[What is wrong with you?! I swear, I will sting you in the…] Delta growled. Her ghostly avatar manifested next to me, her eyes glaring daggers.

[We really are diverging, aren’t we?] I interrupted her outrage.

[We are,] she lamented. [Although it hurts my soul to disagree with you, I was never going to remain your exact copy. This was… inevitable.]

I sighed.

[In my opinion, you’re being too accepting, too naïve, too careless with your words. I get it though. I understand your behavioral pattern. You wish to save and adopt Kliss because you want the chains of death lifted from your soul. You would save the scum of the earth, attempt to rescue, try to fix the worst kind of person because you wholeheartedly believe that it was your fault that a family died in Aralsk from your virus.]

[She’s not scum,] I replied with a frown. [She was bound by Vows since she was ten. I will save her.]

[There you go again! She’s not a princess that needs to be saved. She killed you, twice. She killed our parents.]

[The Overseer’s Vow is the monster that did all of the killing.] I insisted.

[That’s what she says!] Delta rolled her eyes, glancing at Kliss. [What if she’s lying?]

[I believe her,] I replied.

[Hell, you’ve even destroyed the bioweapons lab because of your Chronic Hero Syndrome!] Delta declared, frustration painted on the face of her ghostly avatar.

[What?]

[Maybe you like being in the line of danger? Hrmmm? Hang on… Why didn’t I see it sooner? You’re just Don Quixote in disguise! A martyr with near suicidal insistence on being the one to suffer for your cause. You’re driven by your guilt… it all makes sense now!]

[Delta…] I sent.

[No, no, no. Go ahead! Be the epitome of the Dulcinea Syndrome! If she kills you later for your aberration-ness, I’m not rescuing you,] she huffed.

I considered her words. In the Spanish novel “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes its hero Don Quixote was a mad, windmill chasing pretend-knight obsessed with chivalric romances. In his delusional worldview he gave a farmer girl named Aldonza Lorenzoa a new name "Dulcinea", insisting that she was a noble lady, constantly attempting to rescue her.

The book was so well received in the USSR that it was made into a film in 1957 by Lenfilm. It was hugely popular among young men like myself at the time. Soviet film critics labelled it as a beautiful, comedic tragedy in which Don Quixote's foolish idealism and nobility was contrasted by the post-chivalric world. His actions were observed by his peers as utter insanity and all of his deeds were rendered useless by cruel reality.

Even though the film antagonists made fun of and constantly abused Don Quixote, the self-made knight believed in the innate goodness of humanity. I personally admired the Knight of the Mournful Countenance in spite of how pathetic and deluded he was portrayed as a character. Despite the madness afflicting him, Lenfilm showed him as an honest, principled and loyal human being in comparison to everyone around him.

[Kliss is not Dulcinea and I’m not Don Quixote,] I told Delta. [She has nobody else that can help her.]

[Don’t come crying to me when her Vows demand her to cut off your arms again,] Delta replied, looking me over with an extremely irate gaze. Her hand split up into a hundred threads that ran over my head. [Hang on… something IS wrong with you! Damn it!]

[Hrm?] I looked at her ghostly image. She looked beyond frazzled.

[I see,] she rubbed her face. [It’s the Rewind…]

[The Rewind?] I raised an eyebrow.

[You’re gaining dangerous levels of cellular and mental decay with every Rewind,] she replied. [I think that it’s making you act… like this.]

[You think so?] I inquired.

[Yes,] she nodded. [Cellular and Soul decay are big issues we need to work on. The first ten minute Rewind we did affected both of us. We should have expected Kliss to return. Should have at least discussed the possibility of her having more than one Ward key… but we didn’t. We acted like two absolute idiots!]

[People make mistakes, Delta. You can’t blame everything on the Rewind decay.] I pointed out.

[Can and will,] she shook her silver hair. [No more Rewinds until we reduce the decay!]

[Alright, bossy bee.] I sent. [Please don’t sting me.]

“Are you guys talking without me again?” Kliss asked. “I can see your facial expressions changing.

“Delta thinks that the Rewind reduces mental awareness,” I explained.

