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The mood on Leon’s ship as it pulled into the port of Ariminium was somber and quiet.  Asiya and Iset had been rescued, but Khayu had been killed by Mansur before their escape could be completed.

Throughout the roughly two-day long journey, Asiya barely said a word.  She barely even moved from where Khayu’s body had been placed and respectfully covered.  Not even Valeria or Iset could get her to speak to anyone.

For her part, Iset was a little more put-together, but Leon could tell from the tightness around her lips that the smile she showed them was forced.  A few times, when she thought no one was looking, Leon even saw her dabbing at her eyes.

She was likely putting on a brave face out among relative strangers.  As for Asiya…  He could understand more than most the pain of losing a father in a violent confrontation.  What he didn’t much understand, though, was how to provide comfort, so he didn’t approach Asiya at all during the trip back to Ariminium.  He just let her mourn in peace.

At least, that’s what he told himself—he couldn’t comfort her, so why try?  But he also felt tremendous guilt for letting her father die.  Sure, the amulet that he’d taken from Mansur had been imbued with an invisibility enchantment, but if he’d been paying more attention, then perhaps he might’ve been able to react in time to the Samarid mage’s fireball.  Maybe then Khayu would’ve survived.

Leon’s stomach did somersaults every time he thought about it, and he could barely even bring himself to look at Iset or Asiya without feeling nauseous.  Making matters a little worse, he knew that he wasn’t even that set on rescuing them when he left Ariminium—he’d only done so to rescue Asiya.  He’d treated Khayu and Iset like afterthoughts, like they didn’t matter.

And now Khayu was dead, and Asiya and Iset were devastated.

It was a relief when Anshu guided the ship back into the port.  Maia had jumped off the ship about two hours before since she could move much faster in the water than the ship could, and sure enough, Leon saw her waiting at the docks with Elise, Princess Cristina, her entire guard detail, and about a hundred other Legion officials escorting the Princess.  There were enough people waiting for them that they were practically occupying this section of the docks, and there were quite a few civilians around who were staring, wondering just what in the hells was going on.

‘Shit,’ he thought, catching the serious and decidedly angry expressions that Minerva and Aquillius wore.  He never once consulted with them if he ought to go out on his own, and there was always the possibility that the Samar Kingdom could escalate this into something bigger if they thought this was a Bull Kingdom operation—assuming, of course, that creating a casus belli hadn’t been their intention from the very beginning.

Leon didn’t think they would go to war, though, not with how the balance of power currently rested—especially with losing at least one seventh-tier warrior for all their trouble.  And when he glanced back at Asiya and saw her finally rising from where she’d been sitting practically catatonic for more than a day, the slightest expression of joy and hope crossing her face at seeing who was waiting for them, he could say that he didn’t regret the attempt at all.

It was just the sub-optimal result that was sticking in his craw.

As soon as they stepped off the ship and onto dry land, the Princess rushed forward.  Seemingly without any care at all to her station or to the hundreds of people watching, Cristina pulled Asiya into a tight hug and buried her face into Asiya’s shoulder, shaking with emotion.

Leon awkwardly walked past them and met Elise with a deep, longing kiss.  She whispered words of thanks into his ear for going to save her friend, but Leon’s response was terse and ashamed, which Elise picked up on.

Before she could ask about it, though, Aquillius and Minerva stepped forward, obviously seeking an explanation.  But Leon held up a hand, silently telling them to stop.  He wanted to see to Asiya’s father, first, and then he would meet with them.  Seeing to Khayu first just felt right, but he also wanted to emphasize to them that, as much as he respected them, he wasn’t their subordinate.

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“… and that’s what happened,” Leon finished his explanation.  He mostly kept to the story, but he omitted his involvement with Xaphan, portraying his infiltration of the palace as an act of opportunity after the demon ‘just showed up’ for reasons he couldn’t fathom—which also made the implication that the Samar Kingdom was conspiring with demons, but he wasn’t about to clarify the matter.

He and his retinue had been back for about four hours, and in that time, he’d arranged for Khayu’s body to be taken to a local mortuary where it could be properly seen to.  Iset had accompanied it, seeing to most of the paperwork.  Leon didn’t know what she might get up to later, but he’d left her with an offer to stay with him and the rest of his family if she wanted to.

