The Storm King

The Scorched Fields were far to the southwest of the Ilian Empire. The entire breadth of the Empire had to be traversed before the ark even reached the halfway point of their journey, though, fortunately, the ark moved so quickly that the journey that had taken Leon weeks ten years ago was done in reverse in a matter of hours. However, they did have to cant west a bit to avoid flying over the Sunlit Empire, adding what Leon considered to be a negligible amount of time to their journey.

Once past the border of the Empire, they were in the comparatively lawless and sparsely populated Kyron Steppes. The steppes weren’t quite as depopulated as the Ilumerian Wetlands, especially this close to Imperial territory, so while cities were few and very far between, there was never a point where Leon couldn’t see at least a couple of nomads grazing their horses or stopping to trade with each other.

He even saw two huge warbands doing battle about a hundred and fifty miles away from their ark, at one point, fighting over something he couldn’t even guess at. Ten thousand horsemen clashed against a comparable number, horse archers harassing their foes, heavier cavalry smashing against each other in a vicious melee, and Leon above it all, looking down upon it from the sky.

He couldn’t help but feel strangely uncomfortable at the sight of it. He supposed this was part of what achieving Apotheosis might feel like: a god, reigning supreme above all, the petty concerns of mortals and weaker mages so far below him that even their most serious of blood feuds was little more than a curiosity to him.

Still, he watched with rapt attention for as long as the ark remained close enough for his magic senses to reach the battle. Unfortunately, that wasn’t long, and he was able to watch the battle for less than a quarter hour before it slipped out of view.

Other than that, the Kyron Steppes were vast and empty, with rolling hills of yellow grassland as far as the eye could see, broken up by the occasional stream or small copse of trees. It was a barren place, and Leon could fully understand why neither the Ilian nor the Sunlit Empire had pushed into the region. Quite simply, there wasn’t any reason for them to, not with how few material resources seemed to be here, and especially not with the apparent lack of arable land and water sources. To build an Imperial city out here would be to invest an enormous amount of money into the necessary magical infrastructure that such a settlement would require, and little would flow back into the Empire.

No, he could understand why the borders stopped where they did if this was all that lay beyond. Better to leave the nomads to their own devices and trade with them for whatever, if anything, may be needed from the steppes.

As they were flying over the steppes, Elise told Leon about the nomads, and he learned that they had been quite bothersome in times past. However, the Empires had grown so powerful and magically advanced that the nomads were no longer a problem. The nomads, for all their power and advantages over armies that Leon was more familiar with, simply couldn’t compete against the Empire’s magical might.

Given the kind of arks that Leon knew just the Ilian Empire had, he could understand that, too. Even a small ark like this one, if equipped with a couple of Imperial Lances, would’ve annihilated that battling horde of nomads with ease, if it had to.

It was the first time that Leon had ever seen the Kyron Steppes, and as they reached their rough edge, he wasn’t quite sure what to think. The last wyvern hunt had taken him on a different route, passing through the Sunlit Empire into the Pegasi States, and he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to return to the steppes. They were just so damned bleak and empty that even Leon, who reveled in solitude and the wilderness, felt uncomfortable.

He'd take the Ilumerian Wetlands, filled as they were with dangerous creatures, over the steppes any day.

After the steppes came the Ivory Plains, somehow even bleaker and more inhospitable than the endless grasslands to the north. The plains were almost nothing but stark white salt flats that stretched for hundreds of miles. The entire Bull Kingdom could get lost in them.

Of course, the sheer emptiness of the Ivory Plains made it surprisingly easy to distinguish them from the Scorched Fields. Grass and trees were everywhere, but the Scorched Fields hardly made much of a forest. Instead, massive trees rose hundreds of feet into the sky, and had hundreds of feet between them. Their flame-blackened trunks were so large around on average that twenty men couldn’t encircle them when holding hands. Their roots stuck out of the ground for dozens of feet around them like great, entangling webs, and around those roots stretched some of the greenest grass that Leon had ever seen. He’d only ever seen more vivid grass in the Forest of Black and White, where grass of any color could be found.

