Leon stared at the third island as it slowly grew smaller in the distance. He’d only been there for about five days—practically an eternity in his mind, but the shortest amount of time he’d spent at any of the islands.

He stood on the main deck of Sigebert’s flagship. The Fleet Legate, after hearing Leon’s words and surveying the temple for himself, decided to trust Leon and drop everything to go after Jormun. The other Fleet Legates had protested, and their subsequent argument had grown quite heated, but in the end, Sigebert had gotten his way. His fleet now sailed with him away from the third island on a course that Leon had given him. They moved with all the haste that a few hundred ships and marine transports could manage, which wasn’t much, but by their estimates, they’d reach the next island in the chain in roughly four days.

That gave Leon plenty of time to think and contemplate their situation. One thing he was quite concerned about was the fact that it seemed like Sigebert had been being somewhat influenced by something on these islands. It had been Leon quietly zapping him with the Thunderbird’s lightning that had allowed him to convince the Fleet Legate to leave the others behind for a dedicated hunt of Jormun, and since then, Leon had been trying to keep his eyes open for any other signs of such influence.

He never saw much, however. Everyone seemed to be acting normally, and he didn’t see anything that might indicate any undue influence was around them—he especially kept his eyes open for the Thunderbird look-a-like, for as he reflected on the past few weeks, he believed more and more the Thunderbird’s theory that her tiny doppelganger had something to do with his recent beastly urges, such as wanting to spread his wings or tear into something with his claws. However, there was no sign of the bird. If it was real, it seemed like Leon’s distrust at the entrance of the temple had caused it to abandon him.

For the most part, he was happy that he wasn’t seeing it around, but there was a small voice in the back of his mind that felt quietly guilty for running it off like that. But it was what it was, and he could do nothing more than deal with whatever consequences might come.

Joining Leon on the deck of Sigebert’s flagship was the rest of his retinue, plus Gaius. Anzu was lounging not too far to Leon’s right, his large body leaning up against the deck’s guardrail while his head rested on top of it. He looked to be having trouble keeping his eyes open.

Behind Leon were Marcus, Alcander, Alix, and Gaius, all of whom had paired off to spar, though it hardly seemed like they were putting in too much effort. To Leon’s eyes, it seemed more like they were just chatting while they lightly exercised. He didn’t mind that, though, and didn’t press them too much after the first few minutes to keep the intensity of their training up.

To his left was Maia, who was quietly leaning on the rail, her eyes staring off at nothing in particular, a strange look in her eyes.

How are you doing? Leon silently asked her.

She sighed in an almost contented manner. I think I’m doing about as well as I could be doing, she answered. I’m more worried about you, though…

Me? Leon asked with some surprise.

Yes, she responded. You’ve been acting very weird since we came back from that place. I know you don’t want to talk about what happened in there, but I can tell that it’s weighing on your mind. What’s going on?

Leon smiled bitterly and glanced out at the ocean. It was utterly terrifying, but its beauty couldn’t be denied.

I was… forced to face my father down there… Leon said quietly and slowly. He then hesitantly narrated everything that he’d experienced since they’d been separated after entering the temple, including his conversation with Jormun in the colossus’ chamber, his subsequent break-in of Gaius’ trial world, and then how Jormun manipulated it to pull a shade of Artorias from his mind that he was forced to fight.

Leon’s hesitation in describing all of this doubled when he spoke of Artorias, and only grew worse as he realized that this was probably the most he’d ever spoken of his father ever since Artorias had been killed. Leon had rarely spoken about Artorias to anyone, and in the case of those like Trajan who’d been curious enough to ask him about his father, Leon had been light on details and never offered more than the answer to any questions he might’ve gotten. It occurred to him that the most he’d spoken of his father had probably been to Elise, but even then, he hadn’t said much, mostly sticking to Artorias’ death rather than stories of the kind of father he’d been.

By the time Leon finished telling Maia about how he’d been forced to ‘kill’ Artorias, Leon was starting to break down. His eyes were growing wet and he wasn’t able to look at Maia for longer than the briefest of glances.

Maia clearly picked up on this, for she quietly took his arm and steered him back below deck, followed only by Anzu—the others at first made to follow them, but Maia had frozen them with a glare. She brought Leon directly back to their cabin and then back to his private room, where the two of them could be alone.

Once there, Leon collapsed into bed, his heart in his throat. Maia curled up behind him, wrapping one of her arms around his chest. She didn’t speak, for which Leon was grateful. He just laid there, trying and failing to keep quiet as tears poured out of him.

This didn’t last long. Leon pulled himself together after only a couple minutes, but after that, the two just laid there for another quarter of an hour before Maia finally broke the silence.

“Tell me about your father,” she whispered aloud.

