Harlan and Magruder’s work progressed at a staggering speed.
From the start his work had the right idea, but as was sometimes the case, it was just missing something.
In this case, it was Harlan’s knowledge of crystalline formation.
“It’s working.”
“Ah, well, maybe, but we need to wait, maybe it won’t work, it’s-”
“Have some confidence in yourself.”
“Well, I could only do this with you.”
“You have almost all of the work done, I simply built on your own methods. Nobody knows everything, and even if they did it would be hard to remember all of it at once and recall exactly how to make things work.”
“But it was still you that made it work.”
“It’s taken us two weeks because we are working together, your knowledge of blood magic is different, but not lesser than mine. I’ve looked at more of the combat applications, poisons, transfiguration, and getting the fullest nutrition from it. Without you, I might not have made this at all, or perhaps it would take many months or years of research to find what I was missing.”
Harlan picked up the gem that was nearly the size of his head and stared into its soul.
“How long have you been working on this again?”
“Six years.”
“You said before that you were inspired by my work, you specifically said that it was my work with the communicators I made for Reino.”
Magruder was slightly taken aback, he muttered nothings as he thought up an answer.
“I learned blood magic to change my body, cosmetic magic is expensive and I’ve been trying to change my body more permanently.”
Harlan couldn’t tell if it was a lie or not, he found Magruder hard to read, his constant nervousness always made him seem as if he was lying, and he was always afraid, Harlan could feel that even before he was face to face with him.
What he couldn’t tell was what he was afraid of, though at least he didn’t feel it focused towards him.
“I’m not going to force you to answer why you wanted magic. I don’t know you that well, but I don’t think you are dangerous, just odd. Not unlike me, but I’m odd and dangerous.”
“Ah, well, thank you.”
The blood being used was stored in the crystal form in marked chests, they simply needed to cast the right spell to return it to liquid form.
Those things that were more magical in nature naturally had blood better suited for the gems, they hoped that their research would let them make blood gems of different grades and to find which creatures could be best farmed for blood.
Magruder started on farm animals, ox and chicken, Harlan was going to start on orcs and goblins, check for unique properties of them that he knew from his alchemical work and how it would make the gems better or worse.
Harlan’s theory was that goblins would be worse, and then orcs would be better, and this would be tied directly to their souls.
The soul of an orc was born of human and goblin fusion, and though it would be stronger, it was also chaotic to the point that any extra power would be lost in efficiency as the cycling of magic wouldn’t follow a regular pattern, adding delays in cast time, or sometimes speeding it up, weakening the spells, or making them stronger.
Harlan’s hope would be that he could find a way to placate the soul somehow without losing that strength.
He was already fairly certain from the tests he had done in his own home, away from Magruder, that human blood, or at least his blood, was the best suited for a blood gem.
If orcs could be made to have the same properties of even just human blood, without the possibility of boosting it, then they’d have an ethical way to get high grade gems.
He had hidden this knowledge because despite what he told him, Harlan had no idea about Magruder, he couldn’t get a read on him, and because he was a social pariah there wasn’t a good public image that he could infer anything from.
Rumors were useless, nothing that he gleaned from them were based in any truth.
A blast sounded from Harlan’s station and the smell of iron filled the room.
Both parties had come to be desensitized to the scent after long exposures, but he still worried.”
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, these things are far more fragile than mana gems, and they can’t really hurt me when they explode unless I get close enough for the soul’s energy to harm me.”
“Still, it is quite dangerous, I’ve been hurt many times doing this.”
With practiced ease, Magruder pulled the blood off of Harlan’s body and put it back into a vial for more testing.
After a few more hours of testing, Harlan worked out what was the proper way to mix the mana crystal dust into the blood for the most efficient resulting gem.
But he failed to find a way to take the madness out of the orc soul without also removing the extra strength it had, and as no progress was being made on that front and he didn’t think he could do it anyway due to his previous work with orc souls, he gave up on it.
“I believe that is it for today. My notes are all here, and I believe that you have enough to gain the title of archmage. Would you like me to drop you off at the academy to go in for the interview?”
“Ah, well, I would like to check that the blood gem remains stable over the next week. But you’ve done more than enough to help, so there is no need to return again.”
“Alright. Just call if you need anything, magical research can be dangerous alone, so after a week I’ll be back if I’ve not heard from you.”
“Thank you. You are… a friend…”
“Yes, and friends help one another without asking for anything in return, so don’t worry about bothering me.”
Harlan let the conversation end there.
