Chapter Ninety-Two

  People's skills fit so much better than those of monsters or beasts. You didn’t have to worry about biological incompatibility. Usage was straightforward with the skill still preventing synergies and combinations avoiding many of the pitfalls of when she'd try to overdo an idea. It really gave one a better understanding of others' skills when you used them yourself. The three levels gained for [Cim the Remains of Power] as she tried out the skills harvested from the dead assassins was a fringe benefit. As was the benefit of presenting a gruesome scene for her irritating guest.

  “Aaaahhg!” Susan screamed.

  Susan felt like an odd name for an assassin to have. The woman’s name was just about the only thing Harmony had managed to get honestly from the woman before she passed out from pain. More than a dozen skills drifted in broken shards in her body. Perhaps a bit overboard, but when they had skills they might be able to use to escape as well as there were the social and deception supporting skills she'd insisted on using.

  Harmony cast a combination of [Final Silence], [Renew Spirit], and [Cold Touch] to ease Susan’s spiritual pain. It wouldn't eliminate it but dull it enough for the woman to talk. “Awake again. Ready to tell me why you targeted me?”

  “You’re the one that attacked us! You're delusional…” The woman’s face scrunched up, searching for a skill no longer there. “You monster! You demon! What are you doing to me?”

  “That had been a nasty skill. One designed to get me to doubt the reality of what happened. I couldn’t let you keep having access to it. If I’d had less experience with such maniputions maybe it would have worked, well, I have plenty. Your lies will have no more influence over me. Now, tell me who you are and why you attacked me, Susan?”

  [Keen Investigative Awareness] was having an easier time since she’d stripped the woman of her supports.

  Panic creased the woman’s brow as she tried to find what wasn’t there. It was like missing a hand and reaching for a cup finding you couldn't grasp it. Rather than defeat, a cruel look blossomed on Susan's face. “Fine. We attacked you. A lone adventurer on the seventh floor in fancy armor you were sure to have loot.” The reason was a lie. If you relied on skills too much you often forgot the skill of doing things naturally. That’s one reason why silence training was valuable. “Now arrest me. You have me helpless and can turn me in.”

  Not yet begging. The woman still thought she had cards to py. It’s not even that Harmony was a bad person. Practical and experienced.

  “Turn you into the guild?”

  “Yes!”

  “How about the city guard instead?”

  “Absolutely!”

  “The temple inquisitors?”

  “Anyone!”

  “The Pace guard?”

  Susan cmmed up. Not enough for Harmony to see if it was above any of the other options. There was a confidence under all of it that she really would be fine with any option. And Harmony couldn’t bme the woman. The near-death experience at the Harvest of Talents hadn’t come with any results. A lone bad actor, and a rge payoff in the form of the contracted servants. The city guard, while they’d been kind enough hadn’t found out much or informed her about the results of the investigation around the attack on Agent Maxwell. And the guild? Thorne was the most supportive of them all but came back after being kidnapped with nothing she chose to tell Harmony about. That was all when she had power as a dy. There was no forgetting how the system worked when you had none. No answers at all, and this Susan had them. Turning her in would take away the opportunity to get them.

  The gear the group had been carrying was a dead end. All new, good quality, and without maker marks. The recoverable parts of their bodies had no tattoos or odd scars. No letters or trinkets, enough that the ck of them was more of a sign than anything. A guild pass for the team listed their names, but one name was already confirmed fake by Susan's admission.

  Harmony squatted down a few feet from the tied-up woman, so she could let her get a good look at Harmony’s face. “Hyacinth, what do you think I should do?”

  The hungry toad hopped beside Harmony. He was long bored by all this questioning, experimenting, and investigating. “Gwaap!” He cried licking his lips with his tongue.

  “My familiar here has a much simpler approach to dealing with problems than I do. Right now you’re not giving me any value to preserve. We could easily walk away from this and you can see how far you will make it on the seventh floor in your condition.” Harmony let the sense of death grace every word.

  Susan was a problem. She knew too much. Her trick for destroying skills wasn’t public. Ciming other people's skills would be as distasteful to some as taking a leg or arm from a body. Then killing a whole adventuring team, as Ambrosia would lecture her, she had an image to maintain. The cold anger didn’t help. She hadn’t asked for them to attack her.

  Susan finally broke. “I was hired by…” her future word choked in her throat as the woman’s body entered a convulsion.

  She’d been stable. Harmony prepped a heal, but soul sight revealed worse, a creeping brown streak started to spread from a far-off corner of her soul. How did she miss it? Some combination of an oath and curse gushed out. When Max had evolved and put her in trouble it had simirly been hidden. Out! Modifying [Cim the Remains of Power] on the fly Harmony reached in as her nails turned to bdes. She ripped off a chunk of flesh, container, and soul and tossed it to the side. Breaking off the nails that touched it in the process.

  The bloody chunk turned bck and bubbled bck ooze. It erupted in a cloud of smoke and stench worse than many of the professional-level messes she'd handled. Harmony and Hyacinth jumped back until it had settled down.

  Susan lived but in the worst possible way. Between the skills Harmony had broken and this new damage, the container was there, and the body was breathing, but the soul was beyond repair. Her eyes stared at nothing with a gaze both gssy and partially cloudy as drool ran from her mouth.

  Harmony swallowed her anger and frustration. First, she grabbed the skill she knew would help her finish the climb from the other corpses. A shame to leave all the others to waste, but she only had a spot for one. Last she went to Susan, the woman's breathing wasn’t going to help her anymore, so Harmony ended that too. Five bodies surrounded her. “Now I’ve become death.”