“Good afternoon.”
She blinked, confused over her location.
Sudden horror came into her mind and she swung at Harlan.
Yet her hands didn’t get far before thick chains stopped her.
“You understand strength, so I will make it clear, you are alive because I spared you, because I showed mercy, do not try to physically or magically fight me, because mercy has limits, and if in your attack one of my people are harmed, I will kill you, and then while they sleep, I will slit your sisters throats.”
The will she had before was gone.
Harlan let her stew for a few minutes, but he did want some answers.
“I want to make it clear that I’ve not touched you in any inappropriate manner, but I examined your bodies.”
She barely reacted.
“I noticed that your bones are abnormally dense, your flesh is harder, more tightly bundled, stronger, and the speed at which you heal is far beyond what a human should. I only caused as much harm to your leader as I did because I thought you were some offshoot of humanity like myself and that she could take it.
That Falcon has strange feet and her arms are longer than normal, I think she can perch on trees, is that right?”
“We are designed for combat, each is like every other of their kind, and unlike any human.”
“So you are from a family of people who bear the title of Ox?”
“We are Vatborn. I don’t know how it works, but we are all copies of one another, we are grown and not born. Even still, I failed, I wasn’t strong enough, I broke so easily.”
“There are only a handful of people I know outside of the veil that can realistically beat me.”
“I failed my sisters, I am the Ox, I am the shield, I stare down wyverns and they divert.”
“Well that doesn’t seem true. An adult is easily multiple tons, with my armor I’m not even as heavy as a grown wyvern unless it is a young adult Sky Wyvern.”
“You cannot understand, we are born for this, I am born for this.”
“I am from a people who were born to die as shields for another race of people. So yes, I do understand.
For much of my life, even now really, I struggle to not sacrifice myself at the first chance, because I am born to give my life for the people that are supposed to be better than me.”
Harlan got up from his chair.
“Would you like to see your sisters?”
“This room, it is nice, too nice for a prisoner. Are you trying to turn me to your side?”
Her mind was a jumble that he didn’t have the time to examine.
“You are no prisoner. None of the others are awake yet, but you can see that they are alive and resting.”
Harlan opened her restraints and then the chest at the end of the bed that contained her things.
“I had them repaired. The clothes were mundane, so I didn’t bother having them patched and instead just had something of the same size made. I’ll wait outside while you are changing.”
“Yet you’ve already examined my body.”
“I did that purely as a doctor and mage, you are now awake and clearly you don’t like that I did that, so I will not subject you to dressing yourself in front of me.”
“And if I fled?”
“You won’t.”
She almost wanted to run just to spite him, but her sisters needed her.
They walked all of 10 feet over to the next room, where Lion slept.
“See, she is fine. I’ve kept her under sedation because I don’t want you all awake at the same time before I’ve had a chance to speak with you.”
Harlan undid the array that was kept her slumbering.
It was considered a minor magic, one broken up by even mundane outside stimuli, but used properly, it could just as easily be a death sentence, a dream that does not end.
“It will take a few minutes before she wakes up. What did you mean by Vatborn? Is it exactly what it sounds like?”
“Each of us is born of the seeds of life, each changed to better suit our roles.”
“Does that bother you?”
“Without the Vatborn, the Cast would’ve destroyed us centuries ago.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It does not bother me.”
“Huh, a difference in opinion. I find the knowledge that much of my life was pre-planned, that I am one of many like this, quite disturbing.”
“It is an honor to serve The Great Mothers.”
“Ha, even the people that made both of us carry the title of The Mother.”
“Who made you?”
“She is The Darkness, god of dark mana. But she has no real name, taking many titles instead.”
“The Adversary, The Great Deceiver.”
“New to me, but I assume we are talking about the same god.”
“That you are son to that monster now makes sense.”
“There is a time when I would be far more upset over that, but now I’ll just say that you will maintain respect for her in my presence. She has done a great deal to me, but also for me. It isn’t right to judge her by human moral standards, her plans seem like madness but save far more lives than they take.”
“I killed the last of her adherents that I met.”
“If I didn’t know that I could beat you into the ground with one hand, that might sound like a threat.”
Lion stirred from her sleep.
“Good afternoon. Care to join the riveting theological discussion between Ox and I, little kitten?”
“Where are my clothes?”
“At the foot of the bed, along with your armor. Your weapons are being kept away for now, I wouldn’t want you to get any ideas and force me to kill you.”
“OX.”
Lion had really been awake for a time already and maintained the falsehood to give her time to wake up fully.
Ox however, was more aware of Harlan, and didn’t restrain him as was ordered.
Harlan grabbed the leaping Lion by the throat, though he put no pressure on her.
“A cat that scratches may need its claws trimmed.”
