Leo stood in front of the small, purple-wooded tree. Once, it had been inside a tower, but the mages of the Empire of the One Land had cleared the whole area and turned it into a staging ground, and people were lined up behind him. The very first were his own team, but after that, the first locals was a test group of sky elves with actual Air magic abilities that aided their flight—they were going to test to see exactly how flying worked on Leo’s world for natives of the One Land. That would inform a lot of what was about to happen, and how many could come through the gate in the limited time left.

But Leo needed to go talk to George, and perhaps Ty if Leo could convince him to rejoin the government. Ty had always been good at ad hoc types of arrangements, and this refugee business was about as ad hoc as it got.

Hugh tapped the ground with his tail. “On a timetable, buddy.”

“Yeah Dad, let’s go home! I miss Mom,” Neha added.

I miss Lily as well, Leo thought to himself, reaching out and touching the tree. He willed the gate to allow all people through, committed to his path.

There was no visible manifestation, but he felt the change and stepped through the gate. Almost immediately, he felt like he was sucking wind after a hard run from back when he could get winded, and his ears and chest hurt. A couple breaths fixed a lot of it, but he noted and dismissed the ‘acclimated to a high oxygen world’ notification that gave him a temporary debuff to his Endurance stat.

But mostly, he had eyes for his home. From the top of the world tree he could see north and east for miles, across the thick, lush forests of old Averia, which he had been considering renaming the Familiar Forest. To the west, he could see the Blue River and beyond it the marble homes and fruit orchards of Green Apple Grove, and beyond that the Asti plains. To the south was the glorious Inner Sea, its calm blue waters sparkling even in the weaker light of the late winter day.

But below him… below him was the city of Star Port, now closing in on ten thousand strong, built in and surrounded by the ruins of the city of Calasti. He could see the port and airship docks, the grand forum, the temple district and the new courthouse, and the dungeon entrance, as well as the inns and homes of his people.

“Meet you down there,” Leo said, and then floated out over the edge, his power carrying him down.

Andul cussed in Stonehaven dwarfese, and Neha called out, “Not fair!”

Leo chuckled as he floated down, his city spread out below him with nothing to interrupt his view. He immediately floated for the government center where he had been working—a converted mansion off the Great Marble Forum near the docks.

As he descended, one of his citizens—that he didn’t recognize—caught sight of him and exclaimed, and the rest of those in the area looked up. Cheering spread across the forums and surrounding streets as the city’s king floated from the sky.

He floated down to nearly the ground, but remained a few inches off, floating to the door. The gate guards snapped to attention, grinning at him wildly, and pulled the door open. Leo didn’t tend to displays of his own power, but he felt that the whole ‘floating everywhere’ thing would be far more impressive than a crown, and since it didn’t take any resources that could be used elsewhere it was his perfect form of showing off.

The elves of Averia, those that were left, had paid deeply for their hubris and decadence when their nation had fallen. They had mostly been slain, and the ones left had mostly been sold into slavery, with all the personal horror and degradation that implied. Leo had helped, but they all prided hard work and shared community now.

But they had never lost their appreciation for spectacle.

Leo enjoyed the moment as he floated into the converted mansion and then went to see his council, which he hoped would be in session.

An elf he didn’t recognize, young and decently pretty even by elf standards with fine spun brass hair and blue eyes, coughed as he floated in. She was siting behind the desk where Cuwylla usually presided. He glanced at her, and she blushed. “I’m so sorry, King Leo, but the council isn’t in session today. The prime minister is in, however, if you wish to speak to him.”

That was almost as good, although Leo really wanted to see Lily. “I’ll go speak to him briefly.”

Leo floated down the hall until he reached the door to George’s room. Then he reached out with his telekinetic power and pulled the door open. He didn’t usually feel that way, but he was excited to be using his powers for some reason, and floated into the room.

He found Ty staring at him with a raised eyebrow—almost as red as his hair—over a green eye. When Ty saw who it was he bowed with hand over heart. “Your Highness, I’m pleased to see that you’ve—”

“Where’s George?” Leo asked, a terrible feeling in his chest.

“About that… he died.”

“Cancer?” Leo asked.

“Assassin, along with Cuwylla,” Ty said, grimly. “Kruegar sent said assassin… but I think that you need to go to your home, first.”

“What?” Leo asked.

Ty brushed some imaginary crumbs from his robes and smiled. “Just trust me, but we ‘ve dealt with it and you don’t need to deal with it at just this moment. Take a few minutes. There is good news as well as bad. Go home. We can meet about everything else in a while.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

It took Leo a moment to grapple with the absurdity of Ty’s statements, but after a moment he decided they didn’t have time to meet about it… for another reason. “Well, I’ll follow your advice, but there’s one thing that can’t wait. You’re receiving a ton of refugees from another dimension. Please grab one of the spare tongues rings and meet with the representative at the top of the World Tree. Speak to El. Take the absolute maximum number of refugees that we can handle.”

Ty’s eyes widened. “Roughly how many and how soon?”

“Tens of thousands over the next two days—”

“Impossible!” Ty blurted.

“—but it’s only for two weeks,” Leo finished.

Ty hesitated, then spoke in more measured tones. “Maybe… maybe. But we’ll be draining everything to do it.”

“We’ll get paid back,” Leo said, although he wondered if the sky elves would be as accommodating when they had to rebuild their ruined realm as well. Still, the eventual wealth from trade with The One Empire would easily be worth magnitudes more than this investment. It was worth it.

Ty bowed again, saying, “Your command, my Highness,” and then strode from the room without ever giving Leo another look at his face.

