Harlan sent a bird golem through a gate, he needed to know where the army was, and how long he really had.

100 miles, no signs of an army of 10,000 moving through.

200 miles, no signs.

300 miles, signs of an army, recent.

270 miles, in the distance the fires from their camp could be seen.

The numbers were a lie, it was closer to 8,000 soldiers, 1,000 slaves.. From up high he could see that they were mostly Cast, with the slaves being various races. Harlan hadn’t seen the other forms of beastkin here, but so far as he could see Minos and Uras existed in this place.

He perched himself on one of the tent posts, searching for a commander.

There were different troops around, but he couldn’t quite tell who was what or what any of it meant.

Then he saw a Cast who was made of that unknown magical metal, and thought it likely that this man held some position.

So the crow moved from tent to tent watching the man who clearly had no idea why a bird was so keen on being around him.

After nearly an hour Harlan heard something worth hearing.

“We will cripple them tonight with assassins, Bijou, my spies have said he is soft on children.”

“Right, one for the new town guard, his advisor, and then another to sabotage food storage. But why aren’t we killing this ‘Harlan Fomoria?’ ”

“He is an unknown; he isn’t human, he isn’t Dague, he showed up out of nowhere and started slaughtering trained soldiers like they were new recruits, and when he went to the home of the mayor he either bypassed or destroyed every offensive array in that place. If we send an assassin after him it could jeopardize every other killing.”

Harlan listened for an hour more and searched the commanders tent before finding him again to land on the his head and overload the gem filled with different war magics.

He hated that he didn’t get the chance to see what it looked like, but he was certain that the commander was dead and so was that advisor and likely hundreds more around them.

Harlan kept one eye closed so he could see through his golem and continue to work in Kor.

It was not often his advisor left his side, which was convenient, but sometimes he wished she found something better to do.

“Mercedes, we need to talk.”

“Yes?”

“What is a Bijou? And after that, what is that dark blue magical metal with black lines?”

“Bijou are also known as Everchildren. They are a small human-like people, normally they end up as thieves or assassins because they look like children even well into their 30s, but they do only live to around 60. The magical metal is mythril, something from the old Fae, nobody can remake it, but it can be melted down and reshaped a limitless number of times with the right magic, or so I’ve heard. There was just so much made that it is still relatively common.”

“I saw a Cast made of that material, does that mean he has been around since then?”

“False mythril, it has a darker pattern and is less resistant to magic and heat. If it was real, there would also be faint white lines in the pattern.”

“Assassins are coming, Bijou. You, the guard captain, and the food supply, are their targets.”

She could tell something else was bothering him.

“What is your other question?”

“I’m not… I declared this was the start of a country, I am a king.”

“Or an emperor.”

“I don’t want to be a king, I just want to make people rule the way I want.”

“Ah, then you are the overking! Great and mighty!”

“Is there a joke I’m missing because I’m an outsider?”

“No, I am simply mocking you.”

“Bold.”

“I feel I can read you well already. You enjoy this, you like banter and lighthearted ribbing.”

“I do. But what is so silly about what I’ve said?”

“You want to rule the world, but you don’t want to be a king or an emperor. So what should we call you?”

“Just call me Harlan.”

“I’m going to be honest, I wish to see what heights you reach, even if you don’t want to be king, I know you’ll be one and then more. I would bet my life on it.”

Harlan’s mood turned dark and he couldn’t meet her eyes anymore.

“Please tell Joan to watch for assassins, and I’ll put more eyes on both of you.”

She thought she had become very good at reading people while pretending to be a princess, and she knew for certain that it was not a good idea to poke him now.

“I will give you some time alone.”

“She reminds you of Sara.”

“Were you conscious of my first time meeting her?”

“I didn’t mark it in my mind, and I was still fighting myself, so it is hazy.”

“Sara wanted to work for me so she could see what I got up to. She knew I would become more than just an inventor before I knew it, because she read me like a book, she knew I could never live a quiet life.”

Harlan silently wept.

“Then she wants to bet on it? Sara loved bets, she… she loved a lot of things. She was always so full of life and energy, I’m sure she would’ve been a great mother.”

Dawn manifested telekinetic force to simulate a hug. But it had no warmth, he couldn’t hear her heartbeat or feel her breath. Dawn didn’t want a body, not until this moment. Harlan was away from everyone he loved, he couldn’t go to Adina for a hug and a cuddle to warm his heart, he couldn’t hear his mother’s voice or a strong hand from his father. He couldn’t hold his niece and nephew, or play with Wulrun.

She was just a voice in his head.

“Yeah, she would’ve been fantastic at it.”

But now was not the time to talk about that, it was a fleeting thought, something she would put back in its box.

“I’ve got people here, right now, who are alive and in danger. I cannot, I will not fail them like I failed her.”

“Do what you do best.”

Harlan sat in his office and used more birds to watch for entry into the city.