He went through his gate, and then another, and then he and Adina were home again, but more importantly, they were leaving after a short shower.
Unlike the others they had shared in the last 5 months, there was no sex, he was mostly there to help her wash herself.
“This is no fun.”
“I just don’t feel comfortable doing those things when you are so pregnant.”
“It’s because I’m gross, isn’t it? I’m fat and bloated, I’m like a barrel with limbs. Can’t they just come out already? Finish this?”
“I can’t imagine what you would be like having to go through the full nine months. But it’s not because you are gross, it’s because I don’t want to hurt the baby. We… you, can be a bit rough.”
“Alright, but you are always as gentle as a feather, every time is like the first time with you.
So just fuck me like always.”
Harlan stopped washing her hair and steeled himself for what was certain to be a very awkward conversation.
“Honestly, I think you have a problem with sex. And it’s not that I dislike it or anything, but I simply don’t get as much out of it as you do.”
She turned around to face him.
“Wait, have you not wanted to do it before? And did you do it anyway?”
Her tone was remorseful, he could feel her mind panic with guilt.
“I don’t want to say yes, because that would make it sound like you forced me.
But there are some days where I would’ve rather spent my time working on things and instead you dragged me from my lab or the workshop.”
“You could’ve just said no, I don’t want you to feel forced, especially with everything that happened with Dawn.”
“Let me put it this way, doing that stuff isn’t what makes me happy, but seeing that it does make you so happy does. If a good meal made you feel like you do when we do that, then I’d cook you as many meals as it takes, and it wouldn’t bother me that it interrupts my work, just like I don’t really mind stopping work to do anything with you.”
“Why do you refuse to say sex? It’s fine to say it.”
“I’ve never been good with that side of romance, perhaps I’m just childish, but for me it feels disconnected.
You laying your head on my lap because it helps you relax is fine, but when I think about… sex, I start to feel odd, all I can think about is the lust that controls some people. Jet, though he may not be who he was before, has perhaps scarred me more than I would like to admit. And far too many times I’ve seen people do horrible things just to have sex with another person, willing or not.”
“I hate saying it, because I feel like a failure of a wife if I can’t help, but, have you talked about this with Marigold? She always knows the right thing to say.”
“No, and I don’t want to. Don’t tell anyone about this, don’t ask for advice from anyone, I don’t even want you using hypotheticals to ask someone about this. I’d rather the subject just be dropped for now, we’ll pick it up later.”
She knew him well enough that later would never come to him, but she would need to find the right time to talk to him about it again.
They arrived at his home, his old home, and the family was there, waiting.
Aida came up to hug the both of them.
“You are so big already, it’s like you’re ready to burst already.”
A young boy clinged to her legs.
“James, why aren’t you saying hello?”
Harlan looked down at him in some disbelief.
“When did he get so big?”
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“When was the last time you actually came here?
I don’t mean to sound like I’m condemning you, but time flies, children grow up so quickly that you don’t realize how much they change in just a few months, going from crawling, to unsteadily walking, to running, all before you know it.”
“Who is you?”
“I’m Harlan, your brother.”
He looked to the only woman he had ever known to be his mother with questioning eyes.
“Yes, he is your brother.”
“I have brother?”
The little words pierced Harlan’s heart.
He had more or less given James to his parents and ignored him.
There was always something else to do, a threat, a project, an order, but honestly, Harlan just didn’t think about him at all. In his mind he was still just an infant, he couldn’t hold a conversation or play much.
It hadn’t stopped him from liking his niece and nephew and spending time with them, but even they had fallen to the wayside, everyone had.
His little house was out of the way, so far that nobody could really visit without contacting him or another gate mage, he would sometimes spend days without ever talking to another person but Adina.
It was quiet, quaint, and never did it make him lonely, but now his mind raced with thoughts about life and death, that when time passes, these people who he calls his family would disappear.
When they were gone, would their children remember who he was?
Or would he be the hermit man who would appear at the odd family gathering?
Would he just fall out of the world, never realizing the passing of time until someone contacted him?
Would he turn into Sepul?
Harlan was snapped away from his mind by James tugging on his sleeve.
“Magic?”
“Yes, magic.”
Harlan breathed deeply, and on the exhale he let out swarms of colorful butterflies that the toddler chased around.
His hands moved in a flurry to maintain the illusion, most would say such a thing was incredibly wasteful in both mana and talent to do such a thing with more freeform magic rather than spending the time to make a proper spell.
“Maybe I should go to the academy, I just can’t seem to get a handle on illusion magic and the children all love it.”
