“All right. Let’s make me not regret this. You’re here for a chance to apologize?” If there was a genuine attempt to clear the air, then perhaps I was only making things worse, but as far as I was concerned, I was allowed more than a small amount of bitterness.

Warram stepped back, and I followed, moving to the music even as we spoke. It was a familiar rhythm by now, half automatic.

“Indeed. While it hardly excuses my actions, I truly thought you were sneaking in, and that I was protecting the sanctity of the event. I care for the city deeply, and I take my role very seriously, and perhaps I’m overly used to people attempting to lie and trample on my goodwill. Still, those are far more excuses than they are a proper apology, and so: I apologize. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it up to you.”

Eh. He started out with excuses, but I’ll admit, a better apology than expected. Still, words couldn’t fully erase the gut-wrenching feeling of being so paralyzed that I couldn’t speak.

“Nice, but not really good enough. Do you know anyone else with that skill of yours? Ever had it done to you? Feels like some sort of torture skill. Especially when you amp it up.” I had to imagine, especially given his position, that he had a high level in a number of social skills. Perhaps Conversation, and maybe something like Ass-kissing. No matter how he dressed it up, though, “sorry that I magically choked you and forced you to start to follow me,” wasn’t really going to cut it.

We moved into a different dance, and he brought his hands up to grab my waist and shoulder. A single look stopped that in its tracks, and he lowered his arms back down to his sides.

“I have not. I am the only one with the requisite class as of yet, though there are hopes to adopt it more widely. There’s quite a bit of buy in for it across the nobility, in addition to a number of the other chamber heads.”

At this, all matters of his apology suddenly slipped from my head as I openly gaped. “Sorry. Are they insane? Have they felt what that feels like?” In what world was he supposed to be some poster boy?

My question was met with a single raised brow. “Naturally, I have not used the skill on the heads. Even if they so desired, they’re too high leveled for it to take hold. But you must admit, it’s a far better system than the alternative. A few weeks prior — I believe while your grandfather was out of town, likely picking you up — there was a miners’ strike. Far better to use my skill on them than more violent alternatives, yes?”

I only gaped further, and Warram seemed genuinely confused by my reaction. “You- What were they striking for?”

He nearly stumbled as he clenched his fists, a look of utter disgust passing over him. “They wanted to continue to be paid, but to have an entire extra day without work each week. Never mind the fact that they already have one, but to shut down the mines to demand for a second… It’s as if their greed knows no bounds. Don’t they even realize they get to safely work while there’s an entire military to outfit keeping them safe?”

At that, I had to completely stop, nearly bumping into a couple next to us. As I did so, I noticed some minor commotion to the side — it looked like the Chamber Head of Nobility, Lady Vetna, had finally made her appearance. I filed that away for now, too fixed on the guardsman’s admission.

“Wait. You put down strikes. For people who want a two day weekend?”

He openly wore a proud grin without an ounce of shame in his body. “I did! And without a single wound inflicted. Anything for the peace.”

Holy hell, no wonder Suds wants me to stab this guy. The only thing stopping me from telling him just how horrified I was was that I didn’t know if it would blow my cover. For all I knew, Yekkish people worked every single day. Not that he would probably know either, but in terms of people I absolutely didn’t want to reveal too much info to, Warram was pretty high on the list.”

“You know. Let’s consider the apology accepted. Don’t think we’re going to be good pals though. Really, no hard feelings,” I lied through my teeth, “but let’s just put it behind us and then keep to ourselves, yeah?”

I didn’t want any trouble. Really. Both for my own sake, and for Suds’ sake.

I also just didn’t want to be in the presence of the guy who cheerfully used a torture skill on people who wanted to have a weekend, and then bragged about it.

Our dance brought us closer to Lady Vetna, who was now standing just on the outskirts of the dancefloor, deep in conversation with some older gentlemen I didn’t recognize. A few servers ran around her, some on their way to serve the many guests in the room, but most flocking to the Lady to offer her various drinks and snacks.

“Hm,” Warram offered. “A pity. A shame we can’t have a better relationship, but no hard feelings then. Before we part, may I say, Miss Astorius, you’ve been rather clumsy on the dance floor tonight, haven’t you? I don’t mean to be too rude, but I wonder if your grandfather might have arranged for more lessons for you prior to the event.” As he spoke, he twisted about, his moves not what I’d been led to expect for the current dance, forcing me to reposition myself.

What? Where’d that come from? Even with the whole “I don’t mean to be too rude,” that was pretty undeniably a dick thing to say, and even more than that, it wasn’t true, was it? If anything, I’d been feeling good about my newly-acquired dance skills.

Did I learn that one wrong? What’s with his weird movements? I was vacillating between asking what he was talking about, telling him to fuck off, or just ignoring it and then leaving.

Ask just to make sure you’re not going to piss off some other dance partner, and then leave.

I stepped to the side in time with the music, ready to be done dancing with the unpleasant man. “What are you-”

You have been affected by the Law’s Embrace!

