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To no small extent, Leon’s party split up in the days following his arrival in the Bull Kingdom. Marcus, Gaius, Alcander, and Lucianus all had friends and family remaining in the Kingdom, and Leon gave them all leave to visit them. Elise and Valeria were close with Cristina and Asiya, so they, too, left to spend some time with them. Maia, likewise, left for Saron to see her mother, who at the ninth-tier should still be around. That largely left Cassandra and Anzu to mind Leon’s main force, while Leon and Serana left alone for their real destination, the true reason why they had made the journey back to Aeterna.
They left the Bull’s Horns and made for the Northern Vales. While they had all the time they wanted and could’ve spent more time in the Bull Kingdom, Serana insisted. Artorias had waited long enough; it was time for a reunion, of a kind.
Leon led them on a straight path, flying directly over the Border Mountains. In the years since the stone giants had accompanied him south, other powers had moved into their valleys. Griffins roosted in the giants’ ancient halls, while outposts and small forts built by both the Bull Kingdom and the Talfar Kingdom dotted the ridgelines. Mountain lions and huge stone-eyed lizards prowled the slopes, while dark-furred goats flitted between the trap rocks and eastern condors rode the valley winds in search of food.
Many of the monuments, as much as they could be called such, built by the giants had crumbled without maintenance, and weeds grew in the cracks of their courtyards. The realm of the giants was fading now that they had been elevated into Leon’s Kingdom. In the places Leon had given them on Kataigida and the Nexus, they built in a more ‘modern’ style, abandoning the imitation architecture of the old Thunderbird Clan in favor of the style that had been used in the construction of his palace in Artorion.
A sense of loss bloomed in Leon’s heart as he stared down at these places abandoned by the giants. While he had given them so much, they had still changed completely from what they were, and he couldn’t help but wonder just how much it had truly cost the giants to follow him.
What was done was done, however, and there was no going back. The giants of Lapis’ day were gone. Only a handful remained who remembered the hundred that had marched with Leon out of the Border Mountains and participated in the Bull Kingdom’s civil war. Within a century, none would remain.
Leon spoke on this as he and his mother flew, Serana having grown curious when he slowed to take in how the Border Mountains had changed.
“That is the way of the mortal world,” she said when he finished. “In our lives, countless generations of mortals and low-tier mages will be born, live, and die. We continue on, above their concerns, beyond their comprehension.”
Frowning, Leon replied, “I think they can comprehend us fine. We’re still human. We still have the same concerns as they do.”
“They do not plan on conquering vast swathes of the universe. They do not wield the power of the Great Black Dragon, which could unmake any world in existence. They are not born into glory and power and wealth. They are not hated by envious cowards; their wars aren’t spread over a thousand worlds. They are nothing like us, and we should pay them as much mind as they pay us: none at all.”
“They are the bedrock of the universe,” Leon argued. “Though they are weaker individually, they are numerous, and will always have the potential to rise to our level. Those without great magical power should not be so quickly dismissed.”
Serana responded, and to that, Leon also replied. Back and forth their debate went as they headed northward at a sedate pace. Their pace only slowed as they entered the Frozen Mountains, the cold, snow-covered mountains, and biting wind all serving as the perfect cover for taking their time. Still, the Forest of Black and White loomed, and in it, the inescapable truth that Artorias was gone, never again to be a part of their lives. No matter how slowly they proceeded, the moment that they would have to confront that truth once again drew closer.
They entered the Forest of Black and White from the southeast, having skipped the usual routes that Leon had used in the past in favor of simply flying over the mountains. The Brown Bear Tribe was still there in the vale to their west, and while Leon would’ve jumped at staying there a century and a half ago, now was a different story.
Everyone he knew in Vale Town was dead. The city was familiar only from afar; if he drew close now, he’d find it utterly unfamiliar—a city that wore the face of a place he’d once known well, but now was so alien as to be a completely new city. No, he didn’t want to visit Vale Town. He never wanted to visit that place ever again.
‘I should stop coming back,’ he thought as he led his mother over the thick canopy of the Forest of Black and White. ‘Why return when only death awaits? Why spare the time just to watch familiar faces wither and die? Why come back when there are so few familiar faces left?’
As if to underscore the thought, Leon looked around the Forest of Black and White and found it superficially akin to the place he’d grown up in. He could easily see the troll’s bridge, the Heartwood grove, and the Divine Scar.
