It had been nearly two years since his last return to the Bull Kingdom, and Leon couldn’t help but marvel at the difference. He was now tenth-tier, bordering on divinity; he brought with him two arks; he had with him two Princesses, one of whom was from an Imperial family; and finally, Cristina had called ahead to let the Kingdom know that they were heading back, which meant just about the entire city of Ariminium was out to celebrate their return, and then some.
Thousands of people lined the streets, flying streamers and making merry. The fleet permanently stationed in Ariminium was out in the bay, letting off great bursts of fire from large formations of fire mages to celebrate Silver Spear’s final approach. Most notable to Leon was the gathering of people around the place where Cristina had arranged for their arks to land.
They couldn’t land in any of the baileys of the Bull’s Horns as their arks were simply too large, so instead, they were going to land in a mustering field just to the northwest of the city proper. Surrounding the field were hundreds of tents, all in the green and gold colors of House Taurus.
Standing in front of the largest tent was King Julius himself, as well as Crown Prince August, Prince Antonius, Princess Stephania, Dame Minerva, Sir Constantine, and eight Paladins including the seventh-tier Roland, Brimstone, Bronze, and Penitent. Flanking them were some of the ministers and diplomats that Leon had gotten to know over the years, though never quite considered that close—most notably Aquillius, who had run the Diplomatic Corps office in Ariminium, and whom Leon had served under for a short time.
Not too far away from the Bull’s party was a smaller, though no less important party: the representatives from Heaven’s Eye, led by Ajax, Emilie’s younger brother and Elise’s uncle.
As Leon stared out at the party waiting for them, he couldn’t help but smile and wish he could’ve had more time to spend with these people. His last visit had been brief, and he found himself regretting that to no small degree. This time, he had barely more time than his last visit to spend catching up with the people who had formed a relatively short, though quite consequential, part of his life; he couldn’t stay longer than a week or two, depending entirely on how the giants responded to him.
Silver Spear and Cassandra’s ark landed in the field next to each other. Ariminium, with its buildings of beautiful white stone and striking red roof tiles sprawled out to the south, following the coast, while the main fortress of the two that formed the Bull’s Horns that blocked this one land route into the Kingdom loomed over them, silent, imposing, and to Leon, incredibly nostalgic.
As per their agreement, Leon and his people waited to exit Silver Spear for Princess Cristina to exit first. She and her people had been riding in Cassandra’s ark, though they’d been able to speak using comm lotuses whenever they had the need. Cristina had initially balked at exiting her ark first, arguing that Leon, as a King unto himself, and Elise and Cassandra, both his Queens and one a Princess of the Sacred Golden Empire, ought to go first.
Leon, however, had little patience for such court etiquette and insisted that she not wait on anyone to greet her family. House Taurus was going to be their host, after all; and besides, it wasn’t like they were visiting on ‘official business’. Ariminium was officially serving as a place for them to rest and store their arks while Leon went further north to meet with the Crater Tribe of stone giants.
Cristina exited the white and gold ark of the Sacred Golden Empire with all the grace and poise expected of her, with Asiya and the rest of her knightesses in tow. She crossed the field waving and smiling to the thousands of Legion soldiers cheering her arrival, but as she approached her father and the rest of her family, she broke out into a far more natural smile and ran the last few steps, launching herself into her father’s arms like she was a girl half her age.
Not that Leon blamed her—he couldn’t help but wonder how he’d react if he flew back to the Forest of Black and White and found Artorias there waiting for him.
Leon didn’t want to interrupt the greeting of father and daughter, so he waited until Julius set Cristina down before glancing at the people around him. Cassandra and Elise were at his side, with Maia, Valeria, and Anzu just behind him. Behind them in turn were his retainers, with the nobles—or former nobles, he supposed—in front, followed by Alix, Anna, Helen, and Red. Anshu was going to stay with Silver Spear, which meant that his Tempest Knights followed his retainers.
The ramp lowered, and with one last smile to his ladies, Leon held out his arm for Cassandra and Elise, and then led the way down the ramp.
Trumpets blared, soldiers shouted in greeting—Leon heard a few shout, ‘White Griffin!’ causing his smile to flicker in irritation—and the Taurus Royal Family, led by the King himself, walked forward to meet him, where they’d stayed still for Cristina.
“Leon Raime!” Julius boomed as he held out his hand, which Leon clasped. “My daughter has told me that you’ve become a King, now!”
“I have that honor, yes,” Leon responded. “But let’s not stand on such tired ceremony; our Houses are old friends!” Leon tightened his grasp on Julius’ arm and pulled him in for a friendly one-armed hug, neither of them released their clasped wrists.
“Ha! So be it!” Julius responded without a shred of irritation.
And with that, any ice between them was shattered. Leon was stronger, but Julius had known that the last time Leon had visited, so they didn’t stand on much ceremony now. Instead, Leon found himself greeting just about everyone of note who’d come to see him.
