Harlan set down the plates full of eggs and meats and a tray of bread to eat for breakfast.

“Are we expecting anyone else?”

“No, I’m just denser now than I was before, I will likely need to begin using metabolizing spells just to keep up with the nutrients that I need or I will be drinking tonics between meals.”

“Is that safe?”

“I was told in the past to avoid using them, but I’ve since learned that the only real reason was that they knew I would overuse it.”

“Of course you would. And then you would be 10 feet tall and 1000 pounds.”

“Right now I think I am right around 1400.”

“What? How?”

“You mean how I’m able to move around and sit on this chair without it exploding into splitters.”

“Yes.”

“The answer is hover. Which actually matches up pretty well with real wyverns. There is just no way for them to move and fly around no matter their wingspan if they couldn’t instinctively use magic to reduce their weight.”

“That sounds dangerous, what if you accidentally turn it off or you pass out?”

“Then my armor will realize the issue and turn it back on.”

“What about the cost of the-”

“Hover increases in cost based on volume and weight, the cost is currently manageable by offloading it in part to my armor. But as I grow older it should turn into little more than background noise, just another part of life. Like how Sepul has hover constantly on. I thought this through, it wasn’t an entirely impulsive choice.”

Amber had been silent until now, unsure what to even say first.

“What did you decide on your journey of self discovery?”

Her tone held no mockery, she was upset with him, but believed that he went on the trip for a good reason.

“I’m not made to be meek, sometimes people do bad things for good enough reasons that I should spare them. I killed 700 men in one fight, but the first in my journey were 16 knights, yet I spared an adventurer who tried to kill me.”

“Really? That seems… We all know your opinion of their kind is very low.”

“You didn’t react to the 700, just the man I spared. I spared more people after that, an Ibexian woman who took a hostage even. I do not regret sparing her, but Marigold disagreed with my choice.”

There was a pause before she answered back.

“You killing that many people, it seems… like something you would do.”

“But mercy isn’t in my nature according to you?”

Amber drank her water and then paused once again, trying to phrase herself the right way to avoid sounding like she was judging him.

“I don’t want to sound like you are a monster, but you have a habit of violence, enough that I sometimes worry about how far you will go.”

“I understand better than ever what I am. I am a brutal man with no regard for the lives of my enemies. I am a liar. I am not normal.”

“Harlan, you aren’t that, you are just… mixed up.”

“No, I disagree. I lie to protect myself, to protect you, mom, dad, everyone who I love, sometimes from myself, and sometimes from others. Those lies sometimes catch up with me, I had to make the communicators because I gave soulsmithing to Dearil.”

Amber set down her silverware and briefly thought about throwing her fork at Harlan, his skin could take it, she thought.

“I was angry, I… I was just angry, and I got him to promise to never send his golems after Autumn and the kids ever again. My own golems wouldn’t be nearly as advanced without him, my understanding of physics in general would be weaker. I don’t regret it anymore, even if it forced me into a bad situation, a lot of good came from that. I would never have had the test subjects or the push on my morals that I needed to use those subjects without being consumed with guilt.”

She could see that his words of not regretting it and his face disagreed on the truth of the matter.

“How many people died for the communicators?”

“86. All death row inmates, all people who I would wipe off the face of Aarde without a second thought, and you would too. I don’t even need to justify myself, I understand what I want, and if the cost is evil men, then I will not take issue with that.”

Amber raised herself from her seat, but the fire inside of her had nowhere to go.

“You are… right.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You are right.”

“I’m not asking it as a question, and I didn’t say it as a mark of astonishment, I mean that I’m sorry that I am right.”

“Why don’t you tell me something nicer that happened out there.”

Harlan had a warm smile creep upon his face.

“I met a girl named Jas. We…”

After it was time for the others to get to their classes, they felt it wasn’t nearly as bad as it seemed at first.

Harlan showed genuine happiness and enthusiasm for the good people he met.

Harlan decided to give Jas a call once he got back to his room.

“Morning.”

“Hargrave, I-”

“Harlan, Harlan Fomoria. I’m done hiding behind fake names. What have you been up to?”

“We are still in Direhold, Kelly said that it was better to wait a few days before doing anything just in case there is chaos from one side dying.”

“Oreland made it back home, but the knights that went with all died. Ky is also alive.”

“That is good to hear. Are you at his home?”

“Nope, back at the academy. Are you still at the same tavern?”

“We actually moved. I think this one is the Shell Game. Kelly likes to gamble a little bit, but only after we have everything we need taken care of, I think she likes playing more for fun rather than to win, so she makes small bets.”

“Have you decided where you want to go after you get out of Direhold?”

“South, I will be trying to convince her to go to your village the entire way. If not, I might just need to run away, because I know she will come after me if I do. Can we just… talk? I’m sorry if-”

“Of course we can talk. It is what people should do with one another. So tell me, what is on your mind.”

“I am a big fan. I have listened for every rumor I can about you. Is it true that you can sense people in some way, so you can’t be ambushed?”

“Half true, but I won’t explain why.”

