Harlan stared at the clock, 20 minutes before he decided he would leave for classes.
“She is a… I don’t know what to call her, mean and stupid.”
“Lugh, she is just me.”
“NO. Brother Harlan is always nice to people unless they are mean first.”
“Doesn’t matter, she is doing what she is because she believes I am a threat. If I believed someone was, even before I met them, I’d do what she did, not in the same way, but my heart would be the same.”
“That's… you wouldn’t, you are good, she is bad.”
“She is just a child, so am I. Maybe we can be friends later, but not now. Lugh, would you like to read books when I do my research with Sepul?”
“Why not bring me with you?”
“You need to learn more things, you are growing up, I know you like plants and animals, but what if you like more? I think it would be good to expand your viewpoint.”
Harlan knew exactly what he would be doing, he didn’t want Lugh to see it, his hands were stained with blood already, and to some extent, he understood and accepted that, but there was no reason for Lugh to be like that too.
“Fine, but I want to pick out what books I read.”
“Of course. Maybe we can pick up a dictionary, you have gotten a lot better, but your word choice is still pretty limited.”
“I want something with pictures.”
“We can go to the library now then, I’ll skip advanced elements and spellcrafting.”
Lugh was happy to wander the halls of books, finding children's stories, tales of adventure both fact and fiction, and a book on all kinds of weapons.
They checked them out with the librarian who had no issues with Lugh reading them once he showed that he could dull his edge and take a humanoid shape.
As he made his way through the halls It wasn’t quite what he expected, he found just as many Tytoans as he did Vampires.
The divination teacher was Selen which was a happy surprise.
“Well, it is a surprise to see you here.”
Harlan knew the feeling, a veil like Sepul put up was around him.
“Are you ok? Did something happen?”
“Secrets have a way of getting out, I’ve handled it.”
“I wouldn’t dream of telling you that you can run or that we could get your family out, but, if you did get out, we wouldn’t look for you.”
“Can’t go into details, but I’ve probably got a lot more work headed my way.”
The veil dropped.
“Wulrun would be delighted to see you more, I will have to get back to you with setting up time for the two of you.”
“Thank you, I know he needs someone made of sturdier stuff to play with.”
Harlan went to his seat, right between a werewolf who was transformed and some kind of vampire, the full moon didn’t take nights off and the students didn’t either.
“Grrreetings.”
The boy cleared her throat.
“Sorry about that, it takes a bit to get used to each time.”
“No worries. I’m no good with people after waking up either.”
He laughed at his joke, much like Bojana, it was more threatening than anything.
“So, what are you? I see golden robes instead of red.”
“Fomorian, Harlan Fomoria, pleasure to meet you.”
He seemed hesitant to shake his hand, despite being roughly 7 feet tall and with claws that could tear untreated steel.
Harlan wanted to laugh as he sat straight in his seat, acting as though he was just waiting for class to start so he didn’t want to get into another conversation.
Divination wasn’t something he actually needed to go through, but he wasn’t sure how else to burn the over an hour he had due to his free period.
At least lunch was different, lot more seafood, lot more red meat that was bloody by default instead of needing to be ordered that way.
Harlan had been too unsure to ask, but he wondered if Tytoans ever made bile piles like actual owls; he never saw a Tytoan who picked the bones from their food.
Healing was more of the same, still working on burns.
Harlen felt warmagic was more fun at night, watching a burning ball hit a target and then bathe the area in light was something special.
Flight was canceled, there weren’t enough night students to justify running it at night, werewolves liked the ground, some vampires had their own form of flight.
Harlan just had to fly around on his own to kill time, he found himself with a vampire in the sky.
They spoke no words, but it was clearly a race.
Harlan had never seen someone fly so fast, that pure vampire transformation didn’t play around, though its long wingspan made it less than ideal for wooded areas.
“Pretty fast for a warmblood.”
“Cool, I’ve never been called a slur by a vampire before.”
Harlan had never seen a vampire blush in embarrassment, let alone one that had slate-like skin and arms that connected to their torso like a bat.
“What? No it's not meant like that, I meant no offense.”
“I’m just messing with you. Smooth flying back there, I never stood a chance.”
“Well, it is kinda what we’re good at. No other vampire can reach the speeds of a pure blood. Uh, should I explain what I mean?”
“No need, I’ve hung out with my fair share of vampires, I know how it is.”
