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Chapter 781: To Know Fire

Leon sighed as he sat back in his chair, the past few days of paperwork weighing as heavily on his mind and sanity as his recent visit to Argos.

He’d returned to Occulara almost a week ago and had been expecting to meet immediately with the Director. However, the Director had simply sent him a curt message saying that they’d talk later. That irritated Leon greatly, but instead of dwelling on it, he had spent most of that week locked in meetings with his department heads, interviews for replacements for those Talal had marked as Rufus loyalists or of relatively low character, reading reports on current research projects, and relocating assets according to his preferences and priorities. The branch had a lot of assets tied up in blood magic research, and Leon had all of that research archived and canceled, leaving him with quite a few people to spare.

His new priorities included putting his Lightning Lance designs in the hands of professional weapons developers and seeing what they could do with it, reprioritizing ark development, and studying the effects of Titanstone. Given his desire to maintain fairly strict security regarding these more sensitive issues, those teams were as small as he could make them, though quite well-funded, while many researchers who’d been looking into blood magic were reassigned to more humanitarian projects, such as studying nature, agricultural, and healing magic.

Upon his return to Occulara, he’d also received word of Valentina’s acceptance of his offer, to Xaphan’s relative chagrin. That being said, the demon had come around to the idea of having another contract, the new Mist of Chaos enchantment that Leon built in his soul realm doing much to convince him that he was strong enough to dominate Valentina should she make any hostile moves against him.

So, Leon, still rather surprised that Amon hadn’t killed his wayward vampire, made another trip down to Heaven’s Eye’s supermax prison, summoned Xaphan into Valentina’s cell, and let them do their work. A few hours later, he and Valentina walked out of the prison side-by-side, and Leon had her sent back to her home under heavy guard. He’d speak with her later, but for now, he allowed her to focus fully on her recovery from vampirism, with Xaphan’s assistance.

But as exciting as taking complete control over so many of Heaven’s Eye’s resources was, he could only stand the paperwork for so long. He quietly considered himself lucky that he had Talal to take up the slack, because he wasn’t sure what he would do if he didn’t have a capable second-in-command willing to alleviate his administrative duties.

The end of the day couldn’t have come soon enough, and for Leon, it came a little early as Elise entered his office.

“Leon,” she said lovingly.

“Elise,’ he replied with just as much emotion. However, a moment later, he saw her expression tighten up a bit with some consternation. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing, really,” Elise replied as Leon got up and walked around his desk to embrace his wife. “It’s just our neighbors. And some of our workers tending to our farms. They find Red… intimidating. Eliasson, in particular, has been getting his cock all twisted, accusing Red of stealing and eating his cattle.”

Leon’s eyes just about popped out of their sockets. Elise rarely spoke so vulgarly outside of their bedroom.

“Are things that bad?” he asked, thinking that the complaints against Red had to have rather fiercely irritated her to bring that kind of language out.

Elise sighed and melted into his arms. “In a way, they’re exaggerated—I don’t think she’s stealing any livestock, for example. In others, though, Red’s quite a bit worse than that. She is quite intimidating.”

Leon cringed slightly, knowing that it was partially his fault. When he’d made the offer for Red to join him, he’d done so under the assumption that he would still be a Hand of the Director upon her arrival and that he’d have plenty of time to spend with her, helping her get acclimated to human society. Instead, he’d spent the past week holed up in Rufus’ old office, overseeing the transfer of power and changing of priorities.

Fortunately, he was just about done.

“I’ll go and see her now,” Leon said.

“What about your work?” Elise asked.

“If things have gotten so bad that my wife had to come and see me during work, then I have to deal with it now. Besides, I didn’t promote Talal for nothing—he can handle most everything from here.”

Elise giggled, but poked him in the cheek and said, “You shouldn’t be lazy.”

Leon put on a mock-outraged tone and said, “This isn’t me being lazy, this is me acknowledging my shortcomings and delegating as needed.”

