In The Past (New parts added!)

[Brett]

The clatter of the book hitting the floor echoed through the Priory library. Léona looked down from the short step ladder she was using to reach the tallest shelves with a frown, surprised to find herself faced with a raven haired young man brushing the book off carefully and then holding it up to her with a polite smile.

"Thank you." She uttered quietly, taking the book and sliding it into the empty spot on the shelf.

"You're welcome." He replied, then walked by carrying a small collection of books under his arm.

---

Veran placed a hand up to shield himself from the sun's glare, cursing that he'd chosen a summer's day to perform his task. The small township of Wizard's Fief was just ahead and the sun was high in the sky, making the cliffs that flanked to the east and west useless for shade. The sleepy township was on the water's edge in an alcove, really it was quite the pretty and ideal place to live, out of the way and peaceful.

"Halt!" A guard called, looking out of place surrounded by earth elementals. "State your business."

"Lord Veran Ravon," he greeted, bowing politely and showing his signet along with a sealed letter baring the seal of the Krytan ministry. "I'm here on official business."

That was of course a lie, he was here on no such thing but The Masquerade had people in high places everywhere, swinging one ministry approved parchment was hardly difficult. The guard looked at the seal, then the signet he wore baring two unicorns facing one another and nodded, House Ravon were an old family of Ascalonian heritage and their name still carried weight.

"Go ahead, my lord." He bowed politely, letting Veran pass by.

With a polite nod he passed into the township. It felt odd introducing himself by Veran again, he had long since gone by Krell to the world, a way of ensuring his fellows of The Masquerade had a harder time discovering his identity - he enjoyed his privacy. His target was a young woman, he was to do away with her and locate certain artifacts in her possession, honestly he felt for her to have the ire of his peers.

Proceeding through the town he came to the house he would find her, knocked and waited patiently. When she opened the door however he froze, looking more than a little surprised to see who stood there, he was sure she was meant to be dead - he recalled attending the memorial at Lord Vigil's request. But here she was alive and well, Léona Vigil, he would recognise her anywhere.

"Good afternoon," he said quietly, unable to help himself staring. "You aren't who I expected."

"Lord... Ravon?" She asked, not looking best pleased that he of all people had arrived on her doorstep. "What - What are you doing here?"

He froze. He knew his orders and yet there was no way he could go through with them, for a start he liked the Vigil family especially when you considered his older brother didn't, but more importantly he had always had a soft spot for Léona even back when they had barely spoken passing one another in the Priory library. Finally he smiled, he would just make up a lie, he was good at those.

"I was told that someone I knew was living here and I was on the road in need of a place to stay," he explained, then lowered his gaze some. "Of course this isn't what I expected."

"I see."

"If I'm imposing, I can go." He added quickly, "clearly there's something going on here you don't want getting out."

"No!" She exclaimed, then halted herself at the outburst. "No, come in."

Veran hesitated briefly, then nodded and stepped across the threshold into the admittedly cosy home, hardly the luxury of the manor he knew she had grown up in but comfortable and with a good view of the ocean. He heard the door close behind him and turned, smiling at her politely and with a mixture of emotions in his purple eyes, relief of course at seeing her alive but also concern knowing his peers were after her for some reason he hadn't quite been able to learn yet.

"Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, thank you."

[Brett]

Tea had become a room for the night on what he claimed was his road to business in Rata Sum on behalf of the Priory, the two had spoken at length that night but the subject of her supposed death never came up. The next day Veran departed Wizards' Fief and set off on the road, he didn't return to The Masquerade as he should have but rather felt compelled to continue on to Rata Sum - lying to Léona felt wrong somehow.

Two weeks later Veran found himself looking upon Wizards' Fief once again, he was on the way back from Rata Sum and had felt welcome here, so would request a room for the night during his return trip to the Priory - or that was what he'd claim anyway. Thus began a year long tradition of planned trips to places that he knew Wizards' Fief wasn't far out of the way from, always stopping by Léona's for a play to stay on the road where he was always made to feel welcome.

