The Storm King

Chapter 646: Infiltrating the Cortuban Arena

There was some fallout from Leon’s killing of the dragon turtle, but it was brief. Isabella wanted nothing to do with him, and so avoided him for the rest of the day. Cristina did likewise, though at least came by and exchanged a few words with him—enough for him to understand that she was following Isabella’s lead and didn’t mean anything personal by it.

The more important reactions were from Alfonso, Emilie, and Leon’s retinue. Anshu was delighted that Leon had rescued Santiago, but the others were more apprehensive, thinking that he’d changed his mind about recruiting the bandit. Emilie was more upset, and she didn’t stop lecturing Leon about his responsibilities as a de facto representative of Heaven’s Eye until Alfonso himself joined them and once more argued on Leon’s behalf—Leon hadn’t done anything wrong and had even honored their gods. The reaction of the King and the delight of the crowd ensured that, after a couple of hours, no one seemed to care anymore about what Leon had done. In fact, he thought he detected a few rather admiring and respectful looks from many of the Cortubans in Alfonso and Isabella’s entourages.

His retinue was a little more subdued, but he was able to calm their worries with a reaffirmation that he wasn’t going to try and recruit Santiago. The man himself had probably been thrown out onto the street already, Leon had no idea where to even find him. He was tempted to ask Alfonso about him, but in the interest of remaining detached, and letting this simply be an act of mercy and no more, Leon refrained from looking into the man any further.

Rather, he let his attention fall back to the arena itself, and the blood magic he’d sensed during each match. He’d watched as a great many people and beasts were slaughtered today, but the blood magic he’d sensed had still been so incredibly subtle that it took Maia quite a bit of dedicated investigation to see what he had.

He wanted to know what was going on. That blood magic had to be doing something, funneling power somewhere.

‘Are they demon worshippers?’ Leon wondered as his eyes found a brilliantly colored mural that spanned nearly the entirety of the wall opposite the entrances to the Royal box. It depicted figures that he could only surmise were the Cortuban gods, and the fights this day were dedicated to them.

Leon did his best not to jump to any conclusions. Demons made great use of blood magic, but it was hardly solely their purview—Heaven’s Eye and just about everyone else on the plane used blood magic to verify identities, as far as he was aware, and he, himself, had used blood magic when awakening his Inherited Bloodline.

After mulling the problem over and consulting with Nestor a little more, though, Leon’s thoughts couldn’t help but turn to more sinister sources of that magic. He was certain that the blood spilled in the arena had been used to channel magic power somewhere, for some purpose, and he found himself less and less able to relax without knowing exactly what that purpose was for.

So, after making a few discreet inquiries with Elise and Emilie to figure out when the arena might empty, he decided to infiltrate the place later and see what he could see.

Until then, though, he had to mingle with the higher-ups in the Cortuban Alliance. He was impatient and extraordinarily curious, but the task in front of him had to come first.

—

Once back in the Heaven’s Eye guest house, Leon let his family and retinue in on his plans. He had to explain quite a bit, but once he did, all plans for heading out into the city for recreation were put on hold, to the mild consternation of many of Leon’s people. Elise, especially, had been looking forward to heading out into the city with Leon, Maia, Valeria, and all of Cristina’s knights, but she understood why Leon wanted to look into this.

She only extracted from him a promise not to go too far, in the broadest sense she could. She wanted him back home by morning. Leon, understanding that with his entire retinue and Maia accompanying him, she would be left alone, readily made that promise.

It was already fairly late in the afternoon, and Leon wanted to infiltrate the arena around midnight, so they had some planning and resting to do before then. And Leon came up with a plan that he hoped would work, one that even Elise could participate in, helping her to not feel quite so alone there in the guest house, doing nothing more than waiting for her family to return…

—

The walls of the arena imposed upon the district around it. It was a massive building, with its outer walls rising more than ten stories, whereas there wasn’t a building around it for more than half a mile that was taller than four. Its red brick façade, interspersed with rows of slightly smaller pink bricks, gave off a feeling of extreme affluence, which was only strengthened by the aura of magic that Leon could sense flowing through every brick—the entire arena had been infused with so much magic that it was comparable to the city’s citadel, and even to the Bull’s Horns.

