What We Do to Survive

“Master!” two voices chorused the moment the door shut behind me. I turned around to find Cayla and Briella together near the center of the room, both curtsying deeply with their heads bowed.

It seemed they’d decided to dress up for our meeting for some reason. Briella was wearing a flowing crimson dress with intricate gold embroidery along the sleeves and plunging neckline. Two openings just above her hips showed off smooth stretches of pale skin and she was wearing the same silver necklace she’d been wearing when I’d captured her weeks ago.

Compared to her friend’s rather bold outfit, Cayla was dressed much more conservatively in the traditional island-finery that I’d just started to get used to seeing around again. The simple gray dress had a shallow neckline that showed just the barest hint of her chest and covered her entirely down to her knees. Still, I had no doubt that it was much more ‘impressive’ than the dress mother had worn on special occasions. It looked like it was made from something more than just regular silk, the cloth shimmering and glinting with a rainbow of colors whenever I wasn’t looking at it directly, and there were small gems set along the hemline and at the end of each long sleeve.

“Good afternoon, girls,” I said after a moment. They both straightened up, though they kept their heads bowed and eyes turned towards the floor. “Let’s sit down, we have a lot to get through today.”

Cayla hurried over to the table, pulling out the chair at the head of the table for me, even as Briella silently took my bag and set it down on one of the empty chairs beside my own. Then they quickly scrambled to their own seats, standing behind the low back chairs with their hands folded behind their backs.

I glanced at them impatiently, “You can sit, don’t worry about that sort of disrespect when we’re alone. I grew up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, I don’t really stand on ceremony much.”

“Yes master.”

“Of course, sir.”

Once they were seated I leaned back in my seat, watching them. Cayla began to fidget nearly immediately, one of her legs tensing and relaxing over and over and her fingers twitching where she had her hands folded in her lap. Briella looked calmer on the surface, but this close to her I could feel her anxiety leaking into the bonds wrapped around her soul.

Whatever this was, I decided to try and get it out of the way before we started discussing anything serious, “Whatever it is, spit it out,” I ordered, clamping down on the spectral links I could sense between myself and the two of them.

The two exchanged a short, worried glance, and then spoke almost simultaneously.

“Are we doing a good job, Master?” asked Briella wide-eyed.

“How can we serve, Master?” Cayla added, almost speaking over Briella’s question.

Ah. I’d been worried about that. I closed my eyes and exhaled softly, considering how best to respond. It didn’t matter too much, I was confident in my magic, but I didn’t want to encourage any potentially self destructive behavior. Using such a powerful, intrusive binding had its advantages, but it also came with some… potential risks.

For one, the ritual had rewritten their priorities. To them, obedience and service was more important than anything. They would gladly die to fulfill my tiniest whim, which was good in theory, but also not something I really wanted to encourage. I’d ordered them from the start that spending their lives was an option of last resort, but having them cripple themselves or something similarly stupid in order to fulfill some ofhanded command would be an absolute waste of potential. There were few things I hated more than wasted potential.

Secondly, the ritual I’d used had warned of some… dependency issues arising in its victims. I’d hoped to sidestep some of those problems by giving the two girls a host of standing orders about their conduct and then sending them on an ‘important mission’ to blend back into the student body, but it seemed that hadn’t been quite enough in the end. I would have to take a slightly more active role in managing the duo or risk their mental states degrading into uselessness.

I wasn’t really looking forward to it, I had enough on my plate already as it was, but maybe I could see if offloading the responsibility to Miranda would work? Something to discuss with her once she’d recovered from her ordeal last night. Hopefully it wouldn’t take long, I’d ended up removing the original binding from her while she slept and I had high hopes that she would be in good shape by the time she had to go to class tomorrow.

I noticed that both of the girls were squirming in their seats and realized that not saying anything was probably one of the wrong choices here. Mental strain was one of the most serious risks associated with binding oaths, and also the reason I was so leary of swearing any myself. That kind of damage was nearly impossible to heal, even with high circle magic, and could accumulate over months, years, and even decades until it finally killed you. Messily. Hopefully I could learn how to avoid that sort of thing.

“Let's find out,” I ordered slowly, mulling over each word carefully. “How is your current mission going and what else have you been doing since?” After a moment's thought, I quickly added, “Start generally, I’ll ask any clarifying questions. Briella, go first.”

