Chapter 280 -16

Stealth? Was the eraser profession begging not to be so noticeable? An unconscious desire of hers? Most of what she asked for was not to be the center of attention all the bleeding time, which felt like a wasted thought at a party in your honor.  One could go digging into the hundred contradictory theories on why certain skills are offered up as choices to people when they gain them, from those who talk about random luck, to some omnipotent or omniscient power, or it coming from desires from within.

Revivalist’s skills were trickier. Two seemed very necromantic, but the question was whether the pressure to choose got too big before she was summoned by Maxwell and able to question Threnody. Not that the Grave Society’s information was a quality source for making a commitment.

Focus! You’re at a party, your party. A hundred people are watching. Except they weren't. After the toast, now, as a moment of stillness, with the crowd's focus not on her, which might have been insulting if there wasn’t a reason.

“We need some Healers now!”  Someone cried, [Recall] had them as… The skill wasn’t responding, failing her as a social tool, allowing her to play at being active even when mooning about.

The yell drove people to action. The brief hesitation at the confused memory-skill failure was skipped for the emergency, with Harmony following Luce, and Luxin, the blue-haired twin, to the scene.

Xera twitched and contorted in a heap on the floor, her skin rippling as her flesh quivered underneath. The recent examination made Harmony familiar with her internal workings, but what the necromancer saw with soul sight was a new hyperactive mess. Luckily, Cezna hadn’t been invited. The old woman, after the last adaptation, was convinced that the quickening changes would be mild. They had a strong connection, so Harmony’s solidification was to have no bearing on the girl.

Luxin applied needles, similarly to how she and her sister worked in Hexio Curie’s class. Harmony doubted Xera would appreciate any obstructions to [Two Against the End]’s modification, but all the needles did was slow it down.

“Cool her off. The fever might kill her before she stabilizes,” Luce advised

Kneeling down and touching the girl, Harmony had to pull her hand away from the heat. There would need to be an actual class on healing in her future. This going in blindly based on time with corpses and the gut usage of the skills she picked wouldn’t cut it. [Cold Touch] layered a chill over the Xera.  

[Recall] again failed to bring up what she needed. It's not that her memory was bad, but that quick flash of recollection to compare the entirety of Xera’s soul to what was happening now wasn’t happening.

Chronostasis still worked, and that brought Harmony a breath of time as things slowed down, so she could act without looking like a complete fool.

She’d seen some of this before. This was [Two Against the End], her rotting, problematic bloodline skill; it was eagerly pumping way too many biological and magical agents into Xera. Harmony shifted the chill to Xera’s head, focusing on slowing the output. As for why it was doing that, Harmony focused inward on her now more settled soul.

The link Xera formed with her had always been a little fuzzy. Protective and magnifying spheres of outside energy, noninvasive in the weeks she’d had it. Now that changed after the quickening. What had been almost ghostly were now solid structures spread out in her internal landscape, encircling those little islands of skills in her rotating mana, with spires shooting out of the swirling mana current. And Harmony had let it touch everything in her except [Eternal Fable’s Heart]. They weren’t foreign anymore, nor were they noninvasive; they’d built themselves into and from her soul. With their more solid state, they were constructed from herself, like the initial link was a blueprint her soul decided was acceptable, but it came at the cost of creating transmission towers now drawing information and experience from her and into Xera.

That was why [recall] was glitching, and it had a solid grip on [Stride Before the Fall], both flickering as they transmitted over to the girl, fueling the changes. Every skill and transmission spire was sending some information, but it seemed to love those the most.  Diving deeper into the problem skills, Harmony picked up on the threads of information. Death, pain, suffering, excellence, determination, and dependability, as [Two Against the End] was accessing every conflict, struggle, and death she suffered through even before she made her choice. Days she’d starved, her mother’s mental manipulations, fighting for scraps, bloody moments and bodies that helped birth her class choice. Then there were all the deaths. Stabbed at The Harvest of Talents, exploding at the queen's recognition as authority surged. Drowning and shattering in the big squirt. Ripped up and included in Maxwell’s bond.

All the changes in Xera before this were prepping the field to receive the crops, and [Two Against] was still overdoing the planting.

The patch of pink hair was starting to glow, a personal battery of chaos for optional usage. Shimmering hardened skin turned into a new material, not quite metal and not quite skin, fortified against various energies. Luxin’s needles ejected forcibly at the change. Luce had started healing skills, but those were shrugged off as well.  Harmony pulled the collar of Xera’s dress down to check the tattoo; the odd warding now swallowed light and sank through the girl, pulling the defender up to a seated position. Xera’s back now had the mirror of it as it cut all the way through her body and soul.

The young defender was already starting to babble madness. “I’ll be a princess like you.”

Thankfully, Xera’s new defensive measures accepted Harmony’s attempts as it worked on keeping the fever down. “Not a princess.” Harmony reminded her.

“A warrior against the end.” Xera murmured.

