Leon glared at the underground river in the harbor of the temple, the memory of the ‘battle’ with Jormun running through his head again and again, the pirate’s shit-eating grin now practically locked in Leon’s mind’s eye. He just couldn’t believe that, after everything that they had experienced in the temple, Jormun had still managed to escape the three of them.

It felt like a loss, even though Leon knew it wasn’t that, exactly. They’d taken the temple, for however that much that was worth. Leon had taken some time immediately following Jormun’s departure to secure the last few places around the temple’s dormitories and had found the enchantment control room as well as another room that contained hundreds of glowing crystals submerged in a large half-spherical pool of nearly pitch-black water, illuminated only by the crystals themselves. Nestor had told Leon that these were probably the containment crystals for the wisps that controlled most of the automated enchantments, as well as the power crystals for those enchantments. After everything that had happened within the temple’s trials, Leon was sorely tempted to destroy those crystals, but he managed to refrain.

These were fantastic discoveries, and if he’d found them while out and about, he’d have been ecstatic. As it was, Leon had only found them after being forced to watch Jormun escape on his ship.

The silver lining was that the tracking arrow had hit Jormun’s ship, and after finishing his exploration of the temple’s remaining rooms and ensuring there were no more hostile surprises and gotten as much rest as he was able to, Leon had settled in for a chat with Nestor and Xaphan for a chat about their next steps as he glared out at the underground river.

[So, demon, remind me how is this tracking arrow supposed to work, exactly?]

[You’ll need a new spell tailored to the exact tracking spell that was made,] Xaphan told him. [The dead man and I modified that tracking spell while designing it to track the arrowhead if it was unable to mark an aura.]

[Right,] Leon replied.

[The accompanying spell will create a magical circle of light about a foot off the page, and a small flame about the size of a candle will move along its length in accordance with your position,] Nestor explained. [Imagine you stand in the center of the circle; you just have to move in the direction of the flame, and you’ll eventually find your quarry.]

[Is this hunting spell easy to make?] Leon asked.

[Easy enough,] Nestor replied.

[We already made it while making the tracking spell,] Xaphan smugly added.

[Then bring it out, I want to use,] Leon insisted. He needed to make sure that the tracking arrow was working, otherwise this would be a complete loss in his mind.

A moment later, Leon was staring at a huge sheet of spell paper that Xaphan had shown him. He spent a few brief seconds instinctively trying to analyze the spell, but it was a hugely complex spiderweb of glyphs and flowing runes that had him almost cross-eyed. So, Leon simply shut his eyes for a moment to clamp down on that instinct, and then channeled some of his power into the spell.

Immediately, a circle of red light as thin as a strand of silk appeared above the page, about two feet in diameter and hovering about a foot off the paper. A bead of fire than appeared along the strand of light, slowly moving along the strand roughly in the direction that Jormun’s ship had been traveling in when it passed beyond Leon’s ability to follow it with his magic senses.

[Just go in that direction,] Xaphan said, [and you’ll find your pirate.]

Leon smiled as he picked up the spell paper and turned in the indicated direction. The bead of fire moved along the circle of light as the paper was turned, and Leon began to smile.

With great haste—for with every passing second, Jormun was drawing further away—Leon grabbed Maia and Gaius from where they’d been quietly resting in the few minutes following the confrontation, and then went to the enchantment control room they’d found before collapsing from mental and physical exhaustion.

The control room itself was fairly large, with half a dozen control consoles big enough for at least three people to sit at apiece. Each one was covered in glass displaying dozens upon dozens of runic circles and other flowing runes, showing the state of the temple’s enchantment scheme.

At least half of these enchantments, as far as Leon could tell, were devoted to maintaining the spatial enchantments that linked each part of the temple together, as well as ensuring that every space within the temple remained habitable this far underground, with plenty of air and reinforcements to keep the temple from collapsing under the weight of all the earth above it. He was momentarily entertained to see one entire control console dedicated to maintaining a set of wards designed to protect the temple from the volcano it had been built into—the volcano itself hadn’t erupted in centuries, but the temple still required much defending from its wrath this far below the surface.

