Loyalty and justice

Rhia Namara, a young woman with black hair and a stern gaze, is the skilled Commander of the Amar Guard. Or rather, she used to be, until her loyalty became the very reason for her downfall.

She was born into the noble family of the Namara, from generations established in the city of Co’Stehelia, from which the region of Helia took its name right after the war. She was the youngest of three daughters, and by the time she was born, the war that had ravaged the land for years had finally drawn to a close. All the regions had been unified under the single banner of the Free Realms.
Rhia grew up in relatively peaceful times, except for the occasional uprisings against the nobility and bourgeoisie, which were always swiftly suppressed. Her father did his best to shield his daughters from such brutality, but inevitably, Rhia and her sisters witnessed firsthand the desperation of those left on the fringes of society. Those memories would spark in her a deep-seated desire for order and justice that would define her for the rest of her life. Driven by those ideals, she enrolled in the Military Academy as soon as she could. She had never cared for the teachings of the “Gentle Art,” the traditional skills expected of any woman hoping to become a proper wife, unlike her two older sisters, who both followed that path. Rhia, on the other hand, was frequently scolded by the governess for her unladylike behavior, but she’d always stick out her tongue in reply and dash off with her wooden sword in hand.
Truth be told, she liked the Academy. It was a place where young people shed everything but their will to protect their homeland. Although the instructors showed her a touch more deference, being from an aristocratic family, her peers were never easy on her during training. If anything, they pushed her harder, perhaps with the desire to keep her grounded.
Life as a Cadet was grueling, and harsh physical drills were alternated with endless hours studying history, medicine, human anatomy, and, most painfully for her, politics and law: she found them extremely boring. Yet after five long years, she graduated at the top of her class and was immediately posted to the capital city: Amar.
Coming from another city, and of a high-ranking society background, moreover, meant she was met with a different kind of reception in Amar. It was rare for someone from the rich folks to join the military ranks, and her presence often sparked jealousy and distrust among those who had hardly fought just to survive. In her new comrades, Rhia saw the same defiance she’d once witnessed in the rebels a long time ago. But she was no longer a child, and she stood her ground as an equal. Winning their respect was a long process, and she took on countless missions outside the capital, seizing every opportunity to prove she wasn’t just another noble chasing prestige and fame. Her efforts paid off, and before long, she rose through the ranks. A few years later, she was appointed Commander of the Guard, a title she took with pride and with the trust of every soldier in Amar. For five years, everything ran like clockwork, but then came the day that changed everything.

It was a morning like any other. Rhia sat at her desk, reviewing patrol reports from the night before, when someone knocked on the door using a familiar rhythmic pattern. A faint smile tugged at her lips as she set the report aside.
“Come in, Arios.” she said.
A young man with broad shoulders and a shaved head peeked through the doorway with a confident smile.
“Commander! A splendid morning lights up the buildings of this city, almost as radiant as you!”
“Do you always wake up that happy?” Rhia gestured him inside. “Flattery won’t get you out of the double shift today.”
Arios strolled in with a cheeky grin.
“Oh, I’ve come to terms with that. But I am here to offer you lunch. Maybe some drinks too.”
Rhia flushed slightly but turned toward the window to hide it.
“Maybe tomorrow. Today is packed.”
Arios dropped into the chair with theatrical defeat.
“You said that yesterday, too, Commander. I’m starting to wonder when ‘tomorrow’ will actually arrive.” He let out a sigh and handed her a letter. “Anyhoops, this came in just now from the Governor’s courier.”
It wasn’t unusual to receive letters from the Governor, so Rhia opened it without much thought and read silently the elegant calligraphy.

To the Esteemed Commander,

I hope this request causes you as little inconvenience as possible, and that you might once again aid the Free Realms in safeguarding their security.
Thanks to the invaluable work of the Council, we have discovered the existence of a relic from the past, of unspecified but seemingly immense power. According to the records at our hands, it was presumably last seen in the lost city of Vellin, before all trace of it was lost, in the hands of unknown individuals.
I apologise, but I feel I must stress the urgency: if this artifact were to fall into the wrong hands, it could pose a serious threat to the Free Realms and all their people. I am therefore ordering the immediate search and, if the fate is with us, its retrieval by a recovery unit so that the item may be studied within the safe walls of our beloved city, under strict supervision.

