Harlan laid there, listening for the sounds of the child in her stomach, the heartbeat was loud to his enhanced hearing.

He could spend hours doing this while she slept, but he kept it to just a few minutes a night, there was work to do.

His first design was that of a flying ship, such a thing had been tried before, but the enchantments of the past were too weak to do such a thing, and every ship has been considered too costly in both mages and materials such as mana gems to power these ships, thus they were abandoned.

Harlan’s current design was a single man craft, not unlike his trains, it was aerodynamic, smooth and sloped with enchantments that reduced air friction on the body to near zero, while the wings of it gained a great deal of lift for their size due to air being redirected towards them.

He flew it at night by dropping from a gate, the entire thing was colored matte black, making it nearly invisible against the night sky, not that anyone should be able to see him, since no one was supposed to get within 50 miles of his home due to the large plot of land which Marigold had donated to him through the academy.

He liked making these prototypes, he liked taking the designs which Xol knew from his world and then changing them, finding out what components could be stripped out and replaced by a simple spell.

But in his fervor, he had neglected his sleep.

He woke up just before it hit the ground, he felt the plane crumble and then the pieces started to fly around, not being awake enough to react to any of it, he simply hardened his body with stone imbibing and commanded his armor to lock up once he had curled into a ball as best he could.

He blacked out at some point, everything happened too quickly to know when, but he was alive, he wouldn’t need to use another body to recover this one.

He unlocked his armor and got up to check the time, he’d been asleep too long, he hadn’t prepared a hot breakfast for Adina, not that she couldn’t do so on her own.

So he contacted her, his amulet was broken, but his own connection to the crossroads would allow him contact over shorter distances.

Her amulet turned black as his mind linked to it, so she touched it, letting his voice through while she brushed her hair.

“You are late.”

He laid there, feeling his soreness fade as his body's natural healing kicked in.

“Sorry, I passed out while working.”

“I’ve told you before, you need to watch yourself, get some sleep every week, just because you can keep going doesn’t mean you should.”

“Did you get anything to eat?”

“I reheated some of those frozen pastries with the eggs and meat inside and I had a fresh pastry from yesterday. I left you a lemon one.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you coming back?”

“I’ve got to pick up the pieces, but if you need me I can-”

“No no no. Did you crash one of your flying machines?”

“Yes, but I’m alright, I woke up before it hit the ground, locked my armor and curled into a ball.”

“Are you alright or are you trying not to worry me?”

“I’m alright, just need to pick up the pieces of the machine and get it back home so nobody else finds it.”

“Fine, are you going to be back to gate me to the academy?”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll be there, this is one of the smaller machines, so there isn’t really that much to it.”

He laid there for just a minute, he didn’t want to stress his body any more than the broken trees and gouged out chunks of earth implied he had already, but he felt around him with his senses, tapping the earth to send out vibrations and track the metal of his creation while telekinesis reached as far as it could to pull them back to him before he got up.

Yet as he stood up, another mind arrived.

“What are you doing on my land?”

“Apologies, I fell asleep, crashing my invention, I’ll-”

“Ah, Fomoria, I didn’t recognize from a distance. You’d do well to remember not to say why you’ve gotten somewhere, we all understand that things fail, and sometimes borders are crossed by mistake, just avoid doing so too frequently. Take your broken parts and be on your way.”

The elderly woman flew away without another word, and he did as she asked.

Harlan thought back to what he already knew, anyone who was truly talented with magic has a few screws loose, and something like what he had done wouldn’t be seen as that strange.

With all of the scrap put back in his new lab, he went to get Adina to the academy.

He gave her a kiss on the lips and then rubbed her belly for good luck.

It was hard to believe it had been two months already, and the little life inside was growing, growing a little bit too quickly.

Whether it was from his being a Fomorian or a champion or both of them having enhanced bodies that processed so many things more quickly, Hellon said to expect the baby after just seven months instead of nine, but it was otherwise healthy.