However, the console he was looking for was the one that controlled the temple’s teleportation capabilities. Many of the larger consoles had enchantments and intricate glyphs that were far beyond his ability to properly comprehend, but after a bit of searching, he found what he was looking for when he located a control console whose inscribed glyphs were built around only darkness, light, and lightning runes. Those three elements were the primary components of spatial magic, though apart from that, Leon had little comprehension of such a complex application of magic.

Fortunately, he had a master of the arts of enchanting squatting in his soul realm, and Nestor was able to walk Leon through some of the controls after about half an hour of study, allowing Leon and his party to, after almost a full day within the temple, finally link back up with everyone else who’d been left at the temple’s entrance.

---

Leon tapped his foot with impatience as the bulky galley slid through the mouth of the cave from which the underground river flowed. It moved at a fairly good clip, but in Leon’s mental state, it felt more like it was practically crawling.

It had been another day since Leon and his party had managed to get out of the temple. Leon had linked back up with his retinue, and then immediately found a place where he and Gaius could communicate directly with Sigebert. Unfortunately, when they did, Sigebert seemed to fixate on the temple rather than Leon’s information on Jormun’s whereabouts, and he insisted on seeing the temple for himself.

Legion scout ships had found a large number of caves along the rocky shores of the island, but few were large enough to allow ships in and out; it wasn’t that hard for Sigebert’s people to find the entrance to the underground network that let him sail into the temple’s underground harbor once he knew what to look for.

However, Leon had been practically forced not only to wait for the Fleet Legate to arrive, but also to venture back down into the temple to welcome the Fleet Legate when he finally showed up. The only silver lining in Leon’s mind was that, at the absolute, bare least, Sigebert hadn’t screwed around that much when he heard about the temple and arrived in relatively good time.

Still, it was an entire day gone.

So, when Sigebert came walking off the galley, openly marveling at the underground harbor and the destruction that Jormun had wrought on his way out, Leon’s mood was decidedly sour. He was particularly angered when he noticed that Sigebert was paying a lot of attention to the serpent-man statues that lined the walls.

“… they built all of this? And can you feel how much magic power is flowing through this place?” Sigebert whispered to one of his aides as he leisurely strode over to the large landing upon which Leon and his retinue were waiting.

“Took you long enough,” Leon called out, interrupting Sigebert’s admiration of the temple and not even bothering to hide his frustration.

Sigebert seemed to take it in stride, though, and as he started climbing the stairs up to the landing, he responded, “Getting through those caves wasn’t easy.”

“Neither was making our way through the temple itself,” Leon retorted, but after a brief pause, he decided to just get on with it. There’d be time enough for such recriminations later, if he were so inclined, but right now, he needed to get to Jormun. “I have actionable intel on Jormun’s location. We need to move quickly if we’re going to catch up.”

“Yes, you mentioned something like that before,” Sigebert said with some interest, referring to the brief communication the two had had after Leon got out of the temple.

“And instead of taking it seriously, you decided to come here,” Leon irately pointed out. “The pirate is moving on to the next island, and we can find and eliminate him now, rather than waiting around for him to prepare for our arrival in a week, or however long it takes for us to stop jerking around here.”

“I thought we went over this before,” Sigebert said with some exasperation. “The best way to handle this is to make sure we move slowly, not leaving any of the islands until we’ve secured our rear. If we don’t, we might get outflanked by any forces still loyal to the Serpentine pirates who might remain here…”

“And we also have three fleets,” Leon insisted. “You could come with me to find and eliminate the pirate! I guarantee you that when we do, we’ll find the traitor Octavius as well! This is our job! It’s up to Basina and Theuderic to secure the islands, not us! We need to hunt this damn pirate down now! Look around you! Can you feel the amount of magic power within this place?! The level of power that Jormun had access to far outstrips ours! We need to move on him before he can truly bring that power to bear, as he’s been trying to this whole time!”

If Sigebert was in any way offended at Leon’s more casual method of referring to him and the other two Fleet Legates, he didn’t show it. Instead, he just smiled sagely at Leon and said, “Your Ancestors knew the value of patience, young Raime. Follow their example, and victory is assured, no need to worry about that. Jormun will be brought to justice in time.”