“The students there are vicious, so I would say not to go, but I could look into finding some books on the subject. I happen to know someone who has a copy of just about anything.”
“They are just children, they can’t be-”
“They are nobles first, children second, their inflated egos require them to tear down others who they perceive as lesser. You being a farmer's wife and adoptive mother to a monster like me would make you a target, and I can’t bear the idea of you going off without someone there to watch you.”
“You could just change my face, make up an excuse, I’m sure I’d be fine.”
“Mom, please, tell me, do you actually want to go? Or is this a hypothetical?”
“Your father and I have been thinking about it, and Balor doesn’t mind paying for us.
Though, does he have a lot of his own money? He is cagey whenever we ask about where he gets it all from and says vague things about businesses and investments.”
Harlan had expected them to already know, but if he hadn’t told them himself, he saw no reason not to keep up Balor’s lie.
“Balor has a hundred times my business acumen. I can’t say that I know the depths of what he does, but I don’t think for a second that he is hurting for coin, if he was, he’d be using my money instead of his own, but I’m not getting calls from Garad about Balor’s expenses anymore.”
“We want to learn so that we can teach James better when he gets bigger, and it lets us feel a bit closer to you that we are mages too.”
It was clear by the defeated tone as he spoke his next words and his downtrodden expression that he hated the idea, but couldn’t possibly argue against her reasons, he would do the same.
“I’ll contact Hirum, an advisor can come and explain pricing and the classes and what else might be expected from you. I also think that if you and dad go, you should be together.”
“It would be hard to not have one of us here to watch James. But I suppose Autumn wouldn’t mind watching him for a while, and it would let him play with his niece and nephew. Oh, and we could still come home on weekends if you just used that gate magic.”
The thought hadn’t even crossed her mind that Harlan could, or wanted to take his brother.
Harlan knew she didn’t mean anything by it, but that didn’t mean it hurt less.
“We can talk about this later.”
Harlan went over to his father and hugged him, Amber and Ava were also there along with Balor.
“What conversation is happening here?”
“Don’t act like you can’t hear everything that happens around here.”
“Fair. Ava, I’m sorry that I’ve been busy, I’ll enhance your body tonight if you’d like, so long as your own schedule permits it. You already read my book on what to expect?”
“Yes, I did, and I cleared up my schedule already, knowing that this would be the best place to ask you.”
“You’ve got a communicator, you could’ve just called me any time.”
Things were still tense between them, Ava didn’t want to lose him, but looking past the mountain of corpses that were laid in his path was hard for her; at least she was on speaking terms with him.
“I would rather do so in person. Anyway, I’ve got other things to do, we can talk later.”
Harlow could see it all to clear on his face how Harlan felt about their exchange.
“She’ll come around.”
“I know, the world will just tear down her view of it until she understands what real evil looks like.”
“Huh. I wouldn’t phrase it like that, but I’m sure that isn’t too far from the truth. And, I don’t want to change the subject, but about that body enhancement stuff, your mother and I have-”
“It would be good for you to both have a stronger and younger body, it would make me feel a lot better about letting you go to the academy. You’ve been through this once already, I’m shocked that it has taken so long to convince her.”
“Well, you know your mother, change isn’t something she likes suddenly.”
“That is true. Speaking of change, Balor, I want you to have the house. You’ve been steward to this place better than I have. It only feels right that you should have a place that is yours. It also would be a little awkward if you brought a woman back to a place that wasn’t yours.”
“I’ve no interest in that at the present, but it will be nice to have this be my home entirely.”
“I’ll get the things that I want to take out of my room later and we can change the name on the deed.”
“No need for that, there are certain legalities around deeds and land that is granted to nobles, it would be best that this all remains in your name.
“I’ll trust your judgment then.”
Harlan’s amulet lit up, Amber needed to be picked up.
When the gate opened, Amber, Sam, and Liat walked through.
“Liat? What are you doing with them?”
“Balor didn’t tell you? He changed my contract, technically I’m Amber’s bodyguard, not that she really needs it.”
“Oh.”
Balor just shrugged, it really wasn’t that important, Liat had only taken the job to get money so she could go on her own adventure, what she was doing while Harlan was paying her mattered little.
“Well, I’m glad to see you again…”
“Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing… it’s fine…”
Amber realized what was wrong and loudly laughed.
“It’s because we got you to cut your hair. He likes it long.”
“I just prefer it, that’s all, it’s not like it matters how she cuts her hair, she’s not my wife.”
“Harlan, how has everyone been?”
