Leon’s Mind Palace was coming along quite well, with much its skeleton already in place.  The Thunderbird had asked him a question before that had sent a tiny sliver of doubt worming into his mind about what he was doing, but overall, he still thought he was on the right track.

And so, after getting home from speaking with Trajan, Leon put the finishing touches on the first of many halls that would soon surround the mountain in his soul realm.

“Not bad, it’s actually looking pretty good so far,” Xaphan observed as he looked down at the hall Leon had constructed.  It was made almost entirely out of gleaming white marble, capped with three ruby-red domes, and had three terraces built into its outer wall held up by thick intricately carved columns.

The hall within was even more ornate, gilded in many places and with stylized mosaics of Thunderbirds, mountains, and storm clouds.  The Thunderbirds had topazes for eyes, the rain falling from the storm clouds were tiny sapphires, and in the center of the floor was a ruby mosaic with the sigil that Leon had found in the records of Artorias and Serana’s villa.

There were long galleries on either side of the hall four levels high, each opening into the great hall on the inner side with balconies, while the outer side had dozens of rooms per floor—much like the ‘arms’ of the cross-shaped Cradle.  Leon wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to fill those rooms with, though, so for now, they were empty.  He hadn’t a need for offices and guest rooms, so for now, at least, the rooms would serve as storage for items that he didn’t feel like storing in his vault closer to the lantern throne room at the top of the mountain.

Not that he really had so much stuff that all that space was needed, of course, but space was there just in case.

“I’m glad to have your approval,” Leon replied to the demon with far less sarcasm than he’d intended.

“How many more halls like this are you intending to build?” Xaphan asked.

“Perhaps five or six more, enough to circle the mountain that far down,” Leon answered.  That would still leave a significant gap of space between their upper floors and the lantern, though, which Leon was planning to fill with his own ‘living quarters’.  No palace was complete without a proper residence for its owner, and just for the hell of it, Leon figured he might even add additional living spaces, just to complete the palatial feel of the place.

But that was only half of the palace.  Leon still had an entire underground section built in the trapezoidal style of the Thunderbird Clan to get started on, and he was looking forward to that much more than the more conventional white marble and red ceramics of the Bull Kingdom.

He settled into a sitting position on Xaphan’s platform to survey his soul realm, quietly envisioning where exactly everything would go, thinking about what kind of decorations might be appropriate, and other such concerns.

“I… don’t suppose I might get something a bit more… suitable than this bare platform?” Xaphan hesitantly asked, waving a burning hand around at the simple stone platform Leon had carved from the mountain for him.

“Oh?  I wasn’t aware that you wanted even more,” Leon said with an arched eyebrow.  He hopped back to his feet and, before Xaphan could respond, said, “I’ll tell you what, demon, teach me the method you used for mental communication and you’ll have a deal.”

“Still haven’t asked that water girl about it, huh?” Xaphan grumbled.

“She gives me enough, I won’t ask for more,” Leon said, smiling at his demonic partner.  “In fact, I’d say she’s provided me with a lot more of late than you have.”

“I’ve given you plenty!” Xaphan indignantly replied, though if Leon could see through the orange flames covering his obsidian body, he would’ve seen Xaphan’s sharp features twisted into an almost comical grin.

“Sass is not enough, I need knowledge and power,” Leon said.  “You haven’t managed to increase your power since I brought you those gems more than a year ago, and neither have you taught me much other than a few disparate enchantments and spells.  Teach me that communication technique, and I will find a place for you with… reasonable accommodations.”

“Very well…” Xaphan replied.  His attitude was so lax, so completely informal that Leon was having trouble of late reminding himself that Xaphan was a self-proclaimed ‘Lord of Flame’.

‘Hardly matters what his attitude is like, though, so long as he delivers on his promises,’ Leon thought to himself.  In fact, he much preferred this kind of Xaphan to the much more prideful and boastful demon that he had been not long after being sprung from that prison in the mountains.  Leon wasn’t sure how long he could’ve tolerated a dry, boring, wizened old sage of a partner.  The casual, somewhat lecherous, teasing Xaphan was far more to his liking, despite Leon’s own penchant for stoicism.

