The duo escorted by the mass of armed soldiers entered the Cathedral through a hidden entrance to a facility underneath. After passing through the airlock and checked for weapons they were allowed through the door where they saw a Cardinal on the other side waiting for them. “Greetings, heretics. I’m glad to hear you accepted our offer.” He spoke with a quiet but cheerful tone.

                Velle responded first. “I assume you are here to make the terms official as a geas?” She said with a warm tone.

                The man nodded. “We will not harm you, you will not harm us, and in exchange for helping the church when necessary, we give you a place to live in peace.” He said, he was plain with short black hair, and soft features.

                He held out a small piece of paper with three magic circles at the bottom. His hands were clean, but worn, as if he did plenty of work requiring difficult and fine movements. His frame betrayed a level of athleticism, giving him somewhat of a mysterious appearance. Velle stared at the man passively while Alicia looked at it. “That’s what a geas is?” She asked.

                Velle shook her head. “Not always, they are using this form so they can prove it if asked.” She replied. One of the circles glowed. “Your turn Alicia, just look at the circle and think about putting mana into it, that will count as your signing.”

                Alicia kept her eyes on the paper and second circle glowed. The Cardinal smiled. “It appears as though one of you will need some training.” He spoke as the third circle glowed, and then the paper made a small flash of light. Alicia could feel the power rush past her.

                Velle smiled. “Yeah, but don’t worry I can teach her everything there is to know. Say, you don’t have a soul-scanner in this place? I want to check something.”

                The Cardinal seemed taken aback. “Not even going to ask my name? You will be reporting to me directly.” He said with some force.

                Velle made a small nod of apology. “I didn’t realize, but I still apologize. I am Velle, this is Alicia. And you are?” She said gesturing to Alicia.

                The Cardinal made a light smile. “I’m Cardinal Brendan Conroy, of the Holy Church. You cannot imagine how pleased I am to have you here. Now, to answer your question- yes. I’ve also been informed you have three months to train the protégé here before you will be compelled to complete your first deployment. There’s much I want to organize with you before then.” He spoke quickly now.

                He turned and they followed him down the hallway further into the facility. It was a small, but well-organized place. Clearly meant for research. He led them to a small room with a viewing window into another room further in. “Why did you want this?” He asked.

                Velle smiled. “I’m testing something, like I said. I want to know what I look like in one of these.” She said cheerfully.

                The cardinal gave her a look but waved her in. She waltzed inside and the Cardinal waved for a technician who came in to operate the machine. They turned it on and the corners of the room glowed. On the screen appeared the outline of Velle’s body as she stood and looked around. Shortly after a color began to glow in her chest. Alicia asked what that was. The Cardinal explained that these artefacts had the ability to see the color, shape, and behavior of a person’s soul. It was useful for researching daego’s and cursed individuals. However, each soul was also unique to any soul scanned prior by any version would be identified by any other version- further research was required on these artefacts which predated the church.

                The first color suddenly changed, and it began to take on a new hue, or more accurately, there were two colors who mixed their colors together as they circled. The Cardinal made a noise halfway between fear and shock as the machine spoke in a cool tone to identify Velle. “Soul identity confirmed, welcome back Megia.” Velle was smiling ear to ear inside the room.

                “Who’s Megia?” Asked Alicia, incredulous that the machine didn’t get it right.

                The Cardinal had a series of emotions cross his face- first was fear, then shock, then curiosity, and more that Alicia couldn’t see enough of to recognize. “The Cardinal collected himself after a few moments. “Megia was the ancient goddess of magic the church imprisoned after she waged war against us over 1,500 years ago. She somehow joined her soul to Velle’s and freed herself.”

                Velle walked out of the room. “Half correct, we were both imprisoned. Velle is the name we gave our combined soul and mind. Though, the human soul entered the prison by accident and couldn’t escape. Now that we have a geas you cannot take an action against me anymore. I realized inside your prison that the one thing I wanted more than anything else is the ability to see the world again. You’ve granted me that, and for it I am grateful. Now, I will train my protégé in everything she needs to know. And you can also make use of any of my familiars.”

                Alicia took a sudden step back. “Familiars? Like the old stories of witches?” She said almost fearfully.

                Velle nodded. “A witch was the name given to anyone who directly received my blessing. I apologize I didn’t know if this form could make them when I saved you from becoming a daego.” Her voice was openly apologetic.

                The Cardinal made a noise. “Be that as it may, this is good information for me to have. And the church will want to know that your blessing can prevent a daego, though they may see sacrificing lambs as preferable to creating shepherd dogs.” His tone carried a sadness in it that Velle didn’t expect.

                She was attentive now. “You don’t agree with this position? I noticed also that you separate what you know from what the church knows.” She said with an interest in the answer.

                The Cardinal nodded. “Within the church there are those who think that the dedication to rules and order back then was a mistake, and we should have trusted you when you threatened that the path you tried to stop us from would be dangerous. They put me in charge of research into artefacts as a way to get rid of me, but my research also makes me an expert on the effects and presentations of heresy, so when the need for a better fighter came along, I volunteered to be that answer with the first heretics I found. It was a punt, honestly.”

                Velle laughed. “I see! Well, that’s why you wanted my help so bad.”

                Alicia made a noise to interrupt. “Hey, what’s going on?”

                Velle smiled warmly at her. “We’ve found our work. I’ll explain once we find a place to sit.”