“Just keep an eye on the Bears,” Leon said. “It’s clear to me now that they’re going to be our biggest problem.”

“Agreed,” the Jaguar responded with a deep frown. “As much as it pains me to think so ill of a brother Tribe, the past few years have proven such concern is warranted. But you need not fear for us, Leon; in the event of a surprise attack, we won’t be caught off-guard.”

Leon sighed and nodded, then turned his eyes westward. He and the Jaguar were exchanging a few last words before Leon and his retainers departed for Occulara. They were in Raimondas, the capital of the Eagle Tribe, and it seemed like the entire Tribe had turned out to see Leon off, let alone the many Eagle, Hawk, and Jaguar elders who’d accompanied Leon west. It was time for the journey home to begin, but Leon had pulled the Jaguar aside right before they left, flying a thousand feet into the air to ensure privacy while they spoke.

“See to it that we aren’t,” Leon growled as he turned his eyes back east. He then let a cheeky grin spread across his face and he said, “It would be mighty inconvenient if I returned only to find the three Tribes who’ve sworn themselves to me have been wiped out.”

“It would be a touch more inconvenient for us,” the Jaguar quipped with a shallow smile. “But you can rest assured that we’re keeping an eye on the Bears and will mobilize whoever we need to keep our lands safe.”

“Pass on my concerns to the Hawks as well. If the Bears sent those beasts, then they need to be ready for any potential second tries.”

“To raise such powerful beasts isn’t done lightly,” the Jaguar replied. “War beasts are precious things, to let them loose in a neighboring Tribe is an enormous waste of resources. I can’t imagine this was intentional, and if it was, it won’t be done again. The Hawks lost a few thousand people, several villages, and trade was temporarily disrupted heading into the Common Lands. For four beasts of that power, that’s a bad trade.”

Leon frowned for a moment in thought, then shrugged. “I hope I’m just paranoid, then.”

“As do I…”

“Before I leave, Jaguar, there’s only one thing I want to see when I get back that I can’t see now, something I hope you’ll do everything in your power to make a reality.”

“Anything, my King.”

“I want to see Eagles and Jaguars using my transformation enchantment. It’s safe, if the Hawks are any indication, and it boosts power. It would be foolish not to use it.”

“Nikolaos has already begun constructing it in his soul realm,” the Jaguar replied a little hesitantly. “Some of our other warriors have also agreed to test it for themselves.”

“If, or when, those tests pan out, I’m hoping others will jump on it, too.”

The Jaguar grimly nodded but offered no additional words.

They hovered in the air for several seconds more before Leon glanced downward and said, “I should go. The sooner I leave the sooner I’ll be back.”

“If you say so, Your Majesty,” the Jaguar said with a bow.

Leon smirked as he resisted the urge to tell him not to bow, then began to descend, the Jaguar following just behind him.

Waiting for them on the docks of Raimondas were all of the Hawk elders and Chiefs in the city, as well as all those who’d accompanied Leon from Raikos. In front of all of them, however, were Leon’s retainers, most seeming quite eager to get underway. Red and Maia, in particular, seemed quite bored, while Anzu paced about watching fish swim beneath the docks and Leon’s human retainers chatted amongst themselves. Anshu and Valeria, however, remained quiet and aloof, with the latter standing in front of everyone else and watching Leon descend, while the former stood behind the others and stared westward, his eyes unfocused as if he were staring at something only he could see.

“All right,” Leon called out as he touched down. “Everyone ready?”

A chorus of affirmative statements followed.

With a smile, Leon then said, “Then let’s get moving. No need to waste time, right?”

With that, Leon landed and led his people to the docked Jaguar ship they’d been standing next to. They weren’t going to take the ship far, only needing it for a few miles so that they could get beyond the misty veil that protected the island from invasion. That ship would remain in Raimondas, and when Leon was on his way back in a few weeks, he’d let the Jaguar know, who would then send the ship back out to the open sea to meet them. It would then ferry them back to the island.

And so, Leon and his people boarded the ship, leaving most of the elders and chiefs behind on the dock. It wasn’t long before Leon was on his way back to Occulara.

—

Occulara had never quite felt like ‘home’ to Leon, not like the Forest of Black and White had when he was younger. He liked his villa, and he was quite comfortable there, not to mention that wherever his family rooted itself was where he wanted to be, but when he imagined what ‘home’ was, he didn’t envision the villa.

However, that didn’t stop him from sighing in relief as he landed in one of his inner courtyards. He had alerted Elise and Cassandra, so they were awaiting him with Helen, Anna, Tikos, Talal, and a few household servants, but otherwise, no one even knew that he was back. He and the rest of his retinue had flown in under the cover of darkness shrouds, invisible to all senses.

As soon as he touched down, though, Leon dropped the invisibility and changed from his armor into more normal clothing. He barely had time to adjust his shirt before he had his arms full of his fire-haired wife; Elise just about tackled him, but he spun her about to dissipate her momentum, much to her amusement. He passionately embraced her as she planted a flurry of kisses all over his face.

