Leon, Nestor, and the Director quickly went through the other five arks as quickly as they were able. As much as Nestor professed that he wasn’t interested in them, however, he couldn’t help but take a quick look at some of their more important systems while they were there. Unfortunately, they’d all been quite thoroughly crippled, though not so much that, as Nestor put it, ‘competent’ arksmiths couldn’t repair them with the proper materials.

It was getting those proper materials that was the greater concern. Titanstone was the biggest one since the substance was key in producing the enchanted machinery that powered and sustained arks, even the relatively primitive ones built by the Empires. Not even Heaven’s Eye could get their hands on any in quantities larger than a few grams here and there. Seven tons just for Storm Herald was quite of their reach for the time being, let alone the other five damaged Thunderbird Clan arks.

However, on the way back to his villa, Leon wondered how much the Grand Druid might be willing to part with now that they were family. He didn’t want to tip her off to the arks that Heaven’s Eye possessed, but he supposed a discrete inquiry or two while handing off any Hesperidic Apple seeds later might be warranted.

It was with only muted excitement that Leon and Nestor left the Hexagon. They hadn’t found any intact wisps on the other arks, so Nestor was leaving with only the one damaged wisp found in Storm Herald. Fortunately, that damaged wisp was one of the more powerful and important wisps on one of the most powerful and important arks in the Clan’s former fleet, so the gains they could make with it were profound, but it was hard not to think about what had been lost in the other arks.

It served to underscore just how far Leon still had to go just to get off Aeterna, let alone rebuild his Clan in the Nexus.

Leon wasn’t able to head home immediately after leaving the Hexagon, though he sent Nestor on without him. The dead man had his own business to take care of, but Leon had to check in on Magical Research and Development. He’d left it in good hands with Talal, but that didn’t mean he could just ignore his responsibilities while he was in the city.

Fortunately, no one had forgotten him, so when he walked into the building it was like he’d never left. His assistants and secretaries swarmed him and Talal and all department heads that were in the building dropped what they were doing to come and give him reports on what was happening in his branch of Heaven’s Eye.

For the most part, Leon was happy with how Talal was running things. He made sure that every important project was funded, and several projects that hadn’t been going anywhere had been scrapped entirely, allowing their resources to be sent to other projects.

For Leon, though, the projects he had his eyes on the most were those that were working on refining Tikos’ comm lotuses, iteration on MALL and stationary Lightning Lances designs, and Valentina’s research into the transformation enchantment he’d left her.

In the case of the first, he was presented with a new, smaller design. It didn’t present any significant increase in capabilities, but they’d figured out a way to significantly cut down on the resources required to build a communication apparatus. Already, the equipment designed for comm lotuses was less expensive than the comm stones that were already in use throughout the world. The only problem that yet had to be solved so that they could truly be made practical was the production of the lotuses themselves, as Tikos was still the only one capable of making them. Solving that problem would be the key to fully realizing the potential of comm lotuses.

Matters on the MALL and Lightning Lance front were more encouraging. Leon had provided his research teams with thunder wood, and while it hadn’t completely solved the limited power problems that the MALLs had, the material had at least allowed the Lighting Lances to fire without drawing too heavily on the entire platform’s power supply.

In more practical terms, the latest designs promised to come close to tripling the number of bolts the Lances could fire, while also doubling at least the range the platforms could travel. Seeing that, as well as some artist mock-ups of the newer, sleeker designs for the weapon platforms, had Leon almost regretting that his engineers were still building their latest prototypes.

Finally, Valentina’s project was one he was both most excited about and most disappointed by. Any possibility of amplifying his bloodline or otherwise drawing some new power from it would benefit him like almost nothing else could. Unfortunately, the team was still testing varying hypotheses, and little progress had been made to understand the bits of the transformation enchantment he’d left with them.

To encourage their work, Leon decided to just accept the risk and shared with Valentina more of the original transformation enchantments, both the one that he’d used for years that turned him into a clone of the Thunderbird, and the other one originally made by the Primal God that was responsible for turning him into the black dragon-eagle thing at the end of the campaign in the Serpentine Isles. He hoped that having the original work to study would aid them in realizing any more potential locked in his blood—and the blood of anyone else with Inherited Bloodlines that may swear themselves to him…

When those meetings were finally done, he found himself swamped with more paperwork. Talal was his second-in-command in the branch and had been entrusted with significant authority while he was away, but he could still only do so much, and Leon had to maintain some level of oversight to ensure that everything was running smoothly.

One such problem that required his attention was one of the few high-ranking holdouts from Rufus’ time as branch Chief, a seventh-tier mage working in the admin department. He had been corruptly mismanaging significant resources, and while Talal had been able to minimize the damage, he didn’t have the authority to unilaterally get rid of such a high-ranking branch member even in Leon’s absence.

Leon sighed and simply ordered the man fired. The documented evidence of the man’s corruption was enough for Leon, and what was more, he trusted Talal.

