It took several hours for Leon, Penelope, and the Director to explore most of the remaining arks. For the most part, they simply explored, looking for anything of much value. However, it seemed that either everything of even middling value had been taken, the arks were simply spartan from their construction, or both, for not even basic furniture could be found that wasn’t nailed to the floor within them.

Much of the interior spaces that had required Leon’s presence to open were complex magical machines that Leon could hardly parse even with close examination. He was an enchanter and a blacksmith, not a magic engineer. He was worried that even Nestor would only know what the machines were, and not how they worked.

That being said, he was sure that the biggest machines near the back of the arks were the engines and power supply, and the smaller constructs along the outer parts of the hull were weapon systems that were too heavily integrated into the arks to have been easily looted—though why they hadn’t been subsequently scrapped, he didn’t know, though he supposed that question could apply to the arks as a whole, too. He was a little disappointed that he hadn’t yet found anything that resembled golems or a golem assembler like what Nestor had built in his workshop, but he supposed such things would’ve been a little more portable, or at least not been on those arks.

As it was, Leon found himself a little frustrated setting eyes on what were undoubtedly miracles of magic, but not having the skill or experience to recognize or truly appreciate them.

By the time they only had the largest and most ornate of the half dozen arks to inspect, Leon was quietly convinced that at least the first five had been military arks, given their size, armament, and lack of decoration. He kept nearly all of his suspicions and realizations to himself, though, not wanting to declare what they were to Penelope and the Director only for Nestor to completely contradict him later when Leon told the dead man of what had happened today.

So, Leon put those suspicions away for the moment and concentrated on the vaguely avian ark in front of him. The other arks had silhouettes dominated by harsh, straight lines, and a brutal simplicity to their designs that reinforced Leon’s assumption that they were military arks, but this one had a much more elegant design, with a silhouette resembling a diving eagle with its landing supports like outstretched talons. Along with the fact that this ark was so much bigger than the others, it was as obvious as it could be that this ark was for someone important. Leon even suspected it was the personal ark of one of his Clan members rather than one of the warriors in the Clan’s army or one of their vassals.

As with the other arks, the avian ark had a large ramp leading up into it, but instead of being near the prow as the others were, this one was closer to its center. Leon led the way right up, not hesitating at all even his curiosity built up all kinds of wonderous things that the ark might be full of.

’And not a single one will be in there, most likely,’ he cynically thought as he stopped in the shallow chamber at the top of the ramp, thick doors with a bright runic circle glowing at about chest height. It wasn’t a large runic circle being just big enough for Leon to fit his entire hand, but it was eye-catching, and more importantly, Leon recognized it as being nearly identical to the ones that had locked his family’s archives below Teira.

“Did you ever get this door open?” Leon asked.

“We’ve managed to subvert the enchantment on the door a few times,” the Director admitted. “We’ve not gotten much further than some of the adjacent chambers, however. This is the most protected ark we have, and even the interior enchantments are powerful to this day.”

Leon was caught between wanting to smile and frown, his lips twisting for a moment before he schooled his expression. It was just another piece of evidence that this ark was for someone important if it was even more heavily protected than the potential military arks.

Leon swiftly reached out and tapped the magic circle, causing it to flash with golden light and shock his finger with a bolt of lightning. He waited for half a second, and then the door swung open so easily and so silently that Leon would’ve hardly considered them sealed almost continuously for eighty-thousand years.

What greeted him on the other side was an ornate atrium, the floors polished marble, the ceiling enchanted to look like the sky at midday. The walls had the appearance of polished gold, though Leon could just barely see faint engravings upon the surface that he recognized as complex light enchantments.

Sure enough, after a moment, these many thousands of runes glowed for a split second, and then the walls were covered with perfectly rendered murals in a style that he remembered from the few Clan facilities he’d seen over his life. Avian figures surrounded by clouds and lightning, humanoid figures and other animals close to the floor bowing before the Thunderbird’s power and majesty. He inspected each mural, but none had any new information.

Still, he was gratified to see the familiar décor, and even moreso to hear the Director murmur, “This never happened before…”

“The murals?” Leon asked.