Not waiting for another word, Leon lifted Elise off her feet and carried her out the door, where several of their personal assistants were waiting with several of Leon’s assistants that came with his post.

A few minutes later, they’d piled into Leon and Elise’s horseless and wheelless carriage, and homeward bound they were. Under normal circumstances, Leon would’ve been loath to ride in a carriage instead of flying, but he was in a far more relaxed and conciliatory mood after finally getting his house in order. Besides, while he was more than willing to fly everywhere, Elise had more relaxed tastes, and typically took carriages whenever she needed to head into town.

About half an hour later, they were back home, and Leon could immediately see that things were fairly bad, if the looks he was getting from one of his neighbors was anything to go by. Normally, he wouldn’t see any of his neighbors as he pulled into his villa’s front courtyard, their properties being fairly large and surrounded by hedges and trees, but this particular neighbor was now standing outside of his front door, arguing with the head of Leon’s household staff with about much anger as a dignified and well-respected man who valued his reputation would.

The man was Arsenios, a local government bureaucrat. Occulara was, in practice, a semi-autonomous city-state under the suzerainty of the Ilian Empire, but on paper, it was still a city completely under the control of the Ilian Emperor. To handle the problems that this discrepancy caused, the Ilian Empire did have some token governmental presence within the city.

Of course, the Ilian Emperor still held supreme authority over the city, but such authority was rarely, if ever, used.

It was a delicate system, but since it gave Heaven’s Eye in all practical senses complete control of the city, no one was too willing to rock that boat. Arsenios was fairly high-ranking within the local bureaucratic apparatus, and if there was a list of men and women who could’ve brought greater Ilian attention to Occulara’s affairs, it was Arsenios. That didn’t make him a coddled and pampered bureaucrat in Occulara, but it did mean that Leon couldn’t exactly throw him out on his ass for raising a stink over a personal grievance—especially if it was justified.

“What’s the problem?” Leon demanded as he exited the carriage, holding the door open for Elise as he did.

“Arsenios, good to see you,” Elise said, her noble cheer acting as the perfect counterbalance to Leon’s obvious displeasure as she followed him out. “Our home is always open to you, but what brings you here with such passion?”

Arsenios glared at them both and, after taking a moment to rather obviously collect himself, stated, “Your pet wyvern has rampaged throughout the neighborhood. Many of us are nearing the end of our patience, and we demand that you restrain your new pet immediately!”

Leon smiled dangerous as he walked toward Arsenios, Elise on his arm doing much to help him restrain his anger—his knowledge that he wasn’t exactly in the right here going even further in that regard.

“Please, come inside for a drink,” he said diplomatically. “Red is not our pet, and I’ll go and speak with her about restraining herself while she’s in the city.”

Arsenios glared at him, but accepted the invitation.

Leon left him with Elise to handle, knowing that he’d be in good hands. He, meanwhile, headed outside, knowing exactly where Red would be even without projecting his magic senses. Indeed, he found her lounging in wyvern form in one of his courtyard, bathing in the last few rays of sunlight before the sun slipped below the distant horizon.

“Hey there,” he said as he joined Red, lying down on the warm stone tiles. “How’s it going?”

Red made a chuffing sound, then spoke into his mind, [This place is comfortable. I like it here.]

“Better than a cave?”

[Yes.]

“Is it better in human or wyvern form?”

Red chuffed again, then made a strange low-pitched whining sound. After a long moment, Leon realized she wasn’t going to answer that question, though given her attitudes towards human society so far, he took her lack of answer to be, itself, an answer.

“Have you been flying around, lately?”

[I’ve stretched my wings, yes.]

“People have been complaining about you. You haven’t been stealing livestock, have you?”

Red snorted. [No.]

Leon nodded. “Then things are fine, as far as I’m concerned. Still, keep in mind that flying is technically illegal here.”

[That didn’t seem to stop you when you came to pick me up.]