Unfortunately, the Thunderbird chose this moment to fly out of the Mists of Chaos for Leon’s daily training, so he and Xaphan were forced to postpone their lessons until the next day.  The rest of the time Leon allotted to himself for training was devoted to practicing with lightning magic—for all that he wanted to learn how to fly, keeping his combat skills sharp was far more important.

When Leon emerged from his soul realm, his body a bit sweaty from the exertions of training despite only performing them in his soul realm, he felt as energetic as ever.  It was like he hadn’t just spent a couple of hours depleting his reserves of magic power with the Thunderbird, for he had something far more interesting to capture his attention.

Leon swiftly made his way out of the villa.  He had only a few more hours left before Elise would come home, so that was how long he had to devote to his work with enchantments.  A large building built of the typical white stone seen in noble estates had been constructed in the backyard, within which were all of the tools and supplies that Leon needed for his enchanting work, all sealing behind a series of very sophisticated magical locks.

The workshop itself had been divided into two halves.  The northern half was Leon’s research area, with a large drawing board, mountains of cheap spell paper, various pens, styluses, and other tools useful for the precise, intricate drawing required of enchanters, and enough ink to fill a pond.  The southern half was more akin to an armory than an enchanter’s workshop, with racks of every kind of armor that Leon was interested in, as well as weapons, arrows, and rudimentary accessories, all of it—save for the arrows—made from the cheapest materials that could hold an enchantment of reasonable power, all of it there for Leon to practice inscribing the enchantments he created onto for rigorous testing.

In the center of the workshop was a long table usually covered in the work that had captured Leon’s attention most recently—in this case, the wind enchantments and their corresponding pieces of test armor that he hoped would allow for independent flight.  Specifically, they were relatively powerful wind enchantments designed to be placed upon boots to get him off the ground and provide propulsion, along with a number of stabilizing enchantments scattered over the rest of his test armor so that he could keep his balance while the enchantments on the boots did most of the work keeping him aloft.  He also kept in mind the need for brakes, but for the time being, he was concerned with simply getting off the ground and keeping his balance rather than going so fast that brakes were needed.

Near the table were a few shelves with some examples of what Leon had accomplished so far in the past few months, including several more wind blade bracelets just like what he’d shown Trajan a few hours before, a shortsword that could burst into flame for about five minutes, a portable lightning rod that could fire off a single bolt of golden lightning with roughly fifth-tier strength, and an amulet that could provide some small defense against fire-based attacks.  None of these items were particularly practical, but they were only proof of concept models, and Leon had every intention of refining their design to become much more powerful, cost-effective, and magically efficient.

But that was for the future, right now Leon’s focus was flight, and then probably some looking into light magic for passive healing.  Leon had been injured enough times to greatly desire something that could increase his natural abilities to heal—as a sixth-tier mage, he could probably heal a broken arm in a matter of days if not quicker, but even that stellar speed of healing wasn’t enough to be useful in combat where life and death could be decided in seconds.  But still, flight was too great an attraction for Leon to pass up, and he already had the Thunderbird teaching him wind magic, sooo…

Notably missing from both Leon’s workshop and his soul realm vault were the two invisibility rings he’d looted from Tiberias’ guards.  He knew that to Heaven’s Eye, they probably weren’t all that special, but they didn’t seem that common in his experience.  As a result, he’d given both Elise and Naiad a ring, despite neither specifically needing one.

They had both happily accepted, though Naiad’s joy was more subdued than Elise’s, who practically jumped into Leon’s arms and attached herself to him at the lips for a considerable amount of time afterward.  The three spent a passionate night together, and afterward, all three wore their emerald rings of invisibility proudly, despite the minor risk that such a thing might get back to Duke Euphemius Decimius, Tiberias’ father.

Leon pushed all that out of his mind for now.  His priority was flight, and he felt like he was extremely close to achieving it, not that he’d tell anyone.  He had to save a bit of face just in case he failed.

For an hour, Leon looked over the enchantments he’d made, confirming everything and making sure every rune was inscribed perfectly upon the equipment he’d chosen.  Then, satisfied that he’d done all he could, he began to get dressed.

First and most importantly was the leather vest.  This part of the armor set had the most stabilization enchantments out of all the pieces he’d chosen for this test, and it would be critical for maintaining balance.  He’d already tried to fly with little more than a few propulsion enchantments on his boots and he’d almost broken his neck.  Test dummies were suggested by Elise, but they couldn’t control the enchantments like Leon could, and he wasn’t going to test on anyone else but himself, so onto his body went the untested armor.

