Xaphan was back in his soul realm, and his sword was back on his hip. He was with Maia, and his small group of followers were in good health. As far as Leon was concerned, the only thing his life truly lacked right now was Elise; everything else was just as it should be.

However, there was still business to deal with.

So, demon, Leon said as he leaned back in his chair, what in the hells was all that about? As he asked his question, Leon squeezed Maia’s hand again, giving her some comfort despite essentially locking her out of the conversation with Xaphan’s return to his soul realm. Was that guy really who he said he was?

Fuck no, Xaphan grumbled. That was the **ing Grave Warden himself! He came here to investigate why one of his charges was trying to escape!

Leon froze, though not for long. That was the Grave Warden? he asked, still fuzzy on just what that title meant. He also expected someone as purportedly important as the Grave Warden would act more… dignified? Majestic? Would act more like a man of his station and would be above using such simple ruses and deceptions. More personally, Leon thought someone like that would be too prideful to even pretend to be someone else’s subordinate.

In that respect, Leon thought someone like the Grave Warden would act more like an inhuman, emotionless deity far above humanity, or would act more like Xaphan, completely without thought for manners or decorum.

Don’t judge such beings by their appearances, Xaphan warned. A person doesn’t live even a fraction as long as that man has without being… odd, and either mentally strong or twisted in ways that would allow one to weather all of that time with some modicum of sanity intact. That makes him strange and unpredictable—best to keep your distance, if you want my opinion.

That’s a good idea, I think, Leon thoughtfully replied as he toyed with the Grave Warden’s letter of introduction. Do you know what he wants with me? He suspected it was because of his lineage, and the Grave Warden maybe not wanting him to become a new hegemon of this plane, as Jason Keraunos had tried to do so many millennia ago… but as Xaphan had just said, the mind of something as ancient as the Grave Warden likely couldn’t be so easily predicted.

When we spoke, he asked about you and your power, Xaphan said. Not once did he ask about your intentions or goals. Just how strong you were, and what you’ve done in the past. I gave him few answers, but even in return for that, he offered to help us reunite.

Thanks for your discretion, Leon said. I’m almost surprised, though, I wasn’t sure if you were going to return…

You still owe me power and a safe haven, human, Xaphan frostily replied. Our contract is not yet dissolved, and so we must endure each other for a while, yet.

Leon smiled, and he put the Grave Warden out of his mind. Someone with that kind of power wasn’t someone he could truly fight against, nor could he ever prepare for him. So, Leon decided not to ever call upon him, and stashed his letter of introduction in a tiny out-of-the-way corner of his soul realm’s vault. He’d be better off planning for things that he could deal with, such as Heaven’s Eye, the Four Empires, and the remains of his Clan’s ancient facilities that seemed to have yet to be discovered.

There were also slightly more immediate concerns, such as the items that he’d discovered just before transforming into the Black Eagle; Jormun’s hammer, his onyx bracelet, and the most intriguing of all, the sealed book. Those all warranted some in-depth examination.

However, before even all of that, he had some responsibility to the Legion to take care of: assisting with any search and rescue, and helping to lead them back to Theuderic and Basina. None of that was particularly intensive, but it would serve to help give him some time to think, and he already had a few ideas that he wanted to flesh out a little bit more…

—

The disappearance of ‘Zaff’ was taken largely in stride. Given that he seemed to represent the Ilian Empire, everyone readily accepted Leon’s explanation that after their short conversation about Leon’s specific fighting style—a lie that Leon told them to cover his reunion with Xaphan—the man had vanished.

Following that was finishing up the fruitless search for any survivors. The remains of the fleet sailed fairly far away from the annihilated eighth island looking for any members of the Royal Legion who might’ve survived the battle, but found not even a single corpse.

Leon was a little disappointed. Sigebert had proven himself quite honorable in the end, and it was a terrible loss to the Bull Kingdom to have lost such a man. They’d even lost the corpse of Octavius when Sigebert’s flagship went down, so they couldn’t even bring that back with them to the Bull King; only word of the Second Prince’s death.

