The Empire had not stopped trying to reach Jax and the Vixens.
But something had changed.
No new kidnapping attempts had reached Solmere.
No assassination teams had appeared outside the Compound.
No poisoned gifts arrived.
No mysterious strangers waited outside their businesses.
For a while, Jax wondered if Alexandria had finally decided to change tactics.
The truth was considerably more amusing.
They were having trouble finding people willing to accept the assignments.
And much of that could be traced back to what Imperial intelligence had begun calling—
The Roosevelt Incident.
The Roosevelt Hotel stood near the center of Crescent Moon.
It was one of the larger hotels in the city.
Expensive.
Comfortable.
And increasingly popular with merchants, politicians, and adventurers traveling through the region.
Intelligence reached Alexandria that Jax and the Vixens were expected to stay there during an upcoming visit.
So a plan was formed.
Eight assassins were selected.
Not soldiers.
Not inexperienced operatives.
Professionals.
They were given separate instructions.
Separate identities.
Separate routes.
Five joined five completely unrelated Adventurers Guild parties traveling toward Crescent Moon.
One entered with a merchant caravan.
Another traveled alone.
The eighth arrived as a hired guard accompanying a wealthy traveler.
None traveled together.
None publicly acknowledged the others.
Several arrived days apart.
They stayed at different inns.
A few never went anywhere near the Roosevelt Hotel until the mission required it.
It was one of the most carefully compartmentalized operations Alexandria had attempted.
Eight assassins entered Crescent Moon.
None left.
Not one.
No bodies were discovered.
No arrests announced.
No weapons recovered.
The United Kingdoms never issued a statement.
The Chronicle never reported an assassination attempt.
Crescent Moon officials denied knowledge of anything unusual.
The Roosevelt Hotel continued operating as though nothing had happened.
Eight people simply...
Disappeared.
That frightened Imperial intelligence more than finding eight corpses would have.
If the United Kingdoms had killed them publicly, Alexandria could have studied the response.
If they had been arrested, someone could investigate how they were identified.
If the mission had gone wrong at the hotel, there would have been witnesses.
Something.
Anything.
Instead—
Nothing.
Five had entered through legitimate Guild parties.
Their companions remembered them.
They remembered arriving in Crescent Moon with them.
Then at some point...
They were simply gone.
The other three disappeared just as completely.
No common location could be identified.
No single person had interacted with all eight.
No obvious mistake connected them.
Except the mission itself.
The story spread quietly through Alexandria's intelligence community.
Then through the assassins they employed.
Then through military circles.
Officially, nothing changed.
Unofficially—
People began finding reasons not to accept assignments involving Jax Darquebane.
Assassins raised their prices.
Some demanded half their payment before even leaving Alexandria.
Others simply refused.
Imperial officers developed sudden illnesses when certain orders crossed their desks.
One operative reportedly asked whether execution for refusing an Imperial assignment was available as an alternative.
At least then—
He knew how he was going to die.
The disappearance of couriers had already created one superstition.
The Roosevelt Incident created another.
Don't carry the order.
And if the order says Darquebane anywhere on it—
Definitely don't volunteer.
Jax found the whole thing fascinating.
Not because his team took them out so effortlessly.
That part bothered him considerably less after learning what they'd entered Crescent Moon intending to do.
What fascinated him was the effect.
Fear had accomplished something military strength hadn't.
The Empire could order people into battle.
It could threaten them.
Pay them.
Manipulate them.
But somewhere between issuing an order and finding someone willing to carry it out—
The machinery had started breaking down.
Jax wasn't foolish enough to believe the threat was gone.
Alexandria would adapt.
They always did.
But for the moment—
The pressure had eased.
And for the first time in what felt like months...
Jax had room to breathe.
Which created an entirely different problem.
Jax Darquebane was getting restless.
Not bored.
He refused to call it bored.
There was plenty to do.
There was always plenty to do.
The United Kingdoms continued expanding.
Roads were being built.