Leon hesitated for a long moment. There were a few things he didn’t want to talk about, and his father was near the top of that list. But, for Maia, Leon took a deep breath and quietly said, “He… was the only person I knew for most of my life. He wasn’t just my father… he was my teacher, my hunting companion, and my best friend… In the years since he’s been gone, I’ve only rarely ever been as happy as I was back in the Forest of Black and White with him. He was the strongest and best man I’ve ever known… Only Trajan could compare…”

“Sounds like you idolize him quite a bit,” Maia observed. Leon was still turned away from her, but he could hear the smile on her face all the same.

“I did, and still do,” Leon quietly replied. “He was better than me in every way. If he were still here, he’d know exactly what to do, who to talk to, what to say… He was selfless, caring, and strong. He wasn’t perfect, though… he cared about the Bull Kingdom a great deal, and I think it was that devotion that got him killed. He invited that snake Adrianos into our home, and later, that bastard came back with others…”

Leon trailed off, not quite wanting to go into too much into the details of his father’s death. He refocused on his father as he was in life, not as he was in those final couple of days, and continued.

“He was devoted to his family, and he’d been forced to live through the deaths of his father, his brother, and the kidnapping of his wife—my mother. And yet, he always did his best to never let me see that side of him. It was only when I asked about my mother that he’d let even a hint of how much pain those losses caused show.”

“I think you take after him in that regard,” Maia playfully whispered.

Leon chuckled lightly. “Maybe I do, maybe I do…” He slowly turned around so that he was faced Maia, their faces so close that their noses brushed against each other. “Is that a problem?” he asked hesitantly.

Maia’s arm went up to cup his cheek. “Not for me. I’ll always be here if you need to talk, if you ever to. You’ve always been there for me, even forgiving me for the mistakes I made when we met… I could never do anything less than reciprocate.”

Leon hugged her closer. “I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you, too,” she replied, then looked at him expectantly, clearly wanting him to continue talking about Artorias.

Leon obliged, moving on from the more depressing things to describing in detail the lives they’d lived in the Forest of Black and White, how they’d supported themselves by hunting the various beats that came out during the day, trading their furs back in Vale Town for other necessities, and avoiding the ice wraiths and banshees that came out at night. Maia shivered at the thought of those monsters, but relaxed a little when Leon described how his father had come to be known among the Valemen of the Brown Bear Tribe as the ‘Wraith-killer’.

Leon told her other stories, too, such as how Artorias would teach him to hunt and survive, the training and studying that he had Leon do, and he told Maia the story of how he’d awoken his blood. Most importantly, he told Maia of how his father died, though he had to stop several times to compose himself before he made it through.

By the end, he was calmer, but still in a bit of state. When he was finished with his story, having told Maia of how he’d buried his father after cutting him open and putting a Heartwood seed in his chest, Leon leaned back in the bed, taking his eyes off his river nymph lover in favor of staring at the ceiling of the room.

“I can’t help but think if things had been reversed, if he’d been the one burying me, he would’ve done a much better job at all of this than me…”

“No!” Maia almost shouted, surprising Leon with her sudden passion—she’d been quietly listening for long enough that Leon figured he might’ve gotten a bit too comfortable discussing these matters. “Never say that!” she sternly ordered him. “You’re here now, what would things be like for me if you weren’t? For Elise? Do you think either of us wish that you were dead?”

Leon bitterly smiled as he realized his mistake.

“No,” he whispered. “That’s not what I think. Sorry, I guess I just a bit too… I don’t know, a bit too down about this whole thing. I wouldn’t give either of you up for the entire world.”

“Good,” Maia replied as her lips lightly brushed against his.

Leon’s smile turned more genuine, and he and pressed his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes as her lips turned up in a smile of her own, and the two stayed like that for a while longer, not making a sound, just reveling in each other’s company.

However, for Leon, it still didn’t quite feel complete. He loved Maia, but he couldn’t help but wish that Elise was here, too. Their little family just didn’t feel right without her, like there was a massive hole where there shouldn’t be.

As if reading his mind, Maia muttered, “I miss Elise.”

“So do I,” Leon replied. He’d gotten enough of a hold on himself that he wasn’t about to burst into tears again, but his mood soured greatly when he thought about the distance between them and their fire-haired lover. “We’ll be with her again, soon. We just have to deal with this damn pirate, and then we can go home.”

Maia sighed, and she replied, “Then let’s get this done as quickly as we can…”

Leon agreed, and the two lay there in silence for a while longer. Soon Maia had fallen asleep, but Leon didn’t move to get up. He just lay there with her in his arms. He felt much better than he did even an hour ago—not quite like a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders, but maybe like it had lightened just a little bit.

—

“Are you done playing around?” Friga demanded of Jormun as the fourth island drew relatively close, only a day or two away. Their ship cut through the waves with great speed, but not nearly enough to make up for the time lost in the temple.

Jormun merely gave her a cheeky smile and a shrug. “Everything worked out, and we’re still ahead of schedule, why’re you so angry?”

