Before Kamran’s final announcement, leaving might have still been an option. Valeria and Justin were determined to get to Ariana, but if push came to shove, Leon thought he could’ve convinced them to leave and to come back in a year, or whenever another option might present itself. With Kamran in the city, trying to free Ariana had become incredibly difficult, and the risk was immense.
With Kamran’s announcement, however, that option was no longer viable. Leon could read that in Justin and Valeria’s disguised faces, the horror, wrath, and determination that he could see there telling him all he needed to know. If Ariana was now being presented for marriage consideration, then she would have to be freed as soon as possible, regardless of the risk. Despite having attracted Kamran’s personal attention, he didn’t even try to convince them to just go with the flow and come back at a later time.
Their reactions weren’t the most overt in the room; a gasp was heard from many a Lord, though Leon wondered if that was more due to having Ariana as a wife or from negotiating some kind of agreement with Kamran. Ariana wasn’t his blood daughter, as far as Leon was aware, but given his obvious care for her, it seemed that she was close to a child as he had, and any marriage she entered into would cement an alliance with one of the most powerful men in the Nexus.
‘They are going to descend on her like moths to a flame,’ Leon realized as he tried counting just how many Lords seemed interested in at least trying to woo her.
“No man,” Kamran continued, “will walk away with her today, I must emphasize! It will take more than a single dance to win her heart, I assure you all! But if she chooses any of you, then be assured that there will be many opportunities to get to know each other going forward! But until then, let us feast! And once the feast is over, I open not just my gardens but also the adjacent halls to you! Enjoy my hospitality, and let us celebrate our liberation!”
A great cry went up throughout the hall—though Leon noted that Anurak and Johan gave only perfunctory applause—before everyone went back to the feast.
As the hall filled with voices, Leon heard Justin grumble, his voice still protected from Kamran’s ears by a privacy rune, “Of all days… I should’ve moved sooner…”
“Getting into the city might’ve been harder,” Valeria said through clenched teeth. “We’re here now, Father. Kamran may be parading Mother like a prized mare, but we’re here. We can free her now.”
“That,” Leon responded, “is going to be harder than ever, now. Will he let Ariana out of his sight? And how are we going to get her away from the crowds?”
“Let me handle it,” Justin confidently offered. “She is my wife. She’ll… she’ll know me. She’ll come with me.”
“You’re going to offer to dance with her?” Leon asked, and Justin nodded. “There are a few hundred Lords who will want to go before you.”
“She chose me once. She’ll choose me again.”
Doubt crept through Leon’s mind like shadows at sunset, and his eyes flickered across the other two fifteenth-tier mages sitting at Kamran’s table, both of whom were now leaning towards the man, all three lost in conversation. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he imagined that they weren’t present just for the feast. It wasn’t a coincidence that they had come unexpectedly, and that Kamran then announced his ward was seeking a husband at the same time.
As far as Leon could tell, Anurak and Johan were the only candidates that Kamran was going to seriously consider. Nearly all the rest of the Lords present, to Leon’s eyes, were already Kamran’s creatures, and marrying Ariana would be more a reward for loyalty rather than a match made to secure a new alliance. Given Kamran’s troubles courtesy of Halbast and Auset, Kamran needed a new alliance, not to reward his loyalists.
When Leon thought about trying to say that to Justin, his mouth went dry and his tongue stilled. The other man stared back at him with such confidence and determined love that Leon realized trying to convince him of doing anything other than what he was already determined to do was folly.
“If you fail—” Leon began, but Justin immediately cut him off.
“I won’t.”
“If,” Leon repeated stiffly, “then we’ll try a more direct approach. If Kamran is so determined to give us the run of the adjacent halls, then we have more opportunities to get out. There are three entrances to the tunnels close by. Maybe four, depending on how ‘adjacent’ these halls are. One in the garden, another in the hall to the north, and one more to the east.”
Leon made eye contact with his three Paladins.
“You’ll each choose one to scout out. Don’t draw attention; just check the tunnel entrances with your own eyes.”
“Easy,” Alcander responded confidently.
“Not a problem,” Daryun said calmly.
“Yes,” Zhang formally acknowledged.
Leon then turned to Cassandra. “We’re going to have fun—or look like it, anyway. Give cover for the others. After Kamran calling us out, anyone who wants to speak with us will approach me, so I’ll have to be visible.”
“Dancing sounds fun,” Cassandra replied with a cheeky grin, though Leon could see the twitch at the corners of her lips that spoke to the anxiety hidden beneath the playfulness.
“Keep with your Father,” Leon said to Valeria. “Keep him focused. Support him, if needed. Make sure he doesn’t challenge the first Lordly ass who wants a dance with Ariana.”
