Though Domitor managed to push back the other armies, the Court-Mage still needed to make up for the numbers the king had so foolishly lost in the previous years. Thus it was declared that all able-bodied citizens of Domitor would be conscripted.

  Among them was Leía Anóitos, a black-furred female lykan-beastkin with steel-blue eyes living in Pótami, a small village which was built at the shores of the violent river érimosekeí, which separated Domitor from Ceruceil, and near the foot of the Xifídio-mountain-range in the west.

  Leía was the daughter of the former knight-captain Ophelia Sklíros, who had the same pitch-black fur as her daughter, though her eyes were a fiery orange. After Ophelia's parents were murdered in cold blood for irritating an aristocrat, and the investigation into their murder having been covered up, likely by the one responsible for it, she decided to join the guards to avenge them. She found out that the noble in question was involved in multiple criminal acts, ranging from simple extortion to trading slaves and drug-trafficking, which would lead to his arrest and public execution. Despite her own life becoming endangered as she kept prying where other guards would not dare, she never relented and kept fighting against the injustice caused by those who abused their authority. For her work she would soon be rewarded with knighthood, the first commoner among beastkin to reach this rank without bribing their way up or making use with their connections to other nobles.

  Ophelia would continue to climb the ranks to that of a knight-captain, thus receiving command over a company of 200 knights. These knights became known as the Inquisitors as they moved from city to city to find evidence of those who swore to protect their people neglecting their duties to satisfy their own greed. Among these Inquisitors was Solon of Dóry, who would become Ophelia's husband and Leía's father.

  Some time after Leía was born, Ophelia and her Inquisitors were called to Pethaínontas Choráfia, the border between Subalterne and Yhose, where Edenia had ripped itself out of the ground after the activation of its relic. The reason for them being moved there was a drake wreaking havoc in the area, which was deemed to be a threat to nearby settlements. It was during this fight, when Solon lost his life and Ophelia was gravely injured, forcing her to retire from her duties as a knight completely, with the command over her company being transferred to her right hand, Knight-Lieutenant Nkríkyr Próta Paláti, who was better known under his nickname, Kree.

  Though Ophelia had recovered from her injuries since then, some wounds even time could not heal, which was why she was currently arguing with her daughter.

  “I know how shit goes down there! This order reeks of someone trying to move some cannon-fodder to the front lines!”, Ophelia growled as she looked at the paper on the table.

  “I don't have much of a choice here. It's either me following the order, or they come here and find out that you could just as well join me.”

  “Let them! I will gladly take your place! And you, take Sara and make a run for it! If they try to follow you, I will keep them busy! My old comrades and I will make sure you cross the border without trouble!”

  “And where to? We can't go to Merdelum, and I sure as hell won't try to make it over the river to Ceruceil.”

  “...why not? If we do it right, Ceruceil might-”

  “NO! I can't risk Sara's life just for a chance to get out of this order. And what about Iason? I won't let my husband fight on the front lines while I'm hiding in some desert like a coward!”

  “This is no cowardice! It's survival!”

  “If father told you to stay back with me, would you have done it?”

  Leía's last sentence hit Ophelia as if her daughter had slapped her in the face. She had blamed herself for her husbands death because she underestimated the danger a blue-scaled drake had posed. However, if she knew what she was in for, would she have stayed back? Would she have told her husband to stay back? She had no answer.

  “I-...”, Ophelia tried to bring out words, but failed.

  Before either of them could continue, the door swung open, revealing a grey-furred lykan in the armour of Domitor's knights.

  “Lady Anóitos, the carriage to Veloth has arrived.”

  “Thank you, Kree. I'm sorry mother. I have made up my mind.”

  “Kree! Help me out here! Tell her that we can escort her and Sara to Ceruceil!”, Ophelia pleaded, but her former subordinate could not meet her gaze.

  “I am sorry, Lady Sklíros, there is nothing I can do.”

