Sepul and Harlan were once again in the meeting room.
“So, since you didn’t arrest me, I assume the decree is to tell me not to make magical metals?”
“Quite the opposite. You are being required to teach a class on how to create a second generation soulsmithed item as you once called it. There are 50 people who would be privy to such knowledge, and they would become responsible for the mass production of magical metals for the kingdom.
You haven’t made some method of growing mana crystals while I was gone, have you?”
“I’ve never tried, but my only guess would be to set a soul in a crystal and leave it alone for a while. I remember pulling a gem that had rolled behind my desk near the start of the year while I was cleaning before I left the academy. Nothing changed about it, so no, I haven’t found out how to grow them.”
“Unfortunate.”
“When do I need to have the class?”
“Say goodbye and we will leave immediately.”
Harlan went upstairs again to find his father comforting his mother who was handling the double shock of meeting a god and then an archmage who looks like a living corpse and both of them making her feel like she was the one in the wrong for saying her son shouldn’t do some wild body modification on his youngest sister.
“Mom, I need to go for a little while, not sure when I’ll be back.”
“Right, yep, sure thing sweetie.”
“Mom, please, can you answer me?”
“I’ll get right to it.”
“Harlan, I’ll watch your mother. You remember how she got all those years ago after Kass?
She’ll come out of this.”
“I’m going to call someone.”
Harlan put up a veil and waited for her to answer, which she instantly did.
As it turned out, being the champion of the world actually had a lot of free time. In the outside world the gods didn’t bother the people very much and just let them do as they please killing and destroying, and on the continent she had already killed every major threat outside of notable Fae like Nemain who couldn’t really be found no matter how hard they tried despite their abilities letting them find almost every other Fae.
“Harlan, I hope you are well.”
“Hi, Mary, I wanted some advice.”
“Of course. I’ve been married a very long time.”
“My mother is upset.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by my last statement. What happened?”
Upon hearing the story from the horse's mouth, she wasn’t entirely sure what advice to even give.
She had dealt with a lot of things, but this was a little outside of her normal wheelhouse.
“Would you be opposed to me coming to your home?”
“I don’t want to impose on you, I’m sure you have better things to do.”
“There is nothing better for me to do than help you. I know that our relationship is student and counselor, but I think we have become friends in our time talking back and forth.”
“I’m sure you say that to most students.”
“I might say it, but with you, I do believe it to be true. And please, don’t tell anyone that I said that.
A fake friendship helps me solve their issues, but I don’t think any less of them just because I cannot connect with them on the same level as you and I.”
He was hesitating, but he didn’t really know why, Mary had never once steered him wrong. Arguably.
“Yes, thank you. I would be happy to invite you to my home, though I wish I could stay to show you around and that it was under better circumstances.”
“Put it out of your mind.”
Harlan dropped the veil and explained that a woman would come by to visit and she should be able to help his mother.
Then he left with Sepul.
The royal halls had been cleared, officially nothing was happening, unofficially, nobody knew what was happening.
The only people who had any idea why everything was being cleared were the 50 selected to learn from Harlan, the royal guards who were making sure there were no leaks, and the king himself.
His worry was that his children would use what they could do with advanced soulsmithing.
Of these worries, it was primarily that they would annex The Confederacy and turn Reino into a sea of glass.
A strong nation was good, a nation that expanded was good, but having other nations put some pressure on his own that kept it from turning to complete tyranny.
The idea of a revolt where a human city broke away and sought to be part of the confederacy was not entirely unfounded, during the war some 40 years ago some had actually tried, though they were brought back to the fold when it was clear Ragne was the undisputed winner and Yggdra the 15th allowed them to return without any blood being spilled.
Harlan found himself deep underground, below even the research lab he had been in before.
The room was brightly lit with a large stage at the far end where Yggdra sat in all of his rather simple opulence.
That sword which seemed too large for a normal man was laid across the arms of his simple molded throne of rock, in his right hand was a scepter, though Harlan would’ve called it a bejeweled mace.
To his left stood Safira, Sepul went to his right.
There were murmurs, each mage wanting to know why the king had suddenly invited them to the castle for a private presentation.
Things became clear once Harlan stepped on stage and worker golems brought out a box of stonesteel.
“There will be no long speeches, for nothing said here today is to leave this room. The cost of what will be shown to you is worth the weight of this castle in gold by itself, and you will be responsible in how you use this information. I am making a clear threat, you will be killed if you cannot keep this secret to yourself, I don’t even want those who know one another here to speak among yourselves about this. If you cannot accept these terms, then leave now.”
There were looks of uncertainty, but not a single mage there had gotten to such heights without risks.
“Sir Fomoria, open the box. Explain what you have done.”
The room was alight with greed as he spoke, even with the process rubbing up against the border of forbidden magic they didn’t care.
People made demands of Harlan, yet the raising of the scepter shut them up.
This was no array, no ward, they just lost the ability to stand against the will of the king while he had it in hand.
Nobody knew how it was happening, Harlan and Sepul were baffled at the seemingly mundane item letting out a mental attack of some kind.
