Horror filled Leo as she watched the scene from the window. She had been wandering the hallways of Ravenwood for an hour or two before the screams from the courtyard caught her attention. She had spied the scene from the last story of the Director’s wing. She froze, watching helplessly, her dagger almost falling out of her hand. Her eyes couldn’t move from the pools of blood and the blue and scarlet red spots on the ground. She could only be a witness to Jesse’s reaction, one she wished she had never seen or given any attention to. In a powerful scream, he had effortlessly broken the chains keeping his hands behind his back; he pushed himself up, and his body distorted himself in ways Leo had never thought possible. His back broke in a chilling sound before growing in length, just as his arms and legs did a few seconds later. His fingers grew long and pointy, like claws, tinted with a darker shade of purple than his original skin was. On his shoulders, arms, back, and legs, horns pierced his skin from the inside and grew to a few inches out of it. A strange tail pierced the backside of his pants and grew thicker and longer, developing horns along its length, and the tip seemed to be made of pure bone. Along his back grew more horns and from his shoulder blades came out a pair of bony wings on which stretched his purple skin. Jesse’s eyes seemed to both be glowing a bright yellow and two smooth and bone white horns grew out from his forehead while his ears and teeth grew much longer. The screams of horror from the soldiers accompanied the spectacle, the desperate orders shouted by Adam to keep them calm, and the smell of rotten flesh and fresh blood came up to her. Leo covered her nose and mouth with her hand to escape from the smell, but it didn’t change anything. Even from where she was, the smell was overpowering the dust and moisture that she was now accustomed to. She understood why her grandfather was so afraid of them. In a swipe of his now deformed hand, Jesse tore away the arms of a soldier who was brandishing his sword at him, sending others into a screaming and sobbing mess on the floor. Leo’s heart dropped in her stomach. She regretted ever coming here and part of her was glad Darya wasn’t there to see this. Her eye glimpsed blond and red hair, and in the drop of a hat, the princess ran down the corridors and down the stairs to join the battle. In the few minutes it had taken her to get to the entrance door for the Director’s wing, Jesse had dismembered and disemboweled five other soldiers. At that point, chaos had taken almost all the men. Some were fleeing down into the bowels of the prison, others had collapsed and were praying or calling their wives or mothers, some were still listening to Adam’s instructions and were trying to draw a gigantic net of rope and metal over the open top of the courtyard to try and prevent Jesse from flying away. The judge was hiding in his podium, laughing maniacally and covering his ears. In the middle of the cries and yells of the soldiers, she saw the flash of a medal reflect in the torch’s light. There, in a corner of the courtyard, hidden behind the wooden podium where the bodies of Vagraad and Cecilia still laid, Lord Warren was cowering in fear, letting Adam lead his men. Leo found herself like a rock in the middle of a raging sea, her burlap cloak clapping, her dark brown curls whirling in the wind, and her eyes fixed on the highest wave of all. Jesse was reducing more and more soldiers to pure piles of bones and flesh, the screams flooded the courtyard and the torches offered little reassurance as to the monster’s inhumane growl.

“Secure the net! Do not let him get away from here!”

