After a brief discussion, Hugh decided to stay in the front room. It wasn’t a dragon-friendly manse, being clearly built for smaller elves, and they were visiting a woman who’d been displaced by Hugh’s dad. Everyone else followed Hythaeran deeper into the building.

            The inside of the manse had obviously been stripped. The only thing left was old wooden furniture that had obviously seen better days. Hythaeran led them to a master bedroom, and gently knocked on the door.

            “Is that you, Hy?” a soft, feminine voice called out. “Who was at the door?”

            “Yes, lady, it’s me,” Hythaeran said. “You have guests.”

            “I’m not fit to receive guests, Hy. Send them away, please.”

            “It’s me, Mother!” Lily called out through the door.

            “Lily? Wait, my little Lily has returned? You’re alive?”

            “Yes, Mother,” Lily called. Then she turned to Leo and raised an eyebrow.

            Leo wasn’t sure what she was trying to communicate, so he just raised an eyebrow back.

            “Oh, thank Iluvin you’re safe! Come in, come in.” The voice on the other side sounded frail to Leo, but undoubtedly happy.

            Zir made puking sounds, and Hythaeran glared at him, whispering furiously, “Show some respect for a great lady!”

            Then Hythaeran pushed open the door, and Lily hurried into the room with a swish of clothing.

            The master room was bare but for a great four-poster bed with a woman lying in it and a huge painting on the wall, one of a family of four elves. One was clearly Lily, looking younger than she did now, and the other was her sister, Wylla—now Audrey. The other two appeared to be older versions of the sisters—although one was male—and were almost certainly their parents.

            As Lily rushed to the figure lying in the bed, Leo was suddenly struck by Audrey’s absence. In the frantic flurry of activity surrounding setting up Star Port, she’d been out of his mind quite often, but never permanently. One way or another, he intended to find her again, just as soon as he had some breathing room on this world. He’d have to ask Lily about magic that he could use to accomplish that.

            Lily bent over the woman in the bed. The woman had thick, woolen blankets pulled up to her neck, just a hint of a similarly woolen nightgown poking out from beneath. Her hair was silver verging on white, like Lily’s but less lustrous, and her face, despite appearing to be barely past thirty, still managed to look old and tired from the cast of the features.

            “Oh, Lily!” the woman cried again, hugging her. “I’m so glad you’re okay! I thought I’d lost you forever.” The woman smoothed her hand over Lily’s hair. “And I’m glad you took my advice and improved your appearance when you leveled. Doesn’t it feel so much better to be gorgeous now, like a Willowynd should be? Like your sister was?”

            Lily’s shoulders tensed. “Why didn’t you use the lifebond clock? It would have told you I was alive.”

            “It was only a few days after you left—and after it let us know of poor, beautiful Wylla’s passing—that the king sent his men to confiscate it, to sell to pay for the supposed back taxes our lack of title would cause us to owe. Oh, thank Iluvin you’re okay!”

            Lady Willowynd put her hands on Lily’s shoulders and pushed her back a bit. “Could you have done something about your eyes? Or maybe you still can, if you manage to make another level? We’ll never be accepted as nobles here if we aren’t absolutely perfect in our presentation, you know. You need to take pride in your appearance.”

            This is absurd, Leo thought to himself. I nicknamed her ‘Princess Pride’ because I thought she fussed over her looks, even though she’s gorgeous… She puts more effort into her appearance than most I’ve seen. What a shrew her mother is. Can’t she just be happy with Lily? Is every flaw something that must be pointed out?

            “So, shall we head to the front and let them catch up?” Hy asked.

            Leo glanced over at Zir, who gave the slightest of shrugs—but he was fidgeting where he stood.

            “Yes,” Leo said. He nodded to the bed. “Thank you, Lady Willowynd, for your hospitality, but I’ll let you catch up with your daughter. I’m sure that you have much to talk about.”

            “Thank the gods,” Zir whispered.

            “This way, sirs,” Hy said, leading them out of the room, back to the front room where Hugh waited.

            As he left, Leo heard Lady Willowynd asking Lily about why she’d chosen the illusory outfit she wore—it was so last season.

