Xol put Harlan’s body back together while Harlan sat in a chair and watched.

“You did well, I’m sure he would be proud that you did not murder a man in cold blood.”

“It’s not enough. I need to go back out. Actually help somebody.”

“But is that what you should do? For you are not him, and he was not you. When he was upset, did he leave his home and go out? Did he drink? Spend time with your mother?”

“He never drank when he visited unless there was a party, my parents don’t like drunks.”

“Back home, some people would not make the passing a sad event, instead they would throw a party, they would remember them as they were.”

“Is that what you did?”

“I only went to one funeral. It was for my father, and it was a sad event, so I never went to another.

But I heard about the less sad ones.”

With one more piece of white paper marked by sigils that burned without heat in a brilliant purple flame, Harlan’s best body was back to working order.

“Why did that take so long?”

“Your soul rejects the anti-magic, but when the body died, that anti-magic seeped into the flesh.

It would fade. The paper I use is a mix of the superstition of the old world, and the magic of this one.

Its functions are two magical systems.”

“I thought your world didn’t have magic?”

“I believe that we lost magic when Gaia moved here, and they faded into nothing but myths and legends.

That the Fae came from there makes it the likely hypothesis.”

Harlan nodded his head and thought if he should ask his next question or not, it didn’t feel dangerous to ask, but his sense of danger was broken after his encounters with gods.

“Where were you?”

Xol pulled a large chest from his sleeve.

“I knew what you would do from the moment you questioned the rules, so I waited until the king left, and then grabbed a few things.”

He shattered the lock and opened it to reveal bars of solid gold.

“If you hadn’t questioned the rules, I would’ve just bet on the fight, but this was a much better opportunity.”

A second chest, smaller than the first, came from his sleeve.

“And here you have more stonesteel, your armor is good, heavy, useful, but you’ve encountered too many things that can break it and it’s hard out here to get good magical metals.”

The last object was a barrel.

“This is the kings whiskey, mix it 100 to 1 at least if you are going to give it to mortals.

If you drink it, maybe just 8 to 1.”

“I don’t drink.”

“Doesn’t matter, with this barrel you can make reasonably strong booze for the festival.”

“What festival?”

“Your uncle, his memorial service.”

“I’m not sure that I-”

“Alright, I’m leaving. I came here because I care, but I’ve run out of ideas on how to help. I'll ask my wife to come here and figure you out.”

And then he was gone.

He could see that Xol tried, but he couldn’t figure out how to speak with Harlan like he could his wife.

He was a man of business, and it was hard to transition into being friends.

Harlan just sat and stared at the chests before him for a time, then he got to work.

Xol was right about one thing, Harlan had a way of handling his feelings, and that was to drown himself in work.

Was it healthy? Was that even relevant to him? Harlan would rather be the king, than the man, and the king didn’t have the option of failing to hold up a bargain, he didn’t get to spend time drinking himself sick because he was sad.

He looked at the barrel of whiskey and knew what was at the bottom, nothing but a hole that he wasn’t sure he could get out of if he crawled inside.

In the morning Dawn went up to the roof, hoping to find Harlan had exited his comatose state, but he wasn’t there.

So she checked his lab, finding him nude and hunched over a pile of meat which was quickly formed into another golem.

“What happened yesterday?”

“I was taking a very deep scan of my body, trying to discover why my blood is now black.”

“Why were you on the roof then? Darrath was very worried… I was worried that something happened.”

“I figured if I was going to be comatose, I’d like something nicer to look at then my ceiling.”

“Is that really all?”

“No, last night I went on a mission with Xol. Lith isn’t going to work, the king and I disagreed with one another.”

“I don’t believe you, but it's alright to not tell me. I do however want to know why you are naked?”

“Armor got damaged, so I’m upgrading it. My clothes are basically ruined and I need to make a set of that mail like I made for you. Is there anything else you need?”

“No.”

“Mercedes needs to count some gold bars, I left the chest in the vault.

Judging by the size, I’d say they are worth about 1500 gold coins each, but I don’t know the economics of this place and everything seems to be bigger.”

“I will inform her at breakfast. Will you be joining us?”

“No. I need to work and we got a few crates of tonics from the raid that I kept for myself.”

“I’m going to check on you ever few hours, and you need to come out for one hour a day to play with Darrath, he looks up to you.”

“He’s strong, he’ll be fine.”

“No, he’s not, and if you neglect him I’m going to come down here and kick your ass no matter what is actually bothering you.”

Harlan had upgraded the lab, the entire thing was effectively a golem. So with a simple command the floor shifted, she was tossed from the room and the door turned into a wall.

Dawn didn’t even bother getting upset, she just dusted herself off and walked away.

