Chapter One

  Prince Adric died young a 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 sharing his funeral bier. His funeral procession arade of m damsels, widows, and ah a pulse who wao get o look at the celebrity.

  Harmony slinked out of the early m shadows of the sun temple spires and watched the procession from high up there, using her crystal ball to catd bend light, allowing for a close-up viewing of the event. She had no desire to be in those crowds. Beihe ter of attentiht trouble. “No wohe boy died. He probably unlocked charisma and dumped everything into it despite being a fighting css.”

  “Grrrurp!” Croaked her shadow-toad familiar; the inky bck beast protested being out and about during the daytime, even if shaded from the sun for something other than work.

  “Quiet, Hyath, or I’ll lock you up so you ’t hunt the stray cats tonight.”

  Harmony accepted the rumbling purr of aowledgment and focused on the procession. Where irls mourned what could have been, she greedily trated on the opportunity this presented. Out of her bag, she pulled out her prized possession, a spell scroll she had traded more than she was fortable to get. [Analyze] dispyed its details.

  Create and Bond Undead Pet

  Requires a minimum of twelve levels in neancy, three ic cores, five ghost ces, a champions tooth, a restoration potion, and three thimbles of the caster’s blood to fun.

  *Pce materials upoarget, el mana, and break the scroll.

  Pet spells were a dime a dozen, such as Bond Cat Pet and Bond Dog Pet, which are on spells for on animals. Some dreamed of finding rare ones or even took the beast-tamer css allowing them to modify the spells as slightly. Ambrosia talked Harmony’s ears off about that and what made her bonded songbirds so special, and since Harmony got the spell, she enced her friend to spill all the details.

  Familiars like Hyath grew with their masters. structs and raised creatures stayed stati their traits and abilities. Pets, however, could advand evolve indepely, and until learning of the scroll, Harmony had never heard of an undead pet. The spell wasn’t in Byron’s Index of on Spells and Scrolls, which meant it was at least unon. Anything unon found in the local dungeon might as well be rare for the area. Hazeldown was too far from the frontiers, where wild magid untamed dungeons promised fame and advehe dungeon here was even a lowly artificial one, bound to some old spirit.

  Harmony itted herself to believing she had something special here. It had to be worth it. Tyler wouldn’t have collected something ordinary, even if he did give it up quickly after she showed i, all to repay some favors.

  “Rrrgrrupt!” This time the toad’s grumbling came with a push through the [Familiar Bond] they shared, a sehat they had a pce they o be.

  “Work! I know I ’t ze about all m, ag like other foolish girls.” She moved deeper into the shadoced her hand ooad’s back. “You know what to do.”

  Hyath thrummed with a dark purple glow as he moved through the shadows, taking Harmony with him. The process took all of the toad’s mana but being te meant punishments for both of them. The brief brushing of the shadow world felt good despite the exhaustion of the trip.

  Harmony sneezed due to the sudden ge from being on the rooftop to now being in the dank supply closet at Coodly manor.

  The door to the closet swung open, briefly blinding the pair of them. “What are you doing down there? If you don’t hurry up, you’ll be te for shift ge.” Ambrosia excimed, standing there in her frilly work undergarments. Harmony onvied her honey gold skin and boung blonde ris until she saw how muwatention it garhe woman.

  The supply closet ected to the women’s staff ging room. The other maids were already in a hurried state of sing their m clothes.

  “Well, look what the fred in.” Fel snipped while adjusting the top of her corset. The fiery redhead had to get the garment specially ordered to fit her proportions.

  “Toad,” Harmony surly muttered as she pulled off the dark robe and the nightgown she had worn underh it. She approached her locker. There wasn’t much to the bd white maid’s outfit except for the ck of it. Stretg or bending at the waist was not reehat was one reason why undergarments were part of the outfit. When she’d gotten hired, they’d assured her she would grow into the uniform, but hard work made the outfit looser rather than time having her fill it out as she leaned up with muscle. She was grateful she didn’t have to spera time shoving herself into it.

  The only bit of color in her gear was a faintly glowing red bow tie she magically affixed to Hyath. He’d scared too many people ing out of the shadows that it was required to have something that made him tastefully visible.

  She followed the others, trying and sometimes failing to match their demure lengthy strides with her shs.

  The four maids joihe four waiting houseboys in the servant’s hall, keeping their backs straight, chests out, and eyes forward.

  The heavy thud of the head butler’s e, as punctual and paced as a tig clock, informed them all their shift was about to begin. Bates stepped into the room. His tight uniform dispyed thick muscles despite gray hair and a worn face. Harmony had seen him use those and his e once when Yorick, a new houseboy, had been caught stealing. For a long time after that, the boy couldn’t steal again, too busy figuring out how to walk once more.

  “Have there been any status ges sihe start of the st work week?” Bates asked.

  Harmony stepped forward. She was slightly surprised when Jimmy moved forward from the boy’s side.

  With a bit of mana, his status dispyed, projected in the air. Harmony couldn’t see the details from her end of the girls’ side, so instead focused with her ears.

  “A level eight Knight, and you ied in [horse handling]. Your animal care has surpassed your cooking skill. I suspect you want to move out of the kits and into the stables. I’ll talk to the steward about having your duties ged.”

  Every boy dreamed of w the stables and being noticed by an adventurer or lord so they could be pulled out of the lower csses. Harmony k was a futile dream to be reized for your talents rather than used for them. If you wao move up in life, you had to grab opportunity by its bones and wring the marrow out of it.

  Harmony stepped up for her turn and eled mana into dispyiatus.

  Harmony White

  Css: Neancer (10)-F

  Profession: Maid (16)-D

  Skills:

  Familiar Bond(10)*

  Manipute Dead (10)*

  Renew Spirit (10)*

  Analyze (13)

  Poise and Bearing (7)

  Dust (16)*

  Beauti (12)

  Style and Grace (10)

  “I see level ten in neand still exceeding the level cap for your skills. [Poise and Bearing] is severely g, but one point improvement is better than none. [Style and Grace], well, sending you to our dy has helped you there. One copper increase for your sary, and if you wish me to transfer all your duties to Lady Coodly, it will take only one word.”

  Harmony bit her too keep from saying that one word. Removing herself from Tyler’s clutches would be a step up in making life more tolerable, but she still hat awkward sleaze. Getting the scroll wasn’t enough. She required his es to be able to use it. “I’m tent with my current assig.”

  Ambrosia let out a short relieved sigh. No one wahat assig.

  “Iure, that choice may be out of our hands,” Bates said.

  Harmony could tell those st words were more to himself than her, but she khere was such a thing as being too good at your job. Purposely failing wasn’t an option.

  With a pound of the e, they were dismissed and wordlessly went to relieve their repts.