Dahlia paid a visit to Harlan the day before Magruder’s appointment as an archmage.

“So, you find anything?”

“I found nothing to directly show that he is dangerous.”

“Good.”

“No. There is a difference between not finding anything, and being unable to find anything.”

“So you think that he is just good at hiding whatever he has done?”

“His servants, where did they end up? I can’t find that answer, some I found, others vanished into thin air it seems.”

“You think it was Magruder’s blood gem research.”

“That is the likely answer, but you’ve seen his notes, you’ve been in his lab, you’ve been, as far as I can tell, his only actual friend in years. Do you think that he did it?”

“No, I don’t. Nothing that he has done or shown me implies that he has actually killed anyone. I have seen gems that he has made from human blood, but I’ve also checked, all of these are from his own blood.”

“Is it possible that he did it anyway and it's been long enough that everything is gone?”

“Are you looking for answers? Or do you have an answer you are looking for?”

“I am looking for answers, but I am being thorough. Hiding completely is very hard, it isn’t something which just happens.”

“He isn’t hiding, nobody wants to look at him.”

“Not shocking.”

“He may be deformed, but that doesn’t mean anything about his character.”

“I meant nothing by it, just a small comment.”

“Those servants that went away, how certain are you that they were who they said they were?

Peasants don’t carry any identification, I could go into any city with a new face, a new name, and suddenly I am that person. Ragne tracks names of important people, and runs the census to check population, but people slip through the cracks all the time, intentionally or not.”

“It is possible, but I will continue to check. As it stands right now, he is innocent.”

“I won’t apologize for my tone, but I am intent on what is right being done. If something comes up, tell me.

I won’t back him if there is real proof of him doing something wrong.”

“Very well.”

Harlan felt like he was going soft, he hadn’t killed anyone in weeks at least.

And he actually quite enjoyed the feeling.

“What was Dahlia here for?”

“I asked to have Magruder looked into. It isn’t that I don’t trust him, but-”

“You don’t trust people.”

“Yes. I have an especially hard time with Magruder because of how he feels.”

“Everything sounds like a lie.”

“Are we having a conversation or do you already know what I’m going to say?”

“I love you.”

“That is how I wanted to end this.”

They kissed and Harlan opened the gate to the academy.

But when Adina got up she couldn’t take more than a few steps before she used her armor to make her move.

“You aren’t going.”

Harlan closed the gate.

“Yes, I am, I’m going to finish my classes, have the baby on the weekend, after Bloodgem gets his title, and then finish up the last weeks.”

“You are sure you are going to have it tomorrow night?”

“Absolutely.”

“You can’t go, the baby could come early. You could go into labor at any time.”

“I will see Hellon as soon as I get to the academy, before the classes even start. If she says that I can’t hold off on having the baby, I will call you and you can pick me up.”

Harlan paced back and forth, breathing quickly as he did.

When he finally calmed down, he opened the gate again.

He didn’t want to control her, she had the right to her own choices, so he let her go for now.

“Our baby is going to come no matter what you think, don’t go anywhere alone, just in case.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Two hours after Adina left, Harlan was still just sitting in the nursery.

He double checked every nail and board, every toy, every soulsmithed item in the entire room three times already.

He had been consumed with fear his entire life, and he felt like he should be afraid, but there was peace in his heart, he wasn’t checking everything for if it was safe, he was just making sure they looked right, he wanted things to be perfect for his baby.

Whatever he had done, this new life would be something he made, that was part of him, and he would try to give them everything he could to make sure they grew up happier than him, with all of his best traits, and without his flaws.

Harlan’s amulet lit up, bright red.

“This is an outgoing message from Archmage Typhoon to all available combat class archmagi, a monster surge, wyverns, is headed down from The North, and they are destroying land and villages without reason. Meeting point will be Wyrmhold.”

Harlan was a little disturbed that Hirum figured out how to both record a message, and to send it out on a loop.

He invented the communicators, and he didn’t think that recording was possible, at least he never figured out how.

He made his way to Wyrmrest and found Sepul among the other archmagi.

“Wyverns?”

“Something is wrong here. In the east there has been an attack by rebel forces, in the west a massive wave hit the coast and brought terrors from the deep with it. I hear a Kraken is 30 miles inland already.”

“In the south?”

“The Golden haven’t sent word, but I would assume that something is happening there.”

“Any idea who is behind this?”

“That would imply a connection between these three events. The rebels couldn’t know about the wave in the west unless they have linked up with Reino, and there is no reason for the wyvern’s to help the rebels.

I could see two of these events being linked, but three is too many.”

“The academy, Adina is still there, I should-”

“That is the safest place in the world, even without the combat archmagi.”

“I never heard that we were put in classes.”

