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When Leon left the Director’s office, he spared only one quick polite nod of his head to Penelope before leaving.  He met his family back in the atrium, and with them, departed for home.  He didn’t speak much, and he figured his mood must have been obvious, for none of his lovers spoke too much, either.

Once they reached home, however, Elise took only one quick moment to order their estate employees to ready a report for her and then dragged Leon into one of their small, private sitting rooms, joined only by Valeria and Maia.

The room was opulently comfortable, but was fairly dimly lit, and copious amounts of magic flowed through its walls, powering robust privacy wards to ensure that whatever was done or discussed within this room didn’t leave it.  Normally, this room was reserved for fun, but everyone knew that fun wasn’t what brought them here this time.

“Husband,” Elise sternly said, “sit with me.”

She sat down in a two-seater sofa, Maia and Valeria sitting across from her.  Leon, still feeling both worked up and incredibly distracted after his frustrating talk with the Director, stared at his wife for a long moment before joining her on the sofa.  If he had his way, he would’ve gone directly to his workshop and buried himself in work—or tried to, at least—as he mulled over how to handle this new situation, but he supposed that this was a better use of his time.  As soon as he sat down, Elise leaned into him, and with one hand on his cheek, brought his face down for a quick kiss.

That one intimate moment shook through Leon’s fugue like a lightning bolt through the thickest of clouds, and Leon could feel himself relaxing, with all the certainty he’d had back in Vyrias returning.

With a deep sigh as he pulled back from Elise, he said, “Nothing’s really changed, I suppose.  Just had the Director confirm what we already knew…”

He quickly brought his ladies up to speed with everything that he and the Director had discussed, including his suspicion that the man controlled the old Thunderbird Clan arkyards—or at least that the arkyards were under his protection.

“Could he have some other uses for your blood?” Valeria wondered, remaining calm and rational in the face of this news.

“That’s always possible,” Leon conceded.  “He did say that there are many legacies of my old Clan left behind on this plane that my blood could be useful in unlocking.  Legacies I didn’t realize before…”

Leon momentarily cast his gaze down into his soul realm and at Nestor’s ruby.  He blamed the dead man for much, but he couldn’t blame him for this revelation; it wasn’t necessarily Nestor’s fault directly that most of the points on his map had been plundered already.  Leon had just assumed that that meant all of the ‘legacies’ had already been claimed or put to use and weren’t just sitting around in some Imperial warehouse just waiting for him or his blood.

“It seems that the Empires might have a much more practical reason to strike at us—or me, at least—than originally thought…”

“To strike at you is to strike at us all,” Maia boldly declared out loud, her voice ringing like the clearest of bells.  A smile broke out across Leon’s face at hearing her voice, too rare a pleasure for his liking.

“Indeed,” Valeria agreed, and while Elise didn’t verbalize her agreement, she made it known anyway when she took Leon’s hand and gave it a supportive squeeze.

“So,” Maia said, “what should we do now?”

Leon sighed again.  “Right now?  Nothing, I suppose.  Or just return to normalcy.  Take some time to think.  I’m not sure remaining with Heaven’s Eye when the Director’s so clearly planning something is the best thing for us, but…”

As Leon trailed off, Elise finished his thought.  “…  But without Heaven’s Eye, then we’re left vulnerable to the Empires.”

Leon gravely nodded.  “That could very well be why the Director was as forthcoming as he was today, and why he wasn’t more forthcoming despite clearly being able to be.  He’s certain that we don’t have many choices in the matter, and is confident that no matter what he does, we’ll stay with him.  And the worst thing… is that I can’t immediately say he’s wrong.  We enjoy much freedom with Heaven’s Eye, and too many benefits to count—most notably, a certain degree of protection and independence from Imperial matters.  Could we maintain this level of independence without the Director’s support?”

Valeria, frowning, asked, “Is there no way we could exploit this for more benefits?”  Her icy blue eyes flitted around the room for a moment as she lost herself in thought, before darting right back to Leon.

“You mean,” Leon said, “offering to work with the Director on whatever his project is in exchange for these benefits, or more?”

Valeria nodded.

Leon considered it, but Elise needed less time.  “That would only work if we had more concrete information.  We only suspect that the Director has the arkyards.  We don’t know what he has, and what benefits we might be able to reap from it.  I say that nothing should be done until we get more information and some strong assurances from the Director himself or we gain strength enough to force the issue.”

“I can agree with that,” Leon said, and he saw Maia and Valeria agreeing, too.  “For now, then,” he continued, “how about we get some rest?  I think at least a month back home would be good for us, and then we can start thinking about heading north.  We can think about this during that time, but right now, I think I’m leaning towards working with the Director, not under him on whatever he’s working on.  Besides, we still have a few friends in high places, so I think we’re safe from any threats within Heaven’s Eye, at least for a little while.”

