Harlan went to explain what had happened to everyone, first he spoke to the staff, they were targets and he hadn’t thought about protecting them the same way as he did his family, so he said they were free to leave if they wanted to try and find safer work.
“Sir Fomoria, I’ve worked for Baron Redwall for decades, to work for a noble is always to be at some risk, to do anything has some risk. None of us have come to harm in these months with you and I feel that your paranoia has led to more than enough defenses for this place. My wife and I shall be staying.”
Harlan didn’t speak with Garad all that often, he had dinner with everyone every now and then just to make sure there wasn’t anything they needed; but this was the first time that he felt Garad actually had more than a basic level of loyalty towards him as an employer.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t trade this for anything, I’ve get paid more here than working for Redwall and I get to have more fun.”
“I will echo most of what Sara says, you’ve been a great help to us and I’ve had more time to spend with my mother due to my lightened workload.”
Harlan happy to hear it, though he was only really close with Isha and Sara it would still leave a void in not only duties but in his heart had anyone left him for what he believed was his own failures.
“Thank you everyone. I hope you can all feel safe here until you move on to make your own families.”
Isha started to fidget a little after he was done talking but Harlan wasn’t going to question her about it.
Then he spoke to his family, which he included Zella in even though she wasn’t even a target.
They all sat in silence for some time.
“Harlan, I hope you aren’t already blaming yourself.”
Redmond was the first to talk.
“If-”
“No.”
“If I-”
“Not a chance. I’ve seen and killed enough evil bastards, if there was anyone to blame you could say the kingdom just because you wouldn’t be a noble without them. But even then, you are human and somebody would’ve connected the dots eventually, you’ve been playing with magic since you could do it even beyond what you’ve been taught. There was never a way that you lived a quiet life.”
Aida and Harlow wished they could’ve made Harlan go into quiet contemplation in such a manner with just some words.
“If something happened… I know what I would do. I just want everyone to keep safe, I’m going to bolster all of our defenses, I’m going to update the golems that are already at the farm.”
“Harlan, honey, you really don’t need to do that. You shouldn’t need to worry now, that count is dead and gone.”
“And then when the next person comes along? Even if I don’t need to do it, I have to. I refuse to not do it and you can’t stop me.”
Aida wanted to refute him, he was paranoid, everyone in the room knew it but they wished he could be someone happier, not constantly trying to throw himself into this or that project.
In the 8 months he had been back he only made 6 social visits to the farm, others always had to seek him out.
He spent nearly every night striving to be stronger in some way, to expand what he could do to keep himself and those he loved safe, work life balance wasn’t something he ever thought about.
“Aida, I know I’m not really part of the family, but I’ve known Harlan for years and I don’t think that there is anything to stop him. He probably didn’t tell you what all happened at the facility but when he was there I was his support, I couldn’t get him to do anything no matter what it was costing him.”
“Harlan, what does she mean?”
“Zella, don’t talk about what I did or what it cost me. I shared what bothered me in confidence.”
She stood and crossed her arms as she neared Harlan.
It was what Rosewell did when she was trying to lecture Harlan about his habits.
“I know that look you have in your eyes, remember when you couldn’t get the result you wanted Rosewell took us all out to the woods for a day? You are still as stupid and pigheaded as you were then. Make your golems better and stronger or whatever you need to do, then relax with your family. You’ll be gone for 10 months of the year, I can’t imagine you are going to spend more than a month fixing everything. If you avoid them for too long I am going to drag you kicking and screaming into a picnic.”
Ava laughed and laughed, it was a serious conversation, she had learned that she had assassins after her for months without knowing, but she couldn’t contain herself.
Aida shushed her and Zella went red, her attempts to scold Harlan had worked on him but to Ava she just looked ridiculous.
“Sorry sorry sorry. I’ve just never seen Harlan hang his head like that before.”
“Ava, that is enough. Zella, you are right. I am a stupid pigheaded idiot who doesn’t know when to stop. Mom, Dad, I will do what I can do to make sure you are safe and then I’ll just go back to being Harlan.”
“Don’t I get a mention?”
Amber had been a fly on the wall, she didn’t feel there was anything to add, but now that the mood was lighter she wanted to keep that.
“Amber, do you want me to teach you more stuff after dinner? Actually, Mom, Dad, do you want me to teach you magic?”
“Sorry son, but I’ve got no talent for it. I’ve tried and it doesn’t click with me, they wouldn’t let me in the army I was so poor at learning it.”
