Three weeks passed, and extra Others were sent to the academy to act as teachers, but the rest were going to be used as marshalls.

The army was not meant for conquering, not yet at least, and so golems and Others descended on several cities on the stripe to the west.

Fomoria led his own group into the largest city along the eastern coast of the stripe.

The assaults all started the same way, with a week of preparation.

They marked entrances and looked around for who was important in the city, then all at once, they approached each of the city leaders.

The mayor had a rather set schedule, and ate at the same restaurant every day for lunch.

Fomoria sat down with a cup of tea, and stuck his finger in it.

“Excuse me, this table is taken.”

“In five minutes, either you live or you die.”

Fomoria dropped his illusion, revealing his true face.

The mayor froze.

“So, will this be a peaceful ending, or will my forces need to start slaughtering your soldiers in the street.”

The man reached for his sword and Fomoria tossed the now superheated tea in his face, melting his flesh.

While the man screamed on the ground, Fomoria put him down with a void bolt, then activated the array which spread a message across the city, warning them to put down their weapons or die.

The fighting started in the slave markets, since Fomoria assumed that they would kill them just to spite him; they tried.

Blood filled the streets and the scent of iron was heavy in the air.

As soon as most of the enemy forces were dead, then the soldiers arrived in an attempt to take control of the situation and get the civilians back to their homes; the town was partly evacuated already.

Other golems came through the void gate and began to pull the dead bodies back to the flesh pit, and at times finishing them off before they did so; the pit was very low after the Spire of Other was made.

He remained in the air above the city for a few more minutes, then received a call.

One of the Others encountered a Grand Wizard, and requested some help.

Fomoria arrived in his combat form, covered in black bone plate with a mane of black fire.

The Grand Wizard kept the Other at bay with three spheres that cut through any spell that they made contact with.

He wanted to know exactly what they would do to him, so he let one of them brush against his arm.

He could feel it, these were not some rapidly rotating balls of air, these cut against space itself;

Fomoria lost a chunk of his arm.

“I am impressed.”

“I’d rather you were dead.”

“Is that really how you wish to greet your new emperor?”

“You are nothing but an upstart, someone who has yet to be crushed under the heel of the empire like everyone else.”

“Hmm… your voice, I hear it, regret, anger. Do you think that the Castians can exist forever?”

The man launched another sphere at him, and Fomoria grabbed it in his hand.

“Now you can’t use your favorite spell against me.”

The man, with his grayed hair and scars where he had lost flesh in the past, understood what would happen if two of the spatial pockets touched one another.

“You still don’t have an upper hand here.”

Fomoria spun the ball on his fingertip, juggled it.

While the man was distracted, Fomoria opened a gate and grabbed another one of the balls.

The man found it unbelievable, Fomoria was juggling two unstable pockets of space, seemingly with his bare hands.

He outstretched his arms, and then slowly began to bring them together.

The man had one sphere left, but he dispelled it to prevent anything worse from happening, and then began casting spells to stabilize the local space.

Fomoria was still a rather poor spatial mage, but he had experience with this specific spell, as they were the basis of creating spatial items, and he knew how to handle them safely; as safely as anyone could handle them at least.

It was strange to him that so far as he knew, nobody here, outside the veil that is, could make spatially distorted items, yet they were 90% of the way there through their other spatial research.

“I wonder, if I just brought these a little closer…”

The shell of the balls, which seemed like a heat mirage, began to peel and flake.

“NO.”

“Oh? And why not?”

“You can’t be serious, we’ll both die.”

“Were I a being of flesh, perhaps, but all that would cease function is this body. You don’t have such a benefit, do you? Of course not.”

“I surrender.”

“Why?”

“You’ll kill us both if I don’t.”

“No, that isn’t it. You are a spatial mage, you could leave if you wanted. But you also don’t have a reason to be loyal to the Cast, or this city. Whatever could you be staying for?”

The man narrowed his eyes.

“Speak plainly.”

An explosion rang out from below, and smoke began to fill the air, but both men were unfazed by the sounds of combat, the screaming of the dead.

“You were born a slave, but when you showed magical promise, you were made to learn, and then eventually you were granted freedom, as if that is some gift. Yet when you became free, it was too late, and your former master had killed your mother. Still, you remained, and you found a wife of your own, and despite being in your 50s, you fathered a daughter, who is just three years old.

