Harlan found himself in a forest, from the temperature being much colder and the sun being higher in the sky, he ascertained that they were farther to the northwest in the frontier.

“What am I here for?”

“There is a village, I need to go inside. You need to act as my shield.”

“You can’t handle some villagers?”

“To cast a void gate needs something far different from being strong. My ability to defend myself is quite limited.”

“Alright. What is your name?”

“That isn’t needed for the mission.”

They moved into the village, but well before Harlan was there he felt them.

The guards out front were small, generations of malnourishment was clear on their bodies.

“HALT.”

Harlan stood six inches taller than them, but he did not come to intimidate them, Fomorians that didn't attack on sight were a surprise.

“I am Harlan Fomoria, both as Darrath, Champion of Darkness. I am here with an agent of the Darkness as her guard.”

They looked at one another and then one of them went inside.

“Do you have any food?”

The man licked his lips and stepped forward.

“I only feel about 40 of you inside, I take it that there isn’t much food around here?”

“Farming is hard, not enough animals around, nowhere to get good seeds.”

“Do you raid people who come within what was the limits of your lands?”

The man looked away, he didn’t need to say a word, guilt was in his thoughts, and as a response Harlan felt sorrow for them, which then led to a small gratitude from the man.

Their shared feelings that replaced conversation on the subject felt incredibly natural to Harlan.

“My, it is interesting to watch your faces change. I wonder how much could be learned if we all had that power.”

“There is just as much misunderstanding that can come from knowing what another feels as can be understood. It smooths over some bumps, but it doesn’t replace words. I can tell this man was guilty when I asked if they raided others, but where is that guilt from? Is it from the act? Or getting caught?”

Harlan handed the man a vial of tonic, a day’s worth of calories and nutrients for a normal sized man.

They stood in silence for a while before the other guard returned.

“You may come in, but we need food to trade, come back when you have it.”

“When negotiating, you should remember never to appear desperate. Do you accept raw foods?”

“Yes, that would be best.”

“Miss, are you fine with remaining here until I return?”

“Of course. I didn’t bring you with to guard me from them.‘

“Then who am I going to guard you from?”

“Isn’t that just part of the fun?”

“I will return soon.”

Harlan divined for game animals, boar, deer, mammoth, lindworm, anything that he could quickly kill and bring back.

It took over 10 minutes, but he returned with a dozen boar and the same number of deer.

The Fomorians were amazed to see him carry all of them with no clear sign of spellwork.

“Please, come in, yes, please.”

As soon as Harlan set them down half the people started to butcher while the other half worked to build fires.

“You are free to help, I just need to speak with the chief.”

Harlan watched as they rushed to cut up the animals, and then he saw they panicked as one of them hit the wrong organ and spoiled the meat.

The one who had done it broke down in tears and the others lashed out at them for their incompetence.

“Enough.”

“Our meat, you-”

Harlan moved towards the group that held up their dull knives at him.

He cast a spell and the meat was cleansed, it was something Redmond taught him, he learned a lot about how to live out in the wilds from him after he got back from his journey of self-discovery in the frontier.

“If there is work to be done, it should be done right. The deer aren’t going to rot if you can’t get them butchered in the next few minutes. Continue.”

One of the children tried to sneak away with a piece of meat and eat it raw.

When one of the others raised their hand to him, Harlan once more stepped in.

“Do not make me warn you again.”

“He must be taught.”

“It’s just a piece of meat.”

He could feel the disgust and anger from everyone who heard him.

“You don’t know. Won’t know when the meat runs out, when we get more.”

“You are free to leave now, you aren’t stuck to the area, you can hunt now.”

“Wolves, monsters, can’t fight them. Can’t… need to get stronger.”

His emotions lead to many more in response.

Some did not accept his pity, they considered him to be looking down on them.

But in his mind, he reached his limit, these people were not the Fomorians he knew, that he hated.

They were just desperate, they had been stuck for so long that the world passed them by, any strength they had was gone, they didn’t have the resources to even keep up their magic.

