Harlan woke up in a room that wasn’t all that different from his room at the academy.

The walls were not stone but rather a plaster covered with paper and painted a pale blue color.

The bed was nicer than most he had been in, feeling like it was filled with a viscous gel.

Harlan tried to remember what exactly had happened, but it was taking a moment.

He tried to ask Lugh a question but that space no longer contained him.

“Hello, it hasn’t been very long.”

“Eli- Ghost?”

“I am sure it is quite odd to call me by her name, so let’s not worry about that right now. For now, you are safe, that bag of bones is a nice person once you get past his ramblings.”

While it was nice that she had a good opinion of the man, however Harlan’s experience was less positive.

He ran for the door and once it was open he found a skeleton with black bones and orange orbs of fire for eyes standing on the other side.

Both directions looked the same, just halls with doors, each marked with words Harlan didn’t know.

He unleashed as much of a blast of wind as he could and tried to cast hover and get away as fast as he could.

At least that was the plan.

Instead he found himself in a different room and his magic wasn’t working at all.

“Champion of Shadow, I’m here to teach you, not kill you. Just calm down for a moment.”

Harlan wanted to try to run again, but he found that he couldn’t move an inch, he found it funny, he had done this in the past days on other people.

“What was our last meeting then?”

“That was Kleon, not one of Xol’s best ideas, he never did have the temperment to teach and I was against it.”

He let Harlan go and waved his hand toward a chair.

“Please, sit.”

Harlan didn’t actually have a choice in the matter.

“Where am I? Does anyone know I am here?”

“How is your day, you are Harlan? Thanks for asking Dun’kel, I’ve been better. And yes, some people know where you are, the champion of light told them what happened.”

The man sounded miffed that Harlan didn’t make smalltalk, by his voice Harlan would’ve guessed a man in his 40s, not old, but not young either.

He was dressed in nice but still easy to move around in clothes, Harlan wondered if the man had been or was a ship captain judging by their styling and his tricorn hat.

“Why am I here then?”

“The Darkness didn’t exactly tell us what she did, we simply want to make sure that you are safe for human interaction. We need to test your magic and your mental state, but don’t worry, we can have you back as early as tomorrow morning.”

He found himself and the lich on a stone platform floating in the air.

The entire space was full of massive pillars of faintly glowing crystals whose insides twinkled like the stars at night.

“Whoa.”

“First off, cast as many spells in elements that you know of, simple warmagic is best since they are basically massive mana sources without esoteric effects.”

Harlan cast a nova spell of the basic elements followed by a few of advanced elements, crystal, lighting, sound, acid, and of course, void.

When they struck the pillars the spells simply went through them, the structures sucked up the magic and the lich tapped on some kind of notepad in his hands.

“Very good, your alignments are all operating at levels not unlike having been born single aligned. So think of it as a 20% boost to dark, fire, and light. Have you seen your eyes yet?”

“I’ve seen my eyes before, yes.”

Dun’kel held up a mirror and Harlan understood what he meant, this would not make him more popular with Reino.

His old eyes were odd but many people found them captivating, these looked threatening and would make him stick out in the darkness.

“Any chance I can change them back?”

“You could keep running a constant illusion spell, but honestly, you should just let people get used to them. You now represent your god, you can be open or you can hide it, but I doubt someone like you could keep it hidden for very long.”

They changed spaces once again, but this time Harlan could not see the lich.

He was in his home.

Adina was bleeding out in his arms, the life faded from her eyes and Harlan felt her mind go black.

He sat there for what might’ve been hours, but was really just seconds.

Then he looked outside of his window.

Everyone was gone, he saw his family, his friends, they were dead, dismembered, disfigured.

His mind broke, fracturing into factions, some wanted to give up, the others to just find somebody, anybody to kill.

More of them wanted that, kill, kill, kill, he heard this repeated in his mind hundreds of times as if by a choir of damned souls.

Then among the rubble he heard an infant, the voices demanded bloodshed, it did not matter how or who.

Yet there was one voice, faint but clear.

Harlan found that voice deep inside himself, it told him to live, and that that child was not at fault, to turn his hands away from it.

The other voices quieted and flowed into that one voice until it was the only one left.

Harlan walked past the bodies and cleaned the child, fed him what mashed fruits he could.

He did not want to go on, but he decided to do so.

Harlan was awake again, back in that room before the crystal cavern.

He had a nice blanket over him and the lich sat across from him.

“You’ve passed.”

Harlan lept at him, his nails and his teeth sharpened ever so slightly as his body came more in line with his mind.

He was processing that it was a sick nightmare the lich had forced him to sit through as a test and he roared with fury, his voice carrying magical energy demanding destruction and if not for the wards on every item in the room they would get their wish.

The lich used one hand and impossible speed to toss Harlan aside.

He dug his hands into the floor as if it was dirt and was ready to leap once again when somebody new entered the fray.

