The Storm King

Chapter 528: The Card

On the plane of Aeterna, the Heaven’s Eye Merchant Guild had a virtual monopoly on all banking from one side of the plane to the other. They were also the largest non-government operated group who participated in international trade, being more than capable of moving just about anything in any realistic quantity from one end of the plane to the other. Of course, this made them incredibly powerful and influential, but they were held in check by the power of the Central Empires. If Heaven’s Eye started to get too political, the powerful mages of the Central Empires could, with what Leon understood to be relative ease, dismantle Heaven’s Eye, for the Central Empires were not only the most magically advanced states on the plane, but also the only ones who were not at least somewhat reliant on the services provided by Heaven’s Eye.

To help organize their businesses, Leon knew that Heaven’s Eye issued various metallic cards to their customers and partners—the difference between the two mostly coming down to personal power. The cards were heavily enchanted to prevent fraud, and the information they recorded could usually be used to buy something instead of using physical currency—the money would then be transferred directly by Heaven’s Eye without directly hauling huge amounts of silver coins around.

Commoners were usually the ones who had less business to conduct with Heaven’s Eye, oftentimes no more than utilizing their banking services. Leon knew that they were issued bronze cards. From Elise, he knew that a bronze card carried with it no special privileges of any kind, whether that was access to Heaven’s Eye’s higher-ups or more niche services such as using them as trading middlemen.

The nobles—or whoever made up the ruling class of a particular state—usually had more business to conduct both within and without their country, and with their greater authority to advance Heaven’s Eye’s interests, they were seen more as partners than customers. To reflect this status and the privileges that came with these cards, these people were issued silver cards.

Royals—and only Royals—were given gold cards. These special cards essentially meant that Heaven’s Eye would give them an accordingly Royal treatment no matter where the holders of these cards went, giving them access to all of Heaven’s Eye’s services and allowing them to directly meet with Tower Lords and other higher-ups almost at will.

Leon had inherited a gold card from his father, who had in turn inherited it from Kyros and all the other House Raime Archdukes going all the way back to the old Thunder Kings from before the First Bull King forged the Bull Kingdom. As far as Leon knew, his family was almost unique in that they weren’t Royals, and hadn’t been for five thousand years, and yet they had been allowed to keep their gold card and the status that came with it. Leon vaguely remembered Elise once alluded to some kind of special relationship between House Raime and Heaven’s Eye, especially notable since apparently Heaven’s Eye’s first tower was built in Teira, but she hadn’t uncovered any special information in that regard since.

That was it as far as Leon knew. Bronze for commoners, silver for nobles and the ruling class, and gold for Royals. With Elise as his lover, he’d absorbed quite a bit of information about Heaven’s Eye and knew that this was true. Not once had he ever heard about any other metallic cards before.

And yet, in the archives below Teira, beyond the door that Leon had opened, was another card, suspiciously similar to those issued by Heaven’s Eye, only it was platinum, not any of the other metals, its easily identifiable luster putting that of silver to shame. And Leon knew that it was a Heaven’s Eye card, for on one side of the platinum card was printed a heavily stylized eye, an eye that Leon knew was an old Heaven’s Eye insignia—the oldest, as far as he was aware, though he was hardly an expert on such things. On the other side of the card, instead of the usual string of numbers printed on other cards along with the plethora of security enchantments to protect that information, was another heavily stylized image: that of a bird of prey soaring through the sky.

It was a suspiciously similar insignia to the more modern sigil of House Raime. It might’ve been some kind of confirmation bias, but in the archives of House Raime and with that resemblance, Leon felt certain that the bird printed on the card was the Thunderbird herself.

Leon didn’t touch the card. He simply stared at it as it hovered in the air, slowly turning in the air, giving him a good look at both sides.

“What the hells is this thing?” he wondered aloud. Surprisingly, he actually received an answer.

From behind him, the Librarian said, “That is an identification badge carried by the Clan leader and their direct subordinates. It is a thing of great honor and grants the bearer permission to enter any Clan stronghold they choose. It marks them as higher-ranked than everyone, save for the Clan leader and their children. Few are ever handed out, as they are things of great consequence and a sign of immense trust.”

“I see…” Leon replied as he inundated the alcove in his magic senses, looking for any sign that this was some kind of trick or trap.

But he sensed nothing from either the alcove or the card itself; by all signs, it was safe for him to take if he so wished.

Leon didn’t move. It was tempting, and he certainly wanted a closer look, but he wasn’t about to just take the thing, not after everything that he’d been contemplating over the past week or so. But there was still a very large part of him that wanted almost more than anything to reach out and take it.

“Unknown,” the Librarian responded. “Such things are not meant for this one to touch.”

Leon scowled, his mind turning to his dead kinsman in his soul realm. If anyone would know everything about these things, it would be Nestor.

