That morning, I didn't manage to cuddle with Harlow. We were at Logan's house, after all; it was too obvious we were trying to be intimate. Also, his Perception was not low enough not to hear his daughter's… well...

Anyway, Alistar and Roana were already up and ready to leave when Harlow mounted my new clock-arm. It was exactly like the one I had lost; while seeing that there was nothing new for them, Alistar said something.

He awkwardly coughed to get attention, "Do I remember someone saying that when our combat training was finished, we would receive special equipment?"

Roana arched her brow; she didn't know anything about it.

"Yes, yes," answered Logan with a smirk, "but I don't see you've finished any training period. You look pitifully weak to me; you want me to believe that you've learned Combat Forms in what? Two weeks?" He scoffed.

"I don't know about the others, but I've reached Intermediate seven. I think that should qualify me for some treats," Alistar said proudly.

At that, Logan arched a brow.

"What about you, Roana?"

"Intermediate 5," she said, looking at Alistar surly.

"Loke?"

I sighed.

Form of the Vector's current expertise: Apprentice Level 1. Expertise for the next Form of the Vector's level: 2317/10000

"Do I have to answer?"

"Shame on you then," Logan said.

"However, I'll consider you to have passed the test if you can best or draw with Harlow."

"But, know that she's fairly good with the Form of the Drum, Journeyman five," he stated with a smirk.

"Six," Harlow answered while fiddling with my shoulder implant.

Alistar gulped, "So, I guess I'm going back to training; you ready, guys?"

"Thought so," said Logan.

After I tried and tested my new clock-arm's functionality, Logan turned to me.

"Just a couple of things, Loke."

"Sure," I said, "shoot."

"You don't want to ask about why that General came to tell me about your parents' disappearance?"

"I think I can imagine, but if you don't want to talk about it, it's fine with me, really."

It was more that I did not want to know about their life than anything else. The more anonymous they stayed, the easier it was for me to keep them out of my mind.

"Well, I would love to talk to you about them; maybe you might bring Nova as well, next time," he said. He seemed sincerely willing.

If I would listen, I would probably do it for him, more than for myself.

"Alright. Then we'll do it next time we come here. Is that okay for you?"

Logan nodded; he seemed pleased, although a little sad.

"Whenever you wish. Now go; Harlow will take you guys there with my Flow-cart. I wish you a safe journey."

"What in the Abyss happened to your father this morning?" Alistar asked Harlow. "He seemed so… docile."

"I guess it was the presence of that man, bringing up a lot of memories for him," she answered as she drove us back home.

"Like what? Were they war buddies or something? With Loke's parents?"

"I don't know," she said, shrugging, checking on me for some reason.

But I was fine, really. They could say or speculate all they wanted. I had decided that those two people were just my biological family, nothing more. My real family was made by the villagers.

My parents... they had not died but fought in a war for ten years instead of coming back home? They could have taken a damn leave. Everybody could get one; I knew they would be forced to take one every year. What had they been doing for ten damn years not to come back home?

No, those were not my parents anymore. Nothing was more important to me than Nova was; what could be more important than their children for them? I didn't know, but whatever it was, meant that they cared about that more than they cared about us.

They were dead to me.

Harlow did not park the Flow-cart in its usual spot. Once we reached Murkstall's vicinity, she went much deeper, inside the farms and passed through the trail.

I saluted the farmers family working about, not all of them saluted back.

Alistar and I shared a look, my- our actions might have brought grave consequences, and much sooner than I had thought possible.

But I had to discover what exactly.

"I'm going to park near your house. There are a few things I need help to unload," Harlow said.

I nodded. Hopefully, she had brought equipment.

Anyway, the village's atmosphere had changed; something was surely brewing, hopefully not a tempest. However, there was no sign of Sunguards, and no one seemed to have been taken away for interrogation, or if that happened, they had already been released.

And when I spotted the mayor, he signaled that he wanted to talk to us.

"Ro," I said, "I think Alistar and I are going to need to speak with the mayor; you can wait with Harlow if you want."

She nodded an okay, and Harlow stopped to let us off the cart.

Edward, the mayor, swiftly joined us. He was in a hurry.

