Chapter 469: The Spatial Recall Anchor & Return to Steele Manor

Ten days of heavy mid-winter snowfall settled over the liberated peaks of the Kurogane Mountain Range, burying the scorched siege trenches outside the Eastern Iron-Cloud Citadel under a pristine blanket of white.

With Commander Ii Naomasa and the surviving remnants of the Rising Sun expeditionary army driven across the freezing eastern sea, the clang of weapons along the border passes gave way to the rhythmic ring of mason’s hammers and the rumble of supply carts. Thirty thousand soldiers of the Fierce Tiger Unit and the Thunder-Spear Relief Force rotated into the warm stone barracks of the twin citadels, while the main garrison in Azure Fall City settled into an orderly winter routine.

On the morning of the tenth day, inside the high-walled courtyard of Archmage Alaric Steele’s private estate in the upper district of Azure Fall City, General Cui Hao stood at the foot of the veranda steps in his silver-inlaid border commander armor.

Before him stood his sister, Noble Consort Cui Yulan, wearing her dark violet fur-trimmed mantle with the Golden Tiger-Tally of the Border Marshal hanging at her waist, alongside Alaric in his plain gray linen healer’s robes.

“Sister Yulan, Master Alaric,” General Cui Hao said, clasping his gauntleted fists in a respectful salute as his breath plumed white in the crisp air. “General Sun Ba and I have finished placing the permanent watch-banners along all five mountain passes and the coastal cliffs below the Eastern Iron-Cloud Citadel. With the winter blizzards locking the northern valleys for the next month, the border is calmer than it has been in ten years.”

Noble Consort Cui Yulan gave a calm, authoritative nod. “Do not allow the captains to grow lax because the sea-lanes are empty, Hao. Have the Wind-Hound Unit keep double patrols along the northern ridge overlooking Whispering Frost Valley, and send all weekly ration requisitions straight to Guildmaster Lin Ruoli at the Jade Serpent counting house.”

“Everything will be handled according to your orders, Sister,” General Cui Hao replied, turning his warm, grateful gaze toward Alaric. “Master Alaric, Sister Yulan informed me that you are sealing your inner courtyard today for two weeks of quiet alchemical refinement over the subterranean warm springs. I have already stationed Commander Jin and fifty Peak Martial King royal guards at the two ends of this street. No one will disturb your furnace until you open the doors!”

“Thank you, General Cui,” Alaric said with a gentle, polite smile. “The winter campaign left many of our officers with strained meridians. Refining a batch of restorative pills in quiet seclusion will put my mind at ease.”

Once General Cui Hao bowed and rode out through the courtyard gates with his escort, the heavy iron-bound doors of the estate rolled shut, and the invisible “Sound-Severed Void Ward” hummed into place across the perimeter walls.

Inside the warm corridor leading down to the subterranean wine cellar, Cui Yulan immediately stepped close to Alaric’s side, slipping her soft hand into his palm as they descended the spiral stone staircase five hundred feet into the glowing blue-gold crystal cavern beneath the city.

At the bottom of the stairs, where the hundred-foot waterfall of the ancient “Earth-Heart Profound Spirit Vein” poured into the steaming pool, the other women of Alaric’s eastern household were already waiting around a freshly carved circle of silver-violet spatial runes.

Imperial Consort Xian Zhao Mengxue and Imperial Consort Shu Su Xianye stood side by side in flowing crimson and sapphire silk robes, while Grand Elder Yun Lan of the Frozen Cloud Asgard, Queen Cai Wei, Saintess Ceanna Paxton, Archmage Lilliana Valtor, Guildmaster Lin Ruoli, Chief Auctioneer Ya Su, Fallen Fairy Mu Qing, and Princess Hai Lan stood gathered around eight large spatial chests packed with supreme-grade spirit stones and sealed jade jars of liquid-silver “Earth-Heart Spirit Marrow”.

