He calmly strolled through the first gate, every time he was at his parents farm they always seemed to have new defenses, more guards, it was always larger.
He needed to thank Balor again, just as he did every time they saw one another.
If he didn’t know that he was always there to watch out for them it would’ve made it harder to stay at the academy.
He could smell bread before he got inside the house.
“Hey mom, hey dad.”
She rushed over to check for scars, she knew that it was the only way to know what he had done recently since he healed every smaller wound before he got there.
“Harlan, please, why don’t you sit down. We can talk, or we can just eat.”
Harlow tried to play the rock while his wife would be the worrywart, though he worried no less than her.
Harlan sat down and got right to the point.
“I learned about the woman who gave birth to me.”
“You mean your mother?”
“You are my mother, he is my father, she is just half of who made me.”
“Even if she didn’t raise you, I am sure that she loved you very much.”
Harlan leaned back in his seat, sucking air between his teeth.
“That’s the problem, I learned three things last night. I know who killed her, I know why, and I know she didn’t love me.”
Aida was shocked, she could see how torn up Harlan was about it.
“Who could really know about that? Are you absolutely sure?”
“I heard it from as close to the horse's mouth as I possibly could.”
He spoke of his dreams, how The Darkness wiped his memories every time he slept, how it was his own choice, he even saw his mother’s memories through her ghost.
Most of them were of little use, the spirit would not show him almost anything from her time in the Fomorian village, but he got enough from it to believe what he had heard.
Even after she left, when the Fomorian mind tampering was through, she still felt no desire to keep Harlan safe outside of a deal she made.
She had effectively sold him to The Darkness, she would’ve been granted access to a gate which took her back to civilization.
But it was just another lie, The Darkness did not believe that she could be trusted.
A mother who would abandon a child without a second thought, who would do so twice even, was not somebody she could let interfere with her plans.
The meal had gone cold already, they sat in a stunned silence at the callous actions of that woman.
“That bitch.”
Harlow did not apologize or cover his mouth, he was upset.
“How could she… TWICE?”
“Yeah, I have a half-sister. She was married because she was pregnant with her and then she left because of how she was.”
“Maybe if you can find your sister, you can learn about your mother, figure out how she ended up so sick, so broken. I know… I know how you were born, I’m sorry, that is probably why she didn’t… love you.”
“She didn’t hate me either, I was just another person, somebody she gave birth to. She felt the same way about my half-sister.”
“You can call her your sister you know.”
“Can I? What if she is just like… her, I don’t want to set myself up for another disappointment. I can handle somebody who is dead, I don’t want to find her and she hates me for what I am, blames me for her mother’s death. Honestly, I’m worried, I’m afraid, I don’t want her to hate me, but I know I can’t blame her for it.”
Harlow decided to speak before his wife.
“You’ve gone 14 years-”
“15 actually, I was born on new year's day. Guess I finally know that I’m older than Ava. I should actually got the redwall mansion, I’m sure Autumn is planning her birthday-”
“Harlan, don’t change the subject. You’ve gone 15 years not knowing her, if she doesn't like you, then you still have all of us. If she does not want to be your sister, then you have Ava, Amber, Autumn. You have your nieces and nephews. I had a brother once, he died when I was young, but I don’t have a single good memory of him. He was older than me and always complained that I shouldn’t have been born because there was never enough food.”
“What happened to him?”
Harlow drummed his fingers on the table for a time before answering.
“When I was 8, he went to join the army. He died in basic training, fell off an obstacle, landed on his neck wrong. It is horrible to say, but he was somebody that tormented me, upset our mother, and in the end the best thing he did was break his neck so we could have a better life.
The army gave good compensation for him.”
“Harlow!” Aida said with outrage in her voice.
“Honey, please.”
She quieted down and let him continue.
“Harlan, just because people are family, doesn’t make them friends. You can’t worry about how she might react until you actually meet her. I know you, when you find her, you could stalk her for months, find her friends, her father, husband if she has one, business colleagues. Don’t approach this as a meeting with family, treat her as another possible threat, somebody you need to be ready to face. You can stare down a charging bull without an ounce of fear, but you are afraid of upsetting us. When you made Ava cry those months back we all knew how it hurt you, that is because she is your sister, and you love her very much. But this woman is just another person. Just like the one that gave birth to you, she is not your sister, because if she is, then you are worried about her. I am not your father because of our blood, I am your father because I love you and I’ve seen you grow from an infant to a fine young man.”
