“Ask him yourself. He has been awake since I lifted up his head.”
Stern sighed.
“Fuck,” he said. “I… can't say anything without risking the oath's curse, the only time I tried, I was out for an hour from the pain.” He spoke the words slowly, as though testing each one before he said it.
“Fine. I am going to try something. It will hurt… a lot. If you resist, I'll kill you.”
“I understand. I kept telling myself that I am waiting for my chance to strike, that keeps it at bay. Please hurry.”
I nodded. “Tyla, would you get me the leather cords out of the bag?”
Tyla did as I asked. Without another word, I tied up Stern. His eyes closed the whole time while he hummed.
Satisfied my knots would give me a few seconds to work with, I spoke. “Okay, do your best not to resist. This is going to suck for you.”
I reached my hand out to his forehead and pushed my power into the symbol on his head, hoping that was the best way to go about it.
“Arghhhhhhhhh!” Stern screamed and struggled against his bindings.
Tyla pushed him back down and held his arms. Finally, I felt my power come fully into contact with another. Stern moaned in pain but stopped struggling as the two powers fought over his very soul.
My will battled the Mark of Seir, for I now knew that is what it was. It was Seir's will, pushed into a mortal that agreed to serve him, or at least the representation of his will. Not as powerful as the Demigod himself, but stronger than anything I had ever experienced.
Sweat beaded on my forehead as I focused on the mark. In my mind's eye, I saw a glowing ring clamped down around the midsection of a standing representation of Stern, holding him in place and leaving him no room to move on his own. He was screaming silently in pain in this dream state I found myself in temporarily.
I redoubled the energy and imagined myself pulling at the ring, trying to break it in half. But no matter the effort, it resisted the attempts I made. Knowing I only had seconds to figure this out, I panicked a little.
In frustration, I reached back and used all the metaphysical body weight I could manage to punch the glowing ring dead center, putting every scrap of energy I could muster into the swing.
It shattered into a thousand pieces… and I blacked out instantly.
I awoke with a start a few minutes later, ready for a fight. Tyla pressed both her hands on me and pressed down, stopping me at the sitting position.
“Calm my love, he is still out, the glyph on his head is gone.”
I blinked my eyes and looked at Stern, his body had all the signs of passing out this time. I relaxed a bit.
“That was rough,” I said. “Not sure doing that regularly is going to be possible.”
“Unless you get stronger.”
“I, uh… you know how I feel about adding more people. If it was just a sex thing? maybe. But the cost…” I trailed off.
“I know, I… part of me likes the idea for purely selfish reasons, you may need the power to free my mother.”
I sighed. She was right. If just freeing a man from an oath took more than I had, how was I going to break free a bond that strong? Stern's oath was just a fragment of a percent of Seir's power.
“You have a point. I promise not to close the door on it, but the circumstances would have to be… perfect. I am sorry.”
“Don't be. I understand. I will try not to push.”
She leaned forward and kissed me on the lips, lingering. Even with Stern passed out three feet from me, it took willpower to resist taking her when I pushed away.
“Later,” I said, letting her know with my eyes that I meant it.
“Not sorry,” she said with a smirk.
“You seem different, Tyla, almost more confident since we… joined.”
“I…” she began then paused, looking pensive for a moment. “You may be right. The part of me that always tells me that I am not good enough or not strong enough has been absent lately. I have not thought about it, but now that you have mentioned something, I feel almost, and this will sound odd, free.”
I reached out and grabbed her chin with the crook of my finger, pointing her face towards me. “I don't like what I did to you, Tyla, but no matter what, with me you are always free.”
She nodded and squeezed her eyes, a single tear escaping. Before I could ask her what's wrong, a smile broke out on her face. “Thank you, my love. I can feel you mean that… here.” She tapped her hand on her chest.
We kissed one more time, a show of affection and happiness rather than passion. We broke apart much easier, both of us smiling.
“Good. I want it to stay that way. But now for business, I need to watch Stern when he wakes up, would you gather anything that might be of use from the bodies… and I am sorry about Susan, we will give her a proper burial, or however that is done here. If you want me to take care of that.”
“Burial is the accepted practice for most commoners, then a few words to the gods usually follow. However, for the Chosen we usually burn the body. It's about becoming one with the gods once again.”
I nodded. “I don't know if that is a good idea. We don't know how many more search parties are still out there.”
“None,” Stern said with a moan following. “Oh, gods, that hurt.”
He paused for a second and pushed up on his elbows, looking like a man after an all-night bender. “Seir or his lieutenants recalled the other search parties to quash minor uprisings and hunt other Chosen that escaped the academy. They judged us as… sufficient to hunt down a half-trained witch. None of us thought she would be with you.”
“That’s good news but… I have to admit I am still not entirely sure I can trust you Stern.”
“You shouldn't,” he said simply.
“Derrick?”
“Yes?”
“May I test him for truthfulness? I want to believe him, but you are right, that we should be sure.”
I smacked my forehead. “You're right, I forgot about that. I trust you. You don't need my permission for such things.”