“You tried to join the army? When?”
“Before I met your mother, I was 14 and my father passed away so I wanted to go to bootcamp instead of being a farmhand. I failed on everything but the physical. I am not cut out for killing anything but goblins and wargs.”
“Mom?”
“Redmond tried to teach me some when I was younger, just before Autumn was born actually. I stopped because I was too limited in time, by the time Autumn was 3 I had Amber on the way and then another 3 years for Ava. Now I’m just too old to be learning that kinda stuff.”
“What do you mean? You are still young, both of you are. I think you should at least try.”
“Harlan, we will both be 40 in just another couple years. We aren’t young.”
He eventually did convince them that they should learn but they convinced him to wait until next year since most of this month was already done and most of next month was for family time.
Down in the bunker Balor and Lugh were talking about something, but they stopped as soon as Harlan got near.
“I heard-”
“I’m sorry, Balor wanted me to keep it a secret. That is why I was so quiet.” Lugh was upset, he didn’t like hiding things, last time he did Harlan didn’t talk with The Dark Mother for months.
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“Were you quiet?”
“Harlan, I feel like I shouldn’t need to tell you this, but not speaking to anyone for days on end, it isn’t normal for people.”
“Really? Wait, that isn’t important. Lugh, it is fine. You and Balor are your own people, I can’t keep you caged up if you want to leave. Or if you want to stay.”
Harlan was mostly lying to himself, if both his brothers stayed behind he would be upset, but he wouldn’t try to stop them.
“NO! I want to see the academy. I want to go where more people are! I wonder what birds and flowers they have…” Lugh started to just hum a tune to himself and float around the room, looking over the few plants Harlan moved down here to make it feel less like the facility.
“Lugh, aren’t you still shy?”
He stuttered in his flight for just a moment but didn’t answer.
“We have gone off track, I assume you are here for the packages?”
“Yes. Did you open them?”
“I abided by the rules given, the courier was very sure that no one was allowed to open them other than you. They are actually in the private room. I didn’t ask this before… But while you are gone, what limits should I place on my spending?”
“Unless Garad yells at you for spending too much and everyone is paid I don’t care what you spend, hire more people if you need to, build more golems, you are going to want to contact the couriers for a rabbit supplier. I had a thought about lending out the golems for clearings. Just stick a light spell on them and they could probably do a lot of the work on their own, but I don’t know if I want them doing work on their own. People need to see them doing good things. The trees already know to kill goblins and wargs on sight unless there is a skoll or fenrir nearby, I don’t want to antagonize them. Sorry, I’m rambling. I’m going to check out the books.”
Harlan went to the private room and unwrapped the books. They
were bound in some warded cloth, Harlan wondered why they didn’t put them in boxes, but it really didn’t matter.
Secrets of telekinesis by Sibress Whitebeak
Secrets of imbibing by Eldren Hardwing
Harlan figured imbibing was going to be a bigger subject, and he really wanted to find out if telekinesis would let him do what he hoped it would.
He read the opening chapter over and over again, realizing it wasn’t as great of a deal as he thought since the book never directly said how to actually do telekinesis.
He was eyeing the book on flight with disdain, expecting it to be another worthless book until he found out the basics of flight.
But by the 5th rereading he realized what telekinesis was, extending the soul out of the body and granting it physical power. He kept at it, trying to interpret the advanced tricks into what the basic form probably looked like.
But after an hour he was doing no better than at the start, he gave up and went to read later chapters hoping to find something that actually helped.
He wanted to beat himself once he read the last chapter.
Secrets to teaching students quickly through odd or esoteric methods.
He was all about odd and esoteric methods, he was annoyed further when one of the methods labeled as “quite safe” was to bleed the student, the soul naturally leaves blood and returns to the body, if he really paid attention he should eventually feel it as the soul comes back, giving him a “sense of feeling and control of the soul outside the body.” He wasn’t going to do that until checked the rest of the chapter.
Labeled under “only in worst case” was to “bleed the student until their heart stops, then revive the student, repeat process until feeling of the soul is found.” He liked the idea, he already had a fair share of near death experiences, but he figured he would wait for a bit.
He went upstairs to get a knife to bleed himself only to find that Sara and Isha were in the kitchen, nearly done with breakfast.
“Oh, Harlan. I was about to get you. You normally aren’t this late for breakfast.”
