Harlan entered the room, checking the corners for guards, of which he only found Hostin.
As soon as Safira took her place outside of the room Harlan walked over to Relly and swung her around.
“It's been a while, you’ve grown.”
“I know! How have you been. And who is that with you?”
“I’m Lugh, hello.”
She was confused, but replied with a hello back, Lugh didn’t particularly care for talking to people, but it would’ve been rude to not say something back.
“I can see you and her are catching up, but will you both use your voices.”
“Maybe I want to be her chatterbox again.”
She hit him in the arm and then spoke.
“Sorry Miss Rosewell, but he started it.”
Harlan noticed her voice was coming from a necklace she was wearing, it was actually one of the communicators that was modified to loop back to itself.
”How is that working?”
“Thought to speech, thanks to you I have a voice now without needing to set up spells. I wonder if this is what I am supposed to sound like though?”
“Doesn’t matter, you can talk to people when you want now, no more idiots being freaked out by that little tingle.”
She laughed.
“You shouldn’t call your friends idiots though.”
“I hope the three of you have been treating Relly well.”
The tension in the room lessened when Harlan started being so nonchalant about everything.
“Harlan, would you like to reintroduce us?”
Yara looked so tense that she could crack her own bones.
“This is Relly, my first friend from the facility, if I didn’t meet her I probably wouldn’t have made any friends and I would be insane now. In the corner is Hostin, I saved his life a couple times, he saved my life a couple times, but I’m not keeping track, good guy. Finally, this is Rosewell, she was my jailer, friend, and princess. I might have mixed feelings about her, but I think that is a different conversation.”
“I would barely call myself a jailer. I did everything I could to keep you safe, and sometimes that required drugging you until you couldn’t move and forcing you into a bed.”
“I wish I could do that sometimes.”
Amber was the first to break the ice, if Harlan wanted them to be guarded against her then he would tell them in his own way.
“So he is still the workaholic I knew?”
“I work as much as is needed for a job. Anyway, I am surprised, you seem a lot happier than last time I saw you.”
“Of course, you are a magnet for stress, from the assassins to the experiments to everything you and Cynthia got into, I am surprised my hair didn’t go gray from it all. I almost wish I was never put in charge of you, but I wouldn’t change it. I can’t imagine any of my siblings handling you well at all. Hydran complains every time you do something that my father thinks is important and I know he is only getting more bitter over burning bridges with you.”
“Now that I am happy to hear. What a prick.”
“Excuse me, but what reason does Prince Hydran even have for hating Harlan?” Yara asked.
“Hydran just wanted me to fail because it would make him look better, there is no good reason, and that is why he isn’t even in the running to be the next ruler. He wanted Harlan dead for an entirely pointless powergrab. I want you girls to be very careful around my siblings, and Harlan, I know I don’t need to say this, but don’t dance with my sisters. It is better that you avoid talking with them at all, but you also can’t be rude when you shoo them away.”
“Do you have any siblings that are decent people besides Cynthia?”
She had to really think about her answer, which was already a bad sign.
“Lily, the 12th princess and my youngest sister, and Magnolia, my oldest sister, are good people. For my brothers you have Aster, the 12th prince and my youngest brother, Gladio, the 2th prince and Chrys, the 6th. Everyone else is a threat that you cannot overlook or offend, and even if Hydran isn’t going to be king, he is friends with my siblings that have a chance at the throne, so avoid anything that he or they can use as an excuse to spread bad rumors about you.”
“Oh, that should be easy. I just need to avoid 19 of your 23 siblings.”
“Ah, and I should say, whatever you do, if Alder, my oldest brother, talks to you, don’t try to get away. Just keep the conversation going until he loses interest. I honestly don’t know him very well, but he has always been closest to my father.”
“In the bad way or the good way?”
“I honestly can’t tell.”
They moved to nicer topics after that until Harlan.
“Relly, how have you really been? Did you make any new friends?”
“No, but once I start going to the academy I can see you more though. Besides, Miss Rosewell has been very good to me.”
“Are you going to be there next year? Or longer?”
Rosewell answered.
“2 years at least, she is still very young and unlike you she is unlikely to handle the stress very well.”
“Where did you get the idea that I handle stress well?”
“You are still here, you got new friends, and if you were really hiding being ready to implode on yourself, Relly would tell me.”
Rosewell suddenly had a solemn look in her eyes.
“Would the three of you like to go out with Relly for a moment? I would like a conversation with Harlan in private.”
Harlan nodded at Amber who was looking at him, and she convinced the other two to come with.
He could feel that little Esparella knew what was going to happen and it had upset her somewhat.