Other than the grass and the trees, however, there was little in the way of significant plant life. A few thin bushes and weeds, but little else.

There was little evidence, too, of human habitation. The Scorched Fields had few permanent settlements, much like the Kyron Steppes, but here and there Leon could see a few tiny huts built along the trunks of the massive trees, suspended over the ground. Some tree clusters—as much as such distant trees could be called ‘clusters’—had enough huts to almost qualify as a small village.

Such settlements weren’t meant to be permanent and were probably nothing more than groups of hunters setting up shelters to prepare for the upcoming wyvern hunt. When the wyverns left their aeries to hunt, most of the Scorched Fields would burn since fire wyverns were the most common variety, and while those huts and small villages were vulnerable built so high up on the massive trunks, given the fact that wyverns could fly, they were still safer up there where the fires couldn’t reach.

A hut in a tree was only in danger of being burned by a wyvern, but a hut on the ground was guaranteed to be lost to fire without other protections.

The ark continued further into the fields, pushing south and then a little bit east until they reached something that more closely resembled a city. Huge buildings and villas dotted the landscape, many with large walls built around them.

This was Vyrias, the city that sprang up on the western edge of the Pegasi States every five years to see to the needs of the wyvern hunters. Since the Pegasi States were most in danger of incineration without these hunters, it was no surprise to Leon that many of the city-states that made up their confederation committed their powerful mages to the hunt and invested quite a few resources into supporting the hunters as best as they could.

Vyrias wasn’t a real city, though. If anything, it more closely resembled an army camp than a proper city, with every formal delegation and mercenary band forming their own camp adjacent to all the others. Dozens of individual camps dotted the landscape, just close enough to support each other if need be, but separated just enough to maintain their individual identities. The majority of these camps were from the various Pegasi States.

The largest camps were those set aside for the Empires and Heaven’s Eye. However, of the Empires, only the Ilian Empire and Sacred Golden Empire were sending delegations this year, and even then, the Ilian delegation was less than half of what Leon remembered it being five years ago.

That marred its appearance just a bit, making the Ilian delegation seem small even though they were larger than any individual Pegasi delegation.

The Sacred Golden Empire’s delegation, on the other hand, more than made up for it, for they were clearly moving in force. Six clusters of gigantic, clearly foreign trees had been grown in the center of the camp, each cluster made up of four trees with trunks as thick as the footprint of Leon’s entire villa. They stretched quite high into the sky, but that massive footprint still made them seem rather squat and short compared to the much slenderer and more graceful-looking trees that were native to the region.

Leon had only ever seen these massive trees once before: during the previous hunt, and he’d never been inside of them. However, he knew that the Sacred Golden Empire used their mastery of nature magic to grow them extraordinarily rapidly, and they served as residences for the delegation. Each tree was built with long, winding tunnels and luxurious rooms throughout its unnaturally thick trunk, while its upper branches were entangled with the branches of their neighbors in the cluster. These branches served as hallways, or even rooms unto themselves depending on their size, that connected each tree to the other, so residents of one tree could visit all the other trees in their cluster without actually leaving the tree. The largest cluster of palace trees had their branches so entwined with each other that they effectively made a roof over the area in between them, and resting upon that leafy canopy were three arks, each one larger than the one Leon was in by at least half. The largest of them was pure white with gold accents, and was so sleek and stylish that Leon couldn’t imagine it belonged to anyone but someone of Imperial rank—Princess Cassandra’s personal ark, he assumed. As far as he was aware, no one else of Imperial rank was participating in this hunt, so the daughter of the current Sacred Golden Empress had to be that ark’s owner.

The trees were dotted with windows, and their leaves glowed in all the colors of the rainbow in a manner reminiscent of the trees that helped to light the Ilian streets at night. From what he could sense, Leon knew that a huge amount of magic flowed through those trees, and they even served to collect much of the magic in the area to fuel those enchantments, functioning in a similar manner to the obelisk that once stood in the center of Leon’s home in the Forest of Black and White, and to the enchantments he’d placed upon his villa in both the Bull Kingdom and Occulara.

