Chapter Fifty-Two

  Whatever Maxwell had doo his oath hadn’t affected his promise to be ho and fht. The oath hurt but appeared to be w as Max scrambled back the best he could while in the seated position. “I… I… I… used [Chaos Seed] on my oath. It worked so well on [Chivalry], sure [Oath] required me to build up the most chaos of any other skill, but I gone for my evolution. I only took [Oath] because it was rare and my family told me it was required for my, no, their desired path.”

  “Maybe you should have thought about how you were sworn to share my burdens before you chose to do such a thing. I nearly died!”

  Max’s eyes gzed over slightly. “I’ll die a thousahs at your and for my insolence.” He droned with a weight split between monotone and passion.

  No! Despite hurting and raw, Harmony delved into that oath [Analyze] w with [Awareness] to spot that nasty bit of pulsi up. Whatever this new monster was, it had just been born and was settling in. [Renew Spirit] with a sprinkling of [Manipute Dead] worked with [Silence] and [Mend] to cut and isote that little bit of nastiness. Max’s body arched and shuddered in response.

  “No blind obedieno killing yourself for being a moron. I need your fully idiotic self. “Authority and pying into the oath made that a and. “Now tell me what you did.” Harmony finished.

  Max let loose a shaky ugh. “I really am yours now. I did want to end that oath to you by ging the skill. The o be true and loyal chaffed. It reminded me of my family. Not that you’re like them. It wouldn’t let me. When I ged [Chivalry] I had some dire for the options. I should have known something with the amount of chaos required for the ge. I really did fool myself.”

  “Whatever you did ripped into me. Taking and taking until it felt like I had almost nothi. I thought someone was using you to get to me.”

  Now he had a look of shame. “It took more and it wouldn’t finish ging until I evolved. I was not ready to do that. I hadn't been level twenty-four long enough. It forced my evolution I think. For my css it had me choose betweeh Oathed Knight, Cursed Acolyte, and Singurly Sworn. I’m no longer a knight aher am I cursed. Profession options were nearly as bad. Ehrall, degee wordsmith, and the dy’s agent of chaos. Burn me if I was going to be a thrall. Ign degee, authors suck, impossible to advano pay, stant criticism.” A bit of mad ughter slipped out. “I’m yent of chaos, Lady White. Free from my family and sworn to you.”

  If only the fool had asked. Maybe if the oath was severed before he used chaos on it. She’d have o evolve first to retake the burden. “And the oath?”

  “Some of your power is mine. In exge, you are my everything and I am yours to and. I may make no other oaths.”

  That is not what she'd asked for and not what she'd offered. Trying to revoke any of it would probably kill him. He's gone from slightly annoying and moderately useful to whatever this mess was.

  “You bloody stupid ass of a man. You yourself up. We’ll deal with this ter. Goodnight.”

  Even as she spun away. The toll of Maxwell's mistake was heavy on her, as she survived off of adrenaline, anger, and frustration. She hadn't felt this unstable sihe letter from the queen. Even now her choices called to her as a way to replenish some of the stability she needed.

  Choose your Css’s Sixth skill: Raise Specter - Shadowed Graves - Tortuous Wound

  Pick your future and it will help. She hadn’t wao waste time acquiring a new skill when the priority was to get to Max and rescue him. Not that she could rescue him from his foolishness.

  The value of the book from the Grave Society came in here. [Raise Specter] was an unon skill. Created smarter, semi-tangible creations that could be fused with physical uo boost their power. [Renew Spirit] could boost one. Less distasteful than Raise Dead had been. But there are already enough real servants floating around, ectral one really needed?

  [Wound] was well known. Ohat was rare for neancers si lets you harm the living. A damaging attack, usually hal. Tortuous probably meant it caused extra pain. That kind of modification usually made the range shorter, not that wound would get the distaneeded to hit the damhunder robsp;

  [Shadowed Graves]. Never heard of it. Not in the book. Shadow-based skills usually are stealth or things like Hyath’s movement. Rumor is some could manipute shadows into ons. Graves could be a skill like [Bury] which was incredibly useful for shoving things at least halfway into the ground. Or it could be pletely useless.

  Who was she kidding? She knew what she would pick the moment she saw that name while running off to find Max. Anything to do with shadows. She'd spent too much time peering into the space between as she jumped through them with her familiar. If uanding and experience helped skills and herself level there was so much to pull from there. What if all it did was cast a shadow?

  As the bodyguards escorted Harmony up the stairs to her room, she resolved to look at the problem dispassionately. [Recall] - [Analyze] - [Keen Iigative Awareness]. No skill has been useless, yes she could be better equipped. All of these had bes [Wound] could make her soul strikes so much better and [High Kick] rip into flesh. [Raise Specter] provided more support in a way that even a little bit extra could help her and Hyath handle groups. And [Shadowed Graves] whatever it did, she could use it.

  Thank goodness. The staff had set up the tub. Night disappeared and Harmony slipped into the warm water. And if she thought of choices passionately? She wanted a taste of what Hyath had. When she finally crawled into bed after dimming the lights, she made her choice. [Shadowed Graves] That feeling of death, its perception, and the reality swirled inside her filling a new spot ih bess so dark it absorbed light and us pall others will know the feeling of their end ing. Through her adva as a neancer, she felt a little more healed.