Harlan spent the night making flesh golems, and in the morning, Mercedes was waiting outside of his workshop.

“Good morning.”

“Why are you here? Is there an issue?”

“As your advisor, I believe it best to stay by your side.”

“Who said you were my advisor? And you and I never had a talk about who you are and what you really want.”

“What is the name of this town? What country are we in? And what are the lizardkin called?”

“Don’t know, don’t care, and they are called Plest, the children have blue tails and the adults have red heads. I spoke with Xis last night, she is going to be the head maid.”

“We are in the city of Kor, in the Castian Empire.”

“They won’t be an empire for long if I have any say in it.”

“How large is the empire? Who is their emperor? What about the surrounding nations?”

“I see your point. But I will ask again, who are you, and what do you want?”

“I want my people to be free, and I wish to return to my homeland.”

“I can believe that is your goal, but there is a lot you are leaving out. How do you know about these things?”

“I was not ignorant before becoming a slave.”

“Then who were you?”

“Those soldiers, they were pardoned, can I not ask for that same benefit?”

“I will not have an advisor who I cannot trust. If you can be honest to me now, I can look past what you may have been. Do you put any stock in that position you have given yourself?”

Harlan put his hand on her shoulder.

“If you want this job, I would love you to have it. I heard from my golems overnight, you helped your people settle here, you organized the slaves from my new home using my golems.”

“You can hear through them?”

“You people have likely never heard of a communicator? Long distance instant communication?”

“There are rooms leftover from the oldest Fae Empire, but they are in set locations across the country and they only connect to other specific rooms. When two people step into them, they appear on the other as a series of floating lights and everything they say is communicated to the other room.”

“Fascinating. Mine look like this.”

He pulled out his amulet.

“I can speak to anyone who also holds one of these across thousands of miles. Though I haven’t been able to call anyone back home, so that means the veil is blocking me.”

Greed was plain in her eyes.

“How many of them exist? How did you find such a thing?”

He put it away and called over one of the golems.

Harlan reached inside of the golem and picked out the amulet gem he had been placing in the squad leader golems.

Then he started pulling out bones and sinew to make a holder for the gem and string it.

“Here.”

“What is this?”

“A communicator.”

“You make them? So easily?”

“That gem is how the golem could tell me what it heard. It lacks a real mind, but it has enough of one to report at set intervals.”

“May I… keep this?”

“Of course.”

“What about the golem then?”

“I will use its parts to fix the other golems when they get damaged. I’ll repurpose its main gem to make a weapon.”

“What could this weapon do? What can those golems do?”

“Cast magic.”

“They can…”

A malicious grin overcame the woman.

“Why don’t we speak in private?”

Harlan opened a gate directly to his new home’s office, the blood from beheading the previous mayor was cleaned flawlessly by his new staff. It did leave a little bit of a bad taste in his mouth to have them continue to work in the same place they were slaves in, but they couldn’t really leave and they didn’t know how to do anything else.

“Are you here to tell me the truth?”

“I do put a lot of stock in my position as your one and only advisor. I was a body double for the princess of Elfique. I’ve been pretending to be her so the people listen to me.”

“What about the princess?”

“Dead, she said that I was the princess, and they didn’t believe her, so they dragged her off to a commander to keep as a prize and I heard she killed herself after a single night. How weak.”

“I understand that you clearly had little love for her, but what happened to her is exactly what I am trying to prevent. I… I let that happen, and a lot of people died for my revenge, I will not repeat that.

If there is something I can do to help you, just tell me.”

Mercedes looked contrite, unsure where to put her feelings.

“I’m not scolding you for wanting revenge, or holding a grudge. It is not wrong to be upset about something, it isn’t even always wrong to act on that, but you should be able to recognize what you are doing, and what the anger is doing. I’m not even telling you to let it go, just when you are working with me, out there in public, I need you to be in control instead of that anger.”

“Do you have sisters?”

“Three of them, all older than me.”

“You talk like an older brother.”

“Did you have siblings?”

“What about you?”

“That’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it. I don’t know my birth parents, I was left on the side of the road as an infant. I have a half-sister from my mother, and I have brothers, I think two of them, from my father. My mother was kidnapped and raped for years to give birth to someone like me.”

“What?”

“I heard about this when I was 14. I’ve had some time to process all of this.”

“How old are you now?”

“16”

Mercedes sat down on his bed.

“I’m 19.”

“Are you alright?”

“Why did you tell me that? Why did you think I wanted to hear it?”

“I demanded that you be honest with me. It is right that I give you that honesty back.”

“I had-”

“If you really do want to, then say what you want to say. But we are even, you were honest, I was honest. You don’t need to say another word.”

