Dinner came and went.

Redmond and Ava decided to head over to Harlan’s place, the others would be coming another day.

Harlan was riding in his carriage along with Ibery and Redmond.

Harlan decided that Balor should take over the conversation.

“Ibery, what exactly are you going to write? I think it is important to us that you don’t write anything that will be... misinterpreted. Harlan wasn’t really going to kill you back there, he just didn’t like the idea of you using Amber as a pawn.” Harlan kept his mind very, very quiet, so as to not let his real feelings on that matter free.

“Ah, Right. I was just going to mention that he had agreed to help us after I spoke with him… I hope you don’t mind if I leave out everything else that happened in the room.”

“Agreed? It would be best for us to not poison the well by mentioning the death threat, even if it was only a scare tactic.”

“I don’t mind. It would be kinda awkward since she is the grand niece of the person they want us to heal.”

“Yes, that is fine. It could only cause friction to let them know the extent of our talks. I do hope that if they question you that you can avoid telling them, if you will break, it is better you simply tell them now and we deal with it, instead of them thinking we threatened you to keep quiet.”

“I may not look like it after all that happened, but I can hold up under pressure. You just threw me for a loop and then trapped me in a room where I could never win a fight.”

Harlan threw a punch and she strongly flinched back.

“Just tell them what happened. If they have a problem with it I’ll tell them that they can just leave if they don’t like it. I am beyond the point of accepting that people want to use my friends and family to manipulate me. There is a limit to how much I can rebel against some people, but if you were tried as a spy you could’ve been executed anyway.“

Redmond jumped in.

“Why don’t we calm down a bit. Ibery, you know you did something wrong and you feel bad about it, right? Harlan, please don’t threaten Amber’s friend anymore. You are just a little shaken up.” Redmond used the term friend in the hopes to let Harlan think of her beyond their poor start.

They reached the village of Luth, and headed right for the couriers office.

“Welcome Sir Fomoria. How can we help you tonight?” There were few people who Harlan had as true allies who didn’t want to exploit him. The couriers were one of them, and the ones who knew what the couriers actually were treated him more like a friend then just another client.

“I have letters I need to write and send, do you mind if I use one of the private rooms? Just bring the paper and writing tools to us.”

“That is fine. How many letters do you plan to send?”

Harlan double checked in his head, he wanted to write to Reet, Ky, Cynthia, and then the crown.

“Four for me, just one for my friend here. Unless you want to write more letters? I am paying anyway.”

“Just one is fine.”

“The room at the far end of the right hall is free currently. Do you have time to speak with the branch manager tonight? Or should we schedule with your house manager?”

Harlan thought for a moment.

“I will be in here tomorrow morning with packages to send out, we can talk then if that is acceptable.”

“I will double check with the branch manager. But that should be fine. Thank you for your time.”

Harlan and Ibery went to the room, Redmond and Ava decided to check out the village.

Harlan first wrote to Reet.

“Sorry for not writing during the time I have been back, I kept getting into experiments and work so often since I got out, I am even a noble now. I heard you were a blacksmith's apprentice. I know a blacksmith here, a grouchy old man, but I think he is actually pretty nice. Zella is here with me, I’m going to the academy in a month to learn more about magic. After I am done I hope to head out to the north and visit you, track down Ky, do a few other things. Here is a few gold coins, I have been making good money with my work and I want you to buy something for yourself or your family with this.”

Then Ky.

“I hope you receive this, I am writing this at the start of the 5th month here in the village of Luth. I heard you stopped by before leaving for training camp. I’ve been doing a lot of things around here with magic. I am a noble now. But I am mostly just doing experiments with magic, I won’t be running a Barony or anything. Hope to visit you once I am done with the academy. Here are a few gold coins, buy some comforts with it, being out in the frontier is hard on people, unwind a bit.”

Cynthia.

“9th Princess Cynthia, now Duchess Cynthia Greenfield. I hope you are well, have you had any children yet? If you have, please wait until they are 10 or older before sending them to learn from me. If they take on your personality and my talents then you will never be able to keep them from causing trouble. I may have caused a small problem involving a spy and the sense of humor you taught me to enjoy, but in my defense it was quite funny. If you can, please send a letter telling me your favorite animal. Best wishes, Sir Harlan Fomoria. P.S I hope to visit you once I have finished my time at the academy.” He felt awkward writing to her, he wasn’t sure if anyone else would be reading it before it reached her and so didn’t want to be too jokey and end up fined by the crown for insulting a member of the royal family without just cause.

