Softness.

Warmth.

Comfort.

It took Leon a good long while to remember why he had better things to do than to enjoy such things, but as he slowly awoke, he found himself in no hurry to remember.

When he could finally deny reality no longer and accepted that he was, in fact, awake again, and not experiencing temporary restlessness that would soon end and allow him to return to the land of dreams, he opened his eyes.  He found himself lying in a soft bed practically buried in sheets and blankets, in a dark and somewhat sterile room.

And then his body began to ache, and he remembered everything that had happened leading up to his ‘nap’.

The attack on the Beast Lord’s camp that had left the ninth-tier mage dead.  The assembly of a punitive force.  The launching of that attack.  Sunlit’s reveal of how he’d treated Iron-Striker in captivity.  The fight with Sunlit.  All of it flashed through Leon’s head and he couldn’t help but sit bolt upright despite the complaints from his bones and muscles.

What he found much harder to ignore were the surprised yelps from his bedmates, for it was only then that he realized he wasn’t alone; Valeria and Maia had both been sleeping next to him, the latter naked and cuddled up next to him while the former slept in lighter clothes and had been facing away from him.

The yelps came from Valeria as she was practically thrown out of the bed, while Maia sprang to her feet and summoned a water dragon the size of a large python, her eyes darting around the room, searching for whatever had woken Leon up.

After a brief moment where Maia stood there fruitlessly searching for something that wasn’t there, Valeria got back up and exclaimed, “Leon!  You’re awake!”  She flung herself at him, and while he could sense that his body was essentially healed, he was still sore.

He cried out in more surprise than pain, but Valeria still shrank back in embarrassment, though the smile she wore still brightened up the dark room.

“Sorry!” she said.

“No need for that.”  Leon smiled at her and held out his arm, wordlessly offering to pull her back into his embrace.  She took the offer without hesitation, resting her head on Leon’s shoulder as he adjusted himself into more of a sitting position.  As he got comfortable, Maia joined them under his other arm.  “So,” Leon continued after getting settled, his lack of urgency stemming from their own, “how long was I out this time?”

“A few hours,” Valeria contentedly replied.  “After you passed out, we brought you back to the base’s infirmary.  There’s a lot of wounded to tend to, but the healers spared nothing to make sure you were restored—though they insisted you were healing fine on your own.”

Leon frowned slightly.  “I’ll have to thank them for their efforts, no matter how wasted.  Still, they shouldn’t have fussed over me so much if there were others in greater need.”

“You are the greatest need!” Maia vehemently responded as she gave Leon a reproachful look, though one that softened only a moment later.

“I agree,” Valeria added.  “Without you, our entire cause is over.  You have no children to rally around, what Kingdom would we still have if we lost you?  How could we go to the Nexus if we lost you?”  She stared at him lovingly, but he could practically hear her asking him how they were going to get their mothers back if he died.

With both of them ganging up on him—and making a good point, as much as he didn’t want to admit it—he could only smile, lean back against his pillows, and say, “You’re right.  You’re right.”  He waited a moment as they settled back into his embrace.  “But… speaking of those who needed medical attention…  What happened in that mountain?  Where’s Iron-Striker?”

“We spilled the blood of many of our enemies,” Maia replied with no small amount of smugness.  “They tried to stop us, and many paid for that mistake with blood.”

“We fought through the Sunlit base,” Valeria clarified.  “Most of their good fighters were further out, leaving enchantments as our greatest obstacle, and even those didn’t last long.  We fought to the top of the mountain and managed to rescue Iron-Striker alive… as much as can be said in that condition…”

She paused a moment and Leon couldn’t blame her.  Iron-Striker had had much taken from him by the Sunlit Emperor, and he felt no small amount of shame in having failed to kill the Emperor in return.  He supposed vengeance would have to be satisfied, for the moment at least, with the blood of other Sunlit men.

Including, he was fairly proud to recall, at least two ninth-tier mages.  The Sunlit Emperor had lost at least seven of those since his ambush—at least half by even the most generous estimates.

“Is he receiving healing?” Leon asked.

“The healers should still be seeing to him,” Valeria replied.  “Marcus, Gaius, Anna, and Red were tasked with getting him to safety as quickly as they could, and I checked after getting you here that he’d been taken in.”

