“Look at all of this, how did you let it get this bad?” Elise exclaimed as she ran her hands through Leon’s hair.  Next to her were a few glasses of water, a few combs, a razor, and a pair of scissors.

They were sitting around at a counter in their kitchen with Maia and Valeria, who were treating the sight before them almost like a play as they watched Elise slowly lose her mind over the state of Leon’s hair.

He didn’t think it was that bad, actually.  Sure, he hadn’t gotten it cut since after the civil war ended and before leaving for the Northern Vales almost half a year ago, and while he had a fairly thick head of hair, it wasn’t like he needed to pull it back into a ponytail or braid, yet.

It seemed Elise disagreed, though, because as she ran her fingers through his hair in preparation for seeing to it with a comb, she just made more and more noises of disapproval, though he could also tell that she wasn’t being completely serious.  In fact, she didn’t even intend to cut Leon’s hair herself until a conversation between her and Valeria that morning turned toward his somewhat unkempt appearance, and their mutual agreement that he was in dire need of a haircut.

At the very least, though, Leon knew that his hair was clean and seen to well enough—he may not keep up with keeping it cut that often, but he didn’t slack on bathing when the option was open to him.  And the option was rarely not open to him, given that he at least had enough skill in water magic to summon a good shower whenever was necessary.

“I feel like I’m exploring a wild jungle,” Elise teasingly said.

“The power to get rid of it is in your hands,” Leon pointedly replied as he tilted his head to look back her through the corner of his eye.

“Stay still,” she shot back, playfully slapping him on the shoulder.  She then reached for the comb and some of the water and got to work.  “You should stop going to wherever you’ve been getting your hair cut.  They never do a good job.”

Leon shrugged, but kept his head still.

“They really don’t,” Valeria added.  “They always cut it way too short.  I think you look better with somewhat longer hair.”

Leon cocked an eyebrow at her in confusion.  “If you like it longer, why did you support me getting it cut?”  Just as he finished asking that question, Elise finished dampening his hair and reached for the scissors.

“Just seeing you be uncomfortable is reason enough,” Valeria replied with a wink.

Leon just gave her an unamused look and laid back into Elise’s control, remaining quiet as she cut away.

“So,” he said, changing the subject, “now that we’re all here, I think there are some things we should talk about.”

“Just ‘some’?” Elise asked.  “How about we start with what you did with Val that led to you getting back to our bed so late?”

Maia didn’t say anything herself, but she leaned in and stared at Leon expectantly when Elise asked her question.

Leon glanced back to Valeria, and when she told him that she wasn’t going to say anything with nothing more than a teasing smile, he sighed and said, “We sparred.  It was… good.  Quite exciting.  Very fun.”

“Is that a—” Elise began before Leon cut her off.

“And then we kissed.  And it was good.  Quite exciting.  Very fun.”

It was Leon’s turn to wink at Valeria, and though it wasn’t something he did often, he felt like he got his playful revenge for her teasing when she put on a fake-aggrieved expression.  The silver-haired woman even cried out in mock-outrage, sitting up straight as she put her hands on her hips.

But when her eyes drifted from Leon to Elise, and then over to Maia, the playfulness in her expression fell away, to be replaced with hints of dread and anxiety.

“That’s… not a problem, is it?” she hesitantly asked.

“A ‘problem’?” Elise asked in disbelief, her hands freezing partway through snipping through another lock of Leon’s hair.  Her face was confused and almost disbelieving, but then it softened, and she set down the comb and scissors and she hurried over to where Valeria was sitting.  “Of course it isn’t!  This is wonderful!  Have you two had sex, yet?”

Valeria’s face flushed bright red, and only grew brighter when Maia wordlessly approached from her other side.  The river nymph still didn’t say anything, but she leaned on the counter next to Valeria, cocked her head questioningly, and waited for a reply.

Valeria’s eyes then turned to Leon in a silent plea for aid, and Leon said, “No, we haven’t, and I think maybe we ought to leave those questions for another time?”

Elise frowned at Leon, but when she turned back to Valeria and saw her silver-haired friend’s uncomfortable expression, she just smiled and nodded, returning to Leon to finish the cut.

“So be it,” she said with resignation.  “But Valeria, don’t ever think you’re going behind our backs!  You’re a part of our family!”

