The Raven’s capital, Raiginn, was as large as Leon expected from a medium-sized Tribe.  A city of hundreds of thousands tucked into the wide valleys between the tall, imposing mountains of Kataigida’s northwest.  However, it was far from a normal city.

For one, more than a dozen arks were flying in lazy circles around the city.  They weren’t as large as those Leon had seen that had been built by his Clan, but by and large, they were larger than those he’d seen built by the Empires and had more weapon emplacements.

The reason for all these arks was apparent for the second reason the city was notable: massive arkyards located to the south of the city, embedded in the mountains there.  Nearly a hundred thousand-foot-long berths were carved all along the mountain slopes, some of which were filled with yet more arks, and ten of which had the skeletal frames of arks currently under construction filling them.

The third reason for the city’s notability was the large collection of facilities on the north side of the city, also embedded into the mountains.  Several dozen massive complexes, mostly architecturally boring, but in which Leon knew the real magic of the Ravens took place.

Those buildings were their primary research labs.

Not all their research labs, of course, every Clan had its own facilities, but these labs were where they accumulated and compiled the work done by the Tribe’s constituent Clans.  Some of these labs Leon had seen on the flight over from Raithellion, though he hadn’t stopped at any for any length of time.  Some of his Tribal entourage did announce his presence as he flew over, however, and he noticed that a great many Ravens came out to see him pass.

Their emotions had been somewhat mixed, but largely depressingly neutral, almost as if those who cared he was even flying over them were a minority.  He wasn’t sure if he preferred that reaction compared to the nothing he got from the Lions or the almost immediate respect from the Jaguars.

Perhaps most noticeable about the city, however, even if Leon’s attention was mostly consumed by the labs, were the several other flying objects above the city: large palace-sized islands that hovered several hundred feet in the air, suspended on clouds.  Fluffy white clouds that resisted his arrival.

That took Leon by surprise.  He had, after taking the relatively lackluster welcome he and his people had received from the Harts, decided to make like he had when visiting the Eagles and Hawks for the first time and assumed Thunderbird form.  His people’s arrival over the Ravens’ capital came with a darkened sky, buffeting wind, blinding lightning, and earth-shaking thunder, but the clouds that lifted the islands into the air resisted his power, remaining the very picture of conventionally perfect clouds even as his storm raged about them.

He hadn’t been so attention-grabbing when flying over the rest of Raven territory.  For the most part, he and his people didn’t attract much attention, and what attention they did get was soon lost as the Ravens in question quickly went back to whatever they were doing, as if Leon’s group wasn’t worth paying attention to.  Leon found that he didn’t mind that approach too much, though now that they had arrived at the Ravens’ capital, he’d changed his strategy and summoned the storm.

It seemed to work for his party was quickly met by a group of sixth-tier Ravens led by a seventh-tier Chief, who welcomed them to Raiginn and settled in to escort them to the gathering hall located on the largest of the flying islands.

On their way there, Leon took the opportunity to quickly scan the city and noted that his method of summoning a storm had worked; his arrival had certainly been noticed by most of the populace.  Few seemed particularly aggrieved at the storm, and many even took to the sky to see him fly in—he noticed that fifth and sixth-tier mages in the Raven Tribe apparently had the capacity for flight which they now put on display.

He wasn’t given too long to inspect the Tribe, however, as they soon arrived at the gathering hall.  The place was one of the simplest, yet most beautiful he had seen so far.  Instead of being made of more conventional building materials, it had been constructed almost entirely from ice, though he felt little cold seeping off of it.  He could sense great magic flowing through it, likely helping to keep it from melting.  The ice was beautiful in the way it glittered with every flash of lightning that announced his arrival, but the hall hadn’t been otherwise decorated that he could see.  It was like the Ravens had carved their gathering hall from the clearest, most eye-catching iceberg they could find, then called it a day there and stopped.  Notably, not even their Tribal Totem was by the hall but was instead directly beneath it—made of more conventional wood instead of ice, however.

His party landed on the floating island lighter than it had at the Harts’ gathering hall, Leon and all the others who hadn’t already taken human form upon their touch down.  Sar had wanted some time to speak with Cassandra, but Leon hadn’t wanted to spend too long in Raithellion, only long enough to accept the oaths of fealty from the majority of Hart elders and Chiefs as they arrived in the city.  So, with his business in the city largely concluded, he decided that he’d go on ahead while leaving Cassandra behind to convince the Harts of the sincerity of her Empire’s desire for peace.  While she seemed to actively avoid being so, he knew she could be diplomatic when she had to be.

And for this, she had to be.

Of course, he didn’t just leave his wife alone; he left most of his retinue with her as well.  Anna and her beasts, Anshu, Valeria, Marcus, Gaius, and Alix were all left in Raithellion with her, along with half of the Tempest Knights.  They’d act as her bodyguard and entourage while also—at least, in Valeria’s case—helping her keep her eye on the ball.  Red, Anzu, Alcander, and Maia accompanied him, along with most of his Tribal allies and the other half of his Tempest Knights.