With time he began to stay with her for longer periods, until eventually he found he was effectively living in the town inn, citing that he enjoyed the quiet for his research - then made sure he kept a good number of interesting books with him that would make prime research material. Truthfully he did do a great deal of work while there, sometimes she would even help with it when she wasn't busy with her own work, this naturally piqued his interest but he never pushed the issue.

By now a year had come and passed, a freak storm had done some damage to the town and Veran had decided to pitch in, he was hanging upside down off a scaffold helping nail in large planks of wood to patch up a hole in a wall when Léona came along. She watched him for a moment, then an impish grin flashed across her face and with her magic carried herself so that she'd teleport right next to him on the scaffold and stun him to the point he nearly tumbled right off the side. He was rather jarred, she apparently found it hilarious.

"Bloody hell, Léona!" he exclaimed, having pushed himself back up over the scaffold. "I could have fallen."

"Who would've thought Lord Ravon to be one for hard labour." She teased, that grin still on her face.

Veran gave her a half-hearted scowl and moved to sit on the scaffold properly, facing her with the hammer resting beside him. She in turn simply poked her tongue out at him some, then vanished before his eyes to teleport back down below, with a sigh he rubbed some of his black hair from his face and returned to work. Fortunate for him, the plank he'd been nailing was half-done and so hadn't just fallen down to hang to one side.

"Don't push yourself too hard, my lord!" She called up jovially, vanishing into her house before he could muster a response.

Four days later Veran returned to his room at the inn to find Léona already there waiting for him, he smiled upon seeing her and she looked up from one of his collection of books that she was reading, returning the smile with more warmth than he'd admittedly seen from her before. She patted the chair next to her, seeming to be wanting to tell him something and he obliged by sitting, obvious curiosity plastered across his face. Léona replaced the book she was reading and then turned toward him, looking him in the eyes and then gazing down at her hands.

"I think it's time I told you the truth," she said quietly, "about why I'm really out here."

Had he still remembered his ties to The Masquerade he might have been more excited by this revelation than he was, but instead he just frowned and nodded wordlessly for her to proceed. There was silence that followed, before she suddenly rose from her chair and went to go toward the door, obviously having cold feet on the matter.

"Sorry, forget I came." She insisted.

"Léona, wait." He replied, grasping her arm a little more firmly than he'd intended.

Everything happened quickly then, she pushes her arm out with unnatural force the likes of which surprised him, throwing him backwards into the nearby cabinets. He collided with them hard and landed on the ground with a loud thud, followed by Léona running over looking worried and apologetic, obviously not having meant to do what she'd done.

"Veran, I'm sorry!" She cried, frantically trying to help him up and then freezing while staring at something lying with a few of his belongings on the ground.

"It's fine," he insisted, pausing to notice her gaze and then turning to look at what she had seen but somehow he knew from the sickening feeling in his stomach. There beside him lay his mask, the symbol of The Masquerade with the symbol of the Ace of Clubs emblazoned upon the right cheek.

"You're one of them..." She murmured, pulling away from him obviously too shocked to do much else.

"Léona, I can explain. I was one of them, but I haven't had any contact -"

"So that was the game? Get me to trust you and then get the kill?!"

"No..."

Before he could say anymore she'd fled the room, but for a moment the rage and pain on her face looked like she might have attacked him while he was down, surely getting a killing blow judging by that unnatural might she'd just wielded. Veran stared at the door unmoving, everything had come crashing down all of a sudden, a year of what had felt a little like a dream haze was brought crashing back to reality in moments.

Veran was packed up by that evening and departed without a word to anybody, pausing only to pay the innkeeper what she was due. The rain had hit again that night, another storm was coming in likely but it didn't matter, with dusk closing rapidly he pulled the hood of his travelling cloak over his head and continued on the road. He likely wouldn't be back in Wizards' Fief again, it was also unlikely he would ever seen Léona again lest she killed him the next time.