Amusement tugged at Valeria’s lips, but after a look she shared with Justin, she replied, “He’ll have to watch me. If anyone’s going to be challenging anyone, it’ll be me.”
“Just… this has become so much more complicated. We’re doing this right under Kamran’s nose.” Leon sighed, then turned back to Justin. “Keep a cool head, Justin.”
“My head is always cool,” Justin growled hotly, though his aura pulsed just enough to remind Leon that he was an ice mage.
“Right,” Leon replied, his eyes going once again to Valeria, silently impressing upon her the need to do this quietly. Then, he said, “If Ariana will come with us, then we’ll pick one point of egress and smuggle her out.”
“Just like that?” Nestor asked doubtfully.
“We’ll make do with whatever chance we get,” Leon hissed. “After that, plan’s normal. Normal-ish. Get out through the tunnels, use Lumenite to get back west before the Origin Spark brightens tomorrow morning.”
“And me?” Nestor asked. “What do you believe I should be doing?”
Irritation flashed through Leon, though more directed at Kamran than at anyone else. Still, Nestor revealing that he wasn’t a golem was something he’d have preferred to keep secret a while longer. He thought he might have been able to politely decline Kamran in some way, or at least delay until they could escape with Ariana, but Nestor had said what he said, and that was it.
‘Better to roll with it than waste time bemoaning it…’
“We’ll use it as best we can,” Leon said. “You’ll attract attention. Kamran indicated that he’d be coming to speak with us later about you. That might just be a good way for us to distract from Justin and Ariana. Maybe.”
“Then I stand around until someone comes up to chat?” Nestor asked, his tone neutral, as if he were asking about the weather.
“Yes,” Leon confirmed without hesitation. “Anyone else have any questions?”
The others were quiet, and after several seconds, he nodded and had them get back to the feast. They had to pay attention to what was going on around them if they were going to pull this off.
But… Leon still checked and re-checked his gear in his soul realm. His heart was softly thumping in his chest, but he could still feel the odd twinge of worry and anticipation—violence breaking out at this event was suddenly a lot more likely, and he had to ready himself for it.
The rest of his party was largely quiet even as the feast proceeded. They attracted some attention as they picked at some of the dishes on display, but for the most part, they remained off to the side, letting the Lords take more of the attention as the minutes dragged by. Many of the seated Lords got up and moved around, starting and entering conversations as they ate and drank their fill.
Kamran, however, remained up at the high table, keeping what looked from what Leon stood to be a perfectly cordial conversation with Anurak and Johan going. He wondered if they were speaking much about his current situation, or if that was too heavy a topic for the feast, or if Kamran even wanted to discuss such things with them before getting a formal alliance—assuming he was even after that.
At some point, Leon noted that the guards around the doors were relaxing, and that the gardens around the circular hall were emptying of other people in preparation for Lords and their retainers to take their conversations out there.
None of the slaves around the edge of the hall did likewise, however. They remained where they were, occasionally taking an emptied plate or ducking out to get more of something—another jar of wine, another plate of exotic fruit, another large cut of some animal that Leon had never seen before—before returning quickly. He could feel them alert, always watching, and going largely overlooked by everyone else.
‘Spies,’ he thought. He knew that Elise listened often to what his palace servants overheard, and though nothing of particular consequence had yet to fall from their lips, he wondered if the same would be true in a place like Kamran’s court. There were many Lords here, after all, and after a night spent feasting on the finest that Kamran could provide, some tongues might loosen, and the slaves were perfectly positioned to overhear whatever they might say…
Soon enough, the feast was over, and Kamran rose from his seat again.
“We have filled our bellies!” Kamran shouted. “We have greeted our old friends!”
The room boomed with jolly roars from the primarily Storm Lord crowd.
“But!” Kamran continued. “As great as they are, meat and friends are not the only joys in this world! Let us keep the night going and begin the dance!”
More roaring followed, and some of the Lords even slammed their hands on their tables to make more noise. The slaves at the edge of the room, however, surged forward as the Lords made way, and they moved the tables and chairs away from the center of the hall, making plenty of room for even the large crowd to dance comfortably.
Before they’d even finished, Leon noted many of the Lords already pairing off, either with each other or with some of the retainers that had come with their Lords. There was a rough split between men and women in the hall, so he doubted anyone who wanted to would go long without a partner.
But those who moved quickly to get a dance partner might have started immediately regretting their decision as, moments later, Kamran clapped loudly as two more gorgeous slaves went to the enormous doors at his back.
