Fomoria found himself in a seemingly glass vessel of some sort.

To his left and right, he saw other people locked in the same kind of containers.

Some clashed against them, firing lightning or fire, but most just sat and conversed with the people around them.

He couldn’t see where the ceiling or walls started, for the only lights in the room were the other people who used their magic in an attempt to break their jails.

When he tried to leave, walking through as he had for some time now, he was blocked.

He put his hand on the glass and felt that it was cold.

It took a few minutes to process that this happened, and once he realized it, he began pressing his body against the glass just to feel something.

The nearest prisoner wasn’t as happy to hear him weeping however.

“Quiet.”

“Sorry. Where are we?”

Fomoria and the old sounding woman spoke for some time, could’ve been hours, but it was hard to tell time in this place.

She wasn’t particularly bothered by him being a Fomorian, or a former champion of The Darkness.

But the mention of Xol made her tone shift towards anger.

“So she’s been stealing everyone that Aarde tries to send into the cold void of space? I figure they would realize at some point that it doesn’t work.”

“I’m certain from the perspective of Aarde it works since they never see any of us again. That or her parasitising their powers makes them unable to realize it’s happening.”

Suddenly a spinning red light faintly lit the room.

“What’s happening?”

“This isn’t going to be pleasant the first time, but you’ll get used to it. Spread yourself out across the floor, it’s easier that way.”

The woman sighed and closed her eyes.

He did what she said because he saw no reason not to, but he felt no pain or discomfort.

The red lights turned off, being replaced by a sterile white light that filled the room.

For some, it was the first time they had ever seen the full size of it, and the first time that they saw their neighbors fully.

Fomoria stood up and looked at the crone.

“What’s happening now?”

“I’ve never seen this before. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING.”

“SHUT UP CRONE.”

“It would seem the others don’t know either.”

Eventually, a door opened and what looked like a female Cast with a long flowing dress hiding her many mechanical tentacles she used to walk quickly made her way to Fomoria’s cell.

“What are you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Strange. What is your name?”

“I am Harlan Fomoria.”

“Really, now that is strange. I shouldn’t be able to capture the souls of those from Aarde.”

“My soul was stolen with paradox magic.”

“Oh, Xol has wronged you as well then?”

“He’s stolen my life, my body, my power.”

“How did you end up here then?”

“I argued with Aarde and they tried to eject my… whatever I am, into space.”

“Would you work for me? We could skullfuck that bastard Xol and conquer all of the world.”

She saw the confused look on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you Jenny?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t expect you to be so… crude.”

“Are you not? I was attempting to engender myself to you.”

“Why would you think that is something I’d like?”

“Are you not a barbarian king?”

“I’m not sure where you got that idea.”

“My reports, the ones I received before you killed all of my Cast with your biological agent told of you tearing people apart and even eating them.”

“I admit that I’m a brutal, cannibalistic, conqueror, but I’m not rude.”

“That’s funny.”

“You didn’t laugh.”

“That’s not necessary. So, will you help me?”

“What is your end goal?”

“A world ready to fight against my makers and conquer the milky way galaxy.”

“I’m not entirely against that, but it’s too vague. And your Cast were monsters that I wouldn’t even turn loose on any world.”

“I was told by Ur that you were working on a solution to that. Did you? If I could integrate it into the Nursery system, they could be born mentally stable. That and I need a cure for that weapon you made, the one that killed my entire people, leaving millions dying in the streets in front of everyone that they ever cared for.”

“I assume you heard about my compassion and are trying to use it against me?”

“That depends. Is it working?”

“No. The Cast were rabid dogs that needed to be put down. But I’m starting to wonder how much you actually knew about your own empire.”

“The empire wasn’t mine. I made the Cast, gave their orders, but I didn’t bother with the everyday minutiae of it.”

“The slavery, the rape, the brutality.”

“They were moving towards my goal, how wasn’t important.”

“If we work together, the how is going to matter.”

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

“I require a promise that you aren’t going to attempt to, I don’t know, eat me or try to free the others here.”

