"Yes! He said it! My horned goddess is coming home!" Regis cheered.

"You're acting like I'm going to accept," Arthur replied with a deadpan tone.

"That's right, you tell him papa. Mama is the only woman for you."

"Silence gecko, the adults are talking. Come on, it's Caera. You don't need to fuck her, leave her to me."

"You're so disgusting," Sylvie hissed.

"At least I can understand why he's doing this, so I can't exactly get angry with him," Arthur commented.

"What now?"

"At least we can agree sometimes."

"Think about it. He doesn't know what's going to happen next. Agrona was a constant, but then we killed him, not Seris, us. If it was Seris and her forces it could have been a stabilizing factor. But now, Alacrya could erupt into civil war, the Asura could attack, or we could attack. So now he's planning ahead for his family's survival. His sons going to be the ambassador, so he'll be safe here, and if I marry Caera, then he's pretty much ensured if we go to war with Alacrya that they won't be targeted, and if the Asura come, at the very least I would probably try to evacuate them."

"Smart plan. So why don't we help the man out?"

"No."

"You don't care about helping him, you just want to have that big boobed woman walking around."

"Well she was fun in the previous timeline. Come on, remember when she helped us steal that relic? If nothing else she'd be fun to have around," Regis argued.

"No."

"Are you saying mama isn't fun?!"

"I'm sure she is, but Godslayer here keeps me blocked out during the best parts."

This conversation took a matter of seconds in Arthur's head, but at the same time a lot was happening outside his head.

"You do realize that he's married right? To my daughter!" Alduin reminded Corbett aggressively.

"Yes, but I've also come to understand that it is not considered out of the ordinary in the human kingdom for a man to have more than one wife."

"But his wife is also an elf, and we do not condone such things," Virion pointed out as he released pressure from his core.

"Yes, but as we all know, the General is human. Just because he is married to an elf doesn't mean he must be bound to elven standards, you should also respect his culture." He then looked to Arthur who seemed deep in thought. "It seems he's at least considering this."

"Arthur?!" Virion called out in shock as they all looked at him.

"What? I'm not considering anything. I'm just letting you all vent your opinions as I try and figure out his motives," Arthur said casually, then looked at Corbett, ready now to say his piece.

"Yes you are correct, it is considered normal for male nobles in Sapin to have more than one wife. It is also true that that practice is looked down upon in elven culture. But in all of your arguing none of you seemed to actually take me and my beliefs into consideration." Arthur paused as he straightened up and leaned back in his seat. "Now, as much as I respect Tess' culture and beliefs, even if it was expected for me to have multiple wives, I wouldn't. I believe that marriage is a bond between a man and woman who love each other very much and want to spend their lives together. I chose to marry Tess with this belief in mind, and I will never betray it."

Tess' family smiled proudly.

"Even if it could cause a complication in signing this treaty?" Corbett asked, almost threatening.

Arthur leaned forward as he released a sliver of his killing intent, more than enough to send a chill down everyone's spines.

"Let me make something very clear to you all," he said looking to the Alacryan delegation. "This meeting is simply a formality. I can easily send you all back through the teleportation gate to Alacrya where you can explain what happened to Seris. She'll still come in a few days and will sign whatever I put down without looking, because she knows that the reparations won't be unreasonable." Arthur retracted his intent. "I think we've made some good progress today, so why don't you all retire to your rooms and we meet again this evening for the banquet refreshed and in a better mindset for reasonable talks."

With that the delegates all stood up and we're guided out by several castle servants.

"Excuse me General," Lauden said as he walked up to him as the delegation left. "Please forgive my father. He's only trying to look out for our blood."

"I know, that's why I'm not taking it personally."

Lauden then pulled a sealed envelope from his coat, and held it out to Arthur. "This is from Lady Seris."

"Thank you," Arthur said, accepting it.

Lauden bowed his head and left the room after everyone else.

"Well that was an interesting first meeting," Marcus commented.

