Chapter Thirty-Four

  The dance master, who introduced himself as Sis, worked her so hard that she could swear she could feel some of her skills advang, but she didn’t have the attention to spare to check. Hyath joined in with a hopping dance before bowing out for a long nap in a shaded er.

  The dance master mehat his student would be restricted to the square mark oage for the proje to work. He taught her ‘going down low and standing up slow.’ Letting her hands guide the dire of her hips. The subtle dispys of haures. Fine movements, big movements, then quick shaking movements like a rag heart. Sis quickly bounced from pleted dao moves she could switch to based on how the musid rhythm made her feel.

  The baed, pnned, practiced quietly, and maniputed stage props. Stiriling's “Huzzah!” The patter of Grohl’s drums. Ambrosia letting loose some vocal practice. The ensemble had the eic feeling of a cohesive group that Lord Tyler’s dungeon diving team cked.

  “That’s enough. You have enough of a gift with how your movement is incorporated into your being that I won’t be embarrassed by your performano matter where the music takes you. I won’t have any errors because I worked you too hard.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No. Let’s get you some water and food. Even if your time oage is less than we’ve been practig, it is always more draining and inteh an audience.” Sis dramatically gestured towards the amphitheater with a wave of his hand.

  Sis led her to a nearby food stand. He got two baskets of fried fish dumplings aables and two light ciders while refusing Harmony’s offer to pay.

  “Since you’re evolved, why are you in Hazeldown helping with all this?” It had bee clear that Sis ast his twenty-fifth level. Not that you couldn’t be pretentious in asking to be called dance master, but Harmony didn’t think so. Ostentatious, yes. Pretentious no.

  “Adva is hard. Your as influehe choices you have, and the choices you make influence what movies you forward. I hit a block, so I returned here where it all started. Hazeldown is a rite of passage for many of the outer kingdoms, a ral spot where youth go and push until they reach fifteen in their css. I hoped to be inspired and guided to where I o be . It didn’t happen for so long that I found myself guided to the demon brews, drowning myself as I numbed my mental faculties. Then up hops a maid onto the table fresh off work and ready to burn off the day’s frustrations. And she starts singing. She’s not a bard. She’s not a musi. Not a css or profession to guide her. Merely talent. I had to talk to her. I ended up here.”

  A stray. Ambrosia has picked up aray. Never a cat, Harmony retty sure the beast tamer was allergic. But that’s how she found her birds. That’s how the woman bonded with the neancer, newly hired, alone, and disowned. If she hadn’t witnessed her friend pick up an evolved dang master down on his luck, she wouldn’t have believed it even experieng the woman.

  “Must be fate, then.”

  The dang master ughed. Spotting the humorous sarcasm ced into that statement. “I see why everyone covets you so much. If only I had my troupe and their resources with me. I’d show ioo. When the music starts, be proud and passionate while dang. I’ll be in the audieg.”

  Odd man. Harmony found him perfect for the beast tamer’s menagerie, even if all her friend does is tend to him a him bato the wild. Peeking at her status, she grinned. [Style and Grace] to fifteen, and several skills had advanced since she st looked.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Any further attempts at versation ended with Sis wagging his finger and reminding her now was about recharging aion, not versation. After finishing the meal, both of them gathered up a new order t back to the band, who they were sure had fotten to eat in the excitement. They set up the stage in the evening light. A fabric box was structed for Harmony to wait in. It would drop for the big reveal. It gave her the area she was restricted to for the proje.

  Lines of people were starting to fill the seats as she ducked into the fabric of her area. She assured herself the crowd was for the Songstress, and she was assisting as a good friend should. Here was the illusion of being alone ihe area. She k was only a thick wall of fabric separating her from the band and the growing crowd. Part of being a maid was taking private moments when you could have them. Slowly she let herself into that rexed, yet ready state Sis had coached her into.

  The muffled noise of the crowd held no sense of danger, oric excitement. Closer were the sounds of the band. Ambrosia’s voice projected above it all. “Wele to River’s Bend! Songstress and the Flow are here to get you moving. As for our special guest, first the warm-up, and then the reveal!”

  The drum started up, setting the beat that the guitar’s cords started to dance around. Behind that, the fiddle’s strings slowly built, apanied by the natural pipes of Ambroasia’s pets.

  “Rise! From below. Rise! It’s the world we know.”

  The Songstress’s version of the climber’s song. It was simir to the cssic love bald and dang or drinking songs. Every band, singer, and bard had one about leveling. When a crowd demanded your climber’s song, they’d get upset if you didn’t have ohey were never Harmony’s favorite. Give her an old-fashioned reveale with a beat to move to.

