Harlan was inside talking with Zella in her room.

“Rosewell told me through Dahlia that Relly is getting out sometime soon but she wouldn’t tell me when.”

“Ugh, I need to be a noble. I tried for months to get anything and you send a letter and get a reply in a day.“

“That is how things are here. I’ve heard that nobles in some parts of the kingdom really abuse their power. But what is someone without nobility or a title supposed to even do?”

“I should go join the army after the academy. I’m sure I can be a noble if I try hard enough. Kill enough people.”

“Well, if you do, I’ll outfit you for free. I have more money than I can spend quickly and I hate most people. I don’t want to lose you because I was cheap.”

Zella was glad to hear it. But before she could reply there was a knock on the door.

“Master Harlan. Sen wishes to speak with you.”

“I’ll be out in just a second. Sorry Zella, you looked like you were going to say something?”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.”

Harlan stepped out and then led Sen to his office.

“The Matriarch wishes to smooth things over. She is sorry for her conduct and wants to know if there is anything she can do for you.”

It didn’t take long for Harlan to figure out something he wanted. He didn’t really hold too much of a grudge. He barely knew her but he kinda liked Ibery. He didn’t want to come off as greedy either.

“You guys have rice, correct?”

“Yes. how many pounds would you like?”

“I want seeds. Or partly grown plants. I want to set up my own farm, most of my land is unused beyond these walls and I don’t know of anything better to do with it. Oh, I would also need some tips on how to grow and process it.”

“A slightly odd request, but I can appreciate you not asking for a pile of gold. Where did you hear about rice from? The Ibexian who works for your parents?”

“No. My maid Isha is from Reino. She mentioned it to me before and I want to try it.”

Sen was slightly uncomfortable when Harlan said Reino, but he had never seen Isha give him any strange looks.

“We wish to stay for another day at least before we leave. We will have manuals and seeds sent here through the couriers. If that is acceptable.”

“Sounds good to me. By the way, what is the cost of a gate?”

“We paid 100 gold coins for each gate, for a total of 300 to get here. Would you like us to have your seeds and manuals sent by gate instead?”

Harlan could’ve paid. He had a few thousand in his vault. But he didn’t like spending money without what he thought was a very good reason. He needed mana gems and sleeping potions for his work, he needed metals in all sorts of shapes, so these were things he didn’t mind buying. But he only had 7 sets of clothes. When he did his work that he knew would be bloody he always wore the same set. So it was really 6 sets of good clothes and then the work set.

“No, I think it should be fine for me to just have them delivered by courier. I don’t want to force you, this isn’t part of whatever informal agreement you are doing. But why are gates so expensive? I’ve seen quite a few people use them.”

If Harlan was as good at reading people as he thought he was, Sen had the look of someone who knew the answer but really wasn’t sure about saying the answer, then realizing that yes he might as well just explain it.

“There are far too many factors to this, but I will run through some of why it is uncommon. And I will leave out much of the political parts. I know you don’t care for such things.”

“Because you have a file on me that you read? Or because you’ve been here for a week?”

“It all boils down to there being a lot of restrictions and problems with gates and so they are only used for showboating or emergencies. If gate was a cure all to movement around the world every war would just be one side opening a gate and group casting ridiculously powerful spells through it to level cities. Regna and our country also keeps close tabs on anyone who knows how to cast a gate and this puts those people under a great deal of scrutiny which deters some from learning the spell in the first place. And we don’t even want to get into what happens if an array is set up specifically to kill gate mages.”

“What does happen?“ Sen wasn’t happy with the question.

“Everyone dies. An area of some size is completely wiped clean of all life. The area becomes a vacuum that sucks up everything in whatever sized area this happens to, then this all explodes. Almost everywhere has wards set up to stop any gate from forming to stop this exact situation. I think I have said enough on this though.”

“Well. That was more than I thought it was going to be.”

“I once asked my mother the same question and she sent me to a 3 hour long speech at the academy called gate magic and its disasters.”

“I am sorry that that happened.”

“At least I took a gate there and back.”

Harlan was conflicted on if he should laugh or not.

But the laughter won out, Sen laughed too.

“Alright. One more question.”

“It isn’t going to be as big as the last one, is it?”

“What is the difference between a ward and an array? They seem pretty close to each other, I have wards that stop teleporting unless I want them to, but you said and array can kill a gate mage.”

“Wards stop things from happening. Arrays cause things to happen. It is a bit of an odd distinction and you are going to find fringe cases where something could be one or the other at the discretion of whoever first made and categorized the spell. A silencing ward stops others from listening in, a silencing array stops any sound from being made at all.”

“Well, thank you a lot for the talk. I apologize to your mother. I shouldn’t have snapped at her like that. And you have a friend up here, I hope you accept that from me.”

“I hope she warms up to you. But you know why she might have issues with that.”

They bowed to each other and walked out of the office, Sen went back outside to his mother and Harlan decided to finally apologize to Isha.

Harlan found her hanging out laundry and walked up to her.

“Hey.” she flinched back a moment.

“My apologies Master Fomoria. I didn’t hear you coming.”

“I should get a bell then.” Harlan could tell that she wanted to laugh but wasn’t comfortable since they were out in the open and others could be watching.

“You are allowed to laugh. You don’t need to be stiff just because others might be watching or listening. They can take a swim in the outhouse for all I care. I am your master and you are my servant, but I don’t need to treat you like a golem. It isn’t like I am trying to seduce you.”

