As soon as he stepped through the gate D’if and his men kneeled.

“Your majesty.”

“What have you found about the island?”

“It appears between the hours of midnight and two, then three, and four, so on and so forth, for six hours at a time. ”

“So, noon to six in the evening will be the next opening.”

“Yes sir.”

“Have you found the way to enter?”

“No sir.”

“What have you tried?”

“We’ve all tried many ways to take down or slip past the arrays, but thus far draining, bypassing, counter arrays, all have failed. We always get turned around.”

“I’m not shocked.”

“When large boats try to reach it, a Sea Drake talks to them, the Cast get sunk. It’s gotten close to us before, but we were in a rowboat and it just kept swimming.”

“Interesting. I wonder if Peri recruited it.”

Harlan jumped down the cliff and landed on the water as if it was solid ground.

He made it a few hundred feet out before the drake appeared.

Once its nostrils were above water and it smelled him its eyes became intensely slit as it focused all attention on Harlan and picked up speed.

Its body wasn’t scaly in the same way as other kinds, a Sea Drake had rough skin and a large mouth not unlike a whale.

But it was no filter feeder.

Harlan lost his footing as the drake pulled in thousands of gallons of water in a short minute and the creature ballooned in size.

He barely made it through his gate before those thousands of gallons of water were ejected like a watercutter, D’if and his men had to flee from the now crumbling cliffside.

Harlan wasn’t entirely sure how he pissed this thing off so much, but he wasn’t going to let some drake tell him what to do.

He shot down like a bullet, the drake had yet to reacquire his scent.

Then when they got close they both felt a pull on their mind, they wanted to fight.

Yet Harlan could tell that it was unnatural and he fought against it.

When they two clashed Harlan had his arm torn and he broke the snout of the drake.

Both parties were sinking to the depths, Harlan refused to let go, not only did he want his arm back, but he also hated knowing that there was a mental pull that was making them want to fight one another.

He reached into its mind and his own and bypassed the hate in the same way he bypassed the bloodlust that was innate to False Undead.

D’if and his men were looking over the new start of the cliffside.

“Should we dive for him?”

“Nah, if my guesses about the kid are right, then he is going to pop up any second, probably riding the thing.”

Two minutes later, Harlan popped up on the back of the drake.

“Many apologies, I thought you were… I don’t know.”

“It’s fine. Are you protecting that island?”

“Fae owing a favor is always a good thing, but I’ve never seen the one beyond the mists.”

“Can I get over there?”

“I’ve no way inside.”

“Still, I must thank you for protecting the Pixies.”

“Of course, Little Shadow.”

“If you come to the shore, I could bring some game animals and heal your nose.”

“I’ve suffered far worse in my years. Ah, but I should return this.”

He sucked up a bit of water and then shot it back out, alongside the arm he had bitten off.

“Thank you, the cost of healing this body only seems to get worse the more I improve it. And the armor I wear is not easily replaced.”

Harlan pulled it over with telekinesis, cleaned it off a bit, and then stuck it back on.

Since there was a period of time where it was off, he felt pain and discomfort as flesh knit together.

“Odd one you are.”

“I am aware.”

Harlan flew back up to the cliffside and dried himself off.

“The drake doesn’t know how to get in, he is just doing this with the hope that Peri will owe him something.”

“I must say, I’ve never seen someone jump into the jaws of a drake before.”

“Next, where is the nearest village, and do they have a bakery?”

“Never been inside, but it's just a few miles north, straight on from the shore. Shouldn’t take more than an hour to get disguised, come up with a reason to get inside without drawing suspicion.”

Harlan opened a gate a few miles north, he could see the village half a mile away.

“We are flying in.”

“Sir, is that wise?”

“I don’t run, I don’t hide. I am a warrior king, not a spy.”

After killing the Cast guards and sparing the slave soldiers Harlan forced a bakery to let him buy what he needed, and then he was off.

D’if was tearing down the camp on Harlan’s orders.

“Once it is noon we can go in.”