“The eight spatial chests are filled and locked, Master,” Archmage Lilliana Valtor said, stepping back from the glowing runic circle and brushing a stray lock of dark hair behind her ear. “By drawing directly from the spirit vein’s core flow, the dimensional bridge to your primary Recall Anchor in the Western Continent is stable.”

Alaric swept his hand over the eight spatial chests, storing the mountain of supreme-grade spirit stones and spirit marrow inside his personal spatial ring.

More than half a year had elapsed since he left the Kingdom of Eloriath and the Unified Jorailian Empire to cross the Dividing Sea. During all those months of seizing eastern merchant networks and dismantling the Rising Sun invasion, his mother Matriarch Lyra Steele, his aunt Cassandra Galanis, Cassandra’s daughter Cousin Fiora Galanis, his official wife Princess Griselda Steele, and his young son had been waiting for him at Steele Manor.

Now that the eastern border war was won and the northern passes were snowed in for the rest of the winter, he had the breathing room to return home, pour the wealth of the ancient spirit vein into his family, and check on his western territories.

Cui Yulan stepped up in front of Alaric at the edge of the spatial circle. Reaching up, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her massive, soft breasts flush against his chest through her violet silk robe as she lifted her lips to his.

“Do not stay away a single day longer than you promised, Master,” Cui Yulan whispered against his mouth, her silver eyes glowing with tender devotion after their heated kiss parted. “Otherwise, Zhao Mengxue, Su Xianye, and I might forget our manners and march seventy thousand soldiers across the sea to look for you.”

Zhao Mengxue laughed softly, stepping up to kiss Alaric’s jaw while resting her hand on Cui Yulan’s hip. “Do not listen to her threats, Master. Give our regards to your mother and your family in the west. While you are away, the three of us will keep the Imperial Capital’s envoys spinning in circles.”

“And Ruoli and I will have the spring caravan routes into Cloud-Mist Province mapped out before you step back through the circle,” Chief Auctioneer Ya Su added with a bright wink, standing arm-in-arm with Guildmaster Lin Ruoli.

Alaric reached out, giving Cui Yulan’s and Zhao Mengxue’s plump, round buttocks a fond squeeze before looking across the circle at Grand Elder Yun Lan, Queen Cai Wei, Saintess Ceanna Paxton, and Archmage Lilliana Valtor.

“Keep refining the spirit-vein mist while I am gone,” Alaric instructed, stepping onto the center of the glowing silver-violet stone. “I will be back before the mountain ice thaws.”

“Safe travels, Master,” the women chorused softly, bowing in unison around the crystal pool.

Alaric channeled a steady surge of his Level 69 Peak Archmage spatial mana into the permanent Recall Anchor bound to his soul.

“Dimensional Fold: Recall Anchor Activation.”

A column of silver-violet light rose from the carved crystal floor, swallowing his figure in a silent flash of folded space.

Ten thousand miles to the west, beyond the storm-tossed waters of the Dividing Sea, a warm late-morning sun shone down from a cloudless blue sky over the green valleys of the Kingdom of Eloriath.

Atop its gently sloping hill surrounded by ancient oak groves and white marble walls, Steele Manor basked in the peaceful warmth of the western climate.

Deep beneath the main keep of the manor, inside the subterranean arrival vault lit by mana-lamps, two young women dressed in short black-and-white silk maid uniforms were kneeling beside the central obsidian platform, polishing the inlaid silver runes with soft chamois cloths.

They were Kara and Ulriya, the two Steele household maids whom Alaric had raised from humble Apprentice Mages to the Grand Mage realm before setting out on his eastern journey.

As she leaned forward to wipe the center of the platform, Kara’s short pleated skirt rode high up her smooth thighs, and her heavy breasts pressed tightly against the white lacing of her bodice.

“Ulriya, look at the central rune,” Kara whispered suddenly, sitting back on her heels as a warm, violet-silver glow began to pulse inside the obsidian stone. “The spatial veins are humming!”

