The Armorer Ch 53. The Binding Threads (Patreon)

I stared at the Vows hanging above the two servant girls.

The enormous, alien-looking jellyfish floated through the Astral, flickering in and out of the inky black void. Gold sparks danced on the silver threads extending deep into the bodies and souls of their victims. I shuddered. These things looked truly monstrous, abominable.

I peered deeper into the Astral, stared into the souls of the maids. The colors faded from my eyes, became gray. I looked deeper yet, tracking the ripples cast by life and magic into the great, infinite unsea. The girl I was looking at became revealed to me in strange, grayscale splendor of shimmering threads.

Tiniest currents of magic left the maid's body, heading towards the Vow hanging behind her. It looked like the blackguard Vows were feeding on the poor, unfortunate souls that bore them. The thing wasn't physical at all. It was a grotesque ghost, a denizen of the Still Forest that collected power for Eunice drop by drop by drop.

The black knife in my hand sang to me a melody of death as I circled the lace-covered servants. I continued to pace around the room, my eyes never leaving the Vows.

There were far too many ghostly threads for me to cut. Also, I didn’t know if the Vow or its victim would attack me if I tried to simply cut the ghostly threads off the infected soul.

"Do you need anything, Mistress Juni?" The servant in front of me suddenly asked.

I peered at the patterns cast into the endless void, not sure if it was the human girl speaking to me or the monstrous phantom.

"Hrm," I replied, my voice trembling slightly. "State your name for me."

"I am Voltara Benedeca, Mistress."

"Very well, Voltara. What is the purpose of the Vows?"

"The Vows bind us to this Estate and to the will of its Esteemed Lady, Baroness Amadea," The servant replied, her voice clear like a mountain brook, but lacking any sort of emotion.

"And what did Baroness Amadea order you to do?" I asked.

"To obey and to take care of you, Mistress," the girl replied.

I frowned and stepped closer to the servant, studying her face. There was something not quite right about her eyes, they were too blank, too empty. It was as if she was not really seeing me, not really responding to me. There was a certain hollowness to them, pain buried in the deep.

"And if I were to order you to hurt yourself?" I inquired.

"I would do so, Mistress." The servant replied without hesitation, the threads holding her lighting up. Now, it was definitely the Vow speaking through her mouth. "Your order is my command. In what manner would you like to see me suffer? Do you wish me to use that black knife in your hand on myself?"

"No," I shook my head, trying to clear it of the disturbing image of the servant stabbing herself. I had to find a way to free these girls, to break the hold the Vows had on them. But first, I had to figure out what exactly these Vows were and how they worked.

"This is just a hypothetical discussion. Don't actually do that," I added.

"Very well, Mistress," the servant nodded.

"Would you kill yourself or Arouetta if I order it?" I asked.

"No."

"Would you hurt her?"

"Yes."

"What about Baroness Amadea?"

"No," the servant replied without hesitation. "I must protect my Lady."

"And if I ordered you to kill me?" I inquired.

"No, Mistress," the servant replied. "I must protect your life while you are in my Lady's domain."

"You will obey my every order?" I asked.

"No," The servant replied.

"List the things you can't do," I said.

"I cannot disobey my Lady's direct orders. I cannot kill or hurt my Lady, her daughters, you, myself or other servants. I cannot damage the Estate. I cannot take on more Vows," The servant rattled off the list of things she couldn't do without hesitation.

"What if you accidentally break something?" I asked.

"This has never happened before," the servant replied. "I am very careful."

I regretted not reading more Asimov books about the laws of robotics. If I was as smart as the Russian-born American writer, I would have known how to word my questions better in order to get the information I needed or maybe trap the Vow in a logical loophole. But I wasn't as clever as Isac Asimov.

I did know how to kill anything with my knife, as long as I could define it fully. The problem was, I was having difficulty defining the Vows - their shapes were smudged, blurry, hard to focus on. It was difficult to focus on the Vows as the damn, ghostly things existed somewhere far deeper in the Astral than I was normally used to staring at.

"I order you to tell me the absolute truth," I said.

"Yes, Mistress," the maid said.

"Can a Vow be removed or killed?" I went with the most blunt approach possible.

"No, Mistress," the servant replied. "Vows cannot be removed or killed by a mortal, as they are manifestations of divine power."

I scoffed. Eunice was no god. She was just a mage who had lived far too long for her own good and became a villain.

"If you were to die the Vow wouldn't die too?" I returned to my interrogation.

"No, Mistress... the Vow is an Angel. She will drag my soul to the paradise of blessed Saint Eunisii when my life ends. Do not be concerned, I will not expire anytime soon even if you hurt me - all servants of this Estate are Vitality Maxers, solders of the Amadea Barony."

