Chương 1343: 1373 - War's End

An impromptu welcoming party was assembled around Leon, consisting of a host of Tempest Knights, his wives, several female diplomats, and a few female attendants. They stood on a private receiving platform on Westmount, rarely used given the expense of arriving in the city via the method it was designed to receive, but given the circumstances, Leon was grateful for Miuna taking this option.

His conversation with her had been incredibly short—she'd essentially just told him that she was on her way and to expect her within an hour. Had she taken any longer to get to the city, Leon might've been upset at just how truncated the conversation was—she'd barely even let him get a word in edgewise as she told exactly how she planned to arrive.

"Unified front," Elise whispered to Leon's family.

"Show strength."

"Don't be a pushover," Cassandra added.

"Let her dig her grave if she wants, but we can't let her dictate the pace of the conversation." Leon had to suppress a grin. They were treating Miuna like she was an enemy, and he couldn't blame them. However, it was a far cry from how they usually treated the Princess; she was usually welcomed as a friend.

"How do you want us?" Valeria asked Leon.

"Take charge or back you up?"

"I'll lead," he said.

"Then we'll follow you."

"Incoming beam!" a nearby platform operator shouted, stifling any further conversation.

"If it's the Princess, then approve it!" Leon ordered, and the operator's fingers flew over the control console. Magic pulsed, wards opened, and a bright band of golden light fell from the sky. This golden band stretched upward and southward, arcing over the mountains, the southern plains, and Seabreak. The band then bent downward about a hundred miles off the southern coast and vanished into the sapphire waves of the King's Ocean.

Light flashed and Leon's party tensed, but as the Lumenite retreated away from the platform and they saw who had been left behind, they relaxed, if only a little. A small party of about a dozen women stood there, none dressed for war, and only A'Rei, Miuna's closest attendant and guard, was armed. Between them was a covered palanquin, the figure within only the faintest shadow behind the gauzy curtains.

"Her Highness, Princess Miuna!" A'Rei announced, looking like she would have gladly kept going with Miuna's many titles, but was reluctantly holding them in.

"Princess Miuna is welcome in Artorion," Leon responded.

"Please, follow us inside." A'Rei nodded, and Miuna, within the palanquin, kept almost strangely quiet. They did as Leon bid, and the short walk into a more private part of the palace was silent and tense. Barriers seemed to have gone up, and no one was willing to break them in public.

However, the moment the doors shut behind them, leaving Leon, his wives, a small handful of female Tempest Knights, and Miuna's party alone, the Princess herself almost launched herself out from behind the curtains and threw her arms around Leon.

"I came as quickly as I could!" she sniffled, and Leon felt wetness on his shoulder, where she'd pressed her face.

"The moment I heard!" Leon lightly patted her back, but did no more even as her arms tightened around his neck. Only after several seconds did her embrace loosen, and she only returned to her own feet when Elise laid a hand on her shoulder and silently insisted that she release Leon. With a dusting of pink in her cheeks, Miuna smiled and backed a pace away, a demeanor more suiting a Princess on an official visit falling over her.

"King Leon, allow me to express my deep regret at everything that has happened over these past few months. Are you and your people all right?"

'No.' Leon wondered how she'd react if he told her the truth with all the blunt force of a hammer.

"We're doing as well as can be expected," Leon stated.

"There has been much woe, and there will be much mourning in the near future. But we're still here."

"As is Triton's fleet," Elise pointedly added.

"I will contact him immediately!" Miuna declared as she waved A'Rei forward.

"My father has personally authorized me to end this conflict! Triton will retreat this very moment, and he will pay you reparations for his unsanctioned attack!" Leon smiled thinly and said, "Your father had nothing to do with this, then?"

"By the endless waves, no!" Miuna declared as A'Rei gave her a glowing sapphire the size of her fist.

"My Divine Father and I have been in the planes these past few months dealing with rebellions and provocations from Mountain Lords! When I heard about this attack, I went to him, and he gave me leave to return here and deal with this situation! I pushed my arks hard and reached the Nexus in days! I messaged you the second I stepped off my ark, and went straight to my Lumenite portal! Leon… we had nothing to do with this, I assure you…"

Her final sentence came with a thin crack in her Royal demeanor, and Leon saw worry there, a silent plea for him to believe her and fear that he would not. He breathed deeply through his nose, his fingers curling and then loosening. He decided to take her at her word. It simply didn't make sense why Miuna would've allowed this, as he would've thought the favored child of the Ocean King would've been able to muster greater forces against him if she were truly involved than a single Basileus.

