5.44 Obligations (Patreon)

Difference: Minimal

The Master Binder’s workplace was practically just a hop away. The ‘Sealeater’s school of Binding’ was an old institution, founded by an ancient Named and either originally from City Red or moved there so long ago as to be old fixture. Its building was not in the Palaces themselves, but in one of the closest districts, raised in between great mansions and learning institutes of comparable pedigree. In fact, the three who had been “scouting” the city had long known where it could be found.

The heart of City Red had some similarities with Spireholm, in that the estates of even the highest nobility only had limited space to work with. It was not as restrictive as the towers, but none were allowed to build too wide, to conserve space, nor too tall, as the Palaces had to tower above everything. Therefore everyone supposedly built deep, with sometimes several more levels underground than above it. 

Of course, Irwyn had yet to see any of that with his own eyes. It was his first time leaving the Palaces since entering City Red. He and Elizabeth were maintaining the mutual obscuration spell at the maximum capacity they could after a great deal of practice, yet even that was not quite enough to fully hide their nature. People were no longer getting awed mute, but even the average Imbuement mage was able to tell that the two of them held Domains. Those with keen senses would also be able to perceive certain mystique that marked them as extraordinary even for that venerated level of power.

The only way to avoid that would seemingly be actual stealth. If, for example, they traveled entirely through the Void, there would be no one able to spot them… except the sentries and great weapons keeping watch there during the Lich War. Same went for any other measure of stealth, as they would need to tread the boundary between where their Domains couldn’t be hidden in plain sight, yet could be hidden from someone that could not perceive their holder at all. Not something they even could do and would be terribly suspicious during a Lich War. So instead, it was just two young Domain mages walking down the street.

Though literally everyone without knowledge to the contrary would assume them to be far older than they appeared. It was multitudes more likely they had just changed their appearance after all, as the vast majority of Domain mages had a third digit in their age. They drew eyes, sometimes even respectful nods and polite bows, but not anymore than a pair of openly walking Domain mages should expect. They finished their journey unaccosted. 

The building itself did not look outwardly too impressive. A rectangle with smooth white facade, only three stories tall with the top one having a few large windows concentrated to the left side and none on the right. Beneath it, the other floors were almost more glass than wall, tall and wide panes stretching from left to right and only stopping a bit away from the corners. Even the front door was integrated into that look, likewise made of glass.

“It’s shaped to look a bit like a contract,” Desir pointed out. 

Irwyn squinted, but could see it somewhat. The highest window-set standing in for a name or title of the authority it was based on, then the continuous windows under that for text. If it were any other place, he would have called the vague resemblance a coincidence rather than intent, but it fit the “school of binding” well enough to be true.

Irwyn could almost see the tension rise when they entered. The worker at the front desk—who they had seen laughing about something with a coworker during their approach—silenced themselves mid sentence, immediately shifting into a welcoming smile and ramrod straight back. Whatever there had been before was instantly replaced by almost fearful respect.

Their interaction thereafter was rather brief as they were being expected—just not quite so soon, Irwyn supposed—and were quickly ushered towards something of a waiting room, though luxurious enough to be a mansion’s lounge, placed right past the reception. Inside there was already a woman waiting, a Domain mage with a strange magic. Something vaguely disruptive and hard to catch, but Irwyn wasn’t sure what element that could be aligned with. Perhaps a prismatic one, even.

The woman glared at them when they entered, but refused to speak. Her apparent annoyance only intensified after their group started talking with each other, though they were no longer at a point where they couldn’t afford to talk in the presence of someone of that position.

Waylan was quickly called for to prepare his significantly simpler protective contract and Alice traveled with him. It was suggested by Desir who guessed that a non-mage might be treated harshly if they ran into an apprentice with the right mix of bigotry. The presence of a clear prodigy with higher bonds would pressure such hypothetical person and let Alice put them in their place.

When they were called into the Master Binder’s office, the waiting woman’s glare turned from annoyed to outright hostile. There was something that could almost be called murderous in her eyes. Irwyn’s didn’t need to guess who she wanted to see without an appointment. Nor whether the woman was particularly used to waiting on others.

Master Elsmith—as Irwyn had been forced to remember through repeated quizzing—would had his office near the bottom floor. Which required them to go down ten flights of stairs and past two separate checkpoints, led through by apprentice Whohadaname. The magic thrumming through the walls became more and more potent with every step, almost screaming with all the great protections embedded into them by the time they reach the structure’s lowest point. Or at least the lowest accessible one.