“Yes Master!” she exclaimed enthusiastically, her face visibly brightening even though she still wouldn’t look at my face. “My attempts to integrate back into the student body were successful. Several of my classmates asked me about what happened and I answered with our pre-planned story as instructed. A few of my classmates attempted to keep pestering me, but I believe I have successfully deflected further questions.”

“Good to hear. Continue.”

“As you instructed, I have dedicated much of my time to my academic pursuits. I have caught up on all my classwork that I missed during my training and am doing well in my classes. Outside of classes, I have been working to hone my potion-brewing and elemental spellcasting skills. However,” she fell silent for a moment, biting her lip and looking down into her lap. When she continued, her voice was filled with shame and self loathing, “I have run into some issues that I have been unable to address and fear may expose your secret. I apologize for my inadequacy and–”

She seemed like she was about to keep apologizing instead of getting to the point, and my experiences with Miranda had already taught me that that sort of behavior was not something I wanted to encourage in my people. That's how we got the sort of unfortunate misunderstandings that I’d learned about with Miranda in our meeting yesterday. “Get to the point,” I ordered.

Her mouth closed with a click, then she hesitantly continued, “My father, the current Lord of my family, has been trying to compel me to do something that would go against your interests using our family magic. I do not believe he is doing so intentionally, but without your bonding I would be completely incapable of resisting his pressure, and I fear he is becoming suspicious that something has happened to me.”

Huh. I leaned back in my seat, staring at her intently. Family magic was not something I had any familiarity with. It was one of those rather rare powers that few had and even fewer admitted to having. From what I’d come across in my reading, family magic was the manifestation of an ancient semi-intelligent spiritual being that bound itself to a bloodline. There was no known way of recreating the circumstances that had led to their existence in the modern day, nor any way to bind them to someone not born with that connection, so it was something you either had or didn’t. I didn’t know very many specifics, it had never been relevant to me after all, but I was certain Briella never would have told me anything about it without our bond. I needed to know more.

“Elaborate,” I ordered, “Tell me more about this magic.”

“Yes Master. I… I’m sorry Master, I can’t say everything, but I will try my best.”

Oh shit. That… was potentially bad if she was implying what I thought she was. Still, I wasn’t going to rush to any conclusions, but just in case… “Do not do or say anything that would cause you permanent harm, or alert someone to what you were doing,” I ordered quickly. Hopefully anything else would be covered by the commands she was already under.

“Yes Master,” she closed her eyes, then plugged her ears with her fingers and covered her eyes with her palms. Interesting. Very interesting. “My father’s family possesses a hereditary bloodline that came with a family magic spirit. The spirit is not directly bound to our souls, but, until our mana pools develop sufficiently, can touch them through the link between flesh and spirit. My father is the current head of our family and thus has more control of the bloodline spirit than anyone else in our family. One of the abilities this gives him is–” she paused, her entire body flinching back from some sort of phantom pain, but continued regardless, “This allows him to force us to obey certain orders. He is unable to target our minds as far as I know, but until the bond between us formed I was unable to resist his commands. Now, I believe the additions to my soul caused by the ritual you performed is interfering with this somewhat. I am nearly certain he can not sense what changed exactly, but he is definitely aware that I have not obeyed his most recent command.”

She shook herself, then opened her eyes and folded her hands back in her lap. “I believe that is the important part.”

I took a deep breath, then exhaled loudly. Okay. Probably not as bad as I was afraid, but still not good. I’d never even considered this eventuality, which immediately made it a serious concern. I would need to examine her before we were done here. I hadn’t noticed anything while I’d been holding her captive, but I also hadn’t known that I was looking for something at the time. Hopefully that would make a difference.

“And the order you’re not obeying?” I asked, somewhat afraid of what I was about to hear. I wasn’t sure what her father might have commanded her to do that would interfere with any of her current standing orders.

Instead of answering immediately, she reached up and removed her necklace, setting the simple silver disk on the table. Then she pressed her thumb into the back of the disk and I nearly fell out of my chair when the completely mundane necklace lit up with nearly invisible threads of mana spaced so tightly that it almost looked like just a simple blob to my senses.

Before I could ask what the hell she thought she was doing, or even finish cursing myself for apparently missing a magic item of that caliber when I’d stripped the duo, space beside the necklace warped and a tall glass vial, more a bottle really, appeared on the table beside it.

“This is an experimental self-enhancement potion I brewed using a recipe from my great-grandmother. It’s meant to awaken the dormant parts of my bloodline, but father ordered me to share it with my half-brother. That would go against your orders to better my magical talents as much as possible.”

