Chapter Thirty-Six

“I’m so jealous, Harm. The semi-finals. The semi-finals! Big Blue is going up against the Three-Clawed Beast.” Stu exclaimed excitedly.

Harmony was only three bites into her dinner.

“I’d be more excited about the bonus coin if some lord dumps more than pocket change for her contract.” Fel cooed.

“And if our visiting duke buys me and has me shoveling stables for the rest of my contract as revenge?” The necromancer asked. Hemlock worried her more, but that was a pile of worms she didn’t want to share with the other staff.

“Then you level up and evolve as quickly as you can. I’m sure you won’t get stuck like Jessica did.” Fel replied.

Nobody wanted to think about that depressing option.

“The semi-finals, girl. Aren’t you excited? After the time you spent drilling me on how pet battles work. You’ll finally get to watch the best of the best.”

Ambrosia entered the kitchen to get her meal. “Watching pets hurt themselves for our amusement. So… exciting.” She interrupted disdainfully.

“They want to fight. Those trainers bond monsters. Not pretty birds.” Stu snapped.

“They want to please their masters. Letting your pets take control of your future will stall your path. If that’s why you want your pet, then getting one is a mistake.” The tamer dished back.

Harmony winced, knowing that was meant as a slight jab at her. “I’m starting to think Ambrosia is right. No stability in relying on pets to keep you away from cleaning stables. Evolve or die.”

“Bah.” Stu cursed.

“Have some faith and trust your friends, Harm.” Ambrosia sat beside her, throwing an arm over the necromancer’s shoulders. “You’re bound for bigger things.”

“Yeah, a big payday. I wish my contract was getting bought.” Fel threw in.

Harmony couldn’t picture it. She’d pay to get out of this mess. “Fine.” She said.

“I’m only stopping by briefly. Would you be interested in coming out again after your stunning performance? Songstress and The Flows are being requested everywhere, thanks to your help. Got to keep the momentum while we can.”

“No. I need to work on my skills. You know how it is after you get new ones.” The unstable new skills got her in trouble with the duke in the first place. Dancing wouldn’t get her out of this mess. More control, and he wouldn’t have had the excuse. It took time to take care of that.

After a side hug, Ambrosia got up. “Work to do, and songs to sing.” She called back as she rushed off to her evening.

“The semi-finals, and you won’t even appreciate it.” Stu moaned.

All the complaining was too much. Harmony quickly finished her stew and bread, skipping the opportunity to savor the flavorful meal. It had been too much to hope that the rest of the staff hadn’t heard everything about the contract sale. The Lords and their guests weren’t known for having tight lips around people they thought of as little more than furniture or decoration. She said her farewells and rushed off to her room. There she stripped and slipped into her armor, Night, grabbing her personal notebooks on the way out.

The manor grounds were extensive, maintained by the power of the staff’s skills, and tended to be mostly empty. Everyone who worked there tended to have a spot in or outside the manor that was mostly private for when you needed to be alone rather than in the dorms, good places to train. Harmony was no different and stepped outside into the chilly evening air. Winter, not entirely gone, was fighting back some before relinquishing to spring. The necromancer’s breath fogged up, and she could see spots of frost forming on the ground. Yet, she felt fine. Night, while more covering in many ways than her uniform, was still a thin coat over her skin like it was poured on in places that were not artistically armored. Since she’d gotten [Cold Touch], she’d noticed how chilly weather wasn’t affecting her much, another thing she made a note to explore.

Hyacinth followed as she made her way to the more wooded and wild edge past the manicured garden. He knew where she was going. It was usually a spot for warmer spring days or the summer.

Nestled off the path and hidden by some bushes was a small, nearly single-person-sized pond butting up against a large flat boulder that, on good days, could be used for enjoying a smattering of the sun when it cut through the foliage or for drying off from a quick dip in the pond.

Now the pond had a thin sheet of ice and looked a bit murky from being unattended all winter. Harmony had spent a lot of time practicing [Manipulate Dead] by pulling chunks of debris out, fighting the weight and water. She doubted she’d have time to dredge the pond this night. This time was for getting a handle on the new skills.