Of course, just because he trusted the man didn’t mean he had no oversight. As soon as the high-level meeting ended, Leon went to another meeting with his accountants, secretaries, and others in his administrative staff and asked for evaluations of Talal. He was heartened to hear that nearly everyone he asked had nothing but good things to say about the man.

Many of those working in higher levels of the branch had been there when Rufus ran things and were able to testify to how Rufus had mangled the branch during his time. Rufus had encouraged his departments to compete against each other for resources and valued loyalty over competence, so the branch suffered from significant corruption while he was in charge. Rufus had been loyal to the Director, though, and had delivered results when they mattered, but he ran the branch like it was his personal fiefdom and did everything he could to ensure his power.

When Leon and Talal came in and purged most of Rufus’ loyalists, Talal had gotten to work overhauling the branch’s administrative structure to value results rather than loyalty, and as far as everyone was concerned, he’d largely succeeded. Not completely solved, of course, as the matter with the corrupt seventh-tier in admin showed, but morale was high, corruption was low, and progress was being made much more quickly than before.

When he left the branch tower later that night, Leon found himself more than confident in continuing to leave Talal in charge. If he did succeed in becoming King—and he was quite confident that he would—he’d probably have to leave Heaven’s Eye, and having someone like Talal in charge of his branch would do much to alleviate his concern.

‘Whatever the Director did to him when we arrived in this city must’ve put the fear of the Gods and all his Ancestors into the man,’ Leon thought with some amusement as he made his way home. Talal had abused his power in Akhmim, where he’d originally been stationed, but now he was showing himself to be competent and dogged in his weeding out of corruption in the branch’s ranks.

It was dark when Leon made it home, and he was greeted at the door by Elise.

“Leon,” she said with a glowing smile as he walked in. “Productive day?”

“Productive enough,” he said. “Less than I’d have liked, but progress takes time.”

Elise smiled and took his arm, then began steering him away from the private areas of the villa and toward the wing where the Lord Protector and Grand Druid stayed whenever they were in town.

“You’ll have to tell me all about it later. Right now, we have two tenth-tier mages in our home who are low on patience.”

“In a bad way? Or a normal way?” Leon asked.

“Normal,” Elise answered as she halted in the hallway. “Cassie’s with them now keeping them occupied, so you have some time if you have something else you need to take care of.”

Leon frowned for a moment and projected his magic senses. He saw through his villa’s defensive wards that Anastasios and the Grand Druid were with Cassandra in the Grand Druid’s apartments looking for all the world like a pair of grandparents doting on their granddaughter. Neither seemed to have noticed that he’d returned, which he chalked up to both their preoccupation with his wife and with the strength of his wards.

Then, he turned his attention to his workshop, where Nestor was hard at work evaluating the wisp and its container they’d taken from Storm Herald. Deciding who to visit first wasn’t particularly hard.

“I need to check in with Nestor first,” he said. “Our guests seem like they’re being entertained well enough, and I’d rather have all my ducks in a row before I head in there.”

“Then let’s do that,” Elise beamed, and together, they made their way down to Leon’s workshop.

Upon entering, they were greeted at the door by only Nestor’s sleepy tiger, the dead man himself being too taken with whatever he was doing with the wisp.

“Hey Nestor!” Leon called out upon entering. “How often do you let your cat out? Can’t be healthy, leaving him inside all the time!”

“He’s an indoor cat!” Nestor shouted back. “But he gets plenty of exercise outdoors!”

Leon gave Elise a skeptical look and muttered, “Have you ever seen him taking this monster outside?”

“A couple times,” Elise replied with a shrug and a look of mild apprehension sent the tiger’s way.

Leon sighed. The cat looked healthy enough, he supposed, and so long as it wasn’t tearing the workshop to pieces, then he was fine. So, he waltzed over to the desk Nestor had been working at. The crystal containing the damaged wisp was in the middle of a complex enchantment array with dozens of different controls that Nestor was constantly adjusting. Next to the array was a projected light screen filled with what looked like some kind of simplistic technical readout, but Leon lacked the context to understand what it was supposed to be communicating.

“What is all this?” he asked.

“Wisps designed for specific purposes can sometimes need maintenance,” Nestor explained. “Wisps in general are self-sustaining and had to damage, but their containers can cause them to degrade if unattended for too long. That’s what happened with this one.”

“Has it said anything since bringing it in?” Elise asked as she joined them at the desk, a look of wonder on her face. “I remember you telling me that it tried to talk, but then seemed to die…”

“It appeared, kept stuttering, then vanished when I was first in Storm Herald,” Leon confirmed.

“Degradation,” Nestor growled. “It’s an easy enough problem to solve… with the right tools. And I don’t have the right tools. I’m trying to do complex surgery with a butcher’s knife and graver’s chisel.”

“If anyone can do that, I’m sure you can,” Leon said.