“That’s fine, I know that we don’t know each other that well.”

“I heard you are getting married to a girl from Reino, and she doesn’t have any eyes.”

“Adina is blind, but her eyes are still there.”

“Is she cuter than me? I heard that-”

“Before you say anything else, I want you to remember that Adina is a very close friend, and my fiance.

I’m not going to be mad if you just ask your questions, because I know that you are just asking innocently, but please keep in mind that she is the person who I love.”

“I heard she has burns on her face.”

“Nope, she is totally normal looking.”

“I heard that…”

The more questions she asked the more he questioned who was spreading these rumors and why.

“Why don’t we back up to the rumor that I can grow tusks. Where did you hear that one?”

“Let me think, I believe it was Killreach near the border of the frontier and I overheard it from a soldier whose cousin knows a man who is friends with the Unseen who guard your family. Do you really command a pack of Wargs?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“No, I teamed up with a Skoll once to kill a Hati and I rode on its back.”

“You are incredible.”

Harlan heard a door open.

“Sorry, Kelly is back. See you soon.”

“Yep, and hey, before you go, just remember that you can call me if you need something, I’m not worried that you are going to take advantage of me.”

“I always heard that you were paranoid, guess they were wrong.”

“I’m still paranoid, but I can see that you aren’t a bad person.”

“Thank you.”

They broke the connection.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you have a crush on her.”

“Luckily you do know better. I’m just really happy to have someone who is excited just to speak with me and isn’t afraid of telling me things I might not want to hear. She has no filter, and that is just… nice.”

“Are you going to pick her up? I’m guessing that you are thinking about it.”

“Can you still not read my thoughts?”

“You used to have all of these cracks that I could see inside and your thoughts just slipped out, now those are sealed and I can’t see anything unless you want me too.”

Harlan sent memories to her.

“I don’t remember this happening, and I can only think of a handful of times that I had to sleep.”

“I can lie to you now.”

“Don’t do that, please, don’t do that to me.”

“I’m sorry, I just had to know if I could. You know me more than anyone else, you probably know what I’ve done more than I do.”

“I remember Adina stopping in front of those orchids, I never thought about why she did. You can remember the important parts, I’ll remember everything else.”

“Is there anywhere you want to go?”

“I think we’ve both done enough traveling for a while. And Eliza didn’t really have any place that she considered to be important to her.”

“I’m not asking her, I’m asking you. In all of your time, did any place jump out at you? Somewhere that you heard of and decided that you wanted to go?”

She deliberated for a few minutes.

“I want to see a volcano some day.”

“Then we should go there for your birthday.”

“Do I have one?”

“The 5th month, on the 12th day. That was when Eliza died, and I made you. Or we could go with whatever the date was that you got independence from her mind and became another person. Or, we could go with the day that you got your name.”

“The day I became Dawn then, that will be my birthday.”

“7th month, 7th day. How about that.”

“Sounds good to me. So, now that that is out of the way. Do you want to get ready for the woman coming down the hallway?”

“I figure we have a couple of minutes. I should put on some water for tea and get the cookies out. Hello Relly, I know you can hear me.”

“Hello Harlan, who are you talking to?”

“That is a secret, but don’t worry, she is nice.”

“I will trust you then. Miss Rosewell is going to- Wait, I shouldn’t tell you.”

Relly told Rosewell that Harlan knew she was coming.

Before they even got to the room Harlan opened the door.

“Morning good to see you, Rosewell, Relly. Morning to you as well, Safira.”

Under her helmet the woman scowled. While they didn’t really understand how to stop it, her current set was supposed to prevent his mental senses from telling apart individuals.

Harlan reached out his hand, but then stopped.

“If I ruffle your hair I’d ruin it. Please, come in.”

They didn’t say a word until they got inside and Harlan sat down across from the pair, Safira towering behind them.

“What can I help you with?”

“I will skip the pleasantries. Did you kill-”

“The 700 men of Count Orelend and 16 knights of Count Oreland, yes.”

“Are you aware that you’ve kicked a hornets nest by doing so, especially with you using flesh golems to do so?”

“The other option was to let a child be murdered. Or to let a man who would give his life for his son die.”

Harlan sipped his tea.

“But I have a question for you, why come here instead of inviting me to your home?”

“I think it is best that you avoid interacting with the rest of my brothers and sisters. Losing the throne to me has hurt their pride, and they are liable to take drastic actions against me. Hence bringing Relly and Safira with me at all times now.”

Harlan had a great big smile and he kneeled before her, his head low.

“Congratulations, Queen Rosewell, or should I call you Yggdra?”

“Thank you, but no, not until the crown is on my head do I gain the name of Yggdra. I’m a little surprised, you don’t like authority.”

“I’ve come to the conclusion that I despise those who abuse their authority, but most people are simply too weak in mind and body to be trusted not to destroy themselves. I hope you are a good queen…”

Harlan left the otherwise unsaid, but Relly knew what he meant and scowled at him.

“There is another reason I’ve come here to you, because I am asking a favor, not as queen to be, and not as a princess. I want you to be for me, what Sepul is to my father.”

