Aggression was natural to a lightning mage. The element naturally favored such fighting styles, as Alix had learned from Leon when he’d taught her not only House Raime’s fighting style but also enough about the element itself for her to specialize in it.
Still, what Nyra displayed was… something else.
The training sword vibrated in Alix’s hand as Nyra slammed her own weapon into it, doing her level best to drive it from Alix’s grip. White-gold lightning exploded around them, the young sixth-tier mage trying to overpower Alix through sheer violence.
Alix couldn’t help but smirk as she stood her ground—she was a tenth-tier mage, and no matter how strong Nyra was for a sixth-tier mage, four tiers was too much for her to overcome. But that wasn’t why she smirked; rather, it was because of just how much she reminded Alix of how Leon fought. To the less well-trained eye, it might’ve seemed like she was fighting with complete abandon, throwing away all control and caution.
But Alix could see the precision; she could feel the control that Nyra had over her blade. She’d always felt the same thing when she sparred with Leon, and it led to a sense that if she made a single mistake, she’d be defeated in an instant. When she and Gaius had trained their kids, she’d tried to instill the same deadly purpose in their blades as Leon had taught her to have. Felix had done all right in that regard, but she was almost dismayed to find that neither Anora nor Alise had taken to fighting. Neither had Alexander, her eldest grandchild, leaving only Perdiccas, her second and youngest grandchild, to honor their family by the sword.
Alix’s smile grew as she took a less passive role in sparring with Nyra, pushing against the girl and knocking her almost immediately off-balance.
“You over-committed,” she chided as Nyra righted herself. “If I hadn’t given you the time to recover, you’d be dead now.”
“See if you get another opportunity!” Nyra shouted as she charged again.
‘Girl needs to learn some humility…’
When Leon had asked Alix to spar with Nyra, Alix had honestly wondered what he was playing at. He and his mother—and wasn’t that a weird thought—were busy with their transformation enchantment, seeing if they could get it to work with their dragon bloodline before they made it back to Artorion, and left her to entertain Storm Herald’s newest passenger.
Of course, as was only right with lightning mages, that ‘entertainment’ turned out to be fighting. Leon had gleefully agreed, only to foist Nyra off onto Alix. She was starting to think that this was what Leon wanted, for her to show Nyra how to lose.
‘Or maybe he just didn’t want to have to deal with her?’
Either way, she was going to follow through, not just with the lesson but also with the swing that she brought crashing down upon Nyra. With the difference in their tiers, Alix didn’t have to get fancy; she was faster and stronger and could easily overwhelm Nyra’s technically sound but still insufficient defense.
Metal clattered across the floor as Alix disarmed Nyra in a textbook display of House Raime’s style. She almost wished Leon had seen it, if only to justify him making her his Swordmaster—a title she still held alongside that of Paladin.
Nyra glared at her, her hands empty, and Alix thought for a moment that the girl would charge with nothing but fists and fury. However, after a tense moment, Nyra relaxed, though she pouted like a scolded child.
“You only won because you’re stronger,” she said as she went to pick up her weapon.
Alix rolled her eyes and launched a new assault, sweeping Nyra’s legs out from under her and slamming her down into the training room floor. The girl would be unharmed even if the floor were stone, but fortunately for her, it was reasonably padded and enchanted to prevent injuries.
With her weapon leveled at Nyra’s throat, Alix said, “Being disarmed doesn’t end the fight. But if you’re so ready for our duel to be over…” She glanced over at the handful of Tempest Knights and Gold Dragon Clan attendants that Nyra had brought with her, and spied just the man she wanted to see. “Perdiccas! Come over here!”
Her grandson smiled and ran over, the other knights and attendants watching intently. His seventh-tier aura was powerful and stable, flickering in just the ways that Alix knew indicated excitement even though his smile was fairly neutral.
“Grandmother,” he said quietly as he joined them.
“Grandmother?!” Nyra squawked as she shot to her feet, Alix having taken the blade from her throat mere moments before. “You’re old?!”
One of Alix’s eyes started to twitch. “Perdiccas,” she said, ignoring Nyra’s question entirely. “Princess Nyra here needs a sparring partner, and I’m just too strong for her. If you would…?”
Perdiccas nodded and stashed his Tempest Knight armor in his soul realm, leaving him dressed in the padded work uniform that all Tempest Knights wore beneath their armor—perfect for training. Then, with elementless magic, he summoned one of the training swords off the wall and assumed one of the more aggressive House Raime style stances. Nyra, glaring at him, assumed a stance of her own, and Alix took several steps back to better observe.
‘If Leon wants this girl housebroken,’ she thought with no small sense of satisfaction, ‘I’ll get it done before we get back to Artorion…’
---
Storm Herald tore through space and reemerged in the physical world, the other arks in the convoy doing likewise just beside them. Leon let out a slightly-held breath, having never forgotten how his Kingdom’s very first proper jump had left several arks missing, so it was always a relief to see that he hadn’t lost any more.
