“Lia, Brom wishes to speak with you.” Amelia said. “He says he wishes to surrender.”
Lia dropped the book she was holding in shock. “What?” She exclaimed. “Was his visit really that demoralizing?!”
“I don’t know.” Amelia said. “He just wrote a letter saying he wished to discuss the terms of his surrender, and for me to call him as quickly as possible.”
Lia nodded, standing up. “Well, I’m not going to complain.” She said. “Please, call him.”
“On it.”
A moment later, the figure of a very weary Brom appeared, sitting in his chair. “Queen Lia,” he said, “I have come to swear an Oath of surrender. I know you do not trust Oaths, but the Goddess of Law has given me her word that this one Oath she will not harm you with, as a last kindness to me.”
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If she lies here, she’s going to be in enormous trouble, so the offer’s valid. Just wanted to make sure you knew. |
Thanks, Connie. Lia said, then continued her conversation with Brom. “I understand. What terms do you ask of me?”
Brom sighed. “Few, and those that I have will be made outside of the Oath. Meg wanted to ask that you convert my family personally, to strengthen them. Is this something you find acceptable?”
“No problem at all.” Lia replied. “Anything else?”
“I just would ask that you treat our civilians the same as you treat the ones in your capital.” Brom asked.
“You have my word.” Lia said seriously. “Brom, I hold a lot of respect for you as a ruler, and as a person, and I would officially like to extend the offer for you to serve as my advisor on this matter. If you feel your subjects are being treated unfairly, tell me, and I will do my utmost to fix the issue.
“Furthermore, I will name you Duchess of the Glens, allowing you to keep authority on policy within the Glens, so long as you are willing to implement the practices and laws I will have everyone implement, and allow me to veto a law you create should I find it unjust. Aside from those things, however, I will attempt to remain as hands-off as possible with regards to your territory, with the exception of sending aid to areas that need it.”
“I…thank you, Queen Lia.” Brom said. “Those are my only conditions. Otherwise, our surrender is unconditional. If I may, I would like to dictate the terms of the Oath now, stop me at any time if you feel it is unacceptable.”
“I understand. Please, begin.”
Brom took a deep breath. “I, Brom, King of the Glens, will offer my kingdom’s unconditional surrender to the swarm. Our citizens will let themselves be converted without any attempt to fight or flee, and travel outside of the country is prohibited until this Oath is invalid. All rights of governance are transferred to the swarm, and the swarm is not to be restricted in any way by these terms.”
He paused, and Lia gave him a nod of approval. “This I swear as an Oath under the Goddess of Law.”
“I, Lia, Queen of the Swarm, find these terms acceptable, and swear them as Oath under the Goddess of Law.”
Brom sagged, a flurry of emotions crossing his face. “If you could, please leave me for last; I am not sure if the Glens will be considered part of your empire if I am converted, and I would like the Oath to remain in place for as long as possible, so my people do not hurt themselves.”
You may be converted immediately with the rest of your family. The Goddess of Law said wearily, her voice digging down in Lia’s soul and leaving Lia with the undeniable knowledge that it was her speaking. I will consider the Oath valid until the last citizen of the Glens is converted. Lia, I do not approve of you or your methods in the slightest, but I will tentatively trust you to treat the citizens of the Glens right. Do not make me regret this decision.
“I won’t.” Lia promised. “I want to better this world, not become a tyrant.”
There was no response from the Goddess of Law, so Brom gave a nod. “Convert me at the same time as my family, then.” He said. “When do you think we can begin?”
Lia shot a glance at Amelia, who nodded. “Now.” Lia said. “I’ll have Amelia send me over in a moment. Does your family have any requests? We can bring over stuff from here if you need.”
“I will need to check with Meg.” Brom said. “I left her in charge of that.”
Please have him gather the relics of the Glens. Alisha requested. I wish to absorb them.
After we convert the palace staff. It’ll be easier then, and there’s no rush. Lia told her, then turned her attention back to Brom. “I’ll head over now.” She said. “We’ll get your requests figured out and then kick this thing off.”
