Out of the carriage 4 people stepped.

First was Amber, as expected.

Second was Zella, though it was a surprise for Harlan, it was not for the rest of the family.

Then was Redmond, which only Redwall expected.

And finally was Ibery. Who was expected by no one but Dahlia, who was standing on the wall above the door with a powerful gravity spell holding her in place, and a powerful cloaking spell keeping her from being seen.

Amber and Zella were wearing the gold robes signifying that they were students from the kingdom, while Ibery was wearing only a black half cape that didn’t get in the way of her wings. Redmond was of course in his rangers armor, though it was a fresh set that hadn’t even been soaked in blood once.

Harlan rushed forward and lifted Amber in a bear hug. Which was more than a little awkward for her since she was much taller than he was.

“Alright alright, put me down now.” Harlan swung her around one more time before he did the same to Zella who turned beat red And forced herself free using her hair.

“Hey, kid. No love for your uncle?” Harlan saw that he was joking but tried to lift him anyway. Only to be completely unable to budge Redmond.

“You got fat?” that earned him a flick on the forehead.

“No, I just know a few tricks. Let’s get inside and talk about it.”

Harlan didn’t know who the Tytoan was, so he bowed at a slight incline and introduced himself.

“Welcome. I am Harlan Fomoria. Might I know your name?”

She used her wing to ruffle his hair.

“No need for such formality. I am just a friend of Amber’s. You can call me Ibery. Now listen to your uncle, it has been a long ride here.”

Everyone had a small meet and greet outside for Ibery, but she just asked again to head inside. She wasn’t handling the summer heat as well as the humans were but trying to politely avoid saying that directly. There was a small conversation between Jaramis, the guards, and Amber, but they let Ibery inside. As they walked inside Dahlia slipped a letter into Harlan’s pocket, the front saying not to read it in the sight of others.

“Oh, I forgot something, I will meet up with the rest of you in the dining hall.”

“Of course. We will see you there.” Autumn answered.

Harlan slipped into a small closet and opened the letter. It read.

“The bird is a spy. Burn this letter.” And then had a few pages worth of information tightly packed into the rest of the letter, both sides had been written on.

Harlan could only sigh.

“What do we do with her?”

“Hmm… I think it best to simply observe her and watch what she does. If she asks too many suspicious questions we can tell Redwall and have her questioned. If Dahlia hasn’t already set aside a space in a cell for her.”

“Yeah… That probably would be best. I am going to ignore that though.”

“As you wish. I am doubtful that she could truly threaten you from what I am reading in this letter. Seems she is a tracker, not much of a fighter.”

Harlan walked out of the closet, spooking a nearby guard. And made his way to the dining room after picking up the box of enchanted jewelry from his personal carriage.. Everyone was sitting at the table, though the food wasn’t out yet.

“Sorry for the delay. I wanted to show something off after the meal was done and I forgot it in my carriage.”

“Oh, you mean the -” Lugh was cut off by Balor.

“It is a surprise.”

“Right, yeah.”

“Nothing at all.” Harlow let out a small laugh, he still thought that Balor and Lugh were odd. But Lugh was too childlike to set off any red flags for him.

“Who said that?” Amber looked around for anyone by Harlan.

“I forgot to introduce you guys to my brothers. This is Balor, the middle brother. And this is Lugh, the youngest.” Amber and Zella couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not and just seemed confused. Balor checked the reaction from Ibery, she didn’t seem phased, she already knew about them.

“Well, hello?” Zella awkwardly said.

“Hello brothers friend! He told me about you!”

“Only good things I hope.”

“Yes! Only good things!” There were laughs around the table.

“So, Harlan. I wanted to thank you for what you’ve made. This armor has saved me more times then I can count. And I am sorry for not being able to help you. You know, when you got taken.”

“I don’t think I mind that much anymore. I’ve gotten a lot out of what they taught me, I have my own place, I have money, I don’t think I want to know what would’ve happened if the confederacy had learned about me before the kingdom did.” It was mostly lies. Harlan was far from ok with what happened, the longer he thought about it, the more he realized that they would’ve broken him if he stepped too far out of line, but instead they went with the route of fake kindness. But he did enjoy the things he earned from his time. Balor tried to soothe his mind to avoid any poisonous thoughts from causing an incident at the lunch table.

“Well, I guess if you are fine with it. Then it is fine.”

“What was it like there? Zella told me, even showed some stuff. But I still find it a little hard to believe. It sounds like it wasn’t actually that different from the academy. But ya know. Forced.” Amber said.

“I might be a little skewed since I spent so much time outside of the facility itself. But it wasn’t really that bad. Though the princes I met were all-” Harlan stopped, realized the company he was in, and readjusted himself.

“Different from the princess I know. 7th Princess Rosewell was nice to me, she gave me a lot of time to do more than just magic. 9th Princess Cynthia was like a big sister. I hope I can meet her again some day.” Everyone thought it was a little awkward how he spoke about them, other than Zella who already knew about it, though she never actually met Cynthia.

