Chapter Forty-One

“Student White, are you back with us?”

Flint’s voice was both too loud and coming from a tunnel far away. Ashes! Logic said that a powerful mercenary who hunts forbidden classes unexpectedly being here meant something bad must be happening! ‘Here’ was a blurry black mess of double vision and confusion of clashing calm and panic. Harmony tried to move but found her body completely restrained, even as she was trying to feel reconnected to it again. A very real part of her was mentally screaming, “Danger!” The restraints weren’t helping as a surge of panic shot through her, and she reached out for [Cold Touch] to dull rampaging emotions, only to find everything suppressed, and her memories burnt.

“Calm down and breathe slowly.” Flint continued.

Even when she was breathing slowly, she was also breathing fast. And the memories? What’s the last thing she clearly remembered? Bleeding [Recall] sat playing dead, forcing the old-fashioned method amidst a splitting headache. Her childhood, why would Kelly come up? She might see her mother at the Manor when Maxwell summoned her, but that shouldn’t have anything to do with Instructor Flint. Silenced combat seminar with the gauntlet, followed by the morgue volunteering, and the bear. It was after that that memories got fuzzy. Had Alex's meeting with his monster gone wrong? Manipulation of souls probably had aspects that could attract a hunter of forbidden classes. No, the meeting was adorable. That much was clear before the echo died, and Harmony made her death knell focused on stitching the memory constructs into a working relationship with a bit of theatrics combined with mental necromancy.

Damaged memories, but not eliminated. Vital body’s healing worked hard on what was in her mind. What happened after she helped Alex? Tasha sent flowers, a pricey gift in Ricort, to apologize for the bruise received in the scuffle due to the redhead’s lack of discipline. Alex earned a title, something about friendship, and a more stable soul. He even celebrated without drinking more than one glass of cider.  

Had Flint discovered Marci? That was forbidden. That project hadn't been checked on yet…

“You’re safe, Harmony. The threat is gone.” Fint continued.

Threat! There were several escape routes planned. Why hadn’t Hyacinth or Adric gotten her out of here? She could even go to Tun-Knee. But first. Even though the paperwork wasn’t fully processed, the beast-kin would support her. Eliminate. There was so much more to learn… and steal. The immortalists had more books to copy. Exterminate. This next visit to the manor had her watching Bea use the undead advancement biscuit. Why are things going wrong now? Get out and get safe. Erase! Even silenced, [Stride Before the Fall] could be accessed. Harmony reached for it in her soul. The skill failed… spent…. No… It was active. Clarity of confusion, that double vision, and splitting headache. Two Harmonies, one healing, restrained, and the other all fear and rage, waiting, and both fighting to be the one chosen to remain.

“What… Happened?” Harmony squeezed out. Her split vision was now able to sort out some and view Flint’s classroom, empty but for her body pinned to the floor by an invisible force with instructor Flint standing over her. To the side lay a metal table ripped in two in the middle of the trashed, empty room.

“We had a lesson on the forbidden cupid class. Everyone was to experience a dose of being charmed by another student. A rare complication is that some people react violently to the effects. Congratulations on your form of immunity. We’ve removed Student Gottman, so you’ll no longer be triggered by her.”  

A woman's voice commanded her. Like it had when she was a child. Pick that up. Say these lines. Not even a command, just sloppy control causing an accident of will overridden. Years before her choice, she’d fought so nothing could… oh… NEVER AGAIN. The rage wasn’t sane and not yet separated far enough from the potion of Cupid’s heart Flint used for the class lesson.

“Gottman… still… in.. Danger.. Copy… skill..“

That caused instructor Flint to leave.

Too bad he left her restrained, though the restraints felt looser. How scary had she been? She’d at least been dosed with a long-lasting silence potion similar to what she’d used at the gauntlet as part of the precautions before they applied the cupid’s heart potion; too bad she had skills that got around suppressions. The [Stride] copy would be silenced too, since conditions are always transferred. Her bonds and Hyacinth could be used, though… It took effort to keep her mind partitioned, so letting in a little insanity gave a picture of what she was doing. Bleeding hell, the copy was wearing Night and had its own blood sickle. Hers was pinned down in her hand.

Adric strode into the room. “I had to wait for him to leave. Hyacinth is with the copy and can hopefully keep you out of trouble.”  

“How much time?” Harmony asked.

Adric pulled out a knife and started sawing the space around Harmony. From her perspective, he was cutting empty air. “You’ll have about two hundred seconds once I cut you free before it gets really painful. Flint Steelheart makes invisible fabric, if you're wondering.”  

Her pet prince knew exactly how long she’d managed to train up [Stride Before The Fall] before it hit its failure point. Which meant she was out and talking with Flint for too long. If anything brought her to her senses, it was probably the beginning of the strain of needing to choose which Harmony lived. If it hadn’t… Harmony shuddered at the idea of the still insane copy of her being the surviving version by default. Not that she wouldn’t realign, but it was easier to fold trauma into something stable. It was hard enough to keep both sides in her mind. The crazed one was actively damaging her memories, the damage attempted to remove the compulsion, and now she had to remove the threat, innocent as the girl was. It was a dark world, paired with glimpses of Julie Gottman surrounded by the students who had been cleared out of the room.  Every few moments, the location would shift.

