“So, how does it look?” Elise asked.

Leon frowned, knowing that the question was rhetorical. He knew next to nothing about this, and even if he tried to catch up on knowledge, Elise would always blow him out of the water with her expertise.

They were now standing at the edge of a fifty-acre field that had lain fallow for several decades. They’d had to travel about two hours outside even further south of Occulara to find so much unused land, but their assistants that had remained behind in the city while Leon had led his retinue northward hadn’t slacked in their duties.

“It’s fine, I guess,” Leon said with a shrug.

If he’d had his way, he wouldn’t have even come here. He trusted Elise entirely to find a suitable plot of land for the Hesperidic Apples, but they weren’t alone—Helen, Anna, Anzu, Gaius, Talal, and Exotikos had all accompanied them, the latter the reason why Leon had felt the need to come with.

While his ‘alliance’ with the Director was still unofficial, Leon was still technically one of the Director’s Hands, and that entitled him to quite a few privileges. Those privileges made getting Exotikos I.D.’s quite easy, and with that official identification, the tree sprite was legally allowed to stay. However, given its inhuman status and rather passive nature, Leon wasn’t quite ready to let it loose in Occulara just yet. Given what Exotikos was able to do, Leon knew that it was a huge target for the less scrupulous.

“You could sound more excited, husband,” Elise chastised.

Leon just shrugged again. “If you think it’s suitable, then it is, as far as I’m concerned. I’m more worried about how we’re going to defend such a place.”

The estate broker accompanying them piped up saying, “This area is very safe, I don’t think that there’s much need for defense!”

Leon stared at the man, the broker paling slightly as Leon’s eighth-tier aura settled around him. “I take my apple growing very seriously,” he intoned.

“R-Right…” the broker croaked.

Elise quickly interposed herself between them, though not before she and Leon exchanged cheeky smiles, and the deal was sealed. The broker soon left, though not without one last questioning look at the rather blatant tree sprite standing with them. Not even an hour later, Leon and Elise stared out at their new plot of fifty acres, and Leon began to measure and map out proper defensive enchantments while Elise, Helen, and Exotikos began walking out into the grassy fields.

Leon watched with interest as Elise and Helen paused as Exotikos ventured just a little further out, then rooted itself into the ground. It raised its arms into the air, bark and wood grew around it, and a tree seemed to spring out of nowhere all around the sprite. Once it was complete, the tree looked completely indistinguishable from just about any other that Leon could see in the distance, the only noteworthy thing being how solitary it appeared out in the middle of a grassy field.

However, Exotikos did not remain alone out in that field for long, as a moment later, Leon felt its power rush through the earth. The grass the filled the field shrank before his eyes, and in its place, trees began to rise. It took nearly an hour for these new trees to grow and reveal what they were: apple trees. Unlike what many other orchards had a tendency to do, however, these trees were not evenly spaced, with the orchard instead taking on a much more natural forested feel, which Leon greatly appreciated.

He quickly walked into the orchard and marveled at the scale and power of the nature magic he was witnessing. It was certainly not something any human could do without the benefit of powerful enchantments.

Even then, he did his best to keep in mind the fact that these were mundane apples, merely meant to screen what they were actually going to grow, and without that vast power that Hesperidic Apples contained, these could be grown quickly.

“How is it?” Exotikos asked Leon, its alien voice resonating from the nearest apple tree.

“Incredible,” Leon honestly replied as he grabbed a low-hanging apple, the fruit looking particularly delicious. He took a bite and sighed in joyful surprise. “I wasn’t expecting it to taste so good when it was grown so quickly!”

“The grass was repurposed; without the raw material, these trees would’ve taken longer to grow,” Exotikos explained. “How would you like the wall to be set up?”

Leon continued munching on the apple as he refocused on the task at hand: defending this place and keeping any prying eyes away from their treasure.