"Agreed," Merial replied, and looked down at her husband and father-in-law. "Why is it that Arthur handled Corbett more maturely than two grown men more than twice his age?"

Virion scoffed, earning him some looks before he cleared his throat and spoke.

"I couldn't just sit back and allow that man to insult my granddaughter's honor."

"Agreed. What could he be thinking suggesting such a thing?" Alduin added.

"Self preservation," Arthur said flatly.

"What?" Alduin questioned.

"Is that why it took you so long to respond? You were coming up with that?" Virion asked.

"Regis, Sylvie, and I were discussing it."

"That's the downside of that bond of yours. The rest of us miss out on important conversations like that," Buhnd commented.

"Trust me, there are no intellectual breakthroughs in there. Most times those two just argue their points while I try to mediate."

"I'm insulted!" Regis said sounding offended.

"It's your fault. If you thought more with your heart than your penis we would probably get along better."

"Please, both of you stop for now."

Arthur sighed and refocused on the letter. It was standard size, but was sealed closed with a stamped wax seal. Arthur broke it and pulled a letter out and began reading.

"What is it? It must be good if she didn't want to just relay it through the delegation," Buhnd said.

Arthur's eyebrows raised. "Well it is interesting," he said as he folded the letter back up.

"What is it?" Priscilla asked.

"It's about Elijah. Buhnd, where is he?"

"Hmm. He and Mica should be in Vildorial, securing it for when our visitors arrive." Why?"

"This letter is pretty important and Seris is asking for a reply."

"Why send it through you?" Virion asked.

"Because if she sent it to him directly then it could look suspicious."

"Well, I can send someone to deliver it today," Buhnd offered.

"That works, thanks," Arthur replied as he used fire mana to melt the wax and reseal the envelope, then handed it to Buhnd. "Well I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to get some rest."

"How about a quick update on your students before you go? We're all a little anxious to have more aether users," Merial said.

"Well don't get your hopes up. I highly doubt they'll reach my level, I feel we'll need to wait a few more generations for that. Anyway, Ellie is still having trouble keeping her claw's solidified, but she's getting better. Feyrith and Emily can finally feel aether, but they still can't manipulate it. As for Tess, still no change."

——————————————————————-

Shortly after Arthur returned from the relic tomb he showed the council a purple crystal that he received from the Djinn, that could read if someone had an affinity to aether, similar to the crystals used to determine someone's mana affinity. Immediately they began testing the guards, but with no luck. They went through every combat mage from the sanctuary to the relic tomb, but not one person had the affinity.

That was when Gideon finally got his hands on the crystal. Unlike the days it took to get everyone else tested, he had his entire staff tested in an hour, as he was driven by his desire to create armor and other artifacts like Arthur's. Over two hundred people were tested over the span of two weeks, and out of them only Emily held the affinity.

As for Tess, shortly after their return from Alacrya they began her aether training again. Just as before she couldn't seem to do more than feel the aether around her, and just as they learned in Alacrya she could only use aether when using her beast will, which was also when Arthur noticed something else unusual. The massive amount of aether in her core had diminished significantly from their battle with Agrona. At first Arthur thought that the aether in her core was part of a way to force her body to gain the affinity, and that it being used up may be a sign that it was complete. They even tested her affinity with the crystal, and it confirmed she had gained it.

However this was not the case. Through training she never was able to draw on the ambient aether, only what was in her core. Eventually she had completely used up all of her aether, and her ability to even feel aether left with it. They tested her affinity immediately after, and saw her affinity was gone. Arthur had offered to teach her about aether so that she could develop her own affinity as elder Rinia did, but she declined. Unlike Rinia she didn't have a drive to spend such a large portion of her life learning it. They were entering an era of peace and she wanted other things out of life, she wanted a family of her own.

——————————————————————-

"I know you said that it hurt her, but you also said that the Djinn admitted that he wanted to refine this better so that it wouldn't be painful. Have you considered going back to him to discuss this?" Marcus asked.