  The love story was the song. Stiriling’s fiddle drove the story here. Her music acted as a character to the few fainter lyrics. The st of the opening songs were a fast-paced dance beat out through Grohl’s drums and Jimmy’s guitar while the whole band yelled “dance!” periodically.

  Harmony started swaying. Her performance , Si’s instru fresh in her mind. She hadn’t rehearsed for any specifig, but the moves were there to build around any tempo.

  “Now, introdug our special guest. Muse to our music. Starscape on the rise. Lady of Hazeldown. Harmony White!”

  As the extended and inaccurate introdu pyed out, in Harmony’s opinion, instrumental music slowly beat into life, giving the neancer something to dao. She let her hips sway and shoulders rock as the fabric sealing her away dropped to the floor. The crowd was revealed to her.

  Ay-induced activation of her ostasis stat kicked in. The beginning roar of the crowd crept forward as her mind raced, slowing down the se before her. The amphitheater benches had disappeared, swallowed by the standing-room-only mass of people that stretched and swelled up past the venue’s exit. [Mana Rotation] boosted [Poise and Bearing], letting her keep her posure. In all of it, the cert proje floated above, instruments in hand. Hyath sat among them oddly, but the performers made rger than life pyed around a rger image.

  Oh no, it wasn’t ara-tall Harmony dang. The band’s image pyed around her image’s calves as Harmony’s eyes traced up the tower-sized proje of herself, Night shimmering and sparkling from its stars and shiny bits of armor. If the whole city couldn’t see this show, the neancer was sure it was only because they didn’t look up. How was she going to make Ambrosia pay for this? She wasn’t sure, but there had to be something.

  ostasis ticked off, and the cheers of the crowd hit her. She kept dang. Childish revenge could wait, and she wouldn’t ruin her friend’s performance or let Sis down after all the work he put into training her. She stuck to following the instrumental beats. The Songstress started singing, and Harmony only gave the words a flicker of attention as she worked hard to maintain posure a into a proper rhythm, even supported by skills.

  A gravelly refrain pulled her attention to the words with the unusualness of it.

  “... she holds our heart. From the streets to royal upstart.” Ambrosia sang.

  “Our Lady Harmony White!” The apa belted out with a deep inhuman reverberation.

  Hyath! That traitor! He’d spoken through their bond a few times, and now he was talking, well, singing for the crowd for the first time out loud. Wicked amusement dahrough the [Familiar Bond] at the e.

  They were clearly having fun. Ay and e be damned, Harmony wasn’t going to let them show her up. The battle is on, and it’s too te to bow out now. The rge proje atuated the subtle movements, so Harmony focused on her dang. She let Sis’s advice guide her on how to draw attention and evoke emotions through movement. She slipped into a trance-like state of bined song and dance.

  Pretending that the songs and lyrics were not about her helped somewhat. Lies and over-exaggerations of heroics, loyalty, ay. A piece about her charming royalty to serve her hit a bit too close to home. Nothing ht about the prinplying she raised the fool, stealing his corpse, but enough to make her mentally squirm. The number of songs about her was doubly impressive, sidering the short amount of time o set this up. A few more traditional songs were sprinkled in, but they didn’t get the same love from the crowd.

  Harmony watched her image explode into a swirl of rainbow light and khe fi and the cert ended. While the crowd cheered, she slipped behind the stage. Her legs and arms quivered from the end of exertion. Two steps out of sight, her muscles refused to activate momentarily. Too damn close to having colpsed on stage. She found a bend sat on it.

  Ambrosia came around with Hyath hopping at her side. Behihe bandmates pyed some fanstrumentals for the departing crowd. “Harm, that was amazing!”

  “Did it have to be so focused on me?”

  The beast tamer moved to Harmony’s side, sitting down and throwing an arm around her. Hyath nuzzled her from the other side. “I could joke about telling you I would use you today, but I’m sorry if this hurts you. Sometimes you’re so focused you could cut stone, but it makes you miss everything else. There’s no hiding this time, and if the world is going to see my Harm, it’ll be the best one.” Bending over, she kissed the neancer on the forehead.

  “Okay, but did you have to make me the size of a small mountain?”

  “Any smaller and your personality wouldn’t have fit it. There’s an afterparty, but that might be a bit much for you. I’m sure Hyath escort you back to the manor.”

  “Fine.” She took the piic basket that had her clothes in it. And put her hand on her familiar. Oh, she pnned on pnning some kind of revenge on her friend. But right now, she was too tired. Into the shadows, they went.