The shield protecting the crashed ark was dropped as the last of the Sunlit transport arks sped away.  It took a few minutes since Leon and Xaphan’s defeat of the Sunlit Emperor, and in that time, Leon took stock as much as he could.

First and most obvious was his growing pain and exhaustion.  Without Sunlit there to keep the pressure on, his adrenaline was decreasing and he was figuring out just how much damage had been done to him that had yet to heal.  He quaffed a quick healing potion and stuffed a few healing spells into his armor, but that only alleviated the pain a little bit.  In fact, it felt like the worst of the pain was coming from deep within him, and he couldn’t locate the source.

He mostly put that out of his mind for the moment as he surveyed the battlefield.  It was cut and torn up from the sheer amount of magic used, looking almost like a landscape of blasted valleys and craters than the almost perfectly flat field of salt it was in the beginning.  The intensity of the fight was clear from the sheer number of bodies that the Sunlit forces collected as they scrambled away, and in the number of dead and wounded that were gathering around Leon’s ark.

Adding further loss to Leon’s group were the four MALLs that had been destroyed, with two of them so badly blasted to pieces that they were completely unsalvageable.  Only two MALLs remained intact and battle-ready.

Leon landed at the point near the rear of the ark where the battle’s survivors had gathered.  A quick count showed more than twenty dead on his side, including four of the six Tempest Knights that had accompanied them from Kataigida.  The rest were from Sar and Exallos’ entourages, but that didn’t mean that Leon’s retainers got out unscathed: Alix was covered in blood and looked barely able to stand, but Alcander was in far worse condition.  The mountain of a man was unconscious and barely breathing, his left arm severed at the shoulder.  He had multiple burns and lacerations that were quickly closing thanks to the numerous healing spells attached to his body, but Leon knew that those spells were only good for healing, not for regeneration.  Alcander would need significantly more support if he wanted his arm back.

Other than them, Leon was gratified to see his family and retainers were mostly free of crippling or life-threatening injuries.  Exallos, on the other hand, was lying down, unmoving, on a stone bed someone conjured to keep him off the salt.  It looked like he’d sustained a severe chest injury, the most dangerous sort of injury a mage could sustain since the heart was the gateway to the soul realm and the magic body.

“Someone give me a report!” Leon demanded as he hit the ground.  He reserved most of his attention for Alix, Valeria, and Sar since they were the ones effectively in charge after he’d left, and Valeria was the first to respond.

“We’ve taken casualties, Leon!” she said.  “Exallos is… he’s not healing!”

“Damage has been done to his soul realm,” Sar explained.  “He won’t live much longer, and there isn’t much we can do to change that.”

Leon frowned as he strode over.  He briefly laid his hand on Alix’s shoulder as he passed her, channeling her a bit of the tau pearl’s healing magic.  He wasn’t sure how much it helped, but she certainly seemed a little more attentive afterward.

When he reached Exallos, Leon knelt next to the bed and laid his hand on the ninth-tier Eagle, his heart heavy and his expression grave.  Even before he laid his hand on the man, he could tell the wounds he’d sustained were incredibly serious.  He began channeling the tau pearl, hoping it could help where the healing spells apparently weren’t, but after a moment, most of his hope began to die.

“We’ve taken other casualties,” Sar continued, explaining that he and Exallos had each lost about half of their delegations.  When he finished, Alix officially informed Leon that they’d lost four Tempest Knights, and Alcander was down for the moment.

As they spoke, Xaphan came flying over, to many of their surprise.  Leon, however, vouched for the fire demon, and everyone lowered their guard.

“Where’s Nestor?” Valeria asked as they finished tallying their losses.

Leon scowled a bit and retrieved the box containing Nestor’s ruby.  He’d called out to his distant kin ever since bringing him into his soul realm, but so far, had received no answer.  He’d need to open the box and see the damage done to be able to properly ascertain what happened.  Since the healing for Exallos wasn’t going anywhere, he decided to do that right then.

Given that he’d helped build the first version of the thing, Leon didn’t find it too difficult to get the box open, and when he did, his heart immediately sank.  The box had been leaking magic like crazy, and Nestor needed that magic to sustain himself since he was really nothing more than a magic body.

But Leon hadn’t been quite prepared to see just how damaged Nestor’s ruby was.  The thing had nearly broken in half, and its entire surface was covered in cracks, causing not only the magic power in the box but also the magic power in the ruby to leak at an unsustainable rate.

“Nestor?” Leon called out.

He felt a quick brush of darkness magic against his mental defenses from the box, but nothing more.  With some trepidation, he lowered his defenses and projected a bit of darkness magic to facilitate some connection.

[Le….on…] Nestor weakly whispered into his mind.  [Hellllp….]

As he groaned the last word, a location in the ark was pushed into Leon’s mind: the location of Nestor’s luggage and where his spare soul ruby was stored within it.

“We need this shield d—” Leon said, but before he could finish, the shield was deactivated, allowing everyone to retreat inside again.

Leon wasted no time getting his people moving back inside.  He stayed for just long enough to bring Xaphan back into his soul realm and to make sure everyone was moving before he, too, made a beeline for the nearest open hatch on the ark.

