It was near the end of the week already, then he’d leave Camp Foreign behind.

It hurt him a little when he saw Amber with her hair in a pixie cut like Sam.

“Why’d you cut your hair?”

“For the same reason I’m not being a hardass on my squad, I don’t care what you think is best, I am carving my own path in the world.”

“That’s probably the most me thing you could say.”

She opened her mouth for a moment, then realized he was right.

“Shut up. You don’t own making your own path.”

“No, but I’m still right. What’d you come here for today?”

“I’m going to drop out, and I’m taking Sam with me.”

“Good for you.”

“I’m going to become an adventurer in the frontier.”

She could see it written all over his face, he had a mostly hateful relationship towards their kind, and that hadn’t ever changed.

“Couldn’t you just become a mercenary?”

“Nope. They are mostly out of work with the forever war over and the civil war at a standstill.

The only thing they are good for now is for testing the defenses of the fortresses, and that is far from anything I want to do.”

Harlan leaned back and interlocked his hands behind his head after a stretch.

He loved his sister finding her own path even if he hated the path she picked.

“So, you want to go back and get your body enhanced now?”

“By the end of day my papers will be processed and we can leave, but you can keep up the training until then.”

“You’ll probably need to wait until the full day is finished, I’m not leaving early.”

“Fine by me.”

As they stepped out of the tent, he felt the world still.

Amber could hardly breath, a cold predatory feeling suddenly exuded from Harlan.

“You should rest, eat plenty of food, body enhancement is hard on you physically.”

She didn’t say anything, she just walked away, resisting the feeling that she should run.

Unlike the other days, they would not start with one of his special exercises.

So Harlan ran silently alongside the cadets, and then he sparred in silence.

Everyone assumed it was part of him just being Harlan, that they were supposed to learn by what he did, and not just what he said.

Dawn, though she could not read his mind anymore, knew that something was wrong, he wouldn’t remain so silent to her.

“Did something happen?”

“Yes.”

“Are you ok?”

“No.”

“Do you want to-”

“No.”

“We both know that it doesn’t help to bottle things up.”

“Just need to keep it together for today.”

“Alright, just talk when you want to.”

Evening approached far sooner than he realized, there were large gaps in his memories of that day.

He just remembered that it was supposed to end with a castle capture like the first day, but now he was sitting on the couch at home.

He looked to his right and he could see Adina talking with Amber, but he just couldn’t hear a thing.

He gently brushed her cheek and she blushed.

“Yes?”

Harlan leaned on her, he was stone faced, a dead look in his eyes, he hadn’t said a word yet.

“What happened to Harlan?”

“I don’t know, he was fine, then we stepped outside and hasn’t said anything since. I didn’t take part in the exercise, but apparently he just sat on the throne next to the flag and nobody dared go inside.”

“Is that why you are sitting so far away?”

Amber had moved the couch from across the table to the back wall of the room and had to raise her voice to be heard.

“I’m not even shocked that you don’t feel it, you two are… I don’t really know what to say, but he wouldn’t hurt a hair on your head.”

“He wouldn’t hurt you either. Isn’t that right honey.”

He laid his head on Adina’s lap, his legs stretched out and off of the couch.

She didn’t know what to say, so she just started brushing his hair with her hands.

“I’m sure he’ll come out of this.”

“I’m worried about what he’s going to do before he does. He was fine today other than not speaking, nobody died or got dismembered, but I don’t know how long it's going to be before that does happen. Should we call Marigold?”

“I suppose we could, it is a little nice for him to just sit here like this with me. I’ve barely even seen him since he got called away, but you are right, this is probably dangerous.”

Marigold picked up immediately.

“What did he do?”

“He hasn’t said a word, he’s being stranger than usual. Did something happen that we should know?”

“It isn’t my place to say.”

And she hung up without another word.

“That was ominous.”

“She already knew, she was waiting for one of us to call.”

Harlan got up.

“Enhancement.”

He opened a gate to seemingly nowhere, but really it was just a stop till he reached the bunker past the border.

