Maid with Necromancy

Chapter Forty-Six

It took a lot of willpower not to abuse her position to cut in line at the growth chamber to see what, if anything, had changed. People, pets, and even Hyacinth put their names down to try out the analysis chamber. So, she simply added her name back to the growing list and planned out more ways to feed Night. Not that the options were great.

The whole tribe's chitinous black garb was endemic to the issue. Resources, or the lack of them. Not to say there hasn't been some innovation. Stone plates sewn into armor. The recent experiments with elemental crystals. Milo, when he wasn't making contribution slips with his papier-mache artist profession, was working on a set of woven armor that he said would be superior to the spider-crafted one when finished, but the process wasn't perfected. Sacrificing one of his prototypes on the altar of chance to feed Night was an option, but woven, raw paper as a key ingredient to feed the armor probably wasn't the right direction. Milo wasn't the only person to choose from.

With so much time on their hands between competitions, everyone had hobbies and professions to develop. With the limited resources, some of the failures were spectacular. What good was a smith without metal and a forge? And what happens when you introduce a metal that resists being worked on? A touch of rage.

"Horatio, is Jenny in?"

The slug blew a bubble in response. Not that it could speak, but the bubble had an attitude of annoyance that echoed through when it popped. Considering the slug was sitting on one of the goals of this outing, she could understand that feeling.

Beneath Horatio sat a pile of thumbnail-sized chunks of metal. The remains of the golems pulled out of the sacred valley only to fall to pieces. An uncomfortable chair for anyone.

"Soot-stained nethers!" Jenny cursed from within her shelter and forge.

Jenny Bristle, forgemaster, and more than a little annoyed at the situation she was in. She'd been so excited about the scraps brought in at first, spending all of the contribution points Horatio brought in with his healing slime on them. The metal was highly resistant to manipulation; attempts to embed it in the spider armor had resulted in a solid punch propelling them out and into the wearer for removal.

"No success, Jenny?" Harmony asked, popping her head in.

"Oh, Lady White, sorry if you heard my outburst." Jenny wiped her ash-stained face with even dirtier hands, only managing to make a darker smudge on herself.

Harmony used [Dust], stripping Jenny of the black and gray bits, and depositing it into a pile on the ground. "Maids in their changing rooms have said worse. I was hoping you could help me with a problem."

"If it has to do with the scraps, it's useless. I've had Horito sit on them for days, secreting his strongest acid. It's like they're locked in a permanent state of junk. They resist heat, and the metal won't fuse together. I don't know if it is a curse, a seal, or a charm on them, but no one here has the ability to break such things. Arrrrg! I can't believe I wasted all my contribution points on them before testing it out."

If the metal couldn't be broken down, would they even be useful for feeding Night? A dress or shirt that wouldn't be destroyed had been far down her list of goals in the past if only to be able to use the skill to swap outfits without leaving her nude, but that was before being informed of her pair-bonded's starving condition. Get spooked or have an assassination attempt, and then an outfit was trashed after swapping into her armor. As much as it was a signature costume for her, people blushed when she put it on. That was before the changes that Ambrosia said were more indecent after evolution. If this didn't work, she was back to finding some other solution.

"Let me explain my problem to you."

Jenny tapped on Night's white armor plates. "This material." She murmured as she moved to peel off one of the stuck plates fused to her skin. "Is it synthetic? Can it conduct mana? Or maybe electricity?" She asked, not giving time to answer the question. Jenny tugged on one of her arm guards hard.

"Hey!" Harmony snapped after. At least it wasn't her chest this time.

"I'm just trying to ascertain if the magical connection goes deeper than skin for adhesive purposes. The muscle does seem to shift with it."

"You ignore my problem and have instead focused on prodding me. What do you think about using the metal shards to feed my armor?"

"With how white the plates are, I think it's been cannibalizing some of your bone to make them. It's a calcium-based alloy I've never seen before, with magic making it sturdier than it is. You said it drained the elemental crystals, so I want to see if you can do what Horatio's secretions can't and break the block on the metal keeping me from using it. If that works, I'll make you as many outfits as you want as long as I get what is returned after your little armor has its meal."

"Fine."

The crafting took about an hour; Jenny didn't want any Spider bits to distract from the digestion. Unable to fuse them together, she crafted an outfit onto Harmony's nude body by overlapping and interlocking the bits like it was a puzzle. "Don't move too much."

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The final piece clicked into place, and then she equipped Night, storing what had been made. Internally it felt like she'd swallowed ice chips that were slowly melting, except it wasn't any chill that resonated with [Cold Touch]. The low level of pain eclipsed any she had experienced in the past, but it was manageable if she had a distraction.

After spending time letting her thoughts do their best job to pull her away from the pain, she went out.

Several people waited for their turn at the growth chamber. Harmony had put her name on the list before stopping by Jenny. Gareth managed the queue while updating the points for tasks on the contribution list . "How are the numbers working out?"

Gareth snorted. "There are fifteen people ahead of you for the chamber." He said, answering the question she didn't ask but wanted to. "We're getting an overabundance of mimic rewards. I'm considering lowering the points for them."