Harlan barely recognized her before his hands made contact, he did not want to hurt her and he awkwardly tried to avoid hitting her with his body.

Instead she caught him and pulled him into a hug.

Harlan saw her weep as she held him and he felt their minds connect as she tried to take his pain into herself.

It was safer with her than him.

“Dun’kel, what the fuck was that? Is that what passes for a test of mind now? Just shocking him into a rage?”

After Mary let go of Harlan his body reverted to how he was and she walked to the lich, a backhand sending him crashing into the wall.

Behind the plaster was just stone, and it had fractured and broken along with the left side of his body, his bones turned to dust that was desperately trying to turn back into a body.

“Marigold, wait, I can explain.”

She punched him with her full might, the petite woman’s blow shaking the room and obliterating what was left of Dun’kel’s body.

“You can explain when you reform.”

She returned to Harlan and took him to a different room, it was a kitchen with every tool Harlan had ever seen and many more that he hadn’t.

The center table was gold veined marble and the countertops and stove were made of a spotless bright steel.

She went into a tall white cold box and pulled out a few pans of food.

They had a layer of frost on them, but with a staggering amount of magic that was done without so much as a flick of her fingers they reheated as if they had never been frozen.

“Harlan, do you want to talk about what happened? Or do you just want to eat?”

Harlan took a plate of the layered pasta she gave him and cried as he ate and she rubbed his back.

He knew he needed sustenance but he didn’t want to speak with anyone right now.

After a pan of rich chocolate cake washed down with a cider spiked with powerful cinnamon whisky she put him in bed and let him sleep it off.

He was in no state to talk with people right now anyway.

While Harlan rested she went to her husband.

“I thought you were supposed to take his testing?”

“He is basically me, so I didn’t figure it would be an issue. Did something happen? I was in the voidlands checking for blackships.”

“His test was cruel and entirely unnecessary. Harlan did not need that right now, and you do not need to leave something like this to those idiots”

The man sighed and would’ve pouted if he wasn’t sure that his wife was not in a joking mood.

“I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to be involved just yet. I was worried that if he saw me here, that he might realize who I am in my human form. Besides, Dun’kel has always been very responsible.”

“I don’t want to hear any more excuses about it, we both know you can change that. He needs people who are responsible, Kleon already made him afraid of liches, you need to appear as a better example.”

“Did he see you?”

“I gave him firebreath mixed with cider, between that and how mixed up his mind was. I am sure I can make him believe I wasn’t here. So don’t make me step in again and don’t try to change the subject.”

“What has you so up in arms?”

“He might be the first champion in a long time that isn’t a reclusive hermit or a complete prick.

I don’t want somebody who could be a friend who lives as long as us to be turned into another one of them.”

“Then why not just let him know who you are? You could teach him a lot, besides, surely he had his suspicions already, you didn’t exactly pick an original name this time around.”

“I don’t think he would look at me the same way if he knew who I was. I would rather be a woman in her 20s with a dark past than the mother of modern magic. He has probably had enough godly manipulation to last his entire life and I bet he would think I am just another one.”

“Alright, I’ll use silk gloves with him. Tomorrow I’ll give him a once over and let him loose, then I’ll call him back as his powers develop.”

Harlan meanwhile wasn’t sleeping, not exactly.

In his mind he was still putting himself back together with that spirit’s help.

He was still weeping into her arms and occasionally imagining a mountain that he could blow up with a thought.

Instinctually he knew that she was his mother, and it did form a connection that helped calm his mind.

“Shh, it is ok, it wasn’t real.”

Harlan didn’t reply.

He knew it wasn’t real, he understood that fully, yet the thoughts didn’t feel any less real.

Adina’s body slowly growing colder in his hands, the warm blood drying and flaking.

The infant’s soft skin and newborn blonde hair didn’t look any less real.

His mother’s head on a pike, her hair blowing in the wind did not look like anything but reality at the time.

When morning came back around, or what passed for morning in this fake and time dilated realm, Harlan got up with a hangover that he quickly cured with a simple spell.

He felt better, but it was still hard to make himself get up, fearing that he would need to face something like that again.

He heard a knock on his door.

“May I come in?”

It was a woman’s voice.

“Do I have a choice?”

“Everyone has a choice, but I think it would be best if you let me come in.”

“Fine.”

The woman was a Golden, no tattoos, if Harlan didn’t know better he would say it was Mary’s sister or mother.

She wore robes not unlike the headmaster of the academy.

“Mary?”

“Who?”

“Yesterday, I saw her, she is the academy counselor.”

“No, you saw me yesterday. I am sure that it was hard on you to take that test, but don’t worry, your teacher has been switched to a nicer lich, his name is Xol and he will just run some tests on you before you leave. Please, follow me.”

She walked him to a white door with more words that Harlan couldn’t read, clinicus.

The letters weren’t far from Godgiven script, but they were backwards or changed in small ways.