Once the others were gone Rosewell sent Hostin away as well, to guard the door outside she said.
Rosewell felt the warm winter sunlight on her skin and prepared to ruin her fathers plans, if Harlan hated her then it would do no good for the kingdom.
“Harlan, I am sorry.”
He leaned forward, looking her right in the eyes, he could lie, but she knew that his eyes were honest.
“I forgive you, you were between a rock and a hard place. Acting motherly, giving me time off so I didn’t just work myself to death, making sure Zella and Relly were happy and safe. I actually don’t think I care about the why, you and I might not be close friends, but if you can be genuine, then I would like to be.”
His eyes were like rolling fog on a lazy morning, they did not whip with fury, they did not focus like the funnel of a tornado, they were as they always were.
“I am glad you don’t hold resentment towards me. But I knew what your mental state was, and I still sent you away, I do blame myself for how you reacted.”
“And how did I react?”
“Your deal with Dearil, my father told me, he said he told no one else, but I can’t be entirely unsure.
The Dark god, she set you up from the start, she worked with my father to ensure you were safe, but also that you made the mistakes that got you to this room here.”
“She put me in that situation, but I made my choice. I was in no state to make it, but I had others who told me not to, and I made it anyway, knowing what it might cost me.”
“Even if that is the case, you should still be wary of her, I can’t exactly spy on your talks with her, but I have looked at the history of the people who get too involved with her.
Most seem to reach a breaking point and then die in some suicidal mission from her. I do not want you to put Relly and Zella through that.”
“I will make my choices, that is all I can do.”
“You sound like you are about to die, cheer up a little.”
“I’d rather be back fighting direwolves in the snow than be on a stage talking to a bunch of fucking nobles. Pardon my language.”
“Of course. Would you like me to give you some tips on public speaking?”
“Thank the gods, yes.”
Harlan realized how serious things were getting and wanted to try to relieve the tension in the room, he would thank the gods for nothing in most cases.
Once they were done Safira once more guided him through the halls.
“Do you not talk because you don’t want to, or do you just prefer to only speak when spoken to?”
“I speak when I need to, in this case, to avoid you trying to speak with me again.”
“Understandable.”
Harlan went down long and heavily reinforced hallways that led to long stairways that led to more hallways.
His spatial awareness was fairly good, he guessed they were 200, maybe 300 feet underground by the time they entered the lab where Sepul and that other brother he made were located.
Harlan noticed a few familiar minds, they had been note takers for his experiments to gain web access so he could translate it into spells normal people could use.
The first thing that caught his eye was an orb, roughly 3 feet in diameter, attached to many shifting arms that were somewhere between an octopus and a spider.
He noticed Harlan as well.
He shortened his limbs to bring his orb to above head height with Harlan.
“You may call me Dagda. You will act as my voice for this presentation. I would rather be here working than entertaining dolts who cannot know the erudition which went into our creations.”
“How are you?”
“I am, as I always am, busy. Wasted time is never regained, let me explain everything that needs to-”
Sepul stepped forward.
“These are Dagda’s notes, we are going to turn them into something less dry and more easily understandable.”
“You are going to ruin them, for those lesser minds. Useless ones that only think of gold and shiny objects, children past the age of adulthood. Fools, the lot of them.”
Dagda slithered around in anger, he was very opinionated.
He had been raised from the start to be a maker of things, to try to delve into the secrets of things both mechanical and magical.
As he learned more and more and spoke to normal people less he ended up as he was now.
The first researchers Harlan met were like this, they didn’t just believe themselves to be the smartest person in the room, they almost always were, and this gave them an ego.
Much like how mages weren’t unhinged just because they were mages, he was the way he was just because nobody normal would do what he would do.
“Yes, but those fools are giving you the gold you need to buy all the toys you work with. A mind without anything to work on is no more useful than a farmer without seeds.”
“Bah, I would find a way to make do.”
He swam through the air at a high speed towards Harlan, stopping near his face.
“I will be taking samples from you.”
Before his limbs could pull hair and draw blood Lugh blocked each attempt.
“You are mean. Stop doing this to Harlan without asking.”
“This is for science, don’t get in my way little brother.”
Sepul stepped in before things escalated.
“You will behave yourself, or I will be the one you deal with.”
He fled to the nearest wall, understanding that despite his mind, he was not a powerful mage.
After a minute or two of sulking he returned near Harlan.
“May I take hair and blood samples?”
“May I know why you want them?”
“I hope to understand why I cannot make more of myself. I am a complete soul, yet when I attempt what you have done, the things I make are incomplete.”
