Chapter Forty-Three

The post-battle recovery was much more organized as the pressure Maekus created slowly lifted, allowing each person to stagger up as their strength allowed. It was hard to be defiant after one man crushed everyone nearly at once and you had to strain to stand up. During the process, the divide between the palace guards and Harmony’s assigned bodyguards became clear as the palace guards took the opportunity to leave Adric’s suite when they could stand. Hers moved to stand beside the weighed-down form of the lady maid.

Embarrassingly the last to stand, Harmony combined [Style and Grace] and [Poise and Bearing] to do her best gracefully. The counselor was polite or wise enough to not comment during the process. If he wanted to see if she could reverse the damage done to his clothes that was the bare minimum of what would be required. But protocol still needed to be held as much as it galled her.

Harmony curtsied. “Counselor Von Trell, it is an honor to officially meet you. I hope we can get this small issue resolved with no fuss.”

Maekus snorted much to Harmony’s chagrin. The bodyguards attacking him had been an honest mistake. This should be the proper reset. “Well, aren't you an unusual little spark?”

When it was clear he wouldn't expand further, Harmony started in. “Prince Adric’s unconventional healing was a shock for everyone. What should have been a simple bonding with a pet scroll turned into this miracle. I meant to bond an undead pet, not even a human one, but clearly and to the best of my senses he is alive, and recognized as mine by right of our primal bond and the change of his profession.”

“You're not the one who gets to make that judgment. I was assigned by the Charter to resolve this. I have the experience. This was never a simple bonding.”

“look, I used a scroll, like everyone who wants a pet does.” Harmony pulled from her class feeling the connections with necromancy, finality, and death. You could speak with authority, with subservience, and now with the roots of her class. “And I do understand death.” The flat hollow voice there did not echo but reverberated in the room in a way that spread a silent chill.

“Nothing simple about any of this. Create Undead Pet scroll, found seven hundred and sixteen years ago after defeating the Shackles of Fate dungeon. No other instances of such a scroll in any records. Bought by the local guild and placed in their restricted Vault.

After three hundred years of gathering dust and four guild masters, it is sold to make space but really budget shortfalls. From there, it spent four hundred years bouncing from collection to collection until it ended up in this little corner of nowhere that happened to have the resources needed to attempt to activate it. There it lands in the hands of a young lord who covets obscurely rare items. In an unusual instance of parting with a piece of their beloved collection, they trade it for the chance of some favor with a common maid.”

In no way did Harmony snort at that, but she might have huffed a little.

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“Okay, uncommon maid. Who took that scroll with no choice of [Raise Dead] and the barest levels required to use and created that…” Maekus Von Trell extended his arm in a full gesture toward Adric.

“That is Prince Adric. And he is alive and well now, perhaps at the cost of being my pet, but I challenge you to prove he’s dead.” Harmony stated firmly.

“Un-dead, un- as in opposite of dead. Perhaps a bit more definitive in this case than how we use it to describe zombies. Prefixes and suffixes matter so much when making selections and with magic. Necro-mancer. My decision has yet to be made, and first I want to hear from the returned.”

Harmony bit her cheek to keep from talking. Outside of knowing with the certainty that [Manipulate Dead] couldn’t touch Adric, and that he was a void more than even those life-infused plants in Nae’s Garden, she hadn’t confronted what he was or what she’d done. It had been convenient to ignore. No one came knocking at their manor door with pitchforks and torches. Up until the royals had house arrested him, there had been no letters demanding they show up. He was happy to be her helpful pet, and she was grateful for the effort he put in. And she was focused on her life-and-death situation. Adric probably delved more into who and what he’d become than anyone else. It was his right to speak.

Prince Adric stepped forward bridging the empty space between the Maekus and Harmony and her cluster of guards.

“I died. I died the moment I evolved into the mourned prince. I'm surprised I didn’t drop dead the moment I made the choice. Worst was that I could feel people's grief, worry, and sadness as every potion, charm, and expert failed to find a solution.

Being happy, eager, and excited for the future helped lessen their concerns. But I was dead with my body no longer healing as life creeped out of me, unable to hold on.

Arriving in Hazeldown was like going to where I belonged. That's why I didn't go home after I failed there. I stayed to die. I was only able to keep going for so long because of Bowe. But finally, I became fully acclimated to being the mourned prince, dying.”

“Yes, yes. That's all very sad. The perfect lesson for everyone on why you should be careful about what you choose at evolution. An entry worthy of the history books. Now tell us what happened next.” Maekus pressed on, his voice coated with an effect Harmony didn't recognize, not authority, nor compulsion, but from a place far above any of them in power.

“Time passed without having a concept of time. Now it feels like a blank spot in my memory. Then I returned, primal bonds burning inside of me. Bowe’s faint bond, hibernating, near death, closer to death than living by far. I thought they'd given their last bit of life to bring me back, as they'd propped me up after my evolution.

I couldn't let them do that, so I tried to return what I thought they gave through our bond. There was so much life… After that, I found Harmony. My class changed. I… I don’t know what I am. There are a lot of things that I'm not.”

Maekus rubbed his chin in thought for a moment. “Well it's a good thing I'm here to decide exactly what you are.” He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

Harmony, Adric, Ambrosia, and the bodyguards collapsed unconscious onto the floor.

“Grroak?” Hyacinth hopped forward croaking questioningly.

“Don’t worry. I'm not going to hurt them. But this is all easier if They're not awake for this next part.”

Five distorted ripples in space Start to crack open. Furry arms and hands exploded out, pulling and pushing to get through.