Nestor paused, then glanced at Leon for the first time since Leon had entered the workshop. “Are my auditory enchantments malfunctioning or was that a compliment?”

Leon shrugged noncommittally. “Take it as you please, but you’ve rarely failed to deliver on results… eventually.”

Nestor audibly scoffed and turned back to the wisp, but he didn’t immediately return to adjusting the controls on the enchantment console.

“There is something that I’ve been meaning to bring up with you, Leon,” the dead man said.

“What is it?”

“You seem to prefer straight, uncomplicated magic. Conjuring lightning bolts and manipulating the weather.”

“Yes…” Leon hesitantly replied. “As opposed to what, exactly?”

“Your fish girl—”

“Naiad,” Elise corrected. “She has a name for others to use. Use it.”

Nestor turned to regard her, his impassive featureless face impossible to read. Then he whispered, “Naiad often uses her magic to conjure river dragons. These creatures act autonomously, though still slaved to her will since they are her power.”

Leon nodded along. “I think I see what you’re getting at. Our Ancestor once told me that such magic was like creating primitive wisps.”

“Like creating primitive wisps,” Nestor said, nodding his head. “What she creates are as much wisps as one of these is a human.” Nestor waved at the labor golems Leon had given to him for experimentation. “It would help us a great deal if you were to do something similar.”

“Practice?” Leon asked.

“Practice,” Nestor confirmed.

“Practice for creating wisps?” Elise asked. “How related is this, exactly? I don’t think Leon can create eagle-shaped lightning bolts and count that, right?”

“No,” Nestor replied before he sighed and looked away for a moment. “Look. I’ve created wisps before. I had to, for my golem research. But I wouldn’t say that I’m skilled in their creation. My technical skills are good enough to get me what I need, but the art of wisp creation is beyond me. Repairing this wisp might be beyond me, too…”

“I thought you said repairing it was easy?” Leon asked.

“With the right tools, it would be,” Nestor testily shot back. “As it is…” He paused again and seemed to need a moment to work himself up to what he had to say.

Leon wasn’t used to seeing him like this, so he gave the dead man the time he needed. When Nestor was ready to speak again, he didn’t turn to face Leon or Elise and spoke in a low murmur.

“… The demon is likely better than anyone else you could find at creating wisps… Learn from him.”

Leon cocked an eyebrow in surprise. “Was that… a compliment, Nestor? Did you express faith in Xaphan’s abilities?”

“You did so for me, it would be uncouth if I didn’t reciprocate.”

“Usually,” Elise said, “the compliment is repaid to the person who complimented you, not to someone else.”

“That’s a shame; I had only the one to spare and it went to the demon. I’ll agree that it was a waste, but what’s done is done.”

Leon just grinned and shook his head. Casting his attention down into his soul realm for a moment, he was mildly amused to see Xaphan in a healing trace. The demon likely hadn’t heard what Nestor had said, and Leon doubted he’d believe him when he told the demon what had just happened.

“Well, keep working on it, Nestor,” Leon said. “I’ll talk to Xaphan later and see what we can do. Hopefully, if I ever reach Apotheosis, I’ll be in a good place to start creating actual wisps.”

Nestor grunted, then added, “One last thing, Leon. If the proper tools for wisp repair still exist on this plane, they’ll likely be in the old capital in the east. Keep that in mind. Getting our hands on those tools might get this wisp back in working order and would help in getting our navigation wisp installed into Storm Herald, should the rest of the ark be repaired. These two wisps alone won’t be quite enough to get the ark into shape, but we’ll need them anyway.”

“I’ll make a note of it,” Leon said before he glanced northward. Not for the first time, he wondered just how useful the stone giants might be in this endeavor. Their stone bodies were only shells, after all, and their true forms were quite wisp-like, if more powerful.

He didn’t immediately bring the matter up, though, as he already knew what Nestor’s reaction might be.

With that, Leon and Elise left the workshop. A more detailed report on the wisps could wait until later, as well as learning just what tools were needed for wisp repair, but for now, they still had two tenth-tier mages in the villa waiting for them. On the way back to the villa, however, Leon paused in the gardens.

“There’s something I’d like to ask you, love,” he said as he took Elise in his arms.

“You sound so serious,” Elise replied with a laugh.

“I don’t mean to, just something came up in Magical R&D today that I think you could help with.”

“Anything you need,” Elise quickly replied.

“Comm lotuses,” Leon immediately said. “Right now, Tikos is our only source of the flower. If we’re to replace comm stones, we need to figure out how to mass-produce the lotuses. I’m an amateur at such things, but you, Helen, and Tikos I’m sure could figure something out.”

Elise hummed as she glanced toward their fields, a thoughtful look on her face. “I’d have to have a long talk with Tikos first, but I think it’s doable. Are we working on a time frame?”

“Sometime within our lifetimes would be nice,” Leon cheekily replied.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Elise responded with a bright smile.

Leon gave her a quick kiss, and together, they finally made their way to Anastasios and the Grand Druid.