Harlan slammed the ground outside of his home, throwing a tantrum over what had happened.

After a few minutes of him just lying there on the grass, Adina came out.

“What happened?”

“I lost.”

“To who?”

“Fomoria.”

“How?”

“He was stronger than me.”

“Could you have changed anything?”

“No. He overpowered me and his void gate let him pull off a trick that I didn’t see coming. We haven’t been different people for that long, but he surpassed me beyond any sort of sense.”

“It’s because he is alone, he doesn’t have a daughter to raise or a wife to love.”

Harlan sighed, and she assumed that he felt bad for Fomoria, so it was odd to her when he opened a gate beneath himself.

Adina just rolled her eyes and went back inside, he’d be back and she could talk to him then.

Harlan waited there for an hour, he wanted to meet with Rosewell, but he said that it wasn’t urgent.

“So, what is it today?”

“Put me out on a battlefield, I don’t care where, I need to fight.”

She rested her head in her hand and crossed her legs, she was intrigued by the fire in his eyes.

“That seems opposed to how you’ve been these last few months. What changed?”

“I clashed with Fomoria… it wasn’t even a fight, I lost, completely and totally, I didn’t stand a chance.

I’ve stagnated, and I need to catch up.”

“What do you know of his training? How certain are you that you can or need to catch up to him?”

“He sent me to his capital, I spoke with someone of seemingly high status within his system.

She mentioned that he and Xol were talking, it’s possible that he is training him.”

“That seems to be a leap in logic, they could easily just chat with one another on specific issues as you’ve done in the past.”

He didn’t want to get into how Xol provided him with weapon designs that he was making for the kingdom.

“I have reason to believe this is the case, but I can’t explain why without breaking my word to someone else.”

“Fine. Let’s say that he is training with Xol, how likely are you to even be able to catch up to him?”

“He is a king, he has to be spending his time doing things other than training.”

“Whatever you learn purely through combat will surely mean less than what he learns from Xol.

Safira has decades of combat experience, but she also has years of proper instruction on magic and its nature.”

“I still need to do something, what if he comes here?”

“Would it matter? I know you have a highly inflated sense of self, but we’ve been here for over a thousand years, and we have tools that would put a stop to him.”

“Let me show you something.”

He showed her the Spire of Others, his fight against both Fomoria and his Others, then the Plains of Wrath.

“The scope of his power has gone beyond what I ever expected I could reach so quickly, do you not find this worrying?”

“I will consider letting you take a more active role in the war, but I still believe you are more worried about your wounded pride than anything, and I could feel that through your memories.”

“I’m not-”

“You are acting like a child. Throwing a tantrum because you were beaten by someone you thought you could fight.”

“I could fight him, months ago I’m sure we were the same, but now-”

“Go home, calm yourself, and we may speak on this later.”

Harlan returned to his home and went to see Adina, but Dawn was there as well.

Viviane began punching at him with her tiny fists as soon as he picked her up.

“What’s wrong sweetie?”

Dawn laughed a little.

“Maybe she has your bad habits?”

A look of worry came over his face, and he handed his daughter to his birth mother.

The moment she was out of his hands she calmed down and Dawn suddenly stopped finding it funny.

“What’s wrong?”

“I shouldn’t be holding her right now, I’m too upset.”

Harlan rushed out of the room, his hands balled into fists.

“What happened to him?”

“He fought against Fomoria and lost. He’s angry that he got beaten by someone that not two years ago was him, and that it wasn’t even a remotely close fight. He’ll get over it.”

“I’m not so sure.”

“I know Harlan better than perhaps anyone.”

“I lived in his head for almost two decades.”

“He’s shared his deepest secrets with me, I think that I can read him better than you, he will get over it.”

Dawn raised an eyebrow, she didn’t expect such a jealous reaction from her.

“Maybe.”

Adina grabbed Viviane from her.

“Now you are just being petty. Can’t you just admit that I may know him better than you? I’m his-”

“You will never be his mother, or a mother.”

Adina’s words cut deep, bringing up both times she failed her children.

