With the gate opened, Fangre passed through along with two guards.

She hadn’t ever shown any sort of family, and Harlan found it quite odd, but he would leave that question for another time due to the possible implications.

“King Fomoria, it is good to see you again.”

She hugged him, making a rather awkward scene as he fought off the mental connection that was innate to Cerest.

“I must apologize for my prior actions, so many new things have been seen, possibilities beyond the blood and death which I sighted before.”

“Thank you. And don’t worry about before, I know how I come off to many people. Do you intend to come along with me to look around the festival?”

“No, I will wander with Carmilla.”

Without another word she slithered her way through the crowd, grabbing food which her guards would then pay for.

Viviane chimed in.

“What an odd woman. At least she knows what she wants. Come, we need to visit the Plest, then the Dague, then the humans, Minos, and Ursa.”

“It’s a shame the Ibexians have declined to set anything up for themselves, but at least they aren’t just sitting around.”

“They are the smallest minority next to the Ursa, and many of their traditional dishes, which is what was asked of them to make, require spices that are not native to the area and we were unable to import.

They’ve also got no nations of their own that are known, taking part in the cultures of others rather than making their own so they felt like they’ve nothing to presently offer.”

Harlan just gave her an odd look.

“Dawn has been sending me to Redhaven, to the library. She said that you liked smart girls, and I’ve been helping to prepare the festival, so I talked with them.”

“What I like is people who are themselves. Is this what you want to be? Or are you morphing yourself into someone else in a bid to be with me?”

She looked around, seeing the stares of the people.

“I think I would like to have this conversation in private.”

“After the festival then.”

The Plest show was… interesting.

To Harlan it felt less like something to show their culture and more a way for them to promote the Plest as being active members of the workforce and to always uplift others into the unions for collective power.

He thought for a moment about how for both them and the Faun, work was a large part of their culture, they were a people so long conquered that they didn’t know anything else.

He thought back to Sepul telling him about the north, that humanity had spent so much time living under the might of the wyverns that their original culture was gone, replaced by subservience.

The local leader approached him with a great deal of worry.

“I hope that the show hasn’t upset you in some way.”

Harlan snapped away from his thoughts.

“No, it was an interesting show, it promotes unity very well, but I wanted to ask, what else does Plest culture look like? Is it all just work?”

“From the outside it might seem like that, but listen to our songs, look at our place in this city.

To work with one's family, by blood or bond, is hardly work at all. And to work without feeling like such is a wonderful thing.”

“I’m someone who prefers to keep work and leisure separate, but I remember working on my father’s farm. I don’t think I’ve thought about it in years, but when we got rid of the old hens we’d invite the other farms from the area and they’d bring their old chickens. Everyone would have a good time, the women would teach the younger girls how to do thing, the elders would trade stories while readying the vegetables, and then we’d cook the chicken for a long time for a big pot of soup since it was so tough.”

He just stared off into the ceiling for a while before he got up and left.

Harlan exited the large tent with the others and started looking for the food stalls.

He didn’t like how they had formed blocs by race, he had originally told Mercedes to spread them out, then through deals the people slowly moved their way into these places by trading homes.

But it did make it easy to know what to expect from the vendors and general attitude of the neighborhood.

For the Plest who were native to densely forested wetlands, their main protein was not beef, nor chicken, nor pork.

No, for them it was a species of giant frogs.

Harlan sat and watched as they pulled the amphibians, each the size of a goose, from the pool they were kept and then butchered.

The Plest had an immune system no weaker than humans, yet the way that they would absorb liquids through their skin was much greater, making them more sensitive to certain things.

This meant that the kitchens of the Plest vendors were spotless in every case that Harlan had seen.

Viviane upturned her nose, as did many of the other passers by at the idea of eating frogs, but Harlan had eaten them before at Redmond’s suggestion, he had said they were a staple for Rangers during the summer months.

Darrath hadn’t yet developed any such aversions to foods, to him meat was just meat.

As Harlan and Darrath and Dawn were walking down the street and eating the giant frog legs, others started to try them as well.

Plest cooking was slightly different because they were constantly at odds with the weather, either heat or dryness.

