Leo gazed onto his city from the giant, flat branch of Ygg’drasil that contained his portals. He was almost two-hundred feet in the air, and from this distance, how small and fragile the city really was became painfully apparent.

His bustling heart was Districts One and Two, Dragon Isle, and Green Apple Grove across the Blue River. A series of farms around Wheat Town, about four miles away, formed another small nexus, and a road and a few additional farms connected Wheat Town to Green Apple Grove. On the side of the Blue River he was on, the entire remainder of the once massive city, another twenty-nine districts, or about ten times his current space, was occupied by the ruins of the old city.

A single road ran along the East bank of the Blue River as well, north into the Forest of Familiars, previously called the Averian Forest, and passed close to the first of the new ‘orchard Towns,’ Ty’s small barony.

Then the wilderness swallowed pretty much everything else.

After the great cities of the One Land, his town of slightly less than eight thousand looked puny, especially surrounded by ruins and wilderness in two directions, and the sea in a third.

Very little had changed in the month Leo had been absent, but he could see a few more houses with planted yards in the first district, and a few more farms under construction near Wheat Town and out Ty’s way. He supposed his ministers must have purchased another couple boatloads of slaves to set free, but he wasn’t sure—it could have been refugees that had been free elsewhere. Even if most of the elves had been slain or enslaved during the fall of the first Averian kingdom, a few had escaped and some of those were trickling back.

Leo turned back to his team, smiling. Feng had joined him and was staring with wonder at the massive flat forest to their north, and the great Blue river. Wide rivers and great flat lands were both unknown in the One Land, which was mostly great vales with giant, steep mountainsides. Everyone else was peaking over the edge, although Hugh was crouched low and extending his neck for a look, well away from the edge itself.

“A beautiful view,” Zun said, sardonically. Leo felt for her—now that they shared the telekinetic sight ability, he understood what she saw, and what she didn’t see—very far, or in color. She could fight, but she could never just enjoy a sunset, which was a touch sad.

He shook his mood off—he was glad to be home, and even Zun would appreciate being back at Star Port. “Alright everyone. Take the rest of the day, see to your families and or projects, and then meet early tomorrow morning in the conference room at the temporary palace. We have a great deal of work to do. Andul, please bring Ratham with you.”

Andul raised his eyebrow. Ratham was his partner, but he hadn’t had much to do with any adventuring or government activities—the dwarf, while a high level crafter, had ‘betrayed’ his people by not dying, choosing to live and become a slave of the demon that had destroyed Stonehaven. Now, he preferred to run a business and stay out of the way.

“He’s the only one that can mold metal well, besides you,” Leo explained.

“Ah, makes sense, yer highness. ‘e’ll be there.”

Leo reached out and grabbed Lily. “Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I’m going to go spend some time with my bride-to-be.”

With those words, Leo floated out and away from Ygg’drasil.

“No fair!” Hugh cried out.

Leo laughed, then zipped down toward the city. His supernatural Strength let him carry Lily with ease, and she shrieked laughter as they flew to the ground outside the Emerald Bee, the fanciest inn in Star Port, half a mile away, in less than a minute. Leo felt like superman as he came in for a landing and carefully set Lily down. A few of the elves bustling about pointed and gasped, but most either hadn’t noticed it, or weren’t that excited by flying things. Leo supposed in a city visited by an airship in the last year, with constant forty-foot long Sun Eagles landing, he couldn’t be too surprised if one guy flying wasn’t the biggest deal.

And Feng did land shortly after him, snapping his wings back before starting to look around the market.

“Wow,” Lily said, smiling at him, her eyes alight.

At least she’s excited, Leo thought, laughing at himself. “Yeah, we’ve gotten pretty strong. I can’t believe how amazing and wonderful leveling is. I would never have imagined this back before.”

“On your magicless dirt-grubbing world?” Lily asked, smiling. “Before my sister brought you here?”

