Harlan and the others were sitting around a campfire, they were camping out as an experience.

“So, girls, I know that you all want to ask me questions.”

“Your…”

“Yes, Ximena, I am Marigold.”

“I don’t even know what to say or ask.”

“It will come to you in time. Zella, I see you staring daggers.”

“I want to learn gate.”

“You’ve taken an important step recently, I can tell. Well, towards our gate, not the gate the academy teaches.”

“I have?”

“There is an air around you, did you reveal some truth to someone? To Harlan?”

She gripped her cup more tightly and her hair drew closer to her.

“I’m sorry to have brought it up, whatever you said must’ve been painful.”

“Yes, it was.”

“A mage must be honest with themselves and with the world. You don’t need to tell anyone else, but you must let people feel that your existence has changed. Remember how Harlan was after he got back from the frontier? He was… feral, but noble, gentle even, like a wolf looking after his young.

He understood what he wanted from his life, and he won’t let anything stand in his way any longer.”

“Huh, alright, but how does that get me gate?”

“I can’t tell you all of the answers, and Harlan can’t either. If either of us just outright told you, it would poison your work as a mage, and you’d never escape his shadow like you want to.”

“Thank you. I’ll keep working on it then.”

“And when you are ready, I’ll pay you a visit.”

“How will I know? How will you know?”

“I just will. Adina, do you want to ask anything?”

“Are there any complications when a champion gets someone pregnant? I know that you had children, is there anything I’ll need to know in a few years?”

“You’d be better served asking Sepul, he had dozens of kids and with multiple women. For me, it was smooth sailing and I worked right until I went into labor. Then she was right out in 15 minutes, I gave birth to her right in the upstairs of that house. You aren’t…”

“No, not right now, we haven’t even had sex yet.”

“Oh, I was hoping to see you blush.”

“I’ve read enough books on the subject to ready myself for when-”

“Whoa hey, why don’t you not talk about that here.”

“Ah ha, I knew I would see Harlan blush at least. Besides, look how confident she has become.”

While everyone was heckling Harlan, a gate opened.

“Sir Fomoria, you are requested by Her Majesty, Queen Yggdra Ragne the 16th.”

“So, Yggdra… or what do I call him?”

“He is Yggdra the 15th, no titles are to be applied to the names of the fallen.”

“My condolences, I know that you seemed to-”

Safira gripped the handle of her mace tightly.

“We are leaving immediately. Lady Adina, as betrothed to Sir Fomoria, you are requested as well.”

“Of course.”

“Farewell, Lady Marigold.”

“May I come along as well? To see the nation which I helped build.”

“Very well.”

“Ximena, Zella, I shall speak with you again, for now, goodbye. Perhaps you could even help Harlan and I to rebuild my home here.”

“Of course, I’d love to.”

Marigold teleported them directly to the throne room.

“Lady Marigold, it is rude to bypass the royal defenses.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

She did.

“Sir Harlan Fomoria, Lady Adina Fomoria, kneel and pledge fealty to your new queen.”

Both took to a knee without her needing to turn on the magic.

“I, Sir Harlan Fomoria, Archmage of Change, do pledge my fealty and do pledge to uphold the commands of my queen, Her Majesty, Rosewell Ragne, now Yggdra Ragne the 16th.”

Adina repeated his speech word for word.

“I noticed that you chose to omit the uploading of my laws.”

“There will be times when I must break your laws to upload my oath to my god. I admit now that I have already done this before.”

“Explain.”

“I crossed the border into The Confederacy to kill a mage who was attempting to create artificial dragons. This breaks laws for unannounced crossing at a non-border area, for murder, for burglary, trespassing, and theft of a home.”

“You stole the home?”

“It is a bunker in a remote swamp. I’ve kept rebel forces from retaking the area, but I’ve done little with the location itself.”

“For the sake of peaceful relations, this shall be kept confidential. You are not to admit this crime to anyone else, and it shall be kept on no records. You are hereby pardoned. And I accept the pledge from both you and your wife.”

“We are not yet married.”

“By law now you are, this is to ensure she has complete and full legal rights under the law and to ensure her safety. You know already that the law is flawed and does not take into account personal relations.”

“Thank you, your majesty.”

“Lady Fomoria, you are now free to return, I have more business with Sir Fomoria. Lady Safira will take you to wherever you wish to go.”

She returned Adina to her home in Blackstone County.

Marigold had been walking around the room, looking at paintings and tapestries.

“It has been a very long time since I was last here. Yet this is the only new painting.”

“My father had the others removed, only those from or related to the first king are left here.”

“The painter was not a warrior, it lacks the fury of Yggdra’s paintings. The colors are all wrong, these dull and pastel colors are not what he would’ve wanted. He liked bold colors, he liked contrast. Oh and the subject is all wrong. He didn’t die fighting some witch, it was Nemain, not a man.”