“That was uncalled for.”

She tried to keep her voice from showing exactly how upset she was.

Adina had a look of horror as she thought about what she had actually said.

“I don’t know what came over me, I-”

Considering how much she wanted to start fighting Adina, Dawn also realized that something was wrong.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“It’s fine. I need to talk with Harlan, he’s losing his grip on his empathy.”

“He is unlikely to speak now, and he’ll run.”

Dawn had a thinking face, and left the room without another word.

Harlan was down into his lab developing weapons, specifically one that Xol said he should wait to create due to the dangers that came from something so greatly offensive being made well before defenses caught up.

He wasn’t close to making his first working prototype when Sepul knocked on the door.

“I’M BUSY.”

Much like when he was at the academy, he made a fool of himself by replying from the inside of a room that let no sounds out, only in.

He slid up a hatch on the door.

“I’m busy.”

“Dawn tells me that you could use someone to speak with.”

“Unless you intend to train me in some way to match Fomoria, I have better things to do.”

He closed the hatch again.

“I know you can hear me, and you know that I can burn a hole through this door in seconds.”

He once more opened the hatch.

“I don’t-”

Because he could see the other side, Sepul could easily teleport without needing to break any of Harlan’s wards and arrays.

“Pride is perhaps the worst thing inherited from me.”

“Leave, I have work to do.”

“We both know that isn’t the right response.”

Harlan ignored him and kept working on his prototype.

“I will melt that thing into a lump of slag if you don’t respond to me.”

“Fuck off.”

“There is nothing good that is going to come from what you are doing, talk to me like a man.”

Harlan pushed his prototype away then got out an extra chair.

Sepul sat down and pulled a full tea set from his sleeves.

“Vanilla tea, just as you like.”

“Let’s get this over with so I can get back to work.”

“You lost a fight, but it is no large matter. You have done something far more worthwhile, you have been raising a wonderful daughter and spending time with your beautiful wife.”

“Yet I can’t protect them.”

“You already know that isn’t true. At such a young you are already within the top thousand mages in combat prowess.”

“But then where would he go down on that list? Top 500? 300? 100?”

“I would need to assess his strength myself to-”

“Bullshit. I’m sure Cecht keeps you updated on him so you can kill him if he gets justification for it.”

“You have an even lower opinion of him than I thought.”

“Am I wrong?”

“He does keep a close eye on Fomoria, but not for that reason. Things are moving forward, and I’m not allowed to tell you what that means.”

Sepul put his hand on Harlan’s shoulder.

“Formoria is her champion, her warrior, you don’t need to be that man. Love your wife, raise your daughter, live in the realms of man, leave the fights of the gods to the gods.”

“I want to be in those fights, I want to be helpful for myself.”

“There is no real glory or greatness in being that kind of man. I am not telling you to settle, but I am telling you that Xol is training Fomoria for his purposes because they align with the gods.

What you are doing here, developing weapons of technology rather than becoming a singularly powerful entity, that is what you should be doing, because that is also according to their plans.

Don’t fret because she is telling you to do something different than what she may have asked before.”

“She didn’t ask me to do this.”

“No, it was Xol, but as it now stands, there hasn’t been any punishment because Aarde wants your weapons in the hands of humanity for what is to come. I’d like for you to come see me someday soon, but for now, I will take my leave.”

“Hmm…”

Harlan opened the door for him, then went back to work.

He didn’t leave his room until the day he had to visit Fomoria.

Harlan didn’t have time to make a proper working prototype, at least not a handheld unit like he wanted.

But when the time came, he could replace the long cannons with this new weapon in its much larger form.

He wondered what exactly Fomoria and Relly spoke about, he’d need to ask her when they got back.

The speech was worrying at best, that he was using the tricks that dishonest people used, emotionally charging his statements, calling them to action, making a show of how he had failed in the past to make himself seem more human and sympathetic.

Harlan sat next to Anon, but she didn’t look his way at all, nor did she look at Fomoria, she just stared forward the entire time.