Hy led them down the hall to the front room where Hugh waited. It had a single wooden table and four plain wooden chairs. Hy, Zir, and Leo all took a seat, and Hugh collapsed to the floor.

“I think I’d rather face wargs again,” Hugh said. “I could hear from here. Lily’s mom is as bad as mine. I remember when my mom would do her constant little sighs of disappointment every time they had to make allowances for me ’cuz I couldn’t fly. I mean, she tried, but it’s hard when parents are obviously disappointed in you.”

“Yeah, my mom was always trying to hold me back, turn me into some effeminate elf who couldn’t possibly take my kingdom back or avenge my dad,” Zir said. “I’m glad she thinks Leo is so amazing and trusts him to take me adventuring—she never trusted me to do that stuff on my own.”

Everyone looked expectantly at Leo.

Leo shrugged. “My mom was an amazing, wise, and hard-working woman who helped me be all I could be. She watched every one of my amateur MMA fights. Got to the point she could critique me. And she thought well of me, always told me I’d do great things. People are different, I guess.”

            Zir rolled his eyes, and Hugh snorted. “Sure, rub it in, five-magic boy. Everything goes your way.”

            Except my failed marriage when I was twenty, getting shot to death but for a twist of fate, losing Audrey…

            “Some people are just lucky, I guess,” Leo muttered.

            “Yeah, although since you were born a mortal and not a dragon, it’s kinda limited, but still, lotta luck there. Glad you’ve always got my back, though—you’re a good guy.”

            Leo turned to Hy. “So, are things normally like this?”

            Hy gave a deep sigh, his watery blue eyes staring out at nothing as he leaned back in the rickety wooden chair. “Yes. She was distraught after the loss of her husband fifty years ago, but she had reason to carry on. She treasured her two children and her family name. But she’d been nobility, true and respected nobility, in the Kingdom of Averia. For fifty years, it’s been one insult after another, one loss after another… and then she lost Wylla, her pride and joy…”

Leo nodded. “Yeah, that had to be crazy rough.”

“It was, even for me,” Hy said, his eyes watering. “Wylla was a blessing to the world, not that Lily isn’t as well. But a few days after losing Wylla, everything Lady Willowynd owned was taken from us. For a few months now, nothing has been right for her, and she’s on the verge of being a pauper, or perhaps sold as a slave, to pay the imaginary debts that King Damien assigned to her. She lives in constant fear, and it’s sapped her. Even though she’s still in the prime years for an elf, she’s been refusing to leave her bed at all.”

Damn, Leo thought. He knew what the right thing to do was, but his village was under constant threat and would be at the edge of collapse for some time. Taking care of someone so broken they couldn’t leave bed would tax him.

But Leo wasn’t the kind of guy to let someone suffer unless it was clearly a self-inflicted problem. And Lily’s mom felt like she’d gotten screwed by life and the king both quite a few times.

“Perhaps… Perhaps she can join Star Port, the village I’m building in the ruins of Calasti?”

Hy slumped slightly in his chair, likely in relief. “You have a village, Lord Leo?”

“Yeah… of about twelve hundred now. But I can afford to house and feed one troubled woman, I think.”

“If she won’t work, you should let her starve.” Zir pulled out a knife from his bandolier, and held it up. “I watched my father die in front of me and you don’t see me getting all weepy. I have the answer right here.”

            “People handle things differently,” Leo said, not willing to explain that constant loss and fear for decades did far more to most people than one traumatic event… and that Lady Willowynd had lost more family, besides. How exactly did you tell someone whose dad had died he was being an ass?

            Lily entered the sitting room, her eyes red for a second before everything changed and she was perfectly beautiful and made-up again.

            She rolled her eyes slightly, despite the weariness he’d seen, and gave Leo a wry smile. “So, I know this is an ask, but can my mother come live with us? She needs some safety, I think, to get herself back together.”

            Hugh chuckled from the ground. “You never learn, Lily. Leo will save everyone. He already made the offer to this elf here.”

            “My name is Hy,” Hy said.

            “Whatever.”