This, of course, only raised Leon’s expectations of what he might find. He hadn’t sensed even an iota of demonic magic when in the arena, but such a place like this couldn’t possibly be so well enchanted just to host a few games. No, there was something else here, he could feel that in his bones.

The beginning of his plan was simple: he led his entourage out to a nearby club, looking for all the world like he, his friends, and his family were only going on to experience the joys of Andalusian night life. Elise was there with him, as was Anzu, the albino griffin seeming to pick up on the undercurrent of anxiety within Leon and keeping himself fairly low and as inconspicuous as he could possibly be.

Fortunately, they left the guest house late enough that there weren’t many people out on the streets until they reached their destination: a club that Elise had managed to learn about from some of the local Heaven’s Eye bureaucrats that was entirely open-air. It was essentially four walls around a huge square, with several shallow marble terraces closer to the walls where the more club’s more important visitors could spend their time, while the center of the club was one large dance floor surrounded by a bar. Multicolored magical lights flashed above the dance floor, while the rest of the club was lit only by the moon and the stars, and at one end of the club was a long, narrow stage, upon which was located a large band playing some high tempo up-beat tune that had everyone on the dance floor writhing in what Leon supposed was dancing if he squinted at it hard enough.

Leon curled his lips in distaste at the atmosphere, and even more so at the stench of sweat and extremely overpriced alcohol, but he banished the look after a moment and entered the club with his people—the bouncers at the door not even daring to stop them, especially with how finely they were dressed, how obviously powerful they were, and particularly when they noticed that Elise’s clothes had been prominently embroidered in many places with the sigil of Heaven’s Eye. With all of that, not even Anzu was denied entry.

As soon as they walked in, Leon had his retinue find a place to post up, sending Anzu with them. He then consented to Elise dragging him over to the dance floor for a few songs before his investigation could begin, extracting at least a little bit of fun here while she could. Valeria and Maia both snuck in for a dance, too, though Leon could tell their enthusiasm was a little more forced; both wanted the experience, but this was hardly the place any of them would’ve chosen to spend their time otherwise.

Then, Elise returned to Leon’s retinue and curled up with Anzu on a large sofa. Leon’s retinue would stay here, only a few blocks away from the arena that dominated the horizon, both protecting Elise and lending her authority by mere virtue of having an entourage. Here, Elise would be able to escape at a moment’s notice on the back of Anzu, while Leon’s retinue would only be a couple of minutes away if he needed them for anything.

And with that, safe in the knowledge that he had back-up and that Elise was neither being left behind nor being put in danger, Leon, Valeria, and Maia launched into their part of the plan—they made no attempts to hide their affection, kissing and grinding against each other on the dance floor for a minute or two, in front of everyone. And they attracted quite a few looks, given their entrance, looks, power, and sheer audacity. But once those couple of minutes were over, Valeria took one of Leon’s hand and began dragging him off the dance floor, Leon’s other hand dragging Maia in turn, looking for all the world like they were just going off to the bathroom or some other quiet dark corner where they could hook up.

As soon as they were out of the limelight, though, all three seemingly vanished into thin air, with Leon and Maia’s rings flashing with emerald light, and the sapphire amulet around Valeria’s neck glowing bright blue. Concurrently, their attire changed from something more appropriate for going out partying to all-black ensembles complete with face-obscuring masks, just in case their invisibility failed them. Valeria’s only covered her lower face, but since they had magic senses, Leon and Maia’s masks could cover their entire faces if so needed, though they kept their eyes unobscured for the moment.

Without further ado, the three quickly leaped over the walls of the club and began running for the arena. They were still hand-in-hand to prevent themselves from losing the others, which made things a little more awkward and slowed them down, but in Leon’s mind, that was a small price to pay for stealth.

They made their way through the streets as swiftly as they were able, arriving at the streets directly adjacent to the arena in only a matter of a minute or two. From there, they had to stop and search for a way in, for while the arena didn’t seem to have much active security, the building itself had been completely secured—all the doors and windows were closed and magically locked, as they realized to their dismay after making one full circuit of the arena’s outer wall.

