A/N: Yeah, you didn't ask for it…and I really didn't either. It just kinda came to me one night, so I started writing, and I like it! I promise you that it won't be sappy, though. Snappy, maybe…but never sappy. Except when Leila thinks. She's a hopeless romantic.

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Prologue: Shadows

The night was dark, the sky devoid of stars. A chill winter breeze swirled in the air, laying a thin, crackling blanket of frost upon the brittle ground. Since the summer drought, and a relatively dry fall, there was barely anything on the ground. Only now, as storm clouds threatened a blizzardin the sky, was there a threat of precipitation.

Twelve braziers burned brightly around the outer walls of Castle Terona, a sole source of light in the blackness that blanketed the land of Elibe. Even still, shadows crept up the walls, nimble fingers searching for handholds as they clambered over the parapets. There was a sound, a clattering of steel, as one of the shadows met a Bern soldier. The Bern soldier was quickly silenced, lowered down to the stone and hidden from view.

"Do you think they heard that?"

"Not possible. This idiot must've had terrible luck." The shadow turned to the others. "I was a soldier once. You always draw straws for guard duty on cold nights like this one."

"Oh yes, I forgot," the third one said sarcastically, "you were a soldier. A fact which obviously gives you an advantage in the field of spying. Let's just forget, for a moment, that the two of us are reformed thieves, who have quick reflexes and sharper wits."

The second shadow turned to the first, as if expecting him to refute the third's assertion. The first shrugged. "He's got a point, you know."

The second shadow sighed, shook his head, and took a coil of rope from his rucksack. "Remind me again why I decided to take this mission with you two?"

"You took it," the first said, as he took a matching coil of rope from his sack, "because you needed the money, since you're otherwise incapable of getting it from…outside sources."

The three shadows shared a quiet laugh over this as they tied their three ropes to the parapets and let them fall over the inner edge of the wall. In tandem, all three shadows let themselves slide down the rope, landing softly on the ground. Well, two of them did, at least.

"Well, if they didn't hear the clatter before, they certainly heard that!" The first shadow threw off his hood to reveal his sandy blonde hair, long bangs ruffling in the breeze made stronger as it came over the walls. "Honestly, Gerard, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were a foot soldier before you became a spy…Oh, wait, you were!"

"Sssh, Matthew!" The third shadow whispered softly. She let down her hood, revealing her fiery red hair in the dim light. "Remember, you two, we have a job to do here. We're going undercover for three days. We don't want the mission spoiled on the first night!"

Gerard turned to his two friends, his wide green eyes wide in apology. "Sorry, guys. I'll try to keep my old soldier reflexes in check."

Matthew threw off his cloak and muttered, "Yeah, you'll try to control your lack of reflexes."

"I heard that," Gerard hissed.

Leila just smiled and shook her head as she watched the two friends slip out of the alleyway and into the street smoothly. She had always admired the way her two colleagues worked, even if Gerard could be a bit of a liability sometimes. He was worth it in a fight. After waiting for a few minutes, she too threw off her cloak, wrapped a fashionable wool blanket around herself, and left the alley, walking in the opposite direction.