[Kliss Elisa Cessna]

I sat in my office rubbing my head tiredly. When it wasn’t the blood Elks it was Mire Beetles, when it wasn’t the Mire Beetles it was Majun Wolves. There were lots of things in the forests of Skyisle and they liked to hunt in packs. While decimating these monster packs with my armacus 99 was easy, it was also tiresome and I was getting absolutely nothing out of it - no experience, no levels, no sense of personal satisfaction or happiness - nothing.

A knock resounded on my door.

“What is it now, Wiklogg?” I grumbled, pushing a bit of mana into [Unlock Door] hexagram on my desk.

The door swung open, revealing absolutely nothing.

“Uhm?” I looked at the empty space.

I heard the sound of footsteps. A floating head appeared in the air as an invisible hand pulled the invisible hood off. The face of my nemesis, twelve-year-old Dante Alan Skyisle stared at me.

I groaned.

“Nice to see you too, Overseer,” Dante flashed me a smile.

“What do you want, Dante?” I asked. “I gave you the cloak so you would leave me alone.”

“I’d like to borrow some money,” Dante said.

My eye twitched. “Money?”

The cheeky bastard was robbing me!

“You have money, yes? The Empire pays you, right? I’d like some compensation for being murdered,” he said.

“Do you even know how much that cloak is worth?” I hissed.

“A single invisibility cloak isn't good enough to pay for what you've done," he insisted.

"I can't give you my salary or the Overseer's budget for Skyisle," I gritted my teeth, my eye twitching wildly. "My primary Vow prevents such an action."

"I don’t want all of your money," he said. "I just want to borrow an Ishikarian silver, a gold and the Imperial equivalents. I’ll bring them back, promise.”

“Will you leave me alone if you do?” I dug through my wallet, producing a couple of each coin. I placed them on the desk in front of Dante. “There you go, now please leave.”

The silver-haired teenager scooped up the coins with invisible arms and made the smallest nod in my direction. “Thanks, Kliss.”

“Get out,” I growled. “You don’t need to bring these back.”

“Okay, bye.” Dante put the cloak back on. “I’m staying in Agamemnon by the way, not Skyisle.”

“What?” I barked. “I can’t protect you in Agamemnon!”

“Protect me? You’re the worst protector I’ve had, Kliss!” An annoyed invisible voice resounded from the door. “Great-Aunt Delta will be taking care of me, you don’t have to worry about my safety.”

The sound of retreating footsteps went down the stairwell. I tried to keep my face from twitching uncontrollably. This was fine. Friends were free to do whatever they wanted to. I didn’t have to chase after him or try to stop him. I wasn’t spying on the house of the Alans. Definitely not. I was just making sure that my friends are safe. That damn boy has been eluding me, using the cloak to vanish somewhere throughout the past two weeks. He wasn’t staying with his parents. He wasn’t safe!

What if he slipped on a wet rock, rolled down the cliff and fell into the Valley of Death? That would be extremely unsafe! The friendship Vow squeezed my heart.

I had no way of tracking him, when he was wearing my cloak, no way to make sure he was safe. It was aching, stabbing my soul every time he vanished to somewhere unknown.

The pain in my chest intensified, grew beyond tolerance. I got out of my chair and rushed after Dante. I had to keep the Alans safe! It was my job!

I followed the boy at a distance, using the [Long Ear] to listen to his footsteps. Thankfully, the cloak didn’t conceal the sound of his movements and breathing. He went across the village to the edge and exited from the path, walking past the light of the last lantern. Exiting from the path was dangerous! His Soul-Song wasn’t attuned! I had to keep him safe! I froze, twitching. If I exposed myself, pulled him back, he’d know that I was tracking him and then I’d never find out where he was going.

I had the [Phantom-sight] skill and the armacus had an in-built hex to drive the ghosts away. Safe… at a distance. I could always rush to him if he required aid. Yes. I’m a perfect, excellent friend.

Dante walked to a rocky outcropping and paused. I paused too, hiding behind a rock.

“Why are you following me, Kliss?” He yelled.

I choked. How the hell did he notice me? I was being as sneaky as a fox! No, sneakier! LV20 monsters didn’t even detect me when I moved through the forest with my [Ranger LV 22] skill. There was no sense of hiding from him.

I stood up, revealing myself. “I’m just… making sure you’re safe. You and your family are my friends.”

Dante walked up to me. “Are we your friends?”

“Of course you’re my friends. My best friends in the world,” I choked out, gripping my chest.

“Those Vows are doing a number on you, huh?” He commented.

“You have no idea,” I gritted my teeth. “You shouldn't go outside the path, Dante. A Phantom could rip out your defenseless soul, take your body and then I’d have to…” I twitched. “Please... just go back to the village.”

“You’d have to do what?” He raised an eyebrow. “Kill me?”

The pain in my chest became unbearable. I folded inward, trying not to cry.

“Lets not speculate about such things,” I whimpered. “I’ll keep you safe, no matter what. It’s what I have to do.”

“Nobody hired you to be my bodyguard, Kliss.” Dante said.

“Your Great-Aunt did, when she put the Vow on me,” I was blinking tears out of my eyes. “Please just stay on the path. I…”

Dante pulled back part of his cloak. A hex-lantern was hanging from his belt. “I’m safe, alright? I’ve got a lantern, see? Go home, Overseer.”