Leo’s attention turned to the blond man in a corner of the courtyard. In a swift motion, she snuck along the wall, outside of his field of vision while he looked upward, her dagger at the ready in her right hand. Her heart was beating like a drum in her chest, flashes of her sister’s bodies and Adam’s look of satisfaction came back to her. She was so close to him, she didn’t care if they called her a backstabber, if they said she had lacked the guts to take him from the front and brought shame to her name, she wanted his blood on her hands just like her sister’s had covered his, she needed it. She raised her dagger in the air, ready to strike, when her vision became red and blurry. The overwhelming smell of blood took her, but she didn’t gag. She slowly wiped it away from her eyes, and her mind froze at the sight. In front of her was Adam’s body resting limply on the ground. His head was nothing but mush and another head was half destroyed and embedded in Adam’s shattered skull. Leo slowly turned around to the rest of the courtyard. She saw the chaos; the men fleeing, others trying to keep up with Adam’s last orders. She bent down, took the sword her uncle had in his hands, and took a moment to observe it, she recognized the magpie of her family’s crest, some incantation for protection in battle to the just and noble sovereign who wielded it. She remembered how furious her father was when she brought up the vanished sword, eager to know more about its origins. She put her dagger back into its sheath, gripped the sword tight and walked to the scaffold where Cecilia’s and Vagraad’s decapitated bodies still laid. She observed the beast’s movements for a moment. Its tail was dangerous yet sensitive and the large wings it wasn’t used to were preventing him from seeing much behind its back. Leo took in a deep breath, she tried to forget the man that had saved her and focused on the corpses surrounding the beast and the inhuman screams that came out of it. In one breath out, Leo ran into battle, through the splashes of blood, bone, and flesh, through the wounded soldiers and the weapons thrown away at random by the desperate ones. She took advantage of Jesse’s attention being brought to another side to take him by the back. She jumped as high as her legs could, took the sword by her two hands and slashed through the stretched skin of his newly formed wings. Jesse screeched, and turned around, whipping his tail into Leo, piercing the side of her right leg with the horns that covered it. Leo slid onto the bloody stone floor for a few seconds. Once she stopped, the pain of the wounds covering her thigh took her. She pushed out a scream of pain before she took a look at the wound; her pant leg was torn and there were inch-wide holes flowing with blood. Her heart beat fast and hard, tears coming up to her eyes, wondering how she ended up here and in this condition. For a second, she wished she was back in the palace’s gardens, making flower crowns with Elizabeth and reading books Alexandra had helped her steal from the library, she wished the warm rays of the sun and the gentle breeze would appear and wake her up, laying in the soft grass and listening to Elizabeth’s gentle singing voice. The inhumane screech of the demon brought her back to reality. Leo groaned as she tried to stand up, the pain in her leg shooting up to her whole body. Tears rolled down her face as she tried to limp toward her father’s sword, each step feeling like hell and making the blood stain on her pants and cloak even bigger, leaving a trail of blood on the floor. She fell to the ground a few steps before she could grab the sword. In a last effort, Leo crawled to it while the ground shook with each step the demon took to join her in his blood-filled rage. Leo grabbed the sword, turned around and pointed it at the charging demon. His appearance had somehow gotten even worse; his legs had turned into animal-like back legs, his hair had grown in between his horns on his back, his teeth had grown out of his mouth and the white of his eyes had turned a deep black. Leo thought that if she died tonight, then she would be happy to join her sisters and her maid. The demon stopped over her, close enough to smell her, the blade of the sword touching his bare chest full of old scars and burns. Jesse bore his two glowing yellow pupils into her brown ones, huffing and puffing, the smell of blood and rotting flesh suffocating the young woman. The demon got a little closer, the sword cutting his skin and causing his blood to drip down the side of it. He hummed in her scent, watched her face for a second, then glanced at her leg before looking back at her face once more. His eyes had turned back to their normal white sclera, the horns on his back, legs and arms seemed to get back inside of his body, leaving only a scar resembling a dark purple spot. His wings had shrunk but not disappeared, and so had done the horns on his forehead and his fangs on his top and bottom jaw. Jesse looked Leo in the eyes with a look of horror and guilt on his face.

“Leo, I’m so sor-” he let out in a broken voice.

A soldier tackled him to the floor, soon joined by others, sword in hand and ready to reduce him to pieces.

“Let him be!” she ordered.

“Ma’am, he slaughtered my friends,” replied the soldier who had his foot on Jesse’s head.

“And I am Leana Rose-Mary of house Halflingberg, third daughter of Charles Halflingberg and as I am standing, sole heir to the throne.” she warned while getting up as well as she could, her father’s sword still in her hand. “Let him be.” she sternly ordered again.

The soldier glared at her and spat on the floor before taking his foot off of his face.

“Chain him up and put him in a cell.” she groaned as she used the sword as a crutch.

“What if he turns into that beast again? These bars won’t keep him for long.” replied the soldier.

“He won’t transform again.” she assured, her eyes painfully laying on Jesse’s form.

Leo watched as he was chained up again and dragged to the moist and dusty cells. She looked around her and saw the dismembered soldiers lying around. Some were unrecognizable, some were still breathing but too injured to be kept alive. Those who could take care of the less injured ones did. A soldier came to Leo and put a tourniquet around her wounded leg to avoid blood loss, coupled with a bandage around her thigh to cover the wound. A mass of jet black hair in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Judge Harper’s body was still on his podium, but the wood he had tried to take protection under had split into sharp planks and ran through his torso and members, giving birth to a pool of blood on the stone floor of the courtyard. She observed the man for a little while. Something shone in the torches’ light. A necklace that had been brought out by a piece of wood. The crest of a raven proudly holding a banner in its talons on the pendant made Leo’s blood boil. After a few minutes, they brought her to an infirmary where a doctor put a paste on her wound to avoid infection and sent her away with a medicinal ball for her pain. She refused to stay in a room made for higher-ups and nobility, she preferred to sit on a bench, watching the wounded and the bodies come and go from the infirmary who worked at full volume. She could finally catch a breath, for the first time in days, she felt the full weight of fatigue on her shoulders and eyelids. She used the wall of the corridor to lay her head on and try to not fall asleep.

