Leon couldn’t enchant his gift to Elise right away; rather, he and the Thunderbird needed to first plan out what he wanted to do with it, and that process alone would take days, followed by weeks of preparation. And as much as Leon wanted to devote his time to nothing but that and his own training, the civil war had waited long enough.

For two months, Octavius and August had been amassing their forces. Octavius had gotten a good head start, but his allies were far more spread out across the Kingdom. August had less people loyal to him, but they didn’t have that far to go.

Logistics, as always, were a pain to figure out, and from what Leon had seen from Minerva and several other high ranking knights, he was glad he was as far away from that mess as he was. The Eastern Territories had farms, to be sure, but the amount of food they produced wasn’t enough to support the eastern population on their own. The Western Territories provided as much as half of the entire Bull Kingdom’s food supply in any given year, oftentimes more, and that it was firmly in Octavius’ hands was a big problem for the Augustine faction.

But they had their own advantages, too. The forges of the Blasted Furnace were running round the clock as August ensured his forces were properly equipped. Nearly all of the Bull Kingdom’s silver mines were in the east, too, so he was able to buy food, spells, and other equipment from merchants in Ariminium.

But food, spells, arms, and armor were one thing; the armies and allies he needed were another thing entirely. The Eastern Territories had fifteen Legions, five of which needed to stay put to keep the peace, leaving August with two hundred thousand combat soldiers. Adding to that were fifty thousand knights and men-at-arms contributed by the eastern nobles, giving August a fairly large army.

The problem was that Octavius had more than twice that that, though with a couple fewer Legions compared to August and more troops from his loyal nobles. August was desperate for something to fill that gap.

—

“I will not agree to this, Your Highness!” Minerva insisted, glaring down at the proposal in her hand like it was about to turn into a snake and sink its fangs into her wrist. Actually, compared to what was in the stack of papers, having them transform into some vicious creature would be an improvement, in her opinion.

“I don’t need you to agree to it, Dame Minerva, I just need it to happen,” August replied, his tone calm but holding an intense undercurrent of anger.

The two were in his office with only Leon and the two Paladins there with them. The five had just left a large meeting with the Legion commanders and nobles who had pledged themselves to August’s cause where they had worked out a general strategy for moving forward. It had been decided that Brimstone and Minerva would lead six Legions northward to secure the Great Plateau and get the support of the nobles there, while Roland would take the remaining four Legions south. The noble army would defend the Eastern Territories from further attack in their absence.

Leon assumed that he would be going with Minerva since he was her direct subordinate, and so wasn’t too surprised when he wasn’t given a specific task. However, his unease grew as Minerva’s eyes kept flickering between him, August, and the stack of papers in her hand that expanded upon August’s proposed strategy.

“I have spent my entire military career defending our borders from military incursions by our neighbors!” Minerva loudly said, barely keeping herself from shouting in anger. “I will never allow Samar or Talfar troops to cross our borders, no matter the situation we find ourselves in!”

“We have little other recourse, we need allies and after the Consul of the North went to the capital, it seems that we’ve run out of domestic options,” Roland responded as he cocked an eyebrow, noticing that she didn’t call out the mission he’d planned for Leon in that plan.

“Dame Minerva, perhaps we ought to tone things down, these proposals are just that, proposals. Nothing has been finalized, yet,” Roland said as he glanced at August for confirmation.

“Indeed,” August said as he rose from behind his desk and walked around it to look Minerva in the eye properly, “I doubt that Sultan Harun or Queen Andraste would come to my aid, anyway. Andraste is still fighting the Han in the east, and Rashid has his own succession issues to deal with right now.”

The Prince gave a deep sigh as the anger he felt began to drain out of him.

“I was merely suggesting that we open diplomatic communications with the two. We don’t hold the capital, so we’re the rebels right now. If we were to get the acknowledgment of two fellow monarchs, though, it would go a long way toward increasing my legitimacy.”

Minerva frowned. The Bull Kingdom was relatively isolated, and its people weren’t the most diplomatically-minded out of those in the Aeterna. She doubted that foreign acknowledgments would sway many minds in August’s favor, but she remained silent until August was finished.

