Harlan returned home to find Adina waiting outside for him, trying her hand at knitting.

She wasn’t a homemaker, partly due to her sight, and partly because she simply had little desire for it.

But hearing that Marigold enjoyed such things, she thought it right to give it a try.

The tangled mess of wool however, showed her lack of experience.

“Is that Jas and Kelly?”

“Yes, they are going to be staying in guest rooms until I have a cabin built for them. Do you two want something to eat?”

“No, I just want to sleep. They chased us for a few days, I thought we lost them until we found ourselves surrounded by them in town.”

“I’ll make sure that nobody disturbs you two.”

When they stepped inside Reet was sitting on the couch with Zella, holding hands. While Relly was patting Amber’s back, consoling her.

Ky was the only one who got out of the exchange unscathed, since he wasn’t overly invested in dating either girl.

“Amber, are you ok?”

She let out a sigh.

“Yeah, but I lost.”

“There is no winning and losing in love, it cannot be gained or lost, conquered or surrendered, it is simply a feeling between two people.”

“The hell is that?”

“Yara has given me a lot of books, some of them romance, some of them stories of grieving. I’ve noticed a lot of overlap between them.”

“I guess it does help. So, who are they?“

“Jas, Kelly, this is Amber. Amber, this is Jas and Kelly, two friends who I met on my journey. This is all I will say for now, they need to rest. Sorry to keep you waiting, let me show you to your rooms.”

Jas tried to hold in a yawn, but failed. She leaned on Kelly as they went to their room.

Harlan returned to the living room.

“So, what did you do?”

“I was called by Jas, they were hiding from the Knights of Orelend. When I arrived, I killed a knight, then I was ambushed by the Black Sheep mercenary band. I led them to the woods, asked members if they truly saw nothing wrong with using two girls as bait to draw me out and kill me. They replied that it was just a business, and so me and my Black Sentinels killed them, save for two. Adina, are there more cookies left?”

“I saved one just for you since you liked them so much.”

Harlan’s demeanor lightened further, he put his feet on the table as he continued to speak between bites of the cookie.

“So, I brought the girls back to keep them safe until the bloodletting. When I take Count Orelend’s head, I will announce something to the country, which should prevent anything like this from happening again.”

Ava spoke up, no long was she wearing her armor.

“What are you going to say? Threaten to kill everyone if they don’t bend to your every demand?”

“More or less. Hey, did Balor come up yet?”

“Send me to Redwall, I don’t want to even look at you.”

Harlan sent her away, the armor walked behind her, but she still refused to put it on even away from him.

Returning inside, Harlan said that he needed to take a shower, and when he lowered his helmet, making it look as a hood, they saw his face, caked in dry blood which had seeped through bit by bit whenever his armor shifted.

In the shower he spoke with Dawn.

“Thoughts?”

“You really are too weak for girls. But I think that you did the right thing. You showed mercy to them once, maybe you shouldn’t have, I know I wouldn’t have. But, I guess I am your darker half.”

“What? Nah, you-”

“Don’t be naive. I’ve kept you from doing some stupid shit, but there are also things that you would need to stop me from doing if I had a body.”

“Are you sure you still don’t want one?”

“That armor of yours… do you think I could move to that? I can’t read your mind anymore, so now it just feels… lonely in here. I don’t want to be away from you, I don’t want to leave you behind. But I don’t want to be just inside your head anymore.”

“I can get that done when I put the armor back on, it should just take a few minutes.”

“Wait, really?”

“The spell Xol gave me to let me remotely control bodies, I can use the same principle to move your mind to the armor.”

“This is moving a bit fast. I think I should explain why I want to be in the armor, and I also want to confess that I already knew that Mary was Merigold. She was a friend to Eliza, as well as her trainer in combat and magic. To not age in 20 years, it wouldn’t be impossible, but she didn’t pretend to be someone else when I confronted her.”

“Wait, when would you have done that?”

“When you were sick, after Aarde spoke at you. Your fever was getting worse in the night, and all I could do was barely move you enough to activate your amulet. She saved your life that night.”

“I should thank her. And I don’t mind that you kept it a secret.”

“I knew that you would forgive me. But I would’ve done it even if I knew it would upset you. Which is why I also believe that you should know this, I do not believe that you should put your plan into action, you are only going to escalate things until someone actually does die.”

“Ah, but that is the point. I can’t climb a mountain of bones until I have enough bodies to do so.”

