Chapter Sixty-Six

What a rot-ridden dream. Bloody vivid. Harmony opened her eyes with a deep breath, and there it was, a hint of death and that tang of copper and blood in the air. "Delve me."

At the edge of the room, half covered in shadow, Maxwell labored with ragged breaths, an empty healing potion by his side. His slumped-over form was nearly unmoving.

Jumping out of bed, Harmony equipped Night, quicker than getting dressed, and rushed over. [Renew Spirit] did nothing. Touching her agent's skin revealed a blistering fever of heat. She layered on a light [Cold Touch] to combat it.

Opening the main door, one of the bodyguards was already on duty early in the morning. "Go fetch the Inn's healer!" Without asking why, the man dashed off, boosted by some speed skill.

Some real healing abilities would be nice. Why didn't Hyacinth wake her? The dream, not being a dream, and that toad dropping him off was the only thing that made sense. Max's wounds that she could see matched. [Recall] scratched at the memory, there was a vagueness different from the last time Max summoned her while in danger, but the feeling of the man's skull splitting in her hands was there. She'd killed people. This wasn't the first time. Harmony shoved that old childhood memory aside. They were trying to kill Max, looking down at his sorry state, they were still too close to it, and she'd been oathbound to save him. Compulsion or not, she'd end more lives if needed. The sense of death in her bubbled excitedly at that admission.

A healer burst in wearing the green and gold uniform of the Inn. "Lady White!?"

"One of my companions is hurt and needs healing." A simple gesture to Max had the woman rushing over to him.

Her hand glowed with magic, and Max took a deep ragged breath leading into his chest spasming until he rolled to the side and puked on the floor. It smelled so bad Harmony had to take a step back. The healer dragged Max away from the sizzling puddle as he remained unconscious.

"Nasty poison there. What happened?"

Holes in her memory. She both knew what happened, from two perspectives, yet didn't. "I'm not sure. When I woke up, he was there. I believe my familiar dropped him off."

"I'll need to report this to the guard. Poisons that make potions cause damage rather than healing are on the mandatory reporting list. An attack on the Glimmering Rose of Naewauld will also be frowned upon. Please stay here." The healer left.

Harmony huffed. As if she'd go anywhere. Max now looked as though he was peacefully sleeping rather than at death's door. Back to last night really happening. Those bonded with pets were responsible for their pets' crimes to some degree. Max was probably responsible for the summons actions. She could always feign ignorance.

Internally she checked out the oath Max had made to her. Ever since his class and profession changed it was abnormal. The oath couldn't be the mystery title? She'd been called eternal for a while. As for the theocratic bond, it had been normal when that was evaluated. She let her mind give the new oath a nudge.

"Gah!" Max shot up awake.

"Who'd you piss off? Harmony asked.

"My family, little Lord Tyler, you, Zhe at the Braided Binds…"

The oath to tell the truth was overwhelming him in his weakened state. "Not that, who did you piss off enough to attack you last night?"

"I have no idea. I'm not that disliked. I doubt we'll ever know who attacked me or why. There is a chance they didn't know who they were attacking."

That made no sense. "Explain."

"An obscuration field scroll was used. Makes all the exact details fuzzy for everyone dealing with people. Affects everyone in the area. So where we see generic attackers they see generic victims. Common for criminals and gangs in Naewauld to use, I don't imagine many scrolls make it down to Hazeldown."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

That would be useful, both in not being recognized. And if set up right help you avoid skills that detect the truth when questioned about specific attacks. It could certainly make a masquerade ball more efficient with anonymity.

[Recall] hit a wall outside if seeing Max and Hyacinth clearly. It was the blurry man who tried to shock her or a fuzzy woman with a bow. The deaths, those were clear. Not having a face did make it easier, another benefit if you were trying to acclimate people to killing other people. Still…

"Someone knew it was you who they were targeting. With your hair, you delving glow in the dark. Ambrosia could send up her birds and probably find you in minutes wandering the open like that."

"Maybe someone wanted an open slot in the Ascendant Games?"