"I know," I said when he reached us, even before he could speak. "I know, we fucked up big time. But they would have wiped us out."

He signaled for silence.

"There are listeners," he looked around suspiciously. "Come, both of you."

The mayor led us to his house, which acted as the town hall.

It was rustic and looked pretty much like ours; many of the village's houses shared the same look and design.

Edward had lost his wife to the plague while his children had been drafted for the war and died a long time ago before I was born.

He was a lone man and devoted all his time to the village's needs. We were all thankful for how much of his time he spent on administering and complying with our needs.

Yet as we were inside, he closed the door behind his back.

"We need to talk," he said as if it had not been made clear already.

"What is it?" Alistar asked, "Did they already placed the Sunguards as sentinels?"

Edward scoffed, "Not yet, but they will. I'm sure of it. Also, they have threatened us with conscription for the fittest. They are going to take our children away. The village's lifeforce."

Damn, that was an aspect I had not taken into consideration.

They did not really need to actively control us or destroy us; if the Inquisition wanted to control us, the best way to do so was to kill our future.

"Did they say anything else?" I asked, starting to mull over our options.

"No, but this is not all, Loke. We all understand that what you did was necessary. The youths that came with you confirmed it, and they protected you… from some villagers that wanted to… sell you out."

I was shocked. It was… unexpected, to say the least. Sell me out? Of all people? What in the Abyss for?

"That's disgusting…" Alistar said.

"The same goes for you, Star," Edward added.

"Oh, well, that I could understand given mine and my family's standing, but Loke… That's just ugly," he answered.

"Don't say that now. Some villagers simply lamented because you are pushing too much, you guys are acting too dangerously, and this time we were this close, to be forced to give you away, especially you, Night Hunter," Edward said.

"So, they made the connection?" I asked.

"Of course they did! We are humans, not some damn Gnolls, Loke! They all know you are the damn Night Hunter," Edward exclaimed. "However, that's not all. We had a visit; the Sunguard are not the only people interested in placing one of theirs in our village. The Church of the Sun has sent someone to scout the terrain; they want to place a newly appointed Priestess, a monk, in the uninhabited Church. I was not there when they came to scout the place, but the people who've seen the Church's scouting party said that there was a nun among them, and she looked exactly like Vinny."

Oh… for Sun's sake. I was fucked, wasn't I?

I slapped my forehead.

"What? What was that? Why did you do that? Loke? What else did you do? Please don't tell me you really killed a nun?" It was Edward’s turn to slap his forehead.

"No, no, that's not that… but I guess you should know. That nun that looks like Vinny, that's the nun of the Night Hunter's story. She is the one I fought and left alive. She's Vinny's sister; I couldn't just go and kill her like that. I mean, come on… it’s a little bit heartless even by my standards."

"So… a nun you fought, that has seen your face, likely the one that has provided the Inquisition with your description is coming to stay here. In the village in which you live. To stay with us..." the mayor realized, kneading his chin and nodding to himself.

"I guess that changes things," Edward said, pensive.

"Yeah… but in which way exactly?" I asked.

"Well, that's simple," he replied, pensive, serious, "You need to leave."

I got out of the mayor's house looking like a ghost.

I... needed to leave the village? I did?

What in the Abyss?

I couldn't help but shake my head in disbelief.

Alistar, by my side, was enraged. He had lifted the mayor by the scruff, asking him, "What the fuck are you saying, old man?"

But he was right; the mayor was right. There was no way I could stay if there had to be someone that knew my face and could report me and likewise the villagers that had hidden my identity to the Inquisition.

I needed to leave, and that was that. It was for everybody's well-being; I just had to.

"Sunny shit…" I realized, "Nova is going to kill me."

"She's more likely going to go wherever you go," Alistar said. "After all, her job here is done, don't you think so?"

I turned to look at him; indeed, he was right. Our mission here had been completed. We had healed the village, well she did; I had just been the catalyst for it. But what else was there tying us to this village now? Our parents? No, they were not here, and even if they magically were... Grandpa? He was dead…. But then… Didn't I consider the village as our family? Wasn't I just saying to myself that? Family does not sell you out, betrays you, or asks for you to leave.