As they searched for survivors, though, Leon’s mind turned away from the concerns of the Bull Kingdom and more toward his future. He had a good retinue already, with his family, along with Alix, Marcus, and Alcander. However, while he and Maia were exceptionally powerful, everyone else was not. Alix, Marcus, and Alcander had made their own disappointment in their performance during this expedition known, and as they slowly began sailing back toward the inhabited Serpentine Isles, they doubled down on their training. Leon even participated in the hopes of limbering up and starting to get a feel for the limits of his new status as an eighth-tier mage.

Even Maia seemed to pay more attention to their training, whereas usually she couldn’t even be bothered to be present. However, the great magical walls she’d found herself unable to smash through ever since the civil war ended seemed to have affected her a little bit, and Leon could feel her flexing her magic in an almost nervous tic in a way that she hadn’t before. She didn’t seem ready to talk about it, yet, though, so he left her be until they could return to the Bull Kingdom.

All of that still left Leon with one conclusion: he needed more people on his side. He had no intention of heading to the Nexus alone, he needed a strong support group to aid him in his attempts to build his Clan back up from the bottom in the way he wanted, and his current retinue was just not sufficient for that task. He needed new recruits, and he already had at least one potential option…

—

Leon absent-mindedly stared at the wall across the cabin from him, his mind lost in strategy. Gaius, sitting on the other side of the game board, slowly deliberated his next move as he moved his hand from his right over to his left flank, and then back again, over and over.

Leon could understand his indecision—he’d moved his pieces against Gaius’ quite heavily on both flanks, while keeping his much lighter center covered by his archers. Gaius could push down the center, but that would cost him quite a few pieces and leave his flanks vulnerable. It was a much safer bet for him to focus on countering Leon’s charge on the flanks.

The two hadn’t spoken much since the game began. The rest of Leon’s retinue were either training on the deck, or in Maia’s case, reading in her and Leon’s room. The remnants of the fleet were slowly sailing back toward the fifth island, but their going was slow since most of the ships had taken some form of damage, and fixing all of it without the benefits of a drydock was out of the question. They could only limp their way back home with those that had survived the push into the shattered islands.

This left Leon and the rest with plenty of down time. Gaius, too, even though he was a Legion knight, but had technically been one of Sigebert’s assistants, and with Sigebert gone, he was stuck in limbo, waiting for a new assignment and helping out where he could.

Leon knew that the young nobleman wasn’t content with sitting on his laurels, and so he had a proposition for him. When they’d first met, Leon had despised Gaius; the things the nobleman had said to him were truly vile and beyond insulting to a man who had just lost his father. But during the course of their interactions over the following few years, Leon had developed first a grudging respect, and then some genuine admiration for Gaius. Even after everything he’d suffered through, all of the humiliations and indignities, all of the defeats, he was still trying to be an honorable man doing what he thought was right. Leon may not have appreciated what Gaius’ nightmare looked like within the Serpent’s temple, but the fact of the matter was that other than Maia, Gaius had been the only one brave enough to join him in venturing down into that place.

With more time to think and ponder over everything, Leon had come to greatly appreciate Gaius’ presence. He might’ve felt a little differently if Gaius had still pined for Valeria, but with some down time to stop and think, Leon believed Gaius when he said that he was over her.

“I have a question for you, Gaius,” Leon said as Gaius committed to the defense of his right flank.

“Go for it,” Gaius said as he sat back in his chair, only to be forced to lean forward again when Leon made his next move immediately instead of taking some time with his turn.

“What are your plans after we get back to the Kingdom?” Leon asked as he slid one of his cavalry pieces across the board and pushed on the left.

“Can’t say I know for certain,” Gaius dejectedly admitted as he took much less time deliberating and maneuvered an archer to counter Leon’s cavalry charge. “My family is on the out, as are most families. I suppose I’ll continue to serve in the Legions for a few years and take the time to figure things out. With the fall of the landed class, the Legions are going to have a lot more power in the Kingdom in the coming centuries. On the other hand, I could resign after those years and join my family in whatever they plan to do next. House Tullius will still be wealthy, but without titles and their associated land, we could easily burn through that wealth trying to stay afloat.”

Leon used his next turn to have some light infantry screen his cavalry charge. “You don’t sound overly eager about either of those options,” he observed.

“I’m not,” Gaius admitted as he swooped in with a heavy infantry piece and took two of Leon’s light infantry.

Leon hardly cared, paying more attention to Gaius rather than the game. He continued to advance his cavalry despite losing some of its cover. “Have you ever considered leaving the Bull Kingdom?” he asked.

