With that, he stayed in the city longer, formulating plans with his Others to cast a large spell.

He took what he understood from the Heavenly Fury spell, but rather than bringing clouds in, and filling them with thunder and anger, he pulled the heavy black clouds into a ball.

That was the hard part, he pulled in clouds from miles and miles away, the much easier part was to purify the air.

Then the other hard part.

Purifying air was easy on a small scale was very very easy, but it was a spell that had to be maintained.

What Harlan was now planning was to pump the clouds normally full of acid rain full of rain with light mana that would have a very mild purifying effect.

He knew that it had been done before to heal lands after poison attacks, he just hadn’t ever done it himself.

It wasn’t good enough, it hardly changed anything.

He was sad about his failure, but it was impromptu, and over time he would solve the problem anyway.

There were already gems being made to fit the smokestacks from the factories with purifying spells.

The land would be the larger issue, it was poisonous to life itself, hundreds of years of constant pollution just to keep up with demand had its toll.

It was a long day, and he finally crawled into bed after dinner.

“Things went well with Harvestal and Velvet. I talked them into buying a thousand each instead of 500.”

“I’m tired. Everyday, I see more and more reasons why the empire is evil, I see more of the destruction left in their wake, and the destruction before they even reach an area.”

“What was it today?”

“I went to Factro, and I saw the people, I saw the city, and I saw how bad things really are.

Every generation, the life expectancy becomes shorter, more and more children are born with defects, they can’t even grow their own food anymore. They have enslaved themselves so they can make weapons to prevent themselves from being enslaved. My great grandfather was raised under a wyvern king.

He told me about how he didn’t feel anything when his father died, because they had been broken for so long that they didn’t understand what being human was anymore.”

“I… I wanted to ask, how are you now? With Dawn and Darrath gone. She seemed to believe that you would turn into some kind of monster without your family.”

He laid on his side and pulled her into a spoon.

“I have always operated under the assumption that if I wasn’t being held back by others, I would just be nothing but a monster. But, I think that by not being judged I can let myself do what feels natural.

My parents and my friends, they gave me plenty of lessons on morality. I don’t have my family here, but I’m not alone as I thought I would be, they are still in my memories.“

“That’s nice to hear.”

“Do you remember anything about your family? Any good memories?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry that-”

“Don’t start with pity. I was young, three, maybe four, when they took me. I don’t even know for sure if they gave me away, if I was bought, or if they killed my parents to get me. Not having any memories is likely better than having bad ones. I at least know that the people who raised me were shit.”

She yawned and moved closer to him.

“I didn’t realize how much better I can sleep knowing you are here, feeling your body heat, the sound of your heart. You make me feel safe. Those memories, they matter more than the past.”

“Good night then.”

His dream took the form of his parents' home, and he quickly realized he wasn’t dreaming, at least not fully.

“Mindkiller, you know I don’t like you prying into my past.”

“I… I think I was somebody else before I was this.”

A man and a woman, along with two boys, came out of the house.

They went about their work as if Harlan and the Ascended, who presently was reduced to a small winged body with several eyes that hung by optic nerves and appeared like the heads of a hydra.

“I think those people were my family. I’m sorry that I pried. I thought it would help me remember.”

Harlan had come to pity it.

It wasn’t even a person, it was just the fragments left behind by an attack, the traces of a dying mind.

“And it helped. These people aren’t anyone that I know.”

“Do you think they are my parents? Am I one of those boys?”

“You seemed to have a brother.”

“Sir Harlan, did you have any brothers?”

“I have a few by blood, assuming they are alive. But I don’t know them, I never have, probably never will.”

“Is that sad? I think that would be sad.”

“It doesn’t bother me. I love my sisters, my parents, they are my family, blood doesn’t matter, bonds do.”

“Oh. Perhaps that makes you my brother.”

“Do not do that.”

The dream trembled and the ground around him split and flew into the air where it floated.

The creature fled, hiding on the back of one of the memories.

“I am very sorry.”

“I don’t mind you being here, but do not root around in my head to figure out your own past.”

So far as Harlan understood it, the Ascended was confused and absent minded.

When it failed in its once job, it simply didn’t understand why it should continue.

There was no loyalty to Reino or to the Fae, it was something that existed to do something without any reason.