He made only a few of these birds, they were supposed to be scout units and if they found something worth blowing up, they had the power to do so.

His mind flicked between the birds to spread his mental senses, three targets were marked.

They scaled the walls using friction magic at different points in the day and never from the same direction.

They looked to be children, yet they sought no family once inside the walls, instead they watched the guards for breaks in formation that they could slip through.

So when they skulked back to their little hideout, Harlan was waiting.

“My, how utterly deplorable, three young children, orphans, having to hide out in a dank hole in the ground. Why don’t you come home with me, my advisor loves children.”

The leader was the only girl of the group.

“Would you really? Mister Fomoria?”

“Of course, but first, I don’t like assassins, you wouldn’t be assassins, would you?”

A knife went into Harlan’s throat, but he kept his false smile.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Beaten by a simple illusion, I have been very, very disappointed in the caliber of mages outside of the veil.”

A wave of telekinetic force shot out from the flesh golem that merely wore illusions to seem like Harlan.

The walls were painted crimson. Seeing all of these tunnels did give him an idea however.

The real Harlan went from his office to his guard captain’s with gate.

The woman didn’t jump, but rather drew a blade and put it at Harlan’s throat.

“The assassins are dead, but keep your eyes open just in case.”

The woman dropped to her knees.

“My most sincere apol-.”

“Good work, you were ready for an attack from any angle and in an instant you had my life, no, actually that wouldn’t have been enough to kill me, but for most other people, their lives would’ve been in your hands.”

“I am most gracious for your mercy.”

“What would I need to offer mercy? You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I have drawn my blade on my Roi.”

“I don’t know that word, which means it’s Fae, which worries me.”

“It is our word for king. I will refrain from speaking my tongue around you.”

“Speak freely, this is the right of anyone who lives under my banner.”

Joan smiled, and she had a look of pride in herself for working under him.

“Sir, I would ask that you finish that banner of yours, I am quite a fan of it. I do hope they give you a title, chainbreaker, the unslaver, something along those lines.”

“Titles…”

Harlan sat in her chair.

“Past the veil, I am known as Archmage Changeling. I was given this title out of spite by a man who felt wronged by me, yet I embraced it because I decided that I would rather be feared by my enemies than respected by people who I could turn to my side with actions anyway.”

“I assume archmage is like the title of wizard then, a man respected in his field of magic?”

“Any archmage must create a new magic, doesn’t matter if it is a spell that builds off of another school, or if it is an entirely new way to use magic that hadn’t been thought of before. It also requires that you really understand your magic, the why and how of its inner workings.”

“Ah, then that would make you a grand wizard.”

“I heard the Cast were invented by one of them, is there a known story there?”

“I… do not entirely know. I was not highborn, I was a soldier. History is not something I put time into compared to swords fighting and tactics.”

“You mean sword fighting?”

“Swords, any Dague worth their weight has two of them at all times.”

“Earlier then?”

“I had another blade ready to sever your spine.”

“I said that it was good work, but now I see it was great work.”

Harlan returned to his office, and then went to his bedroom, it would’ve been improper to show her his bed.

As he walked the halls, Dawn wanted to talk more, so he stopped once she started.

“Are you ok with that? You were really… you didn’t feel great, and then you seem better, but I can’t read your mind anymore and I just don’t know how to help you. She was always shit at helping people, she destroyed herself with grief. I don’t want to ignore this.”

“I think it helps me grieve that they have no idea what I’ve done or why, they aren’t judging me for anything but what they’ve seen from me. I… I don’t want to blame everyone back home. But I don’t want to have everyone keep telling me how sad I should be, how it’s fine that I didn’t go back to the academy so soon. I don’t want them to coddle me, I messed up and Sara paid the price for that, I want people to either stop bothering me or just admit that-”

“If you never would’ve let her leave, she would be alive? That you should’ve just chained her to the floor, maybe put some magic on her so you can turn her into a living puppet? Harlan, stop, shut the fuck up.

She made her choice because she loved Gunther. What about everything you’ve done that got you hurt because you loved other people?”

“I thought you didn’t know how to help?”

“You want someone to blame you? No, I’m not going to do it. And Sara would’ve been pissed if you used her death as another reason to kick the shit out of yourself.”

Harlan walked the rest of the way in silence.

As he laid his head down to sleep, he realized there was someone else in the room, his being upset caused him to miss her.

Mercedes pulled a string and her robe opened.

“What exactly do you think you are doing?”

“Away from your friends, family, you must be lonely.”

“No, you believe I am vulnerable. I want to make some things clear. If you ever do this again, I’ll toss you to the streets and let you find your own work. I am set to be married in less than two years, and I will not betray the trust of my fiance. And lastly, I am not someone to fall for something so base as this, so put your breasts away and we will never speak about this. I put my trust in you, I was honest, now I see that was a mistake, one I made out of grief. Whatever plans you have for me, toss them to the wind, or tell me so we can work out whether or not they are realistic.”