            Hy continued without acknowledging Hugh. “And I, at least, will find some way to earn keep for your mother and me. I’ll not let her be a burden to either of you, I swear.”

            “You’re a good man, Hythaeran,” Lily said with a bow. “I’m sorry my mother wouldn’t ever marry you, but thank you for being by her side, and mine, all these years.”

            “Of course, Duchess Willowynd.” Hy’s cheeks pinked a bit and tears came to his eyes again.

            “Wait, a question,” Leo said. “Why isn’t your mother Duchess Willowynd?”

            “The spouse who was not a direct part of the noble family does not inherit. Instead, the title passes to the children. Although for underage children, the spouse can assume a regency and rule temporarily.”

            “Makes sense,” Leo commented. It wasn’t that different back in our times, I guess, although since I haven’t seen the same kind of patriarchal setup here, likely due to the way magic works, I assumed they’d share rulership. But, on the other hand, with magical lines I could see why it’d pass directly, since it would…

            Hugh thumped his tail on the ground. “Stay with us, buddy. No matter how boring this conversation about feelings is, no leaving us for the insides of your own mind.”

            Leo let out an awkward chuckle. “Sorry. A lot of stuff fascinates me.”

            “A likely story.”

            There was a knock at the front door, and a voice called, “Open up in the name of King Damien Haviden!”

            “Ah, Damn,” Leo murmured. “They’ve come for your mother.”

            He stood from the chair and pulled his glowing sword from its sheath, his adrenaline spiking as he prepared for combat. Really don’t want to kill mortals.

            Lily giggled, covering her mouth with her hand as she did so. “I think they’ve come for us, in fact. This is the address we gave them to come let us know if we got an appointment.”

            Leo was caught a bit flat-footed, then put his sword away. “Oh, right. My bad.”

            “We could just kill them anyway,” Zir said. He was next to the door to the dining room with daggers drawn—Leo hadn’t even seen him get up from his chair.

            “Bad elf!” Leo said.

Hugh snickered.

            Leo stepped into the hall and then pulled the door open just as the guards were banging a second time.

            “May I help you?”

            Each of the guards was dressed in half-plate still, and whatever flaws Leo would assign to the soldiers of this kingdom, he had to admire their stamina—even the half-mile walk in those things had to be next to impossible, even in the cool air of the city.

            Although, maybe they had levels and extra powers or stats as well, now that he thought about it.

            “You the noble Leo Evans il Stardew?” one asked, his voice gruff.

            “I am.”

            The guard stared at him, his eyes straying to the magical topaz in the hilt of Leo’s blade, and the emerald one in the chest piece of his leather armor. His eyes widened, and he straightened a bit. “Thank you for seeing me, lord. The king has granted your request to talk to him. He expects to see you tomorrow promptly an hour after the break of dawn, in the throne room.”

            “I’ll be there with bells on.”

***

            The next morning, bright and early—but still a few hours after Leo had gotten up to run, work out, and practice a bit of his swordplay and telekinesis—the group passed back through the gates that had stopped them the day before. Leo couldn’t tell the guards apart very well in their half-plate, but whether they were the same or different ones, they were more respectful this morning.

            “This place is… less than perfectly impressive,” Leo said as they walked into the main keep.

            Lily gave a subtle nod of her head and fiddled with her hair. “Keep that opinion to yourself please, Leo. It wouldn’t do to offend.”

            She was ‘dressed’—in illusion—as she usually dressed. She wore a white dress, tight in the bodice and flowy at the bottom, with elaborate stitching, and a green shawl over her shoulders done in tree motif. She had her gold circlet on her head, and the rest of her jewelry was silver and emerald.

            Leo had gone for a more military look. He wore his leather bracers of least strength on his arms, his magical leather armor, and his magical cloak, and he carried his shield and sword—all over black doublet and breeches, although they were mostly hidden by his gear. If someone examined him, the fact that he had six magic items might tell them a bit about him, but he wanted to look impressive and dangerous both for his meeting with the king.

            Zir didn’t have any magical items yet, but he was dressed in his usual dark gray clothing and completely implausible number of knives.

