The Enchanters and Bodyforgers

William turned to his son and daughter-in-law and said "I suppose you know the consequences if the word gets out. Make sure nobody except us knows this including your most trusted subordinates and relatives," and started to walk out. Before he exited the room he added, "Henry, come to my office when you finished your work here." 

Henry and Sophia both were shaken to the core. However, Henry got himself together fast. He turned to Sophia and said, "Sophia, you heard my father too. Although he has dual soul cores, both him sleeping and having two cores both active is a first so we do not know whether he will have two souls in one body, yet." Henry walked beside Sophia and gently pushed her to the bed, "You truly need a rest, so please at least do not get out of bed."

Sophia looked Henry in the eyes and said with a firm tone that Henry had never seen before, "Henry, he is our son. Whether he has two souls or not I do not care. If you make him suffer because of that, then you can forget about me, too. Do you understand? Now please get my baby by my side. I want to sleep with him."

After hearing her wife`s words, Henry got exasperated. He never knew this side of his wife. This declaration made him happier than angry because he always thought his wife had a little too much understanding against him. He wanted her to be a little more willful. 

Henry got the baby by Sophia`s side and said, "Do not worry. He is my beloved child, no matter what." He kissed his wife and child.

"I am going to my father's side. It seems there are important developments." Said Henry and stand up. 

"Henry do not forget to ask a name for our baby from your dad. He has forgotten to name just now." Said Sophia with a sad tone because if the former king does not give any respect to the heir, then his life would be much harder.

"Do not worry he loves the baby. I have seen it in his eyes. As for the name, I will ask him," said Henry and walked out.

Hearing the consoling words Sophia heaved a sigh of relief. 

When Henry stood in front of the door of the office of his father, he was thinking what he should say to his father. Although he spoke to his wife with certainty, he was not certain at all. However, there is nothing he can do if his father thinks negatively of his son. If it comes to that, then he will protect his son. 

After a couple of seconds of hesitation, he knocked on the door and got inside. He saw William with an emotionless face and his heart caved in. He knew what this meant. William was extremely unhappy. 

He breathed in and said, "Father even if you are unhappy, you should give my son a chance as you told us in the beginning," after saying that he looked at his father and saw his father smiling. Seeing that Henry was confused about what he was going to say. 

William showed him a chair and Henry sat. William looked Henry in the eyes and said, "You sure become gutsy after becoming the king. How could my grandson be my source of sadness? There was something about my travel that made me unhappy. You tell me. How do you feel after becoming the king?"

"After you abdicated there was no problem worthy of your attention. However, like I said, I do not want to be the king. You said you were going to tell me why you suddenly abdicated when you came back. Now you need to add where you were to your explanation, too."

"Yes, I said that," William sighed, "I thought I was going to have a fight with a monster but alas I could not even find their shadow."

Henry interjected with an inquisitive tone, "What fight and monster are you talking about? Has not monsters long gotten exterminated?"

"Hey! Hey! Calm down. I need to start from the beginning." William sat more comfortably and started to tell.

"You know The Liberators, right?"

"Weren`t they a weak group of rouge enchanters who think of themselves as liberators of the people from our so-called tyranny?" Henry asked back.

"Well, I thought so too. However, four months ago I managed to learn that they were by no means a weak group. They were funded by Treyans from the very beginning. You know how treacherous Treyans can be. I then started to research about them. In fifteen days, I captured one of their executives. 

I then learned that ten years ago they got their hand on a baby bodyforger candidate, and opened his soul channel when he was 2 years old. You should know what the consequences would be if that thing were not put down before his maturity," said William.

There were two main types of magic users in this continent. The first was enchanters. Enchanters are relatively populous among the population. They are not strictly controlled by the government. They do not need any assistance to open their soul channel, too. The second and most important one was bodyforgers. They are very rare, and the government retains the secret of opening the soul channels of them. Their soul channels cannot open without any help. 

There are two reasons why the government keeps this a secret. First, if their soul channel opened carelessly before their soul matured, they would become mindless monsters capable of getting stronger very fast. Secondly, the government wants them to work for the government. They themselves are worth more than a thousand normal enchanters if used strategically.

"So you were talking about an artificially grown monster. Treyans must be the ones who helped them find the baby and give them the secret of the opening of the soul channel. You found this out and tried to kill that thing yourself because any military preparation would alert them of our knowledge of them and an army is just not the best way to confront that type of monster. It was another bodyforger like yourself dealing with that monster. Am I right?" asked Henry.

"Yes. I could not send the other four bodyforgers because they were all away on the borders and if one of them disappeared suddenly it might jeopardize the plan or worse it might make bordering countries anxious. However, in the end, I could not find them. They vacated their headquarters two days before I found them. Not only that, but they also knew the details of my travel they should not. So, Henry, the situation is worse than I assumed. They infiltrated deep into the palace. It is safe to assume that the government, too, is infiltrated."