Kurt was home, he was struggling with everything that had happened in the previous day. His little world had exploded into something that was so far above his head he was drowning. The fall of Castle Bright Flame would normally have been enough to send a person's head spinning. But that was the start of yesterday.

Kurt, took a pestle and began grinding some seeds in a mortar. Kurt wanted to do something with his hands, something that wasn't killing. The sounds of the gargled screams of the man Kurt killed was still whispering in his head, and when he closed his eyes, he saw him, clasping his neck, with those terrible eyes. Trying to put his head into work wasn't working very well.

He heard something fall over from a table he wasn't at. Turning to see what happened he didn't see anything. He walked over and heard the sounds of small feet scurrying around. He followed the sound, and ended up looking under a table.

He saw a small, only a few inches long, lizard scales, a tail with four legs, but it had two necks, and two heads. A baby hydra, the scales gleamed with a dark green tone. Kurt had some bread laying around the workshop for a snack, and gave the little guy some. Which the creature devoured. He was kind of cute. After finishing its meal of bread it spun around in a seemingly happy dance. Gave out a few squeals, roars. And scurried up Kurt's legs.

Kurt surprised, walked backwards, and squirming a little as the little creature tickled him on its way up to his shoulder. The creature's two heads seemed to be nodding playfully.

"I think I'll call you Harvey." The creature seemed to like its new name. Kurt petted him with one of his fingers, the two heads fighting for attention.

At least something seemed to be unaffected by all of this. Wonder where the little guy came from. But the reality was it could have been anywhere. He really didn't know much about Terra. He didn't even know if befriending the hydra was a good idea. He didn't care too much.

Going back to making more paste, and other ingredients. The Hydra watched him, sometimes from his shoulder and sometimes just on the table. With a few treats from Kurt every once in a while.

The world seemed to have changed completely but not at all, the gates were now two way when Layla wanted. There was a mana well on earth now, not just Terra. The clan's balance of power crumbled into the ruins of Braight Flame Castle. It was way too soon to tell what the world's reaction was going to be. There was going to be something, the other clans had to be moving, when they found out. Hamlet might even come in and try to take the gate themselves now. They claimed to not care about the other side, but that was something that could change very quickly.

Somehow they had managed to escape, really there wasn't anyone in the world that could get to them. There wasn't even a gate to them right now. After the Fae well had been made, Layla had linked her own to it. Kurt could just slip through space back to earth from any other linked well.

Kurt was also avoiding something. Their prisoner, he would have to figure out what to do with Arthur eventually. He was at some outpost. That well wasn't linked so he would have to walk or run there. The linking process apparently had to do with the making of a new fountain for the well, and to do that they would have to break that one. And that would cause damage to the Fae and to Arthur, the other two Fae didn't care, they had wanted to hurt the Fire clan. They could take the sacrifice for more freedom, to move away from their painful existence. And it was painful apparently, the wells are not supposed to be that close to one another, it strained and pressured the Fae apparently.

Kurt wasn't ready to face him, what was he going to say?

"What would you do?" Kurt asked Harvey.

Harvey responded by laying down one of its heads and the other squealed, waving its tail.

"Yeah, sounds about right."

Thinking back about how he got himself in the position. He couldn't exactly find a spot where he had much of a choice of getting into some mess. Maybe he should have been a bit less greedy with the opportunity. But meeting Carl really would have ended up that way.

Really the only thing Kurt could have done better is pay more attention. And not to have let Layla basically run the entire settlement without any supervision. That was the problem, but it now seemed he couldn't even be that supervision anymore. The goblin, the fae, the elves everyone already saw even sworn to her leadership, it was a little too late. Thinking back he probably could have been a part of some of those ceremonies, instead of watching from the outside. She'd handle all the politics, that was a much more loaded offer than Kurt had realized. She certainly was handling the politics in a certain way, towards conflict.

"What aren't you king?" Words he remembered from Countess Talia. He never saw it, he never even saw it. Blinded by greed the power probably had just slipped through his fingers. And it wasn't like Kurt was not powerful here, not just in physical and magic strength, but generally he was second in command. But that didn't mean much when he was absent from the internal discussions. He thought he was helping with his research in his own way, but felt he had inadvertently abdicated his throne. It could have been his, if he just had that type of vision from the start. Maybe then it wouldn't have ended up, with these scenes of death clawing back into his mind all the time.

There was nothing he could do about the past anyway. He gave Harvey a little pet. He couldn't ignore this anymore. He killed someone, he never even learned the man's name, the world was teetering towards a conflict because of their actions, Layla's actions.

At least he had a new friend with Harvey, one that wouldn't be lying to him, and keeping secrets from him. Kurt gave Harvey another treat. And the tiny creature spun around in another happy dance, the two heads fought over a little piece. One snapped at the other. Which made Kurt laugh a little, stop biting yourself.

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