A Devil's Grace 1930

| Prologue | 3 Years Ago |

Tanya reached over harshly, grabbing at his ankle as he was squatting there, gasping in pain as she hissed towards him, "I asked... Who you are...!" 

"Hm..." He looked down at the small blonde who was glaring warily up at him, bleeding out. 

Blinking at his indifference to her words, she could see his black hair and glowing green eyes as clear as day. Who, no what, was he exactly? She couldn't tell at all by just looking at him, she could however hardly see his facial features.

"My name is not currently important, Tatiana," his voice spoke lowly as he stared through her as if she was just another pebble buried in the dirt. "How would you feel about living in the Unified States? Of course, I'm going to have you make up your mind before the Named Killers come." 

The Named Killers were mages tasked with eliminated Named Mages within the Empire. In her current disposition, Tanya was no match for them whatsoever. 

"It'll be cushy," he added with a teasing tone.

Tanya lay there with her chin in the dirt, her blue eyes staring up through her blonde bangs at the man with hardly enough energy to lift her head to speak. Yet as he went to stand, she hardened her grasp on his ankle. The use of the word Cushy had always been in her mind and she never heard anyone else use it before.

Understanding her course of action, he leaned down, "Let's turn you over then, shall we?" With his hands on her shoulders, he carefully turned her onto her back once more. 

Tanya watched him as darkness was threatening to take her sight, she didn't even want to think of blinking. She watched as he unzipped her flight suit and spread it open. She didn't move as he began undoing her double-breasted imperial tunic, nor did she take her eyes off him. 

"This is going to hurt... A bit more than dirt." He warned her as she didn't give much of a response, he looked down to the damage to her torso, she was riddled in bullet holes that missed her vital organs. That was lucky...

Pulling off his own gloves as he left the front of her torso exposed, he bit into the tip of his index finger, before flinging blood onto her wounds. 

"Aa..Ah!" Tanya squeaked, unable to scream at the pain due to a lack of energy, arching her back. She recognized the technique as the same used in explosive spells but never healing.

"Heal," The moment he said these words, it was like a burst of flames had erupted from her wounds. It was excruciatingly painful, far more than when she had blown herself out of the air during training, in comparison.

Tanya was thrashing about on the ground, the bullets which had entered her body were annihilated from her system, dirt and debris were ejected from her wounds.

And within the next few minutes, she lay still on the ground, still exhausted from the blood loss, but no longer threatened by death itself. As her vision began to clear up, she felt something thin pressed to her parted lips, her tongue poked out at a familiar smell. Chocolate.

Her eyes rested on a handsome young man about three years older than herself, sixteen. He was dressed in scavenger fatigues, a militant group profiting by scavenging the battlegrounds. 

Slowly opening her mouth, she brought her teeth down on the piece of chocolate he held to her lips. With a satisfying chomp, she stared up at him as she chewed, savoring the taste of the irony tinge in her mouth from her blood.

"Who are you...?" She asked again, as she lightly wrapped her dainty fingers around the chocolate bar before he suddenly shoveled her into his arms to carry her away. "Hey!"

He still didn't answer, but he began walking away from the battlefield.

Figuring she wasn't going to get an answer, she held the chocolate between her teeth and began fastening her uniform. If she were dropped or she was seen, she didn't want anyone seeing her little lady bits.