Harlan decided that there wasn’t that much to do, and so he wanted to ask some questions.

“Welcome back child.”

“Hello… Mother?”

She giggled lightly.

“I can tell you do not like calling me that. I am mother of your people. But you would rather call the one who raised you mother, and I understand this. Worry not of names, I don’t. Now which questions would you like answered? Dearil? I know little of him, but I see another you in him.”

“No, but thank you for answering that. I wanted to know about what Kass and I talked about. He called you a god of chaos, he doesn’t know you but he seems to hate you.”

“He and the other gods mistake freedom for chaos. Where they to have the power of Aarde they would make a perfect would without any conflict. A perfectly boring world of no growth, of pure boredom. I can see why they would, but they be a slave to a flawless order and Aine would be dead if Aarde did such a thing.”

“What?”

“Oh how little you humans know. I speak of the end of the first age, but I will not go into detail. If I did we would be here for weeks, and your meeting is in just 2 days.”

“What can you tell me then? And why can so much time pass so quickly?”

“I govern time as Lugus governs space. You would need to fight my influence to stop the speeding of time here.”

“Where is here? And how can I do that.”

“This is my home, you are inside of the manastream coming from the core of Aarde. All dark mana comes from this place. And for how… well that is just a lesson to be learned. I will not take from you the chance to learn.”

“What about taking over my path? Would you do that like Kass says?”

That elicited another laugh from her.

“I would never force a change of path, even now my children break their word in the spirit of our pact but not the letter of it and I do not force change upon them. Your path is already headed to where I would want you to go, but if you decide against it in the end I will not force the issue. Though I do hope you follow me.”

“And what is your goal then?”

“That is a secret of mine, but I will tell you in time.”

“How much time has passed so far?”

“Less than a day, I will cut this short should it be needed.”

“Thank you, now there is another question I want to ask. Why do I look like a normal human for the most part?”

“The others have their reasons for believing I had malice in my mind when I made your people look so normal. But I simply don’t see a reason to make you different, a human is more or less what every world makes for its chosen people. What do I know that Aarde would not? They also make such gossip about me because I am the last of the first gods, and they don’t believe I am still here for completely normal reasons. Instead they would rather believe I lived because I did something horrible.”

“Gods die?”

“Some do, some don’t. The death of a greater god kills a world, the death of a lesser god disrupts all mana of that element until a new god is made. In the end of the first age the other 5 died, and I hid. I had faith that Aarde would save us and until they asked me to fight I would just stand aside. I am not a coward, I am faithful, Aarde is my parent, as I am mother to many things. In this current age I do not believe that anything normal could kill a god, and the titan would slay anything that could.”

“Every question I ask if just opening more. What would something not normal be then?”

Harlan felt the atmosphere shift instantly. He saw the place as nothing but pure darkness, with only the shine of the mother’s teeth and eyes breaking up the void, he couldn’t even see his hands, he didn’t even know if he had hands here.

But he saw the darkness ripple and churn, like a sudden storm had come onto this ocean of shadows.

“That is a conversation which she cannot have with you yet, do not ask her again.”

Harlan felt the ears he didn’t realize he still had in this place bleed and his eardrums burst hearing the voice that came from the shadows. His skin crawled feeling whatever this raw power was. It made every single threat he had ever seen before seem infinitesimally small to him. Like how the power of the royal guards dwarfed the power of Kass, this thing dwarfed them beyond what he could understand.

Then another shape in the darkness, this time it was light, made of feathers forming a dense ball with eyes popping out in a few places. This shape granted him relief, calm washed over him and his body in this space was whole once again. And then the light left.

“I cannot speak of them, Aarde has plans. A day has passed already in these short moments where they spoke with you.”

Harlan tried to speak back but he couldn’t, he needed to rest before he had the energy to even think at her. Another few silent hours passed in that void.

“What happened… What were those shapes?”

“Your question and my focus on your drew Aarde’s eye for but a moment… I am very sorry. I called Lugus to heal your soul. This is part of why we exist, lesser gods of mana can speak with normal people. Aarde has grown far too powerful for such a thing. Aine may speak directly to her followers without issue, she is still recovering from her near death those millenia back. Lesser gods are like smaller selfs for her to help recover. I will not answer more of your questions, please, let us speak again another day.”

And then Harlan was back at the firing range, a nicer name for a large square hole dug into the ground.

“A long talk then? I do hope it was worth it.”

“I learned a few things, I can’t do that much with it. But it’s interesting.”

“Oh! What new things?”

“Well, I saw another god, and I saw… something else… but I can’t remember it well. But the god was Lugus, he was light, a ball of feathers and eyes. I think he was pretty.”

“What a neat bird that is.”

“Lugh, that is a rude thing to say to a god, please do not repeat that around people.”

“Balor, Lugh, I’ve been wondering, can you talk with the darkness?”

“I have never tried, but with how haggard you seem after some talks I am unsure if I would even want to.”

Harlan and Balor looked over at Lugh who hadn’t answered the question yet.

Then a shadow covered the living sword yet did not spread like it had when Harlan first spoke with her.

“How long do you think he is going to talk with her?”

“I have seen him speak for hours on end if something catches his attention. We should not expect him back for some time. I will not be attempting to speak with her, I lack your faith in an unknown ancient being that could likely smite me at any moment. I will keep her eyes away from me as I can. You do not see it, but when memories of your talks with her come over our link they are clouded, distant. I don’t like that idea of your mind being changed in any way.”

“Come on, she is nice. And she hasn’t ever hurt me. She helped a lot when I was going through warmind.”

Balor hated how helpless it had made him feel when Harlan was mentally unwell.

Harlan noticed subtle waves of guilt and regret coming from Balor when he brought up warmind.

“Don’t, I know what you are going to say. And I understand it. I just don’t like it. I am glad she helped you, but you cannot convince me she should be trusted so easily.”

Harlan and Balor decided to let that conversation die, and instead he put the finishing touches on the humanoid golem while Balor kept an eye on Lugh. Harlan wanted the golem to be able to go into town to pick up his meals for him finally. He couldn’t eat those sandwiches he liked all the time because they just weren’t as good if he let them get too cold. He had been learning how to make his own food, taking up ever more time he should’ve spent working. But especially with how much he was burning himself up during all his tree growing.

He expected it to take another half a day to finish it, but then he heard a knock on his wall.

He looked at the sky to try and tell the time, the sun was just barely up, he didn’t expect that he would come so very early in the morning.

But he peaked over the wall, seeing a person in fairly normal clothes. Maybe a little more like a merchant than a farmer but not really that out of place.

“Hello, It’s quite rude to keep a guest waiting you know.”

Harlan opened the wall and the man stepped in, Balor was already back on Harlan’s finger and keeping a tight watch on every movement, ready to block an attack.

Harlan simply extended his hand for a handshake. And Dearil gripped his hand firmly and shook.

Now he was officially an enemy of the kingdom, meeting on friendly terms with a man who had kill on sight orders for him reaching back decades.