“You asked me if I needed anything. The people need more blankets, they need more food, and they need more protection. The people whose minds have broken are sitting in their own filth, unable to bring themselves to eat, or keep clean. I had your golems stay near them, but people tried to get in during the night, those soldiers you spared don’t seem to understand that things are not the same as they were.”

“I’ll have some of the guard golems turn into caretakers. If you can find someone who can be trusted to command them, I will let the golems know. If you can point out any of the men who tried anything, I can have them arrested just to let them know that they will not be given mercy a second time. I saved you and your people, but that is not because I have any love for Dague, I want justice to be done.”

“What about food?”

“Are there game animals in the area?”

“I saw deer when we were being transported.”

“If I use magic, I can gather up a great deal of them, skin them, butcher them, and process the hides into more blankets. Solve two problems at once.”

“Would you really?”

“If I sent the golems, it would take much longer. They can keep the peace here while I am gone, and it will let me know how others will react without my immediate presence. If something happens and I need to come back, use the amulet and I can gate back in 20 seconds.”

Harlan left by clearly flying over the walls.

It took a minute to find the first deer, and 15 to find the 30th.

He fused the hooves together and used his clawed hands to field dress them.

On the way back they were dripping blood, Harlan hoped to draw out predators so he could then harvest them as well.

He brought them right down in the middle of the Dague camp that had been set up in the festival grounds that were empty.

It took seconds for each deer to be fully cut into pieces, the bones put aside for broths, the brain was used to tan the hides.

All in all, it took 20 minutes for everything to be done, Redmond’s lessons on game processing with using magic were a fond memory of his and mixed with his time in the frontier, he had gotten quite good at it.

He turned to the nearest Dague who had been watching.

“Does the camp have a cook?”

“I cooked last night. Does that mean I’m the cook?”

“If you plan to keep cooking, that makes you the cook.”

“Then I am the cook.”

“I’m going to put these all in a cold room I’ll make in just a moment, use as much as you need for the meal, I’ll try to find vegetables and flour so you can make a stew. Your people make stews, correct?”

“I assume everyone makes stews.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“That is what I thought too. Do you know if anyone is distributing blankets? Other things like that?”

“There was a woman here last night, Fluer. But I’m not sure where she is now. She asked around and was carrying clothes that she handed them out to those still in slave cloth.”

“Do you mind holding my hand for a moment?”

“Of course not, Sir Fomoria.”

“When I hold your hand, think of that woman, you saw her face, right?”

“Yes.”

Harlan saw her face in his mind, and went to find her.

“Before I go, what is your name?”

“Louis.”

Harlan handed him an amulet. It had been hard on him, but he was using little fragments of his soul and growing them inside of the crystals, if he had an orchard of mimic trees, he would’ve made dozens more golems.

“Contact me using that.”

“How?”

“Touch the crystal, it will tell you how.”

The man looked confused, and touched it immediately.

“Does this-” “Does this-”

“Ah!” “Ah!”

“When you speak into the crystal after touching it it will play the sounds through my amulet.

I am here to help people, if someone tries to take food they shouldn’t, if someone is causing a fight, call me, tell me about it, and I will handle it.”

Harlan found the woman stealing clothes from peoples clotheslines.

“Are you Fluer?”

She jumped back and shrieked, which alerted the homeowner of the theft.

Harlan held her with telekinesis.

“That’s just what I expected from a Dague. Put her down and I’ll extract some value from her.”

“Back away from her. Are you Fluer?”

“Yes, that is my name.”

“You were stealing these clothes to give to your people, weren’t you?”

“It’s not like we have much choice.”

“Go back to the camp, there are 30 tanned deer hides. We will speak again about making sure everyone has what they need.”

“Thank you thank you thank you.”

Harlan let her go and then he picked up all of the clothes.

The man tried to go after her, but was stopped in the same way as she had been moments ago.

“I’ll not let one of their kind get away with stealing from me.”

“I will repay you a silver for the trouble she caused, but nothing was stolen.”

A branded woman stepped out of the house, she was… not human, but he was unsure what she was.

A pair of antlers curled around the back of her head starting at her temples and ending just far enough that she likely wouldn’t have an issue laying on her back. Her skin was tanned, though not as bronze as the Golden, and she had two spots of pale white skin just above her eyes. Her features made him think of beastkin, but by and large, she was human, no fur, no hooves, no doe eyes, it was simply those white spots and antlers.

“Ah, but you own a slave. A trial then?”

“A trial for what?”

Harlan made the ground swallow the man up to his waist.

“Ma’am. May I give you a health check up?”

“Step away from my-”

A tendril of mud went across his mouth.

“You may.”

