Chapter TweThe terrible idea won out. Maxwell’s “in” with the eveily agreed when given the rundown of the pn. She’d only made a deal with the knight because she thought it had the potential to be amusing. This could be doubly so.

  “Don’t dawdle, Mercy.” The old abbess prompted, reminding Harmony of her his evening.

  Harmony shuffled forward in line, adjusting her makeshift disguise, her hand casually toug the choker around her hat held the obfuscation ward, making her difficult to i. The character she’d designed was unique. One of Max’s old sparring shirts was cut and modified with [Mend] to look like a baggy, pin shirt and breaches. [Small Armor] insisted she have something, so on her left hand was an oversized gau, also modified. [Beauti] pined, but all her features were made pin, except for her nose which had the illusion of a crook. All underh a mop of unruly brown hair, shagged down to cover her ears and just below her eyebrows. While the height was unmodifiable unless she wao slouch, something [Poise and Bearing] and [Style and Grace] fought sainst that it wasn’t an option. Otherwise, she looked nothing like the Lady Harmony White. Shirls existed everywhere.

  “Yes, Abbess Violet.”

  As for why Violet agreed to this, she was a devotee of Chaos, embrag the idea that pcy bred stagnation. Harmony liked the womahusiasm oopic. That and she didn’t care that Harmony had no i in joining any of the temple anizations.

  The of clergy, associates, and their applits wound up the pace tower stairs towards the sed floor. The first four floors were for business, while the top four of the wide tower were the royal’s living spaces. She could feel Adric above her, probably not acutely as he could her. The pn was to “call” him ohe event got to the social aspect when she could most likely slip away.

  A hundred applits were expected, so she’d be just one of the crowd. Not including their patrons and roups that were there to recruit. A s meet of talent, or those that didn’t fit within their current anizations. Geniuses, problem children, rebels, outsiders, and diamonds in the rough for them to pete for. Violet was here mostly to recruit the most chaotididates, and socialize. The abbess expio not stand out, that Harmony should do her best during the recruitment process. Purposely trying to do badly could get her removed as they do ask some to leave for poor performanbsp;

  The bodyguards were left behind, as was Ambrosia. It almost felt like she’d slipped away for a vacation from her new aristocratic life. A guard wearing a sun on his chest checked the guests before they ehe ballroom. Violet waved an invitation at the man who didn’t even bother reading it.

  “ing anything on fire.” The man warned with a gre as they entered.

  “What was that about?” Harmony hissed to Violet.

  “I like bringing iing applits.” Then with a f pat on Harmony’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll fit right in.”

  Setting things on fire wasn’t what Harmony wao fit in with. She wasn’t even pnning on freezing anything. That was too noticeable as a skill Lady White had. Ihe ballroom, she got a bigger picture of what this would be like.

  Guards wearing sus dotted the ballroom as staff, hosts, and security. There were some tables set up as well as a few sparring rings. The patrons were all older, often in formal wear for their positions wearing robes, armor, or merely well-tailored clothes. The applits were an eclectich, younger si had to be before their first evolution to attend. Each wearing or equipped with tools to show off their css, profession, and talents. If you’d said this was a gathering of young adventurers rather than people wanting to join one of the temple groups Harmony wouldn’t have been shocked. Each dressed to show off et noticed. As pnned, she was one of the more ordinary-looking ones here.

  “Violet Everdeen, with an applit, what a surprise! I’d heard you were skipping bringing someoo this season’s harvest of talents.”

  A padin of the moon, in their suite of armor, only missing his helm. Gray hair at his temples, the image of what you’d find in a storybook.

  “Jonas! I had this one fall into my p at the st minute. Mercy here is a bit shy, but you won’t find anyone here more talented.”

  Harmony uood these were all talented individuals looking for different or new opportunities. Sir Maxwell's level of talent. Someone who would beat her if she wasn’t tricky while sparring. In the handful of times they'd practiced since he’d bee her knight a few days earlier, they were about even in matches. It wasn’t like she had many people to pare him to. A lot of the talents here were probably more profession-based anyway. Being introduced as the most talented person here was a bit of a stretbsp;

  “Ho, ho ho. I hope she shows me mercy then. I’ll be your first test. e on and take a few swings at me.” The picture of a cocky, old, evolved fighter with a half-mog glint in his eye. Harmony disliked the superior attitude already.

