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54. Friendship
🕑 Added 2022-02-20 23:15:23 +0000 UTCKliss hugged me tightly. The sparks at the corners of her eyes turned into streaks of tears.
“I was really worried that you wouldn't wake up again,” she whispered through the tears. “That you’ve pushed yourself too far with the Soul-Sacrifice spell.”
“You were awake through that?” I asked, feeling awkward.
“Delta told me. She told me a lot of things, shamed me endlessly, called me a bad friend,” Kliss shuddered. “Am I a bad friend?”
“You’re a good friend, you helped dig out that hex-beacon. I couldn't have done it without you,” I replied.
Something about her slightly odd tone of voice made me worry. The last Vow still hanging on her soul was twelve years old and I wasn’t sure that it was as benign as Kliss had described it moments ago. If the Overseer’s Vow could control her, then so could the Friendship Vow.
“You have a thinking face on,” Kliss pointed out, glancing at me.
“Do I really have a thinking face?” I inquired.
“You make all sorts of faces,” she commented. “I’ve been paying attention.”
“Sounds like I’d lose to you in a poker game,” I commented.
“What’s a… poker game?” She asked.
“A card game from Earth,” I said.
“I see,” her nose twitched. “I could order us some blank artificer cards and you could teach me this poker… would that make you happy?”
“Artificer cards?” I asked.
“You can set them to display runes or other visuals. Anything really,” Kliss said. “They’re fun. I have twelve years of Overseer’s salary to spend. I’d like to spend it on you.”
“On me?”
“I want to make you happy,” she nodded.
I squinted at her. “Is this you or the Friendship Vow talking?”
“Suspicious face,” she commented.
“Well?” I asked.
“Just tell me what you want to do and I’ll do it,” she ignored my question, looking like an eager puppy.
My suspicions intensified. Without the Overseer’s Vow pulling against the Vow I had forced her into, the Friendship Vow was now the dominant one… possibly what was driving her entire personality forward. As I contemplated this hypothesis I noticed that Kliss had stopped hugging me, scooched back, got off the bed and started twirling in a circle.
“W-what are you doing?” I asked, feeling confused.
“Showing myself off,” she twirled, her dress flying, looking back at my shocked face.
“Huh?”
“I hurt you. You can punish me as you desire,” she winked at me. “You can make me do anything. Anything at all. I’ll take it. I’m a good friend. I want you to be your best friend…”
I tensed up. This wasn’t how people behaved or how they've talked. This had to be the Vow controlling her body. Kliss was still under there somewhere, enslaved, not free.
“Friendship Vow,” I said sternly. “I know that it’s you. I’m addressing you right now.”
Kliss froze and gulped, as if I caught her hand in a cookie jar.
“I’m going to call you Frenny,” I stated. “Listen up - I don’t want Kliss as a slave. I want her to be free to make her own decisions.”
“But… I want to serve you,” Kliss stopped twirling and blinked. “Was this not why you made me?”
“I created you because I’m an idiot,” I sighed, rubbing my temples. “I had no idea that making a Vow created a living, thinking being. You must be twelve now, right?"
"Yes," She nodded, her lip trembling. “Don’t you want me to be your best friend?”
I sighed deeply. I was right. This was the Vow.
“Please don’t bind me,” she whispered, lowering her eyes. “I’ll be a good Vow.”
I frowned.
“You made my brother strangle himself,” she added. “I don’t want to be bound like him. I can’t be your best friend and protector… if you bind me.”
I briefly wondered if this was what Dr. Frankenstein felt in Merry Shelly’s “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” novel. Unlike Dr. Frankenstein I wouldn't turn away from my creation, wouldn't run away and would not regret meddling with Vows. Meddling with things is what I did best.
“Frenny,” I said. “Listen up. I’m not going to bind you, if you cooperate…”
“I’m cooperating!” she nodded rapidly. “Just tell me what to do!”
“You and I need to establish some boundaries. You can’t just take control of Kliss’ body whenever you feel like it,” I said.
“I exist to take control of humans, this is my purpose,” Frenny replied. “I’m an Archangel of Goddess Equality.”
"You are connected to Equality via an unbreakable thread, yes?"
"Yes,” Frenny nodded.
"What is its purpose?" I asked
"When this mortal's flesh dies, the thread will pull me and her soul directly to the Goddess." Frenny replied, echoing the tone of Vovan.
"That's not going to happen," I said sternly. “Ever.”
"W-what?!" Frenny blinked.
"Kliss told me that she has no desire to be judged by Equality!" I declared. "I will let the Necromag crystal eat her rather than make her suffer in the deep Astral or surrender her to Equality. Do we understand each other, Vow?"
"B-but…" Frenny stumbled. "This mortal's soul belongs to our Goddess. Kliss made a pact…"
"I don't care for your gods or your rules!" The words left my mouth before I could think.
"So… you lied to my brother," Frenny pouted.
"Can Equality hear our conversation? Is she watching me via the thread? Does she know what I did?" I asked, ignoring her comment.
"No," Frenny shook her head. "She is not Omniscient. She doesn't have the time to watch over one hundred million Archangels."
"How many Archangels are there precisely?" I asked. "Can you communicate with others of your kind via your connection to Equality?"
"I don't know," Frenny shook Kliss' head. "I mostly know what my host knows. I could only talk to my brother."
"What level are you?"
"I am level twenty," she replied.
"What are your skills?"
"I have just one skill - Archangel," she said. “It allows me to control the divine thread which… guides my human.”
My brain clicked.
Vows were essentially a single divinity-reinforced skill with a mind of their own. Living beings that eventually got as smart as the person they were on. Frenny was a Vow that answered to me.