Dimensional gates connected more communities.
Trade agreements required negotiation.
The Restoration Initiative continued rebuilding struggling towns.
New businesses opened constantly. Jax developed unique tourist attractions in various towns with great success.
Eldrich continued sending reports from Crystalshire that occasionally required Jax to reread the same paragraph four times before deciding he still had no idea what the man was talking about.
The Shadow War continued beneath all of it.
Vaelrith and Soren handled most of the intelligence operations.
Kaelor's network of Adventurers Guilds provided another layer of information.
Warden had somehow transformed himself into the communication hub for an intelligence network Jax himself couldn't completely understand.
Brannic and Merriweather continued producing things that shouldn't have been possible.
There was plenty happening.
The difference was—
Jax didn't have to personally handle all of it anymore.
That was new.
Despite the constant influence he carried throughout the United Kingdoms, Jax still didn't think of himself as a ruler.
He held no official title.
He wasn't a mayor.
He wasn't a governor.
He wasn't a king.
Technically—
Jax Darquebane had almost no governmental authority at all.
And he liked it that way.
He didn't want a throne.
He didn't want people bowing every time he entered a room.
He certainly didn't want to spend his days signing documents because someone had decided the proper number of permits required to build a barn was seven.
Yet somehow—
People kept asking what he thought.
Kings.
Mayors.
Guild Masters.
Merchants.
Generals.
Farmers.
Business owners.
The council didn't require Jax's approval.
They simply wanted his opinion.
And increasingly—
Jax had learned that leadership didn't require him to personally control everything.
Quite the opposite.
Good people made his life easier.
Find someone capable.
Give them an opportunity.
Give them the tools they needed.
Then get out of their way.
Mayor Halvren had become one of the better examples.
The Weasel Mayor who had once attempted to manipulate Jax now frequently implemented his ideas without resistance.
Occasionally Halvren even received public credit for them.
Jax didn't care.
If Halvren stood before the people of Solmere and announced another successful infrastructure project while everyone applauded him—
Great.
The public sanitation unit still got built.
Jax didn't need his name carved into it.
He needed it to work, and clean up the streets in areas where waste was growing.
That philosophy had begun spreading into his businesses as well.
And one of the biggest surprises had come from Burrowlane.
Auron had discovered sales.
Or perhaps—
Sales had discovered Auron.
Aurabelle's twin brother had spent most of his life assuming he would work the family land.
There was nothing wrong with that.
He was capable.
Strong.
Reliable.
He understood crops.
He understood seasons.
He understood the rhythms of farming.
But in a family with twenty-two children—
Being a capable farmer wasn't exactly unusual.
Auron had always contributed.
He had simply never stood out as a worker, nor enjoyed it.
Then Jax put him in front of customers.
Everything changed.
Auron could talk to anyone.
Restaurant owners.
Tavern keepers.
Grocery merchants.
Hotel managers.
Chefs.
Warehouse operators.
He remembered names.
Remembered families.
Remembered which restaurant had complained about a shipment of tomatoes arriving too ripe three weeks earlier.
And when something went wrong—
Auron didn't hide from it.
He fixed it.
A shipment arrived late?
Auron apologized and made sure the next one arrived early.
Produce was damaged?
He replaced it.
A chef needed twice the normal amount of potatoes for an upcoming festival?
Auron found them.
Then he asked what else the chef needed.
Jax's businesses had provided Burrowlane's farms with their first guaranteed customers.
Auron didn't stop there.
He started visiting restaurants Jax didn't own.
Then taverns.
Then grocery stores.
Then hotels.
The pitch wasn't difficult.
Burrowlane produced excellent food.
Fresh vegetables.
Fruit.
Grain.
Quality products grown by people who knew exactly what they were doing.
The dimensional gate network meant produce could reach cities faster than ever before. Jax's temperature controlled storage units ensured freshness longer.
Fresh food that once spoiled during long wagon journeys could now arrive within days—
Sometimes hours.
Auron sold the product.
