The Storm King

The black wyvern was dead, the battle was over. The brown wyvern was dead, too, and the remaining two wyverns that had remained loyal to Black were allowed to flee. Cassandra had argued against that, but Red, Blue, and Gold didn’t stop the two from flying away once the black veil obscuring the canyon floor dissipated entirely. The two wyverns flew away, hopefully to never be seen again.

As for who got the credit for killing the black wyvern, Leon was content to let it remain uncounted and for the beast’s body parts to be split up amongst their three groups. He’d technically scored the final, killing blow, but Penelope had mortally wounded him, making Leon’s strike a mercy kill more than anything. In the end, though, with Cassandra’s insistent prodding to count Black as part of their wager, Leon and Penelope agreed to split up Black’s score between themselves evenly, reasoning that even if Penelope had struck the most important blow, Leon had done quite a bit of damage to the creature by that point, anyway.

This left Cassandra out in the cold a bit, but when she pointed that out, Leon and Penelope simply glanced at each other and shared a quiet, restrained smile. They knew what they were doing, and were giving the Princess a bit of punishment for her insistence.

But once that was done, their real work began, for killing Black was only part of the hunt, and now they had to loot his lair and process his and Brown’s bodies. For that, their retainers were collected from the cliff and brought down, with only a token force remaining above to watch over the Heaven’s Eye and Imperial arks.

During that time, Red, Blue, and Gold disappeared into the caves at the bottom of the gorge and didn’t tell anyone where they were going. However, Leon knew that they’d aided them for the sake of their eggs and wyvernlings, so he assumed that’s what they were seeing to.

So, for a couple hours, Leon and his retinue spent their time chopping apart Black’s body, Leon using his magic to keep the beast lifted into the air while everyone else went to work on him. He was fascinated to watch the Heaven’s Eye workers do their thing, many using weapons of light similar to the weapons that he’d seen used in the Ilian exhibition at his first meeting with Anastasios, with blades of light that cut beautifully through the dead wyvern’s corpse.

Leon joined in on some of the tougher parts, as well, using his enchanted black and red onyx’s scalpel of fire to make short work of the wyvern carcass.

As their work was nearing its end, Red returned, sans Blue and Gold. She drew some panic upon her reappearance since she came in wyvern form, but Leon, seeing that she had come without killing intent and was making no overtly hostile moves, waved them all aside and welcomed Red back.

[It’s good to see you!] he said with his mental communication technique, his tone as merry as he could make it with his inexperience using darkness magic.

Red slunk closer to him, her amber eyes warily watching the Imperial guards that were, in turn, warily watching her, their weapons close at hand and their auras flickering.

[I thought I’d return to give you an answer,] she replied mentally. Leon felt himself going slightly dizzy for just a moment as she did, her communication technique not quite the same as his.

When he parsed what she was saying, he eagerly waited for her answer. He’d offered to make her a retainer, and he was hoping she’d agree.

[I’ve decided,] Red continued, pausing for just a moment as Cassandra approached, [… to accept. For now.]

A smile broke out across Leon’s face, one that had Cassandra asking, “What are you two conspiring about that has you looking so happy, Leon?”

Leon glanced at her and replied, “Red’s something of a comedian. She was just talking about that sword of yours, is all, and it was hilarious.”

Cassandra’s sly smile immediately turned into a deep frown. “Keep making jokes about my Sunlight and you’ll learn what it can do first-hand,” she declared.

Leon just smiled, and Red’s slightly confused response echoed in his mind. [I made no jokes…]

[I know that, but it upset her to hear it. Anyway, we should get the details worked out, shouldn’t we?]

[I suppose we should.]

Leon and Red took about ten minutes to hash everything out, during which time Cassandra, frustrated that they were practically ignoring her to focus on their own conversation, loudly announced that she and her retainers were going to explore the caves a bit and locate Black’s hoard. Leon was tempted to drop everything to join them, but the addition of a new retainer was greater than his desire to plunder a wyvern’s hoard.

Barely.

