Leon waited with bated breath, his eyes unwaveringly locked on Nestor.  He saw every tiny movement of the older man’s magic body, and at the first sign of his return to Leon’s soul realm, Leon would spring into action.  He’d done everything else he could do until then, so now he had to wait.

Above him on her perch was the Thunderbird, watching Nestor as well, but also occasionally sparing a disdainful glance for Xaphan.  She and Leon had spent the past few hours going over his plan and making sure he had everything ready, but he’d insisted on reviving Xaphan.  The demon now stood not too far away, the fires on his body now reignited and raging in a visual sign of his rage.

When Nestor returned to Leon’s soul realm, he’d have quite the reception waiting for him.  Even worse for the ancient man, though, were all the runes carved into the ground around Leon, as well as the complete lack of runes hovering in the air around him.

None of them had to wait for long.  It took less than half an hour after Leon made his first move in reviving Xaphan for Nestor to open his eyes and ‘disconnect’ from his throne.  As soon as he did, Leon sprang into action, not bothering with talk or threats.  He wasn’t about to give Nestor a single opening.

Leon activated the first rune on the ground, and Nestor was pulled off the throne with enough force to slam him into the dirt in front of the marble platform face-first almost hard enough to bury him up to his shoulders.  The older man shouted in surprise and then again in pain as he was magically man-handled.  He raised a hand and began drawing in the air, but Leon simply activated another of the runes on the ground in front of him and the lines Nestor had drawn were erased, dissolving into tiny motes of light that then vanished.

Nestor’s eyes widened in fear as he pushed himself off the ground just enough to look up at Leon, who stared back at him with nothing but hate in his eyes.  Without hesitation, Leon activated the third and final rune, pouring every scrap of power he had in his soul realm into it.  Nestor’s body subsequently locked up just as Leon’s had hours before.  His limbs lost all strength and he limply fell back into the dirt, unable to move so much as a finger.

The only part of his body that remained under his control was his mouth, and for that, Leon almost immediately began to regret as Nestor began to shout incoherently, his words muffled and distorted with his face pressed down into the ground.

Leon was in no hurry to pick the man up, while Xaphan began to laugh at Nestor’s current state.  The demon had argued quite vociferously for killing the man, but Leon had acquiesced to the Thunderbird’s request to leave Nestor alive for just a little bit longer, so even though it was quite gratifying to see, Xaphan still wasn’t too happy.

Leon hurried over to his throne, slowing down just enough to deliberately step on Nestor’s back just before he ascended the few stairs to his throne’s platform.  There were few things Leon wanted to do more than sit down upon his throne and go and figure out what was going on outside, but for the moment, he only inspected his physical state with Nestor immobilized.

He was a little worried to see that his physical body and his connection with Maia were still not quite in control, but he quickly fixed those issues by simply resting his hand upon his throne and using the magic in his soul realm as a sort of binding material.

Leon breathed in contented relief as he felt the presence of Maia’s power once more in his soul realm, flowing into and then out of it like a river, carrying with it hints of cooling rage, anxiety, and a strange sense of trust that confused Leon a bit.  He tried to communicate with her, but it seemed that the connection wasn’t fully healed, yet.

But as much as he wanted to go to her and to see that she and Valeria were all right, now that he had reasserted his control over his soul realm, Leon turned his attention back to his distant kinsman.  It was time to deal with him permanently.

As he walked back over to the fallen Nestor, Leon pulled a blood-red ruby out of his pocket, one of the gems he’d retrieved from his family’s vault.  Upon it had been carved a fourth rune, which, unlike the previous three, had not been specifically taught less than an hour ago to Leon by the Thunderbird—instead, it had been inscribed with the most familiar of the ancient runes to Leon: ‘prison’.  The success of the previous runes had given Leon some confidence, but this was the moment of truth for his skills, the moment which would signify his success in this contest.