The Director nodded.

Leon grinned and strode further into the atrium.

It was an empty room, though there were a few fixtures on the floor that Leon guessed might’ve been for furniture or possibly defensive emplacements. ‘A checkpoint, maybe?’ he guessed. ‘Would make sense for such an important ark to have live security at its doors. Wonder where it all went, or who took all of it. And what was here that was worth taking.’

With those questions unanswered, Leon walked right up to the door on the far side of the chamber, which opened of its own accord. What greeted him on the other side was a palatial entrance chamber with doors around its perimeter, the same polished marble beneath his feet, the same golden walls to his right and left, and the same enchanted ceiling above. The center of the chamber was separated from the rest by a square peristyle of columns, but again, everything else in the chamber had been taken, leaving it bereft of any kind of furniture. Close to the door he’d just walked through were several boxes and bits of gear that the Director identified as being some gear left behind by those who’d managed to get this far before.

“We’ve only managed to get to this chamber, and that one,” the Director said, pointing to one of the three doors on the right side of the chamber. “Nothing through there but another large, empty chamber, unfortunately.”

“Strange,” Leon said. “There has to be a magic lift or something around here, I can’t imagine too many important rooms were on the lowest floor…”

“If any Thunderbird architecture I know of can be applied,” Penelope said as she pointed to the doors at the back of the chamber, “then it’s one of those.”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Leon said, noting that all of the doors were largely identical, with not even the murals to their sides telling him what was behind them. He wondered if there were people stationed in this chamber before the fall of his Clan specifically to help people find their way around, or if anyone who was of sufficient rank or clearance to get in already knew their way around. At the very least, if what the last few arks had shown him applied to this one as well, then he already knew the most likely places where he might find interesting things: the very center of the ark, the compartments in the back, and possibly those around the outer hull.

With nothing else to go on, Leon started walking across the chamber to the back, but he’d barely taken three steps before he felt a sharp shift in the magic in the air. He froze and summoned his magic, just in case, and the Director and Penelope mirrored his actions. But just a moment later, light gathered in front of Leon, taking the shape of a ball of light similar to how Apati had presented himself after being installed in the research facility’s primary control consoles.

Leon frowned at the reminder and his guard raised further.

“He-Hello,” the ball of light said, its voice sounding tinny, strained, and utterly emotionless. Its stutter, too, seemed unnatural, almost as if it were correcting an error by repeating itself instead of stumbling over the word. After a couple silent seconds, the ball of light continued, “Wel-Welcome, Prince. Please Pre-Present ID.”

Leon frowned even further, and when he glanced back at the Director, the older man shrugged, just as confused as he was. He turned back to the ball of light and inspected it closely, finding not a trace of killing intent, or even an aura, proving it was just a projection of light.

‘Really wish Nestor were here,’ Leon thought, the thought almost causing him to gag.

“What… are you?” he asked, though he had an idea already—golems were animated and powered by wisps, autonomous, sentient balls of magic power created by a post-Apotheosis mage. From what he knew of the more advanced enchantments of his Clan, many of the bigger enchantments were controlled by wisps, effectively automating them. An ark like this one Leon imagined would have quite a few wisps within it, though any surviving for so long was a surprise.

“Wel-Wel-Welcome, Prince-nce. Please Pre-Present I-ID.”

With a shrug of his own, Leon retrieved the platinum card from his soul realm and presented it to the floating ball of light. He felt the magic power emanating from the light ball coalesce around the card for a moment, then dissipate.

“Wel-Welcome, Prince Demetrios,” the ball of light repeated. “All ark sys-systems a-a-a-a—” The light ball continued like this for several seconds, completely unable to finish its sentence. Leon wasn’t sure what to do, though he was certain it was broken in some way. Eventually, the ball went silent.

“Is… everything all right?” Penelope asked.

“Answer: significant damage sustained; please con-con-contact maintenance,” the ball of light replied.

“Take us to the central control room,” Leon commanded. “I’d like to get a better sense of this damage, myself.”

