The Storm King

For three days after Trajan’s funeral, Leon stayed at home. He didn’t visit anyone, he didn’t leave the property, he just stayed at his villa with his head buried in training and his enchanting work. Minerva had nothing for him to do, so he had nowhere else to be. Whenever he was asked how he was doing by people like Elise, Xaphan, or the Thunderbird—also the only people he had regular contact with since this self-imposed seclusion—he would respond with some vague words about being fine.

None of them believed him, but it hadn’t yet gotten to the point that something needed to be done. He was still giving his training his all, and he lavished Elise with the attention she wanted, but it was hard for anyone to deny that he was still mourning.

Leon had gotten over Artorias’ death fairly easily. He hadn’t had the time to just sit and mourn, since Artorias’ death left him in the middle of the Forest of Black and White—a place with threats far beyond his capacity to eliminate—completely without support. It was only after a few weeks of frenzied flight and travel that Leon had some time to truly sit down and process things, and by then, the worst of it was over.

He had no such temporal luxuries this time. He only had empty hours in the day, and he filled them in the only way he knew how: with his lady, with his griffin, and with his training.

But the political machine in the Bull Kingdom churned on, and his time to mourn ran out the moment that Alix showed up at his door. It was early enough in the morning that Elise was still around to let her inside the villa.

“What’s going on?” Elise asked as she gave Alix a hug of greeting.

“Can’t I just stop by and say ‘hi’ to a friend?” Alix hugged Elise back.

“You absolutely can, but this early in the day would indicate that Minerva has you acting as a messenger again.”

The two women separated, and Elise gave a meaningful look at the dark green Legion knight uniform that Alix was wearing.

“You’re definitely here for work,” she said with a look of amusement.

Alix smiled, and after glancing around the living room and not seeing Leon, asked, “How’s he doing?”

“Well enough, I think,” Elise said with a look of some concern. “He’ll be fine, but I think he needs more time to return to normal.”

Alix nodded in understanding. “Prince Trajan’s death has upset many things. Speaking of which…”

“Yes, what brings you out here so early?”

“Dame Minerva has had some visitors from the High Arbiter. Leon has to go to the palace, now.”

---

“No getting out of this, Ursus, they asked for you by name,” Minerva stated, seeing the look of extreme discomfort on Leon’s face.

They were in Trajan’s former office, now re-appropriated by Minerva. Some people in the palace might have been a bit aggrieved that she managed to get such a nice office, but the powerful and experienced retinue of two thousand behind her ensured that those people remained quiet. She was an unknown in the capital, one without public loyalties to any faction, and she had a strong force behind her, and that gave her a degree of freedom few others possessed.

“Why me?” Leon asked.

“They wouldn’t say, no matter how much I pressed,” Minerva shrugged, though Leon could see some amount of fury in her expression anyway. “It’s not uncommon for specific individuals who were close to the victim to be called out like this during investigations, but what is strange is that you’re the only person in the entire retinue to be requested by name.”

“No one else?” Leon inquired with a degree of incredulousness. “Not even you?”

“Not even me,” Minerva replied. “I asked about that, and the investigator just smiled at me and said it would be my turn eventually.” The lady knight’s hands subtly curled into a fist, as if she wanted to punch that investigator in the face right now. For their sake, Leon was glad that they weren’t currently present.

Of course, his feelings on the matter weren’t entirely different from Minerva’s, it put him severely on edge that out of the two thousand knights and men-at-arms in Trajan’s retinue, his name was the only one uttered by the investigators when arranging interviews. Made him nervous, anxious, and all other feelings of that sort.

“Anyway,” Minerva continued, relaxing her hand and ignoring Leon’s own anxiety that peeked through his stoic demeanor, “I want you to remember that these are not our people. Knights in the service of the High Arbiter and the Bull Kingdom they may be, but they are not on our side. Answer the questions as honestly as you can, but don’t speak any more than is necessary.

Leon couldn’t suppress a cynical smile at that statement. As fellow knights of the Bull Kingdom, technically this investigator and his assistants were on Leon and Minerva’s side, but Octavius and August’s little quarrel made that idea little more than theoretical. Unaffiliated with palace politics though the Arbiters may be, he felt certain that both Prince had at least one or two allies in the ranks of the justice system.