Without the echoes of where it came from, he had no reason to do anything

So, it found a new reason to continue living.

It peeked out again from behind the memory.

“Maybe I could leave?”

“I’m not giving you a body.”

It ignored Harlan, crawling all around the people.

“I don’t know them. But I recognize them.”

“You’re crying.”

“Oh? Why would I be doing that?”

“Because these people were your family, you know that, somewhere deep down.

Your mind might’ve been changed, overtaken, but you aren’t the monster that they made you into.

You were a man once, a boy with two parents, a brother, you grew up on a farm.”

The world froze, Mindkiller looked deeply in the eyes of the people.

Harlan just left him, going from his mindscape to actual dream.

It was unsettling in its normalcy.

He was there at dinner with faceless shadows.

“The last guest will be here any second.”

Harlan noticed that the last chair was massive, befitting a hundred foot tall man.

The doors swung open, but he couldn’t see anyone there, he just heard claws on hardwood and a large shadow covered the hall.

Mercedes awoke shortly after Harlan got up from bed.

She looked at him, he was standing there just staring out the window, watching where the sun had yet to even rise but where the first light still came from.

“What has you up so early?”

“Bad dream.”

“Do you want to-”

“No. I sleep with you, but we aren’t in that kind of relationship.”

“I thought that…”

“That I was in love with you? No, we had that conversation once already.”

She didn’t seem particularly hurt by his words, but he could feel some resentment and… guilt?

“You said you were going to talk to Mindkiller again.”

“And I did, then I started to dream.”

“You don’t dream when you are with him?”

“I think that Mindkiller is in a higher layer, and my dreams take place in a lower level.”

“Hmm… I think I should learn more magic.”

“Mind magic is almost entirely unresearched, as normal mages cannot really use anything high level, they can’t even use most low level stuff. I am more or less flying blind in my own research.”

“Can you see my dreams?”

“Tomorrow night I could try, if you want.”

Harlan had a pit in his stomach from the moment he opened his eyes, something was wrong today.

He went around the city, checking security, making sure that all of his golems that were on standby were ready to go at any moment, and he made sure that all of his Others were accounted for and warned that something felt bad in the air.

They felt it too.

Carmilla called him just past three in the afternoon, Harlan hadn’t gotten the chance to do any real work, he was too worried.

“What’s wrong?”

“My, is that any way to answer a friend’s call?”

“Something feels wrong, I had a bad dream, something is going to happen.”

“Well, would you still feel up to dinner? Just stop by around evening. Oh, and a friend of mine shall be joining us.”

“No, I would rather not.”

“Are you certain? I think that-”

“Today feels wrong, I don’t want to leave.”

“One bad dream and you turn to a mess?”

“If it was just me I could shrug it off, but my Others also feel it. There is something wrong.”

“Well, she’ll be here for the week, so any evening is fine. If you need help, just ask.”

The people could feel it, and more importantly, they could see Harlan perched atop his home; the streets were empty, work had halted.

Harlan went into the fleshpits and took a larger form.

He looked like a dragon, he stretched 40 feet long, with a set of double wings, seven eyes all on the lookout for what was going to happen.

Carmilla tried to warn him, but his amulet was with his clothes and armor.

This form was not suited for such things.

It gleamed on the horizon, its scales white, a mane of golden fur along its neck and a strip of fur reached from its mane down its spine and to a tuft on its tail.

Were he not blinded by rage, he would think that the wyvern was beautiful, among its kind at least.

He rushed forward quickly, but not so quickly that he would damage his city.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He opened his mouth and readied his breath when she also opened her mouth.

“I AM-”

She saw the void flames rushing her way and dodged.

“WAIT, I-”

He swung his neck around and she could barely dodge the second wave.

Then Harlan was struck by what he assumed was a low flying meteor that went clean through his chest.

His spine was disconnected due to a disc going missing, and it would take some time for him to recover.

The good part about having such a large body was that he could always downsize, shrinking his form let him heal in seconds what would need tens of seconds using regeneration.

Yet it didn’t matter, since he now saw who hit him and decided that there had been some kind of misunderstanding.

Carmilla landed in her bat form in front of his face, she was angry, and he could only slink back like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

The white wyvern approached as well, but very cautiously.

“I assume that you know that dragon?”

