The opening torn into the hull of the supercarrier was small relative to the size of the vessel, but quite large on a human scale. Leon and his party had no trouble getting through it, finding themselves in a fairly long, narrow hall on the other side. It was perhaps wide enough to allow three or four men to walk shoulder-to-shoulder, but triple the height of the average man. Given the ark had crashed and was currently embedded in the earth nose-first, Leon and the others almost had to resort to flight just to navigate the hallway.

Criss-crossing the interior was what seemed to be support beams, and all along the inner wall were savaged runic engravings.

Leon was immediately entranced by the runes, but the damage that the exterior of the ark had suffered was tiny compared to what had happened to the runes, most of which were completely unreadable now. What Leon found more important upon his investigation was that there was still a fairly substantial current of magic power running through the ark’s interior.

“This place still has power,” he said, his voice colored with wonder. He almost instinctively turned to Nestor to ask him about it, but as Cassandra, the Grand Druid, and the rest of their entourage followed his party into the ark, he held his tongue. They weren’t being accompanied by many, only a small handful of guards and engineers, but Leon still wasn’t risking anything with the Grand Druid being anywhere close to earshot.

Besides, he and Nestor had already worked out something of a strategy for their exploration. It was loose and situational, but they didn’t need extensive plans to carry it out. It essentially amounted to seeing if it was possible to use anything they might find in the ark to separate their party from the Grand Druid and continue their explorations in peace.

Fortunately, Stephanos and the other civilian arksmith were remaining outside, at least for the moment.

“We believe this hallway to be a maintenance section,” the lead engineer explained as she landed in the hall. “Some inspections have revealed the outer hull to not only be heavily enchanted, but we also believe it was engineered to have some ability to absorb shocks by flexing inward and then back out.” As she spoke, she indicated the beams that Leon had taken to be meant for support. “Other than that, we’ve found a few other hatches that we think were designed to allow some kind of substance to fill this pocket between the inner and outer hull, but we’ve not been able to get the hatches open to confirm.”

The lead engineer then gave the Grand Druid, and then Leon, a rather pointed look.

The Grand Druid smiled and said, “Then let’s see what our ‘specialist’ can do to help. Leon, if you would, my boy, there’s a door over there.” With an elegant wave, the Grand Druid indicated one end of the hallway where a narrow door could just barely be seen amidst what to Leon looked like the hatches the lead engineer was talking about.

Without a word, Leon approached the door and examined it. It was built in a narrow trapezoidal shape, though he couldn’t see any runic circles glowing on it which might open it. Without a word, however, Nestor approached from behind and, with mechanical stiffness to hide the ease with which he could move, he tapped a specific place on the door’s frame and a panel opened up.

Nestor began working on the panel while the Grand Druid said, “Truly a marvelous golem you have, Leon. Would it be possible to allow us to study it after this is over?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Leon replied. “I have quite a few projects back home that I was hoping the golem could be useful for.”

“Sounds tantalizing,” Cassandra said as she slunk closer, her eyes on Nestor the entire way. “What is it doing now?”

“I’m guessing some kind of maintenance routine,” Leon explained. “Hard to say. From my own tests, I found that it's quite adept at manipulating various enchanted objects, so there’s a possibility it was more than just a scribe-golem, but something more akin to a highly-advanced automated assistant or tool or something like that for whoever built it.”

Almost as soon as Leon finished his short explanation, Nestor shut the panel and a red runic circle appeared on the door.

“Look at that,” Leon breathed. “I was hesitant to bring this thing along, but…” He pressed his hand against the runic circle and activated it with his magic power. The door slid into the wall in response, giving access to the hall beyond—though Leon noted that a few other enchantments in the door activated as well, and if he were correct, they were some kind of blood magic. If he had to guess, then he would say that the ark already knew he was a Clan member. With a smile, he turned back and glanced at Nestor. “… Looks like it’s paying off already.”

“So it is,” the Grand Druid exclaimed. “Let’s see what’s beyond!”

Despite the Grand Druid’s excitement, there wasn’t much exciting on the other side of the door. A long hallway no wider than the one that ran between the outer and inner hull. There were a few more doors on the inside, and unlike nearly all the other ruins Leon had found of his Clan, these weren’t empty but instead filled with hunks of rusted and dusty metal—they were in a maintenance section of the ark, and these were probably the tools the ark’s complement of engineers used to keep the ark running.

