Harlan reached the redwall mansion by the late morning, his own carriage was sent for him by Redwall very early since he knew that Harlan would be awake anyway.
He was just in time for breakfast, as he walked in the door a maid was there to guide him. It was the same girl he had given his first toy.
“I should’ve asked before, but what is your name?”
“Isha.”
“That sounds different. Are you from the north? I know someone who came from there, his name was Reet.”
“No, actually my family came here from Reino when I was just a child.”
“Oh, what can you tell me about it? If you don’t mind, that is. And I think you are the first person I’ve met who didn’t just call them the theocracy.”
“I don’t remember much, we liked unleavened breads and spicy foods. We grew these little white pieces of grain that we boiled and put sauces on. But you don’t have them here. I forget what they were called.”
Harlan didn’t think much of it, but after a few moments he realized how odd it really was.
“You don’t remember? I thought everyone knew Godgiven and you could just think hard enough about the word and remember it?”
“I don’t know. You are the wiz- ahem. You are the soul mage, not me. There are some other words that come from Reino I can’t remember. Ah, but we are here at the dining hall now. I will take my leave.”
He couldn’t get it out of his mind, he would need to ask the baron about it and check the library.
But for now it was time to eat. He knocked on the door, Balor told him the exact number of knocks which was considered acceptable. He could get away with it before but at this point he was considered to be a full noble and needed to at least pretend to care about manners.
“Please, enter.” Redwall’s voice boomed from the inside of the room.
“Welcome, Sir Fomoria.”
“I have come as requested. I hope you are all doing well.”
“Good enough. But bringing up the request part sounds like you don’t want to be here, work on that. Please, sit and have a nice meal. I cannot imagine you ate well out in the woods.”
Redwall knew him well enough to look past minor offenses and use them to teach Harlan the manners he could only really learn by interacting with his peers. Though most wouldn’t consider him a peer.
“I thank you for your invitation and help with hiring personnel for my home while I am to be away at the academy.”
“Much better, did Balor do that one for you?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“You’ll make it sound natural one day. You have all the time in the world.” Autumn chimed in.
Harlan couldn’t help but notice that she was looking much more filled out and cheery since last time he saw her. The babies didn’t need as much attention as they did before, she could’ve had a wetnurse to help but it was like prying a man from the jaws of a dead warg for her to give them up for a moment.
“You look healthy. Healthier I mean.”
“Thank you, I had the sleep schedule of a vampire for a little while. Your little foxes have helped to distract them sometimes which has helped, thank you once again for those. But also avoid saying anything that can be misconstrued. It might be a better idea to have Balor speak with you for formal occasions.”
“I disagree. It is better for Harlan to be able to learn from his mistakes while he is young and they are easily forgiven. I would hate to stunt his social growth by turning him into my mouthpiece. Though I will be speaking for Lugh on such occasions.”
“Rude brother. I am fine.”
“Nope.” “Highly unlikely.” Harlan and Balor spoke at the same time.
“Away from that note, I just remembered. I was supposed to ask you about the couriers guild at some point and it slipped my mind.”
“Oh, well that is quite simple. They are, at the higher levels mostly, used as a cover for the night watchers. The ones who you had a run in with are from a neighboring barony. Still under Blackstone though.”
“Is the manager in Luth a werewolf? He smelled like a wolf to me.”
“Very rude to say, do not repeat that. And no, he is actually a vampire subspecies, which one he is I can’t say for sure, they are allowed some secrets still. He is however a houndmaster for the night watchers. You would never be able to sniff out a werewolf unless they were transformed already or they had an open wound and you were a wolfhound.”
“Are wolfhounds also in pa- I mean are they magical?”
“Yes, but they refuse to tell us how and we don’t feel the need to push the matter. They are wonderful trackers but they can’t do anything a divinationist cannot do better. Do you have any other questions about them? And I will ignore whatever you are clearly trying to hide.”
“I don’t have any more questions about them. But I do have more questions about magic.”
“If it does not pertain to the couriers then I say we should finish our meal first. Move to lighter talks that we can all join in on.”
“So, Harlan. What did you do out in the woods.” Autumn asked.
“Made some golems, scared the adventurers guild away from me, made a house. Did some other stuff I can’t talk about.” Harlan noticed the look he got from Redwall and Jaramis.
“Nothing illegal. Just making defenses that I don’t know if anyone has made before. I also learned how to grow plants. I grew peppers and potatoes for dad. I made a guest room by growing branches from a log from my cabin.”
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“Ah, a noble profession, though one few nobles are known for. The Greenfield family grew the seeds that most of our wheat comes from, saving the kingdom from famine more than once.”
“There is a noble family who works with plants?”
“Yes. The current head is a Duke. I believe he married one of the princesses.”
“Oh, was it Cynthia? She said she would still get to work with plants at her husband’s place.”
Jaramis and Redwall both clearly flinched hearing Harlan speak so casually of a royal family member.
“Ah, yes. I do believe 9th Princess Cynthia is his wife now. And for future reference, you should always remember to include which number the prince or princess it is. You should make a habit of this, and do not speak ill of them. The walls have ears in some places.”
“Oh? she never seemed to care much about anything but plants and jokes when I was around her. I will keep that in mind though.”
“You really know her? She is one of the royal family members who doesn’t have much known about her due to a life avoiding politics.”
