Harlan couldn’t believe the news, but more than that, he couldn’t believe what Rosewell was asking of him.

“Harlan? Harlan? Are you-”

“Fuck you.”

“This is for the best. Parnell can get a pardon if we-”

“You want to drag David’s name through the mud-”

“HE DRAGGED HIS NAME THROUGH THE MUD BY KILLING MY ROYAL GUARD.”

Rosewell slammed her hands on the throne.

Her eyes flared with mana, the arrays reacted to her thoughts, though she gave no order, and Harlan was forced to his knees.

When she calmed herself, he was allowed to rise again.

“We’ve let you get away with heinous crimes, things that would get dukes executed without question, and David just followed in your footsteps, but lacked the usefulness to the kingdom that let you avoid us finding a way to… I don’t want to hear anymore of this. I will use David as an excuse, a reason why everyone was slaughtered at the summit so I don’t look any worse in the eyes of history. Justified or not, I planned and carried out the murder of dozens of nobles after discussing a truce.”

“You planned, I carried out. That blood is on my hands, you just sat back and let us-”

“Harlan, go home. You are in no state to argue, and I am in no state to hear it. You lost your friend, I lost over a dozen good men and women. Your friend murdered them by inviting all of those other-”

“Your highness.”

“Charlin?”

“David Haywood claimed that he did not send the invitations. I believe him, since he said it to Emperor Fomoria.”

“Nulson… Harlan, go home.”

He tried to open a gate home, but his subconscious overcame his thoughts.

It was late at night, but the guards recognized the feeling of a royal guard entering, and when he came though they recognized him.

“Sir Fomoria, Lady Shelly is-”

“I need to see her.”

“Sir Fomoria-”

He started walking towards the door, and they crossed their spears.

“This is official business, standing in my way is treason against the crown, punishable by death.”

“I will tell a maid to wake her, but I ask that you remain in the foyer until called.”

The moment he heard doors open upstairs, he wanted to flee, he wanted to run away from this.

He thought back to the first time he went with them on an orc hunt, David tried to get him not to go with the black suits to tell a woman her husband died, but he went anyway.

His mind began to race back to when he told his parents that Redmond was dead.

He didn’t even remember it, it was like someone else took over his body, he could hear, he could see, but it didn’t feel like he was there.

When a shadow came over him, he didn’t even look.

“David is dead.”

“I knew that the moment you came through those doors.”

The voice wasn’t hers.

“Sheron?”

The maid had gone to her first, and she prevented Shelly from being woken; she still had her negligee on.

“What happened?”

“Emperor Fomoria. He killed him.”

“Parnell?”

“Alive, somewhere.”

“What could you have done?”

“I could’ve-”

“Nothing at all. You couldn’t possibly change anything.”

“I-”

“No, you couldn’t.”

“If-”

“No, you couldn’t.”

She put her hands on his shoulders and pulled him towards her.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because, as I’ve come to understand you, why he was doing what he was, I knew this would happen one day. But I expected you to be the one who killed him.”

“How?”

“He always had that part of him inside, but meeting you, the civil war, Nemain, these things all caused that seed to flourish. Both of you shared too much in mentality, both you weren't on the same size, so there could only be one of you left standing. But, the war is over, isn’t it?”

“You can’t know that.”

“Without him, this war would’ve been over months ago. He and Parnell killed on both sides to extend it, if it isn’t over with his death, then it will be soon. I think you should go, I will tell Shelly in the morning, this isn’t your fault, but she is going to be angry with whoever tells her, and she already hates me.”

“That-”

“David was damaged. May’s death affected all of us, and I failed to protect him as best I could.

I hate myself for that failure, for being bitter, first after Dawn, then after her. I should’ve taken him in, taken him away from his father, I should’ve been better.”

She tried as best she could to hide it, but her eyes watered and her face twitched.

“I’ll go.”

“She is going to want to see you tomorrow, just understand her, don’t let her beat you down, it is just the grief.”

“You sound like you already know.”

“Like mother, like daughter.”

Sheron spent the night weeping, Harlan was just numb, someone else was in his head again.

Adina found him staring at a wall.

“Honey? What’s-”

“I don’t want to talk about it. I think… I think I’m going to go on a walk.”

“Harlan, you shouldn't go out. Whatever this is, you aren’t alright.”

“I know.”

Two days? Three? A week?

How long had he been wandering? Where had he been wandering?

“Hello?”

