Chapter twenty-seven
Harmony's social skills ached as she was dragged from social gathering to social gathering. [Poise and Bearing], [Style and Grace], and even [Beautician] throbbed inside her soul. Felt more like cramps...
2024-08-09 14:51:49 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-Six
A thorough inspection of the attic revealed that the effect of the combination of her skills was weaker the further from where she cast it. While she didn't find any dust and Hyacinth didn't sense any ve...
2024-08-07 14:54:26 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-Five
Brooding was, of course, practical brooding for Harmony. It was how she handled the class negativity when she got hired, the tides of workplace politics, and Lord Tyler when it became necessary. Thinking about ...
2024-08-05 15:19:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-Four
Tyler was pliable. Whether from the alcohol or the leftover effects of Hemlock’s skill Harmony wasn’t sure.
“Pack up. Then sit.” She told him as they entered the lodge.
... 2024-08-02 14:55:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty -Three
The rest of the meal was a blur for Harmony. The party girl leaving took a lot of the energy out of the event and removed one of the barriers to Max and Tyler needling each other. The competition betw...
2024-07-31 14:41:27 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-Two
Tyler's speechless gaping made all of the frustrations around her skills, stats, and the troubles surrounding them almost worth it. Instead of the normal ogling, it was him being stunned.
"I'm ...
2024-07-29 15:06:05 +0000 UTC View PostChapter twenty-one
Lord Tyler’s snoring greeted Harmony as she stepped out of the shadows. The lord looked peaceful, a state she wished she could join him in but knew her mind wouldn’t let her. The letter she left abou...
2024-07-26 14:36:27 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty
Harmony’s morning reset spell wiped away all the changes to her face, hair, and nails as she stepped out of the shadows and into the manor grounds not far from the staff area. She poked her head into the l...
2024-07-24 14:35:52 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Nineteen
Colorful toy feather bits, scraps of prince masks, sticks from kabobs, and other remnants of the city-wide hysteria from the funeral procession lay scattered at the corners of the steps up the House of the...
2024-07-22 15:09:25 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Eighteen
Harmony had to account for several complicating factors like any daring plan.
Legally, at least within the city, it shouldn’t be any more problematic than raising someone’s dead pet or even a per...
2024-07-19 15:18:51 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Seventeen
The necromancer and her toad stepped out to be greeted by the same booth the team had registered with before entering the dungeon. Outside Old Bones’s domain, she could feel her class shifting uncomfort...
2024-07-17 13:59:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixteen
Harmony's head throbbed as she regained consciousness to the extent that her vision blurred, and all she could see was a glowing fuzzy white aura. As her eyes focused, it remained fuzzy, the furry kind. A l...
2024-07-15 14:11:40 +0000 UTC View PostI'm going to change the permission on the chapters that are live on royal road to be open to the pubilc here, at least the first five that are up.
2024-07-14 14:31:28 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifteen
Packs of first-floor guardians wore them down. Bone monkey kings throwing flaming lumps of coal, flesh walls that had to be ground through before they smashed the team. Rose was the first to need a ...
2024-07-12 14:53:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fourteen
The third floor made the necromancers’ words a lie and fears seem unfounded. Bone threshers, spinning balls of razor-sharp spines that rolled at the group, sat in pieces all over the floor. As they got a...
2024-07-11 14:18:08 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirteen
Random encounters happened in dungeons, even safe ones like Old Bones beneath Hazeldown. The flesh cube on the third floor had been one, a creature rarely seen and stronger than expected. Harmony reasoned ...
2024-07-10 15:11:29 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twelve
The day tested Harmony’s social skills, both the ones she acquired through her profession and those she’d learned through working at the manor. She was in her new armor, trying it out before she took it ...
2024-07-09 12:59:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Eleven
A rumbling weight on Harmony's chest woke her. "Hyacinth, you're too big for this. And are you purring?"
"Grrr-oak" he grumbled, and Harmony felt the chastisement through their link.
She focused ...
2024-07-08 21:38:04 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Ten
Harmony sipped her wine, attempting to wash away the taste of half-digested food and death out of her mouth. At the very least, it replaced it. She didn’t want to think about how the wine cost more than her w...
2024-07-08 21:36:27 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Nine
Hunger, thirst, and the constant prodding to take care of those things from Hyancith through their bond woke her enough to sit up, take a bite of food and drink water before laying back down again.
Chapter Eight
Harmony awoke in the tiny lodge room to a raspy, gasping "Grracck" from her amphibious partner. She might have cared a little more if she had felt his distress rather than annoyance through the [Familiar Bond...
2024-07-08 21:32:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Seven
Off went the maid’s uniform, and on went Harmony’s travel clothes. It was good to have pants on. The insistence that she trained in uniform was ridiculous. Whenever she felt she might warm up to Lord ...
2024-07-08 21:29:44 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Six
Harmony had mistakenly dressed in her travel clothes the morning of her departure. Brown pants and a jacket she knew made her look more like a young boy than a girl.
"Why aren't you in uniform?" Lord ...
2024-07-08 21:26:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Five
Over the next three days, the masters of Coodly manor only showed up sporadically, taking advantage of the spectacle that the prince's funeral had become. Never was there quite enough time for another golden momen...
2024-07-08 21:21:38 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Four
All the maids and one of the house boys rotated for the lunch service, and today was Harmony’s day. It was one of the few tasks that she could work on improving her [Poise and Bearing] Focus on that straight...
2024-07-08 21:20:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Three
Lord Tyler's room was a dungeon, the kind that used to hold prisoners. It was from a bygone era when keeping one's enemies on hand was fashionable. Tyler's collections kept taking up more and more space u...
2024-07-08 21:18:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Two
With winter near the end, it was time to clean the east parlor. The room's door opened with a creak. Too drafty to use during the winter months, the manor closed it, and Harmony was scheduled to help get it ready f...
2024-07-08 21:16:58 +0000 UTC View PostChapter One
Prince Adric died young and left a beautiful corpse. The details of his death were shrouded in mystery, but his prized pet, a rainbow feathered coatl, is said to have died with him, its feathery dragon-like body sh...
2024-07-08 21:14:51 +0000 UTC View Post
I had this shot story published for limited release in an Air and Nothingness Press anthology. The rights have reverted back to me, and a good fellow was interested in doing a podcast and working on their audio-resume, so here it is.
2024-03-21 16:43:18 +0000 UTC View PostLord Tyler's room was a dungeon, the kind that used to hold prisoners. It was from a bygone era when keeping one's enemies on hand was fashionable. Tyler's collections kept taking up more and more space until he had the basem...
2023-04-05 22:42:34 +0000 UTC View Post