  Seeing as not even her former comrade was on her side, Ophelia stumbled backwards into her chair and buried her face in her paws in defeat.

  “I will return. I promise. Antío, mitéra.”, Leía assured her, before walking out of the house.

  Her daughter, Sara, who due to her black fur and orange eyes looked like a younger version than her grandmother, and her best friend, the white-furred male lykan Haris, who had their ears pressed to the walls to listen in on the conversation, fell over out of surprise as they saw Sara's mother and Kree leave their home. Leía, who spotted them, immediately sprinted towards her daughter to embrace her one last time before leaving, as she did not know when she would be able to return.

  “Sara, you have to be strong now, okay? I will be gone for a while to join your father for work, so giagiá Ophelia will be watching over you until we are back, okay?”

  “...do you really have to go?”, Sara asked her, and Leía could hear the sadness in her voice, which almost made her break down right then and there. However, she could not show her daughter that she was afraid, so she fought back the tears with all her might.

  “Yeah, but I will be back really soon.”

  “You promise?”

  “Yeah, I promise! And once we are back, you, me, and your father are going on a vacation together, so you have to promise to be good and don't cause giagiá Ophelia too much trouble, okay?”

  “Okay mamá, I promise.”

  “Good. And you, Haris, make sure she keeps it, okay?”, she said to the white-furred lykan child with a grin as she broke up the hug, who nodded his head.

  “Yes, Miss Leía!”

  “And stay out of trouble as well, you hear me?”, she continued as she ruffled the fur on his head.

  “Yes, Miss Leía!”

  Having said her farewells, Leía followed Kree to the carriage. However, before she could get in, she was tackled from behind by her mother, who gave her a bear hug.

  “Fuck. If either of you croak I will personally step down into hell and drag your asses back, ya hear me? So you'd better come back alive!”, Ophelia growled with tears in her eyes, before letting her go. Leía turned around to hug her mother as well, before finally entering the carriage.

  “Kree! Keep her safe!”, Ophelia yelled out, which was met by Kree giving her a salute.

  “I'll watch her as if she was my daughter.”, he assured her, before jumping on the carriage, and the two made their way towards Veloth.

  5 months would pass, with an occasional letter being sent to Pótami, which Ophelia would read out loud to Sara as soon as they arrived. Leía and Iason would talk in them about how they missed Sara, and about how they were likely to return soon if things kept on going as they were, as Domitor managed to gain some ground in Merdelum, where they were stationed.

  However, one day, the letters stopped. At first, Ophelia believed that they might have actually been on their way back home, though as Kree's carriage returned in the 6th month, she could instinctively feel that something was wrong, especially since Kree was followed by 10 other knights who walked beside the carriage, 5 on each side, each carrying a wooden box. The armour of the knights was heavily damaged, and they each looked as if they went through hell.

  “No...no! NO!”, Ophelia cried out as she recognized what a procession such as this one meant, and stormed out of the house.

  “KREE! POU EíNAI I KóRI MOU;”, Ophelia bellowed in the Language of Nature as she ran towards him. Kree stopped the procession and jumped of the carriage.

  “APANTISTE MOU!”, she screamed as she picked him up by his throat.

  “Ti-... ti vríkame etoimothánati, dípla ston ántra tis. D-den boroúsame na kánoume típota. Lypámai.”, he croaked, as the metal of his helmet began to heat up where Ophelia had grabbed him.

  “YOU BASTARD!”, she screamed at him before punching him in the stomach, the force of the punch breaking the already damaged armour he wore.

  “YOU SAID YOU WOULD WATCH OVER HER!”, the second punch through him into the carriage, destroying it in the process. Ophelia immediately jumped after him, but was stopped by the 10 other knights, who had carefully placed the wooden coffins on the floor. However, the exhausted and broken knights were no match for the raging berserk, who threw them out of her way with ease.

  “LIKE SHE WAS YOUR OWN DAUGHTER!”, she continued, as Kree tried to escape from her.