Harlan arrived at his appointment at the exact agreed upon time and with 8,000 golems.

Were he one man it would be impossible, but he made 100 new specialized golems to help with production in addition to ones already made before he started.

“There are quite a few more than I expected.”

“Three days is enough time for a small army.”

Harlan had one of them carrying a chest.

“How are your relations with Lith?”

“Not an enemy per say, but I’ve clashed with their kings in the past. They see a beautiful woman and assume they can just take what they want.”

“I’ve not made any real commitment to them, I simply wished to know if there would be any conflict in the future should I align myself with them. I was visited some time ago by one group, and I assume them local.”

“Why don’t we send away our people and get into some details about that then.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Before they are sent away, I would like to make a statement with everyone here as witnesses.

We are allies, I am not under you, I intend to receive some manner of respect, as I have given you.

And there will be no unilateral decision making, we have come into this alliance with the offer of building Drang into a nation which the both of us would not feel shame ruling.”

Carmilla was clearly less than happy with him, but she didn’t disagree with his intent.

“Very well. But if you intend to make demands, then you will take over a city along with the towns and villages under them. The one nearest your border then?”

“Of course, and I thank you for your deciding to stay in this alliance despite my somewhat forceful statement.”

“Drang is a stain on the world, cleaning it will not only expand my kingdom, but it will mean we spend less time guarding our borders. I expect you to be the first line of defense for any threat to me who tries to pass through your nation.”

“I will, you have my word.”

Once everyone was moved to their cities and towns with their golem guards, it was just the three of them, Camilla stayed near her mother so she could learn to be queen one day.

“So, why have you brought up Lith to me?”

Harlan opened a gate and a golem came through with a small chest.

“An ally of mine was in Boulder a few nights ago, and he happened to make a stop by the vault of the king.

I’ve been given a chest of gold as a result of things I don’t intend to get into, and as part of those things I don’t wish to dwell on, I also met the king, and I don’t believe the two of us are capable of seeing eye to eye regarding slavery.”

Carmilla crossed her legs at the knee.

“I find it best to not look too far into something like this, if you have someone who can break into the vault, I assume they either left nothing leading to us or they simply don’t care. Your golem may bring the chest here.”

Camilla grabbed the chest and checked it for her mother, but when she set it down she staggered as she stood up again.

“Are you alright? You look a little pale.”

“Let go of me.”

Harlan barely realized that he had crossed the distance between them and was holding her wrist.

“I’m sorry, I’m a healer, I reacted too quickly.”

“And of course I’m pale, I’m a vampire.”

“I meant you looked overly-”

“King Fomoria, step away from my daughter.”

“I’m very sorry.”

He was their transport back home, but yet they had been staring at one another for a few minutes now.

“How much experience do you have as a healer?”

“I spent three years near top of my class at an academy learning to use healing magic, and I’ve spent much of my personal time advancing the field. My fiance was born blind as the result of a Fae boon turning into a curse, just bad luck. I healed her, and it is the same method that can heal negative effects of the pacts with Aine.”

Camilla was standing behind her mother’s chair, leaning on it for support.

“I will grant you a few subjects, they are prisoners, heal them of blood rage as proof. And you will be forgiven.”

Harlan sighed in relief.

“Thank you, and my apologies again. Should we finish up some other details about this alliance?”

“We may.”

Darrath was hanging on Harlan’s shoulders, grabbing his horns for support.

“What are you working on?”

“This is how papa heals people.”

“Why is he chained up?”

The man was bound and with a gag in his mouth, Harlan didn’t want Darrath to hear anything bad.

“Because he is a bad man.”

“Why heal him?”

“It is a test, Queen Karmine wants to see if I can heal them.”

“Oh. Can I heal too?”

“You can barely toss out a fireball.”

“But I can make plants.”

“Yes, but you don’t understand how you do that. I have things like that, magic that I could use without really understanding, but as I got older and learned how to use magic, I understood how that magic worked.”

“Can you teach me more magic today?”

“Of course.”

Harlan brought Darrath to Drang, the city nearest the border was Falin.

“These people are dirty.”

“I know, but that is why we should help them. It is the duty of the strong to help the weak, of the righteous to bring the evil to heel when needed, or to set them right.”

Harlan could tell that he hadn’t impressed upon Darrath the importance of his words.

“Bad people sometimes need help to become good, because they don’t understand good, and sometimes they need to be punished. Not every bad person will always stay a bad person.”

“Oh, ok.”

The citizens all gathered in the town center which Harlan had already dried up.

He figured it would take months to get all of the construction golems done and then for them to put in paved streets, proper stone buildings, but for now this would be good enough.

Harlan was amazed that they all arrived without issue, he believed the place was anarchy, but in reality the people listened to those above them, because those above them had the right to commit violence.

