"Sir, we really need to figure out what to do about the vacancy in the Crimson Lions." Marx added as he continued to pile paperwork in front of the wizard king. He had managed to trap the flighty, yet incredibly powerful mage for the day and he planned to get the most out of his captured charge.

"I told you what to do about that already." Julius Novochrono whined in a manner quite unbecoming for a man of both is age and station. Marx was used to the behavior. The Wizard King tended to get a little testy when he was not allowed the freedom to come and go as he pleased. Unfortunately for Marx, Julius tended to want to go search out new magic more than stay and do his actual work.

"And we've sent the letter-five times to be exact. We have yet to hear back." Marx explained patiently and not for the first time.

"What do you mean?" Julius's pen stopped mid stroke, as if it were the first he had heard of the matter. Marx rolled his eyes

"Exactly what I said. We've sent her letter after letter requesting her presence, that she return to the capital. Frankly I'm tired of writing them. And we have yet to hear back from her. Not a single word. Not even a 'leave me alone', which honestly surprised me."

Julius put down the pen and rubbed his forehead. He took a deep breath and released it with a sigh.

"I knew asking her was never going to be easy." He muttered as he pushed the chair back and stared out of the window.

"The Vice Captain is more than capable of standing in for Fuegoleon until he is able to resume duties." Marx reminded him.

Julius clasped his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels. He knew what Marx said was the truth; Randall was more than competent and an effective leader. Fuegoleon had trained him well. But Julius was concerned. He could not explain why-not to Marx, not to anyone, without them growing suspicious or curious about the events unfolding around them. When Julius's magic had manifested for the first time, he had vowed to keep his knowledge a secret. So far, he had been able to fulfill his self-imposed vow, and he had no intention of breaking it now.

And something with the Crimson Lion Kings' vice captain was… off.

"Things won't be the same without a Vermilion at the head, Marx. I really need her."

"Didn't she leave because she didn't want command, Sir?"

Julius nodded his head. She had never sought power-not political power anyway, but that was not the only reason she left. He stood in silent contemplation for a long moment.

"That's it." Julius turned suddenly and strode across the room to the door. "I'm going to go talk to her."

Marx stared at him, slack-jawed for a moment before protesting.

"But Sir!"

The door slammed shut behind the Wizard King, and Marx shook his head forlornly at the large pile of documents needing to be reviewed.

Julius appeared in the clearing of a forest near one of the boarder towns, as far from the capital as one might be able to get and still technically be in the same kingdom. A small house sat on the edge of the clearing. Julius crossed his arms as he stared at it and sighed. A crashing noise followed by a string of loud curses told him he was in the right place as much as the mana pouring out from the building itself. A burst of flame belched out of the chimney's top and licked a low hanging branch. Buds of fire burst open as tongues of flame ready to devour the branch. Julius raised a hand and dialed back the fire on the branch until it was nothing. The grass beneath his feet turned withered and brown. He took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders and walked toward the door with more confidence than he felt.

He knocked on the door once, then twice. He was about to knock for a third time when he heard her voice.

"I swear to the demon, if this is another messenger from the capital…" The house's occupant complained loudly, loud enough to be heard through the door as she pulled it opened. She stopped when she saw Julius smiling at her. She narrowed her crimson rimmed blue eyes coldly before slamming the door in his face.

Julius's shoulders fell and he shook his head. He had known she would try to ignore him. It wasn't the first time she had done so. He took another deep breath, steeling his nerves to try once more. He knocked again.

"Go away." came the voice from inside the small house. The words were gruff and slurred as they were muffled by the wooden door. Julius walked over to a window in an attempt to peek in. He could not see past the grime on the old glass. He walked back to the door and knocked once more.

She did not answer.

Julius felt he was running out of time, a strange feeling for someone whose domain was time itself. He had to convince her to return to the capital, to take her rightful place, and he had to convince her soon. The threads of time were already starting to unravel and the uncertainty of everything, of every moment right now made him ill at ease.

He knocked again, but this time he didn't stop knocking. He kept rapping at the door in a slow and steady pace, biting his lip in an effort to remain calm. The woman inside the building, the one he was hoping to lure back home, was every bit as wild as an animal. Patience, he reminded himself, patience and gentleness. He knew both could go a long way to coaxing her out. He had learned so long ago. He took a deep breath and continued the slow patient knocking.

"Will you stop that!" She yelled as she pulled the door open and caught his knocking fist in her hand.

"Not until you talk to me, you crazy she-devil."