You are immobilized! You are pacified! You are protected!

Most forms of damage against you are temporarily nullified.

Mid-motion, my body locked up, and I could feel myself start to fall.

What? Is he just trying to make me trip? That’s kind of juvenile, isn’t it? Especially after Suds had dealt with him the first time, I couldn’t believe he was seriously trying to mess with me again. Hadn’t he just delivered an entire apology?

My eyes swiveled to my side, taking in exactly where I would fall. Then, with a horrible clarity, I understood.

There’s the saying that things suddenly slow down right before something awful is about to happen. Maybe it would actually be true if I gained some sort of skill for it or enough stats, but unfortunately, it wasn’t true for me quite yet.

On the flip side, while nothing slowed down, my brain did speed up. Getting past the first Intelligence threshold had massively increased the speed of my brain, and it felt like millions of thoughts were hurtling through my head all at once.

Without fully noticing it, Warram had led us to the very side of the dance floor, repositioning me until I was right up against the Chamber Head of Nobility. Presently, the only thing separating us was a single server.

A single server holding a large, tippable tray of glass flutes full of a deep, crimson liquid.

Really? He’s using his big law enforcement skill to make me spill something stainable on the host?

I wanted to say it was a childish, entirely dumb thing to even try, but as I thought about it, maybe it wasn’t. I hadn’t even met the host yet, nor had I met a large portion of the people here. Perhaps some of them had seen what went down with Warram earlier, but his own incident might easily be forgotten if I accidentally one-upped him. Worse than that, my first impression on everyone would be the clumsy girl who knocked an entire tray of drinks into the closest thing the city had to a queen.

Ass. Definitely agreeing with Suds now. Warram goes on the “stab if I can get away with it” list. Very top.

That was well and good, but could I actually do anything, or was I doomed to have my mind race through minutes’ worth of thoughts only to smash into the server?

I kind of blame myself at this point. Shouldn’t have agreed to dance with him. Should have known better.

Not helping. Was there a way to free myself? My entire body was locked down except for my eyes.

Eye skills? Maybe use that little flashlight skill I just got? Blind him and hope it goes away?

Wouldn’t be fast enough.

Wait, duh, it’s movement impairing! Pendant! Go!

I mentally activated the necklace I’d gotten back in Drawgin, and as it worked its literal magic, I would have sighed with relief if I’d had time.

Cleansing Shower Gem Pendant activated.

You feel clean and refreshed.

Law’s Embrace removed.

Before he could use the skill again — I had no idea what sort of cooldown it had — I channeled some light mana into my boots, speeding myself up. I almost opted to try life mana, but even had that worked, something told me forcing vines up through the floor wouldn’t be a great look either.

Thankfully, the light mana came to the rescue. I shuffled forward, catching myself right before I bumped into the server. I shifted my weight backwards, making sure that I absolutely wouldn’t fall forward even if it happened again.

Having watched my stumble, the server nearly fell into Lady Vetna just from surprise. Key word nearly.

“Sorry about that.” I leaned into Trauma Suppression, letting it lower my heart rate to reasonable levels as I tried to apologize to the server. At the same time, I raised my voice. “Not sure what that was. I was dancing with Warram here, and then right as I moved towards you, a wave of paralysis came over me.”

Pretty sure anyone who hears that should be able to put two and two together. Let the little shit squirm, yeah?

The server, on the other hand, seemed to have no clue what was going on. After an almost comical gulp, they rushed off, likely happy to not have just gotten into an incident that could have gotten them fired.

“You know, I think it’s time to switch partners, isn’t it? Bye Warram.” Abandoning any sense of propriety, my nerve addled legs brought me up to another pair that was still in the midst of dancing. “I’m afraid my current partner doesn’t agree with me much. Next dance?”

The pair looked even more flustered than I was feeling at that moment, but neither put up a fuss. After a few more steps, they said a hasty farewell and the woman in the pair uncertainly ambled over to Warram.

“Hi! Tess’Astorius. Let’s dance in that direction, yeah?”

My dance partner nodded, if not completely sure of what was happening, capable of reading the mood.

Safe. I’ll just stay away from him for the rest of the nigh-

You have been affected by the Law’s Embrace!

You are immobilized! You are pacified! You are protected!

Most forms of damage against you are temporarily nullified.

Wha- The effect left nearly as quickly as it came on, but the damage was done. I fell heavily into my next step, barely keeping myself from “clumsily” bowling into my new partner.

“Sorry about that.” Maybe let’s get even further in that direction?

I didn’t need mental magic at that moment to read the man’s mind. What the hell is this woman’s problem?

Well, whatever. Hopefully he wouldn’t hold it against me.

Four dance partners later, I was rapidly gaining a reputation for being the worst dancer in the room. Feet had been stepped on. Full-on trips had been narrowly avoided. Apologies had abounded. The only reason I was still on the dance floor was because the first two times, I didn’t want to feel like Warram was winning. The last two times, I’d been sure I was out of his range. Unfortunately, he’d creeped towards me with each new dance partner.