“As y-you comm-comm-command, Your High-Highness,” the wisps replied. It then vanished, though one of the doors in the back of the atrium slid open, revealing a magic lift right where Penelope had guessed one would be.

Leon hurried in, closely followed by his two companions.

“That thing is strange,” Penelope stated as the doors slid closed behind them.

“It can probably still hear us,” Leon replied with a cheeky smile.

Penelope blinked as a look of contrition passed over her face for a moment.

“It probably didn’t take any offense,” Leon whispered. “I don’t think these things are sapient.” The magic lift rose quickly, but Leon still had time to give Penelope a quick rundown of just what wisps were, the Director already knowing and filling in a few blanks that Leon glossed over.

When the doors opened next, the ball of light was back, hovering in the center of another large atrium that had Leon wondering if this was a military ark with all of its heavily-decorated and open interior spaces.

“Th-This way,” the wisp sputtered, and another door to the right opened.

Leon’s group followed the wisp’s direction through golden passageways lit by the enchanted ceiling bathing the halls in ‘natural’ light. Eventually, they found themselves in another large open space with columns ringing off a central area. These columns were enchanted to look like trees poking up into the ceiling’s illusion and spreading their leaves above the golden walls, glowing with their murals.

Around the perimeter of this open space were only three more doors, not including the one Leon’s group entered from, while the ground was pockmarked with dozens of small slots that Leon imagined once held furniture supports. All of that furniture was now gone, of course, leaving the entire chamber empty.

“What was this space?” Leon asked the wisp.

“Answer: Sec-Sec-Secre-Secretary workstations,” the wisp replied. “Bridge j-ju-just through here.” The door on the other side of the chamber slid open, revealing an even larger chamber decorated more lavishly than Leon had seen in any of these arks, yet.

The walls were gold and covered in projected light murals, but that much Leon had expected. The enchanted ceiling was a little different, though, showing the night sky with three bright moons casting the entire control room in silver light.

The commander’s seat was elevated as if on a hill and looked like it had been carved from black crystal that had golden lightning bolts raging beneath its surface. The other control stations were arranged on terraces beneath the throne and numbered more than a hundred. Clearly, this control room was meant to have a staff of at least three or four hundred.

“That’s a lot of consoles,” Penelope observed.

“If this ark is as important as it seems,” the Director said, “then it’s likely some kind of command vessel, responsible not just for raining hellfire down upon its foes, but also to communicate and coordinate all others in its fleet. That would mean many communications officers and sensor operators. I doubt the commander would have much cause to deal with those not on the ‘hill’, and probably not even most of those on the lower terraces.”

Leon found himself agreeing with the Director, and he began walking slowly toward the black crystal throne. It was a massive thing, and positively radiated power—and for good reason, as it was surrounded by six consoles of its own. As Leon approached, he managed to identify two of them as some kind of projectors, but the purposes of the other four he couldn’t yet fathom.

The wisp met him next to the throne, and Leon asked, “Who was this ark’s last commander?” He wanted to know which of his Clan members commanded this vessel, if only so that he could ask Nestor about them when he returned home.

“Answer: His Tempestuous Majesty, the Almighty, the Undefeated Jason Keraunos, High Elder of the Thunderbird Clan and Storm King by right of blood and power,” the wisp fluently replied, not a stutter or audio malfunction to be heard, though Leon tuned it out as soon as it said Jason’s name. He simply stared at the wisp for a moment before his eyes glazed over and he began staring around him in newfound wonder.

“This…” he murmured, “this is the last Storm King’s personal ark?”

As he said that, Penelope and the Director stared at him, similar looks of surprise and awe flickering over their faces with varying strength. The Director mastered his expression quickly, but Penelope needed a few more seconds.

“The conquest of Aeterna was launched from here,” Leon whispered. “It was from here that my ancestor commanded our Clan’s armies and vassals on their conquest…”

His eyes turned back to the crystal throne, and after only a moment of hesitation, all but threw himself into it.

The throne reacted immediately, flashing with lightning and rumbling with thunder, but the golden bolts beneath its surface intensified, turned silver-blue, and then calmed down.

