Leon flew in lazy figure-eights over the section of the noble district that his villa was in, reveling in the way the wind blew through his feathers and the dampness of the clouds that he passed through. Flying around above the capital wasn’t exactly legal, but he didn’t much care; this was a fulfillment of a primal urge that he’d had for years—he could finally fly! And without a flight suit or his griffin carrying him! Such a feeling of elation that this brought him wasn’t one that he was going to let a few Bull Kingdom regulations ruin for him.

It seemed that the Bull Kingdom largely agreed, because no one came to angrily knock on his doors and demand that he stop despite his complete disinterest in hiding or explaining to anyone outside his family or retinue what he was doing. Perhaps it was because the regulations were there as a safety precaution, but he meant the Bull Kingdom no ill-will, and he knew that the powers-that-be in the Kingdom were aware of his attitude.

So, he spent quite a few days following his return from the stone giants’ crater flying around in avian form. He could fly quite quickly, faster even than he could run on foot. He estimated that if he needed to, he could travel a thousand miles in a day, which was more than fast enough for him to fly out of the capital for some time to test his magic while in avian form.

The locations he chose for his tests were uninhabited hills close to the capital. There weren’t many uninhabited regions so close to such a large city—a lot of food was needed to feed the city, and so most of the land around the capital was devoted to producing that food. However, the farms were mostly concentrated in places like around the Naga River, or further west where the soil was richer and the climate more forgiving. To the east, the ground became rockier and sandier, and so there were less farms and villages to get in his way.

And without many people around, he could really let loose.

He began his tests with his lightning, for that was his most important magical element. He found that he could not only conjure lightning out of his body, as he could in human form, but when it was cloudy, if he reached into the clouds with his magic power, he could even call forth a lightning bolt from the heavens. It was actually an easier technique to use than conjuring lightning from his body, for he was just using the lightning magic that was already there rather than needing to produce it on his own. The downside was that he was restricted in using it; only on days when there was sufficient cloud cover could he call a lightning bolt from the sky.

Further testing in his human form found that he could do something similar, but it was much harder to do—the Thunderbird had explained that this was because his avian form was more in tune with the ambient magic power surrounding him, but from then on, she began to teach him how to manipulate the weather. It might be a while before he could do something as dramatic as summoning a thunderstorm, but now that he was truly awakening to her power, she didn’t want him to stumble down this path blind and deaf. She’d give him the guidance he needed.

Lightning wasn’t the only element he practiced, though; his wind magic was almost as potent as his lightning magic, now, especially in his Thunderbird form. It was almost as natural to him when in the shape of the Thunderbird to reach out to the plane around him and call the wind to him, moving it about almost as easily as it was to breathe.

His water magic was still rather lackluster compared to the other two, though in his eagle shape, it was still easier to conjure than normal. Still, it was a disappointing increase compared to the former two elements.

In short, despite the disappointment of his lacking talent in water magic, it was made clear enough in his testing that in his Thunderbird form, his magic was stronger and more efficient, so it also stood to reason that from now on, it was his best combat form.

Unfortunately, learning to fight in his human form took most of his childhood, and he had an innate understanding of how his body was to be moved. Even though he’d now learned how to fly in his new Thunderbird form, having the dexterity, flexibility, and muscle memory to properly fight in that form wasn’t something that he could build in just a few weeks or months, even with how dedicated he was to learning. He wasn’t sure if such physical fighting was even needed, but for now, his Thunderbird form would be forced into more of a ranged combat style than he was used to.

Once his testing was over, he still trained frequently in both of his forms, but training wasn’t his only reason to transform; he also frequently transformed and spent his leisure time lazily flying about making figure-eights over the noble district, not only mentally relaxing as he indulged in his instinctual need to fly but also getting a better and better grasp of how his new body moved and functioned.

With such a vantage point, even though his villa was deep in the city, he was one of the first people to see in the distance a huge yacht making its way up the Naga River, one bearing Heaven’s Eye banners and sails. This was no pleasure ship, though—it was sleek and beautiful, made for cutting through both rivers and open oceans while also projecting an aura of awe and majesty, but it also had a full completement of what looked like small Flame Lances of some kind, though they were far too small and compact to have come from the Bull Kingdom.

Leon could sense the presence of several powerful mages aboard that ship, one even reaching the eighth-tier and three of the seventh.

‘The investigators,’ he concluded, thinking of Emilie.