Once that was done, he dismissed his retinue and returned to the Heaven’s Eye guest house with his family.  Only after another hour or two of rest did he finally meet with the Legion higher-ups in the guest house’s large conference room and finally tell them what had happened following his departure from their strategy meeting.

“That’s… quite the story,” Minerva said with disapproval.  “His Highness went to great lengths to try and stamp out that reckless streak, Leon.  I’m sorry to see that they didn’t take as well as he’d hoped.”

Knowing that she was referencing Prince Trajan, Leon stared at her, a thin smile gracing his lips.  He didn’t much appreciate having Trajan’s lessons thrown back in his face like this, no matter how deserved it may have been.

Responding to the new Consul of the East, Leon said, “I went with overwhelming force, which should be obvious enough by their loss of a Paladin-level figure.  With the disarray in his house and such a massive loss, I think any threats their King may make regarding this incident will be blustering and toothless.  They can’t threaten the Bull Kingdom.”

“Be that as it may,” Aquillius replied, “you’ve still made my job quite a bit harder.  We don’t want hostile states on the other side of the Gulf.”

“Just stick with my story,” Leon said with a shrug.  “I’m not one of your knights, nor am I a part of Heaven’s Eye.  As far as the Samar Kingdom is concerned, I’m just an Ascended Beast, unaffiliated with anyone they can threaten.  Even if they start accusing the Bull Kingdom of this, they have no proof.”

“There can still be massive ramifications for your actions!” Aquillius protested, the disappointment evident in his tone.  “Sure, maybe they can’t declare war upon us, but that doesn’t mean they can’t take any actions.  They are our biggest and closest trade partner!  They can make life very difficult for a huge portion of our people!  If they elect to take more diplomatic measures against us, then there isn’t much we can do!  They could even blockade the Tyrrhenian River, cutting us off completely from southern trade!  We’d be well and truly isolated here in our corner of the world, surrounded by hostiles on all sides!”

“Is that a real possibility?” Leon wondered aloud, feeling defensive enough to almost dismiss Aquillius’ concerns out of hand.  He was feeling condescended to, and he was hardly thrilled about it.

“They’ve threatened it before, but they’ve never done so,” Minerva pointed out with an exasperated sigh, sounding almost resigned to their state of affairs.  “No matter what, His Majesty is an eighth-tier mage, and our armies are stronger and larger than theirs.  They also arrested one of our knights, so some response was warranted.  They can’t have expected us to lie down and let them execute one of Her Highness’ personal guards.  They might bitch and moan about this, but in a year or two, they’ll stop, and we’ll all move on.”

“You’re ignoring the enormous diplomatic efforts that goes into making these problems go away so that we can all ‘move on’,” Aquillius murmured just loudly enough for Minerva and Leon to hear, but not for the rest of the room.  “It’s easy for you two to say that this isn’t a big deal, and that it’ll all blow over, but it’ll be my people who now have to bear this responsibility.  It’s my people who will have to deal with this until it is no longer an issue—assuming that day ever comes.”

Leon sighed, and with genuine sorrow, he said, “For what it’s worth, Sir Aquillius, I wasn’t intending to make your life harder with my actions.  But you have to understand that I couldn’t let my friend just be taken like that.  Surely you understand the need to establish a certain level of threat for diplomacy to be at all effective, no?”

“A rather simple view of things,” Aquillius muttered.  “But not inherently wrong, and what’s done is done.  I should get back to the Diplomatic Corps.  We’re going to want to prepare our response for the inevitable Samar bleating as soon as we can.”

Without another word, the sixth-tier diplomat rose from his seat and left, his adjutants following close behind, leaving Leon and Minerva in the room with only a few other Legion officials.

They sat in awkward silence for almost a minute, an excruciatingly long period of time for neither to speak.  Minerva broke it first with a quiet chuckle, her stoic and disappointed expression falling away to one that was a little more mirthful.

