Rosewell invited all of the royal children and Harlan’s family to have a meal, a sort of party before the party.

The war was over, it just a few days for whoever was left to give up, to understand that any resistance was just certain death, and a pardon was a mercy that they shouldn’t have expected; nor would they truly gain such a thing.

Rosewell handed out pardons like candy, but most who received them would die of what would be considered accidents and natural causes.

Unlike the normal royal policy, which was to kill one’s enemies while leaving no direct evidence, but still giving some sort of impression that they had been assassinated, these traitors would die, sometimes soon, sometimes years later, and nobody would have any idea that she was behind it.

“Before we eat, I would like us to toast. In the time since my father passed, it has not been an easy reign.

The civil war has been the longest and bloodiest in hundreds of year, but we have managed to bring it to an end with the help of tens of thousands of people. But, we are also all aware of who we can say played the most significant role, not on a battlefield, but in a workshop.

The planes that Sir Harlan Fomoria made were able to safely destroy hundreds of enemy strongholds without them noticing before it was too late. The train systems which were put up with no small investment from House Fomoria, and especially Balor Fomoria, allowed us to maintain an incredible output of fresh food not only to the battlefield, but within our borders while allowing us to keep out gate mages on the fields, transporting troops to and fro.

When our father first told me that he had been working alongside The Darkness, one of the gods of Aarde, I thought he had lost his mind. But, when he explained why, and with what we now know that we have obtained from such a union, I can only see that his mind was clearly far beyond my own when it comes to such scheming.

This toast is in his honor, though I might not possess his cold and calculating thoughts, I will continue to do as he has done, and ensure the safety of Ragne by any means.”

Harlan said little during the meal, but that didn’t mean people didn’t try to speak with him.

Yet people only tired for so long before they realized Harlan was stuck in his own mind.

The cabin in the woods, the child, those were far more of a comfort to him in the moment.

With the dinner itself done, Rosewell tried to convince him to speak with her privately, but he refused,

She did not take this refusal, making the other royal guards escort him to her room and then bar the door.

“What happened? You are… glowing.”

“As Fomoria, I have entered into the next stage of my sigil. He killed the mind within, I am unified with it.

His way is the darkness, the death, the wrath, I will be mercy.”

No matter how at peace he seemed, this was a battle, just as many she has seen him go through before.

“You need to speak with somebody. I would like for it to be me, but if you would feel more comfortable-”

“You’ve been looking into how to help others with these sorts of problems. Haven’t you?”

“Motherhood has given me some insight on how to better comfort others, and I know you.

This, coldness, this disconnection, this is you receding into yourself because you don’t want to face what you are feeling.”

“I have faced myself, and I have always found myself wanting. I feel like I know what I really need to do now. If you need help, don’t hesitate to ask, but I’m done with building war machines.”

“We haven’t even killed Nulson yet. You-”

“I’m done. Maybe I will change my mind, maybe you are right. Maybe not.”

Harlan stood and made his way to the door.

“I know you will be back, that you need to help people.”

“I can help them with farming projects, building housing for those who need it, clearing monsters that only archmagi are called to handle.”

Rosewell waved and the royal guards let him leave.

Charlin was upset, but one didn’t become a royal guard if they couldn’t hold themselves to certain standards of self control.

“Was it wise to allow him to leave?”

“Harlan will remain confused and seeking a cause until the day he dies. Even if he doesn’t return to us, he intends to continue advancing the quality of life for our citizens and helping us to expand our borders into the Frontier.”

When he returned home, he found peace in the quiet now that the royals were gone, and with them, their butlers, maids, and guards.

They weren’t terrible guests, those that hated Harlan and his family stayed away, those that tried to build connections were friendly, and those that were actually friendly were a pleasure, though they still avoided Harlan; one couldn’t too deeply anger those who they didn’t see or speak with.

Harlan seemed just fine with what was happening to him, but those around him weren’t; his parents wanted to be the ones to speak with him.

“You’ve lost your mind again.”

“I have not.”

“You’re off center, David, what I heard of him, was your friend, you were close, and Fomoria, who was you, killed him. But he isn’t you, it wasn’t your fault.”

“I don’t blame myself-”

“Bullshit.”

“Honey?”

Harlow was more than a little surprised to hear his wife be so direct with Harlan.

“Harlan, we’ve been through this more than enough with you. You are 19, you aren’t a child. I know things are hard, and what you go through is far and away grander in scale than what I had to deal with by your age. I was just a mother by the time that you were, fighting wyverns and armies and everything turned into insanity. I know, I know that I don’t know, and that it is hard, but at some point, you just need to accept what’s happened.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I know that I had some part in what happened, because it was my work with Magruder that caused the creation of blood gems and extended the war.

I know that David would not have had the strength of mind to do what he did if not for me.

I knew before he defected that something was wrong, and I didn’t push him, I let it go, and I couldn’t prevent what happened.

I accept all of this, and I accept that I couldn’t really change any of it. Being unable to change something doesn’t mean that I couldn’t change it. The sun rises, it sets, and David decided on his own to ignore my attempts to help him, he decided on his own to become entangled with Nemain.

Free will means I can do what I wish, but there will be consequences, some that I could foresee, some that I couldn’t. I can’t control everything and everyone, I understand that now. So, don’t think that I’ve gone insane, or that I’ve suffered a break.”

“I just don’t know, I can’t know, and I’m sorry that-”

Harlan put his hand on his mother’s shoulder and smiled gently.

“Both of you did everything that you could, and I think that for everything that couldn’t be foreseen, your lessons of right and wrong made me pick the best that I could out of very difficult situations. Sometimes I chose wrong, but that was because I ignored what you told me. Don’t hang your head over what I am, be proud, because we both know that I could be something much worse.

