Harlan met with Sable, made his smalltalk, just enough to not offend the countess who still believed she could change his mind.
He finally finished the tour of the menagerie with Piceous.
The only event Blackstone wanted from Harlan now was a light early dinner.
She understood that Harlan was a large eater, beyond what seemed possible even, and there was likely to be little time for him to eat during the party itself.
Also Jet was there.
It was no mistake that Onyx had swapped places with his younger brother.
Blackstone wanted them to have a calm sitdown with one another, and with his fiance.
The rest of the room took side glances as soon the first words flew like daggers at the other.
“Sir Fomoria.”
“Jet.”
“It has been some time since we last met.”
“Does your fiance know about your past? I can’t imagine any locals would let you within 50 feet of their daughters unless they were desperate.”
“Yes, we’ve had a long talk about my past indiscretions and failures of responsibility. Does yours know that she is sitting next to a monster?”
“She saw me climb on the back of a direwolf and snap its neck. She saw me tear the eyes out of a man with a sword in my throat. Adina, you must’ve heard me talk about Jet before?
He was being untoward with my sisters and I beat him until his mother needed to step in.”
Blackstone was the only person smiling.
“Harlan, Jet, you both need to forgive and forget. You have… both grown up since last year. Harlan, I believe you should know enough about forgiving and being forgiven. Jet has been in a proper relationship with Lady Carda for over 6 months now.”
“If you vouch for him, then I will put it in the past. Jet? Water under the bridge?”
“Promise you aren’t going to kill me in my sleep?”
“I will react to whatever actions are taken against me.”
“That will need to be close enough. Harlan, my name is Jet, pleasure to meet you for the first time. This is my fiance, Lady Saff Carda.”
“I am pleased to meet you both, may I introduce my fiance, Lady Adina.”
The tension still held, both sides knew that it was just one wrong word from being at each others throats again.
So they didn’t speak, their significant others did.
“How long have you known Sir Jet?”
“7 months. We began to date not long after we met. Though I had heard the rumors, I had also heard he had been humbled and was trying to be a better man. It was love at first sight for him, it just took me a little bit to understand that. How long have you known Sir Fomoria?”
“We met very early on at the academy, it is closer to a year than not at this point.”
“Did you have classes together?”
“Some, though we met when he prevented others from abusing me.”
“You look very happy with him. Are you the daughter of a count or baron?”
“High Saint.”
Saff took a sip of wine, her eyes telling more than any reply could’ve.
“Lady Carda, I’m going to give this as a simple request. Whatever comment you have for her, don’t say it. She hates Reino and her family as much as anyone born and bred in Ragne. She left them behind, she is part of my family now.”
Blackstone clapped her hands loudly.
“No need to bring rain on a happy day. I have met the girl, I know she is quite dear to him. Unless you intend to be enemies with him, do not insult her.”
“Thank you, Lady Blackstone.”
Everyone ate more calmly as Harlan spoke normally with Saff, so long as it was left unsaid, he would pretend that it was fine. It isn’t like Jet was likely to end up as count.
Harlan was spending the remainder of time until the party with Sable and Adina, Redmond was drinking with Blackstone.
It seemed like war stories and near death experiences were a hot topic between the two.
Fear ran through Harlan’s head, wondering if she was trying to go after him to keep their families close.
But the emotions running through her head… she felt like Adina, like it was real.
“...lan, Harlan, are you listening?”
“Huh? Oh, no I’ve been thinking about something else.”
“What about?”
“Sable, has your mother ever spoken about my uncle?”
She stopped and furrowed her brows.
“A few times. You don’t think…?”
“It is possible. They seem to be getting along well, though if that is enough I don’t know.”
“I hope she isn’t using him just for his relation to you.”
“I was worried about that, but she feels in love I think. Maybe, I don’t know enough about that emotion to say for sure.”
“And how could you feel that?”
“Oh, right. We were talking so openly I didn’t think about it. I can feel the emotions of other people. Your mother is happy, Redmond is happy. There is something else mixed in there that I believe is love, because I feel it from Adina as well.”
Sable couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’m sorry, that just sounds so.”
“Romantic.”
“I don’t even know the right word for it. Like something from a fairytale.”
“Do you know what it is like to be in love? I think I’ve been denying the feeling, telling myself that it isn’t what it is.”
“Now you are talking like Jet when he is going after women.”
“Maybe he knew the feeling, then chose to ignore it anyway for his own reasons.”
“That almost sounds like a defense for him.”
Harlan scratched his chin a little, his hair was starting to come in, but it seemed to be having a hard time getting through his skin after all of the changes his body had undergone.
