Harlan spent the last two days observing the wyvern, a Razorwing.

They flew low to the ground with their thin and flat bodies, cutting down anything in their path using their organic metal scales. They were rare, not only because they were fiercely territorial, and thus wouldn’t leave their lands no matter how outmatched they were, but also because they had scales of unique magical metal, which could be melted down and forged like any other.

While the bones of a Stone Drake were to an extent like an organic stonesteel, they were still brittle like bone, and they still needed to be sharpened, not forged.

One morning he saw it stretch at dawn, looking as if it had skewered the sun itself on its lance shaped head while its massive 500 feet wingspan darkened the landscape, like it was denying light to those under it. It was beautiful, but Harlan couldn’t see that, not now.

The battleground was a plain, at least a dozen miles from its center to anywhere else.

It had a few hills, but nothing big enough to consider, it had creeks, but no rivers.

Not enough water to be a swamp, not enough trees for a forest, and not enough hills to have peaks and valleys.

He understood how Redmond failed to get away.

When he had that thought, as if it was his fault that he got unlucky, that he ended up in a shit spot of the world without backup, he felt sick to his stomach again.

He crept to the nest, it was a female, and it had a clutch freshly laid.

He had little idea if Razorwings were a species that was smart enough to understand familiar loss, but he hoped it was.

He opened a gate to a dug out area a few hundred miles away, he didn’t want anyone else to get these eggs.

On the way out of the hole in the ground, he encountered another mind, one that was known to him.

Harlan rushed down the tunnel, one that was likely dug back when the beast was far smaller, and it couldn’t have followed the path as it was now.

Halfway to the dead end he found him.

“Hey, Cu, you remember me, right?”

Harlan held out his hand and the dog smelled it, then growled, Cu never did like Harlan much.

“You do remember me then. I’m-”

He was overwhelmed, even with so little emotion left, he couldn’t help but be choked up.

“I’m glad you are ok.”

He hugged the dog that now stood as tall as his hip.

Cu led Harlan down the tunnel, the cold had preserved Redmond’s body well, and Cu was emotionally intelligent and loyal enough that he didn’t try to eat him, even if he looked to be starving himself.

Harlan opened the gate and cracked one of the eggs open, it was nearly as large as the dog, and Harlan felt like Cu knew it was the egg of that wyvern and got some pleasure out of it.

It took a day, but he decided.

Redmond’s body needed to get home, first and foremost, Cu needed to get to Blackstone, he was her dog now, and a link to his uncle and her husband.

Harlan wasn’t going to hunt it, not yet, he saw the Razorwing, he heard it described.

A thousand year old magical creature, it didn’t matter if it was an ant or a wyvern, magical creatures never seemed to stop growing stronger, though at a rate lower than most people would if they really trained other than the jumps in power caused by evolutions.

But he understood his enemy, and he marked the area.

Wyverns were opposites of drakes in many ways, one of them being that they were not often roamers, they found a spot, settled down, and only left if something made them leave, but this thing was the apex of its environment.

He landed on the doorstep of the Blackstone mansion, the guards reacted instantly, and Harlan did as well.

After they got a look at him, and at Cu, who Harlan held in his arms, they apologized and he put them back on solid ground.

“Is she here?”

“Sir Fomoria, wrapped in that blanket, is that…?”

“Yes, it’s him.”

“She hasn’t left the nursery since she heard the news.”

“I understand.”

Harlan had cleaned and healed Cu before they arrived, she didn’t need to see his missing front paw or his fur matted with blood.

Onyx and Ebon stood guard outside of the nursery, and recognized the dog instantly.

“Cu, how did you-”

Then they looked up and saw Harlan, and then the wrapped thing next to him.

“I will take his body, please, see mother, she’s… you know her enough.”

Onyx walked away with Redmond, Ebon hadn’t said a word.

She enjoyed having a father around again and spent the months when he was back at this mansion instead of her husband’s, but she was not unknown to loss, and Redmond was more a man her mother loved than a father to her.

Harlan stepped inside with Cu.

The dog licked her fingers.

“Cimmeria. How are you?”

“I’ve only avoided drinking myself to death because of my children. How are you?”

“If I didn’t have the ability to turn down my emotions I might’ve fought the wyvern that killed him and died several times. Can I have that?”

“Of course.”

Harlan opened the bottle of whiskey that was sitting at her feet and downed the entire thing.

“You are going to damage your liver.”

“I took mine from a species of frog that eats poisonous toads, my heart from a drake, lungs from a Red Wailer. I’m not even a person, just bits and pieces of monsters in the shape of one.”

He looked at his hand that held the bottle, switching from scales to the sandpaper like shark skin to translucent.

“And that is why I love you.”

She pinched his cheeks.

“I brought back his body, Onyx took him away.”

“How did he die.”

“Razorwing, the plain he was in, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. He made his way into a cave, but it was the wyvern’s nest. He got away, but he was hurt. How is everyone else?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen them, I’ve ignored their calls. My children are all here, they matter to me.”

“Should I leave Cu here?”

“The children like him. You should see your family.”