I trust in your utmost discretion,
Vanieri De Lorio

“Looks like we’re heading to Vellin, Arios.”
“Great! It’s been a while since our last assignment.”
“We leave tomorrow morning. Go find Elvira and Remos. And Veeshan too.”
Arios shot to his feet and saluted the Commander with a fist to his chest before walking back to the door.
“And for tonight’s shift, I’ll find someone to cover for you, so you can rest.” Rhia added.
He paused at the door, flaunted her a grateful smile, then left.

The next morning, the team gathered at the stables at dawn and, without further ado, they began their mission. They took the fastest path, through the woods right outside the Capital, and by midday they reached the ruins of Vellin, the lost city: once it was a last and vital rest stop for adventurers crossing the Amarian mountains, before the Free Realms ever existed and long before the rise of the coastal capital of Amar turned it into a ghost town. Now, it was a little more than crumbling buildings swallowed by vines and silence. They set up camp in an old warehouse on the city’s upper edge and shared a quick meal.
“We’ll start right here.” Rhia instructed them between bites. “Split up and search your areas thoroughly. Once you’re done, expand outward. We don’t know what we’re looking for, so check every crevice. Leave nothing to chance. If anything seems off, report immediately. Clear?”
“Yes, Commander!” they chorused.
“Good. This place should be quiet, but keep your eyes open and ears sharp.” With that, the search began.
They swept the ruins methodically, examining cracks in the cobblestone, overgrown gardens, and half-collapsed homes. However, looking for something without knowing the details was like chasing shadows. By sunset, the scarce light made it pointless to continue. Rhia called her team back, and they prepared for the night.
Sometime before her turn on watch, Rhia woke with a jolt. A shout had broken the silence, Remos or Veeshan, maybe. She grabbed her sword and rushed outside, only to find two spears aimed straight at her throat.
“Drop the weapon.” came a deep, raspy voice. “The others are already tied up, Commander.”
Rhia tried to peer past the figures and saw Elvira and Arios on their knees, firmly bound. She dropped her sword. Two more figures tied her up and dragged her over to the others.
“You alright?” she asked quietly. They both nodded.
A moment later, Remos and Veeshan were thrown beside her; the first with a broken nose, the other unconscious. Aided by the moonlight and the fading campfire, Rhia got a better look at their captors: about twenty warriors, a ragtag group without uniforms, yet clearly well-trained. A tall, muscular woman strode toward them after a couple of minutes, her red hair tied back and a long scar running from cheek to chest. She carried a massive axe, and when she spoke, Rhia recognized the same raspy voice from before.
“I’d ask why you’re here, but I assume that’s classified… isn’t it, Commander?”
“You know me, but I’ve never seen your face. Who do I have the pleasure of talking to?”
“No one.” the woman said offhandedly, pulling something from a satchel by her belt. It was a black stone shard, thin and palm-sized, clearly a piece of something larger. One edge was curved, like it had once been part of a circle. She held it up for Rhia to see.
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Of course you don’t. Neither did we. It’s been hidden for centuries, after all.”
“What is it?” Rhia asked, certain now this was the artifact they’d been sent to retrieve.
“That’s a question for your beloved Governor. Mister Corsello.”
Rhia frowned. That name… she didn’t recognize it, but it rang a distant bell in her memory.
“You must be mistaken. You mean Governor De Lorio.”
The woman chuckled, and a few others joined in.
“You’re blind in more ways than one. No offense.” She pocketed the artifact, then continued. “If I were you, I’d start opening my eyes.”
She gave a command, and two of her people cut their ropes and set them free. Rhia massaged her wrists and studied the woman, wondering how they hadn’t used more force than necessary.
“You’re free to go. Make good use of my generosity,” the woman said before turning away, ordering her group to move out. Rhia and her team were left in the square, disarmed and horseless, but unharmed.
“Let’s move.” Rhia ordered. “Help Veeshan, he should wake up soon.”