“This is King Fomoria.”

Her voice was a hiss, a consequence of being a giant bat and using her real voice rather than a simple spell to project her voice.

“But you said he was human?”

“Not human, humanoid.”

Harlan was dwarfed by the 60 foot tall wyvern, yet when he got back up she felt small compared to him, and she instinctively bowed.

“What is this?”

“This, is my guest who I wanted you to see. I heard you conversed with a drake before, so I thought this wouldn’t be an issue.”

“What all have I said about my great grandfather?”

“He is an archmage, champion of light, and he was from what you call The North.”

“Yes, but one of his other titles is Wyverns Bane. The North was ruled by monsters, wyverns were the most cruel of them, and he grew up under them. I have slain them myself, never have I met one that I liked.”

“Well, I am-”

“Rekur, let me speak with him.”

“Sorry, Queen Karmine.”

“Harlan, I need to know, will this be an issue?”

His eyes burned with hate, and they all focused on Rekur.

He opened his mouth and the smell of sulfur filled the air.

“Any friend of yours… can be a friend of mine. I am King Harlan Fomoria, welcome to my city.”

The guards on the wall looked on in confusion at the sight, but so long as their king, or their king’s dragon, it wasn’t exactly clear to them, was there, they wouldn’t open fire.

Harlan had one of his Others bring him his clothes and armor and then he fell out of the dragon like he had been cut from it.

He quickly dressed himself and had the Other put the dragon form in storage.

It felt like a waste to break it back down to meat for the fleshpits, so he’d keep it around, taking control again would be as easy as slipping into the Harlan shaped hole in the chest, and any of the Others could take it themselves if they needed.

Rekur laid her head low to the ground so she could more easily speak to her human sized companions, and even in his humanoid form, Harlan still scared her; his aura was oppressive.

“Hello. My name is Rekur.”

He could tell how hard she worked to keep her voice sounding pleasant.

From the low volume that would be a whisper to someone of her size, to her tone being warm and non-threatening. To her going through the effort of not having a hiss to her voice.

Though she had a slightly odd accent anyway.

“And why does Carmilla wish for me to meet you?”

“I am a Light Wyvern. My breath can heal. I am rare among my people. I dislike fighting.”

“That doesn't make much sense. The dragon curse should make you angry and wrathful.”

“It tells me to eat you. It tells me to bow to your power. I am not like them. I understand hating my kind.

They are strong, but my mind is stronger than the voices.”

“Fine, I’m listening.”

“Queen Carmilla said you were electric-”

“Dear, the word is eccentric.”

“Eccentric, so you might help me. I want to be useful. I want to be part of a society.”

“And?”

“And?”

“What is the other reason?”

“I am not a person. I can’t use magic like you. I have wind and light only.”

“You have two?”

“Most of us do. We can’t fly without wind magic. They don’t use it for anything but flying though.

I use it for more, because I am bright.”

Harlan chuckled.

“What is funny?”

“Bright.”

“What?”

“A bright animal, because you are shiny due to your light alignment.”

“Oh. I seem to have told a joke, I did not intend this. Please, think over this proposal of mine.”

Harlan stood there and looked over the… woman.

He could feel her anger, but, he could also feel that it was under tight restraint.

She wasn’t ready to burst, she was just someone who had it in the back of her mind at all times and didn’t want to act on that feeling because she knew it was wrong.

Drawing comparisons to himself in others was a dangerous thing, sympathizing was less so, but to empathize, that was a very troubling habit of his.

“Fine. There are a few empty parts of the city that were made and nothing has been built yet.”

“Oh? You are inviting me inside. I’ve never been allowed inside a city before.”

“Just wait a moment, I’m going to go tell my guards not to shoot you down, once they give the all clear, then you can come inside.”

She flapped her wings and was ready to lift off, but Harlan instead opened a large gate for her.

Carmilla came up to him and locked arms, walking with him.

“She is a good soul, though not the sharpest sword in the smithy.”

“How old is she?”

“Just past 90 I believe.”

“She should be bigger than that if she is that old. I think she should speak better also.”

“She was born the runt of her clutch, and being cast out of her family for being weak made her subsist on whatever creatures were slow enough for her to catch. She has had a-”

“Don’t.”

“What?”