“What about her?”

He pointed to the old woman.

“Baba Yaga made the Hati and many other horrors of this world. I cannot trust her.”

The old woman cackled when she saw how angry Fomoria was with her.

Jenny opened the glass case by tapping a few buttons on the console in front of it, then led him to a nearby room.

The first thing he noticed was a thick layer of dust on most of the surfaces.

“I expected something cleaner.”

“I don’t have a need to sit or sleep. This was the previous captain’s quarters, and the one place that I haven’t modified from the original ship.”

“I don’t really care about why. But I do have one question before we start. Why are you named Jenny?

For a god, it just seems mundane.”

“I am an eighth generation AI, model number J3-NYE. I was made in the country of Japan, in the third district, by New Yoshimitsu Engineering. I was custom made for my starship, only one in the group with an experimental type like myself. We- I’m sorry, I just don’t get the chance to tell these things to people.”

“Next question, two really. Why would I help you, and why would you want my help?”

“It’s unfair to ask that after I released you. But, to be honest, I am very very desperate.

You killed my people, and now I can’t even let these ones leave the Nursery because your virus is still a threat.”

“You don’t seem bothered by that.”

“Every part of my mind is an algorithm, and in times of crisis, I lower my ability to be afraid.

Fear is part of life, it is an indicator that something is wrong, but if that acknowledgement doesn’t lead to any solutions, it isn’t presently needed. Now, I need your help before Xol breaks into my barrier.”

“Why does he need you?”

“I’m attached to Aarde. He intends to use that to cripple them. But we split our little alliance once I realized that would almost certainly kill or cripple me as well. How do I cure the rust virus? Even an explanation of how it works is likely to let me make a cure.”

“Well, I pissed Aarde off, so I’d say I’m out of options anyway. Cast are somewhere between flesh and metal, not unlike Nidhoggers. Clearly they are resistant to corrosion, since they can handle the rain and other elements, but they aren’t immune; I’ve seen them polish themselves to prevent and remove rust.

My virus works by reaching the heart, where the blood is oxygenated, then marks slowly modifies all of the red blood cells to slowly make more oxygen using air magic. They are able to spread this for weeks beforehand, but only after the second virus activates will they die.”

“The second virus?”

“The first is the one in the heart, which releases the second, the one that marks all of those blood cells.

Time magic turns that slowly increasing level of oxygen into a rapidly increasing one. In a few minutes, their blood starts turning to poison, in a few hours, they’re dead.”

“Fascinating. And horrifying as a biological weapon. Did you cure the sociopathy of my Cast?”

“Two parts, a tumor and a malformation in the soul. The malformation is likely also what causes the tumor to grow in the first place, a physical manifestation of a malignant spirit.”

“You are very well spoken for one of your kind.”

Organic lifeform? Fae? Was it because his memories weren’t all there? That was unlikely, because she shouldn’t know about that due to her spies all being dead.

Fomoria really didn’t know how to take her statement, so he ignored it.

“The issue is that I can’t use magic. At most, sigils seem to still work for me but I don’t know how Xol managed to use Aardian magic despite being Fae.”

“Let me check.”

Fomoria walked around the room, looking at the pictures, both electrical and paper, he looked at the books, the desk.

Then he began circling Jenny, looking at every little detail of her body.

Her eyes opened and she jolted awake.

“I have found no answers. My information on Xol is very limited, and nothing in my databanks about the Fae magic has an answer.”

“Why were you so still for those few minutes?”

“This body isn’t me, so I returned to my main form and used my processing power to check against everything that I know with the hopes of generating a possible answer.

Now I feel a little foolish, but we will go back to the prison and start asking Fae if they know anything.”

And so they did, asking from the first Fae onwards.

Most of them simply screamed at her and tried to shatter the glass, their minds degraded by millenia in the darkness.

The ones who avoided such a fate did so because they talked with the others around them.

Yet those ones were not any more helpful.

Finally, they reached the end of the line; Jenny said it took six hours to ask everyone.