“Your Majesty?” called the voice of a man next to her.

Leo turned her head and saw the tall and plump man she had seen earlier during the mock-trial Cecilia and her children had gone through. She heard as some men whispered in his presence and got shut down with an icy stare from him.

“I am Lord Warren, the director of Ravenwood. Would you mind speaking in my office?”

Leo noticed the way he talked to her; no Lord would ever imply to order her something, nor speak to her in that tone. She nodded and followed him to his office. She took a mental note of every detail she could catch a glimpse of on their way there, as to remember the path they had taken and which would be impossible to take with her crutches. Warren stopped in front of a simply decorated door, with only straight dowels on each side and nothing more. He took out an iron key from his pocket and unlocked the door.

“Your Majesty, if you may.”

She walked in first. The office was simple, from the desk to the chandelier and rather neatly kept, no paper or book was on the table and not even a speck of dust flew in the air in front of her. She was about to turn around when a golden insignia shone in the candle's light. On the chest of drawers in the back of the small room was a medal representing a crow holding a banner with its talons, on which was written a motto she was too far to read.

“I assume you wanted to speak of private matters.” she said as she turned around.

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“Indeed.” he closed the door. “I know your family’s ill-fated death rattled you and I appreciate your decision-making skills, your Majesty, but I would rather you didn’t do it without my say so.” he said sternly. “You should have left this monster for my soldiers to kill as they pleased.”

Leo looked at him from down to his boots and then back up to his brown eyes. It was time for her to apply what Alexandra had taught her.

“Lord Warren, do not take me for what I am not.” she started as she walked around the room with her crutches, observing the man’s office a little closer. “Even though I was third in line to the throne, it is my duty as potential heir to know what happens in my family’s empire. Alexandra made sure of that.” she stopped in front of the window that gave out on the courtyard where soldiers were cleaning the blood of their comrades with buckets of sea water, the ground glittering with the torches’ light. “I know you were a close friend of my uncle, and so was the judge present here tonight. I also know you have to keep close with the Kingfisher garrison to fully protect the important town that is Salnas.” Her hand was on her dagger, hidden in the long sleeve of her blouse. She had heard Lord Warren’s steps coming for her. She turned around quickly, pressing her dagger’s blade to his throat while his sword was touching her stomach. “I’d rather you not try to kill the future Empress of Dobrin.”

“I’m in charge here. I could kill you or take you in as a part of my hobby if I wanted.”

“I took care of the demon while you cowered in fear in a corner. Your poor decisions lead to the massacre of your men and you know it, that’s why you’ve been sent here.” she spat out. In a bat of an eye, her blade slid across his throat. “You are a liar and a coward, I have no need for you.”

Leo watched as the man took his throat in his own hands and tried to stop the bleeding. He fell on the ground and in a last gargle, stopped writhing and laid still on the stone floor of his office. Leo took a good look at him before she cleaned the blood off of her blade on her bandages and sheathed it back in. She bent down as well as she could and took the keys off of his belt and walked out of the room. Leo locked the door behind her, putting something in her back pocket at the same time.

“Your Majesty?”

Leo turned around and came face to face with a young soldier who could have easily been two to three years younger than her, almost Vagraad’s age.

“Does Lord Warren have a second in command?” she asked.

“Not anymore,” he looked down, tears filling his eyes, “H-he-”

“You’re my second in command now.” she started walking back to the infirmary with a speed the young soldier never knew someone with crutches could have.

“What?” he wondered, trying to keep up with her.

“Lord Warren’s lack of presence during your most vulnerable time proved to me he doesn’t deserve to be in command. I’ll be taking care of things around here. Where is your dovecote?”

“The what?”

She stopped and looked back at him.

“The place where you put the messenger birds.”

“Right this way.” he fumbled before showing her the way.

They walked for a few minutes through the almost cleaned courtyard, more and more hallways, and a set of stairs that she had trouble climbing with her crutches and the pain medicine wearing off. She felt every bit of her muscles trying to flex part of themselves that weren’t there, leaving her with an obnoxious numbness at each stop. They finally arrived at the top of Ravenwood. Leo stopped at the stone guardrail that bordered each side of the long rampart path, taking in the smell of the raging ocean. On the horizon, the full moon disappeared, still hidden by some heavy clouds. Leo kept in a chuckle, she remembered the moon goddess effigy Cecilia had in her inn, guess even Amara didn’t want her after all. Leo wondered how a woman so smart and aware of her past deeds could ask to be protected from a goddess whose race she had eradicated. Leo observed the raging sea a little more, asking herself if it was really all worth it in the end. If Adam knew he would end up like this, would he still have killed her family? Was it worth it for Jesse to lose everything just to see Cecilia one last time? Was it worth the suffering of her children for Cecilia to be dead?