August was stronger now, though still only of the seventh-tier. Leon could see him reaching the eighth much like his father, though. After August’s warm greeting, Leon was embraced by the former Duchess of Vesontio, now August’s wife, and their four-year-old daughter. Then the rest of the Royal family, save for Julius’ eldest son Herculanus, who yet remained a blood priest back in the capital.
After them came the Paladins, led by the Bronze Paladin. He was just as armored as he usually was, and the Penitent Paladin beside him was clad in his usual brown robes.
“Leon,” Roland warmly said as he threw an arm around Leon’s shoulder, which Leon reciprocated. “It’s good to see you, my friend. Damn good to see you.”
“Likewise,” Leon said. “I haven’t all the time in the world, but I have a little bit more than last time, so we ought to catch up before I head back south.”
“Count on it,” Roland said as they released each other. “I’ll have to introduce you to my son, as well.” Leon’s eyebrows rose in surprise, which Roland had to have noticed as he explained, “He’s just about to reach the fourth-tier, and all before his twenty-third birthday!”
“That’s quite the accomplishment,” Leon said with genuine admiration. “Please introduce him, I’d love to meet someone with the talent and dedication to make it that far so young.”
“He’ll be thrilled to meet you,” Roland said. “You’ve been all he’s been talking about ever since your visit was announced last week.”
“You flatter me,” Leon replied. “Let’s move on before I get a swollen head and those behind me get any more impatient…”
Roland laughed good-naturedly and the greetings continued.
The rest of the Paladins, Dame Minerva, and a few other high-ranking knights with personal relationships to Leon, all gave him their greetings and exchanged a few words. By the end of it all, Leon found that he and his people had been standing in front of Silver Spear for near half an hour while all of his people made nice with those from the Bull Kingdom. While the last time he’d come to the Bull Kingdom he’d been startlingly strong for the region already, this was the first time that the people of the Kingdom were seeing with their own eyes the progress that their sons and daughter had made—Gaius, Marcus, Alcander, and Alix were all stronger than the Paladins, and that wasn’t even touching on the stronger members of Leon’s retainers.
Of all the greetings that were had, though, none were quite as meaningful to Leon as that of the one between himself, Elise, Emilie, and Ajax. It had been a long time since Ajax had seen his sister and niece, and he was about as affectionate as he could allow himself to be in public.
Notable to Leon as well was the borderline sycophantic praise just about everyone had for Cassandra. Julius and his family were more restrained, but Aquillius wasn’t too shy about lavishing honors upon the Sacred Golden Empire and making clear his desire to make some kind of trade deal between the Empire and the Bull Kingdom. Cassandra was polite and dignified and made no promises to anyone.
He also noted that just about all of his retainers who were native to the Bull Kingdom had their family there to greet them. Even Alix’s mother and father—neither of whom had been noble before the civil war, or even that wealthy at that—were there, which brought a wide smile to his face. His blood family was, in practice if not in truth, nonexistent, so he took in as much vicarious joy at seeing their happy reunions as he could.
Eventually, the greetings were over, and Julius formally invited Leon up into the Bull’s Horns. Leon gratefully accepted, though before he did so, he nodded to Anzu and Maia. Maia sent him her love and affection through their connection and then transformed into a water dragon that sparkled in the midday sun before flying off to the east, easily clearing the triple-layered wall connecting the two fortresses of the Bull’s Horns. She was heading to Saron, the city of her ‘Tribe’ of river nymphs. Anzu, meanwhile, gave Leon a brief hug before transforming into his griffin form and taking off to the north. Leon would meet up with him in the Crater Tribe in a day or two, but until then, Anzu was going to fly around the mountains he was born in.
And with that, everyone made their way up to the Bull’s Horns. It was a fairly long trek, lasting almost an hour even though the King’s knights were doing their best to clear the way through the streets leading to the plateau the citadel was built atop; the people in their celebrations were shouting and screaming their delight at the massive parade that Leon’s arrival had turned into, with even the King himself walking through the streets on foot with Leon at his side rather than in something more befitting their station, like a carriage.
But to the citadel’s largest and most opulent hall they eventually found themselves, where the King threw for them a massive feast. Leon felt just a little awkward at the show of it all, but he did his best to have fun.
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King Julius sighed in contentment as he slid into the largest seat at the head of the conference table. He was a tall and powerfully built man, but Leon could see some hints of fatigue in his dark brown eyes, some lines in his chiseled features that hadn’t been there even just two years ago.
To his left sat August and Aquillius, apparently the only people that Julius wanted present for their discussion.
Leon himself was alone, with his family getting comfortable in the finest quarters that could be found in the Bull Horns, and many of his retainers choosing to stay with their families in the city if they could. Helen, Anna, and Red chose instead to head back down to Silver Spear, while Leon’s Tempest Knights were with his family.
“I hope you don’t mind, Leon,” Julius said, “if we speak as men and not as Kings.”
“I’d have it no other way,” Leon replied with a grin.
