Two months passed since that day.
Harlan had already had a certain reputation, he was fast and strong and didn’t shy away from violence, yet it has gotten better and worse in some ways.
Once it got out that he had gone with Black Suits people pitied him, everyone who knew somebody in the army feared the day they would see them.
When it was out that he always went with them people thought he was either a martyr or a masochist.
Yet it was the after action reports that really changed how people looked at him.
They figured he could take an orc, most students could if they had support.
Yet normal people, even if they could, wouldn’t stick their hand into the head of an orc and pour acid into their skull, they wouldn’t leave invisible hard air tripwires at neck level.
Even still it was not his ability and creativity with killing that would make others wary, it was the way he would sometimes run on all fours, hop from tree to tree before pouncing with his helmet shifted into a wedge that split man and beast in two.
Very rarely did anything escape once Harlan got its scent.
The headmaster wanted Harlan out and fighting not only for experience and to let off his violent impulses, but also to let him figure out what Harlan could really do.
Yet while Hirum could see that he was strong and used his powers in ways that showed he was really learning how to use magic in a free manner instead of just learning how to cast spells.
The biggest change was hidden under Harlan’s full body armor.
His endurance already outpaced a vast majority of people, and the changes to his body and soul by becoming a champion didn’t make huge changes, but it sped up the rate in which his mana grew and his body was naturally evolving into a more efficient form without him truly understanding how his body shifted.
Currently Harlan was on his last mission before the end of the school year, next week he would be back home for two months.
However he was not working with David, Parnell, and Shelly, he was there in an open field with Sepul watching a Greater Dark Drake slowly move along.
“Harlan, as it stands I will need to fight that thing. However, Drakes are not like their cousins and can be talked with. So, do it.”
The lumbering beast was over 70 feet long, 40 feet wide, 10 feet tall, and moving at a slow pace, yet its massive size meant every small step was still clearing quite a lot of distance.
Drakes were the polar opposite of wyverns, instead of violent spiteful greedy kings of the sky, they were peaceful and slow moving creatures, yet they still had that draconic stubbornness.
The biggest issue with a drake of any kind was that they had paths that they traveled throughout their entire lives, sometimes taking a decade to complete their loop.
So when a village was set up 8 years ago and a drake was just coming back around, they didn’t want to move and very few other creatures could actually make them move.
Harlan flew near the drake and since he was already behind it, the creature didn’t bother trying to use its spiked tongue or magic to kill him.
He landed right on its head and used soul speak.
“If you keep on this path, you are going to go right through a village, can you move a little to the left or right so you don’t run into it?”
“Why?”
“Because if you do then you are going to hurt people.”
“Too much energy, don’t want to do it.”
“What if I got you food? A herd of cattle?”
“How much is a herd?”
“How about 100? Is that enough?”
“Hmm.”
The drake stopped moving as he sniffed the air.
“Why do you smell good?”
“I hope you don’t want to eat me.”
“No, you smell like mother.”
“I am her champion, I have been for about 2 months now.”
He started moving again.
“I’ll pass around the city, don’t be mad if I scrape the walls.”
“Thank you, I really don’t like the idea of something so old having to be killed.”
The creature let out a laugh that shook its body and forced Harlan under a veil and into the air.
Then its booming voice which it had not used in many years came out.
“Is that all you wish for?”
“I am just here to avoid anyone coming to harm.”
“I have not seen a human in centuries, and the first I meet is an interesting one. Do you have no knowledge you would ask of me?”
“I’ve never spoken with a drake before, what could you tell me?”
“I don’t know. People would ask something of me.”
“Do you know anything about souls or being able to morph the body?”
“These are not things I know.”
“Then I really don’t have anything I want. Both of those are linked with what I want for myself and for others.”
“Then I am sorry to be of no help, Little Shadow, I hope you are well for this day and more.”
“Thank you for your time, I’ll have those cattle ready for you.”
Harlan tried to convince the local count to pay for the cattle but it was clear he was more interested in the materials that could be gained by killing the creature.
A large drake of any sort could be worth thousands of gold, they were rare and powerful things.
A Greater Drake, and of a rarer element, was worth tens of thousands.
The scales had properties not unlike magical metals but were both harder and lighter, their only issue being that they couldn’t be melted and shaped like metal.
Their blood and organs had many health benefits or could be used for the most terrible of poisons.
The meat however, was supposed to be exquisite.
Drakes were massive fatty creatures with perfect marbling caused by the magic that flowed through them.
Most magical beasts were like this unless they were massive muscle bound hulks or outright poisonous.