“My ward, who I have long treated as my own daughter,” he said as the crowd quieted down again to hang on his every word, “has achieved Apotheosis! She is young, beautiful, and possessed of sharp wit! But don’t take my word for it; see for yourself! Allow me to introduce Ariana to you all, and may at least one of you pique her interest!”
Some good-natured laughter echoed in the cavernous hall, but nearly every eye watched as the slaves began opening the door, and behind it, Leon saw a vision of stunning beauty.
Long black hair that shone like the finest silk, pulled into an elegant braid—one not unlike those that Valeria favored—woven with glittering jewels of every kind that glittered like stars in the night sky. Her gown was the purest white, the ankle-length skirt and bodice sparkling with more jewels. The cut was flattering, though hardly obscene—her arms and shoulders were bare, but little else—while her upper chest was dominated by a show of wealth that Leon would balk at even if his wives asked for something similar: an enormous blue diamond set in an Adamant pendant and secured around her neck with shining Aurichalcum.
As eye-catching as the jewels and dress were, however, they utterly paled in comparison to the woman who wore them. She entered the hall with only the barest sign of hesitation and wore a smile so bright that all the light in the hall seemed to dim in shame. Leon could immediately see Valeria in her, with a heart-shaped face, a delicate nose, full lips, and enchanting midnight-black eyes.
A gasp went up around the hall, and Leon could understand; he had to fight the same urge every time he saw Valeria. Amusingly, though, he noted that there were quite a few ladies in the hall adding their gasps to the men who couldn’t quite control themselves.
“My dear,” Kamran said proudly as he extended a hand, and Ariana gracefully took it, smiling at Kamran in a way that had Leon’s heart freezing in his chest. “May I have this first dance?”
“Of course, my Lord.” Ariana’s voice was as captivating as her appearance, and Leon imagined that even if it didn’t come with an implied alliance with Kamran, she would have been inundated with more dance requests than she could fulfill as the night progressed.
But as enchanting as she was, Leon slowly turned his attention to Justin. The man had frozen, his eyes wide, his lips quivering. Valeria had taken one of his hands, and he imagined that was the only reason the man hadn’t rushed to his wife’s side the moment he laid eyes on her.
That stunned reaction was prolonged as Ariana took Kamran’s arm and allowed him to escort her down to the hall’s floor. The rest of the Lords made way for them to pass, and Justin’s eyes didn’t leave them for a moment.
“It can’t… she can’t…” Justin whispered in disbelief. Music started from seemingly nowhere, musicians absent as far as Leon could tell, but Justin’s only reaction was to flinch when Kamran began to gently twirl with Ariana in time with the soft notes filling the hall.
Ariana’s smile never once wavered—and if anything, only grew. She laughed as the short song came to an end, the single expression more musical than what had just been playing, and looked nothing like the imprisoned woman pining for her lost family that Leon had long expected. She looked… joyful, ecstatic to be where she was.
Leon’s heart began to sink as other Lords began approaching the woman as Kamran exited the throng—some abandoning their previously-chosen partners in favor of trying to get Ariana’s second dance.
But instead of paying attention to that jostle, to the shouted introductions and requests, or the angry responses from those offended that others were trying to cut in, Leon watched Kamran, as the man wasn’t returning to the high table. Instead, he smiled at the rush and then turned towards Leon’s party and started walking towards them, his smile sharpening with every step he took.
“You all have your standing orders,” Leon said as their last seconds of privacy raced by. “Stick to them. Look for opportunities.”
He barely finished before Kamran entered their little bubble protected by Valeria’s privacy rune.
“Hmm,” he said in thought. “A well-inscribed rune. Whoever set it up has real skill.”
Not wanting Valeria to attract any attention, Leon neutrally stated, “Your words flatter us, and your compliment is well-received.”
Kamran’s smiling lips thinned. He was shorter up close, perhaps several finger-widths shorter than Leon, but he loomed much larger up close than he did from behind a table.
“I hope to do more than compliment,” he said as his eyes flickered toward Nestor. “Though I’m loath to keep anyone from the dance if they wish to join it, I’d like to share further words.”
Though framed as a friendly suggestion, Leon knew that to a man like Kamran, suggestions were just polite orders. He gave the rest of his party a look, and after a moment, they melted away to follow his standing orders. His Paladins looked set to try and explore the parts of the palace now open to them, while Justin made for the dance floor, Valeria following him with only one nervous look thrown over her shoulder at Leon.
Leon was thus left with Kamran, Nestor, and Cassandra, the latter of whom gently took his arm and made it known that she wasn’t going anywhere.
“We’d be honored to speak more with you,” Leon said, bracing himself to share more words with perhaps the one man he hated more than any other in the entire universe…
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