Ulriya’s ice-blue eyes widened, her polishing cloth slipping from her fingers as both girls scrambled back to the edge of the carpet. “Only the Young Master can activate the central Recall Anchor from across the sea!”

Hum—whoosh!

A pillar of silver-violet spatial light flashed across the vault and vanished, revealing Archmage Alaric Steele standing tall upon the obsidian pedestal—dressed no longer in the plain gray linen of a border camp physician, but in a fitted, black-and-gold noble’s coat over a crisp white shirt.

“Young Master!”

Kara and Ulriya let out twin squeals of pure joy. Without a second’s hesitation, both curvaceous Grand Mage maids sprang forward across the marble tiles and threw themselves straight into his open arms!

Alaric laughed warmly, catching Kara with his left arm and Ulriya with his right, lifting both girls off their feet as their soft, fragrant bodies collided with his chest.

“Let me look at my two favorite maids,” Alaric said, setting them down only after sliding his large hands down their narrow waists to cup and squeeze their firm, round buttocks beneath their short pleated skirts.

“You have been gone for more than half a year, Young Master!” Ulriya breathed, her cheeks blushing a bright, rosy red as she rose onto her tiptoes and pressed her soft lips eagerly against his mouth.

Right beside her, Kara waited barely three seconds before nudging Ulriya’s cheek aside to claim her own deep, hungry kiss from their master, pressing her large, bouncy breasts flat against his ribs and letting out a soft, needy whimper into his mouth.

“Every morning for six months, Ulriya and I came down here to dust this platform hoping the runes would light up,” Kara whispered against his collarbone once her lips parted from his, her dark eyes shining with worship. “Wait until Matriarch Lyra, Lady Cassandra, Lady Fiora, and Princess Griselda see you! They are all up in the sunlit garden courtyard right now watching little Master Aurelius!”

“How has my son been behaving while I was away?” Alaric asked with a grin, keeping an arm draped around each maid’s waist as they walked toward the wide marble stairs leading up to the main hall.

“Oh, little Master Aurelius is the terror of the garden, Young Master!” Ulriya giggled, leaning her head affectionately against Alaric’s shoulder as they climbed the steps. “Lady Fiora can barely keep shoes on his feet, and your aunt Lady Cassandra spoils her grandson so terribly that whenever Lady Fiora tries to scold him for pulling up the spirit-flowers, Lady Cassandra scolds Lady Fiora instead!”

Alaric chuckled, picturing his fiery Aunt Cassandra doting on her daughter’s child while bossing Fiora around.

Pushing open the tall glass-and-mahogany doors at the top of the stairs, Alaric stepped out onto the wide marble terrace overlooking the inner garden courtyard of Steele Manor.

Warm golden sunlight poured down over manicured lawns, blooming white sun-lilies, and a bubbling stone fountain at the center of the yard.

Under the shade of a white marble pavilion draped in wisteria vines sat the four women who ruled Steele Manor.

At the head of the low glass table sat Alaric’s mother, Matriarch Lyra Steele. Wearing a flowing gown of deep crimson silk whose low-cut bodice showcased the lush, creamy expanse of her massive, mature breasts, Lyra looked every inch the radiant queen of the household, her Late-Stage Grand Martialist vitality making her skin glow like warm porcelain.

Sitting right beside Lyra was her sister, Alaric’s Aunt Cassandra Galanis. Dressed in a sleeveless azure martial tunic with high side-slits that revealed her long, toned thighs and hugged her narrow waist and heavy, firm chest, Cassandra was leaning back in her chair laughing as she watched the lawn in front of them.

Out on the soft green grass ten paces away, Cassandra’s daughter—Alaric’s cousin Fiora Galanis—was kneeling in a light rose-colored sundress that clung to her full, maternal curves and large, heavy breasts, holding out a pair of tiny leather boots toward a sturdy, golden-haired toddler who was giggling and running in circles around the fountain.