Brom, Ki – Duchess of the Glens, sat in his chair, staring at off-white cocoon in front of him. “Did you really need all of that space?” He asked, looking up at Queen Lia.
“Yes?” Lia replied. “The monster we used was decently large, so between that and the gear we ended up with this.”
“Monster? I thought you were just grabbing beastmaster’s equipment.”
“Well, we could, but after Rose and I talked it out we decided using a monster that was already in that sort of role would amplify the result. You did say that whatever we felt would make you strongest was fine.”
Brom frowned. “What monster?”
“It was the leader of a pack of wolf monsters Ophelia had been keeping an eye on.” Lia said. “We thought it would be a perfect fit for you.”
“So…I’ll be a wolfkin, then.” Brom said slowly.
“Is that a problem?” Lia asked curiously. “If it is, we can take the monster out, it just means you won’t be as strong afterwards.”
“No, I suppose not.” Brom said. “It was just…surprising.”
Lia shrugged. “That’s the way we do things around here.” She said. “We don’t much care what race someone is, in the end, we’re all just people, and that’s all that matters. Anyway, here’s the list of stuff we put in there for you, look it over and let me know if you want anything changed, okay?” Lia handed Brom a piece of paper, then sat down on one of the couches, giving Brom time to read.
The monster aside, it was all stuff he had expected, though the effects were all significantly stronger than he had assumed they would be. In fact, he had assumed that they would be using regular gear, not magic items like they had brought. And, furthermore, these items appeared to be part of a set of some sort, their effects all working together and building off of each other. “Where did you get these items?” Brom asked curiously.
“Amelia made them for me.” Lia said nonchalantly. “Same with everything else we’re using for your family. I figured it’s the least we could do for you.”
“I…see.” Brom said. “I have no complaints, then. Please, let’s get this over with.”
Lia gave him a sad sort of smile, standing up and walking over to him. “I’m sorry it has to be this way, but it’s for the best.” She said, raising a hand and placing it on his forehead. “It’ll be over before you know it.” A cool, claylike substance emerged from her palms, quickly flattening and racing to cover his body. Brom stayed still, letting the material cover him as his vision went dark.
Brom’s eyes flew open, the remnants of his cocoon already vanishing into nothing. It felt like no time at all had passed since the Queen had encased him, but the clock in his office showed that it was exactly one hour later. Hesitantly, he held out his hand, looking at the slender, youthful arm that, despite that fact that he was seeing it for the first time, felt undeniably his, like he had had it his whole life.
He got up from the bed he was on, heading over to the mirror that had been hung on the room’s wall. Reflected therein was a wolfkin woman that couldn’t be older than twenty, her hair, fur, and eyes a dark blue. She was wearing what appeared to be an approximation of a beastmaster’s gear, the thickly padded leathers traded for a light cloth shirt and shorts that were patterned so as to vaguely resemble them.
Brom instinctively knew that it was because it was monster armor; though the look and feel of the armor was different, it nonetheless provided coverage over the whole body, a small convenience of becoming like this. Still, looking back at his reflection, Brom noted that he lacked any of the normal tools that would be used by beastmasters, such as whips, leashes, or the like.
As he thought about that, he instinctively held out his hand, and a collar and leash appeared within, only to vanish the moment he willed it away. In fact, he could conjure basically anything so long as it was related to beasts; whips, saddles, even a spear or bow and arrows for hunting were available at only a thought.
A quick scan of his Skills revealed that he had quite a few, but he didn’t have a traditional “taming” Skill; instead of taming a monster or beast, instead he had a Skill that allowed him to subdue one for easier conversion and then form a bond with the target after it was converted, functioning similar to a normal beastmaster’s bond and allowing his other Skills to work.
