Dinner that night was the best Harlan felt in years, the little pinpricks of stress stopped building up, the constant weight of the axe over his head was finally gone.

Eventually people stopped holding back and asked the questions that worried them the most.

“So… souls? I hear you have been messing with them… is that, I mean is it alright?” Aida didn’t have magical knowledge and was leaning more on superstition.

“Oh yes, its fine, mimic trees don’t seem to care at all. The rabbits didn’t relly bother me either”

”What were you doing with rabbits?”

“I just remembered, I can’t talk about that part yet. I can talk about soul enchanting though.”

Aida’s worries shot through the roof at the theories of what he couldn’t talk about being much worse than what he has already talked about.

“Yes, I believe I would be interested in such discussion.” Count Redwall spoke.

“Well, what part do you want to know?”

“What souls did you work on, could any work? I would like to clear up some misconceptions.” Redwall was trying to get in on the ground floor, hoard whatever animal was used if possible.

“That's easy, it’s mimic trees. We tried with black soul condors, but those had some… unintended effects.I heard that the crown is going to make people get permits for the trees eventually.”

“Well then, thank you for the information.” Redwall wasn’t an overly greedy man, but this lit a fire in him, he didn’t know how much he would make but it was surely going to be a lot, enough to set them up as a more influential house.

“Autumn, how long until the baby is here?”

“A month and a half I think, do you want to feel it kicking?” Jaramis was uncomfortable with the idea but held his tongue.

“Sure, but um, after dinner I think. Oh, I wanted to ask you something, Count Redwal, what does it really mean that I’m a temporary noble now?”

Everyone lost their composure, his family was overjoyed, Redwall was shocked, he had seen the crest that he didn’t recognize but he didn’t think too much about it.

“Ahem, well, this is a lesser used process. Normally people are just elevated to noble status after a great deed. What this means is that you are expected to do great things and have been given a title to prevent some houses from overly interfering with you. You are clearly too young and inexperienced to be put in charge of others currently but if you continue your work you will likely be elevated to a count. You could also choose to become a knight and lead a warband. An official group to be called on to help with revolts or large scale monster incursions, paid by the crown but without most of the responsibilities and benefits of a counthood. What name were you granted?”

“Fomoria.” Jaramis twitched hearing the name, then spoke.

“Since you will be here we will train you in how to be a proper noble. When you enter the academy you will not just be a citizen of the kingdom, you will represent us whether you like it or not.”

“It’s fine Jaramis, you can send him to a tutor later, let’s just talk now.” Autumn didn’t want to get into politics yet.

The rest of dinner was more small talk, what did they feed him, what other odd creatures did he see, they were especially interested in the life stag, normal people somewhat knew that some magical beasts were smart but being able to have a conversation with one seemed fantastical to them.

Hearing that he became an ant queen was funny at first until he told them about how it was a life or death fight.

Eventually they were done, servants were cleaning up, and Harlan wanted to feel the baby kicking.

Jaramis wished they just forgot about it.

“Alright, just place your hands on my stomach and you should feel it.”

Harlan did exactly that, but out of reflex at this point he started soul searching, seeing a soul form wasn’t something he had ever seen before, swirling and drawing in ambient mana and siphoning some from Autumn’s soul as well. He was broken out of these thoughts when he felt the little kick.

“This is nice. I’m happy. And seeing a soul forming… It’s… It’s special.”

Jaramis lightly removed Harlan’s hands from Autumn.

“I would appreciate you being more gentle, and not touching at them like that.”

“Right. I’m sorry.” Harlan gave a small bow

“Did you train in weapons? How about a spar?”

“Jaramis I don’t think thats a good ide-”

“Sure, I was mostly just training physically, they didn’t give me weapons, but I’m a lot stronger now.”

Jaramis led him to the sparring room.

“Do you have a preferred weapon?”

“Uh, Autumn taught me some with the spear, I’ll use that.”

“You should learn the sword, but that can come later.”

The entire family and even Redwall came along. Ava was a little annoyed, Jaramis had never let her spar with him before.

“Stand in the square right there, I will stand in mine. When the servant rings the bell the fight starts. First strike wins. No magic.” He nodded to the servant once they were both in place.

*GONG*

Harlan waited for Jaramis to make the first move, he still remembered the first time he saw him fight.

Jaramis moved at him, but… slowly, Harlan hadn’t really known how much stronger he was than before. But he was fast now, his inhuman physiology made sure of that. He deflected the first blow with the tip of his spear. Nearly catching Jaramis’s face, the speed difference was made up for by technique. Harlan swung the butt of his spear at him. But Jaramis barely ducked under the hit, Harlan was unbalanced and Jaramis swept his legs. Once again he barely lasted a moment against him, Harlan realized how weak he really was still.

Jaramis had different thoughts on the matter. Being forced on the backfoot right at the start because he was physically so much weaker was infuriating, if they were the same age Jaramis could’ve never stood up to a single attack, panicking because he didn’t expect him to get so close getting a hit right at the start and going for a leg sweep, a move meant for a real fight was a sour note for him, he won, he won handily at that. But he wanted to end it first strike, for him to worry about Harlan at all annoyed him.

Harlan got up and outstretched his hand.

“Thanks, I see how much more I need to work.”

“Yes, I am sure you do. And a noble bows, he does not shake hands. Consider that your first lesson on how to be a noble.”

“Jaramis, how about we retire for the night, this has been a very overwhelming day.”

“Yes, I shall be there shortly.”

Autumn was upset.

“Why did you do that? You went into the fight thinking it would be easy and you nearly lost, the legsweep was not necessary.”

“If he was normal I wouldn’t have nearly lost in the first place, and besides, what was that with him talking about our babies souls. You have to see how wrong and strange that is.”

“YOU do not know him, he wouldn’t hurt them, he probably doesn’t even have a grudge against you. And there is nothing wrong with him. He’s just a child still and the crown has had him working with souls for years, he probably doesn’t even see what’s odd about it anymore.”

“That’s the problem, he doesn’t see what’s wrong, how can you just accept that so easy. He isn’t normal.”

“So? I’m not normal, our children won’t be normal, your father wanted a bloodline to start with me, he worked on my soul, what is so different that you can’t accept it.”

“Because he isn’t HUMAN, that is what’s wrong, you have never seen what those things can do, what they have done to people, you have spent your time at parties like some noble trophy wife and I’ve been fighting against things like him, the number of undead leaving formorian lands has been increasing, for the last 10 years, as long as he has been around, it can’t just be a coincidence.”

Autumn huffed away.

“I will be sleeping in a guest room tonight. I am not arguing about this.”

Jaramis had been disappointed when she stopped her training, they barely sparred anymore. All because she was trying to help Harlan, find him, keep him safe. He felt like she cared more about him than about her own husband. Like his own work to become stronger was lessened since Harlan was just naturally better in a way.

He slept poorly that night, getting up a little later than he would’ve liked. He had a few fruits and went for a run before breakfast.

Only to see that Harlan was already running, not a drop of sweat on him, no shoes either.

Eventually he caught up to him and matched pace.

“How long have you been running?”

“This is my 5th set.” he spoke normally, not being out of breath from running at all.

Jaramis followed along with Harlan’s work out for 2 more sets before he started to tired and it was nearing breakfast, he needed to be presentable.

The fire of jealousy sparked brighter in him, he refused to think that Harlan was strong because he also trained far more than Jaramis could.

An awkward breakfast was ahead for the both of them.