Harlan stepped from the gate to find Adina waiting for him.

The others had classes.

“Welcome back. I wanted to go see you, but Sepul refused to take me and you told the academy I couldn’t use your funds to pay someone else.”

“I needed some time alone, I had to work to focus my anger into something productive. If you came, I would’ve just lashed out and hurt both of us. If I came back early, I would’ve killed someone. I feel like I can control myself better, but in times like this, I feel the only thing I can do is understand how little control I have.”

“I don’t like you locking me out like that, but I understand why you could think it was a good idea.

Do you want to get something to eat?”

“I had some food before I got here. Also, shouldn’t you be in classes?”

“It’s fine, I can just make it up later.”

“I hope I’m not being a bad influence on you.”

“You’ve only ever been the perfect influence on me.”

She went in for a kiss, and Harlan didn’t resist, but he wasn’t really comfortable with it either.

Not that he disliked it, but it felt odd, like it wasn’t something that he should be allowed to have.

One of the staff cleared their throat.

“Please, take private matters to your rooms, or at least under a veil.”

“Sorry.”

He made a small bow to the old woman who was going over papers.

“Adina, you should probably go to your next class.”

“Only if you walk me there.”

Along the way, Hirum called Harlan to meet him.

He finished walking Adina to her class, and then headed up to the headmaster’s office.

He was let in with only a few minutes of waiting.

“Harlan, I am pleased that you have decided to become a proper archmage. There are a few details to get set straight, and then we can begin planning a party, so long as you intend to have one.”

“I do intend to have a party. If it is titles that will get me protection, then I will make my title known to everyone as soon and bombastically as possible. Which is why I would like to take some time off to make things.”

“Firstly, titles. Are you sure that you would like to remain Changeling? Secondly, you’ve already gone past your month of suspension, and now you are asking for more time away from your studies?”

“Well, you see…”

In a month, the party would happen, and, provided that Harlan completed all of his work, he would be given time to make some things for the party.

He had a gathering in his room with everyone at dinner time.

Bojana hugged him with enough force to break men, yet he was still quite a lot denser than before he left, so he didn’t feel it that much.

“Little Shadow, I was worried when I heard you had been attacked.”

“I think that our training paid off, 3 of them ambushed me, and I got them all.”

“Then celebration is in order!”

David declined the invite, and Parnell did as well when he was told there would be no alcohol, it wasn’t a party without any, he said.

“Amber, I know that you tried to come over.”

She punched him in his arm.

“Yeah, I did. When I got there, I got turned away by Dahlia and whatever those new golems you made are.

I spent days in a rented carriage to get there. And nobody else even came with me.”

“Adina and I already talked about it, there was nothing good that would come from me being around everyone. She understood that, so she stayed, like you should’ve.”

“No, that is bullshit, you can’t, you shouldn’t, deal with that stuff alone.”

“Shelly, we haven’t known each other for as long as everyone else here, and I haven’t been back for long. But, do I look like I’m about to snap?”

She didn’t care for being put on the spot.

“I think you seem normal, well, what passes for normal with you.”

Harlan chuckled, but few others enjoyed the joke.

“You, quiet.”

“Amber, don’t worry about it, she is just trying to lighten the mood. Besides, this is a celebration, like a pre-party. So be happy for me, at least pretend if nothing else.”

“What is the real party then?”

“In a month I’ll be accepting my archmage title.”

Adina gave him a hug and congratulated him, the rest of the room just went quiet.

Liat was the first to speak.

“Well, that is disheartening. I hoped I’d be the first archmage of our generation. Is it for the amulets?”

“No, I downplayed my role in their creation, giving as much credit as I could to Sepul.”

“What really was his role?”

Harlan hesitated for a moment, taking a drink to hide this lapse in speech.

“Resource acquisition.”

Harlan often switched how he spoke, from casual, to business, to ominous, intentionally or otherwise.

It didn’t seem out of character for him to speak about what Sepul did for him in such a way.

But for those who knew him, and how he compartmentalized, and what had been said in the past, it was all too clear what the resources actually were.

“Huh. What about your title then?”

“I don’t want to give away my title yet, so it will be a surprise to you all. I just wanted to share the reason for the party before they announce it.”

Claude overtly averted his eyes, and the others noticed.

