Lea tugged at the st strap of her jacket, admiring how the new outfit hugged her frame. Sleek lines, reinforced fabric, faint defensive wards stitched in like threads of starlight.

  The third one she'd bought, and easily her favorite. For once, she didn't just look like some scrappy stray... she looked sharp, composed, dangerous. Someone who belonged.

  She let herself grin, imagining the stares she'd get walking through Lacrosa in it, when Auger's voice cut through the moment like a knife.

  "Lea. There is a name."

  Her grin slipped into a frown, "Seriously? You wait until I'm feeling good before you drop one of your grave announcements?"

  Auger's expression remained calm, but his eyes carried weight, "Baron Elric Veynar. He runs an orphan relief fund that the courts praise endlessly. A paragon of charity, at least on paper. In reality, he funnels children into mines and bor camps. His charity is nothing but a mask for svery."

  Lea froze, the words striking deeper than she expected. Her hands tightened around her sleeves, yellow eyes narrowing.

  "...Orphans.", she said quietly, her voice low, yet hostility was already brewing, "Of course it had to be orphans."

  Her mind didn't drift to misery or hunger; her childhood had been simple, ordinary, even happy. The church in her hometown had taken her in, fed her, clothed her, and given her a pce in a community.

  Her memories were filled with sunlight through stained gss, warm bread in the mornings, the quiet comfort of being seen. Unremarkable, maybe, but it had been hers.

  Until Akasha Monodrama came.

  Lea's chest tightened at the thought. The fire, the screams, the twisting unreality that consumed the town. When it was over, there was nothing left... no church, no home, no friends. Just ash and silence. Just her.

  Her lips pressed into a thin line, her voice hardening, "Kids like me deserve a chance to grow up. To have boring, normal days. Not to disappear into chains because some noble needs to fund his lifestyle."

  Auger studied her, silent but intent, as if measuring the resolve in her words.

  The door opened then, breaking the moment. Dawn entered, her gloves crisp but her posture weary, shadows under her eyes betraying another sleepless night.

  "Lea...", Dawn began, her tone clipped but steady, "I need your service tonight. I overheard you guys, Baron Veynar is hosting a ball. I want you as my bodyguard."

  Lea blinked, then gave a short, sharp ugh, "You're serious? Me? In a ballroom, surrounded by ce and nobility?"

  "I don't trust nobles at all, there is a reason why I dropped out of the race for the throne, I don't want to interact with those slimy bastards.", Dawn replied firmly, side eyeing Auger, "You'll blend enough to pass, and more importantly, this is the perfect opportunity for you to kill a pig of a bastard and perform your ritual."

  Lea gnced down at her new jacket, brass trim catching the light. Armor, not just fashion.

  Her childhood had been taken from her once; she wasn't about to let someone else keep doing the same to others.

  "Fine.", she said, her yellow eyes hard with quiet fire, "I'll go. But if Veynar so much as breathes the wrong way, don't expect me to wait for the music to stop."

  Dawn's relief was subtle but real. Auger gave a faint nod of approval.

  Lea straightened, her grin returning, sharper this time, "Guess I'll get to show off the new look after all. And maybe give these nobles a reminder that normal childhoods aren't a privilege. They're right."

  "Then, if fate let it, we shall meet again.", Auger said his goodbyes and walked away.

  =0=0=

  The station buzzed with the noise of whistles, steam, and travelers rushing to catch their cars. Dawn's grip was firm around Lea's wrist, her stride brisk and uncompromising.

  Lea had barely time to protest before she was tugged aboard the polished iron train bound for the capital. She only had breakfast before Dawn dragged her here; it was get and go in an instant.

  Lea flopped into the seat across from her, folding her arms, "You could've at least let me walk on my own. People are staring."

  "Good.", Dawn replied ftly, adjusting her gloves with practiced precision, "Let them stare. It makes you look less like a stray and more like someone who belongs here."

  Lea smirked, though the expression was hidden beneath her mask. The mask was smooth, featureless, save for the bck inkblots that swirled across its surface. They shifted constantly, morphing into shapes and patterns that never stayed still, like thoughts flickering across a mind too fast to follow.

  Dawn's eyes flicked to it, her composure faltering just a fraction, "About that... you should know, the mask works too well. Nobles will look at you and see mystery, menace. Some will find excuses to stay far from you, and others will want to know exactly what you're hiding."

  Lea tilted her head, the inkblots writhing like a living shadow, "So what you're saying is... I'll make an impression. Perfect."

  Dawn sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Just... don't lean into it too much. You're supposed to be my bodyguard, not a nightmare given flesh."