Or so he would’ve guessed. A little further down the hallway, they were stopped by another door, this one a little bigger and sturdier-seeming than the previous one. However, this one didn’t require Nestor to fiddle with an interior panel, and Leon was able to open it without problems. The connected rooms to this hallway were a little fuller than the ones just before, and from the way the lead engineer practically squealed in delight as they came upon these objects, Leon could tell they were of value.

“I… I think these are spare parts for micro-arks!” the lead engineer cried after a few minutes of inspection. “Arks only large enough for one or two people, with small Lance-like weapon systems! Fast and deadly, an ark like this one could carry dozens of micro-arks! Imagine a hundred Lances, all with the mobility of the fastest and most maneuverable arks that we can build today!”

Leon smiled with all the others, but as Cassandra and the Grand Druid began gushing about the possible implications of such a find, Leon found himself glancing at Nestor. The MALLs he and his research division had devised were only possible thanks to the integration of thunder wood into their design. Nestor had previously indicated that such weapon systems were generally seen as useless by the powers-that-be in the Nexus given the sheer amount of power required for such weapons to become mobile, and their relative uselessness in combat with post-Apotheosis mages.

However, such ‘micro-arks’ that the lead engineer described would be similar weapon platforms that could fly. Leon couldn’t help but see some discrepancy there. Why was an armored ground vehicle not used, but these micro-arks were?

Unfortunately, with everyone else around them, Leon couldn’t grill Nestor on this point, but he mentally filed it away for later.

The exploration of the ark continued, with the maintenance section of the supercarrier being a dense warren of rooms, closets, and broken machinery, the latter of which appeared with greater frequency the deeper into the ark they got. They found several large magic lifts in this maintenance section—or ‘engineering’ section, as the lead engineer started calling it as they found more and more complex mechanical and magical machinery—big enough to carry the Director’s personal ark, but even though the ark itself still seemed to have power, the lifts wouldn’t budge. Fortunately, there were emergency stairs just for this purpose.

With this group, Leon led them around the ark as best as he could. However, it soon became clear that many of the interior doors that lead into the heart of the supercarrier were sealed even to him—not that he tried that hard to open them, after a few very subtle warning gestures from Nestor—but most of the outer compartments were easy enough to explore. They found what seemed like the crew quarters, with bays big enough to house hundreds of bunks, nonfunctional hygiene equipment, and trashed and desiccated leisure areas. These areas were easy enough to identify given the furniture, all of which was made of steel, was still there, though any and all organic materials had long since decayed to dust.

More intriguing were the massive bays found close to the hull, from which the lead engineer theorized the micro-arks could be launched. They found four of these massive bays, and within each, they estimated four to six micro-arks could be stored at any one time.

Several doors in the back of each of these bays led into long hallways along the bottom of the supercarrier, much larger than the hallway they’d used to enter the ark, each one with a number of alcoves about large enough for the Director’s ark to be stored. Tracks along the floor indicated that the micro-arks likely weren’t meant to be stored in the bays, but in these alcoves, where the remnants of many arcane machines could be seen. There were enough alcoves for at least three hundred micro-arks within the supercarrier.

A few of these alcoves were filled, though what was in them was little more than a mound of heavily-deteriorated metal that could have, eighty-thousand years ago, been the small arks in question. As they were now, there was nothing immediately usable to salvage within the supercarrier’s storage bays.

To some degree, Leon was surprised that they hadn’t found any weapons. He knew from Nestor’s briefing prior to coming to the Sacred Golden Empire that supercarriers had at least some complement of onboard weapons, but they were designed mostly to be a base for smaller arks to launch from. Given that they hadn’t known any supercarriers remained, Nestor hadn’t gone into too much detail, though, leaving Leon to wonder just what kind of weapons were placed onboard, and where they might be located.

Closer to the hull was an obvious place to look, but many of the decks were inaccessible no matter what Leon or Nestor did—crushed when the supercarrier crashed, damaged from whatever it was that made the supercarrier crash, Leon couldn’t say.

But, after many hours, their group had explored essentially all that was currently available. By Leon’s estimation, at least half, if not more, of the ark remained unexplored, but those areas were within the area of the ark that wasn’t opening for him. Leon was a little worried, but he remained patient. He was confident that he and Nestor could get inside if given the chance to do so without people watching over their shoulders.

That would have to wait, though, for the group decided to take a break while the engineers along with them cataloged everything they’d found and mapped out the interior as best they could.

While they did that, Leon stood apart with his people, but he wasn’t able to say more than a couple words before the overbearing presence of the Grand Druid washed over him from behind.

Leon turned, a smile plastered over his face, to meet the aged woman right behind him, who wore a similar smile to his.