“I will take my leave.”

She tied her robe again and rushed out of the room.

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

In the morning Harlan double checked to make sure there wasn’t a fourth assassin who had succeeded.

He found Mercedes waiting in his office, he spent almost all of his time there controlling various golems across the town.

“No need to stand all day. Please sit.”

She was awkward as she moved to the chair farthest from him.

“About last-”

“No need to sit so far away. And what about last night? I don’t remember anything happening.”

“Of course, nevermind.”

“This country that we are in, it is part of the empire, but does it have a sovereign? How does the empire work? Do they have enemies, or rather, who are their enemies?”

“We are in a country within the empire, the Cast started as created soldiers until eventually one of them found the secret to making more of themselves and killed the grand wizard who made them. They existed in so many defensive positions that they took over a large swath of land in a matter of weeks when word got out. Their emperor is the Cast who killed their creator and knows the secret to making more of them.

Each country has a lesser king, but they are little more than puppets.

Lastly, there are two large enemies, and far too many small enemies that won’t amount to anything.”

“And they are?”

“The Goliath are a race of humanoids, but they are large and brutish in appearance. They are enemies of the Cast to the point of a full genocide campaign against them within the borders of the empire. Hence why you haven’t seen any yet, even as slaves.

Their kingdom is Lith, and their king is a harsh man. Their rules are simple and open to much interpretation, but so long as one does not harm another with intent, through any means, financial, physical, mental, they can live freely. Or so I’ve heard.”

“And slavery?”

“Slaves do not count as people.”

“Then what is the other?”

“Cannibal snake men. Nobody is allowed to dig more than a quarter of a mile down for risk of them suddenly appearing and wiping out the mine or what have you. Nobody knows what to call them or why they cannot be reasoned with.

They are why you don’t often see magical metals like elemental ore for making steel.”

“You know quite a lot.”

“I was raised alongside the princess as a double, I needed to know things so I could pretend to be her.”

“Very well. Are there smaller enemies who I could band together with or smaller enemies who I could conquer for more territory?”

“There are many, but first we should handle the army on its way to us.”

“The commander is dead, and I have golems preparing to handle the rest of them.”

“You’ve killed the commander?”

“Yes, I went there as a bird, spied on him, and then once I had what I wanted I cast every spell I put in that bird while on his head.”

“Wonderful. The Cast well, caste system, means that their military commander must be one of those false mythril Cast. If they don’t have a back up, then they are required to retreat or wait for a new commander. Can you teach me magic? I was given a limited education on the subject because they were worried about me being able to fight against the princess.”

“When I believe you can be trusted, I will teach you magic.”

The word stung at her. He did not forgive or forget the night before.

----------------------------------------

“How much longer before we reach Kor?”

The soldier in the center of the line spoke to another closer to the outside.

Cast military formation had beastkin, most often slave soldiers, on the outside as meat shields.

“They are splitting now, it should be 10 minutes before we are part of the circle around the town.”

“I don’t like this, the clouds overhead are a bad omen.”

“Lightning strikes the highest point. I’m going to be hit before you. And before either of us are hit, he is going to be hit.”

They could see an object flying with eight wings above the center of the town, unmoving.

“This unsettles me. Why did we send so many men to capture him?”

“Because if he can get out of the veil, he might be able to get us in. I shouldn’t expect a squishy to understand how important it is to find a new land ripe for the taking.”

“Huh, and what if this man is just one of many mages as strong as him?”

“Then we will find that out during interrogation.”

As the Minos said, it took 10 minutes for them to split up.

The plan was to starve them out using a mass spatial lock; they had already heard from the soldiers Harlan spared that he had a teleportation spell.

After 30 minutes the entire town was encircled and the commander met with the representative of Harlan.

The Minos soldier was close enough to overhear them. Though it was a bit odd that he was speaking to a large hummingbird.

“What manner of trickery is this? I expected to speak with an advisor.”

“I will not endanger her life by putting her in the middle of an enemy army.”

“I also expected good faith negotiations.”

“Unless your golden god intends to start by giving slaves some right to not be beaten and raped and murdered, I think there is very little we can negotiate about.”

“We want a way past the veil.”

The bird’s shadow stood up.

“Then meet my god, for I am her champion.”

She spoke with authority and magic.

“Those beyond the veil may never enter, you are protected from those inside at this moment, my champion is but one many, 16 years of age. Your desire for conquest would be a more one-sided slaughter than this one will be.”

The Cast were immune to mental attacks, thus they were unintimidated.

“We will see about that. Boy, if you do not surrender yourself, we will burn this city to the ground, take you, and shove you in a dark hole until you break, then we will get what we always get, everything that we demand.”

“Oh I am very glad you speak this way to him. Harlan, do what you will.”

“Of course.”

The sky rumbled.