Only 4 hours had passed while he was speaking with the mother in the darkness.

There was time before dinner so he decided to take everyone out to the restaurant he liked in town. He also needed to deliver his message to the couriers.

Harlan spent his time on the way there in the now nearly full carriage explaining magic to Ava who had spent years honing her body instead. She still didn’t really care for it much but didn’t see any reason not to learn it since Breken told her she wasn’t allowed to do her normal training while he was gone.

“See, just take this water mana and this fire mana. Increase power to this part, and away from this part. And now instead of steam it is mist. Then, a little light magic and it is done.”

Harlan was making a rainbow in the carriage. Ibery was more impressed than Ava though. She was taking classes for illusion magic but Harlan’s method was entirely unstructured so it could change far more easily.

“Yeah, I guess that is neat. But it doesn’t help me much.”

Harlan was hoping to steer her away from just adding more combat magic, and instead having her learn small tricks that could turn the tides of a fight if used right. At least that is what the book he was reading said.

“Fine, how about this.”

Harlan flooded the carriage with mist. No one could even see their hands due to how thick he made it.

“Sir Fomoria. Please do not obstruct my vision while I am protecting you.” A sudden wind blew away the mist.

“No fun allowed.” Lugh said.

Everyone had a laugh at Dahlia’s expense.

“Ava, Harlan has a point. You would get more use out of some unique magics than you would from just shooting a bigger fireball. If you attack in early morning people won’t think much about a mist rolling in, and since there is already natural mist it doesn’t even cost that much to thicken and move it. But if you shoot a fireball it is just a fireball. You would be better off stabbing them most of the time. A fighter who has a larger kit will win most fights over someone who has just 1 good trick. That is why we can fight off so many magical beasts. Until they reach a very old age they are generally locked to just a single element and they don’t have the brains for advanced usage.”

Harlan’s next trick was a simple sound spell to mimic the others in the carriage.

“Ibery, say something.”

“I don’t really have much to say I suppose.”

Harlan had to refine it a few times but eventually he made the spell sound exactly like her.

“I don’t say much.”

“Please don’t do that. I don’t like hearing my own voice from you.” Ibery was unsettled at how in moments he could make it sound like she said something else. It was crude by the measure of any sound specialized mages but for someone without formal training it was disturbingly quick.

“Do you have any little tricks?”

“Only what I learned at the academy.”

“Why not just use what you learned to make something new then?”

“Magic is a science, one that requires foresight and trials to learn and develop. You can’t just wave your hands and make an illusion, it requires refinement, and then it should be turned into a structured spell to be more efficient. It is not a series of party tricks.”

“What is the base element used for most illusions?”

“Light.”

It took 15 minutes but Harlan had made an unstructured illusion of Brig forging a sword. Sound magic was used for the clanging of the hammer.

“Wow, that did take a lot more than I expected from me. But if you use a bunch of structured illusions don’t you lose most of the creative uses for illusions?”

Ibery was a little upset. She hadn’t expected him to make anything as detailed as that so quickly.

“What are your alignments?”

“Light, dark and fire.”

“Well, that explains how you did the illusion so quickly. But my point still stands.”

With a few waves of her hand and some subvocalization she created an illusion of a bird resting on her shoulder.

Harlan looked over it and it even cast a shadow, something which his did not. He grabbed the bird and it turned into a glittering puff of smoke.

Harlan tried for a few minutes before they reached the restaurant but he didn’t figure out why her’s reflected the light better than his, and why her’s had a shadow.

Ibery felt like she had won the exchange.

Everyone winced at the cost of the restaurant. But Harlan had never given any thought to it. His sense of value was completely destroyed by his lack of experience handling anything but gold coins.

Only after some back and forth did they agree to order more than the cheaper options on the menu.

It was a nearly perfect meal. Only somewhat interrupted by the rude look the party had been given by a waiter. But Harlan overlooked it, he was trying to not just fly off the handle at people, it wasn’t healthy and no harm was done. He was sure that no one but Dahlia even noticed.

“I am not sure what all of you want to do. But I have a meeting with the couriers. Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Spend as much as you like. Don’t worry about the costs.”

Harlan handed Redmond his bag of gold. It was nearly a month’s wages for him, Ava looked at it and started to feel a little more desire to learn magic.

Harlan walked into the couriers office shadowed by Dahlia.

“I will let you do some things to invade my privacy. But this is not about me, it is about them. And unless you get their permission you can stand outside.”

Dahlia gave him an annoyed look but didn’t say anything. Harlan asked if Zachery was in and then went to his office.

“Welcome back Ha-” he then noticed he had company.

“It is a pleasure to have you Sir Fomoria. Might I ask who your guest is?”

“Just a civil servant of sorts, no one to worry about.”

“I am Dahlia. I am a royal spy and I wish to stay near Harlan for fear of an imminent threat.”

“Right. Harlan, about what we talked about. Is that why you are here?”

“Are you sure you want to talk in front of her?”

“Of course. We here at the couriers guild strive to accommodate our host nation.”

“Please put up a privacy veil while we talk. Dahlia, there shouldn’t be any issues with this? Right?”

“Of course. Provided no national secrets are revealed there is no need for me to listen into a private conversation between two parties.”

Her face and her voice were at war with one another.