  “Calm down! There is more to this than-”

  “...did you just tell me to calm down?”, Ophelia growled, as her claws and teeth started to emit steam and her eyes turned wild.

  “You bring me the corpses of my daughter and her husband, AND TELL ME TO CALM DOWN?”, the last part of her sentence was emphasized by flames coming out of her maw, making her look like she was in the process of turning into a dragon.

  However, before she could start to tear Kree limb from limb, a barely audible voice rang out to her.

  “Giagiá? Why are you fighting theíos Kree?”, the shaky voice of Sara asked, who wanted to know what all that noise was.

  Ophelia immediately turned her head to look at Sara, and the fear in her granddaughter's eyes immediately caused her rage to dissipate, as did the heat in her claws and maw. Ophelia walked towards Sara, who slowly backed away from her, as she was still filled with fear and confusion about what had just happened. Her grandmother managed to close the distance almost immediately though, and before Sara could ask once more what was going on, she was picked up in an embrace.

  This only added to her confusion, though as Sara noticed that her grandmother was crying, she asked her again.

  “Giagiá?”

  “Sara...Sara, your parents...they...they...”, Ophelia tried to answer her between sobs, but she could not finish the sentence. Despite this, however, Sara managed to pick up what Ophelia tried to tell her.

  “Are they...gone?”, she asked as tears swelled up in her eyes as well. A barely noticeable nod from her grandmother was all it took before she broke down as well and buried her face in her grandmother's shoulder.

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  Some among the other villagers, who had been attracted by the noise as well, immediately went to help Ophelia and Sara as they found out what happened, and helped them back inside their home, so they could process the events without being disturbed. Harris, who knew what Sara was going through, as he too had lost his parents not too long ago, decided to stay with them, as the other villagers helped the knights in retrieving Kree from the remnants of his carriage. One of the knights asked him if he would tell Ophelia what they had found, though Kree answered, that they should let them grief in peace for a day, before being escorted to a doctor, as Ophelia had managed to break multiple bones in his body.

  On the next day, the villagers started to carry supplies for the grieving family together, and Kree decided it was time to talk with Ophelia. He knocked on the door of her house, but no one answered. As he tried to open it, a hoarse female voice stopped him.

  “Go away. I'm in no state to talk right now.”

  “Lady Sklíros, it is-”, Kree started to speak as he opened the door, though this time, the shattering of a glass bottle thrown at the door stopped him.

  “Fuck off, Kree. You're the last one I want to see. I might actually rip your head off this time if you open that door.”

  “...very well. I will stay outside. Will you at least listen?”, he pleaded.

  “...no. No, I don't think I will.”

  “It is about how they died.”

  His last words were followed by a silence which he did not dear to break, leading him to wait for a response. After what felt like forever, another response.

  “Get in.”, came the answer from Ophelia, and he stepped into the house.

  There, sitting at a table in the middle of the room, was Ophelia, a glass filled with clear liquid in her hand, and 5 empty bottles strewn across the table. The last time Kree had seen his former captain in a similar position, she had woken up to find her husband gone. However, this time, she seemed even worse off, with the fur in her face matted by her tears, her eyes were swollen and fixated seemed to stare into a distant place, not focusing on any of her surroundings. The smell of strong alcohol hung in the air, and the glass fragments of the bottle she had thrown at the door crunched under his feet as he made his way further in, before sitting at the table across her.

  Ophelia downed the liquid in her glass in one gulp, before loudly placing it on the table with a bit too much force, though not hard enough to break the glass or the table.

  “What is it?”

  “Please, I want you to let me finish what I am about to say. You may rip my head off afterwards if that makes you feel better, but you have to know the truth.”

  “Speak.”

  Ophelia's eyes now started to pierce Kree like those of a predator eyeing its prey, as the room seemed to start heating up around her. The pressure he felt exuded by the presence of his former captain was immense, but he forced himself to speak calmly and without wavering in his tone, as he knew his next words were of the highest importance.