After taking a step forward, Leon began to examine the platinum card a little closer, unwilling to ask Nestor just yet. He wanted as little to do with the ghost as he could get away with. Unfortunately, the more he examined the card, the less he could tell about it. Its inner workings were as much a mystery to him as his gold card was.

With a rapidly deepening frown, Leon steeled himself for what he had to ask. He didn’t want to come across as a beggar requesting information from a superior, if only that superior could be so generous as to share his wisdom; rather, Leon wanted there to be nothing in his voice but iron and dignity. Nestor, by his own promise, had to give him the knowledge he wanted, there could be no alternatives. But still, Leon didn’t want to embarrass himself trying and failing to achieve the effect he wanted.

[Nestor,] Leon growled, his voice deep but not overly so, his tone even and confident rather than shaky and anxious, [can you hear me?]

The answer he got was instantaneous, preceded only by a weak wave of magic senses to perceive Leon’s immediate surroundings.

[Yes, kinsman?] Nestor replied. [Is there an issue I can assist with?]

Nestor’s tone was neither servile nor arrogant, giving Leon no satisfaction, but also no reasonable cause to be irate other than Nestor calling him a kinsman. Still, Leon took that as a win.

[This card, what can you tell me about it? This Librarian told me it was an ID…]

Leon briefly summarized the information relayed by the Librarian, as well as his own observations. It almost felt like too much to reveal for Leon, as if he were admitting weakness to an enemy by proving just how limited his knowledge was, but he also didn’t want to waste any time and patience by having Nestor go over information he already had.

[All of that is true,] Nestor replied, his tone unchanged. [These cards were used by the Clan for identification purposes, with platinum cards being the most prestigious. I and all of my siblings had one, as well as several of my father’s closest advisors.]

[Do you know who held this one?]

[I couldn’t tell you unless I had physical hands,] Nestor explained, pausing just long enough for Leon to start feeling defensive and almost long enough for Leon to snap back that he wasn’t going to get any physical hands. [So, clearly I can’t do much,] Nestor continued, [but I can tell you what to do and then interpret what you find…]

Leon followed Nestor’s directions, though he went slowly and triple-checked everything to ensure that Nestor wasn’t trying to do anything shady, and to treat the card with as much suspicion and reverence as Leon thought it deserved. As far as Leon could tell, though, the dead man only told him how to activate and interpret the enchantments placed upon the card, and nothing more.

Yet, it was still with a great deal of trepidation that Leon finished checking the card, and a moment later, a single name appeared on the side of the card that had the image of the Thunderbird.

“Demetrios…” Leon whispered, his mind quickly associating the name with the only other of Jason Keraunos’ children to survive his death. As far as Leon knew, that Demetrios had apparently changed his name to Raime after the disaster that left the previous Storm King and all of his most powerful subordinates dead, and was the founding member of Leon’s House.

Leon had held the card almost delicately until that point, as if it were alive and only one wrong move on his part away from biting his hand off. It wasn’t something he particularly wanted to have, it was just another thing from the Thunderbird Clan—worse, it was something that would directly identify him as a member.

But now, his hands clasped the card tighter as the card suddenly felt a thousand times heavier, carrying the weight of all the time that must have passed between when it had been placed on the other side of that door and when Leon had managed to get the thing open. A length of time that no doubt many more powerful mages would’ve laughed at but was almost inconceivably long to Leon.

At the very least, the card didn’t seem to come with any immediate tangible benefits, so Leon resolved to keep it. This was a sentimental part of his legacy, and one that he didn’t mind taking.

From what he could discern of Nestor’s mental state, the ghost seemed to be lost in a similar state. Leon heard something that sounded almost like a gasp when the name was revealed followed immediately by a sigh of regret. But Nestor said nothing more, and Leon didn’t push him to talk. Leon felt Nestor’s attention vanish as the man’s awareness retreated back into Leon’s soul realm.

Leon held the card close to his chest, turned back to the Librarian, and said, “I want everything in this place catalogued and made ready to be moved. I’ll not be likely to stay in this region for much longer, and I’ll not leave any of this behind.”

“Understood,” the Librarian responded, giving Leon not a single word of complaint, for which he was grateful. Leon quickly dismissed the Librarian to begin preparing with the other maintenance golems, while he swept the area with his magic senses.

After quickly locating Elise and Maia, Leon started making his way back over to them. He’d vaguely wondered where the two of them had been in the couple hours they’d been apart, and it soon became apparent what they had gotten up to in that time. Around the archives were a number of comfortable places to study or do research, and Elise and Maia had set themselves at one such place, a small table with a handful of comfortable armchairs around it. The table had a couple of books on it—not quite as much as Leon had expected, but enough to have kept them busy for a while. However, instead of quietly reading, Elise appeared to be quietly whispering to Maia as she traced a sentence in the book with one of her fingers.

“…N-D. You see how each individual letter corresponds to the sounds we make when we speak? Every word we say is only made up of a collection of thirty-five-ish sounds, and each one of those has a letter associated with it, so a word is like a puzzle made up of these pieces. If you memorize each of these letters and the sounds they correspond to, as well as the little quirky ways they behave when they’re assembled in certain orders, then reading becomes incredibly easy!”