The treasures of the kingdom were things gained by dealing with the Fae, they did not obey the rules of the world, because they were not of the world.
“Sir Fomoria is not to be interfered with. Know this, he is champion to The Darkness, he shall live when you are nothing but bones. Think not of yourselves, think of your descendants. Even if you might escape my wrath, and the wrath of him, you would need to bet against him living long enough to far surpass your entire bloodline. There would be nowhere you could hide which one of us would not find you and put you down like a dog.”
Harlan’s shadow was split into 6 by the lights in the room, yet now it came together into a single one and stood on its own.
She said no words, but people knew that she was there.
Things calmed down and Harlan made sure every mage there could do what he could by the end of the night.
Once they were done they were escorted back to their homes, and on account of the halls being cleared and spies found, not a single soul who should know who had even entered the palace.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Now it was just Harlan, Yggdra, Sepul, and Dagda in the room.
Clearly he was anxious to have the chance to speak with Harlan again, yet he held back due to his company.
“I must apologize for taking you here so suddenly, especially after you’ve saved one of my cities from a threat so insidious.”
“I understand.”
“Now, what is the price of what you’ve given? Ask anything of me and I shall fulfill it as best I can.”
“I want as much stonesteel and as many mana gems at least 3 inches in diameter as you can spare.”
“And for what purpose would you ask this of me?”
“I want to build a hundred golems, advanced ones. I want to raise the children who were kicked to the streets using these golems so that in the future, I have people I can trust. I am also working on an idea for long range transport that anybody could use in the hopes that I could connect cities.
The children of the orphanage couldn’t afford to make their way to the others, even if they could these places are often understaffed and overcrowded. If I could have children shipped around, it would take pressure off of the ones with too many by moving them to the less filled ones. Though I imagine it would take months if not years before I really have a working prototype, all I have now is a toy given to me by a lich.”
“I shall give the materials for 200 golems, and keep enough for a further 400 in reserve. I imagine your vaults would fill quite quickly if you took all of it in immediately and only the gems have high value now.”
“Thank you, your majesty.”
“When you’ve made working prototypes for this form of transport, bring it to my daughter Lily, she is mechanically minded and fond of your other creations. She will grow to be my minister of infrastructure when her predecessor passes away or retires.”
“I will keep her in mind, thank you.”
He fiddled with the rings on his fingers, he had not yet given Harlan leave.
“How would you feel about being taken as the husband to her? You are the closest in age to one another.”
“Do I have the option to refuse?”
“Yes.”
“Then I refuse, I’ve only just decided that I will enter a relationship with Adina, and I have no desire to have her as a mistress, nor do I want the power and responsibility that would come from being married into the royal family.”
“Yet you speak of wanting to change a great deal? Would this not be easier with that power and responsibility?”
“I am going to speak freely here, I consider nobility to be barely above being an outright warlord. In another age I would lay siege to cities that I don’t like so I could force them to be better. As it stands, I do not believe anything but being king or a large amount of blackmail and coercion could let me make the changes that I want. So instead, I am going to make the changes that I can within the power I have now until others peacefully realize my methods are better.”
“Very dangerous words.”
“But I know you see the truth in them, that smile on your face is evidence enough of that.”
Yggdra reached up and felt his face, he was grinning like a madman, the realization made him burst into laughter.
Harlan reminded him of how he would speak in private, not restrained by how people would react to his hypotheticals that sounded more like threats to the ears of the sane.
“Go then, return to you and yours, make your changes. We shall see if you don’t still need to lay siege to cities when you realize people don’t pick the better methods, they pick the ones that keep power in their hands.”
Safira walked Harlan the first set of stairs, Dagda following awkwardly close behind.
As soon as he reached the last step Dagda spoke.
“Did you get my answers?”
“You can’t make souls like yourself because you are already a piece of me grown into another person.
If you could do it, then you would probably have a dozen more of you running around already, and then they would want more until you either realized the error and all of your copies fought over who got to call themselves Dagda.”
“Hmm… probably. I understand, next answer? Why won’t she speak to me.”
Before Harlan could reply his shadow covered his entire body like writhing leeches.
“You are so full of arrogance that you did not ask, you would demand an audience with me.
Even if you hadn’t, what would you ask of me?”
“I would like to learn more of souls and their working, I have some ideas about-”
“Even the sword has opinions, needs and desires. You are a machine, a thing to scrape together bits and make something. What do you have beyond your work? Have you friends or allies? Harlan, If given the chance, he would kill you in an instant for what you know, because his only value of people is in their knowledge. He is a stunted being that is barely above what you will make, yet at least your golems will fake affection, he is a full being that has never known it.
Harlan, understand what he is, and what you do not want to be. He is a shadow of another time, same as your others.”
“Harlan, witch, go. I’ve heard what I needed.”
Harlan gave a polite bow, feeling bad about what had happened.
Regardless of the truth of her statements, it was just cruel and unusual.
Safira led him to the gate room.