Then he sold the service.
Reliability.
Consistency.
Someone to contact when something went wrong.
And people liked him.
That helped.
Within months, the family operation had expanded far beyond supplying Jax's restaurants.
Orders arrived from businesses throughout the United Kingdoms.
Auron traveled constantly.
Hairbro one day.
Solmere the next.
Another town after that.
Sometimes he returned to Burrowlane with contracts large enough to make his brothers stare at the numbers twice.
And perhaps most surprisingly—
He loved it.
The Rabbitkin farmer who once expected to spend most of his life within a few miles of the place he'd been born was seeing the world.
Meeting people.
Negotiating contracts.
Building relationships.
Creating something.
His family had begun looking at him differently.
Not because he'd suddenly become more important than anyone else.
But because Auron had finally discovered the place where his talents flourished.
Jax couldn't help feeling proud of him.
Apparently the greatest opportunity he'd given his brother-in-law wasn't money.
It was the chance to discover what he was good at.
And Auron was damn good at it.
Which brought Jax back to his current problem.
Everyone was getting better at their jobs.
The businesses didn't need him every minute.
The council didn't need him every minute.
Burrowlane didn't need him every minute.
The intelligence network certainly didn't need him every minute.
His restaurants continued operating even when he wasn't standing in the kitchen.
Apparently—
Jax had successfully made himself less necessary.
He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that.
Then Kaelor Fangmere walked into his office carrying a piece of paper.
The Guild Master dropped it onto Jax's desk.
"I have something you're going to hate."
Jax looked suspiciously at him.
"What?"
"Read it."
Jax picked up the notice.
His eyes moved down the page.
Then stopped.
He started over.
Read it again.
A smile slowly appeared.
"I love this."
Kaelor nodded.
"That's why you're going to hate it."
Jax looked up.
"Why?"
"Because approximately four hundred other adventurers had the same reaction."
Jax's smile grew.
"Even better."
Kaelor sighed.
"I knew you were going to say that."
The report had begun as a rumor.
Something enormous had appeared in the southeastern region of the continent.
At first, travelers believed it was a mountain.
Then people began reporting branches.
Leaves.
Roots.
Entire forests seemed small beside it.
Within days, Guilds throughout the continent had confirmed the impossible.
A World Tree had appeared.
World Trees were extraordinarily rare magical phenomena.
They didn't grow naturally.
At least not in any way scholars understood.
They appeared.
Sometimes over the course of weeks.
Sometimes days.
Occasionally—
Almost overnight.
Their roots could stretch for miles.
Their trunks rose impossibly high.
Their branches created ecosystems of their own.
And the magical energy surrounding them changed everything nearby.
Creatures appeared.
Plants mutated.
Monsters became stronger.
Some World Trees generated dungeon-like structures within their roots and trunk.
Others developed entire raid environments.
Every appearance was different.
Every appearance was dangerous.
And every appearance created fortunes.
World Tree wood could be used in magical weapons.
Sap became an ingredient in potions and enchantments.
Leaves possessed properties sought by healers.
Roots absorbed enormous amounts of mana.
Even fragments of bark could be worth more than ordinary families earned in years.
Historically—
Whenever a World Tree appeared within Imperial territory, Alexandria moved quickly.
Military units secured the area.
Adventurers were restricted.
Mage divisions arrived.
Then the harvesting began.
Weapons.
Armor.
Potions.
Magical research.
The Empire stripped everything useful from the phenomenon that it could.
This time—
They couldn't.
The World Tree had appeared far to the southeast.
Beyond the United Kingdoms.
Far beyond Alexandria's immediate reach.
For Imperial forces to reach it in strength, they would need to move through territories that no longer recognized their authority—
Or take a considerably longer route around them.
Neither option was attractive.
Which meant independent Adventurers Guilds had moved first.
And now—
Everyone wanted a piece of it.
Jax stared at the quest notice.
"How dangerous?"
Kaelor shrugged.
"Nobody knows."
"That's encouraging."