She wrinkled her brow. “I actually think I do. I don't think I could touch another man intentionally without your permission given the… changes. But I thank you for your trust.”
She reached forward and placed her arm on a very confused Stern. “What did you mean by that? Wait, are you bonded to him?” Stern asked.
Tyla closed her eyes and simply nodded at the man.
“You really are a Demi?” Stern turned to me.
“Yes and no. I am human but have been granted a—” I searched my brain for words “Boon? Or something like that which lets me share some of their abilities.”
I stopped to give him a hard look. “I warn you, though, I am only telling you that much because if you fail her test, I will kill you where you stand to keep that secret. I may yet anyway because she is that important to me.”
He nodded, his eyes wide. “Yes… Lord?”
“No, none of that. I am just Derrick, well I actually prefer Derk,” I said and gave Tyla an eye, even though hers were closed.
Even without seeing me, she smiled. “You could order me… Master.”
I laughed and shook my head. “I am glad you can still be a brat at least. That makes this easier to accept. Speaking of orders, how did you leave the cave when I ordered you to stay”
“They were going to kill you… if you die, I die. You told me to use my best judgment to save my life.”
“Glad I did. You saved our lives today.”
“Thank you, my love.”
“I am sorry to interrupt. Do you… want me to swear an oath to you as well. Like I did for Seir?” Stern said, the confidence he had shown before now totally gone.
“I…” I stopped and considered it. I knew little about the process, but I had a feeling deep down that I could do it. “Not sure yet. Let me think about it. If I can figure out a way for it to just ensure that you keep our secrets, with no other side effects, we
can try it. So far I know little about what I can do or even if I can do it for you once I remove the mark of Seir.”
“I understand.”
“I am ready, my love.”
“Okay, Stern, are you loyal to Seir?”
“No,” he said simply. Tyla nodded, her eyes still closed.
“Did you betray Tyla's mother?” I said to gauge him.
“Yes,” he looked down in shame. “I was afraid and knew I couldn't help her. I wanted to, I… think it was me that caused her to give in to Seir's offer. When I turned my back on her—” He sobbed.
“She gave up because of me. I saw it in her eyes… I am why she turned into Seir's plaything.” He finally finished.
I stood there in silence, waiting for Tyla to answer.
“You are telling the truth, I… don't blame you, Stern, though I might have before I met my… love.” Tyla added, catching herself from using the word I disliked.
“Do you intend to betray our trust?” I asked Stern.
“No, I will keep your secrets to the grave.”
Tyla nodded one more time, and I gently shook her shoulder, letting her know I was happy with what we had.
“Okay, Stern, you get to live. Congratulations. The question is, what do we do with you now?”
“If I may make a suggestion?” Stern asked.
I nodded.
“I will give you most of our supplies here and at camp up the ridge where we stayed while waiting for you to come out. Then, if you will allow me, I would really like to head back to Black-Run and get my sister out of there. Provided I can survive that, I could meet you in the south, it should remain free for a while at least.”
I snapped my fingers. “I have a couple of questions now that you say that. First, why did you stay outside and not come and get us if you were there long enough to set up camp?”
“We… Susan said something was keeping her from entering. She did not know what it was or how. The rest of us did not want to risk a witch… I'm sorry, Chosen's power without her. So, we waited after I tracked you here.”
“Hmmm, that makes sense, I think. Next question. Why are they moving so slow and not blitzing the south? My military senses say that is stupid to let them prepare.”
“It's mostly conjecture and hearsay about what Susan talked about. She overheard a lot and was always around him. First is that Seir worries about the factions of Demigods invading the human lands and doesn't want to spread too thin or waste manpower. The second is that the remnants of your mother's army refused to submit and fortified themselves at the old fortress of Maetrine in the Rochden mountains to the north.”
“Who leads them?” Tyla asked, a note of hope in her voice.
“I don't know my mistress.” Stern said, shaking his head. “Susan never spoke of people individually other than Seir. I got the feeling she did not think of anyone as individuals and only could focus on how she fit into his… harem. Most of what she said was how important to him he was, and he would ask her about these things. Complaining endlessly about missing his… comfort.”
“She always was kind of selfish, even with me. But I cared for her,” Tyla said somberly.
I wrapped my arms around her from behind. “It's okay, we can do that next.”
Stern stood up from the ground, having untied himself. “What do you want me to do, lord Derrick?”
“Again, just Derrick, or Derk, really. I have an idea to ensure your silence and protect us just in case you're captured. Part of me is morally against this and the other part of me says she is too important to me to risk.” I pointed at Tyla with my thumb when I finished.
“I understand and will accept your oath.”
I took a deep breath, “Here goes nothing.”
I reached out, not touching his forehead like a self-obsessed asshole, and instead reached out to the inner meaty part of his forearm and pushed my power into it.
Time froze, and I could see the mind's eye representation of Stern sitting in front of me. How was I doing this? I honestly couldn't say. It was kind of like breathing, it just happened if you let it and didn't think about it too much or over think it.