Leon smirked and cringed at the same time. “Yeah, well. Something’s only illegal if people have the will to enforce that illegality. For me to head down and pick you up is one thing, flying around for leisure is another. Besides, there are some powerful people, relatively speaking, that live in these parts. If you continue to harass them, then they might make enough of a racket for someone to come and try and enforce the flying regulations.”

[You would ground me?] Red asked, sounding dangerously, if rather subtly furious.

“No. Not so much. Look, Red, you agreed to come and learn about human society, right? And humans like making rules that ensure their world is safe and brings them prosperity.”

[And they do so by restricting flying? Foolish; are they humans or worms, these who have imposed this rule? So fond are they of wallowing in their precious dirt that I can hardly tell.]

“That’s just the way we do things around here,” Leon replied, brushing off her attitude, reasoning that it would probably change in due course as Red found more things about human society that she enjoyed and was willing to make sacrifices for. “It’s good not to attract undue attention, though that’s something I’ve not been doing very well these past few weeks… and years…”

A deep, unpleasant silence settled around them, and Leon almost decided to leave right then and there. However, something was bothering him a little bit. Tikos and Red had ostensibly joined his retinue for the same purpose: to experience new things, and human civilization in particular. Tikos took to its purpose quite well, observing through the local flora as people went about their day all while helping Leon with his apple orchard and thunder wood. Red, on the other hand, for the past week had done little except fly around and lounge around in the sun.

Leon knew that he was the one who’d elicited her coming down from the mountain, but he’d though that she would’ve been a little more eager to head out and experience human culture.

“Why are you here, Red?” Leon asked.

Red stirred slightly, perhaps out of confusion from his non sequitur. He was also fairly confused and wasn’t all that confident that he’d get an answer, but Red proved him wrong.

[You remind me of someone,] she said. [A woman who came tearing through the aeries years ago. Her power was radiant—inspiring, even. She intruded upon my territory and nearly killed me. When she had me at her mercy, she spared me.]

“How long ago was this?” Leon asked, his brow furrowing slightly as he wondered just who she was talking about.

Red thought for a moment and answered, [Thirty-five years, more or less.]

Leon nodded again, but a strange possibility occurred to him. It was only a few years before he’d been born that Red encountered this woman, and he reminded him of her…

[She wielded black fire, too,] Red explained, [and her eyes matched yours.]

Leon’s heart damn near stopped as his eyes went wide.

[Nothing could touch her in the aeries,] Red continued. [When she fought me, I was younger and weaker than I am now, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that she put me in such a state. Even now, I don’t think I could take her as she was back then, let alone how strong she must be now.]

“Wha—what happened?” Leon croaked. “She… didn’t kill you, obviously…”

[No. Instead, she left—for a time. I retreated to my lair to heal and recover, but only a few days later, this woman returned. We didn’t fight—I’d learned that I was no match. I postured, but I was gravely wounded, and it had little effect. Instead of running away in fear, as most creatures do when faced with me, she came into my lair as if it were her own. She tended to my wounds and brought me food, but spoke little. What few things she did speak of were the comforts and luxuries she wished she had—better healing papers, better food, servants to handle menial chores… And she spoke of magic.]

“Fire?” Leon hoarsely asked.

[Yes. She was a fire mage. But fire deadlier than any I’d ever seen before. Fire that cut through mine without effort. Fire that darkened all the world and threatened to consume my life. It was fire that I’d never seen before, fire that I’ve not seen since… until I saw you fight my mate.]

Leon raised a hand and conjured a small black flame in his hand, letting it slowly undulate in a way that it rebelled against. This was violent fire, not something that could be put to much practical purpose. It was fire of death and destruction and little else, and it rebelled against his restraint.

[She spoke to me of fire,] Red continued. [As a creature of flame, I pride myself on my knowledge of fire. But the things she asked me, the knowledge she possessed of flame, and the questions she still had, left me feeling like my own young when they try to imitate me and breathe fire. I couldn’t answer any but the simplest questions she asked. When she left, I doubt she’d learned much from me about fire. But I learned from her—just those few days of learning were enough to catapult my strength up… I think by human measurements, a tier? Two?]