But there were no tree sprites left amongst the trees. The rivers were devoid of river nymphs, Maia’s aunt apparently having taken them elsewhere since Leon’s last visit. The troll beneath the bridge was now only a skeleton picked clean by carrion. The lake in the southwest was utterly normal, the corpses from which the ice wraiths had conjured their banshees now apparently used up. Even the evidence that ice wraiths were around was gone, implying that the lesser demons never recovered from Leon devastating their homes in his quest to claim the Iron Needle.
He idly wondered if Tusk, the enormous tenth-tier beast that laired beneath the Forest of Black and White and that had sort of guarded the Iron Needle, was still there. Being tenth-tier meant that there was a good possibility that the beast was still there, but there was no guarantee…
‘Hardly matters either way…’ Leon thought as he and his mother entered the airspace above the field of purple grass that had once been his home.
The field was smaller now, the trees that surrounded it pressing in after so much time. The remains of his childhood home, meanwhile, were now gone, having apparently rotted away over the years. There was no sign at all that he and his father had ever lived there. Only the shining Heartwood tree remained, rising two hundred feet in the air with a trunk so thick that Leon couldn’t have wrapped his arms around it even if they were five times as long as they were. It shone brilliantly, almost appearing like a second sun had landed within the Forest of Black and White.
As Leon and Serana landed, the aura of the tree wrapped around them, embracing them closely, taking them under its protection. Like the Heartwood grove, Leon immediately knew that he was safe there, that no harm could possibly come to him while within range of this tree. It helped him to relax and focus on the tree.
He remembered the day that their compound was attacked like it had happened only the previous day. He remembered with crystal clarity interring his father beneath the earth. He could almost feel the handle of the knife that he used to open his father’s chest and plant the golden Heartwood seed within. He thought of the black seed and wondered how the tree might have been different if he’d used that one instead.
His wonderings were interrupted when Serana walked over to the tree and brushed her fingers against the tree’s smooth trunk. He heard her breath hitch and saw her shoulders shake. She fell to her knees before the tree and pressed her forehead against it, sobbing quietly.
“I’m sorry,” she sputtered between sobs. “I’m sorry…”
Leon’s eyes prickled, and a lump formed in his throat. After what felt like an eternity, he summoned a great force of will and managed to take a few steps forward, the purple grass growing within what had once been the compound’s courtyard crunching softly beneath his boots. He stopped beside his mother and kneeled beside her. She hardly seemed to notice him as she wept against the tree, and she didn’t react when he tentatively wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
It took a tremendous amount of willpower to not break down as his mother only cried harder, his attempt to bring comfort apparently having the opposite effect. But he stayed with her for a long time, not moving even as Serana sank lower and lower, until she was curled up against the tree’s roots. With the tree’s aura acting as a blanket, she closed her eyes and fell asleep, the sheer exhaustion from intense grief getting to her.
Leon remained awake, watching over his sleeping mother, all while a sense of approval and love wound through the tree’s aura and settled around them, embracing the two of them as would a father and a husband. Such peace that the aura brought was something that was rare in Leon’s experience—even with all the strength of Artorion, all the men and women willing to kill on his order, all the giants and war machines ready to visit such violence upon his enemies that none would dare attack him first… he still never felt as safe as he did than when he lived in this compound with his father.
Without saying a word, Leon also brushed his hand against the trunk and waited for his mother to wake up.
He wound up waiting a while…
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“… I lived here,” Leon explained as he stood where his childhood shack had been. “It was only one room, not counting the bathroom. The channel Father made for it looks collapsed, but the bath that was in the back is still here, it seems…” Indeed, there was a depression in the earth where the bath had been, with a ring of stones marking its perimeter that were nearly buried in purple grass. “Father mostly had the same, only his house was three rooms.”
“Such a fall from grace…” Serana murmured. “His family at the time could hardly compare to mine, but his material needs would’ve been taken care of had he never… had he never met me… He was comfortable. He was wealthy relative to this plane. And… he gave it up for me.”
She smiled as she rubbed the tree a bit from where she sat, perched on the largest root that curled up from the ground.
“Alexander visited us once, you know.”