Hyacinth had to be straining to keep her in the gloom paths. The [Familiar Bond] was simply radiating grumpiness at both of them with bits of information about how to properly ambush someone, and charging into a group of students was not an advisable tactic. This whole situation would require extra cats as payment.

Once Adric cut around enough of her arm that held her tool, she was able to assist in freeing herself. Flint's invisible fabric took some sawing, even with the wickedly sharp instrument. Adric had looked into the man closer than she had, but with schoolwork, who had time? Without the time to relish being unrestrained, they rushed out of the classroom.

The mad-Harmony’s annoyance spiked as Flint appeared beside Gottman, in the copy’s vision. They couldn’t be too far away, even if the instructor was fast.

Internally, the silence wavered. Soon, their skills would be back, and in this state, she knew all her skills would be in play at full strength. Bad. bad. Bad. She ran out of the building towards the group, pushing to keep up with Adric.

Hyacinth, some help?

A flicker of distorted shadows at one of the dark corners near a bush, and [High Kick] had her tumbling into the gloom paths through the door her familiar had opened.

A world of black and gray now cast in an eerie red glow as her duplicate’s blood sickle burned like a blazing torch with the song of violence at Harmony’s heart. She wasn’t looking great with wild hair, crazy eyes, and night shifting awkwardly on her body. [Beautician] would be ashamed if it weren’t muzzled.

“Traitor!” Her copy screamed at Hyacinth as it borrowed a bit of clarity since they both shared the same  mind to some degree. Night shifted on the mad copy’s body, the scales becoming spikes, thorns, and claws, psychoreactive to her mental state.

“Greep,” the toad snipped back, annoyed at the insult and hopped off the path, making it clear it was up to Harmony to straighten herself out before he’d rejoin.

“This is unbecoming of a lady.”  The uniformed Harmony reminded herself, touching into their shared authority.  Whoever won persistence after this [Stride], the events of today were going to be a hard thing to adjust to.

“Raaaaaaaa!” Mad Harm yelled, lunging at herself wildly.

Harmony saw it coming, but knew the reverse would be true as well. A fight with someone who knows your every move….  This will be worse than the mimic, because then she didn’t have to remember or experience the pain doled out as it happened.

Sometimes you have to pound your childhood issues into submission.  

Except for when a cheery young woman’s voice interrupted the conflict.--“Gosh, that was a mess and a half. It’s totally not your fault, Harmony. Something like this happens to every new student, and we all have our embarrassing… um… why are there TWO of you? And WHAT are you wearing?”  Becca Bloom, resident associate, inquisitor, and part elf, interrupted.

Both Harmonies shared the experience of being taken aback at being walked in on what was to be a personal and private working out of a personal issue with pointy objects.

“Becca?” Both said.

Despite the closer quarters, the odd internal bits weren’t reacting as strongly to the blood sickle anymore. Was it the gloom paths, or had she figured out how to shield from the effects?

“You are the Hunter’s Dorm resident and therefore my responsibility. It was also obvious once I saw the gloom paths flicker. Adric asked me not to, but he doesn’t own me." She said with a slight blush.

Not the time to think of Adric and Becca together.

“You saw what she did to the classroom. Help me stop her!” Yelled the mad one.

The sane one agreed it was good to change the subject. But the pressure to choose who persisted was getting worse, and while, yes, technically this presence was the one that ripped apart the desk to go after Julie, and had to be restrained, the mental imbalance in the other body and desire to kill the threat wasn’t acceptable. “It’s complicated. You said you knew my secrets. That one,” Harmony pointed to the clearly crazy duplicate, “wants Julie dead.”  Harmony relied on Becca’s ability to detect the truth. Too bad the inquisitor still looked confused.

“All that secret business was that I know we’re both dungeon-touched. Not that you have a twin” .

“We’re not..”

At the absolute worst time, the silence potion ended. Harmony shared the experience of the mad version of herself accessing [Shadowed Graves] with [Disentegrate] to attempt to punch a way out of the gloom paths to go after the poor girl still associated with Kelly, with a commitment to die trying. That giving up of needing to persist came with a boost of necromantic potential.  

To act without thinking, Harmony reduced this down to the simplest of what was the immediate problem that needed to be solved. [Final Silence] wouldn’t be quick enough to stop the already forming rupture, and Flint already knows about the copy. Bleeding coffins, Becca knew about it too, but she’d rather not have everyone know about Night, the extent, and details of the copy or any of the damned necromancy skills.  The soul strike that went out and formed around her sickle strike [Small Armor], severing the skill that held Night as she tackled herself.

Sharing the mental pain of breaking a skill, even if it was a clean cut, nearly ended the attempt, except she forced herself to feed the pain to the greedy  and untrustworthy [Eternal Fable’s Heart].

[Manipulate Dead] ripped off the armor as [Final Silence] worked on her irrational self moments before the pair tumbled out of the shadows right in front of the shocked Academy students. Harmony glared down at the bleeding, naked copy of herself, ignoring that Becca stepped out of the shadows behind her, “You’re smart enough, good enough, and rotgone it people like you, so if Alex can give up his childish fears and forgive his monster, then so can we.”  She told herself.

The naked version of her, even silenced, gave her classmates and instructor Flint a smile and wave that would have made [Poise and Bearing] proud and faded away.  

You would have thought they would have let her skip Material Manipulation after all that, but they didn’t.  That would have been five demerits, and she was already potentially on a path to failing the class, but Flint Steelheart did want a meeting with her and her academic advisor.

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