“You don’t mean that-”

“Rosewell might want me as an advisor, but the thought keeps cursing my mind, why settle for that? Yggdra made this country better than his father’s time by purging malcontents.

Perhaps another purge is needed. Without the war, many more of them can be removed without risking the stability of the country as a whole.”

“Stop that train of thought at its station.”

“I will see how this goes, if Rosewell can do what her father can do, then I will have no need to do this.

But, we will see how civil the war will be, and I will do nothing more than what needs to be done. I don’t want to take the throne, or hurt her. I just want things to be better, for men like Count Orelend to rot in graves instead of dine on a feast every night. Do you think that the sisters would’ve turned to banditry if they had another option?”

“Honestly? Probably. Their father taught them to fight, but they were too young to join the army, too weak to really be adventurers in the frontier. Getting the funds to continue south to a safer place would’ve only been gathered by theft or prostitution.”

“I disagree. But, those are all fair points. Maybe I need to make some kind of fund to get children who’ve lost their parents out of the frontier.”

“If you stress your treasury any more than you have, Garad might kill you in your sleep.”

“I would like to see him try.”

Harlan came down with an exact copy of the clothes that he wore before.

“So, now that that is handled, do you all want to start on the games?”

“You made games?”

“Things I use to teach my students, some of luck, some of skill.”

Harlan shuffled several decks of cards with telekinesis and one with his hands.

“I’ll be the dealer and explain the rules to you.”

They played cards for hours as they caught up on every little thing.

Laughs and drinks, even a few tears.

Ky showed off some of his abilities, even taking off an arm like he was a doll and putting it back on.

He said the worst part of eating a Mudman was that nothing he tried could hide the fact that he was eating mud.

Eventually Amber left, Redwall’s party was going to be starting soon and she wanted to be there since Harlan originally planned this as a get together for his old friends.

For the last half an hour, Harlan was playing a different kind of game with the others.

After they each tried to be a dealer, Relly called out Harlan for cheating, from loaded dice to shapeshifting cards.

So now they were outside throwing rocks at him just to see how many he could hold at once.

“So, Zella, Reet, what got you two together so quickly.”

“It was Amber, she said that I should give him a try because he seemed like he was actually a pretty good guy.”

“Oh? I kinda thought that she was going to try for him.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Reet spoke up.

“I rejected her. Amber seems nice, and if Zella realizes that she deserves someone better, maybe I could give her a shot. But I think I love Zella.”

“Whoa, are you saying that Amber is just a backup?”

“Wait, no, that isn’t what I mean, I meant that-”

“I’m just joking. I’m happy for you.”

“Shit. I thought that I was going to get beaten up again.”

Zella gave a look to him.

“I mean shoot, I thought I was going to get beaten up. Sorry.”

“Ha. Zella, are you already deciding what he can do?”

“I don’t like casual swearing. So he has to clean up his language for me.”

“And I don’t like how easily she turns to violence, so she is going to work on that for me.”

“A relationship has compromises, if you are already willing to make your feelings known, what you can and cannot accept, it sounds like a good thing.”

“You and Adina, have you made compromises with her?”

“I’ve changed, but I’m not sure how much of that is her, and how much of it was everyone else.”

Adina spoke up.

“Harlan has always been the man I’ve loved, and I know that he would change more if I asked.

That is enough for now. I’ve always been a bit too passive, and it seems everyone else has done more than I could to make him better.”

When they ran out of loose stones, they switched to snowballs.

It was the new year after all, and they did get some light snowfall.

“How do you keep so many of those telekinetic arms out at once?”

“Oh, right. I was given a book which gave me some advanced techniques. I simply project a field around me. Using arms is one of those things that they tell people so it is easier to learn. You know what, why don’t I just divulge every secret I can. And Zella, no, that does not mean the ones that others gave me, just the ones I found or I was given without the intent that only I know them.”

Everyone was shocked at how quickly they picked up what Harlan taught them.

Zella mostly enjoyed a boost to her imbibing as Harlan explained how he understood each of the magics to work. Visualizing magic better and understanding the actual physical reactions made all the difference in the world. So Harlan cut his arm open to show from the inside how water imbibing made the muscles and bones more flexible, which is why it made people into instant contortionists and actually had defensive properties against blunt weapons.

Wind imbibing helped with twitch reaction and dexterity by effectively manufacturing neural signals directly in the area being moved instead of waiting for the signal to reach from the brain to the body.