“Your Majesty?” interrupted the young soldier.

Leo turned around. The young soldier had opened the door to the dovecote, inviting her in. The place was rather small, yet spacious. Long and spacious cages for the birds covered the walls, and a stone table, paper, ink, a pen, and a chair stood in the middle of the room. Leo thanked the young man and sat down at the table. She wrote different letters, most of which she scrapped and wrote again. Even with her education, she could still not hold a pen without having some ink on her fingers and hand. Both Alexandra and Elizabeth would often tease her for it while her father sighed heavily. Finally, after furiously scratching the paper for a few minutes, she looked at her letter and with a slight look of satisfaction on her immobile face, she folded it, rolled it, and took a bird out of its cage. She pet it a little, attached the letter onto its talon and let it fly away towards the capital. As much as she felt she had no right to ask her to come back and help her, she needed someone there with her. Jesse’s fate was in her hands and she would rather have the opinion of someone who knew him like she did, then take a decision that could come back to haunt her. After a little contemplation, she came back out of the dovecote. The sun had shone upon Ravenwood, as if nothing had happened during the night, as if no lives had been lost. Leo sighed deeply, fatigue gaining on her once again.

“Do you have a room I could rest in?” she asked the young soldier who had been waiting for her at the door, guarding it.

“Yes, your Majesty.”

They walked back down the stairs. Leo didn’t know which was worse, the pain of going up the stairs, or the fear of falling as she climbed them back down. The young soldier helped her, fumbling around to try to not touch her anywhere she would not have wanted him to or could get him to lose his head. Once they finally walked to her room, she turned around to him.

“Tell the others to take some rest. They need it. The chiefs of sections will take care of their soldiers’ tasks for tonight.”

“Thank you, your Majesty!” he beamed.

The young man walked away, trying to do more and more bows to her to show his gratitude. Leo turned around to her door and opened it. The room was rather simply furnished, like any other room in Ravenwood, except for a richly decorated mirror and silk bed sheets. Leo plopped on the bed, letting out a groan of pure satisfaction as, for the first time in two weeks, she could finally sleep on a proper bed. She understood that the Snowball Tavern had little money, but nothing could beat a bed of silk, relatively fresh linen, and a mattress of feathers and cotton fibers. Her body ached from the new materials she had to sleep on for the past two weeks, which was unheard of for her. In a few minutes, she fell into a deep sleep she hadn’t had in a long time. That night, she didn’t dream, it had only been a dark pit of unconsciousness for her. When she woke up, she was almost ready to wait for Julia to enter the room and greet her with the softest of smiles on her face. She sighed and sat up in bed. She had moved around a little, so her bandages hadn’t had more blood on it than it already had. Someone knocked on her door.

“Your Majesty?”

“Enter.” she said as she put on her hood to hide her disheveled hair.

The same young soldier from the day before entered the room, a plate of food in his hands and a sorrowful look in his eyes.

“Here’s your food, your Majesty. It’s not the best, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Thank you.” she answered as she took the plate from his hands and started eating the sludge of oatmeal and milk.

The young man didn’t move from his spot, fidgeting with his hands and looking at the floor.

“Do you have something to tell me?” she asked.

“Well, someone found Lord Warren murdered in his room last night.”

“I’m sorry-”

“He wasn’t the best man, but better than nothing, right?” he tried to placate a smile on his anxious and pained face. Leo observed him for a little.

“I heard he tortured prisoners for pleasure and rigged trials to condemn innocents.” she stated blankly.

The young man’s eyes once again flew to the stone floor.

“That’s only one part…” he trailed off. “But that’s a story for another day. Baron Moore from the Kingfisher garrison is waiting for you.”

Leo nodded and excused the young man so she could finish her food. After washing her face, she could walk downstairs and meet the Baron for a second time. At her entry in the room, Baron Moore and his soldiers bowed to her. It felt unusual for Leo, and yet she told herself that she could get used to it in no time.

“Good morning your Majesty.”

“Good morning. What brings you here?” she asked, her face as still as stone.