“Good. I have to say it is good to have a scion of House Raime back in the Kingdom of his Ancestors after so long,” Julius wistfully said. “It feels like my Kingdom is finally complete, even if it will only be for a short while.”
“Duty will always call,” Leon replied. “I’ll admit to having some regret that I left so… perhaps ‘easily’ is the word I’m looking for? So flippantly?”
“The solution is simple, then!” Julius laughed with little seriousness in his tone. “Return to my Kingdom for good!”
Leon chuckled. “If only it were so easy. No, I’m afraid that a King can’t leave his Kingdom for long.”
“Yes, a King,” Aquillius muttered, drawing attention. “I was hoping to talk about that with you, Leon. To discuss the possibility of some kind of trade agreement?”
Leon gave him a weak smile. “That… may be problematic. My fastest arks took more than two weeks to arrive, while a ship would take months, and going over land would be… difficult given the hostilities between the people who named me King and the four Empires. However, now that we have peace in the far southeast, my people may be looking to expand trade networks beyond our own borders, and they’ll be looking for people who don’t hate them for eighty thousand years of war.”
Aquillius paled slightly as Leon went on, though his diplomatic smile remained unshaken. “I’m sure we’ll find something worth coming all this way to trade for,” he said.
Leon nodded to his one-time boss before turning back to Julius, who’d been happy to simply let that exchange play out.
“Leon,” Julius said as Leon’s attention shifted, “might we get to the point, now?”
“By all means.”
Julius smiled. “My daughter was… discrete when she contacted me to inform the Kingdom of your journey back to your Ancestral home, leaving me with little idea as to the purpose of your return…”
Leon’s smile thinned slightly as the key question was finally asked, if not quite directly. On a purely practical level, the Bull Kingdom wouldn’t have much say in whether or not the stone giants joined Leon and left the Border Mountains. However, the stone giants represented a strong buffer between the Bull and Talfar Kingdoms, and Leon had personally seen the two Kingdoms go to war before… The stone giants kept the Talfar Kingdom from trying to find a way through the Border Mountains into the Bull Kingdom’s Eastern Territories, and vice versa. Taking the giants away could mean a lot for both Kingdoms, and both could very well want to keep the status quo.
But as much as he had an appreciation for the Bull Kingdom now that he wished he’d had when he was younger, he knew that the Bull and Talfar Kingdoms could easily figure out their own ways to secure the mountains. The Bull Kingdom already did it in the Northern Territories, and Leon was certain they were still maintaining the forts that the eastern marquisates like Marcus’ family built to watch the stone giants. To do otherwise would be an outright dereliction of duty as far as he was concerned.
Leon wasn’t interested in lying about his purpose, though, so after a moment of silence to gather his thoughts, he admitted, “I’m here to bring the stone giants south. They’ve pledged themselves to me before, and I intend to call in that pledge. I want them to move from the Border Mountains to my new Kingdom.”
The Bull King’s gaze hardened, and his smile froze. He slowly tapped his fingers on the conference table while August simply stared at Leon in shock. Aquillius was the first to speak.
“That… how would that even work?” the diplomat asked. “The logistics alone…”
“Are manageable,” Leon finished with a nod and a smile.
Aquillius stared at him for a long moment before shaking his head. “This will… we…”
“We have no place in this discussion, of course,” Julius stated neutrally. “But we are quite concerned about what happens beyond our eastern border. The stone giants have long been a threat to us—one only solved by the two of you.” The King nodded to both Leon and Aquillius. “Many would be glad to see the stone giants gone. Even with twenty years of peace, many a suspicious eye is turned eastward, wondering when the peace will break next. Few imagine the stone giants will keep to it forever.”
“Others,” August added with a pointed look, “would balk at the idea of having a larger border with Talfar.”
“A border made up of mountains,” Leon pointed out. “Hard, largely unscalable mountains filled with more dangerous predators than giants. With forts controlling any large passes. Past violence with the stone giants has ensured that your eastern border is one of your most fortified.”
“True,” August conceded.
“It may be unpalatable to some,” Julius said, “but we won’t try to convince you not to do this, Leon. Queen Andraste is, I’ve found, a wonderful woman, well-disposed to peace. I’m sure this peace we now enjoy will last at least a generation, even with the stone giants gone. I can’t imagine that the peace with the giants will last that long.”
Aquillius thoughtfully added, “And the kind of armies Talfar would need to invade the Eastern Territories won’t get through those mountains anyway, not in the necessary numbers. A few raids, maybe, and our current defenses won’t need much adaptation to keep that from happening…”
Julius stopped tapping his finger and a wide smile returned to his features. “Good luck to you, Leon. I hope the stone giants take your offer and become your problem instead of mine.” He punctuated his statement with a good-natured laugh.
“I hope so, too,” Leon replied, breathing a sigh of relief at how easy this turned out to be. His thoughts then turned to all the problems that the stone giants might be able to solve for him, Nestor, and the rest of the Kingdom.
But even if they didn’t turn out to be the solution he hoped they could be, he doubted he’d regret asking them to come with him.
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