He was more open than before, and didn’t bow quite the same, but he was still rather meek and not a good liar.

“Don’t pester him about it, I told him shortly after I was given the offer because he was here when I got back, none of you were.”

More than a few of them were offended.

Dawn was just laughing in his head.

“Need to work on your wording a bit more.”

“By that I mean it was happenstance, all of you had classes and you shouldn’t skip them just to greet me since I never even said when I would be back.”

Amber still looked a little offended, but the party happened without any real issues.

Well, other than Bojana arm wrestling Harlan and losing, which put her in a state of mild shock for the night.

Harlan finally let himself sleep, he had gone far too long without doing so, forcing himself awake by burning up the energy gained from the assimilated bodies.

He saw Luth on fire, terrible things, ones that he now recognized as Flesh Golems of his own design that he had yet to make stood around, pulling people from burning building as they screamed.

It was uncertain if he was at fault, or if he was saving them.

In the distance he saw a tower rise above the trees.

Then it took a step towards him and it locked its many eyes with his.

Harlan saw himself in a mirror, he knew that it was him, yet he saw no resemblance to himself.

The creature opened its maw, yet Harlan did not know if it spoke in a language unknown to him, or if it was just because it was a dream, but it said nothing which could be understood.

Then it raised its hands to the sky.

Harlan awoke in a cold sweet, which he just considered normal at this point.

A cold breakfast sat on his table along with a note.

‘I saw you missed breakfast, you looked like you could use the sleep, eat this when you wake up.’

She signed it with a little heart, it was something she was told he would like, and, while he didn’t really care much about the drawing itself, it was the thought that he enjoyed.

“I hope that wasn’t a premonition.”

“I’m going to be throwing open a lot of doors, and we don’t have any idea how long in the future that was, if it was even a vision. I know that those Flesh Golems were things I’ve already thought of. Perhaps my current plans are just coming out in my subconscious.”

“We both know that you aren’t so lucky.”

“Then we can just assume it is a possible future, one that we can change. But… that thing, was it staring at us?”

“That is just your paranoia kicking in. I didn’t get that feeling at all. Maybe don’t go through a month of hard magic after a near death experience if you don’t want to suffer from delusions.”

“Right. That was silly of me.”

His tone was mocking.

“Listen, there are a lot of bad things, and not every single one of them is going to happen to you. The idea that a thing in your dream, which might show you the future, looked at you specifically, through time and space, is just too far gone. Ask The Darkness if you are worried. But you are never going to be able to rest like you should if you let that idea worm its way into your head. So please, let her tell you that it wasn’t real, and don’t think about it.”

The Darkness was in agreement, looking back in time was hard; there were only a handful of people who could do it, and they couldn’t look back very long without drawing the ire of Time.

“Since you are here, I see that you have a very interesting book. I will warn this once, read it, use it, only with a clear mind.”

“I haven’t had the chance to crack it open past the first few pages yet. But does it really do what I think it does?”

“Xol uses the spell for his needs, and few others have been able to do so. There are quite a lot of questions around such spells, moral and philosophical implications. Do be careful with it, and only cast it after you are entirely sure that you will be able to handle it.”

“Of course, he warned me about it being dangerous already, and I will take your words, and his, seriously.”

Harlan saved little time for his friends over the month, he barely carved out pockets for a few of his students who he believed needed his help and for Adina who Dawn was politely asking him to spend time with.

It was two long weeks to catch up on everything, meaning he had two weeks in which he could actually get the work he wanted done.

Hirum was willing to give him a secure lab to work with, and a healer on standby outside, but Harlan was paying for these things partly out of pocket along with the materials for his work.

Day in and day out boxes were transported to a small building outside of the academy.

Harlan had even pulled two of his Sentinels from his home to stand watch outside and bring the boxes in.

For the first three days Harlan had to make them drag him from the room covered in black and blue marks along with self inflicted cuts to his palms and wrists.

The healer was an older man, and he knew better than to question what was happening inside when through the crack he saw what looked like bodies on tables.

He knew that whatever it was, it must’ve been cleared by Hirum and likely in some vague form, run past an ethics committee run by archmagi.

On the 4th day, Harlan needed very little healing, but he had a crazed look in his eyes.

The healer could barely make out.

