Harlan felt oddly disconnected with the trial now that he had explained everything, he had been wronged, clearly he had been. But compared to the anger he felt over his family being turned into bait for assassins it felt distant.

“Less than a week left. Then I’m gone for 11 months of the year.”

“Things will work out… Honestly, I was worried before. But, you've grown up some. You can be the bigger man when you need to be, even if you shouldn’t need to be.”

“Heh. Balor told me something like that too. Maybe it is even true.” Harlan’s mood was soured now.

“Oh, something came earlier, it is from the confederacy. They said only you could open it, but they let Balor take the package. I think he took it down to your hole in the ground.”

“I call it the bunker.”

Harlow shrugged. Aida wanted to say something, but she just left it as is.

Harlan noticed, but he didn’t want to talk about whatever it was.

Down in the bunker Balor and Lugh were talking about something, but they stopped as soon as Harlan got near.

“I heard-”

“I’m sorry, Balor wanted me to keep it a secret. That is why I was so quiet.” Lugh was upset, he didn’t like hiding things, last time he did Harlan didn’t talk with The Dark Mother for months.

“Were you quiet?”

“Harlan, I feel like I shouldn’t need to tell you this, but not speaking to anyone for days on end, it isn’t normal for people.”

“Really? Wait, that isn’t important. Lugh, it is fine. You and Balor are your own people, I can’t keep you caged up if you want to leave. Or if you want to stay.” Harlan was half lying to himself, if both his brothers stayed behind he would be upset, but he wouldn’t try to stop them.

“NO! I want to see the academy. I want to go where more people are! I wonder what birds and flowers they have…” Lugh started to just hum a tune to himself and float around the room, looking over the few plants Harlan moved down here to make it feel less like the facility.

“RIght, we have gone off track, I assume you are here for the packages?”

“Yes. Did you open them?”

“I abided by the rules given, the courier was very sure that no one was allowed to open them other than you. They are actually in the private room. I didn’t ask this before… But while you are gone, what limits should I place on my spending?”

“Unless Garad yells at you for spending too much and everyone is paid I don’t care what you spend, hire more people if you need to, build more golems, you are going to want to contact the couriers for a rabbit supplier. I had a thought about lending out the golems for clearings. Just stick a light spell on them and they could probably do a lot of the work on their own, but I don’t know if I want them doing work on their own. People need to see them doing good things. The trees already know to kill goblins and wargs on sight unless there is a skoll or fenrir nearby, I don’t want to antagonize them. Sorry, I’m rambling. I’m going to check out the books.”

Harlan went to the private room and unwrapped the books, they were bound in some warded cloth, Harlan wondered why they didn’t put them in boxes, but it really didn’t matter.

Secrets of telekinesis by Sibress Whitebeak

Secrets of none-avian flight by Eldren Softwing

Harlan figured flight was going to be a bigger subject, and he really wanted to find out if telekinesis would let him do what he hoped it would.

He read the opening chapter over and over again, realizing it wasn’t as great of a deal as he thought since the book never directly said how to actually do telekinesis.

He was eyeing the book on flight with disdain, expecting it to be another worthless book until he found out the basics of flight.

But by the 5th rereading he realized what telekinesis was, extending the soul out of the body and granting it physical power. He kept at it, trying to interpret the advanced tricks into what the basic form probably looked like.

But after an hour he was doing no better than at the start, he gave up and went to read later chapters hoping to find something that actually helped.

He wanted to beat himself once he read the last chapter.

Secrets to teaching students quickly through odd or esoteric methods.

He was all about odd and esoteric methods, he was annoyed further when one of the methods labeled as “quite safe” was to bleed the student, the soul naturally leaves blood and returns to the body, if he really paid attention he should eventually feel it as the soul comes back, giving him a “sense of feeling and control of the soul outside the body.” He wasn’t going to do that until checked the rest of the chapter.

Labeled under “only in worst case” was to “bleed the student until their heart stops, then revive the student, repeat process until feeling of the soul is found.” He liked the idea, he already had a fair share of near death experiences, but he figured he would wait for a bit.

He went upstairs to get a knife to bleed himself only to find that Sara and Isha were in the kitchen, nearly done with breakfast.