“It would be easier to pretend that I can’t tell he changed, that Saff is not someone who really cares for him. If he wants to be better, if he is better, I shouldn’t feed that fire, I’ve got others that need the heat more.”
Harlan was standing around, not in a corner, but right in the middle of the room.
His white brighter than ever, his red like fresh blood, his black darker than void.
He spent quite a bit of time with color magic to make sure he was vibrant.
This was not a debut to the social life of a noble, this was him hoping that he could put the idea in the heads of people who had a mutual hate for him, that he could stoke the flames of greed and warm their cold dead hearts enough to get what he wanted.
Instead, people met him with smiles, with cheer, they shook his hand, lowering themselves to the level of a peasant.
By the 5th person who didn’t stick around more than to give words of gratitude, he stopped them.
“Excuse me, what are you thanking me for?”
“Borden. So many of our children pass through that city on the way home from the academies and they were locked up in that mess. My son… I’m told that they found a spider, if he had come home, I might not be myself. I’m sure you’ve saved the children of many others. I’ve been told you tirelessly flew through the night finding rebels and helping those that you could. Please, we must speak another time, I have many others I need to greet.”
“Of course.”
It went on for over an hour, dozens of nobles from barons to even neighboring counts had arrived.
Harlan was… confused. He wanted to be happy, he wanted to believe that this was a shift in how people viewed him. That in the noble courts people would come to his defense. But nothing good happened without something bad happening afterwards. The tension was killing him. Every hand he shook he began to sweat.
“Sir Fomoria, may we have a private chat?”
“Of course, the speaking rooms are right down this hall.”
It was clear that Baron Verdigris was unhappy to see Harlan, from his tone to the scowl on his face, yet Harlan responded with a certain joy in his voice that disarmed the man for a moment.
The room was small, 10x10, enough room to comfortably sit and speak, but rooms like this were intended for short private conversations and not long business deals.
“What can I help you with, Baron Verdigris?”
“You’ve taken in that harlot and my son.”
“You threw him out, took his name, it’s Jerah by the way. I know that a thorough disowning like you did isn’t an instant choice, which means you knew beforehand about his relationship, which means you planned this. He is not your son, he is a man who works under me.”
“He was supposed to try to live a simple life for a few days and then return to me and cast that woman aside. You are not supposed to be involved with this.”
“Yet I am. What do you want to do about it? What can you realistically do about it? She has forsaken her home for his love, he has done the same. They are bonded, and in a few months, if they have earned my favor, I will grant them a small wedding. They are, however, already married under the law.”
The man slicked back his blue tinged hair and stopped himself from jumping into sneers and snarls.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“I am told you are reasonable, and that you value family, so please, tell me, what can I do to have my son back.”
“He is not an object or a piece of property. He made his choice, you must make yours. Let the girl live with you, take him back as a son.”
“If her family wanted him for what they could gain from them being together, why should I trust her?”
“Outside of the obvious fact that she forsook her family. When did I ever say to trust her? I will give you the same advice I gave them in Borden.”
“You met in Borden? What happened?”
The shell of the serious man cracked with worry.
“Attempted kidnapping. I killed the men who were after them and then they hit me with a blast that put me through a stone wall. Once they realized what they had done Jarah wanted to run away, but Sherah made him stay. They told me their plans, and I told them to be realistic. But, if they failed to convince either side, then they would have the possibility to work for me. Now I am going to tell you what is realistic. Get 10, 20, 30 men, however many it takes. Follow her every movement, write down her every word, let no detail escape your men. Then, judge her. Not based on what you believe is true, but what you can confirm is true.”
“I’m not going to compromise-”
Harlan slammed the table with enough force that it splintered and cracked, the enchantments would pull it back together.
“Reality is a compromise. I have made many choices that I felt I was forced to make for the sake of the world I wish to live in, and for the life I am going to protect. Cut her down if you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is not who she claims to be. But, if she is as she claims, bring her into your home, she will make a good wife for your son. Loyalty matters more than a birthplace, otherwise I would’ve torn you apart because that is what a Fomorian does. I am ending this conversation here, either listen to me or don’t. Losing your son is a choice, and that is yours to make, I am just giving options.”
Harlan made his way back to the main room, along the way he made a few observations.
Redmond and Blackstone, while not together, stood at angles that let the other share glances back and forth.
His parents were speaking with barons and baronesses.
Adina was being spoken to by a young man, she could handle herself.
Zella, well, she had Harlan’s protection and people knew of her, but nobody really knew her.
Out of the facility and right into the academy, friend to the Fomoria family, mage, but mostly unknown.
No mother, no father, no siblings or distant relatives. If she had died instead of being found and taken to the facility, she would be eaten by beasts or put in an unmarked grave.
