Night eventually gave way to morning, Balor and Harlan talked more about his establishment of a proper shop and a small village that people could stop for a night for, though permanent residents wouldn’t be allowed other than the guards. Meanwhile Harlan was also teaching his brothers about telekinesis, without already having the sense of mind he did it took hours, and they still had weak and clumsy hands, but they had the basic idea down.

Harlan also realized that his little instinctive reaction to make that barrier the night before was probably impressive, since now he couldn’t do it at all. His barriers would fall apart with little force against them and he could barely lift a 5 pound weight. He wondered how anyone could use it for everything all day, that perhaps there was a secret in the pacts held by the beastkin who didn’t have hands making it more efficient.

“Balor, how much of the creek do you think is done right now?”

“I am unsure. If I am right, maybe they’ve finished half of it? I wouldn’t expect the pond to be done just yet. Opening a hole in the ground or pulling someone who is already weighing it down by softening the ground is one thing, but we need to compress hundreds of feet of dirt into soft stone, making sure it isn’t overly deep and that it remains level enough for water to flow to the pond and then back into the river when the pond is full. We should probably look at it actually, golems follow orders, but they don’t exactly think.”

“I need to eat, telekinesis is hard.”

So the group went up the stairs, it was barely light out yet, Isha and Sara were baking bread still, so he simply grabbed a few apples to eat while he checked on the creek.

After a few minutes of walking he saw the golems, their movements were sluggish but they hadn’t shut down, unfortunately there were some which had drained themselves past the point where they couldn’t move. But they did get almost all the way to his walls, he commanded the ones who were still able to move to go back inside and recharge, while he dragged the few that passed out back inside the walls and lined them up.

“Balor, could you get the golems to recharge by draining animals?”

“Perhaps, but I am worried about causing something horrible should they either try to fill themselves past a breaking point or they are unable to turn it off. And I do not want to give such an ability away. Passive recharging will be good enough.”

“Alright.” Harlan ate his apples and went along the creek bed all the way to the river, smoothing out little bumps here and there, but the foxes did their job well enough. The real test would be once it had water flowing to it.

Harlan went back inside, finding breakfast was ready for him.

Sara was giving some communicative glaces towards Isha but he wasn’t going to force whatever her issue was. Once he was done with breakfast grabbed Lugh. He wanted to take Balor into town and visit that other village before they went to the farm.

First was the couriers, they already knew of Balor, but only as a ring, he didn’t want any difficulty when Harlan left and he walked in with his golem body.

Nothing much happened, it was little more than trading notes and introductions. Harlan also realized he didn’t really do anything with the skinwalker notes he got before. He apologized about this but it was waved away, false undead would live for much longer than normal humans, they knew it was somewhat unfair to try and get a normal person to spend their life working on such a thing. They could always take his notes after he passed away from old age.

Next was getting Balor his own clothes, just because he was in a golem body didn’t mean he didn’t mean he didn’t want to look nice. After some back and forth with the tailor he decided that a half cape to display the crest on front and back would be good enough. He wanted people to know exactly what he was, and displaying himself was the best way to do so.

Finally they went to brig, to get parts made for a much better golem body, Balor was made of wood with a metal skeleton, his new body would be almost completely mid grade skysteel to give some strength without making it overly heavy and by extension costly to move around. He also got a sword commissioned, unlike Lugh it was a thin blade more for stabbing and slashing rather than hacking things to pieces. Another compromise for having a body that costs far more to move than a human body.

Harlan thought about taking him to meet Sherry. But if he was going to be working more or less exclusively with that other village he didn’t really need to do that.

The only other thing he thought to do before leaving was getting food he could eat on the way, he wanted to test telekinesis, and it was still a very tiring experience to him.

Harlan hadn’t burned as much daylight as he thought he might.

On the way to the village of Tole he was reading over his book on telekinesis with Balor next to him.

There were warnings that this magic was best done with a clear and calm mind, as emotions lead to a chaotic and unsound structure.

But Harlan couldn’t do anything close to what he could the evening before. It was all gassy and unstable, not a clear hard barrier. He turned his emotions down as far as he felt comfortable with but it didn’t change anything. There was something he didn’t want to do, but at the same time he really wanted to test.

“Balor, if I start freaking out, try to calm me down.”

Balor slapped him immediately.

“What was that for?”

“If I tried to explain myself you would’ve already done whatever very bad idea you were going to do. At least until you leave, why not stop any damaging experiments?”

“It wouldn’t have been that bad.”

“I am not going to pretend you don’t need to be often reminded of how many risks you take in your tests? I’ve had to put you back together, don’t force me to do that again. At least talk these things out before you do them.”

