Anon and Amber arrived in the newly constructed gate building.

Not all nobles had a gate room, and less of them had such a powerful array to pull all gates coming into the area into the room.

The golems kept their guns pointed at the black sphere even after they both stepped out.

Once a human guard verified Amber, they were allowed to enter.

The pair made their way to Autumn and explained their plan.

“And you are sure that he can be reached?”

“Quite. He loved me enough to hesitate before he tried to kill me. Even if he doesn’t love you like me, you can get close to him without taking serious damage from his heat.”

Autumn raised an eyebrow and stared at Amber.

“This is Anon, she’s Har- Fomoria’s-”

“I am his fiance.”

Amber rolled her eyes.

“If you don’t want to risk it, we’ll understand, but-”

“If he hesitated once, then he’s still in there. But why not Adina?”

“Because Anon is the jealous type.”

“I am not.”

She failed to convince anyone, herself included.

Autumn went through the void gate and found herself in Kor.

Intense winds buffeted the city.

“Is that Harlan out there?”

“Please, he would rather claim the name of Fomoria.”

Autumn rolled her eyes at the strange woman.

“Is that Fomoria out there?”

“Yes, along with Coronach, and Carmilla.”

“What is Coronach doing there?”

“Carmilla isn’t enough to steer him away from here. Coronach is a more physical fighter, but Carmilla is a better mage than him in most ways.”

“Is The Darkness telling you these things?”

“She is. Fomoria must not see a population center, or- COVER YOUR EARS AND DUCK.”

A roar split the skies, the guards on the wall suffered minor hearing damage, but the people inside the city itself were saved by the walls deflecting much of the sound.

Autumn watched from a distance, she couldn’t even see anyone fighting, just the spells scything their way through the ground and exploding.

“How sure are you that I can get anywhere close to that.”

“Mother says you can. Coronach will be able to hold him back long enough for you to reach him. The Others have made an armor for you from Firesteel, your current armor would only heat up and harm you.”

Autumn took a deep breath, checking out the new armor.

More than one of the Others suggested that she not do this, but she had some faith in Harlan, or Fomoria, whatever he wanted to call himself these days, that he wouldn’t ever hurt her, no matter how lost his mind seemed.

Anon gave her two thumbs up before she sent her to the battlefield.

Carmilla and Coronach both rushed in to restrain the monster, but even with the fighting on hold for a short time, Autumn still had to make her way through the desolate battlefield, dodging the powerful winds from the clash and geysers that began to spring up.

She wished that Anon had sent her a little closer.

When she reached them, they were struggling to keep it still.

“HARLAN, CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

It snarled and yelped, roared and bellowed, trying to break the eardrums of those around it.

Even with her bloodline ability, it was putting off intense heat, and Autumn struggled to get closer; Carmilla’s skin was becoming noticeably redder.

Autumn put on the helmet they had given her, and it had a slightly red tinted glass visor so he could still see her face while she was being somewhat protected from the heat.

Autumn was only a few feet from it when they noticed him sucking in the air from the area.

Carmilla and Coronach both knew that these flames would be deadly to them, and they instead focused on getting Autumn to safety.

They both tossed it far from them and put up barriers.

From the tower of Fomoria’s home in Kor, they used sight spells to watch, and they saw the veritable mountain that had been placed between it and the three nearly instantly melt.

That thing had figured out how to use the heat it naturally generated to boost the speed and power of its void flames, refining them down to a beam of black light that turned the plains into a dark night.

Coronach immediately realized that this wasn’t going to work, and opened a void gate to flee on his own.

He had lived too long to die trying to save some idiots.

But after he was gone, and Carmilla too tried to flee on her own, unsure if she could even save herself, let alone Autumn, Xol, Dun’Kel, and Kleon appeared.

Kleon held his tower shield in front of them, and the beam struck, but was split and went around them.

The inside of the long cone of fire was being kept cool by Dun’Kel, his experience as The Dread Lich was focused in part on water magic.

So long as nobody actually touched the void flames, they’d be fine.

Xol meanwhile was preparing a large spell, tightly gripping his crystal rose staff and chanting in a language nobody there understood.

“Tranquilla, pax, quies, frater, amicus.”

The air began growing hazy and thick.

Kleon moved his shield out of the way, and the beam engulfed the group.

“Now, we may move forward.”

Autumn was baffled, the attack was still there, but it became harmless.

