They had been travelling for days after leaving the library. Food was not a problem, though Corrin was getting bored of exclusively-vegetable food Leo was providing – it always seemed to be tomatoes with something, and that other something was mostly limited to potatoes, cabbage, spinach, broccoli and carrots. ("At this rate, I'll be turning into rabbit soon.") He wasn't able to grow trees yet, so apples, pears and similar were out of question. Her hopes went up once she saw a forrest ahead, only to be disappointed once Leo pointed out that fruit was unlikely to be found in high-altitude forrests such as that one.
After walking for a long time, they came to a dark forrest of pine trees they had seen ahead. The day was at the end, daylight fading away, and Corrin was feeling tired. Unusually so, in fact. While Leo was used to dark, thanks to his nightly stargazing and usage of darkness magic, Corrin had trouble seeing in the darkness. And the forrest was very dark – she was barely able to see Leo in front of her. Unnaturally dark, in fact, and getting darker. Soon, she wasn't able to see anything, losing Leo out of sight. She tried listening for his footsteps, but didn't hear a thing. At this point, she was ready to start panicking.
Leo, meanwhile, was lost in thought. They needed a job, a stable job, but Corrin was correct that many stable jobs were extremely boring. This left only one option – a guild, but which one? Leo was more than aware of the fact that merely because the guild was legal, it did not mean it was appropriate to get Corrin involved into it. As long as a guild was not too deep in illegal or destructive work, an under-the-table payment to right people was enough to legalize the guild. Corrin, sheltered as she was due to her health issues, could not be left alone with some questionable types. He turned around to ask Corrin for her opinion, but she wasn't there.
"Corrin! Hey, Corrin!"
Leo swore under his breath. Losing her in such a dark forrest was beyond worrisome – there was no telling what could happen. He needed to find her, and fast.
Corrin was running around like a headless chicken when she heard her name being called. But Leo's voice sounded very far away, deep and echoing as if it was coming from the bottom of the barrel. And she was tired, not just body but mind and soul as well. It was ever harder to keep her eyes open, let alone keep walking. She fell, and darkness took her. And from darkness came a group of mages, carrying her away.
Leo tried looking for Corrin, tried feeling for her magical signature, but he felt nothing. He retraced his steps, searching for Corrin's footprints, and eventually found the point where they diverted from his own. Tracing her steps, he came across where they were covered by many other footsteps. An echo of the sleeping magic covered the area, and Leo – to his horror – realized that Corrin had been kidnapped. And if kidnappers were too strong or numerous, there may be nothing he would be able to do. Still, he had to try. He memorized the magic signature he found, and went on, following the steps of Corrin's kidnappers.
After a time, he came across an old mine hidden in the undergrowth. The mine was dark – precisely the way Leo liked it, and he entered the mine, using his magic to stay hidden. The way was steep, but straight, and there were no other tunnels to the side that would cause a dillema. Or at least there weren't, until Leo came across a large, badly lit chamber with multiple exits and a small lake to the side. It was here that he fully realized saving Corrin will not be quick, much less easy, task. And the activity he witnessed in the chamber and the tunnels was rather problematic. Leo estimated there were maybe few dozen bandits – much more than he could take in an open battle, and he couldn't sneak Corrin past them either as she was constantly guarded, whatever they had in mind with her (a test subject, maybe?). Instead, he continued tracking the bandits, memorizing their patterns – such as they were – and especially taking note of any time they tended to be alone and exposed.
Once that was done, it became (relatively) easy task to kill individual bandits, and dispose of the bodies so that it seemed they were gone into thin air. His first kill was a bandit sitting on a privy, followed by a fat cook who was too busy eating whatever he had cooked to notice anything else until Leo opened a new hole in his head with Night's Lance. The cook dropped to ground with a heavy "thud", but luckily there was nobody around to hear it. Leo stole some food – even tomatoes get boring after days spent eating them – and hightailed it out of the kitchen. His luck nearly run out at that point as he ran across a guard, but a thorn spike through the guard's chest solved that particular problem.
This continued for some time, and the bandits soon learned to avoid dark areas. Unfortunately for them, Leo was perfectly capable of creating darkness of his own. He would take out the lights and withdraw, leaving bandits guessing at his whereabouts. Bandits started congregating, first going around in pairs and then in groups. This made Leo's job both easier and harder – he was much less likely to run across a bandit at an inopportune moment, but it also made any attacks much more risky. Still, the bandits were nervous, and Leo concluded that maybe it was the time to save Corrin. He killed a group of bandits farther away from Corrin's cell, and made his way to his goal once bandits started congregating in that area to search for him.
When he destroyed the door to the cell, he found her lying on the floor, fast asleep but seemingly unharmed. There was no time to waste, though, so he took a flask he carried with him and spilled some water on her head.
"...Huh?! Who... Leo!"
"Yes, it is me. Can you move?"
"...I think so."
"Let's go then. We don't have much time. We have to disappear from here while they are still confused."
They went though dark hallways, with Leo keeping them away from the place where he had created distraction. Leo intentionally selected side tunnels, rationalizing that they were less likely to meet someone that way, and if they did, it would be preferable to funnel enemies so that they don't get overwhelmed with numbers. In the end, they came to emergency exit, but it was guarded. Fortunately, the area was in shadow, so Leo was able to sneak up to the guard and slit his throat, after which he and Corrin made good their escape. There were no signs of pursuit, but they allowed themselves some rest only after getting quite a distance away from the dark guild's base. Only then, Leo spoke.
"We may have gotten away, but I created quite a chaos in their base. They will be searching for us."
"Then... what do we do?"
"Stay on the move. Spend as little time in a single place as possible, until we are far away from there. But for now, we need to rest; you sleep, I will stay guard for now."
"Good night, Leo."
"'Night."
And with that, she fell asleep, leaving Leo with his own thoughts. His family had been killed by dark mages, and now he almost lost Corrin as well. He could not allow that to happen again. Corrin was the last light he had in his life, and he has to protect her. Even if he has to sacrifice his heart, even if he has to sacrifice himself, he will protect her.