Somebody was bothering her.
“Hello, Count Harlan Fomoria, and you are?”
“Uh. I was just leaving, I think I heard my mother.”
The boy looked over his shoulder as he walked away.
“Should I crush his head like an overripe grape?”
“Not worth it. He is just another shallow son of a noble who doesn’t understand how uninteresting he is. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I almost wish I didn’t push you away. I’d rather have somebody like you. Maybe not exactly, but enough like you.”
“Why didn’t you just tell him to buzz off then?”
“Regardless of anything else, I’m still technically a peasant. I know that if anything happened you would deal with it. But I don’t want you to deal with people, you know how that would go.”
“I should make you a vassal, do you have a title you would like?”
“No, but thank you for the offer.”
“Why don’t you want it?”
“Because I want to make a name for myself. Ava and Amber are both just called the sisters of Harlan Fomoria, people aren’t seeing them for their achievements unless they speak with them.
I don’t want to fall into your shadow as just another person related to you.”
“It would save you some bother.”
“No, it would change the kinds of people who come to speak with me. Half the people here came to me thinking I was Adina, then it was just an awkward disengagement so they could leave.
I figured with my hair everyone would be able to remember me.”
“You’ll get there. You are a damn good mage.”
“What are my subjects?”
Harlan tried really, really hard to remember. But he had never been told them, he had never asked.
“Warmagic, combat magic, probably wards and arrays.”
“First two are right, last two, no. Fae law and voyagering, which is an advanced form of survival class.
I want to travel around and understand the world better, but I also want to protect myself. I learned hover and telekinesis in the first year, I took spatial and time magic this year.”
“I’m sorry, I should’ve asked at some point.”
“It doesn’t bother me. You’ve had plenty of spare time, but you’ve also used it for other people and for whatever mad project you’ve made that week.”
“Maybe Adina was right, I do need to cut back on my work.”
She tried her best not to laugh.
“I could do it if I wanted to, I just have a lot that needs to be done.”
“You spent half a month perfecting color magic. If you didn’t work as hard and as long as you could you would never get anything done or you’d end up addicted to sleep suppressors.”
Before he could retort Blackstone had kicked the band off the stage to make an announcement.
What drew his eye was the kind look in her eyes, she too often looked fierce or tired.
“I will be holding marriage spars. Any man who can defeat me in single combat will be in consideration for my hand. Personal weapons and armor are allowed, any spell that does not kill an opponent is allowed.”
Harlan expected there to be excitement, instead it was mostly fear and annoyance.
Any noble her age was already married unless they were widowed, any man younger was unlikely to want to marry her instead of a younger more attractive woman.
Yet, if nobody fought her they knew that she would feel slighted.
She had been remarkably amicable with Harlan, but she was known to be spiteful and ill tempered.
A dozen men threw themselves on her sacrificial altar.
The first man was a Baron, 26 years of age, military family, first generation.
A wife would be on the way for him as soon as someone suitable for both parties was found, even if he won it wouldn’t work out, and he knew that.
In just a few moments after the fight began she hooked her estoc in the twisting guard of the man’s own and forced it out of his hand, followed up by a palm strike that sent him barreling out of the stone platform.
“Next.”
As the men began to fall one by one Harlan stood next to Redmond.
“Aren’t you going to join?”
“Me? I don’t need to be wrapped up in whatever plans she has.”
“I saw you earlier, I think she genuinely enjoyed your company.”
“I’m no good with love. I’ll stick with brothels if I ever get lonely.”
“If you are worried about her making trouble, don’t be. Besides, if this doesn’t work out, you have my backing.”
“I’m not sure that I should do it.”
“I’ve read reports. You don’t think you can give up your work, and the work you’ve already done is killing your heart.”
“I’m not here to be psychoanalyzed by you.”
“10 months of the year out in the woods, seeing bad people do bad things, doing bad things back.”
“Harlan, you don’t know what I’ve done.”
“I could show you what I’ve done.”
“I don’t think that would help either of us.”
“If a man cannot bear his own burdens, then he cannot bear those of his neighbors. But if a man has free space on his shoulders, then he should uplift his neighbors. Adina has lightened my load, sometimes she has added onto it. I think that you might benefit from having someone else who knows how bad things are.”
“That sounds very… Reinoan.”
“I’m more or less quoting their holy book. They are pricks, but that book has some good lines in it.
Let me help you.”
“How about this? If I think you know what I am dealing with, I’ll fight her right now and I’ll do it with my full strength. Deal?”
Harlan put his hand out for a shake and gave Redmond a dose of memories, being careful that he didn’t overload his soul with the information, taking out extraneous details like touch or smell as needed.
