her family bearing their uniforms. Most of them carried their steel-barreled swords. The rest carried their blades on the back of their waist.

Everyone greeted Leona as she walked inside where she found Sir Hawke talking to her father. Sir Hawke was one of the few who could stand up to the devil if needed to. One of the many that would retain their power even if the magic fades away.

She stopped. Thinking to herself that seeing such a fantastic thing fade away would be a tragedy. Her family focused on improving their bodies to resist and fight against magic. One of the reasons why her family was somewhat glad that Magic was ending was because of their beliefs.

They use magic to fight magic. Her family for centuries had always been the slayers of dragons and magical beings. Their family were the ones who tore through dragons and felled false kings and prevented devils from walking the earth.

She stopped at the hallway of her family where the portraits of knights and dames are placed. Each one leaves a trace on history. The last great thing that her family had done was taking the spear destiny from a fascist.

The time of legends was vanishing. And they were at the dying breath of a wonderful power that once ruled and threatened the world. She moved to their training room and drew her blade to dance to clear the mind.

She muttered a spell and created a shadow that mimicked her. Thrusting her weapon dangerously and defending herself from the shadow. As she trains she found her mind loosening and a memory she tried to forget came to her like a nightmare she can’t accept.

She steadied her mind with a mantra and yet she found tears in her eyes again. Like she was being heartbroken. Like all the good in her life was fading away and she felt her heart emptied out.

Like all her beliefs shattered and what she believed in was gone. Leona went down on her knees and put a hand on her chest. She was breathing hard and it was only when her mind cleared that all the anxiety that she had vanished.

She stood up and performed the stances before sitting cross-legged. She recalled that this started in 1990 when she bore witness to the Puppid-Velid meteor shower.

Like her heart’s constantly getting ripped apart and hollowed. Her father and those who examined her thought it was a curse. A curse that she had gotten from someone or something. 

Her father raged at the thought of someone cursing her blood and yet none was able to find the cause of this sickness. She has gotten stronger and although she can suppress it. There were times that her symptoms would appear.

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She took a shower and walked around her room without a single piece of clothing. When her symptoms become a problem. She feels like she’s not herself.

As if she became unfamiliar with her own body. She took a bottle of medicine with the words ‘Benzodiazepines’ printed in bold and took one for herself.

Her eyes were gloomy and yet she found her courage again. As she rested on her bed she let her mind rest before standing up again. She got a message and started working on her studies.

She was going to be one of the youngest to graduate. It was her second course, and the course she wanted. She had the means and the ways to improve herself and graduate earlier.

Despite the reputation of her father. He wanted his children to understand that their ways were nothing more than a ruse. To hide the truth that they were focusing on a future where their family didn’t have to shed their blood without cause.

Some of the branches tend to disagree, but the Patriarch’s words were law and they can’t accuse him for losing his lion’s heart. Her father has always been the one to join the fray.

To butcher their enemies if they get too comfortable. The lion watches the Magi Families, so eager to butcher them if they walk the path that they resented. How many clans had they burned?

How many Magi Families that were once allied to CASE were burned to the ground because her father judged them evil? To accuse her father was making a mockery of themselves.

Her writing hand stopped. She gazed at the papers and turned towards the outside where the moon showed her glory. As she drifted to sleep, she went back to bed and found herself dreaming again.

Walking under an orange sky.

Marching on a strangely beautiful field that seems man-made. She walked a long path and when she caught sight of a cottage with red bricks and tiles. She stopped.

Her eyes went to the little child running towards her. She couldn’t see if the child was a boy or a girl. She stopped in front of the child as the child vanished and erased in front of her like dust in the wind.

She tried to reach out only to fall down to eternity.

A repeated cycle of walking down that field only to be unable to reach that house. Then she was walking down a battlefield and stopped to look at this concrete jungle.

She looked at one of the cars and saw a little girl trembling. She reached her hand out and then she was awake with the heat of the sun irritating her eyelids.

She sat upright and shook her head. Reached out for her medicine and stayed still until her discomfort went away. She went to clean herself up. After dressing herself up, eating breakfast, she told her driver to take her CASE’s headquarters where she was meeting Miss Sinclair to deliver a package personally.

Her driver parked the car not far from the headquarters of CASE. She walked inside and gained access after presenting her face to the eyes watching.

Walking inside CASE she caught sight of the Enforcers walking out of the building, armed to the teeth, all staring at her. She went straight to  Miss Sinclair who gladly took the package from her. Miss Sinclair offered tea but Leone refused, instead asking for a tour of their facility. Inspecting how CASE spends the money that her family donates. Most of their equipment was the latest. Their training field grooming soldiers and warriors for CASE were full.

Then she saw Enforcer Robert sparring with their recruits. She stopped to look at him. Miss Sinclair followed her gaze and smiled thinly.

“A shame that Mr. Oswald had abandoned his path to gain enlightenment. He would have made a fine magician, no?”

“I don’t think so,” Leona said. “He’s a good soldier and in the future you need ones like him to prosper.”

Miss Sinclair said nothing as she accompanied Leona to meet the Agents who were currently in the headquarters. After the tour, Leona stayed in the headquarters for an hour before taking one last look at their weaponry, then leaving using the elevator.

Driving back to her estate, she entered her home, reported to her father, and went back to her room where she found herself staring at the mirror. Then she dug through the trunk and found an old bear with a checkered blue ribbon adorning its neck.

Her eyes were glued on the old bear. She caressed the bear before placing it back on her desk where the confidential reports of her associates were.

Massacres in Rome. 

A team of knights being felled by a warlock somewhere in Scotland.

The Magi Families entered foreign lands and butchered the people who they suspected to be part of the Sin-Eaters without regard for the laws of that of the world.

Rubio Ferric, the monster they blamed had parlayed, and without a monster to blame, they choose to erase as many as they can to fool themselves into thinking they were the just and righteous.

Her father had warned him about the opportunistic side of the Magi families. How they brought their own interest to this war. And without Ferric,  without proper direction, they became fools who started taking care of their own selfish goals.

Lifting her bear up she looked the bear in the eyes and then placed it back down. Her choice was made and despite the selfish actions of her allies. She had to direct them to a monster they needed to slay.

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