In the days that followed the declaration of support for Leon’s intention to launch a punitive expedition against the Sunlit Empire, Kataigida was a flurry of activity. Securing logistic lines, increasing ‘tribute’ from the various Tribes—which were just taxes by a different name—and widespread recruitment for all the armies of the Kingdom. And all of this was being coordinated by Leon’s new military council, led by the Jaguar.
Fortunately, these new appointees were exceptionally competent and professional, adapting quickly to the new positions, the strategic goals Leon had given them, and rationalizing the central army’s structure, which still had inner cliques due to its ranks being dominated by men and women from the Tiger Tribe.
What had Leon more interested were the additional forces that were going to be assembled—literally—for the expedition. New ships to dominate the Veins of Vigilance and Argonaut Sea, war beasts kept in reserve by the Bears being brought out for inspection, and brand new arks whose designs the Ravens were already iterating on. The latter attracted most of Leon’s attention, but he was a bit disappointed to hear that since the Ravens had only just received much of the new magical materials and techniques in the past few months, the new arks they’d be building wouldn’t show the strides they could potentially make. If Leon wanted arks that truly integrated all of those new materials and techniques, he’d have to wait at least five years, but more practically at least ten.
He didn’t have that kind of time, so while the new arks that the Ravens were already reserving mountains of building materials for would soon be outdated, they were still better, if only marginally so in some areas, than what the Ten Tribes were already fielding. As it was, they’d be ready in about six months, which was the amount of time Leon had to get ready for the expedition.
‘They ought to be better than what the Sunlit Emperor has, at least,’ Leon thought, though he kept that one to himself. They were going up against an Empire that had lasted for nearly eighty-thousand years, headed by an Emperor who claimed descent from the Thunderbird. He had no idea just what kind of war or magical materiel was hidden away in Sunlit’s vaults, so he felt it was better to overestimate their capabilities and be pleasantly surprised as opposed to the other way around.
But if there was one piece of business unrelated to his family that had him more captivated than even the arks, it was the Iron Needle. He still felt some shoots of ghost pain run through his body on occasion, but it was slowly fading and becoming less frequent. He felt like this pain was directly related to his use of the Iron Needle during the fight with the Sunlit Emperor, but he couldn’t get any confirmation of that since the healers he consulted with had no idea what was causing the pain, and the Thunderbird had gone on one of her long flights through the Mists of Chaos just before he’d left Occulara, so he couldn’t even consult her.
Nestor was just about useless in this regard, despite his skills and willingness to help—when he could be dragged away from Asger and the other Ravens that he was being introduced to, anyway. Leon was quite happy that Nestor was passing on much of his knowledge to the Ravens, but he was a little frustrated that it sometimes got in the way of his personal business.
However, a week after the meeting of the Elder Council, Leon managed to get him alone for the purpose of studying the Iron Needle.
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“… black lightning…” Nestor murmured. He stared down at the Iron Needle as it floated in the middle of the golden container that he’d constructed for it. The container was smaller than the pillar he’d originally devised, and its security enchantments were weaker, but it allowed him to conduct some experiments with the Needle without being blasted into the smallest possible particles of matter.
“Anything come to mind?” Leon asked as he paced around the table upon which the container sat. They were in the space he’d set aside for Nestor’s workshop in the temporary palace, with only Nestor’s golem-making tools out and seeing active use. Everything else was still stored in the room’s corners or adjacent storage rooms, waiting until Leon’s actual palace could finally be constructed.
“Nothing new,” Nestor bitterly stated. Leon had consulted with Nestor about just what kind of lightning he’d used against the Sunlit Emperor, with only the black lightning he’d seen during his initial recovery of the Iron Needle to reference. Nestor had heard of black lightning before—several kinds, in fact—but none that quite matched what Leon had used.