"Several parties have entered the surrounding region."
"And?"
"Some returned."
Jax waited.
Kaelor smiled.
"Some didn't."
"Better."
"You have a strange definition of better."
Jax placed the notice on his desk.
"How soon are people moving?"
"They already have."
"Then why are you standing here?"
Kaelor stared at him.
"Because I'm the Guild Master."
"Right."
Jax nodded.
"Administrative duties."
Kaelor pointed at him.
"Mock me all you want."
"I wasn't."
"You were."
"A little."
Kaelor headed toward the door.
"Try not to destroy the World Tree."
"No promises."
Kaelor stopped.
Turned.
"That was a joke."
Jax smiled.
Kaelor stared at him for another moment.
"I hate that I have to clarify that."
Then he left.
Jax brought the quest notice home that evening.
He tried to act casual.
He failed.
The Vixens knew him too well.
They were gathered around the main living room when he placed the notice on the table.
Nyxian looked at him.
"What did you find?"
"Nothing."
Four women stared at him.
Jax reconsidered.
"Possibly something."
Aurabelle's ears immediately stood upright.
"What kind of something?"
"Raid something."
Aurabelle was already smiling.
Nyxian leaned forward.
"Now we're talking."
Llandra picked up the notice.
Her eyes scanned it quickly.
"World Tree."
Zee froze.
Only for a moment.
So briefly that Nyxian didn't notice.
Aurabelle certainly didn't.
She was already leaning over Llandra's shoulder trying to read.
Jax noticed.
He always noticed Zee.
Llandra handed the notice around.
Jax explained what Kaelor had told him.
The southeastern location.
The adventurers already traveling there.
The resources.
The uncertainty.
The potential danger.
"And before everyone votes if we are going—"
"When do we leave?" Aurabelle asked.
Jax stared at her.
She smiled brightly.
"What?"
"I hadn't finished."
"I know."
Nyxian raised her hand.
"I'm voting yes."
"We're not voting yet."
"Then I'm announcing my enthusiastic support."
Llandra smiled.
"You really thought we'd say no?"
"Maybe."
"Why?"
Jax shrugged.
"We've been busy."
Aurabelle looked offended.
"We haven't raided anything since the Frost Giant cave."
"That wasn't that long ago."
"It feels long."
Nyxian nodded solemnly.
"She's suffering."
"Thank you."
"I can see it in her ears."
Aurabelle's ears twitched.
"Exactly."
Jax laughed.
Then looked toward Zee.
She hadn't said anything.
Her eyes remained on the notice.
More specifically—
The map.
Her thumb slowly moved across the ring on her finger.
Jax's smile faded slightly.
"Zee?"
She looked up.
"I'm okay."
He hadn't asked that.
Which told him something.
Llandra noticed now as well.
"Do you know the region?"
Zee looked back down.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then—
"Yes."
The room quieted.
Zee rarely spoke about her childhood.
The others knew pieces.
Enough pieces.
Her clan.
Their goddess.
Their expectations.
The life she'd escaped.
But Zee had never sat them down and told the entire story.
Jax had never forced her to.
Neither had the others.
She would tell them when she wanted.
If she wanted.
Zee pointed toward the southeastern region on the map.
"My clan isn't far from there."
Nyxian's playful expression disappeared.
Aurabelle sat back down.
Llandra watched Zee carefully.
Jax said nothing.
He waited.
Zee rubbed her thumb across her ring again.
"I've known we would eventually be close."
She paused.
"I just didn't expect it to happen because a giant magical tree suddenly appeared."
Nyxian offered a small smile.
"Life has a strange sense of humor."
"Apparently."
Zee looked toward Jax.
"I want to do the raid."
"Okay."
"And..."
She stopped.
Nobody interrupted her.
Her fingers tightened slightly.
Then relaxed.
"There's something else I'd like to do while we're there."
Jax already knew.
He let her say it.
"I'd like to see my clan."
The room remained quiet.
Nyxian was the first to speak.