“I consider making more people like you to be a very serious thing, you aren’t a soul item that doesn’t think, that just takes in knowledge and commands. You are a person, a complete soul, but also one with a mind. If you made more like you for experiments I would not approve of that. Unless the king himself demands that I help you, I will not do that for you.”
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He clicked together his ethereal shadowsteel limbs in anger, but did not talk until he had calmed down.
“Fine.”
Harlan didn’t like how he acted.
They had pumped him full of knowledge, and clearly he took it all in, but he was still mentally closer to a child, he had tantrums, he needed to be scolded, but worst was that he understood limits, and still he wanted to break them, only being stopped by threats.
“But, I will ask The Darkness about it.”
He joyously spun in the air.
“May you also ask why she does not answer my calls?”
“I will ask, if you behave yourself. Why not use this time to help me and Sepul with your notes? Surely as their writer there is nobody better suited for this work.”
He spun in quarter circles back and forth with a stuttering motion.
“I suppose if there is no better person for this, it would fall onto me to help you.”
Harlan tried to make smalltalk with him, but it ended up being Dagda asking him questions about magic and sometimes Sepul gave a glare when he asked something sensitive.
The hour flew by in a flash and Harlan wondered if Dagda would be alright.
He looked at him like other people looked at Harlan, he was clearly doing something bad, or thinking about it at least.
He waved goodbye to him and he waved back with several of his limbs.
Sepul stayed behind to keep looking over the revised speech for any errors or things that needed a little more explanation.
Harlan was once again escorted by Safira, he wondered if she really just stood there for the entire hour or if she at least read a book, yet he didn’t ask, if she didn’t like talking he wasn’t going to force her to.
He was now in the royal gala hall.
It was clearly spatially distorted to a degree.
Harlan’s first thought was that it was probably 7, if not 8 times larger than the Blackstone hall.
He could take a horse from one end of the room to the other and it would still take a few minutes.
It was actually so excessively large that he was disgusted at it for some reason.
He made his way to his friends, finding that Cynthia had already arrived and was with them, along with a few other royal children.
As much as he wanted to do something to her, he had to act with his best behavior around everyone.
“Harlan, it has been too long. Please, hold, Sycamore.”
She immediately handed her son to Harlan without giving him the chance to say no.
She knew that refusing while she was already holding him close enough for Harlan to grab him would be seen as rude.
So Harlan grabbed him.
“He has your hair.”
“And his father’s eyes.”
They were a bright green, just a natural color.
“Is the duke here?”
“Yes, I believe he went to talk with Alder about some deal or another.”
She had been doing stretches the entire time since she handed her son to Harlan.
“Do you know a spell to soothe muscles? My doctor isn’t here and I don’t want to walk all the way to the healer here.”
Harlan realized that when she said it had been too long she meant that she had been holding her baby for too long.
“You are a princess, you should call him and he will come running.”
Harlan tried to remember the faces, but was having a hard time.
This one was the 10th prince Calad, or 11th prince Calen, they were twins and he would need to rely on his mental sense after one of them identified themselves.
“Shoo if you are going to start being rude, Calen”
“I do know spells to soothe muscles, where is the issue? There are spells that are general, and there are spells that are specific.”
“My shoulders and my legs, carrying one inside and one outside is wearing me down.”
It only took a few minutes before Harlan was done, it was a little awkward since little Sycamore kept grabbing his hair and clothes but he refused to let anyone else take him.
He used lower power spells that released their effect over a period of time since he knew that pregnant women were sensitive to magic, he just didn’t know which spells or why and the books and classes hadn’t really clarified that yet.
“Give it a few minutes before it really sets in, during that time you should avoid straining yourself. Are there any chairs around here? I can grab one for you.”
She was nearly through her pregnancy and it was clear how it was affecting her.
“Sure, just grab one from anywhere.”
It wasn’t really standard protocol, and when Calad tried to say this Gladio stepped in to stop it.
He had dealt with the women in the family while they were pregnant before, and it was not a good idea to contradict them over something so small.
Harlan used a spell to reduce friction and slid to the nearest chair he could see.
He would’ve ran instead or even flown, but his suit stopped the first and wards stopped the second.
Sycamore was having a lot of fun however.
When he returned the twins were speaking to Yara and Ximena, while one of the older boys was talking to Amber.
Harlan could tell they had less than pure intentions.
He had intentionally designed Amber’s dress to be something that did not provoke lust, yet it didn’t really matter too much, magical tempering did not just mean being stronger, it helped those with natural beauty have their bodies grow in all the right ways.
Ximena and Yara fared no better.
He couldn’t really afford to start a fight here, luckily Cynthia had his back.
“Their eyes are up there, all of you.”
Of the ones there, Gladio was the oldest, Cynthia was the next oldest.