  That was the dy in her. As a maid, she was used to that, usually allowing that superiority to slide right off her skin if they even bothered to i with her. It art of the job. Now part of her took it as a challenge and maybe was more annoyed since she’d increased the number of direteras with these kinds of people. But perhaps it was because she now had the opportunity to do something when faced with such smug looks.

  Either way, this man waited to be punched. Who could say no to that?

  So she took a. Not the visible, jump-in-swinging kind. Mercy was more reserved. She walked cautiously closer, using [Analyze] as though it would tell her anything useful. It didn’t. The man was clearly evolved, possibly twice over. Just because he smelled arrogant didn’t mean it wasn’t earned. Thankfully he stood still and waited patiently.

  “I think I like the ones who try to strike before I finish inviting the punch, Violet.”

  With [Mana Rotation] finished being used to empower a skill, Harmony struck. [High Kick] blended with her physical skills from [Small Armor] to [Style and Grace] making her fast and fluid. Just not fast enough to handle most bat csses, or even people with a good escape or speed skill. [Stride Before the Fall] could have her appear o him, but that was another one off the table if only for the fact that it left her naked without Night.

  That time before she moved had been important, however, she’d avoided targeting Jonas ht. An awful lot of people had things like [Danger Sense] or [Early Warning] a whole category of skills to let you know when something is ing or someone is targeting you. Like mana, stamina, and escape skills that was one of those skills deemed key for free skill slots. Now that he was targeted, she watched him shift in pce. His attempt at dodging failed.

  [Mend] needed leveling. It was one of those cross-css skills. Healers used it to patch people up, seamstresses bound cloth together, and tinkers could fix broken wood aal. Maids were generalists. You never knew when a guest would get a minor cut, a teapot broke, or a dress ripped. Useful but not outstanding. Harmony was already well experienced in leveraging those kinds of aspects so skills from her time reshaping faces and sculpting nails and hair. That was before her es stat came into py. Like more easily mended with like, Jonas stood in a pile of overppial for the most prote. Now if he’d been moving this trick would have been near impossible. But since he was still, Harmony boosted her skill and fused his armor as best she could, fog on the joints and log them in pce during her careful approach.

  It didn’t make him less sturdy or suddenly make it so she could damage the man, but that wasn’t the point of this test. Harmony didn’t even hit the man in the way [High Kick] always begged to be used, but instead used her strike to twist her foot behind the padin’s ankle and shove him over it. She tripped the man as quick as she could.

  Even as he started tipping over, he shifted trying tain bahe metal bonds she put in crag as they snapped, but it was too te to do more than that. Sir Jonas, padin of the moon crashed down back first onto the floor, the cacophony of the crash drawing every eye in the room. So much for staying unnoticed.

  That was the thing. It wasn’t supposed to work. There had been backup pns for when it didn’t. That’s why she didn’t [Final Silence] him while following through with the trip. Make him stumble a step or two, nd a kick maybe. Something minorly impressive on someone clearly above you.

  “Ha!” the Abbot ughed.

  Jonas was on his feet mighty quick. “I take it back. That was quite impressive young, Mercy.”

  Harmony might have been fttered if she wasn’t a bination of suspis, and ahat the move went so well. Suspis she couldn’t even prove. It wasn’t even like these two had time to coordinate. Perhaps this was something done for all of Violet’s didates?

  [Poise and Bearing] soothed her ruffled feathers. “No problem at all.” Harmony lied.

  “With someone like you challenging the others, they’ll certainly o try their hardest.” Jonas tinued a little too loud.

  Challenging, like challenger? What did he know? If Max set her up, she was gonna... A deep breath calmed those thoughts. He was still sworn to operate with her best is. This was all an annoying ce. Violet's chaotiature was getting less appealing.

  “You humble me.” Harmony squeezed out when she knew he utting a target on her.

  Jonas moved away. Other patrons wandered over, their charges in tow.

  “I would have paid to see Jonas put on his ass years ago. That makes it all so much sweeter to see it now.”

  “Wherever do you find them, Violet?”

  Paired with the praise, their applits supplied gres. This was going to be a long night.