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“Oh,” the dead man said in an equally dead tone. “You’re back.”

“Indeed, I am! And I return a King!”

Nestor finished handing off the meal to his pet and finally turned to face Leon completely, his body having undergone some obvious modifications with slightly thicker and sleeker limbs that, to Leon’s untrained eye, actually seemed to be more flexible and dexterous despite their slight increase in size.

“Good.” Without another word, Nestor sauntered over to his golem workbench, which looked equally expanded as his body.

Leon frowned slightly seeing his lack of reaction or seeming care, so he poked around the workshop a bit, seeing what changes had been made in his absence.

The golden tube containing the Iron Needle had a few additions in the form of silver instruments intricately inscribed with complex enchantments that, as far as he could tell, were some kind of sensory enchantments.

The two labor golems that he’d handed over to Nestor were no longer intact, with their chassis and outer hulls disassembled and stacked up in a corner. The rest of their internal parts were missing.

The area where Nestor had been studying the wisps they had managed to get their hands on had expanded, too, and had done so at the expense of his blacksmithing equipment, with many of his tools moved and stacked next to the golems.

“Nestor, what the fuck is this?” Leon demanded, amusement nowhere to be found in his voice as he took in the changes in his workshop.

Without even turning around, Nestor responded, “Needed room. Your stuff was in the way. So it was moved.”

“And what, pray tell, have you done that would justify such a change in my workshop?”

“Is it yours?” Nestor asked as he glanced over his mechanical shoulder at Leon. “You’ve been gone so long, I figured you wouldn’t have much need of it anymore. As a King, won’t you have your own workshop if you wanted it?”

Leon sighed, his minor irritation at seeing his stuff moved quickly dying. “Yes, but I’m allowed to be a little angry at little things every now and then, aren’t I?”

“If you are a King, then aren’t you allowed to do anything you want?”

“That’s a dangerous road to walk down…” Leon walked over to Nestor’s office area and took a gander at the reams of paper that the dead man had stacked upon tables close by his golem workbench. It seemed Nestor had been making use of Leon’s tools for drafting enchantments because drawn upon the papers—as far as Leon could tell, anyway—there were incredibly complex enchantment designs scrawled with exceptionally fine detail. As Leon leafed through the papers, though, he found that as he continued, he found more and more that integrated mechanical designs into those of the enchantments, weaving them together in a way that made it clear they were to complement each other, the enchantments making the mechanics stronger and vice-versa.

“What’s all this?” Leon asked despite having an inkling just from looking through some of the papers, let alone giving them more in-depth study.

“Arks,” Nestor answered. “More specifically, they’re potential repairs that can be made to Storm Herald and the other arks in the Director’s care. I’m no arksmith, but I’ve done what I can.”

Leon grinned in appreciation, silently noting just how detailed each inscribed page was. If all of this had been done in just the past few months, Nestor had to have spent a considerable amount of time on them, and their quality was quite high.

“Well, I happen to know of a few arksmiths who would be only too happy to coordinate with you,” Leon said. “Do you remember the Raven-of-Hail-Hall?”

Nestor paused in whatever he was doing for a moment, cocking his head in thought. “I… believe I do. Or his Clan, anyway. Intelligent, but quite hyper-focused on research and engineering. Respectable in that way, though they weren’t the most magically gifted among my father’s many vassals. Still, they were at least notable. I had many descendants of the Raven-of-Hail-Hall working for me during my time as the Lord of Storm Shaping and the Chief Researcher of our Clan.”

“Little’s changed in the past eighty-thousand years, then,” Leon said. He quickly brought Nestor up to speed on the Ravens-of-Hail-Hall and their role in the Ten Tribes. While Nestor wasn’t as immediately outwardly interested as Leon had hoped he’d be, he still set aside his tools and turned his attention fully toward Leon as he spoke, showing Leon the true depth of his interest.

“… I would like to speak with these Ravens,” Nestor said as Leon finished.

“A thing easily done,” Leon responded as he whipped out his comm lotus. “I’ve arranged for at least one of their leaders to be near a comm lotus at all times, so making a quick introduction won’t be too difficult…”

He set up the magical contraption that amplified and focused the power of the comm lotus and made a call back to Kataigida. A special officer of the central army answered, and it took Asger about ten minutes to be summoned.

When the Raven appeared, he looked a little frazzled and out-of-sorts—his eyes were a little glazed over and his hair was wild and messy.

“Asger!” Leon called out. “How is everything back on the island?”

“Eh? Oh! King Leon!” Asger responded. “I… uh, well, I was working on a new prototype Lance with integrated thunder wood… Then a bunch of people come barging into my lab demanding that I come with them… And here I am! They were most rude!”

Leon cocked an eyebrow in skepticism. He doubted that was exactly how it went but he decided not to question Asger’s story.

“Anyway,” Leon said, “Remember when I told you that I wanted you to meet someone?”

Asger averted his gaze in thought, and after an almost embarrassingly long amount of time, said, “Yes! YES! I REMEMBER!”

