The cultivator split with them and headed to the tombs, even though Nikola had told him of the fire and that there was nothing there. Nikola was sandwiched between Penemue and Wei Caihong and they each had a firm hold on his arms, as if they were afraid, he would run off in the forests. Ryota was in the other wagon with the rest of the children.

Nikola relaxed in the wagon and looked up at the forest canopy above. It was becoming dark and the driver had assured them that they were nearing the village. Nikola shut his eyes and he was suddenly in the palace of Atlantis, sitting opposite of Freia and with a horde of angels looking at him.

“You agreed to create a vessel for our brother, Rudra. And you are blessed with five more children…” Said an angel somewhere to the right. Nikola glared in the direction of the voice.

“My children already have their souls formed. I will not murder them for your sake!” Freia reached out a hand and gripped his. He looked into her eyes, there was a hardness there.

“Grandpa, you called us from the underworld. If you don’t ferry our souls somewhere then you will go mad. If not these five children then your future ones…?”

Nikola huffed and stood up. Azazel had killed most of the angels before him and Freia had died in the birthing bed. Why was this his problem now?

“Do you all really want to get reborn? Don’t you want peace?” He himself wouldn’t have said no to it, but the people in his life stopped him from giving up.

“We will either go to Hell or in the Abyss. Heaven is locked for us. We are rebels, Emerald Emperor.” Said an old looking woman. Nikola didn’t let her image fool him; she must still be a formidable warrior.

“Well, I can’t bring you back to life. I might end up causing the End Times.” He said. He had nearly done so once already for Cas. He wanted to wake up but found something stopping him.

“If not in your children then you can ferry our souls into the wombs of women. You are clever, Emerald Emperor. You can figure out a ritual.” Said a child and Nikola feared for a minute that it was the Maggot again but the child was a girl in a golden tunic. Her expression was stony and she held herself like a crone.

“Death will be furious.” He spoke. He had seen the Reaper just once and didn’t want to see the skeletal being ever again. The emptiness where it’s head should have been had sucked out all the warmth of the world. Or so it had seemed to Nikola at the time.

“Take a risk.” Said Freia and she nodded towards the angels. “They helped you. The Maggot couldn’t have been hurt by you. Had they not dragged him out you would have relieved Pallas’ rebellion next. And you would have been forced to go through the ritual again.”

Nikola sucked in a breath. The one who wanted to hurt him in that particular memory was he himself. So, obviously he wouldn’t be able to resist. He would have gone into another coma and then the Maggot would have simply kept him that way. On the bottom of the ocean that existed only in his mind.

“Why didn’t he start with that?” Asked Nikola. It didn’t make sense. Had it been Nikola he wouldn’t have played with someone he knew was strong.

“He needed to see more of your memories.” Said Freia as she pointed at the far wall. “This dreamscape is not perfect. Look around, grandpa. Can’t you spot the differences?”

Writings on the wall when he had forbidden such things in his palace. A painting of the Archangels in full fighting gear on the ceiling. Nikola hated them. They had stopped him more than once. Especially Michael. Nikola had nearly lost Penemue to his flaming sword once. The Maggot had filled in the cracks with things he would have liked in the palace. And if Nikola hadn’t been so focused on the necromancer he would have seen that and woken up on his own…oh.

“Do you understand now, grandpa?” Said Freia and Nikola nodded. Then she shifted in her seat and cleared her throat. “How is my Bjorn? He was dead, I felt it when it happened. But now he is alive again.”

“He is.” Nikola didn’t want to tell her about the suicide. Bjorn hadn’t been himself back then, running into battlefields and breaking rank to get into the thickest of the fighting. “He got back together with Azazel. They are good to each other again. They call each other silly names and they are expecting a little girl to join their family.”

Freia smiled brightly and clapped her hands in front of herself. Then, slowly, she began to fade.

“You tell my little bear to name his daughter after me.” She said and then leaned in to whisper. “And to never die again. If I see him in the underworld, I am kicking his ass!” Then she disappeared entirely. Nikola looked at the angels.