"As you say," he said, his smile relaxing into something more genuine, and Miuna, too, visibly relaxed.

"However," he continued, and she tensed up again, "Basileus Triton is dead." Miuna blinked, then dropped the sapphire in her hand. It was just barely caught before it hit the floor, with A'Rei extending her aura to protect the heavily enchanted gem.

"What?" the Princess whispered.

"Dead?"

"Yes," Leon confirmed.

"Less than a day ago. His fleet was ravaged, and it's now pulling back. I don't know who's in charge over there, but it seems like they're trying to regroup in the northwest." Leon felt Miuna's magic senses pulse, and her eyes flickered first in the main fleet's direction, then northward to the Diluvian northern fleet. She then closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath.

"He was given a traitor's end, then. I only regret that I wasn't here to see it happen with my own eyes." Her amber eyes then opened, and her gaze, soft and concerned, rested on Leon.

"I will contact whoever commands that fleet and order them back. I imagine they won't argue if their Lord is dead." Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Leon nodded, giving her a moment to confer with A'Rei. It took a few minutes for them to find out who might be in command of Triton's fleet, and when Miuna activated her sapphire, she straightened up despite the sapphire not having any enchantments to transmit her appearance.

The blue gem flashed and chimed once, twice, thrice, and then went quiet. Miuna blinked, then her amber eyes narrowed in anger. A'Rei gave her the relevant contact information for another of Triton's Lords, and Miuna tried again. Again, the sapphire attempted to connect, and again, it failed. Now looked rather tilted, Miuna tried a third time, and for a third time, it failed.

"It seems," she hissed, "that Triton's Lords are avoiding me…"

"I would, too," Cassandra said with a cheeky grin.

"You look ready to tear someone's throat out." Miuna flashed a dangerous smile, giving Leon a small glimpse of her as a Despotissa rather than as a Princess.

"I would, if given cause. Without hesitation." Then she relaxed again and told her attendants to leave. A'Rei remained for a moment before Miuna nodded to her, and only then did the guard-attendant leave. As they left, Leon glanced at Elise and nodded, and she ordered the Tempest Knights to leave, too. When the door closed behind them, Leon and his wives were left alone with Miuna. Now thoroughly out of the public eye, Miuna immediately groaned and threw herself into the nearest chair.

"Those piss-drinking traitors! Can't even try to justify their treason to me! They can only run!" Leon, enjoying her outburst, smiled and took a seat close to her, while Elise and Valeria sat beside him, and Cassandra and Maia sat across from him.

"What are you going to do about it?" Valeria asked quietly.

"If I must," Miuna growled, "I'll fly out there personally and remove those in charge if they continue to refuse my authority."

"They're likely being led by at least three Despots," Leon pointed out.

"Can you match their magical strength?"

"I have you here, don't I?" Miuna said with a flirtatious grin.

"I also have my father. Though he is still out in the planes, he would drop everything to drown the fool who harmed so much as a hair on my head. I have but to ask, and he would come here himself and enforce his commands! His patience—and mine —for rebellion has frayed considerably after what we've had to deal with these past few months!" Elise cocked her head and probed, "You said something about that—rebellions and provocations?" Miuna scowled.

"Several Planar Clusters attempted to secede from my father's domain. They apparently received word that their rebellion would be widespread and supported from outside. I don't know who told them this, but I have a couple suspicions…"

"Triton?" Leon asked, immediately connecting that dot.

"He's one," Miuna stated.

"It was effective at getting me and my father out of the Nexus while he committed his treason. But it could have also been the Mountain Lords. My father's war with the Mountain King ended decades ago, and not in the Mountain King's favor. His dirt-eating Lords have been making trouble ever since—probably the Mountain King's attempts to destabilize my father's realm." She paused and stared up at the ceiling, her fury turning into something more akin to resignation.

"Not that he needs to do much to achieve that…"

"Trouble?" Leon politely, if insistently, inquired.

"Should I be worried that my neighbors are going to invade me again?"

"Hm?" Miuna responded, his question pulling her from her musings. She then hurriedly said, "No! My father's rule over his King's Ocean is abso… it was absolute, until Triton changed his tide…" She took the time to huff at Triton's name before continuing.

"I can't fathom why he would attack you, though…"

"I know why," Leon said.

"But first, what has you so concerned? I'd rather know that my most important ally is stable and secure than anything else…" Miuna brightened up immediately.

