[Maia, I’m on my way out,] Leon whispered into Maia’s mind, a smile gracing his lips as he reveled in the bond that they shared.

It took a moment for the river nymph to respond, and when she did, even in Leon’s mind she sounded breathless. [Ah… we’ll… be ready…]

‘She sounded a little… strange…’ Leon thought. ‘Probably shouldn’t have used her name like that so flippantly…’

Leon quickly left the King’s private estate, feeling almost like he was ditching shackles that had constrained him for years as he did so. He’d been serious when he told Bronze that he was going to resign from his knighthood now that the war was effectively over. There were bigger and better things on his mind now than rebuilding the hollowed-out bureaucracy of the Bull Kingdom.

Picking up the pace as much as he was able to without appearing completely ridiculous, Leon soon found himself at the docks grinning like a madman. He easily found his small retinue nearby thanks to his bond with Maia, staying out of the way as the fleets and Legions occupied the docks. Leon, for just a moment, watched as the soldiers and marines disembarked from the smaller ships, glad that he wasn’t going to be around for when the word was finally passed down for them to all go home. He figured that there would be a lot of people angry that they had come so far only to be sent home without doing anything.

Of course, there would also be people who were relieved that they’d be able to go home without killing any more of their countrymen, but those weren’t the people who would create problems.

Regardless, that wasn’t his mess to clean up. He strode over to Maia, Valeria, Alix, and Anzu, a smile still plastered all over his face.

“What’s up, Sir Leon?” Alix said as he approached. “You look happier than I’ve seen you in a long time.”

“War’s over, King’s back in charge, armies and fleets are being sent home, Octavius is in prison… I’m feeling pretty good right now,” Leon replied, not feeling at all shy about expressing his happiness to almost being done with all of this. “We’ve got nothing else to do, so let’s get out of here.”

“To the Tower?” Valeria asked as if she’d read his mind.

“To the Tower,” Leon confirmed, his eyes turning over to Maia. “If Elise is going to be anywhere, it’s going to be there.”

Maia smiled but didn’t reply. She simply sat up a little straighter on Anzu’s back, anticipation, excitement, and a few traces of fear written all over her face.

As they started walking, though, something occurred to Leon.

“Alix, do you have any plans for the future?”

“Huh?” she replied, completely blindsided by the question.

Leon glanced over at her, his smile fading as a look of utter seriousness replaced it. “Let’s say I wanted to leave this Kingdom and I wanted you to come with. Would you do so?”

“Can’t imagine leaving little old me behind?” she teasingly asked.

Leon responded with a stony look, wordlessly telling her that he wasn’t joking.

Alix frowned and averted her gaze. “I… I don’t know,” she muttered.

“I understand that that’s a big decision,” Leon continued, “and that you’ll need some time to think about it. But I also wonder if Dame Minerva’s transferring you to my retinue was meant to be permanent. If this war is well and truly over, then I want to move on, and I would like it if you were to come with me. I’ll need friends where I’m going. But I also know that it might be a more attractive choice to stay here where your family is, maybe taking up a leadership role in the Legion.”

Alix silently listened, not giving him an immediate answer. The Bull Kingdom was all she’d ever known, and though she’d known that Leon wasn’t going to stick around, she thought there’d still be time left before that happened.

“How long… do you think you’ll stay?” she asked.

“I can’t say, depends entirely on how the next few weeks play out,” Leon replied. “If the King manages to make this peace of his stick and Octavius is punished, then I think I’ll resign almost immediately. If not… well, I don’t know what’ll happen because I don’t know what might crop up. I might stay here for a year or two more as I wrap up some old business, but suffice it to say that I’ve got some other things on my mind than the squabbles of House Taurus and I’ll be leaving relatively soon.”

“Like the problems of another powerful House?” she asked, giving him a pointed look.

Leon was almost annoyed, but given the rumors about him, he wasn’t going to get upset at her public implication of his true identity. Besides, there didn’t seem to be anyone paying attention, anyway.

