“Your Majesty,” Iron-Striker formally stated as he gave Leon a straight-backed bow.

“Your Majesty,” Ipatameni repeated as he, too, bowed to Leon.

“Your Majesty,” the Jaguar stated with a wry smile as he followed suit.

“Enough of that,” Leon growled as the three men stared at him with some amusement.

This was his first real day back as King, having spent the previous two holed up with his family in the private wings of his palace.  But now he was rested and ready to return to work.  And that meant meetings—lots of meetings.  This one was the most important, though, as it was a general meeting with all of his top advisors in the city that he’d put in charge of his Royal bureaucracy.  That meant that there were no elders present to represent their Tribes, this was a meeting purely about Royal issues.

The room the meeting was held in was an almost depressingly boring conference room, though the walls were intricately carved with reliefs of the Thunderbird Clan, while the roof was clear glass, letting the light of the sun shine down upon them.  Leon’s advisors all sat at a U-shaped table in front of him, while he sat at a table all on his own upon a raised dais.  He would’ve preferred a more standard conference table, but this was what the Tribes wanted their King to be, so he supposed he could live with it for just this meeting.

His Chancellor, Marshall, and Steward all took their seats, but they were not the only members of his top advisory council.  Clear Day, the tau he’d taken into his service, had been appointed his First Praetor, the head of his judiciary, so he was present.  Alcander was present, too, as the commander of his Tempest Knights.  He also had several other ministers of lower rank who were specialized in more specialized branches of the government, as well as some of his higher ministers’ top subordinates.  The last minister of note was the Ax-Bringer, who was the de facto mayor of Stormhollow.

And, of course, there was a veritable army of secretaries and notaries accompanying everyone, including Gaius and half a dozen other secretaries for Leon alone.

“Would anyone else like to annoy their King by sticking to court protocol?” Leon drawled.

Clear Day then bowed and stated, “Your Majesty.”

Leon rolled his eyes as everyone else then did the same before taking their seats.

“All right,” he said once all asses were polishing their assigned chairs, “now that we’re finally through all of that, let’s get right down to business.  How has the Kingdom fared in my absence?”

Iron-Striker, as the senior-most of his ministers, was the first to answer.  “I’m proud to report that you have returned to a thriving Kingdom, Your Majesty.  We’re finally starting to reach a point where we ought to slow our recruitment of soldiers and bureaucrats for fear of overstretching the treasury.  While I’m not quite at the point of saying that we have an adequate central bureaucracy, what has been built is proving itself a considerable force acting for the benefit of the people of Kataigida.”

Leon nodded as Iron-Striker went into much more intricate detail regarding those who had been hired for his Royal bureaucracy.  Accountants, lawyers, tax officials, statisticians, and so many more.  In total, the central bureaucracy had grown from being almost completely nonexistent to more than thirty thousand strong.

An impressive cohort, but the Thunder Kingdom had a population measured in the billions, and Leon knew that a few tens of thousands of officials weren’t going to be enough to manage all the affairs of his Kingdom.  Fortunately, each of the Tribes had its own administrative structures to handle their issues, relieving much of the administrative burden that Leon’s bureaucracy might’ve had to handle.

After Iron-Striker’s report came the Jaguar’s, and he elucidated for Leon the expansion of the central army, the fleets, and the ark armada.  The Ravens were building at a prodigious rate, and a great deal of the money Leon’s government was collecting in taxes was going right to the Ravens to fund the construction of new arks.

“… but that runs us into a deep problem,” the Jaguar said as he finished his report on the arks.

“Share it with me,” Leon commanded.

“Our supply of Titanstone is… inadequate for our purposes,” Leon’s Marshall stated.  “There is only so much I can as most of our Titanstone comes from the Common Lands.”