“Sorry, sometimes people hear pureblood and think it is some weird purity thing. I’d honestly rather they just called us vampire without any subtitle, but the pure thing kinda stuck.”
“I wouldn’t sweet the name too much, I got stuck with Fomoria, ya know, because I’m a Fomorian.”
“Wait, you’re him?
“I’ll only answer yes if you promise you aren’t going to get weird.”
Harlan could feel the joy coming from him.
He jumped up then went back to his standing stance, hands on the ground like a wyvern.
“I am a Nightwatcher in training, I heard some rumors that you might be able to fix us.”
“I am trying, but outside of one person I’ve found no real mention of how one might transform people without ending up with a pile of dead bodies, I’m not going to start testing on people any time soon I think.”
“Oh, well… At least you are trying, right?”
“Of course, deep cosmetic magic is 4th year healing and if I don’t have it figured out by then I hope that will hold its own clues to the solution.”
“That long?”
“Have you ever made a new branch of magic? Or rather, reinvented a dead branch?”
“Sorry… I’ve been like this for years, I just don’t know how long I can wait before I am allowed to have a normal life again.”
“I understand, I’ve had my fair share of issues because of what I am.”
“Sorry. I di-”
“Stop, not doing this. I am over it, I’ve got a whole future ahead of me, I can’t keep dragging that behind me forever, I’ve got new forms of discrimination to look forward to.”
The boy was awkwardly shuffling in place.
“You can laugh.”
“Nah, the moment kinda passed, it would be weird now.”
“Right, what is your name?”
“Shreet.”
“You from the north?”
“Yes, how did you know?”
“Friend of mine is named Reet, name just sounds close enough.”
Harlan had a nice time talking to him, he remembered his mental signature since the face wasn’t really an option.
Maybe they would meet again.
Meanwhile he had missed magical creatures, but he knew the next class would be more on wargs and their evolutions, he felt that he knew enough about them already to miss one class.
He could eat night dinner, but in another two hours it would be breakfast, so he just let it go.
He flew around just to feel the wind before he went back to his room.
Harlan walked right into the ambush, Adina stood outside his door.
“Good morning.”
“May I come in for some tea?”
“Of course.”
She awkwardly shuffled in place until Harlan finally sat down.
“Cookies aren’t the freshest anymore but they are still good. So, just a social call?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Do you want to talk about something? I’m happy to just sit if you don’t want to.”
Her head drooped, he wondered how long it had been since she slept.
“I can’t sleep without you near me. I just want a couple hours before breakfast.”
“That’s fine, just sleep.”
She was out like a light as soon as Harlan gave her a pillow and blanket.
He simply sat on the couch across from her and watched, she was like Ava before she decided that she needed to be a soldier.
She was full of life when they were together, when she didn’t need to pretend to be something she decided she wasn’t really, and when they were alone, she let herself be vulnerable.
He cast a veil around her as he felt a mind suddenly appear just outside his door, Sepul was here.
Before he even knocked Harlan had opened the door and invited him in.
He saw Adina on the couch and he wasn’t happy about it.
“Is this going to be a problem?”
“No, she is having a hard time sleeping since the attack, she feels safe around me though. Just a few hours before breakfast is all she wanted.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“First time today, but I figure she will come again when she can’t sleep. Hopefully she can return to normal before too long.”
“Do you love her?”
“No… not like that at least.”
He wasn’t entirely sure if he was telling the truth or not.
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“Her father is a highsaint, that is like if you were the son of a duke. Not only do you not have the right to choose your partner at this point, but she would never be allowed to marry you either.”
“And if her father was dead?”
He didn’t know why that was the first place he went, but it seemed right, yet from Sepul’s face, it was not.
“This was much easier when our nations hated one another more strongly. You stick coddled children together at the height of their hormones and instead of killing on another you want to… You must end this before it becomes a problem.”
“How much favor would I need to earn to get her citizenship.”
“Have you paid attention to a single word I’ve said?”
“It is too late, even if I can’t leave her behind, I won’t mention it to her, but if she asked me to take her away, what would I need to do?”
It took a hopeless romantic to understand another, Sepul could never say it, but he had to admire Harlan’s drive the second someone he cared about came into play, that part of him had been crushed under the weight of loss long ago.
“The issue wouldn’t come from our side, it would be from her own family.”
“How much do I need to do? I refuse to accept that there is no answer to the question.”
“I will ask my friend, but I cannot answer that, I left politics behind me some time ago.”
