Chapter 2

A bolt of lightning streaked across the night sky, lighting up Leon's bloodied body.

"Commander?"

Seeing no response, Calas shook Leon.

"Come on, Commander. Stay with me."

Leon let out a low groan. "Calas?" he squeezed out a whisper.

"Those Eleas bastards. I should barge in there and kill them all," Calas growled as he tried to help Leon to his feet. Leon rose not even two feet off of the ground before collapsing against the trunk once more.

Calas removed his cloak and placed it on Leon, covering his exposed back.

"You know my rule, Calas. No member of Shade is allowed on Eleas manor grounds." Leon winced as he was hoisted onto Calas's back.

"I understand, but--" Calas stopped himself mid-sentence. He knew arguing with his Commander wouldn't get him anywhere. Once he made up his mind, no one could change it. Calas couldn't see more than a couple feet in front of him, but he knew where he was going. He knew this route like the back of his hand. It was past curfew, but the storm cleared the street of the night patrol.

"How did this happen? What did they do to you?" Calas asked as he carried Leon on his back. He wanted Leon to keep talking to him so that he wouldn't lose consciousness.

No response.

Calas shifted Leon slightly, causing him to let out a weak groan.

"Good, he's still conscious," Calas muttered to himself.

Leon was deep in thought recounting the events that led up to his current situation.

A couple of days ago, he was making his way to the tavern he frequented when he noticed his two older brothers, the Eleas family first and second sons, arguing with two other guys. He knew he shouldn't be there but his curiosity got the better of him and he walked a little closer to see who they were arguing with and hear what they were saying.

"Looks like the Eleas family is going to go bankrupt soon," sneered one of the guys.

Leon recognized him as the Dimina family's eldest son.

"You should've seen those shopkeepers' faces," laughed the other guy, the Dimina family's second-eldest son.

"If you burn another shop I'll kill you," Leon's eldest brother bit back.

Recently, multiple Eleas family medicine shops across the capital city have been trashed and burned to the ground by an unknown group of people. That is, unknown to everyone but the Eleas family. They were fairly certain the Dimina family had something to do with it. The Dimina sons just admitted to it and were proud of it.

"Oh I'm so scared! Somebody come save me!" the Dimina eldest son jeered. "You can't do shit. Even if your father showed up to our manor, all he has the right to do is to lick the bottom of my father's boot. Filthy peasant."

He was both exaggerating and being reasonable at the same time. The Dimina family controlled the capital police force, the Investigation Corps, and thus had the power to choose which crimes were investigated and which were ignored. Their power in the capital city was well known and most noble families were happy to stay out of their sight. For most matters involving crimes like destruction of property and arson, whatever they said goes.

While the Elseas family was powerful in its own right-- they specialized in the medicine business and was the capital city's largest maker and distributor-- even they had to respect the Dimina family's power.

Leon's eldest brother knew this at heart, but to hear his father being treated with such disrespect was something he couldn't allow. In a fit of rage, he a lunged at the Dimina eldest son, landing a punch squarely on his nose. He heard a slight crack and immediately blood started gushing.

The Dimina eldest son, surprised at the sudden attack, didn't have the time to react as he was shoved to the ground. Leon's eldest brother was on top of him in an instant, raining down punches onto his face and chest.

Leon's eldest brother enjoyed seeing the bastard covered in cuts and bleeding. The feeling of his fists connecting with another person's body got his heart racing. At first, the contact hurt his fists somewhat, but as he continued, it felt as if what he was punching was becoming softer.

Meanwhile, both families' second sons and Leon watched on in horror, all of them too afraid to interfere.

Suddenly, Leon's second oldest brother caught sight of Leon and a sick plot began to form in his mind. He grabbed his older brother's arm and pulled him off of the now unconscious Dimina eldest son.

"Let's go. If we don't leave now, it'll get ugly," he whispered, helping his brother up.