In the end, Leon and Red came to an agreement. Red still had an egg to care for, and the wyvernling was going to hatch in about a week. She was going to take about a year to keep an eye on her young, but when the time came for other elder wyverns to hibernate and let the young wyverns establish themselves, she would leave the aeries and find Leon, to formally join his retinue. Leon was a little put-out that they’d have to wait a year, but he completely understood her need to look after her young, even if she treated it a little more lackadaisically, reminding Leon that wyverns didn’t form familial bonds as humans did.

Regardless, Leon accepted the year-long wait, and he gave Red, who was largely unfamiliar with human civilization, extremely specific instructions for how to find his villa in Occulara, and with Talal’s aid, even wrote up a pass for her to show to any member of Heaven’s Eye, instructing them with Leon’s authority to assist her in reaching his home.

And with that, Red departed the gorge, spreading her wings and flying right out without a look backwards.

“Was that wise?” Valeria asked Leon as he rejoined his retinue a moment later. “I don’t just mean letting her go, but all of the other wyverns. Five powerful seventh-tier wyverns, and we just…”

“It’s fine,” Leon replied. “These hunts are about culling their population and protecting the Pegasi States, not about wiping them out completely. So let’s revel in the felling of that black wyvern and end the violence here.”

“If you say so…” Leon could tell by her tone that Valeria was unconvinced by his reasoning, but he knew the perfect distraction.

“By the way,” he said to his retinue as a whole, “Princess Cassandra has already taken to looking for the wyvern hoard here. How about we go join her?”

Alcander, always boisterous and amped to take action, was the first to reply. “By my Ancestors’ wrinkled anuses, yes!”

His overly crude sentiment, if not his overabundance of enthusiasm, was shared by the rest of Leon’s retinue, and they marched on into the caves. After about five minutes, they caught up to Cassandra and her Imperial followers. The Princess and her entourage had occupied the largest cavern that Leon could find with his magic senses, and one that had him almost floored with the display of wealth that was within: huge piles of gold were scattered rather haphazardly around the room, mostly bullion and jewelry, but a few small idols, sculptures, and other artistic pieces made of the shiny metal. There were several mountainous piles of silver coins, along with a great many vessels made of jewels and precious crystals that held even more treasure.

Leon honestly hadn’t been expecting such a large hoard, especially since the black wyvern apparently hadn’t been well known enough for Leon to have heard of him before. And yet, the sheer size of this hoard indicated that he’d been incredibly active in pillaging from mankind.

Leon and his retinue stopped at the entrance of the cavern, utterly stupefied for several seconds.

“I’d tell you to pick your jaws off the floor,” Cassandra called out from where she was sitting in a majestic golden chair, padded with red velvet, “but my people and I had similar reactions upon reaching this place.”

Leon blinked a moment and glanced at the Princess. She was sitting rather close to the entrance, a pair of sixth-tier mages on either side of her, each displaying several pieces of jewelry. The Princess wasn’t even looking at Leon’s retinue when she’d spoken, her eyes were instead trained on the rings, necklaces, and tiaras that her sixth-tier guards were showing her. Her armor had largely been pulled back into her soul realm, but all of that beautiful white armor had been replaced with a long cloak woven of cloth-of-gold, embroidered with red geometric patterns, and trimmed with gorgeous white fur.

However, even with that heavy sparkling cloak draped over herself, Leon could see that she was trying on the various pieces of jewelry that she’d found so far, with all of her fingers glimmering with gold and gemstones, large earrings that glittered as they dangled from her ear lobes, and three different necklaces resting against her chest, one studded with blue diamonds, the seconds with emeralds, and the third with large rubies.

“I’m so glad you refrained from saying it, then,” Leon sarcastically retorted. “Would’ve been incredibly embarrassing if you were unable to hold yourself back.”

“I know,” Cassandra replied sarcastically. “I’m a paragon of humility and restraint.” As she spoke, she reached out and took one of the tiaras that her guards were showing her. It was a beautiful, if quite delicate piece. Even from several dozen feet away, Leon was in awe of its craftsmanship.

It had a single crescent of gold that would rest upon the wearer’s brow, with much finer golden strands rising from that band, forming complex floral patterns. The centers of each of these flower patterns were highlighted with diamonds of varying colors, with the largest and most eye-catching stone being the one in the center: a blood-red diamond about half the size of Leon’s fist.

