It had been a long, long time since Zhang last slept; so long, in fact, that the process of waking up was almost alien to him. The return to consciousness was slow, and though he was hardly comfortable, he couldn’t help but keep his eyes closed and wish for just a few more minutes. He shifted—he’d been lying on his back, but he preferred to sleep on his side. The ground beneath him was uncomfortably hard, but for those few moments after awareness trickled back through his mind, he didn’t think too hard about it.

The memories of what he’d been doing right before closing his eyes and all the context that surrounded that moment were as sudden and painful as being smacked in the face with a bag of bricks wielded by a hateful enemy; Zhang’s eyes shot open and he attempted to sit up, but with his return to the waking world also came a realization of just how much pain he was in. His lips parted to release a pained groan, while he slumped back down where he lay.

“Careful now,” a warm, fatherly voice whispered from close by. “You were falling apart not too long ago, and though you’re out of the storm, you’ll need a few more days of rest before doing anything strenuous.”

The voice was vaguely familiar, but when Zhang turned his head to behold the speaker, recognition eluded him. He saw an older man, the lines on his face exaggerated by a calming smile. His eyes were dark, dark red, and while his hairline was immaculate, his hair itself was pure white. He had an air about him that spoke of many centuries of life, though his aura was so retracted that he appeared almost mortal to Zhang’s senses. Alarm bells rang in his head, and despite the man’s words, Zhang struggled again to rise.

“Fine,” the man replied good-naturedly, “keep aggravating your wounds, it’s your body.”

Pain flared within Zhang, but a quick scan of his surroundings with his magic senses only resulted in him pushing himself to his feet. Though weakness had turned his limbs to wet noodles, he managed to stand up and struggle over to his Lord, who lay on a small boulder just a few steps away.

All three of them were in a cave lit by two hovering balls of dim white light. The cave was surprisingly dry, warm, clean, and clear of vermin, which Zhang felt was assuredly due to this red-eyed stranger, but addressing that would come only after he’d done his duty and saw to the Emperor.

Yun looked peaceful and uninjured; his aura was steady and his body unblemished. His eyes remained closed, but given everything else, that was the only concerning thing that Zhang could sense.

“He was injured in that crash,” the stranger said. “I healed him, too, but it might take a few more hours for him to wake.”

His duty satisfied, Zhang straightened up. Now that he was awake and able to devote conscious thought to it, magic power was filtering from his soul realm out into the rest of his body, quickly filling him with strength. Interposing himself between the stranger and his Lord, he faced the red-eyed man and said, “I thank you for your aid, senior. Might you have a name?”

“My King has honored me with the name, Clear Day,” the stranger replied. When he spoke his name, Zhang understood perfectly the meaning of it, but Clear Day had also quite notably not spoken his language.

Zhang’s eyes narrowed and he regarded Clear Day with greater suspicion. He inspected himself as quickly as he could but found no evidence of darkness magic having taken root anywhere in his body.

“What… have you done?” he demanded, his voice cracking slightly at the implications. He tried to stay respectful as he recognized Clear Day as a powerful mage, but he wasn’t going to assume he was friendly. Even healing him and his Lord could be meant to be leverage held over them…

“As I said,” Clear Day repeated, “I healed you and your Emperor. It seemed like you two needed help, so I provided it.”

“What else have you done?” Zhang pressed.

Clear Day smirked, then proved he was far from mortal when he conjured a small stone from his soul realm that fit quite well in his palm. “This is called a Stone of Many Tongues. It has allowed me to share my language with you while you were… resting your eyes. Fortunately for us all, someone else was gracious enough to share your language with me before we met, allowing us to now easily converse in your language.”

Zhang breathed hard, unsure how to take that. On the one hand, it was convenient and Clear Day had healed him and Yun, but on the other, implanting knowledge of a language implied that otherthings could be implanted, too. He disliked the thought of anyone putting anything in his head, and he outright detested the thought of them doing even a fraction of the same to his Emperor.

“Were you… that bird?” Zhang asked as the details of his last few moments of consciousness finally returned to him.

“Yes,” Clear Day confirmed. “Now, are you going to relax so we can talk, or should we stand at odds as we are for a while longer?”

A long silence passed between them, and Zhang remained where he was. “Until my Emperor awakens,” he finally stated, “I must see to my duty in the way that best guarantees his safety. Apologies, senior.”