Harlan chuckled and his eyes veiled with tears.
“Yeah, I love you too. I guess all of my other planning and spying is just a test. Once I find her, I’ll hire the best of the best to find every scrap of paper, every witness, everyone I can to find out how she is. Maybe I will just decide not to give her the time of day. I’ll leave her alone if that is best.”
Both his parents scoffed at the idea and Harlan feigned offense that they don’t believe he could actually leave it buried.
They reheated the meal and Harlan thought about how he wanted to spend the rest of the weekend.
Magic, he never did get the chance to teach his parents anything.
After breakfast Harlan made an example, he reached the telekinetic arms around the kitchen and cleared everything himself without even moving from his seat.
“So, you are both ready to really start now?”
“If it helps you clear your mind, then yes. We’ve been following that teacher you sent us, Ava teaches sometimes, Balor does as well. But we haven’t learned whatever that was.” Aida said
“Telekinesis, beast magic, only came to the academy a few years back. I’m not a mage, I never really wanted to be one, but I want to understand you a bit better since I know you love magic.”
“Honey, how long have you been looking into that?”
“Just a few months really. I can’t really do as much around here anymore. The workers are younger, faster, stronger, I just shuffle papers and watch them work. Guess I got a little stir crazy.”
“Perfect, let me unlock both of your auras then, real quick.”
Harlow gave his hand and Aida followed.
Tanik had taught Harlan how to do it properly, Amber had done it based on how she remembered it being done.
“There we go.”
“Really? Is that it?”
“Yeah, now you can start to learn. This is going to be the bad part, I can give you all kinds of tips, but honestly? Magic is like working out, it is going to make you tired, but at least your muscles won’t ache. Make sure you eat plenty of food before and not after you train, your body won’t process it fast enough to really give you much more mana, but it will help you more quickly recover from mana fatigue.”
After an hour of Harlan making them lift a glass of water that he kept filling up to add weight, they already hated telekinesis.
Harlan was training them like he would anyone, once he switched from the son to the mage he did not hold back.
It helped him to switch up his personality like this, he didn’t need to think about her if he wasn’t Harlan.
“Master, can we have a break.”
His mother’s tired and clearly unhappy tone broke the illusion however.
“Sorry mom, I should’ve been paying attention to you. Let me get started on lunch.”
Worry came over them.
“Oh no honey, please, let me cook.”
“Mom, I’ve been doing more than making magic. Let me show you that I haven’t just been turning myself into a killing machine.”
“Of course, you're a healer too.”
She hoped things would turn out edible, Harlan didn’t have a lack of taste, but more often than not he was more worried about the nutritional value and less about the taste.
He could follow recipes, but making something from scratch on his own was not something she knew him to be good at.
They waited with bated breath as the kitchen filled with a wonderful scent.
The peppers were roasted over the fire, then peeled and pureed.
The chicken was broken down, every bone being removed and taken out to be placed in water so he could make a broth which once the bones were removed was used for boiling rice, the excess being mixed with the peppers.
The meat would be placed in this mixture of pepper, seasoning and broth.
After the onions were sauteed Harlan placed them with the chicken as well.
When his parents finally started to eat they were amazed that it not only tasted good, but that he had done it all by himself other than Lugh cutting things.
“The sauce with the chicken should be put over the rice, though the rice should have a good flavor on its own.”
“When did you learn how to cook?”
“Well, I learned alchemy, but Sepul wouldn’t teach me a thing until I learned how to cook. He said he wasn’t letting me near the ingredients for acid and firebombs until I could make a good meal without following a strict recipe. He said understanding what makes food taste good, learning ratios and such, was how alchemists had learned how to do it when he was a child.”
Harlan looked a little embarrassed and he scratched his chin while pushing his tongue around his mouth.
“And I wanted to make you something nice some day, so I’ve been learning past when he made me learn. His only maid, a nice older woman named Jane, taught me how to make more than a passable meal and she has recipes from all over the place.”
“Oh that is sweet, we should have Ava over. I am sure she would be shocked if you made something and we told her only after she was finished.”
“I think if she learned I was stronger than her physically, magically, and I was a better cook, she would burst a blood vessel. I mean, I could heal that, but I don’t want to upset her anymore than I already have.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He tried to make it sound like a joke, but he really didn’t want her to have another reason to feel inferior to him, as foolish as he thought it was that she couldn’t accept being better than most people her age, she had to beat her little brother as well.
