The Storm King

Chapter 1177: Foundations Laid

Bowing was no easy thing for monarchs, this much Leon was well familiar with. A century of diplomacy and economic pressures had culminated in Farah’s visit to Artorion and her formal submission to him, but despite the length of this process, he had no intention of dragging it out. He didn’t want to humiliate Farah, he just wanted her allegiance.

So, after he placed her crown back on her head and proclaimed her the Princess of Queenfall, he gestured for her to straighten up, and said, “To do what is best for one’s people even when it comes at a personal cost is the mark of a virtuous ruler. Your sacrifice today will never be forgotten.”

“The moment it is, you will lose my people,” Farah replied in a pleasant accent.

Leon smiled in the light of her subtle defiance, then addressed the enormous crowd. “Come! Let us welcome our new brothers and sisters as only we can!”

A great cheer went up throughout the half-moon-shaped Court of Clouds. Leon’s courtiers were far more enthusiastic for obvious reasons, but Farah’s entourage were at least polite. Their politeness was tested when many of the more boisterous members of Leon’s court hurried to embrace them—the Jaguars, Lions, and Bears in particular. Leon even saw Tinn, a ‘child’ of Rakos, doing its best with its enormous, ten-foot-tall frame to join in, though due to the strength in its limbs, it wasn’t able to get as physical as it preferred.

Leon’s wives also rose to join in the celebrations, with Elise and Cassandra coming to drag the now-Princess Farah into the great hall. A wide grin crossed Leon’s face as he took in Farah’s surprise when a section of the curved wall behind his throne simply vanished, revealing the great hall.

The hall was one of Leon’s favorite parts of his new palace. Behind his throne lay another throne facing the opposite direction. The hall it faced was large enough to seat five thousand and was largely made of the same storm crystal as the Court of Clouds. The walls, ceiling, floor, and even the tables and chairs within the stark, otherwise almost undecorated hall were all made of storm crystal, and the flashing of contained lightning provided all the illumination that the hall needed. Still, the walls and ceiling were enchanted to show the valley surrounding the nine-peaked mountain whenever Leon wanted, and the wall behind both of his thrones could be magicked away, providing an easy entrance into and out of the hall that only he, his family, and his honored guests were allowed to use. Everyone else had to file through wide, trapezoidal hallways and enter from the opposite side of the hall.

Most of his palace’s interior drew heavily from the old Thunderbird Clan architectural style, though it was only his court and great hall that made such liberal use of storm crystal. He and his researchers had managed to figure out how to make it without requiring the Iron Needle, so his production of the material had increased greatly, but it still wasn’t so great that he could build something as magnificent as his palace from it entirely.

As his more social wives made small talk with Farah and her son, who had come in with them, the rest of the court streamed in from the other side of the great hall. The enchantments showing the outside were active, making it seem almost as if the hall, buried within Westmount—as the nine-peaked mountain had come to be known within Artorion—was actually on one of its peaks.

Farah was presented with the most gifts, though her son and prominent members of her entourage were given gifts, too. Large amounts of silkgrass and storm crystal made up the bulk of the gifts, though Leon also presented Farah and Khosrow—he’d frowned deeply when he first learned of the Prince’s name, though he was more used to it now and barely even twitched when speaking it—with more personal gifts that he’d personally forged for them, much as he’d made the equipment of many of his followers and friends.

For Farah, Leon had made a bracelet of shining silver and glittering sapphires. It was a thin, delicate thing, with silver bands spiraling and twisting around one another, interspersed with perfectly sized and cut sapphires in regular gaps. Leon’s enchanting skills had advanced by leaps and bounds in the past century and a half, and he was able to seamlessly weave enchantments into the metal itself, allowing the sapphires to not only store large amounts of magic power but also project a powerful protective barrier around the bracelet’s wearer.

Khosrow, meanwhile, was given a gift with a different philosophy behind it—instead of a defensive shield, Leon made for him a spear of great offensive power. The haft had been made of thunder wood around a core of Titanstone, and then wrapped in the leather of a monster that Leon had personally slain during a hunt with Prince Numa. The butt of the spear was round and suitable for bludgeoning, while the spearhead was thin and sharp—both made from the finest steel that Leon could make without adding Khosrow’s blood to the alloy to turn it into Adamant. He enchanted the spear to remain almost immeasurably sharp and light and to fire lightning bolts from the tip. Simple but well made, and with plenty of room left over for the gold or silversmiths of Queenfall to fill in any decorative flourishes he’d skipped.

Both Farah and Khosrow were amazed with their gifts; Farah maintained her composure and dignity, but Khosrow practically vibrated with excitement. Leon guessed that before the day was done, Xanthippe, Menander, or another prominent Lion would drag him off to their grand arena to give his new spear some stress tests.

Food was soon brought out to help Leon’s court welcome his new vassals, and he was able to relax on his thunder wood throne. Farah’s submission wasn’t just the culmination of Clear Day’s diplomatic efforts over the past century but also represented the final piece of his Kingdom in the Nexus falling into place. He’d finally united the independent cities of the Far West under his banner and finished laying the foundations for his Kingdom, from which he would catapult himself into the universe.

