When Fomoria returned home, he was upset, and looked to Yara for relief.

She laid with him in bed as he told her what he learned and she stroked his hair.

“So what are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“That hardly seems like you.”

“There is nothing I can do, yet.”

“Then I suppose I should’ve asked, what are you going to do?”

“Until I can kill Seraphallen, Quill will remain trapped there with his people. I need to do that, and then wait for the reset.”

“Who is that?”

“He’s one of the Hands.”

“Oh, of the emperor, like the Fingers. Are there eyes and ears and-”

“Leg’s, Eye’s, and Ear’s, but those are all single people. The Hands and Fingers are the only pieces that got split up among different people.”

“Why?”

“You should read some nonfiction books, learn about life out here more. But I have no idea, well, I have ideas, but nothing solid.”

He rolled over, holding himself over her.

“Besides, we can write our own romance that you can look back on any time.”

She giggled.

In the evening, Nana came so Fomoria could see her progress.

But the first thing that he saw was that her body seemed larger, though only partly from her work.

“Growth spurt?”

She nodded.

“And you’ve now seen how being a healer can be more physically active, lifting people who need it, walking too and fro.”

“Yes. It has been eye opening to see serious injuries and all of that blood. A man came in two days ago having cut his fingers off with an axe while trying to split a walnut. With his drinking, his blood was thinned out and he could barely stand after having lost so much. But I worked with Elk and we saved his life.

It was beautiful.”

“Yara, this is Nana, one of my three stars.”

He couldn’t see her blush on account of the scales, but he could tell that Nana was going through the process.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Yara.”

“Please, just Yara is fine. Is that fine?”

Fomoria nodded.

“I’m still not sure about titles and the culture of respect here.”

“Yara, lighten up. This place isn’t that different from back home.

If I’m being casual, mimic me. If I’m showing respect, do the same.”

“I don’t want to make you look weak or foolish.”

“Don’t worry about that. Nana, sorry about this.”

“Oh no, it is no problem.”

“Did you get a chance to talk with your parents about the academy? You’re the last one who needs approval.”

“They are… worried.”

“I could still move them into the lands around the other spire, build a house.”

“They don’t want to leave here, the rest of our people are here. Are there really no Plest inside the veil?”

“No Plest, no Faun, no Cerast, no Dague, no Goliaths, and most importantly, no Cast.”

“A world without them… it must be wonderful.”

“Evil exists so long as one man has what another wants or has the opportunity to hold power over another.

I don’t want you to be upset when things aren’t really much better.”

They spoke a little more about the specifics of what she accomplished, and Elk wrote a letter singing her praises as someone who kept her cool as she worked.

Two more days passed and Yara still wasn’t pregnant.

“Something is wrong, it must be.”

“We don’t know that.”

“Adina got pregnant so quickly. But-”

“Don’t be so guilty, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Guilt? No, I-”

“Listen, I’m the empath, and I know you well. You’re are worried that you can’t give me a child, but I’m not exactly in a rush. We’ll keep going for another week, if you still can’t get pregnant, we can ask Xol to give you a check up, which he’ll probably hand off to Marigold in a bid to get us friendly again.”

“Is what happened between you really so terrible?”

“Withholding what she knew was bad, but understandable, it is that she tried to lie to me which upset me much more. Xol knew just as much, probably more since he works more closely with The Darkness, but he was honest with me. That and I don’t expect as much from him.”

“Alright. One more week. Do you think it’s because we’re Golden and Fomorian?”

“The Fomorian pact is broken. I’m still biologically Fomorian, because our blood and bodies were changed, but the pact shouldn’t clash with whatever the Golden have. Can you read your pact?”

“No, whatever is written in it is not known to us.”

“I could try to-”

“No, do not try to read it.”

“Why?”

“The moment I thought you were going to suggest it, my stomach went in knots and I could feel migraine coming on.”

“Yes, it seems all the gods dislike people reading them.”

The sickness she felt welling up inside of her faded; the warning was understood and taken.

The next day, when Yara woke up, Fomoria was not there next to her, but instead he was in one of the empty rooms nearby loading it with mana gems.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re pregnant, so I’m-”

Yara began to jump up and down in excitement.

“I WANT TO TELL EVERYONE AND-”

“Calm down. We shouldn’t celebrate until we are sure that-”

“IT’S ONLY A 30% CHANCE, WE-”

He grabbed hold of her.

“Yara, we could lose a dozen children before one of them survives.

I’m excited too, but we can’t build up all of this hope just to have it dashed.”

“We’re going to be fine. Can we visit Adina? I want to ask her if there is anything else I should know.

I mean, I was there for her, but she never let me use any magic to give her a check up.”

“Hellon was her doctor, right? Maybe we should talk to her, and Sepul as well.”

“Fine. I can’t wait to tell her.”

“No. Don’t tell anyone.”

