My Wife Rules The World

Behind Leon, Grovin's group had moved on from the announcement already. Voices overlapping about route options, who was taking the depot watch shift, someone arguing that the C-rank contracts hadn't been worth the risk so far. Camp business. Leon's situation was background to it now, already absorbed into the evening.

Rone came over while Leon was still standing where he'd fallen, blood drying above his lip.

"Look at yourself.. a miserable bitch who’s going to become the academy’s slave now " He said it almost cheerfully. " And even that Defiant brat is dead now, well, with his haughty act he was going to drop dead sooner than later anyway " He shook his head, genuinely pleased with how the evening had turned out. "I'd be more shocked but honestly this is the best part of my week."

Leon didn't answer him.

Headlights came through the trees about twenty minutes later. Two black jeeps, moving with more confidence than the terrain should have allowed, cutting straight through the camp's perimeter.

Everyone in the clearing went alert at once. People stood, hands moving instinctively toward whatever they had on them.

Six personnel got out, three from each vehicle, in dark tactical gear. The one in front scanned the group.

"We're here take the withdrawn candidate who is now placed under Academy’s collateral " His voice carried no particular tone. "Confirm identity — Leon Ashford."

Nobody answered for a second. Then someone pointed.

The lead officer walked over, checked something on a handheld device against Leon's face, and nodded once.

"That's him."

Two of them came forward and took Leon by the arms. He didn't resist. They pulled his wrists behind his back and secured them with a plastic tie, efficient about it, not rough but not careful either.

He looked back once at the camp as they walked him to the jeep. Grovin was watching with his arms crossed. Rone wasn't laughing anymore. A few others just stood there.

The door closed. The jeeps turned and started back the way they'd come.

The camp stayed quiet for a while after that.

The road through Restricted Zone 4 was rough enough that Leon's shoulder kept hitting the door panel every time the jeep took a turn. He sat between two of the personnel, wrists still bound, watching the forest move past the window in the dark.

Nobody spoke to him. He didn't ask anything.

---

Manhattan saw the convoy before most people understood what they were looking at.

Fifteen vehicles, black, moving in tight formation with a police escort that wasn't really police anymore — Vanguard units running interference at every intersection along the route, holding traffic at a standstill for blocks in either direction. Pedestrians stopped on the sidewalks. Phones came out. A woman near 57th Street turned to the man next to her and said she'd never seen anything like it, not even during the UN sessions. He said he heard it was some high ranking Executive from Remeria Group likely The Maynard or The Clark family Head.

The convoy turned off the main avenue eventually, toward a property whose perimeter wall ran for what felt like an unreasonable distance along the street. The gates opened without anyone visibly signalling them to.

Five minutes after passing through, the convoy reached a luxury house.

It sat back from the gate behind manicured grounds, lit from below, the stone pale against the dark.

Emilia was already waiting at the entrance. Behind her stood a man in Vanguard uniform with three stars on his shoulder, and behind him a line of armed personnel.

The lead vehicle stopped. A guard opened the rear door.

Felicy stepped out, adjusting her shawl, looking up at the house.

"I didn't expect to be called this soon," she said to Emilia. "It hasn't even been two days."

Emilia bowed slightly. "Lady Iris was eager to speak with you."

She led Felicy inside.

---

The dining room ran the length of one wing, the table set for two though it could have seated thirty. Maids moved along its length placing dishes in sequence, course after course.

Iris was seated at the far end.

"Felicy." She inclined her head.

"Iris." Felicy took her seat and looked over the spread. "And how are you?"

"Good."

Felicy didn't push past that. She picked up her fork and started on the first course, commenting once that the soup was excellent.

Iris took one bite of the tart in front of her and set her fork down. She didn't touch anything else. Simply watched Felicy eat and waited.

Emilia stood near the wall.

After several courses Felicy set her fork down and dabbed at her mouth.

"Let's get back to the reason I'm here, shall we."

Iris looked at Emilia and made a small gesture with two fingers.

Emilia bowed and gathered the staff with a glance. Within a minute the room had emptied, the door closing behind the last of them.

"Let's get straight to the point," Iris said. "What did you mean — that there's another way to break the link."

Felicy folded her hands on the table. "There is. I won't pretend you'll like the method. And I want to be honest — even I can't be certain it would work. That's why I didn't bring it up until there was nothing else left to consider."

"If it's better than erasing half of humanity," Iris said, "I'd like to hear it."

Felicy was quiet for a moment. Then she sighed.

"If you want to fully break this link & take away Leon's abilities and responsibility that comes with being an Aether — it doesn't sever from your side. It severs from his." She looked at Iris. "He, The Aether, has to come to hate you, his master. Completely. Without reservation."

Iris didn't move.

"Since the link wasn’t something built in this lifetime," Felicy said. " And comes from the vow the two of you made nine hundred years ago, in lives before these ones. For him to hate you the way this requires, he would be breaking that vow himself. Not you ending it from your side — him ending it, from his." She paused. "Also the breaking of link will not happen instantly. Five years, perhaps more, before it's fully severed."

The room was quiet.

"But if it works," Felicy said, " it's the best outcome for you both. As the tragedy from centuries ago will be avoided from happening again & you’ll be free from this forced separation, though you might need to do a lot to make up with him later "

" On the other hand, if this method didn’t work… " She didn’t continue.

Iris's hand closed into a fist on the table.

Felicy watched her.

"So," she said. "What are you going to do, Iris?"