“Archmagi are all equal, the classes are something internally tracked by the academy. All it denotes is that you are an archmage which they recognize as being powerful in combat. Hellon is counted among the healers despite having no title.”

“Is that Blackwall over there? Is he strong offensively?”

“Not particularly, he knows some warmagic, but when wyvern fire is headed our way, you will want him.”

“Why are we waiting here? I thought it sounded serious when Hirum’s message went out.”

“When dealing with archmagi it is important that we are properly organized. Chances are you will take my place as gate mage, you won’t see fighting.”

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“Surely we have plenty of gate mages here already.”

“How fast and far are your gates now?”

“8 seconds, 1500 miles, more or less.”

“Most gate mages take 30 seconds to a minute and only go 800 miles. You can send and retrieve units faster than three gate mages on your own without requiring relay mages.”

“Maybe that is for the best.”

“You are backup, you can reach any combat group in 30 seconds or less, if you get the call- wait, what?”

“If I can do more to help from there, then that is fine.”

“I didn’t think you would turn away from a fight so easily.”

“I’ve got a baby coming, I haven’t killed anyone in weeks, I’m just… I’m happy to not need to kill.”

Sepul just chuckled and waited for the headmaster to arrive.

Once Hirum was onsite things moved quickly, Sepul was the one who moved everyone at first, then he handed the duty off to Harlan and a half dozen other mages.

Sepul wasn’t on the wyvern squads, he had to join the abyssal creature squads.

Fighting wyverns was simple, people had been hunting what was considered the apex of reptilian beasts for a long time, and the things that Sepul taught to others made them much easier to kill than they once were.

Those things from below however, they were all manner of monster.

Whenever a surge brought them to the surface, new things would be discovered, things that defied what people knew about magical creatures.

Whether it was colossal squid covered in eyes and capable of becoming immaterial while flying through anything and blinding anyone who looked upon them, or a slug that could spit acid rivers that cut valleys in the earth, things down there didn’t get purged, they just grew, an ecosystem outside of the sight of anyone who might control it.

At the academy, many classes needed to be canceled, and all of the gate mages but three had been taken away.

Hellon made Adina wait in the infirmary.

“You are going to have this baby at quite literally any moment, I don’t know how in the world you thought that coming here was acceptable.”

“I just want to finish my classes.”

“Why is that so damned important to you?”

“I want to prove that I can, that I won’t be slowed down by my baby, that she isn’t going to burden me.”

“Do you think she is going to do that? And why she? You both refused to know what they are.”

“I think they’re a girl, it’s a gut feeling.”

“And the other part?”

“My father always called me a burden, I killed my mother, I ruined my family, I messed with all of his plans for his little girl. I don’t want anything that might plant even the smallest seeds of regret from my little girl.”

“You are just ridiculous. If you think that you would believe that about your daughter then you don’t even know yourself.”

“I’m just worried.”

“You and Harlan spend too much time worrying over what hasn’t gone wrong yet, it blinds you to good things in front of you. Now sit tight, I’ll get you something to drink.”

“I need to call Harlan.”

“Can’t, he is working, monsters north and west, rebels in the east.”

“Is that why all of those classes were canceled?”

“Yes, combat ready archmagi needed to help minimize the damage.”

“So he’s fighting…”

“Gate mage duty actually.”

“Really?”

“Sepul told me all about this, so no need to worry, it won’t be more than half a day before they swap him out and he can come here.”

Classes were eventually just entirely canceled as the situations got more out of control, and more and more of the staff were called away.

Hellon stayed to watch over the students and outside patients which were sent to the academy for treatment, and Adina’s friends came along to stay with her.

“I’ve never helped deliver a baby.”

“Ximena, if I need your help, I will ask for you. For now, we should just move her to a private room.

You four can help push her bed.”

It was Adina who noticed it first.

“Something is happening.”

“What?”

She tried to call Harlan, but the communicator was dead.

“Take defensive positions. Hellon, who all is here?”

“Here where?”

“In this room, how many are from Reino, and how many are related to the traitors.”

“I’d need to check the records but there is nothing wrong with them being here.”

Another contraction hit and Hellon marked it.

“10 minutes apart, you are almost there. I expect the baby to be out of you in the next few hours, but with you body as it is perhaps much sooner. And you, stop with those positions.”

Yara, Claudia, Clauda, and Ximena stood at the four corners of sheets that made walls, Adina had a window bed at Harlan’s request, he said that it would be easier to make an escape if needed.

“No. Adina said something is wrong.”

“She’s about to give birth, if she didn’t think something was wrong then I’d be shocked.”

“Communicators are dead, something is wrong.”

“Have you tried calling anyone else? Perhaps Harlan broke his.”

