‘Who was here?’ Leon furiously wondered.  ‘Who trespassed here?  One of the Valemen?  No, they wouldn’t venture into this vale at all…’

Leon wracked his brain trying to figure out from the bootprints alone who would’ve been bold enough to come into the Forest of Black and White on their own.  He could only see one set of tracks, so he knew that whoever this was had been on their own… until he realized that the prints began and ended right there in front of the tree.  There were no signs of the tracks coming or going into the forest.

‘Whoever they were could fly…’ he realized as his blood went cold with alarmed rage.

So consumed was he in staring at these tracks that he didn’t even notice Valeria kneeling in front of the tree, nor did he notice Elise and Cassandra head over to kneel beside her.  Anzu, meanwhile, amused himself by walking around the clearing and staring out into the forest.  When he looked up and saw his ladies, he almost forgot about the tracks.  He walked over to the three while projecting his magic senses to scour the Forest of Black and White in detail.  That, however, would take some time.

“The ground isn’t the most comfortable place to be, even here,” he said as lightly and nonchalantly as he could even as his eyes scanned the tree line for any sign that the mysterious interloper was still around.

“Comfortable or not, it’s needed,” Valeria declared as she lowered her head toward Artorias’ Heartwood tree.

“It’s good to pay respect to our father-in-law,” Elise smilingly added.  “What’s a bit of dirt compared to showing our humility?”

“It’s also good to pay respect to nature,” Cassandra offered, her ruby-red eyes glittering in the light of the Heartwood’s glowing leaves.  As a rapturous look crossed her face, she continued, “Such a holy place deserves this.”

Leon almost countered their arguments, but the aura of the tree wrapped around them, and he could almost feel his father’s presence, causing his voice to catch in his throat.  The wind blew through the Heartwood’s leaves, causing a few to fall around his ladies.  Leon wasn’t normally one to read too much into such random events, but he couldn’t help but think it was some kind of omen, some sign of Artorias’ favor or approval of their actions.  Consequently, he shut his mouth and let his ladies do their thing while he concentrated on scanning the Forest of Black and White.

His magic senses swept over the entire vale, and his attention was almost immediately drawn to the auras of all the most powerful creatures in it.  He saw Maia chatting with her aunt next to a lake in the east, he saw a seventh-tier bear lazily swatting at the water of a small stream, seeking fish, and he saw a dark shape darting through the trees, indistinct yet familiar—one of the black cat-like mounts that his Clan used long ago, let loose during his Clan’s fall, and still roaming the forest.  Further west, he even saw shifting trees and glowing flowers borne by the wind heading toward his former retainers, showing that Tikos’ attempt to recruit them seemed to be working.  He saw many more creatures than those, but no sign of any humans—at least until he detected another pulse of magic senses that didn’t come from any of his people.

Leon immediately went on high alert and almost filled the sky with storm clouds right then, but he then felt a second pulse, and then a third.  Whoever was scanning their surroundings wasn’t being particularly subtle about it, but then again, neither was he.

The three pulses made tracking the origin simplicity in itself, but when Leon turned his eyes to the northwest, his mood was not improved.  He saw standing in a clearing close to the center of the Heartwood Grove, a young man wearing all black.  The man was pale and thin, with soft, round features.  His black clothes were obviously of fine make, though they bore no adornment aside from the obvious quality of the material.

Most concerningly, Leon could tell that the man was an eleventh-tier mage just as he was.  More than that, the man was staring right back at him, his pitch-black eyes locked onto Leon’s ownfor.

A hundred possible identities of who this man was flashed through Leon’s mind, from another agent of Lord Kamran to some adventurer from another plane just exploring Aeterna, but until it was proven otherwise, Leon decided to play it safe.

“We might have a situation,” he quietly, but seriously, intoned, drawing his ladies’ attention.  “Someone else is here.  A post-Apotheosis mage.”

“W-What?” Elise stammered, clearly taken aback as she shot to her feet.  “Where?  What should we do?”

“Confront whoever this is, obviously,” Cassandra responded as she smoothly rose to her feet and followed Leon’s gaze, then sent a derisive glare to the northwest.  “Whoever he is shouldn’t be here.”