He began to direct Exotikos to build a series of walls, each one more secure than the last. The outermost wall was nothing more than magic. Leon didn’t want their defenses to be too obvious, so he had Exotikos use its earth magic and its presence throughout the orchard to set up a ring of stone buried about two feet beneath the surface of the orchard’s edge, upon which were inscribed several simple, though large-scale enchantments, not the least of which was one to block the use of magic senses.

Further in, where the apple trees were denser and could hide it from physical sight, was another wall, though this one was made only of hedges. It looked about as secure as a curtain, but with Leon’s enchantments and Exotikos’ attention, Leon didn’t think anyone would get past the wall unnoticed, even if the wall itself was no obstacle.

The final wall as far more conventional, being made of thick stone and even thicker enchantments, behind which the Hesperidic Apples would grow.

These walls secured the orchard fairly well from the outside, though its defenses were still fairly light—especially anything that might protect the orchard from the air—but Leon was still working on the warding scheme. Unfortunately, this was as much as he could do right now as there was another important duty that called his attention.

So, with the orchard now set up and the walls in place, Leon’s retainers mostly left to return to his home, while he, Anzu, Gaius, and Talal all made their way back into the city. He needed to meet with Narses and get to the bottom of this most recent vampire attack.

—

“Leon!” Narses the White boomed as Leon arrived just outside of his home.

Narses’ palatial estate wasn’t that far from Leon’s, relatively speaking, but it was much larger and far more filled with servants, who scurried about tending to the endless duties that massive estates had. Narses himself had been sitting on the edge of a fountain in his massive front courtyard tending to his business when Leon arrived, allowing him to be the first to offer his greetings.

Leon smiled in response, but his smile was partially marred by concern as he could see evidence of a battle having been fought on Narses’ property not long ago. There wasn’t much, but he could see a few blackened craters in Narses’ otherwise immaculate lawn, and several enchanters patrolling his estate’s outer wall. The wall would’ve looked little more than decorative to a mortal, but Leon could sense great magic flowing through its perfectly-cut and painted bricks. That magic, however, was a little more discordant than he would’ve expected for someone as important as Narses, but that discordance was being slowly fixed or catalogued by the patrolling enchanters, showing that this discordance was damage from the vampire’s attack not long ago.

“Narses!” Leon called out, hurrying forward to clasp the larger man’s arm as Narses surged forward with arm outstretched.

The two clasped wrists just inside of Narses’ open gate.

“Wonderful to see you, my friend!” Narses exclaimed without a shred of dishonesty to be seen.

“And you,” Leon replied with more enthusiasm than he was used to expressing.

“Not that I disagree with your presence,” Narses said, “but what brings you here? Does the Director need anything?”

Politeness: that was why Narses was asking. Leon could see from the way the man’s eyes had narrowed and from the anxious strength in his grip that the man knew exactly why Leon had arrived.

“Business, but my own,” Leon answered.

“Then come on in, we can talk in private!” Narses thundered, and the two ventured into the sumptuous estate. Given its sheer size, it took several minutes of walking for them to come to a private meeting room, making small talk all along the way.

Once they sat down and got down to business and the room’s robust privacy enchantments fired up, however, Narses let all pretenses drop.

“You’re here about the vampires?” he asked.

“I am,” Leon confirmed.

“How much have you heard?”

“Not much, just the fact that the attack happened at all. No other details.”

Narses nodded, then sat back as he explained, “It was about three weeks ago. They came for me in the night, about a dozen strong. All sixth-tier and higher, led by an eighth-tier.”

Leon’s eyes widened in surprise. He’d dealt with strong vampires, but never quite that strong. It made him wonder just what kind of resources Amon still had on this plane, and why he wasn’t devoting more of those resources to getting rid of Leon and Xaphan.

“They took the stealthy approach first,” Narses continued. “They didn’t just break down my front door and come for me, but instead subverted a few outer wards and climbed over the outer wall. They made it all the way to my home’s main building before they seen and challenged. A fight broke out that damaged my estate quite fiercely, but once I and my personal guard got involved, most of the vampires were killed.”

“’Most’? I remember you telling me that you’d taken some prisoners, but how many did you get?”

