Past.

“You're holding back.”

A vibrant blue arrow arched through the heart of a gurgling body before it fell heavily to the forest floor, and two more go singing into the air right after. When all enemies in the clearing are dead or had been quickly approaching it, Sen lowered his bow and turned to Livia with a raised eyebrow.

“What?”

Livia stepped over a corpse smoothly and bypassed a puddle of blood to stand directly in front of him with crossed arms. The ends of her dress are stained a red-brown and crumpled from when she had been dragged down to the floor only minutes before, but besides that, she looked as if she did nothing more strenuous than going for a stroll. She crosses her arms and points her chin down at the corpse below them.

“You do not need magic to kill him. It’s a waste of energy,” she had said, her tone slightly scolding. On her shoulders, the small kitten, Noctis, swung its tail lazily and blinked owlishly at him.

Sen scoffs, “And what else am I to use my magic for? Other than killing our pursuers?”

Livia had waved this off, “Sure, but not for cretin like them,” She jabs a finger down at the mercenary body below them, “We have bigger foes ahead of us. It does us no good if you keep dumping you well of magic on weak fools who can easily be defeated with a little brute strength.”

Sen pointedly looks behind Livia, his eyes flat, towards where two men and a woman lay with their necks twisted.

“You did not do that with your bare hands,” He states dryly.

The casual way in which she used dark magic so violently should have been unnerving to him. And if he was honest to himself, Sen would admit, it had been, a few months earlier. But then after a few tensioned filled days, right after they had encountered Fin after they had moved camp, they had been found.

Dots had been connected and a large bounty had sprung up overnight. Sen had not been given much time to process the first time he saw Livia give a man a heart attack and how she broke the legs of another with that strange magic of hers.

He had been a bit busy cutting through the group of bandits who saw fit to cash in on the fortune. By the time he thought to confront Livia on it, it seemed rather redundant. By then, they both had been covered in bruises and blood. And from then on, violence was only inevitable. But instead of standing back on the outskirts, Livia had been right there beside him, unwilling to sit back and be protected.

It had been the same for this time around as well. Sen looked around at the carnage that they wrought, but it could not be helped. Their pursuers could never be reasoned with. All of them had been blindsided by pure greed. It was not every day that a fortune big enough to start a small kingdom was offered up by a seemingly meager job.

Livia huffed, “Only because I can’t. You, however, can.”

Sen returned his bow to his back, and turned on his heel, “They are dead. What does it matter how it happens?”

Livia falls in step with him with a scowl. She whispers something under her breath and closes her hand in a slow fist before she drops her arm. If Sen was to look back, he would see nothing but forest. All the bodies were gone from sight, but he knew they were still their. It mattered not. The animals and creatures in the forest will still find the corpses by the fresh blood alone. Only bones will be left by the next morning.

“It matter’s because your magic can be traced. You're registered.”

“As James Blake, a low-rank adventurer and not just anyone can trace a magical signature,” Sen countered.

Livia stopped, “Wait, what?”

Sen turned back to her with a look of annoyance, “What now?"

“How can you be still registered as James? I thought...” Livia looked Sen up and down, “Oh, I see. You look like yourself, but. Of course. Your abilities are natural. If you wish to alter your signature, I suppose it is well within your capabilities. But that just proves my point.”

“That I was holding back?” Sen asked, his face unimpressed.

Livia nods, “You are though. You are a beastman gifted with the innate ability to shapeshift.”

When Sen only shook his head and resumed walking, Livia caught up to him, not letting go of the topic.

“You can become anyone and anything. The only thing limiting you is well, you. Beyond that, as a beastman, you are stronger than any human we have encountered so far. Your senses, strength, and speed are all enhanced. But even so, you still rely most on your magic instead of your own fist. Why? You do not need it to win a fight.”

“Magic is what I was taught to use,” Sen had said after a while. He held a thick tree branch up so Livia could duck under it and grabbed her elbow when her dress got caught on a stray tree limb on the dirt floor, nearly causing her to face plant. Noctis meows unhappily at the jerky movement and darted from Livia’s shoulder to Sens.