Once he bowed goodbye and entered his home again he sat down on the nearest seat in the living room.
Everyone else had gone to sleep, Harlan didn’t really make it sound like he was worried about coming back, so they just figured they’d see him in the morning.
The only one who tried to wait for him was Adina who now slept on the couch next to him.
He rested his eyes, dawn was only a few hours away, that was enough time to reset his sleep.
It was always stressful speaking with the king, Harlan could never get a good read on him, it was like looking at someone through a glass of water, his emotions were unclear and distorted, he had an easier time on actual animals.
He wasn’t sure if he should or not, but now that Adina had shifted in her sleep he wasn’t in a position to move, so he called Mary and put up a veil.
“I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“Nope, I don’t need much sleep.”
“How did things go with my mother?”
“I compared what you were doing with you being Fomorian. She doesn’t care about that, because you are still you, so why should she care if Ava becomes something else physically, she is still just Ava.
After that she asked me who I was and how I knew you and once I asked her questions about how you were as a child she seemed to brighten up. She is just scared of losing you, we talked about things I can’t tell you, but please, try not to worry her so much, she has been through enough. Why don’t you try to go a year without nearly killing yourself?”
“I’ve gone a long time without doing that.”
“I am counting all the times you get yourself in trouble as nearly killing yourself.”
“I don’t really think that is fair.”
They spoke for an hour or so before Adina stirred from her dreams and he said his goodbyes.
“When did you come back?”
“Hour and a half ago, maybe less. Sorry to make you wait for me.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“No, I can’t. It doesn’t matter anyway, I didn’t need to make some horrible deal to protect myself or my family, I didn’t have to kill or torture or experiment on anyone.”
“Are you lying to me?”
“Nope. It was more like a business meeting than anything. I just traded an invention for materials. I would’ve taken a pretty big hit to my coffers if I didn’t make this deal. Now I can make those caretakers and make them better than I would’ve. I just need to see if I can’t convince Brig to drop his other orders for a little while. 100 golems is going to be a lot of work.”
“100? I thought there was supposed to be, what, 50 children?”
“I’ve got the resources to make 600, stonesteel, gems, I just need manpower to get the bodies made according to my needs. I think I’ll make them with different head, not all foxes.”
“Human bodies?”
“Kinda, but I don’t want them to look too human. Ah, shit.”
“What?”
“Making them speak, it’s going to look really awkward at first. I’ll need to try and sync up their mouths with all the sounds we make.”
“Does that really matter?”
“They are going to be learning from them, people look at the lips of other people.”
“I learned fine without seeing.”
“I guess, and Godgiven solves most of it. But I kinda want them to look as natural as I can.”
“A problem for another day. What animals were you thinking about?”
“I don’t really want to make them shaped like beastkin. The Kalak look sorta like foxes, but I don’t think it would be an issue. Those will be the mothers, the fathers would be the guards and disciplinary force. Rams? They would be a bit like an Ibexian, but the horns would stay close to the skull and curve into a loop. They’d look more like the animals, less like the slightly human features of most beastmen with their shortened snouts.”
“What about lizards? There are no reptile beastkin.”
“I guess, but which ones?”
“Drakes? You seemed to be fond of that one you met.”
“That’s true. My only issue is how long their heads are.”
“Garter snakes? They have simple smooth heads.”
“I’m not sure about reptiles, they scare children pretty easily.”
“Insects are off the table then?”
“Yeah. Once you see the magical ones that grow big, you start to realize how creepy their faces really are.”
“Lions? They are kinda scary, but if you put a mane on each of them the children might like it.”
“Roosters? Though I guess If I let them raise chickens and the roosters chase the small children it might make them hesitant to trust the guards.”
“Elk?”
“Yeah, yeah, I think I like that. They are noble, but not threatening unless they are made to be. I’ll keep the horns smaller so they don’t get stuck on doorways or poke someones eyes out, but that should work. thanks.
“This was fun. But I’m still tired. Good night.”
They awkwardly stared at one another, wondering if a good night kiss was in order.
Instead they just decided to leave that for another day.
Adina went to finish her nightly rest in her home, Harlan went to his room and started sketching out blueprints for what would be his first advanced golems.
It was hard for him to strike a balance between fierce and gentle for the fathers, but the mothers were a lot easier, he just needed them to look gentle and caring.
One thing that he couldn’t settle on however, was how real they should look, bigger heads might look a bit silly, but they would also look more clearly like a toy.
After bouncing ideas back and forth with Dawn they both preferred them to have proportional heads.
At breakfast it wasn’t really a vote, since Harlan had final say, but the general stance for everyone once it was said and done was to make the elk bulky and to thin down the foxes, giving them a more distinctly male and female look.
The other issue that was settled was mother and father, the names fit, since these were the roles that should be filled by them. But at the same time, these children might have poor associations with the terms, Sister Foxes and Brother Elks were the decided upon names.
Nobody was really ecstatic about the whole idea still, but they wouldn’t really change his mind, so they just went along with it and tried to curb any poor ideas.