Chapter Thirty-one

“I can’t believe I died.” Harmony moaned from bed.

Ambrosia started with a skeptical look from her spot soaking in the room's luxury bathtub. “You look pretty healthy to me.” She responded after hearing all about the night's adventure.

“The blade went through my heart. My blood stopped pumping. Life slipped away. It leveled my [Stride] skill.”

“Don’t expect us to kill you to level it more. I know you love your training, but please don’t do that intentionally.”

“I’d….” Actually, she had considered that during her own time in the tub. It had gone all the way to level five from that little incident. “I promise not to do that.” Her hand touched her chest where the blade had jabbed through. At least not while the memory was fresh.

“Good. You know I will lose sleep tonight writing songs to cover this excitement.”

“You mean fiasco.”

Water splashed a bit as Ambrosia animatedly waved her arm about. “Lady Harmony White dodges death while temple clergy watch on, helpless. The song could almost write itself. Drama, pain, and the mourned prince mourning before he realizes you’ve survived.”

Harmony tossed a pillow in her friend's direction, missing the tub.

“Would you rather the sheets get their spin on the situation? A catchy tune carries further than a gossip dump.”

Songstress and the Flows, public relations arm. As long as you didn’t mind having no real control over it. “Just make me look good.”

“Always, Beautiful.”

Harmony closed her eyes thinking it would take forever to fall asleep.

Soon after Ambrosia slipped out of the tub, returned the pillow, and tucked the lightly snoring maid more tightly under the covers.

The necromancer awoke, hand clutching her chest trying to feel her heartbeat, the memory of acting without it thumping still in her mind, too vivid to be a dream. Even that stress was less than knowing consequences would arise from her night out. It would be foolish to continue as though nothing happened.

Goosebumps prickled her skin as she performed her morning routine. [Cold Touch] acting up slightly. Night snapped into place, driving the lingering chill away.

There was a rap on the door, the knock wasn’t Bates or Ambrosia. Bates was slow and steady, Ambrosia would have entered without knocking, not caring if she was dressed yet.

Harmony opened the door to see the first consequence from last night. The four bodyguards assigned from the guild waited. [Recall] let her at least remember their names with a high degree of accuracy. Nick, Drew, Jeff, and Justin. “Yes?” She asked.

“You should have told us you were going out. We can’t do our job if we aren’t there.” Nick started forcefully.

“There were no allowances for bodyguards at the private event, and I wanted to go incognito.”

“We could have coordinated with event security. You wouldn’t be the first lord or lady who liked to slum it.” Jeff added offhandedly.

Having experienced real slums personally, she twitched in dislike at the term. “Then the staff would know the secret. Which means it wouldn’t have been a secret at all. I’ve worked at such events and word spreads quickly the more people know. I doubt that would have improved my safety. There were no signs that I would be in danger either way.”

“You’re not even aware of the kinds of danger you’re in. There are Naewauld loyalists who are concerned the Ascendant Games will make Hazeldown the more important city. The general dislike of necromancers always feeds some fanatics, with the fact you’re an aristocrat stirring them up more than normal. Outside influences that dislike any gains for the guild. Even overly enthusiastic fans of your portrayal in song and paper. Trust us to know how to do our jobs.” Drew said.

Was she going to do that again? Go to some big party and make a scene while in Naewauld? It’s not like she had many free days when she needed to evolve soon.

“Fine. I’ll let you know before I go out again.” Since it wasn’t happening, it was an easy promise to make. “Now bodyguard me down to breakfast.”

Bates and Ambrosia were talking to Captain Ellis, that social investigator she’d met her first time at Ma Bell’s table. All three of them had a look of hashing out business, which explained why the bodyguards had fetched her rather than Ambrosia’s usually cheerful smile.

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Harmony took a small flaky pastry from the table, no point in facing more consequences on an empty stomach. She nibbled her way towards the group.

“Good morning Captain Ellis,” Harmony said with a slight curtsy.

The captain bowed deeply, “Lady White, we’re deeply ashamed that you were accosted in our city. It was our mistake to not provide you additional support immediately after your notoriety started to rise. Two guards have been assigned to assist your team in any way possible.”

“Oh, you need not trouble yourself. There isn’t a scratch on me.“ Harmony answered while leaning into her social skills. A pointless refusal considering she’d seen how involved he’d been talking to Bates and Ambrosia. Even if he accepted the refusal, she knew her staff wouldn’t.

“We must insist. As the nonpartisan peacekeepers of Naewauld. It is our duty to see that you’re not inconvenienced again.”

