The Storm King

The Royal box in the capital’s arena was reserved for the exclusive use of the Royal Family and their personal guests. To be invited to attend the games with a Prince, Princess, or the reigning Monarch meant sitting in that box, where one could be seen in the most public place in the entire Kingdom rubbing shoulders with royalty. Naturally, the Royal Family tended to be quite selective when inviting others to join them, oftentimes inviting no one but the members of House Raime to watch the games with them.

And August had just sent an invitation to Leon to join him in the Royal box during the triumphal games.

Trajan didn’t know how to take this. He knew Leon would likely prefer to refuse, but refusal of a Prince wasn’t to be lightly done. He also knew that August was probably trying to buy his way into Leon’s good graces since August was aware that Leon was the last heir to House Raime. In fact, Trajan suspected that the only reason August hadn’t done anything more overt to try and win over Leon was because of Trajan going out of his way to insulate Leon from the politics of the capital, at least until Leon’s recent discovery of vampirism spreading through the Kingdom like a demonic cancer.

With a deep, tired sigh, Trajan set aside the invitation. He wouldn’t pass it along to Leon, and he’d give August an excuse as to why Leon couldn’t attend. If that failed, he’d simply order August to leave his knight alone.

On the other hand, Trajan was also aware that he couldn’t keep Leon away from the politicians forever, his rise was too quick for that. Most of the advisory council members took the step to learn his name after his appearance in the Royal Court and due to his relationship with Elise, but Trajan suspected that if they knew his actual age then they wouldn’t give Leon a moment of peace. There would be constant invitations to parties, small get-togethers, private meals, gifts, bribes, and all the rest. And his youth wouldn’t stay hidden for long, it would likely be made widely known after his training cycle’s knighting ceremony at the Knight Academy.

‘I fucking hate this,’ Trajan bitterly complained in his head. There had been no new information on Justin Isynos, and he hadn’t the faintest clue how to handle Leon’s presence in the capital. ‘Julius, you had better wake up soon, you always knew what to do far better than I ever did…’

If there was one man who Trajan could always count on to handle the nobles in the capital, it was his younger brother. Now, he could add Leon’s status to the list of things he hoped his brother could fix when he awoke.

If he awoke.

---

“So what are you doing for the games?” Elise asked Leon as they relaxed in her sitting room. Anzu was sprawled out on the rug in front of them, his wings extended and gently rocking as he breathed.

“Hadn’t really thought about it,” Leon admitted. “Prince Trajan has intimated to me that he expects my attendance, soooo, I guess I’m not blowing it off. I kind of want to, though. Really want to.”

“Then how about this,” Elise said with a knowing smile, “I’m going to be getting a box with Valeria and Asiya, and they both have said that you’re more than welcome to come with!”

“… Really…” Leon mumbled in thought. He hadn’t thought much about Valeria since leaving the Knight Academy, and if he were honest with himself, he didn’t particularly want to think about her. He’d gotten far too close to her in their time at the Knight Academy, given what he knew.

However, Leon didn’t want to force Elise to choose between her friend and him. He also didn’t know how to avoid that choice from eventually coming up; he couldn’t keep lying to Elise, but he also had no idea how to approach the issue.

“I… will check with Trajan,” Leon eventually said. “It’ll probably be fine, but since he’s all-but ordered me to be there, I should make sure he needs nothing from me, first.”

“All right!” Elise said with a glowing smile, and her obvious enthusiasm caused Leon’s heart to sink into his feet.

“So…” Leon began in an attempt to change the topic of conversation, “My left arm has been bothering me a bit…”

“What’s wrong with it?” Elise asked as her face slid from excitement to concern, which caused Leon’s heart to sink even further than it already had.

“… It’s a bit stiff, and I can feel some stinging in the joint,” Leon explained. “I can channel magic into it just fine, and it doesn’t feel like it’s lost any strength, but it has been concerning me lately.”

“Let’s go and speak with my healers,” Elise firmly said. She wasn’t going to take any chances with Leon’s newly regenerated arm.

About fifteen minutes later, Leon found himself in the lead healer’s office in another wing of the estate. Elise was there as well, watching the lead healer give Leon’s arm a check-up with an anxious look on her face.

The lead healer poked Leon’s arm, channeling some of his light magic into it.

“Can you feel any pain right now?” he asked.

“No,” Leon answered.

The lead healer nodded, then began to move and stretch Leon’s arm, rolling his shoulder around in its socket.

“Anything?” he asked again.

“It’s a bit stiff, but it doesn’t hurt right now,” Leon said.

“Does it hurt at any particular times?” the healer inquired as he channeled some of his magic into Leon’s shoulder again.

“None that I can tell, it just flares up a bit at random times,” Leon explained.

“Mmm,” the healer hummed as he stared at Leon’s shoulder and lost himself in thought.

Both Leon and Elise were dead silent as they waited for the healer’s diagnosis.

Finally, after an agonizingly long half minute, the healer said, “My best guess… Well, my only guess, really, is that because the Meligaent’s Obsession wasn’t fully mature, there may have been some issues connecting your regenerated tissues with the rest of you.”

