When Leon’s group awoke in the Heartwood Grove, the sun was already high in the sky, showing that they had all been much more tired than they had realized—they’d slept for more than twelve hours. Without the unknown fate of Justin or a mysterious Thunderbird Clan base in the mountains to push them onward, however, no one was in too much of a hurry to leave.

As a result, Leon said that it ought to be fine for everyone to rest up for the day in the grove and return eastward the following day.

It was a relief for the other three, perhaps especially for Justin since he wasn’t looking forward to another rushed trip strapped to the litter. As with the previous time they’d visited, the peace and quiet of the grove weighed heavily upon all of them, and Maia and Valeria found themselves going off to be alone among the Heartwood trees despite everything that had happened recently.

Leon, however, didn’t follow suit. He almost did, which would’ve left Justin alone—not that he seemed to mind since he let Valeria leave with nothing more than a nod of acceptance—but Justin instead asked Leon to stay for a few minutes.

“What is it?” Leon asked with some confusion and suspicion as he paused and turned back around to look at Justin, who was laying back on a bedroll, his body still too weak to move much on his own.

“I was just hoping we could stay to talk a little bit,” Justin replied, his voice sounding much stronger than his appearance suggested, leading Leon to think that maybe it wasn’t so much weakness that was keeping him down as it was needing to learn to move again without all of his power granting him superhuman strength and speed. The loss of the mental enhancements that came with the fourth-tier likely didn’t help matters, either.

Leon stole a glance off into the grove. The grove was calling to him, and the vague tickling sensation he felt running down his spine had him thinking that it wasn’t just an esoteric expression of his desire to be alone in nature. However, he reluctantly turned back toward Justin and sat down in comfortable speaking range.

“What do you want to talk about?” Leon asked.

“I… wanted to apologize to you,” Justin said, his gaze lowering in an expression of shame. “When you pulled me out of those vines and during our conversation after, I said many things that I now regret. Worse than that, however, is what I have done to your family. I know that words will never erase what I’ve done, but I hope that they can at least be a place for me to start making amends. I know that you must hate me and that staying your blade when I was at your mercy was more than I could ever deserve, and for that, I will forever be grateful.”

Leon’s eyes narrowed in mild suspicion while the rest of his face contorted in surprise. Justin had, indeed, said many things that led Leon to think that he didn’t regret his actions. To hear an apology break from his mouth was something he never thought would’ve happened, and especially not so soon.

“Where is all of this coming from?” Leon asked after a moment of stunned silence as Justin gave him some time to process his statement.

“After you and your river nymph companion left us, my daughter and I had a long talk,” Justin replied with a heavy tone and a heavier look. “She helped me to get a little bit of perspective, to see beyond my current situation. I… was not in the proper state of mind when I asked you to kill me, and that you didn’t despite what I’ve done is a mercy that I don’t deserve. But Valeria helped me to see what might be with your help. What the future might hold if I help you. She helped me to see what my wife might think of me if I don’t turn back from the course I’ve laid out for myself and upon which I’ve already traveled a long way.”

Leon began to slightly frown the more he heard. The way Justin was acting now was a little more in line with the man that Valeria had claimed him to be, but Leon couldn’t help but think that it was a ruse, some kind of trick to get him to lower his guard for when Justin had the strength to act against him again.

However, perhaps a little more telling about Justin’s thoughts about him was the fact that he hadn’t apologized for the dehumanizing things he’d said about Leon and others with Inherited Bloodlines.

“Leon,” Justin continued, “let me say this in no uncertain terms, for I want there to be no doubt as to their meaning. I am sorry for coming here to kill you. I am sorry that I killed your father, uncle, and grandfather. These were not honorable acts, and I regret them very much.”

Leon remained silent, unsure how to take Justin’s apology. It was so blatant that it couldn’t be ignored, but Leon was at least grateful that it didn’t come when he and Justin were in the company of others. If other people heard those words, it would put pressure on Leon, whether it would be stated or not, for it would be expected of him to forgive Justin, or to at least say that he did.

“I… need to think about that,” Leon finally said after a long moment of silence.

“I understand,” Justin replied. “Such crimes that I have committed against you and your family are not those that can be easily forgiven, if they can be forgiven at all. I can only ask for your patience and mercy to allow me to show you my contrition. If you have need of anything that I can provide, then you only need to ask for it, and it shall be yours.”

“Such promises are dangerous,” Leon said with a sly look, trying to put what had just happened behind them with some slightly less-serious talk.

“And yet, they are necessary if we are to move forward,” Justin responded. “I understand that you intend to aid my daughter in rescuing my wife from Kamran?”

“We hadn’t really worked out any details, but I was intending on doing that,” Leon said. If Valeria joined his family, as he was starting to allow himself to hope that she might, then her mother would be part of his family, too. He was already intending on finding his own mother, besides, so what was another?

“Naturally, I will do everything I can do to aid you in that goal, as well,” Justin said. “I may have sunk to a dark place during my captivity, but I now hope to make things up to you, to patch things up with my daughter, and rescue my wife. I can’t do any of that powerless. Would my regaining power be an issue for you, Leon?”

