As the wind whipped through his feathers, Leon couldn’t help diving and gliding through the fluffy white clouds in his way, each plunge leaving him soaked but joyous. He required nothing more than a quick burst of water magic to clear the water from his feathers anyway.
Beside him flew Anzu and Red, though of the two, Anzu was having much more fun. Behind them flew a flock of thousands, almost entirely segregated into their three constituent Tribes: Hawks, Eagles, and Ravens. The former two were quite sizable, while the latter one was rather small, numbering only about a hundred.
Still, the massive flight of rather large birds made for a spectacular sight, one that Leon relished as he flew through the air, leading them ever onward. Scattered about the plains below them were countless farms and small villages. These were the lands of the Rock Mane Bisons, and the Bisons used their mastery over nature magic to ensure that they remained bountiful. Even as high up as he was, Leon could feel the magic that permeated the soil, ensuring his vast Kingdom would never run out of food.
As his massive group flew over the plains, Leon frequently led them in dramatic dives meant to show not only his control over the group but also to ensure that the people working in the villages they passed were able to get a good look at their King. He didn’t have the time to stop at every settlement they passed, but he wanted as many people as possible to see him, to have at least seen their King once even if they had never left their home.
Leon took a somewhat circuitous route through the sky, passing over as many settlements as he could with his large entourage while the rest of his family went on ahead in arks. He’d been trying to do something like this for months, but he’d only managed to get it organized three months after returning to Stormhollow from Memoria. He was on a grand tour of his Kingdom, visiting as many population centers as he could to see and meet with his people.
He'd started in the Jaguar lands as they were closest and easiest to reach from Stormhollow. From there, he’d moved south to the lands of the Hawks, and then north and west to the Eagles. From there, he wound his way northward, visiting the Lions, Harts, and then Ravens, before turning south and east and flying through the lands of the Spiders.
Of the Tribes he’d visited so far, the Spiders had been the most surprising for him. The elders along his way had shown him great deference, in contrast to their relative reluctance to support him as King. However, he supposed things had changed in the couple years since his accession.
‘This is exactly the sort of thing that this is supposed to show me,’ Leon had thought every time the people of the Spider Tribe came out to meet him, showing enormous excitement and enthusiasm. ‘Show me the people, let me hear their thoughts and opinions from their own mouths.’
At every place he’d stopped, he’d met not only with the local Chiefs and elders but with the common people, holding public audiences where people with grievances could come and speak with him to seek redress for those grievances.
Some of the people had told him about abuses of power by the Chiefs and Tribal magistrates, many of which Leon had verified and punished in subsequent investigations, but for the most part, his people’s concerns were relatively petty. Still, he felt good being able to easily solve so many issues for his people, such as ordering the construction of certain new roads and dams or relieving the tax burdens from the families of those killed or maimed in the course of the war with the Sunlit Empire.
Now, almost a year after he’d begun his tour, Leon was flying over the lands of the Bison Tribe, their capital of Rainasos sprawling out over a dozen shallow hills about a hundred miles ahead of him. Bison land was flat and even; thick, loamy soil throughout most of it, but in a few places, they had deep, strong bedrock not too far from the surface. Most of their larger cities were built over this bedrock, and since they had so much flat land around them, those same cities sprawled outward.
Accordingly, Bison architecture tended to be grander than the communal halls of the Hawks or the countryside villas of the Jaguars. They were a communal people, but that community was expressed by living in massive drum-shaped buildings, with hundreds of apartments around the edge of the building, and beautiful gardens and public gathering spaces in the center. And these apartments were large, giving a single Bison nuclear family—typically consisting of a father, mother, and four or five children—almost as much space as a Hawks’ familial hall, which would’ve housed several dozen Hawks.
Leon appreciated the desire to build grandly, but he appreciated the Bison Tribe’s love of nature even more, with the interior décor of their enormous apartments typically built to resemble the plains in which so many of the Tribe worked, with large open floorplans and large windows, murals, and enchanted projections all focusing on showing the world outside the apartment.
More than that, every room and hall the Bison built came with multiple plants meticulously cared for by the residents, and a Bison family unit would care for a tree together in the center of their living space. These trees were not large, but their leaves glowed in bright, shifting colors. One moment, they might all be glowing red, and then the next, blue. Leon learned from the elders that their people interpreted the mood of their Ancestors through the changing of the leaf colors, with cooler shades denoting negative moods and warmer shades positive moods.
Leon had tried to, as subtly as he could, ask how true those superstitions were. He figured that these changes in leaf color might be explainable in other ways, but he’d never gotten a satisfying answer. He supposed it was hardly impossible for the leaves to be exactly what the Bison believed them to be, though, especially since he’d met the Ancestral Hart itself face-to-face when he first visited the Tribe in search of their support.