Harlan moved to help each of them butcher the animals, sharpening blades with magic, building stone baskets to put the organs into, and when a mistake was made, he did his best to

“I will return soon, gather wood, but don’t build a fire yet.”

“You don’t lead us.”

He returned through a gate with a barrel of salt and a smaller barrel of black pepper.

“Simple seasonings, these are also a gift.”

The people rushed to put the seasonings onto their meat with dirty hands.

“Stop.”

His word did nothing to stop them, but a wall of telekinetic force made them listen.

“Clean your hands, you are still covered in blood from the deer, you’ll put liquid in the salt and pepper and they’ll rot before you have the chance to use them all.”

Harlan used telekinesis to season the meat himself.

“How do you do that?”

“I won’t answer that question right now. I’ll handle the cooking, you are free to watch or go do something else.”

“You can’t have the meat.”

Harlan ignored them, but those who could calm down just a bit and feel his emotions understood that he was simply saddened to see them like this.

Harlan cast spells that trapped the hot air over the fire, making an oven like environment and to check the doneness of the meat while also keeping the meat moist by controlling the liquids inside of it.

After a few minutes Harlan began to remove the meat from the baskets and the people argued with one another about who would get what.

Harlan simply spread the meat out equally between them.

“I will roast the animals over more fires, consider those to be a first taste.”

Harlan went outside of the village, stomps of his feet dug out holes which he then filled with wood they cut down and he dried properly with magic.

To roast each of them, Harlan made crisscrossing grill grates of polished stone that wouldn’t dirty the meat and parted out the animals.

The entire village came outside and just watched as Harlan seemingly danced in the middle of the fire pits to ensure everything was cooked faster than reasonable.

After half an hour, entire legs of venison had been fully cooked, juices were locked inside and the pressure from the spells let the liquids go past boiling temperatures without turning to steam.

Magical cooking was an art, one which Harlan felt could become much larger than it currently was.

Many considered it to be beneath them as a mage to do what they considered mundane labor.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Cooks could have their magical tools, ovens and mixers, but they were more often than not mundane people.

Harlan sanded the stumps of trees he cut down, turning them into makeshift tables that he placed the meats on.

“Come, eat.”

Harlan pulled water from the damp spring air and filled stone basins with water for them to clean themselves.

“And keep a slow pace, when you are starving and suddenly fill up on food you risk dying.”

The people who were stuffing their mouths began to chew their food properly and savor it.

It was simple, basic, but they hadn’t been able to have a feast in decades at least, they were just barely scraping by, their numbers had dwindled.

These were not the fierce people of the frontier, they had no culture of bones and flesh.

Another hour passed, when the people seemed to have their fill, they thanked Harlan and he changed to turning the meat into jerky.

When he had nothing left to do, he went back into the village and went to see the agent.

“What are you even here for?”

“Your opponents are late, very late. But, sighting is rarely perfect. Go back out front and wait.”

Harlan’s eyes went black, but he was simply told to do as she said.

He sat and grumbled.

Eventually, high speed arrows and stones came from the forest.

Telekinesis prevented any of them from harming him or the guards who fled inside as soon as the fighting started.

Harlan stood and was in full armor with his sword drawn as he spoke.

“I AM HARLAN FOMORIA, QUEEN’S BLADE, CHAMPION OF DARKNESS, SHOW YOURSELVES OR I WILL HUNT YOU.”

There was a delay, but when Harlan held a mass of void in his other hand that seemed to pull shadows away from the treeline, the soldiers came out, and their commander was the first in line.

“I have orders to destroy this village.”

“The official policy is that each group of Fomorians is to be contacted and either destroyed or brought into Ragne as citizens of the frontier. Have you already contacted this village? And have they refused?”

“I have orders to-”

Harlan skipped forward.

“If you dodge my question again, I am going to kill you.”

“I don’t have a report on hand, but if I was given the order, I intend to follow it.”

“Good soldiers follow orders, is that it?”

“If you stand against us you will be tried for treason.”

