The super Lances were given several other tests during the course of several hours, including having most of their now white-hot internal components removed and replaced so that they could be fired again without waiting the week Asger had claimed they’d need. Showing the weapons to truly be prototypes, nine of the twelve Lances had broken down for one reason or another during the tests even with the constant swap in components, though none of the Ravens appeared too put out by that. If anything, that three survived their tests was a pleasant surprise, if Leon was reading the Raven elders right.

Leon took the opportunity to try and speak with the elders during the tests, but he didn’t make much progress as they were all too focused on observing the tests and the adjustments made to each of the super Lances. He only got a good chance to speak with any of the elders later when he accompanied Asger back to his lab, the ninth-tier elder apparently deciding that since he was going to head back to the lab anyway, there wasn’t much need to spend time in the gathering hall.

Leon, appreciating the man’s candor and devotion to his work, agreed—not that Asger left much room for disagreement. As a result, while most of his people got themselves situated in guest houses by the rest of the Ravens, Leon took Anzu, Alcander, and a handful of Tempest Knights with him to Asger’s lab.

The lab itself was entirely utilitarian, as seemed to be the case with all Raven decoration standards. However, his lab was only the largest in one of the massive research facilities on the north side of Raiginn, and in the lobby of the building, Leon found one of the first pieces of actual art that he’d seen in the Ravens’ city so far.

It was a mural depicting a dozen abstracted individuals—the Tribal founders if Leon’s guess was accurate. They bore no identifying features but their numbers were right according to the Ravens’ Tribal Totem. All twelve were ten times larger than life, and all were not only staring upward, but they were also reaching for the sky.

Leon wasn’t given much time to admire the piece as Asger moved with purpose, speeding through the halls of the research facility too quickly for Leon or his people to take in much of what they were passing.

The lab itself was quite large and staffed with about fifty engineers all pouring over one of the broken super Lances that had been brought in following the tests.

“Be careful with that!” Asger shouted upon entering, pointing at a sixth-tier mage carrying delicate-looking equipment with only a single hand, though he hardly seemed to be struggling. “Get a full accounting of the damage!” Asger continued. “Make we know exactly what was broken before we set about fixing it!”

He continued barking orders while Leon ordered his people to hang back at the door while he followed the Raven further into the room. However, as Asger kept going to the weapon itself, shouting orders all the while, Leon paused at a series of enchantment control consoles set up in the massive bay. The desks were projecting screens of light that displayed not only the schematics of the weapon from various angles but also showed many of the enchantments that allowed it to work.

Leon wasn’t able to parse too much of the physical engineering aspects and focused almost entirely on the enchantments.

One enchantment, a complex combination of fire and earth with a heavy focus on metal, appeared to be protection against intense heat. It could be considered a defensive ward but increasing heat tolerances were an almost universal need for complex magical machines.

Another enchantment dealt with channeling power throughout the weapon—it didn’t just need fire magic despite the projectile it fired being fire. In fact, it seemed that all elements were used in some capacity within the weapon, something that would place a tremendous amount of stress upon any power management system.

The third that caught his eye was one that greatly piqued his interest. It was a simple enchantment merely designed to automatically aim the weapon according to inputs from a connected control console, but it was simpler and far more elegant than all the control schemes he and his engineers in Heaven’s Eye had managed to throw together. As it was, his Lightning Lances, even those attached to mobile armored frames, still incorporated more physical aiming than he liked. An enchantment like this one could greatly increase accuracy, having a measurable impact on the capabilities of one of his proudest accomplishments.

Asger finally returned before Leon could continue examining the rest of the displayed enchantments, grumbling under his breath.

“… on their asses all the damned time! All just looking for the first fucking chance to slack off!”

He paused a moment during his ranting to glance at Leon.

“It is the fate of those in power to spend more time keeping a flock together than actually doing useful fucking work, isn’t it?”

Leon lightly grimaced. “I’ve heard great things about delegation. Leaves one more time to spend on their own work if they can trust others to theirs.”

Asger scoffed. “If you manage to find anyone trustworthy and isn’t foolish, let me know.”

“Problems?”

Asger waved in dismissal and played with a stack of paper on one of the desks for a moment before changing the subject.

“Well, you’re here, Leon Raime. What do you fucking want?”

Without missing a beat, Leon said, “I want to know how you built that.” He nodded at the super Lance for emphasis.

“Very carefully,” Asger said.

“That much is obvious, but I always had trouble increasing the size of Lances. Miniaturization has always been the goal for Lance engineers, in my experience.”

“If you want weak fucking weapons, then sure, make them smaller,” Asger said scornfully. “Making them is better. More room for enchantments. More room for everything.”

Leon softly chuckled. “Could these weapons be mounted on arks, by any chance?”

“That’s what they’re designed for,” Asger replied.

“Wouldn’t that be a significant drain on power? For a Lance that size, wouldn’t it be more efficient to mount ten regular Lances instead? I just saw how powerful these weapons were, but are they so powerful that they’re worth the power drain?”

“Do you think they aren’t?” Asger asked combatively.

“Didn’t say that; I want to know what you think.”