  “As you might have gathered from the letters, the Inquisitors ensured that your daughter and her husband could stay out of combat as much as possible. This we managed to keep up until recently, as a message had reached us of a battalion helmed by 2 of Merdelum's Zodiac Knights approaching our position within the week. As soon as our troop heard that the Blue Wolf and the White Tiger were on their way, we immediately planned for the immediate evacuation of all regular soldiers, so us knights could intercept them and give the others time to reach our nearest military outpost. However, something out of our hands changed that plan:

  The regular soldiers were not able to run away.

  At first, we simply believed them to be affected by shell shock, so we prepared for surrender, so they could at least become prisoners of war. To our horror, this turned out to be impossible as well.”

  “What do you mean?”, Ophelia asked, her gaze slowly turning from searing hatred to confusion.

  “They were physically and mentally incapable of both retreat and surrender. The other knights and I tried anything we could, we even took their weapons by force and tied them up, but those whose arms we bound started to chew through their shoulder to free themselves, and, once we ourselves cut the ropes holding them back, immediately assumed position once more.”

  “Oh come on, it's not like you to lie your way out of responsibility with such tall tales! I expect better of you than-”, Ophelia started to mock his story, but he held up his paw to silence her.

  “Ophelia, they used the Mark of Obedience on them. Every single one of the forced conscripts had it. We checked them all.”

  Ophelia just stared at him.

  “You can't mean...nah, I don't believe it. You're lying!”, she accused him, as her eyes turned wide.

  “I think they don't even knew what it was when they received it. They each had it in places one would not normally look by oneself. Your daughter her shoulder-blades, her husband on the back of his head.”

  “Impossible. The logistics of it alone would-”

  “You can check for yourself. The Mark is still there.”

  This caused Ophelia's wrath to be kindled anew, leading to her shattering the table in front of her with a single punch. Kree flinched and jumped out of the chair, but Ophelia pointing at him kept him from running out of the room.

  “Kree, I swear on heaven and hell, if you are lying to me, I will strangle you with a burning iron chain.”, she barked at him, before standing up.

  “Now lead the way.”

  As Kree led Ophelia to where they had put the coffins, Ophelia noticed that Kree was missing both one of his arms and an ear. However, she did not comment on his wounds as they continued walking.

  As they arrived at the Mausoleum of Pótami, where dead bodies were held until they were sent on their final journey, Kree motioned for her to go in on her own, as he would wait for her judgement outside.

  “As I said. Do what you must. However, if you are willing to listen afterwards, I will wait here, as there are more things to discuss.”

  Ophelia stepped into the mausoleum, she was greeted with a hall of polished black and white marble, which made it look grey. She remembered the last time she had been here, thus not needing directions to find what she came for.

  There, at the end of the hall, where the names of those who passed through these halls, which decorated the walls of the hall, had yet to reach the end, they laid next to each other in their wooden coffins, the lids of which had been removed.

  Seeing the lifeless body of her daughter just lying there as if asleep, filled her with a surreal feeling. Despite having fallen in battle, the only indicator that she was indeed dead was a wound were her heart should be. Ophelia felt as if her daughter could sit up any moment, and tell her of a dream she had on the way here. Tell her, that it was just a sick joke, that she had actually returned with a rather dark sense of humour, and wanted to scare her. However, Ophelia knew that these thoughts were futile. Her daughter would not return. She would not talk to her again. She would not see her again.

  “God damn it, Leía. And you too, Iason. I told you, joining the guards will bring nothing but trouble. What am I going to do now without the both of you? What is Sera going to do?”, she whispered, as she looked at the two.

