Getting out of the city was going to be much harder than getting in, but Leon had known that going in. Justin had originally planned on leaving the way they’d gotten in: through the underground tunnels snaking all over the city. Leon would have thought it to still be a viable route if only Kamran hadn’t been in the city, as the occasional crack of terrible thunder reinforced. The tunnels might be a way out, but he wasn’t particularly willing to leave the safehouse until Kamran ceased his pursuit.
Even now, the man stalked the streets, a thousand runes glowing in the brightening sky, looking for his daughter. Bodies littered the streets beneath tattered remnants of festival decorations, grisly evidence of Kamran’s disregard for their lives when Ariana had yet to be found.
Thankfully, the sheer size of Torn Sky was working in their favor, as Kamran had such a large area to scour that it would take days, if not more, to comb through every building and inspect every corner. However, Leon was less than willing to wait days. The city was locked down by Kamran’s runes, and the gates were all closed and heavily guarded. Breaking through all of those barriers without alerting Kamran was next to impossible, but so was waiting until Kamran ripped enough of the city apart that they could no longer hide.
“The tunnels are still our only way out,” Daryun whispered as he leaned over the table, the map between him and Leon.
Zhang and Cassandra were still with Alcander, while Valeria had taken her mother to another room to wake up. Justin was with Leon and Daryun, but he was so clearly distracted that he barely spoke. Nestor was practically unconscious, his golem frame curled up on the floor as the dead man focused on regaining what meager power he was able to store.
Leon sighed through his teeth. “Aye, I was thinking that myself. Unless you have a contact that can help, Justin?” His tone was sharp and demanding, and Justin reluctantly turned to face him, a blank look on his face.
“What was that?”
Antipathy washed through Leon’s body in a great wave, and it took a significant amount of self-control for him not to snap at the other man. “Your contacts,” Leon hissed. “I recall that you had many in the city. Who can help?”
Leon, of course, had been told of many of them before the operation began, but he didn’t know enough about them to know if they would help with Kamran raining lightning down upon anything that moved in the streets.
“I… uh, don’t know,” Justin responded, looking more than a little lost and flustered.
“Why don’t you know?” Daryun asked, his voice as pointed as Leon’s. “You did reach out to them before all of this, did you not?”
Justin’s lip curled with offense. “Yes!” he insisted. “I even have more potential contacts in this city than I told you about, but I only ever mentioned those whom I’ve reached out to within the past year!”
Leon opened his mouth to respond, but he suddenly felt the extreme pressure outside starting to lift. He went to a window and looked past his wards to see the city outside. There, he saw close to the center of the city, Kamran hovering several hundred feet above the tallest spires and several hundred feet below the lowest floor of his palace island. He wasn’t alone, though, as three other mages were there with him. All were post-Apotheosis, but Leon guessed they were his vassals given none of them exceeded twelfth-tier.
After a few seconds, Kamran turned his head to the palace island, which had been severely devastated by his reaction to hearing what Leon and his party had done, and then, with clear reluctance, began flying back toward it. The other mages remained outside and took up his job of scouring the city.
Unfortunately, Leon couldn’t see what Kamran was doing in his palace as the wards were still functioning, but with his physical eyes he could see Johan sitting on top of one of the tallest towers, an amused grin playing at his lips. Of Anurak, nothing could be seen, but Leon hadn’t seen any sign that the fifteenth-tier mage had left, and so he had to still be in the palace.
‘To be a fly on the wall whenever Kamran speaks to them again,’ he thought. Such an incident not just occurring in his capital city but in his own palace was the height of humiliation, and likely reduced Kamran’s bargaining power for whatever pact he’d brought Johan and Anurak here to forge.
Despite everything, Leon smiled. Whether or not the mission was a success or even if they would all live through it, they’d inflicted a wound upon Kamran today, and that wasn’t something he’d ever discount. It didn’t balance the scales for Artorias’ death, but… it was a start.
Those scales would only be balanced when Kamran was lying dead at Leon’s feet. It would come to pass, one day. But that day was not this day, and Leon turned his attention back to the map.
“The city will likely remain on lockdown for the foreseeable future,” Leon said. “Until they either find us, or they’re certain we’ve slipped away.”
“It can’t remain locked down for long,” Justin said, now focusing on the conversation perhaps as a way to not focus on Ariana. “This is the heart of his Empire, the center of his administration. He has a great war to wage out in the planes, and he cannot stay here long.”
Cassandra walked over, her face stern, and asked, “Is there any help that either Halbast or Auset can provide?”
“Here?” Justin asked. “No. Neither of them are nearly as connected with the people in this city as I am, and it’s been centuries since I was anyone here. What’s more, they’re fighting out in the planes. Hoping for either of them to launch any kind of assault on this city would be foolish at best.”
Cassandra’s ruby eyes narrowed in displeasure. “If you weren’t Valeria’s father, I would have some choice words for you about the quickness of your brain. I wasn’t asking if you thought they’d help personally; I was asking if they could help at all.”