“Might be,” he said. “Just think about it. I won’t be sticking around the Bull Kingdom for much longer if all things go according to my current plans. I don’t want you to be blindsided by that, and now you have an invitation to join me whenever you might want to take that up.” Leon glanced at Maia and Valeria, who were listening in without saying anything. He knew both were going to follow him out of the Bull Kingdom as well—or at least he knew that Maia would, Valeria was a little more up in the air. “That offer extends to you two, as well,” he said, just in case it wasn’t clear.

Valeria smiled and nodded, a gesture that Leon returned. He didn’t think she would leave, not after they agreed to try and give peace a chance.

[As if you even need to ask me,] Maia playfully scoffed. [Don’t forget that you still owe me a child, no matter if our circumstances are now different. I’ll get that child even if I have to chase you down to the ends of the universe itself and take it.]

Leon chuckled at the thought of Maia tearing through the Void searching for his manhood as the river nymph shot him a sultry smile.

[I doubt it’ll come to that,] Leon replied.

“I’ll give your offer some thought,” Alix said. “I still have family in the Northern Territories, family I haven’t seen in a while. Dame Minerva has also been quite good to me, she practically took me under her wing during my time here. I’d like the opportunity to speak with her before making any decisions.”

“I understand completely,” Leon responded. “No matter what you decide though, you’re still my friend, and you’ll always have a place in my home should you ever get the idea to come by.”

Alix grinned at him and playfully threw a soft punch into his shoulder. It might’ve been far too disrespectful of a thing to do, but if Leon wasn’t long for the Legions, then she wasn’t going to hold back her friendly demeanor in public anymore.

The group didn’t say much more as they proceeded back across the bridge to the city proper, then onward to the Heaven’s Eye Tower. It was a quiet and eerily peaceful journey since most of the capital’s citizens had either fled the city or holed up in their homes. The main thoroughfares were overrun with August’s troops who had yet to start pulling out of the capital, but no one got in their way.

Still, it took about an hour of relatively leisurely walking to arrive at the Tower.

Leon paused for a moment at the door, unsure how exactly to proceed. His heart was hammering away in his chest and his hands were lightly shaking. He wondered if this was the best course of action, or whether it was better to go to Emilie’s estate since he couldn’t fathom that the Tower would even be open given the circumstances. At the very least, the nearby stables were empty, so he couldn’t board Anzu while he was in the Tower.

[Let’s go,] Maia whispered into his mind. [No more delays.]

Leon glanced back at his river nymph lover and met her lake blue eyes. They were set and determined, ready to see Elise again. She even slid off Anzu’s back to walk in on her own two feet. He nodded and pushed open the doors.

Leon, Maia, Anzu, Alix, and Valeria all strode into the Tower. Beyond the entrance area, the main lounge area was just as deserted as Leon expected it to be, though given the fact that the doors hadn’t been locked, he questioned his thought that the Tower was closed.

There at least seemed to be a few attendants on duty as only a few moments passed before a Heaven’s Eye attendant made her presence known and approached the group.

“Welcome, Sir Leon,” she said in greeting. She briefly turned to acknowledge the others, but she continued to address Leon, her attitude one of utmost respect, “Lady Elise is waiting for you on the top floor. We can board your griffin for you if you would like.”

“Thank you,” Leon replied. “I would like that very much.”

He turned to Anzu and managed to coax him into staying by the door as the attendant gestured back over her shoulder for a beastmaster—a beastmaster that Leon recognized as the man most responsible for training Anzu into a proper war beast. Anzu allowed him to lead him off toward the Heaven’s Eye stables, while the attendant escorted the remaining four to the magic lifts in the back of the lounge.

It was a quiet and fairly tense ride up to the ninth floor, but also mercifully short, not giving Leon and Maia time enough to stew in their excitement and anxiety. As soon as the lift opened, Leon and Maia wasted no time walking down the short hallway toward the set of doors at the end of the hall which Leon knew would lead into Emilie’s office.