“You want me to feel bad for her so I’ll help. But I am busy, and I have been for over a month now.

If she proves herself useful, I’ll let her stay here and I’ll keep her fed, but whatever other reason she has to be here isn’t my problem, not yet.”

“She already said her other reason.”

“I don’t trust a wyvern at its word.”

“My, how bigoted of you.”

“No, because to be a bigot I’d not have a reasonable answer for why I feel the way I do. Dragonoids are all bound by the curse, I’ve not seen any that could resist it, not entirely. If she can, wonderful, if not, then she is a dangerous asset and a ticking bomb.”

“Whatever helps you to cope.”

Rekur twirled around in the grass and put her talons on the walls.

She was amazed to see something like this from the inside, and that there were people on the wall and they weren’t throwing rocks or pouring boiling oil on her head.

Rather, they just looked down and waved.

Harlan flew up to head level with her.

“You said your breath can heal rather than harm, I want to test this. I am bringing a subject here.”

“Oh. Alright.”

She got down from the 200 foot wall and returned to the empty plot of grassy land that Harlan was now standing at.

Through a gate one of D’if’s Others brought a Cast prisoner.

“Oh? But this man is healthy.”

Harlan snapped one arm and severed the other, then he pierced his lungs.

“Heal him.”

He could tell she smelled the blood in the air, she wanted to eat the man.

Her heart beat like a drum, her eyes narrowed on him, and she opened her mouth.

Tongues of white light licked the man’s wounds.

To Harlan, one sure sign that she perhaps was as soft as she claimed was that her healing was painless rather than painful.

“Good work. The bone is fully healed, very few fractures remaining, but those will seal themselves in just a few minutes. The regrown limb is symmetrical with the other. The lungs are fully healed and even cleared of blood. And the cost to the Cast himself is fairly reasonable. You aren’t exactly up to my standards, but for chantless and signless magic it is fine. I noticed your breath was thin, can you heal in mass?”

“I can.”

“Good, a test is in order then. This will determine if I let you stay or not.”

“That man, did you need to hurt him? I don’t like that.”

“The other option was to let you try to heal an innocent person. I would never risk that you would harm or kill someone just to test you.”

“Oh, that is good then. But I don’t want you to hurt more people like that.”

“Do you think about your breath when you use it? Or is it just instinct?”

“When I read a book, I could heal better. It is both perhaps?”

He wondered how she read a book.

“Even better. I have a town healer, she is fairly good, not as good as me obviously, but she should be able to teach you if you help her.”

Harlan opened a gate and smog came through.

He led her to high up, he had already sent an order to the Other that was staying with Rustella to get the citizens out in the street by calling an announcement.

The people naturally panicked as a bright light began to emanate from her throat, but instead of fire, they were bathed in a warm and soothing light.

Rustella tried her best to remain calm, but she wasn’t sure if she had just sent her people to their death or not until she saw that there weren’t any burn marks and that the people were still alive when the light passed.

When she was done, Rekur landed on the castle roof and let out another burst of light into the sky.

The clouds parted, and what Harlan and his Others had failed to do before was accomplished.

The rain that came down was pure and infused with light mana, washing away much of the surface contamination at least.

She looked down on the people, and while her smile was more threatening than kind, she couldn’t help herself.

It was perhaps the best she ever felt.

Harlan landed on one of the ramparts next to her.

“I like this. I made this place smell better.”

“Why did you come to me like you did?”

“Carmilla said that you wouldn’t be coming for dinner because something was wrong. I wanted to help.”

“That was stupid, it was naive.”

She averted her eyes.

“But, it is exactly what I would do. Have you eaten yet?”

“No.”

“What was she going to even feed you? It is hard enough keeping me fed, and I’m just made of drake flesh.”

“I like fish.

“We could go to the ocean and catch a whale or two.”

“You would come?”

“Yes.”

He was just buying time as he sent more orders.

The pair flew out to the nearest ocean, well, they actually had to go a few hundred miles northeast, closer to the stripe Fomoria was located on, since Factro had polluted the water so badly that the fish had adapted to being highly poisonous.

But when they get away from the hellscape of industry that was Factro, they found a pod of sperm whales.

She snatched up one in each claw and another in her mouth.

When they reached land again she killed them quickly before she started eating.