Leon's two older brothers hurried past him, running toward the direction of Eleas Manor. Leon snapped out of his shock, turned around, and briskly walked out of the alleyway into the main street. He resumed his route to the tavern and spent the entire day trying to forget what he just saw. Despite witnessing the Dimina eldest son's arrogance, he couldn't help but feel a little bad for him.

It wasn't until he returned to Eleas Manor later that evening that Leo learned what happened to the guy he had last seen knocked out on the ground. The poor guy suffered a broken collarbone, multiple fractures to his skull, and a broken nose on top of many other injuries. He managed to survive, but he will never look or live the same again.

Leader Dimina himself paid Eleas Manor a visit immediately after he learned what happened and demanded an explanation as well as reparations. A true Dimina, he wanted eye-for-an-eye, son-for-a-son.

Scared out of their wits, Leon's brothers decided to use the second son's plan: put all the blame on Leon. Because their father had left on business a couple days before, they spun a story to the Deputy Leader about how Leon had provoked the Dimina sons. Leon's eldest brother only stepped in to protect his father's name.

A smart man, the Deputy Leader knew very well that the they were lying, but he accepted the story anyways. He didn't forget that it was Lady Eleas who convinced her husband years ago to select him as the Deputy Leader. Without her, he had no chance compared to the other candidate.

Ever since then, the Deputy Leader felt indebted to Lady Eleas, going as far as to take an oath to protect her two sons and remove the thorn in her side that is Leon. It was the perfect opportunity to repay her. After all, Leon was the son of a prostitute, cutting ties with him could only benefit the Eleas family.

They used Leon as a shield against Leader Dimina, who didn't care which son was punished but that one felt the same pain his son had.

Leon grunted as Calas adjusted him.

"Commander?"

"It's a long story," Leo answered weakly. He gritted his teeth at the thought of those scheming cowards. He wanted them to eat every single word they spat about his birth mother. He wanted to see their helpless faces. He wanted revenge.

Knowing he won't get any more from his commander, Calas didn't pursue further.

Calas stopped, surprising the half-conscious Leon on his back, causing him to almost fall off. A brightly lit, 3-story pagoda stood in front of them. The sign above their heads read Lavender Garden. Calas hurried inside.

"Why hello, handsome. What can we do for you tonight?" Three beautiful girls in vibrantly colored, semi-transparent silk dresses surrounded Calas. They didn't seem to be surprised to see him drenched or carrying another person on his back.

"Whatever you want to do or play, we'll listen to you," one of the girls chirped, drawing imaginary circles on his chest with her finger.

"Move," replied Calas coldly, staring straight out in front of him, not the least distracted.

"Girls, go accompany some other customer. I've got it from here," came a voice behind one of the girls.

The three girls moved away from Calas, turned around, and bowed their heads to the person who just spoke. "Yes, Lady Lillian," they responded before flitting away to find the next rich man to service.

"Apologies, Captain. Those girls started a couple days ago, they don't recognize you yet," Lady Lillian explained to Calas.

"No, they did very well," he replied before rushing past her and the grand staircase in the middle of the first floor toward the back of the building. Calas entered the obscure storage room and quickly closed the door behind him.

"The tree casts its shadow. The eye watches all," he said into the empty room.

The stone wall directly in front of him trembled slightly and the sound of stone grinding on stone filled the room as it moved to reveal a flight of candle lit stairs leading underground

"Welcome back, Captain," greeted the underling guarding the passageway.

With a nod, Calas quickly but carefully carried Leon down the stairs into the dark.

"Go prepare a bed for the Keeper in the infirmary. Quick." Calas calmly but authoritatively ordered the underlings at the foot of the stairs. They rushed ahead of their captain to prepare before Calas reached the infirmary with Leon.

Calas's footsteps echoed off of the stone walls as the two of them hurried down the long hallway toward the infirmary at the end of it. The underlings had swiftly finished preparing a private room within the infirmary by the time their superiors arrived.

Calas laid Leon down on the bed, taking care to face him downward so that his back wouldn't rub against the sheets.

At last in an environment where he felt safe, Leon gave in to the warm sleep that had tempted him for the past hour and blacked out.