“Good. Well, here he is! Meet Nestor, son of Jason Keraunos! He’s mostly dead right now; his magic body’s stuck in this here golem.”

Asger’s eyes slid off him and to Nestor’s golem body, then widened as Leon’s words sank in. His jaw slackened and he loudly gasped.

“I! I! I KNOW that name!” Asger declared.

“You damn well better,” Nestor growled in irritation. “I was once a Prince of the Thunderbird Clan. For many decades I filled the role of Chief Researcher of our Clan.”

Asger’s eyes widened even further, to the point that Leon was almost nervous the man’s eyeballs would fall out of their sockets. But after a moment, he shook himself and focused, his attention falling squarely on Nestor.

“You came up with the Bluelight Hypothesis!” Asger shouted in glee. “And created the strained-tube method for crafting autonomous engines!”

“I did, a long time ago,” Nestor dismissively stated. “I’ve since refined both. My current body relies on both in its internal mechanisms.”

Asger practically squealed in delight. “I’ve been studying that method for the better part of two centuries!” he shouted as he retrieved a large blueprint for some kind of large, mostly mechanical device. “Integrating the theories into ark engines, on paper, increases power condensation by nearly half! But I… haven’t managed to adapt your theories or techniques into something quite so large, yet…”

Nestor sighed, but as he leaned into the call, Leon thought he saw some hint of delight in the dead man’s body language. If Nestor had a mouth, Leon imagined he’d be smiling as he demanded Asger hold the schematic closer to the comm lotus and began carefully scrutinizing Asger’s work.

“Mm. The stabilizers on the bottom look shoddy. What kind of materials are they supposed to be made from?”

“A special magically-enhanced form of steel that my Tribe uses for ark construction,” Asger said as he broke down the benefits that using that kind of steel had.

Leon tried to follow, but his knowledge of blacksmithing only went so far, and Asger and Nestor began getting into the weeds of materials science and how it related to the magical techniques that Nestor had created and that Asger had been trying to adapt.

After realizing that he’d been forgotten in their discussion, Leon just smiled and walked over to the Iron Needle’s golden tube. He’d made the introduction and it seemed the two were hitting it off. Now he just had to deal with the anticipation of finally getting Nestor, the Ravens, and some of his more trusted researchers into the same room and working on the same problems. The advances they’d all make together would be wondrous.

As for him, he had other things to deal with, but he briefly wondered how quickly advances might be made once he finally moved fully to Kataigida and could be much more open with studying what he wanted to. Bringing a few Ravens to help with the Iron Needle, at least, would do wonders for him…

---

Around the early afternoon, Leon made his way to his home’s training room. For all the duties that he had, he never shirked getting in a couple hours of training every day and ensured that his family, retinue, and more recently, his knights, trained regularly.

So, he was a bit surprised when he walked in and only found Valeria in the room, casually twirling about with a glaive in her hand that was several times heavier than one meant for battle. This one was designed more as a way to increase arm and grip strength, but Valeria was still spinning it around like it was as light as air.

Given her power, though, Leon expected nothing less. He was curious about where his people were, but he allowed himself a quick indulgence as he watched his lover train. The way her clothes clung to her body, the way her brow had wrinkled slightly with focus and determination, and the way her sapphire eyes glimmered in the light when she spun around and laid her eyes upon him.

“Leon,” she whispered, her breathing slightly elevated from her physical exertions.

“Val,” he replied, savoring the way her name felt upon his lips. But a moment later, his expression hardened, and he asked, “Where’s everyone else? They should be here, too…”

“I asked them for some privacy,” she replied. “Elise has been running the villa’s staff ragged planning for our move to Kataigida; Maia’s sleeping in a pool; and Cassie’s doing something Empire related somewhere. The retinue should be training on their own, and the knights are probably in one of the back courtyards.”

Leon quickly projected his magic senses and located all of his wayward followers, noting to his delight that none were taking the opportunity to slack off. The only one who could’ve been was Anna as she was with her sister in Helen’s alchemy lab, but Leon decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“So…” Leon said with provocative interest as he took a few more steps into the training chamber and began eyeing up the weapon racks along the wall, “what did you have in mind when asking for privacy?”

“I thought we might try some dancing,” Valeria replied with a wink and a smile.

“I find that plan quite… suggestive,” Leon said. “With what are we going to be dancing?” He extended his power to shake the racks just enough to make it clear it wasn’t some natural phenomenon.

“With music,” Valeria quickly replied as her smile grew and Leon’s froze on his face.

“Wait, what?”

“I’d like to dance,” Valeria clarified without much suggestive innuendo creeping into her tone. “I bought a little something not too long ago back in Stormhollow…” She snapped her fingers and conjured a small box of shiny black metal from her soul realm, and it began to play soft, slow music.

“What’s that?” Leon asked.

“Just a music player,” Valeria replied. “One of these can play a whole symphony, and I bought the perfect one for us!”