“Sister, we lost, all of us together, don’t make a fool of yourself.”
She braced herself with Harlan’s arm and wrapped her legs around his neck, but found herself unable to pull him forward at all, he just remained still like stone.
“I am glad that I went with loose pants and a shirt rather than a gown, or this could be quite revealing for you.”
She struggled further, trying to twist his wrist, but he did not react.
Only when she tried to kick his eye did he block and then toss her against the wall.
“I can knock you out and keep you asleep, or you can get up and see your sisters.”
“A Lion never-”
“You are beaten, you are a prisoner, I am offering you the position of guest instead.”
She stared him down, but the slow shaking of Ox’s head was what decided for her.
Harlan and Ox stepped outside while Lion put her armor and clothes on.
“You can wait here, I’ll wake Falcon up and wait for the two of you.”
“You would leave an enemy to guard another?”
“You aren’t my enemy, we are just in a disagreement that was momentarily combative.”
“She won’t change her mind, the deal is set.”
“Lion doesn’t need to give up the deal she accepted, but she has failed, and killing me isn’t an option any longer. You will just need to accept some gifts from me, that is all, no friendship, no alliance, just a promise that you never return unless it is as friends.”
“What gifts?”
“I don’t want to explain everything again, so just wait.”
Harlan waited a few minutes in Falcon’s room, she was the one he worried most about waking.
He knew that mental attacks would leave their victims with a great deal of pain afterwards, but how much was hard to say.
Ironically, had he been better about having trained his attack rather than defense with his mind, she would’ve been better off.
Ox and Lion came in just before she woke up, and Harlan shushed them, warning that she might be fragile.
He spoke to her in a low whisper.
“Good afternoon, how do you feel?”
“Where are my clothes? Did you rape me you piece of shit bastard. I’ll claw your eyes out.”
Harlan clapped his hands and she winced while covering her ears.
“I did nothing of the sort, nor would I ever. I thought I acted as an upright man towards you during our prior meeting.”
“You punched a hole through my sister’s chest.”
“Yes, and I do regret my part in that. Your things are in the chest at the foot of your bed, I’ll have a maid bring some medicine, you can join us for dinner if you feel like it, and I hope that your migraine is better by then.”
Harlan was almost at the door when he turned around.
“And if you harm any of my people, I will kill you.”
He gingerly closed the door and put up a veil.
Fox was already up, she had a strong mind that resisted the array keeping her asleep.
When Harlan entered the room she used a broken chair leg to stab at him.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
But telekinesis was a powerful tool, and she was far from the strength of her sister, there wasn’t even resistance.
“You are the assassin, so I did expect something like this. The only thing in your body that was wrong was your eyes, but I assume you have a different liver, something to handle poisons, perhaps you have some other unseen ability.”
“Fox, stand down, there is nothing to be done, we are prisoners without bars.”
“I am also impressed that you picked the locks on the cuffs, I decided to put them on you specifically to see if you could.”
Ox looked at him strangely.
“Why did you leave Lion unbound?”
“Because I wanted to know if she could be level headed, or if she would try to attack at the first chance she got. That each of you did is rather telling, but I make no judgment. Come on kit, let’s wake up Elk.”
“Kit?”
“A baby fox. I am saying that you are like a child compared to me in power. I also called Lion a kitten for the same reason. I want you all to understand that fighting me is pointless, because I will always win.
Now understand your place and follow me.”
“Lion have cubs, not kittens.”
“I am aware, but by calling her a kitten, I also deny that she was even a lion.”
“Smart.”
Harlan didn’t know how to feel about it, he didn’t like the way he was handling them, but it felt right.
Just down the hall Elk was sleeping very soundly, having already been up and about for a few days, her concussion receding quickly.
She moved a lot as she slept, hugging one of the pillows with her hair in a mess.
Harlan almost didn’t want to wake her, she was like a child, she was peaceful.
Yet still, he shook her awake.
“Hey, it’s time to wake up.”
“Just a few more minutes.”
“Your sisters are here, they wanted to see you.”
“They don’t care, I’m just the healer.”
“How dare you, your duty is to-”
“Lion.”
His tone told her all she needed to know.
“Elk, it’s time to wake up, no more dreams.”
She saw how different he acted with her.
“Are you sleeping with the enemy?”
“Huh?”
Elk sat up in bed and realized that her sisters, other than Falcon, were all waiting.
“Shit.”
“Betrayer.”
Elk hid under the blankets as Lion’s boots dully clacked against the hardwood covered with carpet.
“Remember that you are my guests.”
“This is a matter between the soldiers of Tochter.”
Lion took one more step forward and Harlan slapped her across the face with enough force to send her to the floor.
