It was nearing 8, their party was winding down.

But first, Harlan wanted to do something.

“Alright, gather around.”

Everyone went inside to have hot drinks and food.

Harlan sat there in the living room with everyone and he felt content.

“I am very glad that I got to spend it with everyone here. And that there were only a few hiccups. I know that it is a bit backwards, but you’ve already given me the best gift that you can, even without forewarning.

Ky, here is a golem armor, I’d hate to see you unable to visit me again. This will also let you be a bit more free with your transformations since it can shift to match your body. Zella, this is a very long time coming.”

It was an exquisitely made golden hair clip, no larger than the palm of her hand and shaped like a Z.

“Put it on, then just activate it.”

Her long hair now reached down to just below her shoulder blades, causing her to jump from her seat and take it off, at which point her hair returned.

“What? How? Is it an illusion?”

“Nope. Inside of that is a small pocket dimension designed to fit your hair specifically.”

“You can make dimensional items?”

“No, I called Marigold, and while learning how to make what you needed was beyond me, she made it work.”

“Living things aren’t supposed to be able to go inside of these. And it doesn't have a pocket, it just… takes it inside. How- Silly question, it is Marigold.”

“Oh, and it is adjustable. Just tell it how much you want, and it will let more in or take more out.”

“How did… I mean… You really asked her to do that, for me?”

“Of course. I know you just live with your hair, and it doesn’t bother you nearly as much anymore, but I couldn’t think of a better gift, so I was really left with no other options.”

“How did you convince her to make this?”

“That is a secret between her and I.”

Harlan had tried to guilt trip her over the rift that was forming between Zella and him due to gate.

The whole thing made him feel disgusted, and while Marigold knew what he was doing and called him out on it, she also knew that he hated every moment of trying to make her feel bad. If it was such an issue to him that he would toss away his integrity, then it mattered enough for her to make the item for him.

Though there was a cost.

Reet received his own golem armors, though to call them such was a bit of a stretch. It was comparatively cheap and its actual defenses were very limited. It was more like a shapeshifting set of clothes.

“But why armor for me?”

“Because it seemed every time I spoke to you, you mentioned burning holes in or staining your clothes. In theory, that should be the only set you ever need. Warm in winter, cool in summer, self-repairing, self-cleaning. It is what I’m wearing now.”

“Didn’t you change earlier?”

“There are limits to this thing, maybe if it was running on more than a few gems sewn into it it could clean the blood more quickly, but a heavily soiled piece like that would take hours.”

“How much did this cost to make?”

Reet held up the jumpsuit with rings holding onto small gems and a stiffness to it that came from having the metal sewn into the fibers.

“It was pretty cheap compared to a proper golem arms, only about 30 gold.”

Reet gulped.

“For all 3 of them?”

“Each. The cost of mana gems increases on a non-linear scale for size, and the same goes for really pure metals. So it is a steal to be able to make them for so cheap.”

“I can’t-”

Harlan slammed his hand, cracking the living room table which then started to heal itself.

“If you don’t accept it, I’m going to send a whole crate of them to your family.”

“But I-”

Harlan gave him a look, and he relented.

“Thank you. But why the gifts?”

“Can everyone here keep a secret? Safira, that includes you.”

She narrowed her eyes, unhappy being the butt of his joke.

“Today is my birthday. I am 16 years old now, and you are among the handful of people who really know this.”

“Why hide it?”

“Because Ava will always be my bigger sister by just a few months, I’m not taking that away from her.”

She returned to silence, he still didn’t really make sense to her.

“Relly, last but not least. A bracelet.”

She slipped it on her wrist, finding that it shrunk down to fit better.

It was of silver construction and had 5 small teardrop gems, each of a different color. Only one of them being a mana gem.

“What does it do?”

“It looks nice, and complements the pretty young lady I’m sure you are going to be.”

Relly found it quite hard to read Harlan, who had put up his mental defenses.

But she could read Amber, who with every fiber of her being, refused to believe his words.

“Really?”

“Each gem here represents one of us, the mana gem, colored black, is me. The orange one is for Zella, because of her hair. The green one is for Ky, because he is a ranger and I didn’t want two black gems.

Red for Reet and his hair. And the white gem is you, because you can be whatever you want, you are still young, full of opportunity.”

“That is… really thoughtful.”

“What’s the matter? Expecting a weapon?”

“I’m not saying that I wanted one, I just thought you would give me one.”

“This bracelet is a sign of faith, that I believe Rosewell is a better defense for you than anything I can give.”

“She is going to be very happy to hear that.”

Harlan had actually made her a set of golem armor, along with one for Zella, but he was going to pretend that he didn’t because the other gifts were more thoughtful and personal.

Balor came upstairs finally to the saccharine scene.

“Ah, are we having a party?”

Adina walked to the kitchen, returning with a cup of hot cider for him.

“It is new year’s eve, Harlan even gathered his friends from back at the facility.”

“Really? It must’ve taken weeks.”

“Not with him having gate.”

Balor rushed to Harlan’s side, gripping his shoulders.

“You have gate?”