Clear Day smiled, then leaned against the wall. “Ah, don’t fret over it! I understand your duty well enough. Then let’s talk awhile, shall we? It might be some time before your Emperor wakes up, and I’d like to know you a bit better.”

Zhang’s eyes narrowed again. Generally speaking, he distrusted those who wished to ‘know’ an Emperor’s bodyguard in any way, but the debt to Clear Day was great…

“My King will soon arrive at this planar cluster,” Clear Day continued without waiting for a response, and Zhang’s hackles immediately rose. “He wishes to add these three planes to his Kingdom, though he’d prefer to not employ violent conquest if he doesn’t have to.”

Zhang growled, “You say a foreign monarch covets this Empire, yet you would have me believe he isn’t a conqueror? Senior, though I prefer simpler responsibilities, I am no idiot.”

“I am not treating you as one. Rather, I am being honest as I’ve found that honesty usually brings the best results, even if I must say things that one wishes not to hear. And the truth is that my King is quite willing to employ violence in the furtherance of his goals, but he also understands that there is always a cost to doing so. I have saved your lives, and though you have been so rude as to skip over a formal introduction, I would still extend to you the invitation to meet with my King and hear his words for yourself.”

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A smidgeon of shame brought color to Zhang’s pale cheeks at being reminded of his lack of propriety, but he pushed that down and responded, “You seek to make us hostages. We will not bow before this King of yours. This Empire is proud and will never bow to any but the rightful Emperor of the rightful dynasty!”

“You’re comfortable speaking on your Emperor’s behalf, are you?” Clear Day countered, causing Zhang to nearly choke on the rest of the words he’d intended to say. “I don’t believe your Empire is in any shape to dictate terms, not after the mauling your Void fleets have taken in the past day and a half. While you’re busy slaughtering each other, my King approaches, bringing power enough to restore peace and order to these planes.”

“There can be no peace under one who lacks the grace of the heavens,” Zhang insisted. “So long as my Emperor yet lives, there can be no—”

“Stop.”

A single word, softly spoken, cut Zhang off entirely, but it was not Clear Day who’d spoken. Zhang spared a look over his shoulder and realized that Yun’s eyes were open despite Clear Day’s statement that it would take hours for him to awaken.

The Emperor grimaced as he sat up, and though Zhang wanted to help him, he remained where he was, standing between Yun and this emissary of a foreign King with designs upon the Empire.

“Enough, Zhang,” Yun croaked. “Come and sit with me, let us not treat our savior as our enemy.”

“Elevated One,” Zhang whispered, “it’s clear he is our enemy! One more dangerous than even the regents!”

“That… remains to be seen,” Yun responded before fixing Zhang in a more determined stare. “Now, sit. Please. And let us talk as men.”

A deep inner struggle erupted within Zhang, but after several tense seconds, his loyalty to his Emperor won out, and he moved from his protective stance.

“You’re looking well,” Clear Day observed.

“Thanks to you, as I understand it,” Yun responded. “You have my thanks and the thanks of my Empire for your timely intervention.”

Zhang internally reeled. ‘Has he been awake this whole time?! And Clear Day doesn’t seem surprised…’

“Your knight is owed most of the credit,” Clear Day diplomatically responded. “He did most of the work fending off your enemy while I merely took you somewhere safe and healed you.”

“Humility is a sure sign of honesty,” Yun stated. “Your King… who is he?”

Clear Day smiled a little more genuinely with that question. “Leon of House Raime.”

Yun breathed deeply in what Zhang recognized as restrained frustration. “A regal name, but it tells me little about who he is.”

Zhang’s heart accelerated a moment as he thought Clear Day might take insult, but the red-eyed senior’s smile didn’t flicker even slightly, and he explained, “A young King by most standards, but strong and ambitious. This ambition is tampered by his peaceable nature, but he has found himself in the unenviable position where he must expand his power or his goals shall forever remain out of reach.”

“A ‘peaceable’ man wants to conquer my Empire?” Yun pressed.

“That depends on how it is integrated into his Kingdom,” Clear Day stated. “He doesn’t wish to depose you. In fact, if you bow to him, he will acknowledge you as the Lord of these planes and allow you to continue on as normal. The benefits you would receive are myriad, including access to advanced materials and the ability to travel throughout his Kingdom freely, including to the Nexus and other planes he rules.”

“Such boons do not come for free.”

“Some tribute would be expected, of course, and your people would be made citizens within his Kingdom with all that entails. They would be free to join his army as they please.”