“I think firing one shot from fifty miles and destroying your enemy is better than firing twenty shots from five miles and only doing scratch damage. The power requirements, so long as they aren’t crippling, don’t matter.”

“I… tend towards agreement,” Leon said, “but I wouldn’t say that power requirements don’t matter. In the weapons I’ve developed, I had an eye on sustainment, reliability, and endurance, so ignoring such a massive drain on magic power just doesn’t sit well with me, especially with how much power these monsters obviously need.”

“Oh? I don’t fucking suppose you have one of your weapons with you, would you?” Asger snarkily asked. “I’d love to examine whatever you’ve brought—it would only be fair, wouldn’t it, since you’ve gotten to look so closely at mine.”

Leon grinned as he waved his hand more theatrically than he’d originally intended, reached into his soul realm, and pulled out a MALL. Immediately, Asger’s eyebrows shot up and he rushed over to inspect it.

“Is this a vehicle?” he asked as he found the handle for the hatch in the back. Without waiting for Leon’s response, he dove inside.

The MALL shook slightly as he rampaged about within, and Leon walked over to the open hatch. “Yes, it is. Thick armor, crew of three with space for eight passengers, range upwards of three hundred miles with a top speed of around forty miles per hour.”

“Weight?” Asger called out from inside.

“About twenty tons,” Leon answered.

The MALL stopped shaking for a moment before Asger poked his head out the hatch. “Twenty tons?” he asked.

Leon nodded.

Asger gave him an incredulous look before hopping out the MALL and digging his fingers down below the vehicle’s wheels.

‘He can’t possibly be…’ Leon thought in disbelief before, indeed, Asger began lifting the MALL with apparent ease.

“Well fuck me, it is twenty tons,” he whispered as he gently set it back down. He backed up a few steps to take the whole thing, and Leon saw his eyes drifting up to the Lightning Lance. “How many shots can it fire?”

“Standard load is one hundred bolts, but it’s a mobile platform so some consideration has been made to keep its engine powered.”

“… Bolts?” he asked.

Leon pulled out one of the bolts in question, an iron cylinder small enough to fit in his hand. “The Lightning Lance uses, well, lightning magic to propel one of these at incredible speeds. Enough to punch holes in the curtain wall of a heavily-warded castle.”

“Show me,” Asger demanded, and with a grin, Leon did just that. It took nearly an hour, but Asger had driven the MALL about his large lab, then took it outside through the lab’s bay doors and to a firing range for weapons of the Lightning Lance’s size. After firing off a dozen shots and taking some readings, Asger drove them back to his lab.

Upon exiting the MALL, he walked over to his desk and began scribbling down notes. Throughout all of his tests, he’d barely spoken to Leon aside from getting clarification on the controls, but to Leon’s surprise, he’d picked up on the controls far quicker than anyone else had and hardly needed much instruction. After the first shot, he’d only needed to see Leon reload the Lance once before he was able to do it himself.

Only once he began recording his observations did he finally start asking more detailed questions again.

“How did you get it moving like that?” he asked. “Its weight-to-size ratio is too heavily skewed towards the former, so it shouldn’t move as easily or as quickly as it does.”

“Its engine incorporates some rare materials that I’ve picked up in my travels,” Leon explained as he fished a small piece of thunder wood from his soul realm and tossed it to the Raven elder.

Asger caught the sliver of wood not much larger than his index finger and brought it up to his eye for inspection before abruptly pulling it away when it started sparking and crackling with lightning magic.

“Lightning magic stored in wood?” he whispered in wonder.

“Of a sort,” Leon answered. “Wood mutated by the power of a tree sprite and some special lightning results in what you have right there. Thunder wood is what we’ve been calling it. It’s made building an engine small and powerful enough to fit in that platform much simpler, and using it with the Lightning Lance drastically increased its efficiency.”

Asger continued staring at the piece of thunder wood he held for a long time but he still seemed to take in what Leon was saying.

“How, precisely, is this wood created?” he asked. He finally turned back to make eye contact with Leon, his expression carefully neutral but betrayed by an almost manic look in his eyes.

“Trade secret,” Leon answered with a coy smile. “There’s a lot we’d have to discuss before I’d ever come close to agreeing to share that secret with you. But if the Raven Tribe swears themselves to me and my cause, then sharing my secrets with you would only be natural, wouldn’t it? Some of them, at least?”

Asger closed off his expression, then, after glancing from Leon to the thunder wood and back to Leon, he tossed the thunder wood back to Leon.

“No deal,” he replied. “As enticing as that is, the Ravens are neutral in whatever political fuckery is going on in Stormhollow. We don’t want any part in it. All we want is to build. All we want is to create.”

Leon chuckled again. “I understand that feeling. Honestly, I do. Were I anyone else, I’d be living just like this. Devoting myself to my crafts and ignoring all else. Unfortunately, I’m me, and I bear the burden of my lineage. I respect your decision, but I’m going to have to press.”

“Press as you will, you will find that our minds don’t change easily.”