She tossed her glaive aside and used her power to put it back on its rack. She then stalked over to Leon while continuing to use her power to have the music box hover alongside her. She stopped right in front of him, put her hands on her hips, and dared him with nothing more than a look to try and either leave or suggest something else.

With a sigh and a smile, Leon took his lady by the waist and began to sway in time with the music. He wasn’t that fond of dancing, but Emilie hadn’t allowed him to marry Elise without at least some competence in the art. No master dancer was he, but he could move with the music without stepping on his partner’s toes, at least.

Valeria’s smile softened as she let him direct their movements. She snuggled up closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

For several long minutes, they just moved, not doing anything too complicated; they just took in each other’s presence and let the almost mournful music wash over them.

Valeria was the first one to break from that pace; she leaned back a little bit and stared him in the eyes. “I think we should talk,” she said. “There’s a bit of a problem brewing in the house that needs to be addressed before it grows too big…”

Leon’s heart began to race, and his expression turned serious. “I’d listen to you read the address book,” he said. “For a problem in our household, I’d ditch a meeting with the Elder Council.”

“I know you would,” Valeria lovingly replied. “Thankfully, this isn’t that pressing of a problem… yet. But it will be if we do nothing.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Then I’ll just come right out and say it: Elise and Maia are starting to get upset that you’re not wanting to have kids yet.”

Time seemed to stop as panic flooded Leon’s body. He stopped moving for a moment as he stared right back at Valeria, not sure what to say.

“I know you’ve been insisting you want to wait,” Valeria continued, “but there’s a limit to how long we can wait. Cassie wants kids, too, and you’re fortunate that she’s a bit more willing to wait.”

“What about you…?” Leon inquired as he forced himself to start swaying again with the music, though his speed had slowed even from the fairly relaxed pace he’d set not long ago.

“I want them too, but I’d prefer to wait a little while,” she admitted. “It’s Elise and Maia that I’m most worried about. I’ve been talking to them, and—this isn’t serious yet so I don’t want you to get the wrong idea—there’s some resentment building up.”

“Maia I understand,” Leon said, not even considering the idea that Valeria might be exaggerating, lying, or simply misinterpreting what the other ladies might’ve said. “I was… I thought Elise was fine with waiting?”

“She is,” Valeria clarified. “For now, anyway. Maia’s been the one most talking about kids, and over the past few years, Elise has been more and more enthused. Like I said, it’s not a serious problem right now, but it’s something that’s coming; she’s going to be asking you for kids soon.”

She paused a moment, tacitly offering Leon a chance to jump in. But he remained quiet, simply turning the idea over in his head. After a moment of silence, Valeria continued.

“No one’s going to pressure you if you aren’t ready, but Maia is, and Elise might not be ready to insist on children, but she’s getting close. I don’t know how much longer you have.”

Leon frowned slightly.

“She’s almost in her mid-forties now, Leon,” Valeria added. “And Maia’s in her third century. We can’t take it for granted that any of us are going to achieve Apotheosis, and if we don’t… you have two Inherited Bloodlines. We have no idea how difficult it’s going to be to have kids. How long are we going to wait?”

Leon’s frown deepened and he began staring at the floor. His heart felt like it was trying to break out of his chest and run away, but as much as he wanted to argue his side with Valeria, he couldn’t.

“I’m a King, now…” he whispered. “And the last of the Thunderbird’s bloodline…”

Valeria smiled at him and didn’t interrupt as he mumbled through his thoughts.

“Succession is a King’s highest priority, isn’t it? What use is being a good King if everything falls to shit once the King is gone? Having a system with one point of failure is one that’s vulnerable…”

He sighed and stopped moving again. He turned his eyes back up to meet Valeria’s. “I know all this. I know it. I’m not… I don’t… I… Being… I don’t want to turn into Julius Taurus, do I? The civil war in the Bull Kingdom came about because his succession wasn’t made clear and he nearly died unexpectedly.”

Valeria nodded slightly in agreement with a slight grimace. They’d both fought in that war, and Leon imagined her memories of that war—and the reasons for it—were just as vivid as his own.

“I suppose it’s time,” he murmured. “I suppose it’s time.”

The music changed to something a bit faster and more upbeat, and Leon began moving again, swinging Valeria with more strength, and eliciting a few gasps and shrieks of happy surprise from her.

“Yeah. Fuck,” he said, though a smile was spreading across his face despite his words. “Kids… They have to come, don’t they?”

“If nothing else,” Valeria said as she started matching Leon’s movements, making their dance particularly energetic even if t was lacking in refinement, “we’ll all enjoy making them.”

“There’s something to look forward to. All right, not today, but I’ll bring it up once we’re back on Kataigida. And then we’ll start trying in earnest down there.”

Valeria pulled herself closer and Leon stopped again, but this time it was she’d planted a deep kiss on his lips, which he fully returned.

They continued to dance for another two hours or so until Leon had to head back into the city. As he left Valeria, he had one thought running through his mind: he had a month, maybe two, to get used to the idea of having kids.

And right now, he supposed for all his fears of what could happen and how children might change his plans, he liked the idea.