“Yeah, she didn’t care about trying to get to be queen. She even asked if I would teach her kids how to work with souls some day.”
Harlan actually did miss her.
He felt iffy at times about Rosewell since she could’ve just been grooming him to stay connected to the kingdom. But he never got the feeling that anything Cynthia did was for anything but her own enjoyment. Autumn could see that he had a slight smile when talking about her.
“Were you close? You seem happy when talking about her.”
“Yeah, I would like to visit her someday. I hope she is doing well. Maybe she had her children already. She taught me to say some things to make people gossip about me and make them react strongly. I probably shouldn’t do that too much though.”
“Yes, very much avoid doing that. You already have enough rumors around you. Disappearing into the woods and having golems deliver thieves to Luth in stone boxes has both helped and hurt you. You didn’t just kill them and put their bodies in the ground or use them for experiments. But on the other hand a group of 5 people who know magic being captured alive with only broken hands has made people wary of you. You should make yourself better known. There will be a ball this summer where you can mingle with the children who are coming back from the academy. I only bring this up because no other social event is likely to end well with you. With the children coming from and going to the academy you can at least speak about magic.”
Harlan wanted to refute him, but he actually hated social events. He felt they were a waste of time, he wanted to keep working towards something most of the time. He only enjoyed the company of very few people.
It didn’t help that the few times Rosewell had tried to show him off his clear spite towards being used as a trophy and Cynthia’s teachings lead to a feedback loop of both sides feeling slighted.
“I cannot and will not force you, but you should go. You could live your life as a hermit making things, but you could learn more if you met more people. Think how you would be if you ignored Esparella when she first knocked on your door. I may not know her but you can’t think of her or Zella without sending joyful signals from your soul.” Harlan sighed, he had to admit that Balor was right.
“Yes, I would like to go to the ball. Will I need a new suit?”
“Your current clothes with a nice jacket will be fine. You are not expected to be overly flashy since you are a new noble without capital yet. With the help of Balor I imagine that you should do fine as far as manners. Though I should warn you, you are likely to be tested in some way by other nobles since you are young and yet you are a topic of many conversations.”
“Oh that sounds like a wonderful time.” Harlan rolled his eyes, already unsure if he should just quit while he was ahead.
“Come on, it will be fine. Besides, I will be there too, we might even be able to convince Ava and Amber to come along.” Autumn wanted him to hopefully find new friends.
“Perfect, she is the only person who might be more awkward than me at the ball. Balor, Lugh, let’s work together to get her to go.”
“Harlan, that is just rude to say.”
“Yeah but she knows it is true.”
The rest of breakfast went by with just small talk about anything he had done at the farm.
Jaramis never jumped into the conversation once.
Once it was done and Harlan spent a little time convincing Ava to come along with them to the ball, he just bribed her with more soul items.
He was then called to the Baron’s office.
“Alright, now, for the reason I called you here. I have a list of caretakers who I believe would be good fits to watch your workshop in the woods. Mostly chosen for their likelihood to not cause any trouble for you or to sell you out.”
“Is Isha on the list?”
“Isha? Let me see…” Redwall looked over his list and then looked over the list of workers in the mansion.
“I had heard of an incident between her and you, and I chose not to include her. Has she turned over a new leaf? Those from the theocracy are often far more superstitious, I thought her unlikely to be a good fit for you.”
“I talked with her on the way to breakfast, and I gave her a sheep toy before. She seems nice.”
“I can add her to the list then, you will be interviewing them after we are done talking. I shall have another maid fetch her when the time comes. But for now, you had some magical question at breakfast.”
“Isha mentioned that she forgot words from Reino, I didn’t think that could happen. But I don’t really know that much about what Godgiven really is as a language.”
“I don’t have a good answer for that. But the theocracy is… magically quite odd at times. The border which we have held is not the true border, they have magics that can only be used within their lands. That is why they have been able to survive when they have antagonized every other country.”
“Oh, it could be re- actually no, I don’t think I am going to finish that. But thank you for your time. Things are making a little more sense now.”
“If there is something you cannot trust me with I understand, but avoid even voicing those ideas around those who cannot take it quite so gracefully. If you refused to answer a duke or a member of the royal family things could get very messy.”
Harlan thought things over for a few silent minutes. The baron was drinking his tea and waiting for him to either continue or leave.
“I do not know if it is a good idea to speak about the gods of Reino like this. You know what The Darkness said about their followers and that you shouldn’t do exactly this.”
“Yeah, but if there is anyone who I can use to test reactions other than him I don’t know who. He will just correct me if I say something really bad anyway. This is a safe time to do it.”
“Your life is not mine, make your choice.”
“The gods of Reino are Fae.”
The baron immediately spit his tea across his desk and on his papers, coughing some before speaking.
“Who told you that? Nevermind, just never repeat that, ever again. I do not care to who, or why. But you must avoid saying that again.”
“Did you know?”
“The theocracy harshly disagrees with such an idea, and will send assassins for those who speak too freely about it. But no one can really know if such a thing is true.”
“Alright, I won’t go farther into the how or why of this. Once again, thank you for your time and for letting me hire some of your own people.”
As soon as Harlan left the room the baron wrote a letter to the crown, though they weren’t shocked to hear it.
It wouldn’t be the first time that The Darkness told somebody who then spread it around.