In the morning, with the sun half to noon position, a second sun rose in the west beneath it.
Harlan knew that all of those deaths were his, and there was no justification he could make to himself that made it alright.
But his morals were not what was needed, they would not win this war.
Once more did he split, the mage, the farmer’s son, and the king.
These three would not trust the other, and they found the actions of the other repugnant, but each understood that something needed to change.
Harlan cast a large veil, easily covering over 200 feet, enough to cover the Fingers and himself with room to spare.
Helik stepped forward and cast his weapon sigil, covering his hands in ice up to the elbow, Sholl held his golden sword of radiance in his hand.
“I’ve never actually seen a veil so large as this, but it’s a useless technique, so I've got to know, why?.”
“Honestly, I think that a veil provides a wonderful ambiance for what’s coming. It’s pitch black, like a sky without stars, yet it somehow allows light in so you can still see inside.”
“Well, as interesting as that seems, you will surrender or I’m going to have to kill everyone here and take you anyway.”
“It’s coming.”
“Ominous, but it’s time to end this farce.”
Harlan flew up and into the sky, Helik gave chase, Sholl moving up with the pair, his fastest beams had been dodged prior, he would not make it any easier for Harlan by remaining at too far of a distance.
Portal was built to hold against waves, it had walls over a hundred feet high that could hold against any abyssal beings that might be stirred from slumber by storms above.
But this wave was not natural, and the hundred foot wall was dwarfed by the ocean which was upturned by the pure fire bomb that Harlan made.
Ever since he had done it by accident, it had consumed his thoughts, how he might prevent something such as that from every happening again,
Yet his mind also wandered to the other side.
How could he do it again?
He kept everything purely hypothetical, it was all very simple in that way, nothing was real in his mind until he acted on it, nothing he designed was evil, not until it became something.
There needed to be something able to output enough fire mana that the mana in the area began to shift, and then once shifted, spells enhanced by the pure fire mana in the environment needed to be cast, combined, and then they needed to reach a critical mass where it could no longer maintain cohesion, leading to detonation.
What he believed was the simplest way to do this would be to have a box which would gather fire mana from the air while pushing the rest away, this would lower the time it took for the fire mana to push out the water mana and reach a pure state. Pure mana did not have an infinite chain reaction range, but once the reaction began even a small amount of them could quickly reach miles away.
He hoped that this time, the destruction could be limited on some level.
The biggest issue was really a matter of how to cast the spells.
What happened in Haldren was the result of thousands and thousands of soldiers all using very basic soulsmithed equipment and foolishly fighting fire with fire.
Any outside influence risked a disruption that would prevent the pure fire mana from being born.
The answer Harlan arrived at was a self-contained system, originally designed with firesteel, but because of rarity outside of the veil Harlan used false mythril instead, greatly increasing the size requirement.
In the crater that spread over much of Ceres one would find nothing, as the metal had entirely evaporated, but if anything had survived, it would be of a sphere over 60 feet in diameter and a foot thick that from the outside did nothing, but inside it was constantly shooting fireballs at a spell that was designed to trap the heat.
By the time the sphere began to melt, a small sun had formed inside, and with the seal broken, it would rapidly put out heat to shift the environment.
Breaking the cohesion was rather simple from there, the mana gems were on the outside, and they powered all of the spells, including the one which focused the heat into a small area.
When the mana gems either broke from the heat or the flow of mana broke from the metal melting, the spell which contained the heat would break, and the gems themselves would then begin their own meltdown, putting out as much fire as they could before burning out.
The meltdown of the sun was only to shift the mana in the area, it was the gems melting down which were the enhanced spells that caused the real damage.
Those in the city had no idea what had happened, just that someone dropped a giant piece of metal in the center square and then left.
By the time anyone had any idea of what might’ve been happening, it was far too late.
The waves that reached hundreds of feet high, and moved at hundreds of miles per hour.
The seawall was destroyed and anyone who was not in the air was instantly crushed by the massive wall of water.
Harlan tried to put it out of his mind exactly how much extra collateral damage would be caused by the wave along the coast.
Less than a hundred men, including the Fingers themselves, could fly, but while those on the ground were instantly killed, those in the sky became targets easy targets to cloaked enemies from above.
Balls of soulsmithed steel rained from the sky at high speed from slings, as it turned out, the Goliaths were actually very good at flying so long as they had a magical item to grant them the power, their balance was one of the traits enhanced by the superhuman bodies of these Faeborn warriors.