“Good,” Leon whispered.  “Good.  I’ll have to go and see him.”

“Later,” Maia hissed as she snaked an arm around his waist.  “For now, stay with us.”

A broad smile broke out across Leon’s face.  “How could I not?” he asked, though even as he said that he projected his magic senses to get a clearer idea of what was going on.  He trusted his subordinates to keep things organized in his stead, but still…

He was easily able to take in almost the entire infirmary, though a few rooms were more heavily warded, obscuring them from his view even though he was within most of the other wards.  He was still able to take in the thousands of men and women that were being tended to by hundreds of healers, many of whom were hurrying around with stacks of healing spells, crates of healing potions, and all sorts of other medical tonics and potions and salves and magical whatevers that he couldn’t identify.

For the most part, it seemed that those who were being brought in were going to survive, though many were maimed beyond the casual ability to heal.  Despite the lost limbs, mangled faces, and the occasional death even with the healers there, Leon was somewhat surprised to see that the atmosphere in the infirmary was fairly light and upbeat.  He supposed, after a few more moments, that that wasn’t too surprising, though, given what he knew of the Ten Tribes and the Bear Tribe in particular.  Their injuries, many of which would be permanent for a mortal but for them would only be temporary, were worth less than the victory they had fought for.  More people were swapping tales of valor, skill, and triumph than they were commiserating over shared losses.

Leon, encouraged by their behavior, smiled and allowed himself to relax more completely.

“Do either of you know what else is going on?”

“No,” Maia easily replied.  “My priority was making sure you lived.”

Leon hugged her a little tighter, which she appreciated if the way she swung a leg over one of his was any indication.  He then turned his attention to Valeria.

“We won,” she replied.  “The Imperial forces were put to flight, surrendered, or destroyed.  We were still counting casualties and material losses when I retired in here, though.”

“I’m sure that the Jaguar will have a more complete picture by now,” Leon whispered.

“Maybe.  What we know for certain is that the Sunlit Emperor retreated so quickly that those elements of his force that were able to follow had trouble keeping up.  I think there were even some rumblings of… other stuff going on as a result, but I think that we might be getting ahead of ourselves…”

“Oh?” Leon whispered as he ran his hand along the side of her ribs, quickly brushing up into her ticklish underarms before darting back down.  “Playing coy are we?  Keeping something a secret?  I’ll find out what it is, even if I have to inflict upon you the most terrible of tortures…”

Valeria smiled back at him.  “Oh no!  I’m just a poor innocent maiden!  I couldn’t possibly withstand such horrors!”

Leon’s hand quickly swung back up, tickling her again.  She shrieked in playful delight as Leon assaulted some of her more sensitive spots.

“You be—”

Her words were cut off as a loud knock came at the door.

“Is… everything all right in there?!  We heard some shouting!”

With his magic senses projected, Leon could see that the voice belonged to one of several Tempest Knights standing outside, keeping watch over his room.

“Everything’s fine!” Valeria shouted back, her voice taking on a harder edge.

Leon had to restrain some laughter when the knight almost jumped right out of his armor at her response, though he gave her a more reproachful look as she settled back against him.

“What?” she asked.  “He disturbed us.  A little shouting’s nothing.”

“Those who disturb us deserve far greater punishment,” Maia declared in support.  The two ladies shared a look and a nod.

“We should’ve arranged for more privacy enchantments, though,” Valeria mused.

Maia hummed in agreement as she trapped Leon’s leg between hers and let her hand drift lower, though never quite reaching where Leon thought it would.

“A-anyway,” Leon continued, “you were going to tell me something before that?”

“Was I?” Valeria whimsically whispered.  “I suppose I might’ve if you’d managed to coerce me into doing so…”  She smiled impishly at him, but before he could resume his brutal, heinous, absolutely unbearable interrogation, she continued, “After the Sunlit Emperor fled, I think we started getting word of other activity on the front.  Good activity.  For us, anyway.  Too soon to say for certain, but I think a lot of people were watching that battle, and Sunlit’s people were disheartened.”

“Pitiful creatures,” Maia added.  “They ought to flee before us.  Perhaps now they’re starting to learn!”