Amber was hesitant, but she went with, and Adina as well; she had never seen him do it before, and was more than a little curious.

She knew that she had to be nude for the spell to not end up giving her cloth fused into her muscles, but it didn’t make her feel better. Adina gave a thumbs up, which just came across as bizarre, but somehow calmed her some.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It wasn’t quite as excruciating as it once was, but Amber still hadn’t experienced a pain quite like this.

When the process was done, Harlan put her golem armor back on her, she didn’t remember seeing him go get it, which left her a little confused, until she realized it was Dawn, not her own Armor.

“I have no idea what happened, he’s just been like this. If it was a conversation in his mind, I would’ve heard it. But I know The Darkness can seemingly just pause time to have a private conversation.”

“What can we do? He’s like a silent bomb, I don’t want to see what happens when he explodes.”

“Just keep him close to Adina, he’d never let her be caught in the blast.”

“That’s comforting, but also makes me feel shitty that he’s so attached to her.”

“He has some unresolved issues with intimacy.”

Harlan then grabbed another chunk of wyvern flesh and brought it to another table to start making Dawn’s body.

It was strange seeing bits of bone and meat turn into a beautiful woman that the two didn’t recognize.

“Harlan, who is that?”

Adina was hoping it wasn’t something truly bizarre like him making a new maid to replace Sara.

“Honey, I need a little bit of your soul.”

“Alright.”

It always threw Amber for a loop when he made some insane demand and people went along with it, even if she did understand that the request was something that was relatively normal for him.

The body twisted and seized and shuddered, when it finally calmed down Harlan took his armor from Amber and gave her a blanket that she nearly instantly tore holes in due to her newfound strength.

“Dawn, you can go now.”

The armor slipped over the body, but left the face uncovered.

Her eyes fluttered open and Harlan poured a tonic down her throat, he expected her to be hungry.

She coughed and turned away, a light swat shattered the glass, but no shard could pierce her skin.

“Give me some warning next time you start pouring shit down my neck.”

“Adina, do you want this as well?”

“Not today.”

“Adina, watch Dawn.”

Harlan went through a gate, leaving the three of them there.

Amber was worried he went to kill something, or worse, somebody.

“Dawn, where is he?”

“You expect me to know? And stay back, we’re both full of certain emotions and-”

Dawn fell to the ground, she almost forgot the familiar pain of period cramps, and that these ones would be worse because of Harlan’s process of rushing new bodies through all sorts of feelings.

Amber dropped her blanket to catch her, all sorts of feelings came over both of them when they touched.

“Just cramps, please, step back before we… Oh, that feels strange.”

She ran her hands up Amber’s arm and onto her face.

Then golems entered the room and separated them into rooms with work out equipment both to let them work out the feelings they had somewhat, and to help them understand how powerful they were.

Amber was someone who didn’t feel a powerful drive to procreate, and thus she would be able to work out her energy, Dawn, or rather, Eliza, was never one to hold herself back when she desired something.

Adina had the entire process explained to her before, and had some idea of what the two of them were feeling, so she just went to explore the bunker, since Harlan hadn’t ever taken her there before, but she had heard about it from him.

When she found a bolt of good wool she decided to take out her tools and knit.

Harlan sat on the ground outside of the meeting room where Rosewell was.

Safira was naturally standing guard outside.

“As Queen’s Blade, you should stand up.”

She disliked his ignoring her and grabbed him by the arm to pull him up. He didn’t resist, and once he was up he stayed perfectly still.

While she could feel that aura he put out, she simply wasn’t afraid of what he could do.

“I hope you don’t have any ill intent towards your queen.”

He was like a doll, just staying glassy eyed and still.

When the meeting let out Harlan locked eyes with one man who he felt was full of anger towards Rosewell.

The man fled at the sight of him, fearing he would be executed right in the hall.

“You did not tell me you were coming, I assume there is something sensitive, step into this room and I will turn the arrays back on.”

He sat across from her, Safira remained outside, Rosewell thinking that it was best she wasn’t there to make some insulting statement and set Harlan off.