“Really? I’ve never heard of baked goods opening an array.”

“This is going to be enough.”

Harlan got far enough that he could feel the arrays turn on and shift reality around him.

He activated a rather crude magic that he had been taught by Cynthia, smell enhancing, something that the two of them had used for practical jokes around the castle.

“Sir Fomoria, is that really going to work?”

“Give it a minute. She is probably just waking up, Peri likes to sleep in.”

“You are close to her it seems, but you have only been outside the veil for a few months and you needed us to find her. What am I looking at here?”

“After I fought a Fae named Nemain I was infected with magic that nobody explained to me.

I had a Pixie living in my home and she wanted to use that magic to bring her race back to life here on Aarde.”

“So Pixies exist inside of the veil? But they are new out here.”

“Periwinkle is a Fae, but don’t you dare call her that, she is a Pixie.”

The men suddenly tensed, Harlan was pretty sure they wanted to flee, but they were two miles from shore.

“Ah, the mists are clearing.”

When they reached the shore Periwinkle was waiting alongside a few others.

They stood a little over three feet tall with large monocolor eyes that looked like gems.

Their bodies were like scaled down humans, from the knees and elbow they were chitinous and had 3 fingers and 1 thumb.

On their heads were antennae, they grew from the temples and were like prehensile wires that they started touching Harlan with.

On their back they had wings like dragonflies, though with three sets instead of the two that the bugs normally had. And unlike Periwinkle they had to keep them constantly flapping to fly which made them quite loud when they did.

“Peri, good to see you. What are they doing to me?”

“Well, they aren’t perfect copies of me, they’ve been changed outside of my control. They are just getting a feeling for you.”

“Alright. Nice to meet all of you.”

They all hid back behind their mother when they were done.

“Are they children?”

“They came out fully formed, but they are still young minds.”

“I was hoping that they would have some innate nature magic like you, and they could help growing crops.”

Periwinkle pursed her lips.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot help, and… I would like you to leave.”

“I understand, they are young, and you don’t want outside influence.”

“These people out there, they are monsters, I can’t let any of my children out yet. And you…”

“I’m a killer, I know. But please, take the pies and honeyed milk anyway. Oh, and an amulet, if you ever need me, call and I’ll be here.”

“Of course, and again, I am sorry.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get the food myself.”

One of the Pixies went back to Harlan, wrapping his wires around his hand.

“I think he wants to go with you. Perhaps he felt that you are good.”

“Don’t know where he could get that idea.”

“Take him, you are his father in the same sense that I am his mother.”

“Do you want to go with me?”

The boy cocked his head to the side, and then nodded as he let go with his wires.

“What is his name?”

“I haven’t named any of them yet, I thought I would let them do so when they started speaking.”

“I’m in a war, it doesn’t seem right to take him. He would be in danger.”

“Perhaps his brothers and sisters will need someone who has seen war one day.”

“Why are you pushing him to me?”

The boy bit Harlan, puncturing his skin.

Harlan used telekinesis to pry him off.

“Now I see, shit, why the hell does this hurt?”

“I think that you mixed in with the magic, instead of exactly what I wanted, a piece of yourself got into them and he is a troublemaker. I think he would be better off of the island.”

“You don’t want him to corrupt the others, so you are offloading him to me.”

“I don’t want to see it like that, but he is more like you, and if there is anyone who could help him use that violence for something good it would be you.”

“Fine. I’ll take him.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Harlan, please, don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying there is anything wrong with him, and I’m not throwing him at you.”

Harlan rubbed his forehead.

“No, it’s fine. I’m just in a very poor mood. I’m glad to take him, thank you for believing that I can help.

I’ll leave the pies and such here and go.”

The Pixie boy sat on Harlan’s shoulders.

“Kid, if you bite my head, you are going to regret it.”

He didn’t listen, Harlan hit him with a white noise attack and then dragged him onto the boat.

Halfway back to shore he woke up.

“You got up fast. Probably got that from me.”