Sure, pile on the bodyguards. It’s not like she had any plans other than climb Nae’s Garden and work towards evolution. That is after resolving the mess Adric had gotten into. Maybe if she surrounded herself with enough protection, annoyances would leave her alone. “Well, if you insist. Has there been news of the motivations behind what happened last night?”

“Clearly a crime of opportunity. Sadly, in the jurisdictional battle, the temple took custody of the man. They’ve been less than forthcoming, insisting the man acted alone. Do not be shocked if they reach out to you.”

Great. Politics. Rather than a long sigh, [Poise and Bearing] helped plaster a smile on her face. “Your concern is appreciated. May the rest of my trip here be a smooth ascent.”

Harmony took that as a time to leave. Sticking around the hotel was going to attract more problems. Hyacinth was waiting and together they had more practical obstacles to deal with.

The corpse of the brood mother wooze sat behind the pair as they stared up the stairs to the second floor. The guardian had proved resistant to the skill-damaging attack. Like there was an extra layer of protection to get through. Not too different than some of the extra resistance found when using necromancy skills in Old Bones.

“Karoak.”

“No, why don’t you go first.”

“Grrak.”

“I know you hate stairs. I'm thinking I should get some kind of danger-sense skill stone. I can already picture the synergies, combined with [Analyze] I can see how dangerous something is. Twisted, I could use it to figure out the most dangerous strike for me to use against opponents.”

“Grumph.”

“No. I’m not stalling. Don’t imply I’m afraid. You’re the scaredy cat.”

Hyacinth forced the issue by hopping up the stairs toward the second level. He wasn’t no cat. And loathe as he was to admit it, there was something satisfying in using his new toys to cut things. You could only kick, stomp, and crush with your mouth so much before getting bored. There was also the strain of authority, no way was he going to let Harmony suffer through that, if he needed to give her a little nudge he would, even if it meant stairs.

The second floor tasted awful. Prey needed to be made of meat. These living plants were an abomination. A swipe sawed through loose vines on the floor. Their thickness matched the one that had so embarrassingly snared him last time. Too much time being reluctant to use tools. They can be a stepping stone to power instead of a crutch. The past doesn’t predict the present.

Slowly Hyacinth pulled more authority from Harmony lessening her burden, so much potential need not be too strained. Agreeing to guide had been a supreme choice.

“Move your fat ass. Time to see if we can snap these sticks.” Harmony urged.

With a nudge, they were off. Hyacinth acting as bait in the lead, his least favorite role. It made sense since Harmony’s new attack had the potential to cripple them, but that didn’t mean he liked it. Size was becoming an issue, as larger shadows needed to be found for proper ambushes.

On the path, a tree limb fell with a slash. Hyacinth hopped back, but it was only one of several. A twiggy, one of the second-floor abominations, their branch arms swung vigorously forcing a few more short jumps. Having hopped out of reach, with an earth-wrenching creak it started to uproot to give chase.

Now! Hyacinth felt the call for action through their bond, but he didn’t need prompting. Spurs ready he launched back into the fray.

Harmony’s strike was primed and waiting as she made her move. Her familiar’s job was to keep those four arms occupied. The dungeon guides had been clear that the best time to attack was when they were uprooting themselves. The roots would be pulled taunt as the Twiggy yanked out, too slow and they would tuck them inside of their base.

This experiment didn’t use her skill-damaging strike. For the second time in less than a day, Harmony found herself striking between some proverbial legs. [High Hick] with an aura of [Cold Touch] her foot slammed into the roots covering them with frost. The twiggy locked up almost as though it was silenced.

Harmony hacked away with a sharpened wooze brood mother tooth to limited effectiveness. Five seconds. The twiggy wound up again.

Hyacinth had managed To saw off two limbs in that time, all she managed was deep scratches. Not good enough. They needed to handle them in packs of four or five near the end of the floor. Each strike to damage skills took almost two minutes between usage and strained her. Eight and ten-minute fights were too long, assuming it worked.

The twiggy lunged all attack and no defense. Why defend when you were a dense block of wood resistant to most attacks. Even teams working to make it a pile of toothpicks took time.

That made it easy to step in through the opening those missing limbs made easy and slam her palm onto it. Pop. The skill powering the movement was easy to see, it fractured, and the mobile tree fell with a crash.

For good measure, Hyacinth sawed off all but one limb and they waited. It was healing, but at the rate she could feel it would be maybe a day before it could get moving again. Not easy work, but not everything can be as simple as dusting the hallways.

“Let’s get hunting.”

“Croak!”

And they were off.