  If Ophelia had tears left in her, she would have broken down and cried her heart out. However, maybe due to the alcohol, she just felt numbness at the sight before her. After just standing there for a while, she decided to check if Kree told the truth. Seeing as she could not bring herself to touch the body of her dead daughter, she decided to check the head of Iason instead. She crouched next to him and carefully picked up the head of her son in law, and immediately dropped it after laying her eyes on what she saw. Not a sound escaped her, as she moved on to her daughter, who she decided to check as well, as she needed to be sure. This time, however, she was as gentle as she could be while laying her back down again, as if tucking her in to sleep for one last time. She kissed her daughter on the head, then stood up and left the mausoleum.

  Once outside, she ignored Kree and simply walked towards the foot of the mountain-range at the border of the village. As she reached the mountains, she walked towards a large stone cliff, and started to wail against it with her fists as she screamed and yelled to rid herself of the grief and wrath which had bottled up inside her. As Kree caught up to her, he found her sitting on the ground while panting heavily and her entire body shaking, both of her paws bloodied, and an impact-crater the size of a house in the cliff behind her.

  “Looks like the mountain won this time, huh?”, she joked grimly, as Kree hastily made his way towards her to help her back up.

  “Bring me to the doc so he can fix my claws, and tell me what the fuck happened. In detail.”, she growled at him, and Kree obeyed.

  At the healer's office, where her wounds were the damage she accrued while punching the cliff were completely restored, Kree began to explain how her daughter's life came to an end.

  He told her how they had returned the weapons to the soldiers, and tried their best to fend off Merdelum's army. However, not even the knights stood a chance against the unstoppable force that were the White Tiger and Blue Wolf of Merdelum. All but 21, including Kree, of the 200 Inquisitors fell at their hands, as did most of the civilians, as they were forced to fight until their last breath.

  Ophelia listened to his story without interjection, her head buried in her freshly bandaged paws.

  “I saw the Blue Wolf stand before a group of civilians, trying to incapacitate them to the best of her abilities, but they just kept attacking, even as their bodies started to fail them. She even pleaded for them to lay down their arms so they could be captured alive, but it was all for nothing. If not for the Mark, at least 90% of us would have probably survived the encounter, but in the end, only those who became physically incapable of moving and 19 of my comrades were still alive.

  The White Tiger and Blue Wolf interrogated those among us who were still conscious, and, upon finding out what happened, immediately started to order their troops to retreat, with the exception of some healers, who were to mend our wounds enough so we could retreat. They even helped us load the fallen on carts, so we could take them with us. Then they left, without another word spoken. 10 of us returned to Veloth, but the rest decided to take your kin with us on the last journey home.”

  After Kree had finished talking, Ophelia kept sitting in front of him without moving, her face still hidden from view, as she was contemplating about his words. Finally, as Kree wanted to ask her what she was thinking about, she spoke.

  “Kree, I need a favour from both you, and the other knights.”

  This took him by surprise.

  “A favour?”

  “I will be gone for a while, and I need someone to watch over Sara in the meantime. Can you do that for me?”

  “What do you mean? Are you trying to-”

  “Kree! I asked you of this favour, not for your input in the matter.”

  Kree knew that she was out for revenge, but he knew as well that even if he tried to stop her, she could just run through him as if it was nothing. However, he would not be able to live on if he did not at least try to make her see reason.

  “I implore you to think this over!”

  “I'm not gonna go on a rampage through the capital, if that's what you think. Neither am I gonna cross Merdelum for revenge. This takes more finesse than I'm capable of. No, I'm thinking of joining the Liberators.”

  “To be honest, I believe this idea to be worse than what I feared.”, Kree said as he looked at her as if she had gone mad.

  The Liberators were an organisation aiming to free Subalterne from Domitor's control by getting rid of key figures among soldiers and nobility. They named themselves after the 7 Liberators of Moros, which defended the Divine Tribes against the monsters which emerged after the Great Cataclysm. However, unlike the heroes whose name they assumed, the reputation of the Liberators was far from heroic.

