Harlan received a letter from Redwall saying he would be too busy to visit him, but that he sends his regards and that Autumn and Jaramis would be there tomorrow for dinner.

Ava was out on a mission with Breken, just them trying to gather proof that a merchant is buying and selling stolen merchandise, Redwall assured him it was nothing dangerous.

Balor said he would like to come over but he was in the middle of a few large deals and he didn’t know if he

could make it before Harlan had to leave.

Isha had delivered that letter and Harlan invited her to stay for a while.

Aida was making breakfast and Isha tried to help.

“Nonsense, you are a guest now, why don’t you catch up with Harlan?”

“I am not sure it would be proper of me, I am a maid, I should-”

“You aren’t going to win against my wife, just sit down.”

She was clearly uncomfortable with the whole thing, but she still sat down.

“So, Harlan, what have you been doing?”

Harlan went over some of the things he had learned, who his friends were.

“A spy? I… I don’t think you should be with her. It is too dangerous.”

“Funny, she said the same thing when she tried to stop being my friend. I don’t believe that she is a bad person, just from a bad place, raised by bad people, she needs someone… someone not the same as them.”

“You mean she needs something good, don’t sit there and act like you aren’t good.”

Isha placed her hand on his for a moment before breaking off contact, she didn’t know Harlow and Aida well enough to be touchy feely with them around.

“Before I came here, I broke a boy's hands twice, then I healed them. I reacted without thinking and I hurt him, then I realized what I was doing and hurt him again. I am not a good person just because I am better than others.”

“Hush now, you had a reason right? You’re under a lot of stress, and I bet he did something to you. Am I right?”

“Mom, he tried to push a book out of my hands, it was minor and petty. I… I am not sure if I should be going back even, but I don’t know if I can stay.”

“Of course you can stay, you’ll always have a home here, and you have your place out in the woods.”

“Thats not… I can’t go into details, there are people listening even now.”

“Honey, you need to get rid of that paranoia of yours, you are safe here.”

Harlan tossed his plate towards a seemingly empty corner and it shattered against one of The Unseen, the man was surprised, it was a completely out of place action and he didn’t sense it coming in the slightest.

“One of your guards, courtesy of 7th Princess Rosewell. They are always around even if you can’t see them, they won’t go in the bedrooms or bathrooms though. I am sure Dahlia will yell at me for this, I am not paranoid, they aren’t out to get me but that doesn’t mean I trust any of them.”

As if he had directly called for her, Dahlia was there by the time he finished breakfast.

“Greetings, I assume you want to speak privately?”

She hadn’t even dropped her cloaking spells when Harlan called out to her.

“Yes, it would be best that we speak privately.”

“Mom, is there anything in my old room?”

“Ava didn’t touch anything after you left and I haven’t moved anything either other than to keep it clean.”

Harlan wanted to cry, he hadn’t been in the room he shared with Ava since he came back, he didn’t want to mess with the memories of when it was theirs instead of her’s.

“Thank you.”

He rubbed the few strays that tried to get away before they could get away from him.

He would’ve been more nostalgic about sitting on his old bed, it was a simple wooden frame with loose straw for a mattress, but he had another problem in front of him.

“You assaulted a member of your guard, you came here without a single warning to us, do you have any idea what your actions are doing?”

“Yes, I do. But as it stands, I am going to seriously hurt somebody if I don’t get away from there, I need to be a person instead of a toy for powers above me.”

“You need to understand that it is for the best that they didn’t know they were being guarded, normal people don’t react well to knowing they are being watched so much.”

“You just want them to let something about me slip. Don’t bullshit me with this ‘its for the best’ crap. In case you didn’t realize you are part of those powers above me, whether it is Cecht trying to get me killed by messing with the Darkness’s ability to see the future or the implied threat that everyone I love is only protected so long as I keep up some unsaid bargain to keep giving the kingdom new toys you all want something from me and I don’t really have a choice in any of it.”

“You can’t help yourself, we didn’t make you like magic, we just gave you the right outlet to help the most people. Even if you were never taken away you would’ve ended up at the academy and they would’ve realized what you were, your fate was always to work for us; and there isn’t any threat against any of you, we haven’t asked you for anything in months.”

“So if I dropped out of the academy and devoted myself to making kettles, would you and your guards all stick around still?”

“Of course, it isn’t the king who sent us originally, he just expanded our unit, Rosewell sent us. Your erratic behavior will just be used as ammo against you when some duke wants to pull units off to guard something of his.”

“I just don’t believe you, know what I learned? The king still thinks I am a threat and Sepul is there to keep an eye on me and probably kill me if he agrees with the king, every single step I take, every word I say, it is all being judged by who knows and it is crushing me, back off and let me just take this half a week off, just let me be a fucking kid for a few days.”

“Rosewell would probably be upset again if I slapped you, so I won’t, fine, have your fun. I am sorry that you have been under so much pressure, but you should’ve talked to a counselor about it, we can’t know what you say to them, but we can understand that if you are going then that means you are dealing with something and we might be able to help. Despite what you might believe, she has your best interests in heart and she has been and will be defending you from your outbursts in the royal court.

You don’t have many allies, don’t push another one away.”

She faded away from each of his senses other than his mind sense, he opened the door for her as she left.