Dismissing Hyacinth to chase local wildlife away, she climbed on the rock and focused inwardly. Skills influence you. It’s a fact of life, and getting a new skill was always an adjustment. Harmony remembered needing to keep her mouth shut from criticizing or offering suggestions when she first acquired [Beautician]. Even [Dust] Had her wanting to run her fingers over door frames and tell Dugan to stop scratching his flaky scalp. When you used the skills, it only got worse.

There’s a lot of talk about using the skill and building up a tolerance to the influence. Most called it getting skill drunk. Thibodeux called for making yourself numb. He also recommended exercises where you mentally pack it in a box and shove it away. And it made sense when your use of skills was predicated on fully activating one quickly and repetitively.

Carter’s schema talked about finding your oneness. The dusty old text only mentioned that once and then focused on other things. She couldn’t find anything else on the topic.

So she brought her idea of it together. Focusing on how she used her skills at different levels, with synergies combining them, and how she kept some active for more extended periods without triggering the main effect. The urges were always there, and it wasn’t like shoving them in a mental box removed their existence or made it so they couldn’t explode out in a fit of drunkenness. Hyacinth ended up being key, back when he was a little toad. She asked him how he handled his skill use. While it was a weak impression through their [Familiar Bond], it was obvious that “I am me” came through with a sturdy self-image of himself. Her version of oneness was having all the skills be part of who she was, like emotions, breathing, and errant thoughts. All of which could be controlled and incorporated into who you are.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Looking inward now, was seeing a different scene than what was at the start of this mess. The class and profession skills Harmony had mastered and synergized with were still there. They sat in the churn of [Mana Rotation], which held the pieces of her skills. Activating them had never been easier. [High Kick] and [Small Armor], alien to her class and profession, felt as solidly her as any gained through leveling. [Cold Touch], her newest necromancer skill, hummed along, almost happy at the weather, making her wonder if she’d feel sick on hot days.

Her unlocked stats shone over everything, highlighting possibilities, making everything more potent and different, dangerous even. Seeing what connection flexed poorly could do to dresses and books scared her a little because it seemed to feed off her oneness idea. Everything felt more connected, but not in a safe way. Like eating spicy food, doubling the spice, and hoping your insides can take it. Then add in synergy. The ball of rats, bats, and dust from cleaning the attic, a horror of her creation, flashed into her thoughts, and that was when it went right. It only took the bucket of what was once the book Monster Girls to remind her of what would happen if things went wrong.

So she didn’t activate any of the skills. Instead, she introduced herself to her new skills and worked on aligning their feelings with who she was. [High Kick] had a lot of patient violence and anger. It wasn’t like she never wanted to lash out when mocked for her class or leered at by Tyler. Now she had a skill that could tell her the best and most efficient way to kick them in the privates, making that quiet voice loud. The anger was there before the skill. The skill simply added fuel to the fire. Acknowledging that, let her get the barest of handles on it, a beginning. [Small Armor] urged her to never be without protection. An attack skill might have you never leave the house without a knife. The way it connected to her new armor seemed to sate much of the energy there, which she supposed is why it hadn’t acted out the way her other new skills seemed to.

Satisfying the urges worked to calm them. Not that Harmony felt like she could kick Tyler whenever she wanted to, but there had to be other ways to work out that anger. In her book, she noted this for further study.

The squeaky wheels get the attention as they’re more likely to bother others. That didn’t mean Harmony could ignore the oldest of her powers. They felt a bit heated after all the changes she’d gone through. After a whole season of effort, her perfect self might be achieved, but who had the time. Today she made a note to evaluate them closer later.

[Mana Rotation] seemed to represent the organized chaos of life. Never stopping, even at rest, there is potential energy there, potential problems as well. Like the minor problems of a messy house or the bigger ones of a princely pet, the more she understood what was happening, the better she felt. The anxiety of not understanding the skill or the problems made her queasy and sick. She could ride the feeling of chaos with practice, but knowledge would be key here.

[Cold Touch] was the worst. It surprised her that an ability that felt core to her class acted out more than the others. The bucket, the masquerade, that one time Hyacinth had to save her from herself when she synergized with it. If there was ever a skill she wanted to shove away in a mental box, this was it.

Harmony shoved her armor back into the space made for the paired item. She felt the frosty air and ice-cold stone against her naked skin. It didn’t bother her. Standing up, she took a deep breath and felt the internal actions as the cold filled her lungs. [Cold Touch] accepted it as it intersected with her physical skills. A benefit, but also counter to that cold finality she felt with it supporting survival. Almost how the prince was extra-living in his risen state. Neither is something her necromancer class protested at.