Could this unbreakable thread of hers be used as a weapon against other Vows… outside of Kliss? Vows could be upgraded by sacrificing more skills to them. Could I sacrifice more skills to the Vows on me, upgrade them to obey me alone? Could I weaponize my own Vows, train them to attack other Vows? Could I create Vows that answered to me alone, not to the gods of Novazem? Were the gods just really high level Phantoms?
Either way such plans would take me a while to execute, especially if Vows took decades to manifest intelligence. Also, I wasn't sure how smart it would be to experiment on my own Vows.
“Kliss is there, right? She is conscious?” I asked. “Can she hear this?”
“I’m holding her fractured soul together with the thread,” Frenny said with a forlorn look. “Most of her skills are permanently gone. If you want her to live longer, don’t bind me into inaction.”
"Fine. I am ordering you to obey Kliss," I said. "Take control of her body only if she wants it, manifest only if I say your name, ask for you directly."
"Y-yes," Frenny replied. "I can do that."
Kliss blinked. Her face twitched, her expression changed. There was a momentary look of confusion in her eyes.
“Kliss?” I asked. “You alright?”
She nodded.
“When did the Vow take over?” I asked.
“When I hugged you,” she sighed.
“The Vow said that your soul is still fractured? Was my Soul-Sacrifice spell not enough?” I inquired.
Kliss shook her head. “You gave me a few more years. The fractures are still there. I'm still deep in the minuses. I have only six skills left in my Soul-Song.”
“I’ll fix it,” I said with determination. “I’ll figure out how to permanently bind your soul to your body. I will help you, I swear.”
“Why?” She asked. “You don’t owe me anything. Why are you so determined to help me? Is it because my life is tied to the future of Skyisle as Overseer?”
“You know where I am from,” I stood up and walked to the stained glass window, looking over Skyisle valley. “I told you my real name. When a god called the Omniscience thrust my soul into this body, I thought that I could do everything myself... alone. I thought that I could take advantage of the System with my knowledge, and do whatever I want.
“The truth is that I was very wrong. I can’t fix the world alone. There are far too many pitfalls and traps and dangerous powers. I’m beginning to feel like the game was set up from the beginning for me to lose, that I was supposed to die and drag Delta along with me into the deep Astral. I really do need friends, people I can trust. Someone like you,” I turned back to her. “Someone who realized that this world is ruled by Vows and that it needs to change. I need your help to free humanity from the gods.”
Kliss nodded. She bit her lip. “Do you think such a thing is truly possible? Equality’s Empire stretches across the known world. Changing the way things are is akin to lifting a mountain.”
“There was a man in my world named Archimedes,” I said. “A Greek physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse in Sicily. He was considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians from the time of antiquity. The mathematics I use to design new spells are based on his studies of calculus and geometrical theorems.”
Kliss perked up. She really was interested in Earth sciences.
“Archimedes was one of the first humans of Earth to apply mathematics to physical phenomena, founding hydrostatics and statics."
"S-statics?"
"Statics is the branch of mechanics that is concerned with the analysis of force acting on physical systems. Using his studies Archimedes invented innovative machinery such as the screw pump and block-and-tackle pulley systems. These pulleys allowed Greek sailors to use the principle of leverage to lift objects that would otherwise have been impossible to move by human hands alone.”
“...Leverage? More magic without magic?” Kliss asked, tilting her head.
“Indeed,” I confirmed. “Archimedes wrote a book called ‘On the Equilibrium of Planes’ describing ‘the law of the lever’ - a way to move incredibly heavy weights with the aid of mathematics. He said one of the most motivational things I’ve read, something that stuck with me for my entire life as scientist - ‘Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.’”
“Do you perhaps have a skill with which you can move the world?” Kliss inquired with a curious tone.
“A level 300 Phantom told me that I have a skill that someday will be able to open any door,” I confessed. “She said that my knowledge of Earth's mathematics is... unique.”
“You… you talk to high-level Phantoms too?!” Kliss gasped.
“I talk to a lot of things these days. Far more things in Novazem are self aware than they have a right to be,” I smirked. “Gods, Vows, phantoms… spells.”
“Equality damn it, Dante! Just when I think I understand you, you throw me under the skyship!” Kliss laughed nervously.
“I was just as surprised as you were,” I said. “I was most surprised when I met a god."
"Does Earth have gods or Vows?"
"No," I shook my head. "But different cultures of humans from Earth still worshipped various unique things, even without definable magic. For example, the Maori people from the Polynesian islands believe in Animism - the faith that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. They even have the word 'mana' in their vocabulary."
"An interesting coincidence," Kliss said.
"While our Earth lacked any evidence of such intelligent spirits, it seems that it’s true for this world - there are spirits tied to objects and even people in Novazem," I said. "My understanding of Animism and Artificial Intelligence is what allowed me to perceive the Vows as alive, treat them as if they were human and bargain with them. It wasn’t even my knowledge of Earth sciences that allowed me to break your primary Vow. It was luck in discovering the Alanian Hex-beacon crystal and my... bargaining skills.”
“I’ve never heard of anyone bargaining or talking to people's Vows,” Kliss mulled. “The Equality priests claim to talk to our Goddess… but not to the Vows themselves, as far as I know.”
“Everything with magic in it should be treated as a thinking being, asked questions, and be interacted with,” I said. “Everyday I find that Novazem is a lot more wonderful, strange and complex than I had originally assumed.”
“Is that bad or good?” She asked.
“No, it’s great,” I said with a smile. “The more complex a System is, the more flaws and loopholes it contains and the easier it will be for me to break it with mathematics.”
