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Accompanying him were Anzu, Cassandra, Valeria, and Maia, all quite powerful in their own right. Of his retainers, only Red was coming with, and even then, only for a relatively short distance. She’d wait at a pre-arranged point with a few others just in case the meeting turned violent and Leon had to fight his way out. The Jaguar was the highest-ranked Tribesman joining him, but about a dozen other Jaguar elders left with him as well, though all of them would be waiting with Red.

That number of elders was quite deliberate for that was how many invisibility-granting enchanted items the Jaguars were able to scrounge up on such short notice.

So, about an hour before the meeting, Leon and his team took off from the Jaguar’s estate, none of them visible. They flew high over the city, wary that any of the buildings around might disrupt their invisibility enchantments—a reasonable worry given just how heavily enchanted the city was.

But they made good time and didn’t once have anyone lose their invisibility. They paused over the mustering grounds in the east where Red and the Jaguar elders would wait, and then Leon and the rest of his team continued onward, though not without some parting words from Red.

[If you don’t return, I’m going to burn this entire city to the ground,] she warned.

[That seems drastic,] Leon replied. [But all the same, I’ll be sure not to tarry.]

With that, Leon and the rest of his team continued onward until they closed in on the meeting point: a private pavilion surrounded by light forests on the edge of Lake Ontarii. Landing at a prearranged point, Leon, unable to locate the Jaguar since he wasn’t using one of Leon’s invisibility enchantments, quietly said aloud, “Everyone still with us?”

He knew Maia, Valeria, Cassandra, and Anzu were still with him, but he had little idea where the Jaguar was until he vocally responded, “Yes.”

“Good,” he replied. After that, he projected his magic senses and took a much more in-depth look at the meeting point.

The pavilion was wide and open, though so heavily warded it might as well have been a fortress. It was built of rare timber with a floor of polished stone built atop a concrete foundation. The domed roof was capped with white ceramic roof tiles while the ceiling itself was covered in a large mural depicting what Leon thought to be the formation of the Bear Tribe, all but stating outright whose pavilion it was. It was simple, though ostentatious in its own way.

Confirming what he’d assumed from the ceiling, there were a number of Bears behind the pavilion setting up sturdy posts used to tether war beasts, some of which were already being brought out.

Leon counted one seventh-tier stag and two brilliant white sixth-tier pegasi, each half again as large as the largest of the Bull Kingdom’s war horses.

“Looks like the Bears are hosting this,” Leon murmured.

“I’m seeing some Bison and Tigers, too,” the Jaguar stated.

Leon glanced around and did see several men and women in the pavilion who didn’t look too much like the typically heavily-muscled and red-haired Bears, though none were even seventh-tier, let alone appearing at the level of a Tribal elder.

“Nothing that looks like a trap,” Valeria whispered.

“That we can see yet,” Leon replied. “Who knows what else they may have concealed?”

“How close are we going to get?” Cassandra asked. “We’re not going to be able to hear anything this far out.”

“Getting close is going to be tricky if we don’t want to reveal ourselves…” Valeria stated.

“Yeah, no shit,” Cassandra playfully shot.

“I can do it,” Leon confidently stated.

“Perhaps it would be better if I were to take this risk—” the Jaguar began before Leon quickly cut him off.

“No. I’ll do this.”

“If you get caught…” the Jaguar whispered anxiously.

“He won’t,” Valeria immediately replied.

Leon gave a confident smile in her general direction, only knowing which way that was thanks to the trackers he’d placed in his peoples’ armor which allowed them all to keep track of each other when invisible.

“Wait here,” Leon ordered everyone before he began creeping forward.

The pavilion was fairly well-guarded, though not as much as Leon would’ve expected for the site of such an important meeting. There were a few patrols, but not so many that he found it hard to approach the pavilion. The enchantments being limited to the pavilion itself didn’t help matters, though they did mean that he had to stop at the building’s edge.

There were plenty of chairs being set up, indicating that this was going to be a fairly large gathering—bigger than he’d thought or that Solomon had indicated. The chairs were being arranged in four sections, implying that all of the Tribes that the Thunderer had gathered would be attending, not only ‘some’ of them. Unfortunately, from what Leon could sense from the enchantments now that he was up close, once the wards were up, there would be no way for him to eavesdrop even though the pavilion had no walls.

So, he figured that would be his first problem to solve. He still had some time, but he set about immediately.

The enchantments were thorough and robust, but that was the only compliment he could pay the pavilion’s builders. The enchantments themselves had been inscribed upon the raised concrete foundation. They hadn’t been obscured or protected in any way, aside from the Bear patrols.

‘Subversion without revealing,’ Leon succinctly thought. If the wards were going to prevent him from listening in on the gathering, then he would have to change that, though he’d have to do so in a way that wouldn’t reveal what he’d done. With a grin, he finished his thought with, ‘Easy enough…’

While confident, he did see a couple problems. The first was that some of the wards were already active and channeling enough magic power that his invisibility would be disrupted if he came into contact with them. The second was that if he got rid of the enchantment entirely, the guards would notice what he’d done once the meeting began.