“You can leave at any time.” He said and a teenager stepped forward.

“We will, only to enter the wombs of our future mothers. Now wake up, Emerald Emperor.” Nikola blinked. He was no longer in the palace.

Penemue was shaking him awake.

“We arrived. Now we only need to check in into the inn. We have a couple of hours of rest before it’s Han Shanyuan’s time to present his essay.”

“There will be a lot of births in this village.” Nikola said cryptically. The driver smiled at that.

“Can you tell the future, Gege?” Asked the driver and Nikola nodded.

“They will be little angels, all of them strong and healthy. That should solve your worker shortage. Say, is the entire village going to gather for the essay presentation?” It would be easier if it did, but Nikola could also strow around the village and mark each door.

“Yes. We are very excited. None of the contestants from the cities and towns are going to be coming here, just from the other villages of the valley. The winner is going straight to Danyang and then if they win there it’s straight to Chang’an. Did you know that the emperor will give the place that produces the winner a stipend? Oh, I hope we win.”

Nikola doubted it. He hadn’t read the other contestants’ essays but Han Shanyuan’s was good and it was the hard reality for many people.

“May the best one win.” Said Nikola as he got off the wagon. He really wanted Han Shanyuan to win. So much that he was going to help his confidence along. A confident speaker could charm any crowd. He went to the wagon with the children and shook Han Shanyuan awake, pouring a little magic inside of his head. It was a trick Nikola had employed before all of his public speeches. A nice little voice would blend in with the recipient of the spell’s and give him tips on how to charm any crowd. It was a harmless spell and it drew on the recipient’s natural ability. So, it wasn’t cheating in the true sense.

“Master Nikola, are we in Samjin?” Asked a sleepy Han Shanyuan. He was cuddling his sister and Ryota. Wei Zhaohui was spooning them all and Nathaniel was in their feet. Nikola wanted to paint this picture for future use, as an embarrassing one for show during visits from friends, but he simply didn’t have the time to.

“Yes. We are in front of the inn. Wake the others and let us go.”

Nikola then went inside the inn to rent a room. He had barely managed, had he not reserved rooms a whole week ago then maybe they would have been sleeping in the wagons. But he had already paid half of the price and the innkeeper showed them the three rooms. Nikola was going to share with Penemue and Wei Caihong. The children would be together in the other one. And the drivers in the third. They had even found space for their horses in the stall and some feed for them so they didn’t have to use their own.

Nikola laid in bed and when his dream took him again to the palace of Atlantis he groaned.

“You will get your wish. Now let me rest.” He snapped at the angels who had closed ranks around him.

“You plan to dump us all in this village?” Said the girl in the golden tunic.

“The people here could use some more workers.” Said Nikola as the angels frowned around him. “And you can all leave once you grow up. I’m sure your new parents won’t guilt trip you into staying.” Which was a lie.

“You lie.” Said the old crone and Nikola sighed.

“It’s either this village or nothing at all. I defeated a necromancer and released a lot of corpses from his grasp. You can pass off as their reincarnation. No one will question why you were all born at the same time.” Which was the truth. The cultivator could even back Nikola up if someone started asking questions.

“Will you come check up on us, Emerald Emperor?” Asked a toddler, no older than four. Nikola smiled at the literal cherub, he even had yellowish wings.

“I can swing by from time to time. Make sure your parents can take care of you. I already do charity in my own village. No one will bat an eye if I expand.”

“It would have been better if you were our father.” Said the cherub and then it smiled sadly. “Hopefully you won’t need to help us too much.”

Nikola smiled back and then he felt arms shaking him. He opened his eyes and stared at Ryota.

“Hey there, son. Where is the fire?” He asked. There was fabric tied to Ryota’s back and Nikola angled his head to see what was strapped there. Han Fengfan smiled at him from Ryota’s back and blew him a raspberry. Nikola chuckled.

“Mother and auntie said you should get ready. We leave for the village’s school in an hour.”