She walked along with the trio of Liches over to it.

Autumn had never been to the Confederate jungles, but this is how she imagined it would be based on how horrible those of Ragne claimed them to be.

It was somewhat hard to breathe, it was like walking through water, and she looked as if she was sweating like a pig, but rather it was a sort of condensation laying on her skin.

When they reached the creature it was standing limply, but then fell to the ground.

“What did you do?”

“I am denying combat in this area. Any attempts to attack will be removed, it only knows how to move in relation to the concept of fighting and killing, so its body is refusing to move.”

“Is this safe?”

“Yes, but please, be quick.”

Skeletons couldn’t sweat, but Xol was clearly strained maintaining such a spell.

She kneeled down in front of him.

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

Harlan awoke with a yawn, he felt like he had a bad dream, but he couldn’t remember anything.

Adina had made him breakfast, and Viviane sat in her high chair.

“How is my little bundle of joy today?”

“I’m doing just fine, thank you very much.”

Adina leaned in and kissed him as she set his food down.

“You should take the vegetables to market early, your uncle is coming today, right?”

“He could show up in an hour or tomorrow morning, you know how Rangers are.”

“Still, it would be good for you to be back as soon as possible, we’ll only be throwing a retirement party once, right?”

“Ha. Maybe I should join the army, be a Ranger. Can’t much retire from farming.”

“You’d need magic to do that.”

“Right, I must’ve forgotten.”

He chuckled and scratched his beard as he stared at her.

“What?”

“Nothing, I’m just… glad that I have you two, glad that I’m not tied up in all that madness, throwing fireballs and what not.”

He moved his hand across the table, his calluses so thick he could nearly sand wood with them.

Harlan understood that he never had the talent for magic, but he was happy to work with his hands.

“Maybe you can tell that to your uncle. I don’t know how his wife accepted him being so far away for so long, taking weeks to reply to any letters she sends.”

“I wonder if anyones ever tried to make magic letters, imagine if you could just write on a piece of paper, and it would show up somewhere else.”

“Perhaps you can ask Redmond.”

“Perhaps I will.”

After he finished breakfast, Harlan fed the pigs, gathered the eggs, milked the cows, and then hitched the oxen to the cart.

His wife was always impressed that he could get so much done, more than any human should be able to, he just kept going and going, barely slowing down through the day.

Harlan hummed as he rode his cart back to his home. The farm was doing well, he wouldn’t need to worry about money even with daughter. The baron kept the woods clear of goblins and wargs; nobody had been bothered by Fae in the area in years.

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The only thing to break up his joyful tune was a sound he was quite familiar with, a baby crying.

So he looked around, he couldn’t see anything just yet and he hoped it was simply another farmer on his way home with their child.

But as he kept on the road he was sure it was somewhere in the woods, he stopped his cart, he couldn’t leave without knowing or he would never sleep again.

On the one hand he felt like this was the start to any number of horror stories his own father told him, yet it didn’t take more than a moment to push those thoughts away, he was not a brave man, but he couldn’t be heartless enough to do nothing.

Shortly off the well trodden muddy road, wrapped in a blanket of leaves yet mostly clean, a young boy.

He was not newborn but not more than a year old, his hair still blonde but showing signs of darkening.

He sat and soothed him for nearly an hour, no mother came for him.

He couldn’t wait any longer, he would have to take the boy into the local healer to give him a once over.

The farmer placed him in an empty box and set it on the seat; it was labeled odd vegetables, those who grew strangely in shape.

Some said it was a little Fae prank, to make a blue tomato or a potato that's red, only the destitute or those who don't believe would buy such strange things, the boy took well to it and quieted down.

When he reached Luth he was stopped by the gate guards.

“Is your wife well? I hope you didn’t bring your daughter in for no reason.”

The guard looked closer, noticing that it wasn’t Vivi, and then looking questioningly at Harlan.

“He was out in the woods, wrapped in stitched together leaves. I couldn’t leave him there.”

“You didn’t find any bodies around him? I hope bandits didn’t leave him there.”

“Strangest thing, there weren’t any tracks either, it was like he just fell from the sky or something.”

“Take him to Elanor, make sure he’s well.”

The guard handed him a few bronze coins.

“For the check up.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“Come on, you know me, I make enough to spend a little on a little one.”

Harlan relented, and took the coins.