It had taken a century and a half to get this far; a century and a half of migration, construction, war, and diplomacy. He had recognition from Archelaus, Miuna, and dozens of Strategoi around him—Storm and Ocean Lords both, and even a Burning Lord who’d visited some decades ago to negotiate a trade deal for storm crystal.

His Kingdom in the Nexus now had a population of half a billion. It was still less than a quarter of who remained on Kataigida on Aeterna, but the birthrate was high, with easily half of all who lived under his aegis in the Nexus having been born in the past century. Uniting the cities, as it turned out, reduced the frequency of raids and wars, which also reduced the frequency of banditry. The safety that this unification—and his armies—granted allowed the population to explode and wealth to drastically increase. There had been some instability, to be sure, especially amongst the cities and smaller settlements in the Finger Lakes, but the region was now peaceful, prosperous, and consolidated into a dozen Exarchates.

Lancefoot, likewise, had grown considerably, turning into quite the grand port on the northern coast. Leon had run into a problem not long after Lancefoot’s submission, that being how to connect Lancefoot to the rest of his Kingdom given the desolate Shaded Plain lay between it and the Finger Lakes. However, an enormous highway interrupted by numerous forts, regular ark patrols, and the proliferation of MALL innovations into civilian vehicles had cracked the barrier that the Shaded Plain had presented.

Now, Lancefoot was an enormous port, with mountains of wealth coming and going from its docks every day. As a port in his Kingdom, it was beaten in size and prosperity only by the new settlement on the plains south of the Artor Valley.

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The mouth of the Blue Feather River had been the perfect place to build a new city. It was flat and open, which had allowed Terris’ forces to easily construct a camp once upon a time. Now, it hosted the great port city of Seabreak, in which hundreds of trade ships could dock.

Of course, the geography of the place made defending it from the sea difficult, and despite Miuna’s assurances, Leon was still wary of the Ocean Lords. The memories of Terris’ war burned brightly amongst his people, and within him most of all, so defending Seabreak—and the other half-dozen major cities that had sprung up along the coast—was of paramount importance. Fortunately for those other cities, they had the eastern cliffs to provide a natural barrier, but Seabreak had no such advantages.

At least, it didn’t until Leon set his magical engineers to the task. Over the years, his earth mages raised artificial cliffs along the coast and built an enormous fortress to stand between the city proper and the sea. Hundreds of Lance emplacements ensured the robustness of his southern flank, while the walls of Seabreak fortress presented a gargantuan obstacle for any who wished to attack the city.

Given the size of the city and its strategic importance, defending it was of paramount importance. Seabreak was almost twice as large as Artorion, with a population formed from the Ten Tribes, giants in bodies of both metal and carved stone, river nymphs who frequently swam in the Blue Feather River that neatly cut the city in half, and locals in the Nexus who’d migrated to the city from elsewhere. By far, Seabreak was the largest city that Leon had founded, and lagged behind only the now-recovered and peaceful Shatufan of all the other cities in his Kingdom.

Many other cities were founded in the plains and hills that extended east. Leon had parceled out much of that land for Tribal settlement, ensuring that each of the Ten Tribes had plenty of land to call their own. The mountains to the west were likewise settled, and great roads were built to connect them all. In the Far West, from Culain to Alhamachim, from Lancefoot to Seabreak, his people were connected.

His foundations were secure, and with Queenfall’s submission, it was time to look outward once again. As great as his Kingdom was, after all, as powerful as it was relative to its size, its power was still quite a bit lesser compared to other polities within the Nexus. There was only one way to solve this: expand into the universe.

The universe was filled with planes beyond counting, so many that even after millions and millions of years, there were still vast swathes of the universe that existed outside of the influence of the powers that be in the Nexus. There were plenty of places for Leon to expand into, plenty of population centers and resources to add to his Kingdom. 𝘙Á𝐍ő𐌱ƐS̈

To some extent, launching unprovoked invasions didn’t sit quite right with him, but given what he’d accomplished within the Nexus, he thought that he could make good progress outside of it without compromising himself too much.

Still, if war was required, he certainly had the means to prosecute it. Not only had he managed to ascend to the twelfth-tier, but many others in his realm had achieved Apotheosis, too. His wives had all managed the achievement, with Elise doing so only two days ago, the celebration for which had only been interrupted by Farah’s submission ceremony, but which would soon resume. Aside from them, Red, the Jaguar, Iron-Striker, Menander, Sar, Singer-in-Caves, Chrysi, Solomon, and Icarius had all managed to achieve Apotheosis after they’d joined Leon in the Nexus—though some, such as Sar, still spent more time on Aeterna than they did in Artorion.