Friga’s wild features turned down in a deep scowl.

Not too far away, Andoral, the tall, lithe, seventh-tier light mage, walked over and said, “She’s just mad that that little baby Legion knight got the better of her.”

“Say that again and I’ll gouge out your eyes,” Friga replied with a look of utter seriousness in her eyes.

Andoral, however, shrugged nonchalantly and replied, “If you do that, I’ll never heal you again. The next wound you take fighting that kid will stick around for a long time, I’ll tell you that!”

“Enough, you two,” Jormun ordered. His tone was light and cheerful, but neither of the other two tested that and quieted down immediately. “Now, we still have some work to do. How have the repairs to the ship gone?”

“Well enough,” Andoral replied. “The crew that died during those submergings will be difficult to replace, but they weren’t exactly critical.”

“And the ritual?”

“It was performed exactly as ordered,” Friga replied. “Rolf saw to it personally. The only locks remaining for this seal are on this island and the next.”

“And they should be just about done with unlocking the lock here,” Andoral added.

“They damn well better be, they’ve certainly had long enough,” Jormun growled.

The three were silent for a long moment as Jormun stared at the mountainous island before them, his ship swiftly cutting through the waves as it curved along the shore in a long circle about a thousand feet out.

“I… have a wonder, if you’ll indulge me, Captain,” Andoral hesitantly asked.

Jormun glanced over at him with a raised eyebrow, silently allowing him to continue.

“I can’t help but wonder what the deal is with this kid,” Andoral said. “I mean, we knew that they were going to send a Paladin or two after us, and it is weird that the one they sent is so young, but… Is he worth going so out of our way for? Why do all of this just to screw with his mind?”

Jormun chuckled. “Screwing with his mind is reason enough, I should think,” he said in a playful tone. He then paused, but when Andoral’s gaze didn’t waver, Jormun sighed and explained, “The Serpent has taken an interest in him. I know not why, but it has ordered that we bring the boy to each of the ritual sites.”

“If that’s the case, why did you order me to attack him?!” Friga demanded to know, her tone indignant and her aura filling with killing intent.

Jormun was unperturbed. She was no threat to him, and besides, he knew her quite well, this was just how she was. He didn’t take the killing intent seriously.

“I ordered you to attack the unit he was with,” he said. “I knew he’d be fine. He’s the sort of person who drew the gaze of the Serpent itself, there was no way he was going to die there.”

“I was thinking more about me,” Friga quietly stated. “Why was I the one you threw against him? Was it because you knew I’d fail?”

Jormun turned to her, taking his eyes off the distant volcanos. “No, my dear, it’s because I trusted you to carry out the real plan: keeping these ungrateful bastards in line!” As he spoke, Jormun gestured to the island with a dismissive wave. “These **ing people swore themselves to me when I threw back the Bull from these islands! And promised me that they would fight with me when the Bull returned! And yet they’ve been utterly useless so far, even after having to be cajoled and threatened into fulfilling their pledges!

“I didn’t send you out to kill Leon, or those marines he was with. It honestly doesn’t matter how many of them get past the islands; they’ll all die in the Shattered Tail if they insist on pursuing us. No, what I sent you out to do was to teach those cowards what freedom means! To show them why they put their faith in me!”

“That’s… not going to go over well with them,” Andoral said with a grimace as Jormun’s eyes darted in his direction. “Already, more than half of the nobility and wealthy landowners that live among our people have died. Many have died to the Bull’s aggression, enough that I don’t think they’ll rise up again if we push the Bull back beyond our islands again.”

“You know why we fight,” Jormun growled in an exasperated tone. “We fight to unleash the Serpent. Once we do—”

Before he could finish, one of Jormun’s crew began to shout from high up on the observation platform near the back of the ship. Jormun glanced over at him and noticed the man frantically waving to get his attention, then pointing back toward the third island.

Curious, Jormun, Andoral, and Friga all moved to the rear of the ship to see what they could see.

The haze of distance rendered much more than fifty miles out gray and indistinct, but to mages of their caliber, they could still see quite clearly. The waves of the ocean obscured more, with some out in the distance growing quite large as various creatures fought down in the depths.

But Jormun was easily able to see what had drawn the lookout’s attention. Ships—hundreds of them, departing from the third island, about one and a half or two days behind them, by his estimate.

“They’re leaving early…” Andoral observed.

“No,” Jormun replied as his expression darkened. “If they were, they’d be bringing all their fleets. That’s just some of their armada. I think… I think we may need to speed things up.”

As they stared, all three experienced pirates were able to see as the Bull ships turned in their direction.

“Yes, yes they’re coming for us, now,” Jormun whispered. Beneath his clothes, a bracelet made of onyx and set with half a dozen large black crystals appeared, two of which glowed with arcane light. He channeled his magic into it, and he felt the krakens at his command respond. “We need to be ready… I don’t know how, but they know where we are…”