“Thank you, Jaramis. Are you and Autumn coming tonight? The twins aren’t still sick, are they?”

“They’re just fine now, another healer stopped by.”

“Was it serious? Could Elanor not help?”

“We were on our way there when she saw them and said she was a healer.

Would you believe it? She was one of the Golden.”

“What is a desert folk doing out here?”

“That’s what I asked, right because Autumn told me to not bother her.

She just said she was taking a trip.”

“Ah, they do some sorta pilgrimage for a while before they go back to their desert for the rest of their life.”

“How’d you know that?”

How did he know that? Harlan thought, but the answer eluded him, fleeing like a rabbit as his mind tried to piece together the memories.

“I can’t rightly remember, must’ve overheard someone in town once.”

Jaramis shrugged his shoulders.

Harlan didn’t much understand why the son of the mayor would want to work gate guard duty, but it was nice to chat about the kids when he came to sell.

Harlan brought the boy to Elanor, who gave him a clean bill of health, though he was a pit pale, but Harlan was the same way, so it didn’t worry either of them.

On the way to the oddities shop, Harlan nearly ran into a woman.

“Sorry, I-”

He stared at the hooded woman.

“What? Never seen a Golden before?”

“No, but you… you look familiar.”

She looked at him.

“You are a… and the child too…”

“We’re what?”

“Nothing, it doesn’t matter. Good day to you and your son.”

“Oh, he’s not mine, I found him in the woods.”

Harlan started to get a migraine, something seemed wrong.

When he looked up, the woman was gone.

Harlan stepped into the oddities shop to pick up a gift for Adina’s birthday.

“Alrick, you said you had something?”

The man looked at him with cold, sharp eyes and handed Harlan a small square, like a photo frame without the photo.

“Thank you, for this…”

“Think hard about something.”

The frame lit up, and an image of Adina in her white dress from their wedding day appeared in it.

“Is this really alright? This thing must be worth-”

“We’re friends, are we not? I was clearing out my storage, this thing never sold anyway.”

“Where did you get these things anyway?”

“Ah, well, I’m more well traveled than I look. I just decided one day to settle down and-”

The Golden woman stepped in, Alrick couldn’t stop staring at her, and she couldn’t stop staring at him.

“Do I… do I know you?”

“You could if you wanted to.”

She giggled.

“Maybe I’ll need to stay for a time.”

“Harlan, I’m going to close for the day. Give Adina my regards.”

His last stop was the blacksmith’s, he needed his scythe sharpened.

“Brig, how are you?”

“Oh I’m just fine. Thank you for asking.”

Harlan blinked a few times.

“What?”

“The hell ya askin’ ‘bout me for? Ain’t ya got a wife?”

He looked at the infant in Harlan’s arms.

“Ain’t ya just had one of ‘em?”

“I found him in the woods. I hope his parents are alright.”

“Bastards grow on trees now?”

Harlan ignored the man and handed him the scythe, he’d pick it back up when he was done selling.

He asked whoever he came across if they recognized the baby boy, but found out nothing, so he decided to bring him home.

The guards were informed already, so if anyone came through they’d be able to find him.

When he got back to the farm, Redmond was there.

Harlan hugged him, and when he stepped back, everyone was staring at him.

“You’re crying.”

“Huh? I guess I’m just happy to see you again. And you’ll be safe here. Not…”

Jarrik and Alana were looking through Harlan’s things and found the magic frame.

“Uncle Harlan, what’s this?”

It showed a fox they once saw.

“It's magic from a friend of mine. It shows memories.”

Harlan grabbed it and it cleared from the fox, and instead showed Redmond, the last time Harlan ever saw him.

He recoiled at the sight, and the world twisted.

Harlan made his way to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

The mirror? No, Harlan never owned a full size mirror, they were expensive, he remembered how excited Adina was to get a hand mirror for a wedding present.

This wasn’t his house, this wasn’t his family.

Autumn came in behind him.

“If you can hear me, you need to wake up.”

Harlan awoke with a yawn, he felt like he had a bad dream, but he couldn’t remember anything.

Adina had made him breakfast, and a winged eye sat in the high chair.

Harlan awoke with a yawn, he felt like he had a bad dream, but he couldn’t remember anything.

Anon made him breakfast, and Micheal was in the high chair, waiting for his food.

“How is my little… Anon, what are you doing here?”

“I’m doing my wifely duties?”