“Fine. I was going to turn up my emotional state and see if it makes my telekinesis better, now can I?”

“There is not even the slightest chance that I would say yes to that. You are a fire always ready to flare, I will not let you burn yourself up on a possibility that it will help you learn magic more quickly.”

“Alright. I won’t do it.”

“Harlan.” Balor couldn’t properly leer without facial expressions, but Harlan understood him anyway.

They went back to reading the book, Harlan was trying to eat without using his hands, his hunger driving his emotions seemed to be working.

Balor on the other hand seemed like a natural at telekinesis, he was dropping things every now and then, but he had a much firmer grip on things, Harlan was again wondering if not having actual hands somehow made people better at it.

They arrived at the village of Tole finally, it reminded Harlan much more of how Luth was when he was a child. There were walls, but they weren’t large enough to even stand on, the houses were mostly cabins, with the more important buildings only having stone faces.

“We will be speaking with the mayor. Don’t call him the village chief, he doesn’t like that. In the room will also be the local heads of the guard and the adventurers guild. You are here to give me authority but you aren’t really needed in the conversation other than giving me approval to do this. And… Well I think it would be best if you avoided answering too many questions.”

“Alright, this is your show.”

The few people still around were shopkeepers or travelers, the town was dead for much of the day, it had no special trade, the shops were more general stores selling hunting supplies like tents and knives, street vendors peddled various meats and vegetables on sticks. Harlan picked up a few with chicken.

“Are you sure this place even has the money to do what you want?”

“They have fallen on hard times, the road splits, one path leads to Luth and the other here. With Luth having grown larger, Tole has lost many of its craftsmen to it. I hope I can revitalize the village. It is a long term investment.”

Harlan didn’t have a retort. Even if this cost him 1,000 gold coins he wouldn’t be broke. Though he would be a little upset.

They made their way to the mayor’s home and office where he greeted them once he heard they had arrived and sent runners to fetch the others. Balor knew he should’ve sent a message ahead of time, but he wanted to try and make a powermove, forcing them to come running when called instead of the other way around. His biggest worry was being fleeced and losing Harlan’s gold, their chats only made Balor think more about if he was being too soft, or if Harlan was too harsh.

They didn’t speak beyond being offered tea, which Harlan accepted.

It didn’t take long for the others to arrive, it wasn’t a very large village.

The first thing that Harlan noticed was the guild leader seemed better dressed than the mayor did.

“If you would excuse my rudeness. I would like to verify that you are who you say you are. Show me your signet ring so I can check it against my records.”

Balor reached into his head and pulled himself from the body then floated in front of the mayor. He could’ve easily exited without any flare but decided against it.

“I trust that I am proof enough.”

“Uh. Yes, I believe that is good enough.”

Harlan was waiting for anything to happen.

They launched right into boring talks of money and expectations from each side, requirements of who will be where. Harlan only chiming in to threaten them should anything happen to his house staff while he was away. He did exactly what Balor wanted, he was just an odd presence, someone who didn’t mind investing but was uninterested in them, they took it as Harlan thinking himself above them, which was technically right, he was the only noble here. Tole got his authority from Redwall allowing him to establish a village through official channels.

Harlan couldn’t wait for it to be over, there wasn’t any double talk or threats except his. Balor handled it as a gentleman, reminding him of Garad as he juggled around tax codes.

They left for the farm finally.

“That was the most boring thing I have ever sat through.”

“Good. Not everything ends with threats of bloodshed, there isn’t always a bomb ready to go off. This is what life is, the quiet boring things between all the messes.”

“I guess when you put it like that.”

They arrived at the farm to find that tables and chairs were set up outside and sheep and pigs were being roasted over open fires. Many other pots held vegetables and stew.

Aida and Harlow were helping to finish up the work for the day, picking vegetables, making sure all the animals were accounted for, taking stock, etc.

Harlan made his way to Kass who was bringing out barrels of drinks which normally took two men.

“Ah. LIttle one, I heard you were going to ask me for work, right?”

“Yep.”

“I expect a house with things like I heard you have. Bathtubs are impractical for me.”

“Of course. I should actually upgrade everything here to be more like my place. But that might just be something to do next summer.”

“I will work for your little farm then. I already have another person who can be your parents right hand man.”

“That was easy.”

“I’ve had a few days to think about it, and a lot longer to think about you.”

“I hope it doesn’t end with you deciding to kill me in my sleep.”

Kass gave him a pat on the back.

“I already know you don’t sleep.” They both laughed, a death threat between friends made for good comedy.