Not joking this time.
"You sure?"
Zee opened her mouth.
Stopped.
Her eyes moved toward the map again.
Then toward her ring.
"...No."
That surprised them.
Zee gave a small, almost embarrassed smile.
"I'm not sure at all."
She took a breath.
"But I want to."
Aurabelle moved closer.
Llandra spoke gently.
"You don't owe them anything."
"I know."
"If you never see them again, you don't owe anyone an explanation for that either."
"I know."
Zee's answer came faster that time.
She looked at Llandra.
"I'm not going for them."
Her fingers moved across the ring again.
"I think I'm going for me."
Jax watched her.
There was something behind her expression he couldn't quite identify.
Not fear exactly.
But there was something of concern.
But something else lived beside it.
A question.
Maybe several.
Questions Zee had carried long before she'd ever met him.
Questions she might not even know how to ask yet.
Jax didn't pry.
Instead he asked the only question that mattered.
"What do you want us to do?"
Zee looked at him.
"I want us to conquer the World Tree and then visit my former clan."
"We could go to the clan first," Jax countered, thinking she secretly wished that.
"Do the raid afterward."
Zee listened.
"We can do the raid first."
Jax reached across the table and took her hand.
"It's your choice."
For a moment—
Zee looked frustrated.
Jax recognized that look.
She wanted him to tell her what the right answer was.
He couldn't.
This wasn't his choice.
Eventually she understood that.
Her shoulders straightened.
Something changed in her expression.
The uncertainty remained.
But determination began pushing through it.
"I want the raid first."
Aurabelle's ears immediately perked.
Zee noticed and smiled.
"We conquer the World Tree."
"YES!"
Aurabelle pumped her fist.
Nyxian laughed.
Zee continued.
"Then..."
The excitement faded slightly.
She took another breath.
"I see my clan."
Jax squeezed her hand.
Zee looked down at their intertwined fingers.
For years, she'd imagined what returning might feel like.
Once—
She had been powerless.
A frightened girl running from people who had already decided what her life was supposed to become.
She wasn't that girl anymore.
Her clan had once believed she possessed extraordinary potential.
They had no idea.
Zee had surpassed it.
Then surpassed whatever came after that.
She had fought monsters they would have considered impossible.
Healed wounds their greatest healers couldn't touch.
Stood against armies.
Helped save cities.
Her power had grown beyond anything her clan had believed she could become.
Yet sitting there—
Surrounded by the people she loved—
Some tiny part of the girl who had escaped still existed inside her.
Not weak.
Not broken.
Simply waiting.
Waiting for answers Zee wasn't certain she wanted.
Her parents would see what she had become.
But somewhere beneath all of her confidence was a quieter question.
One she wasn't ready to speak aloud.
Zee pushed it away.
Not tonight.
Tonight she had made her decision.
She looked at Jax.
"And when we're finished there..."
Her expression softened.
The uncertainty finally gave way to a smile.
"I marry you."
Aurabelle immediately wrapped her arms around Zee.
Nyxian joined from the other side.
Llandra followed with considerably more dignity—
For approximately three seconds.
Then all four women were tangled together.
Jax watched them.
Nyxian suddenly lifted her head.
"I call responsibility for the bachelorette party."
Zee's smile disappeared.
"No."
"You don't even know what I'm planning."
"That's why I said no."
"I have ideas."
"That makes it worse."
Aurabelle laughed.
Llandra shook her head.
"We should probably survive the World Tree before discussing the party."
Nyxian considered that.
"If we are on the other side of the world, our options will be limited. So the party should come before."
She pointed at Zee.
"No escaping a good Bachelorette party."
"No."
"We're negotiating."
"We absolutely are not."
Jax leaned back in his chair.
A World Tree.
Hundreds of adventurers.
An unexplored raid.
A journey into Zee's past.
And another wedding waiting.
The restless feeling was gone.
Apparently—
Jax Darquebane had found his next adventure.
And this one was going to be personal.