Despite her being the 9th princess and Calad being the 10th, there was a larger gap in ages between them.
She was 24, while the twins were only 16.
The one talking to Amber was 8th prince Colefray, at 20 years old.
“I have no idea what you mean. I was just taking in the design of her dress.”
“Do you want one in your size?”
Before he could reply back Gladio once again stopped him.
The king had sent him to ensure the day was peaceful despite Cynthia being ready to stir the pot at the drop of a hat.
Gladio himself was a quiet mountain of a man at 6’5.
Harlan didn’t know him yet, but he gave off the same feeling as Tau.
“My apologies, I forgot to introduce myself in all of the hustle. I am Harlan Fomoria, these are my guests for tonight.”
Harlan bowed deeply, though some people would kneel for members of the royal family, especially a baron, of which Harlan would technically be roughly the same rank as.
If anyone asked he would say it is because he was holding Sycamore.
“Give me my little Syca back now.”
Harlan did as asked.
“He likes you, he doesn’t like most people. Are you planning on having kids? I’m sure you will do well.”
Harlan didn’t get sad or upset, he knew Cynthia was only asking because she loved her child and she saw that Harlan seemed happy with him too.
“No, I have no plans currently to have children.”
“Well, I am sure if you ever change your mind they will be cute as a button.”
Harlan smiled at her compliment.
“9th Princess Cynthia, how did you meet Harlan? The two of you seem close.”
“I officially give all of you leave to call me Cynthia. I never wanted the throne and I still don’t. I am Duchess Greenfield now. Anyway, he came to the menagerie to find animals for souls, then after he talked with a Void Stag he came to look at the mimic trees and I had to put one to sleep. From there we met whenever I was in the castle so I could teach him things.”
“Oh? Are you a mage?”
She smirked.
“I taught him his social skills.”
That response only confused Yara, Harlan hadn’t ever told her much about his relationship with her.
However it got him a side glance from Gladio.
“I am sure that is why he is so well behaved.”
“Oh, did he blossom into a proper gentleman? I can see that he surrounds himself with beautiful women at least. Though I do wish I could see that other girl he always mentions in his letters, Adina was it?”
“I don’t think I bring her up that often.”
She gave a small chuckle.
“I think you didn’t mention her a month and a half ago, you always bring her up at some point. I can tell she is all over your mind.”
He wanted to dispute the claim, but it would’ve sounded hollow even to him.
“She is a very close friend.”
“Oh, before I forget, give me your tag, rune? Whatever you call it..”
The royal family were some of the only people who already had their communication amulets, though they were not allowed to use them publicly yet.
Harlan understood her request and pulled an amulet from his inner pocket, when they touched amulets they both felt slightly lightheaded, but that passed after just a few seconds.
Even if somebody tried to repeat the process back to back multiple times there was a cooldown to the spell to avoid any harm to those who used it.
“There, now you are the 3rd person I can call. Right behind my father and my husband.”
She had avoided adding any of her siblings yet just so Harlan could be one of the first ones she got.
“Oh, go away and then I’ll call you.”
“Should you show this off before the event tonight?“
“Go away, do it.”
She didn’t even care about the question, and none of her siblings stopped her, so he went to the end of the room farther from her.
He thought strongly about Cynthia and it connected to her almost instantly, his amulet was unique as it did not need another spell to connect to the person, the spell used in normal manufacture was nothing but an imitation of what Harlan could do naturally.
There was little in the way of delay once the connection was open, but there was roughly a tenth of a second delay for every hundred miles.
At least it was linear which was nice.
“Do I sound good over this thing?”
“You sound like you are right next to me.”
He looked over at them and saw that Yara was clearly very excited and got closer to Cynthia.
“Your quiet friend wants to talk with you.”
She became quieter and handed it to Yara.
“You’ve made a device that connects to the crossroads? This is incredible. I want to have a long talk about this when we get back.”
She cleared her throat, realizing the company she was in.
“If you are allowed to do so, that is.”
Cynthia thought it was funny to make him walk all over the room, she said she was checking the connection, but really she just wanted him to tell her what foods were being set out and where.
Finally she called him back when her husband returned.
He was barely taller than her at 5’10, but he was built like an oak.
Which was also his name.
“My wife has told me a lot about you.”
“I hope they were only good things, Duke Greenfield.”
“Call me sir, we will be friends I hope.”
Harlan laughed inside that he considered calling him Sir Greenfield to be friendly.
“I am told you invented the…”
Unfortunately for Harlan, he was a business oriented man, so their conversations weren’t exactly something he was interested in.
But, he was Cynthia’s husband, so he felt that if there was anyone to get in business with, it would be him.
