Harlan woke up somewhere he didn’t recognize, in clothes he didn’t recognize. His armor and coin pouch sat on the table near him, having been cleaned.

He was sure he should’ve been sore, clearly healing magic was at play, he pulled at his shirt to to see if his scars were still there, some of the smaller ones were gone by a persistent acid burn over his heart and a large gash where he nearly lost his liver to an exploding sword remained..

An array was activated as soon as he rolled off of the couch he was on.

Shortly after, the front desk lady was in the room.

“Did you sleep well? I hope our accommodations are to your liking considering the sudden need for your housing with us.”

“I slept fine. Big change in attitude from last night though.”

“I was not working last night. I handle early morning to evening. My sister handles the late evening to early morning shift.”

“Oh.”

Harlan suddenly realized that he never went home last night.

“What time is it?”

“Three till noon.”

“Three hours? I guess that isn’t too bad.”

“No, three minutes.” She then got a nervous look on her face.

“I do hope you will not take any action against us for Gilly’s… use of force. We have done as much as we could, there should be no lasting damage to your face.”

Harlan was starting to wonder how hard he got hit.

“Does this place have a mirror?”

She got up and pulled a hand mirror from a drawer.

He looked as close as he could.

“I don’t think I look different. I started the fight in the first place anyway. I just need to get home before I worry anyone.”

“I have already arranged a carriage for you. It is downstairs, would you like to eat before leaving?”

His stomach rumbled, but he ignored it, not wanting to waste time getting something to eat now.

But there was one thing he wanted to do.

“That silver rank that fought me last night. Give him this.” Harlan gave her a stack of gold coins, 20 to be exact.

He may have lost the fight, but Harlan had let out that horrible feeling thanks to him.

“I will ensure that he is given your gift.”

It wasn’t a long ride back to his place, but he was starting to regret not eating before.

His last experience with healing magic wasn’t nearly this draining, he was starting to really worry about how hard that woman hit him.

He arrived to find his family arguing in the kitchen with Balor in his golem body, who assured them that Harlan was going to be fine.

“I am ok.”

Aida was already crying and hugging him, the others just looked worried, they could see he wasn’t hurt but staying out was just not normal for him.

“Where were you? Why didn’t you come back last night?”

“Can’t a guy just spend a night in town for once?”

His obvious falsehood set off alarm bells for everyone.

“Harlan. Let’s talk in private.”

Harlow said, to Harlan’s confusion.

“Sure? Isha, make food, something filling and quick.”

“Yes, Harlan.”

He led his father to the bunker to a private room.

“Harlan… I know what you are thinking about, though it is early for you. I understand, but you shouldn’t make excuses. There comes a time in a man’s life when some things start to have a… different appeal to him. He might start to think it is a good idea to spend his coins on these… Urges. I won’t say that it is wrong, but you need to be very careful. You are a noble and many women would want to tie themselves with you.”

Harlan’s mind was spinning, that is what his father assumed? Then he thought about if he should just play along, it would be easier to explain, maybe. But Harlan figured most either wouldn’t believe it, or they would. He wasn’t sure which would be more awkward.

“I went into town to fight people. The crowd got too out of control over my last fight so they brought in someone who knocked me out in a single punch.”

Harlow went through confusion and embarrassment. Settling on confusion.

“Why?”

“That noble I fought last night? I wanted to beat him, I wanted to break every bone in his body, I wanted him to suffer for what he did. I was robbed of that by Blackstone.”

Harlow took a deep breath, he was a farmer, he had a fairly normal life, he didn’t know what Harlan had been though.

He felt as his father he should understand him.

“Son. I… I don’t understand you, I don’t think I ever will, so much that has already happened is beyond me. But I know you aren’t bad, you aren’t a monster. If you need to do something like that to feel better, and if the other people are doing it because they want to, I don’t mind. I wish you could just chop wood, or till fields, but that isn’t you. What should we tell them? I’m guessing you don’t want them to know.”

After a few minutes of brainstorming Harlan decided on a cover story.

He got drunk slightly at the countesses party, but he wanted to get that feeling again, so he drank himself silly last night and slept in an inn in town.

When he repeated the story to the rest of his family they figured he was covering up something more embarrassing and let it go, and the arrow was successfully dodged.

He dug into the food which Isha made him, seeing his pace she started on another serving while he was still eating.

Redmond got an idea of what happened, he had seen men mauled by all manner of monsters and knew healing hunger when he saw it. But he let it go, Harlan was a scarily grown up child. He was entitled to his secrets.

Aida wanted to strike up conversation during Harlan’s meal, which would later just turn into everyone's lunch.

“Amber. Do you have a boyfriend yet? Any thoughts on taking part in the maiden festival before you leave?”