The last letter took the longest. He wasn’t even sure exactly who he was writing to. The crown as an organization, or should be writing directly to Rosewell?

Eventually he decided.

“7th Princess Rosewell. I am contacting you in the hopes that you will give me any information you are allowed about Esparella. I have been told that the crown has refused to send such information to a close friend of ours and I hope that my position in the kingdom will grant me such a privilege. Best wishes, Sir Harlan Fomoria. P.S I wish for a long conversation some day.”

Ibery saw he was finally done.

“Do you need to read my letter?”

“No, I will trust you because Amber trusts you. And I think we both want this to work out.”

Harlan stamped all of the letters with his crest and delivered them to the front desk.

“All done.” Harlan tried to give her coins for the letter but she refused them.

“Your gifts have given us more than you could ever spend sending letters and packages. So the couriers guild will waive the fees for you until a time when we feel our debt has been settled.”

Ibery had her feathers on end, she was barely a noble of any kind, but she knew what the couriers were. And the implications of gifts from a fomorian to the false undead was something she wished she hadn’t heard.

Harlan left the couriers office and walked to the place he figured Ava and Redmond would be.

“Hey Brig, have you seen Ava?”

“Aye. She stopped by and picked up some plates. Her an’ your uncle looked round’ the shop a time fore’ they went off elsewhere. Ya got time ta take more work?”

“Yeah, I should be able to. I will take these tonight and I should have them all ready by morning, I will be coming into town myself.”

“Aye. see ya then. It’s all in the back like normal.”

Harlan brought the carriage over, Redmond and Ava had already been waiting inside. Redmond helped to load the boxes of equipment onto the top of the carriage and they were off.

It was a quiet trip through the woods. Harlan kept saying he needed to make a proper road leading to his place but it was only barely marked by the tracks of his golems coming and going.

He figured he would get around to it if he had time that night.

When he got to the walls of his little fortress he noticed people waiting outside. He stepped out and shined a light on them. Dahlia was in the front, the guards around here were golems. 8 feet tall at least, their inner workings hidden under a gold plated armor. They were like giant suits of armor, Harlan thought the kingdom would’ve gone with something more human looking. The 4 of them gave off no pressure like a person did, Harlan couldn’t tell if they were dangerous or not.

“Welcome to my home, might I ask why you are here?”

“These are troubling times, I heard there was a spy around here. You haven’t seen any suspicious people, have you?”

“I am tired, I don’t want to play word games. I have a letter from the baron turning her over to me. Unless you have another official document saying you get her. I would like to get them settled for the night. If there is another reason for us to speak, I have no issues with that.”

Dahlia dropped her fake smile.

“Just wanted to make sure you were taking this seriously. And I would like to openly stay here to keep an eye on you, the golems are here for both of our safety. And yes, there is another conversation I would like to have.” Harlan let out a sigh.

“Alright, everyone come on inside. I will show you the rooms.”

As they all stepped inside Harlan grabbed a rod on the wall and gave new targeting orders to his defenses.

His servants also came out to greet him as soon as he stepped inside.

“Welcome home.” Isha realized there was more than just him and stood straighter.

“How may I help your guests? Is there anything to carry? Shall I prepare a meal?‘

“Tell Sara to get the loading golems and take the boxes on the roof to my workshop. You can get out the extra bed sets, these 4 will be staying in the main building with me. Dahlia, would you like some food?”

“No. I will be fine.”

“Get out 6 steaks and a dozen eggs from the cold room, after you are done with the bedrooms. I will be working tonight, but you do not need to cook them yourself.”

“As you command.”

They reached his home, a cabin not unlike his original, but much larger. He had expanded it during the winter months as a project to just see how much he could grow. There was now a second floor and a large foyer. It had 6 guest rooms, each with a bathroom. He made a reading room/library. But he didn’t actually have many books. There was an office that was just a desk, a table, and some chairs. It was just because he wanted to make another room the same size as the reading room on the other side of the house. There was a large kitchen and dining room with his soulsmithed stove, though he realized later that he should’ve just made the pans themselves able to heat up. But the stove looked nice and Isha felt more comfortable using it.