“Yes. I think I can accept that. Did you need anything? Or did you come here just to scare me?”

He bowed to her as he spoke.

“Sorry for burning you. I should’ve had better control of myself.”

“Ah. Right.” Harlan was… not upset, but unhappy. That little look in her eyes, the little change in her tone, she blamed him but didn’t want to say it. He hated that look, the unspoken judgment.

“There is no problem. Your uncle healed me as soon as he saw that you weren’t in any danger and had passed out due to simple fatigue.”

“Yeah. I am glad then. Oh, and I got us rice. They will be sending seeds from the confederacy along with some manuals for growing it. It should be here before I leave for the academy so I can set up the farm and divert the stream near here for irrigation.”

“I hope it is as good as I remember.”

Harlan walked away with a little wave.

He wanted to get that look out of his head. He decided to butcher that rabbit to blow off steam.

And to that end he found Redmond. He found him at the firing range teaching Ava.

The range was like a pond filled with a deep fog, only occasionally broken up by a flash of light here or there.

After there wasn’t any flashes of light for some time Ava came flying out of the range and gracefully landed on her backside.

“Good landing. You didn’t break anything. Probably.”

“I really thought I had him that time.” Redmond dispersed the fog and stepped out.

“Ava. you have been learning to fight, and you’ve learned well. Way faster than I did. But you aren’t about a decade too early to fight me, I’ve been out in the fringes of what can be called human lands for years. You’ve been fighting noble brats and goblins. No offense Harlan.”

“Why would I be offended?”

“I do apologize for any crude remarks. Master Fomoria.” Redmond then poked Harlan in the side with his finger, getting a laugh from him.

“Ava. You fought him before?‘

“Of cour- Wait… No, I guess we never did really fight. We trained and I showed him forms but that doesn’t really count.”

“Harlan, you wanna play a game?”

“This is going to be horrible. Of course I do.”

“Alright, both of you go into the fog, no weapons, no offensive spells. Goal is to pin your opponent to the ground, doesn’t matter how long you do it for. Just that they’re face down in the dirt. One will be the aggressor and the other the defender. Switch every round. That sound fun? Trains hand to hand, grappling, and sixth sense. You are both going to be effectively blind in there.”

Without a word Ava and decided to walk into the range. Ava was the aggressor first.

Harlan was completely blind, relying on instinct and sound to defend himself.

He heard a wet stomp behind him and reached for her, only to catch nothing while she pushed him face first into the mud from behind. Harlan realized the part that wasn’t said, this was training for trick magics.

Round two started.

Harlan put out small soundwaves that people couldn’t hear normally. But with another spell he could. Using echo location and sound canceling he snuck up behind her, pulling at her legs.

Only to have his own legs pulled out from under him. Another face full of mud.

He was starting to wonder how long her and Redmond had been playing this game of theirs.

He started the next match with a show of force. He hardened the ground under him for better footing and tracked her by feeling the shifting of the mist with his own air magic. As soon as he was absolutely sure it was her this time he launched himself like an arrow.

Once he had a grip on her it was over. She was strong, she was older than him. But she couldn’t overcome the simplest thing, overwhelming force from someone who was barely human.

At least that was the plan.

Harlan couldn’t get her to budge with the first move and she out grappled him and forced him to the ground.

Redmond cleared the fog. Harlan was sure that Lydia was going to be upset at his mud stained clothes.

“Win goes to Ava. What did both of you learn?”

Ava started.

“If I didn’t know the ones you taught me he would kill me in an ambush. And I shouldn’t be so confident in my ability to hide because there is too many spells for detection.”

“Harlan, what did you learn?”

“I shouldn’t rely so much on the spells I have to find people, if I used 2 different ones together I would’ve seen her coming instead of being tricked. And Ava got fat over the week.“

Ava hit him with an orb of mud which he didn’t try to dodge. He knew he had it coming.

“Good enough. Both of you see where you can get better and that is the most important part. I already told Ava this story, but I’ll tell you too. Now this is going to sound silly, but it really happened. There was a mage who was really really good at throwing normal fireballs. He could basically cast 3 peoples worth of fireballs in rapid succession. It was literally the only spell he would ever use. But then he was put down by a guy who could reflect energy based spells really well. But then that guy was killed by a guy who was really good at throwing rocks. A diverse set of spells is worth more than that one really good trick. adapt, overcome, survive.”

Redmond felt pretty good about the speech. He thought throwing in the rangers motto at the end really sealed the deal.

“That was a nice speech. Can you help me with that rabbit now? That is what I came here for in the first place.”

“Sure. let’s go. Ava, you are helping too.”

“Why do I need to?”

“You need to learn how to process small game. And you guys can talk about the spells you used during the match while you butcher. I’ll make a ranger out of both of you yet.”

“He really isn’t small game any more.” Harlan had asked Ava to feed the rabbit while he was working since he was spending nearly every waking hour either resting or in the soul surgery.

He couldn’t trust that Isha wouldn’t be mauled by the beast and it was growing at a steady pace still.

“How big is he? I haven’t been back to the lab yet.”

“I think you should have him stuffed or turned into a throw rug when we are done. Or maybe just mount the head. The antlers are pretty big now.”

Harlan was confused and worried. How did it get antlers? He mumbled on the way down to the bunker.