"What exactly do you have to say that you think I need to hear, you pompous time-steeling windbag?" She crossed her arms over her chest. Her red hair stuck out in a crazed mess, like the dancing flames of a campfire gone out of control. But her eyes were like ice as she glared at him.

"I take it you didn't read any of the letters?"

"Why the hell would I? I left that life for a reason and you know it. Why would I want anything to do with it now?"

Julius took a deep breath and sighed as he kicked the toe of his boot into the ground. Time was slipping away and all his work was starting to fall apart. And Julius Novochrono did not like it one bit.

"Because Fuegoleon's been injured." He met her cold gaze with a serious look of his own.

"Well, the idiot needs to get himself patched up and get back to it." Her words were as cold as her eyes, heartless to anyone else, but he saw how her hand gripped her upper arm and could feel the edge her magic always had shift ever so slightly.

"This isn't a little scratch. He lost his arm. Poof, gone. He's been in stasis for months, Mereo."

"Don't. Call me. That." The edge to her voice shifted dangerously and her magic sparked around them, lighting tiny fires at their feet. Julius sighed as he stamped out one tiny bloom of flame.

"I need, I mean, we need you. The Crimson Lions need you to lead them."

"What about that other idiot? The one Fuego picked as his second?"

Julius knew he would come up, just as he had with Marx. He should have prepared a better answer, but he had none to give. He only knew Randall was not to be trusted in the events to come, though he didn't quite know why.

"The Crimson Lions aren't the same without a Vermilion at the helm." He echoed back what he had told Marx.

Mereoleona scoffed at the statement.

"Then get my father to do it. Or Leopold. He's old enough by now, isn't he?"

"Your father can't remember where he is half the time and Leopold is barely more than a rookie with zero leadership experience." He felt his own anger rising to match her fire. She opened her mouth, but he raised a hand to stop her. "And before you ask, Kirsch is the vice captain of the Coral Peacocks, so I can't tap him to do the job. Besides, do you really want Kirsch ruining the squad's reputation?"

She closed her mouth again as he answered her unspoken question, pressing her lips into a thin line. She seemed to vibrate with indecision as she stared at him. Eventually, she uncurled her arms from over her chest, and Julius could see faint scorch marks where her hand had gripped her sleeve.

"Come in then. Tell me what happened to my idiot brother." She stepped back from the doorway and allowed him to pass her. Julius could feel her eyes boring into his being as he passed her, following him like a predator follows its prey.

"Have a seat." She offered as she closed the door behind them and lit the lamps in the room from where she stood, alleviating the darkness of the small space. Julius perched on the edge of what looked like an old footstool as she took the only real chair in the room. "I'd offer some tea, but I don't have more than one cup, or any tea."

"I didn't come here for pleasantries anyway, Mereoleona."

She smirked in satisfaction at the use of her full name.

"So. What happened?"

"It's not entirely clear, since he's been in stasis since the event, but from what we pieced together, Fuegoleon was abducted during an attack on the capital. He was removed from the battlefield using spatial magic. And when he returned, his arm was missing, along with part of his shoulder and chest." Julius used a hand to draw a line on himself mimicking the wound.

"Missing? It was just gone?"

Julius looked at her hands as they gripped the arms of the chair. He wondered if she was going to shred them like the cat she so often resembled. He nodded.

"Who could do something like that?"

"I'm not sure. Not entirely anyway."

"Is your magic failing you, old man? I thought there was nothing that got past you."

"These people, they… I don't know, it's like the tapestry is becoming unraveled, or it's too loosely woven. I can't see the full picture. What we do know is the attack was staged by a terrorist group we had been investigating for the last few years. They had never done more than a few angry protests or a small scale attack on a border town before. This attack, though, was sophisticated; it had purpose."

Mereoleona's fingernails dragged against the old leather arms of the chair as she gritted her teeth.

"And where were you? What did you do to stop them?"

"I was… I was investigating something else."

"So you weren't there? What kind of irresponsible, idiotic man are you? Wait, don't answer that."

"Mereo…"

"You lost the right to call me that a long time ago, Julius." Her eyes narrowed. Julius ran a hand through his short blonde hair. He cleared his throat before continuing.

"The attack was sophisticated, well timed and well executed. It drew out the captains in the capital and isolated them. When Fuegoleon taken, he was fighting one of the assailants along with a few rookies and Leopold. When he was returned, he was near death. And his necklace was missing, along with his arm."

"His necklace? That old stone Father had given him, the one he never took off?"

Julius nodded.