I’m going to go now, I have work to do.”

Ava was training, as always, when Harlan came in.

“Are you going to try some sparring?”

“Have you mastered your fusion yet?”

“No, but we aren’t getting stuck together anymore. Whatever Fomoria did, our souls are clear that we aren’t the same person, now we just need to think about something that we don’t agree on and suddenly we’re free.”

“I want to give you my sigil.”

“Am I going to start being all glowy and distant?”

“You will get my shine, but your mind won’t be affected, he told me so.”

“Who?”

“The mana, the mind of the sigil. There is a greater layer between magic and the mage with normal runes, but that veil grows thinner with a sigil, it draws more of the will of mana, which is not a single entity, but rather a combination of the caster and something else. It-”

“Alright, I’ll get the sigil.”

“Lugh, would you like the sigil as well?”

“Ava, let me do it first.”

“Does it feel unsafe?”

“No, I just think it’s neat, and I want it first.”

Lugh didn’t change in a way one couldn’t reasonably expect.

He was white as bleached bones with a slight glow emanating from his core, and though he could shift his metals as he did before, it now only showed as a light down the center of the blade.

He could now lengthen and shorten himself at will, the mercy bone forming a greater blade, and his body of metal became strong enough to condense himself smaller than he could before.

“It tickles.”

“Really?”

“I’m going to warn you, Lugh doesn’t have bones, and he doesn’t really feel pain like us.

What is going to happen is that your pain resistance is going to go far beyond normal, but when your bones shoot out of your body, it is going to feel like you’ve stabbed, but it will pass quickly.”

Ava suddenly looked at Harlan.

“Shoot out?”

“Yes. I can show you what it looks like from my eyes, but I am sure it will only last a few minutes, it won’t even be as bad as being enhanced.”

She sighed, pacing back and forth a few times to psyche herself up.

“Alright, let’s get this done.”

She grit her teeth, getting stabbed wasn’t something new, and like he said, it wasn’t nearly as bad as when she got enhanced.

Ava jumped side to side, feeling light, feeling strong.

“Whoa, it’s like when I was first enhanced. Now we really need to spar.”

“No. I refuse to fight without anyone being in danger.”

“Come on, don’t be a whiner.”

“No. And before you go, you should speak with mom and dad.”

“Wait, we can leave now? Finally. Breken said that things haven’t been bad, but I could tell that he misses having me around.”

“Just tell mom and dad that you want to go back, and then I will take you to Redwall mansion.”

“What about them? Have you ever talked about if they are just going to go back? What does the farm even look like right now?”

“The farmhands have taken care, and Kass traveled between Balor’s home and the farm to keep an eye on both.”

“Have you talked to him recently?”

“Maybe a month ago?”

“Is he alright? It’s been a long time since we last talked.”

“He’s fine. My sentinels around the farm have kept anything too bad from attacking, and without any of us there, the farm wasn’t really much of a target anyway.”

“Well, I think I want to visit, catch up,”

Harlan’s gaze turned distant, he wasn’t staring at Ava anymore, just in her direction.

“Yes… catch up. Call me when you are ready.”

He vanished before her eyes.

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

Balor fell to the ground with a pulsing headache.

“IT’S SO LOUD, WHY IS IT SO LOUD?

“Come now child, you are being dramatic.”

He just continued to roll around on the ground for a while, and the soldiers from Ragne made threatening moves towards the elder.

“Stop all that anger, you’re hurting him even more. Balor, try to be calm, idiots, calm down.”

It took a day before he could stand up again, and only because Balor had been moved out of the village itself.

“How do you feel now?”

“I can hear every single bug in the ground, the rabbits in the snow, the eagles that fly above us. And the royal guard that stands outside, prepared to kill us both if the need arises.”

“You can’t read it yet. His intent is not on us, but it is so general towards any threat that you believe it to be. If it was a directed threat, I believe you would’ve passed out from fear alone.”

She rubbed her gnarled hands on his.

“Focus on my touch, my cold fingers, my weathered skin. Don’t close out the feelings, but separate the physical from the mental. Think of three layers, but none of them touch each others.

Mana, that makes all things, the mind, that connects all things, and the flesh, where things live.

Remember that you exist within the lowest layer, that the feelings from the second layer cannot hurt you there unless you let them. Your mind is your mind, it can ask, but you are the one who tells.”

After a few more hours of her rubbing his hands, humming, pushing and pulling on his feelings, he calmed down.

“Let’s walk back to the village. If it becomes too much, we can just turn around, come back to this little cabin.”

“It’s… better, I don’t need to feel the animals anymore.”

“That is the connection settling. What I did, using your soul which has traces of paths between the three layers, that exist from Harlan, is something that I have seen recorded before when children are born with malformed minds. I believe you're the first successful case with an adult. The scrolls seemed convinced that once the mind became too set, it couldn’t be changed any longer.”

“Technically, I’m only 5, though I did start from Harlan’s base mind of 14.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not.”

When Balor became settled back in the village, he tried to keep his mind off of the feelings, letting it become natural, and eventually, blocking it would be as automatic as breathing.

But, to better facilitate this, he wanted to occupy his mind.

“They all call you elder, but what is your name?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Odd.”

“It’s not that I wasn’t born with one, but there was a Fae deal, and my ancestor offered the names of the firstborn of his line in exchange for the means to survive in this place without outside supplies.”

“Interesting. But that must be quite a hassle.”

“Less than you would believe. We all end up being called by what we are, and while the village remains small, general terms are enough to figure out when others are talking about me.

You’ve hardly gripped your head at all since we began talking.”

Balor was thinking about his next question, and hadn’t even thought about the pain that became rapidly lesser the longer he had this power.