“Please, come in and see your room for your stay here. On that note, how long do you plan to stay?”

“Oh, just a few days. Less if something happens back home that requires my attention.”

“Do you really need to go back? You aren’t even really here.”

Dearil, or rather the very lifelike golem of him, froze for a moment, checking his list of orders and commands to figure out his response.

“How did you figure it out? I thought this one was quite good.”

“It’s nearly winter, but your hands are warm like it was the middle of summer, and your breath isn’t making steam in the air.”

“Ah, good calls, minor errors. I mostly send these out in a more southern environment. Do you take issue with this?”

“No, not really. It just shows how much better at golem making you are. I am sure anyone who didn’t expect this would just shrug their shoulders at your oddities.”

Harlan led him inside and started on his breakfast, though he didn’t set out tableware for him.

He had a sizable meal of a few eggs with onions and a deer steak.

“Well, that is quite some appetite, is that normal for… You.”

“You mean your people, and I don’t know. I’ve never seen another fomorian. But I haven’t eaten in a couple days. I was talking with a god.”

Dearil laughed and then pretended it was just a cough.

“That doesn’t work if you don’t need to breathe. And I know it sounds odd, so I’m not offended.”

“I really must apologize, I just wouldn’t expect anyone in the kingdom to be so… Devout. Do you have a connection to the theocracy? I would expect them to want you dead.”

“I don’t know anyone in the theocracy or their false gods.”

That statement got a raised eyebrow, and let Harlan take in the the fine craftsmanship of the golem, the way its muscles would tighten and loosen, the hair which had slight imperfections, making it look that much closer to a normal human.

“What do you know?”

“You are not the first person to ask me that. What do you know?”

“Anu, Brigid. Do you know those names?”

“Anu is the goddess of earth mana, I don’t know who Brigid is though.”

“Goddess of fire mana. So then you know of them, which were you talking with? I hope it wasn’t… Her.”

“Yes, yes it was. And I wish people would stop treating her like that. She is fine, I haven’t had any problems with her, and she hasn’t lied to me. You people can worship your slaver gods if you want, I will stay out of any cages.”

Dearil was upset, he had lived in the confederacy for decades after he fled. He had personally nearly been killed by fomorians many times and was only still around because Brigid told a tribe where to find him.

“I think it is best that we avoid this topic for the future. I have never spoken to any gods, but I was saved by Brigid. I will not stand to have her insulted once again. And I shall not insult your dark mother again while I am here.”

“Fine, I guess I should get used to being looked at like that at this point. What did you really come here to talk about then?”

“I have a great deal of interest if how you have made your golems able to move and use magic. I bought some of those toys you have been selling and they don’t even have anything inside them, their limbs are simple without much articulation. You may have realized when… well you know. But my golems cannot use magic, and yours don’t seem less intelligent, though they seem to not be able to think beyond whatever you have done to them. They are fascinating, to have such a poorly made thing move as if it was a normal animal.”

Harlan decided to ignore the remark about his toys being poorly made.

“Well, why would I tell you?”

“Because I will give you designs for your golems, both human and fox. I don’t have them written down but they are stored in this mind and I could write them out with ease. And, you don’t know this I assume, but in normal circumstances where the sword of the kingdom isn't hanging over your head, mages often trade knowledge for knowledge. I won’t even charge you for telling you that.” the golem smiled at the end of that, the real Dearil liked that little joke very much.

“What about how you make your golems work? They seem to work well, I still worry a little about if I leave them around they might attack the wrong person.”

“You work with the soul right? But what about the mind? They are 2 piece of the same puzzle. I won’t offer my knowledge of how mine work, because that is the single most valuable piece of information I have. But a little hint is free. Now, why do you plan to leave them around somewhere? I expected body guards and carriers.”

“I’m leaving, and when I do I want to protect my family…”

The fake Dearil was close enough mentally that he would’ve been teary eyed had this body been able to do so. He never really got over what happened to his family, always pushing it back down inside, buried under his rage.

“Tell me, why did you really answer my request? Did you know full well who I was? Or did you remain ignorant of my crimes?”

“I heard only that something happened to your family, Baron Redwall told me that a noble killed your family, but he didn’t say how or why. He asked me what I would’ve done if it happened to my family, and I said he knew exactly what I would’ve done. I don’t hate what you’ve done, though killing children is much too far to me. I won’t judge you because I know exactly what I would’ve done. I don’t want to end up like you, just hurting people who haven’t really wronged me. But I know I would.”

Dearil was fuming mad at this point.

“Of course they wouldn’t tell you what happened, their crimes will always be lessened and ignored. Did you know that by law a noble cannot force a marriage? A pointless law. They will always take what they want and the crown will always defend them for this. My sister refused the hand of a count, then our parents were beaten black and blue, she still refused and tried to tell the baron of the lands. But the baron didn’t want to upset the count. The count framed our family for a crime they did not commit and had them all executed. You would do well to remember this. And being in contact with me is a good idea, if the choice must be made of being allied to the kingdom or your family's safety. Cut the hearts out of anyone in your path, salt their fields and burn their homes, otherwise you will be stepped on and broken until the end of your life.”

There was a crack heard in the room. Dearil’s golem had clinched its hands so hard a finger broke.

“Do we have a deal? Information for information?”

Harlan didn’t take long to answer.

“One change to the deal, you are not to attack the Redwall family, my oldest sister and my niece and nephew are part of them.”

“Deal, no more wolves will prowl their lands.”

Harlan spent a few hours explaining his entire process of soul enchanting, even telling him how to make a true living item.

“Oh what wonderful things I shall make with this. I will tell you now, there will come a day in which this kingdom will burn. When that time comes I will ask you to join us. And I do hope you will. I shall draw out all the designs I have thought of for your golems, and then help with constructing them while I am here. Then I shall take my leave.”

And so they worked. Dearil explained what the pieces would do and why they needed to be in the golem.

Harlan showing examples of core creation.

“With what you can do, make far more unorthodox golems, why not just take these cores and place them in trees? You would get defenses that blend perfectly into the environment. It would be cheaper than your others, they could be a visible guard, whereas trees would be the real guards?”

“That is… the best idea I’ve ever heard. I will need to tell my parents which trees are which, but it should work just fine. False mimics. Each one would only really be able to use spells, moving an already grown tree would be insanely mana inefficient. But I wanted my golems as ambushers anyway. If I connected them with wires I could have them as an oversoul, spreading their information and letting them pool their mana together.”

“Yes, an oversoul. I wish to make flocks of birds connect with one another. Unfortunately I am not the best mage, though I do know some powerful ones who could put spells into my cores. I will also need to rearrange some internals to fit larger cores.”

Harlan would’ve tried to dissuade him had he known what ideas were going through his head.

Meanwhile Dahlia was looking at the two of them, she couldn’t confirm who the older man was. Her sources said he walked from somewhere in the confederation but he seemed to have just popped out of thin air as far as they could tell her.

Harlan had placed dampening spells whenever they spoke about anything sensitive, he didn’t forget that she was likely still watching him.

She could only report that an unknown man was working with Harlan on golems.