Those other Skills were…significantly stronger than most beastmaster Skills. He could have an active bond with more creatures than even most high leveled beastmasters, and that Skill was only level one. Furthermore, he could share senses with his bonded creatures, access portions of their Skills, boost their stats to a significant degree while around them, and understand their needs from a glance.
His stats, though not nearly as high as Ophelia’s, were nothing to sneeze at, and he would be able to level and evolve much quicker, as well. All in all, it was a rousing success, everything he had asked for and more, there was just one last issue that needed to be addressed.
Namely, the mental changes he could already feel pushing against his mind, demanding he cave and accept them. He had no intention of resisting for long, he knew there was no way he could hold out forever, but he at least wanted to survey them with his old mind before he let them in, just to feel how bad they “really” were.
To his slight surprise, they weren’t as bad as he had been expecting; yes, there were bits about unconditional loyalty to the Qu – to Lia, but he had been expecting…more, to be in a state where he could never question her actions or so much as conceive of her ways as being anything but perfect. While he knew that if she truly pushed for something he wouldn’t be able to say no, he could also see that he would be able to push back and offer alternatives.
There were also changes that pushed him to accept his new body and new sex, to prefer them, but those were…acceptable. If his form was to be always changing and evolving, he would prefer to like his new forms if at all possible. They also forced him to accept the forms of other members of the swarm, no matter how they looked; they were part of the swarm, and that was all that mattered. That change was likewise fine; Brom hated discrimination, and this change would help eradicate the last subconscious parts of himself that saw things related to monsters as repugnant.
And, finally, there were the most egregious changes, ones that changed his morality and the way he perceived the world. They demanded him to acknowledge that it was the natural state of things for Lia to rule, for all people to be part of the swarm. They said that converting people was acceptable, as natural as a wolf eating her prey; the prey would, of course, call that act wrong, but for the wolf, it was her way of life.
It was the one change that Brom truly disliked, but…he had no way of avoiding it forever, so he closed his eyes, and let the changes in. The instant he let his guard down, the feelings overwhelmed him, quickly rooting themselves deep in his psyche and becoming as much a part of her as everything that was there before.
Brom opened her eyes, smiling as she saw her reflection again. The sight of her body brought a thrill to her mind, excitement filling her as she thought of the endless opportunities for growth and change she now had. But, before anything else, with her new body she deserved a new name, and she knew just what she wanted; she had always liked the name Nailah, something about its simple elegance spoke to her, and she had been planning to use it if she had another daughter, but she was more than happy to take it for herself.
She twisted and turned, admiring her new form in the mirror for a few moments longer before leaving the room and heading towards the room where her wife was converting. The Queen had thoughtfully ordered the conversions so that Nailah would finish first, followed by her wife and then their children from oldest to youngest, and Nailah was thankful for it; it meant she would be able to be there to help her family adjust to their new forms.
As she opened the door, she caught sight of the Queen down the hallway, sitting in a couch and reading a book. She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should greet the Queen before heading to her wife, but thankfully the Queen took notice, setting the book down and walking over with a smile on her face.
“Brom, you look great.” She said. “How do you feel?”
“I feel fantastic, my Queen.” Nailah replied. “And I have chosen Nailah as my new name, so please, do not call me Brom anymore.”
“It sounds lovely, Nailah.” The Queen said. “And, please, call me Lia; I would like to be friends, and standing on ceremony will get in the way of that.”
“As you wish, Lia.” Nailah said. “How soon do you think my family will be finished?”
“Titania should be done in…” Lia paused, turning around to look at a clock down the hall, “about two minutes.” She finished. “Leonardo will finish five minutes after that, Mordecai five minutes after him, and Mist yet another five minutes later. Please, don’t let me keep you any longer; go be with your family, I’ll fetch Meg.”
“Is she not here?” Nailah asked. “I was sure she’d want to stay and watch over us.”
“She’s helping oversee the conversion of the palace staff.” Lia explained. “And she wanted to give you and Titania a bit of alone time after your conversions finished, so it worked out perfectly. Now, hurry to your wife; if we take any longer, she’s going to finish before you get there.”
