Ghaos narrowed his eyes uncertain towards Gilliam.
“Just to make sure...-” he started while still on the subject of the mind-slave. “-You do know that the spell doesn’t remove free will, right?”
“... It doesn’t?” Gilliam replied. He was unsure about the whole thing, he briefly read about it but didn’t actually read into it, there were a lot of details he was lacking.
“Ah, I think I see the problem now.” Ghaos smiled a bit to himself. “The spell doesn’t remove her free will nor does it affect her personality. The only thing the spell does is making her unable to go against any orders you give her, harm you and things like that.”
Leaning a bit to the side he used his staff to support himself, even though it was as tall as him.
“This is mostly used for criminals and dangerous slaves... In the legal cases it’s used, that is. In some cases it might be used to force a slave to do something they would normally not do but unless ordered they are still very much themselves.”
Ghaos had a weird smile accompanying his explanation. There was more to this explanation than it sounded but in short the spell didn’t really affect the.. Well.. Victim as hard as it sounded. “As long as it’s not against any orders, she can act pretty much like she wants.”
This really did put Gilliam at ease, he half expected her to live in a weird lobotomised daze and just do as told. It was an evil spell, after all. But in that case it really made sense why she would volunteer for this. Based on what it sounded like the whole ordeal would be better than what she lived with in her own world.
Gilliam realised that he needed to get better at properly understanding something before he made up his mind about something... He always hated when people did that back in his own world so... He really was becoming a kind of hypocrite, was this what it felt like for the people only doing social-media-research but being certain about their own topic?
“So... she will still be herself, she can do whatever she wants on her own unless it goes against an order. And an order is final no matter what it is.” Gilliam summarised, wanting to make sure he got it properly this round.
“Yes, pretty much. Naturally they cannot do things out of their skill or physical abilities. Someone not able to lift heavy things cannot be told to lift a horse, they won’t manage, they will try but will just end up hurting themselves. And if you tell someone who can’t cook to make dinner, they will make dinner but it won’t be perfect. But they will follow the order to the best of their abilities.”
Ghaos had properly read up on this subject, most likely Jial as well but Jial seemed the more direct kind of person. Ghaos felt more... grounded and proper about things.
Gilliam still didn’t like the slavery thing, however this was a gray zone since she’s suggesting this herself. It was more like indentured servitude, and the only thing the slave spell was going to do was make her unable to resist orders... Could he not just make sure she wouldn’t hurt anyone but other than this give her autonomy?
That would just be a secure way to let her live fine.
The more he thought about it and the more Ghaos explained, the less bad this sounded. Yes, it was still slavery and mind-magic, but it’s not like she didn’t know what she was going into and... Yeah... he disliked the concept but in her specific case it was not a bad one.
Just... he would end up owning another person. Though it was an invading enemy he felt it went against a lot of morals and laws back home. Slavey was oddly common here so it was less bad... but still.
“Fine-” he replied to the other humans in the room. “-I’m not super fond of this but I guess it’s a better option than others.”
Jial nodded and left through the door. “I’ll get the supplies.”
Ghaos remained in the room, it was clear that he was the security guard just in case something happened. If he was the leader, captain or whatever it was, of the battlemages he was probably one of the better people for the job.
Gilliam turned back to his soon to be slave. Considering this it was not as bad as it sounds. Yes, he will be owning someone else and they are compelled to do as he orders but... If he just didn’t order more than absolutely necessary she could have a decent life... As decent as a demon could have in a world where demons are invading...
But, adding that she would become, as they mentioned it; ‘slave of the Heptagon Mage’... He didn’t like that she boiled down to a PR stunt but that could perhaps also protect her a bit. Servants, familiars and... The property of mages were passively given a certain status and protection, people part of a mage’s Circle was also somewhat linked that way as well. So, though this might just be Gilliam convincing himself, she was getting a better chance at things with this. Perhaps that’s why Ghaos and Jial were so relaxed about it.
“So, it seems this is happening.” Gilliam had accepted this and either gotten it explained or convinced himself that this was not as bad as it sounded. He did have a modern Earth mindset but this was a weird scenario.
Though he was not happy-happy he was still better than before.
The chained up demon seemed legit happy about this, actually smiling a little showing pointed teeth and enlarged canines, akin to predatory hunters.
“You know, I never asked your name. I’m Gilliam.” he smiled at her, realising that he should have started with that a while ago.
“My name is Petal.” her smile faded.
“Oh, that’s a surprisingly nice name.” Gilliam blurted out before he realised what he had said.
“No, it isn’t. Cute and nice names like that are given to the lesser ones of us... It’s a sign of weakness and being worth the same as a mere flowerpetal.”
She seemed like she was about to curse her own name. And Gilliam again realised that their cultures were quite different.
It didn’t take long before Jial came in, interrupting the conversation, he was carrying a yellow hued gem as well as a fancy vial of some liquid. There were also a few scrolls tied together to a small stack.