“I wish I met her…. Have you heard anything about Relly? I haven’t been able to get anything from anyone no matter how many letters I send.”

“I will send a letter tonight, but I haven’t heard anything. I should send something to 9th Princess Cynthia also. I have other things I want to show everyone, but I might not get all of it done on time.”

Zella sighed, she had sent a letter a week every since she went to the academy. But she only ever got a letter back saying that they had no idea who she was asking for.

The rest of the meal was lighthearted, mostly just catching everyone else up to speed about what they were doing, Redmond mentioned he got a puppy from some people in the frontier but he left it at a nearby base to get proper military dog training, Amber was ecstatic to tell everyone that she was excelling at warmagic so much that she had already completed her classes early and was was being given advanced training. She was also taking a side class on soulsmithing, the name the kingdom had officially set for soul enchanting. She mentioned that she wanted Harlan to teach her while she was there. Harlan thought it was great that she wanted some help from him, he was also a little annoyed that they didn’t even tell him about the official name and he was apparently using the wrong name the entire time.

As lunch came to an end Harlan decided to ask Ibery if he could have a private chat. She seemed frazzled by the question, but said yes.

Harlan took her to the guest room that was still technically his but he hadn’t used since he had his place built.

“So. Ibery Blacktalon, you are a spy, and that is fine, as long as you are actually friends with Amber. But if you aren’t, I am definitely going to kill you.”

Harlan didn’t know that she could sweat, he thought it must’ve been part of her species past as humans that carried over. But to his surprise she broke out in a cold sweat instantly as he was done talking. She knew full well that she wasn’t the best combatant and that an enclosed space was the worst space to be in for a bird.

“I-I have no idea what you mean! I am just a normal student.”

Harlan drew Lugh and set him on fire, she tried to run for the door but Harlan had sealed it with some of his wood shaping magic when he closed the door.

“So you aren’t really her friend? You didn’t really answer the question.” He slowly walked towards her, both he and Lugh were upset, and their link started to mix a little bit of their souls in with the spell, the flames taking on black and white streaks.

“YES, YES WE ARE FRIENDS, I DIDN’T WANT TO DO ANYTHING. I WAS TOLD TOO!” She said as she banged on the door, but Harlan had already left behind a veil of silence.

Harlan stopped moving towards her.

“Do you think she is telling the truth?”

“Most likely, in the letter Dahlia gave us she said that Ibery met Amber before you were even released from the facility. The chances of her being a spy all that time are unlikely. Though not zero. We should watch her more.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

“Ok, I believe you. We can talk like normal people now.” She was still camped by the door, breathing heavily, he could actually hear her heartbeat, he thought that was very odd.

“Who are your people in a pact with? I am with my mother in the darkness, but we haven’t talked in a little while. Are your people also the kind that don’t like her? I think that the Ibexians are too hard on her.”

She now looked confused, but slightly disarmed by his sudden shift in mood.

“I… We, follow Caill. The veiled god of wind and storms, Opposite of Anu. And yes, we don’t care for the dark mother. She is behind the birth of…” She felt she had backed herself in a corner, she still thought Harlan could try to kill her, but she had already insulted his goddess, she didn’t want to insult his race as well.

“The fomorians, I know. It is totally fine to talk about it. I don’t mind. And why are you spying on me? Just for my magic, or is there something else at play?”

She seemed to finally be fully calmed.

“The matriarch of our clan is sick, she was hurt fighting yo- the fomorians. They hurt her soul, doctors haven’t been able to help her. So they wanted me to find out what you can do, and see about you helping her.”

“Hmm… alright, send them a letter, I am ok with working with them. But knock it off with the cloak and dagger stuff. I don’t care for all that. Honesty will get honesty. Sneaking around will have you dragged into the ground.“ Ibery had never heard his turn of phrase but ignored it.

They spent a few minutes speaking with each other, he told her about how Balor had healed him once in the past, and he was most likely the one who could heal their leader.

Then there was a knock at the door.

“Hey, are you guys done, we are going to have tea and catch up some more.” Amber tried to open the door, but it was still completely fused with the door frame.

Harlan walked past Ibery, purposely faking a defenseless stance with his back to her. She didn’t stab him in the back, saving her own life. And then Harlan unsealed the door.

“Yes. I would love some tea. Are you going to come as well Ibery?”

“Oh, uh. Yes, that does sound nice, Sir Fomoria.” Harlan gave her a stink eye for seeming so suspicious.

“You aren’t hitting on my friend are you? I didn’t expect you to be one of those people who liked beastkin… But I guess that would make some sense…” She could only hold a stone face for a few seconds before she loudly laughed.

“Yes, I have decided to marry her.” Harlan was much better at keeping a stone face for a joke. He walked past Amber and headed to the tea room without cracking in the slightest.

Amber and Ibery stared at each other in confusion, both beet red, though you couldn’t tell under Ibery’s feathers.