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Hesperidic Apples.

The elders had given him back the apples he’d offered them, but that didn’t mean they were going to turn down possible orchards of their own. It was Leon’s eventual goal to leave the plane for the Nexus, but he knew that that likely wouldn’t happen for a couple decades at least, which was more than enough time to establish some apple orchards. Down in the Tribes, even with all that had happened over the past week, he felt like he could trust that they’d remain safer there than his orchard in Occulara, even with his alliance with the Lord Protector and Grand Druid—the Keeper had managed to nearly destroy his villa before Anastasios intervened, after all.

Leon had been tempted to inquire about possible Titanstone while they were busy discussing such things but decided against it. He figured it was better not to rock the boat too much while it was still stabilizing from the last rocking.

“Here,” he said as he pinned one of the smaller fields in the Jaguar’s lands. “This place looks sufficient for an orchard. It might take some time to set up.”

“For these apples, we’ll wait,” Nikolaos said with a smile, his sentiment seeming to be shared throughout the room.

Leon grinned as well. He had spoken with Tikos before the start of this meeting and his tree sprite retainer had indicated it could increase the yield of apples with seeds, but apples with seeds didn’t have the same effect if eaten—they were little more than regular apples with all the power they were supposed to have contained instead contained in their seeds. Tikos had been careful in allowing the trees to produce seeded apples, but if he needed to, he could take a few harvests to increase the number of seeds produced. Such a thing was only possible thanks to its growing understanding of the trees and how they produced their fruit.

He wasn’t quite sure about ordering Tikos to begin that process yet as he needed power in the short term, even if he knew it was better in the long term to take a year or two off from apple harvests. At the very least, he wasn’t comfortable ending the harvests while there was still war between even one Empire and the Ten Tribes.

Leon put down a few more pins, making sure that every Tribe sworn to him had at least one. That concluded the central bit of business that the meeting had been called to address, but there were also a couple more minor things that Leon had wanted to bring up with the elders before leaving the following morning. However, before he could get to them, Cassandra, Valeria, and Alcander walked into the room, and four of Leon’s new Tempest Knights followed them.

Seeing the newly-sworn knights enter had Leon almost doing a double-take. They were fully armored, but now they wore tabards over their armor emblazoned with a pair of stylized wings with silver and blue feathers.

Unfortunately, while he was busy staring at the new emblem, the elders were staring at Cassandra, which he realized only a moment later.

“That’ll be all, thank you, everyone,” he said in a clear dismissal. The elders left largely without a word, though they didn’t need to say anything with how most of them ensured Cassandra didn’t leave their field of vision even if they weren’t looking directly at her.

Nikolaos was the last one to leave, and before he did so, he gave Leon one last look and whispered, “We can continue this later, Your Majesty, at your convenience.”

Leon smiled back and clapped him on the shoulder. “Absolutely.”

Nikolaos bowed slightly and followed in the wake of the other elders. The new arrivals waited until the door was fully shut behind him before speaking.

“I’m starting to think coming here was a mistake,” Cassandra muttered as she joined Leon at the table, glancing at the map but not seeming to take it in at all.

“I could’ve introduced you better,” Leon said as he laid a hand over hers as she leaned against the table. “Waited for a more private moment with fewer elders.”

“What’s done is done,” Cassandra replied with a sigh. “It’s going to take some time before I’m accepted. If that’ll ever happen, I guess. But that’s fine! I’ll make them see that we want peace! They’ll have to acknowledge me! Together, we’ll accomplish the impossible!”

Valeria gave her an almost incredulous look as she joined them at the table. “You might want to relax on the sparring requests, then. I don’t think they’ll be too interested in peace if you keep fighting everyone you stumble across.”

“Better they get fighting me out of their system now with training weapons than later with real ones,” Cassandra replied.

Valeria simply frowned and shrugged. Then, addressing Leon, she said, “There’s a matter with the Tempest Knights that needs your attention.”

“Oh?” Leon whispered as he turned his gaze to Alcander and the four other knights. The knights were all seventh-tier, and none wore helmets, giving him a good look at their features. None were so old as to warrant inclusion in the ranks of their Tribes’ elders, but they seemed at least middle-aged, which would put them about on par with the Chiefs of their Clans, Leon imagined.

“It’s been a long few days,” Alcander said, “but Alix and I have finished putting them through their paces. We have a pretty good idea of where the knights stand in terms of their skill and power, and since they all pretty much knew each other already, we also had them select their captains.”

“Captains?” Leon asked.

“Alix and I decided that each Tribe should select their captains,” Alcander explained. “Help with the power structure. Ideally, all Ten Tribes will have their own captain directly beneath me and Alix. The captains will have command over their fellows in the Tempest Knights.”

“Many of the Imperial Guards back home were organized in a similar manner,” Cassandra added.