Gaius paused as he was about to use his archers to attack Leon’s cavalry. “Not really,” he said. “The Bull Kingdom is where my family is. It’s where the most support I could ever ask for is based.”

“A reasonable reason,” Leon cheekily said. “I ask because I don’t think it’s any surprise for you to hear that I’m not long for the Bull Kingdom.”

“I didn’t think you were going to stick around,” Gaius replied. “Even before your real name was revealed, I couldn’t see you as a Paladin. Even now that I know who you really are, I can’t see you sticking around.”

Leon nodded and smiled. “My intentions are to head south. My fiancée is Lady Elise, you know?”

Gaius nodded.

“With her and her mother’s support, and that of my own personal power, I think Heaven’s Eye would accept me at fairly generous terms. I intend to continue my journey through the magical tiers within the Four Empires, but even then, my goals lie a little higher, in the world above. Have you ever heard of the Nexus?”

“I’ve as much as anyone,” Gaius said. “Everyone knows the Star That Never Moves, but other than a few stories, I can’t say I know much about the place.”

“It’s the domain of the Gods,” Leon whispered as he leaned forward a bit, a look of growing excitement stretching out over his face. “That’s where my destiny lies. That’s where I intend to go and build my family.”

“I wish you luck,” Gaius said as he took a quick drink from the wine cup next to him, raising it slightly in a subdued toast to Leon’s ambition. “Sounds like it’ll be a hell of a journey.”

“I want you to come with,” Leon bluntly stated, and Gaius just about choked on his wine. “I need people I can trust where I’m going. You may not have that much power compared to even the strength of the Four Empires right now, but power can always come in time. Trust, at least when it comes to me, is hard-earned, but you’ve earned it in spades. Come with me.”

Gaius dabbed himself off with a napkin, the front of his shirt now slightly stained from spilled wine. He carefully placed the wine cup back on the table and cleared his throat a few times, though more out of anxiety and surprise than anything else.

While Gaius sat in his chair, looking like his brain had almost locked up, Leon said, “You don’t have to give me an answer right away. Just know that the offer is made in good faith. Whenever you feel like giving it to me, feel free to do so. Just know that if you wait too long, I might have left before you made your decision…”

“Right…” Gaius muttered, his eyes wide with shock.

After that, neither spoke that much for the remainder of their game. Despite having started to swing the balance in his favor before Leon made his offer, Gaius found himself being thoroughly trounced, but he hardly cared. His mind was on far more important things. On far greater things.

—

Leon blinked awake in his soul realm. His physical body lay in his bed, Maia curled up next to him, a smile of satisfaction on her face as she tried to mesh her naked body up against his in her sleep. They’d just finished several long rounds of vigorous sex, but even they had their limits, and once they were reached, they’d both drifted off to sleep.

Leon had woken first, but in the interest of letting his river nymph lover sleep a bit more, Leon had cast his consciousness into his soul realm to investigate something else that needed seeing to: Jormun’s items that he’d looted from the cave.

The enchantment within that cave had largely captured his and the everyone else within his soul realm’s attention, but those items deserved some as well.

To that end, Leon brought out all three items and laid them out on the table with Nestor’s ruby. First came the hammer.

“You said this was a weapon of one of Jason Keraunos’ vassals, right?” Leon asked Nestor. “A Despot or something?”

“A Strategos,” Nestor corrected. “A Strategos is essentially the political rank that someone who’s just achieved Apotheosis can expect to receive if they’re someone else’s subordinate. In this case, the man who wielded this hammer was from a long line of lightning mages descended from a Blood-Thunder Jaguar.”

“Blood-Thunder Jaguar?” Leon asked in disbelief. “Who gave that thing its name? A thirteen-year-old?”

“No, he chose it himself,” Nestor replied with the vocal equivalent of a shrug. “Taste is subjective, who cares what it named itself.”

Leon did the physical shrug that Nestor couldn’t, and the dead man continued.

“It’s a powerful weapon by your standards, and I suppose, even by mine I would say it’s quite a good weapon to wield.”

“It’s a weapon that controls earth, though, and correct me if I’m mistaken but I don’t think a Blood-Thunder Jaguar has much command over that element…”

“No, he and those of his Bloodline held no particular command over earth that other lightning mages within my father’s court did, but they did loot this weapon from another Clan that did. Which one escapes my memory at the moment, but it hardly matters. Even in the hands of a mage only lightly skilled in earth magic, it’s still quite a potent weapon.”