“I’ll answer what I can, but I’ll be conservative with my answers,” Leon said, nodding to Minerva to confirm that he was ready.

“Good. Then follow me.”

---

The interview chamber was comfortable if a bit small and intimate. It was a sitting room that could comfortably accommodate perhaps ten people, though only three were in there right now. In an armchair on the side of a square table furthest from the only door in the windowless room sat Leon. In the opposite seat was the investigator, a thin and somewhat short man, though still obviously fit and strong. He radiated the strength of a fourth-tier mage, but in his bright blue eyes glittered an intelligence that ensured that Leon wasn’t going to underestimate him.

To the investigator’s right sat the third of their little group, a young bookish woman who would record everything that was said in the room.

“Thank you for sitting down with me today, Sir Ursus,” the investigator began, his voice slow, deep, and smooth. Comforting, and easily disarming, but Leon wasn’t taken in. He kept his guard up, especially since the investigator’s eyes remained solidly fixed upon him.

“What kind of knight would I be if I couldn’t spare the time for a few questions from the office of the High Arbiter, especially with recent events.” Leon was serious, he kept his golden eyes locked on the investigator’s, and he betrayed nothing with his stony expression, least of all the panicked beating of his heart. “Besides, you asked for me by name. That’s the kind of invitation that’s hard to turn down.”

The investigator chuckled to himself a bit as he flipped the first page of a stack of papers in front of him. “We have questions, and more than ‘a few’, I’m afraid. We’ve been going through Sir Publius’ notes on some of his recent investigations into crimes committed here in this very city, and they’ve left us confused and concerned about a great many things. These files have left us feeling like we’re in a dark and murky place, and my colleagues and I were hoping that you could illuminate a few details of these investigations for us.”

“I’m not entirely sure how I, of all people, could be of any help…” Leon muttered.

“Really?” the investigator asked, his eyes not wavering an inch from Leon’s. “Well then let’s lay things out, let’s be transparent. You’re a native of the Northern Vales, specifically from the Brown Bear Tribe, an ally of the Bull Kingdom. A barbarian by the standards of most of the nobility, a man of ill-breeding. And yet, you have ascended through the magical tiers with alarming alacrity, and you’ve been at least involved, if not featured as the central figure in most of the major events that have shaken this Kingdom in recent times.

“From a relatively humble start in the Knight Academy, you went on to greatly aid the Legion in forcing back your kith during their assault on Fort 127, you assisted the Diplomatic Corps in brokering peace with the stone giants, gained the backing of a Prince, participated in the war with the Talfar Kingdom, survived an assault upon your home by a cadre of powerful vampires—after, from what I’ve been able to gather, providing the instigating push that uncovered the vampiric threat within our borders. On top of all this, you’ve forged a powerful connection with the Heaven’s Eye Merchant Guild and reached the sixth-tier, all before the age of twenty!

“Is it truly any wonder why I might call you out by name when coming to ask questions of the retinue that you’re a part of?”

Leon’s urge to frown grew stronger the more his accomplishments were listed out. They sounded great and heroic, but for the most part, he hadn’t done any of them out a sense of civic duty, and having so many of his acts of selfishness brought back up was more than a little embarrassing. What was more, the simple fact that the investigator recited it all from memory disturbed Leon more than he let on since it indicated the investigator had gone to some lengths to research Leon’s professional record.

But Leon couldn’t tell the man to fuck off, no matter how much he might’ve wanted to. This listing of Leon’s record only made that even more impossible, at least for the moment. Leon might be able to wiggle out of it later on, but not immediately after that recitation.

Reluctantly, Leon nodded his head as a signal for the questioning to begin, and the investigator smiled in gratitude.

“For the record, my name is Lucius Columella, a knight in the service of the High Archon and scion of House Columella. As a knight of the Bull Kingdom, you do have a few rights you can observe, namely having a lawyer present for these questions. If you wish to exercise this right, you need only say so and the questioning will pause for a period of two weeks, during which time you must find your own lawyer. Does this make sense?”

“It does,” Leon said, nodding his head. He was silently grateful that Sir Lucius essentially laid out a way for him to bail on the questioning, just in case. However, Leon was well aware that if he did so, it would look incredibly suspicious—not that he was expecting sensitive questions, but his paranoia was starting to get the better of him the longer Lucius stared at him.