Leon grimaced.  The Commons Lands were just that: common, which meant that it was land ostensibly owned by everyone on the island.  In practice, the administration of the region was rather chaotic and mostly dominated by the Bears since they were the closest Tribe to the region, and the Spiders since their people comprised the majority of the miners.  The only reason that Leon could see why the Common Lands hadn’t completely devolved into anarchy was because the region was very sparsely populated, with the only towns around springing up around the Titanstone mines.  Otherwise, it was a dangerous territory filled with many dangerous beasts that the Bears enjoyed hunting and capturing.

The bigger problem that Leon could see was that all the Tribes had their own stakes in the area, and all of the Titanstone mined there was brought back to their respective Tribal lands for refinement.  It was a needlessly complicated supply chain, but if he were to try and alter it, Leon could see that he would anger many people.  Titanstone was the single most valuable resource on the plane, after all, and all the Tribes wanted their cut from the Common Lands.

“As much as it pains me to admit,” the Jaguar said, “we need to fix this situation.  If we don’t, then expanding ark production will be impossible.”

“Doing that will be enormously expensive,” Ipatameni stated.  “We can’t just move Titanstone refinement facilities.  If we are to simplify this process, then we’ll have to build new refinement facilities somewhere.”

“Just so,” the Jaguar agreed.

Leon sarcastically grinned, suspicion picking at him in the back of his mind.  “That sounded almost rehearsed,” he stated.  “Should I assume the two of you, if not more, have been discussing this problem?”

Picking up on his displeased tone, the Jaguar grimaced and said, “We… didn’t wish to waste Your Majesty’s time.  And as this is a problem that affects us both, we have discussed it before.  It was only when we realized that we hadn’t the authority to fix the problem that we agreed to escalate it here.”

“As you should,” Leon stated.  He considered adding more, but as he looked around the room, he wondered if he was right in being annoyed.  He didn’t like being led around, and he didn’t want his position as King to become nothing more than a rubber stamp.  And yet, what was the point of putting competent people in charge of these bureaucratic apparatus if they couldn’t talk amongst themselves or solve problems on their own?  If he had to make all the decisions, then there wasn’t much point at all.

Still, it irked him greatly that they’d already decided on a single course of action that might fix this problem and expected him to just agree.  He did agree that such expansion of the Titanstone industry was warranted, but…

He scowled in displeasure at the situation, but he realized what he needed for this particular problem.  “Before we do anything, I’m going to create a new administrative division.  The Common Lands need to be better administered.  I will appoint a governor to oversee the region and ensure that any decisions we make regarding Titanstone are carried out.”

“Stricter Royal control over the Common Lands would trample on Tribal rights,” the Jaguar protested.  “We have shared that land for thousands of years!”

“And we will work to ensure that anything seized is fully compensated,” Leon said.  “I will also ensure that all Tribes remain involved in the area.  But as you’ve said yourself: we need to increase our production of Titanstone to keep up with demand.  It’s a critical resource; we need a better system to acquire that resource.”

The Jaguar still didn’t look convinced, so Leon added, “We’ll work with the Tribes.  Strive for the best of both worlds: Tribal benefits, and greater efficiency.”

The Jaguar bowed his head slightly in response, though Leon could tell the man still didn’t like it.

‘I’ll speak with him later,’ Leon vowed before ordering them to move on.

Sensing the tension in the room, Ipatameni focused entirely on their financial situation.  Leon wasn’t heavily taxing the Tribes, but his treasury still had high revenues.  In fact, a full third of the treasury’s income was coming in from taxing Stormhollow alone.  Another third came from taxing the Tribes, and the final third came from taxes and tariffs levied against certain intertribal and international trade.

Since Heaven’s Eye was still getting set up and relations were still frosty with many mainland states, international trade was dreadfully low but was projected to increase dramatically as tensions cooled.  Leon was already planning on meeting with all of the foreign delegates over the next few days to help ensure that relations improved and trade increased.