“What? I thought it was only…” He started thinking he needed to start casting ring of light whenever he was alone, if he had started doing tests with unknown spells without thinking about costs he could pass out or eat away at himself without even realizing it.
“Only what?”
“Sorry. I thought it wasn’t so early. I was doing some reading, lost track of time.”
“There was something I wanted to ask you about… No, nevermind.” Harlan hadn’t seen her so flustered in some time, he went over every part of female behavior he had read about.
He threw away the idea of infatuation with him, they already had a talk about that and she understood he had no odd intentions with her. Then he started thinking about the chances of her-
“She wants to go to the maiden festival. She wanted to ask about a dowry.” Sara blurted out between sips of her tea. Isha was flushed red and struck her. That was new for Harlan, but he was glad she could act normally around him.
“I don’t mean this the wrong way, but why would I put forward a dowry?”
“Ah… Well, I don’t have a father to put one up for me. I don’t mean to say anything by asking for this, but I had wondered if you would be willing to do that for me. I’ll work to pay it back, don’t worry about that. It will just take me some time.”
Harlan felt a little bad for her, and he felt awkward for himself. He thought of himself as brotherly with her, not fatherly. But he was also potentially willing to kill someone who treated her poorly enough. He scratched his chin and thought for a time. Isha was tense, Sara was eating eggs and toast.
“Are you planning to leave?”
“Ah. Well, I was hoping that I might be allowed to live elsewhere while you are away, and then come back while you are here for the summers.”
“And once I am done with the academy? I’ll be here all the time.”
“I don’t know…”
“If you want another house here? I’ll make it. The dowry isn’t an option anymore either, I am paying for it. If you want to leave, that is fine too. I… I think of you like another sister. If your husband, since I know you can find one. Ever hurts you, come to me, if I am not here, come to Balor. Either they will end up in a grave or a courtroom.”
Isha felt overjoyed, she was worried that just asking for a gift of a sum of money would drive some kind of wedge between them. But he truly cared for her, and not in the way her mother warned her about, but as a genuine friend.
Harlan reveled in this, feeling her joy like it was his own. He felt wonderful, the rage was pushed further back in his mind.
He even started humming the same tune Isha liked to hum.
Isha thought it was sweet that he knew the song from her, Sara thought it was creepy that they were humming in perfect sync
He finished eating before everyone else was even awake, then he went back down to work on learning telekinesis.
But he was in such a good mood that he decided to ask some questions, normally he felt like his relationship with her was more tenuous and he felt like he learned more horrible truths each time, he thought everything would turn out right this time for some reason.
He went below the bunker and mediated himself into The Dark Mother.
“My child, you have quite the mood this time. How can I help?”
“I was wondering if everyone is connected by some kind of giant web of souls. I forgot to ask last time we talked.”
“That is quite the question to ask. Especially considering how you are. But I suppose I’ve not spoken of such things.”
“Really? What does that mean?”
Anyone who really knew him would be shocked that he could even say that in such a happy mood instead of with layers and layers of paranoia and skepticism.
“You are connected strongly to the web right now, feeding on the joy of another, feeding on the rage of another. You have done it so many times already. I hoped that you would discover what you can do before now, but I’ve been reading the threads of fate. I believe that now is the ideal time to show you.”
“Really? Thank you.”
“Do you know of mind magics?”
“No, unless the soul speaking is mind magic?”
“It was a trick question, any child of the 3rd age has such powers sealed from them, unless of course a magnanimous goddess wants a people to have some form of it. My children, of which you are, have empathy. You feel how others feel, this was once just having thoughts of what others might think, but now. You have gone past that. Now you are channeling it, but without training, it… hasn’t gone well for you. I shall show you now what you might’ve been taught by the tribe. The threads show if I don’t, you are very likely to slaughter a great deal without good reason. This path I hope will be… Marginally better.” She
Harlan was excited! He would get to be taught directly by her.
Who did she think she was to teach him? Was it even worth teaching him…?
“I said I would show you, I didn’t say I would explain. Just try to fight what you think is wrong, know when your mind is being affected. Eventually you will gain that sense of mind, and it will help with that other skill you wish to learn. The soul and mind are so alike, and yet not. But enough, let us start again. I will wrap us in the minute hours, I wouldn’t want you to miss your appointment.”
He was confused about what appointment he even had, he didn’t have anything planned that day, and how did she even know that? Why does she think she knows best? Maybe she did know best? He just needed to trust her.
He was getting very annoyed by switching around like this, and this time it was his true feelings.