The Storm King

Nothing. That was what Leon managed to find relating to Justin Isynos within the records of the attack on Argent Palace. There wasn’t a single hint as to who killed Kyros Raime, not even a drop of blood for the blood priests to analyze, and the palace had been scoured looking for just such a clue.

This, of course, greatly disturbed Leon, as by all accounts Kyros and Alexander were formidable warriors, as were the knights who served them. For their murderers to kill them with what seemed like little effort…

Leon shivered at how momentous and out of his reach his revenge now seemed. Again, he began to burn with the urge to return to Elise’s estate and begin his training.

Beside him, Antonius hadn’t managed to find anything of value, either. However, unlike Leon, he wasn’t looking all that hard. He was far too distracted with a possibility that had just occurred to him, that of the real identity of the young man standing right next to him.

‘He couldn’t be Leon Raime, could he? He looks a lot like what I remember Kyros looking like if my memory isn’t failing me, but that in itself isn’t enough… But with him sharing the name of Artorias Raime’s son and his extreme interest in these matters… He has to be Leon Raime!’

If Leon could read Antonius’ mind, he’d just about die; yet another person had managed to figure out his identity, though to be fair, he wasn’t the greatest at hiding it.

‘Uncle Trajan, what are you doing with this kid?’ Antonius asked himself with a sideways glance at Leon, who was far too busy leafing through the information available to him to notice Antonius’ behavior. ‘You’re going to get yourself killed if he is Leon Raime!’

Antonius audibly gulped and barely managed to turn his attention back to the work at hand. He wanted nothing to do with the kind of people who could so easily destroy House Raime, the most powerful noble house in the entire Kingdom after House Taurus, and as such he wanted nothing more to do with Leon.

‘They’re probably looking for him, as well,’ Antonius thought to himself as he began to sweat. He may be a Prince, but he was a scholar first and foremost and dealing with those who wished him harm wasn’t something he was prepared for.

He was suddenly far more nervous and far less chatty than he was a few moments before, to say the least, and the quickest he could finish up his work with Leon, the better.

---

After several long hours of silence as Leon and Antonius went through the reports, compiling and analyzing what information they had, they were finally done, much to Antonius’ relief.

“Is there anything else that isn’t here?” Leon asked Antonius.

“There isn’t,” the Prince responded.

“Then I think I have everything I need to report to Prince Trajan,” Leon said as he started to put away what he had been reading.

“I’m always happy to help my uncle with anything he needs,” Antonius said as he breathed a quiet sigh of relief that Leon was making to leave. The less time he spent in doomed company, he figured, the better.

“I’m sure Prince Trajan appreciates the sentiment,” Leon said with as much politeness as he could muster under the circumstances.

He was glad to be done so that he could get back to the day’s training. However, as he neared the door, his thoughts turned to when he ascended to the fifth-tier, and in turn, the Cradle. He still had the map of ruins he acquired from there, and he hadn’t done anything with it other than make a few copies that he eventually decided not to send out to anyone.

Leon turned around and hesitantly asked Antonius, “… There is something else I could use some help with, and I wonder if you would be willing to render some discreet assistance…”

‘No! Just leave!’ Antonius screamed in his head, but he was a Prince, and he couldn’t be so rude. He took a deep breath, then politely said, “That would depend on what it is you need help with, I obviously can only do so much…”

“I understand,” Leon replied. “A little more than a year ago, I found myself in stone giant territory…” Leon began to selectively re-count the events that transpired around the Cradle while avoiding many of the details, such as the massive training chamber. As far as Antonius was concerned, Leon simply wandered around some ruins and found nothing but the map. Leon simply hoped that no one told him anything more about what happened there.

“This is fascinating…” Antonius muttered as he studied the map Leon procured. He was genuinely enthusiastic in the face of a new mystery as, despite his immense desire not to entangle himself with Leon, his dogged pursuit of knowledge of the past greatly outweighed it. The two great topics he became a scholar to study were magic and history, after all.

“And like I said, I would like to keep this between us, if possible…” Leon reminded the Prince. He wasn’t too thrilled at the idea of the map leaking, but it was the ruin in the Forest of Black and White that he was most interested in, and so he gave the Prince a copy of the map without either the point in the Vales or Xaphan’s prison marked. He wanted the former kept secret, and while the latter was largely devoid of anything he wanted, he still didn’t want anyone poking around in there.

The rest of the points, though, he wanted to know about, but he wasn’t in any great hurry to get to them. He guessed that, given their proximity to the center of the plane, most had already been discovered and plundered, and he wanted to know which ones. He also intended to give this edited map to Heaven’s Eye, and while he expected he’d find more information with them than in the Bull Kingdom’s Royal Archives, he wanted to be thorough.

“I’ll tell you what, why don’t I look into this, and you come back in a few days?” Antonius suggested. As soon as he realized what he said, the Prince almost tried to back out, but he caught himself. The words were said, he couldn’t immediately back out of them without seeming fickle and unreliable and being too obvious that he knew who Leon was.