He started the process right away, unfurling the scrolls and reading through them. Gilliam got a glimpse and it seemed to be a simple guide to the ritual.
He started by handing Gilliam the gem he brought. It was a little elongated, had odd shapes and bumps almost like it was naturally formed. Though not well you could somewhat see through it. It basically looked like vaguely colored glass.
“Channel energy into this. Like you did with the familiar ritual.”
As soon as Gilliam took the gem Jial went back to what he was doing, something with the inky liquid in the vial.
Gilliam started doing his own part of things, he hadn’t done this a lot before, but it was the same as channelling energy into a magic circle. Starting to do so the gem changed colour a little bit, becoming pure white. The more he channelled the more the gem went opaque, he continued and the gem started to glow after a few more seconds.
Ghaos approached in a slight panic “Stop. Stop. You’ll break it.”
Stopping immediately the gem remained glowing like it was filled with LED’s, a pleasant glow about the same as a white smartphone screen. Not flashlight worthy but plenty to light up a pitch black room, at least in the nearest area you were standing.
Taking the gem from Gilliam he handed it to Jial, who just took it and continued doing what he was doing.
Taking a look over everything it seemed that he had used the ink to draw a circle on the floor, and another on her forehead. She looked a little confused but followed the mimed orders Jial gave her to lift her face and, well, it wasn’t like she could do much anyway in her chained state.
The whole process looked ready once the larger of the scrolls was rolled out, displaying a larger and much more complicated circle, on which Jial placed the glowing gem.
“I just need one more thing. Give me your hand.” Jial held his hand out for Gillaim to place his own in.
Hesitantly he walked closer and handed Jial his hand.
Jial immediately grasped his hand tight, and in one fluid motion Gilliam barely saw a very small magic circle activate in a flash before there was now something yellow on Jial’s finger. He swiped this past Gilliam’s hand which both felt like being cut and left the same expected wound of being cut, he started bleeding. Savia suddenly reacted and seemed like she wanted to pounce on him, but seemed to somewhat realise the situation and stopped herself.
“Ow, the fuck, man. Why did you do that?”
“I need your blood for the ritual. When people don’t know it’s usually less problematic.”
He replied as he pulled Gilliam’s hand over the gem and let the blood drop down onto it, soaking into the parchment below it. He kind of had a point, people tended to wince and be all reluctant when you knew you were getting hurt, even if just one of those finger-tip blood sample things. But having it be random removed the self-inflicted stress.
A few seconds later this was apparently done as he let go of Gilliam’s hand and waved for him to step out of the way. Following the gestures he stepped away, the wound was very shallow, not more than you’d get for accidentally bumping into an exposed nail. A few seconds of the most basic of healing magic that Gilliam could use had it go away completely to the point where you couldn’t see that it had ever happened.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Jial looked at Ghaos who nodded at him, turning back to the ritual Jial seemed to start.
There was a sudden glow of white light, it came from the gem and seemed to consume Gilliam’s blood and seep into the parchment before it made a strange white mist that stretched out and connected to the circle on her forehead. The complicated magic circle on it started glowing in a pulsing colour changing pattern. The mark on her forehead was scintillating in the same pulsing pattern, the main difference was that the clean circle on her forehead was forming lines. The ink was painted on her forehead but was now burning itself into her skin. Much like if you wade through snow, leaving a path behind you, small points of light were forcing themselves across her skin to form the new lines. She seemed to react only barely, either this was not too painful, she had some resistance or she just had a high tolerance.
The process took a solid minute, Jial activated different parts of the complicated magic circle on the parchment. After which they disintegrated and followed the flow of energy from the gem into her forehead.
The shape on her forehead started getting clearer and clearer, it seemed that it had formed a circle with 7-points along its circumference. The lines looked like a single line going between the points, but skipping every second point. It started at the first point at the top, skipped point 2 going to 3. Then skipping point 4 going to 5.It followed this pattern until it returned to the topmost point. The full path was 1-3-5-7-2-4-6-1. Making a strange, but somewhat simplistic magic circle.
The process continued until the gem had used up all its energy, returning to its almost translucent yellow-hued self. All lights died down, circles deactivated and the complicated magic circle on the parchment was now completely gone, leaving only a blank surface.
The symbol on her forehead was still very dimly glowing, Gilliam could barely see it even in the very poorly lit room they were in.
“Good. It was successful.” Jial stated.
“Looks like it.” Ghaos confirmed as he had walked much closer to her now. She was panting like she was resisting something without breathing for a short while.
Which made sense... It looked painful so this was probably her powering through.
“I suggest you start with the standard orders-” Jial explained as he was packing up the items he had used for the ritual.
“-The normal starting ones is to never harm you or anyone else, directly or indirectly, and to always be honest with you. Formulate it however you want but you need to start with ‘I order you-’. That’s the trigger for the spell”
He had almost cleaned up by the time he was done explaining, it was just the gem, some scrolls and the vial that was already closed.
Gilliam walked closer and mentally prepared himself for the first, and hopefully, only order.
