Harmony walked briskly down the Ricort alleyway, leaving Tun-knee to guard that entrance to make sure she wasn’t disturbed. The tiger knew enough of her secrets that he was a natural recruit for this kind of side-quest. The one other access point had Adric making sure no other errant souls entered. This was to be a private meeting.
In the narrow dark between the tall metal buildings sat a giant black toad looking way too proud of himself. That armored fool, she could talk to anytime. No, it was the young man pinned underneath Fatty’s bulk whom she needed to exchange words with. Warned by he-who-croaks-in-the-dark, in his favorite get-dangerous, gravelly voice, not to move or even look back to see what was holding him to the ground, the student stirred at the sound of her approach.
“Primus Waxer, I think you’re avoiding me.” Harmony addressed her classmate, letting her irritation leak into her voice, lacing it with a bite of removal from her eraser profession and touch of authority. Having questions she wanted answered before entering the Oorty’s Tomb while being a keyholder was one thing, but showing up to face Hexio Cuire, and finding out Houte had arranged a day earlier to avoid the class by pulling out a half-dozen curses with his shaman skill for the woman to play with, so he’d be excused for today’s session was too much. It meant she’d been left alone with the crazy woman.
Three prisoners, whom Harmony had to weaken and hurt enough to call the body-bound monsters out of their souls for the woman. A futile exercise with no hope of actually healing the targets. Curie learned which curses thrived in the monsterified bodies and which ones died before the patient did.
Curie labeled the attempts as a forced body-type enhancement defense and claimed it was too early to bring in outside help to extend the life of the prisoners. Ugly, ugly, work to do alone. Even if their crimes granted them a death sentence. They couldn’t know what they were walking into? Apparently, the one success she’d had caused prisoners to clamor for this option, when before it was only for the most desperate.
“White? So what if I was? I’ve been trying to get out of this keyholder business; that's why I joined Curie's class. What stupid secret society drafted you for the golden key? The skullbrothers who had me get the iron one didn’t tell me it was cursed that I’d be unable to evolve unless it was cleared.”
Houte wouldn’t catch her by surprise this time, so Harmony waved Hyacinth off the third-year primus. The boy let out a gasp as the weight disappeared when her toad leapt off him and shrank to fit into a crack in the warded shadows.
Harmony had soul sight ready, checking him for curses. The key was like a flicker of light in this soul, a dull gray blip like her fleck of gold. She’d examined her “key” as it was a physical object stuck in her soul, not unlike her armor, Night, but without the benefits of being pair-bonded to a skill. Mostly, she’d ignored it.
“It’s not a curse.” She informed him.
Houte pulled himself up to a seated position. “I was being figurative. It will stop me from evolving unless I convince some fool to pick up the key in the dungeon or find a way to remove it. But I have morals unlike the ass who did this to me. I’d have to find someone naive and strong enough to accomplish the requirements."
The impulse to offer to cut it out of him was quickly squashed. She’d messed with enough souls recently. And who is to say it wouldn't teleport back into a different spot in his body? Surely, he’d already tried that method.
“I’m surprised you haven’t thought of completing the quest and getting the key out that way. I wanted to track you down to ask if this keyholder thing will affect my team's run in Oorty’s Tomb, does having it bring extra attention from the dungeon?”
“What fairytales have you been reading? Dungeons don’t pay attention to us ants. We’d need to make a silver keyholder to complete the quest; it’s documented, but… “ Houte laughed. “No one’s done it because there had never been a record of a gold keyholder. I suppose we could do that. If you want to find an idiot strong enough.”
For all his talk of morals. Houte also worked with Curie in her gruesome basement. Dominated the dueling ring enough to earn a reputation. Ignored her offer for help, then accosted her while drunk. Even now, he scoffed at her legitimate concerns, while being ungrateful when she pointed out he missed the easy answer. “You assume a lot.”
The duelist stood up calmly enough; each of his skills lit up in quick succession, like a twitch to see how fast he could bring them up, but only a sensing skill radiated out. “Your hired help is gone. And you cornered me because you have the same problem I do. Whatever you needed to do to earn your key, that soft golden healer’s one was sure to be problematic, but it’s not like you had to defeat two guards while [Restrained], [Silenced],or [Commanded ] while pre-quickened, alone and with a broken bone.”
“So it required you to have a broken bone?” Harmony asked.
“Yes, and…” Houte continued.
“That seems excessive and random.” Harmony mused while using [Recall] on her solo fights.
“The Iron Prisoner key is the most documented.”
“The bone needs to be broken before the fight begins?” She pressed further.
“Yes, but I’m not here to go over this.”
“You might as well assign a bonus for blind luck if you’re giving out gifts for winning with random injuries. Barely better than using a diceroll.” Harmony worked.
“ENOUGH! I earned my key against tough competition.”
“Which bone did you break? Harmony asked.
“One of my ribs, so as not to restrict my movement too much. Keep in mind, Silas wanted me to get the key so he’d lose his burden. The silver key is more difficult, therefore more expensive.”
Houte paused dramatically.
Harmony weighted punching him in the throat. It was that need to be the center of attention, be it good or bad attention, that probably got this primus in trouble in the first place. His rude comment when they first met hadn’t even been needed, considering his ranking and their small class. Hitting things only felt good, and was the kind of thing that got her into trouble. Harmony forced a new approach.“But it is a struggle that we must overcome. With our combined resources, we will gather the three keys and purge you of your curse. Tell me what we need.”
Harmony barely pretended to act the part. It was a performance her mom would have been ashamed of. Not that Houte was paying attention, as it hit all the notes he needed to hear to give her the information she wanted.
“Lots of healing potions. Once we get someone under a combined level sixty to Clanker, they have to fight him alone and last two hours until his fire burns itself out. That is how one earns the silver key.”
The rough description was a starting place. It would be too convenient to already have someone with that key. If this would motivate the bloody fool to show up to class, she'd use it. “It’s very important you stop skipping Hexio Curie’s class with me so we can get working on that solution.”
“Class doesn’t matter if this is our solution. And Jasper wants me to warn you, Curie is directing you towards dangerous magic. Specifically, that you’re messing with older forces than he can alter with his restorative skill. Warned me you were dangerous magic. But he’s still upset that she removed him from her class. He never has said as much, but I know he is annoyed that he’d stabilize the patients while you’d cut out the bad bits for the jars, stealing all the credit for his hard work. Not that I should quit and get a third mark on my record after making it so far.”
It was easy to forget that, despite all his participation, Houte wasn’t there for most of the healing. He’d tackle a curse and half the time be wrestling one outside of a prisoner’s body into submission while everyone else worked on keeping the prisoners alive. Was he so unaware of what the other students were doing? Maybe if it wasn’t about him?
“No, you shouldn’t. You're my only hope in getting my key removed, too.” Harmony answered, laying it on thick while trying not to roll her eyes
“I am the primus,” Houte answered.
“I can’t keep this meeting private forever… see you, next class.” [Poise and Bearing] let her borrow some more girly tactics of batting her eyes, as she spun around and dashed out.
How quickly had the Houte Waxer forgotten he had been pinned to the floor? Reasoned away as some high-level muscle, when the truth was he was simply under Hyacinth’s fat behind.
Harmony prodded her shadowy partner through [Familiar Bond]. I hope you farted on him.