Harlan wouldn’t be teaching, but rather a specialized golem would, he was there to watch, make sure his new creation wasn’t going to hurt anyone.

It did not look human, more in line with the basic soldier golems, yet with a more female form factor that he hoped would appear less aggressive to them. It spoke softly but clear enough to be heard well, its tentacles were more numerous, designed for holding books and writing, not for tearing men apart.

“My students, you are gathered here to be taught magic freely, food shall be provided before and after the lessons every day. Are there any questions?”

“I got work to do, the fu-”

“Please don’t swear during class, there are children here.”

The man grumbled.

“I don’t want to be here.”

“Then you are free to leave, but you will not be given food for the lesson.”

He grumbled again along with hundreds of others hoping to take the free meal and then go back to their shithole huts and find some way to get drunk or otherwise intoxicated.

Darrath sat with the other children, which made him more than a little uncomfortable, but he was glad they all moved away from him, however it made Harlan furious.

It wasn’t that they were giving Darrath space, it was that the Drang were hateful towards outsiders, it didn’t matter if they were Faun or Plest or Minos, so long as they were from Drang they were united in their hate.

It was almost comforting that they were purely nationalists instead of racists and nationalists.

Harlan would like to pull him out of there, to leave, but he thought it best to not yet have that conversation with him. There should be a time when he is a child, and he doesn’t understand the world.

He thought it cruel to force him to grow up too quickly.

The class went well enough, but then again it would be weeks if not months before they had enough experience to seriously hurt each other, then would come the purges, those who could not handle this power and instead fell to their baser instincts would be removed so he could make a better civilization.

He saw what good could come from a more tightly controlled population, and Redhaven didn’t even look to be a terribly harsh place. Once one had a population that could be trusted, those sorts of restrictions could be lifted.

Darrath was quiet when they got back.

“That wasn’t fun.”

“Magic is not only fun, it is an important part of keeping yourself safe and helping people.”

“Why don’t they go to the bathhouse?”

“They don’t have a bathhouse.”

“That’s sad.”

“Drang is a sad place, and that’s why I want to change it.”

“You should build a bathhouse for them.”

Darrath happily fluttered his wings, Harlan’s little speech about uplifting people had resonated with him.

“Maybe later, I’m pretty busy right now.”

Harlan didn’t have the heart to tell him his fears, that the bathhouse would likely be a disaster.

Even in Kor he kept separate areas to prevent assaults and had to use golems to watch the peoples clothes and other items.

While the Dague population couldn’t even fathom the idea of stealing and raping inside of a bathhouse, there were more than Dague in these places.

“Ok. Can I play with the plants again?”

“Yes, you may.”

Darrath kicked off of Harlan’s shoulders and flew down the halls to the garden.

Harlan got the call not five minutes later, a riot had already broken out in one of the cities and he was being asked to quell it. Part of their deal was that he, with his excess free time, would act as an enforcer when needed.

Harlan arrived by gate to talk to the minister who would be controlling the city during its transition into Redhaven.

“What is this about?”

“What else, we announced that this place was no long a part of Drang, that their new queen has new laws. I shouldn’t be shocked, these people are bigots in every sense of the word.”

“I will handle this.”

“She told me this was likely to happen. And that you must respond with force, for that is all these people have known, one shit king after another since the dawn of their now fallen kingdom.”

He came from a second gate, high above the city.

The moment he touched the ground, globs of mud from the seemingly ever drizzling nation flew into the air, energy which followed him crackled and jumped between them, lighting the street up for just a moment.

The people froze at the display.

Then his voice boomed out, loaded with magic and fury.

“I killed your king, and your nobles, and I will drag you kicking and screaming into a civil nation.

If you want to fight, then fight me, but you shall only join those men.”

The people ran at him, but none of them had ever so much as used magic, all of their weapons were mundane.

He simply walked forward and used telekinesis to break limbs.

He killed nobody outright, but some of them that fell to the ground were trampled to death.

Eventually the tide turned, and he spoke again.

“Return to your homes, or continue to fall before me.”

He kept an illusion walking forward, but he himself left once he saw that it worked.

Each city staggered their announcement of the death of Drang, expecting this would happen, and giving Halran time to stop one riot and then get a short break.

After the third, he preemptively went to the cities in order.

Few people would stand up against him after seeing someone hoisted into the air by nothing and then set on fire or pushed through a gate and screaming as they fall to their death.

Harlan would’ve rather used his empathy to force compliance, but he knew it wouldn’t help here.

He could change their emotions, but only at that time, their deeply rooted stupidity could not be changed, and he would just be back in an hour or two.

If these people needed fear, then he would give it to him.