“Mother, stop laughing and help me catch him!” Cousin Fiora Galanis called over her shoulder to Aunt Cassandra, brushing a lock of hair from her flushed cheek as her young son dodged playfully behind a flower bush. “Every time you tell Aurelius that boots are for slowpokes, he kicks them into the fountain!”

“Why put heavy leather boots on my grandson when the grass is warm, Fiora?” Aunt Cassandra Galanis teased her daughter with a proud grin, slapping her own toned thigh. “Look at the leg strength on that boy! He gets his speed from his grandmother and his father! Didn’t you say the same thing this morning, Sister Lyra?”

Matriarch Lyra Steele smiled warmly behind her teacup, while across the table, Princess Griselda Steele—the Sixth Princess of Eloriath and Alaric’s official wife, dressed in a regal gown of emerald velvet—set down her estate ledger to laugh at the mother-and-daughter banter.

Then Alaric took two steps down the marble terrace stairs.

The click of his leather boots against the stone made all four women turn their heads toward the terrace at once.

For one silent heartbeat, the garden froze.

Cousin Fiora Galanis dropped the tiny leather boots onto the grass. Aunt Cassandra Galanis and Matriarch Lyra Steele stood up so fast their chairs scraped across the marble tiles, and Princess Griselda Steele’s emerald eyes flew wide with joy.

“Alaric!”

Matriarch Lyra Steele reached him first, her crimson silk skirts flying as she threw her arms around her son’s neck and pulled his head down into a fierce, breathless kiss right on the mouth, her massive, warm breasts flattening against his chest as happy tears sparkled on her eyelashes.

“My son… you are finally back in my arms,” Lyra whispered against his lips before kissing him again with all the pent-up longing of six months apart.

Right behind her sister, Aunt Cassandra Galanis wrapped her strong, toned arms around both Alaric and Lyra, laughing throatily as she turned Alaric’s chin and claimed a deep, fiery kiss of her own. “Six months in the east, you rascal! Look how thin—wait, no, your shoulders are even broader than when you left!”

“Mother, Aunt Lyra, let me kiss him too!” Cousin Fiora Galanis protested laughingly as she ran up with Princess Griselda Steele, the two younger women squeezing into his embrace to press warm, eager kisses against his lips and cheeks.

Down by the grass edge, little Aurelius spotted the tall man surrounded by his mother Fiora, his grandmother Cassandra, and his grandmother Lyra.

“Ba! Ba!”

The golden-haired little boy toddled rapidly across the flagstones on his bare feet and grabbed onto Alaric’s boot with both hands.

Alaric grinned, reaching down with one strong hand to scoop his son straight off the ground and seating the boy high on his broad right shoulder.

“Look how big you have grown, Aurelius,” Alaric said warmly, holding his son steady with one hand while wrapping his left arm around Fiora’s waist and kissing her forehead. “Your mother and your Grandmother Cassandra have been training you well.”

“Don’t encourage my mother, Alaric,” Cousin Fiora Galanis laughed, leaning her head happily against Alaric’s chest while looking up at their son with shining eyes. “Between my mother teaching him how to swing wooden daggers and Aunt Lyra feeding him honey-cakes behind my back, Griselda and I are the only ones enforcing any rules in this house!”

Aunt Cassandra Galanis snorted, resting a hand on her curvy hip as she beamed up at her grandson perched on Alaric’s shoulder. “Rules are for clerks! My daughter gave you a son with the lungs of a dragon and the grip of a lion, Alaric—why shouldn’t I spoil my own grandson?”

While listening to Lyra, Cassandra, Fiora, and Griselda chatter happily around him, Alaric sent a gentle, warm current of his Level 69 Peak Archmage perception through little Aurelius’s body.

The boy’s physique was brimming with clean, exuberant vitality, his young bones and blood carrying a natural fusion of Fiora’s “Imperial Dragon Heart” and Alaric’s own bloodline power.

