-Immortals are notoriously patient, but they are also big on cost-benefit. One soul for the loss of all that power is a horrendous trade, as my Hellpact is constantly protesting to me.- He also smirked. -It will come down to whether pride and saving face outweighs the cost... and potentially waiting a hundred years to get a soul just shows how much they want a soul, and will help scare off some of the fools.-

-The goal is lower turnover, at any rate. Whether that comes from people not swearing, or the Pacts being tied up for a century at a time, makes no difference on our end.-

-And all you have to be is understanding and nice about it. Strange, that.-

-Well, there’s always some deranged dogs who have to be put down, or zealots or fanatics. That never changes, either.-

-No, no, it doesn’t,- Master Fred /agreed fatalistically. -It is good talking to someone with an awareness of the metaview. Even most of the Heavenbound simply do not think about their job in overarching terms like this. They just want to go off and fight evil and injustice for the Good Guys.-

-Charisma and Constitution are the hallmarks of a Warlock, not Wisdom or Intelligence. Taking time to sit down and think things through when you could be about righting wrongs and doing good deeds tends to be something that happens as you get older, and realize that the why is more important than the what.-

-The Order of the Tome,- he /nodded. -Your progenitor was a member of that, as, I assume, was Grandmaster Sole?-

-Oh, very much so. Sole is also a Heaven-and-Hell Warlock.-

He turned his head slowly back towards me leaning there on his wide back. -Wasn’t he one of the gamers? How did that happen?- Leaving /unsaid that if it happened AFTER the game, it was total idiocy.

-He thought he’d be clever, trying to do it in game. He swore the Hellpact first, then bargained for a Heavenpact by only doing good deeds. Heaven agreed, at a price: He was bound by an Oath of Humility. He never received credit for any of his flashy victories, or great deeds... and that Oath still applies.

-He’s like one of the most important people on the planet, knows more Spirits than anybody, and everyone basically forgets about him all the time... and when they remember, it’s because he’s usually showing up just before a disaster does.

-He’s also got a faceless Hell Contract, which Hell finds DELIGHTFUL. They won’t get his soul, but they bind up his second Pact Slot, and he has to display their Sign. He ends up acting as an adjudicator for them with Heaven time and again, or between Hell’s parties on the mortal plane, despite not wanting anything to do with them.-

Master Fred didn’t know quite what to say to that, and finally just sighed. -They always find an advantage somewhere.-

-Aye. His drain on their power to vivus they just consider... an expensive payment for services rendered. It’s too convenient to have him on retainer, and he can’t stop it.-

-So stupid decisions in a game become stupid decisions in reality?-

-Don’t get me started on people who couldn’t choose decent character names.-

He even managed a small /chuckle at that one...

---------

We were up on an island cliff off the coast of Argentina and Chile, a random chunk of stone sitting there getting battered in the seas, looking out over the seascape ahead of us.

-That’s some impressive seas,- Master Fred /noted, -and I think this is a good day.-

This was literally one of the windiest places on the planet. Here the Pacific met the Atlantic, while the icy waters of the Southern Ocean threw everything into conflict, adding bunches of icebergs for excitement.

It was five hundred miles across Drake’s Passage to the Southern Shetland Islands off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Ten and twenty-foot seas were far from unusual here, even with the Haze, and down here, the Haze might just have made it worse.

-Any Pact problems?- The wind was howling, but he kept that at bay effortlessly as a Stormbound; it was just easier to communicate /tellepathically.

-Three oceans are arguing here in their sleep. It’s like they are having a gargantuan pillow fight in their dreams, or something.- I found myself snickering, despite myself. -The winds are using the excuse to really let go, working out some aggression under the Haze. I can see why the place is so off-limits to shipping since the Shroud arrived.

-But, to answer your question, no. I’m just passing through with a Wavebound Pact here, not bothering them or stirring up trouble.-

-And Antarctica?- I had to /ask.

-I’ll see when I get there. Storm and Heaven should be enough to let me pass without issue, but the Spirits love us multi-Pact Warlocks, and even if they don’t like Shvaughn, they still bug her when she travels.-

-Yeah, well, when you eat their Landbound and become a de facto Warlock of theirs who keeps ignoring them, you get what you deserve,- I /sniffed without sympathy.

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-And yet she’s still around without any issues, like she knows how to smooth talk and mollify them on demand,- he /noted drily, and I had to agree. -Advise her to drop the Consumed Pacts and just swear a rotating Landbound Pact instead when she does so. Frees up the Pact for the Land and still lets them bug her when she’s around... and her to bug them.-

I didn’t like telling a Warlock how to run their Pacts, and Shvaughn being who she was especially, but that wasn’t bad advice. Monopolizing Landbound Pacts was not nearly as important as doing so to Dark Pacts, after all. She didn’t have to snuff the souls, who probably didn’t want to die, either. Picking them up as Secondary revolving Pacts was a good compromise on all sides.

I just /flicked it off as clinical, dry advice to her. She took it, noted it, thought it over, and /replied she would seriously consider it once she was done with her current project of starting an empire... and was there any way she could replicate the ability to administer Blessings, pretty please?

I smirked. She was Primos, but she could still Bind and Seal with the correct Patterns, and her Warlock abilities would suffice for the magic.

That being said, she wasn’t and couldn’t be an Ur-Priest, stealing the ability and cutting away the original.

