[Kliss Eliza Cessna - Equality Legionnaire, the Overseer of Skyisle]

I haven’t properly slept in days. I was losing it completely, losing myself to stress, losing hours and days as I stalked Skyisle like a red-caped shadow. According to the spell-markers I had placed around 117 Longwoods Road, Dante was coming and going out of the house of the Alans at random. His randomness was causing me irritation and a growing sense of dread. I didn’t know why the boy was lying to me. I knew that he wasn't going to Agamemnon.

Something had changed in him recently, shifted his personality, made him fearless and focused. I had no idea what it was, no clue what could cause a child to suddenly act as he had, to talk down to me as if he was older and more experienced.

Maybe it was Mage Delta. Maybe she used a spell on him, whispered into his ear what to tell me, tormented me through the boy.

I knew that Dante was protected by his Great-Aunt, but I still wanted to know where he was going and why. Dante and Delta were an inexplicable, confounding mystery that haunted my every waking moment, occupied the entirety of my thoughts. Delta didn't fit into Skyisle, didn't make sense. I had never seen what she looked like. Just thinking about her filled me with despair.

. . .

I thought I knew what the meaning of life was.

Twenty one years ago, a ten-year-old girl had stepped into the Cessna Cathedral of Equality. She had walked towards the long line of children and waited patiently beneath the arches of white stone. She was young, bright and talented. She knew enough mathematics to unlock the Soul-Song and she wanted to become a citizen of the Empire. The Priest had evaluated her, checked her over for prior Vows and once she was declared clear, she passed into the Room of Declaration. There, she read the Vow written beneath the pedestal of Goddess Equality, glancing at the beautiful, enormous, white-winged statue. She believed with her entire heart, believed that she was destined for greatness, believed in her purpose and knew exactly what she wanted out of life. Nine years later, she had upgraded her citizen’s Vow to an Overseer’s one.

I was no longer that girl. Something vital had broken in me, snapped. It didn’t just happen during the ten years of misery in Skyisle. It didn’t happen when Beemancer Delta made me declare the Vow of Friendship. It happened earlier, when the Vow of Equality aimed my armacus at Cassandra Alana Skyisle and made me press the trigger.

Yes, I remembered killing her. The memory came to me in dreams over the years, as flashes of my first murderous rampage across the house of the Alans.

Delta wasn’t just a Beemancer... she was a Rewinder. She had rewound the entire house with me inside it, a job that would take ten average academy mages to do. Her level had to be in the hundreds for such a task.

I knew that the memories were true, because Delta had even told me herself “You do not remember it, but you killed Cassandra and Georgi.” These words had hammered at my conscience for a decade until nothing remained of the grand walls I've built to hold myself up.

I really killed two people that day and then killed Dante with a knife. I didn't even do it on my own accord, the Vow to Equality had made me into its tool by taking my right to choose my path away from me.

It took me years to realize it… but there was no justice, no Equality in this world. I had allowed the Overseer's Vow to rule me, to guide me as I closed my eyes instead of thinking or acting for myself. The Friendship Vow had taken my strongest skill - [Healing of the Faithful]. It was a potent Vitality skill that healed injuries on my body rapidly.

. . .

The manifestation of the Overseer’s Vow loomed over me, holding the strings to my soul in his hands. The illusory legionnaire wanted me to come clean, to call the Inquisitor and to confess my sins. If I did, the Inquisitor would come sooner with a squadron of legionnaires. He would either immediately execute me for my failures or take me to Cessna for a Tribunal where my crimes would be judged. The end result would be the same if not worse as the Equality priests had ways of making the sinners suffer a fate worse than death.

“I won’t let you lead me anymore,” I told the Overseer’s Vow. “I’m not afraid of you.”

The faceless legionnaire tilted his head to the right in misapprehension.

“Hold him,” I spoke to my other Vow.

The manifestation of the Vow of Friendship, shaped like a person made from bees spun around the legionnaire, setting him alight with brilliant flares of fiery stings. He screamed silently, fighting with the swarm-shaped vow, dropping the strings that had once held me like a marionette.

I ignored the pain in my soul, wincing as the Soul-Song sang about falling numbers. I stood up from my office chair, took off my armor and cape, leaving only a white dress on. I stepped out of the Church of Equality, walking to house number 117 on Longwoods Road.

Step by step I made it there, bearing through the pain, burning through my mana reserves. I knew that I wouldn't last long, but thankfully Armacus 99 had a [Soul Repair] spell in it. As long as I shot myself with it, I could keep moving.

When I reached the markers they told me that the house was empty. Dante hadn’t come back from wherever he was hiding and Cassandra was out tending to the gardens of Skyisle with her daughter Diana.

I sighed and looked at the woodworking workshop that stood atop the river. The tracker markers linked to the armacus told me that Georgi was there. I walked across the little wooden bridge that connected the workshop to the path and knocked on the door.

“Yes?” The sawdust covered face of Georgi Alan Agamemnon emerged from within. He saw me and froze.