“I’ve had enough bad experiences at the academy already. I am not looking for that stuff right now, I want to finish learning and join the army. If they make me my own noble I’ll get assigned a husband anyway.”

“Bah, what good will come from you marrying the 4th son of a baron who would just betray you with a mistress anyway.”

Harlan stopped eating for a moment as dangerous thoughts swirled in his head.

“If I am the one who gets nobility they will send me someone good. I wouldn’t marry them, they would marry me. I wouldn't let them get away with another woman behind my back anyway.”

She stabbed her fork into a potato to accent her point.

“Good, but I could always help if you needed it.” Harlan said.

“What exactly do you mean by that?” Aida asked, but he ignored the question.

“Dad, do you know any other farmers who would work for me?”

“I’d need to know what you are planting, lotta guys around here do more or less farm for only a few crops. So they might not be the best for something new.”

“Rice, and an orchard with trees, and tea.”

“Well. I have no idea what rice is. I know someone who has a son and they grow fruit trees, you might be able to hire his kid. But tea isn’t really grown around here.”

“I’ve got a book and seeds for rice on the way. It is something they have in the Confederacy and Reino.”

Harlow was conflicted. He knew someone who would be perfect for the job, but he didn’t want to give him up if he wanted to work here. He let out a sigh after some time.

“You should ask Kass. I’ll see about the kid for the orchard. I don’t know what else to do about tea.”

“I can do it.” Balor said, he still hadn’t gone back to Harlan’s finger.

“What? You can’t do it, you’ll be at the academy with Harlan. You guys didn’t find out how to teleport, did you?”

“Harlan, I want to have a deeper conversation with you about this, but I don’t want to go with you. I want to stay here and work on things.”

“Alright…”

Harlan was silent for the rest of the meal. Heading down to the bunker as soon as he was done.

The others worried about him some, but thought he just needed to have his talk with Balor before any of them.

An hour passed before Balor went down for their talk, Harlan was carving, a large pile of shavings sat next to the larger pile of small wooden toy parts.

“I’m here to explain why I want to stay, I hope we can both be civil.”

“Alright…”

“I lied before. When you asked if I was alright being a ring, I said it was fine. Partly I wanted to believe it would be, partly I just didn’t want to add onto your worries. I hate this body, unlike Lugh who even if you shared a memory with him, he wouldn’t really understand, he wouldn’t have a first hand experience to compare it to. But you made me from yourself in a different way from him, he is… Pure in a sense. He is like a child, I am based on a ball of rage, and with that I gained so many strong emotions from it. Emotions I have tried to keep in check, but I got feelings with that as well. I know the taste of the food you had at Ky’s going away party, I know the feeling of skin, the sensation of heat and cold. I don’t blame you, I still don’t, and you need to understand that. You didn’t do anything wrong in making me. I would understand if you wanted me to leave.”

“What are you going to do here? Other than helping tend the gardens. I don’t see how that would help you, you should just come with, think about what you could learn there. We could work together to get you in a real body somehow.”

“I want to stay here, and continue your experiments with transformation and how the soul works. I want to find a process in which I can plant my own soul in a new body grown just for me. I think it should be possible to put my soul in a human body, but I don’t think I can bring myself to do such a thing.”

‘Not yet’ were the words he left unsaid.

“Another reason is simple. I saw what you did last night, you can handle being around people now, you don’t need me to tell you things. You will be ok. You aren’t fully ok just yet, but I never could help you with that anyway. I am smart, I retain so much, but I just don’t know, I am not Breken with his years of lived experiences. I am almost a year old, but not quite. I want time apart from you as well, so that I can be my own person, instead of Harlan’s ring, I want to be Balor.”

Harlan sat in silence, he couldn’t help it. He had spent so much time so angry at everyone for controlling him, but he had spent months not noticing how Balor was.

“Harlan. I don’t blame you, it is alright. You have treated me well, you have never stopped me from doing things, you have given me whatever I asked for. This is just me wanting to be more.”

Balor embraced his brother, but the feeling of cold wood and metal just reminded Harlan of what he felt he robbed from Balor. To be stuck in a body that doesn’t have more than a basic sense of touch. Relying on instinct and spellwork to avoid putting crushing strength into anything he held onto.

They sat like that for some time before Harlan calmed himself. Then there was an alarm, someone bypassed the wards and gated into the living room.

“You don’t have to go right now, I could see who it is first.”

Harlan wiped his tears for the last time.

“I have to go. Part of being me I guess.”

He reduced his puffy eyes with some unfocused light magic to middling results, but it was better than nothing.

He left the bunker, Balor behind him. To find it was Dahlia, not surprising him. But what was a surprise was the royal guards behind her.