After seeing Arthur in action using aether, the entire council was eager to find and train other aether mages, as they could no doubt be a driving force to help Dicathen in a multitude of ways.

"I've considered it, but I won't take Tess back there, and I definitely won't ask anyone else to go through what she did," Arthur stated.

"I understand, but perhaps you should atleast update him, making it clear that you won't allow anyone else to go through that again," Marcus suggested.

"I'll consider it. I can at least make it a direct trip now since I've been there."

——————————————————————-

Arthur entered his and Tess' room and dropped himself on the bed. He wasn't physically tired, but dealing with the delegation was a bit mentally exhausting. He thought he was ready for anything the delegation might throw at him, but Corbett still completely blindsided him with his proposal.

"I should have just let the council do all the talking, I drew too much attention to myself," Arthur thought out loud.

Regis jumped out from his chest and landed on the floor. "Nah, he was already planning this from the beginning. I mean you did kill their god, and that kind of power from a human is completely unheard of."

"Well you weren't exactly any help. You just wanted her for yourself."

"Yeah, I'm a breast man. Angela, Caera, Aya, I would go for your mom but because of your memories the idea of it really bothers me."

"That's good for your sake. I'd hate to have to kill you."

Regis got his front paws on the bed and stared at him. "You wouldn't actually kill me if I boned your mom would you?"

Arthur just glared at him with a cold emotionless expression.

"Noted, Alice is off limits. Can I still tease about mounting Tess?"

Arthur grabbed a pillow and swung it hard enough that he knocked Regis off the bed.

"Gotcha, Tess is off limits too," Regis replied from the floor.

Arthur shook his head as he rolled over to put the pillow back, and noticed something where the pillow was. It was a oval shaped black stone, with a paper underneath. He reached over and picked it up, it was one of the black stone artifacts they found on the desert floor. They collected all of them, and handed them all to Gideon upon their return, but he had yet to figure out their purpose.

"Hey Regis, did you steal an artifact from Gideons lab during our last visit?"

"Why would I bother with that? Anyway, I'm going for a walk. Maybe I'll check out that secret garden of Tess' and annoy the lizard." And with that Regis walked through the door and left.

Unfortunately since everything needed to look like Dicathen was standing on their own without the Asura, Sylvie had to essentially stay in hiding. So during this time she decided to stay in the secret garden and continue to work on fixing it up. During the time they were away from the castle, multiple plants had died from the lack of watering. So since they returned Tess and Sylvie had been replacing the dead plants and bringing the ones that still had hope back to life. It had become a sort of mother daughter project that they had been working on together during their free time, which had been plentiful for Tess since she learned she was pregnant.

"Maybe Tess?" Arthur wondered as he removed the paper and read the message written. "Sit down somewhere comfortable and channel Aether," it read.

"What the hell?" He thought out loud. Regardless, he did as the note said. Instantly his body felt heavy and his mind felt as though it was being pulled away, then everything went black.

——————————————————————-

Arthur opened his eyes finally to find himself looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling.

"What the hell happened to me?" He asked no one in particular, and immediately noticed something was wrong. "Hello?" He knew he was speaking, but not with his own voice.

Immediately he shot up and looked around, hoping to see a mirror, but instead saw Windsom sitting at a table in the middle of the room.

"So this was your doing?" Arthur asked.

"Yes," he replied flatly.

"And can you explain what you did?"

Windsom pointed to his right, and to a mirror hanging from the wall. Arthur immediately got up and walked to it, and his eyes went wide at the sight, all four of them.

"The artifact you used is a communication artifact that can temporarily switch your conciseness with someone else's," he explained as he examined his new face.

"And you chose someone from the pantheon race?"

"That was my decision," a new voice rang as he entered.

Arthur spun around to see an older man with four eyes like himself, with long black hair shaved on the sides, with two more purple eyes on the sides.

"Arthur, allow me to introduce you to Ademir Thyestes, lord of the Thyestes clan," Windsom introduced.

Arthur bowed respectfully. "It is a pleasure to meet you Lord Thyestes."