Harlan saw her face twitch and now and then, especially when he drank the whiskey, she was barely holding together, and chances are everyone but her knew it.

He left behind three of the wyvern eggs.

Before anywhere else, he went to the bunker.

Dawn had been there with nobody but Adina and the golems.

“Fuck, I was about to start grinding on the fucking furniture, why’d you leave us behind?”

“Redmond is dead, I spent the last three days thinking about how I’d hunt the wyvern that killed him, but I decided not to.”

She broke down in tears,

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know, I didn’t-”

“It was better you didn’t. Did Marigold come by?”

“Sh-she gave us food and blankets and, and, she, FUCK, I should be there for you, I’m still a terrible mother.”

“You were never my mother, but you’ve been a great friend anyway.”

She squeezed him so hard his back began popping, but he wasn’t in any danger of being really hurt.

“Adina, we’re going home, and Dawn is coming with us.”

“Alright, but who is Dawn?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I don’t want to explain this again, so we’re going to wait a month, give everyone time to grieve, then I’ll tell you all.”

“Fuck that, I’m the ghost of his mother who he pulled into his body by instinct as an infant. It’s not that hard to explain.”

“If you want to be blunt yes, but look how Amber reacted. I’ve spent plenty of time talking shit about Eliza to my family, if I just say you are the ghost of my mother they are going to assume you are as bad as she was.”

“It’s fine, if you are doing this for her then she must’ve changed. Plus you aren’t calling her Eliza.

I’m a lot more worried that you are being so… ok with this.”

“With what?”

“I know you liked Redmond a-”

“I’m going to handle this a day at a time, an hour at a time, every single second, I’m going to handle this.”

“We both know you aren’t.”

Adina grabbed his arm.

“But I’m going to be here to help you handle it when you can’t.”

Harlan gated to his home, he intended to leave her with Balor, but he wasn’t there.

The only person home was Isha and the new maid, they’d been through a few of them, and he was afraid to ever get close to them even though Isha was spending less and less time at home as it got closer to her wedding.

“Harlan, how are you?”

“I’m already tired of people asking how I am.”

“I’m sure you are, but I need to ask.”

“I’m handling things. Where is Balor? I was going to leave my friend here in his care.”

“I could watch her, another body enhancement?”

“Full body.”

“I’ll make sure she is ok, I’ve dealt with plenty of them before.”

She fully equipped her golem armor, startling the young girl who was helping and hadn’t realized what her superior could do.

“She’s also pent up, so avoid skin contact. I’d send her away like the others, but I’m afraid she’d kill any man who tried her, she’s much stronger than those I enhanced before.”

“I… I will watch out for that then.”

“Has Amber been alright?”

“Physically, she has, they understand what she went through. But everyone is just… they’re how you are pretending not to be.”

“They are all at Redwall then?”

“You not being so upset is scary.”

“Dawn, just rest, do whatever you need to do, call me if you need anything.”

“Of course, I’ll take your room.”

“I’d rather you didn’t, because I know what you are going to be doing.”

She hugged him.

“I’m just fucking with you. But really, I’m worried like Isha and Adina, you explode, keeping it inside isn’t going to make it better, it just means there will be more shrapnel.”

Harlan gated away without another word, taking Adina with him.

The guards at Redwall all wore black mourning cloaks.

“Sir Fomoria, your family is-”

“I know.”

“I’m sorry to have bothered you then.”

He was wearing his armor minus the helmet, he shifted his clothes to give himself a morning cloak instead of his usual jacket. He looked ready for a battle, and he’d rather relieve the start of the civil war than step inside of the room with the rest of his family.

Harlan made his way to the dining room, it was time for lunch, but there wasn’t much conversation or eating.

His mother came up and hugged him.

“I wasn’t sure you’d be here.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

“You’ve missed plenty of family dinners, nothing wrong with another one.”

Harlow looked at him, pleading with his eyes. That his mother looked so well made Harlan understand.

“I hope I don’t miss more of them.”

There was a twitch in her not unlike Blackstone’s, an odd stutter to her step sometimes instead of a movement of the face.

Then Ava came, dragging him away from the room.

She put up a veil out in the hallway.

“Where the fuck were you?”

She was barely keeping it together, but she was facing the loss unlike their mother, and a few days passing gave her time to process some of it.

“I got his body, I was planning to kill the wyvern.”

“Is it dead?”

“No, it’s old, powerful, I need to get stronger before I go back for it.”

“Take me with you, I can’t fucking sit here another day, please, I-”

She slid down the wall.

“I don’t want to be here anymore, I don’t want to just sit and talk and cry, I’m fucking done crying.”

“When is the funeral?”

“We were planning two days after you got back, if you got back.”

She ran her hands across the carpeted floor and kept her head down, she didn’t want to meet his eyes.

“I forgive you. You know that, right?”

“I wasn’t ever mad at you for hating me.”

“I thought you were going to die, and that’s been keeping me up at night, I haven’t slept since…”

“I’m not going to die. I pro-”

She slapped him, his sensitivity to pain was mostly dead, but he felt it.

“Don’t you fucking dare. Redmond, he said that once, I was young, I didn’t even remember it until everything happened.”