Nailah nodded, giving Lia one last smile before entering the room opposite the one she had been converted in. Within was the cocoon of her wife, composed of the same off-white substance that Nailah’s own had been made of. Her instincts told her the substance was called modeling wax, and that she, too, was capable of producing and using it; she just had to eat things, and then they would turn into modeling wax, which she could secrete from her palms.
Nailah anxiously awaited her wife’s conversion, and after another minute or so, she finished. Titania’s cocoon melted away, revealing a woman who looked…much the same as she had before, if younger and more fit. It appeared Titania had chosen to lean into her old Job, that of a front line melee combatant; she had her same brown hair and eyes, but was slightly taller than she used to be, her muscles a bit more defined. She was wearing what had clearly used to be heavy armor, though the metal now looked more like leather and the area it covered had shrunk to just the torso and legs. And, to complete the look, a massive great sword and spear were strapped to her back.
She got up from the bed, looking around before catching sight of Nailah. “Brom?” She breathed, a hungry light growing in her eyes. “You…you look fantastic.”
“You as well.” Nailah said, walking over and giving her wife a kiss. As Nailah moved to pull away, Titania’s strong arms pulled her back in, trapping her and forcing her to continue the kiss. But, eventually, Nailah was able to wiggle free, forcing herself out of the blissful embrace of her wife.
“I’m going by Nailah now.” Nailah informed her, panting slightly. “And as much as I would love to continue this, our kids are going to be done converting in a couple of minutes, so we can’t get too into it.”
Titania nodded. “Seems like you’ve decided to fully commit, then?”
Nailah nodded. “There wasn’t any point to resisting for long, so I let it happen. What about yourself?”
Titania blushed, looking away. “I…lost control during the kiss.” She admitted embarrassedly. “I couldn’t keep myself focused enough, but I also wasn’t trying very hard for much the same reason as you. But…how are you feeling?”
“Great.” Nailah replied. “Young, full of vigor, ready to face the new world. Though…I’m probably going to take a break for a while, slowly ease Leonardo into the job of ruling this place. If he does well, I’ll probably shift my focus to helping out back at the capital.”
“Speaking of, he should be finishing soon, right?” Titania asked.
“In a minute or two.” Nailah confirmed, holding out her arm for her wife to grab. “Shall we?”
The couple moved over to the room where Leonardo was converting, and were joined by Meg shortly thereafter. Meg, of course, gave delighted squeals as she beheld her parents’ new forms, rushing over for hugs and asking all about the specifics of their transformations. As they were in the middle of explaining, Leonardo finished converting, so they stopped to give him some time to adjust.
He had chosen to become more proficient in magic, and as such was wearing an archmage’s robes, the fabric having changed color to the same blue as Nailah’s hair, a blue that Leonardo’s hair had become as well. Physically, he looked much like Nailah imagined she would have looked like if she had been a woman in her teenage years, though in some places Nailah could easily see Titania’s influence. Leonardo took a minute or two to get adjusted, and a minute or two more before deciding to take the name Lucia. Once they were satisfied that Lucia was comfortable, the four left for Mordecai’s room.
Mordecai had opted to follow in his mother’s footsteps, though instead of being a heavily armored warrior, he had chosen to be a light and nimble duelist, wielding two swords. He was the spitting image of Titania when she was younger, and after a short discussion, settled on the name Marcia. She acclimatized remarkably quickly, so they soon found themselves in Mist’s room.
Mist had chosen to forgo any sort of combat prowess in the short term, instead focusing on the idea of being a student. She wanted to explore her options more, and so she figured that a being a dedicated student would allow her to better learn about all the new things she could do without limiting herself in the future. Much like Marcia, she looked like a much younger version of Titania, though it seemed she had also inherited Nailah’s new hair and eye color.
And, with the family all together again, Nailah couldn’t help but smile. This wasn’t exactly what she had been expecting things to be like after conversion, but she was glad that it wasn’t. Their familial bonds were as strong as ever, and really, that was all that mattered.