            Hugh resembled the storm dragon he was—bronze scales, swept-back head plate and horns, all on a vaguely tiger-shaped body with wings—but he was a good fifty percent larger than he’d been when they’d first met, and he had his own paired bracers of strength on.

            Fighting the behemoth that was Hugh was a nightmare.

            Leo hoped they cut an impressive figure since they were all Level Nine, except Zir, who was Level Six.

            The guards led them through a rough gatehouse and into a large hall, at the end of which were two huge wooden doors, almost twelve feet from floor to ceiling and four feet wide each, with sea serpents carved in bas-relief.

            The two guards at the doors pulled them open together to admit Leo to the throne room.

            As Leo entered, a man to his side called out, loudly, “Leo Evans il Stardew, Lord of Starport, to see His Royal Majesty, terror to his enemies, the wisdom of his people, the puissant King Damien Haviden the first of his name! All bow!”

            Leo stepped in, and the others followed. Almost without thinking about it, Leo didn’t bow, his American Earth instincts simply telling him the order didn’t apply to him.

            Hugh dropped his head. Lily and even Zir went to one knee and bowed.

            Leo got the first look at the king and couldn’t help but dislike him.

Damien was an eighteen-year-old kid, and he screamed ‘punk’ to Leo. He lounged indolently on the wooden throne at the top of the small stairs on a raised dais. The ostentatious gold crown on his head was slightly askew, and he wore rich, silk clothing and voluminous robes that made him look even smaller than his lanky—albeit tall—frame already did. He had long, silken brown hair that he—or his servants—obviously worked on a lot, and he was perfectly shaved and primped. He looked out from light-blue eyes at everyone with an air of faint disinterest.

            Appearances, including, I suspect, looking like he came out on top of any negotiation, are going to be important to this kid.

            King Damien’s eyes widened as he took in Leo, who was still standing.

            Damien stood abruptly from the throne, almost knocking his crown from his head. “Why do you not kneel before me, peasant?”

            An older man with white hair and extremely impressive white eyebrows hurried forward, almost tripping on his brown robes, flipping open the huge, worn book he was carrying. He pointed to a passage as he held the book before the King. “He does correctly, Your Majesty. It says here that any man adjudged a king need not kneel in the presence of the King of Haviden, milord. Now, as the king, you may of course change the law at an appropriate hearing, but you can’t fault a man for following the laws you uphold and defend, can you?”

            The king glanced sideways at the man. “You know I wouldn’t have wanted that law, Laurence, so why’s it still there? You should have told me about it—you’re the royal chancellor, after all.”

            “Of course, Your Majesty, an oversight,” Chancellor Laurence said, stepping back.

            The king settled back down as Leo took in the rest of the retinue who were up on the dais.

            A girl who would likely be extremely pretty once she finished growing but was currently barely post-pubescent sat on a smaller throne a step below the king’s throne. She seemed bored and sad both, and had a bruise, imperfectly hidden by her long, brown hair, on one of her pale cheeks. She appeared barely bigger than Lily—perhaps a few inches over five feet and maybe ninety pounds.

            Behind the king, however, was someone who worried Leo. A man, nearly seven feet tall and muscled like a Greek god for the small parts Leo could see, stood easily in full, golden plate mail with gold crystals set in it, ones far larger than the ones in Leo’s own shield. Metal magic.

            The man was older, likely in his late fifties, his hair salt-and-pepper with the salt dominating, but his blue eyes were as cold as ice and looked not in the least worn down by age despite the lines around them.

            As Lily stood, she leaned over. “That’s the realm’s champion, Chester Adamant. He’s supposedly Level Thirty, victor of numerous wars, dungeons, and over a great deal of opponents. Remember what I said about human champions, as well. He’s way beyond us, for the moment. We might be able to cut our way out of this if it were just the guards, but with him here, that’s no longer an option.”

            Leo nodded tightly, already regretting stopping to try to negotiate the trade deal. I should have just gone straight for Hugh’s buddies.

            Hugh leaned over, too. “That guy is a boogeyman described to scare young dragons—he’s killed quite a few of us, so please be careful. I don’t wanna fight him, Leo, seriously. I’ll run if you start a fight with him. I’m sorry.”