“That much power in just a few days?” Leon incredulously asked.

[Not in those days—those days were just learning. It was the questions that she’d asked, and the explanations she gave for asking them that led me to think. I thought for years, and it was over those years that I applied the answer to those questions and grew strong. The thoughts she left me with are what led me to real power compared to others of my kind.]

“So, when you saw my fire, you thought that I might have similar knowledge to share?”

Red didn’t verbally respond, but Leon thought that he’d hit the nail on the head. Not that he was angry—he didn’t expect his people to work for free, after all. If what Red wanted out of this arrangement was knowledge instead of gold and jewels, then he was fine with that. Hells, he was more willing to shar with her what he knew about fire than he was to pay her piles of treasure.

[What is this fire?] she asked as she transformed back into human form and knelt next to Leon, her eyes locked on his small black flame.

“The fire of the Great Black Dragon,” Leon answered.

[Dragon?] she whispered as her eyes went wide, wider than his just a moment ago. [But… dragons are extinct…]

“Maybe. There’s a huge and powerful Clan of dragon descendants in the Nexus. Human, like myself, but bearing the power of the seven Great Dragons. The Great Black Dragon wielded this fire, and it’s from him that I’ve inherited it… through my mother…”

[I must know this power,] Red whispered, hardly blinking at Leon’s mention of his mother. [I must grow strong.]

“I think we can talk about fire,” Leon said as he extinguished the black fire and stood up. “I think you, me, and Xaphan—my contracted fire demon—should all sit down and have a long conversation or a thousand.”

Red’s amber eyes were practically glittering with excitement, though the rest of her face was still rather stoic.

“I will go to the Nexus, Red. My mother is there. The remains of my Thunderbird Clan are there. The Nexus is my future. Come with me, and you will know fire in ways you can’t even imagine right now. Come with me, and see just how far humans have pushed the element, and see how much further you can push it, in turn.”

Red smiled as she stood up, too. [I want this power. I would know this power. I would know fire. I will follow you to this power.]

Leon smirked. Hardly a declaration of undying loyalty, but he wasn’t looking for one. It was enough to know that Red was here not just for some vague notion of ‘experiencing human culture’, but had a more defined goal—and, more importantly, a goal that he could work toward with her.

“How soon would you like to get started?” Leon asked, a wry grin on his face.

[Now,] Red replied, to Leon’s utter lack of surprise.

“Sure,” Leon said. “But on one condition: you tell me about this woman with the black fire. I want to know everything that you can share with me about her. What did she look like? What did you two talk about? Where did she go after leaving you? Everything.”

If Leon was right, then he already knew where this woman went after leaving the aeries: she went north. She went almost as far north as north went on Aeterna, reaching the Bull Kingdom. Once there, she signed up to be a gladiator—out of boredom or for some other purpose, he had no clue. During one of her fights, she greatly impressed a young Artorias Raime, who began courting her.

Not long after, they got married, Artorias was disowned by his father for marrying an unknown woman, and, almost thirty two years ago, had a son. But not long after that, their home was attacked, Artorias fled with their baby, and the woman was teleported away to who-knew-where by distant family members. For whatever reason, she never returned.

Leon could only hope that she was still alive. Right then, with the solidest information on his mother he’d ever gotten since his father’s death, he felt closer to her than ever. After Artorias’ death, he’d felt alone and vulnerable, feelings that hadn’t diminished nearly as much as he would’ve liked even with his growing family, retinue, and power. He could’ve found some solace and motivation in the possible survival of his mother, but he didn’t know her, and he refused to get too heavily invested into her without knowing more. Still, there were few things he wanted to do more than finding her.

But now, he was finally starting to learn a little more. The shadow in his mind that was his mother was now just a little more defined. And he was a little more determined to find her. Once he did, perhaps then he could feel a little less alone and vulnerable.