Aside from the Thunderbird arks with him, Archelaus flew beside them on his octagonal platform. Other Lords had accompanied them as they departed Belicenion, but most had peeled off at Khosrow’s Fane, and their convoy had only continued to dwindle, especially since Leon was insistent that they keep moving, not stopping anywhere—especially not Khosrow’s Fane or Voidshore.
Now, Leon saw the arks of Strategoi Ushuoa and Yekaterina, a pair of Lords he’d met on Voidshore, separate as they appear and move in different directions, leaving Archelaus as the only Lord still accompanying him. The Despot was unlikely to join him in Storm Herald, though the invitation remained open.
With a sigh, Leon left the observation deck to return to his family. These jumps were fairly routine at this point and didn’t require his oversight.
As he walked through the halls, a handful of Tempest Knights moving along smoothly behind him, hardly a whisper coming from their heavy armor, he thought about the people he’d met during this little adventure, and how his life had completely changed.
He thought first of Gwarim. The enormous man had made quite the impression on him, and they’d turned into fast friends. Gwarim’s castle wasn’t that far from Artorion, relatively speaking, so Leon would be taking the man up on his offer of hospitality soon, if only to ensure that that friendship didn’t wither from neglect. The only problem that he saw from that was that Gwarim bordered another Despot sworn to Basileus Morui, and given how their acquaintance at Voidshore went, Leon couldn’t rule out the Basileus causing him problems.
Regardless, he’d deal with it.
He also thought of Miuna. The woman continued to be far better to him than he thought he deserved. He had no intentions of ever taking another wife, but he’d be damned if he hadn’t at least thought about it. He hoped that someday, Miuna could set aside her own desires and just let them be friends. As it was, had she not had many Ocean Lords of her own to deal with, he suspected she would’ve insisted on accompanying him back to Artorion. As it was, she could only promise to visit sometime within the next decade.
‘Going to have to find some way to thank her properly for all her help…’
He thought about his mother and the Great Dragon Clans, too. While Serana was more abrasive than he’d been expecting, her attitude had improved since they left Belicenion. She more readily engaged his wives in conversation, and she didn’t ignore Anzu completely, at least. The rest of the dragons, meanwhile, had been far from what Leon had expected. He’d thought they’d be far more like the Great Black Dragon had been early in his life, long before he’d ever even partially unlocked the Eye of Calamity—dismissive, arrogant, and completely disinterested in him or his blood connection to them.
Thankfully, despite remaining aloof and dismissive of everyone else, once they learned of his power, they shocked him with how accepting they were.
‘Shame it had to be a duel with Bennu to get us there… The entire damned Nexus probably knows about me at this point…’
Bennu. There was another figure that demanded consideration. Leon had expected obstacles to finding his mother, but being challenged so publicly by a Phoenix hadn’t been one of them.
‘At least things seem to have worked out amiably enough…’
Certainly, Bennu could’ve been less gracious in his defeat, but since he wasn’t, Leon hoped there might be a possibility of good friendship there. Bennu, at least, seemed of a similar mind.
‘On the subject of problems…’
The Sun King and his daughter were no friends of his by this point. Anushirawan, he felt, could be trusted not to act against him once he was no longer in his hair, and his daughter hardly seemed the sort who would cross the universe just to settle a petty grudge. Leon wasn’t going to forget what happened to Clear any time soon, however, especially since the tau was still in recovery, and might be for a long while. Had he not been post-Apotheosis, Clear might never have recovered at all.
Then there was Sasan and Akeron, the Black Robes of Khosrow’s Fane and the events surrounding Iaivi Fortress, all the other Storm Lords that Leon met during his time traveling to and attending the Games, and all those who’d seen him fight multiple duels and stand against the monks of Khosrow’s Fane. Morui and Triyr might be obstacles to him, but he knew that Triton absolutely was, given his support of Kamran, and now Leon didn’t even have the option to remain subtle and unnoticed. That particular ship sailed the moment he defeated Triyr.
Finally, he thought about Ingrid and Theron, two Nexus Lords who had sworn themselves to him. Lords by the Khosrow’s Law, Lords who would probably expect to keep their titles. Leon was less inclined to the status quo, but giving them equivalent titles was more than reasonable. But that still left the issue of getting to them.
Ingrid was easier as her territory bordered Archelaus’s, though she was sworn to a different Basileus. Given her proximity, Leon could more easily assert his suzerainty over her, though he’d need to look further into her Basileus just in case poaching her, so to speak, caused an issue.
‘… Which it most certainly will…’
Theron was going to be harder. His territory lay in the Great Strand of Rhea, and he had little territory in the Nexus. Getting to him would be the work of many years, no matter what Leon decided to do with Jericho. Still, his contacts in the Elemental Plane of Lightning could be invaluable to Leon, so leaving Theron to rot on his own was less of an option to him.
And, of course, Leon thought about Jericho. He still hadn’t decided on how to solve that particular conundrum, but the more he thought about it, the more he was coming around to the idea that helping Jericho would be the better play. He found himself more in agreement with Singer-in-Caves that having an Anax on his side could only benefit him in the future. Jericho was undoubtedly trying to use him, but that only made Leon feel better about using him right back.
