After checking on the carriage golems Harlan went back inside to awkwardly apologize again.

Isha wasn’t upset, more annoyed at his lack of tact. Sara thought it was a great deal of fun however.

Breakfast passed without any more incidents, Dahlia didn’t throw chains around his neck so he figured things were fine.

They were on their way to Redwall mansion as planned.

“So, Harlan. What were you teaching Ava? Can I know?” Zella was awake the night before and head how late Ava had come out from the bunker.

“Just how to put spells in soulsmithed items. On the side I was testing some other stuff.”

“Can you teach me anything? Seems that is the only time I get to spend with you.”

Zella thought it was a funny joke, Harlan pretended to agree.

“Sure, you probably can’t figure it out before we get there. But I can use your hairclips for testing, just keep it a small spell.”

“How do I know if a spell is small? Technically a fireball is small spell if it's just mana use.”

“Well that is exactly what I mean. I could make each of those hair clips able to cast fireballs, but they don’t have much mana. I made that cold fire as efficient as I could, but they will fade away in about 3 hours. I think maybe you could do 1 good fireball, or 12 small ones. I guess you could also intentionally burn out the whole thing for a really good fireball.” Harlan gripped his left arm, remembering how not having it for a day felt.

“What did you do with your left arm?” Dahlia asked, she already knew full well what he did but wanted to annoy him anyway for dodging her questions last night.

“I have no idea what you mean.” Harlan’s answer was a bit too rushed and everyone knew he did something with it.

“You don’t have scales on it, right? I hope you didn’t do that yet.”

Harlan shushed Ava but now the carriage was filled with questions that Harlan didn’t want to answer.

Dahlia didn’t directly ask anything again, it wouldn’t be good manners to do so. But she wanted to know the answer.

Ava and Zella had no such issues with good manners. Friends and family could ignore them without a care in the world.

“Come on, show me your arm. I won’t tell anyone. I just want to know.”

“Why does she think you have scales?”

Harlan taking his jacket and shirt off didn’t satisfy either side, but Harlan hoped it would make things awkward and derail their train of thought.

But Ava had seen Harlan’s diapers changed and had no shame seeing him bare chested.

“If you didn’t do that thing I am not supposed to talk about then what is wrong with your arm? Come on, just tell us. I won’t tell mom and dad.”

10 minutes passed and Harlan couldn’t move the conversation an inch, teaching Zella wouldn’t be possible like this.

“Fine, I blew my arm off in an experiment and I had to get it regrown by the doctor in town. Zella, do you still want me to teach you?”

“What? Why didn’t you tell us? Mom and dad would’ve visited while you were hurt.”

“Harlan, this isn’t something to hide. You know how upset they are going to be when they hear this.” Redmond had lost limbs before, it was a feeling that stuck with you.

“That is exactly the point. I was completely fine, Lugh stopped the bleeding and Balor put me in the carriage by calling the golems to get me. I was only in town for the night since I heal faster. I only lost upto my elbow anyway.”

“Lugh knows healing magic?”

“No, I don’t. I just used fire.”

Harlan wished he could make Lugh stop talking.

At this point all attempts at changing the topic were like trying to mud wrestle a boar, which Harlan had also done once when one rushed through the town. Balor wasn’t happy when that happened.

After another 30 minutes of concerns being voiced Harlan convinced them not to tell anyone else about his arm. He still wasn't sure if they were really going to keep quiet, so he finally said he would tell his parents himself before he left for academy.

“Zella, let me show you how to put a spell in something then finally.”

“Right. I’m sorry about before.”

“Ava wouldn’t have taken no for an answer anyway. Anyway, just hold the spellform in your mind. Don’t try to force the item, just hold it and it will learn, souls love gaining information.”

It didn’t take more than an hour for her to learn it, much to the chagrin of Ava.

“Come on, it took me a day to figure that out.”

“Zella has been training for a year on top of her other stuff from the facility. You have been swinging around a sword and saying you don’t need magic. Plus, that bit about not forcing it was something I learned by teaching you. If you had asked for more help from the start instead of saying you will figure it out with only a few hints maybe you would’ve learned it faster.”

“It’s still unfair.”

“Wrong. Maybe you should see how long it takes her to learn a fighting form.”

“No, I don’t think I want to learn how to use a sword.” Zella had already spent her time learning to fight with her hair, she had no desire to pick up any other weapons.

Ava couldn’t decide if she wanted to be smug about being a weapons prodigy or not.

So she simply asked Harlan to teach her more weird little spell tricks.

Zella had kept enchanting each of her hairclips with different spells.

The carriage suddenly halted, throwing everyone forward.

Harlan stepped out to find a group of men blocking his path, he wondered if they were a bit slow.

“Are you idiots?”

“Give us your coins and we won’t harm anyone. Your clothes and weapons too.”