These were indeed the natural consequences of my actions. I had done something, multiple things, and I had to stand firm now and deal with the tempest I had called forth.

"Oh well… I'm going home then; see you later, Star."

"Yeah," he said, "if we have to depart for training, I need to see my parents and Lem first; it's likely going to take all day. I'll come to you tomorrow when I'm done, okay?"

I nodded back, and we clutched our forearms as a goodbye.

“Loke, whatever you decide to do, know that I’m on your side,” Alistar said, touching his forehead with mine.

I nodded, my eyes probably shining...

I had found a real friend in Alistar, maybe even a brother. I just needed to try and not get him killed.

"So, Nova's not here?" I asked, seeing Harlow and Roana taking bags out from the Flow-cart.

"Took your time and had us do the heavy job, didn't you?" Roana said. "Anyway, Nova's not here; she should be at mom's."

It was better like that.

"What are you unloading?"

"Ammunitions," Harlow answered, "and clock-tech parts. I have been asked to build a few things from the mayor."

"Ammo for me?"

"That too, but for the others as well. I was asked to teach clock-tech to some of the kids," she shrugged; "why not, I said to myself."

That was a good thing; she had certainly overcome her fears of other people's judgment.

"Well, that's a good thing. Anyway, let's go inside, there are certain things I should talk to you abo-" suddenly, a tomato went splashing on the front wall of my house.

I did not feel it with Sixth Sense, likely because it was not aimed at me.

I turned toward the responsible, but they were already gone.

"What in the Abyss was that?" Roana asked.

I sighed. It was already starting; I did indeed need to leave.

"Don't worry about it," I said, taking the two bags that were left. "Come on; there's something I've got to share with you."

"WHAT!?" Roana asked, shooting up from the chair. "You can't be for real!?"

I smiled, "It's okay, they are right. I need to leave. I can't drag people into my messes."

"You can come to the Hillhouse," Harlow suggested as soon as she could.

"I don't know about that. I feel like it would ruin the relationship between your father and me," I spouted, but was it really that?

"Or you could come to the Treehouse?" Roana suggested just as excitedly.

I couldn't help but smile at both these young women that wanted to invite me to live with them.

If Alistar was here, he would be cracking up.

"Let's just see if this nun really does come here; then I'll take my time to decide. But in the meanwhile, I guess I do need to stay by the treehouse for the training at least."

I could see Roana grin.

For a moment, Harlow looked at her weirdly, but only for a moment, her gaze soon turned natural.

"So," I tried changing the topic and letting my eyes be drawn by an open bag by the floor, "let's see, what ammo did you-" My eyes went wide.

"Blow arrows!" I shouted, excited.

"Oh, yeah." Harlow said, "I've been hunting with Dad on the outskirts of the Fallen Kingdom. He doesn't need all those Crystals or Stones he hoards," she shrugged, "so I got them to use."

I got up and took the bag, placing it onto the table.

Blow Arrow Shaft

Durability: 100%

Strengths: Great damage potential if mounted on a Blow grenade

Weaknesses: Direct hit may detonate the grenade

This shaft for a Blow Arrow has been produced by an advanced Tinker Class. It can deal a lot of damage when complete; the grenade is not mounted.

"The grenades are not mounted though, why is that?"

"Because I've fixed your quiver, improved it actually. It's in the other bag," she said, getting up and retrieving it.

My special quiver was back in my hands, but it had twenty-four grenade holders and rings to mount the Blow Arrow's shafts now, double its previous capacity.

Harlow then showed me how to mount and unmount the grenades on the quiver and then how to correctly insert the shaft so that they did not perforate the metal sac with unstable Flow and Shade.

I knew roughly how to create something like that.

Grandpa had shown me a bit of the process on how to turn Crystals into powder and subsequently into a liquid, but to reach its gaseous form or the one called plasma, well, let's just say I was not able to recreate those states. The last one especially was the state required to build Crystal grenades and other explosive ammo.

However, manipulating Stones was something I had never seen; grandpa didn't know how, or, at least, he had never used it.

It got me thinking. Now that Harlow and I were technically alone and she had brought many components over, she could show me how to create them.