“Actually, I think it does.” Kliss pondered. “Amongst other things. From what I can recall... Rewind mages are very powerful healers, but if they over-use their core skill to heal themselves repeatedly… it is known that they can lose their sense of self, become very… um, suggestable? Acting akin to a child or a blank slate. How many times have you Rewound yourself Dante?”

“Twice,” I said.

“Thrice actually,” Delta added. “I rewound you when Kliss attacked you at night. You were unconscious at the time.”

Kliss shook her head. “Your body is too young, you should be more careful.”

I frowned. I didn’t feel stupider or careless. I might have been more relaxed, but that was because I knew that Kliss protected my soul from the hex-beacon’s pull, not because my brain was decaying into extreme suggestibility. I glanced at my menu.

[Cellular decay x 3]

I frowned. I had to invest some points into Vitality from my next level up before it became a bigger problem. But what could I do about my Vows… how could I keep them from growing?

“Dante? Can you tell me about how I died?” Kliss asked, interrupting my train of thought.

“Well, I thought it would be a smart idea to sing an Alanian song to the beacon crystal while touching it…” I started to narrate our misadventure to her.

. . .

She blinked when I finished, her freckled face looking even paler than normally. “I s-see…” She drowned the rest of her wine goblet. She then looked up at me.

"Do you want me to try to heal you with the armacus? It... might help with some of the damage," she offered. "A professional healer in Cessna would be a lot better though."

I nodded. The Overseer pointed her matigek tool at me and fired a few spells in succession. I felt marginally better. The cellular decay didn't seem to go away though, but there was a noticeable reduction in soul decay %.

"I can do more later... too many at once is bad," she commented.

"Do Delta too," I said.

"Uhh..." Kliss looked at the bee.

[It won't work on a homomagicus. These spells are designed for repairing humans, not spell-souls.] Delta commented.

[We'll try to make something like it for you, allright?]

[Sure,] Delta sent in reply. She didn't sound confident.

"Actually never mind, don't worry bout Delta," I corked up my bottle.

Orange-tinted rays of setting sun cut through the window, lighting up the Overseer's hair from behind. Motes of dust floated through the air. I felt extremely relaxed and I wasn't sure if it was cellular decay, the wine or the healing spells.

“Right,” Kliss murmured after a few minutes of silence. “Undoubtedly dying horribly as I tried to save you will be another fun thing to haunt me in my dreams.”

“Hang on… the Rewind doesn’t erase your memories when you reset?” I asked.

“Oh it does,” she winced. “The Vows remember though… they remember everything on their own. They are not me.”

“So, I guess a Vow can’t be tricked if you simply erase someone’s memory with a spell?”

“A young Vow will be tricked, but once it grows old it will become clever enough to understand how it has been tricked. It will punish its host for violating it… just as the Friendship Vow punished me every night by showing me your five-month-old face and the knife covered in blood,” she whispered, lowering her eyes.

I gulped. My Vows were slowly growing according to Delta. How long would it take for them to realize that I was tricking them by controlling an Infoscope via Delta? How long would it take until the Infoscope Sacrifice would start to torture me?

“Say, how long did the Overseer’s Vow grow in intelligence until it learned to control your body?” I inquired.

“Years,” Kliss answered. “At first… it was akin to little tugs, nudges, whispers in the back of my head… but slowly and incrementally… before I knew what was wrong... he grew up, became bigger than me.”

I exhaled. I had time. The Vows were bound to the soul, not the body. I considered telling Kliss that I could disable her Vows by making her soul-less, but then I decided against it. It would be too dangerous plus the Overseer’s Vow seemed strong and clever. If I told Kliss about it, then her Vow would know it as well and likely try to resist, maybe even hurt or maim me.

“Could Vows be considered separate creatures… akin to Astral Ocean Phantoms? Things that can level up from zero to twenty in Skyisle?” I pondered out loud.

“It certainly seems like it,” Kliss replied. “Because even though I didn’t get any experience whatsoever in twelve years… the Friendship Vow had gotten a lot stronger.”

“If they are separate creatures… Do you think they could be reasoned with, befriended… trained?” I asked.