            When Lily and Hugh agree, Leo thought, take it seriously.

            As the king finished adjusting his robes around him, he called out, “Very well, Lord Evans. What brings you before Our August Majesty today?”

            Leo half-stepped forward. “I wish to discuss trade, Majesty. I have freed the Blue River from the threat of the Blood Tribes in vicious combat, and old Chao has disappeared. My city, Star Port, guards the way into the inner sea. It has piers, warehouses, a drydock, and all the facilities necessary to support trade from the Havi Imperium and the Ten Lakes into the Inner Sea and beyond.”

            “Good job,” Damien said, languidly waving his hand.

            “Right, well, I wanted to negotiate the tariff for ships traveling through my realm to trade.”

            “Why would I do that?” Damien asked. “I mean, good job handling a few stupid orcs, but I see no reason that the merchants of my realm, under my beneficent protection, should suffer simply because you managed to kill a few backward tribals.”

            Leo hesitated for a moment. He was a bit floored by this line of argument. “Um, I mean, tolls are pretty normal for people trading through another lord’s realm… to pay for upkeep of facilities. As well as the army to keep it clear of bandits and monsters and such.”

            “It seems to me that you’d be better off by serving me in turn, then, since you’re admitting you can’t handle things by yourself. I will be magnanimous and grant you the title of ‘baron,’ directly answering to My Royal Majesty.”

            Lily flicked her hair out of her face, hard, and her eyes narrowed in anger. But she didn’t say anything.

            Leo tried to think of how to handle this line of reasoning, and everyone waited. His mind was fast but not fast enough to avoid the pregnant pause.

            “Well, for the moment, milord, we’re quite far apart. I wouldn’t be able to benefit appropriately from your wisdom and guidance—but perhaps in the future, once we’ve both grown closer, geographically and metaphorically, we can discuss it again.”

            Leo had no intention of ever serving this king, but he did want good relations with the pleasant kingdom this king had inherited, and he didn’t want another enemy. This answer was technically honest, and it was as far as he would go—he didn’t want trouble.

            “Hmph,” Damien said. “I’m pretty sure I can guide you from here better than any jumped-up elf could handle things locally, but we’ll leave that aside for the moment. I’ll instruct my merchant captains to pay one percent of goods as a measure of pity for your people, out of a sense of noblesse oblige to those lesser than our glorious kingdom.”

            You’ll die if you try to paddle him, Leo thought to himself. This king was an absolute chode, but his guards and champion made sure he didn’t pay the normal price for such incredible naïveté.

            “Your majesty, rates closer to five percent are far more standard throughout this area.” Lily had told him rates of two to five percent were common in destination ports, but one percent seemed insultingly low.

            “Five percent is outrageous!” the king shouted, coming off his throne again and pointing his finger at Leo. “I should have you seized!”

            Leo tried his best not to glare. “Majesty, all those ships passing up the Blue River will also stop at your ports, and pay you… funds to help your legions and expand your palace. If you have me seized, you’ll gain none of that. It’s not a fiscally wise policy.”

            The king’s face was pinched, his brow furrowed. “Why not just kill you and take the land, then?”

            Leo’s body was dumping adrenaline and he was developing tunnel vision as he focused on the king. If this turns violent, I’m going to kill that royal shit, regardless of whether I live or die.

            He heard the whispering around him, but he focused, trying to give the king an easy way out that would assuage his impossible ego. “It’s near five hundred miles from your border, King. Think of me as providing a service to your kingdom, for a small fee, like a merchant would.”

            The king sat back down. This kid is a freaking jack-in-the-box, up down, up down.

            “Very well, Merchant Evans. I will accept a one percent deal, that the kingdom will pay you for maintaining a trading emporium on the shores of the Blue River to assist our subjects. But if you ask for more, I’ll have you killed on the spot.”

            You’re going to regret this to an interesting degree, Leo silently promised the king, seething inside. Negotiating with someone under pain of death isn’t negotiating at all, and this deal means nothing. I tried to be reasonable and give you every out.

            “I guess I’ll have to accept your terms then, Majesty,” Leo ground out. For now.