The first dawn of the following day, in the bleak underground prison of the baron's castle, loud yet intermittent coughing blasted about.
A huddled-up group of four scampered to their feet. Eye shifty, clothes in rags and metallic clanging went off on their wrists.
"Brothers, it's wake-up time," said one of the four who managed to cleanse the befuddlement from his eyes with a few blinks. Then, his eyes shifted to the steel bars to spot a glimmer of silver on the wet concrete floor.
He blinked twice, his eyes narrowing. Then, he gasped sharply and bit his lower lip lest he screamed aloud.
He slowly crawled to his knees and feet thereafter.
"Hey, man! get back here! It's cold!"
As he got up, he inadvertently created a loop in the formation of the other three, wind creeping up their backs with a shiver. One of them was quick to complain.
"Shh!"
Gestured to the man who was a few paces away, raising his scarred hand with a finger to the lips. So slowly he did it, not even the chains on his wrists rattled. Then, he whipped his head to the side with a pair of shifty eyes.
The other three exchanged a look and glanced over his shoulder, slowly at that. In the light of dawn seeping in through the window, they saw a glimmer of metal not unlike a sheen of silver on the ground.
They too, gasped.
'Keys!'
The word surfaced timely in their heads, jolting the drowsiness in their eyes away.
Audible gulps were heard as the four exchanged looks and smiled weirdly.
This must be providence.
…
In light custom gear of fit leather pants, and a white vest with a long-sleeve shirt beneath it, Lexia skipped into the private backyard of the castle.
With long black hair in a ponytail and a sheathed rapier to her waist, she was the embodiment of adorable yet diligent.
Two months of arduous training and oftentimes joining the old head steward as he handles the daily affairs of the baron's territory of over a dozen towns and twenty settlements in the domain slowly allowed this lass to mature up.
As the intensity of her training increased, she was gradually peeking into the dark corners of the domain and its hideous and yet unfortunately, true nature.
She thought the war was cruel only to learn the opposite. War was just a stage that allowed this cruelty to come to light. She was also let in on the details of the most recent skirmish of the two kingdoms that wasted the lives of 10,000 people, leaving only her brother and Lady Jean of the viscount's castle alive.
With a bit of fantasy and lies sprinkled onto the story, Kevin made it into an epic saga where he almost never made it back since he had no one to rely on and brave the danger with him. He was there all alone in the heart of thousands of people who wanted him dead, striving tooth and nail for survival at the cost of killing someone else.
Lexia was always on edge hearing about it, feeling anxious and scared.
Most people only understood the horror of death and war after becoming a first-hand victim of it. If her father and two brothers were around, her little mind wouldn't have the capacity to understand what 'death' in a war meant.
Although her mother Laura was gone, she knew inside that the woman was alive.
Somewhere in the world she was breathing and eating.
'No wonder nig brother was so harsh on me,' Lexia pondered to herself as she walked into the garden. As she awakened as a novice mage with her third eye— her intelligence and mental capacity skyrocketed prematurely.
Many things previously incomprehensible to a child of her age; thirteen, were now crystal clear in her eyes. That didn't mean she was smart enough to understand complicated patterns such as political storms, but she understood the concept of profit and gain; survival of the fittest.
Then, she started pondering over the words her brother said last night before sleeping; "people sometimes kill not because they want to, but because they had to."
The shuffling noise of crushed leaves on the ground aroused her from her stupor, confused and alarmed. She knew this wasn't her brother; he wouldn't make much noise if any at all.
Even she with her little weeks of training subconsciously evaded the conspicuous areas such as irregular terrain concealed by leaves or anything otherwise deterring of clear imagery.
This was a precautionary drill to veer from the uncertainty and unclear.
If it wasn't her big brother… Who was it? This is a private ground!
A secret training haven!
She turned her eyes to the side as these thoughts whirled in her mind in but the space of a split second, her eyes widening at the sight of four men scampering together while pushing through the cold, snow-laced foliage.
The four were also caught aback to find someone in the dim hours of dawn loitering about in the desolate backyard, let alone a little girl.
Gloomy silence pervaded the scene for a moment. Then, it happened.
With sharp glints in their paranoiac eyes, the flour split with staggering yet quick footsteps to surround the girl. Sharp objects of irregular shapes were in each of their hands, their edges stabbing into the flesh of the four as blood sprinkled on the snow and blossomed like jasmines. Horrifying they seemed— disheveled hair and red eyes. Fetsered dark skin not from sunlight but mud and dirt; reeking of a foul odor leaving none with the intent to guess its source.
"Do we take her with us?"
"We can barely carry our own, let alone a vively lass!"
"What should we do then?"
The three to her flanks and front held up their sharp weapons and conversed in a voice high enough for Lexia to hear, leaving her baffled.
She was right there listening to them discussing how should they dispose of her body after killing or knocking her unconscious.
Her body slightly quivered at the mere thought, opting to listen and perhaps come to a compromise; they looked scared and pitiful.
"How did you—..."
"Gah!"
She was about to ask how they ended up in this state and this place when the fourth guy and out of nowhere lunged at her from the back.
The thick layer of snow crumbling beneath his footfall wasn't particularly loud but it was crisp and clear to her ears. She turned her head around with a blank mind just to glimpse a translucent shard of glass looming over head.
Reflexively she dodged despite her clouded state of mind, swatting away at the shard with her palm, just like she shouldn't have.
Splash!
Skin tore open as the man staggered to his brothers and fell into their formation, cursing while his hand shook.
"Fuck! I was close!"
The other three caught him and their eyes went from confused to rigidly cold.
Drip! Dip! Drip!
To the side, Lexia stared dumbfoundedly at her palm as it bled away into the snow, fear, and pain settling in as she shrieked her lungs out with a sharp cry that shook the ears of the three.
"Fuck! Quick, kill her!"