The day wound down, the food was ready, Autumn showed up with Jaramis, It was a party.

Harlan and Amber sat at the head of their table as guests of honor, mostly a joke on their parents part.

“So, Harlan. What classes did you pick? I hope you got your letter before summer started.”

“Oh yeah, someone came by to talk to me about what I wanted to do. I picked warmagic, because I have so many things linked up. They have big mana pools to draw on. healing, because I don’t want to just be killing. Spell crafting since when I can’t make golems do anything without spells, and making them more efficient or just better is a good idea. And then advanced elements, because I want to know what all is out there, and how it mixes to make new things.”

“Oh, good. I didn’t want to hear that you took a bunch of weird classes. Who even takes fae law anyway?”

“They still teach it, so enough people do.”

Everyone started eating after the last of the workers were seated, there was no speeches, just food and drink to go around.

Harlan made small talk as he could. Being mindful of what he said, there were far too many spies all around the farm.

Balor spoke of his dealings with Tole and his hopes that he could expand his work beyond Harlan doing items sent by people they already knew.

Nothing was happening, it was just people doing things. Workers would come over to shake Harlan’s hand and wish him good luck, the guy who was supposed to help tend to the orchard came to speak with him, no red flags were being set off by him but Harlan made sure to warn him away from causing trouble with the others.

Redmond had been drinking and tried to arm wrestle Kass, shockingly only losing after a protracted battle and a broken table.

Autumn held the children and showed them the animals, Lugh tagged along, he didn’t get to see farm animals much, less so to see them still alive.

Amber showed off her work as a warmage/illusionist by setting off large fireballs in the sky that split off into dazzling trails but caused no real damage.

Harlan decided to slip away from the party, hopped over the wall, and checked the trees around his parents farm.

He thought back to the judge, mentioning that there were no recorded attacks on the farm, so he wanted to check for signs of bodies.

It didn’t take long to find them, he shifted the dirt and found many shallow graves, goblins, wargs, people. Most were wrapped in roots, something which slightly worried Harlan, since the bodies shouldn’t be so heavily decomposed yet. But the trees were still just trees, they hadn’t taken on any weird traits like blood red leaves or red sap. Their psudominds were still the same as he remembered them being.

He approached one of the invisible spies that were following him and asked if Dahlia was available, causing that one to get close to another, he figured they either had some spell to speak without breaking their other concealing spells or they just used soulspeak.

Eventually out from the woods she came.

“How did you know they were there?”

“I’m me.”

“If you have found a method to see past our stealth then you should share it with us. It can only make your family safer.”

“Can’t be taught. Already tried with Lugh and Balor.”

“Well, that is a shame. Why did you want to talk?”

“What happened with the Brightblade mess?”

“The house is still around, though they are no longer a count. The heir will be the 4th son, 15 years old. Most of the house was purged. There is no one for you to take in, as they have been used as bargaining chips to get the house back on its feet, either because of marriages or having already been taught some of the family trade. But I wouldn’t expect it to survive another two generations before it is completely folded into another house.”

“Is there anyone I need to worry about?”

“There are a few of them we believe might harbor some ill intent. But unless they outright state such plans we have no reason to deal with them. Maybe they shall grow out of it, maybe they will keep that resentment and do great things. Or very stupid things, at which point they are for us to worry about. One of them will be at the academy, same year as you. But he is marked as a low level threat and no longer holds the Brightblade name.”

“Anything else I might want to know?”

“No, but what can you tell me about this field of bones?”

“If you have been watching the area around my family you should already know.”

“This is true.”

She stepped behind a tree and was gone.

Harlan made his way back to the party to find Balor had added dancing instructions to two of the golems, not something he could make up on the spot.

“Where did you run off to?” Harlow asked as he got near.

“Just looking in the woods.”

“Should I worry? And do I want to know?”

“No to both. You guys are going to be ok. I think I believe it now.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Harlan tried dancing with others, but he never learned anything but the most basic stuff a noble was supposed to, instead it was more like a teaching session with his sisters tossing him around and telling him where to step. It was chaotic and lively, he liked watching his shadow, drawn strongly by the firelight on a moonless night.

Eventually everyone started to wind down, the farm hands were surely going to have a bad headache tomorrow. Redmond was passed out in his chair next to Kass, clearly a drinking challenge happened when he wasn’t looking.

He went back home without any guests, but he didn’t mind. He made his new memories, his was soothed.

No experiments happened over his last few days of free time. Instead he simply worked on the new houses, an extra large one for Kass and a normal sized one for the other guy, whose name slipped his mind again and again.