“That sounds good to me,” Valeria replied.

“Same here,” Elise said.

Maia nodded her agreement.

“Fantastic,” Leon said.  He leaned back in the sofa and closed his eyes for a moment, feeling some relief at both coming to a provisional conclusion and kicking the can down the road a bit, while also feeling mentally tired after the flight and everything else.

However, as his mind drifted, he was immediately pulled back to the present when he felt Elise’s hands slip under his shirt and start rubbing his abs.

When he sat up and glanced at his wife, he found her smiling lasciviously at him, heat and desire in her emerald eyes.  As soon as his eyes met hers, Elise took ahold of his shirt and started pulling it up and over his head.

“Aaaand, I think that’s my cue to go,” Valeria said.

Elise paused a moment as Leon finished freeing himself of his shirt.  “You don’t have to, you know,” she said, looking at her friend with much the same heat as when she’d looked at Leon.

Valeria just smiled and waved as she continued for the door, while Maia was already pulling all of her clothes back into her soul realm as she joined Leon and Elise.

“You don’t have to stay, Val,” Leon growled, causing her to pause as she reached for the doorknob, “but I’ll be looking for you when we’re done.  I won’t consider this day over until I’ve kissed every inch of your body…”  She turned back just as Elise started working on Leon’s pants and Maia started pressing her lips against Leon’s built chest.  Immediately, her cheeks flushed pink, and only grew even redder when she looked up and met his gaze, his eyes narrow from a mischievous smirk.

Valeria just smiled back, then winked invitingly before leaving Leon, Elise, and Maia alone to satisfy each other.

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Leon sighed in contentment as he finally returned to his workshop.  He and his family had spent plenty of time relaxing with each other over the past couple of days, but even that much time was a little too much for Leon to take off.  So, he’d meandered down to his workshop, his mind already buzzing between so many different topics he wasn’t sure what to do first.

He needed a new Lightning Lance, that much he knew.  The first had, eventually, functioned well, even causing the black wyvern some pain.  Now, Leon had just had to refine the design and build a new one.

More importantly, Leon had channeled his black fire again, and while he wasn’t quite sure if what he could feel was accurate, he thought he was beginning to sense the fetters placed upon him by the Great Black Dragon, not to mention he had the advice of the Thunderbird to ponder.  If he could finally get more of an idea of what his aloof Ancestor had done to him and how he was inadvertently holding himself back, then he would’ve taken the most important steps to freeing his suppressed power.

But he didn’t know how long that might take, and in the meantime, he had in his soul realm a mountain of wyvern hide, scales, and bones—and even a fire core from a sixth-tier red wyvern—even after selling most of his materials to Heaven’s Eye.  The blood, mana, organs, eyes, and all the rest of the bits of wyvern corpses he’d taken that had some alchemical uses he’d already left in Helen’s workshop, but the material that could possibly be used for forging he kept.

He had a couple of problems that all of this material would help solve.  Firstly, he needed to equip his retinue with better gear since most of them weren’t equipped with armor that was worthy of them as his retainers.  Their weapons were a little more in line with what he thought appropriate given that he’d enchanted nearly all of them himself, but the armor was still a problem.

Secondly, he was a little concerned that he hadn’t shown Sid the proper courtesies for teaching him so much about the art of smithing, and it was an easy thing for him to carve his hoard up a bit, reserving a fair amount of material as a gift for Sid.

‘Should help smooth over my request for further instruction…’ Leon thought to himself as he did so.

Finally, he had the golden apple seeds he’d taken from the wyvern hoard, though fortunately, this wasn’t a problem that he needed to do much about.  Elise and several of her assistants were out with Anzu and Helen surveying some new plots land that would, hopefully, become their orchard.  Once appropriate land was found and purchased, Leon and Valeria would take the lead in designing security wards to ensure that no one screwed with their precious golden apples.

These weren’t Leon’s only problems, but they were the ones on his mind right now.  He still needed to make more detailed plans for visiting the Thunderbird lab in the Sacred Golden Empire, but that, in his opinion, was a problem for future Leon to deal with.  Right now was the time for him to indulge in his own personal growth.

To that end, Leon retrieved his labor golems and had them set about returning his workshop to its usual state.  The last time he’d been in here had been during the forging of his armor, and the process had demanded that he make room and move quite a few things around to protect his tools and instruments from being damaged by the cataclysmic heat that he’d needed.  He’d managed to finish his armor in time to join the wyvern hunt, but he’d done so by a matter of hours, so his workshop was still a bit of a mess.

Fortunately, all he had to do was give instruction to the labor golems, and they began moving everything back into place while he laid down in his chaise lounge and closed his eyes.  His consciousness was cast down into his soul realm, where he opened the eyes of his magic body as it sat upon his throne in his Mind Palace.