Is this all correct?”

“They have nothing to do with this.”

Fomoria dispelled the spheres.

“If you leave, I will not follow you, but know that the Cast are likely to be upset with you for going without a fight.”

“Who said I wouldn’t fight you?”

“If you fight me, I will kill you.”

“But if you don’t, you won’t lift a finger to stop me?”

“I won’t move an inch to stop you. But do keep my offer in mind.”

The man never broke eye contact as he flew over to the building where his wife and daughter were hiding and then he teleported them away.

That was the reason he really wanted the man.

Fomoria had his gate, his void gate, but not teleport, not the pinnacle of movement abilities, the pinnacle of spatial magic in his mind, to instantly shift from one place to another.

It was rather unfortunate that the academy had its own teleport, which only worked in their lands and was stored in a ring, and then there was the taught version of teleport, which was quite math heavy from the slivers of knowledge he could steal on the subject, and that was a subject he was quite poor at, and only very select individuals were allowed to learn it.

He killed a few more wizards of different ranks, lesser, greater, but no more grand wizards were in any cities in the entire stripe to the west of Fomoria.

They knew that he was coming, anyone in the entire stripe knew that it was coming, so the Cast moved their strongest assets away, but this man, Rosen, was a wanderer, he had no home, he stored everything in his mind.

Turning him wasn’t just a matter of gaining knowledge, turning a Grand Wizard would be a morale victory, a sign that great talent could come from a slave, and that slavery only bred resentment which would surely flare up later.

Any slaves who had been granted freedom as a gift would suddenly become the targets of the Cast, because they would become a risk once they knew that leaving was actually an option now.

Some would die, but others would defect from the Cast of their own will.

The population of Fomoria grew by nearly a million in that single day.

The Cast had been moving people out of the stripe, abandoning it so they could reinforce the surrounding stripes, and Fomoria attacked the ships out at sea and the other coastal cities where the slaves and citizens who hadn’t yet left were being prepared.

Technically speaking, Fomoria had only conquered and held the eastern coast, since he didn’t have enough marshalls to hold the rest of the stripe, but the rest of the island was left to die, and he expected it to only take the rest of the month before they came forward and willingly surrendered.

Fleur came directly to Fomoria’s home to request additional aid.

“Your highness, if I may-”

“Fleur, you don’t need to be formal. What do you need?”

“The influx of new residents is causing the system to be entirely overwhelmed. If I may, I would like people from Mercedes’ department to help with processing the slaves into citizens.”

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“No, she is also being overwhelmed. For now, the slaves can be moved to temporary housing, and then each day you and your offices can process as many as possible. I expect that processing everyone is going to take six to eight weeks.”

“I’m sorry for asking then.”

“Of course not, you have the right to request aid. Some of those slaves should have some experience with clerk work, and if they do, you should try to bring them up to speed as quickly as possible.

For now, all I can offer is extra golems to protect the slaves before they are processed.”

“Thank you, your highness.”

She awkwardly turned to leave, as if she was trying to avoid spending time around him.

He thought it odd, but he thought she was trustworthy, and had her reasons.

Why she had come in the first place was odd to him however, considering how she left, and that she was wearing makeup.

Fomoria did feel bad about how he saddled his people with so much extra work, and so he wanted to find out who he could ask for help with this flood of new citizens.

Ragne wouldn’t be a good idea now, on account of the last time he visited them.

But he did have a few ideas about where he could go.

He waited half an hour for another meeting with Hirum.

“I only have a few minutes before my next meeting. What do you need?”

“It seems my material contributions are already bearing fruit if I can get a meeting so quickly.”

“Please, I do have another meeting soon.”

“Do you have any spare pencil pushers? People who can be quickly trained for the interviewing of people and the sorting of them based on this interview are what I need most right now.”

“I can spare maybe a few dozen.”

“Unfortunate, but I should’ve known better. The academy is rather small for its importance after all.”

“Do you want them or not? And for how long?”

“Can they be trained to train others quickly?”

“Each of them would have formal schooling, so I would say it is likely.”

“Then I’ll take them for the next three weeks, if you can spare them that long.”

“Will they need to remain outside the veil?”

“I could return them here each night, void gate takes almost nothing out of me.”

“I will have my secretary put together a list of candidates and decide on them by the end of the day.”

“Thank you very much.”