Though after the first barrage the soldiers tried to dodge, the magic had three effects, firstly, the projectiles would bend in the air to turn a near miss into a hit, and secondly, they would stick to anything they hit, and thirdly, they would grow heavier, dragging the men down to the water that was still rushing below.
Helik rushed towards Harlan as soon as the veil broke, but a gate opened and two people came through.
Dawn, and D’if.
It had been less than a week, even if she had trained the entire time it wouldn’t have made any difference, so she needed a partner, and the only other fighter on her level of experience and she could trust with how to fight her, and thus alongside her, was a man that she hated.
So during the last week, they consistently sparred with one another to learn their moves and how best to fight alongside one another.
Helik couldn’t get past them, both now being armed with femur blades.
Harlan passed by the three fighters to get to Sholl, who was wielding his blade, not wanting to risk Harlan gating away beams.
Harlan reintroduced his voidmist into his soul, now at full concentration, and crossed his arms to catch the strike.
Sholl took a note from Harlan and increased his weight through gravity magic, but his blade made no more progress against his claws.
“No Godtouched spell is so fast, what have you done?”
“I am my magic.”
From behind a heavy mace blow aimed on Sholl’s head missed, but clipped his shoulder, Bartholomew was to be Harlan’s partner for this fight.
Harlan thought that he could beat Sholl, and he thought that Dawn could beat Helik, but with certain things in their favor being either needed, or to simply tip the scales.
Helik could get away from Dawn before because once he was around something he could touch to make his icewalls, so in the air, he had nothing he could touch, and if he went down, the water was still rushing too quickly to make a solid wall.
Even if the fight doesn’t end before the water stops rushing, against two enemies he would need to put up two walls, which meant both hands being occupied, making him vulnerable to ranged attacks.
For Harlan, he wanted a partner, someone who could just put more pressure on Sholl to make certain he couldn’t get away or cast anything.
Being in the air was more of a boon to Sholl than a negative for Helik, but if Dawn and D’if won their fight first then Sholl stood no chance.
Sholl knew he was in a losing fight,
Strangely, Harlan and Bartholowmew didn’t pursue him.
From above, cloaked Goliaths and vampires launched a wide range void smoke spell, their purpose wasn’t to cause damage, but to hide something else.
Sholl moved forward, but as the smoke cleared Harlan punched from the front, and Bartholomew from the back.
If there was no ground to hit Sholl against, then force from both sides was the next best thing to maximize their damage.
Sholl’s chest caved in and then the next blow landed, and the next, and the next.
Being stuck between a two ton man and a one ton man was not something he could handle, his blade fell from his hands and dissipated, any small chantless spell he launched was not enough to bother them.
Though he had scolded Helik before for using sigils which Harlan didn’t yet know, he cast a quick sigil which just focused force outward, a sigil which was the same across all users.
Bartholomew and Harlan were forced away, but Harlan noticed something very important even if he had missed how to draw the sigil, that attack was telekinetic in nature, and he saw Sholl’s aura flare out when he used it.
Sholl was furious, not just at his clear loss, but also the failure of his plan, the lives which were lost as a result of him, and the complete shame which was going to be brought upon the empire and the Fingers, and by extension the Hands above them.
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Yet his tantrum had bought him only a few seconds to launch a single sigil beam, which Harlan put through a gate and thus through Sholl’s chest.
His body fell to the water below and was washed away, Harlan didn’t feel him die, but he felt his life fading away and his soul weakening.
Helik was barely holding on, they couldn’t deeply wound him, his body was simply too strong and his ability to block, deflect, and move in a three dimensional space meant no blade could get a good bite on him.
When Harlan appeared behind him through a gate and thrust his hand at him, Helik had to make a choice on who to defend against, and there was no real answer.
When he blocked Harlan’s strike Harlan grabbed his hand, yet as the ice formed, Harlan still didn’t let go.
“D’IF, NOW.”
The assassin dropped his blade and pulled a much thinner one from his belt, and stabbed at the man, his attempt at a block was stopped by Dawn’s blade.
The needle like dagger found purchase in Helik’s side, and in an instant he felt the wrongness in his body.
He fled as fast as he could, using the same quick sigil that Sholl had used to get a little bit of breathing room, yet this time Harlan saw it.
Without Sholl there was no chance, and whatever that blade had done was deeply unsettling to the Cast.
The others pursued, but Harlan called them back.
“We have him, if he gets away he’ll just be back.”