Narses smiled deviously. “We took the eighth-tier vampire prisoner, along with two of her weaker companions.”

Leon sat back in surprise and admiration as a smile crept across his face. He let that knowledge simmer in his mind for a moment before asking, “Have there been any interrogations done?”

“Of course,” Narses responded. “I even took care of questioning the lead leech myself, but to no avail; they haven’t even told us their names. However, that hasn’t stopped up from identifying them.” Narses’ tone fell as he narrated these recent events, transforming from one of excitement and indignation at having been attacked and fighting a good battle, to one of anger at having been betrayed. “The weaker two were no one of any consequence, but the eighth-tier vamp was one of ours.”

“She worked for Heaven’s Eye?” Leon asked.

Narses nodded. “She’d been hiding her power somehow, so we didn’t know that she was so powerful, but her blood couldn’t lie, and we later verified her identity by covertly bringing in several of her coworkers.”

“Who was it?”

“A researcher named Valentina Viloria Volorova. One of Rufus’ people.”

Leon nodded, recognizing the name of the Chief of Magical Research and Development within Heaven’s Eye. Emilie had called him one of the Director’s most loyal supporters.

“What was she studying under Rufus?” Leon asked.

“Blood magic,” Narses growled, surprising Leon not at all.

“Do we know anything more specific than that?”

“Not as yet,” Narses replied. “I was ordered by the Director to take this investigation very seriously, but not to publicize it too much. As a result, while I have been empowered to investigate, my progress has slowed due to this order for discretion.”

Leon frowned. “Is the Director trying to hide something, or is he afraid of looking weak in front of everyone? It seems strange that you, one of the highest-ranking people in Heaven’s Eye would be the target of violence and he isn’t rushing to your defense…”

“He is, though, in his own way,” Narses replied. “The problem lies more with Rufus.”

“From what I understand, Rufus is the Director’s creature, through and through.”

“You’re not wrong, and Rufus has been using his position to stall me with bureaucracy, sending me far more material than is needed and forcing my people to sift through it all looking for information. Otherwise, he’s been hiding behind meetings and official forms and locking down Valentina’s labs for ‘containment’ reasons. I haven’t even been able to get into her house, yet. I’ve made some progress with the investigation, but without getting greater access to Valentina’s personal life, I’m afraid I’m reaching the end of my rope.”

Leon picked up on Narses’ implication. The man was giving him a knowing look, and even though they were in complete private, he was still speaking like his words were innuendo.

With a smile, Leon asked, “Would you like me to help you out? Obviously, I have some pull with the Director and with Lady Emilie. Why don’t you give me the locations of Valentina’s lab and her home, and I’ll see what I can. All above the board, of course…”

“Of course,” Narses said, his tone obviously deliberate. “You know, obviously, that I can’t condone any illegal actions, so my hands are tied. I’ve complained to the Director about Rufus’ obstructionism, but so far, all the Director has said is that he would ‘take of things’.”

“And he hasn’t?”

“He’s been slow to keep his word.”

A predatory smile spread across Leon’s face. “I’ll see what I can do. Now, before we get to her lab and house, there’s one last thing that I wanted to cover with you, now that I have the chance…”

“What is it?”

Leon smiled and conjured the vampire’s hand that Anastasios had given him back in Evergold. “I was given this by the Lord Protector of Ilion, and it might be a lead that you can chase down.”

Leon handed the hand over, and after Narses took it, their short meeting came to an end. It was time for them both to get to work.

—

“This place looks dead,” Marcus said as he poked around in the fireplace.

“No one’s been in here a few weeks at least,” Alcander replied as he wiped his finger along the top of a bookcase. “Unless this Valenta girl didn’t have servants who kept the place clean. And she is a vampire, so who knows?”

“No,” Gaius disagreed, “there were servants in this manor. The gardens outside clearly show signs of having been cared for, and most places are reasonably clean. It’s just that the staff hasn’t come in in a while. I’m guessing when Valentina was arrested, they all got spooked and quit while they still could.”

Leon slowly nodded along as he looked around.

