Kit Falbo

MwN Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter twenty-seven

Harmony's social skills ached as she was dragged from social gathering to social gathering. [Poise and Bearing], [Style and Grace], and even [Beautician] throbbed inside her soul. Felt more like cramps than overworked muscles. She leaned on other skills, [Small Armor] and [High Kick], for balance, footing, and timing. [Renew Spirit] to appear refreshed and relaxed, even [Cold Touch] to ward off any heat and keep unsightly sweat away, careful to ke...

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

A thorough inspection of the attic revealed that the effect of the combination of her skills was weaker the further from where she cast it. While she didn't find any dust and Hyacinth didn't sense any vermin, the stacked materials at the far side hadn't moved.  

"If they're not expecting us until lunch, it looks like we have some time on our hands."

"Grrupt." 

The toad strode off into a corner and promptly laid down ...

MwN Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

Brooding was, of course, practical brooding for Harmony. It was how she handled the class negativity when she got hired, the tides of workplace politics, and Lord Tyler when it became necessary. Thinking about all the things that had gone wrong, are probably going wrong, and might go wrong always made her unhappy. But one had to think about such things to adapt, progress, and survive.

So many of the things she thought about were outside of her contro...

MwN Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tyler was pliable. Whether from the alcohol or the leftover effects of Hemlock’s skill Harmony wasn’t sure.  

“Pack up. Then sit.” She told him as they entered the lodge.

Harmony went to her smaller room and shut the door. It was time to change her clothes. She willed the armor back inside her soul space. The skin-pricking feeling of the cold air coated her body. The armor had taken her new dress with it, leaving h...

MwN Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty -Three

The rest of the meal was a blur for Harmony. The party girl leaving took a lot of the energy out of the event and removed one of the barriers to Max and Tyler needling each other. The competition between them started to go towards who could drink the most.

"How much money will it cost to hire a new team, Little Lord?" The knight sneered drunkenly.

"I'm not in a rush to go to the capital. I like Hazeldown and the people who are here."<...

MwN Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tyler's speechless gaping made all of the frustrations around her skills, stats, and the troubles surrounding them almost worth it. Instead of the normal ogling, it was him being stunned.

"I'm ready for this lunch if you are." She told him.

The carriage ride was quick and efficient, and there was no disappointment about skipping the guild hall to go to The Up and Down. Whatever they had done to Tyler to encourage him to talk was enou...

MwN Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter twenty-one

Lord Tyler’s snoring greeted Harmony as she stepped out of the shadows. The lord looked peaceful, a state she wished she could join him in but knew her mind wouldn’t let her. The letter she left about taking a breather sat unopened. She picked it up and shoved it into her bag. 

Instead, she focused on cleaning up the lodge. Sinking into the menial tasks of her profession. Dusting, washing, tidying up. Tyler’s armor needed polishing,...

MwN Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Harmony’s morning reset spell wiped away all the changes to her face, hair, and nails as she stepped out of the shadows and into the manor grounds not far from the staff area. She poked her head into the lady’s changing room. Between shift changes, it operated as a lounge for taking breaks.

It was just her bad luck to find Jessica sitting there. She was chewing on a spice stick. Bates would never allow her to actually smoke it here because of ...

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Colorful toy feather bits, scraps of prince masks, sticks from kabobs, and other remnants of the city-wide hysteria from the funeral procession lay scattered at the corners of the steps up the House of the Dead. The trash remained, the lines were gone, and the citizens moved on. The first few days, you had to wait for hours to go in and get a viewing of the prince and his pet, but the novelty quickly wore off. Those still entranced by the situation co...

MwN Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Harmony had to account for several complicating factors like any daring plan.

Legally, at least within the city, it shouldn’t be any more problematic than raising someone’s dead pet or even a person with legal loopholes for class-specific actions. Hazeldown made it simple in that respect. All unused dead matter belonged to the dungeon. The town was a net importer of corpses, animals, and humans alike to feed its hunger to help support the ec...

MwN Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

The necromancer and her toad stepped out to be greeted by the same booth the team had registered with before entering the dungeon. Outside Old Bones’s domain, she could feel her class shifting uncomfortably as the barrier to selecting a new skill and unlocking the stats dropped. Now was neither the time nor place to do that. She could hold it in uncomfortably.  

It was the booth and her. No teammates were around. She approached the ...

MwN Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Harmony's head throbbed as she regained consciousness to the extent that her vision blurred, and all she could see was a glowing fuzzy white aura. As her eyes focused, it remained fuzzy, the furry kind. A large white dog sat calmly in front of her, the kind that Ambrosia would declare "Adorbs." and name Snowball because it was white and fluffy, then assure her birds that she loves them just as much while relentlessly petting said dog.     &nb...

Non-advanced chapters announcement

I'm going to change the permission on the chapters that are live on royal road to be open to the pubilc here, at least the first five that are up.

MwN Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

  Packs of first-floor guardians wore them down. Bone monkey kings throwing flaming lumps of coal, flesh walls that had to be ground through before they smashed the team. Rose was the first to need a restoration potion. A brown burrower snapped under her feet, crushing part of her abdomen and leg before Harmony managed to sever the clamped jaw.

     The potion wasn’t perfect, even though its color and quality look...

MwN Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

The third floor made the necromancers’ words a lie and fears seem unfounded. Bone threshers, spinning balls of razor-sharp spines that rolled at the group, sat in pieces all over the floor. As they got absorbed, they left death-based alchemical ingredients as the floor’s base rewards. The semi-spectral floor guardian of a white banshee exploded before it made a peep under the well-practiced and combined assault of Len and Rose’s combined range a...

