“What have you done…?” Azoth said, her face pale.
Quickly, her iron grip on my hand tightened even more.
“What did you swear on your soul?” She said, her tone grave and tolerating nothing but the whole truth.
“I swore to make him pay for what he did to me. He tried to bend my will – to enslave my mind. That was the most threatening and infuriating attack I have ever experienced. My mind is my territory, and any who dare tread on it are foes that I will crush beneath my heel or die trying. No matter who they are, no matter how powerful they are, no matter how heavy the cost.” I said, looking her straight in the eye.
Even against a monster capable of erasing me with a mere glance like Azoth, I will not yield on this.
A silence took hold as the chatter of the crowd faded away and I stared Azoth down. Her eyes softened slightly, and then she spoke again.
“Your behavior is both a source of pride and worry to me, dear child. Dragons worthy of respect guard their will and independence with a vicious fervor, and you have done the same without being told to do so. Even binding their own souls with a geas to compel themselves to protect it is not rare among the most fiercely independent of them.” She said solemnly.
Just as I was about to raise my head with pride at her praise, she dragged my soaring ego down from the heavens.
“But they behaved with an understanding of the risks. Geas are a form of soul magic, and all forms of soul magic are incredibly dangerous and volatile. It is almost never worth getting involved with this kind of magic. Most people, like that boy, are fools who meddle with a power they do not understand, and unknowingly place themselves in great danger without even realizing it. Your action would have only been worthy of praise had you actually understood the consequences, and yet proceeded with them.”
“No matter how talented or powerful you are, rash behavior will get you killed. You will not tamper with soul magic again without my permission, including swearing on your soul. Are we clear?” Azoth asked, although she was going to tolerate only one answer.
“…Yes, I understand.”
“Good. Now, tell me what you said to yourself as you swore.”
“I think it was ‘This isn’t over. Not by a longshot. Alanus will pay for what he did to me. I swear it on my soul.’”
Azoth’s frown eased slightly.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
“An oath of revenge. That is good to hear.” She said, sighing in relief.
“Why is that better than what you were expecting?” I asked.
“A geas is a bind on your soul that compels you to act in accordance with your pledge. As long as you truly intend to follow through on all of the conditions you set for yourself, you will be safe. However, should your intention to stand by your pledge fade – even a mere portion of the pledge – the binding will collapse your soul, killing you forever.” She explained.
“The reason a revenge oath is not a terrible one is that your target is weak, and that it is not an open-ended pledge. When the conditions of a pledge are fulfilled, the geas will fade away on its own. However, if you did not set an end condition, it will remain on your soul forever. If you had sworn to never allow anyone to subdue you, then there would have been no way to remove it except with the help of a master soul mage.”
“Okay, so what? I can get the help of one if it was truly a problem, and if not then I could simply stand by it. It’s not like I intended to break this pledge anyway, or I wouldn’t have sworn it.”
“There are issues with this line of thinking. The first is that soul magic is heavily restricted or banned by all the civilizations of the Serpent’s Maw, and for good reason. Soul magic is associated with dark arts like necromancy, and entire armies could be raised to hunt down anyone who uses it without permission. A rogue soul mage can raise large armies of the dead and replenish his forces with the corpses of those who try to cull his army.” Azoth explained.
But apparently, it gets worse.
“A competent soul mage can attack your soul as well, and no amount of armor or shelter will protect you from that. Given that most people do not wish for a truly eternal death or life with a crippled soul, soul mages are widely feared by the vast majority of sapient beings. This makes learning soul magic extremely difficult and dangerous, so the masters of this art are miniscule in number, extremely hard to find, and even harder to fight.”
Frowning, I began to realize how serious my actions were. But it was not an issue since I still have absolutely no intention of letting Alanus get away with his actions.
“Tell me, how did you intend to make him pay when you swore to take revenge? Remember that if you fail to take revenge as viciously as you intended at the moment you swore, you will lose your soul.”
“I intended to destroy that which he valued the most, just as he tried to do to me.” I said.
Azoth frowned.
“That’s problematic. We don’t know what it is Alanus values the most, so it’s not going to be easy to satisfy your geas.”
I shrugged.
“It’s not a big deal. I’ll figure it out as I go.”
Azoth remained silent, keeping her dissatisfaction to herself. Then she gave me her last warning.
“Okay. There is one more thing you should remember. If your intentions and actions towards your pledge are misaligned with the geas, your soul will not collapse immediately. You will progressively feel growing pain until you either die or you submit to the geas’s interpretation of your pledge. It will give you a feeling as to what is wrong with your behavior, so you won’t have to guess, and the first few seconds of pain will not cause permanent damage. However, do not ever take the Geas’s warning lightly. The moment you feel pressure from it, immediately submit. Do not ever push through the pain like you would with other wounds; soul damage does not heal naturally and is incredibly insidious.”
Sighing, she let go of my hand.
“Now follow me, we have a Goddess to meet in Tamery. We’ll figure out what to do from here on.”
Nodding, I followed her to find the old man who must’ve been wondering where we went.