“I have to say, Leon, that while I can’t professionally agree with what you’ve done, I’m personally very amused.  Well done on getting Dame Asiya back.  I’m sorry about her father.”

Leon grimly nodded.  “Like I said, I couldn’t just leave her behind.”

Minerva smiled more broadly.  “You’re a reckless kid, Leon,” she said, causing a flash of irritation to run through Leon’s mind, “but you’re loyal, and so long as you at least hold true to that principle, I think you’ll be fine.  Loyalty goes both ways, and so long as you always prove to your people that you’ll go that extra mile for them, then they’ll go that extra mile for you.”

Leon relaxed and leaned back in his chair.  “I wanted to get Asiya back, to be sure,” he stated, “but showing that to my retinue was my personal selfish reason I went out there.  Showing my people what I would do for them.  How far I’d go for any of them if they were to find themselves in a similar situation.”

With another chuckle, Minerva rose from her seat.  “I think you’ll be fine, Leon.  Maybe you’re not quite the man Trajan hoped you’d be, but I know he’d be proud of you, regardless.”

Leon’s face immediately flushed red.  He liked the sound of her approval, and her belief that Trajan would’ve approved of him so far, but there was still a hint of shame within him, too.  He didn’t think he’d ever be the man that Trajan or his father hoped he’d be, and he was starting to bring himself around to acknowledging that.  But it still stung to know that he’d likely never meet those expectations that his father and mentor had for him.

Minerva, sensing that their conversation was over, clapped him on the shoulder, and the two then said their goodbyes.  They spent quite a bit of time saying them, too, for both knew that there was a strong possibility that this was the last they’d ever see of each other.  When Minerva and her people left, Leon went back to the table and sat down to stare at the wall and stew in his melancholy.  He was ready to move on from the Bull Kingdom, but that didn’t make his goodbyes any easier to bear.

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“Leon Raime,” Iset said formally as she sat down with Leon, Valeria, Maia, and Elise in the Heaven’s Eye guest house, “I need to thank you for your rescue.”  Her tone was sincere, but it was tinged with incredible remorse.

Leon could understand why; she’d just had her husband cremated.

“No thanks are needed,” Leon said as magnanimously as he could without completely disregarding Iset’s thanks.  “I only wish I could’ve done better.”

Iset smiled at him, but sorrow and grief were still deeply etched into her pretty bronze features.  “I wish my husband could be here with us,” she whispered, “but his… passing… was no one’s fault but ours, the Sultan’s, and Mansur’s.  We got ourselves into that mess, the Sultan viciously rebuked us, and Mansur carried out his orders.  Don’t blame yourself, Leon.  You saved me and my daughter; for that, I will forever be grateful.  If you hadn’t done what you did, I would’ve joined my husband in death, and Asiya would’ve… I don’t even want to think about what might’ve happened to her…”

Elise got up from where she was sitting with Leon and joined Iset, wrapping her arms around the grieving Samarid woman and holding her close.  Iset looked close to breaking down, but she kept her eyes fairly dry and hugged Elise back.

For his part, Leon wanted nothing more than to let her grieve, but he was dying to know what had led up to Iset and Khayu’s arrest.  So, as delicately as he could, he asked Iset about it.

“We didn’t lie to you, if that’s what you’re concerned about,” Iset replied with a cheeky smile that seemed just a little too stiff to be natural.

“I wasn’t trying to imply that you did,” Leon said.

Iset nodded.  “We didn’t lie to you,” she repeated, “but we didn’t exactly tell you the whole truth.”

“I figured you didn’t,” Leon responded.  “It sounded like you almost did back during the testing for my flight suit, but Khayu cut you off.”

Iset fell silent for a moment, and Leon cursed himself for bringing up her husband so thoughtlessly again, thinking she was going to stop her story.  However, after taking a moment to compose herself and squeeze Elise’s hand for comfort, Iset continued.

“We were promised safe harbor in Dusiris,” Iset explained, referring to the Samarid counterpart to Ariminium.  “Our allies in Samar were to meet us there.  Old friends who assured us of our safety, letting us place our trust in them to the point of allowing our daughter to accompany us.  Only for that trust to be betrayed.  All of our friends turned us in to the Sultan, and Asiya was caught up in our naivete.”