The tiara wasn’t enchanted, as far as he could tell, which only made its extravagance even more alarming, given that it was solely a fashion piece and had no practical use.

“Those are beautiful pieces,” Elise remarked as she strode over, stopping a respectful distance away from the Princess, but more than close enough to admire the jewelry that the Princess was examining.

Cassandra smiled with pride as she placed the tiara on her head, adding yet another piece of jewelry to her ensemble. “I was thinking of taking all of these pieces as my prizes for the battle,” she stated, her eyes flickering from Elise to Leon. “Most of the treasure in here is marked and should be returned to those it was stolen from, but there’s still plenty even with that for you and Lady Penelope.”

Leon brought a hand up to his chest in faux-relief. “Oh, thank the Ancestors! I was just waiting for your permission!”

Cassandra glared at him, a dangerous smile on her lips. “Be careful how you speak to Royalty, Leon Raime…”

“Perhaps Royalty ought to be more conscious of how it presents itself in public?” Leon innocently replied. “It would be the height of embarrassment to be known as someone who takes the spoils from others, or as one who doesn’t return stolen property…”

“Is that a threat?” Cassandra’s glare sharpened, and her aura began to spike.

“Of course not,” Leon replied as Elise took a few alarmed steps back from Cassandra. “I just think it’s a bit tacky for a Princess in your position to be pillaging all of this loot so shamelessly, is all. Personally, I didn’t think you’d be quite so into all of this gold.”

“There’s nothing wrong with gold,” Cassandra said as she leaned back in her golden chair. “It’s pretty. I like it.”

“Be that as it may,” said Penelope’s voice from behind Leon, “perhaps we ought to take complete stock of what’s here before we start carving out what we think we’re all owed?”

Leon glanced over his shoulder, surprised to hear Penelope taking his side as she walked into the cavern, half a dozen of her retainers at her back and a dozen more members of Heaven’s Eye following them.

Cassandra appeared to take a moment to think, pursing her lips as she slouched in her chair. Then she sighed, sprang to her feet, and threw off the golden cloak and began to take off all of the jewelry that she’d put on. “I suppose that’s only fair,” she said, her tone light and nonchalant, as if she’d just been joking this whole time.

“I’m glad we could come to an arrangement,” Penelope said with the welcoming smile of someone who’d been in Heaven’s Eye all her life. “Lady Elise, if you would?”

Elise smiled in response as she walked toward Penelope and the Heaven’s Eye workers behind her. “I’d be happy to. Talal! With me!”

Talal gave Leon a look, and when Leon subtly nodded, the Samarid sprang into action to follow Elise.

Over the next hour, Elise took complete control over the looting and categorization of the black wyvern’s hoard. Cassandra, Penelope, and Maia largely sat around not participating too much, simply watching the workers doing their thing, but Leon took a somewhat more hands-on approach to supervision, directing his retinue to help out where they could.

In that respect, Anshu wound up being one of the most helpful members of his retinue, as he learned after only five minutes.

Anshu had stood up, a look of bewilderment on his face with a large silver jug in his hand.

“What’s that you’ve got there?” Leon asked as he joined the Indradian.

“Nothing much,” Anshu replied, turning the jug so that Leon could see the artistic patterns of scrolling foliage and roaring beasts rendered in silver raised off the surface of the jug. “Well, it’s nothing much by itself. Kind of an ordinary thing back home. What’s interesting is this…”

Anshu indicated a large symbol emblazoned on the size of the jug, a floral pattern that Leon found somewhat familiar, flanked by a pair of silver elephants that appeared to be holding it aloft.

“This emblem is of the Prince of Paramara,” he explained. “The Prince ruling a large part of the eastern Raj on the other side of these mountains.”

“A Prince, huh?” Leon said.

“That doesn’t mean what I think you think it means,” Anshu replied. “We call the heads of the most powerful families in the Raj, ‘Princes’. They’re not the Rajah’s children.”

“I see. What about this Prince of Paramara, then? Is it surprising to see something marked with his symbol here?”

“Yes. I’m quite well-acquainted with Prince Siyaka, I can’t imagine that he’d let raids on his holdings go unpunished… though I suppose against an eighth-tier wyvern…”

“It’s just one bit of silver,” Leon replied. “Let’s get it catalogued and see what we have by the end. We can save the wonderings for after we know what and how much we have.”

