Akura Harmony

Akura Harmony features in book 5, Ghostwater

Relationships

Akura Harmony is an extended member of the powerful Akura family, his family being distantly related to the sovereign Akura Malice herself. The Sage of the Silver Heart, Akura Charity, is his great-aunt. Harmony was betrothed to Akura Mercy some time before, but he publicly called off the betrothal when she defeated him in front of a crowd. In book 5, Harmony becomes a mortal enemy to Lindon and Orthos.

Characteristics

Harmony is not well named. He is a bully. A bad loser. He suffers from a deep sense of entitlement, and places no value on the life and well-being of others. He has an extremely competitive streak, and is not a team player.

Path

Truegold on an Akura shadow-based Path. It may be called the Path of the Shadow Blade. Uses shadow and sword madra. Nine blades of the underworld technique. Etc. Goldsign is a black shadowy halo behind head.

Akura Harmony breathed darkness. This habitat was bright, but endless night pressed in from all directions outside. With concentration, he could filter shadow aura from the water outside and draw it into himself, purifying and refining the shadow in his core. He was at the peak of Truegold, only a small step from Underlord. His soulspace was filled, and a spark of soulfire waited at the heart of his soul. (Ghostwater ch 3)

Technique

[Harmony used the Shadow’s Edge technique,] Dross said. [It's a Striker technique with shadow and sword aspects, and it cuts on the spiritual level as much as the physical. Harmony could slice a single page out of the middle of a book with it, and if the target has a spirit? That’s even easier. (Underlord ch 4)

His Goal

Harmony wants to be Akura Malice’s heir, to someday be the next Monarch, but first he has to Advance, first to Underlord. In order to advance to Underlord, he needs to understand his own personal motivation for first following the sacred arts, but this revelation has been hard to see. He hopes he will learn something here on Ghostwater, by reaching Northstrider’s central HQ, and asking his Tree of knowledge.

There were others of his relatives that were closer to becoming Akura Malice's heir than he was, but they were generations older than Harmony. And they might decide to ascend, to wherever it was that Sages and Heralds went instead of staying and becoming Monarchs. Harmony intended to face that choice himself one day. And to get there, he couldn't waste a single breath. These others had disrupted him with their noise, so he had struck out at them. That was as far as he allowed them to occupy his attention. He hadn’t even bothered to reach out his spiritual perception and scan them; it would be too much of a distraction from his cycling.. . He had no rivals here. (Ghostwater ch 3)

⚠️ Spoilers⚠️

Because he wanted silence for meditative cycling, Harmony killed Renfei (this occurs earlier in the book). She was a member of the Skysworn (Organization) from his Monarch’s own vassal, the Blackflame Empire. Because of this type of merciless and needless display of power, others in Ghostwater viewed the Akura Truegold with fear.

So, when Harmony later attacked Wei Shi Lindon Arelius and stole his mind-spirit Dross, Lindon took the threat seriously. Battle ensued, with Orthos fighting at Lindon’s side and, eventually, Dross freed and helping, too. After suffering defeat, Harmony proudly refused Lindon’s offer to share his gate key, so Harmony could go home. Instead, Harmony vowed ruthless vengeance on Lindon and his entire family. So, Lindon took Harmony’s magical weapon, an axe. Orthos then destroyed the portal, leaving the Akura bully stranded in the crumbling, disappearing pocket world of Ghostwater.

The Monarch Northstrider then arrived to check out his tree of knowledge in his pocket world. His arrival blocked Akura Charity, Harmony's great-aunt, from coming in to save her nephew. Northstrider refused Harmony's request for help and left him to die in the crumbling pocket world, but he did him the honor of honestly answering his plea, “No.”

Dangling Threads

Aunt Charity sought to learn more about this Blackflame boy who had played a role in her nephew’s death. That plot unfolds in book six, Underlord. Northstrider sought to learn more about the mind-spirit made out of junk, and the boy who crafted it. That plot unfolds mostly in book eight, Wintersteel.