You are Noel Tiberius di Hazaran and there are many lives for which you are responsible - both as queen of the kingdom whose name you share, and as a leader among your fellow silver-eyed warriors.

“Let us help you, Noel.”

There’s a division at work here in response to an incursion from the north. The silver-eyed warriors of this land are not natural, having instead been created by an Organization with advanced technology using the flesh and blood of monstrous yōma implanted into the bodies of young girls. Most of you were either orphans, sold by your impoverished parents, or in some cases were simply slaves with no say to begin with. You never asked why the procedure was only done on girls - you assumed not only that the process usually failed with male subjects, but that younger subjects probably had a higher survival rate. Even as you began to learn the Organization’s true purpose in creating controllable “awakened beings”, the same assumptions applied with males instead being out of control instead of outright dead. Either would be considered a failure by the Organization.

But when the sole objective is to cause destruction and chaos? Uncontrollable awakened beings are no longer a problem.

That’s why you’re set to face them now. They’ve already wiped out a small contingent of Hazari troops, and are continuing their march towards your fortification at Blackthorn keep, on the shore of Loch Scaithness.

“This doesn’t seem like a time when we can afford to be caught up in a moral dilemma,” you decide, having considered and dismissed Helen’s concerns about leaving a battle for the future of your kind - and, very likely, of this entire continent - to awakened beings, even ‘reformed’ ones such as your mother Sabela. “I understand your concerns, Helen, but this is a critical situation. I feel our best choice is to send a group with the very best chance of returning with the information we need.”

“Especially true of Sabela,” Laura points out. “Can you be killed?”

“In theory, yes,” your mother replies. “But theory and practice aren’t always the same.”
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