They generally ate two course meals, a salted broth soup that helped them maintain water in their body, and heavily spiced foods that would cause them to sweat out toxins they would absorb throughout the day.

Viviane had tears in her eyes and Harlan had to grab her hands to stop her from making a mistake.

“Don’t touch your eyes when eating spicy food, even if you’ve washed your hands you could keep some of the oil in your skin and it would only make things worse.”

A gate opened an Harlan was brought a bottle of cold milk.

“This will help, drink it.”

While she drank down the small bottle Harlan pulled the oils from her skin and placed his hand on her head with a small cooling spell active.

“Better?”

“How can you eat that stuff?”

“I assume it is like how I can sit in boiling water. Once something hits a certain point it stops feeling any more hot or cold. Darrath, do you need milk?”

“It tastes like chicken.”

“Yes, it does. Viviane, perhaps you’d like something a little more mild? We are ready to head over to the Dague quarter now.”

Butter butter butter.

Dague cooking was decedent, everything was rich to the point it seemed to be too much at times.

Yet for Darrath, their food was the best he had all day.

They stopped to sit and eat instead of keeping moving, Harlan already knew the Dague better than any other race in the city, including the humans.

It was a little unfair to lump them together as he had, Harlan knew that such a thing was far from alright, he had seen the way that people changed within their race, lumping any one people as one thing was wrong to do unless.

Though he didn’t really take issue with painting a single town or city as one thing, those in closest proximity would naturally be more similar than not regardless of race.

“So you have no issue with snails or oysters, but you consider frogs to be odd?”

“It’s not like I ever ate these things normally either, but I heard of others who ate things like this.

It seems more normal.”

“What did you eat when growing up?”

“Souris.”

“I don’t know what that is, I assume it’s native to outside of the veil and not in.”

“They are animals with fluffy tails that crawl and jump between the trees.”

“Squirrels?”

“Squirrels are small, not worth eating, but a Souris is more like a large dog that climbs in the trees, they had teeth that could sheer soft metal, made good arrowheads and knives.

My father was a hunter, and he…”

She went quiet, and Harlan stopped Darrath from asking her why.

“He taught me to use a bow to hunt them, and how to treat them so the fur doesn’t lose value.

They are rather neurotic creatures, if they are wounded they will panic and the stress will make them tear their own fur out, so you needed to make sure they died quickly and you couldn’t use spells because you’d damage the fur.”

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

She looked up from her food, acting as if nothing had happened.

“He died when the Cast came. I had a younger half-brother, but he got sick when he was very young, so I don’t remember him. There, now you don’t need to tiptoe around the subject.”

She kept up with smalltalk, but he knew all too well that oversharing to just try to move past a touchy subject either meant one really was over it, or they were trying to avoid any conversation with depth by starting and ending it themselves.

As they got up to eat, a group of five women, all in armors with some unique features, were walking past.

The leader had a design etched into her armor like a lion that went across the entirety of it, muscles and claws and a mane and so on and so forth, and the helmets had parts which were unique to each of them, having ears or horns and or a beak, not unlike the Redhaven knights with their fierce bat helmets.

It really was an exquisite piece of work and Harlan got closer to look at the detail that almost made it seem as if the metal really was fur with how it was etched and layered.

The only thing Harlan found a little odd about them was that each had a uniform knightly ponytail made from coarse hair rather than each of them having some unique plumes.

The leader was in red, the others were an ox in blue, a fox in black, a falcon in yellow, and lastly a green elk.

Under their armors it wasn’t clear what they were, but Harlan assumed human by their size.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, I’m very sorry, those armors are masterworks. Was that grit added to make it more matte so it doesn’t catch light?”

“Please, move aside. We are looking for the king of this nation.”

Harlan stepped back and shapeshifted his clothes into his more regal attire.

“Why are you looking for me, foreign knights?”

They drew their swords and Dawn drew her own to defend the Darrath and VIviane.

“For the sake of our people, you must die to secure an alliance.”

“With the Cast?”

“Against them.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Is the one you seek an alliance with more just than me?”

“Wouldn’t the worry be of strength if you intend to convince me to join you?”

“From the way you speak and carry yourself I imagine you have a high opinion of yourself, and from the doubt in your mind, I assume you are second guessing this choice already.”