But after a few seconds, he set her back down and they separated. Cassandra had sashayed over in that time, a sly glint in her eye.

“Have fun across the sea?” she asked.

Leon grinned and pulled her into a tight hug. He whispered into her ear, “Not as much fun as I would’ve rather had back here with you…”

She giggled and replied, “And what made you think I want to have fun with you?”

“I can feel where your hands are drifting,” Leon replied, making no attempt to stop her southward advance.

She cheekily smiled back, her ruby eyes flashing with desire, but before she could respond, Valeria stepped forward and said, “We should head inside. Business before pleasure.”

“Of course,” Leon agreed as he disentangled himself from Cassandra, eliciting from her a displeased whimper. Leon spared only one solitary moment to nod to Anshu before giving everyone else a quick greeting and leading them back inside the villa. Anshu, however, didn’t follow. He had some people of his own to get back into contact with. Though he was going to be following Leon again, at least for a while, Leon had met with him and agreed with his desire not to let the resources he’d built up in his years away from Occulara atrophy.

When Leon’s entire retinue—minus Anshu—assembled back in one of his larger meeting rooms, he found himself relaxing in a way that he hadn’t in months. It simply felt good to have—almost—all of his people around at once. Elevating his mood further, it seemed that Anna was doing better, smiling more readily and engaging with the rest of the retinue in a way he hadn’t seen her do since before she killed Casimir.

When Leon finally got everyone sat down and situated, he began explaining to those of his people who hadn’t accompanied him south what he and the others had gotten up to in the weeks he’d been gone. He’d been reporting to Elise and Cassandra just about every day, of course, but this wasn’t just about making sure everyone was on the same page, it was also about hammering out just what to tell everyone else who might want reports of their own, such as the Director or the Lord Protector, for instance.

That meeting took nearly an hour, but when it was done, everyone’s spirits were elevated when Tikos announced that the Hesperidic Apples would be ready for harvest in only two days, and there would likely be four to spare during this harvest.

Leon grinned, but the expression died quickly as he pondered just who to give those extra apples to. It would do well to give them to the Director or Anastasios and the Grand Druid—shoring up his alliances in the Empires while he was gone wasn’t the worst idea. However, he wondered if he would see more benefit if he shared those apples with his supporters in the Ten Tribes instead. It would show them as much as the transformation enchantment could that he was willing to share power with them and not consider them merely slaves. Besides, he would only be strengthening his position by strengthening those who’d sworn themselves to him.

He hadn’t yet come to a proper conclusion when one of the household staff members knocked on the door. Elise answered it, exchanged a few words with the servant, and then turned to Leon, a look of concern on her face.

“Some men from the Sunlit Empire have arrived, husband…”

—

Zeno of Tellarios was the kind of man that Leon couldn’t imagine smiled often. He had hard, stern features that looked chiseled from stone, and a gaze that brooked no nonsense. Though he was ‘only’ an eighth-tier mage, when he turned to greet Leon he had the expression of one who very much did not think Leon his equal, let alone his superior in any matter.

And yet he stood in the atrium of the villa, flanked by half a dozen reasonably powerful mages of the fifth and sixth-tier.

“Leon Raime,” he growled with barely disguised contempt—or so his tone came off. “Welcome back to Occulara.” He didn’t bother introducing himself to Leon, so Leon was thankful that he’d at least shared his name with Leon’s staff, allowing Leon to hear about it from Elise.

Leon grinned dangerously. “That’s an interesting way to say ‘hello’. Have I been out of the public eye so long that people think I’ve left the city?”

“Such games are unbecoming,” Zeno replied. “Let us dispense with pretense. I bear a message from my Emperor. He wishes to inform you that he has many concerns about the way you and Heaven’s Eye have been behaving of late, especially with how… political your recent marriage to the Princess Cassandra was.”

“Heaven’s Eye remains neutral, despite my personal affairs,” Leon shot back, though internally he knew that excuse wouldn’t fly. He wouldn’t accept it if their roles were reversed.

Zeno continued, “His Imperial Majesty has indicated that if no attempt is made to contact him to clear these matters up, he’ll be forced to come to Occulara to demand an explanation. It is in everyone’s best interest to ensure that no international norms are being violated and that the current Imperial status quo remains unshaken.”

“That sounds suspiciously like a threat, though I know the Sunlit Emperor is far too noble to stoop so low…”

“His Imperial Majesty will do as needed to ensure the prosperity of our Empire. Now, my message has been delivered; I will depart.”

Without so much as the slightest attempt to ask for Leon’s leave to leave, Zeno and his party left, leaving Leon feeling rather insulted and more than a little worried.

“He left, just like that?” Elise said with a scowl. “How rude.”

Leon sighed. “Something that we ought to expect from Imperial sorts, shouldn’t we, at this point?”