Isha had a few possible suitors but they were scared away when Harlan asked to meet them, he felt a little bad about it. But Isha considered it a sign that they weren’t meant to be.

The night of his last day he danced with her, trying to learn the movements, Sara was actually quite good on a lute.

He ventured into town every day to see if Gilly was back, getting weird looks from everyone who thought he had a crush on her.

His gold was dropped off without issue, Harlan just walked them down to the vault where they placed boxes of gold carried by specialized mule-like golems, they didn’t have heads which gave Harlan all kinds of ideas. He only made golems in the shapes of other things, but he realized he didn’t need to do that at all. His weren’t exactly stealthy as it was.

Then he went back to the farm to give his final goodbyes. Hugs and tears and talks about being responsible.

He gave Amber the abomination rug, she loved it, but wished he had a better name for it. He also left a crate with heating plates in it, not forgetting about Redmond who quickly pulled one out and looked it over before burning himself.

The trip was nice, but it was hours and hours of just roads, only broken up by towns which got larger and things got more expensive as they neared the border of the academy neutral zone. There was only one minor hitch, while staying in the last town before the border for the night, someone tried to feel up Amber, Harlan may have reacted by shattering his hand. Though gold changing hands and him showing he was a noble was enough to keep the local guard from bothering him about it again.

Then there was nothing, they went an hour without seeing anything at all but trees and plants. Which Lugh challenged himself to name, knowing less and less of them as they got closer.

It was another hour of travel before Amber pointed out barren strips of land that marked the border, unlike most countries the academy neutral zone had a perfectly circular border. Each ring they crossed Harlan felt something weighing on his mind more strongly.

“You are going to love this. We are close to the academy now. They didn’t get into it, something about being in the exact center of the continent. But the mana concentration is higher closer to it, makes you feel lighter, stronger, and you recover faster.”

“Is that what that feeling is?” To Harlan it was a constant buzzing in his head, like his sixth sense was going haywire.

“You can feel it already? Well whatever, you’ll really know it once we get closer, it will just wash over you all in an instant. I don’t think you are really here until you feel it.”

He could tell she was really into it, but he couldn’t get a bad feeling out of his head.

Finally they crossed a line of barren land, which Amber said was the part where it should start.

Harlan immediately broke into a cold sweet. His senses were out of control, like thousands of minds were all around him, getting denser as they got closer. He tried to hide his distress, but even with what he thought was his mind sense being completely off it was still there, but much much weaker. He could handle that feeling.

“Harlan? Are you alright?” Lugh was the first to notice his odd behavior.

“Just getting used to it.” They drew close to the gate in time, carriages sat in the large area contained with a second gate, they were technically early, most would be arriving in the evening.

As he stepped outside of the carriage Harlan was consumed by that feeling, he stumbled and his vision went black for a moment. Then the feeling was gone.

“Harlan, do you want to see a doctor?”

“No.” He made a fist and let go a few times, he didn’t feel weird anymore, but he did feel lighter and stronger like Amber mentioned. He would need to ask if it was just an odd reaction people get sometimes.

Without that feeling holding onto him he could look at the academy with a clear mind, it was massive, made of white brick with golden accents, clearly it had been built quite a long time ago and added on over time. The higher it got it was less blocky and function driven, giving way to shaped mirrors and stained glass windows invoking some event Harlan didn’t understand.

There was clearly magic in the art, starting with a solid black line that seemed to almost seep into the brickwork below it, flames sat atop the black glass in a brilliant display of red flames crashing against blue waves, forests of green burned as lightning bolts sent upon the trees, the only thing above the dark tempest was a solid line of bright white glass, unlike the darkness it simply held the line, not affecting anything higher than itself.

“Admiring the glasswork?” A woman asked him.

She was barely bigger than he was, bright white hair showing a clear single light alignment, he would’ve thought her a student if she didn’t have faint traces of her age, crows feet and tired eyes, hands calloused from much time spent working.

“Yes, is it sho-“

“Admire it from a few feet to the side, some people are moving their things.”

As soon they stepped to the side the woman walked inside, her strides seemed to take her farther than what seemed possible. He thought of Ebon, moving with the grace of a noble woman but the speed of a hawk.

“Right. Amber, do you know where I should be going?”

“If you don’t know your room number I can’t help you. Just wait for someone. I’m going to take my things to my room though. I’ll be back out here after that. If you aren’t here we can meet up at the assembly.”

“Sounds good.”

Harlan figured he should find someone else to talk with while waiting, he scanned the area, zeroing in on a group of tattooed individuals that showed up on his mind sense stronger than anyone he had met so far, well beyond his 15 foot fuzzy zone.