“What if he’s too strong?” Elise argued.  “This person isn’t attacking us, why should we attack him first?”

“No one trespasses upon a Heartwood Grove so easily,” Valeria pointed out as she pushed herself back to her feet.  “The trees wouldn’t allow someone so dangerous to take shelter beneath them.”

“There are always ways around that,” Cassandra pointed out as her aura began to rise.

At the same time, Leon could sense the aura of Artorias’ Heartwood tree begin to tighten around her.  Though it was his father’s tree, Leon knew the temperament of the Heartwoods was peaceful, and they had a tendency to enforce that peace.

“Return to the others,” he ordered before any arguments got out of hand and to interrupt whatever was going through Cassandra’s head.  “I’ll see what this man’s intentions are.”

“You shouldn’t go alone,” Valeria protested.

“I’ll go with you,” Cassandra declared.

“No,” Leon replied.  For the first time since he saw the interloper, he turned his eyes away to focus on his ladies.  “As you said, Val, the Heartwood trees won’t tolerate violence.  I’ll be fine.  Head back to the Divine Scar.  I’ll meet with you there.”

“We’ll wait for you there,” Elise firmly stated as she sent a challenging look at the other two.  Valeria sighed, then nodded, while Cassandra outright scowled, glared once more at the interloper, and then retracted her aura—to Leon’s relief.

Leon gave them one more nod, then called Anzu over and explained the situation.  With that done, he channeled some darkness magic and informed Maia and the others what was going on.  As Maia cut her meeting with her aunt short, Leon rose into the air and angled northwest.  Elise, Valeria, Cassandra, and Anzu took off behind him, but turned directly west, toward where his friends were attracting the tree sprites.

‘They’ll be fine,’ Leon told himself as he shot off in the direction of the Heartwood Grove, his eyes once more locked onto the interloper.  Still, he kept his magic senses projected, on the lookout for any signs of an ambush or trap.  The interloper, however, simply stood in the clearing, staring right back at him, his arms crossed over his chest.

As Leon drew close to the grove, he landed.  Flying in felt disrespectful, and the last thing he wanted to do was to disturb the Heartwood trees.  The trees were the graves of powerful mages and still exerted a great deal of power over everything in the shade of their canopies.  Even as an eleventh-tier mage, Leon didn’t think he could overpower their strange, magical demands for peace.

He felt himself calming down unwillingly as the aura of the grove settled about him.  The aura seemed more potent somehow than he’d ever sensed before, as if the trees were aware that two post-Apotheosis mages were about to meet.  They were hardly going to be active participants in the meeting, however, so Leon simply internalized their demand and continued, focusing entirely on the interloper.

It took enough time to walk through the trees to the interloper’s clearing that all but Maia assembled back around the Divine Scar, and even Maia was drawing close.  Leon was gratified to see everyone on high alert and assuming defensive formations on the cliff.  He could even see Valeria setting up a few defensive wards around their position.

His anxieties thusly calmed, Leon finally drew to within direct visual range of the interloper.

Throughout his approach, the interloper remained standing right where he was, seeming as rooted to the ground as the enormous trees around him.  He merely watched, motionless, as Leon cautiously approached.

Fortunately, Leon’s caution appeared unwarranted, for no traps were activated and no ambushes were sprung.  The interloper seemed alone and undefended, save for by the powerful aura of the Heartwoods, which Leon, even now that he’d achieved Apotheosis, didn’t think he could defy.

Leon halted a few dozen feet away; still well within speaking distance for them, but a wide enough distance that he could still react in time if the interloper tried anything.

The silence between them stretched over long seconds.  By the time the seconds became minutes, Leon realized the interloper wasn’t going to speak first.  He’d have the break the ice.

Striking an authoritative tone and posture, Leon demanded to know, “Were you the one who trespassed by the lone Heartwood to the southeast?”

The interloper stared at him for several seconds, then answered in a smooth and youthful voice.  “A Heartwood cannot be trespassed upon.  I visited.  Do you believe I violated some taboo?”