"It took me a while to put everything together, but I think they targeted him because of the necklace. If it was just an attack against the kingdom or the royal families, why would they have not targeted the Silvas as well? Or Leopold? No; it had to be because of the stone."

"Why? What could they possibly want with that silly old trinket?"

"I don't exactly know. All I know is they are collecting them for something."

"And because of this, my brother, idiot that he is, got himself hurt."

Julius nodded. Mereoleona shook her head in disbelief. She stood up and paced the room before punching the stone wall. The force of the magically enhanced blow cracked the stone. Julius looked at the dark sliver in the light gray rock before turning back to her.

"And now you want me to go back, don't you? To return to that world."

"Yes. You are the only one who can lead the squad in your brother's absence. At least the only one in my mind who could do it properly."

"I never wanted to get involved in the political side of things, Julius. I still don't."

"But you will, won't you? For Fuegoleon's sake?"

She looked at the flames flickering in the hearth where she had been cooking a stew made of wild plants and venison.

"I'll think about it."

Julius watched her for a moment before he nodded and stood. He knew how hard it had been for her to simply talk to him, must less to allow him into her home. He knew, as well, how difficult the decision he had placed on her would be. He looked back at her from the doorway, wondering if her anger at her father, at him would be enough to keep her from coming back, despite her love for her brother.

Mereoleona stared at the fire until the stew bubbled and started to burn. She grabbed the pot and removed it from the fire with her bare hands, barely wincing from the heat as she instinctively protected herself with her own mana. She cursed at the pain in her hand, at herself for not acting fast enough, at the slight smell of charring rising from the pot, and at Julius for filling her head with questions and concerns she could not quiet.

She left the pot sitting on the table's stone top. She bolted out the door like a woman possessed and sprinted through the woods as long as she could. Before long, she broke out into a clearing. She skidded to a halt as she faced the mountain rising before her. The heat rolling from it was oppressive. She basked in it for a moment.

This is the place where she was happiest, where she was the most free. She could feel the wild mana singing through her veins, pouring strength and power in through her soul. She felt the itch to climb to the top of the mountain before her as it belched glowing rivers of lava and black gusts of ash. She was drawn to the mountain in a way she could not explain—it's primal fire, the fire of the earth itself echoing the raging flames of her spirit.

On any other day, she would make the climb. She would face the beasts which dwelled there. She would conquer them all, conquer the mountain, and conquer herself.

But today was not any other day.

Today begged her to face the past, to touch the broken parts of herself she had tried to meld back together with the fire of the mountain. She had long been able to ignore the seams and welds in her spirit. But today brought them all into full light.

She stepped further into the oppressive heat of the constantly erupting volcano. Mana rising up from deep with the earth, erupting with the lava which flowed down the mountain's sides, swelled around her. She gathered the energy around her, wrapping it around her body like a blanket before letting it erupt from her spirit with an angry, grief filled shriek.

Flames ignited in the air around her, scorching what little vegetation had found a way to grow there on the volcano's edge. She punched the ground, her magic enhancing the force of her strike and left a small crater at her feet. She punched again and again, hoping to rid herself of the anger bubbling within her.

But she did not know with whom she was angry. She was angry at Fuegoleon, to be sure, as the fool had gotten himself injured by falling into a trap. She knew he knew better. She was angry with Julius for simply breathing. She had still not forgiven him for what he had done. She did not know if she ever would. She was angry with her father—a man she had looked up to for so long, for growing old and infirm, though she understood doing so was a natural part of life. Still, she found herself in disbelief when she thought of him as anything but the strong mage he was in her memories. She was angry with him too for how he had so quickly replaced her mother after she had died in childbirth with what would have been her younger sister.

And mostly she was angry with herself for being so angry about everything.

She collapsed to the ground, her fist bloody from the shards of rock which had cut her as she punched at the ground. She lay on her back and took in a deep breath of the stench of sulfur emanating from the volcano. She wondered if the water which would appear in the caldera that evening would be enough to wash her anger away. She wondered if she would ever be able to relax again, given the knowledge Julius had shared.

Fuegoleon was hurt.

The thought made her want to throw up. She felt her belly clenching as she tried to imagine her strong and powerful younger brother—so much more suited to leadership than she ever thought she could be—weak and powerless, unconscious. The thought terrified her.

She sat up and dusted the dirt and ash from her red-gold hair.

"Dammit." She muttered as she stood up. The anger flared inside once more as she realized Julius had gotten exactly what he had wanted. She shook her head as she walked back to the small house and prepared for the journey back to civilization.