When Harlan, Rosewell, Safira, and Relly got back, Rosewell sent Relly away and called Harlan into the throne room.

“You will be deployed tomorrow to a permanent station. I want Nulson dead and gone well before Fomoria gets anywhere near us, and we need this civil war finished. You are going to act as bait for Nulson out there, hence my sicking you somewhere specific instead of rapidly deploying as needed.”

“He’s really scared you to death.”

“You and him have guile, that is just a simple truth, but the way he spoke there, I couldn’t help but see him as a real noble. When he hugged me, he was warm, I felt like I could trust him, that he was still himself, but I can’t rely on that, since he directly threatened Ragne’s future generations. You will get your experience, and I hope that over time, you find some of his tricks and come to be an aid against him should that come to pass.”

“We need the academy open again, if it is still closed after summer, the students of Ragne would miss out on a full year of magical learning.”

“I will speak with Hirum soon, we have a meeting scheduled for that reason, but I will insist on the importance of the academy being reopened as soon as possible even if it must be done in a lesser capacity.”

“Good, thank you.”

Harlan returned home with some vigor in him, and Adina noticed it.

“Was the speech that good?”

“Fomoria is now an emperor. But more importantly, Rosewell is finally going to deploy me.”

“Just as long as you’re home for dinner.”

“She said it would be a permanent station. I’m acting in part as bait for Nulson, so I don’t think I’ll be home every night, but we didn’t exactly go over any real details.”

“Idiot.”

Viviane also looked at him with annoyed eyes.

“Come on, you know that-”

“That you are more worried about losing a single fight than about being home with your daughter, I understand that just fine.”

“That isn’t what I-”

“How often have I asked you to stay your hand? To not do anything at all?”

“You didn’t tell me not to go.”

“Because you never talked with me about this at all. You’ve spent the last three days doing nothing but sitting in your lab doing the gods only know what, not talking to me, not seeing your daughter, because you got your pride wounded by yourself. Stupid, bullheaded, idiot.”

“I’m sorry, I-”

“Sleep in a guest room.”

She pushed him out into the hallway.

“Adina, it really isn’t such an issue.”

“You think you can leave us for however long you want, now you are going to leave us for how long I want. Go leave, shoo.”

“You are being dramatic.”

“You aren’t the only one who has that right.”

She slammed the door in his face.

There was no lock in the entirety of his castle that his will couldn’t order open, he knew that, but it still hurt when he heard the bolt on the door lock.

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

David and Parnell clashed against one another, but not even a blade of grass was disturbed.

The Fae watching over the pair thought that they had progressed well.

“My little champions, how subtle you’ve become, how delicate your violence is.”

“Thank you. But how do I stack up to Harlan now?”

“The weaker of the pair… perhaps you are ready for the next stage.”

“Which of us is the weaker one?”

“Not of you, of the pair of same, Harlan, and Fomoria. Of them, you may stand against the weaker, but you would not win, for his bloody mind and soul are designed for this, you are just one who has adopted this violence which he simply is.”

“I’ve been fighting for-”

“No, you fight because you want something, he fights because he is.

Both of you hide under something.”

“Really? How do you figure?”

“The stronger of the pair, a nation based around his violence, a people newly born by his blood in both form and culture.

The weaker, whose mind now shies away, but whose hands do little but craft harm for others.

You, who is neither born of violence, nor who truly breathes violence, cannot understand his being.

You are a mirror, a mimic, a vampire of his ideals. He is the sun, and you are the moon, reflecting stolen light.”

“I do have one question, why is it that anything that claims to be a deity has to talk like-”

David fell to his knees, and Parnell cast what healing he knew to figure out what was wrong.

A crow poked out of his chest, and David coughed blood.

As he tried to scoop his guts back into his body, suddenly he was standing there as if nothing happened, there was not a drop of blood anywhere.

“The Darkness I am not, you will be mindful of this when you speak to me.”

HIs heart was beating in his ears, and Parnell stared at her, ready to fight if his friend asked, but David knew better, they were pact bound to her, technically Wizards, and she was only using them as long as she needed them, not the other way around.