Aurelius looks ahead of himself to see that Setanta’s body is rather furry and is much more animalistic than human. Despite Setanta’s body retaining a humanoid shape, his face is next to indifferent to a human, with the exception of his ears.

Setanta looks at Aurelius and says, “What’s wrong.”

“I just thought you were a normal beastkin but are you a Fanalis?”

Setanta laughs a bit, then says, “I am a normal beastkin.”

Culainn then says, “I think you're under a misconception that a lot of kids fall under.”

“Well, I am sorry I didn’t have an education in beastkin anatomy.”

Culainn says, “Being a Fanalis or not isn’t as simple as one would think. It isn’t a box to check but more of a spectrum. With one end being Fanalis and the other being human.

As beastkin, we consider anyone whose head resembles that of an animal or has gone through intense animalistic changes to be a Fanalis. Because in those cases far more of their brain resembles animals than any other type of beastkin.”

“I see, so would that mean Setanta is close to being considered a Fanalis?”

“Yeah, I am.”

Culainn says, “Quite a bit of his body is that of a Fanalis so he gains their physical strength while retaining a more logical mind, if you pair that with the fact that it is almost impossible to tell he is a Fanalis outside of seeing him naked which is an advantage on the battlefield, and the fact that he also happens to be a wonderbeast beastkin which can regenerate, it all makes him essentially perfect in terms of traits. “

With a smug look, he says, “Perfection comes easily to all Faoláins, it is to be expected.”

Looking at me, he asks, “Does it disgust your human sensibilities?”

“In all honesty kind of. I think you beastkin have really perverted what I find attractive. Though I am sorry, since one cannot control their beauty, I shouldn’t be so rude about it.”

“You don’t have to worry about such things, many beastkin cannot find other beastkin attractive any more than humans.”

“Is it because your animal sensibilities clash with what you see as attractive or not?”

“That plays a part. But for a long period of time, all of us beastkin suppressed our blood and were essentially just humans. So, whether subconsciously or not we see humans are uniformly more beautiful than other animals.

Of course, this doesn’t affect me since I am attracted to almost every type of animal, so I don’t have this issue. But apparently, it has become an issue in a lot of villages are there are people who genuinely cannot find the other beastkin around them attractive, hence they don’t have sex.

This has hit beastkin with more animalistic traits and Fanalis the hardest, since now that they have less sex, they produce less offspring and now our greatest assets are not reproducing and passing on their strength.”

Aurelius says, “The strongest beastkin are not multiplying, what a tragedy!”

“I can hear your sarcasm. And while it is an issue it can easily be solved by migration efforts to get a lot of similar beastkin in the same place. But that also leads us to end up with way too many homogenous beastkin who only have specific traits. It really is very annoying.”

Culainn says, “That’s the kind of thing a leader has to think about.”

Sighing, Setanta says, “I guess so. Aurelius, you hear that us beastkin are fucking up, looks like that’s a victory for all of humanity?”

“I know the comment I made, but in all honesty, I wouldn’t say I am too happy about this. I know more than anyone the pains of having no one around you to love, and I wouldn’t wish that on my enemies.”

Culainn says, “That’s a nice view you have there, but I encourage you to wish destruction on your enemies. Because otherwise, they will triumph.”

With a smile, Aurelius says, “Or you could end up with some great friends,” while looking at Setanta and Culainn.

Culainn says, “Are friendship will soon come to a close, because by the end of today, you will both be done.”

Setanta says, “Wait, didn’t you say this would take us a month or two?”

“You both have done superb work and now we are essentially finished. All we have left to do is deliver these weapons and our job will be done here.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Aurelius says, “That sounds like a wonderful time to escape.”

“You’re not going anywhere?”

“You love me that much?”

“Stop talking as if you are coming with us. You’re a slave I can’t let you leave.”

“AWWW, COME ON!”

Culainn says, “Setanta I would like you to ask your father for permission to take Aurelius with us.”

“Huh?”

“Really?” Aurelius says.

“He has done a lot of work, so I think the least I can give him is the reward of seeing the faces of the people he has helped.”

Slightly confused, Setanta says, “Why would I even need to tell my father about this, I haven’t told him about everything up till now.”

Culainn looks at me with a face of shock, and says, “Setanta does anybody know where you have been and what you have been doing over these last few weeks?”

“Umm, Scáthach found out somehow. But aside from that no one has been told by me, but there is a good chance that my father has received complaints about a human walking around.”

Culainn riding on his munchnunchers runs into Setanta and says, “GET BACK HOME AND EXPLAIN EVERYTHING BEFORE I GET EXECUTED!”