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I like how, despite how tired and defeated Brom is, he still has the mental strength to casually flip through the terms and conditions before pressing accept.
the power of being a proper and somewhat competent king - you're used to reading the fine print lul.
so, brom followed owen into a canine race, what a fun coincidence
Thanks for the chapter. I'm glad that nailah's situation worked out well, though Lucia not becoming Leona was unexpected.
Such Oaths are scary. Rulers make one and you can do nothing, but watch and follow. Way worse then brainwashing, at least with those you're not in right state of mind. And this trash of goddess says something about way of the swarm.
The ability to bond an entire nation with an Oath like that seems... quite powerful. Why don't rulers simply use it to enforce that nobody in their nations can break the law, or the like?
Mostly because Oaths are being used here in a way that they're really not supposed to be. The idea behind an Oath is that in almost every case, it will have little to no impact on the average citizen's daily life. For example, the non-disclosure clause from the previous Oath would mean little to the vast majority of the populace, who aren't even aware of the swarm, much less in a situation to chat about it with people from another country.
Big Oaths like this are generally denied by Liza for being too restrictive on the populace, but here it's being allowed as a kindness. The only nation that borders the Glens is Aura, which is currently about to be converted, meaning that people don't have a good way to flee the country. Even if they did, most people wouldn't know what's happening until their home cities are being converted. Oaths of surrender also shouldn't work, since the kingdom they're sworn to is dissolved, but, once again, a stretching of the rules as a kindness.
The "normal" use case for Oaths is for international law, things like the Geneva Convention, or to act as an assurance that important deals go through, a binding contract on a national level. Using it to micromanage the people's daily lives is usually a no-no. But...opposed to the swarm as she may be, Liza would rather avoid unnecessary suffering and loss of life when the outcome is certain.
So, basically, anything that would affect daily life is a no-go, and in the end Liza chooses whether or not that criteria is met, within reason. She can't deny an Oath such as the one sworn before because that didn't come close to impacting the lives of most citizens, but if people were to start abusing the system to create absolute laws the citizens must follow, she usually has to shut it down, regardless of how benevolent those laws are. Again, this specific Oath is very liberal and would not fly in most other situations, but it's an exceptional situation so it gets some leeway.
@Fighterman481 As many loopholes as our unlawful law goddess allows here, would something like the following fly?
"Member X of the swarm used to be a citizen of my country and taken unlawfully from us. As such, I do not recognize their change of citizenship to swarm members. Hereby, I decree a new rule that citizens that are converted to the swarm must commit suicide, and swear its enforcement as an oath."
No, that wouldn't even be remotely close to being allowed, and even if it was, it wouldn't work. For one, a rule forcing citizens to commit suicide is so blatantly against the spirit of the Oath that there is no way you could justify it, regardless of the circumstances. Liza would be more offended by that than she is the swarm; despite her distaste for the swarm, she would balk at the concept of what is, in essence, the genocide of an entire kingdom.
For two, you can get around Oaths by declaring that you are no longer a citizen, so long as you truly mean that you are no longer a citizen. It doesn't matter what your host country thinks, if you yourself don't agree, otherwise rebellions wouldn't work. Now, this isn't saying "I'm not a citizen" and continuing your life as if nothing has changed, you'd have to go be a hermit or bandit or rebel (basically, live out where no one knows where you are or flagrantly disregard the law), or leave the country entirely. You have to commit. The swarm very clearly meets this condition.
And, finally, an Oath needs to involve a second nation, and the contents of the Oath have to actually make sense in a deal with them. Brom couldn't walk up to one of the other rulers and say "In exchange for x, my citizens will do something that doesn't really affect you". Yes, there's a good argument to be made that the swarm growing affects the other party, but that's enough of a stretch that it would probably get a punishment.
