Chapter Fifty-Two

Whatever Maxwell had done to his oath hadn’t affected his promise to be honest and forthright. The oath hurt but appeared to be working as Max scrambled back the best he could while in the seated position. “I… I… I… used [Chaos Seed] on my oath. It worked so well on [Chivalry], sure [Oath] required me to build up the most chaos of any other skill, but I needed it gone for my evolution. I only took [Oath] because it was rare and my family told me it was required for my, no, their desired path.”

“Maybe you should have thought about how you were sworn to share my burdens before you chose to do such a thing. I nearly died!”

Max’s eyes glazed over slightly. “I’ll die a thousand deaths at your command for my insolence.” He droned with a weight split between monotone and passion.

No! Despite hurting and raw, Harmony delved into that oath [Analyze] working with [Awareness] to spot that nasty bit of compulsion flaring up. Whatever this new monster was, it had just been born and was settling in. [Renew Spirit] with a sprinkling of [Manipulate Dead] worked with [Silence] and [Mend] to cut and isolate that little bit of nastiness. Max’s body arched and shuddered in response.

“No blind obedience. No killing yourself for being a moron. I need your fully idiotic self. “Authority and playing into the oath made that a command. “Now tell me what you did.” Harmony finished.

Max let loose a shaky laugh. “I really am yours now. I did want to end that oath to you by changing the skill. The need to be true and loyal chaffed. It reminded me of my family. Not that you’re like them. It wouldn’t let me. When I changed [Chivalry] I had some direction for the options. I should have known something was up with the amount of chaos required for the change. I really did fool myself.”

“Whatever you did ripped into me. Taking and taking until it felt like I had almost nothing left. I thought someone was using you to get to me.”

Now he had a look of shame. “It took more and it wouldn’t finish changing until I evolved. I was not ready to do that. I hadn't been level twenty-four long enough. It forced my evolution I think. For my class it had me choose between Death Oathed Knight, Cursed Acolyte, and Singularly Sworn. I’m no longer a knight and neither am I cursed. Profession options were nearly as bad. Enslaved thrall, degenerate wordsmith, and the lady’s agent of chaos. Burn me if I was going to be a thrall. Ignoring degenerate, authors suck, impossible to advance, no pay, constant criticism.” A bit of mad laughter slipped out. “I’m your agent of chaos, Lady White. Free from my family and sworn to you.”

If only the fool had asked. Maybe if the oath was severed before he used chaos on it. She’d have needed to evolve first to retake the burden. “And the oath?”

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“Some of your power is mine. In exchange, you are my everything and I am yours to command. I may make no other oaths.”

That is not what she'd asked for and not what she'd offered. Trying to revoke any of it would probably kill him. He's gone from slightly annoying and moderately useful to whatever this mess was.

“You bloody stupid ass of a man. You can clean yourself up. We’ll deal with this later. Goodnight.”

Even as she spun away. The toll of Maxwell's mistake was heavy on her, as she survived off of adrenaline, anger, and frustration. She hadn't felt this unstable since the letter from the queen. Even now her choices called to her as a way to replenish some of the stability she needed.

Choose your Class’s Sixth skill: Raise Specter - Shadowed Graves - Tortuous Wound

Pick your future and it will help. She hadn’t wanted to waste time acquiring a new skill when the priority was to get to Max and rescue him. Not that she could rescue him from his foolishness.

The value of the book from the Grave Society came in here. [Raise Specter] was an uncommon skill. Created smarter, semi-tangible creations that could be fused with physical undead to boost their power. [Renew Spirit] could boost one. Less distasteful than Raise Dead had been. But there are already enough real servants floating around, was a spectral one really needed?

[Wound] was well known. One that was rare for necromancers since it lets you harm the living. A damaging attack, usually nonlethal. Tortuous probably meant it caused extra pain. That kind of modification usually made the range shorter, not that wound would get the distance needed to hit the damned thunder roc.

[Shadowed Graves]. Never heard of it. Not in the book. Shadow-based skills usually are stealth or things like Hyacinth’s movement. Rumor is some could manipulate shadows into weapons. Graves could be a skill like [Bury] which was incredibly useful for shoving things at least halfway into the ground. Or it could be completely useless.

Who was she kidding? She knew what she would pick the moment she saw that name while running off to find Max. Anything to do with shadows. She'd spent too much time peering into the space between as she jumped through them with her familiar. If understanding and experience helped skills and herself level there was so much to pull from there. What if all it did was cast a shadow?

As the bodyguards escorted Harmony up the stairs to her room, she resolved to look at the problem dispassionately. [Recall] - [Analyze] - [Keen Investigative Awareness]. No skill has been useless, yes she could be better equipped. All of these had benefits [Wound] could make her soul strikes so much better and [High Kick] rip into flesh. [Raise Specter] provided more support in a way that even a little bit extra could help her and Hyacinth handle groups. And [Shadowed Graves] whatever it did, she could use it.

Thank goodness. The staff had set up the tub. Night disappeared and Harmony slipped into the warm water. And if she thought of choices passionately? She wanted a taste of what Hyacinth had. When she finally crawled into bed after dimming the lights, she made her choice. [Shadowed Graves] That feeling of death, its perception, and the reality swirled inside her filling a new spot inside with blackness so dark it absorbed light and under its pall others will know the feeling of their end coming. Through her advancement as a necromancer, she felt a little more healed.