“I hope I’m not interrupting you. But we found the person who sent those bandits after you.” She could tell he had been crying.

“Who?”

“The head of the noble house Brightblade. The count wanted revenge for your soulsmithing replacing enchantments as the most common form of magic weapons. His house has lost quite a lot from this. The king was even thinking of replacing him as a count, considering their houses lack of innovation over the years, only being good for manufacture and their unwillingness to turn to soulsmithing as a new line of work.”

“I have no idea who that is. But thank you, do you need anything else?”

“Yes. you need to come with me. Any crimes committed between nobles with this severity require both offended parties meet in court.” Harlan figured he didn’t really need to be there, if he tried to kill or rob him then execution or a massive fine would solve it without his input.

Balor slipped out of his golem body and back onto Harlan’s finger.

Harlan let out an annoyed sigh and went through the gate, then another, taking him to a courthouse in the capital city.

“Just follow me, this won’t take long as most of the work is already done, we simply need your opinion on sentencing.”

Harlan followed her into the courtroom proper, it was as ornate as one might expect from a room where nobles were sentenced, marble floors and walls, decorated pillars of pure white, all the hardwood was inscribed with works of art.

He was led to seating on the right side, while the guilty and his kith and kin sat on the left side of the room.

Next to him were the Blackstone and Redwall families. Having been pulled in as a result of the crimes location and their own relation to Harlan respectively.

The judge, a man who Harlan thought he had seen before, but wasn’t certain, spoke in a magically amplified voice, though Harlan could barely hear him after he started talking.

If it wasn’t for the wards and his own self control he would rush across the room and tear the count limb from limb with his bare hands, his hands bleed as his fingernails.

That man had made attempts on himself, and Harlan was upset, but he already lived believing that people were out for his blood.

For him to hear the judge speak of his mother, his father, his sisters, niece and nephew, even down to his staff.

It took everything he had to quell that fire inside him, Blackstone was near him and physically restrained him as the judge explained what the charge ‘defilement of a noble woman’ meant in relation to his sisters.

She didn’t actually need to be there, Ebon could’ve stood in for her, but she knew Harlan would react quite poorly considering how he was last night, it was how she would’ve reacted at his age.

“These attacks and plans were kept hidden through the use of proxies to hire these men as well as not hiring anyone of greater repute in these circles. The only point of contention is no attacks on farm owned by the parents of the effected. Sir Harlan Fomoria, based on these findings, what is your opinion on the ruling which is planned. 20000 gold shall be paid to you, and the count shall be put to the sword. Any members, if proven innocent of knowing what was planned, shall be incorporated into another family through marriage. If guilty, all who knew of the plans shall be put to the sword and their house completely dissolved should no viable heir remain. The children, should they be without parents, may petition to be raised by another family, if not then they are to be cast into the streets with only what they have on their person.”

Harlan looked over the family on the count’s side, the children… He hated the look in their eyes. To lose everything for something beyond their control, that sadness, that anger focused on Harlan.

The thought of killing them all flashed across his mind and hit him like a bucket of cold water, he knew right from wrong even if he didn’t always follow it, but felt a deep shame at the thoughts he had, the flame inside him smoldered but didn’t go out.

“Should the children be without parents and not taken in by another family, I would hire them on myself as workers.” He had faced enough sins of the father, or the people rather, to not be able to justify leaving the children completely destitute because their father is someone he would see burned alive.

“If that comes to pass, we shall send notice and have negotiations take place. I shall warn you, that any retribution against them for their relatives' crimes will be harshly punished. The justice system is a place to set things right, not to be used for revenge against those already deemed innocent under it.”

Harlan almost couldn’t believe it, but the man was completely serious, he seemed to fully believe and trust in every word he said.

“The sins of kin would hold no bearing on my treatment of them.”

It was an odd feeling for him, the sudden switch from blinding rage to sadness as he focused on the count or the children, it felt unnatural to him, like he had two completely different minds switching places.

“The following changes shall be made, Should no others claim them, the effected is to have the option of hiring the children of the convicted to work for him.You are all dismissed.”

Everyone left the room in an orderly fashion, Harlan’s side leaving first.

He didn’t want to make small talk as they walked to be gated to his lands, luckily no one else did either.

When he got back he set Balor down, letting him get back into his golem body.

Everyone wanted to know what happened, Harlan explained the charges, what they all meant.

He was upset, he almost wished he had asked if tortured to death was an option. But he knew it was wrong, death was all that mattered.

The problem was gone, it was done, that is what he kept telling himself.

Coronach found what he was looking for, after years and years of failures, they had a real lead on who was hiring these Faeling counter seers, yet he was conflicted, he knew it would just break her heart if he was right.