In the depths of her calm consciousness, Leona felt her mind reverberate like the surface of water with faint sparks of sounds which slowly but surely became faint voices in the distance. Even though she was sleeping, she felt oddly aware that it was a dream of not her own.

A despaired female voice echoed louder than others.

“My lord- you musn’t-!”

Only to slowly fade away.

Her body felt tangent despite being inside the imaginary bounds of her consciousness. As she gave form, she continued to walk throughout her mind’s landscape; she could feel the gnawing dread that consumed those memories.

This time a man’s voice surfaced from the depths of the tormented sea.

“Nara is no longer safe… you must leave with him-”

Leona could feel everything. The pain, the hatred, the loss, the feeling of powerlessness was overwhelming, so much so that she fell on her knees grasping her own chest in despair.

“I shall make a deal with you Miyamoto-”

Shortly after hearing that, the sound of steel being drawn sung in the air. The familiar metallic scent of blood permeated her nostrils and as she glanced behind her she saw an endless ocean of bodies with a young man standing atop of them with a bloodied curved sword in hand.

She raised her hand toward the figure as if trying to reach them only for the memory to disappear in front of her eyes.

‘These memories…’ She thought. ‘Just how much have you endured throughout these years?’

“It is the price of being a ruler.” She suddenly heard her voice right behind her. However there was nobody there once she turned around and instead she just kept hearing him speak. ”While my death was certain I could only imagine what would befall on my people. I feared not for my life, but for the fate of my brethren with whom I shared bread and woes.”

“And yet here you still linger.” Leona spoke out loud. “What is your true motive, lord of Nara? Surely you didn’t bestow me with the power to wield blade energy for nothing.”

“You are my only way back to ‘him’.”

“Him? I thought Krieg was the person you wanted to see so badly-”

“Your fate is tied to this encounter, young lady Leona. Steel your resolve- else the world you are fighting for will be nothing if not a distant dream.”

His voice began to fade as he finished speaking, leaving Leona amidst the vast darkness of her mind.

“It won’t be a dream, I can promise you that.”

After closing her eyes and focusing on the sensations of her body she managed to wake up inside the engine room. The first thing she noticed was the presence of a fur blanket covering her upper body. She sat up while rubbing her eyes to shake off the drowsiness.

“Oh you’re awake.” Phoebe was standing by the doorway with her arms crossed. “Did you sleep well?”

Leona put the blanket on the side of where she was sitting and stood up.

“Too well as a matter of fact.” She looked to the slightly orange tinted sky. “It’s already dawn.”

“It’s alright. Me and Krieg kept watch and it was rather uneventful save for a few curious townsfolk who came to look at the ship but none of them tried to approach.”

“That wouldn’t be surprising… considering it’s a flying ship. Though I ask myself why they made it a ship of all things.”

She slowly walked over to the wooden railings and admired the calm morning scenery of the town. A few townsfolk were walking by carrying on with their lives, some of them friendly waved to the tactician who was simply enjoying the view. Phoebe joined her and placed both her arms against the wooden railing.

“This town sure is peaceful.” The high elf had a nostalgic look in her eyes. “Reminds me of home.”

That sentence sparked Leona’s curiosity.

“Come to think of it, I never asked you about your homeland. How is Nara compared to Arcadia?”

“It’s awfully the same, though in Nara when it’s hot, it is much hotter than here and the cold is just as bad as the heat.” She had a faint smile on her face. “We would usually spend the days by the ocean when the heat was too much to bear and when it was cold my mother would often make us her boar stew with simmered vegetables.”

“That sounds lovely.”

“It was.” Phoebe scratched the side of her face. “Those were the best days of my life really. I was still training under my mother to become a bodyguard. But after everything that happened to her thanks to my sister, I could only blame my own incompetence for not being able to defend her.”

“So that's when you became an assassin?”

She slowly nodded.

“Master took me in and trained me with his other two disciples. Though my mother’s training was harsh, I only learned to be this good at the bow because of his intense methods.” She extended her open right hand towards Leona. “These calluses were from extensive releasing of arrows.”

