_________________________________________

Leo

Leo was staring wide-eyed at Sciesch, as well as his three other companions who were also within his hastily cast sound barrier.

Leo tried to process a response to Sciesch, but all he could manage was a single confused filled word. “How!?” He yelled with his hands up in frustration.

Sciesch took a step back, while her eyes momentarily darted to the exit.

Leo took a placating posture. "Okay, just allow me t-" His words were cut short, as Sciesch bolted for the exit.

'I'm really getting sick of this shit…'

_________________________________________

Sciesch

Sciesch was born into a wealthy merchant's family, so she had an easy and straightforward initial start in life. Graduating near the top of her class from Zaruik college for financial pursuits, she was a pretty successful architect, but other than that she was a nobody, just an unimportant tiefling who took odd jobs involving design or construction.

It wasn't until her kingdom started to split into factions, that her life turned for the worst. The split happened due to the academy restricting access to the Archive, an indestructible magical construct that was created by the second summon, a human. The Archive’s knowledge guided the tieflings ever since the second summon passed away, which enabled them to spread their control and influence to every corner of the continent during their era of domination.

It was only after the war in heaven that the Archive chose to only share specific information, the reason for it having to relate to the war itself. So the empire fell into drastic decline, and now only made up a chunk of the north eastern continent. Even though after every era the tieflings were the fastest to rebuild, they were the first to stagnate. This was because the Archive would stop providing guidance the second the tieflings grew too much, and as one could imagine this had plenty of controversy surrounding it.

So by the start of the last era, in which the tieflings were one of the few to hold off the lightborn, there was a big push to study the Archive itself. This caused the first major rifts as the hardcore zealots, who deified the summon, argued that doing so was blasphemous, and when the first academy and merchants guild established itself, the kingdom divided even further.

This division was only ideological, as the kingdom was more or less unified up until about nine years ago, when the Archive was moved to the academy. This caused the zealots and the moderates to split from the kingdom, rejecting the action of the expansionists. Then another split happened five years ago when the academy cut off all access to the Archive, this is when the backers of the merchants guild broke off.

Sciesch didn't really care about maintaining the kingdom's unity for the sake of it, but the divisions hurt her ability to find work within the kingdom, so she had to start looking for work in others, which is how she found herself in her current situation.

Sciesch was running towards the inn's exit. 'Why of all the people in the world, did I have to take a job from a summon. And not just any summon, but a human!' She thought with a mixture of panic and anger.

Sciesch only managed to make it halfway before she was suddenly lifted slightly off the ground, feeling nearly weightless as she began to realize that it was magic.

‘Oh, and he’s a mage…. Damn it….’

_________________________________________

Leo

Leo wanted to deal with the situation in the most peaceful and civil way possible.

Sciesch struggled to touch the floor as her feet only hovered a few inches off the ground. "Damn it! Release me!" She demanded as Leo walked over with his arms crossed.

Leo frowned as he looked at the previously friendly woman. ‘Why must things be difficult….’ He thought disappointedly.

Leo looked up at Sciesch with a slightly exhausted expression. "Not until you hear me out, and answer a few of my questions."

Sciesch scowled. "Bite me! "

Leo raised an eyebrow. ‘Bite me? That's a little too specific, and a little out of place for this age…. Maybe?’ He thought as he took off his translation necklace.

Leo narrowed his eyes. "Do you understand me?" He asked hesitantly.

Sciesch paused for a moment as her eyes widened, then struggled even more to try and escape, while still somewhat flailing her legs to find purchase.

Leo frowned, but some surprise was still evident on his face. "I'll take that as a yes… Mind telling me how you can speak my language?” He asked calmly.

Sciesch went silent as she stared down at Leo, apparently resigned to her capture, but putting up the only resistance that she could by refusing to answer.

Leo sighed while putting back on his necklace. "Do any of you know exactly how she knew who I was? I mean I can guess that it was the second summon, but that was five eras ago, well over four hundred thousand years….”

Glia and Elaria shrugged, but Allis winced, which made Leo direct his full attention to her.

Allis shrunk a bit, her eyes darting away a little guiltily. “Well… I've read about something called an Archive that they have that lasts through the eras, and it's said that it was made by the second summon. Also, some of them deify summons, so….”

Leo’s jaw dropped. “What? And it didn't cross your mind to tell me when a tiefling was coming!?” He scolded in disbelief, and Allis gave him a sheepish smile as she said a simple 'sorry'.

Leo thought that ‘accidentally revealing his identity through conversation’ was a closed issue when he made an official mental checklist in regards to his magic, but how could he have known that there was a human on this world before him. Not only that, but out of the infinite worlds that Fel seemed to describe as pulling from, how was it that the one in three other summons just happened to be a human? And on top of that, the second summon made an indestructible magic black box with god knows what kind of knowledge in it…’

Leo turned back to Sciesch, and furrowed his brow. “So, I don't know what I did to make you so tightlipped, but you're gonna have to accept the fact that you are in a no win situation. You run, and the guild will be pissed that you differed the contract. You tell them, or anyone what I am, and I'm in the wind, so they lose a ‘very’ profitable partner because of you.”

Sciesch's brow arched as she seemed to recall something, and her eyes widened at Leo for a few moments before she relented. “Fine, I’ll oversee the construction.” She said a little dejectedly, and Leo released the magic holding her.