He also intended to hide his birthday from her, she would be his big sister regardless of age.
They spoke of his day to day life at the academy, what he was thinking of doing magically.
Then Ava and Breken walked in the door.
“Harlan? Why are you here? Are you ok?”
“I can visit outside of appointed times without almost dying you know.”
“That needs to be proven before I believe it. But really, you don’t need to tell me, it’s fine.”
“I learned some stuff about myself, nothing to worry about. What are YOU doing here though?”
“I had work in the area and I wanted to stop by. Just some bandits and goblins.”
“Mind if I tag along? I’ve been wondering how your armor actually works when you are out fighting.”
“Well, this is Redwall land, so it is up to Breken.”
“Can I?”
“Of course, Count Fomoria, I would be glad to be lent your strength at this time.”
“Can you also tell me why you’ve been avoiding me?”
“Pure coincidence.”
“You make your own luck, but I’ll pretend to believe you.”
Ava’s nose twitched,
“What smells good in here? Might have a bite before we go.”
“Yeah, I brought a recipe for mom, I can’t cook, but I’ve got more books to read than I know what to do with.”
“I remember when you tried to make a cake.”
“It was good for survival rations though.”
Harlan floated beside them, since they were all above a normal person and had hover in their armors the horses were left behind for the time being.
It took half an hour to find the bandits who had set up camp, just soldiers who loved the killing more than the defending and decided without a war they would find another way to get their fill.
“I would like to speak with them for a moment, could I do that? You can jump in if you think I need it.”
“Sure thing, count.”
Harlan walked out without the robe, he didn’t want to ruin it with what was most likely going to happen.
They hadn’t noticed his presence until he stood right next to them.
“I’m trying to understand selfishness, I figure that you people might know about it.”
“What in the hell?”
“Why do you do this? I know you can find other work, is killing really important to you? Does it make you feel better than those people who feel upset over dying or losing loved ones?”
The man next to Harlan went for his sword but Harlan jumped and his axe kick fell on the man, sending what was his head scattering across the ground.
“How do you justify what you do? Is it greed? Wrath? Lust? What makes you people this way?”
The others froze, Harlan did not look intimidating, but he had just split the head of one of theirs and looked like he was asking them about the weather.
“That is just the way of the world. Kill or be killed.”
“If the world was all like that, we would be living in the mud like animals, don’t you want to be above the wolves? Why not use your training for something better.”
“Better to be a wolf than a sheep.”
Harlan was unimpressed, these men likely hadn’t ever thought through their own stances, they just found whatever one liners allowed them to give the barest justification.
Believing the world was full of evil men allowed them to believe they were not evil, that they were just part of the world.
One man tried to sneak away, the others charged Harlan.
Breken and Ava rushed to help, but he didn’t need it.
The one running away was hit by a fireball that burst upwards shortly after entering his chest, leaving the man looking like a meaty flytrap.
The remaining three didn’t have the chance to regret their choice.
On the left Harlan used his telekinesis to twist the halves of the man like he was wringing out a rag.
The man on the right was struck by a rock modified to turn into a fast growing crystal, had he blocked it he would’ve been unharmed, instead it went through his eye and turned his head into a horrifying decoration as the crystals rapidly burst from his eye sockets.
The man in the middle was simply kicked in the chest, collapsing it.
Harlan simply stepped on his neck as he struggled to realize he was already dead and it was just a mercy killing at that point.
Other bandits came out from their tents once they heard the guards yelling.
Harlan cut them down with what he learned, acid, clinging fire, void, gravity wells, calcification, chaser bolts.
Breken and Ava were trying to capture, Harlan had no such desire.
The leader was smart enough to use a hostage.
Yet such a thing would not work against Harlan.
“You’re gonna stay right where you are, and I won’t cut this girl’s neck open like a hog.”
The woman had her tendons cut, clearly it was a fresh wound to leave her unable to really fight back or run.
But Harlan could still see that she wasn’t broken, it was unlikely the worst had happened yet.
“If you let her go, I’ll let you choose, painless death, or capture. If you refuse to surrender I’ll make sure you live just long enough to regret it.”
The man backed away, he knew that Harlan’s tone mixed with what he was seeing meant that he didn’t really have much of a choice to make, he wasn’t winning a three on one.
Yet he would not go to jail, he would be executed anyway for what he had already done.
