The Heaven’s Eye convoy arrived in Ilion with fanfare.  It wasn’t quite a parade with music, dancing, and flower petals coating the pristine concrete road, but there was a large escort force of lightly armed and armored guards in blood red uniforms blocking off streets and allowing them to pass down the main thoroughfares with ease.

The convoy drew much attention, of course, but they moved quickly through the streets and never stopped.  Leon barely had the time to admire the spectacular trees and their glowing, multicolored leaves as they passed beneath their canopies.

Only a few hours after the city came into view, the convoy was already pulling into the central square of the massive local Heaven’s Eye enclave, and from there, was split up and directed in pieces through the warrens of the enclave’s streets to their respective destinations.

Leon, his family, and his retinue were taken straight to a luxurious guest house, along with Emilie, Damien Makedon, and Penelope.  Leon was surprised to learn that all of them were going to be sharing the same guest house, but once he took in the scale of the palace that they were being given, he understood that even with that, it wasn’t going to be much of a problem.

They were all shown to their living quarters, and there, were allowed to rest for a while as the rest of the convoy was seen to.  Leon was sure there was going to be more that they’d have to tend to, but for now, he was grateful for the couple of hours they were going to be given to rest before being saddled with those responsibilities.

Despite that, he wasn’t quite able to rest.  Everyone else had gone their ways to get what rest they could, but Leon found himself unable to sit still, for he couldn’t quite get it out of his head: they’d reached Ilion, the capital of the Ilian Empire, and one of, if not the largest centers of magic on the entire plane!

He wanted to rest, but his body simply couldn’t, so he left Elise and Maia napping in their bed and walked out into a large adjacent garden that their bedroom opened right up into.  It was a fully enclosed garden, with only a small entrance for the gardeners to keep the place looking splendid, and with the wards Leon could sense in the walls, even though it was outdoors, there was still complete privacy.

For a few minutes, he walked around the large garden, almost getting lost with how extensive it was.  He found several large pools, each with seemingly different functions—one that was long and rectangular, perfect for exercise; one that was curving and in no definable shape, but was ringed with more multicolored trees and sweet-smelling flowers, making it clear that this was a more recreational pool; another pool was so shallow it didn’t even come to Leon’s knees, which led him to think that it was for any water mages that might’ve wanted to train; and finally, there was a decorative pool surrounding a gazebo with tables and chairs connected to the rest of the garden by a stark white marble bridge.

There were several paths of limestone bricks leading through the gardens that at times had Leon starting to relax, almost convincing him that he was back in a forest, only for the illusion to be ruined by the simple fact that the garden wasn’t quite big enough to complete that illusion.

With nothing else to do, Leon crossed the bridge to the gazebo, sat in one of the benches by the edge, and looked outward to watch the colorful fish in the pool.  With his eyes busy, he then projected his magic senses to examine the city in further detail, wondering just what was going to happen next.

He fully expected that there was going to have to be some kind of political meet-and-greet; he didn’t think that even the august Ilian Emperor would let a soon-to-be Chief of Acquisitions for all of Heaven’s Eye to pass through his city without at least some kind of invitation to his palace, and since it had happened everywhere else they’d stayed, he expected that he would be part of whatever gathering would be happening.

He needed some time to prepare himself mentally for such a meeting.  He needed to make sure that he didn’t make an absolute fool of himself in the court of such a monarch, lest it harm his chances of getting into Heaven’s Eye, or give him an unsavory reputation among the people that he might need support from to reach the Nexus.

This was it, now.  He wasn’t in an isolated, rather backwater Kingdom anymore.  He was in the center of power for the entire plane, and he couldn’t just not care about politics or his image.  Both would have an immeasurable effect on the kind of retinue that would be at his back in however long it took for him to reach Apotheosis.

The time for the sort of uncaring, aloof behavior that came naturally to him was over.  It was time to get serious about his future.

As this new reality slowly crashed down onto him, he sensed Nestor’s magic senses pulse out of his soul realm.  The dead man probably couldn’t even see outside of the garden given its size, but as far as Leon could tell, the man still pushed for every inch, straining to reach even the walls of the enclave, let alone somewhere like the palace, raised upon its island into the sky by the eleven colossi of the founding heroes.