Drakes would live in a single place for a few months or years and then move on, this particular one had just finished fattening itself up for a month of sleep and it was the ideal to be eaten.
It took time and money, as well as having to convince Sepul that sending a hundred cattle through a gate wasn’t a waste of both.
Yet Harlan just didn’t want to have the thing killed just because so happened that his migration path was now blocked by the expansion of humans into his lands.
The count was less than happy, but the kingdom was the one who was paying for an archmage.
Now that the drake was peacefully dealt with the count would need to hire another archmage out of pocket. While wyverns were a constant problem, it was considered in bad taste to kill drakes since they were known to kill hostile megafauna that would need archmages to handle.
Perhaps as humanity expanded and those beasts were killed and their offspring no longer able to live long enough to grow into monsters the noble drakes would just be the next on a list of problems to deal with.
The after action report was short, Harlan was praised for his ability to talk down the creature and that he was willing to pay for the cattle himself.
“I hope this has been a valuable experience for you.”
“Are most drakes like that?”
“I’ve met some with quite terrible tempers, but most are just living their lives and humans are just things beneath them that get in the way sometimes. How has your research been going?”
“I can shift myself fairly well, though I feel an instinctive revulsion to making serious changes to myself.
So I can’t say I’ve really done as much as I would like.”
“That is a good thing. I hope you grow out of that desire to be something beyond a human more than you already are. Have you been through a medical exam anytime recently?”
“No, I don’t think I want other people finding what I’ve become.”
“If you can figure out how to make bodies that just work better, especially how your throat has shifted so you don’t need to worry about choking, then you could improve humanity without making them something else entirely.”
“Do they deserve it?”
Harlan had a dark look in his eyes.
Today it was just a noble that didn’t think the life of an old and majestic creature was important, yet in his time working in places like this he had seen some of the worst of humanity.
Normally missions where one would need to kill humans required being in the 3rd year at least, but Harlan had skipped that process due to what he had already done and Sepul’s influence.
“Honestly, they don’t but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it anyway. Do you want test subjects?”
“I feel like I’ve moved past rabbits and deer, maybe it is time for human trials. First I want to see if I can recreate that Fae curse from Adina, maybe it is time for her to see the light.”
“Hmm…”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Sepul still didn’t like Adina much, too much risk, too much of an unknown.
“You will get your men.”
Harlan was back in time for dinner, he had to spend quite a lot more time than he realized to negotiate for farmers to sell him their cattle and then transport them to the village and wait for the drake to arrive.
After missions he preferred to sit with the group he would work with, even though they weren’t involved, this was likely the last time they would speak for a while.
In the two months he knew them he realized they were not really friends, just colleagues.
David was too much of an old blood noble who, while he didn’t say it in Harlan’s presence, believed that lower nobles and peasants were beneath him to some extent.
Parnell didn’t talk a lot, which made him and Harlan somewhat kindred, but their interests once he did start talking were just too far apart.
The man was a lecher and if he got a bit of booze in him he could swear worse than Ava.
Shelly had explained that she didn’t let Parnell talk to other people too much for exactly these reasons.
She was fine, but too much of a dry business oriented person for Harlan to really connect with on a personal level.
He could talk with Yara for hours about anything really, but with Shelly if it wasn’t work or magic she wasn’t interested and she made it clear that she didn’t care.
Harlan found it a little worrying that she was finally trying to bridge that gap however.
“So, how are your parents?”
The two older boys froze at her question to Harlan, waiting with bated breath.
“My mother and father are fine, I saw them just 2 weeks ago and I am excited to be home for 2 months.”
“Did you know your birth parents at all?”
Harlan tried to understand that she was just bad with people, and so was he at one point or another, so he took it in good faith.
“If you want me to continue this conversation then we need to put up a veil.”
She almost declined, but David was actually interested in where this was going and put one up over the 4 of them.
“Thank you. To start, I know my mothers name and when she disappeared, I know she was in the army, but they have been tightlipped when I asked about MIA reports from the timeframe when she went missing.
I think somebody doesn’t want me to find her. Your mother works logistics and records, your father is a high ranking commander of some sort. Any chance your curiosity is enough to see if you can work from your end?”
“Come on, I am trying to be friendly. I didn’t really want this to be a deal between us.”
“Sorry, this is just a sensitive subject for me and I don’t feel comfortable talking about it in any other context. I barely even told my friends this much.”
“Ouch.”
Parnell added before shutting up again when Shelly glared at him.
“Are we not friends?”