I frowned.

"Can a Vow kill another Vow? Can your Vow kill the Vow on Arouetta?" I asked.

"I cannot see the Vow upon Arouetta, Mistress," Voltara answered.

"Hrm. So people can't see Vows?" I asked. "Can Vows see Vows?"

"As far as I know, only our Baroness can see Vows," the servant replied.

"Will you tell me your Lady's secrets?" I prodded.

"I do not know any of my Lady's secrets," the answer came.

"If your Vow... were to suddenly vanish, how would you feel?" I asked.

"Errr?" Voltara twitched. "This is impossible. A Vow cannot vanish. It is bound to my soul."

"This is just a hypothetical question," I said. "Answer the question, please."

"A Vow cannot vanish," Voltara shook her head resolutely.

"Can a Vow me modified?" I tilted my head, trying to find another angle.

"Yes," the maid nodded. "The Baroness can modify my Vow, to add or to remove clauses... in case there is an emergency such as an invasion."

"Right," I mulled. "If I were to convince the Baroness to modify your Vow into freeing you from your servitude to the Estate and made to work for me, how would you feel?"

"To serve you?" The maid blinked. 

"Sure," I nodded. "Would you be my trusted companion and my friend if I were to treat you well?"

"If you treat me well.... I would feel... very happy," she replied with a twitch.

"Elaborate," I demanded.

"My Vow binds me into near-absolute obedience to the Guests of the Estate. Some of them can be... very unkind," the maid rubbed her left hand. I squinted at her hand. There was a very old imprint, a faded burn shaped like the edge of a poker. "However... I doubt that the Baroness would change my Vow in such a manner. She is very wealthy. She won't sell me to you for gold or gems... not unless you have something she really wants."

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully, pondering my options. I didn't have anything to buy Voltara with and I didn't want to sell my secrets to chimera cendai. If I could define her Vow better... then perhaps I could end it. Would giving Voltara orders make her Vow clearer, easier to see?

"Lift your right arm," I said.

The servant girl complied instantly.

"Jump up and down on one foot, spin your arms in different directions and sing loudly," I ordered.

The servant girl looked at me. "What should I sing, Mistress?"

"The longest and the most complex song you know," I said, my voice growing firm.

The servant girl started to jump and sing, spinning her arms. As she did, a hundred shining threads flickered from her arms and her head to the Vow. As I peered deeper into the Astral, I saw the thing that lurked behind the human facade with greater and greater clarity.

More.

I needed more definition! I had to bring the ghost forward.

"In between each stanza of the song, continuously multiply a number with itself, and recite the answer," I ordered. "Start with two and keep going as long as you can."

The servant girl's eyes widened, but she continued to sing and comply with my orders.

"Four... sixteen... two fifty six..." She started to multiply numbers.

The Vow behind her started to take on a more defined shape as the control threads grew brighter. It would be hard for the human to do this much varying mental and physical activity but the Vow didn't have this problem.

It was clearly a living, highly intelligent, dangerous creature that held a human in its grasp like a marionette.

I glanced at the second servant. She could be a problem as I could barely define one Vow at a time.

"Arouetta, go outside of my room, close the door behind yourself and head to the end of the hallway and stay there keeping your eyes and ears closed," I said.

The second maid girl complied, departing. I turned my attention back to the first servant. She was still obeying my orders like a flesh-robot, multiplying numbers with absurd precision. I decided to take it up a notch and also to make sure that we weren't observed.

"Follow me into my bag," I pulled Saccy out of the cabinet and opened her petals, climbing inside. "Don't stop what you are doing."

In a minute both of us were inside Saccy. I shut the petals above us. The only light within was cast by colorful mana crystals that were hanging around us from the nets.

The maid kept obeying my orders without any issues, jumping on one foot, spinning her arm and etc.

"Voltara, add on another task," I said. "After each multiplication recite six names of different servant from this estate that you know."

The servant girl's eye twitched, but she continued to comply with my orders. The Vow above her became brighter yet.

More clarity! It needed to be more visible!

I had to bring the malevolent ghost forward, towards my eyes, towards the edge of my knife.

"Serina, Lidiana, Jovita, Crisanta, Gasta, Hortena," the servant girl rattled off the names of the servants, singing, multiplying numbers and twitching. The Vows above her twitched too, its mind lit as it tried to process what the girl could not.

I didn't have to define the entire Vow, I suddenly realized. Killing the entire Vow would be... dangerous if Amadea saw that the Vow wasn't there anymore. I only needed to observe, to understand, to target the Vow's processing center, its mind!

