He marveled at the trees stretching into the sky, the birdsong on the winds.
He had convinced Ava to take a picnic with him.
Balor was flying around, Lugh, the new brother, just kept asking questions
Harlan just held him in a 1 handed grip and pointed him at things he wanted him to see.
Harlan didn’t really get how a ring or a sword could see.
Eventually he reached the stream, and set up a table and chairs from the dirt, setting down a tablecloth and a basket of food for their picnic.
“This seems like a waste of time, we could’ve just eaten at the mansion.”
“But you would’ve missed the view, we can watch these fish now. Winter is coming, we won’t see them once the ice covers the creek.”
It was already into fall, the trees turned their shades of orange and red but the weather was still temperate.
Lugh didn’t speak in words but Harlan somewhat understood what he wanted.
He wished to see the things that swam.
Harlan stood over the water and watched the little fish with him.
“Harlan, you are being weird. You want to just take walks all day now when you aren’t reading or carving more of those little statues. They are starting to really pile up.”
Ava had noticed his strangeness.
“I’ve got you. That is all I want, we should visit the farm, I’ve not been there in so long.”
“How about we climb trees like when we were younger? It’s been a long time.”
He sat on a branch about 20 feet off the ground and just waited, seeing that Ava was half way up her tree.
Then he noticed the shadows, they were wrong.
Harlan had never actually fought a warg, he was too young, Autumn killed the very few that ever showed up at the farm. But he was reading, he knew all the signs of them.
Fear shot through him, they were getting closer to Ava.
He pounced at the nearest shadow, making a ball of light on the way down, he banished the shadows the wargs were hiding in.
When he landed his fist shot right through the wargs skull, he hadn’t even drawn Lugh yet, instinct had taken over.
His hand bled from the bone shards stuck in it.
“Lugh, I need light.”
He responded by covering himself in light.
Harlan handed Lugh to Ava who took a combat stance, then Harlan let himself run wild. His fists were like small suns, he tore through the wargs like paper, sending limbs flying.
It barely took him 30 seconds to kill them, 5 in all. He was drenched in blood.
He took a step toward Ava. She shuddered a moment, taking a step back.
“Harlan, get a hold of yourself. You look like a monster. You need to talk to someone.”
“I AM FINE.”
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“Ava… I… I need to wash myself in the stream before we head back.”
She snapped back to reality, she knew what he could do, in theory. But seeing it was different, she had killed wargs before, but it was work. Harlan looked crazed to her, letting off steam in an unhealthy way.
They walked back in silence, his clothes stained red.
They asked for one of the guards standing outside to get a maid for him.
The maid directed him towards a small bathhouse outside, made for this exact purpose.
She led him there and then stepped back, asking if there was anything other than clothes he needed. He needed nothing.
He washed himself in the hot water and then just soaked for nearly an hour, until he felt his stomach rumble, he didn’t get the chance to eat lunch, the wargs ruined it.
He felt his anger peak again before he forced it down.
Harlan, found that lunch was still set out, the maids were just starting to clean, he asked that a plate be sent to his room.
Once Harlan had finished his meal he began carving wargs, those he had killed. With startling accuracy their limbs barely connected to the rest of the carvings. Balor asked to be let out of the room, another meeting he said.
Balor spent much of his day in the library, the health and healing sections, needing a maid to help get books down for him.
He found what he was looking for, then went to his next objective.
Breken didn’t expect to hear a knock on his door, nor to open it and see a ring.
“We need to speak.”
“Come in then, do you want a drink? Water? Wine?”
“I believe Harlan has warmind, I have read of it in the library just now.”
“Oh?”
“I can feel his mind, he doesn’t gain any joy from his hobbies, his walking, his carving, it’s like he is just avoiding thinking about other things in any way he can. I just saw him carve wargs, limbs nearly severed. He just tore apart 5 of them with his bare hands today.”
“Ava mentioned it. I was already going to have a talk… send him over here. I might be able to do something before dinner.”
“Thank you.”
And 10 minutes later Harlan knocked on Breken’s door.
“Hello, please, sit.”
Breken kept a close eye on every movement, his eyes darting around the room, his tension when Breken made a creaking noise, or made a shadow slightly move.
“I just want to test something.” Breken moved his hand behind his back and then rapidly swung at Harlan.
Lugh was with him, he thrust at him with the living blade, letting off a burst of dark magic at the same time.
Breken quickly disabled each attack.
“So he was right.”
Harlan pulled his arm back, trying for another attack, but Ava was in the way… Ava? Harlan didn’t stop, he NEEDED to kill breken, he was in danger, always in danger, just moments away.
The illusion shattered when Lugh struck it.
“I’m not a threat, you are.” Breken had moved to the other end of the room, hands in the air.
“I’ve seen it before, your mind is stuck in some other place, you’ve been under high stress for a long period of time, and now you are back, safe and sound, and then something changed that. Now you are back in that other place. You should not be around other people, YOU are a danger to your family, to MY student. Until you are well I will not let you train. Let me help you.”
Lugh was crying, the blade was made of much less than Balor, he didn’t know what an illusion was yet. From his point of view Harlan just killed Ava. Through their link Harlan explained what happened, that it was alright. He decided he would need to find Ava to prove it was alright to Lugh.
He blitzed through the mansion, nearly through a maid, his mind was confused, it wasn’t right still, but he kept pushing it back in his head.
He nearly broke the door to the training area, but he found her, Ava was there, practicing with a guard.
Lugh broke from Harlan’s grip and went towards her, seeking comfort in her hands, explaining everything through a soul link.
Harlan saw her make that face, the one that told him she thought he had done something monstrous.
Breken stopped him from moving towards her.
“Harlan, let me help.”
“Harlan… please. Go with Breken…”
Harlan looked again, her face was plainly fearful, not of him, but for him.
“Yes… yeah let’s go…”
Breken took Harlan to the baron’s office, told him to wait outside, and explained everything to Redwall.
“We are going somewhere, I have a place.”
----------------------------------------
She thought over the things she had done so far, was the boy not as strong as she thought? Or did she push harder than she realized? The knots were back again, she would need to send her shadow into that place to kill those people, the boy's threads were being stained red, she did not want to start over after all the work she had already done with him.