He called his next idea.

“Bojana, how are you?”

“Harlan?”

“Fomoria. Do I need to explain what I mean by that?”

“It sounds like you do, Little Shadow.”

It took a few minutes, and Bojana seemed unfazed by his explanation and what he asked for next.

Fomoria got another meeting even sooner than with Hirum, though he thought it was just as likely to end with a fight considering where he was and the dirty looks he got while he waited.

“Lady Valda, thank you for your time.”

“It has been a very long time.”

“Is Bojana well?”

“Yes, she has been well. Shame she isn’t here at the moment.”

“Where is she then?”

“She is in the south, fighting against… anyway.”

“The Fomorians. Don’t worry about offending me, I’ve killed my fair share of them myself.”

“Thank you for that. I hope you aren’t here to talk about bringing them with you to your nation.”

“Where did you hear about that?”

“Zella did not just enter The Confederacy and be put in charge of Fomorian clearing without some strings being pulled. She reported to me that you had intent to take them.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be asking if I decide to take them. I am here because I was wondering if I could hire some pencil pushers. I’ve recently rescued a few hundred thousand slaves, but I don’t have enough people to process them in a timely manner.”

“Maybe I would’ve been more likely to help had you not revealed that you intend to bypass the authority of my nation to take criminals from us.”

Fomoria scoffed.

“I’d hardly phrase it like that. All authority is ultimately a matter of force, and I think that I can take whatever I want from you without needing to use that force against you.”

The air suddenly shifted, and Valda’s guards slung their maces over their shoulders, readying them for combat.

“I just need some people for non-combat operations. Valda, surely you can understand that I am trying to do right by those unjustly enslaved. I will triple whatever they are paid here, and I can promise a full set of armor and a weapon for you and Bojana.”

“I am a senator, I do not take bribes.”

Fomoria had to try his hardest to avoid laughing.

“Apologies, I didn’t mean it in that way. But I can offer the equivalent monetary value of these items and I could donate it to your state. How close are you to paying off your portion of the kingdom’s loan anyway?”

“I will speak with my people about sending some civil servants your way.”

“Thank you. Can I expect an answer within the day? And could you put the word out for private individuals as well? Three times whatever the civil servants rate is.”

“Three days, not a moment sooner.”

“Thank you. I do hope that things go this smoothly with the others.”

“Who else do you intend to ask?”

“Tau’s father, Ibery’s father-”

“He retired, so no luck there.”

“Shame. And Adelwulf’s father?”

“Also retired. After the academy attack, many of the more reasonable people have been voted out or asked to retire and pushed out, you’ll find few allies here for your kind.”

“I think that may be exactly who I need. What is Tau’s father’s name by the way?”

“Archon.”

“Thank you.”

He shook hands with the bear woman, both tested the grip of the other.

To better prepare himself, Fomoria first met with Tau.

The giant statue of a Minos hugged Fomoria tightly.

“It has been a long time, friend.”

“It has.”

“I already know what you need, and I’ve spoken with my father.”

“Word travels fast. Did Valda put my request out so quickly?”

“We have… another connection. Come.”

Tau led Fomoria to his basement, where the scent of her was clear.

“How long?”

“Since before we first met. My father has hidden it, because surely nobody wants to be connected with the Mother of Lies, but rumors still came out. I said before that I wasn’t well liked back home because of my pacifism, yes?”

“You mentioned it.”

“That was a half-truth.”

“Were you friends with me because she asked you too?”

Another thought struck him, and Fomoria grew in size, lifting Tau by the collar of his robe.

“Did you get close to Amber because she asked you too.”

“She never asked me to do anything until after we first met, though she did warn me about you before our meeting.”

Fomoria let him down.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

Tau put his hand on his shoulder.

“You’ve still got that unfortunate rage in you. I forgive you.”

“Thank you.”

“Sit, my father will be here in a time, but before then, I would like to catch up.”

When his father arrived, he saw Tau crying and scoffed.

Archon was a dark brown color, but with splashes of gray that showed his age; he was smaller than Tau, thin.

He wore many rings on his fingers, some looked nearly ready to slip off, as if they were never intended for him, or that he had lost a great deal of weight since they were given originally.

His horns were decorated with bands of gold and encrusted with jewels.

His robes were of fine satin and purple in color, worn loosely around his body and held with a bullheaded pin showing him as the current senator of Mino.

