“What makes you think you’re qualified to tell me how to build a golem?”

Such were the first words Nestor spoke as soon as he stepped off the Ravens’ ark. He’d ignored Leon completely even as the Ravens he was traveling with went to greet their King. Instead, he’d made a beeline straight for Clear.

Leon and the tau had kept Nestor informed with their work on trying to help the giants out of Rakos’ rubies. Nestor had been decidedly less than enthused by their efforts, but as Leon watched Nestor confront Clear, he thought he might’ve underestimated Nestor’s feelings just a bit.

“My findings are without doubt,” Clear responded with a bright smile on his aged face, not a single iota of anger to be found in his expression at Nestor’s behavior.

Nestor audibly scoffed. “We’ll see.” Without another word, he pushed past Clear and the small crowd who’d turned out to welcome the Ravens and marched further into the palace.

Leon quickly wrapped up his greetings with the Ravens, promising to meet up with them later to discuss the progress on their construction of arks and the potential for setting up a golem manufactory in Stormhollow. By the time that was done, Nestor had just about reached Rakos’ courtyard.

So, Leon hurried through the halls, Clear Day and a few Tempest Knights running behind him.

“Apologies for him,” Leon said as they moved. “He’s always had an attitude; I shudder to think how bad he was before he died.”

“I’ve dealt with worse,” Clear replied with a dark grin. Leon had to resist the urge to ask for details as only a moment later, they arrived in Rakos’ courtyard.

The first thing Leon noted was that the stone giant was standing incredibly straight in a pose he knew was one of utmost respect. Nestor, however, was mostly ignoring the giant in favor of conjuring several floating runes of light and wrapping the giant in magic.

“Nestor,” Leon said as he arrived next to the dead man.

“Be careful,” Nestor snapped. “I don’t want your aura interfering with my sensing magic.”

Leon just stared at him, his excited smile thinning considerably. “So sorry about that. Would you prefer killing intent instead?” Leon took a few threatening steps forward, and Nestor faltered slightly as he took a step back.

After a moment of silence, Nestor grumbled, “There’s no need to get upset…”

“There’s no need for you to be such an ass, yet here you are, spewing shit with every word,” Leon reprimanded. “I get that I’m having you do something you think is a waste of time. But suck it up and stow the attitude.” As he spoke, Leon took a few more steps forward, forcing Nestor to take a few more back, which in turn caused his floating runes to dissipate.

Not that Leon cared overmuch about that latter point; he was more interested in fixing Nestor’s attitude. The fact that Nestor’s golem body towered over Leon hardly mattered as Leon’s aura grew with his irritation.

“I’m just—” Nestor began, but Leon cut him off.

“You’re what? Tell me you’re being constructive. Tell me you’re being productive. Do it.”

Nestor was quiet for a long moment, not even arguing with Leon, but shrinking slightly, reminding Leon of a sulking child.

“There’s no need to get so antagonistic,” Clear said as Leon and Nestor continued staring at each other in silence. “I’ve taken no offense, so why don’t we focus on the task at hand?”

Leon sighed. “Watch it, dead man. I don’t care if you’re an ass to me, but I draw the line at everyone else. I expect you to act with all the grace of your lineage.”

With that, Leon stepped back and let his aura drop from boil to simmer.

Turning his attention to Rakos, he asked, “How are you? Ready to see about getting some of your people into proper bodies again?”

Rakos rumbled incoherently for a moment, then said, “I would like that very much, Divine One.”

“We’re going to have to get these things proper vocal enchantments,” Nestor observed, his tone still rather bitter. “Do you mind if I finish my preliminary observations?”

Nestor asked Leon the question, but instead of responding, Leon instead repeated the question to Rakos.

“I am ready,” Rakos responded.

“Go ahead,” Leon said to Nestor.

Nestor huffed, stepped forward, and began redrawing the runes that had dissipated during the disagreement.

Leon, in turn, stepped back, this time not wanting to disturb Nestor’s sensory enchantments.