"So," I started, a little embarrassed for some reason, or maybe still too surprised by what had trespassed between the mayor and me, "would you mind showing me how to… make the grenades?"

Harlow raised her beautiful green eyes to look at me and smiled, "I thought you would never ask. I showed you many things; why has it taken you so long to ask how to build those damn Blow arrows?"

"Oh… well, I guess it's because of your father's general secrecy?"

"You know he's only jealous of his armors; these weapons are renowned products; every respectable weapon dealer has them," she said, shaking her head. "Come on now, free the table. We're going to spend the whole day on this," she smiled as if it was the most beautiful thing I had ever asked of her.

I smiled back. This was surely going to take my mind off of the recent events.

"Sure, go ahead, I'll just stand here and do nothing…" Roana interjected, bored.

"Well, you could go play… somewhere? Loki has nothing to do; see how docile he looks? He just wants to play?" I proposed.

"Yes. Roana goes to play with the cat..." she shook her head and threw her hands at me, "I'm going to sleep. Don't wake me up, please." She headed upstairs.

"Touchy," I said, smiling at Harlow as she left.

Roana's voice came from up the mezzanine, "Thirty-six Perception!" she shrilled.

"Ouch," Harlow giggled in response.

Yeah, it was going to be a long day. But nothing better than this to forget what I had just learned. How the villagers thought about me.

I could think only of a couple more interesting things to do that could take my mind off of things than learning clock-tech.

One required Roana to go sleep; the other one, a lot grimmer, included a bow, many arrows, and a lot of dead bodies around me.

Yet the first would have to wait, the second I would better stop thinking about. I needed to calm myself down, or the Inquisition would seriously come and wipe us all out.

Our weapons-buildings lesson lasted throughout the afternoon, through the evening, and into the night.

The process was not extremely hard but it had to be perfect.

Transforming Crystals and Stones into powder was the first part of the process, and it needed chemicals.

Both had to be bathed into a solution. Thankfully, the solution was the same for both: Slime mucus.

Slimes weren't exactly easy to find around these parts, but the Fallen Kingdom had Clock-slimes, which were slimes that were partly made of metal. Those creatures by themselves were around level sixty and yet were not among the strongest monsters in there.

The Slime mucus made both Crystals and Stones grindable with a grinder.

Too much mucus and the result would have to be thawed, making it unusable for transforming into plasma, not enough mucus, and it would not be wet enough to transform it into a liquid, which was the following step.

In both cases, the liquid form could be used as a bath for the torches. However, a mixture of powder and liquid was needed, in the case of Crystals, to create Flow Fire, but we did not have to pass through that route.

Liquid Stone product was instead used as a coolant for weapons and armors' internal parts, but it had to be used in moderate amounts. Otherwise, it would have the opposite effect.

To really transform powder into liquid, all that was needed was a saline solution. Still, the tricky parts were to pour an adequate amount of it and stir the product energetically for Stone powder or gently for Crystal powder.

Once that part of the process was done, it was inevitable the use of appointed instruments, for turning the liquids into gaseous forms started being risky.

And, once again, monsters played a big role in that part of the process.

Since Crystal liquid turned into gas if cold was applied to it, a reagent different from pure liquid Stone would have to be used. In this case, an optimal reagent could be found in the blood of a strong yet common type of aquatic Shadelings. A family of the Zorovulpes type, which was nothing else but giant aquatic foxes; they could not be found anywhere around here, but Logan bought the reagent in the City when he could.

The process had all to be done inside of ampoules to keep the gas inside, and it consisted of simply dripping the Zorovulpes blood in the liquid Crystal solution to make it evaporate. It was slow but one hundred percent effective.

The inverse was true for obtaining Stone gas. It had to be heated, and a simple fire was enough, but the fire had to be just at the right temperature; the lower it was, the better.

If the fire was too hot, the gas would turn back into powder; if it was too low, it would not turn into a gas at all.

The last part of the process was indeed the most difficult, in which the plasma had to be directly bottled into its ready-to-use container. Whether they were grenades, cannon bullets, or whatever else people used it for.

It consisted of reversing the previous processes.

Crystals would have to be heated up tremendously, then sealed right away. In contrast, Stones would have to be cooled down as much as possible and in the least amount of time.