Emilie’s office was circular, with a great fire pit in the center, decorative columns sectioning off several parts from each other without diminishing the open floor plan, and an enormous desk on the far side of the room, behind which sat Emilie herself, a gentle smile on her face as she watched Leon’s party enter. The room was richly decorated, but neither Leon nor Maia absorbed any of it as their eyes searched the room for Elise.

They didn’t have far to look, for Elise rose from where she had been seated as the doors opened and began walking toward them, an enormous smile on her face, her long black dress hugging her body in ways specifically designed to entice without sacrificing dignity. She sashayed over to the door, her brilliant emerald eyes fixed on Leon.

“It’s about time you—” she began, only to freeze in place as she finally registered Maia’s presence, the rest of her statement dying in her throat.

Leon immediately rushed forward to pull Elise into a tight embrace while Alix and Valeria maintained a respectful distance. The attendant bowed and left, closing the door behind her, while Maia only took a few hesitant steps forward.

“We’re back,” Leon whispered into Elise’s ear as he reluctantly separated from her. She’d only partially returned the embrace as her eyes hadn’t yet left Maia.

“Where…” she began, only to trail off as she took a step toward Maia, her face contorting in surprise and confusion. After a few quiet seconds, though, her expression hardened, and she began striding toward Maia with a look of absolute determination. It almost seemed violent, but her aura remained relatively calm and free of killing intent.

Maia was able to stand strong and didn’t flinch as Elise approached her, but her eyes did flit once or twice in Leon’s direction, communicating to him her intense worry. But attention was swiftly brought back to Elise as she wrapped her arms around Maia’s waist and pulled her in for a passionate kiss, pushing herself up onto the balls of her feet just a bit to reach the tall river nymph’s mouth.

Reactions were fairly mixed. Leon smiled as he walked over and hugged Elise from behind, and Emilie leaned back in her chair with an enormous grin on her face. Meanwhile, Alix burst out laughing and Valeria’s face went scarlet as she tried to avert her gaze, only to continue staring at the scene from the corner of her eye.

After what seemed like both an eternity and barely a moment, Elise separated from Maia—at least, above, for her arms remained locked around the river nymph’s waist.

“Where have you been?!” she demanded to know.

“Maybe we can talk about that later?” Leon said before Maia could respond, sending a quick apologetic look Alix and Valeria’s way.

Elise suddenly pulled back from Maia as if suddenly self-conscious and said, “Yes… um, we’ve some stuff to do, yes?”

“If by ‘stuff’ you mean getting our house back, then sure,” Leon playfully stated, refusing to let her go as she tried to pull back a bit from him, too.

“Has everything been resolved in the Royal Palace?” Emilie interjected as she rose from her desk and sauntered over. Only under her teasing smile did Leon pull away from Elise, but not so far that they would have to reach far to touch the other.

“Yes,” Leon quickly answered. “The King is awake, and he ordered an immediate end to all hostilities. Octavius has been arrested, and August’s armies should be dispersing soon.”

“That’s good to hear,” Emilie responded. “This war has played hell with the Bull Kingdom’s economy, let me tell you, but all things considered, I’d say it’s going to pull out of all this unpleasantness fairly well. Might take a few years, though…”

Leon nodded, but he wasn’t too interested in the economics of the Kingdom.

“Now, let’s head home,” Emilie continued, looking to Elise. “We’ve some guests to arrange sleeping arrangements for, I presume?”

“That would be most appreciated,” Valeria said, speaking for both her and Alix, who furiously nodded.

“Wonderful,” Emilie said as she led everyone out of her office.

Once she passed Elise, Leon, and Maia, Elise quickly took Leon’s arm and pressed her lips against his.

“Welcome home,” she sensually whispered as her head retreated from his. “We’ve much to… catch up on, don’t we?”