As the fire flickered a web that glistened like golden thread, but surging with energy like a river of magma shone in the flickers of light that danced over Zion. "Fate, being the first born, was thought to be not only the originator, but also the weaver having engaged and ensnared all things in her web of causality. Escaping her magic was like an insect struggling in a spider's silk, the more violent the struggle, the more tightly ensnared." Wisdom looked directly and almost through Zion as he observed the web. Zion was deeply ensnared. Coyote had watched this happen time and again. Each time the scenario tugged at him, for he too was caught in this same web.
Wisdom was not allowed to recruit, instead he would have to be sought out. He often could only teach through failure and tragedy. And the only way that he was known was if Fate herself had afflicted someone with curiosity (which was itself a double edged sword causing someone to pursue Wisdom who would often only be able to reach back to them through tragedy). Curiosity, however can sometimes break the bonds of Luck, if it succeeds in finding Wisdom.
"To overthrow Luck, which is my destiny, I needed a lot of curiosity and unfortunately a lot of tragedy. If you are entangled with me you will surely meet Misfortune and find the ire of Luck. My destiny is a curse not of my own doing, but because I have been purposed as a lynch pin between the war of the gods. The gods to whom you should beseech to unravel your destiny so it not be entwined with mine. You don't want this and Fate may still untangle and move you if you avail yourself to her now. Fate won't be moved by your arrogant fighting, but she may hear your desperate pleas." Zion pleaded with the raven as Lucky and Coyote observed from the edge of the fire as a withered leaf came on the wind and plunged into the flames. Tiny sparks flew and Corvis ate the golden ring (which immediately started regenerating tissue and bone that had previously decomposed) while reciting that first oath he made the day they first met.
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Zion spent thousands of years learning all the magickal disciplines necessary to become a lich. Resurrection, as much as it was a complex ritual, was only part of it.
Grafting a soul so it can operate a new body with it still remaining mostly in phylactery was itself complex, but keeping the soul itself from rotting--that was a delicate art that required much research. Rot being somewhat time sensitive, speed in transport became a thing.
Of course the fastest way to travel was a mirror gate. For reasons unclear they had fallen into disuse long before Zion. Most were regarded fearfully by magickal types. But then again, liches were regarded much the same. Their existence itself was taboo where not completely outlawed.
Familiars were usually what drew magickal types to mirror gates. The gates allowed those seeking access to all sorts of different dimensions and that was essentially prime hunting grounds.
It was essentially hunting too. Magick users would travel to heavily enchanted worlds concealing themselves. When they saw a familiar they wanted they would severely wound it and then offer it help in exchange for the bond. Many times the bond itself was presented dishonestly. Some magick users would say they had to use their soul to heal the wounds they convently wouldn't share that they inflicted. Wounded and desperate, the afflicted would agree to being a familiar either not knowing what it entailed or having no real other choice in the matter.
Zion saw that as litlle more than a social convention that made exceptions for slavery and had no interest in obtaining a familiar. However, the practice being so wide spread and Zion already having dubious status being undead, they really had no clue how to stop it.
The day they met Corvis though even Corvis will tell you neither one of them had much say in what transpired. Fate had too heavy a hand on this one.
Souls like plants grow, but unlike plants they don't make their own food from sunlight and soil. Souls require a lot of magick to maintain which of why liches became somewhat taboo. Most liches would just aquire magickal objects to use as phylactery and when those wore out they would just aquire new ones, but magickal objects were rare and expensive which primed liches to be an occasional combination of opportunistic and desperate that scared your average magick user.
These sorts of double standards were often infuriating to Zion. Decptively enslaving familiars was somehow widely regarded as a decent and normal practice while someone who might if really desperate steal a magickal object was taboo when not outright criminalized.
Mirror gates themselves had unique powers. They weren't about just where you could go, but when. Most who used them didn't know much about them much less this latter ability.
Zion had taken to mapping the gates which seemed to be organized into hubs. The one they sought out that day was widely unexplored and left alone.
Believing they were alone Zion began their experiments. The magick they were testing was quite shiny and sparkly which they didn't want to draw attention to especially when the magick was untested.
"Demons" take many forms. They differ from "angels" in that they don't demand worship. Their fairness, however, in deals is highly individual. Or maybe perhaps difficult to discern from a non demonic perspective. Regardless, not unlike corvids, they are nearly pathologically drawn to sparkly magick like moth to flame.
Zion was in the middle of a complex casting when Corvis arrived intigued by the glittering glow bouncing off the mirror. Too late to stop the process lightning arced out of the mirror and through Corvis. Part of him was drawn inside the mirror the other part crashed into the earth, dead.
Zion, horrified, retrived the corpse and flung both the body and themselves headlong into the mirror as they started chanting. "Who are you?" They called out to the demon now trapped in the mirror.
"Hope" the demon replied meekly.
"That won't do now. They'll find you. Look, you have potentially bad and worse choices here. Your body is dead and what's left of you is incorporeal trapped in this mirror. I am a lich and I can resurrect you. However, as you can see Fate has cast a terrible curse on me." Zion revealed the golden web Fate had woven all around them. "This curse will bind you too as I do not have the resources here to resurrect you independently. I can extract you from the mirror using my phylactery, but I'd have to bind you to my soul and destiny by making you my familiar in order to do that, otherwise my soul would expel yours like an immune system to a foriegn microbe."
"Why don't you give me a name then." The demon said knowing that 1) telling Zion their real name already gave Zion power over them and 2) were they to be renamed Zion would have even greater power to command them as with a gifted name even if it was learned by someone else only the original name giver could use it to command them.
"We don't have a lot of time. I promise I will devote from now to the end of our bond seeking a way to free you from the bond should you choose to accept it, and at such time I will again offer you the choice." Zion extended their hand. "Do you accept these terms?"
The demon shook hands and nodded. Wind blew a leaf into the mirror and Zion grabbed it and held it to the demon's chest.
"To the soul by which I keep both bound and unbound to flesh and blood that is not mine,
From the spirit by which my magick combine,
Across terrain,
neither living nor dead,
Our fates now combine,
Spirit of my spirit, until covenant blood unbled." Zion reached into Hope's chest and started pulling them out of the mirror. Hope could feel the web of fate begin to wrap around them.
"Give me a name" Hope demanded.
"Corvin Dallas or Corvis for short" Zion quickly replied.
"I Hope, a demon of anguish, accept covenant and new name." Corvis paused and then reached back into Zion's chest. "From the first light by which I was born, to each flicker I maintain,
I will share all my power to what you ordain.
To the furthest reaches and closest space,
No distance will separate the bond now in place.
Once strangers before introduced by fate and quicksilver,
No other oath shall I swear now as your familiar."