“How is Lugh holding up?”

She didn’t wear him on her hip, but rather he molded himself as an extra layer of armor on her right arm.

“It’s been a while.”

He was a snakelike limb of metal rising from his sister’s arm.

“I’m scared, I’m really scared. Sara, Redmond, I don’t know who, I’m scared.”

“Just keep an eye on Ava, you’re her brother, that means you need to make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“I couldn’t stop you either, because I left, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be, you and I, we are still family, even if you don’t like what I do sometimes.”

“We should go back, see mom. She’s not doing well.”

“I saw, she can’t accept that he’s gone.”

“I’m scared she is going to do something.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her.”

Lunch was quiet, but what Harlan found odd was that Sable and Piceous had come to stay at Redwall.

“How are you two?”

“Mother isn’t doing anything but holding Tenebria. She’s not really there, Ebon and Onyx are just babysitting her. Redmond was a good man, I wish we had more time to know him.”

“I brought him back, found his body. I found Cu, he’s back at your home, he’s alive, needs a few days to get back in shape. Found him in a cave, right next to Redmond, I think he was guarding his body.”

“That’s good, Cu is a good dog. After the… after things are done, could you bring me back to the academy?”

“Of course.”

“I’m sorry that we never got close.”

“We still can. Did they decide on what will be served at the funeral? Because I brought back a clutch of Razorwing eggs, I don't know if they taste good, but they’d taste like revenge at least.”

“I’ll make sure the chefs find out how to prepare it right.”

She tapped on the table, unsure if she even wanted to ask.

“Did you kill it?”

“I know where it lives, and they don’t leave their lands unless something pushes them out. It’s a matter of time.”

“I would like to be there when you kill it.”

“I’m not risking anyone else's lives on this. If I die, I have another body to replace me, if you die… I’m not discussing this.”

She tried to keep the conversation going, but he just ate his meal and then sat still.

Harlan didn’t know what to do, everyone was once again gathered in the tea room, telling stories about Redmond.

“And then he comes running into the house with a boar on his shoulders, but it’s still kicking.”

He was blacking out, like he just wasn’t even there anymore, a dreamless waking sleep.

He didn’t want to research anything, he didn’t want to build, and the object of his ire was alive out there, but he couldn’t do anything to it yet.

He didn’t know when he got back home, he was laying in his bed staring at the ceiling with moonlight beaming in through the windows.

Adina shifted next to him, she’d been using his arm like a pillow and own shifting woke her.

“Are you awake?”

She sat up, he was relieved to see her in a nightgown.

“What time is it?”

“I’m sorry, just go back to sleep.”

“No, we’re married now.”

“There was no wedding yet.”

“I know, but Marigold told me what her’s was like, Xol gave some speech that was standard where he is from. Through better and worse, rich and poor, sickness and health. This is a worse time, so if you want to talk, let’s do it.”

“I don’t remember most of today. When did we get back here?”

“After dinner. Then you raided the cabinets, drank a few bottles of wine and whiskey.

When you got up here you were crying that you can’t even get drunk anymore with your new liver.

Then I pulled you into bed and we went to sleep.”

“Did I do anything of note?”

“Your mom talked at you for hours, I think she just wanted somebody who wasn’t going to tell her the truth. But you just sat there, didn’t say anything, just squeezed my hand every now and then to make sure I was still there I guess.”

“Let’s go back to sleep.”

Harlan was present for the funeral, technically at least.

It was a not exactly public event, but it wasn’t small and private like he would’ve wanted.

So he left a spare body while the family had an actual private event at the farm.

He felt far more comfortable surrounded by farmers than nobles; he knew that any poor comment would leave bodies in his wake.

“Just this last summer, he was passing by and helped me put in new fence posts. That’s the kind of man he was.”

“He helped me put a near wheel on my cart when it was pouring rain.”

He heard dozens more stories like these, to and from the farm he would run into people, and if they needed help they got it, and he never asked for anything in return, often getting paid in a few vegetables or meat if they had it.

If he didn’t have an inhuman body he might start to tire out from all of the hand shaking, but his body didn’t help how tired he felt of hearing these stories. He knew Redmond was a good man, he remained a ranger when he should’ve quit because he felt like he needed to help the villages full of people who made their own choice to spend their lives in the ass end of civilization without the power to defend themselves.

Marigold and Xol made an appearance, but nobody outside of his friends and family really knew them since Xol was flesh and blood instead of bone today. He pulled a bottle of liquor from his sleeve.

The label was in Harlan’s colors, bearing a cracked skull with beans and white flowers growing from the inside.

“People like us, powerful beings, require more than just any drink. Respect what this thing is, because it can easily kill others, nothing more than fumes for them.”

“Is this what you and Marigold drink?”

“No, a special brew, I know you like vanilla.”

Harlan put it in his pocket.

“This is to take the edge off, but don’t go over that cliff.”

“Thank you.”

With another handshake they moved on.

There were no unexpected surprises, just a bunch of people sitting around, crying, telling stories, and getting piss drunk.

Sepul had shown up for a few minutes, but he didn’t know Redmond, he was there to just check on Harlan.