Not impossible, but it wasn't like there was a next-in-line list to consider. Gangs should know better than to accidentally target a minor celebrity. This felt personal. If Max did not have a skill that dragged her into this it wouldn't be her problem. But if he didn't have that skill, he'd probably be dead.

City guard captain Ellis showed up flanked by two subordinates.

"Lady White, sorry to impose on you this morning. Tresine, the poison the healer found, has been used in several killings and now we're required to track and record all incidents involving it."

Forced here by the politics around catching a murderer. Who would be offended by that? Stuck up nobles maybe. Ellis had probably hoped for an easy job when he was assigned to her. "No imposition. Max is a trusted friend, and if this helps figure out what happened to him, you have my gratitude."

Ellis gave a curt nod. "Jasper."

One of his assistants first went to the empty health potion next to Max when she found him. "Nothing on the bottle." Using his hand he wafted over the vomit Max had expunged during the healing. "Definitely was in his system." Then the assistant walked up and sniffed Maxwell. It reminded Harmony of Jack from the Dig Boys and his special sense of smell. "Still some in his system. Not sure if it was coated on a weapon or he was dosed earlier."

"Sir Maxwell." Ellis started

"It's Agent Maxwell now."

That surprised the captain enough to arch an eyebrow, "Agent Maxwell, can you give me a rundown of what happened last night."

Max launched into his tale. Either avoiding looking at Harmony due to embarrassment or his oath's tendency to force him to tell the truth. When he tried to start with the attack, Ellis backed him up further in the night.

"I was taking advantage of my newfound celebrity…"

The Rose of Naewauld was looking to plant their roots and was finding plenty of flowerpots willing to give it a fit.

Every time it looked like Max was stretching or avoiding some truth, Captain Ellis's second assistant would make a light cough. This prompted the captain to dig deeper as he made Max go through what he ate, drank, and anything he put into his body during the night while adding to his pottery collection.

"It's one of the quicker ways for me to build chaos for my skills." Max tried to explain.

[Poise and Bearing] was in full force controlling Harmony's face while [Style and Grace] kept her body composed and collected during all of the details that were pulled out of Maxwell.

"I was stumbling down Thistle Lane off Peach Blossom Street when I first noticed the obscurement field, even then, I thought it might just be the drinks the way the man's face blurred. I'm not that dumb, so I yelled, "Hey!" and when he took off running, I focused on my defensive skills. Probably saved my life when the first attack came, and then I tried to run."

He described attacks to delay or cripple, but every time he slowed one and dashed away a new faceless threat stepped in front of him forcing him to change direction.

"Finally reached a dead end and took Bad hit. There I triggered my summon."

Harmony held her breath a little as Captain Ellis prompted him for more.

"Chaos-based, and requiring me to be in danger. It's special. The attackers didn't know what hit them. My memories were spotty from my wounds, but it killed several. Then, uh, Lady White's familiar got involved and managed to whisk me away here. She was sleeping and I didn't want to disturb her or her guards." Ellis's man coughed. "Or her personal maid Ambrosia. So I told Hyacinth to leave. I hurt and knew where the lady kept some healing potions and figured she wouldn't mind if I borrowed one and took a nap. It didn't have the effect I was expecting. I don't remember anything until the healer pulled me out of it."

Captain Ellis turned to Harmony. "Lady White, why was your familiar in the area?"

She hadn't called him. How did he feel about those summoned temporary copies? Not like they needed saving. "My partner is nocturnal. I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't visited every dark corner of the city out of preparation or boredom."

Ellis nodded slowly. "Well, there have been reports of incidents." Reports? Incidents! "A large black monster showing up, stopping assaults and robberies. Officially I'm to tell you to inform him we don't approve of violent vigilantism. Unofficially we can't be everywhere."

Hyacinth? What was he doing while she was sleeping? "I understand, Captain Ellis."

"After all, we don't need it to get out that the dark avenger the street-level news rags has dubbed 'The terror that croaks in the night' is your familiar." The captain finished with a smirk.

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