“I do not doubt, I do what needs to be done for my people. I’ve already given my word that I would take your head to secure an alliance, and I will not break it.”

“If you aren’t going to entertain the possibility of peace, then at least let us move this fight out of the city so nobody gets hurt.”

“I’ve not seen an arena here, is there one nearby?”

“I find arenas barbaric, killing for survival, for revenge, for what you believe to be right, these are the reasons I have for killing, I will not build a place where killing is nothing but entertainment.

There are clearings in the forest, or we can go to one of the unpopulated parts of the city.”

“The forest then, I don’t want any surprises.”

“Then you may choose where in the forest we will fight.”

Darrath had been listening in and climbed on Harlan’s back.

“Papa is going to kill you, idio-”

“DARRATH.”

Harlan had not raised his voice in such a way to him before, and Darrath crawled back to Dawn.

“This is a conversation for adults, don’t talk about what I do like it is a game. I don’t plan to kill these women, because today is for a day for peace, and because I don’t think they are evil.”

“But they want to kill you, that means they’re evil.”

“No, it means we disagree, and we are in a disagreement that cannot be solved with words.

They are doing this for their people, just like I have killed so many for mine.

Murder isn’t a hard rule, what I’ve done to the Cast would be called murder by them, but to me it is just defense of others. Murder is always wrong, but not all killing is murder, and not every killer is a murderer.”

As they walked through the city, Harlan struck up conversation with them.

“So, may I know who wants me dead?”

“The island south of here has a king, he explained that you are a man of terrible deeds, that you raise the dead and distort life into an abomination.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it that, but yes, I use dead bodies to make my golems, like this one here.”

The Golem was helping a woman whose sign had fallen, using its inhuman strength to push nails into wood with some resistance.

The women gripped their weapons, each different from one another.

“If you attack us here, we will be forced to-”

Harlan stopped, and they did as well.

When they fully drew their weapons, many people in the street reached for whatever sharp object was nearest.

“Why do you think I walk ahead of you?”

“Because you are arrogant.”

“I am confident in my ability to read you, you are simple, honor bound. Honor means many things to many people, and I believe that you wouldn’t attack my people without them attacking first, and I believe that you wouldn’t stab me in the back. Please, everyone, put your weapons away, you have nothing to fear, these knights are not a threat to me.”

The people put their weapons down and resumed whatever they had been doing.

The knights stared cautiously, worried that it was some trick.

Yet Harlan was gaining distance from them and none of the guards or golems moved any nearer to them.

Once they reached a clearing quite far from the city, they stopped.

“Alright then, if this is the place you want to fight, come at me.”

“I will fight first.”

“You misunderstand, I said to come at me.”

“You think you can fight all five of us?”

“Yes, come at me, and let’s end this quickly.”

The five women lined up, Harlan could feel the shift in the air as their cooperative casting began.

“Interesting, I understand why you would be a full team of women then. Cooperative casting is a somewhat strange art, as it requires both technique and some amount of sync with your allies.

Those with tight knit bonds such as friends are far more likely to-”

The Lion women rushed forward impossibly fast, severing his head in one clean cut.

Yet instead of falling down, Harlan stood firm.

“Your cuts are too clean, I won’t be bothered by a simple decapitation like that. What I find interesting is the heat that rose in your body. I know a magic like that as well, but I don’t need so many people to do it.”

“OX, SHIELD.”

The woman with blue plume rushed in front of her team, but Harlan dodged past her hammer and grabbed her hand, his skin shiny and red like a blister.

Harlan didn’t think he used imbibing enough, his transformations often gave more than enough power, and he started to consider imbibing more of a last ditch, something that he would use to destroy his enemy at the cost of his own body.

With his pain back, he was trying to avoid needing to transform without reason.

He pulled hard, and before she realized what had happened she was away from her team, slamming into a tree that broke rather than the knight.

Thinking that his turned back was a target, the fox pounced at his neck, a gate sent her into the sky.

“I wonder, can she fly?”

“FALCON, GET FOX.”

“But that would leave just you and the elk, and she doesn’t seem much of a fighter. Healer perhaps?”

Other than for attacking, the woman didn’t draw her blade, always returning it to the enchanted sheath.