“Why?” Leon wondered aloud.

“I can’t say,” Iset said.  “Our friends weren’t very conversational when taking us into custody.  We were simply told that the Sultan hadn’t pardoned us, and that by returning we were breaking our exile.”

“So it was just a ploy to bring you two back into the Samar Kingdom and into the hands of the Sultan,” Leon confirmed.

“It would seem that way…”  Iset sighed and leaned back into the sofa, letting her eyes drift upward until she was talking more at the ceiling than to Leon.  “If they’d tried this ten years ago, I don’t think Khayu and I would’ve been fooled.  We might’ve tried to meet them in Florentia or some other neutral ground.  But we wanted to go home so badly, and with Ariminium right here, and Samar so far away, we thought it was safe.  We thought that…  Well, it doesn’t matter what we thought.  We fell for the trap hook, line, and sinker, and my husband paid for that mistake with his life.”

“I’m sorry,” Leon repeated, his guilt not assuaged in the slightest despite Iset repeatedly claiming that she didn’t blame him for Khayu’s death.

Iset just smiled at him.

“I don’t have much of a future here,” she whispered.  “As we said when we met you, Khayu and I didn’t make nearly enough headway in the Bull Kingdom to ever consider this place our home.  And with Samar now… permanently closed to me, I have no home left…”

Leon felt she was leading into something, and he also felt like he knew what it was.  Still, he let her ask first rather than offering it, himself.

“I’d like to accompany you south,” Iset declared, her warm brown eyes sparkling with hope and determination for just a moment before her grief returned and dulled them again.  “I can’t imagine letting my daughter go after this, she needs me right now.  She adored her father, and this must have devastated her.”

Iset glanced momentarily at Valeria, who slowly nodded.  “Asiya’s been holed up with Her Highness,” Valeria quietly stated.  “I don’t think Cristina’s left her alone since she got back.  It’s even gotten to the point that Her Highness has blown off meetings with several prominent members of the local guilds.”

“Big loss there,” Leon sarcastically grumbled, remembering the revolt that the guilds had launched in Ariminium only a few years ago.  The main culprits had been severely punished, but Leon still had a profoundly negative opinion of the local guilds.

Valeria shrugged.  “Dame Maxima hasn’t indicated to me that it’s a problem.  Seems like Dame Minerva is more amused by it than anything, and while Sir Aquillius is a little more concerned, these matters with Samar have been eating up his attention, letting Princess Cristina and Asiya be alone for a while.”

“Those two are good friends,” Iset whispered.  “Asiya is lucky to have Her Highness.  And you, Val.  And you, Elise and Leon.”  She squeezed Elise’s hand again while giving each of them a smile in turn—even Maia, despite the river nymph’s silence so far.

“Asiya will always find a home with us,” Elise declared.  “She is like a sister to us.  We’ll always be here for her.”

“Thank you,” Iset replied.

After a moment of silence, Leon stated, “I’d be happy to have you accompany us south.  I don’t think you actually want to join me, specifically, but our caravan is already going to be big enough that one more capable person who can take care of herself is hardly a burden.  And if it helps Asiya with her grief…”

“Thank you,” Iset repeated.  “You’re not wrong; I don’t want to join your retinue.  I just want to take care of my daughter and try to make a new life in the south.  I… can’t stay here.  But I can take care of myself, as you said.  Khayu and I have our own resources…  I suppose they’re just mine now…”  Iset almost burst out into tears as her voice wavered, and Elise pulled her tighter into her embrace.  Iset managed to maintain her composure, though, and after a moment, asked, “When are you leaving?”

Leon glanced at Elise.

“Three days,” Elise stated.  “My mother’s business here is complete, and we’re just finishing up our with the preparations to head south.”

Elise and Iset spoke for a little while longer, getting on the same page for when and where Iset should meet them to join their journey southward.  Then, Iset left to finish her own preparations and to spend as much of her time with Asiya as she could manage.

That left Leon and his family alone to rest and get ready.  In three days, they would leave the Bull Kingdom, and none of them knew if they’d ever see it again.

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