Leon turned his head so quickly that his neck cracked. “I did not know that…”
“It was supposed to be a secret,” Serana continued. “Your father’s older brother was… a severe man, and full of arrogance. He always suspected that I wasn’t the ‘simple gladiator’ that I claimed to be. He once directly asked me if I was an adventuring noble, reasoning that my fighting style was ‘too refined’ for a simple arena fighter. He was so much more right than I think he would’ve considered.
“Anyway… He came to us in the capital shortly after we left Teira. We had been wed for several months by then, and your grandfather had already given Artorias the ultimatum: leave and be disowned, or divorce me. He chose to stay with me despite the threat of being thrown out of House Raime.
“When Alexander came to us, Art had already sworn himself directly to the Cow King. I wasn’t happy about that, but Art talked me into accepting it. With that King’s support, we found a house just for us.”
Serana sighed, a dreamy look on her face. Leon wasn’t sure he wanted to know what she was remembering, but there was a spark of curiosity there.
“He…” Serana hesitatingly continued, “… he told Art that the exile was only temporary. That he would convince their father to bring Artorias back once his anger had cooled. You, my dear son… you were already on the way, and it was visible, impossible to hide. Alexander promised us that you would grow up in House Raime’s ancestral palace. I… I disagreed. I had thought that you two would follow me to the Nexus. Instead…”
“There’s no need—” Leon began, but Serana cut him off.
“I feel guilty, my son, but I still place the blame for this at the feet of Kamran. We will have his head one day, that is guaranteed!”
Leon nodded in wholehearted agreement.
“Those years were the happiest of my life,” Serana said wistfully. “Though I disliked Alexander—at least until that point—and I hated your grandfather, I loved Artorias with my whole heart. He was funny, handsome, and generous in all things. No finer man has ever lived, save for perhaps you.”
“Your opinion is unbiased and absolutely factual,” Leon said with a grin and nod of his head.
She smirked in amusement. “Tell me more about your life here.”
Leon looked around the clearing, easily able to recall how it had looked hundreds of years ago. “It was dangerous. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but Father sure did. Some twisted ritual left this place infested with ice wraiths and banshees, while the local flora and fauna could be fierce on their own. But we were able to hunt for meat, and Father was skilled enough to maintain our home and the protective wards that kept us safe. Every few months, we would take what we had harvested from the forest—mostly furs, but sometimes wild herbs or tallow—and head west, to the neighboring vale. It wasn’t the most lucrative of businesses, but we’d always return home with sleds full of other food and needed supplies. It was a simple life. My life now is so much more complicated; I can’t help but look back on those times and wish for that simplicity. I wouldn’t give my family up for the world, but I would do many terrible things to have Father back.”
“So would I,” Serana breathed, her eyes drifting up to rest on the Heartwood tree’s canopy.
Leon silently commiserated with his mother for a few seconds, then said, “We made our way south once. I believe I was eight, maybe nine years old? We took ancient paths through the Frozen Mountains, and once we were back in the Bull Kingdom, we kept to the back roads and avoided population centers. Even small villages, we gave wide berths.
“We made it unseen all the way to the outskirts of Teira. There, Father had me wait while he entered the city. He’d hoped that enough time had passed that we could seek sanctuary in Argent Palace with my uncle and grandfather. But… Father returned after only a few hours, just long enough to get into the city and learn that Argent Palace had been assaulted, and my uncle and grandfather were dead.
“He took us back here without a moment’s hesitation. He didn’t bring us south again, and I only ever found myself heading back there after Father’s death.”
“If only I’d been here…” Serana whispered, her voice quavering with regret.
“He never blamed you,” Leon said as tears started flowing down his mother’s cheeks again. “You were his last thought, I know it. He rarely spoke of you; the memories were too painful, but when he finally told me about you and what happened when Ryker and Fain came… I could hear his love for you in his voice. It was unmistakable. I’m sure I sound the same when I talk about my wives.”
Serana smiled even as she visibly held herself back from bawling. She opened and closed her mouth several times, her voice too weak to speak. Only after several long seconds had passed was she able to steady her voice enough to ask, “Leon… w-will you… give m-me some time? Alone?”
Leon nodded. He gave his mother a quick hug, which only made her cry more, and while leaving her in that state didn’t quite sit well with him, he still honored her request and ventured out into the Forest of Black and White, leaving Serana to grieve with the Heartwood tree.
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