Walking over to the shaded marble pavilion table, Alaric set Aurelius gently down in Fiora’s lap and waved his right hand across the stone courtyard.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Four massive spatial chests packed with fist-sized, glowing supreme-grade spirit stones and six tall jade jars filled with liquid-silver “Earth-Heart Spirit Marrow” materialized on the marble tiles, releasing a wave of pure, concentrated spiritual mist that made all the white sun-lilies in the garden open their petals another inch!

Matriarch Lyra Steele, Aunt Cassandra Galanis, Cousin Fiora Galanis, and Princess Griselda Steele stared in astonishment as the dense spiritual aura washed over their skin.

“Alaric…” Princess Griselda Steele breathed, her hand rising to her throat as she looked at the glowing silver liquid inside the unsealed jade jar. “This spiritual density… even a single drop of this liquid is purer than the royal treasury elixirs of Eloriath!”

“I uncovered a three-thousand-year-old immortal sect spirit vein beneath the border city I captured in the east,” Alaric said, dipping his clean finger into the top layer of the “Earth-Heart Spirit Marrow” and touching a single warm, golden-silver drop to little Aurelius’s lips.

The boy swallowed the sweet, glowing drop happily. Immediately, a soft golden-violet warmth rippled through his chubby cheeks and tiny limbs, gently fortifying his bone marrow and innate foundation without a trace of strain before he let out a huge, contented yawn and curled up asleep against Fiora’s breast.

“Kara, Ulriya,” Cousin Fiora Galanis whispered softly, smiling as the two Grand Mage maids stepped forward to take the sleeping toddler in a warm silk blanket. “Put Aurelius down in his warded nursery crib for his afternoon nap.”

“Yes, Lady Fiora!” Kara and Ulriya curtsied, exchanging an excited, blushing glance with Alaric as they carried the sleeping boy inside and promised to return in five minutes.

The moment the nursery doors clicked shut down the hall, the atmosphere inside the sunlit garden pavilion shifted instantly from warm family domesticity to thick, scorching heat.

Matriarch Lyra Steele stepped right up in front of Alaric, her dark eyes heavy with desire as she reached up with both hands and began unbuttoning his black-and-gold coat.

“Now that our grandson is safely asleep for the afternoon,” Lyra murmured, her husky voice sending a jolt of heat straight to Alaric’s groin as she pushed his coat off his shoulders and pressed her soft, massive breasts against his white shirt, “you have four starved women standing in front of you, my darling. Do you intend to make your mother beg on the garden stones, or are you taking us upstairs?”

Beside her sister, Aunt Cassandra Galanis reached down and gripped the hem of her azure martial tunic, pulling it straight over her head and tossing it onto the wicker chair—leaving her glorious, sun-kissed upper body bare in the warm garden breeze, her huge, firm breasts and stiff pink nipples gleaming in the sunlight as she grabbed her daughter Fiora’s hand!

“Why wait until we get upstairs to start stripping?” Cassandra purred boldly, pulling the ribbon of her daughter Fiora’s rose sundress undone so that Fiora’s heavy, milk-white breasts spilled out into the open air right alongside her mother’s! “Look at my daughter’s cheeks turning red, Alaric—Fiora has been tossing and turning in the room next to mine every night wishing you were home to fill her up again!”

“Mother—!” Cousin Fiora Galanis gasped, blushing crimson from her ears down to her bare cleavage even as she stepped eagerly against Alaric’s other side and pressed her soft lips to his neck.

Princess Griselda Steele did not let herself be left behind for a second; with a flick of her royal fingers, the emerald velvet gown slid down over her wide hips and pooled around her ankles, leaving the Sixth Princess of Eloriath standing bare in nothing but her pearl necklace.

Alaric’s ruby eyes blazed with primal hunger at the sight.

Scooping Matriarch Lyra Steele over his right shoulder and Aunt Cassandra Galanis under his left arm—their bare, round buttocks bouncing against his palms as both mature beauties laughed and squealed with delight—Alaric carried them straight up the wide marble stairs into the spacious, velvet-draped master bedchamber, with a half-naked Fiora and a bare Griselda hurrying right behind his heels!