As he made his final approach to Rainasos, Leon noted that most of his entourage had made it before him. As with his flight, most of his Tribal followers assumed their animal forms when traveling, his transformation enchantment having spread throughout the Tribes like wildfire. Most of them, however, stuck to the roads that connected the lands of the Ten Tribes.
Those who were of higher rank, however, such as his ladies, showed off their prestige and position by either flying in arks or riding war beasts. There was no shortage of pegasi flying above Rainasos, alongside half a dozen arks. Most of those pegasi, however, were being flown by Tempest Knights. Of the arks, one was Silver Spear, and another was her sister ark, the other destroyer that Leon had taken from the Sunlit Empire, now named Bright Intent.
Leading them all, and serving as Leon’s new personal ark, was the heavy cruiser, named Bolt in Shadow. It was a much larger and tougher ark than the destroyers, but it was a bit slower and possessed fewer Lances. On the other hand, the main weapons of the destroyers that Nestor and the Ravens had yet to get working were dwarfed by the main weapon on the heavy cruiser. Nestor had indicated to Leon that the destroyers were arks meant more for engaging smaller arks and providing support to ground troops. The heavy cruiser, on the other hand, he’d indicated was meant more as an ark designed to engage other arks, so eschewed the smaller weapons of the destroyers for the larger super Lance.
All of that was purely Nestor’s word, however, as none of these main weapons were yet operational. If they worked as Nestor indicated they ought to, though, then Leon was more than a little eager to see what the larger arks they had might do—especially Storm Herald, the personal ark of Jason Keraunos. Until Keeper dropped his protests and allowed Leon to take the Lumenite from the old palaces, and they found some substitute for Aurichalcum, however, those enormous cannons were going to remain nonoperational.
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It was easy enough for him to spot the enormous gathering hall and the towering Tribal Totem standing before it, so Leon flew in the right direction as he made his way into the city. He flew low and slow over the Bison buildings, giving the people a good glimpse of him in his Thunderbird form, his silver feathers glittering in the sunlight, his vibrant electric-blue crest tracing a majestic trail behind him.
A goodly number of Bison elders, led by Tillan, had assembled in the large public square in front of the gathering hall alongside dozens of Chiefs, Leon’s family, and the ministers that had traveled with him for his tour—Iron-Striker, the Jaguar, and Ipatameni stayed behind in Stormhollow. Aside from them, a crowd of thousands had turned out, and they roared in welcoming jubilation as Leon came in for his landing. As was his tradition, he circled the Tribal Totem ten times before landing atop it, his talons clamping around the image of the Thunderbird that capped the totem.
After waiting there a moment, reveling in the adulation of the crowd, Leon hopped off the totem and transformed back into his human body, dressing himself in a blue silkgrass tunic, matching trousers, and his treasured snow lion coat. As far as he was concerned, he needed no other significant status symbol than his power and aura, and so had refused to wear gold, silver, or jewels of any kind during the tour. The blue crest of his Thunderbird form was crown enough, as far as he was concerned.
Tillan welcomed him warmly, and what followed was a long—or at least, longer than Leon would’ve wanted—ceremony formally welcoming him to Rainasos and reaffirming the loyalty and fealty of the Rock Mane Bison Tribe. Leon responded by also reaffirming that they had the protection of his Clan and himself, and that they had honored places in his Kingdom.
Acting as silent proof of his sincerity, Lana and many other officers in his central army and the Tempest Knights that were of Bison lineage were present, standing in places of honor.
More glad-handing with the elders might’ve followed, boring Leon to tears even and placing great strain upon his capacity for sociability, except a large black bison came charging into the hall. It was a hulking creature, with long shaggy hair, an incredibly muscled body, and long, vicious horns curving forward out of its head. If it stood upright, its shoulders would’ve been much taller than Leon in his human form, though his Thunderbird form would’ve still dwarfed it.
Almost as soon as it charged into the gathering hall, many elders began shouting curses at it for its lack of propriety, and when the bison shifted back into its human form—that of a young man with sixth-tier strength—he looked suitably panicked. However, he came running toward Leon.
“Your Majesty!” he called out. “I have a message of the highest priority! From Stormhollow!”
Leon’s Tempest Knights, led by Alcander had formed up in front of him as the newcomer ran forward, but Lana quickly called out, “I know him! He’s one of mine!”
Despite her vouching for the man’s identity, Alcander still shouted, “Halt where you are!”
The man complied, looking terrified as Alcander, several dozen Tempest Knights, and the elders of his Tribe glowered at him. Alcander then glanced over his shoulder at Leon, silently asking for instructions. With but a quick expression of darkness magic, Leon told Alcander what to do.
