Chương 1275: 1305 - Returning Home

On the western slopes of the Artor Valley, Leon stood with several of his advisors at his side. This was a strictly controlled place, open only to very select people, and for the most part, all of those people who weren't married to Leon were present. Beside Leon stood Anzu, Nestor, and Iron-Striker. Only Helen and Leon's wives were missing from that restrictive list. All around them grew thunder wood trees, but these were larger, more natural, more gnarled than those grown for harvest.

Ferns, clovers, grasses, and flowers bloomed all over the forest floor in a delightful panoply, the scene as natural as it could be with purple lightning crackling amidst the tree branches. This was the home of the tree sprites, so close to Tikos' Old Tree that they were within the enchantment concealing it from view. The tree had grown to be quite immense; not quite to the scale of the tree inhabited by Tikos' progenitor, but still gargantuan by any other metric.

As with the rest of the trees inhabited by tree sprites, it had once been an oak, but the process of converting it to a thunder wood tree had darkened the wood and caused purple lightning to arc constantly within its canopy. Leon and his advisors hadn't gathered to watch anything related to the thunder wood trees, however. Rather, it was for something else entirely, a new potential material that, even if it couldn't be replicated, would still bring Leon's Kingdom wealth and power.

Beside a mountain spring—not quite as pure as that in the center of Westmount, but still quite clean and clear—stood Tikos, and all around it were other tree sprites. Most were somewhere between third and seventh-tiers, with only one eighth-tier and one ninth-tier sprite among them. In Tikos' hands was the angel feather that Adamantios had won during the Belicenian Games.

Naturally, the prize wound up in Leon's hands, but he'd made sure to compensate the gladiator with entirely new kit he'd made himself, from armor to weapons. Adamantios was happy, and so was Leon.

"It seems… unremarkable," Anzu whispered as Tikos buried the feather in the earth by the spring.

"Should be more, shouldn't there?"

"More what?" Nestor asked.

"More ceremony?" Anzu replied.

"More… magic? Just burying the feather seems anticlimactic…"

"The feather will be tended to," Leon stated.

"No one better than the tree sprites for this. Tikos has already been made aware of how to care for it."

"I made sure of that personally," Nestor added.

"When the feather takes root and the tree grows, we will have a new resource at our disposal, one that few others can claim to possess in this day and age."

"More now," Leon remarked, "since the Sun King was so free with those he had. How many do you think he gave away?"

"I never paid attention to the Belicenian Games in my time," Nestor said.

"I have not changed my stance on it. It was a motley collection of distractions back then, and remains such today. Those of our Clan who participated in them in ages past disgraced themselves and the Clan. We are not entertainers; we are Lords and Kings."

"Fighting as a sport isn't the worst thing ever," Leon said.

"Yeah!" Anzu agreed.

"Don't dismiss it as a sport! It's useful that way, even if it's not quite the combat that one finds on a battlefield!" Nestor audibly scoffed.

"And you? Do you agree with your King?" If his faceplate could emote, Leon imagined that Iron-Striker would be on the receiving end of a truly withering glare.

"Fighting in the arena has always been more of a Lion tradition than a Bear tradition," the Chancellor replied.

"Every time I've found myself in the sands has been… against my wishes." Leon smiled thinly. Though he was now stronger than Iron-Striker, the one time they'd fought in an arena had been more than enough for him. Sparring with training weapons would be the extent of his duels with the man, if their respective Ancestors were kind.

"Low opinion, then," Anzu said.

"Fighting's fighting. Who cares if others take entertainment in it?"

"Have more dignity," Nestor scolded.

"If Leon has taken you as his brother, then understand that what you do reflects on him, too. Become a clown, and Leon is known as the man with a clown for a brother." Anzu frowned, but as Nestor finished, Iron-Striker jumped back in.

"There are more practical considerations, too, Anzu. Why show off how you fight for an enemy to study? Better to train in private and leave them guessing." Annoyed, Anzu replied, "First off, why would I fight in an arena like I'd fight on a battlefield or in a life-or-death duel? Secondly, I know all of this already; do you think I need a lecture about it?"

"Given your attitude…" Iron-Striker murmured. Nestor was more direct.

"Yes, you do. You are above fighting in arenas, Anzu. You are—" Leon smelled sweetness as Tikos joined them.

"It is done," it said, its voice amber glowing in time with its words.

"We will tend to the feather. We will care for the tree. When it blossoms, you will know."

"Thanks, Tikos," Leon said warmly. Tikos bowed, as did the rest of the tree sprites, before they returned to their sparking thunder wood trees. For Leon's part, he led his people out of the tree sprites' woods before an argument could break out over the dignity—or lack thereof, in Nestor's opinion—of fighting in an arena. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't fast enough, and he endured long exchanges all the way back to Artorion.

