Ur formed a chair from thin lines of metal that flowed from his finger, drawing it in the air; his body was covered in orange lines showing the churning molten flesh under a black layer of oxide.

“Emperor Fomoria, would you like a seat?”

“I’m fine.”

Fomoria set his hard ammo pack on the ground and sat on it, shotgun still in hand and aiming at Ur.

“Well, you wanted to talk, so, let’s talk.”

“I believe I know why, but, in your own words, why did you choose to speak with me?”

“Fighting a Hand whose ability I know little about in a confined area where I cannot use magic is unlikely to go well for me.”

“Oh? You wish to start with lies?”

“Then why, in your own words, did I decide to talk with you?”

“You want to believe that there are good Cast, that you can have a peaceful solution. It is in that faith that I have allowed Rosen’s family to escape, though I could’ve easily broken that false wall and chased them rather than you.”

“Alright, you can believe that. Why do you want to talk with me?”

“Because I am interested in you. Kor was a bustling place, a trade town where slaves were brought from many coastal areas to be bought and sold by many nobles under our banner. Now, it sits as the jewel of the stripe, a city housing hundreds of thousands with a quality of living far above what it had before.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere with me, you are starting as an enemy who would say whatever you wanted to trick me into some sort of deal like in the past.”

“Yes, I have heard about that unfortunate instance of poisoned candy. But I would do no such things, I have no desire for what we would call, ethical warfare tactics. To that point, even if we cannot come to an agreement here today, I would like for you to leave this place.”

“I will believe that when I am gone, and not a second before.”

“Please, can’t you-”

“No. I have never had a generally positive experience with your kind, you’ve betrayed me at every turn, you’ve killed people I loved, you commit atrocities for the sake of causing mental anguish on your victims.”

“But I have done none of these things to you.”

“As a Hand, you are a military leader, do you expect me to believe that you aren’t responsible for any of this? If you had a conscience you would change things, but you haven’t, and you won’t.”

“What is this conversation here? You cannot expect to change my mind if you only browbeat me rather than have an honest talk.”

Fomoria sighed and went quiet.

He didn’t speak again until he felt Ur was starting to become impatient; he was buying time.

“I’m sorry, shall we try this again?”

“Yes. I believe that both of our empires can coexist.”

“Not without you accepting my charter.”

“With your golems and soulsmithing, it would be possible to remove our reliance slavery as an expansionary and economical force.”

“That would require that I trust you to use these things, and there would be certain other specifics that you must follow. I would need to see your empire remove slavery, and not by means of killing the slaves, and maintain that order for at least three months. Then, I could send my own people along with the golems to supervise these areas.”

“We cannot trust any golem or item made by you, we would require the process be known to us.”

“You would use the slaves to make golems, the soulsmithed items to expand your military power.

I will not let you have anything. If, and only if, you can prove that you can be trusted, then I would hand over the magic. If you want it, I would not accept anything less than 50 years before I give it. You must be generations removed from slavery, The Nursery must be changed for at least that long so new Cast are allowed to be moral people, or rather, they aren’t forced to be anything.”

Ur raised an eyebrow.

“What do you know about our birth and upbringing?”

“You are born and raised in a single area, you are all men, so either you hide your females at this place or you reproduce through some other method, perhaps splitting off, granting life to metal bodies, parasitising the bodies or other races. How you are born doesn’t matter, but your upbringing is the part which you can change.”

“If you believe that then you have no idea about any of it. The Cast which we allow out are the best of them, those least affected by your gods madness.”

“Explain.”

“You’ve surely heard that we were not always a people, yes?”

“Yes. You were machines, designed for killing, you were the people of your machine god and you didn’t die of old age like you should’ve. Aarde used paradox magic to force the machines into being the Cast, a prime race.”

“Do you think that he-”

“They. Aarde is two gods sharing a mind and soul.”

“Fine. Do you think that they put great care into making sure that we worked? Or was our being made to follow the rules of life on this world an attack? One meant to ensure we died?”

“You’re saying that The Nursery is only letting out the best of you?”

“The stable ones. Good or evil doesn’t matter.”

“The first of your kind I spoke with said that he enjoyed fucking smaller women because they would split in half. Does that sound like a stable individual?”

“Was he raving mad? Tearing his fingernails off? Pulling his eyes out to eat them?”

“Is that really the baseline?”

“Would you call a wyvern stable?”

“No.”

“What of a drake?”

“Yes, I would call them stable.”