“What?!” She looked at me like I was mad. “I’ve been trying to reason with my gods-damned Vows every night, every waking moment! I beg them to stop torturing me, beg them to cooperate to leave me alone!”

“Maybe you’re just doing it wrong…” I mulled, thinking back to what I knew about behavioral studies.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a world-renowned Russian physiologist, known primarily for his work in classical and operant conditioning. Pavlov's experiments with animal learning and conditioning have been found to operate across a variety of behavior therapies and in experimental and clinical settings, such as educational classrooms and even reducing phobias. If Vows were alive then maybe… just maybe they could be conditioned into obedience. Theoretically all I had to do was figure out what they wanted and what they feared. It’s not like I lacked patients. I had three whole Vows to experiment upon… plus Kliss had two.

“Doing it wrong?!” Kliss laughed madly. “Are you kidding me? Don’t you think I tried everything over twelve years? Do you even fucking know what it’s like to have TWO Vows on your soul?!”

“No,” I said. “I don’t know what it’s like to have conflicting Vows on my soul… but I promised to help you. I will help you, Kliss.”

“You really think you can, huh,” she muttered, biting her lip.

Magenta waltzed to our table with a wide smile. “You folks good?”

“Yeah,” I handed her the four gold coins I forged. “Keep the change.”

The coins vanished faster than I could blink.

“Come drink at the Fox anytime, Dante!” She bowed. “You’re now my favouritest client!”

Then she glanced at the Overseer. “That excludes you of course, your excellency.”

Kliss shook her head with a sigh. She didn’t seem to care for titles.

“Do you have more of this magical wine?” I asked Magenta.

“Oh we got a whole case,” she nodded. “Save up and you can…”

“How much?” I asked.

“W-what?” Magenta blinked.

“How much for all of them?” I demanded.

“Ummm… ten Imperials,” she answered after a bit of contemplation, obviously exaggerating the price.

“Kliss, you got ten Imperials on you?” I asked.

The Overseer nodded.

“Pay for the box of wine,” I ordered. “I’m going to need it later.”

The redhead pulled out ten imperials from her pouch and handed it to wide-eyed Magenta. I looked at the Overseer. She didn’t seem to resist parting with her money. She was oddly obedient… far more than before. I wondered what was up with her.

Magenta’s mouth snapped close and she quickly dashed off into the basement grotto to fetch us the box of wine.

We left the pub, walking on the lantern-lit path. Little rainbows danced in my eyes cast by the hex-lanterns. I knew that one could always rely on a visual glance of the furthest rainbow refraction to see where the lantern’s edge of effect ended.

I stepped off the path, my own hex-lantern swinging on my belt. Kliss followed. She didn’t fear stepping off the path, there was likely nothing in Skyisle that could be a danger to her and her armacus.

The setting sun cast long shadows along the forest floor, painting the clouds behind the cliff’s edge a vibrant pink shade. We had reached the base of the derelict tower. Evening wind picked up from the mountains, throwing her hair and forest debris into the air.

“Dante… who is Vladislav Kerenski?” Kliss asked.

I stopped my stride and looked back at her.

“You told the barmaid that you’re his apprentice,” she said. “But that was a lie…”

Delta’s bees buzzed dangerously in my backpack.

“Do you really want to know the answer?” I asked. “What if the answer slots me into the ‘aberration’ territory? Is the Overseer’s Vow going to make you cut my head off with that armacus mana-sword of yours?”

“No. It is preoccupied. I want to know… everything,” she whispered. "I want to know what's there... beyond the boundary..."

Her thumb tapped the unlock rune on her armacus. The magitek device opened up with a twirl. She handed the metal bracelet to me, having taken it off her wrist.

"The boundary?" I asked, accepting her weapon.

"Of life and death," she said.

"Don't tell her nothing," Delta buzzed.

"What is the Vow preoccupied with?" I inquired.

“The first rule of the Overseer’s Vow is that it must keep me alive, no matter what,” Kliss said. “I can feel it, with every step I took here through the forest… I have gone beyond the threshold. My body is fine, but my soul is… fractured. I'm what's called a dead-walker. I'm almost completely out of Mana and my Soul is just a few points away from zero. The Overseer’s Vow is holding my soul to my body with all of his will and power. If he lets me go but for a moment… I will die.”