An Oath is supposed to be used strictly for international policy, stuff that would normally only affect members of the government, and the only reason this flies is because it's enough of an exception that none of the other gods would really disagree with the course of action. Regardless of whether or not the Oath is allowed, the outcome will be almost exactly the same, so functionally the Oath's only effect is to minimize the suffering involved in the process. People are overestimating its effects based on a situation that is so completely out of the norm that normal process has been thrown out of the window. This situation is an outlier and should not be counted.
@Fighterman481 Since it is an outlier, at what point do the citizens know that they are under their ruler's oath? Do they immediately get a system prompt? Or do they not know about it until they encounter "hostile" swarm members, try to resist/run away but then unknowingly freeze in place?
We kind of run into a philosophical problem akin to Theseus's ship here; conversion changes a lot about the person, how much needs to change before a person "stops" being the person they were before and is just someone new. Along that line, asking citizens to just stand still and let the conversion happen is not too far removed from a death sentence.
They are unaware until it becomes relevant to them. There's no reason to send a system prompt to people in the vast majority of Oaths, as anyone who it would be relevant to would be notified by the rulers, so it's not a function of Oaths.
Philosophically speaking, the point for whether someone stops being considered "themself" is something everyone has to decide personally. For me, conversion doesn't even really approach that threshold unless you happen to fall under one of two categories:
One, you're horribly racist, classist, or sexist, or two, you're violently anti-swarm. Discrimination isn't close to as big an issue in this world as it is in ours, due to the presence of active gods who are very clear that they don't approve, so in many ways that part is a minor issue. And in this instance, most people will have no opinion on it whatsoever.
For the vast majority of people, their daily life will be relatively unchanged, aside from the increase in quality of life. In 95-99% of the situations they're in, they would make the same moral choices. So, I would say they are effectively the same person, there are plenty of real events that would be much less "impactful" to how a person behaves.
The biggest change would be their sense of gender identity and sexual orientation, and how important you think that is to "who someone is" is going to change based on what you think of the subject. Personally, I think for the average person it's just...not important to the basest essence of who they are. It's not something they think about or consciously care about or base their lives around. There are people who are like that, I know people who are like that, but they're the minority, especially in a world where it's generally not a big deal and no big subculture has been formed (much like no real subculture has been formed around people with brown eyes).
So...no, I, personally, don't think it's "not too far removed from a death sentence". Other people might, and that's fine, but given the option between death, identity death while keeping my body, or conversion, I'd choose conversion without a moment's hesitation, and I would certainly hesitate when choosing between death and identity death.
So...TL;DR, where you draw that line is personal, and the assumption that is being operated under here is that conversion is far more preferable than death, but not more preferable than remaining yourself completely.
@Fighterman481 I see. It didn't seem like Brom wanted to make a big public announcement of their surrender before the swarm is allowed to get to work, so it feels kinda unfair to the common people.
"Discrimination isn't close to as big an issue in this world as it is in ours" - I'm confused by this; it seemed like when Brom&Son were won over, the swarm's ability to eliminate that was a (small) factor.
Also, what exactly are the limits of the oath under normal circumstances? Could you make an oath to ensure near-permanent peace by e.g. saying that until the threat of the monster lord is permanently taken care of, neither nation would be allowed to enact any form of deception or aggression?
Yeah, it is kind of unfair to the common people, but that's life. They're the people that were least likely to be able to "get away" anyway, and making an announcement of it is only going to serve to make them more unhappy in the short term. IMO it's better to have a brief ten or twenty minutes of fear than it is to have days or even weeks of suspense, and if they get defenses up, someone is more likely to be injured in the process.
While discrimination isn't as big a deal, it's still a small factor. There's a difference between minimal discrimination and no discrimination, after all. The biggest part of discrimination would be classism, but there's nothing systematic or cultural.
Limits of the Oath...have not been not thoroughly tested, because generally it's a bad idea to test the gods. There are no hard and fast rules, because Liza has to approve every Oath, but generally, if it's something that would stray into domestic law or touch the lives of people outside the government/army, it's generally a no. You can't say "we both agree no one will murder other people".