“I need more soldiers, more warriors, more everything,” the Prince continued. “We have a large army, but the reports I’ve been getting from the capital have me extremely concerned.”

“What reports?” Minerva demanded, since no such reports had been shared with the rest of the command staff at Ironford. As far as she knew, even the two most important nobles on August’s side, Marquis Herrenia of Ironford and Marquis Aeneas of Aventino, had been briefed fully on the situation. As far as anyone was aware, they didn’t have enough informants in the capital to have a good idea of how big Octavius’ army was.

“Publius Umber reached out to me a few days ago to inform me of some troubling news,” August explained. “Octavius has imprisoned hundreds of nobles working in the Legions and the government who came from eastern families. He’s purged thousands more who were of common heritage, leaving many of his Legions with few commanders and the palace with little more than a skeleton crew to keep things moving. He’s also informed me of Octavius’ numbers.”

August then handed Minerva another piece of paper, and everyone in the room watched as her look of anger quickly warped into a scowl as she read the report.

As calmly as he could, August said, “We’re outnumbered more than two to one. We need to find allies. That’s what I was doing.” August turned to Leon next, and continued, “I was actually hoping you could help me out in that regard, Sir Ursus. You’ve told me before that you can get me the support of the stone giants in the Border Mountains. How certain are you of this?”

“There is no doubt in my mind that they would come if I were to call upon them,” Leon confidently replied.

“Then I am going to send you and your retinue east to do just that,” August said.

“… So I’m not going north?” Leon asked, his stoic face slightly shifting into a brief expression of surprise and disappointment.

“No. I’m sure you could do a lot of good up there even though you won’t let me use your name, but no matter what tactical boons you could provide, your strategic uses are far too great to ignore. Bring me those giants.”

Leon froze at the mention of his name and uncontrollably released a few strands of killing intent, but once August was finished, Leon slowly nodded his agreement.

“I assume the stone giants will be welcomed better than Talfar or Samar warriors, Dame Minerva?” August asked.

“… I can’t say for certain,” Minerva answered, still obviously not in agreement.

“I would say the same,” Brimstone added. “The eastern Lords won’t be too happy about this development. They’ve fought the stone giants for millennia, and to see them suddenly invited into the Kingdom so soon after securing peace won’t be taken well.”

“I’ll speak with the nobles,” August said. “Many of them have family members now held hostage by Octavius. Things will be rough for a little while when the stone giants arrive, but if we free these prisoners, then I doubt the nobles will make too big of a fuss. It helps, too, that I’m not sending their knights and men-at-arms to die in the west.”

“So long… so long as it’s only the giants, I can live with that,” Minerva growled through her teeth. It clearly didn’t sit well with her, but their strategic situation was just that bad. She had to compromise here and there, and she trusted Leon. “I don’t like losing Ursus, though.”

The group continued to speak for a few more minutes, but they had offensives to plan and not much time to do it in. It had been two months, after all, and Octavius’ armies were undoubtedly already on the move. If they wanted to beat those armies to their objectives, then they’d have to move even faster.

—

Leon breathed deeply of the cool mountain air. He was far away from the nearest major city, with only Valeria, Alix, Anzu, and Lapis for company. Despite the history between their families, Leon found himself relaxing more and more around Valeria, such that even this time with only her and Alix around for human companionship wasn’t that bad. The need to seek revenge for his father still burned in his heart, but the more time he spent around her, the more he trusted her and the more he thought of her as something akin to a friend.

And he had no idea how to reconcile that with the fact that her father was undoubtedly his enemy.

But such things weren’t even on his mind right now. He simply enjoyed the rough mountain landscape of the Eastern Territories, feeling right at home. The five were on their way to the Crater Tribe to recruit them into August’s faction.

Minerva, Roland, Brimstone, and their Legions moved out of Ironford shortly before Leon and the others did, bound for the Northern and Southern Territories. Leon was a bit upset that he was missing those campaigns since he wanted to be there for every blow they struck against Octavius, but since he was doing something he wanted to do, he wasn’t too broken up about it. He cheered himself up immensely by imagining the face Octavius or Earthshaker might make if he were ever to directly face them in battle with hundreds of sixth-tier equivalent stone giants at his back.