Various fractures in her arm, minor dislocation of her hip, scars too numerous to list hidden under her clothes.

“Did he do this to you?”

“He is… the forth of my masters. None have treated me well.”

“Then his sentence shall be death if he can make no argument against it.”

“Please do not kill him.”

“Why?”

“My tribe were pacifists. We shall do no harm to another.”

The mud left the man who coughed and spit out what was left in his mouth.

“What defense do you have for unrightly harming her?”

“I’ll do what I want with my property, there is no law against-”

Harlan dragged him out of the ground and tossed him through an open gate.

Harlan had no idea where it led, just that it was a hundred miles north.

“I will respect your choice of pacifism. I wish that it was more realistic. The home is now yours, do with it as you wish. And it would take moments for me to remove that brand.”

“What of his daughter?”

“Shit. How old is she?”

“6.”

Harlan opened the gate again and dragged the man through.

“I am only giving you one chance, and only because you are a father, lay a hand on- Excuse me, what is your name?”

“Philis.”

“Philis, I’ll come back here and her pacifism will not deter me from gutting you and using your body as material for my army.”

Harlan tossed the man to the ground and walked away.

“THINGS ARE CHANGING HERE.”

Harlan sent orders, the near thousand men who he spared had become his men, now he finally decided what to do with them. As it stood, they were walking the streets and keeping the peace as it was, a peace which Harlan despised.

Harlan invited them into the festival grounds, in the section which was not currently occupied by the Dague.

He counted 884 soldiers, the remaining ones had already fled, some of them died in the process of looting the town before running.

He cleared his throat and then used sound magic to be heard across the crowd without blowing out the eardrums of those closest to him.

Mercedes stood to his right, he still needed a left hand man.

“Each of you are here now because you surrendered, but you are not prisoners of war. You are not slaves.”

He brought out a map of the area from the mayors home.

“I have circled in red the area 823 miles around this town, that is the maximum range of my gate magic.

If any of you want to leave now, tell me. Those who wish to go north, line up on my right, then east, south, and west, in that order. I cannot have people working under me who I cannot trust, and none of you can be trusted. You worked for men who I want dead, but I know that not every soldier fights because they want to. Some of you may simply want work, perhaps your village had no place for you, perhaps you are orphans or slaves.

Why you fought before is not important, I need to know that you can work for me, not as soldiers, but as peacekeepers. I need to know that you can do what I ask, and I need to know that you can adapt to my new laws. The largest change is that slavery will no longer be allowed outside of willing contract work, I will explain more at a town assembly later today.”

The first man walked forward and pointed at the map, Harlan opened the gate as soon as he could, and the man walked through.

When they saw that it had worked, that his gate was real, they went in even lines and pointed at the map.

When they said a town name, Harlan called it out so they could be sent together.

By the end, Harlan had 100 men, no Cast, they were human and Plest and whatever those antlered people were.

Harlan splashed them all with color magic, whatever their cloth was before, now it was black.

“I expect a lot from all of you, but I do not expect you to fight a war, that I can do on my own. I want you as guards for this town, you will be working with my golems to do this. Now, you, with the antlers, what are you?”

“Me?”

“There are few like you here, but yes, you will do.”

“I am a Faun.”

“Ah, because of the deer.”

“Faun. F,a,u,n.”

“The name doesn’t matter. I heard that your people are pacifists, how many would you guess actually are?”

“I know little of them, they are not my people anymore than… well I don’t know what you are or where you are from. I was raised by humans and many of those I’ve seen from my race are cowards.”

“I’m not going to get into an argument about pacifism. Let’s all have a talk about what I expect of you, and then you will have your first mission.”

The townspeople, numbered roughly 3,000, gathered, and with them, the slaves, both those who were owned already, and those he had freed from the markets. In total there were almost 13,000, forcing Harlan to have this conversation outside of the town in a stone area he had made with haste.

“I have gathered you all here because I took over this town yesterday, I killed the guard who fought against me, I killed the mayor, and the nobles who tried to flee died as well. All of you are now stuck here, with me.

And I am not a warlord hoping to exploit you all, I am not even from this place, I come from across the sea, through the veil. I want to set right what I think is wrong. Slavery is gone, each of your slaves is now a citizen of my town, which will be the capital of my new nation of Fomoria. Each of you will be given a trial, a simple trial, one which I could never do on my own.”

Harlan had made a rather simple request for Xol, make truth potions, each person would take a few drops on the tongue before they spoke to him

“I will speak with each of you, and if you try to flee, my guards, and my golems, will cut you down. If you have a spouse, or anyone else who agrees to undertake this trial with you, bring them so I can get this done sooner. And no person under 16 will face this trial, and having children can grant some leniency.”