"Both Aldir and Kordri speak highly of you, if not for them I may not have agreed to meet with you," Ademir replied with a proud tone.

"Ademir," Windsom said in an almost scolding tone.

"The idea of meeting with a lesser like this is frustrating enough, not to mention how he was the one who defeated Agrona!"

"Did I strike a nerve by killing him?" Arthur asked.

"His head should have been ours!" Ademir replied angrily. "Yet somehow he fell to you. The disgrace is..."

"Perhaps you should stop thinking of me as a lesser, it may soften the blow. And it's not like I'm that much weaker than you anyway. I'm well into the integration stage."

"This just adds to the insult! A lesser shouldn't be able to ever reach this level!"

"Then think of me as part dragon, since I am."

"What? How is this possible?"

"It's a long story, and even though you may be long lived, I don't think we have the time for an explanation right now."

"Very well," Ademir conceded. "But I want that explanation when we speak next, otherwise I won't be able to trust you."

"Very well," Arthur agreed, then looked to Windsom. "Now back to what you were saying. You said I switched consciousnesses with this person, does that mean he's in my body now?"

"No," Windsom replied, and revealed another artifact, the same as the one attached to the pedestal in the secret room on the desert floor. "Because you don't have one of these, it only goes one way. Your body is currently where ever you left it in a sleep-like state."

"That's good to know, also good to know these are communication artifacts. We found a few, but our artificers haven't been able to figure out what they do or how to use them."

"Good, having discovered them yourself it will make it more believable if you are ever discovered to have one."

"And by that are you referring to the half dozen Asura that have been monitoring me?"

"So you're aware of them."

"I am, I'm also curious as to why they're keeping their distance."

"That was my order. I instructed them to remain outside of the floating castle. I convinced Kezess that this was a wise decision by telling him we don't know how much sharper your senses have gotten and it would be best to avoid detection."

"So they aren't aware of what's happening inside the castle?"

"They are," Ademir chimed in. "One of my clansmen is on this team, but you don't need to worry. She is more loyal to me than Kezess, so she won't report this to him."

"That said, it is a lot harder to keep things from him when you leave the castle since you're out in the open," Windsom added.

"And there we have a problem. My home in Elenoir will be completed in a few weeks, and it will be hard for me to make an excuse to not move in," Arthur pointed out.

If Arthur had his way his home wouldn't be completed for a few more months, but the people of Elenoir had a say about that. Originally Arthur and Tess agreed that rebuilding Zestier should take priority over their home being built. Of course they met with architects so their home could be designed and to show the location, but that was as far as it was supposed to go. However somehow the people had heard of this, and many protested, saying that as touching as it was that their future king and queen put so much priority onto the rebuilding of their homes, but felt it a greater priority for them to have their home built. The logic to this of course being their culture, one being family is one of the most important things for them, and the other being the tradition of the flowers. Potted flowers would only last so long, and they had a great deal of them to plant.

"We are aware, as is Kezess. So if you delay by too long he will be suspicious."

"Honestly I'm not too worried. I do most of my training in the relic tomb these days, and Asura can't go there. As for the communication artifact, I can keep it hidden between uses, but we need to schedule a time that works so I can ensure it doesn't draw suspicion, and they won't just walk into my home and see me with it. One time might be something they could write off, but multiple could be a problem."

"You two can figure that out. I'm more concerned with the evidence I've seen and what we're going to do about it," Ademir stated.

"Of course," Arthur said, sitting down at a table and gesturing for them to join him. "Where would you like to start?"

"Let's start with that artifact you gave Windsom, where did you get it?"

"The Djinn."

"And you believe them?" He scoffed. "They lost to us, isn't it possible that they used that as a source of revenge?"

"I don't believe them entirely, after all every side of a war has their own story. I do however believe Sylvia."

This got Ademir's attention. "What did you learn from lady Sylvia?" He asked while staring at Arthur thoughtfully, looking for any sign of deception.