Leon didn’t disturb him, merely letting Nestor strain himself with whatever he was trying to do, waiting for Nestor to ask for help if he decided he needed it.  He didn’t have to wait long.

[Leon,] Nestor whispered.

Leon didn’t respond verbally, but he cast his attention down into his soul realm.  It was enough for Nestor to know that he was listening.

The dead man quietly asked, [Can you tell me of this city?  I would like to know how it’s fared in the years since I saw it last…]

Leon solemnly nodded, not having the energy or the will to crack any jokes with Nestor’s tone dripping with such a longing nostalgia that Leon could feel his eyes prickling with unshed tears of empathy.  He knew what was going through Nestor’s mind, for it had gone through his the last time he’d been to the Forest of Black and White.

So, without argument, Leon described the city as best as he could.  Advanced magical carriages in numbers beyond counting; and people in even greater sums.  Prosperity, luxury, beauty in abundance.  A forest of golden towers, busy forums, monuments to ancient glories and tragedies.

The palace.

Nestor listened to it all in silence, but one thing that Leon never described, for he couldn’t see any of its like, were ruins.  The architecture of the Ilian Empire was just as impressive and monolithic as the examples he’d seen of Thunderbird architecture, but he couldn’t see anything, not even a single crumbled avian statue, that might indicate his Clan had once lived here.

It seemed that Nestor knew why.

[To hear of this place rendered into such a state, all evidence of our existence erased…] the dead man bemoaned, [I have no words…  If my sister could see her city now, and the vermin that infest it, she would lose her mind with fury.]

[I thought this was Lord Koukouva’s territory?] Leon inquired.

[It is, technically,] Nestor explained.  [But my sister was allowed to come here and establish herself by my father.  A little exclave of our Clan, independent of all save for my father, run by none but my sister.]

Nestor spoke with both great pride and deep sorrow, and it took Leon a moment to ask, [Would you tell me of her?]

Nestor laughed.  [I think you would’ve either loved and respected her, or hated her with terrible passion.  I can see much of her in your attitude and bearing: a lack of concern for the opinions of others, disdain for authority, and single-minded devotion to your interests.

[But Penthesilea was much blunter than you, and less tolerant of outsiders.  She had her small cohort of followers, and with her husbands and concubines, she’d largely gone off to do her own thing, leaving the rest of us to our own devices.  I think if she’d lived much longer, she would’ve started a cadet family of her own, symbolically leaving our family without abandoning us.]

Nestor then groaned, and Leon felt his magic senses cease for a moment.  He thought for just a moment that Nestor was going to stop talking, but thankfully, the dead man continued, showing that he was more embarrassed and playfully angry than anything.

[She was always Father’s favorite.  She was the strongest of all of us siblings, but even before that became apparent, Father always spent far more time with her than with any of the rest of us, and let her get away with just about anything she ever wanted.  I know that nearly all the rest of us were destined for arranged marriages, but Father let her take whatever lovers she wanted.  When we were getting ready for our invasion of this plane, his sons he ordered to accompany him, but Penthesilea was given a choice—and, without even a moment’s hesitation, she chose to come with.]

[I’m hearing a hint of resentment in your voice, there, Nestor,] Leon observed, though he left out just how much love and longing he could also hear.

[That makes some sense,] Nestor lightly replied.  [I hated her throughout most of my childhood.  Even Cassander, my eldest brother, wasn’t quite as much of a bully as she was.  She was spoiled, arrogant, and wasteful.  She thought herself above all restrictions, and didn’t take too kindly to me after I started studying enchantments instead of learning how to fight.  She was an absolute battle maniac, and she only ever really got along well with Cassander, who was much like her, if rather less talented.

[But… still, she was my sister.  Our relationship improved dramatically when we no longer lived together.  I would never call us friends, but we were still family, and if there was one thing that Penthesilea cared about, it was family.  I’ve no doubt in my mind that she would’ve given her life for any of us, without hesitation…]

Nestor trailed off, but Leon didn’t get the impression it was because he didn’t want to say any more, but because he couldn’t say any more without completely breaking down.  To try and take some of that pressure off of the dead man, Leon asked, [How about the palace and city itself?  What was this place like before all of this rose up?]

