Harlan returned as breakfast was being served, he wanted to write a letter quickly as he ate but his mother wouldn’t hear it..

“No work at the table, you’ll get ink in your eggs.”

“It is important.”

“It can wait another 5 minutes for you to finish.”

“So, I heard you went out last night, walk in the woods?”

“Helped a Skoll, he lost his pack to a Hati and I healed him, then we went back and killed the Hati.”

Harlow nearly had his cup of water pressed to his mouth, he kept still like that for a few seconds as he processed what Harlan told him.

“You make it very hard to be your father.”

“Sorry.”

“No no no, it is fine. I just don’t know what I can do for you. You’ve been stronger than me since you were 9, you’re off in the woods helping hunt things that I would just have to call the guards for; When I was your age my biggest worry was getting your mother’s attention. You’re friends with the children of a duke, you’ve got a spy who loves you and that is still giving my mind a spin to understand, you’ve made things that stopped the forever war.”

“You are here, that is all you need to do. I can come back and the farm is still the farm, I’m not Harlan Fomoria when I am sitting here eating breakfast, I am just Harlan.”

Aida hugged him from behind.

“You are always just Harlan, don’t let a name make you think you are any different.”

Harlan heard the clopping of hooves before they reached the gate, someone was here, Autumn shouldn’t be here until dinner time.

“Do you think it is sister Ava?”

“Hmm, 4 horses, not golems, it isn’t one of mine at least.”

“I’m going to go see who is here.”

“Oh? I didn’t hear anything.”

Moments later a guard burst inside.

“Ah, um, Sir Fomoria, a carriage from Countess Blackstone is here.”

It took everything he had to not sneer.

Harlan stepped outside, he was still dressed for work, his robe was laying in his room.

“Good morning, to what do I owe the pleasure of greeting you today?”

Sable was standing at the gate with Onyx behind her.

“I was sent to speak with your brother, then I overheard you had returned, I thought it would be rude if I didn’t at least pay a visit to you.”

“Please, come inside then.”

Harlan didn’t trust a word of it, he could believe she was supposed to talk to Balor, but he and her hadn’t left on the best of terms, he could see quite clearly that Onyx wasn’t happy to be there.

Harlow and Aida bowed as they were taught to when the two of them came in.

Harlan put up veils to stop anyone outside from listening in.

“So, what are you actually here for?”

“A social visit, I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you before.”

Harlan tapped his fingers on the table.

“Really?”

“Sir Fomoria, do mind that you are speaking with my sister, daughter of the countess.”

“Onyx, It is fine.”

“Then I am sorry, I just didn’t expect to see you. I didn’t think you cared for me much after what I did.”

“Jet had it coming, if the situation was reversed and you treated me like Jet did to Amber, Onyx would’ve put you in your place far more harshly than you did to him. I also wanted to show you this.”

She pulled a dagger from its sheath and handed it to Harlan, her fingers held to the tip.

Harlan inspected the work, it wasn’t ornate, just a simple iron dagger, but he could tell she had gotten a spell into it.

“Good work, I am glad you were able to learn what I failed to teach you.”

“The fault was mine, after I was… Humbled by a failure, I listened to what you told me before, I was too brash to make it work. But moving on from that, what have you been doing since you returned? Is this also just a social visit?”

“I am just taking a break, my group finished the first year survival camp early so I had free time.”

“You don’t just finish that camp early, you either fail or you pass, either way you are there for the whole week.”

“When the lich shows up and almost kills you, they let you leave early.”

Onyx was shocked, his own encounter with him was in the 4th year survival camp and all he did was tell him some riddles that ended up teaching him a few useful spells, he had heard that the lich was odd but rarely dangerous.

“What did you learn from him then?”

“That I am weak and I will be seeing him again.”

“Could you show me?”

“No.”

“What about me? What is the lich?”

“No to you especially. I don’t think your mother would be happy with me if I showed it to you.”

Onyx and Harlan were deadlocked, he didn’t believe that Harlan didn’t learn anything useful, his mother was absolutely sure that Harlan would end up as somebody special, and special people learned special things from the lich.

“Really? You learned nothing from him? Surely there must be something, perhaps if I saw what you saw I might have more insight into it.”

“What do I get in exchange? I’ve been told that a mage never gives up their secrets for nothing.”

“I could talk to my mother about what to give you when we get back.”

“So I trade for the hope that your mother might give me something of equal worth? No, I don’t think I will take that deal.”