“No more flying around without sleeping first.”

“Won’t happen again. But since I should catch up on my sleep, does that mean we can skip the-”

“No, we’re going, because we were asked to go.”

“I can’t believe she invited me, I don’t like parties, she knows that.”

“Shelly doesn’t like parties either, but she seemed thrilled when I said we’d come.”

“I think she’s trying to get me to see her mother face to face. She could’ve called me at any time, but instead she called you.”

“That is just paranoia, it’s a birthday, not an interrogation.”

“Something bad always happens to me when I leave the house, I’m probably going to burst into flames or turn into a dragon while I’m there.”

“Take a nap, and then clean up, get ready.”

“Fine.”

Harlan flicked open a gate and she walked through, waving at him one more time.

As soon as she was out of sight Harlan went back to work, he slept enough after the crash.

He had been waiting to give out the designs for flying machines, a few smaller ones, and a larger one.

Mostly he just didn’t think there was much use for them.

If a mage wanted to fly, the academy gave classes, and it wasn’t overly hard to do it. If a civilian wanted to fly, what would they even do with it?

If they wanted transport, his rail network was growing by the day, and as the nobles realized that it was entirely worth the cost for transporting cargo and people, the issues of funding were long gone, and because the war was cold, the cost of fighting it was low, no cities needed to be rebuilt or anything of the sort yet.

No, his worry was that the only people who would need something like this would be people who wanted to avoid their cargo being on the trains, which would be checked every time one loaded and unloaded.

So he sat there, constructing his new machine, hesitating to give it away.

His only other worry was that of safety, if something went wrong on the train, it was smart, it was designed to stop itself and send out warning signals to the other trains on the network to avoid collisions.

Even if the worst happened, each train was a train, in the event of a crash the damage would be to them and to the trains.

If a plane crashed into a town or a city, the damage would be far worse, down a main street without anything to stop it by the bodies in front of it? Worse yet if they modified the plane, sharpened the wings, added wheels which could keep it moving longer across the ground.

He shuddered at the thought of what a mad man would be able to do, yet he kept working, putting in nuts and bolts, fusing metal, planting the gems inside, letting them suffuse through the body.

With the machine ready, he did follow his wifes order, and he slept, just for two hours before he got the call that she needed a pick up on the spare amulet that he transferred all of his contacts to.

She could smell it on him as soon as she got inside.

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“You didn’t shower, you probably barely rested, and you aren’t in your nice clothes.”

“I like to work, and I rested enough when I crashed, I was sleeping for hours out there.”

“On the cold hard ground. You are going to ruin your body.”

“I could get sliced in half and not ruin my body. What did Hellon say today?”

“The baby is fine, and she could tell us if we’ve got a boy or a girl. Do we want to know yet?”

“No, not yet, we haven’t finished arguments on names.”

“I like Valda.”

“Manus.”

“Fine, we’re set.”

“She’s sure we aren’t having any more than one?”

“You can tell, you’ve been able to from the start, we’ve got one beautiful healthy baby, no more than that.”

“But what if we did have more?”

“Why don’t we start with one, and figure out everything from there.”

She slipped out of her uniform and her armor turned to liquid, flowing from her body.

“Now, we need to shower.”

“Are you sure you don’t want more?”

“I know the contraceptive spell, you don’t, so I think I’ll be fine no matter what we’ll do.”

“Only almost perfect, still a chance with how much you drag me to the bedroom.”

“We won’t be going to the bedroom though.”

“Fair point.”

Harlan was a little surprised to see Shelly’s home, he knew that her mother was a countess, but it seemed odd, a lot of things seemed odd. Sepul at least claimed to have not used his political influence to raise up Eliza’s friends to higher positions, yet each of them either rose from barons to counts or from commoner to counts in a single generation, how odd it was that they had been at the academy in the first place.