Luckily after another 15 minutes the rest of his family arrived.
The party would be starting very soon, and being allowed to arrive before the start of a party was an honor.
Balor quickly introduced himself and Harlan shifted the focus of the duke to Balor so he could get away.
Ava gave him a hug, he gave her a void nova necklace, hairpins, a brooch, and a bracelet.
But only after she got a full rundown on what they did, she clearly wanted to try them out, but held back.
Finally he slipped the rings on everyone's fingers stealthily and gave them all the orbs.
He was glad it was still considered fashionable for women to carry a bag, and in the future it would be considered odd to not carry one considering the amulets.
Aida spoke with Cynthia, Harlow looked around like a fish out of water and hoped he wouldn't embarrass his son.
The night was going well.
Harlan had been approached by a few people, but he never made any deals in definitive terms, always ending things with ‘I will consult my people and set up a proper meeting’ yet most of them would never reply back.
They wanted a deal verbally agreed upon here while they knew he wasn’t the business minded one, a few of them made excuses once Balor showed up.
Nobody was sure if he really was a shrewd negotiator, or if he was just terrified of losing Harlan’s money.
It was a bit of both in all honesty.
Harlan had a short welcome with The Dyad Family, but he could tell they did not want him around their children so he broke it off as soon as they gave the chance.
Blackstone was there, he did live in her county afterall.
She seemed interested in what Harlan was doing, and even more interested in having him dance with Sable when the time came.
He made no promises.
When Harlan managed to get back to Cynthia the other Greenfields were there.
Grenth didn’t look upset to see him, Willow was happy to see him since she didn’t really get what was happening between him and Claudia.
The other brothers of Oak, Ash and Birch, approached him.
One wanted to subtly ask how he knew his daughter, and the other just wanted Harlan to apologize to his son, one of these was easy to answer, the other was even easier.
“What do I have to apologize for?”
“You dishonored him in a fight.”
“He dishonored himself with a loss.”
“I don’t know what trick you used but-”
He was pointing his finger right in Harlan’s face, it was rude, but it was also just annoying for Harlan.
“Grenth, do you want to fight me again? We can do this right here and now.”
“No… I would rather not.”
“I will not have a coward for a son, fight him right now.”
“Why don’t you fight me? Unless you believe yourself weaker than your son, I shouldn’t be a threat at all.”
Cynthia was nearby and could barely hold in her laughter, Oak and Ash looked on in horror.
From his throne the king activated wards and arrays, the fight would take place right in front of the throne.
The rules would be set by them, it was his party after all.
“First blood, nothing beyond chantless magic. Winner gets a months profits from the loser.”
He was disinterested, he considered this little more than a pissing contest between somebody way out of his league and a boy almost 15 years old.
It actually upset him that the blubbery man who looked like he spent more time training with a fork than a sword would cause a disturbance at the event so soon into the evening.
10 years ago he might’ve even won, but he let himself go after failing to inherit the title of Duke from his father to his younger brother.
The fight was over in just 30 seconds.
Harlan unleashed a flurry of punches against his large opponent.
Yet they were simply made to cause pain without much real damage.
Then it was just a cut across his cheek, barely broke past the skin.
Harlan wasn’t really interested in a truly humiliating display, the man had simply bothered him and he ended it as fast as he could without risking hurting the man too much.
He was actually a bit shocked that it took as long as it did.
A doctor soon arrived and it was like nothing had happened.
“Sorry for the disruption. I simply helped your daughter find a locket which she lost once, we barely know one another.”
Birch avoided him for the rest of the night.
Harlan kept moving to keep an eye on his family, making sure they didn’t do anything stupid without realizing it.
He had already given them all the speech about talking to nobles like they were Fae to them, but he knew his father was rather trusting and his mother could be… passionate.
The less said about Ava’s court manners the better.
She was still wearing her armor under her dress, just shapeshifted into a more subtle design that was hidden by the dress.
Nothing else happened until the last guest arrived, the most important people would come either at the very end, or at the very start.
In this case, Harlan had already met one of them..
Fragile Peace headed a group of only a dozen people.
The ones to her left side wore their crest on their chest, an eye with two pupils.
Adina was among them, Harlan could barely feel anything from her, she was barely even there mentally and that made Harlan furious.
To her right was a family with bright red hair and portly figures.
The Catos.
Behind her came other high ranking priests and behind them came the council members from The Confederate States.
None of them brought their children, but Harlan knew the Ursa was Bojana’s mother and Tytoan was Ibery’s father.
It took a great deal of willpower to not immediately walk over to Adina just to try to brighten her up.
He had to be on stage for the show after all.