It was a mistake indeed, because when Fluer’s hand made contact with the book, she instantaneously felt a sharp stabbing pain throughout her body and became short of breath. After a minute of suffering through “Insta-pain Express”, Fluer experienced something she never expected, a glowing box with strange characters floated in front of her head. The characters shifted wildly for a couple seconds before settling on common and a voice blasted in her head.
“CONGRATULATIONS YOU’VE BEEN SELE- erm sorry, you've been selected as the new bearer of the tome, the one, the only, Elenwynd! It is now bound to YOU until death!”
Fluer blinked a couple of times, cleared her throat and sputtered “uh wha- i don- i didn’t mean t–” the voice cut her off.
“Well, too bad, didn’t your mother tell you not to touch weird books in the woods? Anyway, as the newest tome bearer you are responsible for mastering and protecting Elenwynd and maintaining order in the land of Paternea.”
Each word uttered upon Fluer’s mind made her heart sink a bit more. Composing herself she tried to reason with the voice meekly saying “uh, clearly there are better options than me, maybe you should reconsider this?” Unfortunately for her, the book would not even dare entertain such an egregious¹ idea, so it quickly righted her folly².
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Balderdash³ , You are Perfect for this role, You are sharper than the average tool in the shed and you are uh- hmm- erm, wow these stats are unimpressive, hold on, i got it you are full of untapped magic potential. Besides i’m already bound to you buddy”
Fluer sat and assessed her situation, she snuck to an anomaly because she was curious, touched a book without thinking, and now it is bound to her and keeps talking in her head, quite unprofessionally she might add. She sighed, “look, if i nod and say yes will you shut up?”
“Absolut-” this time the tome was the one that was cut off. “Fine, ok i'm the new tome bearer, i will do my duty to learn and protect this almighty tome, and ‘bring order to the world’ yada yada yada, we good now?” Fluer conceded as she retrieved her satchel and threw the book inside, for a nerd, she really doesn’t think things through, huh. And at that moment a glowing light appeared on her neck and left a mark that resembled these symbols ≠∞, and as a coup de grace a new message appeared in her vision.
[You have just sworn an Oath, breaching this oath will cause IBS (you don’t want that) This oath is a binding agreement and is non-retractable. Upon following the oath for a varied amount of time, you will receive boons for your loyalty. Good luck tome bearer]
And just like that, Fluer’s day went from bad to worst in record time, and not just for the town of St. Clementine. But as Fluer neared that same town, she soon found out that “a town” was now a bit of an understatement