They stopped to rest several times on their journey eastward, though not too frequently. Alix slowed them down a bit, being only third-tier, but Leon wasn’t shy about letting her ride Anzu so that they could speed up their pace a bit. Anzu’s feelings were a bit more mixed, but he was starting to get used to acting as a war mount and wasn’t quite so averse to the idea of Leon’s friends riding on his back as he had been.

Moving like this, the group covered more than a hundred miles every day, stopping when rest was needed, but usually sleeping out in the wild with Lapis watching over them. They reached the western edge of the Border Mountains in only five days.

“Do you know the way from here?” Leon asked Lapis as the ground of gray stone and brown soil starting to give way to clumps of black hexagonal basalt pillars.

“It won’t be too hard to find my people,” Lapis confidently replied.

“That’s good to hear,” Leon said. “Otherwise, I might’ve had to scout a bit on Anzu.”

“I wouldn’t recommend that, Leon,” Lapis warned. “Other griffins call these mountains home, and more besides. To fly through the air here would be to invite disaster.”

“Oh,” Leon said, a little disheartened. “Then I’m very glad that you know the way.”

Leon and Lapis carried on like this for a little longer, mostly discussing the threats in the mountains as Lapis knew them. The stone giants were the most attention-grabbing inhabitants of the mountains given their tribal organization and frequent violent clashes with the Bull Kingdom’s citizens, but they were by no means the most powerful; griffins, trolls, river nymphs, and rock salamanders could all individually grow powerful enough to pose serious threats to stone giants. Sometimes even manticores and wyverns could make their way into the mountains, beasts with enough power to immediately rise to the top of the local food chain.

Behind them, the conversation between Alix and Valeria was a lot less serious.

“I hate the mountains,” Alix muttered as the group kept ascending the gentle slope into the Border Mountains.

“Why?” Valeria asked.

“Too rocky,” Alix said with a cheeky smile. “Give me a good, flat, grassy plain any day over these gods-forsaken mountains. Better yet, give me a city where I can find a place to play cards, get some drinks, maybe go out dancing…”

“Hmm. I’ve rarely spent time in mountains…” Valeria murmured a bit absent-mindedly.

“Really? Isn’t your family supposed to be rich, your father being an Exarch and all? Don’t rich people go on vacations to exotic locations all the time?”

Valeria flinched a bit at the mention of her father—she still hadn’t received any word from him, and while she did her best not to let it show, it did weigh heavily on her mind. But she didn’t blame Alix for asking, and answered, “We didn’t get out much. When I was young, almost all of my time was spent either in Calabria or in the capital. In these past few months I’ve seen more of the Bull Kingdom than I ever did in my entire life before.”

“Oh…” Alix whispered, her tone shifting to one of sympathy and guilt for bringing up something that she was only now realizing was putting Valeria in a bad mood. “I’m sorry for bringing all of this up, I—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Valeria said. “It is what it is. I’m getting out and about now, and that’s what matters. At least I didn’t grow up being literally stuck on a single estate like Princess Cristina…”

“Yeah… I think I’d go crazy if I were stuck somewhere like that, no matter how luxurious it is… Then again, I’ve never lived in a palace before, so I can’t say that with certainty.”

“It’s not what it’s cracked up to be,” Valeria said. “You don’t have to worry about certain things, for sure, but especially for Princesses, you’re expected to act a certain way—at least, that’s what I’ve gathered from listening to Cristina’s complaints. Besides, it wasn’t just her there, she lived with the King’s entire harem. Hundreds of women, none of them with children, most of them jealous of her position. As far as I’m aware, Asiya and I were the only friends she’s made in her entire life.”

“That’s so sad…” Alix mumbled, unable to really comprehend being in a situation where the only friends she could make were her own guards.

“She’s out of that place now, and she’s doing a lot better,” Valeria said. “She seems to have made friends with some of Marquis Herrenia’s daughters, and she and I still spend a lot of time together.”

“All’s well that ends well, I guess,” Alix said, not quite believing her own words.

“Can I ask you a question, Dame Alix?”

