Chapter Text
That winter was especially cold, but nothing stopped a victory parade.
The ragtag crew was returning from a successful assignment, eager to receive their handsome pay. Behind the mercenaries were the soldiers they were tasked with leading and training. Only a few months ago, they were unorganized and weak. Now, they were a well-oiled machine under the captain’s strict leadership.
Eleanor rode at the captain's right-hand, quiet and watchful. She had been riding with the captain since she a teenager, talented but untrained, fending for herself in the ancient forest. There was fearsome red paint on her face, in the same pattern as the captain’s. Normally she would be invigorated, but today her sterling armor seemed a little less lustrous.
“Ellie, why so quiet?” The captain demanded, ego fed by the cheering crowd. “We should be celebrating!” He beamed and waved to the townspeople.
“I still have a bad feeling about the lordling,” Eleanor replied. She and the captain spoke the same native tongue, but her Vesuvian was much weaker than his. He insisted that she kept speaking it, for practice. “I don’t think we’ll be so easily forgiven,” she went on.
“Chin up! How about this,” he turned towards the crowd. “Hura for Eleanor the mighty! Hura!”
Eleanor couldn’t help but smile as the crowd bellowed, “Hura! Hura!”
“You’re embarrassing!” she laughed, spirits lifting.
“Embarrassing? I’m a showman Ellie, the people love a show. Hura!”
Not to be outdone, Eleanor raised her staff in the air and stood up in her stirrups. “Now for our fearless Leader, Captain Lucio!”
The noise was even louder as people stomped their feet. Lucio threw his arms open wide, taking it all in. “What a team we are, we cast-out tribesmen,” he told Eleanor, “The whole world is ours!”
Under Lucio’s praise, Eleanor thrived like a plant in sunlight. It was Lucio who helped Eleanor hone her skills, to develop technique and precision. He was a decade her senior, but it didn’t feel like the experience gap it once did.
From Lucio’s left, someone cleared their throat.
“And Jules, of course,” Lucio laughed, “My trusted physician.”
“I’m hurt, truly,” Julian sniffled.
“I’ll make it up to you later,” Lucio replied with a wink. He and Eleanor shared their taste in men, she supposed. When Eleanor first join Lucio’s crew, her crush on Julian was unbearable. She got over it eventually, though she still had a weakness for those auburn waves.
Julian laughed, but couldn’t hide his blush. He was so easy to tease.
Once the crew arrived at the Chieftain's long house, set on a hill above the village, a servant came out to handle the horses. The chieftain, wearing an impressive beard, was waiting outside.
“Chief, I’m sure you’re pleased with my work,” Lucio called as he approached. “It’s time we discussed payment.”
“Of course,” the Chieftain replied. “Come inside, we’ll talk.”
“Jules, be a doll and watch the horses, would you?” Lucio said. “Shouldn’t take too long.”
Julian grimaced, but obeyed all the same. He leaned against a wooden support and cast his dark eyes over the town below, watching for trouble. The other mercenaries were already heading for the nearest bar. Lucio and Eleanor entered the long house.
“No need to get right to business,” Lucio said, throwing an arm around Eleanor’s welcoming shoulders. “Perhaps a celebratory drink first, hm?”
The Chieftain sat in his wooden throne and appraised the pair coldly. Like Eleanor and Lucio, his hair and eyes were light. Unlike Eleanor and Lucio, he was not smiling.
“My nephew perished in the last battle, why not write me?” The Chieftain asked.
“Right to the point, I see,” Lucio said, removing his arm and straightening up. “I thought it best to deliver the news myself, since we were already homebound.”
The Chieftain slammed his fist into the arm of his throne, making his attendant startle. Lucio and Eleanor were unphased. “You didn’t want me to know he died, because you didn’t want me to withhold the award,” the Chieftain deduced.
All the friendliness left Lucio’s and Eleanor’s faces. Eleanor opened up even more, raising her chin and squaring her shoulders. She knew she was intimidating, even to a much larger man.
“Boys die in war, Chief, there’s no avoiding it,” Lucio said, voice deeper. “Your soldiers were a circus, and now they’re a proper army. We won your war. We did what you hired us for.”
“I also hired you to make my nephew into a general,” the Chieftain said. “There will be no payment.”
Lucio made a show of adjusting his fur cloak, resting his hand on the hilt of his blood-seasoned sword. “I implore you to reconsider.”
“You would threaten me in my own house?”
“Me? Noooo,” Lucio crooned. “I’m not the one you should be scared of. Eleanor, he wants a show.”
Eleanor’s eyes ignited with a fearsome white light, and she thumped the foot of her staff on the wooden floor. Massive flames burst into life on the room’s perimeter, blocking the guards as they tried to rush in. Her long, golden hair waved in the heat of the flames. The Chief pressed back into his chair, speechless, eyes wide and shining in the orange light. Fire had always been Eleanor’s specialty, despite how it haunted her nightmares.
“Chief, if you fail to pay us, we will burn down your village and pillage what remains,” Lucio said matter-of-fact, unperturbed by the raging blaze.
“You wouldn’t! There are children!”
“Children often die in war,” Lucio went on. “What’s your decision?”
“I’ll pay! I’ll pay! The chest is there! Just take it!”
Lucio strolled lazily towards the chest that the Chief indicated. He open the lid, looked inside, then closed it again, apparently satisfied. “It’ll do,” Lucio decided. Eleanor waved her hand, and the chest hovered above the ground, following Lucio as he walked back towards the Chief.
“That’s enough, Ellie,” he said, and Eleanor thumped her staff again. The flames vanished, though they had already left charred damage on the house.
“Stay in touch, Chief,” Lucio said as he threw an arm around Eleanor again, and together they left the long house. Their treasure chest followed behind.
As they stepped outside, the light faded from Eleanor’s eyes. “You, my dear, are my crown jewel,” Lucio praised her. “What a fierce woman you’ve become!”
Eleanor tipped her chin up, face lit with pride. “I was taught by a fierce warrior.”
Their eyes met, silver and steel, and a new feeling passed between them. Their relationship had suddenly changed, and they both noticed it. Eleanor looked away, mysteriously bashful.
“Everything went well?” Julian asked, breaking the tension.
“Perfectly,” Lucio said. “He was so pleased, he gave us a bonus.”
“Let’s go have drinks!” Eleanor suggested.
“Drinks!” Lucio cheered.
“And get into fights!” Eleanor added.
“Fights!” Lucio agreed.
“You know I love a rowdy time,” Julian said, smiling wickedly.
Lucio threw his other arm around Julian, and the trio of mercenaries went looking for trouble.