Leon did his best to keep his cool, but inside, he seethed. He was sick and tired of the Fleet Legates dragging their feet on this issue, and though he knew it to be suicide, he was starting to much more seriously consider striking out on his own to deal with Jormun in any way he was able to. He couldn’t let this stand, and if anyone were to get in his way, he’d rip them to pieces with fang and talon…

And with that thought, something occurred to Leon. It was like a light went on in his head, and let his power flood his system—it seemed that there was something here that was influencing him somehow, that was the only explanation he could think of for these strange instincts he’d been having recently. It then stood to reason that if whatever this thing was that was strong enough to affect him, then it might very well be affecting the Fleet Legates as well. Leon would freely admit that maybe it wasn’t that overt, and that maybe their much more conservative strategy wasn’t a result of that, but Leon still had to make sure.

He got up into Sigebert’s face and grabbed the front of his tunic, to the surprise and shouts of alarm from everyone watching. Several others, including Gaius, even darted in, shouting and trying to separate the two, but Leon held firm as Sigebert’s expression twisted in surprise, then fear, and then finally some anger.

Leon let go only a moment later, but not before he sent a small bolt of silver-blue lightning coursing through Sigebert’s body. It wasn’t enough to cause the Fleet Legate any serious harm—and wasn’t even enough for anyone else to really notice—but it was more than enough for a look of confusion and slight dizziness to wash over Sigebert’s face before he righted himself.

By then, however, Gaius and half a dozen others had interposed themselves between Leon and the Fleet Legate, and were variously shouting threats, calls for Leon’s arrest, or appeals for peace.

“Wait!” Sigebert shouted, quieting everyone down. “There’s no need to arrest Leon… Is there?” He gave Leon a sharp, if meaningful look, and Leon responded with a quiet nod. “Good…”

Sigebert then began to, with a little more passion and drive in his demeanor, began to order his people to secure the temple as best as they could, while Leon and Gaius both cautioned against going too deep or messing around with the enchantment controls too much. Many of his subordinates glared warily at Leon, but after some cajoling from their Legate, they got back to work.

Sigebert, unfortunately, did not immediately order them to begin pursuit of Jormun. Leon began to assume that he’d made a mistake and started planning his next steps when Sigebert approached him about an hour later, finally agreeing to order his fleet to pursue Jormun, regardless of what Basina and Theuderic wanted.

Leon responded only with a smile and a hint of killing intent.

---

Leon felt his heart beat faster as the Thunderbird approached his Mind Palace. It had been a while since he and she had had a good conversation. Normally when they met up in Leon’s soul realm, the sole reason was training, and she rarely let him take his mind off their focus.

Now, however, Leon wasn’t in the mood for training. He’d been having strange urges and instincts practically since he’d arrived at the Serpentine Isles, and he needed to know what in the hells was going on with him.

The Thunderbird landed and transformed back into her human form, the bronze-skinned Amazonian goddess dressed all in white; her eyes a piercing avian yellow; her heart-shaped face looking both as warm as that of a loving mother, and as stern as that of military commander in charge of training new recruits.

She didn’t say a word as she approached Leon where he stood on the open stone platform set into the side of a mountain that he’d built to train upon. She simply smiled and took one of the training swords that Leon had stored here and continued to advance.

But Leon didn’t raise his defense or do anything to physically stop her. Instead, he looked her in the eye and said, “We need to talk.”

“We can talk later,” the Thunderbird said as she slowed, but continued to advance.

“I’d rather we talk now,” Leon responded.

“Is this training related?” she asked. “If not, then it can wait.”

“It isn’t, and it can’t,” Leon protested, his tone deadly serious. “There’s something wrong with my body, and I don’t quite know what…”

Leon, as succinctly as he could without glossing over any important details, quickly told the Thunderbird of all these instincts that he’d been experiencing for the past few weeks, culminating in the strange vision where he’d seen one of his arms covered in sparkling black scales.

For her part, the Thunderbird had almost interrupted him in the beginning, determined as she was to keep him training, but once he ignored her and got started on his explanation, she quietly listened, and eventually tossed aside the training blade as he progressed in his story.

When he was done, Leon went quiet for a long moment as he let the Thunderbird process everything that he’d just told her. He wasn’t quite certain what to make of it, himself, only able to describe what he’d been feeling and little else. He didn’t even know if this was related to the Serpentine Isles, even though the fact that it started cropping up at the same time as he arrived might be correlated.