She took a drawing stance.

“You will not make it past me. The Red Lion will forever stand as the symbol of courage and might.”

Harlan simply stood still, he knew that she was charging some attack, her sheath was drawing in magic, but he wanted to see what it was going to do.

“When I defeat you, will you simply leave? I don’t want to kill you.”

“A monster like you cannot understand us, I will not stay my blade.”

“It seems you don’t really know much about me. I assume you are from one of the stripes south of here, they have a few more independent nations that haven’t fallen to the empire just yet.”

“I come from far in the east, where we hold fast against them.”

“Really? I heard that the Cast controlled nearly the entire world, and that only in the area around me are there real holdouts such as Lith.”

“They control the flow of information, and we are boxed in, but we are not conquered.”

“Interesting. I assume it was no small feat to break free from that place then, it makes sense to move with a small group, each with their specialized role, knight, defender, assassin, healer, archer.”

Harlan stepped forward and she drew on him, her blade caused a loud roar of flames.

Yet through that power, she couldn’t even see him move through the flames as he simply took the heat while dodging the blade itself and punched her in the gut.

She collapsed to the ground.

“Why do you call me a monster?”

She had to tear off her faceplate to avoid drowning as she vomited up everything she had eaten in Kor.

“No answer? Alright.”

Harlan kicked her into a tree, the sounds of wood and bone both cracking reached his ears, and he understood he would need to be a little more gentle.

His attacks on the Ox woman had led him to believe she was more or less what he should expect, especially since the Lion had talked herself up quite a bit, yet she wasn’t anywhere near the same level of durability.

Fox attacked from the shadows with throwing knives and Falcon from above with sound and light.

Harlan ignored the first, even if they pierced him, which he very much doubted due to his armor and skin, they didn’t look to have poisons, there was no slickness, no reflection.

The falcon however, was far more annoying.

He could tell she intended to blind and deafen him, but it was the way the shrieking and flashing lights flooded in senses and distracted his mind that bothered him.

Elk pierced his back with a bident that then sprouted antlers, locking it in his body.

He struck back with a closed fist, the green knight failing to dodge, not understanding that he could lengthen his arm to turn what should’ve been a miss into a solid hit; feeling her faceplate crush inward and hearing the sound of teeth against metal, Harlan felt terrible, the pain had caused a loss of control, his output went beyond what it should’ve.

Fox rushed forward, taking her karambit to his neck, and turning on some ability that let the crystal blades vibrate and slash through.

He didn’t want to resort to it, but things suddenly looked quite dire, and if he got in any more pain, his focus would be completely broken.

She never saw it coming, a telekinetic force pushed her back and her blades went still, sticking in his neck.

He tried his best to just bear it as he pried the blades from his neck and sealed the wounds that poured blood.

Eagle used her bow to fire arrows, but while enchanted, they did not stand against his telekinesis turning their shafts to splinters in the air as they were knocked back by the wave.

Harlan and her seemed to be at a standstill, their healer was down, and she was the only one left, but nothing she could use at a range would make it past his defenses even as he staggered, his bloodloss being not insignificant.

As they stood there, Harlan thought for a moment about her being the last of them, and remembered the blue knight who he had seen go unconscious when she went head first into a tree, just as her hammer crushed his side and sent him sprawling across the ground.

He was now more than annoyed, he hadn’t done any real fighting now that pain had returned and he was often losing focus as a result, he felt weak.

When she rushed at him he lost control again for just a moment and plunged his hand through her shield and then her stomach.

He panicked for a moment, pulling his hand out and then rushing to Elk.

Eagle attempted to rush in, thinking him to be weakened by Ox’s final attack.

She didn’t remember what happened next, just that her head hurt.

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

Sholl was ready, he truly was, but when a bird messenger requested aid because a monster of some kind was tearing through a city, the plan fell apart.

It could’ve been Harlan, or maybe not, but he would not leave them to die so that he could kidnap a child with an army for a distraction.

He issued the order, they were to march north to the port city under siege.

His plans to capture Harlan would either succeed on this day because he was going to outright fight him away from Carmilla, the one person whose presence gave the Hand’s pause, or he would save a city, both were fine ideas in his mind.