“I dislike hitting women. Perhaps it comes from my mother, or my sisters, because I hold great respect for them. But I will do so nonetheless whenever I feel it is needed. You are in my home, my country, and you are threatening my guest.”
She spit blood onto the floor and stood back up.
“Elk, if you would be so kind as to heal your sister.”
“You do it, you are better than me.”
“Every experience is a learning experience, and it would be good for you to help her, that is what family should do.”
When Lion’s busted lip was healed, Harlan handed her a damp cloth to clean herself with.
“What have you done to Elk?”
“I gave her what she wanted.”
“Explain.”
“Ah, well, I don’t like fighting, Harlan-”
“You speak with his first name now?”
She was still half covered in blankets, but she sat straighter and more defiant now that Harlan had come to her defense once already.
“He has been very nice, he said I don’t need to keep fighting if I don’t want to.”
“Your duty is to Tochter, you are to fight and die for our motherland.”
“What if I didn’t need to? There are thousands of others just like me, just find a new Elk for your squad.
I… I just don’t want to fight. Harlan said I can stay, I can be a healer, for the people. He is going to give me a house out there, pay me for my work, I’ll be able to just help others.”
“You won’t get away with this.”
“She has nothing to get away with. She is a person, and she is quitting your army.”
“We will come back with fury and burn this place to-”
Harlan got up and she flinched.
“A lion is a symbol of courage, that you flinch so easily makes me think that your country, Tochter is it?
That it is weak, and that either they sent out their best, which reflects poorly on them, or they sent out those that were disposable. Which are you?”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“We are disposable.”
“Ox, silence or I-”
Harlan started to wind back his hand, and she went quiet.
“Can I stay here as well? Is that an option?”
“You are both traitors, you will hang.”
“I can always use more guards.”
“Can I say with Elk? If she’ll have me, I would like to keep her safe.”
“Fox? Any chance you’ve discovered a love of the fine arts?”
“I like stabbing people in the dark and using my body to get men to do what I want.”
“Not a problem. You will be free to leave with Lion, and with Falcon, should she wish to leave.”
He sent the others away, but stayed with Elk as she laid back down.
She was young, too young.
The oldest was Fox, but she couldn’t be more than 25. Elk said she was 17, but she had been fighting since she was 13.
She seemed proud of it at first, but when she saw Harlan’s solemn expression she became honest.
“You should get dressed and clean up, sleeping til the afternoon isn’t good.”
She was snuggled up with the pillow under the covers again.
“They never let me sleep in. It was always training, training, training. Then it was fighting.”
She averted her eyes.
“I’m sorry I stabbed you in the back like that.”
“I know, you don’t need to keep saying it.”
“Does it feel wrong for you? All the killing? It's always been this way for me, but I saw what happened to the other defective girls, I was scared of being made into more material.”
“I’ve never liked killing, it has always been something that I needed to do, it is my responsibility, to shed blood so that others don’t need to.”
“If I stay, will you kill people for me?”
“There will be no blood on your hands, they are people who would’ve died with or without you. But I will always do my best to keep you safe.”
“Does it make you sleep better?”
“What?”
“Feeling safe.”
Harlan looked at the ceiling.
“I haven’t felt safe since I was 11, when I was taken from my home, and then became a political and magical tool for others.”
“That’s sad.”
“I know, but that is why I want a world where things like that don’t happen, not without someone being punished for it.”
Harlan brushed the hair from her face.
“Sleep til dinner, it’s alright, when you start as a healer, the work will be long, full of rushed days and slow days. You deserve it.”
“I can tell you about Tochter, if you want.”
“You don’t like talking about it, so I won’t ask again. Ox seemed alright to speak about it, she’s hurt, I think I broke her spirit when I beat her like I did.”
“Ox is strong, they all are.”
Harlan went down to the lab, those new items needed to be made, though it was a shame that Elk’s items weren’t needed anymore, he liked the spear that he made for her.
But perhaps she’d keep it anyway, make it a stick for grabbing out of reach items, she was small, though perhaps it was more that she was average for a human.
Though, considering what he had planned for tomorrow, that wouldn’t be a likely use.
When he left the lab and headed to the training area, Dawn was there with Viviane.
“Are you done with those women?”
“Ox and Elk are staying, no idea about Falcon, she’s out with a migraine, Fox is an assassin and a spy, so no surprise she hasn’t lost her taste for war, and Lion is too prideful to admit she wants my help to save her country.”
“Ha, a lion, prideful.”
“The humor is not lost on me, and she also flinched once, it was after I slapped her, so I shouldn’t be shocked.”
“Viviane and I were just finishing up, if you wanted to teach her something.”
Harlan watched them, but she seemed hopeless with a blade.