Once inside the office, there was no wasting time. Which seemed in character for the humble decorations presents. All of it just tools of work, raw materials, or finished contracts as far as Irwyn could tell. Not so much as a picture or painting decorating the empty spots on the walls. Elsmith got them seated while finished the last touches on another project, then immediately went to business.

“What about your Honing friend?” the Master asked, already looking for their contracts through the stack.. “It is best to not needlessly delay these things.”

“He came with us and should by now be talking to one of your apprentices,” Elizabeth explained.

To that, Elsmith frowned. His eyes twitched, reading through something at superhuman speed. After a pause, he spoke again: “Did he truly enter alongside you?” he reiterated. 

“Through the front door,” Desir nodded, a smile suddenly blooming on his lips.

“Who did he go to deal with?”

“Apprentice Kel, supposedly,” Elizabeth recalled. Irwyn had not even caught the name earlier.

“Very well,” the Master nodded. “It seems I have still underestimated your group, Elizabeth. For that, you have my apologies. Precedent has blinded me to this possibility when I should have discarded it.”

“What am I missing?” Irwyn asked. Because something was afoot, but he wasn’t sure what.

“Your friend has passed through all the protections put upon this building. Such as those that meticulously count when anyone enters the building or any of its sub-sections.”

“He has a penchant for sneaking,” Desir mused.

“These are currently calibrated to alert me against a Ravener infiltrating to slaughter my apprentices. It speaks to my misjudgment as to his capability. His contract will not be as strong as you two must have, but I shall make it personally. Speaking of, please read.”

What Irwyn and Desir were handed afterwards was far more comprehensive than the “temporary” contract he had signed after the Summit. For one, it was inscribed onto a scroll that seemed able to unroll far further than should be possible from its apparent breadth, allowing for many pages of text to ultimately fit onto a single unified “piece” of paper. An endless page. 

The fundamentals were the same, countless provisions that would by their terms prevent Irwyn from being resurrected as undead or his mind being controlled by them. There were several more ultra specific contingencies added to the already long list and that was mostly that for the terms. Much more interesting were the parts meant to empower the contracts effect and make it unbreakable, often by connecting the oath to several great anchors.

There was a standard fare that he already knew, including a listing of all the non-traitor Aspects which elicited some small sense of mysticism despite their ancient demise. Much more interestingly was the symbol of Conflagration, seared into the page and still actively burning. Clearly, the Archduke had deemed to personally empower the contract to some degree. 

At some point during his reading, Alice—and presumably also Waylan—entered the office. They discussed Waylan’s contract, which would be significantly shorter, but still had Alice dilating time for him to properly read through in less than the whole afternoon. It was clear his effort was several steps under what Irwyn and Desir were receiving, but it was still personal work by the Master Binder. His halfhearted effort likely surpassed anyone else’s best by a significant margin.

Eventually everyone managed to get proper grasp of all the terms, which was by itself a straining proposition, and ready to sign. They did so with their own blood on the straight line at the very top, then twice more in different spots. Irwyn’s distorted thumbprint worked perfectly well and Elsmith had also taken measures to ensure no disruption came from that direction.

“There is one last thing to keep in mind. The Rot is ultimately persistent beyond any mortal or immortal guile. If they are motivated enough, they will be able to bypass my best efforts. It will be tremendously expensive, difficult, and the contract has further clauses to diminish the result, as you just read, but it can be done nonetheless. You have surely heard of what had happened to the former Duke of Cyan. I had made him a contract comparable to this one, yet in the end it had mostly bought time before his return, not stripped him to an empty shell.”

“Hence…” Elizabeth concluded. “...it is the civic duty to ensure the Rot cannot get hold of a Domain mage’s body and Soul. Even if they have to destroy both themselves. Everyone knows as much." 

“Yes, everybody knows. Yet how many actually have the will to carry through?” Elsmith sighed. “Few of the Titled had been captured completely off guard, much less the Raveners. No, the majority clung onto false hope until the very last moment, until it was too late to deny inevitability its due. I know that it is much to demand—especially at your age—but I say these words for the day when they might make a difference, may it yet be centuries in the future.”

“Millennia, if I have anything to say about it,” Elizabeth declared, but nodded.

“Ambition does befit you two, that is true,” the Master chuckled. “You may go, but wait in the lounge for a few minutes. My people will bring you contract lodestones that glow when your contract is tethering on breach. Occasionally useful for snapping out of mind control and cheap as dirt compared to the contract itself.”

The woman in the lounge seemed even angrier when they came back, pacing back and forth. In her defense, they had spent quite a while downstairs, mostly due to reading the entire contract several times, understanding all the terms, then committing them to memory in order to empower the signing and thus the magic as a whole. Irwyn briefly considered making a jab, but decided the woman could still be surprisingly influential. Not that all Domain mages didn’t have influence, but things became relative at certain point.