So, instead of completely disrupting the enchantment that would prevent their voices from leaving the pavilion, he’d have to get creative.

Fortunately, he had just such a plan. He projected his magic senses as subtly as he could to keep an eye on his surroundings and then got to work.

---

[They’re here, Leon,] Maia whispered to him just as he was finishing up his work.

[Good, I’m done anyway and wasn’t keen on waiting,] Leon replied as he quickly put distance between himself and the pavilion. While he had yet to see any sign that this was a trap, he still didn’t want to be caught anywhere near the pavilion once the meeting started.

It didn’t take any time at all before he made it back to where the others were waiting.

“Looks like patrols are stepping up,” the Jaguar observed.

“They should’ve stepped up hours ago,” Leon stated. “Now, who am I looking for?”

“Flying our way on pegasi from the city,” the Jaguar responded.

Leon glanced that way and saw a fairly large group of Bears making their way over, though none, he noticed, were ninth-tier.

“Anyone of note?” he asked.

“A few elders,” the Jaguar replied without too much conviction, indicating what he thought about the delegation so far.

That changed as the Bears drew closer and the lake began to emit an eye-catching aura. As the Bears were landing, a monstrous creature erupted from the waves onto the shore, a ninth-tier Bear on its back looking bone dry. The monster itself was eighth-tier and looked like some profane fusion between a dragon and a gecko. For the most part, the latter dominated its features, being a massive quadruped covered in ocean-blue scales with a long tail, but its head was angular and vicious with four horns sprouting from a prominent forehead bone plate.

Despite how powerful the beast was, Leon didn’t detect any hint of sapience or intelligence in its eyes or behavior. It simply surged over to the pavilion—its aura making several weaker Bears in the area collapse—and halted next to the largest of the war beast posts that had been erected. The rider then leaped down and the dull-eyed beast was tied to the post, at which point its aura immediately lightened considerably.

“The Beast Lord,” the Jaguar whispered, identifying the man who’d rode in on the dragon-gecko.

Before Leon could ask anything about him, he felt a flurry in the ambient magic power around them and realized that an ark was on its way. Sure enough, only a few seconds later, a small ark, only large enough to fit perhaps ten people inside, flew over the pavilion and landed in the field with Leon and his people.

The magic wafting off the ark’s engines rolled over them and Leon held his breath, nervous for a moment that his invisibility enchantments might fail under that strain…

… but it held, and he breathed a sigh of relief as the ark’s engines shut down.

Seven members of the Tiger Tribe exited the ark, including one who radiated a ninth-tier aura.

“Solomon?” Leon asked.

“Yes,” the Jaguar whispered.

Solomon was a robustly-built man, with powerful shoulders, bulging muscles, dark skin, long orange hair, and yellow eyes. He wore a neutral expression that gave away not a single thought in his head or emotion in his heart.

Solomon’s group hadn’t reached the pavilion before shadows stretched from the sparse forest and reached the seats. Out of those shadows stepped another group of about fifteen, all tall and pale, all with black hair and black eyes. The Ji Spiders.

“We’re only missing one…” Leon murmured.

As if answering him, a man dropped from the sky and landed next to the pavilion. He was one of the tallest and burliest men Leon had ever seen, rivaled only by the likes of Trajan and King Julius—after the King had regained much of the weight he’d lost from his decade-long coma. The newcomer was handsome, with an anvil jaw and dark, brooding eyes. Most noticeable, however, was his ninth-tier aura.

He seemed about as happy to be at the meeting as a mortal might’ve been to stick their hand in a box of scorpions.

“Tillan,” the Jaguar identified. “Rock Mane Bison.”

As Solomon joined the others in the pavilion, they began speaking to each other, though thanks to the enchantments, none of Leon’s party could hear them.

“Hang on a moment,” Leon muttered as he retrieved a hastily-scrawled spell from his soul realm. “Everyone touch this.”

He felt his group surround the spell as he placed it on the ground, and after getting situated—it took a moment since no one knew where the Jaguar was, exactly, and neither did he know where anyone else was—five hands came into contact with the paper.

Leon whispered, “This was a rush job, but it should work.” He laid his hand down upon the center of the spell and activated it.

[… a minute,] the Beast Lord stated.

[Who are you talking about?] the lead Spider asked.

[You’ll see,] the Beast Lord replied as he cast a sly look at Solomon.

All of their voices were coming through clear enough to understand, though all of their voices were almost comically high-pitched. By his estimation, Leon thought they were about at the maximum range for this spell to work; but it was working. All of the voices of everyone in the pavilion were sounding off in their heads as if they were speaking with darkness magic.

[Be more specific,] Solomon demanded. [I’m quite tired of those using my name to get what they want. Waste my time and you’ll see that the Tiger does not fear the Bear.]

