Chapter 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 fashioyler's colles kept taking up more and more spatil he had the basement cells all remodeled so he could have the rgest room. Tyler's rare and uems were why he usually insisted on being around wherever a maid came down to it. It had taken Harmony ages to earn his trust.

  Supervision while ing valuable items wasn't unusual. However, Tyler's lingering gazes made it a bit more unfortable than it should be. He'd been the oo select the current housemaid uniforms, which brought no love, especially as winter's chills still seeped into the house every time someone opened a door or cracked a window.

  Harmony waited at the door, pnnily what she wao do. itment solidified; she knocked.

  "e in," Tyler called in a zy sing-song voice.

  It took a few good yanks to open the heavy door, a massive thi over from its job of keeping prisoners in. Shelves and tainers filled the pce with a mish-mash of things. Books, scrolls, skill stones, ons, toys, and trophies. If Tyler had an anizational method, Harmony had yet to figure it out.

  He was how she got her Create Undead Pet scroll. Even the books he'd collected had given her access to new ideas. Once she'd shown him her ability to repair the damaged, dead pnt or animal-based part, he'd allow her to restore some of his colle. At least while he was h over her. He had iing ideas, objects, and his excitement sometimes rivaled a puppy.

  Stepping out from behind a fully packed shelf, Harmony was greeted by the sight of Lord Tyler, sitting at his desk, bent over a small figurine of a maid in a not-so-dissimir outfit to hers. The young lord was holding a magnifying gss over it. He was one pair of thin white undershorts shy of being the time. If only he wasn't such a creep.

  "I'm here for the weekly ing, my lord. Perhaps I help with aorations as well?"

  Tyler blinked and jerked away from his iion. His slightly ht body jiggled as he did. "Oh, Harmony, I fot what day it was. I thought you might have been Timothy ing to pester me about practice." Lifting up the figurine, he exte out. "What do you see here?"

  "It's me." Harmony couldn't stop her eyes from widening. It was her, with the skirt so low you could see too much. The proportions were slightly off, and the fad posture were more defiant than deferential. The idea that Tyler had someoch her so closely as to produce this thing without her knowing made her regret not taking the head butler's offer.

  "No, not that. It's a mimicry model. When I look at it, I see me too. I've been slowly stripping clothing and watg it ge. Supposedly slight differences give some level of portent for the future, a new scar, a troubled expression. Even the mana lens isn't helping show differences. I'd like to figure out the clue or what it looks like when it isn't mimig me. you use your css to determine if it's made of something dead, like wood or bone?"

  The fact that Tyler wasn't staring at her body through a magnifying gss was a relief. Not that he hadn't given all the maids slightly longer leers than ropriate at times. Carefully taking the figurine from the lord's hand, she exami. As for any portents, she immediately noticed the thing was wearing a smirk, which Harmony knew was rare because she kept her face as still as usual. A little hope that her request would be accepted bloomed in her chest. She probed it with her Neancy.

  "Nothing. It's her bone nor wood, but I'm only level ten."

  "Damn it," Tyler grumbled. "Wait, ten? You've gone up a level?" His voice held a p tone before he broke into a grin. "gratutions. I should probably put on clothes."

  Harmony turned away so he could do that. Summoning some of her magic, she gently pulled some of the week's dust into a pile. Regur maintenance made it easier to . Gently though, because she didn't actally want to damage anything. The pce hadn't been shut down for months like the Parlor.

  "Ahem. I'm det now."

  After she'd turned around, Harmoed his statement silently. She wasn't in a position to question him. The only thing he had done ull a long robe over his girthy frame. Small wine and food stains marred it, but at least the lord wasn't naked. He'd told one of the other maids, "His room. His rules."

  "The ing shouldn't take long. If there are any special tasks you'd like me to handle, I'm happy to help you with them. When I'm done, I have a small favor to ask."

  She'd vinced him to part with the scroll through extra tasks, ones irely covered by her employment tract. The scroll came with a promise of information on how well it worked. Lord Tyler's i in uems was more than only possessing them. Like with the mimicry statue, he craved knowing how they worked. The best would be if he had more books to repair. Tyler, her greatest source of knowledge, if she could stand acquiring it.

  "How about skill training? I'm really close to a breakthrough."

  Harmony maintaihe mask she'd traio wear as a servant. The worst was this. "I'm always grateful when we help each other achieve oals."

  "I'll go set up the bed. It'll just be a few moments." Tyler quickly shuffled off to the furthest er of his domain.

  Harmoled on the routiure of using her skills to . Not every ing did she have to test her skills, and right now, she didn't have the wherewithal to stretch herself. There was value to repetition and thhness, includiing her mind chew on problems. The maid kyler had the moo hire skilled trainers. Just one of the skill stones she pulled dust from could easily fund an expert iy, or if he wanted a genuinely skilled one, he could make a trip to the capital. Flower houses and magical tracts could hahe more, the girl ged thinking about it, personal aspects of the training. She khe only thiing and unique about this was her.