Maia nodded her agreement, and while Valeria didn’t say anything in response, her expression of mortification dropped slightly in favor of something more thankful, though the red in her cheeks didn’t go away.

Leon, feeling at least some of the embarrassment she felt, decided to immediately change the topic.

“So, what’s been happening here?” he asked.

Elise paused for a fraction of a second, her hesitation making it clear that not everything was all right.  Since she hadn’t said anything before now, Leon assumed that it wasn’t that important, but he still couldn’t help but tense up, tilt his head, and repeat his question a shade more urgently.

“It’s nothing,” Elise replied, failing to assuage Leon’s anxiety.  “It’s just that… the higher-ups from Occulara have sent some investigators north.  They left a month ago, so they’ll be here in the next couple of months.”

“What are they investigating?” Leon asked, a hint of killing intent roiling off his body before he clamped down on his instinctive protectiveness.

“My mother,” Elise quietly responded.  “She procured the final ingredients for His Majesty’s recovery potion, helping him to wake up and end the civil war before you reached the capital…”

Leon listened, still tense.  He and Emilie weren’t particularly close, especially since he didn’t much trust her ability not to talk in front of strangers, but as much as Elise oft claimed she wasn’t fond of her mother, Leon could tell that that wasn’t the case.  On a more practical note, Emilie was essentially his ticket to Heaven’s Eye, and if anything happened to her, it could upset what few solid plans he had.

“You know that Heaven’s Eye is bound to remain apolitical, right?” Elise asked.

“Yes,” Leon affirmed.

“It’s not always an easy policy to follow.  We’ve had administrators and Tower Lords break that policy before, for reasons both selfish and selfless.  Allowances are often made for the later, and for situations where remaining apolitical was impossible.  But for those who break the rules for their own personal gain, or when the situation did not call for the rule to be broken, then the higher-ups, sometimes even the Director himself, might get involved to punish the perpetrators.  My mother has already been relieved of most of her duties for the duration of the investigation, with my uncle in Teira taking them up, for the time being.  The investigators, once they arrive will determine if my mother acted in good faith or not, and if what she did was warranted.”

“Wasn’t Heaven’s Eye contracted to get those ingredients?” Leon asked.  “Surely simply fulfilling the requests of that contract isn’t something she can be punished for, is it?”

“That depends,” Elise replied.  “As you said, she was only fulfilling the terms of the contract, but when a Tower Lord calls in personal favors from all over the plane to get her hands on extremely rare and valuable materials, delaying the delivery of those materials to people who put in orders before the Bull Kingdom, then powerful people tend to take notice.  Some, especially those who put in those orders, might take offense.

“Those ingredients that my mother procured weren’t hers to take, and she then used them to end a war.  A war, I will remind you, you were about to win!”

Leon lightly grimaced.  “We were winning.  I wouldn’t say that we were ‘about to win’.  Things can always change, and if the forces that Octavius had sent north—”

“None of that matters,” Elise interrupted.  “At least, it doesn’t quite as much as it should.  Enough questions have been raised that there’s a good chance my mother will be recalled back to Occulara and have her position as a Tower Lord formally revoked.”

“How bad would that be?” Leon seriously asked.  “Does Heaven’s Eye kill its own?”

“No,” Elise replied.  “But Heaven’s Eye is the largest banking and merchant guild on the entire plane.  They have no competitors on the international stage worth mentioning.  More than half of all assets owned by every single person who lives on Aeterna is financed or financially secured through Heaven’s Eye.  I’d say nearly three quarters of all inhabitants on this plane use Heaven’s Eye as their bank.  If they need to punish someone, they don’t need to resort to violence, they can make someone’s life extremely difficult very easily, as I think you might remember from what we did to Tiberias’ family.”

Leon scowled, remembering the man who thought himself entitled to Elise, and his scowl deepened when he started to truly contemplate how serious this situation was.

Elise continued, “My mother isn’t wholly dependent on Heaven’s Eye—she has some assets that they can’t touch, but they’re only enough to ensure a moderately comfortable lifestyle.  If they decide to punish her, it could mean taking just about everything she has away.  I think if that happened, you might be richer than her by several times.”