“But-”

“Yara, don’t do this to yourself.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m going to shift the positions of the rooms here. If I’m going to bring Darrath and Dawn back, and then also have the nursery, I want to put them all across the hall from me without having to make people move their personal items.”

“Is that safe?”

“I’ve already done far more than move a few rooms around a home in my testing.”

“Oh. What did you do.”

“Well…”

They couldn’t actually go to Adina just yet, but Fomoria briefly went into the veil so he could tell Adina that they intended to come over and set a time; he also didn’t want to have a big deal being made about it.

As for why they couldn’t go yet, Romulus was on his way.

“So he’s the king of the Goliaths, and you gave him and some of his people magic but they are naturally anti-magic?”

“No. He is the king of Lith, not all the Goliaths. Granted I also haven’t found another Goliath nation.

Also, I killed the last king so they could have a revolt to turn the nation from one philosophy to another.”

“Why did you kill the last king?”

“He… he threatened me, and Mercedes slept with him to calm him. It’s part of why we went our separate ways.”

He could tell that she had something she thought about but didn’t want to voice.

“Just say it.”

“I mean… if they are so large, how… I mean just logistically…”

He kept himself calm by trying to disconnect from the event, that and Yara was just curious, she meant no harm.

“I’ve never had a real conversation with Nemain about them, but I know that they are based on humans, and their genitals are proportioned like a human's.”

“Oh.”

Romulus did not come to Kor directly, but rather through the Plains of Wrath and into the Spire of Other.

As he led the king down the hall, it expanded and shrunk to accommodate them.

“Inside the belly of the beast.”

“The spire has no stomach, but it does have hearts, lungs, and kidneys.”

“Why only those?”

“Gems can act in place of the brain. This place is full of blood because blood is a source of life, holding onto it. The lungs are so it can speak. The kidneys keep the blood pure so someone can’t poison it.”

Romulus shivered, but Bartholomew was more accepting of Fomoria’s eccentricities.

“Where exactly are we going?”

“To one of the labs. You want magical knowledge, and I want to study anti-magic so I can replicate it.”

“A mage who wants anti-magic, funny.”

“I am a mage, not every soldier is. I could invent guns and cannons that would shred through magical law and only need to overcome the physical to kill things or destroy cities. I could make my own-”

He felt himself grinning.

“Anyway. That is the deal you accepted, please continue moving.”

After hours of research by Fomoria and the Others, Fomoria put his hands on one of the tables and flung it at the wall, the lightly enchanted woodwork splintering.

“What is wrong?”

“Nothing. My methods have been primarily magical, because anti-magic is not absolute. But anything that I can think of which would be delicate enough to actually get any useful information is simply dispersed by your anti-magic. All of the books you need to learn are being brought here now.”

It was disturbing how calm he was, how genuinely it seemed as if he really wasn’t upset even as he tossed the table.

“Unfortunate that you weren’t able to gain new insights.”

“I will need to develop new tools for the specific testing of anti-magic. One day, you will wish for knowledge on another subject, and on that day I will make this same bargain.”

“Perhaps we might make a simpler deal. Bartholomew could stay in Kor as a liaison between our nations, and you would have greater opportunity to study him, with his consent of course.”

“And what are you getting from this?”

“A favor. He asked for the position.”

“Bart, pack your things when you get back, I’ll have a home ready for you in a few hours.”

“Yes, Sir Fomoria.”

Adina was more than a little shocked to see Yara was there, since Fomoria hadn’t told her beforehand that she was coming for this reason.

They sat across from one another, a table between them and each on couches.

“So, you said that there was something you needed to talk about. And Yara, how are you here?”

“Well, he made his way through the desert into the White Sands, asked me to leave with him, and I did.”

“Oh. That’s a bit more simple than I thought it would be.”

“It wasn’t simple at all. The desert has severe spatial distortions that make it so anyone who doesn’t know the exact paths would be lost forever walking in circles. I actually am not sure how exactly he made his way to the White Sands without ending up in one of the others.”

“Magic is desire, I wanted you, so I found you.”

“How strong must that desire have been.”

Yara leaned on Fomoria and grabbed his arm; Viviane began to fuss.

“You said that there was something important you wanted to talk about?”

“I’M PREGNANT!”

Fomoria sighed at Yara’s proclamation, which did not go unnoticed by Adina.

“She wanted to ask if there are specific things which you would wish you had known during your pregnancy.”

“You don’t sound happy.”

“I’ve already spoken with Xol, and he says that we have a high chance of miscarriage within the first month.

Yara, I keep telling you, don’t build up your hopes just in case you can’t carry the first one to term.”

“I know you keep saying that, but everything worked out for Adina and-”

“No, you don’t know. My luck has never been good, I am quite literally pulled to terrible events by magic that I am using constantly but have no control over, and I’m the one that The Darkness is pulling the strings on.

Too much has happened, I can’t trust that life isn’t going to fuck me over and hurt you as a result.”