But he set those things aside, that wasn’t important, it really wasn’t, so he kept pushing it out of his mind, all of these little coincidences, all the oddities in his life.

Adina pinched his hand and he woke up from his thoughts.

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Yes, just fine.”

“Get your head in the game and have a good time, or I’m going to… I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, I really don’t mind you being so aggressive.”

“Good, because I’m sure it is your fault.”

“Fomorians hold a certain aggression, maybe with them being a quarter it’s having an effect on you.”

Shelly came down the stairs a bit too quickly, and realized that she should move with more grace, for her mother’s sake.

Her dress was a vibrant teal, loose and frilly, unfitting for her, he knew she liked something tight and practical with darker natural colors that made it easier to hide in a forest.

He also knew that it was likely Shelly’s mother had likely made the dress the way it was for that reason.

Shelly naturally had to be shown off to her mother’s friends, and while her actual friends waited, they gathered together.

“David, Parnell, it’s been a while.”

“Yes, it seems like just last week we were off butchering orcs, now we’re all getting on with our lives.

And with the new life.”

The two men looked at Adina’s stomach that had a subtle bump.

“How are you two going with your brides to be?”

“I’d rather avoid the subject, just like I’ve been avoiding her. Arranged marriages are such a foolish law, who cares if some nobles try to build up their houses with a little marriage, at least they get to choose if they get married or not.”

“I agree, the idea of forcing one to marry someone else, worse yet implying that they must produce an heir with someone that might be a complete stranger, it’s not right.”

“Well, I guess we can’t all be archmagi, break the rules and get rewarded for it.”

David seemed to realize how he had sounded.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to sound sour, but I’m-”

“Someone is coming, I can feel it, female, early 20s, seething with anger. Your fiance?”

“How can you tell all that?”

“Soul grows with age, hues are different between the sexes, she has another in unison, but much happier, both of you should flee towards the stairs and go around the back, I’ll say I saw you going to the bathrooms in the eastern wing.”

“Thank you.”

Parnell just nodded his head in silence, he hadn’t been drinking and it was too public a setting for his real personality to be allowed free.

Just as predicted, the two girls, both beautiful, with bodies that most men couldn’t help but stare at arrived, and quickly recognized Harlan, knowing him to be friends with their fiances, they asked, and he lied.

Harlan kept walking, avoiding the pair who would realize his deception eventually, but now that he had their scent so to speak, he could stay away without fail.

Yet that isn’t what happened, and instead Adina held him in place.

“You are certain that Parnell was going to the east wing?”

Harlan didn’t exactly know what Adina wanted him to say, or why he had been forced into this confrontation.

“As a friend, of course I lied, gave them both directions to avoid you, but I guess I should just ask why they would be avoiding both of you.”

Her facade was that of offense, as if she was innocent and naive.

“I haven’t the faintest clue why. Maybe if we all got together we could talk it through.”

“Well, that is the healthiest way to go about a relationship, just air things out. But another time, for the meantime I’ll keep sending them signals on how to avoid you.”

David’s fiance didn’t wave as she walked away, but the other girl seemed oblivious, a naivete that couldn’t be faked, her genuine expression only made it clearer that one had been wearing a facade.

With them gone Harlan whispered to his wife.

“What exactly did you want me to do?”

“I hate seeing you run, we don’t run from people, we run towards them, we confront them and-”

Adina thought for a moment longer about what she was saying.

“Gods, I sound like a madwoman, I feel so… different right now. I feel so full of power. Is this what it’s like? What’s happening? Am I ok?”

He could hear her heart rate jump and quickly found a servant who pointed them to a resting room.

Harlan called Hellon, who arrived in moments through both sides opening gates.

His ring held the same sort of signal that the badge he had been given, allowing them to bypass the arrays without raising any alarms.

Hellon conjured her spells and checked on her health while Harlan paced around the room, waiting for commands, putting his faith in her.

After a few minutes Shelly arrived, having seen them flee the entryway just before everyone started moving to the ballroom proper.