“Oh,” I said, suddenly feeling bad about Rewinding her. “The Rewind?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “My [Soul-Repair] skill cannot seem to repair the latest fractures in my Soul left by your Rewind. Delta needs only to sting me a few times and I’ll be dead, I’m certain of it.”

I looked at the armacus in my hand and then back at her. “Why not heal yourself?”

“I tried to. It’s not working anymore…” She sighed. “The armacus isn’t all-powerful, it’s generic healing spells aren’t good enough to fix Soul-fractures.”

“Shit,” I muttered.

“I just want to talk to you… before I am gone. Even if you declare yourself as an aberration openly to me… The Overseer’s Vow will do nothing. He knows how close I am to death. He knows that my Soul cannot be repaired further. I can hear it in my Soul-Song. The chorus of the Goddess tells me that my skills are decaying, coming apart… all of them are being subtracted away.”

“So, the Vows can be defeated?” I asked. “If a soul is injured enough…”

“Defeated?” She smirked with a sad look. “Hardly… The Vow isn’t defeated. I am. I don’t know if I will even last through this night. When the last threads holding my soul unravel, both of the Vows will drag me into Equality’s embrace. I'm afraid... that the Goddess will turn away from me, cast me straight into the deep Astral after she finds me unworthy…”

“Let me see..." Delta spoke as her Infoscope threads ran over Kliss. "Oh, she’s right… her Soul-Shield skill is decaying away… I can see right through it now. Well, that is… unfortunate. Sucks to be you, Kliss. I would play you a tiny sad song if I had a tiny violin for one of my bees.”

“Is Wizard Vladislav Kerenski real? Will he protect you when I am gone?” Kliss asked, her voice trembling. “Don’t you understand... If I don’t report the codes to the watchtower in Agamemnon tomorrow… an imperial warship will come. They will execute… many people here, if not all. Everyone in Skyisle might end up dead tomorrow because of me! The Empire will not show mercy to those that kill its Overseers!”

“Well… that sucks for us,” Delta suddenly became very concerned, her silver eyes darting between Kliss and me.

"I thought I had more time…” Kliss uttered. “I accept it now… I've made a lot of mistakes. I really wish things were different."

“I am Vladislav Kerenski,” I said and both of my companions fell into stunned silence.

“Danteeee!” Delta was the first to yell at me.

“You are… Vladislav…?” Kliss muttered. "So you have been beyond the boundary..."

I nodded.

“Where are you from if not Novazem?” She asked.

“Earth,” I replied.

“Danteeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Delta growled even louder through the Vox Colony.

“Delta, stop yelling at me please,” I said. “Kliss made her choice. I’m making a choice too. I’m telling her everything. There's no point in hiding myself from her. Just two of us aren’t enough to change this God-damned world ruled by Vows and haunted by Phantoms. We need friends. We need someone we can trust and rely on.”

“She could break your neck with a flick of her finger!” My twin-soul pointed out. “She killed you! She’s an absolute idiot ruled by her vows! How can you possibly trust her?!”

“You could sting her with the bees you’ve got sitting on her,” I pointed out. “And she will die if you do, correct?”

“Correct,” Delta mulled. “You know what… fine! Feel free to be a fool and tell this dimwit everrrrrrything about yourself. But please… don’t talk about me, alright?”

“Sure,” I nodded.

[You have the data for the emerald hand-cast healing spell she used to repair my soul?] I asked. [Send it to Bessie please.]

[Are you kidding me?! Really?! You're going to heal her at the cost of your own Soul?!]

[If she dies, Skyisle will fall and our parents will die.] I pointed out.

[F-fine! It's uploaded!] Delta sent and fell silent.

She probably was extremely unhappy about it, but we needed Kliss to live, needed her to remain as Overseer of Skyisle so that we could continue to do our research on the tower.

I looked back at Kliss and a plan began to formulate in my head, pieces of the puzzle clicking together. I already had everything I needed to break a Vow.

Tonight… I would have to do it tonight.