The hard falling rain was sobering, he had never gotten to tell her how he felt but for a while there he almost felt she had begun to feel the same. Undeniably, he was in love with Léona and perhaps it had been love for him that had stayed her hand in the inn, not that it mattered anymore.

"I'm sorry, Léona."

Reaching inside his travelling cloak he pulled out the mask, placing it on for the first time in a little over a year.

[Brett]

Six months after Veran had left Wizards' Fief a small collection of figures gathered in the night on the outskirts, their masks visible from just beneath the hoods of their travelling cloaks. They had finally caught up with her despite Veran's best efforts, placing a false trail and feeding false leads to the organization, it had all eventually been futile. He wasn't among the group who were effectively a hit squad, here to finally take Léona out of the picture as he was meant to have done long ago.

The four man team moved toward the town silently, their illusions fooling the guards easily enough, that was the way the organization operated - silently and with minimal casualties beyond those necessary to reach the target. Léona wasn't home as they quickly discovered but rather she was across the water on the small grassy bay, overlooking the water and reading by candlelight. The group made their way toward her, silently teleporting across the short stretch of water, now they were away from the town which made things easier.

They adopted positions and then struck all are once, a fairly large burst of chaotic energy being launched toward Léona, who with the reflexes of a cat practically shielded herself and took the brunt of the assault head on. Her staff in hand, she found herself surrounded by the four, stuck on her rock with her book having falling from her hand and slid down the edge of the cliff. She had been bracing herself for this assault ever since Veran had left, but the fact it had taken so long surprised her and also fed the belief in the back of her mind she had perhaps been wrong to jump to conclusions so quickly.

"She's as powerful as we expected." One said, raising his twin swords ready to begin a full scale assault.

"Then we will have to use the artifact." Another hissed, clutching a staff firmly in her hands.

The group nodded, then the one on the end drew out what looked like a normal flintlock pistol, taking aim at Léona and squeezing the trigger. Just at that same moment, a burst of chaotic energy swept across the ground and struck all four of the attackers, sending them flying backwards and causing the pistol that was fired to miss its mark completely, flying harmlessly out to sea as the four of them collided with the wall of rocks behind them. Veran swept his greatsword up onto his shoulder, looking at the four without his mask on and a look of fury.

"A Mesmer?" Groaned one of them, pushing herself up and reaching for her scepter.

"Wait, I recognise that greatsword..." The one with dual-swords said, already back on his feet using one sword to prop himself up.

"You won't have a chance to tell anyone that," Veran said, looking at Léona. "Léona, kill them now!"

Caught between confusion and surprise, Léona lifted her staff and unleashed a barrage of air magic, the lightning striking the four with such force that it literally obliterated them - those immortals powers sure did come in handy. Veran let out a sigh of relief and lowered his greatsword so that the point was in the ground, leaning on the handle and panting a little showing he was exhausted, apparently he'd run quite a distance to get there on time. He looked over at Léona, not sure what to say but he couldn't take his eyes off her, it felt like years rather than months since he'd last seen her.

Léona was all of a sudden marching toward him, the look on her face made his heart skip a beat in worry, but when she reached him she merely dropped her staff and with a mighty swipe and a clap that echoed a little slapped him hard around the face. Stunned by the act, he was even more shocked when she then threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, not just a small kiss either but a long and deeply passionate on that seemed to go on for minutes in his mind but when it broke apart it had barely been ten seconds.

"If you ever go back to them, I really will kill you!" She exclaimed, tears threatening the corner of her eyes.

"I'm not going back." He assured her, trying a half-smile.

With his response she fell against him, his greatsword and her staff ignored on the grass as she buried her face in the crook of his neck, quietly sobbing as six months of emotion poured out all in one go. This left arm wrapped tenderly around her waist and his other hand was slipped into her hair, fingers weaving into it and holding the back of her head in place with the gentle touch of a lover. He let out a small sigh of joyous relief, then leaned his head against hers and closed his eyes, just letting the moment remain.