The Storm King

The man hidden in shadow was gone, his pillar of ice shattered. Naiad’s water dragon lowered her to the ground and she took off back toward the ambush point. It was lucky that the owners of the villa that she and the darkness mage had been standing atop of didn’t seem to be home, but there was little sense in sticking around.

From their brief clash alone, Naiad could tell that he was extremely powerful, easily able to stand against her if they truly fought. In the back of her mind, she was a bit grateful that the man had run away, as she never would’ve done so and she could easily see herself losing that fight. She could also see herself winning, but she guessed that their fight would be closer than she would’ve ever liked.

No, it was better that the man ran, and Naiad didn’t pursue. She knew that it was safer and smarter to link back up with Leon and tell him about what just happened.

Leon didn’t mince words when Naiad reappeared through the trees and approached him looking like she wanted to talk.

“Not here, we have to leave,” Leon curtly stated, the wrecked carriage behind him surrounded by bodies. He hadn’t sensed any magic senses washing over them, but there was always the possibility that he and Naiad had been seen, and his armor at least was quite distinctive.

[You’re just going to leave all of that behind?] Naiad asked, nodding in the direction of the bodies. Some of them had caught fire from both Leon and the fifth-tier guard’s use of fire magic, but it wasn’t enough to destroy much of the evidence of what had just happened.

“Not a lot of point, I didn’t leave anything incriminating, and all of this has likely been seen.” Leon was confident, but he was still in a bit of a hurry. He hadn’t expected a battle to break out between Naiad and some random powerful mage, and he wanted to beat feet. The only consolation he had was that Naiad was a relative unknown in the city, and that it was extremely unlikely that anyone who might’ve seen them would recognize her.

[Back home, then?] Naiad asked, effortlessly referring to Leon’s villa as ‘home’, which Leon was in far too much of a hurry to notice. In fact, Naiad herself didn’t even notice her ease with the term.

Leon nodded and began to disappear, his ring flashing a brilliant green as his magic power flowed into it.

Naiad didn’t stick around, either. Her body collapsed into water, sank into the ground, and found its way to the Naga River first through groundwater, then through the small rivers and canals that had been built throughout the noble district.

For his part, Leon’s route was largely on the road, but as he made his way back home, he happened to notice a large contingent of Legion soldiers rushing toward the ambush point. It had been less than ten minutes since he had launched his ambush and based on how long it took the Legion to arrive at his house following the vampiric assault upon it, he considered this almost insultingly good timing.

‘I guess the Legion may have stepped up their response time, after all,’ Leon thought, a frown forming on his face. He was a bit torn between being grateful their response time was so bad, since it gave him the opening he needed to kill Tiberias, but on the other hand, he would’ve greatly preferred it if they had reached his home sooner so that he wouldn’t have had to rely upon Naiad for his survival and the survival of his friends and family. Or maybe it was just because it was Tiberias who had been attacked this time and not him that accounted for the increase in response time.

Invisible, it was easy to return home unseen and unobstructed. Leon had to dodge a few noble carriages and caravan-like trains of followers, but as was the norm for the noble district, the roads winding through the short hills were largely deserted. But Leon didn’t take that as license to slack off, and he maintained his invisibility until he opened the gate in the wall that now surrounded his villa. Of course, his return to the world of the visible wasn’t entirely by choice, as his home was, at this point, so warded that he literally had no way in without disrupting his invisibility.

Leon scurried inside, swiftly shutting the gate behind him. After the knighting ceremony at the Knight Academy parade grounds, the party at Marcus’ estate, and his murder of Tiberias, Leon was mentally exhausted. It wasn’t time to rest, though, as there were a few more matters he had to attend to while he bunkered down at home for the inevitable fallout from what he had just done to both arrive and clear, first and foremost being the Heaven’s Eye beastmaster who was training Anzu in the front yard of his estate.

Elise hadn’t started on expanding her herb garden yet, so there was plenty of room for the beastmaster to get Anzu used to running around with weight on his back. It wasn’t much longer before Leon would have to participate in the young griffin’s training once more, as Anzu was steadily approaching the fifth-tier. At the fifth-tier, Anzu was all-but guaranteed to gain access to powerful wind magic which would allow him to fly, and would then be strong enough for Leon to start using the griffin as a war mount. He might have to hold off on wearing armor for a while, but the beastmaster estimated that in six months, Leon would have his own flying mount.

Leon couldn’t wait, both for the training, and for its result. Anzu had long since grown large enough that he had to stay home and not follow Leon around everywhere, which the young griffin hadn’t taken well, at first. Fortunately, he was now relatively used to not being around Leon anymore, though he still went absolutely insane with joy whenever Leon returned home.