Zhang, his tone more even-handed than Cassandra’s, though that wasn’t saying much, noted, “The greatest of Kings can act without being present, or can alter the scales of power enough that other Kings must react or be destroyed. Is it not the same for these great monarchs?”
“Who is defending Kamran’s holdings?” Leon further pressed. “Having Kamran in the field constrains Halbast and Auset. Knowing he’s back in the Nexus might open them up to possible gains. And if they tried to take advantage of his absence from the frontlines, then he might have to abandon the Nexus just to save his planar holdings.”
“A good plan,” Justin said. “But one I can’t enact. To contact either of them, I would need to access communication facilities that are either in lockdown right now or are outside of Torn Sky’s walls.”
A thoughtful frown spread across Leon’s face. “That… that may not be so… If a message can be sent, would either Anax help?”
Justin thought for a moment, then replied with confidence-raising certainty, “Yes.”
With a growing smile, Leon began telling them his plan…
---
It was surreal, reaching a moment so long dreamed of. Despite envisioning finding and reuniting with her mother for the first time since her birth what felt like millions of times, Valeria wasn’t sure how to proceed. She’d never thought that Ariana would reject her, especially not after Serana’s quick and emphatic claiming of Leon.
But now, Ariana was with her, sleeping quietly even though the spell keeping her unconscious had been removed. That the spell had been necessary at all proved just how wildly her plans had gone awry. Ariana was not here willingly, and when she awoke, Valeria was going to have to try and make her stay voluntarily.
She wondered how that was going to happen. Her heart still thumped in her chest, pumping more fear and uncertainty through her body than blood and mana. She’d never considered herself good with words, but now she had to somehow try and turn this broken mess into something that resembled a family.
In that quiet room, with nothing but Ariana’s soft breathing to distract her, she attempted to reconcile what she’d thought to be true with what had been revealed. She had to get her own thoughts in order if she hoped to convince her mother of anything.
She had thought that Ariana had been imprisoned by Kamran, much like how Serana had been, and was only waiting for the perfect opportunity to escape and find her lost husband and daughter. Now, it seemed more like Kamran had been protecting Ariana, for she wasn’t merely his ward, nor his adopted daughter; she was his daughter, full stop.
And that meant that Valeria was related to Kamran. The Anax was her grandfather. The man who had exiled her and her father, who had waged a nightmarish war against the Dragon Federation and their leading Great Dragon Clans, and who was ultimately responsible for so much loss in her husband’s life. His father, father’s father, uncle, and mother’s mother were all dead because of Kamran. In the case of Leon’s paternal family, her own father had the instrument with which Kamran’s will had been carried out.
She knew that Leon would never forgive Justin for what he had done, and she had long been assured that he would never blame her for any of it. But that had been before he knew that she was related to Kamran. She could easily see him turning away from her, his love diminishing in light of these revelations. It didn’t take Valeria a great leap of logic to think that Leon had only set aside his grudge against her father because Justin had turned that grudge onto Kamran. Justin had been acting under duress, fearing for the wife he’d left behind.
There would be no such deflection on Kamran’s part—Leon was going to take the man’s head, and nothing anyone said or did would stop him. But it could be a long time before that happened, and every time he looked at her between then and now would be a reminder of all that he’d lost.
‘Will he turn away from me?’ she asked herself. ‘He already turned his blade away from my father for me, and now this…?’
Her thoughts began to spiral from there, but before they could go too far, Ariana began to stir.
‘I’ll help him,’ she thought as she forced herself to a conclusion. ‘Kamran will die, and I will help Leon make it happen.’
With that steely vow carved into her heart, Valeria focused on her mother.
Ariana woke slowly, stretching languidly over the sofa she lay on—the only piece of furniture in the room. As her limbs brushed against the backrest on one side and flailed above the bare floor on the other, her face contorted in discomfort. She moaned in complaint as her dark eyes slowly opened, her silky black hair matted against her head.
It took a moment, during which Ariana blinked slowly, confusion writ large across her face at how she so obviously didn’t recognize her surroundings. And then she visibly recoiled as she remembered everything that happened. She almost screamed, but as Valeria moved to her side, Ariana stiffened and fell dead silent.
“How are you feeling?” Valeria asked softly. “I… apologize for the sleeping spell; we had to move quickly to get you out of that prison that Kamran calls a palace.”
Ariana’s eyes were locked on Valeria, sweeping up and down her face, analyzing every detail. Valeria wasn’t even sure her mother had heard a word she said.
But then, after a pause long enough for the silence to turn awkward, Ariana croaked, “I’m… stiff…”
Valeria smiled. “Not used to sleeping on a sofa, are you?”
Ariana slowly shook her head in the negative.
“If what you told us at the end of that meeting is accurate, I would hardly think that Kamran would allow you to sleep on anything but the finest and softest beds in the entire Nexus.”
“I prefer firmer mattresses,” Ariana replied, her tone almost meek, but her words still drew an even wider smile from Valeria.
“One of my closest friends is the same,” the silver-haired woman replied. “She sleeps on her back. My husband is a side sleeper, though, and so prefers softer beds.”