Inside the sunlit master bedchamber, Alaric tossed the last of his clothes aside and threw Lyra, Cassandra, Fiora, and Griselda onto the ten-foot-wide silk mattress just as Kara and Ulriya slipped quietly through the bedroom door, stripping off their black-and-white maid uniforms as they ran toward the bed.

Six magnificent, voluptuous women lay sprawled across the silk sheets in the golden afternoon light.

Alaric climbed onto the center of the bed, his massive, rock-hard shaft jutting thick and heavy against his stomach as he reached out and pulled Matriarch Lyra Steele and Aunt Cassandra Galanis side by side onto their hands and knees in the center of the mattress.

Looking down at the two sisters—his mother Lyra on the left with her snow-white, plush buttocks raised high and her massive breasts brushing the silk sheets, and his aunt Cassandra on the right with her toned, curvy ass arched right next to Lyra’s—Alaric gripped Lyra’s wide hips with both hands and drove his thick cock straight to the hilt inside his mother’s soaking-wet, tight pussy in one powerful thrust!

“Haaaah! Ohhh, Alaric!” Matriarch Lyra Steele cried out, her fingers clutching the silk pillows as her tight, scalding inner walls stretched wide around his immense girth and clamped down with desperate, greedy force.

Alaric did not start slowly. Six months of separation fueled a fierce, relentless hunger in his blood as he began pounding into Lyra from behind with long, heavy strokes that made her plump, round buttocks slap loudly against his muscular thighs and her huge breasts swing beneath her chest!

Right beside her sister, Aunt Cassandra Galanis let out a needy groan, pressing her bare shoulder against Lyra’s and reaching her hand back to rub her own dripping wet folds while turning her face toward Alaric so he could kiss her mouth.

At the same time, Cassandra’s daughter—Cousin Fiora Galanis—crawled right underneath Lyra and Cassandra, lying on her back on the mattress below them so that her own massive, pale breasts were pressed up against her mother’s and aunt’s chests while she reached her slender hands down to stroke Alaric’s heavy testicles every time his cock plunged in and out of Lyra!

“Look at you, Fiora,” Aunt Cassandra Galanis panted as she broke her kiss with Alaric and looked down at her blushing daughter lying beneath them, sliding one hand down to fondle Fiora’s heavy breast and pinch her daughter’s stiff pink nipple. “Helping your Aunt Lyra and your own mother take your man’s cock… wait until he pulls out of Lyra and puts that monster inside you next!”

“Mmph… Mother… don’t tease me…” Cousin Fiora Galanis whimpered, her hips squirming on the sheets as her mother pinched her nipple and Alaric’s wet, rhythmic thrusts pounded into Lyra just inches above Fiora’s face.

On Alaric’s left, Princess Griselda Steele knelt beside him, pressing her huge, soft breasts against his muscular arm while kissing his neck, while Kara and Ulriya knelt behind Alaric—the two Grand Mage maids eagerly licking the sweat from his back and pressing their soft breasts against his thighs and buttocks as they pushed his hips forward into every stroke!

“Ahhh! I’m coming! Alaric, harder!” Matriarch Lyra Steele screamed into the pillows, her entire voluptuous body shuddering violently as a gushing climax tore through her core, her tight pussy milking his shaft in rhythmic waves.

Pulling his glistening, rock-hard length out of his trembling mother with a wet pop, Alaric shifted three inches to the right, grabbed Aunt Cassandra Galanis by her firm, round buttocks, and slammed himself balls-deep into Cassandra’s tight, scorching-hot pussy in a single stroke!

“Ohhh! Yes! Right there!” Cassandra wailed, her back arching deeply as Alaric gripped her narrow waist with one hand and delivered a sharp, ringing spank to her round ass with the other, driving the fierce warrior aunt wild with pleasure!