“Not even for more gifts?” he asked as he retrieved a small piece of fulgurite from his soul realm. The rough glassy substance glimmered with the stored power of the Iron Needle, and when Leon tossed it to Asger, the Raven caught it and held it even more gingerly than he had the thunder wood. This time, he wasn’t able to confine his amazement to only his eyes.

“So much power…” he whispered in awe. “So small a thing…”

“I haven’t been able to replicate its creation, but I have the materials to continue trying. I was hoping the Ravens would be able to aid me in researching how to make more.”

Asger frowned before tossing him back the fulgurite.

Before he could speak, however, Leon pulled out the roc feathers and bull’s horns from the hunt down in Hawk territory. “I have more interesting materials that, to my eternal regret, I simply don’t have the time to study. I could use some help, and it would help if that help came in the form of people I can trust…”

Asger’s eyes narrowed and he said nothing.

“In addition,” Leon continued, “I would share with your people the knowledge for how to assume the shape of your eponymous Ancestor…”

At that, Asger scoffed again. “This transformation rumor, huh? I would’ve thought such a thing beneath you, Leon Raime, after this showing. Such transformation is impossible for mankind—I know, I’ve spent quite a bit of time investigating the matter myself in my younger years.”

Leon cocked an eyebrow; the man seemed quite young, but he supposed at the ninth-tier, he could be as old as three or four hundred and still look like he was in his twenties by mortal standards.

But after that, Leon simply sighed, pulled his clothes into his soul realm, and before anyone could have a chance to so much as look down, he began his transformation. A moment later, he stood before Asger in his silver-blue Thunderbird form, his aura towering, his presence unmistakable.

[It isn’t impossible,] Leon smugly stated. [I’ve shared this power with all the Tribes who’ve sworn themselves to me. I am their King now; helping them to go become more in tune with their inherited powers is only natural, wouldn’t you say?]

Asger stared at him in abject shock. His mouth opened and shut several times as he struggled to find the words. Even the workers in his lab stopped what they were doing to stare at Leon.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,’ Leon thought as he basked in the astonishment shown by the Ravens. ’Still feels as good as the first time…’

[If you’re still skeptical,] Leon said, [Get in touch with literally anyone else in the city. I and the rest of my supporters flew in none-too-subtly, and many of us were transformed. In fact, all of my Tempest Knights are capable of the same.]

He glanced at the few Tempest Knights in the room and gave them a silent order. All had been pulled from the Knights’ Jaguar contingent, so in a moment, five jaguars stood where five knights once had.

The sight finally brought Asger out of his stupor and he stumbled forward a few steps before breaking out in a swift stride. He walked right up to Leon and poked him in the hip.

“Huh,” the Raven grunted. Then he grabbed one of Leon’s feathers and plucked it right out of him, sending a sharp needle of pain shooting through Leon’s body. Anger flashed through his mind in equal measure and his aura exploded out of him, as fierce as if he were fighting a hated enemy. Asger’s assistants working on the super Lance collapsed under its weight while Asger himself paled and froze.

But he kept himself in control and simply used his element-less magic to rip the feather from Asger’s hands and into his soul realm.

[Don’t do that again,] Leon warned as he, with some effort, restrained his aura, allowing Asger’s people back to their feet.

Asger nodded slowly before pulling out a round glass lens about twice as large and thick as a silver coin and, with a shaking hand, sticking it into his eye socket. Flexing his brow held it in place and Leon saw numerous runes light up on its surface while it emitted strange magics that seemed to scan him up and down.

“Certainly… certainly not an illusion,” Asger murmured as his shaking stopped.

“Of course I’m not an illusion,” Leon said dismissively. “You ought to trust your eyes more.”

“I trust what my data tells me; it’s too easy to fake everything else.” Asger looked him up and down and while he wasn’t sure what his scanning glass did exactly, Leon didn’t think it was doing him any harm, nor would it see the secret behind the transformation enchantment. After all, this was the work of a Primal God refined by the Thunderbird and the best blood mages in Heaven’s Eye; he doubted any instrument of Asger’s would be able to see much that wasn’t otherwise apparent.

“Interesting. Interesting,” he muttered continuously. “All readings indicate that this is your natural body. No signs of grafting or light magic-based augmentation…”

[Is that even possible?] Leon asked, his curiosity piqued.

“No,” Asger answered before pausing a moment and seeming to think it over. “Well, not without some disgusting costs to the user. There’s a reason we dropped that particular avenue of research…”

Leon notionally frowned. After a moment, he asked, [Have I finally caught your interest? Will you at least hear me out with the other Raven elders?]

Asger halted in his examination and Leon took the opportunity to assume human form. When he was properly dressed, Asger quietly stated, “Give me some time. This is a big… this is… I have to speak with my Tribe. I’ll come find you when we’re ready to give you an answer.” He began striding back to the lab’s main doors, but he’d only taken a few steps before he paused again and clarified, “An answer about hearing you out. Not about acknowledging your claimed title.”

“Fair enough,” Leon replied, pleased that he’d at least gotten this far. “I still think we have plenty to discuss,” he said as he glanced back at the super Lance. There were quite a few Heaven’s Eye projects that he felt would benefit from a Raven’s knowledge, and vice-versa. He just had to hope that the Ravens saw things as he did.