“You have quite a few opinions on that painting.”

“What idiot did this?”

“It was his wife.”

“Meredith? No, she knew exactly what he wanted.”

“She painted it as an opposite to his work, his death was not his life.”

“Now that does sound like her.”

“May I sit with Harlan for your talk?”

“As a founding member of the kingdom, you may.”

Marigold pulled a chair out of her dress pocket and sat.

“Within this room, I am the only one who sits, I have overlooked your other insult, but I will not have my authority gone against like this again.”

“Of course, my apologies, Queen Yggdra.”

The space bent and folded along with the chair and it slipped back into the small pocket.

“Clear the room, my conversation with Sir Fomoria and Lady Marigold is to be private.”

Once all of the guards were gone Rosewell checked the arrays and wards before burying her head in her hands.

“Shit.”

Harlan walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry for your loss. I know he wasn’t the best man, but he was your father, and a good king.”

“I’m only queen because he liked you.”

“No, that’s not true. It’s because he was afraid of me becoming a permanent thorn in the side.”

“Marigold, do you have advice? He told me a million things, but most of it was just data and how to view it to run the kingdom.”

“Well, firstly I’m going to say that your little hard ass act is just making me want to put you in your place.

So maybe try a kinder approach? Yggdra, your father, was always threatening without being overt until he needed to be.”

“And how was the first king?”

“People respected him, he was powerful and yet he knew how to avoid using that power. You… you are not him, and I don’t believe that you can rule like he did. I’ve heard about you from Harlan, and I believe that gentleness is the way to rule for you.”

“People won’t respect or fear me for that, and I don’t have enough friends in the nobility to weather the storm while I am getting either of those things.”

“Use Harlan. When the nobles don’t pledge fealty refuse to come, send your army to force them to pledge. And those who you don’t want to spare, send Harlan and don’t ask questions about his methods.

It will show them that you are not merciless, but you can still make an example of them through him.”

“Harlan, can I trust you with this?”

“Of course. I’m loyal to you, not this country. How many have refused so far?”

“You are the only one I’ve brought. I wanted you to join me before someone convinced you to join a rebel group with promises of overhauling the system.”

“There will be talks about that between us. If you want an advisor and enforcer, then there will be changes.”

“That almost sounds like a threat.”

“I am just making myself clear. And I can accept that things won’t change quickly, but you are probably going to be queen for decades, over a century if I have anything to say about it.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Marigold stepped away from the painting again, she had been viewing it in a different light.

“Harlan will need a symbol. I’m going to call my husband.”

Xol appeared in a burst of fire, his bones were blackened, but undamaged.

“Honey, I didn’t expect a call tonight. You and Harlan were- Oh, good evening your majesty.”

He politely bowed.

“Harlan needs a symbol, give him the sword.”

“You mean the…?”

“That one.”

“We can’t be sure if it is-”

“But you fixed it, right?”

“Probably.”

“Probably or you fixed it?”

“I probably fixed it.”

“Good enough. Go get it.”

Xol returned a minute later and unwrapped a pure white cloth that let out a shining white smoke.

Within the wrapping was a dull black blade without a guard.

It was originally a simple broadsword design, but had since shifted into a double edged saber.

“Where… why do you have this?”

“You don’t even know what it is.”

“It's… no, you’re right. But it looks so familiar.”

“It was forged by a Fomorian, he used his own femur as the material and then loaded it with runes and sigils. But it took on more than just power, it gained a rudimentary mind and something else from him.

The blade was cursed, but I believe I’ve dealt with that.”

“Believe?”

“It was a powerful man who made this.”

Xol handed it to Harlan.

“This is…”

He waited for the reaction, this wasn’t the first time he gave someone made by a paradox other-self.

“It’s a nice blade.”

“Huh.”

“Were you expecting me to say more?”

“Oh, ah, no no no, it’s fine. I just expected you to be writhing on the ground for a few minutes before you connected with the blade.”

“Prick.”

“I don’t claim not to be. Honey, is that all? I was in the middle of something.”

“I just wanted you to give him the sword. Go back to that volcano or whatever that was.”

“Ethereal Sun Serpent. See you later.”

Harlan swung the blade around a few times, got used to it.

“If you are ready, I would like to start making calls for fealty. It used to take weeks to get this done.

I hope to have everything finished in 24 hours.”

“Should I stand at your side?”

“You can be my left hand, Safira will be my right.”

“Thank you. Is there a badge of office?”

“There is a pin of the tree of blades. Put it on your heart.”

Harlan instead had the shifting suit add the pin to his chest.

“Show off.”

“There is a very good chance that if I take that badge, you aren’t getting it back. I tend to get mutilated.”

“I’ll give you the pin as a display piece then. What about your nobles ring?”

“If I told you that I already knew how to make them and this is my seventh ring would you believe me?”