"She told me the whole truth behind the war between Kezess and Agrona. Agrona discovered the truth behind the war with the Djinn, and Kezess discredited and banished him. If not for Sylvia I probably would have been skeptical of the Djinn too, but with her confirmation I believe it."

Ademir nodded in acceptance. "The Thyestes clan will support in overthrowing Kezess. I can have our entire clan ready in a matter of days."

"Good, but we have to wait for now."

"Wait?" He repeated with annoyance. "We have waited for hundreds of years."

"Then another year or two won't be too much. Quite simply we need to gather more forces. I know your clan is strong, but you aren't strong enough to handle all of the other clans without the rest of the world suffering. The greater our forces the less likely a war will break out. I also need to get stronger myself."

"Yourself? We are doing this with the knowledge that you will defeat Kezess!"

"And I can, but at my current level it wouldn't be a decisive battle, he may even be able to leave me crippled, or create an opening to escape. The key to this is to defeat Kezess in one stroke and prevent a war. But if he escapes war will be inevitable, and the whole world will suffer."

Ademir nodded in understanding. "The one who is best prepared holds the greatest chance of victory."

"Wise words. Now as you two recruit other clans, I'll be preparing on my end and working a plan. Tell me, is there a way to know how long someone will live?"

"Members of the phoenix clan are capable of seeing such things," Windsom answered.

"And is there on in the team observing me?"

"There is, but the Phoenix clan is loyal to Kezess," Windsom stated.

"More specifically, they are loyal to their current clan leader, who is loyal to Kezess," Ademir pointed out.

"You say current clan leader, what happened to the previous one?"

"Lord Mordain of the phoenix race," Windsom began. "The Phoenix race was always the closest in strength to the dragons, but there was always a clear gap. Mordain however was the only one who could rival Kezess' strength, and they were said to be good friends."

"Said to be?" Arthur questioned.

"They of course wouldn't always get along, he even challenged Kezess on multiple occasions, but for some time, nothing negative ever came of it. However one day he simply disappeared without a trace. Many rumors stirred that Kezess had finally killed him, but eventually they ended and were forgotten about."

"Do you think Kezess killed him?"

"I didn't, I couldn't even find any evidence like I did with the war with the Djinn. But after everything that I have learned, I believe he did."

"Ahem," Ademir cleared his throat. "There's a bit more to the story than you know."

"What do you mean?" Windsom questioned.

"Kezess didn't try to kill Mordain, at least not directly. He was attacked by several of his clanmen. He defeated them, and got one of them to admit that the current clan leader gave them the order. With the threat being from within, he gathered the few he knew he could trust and fled."

"Do you think Kezess got the current clan leader to do it?" Arthur asked.

"The current leader would lick Kezess' boot if he held it out to him, the man is an opportunist without pride or honor. It's rare for Kezess to get his own hands dirty, so he gets others to do it for him."

"Do you think the Phoenix's would join us if we could convince Mordain?" Arthur asked.

"The clan is dissatisfied with the current leader, but with Kezess supporting him they wouldn't dare do anything about it. But if Mordain was to return, I have no doubt he could rally his clan to our cause."

"So where is Mordain then?" Windsom asked Ademir expectantly.

"What makes you think I know?"

"You've known this much."

Ademir nodded. "Mordain spoke with me before he left. He wanted to fight back, but at the time with his control over his own clan being what it was, war wasn't a wise decision. But he did tell me where he was going in case things ever changed. The beast glades in Dicathen."

"Good. I'll head there soon," Windsom stated.

"No you won't," Arthur stated. "If you suddenly leave for the beast glades, who is to say that you won't catch Kezess' attention? Not to mention they may see you as Kezess' loyal servant and hide, or at worst kill you on sight. No I'll go, an unfamiliar face may have a better chance."

"But you are being watched at all times," Ademir reminded him.

"Not at all times. Remember Asura can't enter the relic tombs, and I go there regularly. I can also control where I come out," Arthur informed them, not wanting to reveal the fact that he can create portals. "As long as I don't take much longer than normal they won't suspect a thing."