Nikola wondered why time passed so fast in his dream world. Was there a danger of him sleeping for weeks? Even months? Did he have to stay awake from now on? Or at least until he got rid of the angels? To Ryota he said.

“Ok, I’ll take a quick bath and then have some breakfast.”

“There is no more hot water.” Said Ryota. He smelled clean so at least he must have washed with some. “And there is a single bowl of rice at the table. If you don’t hurry Nathaniel is going to eat it. He eats more than me.” Nikola raised his eyebrow at the last part. Nathaniel had the body of a child with the organs of a child. He shouldn’t have such an appetite.

“Ok. I’ll just have my cold bath then.”

He washed quickly and when he dressed, he went downstairs to see an empty, clean table and his family waiting for him by the entrance of the inn. He approached the innkeeper and spoke.

“Good woman, are there any stalls between the school and here?”

“Take a detour on the next street over, go left and you’ll see a stand selling rice with duck. It should be open now.”

Nikola nodded but then he heard a bell chime. He must have taken too long in the bath. His stomach growled and he patted it, promising it some food from the stall on his way back.

They made their way outside and were soon joined by a crowd heading the same way. In front of the school there was a stand with signs of wood saying:

Samjin number one.

Go, go Childe Hu.

Childe Hu, author of: And then there were none.

The people started buying the signs and Nikola saw how there weren’t any signs for the other contestants. So, he pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote on it.

Childe Han: On how to save money. The guide everyone should read at least once.

He held the sign up over his head and people stared at it, muttering. Han Shanyuan saw it and blushed.

“You don’t need to advertise my essay, Master Nikola. It’s probably against the rules too.” He said shily as people began to circle Nikola and ask him who this childe Han was to have such a topic. Nikola asked in the stall for some string and soon there were two holes in the sign and a it was held in front of his chest by the string.

“Let them all see.” He said to Han Shanyuan. These people are advertising their competitor left and right. Let them see that you have a chance too. More than that, actually.” Nikola knelt in front of Han Shanyuan and smiled. “I know you will win.” Han Shanyuan then hugged him tightly. Nikola patted his back and waited for the child to release him first.

Once that was done Nikola fell into step with Wei Caihong and let people read the sign on his chest. Soon some of the family of the other competitors asked him for paper to write their own signs. He gave it to them. Let it not be said he was a bad sport.

Han Shanyuan climbed the steps to the improvised stage together with twenty other children. There was a boy at the front, right next to the magistrate. Nikola assumed that this must be childe Hu. The people of Samjin were an unfair bunch, to have given him the spotlight as well as the right to speak first. The magistrate cleared his throat and placed his hand over childe Hu’s shoulder.

“Honored guests, friends and family. Today our youth, our future, will have the chance to compete for the chance to go forward to Danyang and then, if their talent is as bright as a jade, then they will follow the Yangtze river and go to Chang’an.”

Cheers erupted from the audience. Nikola clapped politely, but he wasn’t paying much attention. Why should he limit the angels just to this village when he could spread them around the guests as well? Surely, they would like that more. He focused his magic and let it flow freely. Wei Caihong gripped his hand in warning and he heard a couple of gasps from women in the audience. Then Nikola thought about how he was going to word it. It will have to be in his mind so he needed to compensate for the lack of power behind the incantation with the language itself. There was only one choice, the language of the angels.

That which is dead and yet not.

That which waits between worlds but longs for a safe harbor.

That which will love and cherish those who give it life.

A little failsafe, Nikola thought to himself, in case some of the angels were malicious. Oh, who was he kidding? At least three thirds of them were.

Hear me and obey:

You will walk on two legs and you will know where you begin and where you end.

You will have power and respect.

You will live and let live.

You will do as I command or you will never see the light of day.

Do you agree?

Another set of gasps was his answer and he felt empty. Now he had a legion of angels under his command. And all that before the first essay presentation was done. The magistrate looked around and then back at childe Hu. Was this boy so famous that people wanted to already vote for him? He smiled. The stipend was as good as his.