Livia growled and snapped her fingers. From one blink to the next, her dress was gone, replaced by more fitted pants and a loose top under her cloak.

“I hate dresses,” She muttered under her breath but turned to Sen with interest.

“Magic isn’t the only way of this world. You obviously know how to use a bow, a sword, and your fist.”

Sen released her arm, and they resumed their trek back to the campsite, with Noctis a warm presence on his shoulder in the cold night.

“That is true, but if given the ability to use magic, most humans rely heavily on it, don’t they?” Sen said, with a shrug.

“And because you often disguise yourself as one, you use it more often? Is that it?” It had been Livia’s turn to look unimpressed, “There is some minuscule logic in that, I suppose. But honestly, it’s not like you are on an assignment. You don’t have to stick to the strict guidelines of your teacher.”

Sen's eyes had cut to her, “You know of my teacher,” he said it as a fact.

Livia smirked, “Of course. But let's focus on the matter at hand, alright?” She sped up ahead of him and blocked his path.

“Your strong, certainly, but I know you can be even stronger than you are now if you would just stop holding everything in and let loose,” she said seriously and stepped up to him with an unwavering stare.

Sen held her stare, his mouth pressed in a line before he walked around her.

Livia turned to watch him go with a loud sigh, “Fine, whatever. I’ll drop the subject for now.” Then she ran a bit to catch up to him and plucked up Noctis from his shoulder to cuddle the kitten.

Sen had watched from the corner of his eye as her expression melted just the tiniest bit. Despite the blood smeared on her chin and her eyes still alight with the thrill of battle, Livia had seemed almost normal at that moment. Her age bloomed out, soft and young, and she chuckled lightly when Noctis batted at her long strands of hair playfully.

It was as if she hadn’t been in any skirmish only minutes before. It was like she had not a care in the world, and was perfectly happy to just enjoy herself in the small moments despite all that she had been put through. It was still restrained, Sen doubt he would ever see Livia brimming with happiness, but all the same, somehow, she had found a way to see past it all, to place one foot in front of another.

Livia was strong, Sen had realized. Though not in the way she would ever acknowledge or truly care for, all the same, she was. She went through unimaginable things, but somehow, she still mustered the will to continue on, to step on a path that would be anything but easy with stone solid resolve.

Maybe that had been the moment.

The moment in which guilt and a sense of duty merged and turned into something else entirely.

Present

Chaos.

The room around Livia was noisy, loud, and panicked, and it was glorious.

“Oh my gosh! Is she dead!? What happened!?” Another maid entered the room, followed by two more right behind her.

They stop short upon seeing Madam Montgomery on the floor, and Livia curled up in the corner, trembling and looking faint.

“She is bleeding from the mouth!”

“I can’t find a pulse!”

They surround the body of Madam Montgomery, trying to check on her without touching her too much. Many worried looked were shared between the servant who attended to the old bitch. They knew. She was dead.

A sharp gasp.

“Oh my, Lady Livia. Are you alright!?”

“How did this happen?”

“Just look at those wounds. It’s obvious what happened!”

“When the duke gets word of this...”

They tried to surround her, but she was pulled further into a corner by the butler who found her first.

“Lady Livia, please come with me, we must get your wounds treated,” he said, trying to escort her from the room.

“Has anyone contacted Duchess Valentine yet?”

As if summoned by her name, Lynette slams through the room frantically, looking wildly around. Her eyes fell to the old bitch, paled before they landed on Livia. Her mouth fell open in a silent gasp as she stumbled back and clutched at her pearls. Tears instantly sprung to her eyes as she stumbled into the room, looking distressed.

“My goodness, what has happened? What is all of this!?” the duchess asks in a hoarse voice.

The servants instantly move to answer her questions but she held up a hand and walks straight to Livia.

“Oh, my poor sweet girl...”

She reaches for her daughter, no doubt to continue playing her role as the oblivious parental figure, but Livia flinches back violently, looking fearful and distraught.