  "I'm ready!"

  Tyler y naked on the bed except for a leather cod piece from his armor set. Beside him on a table were various groups of magical tools and implements, some looking like they came out of the dungeon's old torturer tools and others soft and glowy wands.

  The codpiece covered him better than the undershorts did, Harmony reflected. Is this a demonstration of the power the lord had over her? Maybe he liked her in a non-professional text or even ara-professional one? But even he would uphold his gran's employment tract. One short session.

  "How would you like me to start?"

  "Secure my wrists and put on the blindfold. Start from the tool closest to the headboard and move down. I'm trying Jubal's method of alternatiions."

  Everyone gained skills as part of a person's css and profession. They get to select a skill every four levels. You could use skill gems to pick up additional ones, one per every eight bined levels. But what Tyler wanted was rare, gaining skill through experience, and they were almost always uo the person.

  With soft leather manacles, she tied Lord Tyler to the bed and secured the silk blindfold over his eyes. Many of the utensils were yler had gone on a shopping spree after the st attempt hadn't produced as. She picked up a silver der first, eling a trickle of her mana into the item. Harmony touched it to the lord's chest. Frost rippled out, coating his skin, aarted to shiver with the cold. Still, he bore it as the maid slowly traced it down his limbs.

  "Ch-ge," He gasped through chatterih.

  The following tool produced heat, at first relieving the chill but then causing him to flinch back as blisters appeared us onsught. Sharp - soft, Wet-dry, mana infusing-mana draining, tig-numbing. Only when it seemed past the point he could take did he call for a ge, and Harmony moved through the tools, making herself feel as detached as she would if assigo out an outhouse. By the end, he looked nearly like a corpse she could raise if she'd ever chosen to get the skill.

  "Potion!" he demanded in a voice wrecked by strain.

  Harmony took a small vial of pink liquid aly poured it into Tyler's mouth. The wounds closed, pushing away the damaged and dead bits until the skin looked pink and new. [Manipute Dead] swept off the excess debris].

  " you do that toe thing? One more sensation." Tyler's voice tinged with delirium.

  "Of course," Harmony answered softly.

  She scooted a chair to the foot of the bed. Hyath hopped quietly out of the shadows, lifting the fat toad onto the chair; she watched as her toad tched onto the end of Tyler's foot and started sug. Even though they couldn't yet speak, The maid could tell through their bond that this came with a feeling of "You owe me extra cats for this."

  Tyler moaned from his p the bed, causing Harmony te. Early skill training had been less anized, with requests to do anything while the man was blindfolded. He'd demanded sug one day, repulsed, she couldn't do it. Hyath, sensing her distress, had stepped up. She wondered if lord Tyler thought it was her. She never gave him the details, and he didn't ask. Tyler shuddered and flushed. Harmony looked away.

  She preferred to think of Tyler excitedly discussing a new purchase, why one skill stone was better than another, or a rare book on dungeon moypes. He'd actually lent her books after catg onto the fact that she was reading them while repairing them for him. "Don't trust Piltoff. He's all wrong about his theory of maximizing oat and minimizing unimportant ones. Stats have synergy as much as skills. I only got the book because only five copies are ience." He'd lecture in rare moments, trying to be helpful. She could fet the amount of power he had over her position when he did that.

  "Enough. Enough. Enough." Hyath let go of the toes and started hopping away. "I feel how the skill could crystallize. Maybe this is too much of a trolled setting. Untie me."

  Harmony took the blindfold off and then worked on the cuffs. She didn't know when the one would show up if she missed the current opportunity. "About that favor?"

  "Yes?"

  "Now that I'm level ten, I wondered if I could join your party for some dungeon runs. I'd like to try to get to level twelve."

  "Looking to unlock your stats?" That is often the goal for those to reach level twelve in css and profession. With the local dungeon, usually, it eople's profession that o catch up. Stat theory was less exg for Harmony. It is more of a boy thing, wanting to boost how much they lift to show off. She figured it was something she could focus on after meeting the scroll requirements.

  "I also wo ic cores, three ghost ces, and a champion's tooth."

  She watched as he made the mental e. Tyler wasn't dumb, but she wondered if she was giving away her pns. The procession with the Prind coatl was still winding their way around the city before their inter at the temple of the dead. They would sit there until Adric was to be picked up by the royal family.

  "So, you've um. Yes. Yes, this is perfect. I actually wao add a neao our party, and when you mentioned you were level ten. Well, I didn't know how to ask. I'll make sure you're equipped properly. I've got some things I want to see in a."

  "No need, but I do appreciate this."

  "Oh, I insist. Bringing you on reflee." Lord Tyler's eyes moved away from darting around his shelves to Harmony. She felt his gaze linger as he looked her up and dowing his lips with his tongue. "I'll need your measurements; for the armor."

  The perplexing statement about armor made it difficult for the maid to trol her face. She forced a smile and told herself it would be worth it. If she mao get what she wanted.