From Storm Herald's observation deck, the Void around Aeterna sparkled from countless distant stars. The sun was high above the plane, and bouncing light from the plane's surface further illuminated the small fleet gathered above it. Only three arks, including Storm Herald, had come back to Aeterna. Thankfully, the plane was close enough to the Nexus that it only took one jump from the Lion's Portal to get back, so this journey could be made in a single day. It would be a long day, but still one day.

As a result, Leon was easily able to make the journey with his family. He'd hoped to delay it a bit, but after three weeks in Artorion, Serana had insisted. It was time to visit. It was time she stood in the place where Artorias breathed his last, where he'd saved Leon's life, where Leon had buried him, where they'd lived for sixteen years.

Leon was simultaneously eagerly anticipating their visit and so dreading it that his stomach felt like it had fallen through his feet and crashed through every deck between him and the Void. But it was necessary, and as such, he'd gathered up his people and made one of his increasingly rare return journeys to Aeterna.

His Kingdom still had a sizable presence on the plane—if anything, it was larger now than it had been before, as many of his Thundermen came from Tribes where procreation was enthusiastically encouraged.

Without war with the rest of Aeterna to hold them down in either human or material resources, and with hope and elation at the return of the Thunderbird Clan racing through the Ten Tribes, even with so many of them leaving Aeterna for the Nexus, the population of the Thunder Kingdom on Aeterna numbered in the billions. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

However, unlike any other territory that Leon ruled, his holdings on Aeterna were more tightly regulated. Manufacturing of arks had slowly moved from Kataigida to the Nexus, though there was still quite a bit of capacity left on the great island. He also wasn't building any kind of Void infrastructure, as was being planned for future planar conquests. Fortresses, arkyards, even constructs for more civilian use like he'd seen at Voidshore, Khosrow's Fane, and Belicenion were designed, but not yet built.

He didn't want to encroach on Ambrose's territory, after all. As it was, he was grateful that the man was indulgent enough to allow him to continue ruling so large a territory on his plane at all. If Leon were in his position, he didn't think he'd be so ready to allow that. In returning to Aeterna, Leon and his family weren't alone. His wives had, of course, come, as this was the place of their birth. Anzu had fewer personal connections on the plane, but he was eager to fly in the plane's mountains again.

The giants had entirely evacuated from the Border Mountains between Talfar and the Bull Kingdom, so there was little left for them, too. But the same couldn't be said for those like Marcus, Gaius, and Alcander. Alix, too, though her family had come with her to the Nexus. They'd survived the war with Terris, but as more 'normal' humans, they'd passed of old age soon after. For the rest of those from the Bull Kingdom, however, family was still around.

How much of it Leon wasn't sure, but the old Houses of the Bull Kingdom weren't going extinct even with King Julius' reforms taking away their titles and associated lands. All of them were eager to see their old homes, too. Their eagerness, however, stood in stark opposition to Serana, who stared at the plane as if she wanted to set it on fire with her gaze alone. Given her connection to the Great Black Dragon, Leon wasn't entirely sure that she couldn't do that…

"Strange being back?" he whispered to her. They stood at the front of the observation deck as Storm Herald began to descend, their words soft, though not quite hushed. Serana sighed through her nose, her golden eyes falling shut. When she spoke, they remained closed.

"I came to this plane with the fire of adventure in my heart. I found love here; I made a family here. But the way I left… My boy, my life felt like it ended the day that Fain and Ryker took me from our home in the Cow Kingdom." Leon twitched but didn't interrupt.

"I spent so long apart, so long on my own, so long treated like a prisoner by my own father… Yes, my dear boy, it's strange being back." She opened her eyes and gave him a sad smile.

"I hope you don't judge me too harshly if I break down once or twice."

"I won't judge," Leon replied.

"And if anyone does, I'll turn them to ash." Serana's smile widened.

"Good. As a dragon should." They fell silent as Storm Herald continued its descent, piercing the terminus line, diving through the clouds below, and finally coming in to dock in Stormhollow, the capital of Kataigida. There the ark would stay while Leon was on the plane.

He was sure that Ambrose would continue indulging him if he wanted to take the ark across the plane, but he felt like he'd just be taking advantage of the man's hospitality, and so he and his people would travel in a more 'mundane', if still decidedly quick fashion, while here. As Storm Herald made landfall, Leon could practically feel the energy of the city around them; it wasn't particularly planned, so it took the people by surprise, but they were ecstatic to have their King back in their city.

So great was their excitement that Leon thought they were going to shake the plane apart from the power of their shouting and stomping. He turned to give the order to begin disembarking, but when he turned, he came face-to-face with Ambrose, the man having somehow entered the ark completely undetected, right up until Leon turned around.

