The end of Leon’s birthday party came too slowly for his liking, though by the way many tried to keep it going, they were hoping it would last all night.

As the night had progressed, the party had transformed from a more dignified affair to something rowdier, fit more for a nightclub than a gathering of some of the wealthiest, most powerful, and influential people on the plane. Duels, dancing, and even a few of the younger guests heading out to empty rooms in Leon’s villa to hook up. Despite his position, Anastasios was perhaps the worst of the bunch, though Narses and Alcander certainly gave him a run for his money with their fighting, boasting, and tests of strength.

But, finally, once everyone else had passed from ‘good and drunk’ to ‘wasted’, the party started to die down. Most of them were fairly strong mages, so their drunkenness wouldn’t last long, but Leon was still happy to see most of them leave with the soberer members of their entourages. Only those fairly close to his family were given guests rooms. Cristina, Asiya, and their followers were some who stayed the night, along with Anastasios, the Grand Druid, and all of their hangers-on. Justin, too, as much as Leon was less than enthusiastic about it, stayed the night, though not without plenty of cajoling from his daughter, first.

In truth, Leon was somewhat happy about that last development. He still didn’t like the man, was still about as far from forgetting his part in Artorias’ death as he’d ever been, but his talk with the Grave Warden had left him thinking.

As a result, as the sun started to rise, Leon sought the man out. The party hadn’t been long ended, and Leon had just gotten done saying his goodbyes to his guests. His retainers were already asleep, and his family were on their way there, but Leon wanted to talk to Justin, first. The only one accompanying him was Valeria, and he couldn’t fault her for that and spoke no words to dissuade her.

After knocking on Justin’s guest room door, they had to wait for a short while, the man having clearly already bedded down for the early morning. He’d only recovered up to the fourth-tier and needed quite a bit more sleep than someone else might at that level.

When Justin finally opened the door, Valeria greeted him warmly, though the man’s eyes didn’t drift too far from Leon, who silently stood back as Valeria cajoled her father into letting them in for a private talk. When they finally sat down in the guest room’s sitting area, Justin was blunt.

“What brings you two here so late?”

Valeria looked to Leon, Leon having not told her why he needed to speak with Justin before now.

“Had a chat with someone interesting,” Leon partially explained. “He told me some things he noticed about you. But before we delve into that, how did you enjoy the party? Noticed quite a few people swarming around you after we broke words.”

Justin gave him a long, searching look, but instead of pressing him for more information, he answered, “There were a few curious people approaching me after we spoke, yes. It seems they mistook me for someone of importance after having our gracious host come to speak with me so soon after all the other niceties were over.”

“Anything in particular they want?” Leon asked, his words dyed the color of amusement.

“Introductions,” Justin replied. “No one making any untoward requests—or requests of any kind, though some had the look of those contemplating making requests. They just wanted to get close to me, I’m sure, to get close to you. Or to find out what makes me so important that you would speak with me before any of them.”

Leon smiled and nodded.

“Don’t worry, Leon,” Justin said, “I’ve been in many a court, I know how these games are played. Your enemies will find no ally in me.”

“I hope not,” Leon murmured, to which Valeria lightly pinched his arm.

“Was that all you wished to ask?” Justin inquired.

“No, but I suppose there’s no reason not to swing back around to the purpose of my visit.”

“This interesting person you spoke to, is that right?”

“Yes, though who they are is unimportant.” The way Justin and Valeria looked at him, Leon knew they didn’t agree, but he pressed on anyway. He’d be telling Valeria later, of course, but around Justin he was going to remain tight-lipped. “What matters is that they are a figure of great power, great enough to see through things that others might find opaque. Things like a man’s health, for example…” Leon gave Justin a knowing look, and the man sighed and slouched a little further in his seat.

“How much do you know, then?” the older man asked, his expression somehow adding ten years in just those few seconds onto his already fairly aged features. For a former eighth-tier mage who looked quite young in his prime, he now looked quite middle-aged, by mortal standards.

Leon glanced at Valeria, who was frowning slightly, and took her hand in his own. “You’re dying,” he said to Justin, and the older man slumped slightly in his seat, while Valeria bit her lip in apparent frustration. “Looks like you both knew, then.”

“Leon,” Valeria whispered. “I wasn’t going to keep this a secret…”

“Don’t worry about that,” Leon replied. “I know some things are hard to talk about. I’m just wondering… was this the reason you wanted him to come?”

Valeria hesitantly nodded.

“Thought so. I would’ve preferred knowing that before, but as I said, not a big deal. Now, Justin, the man who informed me told me you don’t have much longer to live. A decade at most, if you’re unable to recover faster than you have been.”

With a sigh, Justin explained, “I was given a more optimistic estimate. If I can recover to the fifth-tier, I’ll double the amount of time I have left. If I can reach the sixth, then reaching the seventh again will come days after that, if not less. At that point, I’d extend my life by at least a century or two. More than enough time to reach the eighth again, and try for the ninth.”