There weren’t many Ravens about who could appreciate his slightly smaller party, however.  Aside from his escorts, there were only a handful of Ravens in the hall, which Leon realized as he and his people were let in.

“Apologies for the cold welcome,” the Chief who’d escorted them to the hall said as he held out his hand to indicate some of the seats not too far away from the elder’s benches.

The hall wasn’t too different on the inside than it was on the outside, with all decoration largely coming from the material the building was constructed of rather than anything else.  The elders’ benches were arrayed in the long hall in a fairly standard configuration with a dais at one end and benches to the right and left.  The visitors’ benches were separate and by the door.  Fortunately, for all that the hall was undecorated, it was still of substantial size, and there were more than enough benches for Leon’s entire party.

Not that he took the offered seat, however.

“I was hoping to speak with your Tribal Council,” Leon said.  “I’m on urgent business that affects all of Kataigida.”

The Chief sighed.  “Leon Raime, I presume?”

Leon nodded.

“Well met, Heir of the Thunderbird.  I am Hafnir, Chief of the largest Clan in Raiginn.  Unfortunately, your arrival, while not unexpected, has come at an inopportune moment.  About half of our elders are in my city, but a weapon design was recently finished, and several prototypes were manufactured.  The test firing was scheduled for today and all of the elders chose to attend it.  They will come back here once it's completed, but it might take a couple of hours.”

Leon frowned lightly.  Not quite a snub, so it didn’t anger him, but he wasn’t in the mood to wait.  His storm still raged outside and he didn’t want to let the show of his arrival go to waste.

Judging by the readiness of Hafnir’s willingness to tell him what they were doing, he guessed the weapons test wasn’t some big secret, so he said, “I would like to attend as well.  I’ve heard of the genius of your people and would love to see it for myself.”

Hafnir smiled and didn’t immediately answer.  Instead, his clear gray eyes took on an almost glassy sheen as he stared over Leon’s shoulder at nothing in particular, as if what he was seeing was many miles away.

After a moment, he refocused on Leon and said, “It seems to be all right.  I can escort you there, but only you and a handful of others.”

Leon thanked him and quickly pared his party down to its basics.  Alcander and the Tempest Knights would remain, as would most of his Tribal allies.  Only their leaders—the Jaguar, Singer-in-Caves, Ipatameni, and Xanthippe—would be accompanying him from that contingent.  The rest of his retinue would come with, as well.

Hafnir then led them back outside and they took to the skies again.  Leon’s heart leaped in joy as they turned northward and made for the labs, but his excitement was dimmed slightly when they passed over the labs and made for the mountains instead.

The mountains directly behind the labs were heavily forested on the south side, but as they shot over their tall peaks, Leon saw with his own eyes how bare and desolate they were on this stretch of the north side.  The reason why seemed clear enough when he saw behind a number of privacy enchantments dozens of weapon emplacements, most of which were empty.  Only a dozen were occupied, and by great metal beasts at that.

They resembled Lances, with thick bases that could rotate, and long barrels, but they were far and away larger than any Lances Leon had ever seen—being about five times the size of his Lightning Lances—and incorporated far more machinery than he’d ever seen in a Lance before.  Moving mechanical parts were hardly rare in such complex magical weapons, but the focus was always on the magic rather than the mechanics.  These behemoths, however, seemed more mechanical than magical.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t get a good idea of just how much magic was flowing through them given the privacy enchantments, but he had to guess it was a tremendous amount—he knew from his own research and experimentation that Lances could eat tons of magic, and their power requirements grew at an exponential rate in relation to their size.  Scaling the weapons up was always a hurdle that it had taken the discovery of thunder wood for him to believe could be reliably surmounted.

He doubted the Ravens had something like thunder wood, however, so his interest in this weapons demonstration swiftly grew as they drew closer to the immense prototypes.

About two hundred elders were standing on a stone platform nearby, some looking in his direction but most concentrating on the Lances.  Of their number, four radiated ninth-tier power, but only one among them stood out in front.  Leon guessed he was their Lawspeaker.

He was a man who didn’t look any older than Leon and had rather dark skin in line with the norm for his Tribe.  His hair was darker still but had a curious sheen that made it appear almost purple in the right light.  He was one of the few who didn’t even spare Leon’s group a glance even as they landed next to the other elders.

Leon gave a few nods of greeting as Hafnir casually strode over to the nearest elders to whisper some introductions.  Before any of his party could do likewise, the leading Raven raised an arm and a moment later, the massive Lances activated.  Millions of glowing runes along their joints and within their mechanical frames appeared and the weapons angled upwards.

A moment later, they fired.  Massive fireballs, moving startlingly quickly, arced up into the sky and then fell into the valley below—which was fortunately uninhabited.  They moved quickly, but with startling grace, making them seem like they weren’t moving as quickly as they were.  But for all that grace, they hit the ground with incredible force, exploding with enough magical power to leave deep craters and turn all vegetation within several hundred feet of each impact point into ash.  The earth shook as hard as if one of Leon’s lightning bolts had struck the mountain they stood upon.

