Chapter Forty-Two

Harmony inspected Bea. The internal work was as flawless as Harmony’s skill level could produce. Developing necromancy was almost as important as transferring knowledge from The Academy to the manor. Bea’s face still had the purple lightning bolt scar across its face. Beauty that wasn’t unique wasn’t elevated enough. Those flaws became a feature of the attractiveness now built into the undead’s form, smoothed and polished so seamlessly that it looked like a birthmark.

She'd finished repairing and improving the undead during her last visit to Hazeldown by trading a few blows to test the undead’s durability, speed, and reaction time.  Observing how the dungeon reward, an Undead Advancement Biscuit, modified it further should provide an excellent distraction from the current stresses of attending The Academy in Ricort.

​

That “should” was, disappointingly, contingent on not having distractions happening simultaneously back at school during the late hour at which Agent Maxwell summoned her. Xera and Tasha sat in her room patiently waiting for an answer to what had happened earlier in the day on campus, for the only thing faster than instantaneous teleportation was the speed at which rumors flew.

"No, I do not have any feud with Student Gottman. My poor behavior was a reaction to a potion in my Defense Against the Forbidden Arts class, and instructor Flint restrained me for everyone's safety. I have an appointment to discuss the incident with Flint and my academic advisor, a day after our first team run in Oorty's Tomb."

Thankfully, most of the rumors had been about that bit of drama. A first-year student, even a tertiary, attacking a third-year student was unheard of. Harmony's memory was still a tad spotty from the time she took a sip of Cupid's Heart to the point where she woke up pinned to the floor. The naked copy of her appearing in the middle of campus for a few seconds brought wilder and more abstract rumors. From illusion, to a fan’s golem decoy, or maybe a secret evil twin.  The fact that the second one disappeared without a trace had people defaulting to a very realistic illusion, a paper clone, or mass mental projection. A lot of skills could do something like what happened, but since Harmony refused to talk about it, no one had the real answer.

​"And what about the...?"  Tasha asked.

Of course, the problem was that her teammates felt like they could ask about that one peculiar issue. The nightmare of where you're naked in front of your whole class, but this one turned out to be real. It wasn’t even the nudity that bothered her, but those final thoughts as she smiled and waved, about how this was her problem now. This was exactly the drama she needed a distraction from. "Something reserved for emergencies, and I'm leaving it at that."

They didn't want to leave it as that, but that did let Harmony sharpen some passive skills at deflecting and redirecting the conversation. She could play social wargames by taking turns of communicative parrying by asking Xera about Kevin, and reminding Tasha of the bruise she took. The verbal combat training of girl talk, giving nothing, and making others uncomfortable to the point of saying little of much importance. Until the topic might get around to the fact that “The weather has been mighty nice.”

​

In Hazeldown, Harmony watched as Bea swallowed the biscuit. Undead were fascinating in that many were able to pretend to be living, either by being more powerful than the skills that ferreted them out or through other protections. Prince Adric was the perfect example, where his vitality was almost too much, and yet he had been dead, and some things labeled him as such, and others not so much.  Of all the things she hadn't expected to see at the dissolution of the item inside the undead soul, outside of an increase in the density of necromantic energy, nothing happened.

"It's offering me a choice, Savior," Bea answered in its unwavering tone.

​Ever subservient, an implication was there. Bea even now wore the livestock tag with pride. There had been some outrage when that legal protection was first mentioned, but apparently, experiences caused her to grow fond of it. Culturally, a person’s choice was a family matter at most, but usually private. Tyler and Len had only asked for advice. Harmony wasn't Bea's maker. Even Kelly never had the right to force a choice. Fresh integrated memories of today's mad rage flashed hard at that.  NEVER A... Breathe... "Make your choice." The one necromantic order she’d give was that it would be Bea’s decision about what she wanted as death, authority, revival, and pain mixed to provide that point.

This wasn't about what Bea was going to be. It was all about what could be learned during the transformation. How do the undead advance when assisted?  Could it later be replicated? Already, the idea of increasing a target's density of necromantic energy to see if it forced a choice was on Harmony’s mental list, but it couldn't be that simple.