“Husband…?” Ariana whispered.
Valeria nodded. “Married almost our entire lives, at this point. More than two and a half centuries.”
Ariana’s terrified demeanor cracked as her dark eyes started to shine with unshed tears. “A-And… you are… my…?” she quietly inquired, her voice shaking as if she were afraid of the answer.
“Your daughter,” Valeria responded. “Taken from you when I was born, and exiled with my father. Were you… unaware of that? Did Kamran tell you something else?”
“My…” Ariana responded, her voice dying quickly as she visibly tried to find something to say. In the absence of words, though, she reached out and cupped Valeria’s cheek. Her touch was feather light, but Valeria leaned into it and brought one of her hands up to hold her mother’s hand against her face. Ariana almost jerked her hand back, but she stopped herself, and even started to smile.
When she finally spoke, her words spilled out in a halting and stilted cadence. “I… would have preferred… if you had taken… a bit less after Justin…”
A quick chuckle escaped Valeria’s lips, though any mirth she felt disappeared as she really absorbed Ariana’s statement.
In truth, Valeria didn’t think she looked much like her father. Her sapphire eyes and silver hair were the only features she’d taken from him, and while they were big enough features that many thought she ‘looked like’ Justin, the similarities, as far as she could see them, stopped there. In her face and figure, she almost felt like she was looking at a mirror in Ariana.
For Ariana to not even want that much was… Valeria wasn’t quite sure how to take it, if she were honest.
“Have you thought of us much?” Valeria directly asked, her hand tightening slightly against Ariana’s. “Three and a half centuries we were gone… During that time, I imagined you so much that I’m finding it hard to reconcile the woman in front of me with the woman in my head.”
“I…” Ariana replied, and though Valeria waited, no further words followed.
With a sinking heart, Valeria continued to speak, giving her mother more time to think if nothing else. But there were things she wanted to say, and she wasn’t going to let Ariana go without getting at least one answer from her.
“I have lived a blessed life in many ways. My husband and I had a rocky start to our relationship, but now we share such love and trust that I would not give him up for anything. My father has always doted on me, providing anything and everything that I asked for. Despite all that he lost in having me, he has never once made me feel unwanted or unloved. I have sisters of the heart, other women who support me as I support them. They are my best friends and are as much family to me as my husband and father.
“But despite this family that I’ve built, there has always been a hole. My mother, stuck in a prison by Lord Kamran, furious at her for having given her virtue to a man he thought unworthy. I have long thought of you, wondering if you were thinking of me at the same time. Did my mother feel the same way, I thought to myself. Did she feel the same hole in her heart as I did? Surely she had to, right? She was imprisoned, separated from her husband and daughter… she had to feel the same…”
Valeria fixed Ariana in an icy glare, one that would brook no deflections or equivocations.
“Did you?” she asked. “Feel that hole? Do you feel it now?”
Ariana was quiet for another interminably long moment, but Valeria allowed it to stretch longer and longer. She could see the glistening beads building up in Ariana’s eyes, and when the first tear fell, she thought herself ready. But when Ariana threw her arms around Valeria’s shoulders, all of that preparation dissolved faster than she thought possible, and tears of her own began to fall.
“Yes,” Ariana sobbed into Valeria’s ear. “I felt it, too. But…” she pulled back, her eyes rapidly reddening, “I do not feel it now. I do not feel it because you’re here, undeniably here.”
She pulled Valeria down, pressing the younger woman into her upper chest as she laid several soft kisses upon Valeria’s silver head.
“You’re here,” she whispered again.
Valeria had so many other questions, but for the moment, she let Ariana hold her. It was, after all, easier to hide the tears that way.
---
“… but Karaktikus would have no reason to aid us,” Justin said as he slowly circled the city map. “And without his authorization, getting out of the city disguised as a Red Leaf merchant is impossible.”
“Seizing a Lumenite platform is looking more and more attractive by the second,” Daryun stated with less sarcasm than Leon thought he intended. Indeed, he was starting to think that was the best way to handle their escape; he had plenty of Lumenite in his soul realm for a longer journey, but there were plenty of problems with that plan. Kamran’s runes were still in the sky, for one, and the man himself remained on alert in his palace for another. A third complication was the Lords who’d been released into the city looking for any sign of Leon’s party. Whatever Kamran was doing, while keeping him away from the search, clearly didn’t include many of the Lords who’d come to celebrate the festival with him in his palace.
But as he and his companions pored over the map trying their best to work out some way to get out of the city and disappear, their identities hopefully still hidden, Leon sensed something approaching, and he held up a hand to silence the others.
A carriage ark was moving down the street as rapidly as it could without drawing significant attention to it. It slowed as it reached the safehouse’s long driveway, and then turned into it.
Iron Pride appeared in Leon’s hand in a moment, but as the ark halted and its passenger exited, Leon relaxed, though only slightly.
“Maemon!” Justin exclaimed as the man who’d met them at this very safehouse and then gotten them into the palace knocked furtively on the safehouse’s front door…
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