ADAD Chapter 29: Reaching out

 Harvey woke up from his good night sleep, and rested his head on Mustafa's chest. Ruling Gorgon was a calm task, and reminded him of the time that he and his friends built the realm up. His soulmate gently went from sleeping, to being awake, and kissed the crown of Harvey's head. The two shared a smile, but then the teleport array spat out a letter. 

"Who is it at this hour?" Harvey mumbled. It was his teleport, not Mustafa's. The Arabian wizard didn't get any mail, unless it was about the far-off cities in Gorgon. 

"You should check it out," Mustafa said, and Harvey untangled himself from the embrace, to see what his friends wanted of him at, he checked the clock on the wall, six in the morning. Groaning, he opened the letter. 

Harv,

I am in a pinch. I unlocked the demon bloodlust, which is normal for my species. I hope you have your healing notes with you because I need to figure out how to turn anger management into a rune. In the library everything is explained as if I will be writing an encyclopedia. Please send me the notes, and be ready to answer some questions. 

Darius. 

"Oh, Dari," Harvey murmured, and then looked at Mustafa. "He unlocked his bloodlust." 

"Tell him to go see a doctor and to begin drinking medicine for it," Mustafa said sleepily. 

"He wants to make a mind-altering rune for the condition," Harvey said, and the wizard opened his eyes. 

"He... what now? Doesn't he know how delicate the brain can be? That is not something he should be designing," Mustafa said, and Harvey nodded. 

"I should help him," the Fey insisted, and then went to his desk, and took out his folder with his medical notes. "The brain is connected to so many things. If he messes up with the nerves too much, he might end up crippled."

"You will go back to Orestria? What of your ruling mastery?" Mustafa was grasping at straws. He didn't want to ask: What about me?  Because he was afraid that Harvey would put his friends before him. 

"I will miss you," Harvey told his soulmate. "But Anastasios did his ruling mastery from Orestria for the first part of it. I can also do the same. I promise that, once the rune is done with, I will be right back." 

"I will wait for you every day, and night," Mustafa promised, and he conjured a white rose in his hand. He handed it to Harvey, who brought it to his nose. 

"I will write every day," Harvey said, and then went into the bathroom to wash. It would be hard, for him to split his attention between the rune making, and ruling Gorgon, but he was certain that Mustafa could do the heavy lifting by himself. When the Fey was washed and dressed, he saw a bag already packed for him. 

"You didn't have to," Harvey asked, his gaze tender. 

"I did have to. With how worried you look, you might have forgotten to bring something along," Mustafa said, and went to the Fey. Harvey was soon in his arms, and the two shared a comfortable silence. No words were needed. They were soulmates, and they could understand one another better than anyone else could understand them. "Now go, before I decide to bar Gorgon from the outside world." 

"I love you too," Harvey murmured, and picked up his bag. He went to his teleport, and got an array to appear. "You have to know that the year I spent with just the two of us was bliss." 

"It will keep me warm during the cold and lonely nights," Mustafa said earnestly, and Harvey disappeared with the array. When the Fey blinked, he was in his old room. Darius was inside, hunched over a heavy tome. 

"Harv?" Darius asked, surprised to see his friend back in the academy. 

"Do you have any idea how complex the brain is?" Harvey began to chastise Darius, who shook his head. 

"Well, it says here that the part of the brain that deals with emotions, such as anger and fear, is the amygdala. Bloodlust is equal parts fear, and anger," Darius said, and Harvey shook his head. 

"It is not that simple," the Fey began, and then went on a long monologue about nerves, neurons, and all the things that could go wrong, with such a rune. Darius paled by the end, but he still looked determined. 

"How long do you have, for this project?" Harvey asked, and Darius did his best to not let him get on the fact that he was nervous.

"A year," Darius said, and Harvey sucked in a breath. 

"Dari, you are good in the rune field, but this is not some rune you can clobber together from other runes. You need to have intimate understanding of the brain, and do tests," Harvey said. "There is no way that you can manage all that in a year." 

"If I don't try, then I will have to drink pills," Darius said, and Harvey sighed. 

"Will it be so bad? There are plenty of demons who take medications," Harvey said, and he went to Darius, and peered into the tome that the demon was reading. "You won't get any progress from that. Who gave you that book?"

"A healer student, forgot her name," Darius said, and then looked into Harvey's eyes. "If this can be done, then I owe it to my demonic brethren to try." 

Harvey sighed, and then clapped Darius on the back. 

"I suppose that, if you really want to get this done, then there is no way out of this," Harvey said, and then took out his notes. "I took with me only the notes that concerned the brain functions. You might want to read through them." 

Darius took the folder as if it were a treasure, but he did stop to look at Harvey.  

"You will stay, and help?" Darius asked, hopeful. 

"I can't abandon you, Dari. You need all the help you can get," Harvey said, and then flicked the demon on the nose. "We can do this, believe me."