"'Most important ally…?' Leon, you know how to make me smile, though you could've also used 'friend'… or something more intimate, if you'd prefer…" Valeria and Elise's hands went to Leon's arms, while Maia and Cassandra crossed their arms; Leon's wives closed ranks, and Miuna sighed and backed down.

"My father has been putting more time into enforcing his rule over the other oceans in the Nexus," Miuna explained.

"Given that we are separated from the other oceans by other Elemental Lands, and that the oceans are both larger and less inhabited than the Elemental Lands, it's been… challenging. We've had the most success out in the planes, where the other Ocean Lords can't hide behind Storm or Burning or Mountain Lords, but it's still a struggle. Anakes, in particular, don't like giving up their autonomy." Miuna then leaned forward, seriousness carving itself into her expression.

"Why did he attack you? You said that you know why…" Leon glanced at his wives, and after a moment of thought, he decided to be honest. He didn't have much reason not to be, after all, unless he wanted to hoard information from his allies that they could use to help him.

"He was a rather devoted follower of Khosrow's Law," Leon said. Miuna immediately frowned, understanding what he meant without him saying anything more.

"Then he was a fool. A jealous fool, who so hated that he was born without power that he had to lash out at those who were."

"That may have been part of it," Leon conceded, "but the bigger impetus behind his decision to attack me is that he had backing." Miuna turned her eyes back to him, her demeanor shifting entirely.

"A Mountain Lord?"

"No," Leon revealed.

"A Storm Lord. Kamran."

"Anax Kamran…" Miuna whispered in disbelief." He was backing Triton?"

"Has been for a while. The first time I heard of Triton was many years ago, and the man who told me of him—himself a former official in Kamran's administration—believed Triton to be so intertwined with Kamran that he called Triton a vassal." One of Miuna's hands went to her head, and her lips curled downward.

"Do you know of any others he might back?" she whispered.

"No Ocean Lords. Another of his 'vassals' attacked my forces out in the planes. A Burning Lord named Antipatra. A Basilissa. She and Triton coordinated to get me out of the Nexus and open my territory up for his invasion." Miuna returned her amber gaze to him, a subtle look of hope breaking through her more negative expressions.

"If you need me to help against Antipatra—""Antipatra is dead." Miuna blinked, looking almost like Leon's statement had almost physically slapped her.

"Of course she is…" she murmured.

"Well, Leon, my friend, I want to make sure you know that I want to help you with anything at all that you need. Since Triton is dead, I personally guarantee you that his territory will be used to fund your domain's reconstruction and restitution. I can't bring back the dead, but I can try and help those left behind."

"That's generous, and very appreciated," Leon said, the last knot of suspicion he had of Miuna finally dissipating. Their conversation then turned in a more personal direction, with Miuna making sure that he and his family were all right, and then they swapped stories about the respective wars they'd just finished fighting. Miuna hadn't personally participated in suppressing the rebellion out in the planes all that much, but she was at least present for a few relatively small battles that her father fought.

Leon's wars, on the other hand, had her almost reeling from the scale and sheer bloody nightmare that the fighting had turned into. Most armies, after all, didn't fight to the last man, and they didn't bombard entire planes into effective lifelessness. As she was explaining how unusually Antipatra's forces had behaved, and everyone started wondering if Triton's fleet was going to act similarly, Leon received a call on his comm slate.

When the information was relayed, he, his wives, and Miuna all immediately rose and rushed outside—A'Rei and Miuna's handmaidens struggling to keep her concealed from general view the whole way. When they finally got a good view, able to confirm what had been shared with their own eyes, they saw that every word of the short message had been accurate. Triton's fleet, which had been moving to regroup just off the west coast, was now rushing for the King's Ocean as quickly as their thrusters allowed.

They were running now, not maneuvering to regroup. A wellspring of emotion swelled within Leon, and he threw his head back and began laughing. It seemed like this was it; the war was over, Triton's fleet was in full retreat. All of his stress and worry that he still had one more battle to fight, a battle that he still didn't consider himself or his forces to be in any shape to engage in, melted away. He slowly spun in the air, laughing like he hadn't laughed in a long time, releasing everything into the air.

His mind almost immediately began planning the celebrations. Mourning for the lost, triumphs for the victors, parades and parties for the survivors. Feasts in Westmount, and long nights tangled with his wives in bed. There was much work ahead to rebuild, but at least for the moment, it seemed like everything had finally, finally, come to an end. It didn't take long for him to regret those thoughts. After all, he should've known that the end to this crisis wasn't going to come so easily…