Chapter Thirty-Seven

“No blood, no oaths, just sign and date my name here?” Even true sight had it as nothing more than a simple piece of paper outlining the agreement to become a vassal, and defining that as her gaining protection in exchange for responsibilities that would not exceed more than forty days of service in a year, if called for mandatory acts to be managed by the royal bunnies. She would start under an exemption due to her current schooling at The Academy.

Hazeldown and Naewauld didn’t have aristocrats manage much more than households or spots in the gossip columns. So the idea of having a village related to her authority, filled with volunteers whom she’d be responsible for, was odd.

The fox-kin’s nose twitched in annoyance. “We’re not barbaric like the guild or most furless kingdoms. As a witness, I can attest to your word, and our bureaucracy can handle the rest. It can take several months to fully process it. I’ve never personally borne witness to such an agreement, but don’t you worry.”

How much had she been messed with for her to have the sinking feeling that this was even more of a trap than what she knew it to be?  Was the idea of a mutually beneficial situation without imbalance so unheard of? It’s not like she’d use this to convince Loap to do anything other than what the bunny wanted to do.

Closing her eyes, Harmony signed the document, and when nothing happened after a slow count, she exhaled and opened her eyes again.

“So, it is witnessed by Robin Fursly that this unsworn sparkle has committed to Zotaria. If they break their word, then my life is forfeit.”

A golden glow enveloped the lawyer.

“What!?” Harmony asked as the fox-kin took the document out of her shocked hands.

“Just some legalese,” Robin assured.

“You just said your life would be forfeit.”

“That’s only if you break this agreement, and you’d never do that; so I’m safe.”

Harmony had read the document. “That wasn’t in the document.”

“No, this is a separate thing that has to do with my duties as a witness. I’m going to take this and file it away. You go and do whatever furless students do, Sparkle White.”

Harmony watched the lawyer briskly walk away. ”Hopping madness.” Harmony played with the phrase as Loap would use it. Was this the kingdom she signed up with, or was this some trick Tun-Knee was playing on her? Like the death of some random person she just met could keep her from…”Ashed bones.”

Hyacinth was still snoring in bed, which was a small blessing because at this point, his laughter would be too much. It was too early in the morning for all of this trouble, but she’d wanted this vassal issue settled before she ran off to today’s task, and the silenced combat seminar had an early start and came with instructions about wearing clothes suitable for rough and dirty combat. Because of the recent influx of funds, she had options. Tailored metal mesh was the cheapest material in Ricort, but Harmony chose leather because [Mend] would have a harder time on the links if any got torn.  

Silenced Combat was a different kind of seminar than the welcome week class of three hundred. It took place in the school’s colosseum and had at least three thousand participants, with a registration desk and lines to manage them all. Ahead was more than that; an obstacle course awaited to be challenged. After the trials of The Ascendant Games, it was quaint except for the fact that she knew they’d have to run the route without any skills.

“Welcome to the seminar that just may save your life. Facing a time in your life when your skills and body fail you is a natural part of walking your path. Be it brought upon you by traps, poisons, or skills while in the dungeon, arena, or by surprise.  This day will be broken down into three rounds; personal combat, breaking silence, and everyone's favorite– the Gauntlet.  Some of you are here because this counts as a qualifier for the end-of-quarter intercollegiate games.” The projection of the instructor continued to introduce them to the tasks of the day and a large team of combat graduate students who would manage the stations.

Harmony let herself mingle with the students, be they nervous, those hyping themselves up to compete,  or excited to just be here. She had dozens of small conversations as everyone got registered and labeled for groups. It was a time for social networking with new people to meet and familiar faces to maintain contact with. “You’re sure, you’re going to feel up for closing out Mortician Mell’s little house of horrors after running the gauntlet?" Luce asked.

It took [Recall] borrowing from memories of her mother's acting to throw on a faint hint of disgust rather than excitement. After volunteering for all the roles, this was her chance to finally acquire some human remains to sneak away with during the disposal process. So much like home, she hadn’t added it to the difficult tasks list today. “I need the volunteer credits. I want to start with one of the experts, and not an intern.”

That was the other thing she’d learned while volunteering. Not all tutors were the same and charged differently. Mell even offered to make her an intern tutor for volunteer hours so she could take other students' completion tokens as a volunteer option since the mortician was getting inquiries from people wanting to buy Harmony’s time. The whole system was an information and social economy; a lot of students used those tokens to try to move jobs or departments, turning their tutoring sessions into a way to prove themselves.

“I suppose I don’t have your stamina. Groups are getting called. Good luck in combat, us healers should always know how to throw a punch.”

“I hope the gauntlet doesn’t beat you too badly.“ Harmony jabbed back as Luce’s group started that first.

Causal social connections maintained, Harmony joined the smaller group of students who’d put down that they had strong and durable body types. The graduate student running the group of twenty waved her over.

“Student White, your body type isn’t cataloged fully. Your advisor only put down three words— strong, tough, and full, rather than a proper academic report.  I need you to sign this waiver. I’ll be monitoring you closely in case I need to put you in a lesser group.”

Half the group did seem to be overly muscled. The slight ones were more dangerous in [Keen Investigative Awareness]’s perception. “Understood.”  Harmony signed her name again.

Then the class began.

The graduate student was named Ryder. He worked for one of the combat professors. “I recognize many of you. Some are new.” Harmony felt his eyes linger on her. “Who here has had silenced combat training?”