Harlan and the boy sat on one and the of the boat while D’if and his men were as far away from them as they could be.

“If you bite me again, you will not have a painless nap.”

The boy tried to glare, but while he could intimidate the others of his race, Harlan was not some less than a year old in a grown body.

“Sit.”

Harlan’s glare forced compliance.

“Now hold my hand.”

The boy did as commanded.

“You can hear me, I know you are pretending to be as childlike as the others.”

“Want name.”

“Alright, then pick one.”

“Your name, I want.”

“My name is Harlan, but when I was born I was named Darrath, do you like Darrath?”

“Good name, Pixie Darrath.”

“When we get back, you are going to behave yourself, because if you can hurt me then you would risk seriously injuring others. Do not do that, because if you do, then I will be upset.”

The boy made himself small, balling up his body and wrapping his wings that softened into almost a fabric around his shoulders.

“I’m sorry, I just don’t want to see the people I like get hurt. If you are good, or if you make a mistake, I’m not going to hurt you.”

Darrath unwrapped his wings and fluttered them, which Harlan assumed that he meant it was fine.

As soon as they hit the shore Harlan gated back to Kor.

“Sir, if i might make a suggestion.”

“Speak freely.”

“Don’t be so hard on the kid, children are better suited to kindness than threats. Though those do have a place once he is old enough to understand right and wrong.”

“Do you have children?”

“Oh I’m certain I do. Probably a couple dozen, not that I stuck around to find out. I just said what I did because my father beat the shit out of me and I know I turned out bad.”

“Huh.”

“And don’t let him out, keep a constant eye on him, because if he can hurt you with his teeth then I don’t want to know what else he could do.”

“I’ll bring him to my mother.”

“Now that I’m back, I should go-”

“I believe we already had this conversation, and by that I mean I don’t want to be part of that conversation.”

“Of course, your majesty.”

“Darrath, would you like to ride on my shoulders?”

He shook his head no and then wrapped his wires around Harlan’s hand.

“Alright, let’s go see grandma.”

“Sir, if I might make another suggestion.”

“If there isn’t anyone else around, then you don’t need to ask.”

“If she hears you call her grandma, she will be upset.”

Harlan knocked on the door to Dawn’s office.

“Come in.”

“Hey, you’re a grandma now.”

“What the hell is that?”

“This is Darrath, he is a Pixie, and he is still a child.”

“Then I assume he isn’t part of a delegation.”

“Peri can’t help. The Pixies were born physically mature and they are growing mentally, but they are a species only a year old and they haven’t even been through a single lifecycle so there is no telling what complications there might be. I have little Darrath because he is troubled, violent, and needs a firm hand to hopefully grow up well and then return to the Pixies as a military commander.”

“Great, so we have another you. Darrath, come here to grandma.”

“Uh, watch out for his teeth, he-”

Darrath hopped on her lap, wrapped his wires around her neck, and almost immediately fell asleep.

“So, what are these wires?”

“These Aardian Pixies are partly based on me, those are a mild empathic organ.”

“Once you get past the bug limbs, the massive red eyes, and teeth, he is cute.”

Darrath snuggled closer to her.

“I actually agree.”

“What does he eat?”

“If he is like Peri, it’s bowls full of cookies and entire pies washed down with honeyed milk. If he is like me, anything but flowers, and I don’t like mushrooms very much either, but that is more of a dislike than a hate.”

“When he wakes up I’ll ask him.”

“He doesn’t talk, but he can soulspeak, probably another thing inherited from me.”

“I never thought I'd be a grandmother so soon. I figured it would be 9 months to the day after you got married.”

“D’if seemed to think you would hate the idea of being a grandmother.”

“That man is a piece of shit who I wouldn’t be in the same room with again if not for my professionalism. And he doesn’t know a single godsdamned thing about me.”

“Did he hurt you? I’ll-”

“He does what he does and then leaves. I’m sure if he wasn’t worried about you tearing his head off he’d sneak out the bathroom window.”

“I still hold his life in my hands.”