And while he fucked Aunt Cassandra from behind, Alaric looked down at her daughter Fiora lying on her back right beneath Cassandra’s chest. Leaning forward over Cassandra’s back, Alaric lowered his mouth to suck hard on Cassandra’s bouncing breast while sliding two fingers of his right hand deep into Cousin Fiora Galanis’s soaking-wet pussy below—making both mother and daughter moan and writhe together in a tangled heap of pale limbs and bouncing breasts!

The moment Aunt Cassandra climaxed with a hoarse cry around his shaft, Alaric lifted Cousin Fiora Galanis up onto his lap facing her gasping mother and aunt, impaling Fiora’s tight, wet passage straight down onto his throbbing cock while cupping Fiora’s massive breasts in both palms and bouncing her up and down until she wept with ecstasy and flooded his thighs!

Then he pulled Princess Griselda Steele, Kara, and Ulriya into the center of the sheets, taking the royal princess and the two devoted maids in turn across the sunlit bed until evening shadows lengthened across the garden outside.

For five straight days and nights at Steele Manor, Alaric immersed himself in the warm, loving embrace of his household.

Between marathon sessions of uninhibited passion in the master bedchamber and the heated marble bathhouse, Alaric personally guided Lyra, Cassandra, Fiora, Griselda, Kara, and Ulriya in absorbing the six jade jars of “Earth-Heart Spirit Marrow” and thousands of supreme-grade spirit stones.

Washed clean by the three-thousand-year-old immortal sect marrow and nourished by Alaric’s potent Beast Emperor vitality, the cultivation bottlenecks of the entire Steele household shattered one after another: Matriarch Lyra Steele and Aunt Cassandra Galanis both broke cleanly through into the **Early-Stage Grandmaster Martialist** realm; Cousin Fiora Galanis advanced to the **Peak Grand Martialist** tier; Princess Griselda Steele surged two full stages forward; and Kara and Ulriya reached the very peak of the **Grand Mage** realm!

On the morning of the sixth day, as Alaric sat on the sunny garden terrace in a loose black silk robe with little Aurelius playing happily with a carved wooden lion at his feet—while Matriarch Lyra Steele and Cousin Fiora Galanis leaned warmly against his shoulders pouring his morning tea—Aunt Cassandra Galanis and Princess Griselda Steele walked out onto the terrace carrying a sealed imperial dispatch cylinder stamped with the golden crest of the Unified Jorailian Empire.

“Alaric,” Princess Griselda Steele said, handing him the cylinder with a gentle smile. “A spatial courier just arrived at the outer gatehouse from Empress Regent Ondine Bellerose in the Jorailian capital and Vanguard Commander Archmage Maelis at Azure Fortress.”

Alaric broke the seal and read the parchment inside while Aunt Cassandra Galanis sat down on the arm of his chair, resting her bare, toned thigh against his arm.

“Ondine reports that the western senates and the tributes from Strathmore and Eloriath are running smoothly,” Alaric said, scanning the bottom lines of the scroll. “And Maelis notes that the prisoner down in the black-iron subterranean vault beneath Azure Fortress is finally reaching the end of his rope.”

“You mean Kenneth?” Aunt Cassandra Galanis asked, her eyes narrowing at the memory of the arrogant rebel leader whom her daughter Fiora had defeated before Alaric broke his mind six months ago. “Maelis mentioned in her message that three nights ago, while delirious in his chains, Kenneth started babbling coordinates about a secret ‘Emperor’s Origin Vault’ hidden in the neutral mountains—a vault he never had the chance to open before we captured him.”

Alaric folded the scroll and stood up on the marble terrace, reaching down to pat his son’s golden hair and kissing Lyra, Cassandra, Fiora, and Griselda in turn on their soft lips.

“Stay here at the manor and finish consolidating your new Grandmaster realms,” Alaric said, his ruby eyes gleaming with calm, sovereign resolve. “Today, I am stepping through the spatial gate to Jorailia and Azure Fortress to pay Ondine and Maelis a visit—and to pry that last vault key out of Kenneth’s skull before putting him in the ground.”