“Well,” he fumbled with his cape. “I am incredibly sorry about what happened yesterday. Had I recognized you sooner-” with a wave of her hands, all the soldiers walked out of the room, leaving only her and the Baron.

“I still would have had to jump.” she said as she presented a seat to the man. He sat down gingerly before she took a chair out and sat down on it herself.

“What do you know about the Saintly Order, Baron Moore?”

Suddenly, the man’s earlier expression fell off, leaving place to an incredible sadness.

“Well, I know they are everywhere. They tried to recruit me but I don’t believe in the Saint. I think it’s just something they invented.” the man fumbled with his cape again. “They parade around with their medals, yet they do nothing honorable.” he scoffed, before suddenly understanding what he had said. Baron Moore looked up at Leo, whose face hadn’t changed from its original expression, anticipating her anger.

“I doubt whether my uncle had done anything honorable, but I know he was not an honorable man. Neither was Judge Harper, nor Lord Warren.”

“Thank you.” he murmured. “I don’t know how much longer I would have held if you hadn’t-” he cut himself, afraid he would say too much.

“Since I am the last member of the royal family and have to take on the role of my father, it is my duty to make sure the empire does not fall into disarray. Especially because of corrupt members.” Her impenetrable expression let out an ounce of the rage she truly felt, causing a cold sweat to run down Baron Moore’s back. “I trust you would be by my side if else fails?” she asked.

The Baron jumped off of his seat to kneel at Leo’s feet. “I will serve you as I served your father. You have my sword and my men.”

“Good.” she said as she stood up. “I will stay here for a few days. After I am gone, I will entrust you with Ravenwood and its men. In the meantime, no one can enter or leave Ravenwood without my permission.”

“As you wish, your Majesty.”

The man stayed as still as a statue whilst Leo walked out of the room. The young woman held up her attitude to her room. She dismissed the young soldier that was trying to help her climb the stairs with her crutches, she would do it slowly, but she would do it. The holes in her right thigh were still hurting, as was the closed wound in her back, reminding her of the past week and a half. She deeply buried her thoughts until she could finally close the door to her room. She leaned on the door, letting out a deep sigh. Sometimes she wished she could just cry, she hadn’t done so in years, not since her mother died. Even her sisters couldn’t protect her from the court and its venom. She wanted to see Jesse, she wanted to come back to those simple last few days where it was just them and nothing else. It took her the rest of the day to muster up the courage to face him. Leo walked out of her room, limping, her crutches in hand. She walked down the long flight of stairs to the cells, sunlight became rarer and was soon replaced by the torches’ light, whilst the air charged in dust and moisture filled her nose. Once she finally arrived at the cells, she straightened, put her crutches underneath each of her armpits, and lifted her right leg. It took her a while to find which cell Jesse was in. She found herself in cells where there were still skeletons of demons left to rot, still attached to the walls. All had horns, tails and wings, but none had the size or appearance Jesse had had earlier. The smell of death filled these cells and poisoned the surrounding air and the muffled sound of the waves couldn’t cover the sobbing that broke the heavy atmosphere. Leo followed the sobbing until she finally arrived at a lit cell, the bars were thick, and they installed a little latch to pass food through it, although it looked like it hadn’t been used in years if she were to judge by the layer of rust on it. Leo’s eyes slowly slid to the form in the back of the cell. He had stopped sobbing and had stayed in a frozen state, as if a single move would mean death to him.

“Je-”

“I’m sorry,” he cried, “You were right. I should’ve listened to you, she never loved me. No one ever did, so I don’t blame you for leaving me.”

Suddenly Leo took in his state: his clothes were torn and bloody, two horns had stayed on each side of his forehead, which followed his skull before curling back up. His tail was wrapped around his legs protectively and two purple bat-like wings were folded tightly behind his back.

“I deserved it, I deserved all of it.” he said, his head buried in his knees. “Please don’t hate me, don’t look at me like that.” he cried again, his head now up and looking at Leo with teary eyes.

Leo turned around and walked back through the corpse filled cells back to the stairs. She walked so fast that she struggled to breathe. Her lungs cried for air as she limped faster and faster up the stairs, she couldn’t hear the calls of the soldiers as she ran toward the entrance door, she couldn’t feel her bandages become warmer by the second, sShe couldn’t see the light of the torches in the hallway. She could only feel the cold air as it finally entered her lungs. The eyes. His eyes. They were still there. Pleading. Desperate. Yellow. Like two stars lost in a sea of darkness.

“Your Majesty?” inquired a worried soldier.

“Send a message to Alvoort, bring Darya here immediately.”