He saw the mayor of Dullen lose his head, the clearing of the bandit camp..
He saw Harlan knee deep in blood, killing a dozen men in a ritual, feeling the blood as it heated up.
He saw the fight with Kleon, he knew Harlan’s resolve to die just to buy time for his friends.
He felt the bullet tear up his insides back in Borden.
His hands shook as he came out of the trance.
“Shit.”
Redmond walked to get in line, only one man was left.
The man willingly stepped off of the stage.
Blackstone was in her 40s but never let herself go like some did.
Until last year she would still make trips to the frontlines just to make sure she was sharp.
“Sir Redmond, what a pleasure. Would you be willing to meet me as an equal?”
She wore her golem armor openly, what was exposed with her dress still on at least was covered by shadowsteel and steel
Blackstone was simple, but if she was going to use one armor likely for the rest of her life and assuming she kept good relations with Harlan he would be able to update the armor for decades if not centuries, it seemed fair to make something with a style that could be passed on in her family for a long time.
It was based on fairly simple plate with an extra plate bearing her crest over her heart and with a faint flowing floral pattern that could only be seen when the light hit the armor just right.
The only abnormality was a high collar of stonesteel that reached just past the chin and was only open a few inches in the front.
She could lose limbs, be bisected, any number of things, but as long as she was alive with a heart and a brain when she reached a good enough healer, she could be fine.
But, if the head was off for as little as 3 minutes, that was it.
“I would meet you at nothing less than my full power.”
For many, this would be the first time they would see what the rumored armor of Formoria could do.
Redmond had a saber of skysteel with only a slight curve in his hand that he convinced his favorite nephew to soulsmith after he bought it directly from Brig.
His blade that Harlan had made for him the year prior was broken stopping the charge of a Stone Boar.
In the first clash the spectators understood that Blackstone had been doing nothing but blowing on steam until now.
Steel screamed against steel as they tested one another.
Her estoc bent yet held no fear of breaking as she slid it across the saber, the spring of it returning to its right shape cut the air like a whip and would’ve pierced a lesser armor.
Instead the black tip of the sword met a slight curve of his helmet that wasn’t there a moment before and barely scratched it.
Redmond countered with a kick to her thigh that landed hard but had no real effect.
Back and forth, scrape scrape scrape, the blades danced in black and white like moths around a campfire.
Fire splashed harmlessly off of the both of them as they knew enough to shift the air and starve the fire as it got near.
Lightning has no mass, it did not clash as one might think.
Magical lightning instead had the tendency to split and splinter and deflect off one another like bullets meeting in the air.
The wards of the arena held fast and no one jumped back, but that they needed to be active at all showed the difference in how this was being fought.
Redmond put down his helmet.
“Going to surrender?”
“You keep aiming for my head, I wonder if I could reflect a few more hits with good looks instead of steel.”
They clashed again as they did at the start, yet when the estoc sprung back to shape there was no helmet to deflect with.
A clear line was drawn deeply in Redmond’s face, his cheekbone was sliced through, his ear split in two.
Redmond tossed the saber at her inner elbow, forcing her to block.
However, the blade did not simple stop once it met steel, it twisted around, binding her forearms as he kicked her shin and forced her to a knee.
The first kick was never real, Blackstone didn’t know what all the armor could really do, so she assumed it better than it was, not taking into account that Redmond was also wearing the same armor, but of high quality stonesteel instead of shadow and light.
Unable to fight back, Redmond struck her with his fist, his removal of his own helmet was to add extra volume, making her attempt to roll with the punch ineffective as his reach extended.
Blackstone fell to the stone tiles and did not get back up.
A doctor rushed to both parties, though Redmond refused the help. He didn’t go through months of healing classes just to let someone else deal with a flesh wound and a clean cut bone.
He stepped off the stage and back to Harlan.
“Alright, I guess you got what you wanted.”
“Of course. I got to see two soldiers wearing my armor and the flaws I see in my explanations to Blackstone. That trick with the helmet and the extended fist was really something.”
“Did you send me in there knowing we would both use our armors?”
“I sent you in there to get you somebody you could share your life with and to help a friend who is lonely and looking for a good man. But I also figured you would use your armor.”
“I should smack you one just for that, instead I’ll just tell my sister and she’ll do worse.”
The pair laughed as they waited for Blackstone to wake up and either hold a grudge or start planning a wedding.
----------------------------------------
Engine status: Non-functioning
Crew status: Expired
Causality: Tier 0
Local causality restored, activating repair drones.
Checking guidelines. Guidelines undamaged, halt repair of self destruct functions, redirecting drones to engine restoration.
Activating long range scanners.