“Yeah. My world did right by many people, but it unfortunately lacked the possibilities of people leveling to become advanced beings the way we can here. I’m trying to bring some of the benefits of my world here, but even aside from You, Hugh, Neha, the kingdom… I think I would stay at this point just to see what level I could get to. I mean, what’s a mantle? I’m dying to know.”

Lily shuddered. “I hope not.”

It was Leo’s turn to laugh. “Sorry, idiom.”

Then he motioned to the Emerald Bee. “Shall we?”

Lily smiled and walked to the front. As she opened the door and walked inside, the serving girls gasped and pointed. Apparently, celebrities were still a big deal on this world, even if flying wasn’t.

Mirafol Blueleaf, the proprietor of the inn, rushed over to Leo and Lily. “Please be seated, your highness, duchess. I’m so glad that you’re back!”

“Pleased to be back,” Leo replied, taking a seat at the intricately carved wooden chair, which had art depicting various nature gods or progenitors crafted into the wood on the back.

Lily took the seat across from him, and without taking his eyes from her, Leo ordered. “Can I please have the Emerald honey glazed chicken breast, a salad, and a glass of wine please?”

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“I’ll have the honeyed apple slices and some wine,” Lily said.

Leo wasn’t surprised—the elves preferred a diet of far less meat than humans did, although in his case, his tastes had been very slowly shifting back toward his human ones—he suspected it was because he kept raising his Strength stat, but he wasn’t sure. And the honey was magical—this meal would be an amazing one, but expensive. But Leo figured he had earned it.

Mirafol clapped her hands. “Of course, lords. It’ll be right out!”

She bustled away.

As she did, the inn became far more beautiful than the borderline work it already was. The chairs became more comfortable, the smells more powerful. The guests—rich land-owning elves and human ship captains, mostly—oohed and awed.

“Your abilities?” Leo asked.

Lily gave him a beautiful smile. “Yes. They can enhance, although I think magical food might be beyond them. But nearly everything will be close to the quality of the food.”

Leo coughed. “So, after the meal, would you care to discuss inter-dimensional husbandry, minister-of-magic Lily?”

“I would love to.”

***

The next morning, feeling rested and happy in a way he hadn’t been in quite some time,

Leo woke to the sound of happy calls and fox yips, and his daughter’s voice, outside his window. His house was still the small-ish affair it had been, and his bedroom wasn’t much different—a large bed for two, an end table, two chairs, and an armoire. Although almost everything but the bed and clothing storage was nearly entirely superfluous, as Leo barely used the bedroom.

Neha slept less than most people, although considerably more than Leo—but she had gone to bed much earlier, which was why he was waking to the sound of happy play Leo presumed.

Leo had gone on his customary run last night after Lily had fallen asleep. Afterwards, he had come back, read some reports on a few cases that had gone before his new judge in the living room, with Sumoon sleeping near him rather than in Neha’s bedroom for who knew what reason. Then glanced through a manual on golems before going to bed for about two hours.

Leo reflected that it was beginning to feel slightly odd to not float everywhere—not that he didn’t run even faster than he had before, but normal mortal movement, like walking, felt slow to him. Almost pointless. He powered through it to maintain his physique, but he didn’t enjoy the run as he had before.

He wondered if he was engaged in some kind of transition in his state-of-being. He knew that most people that hit level thirty got auras—their magic reached the point that they were a conduit to effect the wider world. Leo had gotten those twenty levels early, however. Now Leo wondered what Mantles were, and when they would become more of a ‘thing.’ Would it also be level Thirty, or was that a later process? He suspected Lily knew or could figure it out.

As if she could hear his thoughts, Lily stirred beside him, half stretching in bed with her eyes closed. Leo reached out and gently stroked her silver hair where it lay on the pillow, careful not to jostle her or pull the beautiful hair—he didn’t want to wake Lily if she needed her sleep. And after the adventures of the last couple days, Leo could imagine that everyone needed their sleep.

Lily stirred further, yawning and opening her eyes. She caught sight of Leo and smiled at him happily. “Sleep okay?” she asked. Then she cocked her ear. “Sounds like Neha is having a great time.”