Anshu got a distant look in his eye as he set the jug aside. “Right,” he said, his tone distracted. “Right.”

The Indradian went back to helping out, easily able to identify the various markings and seals on much of the treasure that was found. Unfortunately, nearly all of the gold bullion had the markings of various Houses in the eastern regions of the Indra Raj, so none of that was up for grabs—Heaven’s Eye would see to returning all of that gold to its various owners.

The jewelry and other such pieces, however, were rarely given such identifying marks, so much of that was up for grabs.

But typical treasure wasn’t the only thing that was in the hoard.

“Hey Leon!” Alix called out as the cataloguing was nearing its end, nearly all of the treasure now accounted for.

“What is it?” Leon called back, and his former squire bounced toward him holding a box of some of kind of dark, polished wood in her hands about large enough to hold a fairly large piece of jewelry or something similar within. Leon only had to take one look at the thing to know that it was quite well-enchanted with some of the most robust locking enchantments he’d ever seen. Other than a few runes carved into the box’s outer surface, though, the polished wood was devoid of any kind of marking or decoration.

“No idea,” Alix replied as she set the box down on a nearby table. “I was thinkin’ you’d want to look at it. Figured that if anyone can get it open, then it’d be you.”

“Your confidence is flattering.” Leon approached the box, training his magic senses upon it, looking at it from every possible angle, analyzing what he could about the enchantment. Unfortunately, most of the enchantment was likely carved upon the box’s inner surface, and his magic senses couldn’t penetrate the box to see within, so all he had to go on were the outer runes.

And they weren’t that promising. Still, he’d opened boxes locked with magic before, and he couldn’t sense much active magic within the box, so he was confident he could get this one open.

That confidence was tested when, fifteen minutes later, he was still inspecting the box and probing the box’s wards with various kinds of magic. No matter what he did, the box’s golden latch just wouldn’t budge. He almost resorted to asking Nestor for some advice before he decided to just try the brute force approach.

He conjured his black and red onyx and used his armor’s fire scalpel to liquify the latch. He sensed some kind of failsafe within the box attempt to activate, but as soon as the latch was gone, lightning was surging through Leon’s body and he almost ripped the lid right off.

Not the most elegant of solutions, he had to admit, but it disrupted the box’s internal enchantments, leaving its contents intact.

The interior of the box was lined with black silk and nestled within was a pouch of black velvet. Leon gingerly picked up the pouch and pulled open its drawstring, shaking its contents out into his hand.

Three tiny golden seeds fell out of the pouch. They were each only about the size of an apple seed, and even though they weren’t emitting that much magic power, Leon could tell that they were all incredibly powerful.

He just couldn’t tell what, exactly, they were supposed to be, or what use they might have.

He opened his mouth, about to call for Helen, but he restrained himself. It didn’t seem like his opening of the box had drawn much attention, and just in case, he decided to be a bit more low-key about this, so he used his mental communication technique to call for his retainer, instead.

[Helen, come here for a moment, I need your expertise…]

Helen glanced over at him, a questioning look on her face, and when Leon jerked his head toward the table, she walked on over.

“What’s up?” she quietly asked.

“What are these?” Leon whispered, showing her the seeds.

As soon as Helen saw the seeds, her eyes went wide as dinner plates. “Put… P-Put those away right now!” she urged him, her voice tinged with panic, surprise, and greed.

Leon, though confused, did as he was bid, tossing the seeds back into their pouch and tightening the drawstring. He then stole another glance at everyone else and was relieved to see them all still absorbed in the rest of the hoard to have paid the two of them much mind.

When his attention returned to Helen, he found his retainer staring at him with the biggest smile on her face that he’d ever seen.

“Maybe we keep these under wraps for the moment?” she suggested. “But if we have to choose anything to take from here, make sure we walk away with these seeds.” She punctuated her evaluation with a wink, and Leon smirked and nodded in understanding.

“I’ll trust your judgment on that,” he said, putting the pouch back into the box and closing it as best as he could now that it was broken.

It seemed that some of his cut of the hoard had already been chosen, and he couldn’t wait to find out just what use these seeds could possibly have.