“So you just have a half dozen rings that you’ve lost?”

“No, they detonate if I send a signal spell. The range is very large, so I’ve never had it fail to activate.”

“Very well. Though normally it is a death sentence to crack the rings.”

“Well, I don’t know how to do anything but make them give off my signal. So I can’t exactly do everything.

If I did get someone else’s ring, I could mimic that though.”

“Nobles use their rings to control most of their defenses. The rings are only linked to a single noble, and we can’t use them once the noble is dead. But they can be passed down to those blood related, hence the bastard section at the facility. Do you think you could take the rings off of the bodies of the nobles and then use them yourself?”

“I could try. But I’ve never gotten my hands on someone else’s ring. And, for the record, I don’t use my family’s rings for controlling the defenses.”

“Distrust?”

“Yes. If any of your siblings were king or queen I’d be taking more drastic measures. I wouldn’t have even come here in my real body. Are they all ok?”

“So far none of them have made any overt actions.”

“Well, I’m ready when you are to start cracking skulls.”

“Don’t sound so happy about it.”

“Washing away the old means there is a chance for a better new.”

“A fine sentiment.”

Harlan stood there just looking mean in his full armor, nobody had been stupid enough to attack while inside of the castle itself.

“Slow night.”

“After this one I’ll send you away, a baron has refused to arrive and he killed the messengers.”

“Give me a name, point at a map. And, I assume you took Marigold’s advice on not asking questions about how I’m going to work.”

“Visit the archivist, she can give you an overview of what to expect.”

“Of course, your majesty.”

Harlan felt almost nostalgic going through the halls, he knew the castle top to bottom, even some of the hidden passages from his time with Cynthia.

“Lady Wisteria.”

“Sir Fomoria. I have the file for Baron Longbrow here.”

“You already knew?”

“Remember who was most often the one to catch you and Cynthia? I knew what you two were doing before you even started planning.”

“She wasn’t a big fan of yours.”

“I’ll have more files ready for you when you get back. Unless you want to spend your time speaking with an old woman.”

“You aren’t old, just experienced.”

“You at least learned to respect your elders.”

Harlan dropped in from above the cloud, he couldn’t use most magic, the arrays would detect him.

But by taking a long winged form he could both safely glide down, and spread out his weight to avoid crashing into the roof like a box of bricks.

It took a moment to make sure he was used to moving around with a dozen legs and a 20 foot long body like a limbed snake.

He first tested that the fingers would stick, they were based on a species of gecko he once studied.

Then he tested that his skin would shift colors like it should. The worst part of hunting Invisible Chameleons wasn’t actually finding them, it was that if he wanted the ability he needed to actually eat the skins.

While he didn’t exactly expect that these arrays would be able to detect internal magic such as shifting, there was a chance, so he went with what he learned from Ky’s soul. It wasn’t technically magic so far as most things were concerned, and Ky told him before that he had used it for certain off the record missions.

Harlan made his way through an open window and then crawled along the ceiling; people rarely looked up.

He memorized the layout of the house, not shocking as those built by the kingdom for barons, and generally serve as the bones for counts mansions, were kept within certain design specs and this home was very much like Redwall mansion.

Harlan found the office, while he would’ve liked to listen in and confirm his targets, the defenses were up and that meant no sound got in or out. The incredibly basic principles of preventing sounds from escaping meant that without specialized spells of his own, he had no way to break through the spell without breaking the entire thing.

Harlan waited on the ceiling for someone who looked a military type to reach for the door handle.

In that instant Harlan reached down and killed him. It was bloody, but there wasn’t anyone to catch him in the 30 or so seconds it took to shift his body and clothes into the man.

He opened the door and found the men he was looking for.

Head of security, the baron, his wife, his eldest son.

“Brother, you are late.”

Harlan had no response, he didn’t know the voice, and even if he did it took some time to make it sound natural, and he didn’t know anything about the baron’s second son.

So he drew the black blade and went at those inside of the room.

These were fairly small fry in the grand scheme of things, not one of them had academy training, just time in the army and then whatever private tutors they could get.

Though Harlan felt the blade was wrong. He swung it a few more times, cleaving through the war table and the desk. Then he flipped it around.

That was the answer, the blade was hooked, it was scything like that of a mantis, it was a tool for reaping, not just fighting.

Harlan took the ring from the baron’s body and then put up sigils, which were both the answer to why seemingly nobody could crack them, and why they worked in a manner that Harlan didn’t understand until recently. They seemed almost intelligent at times, they could fight back against Harlan trying to dominate them.

Harlan saw the door handle jiggle, a woman was opening the door from the other side, he could tell by the soul, and from her mind, she clearly saw the blood and was entering the room seeking safety.

He swung his blade and it touched her neck just as he got a good look at her.

Both sides froze.