Time to call it quits, I think. Hate to say it, but I’m going to call this Tess - 2, Warram - 1. I still couldn’t believe he had the guts to use the skill on me — and almost as surprised that no one was detecting its usage and calling him out on it.

Probably a politics thing. Don’t make a scene and commit yourself to calling something out unless you can fully prove it. Euch.

At the end of the song, I gave a small bow to my latest partner and apologized for my stumbling. I started to move away with my mind on the dining room. Another glass of wine seemed in order.

Only for a massive figure to step onto the dance floor and grab me. “Perceptive Pickaxe girl! I lost you!”

While part of me was happy to see her, most of me just wanted to get off the dance floor. At least it’ll be pretty hard for me to knock her over, yeah? Didn’t mean I wouldn’t keep tripping though.

“Hi Alara. Think I need to get off the dance floor though. Warram is using his skill on-”

“Make skin contact with me!” she practically shouted.

As was to be expected, a few glances were shot our way.

“Um, sorry, what the he-”

For perhaps the first time ever, Alara lowered her voice. “His skill will not work if you make skin contact with me.” She grabbed my hand and put it at the base of her neck, her dress blocking off most other options. “Come! Let us dance.”

“Alara, what are you even talki-”

You have been affected by the Law’s Em-

Effect negated.

It was so fast, I didn’t even feel my muscles lock up. Either she’d received a notification of her own, or the wonder showed on my face, because she broke out into a wide grin. Moving a hand off of me, she used it to knock on her own head.

“Did I tell you of my class? My Intelligence is stuck at 8, but my mana pool is stuck at 0. Not a lick of magic! Can’t be buffed up with helpful spells or enchanted gear, either. Tradeoff is that it sucks up all the bad magic too! Ha! Forget the War Man. We will dance, and then I will continue your introductions.”

No wonder he wasn’t able to use it on her. But that’s insane. What does that even apply to? Can she even be healed?

I kind of wondered if she was even supposed to tell me all that. Seemed kind of private, but obviously it was up to her what she chose to share.

In the end, though, I followed her advice, forgetting all that, and forgetting the “War Man.” He could stew for a bit while I enjoyed the dance floor again.

We danced for a few rounds, going so far as to turn down a handful of pairs that approached us to trade. By silent agreement, we eventually walked off and back to the party proper. Had it been acceptable for me to flip Warram off, I would have. Barring that, I caught sight of him and locked eye contact, hitting him with my most winning smile and giving a light curtsy.

He did not return the gesture.

“Good. Now, more introductions! Come!”

Despite the fact that I was with Alara once more, she seemed to take my previous comments to heart, and I wasn’t thrust into any new conversations without warning. I did rescind the rule about not grabbing onto my arm — the magic protection was well worth it, and perhaps the entire altercation with Warram could have been avoided had I not made that rule in the first place.

I met a few more people who’d be going to the academy — no one too memorable, and no more of the chambers’ big wigs — but it was still nice to know some more faces.

Eventually Suds came to collect me, stealing me from Alara, and I was dragged around once more. This time it was to a much older crowd. I briefly stood in a circle with Lady Vetna and said hello, managing not to put my foot into my mouth.

She made a point to make a brief comment about “seeing me dance with the young Master Goss,” though I wasn’t sure if that was because she’d surmised what he’d done to me, or because she’d watched me almost trip into her. I decided not to dwell on it.

And then everything started winding down. Suds nodded to me, and we began to leave, briefly stopped by Chamber Head Tyrin before we escaped.

“Suds! You know what classes your brat is taking yet? Doing the Dungeon Delving one?”

I did my best to take as little offense as possible at the “brat” comment, largely succeeding. Somehow, it didn’t really sound like an insult coming from his mouth.

“Is she- Of course she is! You don’t think the girl’s a weakling do you?” He crossed his arms, daring Tyrin to say yes.

“Don’t you play tough with me, Wash Man. Pretty sure you’d empty your bladder if we actually had to fight. Hells, maybe you already have, but you just clean it up with your magic before anyone can notice. That right?” He crossed his arms this time, mirroring Suds and seeming to dare him to try something.

I looked around, spotting a few of the remaining ball-goers looking their way. I coughed.

The tension broke and the two started to laugh, clapping one another on the back.

“My brat’s taking it too.” He turned his attention to me. “Pair up with her, yeah? All brawn, no Perception on that one. Sure her parents would appreciate you keeping an eye on her.”

I nodded, not really sure what I was agreeing to, but that seemed to satisfy the man. He let us leave unaccosted.

And that was it.

I’d survived.

One gryphon summoning later, and we started on our way back home.

“Good job, kid. Better job than I could have expected, especially with the Goss boy. Think you’ve more than earned yourself a break. Tomorrow I can set you up with some recall gems. Get you back to your little settlement for a few days.”

It was a welcome piece of news to end the night on. Tomorrow I’d take a quick trip to visit the archmage and get my new cantrip. Then, it would be time to take a trip back to Emer’Thalis.