By what he felt when he sat down, Leon got the impression that had he not the Thunderbird’s power within him, the throne would’ve blasted him into ash.

“… Watch what you touch,” Leon said to the other two.

“Yes…” the Director replied, evidently having sensed what Leon had, as well. Penelope slowly nodded her agreement.

“Good,” Leon said. “Now, let’s see what we have here…” He turned his attention to the consoles next to the throne, quickly confirming that the two he’d already identified as projectors were what they seemed to be, though no matter what he tried, they wouldn’t project anything.

“What’s wrong with these?” Leon asked the wisp.

“Answer: damage to c-comm-commu-communications arrays have left this ark un-una-unable to initiate communications-tions-tions.”

“To ‘initiate’?” the Director noted. “Can communications still be received?”

“Answer: Affir-Affir-Affirmative,” the wisp confirmed.

“I don’t think there’ll be many people trying to call us,” Leon murmured. “What about these other consoles? What were their functions?”

“Answer: top-level systems monitoring-ing,” the wisp explained. “Ark sy-systems c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c—” Leon’s eyebrows rose as the wisp continued for another moment before its attempt to speak degenerated into a high-pitched whine that swiftly felt like someone was jamming needles into his ears. Fortunately, it didn’t last long as the wisp suddenly winked out after another second or so like a magic lamp someone had turned off.

“Ach, that was unpleasant,” Penelope said, having covered her ears with her hands.

“This ark is in dire need of repair,” the Director added.

“Let’s hope we can find someone capable of making those repairs,” Leon said as he managed to get one of the other consoles started up. However, hundreds of runes swept over the console’s smooth, glassy surface, and Leon had no idea what any of them did. He could parse them for what they were on the surface—a wind rune here, two lightning runes there, runic lines and modifier runes between them—but he knew that unless he knew what he was doing, then he could do more harm than good by trying to fiddle around with broken magic he didn’t fully understand.

With some reluctance, he stood up and said, “It’s a little disappointing, but I think I need to leave and come back with some help.”

“What kind of help?” the Director asked, a slight smile tugging at his lips as his eyes narrowed.

“Knowledgeable, competent help,” Leon replied. “First, though, I’m thinking I’d like to try and find some of this ark’s other important compartments. Get a feel for where everything is, you know?”

“I have a concern,” the Director said, causing a flash of anger to burn through Leon like a lightning bolt, though he forced himself to remain calm.

“What is it?” he asked.

“As far as anyone monitoring us knows, we’re still in my office in the Hexagon. We’ve been gone for quite a while. If we return, only for you to retrieve someone—especially if that someone has been rather unsubtly working on your estate upgrading your workshop—and come right back to my office, followed by us apparently not coming out again for hours, then there will be suspicions.”

Leon scowled, but he agreed.

“We’ve made progress today,” the Director said. “The other arks have been opened, and our engineers can start pouring over them and doing what needs to be done to get them back in working order. If we’re lucky, they’ll be operable in a decade or two. The same goes for this ark, as well. And there’ll be plenty of opportunities to return later when we won’t raise any suspicions. What say you to that, Leon?”

Leon’s scowl remained, but he whispered, “I suppose I can’t find faults in your logic. I’m not looking forward to having to go to Evergold to deal with their ark situation, though, not without getting a better look at what’s here.”

“It must be done,” the Director said, with Penelope nodding in agreement. “Unfortunately, we’ve likely already spent far too much time in here and must return posthaste. The powers-that-be won’t be so uncouth as to ask you where you’ve been, Leon, but if you disappear like this again in the near future, then questions will be asked of you. Better to return here in a few months, after the Lord Protector and the Grand Druid stop gracing us with their presence.”

Leon sighed, but he made no arguments. Together, the three of them made their way out of the avian ark, though Leon’s heart was already slamming against his ribs with excitement at getting back home to consult with Nestor. Magical engineer he was not, but the scale of magic and engineering on display here had him just about over the moon, and he wanted to know just what else might be in store for him within these arks, and what else might be in the Evergolden ark, as well.