They were all in Valentina’s stark, extremely uninviting seven-story-tall manor. It was a fairly large building, but built on a much smaller plot of land than Leon was used to seeing among the elites of the Empire. They were also much farther south than even his estate was from Occulara, so the density of farms had lessened quite a bit, giving the dark, somber manor a sense of privacy that not even Leon’s estate possessed. It was surrounded by thick bands of trees rarely seen farther north, with a long unpaved road cutting through this remnant of Ilian wilderness right to the manor’s front gate.

There wasn’t much of a courtyard, but the front of the manor was decorated with a simple fountain featuring a large stone bowl, blackened by what Leon sensed was fire. The road wound around this fountain, giving any visitors more than enough room to turn around to turn into the relatively small nearby stable upon arrival. The manor itself and the stable were the only buildings on the property, which was surrounded by a powerfully-enchanted stone wall, while the gate was composed of wrought iron bars topped with anti-climbing spikes. That, combined with the wall’s enchantments, meant that for most people, ingress wasn’t possible.

But Leon’s skill in enchanting was far greater than the enchanters who’d worked up that warding scheme, and not long after their arrival, he’d gotten himself and his handful of retainers past the wall and into the manor within less than half an hour.

Their discomfort with the place didn’t lessen once they’d gotten inside, though. The place was richly furnished, but the walls were bare stone, the floor on the ground level was likewise stone, while the floor on all other floors was rough wood. The ceiling had exposed rafters, and were much higher up than standard buildings in the Ilian Empire.

The manor’s roof was steep and sharp, while the manor had an actual nine-story tower in one corner. With Gaius’ comment about the gardens, Leon turned his attention out of the nearest window—a tall and narrow opening set in the thick stone walls—and observed the gardens. There wasn’t much room between the manor and the outer wall, but what was there was sinister: colorful flowers, but all featured sharp thorns. Vines curled around the inside of the wall that Leon had thought he’d seen move when they’d entered. In the corners of the garden were dark trees with black bark and not even half a leaf between them, despite the trees outside of the manor being healthy and full of greenery.

Compounding all of this was the complete lack of magical lighting within the manor—it was entirely light with candles. Combined with everything else, the place didn’t look that comfortable to Leon, and even seemed quite dark and unwelcoming. For a vampire, though, he supposed it was about on-brand.

Upon gaining access to the manor, Leon quickly realized just how big of a job this was going to be. Within the place were several dozen rooms and a haphazard layout that seemed designed to confuse anyone who didn’t already know their way around. The place could hide any number of secrets within its thick walls, and just scouring what was out in the open as an exercise that might take hours.

“You know…” Gaius said, pulling Leon out of his musings, “it seems strange to me that this place isn’t under more active observation. I get that Narses was ordered to use discretion for this investigation, but I still would’ve had a couple of people staking this place out just to ensure that no one took any potential evidence…”

“This place was under surveillance,” Leon said. “The problem is that Narses’ investigation was small and he decided to pull those men back to focus more on Valentina’s lab. Though, that hasn’t worked out, so here we are…”

Before anyone could response, Marcus suddenly said, “Someone’s coming!”

Leon followed his retainer’s gaze out of a nearby window and saw some faint lights between the trees coming up the road. Indeed, it seemed that they were about to have some company.

With a frown, he made a snap decision and sent his wind magic careening through the manor, extinguishing all of the candles that they’d lit to provide more light. Given the connections between Rufus, who’d been keeping Narses from entering this manor, and the Director, and between the Director and the vampires, Leon couldn’t count too much on his status as a Hand to keep violence from breaking out. More than that, Narses had indicated that he didn’t Leon to do anything illegal, but Leon could read between the lines and knew that all that meant was that if Leon got caught, Narses would disavow having anything to do with this.

Get down and go invisible! Leon mentally shouted to all of them. They all complied, donning their armor and activating their darkness enchantments. No one thought that those coming toward Valentina’s manor in the middle of the night were any friends of theirs, so it was best to be safe. But at the very least, it seemed a good opportunity to get some information…