He refused to let his mood stay spoiled, he sat down and went back to talking about the camp.

He had to admit that he found it funny how everyone reacted to hearing he had strangled a direwolf.

Isha left not long after, there was still work to do back home, there wasn’t much in the way of cleaning but she received messages for Balor, Sara could do it, but she didn’t fully understand the process of order numbers and wasn’t very good at turning away people who were there to tell Balor about some grand new plan of theirs.

Harlan changed into a spare set of clothes for the farmhands and found his father out guiding some of the other workers.

“Well, are you ready to farm?”

“I don’t want to do anything else right now.”

Most of the work was done by farm hands, Harlan could barely believe how much they had expanded since he was a younger child, what was once a triple field was now over a dozen, though only the original fields were actually inside the walls.

They had over 1000 chickens, 40 head of cattle, 200 sheep, Harlow would never admit it, but they were rich, his farm was twice the size of any other private farm in the entire barony.

He hadn’t before, but he felt now was the time to tell Harlan that they never could’ve done it without, even before he was out and bringing in his own money the royals had given them tax breaks and extra laborers to help them expand the lands.

Harlan thought back to when the king told him that he might someday thank him for what he had done.

It was one thing for Harlan to be thankful for being sent to the academy, that was something for him personally, but helping his parents farm, before he was even set free, it confused Harlan, there wasn’t even a good reason for doing it, but it happened anyway.

Harlow walked around the farm and told Harlan when something needed just a bit more time before it should be picked, they took the sheep out, Harlan helped gather eggs.

It was nice, he had to get used to the smell of a chicken coop again, but even that was nostalgic at this point.

But Harlan was already getting that itch, he hadn’t used magic all day, he had barely used any yesterday, he started carving again just to keep his hands busy.

“Maybe Miss Dahlia was right? You love magic, you do it all the time, even when you aren’t doing it you spend a lot of time thinking about when you will be doing it next.”

“I hate it, I don’t even remember if I really liked it that much as a kid or if it was a series of events that led me to believe I needed to do it, now it is just part of me.”

“No, you love it. You wouldn’t do it so much if you didn’t, besides, I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t love magic.”

“Maybe you are right. Do you want to take a walk? I’ve not been in the woods at night in a while, I wonder if I can find that little grave I made for a baby bird I found once.”

“That would be nice.”

They told the guard at the gate that he would be out for a walk and he shouldn’t worry about it.

They walked along a small creek that Harlan used to skip stones across until Harlan realized he had no idea where he even was, he had been walking for hours without really thinking about it.

There was a crack, branches to his right.

It was a Skoll, it was injured, something larger had taken a sizable bite from its hind leg.

“Are you going to be ok?”

“Death smelling thing, leave this one. Ah, mother, I hear your call…”

It’s eyes went black, its already shadowy coat gained substance, It looked right at Harlan, and he knew what it was.

She spoke with a hoarse voice, the Skoll was already barely holding together with her possessing it.

“My child… It has been far too long… I must apologize… I have lost my brother… I cannot know when next he will return… heal this child… help to slay the beast of light… my shadow still watches your kin… they are safe… Help the kin of those who are not yours… I am sorry…”

The Skoll woke up again, its shadows turned faint once more.

“Death thing… mother says to follow you… you will strike at the one who struck me…”

Everything was moving quickly, Harlan had no ideas what he had just walked into, or if it had walked into him.

He started by looking over the Skoll, he couldn’t treat it like a wolf and everything was theoretical for him, he had met a Fenrir, he had killed plenty of Wargs, but he only had pictures and words to help him here.

He stabilized him then went to hunt a deer, he would need substance to offset what was lost in the healing process.

After a few minutes he found what he wanted, he hopped on its back, a hammer fist to the skull shattered it, a stomp once it was down finished it.

Harlan returned and began healing the wounds, needing to stop and destroy any cancers that formed from his misunderstanding of its biology every few minutes.

An hour passed before it was finished, the Skoll was awake, its leg was strong.

“Death thing, help kill light, light hunts the pups.”

“A Hati?”

“Man Thing words, hate thing. Follow, not hurt pack hurt light thing.”

Every Unseen who was watching him had no idea what in the hell was happening, but they had to go with him.

They weren’t supposed to reveal themselves unless Harlan was actually in real danger, they figured he could deal with a Hati, if not, they would.

Harlan rode on the back of the Skoll back to his pack.

As soon as they reached a point his mindsense lit up like only once before.

They were under them, above them, beside them.

Harlan looked for the light, he hadn’t even realized he was connected to the Skoll, they were hunting as a pack of two equal minds.

The Hati came down instantly, the Wargs froze with fear, perhaps because of The Mother, perhaps because of him being on the back of their former pack leader.

As it dive bombed the Skoll leapt towards the pair, Harlan ended with just one strike.

Harlan simply coated his hand in void, he didn’t understand how or why, but he did.

When he struck the Hati is fell apart, its fiery blood was eaten by the void and it left not even bones.

Harlan let out a warcry, his mind still together with the Skoll, the pack howled with them, the sun rose over the horizon, the dark had beaten the light that night, but still the world kept turning.

Even the lowest of noble rumor mills tossed away the story of Harlan joining some kind of Warg pack, instead it had the benefit of making people take a second look at the other stories they had heard from their sources.