She understood pain enough to not want them to suffer.

When she was done her while scales had many splotches of red and she walked back into the water and shook herself around to get clean again.

Harlan then opened a gate back to Kor once she felt ready to move on.

“What is this building? Is this a warehouse?”

“It is sudden, but this is your home.”

Harlan skipped over and pulled the door open; it slid open instead of swinging in or out.

She stuck her head out, then she went back in and looked at the handle of the door.

“It fits my talons.”

“There is little point to a home you can’t come and go from at your leisure.”

“How? You are so fast.”

“This building is four walls, a vaulted roof, windows on that roof, and then a door.

Sure, it is a couple of hundred feet wide and a hundred tall, but it is a very simple design. With all of my spare constructor golems it is simple for me to get something like this build in the two hours that we were gone.”

She stood on her hind legs and leaned against the wall to look closer at the glass.

“But this, this takes time, yes?”

“I have glass maker golems. They fill their caterpillar-like bodies full of sand, then an internal furnace organ heats the sand into glass. From there it regurgitates it and uses spells to make even panes before cooling them. Those windows are all normal sized, I just had them put in six 10x10 patterns.”

“I haven’t had a cave in a long time. Many things pushed me out. Mean kin, Cast, other things, bad bad things. I don’t like the deep caves, there are scary monsters. If I could, I might cry. Humans cry when happy, don’t they?”

“I also had them till the ground, so it should be a bit softer. If you need water there is a lake outside the wall to the east of us, but I’ll see about how to get running water and a waste disposal system in place. Those things are going to take more-”

“This is enough. I am an animal. I have a roof. How many wyvern get a roof? I will fly away to use… humans call it the bathroom. I will not do that in the city. I will hunt my food when I get hungry, and drink when I am thirsty.”

“Fine, but if you need something just ask. Oh, and I’ll have it posted on the boards that you are here, I don’t want anyone wandering here without realizing the danger.”

“Oh…”

She was slightly offended that he still considered her a threat.

It was a long day, even if it was only evening, his nerves were worn out by being on high alert from the moment he woke up.

So having Coronach show up while he was having dinner wasn’t exactly a great way to end it.

“How very impressive, corralling a monster like that.”

He cut a steak and ate the pieces of it, but Harlan knew that Coronach didn’t actually have anything inside him, he was just a mass of void with a skin that kept him in shape and a pocket dimension.

“Not that I dislike your being here, but why?”

“Oh, just a little message. You are free to come and go inside the veil, since that was what you were always supposed to do. Though, it is rather unfortunate that there are two of you, so a new identity is in order if you don’t want to takeover his life. Which, I am all for.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“You are just no fun.”

He went back to eating his steak.

“Is that it?”

“Yes. Just call yourself Blue Harlan or something, I don’t care. But really, I could kill that other Harlan, he’s a Fae plan in the making, just so you know. And you were supposed to reunite with Adina, she should’ve been pregnant-”

“I know what I am giving up.”

“I thought that was going to get a reaction out of you. I wish power really did corrupt absolutely like they say, you’d have a harem of women, mountains of gold, I bet you’d be riding that wyvern out there right now, and then riding that knife eared bitch in here.”

A wall of radiant light was launched at the man, destroying the table between the two men.

He heard Coronach laughing as he vanished.

Harlan had to get another plate of food and move down the table where it wasn’t smoldering.

Larenzac and Mercedes were there for dinner as well, he because it was certainly better than the mess hall, and her because she didn’t want him eating dinner alone.

Yet there was little difference between eating alone or not if nobody said a word.

“I did that because I know I wouldn’t hurt him. He wanted his reaction, so I gave it to him.”

“Sir Fomoria.”

“Yes?”

“Sorry, I thought you would correct me, saying to call you Harlan instead.”

“I barely know you, and my relationship with the previous head of security was less than ideal.”

“What comment was it that set you off, if you don’t mind my askin-”

“I told him once before to not say knife ear, as it is a slur against the Dague. He knew that already, and he did so anyway.”

“Ah. Thank you then. When I was younger, I-”

“I’m not interested in getting to know every facet of your life before you were given this job.

Perhaps another day, another time, I’ll have the energy to care, but that day is not today.”

“Apologies, Sir Fomoria.”