“Bartholomew, he isn’t getting away.”
“Are we done then?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, let’s get Darrath out of his cell. How did you prevent the wave from causing him harm during it?”
“He was removed as soon as the bomb went off.”
“Ah, so you can gate where you can’t see? A divination perhaps?”
“I have friends in high places.”
They all just watched as the water lowered and lowered, and then the wave receded slowly, most of the water and force were dispersed across several miles, and thankfully forests prevented it from going much farther.
Bartholomew looked at the bodies, some drawn back to the sea, but many were simply left across the land.
“This is…”
“It’s terrible.”
“Yes. I do wish that I didn’t need to do this. But, now it’s too late to worry about that.”
Harlan opened a gate and golems poured through, putting the bodies in piles.
“We can go now, this is done…”
“Melancholy over what happened?”
Harlan didn’t answer, and instead he divined for life, to search for Sholl, to double check his death, but he received no signs of living Cast across miles of land.
Once he was done he fell to the ground and a golem pulled a body to him, which was quickly subsumed.
“My goodness, what happened?”
“There is a cost to my power.”
Bartholomew saw the extra length on his horns and the gauntlets of black bone fade into dust as Harlan locked that power away again.
After a few minutes of rest, and a few bodies, he opened a gate back to Kor after closing the one which Golems came through.
“You are all free to rest, or I can return you to your homes.”
The vampires wanted to see the city, and the Goliaths went with them, other than Bartholomew.
“You should go with them.”
“I think you should have someone more to speak with. I don’t feel I know you well enough, but I believe you are a good enough man that I wish to be closer with you.”
“Then you can come with. Mom, we are going somewhere after we speak with Darrath.”
“Lead the way.”
Xol waited in the room and maintained the sleep spell.
Bartholomew was shocked and froze when Xol gazed at him.
“Hmm…”
“Xol, now isn’t the time.”
“Very well.”
He left through a void gate.
“What was th-”
“Doesn’t matter, he’s a good friend of mine.”
“Such immense pressure.”
Harlan woke Darrath up.
As he stirred he fought off Harlan’s hand.
“LET ME GO, LET ME-”
He saw Harlan’s face and broke down in tears.
“Am I dreaming again?”
Harlan held him tightly.
“Feel my heartbeat, I’m here.”
Darrath wrapped his feelers around him, in his dreams they didn’t work.
“Where’s Vivi?”
He didn’t say, but everything he needed to know was clear by his emotions.
“BRING HER BACK.”
“That isn’t something I can do.”
“DO IT DO IT DO IT.”
“Darrath, I can’t bring people back, when they’re dead they are gone, nobody can bring them back, death is the end.”
“YOU AND GRANDMA DIED, SO BRING HER BACK BRING HER… it isn’t fair, why is Vivi gone?”
Darrath could feel that Harlan was telling the truth, there was nothing to be done.
“I know, it isn’t fair, none of it is, that is why the world needs to change, and why I will change it.
Do you want to say goodbye to her?”
Darrath’s voice was quiet as a whisper.
“She’s gone, she can’t hear me.”
“We haven’t buried her yet, you can see her one more time if you want.”
“No… she was alive, I don’t want to see her being dead, I want to remember Vivi being alive.”
“That’s fine too.”
Harlan got up and opened a gate overlooking the sea.
“We need to go.”
Darrath knew exactly where he was seeing.
When they finally hit land, Bartholomew having rowed the boat across, Harlan staggered out of the boat and grabbed Darrath’s hand. Between his anxiety and having overused his power, he was weak in the knees.
Dawn knew what they were walking into, so she didn’t ask to help him along.
By the time they reached the town Harlan was standing tall in his mind, coming to accept what was happening.
Periwinkle invited them all inside, though with the size of the rooms and doorways, Bartholomew had to stay outside.
“Hello little one, it has been some time, you got so much stronger, and calmer too.”
“Papa, why are we back with mama?”
“You are going to stay here.”
“NO.”
Harlan grabbed his arm to prevent him from flying away; loud buzzing filled the air.
“You and grandma are going to stay here, where you are safe.”
His voice was strong, not broken as Dawn expected.
“I DON’T WANT TO BE SAFE, I WANT TO BE WITH PAPA.”
“Darrath, you asked me before if I was a murderer, and I am, and I’m going to murder a lot more people, and I’m going to do a lot more evil things. I don’t want you to see what I am.”
“I DON’T CARE, I’LL BE EVIL TOO, IT’S ALRIGHT.”