“How long have you been in the lab?”

“Just a few weeks.”

“2 months ago, what was I doing?”

“I’m not sure, you were at the academy taking classes.”

“Balor, you’ve been down there for months. You did at least eat properly, right?”

“Of course, Isha always got me my meals and I sent messages when I needed more.”

“What were you working on?”

“The trains, I’ve done it, this new design must work. And I’ve-”

Adina put her hand on his shoulder.

“Please, take a shower, we will be here when you return. And clean that scruffy beard, you have enough metal shavings in it that I can hear them scraping together.”

Balor conjured a mirror, only now seeing the state of himself.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I counted the days by the number of times I slept. I didn’t think that…”

“Did anyone else try to pull you from the lab?”

“I did much of my work through associates and my amulet. Isha did try to tell me to go out, but I didn’t think I spent so long away.”

“We can catch up more when you get yourself cleaned up.”

After Balor left to get clean, Harlan called in Black-1.

The others had never seen the Black Sentinel, but they had heard of it.

“Make sure Balor keeps track of time, if it sounds like he is making a breakthrough, give him some leeway.

If it sounds like he is being obsessive, drag him out by force, make him have a meal with real people.”

“Understood.”

The living golem returned to its invisible state and stood guard outside, contacting the only two people that knew what it really was.

“Balor spent too much time in the lab. Should I have done something about this before it became a problem?”

3 was too busy keeping watch over the party to talk, but 2 was free since the farm didn’t have anyone to protect other than the workers.

“We aren’t machines to just follow orders. If you think you should do something, do it.

“2, have you been misbehaving again?”

“What? No, I’ve just been helping out around the house since mo-Miss Aida needed some help.”

“You can’t fall to those emotions, we have a job to do, we knew that from the start, we accept what we need to be.”

“This is why 3 never wants to talk to you. Let’s see you try to pretend to be an emotionless machine when Jarrik skins his knee and you start panicking because you don’t want to scare him with your face but you want to heal him.”

“Autumn can fix that easily, you don’t need to be involved.”

“What would Harlan-”

“We are not him. We are not supposed to be him.”

“You two should be what you want to be. That is what Harlan would say.”

“Relly?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t tell Harlan about this. 2 was just-”

“Are you afraid of letting him down?”

“We were made to protect our- his family. We aren’t supposed to be something more than that.”

“If Harlan made you, then I’m sure he understands that you are going to be like him in some ways.

You should make your own names, calling each other numbers is kinda… sad.”

“Ha, I told you we should’ve been using names. Thanks, Relly.”

“No, we should-”

Relly put her hand on Harlan, bringing him into the conversation.

“What is the problem here?”

“Harlan, Sir. There is no problem.”

2 took his shot.

“I want a name, 3 does too. You are us, and we are you. I can’t be away from our family like this, just a hunk of metal. I don’t need to be a part of the family, I just need to be able to help them in whatever way I can beyond being a big scary fucker.”

“That is fine. I realized the risks of giving you three pieces of myself for your soul, and just like with Balor, you are not machines or tools, you are people who I want to do a job. Is this going to be a problem? Or will you do what you were born to do, just under a different title?”

“I will always do exactly what I was born to do, because these are not just people, they are family.

Seeing mom, it reminds me of when we were a kid, not able to fend for ourselves yet, not worried about all of this other crap.”

“All of you were made for a single purpose, to protect our family, I don’t care about methods or costs or anything else. Use that free will you have been given to protect them just like I would. Is there anything else I should know?”

“No, thank you, Harlan.”

He cut off his connection, leaving 1 with Harlan and Relly.

“How long has this been going on?”

“Since 3 first saw your niece and nephew, and 2 saw your parents.”

“Do you have these same thoughts?”

“No, I’ve kept myself in line.”

“Don’t bottle up how you feel, you are me to an extent, and that has always failed.”

“Yes Sir.”

Harlan’s focus returned to the living room.

“Well, it has been fun, but I’m going to get things ready to end this night and get you all back home to celebrate with your family.”

“How are we ending the night?”

“With a bang of course. But we should wait for Balor to-”

As if he heard his name, Balor came out with slightly damp hair and clean clothes.

“Sorry to have failed to introduce myself. I am Balor Fomoria. You must be Ky, then this is Reet, hey Relly.”

Everyone noticed the difference in tone.

“So, you are Harlan’s brother?”

“Yes. Though I was first a ring.”

“I think I heard something about that. The other rangers I met found it bizarre, but soulsmithing was from Harlan, so they seemed to agree that it didn’t really matter much.”

“Ah, is Harlan popular among them?”

“Casualty rate is down 10% year after year. Some of those guys can directly tie them being alive with having soulsmithed equipment. He is a bit of a hero to them, though I guess they do tend to share traits with Harlan, so they also don’t care much about the times he goes too far.”

“Yes, I’ve heard rangers are often outcasts, highly skilled, but better suited to solo work.”

“I don’t know, Harlan seemed to work alright as a team.”

To anyone who read the reports, his statement would just show how skewed Ky’s thought process was.