“That, I can’t argue with.” Jormun wasn’t an earth mage, but Leon knew very well that in his hands, this hammer had been a force to be reckoned with. “What about this bracelet?”

“Our Clan used items like this to command war beasts,” Nestor said.

“Makes sense,” Leon replied, remembering that during the battle of the fourth island, Jormun’s krakens had arrived right after he’d brandished this bracelet.

“It uses darkness magic to entrance the mind of unintelligent creatures—it wouldn’t work on even the simplest-minded human, or on some of the more intelligent beasts that populate our universe, but most beasts would find themselves completely under your thrall should you use this bracelet on them.”

“And how is it used?” Leon asked, his eyes lighting up with glee at the potential this bracelet showed.

Nestor was quiet for a moment as his weak magic senses swept over the onyx bracelet, taking in every detail, including the six dull, lifeless, black gemstones that adorned it.

“You’d have to take a drop of blood of the beast you wish to enthrall and drop it on these gemstones,” he explained. “At least, that’s how it should work, I can’t be sure, it seems lightly damaged.”

“It was down in that chamber, so I assume Jormun took it out when he transformed into that serpent,” Leon said, his voice quiet as he thought about it. “I could see his transformation having damaged this thing, given how damn big he was in his monstrous form.”

“That would make sense,” Nestor said. “Be careful using this thing. Each of these gems should work at least once more, but after that… You’d better be sure that you want whatever beast you’re going to be tying to this bracelet, because I don’t think whatever gem you use on it will be capable of binding to another.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Leon wasn’t too fond of the idea of dominating monsters just because he could, or running experiments to see what kind of monsters the bracelet could dominate, so he took this limitation as almost a boon. He wouldn’t be tempted to use that capability without thought. “Should I be worried that others might possess other bracelets like these?”

“These weren’t terribly common in my time, but I’m sure more than just this one survived our Clan’s downfall,” Nestor mused. “If you’re worried about that griffin of yours, though, I’d say that it’s far too self-aware and intelligent for this magic to work on it. Like I said, simple-minded creatures. Even those krakens that that pirate was using was probably pushing the limits of the bracelet and might even provide another answer for why it’s damaged.”

“Good to know,” Leon said as he turned his attention to the last item, the book covered in magical seals. He could identify many of the seals, but undoing them was another matter entirely—they were so complex and tied into one another that he thought it was probably beyond his capabilities to unravel. Fortunately, he had a master of enchantment here with him…

“That book I can’t unlock,” Nestor stated, crushing Leon’s hopes immediately. The hammer and bracelet were exciting, but he knew what they were and what they did; the book was mysterious, and he’d always enjoyed reading well enough, so it had held an allure all its own. To hear that Nestor couldn’t open it was even more crushing than Leon would’ve guess it would be.

“Why not?” he asked, barely managing to sound like he wasn’t whining.

“Because it’s an enchantment of my own design,” Nestor explained. “Without the key phrase spoken aloud, there is no way to open this book. However, I think I know what it is…”

Nestor paused for a moment, but Leon’s patience ran out fairly quickly. “… Oh? Do tell.”

“I think it’s some kind of journal, probably of one of my father’s more powerful subordinates, even moreso than the Strategos wielder of that hammer. I wouldn’t think that there’s many magical secrets in there, but the information contained within could be an absolute gold mine for us to get a more complete picture of what happened after the death of my father and siblings!”

Leon smiled as he ran his fingers across the countless tiny runes etched into the book’s leather cover. “There’s no way to crack these seals?” he asked, his voice almost slaveringly hungry to break it open and devour its contents.

“I’ll work on it, but I won’t hold out much hope,” Nestor whispered dejectedly. “At least, not in the short term.”

“Then be sure to give it some of your time,” Leon said. He knew that his Clan had fallen, but this book might tell him how. Or it might tell him other things, but if there was one thing he knew, it was that it had to hold great secrets for it to be protected with such a robust warding scheme. He could only hope that its secrets weren’t merely personal. He’d hate to go to great trouble only to be rewarded with knowledge of a particular fetish one of Jason Keraunos’ subordinates had.