Onyx kept badgering him about it, offering training lessons in swordsmanship and minor magical tricks that weren’t actually very useful, they were dueling magic as he called them, designed to harm and not kill.

Harlan kept refusing and Onyx didn’t actually want to give him anything useful, while he mother saw Harlan as someone who would be someone, Onyx saw him as someone who would be a danger.

He knew the eyes Harlan had for Jet when they stepped into the ring, he would’ve been more trusting had Harlan actually beaten him black and blue, but showing enough restraint to look good publicly wasn’t something an emotional 14 year old did, he never did at least.

“Fine, let’s move backwards, I’ll take whatever your mother wants to give me, but you can’t complain about what I show you.”

“Deal.”

Harlan showed him everything, but more than that, Onyx felt everything, it wasn’t like he was seeing from Harlan’s eyes, it was as if he was there.

He felt his shoulder shatter against the shield, he felt the cold in the tunnels, he felt Harlan’s dread as he steeled himself for a suicide mission, he felt every thrust from the spear that slipped past his defences, every cut, every severed bit of him.

In the few minutes it took for Harlan to show him what he lived through for an hour, Onyx showed very clear signs of distress.

He was sweating and panting by the time he was done.

“There, you have your insight. I don’t mind if whatever she gives me takes a while, I don’t know when I will be back next.”

“You are a petty little shit.”

Aida and Harlow were afraid that whatever Harlan did was going to blow back at him.

“But, I heard what he said to you, maybe you aren’t just another killer. Sable, would you like to stay a little longer? Go on a walk with her perhaps?”

“Onyx, you look unwell, are you sure you want to be walking?”

“No, just go with Harlan, I’m sure you will be fine.”

Sable wasn’t sure how to take his sudden shift, Onyx had told her to be wary, her mother had told her to get close, but not too close.

“Very well then. Harlan, would you like to show me around your lands?”

“They are my parents' lands, but I would be delighted.”

He smiled, but his eyes were still dead, nobody so far had the heart to tell him how little they were really fooled.

He started by showing what was in the walls, he dried up the lands to make sure she stayed clean, then they went outside the walls, little swipes of his hand moved uneven ground aside, Sable hadn’t planned on a walk and her shoes showed that.

“What did he see that changed his mind?”

“I am done dwelling on it, I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“My apologies for my brother. I think he is just upset that Jet is starting to act like he should now despite Onyx trying for years to stop him.”

She started saying something else about spells she had been putting in different items but Harlan was too busy looking at the shadows that kept moving around him.

He half expected the Skoll to come out of nowhere, but it was just cardinals flying too and fro.

“What are you looking for?”

“Death.”

Harlan started paying attention to her, she didn’t say anything important, but he was happy that she seemed happy to have found out how to put spells in soulsmithed items.

“This is nice.”

“Huh? Well, yes, I suppose it is nice.”

Harlan taught her proper form to skip rocks down the creek, he caught a newt, which she very much did not like.

He remembered when he and Ava used to come to that same creek, a slight spark lit up his eyes again.

After another 10 minutes of playing, Onyx came to get her.

“Farewell Lady Sable, I hope to see you again.”

“Of course, and farewell to you too, Sir Fomoria.”

As they made the long ride back to their home Onyx and Sable spoke to one another.

“So, what did you learn? Why did you send me to walk with him? He didn’t want to talk about it.”

“I believed his love only extended to his family, now I believe that he simply doesn’t fear death like a normal man should.”

“Well what does that even mean?”

“When you are older, I’ll tell you, until then, why don’t you stay a little bratty, don’t be like him.”

She kicked her legs at him and he dodged each kick, even restricted by the size of the carriage, he was an agile man.

Back at the farm Harlan was working along with the other farm hands.

When they took the sheep out Harlan went as an extra guard, a few goblins showed up, but Harlan simply tossed stones at them, their bodies going limp as the stones shattered bone and splattered brain.

The other guards who watched the flock didn’t even know how to react to stones screaming past them and taking out their targets before they could.

Harlan simply sat in his tree and whistled, keeping an eye on the rest of them.

Within the royal court the king read Dahlia’s report on Harlan’s return, sending a copy to Rosewell along with the command to burn it.

Though he was a bit disturbed by Harlan’s attitude, he stood by his friend; if he believed that the boy wasn’t a real threat, he would believe him.

They had kept one another in check, making sure one didn’t get too soft while the other didn’t turn into a monster.

That night he would receive the report of Harlan and the skoll.

He sent another letter to his friend, he didn’t like whatever that was.