“All right! Let’s not waste any more time and just jump right into things. Sir Ursus, are you familiar with Tiberias Decimius?”

Leon froze up. He’d thought that the questions would be limited to the investigation into Trajan’s death, questions about Tiberias were extremely far from his expectations.

For a moment, Leon tried to fight letting his surprise show, but with the investigator continuing to stare at him, taking in his every gesture, Leon decided to let his stoic expression slip just a little bit.

Letting a hint of surprise show, Leon cocked an eyebrow and responded, “That was an unexpected question, I was under the impression that we were only here to talk about Prince Trajan’s murder.”

“We’ll get to that, but your name came up in several other investigations, and we at the High Arbiter’s office have some questions about those, as well.”

“‘Several’ investigations?” Leon asked.

“Several,” Lucius confirmed with a smile that was almost pleasant.

Leon glanced at the note-taker who was busy scrawling down everything they had just said. “Whatever.” Leon shrugged, feigning indifference. “I’m familiar with Sir Tiberias. Or was it ‘Lord’? Forms of address can be difficult to sort through when titles stack up.”

“Sir Tiberias was a knight. That was a title he held in his own right,” Lucius helpfully answered, though his helpful expression didn’t quite reach his eyes, which continued to bore holes into Leon with the intensity of his stare. “To call Sir Tiberias ‘Lord’ would be more of a courtesy, since he was the son of the Duke of Aurelianorum. Refer to him as either, it doesn’t really matter.”

“Thanks,” Leon said, a matching forced smile on his lips.

“Anyway, you say that you’re familiar with him, can you elaborate on the nature of that relationship?” Lucius leaned in a bit, steering their little chat back to the matter at hand.

Leon took a deep breath as he organized his thoughts, put an expression of resignation for Lucius’ benefit, and then proceeded with his almost painfully brief explanation.

“We were classmates at the Knight Academy. Same year.”

“No other relationship?” Lucius asked with a light tone that didn’t match his expression of utter seriousness.

Leon gave an ambiguous frown, shrugged, and said, “None. At least, none on my end.”

“What does that mean?”

“He was a scorned suitor to my girlfriend. I can imagine he was insulted when Lady Elise chose me, but as far as I’m aware, he took it all in good stride. After leaving the Knight Academy, I didn’t see him again until the graduation ceremony two years later, let alone correspond in any way with him.”

“Yes, the graduation ceremony… that was the same day he died, wasn’t it?”

Leon nodded.

“We’ll get back to that, but first, I’d like to go back to something you mentioned. You’re dating Lady Elise, correct?”

“I am,” Leon affirmed.

“What would you say her relationship to Sir Tiberias was like?”

“On her end?” Leon asked, to which the investigator nodded his head. “Annoyance. Like a fly that won’t leave her alone.”

“Nothing more? Just ‘annoyance’?”

Leon nodded.

“Right. So, the day you two graduated from the Knight Academy, you both attended a party together, one thrown by the son of Marquis Aeneas.”

“Correct.”

“And you two left at about the same time?”

“Maybe? I wasn’t close with the man, and I wasn’t keeping track of him at the party.”

“Sir Tiberias was killed in an ambush by a lightning mage. He was, as you have, yourself, admitted, a scorned suitor who attempted to court your girlfriend. You are a lightning mage, and you reportedly left the party at roughly the same time as him. Seems like there’s a connection that can be made here if you know what I mean…”

Leon smiled with as much understanding as he could. He obviously didn’t like the way this conversation—that was sounding more and more like an interrogation—was going, but he still wanted to present a somewhat pleasant demeanor to the investigator. Getting irate wouldn’t help him any, especially with the way Lucius was staring at him like he was a fish in a barrel.

“I had no hand in Tiberias Decimius’ death if that’s what you’re insinuating,” Leon said, his smile plastered over his face. “I don’t do so well in crowds. I went to the party, and once I’d had enough, I went home to spend some time helping my beastmaster train my griffin and to train.”

“Can this beastmaster verify this account?” the investigator asked.

“He can,” Leon replied.

“May we have his name?”

Leon gave it.

“Thank you,” Lucius said, turning a couple pages in his thick stack of papers. “Let’s continue with something else…”