“When do you want me to work then?”
“Tonight, from midnight to 6, that gives you time to clean up and have a small nap if you need to.”
“Good.”
“You will come to regret your choices, she isn’t someone easily protected, you should surround yourself with people you don’t need to worry about.”
“I can’t know until it happens, right?”
Harlan could feel how sad Sepul was, there was a vice on his heart as he saw himself in Harlan.
He left without another word.
Eventually Harlan ordered three breakfasts to be delivered to his room, it was more meant for the students with projects that they absolutely needed to watch, but he just wanted Adina to get the sleep she needed.
He woke her up 30 minutes before classes started and they ate in silence.
She needed to finish up quickly and then fix her hair and put on a fresh uniform if nothing else.
Harlan felt the eyes on him, heard the murmurs that would’ve been lost on human ears.
Clearly others had seen her come to his room, then rush out after they ate a private breakfast, her hair was a mess and her uniform was ruffled.
This was same as he walked to advanced element and spellcrafting, clearly by the time he reached divinations it had reached Claudia’s ears as she openly glared at him.
Ximena on the other hand was entirely out of the loop.
“Good morning Harlan, you didn’t come for breakfast?”
“Sorry, Adina was visiting me and I decided to have a private talk with her.”
“Ah, she is still very troubled by the attack… Do you mind if I stop by sometime? I think it would calm my nerves if you taught me some things, ah, not that you should feel the need to.”
“I don’t mind, I will have more free time if I pass the telekinesis test and the flight test, but from midnight to 6 I will be away.”
“Wonderful, I will bring some of my own tea and crackers, I don’t want to be an overbearing guest.”
She still had yet to surpass him in divinations, yet unlike Claudia she simply thought of Harlan as a wall to be climbed and she was never bitter over it.
Harlan expected she would end up winning that first place position if he spent every night working.
Lunch passed without anything worth mentioning.
Healing was almost too much for him, he had to actively block out everyone around him and he could tell that Adina with her better hearing could tell what was being said about her.
He had his first outburst during warmagic, one of the other students thought it was banter, but he didn’t have any idea what his name even was.
“How about this, if I make the biggest explosion in the class then you all shut the hell up.”
One of the larger boys scoffed.
“Sure thing lover boy.”
Harlan went first, it took him several minutes to gather mana and put his spell into action, which did greatly annoy everyone who had to go after him.
Clouds started forming overhead, they were in the eye of the storm.
Miles around the lightning cut the clouds so black that it was light they were sitting in the only spot of day in a sea of night.
Purple lightning danced between the clouds as if it was a ball thrown by a hateful deity, the small bolts thrown off stuck with enough power that the students felt their bones shake and the air filled with the scent of ozone.
Sepul knew the look on Harlan’s face, foolhardy men who got caught up in their emotions sometimes let their magic get out of control, yet that was not the look Harlan had, it was that he lost that control to something else.
This was a spell that couldn’t be forced to occur, only the right conditions mixed with the right mages let such a spell exist, on a battlefield something like this might’ve been countered by enemy warmages, but here and now, in this mockery of bloodshed, it struck with its full might.
The village was gone, the mountain trembled, other archmages had arrived to find out why this was happening in a class of children playing at warmages.
Sepul put up a barrier to stop their eardrums from bursting but the light blinded several students that he had to heal.
Sepul made a point that he would be receiving advanced lessons from this point on, and then failed him for the day because he used such a thing for a pointless pissing contest.
Sepul ran the class much closer to a drill sergeant than a normal teacher and he was allowed to, Hellon was reprimanded for her treatment because healers were expected to be under a different kind of pressure, but nobody took war magic without joining the army afterwards, they would rather break them down now so they could get a taste of what it would be like; The headmaster would rather there were no warmages anyway, there were already enough of them to level both countries to the ground as it was and there was no telling how the next war would start if each side had years to build up a massive force of them instead of being limited in part by casualties.
Sepul had Harlan stay behind after class, telling him it was about his advancement in the class.
“Is this the part where you reprimand me for hurting other students?”
“Of course not, that was a beautiful use of the heaven’s fury spell, though I wonder, where did you pick that one up?”
“I felt something pull at my mind, it wanted me to release my anger in a show of force.”
Harlan could tell that Sepul was thinking about if he should tell him what happened.
After a minute he decided.