Leo raised an eyebrow at her at answered her first query. “A beautiful two hours—felt like eight.”

Lily mock-scowled. “That power is completely unfair—you get an extra six hours a day to live, which is about two days a week the rest of us don’t get.”

Leo mocked swirling a wineglass and spoke in the haughtiness voice he could muster. “Yes, well, you normies should have picked better magic.”

Lily laughed, sat up, and smacked Leo with her pillow. He let it hit him, and briefly wrestled around with his beautiful fiancée. Soon, one thing led to another, and they wasted a bit more time affirming life and their love for one another.

***

A cry from the other room was what had finally pulled Leo from his bed. His son had needed attending to. Leo had changed him—a gross process given the lack of advancements in diapers in this society—and played with him, both actions of which had surprised Lily. It hadn’t helped much, however, and his son had been fussy the whole time. Finally handing him off to Kemi, who was now his nurse-mother, to be fed was what had actually gotten the adorable tyke to calm down.

Leo had spent another hour in domestic bliss, playing with Leo junior and Neha both. But afterwards, he and Lily had headed out to hold a government function.

The Grand Bazaar was both bustling, and still appeared half-empty—it had been built for a city of millions, after all. Even Leo’s ridiculously trade focused city couldn’t compete with that, and so the current bazaar was mostly empty, and the trade was localized. Most was conducted on the dock-side tiers of the giant marble plaza, with the eyes of the statue of the first elven king of Averia staring down at them almost directly.

Leo saw a huge number of high elves hawking their wares—mostly food and advanced agricultural resources, spices, medicine, and mildly magical components. High elves didn’t hawk as he imagined—they made fancy signs, kept plants in pots near their stalls, or decorated their stores. They conducted themselves with more reserve than Leo would have associated with a medieval bazaar.

Although perhaps part of that was because it was rather barren. Most high elves sold the bounty of the land, but in this case, many were selling vegetables and meat a day out of the refuse pile, or smoked or salted to near oblivion. The recent refugee crisis had given everyone a strong income boost, but at the same time, nearly emptied the city.

Human traders also moved through the city, House Orsinii growing fat and prosperous again under new management now that Mavis was gone. Although Leo would have to make sure that whoever formally succeeded the deceased George within the Orsinii family was amenable to his plans—Ty had informed him that he wasn’t named the successor. One more thing to handle.

Other humans, mostly the various trading houses from the Havi Imeprium, also moved through the city. Leo smiled as captain Jarl Seahaven, head of the local Seahaven trading family branch, gave him a wave of one overly muscled arm and called out “Good day to you, your highness!”

The elves were the clear majority, and humans second, but the races in his bazaar were more numerous than that. He saw dwarves from Stonehaven selling finished metal goods and ore both. Rabbit-kin were an occasional sight, appearing human but for the white fur covering their arms and digitigrade legs and their long bunny ears. A few wood elves, brown skinned and green or brown haired, were moving their own agricultural products to the suddenly needy markets of Star Port. These were the five species most common in the area, but now, they mingled with peoples that the world of Toth had never encountered before.

Blue skinned ice flower elves traded their hides and magical crystals for the remnants of food, grumbling about the prices and quality both. Their old enemies, the arthic, who were seven-feet tall white furred yak people, were an occasional sight as well, offering services to form hunting parties in the Ice Pines dimension to look for resources. And a few of the sky elves were now also present, walking with a huge hunch from their wings or, if they had Air magic, flying from place to place before trading.

And that didn’t count the couple dragons going about their business. Leo waved at Cal and Kev, two barely adult dragons that had moved in together, much like Hugh had done with his won lovers, Tea and Zun—all in violation of dragon tradition, which had each dragon controlling their own cave.

It was an extremely fine fantasy city, Leo thought to himself, staring at his people, the masts of trading ships clear a half-mile beyond the bazaar, at the intersection of the Blue River and the Inner Sea.

Leo turned and continued walking toward the temporary government headquarters. Now to do the work to keep it safe and growing.