“Oh! Uh, sure, and you can just call me Alix.” Alix knew for a fact that she’d told this to Valeria before, but the silver-haired woman could be unfailingly formal at times, and it drove Alix a bit nuts.

“Could I ask you about why you’re here?”

“Huh?” Alix responded, unsure if she should be insulted or not.

“I mean… why are you following Leon so… enthusiastically? And to such a place as the home of the stone giants?”

Alix was silent for a long moment before she answered. “… Leon and I met under some pretty extreme circumstances, you know that.” Valeria nodded. “I suppose we just… I don’t know… bonded over that incident. Leon was almost killed by Hakon Fire-Beard. We were both almost killed during that siege and everything that led up to it. And when he left, he asked for me to come with. I couldn’t bring myself to stay, so I left with him.” Alix glanced up at Leon’s back, not too far away but still conversing with Lapis and not paying the two ladies behind him much attention right now. “I think that when all of that was over, we both kind of clung to one another for a while, as friends who bonded over a shared time of struggle.

“And that’s it, that’s why I’m still here. We’re friends, and I can confidently say that we’d kill for each other. Do I need any other reason?”

Valeria lightly frowned as she thought about her own reasons for following Leon. “No,” she admitted after a few moments of quiet thought. “No, you don’t.”

—

Guided by Lapis, the group moved quickly through the mountains, using paths and tunnels that the giants had made to travel quickly and safely through their lands. Along the way, they passed by a number of other stone giant settlements that Lapis wanted to check in with, but none were even close to the size of the Crater Tribe.

Seven days after leaving Ironford, Leon and company finally arrived at the crater that had lent its name to the Crater Tribe. It was rough going, and both Leon and Anzu had chafed a bit being stuck to the ground. Now that both could fly, both always wanted to fly, but Leon followed Lapis’ advice and kept both himself and Anzu firmly on land.

The crater itself hadn’t changed much in the years since Leon had last been there. The walls of the crater were still peppered with the vast entrances to the giant-sized trapezoidal doorways, the maze that covered the crater floor was still there, and the Cradle hadn’t been rebuilt. Here and there a few giants were going about whatever business they had, but the crater still seemed a bit bereft of inhabitants—which wasn’t too surprising since the crater hadn’t seemed too crowded the last time Leon had been here.

They emerged into the crater from a tunnel, walking out onto one of the platforms that acted as roads leading up and down the crater walls, connecting each giant cave to each other. They were about a third of the way up from the bottom.

“We’re finally here…” Alix muttered as she followed the others onto the platform. “I have to admit, I never thought we’d return.”

“Why not?” Leon asked.

“They almost killed you the last time we were here, I figured that whatever promises they made, it wasn’t going to be worth coming back,” Alix admitted.

Leon nodded in understanding. “That’s valid, I suppose. Hopefully we won’t get into too much trouble this time around.”

“I think that’s all on you,” Alix said, shooting Leon a cheeky smile.

As they spoke, Lapis walked to the edge of the platform and, to the surprise of the other four, slammed its hands together in a thunderous clap that resounded throughout the entire crater.

Reeling from the sound of the clap, Leon loudly exclaimed, “What the hells?!”

Lapis didn’t respond, and instead seemed to vibrate with earth magic, sending the vibrations deep into the basalt walls.

Valeria almost pulled her glaive off her back, only refraining when Leon told everyone to wait. Anzu, meanwhile, was terrified, and protectively wrapped his body around Leon while glaring at Lapis.

Once its vibrations were finished, though, the giant simply stood there at the edge of the platform, completely unmoving. If Leon didn’t know better, he could’ve easily mistaken Lapis for a statue.

A few seconds later, another round of vibrations came from somewhere below, closer to the crater floor. It was only after these vibrations stopped that Lapis moved again, turning back around to face Leon and saying, “Rakos knows we are coming, now. He will speak with us as soon as we arrive at his palace.”

Leon nodded, then walked to the edge of the platform and glanced downward. Rakos’ palatial cave was still there, with its decorative pillars of hexagonal basalt forming a half-circle around the monolithic doorway.

“Let’s not waste any more time, then,” Leon said. “Let’s go speak with Rakos.”