“Being rude is being rude whether expected or not,” Elise insisted.

Leon shrugged in agreement. “Well. Aside from that rudeness, shall we catch up? I’ll be heading into Heaven’s Eye tomorrow, so I’ll bring it up with the Director, and I’m sure the Grand Druid and Lord Protector will want to speak, assuming they don’t just show up like Zeno did and demand to be seen before then.”

Elise looked at him and grinned, a look of excitement that was mirrored on Leon’s face. It wasn’t long before they were in bed with Maia, making up for these past few weeks apart.

—

Leon waltzed into his workshop satisfied and more than a little tired. Elise and Maia had worn him out as best they could, and were he only twenty years old, he would’ve called it quits there and gone to sleep with them in his arms.

But he was closing in on forty now, and he had Valeria and Cassandra to see to, as well, and since neither of them were willing to share their time as Elise and Maia were, Leon had to rely on his magic to see him through to the end.

But see his welcome through to the end he did, and he left his ladies well-satisfied.

Now, with his mind clear, despite his relative bodily fatigue, there was one more person he needed to check in on.

When he entered his workshop, Nestor had changed things around a bit. The change wasn’t nearly so drastic as when Leon returned from the Northern Vales with the Iron Needle, but he still immediately noticed that many of Nestor’s golem-crafting tools had grown more sophisticated if their increasingly sleek designs were anything to go by.

Nestor had also expanded the mirror in Leon’s enchanting corner. The mirror Nestor had made could allow the sketching of enchantments without needing to waste spell paper or ink, and now Leon found that Nestor had replaced it with an otherwise identical one, save for the fact that it was three times as big.

“If you keep making modifications to this place, we’re going to run out of room,” Leon quipped as he collapsed in his chaise lounge. As he did, Nestor’s pet tiger lumbered over and made a playful chuffing sound, prompting Leon to reach out and start petting the vicious-looking predator, who immediately began purring and leaning into his hand like a kitten.

“I will make whatever modifications are necessary, boy,” Nestor growled, hardly acknowledging Leon’s return. “We are not so much limited by knowledge as we are by tools. With finer and more advanced tools, we can make anything; we only need to spend the time to do so.”

“Dead man, is that… faith in my abilities that I hear? I know that you think yourself a genius, but you’re including me in that statement, aren’t you?” Leon grinned at the golem housing Nestor’s magic body, hoping to provoke the man a bit.

Instead, Nestor just grunted in annoyance and turned back to what he was doing, which appeared to be upgrading the cores of the two labor golems that Leon had left with him.

Leon wasn’t too happy with that response, but he refrained from trying to elicit any more. Instead, he got back up—to the annoyance of Nestor’s cat—and replaced the golden tube containing the Iron Needle in its stone plinth on the floor.

“It’s good you brought that back, boy,” Nestor said as he paused in his work. “I half-expected it to be stolen out from under your nose.”

“I suppose that answers whether or not you were expressing faith in my abilities…”

“Indeed. Now, why don’t you prove me right yet again and regale me with tales from the Sky Devil’s Hell?”

Leon chuckled and quickly filled Nestor in on the happenings among the Ten Tribes. It was a bit annoying repeating this information so many times, but he refrained from complaining too much, knowing that he would have to repeat it at least once more with the Director and Penelope, and possibly again with Anastasios and the Grand Druid.

“Hmm. Satisfactory. Not ideal, but satisfactory,” Nestor said.

Hm. Does the intangible corpse think himself so much better at making allies? Xaphan crackled from deep in Leon’s soul realm. Perhaps he would like to step up, then, and pry himself away from his toys to do something actually useful for a change?

Are you asking me to repeat that to him? Leon inquired.

Xaphan paused a moment, then answered, No. Let him do what he pleases. Not like the **heel would do anything constructive, anyway.

Leon shrugged again and turned his attention back to Nestor.

“How about you, Nestor? Has everything been going well here?”

“Well enough. I’m furnished with the materials I need, and no one bothers me unduly.”

“Are there any people duly bothering you?”

“Those pretenders sometimes come around and knock, but I ignore them and they eventually leave,” Nestor said. Leon knew he meant Anastasios and the Grand Druid when he said that.

With a frown, Leon said, “They shouldn’t be coming around here. If they persist, stay the course and don’t let them come in.”

“Wasn’t intending on ever doing so.”

“Good. As for other collaborations, though…”

Nestor finally paused what he was doing and turned to face Leon. His featureless face plate was incapable of expressing emotion, but Leon still thought it looked both serious and surprised then.

“What do you mean, boy? Are you going to try and sell me services?”

“No. You have other priorities. The Iron Needle, the golems, Adamant, so much to do and so little time. No, what I’m asking you about is something else entirely. I’m going to meet with the Director tomorrow to get an update on Heaven’s Eye’s arks. Want to come?”

Nestor just stared at Leon for a long moment before giving his answer.

“Yes.”