A young boy, not older than 11, poked his shoulder.

He was filthy, covered in mud, he had open wounds, sticks in his hair.

“Are you lost?”

“Let me heal you.”

“You’re a mage?”

“Yes. Please, allow me to help.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

In just a few moments, the boy was clean, healed, and cheerful.

“Are you lost?”

“No. I’m just trying to find food.”

“What about your parents?”

“Mama and papa told me they had to go away for a few days, but I think it’s been longer than that.”

“Any siblings? Neighbors? Someone who can take care of you?”

“I’m alright. Do you want some berries?”

“How about we go back to your home, and I will make you something to eat?”

“Alright.”

The house was dilapidated, mud had been used to seal cracks and holes, most of the windows were broken or covered up.

“How long have your parents been gone?”

“Since… more than a few days.”

When he ran his hand along the walls, he noticed his own hand cracked, his skin was dry.

What had he been doing?

What flour was that had been so moth bitten that there wasn’t anything worth recovering from it.

“Is there anyone else in the area? Actually, do you know where we are?”

“We’re in my home.”

“Right, of course.”

Harlan began to search the rest of the house with divination, but the boy had barely been able to sustain himself, let alone stock up food.

So, he turned to leave.

“DON’T GO, PLEASE.”

The boy tried to tug on Harlan’s sleeves, but he made no effect on him.

“I need to hunt so you can eat.”

“TAKE ME WITH YOU.”

“Alright, just, stay quiet.”

It didn’t take long for Harlan to find a deer, divination for hunting was actually considered to be unsportsmanlike due to the ease of use and lack of tracking skills.

But for sustenance hunting, or for culling, nobody had much of an issue with its use.

He raised his hand, pointed at the animal, and froze.

It stared him in the eyes, and just stood there, like it wanted to die, like it understood why he was doing what he was.

But his hand began to shake, and it fled.

“It’s getting away.”

“I-”

“I haven’t had meat in a long time.”

Harlan looked at the boy, he was pale, even the short walk had him very tired, and his mouth had cracks all around.

While Aardian doctors focused more on magic, and they wouldn’t call it an iron deficiency, but a red meat deficiency, they at least knew the signs of a poor diet.

Harlan knew that the boy needed to eat flesh, but he still didn’t go after the deer.

“I’ll find berries. Climb on my back.”

They returned to the house with a large bag of berries, and they ate.

“Did you repair the house?”

“I tried. But it gets cold sometimes.”

“Have your parents been gone since it snowed last?”

“The time before that.”

“Have you eaten any meat since they’ve been gone.”

“Papa had jerky, and we had chickens. It was hard to butcher them, and they didn’t taste very good.

A deer died outside once, and I got sick when I ate it.”

“You can’t stay here. I have a place for children who-”

“I have to stay. When mama and papa-”

“What is your name?”

“Harlan.”

“That’s my name too. Harlan, your parents, they’ve been gone more than a few days, they aren’t coming back.”

The boy punched him, he pounded his little hands against the wall that was Harlan, but he did not cry.

“They are coming back.”

Harlan could only sigh.

Two days passed, and the boy came down with an illness.

Yet Harlan couldn’t heal him, and he found that he couldn’t force the boy to leave because he couldn’t bring himself to harm him.

The boy was simply too weak to have any magic be used on him, both Harlan’s healing the days before and his taking the boy along to hunt had been too much; his lack of sustenance caught up to him.

“I’m going to hunt. You need to stay here and rest.”

Yet the little Harlan held tightly to his sleeve.

“I’m coming back.”

“Mama and papa said they would be back.”

He pressed telekinesis against the boy’s throat, and he passed out quickly.

Again, finding the deer was easy to find, but his hand shook, he couldn’t kill it.

It walked up to him.

“You must kill me. The boy needs-”

“SHUT UP, I’M DREAMING, AREN’T I?”

“Or am I what you are really thinking? Are you simply hallucinating me talking to you because you need someone to give you permission to kill them? On that note, where have you even been? Why are your hands so cracked and dry? Think, what are you doing here?”

“I want to save him.”

“Kill me.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“The path of-”

“FUCK YOUR PATHS. I DON’T WANT TO JUST PRETEND THAT I’M DOING THE RIGHT THING WHEN I’M STILL KILLING EVERYONE.”

“Then the boy will die.”

It walked away slowly, stopping to look back.

“Kill me.”

“No.”

Harlan launched two spells, one that cut a piece of flank, and one that healed the wound.