“Wow,” Leon said in amazement.  He’d grown used to the idea of Elise and her mother being incalculably rich.  He was rich, too, thanks to the foresight of his Ancestors, but he wasn’t even close to the level of wealth he thought they had.

“Yeah, so things aren’t looking great on that front.”

Valeria, who’d been listening, inquired, “But there’s a chance that might not happen?”

“There’s a chance,” Elise conceded.  “As Leon said, we were fulfilling a contract, and it stopped a war and the deaths of thousands.  Even if found guilty of violating Heaven’s Eye doctrine, my mother might not be punished.  Might.”

A momentary silence filled the kitchen as everyone quietly absorbed what Elise had just said, only the regular sounds of her dealing with Leon’s unruly mop resounding through the kitchen.

Leon was the first to break that silence.  “… Is there anything we can do?” he asked.

Elise paused for a moment to embrace Leon’s head.  “No, love, this isn’t a solution that I think anyone can help with.  All we can do is hope that my mother isn’t found guilty.  As it is, though, I think it’s extremely likely that her position as Tower Lord will be revoked.  Heaven’s Eye survives based on its reputation—even with all its power, it can’t compete with the Four Empires, and if the Empires see the Guild getting its hands dirty in politics, they might take more drastic actions against us.  Heaven’s Eye won’t risk its position just for my mother, even if she is found innocent…”

“That’s… well, that sucks,” Leon commiserated as Elise went back to finishing up on his hair.  “How’s Emilie doing?”

“About as well as you might expect,” Elise said, her tone lightening up a bit.  “She actually likes the reduced responsibilities.  Gives her more time with her husbands and concubines.”

Leon chuckled in understanding.

“I don’t suppose there’s a way for us to join Heaven’s Eye, is there?” he asked.

“Are you asking seriously?” Elise responded.

“I am.”

Elise paused again and strolled out from behind Leon to look him in the eye.  “That would be a big step, I think.”

“I’m not saying I want to go and join them right this very second, it’s more of a ‘in a few months or years’ kind of thing.  You three know that I want to go to the Four Empires, yes?”

The three ladies nodded their heads, and Valeria added, “And we won’t be letting you go alone!”

“I’d never expect you to,” Leon said with a smile.  “But it makes what I’m planning more important.  I don’t want us to go down there—risk my family and friends going down there—without some kind of powerful institutional support.  Having Heaven’s Eye on our side would alleviate my concerns greatly.”

“The Four Empires are incredibly powerful, and so is Heaven’s Eye,” Elise said as her eyes drifted southward in thought.  “But neither are so powerful that they won’t accept a new seventh-tier mage into their ranks for generous compensation…”

“Eighth-tier,” Leon corrected, a smile blooming on his face that was both moderately embarrassed and moderately proud.  He hadn’t told Valeria his power the day before, and Elise had been too submerged in Maia for the information to be shared, so he had the pleasure of informing them now.  Valeria froze in shock, while it took Elise a couple of seconds for what Leon had just tersely admitted to sink in.

“… Eighth… tier…?” she whispered, her eyes quickly flitting between Leon and Maia, seeking confirmation that Leon wasn’t talking about their river nymph lover.  Maia just nodded in Leon’s direction, and Elise lit up like the dawn.  “Eighth-tier?!” she shouted again, this time much more ecstatically.

“Yes,” Leon confirmed, and Elise jumped into his arms, kissing him, and pressing her body against his.  It took him—and, he assumed, her—quite a bit of self-control not to tear off each other’s clothing and take each other right there in the kitchen with Maia and Valeria watching, but after a couple seconds, they managed to pry themselves apart, though Elise positively glowed with joy and desire.

“How did that happen?” Valeria asked, her tone both happy and incredulous at the same time.  “I thought you weren’t even close to the eighth-tier, yet.”

“I wasn’t,” Leon confirmed as Elise skipped back behind him to finish the haircut.  As she worked, Leon launched into what felt like his hundredth explanation of everything that had happened during the campaign.  Unlike more of his other explanations, though, he left out no detail.  Not even Xaphan.  And as he spoke of Xaphan, he felt Elise slowing down in the trim, while Valeria began giving him strange looks as she realized he wasn’t joking.