The journey back was long, but uneventful. Rhia had plenty of time to dwell on what the woman had said. Her loyalty to the Free Realms was ironclad, and her faith in the Governor unshaken. Yet her soldier’s instinct never allowed her to take things for granted, and now was pressing hard in her thoughts.
Open your eyes, she repeated in her mind. Was it meant to plant doubt? Or was it all just a game to put them against each other?
“You’ve been quiet for a while, Commander.” Arios said, breaking her thoughts.
“Sorry, Arios. Just lost in my thoughts.”
“Amar’s in sight. We’ll be there in about an hour.” He pointed to the skyline, where the cathedral’s dome and bell tower peeked above the city walls.
“Finally!” Elvira groaned. “My feet are on fire.”
“What do you make of what the redhead said?” Remos asked, munching on a crust of bread.
“Total bullshit.” Veeshan replied without hesitation. “Right, Elvy?”
“I don’t know… maybe she was just trying to get under our skin.”
“Or maybe she didn’t have a fucking clue what she was talking about. Primitive swine.”
“Still bitter, she knocked you out?” Arios teased the man, earning laughter.
“She caught me off guard, that’s all.” Veeshan muttered.
“What about you, Commander?” Remos asked again.
“I think it’s not our place to speculate.” Rhia replied. “And we’d be wise to take a stranger’s words with a grain of salt.”
Everyone nodded, but Rhia couldn’t convince herself.

Back in Amar, Rhia dismissed her team and returned to her office, ready to draft a report for the Governor. But her thoughts kept circling around that name: Corsello. It felt familiar, perhaps because she’d repeated it so many times on the way home. Absentmindedly, she wandered to the library. She pulled a history book from the shelves. Then another, about the war. One more, about the Free Realms. And another, about Eastern Provinces. The sun had long set by the time she closed the last volume. Books piled around her, but the name remained a mystery. While putting the books back, she saw a small, singed booklet she hadn’t noticed before. The title, in elegant handwriting, read “Casati et Familie.” She opened it and immediately looked for the name “Namara”, described there as an emerging house of the fine Aristocracy. She supposed the book was very old, and not yet adjourned, since her family tree stopped long before her birth. She kept searching until she found “Corsello,” a noble house, once very wealthy and politically powerful. The last descendants listed were Antor and Dario. Then she suddenly remembered—she’d studied that name as a child, during the history lessons given by her father in the Drawing Room. The Corsello family had supposedly perished in a fire that destroyed their estate some time just before the war. That memory alone proved nothing. But her hands kept flipping pages, searching for one vital clue. Again and again. Nothing. The Name De Lorio didn’t appear anywhere. Then a familiar voice made her jump.
“Commander, a bit late for study hour, isn’t it?” Arios was walking calmly towards her. She turned and exhaled in relief.
“Arios, look. I found the name. Corsello.” She pointed at the page.
He read it carefully, eyebrows furrowed.
“So she wasn’t lying. And De Lorio?”
“That’s the strange part, Arios. It’s not in here. I spent the entire afternoon digging through everything I could find. Nothing.”
“Odd.”
“My thought exactly. If what she said is true, why would the Governor change his name? According to this, the Corsello family was noble and rich. But that’s not the weirdest part.”
Arios looked up from the book, and Rhia continued.
“I know the Corsellos all died just before the war.”
“Then there’s no way the Governor could be one of them.” Arios dismissed, closing the book.
“No solid proof. But doesn’t it strike you as strange? An entire noble family dies, and suddenly new nobles pop up out of nowhere?”
“Rich folks come and go like the wind, Commander. Maybe they merely exploited the absence of the Corsello family.”
“Not the ones who become Governors of the Free Realms, Arios. That’s not a job handed out lightly…”
Arios began to speak, but Rhia shushed him, raising a hand, distracted by a noise coming from behind a bookshelf. Then she slowly turned toward the soldier; a doubt flashed through her mind.
“I thought I had dismissed you, Arios. What are you still doing around here, and armed, no less?” Only now noticing the sword at his side.
“I came looking for you, Commander. You’re not doubting me, are you?”
Rhia didn’t respond and noticed something different in the man’s smile. Then Arios continued.
“Let’s look at the facts, Commander. All we know is that the De Lorios are a new family, while the Corsellos died in a fire.”
Rhia looked at him, right in the eyes, while the doubt slowly began to become a reality.
“I never mentioned a fire, Arios.”
The soldier dropped his shoulders with a bitter expression.
“Damn. I’m sorry, Rhia.”
The Commander reached for her sword, but her fingers didn’t find the hilt; she remembered she’d been disarmed in Vellin. Then she sensed figures behind her and, before she could turn, a sharp blow to the back of her neck sent her crashing to the floor, unconscious.