“Are you confident you’ll reach the fifth, though?” Leon asked. “The estimate I was given was grim, to be sure, and the man who made it didn’t seem the sort who would lie about these sorts of things.”

“Do you care so much about me, Leon?” Justin asked, his teasing tone not hitting very hard with the fear Leon could see in his eyes.

“The reason I care is not my own,” Leon bluntly replied, squeezing Valeria’s hand again. “More than that, I have in my possession something that might help.”

Leon let his statement hang, gauging Justin’s reaction. However, he didn’t see excitement or apprehension, he merely saw quiet acceptance.

“What do you have?” Valeria asked, speaking when her father seemingly refused.

Leon took a deep breath and retrieved his last spare Hesperidic Apple from his soul realm. “I have this,” he said. “You need to reach the fifth-tier again to stave off death, and since it’s only power recovery, it should only take one of these, I think. Another to reach the sixth, maybe. I’ll have another batch in about half a year. What’s more, they might even help you heal, if my source is right. What do you say to that, Justin?”

Justin remained slouched in his seat, dejected, looking mostly broken, though Leon could see his eyes tracking the golden apple in his hand. He figured that if he were weaker, Justin might’ve already made a grab at the apple, but Leon was ninth-tier, and Justin knew this. He didn’t have the power to take something Leon didn’t want to give.

“You mean to make me beg?” he growled. “I may be a broken man, but I’ve not lost my pride.”

“Father!” Valeria shouted, and Justin’s determined demeanor crumbled immediately. “If you’re really on death’s door, then take the apple.” Her glare brooked no argument, and Justin, after weathering it admirably for several long seconds, pushed himself up and rather weakly reached out for the apple. He moved slowly, his eyes always on Leon as if he expected Leon to pull it back at the last second. Leon contemplated doing so, just for a bit of fun, but he felt that was a bit too childish, and simply held the apple out for the older man.

Justin took the apple without further complaint, but didn’t immediately dig in. Instead, he held it, examining it closely and turning it over in his hands. He held it with great care, treating it with a surprising degree of reverence.

“How did you get one of these?” he quietly asked. “And of such high quality, too…”

“Seen them before, have you?”

“They’re common enough in the Nexus that I’ve had a few before,” he explained. “They’re not exactly growing everywhere, but they’re available enough for a man of sufficient wealth and privilege. But I’ve only had a few, and not quite so… pure…”

“There are different purities?” Leon asked.

“It’s a fruit, like any other, and like any other, it will absorb the magic and nutrients around it. A tree in a place with polluted land or power will be likewise polluted. Some places naturally have less magic and poorer soil than others. The apples grown there will be smaller and duller, and have less magic within. The apples I have were like that: barely more than half the size of these, and with the sheen of a painted rock rather than… this…”

Leon smiled in understanding: the apple glowed in Justin’s hand, and even he found it mesmerizing. But he wasn’t about to tell Justin his secret, not the least of which because he barely understood it himself. It was Tikos who nurtured the apple trees and helped them become so healthy and lustrous, and Leon barely understood the basics of nature magic, let alone the complex magics that came to the tree sprite naturally.

With a quick glance at Valeria, he took an authoritative air and commanded, “Just eat the damn thing. It’s not poisoned, and if it’ll help, then why look it in the mouth?”

Justin glared at him for a brief moment before hesitantly sinking his teeth into the skin of the fruit. His sapphire-blue eyes widened and unfocused, showing Leon the exact moment when the fruit’s juice hit his tongue. After that moment, he hesitated no longer, devouring the remainder of the fruit in a matter of seconds, before his body began to practically shine with magic power. But Justin had nothing more to say after that, as the power of the apple coursing through him knocked him unconscious as he swallowed his last bite.

“Dad!” Valeria exclaimed, surging up from where she sat next to Leon, but Leon wasn’t worried. Sure enough, when Valeria saw her father still breathing, and his aura getting stronger rather than weaker, she visibly relaxed. “Thank you, Leon,” she whispered as she sat back down with him, molding herself into his side.

“Anything for you,” he replied.

“Is that why you did this?” she asked.

He briefly contemplated arguing otherwise, but in the end, nodded once. “He’s your father,” he said, and explained no more.

She didn’t immediately respond, but after hugging him again, she quietly gave voice to her gratitude once more.

---

Justin remained unconscious for a long time, and Leon hadn’t the luxury of time to wait. He’d indulged in his party very little, and without a need to sleep, he’d scheduled a meeting with Valentina for later in the morning. They, along with Red, Alcander, and Xaphan, had some practice to see to, all of them utilizing the magical element of fire.

They’d all met several times in the past few years to discuss their own views on the element and share some of their personal techniques. This time would be a little different since there were outsiders in Leon’s villa, and he certainly wasn’t going to be putting his black fire on display for them.

But for those few hours, they demonstrated their growth in one of Leon’s more private courtyards, and debated the use of several techniques.

Their session was cut a little short when Valeria arrived, informing Leon that Justin had awoken. Leon immediately excused himself, promising to return if this business didn’t take too long, and left with Valeria.