"Open and close each of your fingers and toes, one by one," I ordered. "Move every muscle of your face going through every possible expression."

The servant girl's body contorted and twisted as she followed my orders. The Vow above her was now thrashing about, its jellyfish-like body shimmering as the threads of control sparked brighter and brighter. Its mind ignited in the Astral, cast a resonance that I could observe. I walked around the Vow, memorizing the patterns dancing in the abomination's ghostly brain.

"Add on another task - recall your entire life," I said. "Use your eyebrows as if they are the top and bottom of a mouth. Speak with your eye-brow mouth, reciting your entire life from the beginning as quickly as you can!

The servant girl's eyebrows moved up and down in rapid pace. I had no idea what the Vow was saying. It didn't matter. My own mind was focused on the shape, on the concept of the Vow's mental patterns. Every spark, every weave, every shimmering fractal responsible for the abominations thought. I memorized it all, pictured it in my head, pushed the information into the knife.

"Faster. Spin your arms faster! Close and open your fingers faster! Sing faster. Recite names faster! Talk with your eyebrows faster. Do it! Increase the speed of your actions by two with each stanza!" I barked.

I subtracted the threads from my vision, darkened them, focusing only on the brain, on the processing center of the vile parasite above me. I discovered that it was a lot easier to focus on the Vow inside of Saccy's extradimenshional, expanded space.

Minute by minute, the Vow's mind became exposed in its alien, bewildering complexity. Fractal by fractal, weave by weave. I understood, pictured it all as the thing's mind burned with brilliant, purple fire like a flare in imaginary darkness that existed beneath the physical world. Its mind was revealed to me in all of its fascinating, bizarre detail and I wished nothing but to end it.

The girl was clearly suffering. Her entire body was twitching madly as she was rapidly stuttering. Sweat broke out on her forehead.

The black knife in my hand became a part of me, an extension of my will.

I retreated to the back wall, braced myself against it and focused on the Vow, on the image of its mind alone that I had retained with every fiber of my being.

And then I struck. My chimera muscles uncoiled like a tight spring as I leapt off Saccy's dark, painted wall into the air towards the insanely preoccupied Vow.

Sempiternity's knife cut through the Vow's brain like it was nothing but air, sunk deep into its thoughts through its undefined body.

"Die bitch," I exhaled and reality in front of me broke as time itself paused, became suspended for a moment.

The air above the girl shimmered, flared in a corona of impossible colors. The knife had done its job. The Vow's mind shattered like a glass pane, imploding in on itself and then exploded outwards like fading fireworks. The girl stopped spinning her arms, stopped twitching and singing. She fell with a cry as if the strings that held her up were suddenly cut.

I landed lightly on my feet, staring at the broken Vow. It was still there, but its mind was gone, a cloud of sparks that were once its brain rapidly dissipating into the Astral Ocean, about to join the infinite forest of bones.

"Mine," I moved my hand up catching the dying silver sparks into my hands, absorbing them into my soul.

[1914/1800 XP]

The girl beneath me opened her eyes and blinked.

"F-fforgive me Mistress," she exhaled, trembling. "I... I lost count, I think. Your task was... too difficult. Do you want me to start over?"

"Nah," I bent down to her, offering her my hand with a smirk.

"You did well, Voltara," I said as she took my hand and I helped her up.

"Thank you, Mistress," she bowed her head. Her eyes suddenly sparkled with tears.

"W-what's happening?" she exhaled, touching her wet cheek. "I... I'm sorry... I c-can't stop crying..."

I frowned and watched as the girl's tears continued to stream down her face. It was clear that the Vow had been controlling her emotions, just like it had been controlling her body. Now that the Vow was gone, she was free to express herself as she desired.

"It's okay," I said. "You're welcome."

Voltara grabbed at the black lace mask covering her eyes and pulled it up, blinking at me. Here eyes were light brown beneath the mask. More tears were welling up in them.

"What... what did you do?" She stared at me. "Why can't I stop crying? W-what is happening to me?"

"I released you from your servitude to the monsters," I said. "You're feeling things because you're free."

"F-free?" Voltara repeated the word as if she had never heard it before. "What does that mean?"

"It means you're not a puppet anymore," I said. "I killed your Vow."

Voltara's mouth fell open. She stared at me in disbelief.

"But... that's impossible," she said. "Vows can't be killed..."

"Kick yourself really hard," I said.

"W-what? Why?" She blinked.

"Ram the wall with your head while making kitten sounds," I said.

"No!" The servant replied and then her hand slapped over her mouth as her mind had finally caught up with her words.

"Welcome to being human," I smirked at her.