“Why? A drake is still driven by instinct, it cannot choose to be high energy, it cannot choose to sit still and raise a family, it cannot choose what it is. Those that can choose, they are an extreme rarity, like that wyvern you have.”

“So to you, stability is that they have a free will.”

“Of course. Do you know why I set all of this up? To get this chance to speak with you, to ask that you help me to fix them. I am one of a very lucky few that has not only stability but a conscience. Why do you think that I sent Yalda and Baoth to you? Now, I had to risk Sholl as well to-”

“Wait, how much of this did you set up? And are you saying that you wanted me to kill Yalda and Baoth?”

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

“This base did not exist a year ago. I pooled significant resources here, and then I sent Rosen to that city, then I took his family here to force you to come. If Seraphallen has his way, he would’ve just continued to hammer his targets until eventually he had enough time to spare to go after you. But, you happened to wash up on my shore. Now-”

The tunnel shook.

“I believe that you’ve destroyed a large section of our outer wall with those dirt eaters. Seraphallen has been called, and will be here soon. In three days, I will be on the southern end of the stripe that holds Duran, since it isn’t so terribly far from here. Now, fire on me with that gun and then leave that axe stuck in my shoulder.”

“Why?”

“It needs to look like your golems slowed me down, then you attacked me as the tunnel collapsed, leaving me trapped under the ground long enough for you to escape. If Seraphallen finds you first, you won’t make it out of the field.”

Fomoria listened, droplets of liquid metal splashed on the walls as the slugs struck him, but found little purchase, then he swung as hard as he could.

If Cast needed their hearts, Ur would’ve died, instead, he just nodded his head as he waved Fomoria away and started punching the walls to collapse the tunnel.

Fomoria hardly got out of the tunnel, the collapsing ceiling forced dust though his gate, obstructing the view as he exited.

But there was no issues with this, each Other involved in the operation fell back to a different point, then took a series of gates in a back and forth to hide their trail.

It was going to be clear that Fomoria had done this, the presence of Eolgi, gates, unconventional tactics, all of it would point to him.

But Fomoria expected all of this, and had taken preparations.

What he didn’t ever expect was that Ur would want to talk to him, that he would help with the escape, and that he seemed… reasonable.

None of that mattered, not yet at least.

Fomoria told Rosen when this would be happening, and he was waiting with the amulet.

The instant he saw it flash, he answered.

“How did it go? Are they alright? What-”

“I exited from a different tunnel and drew attention towards myself to keep her safe. I am now outside of the anti-magic field, and that none of my Others have requested help or died means that she must’ve gotten out. Go to Kor and wait for me.”

Now, now he could go back to worrying.

Ur had set this up, sure, but he could only do that since Fomoria happened to show up in an area under his jurisdiction. And it was Xol who sent him to Kor, but whose plan was that? Did The Darkness ask him to send him to that spot?

He had ignored it, but something was off with Xol, more than just the fact that being 80,000 years old was certain to cause issues with the mind; any mortal was not designed to live for so long.

Was he really just trying to be a good friend? Or was it something more?

Once more, he pushed the thoughts away and felt guilty for having them in the first place.

Xol had helped with things he had no reason to, he told him things that put him at risk, he wouldn’t even have any inkling of a plan to sever… Fomoria would continue to trust Xol, but the guilt over wondering if he was part of plans on plans was gone.

Back in Kor, Rosen was in the tea room of the mansion with Yara while they waited for his wife and daughter to clean themselves.

The carriers were safe, hygienic, but their insides were not dry.

“So, my husband says that you are going to move inside of the veil to his lands.”

“Yes, he said that he could move us there, far away from where the Castians could reach us.

He even set me up with work. I will be the understudy to a man, Sepul, for a year, to acclimate myself to the social contract inside the veil, so he says. Then I can be a teacher of spatial magic at that academy he told me about.”

“You haven’t touched your tea. Please, drink, it will calm you while you wait.”

“Where is Fomoria? He called me, but said to wait for him here.”

“If he hasn’t arrived yet, and the Others haven’t said anything, then he must be off doing something important, or, he’s just watching the sunset somewhere in the world.

One day, we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all watching different sunsets.

Do you plan for more children?”

“Even the daughter I have was a… she was unplanned. But, if it really is safe there, relatively, then maybe.”

“That’s nice.”

Yara gripped her cup tightly.

“You… you’ve lost a child, haven’t you? But you haven’t had one yet. Are you infertile?”

“I can’t get into the details.”

“Fomoria wouldn’t like it?”