“It wasn’t me mother, I swear!” Livia cries out, “I didn’t raise my hand to her once, I swear! I did as you said. I followed all of her instructions like you told me too! I did not fight back once! She strained herself all on her own,” she says frantically through a watery voice.

Lynette freezes, her hands still mid-air, “What?”

“I tried my best. I know you only wished to have me retrained for my own sake, but I couldn’t please Madam Montgomery no matter how hard I tried too,” Livia sobs, and scrambles forward and clings to her mother dress, “Please, don’t lock me up in my room again. I’ll be good I swear. I-I just c-can't do that again, please, mummy.”

Livia cries her heart out and sinks slowly to the floor while still clinging to her mother’s skirt. Her face quickly becomes red and blotchy, but as she hiccups on another heart-wrenching sob, no one would be able to say her tears were not genuine.

Hard, judgmental stares fall on Lynette as the room goes silent.

Liliana burst onto the scene a second later and stops short.

“M-Madam Montgomery?” She stutters, backing away with wide eyes. But then she notices her older sister, and any childhood fear she clung on to fell away in the face of Livia in open distress.

“Livia! Oh, my gosh, Livia, what happened? Who did this to you?” Liliana cries out as she runs and falls to Livia's side. A moment later, the maids that had been attending to the youngest of the Valentine household show up as well, but Livia hardly pays it any mind. Liliana hugs her and soon tears spring up in her own sister's eyes as she put the pieces together.

“She did it, didn’t she? It was Madam Montgomery!” Liliana accuses and glared heatedly at the corpse of the old bitch.

As low murmurs spring up and meaningful but worried glances were exchanged by servants of the Valentine household, the old maid that had ushered her Liliana away from Livia appeared by Lynette's side and whispered frantically in her ear. This seems to breathe life into Lynette, as she glances around with round eyes, her mouth trembling just the faintest bit as it opens and closes on empty words.

The servants did not take her silence well. Their words became more audible as their gazes become riddled with deep suspicion and growing disgust.

“Now that I think about it, that name had sounded familiar.”

“Don’t tell me it was that Madam Montgomery!? The one who abused heir of a certain duke.”

“The duchess had locked Lady Livia up before??”

“How did Miss Liliana know of the madam?”

“She must have been here before; did you see how pale Liliana had gotten when she saw her?”

“What kind of monster abuses a helpless pregnant girl!?”

“She is a crown princess candidate. Doesn’t this go beyond the household?”

“Goodness, Livia’s welts are starting to bruise. We must get that poor girl medical attention!”

“The duchess must have known...”

“There is no way she couldn’t have...”

“We will have to report this. There is no doubt about it. Madam Montgomery is dead.”

The old maid claps her hands sharply, and the voices cut off.

“This is a dire situation, but do not think you will not be punished for spreading unfounded rumors. Mr. Davis. Please escort Lady Livia to her room and have her treated. To be on the safe side, have a healer called forth to the estate, stat. Mr. Moore, please send word to Duke Valentine, and let him know that this is a very urgent matter. Mrs. Harris, go seek out Doctor Donre to attend to the madam. And everyone else, leave, now.”

The room clears out slowly.

Livia let herself be lifted off the floor by the butler she had been crying on, Mr. Davis, and he carries her out of the room while Liliana follows closely after them.

Right before they leave, Livia meets the eyes of her mother over the butler's shoulder. She smiles slowly, coldly, with dried tear tracks and without an ounce of the previous distress on her face. Lynette gasps, stumbling back with a dumbfounded look before her face twists into something truly horrendous and infuriated.

The last thing Livia sees is her mother lunging for her, right before the door slams shut between them.

Livia has to press her face into the butler's sturdy shoulder to muffle her manic snickers.

How satisfying it was to see that look on her mother's face. It seems Lynette has finally realized; the daughter that returned to her was not the same one that had left.

But even with this new knowledge, Lynette has no hope of ever gaining control of her daughter. Though the duchess did not know it, Livia did. No matter what, Livia will never be used and taken advantage of ever again by anyone. Especially not by her own family.