The necromancer took a good hard look at the feelings around [Cold Touch] and how they related to who she was. She shivered at not the freezing temperatures around her as the last of winter met the slowly ending day, but what she saw. Her emotional coldness. That tendency to suppress strong emotions in the face of difficulties. No response was better than lashing out when Tyler leered and asked for favors. Her choice that it was better to be cold than emotional, as her mother kicked her out after years of suffering, as others mocked her half-damned class. Not just negative feelings did that to her, but also positive ones. Even Ambrosia, the warmest, most affectionate, and caring person she knew, only elicited a slight response from her. The truth of it made her sick. Cold wasn’t the life she wanted.

“Harmony! You’re naked!”

The woman’s voice caused the maid’s eyes to shoot open. At the entrance to her little private oasis decked out in warm furs over expensive leather armor was princess Rosaline, whose eyes looked like they were about to fall out of her head.

Harmony fumbled internally. All this introspection left her raw and uncoordinated. Cronostatis wasn’t even kicking in to let her fumble at an accelerated pace. Night snapped back into place a few heavy breaths later, armoring her against the goggling. As it resisted because Rose’s eyes weren’t a real threat.

“Um. I was skill training. Alone. In private.” Internally she tapped her [Familiar Bond]. Old Bones, Hyacinth. Why didn’t you warn me?

The image of Hyacinth with jagged claw marks, and a struggling snow panther, pissed and struggling while half-chewed came back to her. Busy.

“Naked? It’s freezing out here. Tyler better not have suggested this.”

No way this was a random encounter. “How did you find me?”

“My class has a tracking skill. Not that it helped me find the bitch who stole my brother.”

It technically did. Not that Harmony had any interest in explaining to the princess that she was that woman. That didn’t explain why the princess was here now. All she could do was let the uncomfortable silence speak as she searched for the best way to ask a princess, why did you come to find me?

The princess filled the silence first. “Sorry, this whole corpse problem is bringing up feelings again. We weren’t the closest of siblings. He got his royal profession and was whisked away for training. Then I got mine and was sent to mine. When it became clear his cursed evolution was killing him, I had to mourn the relationship we could have had. It was blind luck he decided to escort me here in an attempt to speak to the guild master while I completed my leveling in Old Bones. He was weak and dying yet energetic and optimistic. I was only getting to know him when… Now I feel like his cursed choice is making me mourn again.”

In a fairytale, now would be the time to confess and then for her to summon Prince Adain for a lovely reunion in the private hideaway. Harmony couldn’t do it. She’d seen home much the world wasn’t a fairytale for the unlucky. Icy tendrils of fear snaked around her heart and reminded her of her current problems. This wasn’t the moment to fight against bad emotional habits. She didn’t know this girl.

“It’ll work out. Why are you looking for me?” [Poise and Bearing] helped craft the proper caring yet respectful tone, even if she knew the response was short.

“The duke. That bastard Hemlock has worked some ideas into his head. He’s planning something at the auction. The man’s so jealous of anyone with real authority. It’s my fault he’s aiming to make you a whipping boy for me. He may have provisional authority over the city, but he can’t stop me from buying your contract at the auction. I should have the funds to do it. I felt asking your permission first and letting you know was appropriate.”

Asking permission first. That’s new and unusual. Harmony’s choice to not reveal what she did to the girl’s brother made her want to say no. The princess’s care might not be the worst of places to land. Even if the princess felt she could outbid the Duke, Harmony knew Rose couldn’t outbid the guild master. That man seemed unaccustomed to not getting what he wanted, but why involve the duke? Harmony felt a slight headache coming on, even trying to guess.

“You have my permission to try, my lady.”

“I’ll make everything right. You’ll see.” Rose answered with a smile.

Harmony doubted that.

The princess left, back between the bushes and into the wooded area of the manor grounds.

Mentally exhausted, Harmony gave up working on her skills and instead worked on lecturing Hyacinth through their bond about keeping an eye out for her, no matter how tasty an animal appeared to be. What if something less distressing than the princess ambushed her naked, like a second damned snow panther.