Chronostasis captured it with [Recall]. The shift in power was barely perceptable, not like the evolutionary cocoons. The sense of "Here be undead" shut off, as though she was looking at a normal girl. Coloring shifted a touch less pale and more dynamic. She'd added coloring as part of the [Beautician] package, but it lacked the natural traits of living that were now here.  Body language less rigid, just a tad, breathing less mechanically forced, soul sight saw a normal girl. Considering the damaged and missing skills, the new ones blossomed in place. If she'd scanned this woman on the street, she'd put her as once evolved.  Chewing a flicker of fate had True sight see a shadow of something, but the amount of practice it would take to differentiate that into undead was not something Harmony was willing to do.

Harmony held up her palm. "Hit me full strength."

Bea's fist slammed forward with no hesitation. Twenty percent strength increase? The upgrades had been significant, and this summoned body of Max's wasn't weak, as the blow left her hand stinging.

Minor fractures to Bea’s knuckles, but they were already healing. She took the undead's hand into hers and tried to force her awareness in, and found herself as limited as she would be with the living. Taking her chaos-modified pink sickle, she let it sink into the bone. There she detected the energy and modifications she’d provided to Bea, except folded in smoother. As much as it irked to see improvements, mental notes were already underway about how to possibly apply things that way in the future.

They also didn’t feel undead. She’d mucked around in enough living souls that it felt a lot like Alex’s. She approached the new skills, taking the sickle and prodding one to a flinch from Bea. “And these?”

“Holding spots for future acquisitions.”

More advanced versions of [Claim the Remains of Power]? No, but easier spots for Bea to add in quality skills that would stick around. [Claim] might be able to help with that, but the undead had already shown the ability to acquire some on their own.

“What did you choose?” Harmony asked?

“Pale Lady,” Bea answered.

Harmony nodded. She knew almost nothing of undead creatures as a necromancer. Perhaps the Grave Society teacher who joined her staff would know? Threnody, [Recall] reminded her. Not that she trusted their knowledge, Von Trell would probably know, but who knew what that man’s goals were. Now that she prodded around some, she could tell Bea was undead, but it took this close acclimation.

More troubling was that if detecting advanced undead was consistently this difficult, there could be many more walking around. Not all of them were big ghost dogs or monstrosities. At least they weren’t as bad as mimics. Still, Bea should be safe around the staff necromancers.  Harmony pulled off the livestock tag, as that was as much a sign as anything.

“Bates, arrange for Bea to get papers.”

“Yes, Lady White. We have a few minutes before Lord Tyler and Lady Loap are due to arrive. Would you like me to update you on local events?” Bates asked.

“Always.” Harmony found a seat to listen to the adventures House White was having while she was away.

In her dorm room, it was time to flip the script. “And was I in any danger?” Harmony asked Xera.

“There were flashes of it, both dark and broad. I’m rarely sensitive enough to feel any danger around you,” the defender answered.

“When?”

“Mostly just before your emergency measures were revealed,” Xera admitted.

She put herself in danger? The danger of being revealed? The danger of insanity winning? It was good to know Flint Steelheart didn’t have any ill intentions prepared. Using the Hyacinth measure, if he were fully committed to act on a trigger, danger would be there. As silly as the test had been when her tiny toad had latched onto the girl, he was so absolutely loyal that if she meant it, Xera would be dead, and that was that deadly in potential intent.

“And you’ve been seeing the quartus most evenings for about an hour?”

“How did?” Xera let the words hang unfinished in the air for some time. “Kevin does not mean me harm despite the danger you are feeling. He would not risk his family’s honor.”

This was going to be a sticking point.

“I’m not saying I don’t trust you.” [Poise and Bearing] hid any of that, and it took a boost from [Mana Rotation] with some timed stamina to do it. “But the fact remains that when you are in his presence, you are in danger. And now that you know what it feels like, understand that I’ll act if I need to.”