“Fool.”

Delusion or not, he came to his own conclusions.

He could process berries, grass, bark, most anything he could eat, would be able to be broken down for the full nutritional content, the boy couldn’t.

So, Harlan, with his powerful stomach, ate the berries, and then used the mana generated from that to grow the small piece of deer flank into more meat, which he fed to the boy.

While the boy rested, Harlan fixed up the home.

Yet when he repaired the cracks, replaced the windows, regrew the rot, so too did his hands repair.

The mental and the physical shared a greater connection with Harlan than others.

And now he was sure.

“Boy, what is this place?”

“This is my-”

“Are you Fae?”

“No.”

“What is your real name?”

“I am everything, and I’m you.”

“Life?”

“She’s not as big as me.”

He racked his brain for just a few moments.

“You are mana, or Mana? Are you a real person? A god above all gods?”

“I just am.”

“Why am I here?”

“The sigil, it called me, and I became it. The other was killed.”

“The other? What does that mean?”

“Your sigil, you killed it.”

“But… Fomoria.”

“You killed it.”

“I am Harlan, the other person is Fomoria.”

“I don’t understand.”

It was an interpretation filtered through Harlan, but it wasn’t intelligent, not really, so it couldn’t understand why two people with almost exactly the same mana weren’t one person.

“Why did he… I, kill you?”

“I tried to give him what he wanted. But he didn’t want it.”

“What did he want?”

“To be wrath.”

“What do I want?”

“To forgive yourself. But you can’t, because humans can’t forgive. They can only move on.”

“How do I move on?”

“I don’t understand. You want to be wrath.”

“No, I don’t. I want to… I want to be able to handle David’s death.”

“Humans can’t handle death. They can only interpret it.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t understand. What do you want?”

“I want to… I want to be able to protect people, from themselves, from others.”

“But you are wrath.”

“I don’t want to be wrath. ”

“Alright. Be mercy.”

Harlan awoke.

“Harlan, you can’t just leave me and Viviane. We need-”

“How long have I been quiet?”

“A few minutes. You said you were going to leave then you stopped talking.”

“I’ve been… somewhere else.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m sorry.”

Harlan suddenly collapsed.

“WHAT’S WRONG? HARLAN? TALK TO ME.”

His bones were painfully ejected from his body, and new ones grew in their place, he felt the sigil taking over his body.

His skeleton lightened, like someone bleached them then cast light arrays over his body, his blood turned from black to white, making him even paler.

The process wasn’t painful, the sigil lowered his threshold for Harlan just as it had for Fomoria.

When he stood, his empathy was enhanced, everything was.

The black blood was just dark mana coursing through his body in higher amounts, a little gift from The Darkness, this white blood had no basis in light mana however, it was just a reflection of Harlan.

“I’m alright. I’m actually better than fine.”

“What happened before?”

“David is dead, Fomoria killed him.”

“Why did you go quiet?”

“Mana spoke to me, perhaps it was just me in another form, drawn by the sigil Fomoria taught me.

It is still inside, but changed.”

“What is that?”

“Mercy.”

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

I am scared, but I can’t let Fomoria know.

He tried so hard to protect me, he let me live when he should’ve just killed me.

I was a parasite, an infection.

He is a good man.

“Are you absolutely certain?”

“If he attacks instantly, I will flee, if not, then I ask for help.”

“I just-”

“Fomoria, I want to do this. I won’t be in danger.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Have faith.”

Everything is so much brighter here, has Fomoria been darkening more than just the doorway?

The shadows in his heart grow each passing day; I wish I could help him more.

The doorway is only a short flight.

Oh? A beast approaches; I should go to a tree branch to wait for her.

“Beast of Fae will, what reason can you give that I do not smite you where you perch.”

“I came to see Harlan. Fomoria wants his help.”

“So say you, so say it true?”

“I do.”

That felt strange.

“Then a meeting between you and he shall be determined by his will.”

The wall opened, that is neat.

“Hello, Harlan. I am-”

“Micheal. I’m sorry, but I cannot help you.”

“Why not?”

“What you are going to ask me, I cannot do it. I’m sorry.”

“How do you know? Fomoria would seek and try until he could not any longer.”

“I will not take any part in his war. I cannot seek the path of less harm, I cannot do harm.

To work with him would only put millions more deaths on my head.”

“You are a coward. Goodbye.”

Micheal flew back through the void gate.