“Why did you visit that Heartwood?” Leon interrogated.

“Is simple curiosity not enough?  Must I have a reason for it?”

A thin-lipped smile spread across Leon’s face.  ‘Fucker’s playing with me,’ he angrily thought.

Controlling himself, he asked in a measured, but subtly daring tone, “If you have no reason, then say so.”

The interloper grinned.  “If you must know, I was sent here for a reason.  To search for a man and his son.”

Leon’s lips pulled back, revealing his teeth.  He subtly assumed a more aggressive posture.

Noticing Leon’s posture shift, the interloper stated, “I’m not here for violence, that is not my mission.  What’s more, this is a place of peace.  If you agree to abide by that peace, then so shall I.”

Leon forced himself to relax both body and face, and pointedly asked, “Who are you searching for, precisely, and why?”

“Unless you’re one of the two I’m looking for, you don’t need to know,” the interloper responded.  A muscle in Leon’s face twitched, but he resisted responding long enough for the interloper to continue.  “You are one of those I seek, however, so I will tell you.”

The interloper conjured an orb of glass in his hand; suspended within was a single drop of blood.  Leon was quite aware of such blood magic; Heaven’s Eye made use of such magic for identification, and Leon used it to ensure control over complex permanent enchantments, especially defensive wards.

He noticed the blood shaking slightly.  The glass orb was designed to hold the blood in its exact center, but the orb was obviously designed to locate specific people since the enchantment was weak enough to let the blood drift in Leon’s direction.

“You have my blood?” Leon said out of surprise.

The interloper looked at him strangely, then said, “By the midnight scale, no!  This is your mother’s blood!”

Silence followed that statement.

Leon stared, his mouth falling open.

His mind froze.

His posture relaxed.

Either several seconds passed, or an age and a half, before Leon’s mind began to kick back into gear.

“Wha…  Huh?” he sputtered.

The interloper grinned.  “Why don’t we start again, Leon?  I’ve been sent to find you by your mother.  I’m Serana’s cousin.  We’re kin, you and I.”

Leon began to rapidly blink, but the interloper raised a hand and snapped his finger.  A puff of black fire erupted from his thumb, just enough that Leon could tell he wasn’t lying but not enough to run afoul of the Heartwood trees surrounding them.

The shock left Leon staggering backward and he tripped over a small boulder.  When he hit the ground, he simply lay there, staring at the sky.  The interloper remained where he was, and after a moment, he added, “My name’s Fain, by the way!”

‘Fain…?’ Leon thought.  The name was familiar to him, and when he realized why, he shot back to his feet, his golden eyes alight with fury.

“You’re the one who took my Mother!  You and… Ryker!”

A look of profound awkwardness passed over Fain’s face.  He rubbed the back of his head and averted his gaze.  “Yeah,” he confirmed.  “In my defense, I was injured and didn’t know what was going on.  Your mother… was not happy with me.  I, uh… she expresses her anger quite violently…”

Leon wasn’t sure how to respond to that.  A large part of him was overjoyed to hear of her, while an even larger part of him demanded that he make Fain pay for every second that his mother had been gone.  If her and Artorias’ villa in the Bull Kingdom’s capital had never been attacked, then that’s where Leon would’ve grown up, surrounded by friends and family instead of alone with his father in the Forest of Black and White.  Or, perhaps he might’ve grown up in the Great Black Dragon Clan, somewhere in the Nexus.

Either way, his separation from his mother was a defining moment in his life, even if he had only been months old at the time.

“What… is…” he murmured, not quite able to put his thoughts in order.

“Princess Serana… asked me to reach out,” Fain stated.  “Honestly, I was skeptical.  I mean, a child without a bloodline awakening ceremony was unlikely to still be alive after almost a century.  ‘Probably died a mortal’, is what I thought.  So… color me surprised to find you here, having achieved Apotheosis.  Tell me, how did you awaken your bloodline?”

Leon rapidly blinked and forced his brain to focus.  He wasn’t going to remain a sputtering mess.  He refocused on Fain.

“How… did you find this place?” he asked, ignoring Fain’s question.  “That blood orb should’ve taken you directly to me, not here.”