“I… can’t go home,” I muttered before I was able to stop myself. Lying to the Alan boy was incredibly painful, the words slipped out of my mouth on their own whenever he asked me anything.

“Why not?”

“I already told you - I can’t go back to Cessna. It’s been more than a decade. My friends there have all gotten to higher levels, moved on.”

“How many aberrations have you killed, Overseer?” Dante inquired. “Answer me honestly.”

I choked, feeling an invisible, icy spike piercing through my heart. “One.”

“Me?”

“Yes,” I cried. “You.”

“Go back to the Church of Equality, I’m safe,” Dante insisted. “Great-Aunt Delta is with me, right now. You can’t see her, but she’s keeping me safe. In fact, she told me that you were following me.”

“F-fine,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes. I looked away from the silver-haired boy back to Skyisle village. Enormous windmills slowly spun beneath wispy clouds. “Just promise me to be careful, okay?”

“I don’t have to promise you anything, Kliss.” Dante shook his head. “I owe you nothing. You’re not my mom.”

“Fair,” I uttered. I put one foot in front of the other, heading away from Dante back to Skyisle. He was safe. Beemancer Delta was with him. She was an incredibly talented and skilled wizard, she had disarmed, completely destroyed me.

Eventually, I was back in my office. The cold surface of the metal table greeted my face as I held my head between my arms and wept. I didn’t know how long I could keep going. The pressure of the two Vows grew. A single problem that made the Vows compete could send me over the edge, completely tear my soul asunder.

The blue orb embedded in the middle of my desk flashed. I quickly wiped away my tears and pressed on the “accept call” hexagram.

A mask-covered face projected itself from the orb.

“Overseer Kliss Cessna, I presume?” The Imperial Inquisitor asked, his blank, mirror-mask face looking at me.

“Yes,” I nodded.

“I am Inquisitor Jubz Ziegler Cessna,” Inquisitor Ziegler said with a monotone voice. “State the confirmation password.”

“Omega-one-six-parcel-beta-eleven,” I muttered today’s password.

“Correct.” Inquisitor Ziegler nodded. “Beta-two-one-six-five.”

“Correct.” I nodded, after a minute of mental calculation. The Imperial code system was our best defense against aberrations, since they didn’t actually get the original person’s full memories, only bits and pieces. For a thousand years it kept our Empire safe against ghosts.

“How can I be of service, Inquisitor?”

“Your four-year term as the Overseer of Skyisle ends soon,” the Inquisitor said. “What are your plans when it does?”

“I’d like to renew my contract as Overseer of Skyile for another term,” I answered.

“Why?” The Inquisitor asked. This was standard procedure. Another Inquisitor had asked me the same questions four years ago.

“I have friends in Skyisle,” I explained as I always did for twelve years now.

“You don’t want to be promoted to a more lucrative position in a less remote region?” The Inquisitor suddenly went off-script.

“Ughm,” I choked, not expecting him to say this. “Will it require me to leave Skyisle?”

“It would.” Inquisitor Ziegler nodded.

“Then my answer is - no,” I said, my heart aching. This could have been my way out of this accursed place, but I couldn't leave the Alans! I had to keep them safe!

"You are a legionnaire now, you've served your ten years as Acolyte for the Imperium. You are thirty one and have remained single, as I can see in my records. You don't want to settle down somewhere safer, further away from a magogenic fault?" The Inquisitor pried open a can of worms I didn't want opened.

"I'm happy where I am," I lied, knowing that the truth-spells didn't work across the communication orb.

“Very well,” the Inquisitor muttered. “I’ll be seeing you in a few months then.”

“W-what?” I stammered.

“This is standard protocol,” he said. “You've been in... um... Skyisle and exposed to the local Level-capping fault for twelve years now. It could have unforeseen impact on your job performance, body and mental state. I have to perform a psychological and health evaluation in person, observe you for a week, ask you a few questions. Don’t worry, it won’t take away from your duties. You won’t even notice my presence.”

I nodded, screaming inside my head.

“Equality steady your heart, Overseer,” the Inquisitor said.

“Equality steady your heart, Inquisitor,” I replied.

I didn't even mean it. My faith in Equality was bent, crumbling just like my soul. Over the years the Vows had broken, twisted me from within beyond recognition. What the Empire was doing was monstrous, wrong. Killing children was wrong. I now knew that there was a better way - Tamara brought Dante back to life... aberration free! There was a way to banish aberrations from people by bringing them to the edge of death!

The blue orb darkened. I was fucked. Absolutely, utterly fucked. There was no way that I would be able to pass a psychological evaluation, fool his truth-sensing skills! He’d find out! He’d find out and then he’d kill me and then kill the Alans for putting a competing Vow on me!

Argh! ARGHHH!!

I slammed my face into the metal table. The pain in my forehead didn’t help me one bit, didn't compare to the pull of the [Friendship] Vow.

I was doomed, screwed utterly and irrevocably and nobody would help me.

The noose on my soul tightened. With each heartbeat, each breath I was drawing closer and closer to my inevitable end. It was only a matter of time before the ironclad fist of the Empire would close over my freckle-spotted neck.