With lightning blazing through his body, it only took Leon a minute or two—and most of that was getting doors open—to reach the ark’s cargo hold.  He practically tore through the luggage until he found Nestor’s stuff, and then tore through that until he found the spare soul ruby.

But he realized he didn’t quite know what to do at that point.  Holding the ruby close to Nestor’s current ruby didn’t do anything, so he reached out with darkness magic again.

[What do I do with it?]

Nestor didn’t—or more likely couldn’t—verbally respond, but Leon had a small enchantment array dumped rather unceremoniously into his head.  Its overall shape was a figure-eight, with the two rubies in the center of each half of the array.  He knew he could make it, but it might take a moment.  So, to buy him some time, he rummaged through some of Nestor’s packed tools in the ark and those in his soul realm until he found enough material to roughly seal most of the breaches in the dead man’s golem core.  With significantly less magic power leaking out of the box, Leon hoped he could buy himself some time—though he didn’t think the ruby would even last long enough to get back to the Veins of Vigilance, let alone Kataigida where the Ravens might offer help.

After that, he darted back to the ark’s main room where everyone else was gathering.  He’d need a bit of space, and he wanted to liaise with everyone else.

The room was decidedly somber despite them successfully fighting off the Sunlit ambush, and the reason was clear: the bodies of the fallen had been brought inside where Valeria and Maia had flash-frozen them to keep them from decaying until they reached Kataigida.  Many of those who were so heavily wounded that their injuries were still being healed were there, too, but most eye-catching of them all was Exallos, who now lay on one of the ark’s main tables.

“Leon,” Cassandra said in muted relief as Leon walked in.  As everyone’s attention once again turned in his direction, Leon suddenly found his arms full of shuddering and crying wife, though Cassandra had only taken a few steps toward him.

“L-Leon…” Elise sputtered, her voice shaking so violently that she could barely form his name.  “… Was worried,” she said as she hugged him as tightly as she could.  Thanks to that, he could tell that she was terrified.  Her body was shaking even harder than her voice had been.

“It’s all right,” he whispered.  “It’s over.  We’ve made it.”

“Many of us didn’t,” Cassandra quietly responded.  “And some still might not.”

Her words brought a couple angry looks from those who’d fought outside, but no one contradicted her.  Alcander was still unconscious, and it was becoming more and more obvious that Exallos was on his deathbed.

“We’re not quite done saving people, yet,” Leon said as he quickly disentangled himself from Elise, though she immediately stuck herself to his side—not that he minded.  He conjured a couple large sheets of spell paper and immediately began inscribing the first of hundreds of runes the array needed.

“What is that?” Valeria asked.

“Nestor can be transferred to this spare soul ruby.  His current one is damaged.”

Valeria nodded and the ark went quiet for a moment while Leon concentrated on his work.  He expected that silence to continue for a little while at least, but this was going to be a job that would take a good few minutes, so he didn’t expect that silence to stretch on forever.

However, the silence was broken a little sooner than he expected when Sar hesitantly asked, “Can… can that ‘soul ruby’ thing be… used for anyone?”

Leon froze partway through the fourth rune.  A quick glance back made it clear who he was talking about: Sar was giving Exallos a few curious looks.

“He’s my friend, Your Majesty,” Sar explained.  “I…”  He paused to take a deep breath and steady himself.  “I would rather not lose him today.  I’m old and have lost enough friends already.”

The sixth-tier second-in-command of Exallos’ delegation stepped forward and said in a nervous voice, “If there’s any way, Your Majesty, I beg you to take it!  Exallos Aetos is our Lawspeaker, he has been the leading voice for our Tribe for more than two hundred years!  To lose him today would be a blow we’d need a long time to recover from!”

Leon frowned, though he didn’t sense any threat in the mage’s voice.  Those words were earnestly spoken, a genuine plea for the life of a great, highly revered man in their Tribe.

But Leon only had the one soul ruby.  His frown grew deeper.

He wanted Exallos alive.  Having a task to focus on was helping him compartmentalize what was going on, but he had to admit that losing Exallos would be crushing.  The man was loyal, honest, and stalwart.  He’d been one of the first in all of Kataigida to swear his support to Leon’s cause.  While Leon hadn’t known him long enough to consider him a friend, he still greatly respected the man and had been looking forward to working with him in his Kingdom for a long time to come.

What was more, if it were known that he allowed the most respected man in the Screaming Eagle Tribe to die, then what kind of loyalty could he expect from everyone else, let alone the other Eagles?  He supposed this probably wasn’t enough cause to rebel against him, but it could be the start of a long-standing grudge they might hold against the Thunderbird Clan.

And all that was put up against Nestor, a man who had once tried to possess Leon’s body and kill Valeria and Maia.  But Nestor had proven that his loyalty lay, if not with Leon, then at least with the Thunderbird Clan as a whole.  His skills and knowledge not just of enchanting but also of the history and administration of the Thunderbird Clan were quite literally irreplaceable.  If Leon lost Nestor, then his efforts to restore his Clan would become immeasurably more difficult.