“Deal.”

“As for the terms-”

“I’ll take out your targets, manufacture your items, so on and so forth, in exchange, when there are times that you need to, I expect protection for me, and my family. These are my terms.”

“An informal way to put it, but yes, that is more or less what I intended. There is something that I do want, I want to be stronger. Through your method.”

“I need materials, and I will warn you, it is not pleasant. Though I’ve never strengthened someone just yet, so I would also like subjects to test on first.”

“It might take some time to find volunteers.”

“Why not take them from death row? It is how I made the communicators and developed this technique in the first place.”

“I do not want to be my father, I want this all to be above board.”

“So I will be your hardness, as Sepul is your father’s softness.”

Rosewell fidgeted with her cup of tea, rotating it on its plate.

“Yes, to some extent, that is what my father suggested. I also want you to be there when I ask Sepul about if his deals will continue with me as they have for my father.”

“Of course, I will always support a friend. Also, I’ve learned gate, so that is a service you can always ask for.”

“Safira and I know how to cast gate already.”

“Yes, but yours cannot be cast in just a few moments and doesn’t bypass certain wards and arrays.”

“And you claim that your can?”

“Of course.”

Harlan cast the spell, opening a gate from his room to Adina’s room, something the academy wards shouldn’t allow.

“I cannot claim I’m nearly as good as Sepul, but I can bypass the ones at my parents' home, and if the crown set them up, I hope they are high quality.”

With a snap of his fingers, the gate closed and moments later Harlan got a knock on the door from academy security.

After apologies and promises that it won’t happen again, they left.

“So, anything else?”

“I want you to have a badge. A symbol of our connection. You are officially an advisor, but not an enforcer, when I ask you to remove people, you will do so with proper protocol and under the eye of another organization such as The Unseen.”

“I have no issue with a badge or following orders. Well, unless of course they conflict with my own morals. But, since I’m likely to go farther than you, I don’t see that being a major issue.”

“This is serious, you cannot act as a lone man outside of the system, you must follow orders to the tee.”

“I will make no extreme actions under your orders, unless those are my orders. What I do outside of your orders, on my personal time, will be on my head. I cannot offer much more than this.”

“What you do privately matters, because you are not going to be my friend, you are going to be my advisor. And that means people will look at who I associate with when they judge me.”

“I don’t like this. But, within reason, I will avoid taking actions that reflect poorly on you. But I am not a hermit like Sepul, I am not hiding from the world, and when the world strikes at me or mine, I will react.”

“We will revisit your appointment at a later date. Before I go, I want to give you a suggestion for your trial, because you will need to defend your involvement if nothing else. You should look into invoking an old law, one not often even uttered. It is called…”

Harlan spent some time before lunch making calls and catching up on his school work.

“Blackstone, how is the baby?”

“Just fine. I heard that you-”

“Yes, I killed a lot of people again. I defended the life of a child and his father against assassins and everyone who has a problem with that can get fucked.”

“I was going to say that I heard you killed a giant Black Lindwurm. Redmond was quite happy when he called me to talk about it, he is proud of you. And it does give me confidence that when the war begins, even if I should parish, my child will have a powerful godfather.”

“Godfather?”

“In the Blackstone family, we consider it bad luck to name a godfather who is tied to us by blood. There is an expectation that of course someone related by blood would defend the child with their life, so it has more meaning for someone like you to have the title.”

“Just like it being bad luck to know the baby's sex before it is born? That seems crazy to me, what about gifts? Or names?”

“Maybe when you have your own children, you’ll know how it feels to cling to every little thing that you hope can make them just a little bit safer. But, back to that killing, what did you do this time?”

“It is a quick story, all I did was…”

----------------------------------------

Rosewell sat in her room with Safira outside.

“So, anything worth mentioning?”

“He was talking to someone before we got there.”

“On his amulet?”

The young girl shook her head.

“Was there someone else in the room?”

“She was in his head.”

“So they used the crossroad to-”

“No, there was another mind beside Harlan inside of him. They seemed close.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“I know, but Harlan has another mind. A woman, she sounded older than him.”

Had Sepul reported who he had seen in Harlan’s memory of his dream, Rosewell could’ve found out the culprit after enough digging, but he had kept that secret to himself.

“Is there anything else?”

“He was genuinely really really happy that you won, not just because it was safer for him, but because he likes you. He would defend us just like we were family.”

“That is what worries me.”

She let out a long-suffering sigh.

“I’m sorry to make you do this for me, especially to use you against Harlan.”

“You aren’t making me do anything, you’ve always been there for me, and I’ll always be there for you.”

They were not sitting in front of one another, but rather Rosewell was holding her like a mother and child.

“A mother shouldn’t make her daughter do things like this.”

“I really don’t mind, Mo- Miss Rosewell.”

Relly didn’t remember her real mother at all, but still felt awkward about calling Rosewell her mother.

The importance she placed in the idea of a mother mattered more than the person who actually took care of her. If Harlan heard her, he would pretend that it was fine, but he would really think she is being a fool.