Chapter Seventy-EightGuild mistress Throne took a drink and downed it. The Sun Temple warriors were at the ready with their weapons raised. “Stand down.” She told them, and while not in their chain of command, they did what she said.

  “Addy, Rosebud?” Uncle Benji cried, looking for his nephew and niece.

  “We’re here,” Adric answered. “Though not without losses.”

  Jessica’s corpse y broken nearby.

  “Secure the area,” Ben ordered the guards. They spread out. None of them took one of the offered crystal goblets.

  “What happened?” Thorne asked Adric.

  “The trial was interrupted. Twenty-five attackers. We managed to dey and fight them off until Rosaline bonded a spirit from the trial. They seemed dedicated to stopping the bonding process. Hargreaves here managed to send them away and your arrival came shortly after?”

  Thorne turned to the butler. “Well?”

  The butler didn’t answer.

  Rose coughed. “You may answer her Hargreaves.”

  “ Yes, my dy. Eighteen uninvited guests were evicted from the area. They removed their fallen shortly after. I am centuries detached from current political knowledge and have no idea why they wished to stop my bonding. I’ve been waiting for a suitable Highsmythe for a long time.”

  “Did any of the attackers use necromancy?” Thorne asked the group.

  Everyone shook their heads at that. Harmony had considered Jin’s warning about shaking things up with the Grave Society but hadn’t seen anything.

  “Someone stirred up a wraith storm and some of the area’s big nasties toward the fort. Your signal caught us trapped and the emergency travel to here was blocked until now. This was an expensive attack.” Thone continued

  “One attacker did speak to me. Called me a bonus and acknowledged me. They have plenty of authority to contribute.” The new authority shifted uncomfortably with angry expectations and maliciousness that the queens had cked.

  Choose your css’s seventh skill called to her. Two levels, and one stride closer to evolution. However, that st step level was the hardest if the information was true. Even with those levels, the new authority was pushing hard. Picking the new skill will help, and maybe she’d have to use a skill stone. This was getting dangerous.

  “I’d hoped Max’s ambush earlier was a fluke. Between the assassination attempt on Harmony, That attempt on Maxwell, and now this one on Rose I’m going to have to increase security on all of you until the Ascendant Games. The Charter prevents me from involving myself in local politics but this is a direct assault on the guild’s duties. I’m not taking this lying down even if it means a censure. Lord Tyler, you have my condolences for the loss of Jessica Sa.”

  “I, uh. Yes.” Tyler mumbled.

  “I’m sorry to call this outing short. I hope some of you have managed to acquire bonds.” Thorne asked.

  “I acquired a named geist and my evolution is calling me,” Len spoke.

  “I bonded too,” Maxwell assured Thorne.

  “I’ve yes. Also, I’ll need to complete my evolution soon as well.” Tyler added looking a little lost.

  “Prince Adric, Lady White, Thank you for your assistance, but I will feel secure at the fort with walls around you. I think I can afford to eat the cost of a second mass teleportation scroll to do it. Benji, call your men back.“

  Securing everyone made sense, but that didn’t leave much time for processing the battle. The attackers were still out there and could regroup, so Harmony focused on that. Yet, the idea of leaving them unaccounted for had her looking over her shoulder at shadows. She could feel their anger, as connections always made gaining authority sensitive, be it awe from a crowd or curiosity from the tabloids. This wasn’t over by a long shot.

  Thornes’s teleport grasped them and pulled Harmony away mid-thought.

  The guards rushed to Fort Rabble's walls after the unceremonious return. Adric and Rose joined their uncle, both concerned and asking questions. Max pulled Thorne into a conversation.

  “Grupt?”

  “Go get some sleep. I’ll wake you if there is an issue.” Harmony told Hyacinth.

  Tyler detached himself from some words with Len and approached. “Harmony, do you have some time? I’d like you and Len to evaluate me and my spirit bond.”

  Being invited to experiment with Lord Tyler, was not the kind of memories she wanted to bring up right now, while she was raw from the new more malicious authority. But rather than cocky or eager, Tyler looked worried. “I wouldn’t call myself an expert or healer.” Harmony started.

  Tyler’s expression shifted to annoyed incredulousness. “Len has helped me acquire my skills and you... I saw what you did out there. You sell yourself short and I trust you. Even Jessica trusts you to get the job done. Please, I need your help.”

  Using the opinion of the recently deceased was a low blow. But Tyler wasn’t hiding his words through a social skill and He at least believed those statements. “If you think my help will be beneficial. I’ll take a look.”

  It would distract her from her selection. She’d browsed the Guild Society book on skills but hadn’t brought it on this excursion. The idea of having bloody fights with ambushers and leveling hadn’t been on the list of possibilities. Nothing demanded she make the choice now, but it would happen before they left. You only had so much time. Len and Tyler had to be feeling the same way about their evolutions.