“Quite the colorful character,” Clear whispered to him.

“He’s an ass,” Leon responded, his tone devoid of venom. “He’s also family and has skills I need. So…”

“He gets a pass?” Clear stared at Leon in such a way that Leon wondered how casual of a question it really was.

“Obviously not,” Leon replied.

“Hm. Good.”

During their brief exchange, Nestor blanketed Rakos in magic power, controlled by the runes he drew in the air. It didn’t take long for him to start clenching his fingers and folding his arms in impatience and frustration.

“Something wrong, Nestor?” Leon called out.

“This golem… shouldn’t have these readings,” Nestor replied.

“Most wisps aren’t exactly sapient, though, are they?” Leon shot back with a cheeky grin.

“These are…” Nestor began before cutting himself off. He glanced back at his runes and the magic they were controlling, and then walked over to the table upon which still sat the materials Leon and Clear had been experimenting with before Nestor’s arrival.

Nestor surveyed the materials, then grabbed a ruby. “Maybe…” he whispered as he started inscribing glowing runes of light upon the ruby’s surface. After a moment, he held it out to Rakos and said, “Try this!”

Rakos rumbled in response, sounding somewhat concerned.

Leon immediately cut in. “If you don’t think it’s safe, you’re not required to do it!”

“Leon, are you doubting my skills?” Nestor shot back.

Rakos, in turn, hurriedly said, “We live to serve the Thunderbird Clan. If this is what is required of us, then we shall obey.”

“You don’t sound enthusiastic,” Leon observed.

“They’re wisps!” Nestor declared. “How enthusiastic do you think they’re going to be in the face of fulfilling their purpose?”

Leon almost shouted back, but he held his tongue. He’s insisted on this point enough that he didn’t want to keep reiterating it. But there was also a small part of himself that kind of agreed with Nestor. He couldn’t help but wonder how much of Rakos’ loyalty was due to its own choice or simply because of the power that animated it came from the Thunderbird Clan.

He certainly didn’t want that uncertainty to creep into his voice. Instead, he just nodded to Rakos, allowing it to make its own choice.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

He wasn’t surprised when Rakos stepped forward and held out one of its massive stone arms toward Nestor’s proffered ruby.

The magic surrounding the giant became charged, and a few bolts of golden lightning erupted from its stony skin to burn the courtyard’s marble tiles. Not a single bolt touched the ruby even though Leon could sense the magic trying to make contact with the ruby. The enchantments in the ruby were simply not responding.

After a moment, Nestor made a quick adjustment to the ruby, and then was almost blasted backward when a massive lightning bolt struck the ruby, and by extension, him. Rakos immediately pulled back its hand.

“One of our number attempted to enter the stone,” it stated. Simply due to the nature of its body, telling tone was really difficult at the best of times, but Leon thought he detected a note of concern in Rakos’ voice. Despite what prompted the concern, Leon felt somewhat comforted by that emotion, seeing its worry for its fellow giant as proof of his point that the giants had evolved past being ‘mere’ wisps.

But he didn’t linger on that feeling of mild vindication and turned his attention to the glowing ruby that Nestor now held. It wasn’t glowing nearly as brightly as any of the rubies in Rakos’ body, but it certainly now held a staggering degree of power.

“Good,” Nestor softly whispered as he walked over to one of the golem frames that Leon and Clear had been experimenting with. With practiced ease, he opened the chest compartment and installed the ruby in the center of the golem’s animation core. When he was finished, he stood back and waited. “The ruby ought to begin powering the golem in a moment. The wisp should then be able to control the golem from within the core, just as I’m able to do in my body.”

“Heh,” Clear softly chuckled next to Leon. Leon glanced at the tau and saw him still mildly smiling, though there was a hint of smugness there that he hadn’t been expecting.

Serving as a bit of an explanation, the golem Nestor had just installed the giant into remained inert. No magic animated it, even as the seconds they waited stretched into minutes.