Leon nodded with understanding. “Good. Makes sense.” He ended with an expectant look, silently urging Alcander to continue.

“Anyway,” Alcander obliged, “These are the four who’ve been elected so far. I decided they should be introduced to you as soon as possible. If they’re to be your personal knights, then Alix and I can’t be your only contacts within their ranks, right?”

“No, I’m happy you’re showing such initiative. Please,” Leon smiled and waved at the four knights, all of whom stood up a little straighter as they formed up in front of Leon as if awaiting his inspection. Their new insignia practically glittered in the room’s lighting as they pushed their chests out in pride.

Even though they were presenting themselves for inspection, Leon didn’t go too in-depth with his scanning—he trusted that they knew how to maintain their kit, and if they didn’t, then he trusted that Alix and Alcander would whip them into shape. That being said, he still noticed that while they all wore the same insignia on the front of their tabards, the back had different insignias on each.

“This is Knight-Captain Running-Talon,” Alcander introduced, indicating the first in line. “He now commands the Heart-Stabbing Hawks of the Tempest Knights.”

Running-Talon was a man with rugged good looks and a face that could’ve been chiseled out of stone not only for how handsome he was but also for how much expression he was displaying. He appeared to be the oldest of the captains with his dark brown hair streaked with gray and a clean-shaven face. It was a bit hard to tell since all four captains were restraining their auras in his presence, but Leon guessed Running-Talon was another wind mage, just like Singer-in-Caves.

Upon Running-Talon’s back was the image of a diving hawk. It wasn’t a particularly complex image, and the only color in it was the hawk’s plumage, colored a distinctive shade of reddish-orange.

“This is Knight-Captain Aleister,” Alcander continued.

Aleister was a Lion, that much was obvious. Whether or not he was handsome Leon could hardly tell as he wore such a bushy golden beard that his face was almost completely obscured. But he had two of the most striking green eyes he had ever seen, and his long golden hair was tied into a tight bun to keep it under control. If Leon had to guess, he would’ve guessed Aleister was an earth mage.

Upon Aleister’s back was an image of a roaring lion, colored gold.

The third Knight-Captain, as Alcander introduced her, was Charis, and she was an Eagle. She was the shortest and slightest of the captains, but just from the way she held herself, Leon could tell that she was as much a fighter as the others. Her aura was hot and relatively wild, hinting at possible fire magic as her element of choice when fighting.

Upon her back, unlike Running-Talon’s insignia, was an eagle not in flight, but perched upon the branch of an olive tree, its wings spread and beak opened in a silent scream in what Leon took to be a threatening stance.

The final Knight-Captain was Zoe, the Jaguar of the group. She was quite tall and muscular, but despite this, her aura was gentle and comforting—that of a light mage, if Leon guessed right, and not just any light mage, but one who specialized in healing. Like all Jaguars, Zoe had golden skin with numerous dark marks on what little skin she had exposed—largely just her face and some of her neck. She had long black hair and deep brown eyes, and while she wasn’t the most classically beautiful woman Leon had ever seen, she still stood before him with an attractive confidence that was impossible to deny.

Upon her back was the image of a running Jaguar, colored crimson.

Once introductions were finished, all four captains dropped to a knee and said in unison, “We are your sword and your armor. You are our King. We swear to give our lives for yours, to carry out your orders to the best of our abilities, and to always keep faith with the Thunderbird Clan!”

Leon blinked in surprise. “I will do all I can to honor those pledges,” Leon responded as he forced his expression to stay carefully neutral and serious. He then nodded to Alcander, and the large man got the hint.

“All right you four, on your feet, we’ve bothered our King long enough!”

Alcander then wrangled the four captains out of the room, pausing at the doorway only for one last respectful nod to Leon before departing.

Leon sighed as he was left alone with his ladies.

“Overwhelming?” Valeria quietly asked.

Leon nodded. “It’s all… becoming real.”

“It’s kind of nostalgic,” Valeria said as a smile broke out across her face as well. Leon turned to her with a hint of surprise etching itself within his features. “It’s been a while since we had any kind of command like this,” Valeria explained. “Not since we left the Bull Kingdom. The Serpentine Isles for you and the civil war for me.”

“Has it been that long?” Leon rhetorically wondered aloud. “Hardly feels like it. Having Heaven’s Eye in our pocket kind of muddies things, though. But having knights on our side feels… good, really.”

“Having guards will always feel great,” Cassandra opined as she leaned against the table with an almost smug grin. “It’s like having a retinue, only bigger and more powerful. It makes such a statement to all those you may meet! Like, ‘look at all of these people following me! I’m important!’ It’s even better if they actually will do what you tell them, whether because you’ve paid them enough or because they’re actually that loyal.”