“Your luck doesn't matter here, I’m the one with the baby in me, if anything happens, it isn’t your fault.”

He knew how dangerous her words were if things didn’t work out, but he also didn’t think he could change her mind now that it was so strongly set on everything going well.

Ava came nearby an hour into the conversation, looking unwell.

“Oh. I didn’t realize that he would be here.”

“I think we need to have a talk. Yara, I’ll be back, just tell me if there is anything important.

Ava, let’s go.”

“What? No, I came here to ask Adina about-”

“Nothing good is coming from this either way. Let’s go.”

He dragged her out of the room and into an empty one.

“Are you pregnant?”

“What? No, I’m… ”

“I feel another soul inside of you, you look sick, and you were about to come to Adina for advice.”

Her armor rolled up and her hands were made of metal.

It was at this point that he realized what the second soul he felt inside of her was.

“Lugh and you fused together?”

“How did you figure that out so fast?”

“Lugh isn’t on your hip, I feel his soul with yours now that I took a closer look, and your hands are made of metal. Can you turn this off?”

“We could before… but then…”

“Just explain.”

“We were fused, we’ve been able to do it for a little while now already, and we were using your aura techniques. When we used the cleaving chop we felt closer to each other than ever before and we haven’t figured out how to stop.”

“Have you spoken with Harlan? Does he know you can do this?”

“No. I wanted to hide it until it stopped making me feel like shit. Lugh sees everything all around him and that doesn’t feel good with me. But… I was actually going to tell Adina to look, since he taught her about soul magic.”

“I can do it.”

“You’re… you and Harlan split and then you came back and you didn’t even come to see me.

I don’t know you.”

“Then ignore your problem.”

“I think this might not even be bad for me.”

“Why do you have to be such a bullheaded idiot. Get the fuck over what happened to me, grow the fuck up. You are dead set on looking at me like I’m a monster and refusing my help. Lugh, how about you? What are your thoughts on this? What’s that, you can’t even talk because you are fused with our sister?

Is this comfortable for him?”

“You’re an asshole.”

“If you need help then call, because I’m going to be there for you whether you like it or not, even if I am a conquering emperor who’s directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in a war.”

“I don’t look at you like a monster, you are one, and you don’t even give a shit.”

She was his sister, and he didn’t want to hurt her.

Thinking on it, perhaps it was because of all those years ago after the werewolf.

He closed himself off, he just wanted to get stronger, and then she tried to follow him in that.

Her leg cramped and his shell broke, he couldn’t be cold to her, he never wanted to feel like it was his fault that she was upset, even if he really was.

But now the camel was falling, the last straw upon its back.

“YES, I DO, I GIVE A SHIT ABOUT WHAT I DO, ABOUT WHAT I HAVE TO DO, BUT IF I DIDN'T’T THEN NOBODY WOULD. I’M THE ONLY ONE WHO GIVES ENOUGH OF A SHIT TO DO THE HORRIBLE THINGS REQUIRED TO MAKE REAL CHANGE.

YOU JUST WANT TO EXIST IN REDWALL AS A GLORIFIED SOLDIER THAT NEVER HAS TO ACTUALLY MAKE THE HARD CALLS, WHERE EVERYTHING IS BLACK AND WHITE, BANDITS AND FUCKING WARGS, YOU’RE PATHETIC, YOU ARE A COWARD.

I HAD TO KILL CHILD SOLDIERS TO PREVENT THEM FROM SIEGING MY CITY.

MY CITY THAT IS MADE UP OF MOSTLY SLAVES WHO WERE RIPPED FROM THEIR FAMILY, THE VICTIMS OR UNSPEAKABLE THINGS.

THAT IS THE REAL WORLD, SO SHUT THE FUCK UP OR GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE, BECAUSE I NEVER WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER JUDGMENT FROM YOU.”

It felt good to get it off of his chest, at least at first, but by the end he realized how wrong it felt and kept going anyway because he was in too deep.

Ava began to cry, and he decided that he had to leave.

Three days later, Yara awoke to find Fomoria sitting on his rocking chair out on the balcony.

She got up from bed, and once she was close enough to see his face, she could tell he had been crying.

He felt like he had woken up from a dream.

Everything seemed perfect with Yara here, but it was just him painting over a stain.

She made him happy, but his stress was only removed on a surface level, the deeper illness wasn’t going to be solved by having a child, by being a good ruler, it was never enough.

“Honey. Are you alright? Ava will forgive you, she just-”

“We lost it.”

She stood there stunned for minutes before the words broke through.

He brought her back to bed and neither of them got any rest.

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

Across the void of space, in a small office, a man looked over old files, trying to find a place that required no terraforming to be viable.

There was an unfortunate note: Hellworld. It was an older term, meaning a place where casualty had broken down and the planet itself was hostile to any outside life.

But they didn’t have enough resources left to get to the next planet.

Their only chance was this place on the edge of the galaxy.