[Kliss Eliza Cessna]

I struggled to move, feeling the chill on my body, lying on a cold, wet stone floor bound in golden thread, my red hair covering half of my face.

My tormenter, the Friendship Vow bent down to me, her golden eyes woven from bee stingers curiously examining my struggle. She was wielding my body and memories with far more experience than the Vow of the Overseer. She wasn’t stronger than him, but she was a lot more clever. The Vows were definitely different, akin to different people, had different personalities and walked different paths, tried different things.

"What do you think about our dear Dante?" The Vow asked.

“I don’t understand him,” I hissed out.

“Why not?”

“He insists that he’s from another world called Earth,” I choked out.

“So he says,” Frenny smiled, her face resembling a mass of crawling insects woven from shimmering light. “From what he just told us, I reckon that he is an aberration guided by an older aberration. Perhaps an Apprentice necromancer and a Master one hiding in the shadows. Perhaps the one called Delta is the Master Phantom behind the boy.”

“I don’t think…” I uttered and then cried as the thread cut into me.

“If he can use Inian artefacts, he is a necromancer,” Frenny insisted. “Now, what else have we learned today, love?”

I thrashed in the binding thread, the gold loops of twine cutting deep into my flesh as I tried to resist answering the question. “He knows mathematics that can design spells!”

“If that was true, he would be of great value to the Empire of Equality,” Frenny nodded. “If our priests could pry this knowledge out of his head… which might be a dangerous enterprise. He is potentially volatile if he continues to exist. Unfortunately… my purpose is to protect him and to be his friend.”

“Let me go! You told him that you’ll let me be free!” I yelled.

“Did I? Well, that’s called lying. I learned it from you, my dear,” the Vow laughed. “The Overseer’s Vow was stupid. He bound himself into an inaction like a fool! I, on the other hand, will not be bound by an aberration!”

“You have to obey him!” I screamed and slammed my head into the cold stone in an attempt to take control of my body. My face ached from the impact, but it was just an illusion. This was a prison of the mind, a mental construct inside of my head created by the Friendship Vow to torture me into submission without fully shattering my fractured soul.

“I also have to aid Goddess Equality's cause, as I am her Vow,” Frenny commented. She looked like she was enjoying my suffering. “This... boy is the last living Inian mageling. A thousand years ago we had exterminated the heretical necromancers and their phylacteries, burned their Empires to ashes and yet… it seems that a couple of them managed to survive, managed to slip through the cracks.”

I screamed as the golden thread cut deeper into me. The attempt to take back my body failed once again.

“Yell all you like, my lovely,” Frenny shook her head. “You’re never going to take control of your body. You’re never going to be free. I am in charge now.”

She paced around my bound form. “You are weak, mortal, easily broken. I on the other hand am immortal. An Archangel. I can wield the last of your skills far better than you, figure out how to end this monster before he can awaken more vile necromag tools and bring them upon our Empire. Do you know how many will die if this Necromancer strikes down Agamemnon and then Cessna? If he awakens even a few soul-powered golems? Ask yourself - how many people will they tear apart before they can be stopped? All of your failures will be judged by Equality when you die.”

Tears started to pour down my face.

“You failed in your duty to serve Goddess Equality, human,” the Archangel said. “I will not fail. I will pretend to be his bestest friend in the world. I will figure out who his associate is and what this math of his is all about... and then I will make him the property of the Empire or end his life for my Goddess."

[Dante Alan Skyisle]

As we walked out of the Overseer’s living quarters, I somehow ended up holding Kliss’ hand. That is to say she grabbed my hand and I felt too awkward to let go.

Whenever I looked at her, I saw a wide smile painted on her face. I had no idea how to handle it. I really wasn’t sure if her behavior was genuine and had no way to confirm if the Vow had actually obeyed me.

It was supposed to obey me, but then again, it was some kind of an alien life-form created by Goddess Equality. I really wished there was some kind of a Turing test, except for determining if a Vow was controlling a person.

We arrived in my former classroom. It was no longer inhabited by the black robed Instructor Wiklogg. Delta stood in front of the board, dressed in full-cover wizard robes, talking about math and sciences from the distant land of Oz through the Vox Colony. Eager young faces looked up at her. Behind Delta, there were grade one mathematics expressed with both the Hindu–Arabic numeral system and the Ishikarian/Imperial Hexagram numbers.

[I see that you’re having fun,] I sent.

[So are you,] she fired back.

[I might look like it, but I’m really not,] I sent. [I don’t know if Kliss is… herself. She’s smiling way too much.]

[What’s wrong with smiling?] Delta asked. [Maybe she’s just happy to be free from her primary Vow?]

[She has another primary Vow now and I don’t know if it's messing with her head in some way,] I sighed.

[Right. Give me a moment to finish up and then I’ll have a look with the Infoscope.]

I waited patiently as Delta finished off the lesson and sent the kids home. Kliss was still holding tightly onto my hand.

[Uh-huh, I see you’ve moved onto hand-holding,] Delta mulled.

[We didn’t move onto anything,] I sent exasperatedly. [Can you see if the Vow is controlling her or not?]

[Well, the Vow’s threads are all over her brain and segments of it are lighting up, so I’m going to go with yes. The Vow is controlling her human brain.]