“The blood was a backup,” Fain admitted.  “It’s… not the easiest thing to activate for our Clan.  Not done except under certain circumstances…  I found this place more conventionally.  Perusing the archives of the Kingdom to the south for information, questioning people and erasing their memories when I was through… that sort of thing, you know?  Easy enough.”

“Visiting Argent Palace?” Leon inquired.

Fain shrugged.  “Probably.  I visited a bunch of palaces, honestly.”

“This one is basically ruins now.”

“Sounds familiar.”

Leon inhaled over several long seconds as he stared at Fain—at his self-proclaimed kin—and… couldn’t decide on what he wanted to say.  There was just so much…

“So, uh, listen,” Fain said as Leon failed to follow up on his answer, “You’ve got some secrets.  I heard something about a second bloodline?  I’d love to know if that’s true, but hey, you don’t have to tell me.  Just… I’d really like it if you told me…  But you don’t have to!  But is that why you’re not dead, or some doddering old mortal?  This other bloodline?”

Again ignoring Fain’s question, Leon asked, “Why are you looking for me?  My mother sent you… why?  Why now?  Why not… any time before now?!”

Leon’s anger returned as he pressed, and he took a few menacing steps toward Fain.

Fain retreated the same number of steps, a conciliatory smile spreading across his face.  “Look, look, look, as I said, I’m not here for violence!  Inter-Clan violence is not to be tolerated!”

Leon smirked, and after confirming that the Thunderbird was listening in, stated, “I’m not a part of your Clan.  That has been made abundantly clear.  Now, answer me.  Why?  Why now?!”

“The Princess… did not leave you willingly,” Fain diplomatically stated.  “After our war with Lord Kamran, our Patriarch placed her under house arrest.  She only managed to get word out to me a few years ago.  I’m now here to follow through on her orders.  That’s… listen, kid, do you bear our power?”

Hardly thinking it over, Leon snapped his fingers, replicating what Fain had done minutes before and conjuring a tiny burst of black fire.

“Incredible…” Fain murmured.  “You managed to awaken our power somehow…”

“Why.  Did my mother.  Send you?” Leon demanded again, advancing another couple of steps.

“That… I can’t easily say,” Fain said as he waved his hand and conjured a slate of black stone.  “She wanted me to give this to you, so I assume it’s a part of this somehow.  We use these to record messages and the like.”  He tossed the slate at Leon, and Leon extended his magic to catch it.

The slate wasn’t large, able to fit in his palm comfortably.  It was a solid piece, too, hardly in danger of breaking, but Leon handled it reverently.  He could hardly believe anything that Fain was saying, he felt like he’d fallen into some kind of dream or illusion, but if he hadn’t, then he was holding a message… from his mother.

He stared at the slate, sensing the enchantment within only by instinct.

“You just have to activate it,” Fain said a little impatiently, jerking Leon out of his thoughts.

Leon spared the man a withering glare, and to Leon’s amusement, he fell silent and seemed to shrink back.

“Definitely her kid…” Fain murmured.  Even with his power, Leon only just barely heard it, and he had to fight a smile that threatened to break out.  Even if he couldn’t take Fain entirely at his word, the comparison alone had him over the moon.

Refocusing on the slate, Leon examined it more thoroughly.  The slate was, in short, an incredible piece of enchanting, an actual work of art despite only appearing to be smooth black stone.  The enchantment within, as far as he could tell, was keyed into his blood—or, perhaps more accurately, was keyed into Serana’s blood, and expanded to include those within one generation of her.  Only those who matched could activate the slate.  Fortunately, the enchantment was so intuitive that Leon was easily able to see how he needed to activate it.

He channeled his power as needed, only needing a few sparks for the surface of the slate to suddenly become as transparent as glass, revealing hundreds of glowing runes below the surface.  Leon’s power raced throughout the slate, and after a moment, the slate projected a figure above it.

For the first time in his life, Leon beheld the face of his mother.  No longer would she be a mere idea.  He now had a face to connect with the concept.

And a moment later, he had a voice, too…

—-

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