But after a moment, Leon just sighed and pulled his lovers into the nearest ally and deactivated his invisibility. They followed suit a moment later, and the three were left huddled together as inconspicuously as possible. Fortunately, the area around the arena was quite deserted at this time of night.

“Get to the roof,” Leon murmured, and neither Maia nor Valeria needed much more than that. In a flash of light, both were clad in their flight suits, and they swiftly shot into the air, leaving nothing more than a cloud of dust for Leon to squint through. He made good use of the cover, though, and pulled his clothing into his soul realm and transformed into his Thunderbird form. He was glad it was dark and that his feathers were primarily a relatively dark shade of brown, because otherwise, he wouldn’t be doing this at all.

He comforted himself with the idea that it was far less risky than blasting one of the arena’s doors off its hinges or trying to undo their defensive enchantments from the outside, but he still took great care to examine his surroundings with his magic senses for anyone who might notice him before taking off. He flew with all due haste, and as far as he was aware, went right over the arena’s wall completely undetected, with Valeria and Maia just behind him.

The three landed on some of the arena’s thick cloth covers that shielded those in the stands from the hot sun, which, while retracted, were still far enough away from the outer wall that anyone who might’ve wanted to see them would either have to actively use magic senses or get to a high vantage point. Given that the arena was the tallest structure in the district, Leon was confident that they couldn’t be seen.

Unfortunately, now that he was past the outer wall, he was able to see that the arena wasn’t relying entirely upon passive defenses, for there were a few rather bored and lazy-looking guards patrolling through the stands.

Leon slid back into his human form and dressed himself in his feature-obscuring outfit. Valeria gave him a pouting look as his body was covered, eliciting a smirk and a wink from him, and then the two were back to all-business. A few minutes later, the three were fading back into invisibility, but while they were waiting for their various accessories of invisibility to reset, Leon inspected the arena from above. He bathed the place in his magic senses, searching for any sign of the power that he’d sensed during the fights.

He wasn’t able to sense so much as a spark of magic power down on the sandy arena floor, but he wasn’t deterred.

The patrols through the stands lasted just long enough for Leon to start contemplating knocking the guards unconscious, but then the guards proceeded into the arena itself, and Leon and the ladies were safe to drop down into the stands, which they quickly did. Then, with their senses tuned as finely as they could for any alarms, the three made their way down into the sands.

[Well, Nestor?] Leon asked as they walked out into the middle of the arena, giving the dead man as much ground to inspect as was feasible.

[I can’t sense anything of interest,] Nestor replied, and Leon felt the man’s focus intensify.

“They clean up quickly around here,” Valeria quietly observed, her voice seeming to come out of thin air not too far away from Leon.

“For an earth mage, I’d bet sand is quite easy to clean,” Leon replied. “But keep your eyes open. Whatever blood magic was at work here is probably still here. I can’t imagine something like that happening under the eyes of the local Royalty without someone knowing and giving their assent. I’d even say it’s probably a part of the arena.”

[Below us, then?] Maia wondered.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Leon said as he crouched down and ran his invisible fingers through the sand. He couldn’t sense anything more than the usual ambient magic, but as his fingers brushed against the stone floor only a couple inches below the sand, his invisibility was instantly disrupted, and his form resolved into the air.

Leon froze for just a moment in surprise, and then without a word, he began sprinting for the stands and the nearest alcove to dive into. Valeria and Maia followed closely behind, but neither of them were forced back into visibility.

When they finally found some cover in a doorway in the stands, Leon crouched down and let his dark clothing render him almost as invisible as he just was against the dark building.

“There’s definitely something going on, here,” he whispered as he heard and almost felt Valeria and Maia crouching down beside him. “There’s far more magic running through the floor of that arena than there should be…”

Leon’s eyes turned toward where he could sense Maia was crouched, their connection drawing his eyes to her through the invisibility with ease.

“There’s probably something powerful beneath the arena.”