World peace until the Lord of Monsters is dealt with is also not on the table. Oaths generally tend to have clear and realistic end times, and this is not a clear or realistic end time. The Lord of Monsters is understood to be something akin to a natural disaster, not something you can just "deal with the threat of".
Basically, any "clever" use of it is probably going to be shot down. You are to use it for international policies, and that only. This is insurance that a nation will keep their end of a bargain, not a magic tool that makes the gods solve all of your societal problems, you need to do that yourself. If it was, Nailah wouldn't have had so much trouble upping the quality of life of the average citizen.
@Fighterman481 Do you really have to "test" limits if you can ask her? She was at least willing to answer Brom that one time. But I guess that was an exception as well since she had to admit that she screwed up big time before.
Also dumb question since the goddess is "human": by my understanding, she may be immortal but can at least take naps. Would her duty wake her up from that or do the oath requests go into an inbox for later?
Yeah she had to admit she made a mistake, you usually can't ask.
Her duty would wake her up from sleep. It's not something that happens on even a monthly basis, even when you take into account all of Jerry's planes. It's not a very common thing at all.
@Fighterman481 Then I have to ask why it isn't a more commonly used thing.
E.g. in the two emergency meetings of the nation leaders; they knew that Brom was compromised, they knew that the queen of Aura was acting suspiciously, they knew that mimics and mind control exist, yet they didn't use the oath there. By my understanding, that would've been a textbook use case for an oath.
It's not more commonly used because it's serious business. You use it for vital things only, like negotiations of land transfers or setting of international law. That's not the kind of thing that happens often.
As for the meeting, there was no point to an Oath in either situation. An Oath requires both parties to agree, and Oaths made under mind control are considered void. And you can't use an Oath to cancel out the effects of another Oath, that's stupid. It couldn't have been a mimic either (in their minds), since the monster-detecting wards would have gone off if a mimic was there, and the two were perfectly in character, so an imitation that flawless would be impressive (and also would have resulted in an invalid Oath, though it would be functionally impossible to tell whether it was because of a fake, mind control, or another Oath preventing it from working).
Likewise, Alisha wasn't too far out of character, and wouldn't have agreed to an Oath whether or not she was part of the swarm. If a door to door salesman came to you, you rejected the offer, and then they wanted you to make a legally binding contract saying that you are yourself and in your right mind, you'd obviously say no, you have no reason to.
Plus, you can't use an Oath to just say "I'm not part of the swarm" or "I'm not lying", there has to be some tangible change in behavior or change in policy on a national level, regardless of what your position is. Oaths are not meant to be used when someone is acting suspicious, unless you are actively making a deal with them that will affect how their entire nation behaves. You can't use them to figure out if someone is a fake, that's not what they're for.
The only part of that conference we saw that maybe would have been worthy of an Oath was Brom asking for permission to send troops through Aura, but since Alisha included a stipulation saying that she could null the agreement at any time, there was no point. The monarchs also would have sworn an Oath when making their alliance (note: nullified for the Glens when Brom surrendered), but Alisha wasn't a part of the alliance, so it wasn't important.
@Fighterman481 And what would be more serious business than an emergency meeting discussing a zombie apocalypse?
Ok, I forgot about the monster wards, but they have not done anything at all either, so I thought it was known that they are useless against the swarm; so no mimic then, fine. But brainwashing still stands. They know they are up against a godlevel threat in Amalia who has gone rogue and defies all known rules. I mean, they literally say in the second meeting that the staff of Aura is compromised, Alisha admits to that, at that point ALL alarms must go off. Brom is clearly compromised, Alisha under suspicion, so 1/3 of all nations are already untrustworthy.
How about "All of us swear to do our utmost in this meeting to defend humanity from the swarm and not leak any information to the swarm." I trust the people in the story to come up with something better, they supposedly have oaths and everything for thousands of years, they should have standard protocols at least for the basics.