Right before Harlan started to process people, a messenger arrived.

He opened the letter, it was rather simple, just a call to arms, a threat that no matter where he hides the empire would capture him, that there was no chance for forgiveness, and that he had pissed off the Castians and half a dozen other countries that bought slaves here.

Reading all of this the numbers made more sense, 3,000 residents in a place of this size was ridiculous, so was how few children there were. The entire place was little more than an open air market and the people who ran it or who provided services such as food and beds.

“Do you have a reply?”

“Yes, tell your leaders that I am not going to run, or hide, and if they want this place back, and all of its people, they will take it by force.”

“They expected such a reply, you have less than a week before 10,000 men come here.”

“Very well. You may return to your leaders.”

The messenger pulled a dagger, and then dropped dead, two small holes bored through his skull by Harlan’s fingers.

Harlan burned the letter and went to judgments.

In the end, 400 citizens stayed, 300 were exiled, and the remainder were killed.

He would need to restructure the entire layout of the town, set up farms and more if he wanted to be able to sustain the population that now lived in it. They were a trade town, and nobody would be coming there anymore.

Harlan began setting up various things, a new banner, spare bodies just in case something happens and the army that comes for him really is enough to overwhelm him, though he found it unlikely.

An issue arose as he was ready to have his first actual rest after a week of constant work.

Guards were unsure what to actually do, but there was a riot.

He arrived by gate.

“What is the problem?”

The captain of the guard was a Dague, she was a soldier before being a slave, and the other soldiers he spared were mostly young men who lacked the experience she had.

“Sir, the people want to kill the citizens who stayed.”

“Did you try arguing with them?”

“That is all that has kept them from actually trying to get through us.”

“Alright, I’ll take over.”

He flew over the group and used empathy to calm them somewhat, thousands of ex-slaves were here, ready to extract whatever justice they could. Harlan knew he was being a hypocrite, he had killed out of anger and hidden it as just before, but he knew where that led, and he couldn’t let that be allowed again.

This wasn’t the first riot he had quelled, so he knew it was best to be on the ground in front of the group instead of flying above them. People didn’t like it when the person they were negotiating with made themselves higher up using a stage or otherwise.

“Please return home. These people were judged by me, they are pardoned for what minor crimes they have committed, and they are pardoned for owning slaves as they treated them with some respect.”

“THEY OWNED US, WHAT RESPECT IS THAT?”

He knew raising his voice would not help, so he was using sound magic once again to be heard clearly over the fury that sang through the air.

“Listen to a story of my own past. When I was 11, my parents got a slave as part of a dowry for my sister.”

Were it not for his empathy, they would’ve likely rushed him right then, and no side would like that.

“The state of slavery is very different where I am from, but that man was still a slave. I thought nothing of it, because that was just part of life, their country had been ravaged by famine, and my country offered food in exchange for having people come to work off that debt. Yet never once did we treat him as anything but a worker, and eventually, a family friend.

The act, vile as it is to take freedom from any man, has degrees of evil. Those who beat and raped their slaves were killed by me, those who had slaves and treated them with dignity were allowed to stay, because I believe that they can overcome this culture of treating slaves as nothing but objects.”

The people calmed somewhat, he was their savior, but they would class him the same as those they would’ve killed.

“I am what is called a Fomorian, my people are cannibals, murderers, rapists, their crimes so great that they were forced to never leave their lands by their god, my god.”

Their anger lessened again, replaced with confusion and curiosity at where he was going with this.

“Yet I was raised by humans, on a farm, and I know that you are not where you are from, but what you do. These people here, they were born and raised in a place where owning slaves was just normal, and yet they still had the decency to understand that a slave is a person, that a brand did not make them an object. All I ask of you here, is to forgive them for being born in this place which twists the hearts of men into monsters. Do not condemn them to death for the crime of being.”

The crowd slowly dispersed, and then once they were lessened enough, those remaining who couldn’t be convinced realized that they had no chance of getting what they wanted anymore with so few people.

The guard’s followed the people back to their homes, most of them now lived where their former masters did.

The guard captain stayed with Harlan.

“That was amazing. You didn’t need to shed a drop of blood, yet they left anyway.”

“This is not my first time dealing with a riot.”

“You must have a wealth of experience.”

“Are you the one selected to be captain of the guard?”

“Yes, I hope her highness has spoken well of me.”

“She is not your highness, she is now my advisor. What is your name?”

“I am Joan, your majesty.”

“That you did not turn to violence sooner is a good sign, I hope you can continue to keep the peace.”

“I am most grateful for your kind words, your majesty.”

“I’m- You’re welcome.”

He didn’t like the idea of being a king, but he was the ruler of a new nation, so he had to be that man.