Are We the Baddies?
"Commander!" all the Arkin abruptly shout with unified discipline as they drop what they're doing and solute their superior officer.
"You, you, and you!" Haalfrin points at the 3 Arkin, "Find an empty cell and put yourselves there! NOW!"
He then turns to some of the other Arkin, who were passively watching from the side. "And you all! …" His voices trails off as he thinks of what to say. "Get that Ant down from that wall, give her back her clothes, and put her in with the rest of her sisters."
Truth be told, none of the Arkin had ever seen Haalfrin so angry before. He had always been a rather easy going boss who spends more time figuring out how to solve their problems than talking to them. They all respected him for it too.
So, seeing the man who had previously never lost his temper at them go ballistic, they're all subconsciously shaking as they run to get the little Ant down.
Even Haalfrin himself is surprised at how furious he just got, though he's not sure why. Maybe it's because the situation was too surprising, or maybe it's because he never really thought of himself as the "righteous" type.
Either way, Haalfrin leaves the errant soldiers with a "I'll deal with you later" bomb before walking away to his office.
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Once Haalfrin gets up to his office, he spends about an hour flipping through some papers mindlessly… up until Freyya hops in through his window with a basket in her hand – presumably with food inside.
"Haalfrin! You hungry? I… Wait, what's wrong?"
After Haalfrin explains what just happened, he rests his chin on his palm and sighs, "What should I do about this, Freyya? I've never been in a position like this."
"…"
Haalfrin and Freyya talk for a while, but given Freyya's severe lateral thinking, her mind quickly hops onto another topic, and the conversation veers so far off course that instead of meaningful advice, their conversation turns into an emotional exchange that ends in them falling asleep in each other's arms.
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After Haalfrin gets done talking ("talking") to Freyya, he ends up making up his mind. Despite Freyya herself not offering direct advice, being with her calmed him down enough to think clearly.
In the end, he decides to be much more selective with who he puts to guard the Ants. He also strictly prohibits those 3 Arkin he caught from being resummoned for 100 years.
Haalfrin knows very well that being denied the opportunity to fight here will be a VERY big deal to these soldiers, seeing as how harsh the Death Realm is. To them, coming back to the living world is just as blissful and easy as returning to your childhood.
Still, despite having made his mind up, Haalfrin decides to share this experience with Fisco and ask for his opinion; the man has much more experience than him leading a group of soldiers.
"Hmm…," Fisco hums thoughtfully, "If you punish the soldiers more than they think is reasonable, than you'll damage their loyalty to you. If you don't punish them enough, then they'll lose respect for you and no longer pay much attention to your rules. At the same time, punishing people for rules that didn't exist before also isn't a good thing."
"So you're saying that because I've never had an explicit rule against abusing the prisoners, that I can't punish them too harshly?" Haalfrin raises an eyebrow.
When he thinks about it, it WOULD be annoying to go about your day doing something, when your leader randomly shows up and says, "By the way, I didn't like what you were doing, so I'm making up a rule now. You have to be punished for it because I said so."
It's frankly not fair to the soldiers. At the same time, what they did was immoral; Haalfrin would be EXTREMELY unsatisfied if he just let them all off with a warning.
"Fisco?" Haalfrin asks abruptly, "Do you think I'm naïve for expecting my soldiers to not do crimes like this?"
"You really asking me that?" Fisco scoffs. "YOU!? A man who grew up as a raider? Your people have killed and r#ped on a regular basis. I'm actually a little confused about why you would bother about this so much. Why would you care?"
That's right. Freyya was much more understanding of Haalfrin's feelings since she's seen his Reh Name; she knows what emotions drive him. She knows that he followed the raiders because he wanted to feel like he was a part of something. Sure, he felt guilty for his immoral actions, but his lust for a family and clan to belong to overshadowed his sense of integrity.
So to this, Haalfrin responds, "What about my Syl Name? You've seen it. You should know why I'm so caught up on this war."
Fisco goes silent. He knows full well what Haalfrin was thinking when he got his Syl Name.
"Fine," Fisco relents, "I'd suggest harshly punishing those 3 soldiers in public as an example, then giving them some leniency in private to keep them loyal – maybe a promotion or a cushy job."
Ah, yes. Politics. Ew.
"Very well," Haalfrin sighs.
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In the end, the 3 Arkin soldiers are executed, then prohibited from coming back to the mortal realm for 100 years. However, he asks Freyya to send them a place to stay in the Death Realm, since most people are homeless in those lands, due to severe overpopulation.
Once all the soldiers see what Haalfrin is willing to go to keep order in the place, the Arkin (mostly) restrain themselves. The Alsa'ree soldiers are solely kept in charge of the dungeons, and the more bloodthirsty Arkin are kept on the front lines.
Still, Haalfrin's actions changed some of the dynamics and relationships of the soldiers. Kaalhyme and his people all started looking at Haalfrin more favorably, a few of the Threshold soldiers were a little more cold with him.
However, given Haalfrin's great power and objective focus on the war, they're all still more than willing to let themselves be summoned to fight for him against the Ants.
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Many… MANY years pass by – so many years in fact that it's starting to make Haalfrin feel anxious. What if he really ages to death before the war is over?
To keep himself focused, he asks Fisco to stop updating him on the time.
With Fisco now keeping silent, Haalfrin quickly loses track of how many years are slipping away.
Eventually, Haalfrin starts seeing the fortress be slowly transformed – altered from a thing of beauty and splendor into a dark, blood-soaked place with Ant skulls draped over battlements as decorations.
Capturing the Ants certainly helped with the war effort, but they were only ever able to reduce the Queen's numbers by about a million this way before the Ants all started aging to death.