He’ll make it work.

Leo followed, floating again. He waved at the… new secretary, he guessed… as he exited, and then just lifted into the sky a bit, flew over a row of upscale—for a medieval world—houses, and reached his own. He flew down, past chain wearing elven guards and a ghost wolf that hadn’t been on his payroll or needed to guard his home when he had left bare weeks ago.

He opened the door to his house and waked inside. He was confronted by two elves sitting in the front room of his home.

The first was Lily, and he rushed forward as she stood, her face gloriously happy. She was as beautiful as he remembered, with long silver hair and pale blue eyes on a slender, feminine, and perfectly symmetrical frame—part genetics, part magical enhancement from leveling. Regardless, she had the looks of an airbrushed Hollywood actress. Leo grabbed her and twirled her around, kissing her hard.

Then his observations caught up to him. Slender?

He held her out, fear rising, before remembering Ty had assured him things were happy. “You had the baby?”

Lily kissed him again, beaming at him as a tears of happiness gathered at the edges of her eyes. “Yes… events caused an early birth, months early, but your son lives and is healthy.”

“My… son?” Leo asked, eyes wide.

Lily turned and motioned to the other elf, and Leo faced her. It was Kemi, the ex-waitress and current upscale wife of a very successful landed elf that ran a large magical agriculture export business.

She had two children, both tiny, suckling at her chest. Both had a tiny shock of golden hair, and neither had a discernable gender. “Good day, your Highness,” Kemi said. “I’m your son’s nursemaid.”

“Which?” Leo asked.

“Left,” Lily said, laughing. “Leo, meet Leonard Wyllan ap Stardew. Your heir.”

Kemi chuckled as well, and pulled the child off, holding him to Leo, who took the tiny, fragile being. He couldn’t weight ten pounds—a weight almost unnoticed. The baby flailed its legs and arms, but didn’t cry.

“Wyllan?” Leo asked as Kemi adjusted her outfit for a touch more modesty.

Lily turned sideways, slipping her arm into Leo’s. “The male of Wylla. After my sister, who sent you to us. To me.”

Leo nodded. Just one more reminder of everything I am fighting for—this new, wonderful world and the nation its people deserve. That my son deserves.

As Leo sat there, he felt new power from Lily. It was hard to explain, but new power radiated from his wife.

“Did you… make levels?” Leo asked.

Lily smiled at him. “I did. Three—I’m Level Nineteen. Although I sense even more power from you. You made the big twenty, hmm?”

Leo absently nodded. “How is it even remotely possible that you made three levels. I mean… nothing here should be giving you much experience.”

Lily nodded, a frown overtaking her face. “Apparently, Kruegar isn’t done with us. He sent an assassin, Level Twenty-Five, after all of your ministers, including me. A half-demon, half-orc, like Grakith. With Zir’s help, as well as Hugh’s mom, Ann, I managed to barely defeat the assassin.”

“Are you okay?” Leo asked, turning and facing her.

Lily smiled. “I am. Promise. The attack caused me to give birth early, but both our son and I are totally fine, by Iluvin Eturia’s grace.”

Thank all the gods.

Leo stood there for a moment, considering the situation. This feels… off, somehow. “How do you know Kruegar sent her?”

The baby started to gently keen, and Kemi reached out and took him back, making soothing noises as she did.

Lily reached into the illusion of her dress and pulled a piece of paper out, handing it to Leo. It was covered in a scrawl he didn’t recognize.

Lily poked the paper with one beautiful finger. “It’s in Blood Tribes cant. It promises a hundred gold reward for the head’s of your various ministers, as well as a five hundred gold reward for my death. We found it in her belt pouch.”

Leo shook his head. This is wrong. I barely know Kruegar, but this isn’t how he operates. Extortion, use of money to grow, actual building toward an empire through conquest… he’s never had the slightest hint of indirect methods, even when he was a mere loan shark. He showed up to be the enforcer.

“Well, I’m incredibly relieved you’re okay,” Leo said, hugging Lily again.

She stared into his eyes from a few inches away, deadly serious. “Ty said we have to deal with this—he claims it’s an extremely effective new method of attacking us, and that we can’t afford to have our key leaders assassinated.”

That makes sense… another round of war, I guess. We need to stop the demon-orcs from fighting us, one way or another. Although against the numbers they have, it’ll be impossible to occupy the Blood Lands for a long, long time.

House Orsini tried to take that island near Red Port… maybe I can take the island and Red Port itself and just bottle them up, stop them from sending people out to harm us?

“How did you make Level Twenty, by the way?” Lily asked, interrupting Leo’s thoughts.

“Bugs,” Leo replied, then laughed at her expression. “Seriously, bugs. Hard to explain, but I have a great leveling place. Really easy. I think we can raise the whole group to Level Twenty-Three or Four without much trouble, which will be huge.”

Lily nodded. “Well, we’ll need it. We are going to have another shockingly high set of expenses, trying to deal with Kruegar and his orcs and… everything else. We’ll need those levels.”

Leo frowned. He was too low-margin a civilization to fight a long-term war without…

“When can we go level?” Lily asked.

“Well, once the dragonflight is over, and the dragons have…” Leo trailed off.

“You have that look again,” Lily said.

Leo nodded, his mind a whirl. “We need the team back. Are you recovered?”

“I am the greatest healer anywhere nearby,” Lily replied. “I was fine seconds after your son was ushered into this world.”

I’d still bet Earth against Toth, but that is a huge point in this world’s favor. Absolutely huge. “Then it’s time to return to the field… I’m having thoughts.”