As soon as they were alone, though Valeria stopped in the hallway, then pulled Leon into a nearby sitting room. It wasn’t as heavily warded as a devoted conference room, but that was only relatively speaking; Leon had ensured that his home had robust wards throughout, so Valeria had little restraint once the door closed.

“Who was this man who told you about my father?” she asked. “I didn’t see you with Anastasios or the Grand Druid much during the party, so it couldn’t have been them…”

“He wasn’t either of them,” Leon admitted. “Rather, he was someone who towers over them both, making us all look like children playing with magic rather than artisans perfecting a craft. The Grave Warden.”

Valeria’s eyes widened in shock, Leon having made sure his family knew of the man, his power, and his significance long ago.

“He was… here?” she whispered.

“He was,” Leon confirmed. “Same strange man Xaphan and I met back in the Serpentine Isles. A little miffed that I didn’t take him on his invitation, and that I hadn’t sent him an invite to the party, but otherwise pleasant. Bit off, though, I think, and he claimed to have come here for several reasons, never really sticking with one. I’ll talk about that with you, Elise, and Maia later, but more immediately relevant, he told me about Justin, having seen me speaking with him earlier. He told me of Justin’s condition almost off-hand. Seemed a bit surprised that I didn’t already know.”

Valeria frowned slightly and apologized again, but again Leon dismissed it. Her father was dying, and her man hated her father’s guts. Leon thought she was worried that he’d celebrate her father’s death, even though he wouldn’t have done such a thing—at least, not openly. While he’d shed no tears for Justin, he cared too much for Valeria to be so callous, especially with his own father’s death on his mind lately.

“How is he, then?” Leon asked.

“Awake,” Valeria said, immediately brightening up. “Fifth-tier, too.” She drew close to Leon and hugged him again. “I wasn’t ready to lose him.”

Leon gladly returned the hug, and together, they made their way back to Justin’s room. There, they found him waiting for them, pacing around the sitting area flexing his fingers and staring at his palm as if unable to believe his senses. He looked stronger, healthier, and even slightly younger, if Leon’s eyes weren’t deceiving him, and he radiated the aura of a fifth-tier mage, as Valeria had said.

“Leon,” he murmured as Leon entered. Several expressions flashed across his face over the span of a heartbeat, and he said, “I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

“Didn’t do it for you,” Leon admitted. “This was for Valeria. Can’t have you dying on her, now, can I? Not when we still have to cut Lord Kamran to pieces and rescue your wife, right?”

At the mention of his wife, Justin smiled only briefly, before a dark cloud cast itself his demeanor. "Yes," he said, though without the enthusiasm that Leon had been hoping for. “I didn’t think to live to see it. Our odds are still terrible, but…”

“No ‘buts’,” Leon sternly rebuked, a sentiment that Valeria backed up with an expression of murderous intent, followed by determination. “Let’s not get too caught up on what-ifs. Focus on what we can do, focus on getting stronger. As my Ancestor’s constantly repeated to me over the years, with strength, everything else will come.”

“Surprisingly wise coming from the Thunderbird,” Justin remarked.

“How so?”

“I’ve heard some stories about the Thunderbird in life, and while many words could be used to describe her, ‘wise’ was not one of them.”

“Oh? Heard some stories of my Ancestor, have we?” Leon asked, smiling at both Justin and Valeria. Valeria shook her head, but Justin looked rather uncomfortable at Leon’s seeming friendliness, and for that, Leon couldn’t blame him. He was trying hard not to make his distaste for Justin known, and while he was also quite curious, he thought that his mask wasn’t working as intended.

“Not many,” Valeria answered. “She had the pride of the gods, and the power of one. She fought often and delighted in stories of battle.”

“True enough,” Leon replied.

“Brutal to her enemies,” Justin added, “and had a vicious rivalry with a massive serpent. Nowhere in any stories of her I’ve heard was her wisdom or intelligence emphasized. She’s mostly portrayed as a brute, solving her problems with varying levels of applied power rather than deft cunning or wise administration.”

“Good thing she’s not around to hear you,” Leon cheekily stated. “Might have upset her a bit.”

[Already done,] the Thunderbird whispered from his soul realm, and Leon fought the urge to nervously laugh, but when his Ancestor deigned not to continue, he kept himself calm.

“Anyway,” Leon awkwardly said with a potentially upset Ancestor to worry about, “it’s good to see that you were helped by that apple. So long as we all remain agreeable, I’ll see to it that you’re furnished with a few more every once in a while.”

“No need to go so far out of your way for me, Leon,” Justin replied as he took a few steps forward and wrapped an arm around Valeria. “You’ve already given me back many years, and a little bit of hope, where none had remained. I have a few more years with my daughter, and perhaps more. I would never be so presumptuous to swear myself to your cause, especially with our history, but know that you have an ally in me. If I can aid you in any way, don’t hesitate to let me know.”

Leon smiled, his lips a little thinner than intended. “I’ll keep that in mind.”