MwN Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Random encounters happened in dungeons, even safe ones like Old Bones beneath Hazeldown. The flesh cube on the third floor had been one, a creature rarely seen and stronger than expected. Harmony reasoned that the shambler-host had to be one, even if it had left a trash drop. Even if she'd never heard of a random encounter on the first floor. Would the team think she was talking herself up? Trying to look good for the boys? 

The Dig Boys wo...

MwN Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

The day tested Harmony’s social skills, both the ones she acquired through her profession and those she’d learned through working at the manor. She was in her new armor, trying it out before she took it into more dangerous but hopefully less stressful situations. Tyler purchased three new items at the auction for his collection. She complimented him on his acquisitions as a good maid would.

     Hyacinth, through their...

MwN Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

A rumbling weight on Harmony's chest woke her. "Hyacinth, you're too big for this. And are you purring?"

"Grrr-oak" he grumbled, and Harmony felt the chastisement through their link.

She focused on the shadow toad. Purring was inaccurate because Hyacinth wasn't vibrating. Inside, he worked on his version of [Mana Rotation], and what miffed the maid was that the Toad was doing it better. Smoother flows and tighter spirals allowed information ...

MwN Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Harmony sipped her wine, attempting to wash away the taste of half-digested food and death out of her mouth. At the very least, it replaced it. She didn’t want to think about how the wine cost more than her week’s wages. The longer she nursed it, the calmer Lord Tyler became. He’d stopped offering to take her back to the lodge after the fifth “I’m fine.”

     Sir Maxwell laughed, retelling the match to friends who...

MwN Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Hunger, thirst, and the constant prodding to take care of those things from Hyancith through their bond woke her enough to sit up, take a bite of food and drink water before laying back down again. 

She settled into accepting the new state of being. Her mana felt full, and while it usually stopped generating at that point, she could feel a new excess overflowing, pushing to keep the churning flow from [Mana Rotation] going. It made her feel bet...

MwN Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Harmony awoke in the tiny lodge room to a raspy, gasping "Grracck" from her amphibious partner. She might have cared a little more if she had felt his distress rather than annoyance through the [Familiar Bond]. As it was, she felt drained from staying up too late. A pair of Dig Boys had escorted her back.

"Something you ate last night bother you?"

The toad coughed some more. Out of its gullet flew a ball of slightly inky slime. The center of ...

MwN Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Off went the maid’s uniform, and on went Harmony’s travel clothes. It was good to have pants on. The insistence that she trained in uniform was ridiculous. Whenever she felt she might warm up to Lord Tyler, he did something like that. 

She still felt naked, even covered enough to be mistaken for a young boy. That feeling had driven her to change quickly but stuck through putting on the travel clothes. A low level of anxiety gripped her...

MwN Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Harmony had mistakenly dressed in her travel clothes the morning of her departure. Brown pants and a jacket she knew made her look more like a young boy than a girl.

"Why aren't you in uniform?" Lord Tyler asked with a tone of command.

This caused Harmony to spin on her heel and march straight to the dressing room. On went the uncomfortably revealing outfit, and the two spares went into her bag. Thankfully, they didn't take up much space. W...

MwN Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Over the next three days, the masters of Coodly manor only showed up sporadically, taking advantage of the spectacle that the prince's funeral had become. Never was there quite enough time for another golden moment for the staff. Lord Tyler was gone completely, which was unusual for him to be away so long from his collection when not traveling.

Harmony found herself altering the looks of several members as the old lady encouraged others to get in on the...

MwN Chapter Four

Chapter Four

All the maids and one of the house boys rotated for the lunch service, and today was Harmony’s day. It was one of the few tasks that she could work on improving her [Poise and Bearing] Focus on that straight spine, smooth walk, pleasant smile, and without needing to stop herself from looking awkward. She entered the large dining room, already set to handle all twelve of the masters of the manor, from Lady Coodly down to her favorite grandson Lord Tyler....

MwN Chapter Three

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 fashionable. Tyler's collections kept taking up more and more space until he had the basement cells all remodeled so he could have the largest room. Tyler's rare and unique items were why he usually insisted on being around wherever a maid came down to clean it. It had taken Harmony ages to earn his trust.

Super...

MwN Chapter Two

Chapter Two

With winter near the end, it was time to clean the east parlor. The room's door opened with a creak. Too drafty to use during the winter months, the manor closed it, and Harmony was scheduled to help get it ready for use during the warmer seasons. 

A thick layer of dust covered the room, glasses sat half empty, and a chair rested overturned. The parlor was for entertaining. With a strike table, darts, a bar, and even a small reading nook crammed int...

Maid with Necromancy Chapter One

Chapter One

Prince Adric died young and left 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 was a parade of mourning damsels, widows, and anyone with a pulse who wanted to get one last look at the celebrity.

Harmony slinked out of the early morning shadows of the sun temple spires and wat...

Audio version of one of my preiously published stories

I had this shot story published for limited release in an Air and Nothingness Press anthology. The rights have reverted back to me, and a good fellow was interested in doing a podcast and working on their audio-resume, so here it is.

Death maid chapter three

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 fashionable. Tyler's collections kept taking up more and more space until he had the basement cells all remodeled so he could have the largest room. Tyler's rare and unique items were why he usually insisted on being around wherever a maid came down to clean it. It had taken Harmony ages to earn his trust.

Supervision while cleaning...