“Adina tells me that Yara has been doing well, but she’s anxious about the idea of staying in The Great Desert. Don’t tell anyone, but Ximena is going to move to Ragne once she graduates, she’s just trying to avoid all of the bother that comes from the Golden knowing it beforehand.”
“Her and Claude?”
“Things are moving in the background, right now he’s fighting with his family to break off the arranged marriage that they are trying to set up for him. One way or another, they are staying together.”
“Has Yara found anyone?”
“Have you? Yara has been asking Adina about you and I keep forgetting to finally get her an answer.”
“It’s rude to answer a question with another question. Let’s just move on from that then.”
“No, it’s fine, Yara doesn’t have anyone, she says that since a marriage is going to be arranged back home that she doesn’t seem much of a point in a pointless fling with someone she doesn’t care about.”
“And to think, she almost had you. That would’ve been far more interesting, maybe she would’ve come with me in that case.”
Harlan let the conversation drop there, but in his mind Yara never had a chance.
Much of it came down to their earlier meeting where one of the sisters joked about what kind of child would come from such a pairing.
It amplified all of Harlan’s fears about having children when he thought about the magic at play with both of their races.
Beastkin could at least sidestep that issue, so far as he knew, none of them were biologically compatible with one another, their pacts would never need to clash against one another.
Though, the odd couple of two different races would occasionally pop up despite their physical differences.
The point of the party was rather simple: after five months, the chance of someone losing the child was low so long as nothing had been found by a healer before this point.
Despite a lack of proper medical science, Infant mortality from sickness was rather low on Aarde so long as there was a healer not far from them, and with the the program Sepul had helped to set up, just about every village could afford to keep one around.
They gathered around the table in the dining room extension that had been built onto the kitchen and shared stories.
Yet Harlan’s time was cut short, he was barely finished with his first plate of food.
A gate opened, not normal, void.
And out stepped a beautiful woman in her mid 20s with long black hair and black irises that almost blended into her pupils.
Her dress was plain, it looked neither cheap nor expensive, it wouldn’t be scoffed at nor admired, and she wore a hooded cape along with the dress.
Harlan got the feeling that she was trying to avoid being noticed, but her face and eyes would make such a thing difficult unless they were hidden.
“Hello again.”
“Firstly, who are you, and secondly, again?”
“Oh, it seems I’ve misspoken. ”
She looked up and down Harlan, comparing him against himself.
“I’m just an agent of Mother, Coronach is off doing something better with his time, so I was asked to get you. Work must be done, and by her order, you are to be the one to do it.”
Harlan’s eyes went black, just to check that this woman was someone sent by her.
“May I finish my meal with my family?”
“No, this is quite time sensitive.”
Harlan put down his silverware and got up from the table.
“It is quite nice to meet all of you, and perhaps we will see more of one another. Many apologies for having to take him away.”
“I know my husband’s work, it’s fine, it was really only a matter of time before we had a family meal disrupted by gods or the kingdom.”
“Thank you for your understanding.”
The woman stepped back into the void gate, and Harlan stepped through after her.
Sam looked around at everyone going back to eating as if nothing had happened.
“What is wrong with you? What was that? How do you not react?”
Liat placed her hand on Sam’s.
“Harlan is Harlan, if you are around me and Amber, you’ll see him, and you will rarely see him without something odd happening, we all just live with it.”
Liat cut her pork chop, not an ounce of oddity regarding things had affected her.
“That woman was very pretty though, wasn’t she?”
Everyone around the table nodded in agreement.
----------------------------------------
The Jailer looked upon his work, it stalled his heart to see it undone, but the choice was out of his hands.
He pulled the heavy weights from the man’s body, followed by the iron rods twisted with silver.
The moment they left his flesh, the thin and bony man was not returned to any sense of prime, but a vitality long lost regained itself upon him.
“Has it already been a thousand years?”
“Plans are to be accelerated.”
The Jailer raised a hand and the jailed burst into flames, his eyes bursting from the heat as he fell to the ground.
“You are not free, you are unbound. Should everything work out, you could be sent home, there you would be as free as you once were.”
With a single vial of blood poured on him, the man regenerated back to more strength that he had before every cell in his body had been calmly set aflame.
“Ah, but how I’ve come to enjoy this land of wonder and splendor. Earth was never the same after the Elves were driven out.”
“As I recall, you were a significant force behind that.”
“Regardless, away from the old and onto the new.”
He marveled at the power he could feel growing every moment he was free.
“What is your bidding?”
“He gives order, I just follow them.”
“Him?”