Her smile was genuine, too genuine.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

When he was done eating he did all the chores that needed to be done, and then took a cart of vegetables into town.

As he hummed, he heard a sound from the woods.

He hesitated at first, his own father died under circumstances not like this, but he had to go, even if his mind was telling him not to.

He entered the clearing with an axe in hand, but found no person.

It was a fox, caught in a hunters trap.

He recalled an anecdote about this, that they could sound like a screaming woman at times.

But he didn’t hear a woman, no, he heard a crying infant.

Something about this felt familiar to him, too familiar.

He couldn’t shake the feeling of deja vu, but he also couldn’t remain here.

He killed the fox, there was no sense in letting it suffer a broken leg.

Harlan sold his vegetables and other consumables well, hardly ever coming back with a filled cart.

When he got back to his farm, there was another woman there, claiming to be his sister, but he was an only child.

Harlan woke up, he couldn’t remember his dream the night before.

When he went out to the kitchen, he was making himself breakfast, and he sat there in the high chair.

“Wake up, Autumn is in danger. Please, wake-”

Harlan got out of bed in a cold sweat.

On his wrist, he saw a ring of light.

Right, yes, this ring, this was important to him.

Why was it important? He couldn’t remember, and his head was splitting as he tried to force the memories to him.

The ground fell away and there was only darkness around him.

“Why do you resist happiness?”

The voice from the void was his.

“What? Who are you? Where is my wife?”

It looked like him, but as a child.

Yet there was something wrong, when he was young he was still quite expressive, but this thing remained stone faced.

“My express reason for existence is to assist you in making a better world, this is your reason for claiming to exist as well. Please, return to your sleep, live in your perfect world.”

It raised its hand to restart the cycle again, hoping to refine it to the point where Fomoria could not wake again.

The world had turned dark, and he began to close his eyes, but the light pulsed brightly to the point he could see it through his eyelids.

“Strange.”

It fidgeted with the ring of light, trying to break the spell, but the next pulse destroyed the house.

Fomoria opened his eyes and began to stagger to his feet.

It was only a manifestation of the simple mind of the sigil mixed with Fomoria’s own mind, so while it had been reduced to red mist, it returned as if nothing happened.

“It would be best for you to sleep.”

It raised its hand again, but Fomoria did as well, and blasted it again, the skeleton of it falling to the ground; it got up again.

Micheal landed on Fomoria’s shoulder, having been freed from his mind prison by the last attack.

“Hit it again.”

Even the bones were destroyed by the next attack, again and again and again and again.

When it got up again, it took the form of Redmond.

“Harlan, haven’t you done enough? Isn’t it alright to just rest? To just give in? Come on, let’s-”

Fomoria shook with rage, and began to viciously beat the mind, limbs went flying, organs spread across the ground as it regenerated body after body.

“HE WOULDN’T SAY THAT, HE WOULDN’T TELL ME TO GIVE UP, DON’T YOU DARE US HIS FACE AGAINST ME.”

It cycled through his loved ones, trying to stop the assault with any face he could.

“Papa, why are you hitting me?”

He scrunched his face and closed his eyes as he destroyed it again in the form of Darrath.

“Son, please-”

His father.

“Sweetie, just-”

His mother.

“Little brother?”

Ava

“Harlan, what’s wrong?”

Amber.

“Don’t give up.”

Autumn seemed different, and he held back.

“What?”

“Don’t give up, wake up, come back to us.”

She placed her hand on his shoulder, and his eyelids became heavy, but it was Micheal who killed this one.

“It is using tricks, you can’t hold back.

Balor, Lugh, Zella, Reet, Relly, Ky, Rosewell, Blackstone, Viviane.

He just kept attacking, trying to wake up from this nightmare.

He heard Autumn again.

“Wake up, please.”

He tried to swing, but found that he couldn’t move his body.

“Let me wake up, please, stop this, don’t make me-”

“Harlan, Harlan, Fomoria, hey, you’re up.”

He opened his eyes again, and he saw nothing but desolation around him.

“How do I know?”

“Because I am telling you that you are awake.”

Fomoria was tired, so tired.

He was never meant to use the weapon sigil like that, to just go at full power for over an hour.

He fell again, but Xol caught him.

“I am glad that you are back. Never tell anyone that I said this.”

Fomoria felt the truth in his words, and he let himself fall asleep again.

With the weapon sigil gone, this body faded into nothingness.