  They went to the boy’s bunkhouse. Tyler stripped his armor. Harmony wanted to protest, but it would make it easier for him not to have his expensive enchanted armor on and he kept on his silk underclothes.

  “This might feel odd,” Harmony told him as she approached.

  Harmony worked on her soul sense. [Mana Rotation]. [Analyze], [Renew Spirit], [Keen Investigative Awareness], [Sinal Silence], and touches of being a necromancer brought together with personal experience, battle experience, and now her time from the Deadwoods. It was a weird constantly changing soup of random skills combining, with glimpses of things below the surface. Working on a living person made it more complicated. There was a reason you hired experts and doctors.

  Well, that’s not good. Couldn’t call it bad, but this was something entirely different from what she’d seen in others. Hazgul had a contained space and connection that was kind of like a pocket inside of Len, not too unlike a skill or an oath, but a way for the spirit to travel with him. Max had his cage with the chaos spirit. Tyler didn’t have that going on.

  He had his body and container with his skills and structure for his spirit. Then his bond was almost like you id someone else's container and skills on top of his and kind of squeezed them in, except they were not on the same level of existence so weren’t truly competing much except for fshes where you could see the intersections, and those seemed focused in Tyler’s eyes. Where she’d restructured Bea and repaired Hazgul gave her some experience with that it was only brief interactions modeling off of things on one level with examples. Touching this with her awareness felt out of her depth. Tyler's living soul system would probably complicate it too.

  “What are you seeing?” Harmony asked after catching more fshes in the Tank’s eyes.

  Tyler yelped. “I’m kind of seeing Jessica. Hallucinating her. Except she doesn’t have any of her gear and stuff. I can hear her too sometimes.”

  Harmony checked his ears. Tyler’s thick skull had hidden it, but little fshes there. Was it Jessica? Necromancers could kind of create synthetic fillings. Powerful spirits could be created from people dying supposedly. Temples called them forsaken, and others debated if they were remnants left behind, false reflections of the person. You’d think she’d have put more thought into spirits, but living in Hazeldown they weren’t really a thing. Most of what she knew was from an odd book passage or two. No moral crisis on whether this is Jessica or something else! Harmony shoved those thoughts aside.

  “Okay. The spirit bond is pying with you. It is interacting on a persona level.” The skills, Jessicas? They were stronger than she’d seen other spirits have and those blended in other ways. What did it mean? “There might be skill interactions too.” He was on fire on the battlefield. “I don’t think I can safely do anything about this. Maybe your evolution will help?” It had after all made Jessica younger.

  Tyler let out a sigh of relief at that.

  Ashes, no false hope. Remember poor Adric. “It could also make it worse. What do you see, Len?”

  “Not as much as you. Fragments in his soul, sometimes a hint of possession. Spengler’s aurascopic warding is a tricky spell to master. Not evolving is not a choice, but that will be his best bet.”

  “Can you help me choose?” Tyler pleaded.

  Harmony winced. She pictured her own choice as something made singurly by her after looking at the research she had. [Awareness] pointed out enough that other people were information resources as much as books enough that she knew having people there with knowledge and opinions was valuable, but the idea of it grated.

  “Of course. I was also going to ask for Lady White's opinion on my choices. The value of an opinion from someone so insightful is priceless. Professors always coveted students like her in their csses, until they stole their works.”

  Not you too, Len. And insightful, if she was half as insightful as Len was implying she wouldn’t get into the amount of trouble she did. But watching evolution could be invaluable. “It would be an honor to help you both with your paths.”

  “Who first?” Len asked. This turned into a best of three of, sword, club, and scroll. In the first round, Tyler made the obvious choice of club while the wizard of course picked the scroll covering the club. The next rounds were more strategic and ended in a few ties, but eventually, Len won. “You go first!”

  Tyler groaned. “I thought we were pying to see who would go first. Fine, let's get this over with.”

  Simir to committing energy to show people your levels, Tyler pushed his forth to show the choices he had for evolution.

  Css- Iron Door, Vault Warden, Stout Defender

  Profession- Rising Lord of Dawn, Burning Baron, Titled Collector

  “Your nickname! You got an option for the nickname the news rags have pstered you with?” Harmony burst out.

  “Grandma visits prophets, oracles, and seers. I never believed but. It kind of has me shaken.”

  Him shaken! The st time Harmony saw the old Matriarch she tried to set her up with Tyler. No, that is not prophesied. “Funny thing, it might be the best choice for your profession. I’d avoid burning Baron, it might have a named position but, sometimes choices can be literal. Titled collector might lose you your aristocratic status and while you love your collection I’m not sure making it your profession is wise.”