Leon gave him a long, hard look. There were always magical oaths he could ask Justin to swear to, but he wasn’t sure how effective they would be on someone who had lost their soul realm. As he thought on the problem more, he figured that a bit of trust could go a long way. Justin as he was now was no threat, and so long as Leon kept up with his training, he never would be. He doubted he’d reach the Nexus anytime soon, so there could be decades or even centuries for him to watch Justin and look for any signs of betrayal.

In short, it was risky, but not as much as it appeared on the surface.

“I don’t have an issue with it…” Leon said with an ominous warning, leaving any threats he might’ve been tempted to make unsaid. But with the serious and weighty way that Justin nodded his head in gratitude, Leon had a feeling that the man had gotten the message anyway.

“Now, then, Leon,” Justin continued, “there was something else I was hoping to bring up with you…”

“What is it?” Leon asked, his irritation rising for a moment before he smothered it. He wanted to head out into the grove and spend some time relaxing amongst the trees, not speak with Justin, despite how consequential their talks might be.

“I said many things to you the other day, one of them being how people like you, those with Inherited Bloodlines are treated in the Nexus.”

Leon nodded.

“Things are not as cut-and-dry as I made them out to be, there are many in the Nexus who hold no grudges against your kind, and many who openly prefer alliances and friendships with those of bestial lineages…”

Leon had to stifle a grimace—even though it seemed like he was choosing his words and thinking about what he was saying, Justin still wasn’t using the most flattering of language.

“… But there are many more who openly despise your people and put in great work to lay them low.”

“Yes, and you said that Kamran is one of them.”

“Yes, yes he is. To be one of your kind in the Nexus is not a safe position… and neither is it to be attached to one like you.”

“Are you scared?” Leon asked, his tone more incredulous than accusatory. It almost sounded like Justin was about to try and convince him not to go to the Nexus.

“Not for me,” Justin gravely answered. “My words were honest and genuine when I said I would aid you. If you go to the Nexus, then I shall be at your back, fighting alongside you with all that I have. No, my concern is for my daughter…”

One of Leon’s eyebrows elevated, but he didn’t interrupt despite Justin leaving enough room for him to interject.

“Are you interested in Valeria?” Justin pointedly asked, not beating around the bush.

Leon almost burst out laughing. When they first met, he’d been incredibly attracted to her. She was gorgeous, to be sure, and her body seemed almost tailored to his preferences, but he’d spent so long trying to convince himself not to think that way about her that he was a little worried he’d internalized it somewhat. Even with his thoughts of the past day or so leading him to try and see if she might be willing to join his family, he still felt an instinctive rejection begin in his throat and almost make it past his lips.

But he caught himself. Justin was treating this with deadly seriousness, if his expression was anything to go by, and since it concerned his and Valeria’s future relationship, Leon didn’t want to treat it with anything less than the same.

“I am,” Leon replied, and for clarification he added, “Physically, romantically, intellectually, no matter how you might want to phrase it, I am interested in her.”

Justin sagged into his bedroll. “I was worried that you were,” he murmured in dejection. “It was clear to me that she had some interest in you from how she spoke of you, but then she confirmed it before we left that place…”

“You make it sound like that’s the worst possible thing in the world,” Leon said, part of himself wondering if he ought to be offended by Justin’s tone.

“It is,” Justin replied, causing that part of Leon to become a little more persuasive. “It would be better if the two of you remain separate. To be attached like that to someone like you is a terribly dangerous thing. She will already be putting herself in great danger in following you to the Nexus, but if she were to bear you a child, she would eternally doom herself in the Nexus. In the incredibly likely scenario that you should fail, then her fate would be to join you in death. But if you two are separate, it would improve her chances of surviving your suicidal stand against Kamran. I cannot see that happen to her, she is all I have left…”

“You don’t ‘have’ her,” Leon growled, his offense having grown practically with every word that Justin spoke. “She is her own person, and so am I. What we are to each other is none of your business. I’m guessing she understands the risks?”

“She does, I explained them to her when we spoke,” Justin replied, his tone indicating to Leon that Valeria hadn’t taken his warning to heart, especially since he was now entreating him to leave her alone. “For her own safety, it would be for the best if you and she maintained a certain distance—”

“Did you say all that because you’re genuinely concerned about her, or because you don’t want any hypothetical child she might have to be mine as well?” Leon demanded, his voice remaining quiet and steady, though taking on dangerous tones as killing intent started to wind its way through his aura. “As a matter of fact, is that the reason you wanted to apologize in the first place? So that I might feel a little more inclined to take you at your word and stay away from her?”

“No!” Justin insisted. “I meant every word! I intend to aid you as much as I can in your quest to take your revenge! But my daughter means everything to me, and I can’t just sit by and not do anything while she throws away any future she might have outside of you!”

Leon rose from where he was seated, glaring at Justin like a hawk eyeing prey, his golden eyes glittering the light of the sun that shone through the leaves of the nearby Heartwood Trees.

“What we become, where we take our relationship, is none of your business,” Leon said with a tone of finality, any notion of Justin possibly following through with his promise to do anything he asked vanishing like it hadn’t ever been said. He wasn’t sure if he could possibly say anything more without raising his voice or even possibly getting violent if Justin continued to insist, so instead of further escalating things, he simply turned away from Justin and walked out into the trees, leaving the silver-haired man to wallow there alone and on the brink of tears, unable to move, unable to do anything besides just lay there and fear the future.