“This is…” the Thunderbird whispered as one of her hands went up to her chin, the arm propped up on the other in thought. “I don’t know what this is, but it’s concerning,” she finished. “And you don’t know when this started? Nothing in particular happened at that time that might’ve triggered this within your body?”

“Nothing too consequential…” Leon murmured before a thought occurred to him. “Although, I did first experience these sensations and urges immediately after first speaking with Jormun, around the same time I started seeing that smaller bird that looks almost identical to you…”

The Thunderbird donned a mild scowl at the mention of her look-a-like. She wasn’t too thrilled at having something ape her appearance like that, but she said nothing about it, specifically.

“There are… some things that occur to me,” the Thunderbird said in thought. “You have the bloodlines of two great beings within you. One of them seems to be inaccessible to your conscious mind, but not your unconscious mind, which is being tapped into here…”

She went silent for a long moment, seeming to need a few more seconds to think this over. The pause made Leon more than a little nervous, as the Thunderbird’s mood seemed to drop even more as she mulled the problem over.

“You… probably haven’t inherited just powers from me and the Great Black Dragon,” she finally said. “There might be instincts, or some kind of blood-memory there, too. However, such things probably should’ve manifested themselves before…”

“For what it’s worth,” Leon mentioned, “I have many times dreamt of flight, and have put a great deal of time and effort into figuring out how to do so. My solution isn’t perfect, but there’re few things I enjoy more than flying. This does seem related, right?”

“Maybe,” the Thunderbird replied with a shrug. “I’m more concerned that these instincts have appeared so suddenly. That they seem to be escalating into hallucinations has me feeling even greater concern.”

“This isn’t a normal thing?” Leon asked, feeling somewhat gratified that his sense of alarm in experiencing these things wasn’t misplaced.

“Not so much, no,” the Thunderbird admitted. “Something here, perhaps the same thing that’s been giving you visions of that other bird, seems to be stimulating your blood, bringing those instincts out of your unconscious mind and into your conscious one…”

“But I’ve been diligent in keeping my mental defenses raised,” Leon pointed out. “Given how my defenses were breached yesterday, wouldn’t I notice if something were influencing me like that?”

“Not necessarily,” the Thunderbird said with a long sigh a look that resembled pity, as if Leon had just asked a childish question. “Your defenses are focused in and around your brain. They’re potent defenses, but if you’ll recall when you first learned them, they were described as ‘basic’. This is because, as effective as they are at keeping your mind safe, their scope limits them. It’s not your mind that’s being attacked, here, it’s your blood. I would say that something is subtly stimulating your blood to bring out your inhuman characteristics, something tied to these islands. And it doesn’t seem to be a stretch to imagine that this fake bird has something to do with it…”

“I’m unsure if the bird is fake, though,” Leon said. “I was able to see it, talk to it, it gave me useful information, and most importantly, everyone else could see it, too. Seems to be a pretty strong case for it not being fake, to me.”

“None of that is proof of anything, only that all of you were fooled instead of just you,” the Thunderbird countered. “That also worries me, though, for it means that whatever is causing all of this has to be quite powerful.”

Leon nodded, the Serpent of Jormun’s desire coming to mind. But as he thought about it, he also thought about the serpent statue at the center of the mass ritual sacrifice he found on the second island, and the strange power he’d felt within it. He remembered Xaphan mentioning that Aeterna was part of a planar cluster collectively known as the ‘Divine Graveyard’, and that there could be things buried here that utterly defy explanation.

Whatever was going on, if that bird wasn’t real, then it was must have been tapping into Leon’s mind somehow to conjure the image of the Thunderbird. Maybe this was the doing of the Serpent…

… Or maybe whatever was doing this to him did to the people of the Serpentine Isles as well.

Leon’s eyes went wide as that thought occurred to him. Was it exploiting the culture of the Serpentine Isles to get people to do what it wanted? Leon had no idea, all he knew was that he could say less for certain now than he could even just a day or two ago.

And that he absolutely had to stop Jormun from succeeding. Serpent or not, something with divine power that demanded mass human sacrifice could not be unleashed upon the world.