Brilliant beams of light stretch across the vast lands of the Gardens of Eden. The light illuminated three figures that slept out in the wilderness. The first to awake from their pleasant sleep was a young woman. She slowly opened her eyes and stared up at the morning sky.

The woman jumped to her feet and performed a few stretches to loosen herself up. It was a habit of hers—limbering up in case of emergencies. By the time she finished, she had expected her partners to be up by then.

But to her immediate disappointment, both of her siblings slept like logs.

“Ana! Sol! Get up!” The woman called out with a cheery voice. “Rise and shine, you two! It’s morning! Get up!”

The first one to respond was the woman’s eldest sister, Anatoli—Ana, for short. The woman awoke with a groan and scolded her little sister, “Neoma, you’re too loud.”

“What do you expect me to do? You and Sol won’t get up!” Neoma complained, crossing her arms and pouting like a child. Her gaze shifted to her little brother, who remained asleep despite the ongoing argument between the two sisters.

“He’s so cute when he’s sound asleep like that,” Ana commented.

“Now’s not the time for sleeping!” Neoma approached her brother, and vigorously shook him. It was a daily thing with them. She always woke up early while her slouch of her brother slept in late. It was her duty as her an older sister to properly teach her troublesome siblings. “Wake up, Sol! Wake up! I’ll draw on your face again if you don’t!”

“I heard you the first time,” Sol said groggily. He opened his eyes—dark circles were presented under them. He grimaced when the light hit his face.

“Then why didn’t you get up?” Neoma stepped away from her brother and set her hands on her hips.

“Too sleepy…” Sol responded and closed his eyes again, readjusting his position to get more comfortable. It didn’t matter what time of day it was—if he needed to sleep, then the young man would do just that. “Give me a few more minutes.”

“There’s no time!” Neoma forced Sol to his feet and left him to wake up alone. That proved a mistake on her part, as her brother stumbled and nearly fell over if not for her intervention. “We’re supposed to reach the village by today!”

“I know,” Sol gently pushed his sister aside and forced himself awake using his mental fortitude alone.

Once all three siblings were wide awake, all three of them went through their routine of morning exercises. Afterward, they ate breakfast and then gathered their things to resume their journey. The group was on a top-secret mission of utmost importance.

Innocent lives hung in the balance—therefore, failure was not an option for them. People counted on the siblings to get the job done, and that’s what they sought to do.

Neoma, the middle child of the family, never turned away from anyone that cried out for help. It was that admirable habit of hers that brought respect and reverence from those that heard her name. It didn’t matter what the task, the young woman would give it one-hundred and ten percent to accomplish her goal.

Sol, the youngest child of the family, refused to let her sister out of his sight. Wherever his sister went, he wouldn’t be too far behind. They had encountered numerous life-threatening situations, somehow surviving through the skin of their teeth. Thanks to Neoma’s desire for adventure, it was one problem after another.

Case and point, when the trio ventured into the previous village, a desperate woman approached them—crying and begging for them to rescue her children that got abducted by bandits. Sol wanted nothing to do with them, but Neoma refused to ignore the problem at hand. Therefore, the siblings were on the hunt for the bandits and kidnapped children.

They learned from a viable source that the latest sight of the bandits was Peony village.

Adding to the luck of the family, they hunted after the notorious Bandit Guild, known as Rogue Roses. From what their source informed them, the bandits were infamous for their sudden rise in strength and power over the years. They raided villages and kidnapped children.

Numerous Bounty Hunters chased them down, but none of them succeeded in capturing their leader. A mysterious, elusive boss of a criminal organization excited Neoma to no end. She couldn’t wait to hunt them down and bring them to justice.

Despite her excitement of confronting the evildoers, she couldn’t fathom how several bounty hunters couldn’t put an end to the bandits. If three people managed to take down an entire organization down themselves, then what good were they?

“We’re here,” Anatoli alerted her siblings. Neoma tapped Sol on the shoulder and pointed ahead to the village. The trio stopped and stared in horror at the sight of the settlement.

The rural paradise Neoma imagined shattered when she spotted several destroyed buildings and fresh corpses spread across the road. Anatoli shielded her eyes and whimpered while Neoma and Sol investigated the disaster.

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The two called out for any survivors, leaving long, intentionally pauses in between their shouts.

Only the sound of the wind blowing reached their ears.

“This is horrible,” Anatoli said with a brittle voice as she slowly followed behind Neoma. The young woman kept her hands close to her chest and her head on a swivel. Even if no one answered their calls, it didn’t mean the place was empty.

“I’ve got a pretty good idea as to what happened here,” Sol overturned some of the bodies he came across. He inspected the corpses and took note of the wounds they suffered. Many showed cases of bludgeoning and stab wounds. Bloody footprints trailed across the dirt road. Some belonged to humans, and others to animals—perhaps Varvara. “Bandits attacked the village, which in turn attracted the Varvara here, leading its destruction.”

“Rotten bandits!” Neoma stomped her foot on the ground.

She couldn’t understand what was wrong with those bandits. What drove them to commit such heinous crimes? Why bring such destruction and despair across the land?

What was their motivation? Greed? Hatred? Jealousy?

Regardless of their reasons, it didn’t matter to her. As a Harbinger of Justice, Neoma wouldn’t allow such actions to go unpunished.