  Lea chuckled, resting an elbow against the window frame as the train lurched forward.

  The countryside blurred past in streaks of green and gold, but her eyes shone like twin embers behind the mask's void.

  "So what's my role, exactly? Just stand behind you and look scary?"

  Dawn shook her head, voice lowering to something more deliberate, like a teacher drilling a lesson. "No. From tonight on, your identity is a Shadow Guard. A personal agent of Auger himself, sent to protect me on his orders. You are silence, steel, and judgment wrapped in one. Nobles will try to pry, but ignore them. You exist for one purpose, to watch, and when needed, strike."

  Lea leaned back, arms crossed, letting the words sink in. The mask's ink twisted into jagged lines, then melted back into shapeless pools, "Shadow Guard, huh? Has a nice ring to it. Makes me sound... important."

  "You are important.", Dawn said sharply, her gaze steady on Lea, "But don't mistake importance for invincibility. Tonight, the ballroom won't be just music and wine; it will be politics, greed, and knives hidden in smiles. Baron Veynar will be there, and men like him always test the boundaries of power."

  Lea tapped a finger against her arm, thoughtful, "And I'm supposed to be your answer to that test."

  "Exactly.", Dawn replied.

  The train rumbled on, smoke trailing past the windows like specters. Lea turned her gaze outside, her reflection faint in the gss, the moving inkblots across her mask twisting endlessly, refusing to settle. She wondered if anyone would be able to look at her tonight and not flinch.

  Her grin widened behind the mask, "Guess we'll find out."

  ...

  The train rattled onward, its rhythm steady, but Lea's focus never wavered. Her emotion radar stretched out through the cabin, brushing against every passenger like threads of silk. Most were calm, people reading, dozing, murmuring in conversation.

  But one stood out.

  Lea froze. Near the rear of the cabin, a man slumped in his seat, his aura a maelstrom of jagged colors. Fear cshed with rage, despair with hunger. It was colpsing inward, spiraling into chaos.

  She had felt this before, the chaotic emotions of an out-of-control Pathstrider, cshing and conflicting with each other... a Horror.

  Her voice was low, tight, "Princess... there's another Pathstrider here. He's unstable, close to turning into a Horror."

  Dawn's eyes sharpened at once, sweeping the carriage before returning to Lea. For a moment, the weight of royalty pressed down on her features.

  Then she leaned in and whispered, steady but heavy, "Shadow Guard. Stop him before he harms anyone."

  Lea's stomach knotted. Her first command, and her first kill.

  She got out of her cabin, checked to see if there were passengers or the train crew near...

  Her parasol felt heavier in her hand, Hastur's bde humming faintly within, hungry. She swallowed and slipped a talisman between her fingers, sending it fluttering toward the man.

  The rune pulsed, casting a haze over his body. Weakness and lethargy affect him in an instant. Seeing him being affected like that, Lea deduced that he must only be on the First Step or have no Material Path.

  She stood, every step measured, the world narrowing until it was only her, him, and the inevitable.

  The man twitched violently, his skin crawling with signs of transformation. It was already starting. Lea's breath caught... no more time.

  Her parasol clicked open and then apart, steel sliding free with a whisper.

  Hastur sang. Severance, Rend, and Rift intertwining in one fatal strike.

  Her bde cut, and the unstable form unraveled before the Horror could be born.

  Silence.

  Lea stood over him, trembling. Her chest rose and fell sharply, the mask hiding the storm in her expression. Relief, horror, but beneath it all was an undeniable exhiration. Hastur's whispers... this is what you are made for. But Lea knew they were her own.

  She quickly cleaned her bde using the corpse's clothes and sheathed her sword. Then returned to her own cabin.

  With her hands stiff, Lea sat beside Dawn, "It's... done."

  Dawn studied her for a long, quiet moment. Then, unexpectedly, she reached out and id a gentle hand on Lea's gloved one.

  "I'm sorry.", Dawn said softly, "I shouldn't have had to make you do that. Not on your first day."

  Her tone wavered just slightly, though her gaze remained steady, "But as royalty, I can't ignore the lives of my people. If he had turned, dozens would have died. That's why I need you, Lea. To do what I cannot."

  Lea swallowed hard, the tension easing just a fraction.

  "I understand...", she whispered, though her heart still pounded.

  Dawn gave her hand a small squeeze before letting go, "You did well. And you protected them."

  Lea sat back, staring at the parasol in her p. The trembling was gone. All that remained was a quiet certainty, and the faint, dangerous thrill that whispered she could do it again.