“I believe that was Calli, likely the others have their eyes on you as well, she is also known to be a matchmaker. Why exactly were you so upset about some jeers regarding the Reinoan girl? I’ve never seen you so upset over foolish rumors in the past?”
Harlan sidestepped that Sepul had clearly been watching him.
“Because it is bothering her, I could tell during healing class, she can hear everything around her and either they know it or they don’t either way, she was upset.”
“That would explain it, vengeful lovers often pray to her for retribution, she is the mother of banshees afterall. It is best not to dwell on this.”
Today was the last classes for flight and telekinesis, each student had to pass a single test to be finished with them
For flight it was an obstacle course to test their abilities to make fast turns without losing their lunch and reach an endpoint under a time limit.
Harlan barely passed, his stomach could hold itself together, but making 180 degree turns still caused some delay in his movement as he oriented himself.
Telekinesis on the other hand was easy, he needed to be able to stop 50 training discs from striking him sent from a series of gates with his eyes closed.
The clay discs shattered and broke against his wall of force, he was up to 4 arms and able to lift 100 pounds with each.
Then it was a simple test of how much he could lift with just a single arm from 1 foot away, 700 pounds, next closest was 180.
The next closest student had 3 arms and could only lift 100 pounds if he fused 2 of them together.
“I must say Sir Fomoria, you are honestly quite terrifying. I rarely find someone with such promise, much less a human.”
Harlan could feel a little scorn as the man spoke of humans, he kept it locked down tightly, but he couldn’t accept what had happened in the past and Harlan couldn’t blame the man.
“Thank you very much, had I not come here I would’ve believed that I was just never meant for telekinesis.”
“I’ve talked about that to the headmaster, it won’t be told to everyone, but for those who choose to take the class they will be awakened on the spot by a certified professional. Had this been the policy for you almost a year ago when you got your visit I can’t imagine what you could do now.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, what would you say is the best time to visit the confederacy? I’ve wanted to go for a while, but I’ve never had the time, it would still be years before I go anyway.”
“If I encountered you on the road, I would kill you without a second thought, crest or not. Don’t go there unless you are with a full party of ambassadors who can vouch for you, never use your name, probably wear a mask to hide your features. The Fomorians of the north, sorry, not what you call the north, but I mean north of our borders, they are scattered and broken, I don’t know why and I don’t care. We are at war with them, your kingdom is bothered by them. The closer to the kingdom you get the more civil people would be, but in the deeper southern areas you’d be driven away at the border if you let them know who you are, if you didn’t, there would be blood.”
“I won’t be planning a trip any time soon, I’m a little surprised I’ve not heard this before now.”
“Few would tell you that our countries would hate and despise you for what you are, the council members might talk about peace and unity and stopping fear through understanding, but that all fades away when meeting a Fomorian.”
“Thank you for your honesty with me.”
Harlan had to rush somewhat to reach his last class of the day, he thought about what he would be doing with all the free time that being done with two classes would bring him, maybe it was finally time to put transformation magic on the plate again?
Magical creatures had mostly focused on the more mundane of the magical creatures from Harlan’s perspective, they were the things that students might’ve already encountered depending on what they came from.
He came just as the class was starting, he didn’t get the chance to even sit down before he was teleported somewhere else, it was a fairly normal looking forest if you didn’t notice the dark colors of everything, streaks of black on every blade of grass, every leaf, even the flowers grew with black tips.
“Today we have an important guest, she has been alive for 190 years and has never lost a fight, because losing means death. You might not realize it, but she has been a great friend of humanity for a long time.”
“Man of light, you speak of me like what you humans call a hero. I just hate hati more than humans and I don’t want to know what happens when they evolve.”
The Fenrir stepped from the darkness of a tree and yawned before laying down, her massive frame terrified everyone but Harlan.
“Excuse me, have we met before?”
“Ah, man thing chased by false thing, you smell of death, rude man, bones that won’t crunch.”
“You are the second person to tell me that I smell of death, I thought it just meant I am Fomorian, you make it sound like the lich left something on me, but I doubt the Skoll I met would’ve met the lich.”
She cackled so loudly that the students needed to shield their ears.
“PERSON HE SAYS” were her words before returning to laughing.
“Man Thing, you are just like Mother says, your desire to understand, to give others the respect that you wish for, it will kill somebody, and then, you will kill everyone else.”
She was still quietly chuckling under her breath.
The rest of the students looked at him with fear, they all heard the story of him meeting a Fenrir, but seeing one was different.