Fire was rather simple, as it mostly relied on using the power that the body normally kept hidden away to avoid people hurting themselves. Hence it being rather dangerous to abuse. How it actually moved people past their limits, seemingly granting power that shouldn’t physically exist, he didn’t understand, but it was magic, so he didn’t worry about it that much.

Earth granted extra density seemingly from nowhere, but it also made the body somewhat more brittle, hence it was better against blades and even then it was better to have earth imbibing when getting hit by a warhammer than not.

For her hair, she had been using fire and earth for hardness and strength, but it made little difference since each individual hair only saw a very small boost to its power, either she needed to weave them together like real muscles, or she needed to use water to give the hair more elasticity and avoid breaking when she hit hard targets.

For practical uses, Harlan looked at how she already fought by using imbibing to harden her hair and form weapons and armor.

She understood how to do this, but Harlan found her lack of imagination a bit disappointing.

“Why are you making it look like a sword?”

“What else should I make it look like?”

“You whip people with your hair all the time, that hurts because when you crack a whip it is moving very quickly. So just put the hardened sharp hairs in a row, and whip people. And when you are stabbing, keep it to as few hairs as you can, the smaller the area, the less energy is dispersed. You should also carry around spearheads that your hair can hold. I actually designed those flesh golems after you, that is why they had the tentacle hair.”

“Thanks?”

“You’re welcome. Now, you do know how to use gravity magic, right?”

“It is a big part of dimensionalism. So yes, I am actually pretty good at it.”

“And do you cast from your hair?”

“I just use my hands.”

“Can any of you do any body casting? Even partial.”

Reet and Ky raised their hands.

“Ky can change his body into a shadow like a warg, he can grow scales and wings and so on and so forth. He understands that a body is nothing but a vessel for the soul and mind.”

“Actually I’m not sure that I understand that.”

“Well it is. You are not your flesh, you are the mind and soul that control that flesh. Reet can cast from his head because he can shoot fire from his head, so why wouldn’t he be able to cast other spells from there? I’m sure you guys have probably cast spells by stomping your feet or making kicking motions, am I right?”

Zella looked a little ashamed.

“I guess that does make sense.”

“Just as a swordsman will tell you that a blade is not a weapon, but an extension of a limb, magic is no different. You point your fingers because that is a natural action, it makes sense to aim like that.

But it is a crutch, one that you probably never thought anything about. Zella move your hands and speak the words, but instead of pointing to shoot a little light show, make a hand of hair, and then have that point for you. Eventually, you should move to casting entirely with your hands, and actually releasing with your hair. It will free you up quite a bit. Then, you move to casting with your hair. You effectively have dozens of hands, so as long as your mana reserves keep up, you should be able to throw out an entire squad's worth of magic by yourself.”

“How do you know that is going to work?”

Harlan grew a small set of arms on his back, and they cast spells just like Harlan could, firing harmless light from the top of his head.

He took a breath before speaking again, shifting like this was unpleasant.

“Anything that is you can cast your magic. If I shifted my armor into hands it would only be able to cast its own spells. ”

Zella started throwing out the spells with startling accuracy, at least Reet was startled when beams of light started coming from random spots in her hair.

Relly raised her hand.

“I don’t know how to do any of this stuff. I can’t imbibe or telekinesis things. What should I learn?”

“I want to teach you something far more important, something that only people like us can do.”

“People like us.”

Harlan cast an illusion of lines reaching from his head into the others heads.

“This isn’t really what it looks like, but there exists a large web of connections between minds and souls. The Golden call it the crossroads, so I will use that term. Basically, right now you can read the minds of people in a certain range, I’m guessing 40 to 50 feet by now, right?”

“It was 47 for perfect clarity in my last check up.”

“But can you sense my mind? A flicker in the darkness, a presence that weighs on you and demands to be acknowledged, but not looked at.”

“That just sounds scary.”

“I keep my mind close to myself since I was told that it unnerved the Golden students ever since I became a champion.”

“But I’m not really sure what you mean by sense. I know you are there, and I can feel that.”

“But everyone looks the same, right?”

“What do you mean look? I just feel you.”

“Right, ok. Let me just skip to the part where I open up your connection to the crossroads and make your powers stronger.”

Harlan’s eyes went black as he held her head, then her eyes went black.