Someone told me once that ignorance is bliss, and my goal was to be a happy mother fucker about this.
Instead, I studied the representation of Stern. He was smiling in my image, and I could feel his happiness at being free of Sier's control. His… soul, if that was what I was looking at, was still bleeding in several spots from the damage my blow did to him earlier. However, it was mending.
I concentrated on the meaning of the word oath, on how it fit into my paradigm of life. The importance that it held to me every time I gave one. I thought of my oath to the Alliance Marine corps, back when I was a kid and didn't know any better. I just wanted to make a difference. I thought of my oath as a Boston Police officer, the drive to protect those that couldn't protect themselves.
I even made an oath to Tyla right there, to ensure that she was safe and as happy as I could make her for whatever time we had together.
When these feelings and thoughts coalesced in my mind, a glowing ball of light appeared before me.
It was what I could use to bind him to my will. Now that I studied the ball, I could see that it was my will and representation of my power.
Instead of making it a ring like Seir, I made it a small strap like a belt. Flexible, but tight fitted. If he betrayed me, he would feel a light squeeze that would warn him first, rather than incapacitate. But he would only get one warning. The light squeeze was just a small warning to a massive one. Designed to kill instantly. No pain, no further warning, and no mercy. I nodded at this.
If my understanding was correct, he would get a small squeeze in his chest if he did something that I would consider betraying my trust, and if continued, he would die.
I breached the time dilation and spoke to Stern. “Do you accept this oath of loyalty, to not betray mine or Tyla's trust? You will have one mild warning before death. That is the price.”
“Yes,” Stern said, and time froze again when I demanded it.
I knew I did not have to tell him as much as I did. All I needed was for him to agree to it and I could have done whatever I wanted to him.
But that was not how I operated.
I wanted safety, but I was going to be honest with it. I pushed the power around Stern, and it gripped him like a loose belt at the chest level. Right around his heart and lungs. He could bend it, which was a risk, but if he considered breaking it, then it would tighten into a ball faster than his heart and lungs would stop.
The belt now properly in place, I had to set the anchor of my will. It would be a small sliver of myself I was leaving to watch him. Seir used those glyphs, but I did not have one myself. I just hoped something would happen, and I tried to finalize it.
Something happened, it just was not what I thought would be.
It… wanted me to design something. Again, this was hard to explain, even to myself. This one was more like knowing what your dog wanted just based on the way he barked at you. You know when they want out to go to the bathroom or are hungry without them ever speaking words to you. You just understood their behavior.
I willed it into a design that came easy to me. It was cheesy if I were honest with myself, and more of a stick figure drawing than the art that symbol deserved, but I let it pass.
I don't think there is anyone alive here that would know what it was, and I don't think the gods gave a flying fuck.
I pulled out of the mental time and pulled my arm away from Sterns.
“It… it didn't hurt!” he said, relieved as he looked at his arm.
“I think I could have made it hurt, but I didn't.”
Stern got red in the face. “That fucking asshole. He did it on purpose, then.”
I couldn't help but chuckle a bit, not really at Stern's pain, but that this revelation surprised him.
“What is that glyph?” Tyla asked.
“It's… well, it's a stick fig
ure of an Eagle and anchor and a globe,” I said, tracing the lines I had used to stand for the eagle, or at least its wings. Then the cross with arrow shaped lines of the anchor. Finishing it off was a circle for the globe. “No chain unfortunately, it's the best I can do, apparently only simple shapes are allowed by whatever empowers me.”
I glanced up at each of them. “I don’t like that it is reminiscent of what an eight-year-old might doodle at school, but it’s not like the dream state let me have crayons or anything.” An old joke of eating them popped into my brain. I smiled.
Both Tyla and Stern looked at me with confusion.
Rather than answer their unspoken questions, I dropped Stern's arm. “Okay, do you have a map or something so we can plan?”
“I do at the camp L… Derk.”
Smiling, I said. “Let's grab everything, then make a funeral pyre for Susan and then we can plan our next moves. We can stay another night in the—”
I froze.
“Where is the cave?” Tyla asked what I was about to.
“I… Don't know.” As we all stood there shocked at its disappearance, now just a solid rock wall. The bag that Tyla left inside, along with the two slavers batons I really should have equipped myself with, skillfully placed just outside where it used to be.
“Fuck,” I said. “Guess we really are on our own out here now.”
18
Acknowledgement of Truth
“Before I forget, what was that shadow ball thing again?” I said as I cocked the action back, inspecting the appropriated crossbow.
We camped for the night in the cloak of another traveler's tree, and I really hoped these things were plentiful everywhere we went. They supplied a perfect place to hide from both people and the elements.
It had been two days since we burned Susan's body and a day since we split up with Stern.
“It's called the shadow's mantle. That one just happened to be using a ball of semi-precious metal as its focus. It is a construct of both the light element and the wind element. Though you could have had a simpler construct with just either. You could even use common items, but they won't last as long,” Tyla said.
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