“Figure it out, Xera. You saw what happened to Alex when she acts.” Tasha added unhelpfully.

It wasn’t that bad. She repaired the caved-in table and the mess. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about what I’ve agreed to do for you. You’ve been ignoring my requests to come here so I can get a better look at you. Medically speaking, that is. Honestly, it took me having an incident big enough to draw your curiosity to get you to come, Tasha.”

”I have classes, and a social calendar too. It’s not like we’re not all busy here.” The ranged combatant started to protest.

“And I have days to get a half-step potion acceptable for you, and I know looking at your soul will help me.”

“Xera?” Tasha asked, looking for help.

The defender let out a slow, calm breath, as though she hadn’t been on the edge of protesting herself about her personal issues. “Tasha, I’ll be here to help hold you down if needed? Should we have her disrobe, I’d rather you not need to waste your time mending rips and cleaning blood, Healer White?”

​

Ambrosia entered,  escorting Lord, no Ascendant Games Champion, Tyler Coodley, and his pet Princess Loap of Clan Bunny to Harmony. A pair of Badger beast-kin flanked the pair, new bodyguards wearing black and white patterned scalemail. Past the second evolution, they could handle nearly anything in the underleveled backwater Hazeldown was. If it came to a fight, Harmony knew she wouldn’t even last against the two.

“Thank you for seeing me with discretion, Lord Tyler, and Shin-ee Loap.” Harmony curtised.

“None will know of your visits, though your people would be full of pride to know you’re safe and keeping as close an eye on them as you can,” Tyler said with a bow.

Loap was less reserved. “Harmony!” she squeed and bounced over for a hug. The dress she chose was slightly restricting, but she managed to move in it acceptably. “What’s this about questions about sparkles?  

“I’m sorry, Loap. I couldn’t wait for your advice. I accepted being a vassal under the beast-kin nation for protection.”

“Vassalship?” Tyler asked, his voice wavering.

“This is great news!” Loap declared. “It means we’re hopping sisters!” She hopped in for another hug and gave it with a good up and down shake. ” And any gains you have are gains for us. I’m sure they’ll make you do all the ceremonies when it is time.”

“That’s deferred while I’m at school, but they will want me to convince you to return home. I told them I’d listen, but it was silly to think I’d try to convince you to do anything you don’t want to do. And since they” Harmony indicated the guards. “Aren’t hauling you back, clearly it needs to be your choice, so you're safe.”

“That is one of the advantages of being a royal Shin-ee. I hate to be all jumped up about it, but there are only a few things that would require me to… “  Loap froze. Her ear twitched. Once. Twice. Thrice. “Did they say who your vassalship would be under?”

“Managed by the royal bunnies.”

Loap jumped straight up nearly to the ceiling before crashing down, her dress ripping in the process. “They wouldn’t!  They couldn’t! Of course, I couldn’t say no. Harmony. Stay at The Academy as long as possible. Promise me. Don’t get kicked out.”  Loap bounced straight up to her guard. “Did YOU know about this!” She yelled in his face. “Of course you did. Don’t you worry, Harm, they’re too honorable to actively do anything to out you. It would make me look bad.”

Tyler backed away a step from the rampaging rabbit.

“Loap, hopping, hold it for a minute and tell me what is going on?”  Harmony asked.

“They know that once they get you to Zotaria, after you leave The Academy, be it failure, expulsion, or graduation, then I’ll HAVE to come back home and swear you in as MY vassal. Rotting dirty bastards. It was a tiger, wasn’t it? Never trust a tiger. They claim they’re all bouncy fun fun fun, but they couldn’t honestly hop if you asked them to.”

Loap started to tear up a little bit.

Harmony moved in for a hug and found Tyler there, causing the pair to sandwich the royal bunny between them.

“I don’t want to go home yet. I just got out. It’s like being trapped in a masterful, gilded, tiny ball, living there. You’ll get me a few years of freedom, Harm?”  Loap asked, tears still rolling down her soft brown cheeks.