“…  I was alone,” Leon explained as he dove into his tangent of what had happened at Xaphan’s prison, explaining to them the same things he’d told to Maia when he’d let her in on his last secret.  “I had no one.  My father had just died, and I was traveling to a place I’d only been to once when I was twelve, and even then, my father and I had avoided all signs of civilization on the way down.  I was scared and looking for any kind of support I could get.  I thought that taking the risk of having a contract with a demon was worth it.  A trump card I could use if things went sideways.  Support I could rely on that wasn’t connected to those who might’ve wanted to do my family harm…”

“But didn’t your family imprison it?” Valeria asked, her expression lightening somewhat, giving Leon the impression she wasn’t judging him too harshly.  But Elise’s hands had stopped, and she’d gone quiet, and he was rather terrified to turning to look at her.

“I never said it was a particularly good plan, and it was a risk, no matter what I might’ve thought at the time,” Leon admitted.  “But I was desperate, terrified, and only sixteen.”

He quickly finished his tangent, and then paused as everyone absorbed his confession.  Just as he did when he told Maia, he made damn sure to note that he wasn’t a demon worshipper, and he’d never once made a blood sacrifice to Xaphan, then highlighted all the good that having Xaphan on his side had done for him.

By the end, Elise had come back around to face him, her expression grave, her eyes narrow in displeasure.

“How long were you planning to keep that secret?” she asked.

“As long as I still felt ashamed about it,” Leon said.  “As long as I still lacked the courage to admit it.”

Elise sighed, and Valeria said, “I don’t mind.  I mean, I don’t much like that it was kept a secret, but I can understand why it was.  Especially a secret from me…”

Leon reached over, and he had to stretch a bit, but he briefly grasped her hand and smiled at her.

Elise seemed more troubled, so when he turned back to her, Leon just sat there, awaiting her judgment.

“I… I don’t like that it was kept secret, either,” she slowly said, enunciating her words as if she were apprehensive of what she might say if she let herself loose.  “I… understand, too… but I still don’t like it.  I think… I think… I guess that it’s… fine.”  Her gaze sharpened as she glared back at Leon.  “There’re no more surprises like this, are there?”

“Not one,” Leon unhesitatingly replied.  “With that in the open, I have no more secrets—not from you three.  At least, no secrets I’m consciously keeping—I’m no storyteller, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten to tell you three at least something…”

Elise sighed, and said, “I want to be involved in your life, Leon.  I can understand why you might keep secrets when they’re dangerous, but I want you to know that you can trust me with anything.  And I trust you with this… demon.  If you say it’s not a threat, then I’ll believe you.”

She quietly went back to finishing up his haircut, and Valeria added, “Partnerships with demons aren’t exactly commonplace within the Nexus, but neither are they unheard of.  I don’t mind that you have a demon on your side.  What was his name, again?”

“Xaphan,” Leon replied.

“Xaphan…?” Valeria whispered.  “Wait a minute, wasn’t he one of the previous Lords of Flame?”

Leon blinked in surprise that she recognized the name, and he felt Xaphan’s attention within his soul realm suddenly snap to Valeria as an undeniable sense of pride began to flow along their contractual connection.

“Yes, he claims that he’s one of the Lords,” Leon said in amazement.  “Honestly, I hardly believe him, he’s not exactly ‘lordly’, if you know what I—”

Suddenly, Leon felt Xaphan’s power surge through their contract, enter his body, and erupt from his nose, sending a tiny burst of demonfire shooting out through his nostril.  It was a weak thing, doing no damage at all to him, but tickling his nose and making him violently sneeze.

He groaned in shock and disbelief, and all three ladies stared at him with similar emotions gracing their features.

As Xaphan’s raucous laughter filled his ears, Leon just said, “See?  I guess now that you all know about him, I can look forward to him screwing with me without restraint.  Wondrous.”

From behind him, Elise chuckled and said, “I’d like you to tell me more about this ‘Lord of Flame’ business…  If it means what its name implies, then having some other powerful being on your side is something to celebrate, isn’t it?”

The four settled in to discuss what they knew of demons, and when their conversation was over, Leon felt like he’d gotten a giant weight off his shoulders.  It felt good to finally have no more secrets he was consciously keeping from those he loved.

—-

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