“You can call off your men, Redmond-”

The words caught in his throat like vomit, every fiber of his being was terrified to continue.

Rosewell understood, he had missed his check in three days ago and they hadn’t been able to locate him since.

“I’ll make sure they bring back his body for a proper burial.”

“Can you…”

He choked on his words and burst into tears.

“I’m not strong enough to tell them.”

He felt another mind behind him, her arms reaching towards him.

Instead of a merciful death, he found a blade handle pointed towards him.

“I’m sorry for your loss, and I know it would be pointless to try to stop you.”

“Dawn and Amber, please watch them, just for a time.”

“I understand.”

With a tap, Harlan was suddenly thousands of miles away.

Rosewell was a busy woman, but Harlan had asked for someone to tell his family, and she thought it would be fine to push some things back. Had Yggdra still been king, he would’ve poked and prodded, subtly telling her that she needed to do it to curry favor, but she was doing this because she actually cared for Harlan.

She arrived at the farm in a black dress, Safira had a black cloak over her armor.

“Oh, your majesty, to what do we owe the honor?”

“I think it would be best we spoke inside.”

“Right, of course.”

“Are any other members of your family here? It would be best for them to come as well.”

“Just Harlow and I.”

“Very well.”

Aida felt something was wrong, but her mind didn’t let her linger on those thoughts.

She put on one of Harlan’s self boiling kettles and got Harlow into the living room, he had been putting James to sleep for the night.

Aida didn’t really hear anything Rosewell said, she just fidgeted in her seat.

Harlow played her rock, he just kept patting her shoulder.

The only sound inside of the house was the screaming of the pot until Safira shut it off.

“Your majesty, you’ve informed them, we should see Lady Autumn before she requires waking.”

“Aida, Harlow, will you be alright?”

“She’s going to need time, there’s nothing you can do.”

“Should we bring you to Redwall?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Safira opened a gate in an instant.

Autumn slammed down her fist, taking a large chunk from the table in front of them, breaking three fingers, and filling her hand with splinters.

“Mommy, what’s wrong?”

“Uncle Redmond got hurt, he isn’t coming back.”

“But we get hurt, and we get better.”

“Uncle Redmond isn’t coming back ever again.”

The children were too young to really understand, so they just clung to their mother’s legs.

“I brought your mother and father, but we can’t seem to locate Amber.”

“She was staying with Harlan. Ava is… she’s probably training. I’ll go get her.”

Autumn tried to stand, but found her legs had grown weak.

Jaramis grabbed her.

“I’ll go get Ava.”

“She’s going to fight, drag her here if you need to.”

Ava’s face distorted and covered with tears and snot, despite what Autumn believed, she simply broke down and clung to Breken like an infant until she saw her father.

“I’ve tried to reach Harlan, but Marigold sent him away. Safira, bring Countess Blackstone here. And if she asks, her children as well.”

When she saw Safira, asking her during the night to visit with the rest of the Fomoria family, she knew what had happened, she was already aware of him missing his check in, because even if he missed that, he always called her as soon as it was safe, and he missed that as well.

Blackstone didn’t want to go, and Safira verified that she was allowed to do so.

Once she was gone, Blackstone ordered her butler to grab a bottle of whiskey from the basement.

She stared at the bottle for over an hour, and as she reached for it finally, a maid knocked.

“Lady Blackstone, Tenebria has awoken and we cannot get her back to sleep, she’s been crying near an hour. Should we wake the doctor?”

“No, just bring her here.”

As soon as her daughter was in her hands, she felt that gnawing thirst fade away, and Tenebria stopped crying, and Blackstone started.

Adina stayed at the bunker, her relationship with Redmond was questionable, even if he was friendly, she didn’t think he had completely gotten past her being a Reinoan, and it ate at her that she didn’t try harder, that she never could try harder now.

Marigold would bring Amber back only after rushing her through the entire process of adjusting to a new body, it was Harlan’s magic, sigils used in a certain way, modified and unique to him, but she had studied it and refined it beyond what he had.

Ava sat with her older sister.

“Where the fuck is Harlan?”