Harlan pulled on his arm and forced him to the floor, dislocating his shoulder in the process.
The look on Darrath’s face, that his father had harmed him out of anger, it made Harlan want to puke, instead he silently cast a spell to stop the pain and reset the arm.
“Darrath, I was much too young when I started killing people, when I saw so many things that I should’ve never seen, and it has twisted everything about me. You need to be better than me, you need to grow up as a healthy young man, and I can’t give you that, I can’t promise you are going to be safe, not unless you stay.”
Nobody else said a word, this was something between them.
Darrath cried and clung to Harlan for half an hour before he could speak again.
“Am I going to see you again?”
“Yes, you don’t need to stay here forever, just until it is safe.”
“If I get really strong, like you, can I leave?”
“If your mother and grandma both say so, then yes, but don’t throw away your life training to leave a day sooner. Make friends here, maybe a woman you can love, start a family.”
Harlan gave Periwinkle a look, and she opened a portal of her own, not a gate, but something else.
Through it stepped Arrow, or at least something like Arrow.
Its soul had not dissipated, the gem was unbroken, but his body had died.
Something was lost in the process, a degradation of the mind because of the time spent as a corpse, but it was perhaps still the first Arrow.
“Arrow is alive? But he-”
“Arrow isn’t an animal, he is a living golem. So long as his gem remains, I should be able to bring him back.”
“Can you give grandma a gem so-”
“No, the human soul and mind are too big.”
A half-truth.
“I’m not abandoning you and grandma, but you can’t stay with me, not right now. So please, grow up better than me, and come back.”
“Ok.”
Harlan wrapped his finger around Darrath’s feeler and communicated what he could, that he was not lying, and that he would miss him, but he was happy to know he was safe.
When he stepped outside Bartholomew was being crawled over by Pixies and flowers had been grown in his hair.
“Ah, these are interesting creatures, I feel some manner of kinship with-”
As he turned and saw the heartache on Harlan’s face, he knew now wasn’t the time.
“It’s time to leave.”
“Dawn? Darrath?”
“They are staying, he needs someone to teach him magic, combat, and morals. Peri needed someone who can teach the Pixies how to interact with the outside world and build a civilization.”
“Are you certain?”
“You are a father, you’ve lost a son to war, I’m not strong enough to do that, I know it would break me for a time, for too long, and I might never be whole again.”
“You are stronger than you give yourself credit for.”
“Thank you for coming with.”
They rowed back in silence and returned to Kor in silence, where Harlan buried Viviane in silence, in the way of the Dague, a small square plot in the garden, white flowers around a stone with her name.
He knew there was nothing after death, Life stripped one’s soul of its power and memories then sent it back to the world as something clean of what was before.
Still he prayed that she would find peace in death.
When he was done, he found the vampires and Goliaths who had drank more than a single tavern out of alcohol alongside D’if.
“I’m going to sleep, if you would like to stay for the night, you are free to do so, but if you would like to leave, tell me now.”
Nobody wanted to break up the party, so Harlan simply went back home.
He sat in Darrath’s room, no matter how much they scrubbed, the smell of blood was still there, and Harlan received no rest as he sobbed.
Sometime in the night, Mercedes came along.
“You really did love her, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t know her, not really, but she seemed nice, Darrath loved her, she tried so damned hard for me.”
“I’ve never seen a man mourn so strongly for what could’ve been. But I don’t think I knew many good men, either as a slave or as a target for assassins. I am sorry for how I’ve been, my little outbursts, my annoyance at you, my-”
“You are right, I’m not a good king, I’m a weapon, an instrument of war.”
“I was out of line. You’ve been a great king.”
“Do not pity me, I despise being pitied. I rule them well because I take what I need and I saved most of them from being slaves. I’m a shit king, I have little sense of business or diplomacy, I threaten and I take, and when someone stronger comes along I lose and people die. I’m 18, I’m practically a child outside of magic and combat, I throw tantrums whenever I’m upset and either I kill people or I break things.”
“How are you feeling? You aren’t normally this honest outside of the bath.”
“I feel like shit, my gave my mother and my son to someone else because I’m so worthless that I can’t even protect them. I’m a shit son, a shit father, a shit king, the only thing I’m good at is killing, so I’m going to stick with that.”
“You sound pent up, you should just let that anger out then, go out and break something or find a drink that can work, do something, but don’t sit here in this place and sob, that is not the man who I follow.”
Harlan leaned back.
“Come with me to my room.”