“Come on kid, you don’t want more blood on her hands. Why don’t I set her down then, we both go our separate ways.”
“Death or capture. Make your choice, because those are the only options I’m giving you. Or do you think somebody else did this to your men?”
He tried to cut her throat to distract Harlan long enough to get away, but the blade bounced off her bare skin and he found he was entirely immobile.
Harlan walked up to him as he struggled, pulled the knife from his hand, and stuck it in his neck.
It would be a few minutes before he died.
Meanwhile Harlan grabbed the girl, couldn’t have been more than 17, black hair with a few red strands in it, amber eyes.
“Are you ok?”
Her eyes didn’t leave the man who was drowning in his own blood and spit at him before grabbing handfuls of cold dirt and throwing them at his body.
Ava and Breken came in to try and heal the man so that they could question him at least.
“HARLAN, SAVE HIM, WE NEED HIM ALIVE FOR A LITTLE WHILE AT LEAST.”
“Why?”
“WE NEED TO KNOW WHERE HE STOLE THIS STUFF FROM.”
He contemplated just ignoring them, but he followed Breken’s order, pulling the knife from his neck and closing the wound.
He could reconnect the severed arteries and nerves, it was a clean cut without needing to really fix them.
Making new arteries wouldn’t have been possible with so little time, so Harlan could still save him.
Ava pulled Harlan under a veil as soon as Harlan had pulled the last of the blood from the man’s lungs.
“What in the fuck was that?”
“What? I told him what I would do, he tried to kill the girl, so I kept my word.”
“You… I just didn’t think you would kill a defenseless man. We both know he wasn’t a threat in the first place, you didn’t need to kill him.”
“Bandits, they are a bit like goblins, if you leave them alive they will just cause tragedies that turn people into more bandits. So yes, I needed to kill him, I needed to kill all of these men. If that girl was you, and if we were an hour later, a day later, what do you think would’ve happened? They would just leave her alone? No, she was an object for them to use and throw away.”
“We can’t judge him by what he would’ve done, if we have the ability to capture criminals instead of killing them, that is what we are supposed to do. We are out here to enact justice, not slaughter as much as possible.”
Harlan laughed out loud.
“We both know that is bullshit. You came here to kill these men, you know as well as I do they weren’t going to surrender, even at the very end that bastard didn’t do so. You are upset that I am not who I once was, but I am still that person. If you ever need anything, anything at all, you can come to me. A shoulder to cry on, new equipment, someone to go on a picnic, I am still your friendly and caring brother.”
“The old Harlan wouldn’t have killed an immobile man.”
“Which Harlan was that? Have you never done anything like what I did? Never employed torture for information? In the last 3 months you have killed 15 people, missions you have been in have had a total body count of 263. Was every death you’ve been involved with just? Don’t argue with me on moral ground. That little rock you’ve got in your pocket that you can use to talk to me, to mom, to dad, Autumn, Amber, how much blood do you think I spilled to make it? That man I almost killed just now, do you think that is the worst thing I’ve done? Do you think it really matters if I killed him right now or I waited until a judge slammed his gavel down and told somebody else to do it? He was dead the second he decided to desert the army and become a bandit who kills and rapes and steals just because he can, anything else has just been preamble to his execution by somebody.”
“You’re an asshole. Does anyone else know about these communicators?”
“You are the first person I’ve ever told about this. I doubt the royal family outside of the king even knows how I made them. I’ve seen the worst people, people who’ve been condemned to death because of what they’ve done, and I made something wonderful out of their deaths. How many times have you been able to just talk to somebody, because of that thing?”
“That doesn't… I just wish you didn’t tell me about that, I love this thing. I talk to Amber most nights before bed. Balor keeps calling me to make sure I have everything I need and my weapon and armor are working well.”
“You don’t need to like it, you can hate it, but that is the cost you never had to see. I didn’t turn into this because of somebody else, I made my mistakes, and that is the price I paid, but from that price I got something good out of it.”
“Are you changing the subject? Was that what you wanted?”
“You and I are seeing what I did differently, I am trying to explain why I don’t see anything wrong with what I did.”
She dropped the veil and the conversation was over.
She hated that she hadn’t been close enough to see how Harlan was changing and how she couldn’t look at the amulet without thinking about how much it probably hurt Harlan to make it.
“Breken, what do we do now?”