"Don't." Harmony didn't need [recall] bring memories of the mirror-like copies, who waded in with reckless violence. "I don't trust that it will stay this easy. I'd also rather keep the mimic's numbers low if possible."

"There are a couple of hours of work for you if you want to repair armor damaged during the stronghold race. I'll send a runner to get you when it is your time."

"Yeah, I'll get to that." Harmony lied.

That kind of monotonous repairs wouldn't be distracting enough from the pain in her soul. Even tackling the problem with Night wasn't enough. Before this, she dwelled on problems, looking for solutions to Saccerates' influence, Adric staying, even the nagging feeling that she wasn't done with Felix yet swirled inside. The things she couldn't directly solve. It made her soul itch, but eventually ran dry as she couldn't think of any new answers to the obstacles, inconveniences, messes, and problems her profession ached to erase but were out of reach. Even though she knew her profession exerted some influence, self-reflection wouldn't make those issues go away. Instead, she found herself looking for trouble. Not to start it, but to find something to scratch that spot to keep the ache away.

Trouble wasn't always loud or flashy. Sometimes it was in an unexpected stillness. Lord Tyler's lack of reaction as she walked by nearly naked, except for Night, who was hopefully having its meal, counted as that. He wouldn't stare like Eric, but he'd glance and look away with a blush. Not long ago, she'd have left him to his thoughts, and before that, she'd have conveniently found excuses to be away from the man. Bonding with Jessica changed him. Bonding with Loap changed him. With Adric gone, Lord Tyler had stepped up. With that in mind, Harmony sat beside him.

"Something bothering you?" Harmony asked, accessing her profession. As a maid, it added a servile, demure bent. As a rigorous royal eraser, it both demanded and offered solutions, a mix of servant and master.

That pulled the man out of his deep introspection. "Um, Harm, I didn't see you there."

"I noticed. You don't need to tell me, but if something is bothering you, I'm here to help. As a friend." Best to avoid encouraging him to think this might be a romantic or even exchange-based interaction.

"My connection with Jessica has two bonds sunk into it. A protoplasmic bond to her spirit and a quantum bond to her body. Seeing what the growth chamber said about those, well, it is crushing any dream I had of safely separating her from me. One day I'll be with my wife and she'll be talking in my ear or dancing naked in the corner of my vision."

The blue flame burst to life over Tyler's shoulder. "I would give you much more privacy in that circumstance!"

Rather than voicing his frustrations, Tyler showed it on his face as if to say, "See, this is what I'm talking about." Before he continued, "Add in my new responsibilities to Loap, who is clearly keeping secrets that will impact my life." Tyler let loose a slow, exhausted laugh. "This is not where I expected my life to go."

Harmony had one thing he neglected: perspective. [Recall] was quite good at remembering where Lord Tyler used to be and the direction he seemed to be heading. A hoarder with expensive and fetishistic tastes. A life filled with periodic depressions that left his room a mess, and him socially isolated. It's not like he was in a good space during those times, and both Jessica and Loap wouldn't allow him to reach that state again, even if it meant parading naked around him to drive the man into action.

It would be easy and too satisfying to browbeat Tyler with those facts. No doubt part of his stress was that his new bonds were doing similar things to him. As much as those worked on him, he clearly was feeling a little raw from it.

"I think you're doing rather well. Your support is one of the reasons I became a noble and managed to be part of the Ascendant Games. The future is wide with possibilities. Once we get out of here, we can team up on some projects and find solutions. As long as you don't mind me playing around with your collection. I'm sure you've picked up some new toys." All true, but also missing the context of her no longer being his servant. What is Royal White to the Lord of the Rising Dawn in the city of Hazeldown or the greater world? But he didn't need the cold, hard truth, only the simple, happy one.

"That sounds nice." He responded a little happier.

New wheels turned in the man's head. Something in her words had touched him, but he wasn't looking at her in lust as the depression broke. That had been a risk in approaching him. "Chores await." Harmony's slight bow was her goodbye.

The pain was more bearable with the tingling nearly gone. Time or the karma of helping Tyler returned to ease her problems. With it bothering her no worse than bad cramps, working on the repairs would be enough to kill time until the chamber was ready again. She'd nearly finished the pile when Gareth knocked.

For the experiment to be complete, she stored Night, pulling out the makeshift outfit Jenny had made for her. It had taken hours, but that cold feeling had left halfway into crafting, leaving her with only a bit of heaviness in her gut. The remains that returned spilled across the floor with the clink of falling metal. The once-shiny, preserved metal now twisted and dark, as if it had already started rusting. Small imperfections pitted the surface. Jenny might be a bit upset about what was being returned to her. That could wait until after the Growth Chamber. She threw on basic clothes with haste, a small top and shorts made from black chitin scraps. It was time to see what had changed.

As her information filled the chamber, Harmony ran her eyes down to the Pair bond.

Current Condition - Hungry - Resting.

​

Finally, something she could fix, if she could convince Jenny to sacrifice more of her stash.