“Possible retreats, huh?” Leon whispered.  “Wouldn’t that be something…”

---

After several hours of rest with his ladies, Leon finally emerged from his infirmary room, the Tempest Knights outside snapping to attention immediately.  His soreness had, for the most part, been relieved, and he felt right as rain.  His first thought was to visit Iron-Striker, but the healers were still working on him, so he decided to walk around the infirmary a bit while the knights went to inform the Jaguar of his recovery.

He'd barely made it through a few of the infirmary bays before he felt a brush of darkness magic against his mental defenses.  It wasn’t hard for him to identify the source as the Jaguar, who informed him—after expressing his immense relief that Leon was up and about—that in the near day that he’d been recovering, the Sunlit army had, in fact, gone into a general retreat.

Leon, hearing this news, quickly wrapped up his time in the infirmary and made his way to a meeting of his commanders to discuss the aftermath of the battle.  Along the way, he finally made contact with Xaphan, and the demon wasted no time in entering Leon’s soul realm again, not saying much even when Leon pressed him for information on his fight with the first three fire demons Sunlit had summoned.

Xaphan remained quiet, though, so Leon made a mental note to check in on him later and focused entirely on the meeting with the Jaguar and other commanders.

He was quite encouraged by the information shared.

“The Imperial forces are in complete retreat,” the Jaguar said as he gestured to a map.  “All along the front, our enemy is falling back to the ports on the northern coast.”

“When you say ‘complete’…?” Leon began leadingly.

“I mean ‘complete’,” the Jaguar replied, remaining professional even with a distinct undercurrent of pride in his tone.  “It seems their morale has shattered after seeing the Sunlit Emperor retreat once more in defeat.  Even now, they’re pulling back.”

Leon nodded, finding the Jaguar’s words accurate to what he was able to sense.  Huge numbers of Sunlit soldiers were pulling back, mostly in good order but some scrambling as quickly as they could with Tribal forces hounding them.  They were retreating as part of massive formations, small squad-sized units, and everything in between.  It wasn’t just a retreat, it was a rout as far as he could tell.

It was still good to hear confirmation, though.

“Their position became untenable due to the losses they suffered in this battle,” the Jaguar continued.  “Their armies are still vast, but without significant air power, they couldn’t hope to maintain their control over this island.”

“How grave were their losses?” Leon asked.

“In simple numbers of troops, unimpressive,” the Jaguar explained.  “They lost around twenty-thousand soldiers in battle, with another ten thousand or so taken captive.  Their losses were actually lighter than our own, so long as we count all of our wounded…”

Leon cocked an eyebrow.  “Are we counting their wounded another way?”

The Jaguar frowned and glanced around the room, making eye contact with all of Leon’s other commanders, including his fellow elders and ninth-tier mages.

“Many were killed who refused to surrender,” an eighth-tier Lion cut in.  “Others were killed when the Bear Tribe descended upon them.  For the loss of the Beast Lord, blood was demanded, and blood was had.”

Leon lightly grimaced but bit his tongue.  His instinct was to press for them to take prisoners, but he understood why they wouldn’t, and why some simply couldn’t.  The issue would have to be revisited soon, though, he had no intention of leading an army of ill-disciplined barbarians.  He could distinctly remember the anger that drove him following his father’s and Trajan’s murders, that anger that still simmered within him.  He also couldn’t deny the anger that filled him for the same reasons, nor the white-hot wrath he’d felt after seeing Iron-Striker.  He imagined the Bears felt all of that and then some.

With his criticisms silenced, he gave the Jaguar a silent nod to continue.

“Their troop losses,” the Jaguar said without so much as a waver in his voice from that brief tangent, “are nothing compared to the loss of strategic assets they sustained.  All of their remaining war arks and most of their transports.  Dozens of Lances.  Three ninth-tier mages.”

Leon cocked an eyebrow and gave him an intrigued look.

The Jaguar nodded in confirmation.  “Aside from the two you killed, another fell yesterday.  If the Imperials wish to continue this war, they’d have to do so as a group.  The Sunlit Empire has lost the capacity to resist us—at least, this far inland.”

“Their navy?” Leon asked.

The Jaguar nodded.  “It remains a significant threat.  However, with this retreat, I propose we attack—”

“No,” Leon interrupted before the Jaguar could properly launch into his proposal.  With his command staff now giving him strange looks, Leon explained, “With their retreat, the chances are low, I think, that they’re going to continue trying to occupy this island.  It’s impossible now, isn’t it?”