The stench of mold hit her first. The first thing she saw was the cold stone wall of a very small room, then a barred metal door opened onto a narrow, damp corridor. She was in a cell. The room had only a slit in the ceiling, but the only light came from the torches burning in the hallway. She realized it was still night.
During the following days, they fed her moldy bread and stagnant water, but it was enough to keep her conscious. Only on the fifth day did Arios appear.
“Rhia, how do you like your new lodgings?”
“It took you five days to look me in the eyes?”
Arios smiled in amusement.
“Now tell me why you locked me up in here.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m just following orders, Rhia. You should’ve accepted that dinner invitation a long time ago.”
That sentence clutched at her heart. But she suppressed her emotions. There was something she needed to know.
“Orders from the Governor?”
“I asked for some time to let you understand, but the Governor believes you’re too devoted to justice. You’re a risk he can’t afford.”
“Why did the Governor change his name?”
“Because change was needed, Rhia! Water that stays still becomes a swamp. It attracts bugs and starts to stink.”
“Change what, Arios? Wasn’t one war enough to change the continent?”
“Rhia, it’s the people who need to change. The Governor will give everyone a reason to believe in the Free Realms. We could all look each other in the eyes, as equals. There won’t be poor people anymore, no one will starve again. Don’t you get it?”
Rhia felt the conviction in his voice, the certainty of someone who truly believed in what he was saying.
“That same Governor sits on his golden throne, drinks wine, eats like a king, Arios. How is he any different? How can he understand the people’s hardships?”
“If only you’d known him like I did…” Arios sighed.
“What will this change lead to? What’s the price to pay?”
The soldier laughed, as if he’d been expecting that question. Then he answered with glistening eyes.
“Change always requires sacrifice, Rhia. You will be the first.”
The man she had once considered a trusted friend, perhaps something more, didn’t give her time to ask anything else. He gave her one last look before walking away.
“You should’ve accepted that dinner invitation a long time ago, Rhia. You’d be by my side now.”

Four more days passed, during which the only living creatures she saw were her silent jailer and the rats nibbling on the scraps she left, to keep them from biting her toes. She had spent those days working out a plan to escape, even if she wasn’t very confident it would succeed. It was on the tenth day that she heard a knock at the door at the end of the corridor.
“Shift change.” A woman’s voice reached her ears, muffled.
“What change? I’mma be here all day, today.” replied the man inside, as he opened the latch. Then came a sharp sound and a thud that echoed down the hallway. Rhia sat up and tried to peer through the bars, but the only thing her senses picked up was the sound of slow, relaxed footsteps drawing closer. One by one, she heard the latches of the other cells opening, then it was her turn.
“We meet again, Commander Namara.”
The red-haired woman was opening her cell too. “You’re looking well.”
“Why are you freeing me?”
“Because now you’ve opened your eyes, just like I told you to. Or at least they opened them for you.”
“My escape won’t change anything. Amar will still be in danger, as will the Free Realms.”
“Don’t think we’re just a bunch of unruly rebels, Commander. You’re free to go wherever you want, but follow me and you’ll discover how you can still serve the Realms.” She extended a hand to her. “What do you say?”