“Go cool off, I’m a big girl, I can handle an inconsiderate lover. And you need to be an example for little Darrath, killing a man for slighting me after I tell you not to do it is a bad lesson.”

“Fine, call me when he wakes up.”

Dawn went three hours before she couldn’t take it anymore and forced Darrath to sleep somewhere else, but when she tried to get up, she couldn’t move.

Harlan felt her distress through a connection they shared across the crossroads as a result of their deep bonding on a mental level for so long.

Harlan placed his hand on Darrath and forced him awake.

“Darrath, if you don’t let go of her right now, I will cut your wires off of her.”

They unraveled quickly and Darrath got up and stretched before wrapping them around Harlan’s hand again.

“I was hungry, why are you mad?”

Harlan ignored the boy and forced a tonic down his mother’s throat before then metabolizing it with magic.

In 10 minutes, she was hale again, minus the headache caused by being drained of her mana, that pain would stay for a time.

“Dawn, are you alright?”

“Don’t blame him, he is a child.”

“He could’ve killed you.”

“He didn’t know what he was doing, and look at him now. You shouldn’t have yelled at him.”

He was sitting with his wings wrapped around himself, facing the corner of the room.

“Darrath, honey, come back to grandma.”

“You are not his grandmother, he is a monster that-”

Dawn glared at him, but while she wanted to slap him, she believed it would be a poor example for the boy.

“He is a child, no different than you, and unlike you, his empathy isn’t so one sided. He went to sleep so quickly because he felt lonely and he could feel that I wanted him. Darrath, please.”

He came over and wrapped his wires around her wrist.

Harlan paced around the room with Dawn glaring at him.

In another few minutes he took them off.

“Darrath is sorry… I’m sorry.”

His voice was quiet, barely audible and raspy, as he hadn’t spoken very often before.

“Very good Darrath. Why don’t you drink some water.”

She poured him a glass from a pitcher on her desk and he greedily drank it down.

“Have you had anything to drink today?”

He shook his head.

“Harlan?”

It was a question with no answer except an apology, but she would not get one from Harlan.

“I brought him right here, if he didn’t drink anything all morning then that isn’t my-”

“Harlan, I just want you to do the right thing, he is too young to take care of himself.

His race has traits from you, that means you are uniquely suited to helping him understand himself.

And honestly, could you trust Peri to raise him? I know that she isn’t exactly the kind of person who can sit down and have an honest conversation or comfort you. The kid was alone there, so don’t let him be here.”

“Darrath, can we speak?”

He huddled closer to Dawn.

“It’s ok, Harlan won’t hurt you, he was just worried.”

Harlan offered his hand to the boy, his empathic wires meant that both sides would feel the other being genuine.

“I’m sorry, I said before that I wouldn’t hurt you if you made a mistake, and then I got mad at you when I shouldn’t have. Can you forgive me?”

“Darrath is forgiving. I, am forgiving.”

“That’s good, people need forgiveness. Why did you attack Dawn?”

“Pixies eat not Pixies. I was hungry for mana.”

“But you can eat normal food, right?”

“Yes. Darrath eats many things. Flittering bugs and little fruits and ground things.”

“Then why don’t we get you some food? And please, don’t try to eat anything I don’t tell you to eat.”

Harlan took Darrath down to the kitchen to point out what he was and wasn’t allowed to eat.

“Rocks?”

“Never rocks. Even if it looks like candy.”

“Lizard?”

“Only lizards that don’t talk. Actually, don’t eat anything that talks.”

“Why?”

“Because all life has value, but animals don’t understand.”

“So I could eat a baby? They don’t understand?”

“No, that is the wrong way to look at this. We can eat a cow, right?”

“If you say.”

“But when the cow evolves into something else, maybe a Sky Steer, then it starts to ask questions about life. Then when it turns into something beyond that, it can really think. A human is always a human, it just has to grow up. The animals turn into new animals.”

“That doesn’t make sense. They just grow up.”