“I don’t know, do you want to be? I don’t mean this to be overly harsh, but almost all of our conversations are about work and you haven’t really changed that since I’ve known you. I would like to be friends, but I am cautious about making new friends. I've had another issue with somebody who looked at relationships differently than me and I just don’t want to go through losing a friend I never really had again.”
“How about this, I will ask my mother and report back to you. At that time, I will also have more personal conversations with you. If we want to be friends once we are both back at the academy, then we can be. If not, we can keep working together and there will be no hard feelings.”
David stepped in.
“That sounded like a business deal.”
She flared her nostrils at him.
“You didn’t need to point that out.”
“That sounds good, thank you for doing this for me. Her name was Eliza and it would’ve been 17ish years ago during the late spring, early summer. She was stationed in the northeastern frontier, near where the city of Greenstaff is currently.”
The meal was a little awkward as she tried to ask him other personal questions about his sisters and if he was in love with everyone.
Harlan thought it sounded like someone gave her a list of things that normal people talked about.
After dinner Harlan went back to his room and found Selen was waiting for him.
In the months since their last failed conversation about him directly manufacturing items for the elders she hadn’t once brought it up in their other conversations.
When they spoke she was Selen the teacher and adoptive mother of Wulrun, not Selen the Nightwatcher.
Now, she was here as the Nightwatcher, complete with her white mask.
Harlan invited her inside and even offered her some of his blood.
He had gotten a few hungry stares from the Vampire and Ghoul students, his body and life force changing meant that he was a powerful snack for their kind.
“No, I think it would be best if I abstained for the duration of this meeting.”
“Have they finally decided that I am not going to just be pushed around?”
“Your change to Champion of Darkness has given them a great deal of pause. They now feel that you should meet with them, I have been asked to take you right to the gate office so we can leave immediately.”
“Those stupid stuck up bloodsuckers. Don’t go, they don’t respect you enough to even give you a warning.”
“I expected this, don’t worry.”
“I accept, however, I intend to make it clear, this will not happen a second time. I need forewarning if I am to be invited for business.”
“I understand.”
Instead of a comfortable underground area, he came out in the courtyard of a large castle high on a mountain.
The maid who was supposed to lead Harlan to the meeting room was a Vampire and openly showed her fangs, something they didn’t even do in their own havens.
Along the way he saw guards in sets of shadow steel with halberds of red metal that he didn’t recognize.
When he stepped in the room it had a glass ceiling that let every ounce of moonlight inside, if it was this late they must’ve been somewhere farther east, perhaps near the coast?
There were 5 people in front of him, each representing their baseline race.
They sat in a half circle, though Harlan figured it was supposed to represent a crescent moon.
Left to right he saw a werewolf, presumably female judging by the mounds on its chest.
A male gargoyle, its ashen and stone-like skin and large exposed wings and teeth meant they were rarely seen in normal civilization as they could never return to a human appearance.
In the middle was either a vampire or a ghoul, though with how their hierarchy was laid out, he bet he was a vampire.
Next to the man was a ghoul woman, though as long as they fed on cultured foods and organ meat they looked perfectly human.
He had heard that a large cheese makers guild was actually run by one of them.
Lastly was a species Harlan didn’t know.
Her eyes were larger than normal and a piercing yellow in color.
She did not wear a shirt or bra, instead she had two sashes tied across her chest to cover herself and let her wings remain in plain view.
Harlan noticed she had talons in place of feet and scatterings of feathers across her body.
When Harlan stepped onto the dais in the center of the room the vampire moved to speak first, yet Harlan cut him off.
“Before you say anything of disrespect, I am going to make this clear, you have shown no respect for me twice already. First you attempt to use a friend against me, making her choose between her family by pact and me, I do not accept this. Secondly, you have nearly demanded me here, you gave no warning, no time to prepare. I came here to tell you directly that I do not agree with what you have done but that I am willing to look past this.”
The gargoyle man was furious, yet the vampire raised his hand and he did not speak his mind.
“I will accept these words, spoken without kindness. We have called you here quite abruptly, though this was not an insult, rather we found it unlikely that all of us would be together again soon.
Tell me, what is the cost of you simply giving over the process by which you would make an amulet to speak with others.”
“Tell me, why do you really want them? If I decide your reason is good, and to the benefit of the world, I will give my knowledge freely, as I have in the past.”
The bird-like woman spoke up.
“Why should we reveal our plans for the simple hope of repayment?”
“Because you are the one who called me here, I did not seek you out and I could leave any time I please.”
Before the woman could speak what Harlan knew would be a threat the vampire slammed his hand, the force reverberating throughout the castle, reminding Harlan of Marigold turning the lich to dust with a simple strike.