[That ‘raised island’, as you called it, was built by our Clan.  It was to serve as both a statement of power, and to protect our interests.  The defenses built atop such places were impenetrable without someone who’d achieved Apotheosis, and even then, they were still formidable.  I can’t say how many of those defenses survived, but given what you’ve told me of the palace sitting at the summit, it doesn’t sound like much.  My sister’s palace was built of red and white marble and black granite, and it certainly wasn’t as big as you’ve described—a single palatial building, with only a few other buildings.  Most of the summit was taken up by gardens and small personal forests.  It certainly didn’t have any of those colossi that the squatter defaced the palace with…]

Leon sighed.  [Almost seems like everything that was here before was erased on purpose.  Given how built this city is, I can’t imagine that there’s anything left for us to discover anymore.  Eighty-thousand years and we find this?  There can’t be anything left.]

[I’d agree,] Nestor replied.  [It also doesn’t leave me hopeful about finding anything at the old arsenal, either.]

Leon grimaced and nodded.  [Hadn’t been thinking about that.  Was hoping there might still be something left, but I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.]

[That we will,] Nestor agreed, and the dead man went silent, lost, Leon thought, in recollections about the past.  Leon couldn’t exactly read Nestor’s expression, but he still got the impression that their conversation about the past was over, which worked out wonderfully as Leon could see Valeria walking out of the guest house and into this garden, too.  So, he got up from the gazebo bench and went to join his silver-haired lover for a while.

Neither of them spoke about much of consequence; mostly just walking around the large gardens and admiring what was there.  However, Leon enjoyed the time immensely, and when a servant of Heaven’s Eye interrupted them with a loud knock on the door of their wing of the guest house, he was quite annoyed.

He was even more annoyed to be handed a written invitation for the leaders of the convoy to appear before the Ilian Emperor that evening, even though he knew something like that was going to happen.

With a deep sigh, he went to go and wake up Elise and share with her the news that they now had defined evening plans.

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Leon was surprised when he and Elise walked out into the guest house’s main courtyard and found not only the expected Emilie, Damien, Penelope, and Cristina waiting there, but also Helen and Anna.

“Hey there!” he called out as he walked over.  “Wasn’t expecting to see you two here!”

Indeed, both appeared like they were accompanying them to the palace, if their fashionable dresses were anything to go by.  Anna, to match her bright green hair, was wearing a slinky green dress that went down to her ankles, heavily embroidered with dozens of golden five-petaled flowers.  It wasn’t particularly fancy on its own, but it suited her extremely well.  Helen, meanwhile, wore a blue dress to match her blue hair, and while it was considerably shorter than her sister’s, she also wore black leggings that glittered with what looked like some kind of crystal sewn into the fabric.  Both had their hair done up in almost, but not quite identical buns, leaving a few strands artfully loose to frame their faces.

“We weren’t expecting to be here, either,” Anna replied, while the younger Helen mildly scowled.

“If I had my way, we wouldn’t be,” the blue-haired woman whispered.

“We can’t turn down an invitation, that would be rude,” Anna chastised her sister, though her tone was more exasperated than angry, as if the two had had that argument multiple times in the past couple of hours.

“Not that I don’t mind the two of you coming along,” Leon began as he smiled at them to try and make it clear that he wasn’t trying to pressure them not to, “but I have to admit that I’m curious as to who invited you two.  Didn’t you tell me that your family wasn’t that important back in the Sacred Golden Empire?”

“Yes,” Anna replied with great patience, “but that doesn’t mean we were completely isolated.  One of our family friends entered government.  When we still lived north of Serenity, she was only a local magistrate, appointed by our local druid circles.  In the years since, it seems she’s been made the ambassador to the Ilian Empire.  She heard we were in the convoy and extended the invitation to join her at whatever this party is going to be.”