Next came leather gloves and bracers which would be his primary means of steering once airborne.  Then came his helmet, which had no real enchantments but he wisely donned anyway, just in case.  The propulsion boots came last, a pair of leather boots with soles as thick as his thumb was long.

He had no gems attached to these pieces of armor, so he’d have to power all of the enchantments with his own magic power.  No need to waste perfectly good gems when his own magic would suffice, or so he thought.  Besides, he’d have better control this way, and the gems could be saved for other, more proven enchantments.

Leon took a deep breath, then walked outside.  The incredibly spacious backyard was still devoid of any real landscaping, as most of the work that had been done had been concentrated in the front yard where Elise’s herb garden was flourishing.  There was even a pond and plenty of space for Anzu to run around and play in, even with as large as he’d gotten.

This also meant that Leon was essentially alone, though he was sure that Naiad could probably see him.  He put that out of his mind—as he’d done several times by now—and slowly began to activate the wind enchantments one-by-one.

First came the enchantments on his vest, and he slowly began to feel like a mortal would in a stiff breeze; not quite like he was in danger of being pushed over, but there was a noticeable push on all sides of his upper body.  Then, he activated his gloves, but there wasn’t enough wind being generated by the gloves for them to be in anything more than standby mode.  The boots came last, and Leon tried to bring them up as slowly as possible.

He’d gotten this far only twice before, and the first time he’d tried to activate his boots too quickly, sending him flying about forty feet into the air.  He’d managed to land his on feet at that time, but the second time he wasn’t so lucky.  He tried going a bit slower then, but he’d still lost his balance due to wearing nothing more than boots and gloves, and he’d practically plowed a ditch worthy of an experienced farmer into his backyard after his boots sent him ass-over-head and pushed his face through the dirt.  When he rose, he saw that the ditch his face had made was an impressive seventy feet long.

That wouldn’t happen this time, he was sure of it.  Keeping a tight control over the amount of magic power he supplied the enchantments in his boots, Leon slowly began to feel himself rising up off the ground, and it took every fiber of his being to use his hands to keep himself righted, and not to flail his legs as his sense of balance started to freak out.

He increased the power just a bit, and his feet fully left the grass.  Leon rose up about four feet from the ground, then tried to hold himself there.  It seemed similar to a wheelless cart, but the enchantments Leon had were completely different.  Wheelless vehicles generated pockets of air strong enough for the vehicle to almost weightlessly sit upon.  Leon was just using the propulsion from his boots to stay aloft, rather than a dense air pocket.

There were a few heart-stopping close calls, but Leon managed to keep his balance for five minutes, hovering there four feet off the ground.  His heart beat like it was about to explode, blood roared in his ears, and the widest, stupidest grin made an appearance on his face.  He was leisurely spinning in place, indicating an imbalance somewhere in his vest stabilizers, but that was but a small note in this obvious step forward.

Leon felt ready to take another step, and after getting as comfortable as he could with his current circumstances, he began to lean forward…

… and his boots promptly slipped out from under him, sending him hurtling toward the ground.  He barely managed to get his hands below him to avoid another face-full of dirt and a second ditch in his yard, but he was still sent forward dozens of feet before he managed to right himself and hover once again.

Leon set himself back down to the ground, letting his heart calm itself a bit.  He was close, that much was clear; he just needed to tweak the enchantments a bit, work on his balance, and he figured he’d be right as rain.

When Leon went back inside, he just so happened to coincide with Elise’s return and Naiad’s subsequent emergence from his guest room.

[You did it,] Naiad said before anyone else could offer any greetings.

“You did?!” Elise asked as she excitedly kicked off her shoes and ran over to Leon.

Leon’s face was still split open by his childish grin, but he shook his head and said, “There’s still some work to do, but I had a very promising test today.”

Elise glanced out of a nearby window and said, “You didn’t plow our land again, so it must have been a good test indeed!”

[I saw it, it looked like fun,] Naiad said as she sat down on the couch.

“You have to help us fly when you get it figured out!” Elise said with almost as much excitement as Leon felt, and Naiad nodded her agreement.