-Break-

Location: Gorias Castle

Φ Walking through the corridors of Gorias castle, I look up at the ceiling and hum along to the music that moves through the castle, and say, “This is Minagrains favourite song, it seems the wind decided to cheer me up today.”

As I walk, I see a woman with burning red and orange hair with two wings at her back, and she says, “Oh Young Master Setanta it is great to see you.”

She assumes a regular greeting position, but I don’t bother to pick her up and just touch her wings instead and ask, “These are really pretty.”

She shoots up in excitement and says, “You think so. You’re father said the same things, I had always thought they were a bit too flamboyant but now I take great pride in them. To think two great Faoláin’s would say something so kind about me, I could melt right now, oh you are so adorable, so so adorable, how I love you so much.”

She picks me and as she does flames burst out of her back and cover the room, so I say, “HOT!”

And she drops me then falls to the ground and covers her eyes, then whilst on the floor she says, “Oh what a foolish wench I am, I have brought great harm to the next king of this providence.

I should just fall over and die, rip myself up and be fed to the dogs. Choke on my own disgusting words, for I am someone whose life is a lie, whose thoughts are a lie, whose happiness is a lie, for I should die and be reborn millions of times over!”

As she continues to ramble, I start to panic a little, as her never-ending words throw me off. As I calm down, I hug her from behind and then rub her head saying, “Please don’t cry, you didn’t do anything wrong. I am happy that such a cheerful woman has come to our castle.”

She hugs me and then says, “I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, I WISH I BIRTHED YOU OUT OF MY WOMB!”

Pushing her away, I say, “No need to get creepy now.”

As she stands up, I ask, “You smell like my father?”

She looks a bit flushed, then says, “Oh yeah, I have been spending some time with him.”

“Oh, then you can point me to where he is because I haven’t been able to find him yet.”

“Follow me,” she says as she walks forward.

As I walk beside her, I say, “Aren’t you with the house of Céilús, I have been wondering why you have been around for so long.”

With depressed eyes, she asks, “You want me to leave?”

“Nothing like that, just curious.”

Joyfully, she says, “I have been helping out with the research and development here in Gorias by the druids. Think of it as a joint venture between Faoláin’s and the Céilús’s. You guys have the greatest workforce in all of the empire, and we have the brightest minds, I am sure together we could craft something amazing.”

“But I am surprised that the house of Céilús would be ok losing one of their Ollamhs and such a young one at that?”

“Oh, they were, but I kept pushing to come.”

“You really wanted to help us with our development that much, you must truly be in love with your work, but what else would I expect from an Ollamh.”

With a proud face, she says, “I assure you I will try my best to cultivate a thriving environment within Gorias, and will make sure the Faoláins grow numerous and are well loved!”

“Don’t know what the loved part has to do with scientific progress, but I like your passion.”

Coming up to a door, I open it and say, “Thank you for your guidance.”

And the woman says, “I promise if you ever need guidance from now until the day you die, just come to mommy and she will help you.”

“Mommy?” I say confused.

She turns red and starts burning with flames, then jumps out of a window whilst flying away. “What a strange woman.”

Opening the door, I see my father and his right-hand man Darragh beside him, but sitting in front of my father is the head of the house of Sealbhóir Bricriu.

As he turns around and looks at me, he smiles, then says, “You Faoláin really are blessed, your son shows up the very moment our conversation finishes.”

Sitting up, Bricriu says, “Well I don’t want to disturb your family time, so let me be off.”

My father asks, “Do you want some guards to accompany you?”

“No, I will be fine, this is Gorias after all. Everyone here is a pure, moral, law-abiding citizen,” Bricriu says with a slight disdain in his voice.

As he walks past me, he touches my shoulder and says, “I hope you grow into an excellent leader, because I am sure we will need that far sooner than you think.”

Holding back my disgust, I say, “Thank you for the compliment.”

He laughs and says, “You should work on your gambling face because it will doom you in the future.”

Bricriu leaves and as he does my father asks, “Setanta why are you here?”

“Well, I just kind of realized I didn’t report certain things to you, so I should start.”

-Break-

Location: Training grounds

Φ Looking at everyone while I rest again a wall, I say, “Our unit has become a lot sharper. No thanks to Setanta’s help. That idiot just up and told me to start taking care of the training and is gone every day from morning to night, he hasn’t even come to apologise to Minagrain yet.

Though I think he wants to let her recover first which is strange for him to show so much self-restraint. But I guess that means the idiot must truly love her. It seems the time I worried for my sister's future is gone.”

“What a beautiful love story.”

From my side I hear a rather disgusting voice and turn to see that Bricriu is standing to my left looking at me, so I say, “What the hell do you want.”

“Oh, nothing much, I just wanted to have a little chat with you Ferdiad.”