  “The Liberators are nothing more than disorganized murderers. During their entire 700 years of existence, the only change they brought forth was harsher rules and more frequent controls by guards due to their incompetence.”, Kree explained in a disgusted tone.

  “That just means they are missing someone who knows what they're doing, right? Those idiots asked me to join for a while now, think I won't be able to bash some sense into them?”

  “That's not...”, Kree tried to respond, but he was quickly interrupted.

  “Oh, and I'll be taking command of those who went to Veloth. Hope you don't mind.”, she continued with a malicious grin forming on her lips.

  “Are you seriously trying to turn the crown against you even though we found out how far they are willing to go?”, Kree shouted, as she sprang up from his chair.

  “No, I'm doing it because I've seen what they are doing. I'll leave after the funeral. If Sara asks, I'm out hunting. Not the first time I'd be gone for a while. I'll make sure to return every few months with some meat so she doesn't get suspicious.”, Ophelia responded, as she slowly rose from her own seat.

  After the funeral, Ophelia immediately left for Veloth, where she joined the Liberators together with the 10 knights of her former company. In the span of the next 3 months, Ophelia immediately took command over the organisation, and started to restructure it from the ground up. The first thing she did was expelling the current leaders of the Liberators, the Lióntari twins Castor and Pollux Achórtagos, who had made a name for themselves as the Fog of Death, as they used sorceries producing a thick fog-cloud to hide from their assassination-targets.

  The reason for Ophelia's actions was the complete disregard Castor and Pollux seemed to have for the lives of others, as they tended to use other members and even children to lure out potential victims. This often resulted in heavy casualties on the side of the Liberators just to get rid of a few seemingly important people, which in reality would leave no impact at all.

  At first, Ophelia was met with heavy resistance by the other members of the Liberators, but one quick look into the cellars of their headquarters, to which only Castor and Pollux had the key, instantly changed most of their minds. Stepping into the room, one was immediately hit with the stench of rotting meat and blood. The next thing one would notice was that the walls were decorated with shelves, containing preserved organs, and hunting-trophies mounted on the walls themselves, one for each race of the Divine Tribes, as well as one for each beastkin-race. In the middle of the room was an operating table next to small tables, on which multiple instruments, such as scalpels, tweezers, and syringes, were placed in a row. On the operating table was a partially dismantled corpse, which seemed to be the origin of the stench. The knights under Ophelia's command would later remove the contents of the room and bury them in the forest, before walling the room itself off so nobody would ever be able to use it again.

  As Ophelia knew that the twins were likely to cause trouble for her as retaliation for kicking them out, she moved the headquarters of the Liberators elsewhere, and, instead, stationed those who still opposed her in the old location to wait for orders.

  Meanwhile, Castor and Pollux staged an assassination attempt with King Beorn V. as their target, who was currently using Veloth as his main residence, as Veloth's close proximity to the frontlines and already existing military-facilities ensured a more efficient system of relaying orders. Everything went exactly as they planned, and the two were quickly captured by the king's knights, before being thrown before the Court-Mage for questioning.

  The twins immediately started to bargain with the Yellow-Clad Mage, as they wanted to continue to murder as they pleased, though this time, they would do so in service of the crown. As bonus, they would hand over all information about the Liberators. The Court-Mage agreed, though only under the condition that they would take on the slave-crest and be turned into Death-Row-Knights, to which they agreed. However, as they wanted to take revenge on the one who forced them to leave the Liberators themselves, they omitted all information about Ophelia Sklíros.

  Thus, when the day came on which the headquarters were raided, only the weakest links of the Liberators were found and taken to be turned into cannon-fodder for the war. Fearing that they would be aiming for her family next, Ophelia decided to move the headquarters of the Liberators to Pótami, where she could keep an eye on Sara while continuing her work.

  As soon as she had settled back in her old village, she sent out a message to Merdelum, so they could work together in finally ending this war for good.

  On the 20th of Terra, 1773 Eternum, Merdelum sent their answer.