Following Ipatameni came Clear Day’s report on the work the praetors had been doing.  Thankfully, most of the cases they’d been handling had been solely in Stormhollow, but there had been a few intertribal disputes.  Fortunately, those disputes had been fairly clear cut and easily resolved, but Leon knew they wouldn’t always be and he’d have to step in personally.  As it was, the smaller Stormhollow cases had shone a light on a few contradictions between established laws that Leon quickly resolved.

Alcander reported glowing news about the recruitment and training of the Tempest Knights.  They already numbered about ten thousand strong, and he was hoping they could recruit more.  Leon, however, was wary of increasing their numbers.  Perhaps twenty thousand, putting them on par with a full-strength Bull Kingdom legion, but that was a hard cap.  What was more, he was also reluctant to allocate more than just a few MALLs to the Tempest Knights.  As far as he was concerned, the Tempest Knights were to be an elite fighting force that would act as his bodyguards and personal agents; he didn’t want them to become an armed force that would have parallel responsibilities with the central army and compete with them for resources.

As a result, Alcander was fairly disappointed, but the Jaguar’s mood improved, at least, and Leon suspected that the ninth-tier mage might’ve been planning on confronting him privately about the Tempest Knights.  This seemed to mollify him a bit, especially after Leon’s decision regarding the Common Lands.

His final bit of important business was with the Ax-Bringer.  He formalized the man’s position as mayor of Stormhollow, which the man accepted.  He would still have all of his traditional responsibilities, but his de facto responsibilities were now de jure.

In all, Leon agreed that his Kingdom was doing quite well, though he’d be following this meeting up with one-on-one meetings later.  For the moment, though, he had a lot to check in on, so after finishing up his important business, he called this meeting to an end.  They’d already been there for a few hours, and everyone was eager to get to work.  Any further business they might have with Leon could get hammered out later.

“Interesting choice with the Common Lands,” Gaius said as they left the meeting room, everyone else rising and bowing as Leon departed.  “Have anyone in particular in mind for who to send as governor?”

“Marcus,” Leon immediately replied.  “Man’s been getting antsy, hasn’t he?  High time he was given more personal responsibilities.  So I’ll have him be my first Exarch.  Or whatever I’ll decide to call my governors.”

Gaius softly chuckled.  “Already getting the blueprints for conquering new territory established, is it?”

Leon grinned back.  “Only part of the reason.  The Common Lands do need to be put in order, and favoring any one Tribe over the others would only cause them greater anger.  Better I take the place over and just get the job done.”

“I’ll defer to your wisdom on that one,” Gaius responded.

“A sure way to lose big, relying on my wisdom,” Leon quipped.

He and Gaius shared another laugh as they strode through the palace’s halls, the rest of Leon’s secretaries following closely behind.  The meeting had left him tired, but now that it was over, he was finally going to handle some business that he was far more interested in…

---

Leon couldn’t help but study the small box in front of him, his magic senses scouring its every surface, taking in every detail.

The box was made of glossy black glass, with rounded edges.  Its exterior had been intricately carved with thousands of tiny runes, and deep within it, Leon was assured there were half a dozen comm lotus petals.  Finally, the table upon which the box had been mounted connected it directly to the palace’s magic power supply, allowing it to draw on a tremendous amount of power.

In all, this box was the latest development in comm lotus research, and one Leon was surprised had been created by comm lotuses grown by Tikos’ lesser tree sprites rather than Tikos itself.  This, more than the box if Leon were being honest, excited him, as it showed how much his people were increasing their capabilities.  If Tikos’ lesser sprites were able to multiply their numbers, then Leon expected comm lotuses—or at least magical devices utilizing comm lotuses—might even be made available to everyday citizens of his Kingdom.

But while he was very interested in how the box operated, he was more looking forward to what was about to be shown to him.

The runes covering the box illuminated as power flowed in.  The box, in accordance with the instructions the box’s operator had given it, connected to another box far to the north, and from the top sprouted a large screen of light.  An image resolved on that screen: Nestor standing in front of a half-finished golem frame.  Behind him was Rakos, still in its massive stone form.  Behind Rakos stood dozens more giants, now inhabiting golem frames thanks to thunder wood amber.