He stayed in the air for several hours, watching the ship make its way past the riverine traffic and then over to Heaven’s Eye’s private harbor. Several times he felt the attention of those in the ship, but he made no reactions. After weeks of flying around, he was getting used to a lot of people keeping an eye on him with their magic senses.

He felt that this was something worth cutting his flight time short for, though, so just as the Heaven’s Eye ship began disgorging its passengers into Heaven’s Eye’s private docks, he landed at his villa and went to find Elise to tell her who’d just arrived.

---

“Things are going fine,” Emilie said without a hint of worry in her voice as she, Elise, and Leon quietly ate a late lunch in her palace. “I don’t fear what they’ll find at all.”

“Mother, you could lose your position!” Elise protested, the worry in her voice driving her tone up almost an entire octave.

Emilie gave her a mysterious smile. “I may have been a bit worried a few days ago, but not anymore. Do you know who they sent?”

Elise shook her head.

“Damian Makedon,” Emilie said.

Elise blinked in confusion, and then her worried expression intensified. “They sent a Makedon here?! But they never leave Imperial territory!”

“They do when the Director himself has need of something,” Emilie replied with a smile. Elise was taken aback, and leaned back in her chair, her confusion only mounting. However, she remained silent and let Emilie continue. “Damian is here to officially investigate me for my role in ending the Bull Kingdom’s civil war, but unofficially, he told me that the Director is going to remove me from my Lordship over this Kingdom’s primary Tower and recall me to Occulara no matter what they find.”

“What?!” Elise shouted in panic, but Emilie held up her hands and calmed her daughter down with a placating gesture.

“Don’t worry, Butterfly,” she whispered with a smile of pride. “I’m being recalled to serve in Occulara in a greater capacity. John Kosmos died two years ago, and his seat on the board is open. The Director has tapped me to replace him.”

“But…” Elise sputtered before trailing off. It seemed to Leon that she’d realized something, but he didn’t have enough knowledge of Heaven’s Eye’s higher management to come to the same realization.

“I’m sorry,” he spoke up, “but it seems strange to send people here to investigate supposed wrongdoings only to, in the same breath, indicate that you’re being promoted. Aren’t you worried that this is a bait-and-switch? That they’re only trying to placate you with talk of a promotion so that you won’t interfere in their investigation? That they’re using this to keep you from fighting back while they get rid of you?”

“That’s a remarkably cynical take on the matter,” Emilie remarked with a smile. “Normally, I would say that such an attitude would the correct one to take—if one always expects the worst, then one will rarely be unpleasantly surprised. This case is different, though. The Director doesn’t play politics like that; if he wants someone gone, then they disappear, simple as that. The Director got to where he is today by being both ruthless and honest to a fault. His word is as good as gold, and Damian Makedon brought a letter written in the Director’s own hand giving me his word.”

“That seems… kind of contradictory,” Leon muttered.

“It isn’t at all,” Emilie responded. “The Director removes threats and obstacles with extreme efficiency, while treating everyone else with the respect that he would expect to be treated. No matter what, he’ll always speak straightly with you. If you anger him, though, then you’ll just disappear one day, never to be seen again.”

Leon murmured in response, “Grim…”

Emilie shrugged. “He’s been the Director for the past two centuries. You don’t stick around that long at the top of Heaven’s Eye without being a bit grim.”

Leon nodded, but if it were Emilie’s aim to ameliorate his and Elise’s worries, she’d failed. However, he felt at least reasonably confident that he could now bring up the key part of his future plans with her without putting undue pressure upon her.

“I… If you say that this is fine, then it’s fine. How much power would you have as a board member of Heaven’s Eye?”

“A ton,” Elise answered immediately as she squeezed Leon’s hand, giving him a smile that was still somewhat worried, but also a little bit relieved, as well. “The board of Heaven’s Eye are the personal advisors of the Director and the highest level of managers in the entire Guild. They handle entire branches of the Guild so that the Director can focus on the Guild as a whole without getting too bogged down focused on one particular aspect. I think John Kosmos was the Chief of Acquisitions?”

Emilie nodded, then further explained, “If I succeed Kosmos, then I will be in charge of finding and acquiring not only rare materials, but all materials that Heaven’s Eye provides, from as mundane as grain to as rare as wyvern hearts.”

“That… sounds like one hell of a job,” Leon remarked. Heaven’s Eye was the single largest provider of just about anything and everything on an international scale. Food, weapons, armor, raw materials, Heaven’s Eye dealt in more of all that than most countries on Aeterna. He sure as hells wouldn’t be eager to take up that job, but from the look on Emilie’s face, he knew that his attitude wasn’t shared.