“Leon,” she said, her tone light and pleasant.

“Grand Druid,” Leon replied, his tone likewise. “This place is incredible, isn’t it?”

“It is. Its majesty has not been matched on this place since its fall. We’ll be working to change that, but we’ll have to see if we can get further inside before then.”

“The aft sections of the ark are mostly opened, now,” Leon pointed out. “This ark’s engines seemed intact enough to study…”

“Just studying the engines is fine, but they won’t do us much good if we can’t analyze the ark’s power source,” the lead engineer called out, having apparently listened in.

“Yes,” Leon agreed with some slight annoyance. “But surely that’s enough to study for a long while, isn’t it? I doubt this thing will ever take to the skies again, not with how damaged it is, but just studying this massive metal corpse ought to be a massive boon to your Empire, wouldn’t you say?”

“I would say that,” the Grand Druid agreed with a mysterious smile. “As for the rest… we’ll have to see. But I came over here to discuss something else with you if you wouldn’t mind indulging this old wilting flower for a few minutes…”

With the ease of a grandmother giving direction to a young grandson, the Grand Druid took Leon’s arm and steered him to a quieter section of the ark where they wouldn’t be interrupted again. Leon gave a quick gesture so that his people wouldn’t try to follow, though a glance at Nestor confirmed that the dead man could still overhear since the Grand Druid wasn’t putting up any barriers this time.

“Your tree sprite,” the Grand Druid said, jumping right in, “I have yet to break more than a few words with it.”

“Exotikos isn’t ‘mine’,” Leon responded with more obvious vehemence than he meant to express. “Who they speak with, and for how long, is something that they decide on, so long as it’s not my business.”

The Grand Druid smiled patronizingly. “I but wished to pass on my continued hopes that our good working relationship might extend to your tree sprite, as well. While I—”

Before the Grand Druid could continue, Cassandra came running over. “Grandmother! There are some fluctuations in the ark’s aft sections that looked promising!”

“Oh! Then we should look into them, shouldn’t we?” the Grand Druid exclaimed.

Leon smiled and subtly glanced at Nestor. He and the dead man had done quite a bit during their explorations, and Nestor had gained access to a great many maintenance systems.

The dead man cocked his head slightly, and Leon imagined he would’ve been smiling if he’d had any lips.

“Maybe,” Leon said, drawing the two ladies’ attention. “I’ve reactivated a few arks in my time, for both your Empire and Ilion, and though this is certainly the largest one I’ve ever been in, my retinue and I are likely the most experienced in reactivating old arks like this one. Fluctuations in power aren’t anything new, and probably not that exciting, either. I’ll have one of my people check it out with a couple of your engineers, but I wouldn’t get too excited.”

Both Cassandra and the Grand Druid gave him strange looks, but neither could offer any meaningful rebuttal.

“If… you say so,” Cassandra grumbled. “I’d rather check it out myself, though. Waiting here is boring.”

The Grand Druid glanced between Leon and Cassandra for a moment, then her eyes narrowed as her smile took on a sly note.

“No, let Leon’s retainer deal with it,” the tenth-tier mage said. “For now, why don’t the two of you spend a little more time talking while we rest up? I’ll just see to some business with our team before we proceed…”

With a wink sent Leon’s way, the Grand Druid spun on her heel and left Leon and Cassandra alone. Leon felt a little awkward, and from the way she was staring after her grandmother in what looked rather like disbelief, Leon got the impression that Cassandra felt the same.

Still, he at least had the advantage of taking a moment to order Gaius, “Head down to the engines and see what’s up. Take the thing with you, I’m sure it’ll know what to do.” Leon nodded to Nestor, and added, “Do you remember the thing we had to do a few years ago with that one ark south of Ilion?”

Gaius frowned for a moment, but said, “Yes. Engines flared as the ark was explored and slowly powered up and drained the power supply, right? Triggered a bunch of problems within the ark.”

Leon nodded. “Something like that. Wouldn’t want anything like that happening here. Check it out.”

Silently, he channeled a whisper of darkness magic and murmured into Gaius’ mind, [I trust you. Nestor’s opening up a distraction. See if you can widen it.]

Gaius didn’t even react, save for his eyes darting to Nestor. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said, and he and Nestor were off, accompanied by two Evergolden engineers.

And with that, Leon returned to Cassandra.

“Probably nothing,” Leon said. “Hopefully not anything serious, but one can never be too sure.

“As you say,” Cassandra replied, disappointment giving her tone a bitter flavor. “What do you think happened to this thing?”