Rogue Roses.

She burned the name of the organization into her heart. No matter what, she’d hunt down the bandits and ensure they pay for their crimes against humanity.

“Neoma, please calm down,” Anatoli pleaded.

Neoma heeded her elder sister’s words and took a few deep breaths, trying to find her serenity amidst the destruction around her. She had to control her emotions. Because if she didn’t, then her enemies would do it for her. She couldn’t allow herself to become a puppet in the hands of her enemies.

“I’m okay,” Neoma assured her family with a bright smile that could illuminate even the darkest of depths. “We should hurry up and bury the bodies. We can’t leave them like this.”

“We don’t have time for that,” asserted Sol. He squeezed his hand into a fist as he glanced at the corpses around him. “Burning them is faster.”

“That’s not right, Sol! These people deserve a proper burial!” Anatoli protested to the outrageous suggestion. Out of the trio, Sol was perhaps the most aggressive in how he handled most situations.

“Ana’s right! We need to give these people the respect that they deserve!” Neoma came to the defense of her sister.

Even if the others sided against him, Sol refused to back down. As the most pragmatic of the group, he wouldn’t let small things hinder the goals of his family. “You said so yourself that we don’t have much time, Neoma. If we hurry, we can chase after the ones that did this.”

Just when Neoma prepared to object, her eyes darted ahead to a lone figure that dragged themselves across the road. Upon further inspection, it turned out to be a man, weakly calling out for help.

Neoma and Anatoli were the first ones to reach the man. With Sol’s help, the group helped the man lean against a stable structure.

The man wore nothing but rags, but Sol immediately pointed him out as a bandit. All the evidence he needed was the Rogue Roses tattoo displayed on the man’s arm.

“Thank you, thank you so much!” The man expressed his gratitude. He was covered head to toe in wounds. It was a miracle that he even managed to survive for as long as he did.

The most notable injury was the one in the bandit’s stomach. Blood seeped through the cracks in his fingers and stained his clothes.

Sol fiercely scowled at the bandit and slammed his fist into the structure close to the wounded man’s face. The bandit shrieked in terror but couldn’t escape. “You’re one of them, aren’t you? One of the bandits that attacked his village?”

The bandit showed great reluctance to answer but knew that resistance was futile. “Yes.”

“What?!” Anatoli and Neoma gasped in shock and stepped away.

“The Boss ordered us to attack this village. But the people fought back. Then, the Varvara showed up and slaughtered everyone. I’m lucky to be alive,” The bandit heaved a sigh of relief.

“You won’t be alive much longer,” Sol gravelly said as he reached for the helpless man’s face. It didn’t matter to him if the bandit was wounded or not; he showed no qualms with trying to kill him. A hand reached out and foiled his murder attempt.

He looked over and spotted that the hand belonged to Neoma. His sister shook her head at him and then turned her attention to the frightened bandit.

“Tell us who and where your boss is,” Neoma demanded. She and the others stood back as the bandit went into a coughing fit. Blood flew out from his mouth and dyed the ground red. His face grew paler as the minutes passed.

Neoma stared anxiously as the man’s condition only seemed to worsen. If she stood by and did nothing, then he’d die without getting any answers to her questions. She reluctantly reached into her bag for medical supplies.

That time around, Sol reached out and grabbed her wrist.

“Don’t even think about it,” He demanded. It was rare for the youngest brother to order his older sister around, but she didn’t mind it when she considered the circumstances.

“Sol, he’ll die,” Neoma said.

“Let him,” Sol callously suggested. What did it matter to them if they let the bastard die? There’d be one less criminal in the world. “We shouldn’t waste our supplies on this piece of trash! He attacked this village!”

“Please! I don’t want to die like this!” The bandit desperately pleaded.

“Sol, we can’t leave him to die,” Anatoli said. While she didn’t agree with the bandit’s actions, it didn’t mean that she wanted to stand by while the man died.

“He’s going to die if we don’t do something to help,” Neoma stated.

“The bastard doesn’t deserve our help! He deserves a slow and painful death!” Sol faced Neoma with burning eyes of anger. “Do you think these people wanted to die?! No, they didn’t! But do you think these bandits cared?! They mercilessly attacked these people, destroyed their homes, and kidnapped their children!”

“We know that, Sol. But—”

“But nothing! Why should we show them mercy when they didn’t show any to the people they murdered?! They don’t deserve it!” Sol yelled.

“It’s not about what they deserve,” Neoma gently moved her brother aside and tended to the wounds of the bandit. She used the last of their medical supplies to help ease his pain. “We’re better than these bandits. We can’t stoop to their level no matter what.”

Neoma didn’t know if their supplies would save his life, but it would at least keep him stable some time. She couldn’t save the lives of the villagers, but she at least saved the life of someone.

Regardless of the man’s status—he was still a human being. He had a mind, a heart, a soul. Since he possessed those three things, then he could change—turning over a new leaf. It was wishful thinking, that much Neoma knew. But it’s what kept her going most of the time—the thought of changing people, helping the world for the better—one small step at a time.

Neoma knew her actions seemed foolish and naïve in the eyes of her younger brother, but she believed in people. She believed in humanity. She didn’t help the bandit because he deserved it. She did it out of mercy and pity. Perhaps her show of kindness would become rewarding for them in the future.