“Shadow of this world, shall we begin our understanding?”

“Yes.”

“Holdfast to this, crush it as you can.”

It was just a simple grip strength tester.

After that Xol used a small hammer to test his reflexies.

Then it was just a lot of scans, 40 minutes was what Harlan figured it took before his body stopped being inundated with glowing lights.

It was somewhat fun to see each organ glow beneath his skin.

“Very good, the flesh has not turned to something else, now shall we see that which is elsewise?”

Harlan hadn’t really made a habit of looking closely at his soul anymore, he just put on defenses every morning after he woke up and every night before he slept.

Yet now he understood why that woman had moved from his soul to his mind, they were nearly a single thing now.

The mind ordered the soul, filtered information, made sure any random thought didn’t make people react based on instinct.

The wall between them was paper thin, but it was still there.

If there was no wall then Harlan could have just a single passing thought of dying or wanting wings and his soul would follow the order without a second thought, killing or deforming him.

“I see… Marigold, you may take him away, he is no harm to this world as he is. He shall grow to be such a thing, but that is another day.”

“Alright, Harlan, Champion of Shadows, you are free to go. Would you like to return to your home, or the academy? Either way I am sure that you are going to be gently kidnapped by the kingdom so they can run their own tests.”

“Wait, Marigold?

“Not right now, maybe if you live another 5 or 10 year we can meet again and have the talk I know you want. I do try to keep my eyes on the other champions and I do hope we could be friends in the future, we both have long lives ahead of us. Any more questions?”

“What happened to my things? I want to call my family as soon as I get out if I am about to end up in another place like this.”

She reached into her breast pocket and out came not only his amulet, but his alchemical weapons, his robe, and a rod about 3 and a half feet long.

“Since you don’t have a weapon, I thought I should give you one.”

Harlan thought it was hollow with how easily she twirled it before handing it to him, instead it was roughly 150 pounds of nearly pure stonesteel.

“Just cast hover on it.”

Harlan did as she asked and then realized he didn’t have a place to put it on his belt, he just had Lugh’s empty sheath.

“Sorry, use this.”

She unscrewed the pommel of the rod and put a mana gem inside of it, instantly Harlan realized that it was made with almost the same method as his second generation soulsmithing technique.

“Wait, you can do that?”

“Just because you made it popular, didn’t mean I wasn’t doing that for the past 900 years. But you are pretty good at it. All that I put in was hover so you don’t ruin your spine carrying that thing around, anything else is your choice. It can shift just like I am sure you want as well, so you don’t need a new sheath.”

“Thank you very much for your words and your gift.”

“You are welcome, now, home or academy?”

“My home.”

Harlan’s mind flashed the scene from the nightmare over his vision for a split second and he broke out in a cold sweat, not sure if he wanted to open the door, afraid of finding Adina dead in the living room, he didn’t dare turn around to look at his yard.

Dahlia uncloaked and approached him, seeing his hands shaking and him looking even paler than usual.

“Harlan? Are you alright?”

Fight or flight kicked in and he thrusted the rod towards her, but half way there he stopped.

“Sorry, I had a bad dream yesterday.”

“Your eyes…”

It was purely psychological, but Dahlia could swear they were looking right through her.

“Part of the new me.”

Harlan dryly chuckled before coughing, realizing both that it was unconvincing and that he hadn’t drank anything yet today.

“Why don’t we step inside for a moment, get you something to drink?”

Harlan found that his entire family was inside, it took everything he had to not cry as that nightmare was finally flushed out of his mind, and with that his mental senses no longer felt crippled.

They asked all of the relevant questions and he answered as many as he could, sometimes he did so for Dahlia’s benefit as he explained where he was along with the physical changes he had undergone.

The only question left was the rod that was hanging from his hip, Ava now had Lugh and they would be working together while he sorted his thoughts about Harlan and his sense of justice, or lack thereof.

But to have a new weapon already made him jealous.

“I got it from one of them.”

Dahlia wanted a closer look.

“Harlan, do you mind if I inspect it?”

“Not at all, just be careful, it has a constant hover effect due to its weight.”

Dahlia was confident in her strength, so to better understand how much Harlan could actually do with such a thing she turned off the effect.

The instant change and improper stance made her pull something in her back.

The other Unseen rushed to help her at once.

After a little assurance that she was fine she connected Sepul to bring Harlan to the facility so they could run their own tests for the next few days.

Xol had appeared directly to the king alongside Sepul and smoothed out a great deal of issues.

While he had jurisdiction as the king and Sepul was there as a friend, it felt more like Sepul was trying to prevent Xol from doing or saying anything with far reaching consequences.

He didn’t actually plan on hurting him, but Xol felt like he needed to keep up his appearance as the big scary lich who worked for the gods and was fire and death waiting for an excuse.

Throwing Ragne into chaos would mean more work for him that he just didn’t want to do.