“Excuse me.” The tactician gently touched her hand and the first thing she noticed was the salient bumps on the index, middle and ring finger. “It’s easy to tell you trained a lot not only by your fingers but your accuracy with the bow as well. While I’ve seen my share of archers back in Arcadia, none was as accurate as you.”

Phoebe had a smirk on her face.

“I’m sure you’ll make good use of his skills. Not only is he a great teacher, but he is also a fairly skilled magic caster.”

Leona folded her left arm under her right elbow and grasped her chin with the right hand. Her mind instantly remembered the voice of the person who saved her and Krieg back on their way to Londria, though she didn’t remember much, she did recall him saying to head to Nara. Which prompted the tactician to inquire.

“Do you happen to know his name?”

Regrettably, Phoebe shook her head.

“No, I’ve only called him master. Besides, back then I didn’t really have anything else on my mind other than avenging my mother. Names could wait once I returned to Nara.”

“While I admire your single minded determination, Phoebe, doesn’t it seem strange that your sister killed your mother?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just… if she really was that bad, wouldn’t she at least try to kill one of us back in Arcadia? This has been on my mind for a while now but is your sister really the villain you portray her to be?”

“Who in their right mind would be able to kill their own mother?” She clenched her teeth and hammered her closed right fist on the wooden railing. “I’m sure she did that in return for whatever magic power she has now.”

“So you believe it was a pact?”

A killing pact, often offered by demons or otherworldly beings, was a contract that would allow the contractor to obtain a shortcut for power, though in many cases it would result in many complications if the vessel was not ready or able to receive such an increase in magical power. In return, the fiend would gain knowledge or the body of the deceased target.

“There is no other explanation.” The high elf shook her head. “My mother was adamant about not letting ourselves delve too deep into magic, she used to say it was ‘for our own good’, yet my sister only sought more power claiming it would be the key to fend off the hordes of death angels, though seeing what it wrought she couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“...” Leona glanced down for a few seconds before looking to the horizon as the sun was rising up just above the treeline. “Phoebe, do you truly hate her?”

“There is no way I couldn’t. After all the pain she brought me, how she mercilessly killed my mother- she is no sister of mine.”

“I see…”

Deep down the tactician still felt like there was more to her tale than just mindless bloodshed, but she decided to not pry further. A few minutes passed before the sound of someone climbing up the ship got Leona’s attention and as she turned around she noticed it was Krieg carrying a sizable burlap sack on his back.

“Krieg, what is that?”

Leona asked as she approached him.

“Breakfast. I figured none of us had a decent one ever since leaving Arcadia so I spent a bit of my own funds to get these.”

He settled down in the middle of the ship and started to take out a few food items out of the bag, namely fresh bread, ham, cheese, green leaf lettuce head and tomatoes, Leona joined the knight shortly thereafter by sitting beside him. Seeing the amount of food he brought to the ship impressed the high elf.

“This isn’t breakfast, it’s basically a lunch meal already!”

“It was the normal amount of food back in the Crossford household.” Krieg explained as he took out a newly bought hunting knife from the scabbard on his belt and used it to cut a slice of fresh bread. “Lady Ravness used to say that a healthy breakfast was the key for a healthy body.”

He started to prepare a sandwich for Leona, putting one slice of cheese between two hams with lettuce leaf and sliced tomatoes with another bread bun on top to finish it off. After handing it to her, he began making another one while Leona held the meal between both her hands as if waiting for something.

“Phoebe, come sit down.”

“Huh?”

At that moment Krieg finished making another sandwich similar to the tactician’s and offered it to the high elf.

“Here you go Phoebe, your share.”

“But I…”

Leona gestured for her to join them as she said.

“Food is better in the company of others, come sit down.”

While a bit conflicted, she decided to go with the flow and sat somewhat opposite of the tactician and after each of them had food on their hands, Leona raised her meal saying with a cheerful voice.

“Thank you for the food!”

After seeing her take a healthy bite off it, Krieg smiled briefly before beginning to eat his share as well. Though at first she was a bit surprised by how heartwarming they really were, the high elf couldn’t help but smile if only a little as she started to eat her own share while blissfully thinking.

‘This… is not too bad.’