“It’s not an easy one, but it’s powerful,” Emilie whispered, savoring every word as her eyes unfocused for a moment, as if she were fantasizing about the future.

“Is it powerful enough to recommend potential recruits for Heaven’s Eye?” Leon asked, his tone coming off far more confident than he felt within.

At that question, Emilie’s rather relaxed and unworried expression hardened into a significantly more business-like demeanor, and she leaned forward onto the table, fixing Leon in a steely gaze. “Why Leon… Are you looking to join Heaven’s Eye?”

“That depends,” Leon replied with a subtle smile. He spared Elise a quick glance, and when she smiled and nodded, he proceeded. “I need contacts down south. I need a support structure. I’m not willing to pledge fealty to Heaven’s Eye, but I’m willing to give up a measure of my independence for Heaven’s Eye’s support.”

“That… is complicated,” Emilie said. “If you were willing to join Heaven’s Eye outright, then it would be the easiest thing to have you join. Eighth-tier mages aren’t exactly common, even down in the Central Empires, so Heaven’s Eye getting its hands on another one would be quite the coup. However, if you’re not looking to join Heaven’s Eye, but to enter into some kind of partnership with them…”

Leon glanced once more at Elise, then leaned in to whisper into her ear. Her expression froze, and she glanced back at her mother, then at Leon, and then back at Emilie. Slowly, she nodded, though her expression didn’t soften at all.

With a wave of his hand, Leon conjured the platinum card he’d retrieved from his family’s archives beneath Teira onto the table, and it was Emilie’s turn to freeze.

“You know that I plan to achieve Apotheosis and enter the Nexus,” Leon stated. “You know at least some of my lineage. I have great plans, and for that, I have need of Heaven’s Eye’s resources…”

Everything that Emilie didn’t know about Leon, save for Xaphan, Leon began to explain in all the detail that Emilie wished for—after extracting a promise from her to keep it to herself and to never share with anyone the information he was about to share with her. He still remembered her exposing his name to Alix—at this very table, no less—and though that one slip of the tongue hadn’t come back to bite him, he couldn’t say that another might follow that example.

For her part, Emilie was extremely apologetic about revealing his identity to Alix, chalking it up to a mistake made in the heat of excitement at his and Alix’s presence. She readily gave him her word that whatever he had to say to her would be kept in confidence, and she said it so seriously and with such conviction that Leon fully accepted her declaration.

He proceeded to tell her about the Thunderbird Clan and its subjugation of Aeterna—some of which Emilie had already been familiar with, though she didn’t have enough detail to know that it was the Thunderbird Clan, instead only knowing them as nameless extraplanar invaders who’d eventually been repulsed and defeated eighty-thousand years ago.

He then explained how House Raime was descended from the Thunderbird Clan, and then finished that story with how his father met and fell in love with a Princess of the Great Black Dragon Clan, though he wasn’t able to say definitively why his mother had been here. Then, he switched gears, and began to speak of the future, of the Clan he hoped to build, and the heights he hoped to rise to within the Nexus. Finally, he finished with giving her a brief explanation of his enemies, including Khosrow and the three lieutenants that Justin Isynos had warned him of back in Nestor’s lab.

“… and I want to emphasize that I’m not looking to actually take over Heaven’s Eye or anything like that,” Leon said. “All I want is support as I rise. Nothing more. What form that support might take is not yet for me to expect—I don’t know even know what I really need to achieve Apotheosis, or to grow strong within the Nexus, yet. All I know is that within the next century or two, I hope to take my family and ascend to the center of the universe.”

When he finished, Leon squeezed Elise’s hand, who’d snuggled up close to him in a show of support as he told his story, especially once he reached the death of his father.

Throughout his spiel, Emilie was silent as the grave. She merely listened and waited for Leon to finish, and once he was done, she continued to be silent as she mulled over his words, taking the whole spiel uncharacteristically seriously. Leon let her think and process, knowing that his story wasn’t one that any sane person would take completely at face value. But he hoped that he’d presented his case well, and that Emilie could offer him at least some nominal support, even if it was just a few introductions down south.

Emilie regarded him coldly, her emerald eyes piercing right through him, her expression unreadable.

And then, she suddenly brightened up and said, “What kind of person would I be if I left my son-in-law out in the cold?” She smiled and leaned back into her chair. “We have to discuss what joining Heaven’s Eye means for you in the short term—they’ll not accept you if you don’t give them anything in return, eighth-tier or not.”