To obtain this state, a piece of proper knowledge and manual skills were essential. It could not be done manually or at least not by someone without the proper Skills.

In fact, having related Skills would facilitate the processes and increase the desired Density output.

For example, with her Skills, but most importantly, Class Perks, which were not bound to those of a Weaponsmith but an Armorer, Harlow was able to create Crystal grenades with a maximum Flow Density of 100 while Logan could make them as strong as to have a Density of 250.

Instead, a proper Weaponsmith could make Grenades with a power of almost four hundred, and if they were a chemist as well, that would further increase the Density output reaching up to five hundred or more Flow Density.

Anyway, Harlow had the machines to do it back at the Hillhouse. However, she explained to me the basic process of doing it manually.

The object that acted as the container, usually a glass ball, needed a one-way only hole into which to inoculate the gaseous Crystals or Stone product. It was done through the use of a siphon and by slowly heating up the vial that contained it Then, the usually pin-shaped one-way hole had to be brought near a strong source of heat, in the case of Crystal gas, or cooled down, in the case of a Stone gas. If done with the right intensity, usually with something that neared the one thousand degrees in the case of Crystal gas or with the help of the liquid coolant in the case of Stone, the gas would light up and turn into Crystal or Stone Plasma that was ready to explode.

The small but tough sphere of glass was then placed into the little grenade, which in my case, looked more like a solid metal droplet.

Once sealed into the grenade and armed by inserting the arrow shaft into it, the power of the explosion was based not only on the Density but also on the weather conditions.

The grenade would explode on contact, and based on the outside temperature; the effect would grow in intensity with the heat or the cold of the atmosphere, enough to say, with the coming of the Shade Season, Stone Blow arrows would be twice as powerful as they currently were.

I was looking at the first finished product I had made, Tracing it.

Stone Grenade

Durability: 95%

Shade Density: 53

Strengths: Decent damage potential

Weaknesses: Direct hit may detonate the grenade

This grenade, meant for a Stone Blow Arrow, has been produced by Loke Nightfold. It can deal a decent amount of damage; the arrow shaft is not mounted.

It was pitiful, but it was something, considering that I had no Skills to back it up, but more importantly, there was my name there.

And that was not good, not at all.

"Not bad, not bad at all as a first time," Harlow said. "With the right Sub-Class, you would have definitely had the talent to become a Clock-engineer. Anyway, I already knew you were capable of it."

"Thank you, Harlow, but why is it that I see my name with Tracing? I can't see yours on your products."

"Oh, that's easy. That's part of the Class Perks," she answered. "Yeah, like… the Tamer. Blue Tamer has a Class Perk to borrow a Pet Skills, no? The same could be said about your Red Tamer Class; you can borrow an Attribute, you told me yourself. Well, we can hide our names from the products, among other things. A Tinker Class Perks allows us to hide our name or display it in our products. While the Clock-technician Class Perks boosts our results while creating things in clock-tech."

"That's really useful."

However, it got me thinking.

"Wait, would I be able to… to show a pseudonym instead of my name? For example…"

"For example, the Night Hunter?" She asked with a grin.

"Damn, you know me so well, woman.”

"I believe it is doable, but I think it's all about Willpower and conviction. Sometimes Dad chooses to have his products say that they belong to a Tinker instead of an Ultimate Tinker Class or an Armorsmith," she answered.

"Good, I shall do my research then."

It was full night, probably second bell in the morning now, and Harlow couldn’t help but yawn.

"Anyway, it's late. Do you want to go to sleep, my capable student?"

"Are you sure you just want to sleep?" I asked with a devilish smile.

"Roana is going to hear us," she whispered.

"Well, there are a lot of empty houses around, you know? I know just the right place in which to spend the night; also, I've got to show you my night Stamina," I said, protruding over the table to get my face near hers.

"I'm not going to sleep tonight, am I?" she said after kissing me.

"No, you are not."

"Then lead the way."

The next day Alistar, Roana, and I would have to leave. I couldn't leave Harlow just like that; we needed to share a proper goodbye.

It might as well be weeks until the next time we saw each other. I would have to do things right.