Yun looked ready to argue a bit, but a tired look passed over him. He glanced at the light from the cave entrance bouncing from around a corner. After a moment, he focused again on Clear Day.

“I would accept hospitality from your King, under your assurance that we will not be hostages. I would speak with your King in person. I want to take his measure for myself.”

“Very good,” Clear Day said even as Zhang’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull in shock. “I will send a message now and give you two a few minutes to speak. Please, excuse me.”

Clear lowered his head ever so slightly and took his leave. Zhang wasn’t sure how he was going to send a message, but in that moment, he was concerned only with what Yun had just acquiesced to.

“Elevated One—” he began almost as soon as Clear Day had rounded the corner, but Yun interrupted him before he could continue.

“Please, Zhang, use my name.”

Zhang squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and sighed. When he opened them, he tried again. “Yun, please tell me you’re not seriously considering this. You’d be placing yourself in the hands of a foreign ruler!”

“Hardly much different from how I’ve always lived,” Yun replied, his tone dour and fatigued. “Don’t mistake my intentions, my friend; I’m well aware of the risks. At this point, though… what is our alternative? I would sooner trust this King I’ve never met than anyone else in my Empire. Unless you know something I don’t about how that battle went? Did we win?”

Zhang grimaced. Though he couldn’t confirm it, his scans of the mountains outside of the cave indicated that the regents’ arks were still sweeping the area. They were about twenty miles from the crash site of their transport ark, more than close enough for him to know that their domestic enemies were in control of the battlefield. That did not bode well for their allies, though his magic senses couldn’t quite reach far enough into the Void for him to tell for sure.

“If what Clear Day says is true,” Yun continued, “and I have no reason to suspect that he isn’t being truthful given what he’s done for us so far, then we’ll be safer with this ‘King Leon’ than we will anywhere else within my Empire. Because… this is not my Empire anymore, not when I am but a fugitive within it—and because of that, would not this King gain more by keeping me alive? If he wants this Empire for his own, then holding me would guarantee him legitimacy. No, I don’t believe he’ll kill me or mistreat me. Besides, this King is the invader we’ve been anticipating, isn’t he? We mobilized to fight him, but what is left of our Void Corps? How many arks do we retain to fight him off with? No, my friend… and to be honest, I quite liked that ‘merchant’ who visited us who kicked all this off. ‘Anzu’ was his name, wasn’t it?”

“Yes…” Zhang confirmed, though all the rest of what Yun was saying hurt him to the core. “It… still doesn’t sit right with me, Yun. We will be entirely at his mercy.”

“We already are,” Yun pointed out as he cast his gaze back to the corner around which Clear Day had vanished.

At that, Clear Day walked back into the room. “Now, you two are on the same page, are you not?” he asked.

“We are,” Yun stated.

“Good, good. Then allow me to reiterate something for your comfort: you are guests of my King, placed under his protection in line with the laws of hospitality. Furthermore, I personally guarantee your safety. My King is no butcher; rather, he is the best friend one could have. As for you…”

Clear Day’s red eyes landed on Zhang, and Zhang tensed again. Though he was not quite up to fighting, that wouldn’t stop him from trying if violence broke out…

“Allow me to return these to you, for safekeeping. Should you ask, I’m sure my King would be more than willing to repair it, as a gesture of goodwill—though I’ll leave it to you to bring it up.”

With a wave of his hand, Clear Day summoned a small pile of metal fragments that Zhang immediately recognized as the remnants of Mountain Cleaver. He almost ran forward to collect them and only managed to hold himself back enough to retain his dignity.

“You… I… thank you for returning these,” he said, choking up slightly. The weapon had been in his family for generations beyond counting, and though he wouldn’t change his actions that led to its destruction, it nearly shattered his heart into equal pieces when his spear was destroyed.

“Good, good,” their red-eyed savior repeated. “Let us be off, then. To dally is to invite disaster, wouldn’t you say?”

Yun agreed, and Clear Day enveloped them in a sphere of white light. Zhang could tell that the light rendered them invisible to the naked eye, but he was more surprised when the sphere carried them outside and then shot upward. In less than a minute, they’d gone from sitting and quietly talking in a cave to halfway to the Void. This power perturbed him, and he was forced to view Clear Day in a new light. This, after all, was the work of a post-Apotheosis being, someone who could’ve stamped them out with hardly any thought.

‘How strong must his King be? To command one like him?’

There was naught he could do at this point, however, but be carried into the Void and hope that his Empire and his Emperor would survive the meeting with King Leon…

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