I took another deep breath to calm myself, looking between Briella, the vial, and the once again completely mundane looking necklace. “That’s why he was with the three of you?” I asked speculatively.

“Yes master. Originally I planned to absorb it entirely myself, but my father ordered me to share it at the last moment.” She sounded… resentful, angry even.

Ah. I had a feeling I understood where this was going. “You weren’t happy about that.”

“No master. I was not.”

“And I’m guessing you don’t have a very good relationship with your father?”

“That is correct, master.” I raised an eyebrow and she elaborated, “My father does not like me. I think he saw my talent as a threat to himself and to my brothers’ legitimacy as heirs.” She paused, hands clenching into fists, “He was right to worry. Once I leave this place, his and my brothers’ days are numbered.” She paused again, then hurriedly added, “If that is your wish, master! I could provide much greater assistance as head of my family than I can on my own.”

Now that was very interesting indeed. It seemed that this was such a deep rooted goal that it had remained near the top of her goals despite the binding she was under. It had simply been… reshaped slightly, a desire to serve me better instead of for personal power for its own sake.

“I don’t see any issues with that. It will have to wait some time, but I may even be able to help with that some time in the future.”

“Master is too kind."

“I reward loyal service,” I said simply. “Now, tell me about this potion of yours.” I also wanted to know what the hell that necklace was, and examine it in detail as soon as possible, but that could wait.

I really hoped Cayla’s report would be simpler than this, or we’d be here all day.

Briella enthusiastically launched into a detailed explanation of her enhancement potion and its history, more of which than I would have liked ended up going over my head. In the end, the major details were rather simple. It was a highly specialized and narrowly focused bit of magic designed specifically to interface with her family’s fading bloodline. Her ancestors had once had an unmatched understanding of the Fire spellform, but it had been fading over the centuries until today it was a simple strong affinity instead. The potion was supposed to ‘rekindle’ the bloodline.

Her great-grandmother, an unremarkable archmage that served as her nation’s royal mage, had initially designed the potion for her husband, but he had passed away decades before the recipe had been completed. She’d then considered giving it to her still living children or grandchildren, but both had proven to be, in Briella’s words, ‘irresponsible and talentless hacks unworthy of their name’. Eventually, Briella herself had come along and received the recipe as a gift when she came to Avalon.

At some point the year before, when Briella was still gathering ingredients, her father had gotten suspicious and ordered her to tell him why she needed them. She was under an oath never to share the recipe with her current family, so her father had instead ordered her to make the potion and share it with her half-brother, who she hated slightly less than the rest of her family. The way she said it, I had a feeling that they were both being used as test subjects of their father, seeing if the potion would work before he tried it himself.

Briella had been on the way to do just that when Miranda and I had ambushed her group. Her father had seemingly believed that she’d managed to escape, and even complimented her on it, but hadn’t rescinded the order to share the potion, something Briella really didn’t want to do.

“I see,” I said slowly once Briella was done. “That is rather troublesome indeed. And how expensive exactly was this potion?”

“Rather,” she said remorsefully, “I apologize for using so many of your resources. I myself only spent seven hundred pieces, but my great-grandmother provided several very costly ingredients that I wouldn’t know how to find on my own.”

“I assume she wouldn’t be willing to give you another set?”

She shook her head, “She told me I had one chance and then I’d be on my own. I spent all of last year studying this sort of potion making to ensure I made no costly mistakes with it.”

“Annoying.” I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, deep in thought. “You are going to use that entire potion, I think,” I said eventually. “I’ll need to examine your soul before I make it an order, but that sort of direct command should override any external influences. Do you think your father would believe that the potion was damaged during the attack?”

“Maybe?” she said after a moment’s thought, “But I doubt it. I’m sorry, Master.”

I sighed again. It was always something. At the very least, Briella was already feeling much less… fidgety than she had been at the start of the meeting. It seemed proximity and directions were helping already like the book had said they would. Hopefully weekly magic tutoring would be enough to deal with it. Ugh, I hadn’t even spoken with Cayla yet, nor started to help direct their training, and I was already tired of this. Talking to people was exhausting sometimes.

“We’ll figure it out. Do you have anything else you’d like to tell me?”

“Nothing significant, Master.”

“Good.” I turned to Cayla, who had been fidgeting silently in her seat while I was speaking with her friend. “What do you have for me?”