Thirteen of the twenty raised their hands. Harmony kept hers down. It’s not like  she didn’t know how to fight. She’d had lessons on pre-choice in stage fighting, then worked with the dig-boys before she’d acquired any physical skills. From dramatic and showy to hit them between the legs and run.  Gleening from [High Kick] and [Small Armor] to any action while silenced wasn’t a formal lesson, nor did she count Adric passing on things he learned from his uncle as proper teaching.

“Don’t worry, I’m not expecting to teach you to be experts, but as those gifted with strong body types, you’ll have advantages when silenced; others won’t, so knowing how to properly kick, punch, block, and throw will benefit you all.  Let's see what you need to learn. I find the best way to figure that out is to watch you fight,”

The silence drought lasted about ten minutes, and it tasted how Alex, in bear form, smelled after a long training session. What it didn’t affect or only blunted constituted an unfair advantage, as Harmony used chronostasis to dismantle most of her opponents, but once Juliette’s hand was around her wrist or ankle, there was nothing she could do to stop being tossed through the air.  This was the third time the student treated her like a plaything.  At least Ryder stopped worrying about her getting hurt.

Harmony hit the ground with a roll, rather than a thud, which was an improvement. “How do I beat that?” She asked, sitting up.

“You?” Juliette demanded. “What am I supposed to do against you? If that landed and I didn’t toss your weighty ass away, I’d need a healer. Are you even hurt?”

“I’m dusty.” Harmony pointed out.

Ryder stepped in between the pair. “This is the important lesson that one needs to learn is that often a stalemate is achieved, and all one can do is wait out the effects of silence or run. Juliette, congratulations on earning some qualifier points. The next round will start soon.”  

The slim blonde sighed in relief as Ryder left. “Sorry, I was afraid you were going to cost me my chance at qualifying. Most of the chosen nine avoid these qualifying seminars as automatic bids.”

Tired of the numbing effect of the potion suppressing her skills, Harmony focused inwardly on her body and soul.  This one didn’t affect speech, so she barely considered it a proper silence. It was more of a biological and spiritual mixture. Vital body worked hard to speed up metabolizing the stuff being absorbed. To get her soul involved, she prompted [Eternal Fable’s Heart] to eat it like it did fate, bending the rules with her state of connections even as it protested. When her chest said “no,” she tapped into some dormant anger to force-feed the skill the problematic energy.

Rather than have three more minutes left, she burned it off at the cost of a bit of burning sensations in her body. Now free to use skills, [Dust] sprung to action, cleaning herself and Juliette off, allowing her to speak without tasting dirt.

“My advisor signed me up for this. It was useful. Are the games that big a deal?”

“It’s the best time to show school pride. We are The Academy, after all, and this is my chance to shine.”

 The session on breaking silence effects was more educational and added a few tips and tricks to work on. The arsenal of processing and working through the effect, accepting the heart of silence, being loud enough to break it, and rejecting the outside influence could always use more tools, depending on the type of suppression inflicted on you. Sometimes you worked through skills that were immune, and other times you could snap your fingers and use the vibrations as a counter. It was all about understanding the root cause to work on getting out of the dangerous situation as quickly as you could by recognizing what type of suppression you were hit with.

Doing it over and over again was exhausting work. The fights had been physical. Doing this much labor with mostly your soul had dozens of students sprawled out on the arena floor, moaning from the kind of strain they were not used to. It wasn’t even close to the difficulty of trying to manage  a healing session of interweaving all your skills to fight curses under Hexio Curie’s direction.

“Any objections to a heal?” Harmony asked the crowd, even the two graduate students assigned to the group were too exhausted to continue on.

With none of the moans being negative, Harmony let her healing mist spread [Cold Touch] diffused through the air as the ice particles in their solid state were able to be nudged with [Dust] and infused with [Renew Spirit].   [Mend] always added additional stability. There were always little things to tweak, even if it was using what she learned in her stats class to get what she wanted while lessening the personal cost of the magic. The mist lingered as it spread, only diffusing once it touched skin and leaving a glow on the students it touched as it seeped in what had to be a hint of how her new title of Guaranteed was adjusting her skills, where the odds of the ice melting was diminished.

It was like she raised the dead the way their bodies were able to sit, stand, and walk again. “Thank the gods for that. You’re the tertiary healer, aren’t you?”

“Guilty,” Harmony answered.

“Don’t you love school events like this?” The young man, Mithu [Recall], reminded her, asked.

For something that was opened as, learn this so you don’t die, there was a lot of laughter and chatting, like it was one big party. “Community and school spirit.” That was the crowd’s emotions, not unlike Ambrosia’s concerts, which brought fans together in adoration, though that was a more intense flavor.  “Education and challenge,” Harmony added her preferred interests, so her answer didn’t sound a tinge hollow.

“Exactly,” Mithu answered. “It’s good to see the chosen nine support us here. Sometimes you all can seem a little aloof.”

That was a term that Ambrosia had used to harass her about as she pulled her out of her reading nooks in Coodly Manor. Had she become a people person? Returning Mithu’s smile, Harmony’s thoughts drifted to the corpses she’d get to poke around while closing the morgue, working with the bodies alone for the night, and digging through what hadn’t been harvested, a person of the people but not quite there yet with living people.  

A whistle rang out over the field for the next swapping of spots. The gauntlet awaited.