There had been a Clan descended from deep-ocean sharks that reportedly used black lightning back in the heyday of the Thunderbird Clan, but Nestor remembered studying it and found that it was actually an extremely dark blue. He had shared with Leon his pet theory that it had been related to water magic, whose traditional color was blue, and because the property of that lightning was that it didn’t dissipate in water.
Another Clan of cloud-dwelling storks used smoky-grey lightning that was practically invisible in stormy weather, while a third Clan used ‘shadow lightning’, which could even travel through unenchanted matter to strike at those who’d sought cover.
Perhaps the most interesting anecdote had been of a group of bloodline-less mages who’d managed to fuse darkness and lightning using complex enchantments while they were studying space magic—which was, itself, a fusion of light, lightning, and darkness. The properties of that allegedly black lightning were unknown to him, and the experiments to recreate that lightning were cost-prohibitive to reproduce.
The lightning that Leon had experienced with the Iron Needle had attacked his mind, causing him to hallucinate in what the Thunderbird had called the Iron Needle’s tests. So, for the moment, Leon worked under the assumption that that black lightning and the black lightning he’d unconsciously used against the Sunlit Emperor were related, but he had no proof, and with Nestor’s anecdotes in mind, Leon knew that there were probably infinite kinds of lightning.
And, as the Thunderbird claimed, all of them were controlled by the Iron Needle. The Thunderbird Clan’s famous lightning had even been acquired through the Thunderbird’s mastery over the Universe Fragment.
With an emphatic sigh, Nestor stepped away from the container. “I can’t run any more tests than I have. I need better tools. As it is, the Iron Needle fights back against all my probes and every time I attempt to stimulate it into a reaction, it destroys whatever I was using.”
“There’s nothing you can do?” Leon asked.
“I didn’t say that. Just that I need better tools. However… I can’t help but wonder at the point of using better tools when the superior option is to simply finish your sword. If our Honored Ancestor says that’s the best way to take full control of the Iron Needle, then that is the best way.”
Leon frowned lightly and nodded. His design was essentially finished, it was just working on the actual process that he was getting stuck on. Creating Adamant was a dangerous and magic-intensive process. His armor, made of a weaker kind of pseudo-Adamant could be made in his workshop, but true Adamant strong enough for his purposes had to be sky forged in the depths of a powerful storm.
He honestly wasn’t sure if he would have the power to create enough Adamant before he achieved Apotheosis. As it was, he wasn’t even sure when he would reach the tenth-tier.
“So be it,” Leon said, his tone rather harsh, but it mostly directed at himself. He scooped the Iron Needle back into his soul realm. “I’m going to see Tikos.”
“Have fun,” Nestor replied with a somewhat sarcastically cheery wave.
Leon left the dead man to his own projects and took flight from the nearest courtyard. He moved quickly, but Stormhollow was a vast, sprawling city, so reaching the outer forests to the south of the city took near an hour. Once he made it, though, it didn’t take long for him to find Tikos’ new groves.
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Tikos had set up in a series of shallow hills with forested valleys. It wasn’t populated, so it wasn’t hard for Leon to declare the entire region off-limits for anyone below the level of an elder, and even then, any elder would have to get his express permission to enter it. To enforce that decree, Leon had devised a similar security scheme that had been placed upon the old grove and which Tikos had done much to set up.
In the center of the largest valley was where Tikos had replanted the Hesperidic Apple Trees. The tree sprite had done so only a few days before and hadn’t been able to give Leon a good timetable for when the next batch of apples might come.
“Tikos!” Leon called out as he landed next to the trees. He hadn’t been able to see the tree sprite on his way in, but he was certain it was still around.
His certainty was validated when Tikos suddenly stuck its head out of one of the Hesperidic Apple Trees.
“Requesting moment one!” Tikos called out as the peculiar scent of cinnamon filled the air, signaling both delight and surprise from the tree sprite.
“Don’t rush on my account,” Leon said as he strode over the tree. Tikos only needed a few seconds to extricate itself from the tree and stand before him.