Harlan noticed something was off and waved for everyone else to stay inside.

The men were clean, far too clean for bandits. Their outfits had clearly been fitted for each man, and each of them matched the other, as if they had a bandit uniform.

“Whoever sent you needs to learn what a bandit looks like. Now, I am going to warn you just once, leave now or I will capture each of you and send you off to be questioned.”

The men shared a look, befuddlement that a child was threatening them.

So they approached Harlan without a single sign of fear, and Harlan backed up towards the carriage.

Once in range Harlan whistled, activating spells the carriage held. The men should’ve been buried up to their necks, but instead they dodge as they felt the ground shift, clearly Harlan’s favorite trick was getting around.

Harlan had hoped that it would be that easy.

Another whistle sent out a fireball. He couldn’t control them now that they were set in his parameters for the carriage, it struck center mass on the slowest target.

The man who was hit screamed as the fireball burned a cavity in his chest, flames bursting from his mouth as the fire burned past the ribcage, spreading the smell of burnt pork wafting through the air and silencing him as his lungs burned. Harlan didn’t expect it to be so loud, he was distracted by the screaming. He wanted it to stop. He felt nauseous. He couldn’t think straight. He only tested his weapons on dummies before.

By the time he realized that he should be moving again it was over. Dahlia and Redmond cleaned up the other 2 men and put the last one out of his misery.

“Harlan, are you ok?” He hated hearing that pity in Redmond’s voice, he was fine.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m alright.”

Redmond helped move the men who were now sleeping from his spell onto the roof with the restraints holding them tightly.

Then he helped Harlan back inside the carriage. He sat next to him and put up a privacy veil once they were moving again.

“You are not ok. I can tell you that now. Killing people, hearing them scream as they burn, it isn’t easy, it isn’t normal. Especially when you directly cause it. You will be alright, but you can’t treat this like a game where you beat up the bad guys and everything is ok. You hadn’t killed anyone on purpose before, right?”

“No… I haven’t.”

“You are too used to looking at violence from the outside. That fireball you shot out of this thing was never a pretty way to go. Killing… it isn’t going to get easier, but you won’t think about it as much. Letting these guys live is worse than just killing them, they will be tortured to death, but think about it like this. If we learn anything from them then maybe you or your people or our family won’t be in danger. I am not going to tell you to be ok with it. But a pint of blood sometimes saves a gallon later. You know what I mean? And… I don’t really want to say it, and never tell my sister I said this, but sometimes examples should be. When whoever sent them after you sees the man with his chest burned out like a log they should know better than to try it again.”

“Yeah. I think I understand...”

Harlan took deep breaths, he tried to find his center, to calm down. And eventually he did. Then he noticed how quiet it was. And Dahlia wasn’t with them anymore.

“How long was I out? Where is Dahlia?”

“Not too long, we stopped in town on the way. Well, we couldn’t actually stop. But Dahlia tossed the guys off the top of the carriage and stayed behind to report it and question them when they wake up.” Redmond pretended he was being casual, but he was on edge and looking for anyone else trying to ambush them.

“Harlan… Are you ok?” Zella knew how he was, she had already gone through the shock of hearing someone as they died and begged for their life.

“I will be.” Harlan stepped back from his panic for just a moment, it wasn’t pity, but worry he could see in their eyes.

“How has the academy been? Anything you can tell me about it.”

“Well, it is alright, I wish the rooms were bigger and the carpet was softer. But it is nice to not need to bring anything with me. I have a bed and a desk, a bathroom with plumbing. The food is really good, there is a free option and some extra stuff if you pay, it is even open until late at night if you need to eat while studying. But there is a lot of stuff they said I can’t tell you in particular… You’ll be fine. I know you will.”

“How ominous, you almost sound like me.”

silence.

“It is alright, you can laugh.”

“You are really ok right now?” Ava saw how he was all those months back, she was worried about how vacant he looked as he stepped inside the carriage.

“Yes, I am completely fine. I mean, I will be. I just need to calm my nerves. Maybe I need a heated cup? I could bring tea with me anywhere.”

“What I wouldn’t give to have something like that, winter is brutal. Winds so strong I could barely start a fire, water only came from the snow since the rivers and lakes were frozen so deeply. Never move to the frontier kid.” Redmond tried to keep the conversation going, and away from any darker topics. If there was anything he thought he knew, it was to just push aside the issue of post combat trauma until you didn't think about it anymore. As was standard training for soldiers of Ragne

“I would want one just for studying, the halls are creepy sometimes during the night when I just want some tea.”

“I will work on more kettles and hotplates before I leave. Maybe the army can work on giving them out to all the rangers.”

“Well, you would get a lot of friends in the rangers.”

The tension was broken, Ava even joined in on what would be nice to have around and if Harlan could make one for her.