“I’m willing to sell spells and enchanted weapons through them,” Leon said. “What might they expect of me, though? What might they ask of me? What could I get in return for varying levels of commitment?”

Emilie replied, “It depends. You won’t be used as a mule, and your skills in enchanting would have to be officially evaluated. You won’t be stuffed into an office, either. I suppose they might ask you to deal with situations that often crop up that might require some magical muscle. You might have to escort a dignitary around, lending them legitimacy and respect by your presence. You might have to liaise with Imperial envoys who would be insulted if they met with anyone of lesser tier. I honestly can’t tell you what they might ask of you, because at your level, they won’t expect you to work in a defined role unless you join the board or are appointed as a Tower Lord.”

Leon frowned, but he nodded in acceptance. That might be a price he’d have to pay, but he still had some concerns.

“How often do these kinds of situations arise where an eighth-tier mage’s power is needed?”

“Not particularly often,” Emilie said with a shrug. “Heaven’s Eye is powerful enough in other ways that we don’t really have to rely upon our muscle, and generally speaking, relying upon violence–or the threat of it—doesn’t sit well with the Empires. If Heaven’s Eye threw your weight around for petty things, it might make the Empires a little nervous. However, meeting and escorting dignitaries around might be relatively frequent, especially in Occulara…”

“It sounds like Heaven’s Eye has to walk on eggshells around the Empires,” Leon observed.

“They do. It’s a complex relationship—Heaven’s Eye is extremely old, and extremely widespread, enough so that they have influence from the centers of power to the furthest reaches of the plane. If the Empires were to act against them, it could cause serious economic damage to everyone, not just themselves. However, for all its power, Heaven’s Eye can’t match any of the Empires in military might—especially since we don’t have even a single tenth-tier mage. If we did, though, the Empires might just decide that we’ve grown too powerful and start to act.

“It’s a difficult balancing act for Heaven’s Eye to walk—on the one hand, we have to make ourselves so useful that we’re tolerated by the Empires. On the other hand, we have to go to great pains to make it clear that we’re not a threat to Imperial hegemony, else they’ll finally decide that we’re more trouble than we’re worth and act against us.”

“I understand,” Leon replied.

“It’s enough of a balancing act that there have been members of Heaven’s Eye that we’ve believed could have ascended to the tenth-tier, but chose not to in order to preserve Heaven’s Eye, or else chose to retire and go into exile. We’re invaluable to the Empires, but also their biggest threat, and everyone is well aware of that. We’re friendly with the Empires, but not trusted.”

“Why don’t the Empires just use their resources to set up competition?” Leon wondered.

“They have, within their own borders,” Emilie replied. “But none of their private enterprises are able to match Heaven’s Eye’s economic powers, and they always fail if they challenge us. Their public enterprises are usually too mired in bureaucracy or too politicized to be effective tools against us, as well. Plus, there are always at least a few powerful members of the Imperial governments who are our allies. We have many unconventional weapons to use, but again…”

“If the Empires wanted you gone, then they could destroy you,” Leon finished.

“Indeed, though they’d wreak economic devastation if they did,” Emilie softly said. “Are you sure this is the route that you want to go down, Leon? I’m sure that allying yourself with one of the Empires might be a better solution…”

“I have a feeling that if I start getting involved in Imperial affairs, then they might try to drag me out into political squabbles that I don’t want anything to do with,” Leon said with a bitter smile, his gaze momentarily flickering to the nearby windows through which he could see the Bull Kingdom’s Royal Palace. He then glanced over at Elise, smiled, then turned back to Emilie. “Besides, I think that Heaven’s Eye would give me more freedom than the Empires would. I have my own priorities to see to once we get south, and I want to be able to pursue them relatively unfettered.”

“I think we’ll have to talk about those priorities one of these days, but before that, should I take all of this to mean that you’re set on this course of action, and that you wish to accompany me south to Occulara?”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Leon said, and he glanced again at Elise.

“Where Leon goes, I’m going, as well,” she said. “We’ve been apart too much already, and I don’t want to separate for so long again!”

Emilie nodded. “Understandable,” she whispered. “The investigation will take a few months. I won’t be able to leave for at least that long. If need be, I can delay the journey south for a few more months, but that’s it. If you’re still set on joining me on the journey south, then I’d say a sixth-month time window would be generous. I would recommend you have your business here wrapped up in four months or less if you don’t want to be left behind…”

A smirk played across Leon’s lips, and his golden eyes narrowed in confidence. “That should be more than enough time for us, I think. Thank you.”