Case in point, as soon as the griffin saw his human walk in through the gate, he completely abandoned training with the beastmaster in favor of charging at Leon, waving his wings and chirping with happiness. Leon was almost knocked right over; Anzu was quite large now, probably weighing three or four times as much as a full grown man, if not more.

Leon spent a few minutes with his griffin before letting the beastmaster—who was mercifully unperturbed at the sight of Leon in strangely nondescript armor with a few spatterings of blood scattered over him—have him back to continue the training, and when he walked inside the villa, he found that Naiad was already there waiting for him.

“Have any trouble getting back?” Leon asked as he pulled his armor back into his soul realm, only now realizing how strange he must’ve looked to the beastmaster. He didn’t think the beastmaster would do anything about how suspicious he looked, though, given that he worked for Heaven’s Eye, which, as a neutral and international party, wasn’t subject to the same laws and restrictions as most citizens. To expect a member of Heaven’s Eye to report on someone like Leon, who was extremely well connected with the organization’s leadership in the Kingdom, was to expect that member to act like a fool. No private citizen would willingly make an enemy of Heaven’s Eye if they could avoid it, no matter how suspicious their actions—or so Leon now had to count on, as he wasn’t about to go out and threaten the beastmaster or explain himself in any way.

[None,] Naiad whispered into his mind. She stood by the back door and watched Leon walk over to a couch and collapse into it. She then moved over and took a seat right next to Leon, practically right up on him.

Leon was far too tired to care, though, and he simply muttered, “Good…”

[About that darkness mage, though…] Naiad said, and she recounted for Leon her brief exchange and fight with the mage hidden in shadow. She made sure to emphasize his power and how much trouble she thought she’d have with him if they got into a proper battle.

“Did you get a good look at him?” Leon asked, his face changing from one of shock into muted anger as her story continued.

[I did not, he remained in his shadow the entire time,] Naiad said.

“But I thought you said you could see him?” Leon asked.

[I was using my magic senses,] Naiad explained. [I could see his shadow and his form within, I couldn’t get enough detail to pick him out of a crowd, though.]

Leon clicked his tongue in annoyance at the whole situation, simply saying, “A shame…”

A man who possessed enough power to survive an encounter with Naiad wasn’t someone Leon could afford to ignore, and he was fairly certain he already knew who that man was, or at least, who he was probably connected to: Justin Isynos. It was possible that he had yet another powerful enemy out there who possessed darkness magic, but the line about him being a concerned father looking out for his daughter stood out to Leon. He didn’t know too many people that well, and Justin Isynos was the only one who seemed to have enough power and the connection to someone Leon knew to fit the person who Naiad described.

Leon briefly contemplated telling Naiad about Justin, but after a couple seconds of thought, he decided against it. He still didn’t fully trust Naiad with that kind of information, even though he could trust her motives were straightforward. She wanted his child, and after that, he figured she’d leave. He didn’t want her running around with sensitive information, at least until he got to know her better. Besides, if what she said was true, then she wasn’t strong enough to kill Justin on her own—at least, not without exposing both of them to immense risk of death.

And speaking of child-making, Naiad had been subtly inching closer to him on the couch during their entire exchange, and Leon was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice until he turned back to look at her and found her face mere inches away from his. He jerked back in surprise, but he was already at the edge of the couch, so he couldn’t get much distance from her without getting up.

[What’s wrong?] Naiad asked in concern, her deep blue eyes capturing Leon’s and not letting him look away.

“I… uh… nothing…” Leon sputtered in an attempt to not anger Naiad. For all that he didn’t appreciate how she had inserted herself into his life, he couldn’t deny that she was a powerful ally worth keeping around as long as he could.

His embarrassment over the situation only grew when he felt awareness coming from his soul realm. He didn’t know if it was Xaphan or the Thunderbird checking in on him, but either way, he didn’t much enjoy the audience.

[Can I-] Naiad began, but she was interrupted when the back door was flung open from the outside, revealing a less than happy Elise and the merciful absence of his friends. However, Leon’s red-headed lover looked positively pissed, obliterating any relief he felt at not having to explain anything to Charles, Henry, or Alain.

Leon immediately rose to greet her, but she barely looked at him as she pulled off her shoes and made for an armchair. Once seated, she momentarily glared at both Naiad and Leon before asking, “Is it done?”

“It is,” Leon confirmed.

[… With a few complications…] Naiad added, and she quickly repeated to Elise what she had told Leon about the mage she’d fought.