The girl was getting a full soul makeover. Maxwell’s chaotic changes had at least been over time, and mostly linked to his evolution.  This wasn’t that random flavor; it was born of all the terribleness Harmony faced, not just the deaths that surpassed most people. All Harmony could do was relax into the information being sent over, accessing her other stats of connections and synergy and adding a touch of [Beautician] mixed with [Mend].

Filtering all that information through healing and beauty allowed [Two Against the End] to see the ugly rush of damage. Of all the attempts to slow down the changes, this was working the most.

Harmony cradled her teammate; there’d be stretch marks as Xera added a couple of inches if the new skin would show it.  It wouldn’t, but the dress the defender picked out ripped some.  

“You and me against the fated ends, princess warrior?”Xera murmured feverishly. “Not butts.” Came out randomly too, as the words got more jumbled, including cursing Kevin, Cezna, and a few names  Harmony didn’t recognize.

It was still easy to forget how young Xera was, with childish fantasies of how the world worked and how harsh it really was. Cezna’s control was supposed to teach her something of the unfairness of it all.  

About half the party left because of the awkwardness of the scene, and the level of not their problem or business.

The team was there lending support. Tasha had a curious look on her face with a furrowed brow, letting herself stand on the ground rather than float, a small patch of black underfoot. Alex brought water for them both. Tun-knee managed the crowd with Adric, assuring them that this was something not completely unexpected.

The drain from Harmony’s skill slowed down enough that she was able to access [Recall]. “She’ll be fine,” Harmony assured those who were still around.

This probably wouldn’t make her less interesting to her aunt.

“How fortuitous for her,” Tasha murmured before lifting off the ground to hover again and drift off to the crowd.

“Sorry about the surprise. We’d talked about Xera, but I didn’t expect that. I should have had her sitting down rather than join us in the toast.” Adric started.

Harmony used [Final Silence] to give them some privacy. “She didn't warn me this could happen. It’s not your fault. The party and guest list was lovely. I’m sure the fact that I gained a title and now have two choices to make didn’t help. I want to hold off until the girl feels better before selecting them, because I know her little link will connect there too and I want to talk to her first.”

“That puts you at level twenty-eight for both class and profession.”

“And a twisted title that I think is the source for calling this a quickening, labeling me quick but having me level up slower now.”  

“Want me to end the party? There are going to be new rumors.”

“Ghk…wheeeee dee beee..zzzaa.” Xera snored out of the new body, as it adjusted to changes for the first time after her experience. Thankfully [Two Against the End] was done with the bulk of its work.

“No. The ones who stayed will be most accepting of my peculiarities, and I might as well build some more connections before the tournament.  Do grab a chair for Xera; she can sleep this off in.”

While Adric was the host of this party, because it was in her honor, Harmony knew she was the secondary one. After all, he was her pet, so there was an assumption of responsibility for his actions. [Poise and Bearing] and [Keen Investigative Awareness] got to work soothing ruffled feathers, overly curious lookie-loos, and those really worried about the defenders' collapse.

Juliette offered some sparring lessons in the little time Harmony had left before the Tournament, and that was worth more than anything she could gain out of this. The Gauntlet challenger was one of the few to truly test her.

In the thinner crowd, Mortician Mell did corner her, though notably the healer hadn’t stepped forward for Xera.  “I don’t get involved in student progression, and you all had it in hand. But I would like to see you back with the Healer’s association. Rumors around that little dungeon brawl are drawing interest.“

It became a conversation without a hint, implication, or mention of being the golden key holder or su-primus was valuable enough to consider taking the woman up on the offer.

Most of the rest of the party was asking questions, while working to get to know about people's hobbies, families, and interests. Things she felt a bit restricted herself in sharing. Dead bodies? Horrible mom? Strengthening her friends back home?

That didn’t mean her new choices weren’t also floating around in her mind and her soul as untapped potential calling to be explored. [Remove Presence] could as easily clean up after someone as possibly allow people to overlook her. [Timely Distraction] sounded like something usable in both combat and social situations to create an opening to leave or attack with. [Secure Seal], well, spending months sealed up showed the power and usefulness of it. Seals, the way kings walk amongst the common folk, and what was that adjective? The skill could be as useful or useless as [Lock].

[Restore History] had her thinking of Byerly’s journal, waiting just one floor up in Fairfax Manor, and that was if the skill was any good and not some weird clone of [Recall].  [Contain Soul] might be an easier tool to manipulate monsterification, or perhaps be the key to having a person live forever with the right tools to preserve their bodies. Imagine that option for someone dedicated to The Amateur Association of Immortalists; even without that goal, the experiments that brought back several dead ambushers could be pushed further with the skill. [Haunting], could she force a soul into the soulless Marci, ending her reign of annoyance?

“Ashes,” Harmony murmured as the party cleared out. She was going to have to do research, talk with Von Trell, and stuff before making a choice. All that pressure to choose quickly and climb Nae’s Garden had her itching to make a choice now. The choice still hovered in her soul, but she had a few days, and the mad desire to stay up and dig for information was lost to the need and wisdom of sleeping before making such a choice.