Further thoughts of his had to be shelved as he reached his family’s private quarters. Leaving his Tempest Knights outside, Leon entered and, after heading through several more doors, found his mother quietly staring at a detailed projection of how the three-dimensional transformation enchantment was supposed to look once completed. He found her much as he’d left her: frowning at the projection, her golden eyes narrow with displeasure.
“Still can’t pin the problem down?” Leon asked.
“No,” she growled.
Much like he had, she’d had trouble using the transformation enchantment after building it in her soul realm. A disappointment of the highest order, yet not one that took Leon by that much surprise. He was even quietly gratified, having some confirmation that it wasn’t just a problem with him.
Once they got back to Artorion, they could run more tests. The Great Black Dragon thought that his power was special, having been born in the universe’s first days, and while Leon wasn’t sure that he quite bought that explanation, he had to admit that he was starting to believe it now that he knew for certain that the problem didn’t lie just with him.
‘Gonna have to reach out to the other Great Dragon Clans to get their perspective,’ he mentally noted, wondering if this problem was just to do with the Great Black Dragon or if the other Clans were having similar problems. He gave his mother a sly look, just barely suppressing the smile that tugged at his lips at the thought of her meeting their Ancestor face-to-face.
Turning to another problem he’d been wanting to shed more light on, he glanced around the room, noting that the rest of his family had left. “Where are the others?”
Serana growled indistinctly, her mood clearly foul. “Scared them off, probably. They said something when they left, but I wasn’t listening.”
Leon sighed, but he supposed it gave him the opportunity for candid conversation.
“I… was hoping to pick your brain about something…”
Only once those words passed his lips did Serana finally tear her eyes away from the projected enchantment. “About what?” she asked, her expression lightening, as did her tone.
“… Children,” Leon admitted, his teeth just barely not clenched. He leaned against the table she’d been working at and crossed his arms, his eyes closing for a moment as he forced himself to get over discussing this topic with someone new. As unmanly as admitting this problem felt, he was past the point of thinking that he could solve it on his own, or with the help of those he’d already enlisted to help him.
He sensed Serana nodding in understanding.
“I spoke of tea when you first asked about this. That is the first step for our people, for it’s easy and cheap, but we frequently have to resort to other methods. There are ancient runes of fertility, potions and dishes that increase virility, spells and artifacts that can induce a woman into fertility, and many more methods.”
“This is probably not on any of my wives,” he said, finding it easier to admit to the problem so as to keep any suspicion of his ladies. He knew, even if he didn’t know, that this issue was his, and not theirs.
Serana nodded again. “My darling boy, I’ll do whatever I can to help you, you know that?”
“It’s always good to hear it aloud,” Leon said with a grin, his eyes still closed.
Serana grinned. “I’m no specialist on the subject, but… hmm, we can start with cirassa venom. Jennifyr once told me that a single drop can have a man rigid for days. I even looked it up and found that my great-grandfather likely used it to help him!”
Leon’s face burned, but he pushed through it in search of details. “What is a ‘cirassa’?”
“A serpent-spider. I should have a book with a picture somewhere…” She almost visibly started shuffling through her soul realm, but Leon had heard enough about that.
“Serpents and spiders. That is… well, I don’t like it. Those are not things that should go together. I’ll just take your word that it’ll help. In the likely event that this thing doesn’t help, what then?”
Serana thought again, frowning as she considered the problem. “There are treasures we have in our vault that can help. The secrets to making Wine of Joy have long been lost, but we still have several bottles in our vaults.”
“Useful though that would be,” Leon said, “I’d be more interested in a more… sustainable solution. Recreating any kind of ‘wine’ is always possible, I suppose, but I’d rather have a solution that my kids can use, too.”
“Thinking of the future,” Serana said with a proud smile. “Good. Hmm, I’ll say that most fertility treatments tend to focus on women. At the level your wives are at, they might be fertile for only a month every century, and that’s if you’re lucky. Options for men are fewer in number. We have a Sash of Night’s Joy, but how much that affects fertility is debated—instilling the desire for sex doesn’t mean that sex would be productive. We might have to speak with our radiant brothers about this matter; their knowledge is deeper than ours in such matters.”
Leon slowly nodded. “The Great Black Dragon seemed confident that his Clan had the resources to fix this problem. Maybe that was just talk.”
“The words of our Ancestor should never be taken lightly,” Serana lightly scolded as she pinched his cheek, much to his surprise and chagrin. “I admit that I don’t know every little thing in our vaults—the damn things are demiplanes unto themselves, you know—but if he says that we have something that can help, then we should look into it!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Leon responded without much heart in the words. Satisfied that at least some possible answers had been given, he turned to the projected enchantment. “Shall we work on this a bit more?”
“Yes!” Serana declared. “This damned thing! It has to work somehow!”
Leon smiled unabashedly as he and his mother threw themselves into something he was much more comfortable and confident with: enchanting. They would reach Artorion in a couple weeks, and if they were lucky, then they might figure out the specific problem by then…
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