“These people are desperate, they aren’t like the others. I am telling you, stand down, bring me to your commander, show me something that proves to me that they should be destroyed, and I will step out of your way.”

“Why are you even here?”

“My god said to come, so I came.”

“A good soldier.”

The commander contacted his commander, and through a game of telephone, Rosewell contacted Harlan.

“Why are you threatening to wipe out a military base?”

“The truth is removed from itself the further it gets from the person who spoke originally.”

“Then explain what the truth is.”

“I was sent by my god to guard an agent of her’s.

These soldiers intended to kill the village without proper justification, and I will not let them.”

“I’ve kept you away from the Fomorian issues for the simple reason that I have no idea what you are going to do, as well as the fact that many nobles are fearful that you will raise your own army of your kin.”

“They are not my kin.”

“Then why are you so intent on protecting them?”

“These people don’t have food, they are barely surviving with less than a hundred people, they are not a threat, they are desperate and struggling. It isn’t right to destroy them.”

“That is a very Harlan answer. I will call back down the line, these people may join as citizens yet.”

“The first Fomorians outside of myself to be so.”

She hesitated, just for an instant, but Harlan paid it no mind.

“Yes, I hope that it works out in our favor.”

It took a few minutes, but Rosewell called her man, who called his man, etc. And by the end, the soldiers backed away.

Harlan made sure they were all gone, and then he headed into the village to speak with the chief.

“Where is the woman?”

“She’s been gone since you last came, she did leave me with a message however.”

The elder cleared his throat, spitting up a ball of phlegm.

“Depending on how this ended, I am sorry for the bloodshed, or I am happy that everything turned out well.”

Harlan’s eyes went black.

The void was always welcoming to him, but he was less than happy to be here in that moment.

“The hell is this? If you wanted me to bring this village into Ragne, you could’ve just told me from the start, instead you say nothing to me and use some woman I’ve never seen before in my life.”

”Do mind your tone.”

Harlan felt a weight on him, it was not painful, but his senses warned him against pushing her further.

“If I had, would you truly have tried your hardest?”

“Yes, if you ordered me to care.”

“There is not a being in this reality or any other that could force you to care. You needed to see them as they were, not because it was your job, but because you were there and you couldn’t look away.”

He didn’t like it, he hated it really, but he knew she was right.

“I’m sorry about my tone.”

“I know you are, my child. A rider will be there soon, you will help to bring them into the fold.”

Harlan was to act as mediator between the sides, a role that he took up rather than one forced on him.

“The simplest explanation is that you and your people are to be considered as part of Ragne, and you are to abide by the laws of Ragne. An ambassador will come here to run the village for a time and help you to transition from your isolationist lifestyle to one of civility, at which point you are expected to elect a leader of your own and open the village to the outside world fully as citizens of Ragne.”

The chief smoked wild grass from a pipe made from a femur, one which Harlan hoped wasn’t human, but he was certain was.

“Food, we need food, more wells, seeds. We know how to farm, but there is little but wild vegetables, no onions, no potatoes. We lost a lot of things when we were locked away, we used to travel to the farms, couldn’t reach them anymore.”

“We can provide you with those things, and in exchange, you are expected to share any magical knowledge that you have.”

“We know how to farm, but we don’t know how to fight.”

“I have a hard time believing that.”

The old chief bangged his pipe against a clay cup, filled it with foul smelling weeds, and smoked again.

“Over a thousand years ago, this was all farmland, we were not warrior caste. Champion, surely you understand this.”

“I have never once met a Fomorian that didn’t try to kill me outside of children too young to understand.

If that is the case, why are you starving? Surely you would have all of the knowledge needed to continue farming.”

“We used outside materials to grow, and the river that we relied on was redirected over a hundred years ago by someone or something. We’ve had to… we had to lower the population.”

Harlan thought back to those he had seen.

“You are the only elder in the village.”

“The old are a burden, I live to keep knowledge alive, pass it on to the next generation, I will go to the plants when I am at my end. We have scrolls, we’ve kept as much of the old knowledge intact as we can.