Considering the formulation to cover it all properly, but not in a way that would hamper her too much.
This felt so cringe, he felt his insides knot up like watching one of those compilations.
“I order you to never harm me or anyone else unless I specifically allow it. I order you to always answer me honestly, truthfully and never withhold information.”
As the order landed the mark on her forehead pulsed once. Gilliam guessed this meant that the order had been set, so to speak. This felt very robotic and... Well, he supposed that it was... Wait, hold on a minute.
He turned to Jial and Ghaos.
“Now that I think about it... Couldn’t you just have given her that learning language spell thing, there was a pamphlet in my room. You could just do that to her and one of you could have done this.”
He was a bit annoyed at this, this was just thrown at him, though the language barrier could have been an excuse, according to the pamphlet a single spell can shove an entire language in your mind.
“Oh, yeah, that’s true. But then we would have to take care of her.” Ghaos had a shit-eating grin in response.
They clearly didn’t just forget about this... They just didn’t want the hassle, the need to care for someone like this or the possible stigma of having a demon with them.
God damn it...
“There is also another factor.” Jial chimed in. “You are the one who destroyed the gate. You are the Heptagon Mage. You are the one who will face the least problems with this. Just imagine it. A ‘normal’ mage-” he made finger-air quotes around the word ‘normal’ “-with a demon following them around after what happened. After what will happen. Having closed the gate. Having already become a hero though localised. You will face less problems than the rest of us.”
Gilliam could sense a mix of a smile in there, but also some envy or annoyance. It was hard with Jial most of the time.
And Gilliam hated to admit it, but he had a point. It became a PR or political thing suddenly. And though he would definitely have at least some issues when he had a demon tailing him around, given his lack of foothold in the world, the whole Heptagon Mage thing and that he was the one to destroy the gate... Yeah, it made some sense.
He couldn’t let go of the thought that most of it was that they didn’t want to, and the mentioned reasons were added in hindsight, but damn it if it didn’t make at least a little sense.
“Fine, but I expect that as some form of payment that you’ll at least give her the basic language pack. If you need a reason it’ll make getting info from her easier.”
Gilliam mostly wanted that for her sake, if she was to integrate... somehow into the world she needed to speak at least one of the languages.
And if there was a cheat that let you just insta-learn the language, it would beat having to use time to get sort of acceptable at it.
“That can be prepared. Normally that’s a pretty costly event but I’m sure we can persuade them given the value of the information she can give us.”
Jial looked to nowhere in particular for a minute, the last time Gilliam saw him do this he was telepathically speaking to his aide, the tanned farmer man. He suspected that the teachers had a network set up based on earlier events, so he was probably talking to a teacher or his aide now.
“I have scheduled that to happen tomorrow. Not everyone is capable of doing this so we have to get the correct mage to plan for it. But for now I think that we will have a long talk with your new friend here.”
Savia had taken to playing with Gilliams hair during all of this, not having anything to contribute nor was this really that interesting. Just people talking in a language she didn’t understand anyway. She almost needed help as she had accidentally tied up some strands of hair around her feet, but she managed to get them loose before she had to request aid.
“Can we at least release her? I already gave her the order to not hurt me or anyone without me specifically allowing it. And I ordered her to always be truthful and not keep any information from me... The thing-” Gilliam pointed at his forehead “-pulsed... so that means it’s working, right?”
It sort of made sense that this was how it worked, but... He was wrong with the whole base-concept of the spell earlier, so he might be wrong with this as well.
“Yes. It pulses when a new order is implanted.” Gilliam wasn’t too fond of the word Jial used, but it sounded correct. “I think with those orders in place we can release her.”
Getting the chains loose was a surprisingly elaborate process, not only did they have to physically unlock some of the chains, but others had to be magically released. On top of that there were some specific magical circles charged with several Pain-runes that needed disabling to even let her exit the cage.
She was still in just simple underwear so this felt a bit wrong with three men in the room with her, but she didn’t seem to mind that at all, all she seemed to enjoy was being free from the chains. Bending and stretching she just wanted blood back in her limbs.
Now that she stood upright, Gilliam noticed two things he couldn’t see before. First her tail could touch the floor with a little to spare, the whole arrow-shape part could lie down flat, second the hoof sounds made the sounds you’d expect from hooves. Though this was not something illogical it was just weird hearing that sound from a person... And lastly she was smaller than expected, it was hard to see while she was chained up in a weird seated position but she was only about 150something cm (~5ft) and rather petite.
This kind of made sense, if her people grew in size and strength by eating people or eachother, she was a servant given the bare minimum of food so she would probably not grow.
“I suppose we should start again with the information?” Gilliam asked the two others who nodded in response.
Turning back to Petal Gilliam really wanted to give her some clothes, but this was somewhat important. This was a weird interrogation, mainly just asking her the questions again to make sure they are true, and asking followup questions or whatever the duo wanted to know.
Might as well get this over with.
“So, let’s go through this again.”