“No, there’s just nothing to say, we can’t have children.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

He awkwardly drank his tea, trying to avoid extending the conversation.

Rosen didn’t believe himself to be the sort of man who could give her any comfort, his thoughts were only about how much happier he was with his daughter.

Fomoria came down the hall just as a woman and girl did with their hair still damp.

They saw him and froze, but he wasn’t in his armor anymore, so all they could tell from his clothes was that he was an important man.

“Good afternoon. Apologies about the… fast exit. Were the carriers as comfortable as I hoped?”

“It was slimy.”

Fomoria chuckled at the young girl’s response.

“That slime was to help keep you safe. I can’t believe that I haven’t asked your father, but, what are your names?”

“My name is Allie, my daughter’s name is Nathalia.”

“It is good to see that you are well after all that.”

“You… you are the man who took us out then? With the axe and all the… all the blood.”

“It wasn’t pleasant. But my encounters with Castians rarely are. Oh, I’m sorry to keep you from your husband.”

“It is no worry, you are our savior.”

It was all rather saccharine, Rosen speaking with his wife and daughter, telling them about the nice man who would be moving them somewhere else.

But Fomoria, puzzlingly enough, found himself angry as he listened, not that he showed any of it.

Nathalia seemed excited about the idea of finally having a proper house, of staying in a place for long enough for her to have friends she wouldn’t leave behind.

But that only upset him more.

Fomoria began to gag.

“Honey, are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m just… I’m sorry, I need to step outside, I need fresh air.”

He walked into a void gate, he couldn’t stay anymore.

At the top of a mountain, Fomoria emptied his stomach.

It didn’t make sense, the smell of blood, guts, the horror of it all, he was over it, he was passed it, none of it should matter anymore.

A bony hand touched his shoulder.

“Are you well?”

“I’m fine, I just… I just needed fresh air.”

“No, that’s bullshit. What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I… I was just listening to Rosen and his family speaking about what they are going to be doing after they get out.”

“And then?”

“I got angry, I was overcome with rage and I couldn’t stand to be in the room. Do you know any Castian weapons that-”

“You’re jealous.”

“What?”

“You are jealous, so jealous that you can’t stand it, and that made you angry, then that anger triggered your guilt, the guilt made you so stressed out that you became sick, your stomach upturned.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“What exactly did they talk about?”

“Allie, his wife, suggested that they might have another child. Rosen was glad to get away from the Cast. Nathalia wanted to stay in one place, make friends.”

“Are you aware that you are gripping that stone so hard it’s turning to gravel?”

Fomoria looked at his hand, which was resting on a stone which now cracked and crumbled.

Xol sat next to him.

“I am certain that The Darkness won’t like this. But, you don’t need to do this, any of it. Maintain the lands that you have, just, live a life where you don’t need to be jealous like this.”

“I can’t. People are-”

“The expectations of people so often lead to an aching heart, a broken spirit, and a sickness of the mind.

You don’t need to be a sacrifice, you don’t need to be their hero.”

“Nobody else will.”

“80,000 years, that is how long I’ve been alive. Heroes don’t win, they just beat back the violence and hate for a time, then they die, they die painfully, and everyone mourns them, and then everything goes back to the way that it was. A moral man cannot make a moral world.”

“That’s why I must-”

“No, you don’t, there is nothing that you must do. I am going to say this as a friend.

Just, stop. You don’t want to be here, you don’t want to save these people, you just want to feel better about all of the killing you’ve already done, you want to forgive yourself for it, to one day decide that it is enough, but it never will be. So, just stop, go off with Yara, take Darrath, live peacefully.”

“You know that you won’t be able to change me, right? You know that this is all bullshit?”

“I do, but, I had to at least give you the option, let you know that you could if you wanted to. Your hand isn’t so tight now, yes?”

He opened and closed his fist, the tension was gone.

“I never expected you to give up on your crusade, that isn’t you. Sometimes the hero has their moment of doubt, and I’ve seen many of them. This, this is nothing, it’s just you being upset because you know that you and Yara can’t have children, and you’ve put on this face of acceptance while it works through you like a cancer.”

Xol pulled a bottle of dark liquor from his sleeve.

“Don’t drink this, well, probably don’t. But remember that you have the option to run, that you are choosing to stay, take pride in that, in being the man that this world will chew up and spit out, because to be good should be expected, but to remain as good when everything is pushing you towards being worse, to hold your grounds, that is to be exceptional.”

He grabbed the bottle and Xol left.