“Oh, Harlan. I was about to get you. You normally aren’t this late for breakfast.”

“What? I thought it was only…” He started thinking he needed to start casting ring of light whenever he was alone, if he had started doing tests with unknown spells without thinking about costs he could pass out or eat away at himself without even realizing it.

“Only what?”

“Sorry. I thought it wasn’t so early. I was doing some reading, lost track of time.”

“There was something I wanted to ask you about… No, nevermind.” Harlan hadn’t seen her so flustered in some time, he went over every part of female behavior he had read about.

He threw away the idea of infatuation with him, they already had a talk about that and she understood he had no intentions with her. Then he started thinking about the chances of her bei-

“She wants to go to the maiden festival.” Sara blurted out between sips of her tea. Isha was flushed red and struck her. That was new for Harlan, but he was glad she could act normally around him.

"Ok? Why would I stop her?"

"Well... You don't have many people to work for you. I also wanted to ask if you would give me a loan for a dowry..."

Harlan felt a little bad for her, and he felt awkward for himself. He thought of himself as brotherly with her, he was potentially willing to kill someone who treated her poorly enough. He scratched his chin and thought for a time. Isha was tense, Sara was eating eggs and toast.

“Are you planning to leave?”

“Ah. Well, I was hoping that I might be allowed to live elsewhere while you are away, and then come back while you are here for the summers.”

“And once I am done with the academy? I’ll be here all the time.”

“I don’t know…”

“If you want another house here? I’ll make it. I will pay for your dowry. Don't worry about paying it back either. If you want to leave, that is fine too. I think of you like a cousin, though I don't actually have any. If your husband, since I know you can find one. Ever hurts you, come to me, if I am not here, come to Balor. Either they will end up in a grave or a courtroom.”

Isha felt overjoyed, ignoring the threat to her theoretical husband, he truly cared for her, and not in the way her mother warned her about.

Harlan reveled in this, feeling her joy like it was his own. He felt wonderful, the rage was pushed further back in his mind.

He even started humming the same tune Isha liked to hum.

Isha thought it was sweet that he knew the song from her, Sara thought it was creepy.

He finished eating before everyone else was even awake, then he went back down to work on learning telekinesis.

But he was in such a good mood that he decided to ask some questions, normally he felt like his relationship with her was more tenuous and he felt like he learned more horrible truths each time, he thought everything would turn out right this time for some reason.

He went below the bunker and mediated.

“My child, you have quite the mood this time. How can I help?”

“I was wondering if everyone is connected by some kind of giant web of souls. I forgot to ask last time we talked.”

“That is quite the question to ask. Especially considering how you are. But I suppose I’ve not spoken of such things.”

“Really? What does that mean?” Anyone who really knew him would be shocked that he could even say that in such a happy mood instead of with layers and layers of paranoia and skepticism.

“You are connected strongly to the web right now, feeding on the joy of one, the rage of another. You have done it so many times already. I hoped that you would discover what you can do before now, but I’ve been reading the threads of fate. I believe that now is the ideal time to show you.”

“Really? Thank you.”

“Do you know of mind magics?”

“No, unless the soul speaking is mind magic?”

“It was a trick question, any child of the 3rd age has such powers sealed from them, unless of course a magnanimous goddess wants a people to have some form of it. My children, of which you are, are empathic. You feel how others feel, this was once just having intuition of what others feelings, but now. You have gone past that. Now you are felling how they feel, but without training, it… Hasn’t gone well for you. I shall show you now what you might’ve been taught by the tribe. The threads show much, you are very likely to slaughter a great deal without good reason. This path I hope will be… better.”

Harlan was excited! He would get to be taught directly by her. Who did she think she was to teach him? Was he even worth teaching?

“I said I would show you, I didn’t say I would explain. Just try to fight what you think is wrong, know when your mind is being affected. Eventually you will gain that sense of mind, and it will help with that other skill you wish to learn. The soul and mind are so alike, and yet not. But enough, let us start again. I will wrap us in the minute hours, I wouldn’t want you to miss your appointment.”

He was confused about what appointment he even had, he didn’t have anything planned that day, and how did she even know that? Why does she think she knows best? Maybe she did know best? He just needed to trust her.

He was getting very annoyed by switching around like this, and this time it was his true feelings.