The bunker underneath was technically his real home, but he didn’t care for how cold and lifeless it was. He loved it when he was exploding things, living or otherwise, but he had grown up with his family in a home, then taken away and put in the facility. He didn’t like the reminder whenever he saw its cold and sterile white walls.

“Ibery, Dahlia, you two can take the rooms to the left and right of the master bedroom. Which is the one at the top of the stairs with the double doors. Ava, Redmond. You can pick any of the 4 below those, I made signs for the doors. The keys are inside the rooms in case you ever want to lock the doors. They are all more or less the same. Kitchen is open to any of you, there is a box of vegetables, and a box of meats, the cabinets are stocked with the essentials. There is a sign with instructions on how everything works. If you need any help just ring a bell and you can ask questions.”

Everyone felt quite a bit overwhelmed by the house. Harlan had tinkered and changed things over the course of months. He didn’t think much about everything he made. And he had very few points of comparison. Many of the tasks he left up to golems were things that were just handled by servants in noble mansions.

Ava immediately checked out her room, she was confused however and called in Harlan when she couldn’t find the key.

“Harlan, where is the key? And what are all these knobs in the bathroom?”

“The key is that metal rod there. Push your mana inside it and it will hold onto it until it is discharged using a different device that I have. I have no idea how to make proper locks so I am just using magic for this stuff. The door just welds itself closed when you lock it. As for the knobs. This one is hot water, this one is cold water. This one is water pressure. This one is to drain the water back into the cleaning tank. This one is air gusts to dry yourself off. You know what, let me just make some signs here.” Harlan send commands to the house, the wooden paneling near the knobs in each bathroom changed, words showed up with instructions on the uses of everything.

It had taken a long time and a lot of money for Harlan to effectively soulsmith the house. He tried it with a bunch of smaller crystals but they would burn out due to the mana flowing through them. His wallet still bled over the gold he had spent on the very large high grade gems he was using for the oversoul.

Dahlia had a much different reaction. She wanted a few of the things he had made, the kingdom was working mostly to make weapons of war. For an agent in the field having a stovetop that just made heat instead of needing to make a fire was wonderful. She wouldn’t need to worry as much about revealing her position to enemies or leaving signs of her passing anymore.

She wanted to ask him about these inventions of his when she had her longer conversation with him.

Ibery had been in the bathroom as the words showed up on the walls. She was realizing that the house was potentially a giant deathtrap for her.

After everyone went to their rooms for the night Harlan went down the hidden staircase leading to his bunker. He had a few things he wanted to do. Most pressing was to build a golem that could make a proper stone road to his home. He would be hosting foreigners, though he wasn’t sure how all the ranks worked, he figured a matriarch could be either the leader of a small clan in tytoan society, or it could mean she is a queen, she could even just be someones grandma. But he figured that wasn’t going to be the case. Most families didn’t have spies.

He started by making a clay model, he had the idea already but he hadn’t made any physical models. Harlan shaped and tested the long worm like golem, every hour he would go upstairs and cook 2 eggs and a steak. Balor and him had run the numbers, and the cost of making a model that actually functioned and testing it was more than the cost of food for him to make a clay model, harden it to stone, and then test how it moved. Magic was cheap if used the right way. After his last steak was done he decided to actually make the golem. It would compress the dirt into stone and then move the dirt around until it was more or less level so as to not leave divots on the side of the road. He didn’t want any carts to slip off and run into trouble getting back on the road, or for a horse to twist an ankle.

So he carved the wood, then shaped it as needed for the more delicate parts. Then he opened his box of mana gems and filled one, his experiments had gotten out of hand. The box was nearly empty after all kinds of other experiments, he mentally added it to his list of things to place orders for.

Then as he activated his newest golem he went back inside, figuring that it wasn’t dangerous enough for him to need to watch it work.

He spent the next hour enchanting the items sent by Brig. Only stopping when the others started to stir from their sleep. Isha and Sara had been up for a time already. They were just now finishing up the parts of breakfast that would need time to complete, like the fresh bread and jam.

The first to leave their room was Dahlia.

“Sleep well?”

“I try not to sleep when a mission like this is ongoing.”

Harlan waited for the others. He wanted to speak about things over breakfast.