[Neither does the Bear fear the Tiger,] the Beast Lord retorted. [But if you’d like, I can give you reason to.]

[With what?] Solomon pressed. [You’ve lost all your most valuable pets. And quite recently, too…]

The Beast Lord scowled, but responded, [We still have some left. Some that are earning their reputations as we speak.]

Solomon growled and glared at the Beast Lord, but as he inhaled to respond, another ark flew over the pavilion, this one about as large as the last. Again, Leon and his people had to get down to avoid being rendered visible, but their luck held.

When the ark’s passengers exited the vehicle, however, Leon almost wished his invisibility had failed, which would’ve forced him to confront those who now walked toward the pavilion.

Hector had arrived, and with him walked six elders that had sworn themselves to Leon. Two from the Lions, one from the Harts, and three from the Eagles. None of them, as far as Leon could sense, possessed the awakened blood of their Tribe’s namesake. They were elders who’d achieved their eighth-tier power on their own and had only a weak, diluted connection to their respective Honored Ancestors.

[I’m so sorry for being late,] Hector exclaimed as he entered the pavilion, the six elders with him at his back. [I was just so excited when my friends arrived at my home that I spent longer than I should’ve welcoming them! But we’re here now, so why don’t we get started?]

[Brother,] Solomon growled, the nearly-identical twin sounding quite angry, [what is the meaning of this?]

[I’m just introducing my new friends to all of you!] Hector said, sounding faux-scandalized. [We have similar beliefs, so I merely thought that we could all get along!]

Solomon controlled his expression well, but Leon could see the twitching in his hands—he wanted to hit something. He was not happy, and most of that ire seemed directed at his twin.

[Let us just get on with it,] Solomon eventually spat. [You called the Elder Council, invoking my authority. What, now, is the reason? Explain yourself. What is the reason that we must ignore the return of the Thunderbird Clan? What is the reason that we must shed thousands of years of history and tradition?]

Hector’s face morphed into a deep scowl. [Because we’ve become mired in tradition! It has blinded us to the possibilities that lie outside of our domain!] He paused and clapped the shoulder of the nearest bloodline-less elder, a Lion. [Tradition would have those of us who do bear the power of our Ancestors, yet have risen anyway, languish in obscurity, unrecognized and scorned!]

[We do not wish to see Leon Raime as King!] the Lion elder declared. [We believe in the Thunderer’s plan for the future!]

[And they will vote our way in that regard,] Hector said with a grin.

[What vote?] Tillan, the Bison, asked. Despite the effect of the spell, his voice sounded almost normal. Leon guessed he must have a cavernously deep voice without the spell. [There was no vote for King declared.]

[There will be one,] Hector said. [We first have to… clean house, shall we say? There are those who’ve committed treason on this island, those who’ve allowed barbarians and tyrants to our shores. These people must be arraigned and brought to justice. And that is what we shall do!]

[And you demand support?] Tillan asked, the disgusted look on his face showcasing his feelings on the matter quite plainly.

[We do,] Hector said with a triumphant look. [We will win this battle, Tillan, make no mistake of that. It is already assured.]

[And after that, we will deal with those who brought this calamity to our home,] the Beast Lord added.

[The Jaguars?] Solomon pointedly asked.

[Among others,] the Spider replied with a vicious smirk. [Will this be a problem for you, oh great and mighty Hegemon?]

The Spider looked rather pleased with poking Solomon, but he shut his mouth quickly when both Solomon and Hector glared daggers at him. Solomon didn’t answer, and the Spider didn’t press.

[How about you, Tillan?] Hector finally asked as he turned to the Rock Mane Bison. [You do remember what the consequences might be if you refuse…?]

Tillan looked like he wanted nothing more than to walk over and strangle Hector, but he whispered, [Yes.]

Hector grinned. [Good. Then look forward to the day that we cast off the shackles of our past entirely! We will cement our future free of the Thunderbird! It will be a bright and glorious future, Tillan—and don’t worry too much about this, your Tribe will prosper just as all the others will!]

[Though, perhaps not the Jaguars,] the Beast Lord gloated. [The Bear’s jaws are already closing about the Jaguar’s neck; they won’t even know what hit them!]

[You would have us believe that—] Solomon began, but his voice quickly grew in pitch until it simply went silent.

Leon’s spell had burned itself out. They would hear no more.

“Is that all we’ll be able to hear?” the Jaguar asked, his voice audibly laced with fury even with how low he was muttering.

“Yes,” Leon replied. “But it was enough. Let’s go.”

Without a word, he and the rest of his party took flight again.

Confronting those in the pavilion did cross his mind, but knowing the other side’s strategy had its advantages. This way, they would be able to counter the Thunderer without the Thunderer even knowing and having a chance to alter his strategy. As infuriating as it was, they had what they needed to win. Hector may boast that Leon would lose, but it wouldn’t matter in the end. Six elders, even if they did nothing about them, wouldn’t change things once the Ravens and Hawks arrived…