Dawn slammed her to the ground and then left her to him.
“Vivi, how long have you been training with a dagger?”
“A month, give or take.”
“Yet you still fight like it is your first time.”
“I know I’m shit at it, no need to-”
“You get sensitive around some topics, you are overly competitive. These are your greatest weak points, or at least that I’ve seen so far.
I’m not saying that these need to be addressed right now, but when you understand your flaws you can work past them. Your father, he taught you how to fight with a dagger, is that why you are afraid of them?”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Did you choose to use a dagger? Or did my mother start you with one because she knew that you had hunting experience and archers don’t carry swords.”
“I wanted to use it. I just… I didn’t know I would have a problem with it.”
“Does it have to do with your mother?”
“I don’t want to-”
“You don’t need to explain. But if you have bad memories, then we have two choices, either you pick a new weapon, or you work through your problems. The issue with the latter is that you won’t be able to work through it alone, I know I couldn’t work through things myself. But I picked up some helpful advice, I think it would be better for you to talk it out.”
“Maybe a warhammer is good, one with a short handle would work.”
“Gravity magic on a hammer would let you swing hard without needing much strength, and in close quarters you wouldn’t need to wind back as much.”
Harlan gave her a kiss as he passed by to the weapon rack.
They didn’t have a training weapon like he needed, so he cut the haft of a warhammer that was there.
“Why the kiss?”
“I want you to know that I don’t need you to tell me, I won’t hold it against you.”
“Your wife, did she have secrets that she kept?”
“When we were 14, before I thought that I could even date her, she went over her family, the things that she went through. We didn’t hide things from one another.”
“Did it help you to stay together?”
“I don’t know, we were… are messed up people, finding solace in one another. I don’t think she could ever leave me, she was my first, and I was hers.”
“I thought you didn’t do sex?”
“First love. I haven’t really talked about the subject with the others here, but I suppose people are generally more promiscuous out here.”
“I don’t know, I would need to compare.”
“Every city has a brothel, at least one, but I’ve never seen them as being quite so active as here.
We always kept those things in their own area of the town away from everyone. Most thought it shameful to go to one, but they always had business anyway. People don’t like bastards, those born out of marriage.”
“You were a noble, yes?”
“I was.”
“Did you have one in your city?”
“I didn’t have a city. I had my home and a few villages, one for orphans, a place where they can really be safe. Then a rest village, a place that had no permanent residents outside of some guards from a nearby town, it was for hunters, travelers, they could get a hot meal and a drink, rest for the night.
Then there was a place not far, it wasn’t really mine, but we built it from a dying village to a bustling town.
We brought magical devices, security, money, my brother… my brother knows money, he can move it, shift it, make it vanish, make it grow.”
Harlan looked happy, he silently chuckled to himself.
Eventually they did their combat training, she held her hammer with confidence, and she was a quick learner.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t learned anything from Dawn, but her mind was too occupied when she had a dagger in hand to implement it.
Not that stabbing really carried over, but at least her footwork was decent.
He slept well enough that night, he had his big plan, and he was going to implement it.
Balor uplifted Tole by renting and selling them magical tools.
Harlan would uplift his citizens though giving them magic.
He knew from the Confederacy that it wasn’t impossible to keep auras from leaking after hundreds of years.
Those who are most loyal hold the keys so to speak, and those that were unlocked knew nothing about how to forge their own key.
His own methods of trying to open his aura were likely on the right track, but without knowing that aura existed, it would be nearly impossible.
Anu had given telekinesis, it was never a learned magic.
In the morning, as had been instructed, the people formed a long line and Harlan shook the hand of every single citizen, and a golem gave each of them a ring with a small green gem to show that they had their aura unlocked.
Each of them would be required to wear the ring for the day, and those that were found without the ring were to be brought to Harlan so he didn’t miss anyone.
After each citizen was given the power, the teaching golems would explain the telekinesis in the simplest way possible.
“You have been blessed by the king, you may now use your mind as an extra limb. It will be weak at first, but with training you’ll be amazed at what you can do with the power! Telekinesis is very weak against others that have it, but strong against those who don’t, so do be careful, it is unlikely to save you from another with this power, but you will be much safer against those without.
If you have more questions, classes will be held over the next month to explain in more detail.
Please move along.”
By the time Harlan was done, it was well into the evening.
He had vastly underestimated the time it would take to give a simple handshake.
He could’ve just unlocked them from a distance, but he wished to make it seem like physical contact with him was required.
With the use of the term blessed, Harlan knew exactly what he was doing, giving credence to the idea of him being beyond human, a living god.
Humility had been the way he wanted to rule, but loyalty to men was fleeting, loyalty to a god was eternal.