“Probably shot down,” Leon said. “After the fall of my Clan, the remnants of my Clan’s military forces and our vassals fought a big war, didn’t they? Losing this supercarrier might’ve even been the catalyst for many of our vassals quitting the plane entirely and retreating while they still had arks to do so.”

“You think?” Cassandra asked with a thoughtful look. “How can you be sure? See something the rest of us didn’t?”

“I have my ways,” Leon replied with a wry smile. “In this case, though, I’m only speculating. Regardless of what happened, the loss of such a massive ark couldn’t have been taken lightly. It would’ve been a massive strategic loss, and I’m sure many plans changed based on its mere presence.”

Cassandra frowned and shrugged in evident agreement. “This vessel was a marvel, wasn’t it?” she whispered as she glanced around the bay they were using to rest. “Building such a thing must’ve been an undertaking greater than any Aeterna has seen in a long time. I would’ve loved to have seen it in its prime.”

“Maybe that’ll change,” Leon said as he leaned against a nearby wall. “Maybe studying this thing will teach your people how to build one of your own. Assuming you have the resources, anyway.”

“And the skill,” Cassandra said with a scowl.

“You doubt the skill of your arksmiths? I’ll admit that Stephanos seems more bluster than skill, but judging from what I’ve seen of Evergold’s arks, your people are hardly hopeless.”

Cassandra groaned. “Let’s not bring him up, shall we?”

“Why not?” Leon asked as his smile widened slightly. “He seems quite… taken with you, wouldn’t you say?”

“He grew up in the Imperial Palace. We were friends when we—or, maybe I should say that we were friendly when we were young, I would’ve always hesitated to call him a friend.”

“He doesn’t appear to feel that way.”

Cassandra’s ruby eyes narrowed. “You’re awfully interested in Steph, Leon…”

“Just curious. When a man acts so arrogantly in front of me, especially one I’ve never even heard of before, it tends to raise a few eyebrow hairs.”

“Not just scoping out the competition?” she asked as she focused entirely on him.

He gave her an exaggerated shrug. “He thinks himself your suitor, I’d say, though I’ll be the first to admit I’ve only ever seen him the two times. And… sure, maybe I’ll admit to wanting him to stay right the hells away from you, and from the way you’ve treated him, I’m not alone in that want?”

“You’re not,” Cassandra readily admitted. “He’s… overbearing, and certainly no suitor of mine. Those I might even consider as a partner have to be of a certain caliber, you understand; I’m an Imperial Princess, and though I’ll never succeed my mother, I do have high standards.”

Her eyes scanned his body as if in appraisal, and Leon didn’t shy away. He almost asked her just how he might rank in her eyes, but he held his tongue. Instead, he just watched her look him up and down, and teasingly glared at her when her eyes found their way back up.

“So nothing to worry about from Stephanos, then?” Leon asked slowly, placing slightly more emphasis on each word than he normally would’ve.

“He’s below your concern,” she confirmed in a similar cadence.

They stared at each other for a long moment, a silent contest to see which one of them would blink or look away first.

After that long moment, though, Leon asked, “So, how have your personal projects been, Cassandra?”

She smirked. “Great. And I’ll do you the honor of permitting you to call me ‘Cassie’.”

“Truly, you grace me with your benevolence. Blessed am I for such consideration. Cassie.”

Cassandra’s smile, which had been naturally fading as they spoke, widened again, accompanied by a quiet chuckle. She spun a lock of her hair around a finger and replied with forced disinterest, “As you ought to be, Leon. I don’t think I’ve given anyone such permission before. Only my family has ever managed to take such… liberties with me.”

“Why, my lady!” Leon said with faux outrage. “Surely you aren’t accusing me of being untoward?”

Cassandra giggled again. “Of course not, Leon. You can’t be untoward when following an invitation. But if you’re going to prove yourself to be so good at following directions, then I might just have some other requests.”

Leon lowered his head slightly in a playful parody of a bow. “I live to serve,” he said without a shred of seriousness. He snuck a look at his ladies as he said this, noting that both Valeria and Maia were watching the exchange, Maia with a look of only relatively vague interest, but Valeria, when she noticed Leon looking at them, smirked for just a moment before returning to her usual stoic, ice-cold expression.

Cassandra was about to continue their banter when a wave of magic power pulsed through the ark, and Leon felt lightning tingle in the air, mixed with light and darkness. Everyone in the bay aside from himself, Cassandra, Valeria, and Maia all vanished as spheres of darkness enclosed them, before dissolving away, leaving nothing behind.