To complicate matters, if push came to shove, Leon would’ve admitted that he actually rather liked Nestor.  They bickered, sure, but he and Nestor shared many passions, and he’d studied under Nestor for more than a decade.  The dead man had taught him more about enchanting than anyone else had ever taught him about anything, even the Thunderbird herself about using the power of their shared bloodline.

In Nestor he’d be losing a teacher, advisor, confidant, source of all kinds of useful historical information, the only Clansman he had left, and possibly even something that vaguely resembled a friend.

Leon froze up, unsure what to do.

His eyes darted from Nestor’s damaged box to Exallos and back again.

Perhaps the Eagles would understand if he told them about Nestor.  Perhaps they’d accept Exallos’ sacrifice for their ancient Prince.  After all, it was Sunlit’s fault that they were dead and dying, not Leon’s.

Or perhaps they’d resent him and Nestor for generations.  Perhaps this would be a source of kindling for an eventual betrayal.  With Exallos, Leon knew that the Screaming Eagles were behind him.  With him gone, and the reasons why well-known, even other Tribes might be more tempted to rebel.  He could potentially save Exallos right now.  Seeing him save an elder might even convince many other Tribes that Leon really was looking out for all of them, not just himself.

Passing Exallos over invited a ton of political instability at one of the worst possible times.  The war with the Sunlit Empire was undoubtedly going to pick up, if only because the Ten Tribes would want vengeance.

But then again, Leon knew Nestor wanted to live, he had no idea what was going on with Exallos or even if he would survive having his magic body transplanted into a soul ruby, or even if the ruby would survive it.  He was certain, though, that getting Nestor into the spare gem would work.

“We will, of course, abide by your decision, Your Majesty,” Sar eventually said as the silence stretched.

“I don’t…” Leon began, but trailed off as he struggled to put what he was feeling into words.  “They’re both indispensable.  I… I don’t want to lose either of them…”

Sar’s mouth thinned in a conflicted scowl.  It seemed like he wanted to say more, but was refraining, likely for propriety’s sake.

Eventually, Leon said to the room, though he remained seated with his back to them, “Thoughts?”

Marcus was the first to respond.  “Were the choice in my hands, I’d save the elder.”

Alix was less diplomatic as she simply said, “Nestor’s an ass.  Fuck him.”

Taking a more balanced approach, Gaius asked, “If it’s possible to separate ourselves from the situation and look at it dispassionately… who’s more valuable?  And I don’t mean to insult anyone when I ask that, I’m just advocating for a decision based on logic rather than feelings.  Who can help you accomplish your goals better?”

Leon honestly wasn’t sure what the answer was, though he was starting to lean in a direction…

He half-listened to the others, with Helen, Tikos, and—to his surprise—Cassandra all advocating for Nestor.  Everyone else who spoke up recommended that he save Exallos instead.

But Leon kept Gaius’ words in mind.  Weighing the two of them against each other wasn’t easy, and he wasn’t sure he had enough distance from the issue to make such a dispassionate decision.  But he couldn’t help but want what Nestor knew; there was so much that the dead man had locked in his head that would be forever lost if Leon let him die a true death right now.

And yet, it was one thing to want to take a specific action and another thing entirely to commit to it.

Leon was so conflicted that he didn’t even notice that Elise had stopped shaking until she laid a hand on his shoulder.  She was the only one in his inner circle who hadn’t given him an opinion but simply stood by him as he listened and weighed the two options.  He glanced at her and found her smiling supportively at him, not a whit of judgment in her gaze.

He turned his head a bit more and gave her a quick kiss on the knuckles.  Then, he steeled himself for the decision, knowing that it would have grave consequences.  But in the long term, he thought that it would be the better choice, even if just thinking that had him mentally rebuking himself.

His hand started moving across the spell paper again, inscribing runes in the figure-eight.  He glanced at Exallos, grimaced, and silently thought, ‘I’m sorry…’  He swore to himself that he would do everything he could to make it up to the Screaming Eagles.  Whatever the consequences would be, he would bear them.  Exallos was his responsibility, and now he was choosing to let the man die to save Nestor.

No one cheered or argued against his choice.  The ark went dead silent as Leon continued his work.  It took nearly twenty minutes for Leon to finish, and when he did, he didn’t allow himself a single moment to second guess himself.  He took Nestor’s gem out of the box, then placed the spare soul ruby opposite it in the enchantment array.

And then, he activated it.

The array greedily drank all of the magic power he poured into it.  The runes glowed on the paper so fiercely that Leon was momentarily afraid they’d burst into flame before completing their job.

But he could feel a mass of magic power be slowly drawn from the damaged ruby, and once it was fully out, it shot straight into the spare.  The lines of the enchantment array then caught fire, though Leon extinguished the flames with hardly more than a moment of willpower.

All continued to be silent in the ark as the spare gem held everyone’s attention.  But after almost a whole minute, during which Leon checked and double-checked the gem, Nestor finally groaned and said aloud, “Thank you… Leon…  I am alive…”

Leon sighed in relief, though he did his best not to show it.  He glanced over at Exallos and saw that the man was no longer breathing and even with the holes in his chest, his body no longer emanated any magic power.

Exallos Aetos had died.

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