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"Now that I think about it," Haalfrin says while facing out the window, "this is the first time something has died of old age since the war began… right Das?"
"Mmm. Pleasure to meet you again, master Haalfrin," Das says with a polite bow.
Haalfrin turns around and sees the old man standing in the doorway. Unlike with Freyya, Haalfrin just looks at the man coldly, then turns back around, as if to ignore him. "Why would a high ranked god call me a 'master'?" he asks.
"I can feel the thick Death Aura in you," Das says while taking a seat. "You're already more powerful than every god in the Death Realm, except for the Reapers and the King himself.
Without turning around, Haalfrin says, "Despite us not being on good terms, I'm not going to ask you to leave. However…" he turns around, "You're just an avatar, and this form of yours isn't your true body. I'm powerful enough to defeat you in this state. If you interfere with this war, I'm going to hurt you."
"Ah… haha…," Das awkward laughs. "Although I think there's no sense in you still holding a grudge against me, I won't try to talk you out of it. Time fixes most problems, and with time, you'll move on and come to accept what I want for your future."
Das stands up, leaves a cup of tea on Haalfrin's desk, and turns to leave. "I'll find an empty room to stay in. You don't need to worry about my accommodations either; I always bring supplies with me whenever I venture into the mortal realm.
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Unlike Freyya, who mostly keeps her presence a mystery in some secluded tower, Das regularly interacts with the soldiers and brings them presents every year. He becomes rather popular.
Given that none of these people died of old age, none of them have met Das before. That, and the fact that Das never brags about his identity, most of the Arkin start casually calling him things like "Old man!" or "Mr. D."
Obviously, if anyone had known exactly who Das was, they'd have never dared treat him so casually… but Das never seems to mind, and neither does Haalfrin.
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More and more often, Haalfrin notices his soldiers are listening less and less to him whenever he calls for a retreat. Rather, once they draw their swords, it's like these angry dead only care about killing, killing, and more killing.
At all times of the day, Haalfrin notices that his Arkin are spending less and less of their free time in idle chatter, merry games, or drinking alcohol. Rather, they're only talking about the new and exciting ways they've killed some bugs, and they're pestering their captains about when they can go into battle next.
Even worse is that a few centuries after Dakka fell asleep, the Arkin start sneaking out to kill the Ants, even when they were told to sit tight. These cases are especially common whenever the war enters one of its periodic lulls. It's like sitting patiently in place is increasingly painful to the Arkin. It's like their only purpose is to slaughter…
Which is all very concerning to Haalfrin. He still remembers his trip to the Death Realm with Das so long ago. He remembers that prison where the angry dead are kept when they eventually lose all rationality.
For good reason, Haalfrin is afraid that most of his soldiers will end up this way.
"Am I doing the right thing?" Haalfrin asks Freyya one day. "I feel like the Arkin are being consumed by hatred and bloodlust the longer they fight in this war. I feel like I'm doing irreparable harm to their souls by keeping them here."
"Haalfrin," Freyya reaches out from her blanket and strokes his bare back. "If they weren't fighting here, then they'd be fighting in the Death Realm. If they choose to become the angry Dead, then that is their fate. You can't interfere with who another person chooses to become."
"But Freyya!" Haalfrin exclaims, "they've started collecting skulls. Some of them started painting the walls with the Ants' blood in their free time. They're acting more and more like craven animals by the day! This is sick! It's not Ok!"
"That's war, dear," Freyya says. "War isn't romantic and honorable."
Haalfrin truly feels unwilling when he hears this. He had started this war feeling an intense sense of duty and pride in what he was doing. He felt good realizing that he would die protecting a world. He felt fulfilled when he realized he could serve his comrades.
But this? "Aren't we supposed to be the good guys here?" Haalfrin sighs unhappily.
"What?" Freyya gently says. "the Queen fights to feed her people. She wants to survive. Nature is built off of a cycle of violence – one thing devouring another. Animal evolution is also driven by the weakest being regularly slaughtered and only the fittest surviving. High idealism like yours is the furthest thing from nature you can get."
Being told that he can't do anything about this isn't good enough for Haalfrin, but he can't exactly argue with Freyya either, since she's completely right.
Freyya understands that her words aren't going to stop Haalfrin from being frustrated, so she says, "Fine. I'll think of a way to help you out. Just remember that the longer a person has been dead for, the harder it is for them to change at all."
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The thing about the dead not changing becomes more and more self-evident.
After all, at the time of the Arkin's death, these soldiers were warriors hardened and ready to perish. As the long war with the ant Queen continues, their attitude gets more and more extreme.
There are many clear examples of this.
One day, Haalfrin comes across some of the Arkin growing bored. They started literally slicing each other up just so they could test their new swords. Their own sense of self preservation has really shrunk that much.
'Pain… what is that? Death? Yeah. Been there. Am I disturbing? Who cares; testing out my sword is more important. What? I'm perfectly normal!'
Haalfrin sees this and is understandably a pretty disturbed that their personalities had become extreme enough to do this.
When he asks them about this, the Arkin justify it by saying that they had become numb to the pain, and that if this helps them get stronger and kill more ants, they'd be happy to do it.
…What they don't dare say is that they feel restless if they aren't carving something up with their swords, though Haalfrin already knows they were thinking it.
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Day by day, Freyya and Das see Haalfrin get more and more concerned for his soldiers and their apparent insanity. Despite having already offered to help before, both of these gods are unable to do anything, since who you become is ultimately something only the Arkin themselves can decide. If they CHOOSE to become crazy, then no one else can do anything about it.