“Good to you see, have done much more evaluating. Better idea of time.”
“Fill me in.”
“The harvest next will be two months hence. The soil here is good. Nurturing well the trees. Might be able to yield increase to harvests three per year.”
Leon’s eyes widened in pleasant surprise for a moment before they immediately narrowed from his wide smile. “Do you have any idea how many apples you’ll get this time?”
“More than usual,” Tikos proudly responded. Its leafy hair fluttered, releasing the vanilla-esque scent of orchids. “Much more, can’t say.”
“Keep me informed,” Leon said. Two months was really good, well within the requisite timeline. While it pained him, he’d be eating all of the apples himself. The faster yields he hoped would take much of the sting out of his decision for his retainers. “How about the thunder wood groves?”
“Much easier to establish,” Tikos replied. “Already present good oak in this region. Not much work required to prepare the eldest for conversion.”
“We’re going to need quite a bit of it,” Leon said.
“First yield will be ready in one month,” Tikos quickly said. “Second will be… month three? And three months every after for more?”
“Fantastic. Good work, Tikos.”
Tikos bowed slightly before Leon let it return to work. He was intending to walk around the grove for a few minutes to familiarize himself with the place when he felt a familiar presence in his soul realm.
The Thunderbird had returned.
In a moment, Leon found himself in a comfortable spot on the ground with his back against a tree and cast himself into his soul realm.
“You have both great and terrible timing!” he called out upon seeing his ancestor perched upon the stone arch close to his throne.
“My timing is always great,” the Thunderbird declared. “My presence brightens all around me!”
“It’s certainly brightening my day,” Leon said as he hopped down from the throne. “I was talking with Nestor earlier today and could’ve used your input. Some things happened while you were gone…”
Leon quickly informed the Thunderbird about what happened, and while she was thrilled that the Sunlit Emperor had gotten his teeth kicked in, she was more dejected that the pretender had managed to escape with his life.
“He is rapidly becoming more troublesome than I care for,” the Thunderbird snapped. “His head might not suffice. I might demand that you raze his entire Empire to the ground.”
“Order that and see it disobeyed,” Leon replied. “I’m not going to destroy the entire Empire. That’s not even what I wanted to talk about.”
“Yes…” the Thunderbird murmured as she nodded her avian head knowingly. “You channeled the power of the Iron Needle for the first time, didn’t you?”
“I did. It worked against the Sunlit Emperor, but it… I have many questions.”
The Thunderbird flapped her wings, lifting off from her perch and propelling her to Leon’s throne platform. By the time she touched the marble, she had assumed her human form. “Share them with me, my cute little descendant.” She spoke with a motherly smile and took Leon’s arm, leading him to sit on the steps to his throne’s platform.
Leon bit down his displeasure at being treated like a child and said, “I’ve… been feeling some kind of pain ever since then. Like…”
“… Like something’s tweaked a nerve running along your arm?” the Thunderbird asked.
“Yes!”
“I had such pains when I was first seizing control of the Iron Needle. It’s something unique to it, I believe, for the troubles I had with the Storm Diamond were different.”
“What kind of troubles?”
The Thunderbird sighed and reclined a bit as her eyes glazed over. She didn’t lose herself in memory for too long, though, and soon explained, “The Iron Needle is a tremendously powerful artifact—as I’ve repeated many times. You need the aid of Adamant to channel its power safely. It will never truly be a part of you, but it… how to phrase this… It wants to be, as far as it can want anything at all. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to explain this and yet, the words still fail to come…”
“I can wait,” Leon said as he made himself comfortable.
“Good boy,” the Thunderbird said as she leaned over and patted him on the head.
“All right, that’s… please don’t do that.”
The Thunderbird answered him with nothing more than a chuckle. “The Iron Needle has accepted you as its wielder. But you still can’t wield it effectively. I actually don’t believe anyone could, for the Needle’s power is too foreign to everything around it. That’s why you must encase it in Adamant. It will, in effect, be ‘joined’ with you, for Adamant is made from your blood and functions like an extension of your body. But Adamant isn’t your body in that it’s still just metal. Does this make sense?”