She was maybe 15, and just as tears fell from her eyes as she looked past Harlan and at the bodies of her family, blood fell from the shallow cut on her neck.

Harlan pulled back his blade, though he heard it demanding to keep going.

Then he moved to block her view.

“You don’t want to see that.”

“Are you going to kill me?”

“No, your father and brothers were the ones who disobeyed the summons, and from what I saw, they were part of a larger group who sought to overthrow the queen.”

She backed away as Harlan left the room and drew closer to her.

“You are now the heir, you have the option to swear fealty.”

“If I don’t?”

“I don’t kill children. But I’ll kill the army outside, I’ll kill the guards in here, and the only people left will be you and the servants. Then the royal army will move in, seize everything, and you’ll be tossed out in the street.”

She curled up on the floor.

“Just kill me.”

“No, I don’t kill children.”

“My mother never hurt anyone, and you killed her. You killed my brothers.”

Harlan knew the reality of what he was going to be doing, he wasn’t going to break down at the sight of her.

“I need you to make a choice, become baroness, and you’ll be under surveillance as you are taught how to run a barony. Or I leave this hallway and start killing people. Can you put aside revenge to save those under you?”

“I don’t care.”

“These people’s lives are in your hands. Can you be a leader, or do you intend to wallow?”

“I’ll swear fealty.”

“Then we can leave immediately.”

Harlan was sickened by what he did, manipulating a girl by using grief and threats. But that was the lesser evil in his mind, it stopped him from needing to kill an army, and from killing her.

“Sir Fomoria, are you listening?”

“Sorry, give me the next file, Wisteria.”

“Back when you were performing tricks instead of assassinations, you still showed remorse when things got out of hand.”

“The tacks on the chair.”

“Yes, that poor cat was screaming down the halls.”

“It lived, right?”

“Yes, she did. And in 20 years when she is smart enough to do so, I’d worry about revenge. Feline magical beasts never really get rid of their nature as cats.”

“Ha… yeah. I should watch out.”

“I’m not giving you another file if you come back like this again.”

Harlan had it out of her hand and was out of the room before she even realized it.

“Hmm. I got slow.”

The next target was not so soft. Harlan could do nothing to get inside stealthily and the count had a gate mage on call to get his army back to his home the moment he heard the king was dead.

Many of the maids and other servants in the castle were spies for various nobles, it was an open secret and Rosewell was told who worked for who, so she knew that Harlan wasn’t walking into someone who was unaware and he had been warned.

Harlan reduced the friction on his feet and turned off his hover, he rammed into the defensive line at 100 miles per hour and cut down men like wheat. Once he was past the lines, the warmages had their hands tied and the soulsmithed weapons couldn’t be used to their fullest for the same reason.

He moved around in a circle, not moving into the second line or towards the house itself until he whittled down the first line.

Once he circled a few times he got visual on the count through a window.

The gate defenses delayed Harlan, giving the count time to draw, but it mattered little.

Harlan was over a ton, and the force of him at that speed meant the count was reduced to red and crumpled steel. It didn’t matter that the count’s weapon also blew a hole through Harlan’s chest with his weapon, the count’s body became fuel for Harlan’s body and the count’s ring let Harlan force the army to surrender by taking control of the arrays around the area. The home was worse than defenseless, it was a deathtrap.

Harlan gated in the royal army to clean up the area, most of the count’s army weren’t so fanatical that they would keep going along with the rebellion, so the soldiers were often kept around for the replacement count.

Harlan gated back to the castle and entered the throne room as another was pledging fealty, and placed the count’s bloody ring next to the one from the baron.

“It is done.”

In 8 hours he had 20 rings sitting there on the arm of the throne.

“Are there normally so many who refuse?”

“No, though having a king replaced by a queen does tend to make the numbers higher. And your presence and the golems have led to rumors of replacing the nobles with a series of machines that can rule with brutal efficiency.”

“When was the last time we had a ruling queen?”

“Two successions ago. She made it four years before an assassin got to her. She tried to change things for the better. Then she was replaced by my grandfather, and the who was never in question, it was nobles who put up a puppet king. If that happens to me, get Relly out, and get revenge for me, if you can at least.”

“That pile of rings shows that I can kill a few nobles, or a lot of nobles.”

“Well, get ready to add several more to your name. The nobles have apparently made a secret fortress built into a mountain and several armies are there with more of them on the way through gates.”

“Last stand?”

“More like they knew that this would happen and are digging in. Chances are cracking that thing could take weeks if not months depending on food stores.”

“Even when we take out the human soldiers, what is the number of golems?”

“I’ll get more reports in soon enough, but I don’t want you to go there, I want you to see about taking out the nobles before they get there.”

“With gate, they could hold you indefinitely.”

“I don’t want you worrying about how we are going to get in, they can’t hold out forever, and if they try, we will find a way to remove them like a tumor.”

“I shall return shortly then.”