Anna beamed at Leon, and he couldn’t help but smile back, though a worry started to grow in his heart.  He didn’t think for a moment that the convoy wasn’t being monitored by everyone who was anyone, but that they were gathering information on his retinue was concerning.  The more he thought about it, the less surprised he was, but the fact that they were only in Ilion a few hours and yet an invitation had already been sent to two of his retainers by an ambassador spoke volumes about how robust the monitoring was.

Or maybe the ambassador had been warned ahead of time, which would mean that the convoy had been under surveillance for quite a while.  Which was undoubtedly true, and Leon wasn’t sure how he felt about that.  On one hand, he knew that if he were in the position of any of the Empires, he would do the same thing.  However, that it was happening to him, especially when he didn’t yet have the official backing of Heaven’s Eye, had him starting to feel more than a little nervous.  Apollodorus had already extended an offer to him to join the Ilian Empire, and he hoped that no one else was going to try and head hunt him right now.  If he couldn’t join Heaven’s Eye, then he wasn’t intending to join anyone else—at least, not for a good long while.

“I’m happy you’re coming with us,” Leon said to Anna as all of these thoughts flitted through his mind.  “It’ll be good to have a little bit of backup in that snake pit.”

“Such respect you have for the court of an Emperor,” Anna replied with a laugh.

Leon shrugged, and a moment later, a number of carriages were brought out.  The drivers and attendants had the group separate, with Anna, Helen, and several assistants to the others taking one carriage, while Leon, Elise, Emilie, Damien, and Penelope took the lead carriage.  Cristina and her knightly escort would follow them in the rest.

As they took their seats, Leon asked his stronger companions, “What should we be expecting in there?”

“Shouldn’t be too much, and neither should it be too formal,” Emilie replied.

Penelope added with complete dispassion, “You’ll still be meeting the Ilian Emperor, boy, so try not to embarrass yourself.  Conduct yourself as if this were the full court, and not simply a fairly small party.”

Emilie sent a slight glare Penelope’s way, but she didn’t say anything to directly contradict the agent.  Instead, she continued, “I don’t think the Emperor himself will be long in attendance.  This is a formality, little more.  An opportunity for some in his court to gladhand with us, and likely do so on his behalf, but he’s ‘above’ doing so himself.  He’ll be polite and welcome us to the palace, but other than that, he probably won’t stay for longer than an hour or so.  We won’t have to stay for much longer than that, either.”

“Good to hear,” Leon replied.  “I don’t think I’d be able to relax in the presence of someone like that, anyway.  How strong is he?”

He asked the question to Emilie, but it was Damien Makedon who answered, saying in his deep, gravelly voice like he was a teacher with great patience explaining something to a child, “His Imperial Majesty is only eighth-tier.  His grandfather, the Lord Protector, however, is one of the only tenth-tier mages on this plane.”

Even though he’d already known that there were tenth-tier mages on the plane, Leon’s eyes still widened at that statement.  “Tenth-tier…” he murmured in wonder.

“As close as mankind can be to a god without taking that final step,” Damien whispered.

Leon took a deep breath and asked, “How many high-tier mages should we expect here?”

“At least one ninth-tier,” Penelope replied.  “They’ll know who we are, how strong we are, and in what numbers we come in, so they’ll prepare accordingly.  They know we won’t be making any fuss in the heart of their Empire, but they’ll still want to show us without a shadow of a doubt that they’re stronger than we are.  Expect at least two, perhaps even as many as four or five ninth-tier mages in this meeting.”

“Five ninth-tier mages?” Leon asked, marveling at that kind of power.  “How many do they even have?”

“In the entire Empire, perhaps a dozen,” Damien replied.  “The precise numbers are hard for even Heaven’s Eye to keep account of.  Generally speaking, though, all of the Empires have between ten and fifteen ninth-tier mages, and each has one tenth-tier mage.”

“Speaking of, should I expect to run into the Lord Protector?” Leon asked.

“I doubt it,” Damien said.  “The Lord Protector rarely makes public appearances these days.  I think it’s been more than a year since he was last seen.”

Leon nodded, and focused on preparing himself as best as he could for what was to come.  Meeting the Bull King was one thing, but now he was about to walk into one of the greatest halls of power on the entire plane.

He couldn’t tell if he was more excited or terrified.

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