“I will,” Leon said, his smile growing wider.

“Just be careful, got it?” Elise said, suddenly turning serious.  “I don’t want to come home and find out you’ve splattered yourself all over the roof!”

“Don’t worry, I want to fly more than just about anything, but I am careful,” Leon said.

“More than anything, huh?” Elise said with interest, sending a quick look Naiad’s way, which the river nymph shared.

Before either could run with that line of thinking, Leon quickly clarified with, “Certainly not more than either of you, I did say just about anything.”

“Is this a Thunderbird thing?” Elise asked as she took a seat on the other side of the sofa from Naiad.

Leon got the message and sat down between his two ladies.  “I think so,” he said with some trepidation.  He’d told Naiad everything about the Thunderbird by now, so he wasn’t concerned about saying too much in front of her, but he still hesitated because it still felt too much like bragging about what he had through the accident of his birth.  “It’s just that, even if I can jump a hundred feet in the air, even if I throw lightning bolts and conjure fire, the simple fact that I’m essentially locked to the ground is something that I find frustrating to no end.  Flight is just… Well, I can’t really describe the allure it has for me.  I want to fly, and I’m not going to stop until I figure out a way for me to do so.  Fortunately, I have the Thunderbird in my corner teaching me more about wind magic than I think anyone else possibly can.”

Elise nodded in understanding.  She knew from Leon talking about the Thunderbird that his ancestor wasn’t specifically teaching him about enchantments, but she was still teaching him a great deal about wind, water, and lightning, and that understanding had some application in understanding their corresponding enchantments.  Whatever the Thunderbird was teaching Leon wasn’t enough for him to figure out how to fly under his own power, but it was more than enough for Leon to start trying puzzling out other means to do so, a task which nearly all other enchanters had failed in accomplishing.

“There are some problems I foresee, though,” Leon said.  “If I get the current configuration to work, I won’t be able to apply it to my regular armor.  It simply takes up too much space.  Even if the Magmic Steel could take the wind enchantments—which it can’t—there wouldn’t be nearly enough room left on the armor for other enchantments of significant size or scale.  So, I think I’ll be restricted to my boring, stuck-to-the-ground armor for certain circumstances, and some kind of ‘flight suit’ for others.”

“I’ll look into finding something more suitable for wind enchantments tomorrow, I can’t have you wearing a flight suit made of nothing but a few pieces of leather,” Elise said with a smile.

Leon nodded in agreement.  Layered cloth often made for better armor than leather, and it was cheaper, too, but plain leather stood up to wind enchantments slightly better than cloth, which was why he was using it for his prototypes.  Most of the rest of the cheap test armor in his workshop was made of cloth and low-quality iron and steel, though.

“Don’t jump the bow too quickly, though,” he cautioned.  “I’m still making refinements, and I have some hope to find another solution to this problem before needing to shell out thousands for expensive materials…”

[I, personally, don’t care about that,] Naiad declared.  [Fashion doesn’t concern me, and the people in this Kingdom who can harm me are few and far between.  If it’s just a few pieces of leather, then I don’t mind, but I can’t help but be fascinated by the concept of flying…  It’s just so far from my usual domain, I can’t wait to experience it!]

Leon smiled at her, took her hand, and simply said, “You will.  Soon.”

A hint of a blush came to Naiad’s cheeks as she made eye contact with Leon.  She was still trying to puzzle out her feelings about where she and Leon might stand, and the longer she waited, the more flustered she got whenever she and Leon got close to each other.

It was a slightly intoxicating feeling, and it was one that both terrified and excited her.  She didn’t want to go anywhere, at least not anytime soon.

“That’s that, then!” Elise loudly said, drawing both Leon and Naiad’s attention.  “I think the chef is about done with dinner!”

There wasn’t much more to be said about flight.  Leon could’ve gone much deeper into the mechanics that were making it work, but neither Elise nor Naiad had the enchanting expertise to really understand what he would be talking about.  Of course, Elise had some skill in enchanting, but that was mostly limited to her nature magic helping her to grow her medicinal herbs, and Naiad had next to no experience in enchanting at all.

Leon was fine with this, though.  He was excited enough without boring his ladies to death with technical explanations.  He’d let the experience of flying explain itself once he managed to get it working properly and, more importantly, safely.

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