Leon sighed again as he stood up and stretched.  He hadn’t had much instruction either in magic or in enchantment during the hunt, so he was brimming with excitement to be back.  Unfortunately, the one he most wanted to see, the Thunderbird, was not currently present, so instead, he made a bee line for Nestor.

“Hey there, dead man,” Leon quipped as he strode up to Nestor’s table.

“What’s wrong?” Nestor immediately replied, his tone alarmed and even a little bit concerned.

“Nothing, why?”

“You sound happy.  You never sound happy when you talk to me.”

“Sounds like something that would prompt a little introspection on your part, don’t you think?  Then again, I’d be willing to bet that few people ever sound happy when they’re talking to you, so why should I be any different?”

Nestor went quiet for a moment, and Leon smiled, thinking that maybe he’d struck a nerve.  Generally speaking, he didn’t enjoy verbal sparring, but when he managed to get a few jabs in on his distant clansman, especially since his memories of his brief possession were seared into his mind, he couldn’t help but feel a little elated.

“What do you want?” Nestor demanded, not acknowledging Leon’s insult.

“Arks,” Leon said.  “I want arks.  Teach me to build them.”

“Arks.  You can barely forge decent armor and you’re asking me for some of the most complicated miracles of magical engineering that exist in the universe?  As if arks are things that I can just teach you to build.”

“Can’t you?” Leon asked, his smile widening into one of challenge.  “You constantly boast about being one of the most knowledgeable enchanters who’s ever existed, so if anyone can teach me, surely you can?”

“I see you trying to flatter me,” Nestor replied accusingly.  “If you wanted to butter me up, maybe you shouldn’t have thrown me to the floor as soon as you walked over here.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have been such an arrogant tool when we first met,” Leon countered.  “Arks.  What do I need?  Give me a timetable.”

Nestor deeply sighed, his ruby momentarily dimming as if the dead man were losing energy just from seriously contemplating Leon’s demand.

“An ark is not something that is just made,” Nestor carefully explained.  “They are—and I don’t use this term lightly—miraculous.  They require extremely specific materials, not the least of which is an incredible amount of Titanstone.  If you wanted an ark worth riding, one that can traverse even through the Void, then you’d also need several tons of Lumenite.  If you wanted this hypothetical ark to have weapons that can do more than singe a few eyebrows, then you’d need mountains of Aurichalcum.  And good luck finding any of these materials in a place like this.

“Adding onto that, no one person can just assemble an ark, they need extremely specialized tools and knowledge to build, and likely the assistance of a strong and highly advanced supply chain.  The relevant knowledge would take decades to teach, even if I could do it alone.  Your tools aren’t even close to being big or advanced enough.  And good luck finding skilled enough labor to construct the thing.  Building even just a sub-Void ark, for you right now, is a fantasy.”

“What if we had access to an arkyard?” Leon asked.  “Some of the states here have arkyards…”

“I’d have to see what they have, but even then, I’m an enchanter, not an arksmith.”

“The Empires must have some arksmiths, maybe I could get some of them on board?” Leon wondered aloud.

“If you do that, you’d best be comfortable with some of your secrets getting out.  You can’t just give these sorts of things to people you don’t know and expect them not to continue using this advanced knowledge.”

“I’m well aware of that, dead man.  But it’s something to consider for the future.  How about this: you start shoring up my enchanting foundations for building arks and leave the manufacturing to me to figure out.  At the very least, there’s still that Titanstone refinery that you pointed out in the south, right?”

“Yes,” Nestor confirmed.  “However, our Clan never built Lumenite or Aurichalcum refineries on this plane.  And we only built a Titanstone refinery because we found Titanstone on this plane—and quite a bit of it, too.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Leon whispered, though he trailed off a bit when he noticed storm clouds in the distance.  Recognizing what that meant, he simply turned away from Nestor and walked over to the perch he’d built for his favored Ancestor.

“All right,” the dead man bemoaned, “just walk away.  ‘Goodbye’ isn’t for you, I suppose…”

From not far away, Xaphan shouted, “Goodbyes are reserved for those that don’t eat shit!”

“What a wonderful mastery of words, you have, demon!” Nestor shouted back, but Leon had already tuned out their bickering.

The Thunderbird flew in, her avian form almost glowing with power.  She didn’t land on her perch, but instead landed in front of Leon, shifting into her human form at the last second.  When she touched down, she wore a huge smile on her face.

“Did you have fun killing those lizards?” she asked Leon, speaking to him in a motherly tone.

“I did,” Leon replied, returning her smile.  “It was most illuminating.”

Over the next few minutes, Leon, correctly assuming that she hadn’t been paying too much attention, regaled the Thunderbird with tales of his and his retinue’s victories in the Scorched Fields, her smile growing wider with every tale.  Her expression turned more contemplative and a little intrigued when he mentioned the golden apple seeds that he’d looted from the black wyvern’s lair.