Before Naiad could begin, though, Leon contemplated stopping her. With Elise’s friendship with Valeria to consider, Leon hadn’t yet told her about Justin Isynos’ connection to his family’s downfall, and he didn’t want her to poke too much into that. Ideally, he’d find some way to deal with the situation before things got too hairy, but as more time went on, he more and more came to realize that that wasn’t going to be a good option for him. He needed to be open and upfront with Elise. He knew that, but he also didn’t know how and when to broach the topic. So, in the end, he let Naiad speak unimpeded.

Elise was, of course, disturbed at the thought of someone of comparable power observing Leon, especially since it seemed they were connected to one of her friends—Leon wasn’t friends with any ladies other than her and her circle of friends, apart from Alix, at least to her knowledge.

“I’ll look into that later,” Elise said with a scowl. “In the meantime, Naiad, could you please give me and Leon some privacy? I appreciate everything you’ve done for us in this regard, but we need to talk alone for a few minutes…”

Leon’s heart sank. He’d heard it said that the guilty always know why they’re in trouble, and in this case, he felt like the saying was accurate; he’d practically abandoned Elise at the party. They’d both known what he was going to do, but he knew that there had been an expectation that he would do so with more grace. Instead, he was rudely abrupt and thoroughly embarrassed Elise in front of everyone at the party.

He could understand why she wasn’t happy with him right now.

[… I suppose…] Naiad replied. She felt like it was more important to discuss their opponents but seeing the look on Elise’s face convinced Naiad not to push the issue. She slowly rose from her seat and, with one last slightly regretful look at Leon, returned to her guest rooms.

Leon remained quiet. He felt like it was best if he let Elise speak first, and if he were to hastily offer apologies before she began then it would only make things worse.

Elise, however, didn’t say a word for what felt like an eternity. She stared at the wall after Naiad left, her face stony and impassive.

Finally, after long enough that Leon was about to break his silence, she said, “You left me…”

“I did…” Leon quietly replied, his voice dripping in shame.

“Normally,” Elise continued, her voice quivering in anger, “it’s polite not to leave so abruptly. The people we were with took notice, and if they’re questioned then your name might come up in connection with Tiberias’ since you left so soon after him!”

Leon nodded, not interrupting her despite her pausing for a moment. He was prepared to be questioned about Tiberias’ death, but that they left a party at the same time was hardly damning evidence. Fortunately, their disputes weren’t public knowledge, so Leon had no public motive to kill him.

“There are apologies to be had, people to explain yourself to…” Elise continued, moving on from that topic and seeming as confident as Leon was in dismissing any investigations given how little evidence there was that any of them were involved. “I understand why you did it, but the way you left the party left much to be desired…”

“I understand,” Leon whispered.

“Do you really?!” Elise demanded, her voice rising for a second before she got herself back under control. “I… understand why you left. I know that Tiberias had to be taken care of, that you had to leave to do that. I understand that, I do. But…”

“But it still sucked,” Leon finished for her, and she nodded in agreement. “I could’ve picked a better way to do that, perhaps telling Marcus that I couldn’t stay for too long or coming up with a better explanation. Been more polite when I left so that I didn’t seem to be abandoning the party…”

“Yes,” Elise said. “I had to stick around and got questioned a lot about you after you were gone, mostly about what you were in such a hurry for and why you left like that. Fortunately, most people understood when I repeated that you had to be here for Anzu’s war beast training, but I still had to deflect a lot of very insistent and probably judgmental people, and I hated every moment of it.”

Leon could understand that perfectly well. He hated interacting with people in general, and that was something he had to do for himself. Having to explain and make excuses for someone else would be the worst.

“I don’t want that to happen again,” Elise said, her tone still angry and frustrated. “I get enough of that at work, I don’t want that to slip into our time, as well.”

“Then I’ll never do it again,” Leon said. “Shouldn’t be too hard, so long as I never get invited to another party again…”

“There’ll be invitations,” Elise said with more than a little bit of depression leaking into her angry tone. “I’ve had to live with invitations as a fact of life since the day I was born. We’re just going to have to be very selective with whose parties we attend.”

“How about none?” Leon asked with a cheeky smile, and Elise couldn’t help but giggle despite her anger.

“I suppose that would work,” she said, smiling for the first time since coming home. “We’re going to piss off a lot of people that way…”

“That’s fine,” Leon said. “I don’t plan on staying in the Bull Kingdom forever anyway.”

Elise’s eyebrows shot up in curiosity and slight shock, quickly dulling her frustration and cooling her anger. For all that Leon had learned from the Thunderbird, he still hadn’t been entirely forthcoming with Elise about his future plans. The most she knew was that he wasn’t planning on staying in the Legions for too long, maybe a decade or two at the most.

“My goals are a little higher…” Leon said, smiling at his lady. “Have you ever heard of the Nexus?”