From what he could sense, Leon estimated that one of those shots could’ve killed an entire battalion of a thousand soldiers back in the Bull Kingdom, and perhaps even a mage as high as eighth-tier even if their defenses were up.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!” the leading Raven roared as the fires below raged.  “DID YOU FUCKING SEE THAT?!”  He crouched and thrust his hands out toward the nearest impact point.  He glanced over his shoulder at the other elders, many of whom began shouting, stomping, and roaring into the sky in celebration.

Every single one of the weapons had fired successfully, and as far as Leon could tell, none had malfunctioned or been destroyed channeling so much magic power.

The leading Raven sprang back and joined the others.  A handful of other Ravens joined his side and together, they received much acclaim and back-patting from the others, leading Leon to think they were the ones responsible for designing the weapons.

His people were just as impressed but some had important questions, too.

“I wonder how much that cost?” Ipatameni wondered aloud.

Leon wondered the same thing; the kind of magic power that would’ve had to be stored and channeled into each of the weapons would’ve been staggering.

The leading Raven heard his question even above his people’s celebrations, however, and he loudly said, “Ah!  You must be an Eagle, aren’t you?!”

His deep voice resonated with confidence and authority, and many of the other Ravens quieted themselves as he spoke.

Ipatameni stared at him with a look of utter disbelief on his face.  “Asger, do you not remember me?  We’ve met before!  We practically sat next to each other at the last meeting of the Elder Council!”

“Eh?  Well, Eagle, you’re not wanted here!  We don’t need your ‘wise stewardship’, or your ‘good accounting standards’ here!”

“We weren’t—I wasn’t—” Ipatameni sputtered in confusion before Leon stepped forward and took control of the conversation.

“Hello there!” he called out, drawing Asger’s and the other Ravens’ attention.  “I am Leon Raime!  That was an incredible display!”

Asger’s rather dismissive attitude toward Ipatameni vanished in an instant and he lit up like a kid receiving an unexpected present.  “It was, wasn’t it?!  What a spectacular showing!”

“Do you mind if I ask you the specs on those weapons?” Leon enthusiastically asked.  “How fast can it launch those fireballs?”

“Once every week,” Asger proudly declared.

Leon blinked in surprise.  He’d expected a more practical answer, but when he glanced back at the weapons, he knew he wasn’t even capable of making one at all, let alone one that could fire as quickly as one per week.

“And what is their range?” he asked with only mildly dampened enthusiasm.

“They can accurately hit a target up to one hundred miles away with minimal loss in power!” Asger boasted.  “If the user is willing to sacrifice power and accuracy, they can hit even farther than that!”

Leon’s eyes went back to nearly bulging.  Even at once per week, that was an incredible advantage.  Not even Imperial Lances had that kind of range or accuracy.

Before he could ask another question, the Jaguar stepped forward, his expression carefully schooled.  “These weapons are, indeed, impressive.  But we’re here on official business.”

Leon gave him a baleful stare but grudgingly forced himself back on topic.  “Right, right.”

“We know why you’re here, Leon Raime,” one of the other ninth-tier Ravens said.  She was an ancient woman with a spine that seemed to be looking forward to a second life as a bow, but with sharp eyes and a sharper aura.  “You want us to swear ourselves to you…”

Leon graciously smiled and nodded.  “I am here to open such negotiations.  I would be honored if your Tribe would join the others who’ve sworn to support me when we call a meeting of the Elder Council.”

“Eh?” Asger said.  “We don’t care about that!  Go away, we don’t want anything to do with that!”

“Well, what do you want to do?” Leon asked.

“Politics are for idiots!” the man loudly shouted, and many of the elders shouted and stomped their agreement.  “We’d rather stay here and focus on our own business!”  He waved at the nearest super Lance and this time, nearly all of the elders stomped and shouted.

“Would you mind if we stayed a while, then?” Leon asked.  “Honestly, I’m something of an enchanter myself, and if you don’t want to talk about politics, then can we at least compare notes?  I’d love to hear absolutely anything at all about your projects?”

[Your Majesty…?] the Jaguar whispered into his mind.

[Let’s take our time with this one,] Leon responded.

At almost the same time, Asger cast his gaze about the other elders and after some head nods, he turned back to Leon and said, “That’s fine.  We’re not rude.”  He then turned his eyes to Ipatameni.  “I’ll hear nothing about ‘cutting back on expenses’ or other such nonsense, though!”

Ipatameni grimaced but nodded his agreement.

“Wonderful!” Leon said as he just about sprang forward to join Asger and the others with him.  Already, he was practically shaking with excitement.  So excited was he that the storm above them was growing just a little more intense, though he was still at least keeping it from raining.  “I think we have quite a bit we can share!”

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