Fomoria had never really asked, but he thought it odd when beastkin wore such expensive fabrics, since their fur often meant that they wouldn’t be able to feel it anyway.

The reality was that he was older, and that Fomoria would have little trouble physically overpowering him, but his gaze and stance were like a mountain, his presence was more than just that of a middle aged Minos; he was the very image of a warrior king.

“Quit your whimpering. Boy, bring us to these coordinates.”

“You will address me properly.”

The man stared him down, but Fomoria was unflinching.

“Emperor Fomoria, our meeting will take place here, and it would be fastest if you were to use your gate to bring us there.”

When Fomoria arrived, he was surrounded by Minos with their weapons already drawn.

“If this is supposed to be an ambush, you will regret it.”

The senator laughed, but the rest of the Minos were stone faced.

“If I wanted to kill myself I’d leap down a mineshaft. So, you need clerks, because you rescued a bunch of slaves and they need to be processed before they can be shipped across your country and given new lives. I don’t care about that, you won’t find me crying like a woman because of your sad story.

I want payment in weapons, armor, golems. I have 6000 ready to go right now.”

“Do you intend to throw a coup, is that it?”

“What of it? My son tells me you are outside the veil, this isn’t your problem anymore.”

“That is true, I am outside the veil. But I still have friends and family in Ragne. I need to know your rules of engagement.”

“We want the raping and killing to a minimum, and we don’t want more land than what is rightfully ours. Mino is being drained dry, we are the ones hit the hardest by that godsdamned loan. We just want to break away from the Confederacy so we aren’t being taxed together in both our coin and our people.”

“What of the Ibexians? Are they part of this as well?”

“You are asking too many questions.”

“You just want your independence from an unfair contract that was signed by people who aren’t bearing the brunt of the damage it is causing.

If the Ibexians are willing to grant me people, I could give them the same deal as you. Your nations do border one another, do they not?”

“Stop asking.”

“Fine. We have a deal. Do they need to be returned each night?”

“They will stay for a period of three weeks, you will provide food, clothes, shelter, and protection.”

The Minos tossed a contract at Fomoria, who read the details.

“All of this is fine by me, but I will have my head advisor look it over once and return within the hour.

I suspect she’ll want minor changes, but have your people ready for me, gathered in one central location for easy transportation.”

“Bring me example weapons and armor along with a golem when you return. I want to check the quality myself.”

“Not a problem.”

Mercedes wished that he would’ve just brought her with instead, in part because offering triple the government pay for Ursa workers was an awful deal in her eyes even if both of them had no idea what that would actually be.

“Stop offering deals without asking me. I am your head advisor, but unless you want to pile work on me, you don’t ask my opinion on any of this bullshit.”

She slammed the table.

“I’m sorry, I will be sure to bring you when I next go inside the veil.”

“It’s not that… it’s not just that. I am just frustrated about all the new people coming in and the mountain of work that has been made for me.”

“I would take them in more slowly, but if I gave them time, the Cast would move the slaves to other stripes not currently under attack or just outright kill them to prevent me from getting them.”

Fomoria began to rub her shoulders, healing magic flowing from his fingertips and removed tension from her muscles; Mercedes began to doze off.

“Stop that. I have work to do, and- Nevermind.”

“Of course, I mean nothing by this, and I wouldn’t want to turn Larenzac into a cuckold.”

She jumped in her seat.

“Of course I know you two are together, and I’m not shocked. You and him are together throughout the day because of your work together, proximity breeds contempt or affection. And let me guess, you hid this from me because you weren’t sure if it was serious, and then when you thought about telling me, you were worried about how I was since Anon left me.”

She tried to make herself seem smaller.

“Don’t worry, I have no issues with you two being together, but remember that you are both under me, and that you must maintain professionalism if things don’t work out. I’m happy that you found a man who you can be together with, love is a wonderful thing.”

“Thank you. Your majesty.”

He was annoyed at how afraid she was, since in his mind he hadn’t done anything threatening.

Not much happened over the next few days, Fomoria met with Archon, they brought over thousands of pencil pushers, and then they were trained and ready for work within a day.

Fomoria thought that he needed to have a real conversation with Tau about his connection to The Darkness, but that was a problem for later, for right now, Dantevius was at the south gate, and he had Joan with him.