Leon stopped over his fallen kinsman, who still struggled to make himself heard.  Leon thought he heard the words, ‘stop!’ and ‘wait!’ but he paid them no mind.  Nestor hadn’t stopped, and neither would he.

“Don’t worry,” he said as he aimed the ruby at Nestor’s back, “this won’t kill you.  But if I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t consider this to be all that different from death.”

The ruby began to glow as Leon’s magic power whirled around him like a cyclone.  All of the power in his soul realm that he could command was channeled into the ruby, and it began to glow like a bright red star.

“You know,” Leon said as the ruby gathered his power, “even after erasing your ‘collection’ rune and reclaiming the power you stole from me, I was a bit worried that I still hadn’t enough to make this work, but the power you so graciously pumped into my soul realm just now ought to more than ensure my success…”

Leon spoke no more, instead choosing to picture exactly what he wanted the rune to do in his mind, and ignoring Nestor’s continued muffled protestations.  Through his magic that was powering the rune, he let his will direct it, bestow upon it both its functions and its limitations.  Nestor would be imprisoned within it, but Leon didn’t want the man thrown into an endless void never to be heard from again.

No, he wanted Nestor on a very short leash—or, at least, he had been convinced to leave Nestor on a short leash rather than broken and dead.  Leon had to be careful that his true desires didn’t overpower his actual intent, and he devoted every spare shard of brainpower that he could to concentrating on Nestor’s imprisonment, on impressing that purpose upon the rune, willing the universe to then change accordingly.

The light of the ruby grew brighter and brighter until Leon felt like he was actually holding a star.  But he kept going, suppressing any doubts that crept into his mind that might poison his rune and give Nestor more room to maneuver than he was to be allowed.

This searing red light reached down to envelop the older man, who seemed to be shaking—Leon hoped in fear—in response.  Leon pushed, and, with an ear-piercing crack of thunder, Nestor vanished from view and the light emanating from the ruby immediately cooled to a duller, though still quite vibrant, glow.

Leon stared at the ruby, having just enough time to shake his head in discomfort from being so close to that sound and to wonder if everything worked out as he’d intended.  He had a worryingly small reserve of magic left over, and he knew that if this didn’t work, then he’d have little recourse but to hope that Xaphan and the Thunderbird could do something.

A moment later, his fears were put to rest as a wail of despair came peeling out of the ruby.

“AAAAAARRGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Nestor cried.  “I HAD IT!!!  FREEDOM WAS IN MY HAND!!!”

Leon grimaced more and more with every word, eventually just setting the ruby down on a nearby table and putting some distance between himself and Nestor, giving the man some time to get used to his new circumstances—though Leon stayed more than close enough to keep his eyes on it and make sure that his rune worked as intended.

“Well done,” Xaphan grumbled from the entryway of his pavilion.  “I still say you should’ve killed him, but it’s nice to hear him crying like that.”

“I was sorely tempted to snuff him out,” Leon admitted.  “But I have to agree with you, this is both the worst and the best thing I’ve ever heard…”

The two stayed there, listening to Nestor’s lamentation for a few more seconds, but it couldn’t last for long.  Nestor, after a few seconds, calmed down, and Leon walked back over as the Thunderbird fluttered down to the ground and assumed her human form.

“Well-executed,” she said.  “I, personally, would’ve trapped him before checking on the throne, but you can’t argue with results.”

Leon nodded to her in acknowledgment, but his attention remained solely fixed upon the shining ruby that now held the magic body of Nestor trapped within.  Nestor’s cries had subsided, and Leon felt a wave of killing intent erupt from the stone.  His body crackled with silver-blue lightning, but nothing more came from the ruby than that killing intent.

After a moment, Leon relaxed and the Thunderbird took a position at his side, both staring down at the ruby.

“How are you doing, Nestor?” Leon asked with fake concern.  “Is it roomy in there?  Comfortable?  Is there anything I can do to make your stay more enjoyable?”