After an agonizing five minutes, Clear Day finally said, “Looks like your ruby didn’t work.”

“There are… just some design flaws I’m going to have to work around,” Nestor justified.

“Design flaws such as the stone giants no longer being the wisps you are familiar with?” Clear leadingly asked.

Nestor ignored him and opened the golem’s chest again to begin tinkering.

“This is just going to take some experimentation,” Nestor said, determination creeping into his tone. Leon could tell that he was getting into the spirit of the work, regardless of his personal feelings on the matter. Nothing quite like a challenge and a failed first attempt to stoke a good researcher’s determination—he knew that feeling all too well.

While Nestor worked, Leon asked Rakos, “Is your kinsman all right in there?”

Rakos answered slowly, “I’m… unsure… Without being connected to me, I cannot speak with them.”

Leon nodded, a grim look appearing on his face. “Be careful, Nestor!” he called out, to which Nestor just waved. To Rakos, he added, “You have the power to stop this at any time, should you think your kinsman has been put in harm's way. We’ll figure out a way to get your people out, even if we have to scrap the golem idea and cart a whole damn mountain here.”

Rakos merely nodded and didn’t stop Nestor’s experimentation.

Leon took a deep breath and settled in for the creation process. It seemed like this was going to take a while…

---

Three days after Nestor’s arrival, the dead man hadn’t left Rakos’ courtyard. So far, he’d made little progress, vindicating Clear’s discovery that ‘normal’ soul rubies that could house a magic body were insufficient for housing wispy bodiless stone giants. Nestor, despite being of unparalleled skill in crafting golems and the wisps that animated them, found himself unable to adapt the rubies—or any other gem, for that matter, not even storm crystal—to properly house the stone giants. Thankfully, his experiments didn’t seem to be harming the giants despite constantly transferring one or more between the gems and Rakos.

Leon had largely remained with Nestor, absorbing much of the art of golemcraft through watching Nestor work and prompting the dead man for the occasional explanation. He’d only left to see to some of his official duties, including a rather minor dispute that demanded his attention for how consequential it could end up being, simply due to the nature of the precedent it could set.

The core of the issue was a minor territorial dispute between two Clans, one Bear and one Jaguar, along the border between the two Tribes. A small river had been agreed upon as the border between the two hundreds of years before, but since that time, the river had changed course, shifting further into Bear territory.

The Jaguar Clan insisted that this granted them more land, as the river was the border. The Bears understandably disagreed. Making the matter even more messy was the fact that a vein of rare metals had been discovered in this disputed region, which both sides were eager to exploit.

It would’ve been easy for Leon to just rule in the Jaguars’ favor and be done with it, especially since the Kingdom as a whole would benefit no matter who mined those metals, but he gave the matter all due consideration, taking the time to read the text of the original border treaty and examining the property laws of both sides.

To his consternation, he discovered that Jaguar property law stipulated that property lines demarcated by natural terrain features didn’t change even when those terrain features did. By Jaguar law, the border shouldn’t have changed when the river did.

Bear property law meanwhile was the opposite, with property lines demarcated by natural terrain features changing when those features did, which meant that the positions of both Clans were illegal by their own Tribal laws.

Conscious of the history he had with both Tribes, Leon decided in the end to rule in favor of the Bears. In doing so, he upheld Jaguar law to their expense, while also ruling that any similar intra-Tribal disputes would be handled similarly. The borders were the borders, even set by natural terrain features that might change in the future.

To help uphold such decrees, he also made moves to expand the judiciary. For the most part, Tribal elders and Chiefs were also judges in legal cases, though in practice they had the aid of a great many legal experts from their Tribes to consult with. However, in Stormhollow, many praetors handled judiciary duties in non-Tribal land. Leon gave orders to expand the ranks of these praetors, to eventually make them responsible for helping to enforce Royal law in Tribal lands.