The tall and well-muscled commander of the Tempest Knights then strode forward and lowered his head. With a whisper, he commanded the messenger to pass his message to him, which the messenger did. Alcander’s expression was like stone, carved and unmoving, but Leon saw his posture stiffen slightly, and his aura fluctuate so minutely that only someone well-acquainted with him would notice.
Hardly enough time passed for a few sentences to be exchanged, but when Alcander straightened up, he gave Leon a meaningful look, then walked over to where Leon was standing. He still had to lean down to whisper the message into Leon’s ear, and with every word he spoke, Leon’s mood plummeted.
A battle in the Indra Raj. Anshu and his allies rebelled against the Rajah. The battle was lost, Anshu was captured, and his allies were dead.
By the time Alcander had finished whispering the message, Leon’s expression had hardly changed, but the sky above Rainasos had been filled with pitch black storm clouds, the wind had picked up to the point of howling through the streets, and rain had begun to pour.
For a brief moment, a dark look passed over Leon’s face, and then with the flash of lightning and boom of thunder, he bolted from the gathering hall, his heart filled with wrath.
His tour, it seemed, would be put on hold.
---
Kaia, the capital of the Indra Raj, was a gorgeous city. Perfectly planned, it had been built in a grid layout. Its districts were dense with buildings and people and awash in color of every hue. Just about every surface had been painted, and great statues of many-armed or animal-headed gods were on every major street corner.
In the center of the city lay the Rajah’s palace complex. Most of the buildings in the complex were constructed from pale yellow stone, and many topped with pointed domes painted red were interspersed throughout. Most of the other expensive-looking buildings in the city featured similar pointed domes, though usually painted in different colors.
The temples, on the other hand, featured large mountain-like towers that tapered as they reached skyward, often connected to huge mounds at the base. In Kaia, these mounds were made mostly of marble, forming enormous domes, though further out in the countryside, these mounds were usually of earth, local stone, or baked clay. There were so many of these temples that though Kaia had been built in the plains flanking a major river junction, the city looked almost hilly and mountainous. The only thing that ruined this impression was the regularity with which these temples had sprung up, with the largest temples all being equidistant from each other, emphasizing the city’s grid layout.
When Leon arrived, he did not admire any of the spectacular Indradian architecture. He glared down at the city, focusing only on finding his target: the palace, and the Rajah.
The only eighth-tier mage in the city ought to have been easy enough to find, but he was disappointed to see that the Indradians had not been lax in warding their palaces and temples from magic senses, which made finding the man proved difficult. However, it seemed that word of his coming had been sent ahead, for the streets were empty and soldiers and war beasts were streaming into the city and setting up strong checkpoints. There were a few fortresses along the river that joined within the city, and they were manned, too. Leon even noticed the largest one had Lances of some kind atop several of its towers. A keener eye showed additional Lances throughout the city, though far too few to truly protect it from airborne threats.
Rather, Leon was more concerned about the large crossbows and catapults on the backs of war elephants that were moving throughout the city. Those, he thought, might be capable of doing some kind of damage to him, though he’d yet to see anything that worried him.
He wasn’t surprised that the Indradians had prepared for his arrival. When he received the news of Anshu’s capture, he’d almost blacked out from anger and only came back to his senses when he’d already shifted back to his Thunderbird form and flown several dozen miles from Rainasos. Even then, he didn’t bother turning around.
He flew almost straight west as fast as his wings could carry him—fast enough to reach Raimondas, the seat of the Screaming Eagles and the largest city on Kataigida’s west coast, in only two days. He stopped there to communicate with his friends, family, and ministers, but since no military assets were available to him at that exact time, he left Kataigida on his own, without even a single person to follow him—though not for lack of trying on the Eagles’ part, as several eighth-tier elders had tried to leave with him, but he’d quickly left them behind in his haste. His people were a bit nervous about him potentially starting another war, but when he explained his reasoning for going after Anshu, there was no argument from any of them.
He wouldn’t allow his people to be imprisoned. Whether or not it was justified didn’t matter; Anshu was still Leon’s retainer, and Leon wasn’t going to let him rot in an Indradian prison.
Leon had calmed down somewhat as he crossed the Veins of Vigilance, then the Pegasi States, and then the Scorched Fields, but as he passed over the Wyvern’s Aerie, the large mountain range that made up the eastern edge of the Indra Raj, his mood darkened again. As he passed over the aerie, a great storm gathered in his wake and rolled across the jungles and hills and plains of the Raj. His wingbeats echoed with thunder, his eyes flashed with lightning, and not a single person along his path missed his coming.
Perhaps he was starting a war. He might have to explain himself to angry Emperors. The Keeper might use this as a pretext to keep him from taking what he wanted from Jason Keraunos’ palace. Leon didn’t care. The battle had been over for months before he’d heard of it. Anshu had been confirmed captured, but after that, he didn’t know.
But as he reached down toward the Rajah’s palace with his magic power, he knew he was about to find out.