“A clean up team is on the way, they will catalog the items and match them with what has been reported stolen. Anything that we can’t match to a report could be a personal belonging of the bandits or it could be from a victim who could not report the item on account of their death. The bodies will be cataloged and matched with military records. Though it is going to be hard for most of these people, we can use what date they most likely deserted to get an accurate guess of who they were. The girl, if she has somewhere to go, will be escorted back and maybe even get some coin for this. We failed to stop the bandits before they struck and Redwall is somebody who is willing to give grievance funds.”
“I think I should stay here while you go deal with the goblins.”
“That would be for the best, the clean up crew should be here before we get back.”
Ava and Breken both looked at Harlan in a different light, they knew he was a killer, but this was beyond their expectations.
It was a reminder that he was not just her brother, he was a mage with years of training under the watchful eye of the royals and then almost a full year at the academy.
More than that, he was Fomorian, quick and brutal slaughter was their M.O.
She managed to convince Breken to tell her about his time as a mercenary; he had mentioned fighting Fomorians before.
He told her of receiving a message from a village asking for aid, it couldn't have been more than 30 minutes between getting the message and getting to the village.
The place was razed to the ground, a pile of heads in the middle of the place.
A Fomorian did not fight for loot or glory, they fought with shock and awe and then left once the message was sent.
He was not raised by them, he knew little of his own people, but such a thing was like a dominant gene, they were predispositioned to be like this.
For Harlan he did not like to be like that, but it was easy to dissociate, to slip into the persona of a man who cut down his enemies like wheat.
They did not see it, but for the briefest moment, his eyes had gone black like a Fenrir when he plunged that knife into the man’s throat.
----------------------------------------
Capital city of Yggdra, Ragne Kingdom.
The king sat with his children and they discussed policy and personal topics over dinner.
It had been 2 weeks since Redmond had discovered the non-hostile, but still uncooperative Fomorians.
Yggdra agreed with Redmond that it was best that Harlan did not know about them until they had every last shred of information about the village.
From what had been said by them, it was at least possible that Harlan came from that place; If he remembered where Sepul’s great granddaughter went missing, well, Sepul could never learn about why he was strongly for a truth potion and not given a real reason for it.
“We will discuss the fate of a Fomorian village.”
The table went quiet.
“Excuse me, father, why?”
Alder said.
“They have not been hostile, though they have not been friendly as well. It is also likely the birthplace of Count Fomoria.”
Silent sneers were seen around the table, that the boy be granted even an honorary title of count.
Rosewell spoke up.
“Are we sure it is safe? I assume you intend to have Harlan meet them as an envoy.”
“If he is to go there, he will be under guard by Safira and Lucian. The question is, why would we send him other than because they have asked for him.”
“How did they find out?”
“Through pure happenstance, Redmond Fomoria, a ranger, was able to enter the village. Their misdirection arrays let him through because he had items on him that Count Fomoria had soulsmithed himself, leaving a certain mark on them due to his nature. He did not understand what had happened until he was offered shelter for the night and then questioned by the residents. We have also learned from this that they have had outside contact with humans, but they will not say who has been helping them.”
Alder took the conversation.
“And we were sure that this was a coincidence?”
“Yes, Archmage Dust provided a truth potion which was used to confirm that he had no idea about the village. Though we cannot rule out that The Darkness played some part in this, that is a topic for another day. However, she could be playing us all and we wouldn’t be likely to understand the scope of it if we spent years looking into the subject. Even if she was, it would make little difference as we could not stop her.“
“But we could cut the head from her snake in the grass.”
Hydran was still upset over Harlan, Rosewell gained praise and favor every time he willingly gave something over to the kingdom due to her having been the one who had gained his trust.
“Hydran, my son, I think it is time you understand something. You can never be king, so stop spending all of your time whining and seething over your sister having brought him to our side. You should instead be bettering yourself so that when I am gone you are useful enough to keep around. I give this same warning to Anemone, Angelica, Chrys, Gladio, Rue, Lobelia, Lilly, Yarrow, Aster, Rosewell, Cynthia. Some of you are just too young, some of you are simply unfit due to your personality. I want this nation to have neither a tyrant nor an important ruler.”
There was anger, resignation, relief, and acceptance.
The king knew that he would need to prune his family tree before somebody set it ablaze out of spite.
It was never a nice time, but he would do anything to keep his country a place worth living.
He had his pride, he would do better than his father and hope that his children would do better than him so that their country, whether it stayed a kingdom or became something else, would stand until the end of history.