“It’s working…”

As Harlan mumbled and went back inside.

On the 6th day, someone under heavy cloaking tried to sneak a peek, only for the Sentinels to track him with the red orbs that represented their eyes.

When he kept moving forward anyway, they unsheathed their swords, shaped like Lugh, and spoke.

“Remove yourself from the area.”

There was no ‘or else’ they simply ordered the man as black mist began to pour out of them.

The healer got under a defensive spell of his own making, yet he was never in any danger.

When it reached the man, he fled, not wanting to find out what it was.

On the 7th day, Adina and Amber arrived, hoping to get him out for just a few hours.

The healer asked them to stand back as he was unsure what the golems would do.

“Lady Adina, Lady Amber, Harlan does not wish to have visitors. He understands how you feel, but he just wants to work, another week and he will be out.”

Their tone, their mannerisms, the way they phrased themselves, it was turned on its head as they bowed with hand over heart to the two girls.

“Can we leave a message?”

“Of course.”

“We want him to come out, just for an hour at least. Clean up, have a meal with his family that is here. And call mom, and then dad, they are being… odd.”

“I will pass this along as soon as-”

The building shook, and the small windows which let in natural light on the sides and top of the building burst outward.

The Sentinels rushed far quicker than their forms would suggest to guard the girls from the doors which had been blown off their hinges.

Meanwhile, staff appeared from gates to make sure Harlan hadn’t killed himself.

They had been watching as the sensor arrays in the area showed that a concentration of mana was building, and were ready for something to happen.

The Sentinels prevented Amber and Adina from entering, their grips were soft, but firm.

“Have faith.”

Harlan was brought out with his forearms gone, his chest and face were skinned by the blast.

On the 10th day, he returned, though the academy now required someone else to remain inside with him at all times.

The source of the explosion was clear, chunks of meat painted every corner of the room and they picked micro fragments of bone from Harlan for over 30 minutes before they decided to just take off more of his muscle layer and just build it again from scratch.

Since he survived, Harlan was more bothered by the damage to his golem armor.

When he was shot in Borden he had to spend over an hour trying to divine the pieces that were blown away, only for them to be confiscated for a day while the investigators considered them as evidence.

Some of the stonesteel had been reduced to such a small size that he couldn’t even detect it and so he needed to bring in ingots purchased from the academy blacksmithing store and let his armor assimilate them into its form.

It made the Minos who was assigned to guard him very uneasy that the armor sat near the door and seemingly meditated with an ingot in its hands, and then an hour later it would be be gone and it would pick up another one.

“It might help if I understood what you were doing.”

Harlan was etching sigils onto the bones of what looked like a man, but was just flesh shaped into a form like one.

“Can you look at this then?”

The 9 foot tall woman covered her eyes.

“What is that?”

“The reason why any of this is going to work, it will be something with flair, which is going to make it clear why… nevermind, you’ll all see soon enough.”

“Are you-”

“Yes, I know I’m ominous. Not all of it is on purpose.”

On the 12th day, it worked, and the Minos understood its purpose and when it would be used.

Then it was just refinement, making sure that it would function exactly as he wanted it to.

On the 13th day, they were perfect, or at least as perfect as they could be.

On the 14th day, he produced as many as he could, and then got ready for his party.

He would forgo his students' robes, instead he wore something closer to his now preferred nobles outfit, effectively a nice suit with the jacket replaced by a heavy button up lab coat.

The real changes were the darker colors which contrasted the larger and brighter crest on his back.

Harlan let Amber shave his face, he was starting to get stubble if he went a few days without shaving, it was a bother to him, and he contemplated just letting it grow out after tonight.

One of the last things he did, one which he was uncertain of, but considering how much of his body now had scars, he felt it was finally time.

It would be a bit dramatic to call it a rebirth, but Harlan was changing once again, and so he shed his old skin like a snake.

Everyone was there, even Redmond was given a leave for two days and Sepul was willing to gate him to the party.

What worried Harlan was that he never did call his parents, and it was clear as his mother held James that there was some tension there, and his father’s resolute eyes told him that he was probably at fault but wouldn’t admit it.

Harlan didn’t feel the need to steel himself, he had no worries about what was going to happen, they would understand him, he would not let them do anything else.