A possibility occurred to him that could potentially even the odds, but he put that aside for the moment.

“With their strategic situation collapsing, they have to retreat across the sea.  To do that, they’re going to need ships.  If they can’t retreat, then we’re going to have to either kill or capture all of them.  Why should we fight this cornered and wounded beast when we can just let it go and retake the island without much of a fight?”

“There is… some strategic sense in killing the lot of them,” an eighth-tier Bear growled, his tone clearly restrained despite his obvious wrath.  “Why let them leave if we’re just going to have to fight them later?  Killing them here and now would be easier than in their home, wouldn’t it?”

“Possibly,” Leon conceded.  “But we don’t necessarily have to kill them in their home.  The only one who really needs to die is the Sunlit Emperor.  Some regime change could improve the prospects of negotiating a peace—though that peace would never be negotiated now.”  Leon paused and glanced around the room, seeing little agreement.  “Look, I understand that everyone’s angry, and I’m angry too.  We’re still going to launch our punitive expedition—I want the Sunlit Emperor dead as much as anyone else, and I’m not leaving this plane until I have him dead at my feet.  What I’m less keen on is having to occupy the Sunlit Empire, tend to their people, and make sure that we’re acting with all the dignity and decorum that we ought to be.  I just want to kill the fucker and leave.”

He started to see a little more agreement with all of that said.

“If the Sunlit navy makes a problem of itself,” Leon continued as he focused again on the Jaguar, “then deal with it as you see fit.  But if they’re only pulling back to their ports, then let’s wait a few days to see what their next move is.  I won’t rule out any further offensives, and let’s make sure to stay on their heels as they pull back.  I want them off this island as soon as possible.”

The Jaguar smiled and bowed his head slightly.  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Now,” Leon said, “what is the status of Sunlit’s other arks?  The ancient ones?”

“The scout was lost in the battle,” the Jaguar explained.  “We failed to capture it and we were forced to shoot it down.  We’ll salvage what we can, but only pieces remain.”

Leon mentally cringed, though he wasn’t too surprised.

“As for the heavy cruiser and the final destroyer, they were both pulled back to the Emperor’s base of operations, likely to defend his own position.”

“Makes sense,” Leon replied.  “I doubt we could mount an assault on his position as we are now.  How were our losses, by the way?”

“You’re right in your estimation,” the Jaguar replied.  “We are still in fighting shape, but the Imperials have heavily fortified their ports.  An assault would not go well for us.  We lost three war arks, and one of the ancient destroyers was heavily damaged.  In addition, we lost two troop transports, and suffered more than ten thousand killed, including many additional units in our air forces.  We’re still combat capable, but they bloodied us yesterday.”

Leon sighed and said, “Better than I feared.  How is that destroyer?”

The Jaguar glanced at a seventh-tier Raven, who informed Leon, “It won’t be flying again anytime soon.  Fortunately, the first destroyer recovered is still fully functional; I don’t think the savages even scratched her hull.”

Leon grinned.  “All right.  Is there any more pressing business?  If not, then we should all get back to work…”

“There is one thing…” the Jaguar said as most everyone in the room seemed ready to adjourn the meeting.  When Leon looked at him, he pulled a long iron staff from his soul realm, one covered in many intricate etchings, only some of which were runic.  Leon easily recognized it as the staff that Sunlit had been using to fire off that strange yellow lightning.

Leon immediately reached out for it, but the memory of how it had reacted with his avian body had him hesitating just before his fingers brushed against it.  After taking a moment to steel himself, Leon gritted his teeth and grabbed the staff, breathing a quiet sigh of relief when it didn’t react at all to his touch.

“That is a most interesting artifact,” the Raven said.  “I’m sure many of my elders would love to get their hands on it…”

“I think I’m going to study this myself,” Leon replied.  He was not giving this staff to anyone else.

Fortunately, the Raven didn’t press and simply bowed his head and accepted Leon’s decision.

With that, the meeting came to an end.  However, Leon’s day wasn’t over, for as he was leaving, he was met by Valeria.

She informed him that Iron-Striker had woken up.

—-

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