  “If I’m already collecting, though...” Tyler murmured.

  Len had a book out, flipping through the pages. Knox’s Evolved Css Cssics and Profession Perfections 7th edition. “I knew I was close to evolution so I came prepared. Knox is the best of a sad bunch, interviewed two hundred, but most of the information is rumors and conjecture.”

  That was some weight off Harmony’s chest. A reference book! “What are you checking first?”

  Yeah, avoid burning. A Baron isn’t bad, but this has an interview with someone who chose burning gigolo. It didn’t end well. The majority of Knox’s interviews were done at convalescent homes for those who made poor choices, so at least we can avoid risky options.” Len added. “Here is the entry for a collector.”

  He handed the book to Tyler and Harmony read over his shoulder. Progression for collector csses runs extremely slow and needs risky or expensive items to advance. One art collector filled three warehouses, and resorted to collecting artists living and dead, and still didn’t evolve.

  Tyle flipped to the entry on Titled. May bestow authority or may reference life-altering achievements, victories, or events.

  “Imagine if that profession required you to go out and collect titles, at least you already have a spot in the Ascendant Games.” Harmony quipped.

  This caused Tyler to flinch. The references to dawn and rising were as vague as could be expected. Process of elimination and his profession seemed set.

  Stout Defender was about as vanil progression as one could get as a Tank. Nine times out of ten it was an option. Wardens were uncommon because they came with fvors, shield warden, prison warden, holy warden, and warden of the woods. Vault wasn’t in the book, specifically the asterisk next to it said see words prison or bank. For professions or csses reted to holding people or money.

  “What about Iron Door?” Harmony asked.

  “Most csses with metal-based influences have a clear progression tree, Iron, steel, silver, gold, and such. Almost guaranteed it to not be a dead end.”

  “I don’t know,” Tyler said.

  Harmony focused on the merged bond she saw. Vault involved locking something away. The door implied the ability to open and close access. You didn’t want to bottle up fire without an easy way to let it vent. “I feel iron door will be most helpful to your spiritual situation. It would at least give you a way to maybe let it go in a way vault wouldn’t.”

  “I guess I’m next,” Len announced, dispying his and letting Tyler process his thoughts.

  Css- Wiz-inator, Gray Wizard, Adaptable Spellman

  Profession- Research assistant, Conspiracy Theorist, Freence Skilled Editor

  “Profession is obvious. Yet not a single standard choice. Not sure if I should be proud or worried.”

  Was the profession obvious? “Gray wizard seems like something you would run into?” Harmony asked.

  “Some people do assign colors to fields of magic. Gray would be neutral or a mix of good and evil. A red mage might focus on fire spells, but I’m not sure I want to focus. What is fascinating is the suffix inator means extreme or ultimate, but it feels like a trap. Something I can’t quite put my finger on would feel off about introducing myself as the wizinator. Something about it reminds me of my undergrad years and being shoved into an outhouse.”

  “Wouldn’t it be unusual to be called an ultimate wizard after only your first evolution?”

  “That’s the trap. I knew you’d see it. Adaptable is a great adjective to have, and while spellman might be a little ancient and militarily inclined is trick-free. I think I know my choices.”

  “What about your profession?” Harmony asked.

  Len snorted. “Research assistant. While skilled is a boon for my current path, freence would have me finding different clients. Then there is that joke of a..”

  “Except conspiracy theorist is more of who you are,” Harmony told him bluntly.

  “No. I base all my ideas off of solid research and logical conjecture. I follow the evidence I see.” Len pushed back.

  “You enjoy the theories more than the research. And you like to question authority.”

  “Only because that is where my research leads.”

  “Research very few people agree with.” Harmony pointed out.

  “Just because it is complicated and missing a few pieces to get from A to D doesn’t mean I’m wrong. The missing links are out there!”

  “Yeah, you're a bit crazy,” Tyler added as he shook himself out of his personal contemption.

  “With all you’ve contributed for me, Harm. I can’t believe that you'd-” Farthington flew in and gave Len a short peck on the head. “-Ow, sorry. I was the one who asked for your opinion.”

  “I never said I doubted you, Len. You are very smart. But you wanted my opinion on evolution. For a smooth future transition, I feel you need to pick the closest to who you feel you are and can continue as, and not the one that makes the most sense.”

  The wizard settled into deeper thoughts now that he decided to contempte Harmony’s words.

  Now would be the perfect time to surprise them with her choices for her st skill. A bonding experience after they shared their concerns. All that made Harmony do was wish they were Ambrosia. “Good luck with your evolution choices, gentlemen.” With that Harmony retreated to the woman’s bunk to contempte her choices, asking to see if she could watch them evolve felt like too much.