He marveled at the trees stretching into the sky, the birdsong on the winds. He had convinced Ava to take along.

Balor was flying around, Lugh was too heavy, his mana would be burned up far to quickly, Harlan just held him in a 1 handed grip and pointed him at things he wanted him to see.

Harlan didn’t really get how a ring or a sword could see. But he could feel Lugh’s joy at seeing a new bird with shiny feathers.

Eventually he reached the stream, and set up a table and chairs from the dirt, setting down a tablecloth and a biscuit of food for their picnic.

“This seems like a waste of time, we could’ve just eaten at the mansion.”

“But you would’ve missed the view, we can watch these fish now. Winter is coming, we won’t see them once the ice covers the creek.”

“Sister Ava? Can you carry me? I want to see the fish closer.” Lugh was overly polite, but it didn’t bother anyone.

“You are going to need to help, you are very heavy.”

“Yes, I will help.”

“Do you think Lugh is alright? He is… Not what I would expect from a weapon.”

“And are you a normal ring? He doesn’t need to fight, not yet. He will know when it’s right, you’ve been talking to him right?”

“He is too much like a child, I was hoping to teach him some philosophy about right and wrong but it’s like trying to teach you.”

“It will work out.”

“I think you are not well, you nearly died, your sister says a few words and you just flip everything about yourself? Just like that? I think you are ignoring your problems, they will fester the longer you pretend at resolving them.”

Harlan ignored him, instead walking to the stream.

“Lugh, have you seen the fish?”

“YES! They shine, like me. But green and blue and yellow, different sizes.”

“Can you name them?”

“Hmm… I will read more when we get back. Sister Ava wants to train still, can we?”

“How about we climb trees instead? That is kinda like training, and we can see so much more that way.”

“Harlan, you are being weird. You want to just take walks all day now when you aren’t reading or carving more of those little statues. They are starting to really pile up.” Ava had also noticed his strangeness.

“It’s fine. First one to reach the top of their tree wins.”

Harlan began climbing the tallest tree near him.

He sat on a branch about 20 feet off the ground and just waited, seeing that Ava wasn’t going to come up, so he just sat.

Then he noticed the shadows, they were wrong.

Harlan had never actually fought a warg, he was too young, Autumn killed the very few that ever showed up at the farm. But he was reading, he knew all the signs of them.

Fear shot through him, they were getting closer to Ava and Lugh. he pounced at the nearest shadow, making a ball of light on the way down, he banished the shadows the wargs were hiding in.

When he landed his fist shot right through the wargs skull, he called Lugh to him. He linked into an oversoul.

“Lugh, make yourself shine. Ava is in danger.”

”Protect Ava? Yes, I will do that.”

Harlan handed Lugh back to Ava who took a combat stance, then Harlan let himself run wild. His fists were like small suns, he tore through the wargs like paper, sending limbs flying.

It barely took him 30 seconds to kill them, 5 in all. He was drenched in blood.

He took a step toward Ava. She shuddered a moment, taking a step back.

“Harlan, get a hold of yourself. You keep running away, you are on a hair trigger. It’s alright to be upset, you almost died before, but you look like a monster. You need to talk to someone.”

“I AM FINE, I SAVED HER, IT’S SAFE.”

“Ava… I… I need to wash myself in the stream before we head back.”

She snapped back to reality, she knew what he could do, in theory. But seeing it was different, she had killed wargs before, but it was work. Harlan looked crazed to her, letting off steam in an unhealthy way.

They walked back in silence, his clothes stained red.

They asked for one of the guards standing outside to get a maid for him.

The maid directed him towards a small bathhouse outside, made for this exact purpose. She led him there and then stepped back, asking if there was anything other than clothes he needed. He needed nothing.

He washed himself in the self heating water and then just soaked for nearly an hour, until he felt his stomach rumble, he didn’t get the chance to eat lunch, the wargs ruined it. He felt his anger peak again before he forced it down.

Harlan, found that lunch was still set out, the maids were just starting to clean, he asked that a plate be sent to his room.

Once Harlan had finished his meal he began carving wargs, those he had killed. With startling accuracy their limbs barely connected to the rest of the carvings. Balor asked to be let out of the room, another meeting he said.

Balor spent much of his day in the library, the health and healing sections, needing a maid to help get books down for him.

He found what he was looking for, then went to his next objective.

Breken didn’t expect to hear a knock on his door, nor to open it and see a ring.

“We need to speak.”

“Come in then, do you want a drink? Water? Wine?”

“I believe Harlan has warmind, I have read of it in the library just now.”

“Oh?”

“I can feel his mind, he doesn’t gain any joy from his hobbies, his walking, his carving, it’s like he is just avoiding thinking about other things in any way he can. I just saw him carve wargs, limbs nearly severed. He just tore apart 5 of them with his bare hands today.”

“Ava mentioned it. I was already going to have a talk… send him over here. I might be able to do something before dinner.”

“Thank you.”

And 10 minutes later Harlan knocked on Breken’s door.

“Hello, please, sit.”

Breken kept a close eye on every movement, his eyes darting around the room, his tension when Breken made a creaking noise, or made a shadow slightly move.

“I just want to test something.” Breken moved his hand behind his back and then rapidly swung at Harlan.

Lugh was with him, he thrust at him with the living blade, letting off a burst of dark magic at the same time.

Breken quickly disabled each attack.

“So he was right.” Harlan pulled his arm back, trying for another attack, but Ava was in the way… Ava? Harlan didn’t stop, he NEEDED to kill breken, he was in danger, always in danger, just moments away.

The illusion shattered when Lugh struck it.

“I’m not a threat, you are.” Breken had moved to the other end of the room, hands in the air.

“I’ve seen it before, your mind is stuck in some other place, you’ve been under high stress for a long period of time, and now you are back, safe and sound, and then something changed that. Now you are back in that other place. You should not be around other people, YOU are a danger to your family, to MY student. Until you are well I will not let you train. Let me help you.”

Lugh was crying, the blade was made of much less than Balor, he didn’t know what an illusion was yet. From his point of view Harlan just killed Ava. Through their link Harlan explained what happened, that it was alright. He decided he would need to find Ava to prove it was alright to Lugh.

He blitzed through the mansion, nearly through a maid, his mind was confused, it wasn’t right still, but he kept pushing it back in his head.

He nearly broke the door to the training area, but he found her, Ava was there, practicing with a guard.

Lugh broke from Harlan’s grip and went towards her, seeking comfort in her hands, explaining everything through a soullink.

Harlan saw her make that face, the one that told him she thought he had done something monstrous.

Breken stopped him from moving towards her.

“Harlan, let me help.”

“Harlan… please. Go with Breken…” Harlan looked again, her face wasn’t that fear, it was sadness.

“Yes… yeah let’s go…”

Breken took Harlan to the count’s office, told him to wait outside, and explained everything to the count.

“We are going somewhere, I have a place.”