Xaphan chuckled, but the Thunderbird maintained a more serious demeanor.

“Things look good from here,” she said, her yellow eyes piercing through everything that the stone was, analyzing its capabilities.

“Thank you,” Leon said with genuine emotion.  “This wouldn’t have been possible if you hadn’t shared with me those runes…”

“It was your plan, to begin with,” the Thunderbird said with a shrug.

“Still, you have my thanks.  Is there anything we ought to do with this thing?”

“That would depend on whether or not Nestor is going to cooperate.”  The Thunderbird took an even closer look at the ruby, practically pressing her face against it.  She held herself there for several long seconds, and when Nestor remained silent, she pulled back with a deep frown.  “Seems like he won’t be.  Might be better to let him stew a bit before coming back for a chat.  For now, you can put him somewhere the demon can watch.”

“Huh?  Do I look like a jailor to you?” Xaphan replied, clearly offended as his flames flared up for a moment.

The Thunderbird glared at him, the force of her displeasure dampening his fires by a noticeable degree.  “You have nothing better to do, so keep an eye on the guest.”

Leon took a deep breath as Xaphan quietly grumbled but offered no further resistance.  He placed the ruby holding Nestor on a nearby table, and after some reassurances from Xaphan that it would not move, he then made for his throne.  He could spend the next few days doing nothing but dealing with Nestor in there, but with Nestor secured—at least, for the time being—he needed to get back out into the physical world and link back up with Valeria and Maia.

“Will you stick around for a while?” Leon asked the Thunderbird as he quickly walked over to his throne.

“I might need to stretch my wings a bit, but I won’t be far,” she said.

“I suppose that’s as good as I’m going to get.”

Leon wasted no more time.  He sat down upon his throne and closed his eyes, his heart beating madly in his chest in dread at the thought that this wasn’t going to work.

Fortunately, his fears were unfounded as he soon woke back up right where Nestor had sat down, in the stark, unadorned hallway with the fallen golem lying in pieces only a few steps away.  The very first thing he did was try to communicate with Maia again, but again, he failed.  It seemed he’d have to find her the old-fashioned way and hope their connection wasn’t permanently damaged.

Leon spared the golem a quick look of pity before he left; it had seemed far more sentient than the rest of the golems he’d seen, and Leon couldn’t help but wonder if it were fully so, like the stone giants.

With that reminder of the loss of Lapis and the stone giants, Leon’s distaste for Nestor deepened.

When he glanced around at his surroundings, he found that he was in a long nondescript hallway and had little idea where he was or where he should go now.  Eventually, he just picked a direction and started walking.  He saw a couple doors on either side of the hallway, but his destination was the closer of the two ends, where two more, far bigger and more important doorways were located.  He was hoping that one of them contained the lift, but since they were identical, he could only guess.

Upon his arrival at the door, Leon immediately knew that it wasn’t the lift, for he could sense a tremendous amount of magic flowing through the walls, far more than he ever sensed coming from the lift.

His curiosity piqued, he decided to spare a few seconds to check this door out, anyway.  After all, he remembered Nestor saying that he’d imprisoned Justin somewhere within this place, even though the events of the past few hours had somewhat overshadowed that revelation.

Pushing open the door, Leon found that the room beyond was quite large, though not to an unreasonable degree.  Any other details, however, were immediately lost upon him as he saw countless vines hanging down from the ceiling directly over platforms not unlike the roots that had bound Xaphan in his prison.  All-together, Leon guessed that there were about forty-eight platforms in the room, each much smaller than Xaphan’s prison, more suited to holding smaller things, but it was immediately clear to Leon what this place was.

Upon all of the first row of platforms, Leon saw skeletons entangled within the vines.  Leon spared these remains not another thought, they weren’t who he was looking for.  He pulsed his magic senses throughout the room, searching for Justin.

And there, in the back row, so entangled within the vines that only his head, hands, and feet were visible, was Justin Isynos.

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