Harlan had done very little to act as a team, the closest thing was using the bodies of the dead knights to make creatures he could control. Merely surviving did not mean someone had worked efficiently with others.

Balor found Ky to be interesting, and the two of them continued to speak until the night was ready to end.

The clock struck 9 and Harlan came inside to say his preparations were done.

He had even invited the children from the orphanage over to watch.

They stood in an empty salt flat that was nowhere near the home.

Wards and arrays were set up along with seating so it was more comfortable.

“Alright, now, the light show can begin.”

Harlan dug out several large runes in the crystal days prior; it was Marigold who had said that there was such a place near the border of the great desert.

The spells were illusions boosted to the level of warmagic, spiraling wyrms rose to near the clouds, painting the fluffy white that was hidden by the moonless night in a cacophony of colors before the wyrms fought, trails of blood brightly fell to the ground where it turned to sparkles which reflected on the mirror shine of what was once a saltwater lake.

“I’m glad you could make it.”

“I told you about this place for a reason, it is just an annoyance to prepare everything for a party.

So we just sat home and had a little fun before we came to see what you would do.”

Her words were slightly slurred and she placed a hand on his shoulder to remain steady.

“I wanted to thank you. Dawn told me what you did for me that night.”

She waved her hand around energetically.

“Ah don’t worry about it. You’d do the same for me if you could. You know, you’re a much better guy than your prick of a grandfather. Great grandfather, however it is.”

“Am I really going to be the last person who finds out who he is?”

“Huh? You mean you don’t know that-”

Xol, covered her mouth.

“I warned her before we arrived to be mindful of what she says. S-”

Xol covered his own mouth as he had done to her.

“We aren’t supposed to tell him that-”

Xol then returned his hand to her mouth.

“You guys are a lot of fun. And exactly why I don’t drink. If you know and won’t tell me, then I’m sure you think he has a good reason to hide himself from me.”

“Honey, it could be worse, we could’ve-”

She covered Xol’s mouth.

Marigold took a deep breath and was clearly deep in thought, trying her hardest to avoid saying anything else.

“Happy birthday, I’ve got something for you, but I’ll wait to give it to you.”

“You didn’t need to get me anything.”

“You spent the lead up to this day making things for other people. That is the part of you that I liked enough to introduce myself to.”

“Now that I think about it, how did you know my birthday?”

“Don’t worry about the small stuff.”

“Is that how I sound to other people?”

“Nope, because you are scary, I’m sexy.”

The light show was over and Xol opened a gate back to their home.

“We should go before she gets to the next stage of being drunk.”

The veil around them dropped, not a single person had seen them or realized that Harlan was having a conversation with anyone. Thus, nobody really understood why Harlan was laughing so much.

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

The morning after.

“Shit, do you think he is going to think we’re irresponsible? Can he confide in me after that?”

“You already have a good track record, and we didn’t actually say who his grandfather is.”

“Great grandfather.”

“It is annoying to keep adding the great part. It’s not like he has a grandfather anyway.”

“At least I stopped you from mentioning his sister. Do you think she is going to be a good influence on him?”

“She is more like the Harlan that wants to change the world, but I think she lacks the part of Harlan that loves people. I shudder to think what she would do if she had all of his knowledge and abilities.

Do you think we should… warn him?”

“Let’s wait and see. If it doesn’t become a problem, then Harlan might resent me for poisoning the well.

If it looks like she is going to be an issue, I will have a heart to heart, it is going to hurt him a lot.

Do you think we could try again?”

“Try what?”

“A baby. I’ve been surrounded by children for years now. I’ve been helping them, but I-”

“I’ll think about it.”

She reached across the small table and put her hand on his.

“I know how things were back home, if you don’t want to be a father now, or in the future, don’t force yourself.”

“It has been a very long time since then, I’m not really worried about the issues of the old world rearing its head here. This place is much larger than Earth, 80 billion could still be comfortable if I gave Harlan the idea of automating the process of food gathering and transport and designing cities.”

“That still seems so crazy to me, your people had cities with populations larger than countries, they had enough abundance that they could’ve never worked ever again, and they still fucked it up.”

“To err is human. Look at the people here, humanity on the ground and in the stars, doesn’t ever have enough, they must be above other people. At least here I can see slavery die out again instead of rise to power.”

“Why don’t we talk about this later. Today, why don’t we have a picnic?”

“I’ll get the small world-”

“No, somewhere real, out there. I want to eat a sandwich toasted with lava.”

“It has been a while since we went to the coast.”

Xol scratched his chin, thinking back to his world.

“You know, the first time I saw a real forest was when I came here. The first time I saw clear water that was just naturally that way. Maybe we should get out a bit more, see the things that I love in this place.”

“Yes, that sounds great. We need to make more puzzles later, so why don’t we make the next set from the things we see out there? I’m sure some of those places have changed in the last century since I saw them before, it will be interesting to see.”

They made a list of places to see, Marigold would paint the scene, Xol would then use a spell to convert the painting to a puzzle much larger than the painting itself was. At which point they would shuffle the pieces and put it away for a few months so they didn’t have it fresh in their memories.