Once the veil was up Harlan explained everything he was told. Though he left out that it was specifically Relly who might have the ability to help them directly contact Aine. As well as what he knew about the fomorians and himself. He trusted Zach, and he trusted the others he met. But the elders gave the feeling of a disconnect between themselves and normal people that he just didn’t like.

“Well. Thank you for getting back so soon. I am a little embarrassed that I haven’t gotten back with even a quote on cheese while you are here after less than a day and you talked to a god.”

“Don’t worry about it. I am only limited by having a safe place to have the chat and then coming back here. Your guys are going to head to a larger town or find a merchant who specializes in imports. Then come back here.”

“Ugh, tell me about it. I wish there was some way to just leave gates up and running. Only the bigshots get to use the spell for transport. Imagine what we could do with just a single gate. Anywhere in 300 miles would be just a step away.”

Harlan had a thought about that.

“Has anyone tried to use soulsmithing to make a gate like that?”

“We did. But dimensional magic is odd. You can’t just cast a gate, you need to visualize where you want to go. Your items aren’t smart enough to do that. No offense intended.”

“None taken.”

Harlan knew the solution. But it made his stomach churn, for him to make what to him would be a slave didn’t sit well with him at all. He didn’t teach how to make a true living item to anyone but the royal mages and Dearil. And he was starting to get a bad feeling about even spreading it to them.

“Kid? You ok? You’ve been staring at the floor for a little bit too long.”

“Yeah. Sorry. Just a wandering mind.”

“Don’t worry about it. So, you got anything else to add? I’m not rushing you out of here but your guard is starting to look upset.”

“Right. I guess this is goodbye then. Wish I had better answers.” Harlan shook his hand and then left.

As he got outside he noticed a commotion around his carriage.

A young guard was yelling at his driver and not getting any response.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“Is this your carriage?”

“Yes.”

“Well, we are expecting high traffic due to diplomats coming soon and it needs to be moved. And your driver refuses to answer any of my questions.”

Harlan whistled and the driver took off his hood. Revealing a mostly featureless wooden face. Harlan lifted up the coats on the horses to reveal they were golems too.

“Sorry about the confusion. I need to change their designs to answer simple questions it seems. Won’t happen again.”

The man looked at Harlan, then at the crest on the carriage. He barely stammered out an apology before he left. Harlan could hear the sound of him running through the mud once he was out of sight.

A perfect way to ruin his mood.

Dahlia and him moved the carriage and kept an eye out for the others.

“You see what I mean about the rumors?”

“Yeah, idiots believe them.”

“No. You don’t have any reputation other than the strange noble who lives in a fortress in the woods and builds golems.”

“I’ve been making toys and selling them at very cheap prices for months. I know people are buying them since I keep getting orders from the store when they run out.”

“Great. So you have children who either don’t know you or think you just make toys. Maybe you can get a reputation as the toymaker noble who keeps delivering thieves encased in stone.”

“So what, I am just screwed either way? I can’t just not deliver the thieves, and I can’t just kill them.”

“Why not hire someone who can make these runs to town for you? A human face to put to these deeds. This is what I mean by people knowing you only from the rumors. You seemed to quite like that restaurant, correct? And yet no one knows who you are. That is why the waiter gave us that look. A ranger, a beast, a teenage girl, and a child noble who they don’t know. What about selling golems to the guard? Getting people used to seeing them around. You want to sit in the woods and get angry at the world for not changing quickly enough. You have radically changed things but you don’t even have the world experience to know what you changed.”

“A beast? How about you have some tact.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“Fine. I’ll find someone who I can hire, and I’ll ask about golems for the guard, reduced cost even.”

“Good. We should stop by the guards now, the others will wander around town and see us eventually.”

Harlan didn’t much appreciate Dahlia’s change in personality. The snarky woman who thinks she can teach him to have a better public image was far less endearing than the serious woman who was just looking out for him. She was starting to remind him of Rosewell in a way, which just jumbled his thoughts about her further.

“Hello. Is the guard captain in?”

“What is your reason for visiting?”

“I want to offer him my services and to see about hiring someone.”

The man looked at Harlan and then to the captains door.

“Yep. He is in.”

Harlan knocked on the door and was told to enter.

The guard captain looked more or less as Harlan remembered. His hair was now more white, but he didn’t look old other than that.

“Greeting Sir Fomoria. What can I do for you today?”

“Do you have a recently retired guard or one nearing retirement.” Harlan hated the accusation he could already see in his eyes.

“For what reason are you looking for one? So I can give you a better answer.”

“I want someone who can take the prisoners who try to steal from me here, providing a face to the people. There are misunderstandings from some people in town. And I think having someone would make people more accepting of my golems.” The captain had the gall to look offended by Harlan’s tone.

“Oh really? Well, you can lodge a formal complaint against anyone who has caused you undue insult and we can fine them.”

Harlan took a breath, mentally stepped away from the conversation for a moment. And then spoke.

“I don’t think this is going to work out. I am leaving.”

“Well, that is a shame.” He put his hand out for a shake. Harlan nearly struck him, instead he simply refused his hand.

He and Dahlia were now just wandering around in the carriage looking for the rest of their group.

“That could’ve gone worse. And you should’ve put him in his place, he is the town guard, you are a noble.”

“Oh? Really? I should’ve? So should I be the kind man or should I be the wrathful one? Should I just go after everyone who insults me? Because you are giving me some mixed signals about this stuff.”

Dahlia didn’t answer.

But if glares could kill then Harlan would fit in his shoe.