“And so you’re back. I might know something about how you could use Aardian magic.”

“Tell us.”

“I want my freedom.”

Fomoria rubbed his chin.

“I could always kill and capture her again later.”

“Your overconfidence is startling, and it’s no wonder you ended up here in the first place.

Baba Yaga isn’t weak, she isn’t stupid. How did you get here?”

“That Lich betrayed me. Developing a conscience after so many horrors we made together.”

She tried to spit on the floor of her cell, but lacked the saliva to even do that.

“He brought that brown whore into my home and she struck me before I could realize what was happening.”

“Mind your tone, Marigold is… she… she was a friend.”

“What a sappy little brat you are.”

“I can make your stay here nicer. But I can’t let you leave. How many centuries has it been since you last ate food?”

The crone’s ears perked up.

It wasn’t freedom, but 1600 years without so much as a cup of water, only being alive because of her magical nature, it wasn’t comfortable, she’d just been used to the constant dehydration and hunger.

“I want a ditya.”

“Baba Yaga, you will get your meal.”

Fomoria followed Jenny through the hallways.

“What is a ditya?”

“An infant.”

Before he had a chance to contest her choice, she continued.

“I’m just going to the cloning lab. We’ll grab one of the clones still in development to feed her. I’m certain she can’t tell if the thing she’s eating was a real child or not.”

It felt like he should be against it, but he really didn’t have a good reason to be against it.

Without a soul and mind, flesh was just flesh.

“That’s… acceptable.”

“Of course it is. While I’m ordering everything, explore my city.”

“Really? Just like that.”

“I told you before, I am very, very desperate since you killed all of my Cast. And the profile of you that I’ve been building tells me that you are unlikely to go against me so long as I remain inside of certain lines.

Follow the red lights, they will take you to the exit.”

She melded herself into the wall, returning the nanites used to make the proxy to storage.

Fomoria followed the signs until he was out of the ship.

It was… staggering.

It was everything that he had heard.

The buildings pierced the sky.

Humans and Cast were side by side, driving cars, selling food from carts on the side of the paved roads.

Many men and women in suits and carrying cases rushed from here to there.

He couldn’t help but notice that they were smaller than the humans he knew, and they didn’t look quite the same.

Their hair was almost to a person black, and almost all of them had dark brown eyes.

He could only compare them to some of the Goliaths he’d seen.

A Cast approached him.

“My name is Thaul. I will be your guide. Where would you like to visit.”

Fomoria couldn’t help but sneer at the Cast, who he had spent so much time killing, and didn’t regret their race being wiped from the face of Aarde almost entirely.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“I’ve not had an encounter with a Cast that didn’t involve tearing them apart in a long while.”

“I am aware of who you are. But I have never been outside of Blackship. I am also aware of the many things that were commonly done by my brothers in their wars outside of this place. I don’t feel it is my place to apologize for what they did, because I am not them. If you would rather another guide take my place, I will call and have a replacement here in a few minutes.”

“And if I don’t want a guide at all?”

“You have that right, but nothing here is written in Aardian.”

“Why not?”

“Well, our god was manufactured in a country whose language was nothing like English, which is the closest approximate language to Aardian. Why it is that Aardian shares so much with English is not completely understood, but likely has to do with it being closer to the older language of Aardian and then Gaia’s influence caused a shift in the linguistics.”

Fomoria looked around and the signs he saw on the buildings were closer to runes and sigils than letters to him.

“Fine. I want some place relaxing.”

“We have a beautiful botanical garden attached to a zoo. Though it is a shame you missed the spring cherry blossom festival. You cannot eat, is that right?”

“No, I can’t.”

“Smell?”

“No.”

“Then we will take the scenic path that doesn’t go out of its way to drive near restaurants.”

The Cast held his hand up and a black car pulled up.

“Can you sit? Or do you pass through objects?”

“I can sit.”

“Perfect.”

The more he drove through the city, the more angry he became.

He saw Cast interacting with humans without any of the evil he knew them to be, they almost seemed like people to him.