“Yeah,” Leon said a little absentmindedly. “I wasn’t quite expecting them to swear personal loyalty like that. The oath they swore on the formation of the order was enough for me.”

“They’re your guards,” Cassandra interjected. “Their loyalty ought to be beyond reproach! Every oath you can squeeze out of them is worth its weight in gold! My Imperial Guards swear more than a dozen oaths to me before they even get close to my detail, and those oaths are renewed at least once a year.”

“That seems… excessive,” Leon said.

“If they’re going to be guarding our doors,” Valeria responded, “it hardly seems that onerous.”

“Look at that, Val has the right of it,” Cassandra added, shooting Valeria a cheeky grin.

“You sound surprised.”

“Probably because I am.”

Valeria glared at Cassandra, but the expression lacked much heat.

Still, Leon jumped in to make sure that there wouldn’t be any fight between the two.

“This order is going to grow in the coming years, if our Ancestors are smiling on us. They’re going to be guarding our palaces and accompanying us on any adventures we have in the future. Might be best to get to know them better. Make sure that we’re on first-name basis with the commanders under Alcander and Alix.”

“I don’t think we have too much to worry about on that front,” Cassandra said, drawing a look of curiosity from Leon. “I’ve heard them speak about you. Most of them are awestruck that they get to directly serve a ‘Prince of the blood’. Only their own Ancestors are owed more respect in their minds than the last of the Thunderbird Clan.”

Leon sighed again. “I guess I’ll have to make sure I don’t get them killed, then.”

“That might put a damper on things.”

Silence fell around them for a few seconds, everyone apparently out of things they wanted to say on that front. For his part, Leon regretted saying the last thing he did, feeling it put too much of a damper on things. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d gotten everyone under his command killed, and while it was only a joke, joking about getting his knights killed reminded him of many he’d fought alongside that had died during their efforts.

Men like Alix’s relative, Sam, who Leon had been sent to squire under right after the Knight Academy, or the force of three thousand August had assigned to him during the battles in the Bull Kingdom’s Southern Territories. He’d gotten many he was at least partially responsible for killed, and he silently vowed to do better with the Tempest Knights.

These were his knights now, and their value in his eyes had gone up correspondingly.

“We should get ready to leave tomorrow,” Leon eventually said. “We have two more Tribes to deal with.”

“Do we know much about them right now?” Cassandra asked.

“As in their current situations?” Leon asked. Cassandra nodded. “Keeping to themselves, mostly. The Harts’ Tribal Council isn’t in session, so we’re probably going to run into some difficulties once we get there. With only a token number of elders and Chiefs in their capital, convincing the entire Tribe to support me is going to be difficult.”

“I’ll keep my mouth shut, then,” Cassandra said. “Better they think me just a pretty wallflower.”

“No one would ever mistake you for that,” Valeria shot back. “A ninth-tier aura? They’d know you to be a warrior at least.”

“No they won’t!” Cassandra insisted. With traces of sarcasm permeating her tone, she said, “I will be subtle! Royal! Quiet!”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Valeria quipped.

Cassandra was about to say something when Leon wrapped his arms around both of their shoulders.

“You two haven’t deliberately gotten us off-track, have you? We haven’t even finished talking about the Harts yet and you’re already at each other’s throats!”

“I only strike back,” Cassandra declared.

“Like hells,” Valeria replied.

“You’re lucky Leon’s here, Val. I might’ve sent you to the Ashen Fields before getting this far otherwise…”

“Correction: you would’ve tried.”

Cassandra glared at Valeria for a moment before both ladies were forced to hold in a bout of giggles.

Cassandra then turned to Leon and said, “We don’t really need to plan, we have a fairly good idea of what’s going to happen.”

“Oh? You’ve added the power of prophecy to your list of skills? I didn’t even think soothsaying was possible…”

“It’s only extrapolating the most likely outcomes based on what I know,” Cassandra said with a shrug. “They worship your Ancestor. The only thing I think that could possibly sway them against you is me, to be honest. If they find out where I’m from, it’ll be no small disruption…”

“Then they won’t know,” Leon replied. “How hard would it be to simply not talk about it?”

“I doubt it’ll be that easy but we can try, I guess.”

“Heh.” Leon grinned self-deprecatingly. With a more serious tone, he asked, “What are the chances that the Harts and Ravens don’t already know?”

“I wouldn’t bet against it,” Valeria whispered.

“Huh? Why?” Cassandra asked.

“We weren’t—I wasn’t exactly subtle about announcing who you are. I’m sure the Thunderer was listening through his Inquisitors. If he has this information and doesn’t use it, he’d be the kind of idiot that I don’t think he is. So let’s prepare for the possibility that the Harts and Ravens already know.”

Another moment of silence followed, only broken when Cassandra quietly swore under her breath.

“… Shit.”