Magic surged as Irwyn was distracted by those thoughts. A sea of power arranged itself into a paradoxical spikes that his senses couldn’t quite make a sense of, then shot forwards while Irwyn was caught completely off guard. But despite his conscious mind being a step behind, there were instincts ingrained deeper in his Soul that acted. From the years in the Trial where he had suffered innumerable such ambushes, coalescing into an instinct.

His barriers sprung up, establishing an immutable Firmament between their group and the projectiles. They tried to twist its very nature, insisting that the impenetrable was full of holes, and that the boundary of heavens was barely even a line in the sand. That insistence slammed against Irwyn’s mind and almost made him falter, but by that point his consciousness had caught up and put his full effort into the barrier.

It was a close thing. While their foundation was incredibly hasty and born of desperation, his opponent had only gathered the power for her spell an infinitesimal moment longer—as holding power in advance would spoil the attack. A difference more than compensated for by Irwyn’s incredibly ability to draw raw magic. From there it was a contest of Domains and their compatibility.

Irwyn’s STARFIRE insisted on a state of being while his opponent’s Domain, whatever it was, declared another. Disruption against perseverance, except the attacker was seemingly dedicated entirely to subverting and unmaking the natural order of things, giving it an edge. The defense was less so, but insurmountably. The conceptual foundation of the firmament as a barrier of absolute separation inherently had sore resistance to being twisted.

Then it came down to a war of mastery. Against a woman who likely had decades or even centuries of practice with what she did. Irwyn had talent and a bit of extra fuel to directly compensate for that. Had he not trained in the preceding months, he would have been overwhelmed. Instead, he was able to shortly hold on against what appeared to be a decent counter to his defenses,

A second barrier sprung just as the first shattered. The loss of raw magic was astronomical as Irwyn discarded it completely rather than try to reform and recycle its power. The sheer blast of that uncontrolled power caused the room to almost evaporated in the upcoming explosion, but it was too rootless to ever endanger a Domain.  

The second row of barriers briefly held again, then faltered. Then the third and fourth, the projectile swirling closer in those moments in between. It managed to get quite a bit closer to them, showing that while all of them had been attacked, the most death had been aimed at Desir.

Was that deliberate or just a target of opportunity? Desir was standing in front of Alice after all, and Waylan was invisible. He was also squishy enough that the chance of killing him was significantly higher than the other actual Domain mages that might more easily survive the alpha strike.

Either way, there was no fifth. Elizabeth slipped out of the Void and beheaded the attacking mage in a fell swoop. Her hands extended into claws that scattered any defenses and shredded even the very essence of her being. The moment of the woman’s death, her Soul departed, heading somewhere in a rapid speed. It had been greatly diminished by Elizabeth’s cut, but it would be possible to heal. 

Desir attempted to interrupt the Soul trying to escape, but his mastery was insufficient. For a split second he managed to halt the Soul, which promptly turned to him and initiated such retribution that Desir physically flinched before letting her go.

A moment later the alarms rang, powerful wards dampening down magic and restraining everyone with power even Irwyn would be unable to easily manage. Somewhat delayed, even if that previous battle had only taken a brief moment.

“That had been a living person,” Irwyn said. His nose had picked up nothing. Not a hint of Rot. The Master Binder invited them back down while building was under quarantine. 

Not that it seemed to matter to all the people inside who never had any intention of leaving during the next few hours. But it left their group basically stranded.

“Some people betray us,” Elsmith said. “Due to Blackmail, to resurrect a loved one, mind stolen by a dead hand… or sometimes the sheer enticement of power. Rarely does such happen to someone with a Domain, but it can. There are more ways my contracts prevent switching of sides rather than just a violent death. We will know more after the investigation, which might take anywhere between hours to days, depending on how serious it is treated”

“Was our schedule compromised?” Elizabeth demanded.

“No… not in the way you think,” the Master Binder sighed. “I have worked in complete secrecy and finished the contract minutes before sending for you through a secure line. And that woman had entered with a reasonable but urgent enough request that she would wait for my schedule to clear. It is merely… that I am old.”

“Why would your age matter?” Desir asked.

“There was no leak of information, children. The Rot merely perfectly predicted exactly how long it would take me to create the contract, who would be coming to receive it . This was not Fate—that would have been so much easier to counter—this was the Rot obsessively observing every decision they have ever seen me make until they understand the Federation’s best Binder better than he does himself.”