Oathbound Scroll Case

One of the artifacts held at Vigil, alongside the Sword of Vigilance, the Bell of Order that rings when danger comes to the town, and the Chains of Eravil that help a commander lead soldiers. Any agreement signed on it binds both parties to the treaty, and both are held to keep it. The accounts agree that the seal and the case go together and disagree over which goes first: whether the case cracks because the oath was broken, or whether the seal fails because the case did.

What the Valiant Few met was three identical cases, carried out and set down while the first scroll was unfurled: the laws, rules and edicts binding those welcome to stay at Vigil without being Vigilites themselves. Read it over and sign at the bottom, and you are a Friend of Vigil, with the run of the town, its hospitality and its training, and the standing obligation never to divulge where Vigil is or what it keeps. Koa and Mikhail signed, largely so that Koa could go on pursuing the Martyr with Vigil open to him. Aldo declined, unwilling to be bound and unwilling to trade his freedom for a town’s hospitality. That left him an outsider, and left the other two unable to lawfully tell him anything they learned there.

The magic in it is nothing more alarming than divination: it knows whether a signer is in breach, and does nothing about it beyond breaking. No compulsion, no word carried into anyone’s mind: the case sits on a shelf somewhere and cracks. Venessa Hasek signed beside them, rolled the scroll, slid it home, and the seam where the cap comes off closed itself over without a sound or a flash. There is no pulling off the cap now.