Next to these tree clusters, the Heaven’s Eye camp, for all its luxury, seemed rather mundane. There were a lot of modular, pre-fabricated homes similar to what Leon had in his soul realm, but marble and gold would always lose out in Leon’s eyes to bark and leaf, no matter how magical each was. Still, the Heaven’s Eye delegation was quite large, with personnel numbering at least five thousand. Not all of them were going to participate in the hunt—hells, not even a quarter were going to do so. Instead, Heaven’s Eye was going to support their own hunters and provide their usual logistical support to all the hunters venturing out to help contain the hungry wyverns.

Throughout its approach to Vyrias, the ark slowed almost imperceptibly. Its speed had dropped by more than a third before they needed to more noticeably brake, and even then, it was still quite smooth.

The ark came down vertically, landing in the center of the Heaven’s Eye delegation where space had been specifically cleared for the ark to do so. Waiting just next to the area were a number of Heaven’s Eye personnel of high rank, clearly meant to welcome Leon, Penelope, and all the rest to the temporary city.

Leon was used to this treatment, having endured it himself many times in the past ten years. He was quite tired of it and was more than happy to leave most of the glad-handing to Penelope as they disembarked from the ark. The ark would stick around, and when the hunt was over, would fly them home.

After the pleasantries were had with the local administrators of Vyrias, Leon and the others were then escorted toward where they were going to set up their own camps. Once they arrived, Leon found it to be quite the expansive plot of land given what everyone else had to work with in the relatively cramped city—more than enough for his fairly small modular house to be set up in any configuration he wanted.

He went with a standard design, with an atrium opening into a courtyard, surrounding which were his retainers’ rooms to the left, the common rooms to the right, and his family’s rooms in the back. He and his lovers would share one bathroom, while the rest of his retinue would have another. Anzu even had his own stable.

While he was busy getting each piece of the rooms out of his soul realm and fitted into place, he noticed a beautiful woman dressed in a sleeveless tunic that, from the distance he was observing from, seemed to be spun of gold, ride a winged horse up to Penelope’s retinue, who were busy setting up their own camp in an adjacent lot. The woman spoke with Penelope for a quick moment, and then waited. She seemed to be a messenger of someone important, and from what Leon could discern of her dress, she was from the Sacred Golden Empire.

Penelope was clearly elated by whatever the woman had told her, and after barking a few orders at her retinue, she took over a nearby horseless carriage and followed the messenger toward the Sacred Golden Empire’s campsite.

Leon paused in getting his retinue’s camp set up and shouted, “Talal!”

His assistant appeared at his shoulder a moment later, almost as if he were waiting for Leon to call.

“Boss?”

“Penelope just rode off with someone from the Sacred Golden Empire. Find out what she’s doing.”

“Will do,” Talal responded, and he took off to speak with the leaders of the rest of the Heaven’s Eye delegation. He didn’t return until after Leon had finished setting up their small villa, and the rest of the retinue was getting busy settling in.

Upon his return, Talal met with Leon and Elise in the dining room.

“The Sacred Golden Empire’s Princess leading their delegation sent a messenger to Heaven’s Eye,” Talal explained once they’d taken their seats. “This Princess invited Lady Penelope to a welcoming banquet.”

“Just Lady Penelope?” Elise inquired, sounding more than a little offended, her emerald eyes narrowing as her lips turned downward in a subtle frown.

“No, actually,” Talal said. “The written invitation was for all agents and managers of sufficient status. To my understanding, that should’ve included both of you, too.”

“No one came to tell us,” Elise murmured, her offense growing. Leon remained silent as he took her hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

“The messenger was escorted to Lady Penelope’s camp,” Talal continued. “I don’t know what was said between them, but Lady Penelope and the messenger both left for the Princess’ palace-tree.”

“Why?” Leon wondered aloud. “If the invitation was for us all, then wouldn’t it have been sufficient to just give it to Heaven’s Eye and have them relay it to us?”

Elise answered through a clenched jaw, “An invitation from a Princess isn’t one to entrust to just anyone. It’s better to pass it along in person. However, they should’ve informed us at the same time!”