“Nestor!” Leon called out with genuine excitement.

“Leon,” Nestor responded with considerably less enthusiasm—though not none, which Leon noted.  “You have returned.”

“Glad to see you yet possess the power of sight,” Leon responded.  “Rakos!  How are you back there?”

Rakos rumbled in the language of the stone giants, “Quite well, Divine One!  My people are growing used to their new circumstances, and rejoice in finding service with the gods once more!”

“How many of your people have been given new bodies?” Leon asked.

“Two hundred so far,” Rakos replied.  “The rest have returned to bodies akin to what they inhabited before the migration.”

“At least there’s that,” Leon said.  Twelve thousand giants there were; scaling up production of their new bodies wasn’t going to be easy, especially since more would always be needed as the giants reproduced.  “We’ll build more bodies for your people as quickly as we can!”

Rakos deeply bowed, its stone form looking quite unstable as it mimicked the human expression.

“Nestor,” Leon continued, “have you been in contact with Mari’Kha?”

“The girl you found on that other plane?  Yes, I have.  I’m quite eager to inspect her work.”

“I heard you were planning on heading back here to inspect it personally.”

“That is something we’ve discussed.  No plans have been finalized yet.”

“Finalize them, then,” Leon commanded.  “Get back here.  There’s more than just Mari’Kha’s Ulta suit to inspect.”

“Oh?” Nestor responded as he cocked his artificial head.  “Have you found something else interesting?”

“Quite.”

Leon summarized his experience on Arkhnavi for his dead kinsman.

“A Primal Devil unleashed and in possession of a Universe Fragment…” Nestor murmured, his voice packed with apprehension that Leon was unused to hearing from the dead man.  “That is terrible news.”

“I’m aware,” Leon replied.  “This is why I’m interested in studying the runes that protected me from Planerend’s magic.  I picked them up from the monastery where I met Tir’Anu.”

“Show me,” Nestor impatiently demanded.

Leon considered getting offended at being interrupted, but he decided not to make a big deal out of it and showed off his improved skill with light magic by creating another darkness-banishing ancient rune in shining white light next to him.

“Interesting,” Nestor murmured.  “This was a part of a larger enchantment scheme, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Leon replied.  “I was in a hurry and cut the most powerful rune out of the scheme as it was simpler, but the whole enchantment it was used in was complex.  I took detailed notes that I wanted your assistance in analyzing.”

“An enchantment that can resist the power of a Primal Devil is something I would be very interested in studying,” Nestor stated.  “I’m only needed for supervision back here—which means I’m not needed at all, so I’ll return to Stormhollow immediately.”

“Might some of my people accompany you, Lord Nestor?” Rakos inquired.

“Ask the King,” Nestor replied.

Leon didn’t even wait for Rakos to do just that, saying, “As many of your people can return as are able.”

Rakos bowed again.  “Twelve of our number have expressed interest in joining these ‘Tempest Knights’.  Others are more intrigued by the idea of piloting other bodies.  We are most excited, however, at the idea of serving our creators in any way we are needed.”

“We’ll see what work we can put you up to,” Leon replied.

And like that, Nestor and several dozen giants began the days-long journey back to Stormhollow.  Leon couldn’t wait until they arrived; studying enchantments and exploring what the giants might be capable of sounded significantly more interesting to him than dealing with politics.

Unfortunately for him, politics wasn’t quite done with him, as he still had numerous foreign dignitaries to meet with, not to mention Heaven’s Eye…

‘It’s going to be a long day,’ he lamented as he ended the call with Nestor.  He lingered in the room for only a few more seconds as he rejuvenated as much mental strength as he could before rising from his seat and returning to his duties.  Even as mentally tired as he already was, he wasn’t going to ignore his duties.

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