“I’m following you. I think. This will all become clearer once I get that sword, won’t it?”
“Yes.”
Leon nodded, mentally prioritizing the creation of his new sword higher than most other things on his to-do list.
“Will I have to live with this pain forever?”
“It will fade, so long as you don’t overuse the Iron Needle.” The Thunderbird’s eyes momentarily narrowed in recrimination.
“I only used it at all because it… reached out to me…”
The Thunderbird’s eyes remained narrow, but more out of curiosity and confusion than anger and chastisement. “What did it feel like?”
“It felt… like someone was knocking on the door of my mental defenses. Not in a hostile way—I just felt that it was a friendly presence. I could feel the power it promised, and I took it and used it. Nestor had been nearly killed and Sunlit was moving against Xaphan; I took that power in that moment of desperation and used it, and I have no regrets.”
“I would’ve done the same, I won’t try and guilt you for doing so. Anymore, at least.”
Leon snorted in amusement. “I let off one blast of lightning. It was black.”
The Thunderbird nodded slowly, her eyes sliding off Leon and gliding around his Mind Palace, not focusing on anything in particular. “That lightning was what left the pretender in such a sorry state?”
Leon nodded.
“A shame it didn’t kill the worm. Black lightning…”
Leon had to suppress a grin at the way she said that; it was exactly as Nestor had not too long ago.
“Without seeing it, it’s hard to know for sure,” the Thunderbird said. “Perhaps a fusion of darkness and lightning? Perhaps something… else.” Her eyes quickly snapped back to Leon. “When I used the Iron Needle, it showed me all kinds of lightning. I settled upon the one I liked the most, that I felt had the most affinity with me. That power became the power that I’ve now passed on to you. Pay attention when the Iron Needle deigns to show you its power; it may be trying to teach you something.”
Leon cocked his head as his suppressed grin freed itself from his control and spread across his face.
“You’re saying… I might be able to use this black lightning without the Iron Needle? If I can figure out how?”
“Yes.”
“Would this power… also be passed down to my children?”
The Thunderbird was quiet for a moment, then answered, “I… I can’t say for certain, but I’d also hesitantly say yes.”
Leon’s grin widened even further into a full-fledged, unabashed smile. But a moment later, his smile faltered. “How would that work? Would it play nicely with the power I’ve inherited from you? Would I have to choose between your power and this black lightning? Your power doesn’t seem to prevent me from using the power of the Great Black Dragon—”
Leon cut himself off as he remembered what Valentina had told him about his two bloodlines. One was ‘dominant’, and the other was ‘recessive’. Not perfect explanations, but he wondered if his Thunderbird blood was hampering his use of the Great Black Dragon’s power, somehow.
“I don’t know what will happen, Leon,” the Thunderbird quietly admitted. “I tried to add other lightning variants to my bloodline, but none ever took. I can’t say what you may gain from this, but I suspect it might be possible. A bloodline inherited is different from a bloodline made.”
“You’ll have to tell me about that at some point. For now… I think I’m going to head home so I can work on that damn sword. Sky forging Adamant won’t be easy, but I have to figure it out somehow.”
The Thunderbird nodded in approval. “I’ll remain here a while. Be sure to come back for further training.”
Leon nodded as he returned to the real world.
He had about six months before the arks were finished and he could launch his punitive expedition—assuming Sunlit didn’t move first. That was the maximum amount of time he had to work on not only his sword but also reaching the tenth-tier. He felt like he’d acquitted himself well in his battle with the tenth-tier mage, but he couldn’t simply acquit himself well the next time they fought. He couldn’t rely upon artifacts that harmed him when used, either.
He'd have to fight the Sunlit Emperor again and win on his own terms. Doing anything else was out of the question.