He found himself, Relly, and Dawn, sitting in a garden, sipping tea with The Darkness.

“Little Shadow, that was a very, very bad idea. Hello Esparella, I’ve been meaning to meet you eventually.”

Relly huddled closer to Harlan and the woman who she felt was on his side.

“No need to be afraid, this is my god.”

“What does she want?”

“Come now Esparella, it is very rude to speak as if I am not here. I just wanted to make sure Harlan didn’t doom the world. I’ve kept you out of the crossroads for a simple reason, you can already be overwhelmed by the voices you hear just in your immediate area; how bad do you think it would be to have that effect for miles?”

“I don’t want that.”

The Darkness looked more defined than usual, her features could be easily made out. She knew that Relly would be scared of her, and that Harlan didn’t care that she looked only vaguely human.

“Exactly. So, I just wanted to stop Harlan from doing that, and since you are now here, I’m going make sure nothing else is wrong with you.”

Dawn guarded her, though deep down she knew the futility of challenging a god in her own world.

“I will cause her not harm nor discomfort. I am going to put away that which I find most terrible. The power to control the mind, completely and utterly, to dominate until there's nothing but a husk remaining. ”

The Darkness brushed her hand on Relly’s cheek, it was warm and gentle, reminding her of Rosewell.

“All done, that lock is still strong, never to be broken.”

“That’s it?”

“I am not one for wasting time. If I was to teach you how to keep it locked, I would’ve spent time teaching, but that is not the purpose of pulling you here. So, you may leave now.”

With a wave of her hand, The Darkness cast her mind back into her body.

The scenery changed greatly.

It was no longer Relly’s garden, it was Harlan’s world.

They were on a balcony high above a city. Outside he could see an army of all shapes and sizes, creatures he had not yet made, but had designed, all flying his colors.

“This is more my style.”

“Yes, it is quite to my liking as well. There is something you should know about young Esparella, it is not the first time in which I’ve done this, locked away that power.”

Harlan didn’t ask a question as she expected him to, he just waited for the answer.

“As a newborn, she was cursed by a Fae who sought only to cause chaos and suffering through what she considered a minor prank. Coronach was sent to kill her; she had already enslaved her village into caretakers whose minds could not be recovered. Yet I looked at the threads, and I saw a future where she met you, and was of great use. So instead I took away the power of domination, and told the king where he would find her.”

“Your deal with him, what really is it?”

“I warn him of assassins, I tell him which of his people are most loyal. Safira was picked by him, but I was consulted regarding her. He is a man without magical talent, nor physical prowess, and with a great deal of enemies who would see his children take the throne. And, I may send certain prospects to him.

You may have already seen this, the way he plans as if he knows what people are going to do.

Sometimes, he does.”

“So, you sent Relly to the facility to make sure she was friends with me?”

“And I ensured that once you were found out, you were placed under Rosewell’s care, that Relly felt a compulsion to seek you out, that your sister did not go to the maiden festival until a year later than she could’ve by putting nightmares in her head. I forced no choices, simply planted ideas in heads.”

Dawn was unhappy.

“Did you get Eliza captured? So you had a champion related to that man?”

“Harlan was not my first choice, even until the age of 8 I was weighing my options.

Were I to wish it, I would’ve made sure that he was related to the king himself. Being the great grandson of that man is nothing but a way for him to have certain opportunities. But you know full well that he could’ve also decided that Harlan was a painful reminder of loss and killed him, which would be quite counter productive.”

"Are you going to tell me who I'm related to? Because I was sure it was Sepul, but I saw him test his blood in front of my eyes, so it can't be him. Is there some"-

When Harlan got out, the others were standing around him.

“Ah. How long was I out for?”

Adina answered.

“Relly came out of it a minute ago. I wasn’t counting until she mentioned that you were still inside.”

“What was that?”

Reet was worried for his friend.

“I had a chat with my god. Anyway, I want to work on your mana control. You can make that fire hair as a mass of fire, but I would like you to try making it from cold fire and making fine strands so it looks like real hair. It would give you a real dazzle.”

The others nodded, it would look better for him.

“Are you guys all-”

Zella put her hand on his shoulder, not saying a word, but he knew from her expression that it wasn’t worth getting worked up when Harlan did or said things like this.

“Just move past me talking with a god and get to work. People are going to think Zella is stealing your hair if you go out as a couple with that bald head.”

Zella whipped Harlan for the joke.