To help ensure their neutrality, he quietly prioritized legal experts without bloodlines to fill the ranks of these praetors. In addition to opening the army and bureaucracy to those without bloodlines, he hoped that any friction between them and those with bloodlines in the Tribes would be lessened by giving the former an avenue for social advancement. Additionally, he appointed Clear Day as one of several advisors for choosing suitable praetors. The decision was ultimately up to him, but he trusted Clear’s moral compass to help him choose well.

After dealing with all of that, he was most gratified to hear that Tikos had arrived from the sprite’s forest with good news. Apparently, the tree sprite was finally ready to tell Leon about the secret project it alluded to prior to Leon’s month-long journey north.

When Leon entered the room, he almost recoiled as if he’d hit a wall. The room had been filled with the aroma of cinnamon, a scent that Leon associated with great, nearly uncontainable excitement in Tikos. The tree sprite itself was practically bouncing, its leafy hair rustling with extra energy, lending credence to Leon’s initial impression.

“Tikos!” Leon called out, smiling as the tree sprite sprang around to face him. “You’re looking chipper! Have you some good news?”

“Much news good!” Tikos exclaimed through its voice amber. “Much much news good!”

“Well! I love good news! Why don’t you tell me what it is and we can share in this celebration?”

Tikos energetically nodded. “First,” it said, “next harvest of apples be will less than month one!”

Leon’s smile widened. That meant he might have just enough time to have one more harvest of Hesperidic Apples before the Grave Warden arrived.

“Second!” Tikos continued. “Finished project! New material!”

With a wave of its hand, it conjured a small chunk of golden amber, softly glowing from inner light. The chunk was about as large as one of Leon’s fingers, but even unpolished, was incredibly beautiful. Even more beautiful was its aura—magic swirled around and within the amber in the characteristically jerky and sudden patterns of lightning.

“That’s… what is this?” Leon asked as he took the offered amber and inspected it closely. It held an enormous amount of power, but it seemed to hold a consistent amount of power no matter how much magic flowed into and out of it.

“Thunder wood amber!” Tikos proudly announced. “Created in crook a thunder wood tree of!”

“Really…” Leon whispered. “This is something special. I’m not sure it’ll replace high-quality gems for enchanting, and it’ll never replace storm crystal as a medium for magic power storage, but the way magic is flowing through it…” Leon closed his eyes and inspected the amber with his magic senses, observing everything he could in extreme detail.

“Can change shape!” Tikos said. “Using magic your!”

Leon cocked an eyebrow and, without opening his eyes, channeled some of his magic through it. The amber bent and distorted following the shape of his magic power, forming the visually striking arm of a lightning bolt in motion.

But Leon could sense the magic in the amber shifting, reacting to his power seemingly with glee. Of all the materials he’d ever worked with, this amber felt the best, like it would gladly take the power channeled into it. It wouldn’t be as powerful as other power-manipulating materials, but what it lacked in power could probably be made up for in utility…

Just that one thought had Leon’s mind turning back to the problem he and Nestor had been trying to tackle the whole day. A ruby, even one enchanted to properly hold a magic body, was far too restrictive for a stone giant to inhabit. They could safely be stored inside one, but they couldn’t interact with the outside world while doing so. So a stone giant would be essentially imprisoned within the gem until released.

But with the malleability of this amber…

“Tikos,” Leon slowly began, “how much of this stuff can you get your hands on?”

“Mature thunder wood tree requires!” Tikos explained. “Better to use not for cutting! Another that size amber made can be every day!”

Leon’s eyes widened. A mature thunder wood tree could make another piece of amber like this, but would mean they couldn’t harvest it.

He smiled. If these could serve as suitable cores for stone giants, then even if that was all they were good for, losing a few trees to produce this amber would be more than worth it. Besides, from what Leon could sense from this amber, they were quite probably good for more than that, too.

“Follow me,” Leon said to Tikos. “I think what you’ve made is incredibly promising, but we need to find out exactly what it’s capable of…”