Nestor then added for Leon’s benefit, [That would make sense. The less ground that the channeled power has to cover, the less power will be lost on the journey. And if the whole point of the blood magic present here is to channel power out of sacrificed mana, then they want every spark of magic power to flow to its destination as possible.]

Leon slightly nodded, and taking advantage of his ring’s reset timer, he pushed a little deeper into the doorway and then slipped inside the arena, holding the door open for Valeria and Maia. If they were going to find anything, then it would be inside, not out in the sand. Once inside, they waited just another minute or so for Leon’s ring to flash, and then he faded back into invisibility, letting the three continue to explore the arena with little worry.

What they found was largely disappointing. The interior of the arena was essentially just a series of large chambers and halls, most of which ensured that those who attended the arena’s games didn’t have to go far to reach their seat, and that the arena could be quickly emptied of all spectators. Along with a few larger areas where certain authorized vendors could set up shop, the arena was of an almost brutally simple design. There at least weren’t many guards around for them to worry about, but that also came with the logical reason that there simply wasn’t much around to be guarded. Leon guessed that the main reason the guards patrolled these bigger areas was to scare off potential vandals, for there seemed to not be too many other reasons save for the blood magic.

Despite the arena’s size, it took Leon’s small group only about half an hour to find something promising: a gate on the north side watched over by two rather inattentive guards that sealed off a set of stairs that led down below the arena’s ground floor, and down below the arena was exactly where they wanted to go. Unlike the walls or the floors, Leon could sense the magic flowing through this gate, and knew that he wasn’t going to be able to get it open without immediately ruining any attempts to remain stealthy.

Interestingly, on the other side of the gate was a large shrine built into the wall. It wasn’t that complex, but Leon counted more than a dozen idols decorating the mural just above it, and he guessed that these represented the Cortuban gods. He wasn’t nearly familiar enough with any to guess their identities, given the abstracted style that they were depicted in, but he found it quite interesting that their gods were placed here, right next to the gate.

[How should we play this?] Maia asked him.

Leon sighed. If they couldn’t do this stealthily, then he was going to order them to retreat, perhaps to come back later when they were a little more prepared. But this scouting mission wasn’t over, yet—there was a slight possibility that the guards had the key to open the gate. If they subdued the guards and searched them, they might be able to get the gate open.

“Take out the guards quickly and nonlethally, if any alarms go off then we get out of here as quickly as possible,” Leon whispered just loud enough for both ladies to hear, and they moved in tandem. Only seconds later, one of the guards was lifted bodily off his feet and slammed against the wall behind him, with Maia appearing barely a moment later, holding him by his neck as watery tendrils snaked out from beneath her sleeve to wrap themselves around the hapless guard and immobilize him completely. At only the third-tier, the guard was unable to do anything at all within Maia’s grasp, not even scream in shock and panic.

At the same time, Valeria appeared as the butt of her short glaive slammed into the other guard’s solar plexus, driving all the air out of his lungs and lifting him a foot off his feet. The guard hit the ground hard, gasping for breath. In an instant, Leon appeared above him and he gave the second-tier guard a powerful, but nonlethal, blast of lightning, knocking him out for hours at least.

“Now,” he muttered as Maia slammed the final guard face down into the floor, “tell me how this door opens, and we’ll let you go.” Just before making his move, Leon had pulled his mask up to hide his notably golden eyes, but even still, the guard wasn’t able to lift his head enough to look Leon in the eye anyway.

After this display of power, the guard didn’t even resist slightly. He told Leon that the gate only blocked access to the gladiator waiting rooms, and when pressed, also revealed another, larger, entrance a block or two to the north where the beasts used in the games were escorted in and out.

“Can you open these doors?” Leon asked, letting his killing intent spill forth, causing the floor to grow cold and the guard to be pressed into the floor by the pressure of his aura as well as Maia’s water magic.

“Right… pocket…” the guard croaked, and a second later, one of Maia’s water tentacles rose from his body, a key submerged within. The tentacle dropped the key into Leon’s hand, and he turned and opened the door, only taking as much time as he needed to