“Mytha, you are guest to me, and the champion is as well. But I will not stand for another outburst from any of you. If your words are ones of harm, then leave them unsaid or leave this place.”
She shirked back from her words and returned to her upright posture in her seat.
“Harlan Fomoria, Champion of Shadow. I do not ask this lightly, forgive her, for she is still young, barely 130 years of age.”
“I would rather we move past this, there is nothing to be gained from me holding a grudge for what she didn’t say.”
“Very well. As for why, our true reason is simple: we believe that a sufficiently large spell, paired with a sufficiently large mana gem, could produce an effect of allowing us to speak with our god.
We are aware of your prior commitment to help with this, yet I felt the need to ask this again.
The importance of such a thing was to be held in secrecy, as negotiating for this would have you holding all of the power, and thus the right to ask much more of us than we would like. Does this satisfy your curiosity?”
“It does, and I am willing to give this knowledge directly to Selen so she can hold onto it.”
Harlan stood fast to their gazes and the fear which he now felt from Selen.
Most men would be reduced to a quivering mess on the floor in the face of the power these men and women held.
Yet Harlan had never felt fear quite the same way after his first encounter with Aarde.
They called for a recess and spoke among themselves while Harlan was given a tour of the castle.
The young man who walked him around looked at Harlan like a nice piece of steak, but he decided to let it go.
He saw the garden and the menagerie before he was called back, both were shockingly normal.
Selen was not exactly glad to have been put on the spot like that.
“Harlan Fomoria, why have you decided not to give us what we want? Did you not say you would give it freely should you find our reason well?”
“I do not trust any of you, I do not believe you care about anything but what I can give you.
If I tell only Selen how to do what you want, then she will be the judge of your intentions as she works on the project. I trust her enough that I believe she would refuse to work on something that would be harmful to humanity as a whole.”
“Very well, our intentions are nothing but what we have said, so this is not an issue. Please teach her in whatever manner you see fit in however long a time it shall take.”
It took all of her willpower to raise her voice in the oppressive aura of the room.
“What about my choice?”
“If you don’t want to learn, I won’t teach you, they will not get what they want if it requires trampling over your right to choose.”
“I echo the words of young Fomoria, we cannot force you to tell us even if he does teach you.
We could only hope that in time he would be willing to share what we wish to know.”
“I refuse to learn, I do not think I am ready for so much responsibility as I am currently.”
Now was the deciding factor, how would they respond.
“Very well, young Fomoria, White Whip of Aine, you are free to leave this place. I will open the gate back to your academy myself.”
Harlan felt no hostile intent, he really was just accepting it, though the other 4 clearly weren’t and were just holding their tongues.
Yet he couldn’t be sure yet.
The vampire who never gave his name led them back to the courtyard and was about to bow goodbye to them when Harlan pulled a book from his robe.
“What is this?”
“A full explanation of what you wanted to know. Everything before now was nothing but a test orchestrated by myself and my god. She warned me that I would be suddenly invited here but she did not say how you would react when I refused you. This entire time you have acted towards me in a manner I believe means you are not a monster just waiting for the chance to kill me, so I will trust you with that book.”
“And if we had reacted violently or with threats?”
Coronach came out of Harlan's shadow and stood tall at his side.
“She agreed that sending me here without him was insanity and so when I asked she told him to tag along.”
“I am disappointed that you thought clearly, I’ve not had the chance to kill a powerful gargoyle in half a century at least.”
Clearly there was a story here that Harlan did know as the vampire narrowed his eyes and grabbed the book from Harlan’s hand like he was worried it was about to turn to dust.
“Thank you for your trust and forgiveness for our past issue with deception. I hope you have a long life ahead of you so that we can repay what you have given us now.”
“When you have your own amulets, I would like to have your tag so that I could call in such a favor.”
The vampire looked somewhat embarrassed as he pulled an amulet from his pocket.
“Oh. I guess that makes sense, unless you sent letters by gate you couldn’t really set this whole thing up very quickly.”
“Yes, I thought it best to avoid you knowing of what we already had.”
Harlan touched his amulet to the vampire’s and yet did not ask his name.
Once they returned Harlan went to play with Wulrun before going back to his room to sleep.
He could actually have dreams now that his mother wasn’t suffering a mental break inside his soul due to her memories and feelings being in conflict with what she now felt was her.
He dreamed of a hallway full of bodies, then he grew larger until the hallway could not contain him anymore.
Nightmares were still more common than not, but they were not caused by the same thing as before.