“Sounds good,” Leon said. He and Antonius quickly worked out a specific time, and Leon took his leave, finally giving Antonius some relief from the anxiety his presence was giving the Prince.

After Leon took his leave, Antonius turned away from the map and lost himself in thought. He was a scholar, and new mysteries about the past always fascinated him, oftentimes beyond the scope of reason. This was probably one of those times, in his opinion.

‘I shouldn’t have agreed so readily…’ Antonius thought to himself, but the deed was done and there was work to do. He turned back to the map and quickly memorized it. ‘I’ll finish this up for Sir Ursus and then try and keep my distance. Hopefully, I’m wrong about who he is…’

---

After leaving the Royal Archives, Leon made his way back across the bridge to the rest of the city. Trajan didn’t expect him to report until the next morning, and Leon felt like the Prince needed some rest, so he held off on immediately going to find him and sharing what he’d learned. For now, he wanted to process the information while he handled some other business.

He quickly made his way to the Heaven’s Eye Tower several miles away from the palace. He didn’t hurry, choosing to use the time he spent walking to trap more magic within his bones and to mull over the information he’d just received. Trapping his silver lightning in his bones was a decent enough distraction from the frustration he felt after learning so much of his family’s downfall, and the Heaven’s Eye Tower appeared in front of him before he knew it.

Immediately upon entering, he was approached by an incredibly respectful female attendant. Unlike many of the other attendants—both male and female—in the main hall he could see, she wasn’t flirty in any way. In fact, her behavior was as close as he’d ever seen a Heaven’s Eye attendant come to being conventionally professional.

She bowed slightly to him and asked, “Sir Leon, what can we do for you today?”

“I’m looking for a smith, enchanter, or other kind of artificer who is skilled in repairing enchanted items,” Leon said. He was hungry and the smells coming from the restaurant area were tantalizing, but he wanted this done so he could return to Elise’s estate as soon as possible; he needed to be out of the public eye quickly so he could get to training and properly vent.

“This way, please,” the attendant said as she led him to one of the magic lifts. Once the doors were closed, she asked, “May I ask what kind of item you’re looking to repair? It will help me find someone who can fix it.”

“A ring made of gold and set with an emerald, contains an invisibility enchantment,” Leon replied. He didn’t dance around the issue in an attempt to keep his ring a secret, he knew that as an employee of Heaven’s Eye she was far more trustworthy and discrete than just about anyone else Leon might encounter, and besides, he just wanted his ring fixed with as little hassle as possible.

“Just to be clear, Sir, you will not be charged for this visit,” the attendant said.

“Really?” Leon asked incredulously as he glanced at the young woman with an eyebrow raised in surprise.

“Yes, Sir. Lady Emilie ordered that any business you have with us be charged to her, within reason. If you needed a new enchanted item of similar quality, then you might need to dig into your account, but simply repairing something you already have won’t be a problem.”

“Huh…” Leon grunted as he thought about that. The last time he and Emilie had spoken, she had nearly ripped his head off his shoulders, so her paying for his business at the Tower was one of the last things he expected. Regardless, he decided to take her up on it, while hoping he remembered to thank her the next time they met.

That being said, he hardly needed it. As a knight in service to a Prince, he actually had about seven million silvers in his Heaven’s Eye account, a million more than he did when he opened it back in Teira. There was a part of him that wanted to spend some of that, but he honestly didn’t know what he would spend it on. He could use more enchanting supplies, but he only needed to buy those when he needed them. He had few other expenses, and whenever he thought about something that he might’ve wanted to have, he couldn’t quite bring himself to buy it.

He had never really put much thought into why he was so unwilling to spend his money, he just rested easier knowing that his growing hoard was there should he ever need it.

The attendant took him to a jeweler that took one look at his ring and agreed to repair it. Unfortunately, it would take about a day, but Leon was pleased to hear that his ring would be delivered the next day to Elise’s estate.

‘Perks of dating the boss’ daughter, I guess,’ Leon thought to himself with a hint of bitterness as the attendant escorted him out of the Tower. It was nice to get something for free, after all, but Elise and Emilie had already given him so much, and he was starting to feel more than a little awkward about it.

He wasted no more time with extra business and worked his way around the Tower and back to Emilie and Elise’s palace. He was a little surprised to find that Elise wasn’t there, but he supposed she just had some work to do at the Tower. Alix hadn’t come back yet, either, so Leon just changed his clothes and made his way into Elise’s training room.

To a degree, he was actually glad that he was alone. It had been a long time since he’d last been truly alone with his thoughts without the threat of death close by, and he immensely enjoyed it, even if the things he was thinking about equally infuriated him.

At the very least, though, Elise’s training chamber had been magically reinforced enough that Leon was able to truly let loose with his magic without fear of causing damage, something which he took full advantage of to bring himself some measure of catharsis.

But that catharsis wasn’t the main reason he needed to train. His enemies were strong enough to utterly destroy his family, and they were still out there. He needed strength and power, and he needed to speak with the Thunderbird.