Champion, I will ask one question that will decide if we join these people. Can they be trusted?”

That Harlan had been quiet for minutes was a very bad sign, and both sides looked ready to reach for their weapons.

“I was taken as a child for my magic, but I don’t believe that such a thing will happen to any of your people. But I will also say that there are many who will hate you for being Fomorian, even I dislike you for what you are. The queen is a good woman, and I myself am very high ranking within the nation because I have proven myself, and I think that so long as you work, you can prove that we aren’t all monsters.”

“I know what we are. I’ve read the scrolls from the earlier elders, they marked down bodies by the tons.

We will accept the deal, but first a list of what will be given, and we will negotiate.

Champion, may your shadow grow long.”

The chief bowed down on all fours, made easier by the fact that there were no seats in the village.

Harlan finally got home, well, he got back to Balor’s home, but by that time, almost everyone was gone.

Strangely, Magruder was there.

“Why are you here?”

“Ah, I wanted to speak with Balor, I didn’t realize there was a party. Adina asked me to stay.”

“You know my brother.”

“He is a… supplier of mine. I thought since we knew one another, I thought I might meet him face to face.”

Harlan made no change to expression, but there was certainly something off about the conversation.

Balor wouldn’t let anyone know that he was tied to The Shade, but there was no need for the hesitation that Magruder used when speaking about him if Balor had used his legitimate connections to supply Magruder with whatever it was that he needed.

“What does he supply you with? I know he has a lot of businesses, he spread himself out quite a bit.”

“Blood and the crystal dust.”

“Are those hard to get?”

“No, not at all. I only heard that he was tied to the merchants I do business with by chance and thought I’d thank him, the prices are good.”

Harlan wrote off the hesitation as just his natural nervousness, he always sounded like he was hiding something, even when he was completely honest.

“Well, I’m tired, thank you for coming, but I’d like Harlan to take me home.”

“OH, right, of course, with the baby, I’m sure you sleep more.”

“I do.”

He fidgeted.

“Am I allowed to hug you goodbye?”

“Not a problem.”

Back home, his home, Adina sat in the kitchen while Harlan prepared himself something to eat.

“She just had to take me not long as we started to eat.”

“Magruder, is he in love with me?”

“I don’t think so, I think that you are one of the first women who has shown him real affection that doesn’t want something from him. You are genuine.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure that he needs friends, he’s alone, and he will have too much power once he gets the title of archmage. If we can’t be there for him, I worry about what someone else will do for him.”

“That is an almost impressive non-answer.”

“I will make your feelings clear when I see him next, there won’t be a misunderstanding.

I just don’t want to hurt him, because I think I see myself in him, and I want to avoid a darker path for him.”

“You can’t even keep yourself from the dark path.”

Adina realized how bad it sounded the moment it left her mouth.

“I meant that-”

“I know. I know.”

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

Two women sat in a nice cafe with coffee and tea between them, one young and asking, while the elder told.

“You knew him?”

“Taught me magic.”

“How was he as a teacher?”

“Patient, caring. I was a kid, he liked kids.”

“And after?”

“After what?”

“You know, when he-”

“Losing people hurts, and he never let go of things, carried the weight of the world.

You shouldn’t dig up that pain, condemn him for not being the perfect man by standards only changed by his making the world softer, kinder.”

“I am just trying to work out a timeline of his life. I’m not trying to put dirt on his name, just trying to understand.”

“Harlan’s simple, loves people, hates people, upright and just, prone to fits of genocidal rage if pushed far enough.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that, ‘a man of contrast.’ I know people call him a hypocrite, but that really fails to understand the complexity of the human condition and the challenges of living during that time.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“You’re one of those academic types?”

“My going to an academy only happened because of the programs he set up to find those who had a passion for learning.”

“You admire him?”

“I could never be who I am now without him.”

She tapped her fingers on the glass table of the shop.

“Alright, I’ll keep talking.”