No offense, but I'm getting the feeling you've just thrown the whole oath business in there because you wanted to speedrun the story to its end and needed a quick way for Lia to keep Brom under control.
@3QGN73 Did you...not read what I said about brainwashing, that it renders the Oath void? And that they swore an Oath at the end and it wasn't included because Alisha didn't consider it important because she wasn't a part of it? In this case, they wouldn't even be able to tell that the Oath would be nullified for a brainwashed Brom because there are multiple parties to the Oath, and Brom would be the only one it was nullified for.
Yeah, I admit, I write this story off-the-cuff, that's the point of this story, but at this point it feels like you're just not reading what I'm saying and stubbornly refusing to change your point of view, since I literally addressed the points you bring up. The suspicion doesn't matter, they know they can't do anything for Brom or Alisha, you're attempting to fit a square peg in a round hole with the Oath. Brom's prior Oath explicitly nullifies what you suggest (he'd already agreed to non-aggression), and he makes that point as clear as possible, and if he was under mind control he wouldn't be subject to the Oath anyway.
Likewise, there's a very large difference between infiltrating a random colosseum that's only tangentially related to the government and infiltrating the palace of a paranoid, ruthless monarch with one of the largest intelligence agencies in the world. Said woman has already made it clear that she doesn't see the swarm as as big of a threat as everyone else and has no trust in the competence of other nations. She's ornery and arrogant, but that's not suspicious enough to really spend too much time on given her prior behavior, and she can't be forced into the Oath. Starting a war over this suspicion is likewise a poor idea in a critical time, it's best to just order spies to investigate and determine if anything is "really" up or if she's just still trying to manipulate the swarm (which everyone assumes she's doing anyway, as Brom assumed in the first meeting).
And it's not that 1/3 of the world is potentially compromised, either. Aura and the Glens are small countries, and there are more than six countries anyway. We've only seen a few monarchs named, and the first meeting was quite under-attended, so while their conversions would be unfortunate, they wouldn't be a great loss, either.
This also doesn't really change anything in terms of length of the story - the Glens would have been a non-issue no matter what happened. If we had waited until Brom's first Oath ran its course, the swarm would have been powerful enough that taking the Glens would be a formality. I don't intend to end off after the swarm has run its course on this plane, either. There's no current end goal in sight, I'll stop writing once I feel it's gotten stale and I'm not having fun with it. This series is primarily written for me to enjoy writing, so I'm not paying attention to when the correct stopping point would be for a well-paced narrative. That's just how it is. The Oath was thrown in because it was an element that was well-established and it was what Brom would have done in the situation. Had I been trying to hurry things along, we wouldn't even be having this scene, the Glens wouldn't be being converted at all, nothing.
Let's just end this conversation here, okay? Maybe it's just me being more irritable than normal because I'm sick, but it honestly feels like I'm just talking past you right now, and my experience with this sort of conversation is that continuing it doesn't change anyone's mind and makes both parties feel worse.
@Fighterman481 I did read that part, the purpose of my suggested oaths wasn't to "free" Brom but for them to potentially find out who else is compromised. From their point of view, they are discussing a world-ending threat so just ignoring all possibilities makes them look dumber than they should be.
If mind control of just one party completely voids an entire oath, it would be an easy check actually. Have all suspected parties swear the oath, one volunteer then has to do or say something that should clearly be voided by the oath, and if they can, they know at least one person in the oath is mind controlled. Would the law goddess like such an abuse? Probably not. But when I buy something, I want to make sure everything works as advertised, otherwise I want a refund.
Does it make a difference to the story? Probably not, but it is a difference for world-building. You didn't give Lia or a swarm member just mind control abilities to solve the first Brom encounter, you instead used the oath, a powerful feature that seemingly everyone can use. So I want to understand why regular people aren't using it (or at least politicians going by your comments). On one end we have the current chapter where an oath basically controls the action of an entire nation, on the other... well, we were over that.