“Overseer?” His eyes became two thin slits. His muscles tensed up. There was a wood-carving steel blade in his hands. He was strong and quick. I knew that with a single swing he could cut my neck open.

The Overseer’s Vow demanded I aim the armacus at him, to shoot him before he attacks me. My hands twitched, but did not move. The Vow were fighting each other.

“What do you want of me, Redcape?” Georgi growled.

“I… came to apologize,” I said. “For everything I’ve done.”

“What have you done?” He asked, still holding the knife.

The pain in my soul became unbearable. My arm tried to arm the armacus on its own.

“P-please put the knife away,” I hissed. “I can’t hold back the Overseer’s Vow f-forever. I d-don’t want to hurt you, damn it.”

“Ah,” he looked down at the knife he was holding. “Right.”

The carpenter stepped back and placed the knife on the shelf. He dusted himself off and emerged onto the sunlit bridge. “Happy?”

I nodded. “L-lets go into the y-our house.”

. . .

“Well?” He asked as I sat down on a couch in the living room of the Alans.

“Twelve years ago I hurt your son because I believed that he was an aberration,” I said, wincing as his knuckles whitened.

“I thought that was you,” he said. “Nobody else can get in and out of our ward.”

“I’m the Overseer of Skyisle,” I muttered. “It’s my job…”

“Do cut the chit-chat, Overseer, what do you want from me?” He pressed.

“I want to leave Skyisle,” I confessed. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to be an Overseer.”

I gasped, folding inward, nearly falling into darkness as my heart stopped momentarily.

[-1 in Soul]

The Soul-Song resounded.

“So leave!” He declared.

“I c-can’t,” I whimpered, unable to hold back the tears running down my face. I felt that my insides were being sliced with a thousand fiery strings.

“Why not?” He asked and then he noticed my distraught expression. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Mage Delta forced me into a Vow to watch over you!” I cried. “It’s in conflict with my Vow as Overseer!”

“Ah,” Georgi paused, thinking over my declaration.

“W-where is D-delta? Where is Dante?” I asked, shuddering as the pain slowly lessened.

“Agamemnon,” he replied. “She’s teaching magic to Dante.”

“It’s not true,” The Friendship Vow yelled through my lips before I could stop it.

“It’s not?” He raised an eyebrow.

“T-they aren’t going to Agamemnon,” I shook my head. “I’d know if someone was teleporting in and out of Skyisle. It would require a ton of power and leave a huge signature. I can’t watch over him if I don’t know where he is!”

“Hhrmm,” Georgi sat next to me, pondering my words. His hate and anger was gone. He seemed to display an unexpected understanding all of a sudden.

“H-how many Alans are there?” I asked with a stutter.

“Five,” he replied. “Me, Cass, Dante, Diana and… Delta.”

“Right,” I muttered. “I need you to get everyone together in this house and then all of us need to leave Skyisle.”

“Why?”

“An Imperial Inquisitor is coming to check up on me,” I said. “He will find out that Delta put a Vow on me. He will find out what it is and then execute all of you for tampering with an Overseer.”

“Oh,” the carpenter stilled, his face growing pale. “That’s not good.”

I nodded. “We need to leave as soon as possible. Once we reach Agamemnon I’ll go into the Imperial tower and declare that I’m unfit to serve as Overseer and…”

I realized that I couldn't declare that I was unfit, couldn't even quit properly because the Priest would see that I had another Vow on me!

“We can’t leave Skyisle,” Georgi shook his head.

“Why the shit not?” I growled. “Do you not understand the danger you’re in?!”

“Cass has a Vow,” he replied. “She can’t leave Skyisle.”

My heart felt like it wanted to rip its way out of my chest. “Damn it all,” I hissed. “Damned Vows!”

“Damned Vows,” he nodded with a forlorn look.

“C-can I stay here until Dante shows up?” I asked. “I honestly… don’t know what to do. I need to talk to Delta. Maybe she can figure something out. I’m so tired. I haven’t rested once in twelve years. I just want to be done, to be done with all of this, with your family, with Skyisle, with my job as Overseer, with the Empire.”

[-2 in Soul]

Both of the Vows struck me at once in that instance.

I screamed in pain and desperation, gasping for breath as my organs and bones ignited, as my nerves caught fire from within.

I fell onto the couch, folded in on myself, twitching, fighting the all-consuming pain.

My finger tapped the armacus, casting [Soul-repair] on myself again and again, the bracelet keeping me barely alive, barely conscious.

I was done. It was out of my hands now. I’ve picked a side. Perhaps it was the wrong choice, but I didn’t want to be a killer of children. I didn’t want to be a tool, a little gear that held up the vast machinery of Imperial might in this god-forsaken valley.

If I died now I wouldn't go into the eternal embrace of Equality, wouldn't enter the heaven she offered. I had resisted killing an aberration, fought with her Vow for a decade and would likely be cast in to the endless darkness for these sins.

I suspected that the heaven Equality offered us all was false. As false as the Vows that controlled people, putting fake smiles on the faces of servants of the Empire.