“Is everything alright?”

“Ah, shit shit shit, I don’t know.”

“Dammit boy, shut up, you’re worrying her, nothing is wrong unless I find something wrong.”

Harlan sat down and pushed his palms over his eyes, Shelly sat next to him.

“Hellon’s smart, she’s a good healer, I’m sure everything is fine.”

He could feel her mind, and Hellon was worried, anxious.

He called Sepul, who arrived shortly thereafter.

With the Archmage of Dust there, Hellon felt inadequate, and stepped aside.

“Symptoms?”

“Fever, panic, she felt generally unwell and then passed out about 10 seconds ago.

I’ve found nothing wrong with her, and I’ve been working through all of the spells that I have. Right now I’m assuming it was a panic attack, brought on by the stress of the pregnancy and hormonal imbalance.”

Sepul cast spells with each finger that Hellon could only cast with her entire hand, running through dozens of them, each low power and subtle enough that she wouldn’t be flooded with mana and harm the baby.

Once his hands stopped moving, he turned to Harlan.

“Anything else?”

“She’s been getting… aggressive.”

“Such as?”

“When we got here, she said I needed to get my head in the game or she would… but she didn’t finish the sentence, and then just before I brought her here and called Hellon she had me confront David and Parnell’s fiances, saying how we don’t run away from people, but towards them. And… right before we got here, she was upset with my not sleeping enough and had me in the shower with her.

But she’s always been aggressive in those situations.”

“And you’ve looked at her soul?”

Harlan skipped over to her, placing his hand on her stomach.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Two pacts are clashing. The child’s will need to be nullified if she is to survive, or the child will need to be… otherwise removed from the conflict.”

“How? How do I do that?”

The room turned to shadows and the others faded away, it was not within the ability of any god but her to remove a pact.

“Why don’t we chat a bit about this?”

“I don’t care what the cost is, I-”

“No cost to great, yes, wonderful, but no, we will be having a chat. I can’t let you hold a grudge or think that I tricked you into doing this.”

The shadows turned to a field of black roses, something more pleasing to the eyes for a rather terrible conversation.

“She will die. Unless…”

The field erupted in flames.

“Don’t play with me, just tell me.”

“Fine fine fine, where is that flare for the dramatic you so often have?”

“Adina is dying out there.”

“No, she isn’t, because we could spend hours here while seconds pass outside.

I will ask not so simply, and then simply. How many lives is the life of your child worth? The pact is forming in her womb, passed down from your blood, and the fragments which exist contain the pieces which lock one to a location. She has spent enough time at that home you’ve been given that the pact is starting to consider that as the place which it should be. Away from that place, she is feeling the first symptoms of the curse take effect, and unless she is taken back or the pact is broken, she will die.

First comes the fever, the desire to return to where they come from. Then her organs will start to weaken and a sickness will begin. After a few hours, her body will be completely unable to maintain itself, and no healing magic can grant her any manner of peace from the pain as she slowly dies.”

“Break the pact.”

“I know you would love a simple solution. But breaking the pact would free every single Fomorian alive.

The death toll would be in the millions as they make their way towards population centers like a virus, no longer restrained by the lives which walk into their reserves.”

“I will bear that weight, I’m not having my child locked down, a prisoner in their own home, and I’m not losing her, and I’m not going to try for another child with the hopes that they don’t get the same curse, or that my children’s children would have to make the same terrible choice. Break this pact, either the Fomorians bend, or they break, it’s more cruel to leave them in their cages than put them down.”

She laughed and the flowers laughed with her, the field returning to the shadows, the truth.

“GOOD, THAT IS WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR, LET THEIR TIME OF FREEDOM BEGIN AGAIN.”

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The Ragnite forces deployed to watch and communicate with the non-hostile Fomorian forces were panicking, bringing in doctors to heal the villagers who all suddenly collapsed, screaming in pain as if they were caught by invisible fire.