As Leon approached their table, he saw that Maia had an expression of utmost concentration on her face, showing just how seriously she was taking this. She didn’t seem frustrated or angry, but Leon could tell that she had made an incredible amount of progress already, which likely contributed to the feeling of conquest and victory that he could feel through their connection.

He felt a little guilty that it was Elise teaching Maia even though she’d asked him to do it, but he was also terrifically happy that Maia was still fulfilling her wish to learn how to read.

“When… K-Kay—” Maia hesitantly began as she tried to piece together the next line in the book.

“Perfect,” Elise said with a glowing smile, not even looking up as Leon took a seat at their table, ensuring that Maia had been given sufficient praise before finally glancing in his direction. However, that wasn’t to say that she didn’t look ecstatic to see him, as she made clear once she turned that radiant smile in his direction.

“Sounds like a lot’s happened over here,” Leon said, a smile creeping across his face as both Elise and Maia smiled in pride at him.

“Indeed,” Elise replied, seeming almost impatient to show off just what Maia had accomplished in just a couple of hours, though Maia was, if anything, even more eager. Before Elise could say anything else, Maia immediately shouted into Leon’s mind.

[I’ve learned to read!]

Leon’s joyful smile grew wider, though there was quite a bit of surprise mixed in there, as well. But, in his experience, learning to read was something that took more than a few hours.

“In just a few hours?” Leon asked, being careful to keep any sign of disbelief out of his voice, inundating his tone with amazement instead.

“I found it a little surprising how quickly she picked this up, too,” Elise said as she cuddled up next to Maia and stared at their bronze-skinned lover with adoration and pride. “However, it seems that, with the power she has, it makes memorizing symbols terrifically easy. So, after showing her what each symbol was, all we’ve been doing is reinforcing their meaning in her mind.”

“At this rate, I shouldn’t have any trouble with this by the end of the week,” Maia boasted, pushing out her ample chest in pride, reveling in Leon and Elise’s adulation.

Leon found it impossible to doubt her, and he expressed that as best as he could over the next few minutes, letting her dazzle him with her new skill.

But after those few minutes and after Maia dove back into the book—a dry historical record, from the looks of it—Elise finally addressed the reason why Leon had come back over.

“Did you find anything fun, love?” she asked, Maia only looking up from the book for a split second before turning her eyes back to its pages.

It took him sitting in silence for a few awkward seconds, slowly turning the card over in his hands a few times beneath the table before he continued, deciding that being honest and forthright with Elise was the best way to go, regardless of any potential consequences.

Once she’d thrown off her shock, however, Elise’s expression darkened, and she pushed the card back to Leon.

“You should put that away. Don’t let anyone see it again. That could bring all of us a large amount of suffering if the wrong people heard about it…”

Leon stared at his fire-haired lover in utter bewilderment. He rarely saw her so serious about anything that didn’t involve him in conflict with Valeria—and he could tell she was not only deadly serious, but also a little bit terrified, if her aura rapidly descending into chaotic whirling was anything to go by.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he sat up a little straighter and stared down at the platinum card. Elise hadn’t taken her eyes off the thing, her shining green eyes were locked on it as if it were about to jump at her like a spider. The tension that suddenly formed in the air was even enough for Maia to notice and put down her book to focus on them.

Elise didn’t immediately respond to Leon; instead, she gingerly laid a hand on the platinum card and did a few things that Leon quickly realized were almost identical to the way that Nestor had taught him to active the identifying enchantment in the card.

“Yes, put that away and don’t show it to anyone,” Elise said as she pulled her hand back.

Leon frowned, but did as she suggested and pulled the card into his soul realm, storing it in his Mind Palace’s vault. He was relatively certain that it would be safe there—though not as certain as he would’ve been before Nestor had invaded his soul realm—and that he would be safe from it. It didn’t seem to warrant too much caution, though; it was just a card made out of platinum with a few small enchantments expertly woven into it, nothing directly dangerous.

“What’s wrong with it?” Leon asked, his tone both worried and curious.

Elise met his gaze and seemed a little conflicted. Leon imagined that she was trying to decide whether to explain or ask where he’d found the thing first.

It seemed that the explanation won out, for after a second or two of thought, she said, “Heaven’s Eye doesn’t use cards made out of platinum. As far as I know, there have been a few attempts by influential Tower Lords to create a new ‘level’, so to speak, of authority to give to the imperial states in the south, but the Director of Heaven’s Eye has always shot those suggestions down. We don’t make platinum cards.”

“Why not?” Leon asked. “Now that I think about it, it seems just a little bit strange that Heaven’s Eye has existed for… what was it? Something in excess of fifty thousand years? That long and they’ve always used bronze, silver, and gold? In all that time, those three levels of cards have never once been diluted with other levels?”