“Is this something we can fix?” Elise asked.

“I… don’t think it will be that difficult,” the healer responded. “We need to assist your body’s natural healing ability in order to help your new arm adapt itself to your body, and the sooner we start, the better, as this could be a sign that your body is trying to reject the newly-grown appendage.”

“That can happen?” Elise asked in shock. She’d seen the arm regrow before her eyes, so she couldn’t imagine it would be rejected by the very body it grew from.

“It’s exceedingly rare, and I’ve never seen it happen before, but I’ve spoken to those who have,” the lead healer explained. “However, that’s usually from a more normal limb regeneration with applied light magic and healing spells over the course of six months or more. I’ve never seen a Meligaent’s Obsession used, so I couldn’t say how much it would help or hurt Sir Leon’s chances.”

“Do what you can,” Elise said. When the healer looked at Leon, he agreed with a quick nod of the head.

What followed was a round of healing spells to dull Leon’s pain, though Leon insisted that the pain was more than manageable, and then downing a vial of some kind of potion that would stimulate tissue regeneration. It was a standard part of the bevy of potions and spells that Leon would’ve taken had he gone the more traditional route of appendage regeneration, so the lead healer was confident that they would work, given enough time.

When it was finished, the healer sent Leon off to rest with the instructions to come and find him if the pain continued for more than a week.

Leon, of course, wanted to spend that time training, but Elise insisted that rest meant rest, not physical exertion. As a result, Leon found himself with Elise back in the sitting room.

“Don’t be so difficult!” Elise said as a light-hearted reprimand. When Leon sat down on the couch beside her, he groaned in dejection at being forced to rest.

“I’d rather be training, I’m so close to the sixth-tier I can practically taste it!” Leon complained.

“Your healing comes first, you can focus on your training later!” Elise shot back. Then, with a much softer look, she leaned against Leon and said, “Trust me, love, I know. I’m quite close to the fourth-tier, as well, and I wouldn’t mind some training time. However, resting is an important part of life, we can’t spend all of our off time training. Besides, this isn’t even off time, we have some business to conduct!”

“What business?” Leon asked.

“You said you wanted us to find a house of our own,” Elise reminded him. “I can’t look myself, nor can you with your duties with Prince Trajan, so I’ve taken the liberty of bringing in someone to look for a house on our behalf. We just need to get on the same page for what we want this place to have.”

“Somewhere relatively small, somewhere private,” Leon immediately stated. He didn’t want a massive, ostentatious mansion that drew attention, he just wanted a nice place that was relatively out of the way where he and Elise could find some peace when they needed it.

Elise giggled at Leon’s instant reply, and said, “We might not be able to find somewhere that’s perfect, but we can do our best. For instance, I’m going to have to insist that we get a place in the western part of the noble district. That way, we’ll be almost in the middle of the Heaven’s Eye Tower and the Royal Palace, so we both can easily get to where we need to go.”

“Makes sense,” Leon said, agreeing with her reasoning.

“Most of the places in the noble district are on the large side, with a lot of open land,” Elise continued. “If we want somewhere private, then we’re going to have to organize some landscaping. Do you have any preferences on that front?”

“Not really,” Leon replied. “I don’t have the slightest clue what would be acceptable on the landscaping side. Honestly, if I had my way, we would drop a small forest down in the middle of the city with our house right in the center, though I doubt that would be the best…”

“No, no that won’t do, I don’t do well in the forest,” Elise said with a smile of both understanding and exasperation. She was a city girl through and through, and she did not like the forests. “Perhaps some trees and hedges, and maybe a large garden for me to practice my nature magic.”

“I’ll need a good place to train, so if we can’t find a place with a training room then we’re going to have to have one built,” Leon added.

“Indeed, I’d need one, too,” Elise said. “We’re also going to need a large dining room, just in case we host company.”

Leon scowled at that, but he didn’t say a word. If Elise wanted to host some people at their home, then he would do his best to accommodate that.

“We’re also going to need to take Anzu into account,” Leon said as he glanced down at the sleeping griffin. Anzu hadn’t moved in the entire time they’d been with the healer, he’d just laid on the floor in Elise’s sitting room contentedly napping away.

“So a stable, maybe?” Elise wondered aloud. “It wouldn’t be entirely feasible to have the entire house adapted to fit his size, so maybe a comfortable stable, along with an open floor plan that opens out into the courtyard so he can access at least some parts of the house with us…”

“Works for me,” Leon said.

The two spoke for a while longer, but in the end, there wasn’t much more that they wanted that was important to them. Elise quickly wrote down their few restrictions, and then handed them off to the agent she commissioned to look into available properties.

After that, there was nothing more to do, except to affirm that they would both pay an equal share for the place. Fortunately, neither Elise nor Leon tried to pay more or less than the other, it was going to be equal ownership. Leon greatly looked forward to it, so much so that for a while at least, he completely forgot that Elise was expecting him to go to the games with her, Asiya, and most importantly, Valeria.