“Those seeds…” the Thunderbird whispered, “you’re taking care of them?”

Leon nodded.  “My wife and contracted alchemist are seeing to them right now.”

“Good,” the Thunderbird replied, saying no more about them, though she continued to stare off at nothing in the distance for a few more seconds, a muted look of glee on her face.  “They’ll serve you well.  Help you grow faster than you would normally.”

“I’m surprised you’re so interested in them,” Leon replied.  “I would’ve thought something like this would’ve been fairly small compared to what you would concern yourself with.”

“Don’t underestimate these apples, Leon,” the Thunderbird cautioned.  “They’re quite powerful, and they’ll even aid you past Apotheosis.  Having access to your own supply is something I would’ve advised once you reached the tenth-tier, but now that you’ve gotten them yourself, it’s nothing I have to worry about, I suppose.  But no matter where you go, be sure to bring those apples and their seeds with you.  They’re a good resource to have even in the Nexus.”

“Our Honored Ancestor is correct!” Nestor shouted from where he languished on his table.  “They won’t inspire such jealousy that others would go to war for them, but they’re still quite valuable!”

“Then, thank you,” Leon said, nodding to the Thunderbird.  “I’ll be sure to follow your advice.”

The Thunderbird nodded imperiously, and Leon then moved onto what he really wanted to talk about.

“Ancestor,” he said, his tone turning graver and more serious, “I’d like to talk about my draconic blood.  Would that be too much of a problem?  For you or me?”

“You’ve hardly held back in that regard before,” the Thunderbird replied as she cocked an eyebrow in surprise.  “Why ask now?”

“Just wondering,” Leon replied.  “I feel like that power is almost within reach, and I just want to know what I should expect.  Will the Great Black Dragon be enraged?  Will he try to screw with me again once I unlock his power?”

“Surely he will,” the Thunderbird said.  “But though you’ve inherited it from him, the power is yours.  The blood is yours.  As much as he may deny it, those are the facts.  He can’t take your own blood away from you.”

Leon smiled.  “Good.  I’d like to say that I welcome his attempt, but in truth, I don’t.  I’d rather he just write me off and never bothered me again.”

The Thunderbird turned her gaze out to the Mists of Chaos, in the direction that Leon assumed the Great Black Dragon must be.  “You say that now,” she whispered.  “You never know when someone like him might come in handy.  He did come in handy when the Flesh Ripper invaded your soul realm, if you remember.”

Leon scowled and moved on instead of acknowledging her point.  “I’m going to meditate, now.  Try to see if I can get in contact with that power.  Will you stay with me while I do this?”

The Thunderbird’s bronze features broke out into an unabashed smile.  “I came here for some training, but this will be far more entertaining.  Please, meditate.  I’ll stay here as long as you want me to.”

“Thank you,” Leon whispered.  The Thunderbird took a half-step toward him, her arms spreading just a bit, and Leon almost thought she was going to reach out and hug him, but after a moment, she just clapped him on the shoulder, he smiled awkwardly, and then returned to his throne.

A moment later, he was back in his physical body, his golems moving about him as they put his workshop back together.

He sprang up and returned to his villa, setting aside his plans for enchantment work for the time being, and made his way into one of his private meditation chambers.

It was dark within, and small.  It was about as cozy and relaxing as he could make it, and so quiet within that the sound of his own blood rushing through his head became almost deafening.

He sat down on a meditation cushion and trained his magic senses upon himself.  He observed his aura as he called upon his fire magic and did his best to try and put his body in the same state that it was when he’d fought the black wyvern and channeled black flame.  Between his crossed legs he conjured a small fire, about the size of a large candle, to keep track of any progress he was making.

And then he immersed himself in his meditations.

He sat there for several hours, unmoving.  If he had to try and put what he was trying to do into words, he would’ve described it as trying to get in touch with a muscle he’d never moved before, and had no idea how to actually flex.  Clearer than ever before, he could remember what it felt like to channel that power, what it felt like to summon black fire, and he strained to do so again.  Even clearer was his knowledge of how he channeled his silver-blue lightning, and how different it felt compared to his both kinds of his fire, normal and inherited.

But the fire in front of him, despite him changing it from red to orange, yellow, and white hot, never once flickered black…

… until a panicked hammering at the door of his meditation chamber reached his ears.  Not even a second later, Talal burst in, a look of restrained panic on his face, and behind him was Alix and Gaius, both looking just as anxious.

“Leon!” Talal shouted, his anxious tone doing much to smother Leon’s instinctive anger and annoyance at the interruption.  “Marcus and Alcander have gone missing!”

Everything else within Leon’s mind vanished, expelled by the information that Talal had just shared.  The fire in front of him, for just a moment, flickered and danced, and from it erupted a handful of black sparks.

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