“No, if Harlan’s breaks then the call goes to his mind, there is no reason it shouldn’t be going through.”

“You four, stay there, I’m going to put up defensive arrays.”

The first blasts rang out, then the patients with odd conditions who were to be receiving treatment leapt from their beds and rushed towards Adina’s room with sheet walls.

Yet as they approached, they saw a small white orb, no bigger than a man’s fist, fly above these sheets.

Once blinded, the four students rushed out and began taking lives, each weapon of theirs was made or enhanced by Harlan, and each of them wore golem armor.

“Check the others, find out who is here as a real patient and who is an assassin, I will stick close to Adina.”

They nodded their heads towards Hellon and killed.

The beds which were unneeded were moved towards the doors to act as barricades.

They heard the screams outside, and for the Golden whose mindsense let them feel the lights blinking out in the halls, it was hard to stay inside of the room, but they were here to protect Adina, and if they went out into the chaos, they might just be swallowed up.

“They’re getting closer.”

“I know, and the screams aren’t-”

“I MEAN MY FUCKING CONTRACTIONS.”

Adina grabbed her stomach and went through her breathing exercises.

“The stress of this isn’t helping. Ximena, you might need to deliver the baby on your own.”

“Are you sure that-”

“I’ve been a healer for decades, but that doesn’t mean I never took combat mage classes. Don’t think that you can be of more use in a fight than me.”

“Apologies.”

“We should ice the doors over.”

“NO.”

“Why not?”

“If the other students need to get in here as a safe haven, they should be able to.”

“Adina, you are about to give birth, now is not the time to be worrying about others.”

“It’s the right thing, I won’t have my baby be born while I let other people die when I could’ve saved them. Please, leave this to them, go out and save people, with these four I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not-”

“Hellon, please, these are your students, don’t fail them.”

She shook her head in anger.

“Shit.”

Hellon left the room, telling others to get to the first infirmary room.

They were unorganized, it just seemed like a slaughter.

Occasionally a few students from Reino or Ragne would come in and try to kill them, but no large force made its way there, they had expected their assassins to do their job and they were just double checking rooms.

Yara breathing quickly.

“There’s so much blood.”

“This is going to get worse sooner than it gets better.”

“It’s slick, and sticky. I knew some of these students, I saw them in the halls, in the cafeteria, I… I…”

“Honey, I need you to stay with me, look me in the eyes, we need to protect Adina and the other students in here, so just wait to break, just stick with me until later, then we can worry about who we just killed.”

“I don’t know if I can-”

Yara threw up, brown and red mixed up on the floor as blood and vomit became one.

Claudia pulled her hair back and patted her back.

“My brother is right, you can’t do this here and now, think of what Harlan would do.”

“I’m not him, I can’t be like him, I don’t want to fight and kill people.”

Adina stopped screaming for a moment and grit her teeth.

“Harlan doesn’t want to do that either, if you can’t suck it the fuck up then get back here and help Ximena. Don’t get yourself killed by trying to be something you aren’t.”

Half an hour had passed, new students stopped coming in, the screams and sounds of fighting were quieter, and Hellon still wasn’t back.

Ximena wanted to put up a veil to keep Adina’s screaming from attracting attention, which had already brought more than a few enemies to them already.

But it was too late, once a pattern was noticed, anyone who went to the first infirmary room didn’t come back, forced started to amass.

“Yara, how many are out there, I can’t count the shadows.”

“60 so far, more are coming.”

“I wish Harlan was here.”

Ximena was handed a sphere made from bone and Adina whispered in her ear.

“When the fighting starts, toss that into the largest pile of bodies you can see, the other students will act as a shield while that thing makes itself.”

“You can be serious, why not use it now, there are already bodies here.”

“Everyone Harlan knows is already set to be an ally, the other students are dead anyway. I’m not going to tell it to stop killing until the room is clear.”

“Is that why you brought them in here?”

“The more bodies that thing has, the stronger it is, I’m not risking any of our lives for people who’ve spit on me every day here in the academy.”

“I can’t, I-”

“Then give it back to me and don’t say a word.”

Ximena kept the sphere in her hands.

It was warm to the touch, and she could feel something beating inside of it.

When the enemies were about to rush through the doorway, they turned to face another threat.

Nobody could really see through the glazed glass windows that made up the infirmary wall, they just saw the whitish glass be painted red, and they heard the went thumps as organs smacked against the enchanted windows.

The screams stopped and the creature moved back towards the door leading to the large room.

It bent down to fit the doorway, standing 9 feet tall, 10 with the black horns that were turning to white as it approached.

The large yet relatively thin man clad in black from his armor to his horns simply moved forward with his hands up, still dripping with blood.