Leon sighed. “Are we still expected at this banquet, or has it already passed?”

“It’ll be held later in the evening,” Talal explained reassuringly.

“Huh. So Penelope just took the opportunity to leave early with the messenger?”

“I can’t say what she was doing,” Talal replied.

Leon sighed again. All it took for him to know that this wasn’t something he could blow off was a single glance at Elise. From the look she wore, he could already guess that she was mentally putting together her outfit for the night.

“Thanks, Talal,” Leon said, and his assistant nodded respectfully. “Do you have a specific timetable?”

Talal nodded again. “The banquet begins at dusk.”

“So we’ll arrive a little later than that,” Elise said almost absent-mindedly, much of her offended wrath having dissipated knowing that they weren’t being entirely spurned. However, there were still a few fiery sparks within her, that Leon could easily see.

“A thing done easily,” Talal replied.

Leon, Elise, and Talal continued discussing their plans for the evening, including exactly what to wear, who to bring, how to arrive, and how long they’d stay. Once everything was settled, the three broke up to finish their business and get ready for the banquet to come.

---

The interior of the Princess’ palace-tree was splendid, looking almost indistinguishable from a proper palace, save for the fact that the interior was made of a golden brown wood that almost seemed to glow in the light of the magical lanterns spread throughout. The curving, rather organically-shaped walls had no figurative art, but were instead covered in dark brown root-like patterns that spiraled around and wove through each other, giving the walls a beautiful textured look.

There were no stairs within the tree, but Leon, Elise, Talal, Valeria, Maia, Helen, and Anna were borne aloft on magic lifts that ran up through channels in the palace-tree. Elise, Maia, and Valeria were dressed in their usual colors—a red and black form-fitting dress for Elise, a dark blue dress for Maia, and a long, light blue tunic with slightly darker blue trousers for Valeria. All three wore quite a few pieces of gold jewelry, including the emerald rings of invisibility, Valeria’s amulet of invisibility, the ring that Leon gave Elise to enhance her earth magic during their wedding ceremony, and the diamond amulet that Elise had given to Leon at the same time.

Helen and Anna, meanwhile, were dressed in gold dresses that exposed their arms and most of their legs, with stylish dark brown sandals with elevated heels—a style fairly consistent with natives of the Sacred Golden Empire, as far as Leon was aware.

In contrast to the ladies, Leon and Talal were practically beggars, dressed mostly in smoky gray and black.

The magic lift carried them all the way into the upper branches of the palace-tree, and when its doors opened, allowing them to spill out into the central audience chamber, it was almost as if they’d stepped out into a completely different world. The branches hadn’t just interwoven enough to have strong arkpads above but had woven together to create a huge chamber hidden amongst the rainbow leaves that had such support that it seemed almost as if they’d somehow stepped out onto the ground despite having risen many stories.

There was a wide stone pathway leading away from the lifts, flanked by floating golden lights and grassy soil that blocked the rainbow light of the leaves below. Branches of the palace-tree rose from the ‘ground’ like trees unto themselves, while the roof of the huge chamber sparkled with dull rainbow light. Most of the light within the chamber, however, came from a single huge seed-like thing that hung over the center of the chamber like a chandelier, shining bright golden light throughout the chamber as if the sun itself had descended to rest in the branches of the palace-tree.

The stone pathway led to a beautiful stone pavilion surrounded by a stream conjured by water magic. The stream not only surrounded the pavilion, but separated it from a tall, terraced platform, at the summit of which was a large throne of carved gray stone.

And sitting in that throne was the Imperial Princess, surveying the pavilion like a dispassionate god and radiating a strong aura of eighth-tier magic. Her blood-red eyes swept over toward Leon’s group as they arrived, lingering for a moment on each of them, but pausing longer when they reached Maia, and stopping entirely when they found Leon.

Leon stared back at her, his golden eyes meeting hers. For the first time, Leon made eye contact with Cassandra, Princess of the Sacred Golden Empire. Attached at her hip was a familiar weapon, too—Leon would recognize that eagle pommel anywhere, he’d forged it himself. The Princess was in possession of Sunlight.