-It’s derived from Binding and Sealing a succubus, and tapping their powers,- I /informed her calmly. -However, you’d be restricted to three uses a day, you’d get the lesser version, and it would be powered by demonic energy, leading right back to you if someone knows what they are doing.-

-You may consider this as me completely forgetting that notion, although much envy,- she /replied directly. -Also, how are you Binding and Sealing a demon without Taint?-

-I’ve a Pure Soul, and am immune to Taint.- She made more disparaging sounds in the distance. Sounded like she was shooting something. I didn’t know what face she was using, but she probably looked like a local, and those who knew something of what her arrival meant were calling her the Dark Angel. Quite apt, they were. -I run it all through Sama’s Mark, and Master Fred is actually providing the empowering energy.-

-So, getting the Mark is a key thing. Would the ability work with Anarchic or Axiomatic energy?- she /inquired.

-I honestly do not know, but I’m inclined to think so. There’s still the problem of filtering out the demonic energy, and you’ve got plenty of Sinbound Pacts that will make that totally impossible. Likewise, you can have a Mark or a Blessing, not both.-

-This is true, and I don’t need Taint making things worse. The Marks are beginning to be seen as a sign of loyalty and competence among the local common people with no magic, while your Blessings are being taken as a sign of being chosen by Higher Powers. You’re going to have to come back here and pass out a lot more of them when you are done down there.-

-Lived-Lines are very useful for that sort of thing,- I /agreed. -Do not worry, I will notify you all of that happening so you can gather candidates for it.-

Actually, it turned out I COULD treat Forsaken with Blessings... if they also swore Oath to me. It acted just like an Oathring, and was not rejected as foreign magic, but a materialization of the Oath. Allegiance magic was pretty cool like that.

Sama and Briggs were pretty ambivalent about it all, still wanting some minions who were not obviously associated with me... and which I was perfectly fine with, although everyone would need to join an Allegiance or a Kingdom at some point, to make use of Duty and Loyalty. They both acknowledged the fact.

Really, they were probably just a mite annoyed I was accruing so much Karma so damn fast.

BUT... the faster I Leveled and accrued Karma, the faster I could get them Sworn in, and pass over Allegiance-wide Warlord duties to the two of them, basically catapulting them into the place they wanted to be, anyways.

The odds were that I couldn’t stay on this Shrouded Earth, anyway, which would leave them in charge when I had to go. I couldn’t think of anyone better to take over the reins, so it was a win-win for all of us. Sama’s Marks would just become another variant Oathmark, as it were.

And it wasn’t like I wasn’t used to having a Sama and Briggs as Vassals...

I already had them on Levels, but they were still a bit ahead on Karmic accumulations. We /chatted about some of the things they’d done and seen, with Sama wandering all over the inlands, and Briggs having done some massively lethal damage to undersea things along the coasts before he ever turned up at the Temple of the First Light, so, yeah, if they weren’t who they were, they would have reached Ten long ago.

Still, wiping out a Shroudzone was a thing, and all that stuff outside hadn’t hurt a bit, either.

But now they had greater Quests calling, countries to overthrow, internal threats to overcome, people to inspire and raise up, and I still had to beat on stuff.

While advancing sideways. WhatEVER...

-Is there any risk to carrying the succubus around?- Master Fred /broke in directly on my thoughts.

I reached gently over his shoulder, touched his chin, and turned it in my direction so I could look into his mismatched eyes.

I took my hand off his chin, and cut a certain link. I gently touched his cheek, and he flinched only slightly as hellfire hissed up, tracing the stroke of my nail, and faded away a second later in a burst of golden healing.

“I am letting her Aura leak so that you don’t have to worry about my touch, that is all. Keep in mind I have an Astral Ward up all the time, and you can only sense it because I am touching you,” I informed him gravely, putting my hand back on his face.

He almost shuddered, leaning into my hand, reaching up and clasping it with his own.

Without pain. He couldn’t normally touch Good people, after all...

-Thank you,- he /sighed into my mind, a level of sublime peace and relief there about being able to just touch a Good person that could not be feigned.

“Ah, ah,” I said, as he made to turn back. “No fear,” I chided him, looking into his eyes.

He blinked once, reached up his other hand, and very tentatively drew me in for a kiss.

He had no real technique whatsoever, that was apparent from the moment our lips met. His Hellpact must’ve been confused, because nothing happened from it even when I had sacred vivus dancing on my tongue (and his), but his Heavenpact was certainly happy enough to send a gush of the pure Wrath humming through my mouth and lungs and out my nose and make my head swim airily.

He sighed as we parted, little flames of white and gold dancing between our lips for a moment. His eyes couldn’t shine, but damn if they weren’t sparkling right then.

-No fear, My Lady,- he /agreed softly.

“Indeed, my Warlock,” I smiled at him, chucking him on the chin. “We have plenty of time to work on your technique.”

He turned away with half a sad smile. -I’m afraid I have no practical experience in such matters, My Lady.-

“There is a very apt phrase that comes to mind,” I said into his ear, putting my arms around his neck, without him needing to flinch. “Much better late, than never at all, my Warlock.”

His scarred half-smile flickered again as he laid hands to Sleipner. -Indeed, my Lady, indeed.-

The unicorn tooted his approval as we surged into motion on moving planes of golden energy, heading south.