Harlan’s instinctual sense of fear was broken when he met Aarde, had it not been then he would be afraid of her as well.
Sepul on the other hand was annoyed.
“You will avoid harming the children more than you already have.”
It might’ve sounded like a request, but it wasn’t.
“I hear your words, man of light.”
“Good, now, which of you would like to ask her a question, Harlan, you will be last as you already asked once.”
A boy barely managed to inch forward.
“W-what are your unique powers.”
“Shifting” She opened her mouth seemingly too far for her skull to handle, then she went farther.
Harlan eyeballed it as a 150 angle, he wondered why she would even need to do such a thing.
Then he realized that it she just showed the most mundane form of her power, if she can shift her mouth, what about her legs? Her claws? Could she just generally take a larger form?
The next question was asked.
“How strong are you?”
“Man of light, did you bring simpletons who can only ask boring questions?”
“Answer the girl, now.” She whimpered slightly, very few things she met caused her fear, but she already knew before she came here that he was the top dog as it were.
“I can tear through stonesteel armor and weapons with both my teeth and claws, even those I’ve seen foolish knights call pure. My darkness is as the mother, she does not allow existence when it offends her, thus it returns to her.”
“Who is this mother you’ve talked about?”
“She is darkness, she is void, what you call a god. She has a thousand names and none are true, she guides but does not give.”
There was murmuring between the students, a few different students tried to suss out any other details on her but the Fenrir didn’t understand the questions fully.
She had little concept of the gods of Reino, she knew the mother was a god, but she didn’t know any others though she understood they existed from her meetings with other magical creatures.
As they asked she answered, what she ate, what was this place, did she have a pack.
She was bored but answered as she was required.
“Why did you choose to take part in our class?”
“I was asked by my Mother, and I am getting a favor from you people.”
It was the first Sepul heard of The Darkness asking for her to be here, as far as he knew the Fenrir just wanted help putting down a wyvern that was nearing the black woods.
He distrusted her greatly as a result, the question kept repeating, why? What would The Darkness want her to be here for?
Finally Harlan got his turn, technically a second turn.
“May I look at your soul as you transform.”
She made a wide grin and got up, walking close enough for Harlan to feel her breath.
“Finally, she said you would seek this from me.”
She stood still as her fur writhed like a million leeches.
For the others it was Harlan holding onto her for a minute, Sepul said that since class was done they could be sent back as he wasn’t sure when Harlan would be done but no one wanted to go, they gathered around the now distracted Fenrir and took notes or drew sketches of her, they got used to being afraid of her and went into learning mode.
Anyone who lacked a drive to learn and an iron stomach had already dropped out of the class after Harlan skinned a Swamp Retcher and pierced its stink sacs just to understand how bad it really was.
Harlan saw her soul like thousands of little blocks, streams ran the core to the souls and then back to the core.
Harlan was taken out of focus by her voice.
“Now, watch this.”
Harlan saw the blocks change positions, and with it her body shifted, hands and eyes grew from her fur before turning back into her normal form.
It was insane to see for him and he had no idea how he was going to do such a thing to another creature, first he would need to build a complex set of blocks after mapping out the function of every inch of the soul, they he needed to find out how to make the water of the soul flow as he wanted,, finally he would have to switch around this whole system to make it actually change without the creature breaking.
For what he wanted to do he would need to trick the soul into forming things in different shapes, a rabbit never had antlers so no amount of shifting would make it grow them, but if he took the bones and changed them? Maybe it could work, maybe it couldn’t, the other theory he had was to stabilize a soul and then effectively repeat the process twice by taking the blocks of one and using them on the other.
It would take two creatures every time, it might even be possible for him to take these blocks and the creature survives to fix itself so he didn’t have to kill a creature each time.
But he was far from there, as it was he thought he shouldn’t even think about the final process before he understood the first step.
When she stopped being in a primed state as Harlan thought of it the soul looked completely normal even as she had an extra set of eyes above her normal ones.
He knew that the walls didn’t actually displace the soul in any way, but he didn’t understand how or why. He could do it but it was like when he taught a golem to do something, it reacted to commands but it didn’t understand why.
“Thank you very much, I have a lot of work to do.”
“Don’t thank me, You will understand what it means to feel wrong in one's own skin.”
Harlan really wanted to see a live skinwalker now, was the process the same? Does every creature able to do this do it differently? Does every creature even within the species do it differently?
He needed a larger sample size.