“I eat things that don’t look or speak like people. It doesn’t always make sense, but that is how people are.”

“So I eat what I want?”

“No, you eat what I tell you to, because you are too young and you don’t understand the world yet.”

“Are you not young then?”

“I’m not old, but I’ve been alive a lot longer than you.”

“When I’m that old, then I can eat what I want?”

“Yes, and I hope that by then you and I will agree on what is ok to eat.”

“What if we don’t?”

“Then I will keep teaching you.”

“Why are you lying?”

“Because I don’t want to say what I would have to do if you eat people.”

Darrath’s wings folded down.

“Hey, don’t worry, I’m going to teach you everything, that way I never need to punish you for being a bad person.”

“Really?”

“I would be a… worse person, if I didn’t have people who taught me things. Why don’t we get you some clothes?”

Darrath was wearing a simple tunic made from sown together leaves.

He didn’t have another shifting suit ready, so for now he took him to an actual tailor.

“Ah, I’ve made many outfits for many things, but I’ve never seen one of these. And he is?”

“Darrath, he is a Pixie. And… for now why don’t we just say he is my son.”

“Harlan, is father?”

“It’s complicated, I’ll explain when you get older.”

“I’m I older yet?”

“No. it takes more time to get older.”

“Now?”

“Sir, what styles are you thinking?”

“Something like mine. Darrath, what clothes do you like?”

“Leaves.”

“This will be cloth.”

“Not cover my wings.”

“Alright, an open back then.”

“Bring cloth samples, I suspect he wants something soft. ”

The man returned with a few things, but Darrath liked silk.

Once they made a few designs Harlan used illusions to give an idea of what it would look like on him.

Then a woman walked into the store.

“Darrath. Stay behind me.”

“Oh, you are good. I’ve killed thousands of Fomorians who couldn’t tell who I was after a first encounter.”

“Nemain, why are you here?”

Harlan began drawing in mana.

“Come now, fighting here would just kill innocents. Hello there little one, I’m your grandma.”

“Grandma is nice, you don’t feel nice.”

“She is not your grandmother.”

“And you share no blood, but you call yourself his father. It was the magic I gave you that allowed them to exist. Though it is a shame that you didn’t use it for what I wanted.”

“And what did you want me to use it for?”

“Well, it’s too late now.”

“Why are you here?”

“Oh I was just stopping by, seeing what you were doing. And, my people will be paying a visit soon.

I would ask you to meet them in good faith, though they are likely to insult and want to fight.”

“And who are your people? Just so I could avoid them.”

“Goliaths, they are my warriors, and in time they will be useful to you.”

She was gone.

“That witch, I’ll-”

Harlan could feel Darrath shaking.

“Scary, scary woman.”

“I can beat her, so don’t be scared..”

“I can feel when you are lying.”

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

Dahlia and Safira jumped off of the balcony, but it was too late, his soul was already gone.

Yggdra was unable to use magic, part of the pact with Fae, thus his body was weak, never having been trained for more than a few years in his youth. Even a 2nd year student would've been likely to survive the fall. Yet now the old man lay still, his skull cracked open on the dirt.

“Dahlia, you would know better than I, are there any signs of foul play?”

She cast a suite of spells, but found no mana signatures, no disturbances in the air patterns, nothing.

“I’m sorry, it seems to me that he simply got drunk and fell.”

“Shit.”

Safira turned her back, but Dahlia could tell from her tone.

“Are you crying?”

“No, it would be unbefitting for a royal guard to do something so emotional.”

“There is no shame in doing such a thing. I’m sure he wouldn’t scold you for-”

“Blood or not, you did not know him. He would want me to call Rosewell and secure the scene.

The Fae made a deal, part of it was that through fate he would die only on the appointed date.

The only loophole would be another Fae, or by his own hand. If you say that he simply died from a fall, then that is the most likely truth. Explain everything to Rosewell, with his death I will become the head of military. I will get the army ready to handle the likely civil war, and I’m bringing Harlan in.”

“For what?”