Icarius, in particular, was notable among those who’d achieved Apotheosis, as the aged former Director of Heaven’s Eye was no longer nearly so aged after fifty years of backward physical aging. Now, he practically looked younger than his own daughter. His joy at his achievement also lent him the energy and drive of a younger man, and his ‘new Heaven’s Eye’ ensured the safety and stability of Leon’s trade routes outside of his Kingdom. In fact, Clear Day’s job at negotiating Queenfall’s submission would’ve been much harder were it not for Icarius helping behind the scenes using his influence within Queenfall’s markets.

Penelope, meanwhile, had reached the tenth-tier, as had nearly all of Leon’s former retainers. Gaius, Alcander, Marcus, Alix, Anna, Anshu, Mari’Kha, and Anzu were all tenth-tier, with only Helen lagging at the eighth. Even Tikos was now tenth-tier equivalent, though that didn’t quite mean the same thing for the tree sprite as it did for humans. It was no longer as mobile as it once was, preferring to spend most of its time ensconced within a great tree in the western groves of the Artor Valley.

These groves were some of Leon’s greatest strategic assets. Lumenite and Aurichalcum were now produced in significant quantities throughout his Kingdom, and he had more than a dozen Titanstone mines of various sizes, but thunder wood, the amber that could be produced as a byproduct, and the Hesperidic Apple trees that had been grown in the Nexus were now all located in the valley’s west. These groves were watched over by nearly a thousand tree sprites, all a part of Tikos’ ‘forest’, ensuring they grew quickly and healthily.

Tikos itself, from within its massive Old Tree which would’ve been prominent on the slopes of the western mountains were it not for Leon shielding it from view with clouds and ancient runes, was able to spread its power throughout the valley, ensuring the healthy growth of all plant life within. It only ever left its Old Tree to join Leon on Westmount to see to the growth of the Stormborn Oak sapling.

That sapling hadn’t grown much given the sheer amount of time since it had been planted. There was much speculation as to why, with the most prominent theory that Elise had presented was because Westmount was floating, disconnected from the flow of magic throughout the earth, and the lake of mist that formed from the Aesii below the mountain might be interfering with the sapling’s ability to absorb magic from its environment.

Tikos, however, disagreed, arguing that the enchantments in the great wall surrounding the lake of mist were effective in keeping out any harmful magic that the mist contained. It argued that the sapling was simply going to grow slowly no matter where it was, even under the powerful tree sprite’s attention. Leon was still able to help, however, using his silver-blue lightning to aid in the tree’s growth—the sapling seemed as eager as its ‘parent’ tree to devour all sources of lightning that he threw at it.

So, even now, a complex enchantment array had been erected around the mountain spring it had been planted beside, which blasted the sapling with every kind of lightning that Leon could reliably create using enchantments. Still, despite many years of constant attention by those who most assuredly knew what they were doing, the sapling barely matched Leon in height, though its roots ran deep into Westmount, and both its aura and physical form were robust despite its relatively small size.

More promising was the sapling’s leaves. The sapling looked much as the Stormborn Oak did, though instead of spatial portals for its leaves, it had oak leaves that shone in all the color of the lightning that last struck it. This light was bright enough to illuminate Westmount’s inner valley and drew the eye during the night almost as much as the Origin Spark did when it was more moonlike than sunlike.

In short, Leon wasn’t worried about how the sapling was growing, especially since the lessons that he, Tikos, and Elise had learned from the way that it absorbed lightning greatly increased the strength and growth rate of thunder wood.

The innovations weren’t limited to just thunder wood, however, as Nestor and Mari, together with Leon’s researchers, continued to innovate in other fields. Ulta suits, arks, and MALLs were the most strategic gains they made, at least in the public eye. With all the new post-Apotheosis mages in Leon’s Kingdom, wisp production was high, and with the giant population increasing rapidly too, Leon, Nestor, and Mari were able to get much more experimental with more complex enchantments. The biggest gain on that front was in the Nestorian Drives. They were rapidly approaching the range and efficiency of the Leonine Drives in the ancient Thunderbird arks, though there was still some ground to cover. Integrating many of the spatial principles that Leon had brought back from the monastery on Arkhnavi had also greatly assisted in accuracy, to the point that Nestor was able to upgrade the Leonine Drives.

Now, his arks equipped with Leonine Drives could make precise enough jumps that they could even be used in the Nexus—though only over shorter jumps, as accuracy decreased with range. They could jump from Lancefoot to Seabreak, though that was about their limit given the magical interference from the Origin Spark.

Such was hardly Nestor’s only achievement, however, as he’d adapted his golem research with Leon’s materials and MALL techniques to create not only a massive number of strong labor golems but also to adapt their frames into more than simply humanoid forms. Though they were hardly numerous enough to come even close to replacing human labor, the most dangerous jobs in Leon’s Kingdom, such as ark construction and Titanstone mining, were now filled by golems.

A sigh escaped Leon’s lips as he stared at his feasting court, all welcoming the notables of Queenfall into their ranks. Much had been accomplished in the past century and a half, but it would pale in comparison to what he was now ready to begin…