"Gah!" he shouted in surprise as he reeled back a bit. Serana turned, and black fire began burning around her fingers. Leon barely managed to get out a "He's a friend!" before she attacked.

"Wonderful to see you again, Leon, and family! Wonderful to see you!" Ambrose clapped his hands as the observation deck slipped into shocked silence.

"Though I hate to do so… Leon, could you come with me for a moment? I would speak to you of matters of great importance… I would speak to you… Shouldn't take long, not long!" Leon righted himself and waved to the rest of the deck.

"Keep going, this won't take long." He paused and gave Ambrose a searching look.

"This won't take long, will it?"

"Not at all! Not at all!" the man beamed. Leon nodded to everyone else as Elise came over to take Serana's arm and steer her away, Leon's mother still glaring at Ambrose like he was an enemy. Without further ado, darkness surrounded Leon and Ambrose, and in but a moment, they were in Ambrose's tower at the center of the plane. The room they were in was largely bereft of creature comforts, featuring little more than a round table in the center of the circular room and a decently thick carpet to muffle their feet.

"It has been a while, Leon," Ambrose said with a grin.

"A while. But even then, word of your deeds has reached my ears! Even then!"

"Oh?" Leon responded as he finished mentally adjusting to the Grave Warden appearing out of nowhere.

"What… and how … have you heard?"

"I have my ways of listening to the universe," Ambrose said.

"I have my ways… As for the 'what'… Well, I heard you made quite the impression at the Belicenian Games! Quite the impression! You revealed quite a lot there! Quite a lot!" He leaned in, his good-natured smile giving way to concern.

"I hope you know what you're doing, my friend. It's a dangerous world out there for men like you. Dangerous."

"As has been drilled into me by both experience and my elders many, many times," Leon replied with a tired grin.

"So long as you're ready!" Ambrose said as his good-natured cheer returned.

"So long as you know what you're doing!"

"Both of which can be argued… but I doubt you brought me here just to talk about what I've done."

"Why not? Can't a friend check in on his friend when they come to visit? Can't he?"

"No, no… that's not what I meant. Hmm. Well, I suppose I should say that I don't think you would've brought me here in the way you did, barely giving me a moment to breathe the moment I landed, without some kind of reason."

"True, true." Ambrose started pacing around the table while Leon remained still. The table was hardly so large that they couldn't comfortably speak over it anyway.

"I wanted you to know that I received your message about Planerend possibly being in the Elemental Plane of Fire. I informed the rest of my comrades about your suspicion, and we have sent scouts to determine the truth. Though, I must say that your tip was… not appreciated among my fellows. Not appreciated…" Leon's eyes narrowed.

"It was only a suspicion, and I thought that it was best to let you know just in case."

"No need to justify yourself to me, no need! I appreciated it quite well! Quite well! But… my fellows… They place some amount of blame on you for Planerend's escape."

"They can—" Leon began, but he cut himself off. These were ancient beings, their power incomprehensible even to him. For all that he'd gained over the past few years, he still wasn't even close to matching even one of them. On top of that, they were Ambrose's friends, and it was simply bad etiquette to insult another person's friends to their face.

"… Their opinions have been noted."

"There is nothing to fear from them," Ambrose promised.

"Nothing to fear."

"Moving on. Is there still no solid sign of where Planerend has gone?"

"None, regrettably. None. Neither has Qo Weylekh's Universe Fragment been seen. We assume it is with Planerend. But the universe is too large to completely scour—too large—and Planerend is likely still in hiding."

"After all this time?" Leon asked.

"I would've thought that you'd think him more active, especially with how suspiciously Amon took the title of Prince of Flame."

"I wouldn't call his rise 'suspicious'," Ambrose warned.

"Demons have powers of their own that they come into at strange times and in strange ways. Amon's rise is not unprecedented, and your suspicion is just that without further evidence—for now, for now."

"If he's not active, then what is he doing?"

"Recovering. Slowly, most likely. Slowly. So long in captivity with his heart torn from his chest… even after taking it back, he'll have a long recovery ahead of him. This is why finding him as soon as possible is so important, and why he is most likely still hiding. He is still vulnerable, still vulnerable."

"How so? I thought he was imprisoned because he couldn't be killed?"

"Vulnerable does not necessarily mean mortal, my friend. Not necessarily. But it has also been a long time, both since the Primal Age and since he was released—not that my friends would say so in the latter case. We have other means at our disposal and are ready to bring him back here—in pieces, if need be. If need be."

"That's… comforting."

"Good! Good! Unfortunately, my friend, that's all I have for you. So, why don't you regale me with tales of your triumphs far from this cradle?" Leon almost reeled from how quickly Ambrose changed topic, but after taking a moment to realign his mind, he acquiesced. He'd get back to his family later… soon… hopefully…