Leo breathed a long exhausted sigh. "Also, I don't know what kind of views you or your people have of me or my people, but please treat me like any other person, because I was only summoned two weeks ago, so I don't know you or anything about your race."

Sciesch raised an eyebrow. “But you know magic, and are already a lord?”

Leo wore a bit of an amused expression. “I'm guessing that the other summon also came from a magicless world. And just to point out a few of my other achievements, I'm an arch mage, in charge of a rebellion, have kicked a dragon's ass, and am plotting a worldwide revolution.”

Sciesch's face wore visible confusion, as she looked to the others who nodded in affirmation.

“Oh, and I'm going to stomp some inquisitors that will be here in another week or so. That'll be fun.”

_________________________________________

Sciesch

As Sciesch made her way back to the guild branch, she reflected on her meeting with Leo. She wanted nothing more than to just leave town and never look back, because of the massive amount of baggage that being associated with a summon came with, but Leo was right. The guild would probably put her in a slave collar for running out on the contract, and if she explained why, then they would put her in one anyway for making them lose such a valuable trade partner. One would just have to look at the Archive to understand what a summon was capable of creating, and if the guild lost out on an opportunity to acquire items that were even a fraction as complex, then they would be furious.

Sciesch groaned as she turned on a street corner while on her way to the guild. ‘Gods, that's probably what he did to become a lord, and whatever he knows as a summon made him an arch mage. He's just screaming danger…' The thought paused as She let out a sigh. 'Well I'm stuck working for him now, so I should just get over it and hope I don't get killed or something. It might not be all bad though, because I might be able to prod a secret or two out of him to sell, or improve my design's. And at least he seems like a normal guy, more or less what I thought, and not the all powerful god that those fanatics made him out to be.’

Entering the branch, Sciesch told the accountant to start requisitioning the materials and labor, and gave her the estate designs to make more copies. Sciesch then went to the guest room for the night, she was exhausted from both the trip here, and from finding out who Lord Leo actually was.

“So he's in charge of the rebels here, I can almost make the connections to our own history…" She trailed off as she exited the shower, and began to dry off her hair.

Sciesch yawned while she put on her lacey nightgown. "Damn, the next few weeks are going to be a headache, but at least I get a front row seat to an arch mage's magic, so that's something. Though I have no idea what he was saying about defeating a dragon. He was probably compensating like most males, or his status of being a summon had gone to his head." She paused to climb into bed, and snuggled herself into the soft sheets. "Even I don't believe most of the insane feats that the fanatics rant about the second summon. I mean really, if you're going to lie, then at least don't come up with something so blatant...” She thought aloud as she drifted off to sleep.

The next day she dragged herself out of bed, and left the branch to meet Leo at the town's back gate, because he wanted to take off from a secluded area.

Sciesch wore a contemplative expression as she approached the gate. ‘I don't see the point in hiding his identity as an arch mage, he's already in charge of a rebellion. You’d think that would help with his claim on the town… And even if it's because of the dragons, he's going to have to confront them at some point regardless, it's not like he could resist them.’ She thought as she finally exited through the back gate.

Sciesch saw Leo standing in the middle of the field with four other people. Leo had introduced her to the three selarins, Elaria, Glia, and Allis, but she didn't know the cloaked figure. So as she approached she asked about them with a little attitude, as she was still unhappy with her current situation.

Leo smiled wide as he exaggeratedly gestured to the mystery woman. “This Is Fel. She's the dragon that I beat.” He introduced her with smug pride.

Sciesch deadpanned at Leo, not amused by the obvious lie. “Leo, please don't li- '' She stopped mid sentence when Fel revealed herself.

Fel sighed as she shot Leo a glare, before she addressed Sciesch directly. “Hello, I believe you are Sciesch? Leo has filled me in on the situation, and I'm sorry that you may have gotten dragged into something unwillingly.”

An expression of utter shock was plastered across Sciesch’s face, as she was completely frozen at the sight of a dragon. “You're…... You're a dragon…. Wait, did he actually win against you?!” She questioned in complete disbelief.

Fel grumbled as Leo grinned, practically beaming at her question. “Yes, but it was far from a fair fight, since not even my breath could harm him.” She finished with a frown.

Leo mocked offence at Fel’s remark. “Hey, I got serious at the end!”

Fel glowered at Leo. “I was the whole time, but you were the one who pushed me into doing that.” She stated irritably while pointing across the field.

When Sciesch saw what Fel was pointing to, her jaw dropped at the sight of a straight line of destruction that stretched beyond her sightline.

Leo closed his eyes and nodded slowly. “And it was a very ‘enlightening’ experience for both of us.” He remarked with a shit eating grin.

Fel scowled. “You're an ass, you know that…” She pointed out bitterly, as Leo tried to suppress a laugh,

Sciesch just stood in shock, as she tried to process anyone fighting, beating, then taunting a dragon. She also had to concede that if he was more powerful than a dragon, then there might be some grain of truth to what the fanatics say, which shocked her even more.

She felt a pat on her back and looked to her left to see Elaria wearing a comforting smile, but then she said something that made her crimson skin darken a shade.

“He can also go multiple times in bed, within the same day, each and every day.” Elaria stated a little sensually, as she smirked.

Sciesch looked back to Leo, and her low opinion and apprehension of him started to fade away with the newly received information, and a slightly impish smile crossed her face.

‘Okay, so not compensating… Also, multiple?’

_________________________________________