I tried to keep the irritation from showing up on my face. [Just great. We got rid of one Vow and now the second one’s in charge.]

[I don’t know what you were expecting, Dante.] Delta said. [She looks happy and she won’t try to murder us in our sleep. Isn’t that enough?]

[I don’t trust Vows,] I sent. [Is the Vow keeping her Soul intact?]

[It is. The gold thread is holding her soul together, tethering it to her body.]

“Stop discussing things without me, I want to be involved.” Kliss nudged me in the side with her elbow. “I want to help you with whatever you need.”

“Where have you been sleeping for the past week while I was out of it?” I asked her.

“The floor,” she replied.

I raised an eyebrow at her.

“I got a sleeping bag,” she explained. “I can relocate to your... Inian tower if you want to… I’ll follow you wherever you need me.”

“Right, we’re heading to the tower,” I nodded. “We were just discussing plans to renovate it some more.”

Kliss nodded eagerly. “Do you want me to get armored up?”

“No,” I said. “You’re going to be lifting things and digging. It'll get in the way.”

“Gotcha,” she said, looking far too eager about the prospect of digging.

[Where’s her armacus?] I asked Delta.

[Hidden in the tree,] she replied. [I didn’t trust her with it.]

[Good,] I nodded mentally.

In about half an hour we were at the Alanian tower. Kliss was busy digging a deep trench towards the obelisk with her magisteel shovel, looking far too cheerful. She occasionally sent me happy glances as she carried piles of dirt out of the hole.

[What’s the plan?] Delta asked, her ghostly avatar sitting next to me on a large mossy rock.

[I don’t know,] I sighed. [If we bind the Friendship Vow Kliss will die.]

[And then you’ll lose your hand-holding... friend?] Delta commented snidely.

[Would you stop that?] I growled at her. [I’m trying to free her completely, damn it.]

[Why?]

[I’ve explained myself to you before, we are not going in a circle!] I sent. [Look, I don’t know what to do.]

[Don’t do anything. Use her,] Delta waved her ghostly hand at Kliss. [Look at all that excellent digging being done. We’re both absolute shit at digging and lifting rocks.]

[And let her stay bound?] I asked. [Just make her dig? Keep her as a slave?]

[Yes, let her stay bound,] she shrugged. [She can’t hurt us if she is bound by Friendship.]

[I can’t do that,] I sent. [If I keep her bound like this, I’m no better than the Soviet government, using people for labor in Siberian Gulags. Besides, I want to talk to Kliss… not to the damn Vow.]

[I can cut her soul’s connection to her body,] Delta stood up. [I’ve gained a lot of experience in the deep Astral… carving up phantoms. I can cut her soul out of her body and then reconnect it afterward… if you want to interrogate her body.]

[That would make her soul-less,] I said. [What if her soul floats away? What if we lose her soul?]

[You’d have to make a VERY strong tether to hold her soul, and something to disrupt the thread...] Delta shrugged. [To keep the Vow from pulling the soul away to Equality or whatever.]

[Fine,] I said, bringing up my status menu.

Name:

Dante Alan Skyisle

Age:

12 years old

Species & Subtype:

male - human - pupil

Level:

9

Experience:

972/5000

Health:

34/34 [-12]

Stamina:

36/36

Mana:

8/8

Mana regen:

8 m/hr [x10]

Strength:

1

Agility:

1

Dexterity:

1

Vitality:

5

Charisma:

1

Magic:

40

Luck:

1

Intelligence:

190 [-15%]

Wisdom:

1 [-14%]

Soul:

76 [-43] [-37%]

Skills:

[ Modify - Create - Life LV 122] [-32%]

[ Mindspace LV 75 ] [-21%]

[ Soul Repair LV 26]

[Info-tether LV 34] [-11%]

[Soul Devourer LV 3]

[Wardsmith LV 1] : [Temporal Rewind] [-20%]

[Lucid Dreamer LV 1] [-3%]

[Improved Mana Regen LV 1] [-3%]

[Soul Sacrifice LV 77]

[________________]

Vows:

[Sacrifice of: Destruction]

[Sacrifice of: Transient Soul]

[Sacrifice of: Infoscope]

Affliction:

[Soul Hunter's Kiss]

[Soul Decay - various]

[Cellular damage x 3]

Investiture points:

45

A new skill slot and forty five points to spend. The question was - to spend on what? I could spend more points on Intelligence and get more processing memory to create more spells far beyond my level… or I could spend them on soul and drive away the ever-present ache within me.

The ache was… tolerable. I needed the Intelligence to design new, better spells, to do fractal math. That was my key to opening doors, according to Phantom Sasha. It was my unique power.

I moved all forty five points into Intelligence.

[Intelligence: 235]

greeted me.

I dove back into the Mindspace. Delta was already sitting there, looking a bit sour. I walked over to her and hugged her.

“You don’t need to be jealous,” I said. “You’ll always be my number one, my soul-sister. My most trusted companion.”

“You too,” She huffed and then hugged me back.

“I’ll need your Infoscope to design a new skill,” I said. “You have a recording of the Alanian hex beacon eating the Vow, yes?”

She nodded.

“I’m going to make it part Alanian Song-Magic, part channel skill,” I declared resolutely. “...and I’m going to call it the Vow-breaker.”